#34: The Samurai's Garden by Gail Tsukiyama

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Stephen is a young Chinese man suffering from tuberculosis in 1937. When his father sends him to the family’s summer home in Japan, he becomes involved in the lives of the older residents: Matsu, the property’s caretaker and gardener, Sachi, an old friend of Matsu’s who is a leper who lives in the mountains nearby, and Kenzo, who was Matsu’s friend and Sachi’s fiancée in their youth.

For most of the book, which spans thirteen months, the escalating problems between Japan and China area distant threat, made present mostly through Stephen’s letters from his family in China. The focus, instead, is on Stephen’s quiet life in Japan and the history of, and relationship between, Matsu, Sachi, and Kenzo, and how they influence Stephen’s life. There’s also a minor subplot involving Stephen falling in love with a local girl, but while well done, it isn’t as interesting as the older people and their relationships with Stephen and each other.

It’s a very quiet book but, after a somewhat slow beginning, a rather engaging one, and it manages to be convincingly tragic without making everyone dead, eternally miserable, or alone forever.

#28 - #31: Tutu, Diaz (illus), Mah

[sweet-adelheid.livejournal.com]

#28 - Desmond Tutu, No Future without Forgiveness (1999, Rider & Co)
Appointed by Nelson Mandela to be co-Chairperson of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission set up in South Africa following the transfer of power from the Nationalist Apartheid Government, Desmond Tutu writes in this book about the history leading to the Commission, the progress of the Commission itself, and his thoughts on forgiveness. Link here.

#29 - illustrated by David Diaz, Smoky Night, words by Eve Bunting (1994, Harcourt Brace)
The illustrations are stunning. The backgrounds are mixed media collage: including shards of glass one the page that mentions "smash and destroy", half-crushed rice cracker snacks on the page about the destruction of Mrs Kim's shop. Link here.

#30 - illustrated by David Diaz, Just One Flick of a Finger, words by Marybeth Lorbiecki (1996, Dial)
A beautiful example of the way picture books are meant to work (no matter what age group they are aimed at) and I credit a lot of that to Diaz' design and layout work in addition to his illustrations. Link here.

#31 - Adeline Yen Mah, China: Land of Emperors and Dragons (2008, Allen & Unwin)
It is a *very* basic introduction to Chinese history; very much an overview. It (allied with some Avatar-related posts I've been reading around LJ, and IBARW stuff) has made me realise how much I don't understand about China, and how I do tend to view the entire Imperial era as some sort of pretty fantasy "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" world. Which is a major failing on my part. Link here.

Tags needed: a: tutu desmond, a: mah adeline yen, i: diaz david, (and if we're still going to do whitefella tags, w-a: lorbiecki marybeth, w-a: bunting eve.

#32 - "Black Chicks Talking" by Leah Purcell

[sweet-adelheid.livejournal.com]

Black Chicks Talking by Leah Purcell (Hodder Headline, 2002)

This book is going on my personal "learning about Australia 101" list. I'm going to badger all my friends into reading it if they haven't already. Because this book is ... I can't think of any better word: this book is awesome. It fills me with awe.

These ten women - the nine interviewees plus Purcell herself - share so much of themselves in this book, and so openly. And yet also so matter-of-factly. They don't pull punches about the awful parts of life, but what shines through so clearly is the shared humanity of all of us. Which is why it's going to be top of my 101 list.

It's close to impossible to choose a favourite interview or interviewee, or even a 'most influential' one. Cilla Malone (mother of five - I think) left me breathless and amazed by what she does in caring for her children and her community; Tammy Williams has done a staggering amount; Deb Mailman is just so strong and centred, as is Rachel Perkins only in an entirely different way; and Liza Gooda-Frazer in a different way again. Kathryn Hay - who in many ways seems the most fragile of the group - has such grace in letting that fragility show, along with another core of strength that is there as well.

I just love the way this is written (put together), along with the Black Chicks painting (all in shades of pink!) and the portraits of all the women, and Leah's description of their dinner together as the culmination of the project.

Tags needed: a: purcell leah, and I'd love an "interviews" tag or similar, too.

#33 - "Spirit Song", edited by Lorainne Mafi-Williams

[sweet-adelheid.livejournal.com]

Spirit song: A collection of Aboriginal Poetry by Lorraine Mafi-Williams (Omnibus, 1993)



I enjoyed this one more than Inside Black Australia, although that's likely more because of where I was in my head when I read Spirit Song vs Inside Black Australia. Also, there were a lot more female poets included in this collection, and a female editor. Which I think made a lot of difference.

While I do think my reactions come down at least in part to the changes in my own way of thinking in the interim, this collection has the aim of being a collection for children and young people. IBA had an activist aim.

Which isn't to say the collection goes soft on the politics. But it was put together many years after IBA, and in a different climate, by a different editor.

My favourite poems are both mentioned in the introduction: "Integration" by Jack Davis, and "Visions" by Eva Johnson. They are two of the more positive poems, although neither pulls its punches. I used Davis' poem to round off a recent sermon.

The final stanza of a Barbara Armytage poem ("Survival") near the end of the collection sums up so much for me:

They aimed for extinction
We survived with grace
We gather and teach
The remains of our race.

Tags ed: mafi-williams lorraine

#34 - "Us Mob" by Mudrooroo

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This gets me totally and completely up to date on posting reviews to 50books_poc. Until I finish my next book, anyway...

Us Mob by Mudrooroo (1995, Angus & Robertson)

This is going on my "want to own" and "Indigenous Australia 101" lists. It does exactly what it says on the cover: provide an introduction to a whole lot of issues relating to Indigenous Australians. It's organised by general topic area, with chapters on health, spirituality, language, education, politics, land rights... It's immediately post-Mabo, so it's about fifteen years old at this point. The concluding chapter looks forward so specifically to 2000 as hopefully being the year of Australia becoming a republic that it hurts. (In fact, when this was published, Howard wasn't in government yet: ain't *that* a sobering thought. Things were about to get a whole lot worse...)

( Highlights/Lowlights )

Fabulous book, well worth time and effort.

Tags needed: a: mudrooroo