Six Degrees of Separation ~ The Snow Child

The Snow Child
Ivey, Eowyn "The Snow Child" - 2012

#6Degrees of Separation:
from The Snow Child to The Diary of a Young Girl

#6Degrees is a monthly link-up hosted by Kate at Books Are My Favourite and Best. I love the idea. Thank you, Kate. See more about this challenge, its history, further books and how I found this here.

This month's prompt starts with The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey.

I haven't read the starter book very often but this one had been on my TBR pile for a while and I had just finished it a month before the book was set for this challenge. So, I was very pleased to go with that.

Some months, I have used the words in a title or the names of the author (I doubt I would have found another Eowyn or another Ivey, though). Last month, I went with items on the covers.

This time, I went with words again but all books are all about children, their lives, their friendships, their struggles. All of them highly interesting. I bet most people have read at least the last one.

See, Lisa "Snow Flower and the Secret Fan" - 2005

Roberts, Karen "The Flower Boy" - 2001

Noa Bercovitch, Pascale "The Dolphin’s Boy: A Story of Courage and Friendship" (F: Oline, le dauphin du miracle) - 2000

O'Dell, Scott "Island of the Blue Dolphins" - 1969

Arnold, Gaynor "Girl in a Blue Dress" - 2008

Frank, Anne "The Diary of a Young Girl" (NL: Het Achterhuis) - 1942-33

Since my connection was children this time, there is still a link between the first and the last book, they are both about a girl even though their lives are very different.

Look for further monthly separation posts here. 

Shin, Kyung-sook "Please Look After Mom"

Shin, Kyung-sook "Please Look After Mom" (Korean: 엄마를 부탁해 Ch'angbi) - 2008

We read this in our international online book club in November 2022.

I wouldn't be able to say whether I liked this book or not. The first half was not too bad. We learn about the family who lost their mother. She just disappeared in a busy train station in a large city, Seoul, though that could have happened anywhere since the mother seems to suffer from Alzheimer's.

The story is told by the various family members and that's how we get to know them, though, at times, you are not a hundred percent sure who is talking. We get to know the life in a small village in South Korea as well as in the capital, the traditions and the changes in society. That was quite interesting.

However, I couldn't relate as much to the second part. It was too much magic realism for me, too "Asian" for my European thinking. And a little too muddled up. We get to like the father even less than in the first part, he's just like all the other machos in this world who believe they own everything just because they are male and the women are their slaves.

However, other members didn't agree with that:

"I absolutely loved this book. It spoke about an unknown culture, country and time in history for me, reminded me of my visit to the Vatican, and spoke about relationships in a family and the path through life to death.

The main character reminded me of my grandmother about the same age (minus the dementia) who grew up as a farm-wife, lived through WWII and never complained about having to do what needs to be done. The perspective of the story's narrator was in the second form which made it feel very personal, and it told the story from many of the characters' perspectives. It felt like real people, a real unperfect family with real thoughts and issues. And the main character got to observe all the other characters and think about her feelings towards them. Wonderful and really moving at the end.

And I would not be surprised at all if the author receives a Nobel Prize in Literature in about 20-30 years from now."

From the back cover:

"An international sensation and a bestseller that has sold over 1.5 million copies [...], Please Look After Mom is a stunning, deeply moving story of a family's search for their missing mother - and their discovery of the desires, heartaches and secrets they never realized she harbored within.

When sixty-nine year old So-nyo is separated from her husband among the crowds of the Seoul subway station, and vanishes, their children are consumed with loud recriminations, and are awash in sorrow and guilt. As they argue over the 'Missing' flyers they are posting throughout the city - how large of a reward to offer, the best way to phrase the text - they realize that none of them have a recent photograph of Mom. Soon a larger question emerges: do they really know the woman they called Mom?

Told by the alternating voices of Mom's daughter, son, her husband and, in the shattering conclusion, by Mom herself, the novel pieces together, Rashomon-style, a life that appears ordinary but is anything but.

This is a mystery of one mother that reveals itself to be the mystery of all our mothers: about her triumphs and disappointments and about who she is on her own terms, separate from who she is to her family. If you have ever been a daughter, a son, a husband or a mother, Please Look After Mom is a revelation - one that will bring tears to your eyes."

Happy December!

Happy December to all my friends and readers

New Calendar picture with this
beautiful watercolour painting by Frank Koebsch

"Schlittenfahrt"
"Sleigh Ride"

Who doesn't like the Good Old Days? Or at least some nice pictures of them. If you are wrapped up nicely and drive through some snow-covered countryside ...

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My German word for the month is

Streicheleinheit

 As usual with these kind of German words, two of them have merged. Streicheln is a tender stroke, Einheit a unit. You might say you cannot count caressing but there you have it, in German we can. We often use it in the form of, I need my stroking unit for today.

 I hope you will all get enough of them this month.

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My picture of the month goes with one of my favourite events of the month was that we had a Thanksgiving get-together with my brothers and their families. We are not American but had many American colleagues and friends during our working life and picked it up then and there. So grateful for that.

 
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November has been kind to us weather-wise. Very mild and lovely.
I hope the same for all of you.

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Peace to the World!
☮️ ☮️ ☮️

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Have a happy December with this beautiful watercolour painting by Frank Koebsch.


You can find many more wonderful pictures on their website here.

You can also have a look under my labels Artist: Frank Koebsch and Artist: Hanka Koebsch where you can find all my posts about them.

Buck, Pearl S. "My several worlds"

Buck, Pearl S. "My several worlds: A Personal Exile" - 1954

I read this book ages ago and don't know why I never reviewed it. It left a vivid memory about Pearl S. Buck and her life. She belongs to my list of favourite authors, she was actually the first grown-up author I read and therefore occupies a special place in my heart.

In her autobiography, she writes just as well as in her novels where she manages to show us Chinese life as if we lived there ourselves. And here she becomes a close acquaintance of us, if not even a friend.

I know there was a controversy about her award of the Nobel Prize for Literature but that might have been because many men couldn't see a woman getting the award. So they had to find a reason why this was wrong. But her biographies are truly masterpieces and her descriptions of peasant life in China truly epic and rich. There certainly have been laureates who didn't deserve the prize, Pearl S. Buck isn't one of them.

She was a remarkable woman and writer.

From the back cover:

"Autobiography of Pearl S Buck. A memoir of the life of the first female Nobel Laureate for Literature, who was also a world citizen and a major humanitarian, Pearl (Sydenstricker) Buck (1892-1973) three quarters of the way through her life. Published by the John Day Company to whose president, Richard John Walsh (1886-1960), she was then married, the book was successful and temporarily revived her waning reputation. The China oriented writer Helen Foster Snow described her partnership with John Day and Walsh as 'the most successful writing and publishing partnership in the history of American letters.' The firm had published everything she'd written since their marriage in 1935. Her biographer, Professor Peter Conn, describes the book as 'a thickly textured representation of the Chinese and American societies in which she had lived.' Friend of Eleanor Roosevelt, cultural ambassador between China and America, tireless advocate for racial democracy and women's rights and founder of the first international adoption agency, this is a book by and about a special American citizen of the twentieth century."

Pearl S. Buck received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1938 "for her rich and truly epic descriptions of peasant life in China and for her biographical masterpieces."

I contribute to this page: Read the Nobels and you can find all my blogs about Nobel Prize winning authors and their books here.

Nonfiction November 2022 Week 5 New to My TBR #NonficNov

Week 5 (November 28-Dec 2): New to My TBR
with Jaymi at The OC Bookgirl

Week 5 of Non-Fiction November (see here) was a lot easier than the previous ones, just look for non-fiction books you purchased lately.

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Week 5 (November 28-Dec 2) - New to My TBR: It’s been a month full of amazing nonfiction books! Which ones have made it onto your TBR? Be sure to link back to the original blogger who posted about that book! Pro tip: Start this draft post at the beginning of the month and add to it as your TBR multiplies. (Jaymi @ The OC Bookgirl)

Adichie, Chimamanda Ngozi "We Should All Be Feminists" - 2014
Clinton, Hillary Rodham & Chelsea "The Book of Gutsy Women: Favourite Stories of Courage and Resilience" - 2019
Gillard, Joe "The Little Book of Lost Words. Collywobbles, Snollygosters, and 86 Other Surprisingly Useful Terms Worth Resurrecting" - 2019
Greywoode, Josephine (ed.) "Why We Read" - 2022
Theroux, Paul "Riding the Iron Rooster" - 1988
Wood, Levison "Eastern Horizons. Hitchhiking the Silk Road" - 2017

I didn't think I had many new non-fiction books on my TBR pile but I found six. I think I read non-fiction books faster than others, I mean I start them quicker after I bought them. I usually have at least one on the go.

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For more information on Nonfiction November check here.

Sendker, Jan-Philipp "A Well-Tempered Heart"

Sendker, Jan-Philipp "A Well-Tempered Heart" (Burma Trilogy #2) (German: Herzenstimmen) - 2012

After reading "The Art of Hearing Heartbeats" (Das Herzenhören), the first part of the Burma Trilogy, I naturally had to know how the story continues.

Julia Win, whom we already know from the first book, suddenly hears a voice inside her. She is advised to go back to Burma to find out what the voice is trying to tell her. I don't believe in such mystical experiences, but Julia's story on her return visit is very interesting. She learns the history of Burma, meets new people, finds a new love, sees her life with different eyes. And the reader learns a lot about the differences between East and West.

As always, Jan-Philipp Sendker has written a wonderful story about Asia. His language is captivating and this is a very good sequel to a wonderful book.

From the back cover:

"Almost ten years have passed since Julia Win came back from Burma, her father’s native country. Though she is a successful Manhattan lawyer, her private life is at a crossroads; her boyfriend recently left her, she has suffered a miscarriage, and she is, despite her wealth, unhappy with her professional life. Julia is lost and exhausted.

One day, in the middle of an important business meeting, she hears a stranger’s voice in her head that causes her to leave the office without explanation. In the following days, her crisis only deepens. Not only does the female voice refuse to disappear, but it starts to ask questions Julia has been trying to avoid. Why do you live alone? To whom do you feel close? What do you want in life?

Interwoven with Julia’s story is that of a Burmese woman named Nu Nu who finds her world turned upside down when Burma goes to war and calls on her two young sons to be child soldiers. This spirited sequel, like The Art of Hearing Heartbeats, explores the most inspiring and passionate terrain: the human heart."

Book Quotes of the Week

  

"We learn from history that we do not learn from history." Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel

Unfortunately, my compatriot is so right here.

"It's a great blessing if one can lose all sense of time, all worries, if only for a short time, in a book." Nell Last

Where would we be without books?

"People tell boring lies about politics, God, and love. You know everything you need to know about a person from the answer to the question, What is your favorite book?", Gabrielle Zevin, The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry

And the answer, I don't read, says just as much about a person.

Find more book quotes here.