Book Review: Borrowed Water - A Book of American Haiku by the Los Altos Writers Roundtable

 

Borrowed Water: A Book of American Haiku

by the Los Altos Writers Roundtable

I’ve enjoyed writing haiku myself. I’m no expert but I’ve received a compliment or two on them. My (very) basic understanding is that they should be three lines, with five syllables in the first and third line, and seven syllables in the middle. I find them fascinating to write, the way that you have to achieve a complete concept in just seventeen syllables.

My understanding is that the traditional haiku uses an observation about nature in the first two lines then takes a turn in the third line that connects it to humanity. Of course, there are now many haiku that play with the rules or have different rules.

The introduction explains that hokku and haiku are used interchangeably in Japan. It further explains that sometimes there is a rhythm, though not always, and no rhyme. The idea of observation and meditation to produce good haiku is in keeping with a sort of meditation.

They also speak of “restrictions on content, its seasonal implication, its balancing images, its naturalness of expression, its dependence on ‘effect’ rather than intellectual ‘point’.”

I think that makes them, in a way, easier to read than other poetry. You don’t have to sit there and ponder what the writer meant. You allow the image to arise in your mind as you read. Contemplate it if you wish. Allow associations to develop in your mind. Then you can move on.

Haiku is a Japanese poetic tradition but this book addresses the American landscape. Organized into the four seasons with a section of “Miscellaneous” at the end, it’s a small volume on thick paper, a different color of paper for each section.

This book was published in 1966, and it shows in some of the content – in small dogs searching faces marching by and letters not received that month.

Others capture timeless moments in gardens. The most interesting section is the miscellaneous one, where the writers capture more unique experiences and images, like “childhood returns / on crisp ginger-snap wings.”

All in all, it is an interesting collection of varied impressions, worth pondering.

Bury Your Dead: A Chief Inspector Gamache Mystery: Book 6 by Louise Penny

 

Bury Your Dead: A Chief Inspector Gamache Novel – Book 6

by Louise Penny

This is a pivotal book in this series,. It begins with the fallout from a horrible situation.

To be honest, reading it on the Kindle, the formatting isn’t clear as to whether the first few pages are meant to be a scene then we fast forward to present time, or whether it’s a flashback to the event. There is no italics to indicate a flashback, but neither is there a chapter heading or clear page break, just an extra line, before the beginning of the present day narrative. I’d say Penny intended for us to be totally present in that first scene, which took place before the events of the book.

And the scene is fairly simple – Chief Inspector Gamache, his second in command, Beauvoir, and a team are geared up, armed, and trying to retrieve a hostage. That much is clear, but who the hostage is, remains a mystery for a bit. As the details dripped in, I worried for Beauvoir. Then Gamache is sitting with his mentor and former chief, Emile Comeau, over breakfast in a Quebec City café.

This book is a masterful work of men recovering from an operation gone wrong, both mentally and physically. We get the information about what happened sprinkled throughout the book in flashbacks, until the full picture has been developed. At the same time, Gamache is caught up in a murder that has taken place in the library of the historical society where he has been spending time.

An historian, Renaud, who was obsessed with finding the body of Samuel de Champlain, has been murdered and buried in the cellar of the library. Was he on to something in finding Champlain? Why was he killed, and by whom?

Penny gives us a portrait of the city, with fascinating details and beauty, and a picture of political tension between French and English descendants that is equally fascinating. She brings in just the right amount of history to explain things without bogging down the narrative.

There are tiny little mysteries too, like why one character never speaks above a nearly inaudible whisper.

But there is another mystery running concurrently, one we might have thought was finished in the last book. Did Olivier really kill the hermit in Three Pines? Gamache had come to believe so, had provided enough evidence to have him convicted. Had he made a mistake? He asks Beauvoir to go to Three Pines and try to prove the opposite, that Olivier did not kill the hermit. Beauvoir thinks it’s a waste of time but he cannot refuse his Chief so he goes and throws his heart into it. At the same time, he is working on his own healing because he was shot in the raid, and the people of Three Pines help him in strange ways with both.

The characters in this book are wonderfully unique. It’s like the Island of Misfit Toys. One of my favorites is Ruth Zardo, an elderly poet who is more rude to you, the more she likes you.  

There is so much going on in this book, but all the elements – the raid gone wrong, the re-investigation of the Hermit’s murder, the historian’s murder in Quebec, the historical and present day tensions between the descendants of English and French, the mental and emotional healing of the two detectives - are braided together masterfully. It is truly an impressive book.

If you like mysteries at all, I highly recommend this series, and this book in particular.

Book Review: Across That Bridge by Congressman John Lewis

 

Across That Bridge: Life Lessons and a Vision for Change

by John Lewis, United States Congressman

This book has been sitting on my shelf, waiting, for weeks. I suppose because I expected it to be a heavy read, though the book itself is small. There are simply seven chapters – Faith, Patience, Study, Truth, Peace, and Love. It is well organized and flows easily from one section to another.

It is at once memoir, a bit of a legislative lesson, as well as bringing history to life through what Lewis learned, observed, and experienced. The section on patience uses the example of the slow progress in creating a national archive honoring the contributions of African Americans to the U.S., from 1915, through the various ups and downs, committees created and setbacks, to its’ fruition in the National Museum of African American History and Culture that opened in 2015, one hundred years later. Patience, and persistence, indeed.

I found myself noting down many passages but it was hard to limit my quotes, because so much was quote worthy. It would have been simpler if it were my own copy and I could underline passages, but I'm afraid half the book would be underlined. I have a feeling I'll be re-reading it in the future. 

Lewis begins with the intention that the book is to help those dreamers from getting lost in despair, and for those “faithfully readying themselves for the next push for change.”

I deeply appreciated that sentiment. It has been a hard year for all who have watched sadly as the divisions in our country deepened.

“It is for all those willing to join in the human spirit’s age-old struggle to break free from the bondage of concepts and structures that have lost their use.”

There is a fascinating duality in this book as Lewis talks a great deal about faith, which might seem like an old-fashioned notion, as well as how to work patiently and consistently for change, but change is one of the few constants in the world.

“The work of love, peace, and justice will always be necessary, until their realism and their imperative takes hold of our imagination, crowds out any dream of hatred or revenge, and fills up our existence with their power.”

“Faith, to me, is knowing in the solid core of your soul that the work is already done, even as an idea is being conceived in your mind . . . Even if you do not live to see it come to pass, you know without one doubt that it will be.”

I wish I had that belief. I have hope, but I fear there are multiple ways we could go.

“Our faith rejected the notion that some people were inherently better than others because of skin color, hair, height, build, education, class, or religion, or any external attribute, and it embraced the equality and divinity of all humanity.”

“We believed that if we stood together as one people, gathered by our faith, determined to demonstrate the falsity of notions coursing through the society around us, then we would have heavenly protection against any evil that would befall us.”

It certainly seems to have sustained him in his work and therefore served a purpose.

“Think about your greatest fear. Consider how you would feel if your life required you to face what you fear the most every day. Ultimately, if you survived the test, you would discover that what you feared actually had no power over you, no power to harm you at all.”

At the same time, he acknowledges the very real danger they were in – the possibility of a church being burned down around them, or never coming out of a the Parchman maximum security prison in Mississippi alive.

“We emerged from Parchman believing we had the power to turn even Mississippi around.”

“Informed activism requires reading the newspaper, tracking bills through the Library of Congress’s THOMAS website, and watching legislative debates on C-SPAN.”

When I read this, I thought, if that is true, then it would seem only young, unmarried, and possibly unemployed people can engage. Who has the time for that? I might have when I was in college, but then I was also working 30 hours a week, going to school, and doing my homework. I would argue we need people to distill the information, people we can trust. But he spoke to that thought in the chapter on truth, saying that if people do not stay informed and engaged then they are participating in being duped.

People have called him too naïve, but he responds to that easily. “I see myself as a believer who has witnessed the evolution of what others believed would never change.”

“We studied, we strategized, we organized, trained, and prepared to take action. Most of what we accomplished grew out of years, decades, and even centuries of groundwork….”

Lessons for us all, in every pursuit.

“It is so strange to me that we have learned to fly in the air like birds, learned to swim in the ocean like fish, shoot a rocket to the moon, but we have not yet learned how to live together in harmony with one another.”

This book spoke very directly and personally to me, to my thoughts and questions. It is a dense little book with a lot of information and with a lot to contemplate. I got this book from my library but I’ve ordered a copy for my own library so that I can have it on my book shelf – for further contemplation of my own and for the ready opportunity for my daughter to read it one day.

Book Review: Talk Bookish to Me by Kate Bromley

 

Talk Bookish to Me

by Kate Bromley

This is a lovely little Romantic Comedy that I found in our library’s Overdrive catalog by searching for books with a “vacation” theme – our August theme for book club.

I wasn’t familiar with the author and I would not have guessed that this is the first book she has written. On her web site, it says that she is an avid reader and it sounds like she has written other stories but this is the first book attributed to her. I’d say she has quite a career in front of her if she keeps going with it.

The opening lines drew me in and the laughs start on the very first page – from “His eyebrows bob up as I adjust my grip on the Great-Dane-sized gift basket I’m carrying,” to “Because if everyone isn’t uncomfortable for the entire ride, are you even really in an elevator?”

The main character is Kara, a writer of romance novels, both historical and contemporary. She’s maid-of-honor for her best friend’s wedding and on the eve of the rehearsal dinner she arrives to find her college boyfriend, Ryan, is one of the groomsmen. Of course, things did not end well with them ten years ago. There are both unresolved issues and serious chemistry.

“I’m convinced that if Nat King Cole were here and knew my side of the story, he would grab Ryan by the scruff of his shirt and hold him steady as I roundhouse-kicked him in the throat.  

It’s a tough pill to swallow but Ryan looks good. Like, really good.”

Kara is also struggling with writer’s block at the moment. Her next book is due to her publisher any day now and she is supposed to be taking off on a six-month trip to Italy.

Of course, things get a little wilder when Ryan gets thrown out of his hotel because his dog trashed the room. The groom wants to have him stay with them, but Kara can’t let her best friend’s marriage implode before it even begins, can she?

The language is natural, the dialogue snappy, and the situations funny but believable. This is everything you want in a romantic comedy and if Hallmark or someone doesn’t snap it up to turn into a movie, I don’t know what the world is coming to.