Ern's Monthly Page Turners (February 2008)

Welcome to another episode of Ern's literary morsels. I know the month isn't quite over but it seems like some people are thinking that I'm constantly eating out with all the culinary adventures I've been writing about. But if you would just check the date on some of the pictures, especially the ones I took with my cell phone camera, you would see that the pictures were taken three to four years ago. My wife suggested laying off the food essays for a while. Hm, but it's one of my favorite subjects. Maybe I'll write about my previous travels and add pictures so you can all travel with me. So anyway, no food essay today - which is the reason you're getting my book essay a little early. In fact, the last book I will talk about, I'm still only half-way through reading it.

HOLY COW: AN INDIAN ADVENTURE by Sarah MacDonald - I started the month of February with my favorite genre - a travel essay. MacDonald traveled through India when she was in her 20s and told herself she would never, ever go to that land again. She just hated it!! On her last day there, an Indian holy man said she would one day come back to this country, and that she would return for love! Of course, she didn't put any stock into the matter. Not until twenty some odd years had passed. Her boyfriend worked for the Australian Broadcasting Company's Delhi office. She decided to give up her successful career - she was a well-known television personality in Australia, she gave up her home, her life, and found herself returning to a land she said she would never go back to. This book is a collection of her adventures while living in India, the often used and very cliched "Land of Contrasts". She talks about all the things she sees floating in the Ganges, taking part in a festival where hundreds of thousands of pilgrims gather, the Taj Mahal, Bollywood movie stars, and she even takes a trip to the turmoil infested lands of Kashmir. Aside from all the beggars, I think I would enjoy India myself too. I do want to see the Taj Mahal with my own eyes one day!

THE RELUCTANT FUNDAMENTALIST by Mohsin Hamid - Here's an interesting book you might want to read. The entire story takes place at a small cafe in Lahore, Pakistan. The narrator is a bearded Pakistani man who is also a graduate from Princeton. He is conversing with a nervous American man who seems to be out of place and doesn't appear to be a regular tourist. He invites this stranger to sit with and begins to is tell the story of how his life was in America, how he fell in love with a woman named Erica, how he managed to get a job with a firm called Underwood Samson, and how the events of September 11 has led him back to his homeland and to their meeting. Excellent read, of course it might put some of you off as the narrative does give the American government a good bashing, but with a fair argument to back up what he says. Once you start reading, you won't be able to put this book down!

BEYOND THE SPIDERWICK CHRONICLES: THE NIXIE'S SONG by Tony DiTerlizzi and Holly Black - I just read that "The Spiderwick Chronicles" was adapted for the silver screen as I had read that series, I of course had to read the continuing adventures. It seems that after the success of "Lord of the Rings" and the Harry Potter films, Hollywood jumped on the band wagon to make a bunch of films adapted from children's fantasy literature. Let's see, there was "The Chronicles of Narnia", which I've read but have yet to see the movie, there was "Eragon" which I watched but didn't read. Now there is Philip Pullman's "The Golden Compass" and I imagine there will be a sequel to "Eragon", and to "The Golden Compass" of course as that is the first book in a trilogy that's titled "His Dark Materials". Oh wait, I'm sorry, some of you are not familiar with the Spiderwick series? It's about faeries and how the more aware of us are can see them and not all faeries, ogres, giants, water-nymphs, are harmless as most children were led to believe.

THE KITE RUNNER by Khaled Hosseini - Oh my God, you must read this book!! I don't know about the film but I think I may have to go see it. This is a story about love, honor, betrayal, regret, and redemption. Two childhood friends are the best of pals and do almost everything together. Amir is the privileged son of a wealthy businessman in Kabul. Hassan is the son of the man's servant. It's the early 70s in a peaceful Afghanistan. Amir and Hassan spend their days telling stories, running kites, and just causing all sorts of mischief. Until one day an event occurs that changes everything. Amir sees his friend being raped by the village bullies but does not do anything to intervene. Afterwards Hassan becomes withdrawn while Amir tries to rationalize his cowardice. Things do not improve as Amir and his family moved to the States and Amir marries and becomes a successful novelist, but he is still haunted by the event of his childhood. When he learns that Hassan has been killed by the Taliban from an old friend of his father who says to Amir, "there is a way to be good again." Amir finds himself heading back to his native land that's under Taliban rule to save the son of Hassan. The story is intense!! It brought me to tears a few times. You must definitely read this, and I heard the movie had really good reviews as well. Of course I will go see it!

THE DIVING BELL AND THE BUTTERFLY by Jean-Dominique Bauby - I'm curious as to how this book was adapted for the silver screen. The movie being based on the true story of the former editor-in-chief of Elle magazine. In December of 1995, he suffered a massive stroke. When he came out of a coma, he found himself to be suffering from "locked-in syndrome" - his mind was alert but his entire body except for his left eye was unable to move. He was able to write this memoir letter by letter. It must have taken him a long time with the help of a lot of people to write this book. Not as intense as "The Kite Runner" but still when you think about the author writing this, it makes it pretty intense. Easy read though.

THE ESSENTIAL AFRICA by Michael Poliza - Beautiful photography book of wildlife and landscapes of southern Africa - the Okavango Delta in Botswana, the deserts of Namibia, the wildlife of Kenya, Tanzania, and Zimbabwe. Of course I didn't want to forget you non-readers, and I enjoy looking through visual books myself too.

名もなき日々by 岩間史郎 - NA MO NAKI HIBI by Shiro Iwama - This photography book has only a collection of thirty or so photographs from something we no longer see - happy Afghans in a still peaceful country. The photographer was diagnosed with cancer not too long ago. He said he seemed to have lost hope and the will to live. But a friend of his came upon these pictures the photographer took when he traveled through Afghanistan in 1975.

The photographer traveled from Peshawar, Pakistan to Kabul. He traveled to Bamiyan, Kandahar, Herat, Mazar- i Sharif, and virtually circled the country. No pictures of bombed out Soviet tanks, no Taliban, no houses in ruins. Too bad he didn't take more pictures.

PLAYING FOR PIZZA by John Grisham - If you think you in for another legal thriller, you will be highly disappointed. This is a light-hearted story about a third string quarterback in the NFL who manages to lose an all important Superbowl game in the last eleven minutes by throwing three interceptions and finds himself without a team with no prospect of playing for another one, not in the States at least. So, his agent (who stays with him for quite a while) manages to get him a position as the starting quarterback for the Parma Panthers...in the Italian NFL league. It's "Mr. Baseball" with American football, and Italy for Japan. But it's a fun read, especially if you like Italy and all things Italian.

THE LONELY PLANET STORY: The fascinating story of the adventurous couple who backpacked across Asia and then built the most successful travel publishing business on the planet. by Tony and Maureen Wheeler - Most of you are probably familiar with the Lonely Planet travel guides. This is as the subtitle says, the story of how Maureen and Tony Wheeler and how they built up their empire. Sometime I dream about traveling around the world but for me, it will probably just remain a dream. But that doesn't mean I'm going to stop traveling. The first trip abroad was a road trip from London to Australia when it was still fairly safe to drive through countries like Iran and Afghanistan. It was the second extended trip that slowly brought them to fame as they were the first company to publish an extended travel guide to Southeast Asia which later became known as the Yellow Bible (the original cover was yellow). I must return to the book to see how it progresses. I've read up to the point where they set up a shop in the U.S. (Lonely Planet is based in Australia if you didn't know) and are finally turning a profit. I must say, I have supported them to by buying and using the Lonely Planet guides to Laos and Tunisia. And so ends another month of reading. Maybe I'll watch a few movies tomorrow too as it's my weekend!

Happy Reading!!