BOOKS as GIFTS #8:VOICES from CHERNOBYL

Voices from Chernobyl: The Oral History of a Nuclear Disaster by Svetlana Alexievich

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Voices from Chernobyl is a series of interviews with those who survived the world's worst nuclear reactor accident. Svetlana Alexievich interviews those in charge of the reactor, first responders, those dying from exposure to radiation, refugees from the area surrounding the meltdown area, persons who have secretly returned to their homes because it is the only place that they know and love. These stories are filled with anger and sadness and confusion. These stories are filled with mourning for the past and hope for the future.

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There is not much more to say about the book, other than it needs to be read by everyone.

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This is history. Let us not forget what happened. Read it as an act of witnessing, as an act of mourning with those who mourn, as an act of hoping with those who hope.

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You can read a long excerpt from the book HERE.

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Visit Svetlana's website HERE.

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File under:
*Autobiography
*Disaster
*History
*Remembering

BOOKS as GIFTS #7:THE NOONDAY DEMON

The Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression by Andrew Solomon

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Having suffered through a couple of major bouts with depression, one related to physical ailment and another standalone depression, I can emphatically recommend this book. My depression was nowhere near as crippling as that of Andrew Solomon, but I can hear echoes of my own dark times and my melancholy nature in the words that he writes.

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This atlas of depression is just that. It's twelve major sections—depression, breakdowns, treatments, alternatives, populations, addiction, suicide, history, poverty, politics, evolution, and hope—peel back the skin of depression and poke about at all of the juicy bits of the corpse beneath. This book is encyclopedic in scope and personal in presentation, as Solomon walks the reader through a story that is universal while grounded in particulars, a story that is personal while allowing anyone to understand the pain that compels the author to share.

While the book begins with Solomon's personal struggles and discoveries, he pushes outside of himself (one of the best things for a depressive) and throws what little energy he has at exploring and explaining this darkness that holds him fast.

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Mental illness oftentimes seems scarier than physical illness because we haven't been able to map the mind in the same way that we have the body. It is fear of the unknown that drives us to distance ourselves from those we cannot control or comprehend. Andrew Solomon has tried to strip depression of some of its allure and mystery and magic in order to make it more manageable and more tangible, and I am glad that he did.

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I should note that it was partly due to reading books like The Noonday Demon and William Styron's Darkness Visible and Unholy Ghost: Writers on Depression that helped to deliver me from my own cloud of despair and loneliness and anxiousness. In being able to see the pieces that hindered others, I was able to identify some of the same obstacles in my own life and begin to work around and through them.

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For more information about this 2001 National Book Award Winner, visit www.noondaydemon.com

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File under:
*Autobiography
*Depression
*History
*Hope

BOOKS as GIFTS #6:BLACK HOLE

Black Hole by Charles Burns

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Forget zombies! They're overdone. It's mutants that will really win the hearts of your loved ones.

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It's the 1970s and we are near Seattle. Teens are having sex and a strange disease is infecting them. They are spreading it by having intercourse. Each one is receiving a "gift" of an individual mutation. Some mutations are more overt than others, while some of the infected are able to pass as "clean" and virginal.

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Black Hole is a book about sex and death, vulnerability and trust, the status quo and rebellion. The illustrations by Charles Burn are exquisite and worth the price of admission alone. His story is well-written, but it is the images that really give this novel life.

The black-and-white illustrations are rich and shiny, filled with the right amount of shadows and light. There is a lot of ink spilled on the page, which changes the way negative space works in the panels and on the pages, and is quite intriguing.

Read the book, then look at the book, then read it again, then look at it again, then...

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The naked bodies that Burns draws are pleasant to look at. Even the mutant bodies are fascinating.

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This book is for everyone who felt awkward in adolescence.

This book is for readers of The Believer magazine. (Charles Burns does all of the front cover art for the magazine.)

This book is for fans of Dog Boy and Big Baby.

This book is for comic book nerds who want some credibility.

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File under:
*Coming-of-age tales
*Graphic novels
*Mutants
*Seattle

BOOKS as GIFTS #5:HOME GROUND

Home Ground: Language for an American Landscape, edited by Barry Lopez and Debra Gwartney

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Do you know your "fell field" from your "field pattern"?

Can you distinguish between a "bog," a "fen," a "marsh," a "peatland," and a "swamp"?

Do you desire to know more about "boathook bends" or "oxbow lakes" or "peñas"?

Then Home Ground is the book for you. It provides "the distinctly American vocabulary that people use to characterize the country's landscapes" in an encyclopedic format. Authors such as Jon Krakauer, Luis Alberto Urrea, Barbara Kingsolver, Bill McKibben, Terry Tempest Williams, Elizabeth Cox, and Patricia Hampl provide entries on such landscapes and landscapes features while including historical information, etymological origins, settlement and usage, locations, geological provenance, and the like. These entries are seasoned with quotes from works of literature that include and/or further define some of the terms.

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This is a book for the writer in your life. This is a book for an outdoor enthusiast or amateur geographer. This is a book for someone who loves trivia or pursuing knowledge for knowledge's sake.

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You can preview pages of Home Ground HERE.

Soon you'll be impressing your hiking friends as you identify nearby "root wads" or stand in awe at the foot of a "talus slope."

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File under:
*Anthologies
*Landscapes
*Literature
*Reference

SUNDAY NAP

Kama the cat exemplifies "honoring the Sabbath."

SANTA PARADE

I don't know what compels me to attend Puyallup's Santa Parade each year. Perhaps The Child's desire to attend, although I didn't have an excuse when we first moved to town.

Each year, this particular parade seems to be somewhat disorganized and lacking any real attraction. Yes, there are a handful of floats, depending on how one defines such features. Yes, there are one or two marching bands, although no junior high or high school from Puyallup was represented. And, there are too many businesses and car clubs for my taste.

Even knowing all of the above, with this year no different, we bundled up and huddled together with the rest of the citizens of the Puyallup Hills (North and South) and Valley to await the arrival of Santa.


The Pioneer Pavilion and a gorgeous sunset provided a great backdrop for the parade route.


Santa arrived on a vintage fire engine with Mrs. Claus at his side. (The Clauses are in the center of the picture, immediately to the right of the flashing red and blue lights.)

BOOKS as GIFTS #4:THE TANGERINE BEAR

The Tangerine Bear, story by Betty Paraskevas, pictures by Michael Paraskevas

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I fell in love with The Tangerine Bear as a bookseller. The story was well-written and compelling, the illustrations rich and vibrant.

I tried to hand-sell this book to every person who asked for a children's book recommendation. I read it to classes of kindergartners, first graders, and second graders. I read it alone at night when I couldn't sleep.

When The Child was born, I passed it along, sharing the story, reading it aloud to The Child at least once per week before bedtime. The book jacket became torn and tattered and had to be thrown away. And still we read the book every couple of months or so. And I make sure to sneak in a solo reading here and there.

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The Tangerine Bear is an existential tale of a teddy bear who has been improperly manufactured. He doesn't look exactly like the other teddy bears. This leads to his ending up in the storefront window of a second-hand store in the company of Jack, a broken jack-in-the-box, and Bird, the inhabitant of a cuckoo clock.

Bear has to learn to love himself before he can allow himself to be loved by others. It's deep stuff for kids and won't hurt the adults that read the book to them.

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File under:

*Children's

*Existentialism

*Winter

BOOKS as GIFTS #3: AUTOBIOGRAPHY of RED

Autobiography of Red by Anne Carson

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Autobiography of Red is a strange book.

It's a series of interrelated poems masquerading as a novel. Or vice versa.

It's a coming-of-age tale of a young monster.

It's filled with pain and longing and angst. Yet it's also hope-filled.

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Autobiography of Red is an enjoyable book.

It's a play on the tale of Herakles (often better known as Hercules) slaying the ruddy monster Geryon. Instead, Geryon lusts after Herakles, who mistreats him. Herakles does "kill" Geryon, but it is on an emotional level.

It's my favorite book of poetry.

It's smart and funny and sad, just like life can be at its most robust.

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Anne Carson is an intelligent writer who doesn't condescend to her readers.

She's accessible even as she expects you to keep up with her.

She's smart and crazy and necessary, in the same way that Eliot and Joyce are.

She's academic in background, mixing the classics of Greek literature and an enormous (and enormously informed) vocabulary with popular culture touchstones.

Her eye is exacting and detail-oriented and forgiving.

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This book sings.

You need to read it.

Your brother and sister need to read it.

Your next door neighbor and your butcher and your barber and your favorite convenience store clerk need to read it.

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File under:

*Classics

*The Human Condition

*Literature

*Poetry

ANGLES and SEAGULLS

Who knew the geometries of seagulls? Who knew their love of angles, their willingness to play at lines?

Here is the church, the rooftop, the steeple (just out of frame). Here is the congregation—quiet, still, reflective.

BOOKS as GIFTS #2: HUNDRED DOLLAR HOLIDAY

Hundred Dollar Holiday: The Case for a More Joyful Christmas by Bill McKibben

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"Living a life of faith means , more than anything, putting something other than yourself at the center of your life. (Even for those who aren't religious, leading a mature life demands finding some focus other than yourself.) The great and happy secret of every guru, from the Buddha through the Christ, is that when you place God, however defined, at the center of your existence, you will become more fulfilled, not less."
—pages 65-66, Hundred Dollar Holiday by Bill McKibben

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In this brief book, Bill McKibben makes the case for spending less money on Christmas and spending more time with loved ones. He argues for homemade gifts, for a great meal, for stories shared with one another, for experiences.

McKibben lays out a history of Christmas and what that means for today. He asks us to consider trading in the Saturnalia that Christmas has become for a quieter festival. Where once the Saturnalia of the Christmas celebration made sense, as a way to celebrate in the midst of hardships and short-lived lives, now the quiet of a restrained yet joyful Christmas is welcomed in a world filled with constant stimulation and sensory overload.

I try to put pieces of the book into practice each year, but there are many gods of the holidays that attempt to thwart me: tradition, consumerism, peer pressure. Even though I have a long way to go before I truly make Christmas a "hundred dollar holiday," I am making progress, slowly but surely.

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Find a copy of Hundred Dollar Holiday for your friend or loved one at Powell's Books of Portland.

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File under:
*Christmas
*Joy
*Religion
*Sustainability