James - Percival Everett

 I have been seeing recommendations of this book for the last few months and purchased it in Victoria BC Canada at Munro's Bookstore while on vacation for the holidays as a Christmas gift to myself.  It did not disappoint.

This is the story of Jim, actually James, the pal of Huckleberry Finn, told from his perspective.  We meet James waiting for cornbread from Miss Watson at her back door while Huck and his friend Tom are trying to pull tricks on him. We're invited into his world, where slaves are not ignorant, caricatures but instead human beings attempting to survive a horrific reality.  

I'd asked the clerk if I needed to re-read Huckleberry Finn again before diving into this but she said it was not necessary and she was right, though I think it would have made it even more pointed in the contrast.

This story repeats a theme of several books I've read this year - that of providing a completely different perspective on the life I'm living and have lived to those around me that I've worked with and known.  Each person's existence is unique and we cannot assume similar experiences result in the same feelings and impact on their lives.  

Highly recommended and a good finish to 2024.

Published: 2024  Read: December 2024 Genre: Fiction

Where the Crawdads Sing - Delia Owens

This was recommended to me as a good read.  It's the story of a 6 year old child deserted by her parents in the marshes of North Carolina bordering the Atlantic who grows up alone in a shack, shunned by the community.  She survives with the friendship of a a kind young man who teaches her to read and a kindly gas station attendant where she refuels her boat.  She begins documenting the world of birds, feathers, shells and plants that surrounds her and becomes a published naturalist.  When a local gigolo she dated is found dead, she becomes the chief suspect.

If that sounds a little far-fetched that was where I settled.  I don't usually read mysteries because as I figure out the mystery, I rip through the ending.  The writing was well done, the picture painted of the marsh and the author's knowledge of the biology evident.  In the end I was unsatisfied.

Published: August 2018  Read: July 2019  Genre: Fiction

I Had To Survive - Dr Roberto Canessa

co-author, Pablo Vierci

This is the story of one of the 16 people that survived the plane crash in the Andes Mountains in 1972, that was told in the movie, "Alive".  Dr Canessa was one of the two boys (they were 19 years old) who hiked out from the crash.  All these years later, it is still astonishing that so many of the 45 passengers and crew survived for 70 days.

The story is told in first person by Roberto and then later in the book through interviews with his family and patients.  Dr Canessa became a renowned pediatric cardiologist, working to save newborns with malformed hearts.

His story of survival is inspiring but it is what he did with his life afterwords that is worth reading. How he provides hope to families whose children have heart problems and how he cares for them as people and not just patients is evident in the testimonials of the parents and their children.  He comes across as a modest, humble, but driven individual.

I think the story read unevenly, however because of the translation from Spanish.  The language at times seemed flowery and overly dramatic, like reading newspaper stories from the late 1800's.

I took from this book the lesson that we all have survived some experience in our lives that has shaped who we are today.  It is what we've done going forward from that experience that can make our life continue to make a difference in the world.

Published: 2016  Read: March 2016  Genre: Auto-biography, memoir

ISBN:781476765440