Steve Luxenberg - "Annie's Ghosts"

This is an incredible detective story that is true. The full title of this book is "A Journey Into a Family Secret". Luxenberg is on a search for an aunt, the sister of his mom that he never knew existed until shortly before his mother's death. The saddest part of the book is the fact that he never asks his mother about her sister because when he firsts learns of her, it is inaccurate information. He thinks the sister has died as a very young child. Later he learns that his mother never grew up as an only child but with a younger sister who was institutionalized at age 21. His mother was two years older.

Luxenberg searches medical records when he can get them and interviews old family relatives and acquaintances to see what they remembered or knew with mixed results. In his search he turns up other secrets long hidden or forgotten. An amazing journey into the past trying to make sense of his mother's decision not to share the existence of a sister. A sad journey into the past when he learns the conditions in which his aunt lived and died in Michigan mental institutions. His story makes you wonder what secrets may lie in all our past family histories.

The Goldfish Live! and Other Signs of Spring!

The goldfish are just patches of gold in the pond water but they are alive and swimming after being in a deep freeze for months. How do they do it?

In this photo you can see some of the ice still lingering but the goldfish don't seem to mind.

The pond is filled with lots of leaves which will need cleaning out when it warms enough for me to put on my boots and wade in there.

Daffodils are showing promise.


And some of the crocuses say there is enough bright sun for them to show their faces to it.

"Gold Boy, Emerald Girl" by Yiyun Li

This book caught my eye on the new book shelf at the library. It's a selection of short stories for current day China written by a Chinese woman who had emigrated to the US as an adult. Her stories are quite a snapshot of China now with a hint of what life was like during different periods preceding the present.

My favorite story was "Prison" about a Chinese couple living in the US with their daughter. The story opens after the death of the daughter in an accident. Since they are in their 40s they decide to go back to China and hire a woman to be the surrogate mother for their embryo. Apparently this is illegal in China but they manage it. The husband returns to the US to continue working while the wife remains behind to monitor the surrogate mother.

I don't want to give too much of the story away but I will say this I feel it ends very abruptly. In fact all her stories tend to end before you want them to. In that way they are like snapshots, just a fragment of time and its up to the reader to decide what comes next. It was an interesting diversion from Shakespeare and the long novels I've been reading.

Shakespeare Reading Challenge - First Reading

For my niece's Shakespeare Reading Challenge I challenged myself to read 4 plays. My first attempt was the Merchant of Venice but I had to give up on that one. Next I went to Othello and did manage to read it (mostly). Here's my take on that one.

First I think it was incredible that Shakespeare dealt with racial prejudice at that time. It really surprised me. Othello if you aren't familiar with the play is an African Moor who is a well decorated general held in high regard. He marries Desdemona over the objections of her father. His subordinate Iago is rife with prejudice and plots to bring down Othello and break up his marriage. He is successful in the latter only because he sways Othello into thinking his wife is unfaithful so he kills his wife in unfounded jealousy. When he learns of Iago trickery he kills himself rather than face life without Desdemona.

As I think back over this play I wonder though if Shakespeare wasn't also prejudiced. After all he portrayed Othello as weak enough to fall for the falsehoods whispered by Iago when in my mind I don't believe his character should have. If he was this brilliant general, he would have verified his information before acting. It was not as if he couldn't go to the source and speak to Desdemona about the allegations.

When I say I read it mostly, I got to a point where I needed to learn the ending. Then I read back from the ending. I know that's a strange way to read a book but it worked for me with this play.

I haven't selected my next play. I have time since I'm doing one a quarter. Any recommendations?