Into the
Beautiful North
By Luis
Alberto Urrea
Into the
Beautiful North by
Luis Alberto Urrea was our community Big Read in April and May 2016, as part of
the National Endowments for the Arts (NEA) Big Read Program. Free copies, in both English and Spanish,
were available at our local public library.
It was a perfect selection for our community, as we have an expanding
Hispanic community. I liked the book and
felt that it was a ‘just right’ selection, as it took the very serious subject
of illegal immigration and looked at it from a moderate and, at times, humorous
point of view. The book is written in a
way that will appeal to a broad audience.
I felt very comfortable recommending Into the Beautiful North to
my fourteen-year-old granddaughter. At
the same time, I enjoyed attending two very different adult discussions of the
same book. The book and the topic can be
approached on many different levels. The
characters are quirky. The topic is
currently hot news. It provided a good
read and stimulated great discussions.
I’m now listening to Into the Beautiful North (in English) and
then plan to attempt to read it in Spanish.
Into the beautiful North is a book worth exploring. Definitely a good read!
An interesting
note, although a native Spanish speaker, Urrea wrote the book in English. This was discovered at one of the book
discussions. The Spanish edition has
“Traducido del ingles por Enrique Hubbard Urrea”. I love the use of Spanish throughout the
English edition of the book. It adds a
flavor and depth that would not exist with only the use of English.
The Girl
Waits With Gun
By Amy
Stewart
The Girl
Waits With Gun by
Amy Stewart was a historical fiction/mystery combo, based on the story of one
of the first female sheriff’s, Constance Kopp.
I loved her strong female character and the New Jersey setting. It was very interesting to read about the
northern part of New Jersey in the early 1900s.
It seemed more like the Wild West than the New Jersey of twenty-first
century. The details of the story were
woven into a good mystery, making it enjoyable, as well as educational. Definitely a good read!
The End
of All Things
By John
Scalzi
Narrated by
Tavia Gilbert, William Dufris and John Scalzi
I have to
say that The End of All Things was a disappointing end to The Old
Man’s War series. Maybe it was
because I was listening to an audio version, but I found the story confusing
and hard to follow at times. The
narration switched between male and female narrators and was from the point of
view of several different characters. Using
four different novellas did not work. There was too much talking, not enough
action, and sections didn’t seem to flow together. I’m not sure why the alternate version of one
of the novellas was added to the end.
Perhaps Scalzi was paid per word???
As an Old Man’s War fan, this book was definitely a huge
disappointment.
The
Japanese Lover: A Novel
By Isabel
Allende
Translators:
Nick Caistor & Amanda Hopkinson
Narrator:
Joanna Gleason
The
Japanese Lover: A Novel is the second Isabel Allende book that I’ve read. I was hoping that I would find more of the
deeply emotional writing and authentic Hispanic culture that made Daughter
of Fortune so enjoyable.
Unfortunately, I found neither. The
setting fluctuated between 1939 and 2013 and involved characters of Polish and
Japanese descent. The major themes of
relationships, aging, and families were dealt with superficially. Characters were two-dimensional. The topic of Japanese internment camp during
WWII has been explored in greater depth and with more sensitivity in other
books. There was an undercurrent running
throughout the book that was not developed until the last two sections of the
book. This made two issues introduced at
that point seem shocking and out of place.
I’ve been told that this is not a typical Isabel Allende book. Based on the first book I read, I will try
another. I listened to the audio version
of The Japanese Lover: A Novel.
The narration was good. The book
was OK, but not as good as I had anticipated.
