Books - Book Review - The Heart of the Happy Hollow - Paul Dunbar

This collection of stort stories counts as my BODY PART in the title of the What's In A Name 2 Reading Challenge.

Paul Dunbar was the son of slaves, but he was very lucky by receiving a great education. He wrote about the African-American experience during Reconstruction.

I recently complained that Gone with the Wind really didn't give voice to the lives of the former slaves and any thoughts that they had.

Well, this collection is complete opposite. White people appear, but they are not central to the plot.

But, you must be prepared for the writing. When the African-Americans speak, what is written down is their version of English. It will take concentration to read these portions, so don't be tired or sleepy when you pick up this book.

My two favorite stories are: The Triumph of Ol' Mis' Pease and The Interference of Patsy Ann.

Mis' Pease was a church lady. She divorced her husband and he remarried too quickly for her tastes. Everyone took sides in the matter and she managed to bother the 2nd wife, without seeming to be un-Christian-like. The final revenge happened when Mis' Pease died. I was laughing so loudly! (If you want to know what happens, shot me an email. I don't want to give more away.)

Patsy Ann is the oldest daughter, raising her siblings, since her mom died. One day, a neighbor tells her to make sure that her dad doesn't remarry, otherwise the stepmother will be evil. She and the children run away (but not too far, since they didn't pack much to eat or drink) and later meet a nice lady, who tells them that not all stepparents are horrible.

There are also stories of men: a farmer becomes successful, despite not accepting the offer of help from his former master, a politician starts off with good intentions, but is corrupted by power, and the homecoming of a resident of a small town who graduated from college. Plus, 12 other stories are in this collection.

These stories give an idea of what it was like living in freedom, with the pleasure of making decisions and living with the consequences of those choices.

A great read for anytime of the year!

A bit restless

When the summer approaches, I usually hibernate and read books about cold places, but I am starting a bit earlier this year. And, I am also reading more than one book at a time.



Joseph Boyden - Three Day Road - A Canadian-Cree leaves his cold part of Canada and goes off to France to fight in WWI. He's cold in Europe and when he returns home and travels by canoe to his home, he is also cold.



Valentin Rasputin - Money for Maria - Stories - Kuzman who lives in Siberia, needs to get some money so his wife isn't sent away to the really bad part of Siberia.



I am just on the first story, it's only October, and the wind is really picking up!



The Long Walk - Slamomir Rawicz

Rawicz and six other guys escape from a labor camp in Siberia during WWII. And they walk to northern India!



I found a BBC link that disputes this memoir. So, I am still thinking about it.

I have also reserved two books from the library. I hope that I get them!

Books - Book Review - Unimagined - Imran Ahmad

Reading this memoir counts as my May event for the 2009 Mini Challenge - A Novel Challenge: reading non-fiction.


Imran Ahmad is not a rock star, not an inventor, not an important politician, but he wanted to write a work about bridging the two worlds that he knows: The West, as represented by the UK and the United States (and mostly Christian world) and Pakistan and the rest of the East, where Islam is the main religion.





He grew up in London, always thinking about the afterlife and its implications in not being a Christian. As he grew older, he realized what Islam meant and how he could live in West.


His story is an excellent story of being first generation immigrant. Although he was born in Pakistan, he moved to England at such a young age, that the main cultural influence was the UK.
Beside achieving the goal of explaining Islam to the Western readers, this memoir is a funny and sometimes sad story of a boy and young man trying to keep his feet in two worlds, by trying to please and make his family proud of him while also trying to do something to make him happy in life.


His tales of nasty cafeteria food, attempts of trying to fit in , his love of Star Trek and other sci-fi, his joy of learning, the pressures of being the first born child paving the way for younger siblings seem to parallel my own experiences, of growing up first-generation. However, I grew up Catholic in a mainly Catholic city, and I really didn't encounter the amount of prejudice that he did. His life was more difficult, in that sense, more than mine.


As a Londoner, he had never really travelled beyond the city. He was shocked at the northern English accents that he encountered at Stirling University in Scotland and felt it didn't sound correct. He had problems understanding the Scottish accents, but he didn't feel the same snobbiness as when he heard the northerners speak.


This autobiography is not written in the usual manner. It is written in snapshots or short recollections of memories. You don't read about the mundane, the commutes to school, all the studying that he did, all the meals that he ate, what he did on the plane rides to Pakistan, and so on.


I like the format, short and sweet, with some way of relating to the matter of acquainting everyone of his experiences.


Imran Ahmad will continue to write about his life after age 25, where this memoir stops. It will be interesting to read about his experiences in the corporate world and whether living in the US was what he was expecting.


Check out my post about his book tour and his site for more information about his adventures.

Books - Book Review - Gone with the Wind - Martha Mitchell

This is my second book for the 2009 TBR Lite Challenge.

While I was reading this novel, I couldn't put it down. Despite having watched the movie 10 times over the years and knowing how it would end, I kept plugging.

The main differences that I found between the novel and the movies are:

1. Scarlett had one child with each of her 3 husbands.
2. Scarlett is more selfish than shown in the movie.
3. Ashley wasn't so noble.
4. And, of course, the details that couldn't be put in the movie.

The main thing that I didn't like about the novel is that it really didn't consider the evils of slavery. All the white people (except for Scarlett and Rhett) whined about the past and missed the old life and couldn't adjust to it.

In Chapter XXXI, Ashley and Scarlett were living at Tara after the Civil War. He says, "It isn't that I mind splitting logs here in the mud, but I do mind what it stands for. I do mind, very much the loss of beauty of the old life I loved...There was a glamour to it, a perfection and a completeness and a symmetry to it like Grecian art. Maybe it wasn't so to everyone. I know that now...And now it is gone and I am out of place in this new life, and now I am afraid."

A bit whiny, yes, but MAN UP, Ashley. Take care of your family. Don't let Scarlett do everything.

Another thing is Scarlett's turnaround from vapid coquette to shrewd businesswoman. Sometimes I do think it's possible, because her mom was also rather vapid and later managed both personnel and monetary matters at Tara. And her vow to "to live through this, and when it's over, I'm never going to be hungry again..If I have to steal or kill - as God is my witness, I'm never going to be hungry again."

And other times, I just couldn't believe that she could learn so much so quickly. Was she just using 1% of her brain power before the Civil War and it jumped up after the war? Or was Mitchell taking creative license with this personality trait? I am still wondering about this.

When I was in school, I learned that the North had superior industrial strength. Hints of this was evident in the novel. Paper was missed quickly. When Scarlett's father wrote to her, he reused her stationery, and answered her letter by writing between the lines. Women didn't have access to new bolts of cloth to have dresses made. Coffee was now made from corn and yams, without sugar and cream. Corn pone, made of corn and butter, and baked in a pan, was a common meal during the war and afterwards.

Despite my dislike of the viewpoint of the novel, it gave a glimpse to the end of an era and how people react to changes in life.

Click here and here for some historical comments that I made about Gone with the Wind.

Books - Book Review - Inverted World - Christopher Priest

Some bloggers are reading titles from NYRB press, so I was tempted to try one that hadn't been reviewed yet.

The Inverted World takes place in a future on a planet that is terran-like but may not be Earth.

Going foward, on a track, that is dismantled. Keep on moving, year after year.

The civilized people of the CITY live in a moveable world. They trade (itmes and labor) with the other people that they meet and sometime mate with them, but they try not to have much to do with the others.

The world has to keep moving away from the south to avoid being crushed by gravity. The engineers who travel to the north to map out the route for the city notice that time passes differently from the city people.

The CITY is organized in guilds but it's not the same as the old Earth guilds. All the guilds have the purpose of keeping the CITY alive and moving.

The novel mainly follows Helward, from the time he is a teen to adulthood. He sometimes remembers his earlier life and tells the readers about it. And describes what he has to do to attain a top position in the guild.

I was gripped by this work. I wanted to stay up all night to finish it and find out what happens to everyone in this world.

I need to re-read to catch the finer points.

Books - Lecture by Imran Ahmad - author of Unimagined

This event counts as my April event for the 2009 Mini-Challenge: Go to a Book Event: attending a lecture about Unimagined.

Months ago, I read an interesting review and interview about Imran Ahmad's biography on Trevor's blog. Trevor had such a positive blog that I added Ahmad's work on my TBR pile.

A few weeks ago, I was happy to hear that he was coming to New Orleans to speak! (Although the church isn't far from my home, it's another world. This neighborhood was badly, badly flooded in the Katrina, and I hadn't been there since 2005. The streets have so many potholes and little hills, that I felt like I was on a roller coaster. Really, really bad! I was afraid of having a flat tire, but my love of books made me determined to fight the horrid roads and not turn back.

Check the April 8th entry for his impressions of the neighborhood.)

The church was full of members and there was a nice interaction between Ahmad and the audience.

His talk was in three parts: talking about Islam, reading funny portions of Unimagined, and answering questions about the writing process and future works.

When he started his talk, he wanted it mentioned that he is a member of the British Muslims for Secular Democracies. He emphasized the point that not Muslims are terrorists, just as in the West, not everyone believes in the same things. He noticed that many people (including Muslims) don't realize that there are many factions of Islam; in a similar manner, there are many factions in the West (including Christianity). Anyone who does not bother to find out what is going on to cause the factions and the viewpoints of the "other side" belongs to the "Lazy Tribalism" group, that polarizes and dehumanizes people who don't believe what one follows.

In the second part, he read portions of his book. Including how he could barely stand up when this picture was taken, how cute everyone said he was, etc. But, despite all that, he lost the Bonnie Baby Contest in Karachi, Pakistan, because the judges were friends with the parents of the girl who won!

He later relayed the story of losing out to the last serving of his favorite lunch, fish and chips, to a boy who skipped the line, and he was left with eating some horrid meal.

There were more passages read, each one funnier than the previous one. Ahmad prefaced each section with a memory to

make us understand the context and had us all in stitches.

In the last part, he told us the process of writing his memoir: After reading Paulo Coehlo's The Alchemist, he was inspired to follow the purpose of his life. He started by writing for 1/2 hour, read the result and decided it wasn't too bad, and continued on. He spent most of Christmas 2005 and New Year's 2006 writing and finished by February 2006. The writing process was very joyful to him before and not a chore at all.

Now came the difficult part: getting published. After not having much success on this front, he decided to self publish and sent a copy to anyone he felt who like to read it. The most influential person to receive a copy was Scott Pack, the former Buying Manager: Waterstone’s (one of the biggest booksellers in the UK) ,who suggested a literary agent.

I think that I asked whether he had heard from some of the people that he wrote about. Ahmad said yes and some were upset that he didn't use their real names. He couldn't find them and felt it was not appropiate without their permissions. In future editions of Unimagined, this might be corrected. Another person wanted to read more; he said the second part should be published in the near future.

Ahmad also answered some more questions about Islam and his belief that his work can help others understand what Islam really means.

Afterwards, I spoke to him briefly and promised to buy his book. I also mentioned that I read Trevor's review and he remembers speaking to Trevor for the interview.

I highly recommend that you listen to him speak, if you have the chance. You will learn about Islam and learn about life for a 1st generation UKer.