Friday Find: Broken Birds, The Story of My Momila by Jeannette Katzir

"Broken Birds" by Jeannette Katzir is based on true events. It begins with the Holocaust stories of the author's parents, describes their meeting in New York and their life together raising Jeannette and her four siblings. When Jeanette's mother dies the destructive legacy of the Holocaust fractures her family.

Booking through Illustrations

How do you feel about illustrations in your books? Graphs? Photos? Sketches?

I like maps in books. It makes the places more relevant for me. Sometimes I go back to the maps again and again to feel the places more closely.

In memoirs, autobiographies or biographies, photos make a lot of sense. I like squiggles and sketches too inside the flaps. It makes the books very appealing to me.

The Secret Keeper by Paul Harris

Title: The Secret Keeper
Author: Paul Harris
ISBN: 978-0525951025
Publisher: Dutton Adult/2009
Pages: 336

Danny Kellerman, a journalist receives a letter from an ex-lover in Sierra Leone. It is a call for help from him. It had been posted four weeks before and he finds out that she has been murdered since then. He has to go there to find out what Maria wanted from him. When he lands up there, he gets embroiled in political system and finds out certain secrets about Maria.

War has ended but the place is still sitting in the midst of chaos and corruption. Danny doesn't know whom to trust and he has to go for it alone, not knowing exactly where he is going and for what. What was Maria involved in? She was an Aid worker, rescueing children from war zones, including child soldiers. Danny has to know the cause for which she died and who had her killed.

This novel is a very good portrayal of aftermath of a war, its impact on the poeople, and the utter despair of some, the corruption of the powers that are, rampant killing still a norm, people taking sides, children exploited and anyone who wishes to help them is eliminated. Danny has no interest in the country but he knows he has to do what Maria would have wanted him to do.

Maria is dead yet we feel her presence. At times it seems, she is going to walk out of the pages alive. We can feel Danny's emotions and his compulsions. For a debut, this novel is very well written and gives us a bird eye view of after shocks of war. Not exactly a feel good book but it sure is a satisfying read for all those, who want to read something realistic. And of course, it has that mystery element that is maintained till the end.

Friday Find: Weapons Grade by Terese Svoboda

Weapons Grade by Terese Svoboda

From Publishers Weekly

Svoboda's fifth collection of poems walks the borders where the personal and the political meet, and where ironic humor and foreboding overlap. Her contemporary America is both finger-licking digital, and a place where there are soldiers in mother's hair. In this book's first section, war is everywhere, from a lab in Tokyo where AIDS-infected blood was used for transfusions to the cavities of your body. Section two takes up notions of mistranslations, misunderstandings and missed opportunities: in one poem, a man walks into a bar; in another a son asks of a missing father, Is he back or forth? The final section takes up more personal subjects, as in a poem titled To My Brother, on the Occasion of His Second Breakdown. Throughout, Svoboda's poems are as haunting as they are funny, as pleasurable as they are powerful.


The following two poems have been taken from http://www.cortlandreview.com/issue/28/svoboda.html


Whale Watch

Big wheelers circle in the sand
to cut a perfect something
between flotsam and carwreck.

The kids see only the size of the tires,

none look at the whales over their shoulders.

We're climbing to where spouts evaporate
into sky, we're clawing up lava-spilt sides
like the dog to see.

Below is all
perfect circles in the sand,
and the discolored blue from mammals working.

The ocean's boundless, we think,
and the kids
can't even throw rocks far enough
to hit us.
But no.

The dog barks at the whales
instead of them, then he barks even harder—
at Jonah inside the whale
drawing Pinocchio

on undigested sand dollars,

what can only be imagined.

Even here you have to turn your head
to see all of one, you have to step back and not fall.


At last the teenagers get out of the trucks
to puke.
The kids elbow us to look.

Cycles

My bike floats on a road
without a moon or light, all balance.

I open my mouth, O sole mio
but I fear I will fall

into my voice, it could be
the road, dippy and

suddenly ending.
So no sound comes out.

I just pedal, well, I breathe but—
A friend bikes out of the black.

I heard you and I hurried.
What did I sing? Our wheels

whine forward. We can't even see
the grass brushing our calves.

Soon the road narrows
and a creek cuts one side,

you can hear water
on its own path, and surely

there's a ditch—surely. We bike in file,
hunched, bearing the dark. If we slow—

A car comes up behind us,
lights off. We pedal hard, harder.

The car comes on anyway,
it is coming. Before its grill heat

signals where,
there's a terrible crash,

the late pop
of an airbag, there's the ditch

and the grass, we weave and—
There's no sound after, just a metal

something rolling.
We kickstand our bikes in the dark.

No O my god. Just What?
What? my friend, gasping.

We run back.
Someone drove that car.

If we search for it apart, we're lost,
but together, we're doubly blind.

We touch and touch.
The sharp grass, the flitter of insects,

the uneven earth underfoot—
We want not to find

anything. It is the future
we move toward,

and Death says
we will find it,

both of us, and the road
we followed,

the road the car left,
is gone.

When She Flew by Jennie Shortridge

Title: When She Flew
Author: Jennie Shortridge
ISBN: 9780451227980
Publisher: NAL Trade/2009
Pages: 352

When She Flew is one of those books which linger on longer after reading it. And not easy to review. The story revolves around a father-daughter duo and a cop, Jess. Ray Wiggs is a disabled Iraq war veteran, who has chosen to live out of civilization hidden in the woods with his daughter, Lindy. She, for all her isolation, seems to be an intelligent, knowledgeable girl. Ray has done all he could to bring her up the best way he can. He has taught her good manners amongst other things. He has also instilled survival instincts in her. In his own way, he has protected his daughter from the big bad world. When both are "rescued" from the woods, no way anyone can find anything wrong with either of them.

But one has to go by the world's norms. When the cops who 'rescued' want to send Lindy to a foster home, separating her from her father, Jess is not in the favour of that. She herself has been estranged from her daughter. Therefore knows the pain of a parent away from a much loved child. And somewhere in the middle, the lines between right and wrong gets blurred. She has to do what she thinks is right to keep both together.

The novel begins in the voice of Lindy, who is chasing a Heron, wanting to draw the bird from close. That's when she is spotted. The alternate chapters give voice to Lindy's thought, first hand and Jess' thought in third person. The girl is very insightful and knows what she has to do to be with her father. She trusts him completely and knows that they are both going to be together, no matter what.

Birds have been used as metaphors here and work perfectly well. The prose is engrossing, characters realistic, story told in a moving way, this novel totally grabs the reader. It is supposed to be based on a real life situation, that happened in Portland, Oregon where a war veteran and his daughter were discovered living in Forest Park, and disappeared soon after.

Thanks to Serena, for my copy of the novel.

Booking through Grammar

Do you have any grammar books? Punctuation? Writing guidelines? Style books?

More importantly, have you read them?

How do you feel about grammar in general? Important? Vital? Unnecessary? Fussy?

I do have an old copy of Wren & Martin which is considered the bible in grammar. I used to leaf through it very often. I think grammar is important and punctuation is a part of it. As I write poetry, I do try to take care of the grammar and punctuation part. It is a necessary tool for any writer.

A-Z Wednesday: Defy the Eagle by Lynn Bartlett

Title: Defy the Eagle
Author: Lynn Bartlett
ISBN: 0373288077
Publisher: Worldwide Romance
First Published: July1986
Pages: 635

Rome/Celtic Historical Romance

Enemies by birth. Lovers by destiny. Jilana had come to Caddaric in a dream, with a whisper of ethereal beauty that vanished when he awoke. Even as the bold warrior battled to save his beloved land from the Roman invaders, he looked for the woman who haunted his every waking moment. Until the morning, he finally saw his violet-eyed angel -- and recognized that his torment had just begun. For Jilana was one of the hated enemies Caddaric had vowed to destroy.

This book is multi layered, with many different locations and situations, which the two main characters go through. One does identify with both of them, see things from both their sides and indeed understand why they are both so intractable.

This is the story of Jilana, a young Roman woman who lives an unremarkable life with her family in Venta Icenorum, until she meets a young Centurion -Caddaric, whilst riding in the woods near her home. The Centurion is in reality an Iceni warrior who is scouting for his Queen - Boadicea and Jilana is swept up in events well documented by history.

Jilana intervenes in the public flogging of the Iceni Ruler and brings herself to the attention of early Briton's Governor as well as the Iceni community. As the uprising begins, whilst Jilana's life is spared due to the mercy she showed Boadicea, she is enslaved and given to Caddaric as a reward for his part in taking the City. Her family murdered, Jilana tries to find a way to survive, adapt and resist her growing attraction to her hated "enemy" Caddaric.

This is a long novel but nowhere is it boring. Jilana is a strong and likeable girl who is present at all the historical milestones of this uprising right up the final defeat of the Iceni and one can feel all the emotions along with some surprising twists.

One reason I loved this book is because of its setting - the Roman Empire. The romance in this book is awesome, poignant and very beautiful.

Teaser Tuesday: Zan-Gah - A Prehistoric Adventure by Allan R. Shickman

"Why do you tease me, Dael? you frighten me to death." Then she scrutinized his half-naked body, she saw his scars and realized that this was indeed Dael's twin.

~Page 101, Zan-Gah - A Prehistoric Adventure by Allan R. Shickman

Crime Fiction Alphabet: They Came to Baghdad by Agatha Christie

Title: They Came to Baghdad
Author: Agatha Christie
Publisher: Collins Crime Club/1951
Pages: 256

"A white camel loaded with oats is coming over the pass." This is a code for a meeting of some people in Baghdad for a secret weapon. And everyone seems to want that weapon.

This is a very different novel by Agatha Christie, one that does not have Hercule Poirot or Miss Marple. It is more in the lines of international conspiracy and the conspirator is a secret till the end. A book with a nail biting finish. We see the Baghdad of those times, lots of archaeological digging and also the ruins of Babylon. I read it a long time and need to brush it up again. After I re-read it, I will post a detailed review.

BTW, I own the very same cover I posted here.

Mondays: Mailbox/Musings/Whereabouts

Monday Mailbox is hosted by Marcia.

I received only one book as a gift from my friend:

Something Borrowed by Emily Giffin

Something Borrowed tells the story of Rachel, a young attorney living and working in Manhattan. Rachel has always been the consummate good girl---until her thirtieth birthday, when her best friend, Darcy, throws her a party. That night, after too many drinks, Rachel ends up in bed with Darcy's fiancé.
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I finished:

Something Borrowed by Emily Giffin

I am in midst of reading:

When She Flew by Jennie Shortridge
Zan-Gah by A. R. Shickman

I plan to read:

Whatever I can!

I posted reviews of:

Something Borrowed by Emily Giffin
Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier
Sworn to Silence by Linda Castillo
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How do you feel about books written in a differing format – whether this be journals or letters (epistolary), verse novels, or any other form? Is this something you enjoy? Or do you prefer straight forward chapter prose.

I can read books written in different formats. Plain narration, epistolary, verse, graphic, anything. It depends more the plot, story or subject matter. Initially, a different format might take me a little while to get used to it, once I do, I throw myself into the reading with a gusto. I also like to read novels which go back and forth in the past and present or even future.

As I love poetry, I like novels written in the verse form very much. I get a double whammy that way. Poetry as well a novel. I suppose I would like to explore new formats. Any recommendations?