Friday at the Branches: The Lotus Eaters

The Lotus Eaters by Tatjana Soli 2010

A debut novel with three main characters whose lives are affected by the Vietnam War. Helen, a photographer, who lost her brother in the conflict, comes to Vietnam hoping to find out what really happened to him.  She quickly falls into an affair with another war photographer, Sam Darrow.  Being the first female photographer to be sent to a combat area, Sam assigns his Vietnamese assistant, Linh, to escort her when she goes to combat areas. Linh wants nothing more than to escape the war, while Sam and Helen are drawn to it and are unable to escape until tragedy strikes. For readers of the One Book One Burlington title.

Non-Fiction Pick of the Week: Married to Bhutan

Married to Bhutan: how one woman got lost, said "I do", and found bliss by Linda Leaming 2011

How far would you go to be happy? For writer Linda Leaming, it was to Bhutan, the tiny Himalayan kingdom of which it’s said the most important thing is their Gross National Happiness.  In her late 30s, she went on a short side trip to Bhutan, fell in love with the country and spent the next two years trying to find a way to get back.  The result? She sold everything, uprooted herself, gave up her career, moved away from family and friends and began a new life, found love and a lasting relationship, and now, twenty years later, is still blissfully happy in Bhutan.  A thoroughly charming memoir, full of humour, pithy observation and interesting commentary on the choices we make in life.

Fiction Pick of the Week: Miss New India

Miss New India by Bharati Mukherjee 2011

If you enjoy chick lit with an international flair you won’t be disappointed with Mukherjee’s Miss New India.  Anjali (Angie) Bose, a lovely green-eyed beauty, has just graduated from an English-language college in her small Indian town (Gauripur). A disastrous engagement encounter forces Angie to flee from her backwater village and head out to a bustling Call Centre city (Bangalore). Her parents and sister have disowned her but thanks to the generosity of her English teacher, Peter Champion, she has some cash and contacts set up for lodgings and a job.  Angie’s transformation from naïve village beauty to sophisticated city diva exposes her to a variety of people who betray her or are her benefactors. An interesting exposé on the changing social fabric of India’s booming cities.

Non-Fiction Pick of the Week: Wine to Water

Wine to Water: a bartender's quest to bring clean water to the world by Doc Hendley 2012

This is an inspirational story about Doc Hendley, a young bartender who forms the Water to Wine organization, which provides clean water to developing countries.

Doc started fundraising for his organization in the bars of Raleigh, and once he had raised a few thousand dollars he approached a non-profit organization, Samaritan’s Purse, to donate the money. Doc met the director of Samaritan’s Purse and he was offered a job with them and was sent to Darfur Sudan in August 2004 to help with their clean water program.

This is a memoir of his one-year stay in Darfur and the work that he and his team did to repair water wells and educate the locals in well repair and sanitation training to reduce illnesses transmitted through contaminated drinking water.

Non-Fiction Pick of the Week: Prisoner of Tehran

Prisoner of Tehran by Marina Nemat 2012

In 1982 sixteen-year-old Marina Nemat was arrested for her anti-revolutionary views and sent to Evin prison in Iran. This memoir recounts her life prior and during her stay in the prison. Marina was tortured, forced to marry one of the prison interrogators and forced to convert to Islam. After her first husband was assassinated, her father-in-law was able to secure her release. She then married her Christian boyfriend, André. Because she married a non-Muslim it was dangerous for both Marina and her husband André to remain in Iran. After three years both were able to get passports when they paid a large sum of money to be allowed to leave Iran. They first settled in Spain and then immigrated to Toronto as refugees. A truly inspirational tale of courage and conviction.

Friday at the Branches: The World We Found

The World we Found by Thrity N. Umrigar 2012


After spending their university years as one cohesive unit challenging authority and determined to right the political wrongs of their beloved Bombay, Kavita, Laleh, Armaiti and Nishta find that they have not only drifted apart through the past 30 years, but that the toll of day to day life has lessened their passion for change. The past comes crashing back however when Armaiti calls her friends and informs them that she is gravely ill and would like to see them once more before she dies. Each friend faces a personal journey of discovery as they lay to rest long held regrets and come to accept where they find themselves in their lives presently.

Non-Fiction Pick of the Week: Day of Honey

Day of Honey by Annia Ciezadlo 2011

Love can bring us to places we never expected. Annia Ciezadlo is a New York reporter who falls in love with a fellow American reporter with Middle East origins. When he gets a job as a Middle East bureau chief, Annia goes with him and spends the next several years in Iraq and then Lebanon. Trying to make a home in war torn countries, Annia turns to food for comfort. She explores the history of both Iraqi and Lebanese food and looks at how food is intertwined with family, nationality, love, power, and war. This fast moving account offers both personal stories of Annia’s time abroad, as well as political snapshots that give readers insight into the lives of those who must live in a world of political upheaval.

Readalike: Peace Meals by Anna Badkhen

Non-Fiction Pick of the Week: Honeymoon in Tehran

Honeymoon in Tehran: Two Years of Love and Danger in Iran by Azadeh Moaveni 2009

Born and raised in the United States, Moaveni is the daughter of two Iranian immigrants. Throughout her reporting career, she has repeatedly travelled to Iran to explain its politics and religion to the outside world. In this book, Moaveni has opted to begin a family and marry an Iranian man. She must decide if Iran, with all its beauty, culture, and extended family, is the place in which she can live out her dreams. This book focuses heavily on the details of Moaveni’s daily life and her point of view as she encounters a repressive regime that is increasingly omnipresent and omnipotent. It is a moving portrait of a beloved country struggling to retain its culture and character.

Read-alike: Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi

Fiction Pick of the Week: State of Wonder

State of Wonder by Ann Patchett 2011

Patchett (Bel Canto) has the habit of dropping ordinary characters into extraordinary circumstances. With State of Wonder she has done just that. Minnesota pharmaceutical researcher Dr. Marina Singh has been sent into the most remote region of the Amazon jungle to track down her former mentor. Marina’s former lab partner Anders Eckman has already walked this path before her, never to have been heard from again. This is both a grueling physical, and more importantly, a complex psychological journey for Marina. Will she find Dr. Annick Swenson and if she does, what will she discover? I highly recommend this imaginative, thought provoking novel.

Fiction Pick of the Week: Dahanu Road

Dahanu Road by Anosh Irani

Set outside Bombay in the quiet coastal community of Dahanu, young Zairos Irani must decide whether or not to become involved with the daughter of one of his farm workers who has tragically died. Attracted by the beautiful but tragic Kusum, does Zairos have the courage and commitment to try to rescue her from a life of poverty and misery, or will he weaken before the barriers of class and ethnicity? And can any efforts of his possibly succeed enough to justify the price they both must pay?

As the story unfolds, Zairos learns from his embittered grandfather that he, too, faced this same decision sixty years in the past, and his choices led to tragic consequences for both the farm worker’s family and his own. A compelling story of the tension between hope and hopelessness, desire and fear.

Non-Fiction Pick of the Week: My Maasai Life

My Maasai life: from suburbia to savannah by Robin Wiszowaty 2009

Robin Wiszowaty spent a year living with a Maasai family in a remote village in Kenya. She was taking a course in International Development from the University of Illinois. Robin was the rebellious middle child of an affluent Polish-American family living in a suburb near Chicago. Robin wanted to challenge herself and set out on an adventure. This inspirational memoir chronicles how she embraced the Maasai culture and fell in love with her African family. This young woman introduces the reader to the realities of the harsh and difficult conditions that the Maasi must endure: poverty, high incidence of AIDS/HIV, female/male circumcision, youth crime , violence and early marriage rates for female teens.

Robin develops a special relationship with a young man. Samuel is struggling to support his mother and younger siblings due to the lack of family support from his alcoholic father.

After returning to Chicago after one year in Kenya Robin is trying to find a direction for

her life. She finally gets a job with Free the Children and is eventually promoted to Kenya Projects Director. This job allows Robin to visit her Maasai family and Samuel.

This memoir is a fresh look at the aspirations of today’s youth to become actively involved in helping the youth in Third World countries.

Fiction Pick of the Week: Now You See Her

Now You See Her by Joy Fielding 2011

A Canadian pick in honour of Canada Day! 

Canadian author Joy Fielding’s latest book is a gripping suspense story set in the Irish city of Cork.  Marcy Taggert travels to Ireland alone, seeking solace for a broken heart.  Her marriage has ended after the loss of her twenty-one-year old daughter, an apparent suicide.  Only her upturned canoe was found floating in Georgian Bay.

Despite her family’s insistence that Devon is dead, Marcy thinks she sees her daughter on a day trip from Dublin to Cork.  She returns the next day to launch a desperate search to discover the truth.  She meets an assortment of interesting characters, some sinister, but the reader is never sure where this story is taking them.

I haven’t read Joy Fielding’s novels in a long while, and am pleased to find that an engaging heroine and a compelling plot are still her hallmark.

Fiction Pick of the Week: The Elephant's Journey

The Elephant’s Journey  by Jose Saramago
Published in Portuguese in 2008; Published in English in 2010

This is a seemingly simple story of Solomon, an elephant, and his mahout, Subhro. It is 1551 and King Joao III of Portugal has decided to present to Archduke Maximilian of Austria a most remarkable wedding present: Solomon, his elephant. The departure, journey and arrival in Vienna is really an extraordinary commentary on royalty of the day, the Reformation, the Council of Trent and civil war, but also on friendship. When the entourage has been delivered to the Austrian military, which will conduct them passage to Austria, not only the names of Solomon and Subhro are changed. The author based his story on a true story of the journey of an elephant from Lisbon to Vienna. Saramago was awarded the Novel Prize for Literature in 1998.

Non-Fiction Pick of the Week: The Woman who Fell from the Sky

Another book about women's issues in honour of International Women's Day!

The Woman who fell from the sky: an American journalist in Yemen by Jennifer Steil 2010

Jennifer Steil, a senior editor of a New York paper, The Week, took one year off in 2006 to work as the editor of The Yemen Observer, an English language paper in Sana’a, Yemen. Jennifer went to teach a three-week course in journalism for the reporters of The Yemen Observer and was then offered the position of editor for one year. Jennifer became very close to the female Yemini reporters and the reader learns about the difficulties that Yemini women face in order to have a career in that country.

The author describes her struggles to train and retain staff and the limitations that she must face with the owner of the paper who uses the paper as a propaganda tool for the current government in Yemen. Steil describes the social and cultural life of Yemen in a very insightful way. Near the end of her contract, Jennifer meets the new British ambassador to Yemen and they fall in love. The British ambassador was in an unhappy marriage, and over the next three months he divorces his wife and becomes romantically involved with Steil. A fascinating glimpse into the life Yemini people seen through the lens of an assertive and intelligent female journalist.

Fiction Pick of the Week: Half Life

Half Life by Roopa Farooki

What a compelling read! This is London based Roopa Farooki’s fourth book and this latest tale will delight lovers of literary fiction. Her previous nominations for the Orange Prize and Impac Dublin Literary Prize attest to a very gifted writer.
The story swirls around Dr. Aruna Ahmed Jones, an academic raised in Singapore but living in London. Aruna is a quirky character who is not easy to like as she self-destructs on alcohol, drugs, sex and cigarettes in an effort to find herself. She feels she doesn’t belong in Singapore or England.

Married after a brief encounter to an adoring, devoted doctor she abruptly abandons him one morning without a word of goodbye, clutching only her purse and passport as she boards a plane bound for Singapore and her former life. A sentence in a book she had picked up set her in motion: “It’s time to stop fighting and go home.” The secrets that come to light as she meets with her childhood friend, who was her lover, and his father provide a passionate and emotionally rewarding story as Aruna makes peace with the ghosts of her past.

Non-Fiction Pick of the Week: Even Silence has an End

Even silence has an end: my six years of captivity in the Colombian jungle by Ingrid Betancourt 2011

This is a gripping, true account of Ingrid Betancourt’s ordeal as a political hostage that lasted six and a half years, dominating news headlines around the world. In 2002 Betancourt, then the Colombian presidential candidate for the Green Party, was abducted by the FARC, a guerilla terrorist organization. Held captive in the Amazon jungle, she joined other hostages such as a campaign aide, fellow politicians, and members of the Colombian and American military through grueling marches in the dense, dangerous jungle, communal living in makeshift camps, and bouts of hepatitis and malaria, all under constant guard while the Colombian, French, and American governments tried to negotiate their release. Betancourt describes the deplorable conditions she and her fellow hostages endured, as well as her numerous escape attempts, through to her triumphant rescue carefully orchestrated by the Colombian army in 2008. Her story of hope and faith amid incredible despair is truly inspirational. This is a remarkable read that will stay with you long after the last page.

Non-Fiction Pick of the Week: The Flying Carpet of Small Miracles

The Flying Carpet of Small Miracles: A Woman’s Fight to Save Two Orphans by Hala Jaber 2008

The Flying Carpet of Small Miracles: A Woman’s Fight to Save Two Orphans is written by journalist Hala Jaber and flows between two parallel lines to tell one story. Part of the story focuses on the author and her struggle with infertility. This loss threatens to take over her life until the events of 9/11 compel her to rejuvenate her career as a reporter. As an Arabic speaker educated in the West, Jaber is in a unique position to report on events from Iraq. Many of her stories focus on the plight of children, and she finds herself particularly involved in the lives of two small girls who have lost most of their family. It is through her relationship with these girls that she comes to terms with her own lack of children and the possibility of mothering another family’s child.

The other component of the story focuses on the events that happen within Iraq during the Western invasion. The loss of civilian life, the chaos that follows the fall of Saddam Hussein, and the lasting resentment against the West by those who have lost family, friends, livelihoods, and security are chillingly documented by Jaber. This book would appeal to those who enjoy biographies, works on global conflict, and journalism.

Non-Fiction Pick of the Week: Grounded

Grounded: a down to Earth journey around the world by Seth Stevenson 2010

A thirty-something magazine writer and his lawyer girlfriend decide to quit their jobs and go on an adventure circumnavigating the globe using only ground transportation.

They have two rules: to cross every longitude line and to not take any airplanes. They start and end their adventure in Washington D.C. Our adventurers gain insight into their inner selves and the idiosyncrasies of other travelers that they meet. Seth and Rebecca are very creative and try all kinds of transport to accomplish their goal. They travel on ferries, the Trans Siberian Railroad, bicycles, cars, freighters and a luxury cruise ship. It was a witty and insightful read!

Non-Fiction Pick of the Week: Magic Bus

Magic Bus: On the Hippie Trail from Istanbul to India by Rory MacLean 2009

In the 1960s and early 1970s, hundreds of thousands of young people from North America, Australia and Europe hit the ‘Hippie Trail’, the overland route from Istanbul across Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan to India and Nepal. Until the route was closed by the 1979 Iranian revolution, they followed the inspiration of Jack Kerouac and the footsteps of Allen Ginsberg by ramshackle buses, public transit or hitchhiking, and with no guidebooks, ATMs, cell phones, Internet or even reliable maps. Some were looking to follow the Timothy Leary experience of self-discovery with sex, drugs and rock & roll. Others were looking for religious enlightenment, still others just for adventure or to open their minds to other cultures.

Canadian Rory MacLean retraced the Hippie Trail in 2004, searching for the stopping points where the travelers met up for mail, visas and news of the road. On his travels he meets one of the original Flower Children recreating her journey from 40 years ago, finds traces of the Beatles’ stay in Rishikesh, and meets travelers who stayed forever, some having found their spiritual fulfillment and others who burned out on the experience. Along the way he discusses the phenomenon with local people, who reflect on their fond, and not so fond, memories of the Hippie invasion. A colourful and off-beat book of discovery.

Fiction Pick of the Week: Day after Night

Day After Night by Anita Diamant 2009

At the end of WWII many of those surviving the horrors of the war in Europe tried to reach the promised land – Palestine. The British set up internment camps, surrounded by barbed wire, to hold the waiting refugees. Day After Night is based on the true story of the October 1945 rescue of more than two hundred prisoners from the Atlit internment camp near the Mediterranean coast south of Haifa. The story follows four young women, all of whom survived the Holocaust: Shayndel, a Polish Zionist, Leonie, a beautiful Parisian girl, Tedi, a hidden Dutch Jew, and Zorah, a concentration camp survivor. Bonded by unspeakable memories and losses Shayndel, Leonie, Tedi, and Zorah befriend one another as they start their new lives in Palestine.