End of Semester Post
Hello readers,
This is my final post here at Frontera Tales, at least for now. Our Border Beat class is winding down and I am 20 days away from graduation.
I’ve really enjoyed having a chance to write about book-related things on my blog. With the motivation to write a blog every single week, I think I’ve had the chance to voice my opinion on some interesting content. And I hope you, the reader, feel that way too.
Looking back on my blog posts, I haven’t ever written a book review on something I didn’t like, so there’s a chance for improvement there. But, with only so many weeks and only so much time to read books I think I did okay.
Anyways, I just thought I would write a goodbye to anyone who might be reading or stumbling upon my humble book blog. You can follow me on Tumblr (my username is casienova), I don’t write there, but I do re-post pictures and is a chance to contact me outside of Frontera Tales. If I ever take up serious blogging again, I’ll make sure to put it on Tumblr, Facebook or here.
Casie
Jack Ruby's Kitchen Sink by Tom Miller
I was feeling a bit under the weather last week to blog, but I’m back again with another book Jack Ruby’s Kitchen Sink (also known by its newest title Revenge of the Saguaro) by Tom Miller.
Border Beat’s faithful leader, Jay Rochlin, had Tom Miller come and speak to our feature-writing class a few weeks ago and urged me to meet with him one on one to talk about the publishing business. At our meeting, he graciously gave me a copy of one of his books, Jack Ruby’s Kitchen Sink, that we had talked about in class.
Miller writes about the Southwest. From his writing, it’s clear that he loves it. Jack Ruby’s Kitchen Sink is a travel book, its cover proudly states “Offbeat Travels Through America’s Southwest.” I decided to read one chapter that Miller had told us about, “Death by Misadventure.”
This chapter provides a very interesting view of the Southwest, particularly Arizona, and how things like guns and violence contribute to the makeup of our culture.
Tom Miller (Photo by: Jay Rochlin, Courtesy of: Wikipedia.org)
The chapter begins by firsthand experiences Miller has with cockfighting rings in Arizona, what it was like and what it meant. For someone who has never been and will probably never go to see cockfighting, it was horrifying and interesting.
The chapter ends with a story about a 125-year-old saguaro who kills a young man, David Grundman, who was attempting to shoot down the native desert plant. Miller takes us through the life of the saguaro, from its beginnings 125 years ago to the end when it conveniently falls and kills Grundman, by giving a timeline of events. For instance, when the saguaro’s seedling was just taking root Buchanan just seceded Pierce as President and gold was found by the Gila River. Miller also describes the saguaro’s significance to the landscape, and specifically its sacred nature to the native Tohono O’odham people.
It’s a quirky story, but it defines a part of what Arizona is about. Saguaros are an everyday sight, but they’re more than just plants to desert residents. Similarly, the other stories from this chapter, the cockfights, shootouts, gun owners, drugs and general violence, paint the landscape of Arizona and the Southwest. Shaped from our Western and cowboy-lifestyle roots, Miller’s stories attempt to shine light on what it all means and why the Southwest has evolved the way it has.
Book Review: Dandelion Through the Crack
Cover of Dandelion Through the Crack by Kiyo Sato
Honestly, I read Dandelion Through the Crack probably over a year ago. My grandmother gave it to me because Kiyo Sato, the author, is somehow related to somebody that my grandmother might know. I’ll be working off of what I remember and what I am skimming through, and hopefully I’ll be able to paint an accurate picture.
The number one reason my grandmother gave this book to me is because she is Japanese-American. She was a teenager living in Hollywood, CA when she was sent to an internment camp at the start of World War II and is very proud of her heritage. My grandfather was interned as well. While it’s not about any U.S. and Mexico or Latin American border, I think that this book definitely addresses American borders, as well as the non-physical borders between peoples within the United States.
This book is the memoir Kiyo Sato, who as a young woman was interned at the Poston War Relocation Center, located in western Arizona formerly Yuma County. I found her story exceptionally interesting because she was attending community college when Executive Order 9066 was signed. For my grandfather who was just a kid at the time, internment was a break from working the farm and school, but for Kiyo Sato it was an infringement of her rights as an American citizen.
A great image of Kiyo Sato, 87, from her website.
While I didn’t find the writing to be exceptional, I think the poignant stories make up for it. Sato and her family overcome the hardships placed on them during their pursuit of the “American Dream” and it ends a happy story, but her individual and cultural persecution are presented in a tactful way lends itself to be reflected upon.
Map of Japanese-American Internment relocation centers. (Courtesy of History on the Net)
One story that really hit home was Sato’s return to her family’s home on a farm in Sacramento, CA after she was released from internment. They had left behind their dogs, and a part of Sato was hoping that they would somehow still be there. Instead, she found some squatters living in their home, which of course was no longer theirs. It reminds me of a particularly famous Japanese-American internment story where a dog managed to find his family who had been interned by walking across the country, from the west coast to the east coast, and just by happenstance found them and immediately recognized them years later (I’ve heard it several times before but I can’t find a trace of this legend on the internet. I’ve been told it’s true).
Japanese evacuees waiting to leave Poston Relocation Center in Arizona. (Courtesy of Wikipedia.org, originally from U.S. National Archives)
While not terribly exciting, I think that this book is a great reflection on the American Dream and America’s past, especially when it comes to non-physical borders created by racial tensions. It’s an easy and carefree read, a little choppy and slow in parts, but altogether interesting. I might be biased, but I think that Japanese-American internment is overlooked and this book continues to reach out to the public that hasn’t learned about this part of history.
Below is an interview with Kiyo Sato.
Book Review: While Light Is Built
Where Light is Built by Tedi López Mills, Kore Press
Alright readers, I’ve got another book review set up for you from my very own Kore Press. Kore Press is an independent, feminist press here in Tucson. Today, I’ve read While Light Is Built by Tedi López Mills, translated by Wendy Burk.
I’ve met Wendy Burk, you can see her talk about translating in one of my previous articles, and she’s a great person! She’s into great books, great poetry and now that I’ve read some of her translations I can also say that she’s a great translator.
The book itself is gorgeously written, in both the Spanish that I can understand and the translation. Frances Sjoberg, former literary directory at the UA Poetry Center, describes Tedi López Mills’ poetry perfectly in the introduction “These poems hold in trembling balance the tension between space and time, time and being, being and been. They invoke and asymptotically extend the eternal questions.”
Now I’m not a poet, and not usually a poetry reader so bear with me. Mills’ poetry is extremely deep, lyrical and beautiful. The poems have great imagery, a combination of nature, desert and animal images. She personifies nature through her poems, elegantly applying the human to nature and vice versa.
I think there’s also very many elements of the mystical and magical in her poems. There’s a sense of the sublime in the way that she describes nature, and interactions with it. She describes the Druids, rites, and nature as a power. Some of the poems almost feel fairy tale-esque to me, but can be, at the same time, slightly foreboding. There is dark and light in each of her poems, living side by side.
The book has six poems in total. One poem that stuck out to me was from “Snails” or in Spanish, Los caracoles. Two of the stanzas I especially liked were the third and fourth:
I heard the pebble in the syllable
and behind that murmur
I saw the sudden alchemy
of a diamond in the bark
When she,
the lady of the path,
the foreigner in pumps
and white lace,
said escargots with the spiral
of a shell held
between thumb and index finger;
she said it looking at the full bucket,
my clean catch of snailks,
my vision of mollusks in the weeds,
my round silver dream;
For more poetry by Tedi López Mills, translated by Wendy Burk, check out Terrain.org.
Book Review: The Shadow of the Wind
The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon (Photo courtesy of wikipedia.org)
Hey there! I’m back from spring break and as promised, I did absolutely nothing.
I got some good response (according to my page views) from my last book review, so I thought I’d do another one of my favorite books.
This one I haven’t recently re-read but I love it so much I’ve read it three times and I plan to read it again more. It is The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón.
Published by Penguin in English in 2004, I first read the book my senior year of high school (2007). It’s a classic “coming-of-age” story, but with a little magic and mystery so I became easily attached. The book is set in the 1950s in Barcelona, Spain and follows the growth of Daniel Sempere. When Sempere is a young boy his father takes him to the “Cemetery of Lost Books,” a secret library shrouded in mystery. There’s endless books, stacks, hallways, and passages. Visitors to the cemetery can only take one book, and then they have to protect that book their entire life.
Sempere picks a book (or rather is chosen by a book) titled The Shadow of the Wind by Julian Carax. After reading the book, he sets out to find more books by the author but finds it surprisingly difficult. Mysterious circumstances surround the author’s life (who is supposedly dead) and the destruction of all of Carax’s books. A mysterious man whose name mirrors an evil character in Sempere’s copy of The Shadow of the Wind keeps coming up and seems to follow him in his search. With the help of friends he finds along the way, Sempere finds out more and more about Carax’s life and the frightening parallels with his own.
That’s all I can tell you really! It’s a bit of a mystery novel so I don’t want to give anything away. Along the way Sempere has real and magical encounters with the devil, murder, friendship, and, of course, love.
Carlos Ruiz Zafon (Photo courtesy of wikipedia.org)
The Shadow of the Wind is actually La sombra del viento in Spanish. It was a bestseller not only in the United States, but in Spain and all around the world as well. Lucia Graves (daughter of the famous poet and translator Robert Graves) translated the novel from Spanish for the English-speaking world. As always, a reader has to wonder what is “lost in translation” from the language shift. The language in The Shadow of the Wind is superb. It flows effortlessly, is amazingly descriptive and has incredibly gorgeous language. Despite slow parts at the beginning and in the middle, the force of the language pulls the reader forward. I can’t even imagine what I’m missing of Ruiz Zafón’s original text since I’ve only read it in English.
The Angel's Game by Carlos Ruiz Zafon, prequel to The Shadow of the Wind.
Carlos Ruiz Zafón, 46, is a Spanish author from Barcelona. He’s written young adult books in the past El príncipe de la niebla (The Prince of Mist, 1993), El palacio de la medianoche (1994), Las luces de septiembre (1995) and Marina(1999). He’s also written a prequel to The Shadow of the Wind called The Angel’s Game or El juego del angel, which I also recommend!
TFOB & Android app review
TFOB exhibitors (Photo by: Casie Vogel)
Welcome to spring break! I kicked it off with a bang at the Tucson Festival of Books. I was planning to be more ambitious and cover TFOB for Border Beat, but I ended up just walking around and having a great a time!
THE FESTIVAL
The festival was great. There were a lot people there but plenty of room to walk around. I decided to just walk around
Evil eye stone keychain (Photo by: Casie Vogel)
and enjoy the different booths and exhibitors.
I stopped the Center for Middle Eastern Studies booth where my roommate was working. CMES had a couple of authors signing, but for the most part they were just selling books, t-shirts, and other souvenirs. I bought some keychains from Istanbul for myself and my boyfriend that represent a nazar, or Evil Eye stone to ward off evil and bad luck.
TFOB Bookmans tote bag design (Photo by: Casie Vogel)
Next, was one of my favorite Tucson bookstores, Bookmans! If you bought a book you got a great TFOB tote bag. Since I loved the tote bag, I thought I better buy a book, so I picked up a copy of The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo.
I also stopped by some of our local and southwest publishers, just for me. UA Press had a great booth with a bunch of their books as well as readings by some of their authors, like Luis Alberto Urrea. I also stopped at a little press called Cinco Puntos Press, an independent publisher from El Paso, TX, who publishes books about the borderlands.
TFOB stormtrooper (Photo by: Casie Vogel)
There were a ton of great stuff for kids happening. I saw the Lindley Lopez Circus I wrote about a few blog posts ago, along with a bunch of storybook characters! I even saw a storm trooper over by the children’s section
TFOB ANDROID APP
To navigate the festival I used the official TFOB Android App. It wasn’t the greatest app, but it did have a searchable schedule, exhibitor guide, and parking map. The schedule was really nice to have on hand, but unless you knew what was happening everywhere it was hard to decide what to do on the fly. Apparently, Louis Sachar (the author of Holes) was in the teen author section this afternoon and I didn’t even know! I would have loved to get a signed copy.
The best feature of the app is on it’s homepage. After selecting “Latest News” a window with all the changes and cancellations. It provides information about panels that might have been moved to new rooms as well as authors that have been added or removed from the schedule.
Personally, I liked getting updates through the TFOB Twitter more than the app. But maybe if I knew what I was looking for it would be a better tool!
There’s still one more day of TFOB!!! It’s a great start to spring break for anybody. I’ll be heading to a beautiful beach in San Diego, I can’t wait to read all my new books there!
Book Review: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
Book cover (Photo by: Casie Vogel)
I’ve realized that I haven’t had a lot of book reviews on my blog, and I love book reviews. So here it goes! Recently, I have been re-reading The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz.
I met Junot Diaz once when I was a young, blossoming English major my freshman year. He came to read at the UA Poetry Center and I went for extra credit in my English class. He read from his Pulitzer Prize winning novel and I was immediately entranced. I bought my copy of the book right then and there and had him sign it. He asked me what my major was, and when I said English he laughed and said “I bet your parent’s love that!” My boyfriend followed and his reply was computer science, Diaz told him that he was going to be okay.
My signed copy. (Photo by: Casie Vogel)
The book follows a variety of different characters, but the main one is Oscar De Leon. Oscar is a lonely, overweight, and nerdy kid heavily influenced by his family living in New Jersey. Dominican culture is a heavy presence in this book even as the focus shifts from Oscar, to his sister, to his roommate, to his grandmother, to his mother, and to his grandfather. The first chapter of the book is focused on the expectation that Oscar should be a ladies man because of his Dominican roots. However, his early experiences with girls and pressure from his family make it difficult for him to recover from and he becomes a socially-awkward nerd instead. Diaz doesn’t tell the reader this outright, but his style is a combination of short stories and anecdotes throughout the book that lead the reader to these conclusions.
The language is casual and consistent. The reader receives footnotes throughout the book that shed a light on Dominican culture and history, but not always in a history-book way but sometimes in a sarcastic and quirky way. Diaz is not afraid to drop the “f-bomb” everywhere, but it adds to the character’s development, and the character of the narrator. Each of the family member’s stories shed light on Oscar’s situation as he moves through his life, and the reader sees how all of their experiences come together in Oscar. The setting switches constantly back and forth from the Dominican Republic and New Jersey, and it’s really interesting to see the cultural implications in both places.
Junot Diaz (Photo courtesy of http://www.pulitzer.org)
Junot Diaz was born in the Dominican Republic, but raised in New Jersey (just like Oscar!). He has published two books, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao and Drown, which is a collection of short stories. According to his website, he’s won all sorts of awards besides the Pulitzer.
I highly recommend this book to anyone. It’s an easy read, in my opinion. It’s a very interesting way to learn about another culture, at least in the way Diaz sees it. I don’t think it’s just for book nerds like me either, I think that a lot of different people can relate to, or at least be engaged in, a book like this. I am not surprised that he won the Pulitzer for it and I can only hope that he decides to write more in the future.
All the readings online were terrible, so I direct you to this link of his interview with Colbert back in March 2008.
And the award goes to…
Tonight’s the big night! My version of the Superbowl, the Academy Awards! The Oscars are airing tonight, and I’ve seen all 10 Best Picture nominees. It’s going to be great!
Movie poster for Biutiful starring Javier Bardem.
Even though the Oscars are a more or less the result of America’s Hollywood, there are still some instances of border-related influences. The Foreign Language Film category nominees are… Biutiful from Mexico, Dogtooth from Greece, In a Better World from Denmark, Incendies from Canada, and Outside the Law (Hors-la-loi) from Algeria.
Biutiful is the foreign movie that has been getting the most attention this year. The movie stars Javier Bardem and is directed by Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu. The movie is in Spanish and follows the life of Uxbal, a father of two played by Bardem, and his battle with cancer in modern Barcelona, Spain. See the trailer below.
Biutiful has a 66 percent on RottenTomatoes.com. Bardem won best actor for Biutiful at the Cannes festival. It is nominated for Best Foreign Language film and Best Actor tonight. Bardem was born in Spain. He started acting in 1990, and has won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for No Country for Old Men. He is currently married to Penelope Cruz, an actress from Spain as well.
The Illusionist movie poster, directed by Sylvain Chomet.
Another foreign film that’s been getting a lot of buzz is “The Illusionist,” up for Best Animated Film. Although, if you watch it in the United States you’ll probably be seeing the English version, the movie is French, L’Illusionniste. It follows the life of a magician who meets a young girl, and their relationship changes both of their lives. It is directed by Sylvain Chomet, a French director.
I haven’t seen it, but a friend of mine says that it’s not a happy-go-lucky movie just because it’s animated. It currently has a score of 90 percent on RottenTomatoes.com. See the trailer below!
Well it’s time for me to start getting out the popcorn and turning on the red carpet show! We’ll see who wins!
The beach or TFOB?
While Tucson schools are getting Rodeo Days off, UA students are still powering through the long stretch of no holidays since Martin Luther King Jr. Day earlier this spring, but Spring Break is right around the corner!
If you’re like me, you’re just remembering to make plans so you don’t spend the entire week staying pale and watching Netflix streaming, but don’t forget about the Tucson’s Festival of Books or TFOB. It’s March 12-13, the first weekend of Spring Break.
I’ve been in years past (TFOB started in 2009, so it’s fairly new) and it really is a lot of fun. I’ve been to a session about writing which really was quite informative and talked to a lot of different publishers. UA Press, a company I’ve interned with before, is going to be there with a bunch of their authors, so I’m excited to stop by their booth and talk with them about what’s been happening. My roommate will be working at the festival for the Center for Middle Eastern Studies which will be there as well. The local Tucson comic book stores show up to, which is always fun to see.
Yesterday, I talked with Bill Viner, a chairperson and co-founder of TFOB for my upcoming preview on Border Beat (check Borderbeat.net next week!). While most students are taking off, Viner hopes that they’ll stick around and enjoy at least one day at one of the largest book festivals in the country. He’s very excited for this year’s festival and now I am too! There are going to be so many authors, workshops, sessions, and always, free stuff!
Besides readings and workshops, Viner told me that they’re expecting the Lindley Lopez Literary Circus again for the children’s area of the festival. Last year, they had an Alice in Wonderland theme. There’s a great video from last year but won’t embed because of a poorly chosen Evanescence song. It’s two acrobats dressed as Alice and the Caterpillar, it’s pretty cool and a fun literary tribute (although I miss the the Caterpillar’s hookah). But the one below is still fun, a Cheshire Cat Lyra Act!
There’s also a TFOB iPhone app. I’d normally be firing it up on my phone, but the Android app isn’t working yet although the TFOB twitter promises that there will be one). Expect a full review when it comes to Android, so stay tuned.
I urge anyone who isn’t flying out early to stick around for at least a day of literary fun! Your favorite author might just be signing books, or if you’re not one for reading they have food and free stuff (last year I got a Bookman’s bag and a turtle hat. Score!).
Remember, keep an eye out for my preview. I’ll have an interview with Bill Viner, information about the festival, as well as a breakdown and highlights of Border-related events for Border Beat.
A newfound favorite poet: Alberto Rios
This semester I’ve found myself hanging out at the Poetry Center and after talking with Wendy Burk, a library there, I found she was really passionate about one of poets, Alberto Rios. Since he’s from Nogales, writes about the border, and comes by the Poetry Center, I thought what a great story for Border Beat! But after doing research I really, really liked his work.
His ASU website is fantastic! Not only does he have tons of information about himself and his books (he even has a link for kids doing a report on him), but also a huge list of links to a bunch of his poems.
The poem I mentioned in my Border Beat story is by far my favorite, “Border Lines,” about what the Border means to him. I definitely recommend it.
Another poem I thought really struck home is called “Day of the Refugios.” It’s about Rios’ family, traditions, and living in Nogales, somewhere between Mexico and the United States. He incorporates both aspects of himself, his Latino roots and his American roots, in celebrating a day in both places.
The poem is below, more poems can be found on Rios’ website. Happy reading!
Day of the Refugios
In Mexico and Latin America, celebrating one’s
Saint’s day instead of one’s birthday is common.
I was born in Nogales, Arizona,
On the border between
Mexico and the United States.
The places in between places
They are like little countries
Themselves, with their own holidays
Taken a little from everywhere.
My Fourth of July is from childhood,
Childhood itself a kind of country, too.
It’s a place that’s far from me now,
A place I’d like to visit again.
The Fourth of July takes me there.
In that childhood place and border place
The Fourth of July, like everything else,
It meant more than just one thing.
In the United States the Fourth of July
It was the United States.
In Mexico it was the día de los Refugios,
The saint’s day of people named Refugio.
I come from a family of people with names,
Real names, not-afraid names, with colors
Like the fireworks: Refugio,
Margarito, Matilde, Alvaro, Consuelo,
Humberto, Olga, Celina, Gilberto.
Names that take a moment to say,
Names you have to practice.
These were the names of saints, serious ones,
And it was right to take a moment with them.
I guess that’s what my family thought.
The connection to saints was strong:
Mu grandmother’s name–here it comes–
Her name was Refugio,
And my great-grandmother’s name was Refugio,
And my mother-in-law’s name now,
It’s another Refugio, Refugios everywhere,
Refugios and shrimp cocktails and sodas.
Fourth of July was a birthday party
For all the women in my family
Going way back, a party
For everything Mexico, where they came from,
For the other words and the green
Tinted glasses my great-grandmother wore.
These women were me,
What I was before me,
So that birthday fireworks in the evening,
All for them,
This seemed right.
In that way the fireworks were for me, too.
Still, we were in the United States now,
And the Fourth of July,
Well, it was the Fourth of July.
But just what that meant,
In this border place and time,
it was a matter of opinion in my family.
fronteratales 