Tag Archives: children

The Monday Book – Shark Heart: A Love Story by Emily Habeck

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Guest review by Janelle Bailey, avid reader and always learning; sometimes substitute teaching, sometimes grandbabysitting, sometimes selling books

Shark Heart: A Love Story by Emily Habeck

Shark Heart: A Love Story by Emily Habeck

My goal in writing book reviews is to steer additional readers to consider reading the best of the books and/or to engage in conversations about what makes books “good” books. I fully relish the opportunities to discuss books in our book club, as we rarely all agree about books, and no matter what we read, whatever we discuss there is better for the various perspectives reading it.

Shark Heart: A Love Story presents a fairly unusual story, and as it is typically my practice to spoil nothing, to not reveal the biggest things about a book such that it is not how I feel about or interpret them that matters, wishing not to steer or direct another reader’s personal experiences at all, I don’t wish to say too much more about it here.

The format of the novel is also unusual, as it is a collage of short bursts of fiction (but not really “flash fiction,” as I understand it), some playwriting/script, and some few other forms. It’s not 400+ pages full of text. So here’s a deal for anyone wanting to say the have read or read “big books,” who then does not have to work too hard to accomplish that. A little sadly, I also report that I think this unusual format is what is currently most accessible to and most easily digested by the distracted-by-other-stuff readers that we have all become. You can easily get through several pages, for as little as is there, for there not being time to have to go do something else. I do think that anyone listening to the audiobook rather than reading the text will “miss” something about the seemingly intentional white space within.

All of that said, this is a somewhat heartbreaking and somewhat heart- and soul-restoring story, told in layers, of Louis and Wren, who meet and marry in their 30s. It is also the story of Wren’s mother, Angela, whom–we are told over and over–could grow a garden in an eggshell. I think it’s safe to share that something quite rough came Angela’s way when Wren was young, and like many other young people in such circumstances, Wren had to grow up very fast.

It’s never a book’s requirement or responsibility or task to stir response from me as a reader, but this book so very much did. There are many thoughtful beautiful passages. There are some greatly funny moments and scenes. There are layers of reference–second book I’ve read this year! The first was Tom Lake–to Our Town, that old and wonderful, treasure of a favorite play. Additionally, this book understands teachers and values them in ways they will appreciate and which may fulfill them in heart-deep ways. I felt some Mr. Holland’s Opus-like honoring taking place here.

Yep: it’s a tad odd/unusual/weird, this story…some well done magical realism, we mostly agreed at book club…and of a very interesting, perhaps very applicable, figuratively, sort.

Sincerely: I am really glad I read this book, and I look forward to discussing it with any others who have read it. I think it probably reads differently for a variety of readers. I think it is going to win a number of awards, including some for a tremendous debut novel.

Come back next Monday for another book review!

Observations on Humanity While Cruising to Alaska

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Observations from my first cruise:

Going on a cruise is like being in an airport where everyone is going to the same place, so the entire airport’s ticketing desks and security lines are aimed at one single door.

When you get on the ship you have entered a floating airport stacked on top of itself like layers of a wedding cake. Swarovski crystal and duty free shops dominate the lower flowers. There are people everywhere. Most of these people are reallllllly excited to be in this floating airport—which is so big it kinda doesn’t feel like it’s floating. You can’t tell at first, and then you realize, every once in a while, that you are lurching toward a wall for no reason.

Many excited children (350, we would learn later) are in the floating airport. The airport is stacked, not flat, and the things the children want to do are at the top and bottom of the airport. You are going to get a LOT of experience over the coming week at dodging children on the stairs dressed in swimsuits, decked out as fairies and tigers complete with face paint, occasionally appearing in wolf and bear hats once people have visited ports and tourism shops. You will become accustomed to this changing wardrobe and also an expert at dodging the small human bullets of enthusiasm. But be wary: the enthusiastic little critters are followed by large exhausted critters, always holding an open canister of either hot coffee or sticky cocktails with fruit. Do not run into them; they will become angry if the liquid spills, and they are not looking at you; they are looking at the small human bullets ricocheting off the stairs.

The staff on the cruise ship are there to make you happy. This can become frightening. Of the just-under-6K people on the ship, 1,500 of them are staff. They are watching you. They will approach and open or shut windows so you can see better. They wipe wet seats, fogged viewing areas, and their own facial expressions when people start getting grumpy on day three. YOU are the target of their compensated kindness, and they want to make you new drinks, great food, and happy. If you are not happy, more of them will appear. Fake a smile if necessary, and they will dissipate.

If you take an Alaskan cruise going north in September/October, you are basically swimming upstream against every whale in the Pacific. The first day someone sees a whale spout, everyone on the boat will rush to that side of it jockeying for position at the railing.

By day three, someone will glance up from reading their book in a deck chair, yawn, and say “there’s another one.”

All bets are off if it turns out to be an orca. We only saw one of those, as opposed to about a thousand whales, and several groups of dolphins–or maybe porpoises. We weren’t close enough to be introduced properly.

When you pull into a harbor, everything swarms the ship. The seagulls and scua take up residency atop the lifeboats and wait for you to toss them pieces of muffin and toast from your balcony. This is forbidden, but the seagulls know human nature.

The seals and dolphins swim alongside the ship, doing cute things and picking up pieces of muffin and toast from people who overestimate compensating for wind in their trajectory. The people selling tours swarm the dock shouting interesting things you can do. Because the people who have never been on cruises before didn’t know they were supposed to pre-book excursions, they kinda wander ashore looking befuddled and are quickly eaten by the independent tour guides.

Next week we can talk about scenery and stuff.