Two Books I Recommend to My Daughters

I'm reading a couple books that might interest you.

My friend Lee Upton, a fine poet who teaches at Lafayette College in Pennsylvania, sent me her latest, a novella called The Guide to the Flying Island (Miami UP, 2009). (Lee, I told you that I'd read your book on the shores of the great Tigris River!)

Upton tells the story of Jake Isinglass, a tour guide for a mysterious island off the coast of his hometown. He witnesses a woman falling from the island cliff and strives to solve the mysterious event, discovering (as all worthwhile mysteries reveal) more about himself and his past than about the missing woman. Upton weaves her prose from lovely, startling surprises, those turns-of-phrase and sharp images that reveal her poet's ear and eye. Summer's not over yet, so get a copy and read it on the shore of your favorite body of water.

I found the other book--Helen Zenna Smith's Not So Quiet (The Feminist Press 1989)--in the Morale, Welfare, and Recreation library here at COB Q-West, the shelves of which are jam-full of donated books, some bearing stickers saying such things as "Operation Paperback: Recycled Reading for the Troops."

Smith's is an autobiographically informed novel based on her experiences as a volunteer ambulance driver on the French frontlines during World War I. Originally published in 1930, the book is surprisingly contemporary, revealing Smith's sardonic wit and brave honesty. Not So Quiet (Smith's Western Front being anything but) reverberates with the outraged voice of a veteran, one who despises the empty patriotism of people back home in England and the senseless slaughter of war.

My wife and I have two daughters, Samantha, in her second year of college, and Miranda, a high school senior. They are both fine writers and discerning readers, so when I say that they would love these two books, I mean that anyone who loves a well-told story with ideas that sustain the journey will appreciate The Guide to the Flying Island and Not So Quiet.