Book of the Day Roundup: December 4-8, 2023
Rowing to Baikal
Sixty Days on Mongolia’s Selenge River
Peter W. Fong
Latah Books
Softcover $19.95 (284pp)
978-1-957607-22-1
Buy: Local Bookstore (Bookshop), Amazon
Peter W. Fong’s Rowing to Baikal covers his rowing trip down the Selenge River, from its headwaters in Mongolia to Lake Baikal in Russia. Along the way, he assesses the health of the river’s ecosystem and the potential impact of development.
As a fishing guide in Mongolia, Fong developed deep concern for the region, in particular given talk of constructing hydroelectric dams. He spearheaded the first international scientific expedition to document the river’s conditions. Over the course of sixty days, he faced challenges posed by volatile weather, limited information, and governmental restrictions; the researchers adapted to the conditions and considered how the data they collected might be used to impact policies and the environment. He had a rotating cast of team members, language barriers, and logistical complications too. Still, he covered 1,500 miles, including travel by horse, camel, kayak, and rowboat along and across the Mongolian-Russian border.
Amid descriptions of the team’s daily fishing, rowing, and data collection efforts, Fong reflects on the region’s physical beauty as well as Mongolian and Buryat culture, traditions, and history. He details the fish (including the planet’s largest and oldest species of salmonid, the endangered taimen), shorebirds, and insects, noting their migration patterns. His observations foster an appreciation for geological phenomena, flora, and fauna and what they reveal about the health of the ecosystem.
The book references statistics, studies, and efforts by nongovernmental organizations, activists, and governmental bodies to protect this environment while addressing competing needs. It conveys the importance of understanding history and local culture to weigh longer-term economic and ecological prospects against short-term needs. Quotes from philosophers, literature, and history flesh out this account of Fong’s fieldwork.
Rowing to Baikal is a contemplative study of the Selenge River and the people and species living along its waters and banks.
WENDY HINMAN (October 27, 2023)
The Lost Art of Silence
Reconnecting to the Power and Beauty of Quiet
Sarah Anderson
Shambhala Publications
Softcover $21.95 (304pp)
978-1-64547-216-2
Buy: Local Bookstore (Bookshop), Amazon
Sarah Anderson’s spiritual text The Lost Art of Silence explores the power of silence throughout history as seen in art, literature, nature, and war.
Covering the nooks and crannies of human history, the book tells the tales of people who had prominent—and sometimes strange—relationships with silence. In the 1860s, a man wrote angry letters to newspapers complaining about the noise of street performers in London. Multiple women wrote accounts of extended periods of silence—one, a day per week; another, six entire months in protest of climate change—and found it therapeutic, despite the annoyance and disapproval of the people who tried to talk to them. A journalist who was shot and left for dead in Saudi Arabia in 2004 viewed the immediate silence after the attack as a blessing: no screaming, no crying, no approaching footsteps. References to literature also wend in.
Woven between historical records of Buddhist monks and reclusive artists are Anderson’s personal experiences with deep silence—during a trip to Antarctica, on a trek in Siberia, and during the quarantine days of COVID-19. About those isolating days in 2020, Anderson writes “But silence has to be chosen, not imposed by social isolation, something that can make it feel bleak and disorienting.” That is the biggest takeaway from the work: that silence is important to personal growth, but only if a person is a willing participant. Solitary confinement, hearing loss, and tinnitus can have the opposite effect, Anderson notes.
The spiritual book The Lost Art of Silence explores the facets and values of silence in a noisy world.
ASHLEY HOLSTROM (October 27, 2023)
The Bridesman
Savyon Leibrecht
Gilah Kahn-Hoffmann, translator
Europa Editions
Softcover $18.00 (160pp)
978-1-60945-986-4
Buy: Amazon
In Savyon Leibrecht’s novel The Bridesman, an Iranian Israeli family is changed by the arrival of a new bride.
Micha was just nine years old when his elders embarked on an impossible quest to find a suitable bride for his Uncle Moshe. They settled for Adella, a headstrong young orphan whom everyone but Moshe and Micha disapproves of. After a brief acquaintance and a longer separation, Micha returns to Israel at Adella’s request. He finds her more changed than he could have ever imagined, and he ends up uncovering a dark secret at the heart of his family’s story.
Micha’s return to Israel after decades abroad comes as a culture shock, with once-familiar faces and language more foreign than the United States, his adopted country. Adella—now Adel, a sought-after designer—tells him of the sweet and unlikely romance between herself and Moshe, a mentally disabled man twice her age. Through grit and determination, she built an independent life for the two of them, away from the relatives who manipulated and undervalued Moshe his entire life. Her tale inspires, even as it raises questions of how far she was willing to go to achieve her happy ending.
Still, though Adella cherishes her memories of young Micha, he has not thought of her in decades. It becomes apparent that Adella knows more about Micha’s family than he does. All the while, the question of why Adella asked him to visit hovers over their interactions. Only after an abrupt dismissal does Micha recognize what she did not (or could not) say. Though horrifying, the revelation seems set to play little role in their futures, which were set long ago by actions beyond their control.
The Bridesman is a novel about the price of finding one’s own place in the world.
EILEEN GONZALEZ (October 27, 2023)
Paintball with Dragons
Hope Bolinger
Chicken Scratch Books
Softcover $11.99 (240pp)
978-1-953743-28-2
Buy: Local Bookstore (Bookshop), Amazon
In Hope Bolinger’s fantasy novel Paintball with Dragons, a boy begins seeing dragons after the loss of his older brother.
Thirty-six days ago, Mason died in a car accident from which brother Xander and the rest of his family escaped unscathed. Xander suppresses his grief until a large black dragon appears in the hallway of his school, silent and looming. Xander tries to shake the vision of the dragon, but he begins seeing other dragons and similar creatures everywhere. He learns that dragons are real; they hide from humans after centuries of violent clashes and appear to those burdened with grief. However, Xander seems to be the only one aware of them.
In this story about the persistence of grief, the appearance of the dragons seems like a distraction at first. But as Xander researches them, including via a book of folklore that’s given to him as a gift, his attempts to understand the dragons push him to connect with new friends and spread a message of kindness. And there are whimsical narratives connected to the dragons, who are unique and iconic; nestled within the stories of each are lessons that Xander internalizes without realizing it. As Xander learns to lead a thoughtful life post-loss—connecting with his family, finding commonalities with friends, and accepting that he can choose how to react to pain—the dragons transition from scary to humorous. Evocative illustrations further convey the dragons’ spirits and match the lessons.
In the thoughtful novel Paintball with Dragons, a boy reckons with his grief, learning healthy ways of coping—thanks to mythical creatures that only he sees.
JOHN M. MURRAY (October 27, 2023)
I’m Going to be a Princess
Stephanie Taylor
Jade Orlando, illustrator
Nosy Crow
Hardcover $17.99 (32pp)
979-888777034-5
Buy: Local Bookstore (Bookshop), Amazon
A Black girl leaves school one day and announces to her mother that she is going to be a princess; on the way home, her mother offers alternative real-life Black women role models, but Maya will not be swayed. A simple question, however, leads to understanding and a lesson in assumptions. Ballerina Misty Copeland and Olympian Alice Coachman are just two of the women profiled in this picture book about inspirational Black women throughout history and today.
DANIELLE BALLANTYNE (October 27, 2023)
Barbara Hodge
