Construct 11 Part 1 by Anna Lynn Miller

I have had the pleasure of meeting Anna Lynn Miller which always adds an element of interest to a read. 

This book reminded me a bit of 1984 by George Orwell and Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, although I read these about a couple decades ago so I'm not entirely sure that any comparison is valid. The book describes a futuristic society which is tightly controlled and regimented by a strict code of laws and traditions which are enforced and upheld by a small group of leaders and enforcers.The primary character, seventeen year old "Daniel" undergoes a series of events and conversations that begin to erode his beliefs in the virtue of the system he has been raised in. 

The story is a good read and I found myself definitely drawn into the story and curious about the core characters who are well developed. My favorite thing about this story is that it's an excellent parody of a society's attempt to hyper regulate and control its subjects by using tattle tale techniques, cruel punishment, and controlling of information through propaganda which masks human rights crimes as necessary steps "for the common good." 

This story manages to convey a message in an entertaining way. I will definitely read Construct 11 Part 2. I want to find out the fate of Daniel and his fellow "beings."

Sun and Moon Ice and Snow by Jessica Day George

Wow, I like this cover better than the one on my book  The girl on the cover of my book looks affected and too much like Barbie. Sorry Barbie. Sorry thin, tall, blond girls everywhere with classically uniform facial features and non child bearing hips. 

I needed something light for our camping trip and so my daughter loaned me this book from her collection. This was such a nice reprieve from the mission era research I've been doing. It's also been dawning on me lately that I'm increasingly fascinated with norse, nordic, scandinavian stuff. 

This is kind of like celtic I guess. It seems to cross geographic boundaries. Last summer our kids attended a Norwegian themed vbs. It was so cool - no pun intended. I learned about the sami people of northern Scandinavia and this fired my imagination. Recently I watched the movie The Last King, which I dub "braveheart on skis." The film is in Norwegian but combines actors from different Scandinavian countries and Hungary I believe. I loved it!!!!! (see my profile for disclaimer about love and exclamation points.)

But I digress. Jessica Day George rocks. She has made this ancient fairy tale into an accessible read for people of all ages. It was a very entertaining flashlight in tent read for me. I love the word isbjorn. If you don't know what an isbjorn is, well, read the book!

"When I meet a woman who will walk alongside me and not behind" Louis L'amour (paraphrased)

I guess I can't get away from Louis L'amour. When I want to choose an audio book to listen to hither and yon while I'm driving around, it's easy to choose something that I've read probably at least twice already. This jumped out at me, because I'm currently on a mission era Southern California history rampage and Louis L'amour does a great job of weaving this story in with some very accurate historical facts. He even refers to such actual characters as Pico Pio and Don Abel Stearns. (btw I believe my great great grandmother tutored or worked in the home of Abel Stearns the famed merchant in the pueblo of Los Angeles at some point before marrying the patriarch. Forgive me, he wasn't a patrarch yet.) Sorry, I can't resist name dropping and inserting my own relatives into these narratives. However Anna O'Keefe, Irish ancestor who sailed solo from Ireland and then around the horn to join her sister in California was one plucky gal. 

Back to Louis: The story is set in Malibu which in this story is the ranch headquarters of a proud Irish widow and her two sons. The plot involves some scoundrels who want the ranch which is in debt. It involves a Spanish girl escaping from an arranged marriage and being rescued by the widow's son. No one calls her the widow. They call her the Senora. She's all business and beauty too of course. There is a wild goose chase through the mountains back of Malibu led by a mysterious Native American who may have time traveled and is one of "The ones who were here before." 

Louis L'amour has a few books where he includes a more mystical angle. I have read Haunted Mesa and it is a bit similar to this one, in that it alludes to a parallel world where some natives travel back and forth. 

Well, predictably, the hero gets the girl and the gold with great dignity and manages to save the ranch. L'amour artfully educates the reader about some native american culture, the Californios culture (with its unique blend of Spanish/Mexican/native/some anglo culture, and the incoming tide of the industrious United States. I appreciate his descriptions of flora and fauna in this one. 

Oh why the heading? Well, Louis L'amour has some expressions that he must use in multiple books, because when he started in on this one, I found myself saying it out loud with the reader who did a great job btw. I can't remember his name but he was switching off between irish, spanish, and native accents and made it sound easy,

more notes from the Ramonaphile

This is a more recent publication (2005). I believe it was the author's doctoral thesis and it reads as such. You can tell when a person has padded their points with tons of references and facts that it's a scholarly project. That's fine. I like scholars. I wish Dydia would have inserted a little more of her thoughts into the text, but I understand why she wouldn't have in this case.

This is an account of how Ramona shaped tourism in southern California. It's pretty interesting. It highlights all the speculating folks did about what/who were the real Ramona people and places. Some people around the turn of the century really tried to maximize on people's interest and turn a profit by claiming that such and such a place was "Ramona's wedding site," and such forth. 

I love the pictures she inserted of various "Ramona" brands of olive oil and other products that appeared. she also has some of the original illustrator Henry Sandham's lovely pictures that accompanied the book. It would be fun to get a hold of some of those prints. 

She does confess in the thanks at the end. Forgive me, I already returned this book to the library, but that she and her husband shared their first kiss at a Ramona place. Darnit, I don't remember whether it was the wedding site or some other place, but I thought that was sweet. It shows her affection for the story, apart from her intellectual project. However now I must wonder. Was the kiss spontaneous, or did they stage it? Hmm. That definitely detracts from the romance.

We actually drove by Rancho Camulos - supposed basis for the beginning scenes of Ramona. Unfortunately the museum was closed, but I was pretty enamored. It was a charmer, and right off the 126. 

California Rancho Days and a strange congruence

I should be dusting and vacuuming up giant dog hair dust devils. That is not the congruence.

The congruence is that I'm working on an abridged version of Ramona by Helen Hunt Jackson see previous post), preparing to go see the pageant, reading about the author and some literary criticism AND my daughter is doing her fourth grade project on the California Missions.

Dear Reader, I will exempt you from sharing my glee. But there it is: serendipitous marvelous congruence. 

I quell my enthusiasm as my daughter looks at the project with some indifference. I try to soften my squeals of sheer delight. "Please pick Mission San BuenaVentura." I plead. (It's the one near Rancho Camulos - original supposed inspiration for Ramona's upbringing.)

  She shrugs. "Sure."

   "Yes!" I shout. (internally) 

   These are the things that tickle my fancy.

   And.... We just happen to be camping in Carpinteria - near the mission next week end! Another delightful coincidence. Of course we will stop. We must! 

Oh the book! Published in 1957. This is a nostalgic look at the laid back days of the Californios. When Mexico was called New Spain, many of the soldiers and some others who helped the Spaniards explore California were given tracts of land. They wished to stay in California and became the first rancheros. After Mexico declared its independence (1822), the missions were secularized and the rancheros acquired even more land and cattle ushering in "the golden era" of the rancheros. (Ranchos went from being about 20 to being hundreds). The "golden age" would last about 15 years until the industrious Americans moved in and took over both politically and industrially. The gold rush dramatically changed the cultural landscape of fair California. 

The Author tells stories about the prominent ranchos and their founders. The short stories are full of anecdotes and tales describing the carefree and happy lives of the Spanish/Mexican rancheros and their families. (Some of them were anglos who deeply inculterated like my Yankee ancestor Julian Ames who married a Spanish daughter and became catholic.) The living was easy and gaiety and hospitality were the rule of the day. It seems this was made possible by the serfdom of many local native tribes. The author glosses over this and focuses her description on the class that conquered. It seems the hard work was done by the aforementioned. In return they received food, shelter, and clothing.

   

I have no doubt that there may have been incidents of happiness and mutual affection between the races. Helen Hunt Jackson demonizes some white Americans who moved in and further marginalized an already repressed people group. I haven't done enough research myself on this particular era to do anything but speculate about this period from the native perspective. It is pretty well known that their numbers were decimated by the influx of European diseases.

Nonetheless, I enjoyed the descriptions of the rancheros - their lavish clothing, way of life, and generous gallantry. I love everything southwestern. I adore mission architecture and adobe structures (my dream house is an adobe on a mesa somewhere). It's a heritage that brought us vaqueros, rodeos, fandangos, riatas - it shaped the cowboy/ranch culture that I grew up in a great deal. These were the predecessors to my own ranching ancestors (the industrious Germans/Scots/Irish who swept into California in the latter part of the 1800s and tamed the more arid interior of California.