O Pioneers

Cather, Willa. O Pioneers. New York : Everyman's Library. 1913. Print.

First Sentences:

One January day, thirty years ago, the little town of Hanover, anchored on a windy Nebraska tableland, was trying not to be blown away. A mist of fine snowflakes was curling and eddying about the cluster of low drab buildings, huddles on the gray prairie, under a gray sky. The dwelling houses were set about haphazard on the tough prairie sod; some of them looked as if they had been moved in overnight, and others as if they were straying off by themselves, headed straight for the open plain. 

Description:

Right from the openng sentences, O Pioneers! by Willa Cather pulls readers into the windswept tiny settlement of Hanover, Nebraska at the turn of the nineteenth century. One cannot help but picture the desolation, the cold, and the emptiness that surrounds the people who are trying to scratch out a new town and solidify their own lives against tremendous obstacles. They are immigrants, German, Bohemian, Czech, and Swedish, who are shaped by the land as much as they try to wrestle the same land to work for them.

This novel first brought author Cather to the attention of the literary world as it sparingly recounts the courage, fortitude, and resourcefulness of one woman, Alexandra Bergson, a Bohemian daughter with two younger brothers. 

As her father began to weaken with a long illness, he turned over the operational decisions of the farm to his eldest daughter, Alexandra. His decision was constantly challenged by her two strong but less-mentally capable brothers who did the heavy work in the fields and felt they should have more say in the land's future. 

 

After the father's death, the acreage was equally divided among the three siblings with each having completelcontrol over a segment. But is is Alexandra and her section which succeeds, further evoking the complaints and envy of her brothers. Faced with natural forces of drought and stubborn soil, as well as the doubts of her two brothers over her management ideas, Alexandra definitely became a force to be reckoned with.  

Years pass and Alexandra began to make the farm flourish and even expand. But there is a cost. She becomes isolated from the one man who clearly loves her and courts her to no avail. She is simply too busy dealing with the everyday challenges and decisions of a struggling farm, as well as planning for its future.

How terrible it was to love people when you could not really share their lives!

O Pioneers! is the first of Willa Cather's Prairie Trilogy series (along with My Antonia and Song of the Lark), all set in the plains of Nebraska in the early 1900s. (She eventually won the Pulitzer Prize for One of Ours). I have only read My Antonia and had the same admiration and warm feeling about the Nebraska land, the time, and the families. My Antonia is an equally absorbing novel which follows the lives of two children who grow up together on the prairies. I recommend both books for lovers of great writing, setting, and characters. 

[If this book interests you, be sure to check out:]

 Young, Carrie. Nothing To Do But Stay

Memoirs of a woman living alone on the prairies of North Dakota after her husband died. The enthralling stories of her keeping a household, raising children, and surviving by cooking for field workers make this book a wonderfully engrossing read with my highest recommendation.   (Previously reviewed here.)

 Happy reading.

Fred

[P.S. Click here to browse over 500 more book recommendations by subject or title and read the introduction to The First Sentence Reader.]

The Odyssey

Homer, (trans. by Emily Wilson). The Odyssey. New York : W.W. Norton 2018. Print.

First Sentences:

Tell me of a complicated man,

Muse, tell me how he wandered and was lost

when he had wrecked the holy town of Troy, 

and where he went, and who he met, the pain

he suffered on the sea, and how he worked

to save his life and bring his men back home.

He failed, and for their own mistakes, they died. 

Description:

A brilliant opening stanza. It is intimate, friendly, almost conversational, just like "Call me Ishmael" is. It's a summary of what's to come, enticing readers to learn more about the adventures, hardships, mistakes, and death in the coming stanzas. Who could resist telling the Muse to please continue immediately?

Best of all, you might notice that this telling is written as poetry, even employing iambic pentameter (you know, with each line's syllables following the rhythm of da-dum, da-dum, da-dum, the same as in Shakespeare's works). It's the most natural imitation of human speech, quite an accomplishment for Emily Wilson in her translation of The Odyssey by Hoimer.

And boy, is this telling of his adventures a lulu of a read. Many people are familiar with the story of Odysseus wandering around for 20 years trying to get back home to Ithaca after his triumph at Troy. But most may not be aware of the depth and complexities of his story found in this 12,000+ line epic poem.

Starting with the main figure, Odysseus, whom Wilson translates from the ancient Greek as a "complicated" man. He has violently sacked Troy, killed many people, and exists by the grace of Athena, his protecting goddess, who saves his skin in many instances. 

He has willingly faced known dangers, endangered his crew, and even allowed them to be killed by the whirlpool to distract the six-headed Scylla who eats one crewman with each head at the same time. He risks Poseidon's anger by blinding the sea god's son, Polyphemus, and then taunts the monster after. And he deliberately kills all the suitors of his wife Penelope who were free-loading for years off his estate. After that slaughter, he immediately kills15 slave girls from his household who had befriended the suitors. All with no remorse whatsoever.

He is clever in extricating himself from tight situations, able to lie to friends and foes alike, assume disguises to trick members of his own household, including his faithful wife, and live for years on his way back home as a virtual sex toy to both Circe and Calypso.

Throughout the poem, the gods play vital roles. On every page, one god or another helps, hinders, ignores, or downright tries to kill Odysseus and his crew. Messages are sent regarding the fate of Odysseus between Zeus and Athena via Hermes, the messenger god. Sacrifices are constantly made of hundreds of oxen, sheep, lambs, and other animals to thank, appease, or ask favors of various major and lesser gods. Whatever event occurs, Odysseus and all other figures reason that the outcome is due to the capriciousness of major and minor gods, or else due to human errors in their sacrifices or for not praising the deities enough. Gods, throughout The Odyssey, are a constant force in even the smallest of incidents.

But the action is tremendously gripping. Bloodshed is everywhere, and Odysseus holds no regrets or second thoughts for the men and beasts he has slain. It is simply part of his world in his mind, necessary actions required in order to return to his home and re-establish his world with his wife and estate.

Wilson, a professor of Classical Studies and also Ancient Greek at the University of Pennsylvania, has created an extremely readable translation of this epic. From the opening stanzas, she brings Homer's (or whoever created The Odyssey) saga to life in language that is both powerful and descriptive, yet never cluttered with jargon or pomposity. One can almost hear someone dramatically reciting this story around a campfire while listeners sit in rapt attention. The words pull you deep into the thoughts, actions, and consequences of each event, both good and bad.

I loved it, truly, and will probably re-read it again soon. While I haven't seen the Christopher Nolan film yet, I know I will find it falling short of the power, depth, and characters of this Wilson translation. But that okay with me. After all, what movie has ever matched the original book source material? I will go to the film with an open mind, but will undoubtably compare the two re-tellings and revert to Wilson's translation as the epitome of the story. Highest recommendation. 

[If this book interests you, be sure to check out:]

 Tolkien, J.R.R. The Lord of the Rings

The most breath-taking, page-turning, mythological quest novel ever (Previously reviewed here.)

 Happy reading.

Fred

[P.S. Click here to browse over 500 more book recommendations by subject or title and read the introduction to The First Sentence Reader.]

 

Mostly True

O'Neill, Molly. Mostly True: A Memoir of Family, Food, and Baseball. New York : Schribner 2026. Print.

First Sentences:

Every one of my five brothers was born to play ball. For a long time it wasn't clear which of the boys would make it to the major leagues, but we had no doubt that The One was among us. We were the chosen. I do not recall a single moment of my childhood in which I was not imagining my family;'s life -- or my own -- as an epic tale. 

Description:

Author/chef/restaurant critic Molly O'Neill was raised in Columbus, Ohio, the first of six children. Unfortunately, in her eyes, all five of her siblings were rough and ready boys. Each time her mother informed her that she was pregnant, they both tried everything they could think of to produce a girl. Yet the inevitable hospital call from her father was always the same: "You have a new little brother."

 

While her youngest brother, Paul, because a Hall of Fame player with the New York Yankees, Mostly True: A Memoir of Family, Food, and Baseball, is not a baseball book. The vast majority of the memories recounted are about Mollie, the narrator, as she survives living with her rowdy family of men and her once-wealthy, fastidious mother. 

 

Early on, Mollie is allowed to help her mother prepare complicated meals and desserts for the family including a fresh pie every day. Together, they also cooked lavish delicacies for last-minute parties hosted by a rich uncle living nearby who her mother dreamed would repay them with wealth one day for all these special meals (Spoiler alert: he didn't). When left on her own, Mollie continually let her curiosity and creativity take command in the preparation of various dishes...not just a few of which ended in splendid disaster.

 

As O'Neill grew into her college years, perfecting her culinary explorations and expanding her menus, she looked for a career that would allow her to keep preparing food. Meanwhile, she worked two jobs, volunteered, kept up with feminist literature, and attended anti-war rallies. She cooked every night for her roommates and a dozen or more friends who spontaneously stopped by for meals. 

 

She eventually landed in an Italian eatery in Provincetown, preparing salads and triumphing over the obstacles intentionally put in front of her by the owner who disliked her, such as lugging cases of products to storage. Shucking oysters was her Waterloo, struggling and struggling with the task until finally mastering it, earning the other cooks' respect.

 

Other restaurant stops followed, as well as a long friendship with Julia Child. A few of her articles on cooking gradually gave her a stellar culinary reputation and subsequently a job as food critic for The Boston Globe. Soon she was authoring her own cookbooks.

 

Of course, there is space for stories about her childhood with her brothers, watching with embarrassment as they terrorized the neighborhood with their yelling and flying balls. One neighbor refused to give back errant balls until he eventually packed to move and returned boxes of balls which he had collected. Her brothers even went through a period where they decided pooping in neighbors' yards was a thing, and encouraged this activity with other neighbor children. Each night after coming home from work, Mollie's father had to go to one or more neighbor's house to settle their complaints. 

 

The brothers regularly showed up at friends' houses and subtly coerced other boys to practically give away valuable baseball cards or risk the wrath of five O'Neill boys: 

[Their implied "consequences" left Pat] with a museum-quality collection of ten thousand cards and left most kids in Beechwold lousy with doubles of players who never made it past their rooking year....Pat was the brains. Mike was the muscle. Kevin and Robert were the foot soldiers.

Once, through her distraction, Mollie almost allowed her five-year-old brother, Paul, be killed by a car. Although instructed not to cross the street unless holding his hand, she had been absorbed in exploring a leaf fort in the park. Paul, seeing her, darted across the street to meet her and was hit. Eighteen hours of surgery to remove brain shards fixed him up. Of course, Mollie lied to her mother about what had happened:

"The nuns made me cross the street...They wouldn't let me stand there. I told him to wait for me. It's not my fault."

[Mollie noted] Of course, I had a distinguished history of lying to my mother. I lied to ease her worries, I lied to make her laugh. I lied to entertain us both. Under normal circumstances, I lied without compunction, without a second thought, and with significant elan.

Such are a few of the delightful recollections of O'Neill about her family life in Ohio and later in other cities. It's an engrossing memoir of the ups and downs of family, rebellion, goals, triumphs and failures as Molly climbed the ladder from eldest child to college radical to short order cook to critic and writer. Her inside thoughts, funny, wise, and always confident, are fully shared with us lucky readers as she tries to figure out and tackle each step in her life.

 

I loved it and highly recommend it to anyone who loves wry humor, family relationships, culinary arts, and simply great, warm, humorous writing. 

[If this book interests you, be sure to check out:]

 Jackson, Shirley. Life Among the Savages

The really very funny memoir of the family life of this author who, despite her raising of children, still found time to write spell-binding novels and short stories (Previously reviewed here.)

 Happy reading.

Fred

[P.S. Click here to browse over 500 more book recommendations by subject or title and read the introduction to The First Sentence Reader.]

  

Treasure Island

Stevenson, Robert Louis. Treasure Island. New York : Oxford Press. 1883. Print.

First Sentences:

Squire Trelawney, Dr Livesey, and the rest of these gentlemen having asked me to write down the whole particulars about Treasure Island from the beginning to the end, keeping nothing back but the bearings of the island, and that only because there is still treasure not yet lifted, I take up my pen in trhe year of grace 17--, and go back to the time when my father kept the "Admiral Benbow" inn, and the brown old seaman, with the sabre cut, first took up his lodging under our roof.

Description:

Yes, hard to believe but I had never before read Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson (not counting my beloved Classics Illustrated comic book version). But I was inspired to read this adventure tale after recently watching the film, On Golden Pond , where Henry Fonda tells his bored grandson that he needs to read this book immediately. I can't go against Henry Fonda, so picked up a copy.

 

And it's every bit the page-turned that I had hoped for. Sure, the language can be stiff from the era it was written in and the age it depicted. But the action was first rate. Treasure, pirates, marooning, the Black Spot, a peg-legged captain, and a young adventurous boy. Who could ask for more?

 

For those unfamiliar with the tale, young Jim Hawkins comes in possession of a map to the nefarious pirate Captain Flint's treasure from a mate who was on board Flint's ship when it was was buried (along with the six men who buried it and were immediately killed by Flint). Others, of course, want the map, but Hawkins avoids them and sails as cabin boy on a boat commissioned by a wealthy ship owner and a doctor to seek the treasure.

 

Unfortunately, their crew is recruited by silver-tongued Long John Silver, their first hire as ship's cook. Unbeknownst to the owners and the ship captain, Silver hires dastardly men from Flint's pirate crew. Their plan is to find the treasure, dig it up and put it onboard, then mutiny and kill the ship's owners, captain, doctor, and anyone else who doesn't agree to their plan.

 

Silver is a true leader of men, but also can quickly change allegiances when his plans don't work out. Is he a good guy or bad? Depends on how the wind blows and who seems to have the upper hand in the fate of the treasure and control of the ship.

 

I was hooked, from the plot to the characters and setting, and even to the formal language. The novel certainly keeps you guessing as to whom to trust, who will turn traitor, what plans will succeed or be thwarted, and how will everything work out in the end, all the components of a great story.

 

So pick it up and give it a whirl. You'll be able to tell in the first few pages whether or not this is the novel you can spend time with. I for one was all in and enjoyed taking myself to an age long ago, experiencing the thrill of hunting for treasure, and meeting some very dasterly people. 

[If this book interests you, be sure to check out:]

Dumas, Alexandre. The Count of Monte Cristo

Adventure, treasure, revenge, love, evil-doers and wrongful imprisonment all come together in this classic novel, another page-turner of adventure.

 Happy reading.

Fred

[P.S. Click here to browse over 500 more book recommendations by subject or title and read the introduction to The First Sentence Reader.] 

 

If We Cannot Go at the Speed of Light

Cho-yeop, Kim. If We Cannot Go at the Speed of Light. New York : Saga 2019. Print.

First Sentences:

Ludmilla Markov had memories of a place she had never been to. 

Description:

Thus starts the first short story in Kim Cho-yeop's clever, mind-bending science fiction pieces contained in If We Cannot Go at the Speed of Light. It's hard to describe the vast scale of these pieces that are so personal, so introspective, so unusual. But I loved them so will try to give you a taste of the thoughtful adventures contained within this slim book:

• An orphan girl draws clear pictures of a world that no one has ever seen. These landscape paintings when exhibited make people stop, stare, and often begin to cry. Added to this is the recent scientific discovery that human babies' babblings can now be translated and are shown to be intellectual conversations. Are these divergent occurrences related?

• When an astronaut crash lands on a distant planet, she discovers that this world contains the first known alien civilization apart from Earth. She lives among these aliens for ten years but doesn't return to her home planet for thirty years. Curiously she won't tell anyone where she has been for the other twenty years. Nor will she reveal where the alien planet is located;

• A woman and her battered personal rocket sits in an isolated space station waiting for a transport to take her to a distant planet where her family lives. She relates her story to a repair man who, hearing her tale, begins to wonder who she really is, why she is sitting there, and how long she has been waiting;

• The narrator is about to set off on the first long-range space mission to the other side of the galaxy. It's the same mission her aunt had attempted years ago, but that woman's rocket had exploded on take-off, killing all three astronauts...or did it?

• Upon dying, people in this future Earth can preserve their essence (Mind) in a public library. Friends and relatives can contact these spirits and talk or interact with the dead person. But the narrator discovers her mother's Mind no longer appears in searches on the library's indexing system, a situation no one knows how it happened or where her mother's Mind went; 

• A new hand-held devise can bring on any essential emotion desired by its owner. Oddly, the most popular emotions selected by the public for their own use are not "Happiness" or "Calm" but "Depression," "Hate," "Fear" and "Rage." Why?

Yes, it's an odd collection. But each story focuses on the people facing these difficult, challenging situations, forcing themselves to try to understand what has caused their seemingly unknowable world and how they can address it themselves personally. It's not Sci-Fi ray-guns and monstrous alien creatures. These stories are about the inner workings of people, their thoughts, fears, dreams, and actions both internal and external.

Rereading this post, I feel I'm not doing justice to these tales. But suffice to say, they have stayed with me long after finishing the book, which is not a common thing, so I wanted to share this collection with you. I hope you give this book a try and see whether the complexities in each story of the worlds and people they portray don't grab you and hold on tightly as they did me.

   

[If this book interests you, be sure to check out:]

 Roach, Mary. Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void

The author interviews experts and often personally tries out Mars-travel questions such as going to the bathroom, sex, zero gravity, isolation, radiation, transportation and more. (Previously reviewed here.)

Happy reading.

Fred

[P.S. Click here to browse over 500 more book recommendations by subject or title and read the introduction to The First Sentence Reader.]

The Novel Cure

Berthoud, Ella and Elderkin, Susan. The Novel Cure: From Abandonment to Zestlessness; 751 Books to Cure What Ails You. New York : Penguin 2013. Print.

First Sentences:

This is a medical handbook -- with a difference. First of all, it does not discriminate between emotional pain and physical pain -- you're as likely to find a cure within these pages for a broken heart as a broken leg....But there's another difference, too: our medicines are not something you'll find at the drugstore, but at the bookshop, in the library, or downloaded onto your electronic reading device. 

 

We are bibliotherapists, and the tools of our trade are books.

Description:

Want suggestions of books to read which understand what you are feeling at a specific time? Which can provide characters undergoing the same emotions you are feeling? Which might relieve your mind through laughter, wisdom, or just escapism? Which even can possibly suggest courses of action to ease your mind (or demonstrate roads not to take)?

 

Then check out The Novel Cure: From Abandonment to Zestlessness; 751 Books to Cure What Ails You by Ella Berthoud and Susan Elderkin. Here you will find one to five titles and short descriptions of several books each relevant to whatever mood you are in and which expand plots and characters facing similar emotions. The authors consider themselves bibliotherapists, playing a similar role as doctors who prescribe specific medicines for specific illnesses of patients.

 

Taking some random flips through this book, I found:

• Flying. Fear of: (see Night Flight by Antoine de Saint-Exupery) - describes the fears of a aviator mail carrier wrestling in a flimsy two-seat plane with a cyclone in South America;

• Happiness, Searching for: (see Farenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury) - describes the conflict of direction faced by a fireman of the future assigned to burn books;

• Pessimism: (see Robinson Caruso by Daniel Defoe) - describes one man shaping his own destiny rather than giving in to circumstances; 

• Risks, Not Taking Enough of: (see The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes) - describes "being drenched in regrets for an underlived life."

There are other special categories with corresponding suggested books and descriptions as well as words of wisdom to deal with each Topic, such as:

• 10 Best Lists - including Audiobooks; Big Fat Tomes; Best Novels for Fortysomethings (every decade milestone is covered); Shocking Novels; Novels to Cheer You Up; For When You're Locked Out; To Drown Out Snoring; For Plane Journeys; To Read in a Hammock"; etc.

• Reading Aliments - including Being a Compulsive Book Buyer, Too Many Children Requiring Attention, Refusal to Give Up Halfway, Put Off By Hype, Seduced by New Books, Tendency to Skim, Desire to Seem Well-Read, Tendency to Read Instead of Live, etc.

Of course, the book is carefully indexed so you can quickly find books by title, author, ailment, or Ten Best lists. 

 

So many book titles I had not heard of but, with their detailed, easy-to-read, often humorous annotations, made me expand my To Be Read list by many, many new temptations.

 

Give it a browse. No need to read it cover to cover as I did just because each new section seemed compelling and full of interesting titles for me. Skim through it and see if you don't find the exact book you need for whatever you are feeling. I'm certain you will find multiple gens just right fir you.

[If this book interests you, be sure to check out:]

 Prose, Francine. What To Read and Why.

Thirty-three short chapters on specific, can't-be-missed books by titles and lucid descriptions, as well as special sections for highly recommended books by subject. (Previously reviewed here.)

 Happy reading.

Fred

[P.S. Click here to browse over 500 more book recommendations by subject or title and read the introduction to The First Sentence Reader.]

The Healing Power of Korean Letter Writing

Mun, Juhee. The Healing Power of Korean Letter Writing. New York : Ten Speed Press. 2025. Print.

First Sentences:

It's hard to find anyone who doesn't like letters. We feel a thrill when we receive them. One of their charms is that we can't see what's inside right away: there's an anticipation in unsealing the mysteries held within.

Description:

Sometimes we need a book that presents a reality that restores our faith in humankind. A world where people are friendly, curious, and good. A place where strangers seek to communicate in a kind manner, displaying their interest in the lives of others on a highly satisfying and very personal level.

Such a book is the delicate, wonderful The Healing Power of Korean Letter Writing, by Juhee Mun. Mun opened a small lettershop in Seoul in 2019 called "Geulwoll," which is "a native Korean word, a respectful term meaning 'letter'." In her shop she sells fine writing materials from high end pens and variety of luscious papers to envelopes, stamps and books about writing.

But most importantly what Geulwoll provides the public are letter-writing spaces for people to sit down and actually compose letters. Customers purchase products and often remain in the shop to create  letters.For me, that's an amazingly comforting sight to imagine. 

 

The shop owner/author also is fascinated by her customers and describes her experiences watching and helping them. She writes about her own personal preferences as well, including her best places to write, best times, best opening lines, drafts, endings, and even replies. Here are a few samples of what Mun observes in her shop and life:

• That which takes longer to arrive stays longer in the heart. I think that is why we turn to letters when we want people to remember us;

•  I believe that letter writing is an act of storytelling;

• Letters have the power to remind us of the people who've made us who we are today.

• Respite from loneliness, however brief, isn't found in the grand or the extravagant, but in the little, simple things -- a pleasant autumn breeze, a sweet dessert, or a letter just for me. Within simplicity we find serenity, and though the moment may be fleeting, our hearts grow peaceful for a while.

• When there's something I can't speak out loud, I can still write, no matter how uncomfortable it may feel to do so. Thus I try not to package up the letter solely as something beautiful; otherwise, it's impossible to be authentic as I sit before a blank sheet of paper.

There is also some charming advice that any correspondents might find useful, from selecting stamps to choosing the correct slot in a Korean mailbox, from using a post office itself to delivering the letter by hand. 

The shop also has an anonymous Pen Pal area where people may drop off letters into a box about their lives, questions, problems, etc. They then may select another anonymous letter to simply read or possibly begin corresponding with that stranger via the shopkeeper as go-between to preserve anonymity. 

For a few short hours, I found myself dreamily envisioning myself in Geulwoll, carefully perusing writing papers and even expensive pens for the first time, then settling down in a quiet corner to write to my wife, son, and a few other special people in my life. It's a magical image for me, one that flows throughout this brief book. Maybe it will transport you to that small Korean letter-writing shop as well.

[If this book interests you, be sure to check out:]

 Youngson, Anne. Meet Me At the Museum

Simply a wonderful book about two people corresponding from half a world apart. The gentleness and affection for their worlds and eventually each other is transporting. It's the best. (Previously reviewed here.)

 Happy reading.

Fred

[P.S. Click here to browse over 500 more book recommendations by subject or title and read the introduction to The First Sentence Reader.] 

Hatchet

 Paulsen, Gary. Hatchet. New York : Simon & Schuster 1987. Print.

 

First Sentences:

Brian Robeson stared out the window of the small plane at the endless green northern wilderness below. It was a small plane, a Cessna 406 -- a bushplane -- and the engine was so loud so roaring and consuming and loud, that it ruined any chance for conversation. Not that he had much to say.


Description:

Just because a book is labeled as being in the "Young Adult" genre doesn't mean it is not worthy of attention by adults, too. Such is the case of Hatchet by Gary Paulsen. Many of you may already know of this book (and many of Paulsen's other works) after reading it to your youngsters or watching them become engrossed while reading its story for themselves as teens. 

 

For me, it was cleaning out my bookshelves. I came across a worn version that both our son and I had read and re-read several times, although in my case not for many years. I decided I needed a bolstering adventure tale so started reading it again. In only a couple of days, I finished the nail-biting adventure, fully satisfied with the writing, characters, setting, and of course the survival story of thirteen-year-old Brian Robeson, lost deep in the Canadian woods.

Brian, flying in a small bush plane for a visit with his father in backwoods Canada, has to crash land the plane after the pilot suffers a heart attack and dies in the skies over the middle of nowhere. Brian manages to scramble out of his seat and finds himself in a dense, lonesome forest surrounding the lake where he crashed.

 

As a city boy who knows virtually nothing about the outdoors, Brian is faced with the conclusion that no one knows where he is or even whether he is alive. Therefore, left on his own, he must learn how to find shelter, eat, and ward off any threats to his survival.

 

The rest of the book follows his self-taught education into forest lore and the creatures and environment that surround him. He learns, slowly, frustratingly, and sometimes painfully how to manage his life day to day, alone.

 

And that is the story. I found the challenges faced by Brian to be realistic as were his solutions, including the choices he made that did not work in his favor. I was caught up in the life alone in the woods and continually wondered whether I would have addressed the situation and survived or just ... I don't know, gave up?

 

It is a gripping tale, a very personal experience narrated by Brian as he struggles with new challenges virtually every hour.  Author Paulsen is an extremely gifted writer of YA books and has related that he himself had experienced in his own life each of Brian's challenges, thus adding to the realistic adventures and mindset of Brian in his foreign world.

 

There are several other adventures in the Brian Robeson survival series, each one great although I enjoyed Brian's Winter the most for its completely different challenges he faces in the bitter cold season (see below).

 

Highly recommended for your own reading and especially to read aloud or give as a gift to a curious young person seeking adventure and a voice they can understand and identify with. 

  

[If this book interests you, be sure to check out:]

Paulsen, Gary. Brian's Winter.

What if Brian had not been saved before the bitter cold of winter arrived in his woods? How could he survive, even using his newly-discovered forestry skills? A gripping adventure full of adventure, obstacles, hardships, and triumphs.

Happy reading.

 

Fred

[P.S. Click here to browse over 500 more book recommendations by subject or title and read the introduction to The First Sentence Reader.]

After the Fire

 Mankell, Henning. After the Fire. New York : Vintage 2017. Print.

First Sentences:

My house burned down on an autumn night almost a year ago. It was a Sunday.

Description:

Henning Mankell writes more than the captivating thrillers with Swedish Inspector Kurt Wallenger. He can also create brooding novels with off-beat characters who experience unusual situations. One piece of evidence is my latest read: After the Fire. 

 

As the opening sentence (a compelling beauty, right?) sets the scene, the narrator, Fredrik Welin, has lost his family cabin and everything he owns except for the pajamas and overcoat he was wearing when he fled the fire. Only the bright light of the burning ceiling woke him up and allowed him to escape. 

 

But investigation showed that the fire was an arson and Welin is under suspicion that he is the person responsible. And then a second house is burned down, but Welin is still regarded as a possible arson suspect.

 

The novel recounts, through Welin thoughts and words, information about himself as a retired surgeon now living a solitary life in the family cabin on an isolated island in northern Sweden. He has his own routines, including a morning plunge into the lake by his cabin, even during winter when he has to chip away a hole in the ice.

 

We read about his wandering, estranged daughter who has only had sporadic communication with him for years, but who has  arrived on the island after hearing about the fire to inspect the damage and share news of her own life.  

 

Welin talks about interactions with the community in which he lives and the ordinary, if somewhat quirky townspeople he encounters. There is the former postman Jansson who seems to know and share every rumor and was generally assumed to read all mail before delivering it. A local newspaper reporter arrives to write a story about the fire and captures Welin's attention. Then there is the unknown person who visits Welin's campsite and leaves it in pristine order after departure.

 

While this may sound like a simple story, in the hands of a master like Mankell, there are mysteries all around. Some are only hinted at, seen out of the corner of Welin's eye and which he cannot determine whether they are just an ordinary situations or possibly hold a key to the happenings in the community. Learning about these people and happenings are quietly unfolded in this engrossing novel. It puts you right in the midst of the cold isolation of a small town experiencing two (and maybe more in the future?) arson cases.

 

So plunk down in a cosy chair and sink yourself into the isolated world of northern Sweden with all its subtle goings-on. A very nice way to spend some time. 

 

 

[If this book interests you, be sure to check out:]

Mankell, Henning. The Pyramid

Five short stories about the back story of Swedish Investigator Kurt Wallander, how he came onto the police force and early cases, all sprinkled with details of his early personal life.. (Previously reviewed here.)

 Happy reading.

Fred

[P.S. Click here to browse over 500 more book recommendations by subject or title and read the introduction to The First Sentence Reader.]

Island at the Edge of the World

Pitts, Mike. Island at the Edge of the World: The Forgotten History of Easter Island. New York : Mariner Books 2026. Print.

First Sentences:

This story about statues begins on Easter Sunday, 1722, on what was then the remotest inhabited island on Earth. This was the day the first European set eyes on Rapa Nui, the start of the final century when Islanders were in control of their own world. It was the day when everything about the island began to change, so that within a few generations no one there could say what the statues meant or who made them.

Description:

No one can deny a secret fascination with Rapa Nui (Easter Island). After all, it's a barren island thousands of miles from the nearest land, with no trees, few inhabitants, and hundreds of huge stone statues of heads and bodies scattered throughout the land. How was this island ever discovered and by whom? Where did all those people go? Why are there no trees? And, of course, who carved the gigantic heads and for what purpose?   

 

Mike Pitts, in his extensively researched Island at the Edge of the World: The Forgotten History of Easter Island, looks deeply into original documents recorded by the first seamen who came across Rapa Nui in the 1700s, as well as the diaries and notes taken by early researchers, Katherine and Scoresby Routledge, who in 1910 lived for months on the island with to study and understand its people, culture, and history. DNA and radiocarbon dating were also studied. He also included research by Thor Heyerdahl from the 1960s, although Pitts feels many of Heyerdahl's conclusions, while extremely popular with the public, were based on legends, misconceptions, and racism which perpetuated many untruths about Rapa Nui and its history.

 

Little is known of Raga Nui prior to 1760, with only scattered eye-witness records of Europeans from 1722 on and before the slave traders, missionaries, and South American governments took a self-centered interest.

 

Author Pitts divides Island at the Edge of the World into sections to explore several major questions. He focuses his studies about each subject on related hard evidence and original documents to draw conclusions based on facts rather than legends and unsupported rumors:

• First settlers? - Pitts research indicates that Polynesians were the first settlers around 1200. They were masters of navigating long distances and had already colonized other islands using huge outriggers that could carry sufficient men, women, and children as well as animals, tools, and food to start a colony. Easter Island culture is full of Polynesian art, building style, traditions, etc.

• First Europeans? - In 1760 a Dutch East Indian Company ship stumbled upon the island on, guess what, Easter Sunday, 1760. Other voyages followed, including those of James Cook and explorers from other countries as well. Pitts searched out these first-hand observations as the most reliable accounts of island life and people.

• What happened to the people? - Pitts found records indicating the immediate influx of Peruvian slave traders who captured most of the population as slaves. A decade later when the Chilean government passed laws to stop this human trading and return captured islanders, the released captives brought back diseases which decimated the population even further. The arrival of Christian missionaries spread more disease, further diminishing the culture and population. Investors bought the abandoned homes and gardens of deceased islanders and turned it into sheep-grazing land, destroying cultural centers, farms, houses, and religious symbols. The island was "sold" by the Chilean government in 1897 to one man who turned all the land to sheep grazing. The population was rounded up and placed in a single large community behind walls and not allowed outside that compound. Only a hundred or so people survived in 1877, down from an estimated population of 6,000  only a decade ago.

• Who built the stone heads (moai) and why? - Although the earliest interviews with the islanders were recorded by the Routledges in 1910, the current people did not know the origin of the carvings and purpose even at that early date. Recent carbon dating puts the stone carving between 1200-1680CE. Pitts concludes that the slave trade removed the men who knew how to carve the statues, as well as those who understood the purpose and traditions the carvings represented. Recent archeological digs have uncovered human bones at the foot of these stone heads, indicating the giant heads might be grave markers and protectors of ancestors.

• How were the statues moved? - Almost 1,000 heads were found scattered all over the island. They must have been moved from the quarry to their varied locations. But this barren island never provided enough trees to use as rollers under the statues, a difficult undertaking with any trunks that were not perfectly cylindrical. Rope-walking the heads was also tricky as statues were likely to fall, unable to be raised again. Pitts tested and soon felt the answer was sleds made of palm fronds and a couple of trunks which could easily slide the heads into desired locations.

• What new research is there? - DNA and radiocarbon dating have become very sophisticated, allowing anthropologists and archeologists solid data on the age of the stone carvings, the tools used, the ancestral history of the surviving people through buried bones, and the beginning of understanding of the few pieces of writing and pictures found.

Each of Pitts' conclusions was reached after exhaustive research into ancient records and visits to Raga Nui himself. Interestingly, he located records from Katherine Routledge, (the first person to actually study the island and culture), including her diaries, maps, statue counts and descriptions, sketches of petroglyphs, and interviews with natives. These documents had long before been seized and suppressed by her husband, Scoresby, after he had her forcibly committed her to an asylum for her paranoid behavior. Pitts also visited and described what few artifacts exist in museums around the world, including several carved heads, some untranslated writing on wood planks, and a feathered helmet.

 

Sorry this review is so long, but it is a fascinating subject full of thorough research clearly presented to try to unlock the secrets of Rara Nui. Many of Pitts' findings counter Heyerdahl's and other popular theories, with Pitt feeling these accounts relied on unproved rumors and conjectures by the writers, and did much damage to the real story of these islanders by suppressing the cruel influence that Europeans had thrust upon them. 

 

So read or at least skim this book for what I consider the true history, culture, and fate of this most mysterious of isolated islands: Rara Nui, also known as Easter Island. 

   

[If this book interests you, be sure to check out:]

 Heyerdahl, Thor. Easter Island: The Mystery Solved

Read Heyerdahl's own explanation of the history of Easter Island, the stone carvings, writings, and original settlers. He proposes very different answers to the questions raised about the island, its people, and carvings. (Note: Mike Pitts, in the above book, thinks Heyerdahl is mistaken in almost ever explanation he proposes, but it is interesting to contrast their research and conclusions.)  (Previously reviewed here.)

 Happy reading.

Fred

[P.S. Click here to browse over 500 more book recommendations by subject or title and read the introduction to The First Sentence Reader.]