Memoir

Library Loot

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Just like last time I dropped by the public library for just a few minutes and walked out with four more books. Who cares if I already have a ton of library books by my bed needing to be read! I plan on applying this promising assortment  towards a number of reading challenges including The Intrepid Reader’s Historical Fiction Reading Challenge, Rose City Reader’s European Reading Challenge and Introverted Reader’s Books in Translation Reading Challenge.  

Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted Claire from The Captive Reader and Sharlene from Real Life Reading to encourage bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library. If you’d like to participate, just write-up your post, steal the Library Loot icon and link your post using the Mr. Linky on Claire’s blog. 

Book Beginnings: Thanks to My Mother by Schoschana Rabinovici

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Not only does Gilion host the European Reading and TBR 23 in 23 on her Rose City Reader blog but also Book Beginnings on Friday. While I’m no stranger to her European Reading Challenge, last year I decided to finally participate in Book Beginnings on Friday. This week I’m back with another post.

For Book Beginnings on Friday Gilion asks us to simply “share the opening sentence (or so) of the book you are reading this week, or just a book that caught your fancy and you want to highlight.”

MY BOOK BEGINNING

On June 22, 1941 I saw my father for the last time. My parents had divorced a year before, and I had stayed with my mother. That day there was an air-raid alert in Vilnius, a previously announced “alert drill,” and the streets were empty of people. My father, a member of the civil air defense, was checking the quarter for which he was responsible. He was making sure that all the people had gone to the air-raid shelters and had blacked out their windows as required.

Last week I featured the 2008 historical novel Skeletons at the Feast by Chris Bohjalian. The week before it was the 2007 memoir My Name Is Iran by Davar Ardalan.  This week it’s the 1998 memoir Thanks to My Mother by Schoschana Rabinovici. Since books representing Lithuania for Rose City Reader’s European Reading Challenge aren’t easy to find, I lucked out when I stumbled across this during one of my recent library visits. Sadly the book’s Amazon page lacks a formal description so here’s what Wikipedia has to say.

Described as “Particularly grim, even for a Holocaust memoir”, Thanks to My Mother was described by one reviewer as “one of the most moving memoirs I have ever read of the Holocaust”. The same reviewer writes that readers whose interest include Holocaust testimonies and are “mentally prepared for the harshness of Rabinovici’s experiences, will come away with renewed appreciation of the extraordinary fortitude required to survive those dire times”. The book gives a rare, detailed view of Jewish life in Vilnius, Lithuania during German occupation and contains gritty descriptions of life in the Vilnius Ghetto and the circumstances of those deported from the ghetto for slave labor in Germany.

Memoirs of the Middle East: My Name Is Iran by Davar Ardalan

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Considering my weakness for Iranian memoirs it’s a no brainer I borrowed a copy of Davar Ardalan’s 2007 My Name Is Iran when I found it prominently displayed by an anonymous librarian at my small town library. Besides that, who can resist anything written by someone named Iran?

Like many of the memoirs I’ve read over the last several years My Name Is Iran the memoir of both an individual and a family. A young woman growing up in rural Idaho around the turn of the century her American grandmother left to pursue a nursing career in New York City. While working at a local hospital she fell in love with an Iranian doctor and after a whirlwind courtship the two get married. Hoping to put their Western medical training to work she follows him to Iran. Years later, the two of them and their children return to America for a period during which their daughter devoutly embraces Catholicism and her son becomes an all-American football player at the University of Virginia.

Iran (the author, not the country) would spend young adulthood in the United States, but after getting married would move with her Iranian husband to Iran. Thanks to her fluency in English she’d find employment as an English-language TV newscaster for theocratic regime’s propaganda service. Later, dissatisfied with both the regime and her marriage she returned to the States.  Putting her broadcasting experience to work she landed a job in radio, working her way up the food chain at National Public Radio and ultimately serving in several high level positions.

Compared to other Iranian authors I’ve read Ardalan is kinda rare. Her grandmother was an American and her father, while Iranian was an ethnic Kurd. Rare still, her great grandfather was a revered Iranian jurist and an inspiration to Nobel laureate Shirin Ebadi. While the majority of the Iranians I’ve read are members of the diaspora who fled the Islamic Republic never to return Ardalan moved back to Iran after her first marriage only to finally leave for good a few years later.

While it’s hard to find fault with My Name Is Iran I wish I’d enjoyed it as much as I did Firoozeh Dumas’s Funny in Farsi or Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian’s A Mirror Garden. But it’s left me wanting to read more Iranian memoirs and trust me, that’s never a bad thing.

Book Beginnings: My Name Is Iran by Davar Ardalan

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Not only does Gilion host the European Reading and TBR 23 in 23 on her Rose City Reader blog but also Book Beginnings on Friday. While I’m no stranger to her European Reading Challenge, last year I decided to finally participate in Book Beginnings on Friday. This week I’m back with another post.

For Book Beginnings on Friday Gilion asks us to simply “share the opening sentence (or so) of the book you are reading this week, or just a book that caught your fancy and you want to highlight.”

MY BOOK BEGINNING

I took my first steps amid the ancient ruins and oil fields of Solomon’s Mosque in Iran. It was the fall of 1964 when my family left the urban bustle of San Francisco and touched down in a tiny airport.   

Last week I featured the 2011 mystery 1222 by Norwegian author and former Justice Minister Anne Holt. The week before it was Lily King’s 2014 historical novel Euphoria. This week it’s the 2007 memoir My Name Is Iran by Davar Ardalan. 

As I’ve said before, I’m a big fan of Iranian memoirs. Like a number of books I’ve been featuring of late I came across Ardalan’s memoir because an anonymous librarian prominently displayed the library book in hopes it would get noticed. Here’s what Amazon has to say about My Name Is Iran. 

A century of family tales from two beloved but divided homelands, Iran and America.

Drawing on her remarkable personal history, NPR producer Davar Ardalan brings us the lives of three generations of women and their ordeals with love, rejection, and revolution. Her American grandmother’s love affair with an Iranian physician took her from New York to Iran in 1931. Ardalan herself moved from San Francsico to rural Iran in 1964 with her Iranian American parents who barely spoke Farsi. After her parents’ divorce, Ardalan joined her father in Brookline, Massachusetts, where he had gone to make a new life; however improbably, after high school, Ardalan decided to move back to an Islamic Iran. When she arrived, she discovered a world she hardly recognized, and one which demands a near-complete renunciation of the freedoms she experienced in the West. In time, she and her young family make the opposite migration and discover the difficulties, however paradoxical, inherent in living a free life in America.

Library Loot

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Once again I dropped by the public library for only a few minutes and walked out with four more books. Who cares if I already have a ton of library books at home needing to be read! I plan on applying this promising assortment  towards a number of reading challenges including The Intrepid Reader’s Historical Fiction Reading Challenge Rose City Reader’s European Reading Challenge and Introverted Reader’s Books in Translation Reading Challenge.  

  • Napoleon’s Last Island by Thomas Keneally (2016) – A little something by the author of Schinder’s List for the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge.  
  • In Praise of Hatred by Khaled Khalifa (2014) – I have a weakness for fiction by authors from the Middle East. 
  • My Name Is Iran by Davar Ardalan (2007) – As you all know I cannot resist a good Iranian memoir. 
  • Thanks to My Mother by Schoschana Rabinovici (1998) – A first hand account of the Holocaust in German-occupied Lithuania for the European Reading Challenge. 

Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted Claire from The Captive Reader and Sharlene from Real Life Reading to encourage bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library. If you’d like to participate, just write-up your post, steal the Library Loot icon and link your post using the Mr. Linky on Claire’s blog. 

Memoirs of the Middle East: We Heard the Heavens Then by Aria Minu-Sepehr

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In keeping with my recent trend of reading borrowed books I’d previously ignored I took another stab at Aria Minu-Sepehr’s 2012 We Heard the Heavens Then: A Memoir of Iran. I’ve been wanting to read it because I love Iranian memoirs and because its author lives in my former hometown of Portland, Oregon. After slow start I finished it a few days ago. While it won’t go down as one of my favorite Iranian memoirs it’s still a pretty good read.

With his father a respected air force general Minu-Sepehr grew up in a household catered by servants and witnessed an endless parade of lower echelon soldiers ready to serve his father’s every whim. Revered as the general’s son he was treated with a degree of deference usually reserved towards minor royalty. Fortunately, for those around him this privileged status, even combined with his father’s doting on him didn’t turn the young Minu-Sepehr into a spoiled brat.

Ensconced on an air force base hundreds of miles from the capital Tehran and safe within his family’s protective cocoon turmoil, trouble is brewing  fueled by years of governmental misrule, political oppression and religious strife. Once unleashed, these forces would eventually lead to the chaotic overthrow of the Iranian monarchy, and its eventual replacement by a ruthless theocracy. Minu-Sepehr’s account of the Iranian Revolution unfolds gradually, as its seen through the eyes of a child and filtered through the protective lenses of his parents and members of his household. Writing as an adult decades later, his recollection of events resembles a slowly at first, then all at once Hemingwayesque approach told with a nuanced voice that comes with age.

We Heard the Heavens Then reminded me how much I enjoy memoirs by Iranians, as well as other writers from the Middle East. I’m hoping in 2023 I’ll be reading  more of these and when I do, you’ll see them featured on this blog.

Book Beginnings: A Mountain of Crumbs by Elena Gorokhova

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Not only does Gilion host the European Reading and TBR 23 in 23 on her Rose City Reader blog but also Book Beginnings on Friday. While I’m no stranger to her European Reading Challenge, last year I decided to finally participate in Book Beginnings on Friday. This week I’m back with another post.

For Book Beginnings on Friday Gilion asks us to simply “share the opening sentence (or so) of the book you are reading this week, or just a book that caught your fancy and you want to highlight.”

MY BOOK BEGINNING

I wish my mother had come from Leningrad, from the world of Pushkin and the tsars, of granite embankments and lace ironwork, of pearly domes buttressing the low sky. Leningrad’s sophistication would have infected her the moment she drew her first breath, and all the curved facades and stately bridges, marinated for more than two centuries in the city’s wet, salty air, would have left a permanent mark of refinement on her soul.

Last week I featured Thomas Frank’s 2004 What’s the Matter with Kansas? How Conservatives Won the Heart of America. Before that it was Robert B. Edgerton’s 2002 The Troubled Heart of Africa: A History of the Congo. This week it’s Elena Gorokhova’s 2010 memoir A Mountain of Crumbs. 

Even with two of my favorite bloggers Claire of The Captive Reader and Rennie of What’s Nonfiction reviewing this book on their respective blogs it’s taken more over a decade to get off my butt and read it. I’ve grabbed it from the public library several times over the last couple of years only to return it unread. Recently, I borrowed it once again with hopes of reading it and applying it towards not one but several reading challenges. Here’s what Amazon has to say about A Mountain of Crumbs. 

In this deeply affecting memoir, Elena re-creates the world that both oppressed and inspired her. She recounts stories passed down to her about the horrors of the Bolshevik Revolution and probes the daily deprivations and small joys of her family’s bunkerlike existence. Through Elena’s captivating voice, we learn not only the personal story of Russia in the second half of the twentieth century, but also the story of one rebellious citizen whose love of a foreign language finally transports her to a new world.

About Time I Read It: The World’s Strongest Librarian by Josh Hanagarne

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I’ve always been a sucker for books about books, libraries and librarians. After repeatedly spotting Josh Hanagarne’s The World’s Strongest Librarian: A Memoir of Tourette’s, Faith, Strength, and the Power of Family on the shelf at my small town public library I decided to give it a shot. My desire to read this book only intensified after Jean of the blog Howling Frog Books told me she once met the author at his library in Salt Lake City. After ignoring it for a week or so I pulled it out of the pile of library books by my reading chair and began reading it.

Perhaps our favorite memoirs are by individuals who’ve overcome some sort of major challenge or challenges in life. Hanagarne was born with moderate to severe Tourette’s, manifesting itself in a range of uncontrollable symptoms including facial ticks, nonsensical vocal outbursts and tongue and mouth biting. At times he even physically pummeled himself. Understandably so, this would present huge challenges throughout his life. It would take him 10 years to earn his undergrad degree. His LDS mission had to be cut short when his symptoms worsened. Employment tended to be spotty and, dating to say the least was difficult.

Cursed as he might have been with a troublesome case of Tourette’s, nevertheless Hanagarne was blessed with loving and supportive parents who stood by him every inch of the way. The same likewise could be said for his wife Janette, who easily accepted him for who he is. Even though by the end of the memoir he’s grown distant from the LDS faith of his childhood he speaks kindly and respectively of his former co-religionists and their beliefs, thanking them for the patience and goodwill they showed him over the course of his life.

This is a pretty good memoir, and is told with no shortage of humor. It’s an inspiring success story, and while Hanagarne might be the hero of the story, despite his abundance of physical strength he’s no superhero. But he’s an honest hero, one who’s not shy when it comes to recalling his shortcomings and the many mistakes he made along the way. Rumi once said a person who exhibits both positive and negative qualities, strengths and weaknesses is not flawed, but complete. This completeness makes him, like us mortal. And as a mortal we can related to him.

2022 European Reading Challenge Wrap-Up

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Well, another year of Rose City Reader’s European Reading Challenge has come to a close. Each year I try to read as many books as possible set in, or about different European countries, or by different European authors. With one country per book and each book by a different author, I found myself moving from book to book across Europe, like some post-modern armchair version of a Bella Époque grand tour of the Continent.

Last year I read and reviewed  just 10 books. This year I’m happy to report I doubled my output with 20. Just like in past years, there’s a variety of countries represented, ranging from large counties like Russia and Germany to tiny ones like Vatican City. 

  1. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson (Sweden) 
  2. True Believer: Stalin’s Last American Spy by Kati Marton (Hungary) 
  3. Bitter Lemons of Cyprus: Life on a Mediterranean Island by Lawrence Durrell (Cyprus) 
  4. The Wrong End of the Telescope by Rabih Alameddine (Greece) 
  5. The High Mountains of Portugal by Yann Martel (Portugal) 
  6. The Sacrament by Ólafur Ólafsson (Iceland) 
  7. The Pursuit of Italy: A History of a Land, its Regions and their Peoples by David Gilmour (Italy) 
  8. Spain in Our Hearts: Americans in the Spanish Civil War, 1936–1939 by Adam Hochschild (Spain) 
  9. Rather Die Fighting: A Memoir of World War II by Frank Blaichman (Poland) 
  10. Free: A Child and a Country at the End of History by Lea Ypi (Albania) 
  11. I Must Betray You by Ruta Sepetys (Romania) 
  12. God and the Fascists: The Vatican Alliance with Mussolini, Franco, Hitler, and Pavelic by Karlheinz Deschner (Vatican City) 
  13. The Son and Heir by Alexander Münninghoff (The Netherlands)
  14. The Invisible Life of Ivan Isaenko by Scott Stambach (Belarus) 
  15. A Terrible Country by Keith Gessen (Russia) 
  16. Dancing Fish and Ammonites by Penelope Lively (United Kingdom) 
  17. On Black Sisters Street by Chika Unigwe (Belgium) 
  18. A Hero of France by Alan Furst (France) 
  19. Here in Berlin by Cristina García (Germany) 
  20. Ukraine Diaries: Dispatches From Kiev by Andrey Kurkov (Ukraine) 

Just like last year it was a 50-50 mix of fiction and nonfiction. Five of these are translated works. Two were originally published in Dutch, and one each from German, Russian and Swedish. A number of these books also made my 2022 Favorite Nonfiction or 2022 Favorite Fiction lists. 

As you can guess, I’m a huge fan of this challenge. I encourage all you book bloggers to sign up and read your way across Europe. Trust me, you won’t be disappointed.

Book Beginnings: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson

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Not only does Gilion host the European Reading and TBR 22 in 22 on her Rose City Reader blog but also Book Beginnings on Friday. While I’m no stranger to her European Reading Challenge, finally in 2022 I decided to participate in Book Beginnings on Friday. This week I’m back with another post.

For Book Beginnings on Friday Gilion asks us to simply “share the opening sentence (or so) of the book you are reading this week, or just a book that caught your fancy and you want to highlight.”

MY BOOK BEGINNING

It happened every year, was almost a ritual. And this was his eighty-second birthday. When, as usual, the flower was delivered, he took off the wrapping paper and then picked up the telephone to call Detective Superintendent Morell who, when he retired, had moved to Lake Siljan in Dalarna. They were not only the same age, they had been born on the same day—which was something of an irony under the circumstances. The old policeman was sitting with his coffee, waiting, expecting the call.

Last week I featured Josh Hanagarne 2013 The World’s Strongest Librarian: A Memoir of Tourette’s, Faith, Strength, and the Power of Family. Before that it was Husain Haqqani’s 2013 Magnificent Delusions: Pakistan, the United States, and an Epic History of Misunderstanding. This week it’s Stieg Larsson’s 2008 global sensation The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. 

For well over a decade I’ve heard nothing but amazing things about this grandaddy of Nordic Noir. Back in 2020 I scored a copy from one of those little free libraries and have been trying to read it since. Needing something representing Sweden for Rose City Reader’s European Reading Challenge I cracked it open last weekend. I’m happy to say so far it’s exceeded expectations. Here’s what Amazon has to say about The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. 

It’s about the disappearance forty years ago of Harriet Vanger, a young scion of one of the wealthiest families in Sweden . . . and about her octogenarian uncle, determined to know the truth about what he believes was her murder.

It’s about Mikael Blomkvist, a crusading journalist recently at the wrong end of a libel case, hired to get to the bottom of Harriet’s disappearance . . . and about Lisbeth Salander, a twenty-four-year-old pierced and tattooed genius hacker possessed of the hard-earned wisdom of someone twice her age—and a terrifying capacity for ruthlessness to go with it—who assists Blomkvist with the investigation. This unlikely team discovers a vein of nearly unfathomable iniquity running through the Vanger family, astonishing corruption in the highest echelons of Swedish industrialism—and an unexpected connection between themselves.