Book Review: The Golden Sky

Book: The Golden Sky

Genre: Non-Fiction / Memoir 

Author: EC Stilson

Cover Critique:

The cover of the book beautifully illustrates the title and tagline of the book, “the golden sky comes after the storm”. The theme of “loss and hope” underlining this memoir comes forward in the form of the picture shown on the cover.

Book Blurb:

The “death home” gave him a really nice funeral, the kind I’d never wished to attend. When they tried closing his casket, I nearly fell on my face, not wanting them to shut the lid on my baby. We lost it after that, totally cemented in our grief. Cade got into drugs, joined a rock and roll band, and even grew out his damn hair. It was slow at first, but Cade reverted to the man I’d busked with years before. It wasn’t until I killed a rogue skunk, and my daughter nearly choked on a fry, that I gave my husband another chance. But could our marriage recover from the death of our son? - (Courtesy: Amazon.com)

Review:

I love to read memoirs as they are “a window to the writer’s life” and tell you something very personal and close to the writer’s heart. But while every memoir writer tries to be as sincere as possible, only a few achieve that high standard of leaving a deep imprint on the reader’s mind. This book is one of those exceptions who not only touch a reader’s life in inscrutable ways but also make them learn a thing or two along the way. When I picked up this book and read the back cover, it pulled me right in and I finished the book in one sitting.

The book is written in the form of “entries”. It is like reading the pages from a diary, only it is no more private! The author invites the reader in her life through this up, close and personal account. The book starts when she is married and pregnant with her second child, Zeke. She soon finds out that the child she is carrying in her womb is suffering from many defects and if he will come into this world, his chances of survival will be very low. This news brings her life to a standstill but nonetheless she decides to deliver her son. Sadly enough, she loses him only a few months after his birth.

The “entries” are divided into chapters which are aptly named: “Searching”, “Found”, “Lost”, “Resurrected” and “Closure”. The writing is flawless from start till the end. It did cause me an emotional upheaval but the second part of the book is uplifting where you will find humour and get introduced to “The Understudy”, “The Cowboy”, the stripper and weird yet lovable characters. You will also get a sneak peek into her relationship with her husband Cade.

My favourite part was when Cade leaves special notes for her to get her back in his life. Also, I loved Ruby’s personality, her perceptions and her way of expressing her love for Zeke. The story in which she buys balloons for Zeke because she thinks that there are no “bawoons” (balloons) in heaven, is precious! She is such an adorable little angel.

What I liked about this “journal”? Everything! That’s because there was nothing that I could dislike about the honest “entries” written straight from the heart. This is not just a tear-jerking and heart-rending memoir about the pain and trauma of losing an infant child. It also deals with the gradual healing of grief and sorrow that comes with “faith” in God and “hope” which follows with the passage of time.

More importantly, it has a “universal theme” of mother-child relationship, a bond created by God which is special and one of its kind. It also taught me a lot about life, love, marriage and other important relationships, the insecurities and the unpredictability of life, vulnerability of a human being and to have the ability and guts to deal with those odds in an optimistic manner.

There are so many philosophical lines packed in just 300 pages of this book. In the last entry of her journal, the author quotes her dad’s words and I think they sum up “the whole enigma of life” superbly! Let me quote those ‘pearls of wisdom’ from the book so you get an idea of what I am talking about:

“At the end of storm is a golden sky. 

Walk on, walk on, with hope in your heart, and you will never walk alone”. 

What a gem of a book! I am going to keep this book on the top of my bookshelf so I can read it again. This book serves as an excellent motivational and inspirational dose in times of depression and loneliness. Highly recommended!

Review Girl Rating: 10/10

“I would like to thank EC Stilson for sending me a free paperback of this book, for the purpose of reviewing it on my blog. To buy this book on Amazon, click here.” 

Here is a captivating Video Trailer of "The Golden Sky":

Have you lost a loved one? Have you read this memoir and think that it has a therapeutic effect on you? Was this review helpful? Feel free to comment and share your thoughts. Thanks.

Book Review: Ka Mate: Travels in New Zealand

Book: Ka Mate: Travels in New Zealand

Genre: Travel Narrative / Non-Fiction / Travel Memoir 

Author: Dan Coxon

Cover Critique:

The cover of the book shows a peculiar landscape individualistic to the land of New Zealand, telling a lot about its culture and also shows a glimpse of what is inside the book. I think the cover fits perfectly to the essence of the book and its beautiful colours are a feast for the eyes.

Book Blurb:

The New Zealand All Blacks are one of the most recognisable team franchises in modern sport, and their performance of the Ka Mate haka prior to international matches is known across the globe. But how many of us know anything about the Maori people to whom this haka belongs?

Ka Mate: Travels in New Zealand takes us on a three month journey around New Zealand, through the vineyards, over the glaciers, and across the fields of boiling mud. Freelance journalist and writer Dan Coxon does more than simply entertain us with anecdotes of his travels: he unravels New Zealand's complex history of migration and settlement, and reveals an intriguing story of British colonisation that still has repercussions today. Plus there's time for a rugby match or two along the way.

Review:

What do I look for in a travel book? For me, it should bring “sights and sounds” of the place to me. It should be able to describe the place in such a frank and candid manner which is easy to visualize so I can feel accustomed to the culture and history of that place, when I have not visited it in real. This book does all this perfectly and that too, with “a funny take” on things and events!

The title “Ka Mate” refers to the infamous tribal war dance that the All Blacks rugby team performs at the start of international rugby matches and which is mentioned repeatedly in the book. The book starts like an amusing storybook and not like a plain guide about New Zealand. The author takes us on a spellbinding voyage from North Island to South Island while displaying his queer eye and a quirky sense of humour.

His anecdotes are undoubtedly intriguing but they range from adrenaline-rushing events (like famous rugby matches and bungee jumping) to shocking and strange stories about the native people of New Zealand. At one moment the reader is overwhelmed by the thrilling and modern side of this country and at other times, he gets surprised by the dark and controversial side as the writer brings out the history of migration and settlement of Europeans in the country.

The author delves deep into the Maori culture and tries to know as much as possible about the people belonging to that community and the rumours surrounding them. He does not shy away from explaining his viewpoint of things and events influenced by what he witnesses during his trip. It shows the honesty and straight-forward approach of the writer which is a remarkable trait of being a good writer besides being an adventurous spirit.

The author constantly compares between the climate and landscape of North and South Island. He also brings out references to his Scottish heritage and English landscape. As he says in one of the chapters:

“Given my limited knowledge of New Zealand’s climate, this seemed to make some kind of sense, although privately I suspected that it might be God laughing at whoever named the “Desert Road”. Even England’s Lake District didn’t get rain like this.”

To be honest, I did not have much idea about New Zealand but after reading this book, it made me curious enough to go and visit this place. I am still in awe by its varied landscape where glaciers and volcanoes exist. My favourite chapter in the book is the one which captures the soul of “Christchurch” in all its vibrancy and I could not agree more with the author when he says:

“Strangely though, I found myself liking Christchurch more and more....The hookers, the party pills and the street racers were ugly but at least they showed that the place had a pulse....at least it felt real. I remember Ian’s friend Dave telling me that it was a “shithole”....it turned out that I liked shitholes more than I’d thought....I liked life to be a little rougher around the edges.”

The author’s razor-sharp observations and outlook makes the book stand-out from usual travel literature available on book stands. The book is a must-read for travel enthusiasts, especially sport fans and “Lord of the Rings” movie fans! Due to its simple language and easy-to-understand style, it will attract a wide audience from kids to adults alike.

Review Girl Rating: 10/10

“I would like to thank Dan Coxon for sending me a free paperback of his book, for the purpose of reviewing it on my blog. This book is available in e-book format as well. To buy this book on Amazon, click here."

Book Review: The Gift

Book: The Gift

Genre: Non-Fiction / Memoir

Author: Ita Willen

Cover Critique:

The cover is as simple and effective as it should be. It shows the picture of Ita Willen’s grandmother, which shows a striking resemblance with her own picture given inside the book.

Review:

This book is a memoir of a survivor of the atrocious crime of Holocaust. Those of you who would like to jitter their memory and know what exactly this book is about, I am going to make things easier for you and present you with the gist of this historical event:

“The Holocaust was the systematic, bureaucratic, state-sponsored persecution and murder of approximately six million Jews by the Nazi regime and its collaborators. "Holocaust" is a word of Greek origin meaning "sacrifice by fire." The Nazis, who came to power in Germany in January 1933, believed that Germans were "racially superior" and that the Jews, deemed "inferior," were an alien threat to the so-called German racial community. 

During the era of the Holocaust, German authorities also targeted other groups because of their perceived "racial inferiority": Roma (Gypsies), the disabled, and some of the Slavic people (Poles, Russians, and others). Other groups were persecuted on political, ideological, and behavioral grounds, among them Communists, Socialists, Jehovah's Witnesses, and homosexuals.” – (Courtesy: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Website) 

Now, let’s talk about the book. This memoir starts with a Prologue and ends with an Epilogue. The chapters are named after the four seasons: Winter, Spring, Summer and Fall which metaphorically explain that life itself is like the continuous cycle of Nature, it moves on, no matter what. Before Prologue, the writer quotes a line of Nietzsche, “We have art in order not to die of the truth”. This gave me a feeling that in spite of the fact that this book is going to be about the tragic, heinous and ugly events of Holocaust told from the eyes of a child who came out as a survivor, it will still have an optimistic approach towards life and I was right.

In the Prologue, the writer sets the mood for heart-wrenching events described in the following chapters of the book by saying, “I am afraid of opening wounds. I am afraid of onrush of emotion. I am afraid the survivor will begin to tell me about everyone he lost and overflow with pain at the memories. I am afraid the survivor will fall apart on me into a weeping heap of bones.”

I loved her honest and straight-forward approach of writing. As I moved on to the chapters one by one, I felt sympathetic towards her loss as she goes on to describe how she lost her family members in Holocaust with vivid descriptions of death camps, especially Auschwitz concentration camp.

But the book is not just about these tragic losses, it is more about her views on life in the aftermath of that incident that changed her life. She not only debates about various religions from Judaism, Hinduism, Islam to Buddhism and Dalai Lama’s but also refers to many philosophers while trying to explain her way of perceiving things in life. While I may not agree with many of her judgements on various religions, I was still extremely interested to read more and find out how she interprets various concepts.

The beauty of her thoughts lies in her ideology of “hope” and seeing the “good” in things in spite of carrying the burden of dreadful memories of Holocaust. As she says, “Anyone can look beautiful or hideous depending on what you want to see in them....If I were a photographer I would try to capture the miraculous, the elegance of nature, the beauty of things, the goodness of people, the innocence of children, the wisdom of age, the Zen quality of even resignation.”

She talks about post- Holocaust trips to India, Nepal, Tibet and refers to pre-Holocaust bliss of her childhood in Poland with so much intensity and passion that I felt I was able to visualize things and events as she told them. She quotes about the inhuman conditions of Auschwitz many times in her book, but always in a way that surprises me. I can’t help but quote a few lines to capture the positive effect that it caused on my outlook on life.

It is pretty much the crux of her memoir, she says, “The whole problem with people who had an easy childhood and have no image of Auschwitz in their minds is that they don’t see that the ordinary world in which one is safe and fed and loved and sheltered is extraordinary. I realised suddenly what a wonderful effect the Holocaust has had on me. To be alive and healthy and free is like a miracle. Normal life is a miracle. That is the great gift I have received.”

There are so many lines and paras that I would love to quote to share with my readers, but that is not possible. Those of us who have interest in history and politics, would definitely like to read this wonderfully written memoir. It is insightful and thought-provoking. It does not matter whether your views match with hers or not, the whole point is the overall impact of her book, which is that one should be grateful and cherish every moment of life.

It is written in a poignant and literary style, which made me finish this book in one sitting. It also shows her inclination towards philosophy as she refers to Freud, Spinoza, Nietzsche, Dante and many others while dictating her doctrine. Though I may have found some of concepts outdated or ridiculous but then everyone’s experiences in life make them what they are and how they think.

So, the book gave me a frame of reference which I had not witnessed before, and a familiarity and knowledge which added to my awareness of things around me, about various aspects of life and most obviously, about the writer and her life. The book is worth a read for lovers of literature, history, comparative religions and philosophy.

Review Girl Rating: 9/10

“I would like to thank Sandra Sanchez of “The Wessex Collective” Publishing House as well as the author of this book Ita Willen for sending me a free copy of her book, “The Gift” for the purpose of reviewing it on my blog. To buy this book on Amazon, click here.” 

About the Author: 

Ita Willen was born in Poland in 1945, has a BA in philosophy from University of Texas in Austin and currently resides in Colorado. She was named for her paternal grandmother who died in a concentration camp, exact time and place unknown. In 1972 Random House published The Grubbag, a collection of weekly columns she wrote (under the name Ita Jones) for the Liberation News Service from 1968-70. 

Book Review: Unimagined

Book: Unimagined – A Muslim boy meets the West

Genre: Autobiography/ Contemporary Non-Fiction/ Memoir

Author: Imran Ahmad

Cover critique:

Different covers have been released since the publication of this book in 2007. Even the tag line keeps on changing, to give it an updated look. The cover given above is the one that I have purchased so I thought to use its tagline. Though the most recent title of this book is, "Unimagined: Muhammad, Jesus and James Bond". I like the colour scheme used in the above given cover, red and white, far better than the rest of the covers. The only thing which remains constant in all covers is Imran Ahmad's childhood picture, which I think is a very creative idea for a book of this genre. It is a cute and fun idea to keep the cover interesting unlike other non-fiction book covers. I think all covers are good but I could not help noticing this cover in Indonesian language (Below: Centre). I find it the most apt and convincing (kind of funny too!) for this entertaining and amusing memoir.

Did anyone notice the edited picture with Jaguar XJS (his favourite car) in his hand?
 If you notice closely, it is absent in the rest of the covers!

Review:

The book is about the journey of a Pakistani born Muslim who is brought up in a British culture in the 1960’s. With poignant incidents from his life, told in the most profound and hilarious way possible, this memoir exposes the perspective of a Muslim who learns to find a middle path and a balance between the two contrasting cultures. The chapters unfold his yearning to be counted as a part of the Western society while staying intact with his roots.

As East meets the West, there are colliding notions and preconceptions, in the wake of socio-political identity mayhem whose undercurrents are felt as we read between the lines of his stories. The cultural and religious demarcations get dissolved one by one, as he goes through small yet life-turning events. He recalls the days gone by fondly, while shifting from one stage of his life to another, which result in the development and metamorphosis of his own thoughts and concepts to ultimately achieve an identity for himself in this struggle for “fitting in” the Western society.

The book kicks off with his mother’s extremely difficult labour to finally deliver him into this world, described in just two pages in a filmy manner with the “heavy downpour” and a “splash of humour”. The very beginning sets the reader in the mood for forthcoming adventures and the whimsical overtures of this witty and clever writer. As we learn about his coming “second” in the Karachi Bonnie Baby Contest and his frustration on not winning the well-deserved first prize, he takes us with him to Manchester where his family arrives as “immigrants”. In the most human and gentle way, he paints the excruciating facts of the 60’s and 70’s Britain, needless to say which is quite different from present Britain.

The bigger issues of “racial discrimination”, “international affairs”, “political upheavals and historical events like India-Pakistan war”, “religious misconceptions between Christians and Muslims” are intertwined smartly with the descriptions of his school and college life through smaller issues like “peer pressure”, “jealousy”, “notions of sexuality, love and marriage”. The heaviness of these topics vanishes off with the remarkably funny anecdotes from his past life which made me laugh out loud while turning the pages swiftly to read it in one go.

The vivid memories of his childhood start from getting tricked by junior con artists and losing his precious Tarzan bubble gum cards collection, to participating in the Metropolitan Police school quiz. Getting bullied in the school as a shy kid to becoming a confident boy who passes the entrance exam to the local grammar school, he crosses many u-turns to enter his adult life. The writer goes on to narrate his brief interactions with the opposite sex, the questions which arise in his mind and the innocent answers which he devises, as a result of watching television shows:

“Unfortunately, it wrecks my theory of reproduction.......So, it’s not the getting married that causes pregnancy; it’s the going to bed together. As a result of this act, mind must trigger off the physical process of pregnancy”.

Then we come to know about his utmost desire to look and behave like his favourite hero, James Bond and to own and drive a car which he drives in the movie series, “Jaguar XJS”. As he blatantly writes:

“I have a longing for this kind of persona: that of Simon Templar or James Bond. A handsome and brave adventurer, loved by beautiful women and admired by all.”

The bold and honest approach, with which the writer discloses the secrets of his heart and mind, is truly worth-praising and made me feel that I was reading about a real person with faults and errors. Unlike many memoirs with diplomatic handling and tedious approach, this book served fresh and candid style of writing an autobiography. I was totally engrossed from its first chapter till the last because the writer manages superbly in generalizing his story with so many of us, so that we can relate to his life. It is indeed a thought-provoking book which can be read on many levels. Being born and bred in Pakistan and living in England, the book helped me gain an insight into globalization and the constantly changing face of British as well as Muslim culture.

The book is thin with its short and crisp chapters but contains thick matter, especially if one likes to dissect the psychological ramifications of experiences in one’s life. I could not find any negative points as there is not a single dull moment and one rarely stumbles upon such a great piece of literature. It is going in my “favourite books collection” as I will surely be reading it again and again. As it is both enjoyable and mind-boggling, I would highly recommend it! 

To buy this book, click here.

Review Girl Rating: 10/10

 

About the Author:

Imran Ahmad is an impressive public speaker and has appeared on many media platforms such as BBC television, Sky television, SBS television (Australia), Voice of America television, Press TV, National Public Radio, BBC radio (many times), Radio Australia, and ABC Radio National (Australia). Besides writing his successful memoir, he has travelled all over the world as part of his corporate career. Want to know more about the author? Then go to his website by clicking here.