BBAW Friday: Wrap up and Burnout

Many thanks to the BBAW hosts for organizing this event.  It was a blast and I'm sure we all appreciate the time and effort that went into it!

A few takeaways from this week:

• Read The Sparrow, Tiny Beautiful Things, and anything by Diana Wynne Jones
• Reread Harry Potter at least ten more times, maybe backwards.
• We still miss Google Reader.  What were they thinking?
• Introverts unite!!
• There are a lot of new-to-me, high-quality book blogs out there that I'm excited to visit!

And since I didn't post yesterday, a few thoughts on connecting:

• I'm really bad at social media, but from the handful of posts I read yesterday, I'm not alone.
• And I think that's okay.  I think a lot of us book bloggers feel comfort and support from a community that shares our love/obsession for hardcore reading even if there are not a lot of concrete involvements like a comment or twitter post. 
• I love you lurkers!  It's good to know you're out there.
• Having said all of that, visiting and commenting is one of my favorite things. I think we all would like to comment more but are limited by time, darn it!
• I WILL master Twitter.  
• I have lots of warm and fuzzy feelings about bloggers that I have felt connected with over the past 9-10 years since I started my blog.  However, I find that I hold back because I know that there are going to be times when I need to step back from the book blogging community depending on what's going on in life, and I hate the idea of forging a friendship, and then backing away into my cocoon when things are stressful.  Does anyone else feel this way? Maybe this is an introvert thing.

And concerning burnout/keeping things fresh:

• I don't think I've experienced burnout.  I just stop blogging when my priorities shift and then jump in when I can again.  My longest break was very recent, for about 2-3 years because I went back to school and other things.  Yes, I lost followers, but it happens.  As long as I get one comment on a post I'm happy.  Zero is depressing I have to admit :)
• My blog is pretty unprofessional, and that works for me. My main focus is to write reviews so that I remember my experience with a book. Because of that, I don't do a lot of different types of posts.  
• Having said that, I do have GOALS this year, which is a bold step for me.  I plan to review every book I read this year (even geeky Star Wars books and 1,000 page history books) and even have it on the calendar to write a review every Monday and Thursday (have failed at this just a bit already). I also would like to include some other things that go on in my life, mostly because I love it when other people do so.
• With that in mind, here's what has been keeping me from completely immersing myself in BBAW this week.  We're redoing a room (that my adult kids used to sleep in before they left, boo-hoo).  That big thing in the middle is a treadmill.  This is going to be a guest room/fitness room.  We've had to do a lot of wall repairs and replace all the trim and frame the window.  I'll post pictures when it's done.  I plan to do a lot of reading while on that treadmill when it's all in place!

BBAW Wednesday: Blame a Blogger

Because I've been away from the book blogging world for a time, I can't remember specific books that I've read because of specific blogger recommendations, but I know there are SO MANY.  I know I added several to my TBR shelf after reading all the intros on Monday, and the ginormous number of want-to-reads on Goodreads is thanks to reviews from blogs over the years.  So I blame you all!!

An author that I push/strongly suggest/gush about too much is Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.  I urge friends to read her books and watch her talks. I've picked works by her for two book clubs now. My success in creating Adichie groupies has been marginally successful. When one book club met at my house to discuss Half of a Yellow Sun, a couple of guests pretended that they finished the book (they later confessed that they didn't want to hurt my feelings) and talked about how much they loved one character without realizing that he did something pretty horrible later on in the book. They felt a little awkward and we still joke about it. Just recently I hosted a book club with another group of ladies to discuss Purple Hibiscus, which I had already read and loved. Less people attended than usual, but I'm not sure if that was due to lack of interest or just busy schedules.  But one person there loved Purple Hibiscus, and immediately read two of her other books, and she loaned me We Should All Be Feminists.  That made my night!  One Adichie fangirl born!

Other books that I get really excited about and want everyone to read are All the King's Men by Robert Penn Warren, Middlemarch by George Eliot, anything by Graham Greene, Wednesday Wars by Gary D. Schmidt, Far From the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy.  Oh, I could go on and on but I think the prompt said just one so I should stop!

BBAW Monday: "Me" in Five Books

This was hard but fun!  I focused on book titles more the content:

1.  Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking by Susan Cain.  If you ask people that know me one word they would use to describe me it would probably be "quiet."  Or "homebody." I'm a total introvert. I elaborate on this in my review of this book.

2.  The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. This is all about television!  My favorite show is Sherlock, and all of the shows that fit into a fairly predictable set, mostly British: Doctor Who, Downton Abbey, Broadchurch, IT Crowd, Doc Martin, Mr. Selfridge, Endeavor, etc.  I'm sure there's more. I won't even start with the Brit Lit Chick Flicks.

3. In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan.  I just really love food, and am willing to defend it!! Always planning to eat as Pollan suggests...

4. Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie.  I have four kids that I tried to train to be morning people like me. But I failed.  They are all night owls. So is my husband.  Over twenty years of living with them has not converted me into a night person.

5. I Remember Nothing by Nora Ephron.  Seriously.

Forge

Author: Laurie Halse Anderson
Published: 2010
Length: 292 pages
Source: Local library
Series: Seeds of America Book 2
 
Personal Enjoyment Factor: 4/5

"What shall be my rate of pay sir?" I asked.
"Pay?" His brow wrinkled again.
"I know that many officers have hired soldiers to be their manservants, but I do not know what they are paid."
"Ah." He grasped his hands behind his back and stared at my bare foot before looking at me straight in they eye. "Curzon," he said softly, "I own you."

I read the first book in the Seeds of America series, Chains, about six years ago.  I loved it, stamped it with five stars on Goodreads, and eventually forgot everything about it!  So when I opened up Forge and began to read, Curzon was like a new character that I had never met. But I liked him right away, as I'm pretty sure I must have in Book 1. 

As the story begins, Curzon and Isabel have run away to freedom, but are soon separated when Isabel insists on journeying to Charleston to find her sister Ruth. Curzon ends up right in the middle of the action of the Second Battle of Saratoga and then moves on to Valley Forge as a soldier in the Patriot Army. He forms a complicated but rewarding relationship with Eben, a friendly guy with a huge heart who doesn't quite grasp the paradox of fighting for America's freedom while denying freedom to the slaves. But you can't really blame him because no one at the time did. 

At Valley Forge, Curzon suffers through all the deprivations that the encampment is known for, as well as a devastating return to slavery under his old master. Curzon's trials are not enough to keep him from thinking about Isabel. And suddenly there she is--but also enslaved again.  Their renewed relationship is a little rocky, but Curzon will do whatever he can to escape with her to Freedom, Take Two.

On an intellectual level, Forge is satisfying in its juxtaposition of America's fight to break the shackles of Britain's power and the efforts of Curzon and Isabel to gain lives of self-determination. But it's also just a really great story, with a colorful cast of characters (loved Benny injecting the Greek myths into everything), page-turning suspense, quirky humor, and even a touch of romance. I also loved the quotes from primary sources at the beginning of each chapter, and an awesome appendix with questions about the historical details of the book. 

My only regret is reading this too soon--Book 3, Ashes, is scheduled to be published October 4 of this year.  Will I have forgotten everything by then?  Maybe, but this time I think I will at least remember Curzon--he truly won my heart.

War

Author: Sebastian Junger
Published: 2010
Length: 287 pages/7 hours, 21 minutes
Source: Personal library/library audiobook

Personal Enjoyment Factor: 4/5

War is a big and sprawling word that brings a lot of human suffering into the conversation, but combat is a different matter. Combat is a smaller game that young men fall in love with.

These hillsides of loose shale and holly trees where the men feel not most alive--that you can get skydiving--but the most utilized. The most necessary. The most clear and purposeful. If young men could get that feeling at home, no one would ever want to go to war again.

Between June 2007 and June 2008, journalist Sebastian Junger took five trips to the Korengal Valley in eastern Afghanistan, a volatile area "too remote to conquer, too poor to intimidate, too autonomous to buy off." There the insurgency engaged in raids and ambushes at a level of intensity and frequency unequaled by any other area in Afghanistan. Junger chose to be embedded with Battle Company, Second Platoon precisely because of the high stakes involved. His goal was to find out how soldiers function in a hyper-dangerous situation in an isolated area. How do they deal with fear? How do they feel about killing?  What kind of relationships do they form and how does that affect their effectiveness? 

For the most part setting aside the big picture--the context of the war, political wrangling, and ramifications of the counterinsurgency--Junger focuses on the most primal emotion--their need to survive. A successful unit (one that "survives") is one that choreographs its actions best, in which each member makes decisions not about what is best for himself, but for the group as a whole. Whether they live or die can depend on this group functionality based on a complete sacrifice of self. 

This reveals the somewhat uncomfortable truth that Junger exposes that even though war is horrible, it is not all bad. Often these young men have a sense of purpose and a clear self-identity that they never had before. They have a brotherhood with a rock-solid assurance that each would sacrifice himself for another in a heartbeat.  As Junger points out, this is not a situation that is often replicated in every day life. But in the Korengal Valley, it was a certainty that was empowering for both individual and team:

You could be anything back home--shy,ugly, rich, poor, unpopular--and it won't matter because it's of no consequence in a firefight, and therefore of no consequence, period. The only thing that matters is your level of dedication to the rest of the group, and that is almost impossible to fake (page 234).

Combat is also very exciting--an adrenaline rush. Scary as hell, yes, but also potentially addictive. Junger suggests that one of the most traumatic things about combat is having to give it up and return to a normal life. They "miss being in a world where everything is important and nothing is taken for granted."  Nearly everyone who died in the Korengal Valley died at unexpected times, making them aware that anything they did was "potentially the last thing they'd ever do." How does this affect life after service?  For one soldier it could mean a life always yearning for the intensity of combat and the inability to create as strong of a bond with anyone other than his brothers that fought by his side. Another soldier might continue  to serve many years to hold on to the structure and relationships forged. After returning to normal life after his time embedded with Battle Company, Junger experienced an amplification of emotions, finding himself moved to tears at weddings and other happy occasions. Junger illustrates poignantly that war is bad, but it is not all bad.

War gave me a unique perspective on life in the military. I've been reading different war memoirs and accounts over the last year or so to better understand the sacrifice that individuals make to serve our country. Helmet for my Pillow by Robert Leckie and With the Old Breed:At Peleliu and Okinawa by Eugene B. Sledge are both excellent memoirs about WWII. American Sniper by Chris Kyle made me realize that a hero might very well be someone I would dislike in real life. Fearless by Eric Blehm is not so much a war account as the road to the decision of a drug addict to become a Navy SEAL. Although it was seemed overly sanitized, I admit that I cried like a baby through the whole book. War delved deeper into the psychological, physiological, and emotional experience than these other accounts did. 

No matter how much I read I know that it is impossible for me to fully understand the experience of a soldier, but I feel the need to a least try to get a glimpse into the lives of those who put their lives on the line for a cause larger than themselves. Some might not enlist for patriotic reasons. Maybe they are trying to escape a life of trouble, or feel a need to prove themselves. Or maybe they feel like they were made for combat. Additionally, as War shows, once in combat the larger picture of the war is usually the farthest thing from their minds. Their "cause" becomes having each others backs through firefight after firefight. But intentions and tactics don't make their sacrifice any less. I'm grateful.

 

And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini

Author: Khaled Hosseini
Published: 2013
Length: 404 pages
Source: Library

Personal Enjoyment Factor: 4.5/5


All good things in life are fragile and easily lost.

Cruelty and benevolence are but shades of the same color.

I should have been more kind. That is something a person will never regret. You will never say to yourself when you are old, Ah, I wish I was not good to that person. You will never think that.

A bedtime story should have a balance between delight and comfort--a tale to send the listener off into the land of Nod with positive, peaceful vibes. This is not the case with the story that Saboor, a loving but impoverished father living in a small Afghan village, tells his children Abdullah and Pari at the opening of this book. "So then," he begins.  "You want a story and I will tell you one." 

He then continues to tell them about a poor farmer who must sacrifice his favorite child to a div or the whole family will be killed. They must "cut off the finger to save the hand."  When he travels to the div's fort to kill it and retrieve his son, he is given a choice.  He can take his son home, depriving him of the joyful paradise that the div has provided, or he can let his son stay, which means the heartbroken father will never see his son again.  He chooses the less selfish choice--to let his son stay and live a better life than he would back home. Mercifully, the div gives the farmer a potion that wipes away his memory, a reward for choosing his son's happiness over his own. 

Thus the tone is set for the rest of the novel. Not a narrative to send one off into sweet dreams, but rather a heavy load to keep one awake. Hard choices. Separation from loved ones. The haunting or forgetting of memories. Guilt. Hopeless causes. The morning after Saboor tells his children the story of the div, he sells Pari to a wealthy couple in Kabul.  She will have a better life.  Saboor's family will not starve the next winter. But Abdullah, who has a deep connection with his sister, will be heartbroken for years.

The separation of Abdullah and Pari frames a collection of stories of other characters that have some connection to the pair, but with timelines and heartaches all their own.  Pari's Uncle Nabi is in love with Nila Wahdati, the rich woman who buys Pari.  But she is always beyond his grasp, and she takes Pari to Paris with her after her husband has a stroke and he never sees her again. Mr. Wahdati has feelings for Nabi that will never be requited even though Nabi stays with him for the rest of his life. Pari's mother has a tragic past riddled with guilt, which she lives with everyday. These characters and several more all try to find meaning in tragedy while at the same time grappling with the potential for poison or distance in any relationship.

Hosseini also introduces a couple of other characters with weaker connections to the siblings, but they allow him to explore what people do (or don't do) to ease the suffering of others. Idris is a doctor (and former neighbor of the Wahdatis) who visits Afghanistan and meets a young girl, Rashi, who has been mutilated.  He promises that he will make arrangements and pay for her to have surgery.  Once he returns to America, though, he gradually rationalizes away the need to help her. On the other hand there is Amra, a foreign aid worker who gives up a normal life to help people like Rashi. She seems to be a naturally altruistic person who is genuine and dependable.  We also meet Mr. Markos, a plastic surgeon who works in turbulent places like Afghanistan (and lives in the Wahdati's old house).  We watch his growth from a child who shuns an acquaintance because he is horrified by her dog-mauled face to a self-centered young man traveling the world. But ultimately he takes on the role of a surgeon willing to risk his own personal safety to help other people. The message is clear--intentions are not enough.  If we want to make a difference and ease the pain of a troubled world, we need to take action, even though it is inconvenient, or even dangerous. 

It is the inclusion of these stories of selflessness that prevent this collection of heartbreaking narratives from reducing the reader to complete misery. The chapters leap around in time which lends to a bit of confusion, but I just let go of the idea of having it all clear in my head.  The historical timeline is much less important in this book than Hosseini's others.  And the Mountains Echoed is more psychological, and the characterizations more complex than The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns, and these take center stage over the events in Afghanistan and other settings in the story. 

One complaint: I'm not a fan of using letters as a device in novels when they are much more personal than any letter would ever realistically be. Nabi writes a letter to Mr. Markos explaining the history of Abdullah and Pari, which is important, but he also includes details about his infatuation with Nila, Mr. Wahdati's obsession with him and other things. It's a long letter. I think an author needs to choose between a letter that is as impersonal as a letter to a stranger would be, or choose another style/device that allows all of the inner/personal details to be revealed in a more organic way. I don't know--maybe people are more open in their letters than I would be...

All in all, it's a beautiful book. Hosseini has already established himself as a masterful storyteller in his previous novels.  He applies his talents to a new format and a different focus in And the Mountains Echoed, and I loved it.

Mini Bloggiesta January 16-17

This mini Bloggiesta is just what I need right now.  I really feel like I'm starting all over, so my to-do list is pretty basic:

• Rediscover and add links to my favorite blogs.  I've started this but haven't been able to devote a huge chunk of time to it yet. Every time I remember or come across an old favorite it makes me happy.
• Visit other participants and see what they're up to. And other blogs too. I should probably put a number goal on this but I just can't even figure out what that number would be. 
• Complete at least two mini-challenges
• Write a post with mini-reviews of my favorites reads over the past year or two since I've been absent from blogging
• Update my index pages of reviews
• Tweet.  Something.  I'm finding I like Twitter better than I did a couple of years ago.  Probably because I now have a phone that has internet.
• Relearn some basic html. I seem to have forgotten some things.

That's all I can think of for now, and that list might be too much. But it will be fun, no stress involved!