WELCOME SUMMER WITH
THEBOOKJEANIE
This week a dear friend sent me a picture of her lastest quilt, created for two young girls who live by a lake in Wisconsin. I wanted to share this quilt with you, a delightful pattern of pairs for the sisters "to cuddle under while reading books." This brings to mind Laura Ingalls Wilder and her sisters, deep in the Wisconsin woods, warmed no doubt by a lovingly made quilt and surely having spent many nights reading by the light of a kerosene lamp. Hopefully the two young girls by the lake have discovered Wilder's Little House series and have spread their quilt on the soft grass next to the lake to read and dream of those sisters long ago.
The Seattle Public Library proudly set the record for the longest domino chain made entirely of books. To watch this incredible chain reaction, click on this link:
Isaac opens his eyes and thinks that he is dead, lying in the dusty scrub with a white dog peering down at him. The searing light of the sun blinds him for a moment and he imagines that the white dog is going to be his guide to the afterlife. But soon he notices a dented soda can nearby and a bit of cigarette paper clinging to a dry shrub and realizes that this cannot be a place for dead souls. Isaac sees a woman in the distance and calls out, still not sure if he is dead or dreaming. The woman offers him water and that first cool swallow convinces him that he is indeed alive. Luscious Matlhaping gives Isaac a bowl of sorghum porridge and hot tea, rinsing out his shirt before directing him towards Gabarone, the capital of Botswana. Stumbling out of the bush on to the road, Isaac feels empty and lost, his spirit and soul without energy or hope. He remembers being hastily smuggled across the border in a coffin after witnessing the murder of a fellow medical student by members of the South African Defense Force. As he trudges along with White Dog by his side, Isaac despairs that he has ruined all his chances of achieving a medical degree and helping his family, especially his older brother who labors in the mines and his younger siblings who have had to leave school. On the outskirts of Gabarone, he runs into Amen, a school friend who is now active in the clandestine African National Congress. Isaac accept temporary shelter with Amen but is fearful of his political activities and hopes to just find work as a gardener and make a plan to reunite with this family. He secures a job with Alice Mendelson, an American anthropologist working for the Botwana government who is struggling with her failing marriage and unfaithful husband. When Alice leaves as part of a team to study the needs of the farmers, the wildlife herds, and the !Kung San nomadic people, Isaac is seized by South African security forces, driven across the border, and thrown into the most notorious prison in Pretoria. White Dog Fell From the Sky is a novel that allows the reader a glimpse into the ancient and enduring culture of Botswana as well as the insane brutality of apartheid. Heartbreaking and terrifying but also philsophical and lyrically beautiful, Morse has created a story that is not easily summarized or categorized. After holding my breath at times, and turning the pages slowly as I finally came to the last page, I was left with the feeling that the human spirit is not so easily broken and that hope can emerge from utter despair.
Now for a totally different type of book from South Africa, A Fish Caught in Time by English journalist Samantha Weinberg. It's 1938 in the small South African port city of East London. A fishing trawler bumps into dock, met by Marjorie Courtenay-Latimer, a young curator from the East London Musuem. Marjorie often met the trawler in search of interesting specimens for the museum but she was surprised that day, just before Christmas, when from an uninspiring pile of of fish, she spotted a large fish that she recalled was "the most beautiful fish I had ever seen." It had an iridescent sheen and was possessed of four limb-like fins and a strange tail-like appendage. The fish was a mystery to all, including ichthyologist J.L.B. Smith, who Latimer called to identify the mysterious creature. Professor Smith as well as Marjorie Latimer , became convinced that this 120 pound, 5-foot-long speciman was a fossil fish, the coelacanth, that was considered extinct for 70 million years. Weinberg digs into the hunt to validate this speciman that is considered a link between fish and humans but also reveals the story of a woman who defied a male-dominated field in order to prove her hypothesis and further scientific research. Quite an exciting read!
Happy Reading . . .until next week!
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