Category Archives: book reviews

The Monday Book – The Sleepwalker’s Guide to Dancing by Mira Jacob

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Guest review by Janelle Bailey, retired Literature teacher.

I obtained this book quite a while ago after first being introduced to Mira Jacob when I read her Good Talk. Reading Kristen Radtke’s Seek You recently  reminded me of Jacob’s Good Talk, and I realized, then, that I had not yet read this older of Jacob’s books. So I packed it up as a treasure to enjoy on a recent vacation. And I am not all sorry to have done so or spent that beach time with these characters and their stories.

This novel provides engagement with and a thoughtful introduction to an Indian-American family and the people, history, culture, and stories connected to them. These characters are complex and interesting and thus present worthwhile story and themes as well. It seems that many immigrants to this country navigating the language, culture, traditions, reception of them, etc. may see themselves reflected, and those of us whose experiences have not been similar can certainly learn from and perhaps empathize with others we meet who have traveled this route. Additionally, these characters face many realities and issues that exist for many if not all—not only immigrants—such as work/life balance, insomnia(?!), marriage, religion, family, tragedy, childrearing, illness and wellness (physical and mental, both), many relatable for lots of us.

Thomas and his wife Kamala, along with their children, son Akhil and daughter Amina, navigate this cross-country/cross-cultural existence in the 1970s-1990s, as they raise their family in New Mexico—and at a great distance from some of their family in India. The story alternates between the most recent events—somewhat bizarre—affecting them and the past twenty years of their own American lives and history. And sometimes understanding what is “real” or true is a challenge for all involved, including the reader.

This is truly a thoughtful and engaging read on a number of levels and with the rich characterization and those thoughtful, thought-filled “layers” of value and meaning that I find only in the very best books.

The Sleepwalker’s Guide to Dancing is nothing like Jacob’s Good Talk, at least not in form–that a graphic collage and this a traditional novel—but I very much enjoyed this book of hers as well. Clearly she is a talented writer and mixed media artist, both.

Monday Book – The Da Vinci Code (Dan Brown)

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This week’s guest reviewer is Wendy’s husband Jack Beck –

As Wendy was completing her best-selling memoir The Little Bookstore of Big Stone Gap, we took a road trip through seven states visiting other small used-book stores. We took recorded books with us to listen to on the way and one was Brown’s most famous novel.

I think we had already seen the movie, so this was mostly to ‘compare and contrast’. 

I had already toured the south of France a number of times with my folk band ‘Heritage’ and was familiar with the Cathar and Knights Templar history of the region. Also, Wendy and I had visited Rosslyn Chapel a few times, so we knew the Holy Grail legends as well.

Of course the central part of Brown’s book concerns the legends about Jesus and Mary Magdalene having a child and that family line continuing to the present.

We both thought that the mystery and adventure thread throughout the book worked well and we were prepared to go along with the various questionable historical assumptions that Brown incorporated, even those that had excited people about Jesus having sex and such.

That was until the ending –

I mentioned above that we had visited Rosslyn Chapel and so we are familiar with the caretaker’s house that sits alongside it. Remember also that the site is just outside Edinburgh in the east of Scotland. 

Towards the end of the book Robert Langdon and Sophie Neveu knock at the caretaker’s house and she opens the screen door – we both shrieked! No one in Scotland has a screen door – least of all near the North Sea! Then she offers them coffee – we shrieked again! Nobody in Scotland drinks coffee – they drink tea. That’s when we stopped listening!

As a footnote – The last time I visited Rosslyn Chapel, as the leader of a small group tour of Scotland, I sat inside as a chapel guide addressed us and various other tourists. Her address covered the history of the building and the family that built and still own it. I could sense a growing impatience as she neared the end and finally she said “I know, I know – you want to know what’s buried below the floor and whether it’s the Holy Grail”. She continued “The best theory I’ve heard is that it’s Elvis Presley”.

However, this is meant to be a book review. As long as you understand that it’s a novel and not intended to be taken as historical fact, then you will be carried along by the excitement of the chase and the unexpected twists.