Island Beneath the Sea

Island Beneath the Sea by Isabel Allende
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Relating the history of Haiti and highlighting the relationship between Haiti and Louisiana, Allende does a superb job of creating a myriad of characters that represent several perspectives. While she doesn't shy away from the cruelty of slavery, she also shines a light on the spirit of the revolutionary slaves as well as showing the precariousness of the mulatto population. Allende is always best when she when she adds some magical realism and the Haiti religion of voodoo creates a world where mysticism is married to science and is even sought out by some of the white doctors. I felt like I learned a lot about history and geography (even if some subsequent research called into question some of Allende's facts such as the Cordon Bleu balls). This is how I learn history best: by giving me some characters whose fate I care about and help me understand the implications of political and economic policy on the specific people.

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Music is a wind that blows away the years.

In spite of subtleties of color, the mulattoes were united by their shared apsiration to pass for whites and their visceral scorn for Negroes.

doesn't mean anything for me to be free and everyone else slaves

to heal her, as the doctor himself admitted, but to ease her existence.

knowledge comes from Papa Bondye and it belongs to everyone, and if not shared it is lost.

He had heard the Negroes have more capacity for suffering: the proof was that no white could bear what the blacks endured

There is no worse suffering than to love with fear, said Tante Rose

She walked with determination, not thinking about how far she had to go but how far she had come.

[Louisiana] Sold like cattle! Humiliation and fury replaced the festive spirit of the previous day.

The Year of Magical Thinking

 

The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is often referred to as the seminal work about grief. It is very honest. And I am in the enviable position of not having lost a very close person (yet). I appreciated her emotions and the fact that having to deal with a sudden loss of a loved one while taking care of another loved in precarious health must have been traumatizing. I just found more inspiration personally in C.S. Lewis, Madeline L'Engle, and Julian Barnes.

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In the midst of life we are in death

that the death, even if sudden or accidental, "gives advance warning of its arrival."

Were faith and grief the same thing?

Grief was passive.  Grief happened.  Mourning, the act of dealing with grief, required attention.

yet having seen the picture in no way deflected, when it came, the swift empty loss of the actual event.  It was still black and white.  Each of them had been in the last instant alive, and then dead.

Marriage is not only time: it is also, paradoxically, the denial of time.

when we mourn our losses we also mourn, for better or for worse, ourselves.  As we were.  As we are no longer.  As we will one day not be at all. 

Bear

Bear by Julia Phillips
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This tale teeters on the edge of fairy tale. Two sisters living with their dying mom encounter a bear that upends their world. One sister finds herself inexplicably drawn to the bear while the other sees the danger it represents and will do anything she can to stop her sister from befriending it further. It's an intimate look at sisterhood and I loved that aspect. It's also an examination of how systems (medical, police, etc.) often contribute rather than relieve many of the problems its designed to alleviate. Economic disparity, tourism, COVID, and climate change are also discussed. Obviously the bear can stand in for several other issues and that's what creates the fairy-tale-like feeling, making it a magical, but thought-provoking book.

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When she and Elena moved off-island, they would enjoy, she imagined, mentioning to people the beautiful place in which they'd grown up.

Somewhere, somehow, in the space left unexplored by bureaucrats and biologists, there existed possiblities. There might be magic to be found. 

For a moment, in the woods, there was nothing, and then--there it was again.  Its body appeared and vanished.  It was walking the fine line between their human existence and monstrosity.  She didn't know how quickly it could move.

Real care was something else entirely.  A more rare beast.  It was growing up alongside each other, watching one another.  It was the ability to hear what wasn't said. 

The Museum of Failures

 

The Museum of Failures by Thrity Umrigar
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Probably 4.5 stars. One of the best studies of characterization I've read. No one is wholly good or bad and as we follow Remy's thoughts they flit from gratefulness to resentfulness in seconds; from love to anger; from awe to frustration, capturing how we can hold almost two diametrically feelings toward something or someone at the same time. It's a complicated storyline but also simple--a man goes to India to adopt a baby and discovers his mother is ill. He confronts a past that holds secrets he didn't know existed while trying to navigate his two identities as Indian and American. There are disappointments and happy surprises, revelations that shake his world, and make him reassess his beliefs and values. Ultimately hopeful and inspiring, its a reminder that there is always more to the story than we think.

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Contentment, the enemy of art.

But, son, faith is like an armor.  It's for your own protection.  this world can be an unforgiving place.  Faith helps a man from getting buffeted around.

By treating her son as less than human, they had diminished their own humanity.

But if you don't tell your parents, you're depriving them of something.  Don't you see?  You're depriving them of a chance to rise to the occasion.  To transcend their own limitations.

Because, ultimately, everybody's story was written in the scars.

This was how destiny was formed, Remy decided, not by what was written in the stars by some distant god, but by human choice and effort and courage. All he had to do was be brave.

My Family and Other Animals

My Family and Other Animals by Gerald Durrell
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Such a cute, entertaining book about family, nature, exploration, and childhood. The Durrells were definitely an unconventional family, but I found their rather whimsical take on life inspiring. Gerry's descriptions of birds and insects were definitely anthropomorphic but it was hard not to think that these animals weren't causing mischief on purpose. Funny and endearing.

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gently behind us like a white peacock's tail, glinting with bubbles.

if the curious, blurring haze produced a sound, it would be exactly the strange, chiming cries of these insects.

Symphony of Secrets

Symphony of Secrets by Brendan Slocumb
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I found myself quite drawn into this dual timeline story of a revered composer who isn't quite what he seems. I especially was engaged with the story of Josephine and Fred. Slocumb highlights how those who are not understood or tolerated by the majority can be dismissed or exploited. In both timelines fame and money overshadow morality and it is satisfying when the little guys find ways subvert the powerful, even if it takes a few years for truth and justice to prevail.

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The Unselected Journals of Emma M Lion Vol. 2

 

The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion: Vol. 2 by Beth Brower
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Yes, this volume is much better than the first. I also think it practically begs to be read out loud, so I can see why so many people enjoy the audio version of this. I still personally wish this was not broken up into so many volumes. Although there is more meat in this volume, there is still a lot of unresolved story lines. I suppose it gets you to read more, but I wish a few more were resolved before moving on. It makes me feel like I have to read all 42 or whatever to get anywhere.

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