Winterland

Winterland starts out in northern Siberia in 1975. Rae Meadows, the author, was fascinated by the Russian gymnasts. The story starts out with a 7 year old girl named Anya. Anya lives with her father after her mother disappeared 3 years ago. He works in a copper mining building. An older woman, Vera, lives in their apartment building. Anya visits Vera every day after school. Before her mother left, Vera was friends with her too.  Anya and her friend love gymnastics. Together they do cartwheels and the splits. Anya's friend is more skilled than she is. When the gymnastics coach comes to their school both girls try out. Anya is selected but her friend is not because her father spoke negatively about the government. In Russia, young gymnasts are useful to promote the country.  The preferences of the gymnast does not matter. Their happiness, education and health do not matter. When Anya injures a tendon in her ankle, the local doctor wants her to keep weight off of it for a month. The gymnastics doctor wants her back to practice in two days and injects her ankle with pain medication. Anya loves gymnastics in the beginning. She enjoys traveling to other parts of Russia to participate in meets. As she ages and the injuries pile up her feelings change. Once she makes it to the Olympics in the 1990's Anya looses her passion for gymnastics. I found it interesting to read about gymnastics training in Russia. There were no Russian gymnasts named Anya but the other gymnasts in the book were read. The only one I had ever heard of was Olga Korbut.

 

 

The Black Snow

The Black Snow is a bleak novel. Bleak with a capital B. Written by Paul Lynch, the story takes place is rural Ireland in 1945. Barnabas is a farmer who emigrated to America, built sky scrapers in New York, married a woman, and bought a farm in his native Ireland with his winnings. One spring day as he is plowing the field with his farm hand, a fire starts in his barn. Despite the help of other farmers, the barn burns to the ground with all 42 cattle and the farm hand. After that everything goes wrong for Barnabas, his wife, and his teen aged son. The local farmers are not much help. To be honest, Barnabas was a bit of a jerk plus they distrust him because he went to America. I enjoyed reading the book but I recommend against reading it if you are having a down day.

 

 

Four Souls

 Revenge is a main theme in Louise Erdrich's book Four Souls. Written in 2004 we learn the story of Fluer Pillager who sets off from the reservation to exact revenge on the lumber baron who took her land and cut down all the trees. The timing is around 1900. She goes to the Twin Cities to get her revenge. Taking a longer range view, she gets a job in his mansion as a launderess. Eventually she works her way into the family. In the end, she does her the land back and goes to live on the reservation again. I loved reading from the Native American perspective. Fluer is a woman to be admired. I would not have the patience to wait for revenge that long.

 

 

The Funeral Cryer

 I picked up The Funeral Cryer at the library today and started reading it and I could not put it down. I read it in one sitting. The author is Wenyan Lu. The story is set in modern times in a small village in northern China. This town is so far north that having a bamboo forest near the village is very unusual because bamboo doesn't grow this far north. The story is told by by a woman who is struggling. She is married to a worthless chap who doesn't work and doesn't even try to work. Jobs are scarce. Her 20 year old daughter left the village to find work in Shanghai. The woman grows vegetables in her back yard and does all the housework. Her husband leaves the house to gamble with his friends. When he is home he is frequently verbally abusive. She gets some work as a funeral cryer. Families hire her to attend the funeral and cry over the casket giving details of the deceased person's accomplishments. The people in the village assume her job brings bad luck so they avoid her. A barber has moved into the town and he starts paying attention to her. This gives her a new confidence. She stops listening to her husband and starts taking pride in her accomplishments. I enjoyed the story because of the plot but also because the descriptions of the pork and chive dumplings and tofu and stir fry sounded so delicious.

 

 

The Wren, The Wren

Anne Enright, the author of The Wren, The Wren, overheard a man telling another person that he was married, his wife became ill, and he left the family. Based on that observation she wrote this family novel. In this case, the man who left was a famous poet. The story starts with Carmel who was a young child when her mother got cancer and her father left. Her life was scarred by his desertion. Now her daughter, Nell, is 22 and just learning about her grandfather and his poetry. The story is set in Ireland which makes it interesting. I enjoyed this story about three generations of women affected by betrayal.

 

 

 

 

The Alternatives

 The Alternatives, written by Caoilinn Hughes is a family novel set in Ireland. The four Flattery sisters were orphaned when the oldest sister was 17. Other family members tried to raise them but the girls rebelled. The oldest sister took over guardianship. Now in their 30's, all the sisters have doctorate degrees. When the oldest sister goes missing from her geology professor job, the other three sisters come together to find her. She didn't want to be found. Spending a couple of weeks together they come to realize their bond is still strong and each one of them is successful in life. I enjoyed this charming story about four sisters.

 

 

Afterlife

Julia Alvarez is the author of the novel called Afterlife. The story is about Antonia who lives in Vermont. She has just retired from teaching English at a local college when her husband suddenly dies. She is trying to get used to handling the house and the yard on her own. Her house is in a semi-rural area. Her neighbor is a dairy farmer who hires undocumented people from Mexico. Antonia has three sisters and they are close. For Antonia's birthday she has agreed to go to Chicago and celebrate with her three sisters. Her troubled oldest sister is driving there from New Hampshire. When she doesn't show up the three sisters notify the police and put up signs along the freeway. On top of that Antonia gets involved in family matters with the farm workers next door. While trying to handle her grief, Antonia doesn't want to get in over her head. How much does she owe to families in crisis? This was an entertaining novel about a woman trying to set healthy boundaries.

 

 

 

Yellow Headed Backbird

I saw a yellow headed blackbird at a feeder today. This is the first time I saw one of these not on a lake. When it was side by side with a red winged blackbird I could see the yellow headed blackbird is much larger than the red winged blackbird.

 

Minnesota Lakes

One of the more interesting classes I went to this past weekend was on lakes. Minnesota has 14, 380 lakes if you count lakes as having 4 or more acres. Bodies of water less than 4 acres don't have the wave action that keeps the lake shore evident. Minnesota has enough shoreland to stretch around the earth and go from MSP to Paris and back.

 

How Hard Can It Be?

When I borrowed How Hard Can It Be? (by Allison Pearson) I didn't know it was the second in a series. The story revolves around a mother named Kate Redding. Kate lives in the UK. She has a husband who is having a mid life crisis and two teenage children. Since her husband is taking a 2 year counselor training program, it is up to Kate to find a job to keep the family afloat. All family responsibilities seem to fall on Kate. Even the care of her elderly in-laws is up to her. Her job as a Mom is impossible which is what makes it funny. She does find a job. As she adjusts to working in London, her family fails to adjust. They show this by sending her messages such as where is my bike lock and where is my football shit. The book is both sad and funny.

 

 

A National Geographic Moment

The black and white colors in the center of the dry reeds indicate a loon sitting on a nest. This loon nest is directly below an eagle's nest.

 On Sunday, at the master naturalist conference, I took a class called "Loony for Loons." We went out on one of the pontoons owned by the resort around Gull Lake. Our pilot motored slowly in a counter clockwise fashion. We went by some big houses. At one large house we saw a mature bald eagle standing on the shore. We stopped to look. The eagle eventually brought up what it was holding in it's talons. I expected a fish. Instead we saw the white belly of a common merganser. The eagle got it on the steep grassy slope but somehow the merganser kept slipping down closer to the water. We watched as the eagle took a bite of the merganser's feathers and spit them out. White feathers were flying everywhere. After about five minutes of this we saw the merganser start flapping it's wings. The eagle and the merganser struggled. Much to our surprise, THE MERGANSER GOT AWAY! The merganser quickly swam and hid under the wooden dock. The eagle flew up to one nearby tree. Then it flew to another nearby tree. I suppose it figured the merganser is not going to come out while it was sitting so close so it flew off. I doubt a merganser can survive being held in the grasp of a bald eagle for that long of a time. What a moment. We were all impressed. Then we kept motoring. We went through a narrow strait and came upon the loon nest under an eagle nest. We were late for lunch so we hurried back to the resort. A young woman from the Loon Center in Cross Lake spoke to us the entire time about loons and about their center.

Ripley Esker

 This past weekend I went to the master naturalist convention at Cragun's resort near Brainerd. I arrived around noon for my field trip to the Ripley esker. We boarded a bus and headed south. We entered the southern area of the camp. In case you didn't know, an esker is formed by an underground river beneath a glacier.  As the glacier melts the underground river takes a curving shape like a snake. Silt, sand, gravel and rocks drop out of the glacier. Once the glacier is gone, the esker looks like a snake like hill. We walked from the bus to the west side of the esker. This part of the prairie beside the esker had been burned earlier this season. The plants were already coming back in brilliant green. We found lots of wild flowers including pussy toes, hoary puccoon, and prairie smoke. I like prairie smoke. In the picture below the flower is newer and hasn't gotten to the ethereal smoke like shape yet. Once we got to the far side of the esker we started walking up the slope. We walked along the top of the esker noticing the difference in plant varieties from the prairie below.  After an hour or so of walking in the rain we headed back to the bus. The bus took us to a SNA (scientific and natural area) near Little Falls. We spent another rainy hour walking there looking at the plants and the birds. After all that fresh air it felt good to board the warm bus and head back to Cragun's for dinner and a keynote speaker.

Prairie smoke in bloom.

Standing In The Rainbow

 I read another Fannie Flagg book. This one is called Standing In The Rainbow. The story takes place in Elmwood Springs, Missouri in the years 1946 until the present. One of the main characters; the hub around which the other characters spin, is Dorothy. Dorothy lives in Elmwood Springs and has a daily radio program. Her mother in law plays the piano adding music to the show. Dorothy has a teen aged daughter and a 10 year old son. Her son has a great imagination and lots of ideas but doesn't do so well in school. Dorothy is a huge influence in the life of her neighbors. This wonderful novel is full of small town charm and engaging characters.

 

 

The Narrow Road To The Deep North

The Narrow Road To The Deep North is a historical fiction book set in Australia. The author is Richard Flanagan. The story takes place in the 1930's, 40's and 50's. One of the main characters is a surgeon named Dorringo Evans. Before entering the service in world war two he has an affair with his uncle's wife. The memory of her, Amy, haunts him. When he and his troop are captured by the Japanese and taken t a prisoner of war camp, Doringo tries to keep everyone's spirits up. Various diseases plague the camp. Beri-beri, cholera, typhus, and malnutrition are common.  The men in the camp are charged with building a railroad track to Burma. This is an impossible feat given the few tools they have to work with. Plus everyone is starving so they don't have the strength to use the few tools that they have. The Emporer of Japan is asking for impossible progress. Doringo tells most of the story but a Japanese commander also has some chapters to narrate. This sad tale of war and destruction was informative and eye opening.

 

 

Shred Sisters

 Betsy Lerner is the author of Shred Sisters. This fiction novel takes place over two decades. Amy and Olivia are the Shred sisters. Olivia is older, wild and impulsive. Amy is younger, cautious and rule abiding.  Olivia craves the spot light. Amy wants to be unnoticed.  Over the years, as Amy tries to find her place in the world, Olivia breezes in and out of her life in unpredictable ways.  Olivia has bi-polar disorder so it is easier for Olivia to have Amy for a sister than it is for Amy to have a sister like Olivia. This was an interesting story about family dynamics and grief.

 

 

 

 

Anita De Monte Laughs Last

 I was drawn to read Anita De Monte Laughs Last because of the name of the author who is Xochitl Gonzales. This is a book about artists. The story is told by Anita (in the past) and Raquel (in the present). Raquel is an art history student. Her original intent was to research the famous husband of Anita who works in large geometric sculptures. Anita's story has been overshadowed by his. He intended to overshadow his wife's work. The size of his ego is huge.  Anita is originally from Cuba and there is some haunting in this story. Because of Raquel, though, Anita does get the last laugh which I very much appreciated.

 

 

Happy Mother's Day

 

The Other Side Of Disappearing

 I was drawn to the cover of the book The Other Side Of Disappearing by Kate Clayborn.  The story revolves around two sisters. Jess is a hairstylist who has been taking care of her sister, Tegan, since their mother left the family to take off with a con-man. Jess is overprotective. She hovers over Tegan to an extreme level. To protect her sister from heart break Jess conceals infrequent correspondence from their mother. Tegan, about to head off to college, goes behind Jess' back. Tegan finds the five postcards and poses as Jess to ask a reporter to find her mother. The night before Tegan is to leave on a cross country trip with the reporters Jess finds out about the scheme. The trip is life changing for Tegan and for Jess. Despite all of Jess' hesitation and skepticism, the trip turns out to be a good thing for both sisters. 

Fresh Water For Flowers

 A horrible mother-in-law is an appalling character in the novel Fresh Water For Flowers by Valerie Perrin. The book was translated into English from French by Hildegarde Serle. This moth-in-law spoils her son. She thinks no one is good enough for boy. When he takes up with Violette they get a job as a railroad crossing. Their job is to lower the boards so cars can't run into the train. Violette does all the work because he is lazy. When Violette has a baby the mother-in-law doesn't like the name of the child so she calls her Catherine instead. She thinks Violette isn't taking good care of the girl. She encourages her son to marry Violette to prevent Violette from leaving her son and taking the girl away from them. When the girl is 7 the grandparents take her on vacation. The girl makes friends with another girl. The grandparents want the girls to go to a rural camp for a week together. During the night at the first day at camp a fire breaks out in the kitchen and three girls die including Violette's daughter. The school blames the 3 girls for leaving their bedroom and making hot cocoa and leaving the pot burning on the stove. After the death Violette leaves her husband and gets a job at a cemetery taking care of the graves, assisting with burials, and selling flowers. One day she meets a police officer who researches what really happened to start the fire. The fire was not the fault of the girls. I never saw this ending coming. This was a great story to read.

 

 

Lady Tan's Circle Of Women

 Lisa See is the author of Lady Tan's Circle Of Women. This book takes place during Lady Tan's life in China during the 14th and 15th century. Chinese medicine is typically conducted by men and by men behind a curtain. The male doctors are not allowed to look at or touch the women. Lady Tan's grandmother and grandfathers are doctors and she is learning from them. After her mother died from an infected bound foot and her father goes to another town to work for the government, she is in her grandparent's care until her marriage at age 15. Her grandmother made sure that Lady Tan made a friend with the midwife's daughter. The two girls form a life long friendship. The descriptions of the foot binding are horrific to read. The toes are folded back to the heel and bound with strips of cloth. As the bones eventually break the feet are so deformed it hurts to walk. This is so barbaric but without bound feet a woman will not be able to get a good marriage. Even more barbaric to read about Lady Tan binding the feet of her 3 girls. At age 50 Lady Tan writes a book about 40 or so common illnesses or women's issues and how to resolve them with herbs and teas and foods. Actually a Chinese woman wrote this book and it is available to read in English and Chinese. In the story Lady Tan goes to Beijing to attend the birth of the Empress. There is a true story about the Emperor of Japan punish a midwife who was attending the Empress for giving birth to her own child within sight of the Empress. She was flogged. If Lady Tan was there is fiction. Times were tough in China. Gender roles were strictly enforced. Some people managed to lead happy lives but not all.

 

 

A Fever In The Heartland

I just finished reading a long and tragic book called A Fever In The Heartland: The Klu Klux Klan's Plot To Take Over America And The Woman Who Stopped Them. This history book was heartbreaking to read. Why was there so much hate in the 1920's? The KKK hates people of color, Jews, and Catholics as well as southern Europeans. Most of the story takes place in Indiana. I never realized how much the KKK was in northern states. D.C. Stephenson was a con man who moved to Indiana. He could be charming and influential but he was a liar and a cheat. Somehow he got to the top of the KKK organization. He skimmed money off the top. All the police were members of the KKK. Most of the judges were in the klan. City leaders and the governor was in the KKK. Stephenson was also an alcoholic. When he got into certain moods he would beat women by striking them, pulling out hair, and by biting their bodies. There was a woman named  Madge Oberholtzer who wanted his help with a child nutrition program. He agrees because he thinks he can make money on it by having her write a school textbook about nutrition which he would then sell to the schools.  Madge, who is 28, is popular and well known in her community. One night Stepphenson gets in a mood and he basically kidnaps her at gunpoint, forces her to drink tainted alcohol, beats her, rapes her, bites her. He keeps her in a hotel room. She wants to leave. When an arm guard takes her shopping at a drug store she takes some poisonous pills. He denies her any medical treatment so, in despair, she takes some of the pills. Eventually her broken body is brought back to the house where she lives with her parents. A doctor is called and treats her wounds. The toxins in her body are shutting down her kidneys. Before she dies she, with the help of a lawyer, makes a statement explaining how Stephenson hurt her. The attorney brings it to the judge to make an indictment. The judge is a member of the KKK. He finds another judge. He wants the police to arrest him and they won't do it. Eventually he finds one officer who will arrest him. At the jail Stephenson is given cigars and whiskey and full meals. The trial is held in a small farming community. Those twelve farmers are the heroes in this story. He was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison. The the Governor doesn't help Stephenson he gets his revenge by exposing all the corruption and all the politicians that were bought off. In the end, Stephenson's goal was to be elected to the US Senate and to run for President. After finishing the book I researched the KKK in Minnesota and there were several klans. Hate is so corrosive.

 

 

Three Wishes

The Australian author, Liane Moriarty, wrote Three Wishes. This is a family drama about female triplets celebrating their 33th birthday. They are loud and boisterous at the restaurant. Their names are Lyn, Cat and Gemma and they are equally beautiful. When asked how they felt about being a triplet, one says it's great, one says it's not good, and the third says it didn't matter to her. The novel covers their 33rd year. The writing was witty and hilarious. 

 

 

The Book Swap

 Tessa Bickers is the author of The Book Swap, a contemporary novel. Erin is in her mid twenties. Her good friend has just died of cancer and she is a mess emotionally. Her friend who died gave her a poem which she treasures and keeps in her book To Kill A Mockingbird. This book is all marked up with her comments and observations in the margins. In the process of moving she accidentally puts that book in one of the free little libraries. When she realizes what she has done she goes back to the free little library repeatedly. One day she finds her book with her treasured poem intact. Another person has written in a different color ink his comments and observations. He asks her to read Great Expectations. They correspond for months via great books. When they finally meet Erin learns that he was the boy who totally humiliated her in high school.  Erin has a long history of not forgiving people. This book was a light read, not great but good.

 

 

Heartwood

 Amity Gaige is the author of Heartwood. This book is based on a true story. The story is based on Valerie Gillis, a fictional character, who is hiking the Appalachian Trail in the flip flop manner. Flip flop is when you start in the middle, hike to one end, then return to the middle and hike to the other end. Her husband is supporting her. When she is more than a day late to their meeting point, he reports her missing. This area of Maine is sparsely populated. It is also the site of a very private military installation. The Maine search and rescue start looking.  Volunteers come to help search. Search and Rescue dogs are brought in. Press conferences are held. Her parents offer a reward.  Beverly is the Maine State Warden in charge of the search. The Game Wardens interview other hikers who met her along the trail. She is a slow but competent hiker who people really seem to like. There are conspiracy theories being discussed. Most people think she will make it because she is a nurse and nurses are smart. As she hikes she realizes that she has fallen out of love with her husband. She enjoys her time more on the trail away from him. He takes the news in stride and continues to support her on the trail. He would prefer that she give up the adventure because she is moving so slow she will have to walk in the winter time. This was a good story and I enjoyed reading it.