Here Be Dragons by Sharon Kay Penman

Genre: Historical fiction
Publisher, Year: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1985
Other Works: The Sunne in Splendor
Flags: Moderate language, Adult themes, Explicit references
Rating: A, or Great Read
Challenge: 100 Books
Premise: A King's daughter is married to a neighboring country's Prince as a token of peace. However, new family ties prove difficult when conflicts arise.

First off, it took me six months to finish Here Be Dragons. You read me right. It feels decievingly light, small enough to fit in a handbag. Although it couldn't be construed as a "light" read—all you have to do is flip through to realize that it's quite substantial—this book reads heavy.

Penman chronicles the lives of Llewelyn the Great of Wales and King John of England. These two leaders connect themselves through the marriage of John's illegitamite daughter, Joanna, to the much older Welsh Prince. She lives with Lewelyn and learns the customs and ways of the Welsh. Family ties are strained however, as Lewelyn's existing children try to accept his new wife and when English interests conflict with Welsh ones, leaving Joanna caught in the middle.

Penman's extensive research of her chosen topic could not be better demonstrated. She could never be accused of not being thorough. This skill has pros and cons, however, because it makes some sections read more like a history text than a novel. But, after awhile—because you'll have the time—Penman's storytelling style becomes more comfortable. The first onslaught of names and titles causes disorientation, but then it becomes more of a parade of people, gently making their way in the background, and only the most important and memorable characters stand out. They make themselves known; there's no need to "keep track."

What I love about Here Be Dragons is similar to why I love Tracy Chevalier—an author who takes a piece of artwork, together with a few loose facts, and lets the imagination run riot. Penman does the same thing with a list of names and dates. She takes what history provides and adds motivations, political ambitions, loyalties, love. And the result is a plethora of amazing characters and carefully entangled relationships. She leads us through the spectrum of emotions: the contended bliss of a happy marriage to the endless despair of betrayal to the urgent violence of war to the heartbreaking frustration of disappointment. And I have to say that I don't know that I've ever felt so enveloped in a new world as I did in this book. I've been sucked into books before, but never have a felt so at home there, so informed. As if it were natural for me to be there, watching the events unfold.

This is not a story of a couple incidents, tied together by a few main characters. This story is a saga. And really, when you try to boil it down (if that's even possible), Here Be Dragons is about the tested and tried love between Llewelyn and Joanna. A love that thrives in the cracks of the concrete, flourishing under impossible circumstances, nurished only because neither will accept failure. Fraught with hardship, they find a way, and in their determination, a hope for the future is born. Although, in the end, I suppose the same could be said of Llewelyn and his fierce loyalty to the land, Gywnedd, to his people—in a way, he was wed to her, too.

This book is one of those that you could never sit down and read hour upon hour, although I wouldn't call it one that was easy to put down. More because of its sheer density. It's one that had to be digested in sections. It requires time to ponder. Just “one more chapter” before bed will find you reading in the wee small hours. For me, it was absolutely worth the commitment, and I am looking forward to tackling the other two books in the trilogy—sometime soon.

Pride of Baghdad by Brian Vaughan

Genre: Graphic novel
Publisher, Year: Vertigo, 2006
Illustrator: Nico Henrichon
Other Works: Ex Machina (BV), Fables (NC)
Flags: Adult themes, tenuous references
Rating: C-, or Major Problems
Challenge: Library
Premise: Lions escape from the zoo after the bombing of Baghdad.

I’m trying to read more graphic novels, and this one seemed promising. I'm sorry to report that this one did not go over as well as the first. Although the good has to be weighed with the bad. Unfortunately, it wasn’t all I was hoping for, and it left me scratching my head a little, wondering exactly what the author was really trying to do with this book.

Pride of Baghdad documents the adventures of a group of lions once they’ve been sprung from the zoo during the bombing of Baghdad. The group consists of a male, two of his ladies (one old, one young), and a little cub. Conflicts arise as they leave the smoldering heap that used to be their home and venture into the city. They have to find food and shelter, all while not quite understanding what has happened. In the end, the lions fail to find a better life. +/-

First, I have to say that Nico Henrichon's artwork in this book made it for me. I wish I could give the illustrations a different rating because, honestly, they were the best part for me. The facial expression of the lions was really wonderful, even their eyes were expressive. I still can remember those vivid red and orange colors splashing the pages. It made the events more tangible.

However, the writing for me was a little . . . strange. That’s really the only word I can think to describe it. Vaughan made his characters into such a bizarre mix of human and animal, that I wasn’t sure at all what he was trying to get at. He decided to include the idea of gang rape in the book, clearly not something found in the animal world (at least to my understanding), and yet, there’s another scene of “lion sexuality” that seems distinctly animalistic in nature. Honestly, both seemed rather extraneous to me. In another part of the book, the lions pontificate over whether they should eat an obviously dead human being, but then leave an entire bear carcass to rot, because they want that particular individual to “suffer.” Are they driven by hunger, or not?

The book is obviously a thinly-veiled metaphor of the Iraq war, but I found the characters confusing. And the moral-driven plot becomes so abundantly clear in the end, it kind of made me gag. I mean, really? Is the Iraq conflict so cut and dry? I don’t know, maybe I just didn’t get it, but this one just didn’t do it for me.

Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi

Genre: Graphic novel (memoir)
Publisher, Year: Pantheon Books, 2003
Other Works: Persepolis 2
Flags: Adult themes (violence), moderate language
Rating: A+, or Must Read Now!
Challenge: Library
Premise: A young girl lives in a turbulent world of war-torn Iran.

Another suggestion from Book on the Nightstand, I thoroughly enjoyed Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi. And I believe this is the very first graphic novel I’ve ever read or reviewed! And I’m happy to report that it was a positive experience.

Persepolis chronicles the goings-on of a young girl in a turbulent country. The book covers the overthrow of the Shah, the Iranian revolution, and then eventually the war with Iraq. The reader gets a peek inside the life of a well-off family at the time and how events changed their lives and shaped their future, all through the eyes of a child. Marjane sees the protesting and rioting, the institution of the veil, the outlaw of Western influences, and eventually, the bombing of her hometown. +/-

What I loved about this book was how each event made sense to me as what a child would remember about their life. Even though she was experiencing things no child should have to, the things she remembers, down to little details, match her age, and I think it gives the work a real credibility. Not only that, but gives us the opportunity to see something like this from a new, real angle--which always provides enlightenment. At the same time, this book is clearly for adults, not kids.

I also really enjoyed the illustrations. I think this book is a perfect example of what a graphic novel should accomplish. The pictures were straight forward and simple (matching our narrator’s point-of-view) but imparted a well-rounded story that wouldn’t have been as developed with just words. This is such an interesting way to write a biography. Even though it is short and easy to read, I’m sure it took endless hours to whittle the story down to such concise perfection.

I found it an easy read, engaging, and interesting. It made me laugh, made me uncomfortable, and made me cry. I’m eager to read the second installment.

As a side note, Persepolis was made into a motion picture (French), and I am very interested to see it if I can track it down. They actually animated the original graphics, at which I was surprised and delighted. It looks amazing. Check out the website for the movie here.

The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls

Genre: Memoir
Publisher, Year: Scribner, 2005
Other Works: Half Broke Horses
Flags: Adult themes, tenuous references
Rating: A-, or Good w/ Minor Problems
Challenge: Countdown, Library
Premise: The story of a girl growing up with a nomadic family in poverty--and how she overcame it.

As I was reading through this memoir, I could hear my mother’s voice in my mind, with her nose scrunched in disgust, saying, “I don’t like movies where the child is the mother and the mother is a child.” (We were watching Anywhere But Here at the time.) That line pretty much sums up this book for me. But, I did in fact like the book, it was just frustrating as all get out to watch this little family go down the drain because of two incompetent, selfish people.

Jeannette Walls, at the age of three, cooks hotdogs when she gets hungry. Her mother thinks children should be independent. So, she gets out a big pot, fills it with water, and boils her own hotdogs. One time, she makes the mistake of cooking her hotdogs in a fluffy pink tutu over a gas stove. Delicate tulle plus open flame--I think you can guess what happened next. This is the first occurrence in a long line of neglect, inflicted on four siblings who find solace only in sticking together. By the end of the long and arduous journey out of childhood, I was so anxious for the Walls’ kids to get out from under their family oppression and be a success in life, I couldn’t stop reading until I knew they would be alright. Although I suppose “alright” is a relative term. +/-

Although Walls’s parents have many faults, they weren’t sinister. They suffered from other debilitations. Namely, it seems they were the type of people who just weren’t meant to be adults, not to mention parents. They are so burdened by their lives (raising children, earning a living, managing a household--down to the most basic, like eating, taking a bath, cleaning their clothes, etc.), that they just run from responsibility at every turn. But what really got to me was the ways in which their selfish needs manifested, such as Dad quitting his job to work on a “machine” to mine gold (the supposed “answer to their poverty”) and Mom spending what little money they had on chocolate bars while her kids ate from the cafeteria trash at school, not to mention hiding the chocolate so only she could indulge herself. It seemed everything they did just shouted, “We’re the ones who need a mom and dad! We can’t take care of ourselves—it’s too hard!”

As I was reading through these dreadful tales, only becoming more and more desperate by every turn of the page, I began to wonder why the author would want to air this story in front of the world. What compelled her to share this story? I’m sure writing the novel must have been cathartic in that no one could really escape such a past unscathed, but maybe it also had something to do with her love for her parents. Even though they can be pretty despicable, the author doesn’t pass judgment. In some moments, she writes about them as tenderly and caring as any loving daughter, especially her father, who gave her intangible gifts of knowledge and self esteem—and a star in the sky at Christmas. His love was clouded by alcoholism, but that didn’t make it less real to Walls. They are certainly not ideal, but they are her parents. She knows for better or worse, she’s influenced by them, and not all the things they did or taught her were bad.

The Glass Castle is a house that Walls’s father always wanted to build. He spent painstaking hours perfecting the designs. He wanted to take care of his family and be a good parent, he just could not get the motivation to really do it. He dreamt big, but he lived small—very small. I think Walls took a lesson from that. That you can’t just dream big, you have to live big, too. And she did. She worked hard and never let her desire for more get in the way of her responsibilities or her success. And maybe she has her parents to thank for that.

Overall, I enjoyed the book, but it’s not one I’d ever want to read again. The author is a compelling storyteller, which makes the novel hard to put down. And although frustrating, once you can accept the inanity of her parents, the book can be quite an inspiring story of overcoming all odds.

The Middle Place by Kelly Corrigan

Genre: Nonfiction Memoir
Publisher, Year: Voice, 2008
Flags: Adult themes
Rating: B, or Flawed But Decent
Premise: Kelly Corrigan finds a lump in her breast. Before she knows it, she’s living the nightmare of cancer. And while in the midst of her treatment, she receives another blow, her father has also been diagnosed with cancer. Kelly takes us on her journey as she finds courage and love and peace with the hand she’s been dealt.

This book did not turn out to be exactly what I had expected, but I still thought it was alright, for the following reasons:

It gave me great insight into what it must be like to go through getting and fighting cancer. Kelly, the author, finds out she has a large tumor in her breast, and then has chemo and radiation therapy. Also, her father, with whom she is very close, is diagnosed with cancer soon after. It was interesting to read about her thoughts and feelings going through the process, having to face her mortality, and learning how to cope through treatment, hoping for the best. I think it helped me a lot to understand what it would be like to go through such a trying experience. It was also interesting to see how her other family members coped: her brothers, her husband, her mother, her +/-

father, and her extended family. To see how their views differed, and how they could work together to help one another find peace and hope.

I enjoyed her and her family's sense of humor throughout her ordeal. And even though there were many, many sobering moments, I felt like Kelly's sense of humor was always an important part of her "treatment," perhaps not the treatment of her cancer, but her "spiritual" treatment. Especially her happy-go-lucky, overly-friendly father, who loves to give everyone a nickname and tell jokes. (He calls Kelly "Lovey" and her husband "Ark," since he's from Arkansas. Also, there are many nicknames involving "o" at the end.)

Facing the possibility of death is something I find hard to imagine, since I've never been through it. She was so young when she was diagnosed, with a young husband and even younger daughters. She would be leaving behind a full life that she would never get the chance to live. At the same time, it almost seemed as though the possibility of her father's death devastated her even more than the thought of her own. I think she captures the hurt and anger that come with these sort of tragedies so well, and it really resonated with me. Sometimes life is so unfair, it's hard to find meaning in it. And yet, she is able to.

This book has been marketed as a "coming of age" story, but that didn't seem like a very good description when I finished it. It does include alternating stories between Kelly's childhood and her adult life, and she frequently talks about how she is reluctant to really "grow up." But, I didn't really see a change in Kelly from beginning to end. More than just anecdotes, I wish I could've seen into the heart of Kelly's ability to "rise above" her illness and to accept her "new life" as a cancer survivor, which she definitely did.

It is a great story about family, and I think a very candid one at that, as well. Overall, I enjoyed it.

Three Cups of Tea by Mortenson and Relin

Genre: Nonfiction
Publisher, Year: Penguin, 2007
Other Works: Listen to the Wind (picture book)
Rating: A+, or Must Read Now!
Premise: Greg Mortenson was a mountain climber. After failing to summit K2, he finds himself in the hospitality of a remote village. He notices one thing that he must change: there is no school for the children.

Three Cups of Tea chronicles an amazing journey, requiring equal parts bravery and determination. I can't even imagine doing something like this with my life, but what a difference one life can make. Wow.

Mortenson, a seasoned mountain climber, fails to summit K2, one of the world's tallest peaks. He gets lost on his delirious trek down and finds his way to a small Pakistani village called Korphe. There, as the villagers kindly nurse him back to health, he learns that the children do not have a school. He promises these people who have been so kind to him that he will return and build a school for them. As Mortenson becomes more and more involved with Pakistan, this one school turns into many as he boldly takes on the challenge to educate Pakinstan's youth. Mortenson takes us on his journey of triumphs and setbacks in his quest. +/-

At the end, it made me wonder how this little seed of an idea (the school in Korphe) grew into this life-long passion. Honestly, I can't imagine being this passionate about something; it's really remarkable. I enjoyed the voice and language of the author, and how he kind of turned it into a story with interjected quotations. The descriptions, I felt, were very rich. It made the book read more like a novel, which was fun.

I never realized how difficult it is to start a non-profit and keep it going. Juggling the work to be done, trying to recruit donors, managing what is effectively a business, all while trying to improve conditions in what can be a hostile environment--a tall order by any standards. That's what so great about this story though. I feel like the author didn't try to hide what was hard or what Mortenson's weaknesses were, while at the same time praising his strengths and incredible sacrifices.

The story wasn't told looking through rose-colored glasses, so to speak. It also revealed Mortenson's neglect of his own family, his inability to manage a business, and the people who created seemingly insurmountable problems for him. But then, told how these obstacles were overcome. At almost every point in the story I thought, "Ok, that's it--this is where it's all going to fall apart." But it didn't, because of one man's commitment and because of the people who allowed themselves to be led by his vision.

I can't say enough about how impressed I was with Mortenson's courage. He put himself into impossible and dangerous circumstances time and time again. It was amazing to see him push forward, no matter what happened. He was undaunted. I'm sure there were difficult days for him when he felt like giving up, but he always bounced back with amazing optomisim and love for the people he worked so hard for. It was really incredible to see how that determination can bring about success. He never accepted failure, no matter how bleak things looked.

Most of all, I enjoyed the stories of actual people and their families in Pakistan. The personal touch of getting to know about someone and their struggles and triumphs. I feel like I know the people of Korphe personally, and all the other Pakistanis Mortenson worked with so closely. When I read about Parvi or Baig or Haji Ali, I get a warm feeling in my heart for them. =) It just teaches me that no matter where you go in the world there are good people to be found, who have as much integrity and courage to fight for what's right and good as could ever be found in mankind.

Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert

I really enjoyed this book. I think, partly, the reason for this is that I love the idea of a spiritual journey, and I was captivated by Liz’s spiritual and emotional transformation. Liz is a writer, and after suffering through a difficult and painful divorce, she finds herself hitting rock bottom. She feels deflated and alone and unable to cope with her unhappiness. I can relate; can’t we all?

Liz does seek professional help for her depression, but in addition to that , she gets the idea to embark on a year-long trip to the three I’s (Italy, India, and Indonesia) for further rehabilitation from this disastrous time in her life. In Italy, she learns the meaning of pleasure; in India, she learns the meaning of prayer; and in Indonesia, she learns a hodge-podge of things, including the meanings of balance and love. +/-

I have to say that my favorite part of her trip was her time in Italy. (Perhaps that is telling of my own personality!) In Italy, Liz completely lets go of every worry. She allows herself to RELAX and to focus on nothing else but to chase the next pleasure, which revolve around eating, site-seeing, and speaking Italian, a language that she feels sets her soul free.

But I also enjoyed her anecdotes from India: her struggle to meditate and quiet her mind/fears, her straight-talking friend who calls her on the carpet, her release of painful experiences to God’s hands. It’s like you see Liz transform before your eyes in this section, from a struggling, pleasure-seeking, insecure girl, to a sensible, humble, and centered woman.

The last section was my least favorite. It didn’t feel like it had a theme running through as the others did. Liz didn’t have “goals” set out as she did in the previous two sections. She just went to Indonesia (Bali) and let life sort of take over. Although the section was still enjoyable, I didn’t feel as inspired by her experiences.

After the first two sections, I thought to myself how wonderful it would be to be able to leave everything about your life behind and to focus on one thing at a time, and only that one thing. To sort of shine one part of yourself until it gleams, and then move on to the next, systematically, until you shine all over. I’ve only been able to do this one time in my life, and I have to say, it does cause reflection and reinvention of self to take place.

I loved how Liz gave herself over to this reinvention, and how obviously you can tell that she is in fact a changed woman by the end. I also enjoyed her proactive spirit. She was unhappy, so she came up with a plan to turn her life around, even if it meant making changes and letting go of bad habits. It made me jealous of her. It made me want to follow in her footsteps. The writing was superb—like a well-prepared dessert. It was a page-turner for me, which I think is hard to do with a memoir. I would definitely recommend this book!