That’s the Book!

If you’d like more about Mennonite history you can visit any part of Southern Manitoba and see various Mennonites or just go the Steinbach for the Mennonite Heritage Village Museum. Or visit Friesens, one of the publishers of one of the Harry Potter books (only printer of that book in Canada). But I digress, on with the main event.

    Though my selection this time around is for Manitoba the book took me closer to my actual location (Seoul, Republic of Korea) Vietnam. David Bergen (my second of two Mennonite authors) won the Giller Prize for this book. And that book is of course The Time In Between.

    The Time In Between is the story of a brother and sister (Jon and Ada) in search of their missing father Charles Boatman. Charles first made the trip to Vietnam during the war. Bergen goes about telling the story in an interesting way. He talks about the siblings quest to find out what happened to their father and the suspicions they about his disappearance. Then all of a sudden the story shifts. We experience the final few moments of Charles Boatman’s life, from his perspective. It did take me a while to figure out what was happening the change happened so flawlessly.

    I enjoyed the book but it was far from one of my favorites. There were times when I felt to story drag and I pushed through it just to get it finished. The subject matter was of little interest, which made it hard to read at times as well. But the way Bergen dealt with depression in the book was good, I could relate to that part quite well.

    As for the characters I found Ada quite interesting and wanted more from here, even thought we get her through most of the book. Jon was of no interested and I’m not really sure why he was even present, he popped up every once in a while just to make a presence. He could have stayed on the mountain in British Columbia with their other sister. Charles Boatman was of some interest. He seemed like a nice guy and through most of the first half of the book I was wishing he wasn’t dead, but the book wouldn’t have worked as well as it did if he was alive at the end.

    The Time In Between is an okay book but I’m not as thrilled with it as I was Peace Shall Destroy Many by Rudy Wiebe. If you had to pick between the two go for Wiebe’s book.

1. Non-Fiction Five Challenge 2008

Joy is hosting this challenge over at Thoghts of Joy….  It’s a short and simple challenge; the rules are as follows;
    a) Read five non-fiction books between the months of May through September.
    b) Read at least one non-fiction book that is different from your other choices.
With wanting to read more works of non-fiction I thought this is a good way to go about do it.  I have some idea of what I want to read for this challenge but I have quite a few options.  And I’m one of those that post a list and commits to it, so until I’m sure I’ll leave the list posting.

2. Orbis Terrarum Challenge

This is another simple challenge, slightly longer than the Non-Fiction Five Challenge but one I think I may be looking forward to with greater zeal.  The rules for Orbis Terrarum Challenge:
    a) Runs from April 1 through December 20, 2008.
    b) Readers choose nine books, one book for each month of the challenge.
    c) Each book must be of an author for a different country.
Easy, nine books over nine months.  I love that this challenge is forcing me to expand my reading.  I’ve expanding my reading recently to other countries and I find I really enjoy reading Spanish writers.  So, I’ll use this opportunity to expand the countries I’ve read, but I’ll be sure to have some countries I’ve read before.  I have one book from my home country (Canada) that I’m not reading for The Canadian Book Challenge that I really want to read, so it’s getting plugged into this list.  I have a better idea of what I’m going to read for this challenge so this list will be posted in the very near future (and it starts soon). 

    These seem like great challenges and I would like to encourage others to join them as well.  So check out the sites and add your name to growing list of readers. 

    Well, it’s been a while since I’ve had internet at my new apartment in Seoul. As a result I haven’t been able to keep up with my blogging. Meaning I have a lot of catching up to do in the next little bit. What better place to start than with Booking Through Thrusday? Rather than leaving it much longer (I’m already late) here is my entry for this week.

While acknowledging that we can’t judge books by their covers, how much does the design of a book affect your reading enjoyment? Hardcover vs. softcover? Trade paperback vs. mass market paperback? Font? Illustrations? Etc.?

Thanks for the question Julie (of i like shiny things). There is so much anyone could say about this but the first comment I want to make is you cannot judge a book by its cover? Hmmm, perhaps I should stop doing that. But I will be the first to admit that a cover does affect my judgment, it’s the first obstacal a book must make on shelf. If it doesn’t catch my attention it is doomed to lead a life collecting dust. The only exception to this is of course if I’ve heard about the book and I’m purposely hunting for it.

There are many aspects of the book that make it more enjoyable to read. The first being soft cover, they make handling a book much easier. On the other side of the coin, I prefer the presence of hardcover books on my shelf. Thereby causing a dilemma when it comes to purchasing the book.

    The second aspect that really gets me is the smell of the book. Now all books smell good, the sound of the book opening for the first time may be the only thing that surpasses smell in book enjoyment. I’m not suggesting that it’s the smell of a new book by any means; sometimes the oldies have a better smell. I really enjoy coming home from What the Book? (the title of this blog is an homage to this book palace in Seoul) and getting a good whiff of one of the used books I’ve come home with. It makes me wonder about the person who previously owned the book, a book with history.

Trade paperback is a must. I’m currently reading a mass-produced copy of Haruki Murakami’s Kafka on the Shore and it keeps getting relegated to later reading. It’s not a challenging read or is void of interest it’s just that the margins are terrible and the print is too small to make reading enjoyable. Unfortunately it cannot be left much longer as it needs to be finished for book club next weekend. So, that leads to font. This isn’t usually something I pay much attention to, size is more important than anything else. If the print is too small it makes reading a chore at times. But after reading Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close I’ve found enjoyment in playing with the font, Douglas Coupland also did this in jPod.

    I see this is already becoming very long and so I’ll just say an illustration once in a while can definitely enhance the telling of a tale. Until next Thursday (which should be completed on Thursday), good reading.

    I guess it’s better late than never.  I don’t have internet at my place these days, after just moving into Seoul.  So, the opportunity to blog is diminished greatly.  Hopefully I’ll get internet this week and can therefore do a better job of blogging again.
So, without further ado here is this week’s booking through Thursday.

You’ve just reached the end of a book … what do you do now?  Savor and muse over the book?  Dive right into the next one?  Go take the dog for a walk, the kids to the park, before even thinking about the next book you’re going to read?  What?

    I guess this is an easy question to answer because I tend to do the same thing when I end a book.  Actually, the process starts before the book is even finished.  By the time I’m half way through my novel I tend to have the next book chosen and cannot wait to start it.  Once my current book is finished I reached for the new one and get started. 

    There are times I give some pause before I start the next one.  This usually happens when I have the book to been emotional.  It doesn’t happen because there is a cliff-hanger or part of a series.  The last couple of books that made me pause before starting the next one were We Need to Talk About Kevin and What is the What.  These two books were emotionally draining and I need some time for reflection.

    Right now I’m almost finished Peace Shall Destroy Many by Rudy Weibe and the next book in store is The Time In Between by David Bergen (both works by Mennonites and both for The Canadian Book Challenge). I guess I find I have too many books I want to read and don’t have the time to wait before I start the next one.

    I must admit that I approached this book with great trepidation, and even more after reading the translator’s note at the beginning of the book.  This came about for a couple of reasons; first, the book is incomplete, and second, some alterations were made to the text.  After getting into the book my feelings soon changed and now I’m here to sing the praises of Suite Francaise.

    The tilt of the book is significant in that Nemirovsky was planning on writing a booking following the musical concept of a suite.  Meaning a work of music comprised of five parts.  Suite Francaise has two parts, but ideas for what may comprise the next three movements.  The world has some idea of what may happen if Nemerovsky was able to finish this work.  This was not to be because her death at the hands of the Nazi regime.  Suite Francaise was going to follow the war from the infiltration of Paris until the completion of the conflict.

    Books one and two (Storm in June and Dolce) deal with a few wealthy families fleeing the Paris invasion.  There were a few points that I thought were interesting and puzzling.  The one most perplexing item was how many of the wealthy people of had made preparations for their flight from the French capital but stayed until the Nazi’s were on their doorstep.  It just never made any sense to me why someone would wait until escape was practically impossible. 

    Given the subject matter I was glad to see that there were moments of humor.  When dealing with the subject of World War II humor isn’t usually something you would expect.  But Nemirovsky deals with it in a tasteful way.  Even while laughing I couldn’t help notice that it was also touching.  It’s great that this was accomplished in a first draft.  For a first draft this is a wonderful work of art.

    Reading the first two parts of Suite Francaise made me want to read more.  I was very pleased to find that notes for the next three parts of the novel were placed as the first appendix.  It has me craving more by Irene Nemirovsky, I’ll have to keep my eyes peeled for Fire in the Blood.  Suite Francaise ended up being another great selection that was read for Bookleaves.  Our next book is Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami, which has been great so far.

    This months Bookin’ Around selection is What is the What by Dave Eggers.  This is a fascinating book for a number of reasons; first, the subject matter, secondly, it’s classification, and thirdly, because it’s a collaboration (of sorts).  I know I won’t be able to say everything I’d like to about this book because there is so much one could say about it.  With that being said I’ll give you some of my impressions of the book.

    Dave Eggers was asked to write about the life of Valentino Achak Deng, one of Sudan’s Lost Boys.  I don’t think I don’t have to talk about the issues in Sudan.  As a side note I was talking with a Doctor from Sudan while waiting for a bus heading back to Daejeon.  He asked if I know anything about Sudan and I had mentioned how I knew about it, specifically the issues in the Darfur region.  His response was somewhat shocking, and that’s putting it mildly.  The good Doctor told me, “Darfur isn’t really that bad”.  Needless to say it took everything I had in me to prevent my mouth from hitting the ground.  I guess I’ll have to chalk it up to the things you hear in Korea.

    The trials that Valentino Deng faced during his time traveling across Sudan for Ethiopia only to have to travel across once more for the safety of Kenya.  The close encounters with the wild life, particularly the lion that consumed one of the boys in his party, make you think about the difficulties the Lost Boys harrowed, not only them but any refugee.  Then when you factor in the diseases that infected the Sudanese boys your heart goes out to these boys (now men).  This is just the story of one man, What is the What made me wonder about the other stories out there that we don’t hear about.

    Deng had many advantages that some of the others while at the two refugee camps he, and the other Sudanese, stayed.  He became a leader of the youth in the camp through and NGO, which happened to be a paid position.  I only wish that some of the difficulties including the stint of blindness he had while traveling.  I don’t want to say that he had an easy life, because it hasn’t been, but he is one of the lucky few that still has parents that survived the rampages that happened in south Sudan.

    Dave Eggers wrote this book after spending a lot of time talking with Valentino Achak Deng.  So, in a way, it’s a collaboration of sorts.  Making it an interesting way to produce a novel, about a persons actually life.  It’s a good thing that Deng has connections that allowed him the opportunity to connect with a writer like Eggers, because he didn’t think he could write his story on his own.  It is definitely a story that needs to be told and I only wish others had the same opportunity.

      The last point I want to make about his book is that What is the What is being marketed as a novel.  This was a great choice given the issues that have come out surrounding other people and their alleged memoirs.  The most known would the issues surround A Million Little Pieces by James Frey because of the connection with Oprah.  Rather than dealing with the controversies that could come out if it was marketed as memoir Valentino thought it should be sold as a novel because, “It should be known to the readers that I was very young when some of the events in the book took place, and as a result we simply had to pronounce What is the What a novel”. 

    Eggers’ What is the What is a fantastic novel that should have many readers.  Even if you aren’t interested in reading the book you should purchase this novel because the proceeds from the sale of the novel go directly to Valentino’s foundation which, “would be used to improve the lives of Sudanese in Sudan and elsewhere,” in my humble opinion a worthwhile cause.

As many of you avid readers of That’s the Book! know I’ve been paying close attention to Canada Reads, which has been over for two weeks now, but they had a year end round-up this past week. They asked for people to submit questions for the winner of this year’s author. Paul Quarrington (his book was King Leary) was then going to choose ten questions that he would answer. If your question was picked you would receive a signed copy of King Leary (author or defender of the book), a signed Canada Reads 2008 poster, and a gift certificate for the CBC shop.

I’ve noticed, because of the Canadian Book Challenge and Canada Reads, that it’s difficult to find Canadian literature in Korea. So, I wanted to find out what an author thought of this situation. Thus I submitted the following question to Paul Quarrington: