Christmas Book Flood

In Iceland, there's a long tradition of giving books as gifts during the holidays. Iceland book gifting tradition is called "Jolabokaflod"
or "Christmas Book Flood." 

Each Icelander receives at least one book during the Christmas season. Gifts are typically opened on December 24th. Icelanders usually spend the night before Christmas reading.

This is what I want to do this year. No regular gifts. Just books. 

If you want to read more about Iceland, you may want to try these books:

Moss, Sarah. Names for the Sea.

https://guidetoiceland.is/connect-with-locals/aldasigmunds/the-icelanders-and-their-big-love-of-books

Linchpin by Seth Godin

Seth Godwin urges us not to become cogs in a wheel. Those are not the kind of jobs that will last or that will bring satisfaction.

Instead, he urges employees to become linchpins--someone who brings something valuable and indispensable to the workplace. The employees which he also calls "artists" will be the the ones who will shape the future. 

Linchpins take an ordinary job and become innovators.

Godwin names several well-known linchpins: Steve Jobs of Apple, Jeff Bezos of Amazon, Richard Branson of Virgin.com but he also lists less well known ones, Anne Jackson Miller at flowerdust.net, Keith Johnson, a buyer at Anthropologie.

He explains why being good at what you do is not enough anymore. What employers need to be is more employees like Jay Parkinson, a medical innovator, Sasha Dichter, or Louis Monier who innovated their respective fields.

Though this is an older book, published in 2011. it's well worth reviewing at this time when many jobs are being replaced by automation. 

Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan Mcguire

The premise of Every Heart a Doorway is that the universe extends an invitation to certain children: a door to a new world. This new world, whether it be called Confection, or Prism, or Halls of the Dead is a magical place where the individual feels completely at home.

Some of these children are never seen again. Others are for whatever reason forced or told to return to real world for a short time. These children who have made this magical journey are heart-broken when they find themselves back in the real world

All of the students that end up at Eleanor West's School for Wayward Children want desperately to find the door and the world that claimed them. 

Eleanor tells the parents of these children that she will offer group therapy and that she will shatter their delusions. Eleanor actually sees her school as a "way station." She wants nothing more than to help them find their door again, even if the odds are against it. 

Just as Nancy, a new student, learns to navigate her way around the school, the unthinkable happens. Her roommate, Sumi, is murdered, the body mutilated. 

Everyone suspect Jack (short for Jacqueline) because she has been to harsh world called the Moors. She and her twin sister were both in service to a Lord Vampire. 

When two more bodies appear, the magical fantasy becomes a mystery.

Seanan McGuire who also writes horror as Mira Grant blends genres in this slim, yet well-plotted fantasy.

Every Heart a Doorway won a Nebula award in 2016 for best novella as well as a Hugo award(2017)and Alex award (2017).

Penguin Random House debuts

Take a look at these exciting fictional debuts from Penguin Random House:


Debut Sampler
http://www.TinyURL.com/DebutSamplerFall17

Folk Healing

Some of the best fiction comes from Appalachia; most likely, because of their storytelling habits. I've always been fascinated by folk medicine, maybe because it is similar to what my ancestors did in Louisiana. One of my ancestors was a traiteur, or faith healer. Granted, this is different from folk healing practices in Appalachia, yet both relied on medicinal plants and faith. 

Lately,  its hard not to notice an explosion of taleneted Appalachian writers--authors like Amy Greene, Joni Agee, Ann Hite, Ron Rash, Wiley Cash, Robert Morgan, and Daniel Woodrell. 

These novels aren't simply set in Appalachia but are informed by the setting. These characters couldn't have lived anywhere else. In many cases, the folk  healing is a significant part of the story or other aspects of Appalachia--mining and its effects. 


Folk medicine:
https://www.jstor.org/stable/40932250?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents


One of my favorite Appalachian novels, The River Wife. 
https://chantalreviews.blogspot.com/2012/10/the-river-wife-by-joni-agee.html

Soar by Joan Bauer

Listening to Joan Bauer speak about her latest middle grade novel, Soar, made me realize that I want to write hopeful novels as well.

Jeremiah in Soar faces a lot of adversity, a rocky start in life and a defective heart yet he pursues his dream of coaching a baseball team.

Bauer spoke about her days as a writer and how she got her first breakthrough after adversity--an injury that made her determined to write. She spoke of hearing the character's voice in her head. That character became the protagonist of Squashed, Bauer's first young adult book.

What the world needs, Bauer says, is more kindness and joy.

Under a Pole Star by Stef Penney (part 4)

Flora begins to have leadership problems with her crew when she accepts a man's place in the expedition for the money his sponsors can provide--Gilbert Ashbee.

Aniguin and her begin to drift apart after he returns from America. Armitage had taken him and a few other "eskimos" are tragically put on exhibit at the Natural History Museum.

This incident is reminiscent of events that actually occurred shortly after Robert Peary's 1897 expedition. Two books that chronicle the strange incident are Give Me Back My Father's Body: The Life of Minik and Minik: The New York Eskimo.

Aniguin does not seem to be based on Minik but some of the details are the same. In any event, the experience changes Aniguin as it had also changed Minik. 

Flora feels estranged from Aniguin when he returns to Greenland. Her old friend, Tateraq, has also changed. He leaves Flora to die on the ice.

At this time, there was intense competition to reach the Pole, so much so that some scientists were willing to fake their results. Real life fraudster, Frederick Cook, claimed to have reach the North Pole before Peary. 

His photographs and his story were later revealed to be hoaxes. Penney seems to base some of Armitage's chicanery on Cook or scientists like him. 

Armitage, of course, goes a step further by not only claiming to have made discoveries he never made. By destroying Jakob and Flora's records, he tries to obliterate their work.

Flora revels in the one thing Armitage cannot take away--her time with Jakob in the valley. Though this is a doomed love story, it is an incredibly rich look at at the life of two explorers who were willing to risk so much.

Part 3
Part 2
Part 1

Under a Pole Star by Stef Penney (Part 3)

In the last half of the novel, a novel primarily focused upon desire, Flora finds herself caught up in a love affair with Jakob. 

Their paths have crossed before. At Neqi, they felt a connection which resulted in a three year correspondence. 

In Jakob de Beyn, Flora finds and rejects the love of her life. She has a five-day affair with Jakob. Soon afterwards, when her husband becomes sick again with a paralytic stroke, Flora makes a choice. She refuses to see Jakob again. 

Here Flora resembles many of the Victorian and early twentieth century heroines literature so frequently portrays. There is a "price" she realizes she has to pay. She feels she owes a debt to her husband, Freddie, for funding her trip to the North.

Jakob, too, represses his desire for the illustrious "Snow Queen," as Flora is known. He chooses to become an engaged to a woman, Clara, who loves him as a friend. She is lesbian and will never desire him romantically.



(Part 2)
(Part 1)

Under a Pole Star by Stef Penney, (Part 2)

This historical novel has an undeniable feminist bent. Flora gravitates towards a mentor who brings her to London and who helps her fulfill her long held desire to return to Ellesmere island. 

(photo by Noel Bauza, https://pixabay.com/en/users/Noel_Bauza-2019050/

Sadly, in order to secure funding she must make a marriage of convenience with a man who shares her interests but who does not love or cherish her. 

In becoming a "new woman" like her mentor, she has had to make some awful sacrifices. 

Flora marries Freddie, for one thing, whose influence and money help her return to the Arctic. Though Flora can continue pursuing her career, Freddie cruelly mistreats her.

Though Flora is a friend and advocate of the Inuit, she finds herself removing their mummified remains. Bringing Inuit remains to Europe would raise the importance of the expedition or so she thinks. 

(continued from Part 1)

Under a Pole Star by Stef Penney (Part 1)

If you want to read an astounding work of historical fiction with a feminist bent, read Under a Pole Star by Stef Penney.

What attracted me to this book, at first, was the story of a daughter accompanying her father on a polar expedition.

Somewhere I had heard that story before. Pictures of Robert Peary's daughter wrapped in furs came to mind.

Flora Mackie's story isn't based on Marie Peary's but some of the details match. The press made much of Marie Peary's allure. She became known world wide as the Snow Baby, as the Greenlanders called her.

In Stef Penney's novel Flora's story is sensationalized, too, except she is called the Snow Queen. Flora capitalizes on this to launch her return to the Arctic, a move her father does not support. 

(continued)

Part 2
Part 3
Part 4

The Royal Institute's Christmas Lectures

Initiated by Michael Faraday in 1826, the Royal Institute's Christmas Lectures on science continue to be produced in the present day. Many of the past episodes can be viewed on the web.

http://www.rigb.org/christmas-lectures/watch

Learn many fascinating facts like we laugh. The 2017 lecture features "The Science of Laughter" with Sophie Scott. 

Scientific American has a wonderful article about Michael Faraday:
https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/cocktail-party-physics/christmas-with-faraday-the-chemical-history-of-a-candle/

Kingdom of Ash and Briars by Hannah West

This magical YA novel will have readers rooting for Bristal, an orphan raised by a cook. Bristal has a feisty, take-no-prisoners spirit that will resonate well with teens.

Even though she is kidnapped and forced into the Water, which has killed many, she refuses to lose hope.

Bristal chooses to work as an elicromancer after she is tested at the Water. Her mentor, Brack, gives her the choice which she accepts, even if there are many drawbacks. 

After training, she becomes a  a clandestine who can disguise herself as other people or animals. 

Her first assignment is to protect a princess but she soon finds herself taking the form of a boy and fighting with the Alliance against a group of rebel elicromancers.

Though being an elicromancer means forsaking love, she is taken with Anthony, the renegade Prince. 

Since she must save the lost duchess, create harmony among the warring kingdoms, and defeat Tamarice, Bristal knows she cannot allow herself to fall in love. 

Will love win out? 

Strange forces are at work throughout this novel. Bristal's past, her childhood in Poppleton, may be the key to helping her quell the evil uprising that threatens the kingdoms of Nissera, Calgoran, and Volarre.

Magic is strong but never underestimate the power of love.

Smart Clothes

Recently, Levis and Google have developed a Smart jacket that can connect to the Internet. The jacket is called a Commuter Trucker Jacket by Jaquard (https://designmuseum.org/exhibitions/beazley-designs-of-the-year/fashion/levis-commuter-trucker-jacket-with-jacquard-by-google).

Those who wear the jacket can tap or swipe the jacket sleeve to access mobile services. The jacket can be washed (once the snap tag is removed).

Energy Action Month

October is Energy Action Month. 

What safe, renewable energy sources will be available to you in the future? Some researchers think that one day clothes--your T-shirt and jeans--may be able generate electricity. This electricity could be used to power devices e.g. cellphones. 

That sounds far-fetched but scientists at University of California at Berkeley have been working on this idea since 2010.
 
At the University of Georgia, Zhong Lin Wang and his team are trying to create a fabric that can harvest energy from the sun as well as motion.

Fabric that generates energy based on movement will use triboelectric nanogenerators. Fabric that generates solar energy would require photo anodes. 

Are we headed to a brave new world where our clothes will power our devices? 

More information about Energy Action Month for students and teachers can be found here,
 http://www.need.org/content.asp?contentid=175

http://www.energy.gov 

The Gracekeepers by Kristy Logan

The Gracekeepers by Kristy Logan is  a magical realistic novel that addresses rising sea levels--an event that will happen if the climate continues to change. 

After the sea levels have risen, colonies of people called "Damplings," permanently reside on ships. They are ostracized by "Landlockers" who trade with them but do not want to socialize with them.

A third more mysterious group of people, the
"Mer" people are forced to hide their existence. Landlockers kill "Mer" babies, who have gills or webbing between their fingers, out of fear. 

Logan pits one of these Mer people, Callanish, against the Landlocker culture that wishes to obliterate her kind. Logan also juxtaposes North, the "bear girl" from a dampling circus troupe, with Callanish.

This is a novel that expertly explores how prejudice, fear, and superstition can harm society.

Logan reserves her most biting criticism for her criticism of each group's religious affiliations. The Landlockers worship the World Tree, a kind of pagan worship, that involves processions. The damplings worship gods of the sea. 

Logan paints Christian "revivalist" ships, in a particularly gloomy light. She also decries the revivalist's image of a Virgin in blue robes.

Though there are few missteps, her overt distaste of religion, this is a captivating, powerful novel with intriguing characters that should not be missed. 

Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan Macguire

There was still something unfinished around her eyes; she wasn't done yet. She was a story, not an epilogue.

Every Heart a Doorway, Seanan McGuire.

The Soul of an Octopus by Sy Montgomery

Sy Montgomery a naturalist who writes for children and adults alike explores the minds of invertebrates in The Soul of an Octopus. 

Montgomery writes that Octopuses are highly intelligent and curious creatures, even if their minds are wired differently.

Montgomery discovers that octopuses, like dogs and other mammals, often have the desire to play.

Octopus display emotion by changing colors and can taste with their tentacles. They can solve problems--undo locks, create shelters, fool predators, and recognize human caretakers.

Their minds are so similar to ours that they even succumb to a similar decline in old age. 

While they live relatively a short period of time--three or more years as compared to a human's life span of seventy or more years--they undergo similar changes during the aging process. 

Before she dies, an octopus Montgomery has gotten to know well lays eggs. Though this is a bittersweet moment--all female octopuses die after laying eggs--the author feels proud of her "friend."

Though she frequently cites philosophers and scientists, Montgomery adds her own heartfelt observations. 

Montgomery has a great deal of empathy for the animals she studies. She also has a great deal of admiration for the interns, volunteers, and scientists that work with marine life.  

The Soul of an Octopus is one of several recent books highlighting animal intelligence:


Boysen, Sally. The Smartest Animals in the World.
Hauser, Marc D. Wild Minds. 
Virga, Vint. The Soul of All Living Creatures.
Waal, Frans. Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are? 

Marlena

In Marlena by Julie Buntin, Cat becomes captivated by her magnetic, yet tragically vulnerable next door neighbor, Marlena. After her Dad leaves them, Cat and the rest of the family move to Silver Lake, a small Northern Michigan community, where they hope to start over. 

Cat is soon spending every minute with her new neighbor and friend, Marlena. Older and more sophisticated, Marlena takes Cat down a typical wormhole of drugs and alcohol. 

An older wiser Cat narrates the story while flashbacks tell the story of her fifteenth summer. This dual perspective novel shows how complicated friendships can have lasting repercussions.

www.juliebuntin.com

The Zookeeper's Wife: a DVD

The Zookeeper's Wife is beautifully shot and acted. Director, Niki Caro, used real animals and real cages rather than CGI. The rapport between Antonina (Jessica Chastain) and the animals is genuine. This in itself must have been incredibly hard to film.

The story arc is beautiful; In the beginning, Antonina wishes to save only one Jewish friend, Magda. The risks are incredible to take in even one. Nazi troops patrols the zoo in the mornings and afternoons.

Antonina and her husband rescue 300 Jews from certain death in tunnels under her zoo. She maintains a friendship with one of Hitler's most trusted men, Lutz Heck, and devises an ingenious plan. 

Chastain portrays the character's duality-- her intensity and equanimity--in such a unique way.  

Awesome beginnings

"The snow had been falling for three days above six thousand feet, but it has been gentle and hte lines stayed up. At this point in the season, after a long Montana winter that showed no sings of breaking, Sabrina Baldwin considered this a gift...Then, on the fourth day, the wind rose. And the lights blinked."  

Rise the Dark, Michael Koyta.

The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins

When this novel came out a few years ago I remember it was a juggernaut. Every book review in every professional library journal was effusive. 

Some compared it to Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window, where an ordinary person happens to see a crime. In this case, Rachel is a bit of voyeur who witnesses an act of infidelity.

On her commuter train, she sees a couple whose perfect life she romanticizes. She has recently divorced from her own "perfect" husband. The couple whom she names Jess and Jason becomes her ideal until she witnesses something disturbing. 

She comes forward to the police to report what she knows. Sgt. Riley thinks she is a bit of kook. No one takes Rachel  seriously because she is an unreliable witness. Rachel has had an alcohol problem even before Tom left her for another woman. Since then, its only gotten worst. 

Hawkins gives us the situation and then alternates between many characters' point of view--a difficult juggling act. What is amazing is that none of the tension is lost as she moves from character to character. She withholds just enough to keep the pacing taut and suspenseful.

Psychological fiction and unreliable narrators are hot right now; there are many read-alikes to choose from. This one happens to be one of the best. 

The Plum Tree by Ellen Marie Wiseman

World War II-era fiction is popular right now but what makes this debut different is that it  portrays an ordinary German family. The incidents were inspired by the author's own family. Wiseman's mother's family lived in Germany during the war. 

The story is centered around Christine and her desire to protect her family and her boyfriend who is Jewish.

The Plum Tree is about longing, loyalty, and incredible bravery of the people who fought injustice. 

For a time, resistance was simply leaving hard-boiled eggs in places where the Jewish prisoners could find them. 

Eventually, Christine hides Isaac in the family attic. Once he is discovered, though, both are sent to Dachau.

She receives one of the better jobs and works for one of the better captors. Even so, her stay in Dachau nearly kills her. 

Wiseman explains in an afterward which historical details were altered to fit the story.

A Review of Blackout: Remembering the Things I Drank to Forget by Sarah Hepola

Reading memoirs is cathartic. They offer tiny glimpses into someone else's life. Sometimes they make a reader breathe a sign of relief.

Hepola, who was a writer before and after becoming sober, also found stories cathartic. She would often read about addicts with relief that she "wasn't that bad."

Eventually, however, it did become "that bad." One particularly bad episode in Paris, when Hepola was starting out as a journalist, left her mortified for years. She woke up in a stranger's room with no idea how she had gotten there.


Hepola, who had her first blackout at twelve, continued to drink in high school. Attending University of Texas at Austin, Hepola was caught in a downward spiral.

She describes the unnerving feeling of whole chunks of her life disappearing as if they were "scooped...by a melon baller." 

Hepola drank to ease her anxieties about her weight and her social status in school:

I needed alcohol to drink away the things that plagued me. Not just my doubts about sex – my self-consciousness, my loneliness, my insecurities, my fears.

Later, she drank because she thought it helped her writing. After college she wrote for the entertainment section of an Austin, Texas newspaper. 

After re-evaluating her life, Sarah embarks upon a painful journey of sobriety.

We've heard this story told many times, in many different forms, but never told so well.


Blackout: Remembering the Things I Drank to Forget was a New York Times bestseller.  



Similar stories about addiction:
  
Jacobsen, Lea. Bar Flower. 
Laing, Olivia. The Trip to Echo Spring.
Vargas, Elizabeth. Between Breaths: a Memoir of Panic and Addiction. 

More memoirs:
Parravani, Christa. Her: A Memoir.
Cahalan, Susan. My Brain on Fire.  
Mcbride, Regina. Ghost Songs: A Memoir.

Hugo: A Look Back

Hugo was released six years ago. Since then its lost none of its charm. 

Hugo is a well-shot and well-acted movie that also happens to have a beautiful message.

I first became aware of the book which I always meant to read. The book is a marvelously illustrated and written by Brian Selznick.

Wonderful moments abound in this film, like Hugo hanging on to the arms of enormous clock. The scene looks like something out of the silent film Safety Last. The film honors silent films and silent film makers so this scene is so fitting.

One of the best aspects of the movie, however, is the theme.

Standing near the clear dial of the clock, which is an enormous window, Hugo realizes that the world is like an enormous machine.

If someone has lost their purpose, they are broken, just like the automaton Hugo's father found. Yet, that doesn't mean they can't be "fixed" or redeemed. 

"Are you a fixer?" Isabelle asks Hugo. Humbly, he says, "I think so."

The villain of the story and the movie has a prosthetic leg, which he needs because of a war injury.

The war has left him embittered; plus, he has had a terrible childhood. Consequently, he delights in locking up and terrorizing orphaned children.

Even this character though is "fixed," in the end, as he returns with a working leg, presumably fixed by Hugo and Papa Georges.

The Darkest Part of the Forest

In a town called Fairfolk, which lies close to the woods,  mysterious things always happened.

Things get even stranger after someone breaks into a glass coffin that holds a strange, horned boy. For years, townspeople have told stories about this local legend.

Local teens,  Hazel and Ben, have repeated those stories and even created some of their own. Other Fairfolk townspeople may have doubted that he was real--stating he was a statue.

Hazel not only knows the Prince is real but she also wants to be the one that saves him from the curse.

One night Hazel does break the spell that binds him. She can't remember that night, though, because of a bargain she had made with the Folk. 

Wanting music lessons for her brother, she gave the Folk seven years of her life. As a result, Hazel is "losing time." Disappearing in the middle of the night to do errands for them, Hazel has no memories of the events later.

Mysterious, intriguing, and fast-paced, this a wonderful YA read. Even if there are some mature themes, Hazel is a hero most girls can look up to. She save a city, her brother, a prince, and most importantly herself. 

If you like this novel, you may like Holly Black's A Modern Faeries Tale series, which includes Tithe, Valiant, and Ironside.

Humor

"Sometimes it takes time and distance to discover what is funny about ourselves...Humiliation plus time equals humor."

Lisa Yee, author of Millicent Min, Girl Genius, Horn Book Magazine, May/June 2017.