Books on the Menu

A Star Called Henry. Roddy Doyle. Ireland

@brittarnhild

In October we spent some days in Dublin. Ireland is known for its rich litterature, I already have quite a few books by Irish authors in my shelves and read a few of them before our visit. During our days in Dublin I visited several bookstores, always looking for books by Irish writers, and it was in one of these I found, and bought A Star Called Henry. When I started my Visiting the world through books - project, Doyle´s book was already on my reading ttable, in my tbr-pile, so it was an easy choice to pick it as one of the first books in this project.

A Star Called Henry is the first in a triology about the history of Ireland. It tells the tale of Henry Smart from his birth in Dublin in 1902 and until Henry turns 20. When the book came in 2000 it soon found its way to the New York Time bestseller list and both because of this book and others, Doyle has been called a genius.

Well, I have read the book now, and must confess I found it kind of a struggle to come through. I do know quite a lot more about Irish hostory now, but I am not going to read the other books in the series. Though I am sure I will read more Roddy Doyle.

The photos are from our visit in Dublin

 

A friend in a throusand, Pratibha S. Manaen. Nepal.

@brittarnhild

A couple of years ago I spent a couple of weeks in Nepal. During my stay I met Pratibha S. Manaen, a young woman struggling for justice for girls. One of her ways of working is through writing books, her first novel "A friend in a thousand" which came in 2013, is my choice for Nepal.

The book tells the tale of Manushi, a girl growing up in a little mountain village near the Himalayas, trying to find her name and her voice in a land where men domains. The author worked for many years for the International Nepal Fellowship. Through her job she travelled to remote parts of Nepal, and girls and young woman she met on her travels, inspired her to write this book. She has a beed knowledge about her land and its people, and the book doesn´t only tell the tale of Manushi, but also of a whole country.

I met many girl´s tales during my visit, and after I came home I have, though the organisation HimalPartner, tried to help the best I can from my corner of the world, to give girls in Nepal a better future. Pratibha S. Manaen is fighting her struggle from inside and has set up the Manushi Fundation to bring hope and light into the dark world and ignorance that many girls and women in rural Nepal still face today. The name Manushi in Sanskrit means woman. All proceeds from A friend in a thousand will go to the Manushi Foundation.

The last photo shows Pratibha and Mirjam Bergh in their home in Pokhara in Nepal.

If you are interested in the book, you can contact the writer at:
[email protected]

 

 

Sea of Poppies, Amitav Ghosh. India

@brittarnhild

It is almost two weeks since I read the first pages of Sea of Poppies, it is almost two minutes since I read the last one. The first thing coming to my mind is that reading my way through all the countries in the world is going to take a long, long time. Not all books will take as long as this one, others will probably take longer. But this only strengthen my resolution. This is something I want to do! The second thing coming to my mind is that reading one book creates a million new threads, and how will I be able to resist the temptation of following them all. Take Sea of Poppies and India for example. Sea of Poppies is the first of a triology, and now there is no way I can skip the two following ones, is it? I already have them in my shelves, and not only the triology, I also have a couple of other books by Amitav Ghosh. Now I want to read them as well. Then there are all the other unread books from India I already have, and then all those read and mentioned by you. I make a list of them all, and my list is getting longer by every day.

Well, the million threads and my wish to follow them all, only add to the fun of this project.

The first thing I will do after finishing this blog post, and a similar one in Norwegian for Med bøker på menyen, is to start making and posting a few lists. Ann Morgan has already made a list of all countries in the world and suggestings of books from them. I will use her list, but I am also going to make my own. And I am going to ask you to help me to add titles, which will be another list.

And as always, I will keep the facebook page updated.

 

By the way, next country out is Nepal, but that´s something I will write about in another post.

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The photos today are all from my trip to India in 2008.

 

 

 

 

First out - India

@brittarnhild

I could not wait till the new year to start. As soon as I had written the previous post, about Ann Morgan and her A Year of Reading the World, I knew I had to start my own project. Not a year on reading the world, that would never do, but Years on Reading the World.

To start with India was an easy choice. For many years I have been corresponding with Carolyn in Mysore, a woman the same age as my mother. For years she asked me if I would come to India for a visit, and in 2008, the year I turned 50, I decided to give myself a very special birthday present - three weeks in India. Since then I have been back once more, this time also to Mysore and Bengalore.

My two visits to India has given me a little peak into a land, a people, a culture, very different from the life I live here in Norway. Staying with friends meant that I met locals, though it must be said that it was locals from the middle class, in a big house with a wonderful garden, with servants.......all in all a good and easy life, as far as I could see from outside.

Before my first trip, while I was there, and also the years since I fell in love with India for the first time, I have read quite a few books from the area. My "Mother India", Carolyn, has over the years been a great source on literature for me, and it was during a lunch we had with some of her friends the first time I visited, that Amitav Ghosh and his Sea of Poppies was mentioned. The book was quite new then, and the women were discussing it. Some had already read it, others had not. Curiosity got me, I bought the book and on my next visit, a few years later, I bought the other two in the triology.

I did start the book, but never got into it, so for some years it has been in my shelves, waiting for the right moment. And it looks like the right moment is now!

 I am about to finish the first book in this project, and I know where to travel next.

 

 

 

 

 

Reading the World

@brittarnhild

A facebook friend shared a link today to the tale of Ann Morgan, who during one year read a book from every country in the world. Tales like this inspires me, this is really something I would love to do. A year might be too short a time, I don´t think I will set a time limit.......but starting in January, or may be starting already now.......I am planning to read one or more books from every country in the world. And I will update you here on Books on the Menu.

The first one on my list is a book I bought several years ago, on a trip to India; Sea of Poppies by Amitav Ghosh.

 

 

Here is a link to Ann Morgan´s blog:
A Year of Reading the World.

 

Photo: me in Ethiopia, reading a book about Dervla Murphy´s Ethiopian adventure.