(Spoiler alert)

I’m now sure how The Hummingbird’s Daughter got on my reading list. I think it may have had a very positive review in the old L.A. Times Book Review section. I used to read that section when I subscribed to the Times several years ago before we moved to SGV. I don’t remember what they said about the book but I’ve enjoyed many books by Latin American and Latino-American authors since they were assigned reading in college. In college I also learned about the “Realismo Magico” genre of Latin American fiction. I’ve enjoyed reading many different books of this genre including Isabel Allende’s The House of the Spirits during first semester freshman year in college, Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s Cien Anos de Soledad in Spanish during a summer break from colleg, and, more recently, Rudolfo Anaya’s Bless Me Ultima in 2008 (see earlier review). The Hummingbird’s Daughter is the most recent Realismo Magico Latino-American fiction I’ve read. It probably has the most basis in fact of any of these books I’ve read. Most of them have some basis in fact or history but The Hummingbird’s Daughter involved twenty years of research by the author, Luis Alberto Urrea. The main characters are the author’s great aunt, Teresita Urrea, and his great-great-uncle, Tomas Urrea, also Teresita’s father. But the book is still fiction. I’m sure some of the many conversations did not occur exactly as written. But much is also based on interviews and non-fiction accounts of his great aunt who was known as “The Saint of Calora.” With both its facts and fiction, the book made for a very enjoyable and edifying read.

The Hummingbird’s Daughter spans from the time of Teresita’s birth on the same month and day (though in a much earlier year) as my mother through age 19. It’s a rather long book at over 500 pages with large pages and small type. So much occurs in the book that it seems to span longer than 19 years, perhaps as many as 30. The characters change, grow more mature, learn a lot, and grow much closer. In fact, the story seems to contain just about all possible elements: change, love, death, war, persecution, fun, humor, insight, etc. In addition to Teresita and Tomas there are many major characters and even more minor characters some of whom are still important such as Caytenya, Teresita’s mother, also known as La Semalu or The Hummingbird because she’s so small. Hummingbirds also have important meaning in the book. Another character who makes a cameo is Rudolfo Anaya, the first who calls out a “piropo” or poetic admiring praise to Teresita as she walks through the plazuela at the Urrea ranchero with the other girls in their nice cloths. Is this Anaya related to the real-life Rudolfo Anaya who wrote Bless Me, Ultima? Both that book and The Hummingbird’s Daughter feature curanderas or healers as major characters. The book also had many subplots, most of which are not settled by the end. But Teresita’s and Tomas’ stories are complete. As I reader I got to know them well and even felt like I changed along with them. There’s a lot of foreshadowing but also many things I thought would be important that weren’t. That’s how it is in life, I guess. I never know what’s going on now that will most affect the future.

The story takes place in rural Mexico in the late 19th century. I checked my atlas and many of the places mentioned in the book are real such as Orotoni, Sinaloa, Sonora, and Calora. In addition to the two main characters, many real life people are characters in the book such as President Diaz, General Bandala, and Tomas’ friend, the engineer Lauro Aquirre. The book is in English but still includes many Spanish words, especially slang. In a letter to Aquirre, Tomas lists all the words for “fool” in Spanish. There are about 13 of them. He meets a priest who speaks with a Castilian accent, pronouncing the “s” sound as “th”. “Zaragoza” becomes “tharagotha”. But not only Spanish is featured. Teresita and many of the People (as the peasants are called) are Mexican Indian. Some tribes are named specifically such as the Yaquis and the Apaches. The Indians call the white people “Yoris”.

In addition to language, the book presents many aspects of Mexican culture. There are many different regions of Mexico: Sinaloa in the south; the drier Sonora in the north; and the mountains where the rough people known as the “tigres” live. One minor character is from the town of Parangaricutirimicauro, a mouthful of a name. Tomas’s ranch hands (also called cowboys or buckaroos) give the man a round of applause after he says the name of his hometown. There’s also the food that the People and the Yori’s eat such as salsa borracha (drunk salsa?). When the Sinaloans move from Sinaloa to Sonora, they learn that the Sonorans indulged in the unspeakable atrocity of eating flour tortillas. “Flour! Any human being knew that tortillas were made of corn.” (p. 104-105)

The book contains a lot of humor and the characters and the author don’t take themselves too seriously. Early on, Tomas writes limericks for fun with first lines such as “There was a young man from Guamuchil/ Whose name was Pinche Inutil” or “There was a young man from Parangaricutirimicauro/ Oh, to h*** with it.” The funniest parts of the book are exchanges of dialogue between characters. Tomas’s friend, the engineer Lauro Aquirre describes how he went to a department store in the city, a new concept in urban shopping at the time. He describes them as “Germans selling coats and underpants and pots and toys all in one great store.”
“No meat,” Tomas answers.
“No”
“What kind of store sells no meat” (p. 88)
Another exchange is between Teresita and Huila, the curandera or healer who takes Teresita under her wing. Huila tells the 6-year-old Teresita a story of how Mary, the Mother of God flew down toward a group of Indians and landed on a cactus. The Indian warriors shot arrows at her, not knowing what she was. They all missed and she spoke to them.
“What did she say?” Asked Teresita.
“She said – ‘Get me a ladder!’” Huila answered.
“What?”
“Get me a ladder, that’s what she said. Holy be thy name.”
Teresita burst out laughing. So did Huila.
There’s also a humorous exchange between Cruz Chavez, the self-proclaimed “Pope of Mexico” from the mountains and Segunda, Tomas’s right hand man.

There’s a lot of humor in the book and, at times, the story seems almost light-hearted. But there’s also an underlying seriousness. The coming Mexican revolution and the hidden persecution of the Indians and political agitators eventually spread to the relatively idyllic and isolated life on Tomas’s ranch. But the serous lessons appear from the beginning. As a child, Teresita has dreams of a hummingbird staring at her and then flying to her left. Huila tells her “Left is the direction of the heart. Did you know that? The heart is on the left.”
Teresita answers, “I thought the heart was in the middle.”
Huila: “On the left. That’s why wedding rings are on the left hand, you see, the heart side.” (p. 96)
Much later in the book Teresita has a vision of Huila showing her the stars that become silver globes. Within them, Teresita sees herself riding on a train in one, as a child in another, grown up and holding a child in another, at her wedding in yet another. She asks Huila what this is and Huila answers, “It is you. Every you, every possible you. Forever you are surrounded by countless choices of what you are to be. These are your destinies.” (p. 486-487)

The Hummingbird’s daughter is an epic novel about destiny, change, and just about everything else. Its events are unpredictable just like a day for Tomas on his ranch. He doesn’t know what the day will bring: good luck, visitors needed help, something that will change everything. The humor makes for fun, almost casual reading of a story that is deceptively not casual at all but very serious. There’s a lot of referring back to previous actions and conversations, though not all of them are important. In life it’s difficult to know what will affect you greatly and what won’t have much effect. Like Huila’s silver globes, our destinies are as countless as our choices.

(Spoilers)

My wife got me the book How to Get Fat from the store Sidecca that’s inside the Montclair Plaza to help me gain weight and because the title sounded funny. It doesn’t have a specific author but rather was produced by Knock Knock Productions who are based in Venice, CA. How to Get Fat is a small, short book with a colorful cover and illustrations for each chapter. Knock Knock has produced a whole series of “self-hurt” books including this one along with How to Get into Debt, How to Drive Like a Maniac, and How to Tramatize your Kids. But this isn’t just a book of jokes, but rather a book of practical advice on how to get fat. It does contain a lot of humor along with information and encouragement and some surprisingly important lessons.

How to Get Fat is split into many chapters on the different aspects of gaining weight. It covers what to eat, where to eat, how to eat, and the proper mindset or “fattitude”. It includes formulas to determine how many calories to eat and how much weight to gain. There’s so much more to gaining weight than simply eating more unhealthy food and not exercising. There’s shopping for food correctly (when you’re hungry), and making sure to buy bulk so you never run out. There’s the proper way to order at restaurants such as getting more fattening tempura instead of sushi when eating Japanese. One of my favorite foods, fajitas, is actually listed among the foods to avoid at Mexican restaurants because they’re too healthy. They recommend ordering chimichangas instead.

I learned some things from the book that I didn’t know before such as the fact that once you’re full, leptin is released in your brain and makes you feel full. However, the common sweetener high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) inhibits leptin secretion and your brain never gets the message that you’re full. I also learned that the ingredients listed on food labels are in descending order and the first item given comprises the greatest percentage of the food.

The book contains a lot of humor along with all the useful information. It is written in a fun, comical tone. It doesn’t make fun of itself or devolve into sarcasm or parody, but it doesn’t take itself too seriously, either. One part describes how a sedentary person burns fewer than 1,750 calories per day while an active person burns 2,200 calories. The book goes on to say “that 450-calorie difference equals roughly nine Oreos. If you’re sedentary and you eat the nine Oreos, that’s like a 900-calorie gain.” (p. 52-53) Another part indicates how exercise is unnecessary. Modern transportation means we only have to walk a few feet to get anywhere so there’s no functional reason for physical fitness. “Toning your muscles and increasing your endurance is therefore a waste of valuable time that could be spent eating.” (p. 167)

Much additional humor and information can be found in boxes separate from the main text. One box describes how “decades of American farm bills have reduced the cost of staple commodities such as corn, wheat, and soy with $25 billion in subsidies.” (p. 110) As a result, healthy foods such as lettuce and berries are 40% more expensive than they were in 1985, while the cost of soda, that’s rich in high fructose corn syrup, is 23% cheaper. I’m not sure whether that’s all true but it sounds interesting. Another box describes how all branches of the U.S. Military have weight restrictions and if you exceed them and conscription is reinstated, you won’t be drafted. Many of the boxes contain funny and profound quotes from famous people including:

“When we lose 20 pounds, we may be losing the best 20 pounds we have! We may be losing the parts that contain our genius, our humanity, our love and honesty.” –Woody Allen

“Ask not what you can do for your country. Ask what’s for lunch.” –Orson Welles

With all its humor and interesting information, the book also presents some important lessons that aren’t just applicable to getting fat. It describes how when you try to get fat, you’ll have two types of detractors: those who disagree with your goal of gaining weight and those who don’t want you to succeed in anything due to their own issues with self-loathing, lack of discipline, and jealousy. The book advises to agree to disagree with the former and drop the latter because they’re toxic. An earlier passage describes how thin people have to fight off unwanted advances and never know whether people like them for who they are or what they look like. Once you’re fat, you don’t have to worry about that. You can base your self-worth entirely on your character and know that people like you for the right reasons. Towards the end, the book describes how “the true accomplishment is recognizing the control you’ve taken over your body and your life and knowing that you can achieve anything that you set your mind and mouth to.” (p. 179-180)

Overall, I enjoyed the book. The only drawback was that it seemed to gloss over the potential health effects of getting fat. It actually offers at least one health benefit. In my opinion, society pulls us in two directions: one is the “cult of thin” and the other is all the best-tasting, fattening food we can eat. How to Get Fat is refreshing because it just focuses on one direction.

(Potential spoilers)

I first heard about Zlata’s Diary: A Child’s Life in Sarajevo from reading the book Freedom Writers a couple of years ago. Erin Grewell’s students at their high school in Long Beach had used Zlata’s Diary as a model for their own writing. Like many people, I heard about Freedom Writers from the film of the same name that came out a few years ago and starred Hilary Swank. Grewell’s class studied the Holocaust, the Nazi persecution of Jews and Anne Frank’s diary in particular. They considered Zlata Filipovic to be a modern-day Anne Frank who recorded her life as she lived through the first few years of the siege of Sarajevo. Zlata also acknowledges this comparison in her diary, but hopes she doesn’t suffer the same fate as Anne Frank. I like reading about real life, even very difficult real life like that described in Freedom Writers and Zlata’s Diary. It puts more personal perspective on the events in the news.

Zlata never planned to write a world-famous account of surviving a war. In the late summer of 1991 before there is any hint of a war she starts a diary to record her life and her life as an only child of upper middle class parents seems very happy. She has school, activities, friends, and interests in pop culture. Her life seems like that of a normal 11-year-old, maybe just a bit different because she lives in a foreign country. In December 1991 she writes about being home sick in bed and listening to “Man in the Mirror” by Michael Jackson on the radio and how she’s considering joining a Madonna fan club. I thought that Michael Jackson’s song “Black or White” would be the one playing on the radio in 1991. Maybe they have different pop culture trends in Yugoslavia. Their version of Monopoly is also a little bit different. The highest bills are the red notes for 5,000 each (she doesn’t give the currency) and the properties have names like Place de Geneve and Cote D’Azure. I’m not sure if that’s French or Croat or the language that they speak. They seem to use many consonants such as for the first name Srdjan and last name Lajtner, and place name Crnotina. I’d like to know how some of these names are pronounced.

By spring 1992 Zlata’s diary gets a name: Mimmy; but the tone of the diary changes for a different reason. The war begins, first in other towns such as Dubrovnik but by April or May 1992 it reaches Sarajevo. From Zlata’s perspective the war consists of shooting, shelling, buildings destroyed, and lives lost or destroyed. Zlata has to stay indoors as her home becomes a makeshift bunker. It’s a life most of us couldn’t even imagine and it’s just as hard on her parents. The gas, electricity, and water are all unreliable. In the wintertime they have to sleep in the kitchen because it’s the warmest room in their apartment at 63.4 degrees Fahrenheit. Many of her friends leave the country and some are killed by shelling. Telephone and mail service are also unreliable. She mentions how her loved ones die and she doesn’t even know about it, how all her friends and relatives have been split up and she can’t even keep in touch with anyone except her neighbors.

In all the turmoil, Zlata, her parents, their neighbors, and the few friends that she sometimes gets to see try to carve out a life that’s as close to normal as possible, though it’s very far from normal. They organize a summer school, play lots of cards and games, and adopt and care for pets as best they can. They even give a name, “Jovo”, to a sniper whose shooting they hear in their area (though I don’t think they actually meet the sniper). “(Jovo) was in a playful mood today.” Zlata writes on April 28, 1993. Though the fun-loving side that she showed before the war is greatly diminished, she doesn’t lose it entirely. On July 30, 1993 she writes about seeing all the different contraptions people use to haul water. The topper is a sled on roller skates. She and the others refer to the politicians that are partially responsible for the situation as “kids”. She writes in November 1992 how “The ‘kids’ are playing, which is why us real kids are not playing . . .”

Zlata’s Diary includes a lot of wisdom beyond her years, probably developed by the situation she and her parents are in. On September 2, 1993 she writes, “Someone once said that books are the greatest treasure, the greatest friend one has. The Vjecnica (a library) was such a treasure trove. We had many friends there.” (p. 182-183) She also describes earlier how politics is conducted by “grown-ups” and she is “young”. She doesn’t understand politics, but she still thinks the “young” would do a better job if they were in charge. They wouldn’t have chosen war.

Zlata’s Diary gives a unique perspective of someone directly affected by an ongoing conflict. Her account is more personal than a journalist or detached writer writing about a war. Zlata describes the sights, smells, and sounds such as the streets all quiet because everyone is hiding and the screeching sounds of the wheeled contraptions hauling water. Food mostly consists of rice, beans, and pasta without sauce. She misses fruit. I think the saddest part is that after page 40, the war just goes on and on. The book spans September 1991 to October 1993 and the siege of Sarajevo lasted from 1992 to 1996. Zlata writes about early versions of her diary getting published. Mimmy starts to bring her fame and in July 1993 Zlata is even filmed as the “Person of the Week” on ABC News.

Zlata did not suffer the same fate as Anne Frank. She got out alive, first moving to Paris and eventually settling in Ireland. But the happy childhood she had known from before the war was forever lost. She never wanted her diary to make her world-famous and without the war, it probably never would have. But she does give a voice to children all over the world who live in war zones.

Incredible story! Simply incredible. This one grabbed me from my first listen to the first CD all the way to the 18th, the final minute of the 21st hour. Normally I complain about the selection of audiobooks at the Covina Public Library but this time they had a real gem. I first noticed that they had it earlier in early 2009. It’s a fairly new edition, produced in 2007. It doesn’t just have one actor reading the book but an entire cast. The original edition was published in 1965, written by Frank Herbert who’s from Tacoma, Washington and who attended the University of Washington in Seattle. My parents read it around the time it came out. My mom said that when she made French bread it reminded her of the enormous sand worms in Dune. Herbert wrote several sequels, none as good as the original. His son has continued to write sequels after his father’s untimely death in the 1980’s. A film version of Dune directed by David Lynch was released in 1984. I heard it wasn’t very good. I also heard that a TV miniseries of Dune aired in 2000.

I had all but forgotten about Dune when I noticed it in the audiobook section of the Covina Public Library in early 2009. As I said it is read by an entire cast. The cast includes Scott Brick, a famous reader of science fiction audiobooks. I’ve listened to Isaac Asimov’s I Robot and Second Foundation read by Brick. This Dune audiobook is very long consisting of 18 CD’s and totaling about 21 hours of listening. I usually only listen to audiobooks while folding clothes, doing tedious chores, and driving long distances alone. I didn’t think I would be doing enough of those activities to complete a 21-hour audiobook in the 3-week checkout period and 3-week renewal period. But then we decided to go to Las Vegas with Mom and Dad (my in-laws). They would be driving so I wouldn’t have total control of when we stopped. I figured a long, compelling audiobook such as Dune would distract me from any reason that I might need to stop. Well, other than having to compete with the radio and their CD’s, the plan worked perfectly. The car trip to and from Vegas just fly by and the drive through the desert was consistent with the desert planet setting of the book. Still, even all that listening didn’t make much of a dent in the total 21 hours of the book. But I was hooked.

I had to finish before the book was due after the 3-week renewal period allowed. During the last three weeks I spent my lunch hours and afternoon train rides home listening to it. I enjoyed every minute and I finished the day before it was due. This has to be the longest audiobook I’ve every listened to. Initially, I thought the 18 CD’s comprised more than one of the Dune books. But it’s only the first and original Dune. It is split into three sections labeled as “books”. Their names are: “Dune”, “Muad’ib” and “The Prophet”. Most of the text is read by Englishman Simon Vance with other cast members voicing the main characters during particularly dramatic parts of the book. During the less dramatic parts Vance voices the characters. They all do a great job. Scott Brick voices several different characters. Different women with slightly difference voices play the female characters. There’s also some music and sound effects such as the whistle of the desert wind at certain points. The production really makes the story come alive.

The story is a science fiction/fantasy, a coming-of-age, a struggle between subjectively defined good and evil, and so much more. Herbert hasn’t just thought up new worlds and technologies but also new political systems, class structures, cultures, religions, social norms and mores, and economies of the universe. Good and evil are not so clearly defined with different players all having their own different hidden agendas, sometimes stretching back generations. There are many powerful-sounding futuristic names such as the feuding families the Atreides and the Harkennons; the planet Arrakis, also called Dune, where most of the story takes place; the characters Stilgar, Feyd-Rautha, Chani, and Piter Devries; and the Sardaukar, the feared imperial soldiers. An imperial princess has the name Irulan, the same name as one of the participants of the TV show The Real World: Las Vegas, I believe. There are advanced weapons and vehicles such as Laseguns and Ornithopters. There also traditional weapons called crysknives. (Interestingly, one of the Weapons of Moroland is also called “Kris”.) Among these new names are some familiar ones: the duke’s heir, Paul Atriedes and his mother Jessica. Some plants on Arrakis are the same as the ones in Earth’s deserts such as saguaro and creosote.

Herbert doesn’t always explain everything that is going on or various aspects of the culture and reality of Dune that differ from what the reader is used to. It’s as if he trusts the reader to figure it out on their own. Some things are first introduced and explained later. Others are slightly explained over the course of the book. Rather than turn me off the lack of explanation made me want to keep reading and learn more. There are the Bene Gesserit, schools for women that train them “to serve”, yet the women have the intuition to see through any deceit, abilities to calm down in the face of fear, and even powers of persuasion. At the other end is the mythical Space Guild with their monopoly on space travel. On Arrakis are the Fremen, the elusive desert people for whom water is precious to the point of being used as currency. From the book I learned that a man requires 10 liters of water per day while a palm tree requires 40 liters making it a thing of great luxury. Much is explained by the end, though not all. It’s a bit like living in a different country or culture. Initially everything is new and nothing is explained, but after a while, you learn the culture.

There’s a lot of foreshadowing in Dune. A word I came to know well was prescience, the knowledge of things or events before they occur. There’s much discussion of destiny and purpose. Still, not everything is predictable and, though the story in general unfolds as expected, many details are surprising and this keeps things interesting. Every scene of the novel is important to the story. There is no filler or digression. Each scene is usually a different setting and situation with different characters. The book is also paced well, spanning several years in the lives of the characters yet not seeming too long. There was always more I wanted to know and the action is gripping enough that I couldn’t help but keep on listening.

Dune is one of the best science fiction/fantasy books I’ve read. It ranks up there with Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings and Peake’s Gormenghast trilogy. But Dune isn’t just good sci-fi but also good writing, good character development, and what an imagination! I read that Frank Herbert got the idea for Dune from seeing the sand dunes outside Florence, Oregon. Some say that Dune has themes of environmentalism and religious fundamentalism. But to me it’s just a great story and I’ll never underestimate the audiobook selection at the Covina Public Library again.

(Possible spoilers)

I first heard of Octavia Butler when I attended Cal State L.A.  We watched a video where a teacher led a discussion of one of her books, Parable of the Sower, in a high school English class.  I also learned that Octavia Butler attended Cal State L.A. many years ago.  From the discussion, the book sounded intriguing.  I have always been a fan of science fiction and fantasy but I had never heard of an African American female science fiction writer.  Sower seemed to take place in the near future and have a young black woman as protagonist.  The future was bleak but there was some hope.

I read Parable of the Sower two years ago and enjoyed it.  It is about one main character, Lauren Oya Olamina, whose neighborhood is destroyed by the class struggle and chaos.  She travels north walking on the California highways gathering together a group of old and new friends.  She has hyperempathy causing her to feel the pleasure and pain experienced by other people she observes.  It is caused by a intelligence drug that her mother took.  On the road she meets other “sharers”.  She also begins writing about a new religion she plans to start called Earthseed.  There isn’t much detail about it, mostly just verses appearing at the beginning of each chapter.  The book starts in a negative world but ends on a positive note.  It’s told in the form of Olamina’s journals.

The Parable of the Talents is the sequel to Sower and begins five years after the end of the first book.  Like Sower the title is based on a parable from the Gospel, this time referring to the one where a master gives one servant five talents, another three, and a third just one.  The first two invest their talents while the third just buries his.  I never completely understood that parable but I can kind of see how it applies to the book.  Talents is a much more complex story than Sower.  It isn’t just told through Olamina’s journals but also those of her daughter reading them and other characters.  The book covers a longer time span and has more characters.  It covers the larger events occurring in the U.S. and the world, along with the characters’ stories, more extensively than Parable of the Sower.

Butler’s portrayal of the future seems chillingly realistic given what’s been going on lately.  When I read Sower in 2007 I thought the story’s breakdown of civilization was pessimistic at best.  But when reading Talents in 2009, a period of upheaval know as “The Apocalypse” or “The Pox” beginning in 2015 and lasting until 2030 doesn’t sound so farfetched.  Much of Sower took place in 2023-2027 and most of Talents takes place in 2032-2035.  Interestingly, Olamina was born in 2009.  Later in the book she refers to a 37-year-old as “middle aged”.  Also interesting is that another character, Bankole, believes that the Pox really began early than 2015, possibly as early as before the turn of the millennium.

Parable of the Talents mentions several places that are familiar to me.  In Sower, Olamina escaped from her destroyed neighborhood of Robledo (fictional name), a suburb of Los Angeles.  With all the upheaval in California and the contiguous United States, Alaska becomes a more popular destination than ever.  The migration there becomes so great than it secedes from the U.S. and allies itself with Canada.  This isn’t so farfetched since there is currently an Alaska Independent Party (AIP).  I believe former governor Sarah Palin’s husband was briefly a member of that party.  In Talents, the U.S. fights Alaska and Canada in the disastrous Al-Can War.  Olamina’s daughter spends her childhood and youth in Seattle that is damaged by missile attacks in the Al-Can War.  While planning a trip to Portland, Oregon, Olamina talks to a man from Salem, Oregon about the road ahead.

In Butler’s Parable world the future of education looks very bleak.  During the 2020’s, “many public school systems around the country gave up the ghost and closed their doors.  Even the pretense of having an educated populace was ending.  Politicians shook their heads and said sadly that education was a failed experiment.” (Butler p. 330)  By the 2030’s, more than half of the population cannot read at all.  Olamina has hope for the future of education in her ability and willingness to teach.  At her short-lived Earthseed community she has each child work on one individual project per year as part of their education.  Doing so causes most kids to notice that two unrelated projects influence one another in unexpected ways.  “This helps the kids learn how the world works, how all sorts of things interact and influence one another.  The kids begin to teach themselves and one another.  They begin to learn how to learn.” (Butler, p. 136)

Olamina also finds hope for the future in her new religion, Earthseed.  The concepts and ideas of Earthseed are more fleshed out in Parable of the Talents.  Its main precept is “God is Change”, not some benign being but cold, unfeeling change.  People can shape God in positive or negative ways.  It seems intriguing.  In the book people join because it allows them to be part of something bigger than themselves.  It gives them a purpose.  Earthseed’s destiny is to “take root among the stars.”  In all the chaos of the Pox, all research into interstellar space travel is canceled.  Earthseed is a way to revive this dream since, according to Olamina, “preparing for interstellar travel and then sending out ships filled with colonists is bound to be a job so long, thankless, expensive, and difficult that I suspect only a religion can do it.” (p. 323)

Parable of the Talents is so much more than a science fiction novel.  Yes, it’s about the future and there are some new technologies such as “dreamask” virtual reality simulations, electronic collars used to keep slaves and prisoners in line, and some now familiar things such as the Internet or “nets” as they’re called in the book.  But this vision of the future is really only the setting.  It’s a story about pain, loss, and ultimately, hope.  It’s about love, friendship, and trust.  But the overriding theme is family and all its complications, especially when affected by loss and forced separation.  The points of view of Olamina and her daughter are very different.  Communication through journal writing is the structure of the story.  Olamina describes how things get so difficult that she doesn’t know how to deal with it.  But somehow, writing about it always helps.  And then there’s the purpose that everyone wants.  Olamina writes, “If you want a thing--truly want it, want it so badly that you need it as you need air to breathe, then unless you die, you will have it.  Why not?  It has you.” (Butler, p. 363)

This is another one I picked up from the limited audiobook selection at the Covina Public Library.  I thought I had read it before in elementary or middle school, but the story did not seem familiar.  I believe it’s the most famous classic book by Jack London, though after reading it I’m not sure I’d call it a classic.  It has good writing, but I’ve read better non-classics.  It’s probably all just a matter of personal taste.  Of course, I’d heard of The Call of the Wild and White Fang.  My mom told me once that she read that Jack London would always try to write for an hour every day after getting up in the morning.  Chris McCandless, the subject of the book and film Into the Wild was a big fan of Jack London.  Other than having lived for 13 years near the area about which he wrote, I have another personal, but also stretched connection to London.  After moving to L.A. many years ago I met up with a friend from college.  That first weekend we went to the Huntington Library and Gardens in San Marino to meet up with some of her friends from high school and check out an exhibit of woodcuts by Alberecht Durer.  When we got there we also saw an exhibit of original manuscripts by Jack London including “The Cruise of the Snark” or something like that.  Something else that occurred on that outing was that I met one of her friends from high school who would later become my wife.

Getting back to The Call of the Wild, the main character is a dog named Buck.  Though it’s told in the third person, the story is told from Buck’s point of view.  He seems very anthropomorphic, able to understand what people say and grasp human characteristics.  He also interacts with other dogs.  Buck is a big dog, a St. Bernard mix who weighs 140 points, as much as some adult humans.  His weight actually fluctuates between 115-150 pounds depending on his living conditions.  The story is about his journey from a large, rich estate in northern California to the Klondike gold fields of the Yukon during the gold rush of 1898.  There’s much mention of places I’ve visited or at least heard of: Seattle, of course, a city that grew very large as a “casting off” point to Alaska and the Yukon; Skagway, the small mining town where my dad lived as a child and youth; Dyea, the former town that’s now just a campground that my family pronounces as “dye-ee” but the reader of the audiobook pronounces as “dye-eh-ah”.

London really captures the setting, the environment, and the life in the Yukon at the turn of the last century.  He’s done his research on how the seasons change from icy and dead winters to gorgeous and living summers.  Alaska and western Canada were like the wild west with saloons, miners from all over the contiguous U.S. (CONUS) pouring in and not knowing what they’re in for.  As a dog, Buck’s life is ruled by “The Law of Club and Fang”: the fangs of the other dogs and wolves and the clubs of humans forcing the dogs into submission when necessary (or not).  There are great descriptions of the terrain: the ice and snow that require breaking out dogsleds frozen to the ground; the creeks, rivers and frozen lakes that can make for easily or perilous crossing depending on the time of year, the deep forests, and the wild animals.  All seem fairly accurate except the description of Indians that use bows and arrows: harpoons may be more accurate.  I guess we didn’t cover native warfare when we learned about Alaska history in elementary school.

What’s very interesting are the dynamics of the sled dog team of which Buck is a part.  The other dogs are mostly huskies and often have human names.  One of them, called Dave, is very sullen and doesn’t associate with the others.  He’s very hard working, though.  There’s the struggle to be the alpha dog, the conflict between taking care of oneself and supporting the team.  Though they don’t seem to speak to one another, the dogs all have different personalities and communicate through their actions.

London’s descriptions are always intense and epic: the beauty of the landscape contrasting yet coexisting with its perils; the extreme suffering, hunger and desperation, the great love of a loyal master, . . .  It’s almost too extreme like some kind of bipolar disorder: great joy followed by excruciating pain followed by epic conflict and on and on.  There’s no leveling off, no mundane times, or perhaps they’re just omitted.  Buck seems almost too perfect: strong, enduring, adaptable, almost supernatural.  He seems to have no weaknesses, is able to perform just about any feat of strength, speed or bravery and is unyielding to anyone or anything.  I guess he needs to be that way to survive the whole story and the intensity keeps the story going and kept me listening.

As I believe I mentioned in my review of his book, Popular Education and Its Discontents, Dr. Lawrence A. Cremin, Ph.D., was a well known education historian, president of Teachers College at Columbia, and late husband of someone we know from the puzzle parties we’ve attended.  I read the 150-page Popular Education and Its Discontents and found it interesting and fairly readable.  Dr. Cremin has also written three much longer volumes about the history of education in the United States and I decided to give one of these a try.  The Cal State L.A. library only had the first two and the second, American Education: The National Experience 1783-1876, has won the Pulitzer Prize.  I started reading it and I learned some things, though it wasn’t the easiest book to follow and I only got through part of it.  But I’m still writing a review because the copyright page says it’s OK to embody brief quotations in critical essays and reviews.

Unlike Popular Education and Its Discontents, American Education: The National Experience 1783-1876 is a long book of well over 500 pages.  It is organized into parts of 100-150 pages each that seem to be about the different ideas and social forces that shaped American education.  I only got through the first and less than half of the second part.  The first part, “The Kingdom of God” is about the religious movements and ideas.  Religious leaders believed that education would create a more pious populace and take the country to the proverbial millennium (I’m not sure what that means but it’s mentioned frequently in the book).  The primary religions involved are Protestant Christians especially the Methodists, Presbyterians, and Congregational churches.  The latter two are so active in education that Dr. Cremin refers to the interdominational movement as “Presbygational”.  It makes sense to me that the Methodists would be involved because they founded the college where I went for undergrad, Willamette University.  Dr. Cremin describes how Sunday school actually wasn’t religious in origin but was first used to offer “the rudiments of reading and writing to the children who worked during the week with the added benefit of keeping them off the streets for the Sabbath.” (Cremin, p. 66)  Later the churches took control of Sunday school and used to for evangelical purposes.  The final pages of the first part describe three religious movements, two that failed and one, the Latter Day Saints or Mormons, that succeeded.  A footnote mentions how founder Joseph Smith planned his city to have a population of fifteen to twenty thousand but only one thousand house lots “indicating that the average household size was expected to be between fifteen and twenty.” (p. 97)

I got through 1/3 or about 50 pages of the second part, The Virtuous Republic, that’s about education and government.  Like the first part, this one goes through ideas that shaped education and the people behind those ideas.  Dr. Cremin writes a lot about Thomas Jefferson.  He and many other leaders and Founding Fathers believed that education was needed to ensure the survival of the Republic.  An educated populace would commit fewer crimes, perform its duty to the country, and help the nation advance.  The subjects in primary education that Jefferson believed would achieve these goals were “reading, writing, arithmetic, mensuration, geography, and history.” (p. 110)  Mensuration is the act of measuring.  For higher education, Jefferson has interesting groupings of math and physics.  Pure mathematics consists of algebra, fluxions, geometry, and architecture while “physio-mathematics” consists of mechanics, statics, dynamics, pneumatics, acoustics, optics, astronomy, and geography.  I haven’t heard head of fluxions before.  It’s not in the Random House dictionary, though “flux” means flowing or continuous change among other things.  It’s also interesting that architecture is included in the pure mathematics grouping.

Other passages of part two touch on issues and ideas that are still discussed in the present day by education scholars.  In 1795 the Reverend Samuel Knox proposed that the country establish a national board of education that would ensure “identical curricula, identical textbooks, and identical standards prevailed.” (p. 123)  As we well know from history, this never happened.  Education evolved to be controlled by local and state boards.  The national Department of Education did not arise until the 1970’s and to this day only really has power over Federal funding.  Many other first world countries direct education at the national level and they arguably do a better job educating children.  In my studies of public education, I developed the belief that it was problematic that education was controlled by politicians and bureaucrats.  However, public control was part of American education leader Horace Mann’s design.  He believed that “popularly elected representatives rather than professional schoolmen” should have ultimate oversight since the people should control what is taught to their children.” (p. 139)  This strikes me as a noble idea, but with all the politics in education, I wonder if it really plays out.

In the past and today the texts used by educators are important education tools.  Dr. Cremin describes some interesting texts used in the late 18th and early 19th century in the U.S., especially those used in religious teaching.  The story “George’s Feast” is a story about a boy who finds some strawberries and would have enjoyed them but gives them to his sick mother instead.  The Tract Society published the Illustrated Family Christian Almanac that urged youngsters to “Work! Work!”  That sounds like the song “Work” by Hockey.

I learned some interesting information about life in early America.  Along with spelling and reading comprehension, educational texts stressed oral English since “reading had for centuries been a social phenomenon and indeed most reading had been carried on aloud and in groups.” (p. 71)  That’s interesting that people would read aloud as entertainment.  I guess that’s what they did before TV, movies, the Internet, and video games.  Something else that was interesting was that Joseph Palmer, one of the co-founders of Bronson Alcott’s failed Transcendentalist Society in Fruitlands, Massachusetts, “wore a long beard when beards were out of fashion and actually suffered a brief imprisonment for that in Worcester, Massachusetts.” (p. 90)

There were a few things mentioned that reminded me of books I’d read recently.  Bronson Alcott’s more deeply held view of human nature “was decisively confirmed by his studying of the writings of Samuel Taylor Coleridge.” (p. 86)  Coleridge was one of the Lake Poets or Lakers I read about in the Dictionary of English Literature last year.  Two separate passages mention how education leaders believed that the education of women was important.  Benjamin Rush believed young women needed training as wives and mothers so that they could instruct their sons in the principles of liberty and government.  Horace Mann went further when he declared in 1853 “The rulers of our country need knowledge (God only knows how much they need it!)  But mothers need it more; for they determine, to a great extent, the very capacity of the rulers’ minds to acquire knowledge and apply it.” (p. 143)  This sentiment is similar to Greg Mortensen’s, the real life protagonist of Three Cups of Tea who builds schools in Pakistan to teach all children but primarily to teach girls.  They will hopefully grow up and teach their sons values that dissuade them from fundamentalist terrorism.

The earlier sections of Dr. Cremin’s text give a few widely held believe about education.  Thomas Paine emphasized that children and young people need to be taught to seek knowledge on their own since ultimately self-education was the truest education.  He stated, “Every person of learning is finally his own teacher.” (p. 22)  William Ellery Channing realized that schools and schoolteachers would carry the greatest burden of popular education. (p. 33)  I believe President Obama or Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said something similar, that the teachers in the classrooms had the greatest impact on the education of children.

I got through 150 of the 500+ pages of American Education: 1783-1876.  I got through the Rule of Fifty and thought I could keep going.  I was learning some interesting things but I found the book to be very slow going.  It was more informative reading than pleasure reading.  It’s more of a textbook to be studied in class or used for research than something to be read from cover to cover.  Dr. Cremin obviously knew education and history.  He knew that all events, and movements are shaped by ideas and he explores the origins of these ideas and the people behind them.  The book is a survey of these people and ideas rather than a listing of events one after another.  It’s the combination of these ideas that formed American education, and that, along with later ideas, evolved in to the educational system we have today.

As I’ve mentioned in previous reviews, Michael Connelly is my favorite writer of mysteries that take place in the Los Angeles area.  I’ve read others such as Walter Mosley whose Easy Rawlins mysteries take place in the L.A. of past eras and Robert Crais whose main character I found to be a bit unbelievable and egotistical.  I think I first heard of Connelly from reading the old L.A. Times books reviews between 2001 and 2006 when I used to get the paper.  He’s been writing mysteries since the early 1990’s and before that he was a crime reporter for the Times and other papers.  Most of his mysteries have detective Harry (short for Hieronymus) Bosch as the main character.  Other Connelly mysteries have different main characters and one of these, Blood Work, was made into a movie starring Clint Eastwood in the early 2000’s.  I had read the first two books in the Bosch series: The Black Echo and The Black Ice from the early 1990’s and I enjoyed them.  They both take place during the time they were written.  The cases usually include elements that are personal to Bosch.  There’s also always an interesting twist or two making for an unexpected resolution.

Echo Park is a later installment in the Bosch series having been written and taking place in 2005-2006.  Bosch now uses a cell phone regularly but he still relies on his younger colleagues for use of computers.  By this point he must be in his 50’s.  He is a Vietnam Veteran and a longtime LAPD detective who has even tried retirement.  He now works in the open/unsolved unit.  He was named after the painter of the same name.  His mother, a prostitute who had to give him up to the state, felt like life in L.A. was like a Hieronymus Bosch painting.  I remember studying these paintings in my art history class in college.  They contained many small people committing various acts of debauchery.  I think one of his works is called “The Garden of Earthly Delights”. His paintings contrasted with those of Alberecht Durer, who painted large, divine-like images of people.  To continue with the art history digression, the Edward Hopper painting “Night Hawks” is featured prominently in The Black Echo.  We saw that painting at the Tate Modern Art Museum in London back in 2004.

Not all the Harry Bosch books have the words Black or Echo in the title.  I think the third in the series is called The Concrete Blond.  The namesake L.A. neighborhood in Echo Park contains important elements of the story.  Connelly is familiar with the Echo Park of 2006.  It’s a neighborhood to the northwest of Downtown Los Angeles and he writes about it: “These days Echo Park was a favored destination of another class of newcomer – the young and hip.  The cool.  Artists, musicians and writers were moving in.  Cafés and vintage clothing shops were squeezing in next to the bodegas and mariscos stands.  A wave of gentrification was washing across the flats and up the hillsides below the baseball stadium.  It meant the character of the place was changing.  It meant real estate prices were going up, pushing out the working class and the gangs.” (Connelly, p. 57-58)  That’s the Echo Park I remember from when we used to leave in nearby Downtown L.A.  Connelly captures it well in his description of the old houses and hilly streets.  He describes how Figueroa Street branches off into the hilly, shorter street, Figueroa Terrace and finally Figueroa Lane.  A look at my Thomas Guide doesn’t exactly confirm this.  Figueroa Street actually extends all the way into Eagle Rock and to the 134.  It’s supposedly one of the longest streets in the U.S.

The reason I picked the book Echo Park, even though I usually try to read mysteries in sequence, is that my wife recently went to a restaurant called Bird’s in Hollywood for a girls’ night out.  She had the meat loaf and didn’t think it was anything special.  When researching the restaurant before going there she learned that it was mentioned in the book Echo Park by Michael Connelly.   It turns out that the accused murderer in the book liked to go to Bird’s when he lived on Franklin in Hollywood.  He enjoyed their roast chicken.  Bird’s isn’t the only restaurant mentioned that sounded familiar to me.  Bosch and his sometime ladyfriend eat out at the Water Grill in Downtown.  Later she brings him meat loaf from Just Another Restaurant or JAR in Santa Monica.  I haven’t been to those places because, respectively, they are out of my price range and geographic range.

Echo Park isn’t the only part of L.A. featured in the book.  Bosch spends some time in downtown L.A. because he works at Parker Center, the main LAPD station, since replaced.  The DWP building is also featured.  Much of the action also takes place in Hollywood, the surrounding hills, and Griffith Park.  The book begins with a flashback to 1993 when Bosch and his then partner check out an apartment connected to the case.  It’s in a (fictional?) complex called the Hightower that’s built along the side of a hill.  Though the apartment has an excellent view of the city, it’s only 400 square feet.  The rent in 1993 is $1,000 per month most likely due to the view.

I enjoy reading Connelly because he knows L.A. and he knows police work.  He describes how detectives must assemble “murder books” for each homicide case that contain everything connected to the case.  This includes a record of all events and things done in the investigation.  When a police officer fires his weapon, Connelly describes the process of the Officer Involved Shooting (OIS) investigation.  He knows all the acronyms, proceedings, and resources such as Autotrack, the computer database that “could provide an individual’s address history through utility and cable hookups, DMV records, and other sources.  It was tremendously useful in tracing people back through time.” (p. 55)

I also like that Bosch is an imperfect protagonist.  He has theories that turn out to be false and he has a tendency for recklessness and bending the rules when he feels lives are on the line.  But he’s also very smart, thorough, and willing to approach questions from different angles.  I like how Connelly takes us through his thought processes.  He also gives us much insight into Bosch as a person: his past as an orphan ward of the state and later a Vietnam vet, even his past acquaintances and relationships that I’m guessing were explored in earlier books in the series.  Bosch is a big fan of jazz and in one scene plays a CD of John Coltrane and Thelonious Monk live at Carnegie Hall recorded in 1957.  The tape had sat in an unmarked box in the national archives for 50 years before a “Library of Congress guy was going through all the boxes and performance taps and just recognizes what they had there . . . It’s a miracle to think it was there all the time.  It took the right person to find it.  To recognize it.” (p. 147)  Bosch uses this as a model for his detective work.

The plot and twists of Echo Park aren’t quite as compelling as The Black Echo and The Black Ice but it’s still very good.  There are many characters with different motives, both political and personal, and some are more than they initially seem.  I didn’t find it hard to follow the seemingly complicated plot.  Everything isn’t resolved until the end and, even then, not everything is explained.  But enough is to satisfy Bosch and the reader.  Each book is its own story, yet in total the series tells the continuing story of Bosch and some of the other recurring characters.

(Spoiler alert)

As I probably mentioned in my review of The Blessing Way last year, Tony Hillerman was my favorite mystery writer and one of my favorite authors.  I believe I mentioned in that review how he wrote the Navajo Tribal Police (NTP) mysteries with main characters Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee.  I recently learned that Hillerman died late last year.  That’s too bad because it means I’ll eventually run out of his books to read.  I think I currently have 4 more NTP novels and possibly 3-4 more of this other books to go.  As is often the case I needed an audiobook to get some cleaning chores done and, as usual, the audiobook choices at the Covina Public Library were limited.  I had listened to all the Hillerman mysteries on tape and CD that they had, but I noticed that they had Hillerman’s memoir, Seldom Disappointed, on CD.  It was recorded by the author himself.  I read some good reviews on amazon.com so I decided to give it a try.

Hillerman speaks with a slow, folksy Oklahoman accent.  He’s not as good a reader as George Guidall, the reader of his mysteries on audiobook, but his personal commentary is better for the memoir.  It was like he was actually talking to me, telling me his story.  His life actually went through many stages before he even began his writing career.  He did not grow up in New Mexico, Arizona, or Navajo country but in rural Oklahoma, home of the Patawatami Indians.  He fought in World War II, studied journalism, worked in the newspaper business, worked in academia, and then started seriously writing novels in his 40s.  He had quite a life and he wrote his memoir in 2001 so he still had seven more years and four more NTP novels after writing it.

For some reason I found the part about his childhood and youth the least interesting.  That’s probably because he goes through so many changes (as we all do when we’re young) that it’s hard to follow.  There isn’t much focus.  It was interesting to learn that, when his parents married, his mother was 35 and his father was 47 and he was born five years later.  So people had children at so-called “later” ages back in the 1920’s.  There are some interesting anecdotes about games he played as a boy such as a game where they would run across a field.  One boy would try to tackle the others and whoever he tackled would join him in the effort.  The last boy left running won the game.  He also describes “war” games with rubber band guns.  He spends most of this time period in Sacred Heart, Oklahoma.

Hillerman’s account of his service in World War II is more interesting.  He operates a mortar and also describes how he shoots a German soldier with a Colt pistol.  His experience has some similarities to that of Captain Nathaniel Fick as described in One Bullet Away (see earlier review).  Private Hillerman’s Charlie Company is always on the move, sleeping in foxholes, and enduring cold snow and rain.  Higher command has its usual snafus and misinformation.  Unlike Captain Fick in Afghanistan and Iraq, Hillerman and the other U.S. Army troops in France and Germany don’t get MREs for meals.  They get three tiers of military rations.  C-rations are the best, followed by the dreaded K-rations.  The lowest are the D-bars: protein and meal bars that have to be boiled before they can be bitten and chewed properly.  Going to the Army hospital yields the best treatment: hot food, clean cloths, etc.  When Hillerman has a fever he is told by the medic that his temperature is only 102 and needs to be 103 to be sent to the hospital.  The medic has him chain-smoke to bring his temperature up to the threshold.

There’s a humorous account of Hillerman’s stay in the Army hospital after he is badly wounded.  He is maimed by a mine in a raid that is all but anticipated by the Germans.  He nearly loses sight in both eyes and his foot and leg are damaged.  He has many surgeries and gets to know many of his fellow wounded.  They have this ritual before any of them has surgery where they conduct a mock wake for the patient to be operated on.  They discussed the incompetence of army surgeons, claim dibs on the patient’s possessions, and compose a letter to his family describing his shortcomings.  Sounds a bit morbid but I guess the humorous sarcasm helped maintain sanity.

It is the letters that Hillerman sends home from the war that lead to his career.  His mother passes them along to a newspaper reporter in Oklahoma City who embellishes them and turns him into a local hero.  When he returns home the reporter tells him that his letters show promise and he should consider writing as a career.  Following her advice he goes to journalism school at Oklahoma State, graduates, and works for several newspapers in Oklahoma and later in New Mexico.  It is during this time, I believe that he really learns how to write.  He works as a crime reported for much of this time and that helps him later in writing mysteries.  He also reports on politics.  He describes how a common typographical error at the time was to have letters in a different font from the others.  He works in a building with an art deco statue of an Indian outside whose name has this error.  Therefore they call him Chief WrongFont and the building the WrongFont building.  During this time he meets his future wife, also a student at OK State and they get married.  They have one biological daughter and over time adopt five more children.  Around that time the Pill wasn’t in wide use yet so there was a surplus of children for adoption.  One of his adopted sons has an intolerance for both dairy (like me) and wheat.  While in Santa Fe in the 1950’s he and his wife purchase a home for $9,100 and they are nervous about how much debt they had gotten into.

In the 1960’s Hillerman goes back to school at University of New Mexico (UNM) to get a masters in journalism.  He describes how, “I was now a student.  In 1963 neither the Civil Rights laws nor Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation covered that bottom of the barrel category of citizenship.”  His masters thesis consists of stories from New Mexico’s history and is eventually published as The Great Taos Bank Robbery and Other Stories.  While at UNM, Keen (sp?) Rafferty, the dean and founder of the school of journalism wants to make Hillerman his successor.  To do so, Hillerman must get a doctorate, but he also must make a living so he’s hired as a special assistant to the UNM president.  One task he’s given is to go down to Quito, Ecuador where UNM has an exchange program and bail some students out of jail.  I’ve also been to Ecuador as an exchange student, though I never needed to be bailed out of jail.  While there Hillerman visits a casino where he notices that the casino workers look the same as those at Binion’s in Las Vegas and the Mulan (sp?) in Manila.

Hillerman also mentions the Philippines in the large latter section of his memoir about his writing career.  He does research for his book Finding Moon, another Non-NTP, novel by going to the Philippines.  He flies there on Philippine Air Lines (PAL).  He spends time at Palawan Prison, an island prison where the escapees always return because it’s an island.  They can either try to make it in the jungle or return.  Swimming is out of the question.  I think Finding Moon actually takes place in Vietnam.  His mentioning Finding Moon and his other non-NTP novels such as The Great Taos Bank Robbery and The Fly on the Wall makes me want to check them out sometime.  The latter book is about a newspaper reporter and is a bit autobiographical.  In the first edition of it he accidently has the main character go shoeless through the last few chapters.

It takes him several years to finish his first novel, The Blessing Way, in the late 1960’s.  He writes most of it on a Radio Shack TR-81 computer.  I didn’t know they had personal computers in the late 1960’s.  In guess they weren’t very good because his nickname for it is the “Trash-81”.  His writing career develops slowly.  He gets interesting in Navajo culture when he’s much younger and just back from World War II.  He sees two Navajos on their way to an Enemy Way.  He gets interested and is allowed to attend so long as he “doesn’t get drunk or make a fool of himself”.  Later he has many Navajo friends since he lives in Albuquerque and he’s always picking their brains.  The Navajos find his books to be respectful of their culture.  In the mid 1980’s he is given an award as a “Special Friend of the Dinaee (sp?)”  The Dinaee is how the Navajos refer to themselves.  Some reservation schools include his books in their required reading.

Hillerman is even included on a committee to decide what Indians will call themselves.  They don’t like to be called Native Americans because they didn’t evolve from animals on the American continent.  They came over from Asia, most likely over the “Land Bridge” between Eastern Russia and Alaska.  Thus, they are immigrants just like every else in the American continent.  They prefer to be called by their tribe name, but if you don’t know that, it’s fine to refer to them as “Indians”.  One council member said he was glad Columbus wasn’t looking for Turkey when he discovered America.

Hillerman describes how his books have evolved over the years.  Lt. Joe Leaphorn is originally only supposed to be a minor character in the first book but an editor suggests developing him further.  He creates Sgt. Jim Chee because he wants a main character that is younger, less sophisticated, and more traditional than Leaphorn.  When a fan at a book signing can’t tell the difference between Leaphorn and Chee, Hillerman includes both of them in his next book, Skinwalkers.  His “breakout” book is A Thief of Time that’s also the first book I read by him.  As I’ve mentioned, it was a Christmas gift from my brother at the recommendation of my grandfather.  Hillerman describes how some of his books such as A Fly on the Wall and Hunting Badger are partially based on true events.  He enjoys interacting with fans and has no plans to give up writing.  His last novel, The Shape Shifter, came out in 2006, two years before his death.

Hillerman had quite a life that was much more than simply that of a mystery novelist.  His recall of past memories is incredible, though he does admit some things he doesn’t remember such as names and exact sequences of events.  I like how he put some of his books in context and talked about his non-NTP novels.  I have four NTP novels left to read: People of Darkness (1980), The Ghostway (1980’s), The Fallen Man (1990’s) and The Shape Shifter (2006).  Now I also have his non-NTP books: The Great Taos Bank Robbery, The Fly on the Wall, and Finding Moon.  Hilerman mentions how he was lucky to have the life he had.  When he was young his mother told him not to expect too much in life and you will seldom be disappointed.  So far, none of his books have disappointed me.

(Spoiler Alert)

I first read about the book One Bullet Away: The making of a Marine Officer in an issue of U.S. News.  The issue had several articles about future leaders and one of them was about young junior military officers.  It described how they were getting lots of valuable combat experience from the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.  It mentioned Nathaniel Fick and his book One Bullet Away as an example of the type of valuable experience they were getting.  I researched further and the premise of the book seemed interesting: a Dartmouth student studying Classics decides to become a Marine in order to have a real adventure.  Most of his classmates are going to law school, medical school, or other graduate school, joining the Peace Corps or Teach for America, or getting a high paying job.  They all think he’s crazy.  The book goes on to describe his experiences in Officer Candidate School (OCS), the Basic School (TBS), his time in Afghanistan, more training for the Recon division, and then the real meat of the book: his time in Iraq.

Fick’s career as an officer begins at OCS, a kind of boot camp for officers that takes place in the summer between his junior and senior years at Dartmouth.  It takes place at the Marine base in Quantico, Virginia.  He learns very quickly that the Marines, like all branches of the armed forces, have their own nomenclature, acronyms, and traditions.  When thirsty, Marines don’t “drink water”, they “hydrate.”  Flashlights are called moonbeams and running shoes are called go-fasters.  As I read I sometimes got confused by all the acronyms used such as TBS (The Basic School), MEU (Marine Expeditionary Unit?), and MOS (Military Occupational Specialty).  One acronym I do remember is an unofficial one: CDI for Chicks Dig It.  As Fick’s former Platoon Sergeant describes, “Football team: high CDI.  Chess club: low CDI.  Platoon Sergeant: High CDI.  Weapons section Sergeant: Low CDI.”

The purpose of OCS is to weed out the candidates unfit for command.  After OCS and his senior year at Dartmouth Fick attends The Basic School (TBS) to really learn how to be an officer.  TBS consisted of classes along with field training and during written tests the instructors cranked Metallica at full volume, hurled tennis balls at officer’s heads, and squirted them with water pistols.  “The lesson was focus: ignore the distractions.” (Fick p. 37)  Something else he does at TBS is select his preferred military occupational specialty (MOS).  Desiring the most adventure he selects infantry, though only 10% of Marine officers go to infantry.  The rest “go to other combat arms such as artillery, amphibious assault vehicles, and tanks—or to support jobs such as supply, administration, and even financial management.” (p. 33)  I didn’t know that financial management was an MOS.  That would be my first choice.  Later while on a ship preparing to go to Afghanistan he describes how logisticians brought up ammunition from the ship’s magazine.  That’s another MOS that would interest me though I don’t think I’d enjoy OCS very much.

After finishing TBS Fick is assigned to a battalion based in San Diego.  Each battalion consists of three companies (Alpha, Bravo, and Charlie) and each company consists of three platoons.  He is placed in charge of a weapons platoon of around 20 Marines.  I was surprised he didn’t say much about his Marines other than his platoon sergeant, Keith Marine (his real name).  He writes much more about his Recon platoon in Iraq.  They train together and they are assigned to a ship.  The Marines are the troops that reside in ships to be immediately dispatched when needed on shore.  This differs from the much larger Army who are primarily a land force, the Navy who remain at sea, and the Air Force who patrol the skies.  There’s a lot of gray area between the branches, though, such as the Navy also has fighter pilots, and the Army and Marines both use helicopters.  Fick is at sea when 9/11 occurs and his expectation of an easy peacetime service is eliminated.  He and his platoon are sent to Afghanistan to conduct recovery and support missions.  On the way there, traveling through Pakistan, a Pakistani army officer offers him tea.  He has one cup, drinking it quickly so he can get back to mission.  Just one cup of tea makes him a stranger according to the rules set forth in the book Three Cups of Tea.

After his time in Afghanistan, Fick joins the Recon company of his battalion that gets assigned more dangerous missions than regular companies.  His new platoon consists of more experienced Marines included some with combat experience from places like Samolia or from working as a repo man in L.A.  One of his team leaders, Sergeant Larry Shawn Patrick is called “Pappy” by the others because of his grandfatherly 30 years of age.  Later in the book another Sergeant refers to Patrick as “The old man”.  Soon, the rumors of and preparations for the war in Iraq begin.  Fick and his roommate have dinner at Jay’s, their favorite restaurant in San Diego before he his deployed to Kuwait with his platoon.  In Iraq, Fick experiences lots of combat action: firefights, ambushes, the taking of prisoners, and lots of destruction inflicted by both sides.  He’s on or near the front lines during the major pre-insurgency fighting.  He and his platoon undertake a long journey by Humvee from Kuwait to Bagdad, fighting in towns, securing bridges, supporting other combat units, and securing different areas.  War is a big effort of coordination.  Troops have to do a lot of waiting for orders to move out and get ready.  They move around a lot, sleeping in holes where ever they happen to be at the time.  Combat actions occur quickly and often the troops don’t see the full results of their damage.  During these early days of the Iraq war they fight the Iraqi army and the Republican guard rather than the insurgency of later years.  Roadside bombs and IED’s are not yet common.  But, as a sergeant says, “If the people don’t want for themselves what we want for them then this will be (another) Vietnam.” (p. 318)

Something Fick often mentions are the standard military rations, Meals-Ready-to-Eat or MREs.  We can relate to them because one of my wife’s former instructors is in the Army reserve and he shared some official military MREs with her class.  She saw how the built-in mechanisms cooked the MRE when one of her classmates opened his and shared it.  She could even hear it sizzling.  We can get more “civilian MRE’s” at the store Major Survival.  My wife had been told that one MRE was enough food for one day.  However, Fick seems to disagree when he writes, “We had been eating only one MRE a day because the truck carrying the extra food had been blown up by fedayeen near Qalat Sukkar (in Iraq) . . . I was too hungry to sleep.” (p. 260)  MREs also provide the in-flight meals in the C5 air transport from the Air Force base in Riverside to Moro’n, Spain and eventually to Kuwait.  That flight also has no in-flight movie or any window seats for the passengers.  Fick describes how MRE’s are not designed for hungry refugees.   For them they have humanitarian rations or “humrats” that come in bright yellow packages, don’t require any cooking mechanisms, and consist of unobjectionable foods (e.g. no meat) such as crackers, rice, beans, and candy.  On Christmas Day in Afghanistan Fick’s platoon prunes tumbleweeds into triangular shapes and decorates them with candy and mini Tabasco bottles from the MREs.  During the previous week they had squirreled away packets of cheese or pound cake—MRE delicacies—as presents for their buddies. (p. 137)  My wife learned that MREs last five years or longer.  While in Afghanistan in 2002 Fick is cooking an omelet from his MRE using the MRE heater.  He opens the packet of M&M’s also from the MRE and notices an ad to win tickets to the Olympics: the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona meaning that the MRE is 10 years old.  His officer buddy tells him, “Enjoy the omelet, bro.”

I’m glad Fick wrote One Bullet Away.  It’s an excellent account of the Iraq war and the experiences of a junior officer.  He writes well and really captures of the camaraderie with his men, the boredom of waiting contrasted with the rapid-fire excitement of combat, the occasional frustration with upper command’s lack of coordination, and the split second decisions required.  He seems like he was an excellent officer, treating his men well.   When I was reading this book on the train a guy sitting next to me asked whether it was written by a soldier.  He said he prefers books about war written by soldiers even if they may not be as well written as books written by historians and journalists.  I’ve read some good books about war by historians, journalists and authors such as Ghost Soldiers by Hampton Sides, In Harm’s Way by Doug Stanton, and Black Hawk Down by Mark Bowden.  I’d say the writing quality of One Bullet Away is comparable to those other books.  That it’s written by a participating Marine gives it a whole extra level of credibility.  The title comes from a lesson that Fick learns about the roles of the platoon commander versus the platoon sergeant.  Too often, platoon commanders focus on the mission while platoon sergeants focus on troop welfare.  The instructor tells him, “You have to do both.  What’s the difference between you and your platoon sergeant?  One bullet.” (p. 23)