Summary of July's Adventures

I was determined to see the world through literature during the month of July and so I began my journey . . .

I began my journey in St. Louis, Missouri, entertaining vampires, mermaids and all sorts of lycanthropes. My next stop was Italy where I was taken back into history during a time of great art and beauty as well as religious turmoil and persecution. Similarly in Southern France, I found myself in the midst of a crusade as violence and terror swept through the area in the name of God and Christ. Great secrets needed to be protected both then and in present time. I lived on the streets in London, hoping to uncover the motive and identity of a murderer who was preying on the helpless. From there I rose to the the station of courtier, where I spent time in King Henry VIII's court amongst the ladies in waiting. My journey next found me in Russia with a royal family held in captivity during their final days. My heart heavy from that experience, I next traveled to Spain where I met up with a shepherd on a mission to find a treasure near the great Pyramids of Egypt. My heart was lightened.

I found my way to Shanghai where I spent my time learning to survive in a civilian internment camp run by the Japanese. My travels led me to Israel and Palestine, where I hoped to gain some insight into the violence and hate that lives in that part of the world. I next settled down to spend some time in Bombay among the neighbors of Wadi Baug, reminiscing and sharing in their stories of love and regret. I traveled into Germany and through Eastern Europe, and to Brooklyn, New York in the U.S., sharing memories of a war and terrible atrocities. I visited Haiti for a brief time, enjoying the beauty of the land while seeing a mother and daughter struggle with their own personal demons. I spent time in Washington D.C. among the local lycanthrope community, seeing the sights, visiting with the vampire mistress, and attending Senate hearings. I next headed north into Canada, spending time in a suburb of Saskatoon, learning the ins and outs of being a veterinary technician while unraveling a mystery involving a doting mother and her sickly daughter. On my way home, I decided to spend a little time along the coast in Pine Cove, California. It seemed I wasn't the only one traveling through town. I met up with an unpopular demon who liked to eat people.

As much as I enjoyed my travels, I have to admit I'm happy to see July coming to an end. I haven't a clue what August has in store for me, but I have a feeling I'll be visitng with some old friends, helping them solve crimes. It just feels like it's going to be that kind of month . . .

Happy Reading everyone!

(Reviews for all books described above can be found on this blog.)

Review of Practical Demonkeeping by Christopher Moore

1992, Perennial
243 pgs
Horror
Rating: (Good)

First Sentence: The Breeze blew into San Junipero in the shotgun seat of Billy Winston's Pinto wagon.

Reason for Reading: A fellow booklover recommended I read something by Christopher Moore when I mentioned I wanted to read a laugh-out-loud book. This one just happened to be on my shelf, and so I decided to give it a try.

Comments: Over the years, I have heard how wonderful Christopher Moore’s books are, how funny and unusual. I am not sure how long Practical Demonkeeping sat on my shelf, but I finally decided to give it a try.

Set in the quiet tourist community of Pine Cove on the central coast of California, Practical Demonkeeping is the story about a 90 year old man (who looks no older than 25) and his 70 year long traveling companion, a demon named Catch. Catch has a nasty habit of eating people. Ever since Travis called the demon into his service, Travis has wanted to send him back to where he came from. He is hoping that the answer lies in Pine Cove. Meanwhile, A Djin, one of the Old Ones, who lived on the earth before mankind was created, enlists the aid of a local resident to help find Catch. He has an old score to settle with the demon.

Christopher Moore introduces several characters, each one unique. There is The Breeze, a 40ish drug dealer who thinks he’s hot stuff; Billy Winston and his alter ego, Roxanne; Augustus Brine, the general store owner who looks a bit like Santa Claus, the town witch and leader of the Pagan Vegetarians for Peace, Rachel Henderson; Robert Masterson, the town drunk, and his estranged wife, Jenny who is a hardworking waitress; Howard Phillips, the owner of a local restaurant and believer in the Old Ones; and Mavis Sand, who runs the Head of the Slug saloon, just to name a few.

Upon finishing this novel, I felt a little ambiguous about it. I did find it witty and unusual, just as expected, but somehow it was also a little disappointing. I wouldn’t say it was a humorous book all around. There was enough horror in it with the demon eating people to destroy that idea. Upon reflection, I do think it was a good book. Christopher Moore has a talent for the bizarre and his story was fascinating.

Favorite Part: It might be too much of a spoiler to mention my favorite scene—It really wasn’t so much the scene itself as it was Christopher Moore’s description of the scene between Travis and Jenny at her house after their date. It was very creative!

Miscellaneous: I’ve officially achieved one of my reading goals for the year. I have read more books than I read last year (by one).

Review of Kitty Goes to Washington by Carrie Vaughn

2006, Warner Books
339 pgs
Fantasy
Rating: (Very Good)

First Sentence: “We have Beth from Tampa on the line.”

Reason for Reading: I enjoyed the first book in the series and decided to give the second one a try. I chose to read it when I did because I was looking for something a little lighter topic wise than what I’d been reading recently.

Comments: What’s not to love about Kitty? She’s not your typical werewolf heroine bent on proving how tough she is. And yet, she has a tendency to stand up for what she believes and land in dangerous situations (which isn’t all that new). Kitty is easy going, intelligent, and witty. She has an innocence about her and yet she’s had her own struggles to overcome and battles to fight over the years.

Having taken her popular radio talk show on the road, Kitty is seeing the country. When she is called to testify before the Senate about the supernatural, she makes her way to Washington D.C. She soon finds herself the guest of vampire mistress who offers her protection while in the city, and amongst a myriad of other lycanthropes, including a rather sexy were-jaguar that catches her eye. As the Senate hearing, led by a Bible thumping Senator, gets under way, Kitty’s curiosity about the research being conducted by the Center for the Study of Paranatural Biology increases. And if that isn’t enough, the infamous Elijah Smith, leader of the Church of the Pure Faith, is called to testify at the hearing, raising all sorts of speculation.

Being a fan of some of the paranormal literature out there today, Carrie Vaughn’s series is fast becoming a favorite. I may not be a fan of the title of the latest novel, but I definitely enjoyed the story. It was entertaining, at times funny, and suspenseful. Carrie Vaughn has created characters that I’m drawn to. Kitty, of course, is a favorite of mine. I like the interaction between Kitty and Cormac, and Ben’s a great character as well. The vampire mistress, Alette, was an interesting character; one I wouldn’t mind delving into more deeply should Carrie Vaughn ever decide to expand on her.

The comparisons between the McCarthy hearings and the hearing about the supernatural were well made. Senator Duke’s fanaticism and prejudice came out clearly in his questioning and arguments during the hearing. There are parallels between the novel and real life in the political arena, although they might not be so obvious upon first thought.

Another theme that ran through the novel was the desire for power, a common theme in books like this. Different characters sought their own type of power in their own way, and there were several different power plays taking place in the novel.

Favorite Part: When Kitty, Jeffrey and Stockton decide to go in search of Elijah Smith. That entire scene, at the camp.

Miscellaneous: Carrie Vaughn’s novel has an added bonus at the end, a short story called Kitty Meets the Band. It’s a funny story about her interview with the band, Plague of Locusts, in which one of the members is supposedly possessed by a demon. It was a cute story that earned a smile at the end.

Review of Breath, Eyes, Memory by Edwidge Danticat

1994, Vintage Books
236 pgs
Fiction
Rating: (Good +)


First Sentence: A flattened and drying daffodil was dangling off the little card that I had made my aunt Atie for Mother’s Day.

Reason for Reading: This seemed like the right book to end my July reading travels with (althoug hit didn't turn out to be the last book I read for the month).

From the Publisher : At the age of twelve, Sophie Caco is sent from her impoverished village of Croix-des-Rosets to New York, to be reunited with a mother she barely remembers. There she discovers secrets that no child should ever know, and a legacy of shame that can be healed only when she returns to Haiti—to the women who first reared her. What ensues is a passionate journey through a landscape charged with the supernatural and scarred by political violence, in a novel that bears witness to the traditions, suffering, and wisdom of an entire people.

Comments: Breath, Eyes, Memory is a moving story about a daughter and mother tied together by a terrible secret. Raised in Haiti by her aunt, Sophie is suddenly shipped off to the United States at the age of 12 when her mother, whom she barely knows, asks for her. Sophie's new life is not an easy one as she learns a family secret that has haunted her mother for many years. She struggles with her own issues caused by her upbringing and her mother's personal demons as she comes of age. Edwidge Danticat weaves an intricate story about life, tradition, and family. The novel touches upon subject matter that speaks out to women who have been in similar situations.

I do wish the author had delved more deeply into the characters and their back-story. I felt that I only got a glimpse at the characters and was not really allowed to more fully understand them. Edwidge Danticat shows a lot of promise in this novel. I read one of her later novels, The Farming of Bones, a couple of years ago and enjoyed it quite a bit. I am looking forward to reading more by this author.

Favorite Part: I enjoyed most the time I spent in the beginning of the book with aunt Atie and Sophie.

Review of Tales From a Child of the Enemy by Ursula Duba

1995, Penguin Books
155 pgs
Nonfiction
Rating: (Outstanding)


Reason for Reading: I first heard about this little book from an online reading group, although I can’t for the life of me remember which one. I am not really sure what made me take it off my shelf to read, only that I wanted something simple and yet in line with what I have been reading so far this month (July, 2006).

From the Publiser: A German woman recalls her childhood in the rubble of Hitler's Germany--and the shattering revelation, years later, of the Holocaust in this haunting sequence of prose poems. Interwoven with these are the wrenching stories of the Holocaust survivors and their children who were her neighbors in an Eastern neighborhood in Brooklyn in the mid-sixties. Duba's confrontation with her heritage is unflinching and the stories hard to forget.

Comments: The prose is simple, the stories quick to read, and yet each poem, each story in Ursula Duba’s book share a piece of Germany’s darker history.

A couple of the poems are so full of a child’s innocence. The story about the carpet bombings, the author’s expectations that a variety of different carpets would be falling from the sky brought to mind my childhood fear of water buffalos when I thought they would be stampeding down the street. At the age of five, I had been quick to check to make sure the door was locked, not knowing that a water buffalo was not actually an animal but a source of water. There was also the story the family going on vacation to see the ruins of castles. Why travel so far to see the ruins when they lived among ruins, the children wondered.

Having grown up in Germany, being educated during the time of the 2nd World War, Ms. Duba showed through her poetry that history was not taught in the same way it is now. German children were not made aware of the atrocities committed within their own country. It was only after the war, while on a blind date, that Ms. Duba learned the truth and began her own exploration into her country’s dark history, a history she had lived through and yet had not known about. She shares some of the stories of neighbors and friends in her book, about the separation and loss of family, the guilt, and anger at what had happened. She also takes a look into the hearts of her own family and the impact the war had on non-Jewish Germans, as well as their attitudes during and after the war.

Two poems in particular stood out for me in Ms. Duba’s book. The one called "Footbinding" was one, about the hypocrisy between her mother’s philosophy that men are the hammer and women the anvil as compared to the unjust treatment and practices that other cultures practiced, such as the Chinese and their foot binding of young girls. The other was the poem, "Who Knew the Murderers", in which a Holocaust survivor asks Ms. Duba about her family history and what her family did during the 2nd World War. “They didn’t know about it,” is Ms. Duba’s reply when asked what her family thought about the atrocities that took place, the murdering of millions of people. The survivor wonders how, in all her years, she has yet to meet a German who knew what was being done and yet how was it possible that so many people had been contained and led to slaughter?

Although simple in its presentation, Ms. Duba’s book is thought provoking and conscience raising. This is a book I think would serve a good purpose as required reading in school. It not only reminds us of the horror of the Holocaust, how a civilized society can become barbaric, but also, that the Germans are struggling to overcome their dark history as well.

Favorite Part: I’ve actually already mentioned my three favorite parts: The poems: "Carpet Bombing", "Footbinding", and "Who Knew the Murderers".

Miscellaneous: I was glancing over my list of books read so far this month and was shocked to see how many I have read. This makes book 11 for the month. I was only anticipating reading five or six books this month. It’s been a rich experience at that. I have had the fortunate of reading many touching books during the month of July.