A Glimpse Into North Korean Life

The Orphan Master’s Son

By Adam Johnson

This novel is about families living in North Korea under the dictatorship of “the Dear Leader” Kim Jong Il.  At points it’s a brutal story, and there were times I wanted to stop reading, but I just couldn’t put it down.  This novel will move you through a range of emotions as it reveals human nature at extraordinary and at terrifying moments. I think I had to keep reading as I searched for hope.

This author gives a skilled portrayal of his protagonist Jun Do, an everyman citizen of the dangerous Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK).   The novel’s appeal is how well it reflects the debilitating effects of repression on everyday people.  The author said that he wanted to write about “how the tenets of totalitarianism eat away at the things that make us human: freedom, art, choice, identity, expression, love.”

A primary theme is people struggling to stand and maintain an individual identity against the relentless tide of state propaganda.  This is especially a struggle for Jun Do who is labeled an orphan.  Another theme is how people share loving relationships, when in North Korea your first loyalty and love is demanded to the state.  Priority is rigidly ordered: regime first, family second.  The author asks, “Despite dangers, can lovers share their intimate thoughts” when there is the ominous fear of betrayal to the state.

The novel is in two parts.  The first is the biography of Jun Do, and the second is the confessions of Commander Ga.  It’s a shocking twist how these two parts tie together.  Throughout the book there is a rising tension between America and North Korea.  An interesting progression of seemingly unrelated life events thrust Jun Do unexpectedly into an increasing role on this world stage.

Jun Do’s journey begins as a citizen who does what he’s told, and when he’s told, no matter the ethics, and without question.  His exposure to foreign broadcasts, and life encounters bring him to crossroads that conflict with his society.  The reader gets glimpses into the lives of a variety of characters through Jun Do including: a fishing boat captain, the first mate, a newlywed wife, prison inmates, state propaganda movie actress, army commanders, and the self-censorship and paranoia of an interrogator and his family.  Finally you also meet the Dear Leader himself.

The story is obviously a work of love by the author, who is well qualified to write on the topic.  As he described, “so much research was done to build the story including extensive interviews of Korean orphans, defectors, and revelations of prisoners’ stories.  The Pyongyang’s Workers’ Party newspaper was the source for much of the propaganda that is prominent in the book.”  In 2007 Adam Johnson was allowed by North Korea to take a strictly guided tour of Pyongyang.

I wished for the resilient, inquisitive Jun Do to feel the freedom of his own sense of purpose.  This is fiction, based on extensive research, but as the author said, “the reality is that we’ll know the true way to write a novel set in North Korea when North Korean novelists become free to tell their own stories.  I hope that day comes soon.”

Thereby hangs a tale . . . .

Visit City of Illusions

City of Illusions

By Judith Works

There’s no place like Rome.  With its abundant architectural and artistic riches, Rome celebrates more than 2,500 years of history.  Judith Works’ City of Illusions has given me an exciting taste of contemporary Rome, with its historical backdrop and with its shadows of intrigue.  Et tu Brute?  This novel is an exotic work of fiction that transported me inside a beautiful culture, and a troubled marriage.  Will our heroine excavate love from among Roman ruins?

Rome was not built in a day.  Great things, great places, and great marriages are not achieved without effort and patience.  Something that looks so good on the surface you realize can be deceptive as you delve into its layers.  As the story progresses, Judith skillfully peels back those layers in each of her characters, revealing their motivations and dramas.  From the start, I’m interested in the stormy relationship shown between Laura and her husband Jake.  Just like the characters, I found myself fervently hoping that a change of scene could be arranged, and could be the way to a happily-ever-after.  And Rome is full of surprises.

This author beautifully paints the story, to match the incredible cover art on the book.  I really appreciate how generous Judith is with her description of Rome and the characters’ surroundings.  Along with the famous sites, the reader is treated to a view into the Roman culture that only expats experience.  It includes every day conversations with residents, visits in their homes, and descriptions of the wonderful meals.  That’s right, not just the food, eating is presented as a cultural event.  We also get a taste of the language scattered throughout the book in little phrases and descriptions, which is really fun.  Try reading those out loud.  It’s fascinating following our characters through their daily routines, and even more so following them as they stray from their daily routines.

Judith is the right author to imagine a novel like The City of Illusions.  She interrupted her life in process to temporarily work at the United Nations office in Rome and live there as an expat.  Her love for Rome and Italy shines through every page, and translates into a wonderful stage for this novel of adventure and intrigue.

Thereby hangs a tale . . . .

2015 Resolution Living a Beautiful Life

Living a Beautiful Life

By Alexandra Stoddard

As I attempt to fulfill my new year’s resolutions, I’ve discovered this book that goes beyond a resolution check list and reminds that living a beautiful life is in the daily details.  Alexandra Stoddard suggests simple ways to easily and inexpensively enhance your quality of life.

The foreword points out that many people save up to 95 percent of their money and effort to spend on 5 percent of their lives during special occasions.  Instead consider that a beautiful life is making the daily 95 percent of your life wonderful.  This can easily be done in so many small ways, if we just make a conscious effort.  Beauty encourages us; it gives us the joy and energy to care more and not to settle for less.  The key is that the beautiful details that you design bring meaning and joy especially for you.

I’m surprised at how little it takes to bring a moment of joy, and how many moments of joy can make up a day.  Beyond reducing clutter that surrounds you and causes stress, this book gives specific examples of easy ways of creating something special out of the ordinary.  You don’t have to be an artist to include artistic touches in your life.  This book spans the areas and time we spend most of our lives: the kitchen, the bedroom, and the bath.  The author also has suggestions about creating a beautiful life with others - family and friends.  Not all the suggestions will speak to you, but many will.  Some of the specifics are outdated; this book’s first edition was in 1986.  It’s surprising how most of the suggestions are timeless though, and the book is filled with so many creative thoughts that it will get you thinking of your own new ideas, that will appeal to you.  There is even space after each chapter for your own notes.

Alexandra Stoddard is a philosopher, author, and interior designer.  She is the author of many books with a similar supportive and encouraging tone offering practical advice, and everyday philosophies on enhancing life. 

Alexandra Stoddard’s unique insights reveal the small but significant things that we can do to change our attitude, heart and environment for the better.  Her books contain a positive personal philosophy of ways to live a beautiful and happy life, laced with grace and wit. She also writes about ritualizing parts of every day, raising public awareness to the importance of little celebrations and ceremonies at home. Her goal is to elevate our daily lives into an art form: we can all live beautifully, moment to moment.

Thereby hangs a tale . . . .

All I Want For Xmas, Time Travelling Romance



Christmas in the Highlands

By Pam Binder

Miracles blanket Christmas, like a gentle snowfall.  I’ve discovered this special book; it crystallizes what’s behind miracles.  This book displays the author’s belief that time is an illusion, and love is the reality that makes miracles happen.  This is a romantic story, and with an open heart it can make you a believer too.

Irene travels to Scotland on Christmas Eve on a quest.  She deeply misses her mother, who has recently passed away.  But her mother’s death also reveals family secrets that Irene’s curiosity cannot leave at rest.  Her mother’s diary, left for her twin daughters, mysteriously hints at a hidden past, a hidden love, revolving around a specific Scottish castle.  Now it’s Christmas Eve at Stirling Castle; Irene is on the threshold of a holiday tour that will change her life.  Irene is hoping to find some answers.  What she finds are surprises, including meeting a special man who sweeps her off her feet.  But time is an illusion, and Irene and her man will need to find a way back to their own time by midnight or be lost forever.

“When you love someone deeply enough anything is possible.  Even miracles.”  These are the last lines from the 1954 movie Brigadoon, a favorite of Irene’s mother.  Can life imitate the magic of such a story, here in the middle of modern day Scotland?

I really enjoyed the feeling of being magically transported to another time, and to a place that became so real to me.  The interesting characters are infused with a humor that belies much about their backgrounds and character.  The author describes characters a reader readily relates to, and begs the reader to question, what if I was lucky enough to find myself on a time traveling tour full of intrigue . . .

Pam knows history well and weaves the most interesting tidbits into the tapestry of her story.  She is the author of five other books.  Just like this book, her unique stories include a mix of rich romance, fantasy, and time travel.

I recommend you slip a little Christmas in the Highlands into a loved one’s stocking this year.  This magic is most cherished at this time of year, and happily it’s an enchanting story to be re-read in all seasons.

Thereby hangs a tale . . . .



Enjoy A Week in Winter

A Week in Winter

By Maeve Binchy

This is a week in winter that is years in the making.  A group of strangers converge on the opening of a charming, rebuilt, historic Bed and Breakfast on the west coast of Ireland for a week’s vacation.  Each guest carries their own baggage in hand and in heart.  They blend together, coming from all over and from all ages, for a moment in time.  They share a joyful opportunity to pause, and to reflect on their life trajectories, each pondering whether they are on the path they really desire.  Change is in the air.

The author artfully weaves the individual stories for each of the characters, and then tells how those stories intersect during this magical week.  The book begins with the tale of Chicky Starr, and what takes her away from Ireland to New York.  Then you’ll learn what drives Chicky to restore an old, decaying mansion back in her home town in Ireland.  The ripples of Chicky’s decision lead to the restoration of other peoples’ lives, especially friends and staff at her B and B.  That is when we are treated to the stories of each of the other characters.  This wintry tale about people taking the time to care, and to seek joy, is blanketed by the vivid personality of rugged Ireland with its customs, traditions, and music.

Maeve Binchy was an Irish novelist, playwright, short story writer, columnist, and speaker.  A Week in Winter was her final novel, published posthumously in 2012.  Her love for small town Ireland came naturally from her own life experience.  Her childhood home was 10 miles from Dublin, where she grew up with sisters and brothers and parents who loved their children.  She described her parents as people who “thought all their geese were swans. It was a gift greater than beauty or riches, the feeling that you were as fine as anyone else.”  After extensive travelling, she married a writer and moved into a house in a little town in Ireland called Dalkey, just a few hundred yards from her childhood home.  She wrote many heartwarming books and short stories, and said about her life’s work, “I'd like people to think I was a good friend and a reasonable story-teller and to know that thanks to all the great people, family and friends that I met, I was very, very happy when I was here.”

Thereby hangs a tale. . . .

 

Agent ZigZag

Agent ZigZag

A True Story of Nazi Espionage, Love and Betrayal

By Ben MacIntyre

Do you like spy thrillers?  Well, this one is the real thing.  This is the true accounting of the self-serving, but also heroic adventures of Eddie Chapman as a double agent during World War II.  He was a British citizen, with an interesting personal history.  Despite his checkered past, he volunteered for the British spy service.  With his criminal record, his offer was not taken up by MI5 at that time.  Then he turned traitor, volunteering to spy for the Nazi’s to save himself.  But then he turned again and ended up as a double agent for the British.  Chapman would say that it was always his intent to work for the British and that may be, or he may have seized an opportunity that came his way as he did so often in his life.  His story, and reading about his adventures is enthralling.

You’ll learn a lot about the people and the workings of the Nazi secret service.  Chapman was one of the first initiates in the Nazi’s ambitions to turn allies’ citizens into their own spies.  You’ll read about Chapman’s training, and about secrets he discovered for the British during his private training by the Nazi’s in France.  When Chapman was deemed ready and fully tested regarding his loyalties, he was dangerously parachuted back to Britain on a mission for the Nazi’s.

Then you get to read about Chapman immediately turning himself over to service as a double agent for MI5, Britain’s secret service, who gave him the code name ZigZag.  You’ll get to meet the people he worked with there, including the man that Ian Fleming modeled “Q” after in the James Bond books.  The book details how Chapman and his MI5 handlers dangerously but successfully fooled the Nazi’s. 

Chapman is a charming and likable personality, with a very checkered and criminal personal life before becoming a double agent spy.  He loves deeply and often, and you’ll read all about the fascinating and brave women who are attracted to him, and one who spies with him.

Ben MacIntyre is a British author, historian, and columnist for The Times newspaper.  He has fully researched this topic, including exhaustive numbers of confidential files finally released by the British government in 2002, and also videotaped recollections by Chapman himself before he died in 1997, and interviews with the surrounding characters in Chapman’s life from several countries.

This book is a most enjoyable way to understand the inside story of a very important time in history.  The author treats the facts objectively, but at the same time tells the story in an engaging way that exposes the humanity behind the treachery, the heroics, and the ambitions.

Thereby hangs a tale . . .

In Pursuit of the Bard's Undiscovered Play

The Book of Air and Shadows by Michael Gruber

What if your day at work has turned into your worst nightmare, and out of the ashes of that terrible day you discover you’ve found a clue to the location of an unknown play by Shakespeare?  Is this your silver lining?  What would a Shakespeare scholar do to find an entire play in the Bard's hand? Whom would a criminal mastermind kill to steal it?  Can the unwitting hero find the manuscript first?  And will he capture the heart of the mysterious girl bookbinder in the process?

The Book of Air and Shadows is a thriller about chasing down the clues to fame, and fortune, and an unknown Shakespeare play.  You’ll delve into the science of studying 16^th century printing, ink, and history.  You’ll also learn about the publishing industry.  It all starts when mysterious letters are found embedded in the covers of a rare book set.  This is not a fast paced read.  Instead it is a methodical tracking and testing to validate and de-cipher clues.  Whether the clues are proven or fraud, the criminal mob has heard of the find, believes it, and is hot on the heels of the others.  And of course, the Intellectual Property Lawyer is right in the middle of the chase and looking to gain his piece of this action.  It builds into a wild story of double-crossings, de-coded ciphers, forgeries, kidnappings and murder.

What starts as a thrilling puzzle to solve, slowly turns into such a dangerous riddle no one including family, friends, and lovers are trustworthy.  While you are learning about the present day treasure hunters, in parallel the author tells the story of characters in 17^th century England.  These characters, including Shakespeare, are driven by mystery and danger to take specific actions with Shakespeare’s final handwritten play.  The author tells a vivid story of William Shakespeare’s life.

Michael Gruber now lives and writes in Seattle.  He has a PhD from Columbia University, and during his career he was a policy advisor for the Jimmy Carter White House, and also a bureaucrat for the EPA.  In an interview about this book, Michael Gruber said, “So why Shakespeare? Because I feel he's the essence of mystery. Because in the modern history of the world there's no literary figure of remotely comparable magnitude for whom we have less biographical information: the greatest single figure writing in our language, and he's smoke. Because he flourished in a world without copyright laws his mystery continues.”  According to the author, he was inspired to write this novel, “during a conference with an intellectual property lawyer on a particular afternoon in November of 2003.  When I say born, I mean nearly the whole plot popped into my head.”

And thereby hangs a tale . . . .