Review 704: The Autobiography of My Mother

The Autobiography of My Mother by Jamaica Kincaid
My rating: 4 of 5 stars


After taking a Caribbean literature class in college I bought this book, then did not read it. So after a couple of decades it was finally time. I went into the book somewhat blindly knowing nothing about the story.

Xuela Claudette Richardson was born without a mother as she died in childbirth. Her father, not knowing what to do with her gave her to his laundress as if she was dirty laundry. This woman did not love her. Her father ruled her life, to some extent, but was distant and one could hardly say he loved her. She was born of mixed race in Dominica. Her father sent her to school, actually more schooling than would be expected of a girl in that country. She did not make any close friends. Zuela instead would find what she needed from her own self. She could only rely in her own mind and body.

For much of the book it is somewhat sexual but the language used is not graphic nor what you may find in most typical books. It is the language that propels this book. It is poetic it is sensual.
Zuela’s world is a harsh one. That she claims herself and knows what she wants is amazing. She makes no apologies, lives fully in the world where she is born into, surprising self-accomplishment.

The book is all Zuela’s words of her mind and very little interaction with others as far as dialogue. Yet it works. This is to be read for language and writing style, not so much for the content. And that is what my rating reflects.

Review 588: Two Old Women

Two Old Women: An Alaska Legend of Betrayal, Courage and Survival by Velma Wallis
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This oral story of the Gwich'in band, one of eleven groups in the Alsakan Athabaskan People. The story has been told for generation. Wallis felt the need to write it down and share with a larger audience. It was one story her mother told her of the many stories she shared. Wallis grew up as a Native person in the same area where this legend takes place.

The tale tells of a village of The People facing a particularly hard time of starvation and winter upon them. The chief makes the difficult decision to leave behind two old women while they move camp, leaving the women behind to die of starvation and cold. What the women do next perhaps surprises even themselves.

I've this print book for so long, over 20 years, that I’m not sure why I hadn’t read it until now. When I discovered my local library had an audio copy I decided to listen to it. Since it was originally an oral story I think this may have been the better way to read it. Except my print book did come with line drawings and a couple of maps that enhanced the text.

It is a short book, not much over two hours in audio and under 150 print pages. Again, I’m not sure why I overlooked this book on my shelves. Easily able to read this in one day, which I did. One thing the audio did not have was Editor’s note at the end. It shared briefly a little about the author but also explained how they had difficulty getting the book published in the late 1980s. One problem was the author was a women, the other that the native peoples thought the story made them look bad. Finally they were able to find funding to get the book published through a subscription model in 1993.

Review 478: Animal, Vegetable, Miracle

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life by Barbara Kingsolver
My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

The book was a challenge for me, as it started out strongly in moralizing us Americans how poorly we eat, which may be true, but it's hard to read being constantly chastised. It eased maybe a little as the book went on, or I started to just ignore that part and enjoy reading about how Kingsolver and her family grew their own food and ate locally for a year.

Kingsolver’s husband Steven Hopp owned a farm in the southern Appalachians when they married, but they lived in Tucson, Arizona for many years, visiting the farm during the summer months, growing some food. After some years they decide to move permanently to the farm. Then they came upon the idea of eating locally for a year, with the majority of their food coming from their own farm, which did include some animals like chickens and turkeys.

The book included side bar essays by Steven Hopp and end of chapter small essay by the daughter Camille along with some recipes and examples of meals they would eat.

Certainly the goal of this book is to educate people on how food is grown, and how the monoculture is destroying the land. The book is slightly dated now. Eating local and organic foods are something people are now aware of more than a decade or so ago, right? My local grocery stores have produce labeled grown local and a section for organics that I didn’t see when I was younger, so things are changing, but yes we can do better. I can do better.

Review 238: Legends of the North Cascades

Legends of the North Cascades by Jonathan Evison
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I’ve been binge watching the television show Alone and this book seemed to fit right in with the theme, wilderness survival. Perhaps I have seen too much of that show as I was a bit critical of the survival methods in this book, but that wasn’t the point. This is about a man, Dave Cartwright, with PTSD from serving too many tours in Iraq. He’s finally done with his service, comes home and his marriage is falling apart. Yet at one point they have a long, long talk and things are better and now they are having a baby.

In the present time for the main story the baby, Bella is seven, nearly eight years old, and they just lost the glue of the family. Dave doesn’t handle this one more loss well and gives up on society, thinks that everyone has everything wrong and what we need is to return to nature, to feel what is real. So he takes his daughter into the mountains, the North Cascades to live. Dave found a cave that is secure, they go to town for supplies and library books.

Meanwhile Bella “hears” or “understands” this life from a long time ago, a woman S’tka and her life, starting as S’tka and her husband were kicked out of the clan. Then she is pregnant. S’tka and her family end up at moments mirroring what is going on with Dave and Bella.

In town, Dave’s brother and family, have a hard time with letting him just go live in the woods with a young girl. A social worker hikes out to visit them, a ranger. Dave’s brother takes custody for a while. There are brief snippets from people in town about what they thought about “Cave Dave”.

The chapters are short, and we have Bella's point of view as well. Having the little bits from the town people ultimately did not add anything to the story. At first, I wasn’t sure where the ancient people’s stories were going, why was it added into the novel, but with the mirroring aspect it does add another layer to the overall story. It has its own tale to tell, about being alone in the world separated from your community and what it takes to survive.


Thanks to Algonquin Books and NetGalley for an uncorrected electronic advance review copy of this book.

Review 150: Slam

Slam by Lewis Shiner
My rating: 2.5 of 5 stars

For much of this book I kept asking myself, why am I reading this book? Somewhere I had a recommendation for the book, which became the hook. The book was short enough that I wanted to see where it would lead.

Dave is released out of prison as the book opens after serving six-months for evading taxes, not paying them, somewhat out of principle. Dave comes across as someone who just floats through life, see what happens next and doesn't have any ambition to speak of, and is running up to aged forty.

There is some weird stuff that happens, weird people show up, while Dave tries being a caretaker of 23 cats all in this one house. I found myself being reminded me of the movie Pulp Fiction, although this book really is completely different. I guess it was the odd stuff that kept happening. Dave hooks up with a grocery store clerk who is half his age, and squatting in an abandoned art house with a few other runaway skaters. Dave befriends one of them too.

Things seem full of despair in this story, but somehow Dave starts to do the right things, by some accounts. There is some philosophy about how to live, and society, and a couple other ideas that actually saves the book. Yet it comes so late in the book that it’s a slog to get there.

Review 77: The Lightest Object in the Universe

The Lightest Object in the Universe by Kimi Eisele
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was a great story, good writing. It's about after the world collapses, what do you do next? How do you rebuild? And how do you reconnect to your loved ones when there aren't planes anymore? Who takes control?

This books gives some great answers to those questions. It's not a new story, first thought that comes to mind is The Postman, but there are others. For that reason it's not a five star, just not unique enough. But it's definitely worth your time to read, that is if you like a little disaster in your fiction.

I listened to the audio book narrated by Gabra Zackman. She did a fantastic job. Although the point-of-view switches characters often, the narrator handled it well without confusing the listener. For myself this was the way to read the book.

Book rating: 4.5 stars

Review 57: Stay and Fight: A Novel

Stay and Fight: A Novel by Madeline Ffitch
My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

What attracted me to this book was the aspect of self-reliance and living off the land. There was a little of that, but the three main women seemed to have no real clue how to do that successfully. The first person we meet, Helen, came from Seattle, checked books out of the library to read and reference. The other two women were from the area in Appalachia, had history of the place, but didn't seem to do much better. And do they ever argue.

At several points I considered not continuing because the three main women characters do fight. I didn't like them, nor the arguing. The book is written from different POV's one for each of the women and Perley, the child.  The young boy is raised by the three women, and I loved his character and I stuck with the book.

The title of this book fits so well, the fighting then staying with each other, and my own experience with the book, staying and fighting through the discomfort. This is not the easiest book to read. Yet I found at the end of the book it paid off. I'm happy to have stayed with the book.

Book rating: 3.5 stars


Thanks to Farrar, Straus and Giroux and NetGalley for an uncorrected electronic advance review copy of this book.

Review 27: The Sun Is a Compass

The Sun Is a Compass: A 4,000-Mile Journey into the Alaskan Wilds by Caroline Van Hemert
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a well written book. The imagery is vital in an adventure book like this. Caroline and her husband Pat decide to traverse across mountains, rivers, oceans and glaciers using their own muscles. They hike, row or paddle into the arctic and back.

For me this is what arm chair travel is about. While I would love to be out in the wild, not that far north. It's way too cold and or rainy, very wet. Their time on the river with mosquitoes so thick you can't even eat, ummm, no thank you.

Caroline Van Hemert grew up in Alaska so it's not odd for her to take this long wilderness adventure in her own backyard. She is a biologist, or more accurately an ornithologist. One aspect I loved in this book is her descriptions of the birds they see and hear. It even made me more aware of the birds that are around me in my daily life.

It's crazy what humans will put themselves through. For these two it was worth the physical sacrifice and danger, and certainly won't be their last trip into the wild. This was an amazing adventure, and I enjoyed reading about it.


Thanks to Little, Brown and Company and NetGalley for an uncorrected electronic advance review copy of this book.

Reissue Review 19: Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century

Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century by Jessica Bruder
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Reissue Review #2: On occasion revisiting and reissuing reviews from the days before my blog postings. This is one to not miss.

A recent read: finished on September 24, 2018.


My reaction to this book surprised me. The book is about people who are in their retirement years who still need to do some work to supplement their income. Not only that, but their house is not a fixed four walls, but something with wheels, that they do move around. They are nomads or work campers "workampers" and rubber wheel tramps.

Most of the people came to the solution of living out of a van or RV out of necessity, but there are a few who have chosen this life. And we meet a few people who advocate it, and help out those new to the camper living. The author Jessica Bruder is a reporter and saw this story about the growing number of seniors living this life just to get by. In the several years of gathering their personal stories, she also bought a van and lived it and tried out a few of the jobs, such as the amazon warehouse temporary workers and on the sugar beet farm. They are not easy jobs, physically demanding and Bruder didn't stay long at them, just enough to know how tough these jobs really are. And it makes you wonder how long these seniors can continue in this way.

Despite the books fairly depressing state for many nomadic seniors, these are mostly positive and upbeat portrayals. Most of these people described are more optimistic and happy than one might expect. They love to name their traveling homes with cute pun names like the "Squeeze inn" and the author's van "Halen" named after the band. They are helpful and friendly to each other and quickly develop friendships that feel more like family.

So this is where I was surprised because the freedom they enjoy and camping for months as camp hosts sounded like fun. Since I haven't been camping in a few years, I do miss it, so yeah, being out in nature for months at a time sounds great. Then touring around the country, your home with you as you explore, wow. But for me that would be a vacation, not a life. No, definitely not what I'd like to do when I'm of retirement age; and no, don't sign me up to work in a warehouse or picking beets or any other fruit or vegetable.

I'm sure this book wasn't to "inspire" people to the lifestyle. Instead it is to report on part of the fallout from the great recession, what it did to those who lost their retirement savings and now have to rely on a small check of social security. It doesn't often cut it. Some of these people were college professors, business owners and construction workers. It isn't just people who worked in low wage jobs all their life, although there are a few of those as well.

It feels like there's a little more to say...but really, just read the book. Interesting take on those who don't consider themselves homeless, but houseless.



I received a free copy of this book at a library conference. I was not required to write a review, but felt like it and, of course, the above opinions are my own.