If a tree falls...

 The Silence of the Trees by Valya Dudycz Lupescu promised to draw me into the mysticism of gypsy magic and fortunetellers. Rather it drew me into a story about a woman named Nadya Lysenko who ran away from her home country of Ukraine to Chicago, which holds its own Ukraine village; during the aftermath of World War II. The back cover spoke of a gypsy's prophecy and it led me to believe that this would be yet another fictional tale written for pure entertainment and that literary amnesia that sometimes takes over with unmemorable tales. Instead Nadya made me feel the havoc that the beginning of World War II brought on so many people and made it personal. Her tale of her first love made me think of my own and I felt her pain so easily. The tale quickly brought me to a modern time of Urban Chicago. By chapter four I was reading the thoughts of a 70 year old Nadya, remembering her youth. I liked the fact that this novel was not written in chronological order. The fact that the first three chapters were written from the perspective of a sixteen year old Nadya made the narrator trustworthy to provide the basis of the story. While the flashback tactic used through the rest of the novel provided mature insight into Nadya's past and present. Having worked so hard to hide the pain and questionable adventures Nadya has become the identity she made for herself to be someone she thought her children, grandchildren and grand-grandchildren wanted her to be. However, the traditions and spirits of her past combined with the spiritual influences of her present enable her to slowly peel the layers of paint from the concrete wall of her past. Becoming who she used to be allowed her to finally become who she truly was. This novel not only left me anxious to read the next passage but in tears for the adversity that had to be fought throughout. More importantly, it left me nostalgic for my own country, for folklore and for tradition. Because we are nothing without our past.



~Timea Kernacova~

 

Could you ever be a Hangman?

The Hangman’s Daughter by Oliver Potzsch takes place in Germany, 1659.  The tale of the hangman is one of a man who has come to accept his life work as death.  Potzsch put much work and research into the details of a hangman’s job and the time and the outcome are scattered throughout the novel, but it is not the details of death that will keep you turning the pages.  Every character is developed meaningfully and continuously at every turn and the mystery grows deeper as the hangman works to save the life of woman who is deemed a witch by the town’s people.  Every character twists throughout the novel and often this they are twisting in the opposite manner than the plot is twisting, which makes for intriguing read.  Those who crave the rational will turn the pages as reason strings them along and those who crave the magical will turn the pages as they are all filled magic.  Although the novel is set a very long time ago the reader cannot help but be pulled into the plot and question life as they know it in the modern world.  ~Amy Widman~

                                     

A Howler Monkey and a Donkey

        I had the opportunity to read the latest offering by Yann Martel, the author of Life of Pi.  His latest book, entitled Beatrice and Virgil, involves a popular author, whose name is Henry.  To start this short novel, Henry had spent five years working on his latest book.  It was a different perspective on The Holocaust: Holocaust fiction.  He realized so much factual and historical non-fiction was written about The Holocaust, and he wanted to write a fictional take on it.  After submitting the initial offering to his publishers, he was flown to London. He thought his latest efforts would be praised.  They weren't.  

         He was flown to London to meet a firing squad.  Henry is told that his latest book would be a "flip-flop"; it lacked focus and drive, and would have a hard time selling.  Henry is devastated and moves away with his wife Sarah.  He continued to receive letters from people all over the world, praising his first book, asking questions, and telling him what certain parts of his book meant to them and how it helped them through rough times.  It kept him going.  He then received part of a play in the mail…the play is entitled Beatrice and Virgil.  The writer wanted help from Henry regarding how to make his play work.  The play is about a howler monkey and a donkey…and they are just talking.  The play was written by none other than a very serious-minded and elderly taxidermist. 

                The book proceeds along a projected path.  Throughout the book, I thought that the big payoff would be Henry finding inspiration to rewrite his Holocaust novel for his publishers.  It didn't quite turn out to be that way, but if you want to know the dénouement of this book, you'll have to read it for yourself.  I finished reading this novel, sleepily reading through pages on a Saturday morning, content that the story would end along the path I projected it would.  But it didn't…when Henry has his moment of realization, I was wide awake, and eagerly finished reading.  Pick it up…you won't be disappointed.

~Jason A. Wright~

Tell the Truth

            Eat Pray Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia is a memoir written by Elizabeth Gilbert, published in 2007 by Penguin Books. As a #1 New York Times Bestseller, it has been read by millions of people. Elizabeth Gilbert has worked as a journalist for GQ, New York Times Magazine, and Spin; she has published many different books and collections of stories; she has won many awards for writing. The movie Coyote Ugly was based on one of the articles she wrote for GQ about her experiences bartending on the Lower East side of Manhattan, and Eat Pray Love is the basis for the 'major motion picture' with the same name starring Julia Roberts.

            Eat Pray Love chronicles Gilbert's year of traveling and self-discovery following a harsh divorce. It is broken up into an introduction (called Introduction or How This Book Works or The 109^th Bead), the main text, and a Final Recognition and Reassurance section. As the introduction explains, the main text of the memoir is divided into three books: Book One: Italy or “Say It Like You Eat It” or 36 Tales About the Pursuit of Pleasure; Book Two: India or “Congratulations to Meet You” or 36 Tales About the Pursuit of Devotion; and Book Three: Indonesia or “Even in My Underpants, I Feel Different” or 36 Tales About the Pursuit of Balance. The introduction also explains why there are three parts in the book (each with three names), and why there are 108 (109 including the introduction) tales in the memoir: “...the number 108 is held to be most auspicious, a perfect three-digit multiple of three, its components adding up to nine, which is three threes. And three, of course, is the number representing supreme balance, as anyone who has ever studied either the Holy Trinity or a simple barstool can plainly see. (1)” 

            Japa malas, she explains, are the traditional strings of beads worn by ancient yogis which have—you guessed it, 108 beads in the necklace, with one extra hanging off as a pendant (the 109^th bead). Each bead represents one repetition of one's mantra, and according to Gilbert, when one's fingers reach this 'extra' bead, “...you are meant to pause from your absorption in meditation and thank your teachers. (2)” So, she starts here, with thanks, before she tells her story. She also includes a disclaimer in the introduction about which names have been changed and which ones have not, and why. Not mentioned in the text but ironic nonetheless is the fact that the entire book runs 334 pages long (333 plus one for thanks). Not unlike Gilbert’s prose, the organization of the text is meaningful. It is well-structured and symbolic of the themes of the story, while offering Gilbert's unique perspective of three distinctly different cultures' methods of survival in a linear, diary-esque, mixed tense format.

            Due to the book's extreme success, and the widespread exposure of its movie portrayal, there has been much controversy in the media about Eat Pray Love and by association, about Elizabeth Gilbert. Jan Moir of Daily Mail sums the criticism up well, claiming the book is an insult to women with real problems. According to Moir, “Elizabeth did not really take a year out to find herself following divorce and depression. She took a year out to write a book about finding herself, and there is an enormous emotional difference between those two experiences.” Moir's point is trifold: since Gilbert's publisher had assigned her to write the book and in fact Gilbert had already been paid for it before embarking on her journey, it should not be considered a brave, groundbreaking piece; Gilbert's life really wasn't that bad in the first place to warrant such a trek; and even though Gilbert's year of discovery is characterized by a vow of celibacy, the story is basically just a “long, smug, search for a boyfriend. (www.dailymail.co.uk)”

            Though Gilbert may appear to be more 'lucky' or 'privileged' than the rest of us that suffer from problems similar to the ones she chronicles, her ‘luck’ in being paid to write this book (and in turn, embark on this spiritual quest) is only a result of the hard work she has done writing and the obvious talent she possesses. Her words are worthwhile, her insight profound, her fortune is fleeting (she loses everything she's worked her entire life for in divorce), and she is a good person who is genuinely trying to find peace in her heart. The story isn't meant to be a happily ever after, but rather a telling of her very personal discovery process along the road to her version of 'happy.'

Everyone's truth is different; and there is a quote from Sheryl Louise Moller before the introduction that serves as a testament to Gilbert's dedication to her personal version of truth: “Tell the truth, tell the truth, tell the truth.” The story's worth lies not in serving as a catchall 'how to' guide for happiness, but rather as a telling of an altogether common predicament ('I've worked hard to get everything I thought I wanted, and now I'm miserable.') dealt with in a very uncommon (and arguably unrealistic to most) fashion. Gilbert portrays her quest for pleasure, devotion, and balance between the two extremes through excellent creative nonfiction skills: constant mixing of information with ‘the mind at work’; a well-balanced mix of scene, summary, and reflection; storytelling (literally telling 108 stories); assayer; recursiveness; compelling and likable voice; and extremely vivid sensory details. And above all, as CNF’s ultimate goal is to convey emotional truth (which is by nature, extremely subjective) Gilbert's memoir is a consistently honest account of the emotional truth her unique set of circumstances has created in her. 

            On page 35, Gilbert clearly states that her publisher is funding her trip: “...I can actually afford to do this because of a staggering personal miracle: in advance, my publisher has purchased the book I shall write about my travels.” So, we see, she is not at all trying to hide this fact from her audience; this fact does not cheapen the story—it is a part of her story. Later, while in Italy, she emphasizes her 'luckiness', when considering all she has given up in this unconventional pursuit of contentment (the promise of children, a nuclear family): “I'm lucky that at least I have my writing...So now I have started living my own life. Imperfect and clumsy as it may look, it is resembling me now, thoroughly. (95)”

            In Italy, Gilbert's main agenda is to pleasure-seek. She does this largely through food and drink, and her descriptions of food are vivid and often surprising. Of Bologna (the city): “The mushrooms here are like big thick sexy tongues, and the prosciutto drapes over pizzas like a fine lace veil draping over a fancy lady's hat. (98)” While in Italy, she begins to tackle depression, a tender, abstract subject which she manages to illustrate almost as beautifully as the food:

            When you're lost in those woods, it sometimes takes you a while to realize that you are lost. For        the longest time, you can convince yourself that you've just wandered a few feet off the path,     that you'll find your way back to the trailhead any moment now. Then night falls again and    again, and you still have no idea where you are, and it's time to admit that you have bewildered   yourself so far off the path that you don't even know from which direction the sun rises        anymore. (48)

            Gilbert mixes facts and information in throughout, saying of Syracuse: “Plato thought it would be the ideal location for a utopian experiment where perhaps 'by some divine fate' rulers might become philosophers, and philosophers might become rulers. Historians say that rhetoric was invented in Syracuse, and also (and this is just a minor thing) plot. (113)” It is clear she has educated herself on the places she travels to, and the facts don't come off in a mundane way, as her voice and sense of irony are so strong.

            As her time in India comes to an end, Gilbert questions the boundaries of pleasure-seeking, displaying the ‘mind at work’ and assayer: “...is it so awful to travel through time with no greater ambition than to find the next lovely meal? ...Or to nap in a garden, in a patch of sunlight, in the middle of the day, right next to your favorite fountain? And then to do it again the next day? (113)” Gilbert is directly involving the reader by asking these open-ended questions, while at the same time adding depth to her humanity—like most people, she has many more questions than answers. She recursively comes to this same question over and over again throughout the last story in this section, and after detailing the war-fraught and corrupt Italian history, comes to this conclusion-resembling realization: “Because the world is so corrupted, misspoken, unstable, exaggerated and unfair, one should trust only what one can experience with one's own senses, and this makes the senses stronger in Italy than anywhere in Europe. To devote yourself to the creation and enjoyment of beauty, then, can be a serious business...(114-115)” Trying to justify her relative existence through this constant evaluation of self in the context of learned facts about the world she finds herself in further emphasizes the fact that Gilbert is genuinely searching for truth. 

            Gilbert stays in her Guru's Ashram in India, setting out to explore truth from the opposite side of the spectrum than she did in pleasure-soaked Italy—the art of happiness via devotion from a Yogic standpoint: “The Yogic path is about disentangling the built-in glitches of the human condition, which I'm going to over-simply define here as the heartbreaking inability to sustain contentment. (122)” Gilbert's descriptions of the people she meets at the Ashram are especially memorable, of a teenage Indian boy: “He dressed the way the computer-interested boys in my junior high school used to dress for band concerts—dark trousers, and an ironed white button-down shirt that was far too big for him, his thin, stemlike neck sticking out of the opening like a single daisy popping out of a giant flowerpot. (127)”

            Gilbert is also extremely skilled at portraying characters through dialogue, which she most notably does with Richard from Texas, the reformed junkie/alcoholic turned Yogi and best friend whom she meets in the Ashram. Of his initial skepticism toward the Guru, Richard says, “'I thought the Ashram was the weirdest thing I ever saw, and I was wondering where the room was where you have to give 'em all your money and turn over the deed to your house and car, but that never did happen...(139)”

            Throughout all three books of the main text but most notably in India as she struggles with meditation, Gilbert transcribes conversations she has with herself, interweaving them into her stories as literal passages of her mind at work. For anyone who has tried to meditate with any sincerity or has just simply taken a moment to recognize the absolutely random path a thought can take, it is easy to relate to these often humorous interactions Gilbert has with herself. When introducing these segments, she is sure to use qualifying language (we obviously do not always remember exactly, word for word, what happens in the dialogue of our minds): “...the conversations between me and my mind during meditation generally go something like this: (134)”

            With all this devotion and no worldly pleasure, Gilbert reveals her weakness in that she is continuing to dwell on the man she dated after separating from her husband: “It's all I can do not to jump out of this bed and call him from India in the middle of the night and just—I don't know what—just hang up on him, probably. Or beg him to love me again. Or read him such a ferocious indictment on all his character flaws. (147)” She is continuing to struggle; she certainly is not painting a picture of herself as a woman with all the answers, or of someone who is being rational (which of course, is very human). She is mad at herself for not being able to exorcise this from her thoughts, and thus it is ever the more consuming.

            Gilbert grapples with the blurry boundary between free will and fate in the context of achieving a higher meditative state, and after much persistence, she does achieve a state of transcendental meditation. She demystifies it, saying it was not euphoric, but: “It was just obvious. Like when you've been looking at an optical illusion for a long time straining your eyes to decode the trick, and suddenly your cognizance shifts and there—now you can clearly see it!—the two vases are actually two faces.” Gilbert has a way, as seen here, of lassoing almost hopelessly abstract concepts and synthesizing them into words that allow her readers a basis of comparison.

            The last leg of Gilbert's journey is spent in Bali, where she strives to take the things she's learned about pleasure and devotion and incorporate them into one solitary and balanced way of being. Bali itself is given distinct character traits through Gilbert's descriptions of its geography, history, and culture: “It has been estimated that a typical Balinese woman spends one-third of her waking hours either preparing for a ceremony, participating in a ceremony or cleaning up after a ceremony. (226)” It is obvious that the life of a Manhattan-based, accomplished journalist (and for that matter, many of Gilbert's readers) is very different than the life of a Balinese woman.

            While in Bali, Gilbert meets a man named Felipe for whom she eventually breaks her vow of celibacy. She is not meditating anywhere near as much as she was in India, and after Felipe becomes her lover, she stops her daily ritual of spending her mornings with Ketut Liyer, her medicine man friend and the main reason she came to Bali. She tells us this not because she is proud of it, but because it is true: “I'm losing days here, disappearing under his sheets, under his hands. I like the feeling of not knowing what the date is. My nice organized schedule has been blown away by the breeze. (295)” She is unapologetic and honest about how fully she loses her time to this man, and it is clear to the reader by this point that she has gained much sense of self to allow herself enjoyment in love after a year and a half of celibacy. Gilbert's ever-expanding and extremely open mind allows for the possibility of breaking her own rules, and the book does end with her 'finding a boyfriend.' Because that is what truly happened to her at the end of her journey.

            So, is Eat Pray Love a valid search for “Everything”, even though the book itself was an assignment; a job, essentially? Absolutely. Gilbert's impressive handle of language combined with her ability to relate to essentially human experiences is hugely valid. No, she hasn't been oppressed or held hostage like too many women have been across the globe, but everything is relative, and she speaks to the many women who do struggle with the same types of things she does. She is honest with her readers about the circumstances leading up to the creation of this memoir, and there is no doubt she deserved this opportunity to find herself through the one thing that did work for her while her personal life was in shambles: writing. Sure there are people worse off than her, but the “little” things (divorce, depression, imbalance) she is seeking solace from are huge obstacles for millions of people's lives. A refusal to conform to society in favor of soul-searching around the world—even if experimental, even if being compensated for it—when documented as Gilbert does, holds much worth for many people regardless of any other factors. She is telling a story; a true story. Maybe it's because Gilbert's life isn't terribly 'hard' in relation to many that she is able to dwell on trivial things such as 'divorce' and 'being truly happy in life'. It doesn't mean that her story is uninteresting or offensive. Maybe so many women relate because they, too, are that magical combination of 'privileged' and 'miserable'. 

~Amanda Pratt~

Always Running: La Vida Loca

          Luis J. Rodriguez's Always Running: La Vida Loca, Gang Days in LA is a raw, violent, and emotional account of growing up Chicano and poor in the shadows of one of America's most glamorous cities. What is perhaps the most unnerving part of Rodriguez's narrative is not the violence (which we expect after the title) nor is it the brutality, the cheapness of life and death, or the deprivation of urban American life-a theme that contemporary readers may very well be weary of, as even this "edgy" type of writing can fall into its own cliché-but rather lies in Rodriguez's frank vulnerability. He writes unnervingly about his own failures and failings: as a father, as a man, as an individual, with a stark and honest brutality that is both shocking and heartbreaking. In the 2005 preface to the new edition, Rodriguez writes:

"I was not a good father or a good son, but I learned. I was not a good poet, but I never stopped writing. I couldn't put two words together when I spoke, but now no one can shut me up. I had a hard time dealing with my addiction, my rages, but somehow, some way, I overcame them. The fact is I failed at everything I  tried to do but I kept working at it, failing some more, not giving up, so that eventually, at age 51, I've begun to center my life, get control over my destructive impulses, and become someone my wife, my kids, my grandchildren, and my community can learn from and respect."

          This is not a story about triumph; it is story about survival. But then again, perhaps surviving gang days in LA is its own triumph, complete with the honesty of failure and faltering. This is a story of loss and of deep grieving. Given all this, then, we may ask why this text is one of the most widely taught novels in Latin@ Literature. It is not just that Rodriguez gives us a vision of something simple, and true and unnerving, nor is it that he presents some universal narrative of triumph or of the human condition. Rather, it seems that this novel does something that is increasingly rare in our contemporary culture: it takes ownership. Rodriguez does not hide from the violence of his past; he does not make excuses for the way that violence ripples out beyond his own life. Instead, he creates a weapon of a novel, and asks his readers to take it up unflinchingly.
~Dr. Lorna L. Perez~

"Flight" by Sherman Alexie

A Native American boy, Michael, better known as Zits throughout the book, has gone through a series of foster homes.  He breaks out of his latest one after assaulting his foster parents, and is arrested by two cops who know him very well after arresting him on many previous occasions.  In the juvenile detention facility, he meets a white boy whose only name is Justice, who teaches Zits to fire guns.

Zits walks into a bank with two loaded ones…a paintball gun, and a real gun.  He shoots a lot of people in the bank, and ends up getting shot in the head by the bank guard.  After that, he goes through a series of flashbacks of the atrocities committed by and against Native Americans in which he plays a role in the killing of others.  The last role he plays is that of his own father, who is a drunk and homeless Native American.  After that, it flashes back to the bank, before he pulls out the weapons.  He finds the two officers who arrested him before, and tells him to take the guns away from him before he does something bad with them.  After that, he finds a foster home that he can live with.

I really do like the level of fun that, as a Native American himself, Alexie is able to poke fun at his own culture, and yet, show the atrocities and the negativity surrounding how America has treated (and continues to treat) Native American tribes, from the "Trail of Tears" that was motivated by then-President Andrew Jackson, to the modern-day government bureau of Indian Affairs. He maintains this while making Michael a very solid character based on his race, his personality, and his circumstances; many people, regardless of their walks of life, can appreciate what Michael is going through.  This book is a very good read for anyone!

~Jason A. Wright~

Reexamining Thomas More's "Utopia"

        I have a friend; actually he is more like a brother, that I have countless conversations with in regards to politics, culture, history, literature, music, and the like. We get together regularly in an attempt to discuss and solve all of the problems in our society and in the world as well. To help me along with the daunting task (which he assigned me during one of our meetings where I kept coming to the conclusion that all of our economic problems were systemic) of formulating the next post-Capitalist economic paradigm, my friend suggested that I re-read Utopia in a newly published translation from the original Latin.

         When having discussions like the ones that my friend and I often have, one becomes enamored with ideals that are Utopian in nature...what if this or that was perfect. Utopia, in our modern discussions, has taken on the meaning of an unobtainable and perfect society that is devoid of all problems. While the island society in More's book of the same name is sold to us as such by its narrative proponent, Raphael Hythloday, the society itself is built upon some things that we moderns would not really look at as being so “good” or perfect. First off, there is legal slavery on the island. Secondly, there is a cultural/racial homogeneity of population on the island that is rigidly enforced by law as new outsiders aren't regularly allowed in. Finally, the rights of the individual are not very important here outside of the role that the individual performs within Utopian Society. All of these things can be quite problematic for the modern reader of More.

      On the positive side, the Utopian society operates in a fashion that discourages greed and excess. The society is generally peaceful but can defend itself, even viciously, if necessary. Utopia is a place where no one wants for anything and all in society work towards the common goal of keeping everyone on the island fed, clothed, sheltered, at peace, and generally pretty happy and conflict free. Justice is determined by judges that are brought in from other countries so as not to have any biases towards one side or another in a dispute. In general, Utopia as a place seems like an ideal place to live. 

      The word utopia translates from the Latin into “no place.” In short, More was telling us of a place that did not exist as if it did exist in reality. This ideal fictional society, and the ways in which More chooses to set it up, makes Utopia an excellent read for those that are looking for ways to make our society and world a better place in which to live. This book can be looked at as both a history of philosophical thought (at the very beginning of the development of Western, post-enlightenment, democratic thought) as well as an examination of politics and human nature. In short, I would recommend this book to anyone as a starting point for discussion on politics, economics, and philosophy.

~Roy W. Bakos~

A Child Called "It"

          David Pelzer’s story is one of the most severe cases documented of child abuse in California. This novel is the first of a series describing the horrific events of the child’s abuse. Although it is “easy to read” in literary terms the content makes it difficult to get through. It was difficult to understand how such a caring mother turned into a monster when alcoholism took over. David described her as beautiful when she put on makeup and made up her hair for a day in the park or an eloquently planned day-trip, made so just for the happiness of her children.  The “Den Mother” of the cub scouts quickly turned into a raging animal as she starved David and when he stole food during lunch hour made him throw it up and eat it again. She devised many torture mechanisms even more disturbing, such as a gas-chamber made of combined chemicals which quickly fumed up the bathroom in a poisoning cloud.

          One may think that the parents divorced, but the Father lived at home, witnessing these events. The father also succumbed to the disease of alcoholism and in his deadly stupor of a cycle he remained a by-stander as David silently pleaded for help. Eventually all members of the family began seeing David as an “It” as if the blue eyed brown eyed experiment all over again.

          As written from the eyes of a child many argue that the novel lacks the emotion that is necessary for this topic, but I believe it was written so because David had to become detached and had to rid of his emotions to survive and thus we get this cold account of abuse. Even though there are further contradictions and controversies regarding the series such as the question of how true it really is, I don’t believe it really matters. Children are being abused every day all over the world; in 2007 the overall rate of child fatalities was 2.35 deaths per 100,000 children. So even if David Pelzer concocted some facts, or not at all, it is important to have literature like this to raise awareness of child abuse. I recommend this book to all current or future teachers because they are the links from the home to the classroom, but prepare yourself to grimace and cover your eyes as you read this heart wrenching account.

~Timea Kernacova~ 

The Arabian Nights - Author Unknown, as translated by Husain Haddawy

             The Arabian Nights is an unknown classic.  A book that should have its cover opened as often as Hamlet. As the door and window to much of the unknown, this novel has many incredible points that not only makes it an academically fascinating novel, but a novel anyone can enjoy.  The first thing to be mentioned is the aspect of storytelling.  The book is a literal page turner because the novel focuses so beautifully on the aspect of storytelling.  While you may not be enthralled with the actual story; you will be motivated to turn the page and continue reading if only because the story you are reading requires an end.  Built into the general story is this matter.  In order for our narrator, Shahrazad, to stay alive she must keep a solid level of anticipation to simply live one more day.  Of course the beauty of this story is that Shahrazad is not telling stories so she may not die, but so others do not have to die because of her continued life.  The stories are already built around anticipation and they are done so in a marvelous way.  

            No other novel I have read has been able to keep a level of anticipation throughout an entire book in such a simple but beautiful way.  Then we come to the actual stories themselves.  The stories are simple, folk tales.  We may even be able to find a similar tale from our childhood or our religion.  Any person can keep up with these stories as they are masterfully simple.  What may not be realized right away is what is beyond the simplicity of these stories.  Behind each story is a piece to a culture, a people, a religion, something that has seemingly become a dead mystery.  We are able to see an entire ancient world open before our eyes.  This novel has no author because no one author could re-create an entire culture on their own.  I find myself at a loss of words for the entity of what these stories create for all who open the pages and read.  It is something that can only be understood through the reading of this novel.         

          This novel was not written recently, in fact, it is based on a 14th century manuscript.  What you may hold in your hands if you choose to is the essence of life as it was and the meaning and background behind so many other texts that came after it.  If I can give any piece of advice it is that you should not wait until you are required to read this text, it can be read in so many different ways.  You should enjoy as you see fit, because tomorrow you can pick the book up and read it a different way and continue to see the mastery behind every story and every page. 

~Amy Widman~

All But My Life by Gerda Weissmann Klein

          I have found it to be true that one of the pinnacle reasons so many of us are drawn toward literature is that we find a common spark of humanity igniting on the pages below our eyes, and it is there, in that revelation, that we are bought and sold all at the same time to this ideal. We realize that through the written word, someone else’s story can have a significant impact on our own. Not every book has this voice. Not every author can speak with it. Gerda Weissmann Klein, however, summons it in All But My Life.

         All But My Life is a memoir of a girl in her teens during the Holocaust being taken first from her home, then from her family, until she is left quite literally with only her life. As Gerda tells her story, there is courage, hope, contemplation of suicide, miraculous triumph, and great love. She tells of her parents love as they talked on the last night they were ever to be together. She tells of the horrors of a death march from Germany to Czechoslovakia, when a group of 2,000 girls slowly became 150, and when her dearest childhood friend died in her arms a week before being liberated. 
When I finished this book, I began to wonder why more books don’t carry such an impact. But not every author has a story to tell like Gerda’s, and Gerda makes it her duty to tell the stories of those forgotten in mass graves, ditches, and crematoria. 
        All But My Life doesn’t look for sympathy, and it doesn’t raise a loud noise for us to take into account the atrocities of the past. Rather, it sits us down and tells us of things that happened, and inspires us with the courage and hope that overcame it all. Gerda was left to tell her story and the stories of others who no longer can. Stories that ended lost—obscure in the vast population of the dead, but remembered and quickened once again so that they might never be forgotten. 

~Kevin Kaminski~ 

Forged by Fire

Forged by Fire by Sharon Draper is an outstanding book, both for classroom applications and for casual readers.  Gerald, the protagonist, is thrust into the home of his abusive stepfather, Jordan Sparks, after his Aunt Queen, who has provided him for a loving household the past several years, dies of a heart attack.  Jordan verbally and physically abuses Gerald and his mother Monique, while he also sexually molests Gerald's half-sister Angel.  Throughout the novel, Gerald is very protective of Angel against Jordan and from his drug and alcohol addicted mother.  The term "Forged by Fire" is very appropriate to this book, as readers will come to find out. 

In regards to classroom applications, I have seen several aspects that can be used.   There is a strong male protagonist, as well as a strong male role model.  There are children growing up in a lower income household, in non-traditional family settings.  There are parents/step-parents in jail. There is an abusive character, a neglectful character who also suffers from drug and alcohol abuse, and two women who suffer from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and Battered Woman's syndrome from the abuse they have taken.  There is also a theme of literacy; how influenced a male can be when reading is reinforced and when reading is neglected.  Based on the abuse material, a lot can be drawn into a classroom setting to explore themes that may be prevalent in many students' lives; characters they can relate to either directly or indirectly.

It is for these reasons, and of course, for the pleasure of reading, that I wholeheartedly recommend this book both for the casual reader and for the teacher looking for new material in his or her classroom.

-          ~Jason Wright~