Halcyon - Elliot Ackerman

I fell for the jacket summary on this one.  The story is told by a professor trying to finish a book on the Civil War. He's hanging out at an estate called Halcyon, owned by a lawyer.  The twist is, Al Gore is president, the lawyer has been raised from the dead with new medical technology.  The "alternate reality" approach was intriguing at first and I kept getting pulled through the story to see what could have happened.  In the end, nothing changes - our culture and national outlook lead to the same results.  The ending was unsatisfying and abrupt.  I liked the writing style and found many admirable turns of a phrase quoted below.  

Quotes:

"A low sky weighed on the earth, gradually absorbing the distance into the fog"

"...he never glanced back [at the presentation slides] for reference...He wouldn't think to, in much the same way a dancer would never think to mouth the count of his steps."

"Never forget history is what the living think of the dead"

"The thing of it is you can have more than one life, but there's only this one world to live it in."

"You really think I want to live life, parsing who did what to me and when, and how come that means I can never achieve x or become y, trapped in an endless feedback loop of my own trauma?  That's not progress."

Published: 2023  Read: October 2023  Genre: Fiction

The Spirit Catches You and then You Fall Down - Amy Fadiman

I'd remembered this author's name when I saw it on the spine so thought it would be a good choice.  I picked the book up in Pismo Beach while camping there.  I found the previous book I'd read of this author's, Ex Libris, by searching on my blog.  I'd enjoyed it a lot and this one was also a great read.

This book tells the story of Lin, a Hmong child whose family had immigrated from Laos after the Vietnam war.  Lin has a severe form of epilepsy and the way she is treated by American doctors versus the beliefs of her family and culture are the focus of the story.

I didn't know who the Hmong were so the history and cultural information was fascinating.  Their immigration struggles in the late 70's and 80's brought home the extreme difficulty of starting life over some place new. 

I was enthralled by the contrast in the belief systems of the two cultures and sadden by its impact.  A wonderful, thoughtful read.

Published:  1997  Read: September 2019  Genre: Non-fiction

Pachinko - Min Jin Lee

This book is a history lesson of Koreans who lived in Japan from shortly before WWII through the 1980s.  I had not known they were treated as 2nd class citizens, even those born and raised over multiple generations.  To cover the time frame, the book is over 500 pages and at times dragged on without moving the story forward.  Often chapters would end and jump ahead many years without any transition.  I liked learning about this period but felt it could have been covered in fewer pages.

Published:  2017  Read: September 2018  Genre: Fiction