Horizon movie/Kevin Costner

Plot lines

    1.  The land scams/land sold in the east that is not really owned by the seller.  Horizon land grants are set on the Apache river crossing area.  Had it been settled 10 miles north or south, the Apache might have let it be.  

    2.  Characters to keep track of:  Costner/Hardy, Mary, widow and daughter, townsmen who are hunting Indians/scalps, wagon train captain, German stalker,English couple/artist of the west, Sikes family/bad guys, Apache mountain chief and adopted son who speak English, Apache war party and their leader, military lieutenant and widow, 

    3.  Story lines:  settlers/Indians, townsfolk and merchants, prostitutes and children, unscrupulous land dealers, military actions

    4.  Symbols and themes:  abandoned Spanish mission, original 3 crosses, star-crossed love, difficulty of living conditions, rape of the Indian animal and wildlife area, death and dying

I really liked the movie.  At the end of 3 hours, we all felt it had seemed much shorter time had passed.  However, the questions we left with were many:  why did the movie jump from storyline to storyline so much.  (It was really tricky to keep up.)  Time jumped forward too with little explanation.  Had years passed or months or just days?  Who were some of the people we saw just for a brief scene and how did they connect to the entirety of the story?  

My hope is that chapters 2-4 will tie it all together.  

Mad Honey by Jodie Picoult and Jennifer Finney Boylan

 I have read Jodie Picoult books for many years and have enjoyed her writing device of presenting a moral dilemna for the reader because there are so many times in life we are faced with a problem with not one answer but many possible solutions.  For example, in her early book, My Sister’s Keeper, parents decide to have a baby in order to harvest a kidney to save their older daughter. Were they right to do this to the unwitting baby?  It is easy to argue for both sides.  In Mad Honey, Picoult has co authored with Jennifer Finney Boylan another novel that requires much self examination.  The story revolves around strong characters: Olivia, Lily and Asher.  Olivia has escaped an abusive marriage with her son, Asher, who is now a senior in high school.  They live a quiet life in a small community where Olivia is a bee keeper.  A new girl, Lily, arrives and immediately forms a bond with Asher.  All seems to be going well until one night when Lily is found dead in her home.  Asher is arrested and the remainder of the book revolves around the trial and the revelations that unfold.  The major and most significant disclosure in the trial is that Lily is a transgender girl who has undergone hormone replacement and surgical procedures that make it impossible for anyone, even a boyfriend, to tell that she has changed.  As you can imagine, there is much trauma and angst as this secret comes out.  But there are many more revelations that keep you guessing to the very end of the trial as to how Lily died.  Picoult and Boylan manage to interweave many societal issues to explore along with transgender children, such as abuse (both mental and physical), prejudice, parental rights and privacy rights to name a few.  One interesting fact that adds to the discussion is that Finney Boylan is a transgender woman who went through the surgical/hormonal operation when she was 40. Prior to that she was married to a woman and had two sons.  As with many books we read, the title Mad Honey was puzzling.  The bee keeper, Olivia, tells us much about a bee colony and its balanced culture which make it viable and productive.  In particular, we learn  that bees are able to change their sex or transform from one sex to another as is needed by the hive.  The debate is whether people should change and choose too. I learned so much about this highly charged subject concerning transgender children.  If for no other reason than to become better informed, I recommend this book.

Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver

 I cannot say I enjoyed Barbara Kingsolver’s book, Demon Copperhead, but I can say the book pushed me over the edge as far as anger and frustration directed toward the soul crushing greed and abuse we see coming from big business and government.   Let me step back and try to explain.  If you have read any review of this novel you know that it is a modern day retelling of Charles Dickens’ David Copperfield which may help many of you get a picture of the plot line.  Unfortunately, I never read Dickens book, so I went into this one totally unprepared for Kingsolver’s revelation of the heart wrenching misery of the people of Lee County Virginia and their young.  I was truly broken by the slow but inevitable devolving of all these folks whose lives were simply thrown away or destroyed by poverty and drug addiction.  The plight of these “hillbillies” is not a new revelation, but the abject cruelty of big business and government agencies just broke me.  I don’t generally choose books that are an obvious setup for face to face confrontation of the “war” between the haves and have nots because I cannot see any solution for the poor and even worse I cannot find solace in the idea of saving just one.  I found small comfort in the hint of resolution and happiness at the end for Demon.  

All that being said, I must say the writing was a pure pleasure.  Kingsolver truly is a wonderful writer who made the characters and the setting come alive.  The list of well developed, believable characters was long (Demon, Angus, Maggot, Fast Forward, Tommy, just to name a few).  Each of these players was beautifully drawn with so much detail you could really see them.  The few “savior” characters like Aunt June, the nurse practitioner,  and even the self sacrificing art teacher who worked valiantly to save at least one of these young people helped to lessen the overall pain.  We were encouraged by their goodness and the way they worked with and accepted theses people knowing full well they would probably not succeed.  

So, this is not my usual declaration of support.  I must say I was the lone person in our discussion who really could not see past the depressing situation these people found themselves in.  There is a chance that this is the goal for Kingsolver……she wants all of us to open our eyes and see the less fortunate and also to think about these people without judgement. It is always so easy to think that everyone can just pull themselves up if they just try hard enough.  Unfortunately, the world does not work that way for the vast majority.  

Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus

 Think back to your earliest memories of TV housewives.  Can’t you just see June Cleaver in her shirt waist dress and pearls setting the table for dinner? This picture was a normal family snapshot and all little girls were told as they grew up that their home should be just like this—we were to stay in the home, be happy housewives and raise the children.  Bonnie Garmus in her debut novel, Lessons in Chemistry, chucked that notion out the window for her main character Elizabeth Zott.  Brilliant and independent, Elizabeth was determined not be pigeoned holed into the patriarchal norm.  She spent her entire life fighting for her place in the world of renowned chemists.  Fighting the status quo and succeeding were two different things however, and faced with the reality of being a single mother who needed to support her child, Elizabeth acquiesced to taking a job as a TV cooking show hostess.  But “Supper at Six” was not your typical cooking show.  Elizabeth insisted on treating the women who watched her show as adults with actual brains.  Women were not inferior and Zott was determined to prove it. This revolt against the repressive role of women became the storyline of the book and revolved in and around all the people who shared life with Elizabeth.  Some characters were charming in very quirky ways and others depicted the ugliest types of chauvinistic back stabbers. Garmus treated us to a wonderful cast of characters such as Elizabeth’s daughter, Mad, her much harangued boss, Walter, her scrappy neighbor, Harriet, and most fun of all, Six Thirty, the family dog with a vocabulary of over 900 words.  All of the characters moved us to a nearly perfect outcome for Elizabeth and family.  This was just a wonderful read that I cannot recommend  highly enough. Garmus has given us a truly warm and entertaining book. I rarely think of rereading a novel, but this is one I might read again.  Just delightful.

The Measure by Nikki Erlick

West with Giraffes by Lynda Rutledge and Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt

 I decided to write a combined summary about the two books I enjoyed most this past summer.  I cannot remember a time that I read a book narrated by an animal or centered around animals that I loved to talk about as much as these two.  West with Giraffes by Lynda Rutledge is an historical fiction novel based on the true story of two young giraffes sent to America from across the ocean.  The story tells how the giraffes first had to survive a hurricane and then a long trip across country in a truck.  The news accounts of the travels document the journey and are available on the Internet still, but that is only part of the narrative.  Rutledge intertwines into this story the tale of Woody Nickel (yes, that is his name) an orphaned young man who is searching for peace and a place to call home.  Through luck or a twist of fate, Woody somehow lands the job of driver for the giraffes.  Their journey becomes a coming of age time for Woody and the zoo keeper tasked with moving the giant animals.  The Old Man, as Woody calls him, is wise and worldly and he recognizes the need inside this young man who he has “adopted” for this trip.  Their travel becomes an historical description of the country during the time of depression which is very interesting. Add to this the relationship the two develop through their mutual desire to care for the giraffes and you find a perfect feel good book.  

Shelby Van Pelt chose Marcellus a giant Pacific octopus as one of the  narrators in her book, Remarkably Bright Creatures.  Having lived in an aquarium for 1,299 days observing humans with all their foibles has given Marcellus a rather cynical perspective until he becomes aware of Tova the night cleaning lady who compassionately interacts with all the sea creatures in the tanks around him.  Little by little Marcellus allows Tova to see just how special he is; his intelligence and cleverness become clear to Tova and she truly grows to appreciate him above all the other creatures in the aquarium.  The story line revolves around Marcellus’ decision to help Tova find the truth about the tragedy of her son’s death.  This unlikely couple as well as all the other true to life characters held me spellbound throughout.  (And I learned a lot about octopus too).   So, if you are needing a story to lighten your mood or if you love books about animals, these two are high on my recommendation list.  I just do not think you can go wrong with either.

The Sandcastle Girls by Chris Bohjalian

 “The Slaughter You Know Next to Nothing About” is the tragic historical event upon which the novel The Sandcastle Girls by Chris Bohjalian is based.  In the year 1915, one and a half million Armenian Christians were slaughtered in an ethnic genocide led by the Turks who began the killings under the false premise that the Turkish border to Armenia was vulnerable to attack.  It was WWI and the Turkish had sided with the Germans with the intent of controlling all of Europe and perhaps the world.  The “preemptive cleansing” began with firing squads in towns all along the border of Turkey, but it escalated to mind boggling cruelty, butchery and unbelievable savage indifference toward the women and children who were marched across the desert with little or no food and water and left in mass graves, the sandcastles it would seem.  The story is told from the perspective of a “modern day” writer who chose to investigate her grandparent’s history.  The story of Elizabeth and Armen is a heart wrenching tale of love and loss and determination and strength.  Bohjalian manages to relate the horrors of this time with clarity and yet shows the reader that there is no absolute even in war.  Even in the heart of darkness, you can find light in people who resist, who try to right wrongs and who are determined to show some kindness and love.  I really learned much about a time in modern history that I knew next to nothing about. Some in our group were overwhelmed by the ugliness of the storyline, but agreed it was an important read.  Not for the faint of heart, but a book that will give you much to think about.  As we know, we are bound to make the same mistakes if we do not learn from the past.  Awareness is the key.