Book Reviews

If a book can tear your heart out, then The Blue Notebook by James Levine M.D. is the book to do it. How can such a heartbreaking story be so beautiful?

This is the story of Batuk, a fifteen year old girl sold into sexual slavery at age nine. Batuk writes in the blue notebook between customers and tells us of her life. Her writing also reveals her own imagination, resilience, wisdom and naivety. Batuk is an astute observer of others and we get to see some of what her world is like. Knowing nothing else, she places no judgment on it, as this reader was inclined to do. Batuk is not the prostitute with the heart of gold or the jaded street hooker as often depicted in American fiction. She is a complex human being, obviously knowing more about sex the the average girl her age, but in other ways sheltered from the world outside. She is jaded to a certain amount of violence and resigned to her profession, but at the same time she hopes for a better life.

Batuk is such a charming girl and has such an interesting view of things, you'll want to keep reading. There are parts of this story where it is possible to forget the horror of Batuk's life. She still has the naivety and innocence of any other girl her age. Levine does a wonderful job of making her speak in very real voice. A few of her musings seem a bit more educated than expected, however, it's not impossible that her limited learning and her experiences would lead her to those thoughts.

Levine doesn't let the reader forget the dismal life Batuk lives for very long. Unfortunately, her profession does not attract "Prince Charming" types. Readers get to see some of the worst people. We also get to see how sometimes abuse it perpetuated by the abused. The Blue Notebook is a look at one of those things we'd rather not think about and an eye opener to anyone who believes that all prostitutes choose their profession.

This is not a book for anyone who is struggling with the after effects of abuse. For others, I heartily recommend The Blue Notebook. It's a book that will stay with you long after you've returned it to the shelf.

From the cover of my advance copy "All the U.S. proceeds for this novel will be donated to the International and National Centers for Missing and Exploited Children (http://www.icmec.org.) " This is another good reason to buy the book..

This is lovely, simple story for preschoolers. Parents, be prepared to read it again and again and again... Tiger's stripes are fuzzy, which will likely be another reason your child will want to to read and reread this story.

I was hooked with the first line, "Huwwo?" Larry's Kidney, by Daniel Asa Rose, is indeed an "adventure of a lifetime (really) -- a madcap odyssey of the heart (and kidney) in the most exotic country on earth," as the back cover proclaims.

Larry is something else. Rose shows him as funny, exasperating, morose, kind hearted, unyielding, dictatorial, and expansive by turns, a moody man who is nonetheless charming and hard not to like. I believe that Rose shows Larry as he sees him, but he makes it clear in the book that he has a vivid imagination, so I'm not entirely sure Larry is exactly the man we're shown. Still, I think Larry would be someone interesting to meet, though I'd make sure not to cross him.

I loved the way Rose shows the people of China, very much as I might expect to see them myself -- quite confusing at first, then not as a people (plural), but as individual people, who still might be confusing due to language and cultural differences, yet people with whom it's possible to interact. I felt I was there with them as I read. (The fact that I was playing Chinese pop music as I read probably helped this a little.) And, though I don't go looking for it intentionally in what I read, I'm always delighted to see an example of my world vision* in reality, in the world today. For all his and Larry's cavalier naivety, before he returned home he saw (was made to see) some of the harsher realities and he still chose to remember the kindnesses bestowed upon him and Larry, to believe goodness was indeed goodness. Nobody ends up being a bad guy here. It's just that everyone sees things differently.

Rose's style reads/sounds as if he's there telling the story in person. I could hear his voice, so much so that when I later visited his website and heard him speak, I "recognized" it. It was exactly as I expected. I get a distinct picture in my head of Larry, but somehow, it didn't quite match the photo on the back cover. I think that's because a photo is still and we need to see Larry animated. I do take issue with Rose's description of Mary. Did he say she was fat?** I can't remember exactly, but he certainly gave the impression that she is. However, the pictures on his website show that she definitely is not fat. (I should be so "fat!") But, then, there is the Author's Note stating that he had to change some facts of the story to protect those who helped him and Larry, so maybe there is a bit of embellishment here and there to make every part an interesting story. Who knows? Who cares? If he says it's true, I believe the basic facts are true. It's just that he's not a "damn, dim bulb," writing a dull diary of facts. He wrote a story we want to keep reading.

*I see a world where all people accept each other as friends and neighbors and celebrate each person's uniqueness as a vital part of everyone's life, like threads in a tapestry. ~F. Shafer Junaid

** "a giant cleaning lady" "a larger figure than I expected" (p. 23 of my ARC)

PS: Since Clint Eastwood is too old for the role, I nominate Billy Bob Thornton to play Larry.

You Are Not a Stranger Here
by Adam Haslett

Someone once asked me "Why is 'literature' always so depressing?" My answer was that it isn't, but when it's this well written, I don't mind a depressing story.

If you take chunks of life, add a little sorrow and grief, a little madness, gobs of uncertainty and say "make something of this," Adam Haslett comes up with something like You Are Not A Stranger Here. It can be depressing to read, and yet, there is something hopeful about it, somehow, amidst some hopeless situations. The book creates questions. What is the best way to treat mental illness and what causes mental illness, in the first place? How does it affect the one who is ill and the people around the ill one, not only family, but anyone who has contact with that person? How should/do we treat those who are different from us? What is mental illness and what is just different?

At times as I was reading the story seemed destined to become a horror tale. While many of the stories contained herein have some real horror in them, it never quite crosses the line into the horror genre. Only two stories even hint at the supernatural, and in one it's barely even a hint with schizophrenia as the diagnosis. The people here are real. We've met these people. Maybe we are these people. Haslett gives the reader a glimpse at rather unique and ordinary people who may be quite unlike us, or he may be describing us as no one else has.

For the Good of the Cause by Aleksandr Isaevich Solzhenitsyn

This is both a simple and a difficult book. It proved to be a much shorter story than I expected -- only 97 pages. What I liked about it was the way it opened. The entire first chapter is dialog and nothing else. The reader feels as if she were plunked down into the place, hearing many of the things, though not all, said by several people and not knowing who is saying what. The second chapter brings it into focus and we start to get to know some of the characters. Solzhenitsyn is good at making even briefly appearing characters real.

The term "right and wrong" is used several times in the story and it is clearly the point of the story, to make readers think what is right and what is wrong. And that's where the story becomes difficult. It's not a situation we're likely to encounter in the US. Americans will immediately side with the principal of the school. The main fuss about this is the political importance of the story. As a story, without taking into consideration the politics, it feels incomplete. It takes the reader to the climax and stops with no resolution of any sort. There are seeds for a fight to resolve the issue and there is also the sense of defeat because it's "for the good of the cause."

At first I thought that there is no point of this story with the Soviet Union no longer in existence, but upon further thought I've changed my mind. This isn't a story to be read simply for the pleasure of reading. Whether something is right or wrong is something that will always be a concern. After reading this story, our minds will debate how it ends, how it should end, how actually did/would end if it were a true story. That, I suppose it the greatest value of For the Good of the Cause. There is nothing to grasp from it that can deter the reader form the point of the story - no love story or grand adventure, just ordinary people with an relatively ordinary dilemma.

My copy of this book was published in 1974 and contains a short biography of Solzhenitsyn as a preface, and discussions from various Soviet sources as an appendix. My comments are on the the story and (since I haven't read them yet) do not take preface or appendix into consideration.

What was it like to grow up in China during the Japanese occupation the early years of the PRC? China Cry answers this question. It was not an easy time. Sung Neng Yee was a spoiled child, but her family is forced to flee Shanghai and she grows up learning to be helpful.

After the war is won and the communists have taken over she is at first happy and believes it will be a good change. Soon, however her family learns the difficulties of having been wealthy. She becomes a law teacher for the state and her husband becomes a judge, but the his history of wealth also catches up with them and soon they are looking for cause to interrogate Neng Yee. She had attended Christian schools and she found that although her logical mind told her to say "No," she could not do it. When asked if she were a Christian, she said "Yes!" It was a difficult time and place to be Christian, made worse by the fact that she had not declared her Christianity at the start of the PRC because at the time she had thought it a passing phase of her childhood.

A difficult life gets even more difficult, but God, who had sent an angel to help her as a child, was there for her. Through the difficulties she learns to trust completely in Him. Several times when to anyone else, and occasionally to Neng Yee herself, it seems that God has abandoned her, but those times were just preludes to some breathtaking miracles.

Eventually Neng Yee comes to the United States adopting the name of Nora Lam (Lam is her husband's family name). Up to this point the book was very engrossing, but it becomes somewhat disappointing. From an intensely personal autobiography, we are distanced form Nora. It's as if with the name change the point of the book is no longer biography, but evangelism. I have nothing against evangelism as long as it isn't pushed on unwilling listeners, but changing from the intimate details of life to the grand sweep of her evangelical work is a let down. We got to know Lam Neng Yee, but we don't really get to know Nora Lam. Instead we learn about Nora Lam Ministries.

I was also disappointed to learn that Nora Lam Ministries has a very poor rating at Charity Navigator. I would not recommend sending them a donation until they improve financial efficiency, although I think the cause is essentially good. However, the book is still good reading for the first three fourths and valuable as record of the history of China during WW II and a few years following, and of the power and faithfulness of God.

The Shack by Wm. Paul Young

For me, this book started out like one of Ann Rule's true crime books. It's set in the Northwest and details a lovely day gone terribly wrong and some of the heartbreaking aftermath. Then Mac went to the shack.

I did not read this book as fiction. Nor does Young present it as fiction. The complete story leaves it up to the reader how to interpret it. I choose to accept it as a vision. I don't believe that something that is "merely" fiction can change a person as this "experience" changed Mac. (Fiction can change people who read it, but I don't think Mac would have been changed by reading this as a story. He experienced it, whether it was a literal experience or not falls into the debate about faith and religion and reality. In this case the experience came before the writing. Normally, the written work comes first and, yes, a reader can become so involved as to be changed by the experience.)

I loved Mac's view of God and his view of Jesus's humanity. I believe any Christian can relate to these views even if it's not quite their own view. To me it shows the boundlessness of Who God is. I didn't quite understand his view of the Holy Spirit, but it did manage to to convey an uncertain understanding of exactly who the Spirit is as a separate person of the Trinity. Or perhaps it is only because of my own uncertainty that I saw it that way.

The most important message of the book is the loving relationship within the Trinity and that it is the aspiration of all mankind. It is unquestionably a message Jesus had for his followers. Readers may not feel it the way Mac did, but, I believe that Young managed to capture the sense of this relationship very well in his writing.

I was leery of this book when I started. I've read too many "religious" books that were either not well written, had a bland, lecturing message, or both. The Shack is well written in such a way that did not feel lectured to. It presents what happened to Mac as Mac experienced it and lets the reader draw his own conclusions as to the "reality" of it in a way that maintains the validity of the message. It's not what I would call evangelical, but fulfills the admonition in 1 Peter 3:15 to be ready to give an account of why one believes. At the end, my wariness had dissolved to praise to God.

EDIT: Young said in the August issue of Guideposts "The book is true, just not real, like a parable. I may not be exactly like the fictional main character, but what that man learns about the healing power of love and forgiveness, the liberation of the soul through transparency and grace, is a journey I know well." It was the forward and the similarity of names that led me to believe that Mack was someone who actually related this tale to Young. I agree with the first like of Young's quote, however. It's just that it was Young, himself, who experienced the lessons in this book, albeit in a different context and manner. ~Airycat 09/20/09

I read this little book in one night. The first half of the book gives a brief autobiography, a summary of the state of Tibet and a summary of the state of the world. None of this is in depth. In the second half of the book, he talks about his own beliefs and how they bring inner peace. The book, as a whole, gives a good background of who the Dalai Lama is, in a well rounded, if not detailed, manner. I have several books in my library by the Dalai Lama, but I'm glad that I read this one first

The book is the words of the Dalai Lama, himself, but the book was put together by Frédérique Hatier. The quotes are kept individual and titled topically. Reading the quote following any title would provide food for thought, and for the most part would be suitable meditation for any religious belief. Even as a Christian, though I disagree with some of his beliefs about God, his words provided me the opportunity to affirm my own beliefs. Though we disagree on that one point, there is very little else we disagree on. And there is no argument with this disagreement. Our paths vary slightly (much less than I thought, though the one point is a major one), but our goals are the same. We both desire love and peace for our world.

This is a book I enjoyed reading and will read again, although probably not straight through, but rather, as an adjunct to my personal meditations.

I was delighted by Goblin Quest by Jim C. Hines. I couldn't imagine liking a goblin, but Jig is a very likable character, without giving up all of his goblin-ness. The story kept my attention the whole way through. Despite interruptions, I could always start where I left off without having to go back a few pages to get back into it.

Though the quest plot is pretty straight forward, Hines gave Jig and company enough twists and turns to keep it interesting. I was never able to predict what was coming next. Despite the twists and turns nothing seemed contrived. At about page 275 I was certain I knew where to find the rod of creation. I was wrong, but where it actually was, was much more satisfying.

The only negative thing I can think of in this book is that the human characters are one sided. There was a bit of background about them that explained them a little, but we never saw any depth. Darnak, the dwarf, was given much depth. The elfin girl fit in between Darnak and the humans.

This all works OK though, because this is Jig's story, not a human one. While it would have been nice to have more character depth for all the characters, what is there reflects Jig's interaction with those characters and he tried to have as little interaction with the humans as possible. He had the most interaction with Darnak. Riana, the elfin girl, was usually very guarded with him

To my surprise, I also found that this story had me thinking about the nature of God and man's (and goblin's and others') relation to and faith in God and God's relationship with all of his creatures. This was totally unexpected. This is not a pretentious story. The "magic," from a god and otherwise, is an integral part of the story and doesn't insist on the reader thinking beyond the story. But it's there if you want to think about it.

I'd recommend this book for anyone who wants a light and fun story to read. It was particularly relaxing to me after reading several "literary" novels in a row.

I see a world where all people accept each other as friends and neighbors and celebrate each person's uniqueness as a vital part of everyone's life, like threads in a tapestry.

This is my statement of my life vision. It's still more dream than reality, but every now and then something comes along that encourages me about the possibilities. Outcasts United: A Refugee Team, an American Town is one of those encouragements.

Outcasts United is not a feel good story about a refugee soccer team that makes good. It's about the refugees and about the town into which they've been relocated. It's about a woman who saw a way she could help some of the refugee boys do well in their new environment. It's about the clash of cultures, but it's also about a weaving of those cultural differences that creates the tapestry when it works. It's about prejudices overcome and still blatant.

Warren St. John has a clear writing style that is easy to read. He knows how to describe a soccer game so that I can see it being played in my head. We aren't left with stereotypes that simple words like 'Arab' or 'African' may leave in our minds without further definition. St. John doesn't skimp on the background information of the players and their countries. He also manages to retain enough journalistic distance to paint the real life characters as neither saints nor sinners.

This is a book I hope others will read and come away from with a better understanding of the 'strangers' around us, not only refugees, but anyone in our community who is different from us. I hope it can help us identify our own failings and successes, to see that while for the most part we aren't horrible failures at tapestry making, neither are we great successes, yet.