"Kangaroo" by D.H. Lawrence ***

• Summer Sub Club Read with Beth
• Originally published 1923
• English author
• Autobiographical
• p.19....It was biding its time with a terrible ageless watchfulness, waiting for a far-off end, watching the myriad intruding white men."....the West Australian Moon
•  p.31..."Why don't you see lovely things?     I do, by contrast.".....
• p.33....."When all is said and done, even money is not much good where there is no genuine culture.  Money is a means to rising to a higher, subtler, fuller state of consciousness or nothing.........It has no real magic in Australia."
• p.40..."There their two personalities met and joined, they were one, and pledged to permanent fidelity.  But that part n each of them which did not belong to the other was free from all inquiry or even from knowledge." - interesting marriage idea
• p.87....."It is so aboriginal, out of our ken, and it hangs back so aloof.......Somers always felt he looked at it through a cleft in the atmosphere; as one looks at one of the ugly-faced, distorted aborigines with his wonderful dark eyes that have such an incomprehensible ancient shine in them, across gulfs of unbridged centuries.......you get a sense of subtle, remote, formless beauty more poignant than anything ever experienced before."...about Australia
• p.107...."I'd rather die in a forlorn hope than drag my days out in a forlorn mope."....Love it!
• p.113...."But then he would come to himself and acknowledge that his marriage was the centre of his life the core, the root, however he like to put it: and this other business was the inevitable excursion into his future, into the unknown, onwards, which man by his nature was condemned to make, even if he lost his life a dozen times in it
• p.140....."Somers said it would reach a point of whiteness where the colours would break up, and she'd go out and find pieces of rainbow on the grass and bushes, instead of towels and shirts."....Harriet loved washing linens.......
• p.146..."The Colonies make for outwardness.  Everything is outward--like hollow stalks of corn.  The life makes this inevitable: all that struggle with bush and water and what-not, all th
  e mad struggle with the material necessities and conveniences--the inside soul just withers and goes into the outside and they're all just lusty robust stalks of people."
• Notes:
• For Somers, a dream was basically a fear's last jab, and it meant that the "danger had passed".
• Kangaroo sees himself as a Savior
• Kangaroo sets up an ant analogy for mankind.....I had trouble clearly understanding it....
• Review:   I would have to say that this is my least favorite D.H. Lawrence to date.  It is really more of a philosophical treatise on man's relationship to man and country than a novel.  Apparently it is strongly autobiographical.  The part I found most interesting was the period when the protagonist/Lawrence was found unfit to serve during WWI, yet was watched and suspected of being a spy making he and his wife feel unwelcome.  Those experiences flavored his time in Australia.  His descriptions of the coast and the outback of the country are lovely.  Clearly Lawrence struggled profoundly regarding the nature of his connection to other individuals and to society.  I am not sure he resolved the issues in the writing of this novel, rather he seemed to clarify the dilemma.

"The Last Judgement" by Iain Pears ****

• Audiobook
• #4 in Jonathan Argyle series
• Originally published 1999
• Englsh author
• Review:   A very enjoyable art history murder mystery!  Jonathan Argyll and his lady love, Flavia, of the Art Police in Rome move between London, Paris, and Rome to solve the case.  Fast-paced, betrayal and double crosses that have reached past the WWII era and French Resistance movement to present day lead them a chase.  Good read!

"And The Mountains Echoed" by Khaled Hosseini. ***

• Audiobook
• Originally Published in 2013
• Afghani author
• Review:  Frankly, I was disappointed in this novel.  Set in Afghanistan, this is a saga across generations.  Initially powerful and engaging, I did not think the cross generational method worked well, seeming to lose momentum.

"The Snow Child" by Eowyn Ivey ****

• US author
• Originally published in 2012
• Set in 1920s Alaska
• Summer Sub Club with Beth
• Review: Imagine the cold and isolation of an Alaskan winter.  Add to that a strong dose of loss.  Depressed yet?  don't be, because out of the morass of darkness comes a lovely story about choosing to survive, choosing to suspend logic, about choosing to believe that there are mysteries in life which defy explanation.  Fairy tale or reality?  It doesn't matter to Mabel, Jack, Garrett, Esther and George.  It certainly doesn't matter to Faina, the beloved and lovely snow child.  This is a delightful and poignant story.

"Day After Night" by Anita Diamant ****

• Book Club selection...July 2013
• USA author
• Originally published in 2009
• Epigraph:  "Know that every human being must cross a very narrow bridge.  What is most important is not to be overcome by fear." - Rebbe Nachman of Bratslav, 1772-1810
• Characters: Shayndel (former fighter, Polish Zionist), Tedi (hidden Dutch Jew, magical scents), Leonie (French, former prostitute), Zorah 9concentration camp survivor)
• Ease with which they kill the former SS member
• Memory as an inescapable enemy
• Review:  Anita Diamant has a notable ability to bring a story alive out of the history books, or Bible in the case of "The Red Tent".  I had never heard about the internment of Jews by the British, and was immediately intrigued with the story.  Diamant's deceptively simple writing style manages to convey deep affect, character development and the emotional energies which work on the psyche of the characters.  The four protagonists have all escaped to Palestine, only one from a concentration camp.  Their experiences and memories, losses, and survivor guilt work on them in differing ways, all of which are powerful.  I think this is a post Holocaust story which is more bearable to read than some others, although clearly shadowed with the horror of Nazi Germany.  Survival, the drive to be free, the desire to love and be loved are such powerful, vital forces!

"Love, Anthony" by Lisa Genova ***

• Audiobook
• USA author
• Originally published 2012
• Review:  A nice book about love, loss, healing and autism.  Nice narration by Debra Messing.

"The Great Gatsby" by F. Scott Fitzgerald *****

• Audiobook, narrated by Jake Gyllenhall
• Originally published in 1925
• USA author
• Review:  Nothing to say that hasn't already been said.  An amazing piece of writing!