And The Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini

And The Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini
Published May 2013 by Riverhead Books
Narrators:  Khaled Hosseini, Navid Nagahban, Shohreh Aghdashloo
Source: my audio copy purchased at my local library book sale

Publisher's Summary:
In this tale revolving around not just parents and children but brothers and sisters, cousins and caretakers, Hosseini explores the many ways in which families nurture, wound, betray, honor, and sacrifice for one another; and how often we are surprised by the actions of those closest to us, at the times that matter most. Following its characters and the ramifications of their lives and choices and loves around the globe—from Kabul to Paris to San Francisco to the Greek island of Tinos—the story expands gradually outward, becoming more emotionally complex and powerful with each turning page.


My Thoughts:
Read that summary and find yourself still wondering what this book is about? That's because And The Mountains Echoed is not so much a novel as a series of interconnected stories, with characters appearing and reappearing throughout the book. In the background runs the story of Abdullah and his sister, Pari.

Abdullah, 10 when the book begins, has raised Pari, 3, since their mother died giving birth to her and their father sank into a depression. Desperate poverty, and a connection through his new wife's brother, result in the children's father selling Pari to a childless couple in Kabul.

From there, the stories fan out, including Abdullah's family and the people involved with the house in Kabul - Pari's new mother, Nila, who flees to Paris with Pari to pursue a life she could not have in Afghanistan; Pari's new father who stays in Kabul, harboring a secret that could get him killed and cared for until his death by Pari's step-uncle whose guilt at setting up the sale of Pari will haunt him to his death;  the foreign doctors and nurses who came to the country care the victims of the violence tearing apart the country; Gholam, Abdullah's half-brother,'s son, who will tie the story back to what became of Abdullah's poor village in light of the wars; and then back to Abdullah, who lives out his life as the owner of Abe's Kabob House in California and who never stops missing his sister.

As with most collections, some stories are not as strong, less interesting and with characters that more are strictly good or bad. Perhaps that comes from Hosseini's own experience with the struggles that Afghanistan has been through since before the Russians invaded.  For the most part, the characters and stories are nuanced and beautifully told. Hosseini brings the larger sorrows of his country down to an intimate level, easier for

The narration is a bit tricky. All three narrators speak heavily-accented English and it can take a bit to fall into their rhythm and inflection. Yet, as this is a book about Afghanis, their voices lend a much more authentic feel to the stories, pulling readers thoroughly into the country.

The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead

The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead
Published August 2016 by Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Source: my copy courtesy of the publisher through Netgalley

Publisher's Summary (abridged):
Cora is a slave on a cotton plantation in Georgia. Life is hell for all the slaves, but especially bad for Cora; an outcast even among her fellow Africans, she is coming into womanhood—where even greater pain awaits. When Caesar, a recent arrival from Virginia, tells her about the Underground Railroad, they decide to take a terrifying risk and escape. . Though they manage to find a station and head north, they are being hunted.

In Whitehead’s ingenious conception, the Underground Railroad is no mere metaphor—engineers and conductors operate a secret network of tracks and tunnels beneath the Southern soil. Cora and Caesar’s first stop is South Carolina, in a city that initially seems like a haven. But Ridgeway, the relentless slave catcher, is close on their heels. Forced to flee again, Cora embarks on a harrowing flight, state by state, seeking true freedom.

My Thoughts:
Publisher's walk a fine line - too little and readers won't have an interest, too much and they've lessened the reader's experience. You'll notice that I've abridged the publisher's summary. You can hardly have avoided hearing a lot about this book at this point. But, if you're lucky, you've managed to block out some of the specifics. You'll go into this book with only the bare bones of the story as a starting point. Because both the reader and the book deserve it.

"Truth was a changing display in a window, manipulated by hands when you weren't looking, alluring and ever out of reach. The whites came to this land for a fresh start and to escape the tyranny of their masters, just as the freemen had fled theirs. But the ideals they held up for themselves, they denied others."

Colson Whitehead plays both fast and free with the facts and slams them right in the reader's face.

In the pre-Civil War years, Whitehead imagines the underground railroad as an actual underground railroad. Riders never know when they board where they might end up, nor what they will find there. It is not the only creative risk he takes, imagining what might have been in Southern states as Cora's flight takes her north from Georgia.

But The Underground Railroad is no flight of fancy. It is brutal and horrifying and unrelenting. Whitehead will not allow readers to turn away from the realities and consequences of slavery.  And he will not allow white man to forget what their people have done.

"...created equal was not lost on her. The white men who wrote it didn't understand d it either, if all men did not truly mean all men. Not if they snatched away what belonged to other people, whether it was something you could hold in your hand, like dirt, or something you could not, like freedom. The land she tilled and worked had been Indian land. She knew the white men bragged about the efficiency of the massacres, where they killed women and babies, and strangled their futures in the crib."

The Underground Railroad is at once a book you can hardly stand to keep reading yet cannot put down. It is the rare book that more than lives up to the hype that has swirled around it.

"This nation shouldn't exist, if there is any justice in the world, for its foundations are murder, theft, and cruelty. Yet here we are."

Life: It Goes On - August 28

Well, it's not Sunday morning but at least it's not Tuesday this week! I was up bright and early, fixing my guys a hearty breakfast before the boys headed off to spend a few hours helping their grandparents. But yesterday was a busy day so I resolved to spend the rest of the morning reading. And then the power went out for a couple of hours. Certainly I could have continued reading but, for some reason, the minute I had the perfect excuse, I couldn't sit still, bouncing around from little task to little task.

This Week I'm:

Listening To: I finished And The Mountains Echoed just as I left the library book sale with five new audiobooks. I decided to start Mohsin Hamid's How To Get Rich In Rising Asia, in no small part because it was the shortest book I had picked up. I'll be done with it before this week is out.

Watching: Infamous starring Toby Jones, Sandra Bullock and Daniel Craig which is the story of Truman Capote writing In Cold Blood. It takes on a whole new level of interest now that I've read The Swans of Fifth Avenue and I'm seeing Capote's swans in this movie.

Reading: Ashes of Fiery Weather and Natchez Burning and liking both of them a lot. There needs to be more time for reading in the coming days!

Making: For Mini-me's going away party we did a taco/nacho bar, sangria, and Texas sheet cake, including homemade pico de gallo, two kinds of beans, two kinds of meat, a couple of salsas - something for everyone. It's definitely something we'll do again.

Planning: A reorganization and rearranging of what used to be Mini-him's bedroom and will now be our guest room once we get Mini-me's bed this week. A chest of drawers and cedar chest need to find new homes (doesn't this sound like the story of my life?!) and the closet needs to be gone through.

Thinking About: Fall. There. I said it. I'm not to the pumpkin spice everything yet. But I am ready for real football!

Enjoying: Family time last night that included Mini-me's grandparents, two aunt/uncle sets, two of his friends that are like siblings and both of real siblings. Much laughter and my kiddos even tried to give me a Christmas card picture while they were all still together.

Feeling: Sad for my two friends who have lost their mothers this past week. Both ladies lived long lives (one had recently turned 99!) but it doesn't make losing your mom any easier.

Looking forward to: It's not a week I'm looking forward to with two funerals and putting Mini-him on a plane without an idea when we'll see him again. I anticipate an ugly cry. And that's The Big Guy. I can't even imagine me trying to drive back from the airport Thursday!

Question of the week: Those of you who have watched your children soar off into their futures far away from you, what's your best tip for surviving?

The Aviator's Wife by Melanie Benjamin

The Aviator's Wife by Melanie Benjamin
Published January 2013 by Random House Publishing
Source: purchased my copy from my local indie bookstore at the Omaha LitFest where Benjamin was speaking

Publisher's Summary:
For much of her life, Anne Morrow, the shy daughter of the U.S. ambassador to Mexico, has stood in the shadows of those around her, including her millionaire father and vibrant older sister, who often steals the spotlight. Then Anne, a college senior with hidden literary aspirations, travels to Mexico City to spend Christmas with her family. There she meets Colonel Charles Lindbergh, fresh off his celebrated 1927 solo flight across the Atlantic. Enthralled by Charles’s assurance and fame, Anne is certain the celebrated aviator has scarcely noticed her. But she is wrong.

Charles sees in Anne a kindred spirit, a fellow adventurer, and her world will be changed forever. The two marry in a headline-making wedding. Hounded by adoring crowds and hunted by an insatiable press, Charles shields himself and his new bride from prying eyes, leaving Anne to feel her life falling back into the shadows. In the years that follow, despite her own major achievements—she becomes the first licensed female glider pilot in the United States—Anne is viewed merely as the aviator’s wife. The fairy-tale life she once longed for will bring heartbreak and hardships, ultimately pushing her to reconcile her need for love and her desire for independence, and to embrace, at last, life’s infinite possibilities for change and happiness.

My Thoughts:
It's a little hard for me to have an opinion of this book as a novel independent of the story of the Lindberghs. Having listened to Benjamin talk about her writing process, and doing some research myself as I read the book, I know that the book is largely based on the facts for the famous couple's lives. That may be what also helps draw readers in - the line between what is fact and what is fiction blurs and that's always a good thing in a work of fiction based on fact, in my opinion.

Charles Lindbergh not does come off well here. Cold, manipulative, single-minded. He was a needy husband who managed to find the perfect girl to be his literal and figurative co-pilot. In a family where much was expected, Anne Morrow was struggling to chart her life course until she met Lindbergh. In Charles, Anne found both the man who would allow her to become something more than just "the little woman" but also the man whose shadow she would always walk in. The first licensed female glider pilot in the United States was also a woman who, even when Charles was almost never home any more, allowed herself to be ruled by her husband, keeping meticulous records of money spent, making home repairs he required, holding her children to the strict schedules he wrote. Life with Charles meant grand adventures but also a life that allowed for almost no privacy for decades.

Benjamin does a wonderful job of allowing Anne to tell her own story, from the shy girl who lived in the shadows of the Morrows to the woman who wrote best-selling books and finally became her own person. Benjamin does not paint her a saint - she was a woman who had affairs and, at least on paper, defended Hitler's regime. The book is largely told in flashbacks, Anne recalling their lives as Charles nears death. The through line is a series of letters outing his affairs that come into Anne's possession. It's a literary device that allows readers to see a part of Charles Anne did not actually discover until after his death. But it was good to see Anne really and truly get angry at that man who demanded so much of her and had, in fact, given her so little.

The Omaha Bookworms read The Aviator's Wife this month and can highly recommend it as a book club selection, not just because of its famous characters. Benjamin has pulled in from their lives themes including the cost of fame, mental illness, homosexuality, parent/child relationships, marriage and infidelity, abuse, and grief.

Life: It Goes On - August 23

Well, then. I don't suppose I can pass today off as Sunday, can I? Oh my, what a busy weekend we had and I'm still playing catch up. Which, you may have noticed lately, is going to be a big job!

Friday evening was prep for the bridal shower for my niece and, literally, all of Saturday was devoted to the actual event. It was a lot of fun and she got some great gifts for helping with entertaining. Sunday we were back in the car to head to The Big Guy's hometown for a baby shower and got home eight hours later. Fun to celebrate the impending grandparenthood of some of our oldest friends (in fact, the wife introduced BG and me!).

This Week I'm:

Listening To: Nearly finished with And The Mountains Echoed. It's really less a novel than a collection of tightly woven short stories which makes for an interesting listen.

Watching: I may have teared up a little as the Olympics came to an end the other night. The only thing that makes it okay is that The Voice is starting again. Although, I'm a little leery about Miley Cyrus as one of the judges.

Reading: Finally, finishing Colson Whitehead's The Underground Railroad. Let me just say this - all of the hype is true. I've also started Greg Iles' Natchez Burning which is really interesting following on the heels of Whitehead's book.

Making: Shortbread cookies (that recipe never left the house) and two kinds of sangria (which did). Because you can never have too much sangria, I made quadruple batches of both the red citrus and the peach basil.

Planning: A going away party for Mini-me, who leaves for a trip to California in a week and then is back for one night before his adventure in Milwaukee begins. Trying to spend as much time with him as we can get before then!

My mom, me, the bride, Miss H, my sister

Thinking About: 
How funny this pic of the hostesses of the shower with the bride looks. Miss H is already nearly 5'10" and then threw on some tall wedges. She makes the rest of us look like hobbits!

Enjoying: An unexpectedly rainy August. We have hardly had to water all summer. We get a few hot, dry days then a heavy rain that saturates everything. Of course, this means that it's more humid than usual this time of year which means my hair is a hot mess.

Feeling: A little overwhelmed. I really should have gotten more done while I was watching the Olympics the past couple of weeks!

Looking forward to: More family time this weekend. You know how much I love that!

Question of the week: What's your best tip for keeping all of the plates spinning at once?