Mutant Message Down Under

by Marlo Morgan (read August 2006)
This book was recommended by Cassie at Scads of Books. I don't think I would have read it otherwise. The title, the cover, the synopsis were not beckoning to me in any way. But Cassie's review hooked me. This a long review, but I want all this in a 'commonplace', so it all stays.

I started listening to this book on tape. Glad I did because it allowed me to hear Morgan's unusual voice. I laughed so hard at her retelling of real-life events that are unbelievably absurd. And then I became concerned for her. What would I have done in the same situation? Before the first tape ended, however, I went to the library and checked out the book. I had to make note of some of the quotes. And since I had Morgan's voice in my head I could still hear her telling the story as I read.

Morgan finds herself living with a group of Aborigines who refer to themselves as the Real People and to others of the human race as Mutants because they have changed, or mutated, from what is real. One evening Morgan is teaching them about gravy. "Someone commented how symbolic gravy was to the Mutant value system. Instead of living the truth, Mutants allow circumstances and conditions to bury universal law under a mixture of convenience, materialism, and insecurtiy."

Real People don't celebrate birthdays. "To us celebration means something special. There isn't anything special about getting older. It takes no effort. It just happen! We celebrate if we are a better, wiser person this year than last. Only you would know, so it is you who tells the others when it is time to have the party."

When they learned about icing they thought it "symbolized how much of a Mutant's life span is spent in artificial, superficial, temporary, decorative, sweetened pursuits. So very few moments spen dicovering who we are, and our eternal beingness."

I enjoyed the night the Game Woman tore a leaf into pieces and gave each person a piece. The group had to fit the pieces back together like a puzzle. "It only appears the pieces of leaf are separate, as people appear separate, but we are all one. To be one does not mean we are all the same. Each being is unique. No two occupy the same space. People can try to maneuver, but in the end each will return to the right place. Some of us seek a straight path, while others enjoy the weariness of making circles."

"It's okay to try out negative emotions and see how they feel, but it cetainly isn't a place one would wisely want to stay. When the soul is in human form you get to play--to see how it feels to be happy or sad, jealous or grateful, and so on. But you are supposed to learn from the experience and ultimately figure out which feels painful and which feels great."

"The only way to pass any test is to take the test. All tests on every level are always repeated one way or another until you pass."

"A gift is only a gift if you give someone what the person wants. It is not a gift if you give them what you want them to have."

This is a wonderful book that is quick to read. I suggest you start with the audio before moving over to the book. Mutant messages will be working their way in my life for a long time to come, I hope.

The Bronte Family

by Karen Smith Kenyon (read August 2006)
This is a very short book written for YAs, but it was still interesting. What an unbelievably sad life the Brontes had. I have questions about Branwell that I will need to do some internet searching to find answers, at least I hope I find the answers. Our library has a whole selection of these litte books that are called Lerner Biographies. I give this book a rating of 4.

The Opposite of Fate

by Amy Tan (read Aug 2006)
Mom, Myke and I listened to some of this book on CD while driving to Fielding for Bradley's funeral. I listened to the rest of it while driving errands or at home working on projects. It was fun to listen to the author read her own work. This is an autobiographical work. Included are background information about several of her novels; a strained, but mended, relationship with her mother; the conflict in her home between faith and fate; her rise to fame; and many more varied and interesting aspects of her life. I have never read any of Tan's novels, always planned on it, but now I will definitely will. Mostly I want to read and watch the movie, The Joy Luck Club.
I rateThe Opposite of Fate a 5 out of 5.

Leve Me Alone I'm Reading

Finding and Losing Myself in Books by Maureen Corrigan (Read July 2006)
Myke gave me this book for no other reason than he thought I would enjoy it. Isn't that sweet. And I did enjoy it. Corrigan is an avid reader and the book is mostly biographical - dealing with how books helped her make connections with thought and experience throughout her life, as in this quote: ". . . sometimes even a few good sentences contained in an otherwise unexceptional book can crystallize vague feelings, fleeting phsical sensations, or, sometimes, profound epiphanies."

I adored the first chapter, 'Ain't No Mountain High Enough: Womane's Extreme-Adventure Books'. As a college literature teacher, Corrigan brought back to memory two of my favorite books: Pride and Prejudice and Jane Eyre. One of my favorite quotes comes at the end of this chapeter. Corrigan is talking about the extreme adventure of her grandmother who got on a boat alone, left her mother, an unspecified number of brothers, and one sister and sailed to America. "She was one of the hundreds of thousands of immigrant women, from the end of the last century to the present, who began working the instant they arrived in this country and, thus, never learned how to read. The distance that stretches between the world she knew and mine - filled with books - is so vast that to me it's like Grandma Helen's first glimpse of the New York skyline. Incomprehensible."

I liked her praise for mysteries. She says that it was in mystery/crime books that she discovered the work ethic in literature. I will be adding Dashiell Hammett's Maltese Falcon to my 'to-be-read' list.

One chapter 'Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition: What Catholic Marty Stories Taught Me About Getting to Heave - and Getting Even' provided a lot of insight into her growing up years as a Catholic. She is now married to a Jew and they have adopted a Chinese daughter.

Included at the back are 4 pages with Corrigan's book recommendations. That's exciting, but there are many that are not on my list. Dilemma: do I add them or ignore them? I rate this book 4 out of 5.

Folding Paper Cranes: An Atomic Memoir

by Leonard Bird (read June 2006)
Very enlightning. I've read several books about what happened in China under the rule of Mao ZeDung and was appalled at his treatment of his own countrymen. Paper Cranes is a foldover story about the personal effects of the atom bomb on U.S. soldiers forced to watch the detenation of several bombs in the Nevada desert and the Hibakusha, survivors of the bomb, in Hiroshima. This is a slim book with a powerful message that every American should read. Bird doesn't dodge punches about the horror administered to him and other soldiers or the devastating effects of the bomb on Hiroshima, but he also helps us understand why Truman may have felt the only answer to end the war was to use the atomic bomb. In addition to his adept writing, Bird also includes a few of his poems that vividly and powerfully add to the overall effect. I rate this book a resounding 5.

While visiting Hiroshima, Bird meets a former captain in the Imperial Army during WWII who lost his wife and children to the atom bomb that fell on Hiroshima. These men discussed their pain, but Tanaka also taught Bird about hope. On one visit Tanaka said, "Your Jesus said we will never know the time until it comes. In the meantime we light our lamps. In Buddism, too, light is necessary. It is important to shed a little light."

As Bird was flying home he had this thought: "Though sometimes inevitable and unconquerable, despair is a slough in which one wallows and ultimately suffocates. Hope is a beacon that, however weakly it may sometimes shine, leads us toward life. That frail beacon encourages us to act in good faith."

Simple Abundance

by Sarah Ban Breathnach.
Sarah Ban Breathnach's book Simple Abundance: A Daybook of Comfort and Joy is just that. There's a page or two for each day of the year meant to enlighten the reader to the joys and comfort of the abundance that we all have. I have read it, mostly everyday for the past several years. After reading March 21's page I just happened to flipp back to February 15 - one of my favorites. There's a quote from J.R.R. Tolkien, "It does not do to leave a live dragon out or your calculations, if you live near him."

A few years ago I worked with a woman who turned out to be quite evil. I wanted to trust that she was a good person even though her speech and actions suggested otherwise. Her ugly designs led to the firing of a very good employee and friend. Other workers were being threatened with similar actions - one person was transfered and another was a hair's breath away from being fired. Because of her position, and because she knew how to play the game and smooze her superiors, she was able to convince her superiors that these changes needed to be made.

When I read this quote I knew that she was the dragon and that I needed to be aware, be careful, and to include her in my calculations. I had to have a plan. I was more guarded when I was around her, less friendly but still civil. I knew that she could twist whatever I did or said into her own purposes. Eventually some serious charges were filed against her and she lost her job - that's how my dragon was slain.

Breathnach goes on to say in her book that 'women have always known how to deal with dragons hiding under beds or lurking in closets - we turn on the lights'. She admonishes us to 'pick up the sword of Light and Love' to protect ourselves. I realized that light reveals the truth and allows us to see things as they really are. I felt sorry for that paricular dragon because she could have been a queen, but she wasn't and it was a harmful lie for me to try and believe she was.

Wild Swans:Three Daughters of China

by Jung Chang. (read Mar 2006)
This book was recommended to me by Cardine's mother. It's a biography about the author, her mother and her grandmother. If this had been fiction it would have been too horrific to be believable. I chose Wild Swans because I'd read two other books dealing with Mao's Cultural Revolution that I liked real well. The first was a novel about two young men sent from the city into a remote Chinese village for 're-education'. Balzac and the Little Chines Seamstress by Kai Sijie has a more narrow scope that Swans, only lasting a year or two. It was enough to spur further interest, so I followed it with Red Scarf Girl: A Memoir of the Cultural Revolution by Ji-li Jiang. This book is a young adult autobiography about a young girl who was a good student. She wanted to belong to the Red Guard, but was denied because her grandfather was a landlord. Her family suffered great indignities because of this. Ji-li is forced to choose between her family and the Communist Party.

Jung Chang describes the life of her grandmother, a warlord's concubine; her mother's struggles as a young idealistic Communist; and her parents' experience as members of the Communist elite and their ordeal during the Cultural Revolution. Chang was a Red Guard briefly at the age of fourteen, then worked as a peasant, a "barefoot doctor," a steelworker, and an electrician. As the story of each generation unfolds, Chang captures in gripping, moving — and ultimately uplifting — detail the cycles of violent drama visited on her own family and millions of others caught in the whirlwind of history.

After reading this book Mao Zedung has moved to the #1 spot on my list of bad guys, followed by Hitler. Hitler's cruelty was focused on a single group, whileMao wrecked havoc with the lives of every citizen of his own country. Mao's reign of horror lasted much longer and affected more people than did Hitler's. Everyone in China lived with fear, many filled with hate. Reason was exchanged for blind devotion. People were forced at the hand of their friends and neighbors to undergo gruelling punishments. Death and suicides were a common occurence and the torture was unbelievable.

Chang is approximately the same age as I am. I often compared my life, where I was and what I was doing to her life. I don't think I could have survived her life and I'm surprised anyone did. I feel blessed that she had the courage to revisit her life and to share it with the world.

I think this is an important book for anyone interested in history to read. It's not exactly one to settle comfortably into like a mystery, but definitely worth the effort.