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 587: The Changing Lives of Joe Hart

The Changing Lives of Joe Hart by Shawn Inmon
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is the sixth book in the Middle Falls Time Travel series. Each book addresses something slightly different. This time the main character, Joe Hart, tries to change history. First by trying to prevent his two friends deaths while young, more globally to prevent John Lennon's death in New York.

Another twist with this story is that when Joe Hart dies it is accidental and he is still “rebooted” like in a video game, In previous books this resetting of one’s life happens when the death was self-inflicted. The moment the character returns to is when they were on the cusp of making an important life choice.

This book fell a little into a pattern somewhat like the other books, despite the difference, which actually are quite small. One of the reasons I typically don’t read long series books is they do become somewhat formulaic. However, I did decide to continue on with these as they do tend to make one think about grander philosophic questions which makes them interesting.

Previously Read Middle Falls Time Travel Series books:

• Book 1: The Unusual Second Life of Thomas Weaver
• (4 stars) July.2024
• Book 2: The Redemption of Michael Hollister
• (4 stars) July.2024
• Book 3: The Death and Life of Dominick Davidner 
• (3 stars)  September.2024
• Book 4: The Final Life of Nathaniel Moon
• (4 stars)  April.2025
• Book 5: The Emancipation of Veronica McAllister 
• (3 stars)  April.2025

Review 586: Wild Girls

Wild Girls: How the Outdoors Shaped the Women Who Challenged a Nation by Tiya Miles
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is one of the first two books in a new series called Norton Shorts, by publisher W.W. Norton. They are calling it “Brilliance with Brevity”. Further description “Written by leading-edge scholars, these eye-opening books deliver bold thinking and fresh perspectives in under two hundred pages.”

For this book, and one of the inaugural books for the series, I think it missed the mark. It was short, and I think that was part of the problem with the book. It was even under 150 pages, it needed more length.

The author Miles focused only on a few women and it needed more depth to hold up to that subtitle. I don't think the author proved her thesis. Also, even with these few women it was occasionally a stretch in placing the outdoors with the women, although not for all of them.

The main subjects were: Harriot Tubman, Louisa May Alcott, and Genevieve Healy, Jane Johnson Schoolcraft and Mamie Gavin Fields get a few pages, along with mentions of Sakakawea. Miles also writes extensively about a girls basketball team of Native Americans. It was highly unusual for the time. I do appreciate the author finding some women who may have made a mark during their time, that are not well known. However, I was still wanting more.

The book contained some photos, all in black and white, and the back had an extensive section of notes on sources and quotations. Which then brings the text to 120 pages, yes, very short.

Review 585: Go

Go by Kazuki Kaneshiro
My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

This was not an enjoyable book for me. I disliked the main character, Sugihara through much of the book. But I kept reading as I haven’t read many Japanese books, and none where the main character is considered Korean. It’s a different life to explore.

Why I didn’t like Sugihara is mainly due to all the fighting. I’m much more for peace than fistfights. And fighting scenes are not what I want to read. When the book shifted to the girl Sugihara dates it became more pleasant for me, less fighting. But the ending, I did not like.

The book highlights prejudice and assumptions. Sugihara was born and raised in Japan. His father, however, was born in Korea. He left and settled in Japan. Both of Sugihara’s parents retain North Korean passports. There was a choice but his father was somewhat idealistic and chose the north, so his son was raised in the North Korean schools.

When Sugihara was about to enter high school his father wanted to visit Hawaii, which was impossible to do with a North Korean passport so he just switched to South Korean and was able to visit. This was a revelation for Sugihara, as he realized you can just switch your nationality and it means nothing. You are who you are regardless of which passport you hold.

What Sugihara has difficulty in accepting is the harassments for Korean people in Japan. How is he different than a Japanese as he was born and raised there? Why does Japan treat him like a foreigner? Interesting questions.

Since this book became a success in Japan when it came out over 20 years ago, one may hope there has been some changes. Although racism is hard to overcome in any country. Glad I read this despite my somewhat lack of enjoyment, still got something out of the book.

Review 584: Lost at Sea

Lost at Sea: Poverty and Paradise Collide at the Edge of America by Joe Kloc
My rating: 3.75 of 5 stars

Just north of San Francisco in Marin County is Richardson Bay and the city of Sausalito. This location is where the book takes place, with stories and life experiences by a community of people called anchor-outs.

They live in the bay on boats not sanctioned by any government agency so the city and harbor master take to removing the boats. When someone isn’t living in one every day, the boat is impounded then destroyed. Although some called the people unhoused before they lost their boat, now they really are homeless.

This is a collection of stories but lacks solutions or other commentary than just stating what this community has experienced over the past ten years or so.

People have been living in boats for a long time, over a hundred years, since the time of the great earthquake in San Francisco in 1906. Some of the current community members have been living on their boats for decades. This is not a new community. Except the number of boats expanded by nearly doubled when the financial crisis hit.

Marin County is a wealthy community and some residents complained about their view. There were complaints about the anchor-outs polluting the waters, although no ecological testing proved this was an issue.

The author spent nearly ten years visiting these people, hearing their stories and at times living with them. When nearly all of the boats had been impounded and torn up a tent city erupted. Kloc slept in the tents for a few days as well, this being around the time of the pandemic.

Kloc and some of the anchor-outs attend city council meetings. It becomes very eye-opening when you realize a city, or other government agency is willing to spend thousands of dollars, in this case close to half a million dollars, on legal fees to evict and otherwise harass these unhoused individuals. None of this money is spent on providing any relief for these people.

Something missing from this book is more information on the house boats that are legally in the bay. They are mentioned very briefly but not deeply enough to provide context. How is it that there is a community of people living on boats in the bay accepted and others are not. It may just boil down to money, as usual, but this part of the story is lacking.

Unfortunately, there isn’t much of a conclusion to the book either. No solutions or options were provided, it really is just a collection of stories about some of the people’s lives who lived in the bay in unusual living conditions.




Thanks to Dey Street Books and NetGalley for an uncorrected electronic advance review copy of this book. However, I listened to a published audiobook copy of the book.