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How Beautiful We Were by Imbolo Mbue: A review

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  As I was reading this book, something kept niggling in the back of my mind. It reminded me of something else I had read, but I couldn't quite bring it forward. But finally, it came to me; it was The Constant Gardener by  John le Carré . That book detailed the exploitation of an African country and its population by a pharmaceutical company. This present book details exploitation by an oil company. Different kinds of companies but the lack of regard for humanity was something I found quite similar. The country in this book is never actually named. The author was born in Cameroon and grew up in a coastal town in that country but later went to college in the United States and is now an American citizen living in New York. Though she doesn't name the country, the fictional village she writes about is called Kosawa. In that village lives a young girl named Thula and her family. It is through Thula that we experience the traumatic events affecting her village. An American oil com...

We Begin at the End by Chris Whitaker: A review

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  British crime writer Chris Whitaker has written a book that seems to be a homage to westerns, thrillers, and coming-of-age novels. We Begin at the End , set in coastal California and in Montana, is a bit of all three.  In 2005, we meet teenager Duchess Day Radley of Cape Haven, California, who refers to herself as "the outlaw Duchess Radley." The Radley family is haunted by tragedies the long-term effects of which they seem incapable of escaping. Thirty years before Duchess's aunt Sissy, her mother's sister, had been killed in a hit and run accident. The person held responsible for her death was 15-year-old Vincent King. Vincent was tried as an adult and sent to adult prison. His best friend, Walker (Walk), had testified against him. Walk is now chief of police in Cape Haven. In all those intervening thirty years he had maintained a connection with Vincent and now that Vincent is being released from prison, Walk goes to the prison to pick him up and bring him back t...

Poetry Sunday: Talking to Ourselves by Philip Schultz

Do you ever talk to yourself? I suppose most people do at some time. I know I do. I have a friend who says she talks to herself whenever she wants to have an intelligent conversation.   Philip Schultz points out that even when we talk to others, we are often really talking to ourselves, organizing our thoughts, trying to sort things out, or understand something that has happened to us.  Or maybe we are just trying to have an intelligent conversation. Talking to Ourselves by Philip Schultz A woman in my doctor’s office last week couldn’t stop talking about Niagara Falls, the difference between dog and deer ticks, how her oldest boy, killed in Iraq, would lie with her at night in the summer grass, singing Puccini. Her eyes looked at me but saw only the saffron swirls of the quivering heavens. Yesterday, Mr. Miller, our tidy neighbor, stopped under our lopsided maple to explain how his wife of sixty years died last month of Alzheimer’s. I stood there, listening to his longin...

This week in birds - #445

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A roundup of the week's news of birds and the environment :  A Blue-winged Teal pair paddles among the reeds at Brazos Bend State Park. *~*~*~* Four years ago at the beginning of the previous administration in Washington, the Fish and Wildlife Service announced that manatees that had been on the endangered species list from the very beginning of that list were doing so much better that their status would be changed from endangered to merely "threatened."  Fast forward to this month. In recent weeks, headlines have been trumpeting the fact that more than 400 manatees have died in just the first two months of the year, an alarming spike that’s well beyond what’s considered normal. As of March 5, the total was 435 and is still climbing. It seems it might be time to put them back on the endangered list. *~*~*~* Another endangered species whose status may actually be improving is the North Atlantic right whale. These whales gave birth to more calves during the recent winter...

Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro: A review

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  In Kazuo Ishiguro's latest book, we are at some point in the not too distant future when technology is able to create androids that are meant to be Artificial Friends, AFs in the shorthand employed in the book. Klara is an AF. Her primary source of energy is solar, thus her special relationship with the sun. Since the sun "heals" Klara, she believes that it can do the same for others and that belief plays a major role in this quite wonderful book. Klara is described as having short dark hair and kind eyes. Her most outstanding characteristic seems to be her exceptional powers of observation. We meet her when she is still on display in the store waiting for a buyer. She resides there with other Artificial Friends and while they wait they form their own relationships. When Josie and her mother come into the store, Klara is immediately interested in her. Could she be the one, the teenager for whom Klara will get to be a friend? Almost as quickly, Josie is attracted to her ...

Solutions and Other Problems by Allie Brosh: A review

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Well, that was something completely different. I don't usually read graphic novels. I'm a word person and I prefer stories told with words rather than illustrations. But this one was recommended to me for its humor and in the interest of broadening my reading horizons, I decided to give it a try.  I don't really know how typical this is of graphic novels. The drawings have an unfinished look about them and they leave a lot to the imagination. They illustrate anecdotes from the author's life, so this is in a sense a graphic memoir. That makes it a twofer for me: I don't usually read memoirs and I don't usually read graphic novels, so I'm breaking into whole new territory here. The book comprises a series of essays relating the author's anecdotes. These start when she is three years old. She tells us that she became obsessed with her next-door neighbor, a middle-aged man, and she essentially began stalking him. Yes, I know. A three-year-old stalker boggles...

Poetry Sunday: Auguries of Innocence by William Blake

William Blake, he of "Tyger tyger, burning bright in the forests of the night..." fame, seems to have had a particular empathy for the things of Nature and especially for the animals of Nature as he expressed in this poem. He leaves little doubt as to what he felt for those who would abuse them. As someone else once told his followers, "If you have done it to one of the least of these..."  Auguries of Innocence by William Blake To see a World in a Grain of Sand And a Heaven in a Wild Flower Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand And Eternity in an hour A Robin Red breast in a Cage Puts all Heaven in a Rage A Dove house filld with Doves & Pigeons Shudders Hell thr’ all its regions A dog starvd at his Masters Gate Predicts the ruin of the State A Horse misusd upon the Road Calls to Heaven for Human blood … The Owl that calls upon the Night Speaks the Unbelievers fright He who shall hurt the little Wren Shall never be belovd by Men He who the Ox to wrath has movd S...