Arboretum Library: Book Club Reads from 2016

“If you've seen the movie, it is pretty faithful to the book, […]. It's the story of a completely different way of life. We are meant to share Leslie's view as an outsider, and be confused, appalled, and enamored with the many aspects of Texas ranching life. The fantastic ballsy egos of the men and women who live there and how those egos help them survive the tough conditions but blind them to any opposing viewpoints. ”—Lee Anne, Goodreads.com

This sweeping tale captures the essence of Texas on a staggering scale as it chronicles the life and times of cattleman Jordan "Bick" Benedict, his naive young society wife, Leslie, and three generations of land-rich sons. A sensational story of power, love, cattle barons, and oil tycoons, Giant was the basis of the classic film starring James Dean, Elizabeth Taylor, and Rock Hudson.

Here are the questions we discussed on January 27, 2016:

• Did you like Leslie? Why? or Why not? What about Bick?
• Which character was your favorite? Why?
• Do you think the ending was effective? Why or Why not? Once you got to the end what about the beginning stood out? Did you remember the nuances of the beginning when you got to the end?
• Does this novel have resonance today or is it stuck in the time it was written? Why?
• Was it believable for you? What parts? Why?
• What do you think Edna Ferber was best at in this novel? What was not as effective?
• Did you like her run on adjectives with no punctuation between? Why? Why not? Were there other parts of her writing style that seemed unique to Ferber? What? Why?
• Is it better or worse than the movie? Why?
• Was there anything confusing that you didn't understand that the group can perhaps help with?
• Does anyone else have any other questions?
• What is your favorite line, passage, or image?

“Doyle's language is rich, lush, equal to the verdant landscape he describes, and his narrative ricochets with a wondrous blending of the real and magical from character to character as he tracks the intersecting lives of Neawanaka [Oregon] one summer.[…] His magic is his ability to blend the minute details of small-town everyday life with the make-believe such that the daily lives of his multiple characters are not overshadowed by his lyrical language and make-believe elements but enhanced by them. […] All of the stories here end happily, more or less.-- Greg Sarris, The Chronicle.

Here are the questions discussed on February 24, 2016

• What was the best part of his writing style? The worst?
• I read a review that this book has a mostly happy ending? Do you agree? Why/Why not?
• What’s the deal with the crow? What about the fantastical elements?
• How did you feel about him appropriating lines from other poets, writers, etc.?
• What is the best part of the town? The worst?
• Who is this book written for?
• What did you think about the loose ends? Were there any? What did you think about the cliff hanger with sheriff?
• Why did DeClan have to disappear?
• What was the best of his many threads?
• Do you have any questions you would like to ask the group?
• What did you learn from this book?
• How was his portrayal of natural history? Authentic or fantastic?
• What is your favorite line, passage, or image

“In this colorful and moving […] late-19th-century South African landscape […] with a simple[…], strong[…] story and a wonderful sense of pace and scale,"Fiela's child" is Benjamin Komoetie, 12 years old at the time of the first South African census in the Long Kloof badlands above the fishing town of Knysna. The Africaans census takers find Benjamin--a white boy, origins unknown--living among blacks, and remove him; a backward, white forest-family comes to Knysna to claim him as their missing son, lost in the forest on the Long Kloof's southern ridge nine years before. […]The characters in this novel live and breathe; and the landscape is so brightly painted that the trees, birds, elephants and rivers of old South Africa are characters themselves. .’’— Kirkus Review

A white boy in South Africa, who has been raised by a black family, is suddenly at age 12 claimed by a white family as its own.

Here are the questions we discussed on March 23, 2016
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• Does this writing seem simplified? Examples? Why? Why not?
• What was the point of having the boy be seemingly without fault? Or explain his faults.
• Did you believe that this it was all so hard for him to figure out? Why? Why not?
• Why didn’t he leave the forest originally?
• Why couldn’t he figure out that Barta was lying?
• What did you think of the way the author handled Kaliel September’s mixed race, but Benjamin/Lukas never seemed to notice?
• What about the ending?
• What did you think of the landscape descriptions?
• What did you think of Elias?
• What is the best part of this book/the worst?
• What did you learn from this book?
• What did you like/not like about her writing style? Why?
• Do you have any questions you would like to ask the group?

“His eyes linger on the texture of the scene, the costumes, the dingy interiors, the rich displays of streets and markets. He is an imagist writing nervous, luminous prose that for once has movement to it avoiding the
concentration upon merely visual images that so often causes eye strain on the part of those who read him and his fellow poets.”-- Carl Van Doren, Nation

Written after the First World War when he was living in Sicily, Sea and Sardinia records Lawrence's journey to Sardinia and back in January 1921. It reveals his response to a new landscape and people and his ability to transmute the spirit of place into literary art. Like his other travel writings the book is also a shrewd inquiry into the political and social values of an era which saw the rise of communism and fascism. On one level an indictment of contemporary materialism, Sea and Sardinia is nevertheless an optimistic book, celebrating the creativity of the human spirit and seeking in the fundamental laws which governed human nature in the past fresh inspiration for the present. This 1997 edition restores censored passages and corrects corrupt textual readings to reveal for the first time the book Lawrence himself called 'a marvel of veracity'.

Here are the questions we discussed on April 27, 2016:
• Is the book straight-forward? Why? Why not?
• How is his writing in this book different from other authors you admire?
• Who was your favorite character? Why? Who, not so much?
• What was your favorite landscape description? What, not so much?
• Was the landscape reminiscent of your understanding of our west coast landscape? What was the same? What was different?
• Could you understand the effect of WWI on the trip? Examples.
• Why did Lawrence write this book?
• What about the ending?
• What is the best part of this book/the worst?
• What did you learn from this book?
• What did you like/not like about his writing style? Why?
• Do you have any questions you would like to ask the group?

“When I created my atlas of San Francisco, I was hoping that we were at the dawn of a new era of inventive, subversive, gorgeous mapping and social geographies. Let a thousand atlases bloom, I kept muttering, and I couldn’t be more pleased that the first horse out of the gate—first tiger lily in the flowerbed?—is of the city of angels and overpasses and pastrami and tacos, of forgotten rivers, wars, refugees, voters, homesteaders, of dreams busy biting the dust and tribes miraculously reappearing. Cities are inexhaustible; they exist in countless versions, depending on who you ask and where you go and what you want; and an atlas like LAtitudes invites you to open up other people’s versions and in so doing find your own.”—Rebecca Solnit, author of Infinite City: A San Francisco Atlas

Here are the questions we discussed May 18, 2016:
• What was your favorite essay and why?
• “Naming Los Angeles” Were you surprised by this article? Why? Why not? What did you think of the 2nd person writing approach?
• “Gridding the City” What was your favorite fact here? Why?
• “Ugly Buildings” Did you believe the author? Why? Why not?
• “Freeway Jam” How does the author’s work fit into your view of the LA Freeways?
• “Coyote Tours” Are you hopeful about a deepening of understanding of the Native American roots in Los Angeles? Why? Why not?
• “The Bovid Metropolis” What did you learn about longhorns?
• “Landscapes of Racial Violence” Was her approach to the issue effective for you as a reader? Why? Why not?
• “The Fortifications and Catacombs of the Conquests of Los Angeles” What history did this tell you and why? Did the map match?
• “Emperors of Dust” What happened to Elizabeth Friederich?
• “Cycleway” Is the author as optimistic as Dennis Crowley and Horace Dobbins?
• “Woody and Buzz” Do you believe him or was this essay over-influenced by internet word searching? Why? Why not?
• “Pioneers on the Frontier of Faith” Is the author’s story larger than the LGBT community?
• “How Xican@s Are the Makeweight of Los Angeles’s Past, Present, and Future” What is the best thing you learned about the Xicana@ community in Los Angeles in this essay?
• “Orphans, dwarfs, strangers, and monsters” What level of credibility did you give this author? Did it affect your reading of the rest of the book? Why? Why not?
• “Stalking Carp” Would you eat the carp in the L.A. River given the information in this article? Why? Why not?
• “Under the Radar and Off the Charts” Did this article change your thinking? Why? Why not?
• “The View from the Air” Does this essay fit with the others? Why? Why not?
• “Los Angeles is Singing” Do you agree with the author’s premise? Why? Why not?
• “Speakeasy Tacos” Does this story differ from the others? Why? Why not?

Reading [it] is to immerse oneself in a realm of roughneck, shoot-’em-up western writing where fact and fiction blend effortlessly on the page, & the action is only outgunned by the author’s tilt for beautiful literary prose. […] His writing keeps you riveted by fleet pacing, bawdy characters, sharp-witted banter, & enough action to stampede a cavalry train, but it’s never cheap, it’s never gratuitous. Instead he fills each page with heartbreak, suspense, hope, & laughter […]. [His characters are] fallible, impassioned, the type of people you could imagine filling your own life, only these characters are ratcheted up tenfold, magnifying the ugliness of their lusts, the shock of their misfortunes, the satisfaction of recompense. — Eric J. Guignard, New York Journal of Books


A Library Journal Best Book of 2015! A rollicking novel about Nat Love, an African-American cowboy with a famous nickname: Deadwood Dick. Young Willie is on the run, having fled his small Texas farm when an infamous local landowner murdered his father. A man named Loving takes him in and trains him in the fine arts of shooting, riding, reading, and gardening. When Loving dies, Willie re-christens himself Nat Love in tribute to his mentor, and heads west. In Deadwood, South Dakota Territory, Nat becomes a Buffalo Soldier and is befriended by Wild Bill Hickok. After winning a famous shooting match, Nat's peerless marksmanship and charm earn him the nickname Deadwood Dick, as well as a beautiful woman. But the hellhounds are still on his trail, and they brutally attack Nat Love's love. Pursuing the men who have driven his wife mad, Nat heads south for a final, deadly showdown against those who would strip him of his home, his love, his freedom, and his life.

Here are the questions discussed on Wednesday, June 29, 2016:

• Is this a western? Why/Why not? How does this compare to other "westerns" you have read?
• Did you believe his portrayal of the time period?
• What did you think of the author's portrayal of people of color?
• Does the violence relate to the story or do you perceive it as gratuitous? Why/Why not?
• Is the landscape part of the story? How?/How not?
• Who are the characters you feel know best? Why?
• Is this a simple book? Why?/Why not?
• Were the female characters believable?Male?Horses?Gun play?
• Why did the author front load all the violence?
• What is this author's strength?
• What, primarily, is this book about?
• How could this book have been improved?
• Any ambiguities or confusions we need to clear up?

“Valparaiso, Chile, is a cauldron of simmering contradictions in 1843. The wealthy British colonists and businessmen lord over the locals with their corseted social pretensions, at the same time relying desperately on the resourceful Chileans to survive in this vastly different world. […]Her
characters are richly drawn and the setting is so carefully depicted, it's as if you are transported to another place and time. […] Allende is a skilled social critic with a rapier wit, so things are not all as genteel they seem[...] [...She] has created a masterpiece of historical fiction that is passionate, adventurous and brilliantly insightful. And right up to the end, it's suspenseful and surprising. —Diane Carman, Denver Post

Orphaned at birth, Eliza Sommers is raised in the British colony of ValparaIso, Chile, by the well-intentioned Victorian spinster Miss Rose and her more rigid brother Jeremy. Just as she meets and falls in love with the wildly inappropriate JoaquIn Andieta, a lowly clerk who works for Jeremy, gold is discovered in the hills of northern California. By 1849, Chileans of every stripe have fallen prey to feverish dreams of wealth. JoaquIn takes off for San Francisco to seek his fortune, and Eliza, pregnant with his child, decides to follow him. So begins Isabel Allende's enchanting new novel, Daughter of Fortune, her most ambitious work of fiction yet. As we follow her spirited heroine on a perilous journey north in the hold of a ship to the rough-and-tumble world of San Francisco and northern California, we enter a world whose newly arrived inhabitants are driven mad by gold fever. A society of single men and prostitutes among whom Eliza moves--with the help of her good friend and savior, the Chinese doctor Tao Chien--California opens the door to a new life of freedom and independence for the young Chilean. Her search for the elusive JoaquIn gradually turns into another kind of journey that transforms her over time, and what began as a search for love ends up as the conquest of personal freedom. By the time she finally hears news of him, Eliza must decide who her true love really is. Daughter of Fortune is a sweeping portrait of an era, a story rich in character, history, violence, and compassion. In Eliza, Allende has created one of her most appealing heroines, an adventurous, independent-minded, and highly unconventional young woman who has the courage to reinvent herself and to create her own destiny in a new country. A marvel of storytelling, Daughter of Fortune confirms once again Isabel Allende's extraordinary gift for fiction and her place as one of the world's leading writers.

Here are the questions discussed, Wednesday, July 27, 2016:

• Any confusion we need to clear up with the story? Why? Why not?
• There are a lot of facts in this book? Did you believe them? Why? Why not? If you did what did these many facts add to the story?
• Other than our protagonist, who was your favorite character? Why? Who, not so much?
• Did you believe the refrigerated ship thing? Did it matter whether you believed it?
• What story is the author trying to tell? Why did the author write this book? What did you think about the overheated, desperate search for lost love?
• What about the ending?
• What happened to Miss Rose? Why didn’t the author try to reach resolution there?
• What did you learn from Tao Chi’en?
• What is the best part of this book/the worst?
• What did you like/not like about her writing style and the structure of the novel? Why?
• Do you have any questions you would like to ask the group?

"The Klamath Knot represents the rare blend of hard science of the world we can observe and measure with that of the world we can only imagine or dream.[…He] introduces us to rock, primal ooze, water, and ultimately life. […] A truly magical and diverse region along the California and Oregon border that stretches from the Rogue River south to the Eel River. A place that is home to old growth forests, runs of salmon and steelhead, and high deserts. [He] takes us into some of the more remote places of the Klamath and masterfully focuses on the biological importance of each ecosystem."—Michael Kaufmann— Goodreads.com [original pub. 1983; epilogue added]

Winner of the John Burroughs Medal for Nature Writing, the Commonwealth Club Silver Medal for Literature 1984, and named one of the twentieth century's best nonfiction books by the San Francisco Chronicle, The Klamath Knot, originally published by Sierra Club Books in 1983, is a personal vision of wilderness in the Klamath Mountains of northwest California and southwest Oregon, seen through the lens of "evolutionary mythology." David Rains Wallace uses his explorations of the diverse ecosystems in this region to ponder the role of evolution and myth in our culture. The author's new epilogue makes a case for the creation of a new park to safeguard this exceptionally rich storehouse of relict species and evolutionary stories, which has largely been bypassed by conservationists since John Muir.

Here are the questions we discussed, Wednesday, August 24, 2016.

• What was the best part of the book? What not so much?
• Who is the audience for this book?
• What was the reason he picked the Klamath region?
• What did you think of his talk of “Bigfoot”? Did it move his theses forward? Why, why not?
• What did you think about his referring to evolution as a myth?
• Could you follow his explanations through the various environments? If so, why? If not, what was missing?
• What is one thing that would have made this book better?
• Is this book sad? Why? Why not?
• What did you like/not like about his writing style and the structure of the book? Why?
• Do you have any questions you would like to ask the group?

“[Her] real subject involves her Pueblo heritage, but it is not limited to that. What really seems to interest & concern her is the survival of that heritage in the twentieth-century American world that surrounds and contains that heritage in usually destructive & often mindless […]ways. [It], is in no sense a nostalgic celebration of the “old ways,” though some of its characters are governed by such feelings. […I]t questions not only the modern world but the old ways themselves in such a manner that her Pueblo heritage becomes a highly dramatic aspect of the book as a whole […]. ”— C. W. Truesdale, North Dakota Quarterly

Tayo, a young Native American, has been a prisoner of the Japanese during World War II, and the horrors of captivity have almost eroded his will to survive. His return to the Laguna Pueblo reservation only increases his feeling of estrangement and alienation. While other returning soldiers find easy refuge in alcohol and senseless violence, Tayo searches for another kind of comfort and resolution. Tayo's quest leads him back to the Indian past and its traditions, to beliefs about witchcraft and evil, and to the ancient stories of his people. The search itself becomes a ritual, a curative ceremony that defeats the most virulent of afflictions—despair.

Here are the questions discussed on September 28, 2016.
• What is this book about? What is the ceremony?
• What function did the passages that were centered on the page and sort of looked like poetry serve in this book?
• At what point were you drawn into the story?
• How did you interpret the “magical realism”? Did you interpret some of this as post-traumatic stress syndrome? Why? Is Montaño or Ts’eh a flesh and bone person or just something in Tayo’s imagination?
• What did you think about the author’s female characters? Why do you think the author did this?
• What did Grandma add to this book?
• What cultural differences from the dominant Indo/European heritage American did you observe in the characters?
• What ideas from the native American culture are intriguing for you?
• What happened in the end and what did it mean?
• What did you like/not like about her writing style and the structure of the book? Why?
• Do you have any questions you would like to ask the group?

“...[T]his is the first biography of a man whose landmark case challenging the wartime incarceration of Japanese Americans is taught in every law school. [He…] was an ordinary man who took an extraordinary stand […]. Bannai [...] was part of the original legal team that pursued the seemingly quixotic goal of overturning Fred’s wartime conviction four decades later. [...S]he skillfully weaves the story of the landmark court case with Fred’s personal journey. Her […] view is valuable not only in analyzing the complex legal issues, but also in providing insight into the Japanese-American community and the personal and political forces that motivated […him] throughout his life.”—Elaine Elinson, Los Angeles Review of Books

Fred Korematsu's decision to resist F.D.R.'s Executive Order 9066, which provided authority for the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II, was initially the case of a young man following his heart: he wanted to remain in California with his white fiancée. However, he quickly came to realize that it was more than just a personal choice; it was a matter of basic human rights. After refusing to leave for incarceration when ordered, Korematsu was eventually arrested and convicted of a federal crime before being sent to the internment camp at Topaz, Utah. He appealed his conviction to the Supreme Court, which, in one of the most infamous cases in American legal history, upheld the wartime orders. Forty years later, in the early 1980s, a team of young attorneys resurrected Korematsu's case. This time, Korematsu was victorious, and his conviction was overturned, helping to pave the way for Japanese American redress. Lorraine Bannai, who was a young attorney on that legal team, combines insider knowledge of the case with extensive archival research, personal letters, and unprecedented access to Korematsu his family, and close friends. She uncovers the inspiring story of a humble, soft-spoken man who fought tirelessly against human rights abuses long after he was exonerated. In 1998, President Bill Clinton awarded Korematsu the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Here are the questions discussed on Wednesday, October 26, 2016:
• Why did the author refer to herself as Lori in the book and Lorraine as the author?
• Why were there so many footnotes?
• At what point were you drawn into the story?
• Was there any part of the story that you felt might be missing? What?
• Was there any part of the story you didn’t understand?
• Why wasn’t the author more personal in her approach to writing the book?
• Was this book written for a popular or scholarly audience?
• What was the most shocking part of this story for you?
• What happened in the end and what did it mean? What did you think about her cautionary tale? Did the court cases work?
• What did you like/not like about her writing style and the structure of the book? Why?
• Do you have any questions you would like to ask the group?

“Don Usner spent the early 1990s photographing the elders of his community and gatherings stories. [...]Sabino’s map was a piece of folk art[…], a ‘picture that matched [Sabino’s] mental image of the old plaza where he grew up in the early decades of the twentieth century.’ When the viejitos were presented with a copy of the map, the treasure houses of memory, story, and imagination were opened to [him ...] This is a rare work of fluid, storytelling scholarship. [He] has tracked the history of the plaza and its people through historical documents […] also old photographs, letters, & notes. And he listened — carefully, and patiently.”— Paula Panich, The Literary Gardener.com

Sabino's Map: Life in Chimayo's Old Plaza recounts and celebrates the history of the Plaza del Cerro, the only fully intact colonial plaza remaining in New Mexico. With its lively oral histories and rare historical photographs, Sabino's Map is the first in-depth look at perhaps the best known Hispanic village in the American Southwest.Sabino's Map provides a thorough cultural history of Chimayo, from pre-historic settlements to the current struggles of an isolated community in a modern and changing world. Through historical photographs, collections of documents preserved by author's family, and from the words and memories of the people who live there, Usner evokes a poignant sense of the colorful people who remember and continue to make the history of the Plaza del Cerro.

Here are the questions discussed on November 30, 2016:
• What is this book about?
• What did you make of the chapter about all the families on the plaza and their relationship to each other?
• Did the “poems” at the beginning of each chapter help you understand? Why? Why not? Did you like them? Why? Why not?
• What new facts did you learn that surprised you?
• Was there any part of the story you didn’t understand?
• Were you disillusioned or uplifted by the book? Why? Why not?
• What audience was this book written for?
• Is this type of story one that only gets told in New Mexico? Why? Why not?
• What did you like/not like about his writing style and the structure of the book? Why?
• Does this story relate to other stories of the same time period? Other places? Examples?
• Do you have any questions you would like to ask the group?

“[The book] plunges into the contemporary American West with quiet confidence and a shimmer of magic. [...He] paints a vibrant picture of the West that layers itself subtly but assertively over the prevailing mythos of the lonely white cowboy.[...]His stories may be contemporary, but they have a mythic, romantic, timeless quality, setting people against backdrops that melt seamlessly into wilderness, both physical and spiritual.[...] Many of the stories here pivot on encounters with animals and spirits in ways that reveal tender, intricate textures, suspended in shifting terrain between the solid and the surreal.” — Steph Cha, Los Angeles Times

A new collection of stories set in the West from "one of the most gifted and versatile of contemporary writers" (NPR) Percival Everett's long-awaited new collection of stories, his first since 2004'sDamned If I Do, finds him traversing the West with characteristic restlessness. A deaf Native American girl wanders off into the desert and is found untouched in a den of rattlesnakes. A young boy copes with the death of his sister by angling for an unnaturally large trout in the creek where she drowned. An old woman rides her horse into a mountain snowstorm and sees a long-dead beloved dog. For the plainspoken men and women of these stories—fathers and daughters, sheriffs and veterinarians—small events trigger sudden shifts in which the ordinary becomes unfamiliar. A harmless comment about how to ride a horse changes the course of a relationship, a snakebite gives rise to hallucinations, and the hunt for a missing man reveals his uncanny resemblance to an actor.Half an Inch of Water tears through the fabric of the everyday to examine what lies beneath the surface of these lives. In the hands of master storyteller Everett, the act of questioning leads to vistas more strange and unsettling than could ever have been expected.

Here are the questions which were discussed on Wednesday, December 21, 2016:

• What is the author trying to tell us generally in this book?
• How did you deal with all the fantastical elements?
• "Little Faith" What did you think about the twist in the story? What could you learn from that? What did the end have to do with the beginning?
• "Stonefly" Is this a simple story? Why? Why not?
• "A High Lake" Why another vision here? Why the repeated visions throughout each story?
• How do the visions contrast with his very straightforward land and character descriptions?
• "Exposure" Is this story straight forward?
• What did you think about the order of the stories? About their relationship to each other?
• "Wrong Lead" Did this story disappoint? Why? Why not?
• "The Day Comes" Did you have to know the first part of the story to understand the second part of the story?
• "Finding Billy White Feather" Was the ending enough? Is this a symbolic story?
• "Liquid Glass" What? How do you explain this story? What are we learning?
• "Graham Green" Why is it titled that, i.e., the name of a famous author or the actor? Is there redemption in this story? Solace?
• Do you want to read more of this author’s works? Why? Why not?
• What did you like/not like about the book?
• Do you have any questions you would like to ask the group?