UNBROKEN: WORLD WAR II STORY OF SURVIVAL, RESILIENCE, AND REDEMPTION

It’s difficult for me to find a non-fiction book about World War II that can hold my attention – most of the time it’s a stodgy history book full of cold facts and military lingo, sometimes the viciousness and inhumanity takes the forefront that it’s too much to bear.  Along comes Unbroken, a shining piece of non-fiction by Laura Hillenbrand, which tells the story of Louie Zamperini, Olympian, WWII bombardier, Prisoner of War, and ultimately, a survivor.  Louie’s story is nothing short of a miracle. He competed in track in the 1936 Olympic Games, breaking every record during his time but while he was training for the 1940 games, war broke out in Europe and Asia and before long, he joined the Army Air Corps as a bombardier. His plane crashed in the Pacific and, along with 2 other airmen, drifted out to sea on a life raft for 47 days enduring, heat, cold, starvation, thirst and most of all, sharks. After this ordeal, the real fight for his life came when he was captured by the Japanese as a Prisoner of War. What he endured along with thousands of POWs in the Pacific would be the darkest moment of his life. At the hands of the Japanese captors, the POWs suffered dehumanizing torture and abuse, atrocities that would test any human being’s spirit.  Though Louie’s story is heartbreaking, Hillenbrand’s masterful writing is bright, airy and full of heart. The extensive research and interviews conducted lend an authenticity to her writing but all in all, Unbroken reads like a novel that you can’t put down because you’d want to know how it all ends. How, despite man’s capacity to inflict suffering in others, he can endure it, survive it, and come out the winner.

Gunn's Golden Rules

I've liked Tim Gunn since the first season of Project Runway. I used to just like Tim Gunn, the character and even loved the spoof of Tim that Mad TV did because I thought that he was added to the show for flavor and flair. But after watching several seasons I've liked Tim Gunn for who he is, the credibility that he brings to the show, his candidness, rapport and in some cases, "non-rapport" with some of the designers. He is a respected source of technical information but more often than not, it boils down to a question of style which he definitely knows something about. But more than that, Tim just oozes with "realness" that can't be faked.


Upon reading Gunn's Golden Rules, his newest book on how to make your personal life work, his uncompromising view of what's right and wrong is clearly evident. He dishes out the dirt on the divas in the fashion industry in trying to debunk that sense of entitlement some people in high places have. He rats out even his mother and father in trying to share nuggets of wisdom in being true to yourself, having manners and just being nice. He takes us inside his personal life to illustrate what to do when we are invited to a party, when we have guests over and even when we are being taken advantage of by our nearest and dearest. Indeed no one is spared, not even himself. 


He holds an engaging conversation with the reader and there were times when I laughed out loud because the words on the pages came alive and I could almost hear him speak. He has come a long way and he is lucky that success came to him late because he takes everything with a grain of salt and he is old enough to know that anything can be given or taken away in a blink of an eye.  What he is is grateful. And considerate. And polite. And real. And of course, well-dressed. Read this and you'll learn some of the ways to "make it work" in real life.

Missing Mom

Gwen Eaton was the mother we all know, love, and happen to ignore. She is warm, kind, overly concerned and not at all demanding. She is independent and a certified homemaker, baking her own bread, being active in the church and an overall good samaritan. Nikki Eaton didn't think much of her mother, she loved her for sure but she couldn't wait to get away from the small town she grew up in. So eager was she to start her own life and to make it big out there. Adulthood doesn't make it easy to keep in touch with her mother what with her many responsibilities, love affairs, work duties and the big life that she was leading. 

Then one day after a Mother's Day celebration that was memorable for the wrong reasons, Gwen Eaton was gone. Nikki, the black sheep of the family and Clare, the eldest daughter go through the motions of burying their mother and dealing with their grief in different ways. Clare takes charge and tries to control her surroundings by being a superwoman while Nikki just wants to bawl and sleep. Before long, she goes back to her Mother's house, bakes her bread recipes, dives into her old photos and letters to discover a woman that she did not bother much to get to know. A woman who was called "Feather" when she was young because of her light disposition, a cheerleader and a popular girl and ultimately a great friend. Nikki's grief overpowers her and she stays in her mother's house to feel her, to connect with her and to save her soul.  

Joyce Carol Oates' novel is an ode to all mothers and this is her own unique story which she tells in a warm and uncomplicated way. Grief is a weird thing and we are all unique in our ways of dealing with it. Nikki was able to find herself while she put herself in her mother's shoes, continuing her good work and trying to be the woman that she was and I think in the end, this could be her mother's gift to her as well as Nikki's gift to her mother. This is a book that we all should read before it's too late.

Five Quarters of the Orange

Joanne Harris has been a favorite author of mine ever since I read Sleep, Pale Sister. Her stories evoke a magical feeling with the right tinge of nostalgia. I was able to pick up Five Quarters of the Orange in a discount store and I was so happy with my find but couldn't for the life of me imagine how it could have ended up there. Surely her books are flying off the shelves? Well, that's a different matter.

This novel revolves around Framboise, a woman in her sixties recalling her childhood in a small French town during the German occupation. With her brother, sister and dour mother, they eke out a life not without hardships. Framboise is a complex character, as a nine year old she is precocious, angry though wanting of affection from a cold mother who had nothing good to say about her and their little lives. She would use an orange to induce her mother's bad spells so they would be left to their own devices while their mother retired to her bed for a long time. She was very smart and crafty often times besting her older brother and sister in games and dares using her steely determination and will power.  As a sixty year old, she grudgingly sees herself as a woman that inherited her mother's negative traits. She is scared of being close to her two daughters and would rather live an anonymous life without complications which means allowing no one to get too close.

As Framboise goes back from present to past you can already sense an underlying darkness in her story. Her past is rife with secrets and mischievous acts but Harris won't tell the reader right away. You have to travel with Boise back to her hometown where she puts up a small cafe using her dead mother's recipes that were compiled in an old album which was her inheritance.  There are many things that she is soon able to decode from her inheritance. Did her mother wish it so? Harris reveals them slowly and sweetly, much like wrapping the last piece of delectable chocolate.

Parallel to her reminisces is the story of the German soldiers which the children would trade information with, unwittingly setting off  wheels for a bigger and more evil act. There are so many revelations, insights and questions that need answers and my general feeling while reading the novel is that I wanted to consume it right away only to hold on to the very pages in the hope that the story wouldn't end. Such is Harris' magic in weaving a magical romantic tale where even the ugly, the hopeless and the evil can be rendered good, beautiful and like a crepe, sweet.

Something Wicked This Way Comes

I am not a fan of horror fiction... or maybe I just never read the good type of horror story to really hook me in. That is until, Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury. The story starts with 2 boys, a lightning rod salesman and the beginnings of a fierce lightning storm. What they get instead is a traveling carnival, complete with weirdos, freaks, rides, a mirror maze and a carousel. The 2 boy are naturally drawn to the carnival but they start to notice different things. A calliope that eerily plays into the night, a carousel that rides backwards,  a mirror maze that sucks in people to reveal horrible things and finally, the proprieters, Cooger and Dark who are just a bit too sinister for their taste.

This story will raise the hairs on your arms, it has none of the cotton candy sweetness that carnivals seem to evoke but the darker side that holds a promise of evil and corruption.  And things unnamed that follow you home and call your name and lure you with the fulfillment of your innermost desires.  It is also a triumphant story, not in the cheesy way that we are used to, but in a way that only Bradbury can pull off. In a strong, unrelenting way that makes you want to wish that his words would not end. His storytelling is one of the best that I have read, the way he plays with words, describes details, gives smells to sights and voices to noises. I cannot wait to read more Bradbury to keep his savory words spread out like a feast before my eyes.

The Shadow Princess

A long time ago I have fallen under Indu Sundaresan's spell in her storytelling of the Mughal Empire. Under her expert prose I became fascinated with this slice of India's history especially the women she wrote about.  Mehrunissa, the twentieth wife of Emperor Jahangir, was the main character in her novels The Twentieth Wife and Feast of Roses.  And so I picked up her new book The Shadow Princess thinking it was the story of Arjumand, Mehrunissa's niece who married her stepson Khurram and was after the throne even while Jahangir, his father, was still alive. Because of this powerplay, Jahangir and Mehrunissa sent Khurram on exile. But as history would have it, Khurram became Emperor Shah Jahan, the emperor suceeding Jahangir and Arjumand became Mumtaz Mahal, his 3rd and most beloved wife.

Shadow Princess starts at Mumtaz Mahal's deathbed where she is about to give birth to her fourteenth child. With her is Jahanara and Rosharanara her 2 teenage daughters. Her final wish is to be with her husband, Emperor Shah Jahan, so inlove and inseparable were they. Upon her death, the Emperor commissioned work on a lavish tomb to house her remains which would become the Taj Mahal.  What I love about Mughal court life which is exquisitely described by Sundaresan in her novels, is the various lavish ways they lived their everyday lives. From the jewels in their hair, face, buildings, the imperial elephants and peacocks that would accompany them when they traveled from one place to the next, rose=strewn marble floors they would walk on and the Persian carpets that would adorn their walls and floors.

The Shadow Princess does not disappoint. But it is really the story of Jahanara, the Emperor's most beloved and trusted daughter who became the head of the Imperial Zenana at such a young age, who advised her father, who commanded her family and who was given an unrivaled income of jewels, land and money from the Imperial Treasury. Jahanara who was not allowed to marry but who was loyal to their father until the bitter end. She is a strong force to be reckoned with and yet imprisoned by her high status in court, unable to marry the man she loved and forever relegated to the back of the throne because she was a woman.  And posterity was not good to her as she was always the Shadow Princess.

Escape

I was watching videos on CNN.com the other night and was greatly disturbed by Anderson Cooper's coverage of Warren Jeff's release. Jeffs is the prophet of the FLDS, the more conservative branch of the Mormon church that still practices polygamy and he was charged for rape and as an accessory to rape.  However, due to some legal technicalities that had no bearing on his innocence or guilt, he was released.

This is when I remembered the book I randomly picked off the shelf just last month which was Escape by Carolyn Jessop -- it is her retelling of her life inside FLDS church. Born to a religious family, she writes about her normal childhood in a family with 2 mothers and many siblings. Being raised inside the FLDS she never questioned the ultra-conservative ways and teachings even when her older sister ran away to escape an arranged marriage. She believed that things would be different for her, she had plans of going to college, having a job while still practicing her religious and polygamous beliefs. Then at 18 she was forced to marry a 55 year old man to be his fourth wife. In her heart she knew that this was what the Prophet wanted and it was right but she was in the middle of school and she was hoping to finish and when she met her future husband, she knew that things wouldn't go her way. The politics inside the family were more than she could bear -- according to their faith, a man should not have any favorites among his wives but in the Jessop house, one wife obviously held sway over the others. This wife made it sure that all the other wives and the children turned against Carolyn especially when it was her "turn" to spend the night with the husband.  Inspite of all the home problems, she endured and struggled to have children as having kids was like having power in a polygamous house, she "kept sweet", tried to ignore the favorite wife and just concentrate on her children and her studies.

After a few years she began seeing a shift in the church's ways, the Prophet of the FLDS was dying and his son, Warren Jeffs was slowly taking over. She noticed that Jeffs was assigning girls as young as 13 to be married to men as old as 80, Jeffs also started to close all the schools as if the community was being closed off  to the rest of the world.  With this she began to realize that the church she loved so much was under the power of one man, Warren Jeffs who held so much power over the community.

There are so many twists and turns to this story that just left my mouth agape and my eyes as big as plates. This is her story of escape from an abusive husband, a dictator for a Prophet and a brainwashed household and community. It is so hard to comprehend that something like this could happen in the heart of America. A community closed off from the rest of the world where polygamy is the norm and marrying 14 year old girls to 70 year old men were dictated by a "Prophet." What bothered me the most was when Carolyn successfully escaped the clutches of the FLDS to join relatives that have escaped too, her children turned against her. That's how deep and ingrained their church's teachings were that they feared the wrath of God and the Prophet because they were allowing themselves to enjoy life a bit.  It's a spine-tingling story and you will feel so appreciative of the freedoms that we have in our everyday life.

And now, Warren Jeffs is free again. He is free to terrorize, abuse and dictate over the lives of so many families under the FLDS church. But what's more disturbing is how the FLDS will view this turn of events -- that their Prophet has won over the clutches of evil, which is, the rest of the world.