The immigrant Icelanders are so obscure you could easily go your entire life in this country and never hear a word about them. [...] Nobody's heard of New Iceland. Was it because we were so wretchedly oppressed? Hardly. If anything, the opposite was true. We assimilated more quickly than most, with our fair features and devotion to literacy, our ability to persist through hardship etched in our genes. No, the answer is simple enough, it seems to me: there were too few of us to matter. All said, only fifteen thousand Icelanders emigrated at the tail end of the ninteenth century -- a droplet lost among the million-size waves of immigrants who flooded North America's shores. It's no wonder we never made it into my college history books.
The Tricking of Freya
is a wonderful debut novel by Christina Sunley. Taking place in Canada and Iceland, the book is a love letter of sorts to her Icelandic ancestors and heritage.
Freya is the granddaughter of Olafur, one of Iceland's greatest poets but who had, much to the chagrin of Icelanders, emigrated to Canada. Though she spends her first 7 years in America, Freya learns first hand about her Icelandic heritage when she and her mother travel to Gimli, just outside of Winnipeg. There she meets her grandmother for the first time and her aunt, nicknamed Birdie. Birdie discovers that Freya's mother has not been teaching her Icelandic, and she immediately begins that task. Freya takes to Birdie and her Icelandic heritage very well, but also slowly learns that Birdie can be unstable.
When Freya gets the opportunity to go to Iceland, she becomes even more aware of her heritage. One of the most interesting facets of Icelandic life is their love of books:
Cousin, that house was the most marvelous thing I had ever seen. Not from the outside. From the outside was a three-story cement facade painted pastel green. But the inside! Books lined every wall of every room. Books climbed up stairs and rested on landings. Books stretched over the arches of doorways like bridges, stood guard over mantels. Old leather-bound volumes with gilt titles gleamed in glass cabinets. Books in the basement, books in the attic. Four stories of books. How many, I wanted to know.
"Nine thousand, six hundred," Ulfur answered. "Approximately. The largest private book collection in Iceland."
This book's themes include history, mythology, psychology, and the significance of one's family roots and heritage. I enjoyed it very much and will look forward to Christina Sunley's next book.
2009, 342 pp.
[Disclaimer: This copy was obtained from the LibraryThing Early Reviewers program.]
I really enjoyed this small companion book the the
Harry Potter
series. The tales were wonderful, and so were the illustrations, which were also done by J.K. Rowling. There are five tales:
The Wizard and the Hopping Pot
The Fountain of Fair Fortune
The Warlock's Hairy Heart
Babbitty Rabbitty and Her Cackling Stump
The Tale of the Three Brothers
After each tale, we are privileged to get Dumbledore's commentary about the story. I loved this. Not only did it bring some extra insight into the stories, but it was great to hear Dumbledore's voice again. In "The Wizard and the Hopping Pot," a son inherits his father's pot and rethinks how he will act among the villagers. In the commentary, Dumbledore tells of a woman who tried to sweeten the story up by rewording the ending with the following results:
Mrs. Bloxam's tale has met the same response from generations of Wizarding children: uncontrollable retching, followed by an immediate demand to have the book taken from them and mashed into pulp.
In "The Fountain of Fair Fortune," three witches seek to "fight their way to the Fountain, bathe in its waters, and receive Fair Fortune forevermore." This story was my favorite of the five. It is also interesting to note that in the commentary, Dumbledore states that Lucius Malfoy's objection to the book
...marked the beginning of Mr. Malfoy's long campaign to have me removed from my post as headmaster of Hogwarts, and of mine to have him removed from his position as Lord Voldemort's Favorite Death Eater.
"The Warlock's Hairy Heart" is by far the darkest tale. In this one, a Warlock is determined to never fall in love; "Babbitty Rabbitty and Her Cackling Stump" tells the reason why "no witch or wizard was ever persecuted in the kingdom again."; and in "The Tale of the Three Brothers," the siblings each meet up with Death and strike up a bargain with him.
I thoroughly enjoyed these tales, and I would love it if there were more at some point.
I finally read
Twilight
. I think I was (almost) the last to do so. Even my sisters both bragged that they read the whole series before I even got to the first book.
So what did I think? Well, for the first few pages,
I thought,
I don't know if I'm going to be able to do this...
Then I don't know if the writing got better or I just got sucked (pun intended) into the story, but I did end up liking it quite a bit. I think Stephenie Meyer knows how to tap into a teenage girl's mind and the book fits its audience quite well. As far as this 40+ woman goes, well, I did roll my eyes at some passages, but the overall plot of the book is pretty darn good.
The movie was remarkably faithful to the book for the most part, and
l quite enjoyed it
when I saw it last year. In fact, I'll probably re-watch it soon and then go ahead and read
New Moon
so when talk comes up about the upcoming movie I won't have anything spoiled for me. Then I'll read
Eclipse
and
Breaking Dawn
during Carl's R.I.P. challenge (if I can wait until September).
Thousand Cranes
by Yasunari Kawabata, was first translated into English in 1958. Kawabata won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1968, and he died in 1972.
I found
Thousand Cranes
interesting, but a little hard to follow. Two of Kikuji Mitani's father's mistresses insert themselves into Kikuji's life. He falls for one of them, and later her daughter. A tea ceremony is central to the story, but it's meaning is a little lost on this Westerner. It's a short novel, but one I'm afraid I just didn't 'get.'
I also own Kawabata's
Snow Country
, which I still plan on reading at some point, but unfortunately I didn't find
Thousand Cranes
to be all that exciting.
1949-1952, 1958 for the English translation, 147 pp.
Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair
was written in 1924, when Chilean poet Pablo Neruda was only 19. It went on to sell millions of copies over the years and was translated into multiple languages. Neruda won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1971 and died two years later in 1973.
Neruda's poems definitely have a sensuousness about them, and they also evoke the poet's passion and pain. I only wish I knew Spanish so I could understand the poems in their original. Poetry must be one of the most difficult of writings to translate, but this dual language edition was penned by Pulitzer Prize-winning poet W.S. Mervin.
An interesting note -- the cover of the book is
Heart
by Andy Warhol.
A portion of "Every Day You Play":
Mis palabras llovieron sobre ti acariciandote.
Ame desde hace tiempo tu cuerpo de nacar soleado.
Hasta te creo duena del universo.
Te traere de las montanas flores alegres, copihues,
avellanas oscuras, y cestas silvestres de besos.
Quiero hacer contigo
lo que la primavera hace con los cerezos.
My words rained over you, stroking you.
A long time I have loved the sunned mother-of-pearl of your body.
I go so far as to think that you own the universe.
I will bring you happy flowers from the mountains, bluebells,
dark hazels, and rustic baskets of kisses.
I want to do with you
what spring does with the cherry trees.
To
mato Girl
is a heartbreaking novel of love, desire, and madness.
Ellie is in love with her father Rupert and just adores him. She loves spending time with him -- especially when she can help him in the store he manages. Not only does Ellie's father takes care of her when her mother is unable to, he also manages and cares for Ellie's mother when she is in one of her 'moods.'
Although Rupert loves his daughter dearly, he is also falling in love with the girl who brings in the tomatoes at his store. This has severe repercussions for everyone involved, not only leaving poor Ellie caught in the middle but also worsening her mother's mental condition.
Pupek manages to make us sympathize with all the characters involved and thankfully, also provides other characters for Ellie to lean on in a difficult situation. Her best friend Mary, a concerned teacher, and a loving black couple all do their best to support Ellie.
Tomato Girl
really makes one realize there are consequences to every personal decision, and that all our choices will affect our family members as well.
While I liked the book, there is a magical element to the book at the end that I didn't care for, and I sometimes felt Ellie's voice was too old for 11, and sometimes I thought she seemed too young for that age. These are minor criticisms, though, and Jayne Pupek is certainly a promising new novelist.
CLOSED
If you'd like a copy of this book, just go to
Novels Now
, where I am giving away an autographed copy. All I ask is that you haven't read the book yet, and that you'll make an effort to read and review it on your blog in the next 6 months.
But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, for he is kind to the ungrateful and the evil. Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful. (
Luke 6:35-36
,
ESV
)
The immigrant Icelanders are so obscure you could easily go your entire life in this country and never hear a word about them. [...] Nobody's heard of New Iceland. Was it because we were so wretchedly oppressed? Hardly. If anything, the opposite was true. We assimilated more quickly than most, with our fair features and devotion to literacy, our ability to persist through hardship etched in our genes. No, the answer is simple enough, it seems to me: there were too few of us to matter. All said, only fifteen thousand Icelanders emigrated at the tail end of the ninteenth century -- a droplet lost among the million-size waves of immigrants who flooded North America's shores. It's no wonder we never made it into my college history books.
I finally read
Twilight
. I think I was (almost) the last to do so. Even my sisters both bragged that they read the whole series before I even got to the first book.
Thousand Cranes
Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair
was written in 1924, when Chilean poet Pablo Neruda was only 19. It went on to sell millions of copies over the years and was translated into multiple languages. Neruda won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1971 and died two years later in 1973.
To
mato Girl
is a heartbreaking novel of love, desire, and madness.
