Marina by Carlos Ruiz Zafon

Marina. Carlos Ruiz Zafon

Experientially the gap between crafted books and well written book is chasmistic. I look back at The Food Explorer and it is well written but a grand canyon gulf resides between it and the crafted, the curated book, where one revels in Zafon’s. Zafon writes in Spanish and to have the nuance and strength of words emerge translated from the original I simply find amazing. I read French fairly well and Spanish functionally enough to appreciate the language subtleties in word chose and translation as I compare for example reading the Book of Mormon in Spanish and correlating it with the english and french versions. I marvel at the depth of language immersion developed to render rich, meaty prose equally delectible in a non-native tongue.

The story is fast paced, compelling, interesting, well-written, and dark. But for the fact that I was on a long flight, in an airplane, with a high level of physical discomfort, trying to distract my brain from focusing on the pain – I would not have finished the book – too dark. As it was I glided along scarcely anguishing empathetically for the characters, simply my own.

Perhaps it was rendered darker than it is by my own discomfort. Though I wouldn’t recommend you read it. If you appreciate a more Gothic, coming of age, in Barcelona by all means go for it. He is one of my favorite authors. Spanish or translated.

“Time does to the body what stupidity does to the soul”

“All the geography, trigonometry, and arithmetic in the world are useless unless you learn to think for yourself. No school teaches you that. It's not on the curriculum.”

“A good friend once told me that the problems are like cockroaches. If drawn to light, they'll get scared.” “the public will always choose a warmed-up lie over the cold truth.”

“If you don't know where you're going, you won't go anywhere.”

“we only remember what never really happened.”

The Food Explorer by Daniel Stone

The food explorer. The true adventures of the globetrotting botanist who transformed what America eats by Daniel Stone

True adventures, indeed a travelogue, of David Fairchild, a late 19th century food explorer who traveled the globe and introduced diverse crops like avocado, mangoes, seedless grapes – and thousands more – to the American plate.

Fairfield becomes a meaningful globe trotter and cultural savant as much due to his tutelage by millionaire and bon vivant Barbour Lathrop as to his own sense of adventure and tenacity.

Not a particularly well-crafted text; yet informative and educational in a time when biodiversity and sustainable food sourcing is critical. Climate change and invasive species into all climes are key accelerators in the necessity to understand and act on food sourcing, today. Stone does not attempt to answer the contemporary questions; he merely creates a context in which to understand them. Parts of the book feel redundant due to the repetitive process in finding, procuring, shipping and reestablishing in a new environment regardless of the plant and its place of origin. Some have more intrigue or danger than others.

“If domesticating crops was an earth-changing advance, figuring out how to reproduce them came a close second.”

An enjoyable read but not an urgent read.

Landmarks by Robert Mcfarlane

Not vested enough to write my own review; linguistically interesting.

““Landmarks,” a remarkable book on language and landscape by the British academic, nature writer and word lover Robert Macfarlane, makes a passionate case for restoring the “literacy of the land,” for recalling and setting down the lexicon of the natural world, at a time when it’s rapidly disappearing. He means to explore the value of reading and writing about nature, he explains, and also to celebrate what he calls “word magic” — terms that can “enchant our relations with nature and place.”

Well written, quotables -

“Before you become a writer you must first become a reader. Every hour spent reading is an hour spent learning to write;”

“Books , like landscapes, leave their marks in us. (...) Certain books, though, like certain landscapes, stay with us even when we left them, changing not just our weathers but our climates.”

“these words: migrant birds, arriving from distant places with story and metaphor caught in their feathers;”

“Looking from afar - from present to past, from exile to homeland, from island back to mainland, mountain-top at lowland - results not in vision's diffusion but in its sharpening; not in memory's dispersal but in it's plenishment.”

The Rent Collector. by Camron Wright

Lynn recommended The Rent Collector to me as she was reading it for book club. Good call on her behalf. It was engaging from the get go. I went into it anticipating a story on the value of literature in one’s life and the interplay with literature aiding in our maintaining hope. It was all that and more. For instance the following poem regarding the nature of eternal love brought instantly to mind my eternal companion to whom I liken all love poems and love songs as if they were written only to and of us.

Love Forever
If I were the trees ...
I would turn my leaves to gold and scatter them toward the sky so they would circle about your head and fall in piles at your feet...
so you might know wonder.

If I were the mountains ...
I would crumble down and lift you up so you could see all of my secret places, where the rivers flow and the animals run wild ...
so you might know freedom.

If I were the ocean ...
I would raise you onto my gentle waves and carry you across the seas to swim with the whales and the dolphins in the moonlit waters,
so you might know peace.

If I were the stars ...
I would sparkle like never before and fall from the sky as gentle rain,
so that you would always look towards heaven and know that you can reach the stars.

If I were the moon ...
I would scoop you up and sail you through the sky and show you the Earth below in all its wonder and beauty,
so you might know that all the Earth is at your command.

If I were the sun ...
I would warm and glow like never before and light the sky with orange and pink,
so you would gaze upward and always know the glory of heaven.

But I am me ...
and since I am the one who loves you, I will wrap you in my arms and kiss you and love you with all of my heart,
and this I will do until ...
the mountains crumble down ...
and the oceans dry up ...
and the stars fall from the sky ...
and the sun and moon burn out ...

And that is forever.”

Beyond love, the book spoke of literature and of hope; and also of abiding friendship and sacrifice in context of Khmer Rouge devastating impact on Cambodia. An engaging,well crafted with a story that resonated with me.

LITERATURE

“Words provide a voice to our deepest feelings. I tell you, words have started and stopped wars. Words have built and lost fortunes. Words have saved and taken lives. Words have won and lost great kingdoms. Even Buddha said, 'Whatever words we utter should be chosen with care, for people will hear them and be influenced by them for good or ill.”

“Literature has the power to change lives, minds, and hearts.”

“Sometimes broken things deserve to be repaired.”

“But as a wise and great teacher once explained so patiently, all good stories - stories that touch your soul, stories that change your nature, stories that cause you to become a better person from their telling-these stories always contain truth.”

“But literature is unique. To understand literature, you read it with your head, but you interpret it with your heart. The two are forced to work together-and, quite frankly, they often don't get along.”

“At times I think I can hear my brain screaming, "I am reading here, so please, all other body parts, do your best to keep up!

“While almost everything that surrounds us in life gets old and wears out, stories, like our very souls, don't age.”

HOPE

Believing isnot enough, Sang Ly. If you want to resurrect hope, doing is the most important. Can you do these things?”

“I tell Ki that I'm learning about words and stories to help our family. He says he's protecting our family She is instant, certain, and solemn, and there is no misunderstanding her meaning.
"Fight ignorance with words. Fight evil with your knife. Tell you husband, Ki, that he is right.”

“Sang Ly, the desire to believe, to look forward to better days, to want them, to expect them-it seems to be ingrained in our being. Whether we like it or not, hope is written so deeply into our hearts that we just can't help ourselves, no matter how hard we try otherwise. We love the story because we are Sarann or Tattercoats or Cinderella. We all struggle with the same problems and doubts. We all long for the day when we'll get our own reward. We all harbor hope-”

“Our trials, our troubles, our demons, our angels—we reenact them because these stories explain our lives. Literature's lessons repeat because they echo from deeper places. They touch a chord in our soul because they're notes we've already heard played. Plots repeat because, from the birth of man, they explore the reasons for our being. Stories teach us to not give up hope because there are times in our own journey when we mustn't give up hope. They teach endurance because in our lives we are meant to endure. They carry messages that are older than the words themselves, messages that reach beyond the page.”

“Rain in the dump makes water filthy. Rain in the garden cleanses.”

When you dig down, all your filthiness, uncertainty, in fear and vanished and instead you’re encircled by pure and overwhelming love. The moments are infrequent in a hectic life that is still a constant storm of struggle, and then when they occur, these moments are anchors. They keep me facing in the right direction I still awake every morning to a dump that is smoky, but through the smoke, I’m seeing some of the most amazing sunsets.

This quote well describes how I show up as I age:

“Two things happen when you get to be old. One, you gather experience and knowledge. You learn from your mistakes, and thereby offer wisdom to others. The second thing that happens is that you grow forgI imagine this is how it must be with our ancestors; they watch us closely full of love and concern sometimes whispering encouragement through a crack but mostly just satisfied to know that we are happy

etful, ornery and senile, and when you offer advice, well, you sometimes just don't know what you're talking about. Often it's hard for everyone-including me-to know the difference.”

“When you find your purpose-- and you will find your purpose-- never let it go. Peace is a product of both patience and persistence.”

“Where is the balance between humbly accepting  our life‘s trials and pleading toward heaven for help, begging for a better tomorrow”

Do our dearly passed on work harder for us than we do for them?

“I imagine this is how it must be with our ancestors; they watch us closely full of love and concern sometimes whispering encouragement through a crack but mostly just satisfied to know that we are happy”

Funny in Farsi: A Memoir of Growing Up Iranian in America by Firoozeh Dumas

This memoir of one specific immigrant family acclimating to U.S. life shares many common immigrant experiences/themes. As an Iranian family dramatic contextual shifts are resultant of the Iranian Hostage Crisis of 1979 ,its 444 nights nightly news updates; and again from 9/11 and the subsequent Gulf Wars. Dumas's chosen title implies a levity and lightness of subject manner that does not always hold true. The shifting tides and prejudices confronted are sobering, occasionally sad, and unfortunately still found in America. Her memoir is as relevant today as 2003 when written.

Her father Kazem’s episodes are central to much of the humor and you love the guy. And her mother, Nazireh, could in may instances simply be replaced by dear mother June it would not necessitate changing many of the facts or responses to the situations, she is simply delightful. 

Several stories resonated louder than others:

Bowling for Dollars –My you could not be of my generation and not watched this compelling action=packed sporting event. LOL. My wife and I are of similar age having been raised states apart but had shared viewing experiences – neither of us, however, ever convinced a father to go on the show.

Price Club is to Kazem what Costco is to Dale. No finer store in America. No better retail experience throughout the globe. Not replaceable by the internet. A source of a multitude of ‘you wont believe this one type' of stories.

Alliance Francaise The mission of the Alliance Française is to promote the French language and francophone cultures and to foster exchanges between French and francophone cultures and to foster exchanges between French speakers and local communities. As such, Firoozeh’s adventures abroad to France at age 17 seem completely unbelievable ‘incroyable mais vrai’, except when taken in view of my own at age 18 living in Paris. One of which I’ll share here so somewhere in the future my descendants might laugh.

I was France for a 6 month Semester abroad with BYU. We, a group of BYU students none of whom I knew before, stayed in a pension near the Luxemburg Garden, attended class at The Sorbonne and the Alliance. Before classes started we had a few free days which I spent mainly in the library in the alliance studying French. One day while sitting at the common desk a guy, a little older than I, sat across from me and we spoke in English. We shared our common experiences, where we were from (he from Portugal) and why we were there. He was in Paris as well to learn French the language, history and of the French culture. He had learned quite a bit of French already and was fairly fluent and not textbook reading, but speaking. He came speaking no french and offered to help me learn the language the same as he. His offer was for me to move in with his girlfriend why he went home for a week. He said with a week of pillow talk I’d be able to master the French language rough enough to be able to converse with anyone! I graciously thanked him for his offer; but said no he could keep his girlfriend. I would learn the old-fashioned way. It worked for me just fine any way. I end up learning French by textbooks and practicing in school rooms, babysitting my professor’s kids and reading to them out loud little kid books with them correcting me, not in bedrooms. Ah bien!

College essays - Firoozeh apparently tried every job and part time job and scheme to raise money for college tuition. Ultimately she discovered the key was the personal experience essay of an immigrant, Iranian, girl. The liberation of a good essay and testing scores allowing one to chose the college and expedience of choice reminded of our son who did likewise and had many a scholarship sent his way. (though he had successfully raised funds through lawn care as well as his brother’s.)

The book, I totally enjoyed. For the stories it told, the remembrances it stirred and the pondering of the immigrant nation we live in, a worthy read.

Braving the Wilderness by Brene Brown

Braving the Wilderness The Quest for True Belonging and the Courage to Stand Alone by Brene Brown

The paradox of living in the world but not of the world; of identifying, defining, committing to and living your core values regardless of the strain is the focus of this effort by Brown. The ‘strain’ is a yearning in people to belong and feel accepted by a pool, group, or association of people that shelters us from loneliness but has the risk of compromising being true to our self. It is a common quest and renders the material accessible to the reader.

“I like a tree planted by the river, I shall not be moved”

Note there is difference between being alone and loneliness. In the Book of Mormon, Nephi exemplifies while out teaching Helaman 10:1 - “And it came to pass that there arose a division among the people, insomuch that they divided hither and thither and went their ways, leaving Nephi alone, as he was standing in the midst of them.”

You’re only free when you realize you belong no place – you belong every place- no place at all. The reward is great - Maya Angelou. True belonging only happens when we present our authentic imperfect selves to the world, as such, our sense of belonging can never be greater than our level of self acceptance. Once we belong thoroughly to ourselves and believe thoroughly in ourselves true belonging is ours (with a willingness and ability to stand alone in our decisions, in our beliefs, despite our fear of criticism and rejection)

In The Quest for True Belonging Brown outlines gateway tools:

• People are hard to hate close up - Move in
• Speak truth to BS be Civil
• Hold Hands with Strangers
• Strong Back, Soft Front, and Wild Heart

Random thoughts:

Neutrality helps the oppressor never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor

Civility is about disagreeing without disrespect

The only way to combat foreboding joy is gratitude . Seek out moments of collected emotion

Show up for moments of collective pain

And stay with the pain

Despite the need to brave the wilderness , we don’t always have to walk alone

Joseph Campbell wrote, “If you can see your path laid out in front of you step by step, you know it’s not your path. Your own path you make with every step you take. That’s why it’s your path.”

Strong back soft front (courage / vulnerability)

Can’t always exhale need to inhale as well (take time to sharpen the saw, to recuperate, to charge the battery - whatever axiom you’d like to quote.)

True belonging doesn't require you to change who you are; it requires you to be who you are.”

Find the courage to stand alone , to say what we believe and do what we feel is right despite the criticism and fear

“Stop walking through the world looking for confirmation that you don’t belong. You will always find it because you’ve made that your mission. Stop scouring people’s faces for evidence that you’re not enough. You will always find it because you’ve made that your goal. True belonging and self-worth are not goods; we don’t negotiate their value with the world. The truth about who we are lives in our hearts. Our call to courage is to protect our wild heart against constant evaluation, especially our own. No one belongs here more than you.”

All of us will spend our life constantly strengthening our back, softening our front, and trying to listen to the whispers of our wild heart. One can strengthen courage to stand alone - strong back thru:

Boundaries

Reliability

Accountability

Vault -

Learning how to keep confidences, to recognize what’s ours to share and what’s not. The challenge is to stop using gossip, common enemy intimacy and over sharing as a way to hot wire connection

Integrity

Non judgment

Generosity

At times we ask the Lord to assist us in coping, fitting in and standing alone. He’ll answer the prayer , however not always in the manner we seek. eg. Jacobs wrestle with the Lord got the blessing AND a permanent limp to remind him.

“Lying is a defiance of the truth. Bullshitting is a wholesale dismissal of the truth.” This has been of particular internet in South Florida; here we have encounter those whom we describe as having ‘drunk the Coolidge” Describing that person who relies on BS and propagates the same in total disregard of facts, experience or relevant observation.

It makes sense to me that we’re called to combat this spiritual crisis of disconnection with one of our most valued spiritual possessions. Bearing witness to the truth is rarely easy, especially when we’re alone in the wilderness.

The book is topical for a number of reasons and worth the effort to understand her thoughts. The one issue I have with her writing style is she self quotes / cites discussions it feels like a cross-sale. But that is not a significant hindrance is getting her message. Its worth the time to read and ponder.