By Barbara Kingsolver
Two characters, separated by 150 years, but share the same space, are the heroes of this book. One of them interacts with an actual historic figure, Mary Treat, and the other learns about her through her attempts to save her home. As with many of her books, there's a lot of complexities and discussion of social issues. One thing that bothered me a little was her discussion on corsets, which seemed a bit misinformed, which is very uncharacteristic of her. [462 pp.]
Link to book
Friday, August 30, 2019
Saturday, August 17, 2019
War and Turpentine
By Stefan Hertmans
A powerful story of war and love. Love between a child and his grandfather; a son and his parents; a man and a woman who dies too young. Love for painting. This is based on the life of the grandfather of the author, and part of the book is some sort of relay of the stories written by the grandfather of his life during WWI. This part was hard for me to read. I felt relieved to finish that section. I love the way the author writes about his discovery of his grandfather's life. We often think we know people, but when they're from a different generation, we don't always know what their lives have been before we were born, and we might discover things about them that really surprise us. Reading this book felt like that. A journey of discovery of a man we know nothing about (unlike the author), and grow to love.
Link to book
This story actually inspired me to paint something based on a scene in the grandfather's story. At the beginning of the war he sees a German zeppelin in the sky, and likens it to a weirdly-shaped fish.
A powerful story of war and love. Love between a child and his grandfather; a son and his parents; a man and a woman who dies too young. Love for painting. This is based on the life of the grandfather of the author, and part of the book is some sort of relay of the stories written by the grandfather of his life during WWI. This part was hard for me to read. I felt relieved to finish that section. I love the way the author writes about his discovery of his grandfather's life. We often think we know people, but when they're from a different generation, we don't always know what their lives have been before we were born, and we might discover things about them that really surprise us. Reading this book felt like that. A journey of discovery of a man we know nothing about (unlike the author), and grow to love.
Link to book
This story actually inspired me to paint something based on a scene in the grandfather's story. At the beginning of the war he sees a German zeppelin in the sky, and likens it to a weirdly-shaped fish.
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