Japanese Notebooks

Japanese Notebooks:  A Journey to the Empire of Signs is a graphic memoir by Igort, an Italian comics creator, who has traveled to Japan twenty times, lived there for a time and worked in its manga industry for ten years. It's a testament to his life long love affair with Japan. Igort shows how he learned to live and work in Japan, found inspiration from the cultural activities he participated in, as well as how the comics industry operates there.

This is a beautifully illustrated book.  Most of the drawings have been done in color and show the author immersing himself in Japanese culture and life. When he arrives in Tokyo he must adjust to living in the tiny 150 square foot apartment that he was given to live in. He then has a three and a half hour job interview.  Later he realizes that in Japan the interviewee should be the first person to stand up, signaling the end of the interview. In the west it's the opposite.  The Japanese thought that he was trying to negotiate a higher salary by not standing up and ending the interview. In his free time Igort visited Buddhist temples, gardens, tea shops, a sumo wrestling training place, and book stores. He discussed with his Japanese co-workers the samurai code, films, literature and manga, all subjects that he illustrated in his book. Toward the end Igort draws a memorial to several manga masters who have passed away.

The author wrote so lovingly about Japan that it captivated me too.  He makes the reader want to jump on a plane and visit the country at length. If that's not possible, there is this armchair traveler book called Japanese Notebooks.

Highly recommended!

Irmina

Irmina is the author's grandmother. She found a group of diaries and letters belonging to her late grandmother and pieced together this history, then created a graphic memoir of her grandmother's life.  The author was surprised to find how she changed radically from someone who asked many questions to a person who looked the other way. I was unaware of where this memoir would take me when I picked it up and was disturbed by the decisions Irmina made in her life. However, I did feel that she had no good choices to make until I read the Afterward concerning the Nazi experience for ordinary Germans.

In the opening of the book Irmina has just arrived in London from her native Germany to attend a school for foreign language secretaries. She excels at school but is aloof at the parties that she is invited to.  At one party she meets a black man from Barbados, Howard Green, who is  attending Oxford University. They become good friends and spend every possible moment together, despite the ugly looks they receive in public.  Howard is used to dealing with discrimination but Irmina is not.  However, Irmina herself has to deal with discrimination as her fellow students call her a Nazi in class and her English hosts call the Germans animals when discussing the war. Irmina is determined to stay in London after finishing school as that is where there are more opportunities for working women. When her family can no longer send her money she decides that she must return to Germany.

The only job Irmina can find in Germany is through a family friend.  She lands a job at the Ministry of War. She thinks that she can get a transfer to the London office but when that falls through Irmina marries Gregor Meinrich and has a child. Her husband is an architect who works for Goebbels but several years after their marriage Gregor tells Irmina that he is an SS Officer. Irmina is bored and wants to get a job but is told that they must present a united front so that Gregor can advance in his job. She agrees as Gregor is on the verge of getting a big contract from Goebbels. The contract never materializes and Gregor is gone from home often on SS duties. As architecture takes a back seat to the war, Gregor takes a military post to the eastern front where he is killed.

When I finished reading this book I felt sad for Irmina. She was never happy with her life. It seemed that she was always at the point of receiving something great in life but then having it disappear before  her eyes. While after the war she had a long career in school administration, the author does not show that she was happy with it.  Irmina was shown as someone that students were afraid of.  Her reunion with Howard at the conclusion of the book was unfulfilling for her.  He had moved on with his life but had not. It was sad.

The Afterward written by Dr. Alexander Korb explained Irmina's life. She made the same decisions German women of that era made.  She changed in the same way ordinary Germans changed as the Nazis came to power and then took over the country.  I had to reread the book after finishing the Afterward as I had missed many clues into Irmina's psyche.

Dr. Korb explained that the subject of the coexistence of terror and living everyday life, such as Irmina had to deal with, is still being examined today.  The Nazi's concept of Volksgemeinschaft, a promise of a better society for the common good, was not accepted by society at large.  Irmina did not feel obligated to make any sacrifices for what is supposed to be the common good as she only contributed to the "voluntary" Winter Relief when it was deducted from her paycheck.  She repeatedly asked close friends what Volksgemeinschaft could do for her.  In contrast, she was deemed to be an ethnic comrade who belonged in Germany by providing proof of her ancestry in order to get the job in the Ministry of War.  She didn't think twice about it.  The fact that she had no empathy for those who were persecuted by the regime actually facilitated her path into German society.  She never questioned the regime and accepted its benefits without reflection.  She attempted to position herself and her family to their best advantage although she did not participate in the enrichment of herself at the expense of the deported and murdered Jews.  Dr. Korb felt that this decision of hers was not due to her inner distance from events but due more to her social background, not wanting to lower herself to the level of the street.  I thought that this was an interesting comment as throughout the book Irmina had this inner distance from events that she did not like.

The matter of whether ordinary Germans were aware of the genocide of Jews is easy to answer.  Dr. Korb explains that every German citizen could know that it was happening.  This was a matter of having knowledge and suppressing knowledge.  The deportation of the Jews was visible.  When German citizens stated after the war that they did not know what was going on, it was an attempt to not be held accountable.  Hundreds of thousands of Germans in occupied territories in the east came in contact with the mass murder and there were widespread rumors about the Jewish genocide.  It was well known that when Jews were deported that they would not be returning. Irmina, who once shopped in a Jewish department store, shopped elsewhere and threatened to report a relative for discussing the gassing of the Jews.  She basically strengthened the Nazi propaganda by threatening her relative.

Irmina's life was tragic. Of course, not as tragic as others during this era.  The author was courageous to write about her grandmother's life. I doubt that I would publicly air the family skeletons. She did a fabulous job in telling this story and the Afterward was essential in explaining Irmina's decisions.

Irmina is a must read!

Drawn to Berlin

Drawn to Berlin is Ali Fitzgerald's memoir of teaching comic workshops in refugee shelters in Germany during 2015 and 2016. She is an American living in Berlin and many of the refugees are from Syria.  They have come to Europe in huge numbers seeking asylum. The story takes place at The Bubble, a refugee center in northern Berlin.

The refugees featured in the book surprisingly did not draw violent images from their former lives in Syria.  Instead they chose friendly subjects such as flowers and ships. Her discussions with them were different, though.  They were painfully sad. All had left loved ones behind and could not get in touch with them. Without the right papers, the German government will not allow them to obtain housing or jobs so they were stuck in the shelters unable to move forward for months or even years. While the Germans were welcoming initially, nationalism begins to rise in response to their fear of losing their culture.

The story is told in black and white  drawings.  They are not done in a style that I like but the since the story had depth it didn't bother me that much.

The historical connection between today and immigrants from 100 years ago as well as between Germany today and a century ago was interesting. A century ago Jewish refugees from pogroms in Russia came to Germany and had trouble getting settled. Also, a font that the Nazis used when writing their propaganda, called fraktur, had a renaissance after the Syrian refugees arrived. This font was never supposed to be used again after the end of World War II but nationalism has caused it to reappear. The author discussed several other connections between the present and the past that were fascinating.

Drawn to Berlin tells an important story in history.  While I had read news stories about these refugees in Germany, I never read anything from the refugees' perspective.  The author did a great job of presenting their story.

Lady Killer, Volume 1

I laughed hard while reading this dark comedy about a female serial killer.  Josie Schuller works as a killer for a syndicate and is the perfect homemaker at night. She is gorgeous and dresses well so no one suspects what she is up to.

The story opens with her as an Avon lady,  killing her client after offering her a lipstick. Then she gets a job in a nightclub, the Kitty Cat Lounge, where she dresses up as a cat to get close to a man her boss wants dead. She seems to love knives and messes which is not what you expect from a female killer.  Page after page Josie accepts jobs from her superior, a handsome man named Peck, and completes them within a day, all while looking picture perfect in her dream dresses.

There is a mystery to the story at the halfway point but I don't want to be a spoiler.  I understand that there are sequels to this book.  I will be looking for them because I loved this graphic novel. The author came up with a fresh, new idea with this female serial killer who kills like a man but enjoys domestic bliss.  It is worth a look for those readers who enjoy comics.

The Burning Chambers

The Burning Chambers takes place in France in the mid to late 1500s.  It is the first book in a trilogy about the Huguenot diaspora.  The plot concerns a disputed inheritance and a stolen religious relic, the Shroud of Antioch. The main characters are Marguerite "Minou" Joubert, the Catholic daughter of a bookseller, and Piet Reydon, a Huguenot soldier, who fall in love with each other.

This 575 page book seemed to drag on and on.  There were endless descriptions of the scenery, homes, inns, shops and clothing.  While I was interested in what was written, the plot was so slow that I did lose interest over time which is why it took me one month to finish this book.   The fact that I could summarize the plot in one sentence in the above paragraph is telling.  Not much happened here.  The premise for this trilogy is fascinating.  The how-to of the writing needs work.  A little less explanation and more action would be better.

If you like reading about atmosphere, this book is for you.  The author gives a fascinating description of the atmosphere of this period in French history.  However, if a book has no action, it's a little boring.

A Fire Story

Brian Fies wrote this graphic  memoir of his family's experience losing their home to the California wildfires in October 2017.  The fires destroyed over 6,200 homes and killed 44 people.  Fellow artists sent him art supplies and he began a comic while the fires were still burning.  He posted the comic on his blog and it went viral.  It was featured on CNN and in The Washington Post.

Fies' wife Karen woke up at 1:30 a.m. on October 9, 2017 smelling smoke and thought that it was a fire in Calistoga, twenty miles away.  When she looked out the window and saw a glowing sky they both jumped into action and packed what they thought were their most treasured possessions and left, thinking though that they would be returning to their home.  They found out later that their home of twenty years was gone an hour after they left. The Fies traveled to Karen's office to stay for a few days as she held a job in emergency management and, as such, had a small apartment.  Later they traveled to their adult twin daughters' home to stay and began a two year process of rebuilding their lives.

The book also tells the story of five other individuals but the Fies' story continues to be told throughout the book.  While the artwork in the book is light due to its color scheme the heart wrenching emotions of going through this type of experience is evident. Fies chose his words carefully in telling his story.  He also used a fluorescent palette in the novel which was reminiscent of the highlighters that he originally used in his comic. Each color is used in various shades which I found to be attractive.

If it is possible to do justice on telling a story about a catastrophic fire in graphic novel format, this is it. The poignancy of the words written were perfect to recreate the emotions that he felt as he relived each part of his story.  I was touched by it, never understanding before how losing everything you own in a fire changes a person.  This is a must read.

The Persian Gamble

I don't usually read Joel Rosenberg but a friend told me that I would like his new book.  It is a political/spy thriller taking place in the current time period with conflict between the governments of the U.S., Israel, Russia, North Korea, Iran, and Saudi Arabia.

The summary from the inside book cover reads: "Shot out of the air in enemy territory in the middle of the greatest international crisis since the end of the Cold War, former U. S. Secret Service agent Marcus Ryker finds himself facing an impossible task. Not only does he have to somehow elude detection and capture by Russian forces, but he must convince his own government to grant safe passage to the one man responsible for the global mayhem - Russian double agent and assassin Oleg Kraskin. While frantically negotiating with his contacts in the U.S. government, Marcus learns that the North Korean regime plans to use the international chaos as a smokescreen to sell nuclear weapons to Iran."

I thought that this was the perfect thriller except for one problem. 300+ pages into the novel his hero starts reading his Bible, Proverbs, and thinking about the grace of God right before he is going into a mission and will kill people. Is the author serious? How many international assassins muse over God's grace an hour before a kill? The hero keeps this Bible reading up for the remaining 200 pages. Is the author trying to convince the reader that an assassin is a Christian? I am pretty sure he is not. This is why I never read Rosenberg. Why take a perfectly plotted and written 500 page thriller and ruin it with 20 pages? This is disappointing!

He loses 1 star.   4 out of 5 stars.

The Kinship of Secrets

The Kinship of Secrets is a historical saga about the Cho family during the Korean War. Part of the family has emigrated to America and the rest of the family has remained in Korea. The chapters alternate between the point of view of two sisters, Inja and Miren, separated by their parents when the parents take Miren with them to America and leave Inja behind.

Calvin and Najin Cho have taken their daughter Miren with them to America while she is still a toddler as she has been sickly. The younger Inja has been left behind with the promise that they will return for her in one or two years. However, the North Koreans invade the South and war commenced, making it impossible for the family to travel. Miren grows up in the wealthy west but not fitting in with her peers because she is Asian. Inja grows up knowing where she belongs but has to scrounge for food and run from fighting soldiers.  She always wonders why her mother didn't want her. For several years Calvin and Najin desperately try to bring Inja to the U. S. but Inja hopes that it never happens. She loves her extended family in Korea, her friends and she is doing well in school.

I loved this poignant story of two sisters. One is raised in wealth but with no emotional security and is dependent on her family. The other is raised in poverty but is much loved and independent. One knows all the family's secrets and the other knows none. Can they form a sisterly bond when they actually meet? Read the book and find out!

Inja is the heroine as she has much more to deal with than Miren. At a very young age she has to deal with abandonment, hunger, running from war, and taking care of sick relatives. I loved her character and hope there is a sequel based on her life. Miren was not that interesting but from her side of the story the reader gets to read about the family's early life in America.

5 our of 5 stars!

The Christmas Boutique

The Christmas Boutique is an Elm Creek Quilts novel. This 21 book cozy series returns after a seven year hiatus and the inside cover blurb summarizes the book as follows:

"Just weeks before Christmas, severe wintry weather damages the church hall hosting the Christmas Boutique-an annual sale of handcrafted gifts and baked goods that support the county food pantry. Determined to save the fundraiser Sylvia Bergstrom Compson offers to hold the event at Elm Creek Manor, her ancestral family estate and summertime home to Elm Creek Quilt Camp.

In the spirit of the season Sylvia and the Elm Creek Quilters begin setting up market booths in the ballroom and decking the halls with beautiful handmade holiday quilts. Each of the quilters chooses a favorite work to display, a special creation evoking memories of holidays past and dreams of Christmases yet to come. But while the Elm Creek Quilters work tirelessly to make sure the Christmas Boutique happens, it may take a holiday miracle or two to make it the smashing success they want it to be."

More than half of the writing was backstory, which means of course that there wasn't much to this plot.  The prior 3 or 4 books in the series were also predominantly backstory so I have to wonder if the author  has run out of new ideas for this series. In the interim since the last book was published the author wrote several historical fiction novels. They were OK. She excels, however, in writing cozies so I think she should consider writing another cozy series.

The characters in the series are fascinating but I think the most interesting ones were from the beginning of the series who have now passed away. The series is supposed to be about the Bergstrom family but only one member is still alive and she is not the main character.  In fact, there really isn't a main character. There is a group of women who make up the core of characters in the series.

Quilting was not as prominent in this installment of the series. I am a quilter and would have loved to have read more of the usual so-and-so selected such-and-such pattern to sew and the sentimental reasons why the selection was made.

While I have written some negative comments that does not mean that I didn't enjoy the book. I did. It was nice to get reacquainted with characters who seem like friends to me. Having a significant amount of background is not bad given that there has been 7 years since the last book in the series was published. I had forgotten much of each character's past and needed to be reminded.

4 out of 5 stars.

The President is Missing

Former President Bill Clinton co-authored this political mystery with James Patterson. It is eerily similar to Clinton's presidency.

The synopsis from the publisher:

"As an unprecedented cyberterrorist attack cripples the United States, the president must face an unthinkable truth:

There is a traitor in the White House.
His life is in danger.

And the only way to stay ahead of the shadowy forces tearing at the heart of America is to go off grid, leaving behind his presidential protection. The president must go missing and he may never resurface... Set over the course of three days that shake a nation to its core, The President is Missing
sheds a stunning light on the inner workings and vulnerabilities of the American government."

I expected alot from this book. I heard many friends say they couldn't wait to read it. If I was using my brain I would have realized that no one said anything else about the book.  At the midway point in reading this novel I read a few reviews of it because I was disappointed with it. Most of the reviews were negative. It finally clicked in my brain that the problem was the plot.

In The President is Missing there is something that never happens...the president never goes missing. Why this title was chosen is a conundrum.  The main character, the president, was basically Bill Clinton. This president faced an impeachment, was the former governor of a small southern state, met his wife in the law library at Yale law school, hired his best friend whom he met in kindergarten to work for him in the White House and failed to capture a foreign terrorist. As these details about the character unfolded, I was disappointed. I'm not sure why. Perhaps it just wasn't creative to use the author's background for a character.

The plot wasn't believable. First of all, I kept waiting for the president to disappear. Second, there were several groups of commandos shooting characters and I couldn't tell who the good guys were and who the bad guys were. The story was confusing. Third, there is no way in hell the Secret Service would allow a president to go off grid and meet someone who is probably a terrorist without protection. In the book the president orders the Secret Service to not follow him and also orders his physician to not treat him for an illness which is about to kill him because the drugs he needs will cloud his judgment.

The story was written with suspense to keep you reading. While I was bored and disappointed at the halfway point, I kept thinking that there was more to this story than I could see. Also, with the synopsis telling me that there is a traitor in the White House, I expected to read about this traitor early in the book. The reader doesn't read about it until the conclusion of the story. Why the build up in the media about a traitor when there's no build up in the story? Finally, it would have been nice for the authors to have written a Note to the Reader describing their writing collaboration.  Who contributed what? I wonder how much writing Clinton contributed to the novel, if any. 

Book of the Month: September

My best book for the month of September is Saving Meghan. This medical thriller was so captivating that it kept me up all night until I finished reading it.  Meghan Gerard has an undiagnosed illness and her mother loves, really loves, taking her to doctors and screaming at them if they don't order tests or additional physician consultations. Meghan's father Carl thinks his wife is nuts. His wife's mother had munchausen's and he thinks she has it too.  So does White Hospital where Meghan is a frequent patient. When the hospital tries to do an intervention, the story intensifies.

Saving Meghan

Daniel Palmer has written another amazing medical mystery with Saving Meghan. With this novel he examines the illness called munchausen's by proxy.

The Gerard family is falling apart due to daughter Meghan's undiagnosed illness and her mother Becky's constant demand for her to see new doctors and have more tests. Husband Carl doesn't seem to believe that his daughter is really sick.  Meghan, a former high school athlete, is now homebound with nausea, cramping, fevers, fatigue and dizziness. However, every medical test keeps coming back normal until the family meets Dr. Zach Fisher who thinks she has a mitochondrial disease. She begins treatment but White Hospital is considering an intervention. They think Becky is intentionally making Meghan sick.

This novel was one heck of a page turner! I had to stay up until 2 am to finish it this morning. The plot moved very quickly and each chapter ended with a bang so I had to continue reading. I was familiar with Munchausen's so I knew what to expect from the mother's character. However, the daughter's character surprised me. By age 15 she had already learned what made her mother happy so Meghan was somewhat complicit in acting out her illness. I had no idea that was normal in these situations.

The plot had incredible twists and plenty of suspense but the final resolution of the story caught me off guard. I wasn't expecting it and I don't think it fit the story well. Still, it was a fun read and I am looking forward to Palmer's next novel. 

A Far Horizon

This is the second book in the Broken Kingdom Series about the English Civil War of the 1640s where Charles 1 is on the throne with his Catholic wife Henrietta. A Far Horizon primarily is about three women trying to survive on their own during the war.  Caroline Pendleton leaves her home for London after her husband is killed in battle. Lucy Hay is a widow who takes care of the two youngest royal children while their mother is in exile in France. Queen Henrietta is always on the run from her husband's enemies.

The book had a slow start. I had a difficult time getting interested in it as I couldn't find a storyline. The characters were reacting to news about the war and that's about it. Most of the historical characters bored me and there were many of them to keep track of. However, at the midpoint the story picked up. This is where the author used created characters to enhance her story. These characters were appealing and they carried the book.

I can't figure out why Vantrease wrote this kind of book. It's drastically different from her historical mysteries which I think were fantastic. I hope she returns to writing the mysteries because that is where she shines.