See Barbara Scott's review on Book Reporter.

I found this story to be soooo third world, so reminiscent of things that happened to me in Africa and Latin America:

One day a group of men came to the missionary and asked for money to buy a large canoe. He pointed out that they had perfectly good small canoes, but they said the small ones were obviously no good for going out with a large group of people. He said, if you can make a small one, why not just make a big one, but they said "The Piraha do not make large canoes." They asked him to go to a nearby village and buy a large canoe for them. Instead, he engaged the services of a canoe builder from the nearby village to come and teach the Piraha how to make a big canoe. The builder had the Piraha work alongside him until they all knew how the canoe was made and they had their own big canoe. Not long afterwards they came to the missionary and asked him to buy them another big canoe. He said, "But now you can make your own big canoe." The men said, "The Piraha do not make large canoes."

Roberto Bolano is newly the 'it' guy of world literature. In Savage Detectives he takes us on the journey of two failing poets who start in Mexico and end up simply everywhere.

It's a good read, especially for us poets, because we can say "Oh I've gotta be better than those unknowns. They're just all about their particular style and sex!"

We all know some idealistic deranged versifiers like the ones in this book...and yet I found myself rooting for them.

Here's an excerpt from Sarah's review:

Each moment of the CDs is filled with warmth, humor, and a deep connection to those who have come before us. Sightlines is a must-have audio book for anyone who appreciates a good love story with the perfect musical accompaniment!

You'll want to read the entire review, though and see if you agree.

Not only do these tales evoke one childhood, they evoke a time in our nation's history, an artifact of our social justice family system to study and consider, and the tensions inherent in all childhoods---especially all childhoods ruled by what is perhaps excessive structure and rules.

Strangely, though I myself am clearly not an orphan, I often related to the situations Tom and Chris McClarren recount here. One tale I particularly enjoyed was the remembrance of Tom's "bomber jacket." It sharply brought back memories of my own beloved bomber jacket passed down from my brother, no doubt.

One of the things I love and admire is the easy voice of the storyteller which Chris McClarren is able to preserve. This is not an easy thing to do, especially in a collaboration in which "voice" is hitting "paper." This voice on paper provides an essential pleasure in reading these collected tales...in which one tale folds inside another, as is the way with true storytellers.

Her collection, "diary" as she calls it, is a poetic memoir, a memorial to her family and ancestors. Filled with photos that enhance vs. detract, SIGHTLINES will unearth your own memories and stories.

As a writer, it was hard to read as each poem made me run for paper and pencil to jot down a toggled memory of my own.

Click here to read an earlier Riehlife post relating to Dempsey's writing process for "Two Candles."

Ernest Dempsey uses the defining image of light as the threading metaphor through his collection of 74 selected poems contained in 84 pages. Light as an archtypal image is the perfect connecting theme as Dempsey's mind roams classic philosophic territory of good and evil, the state of society through consumption and labeling others, the nature of art and the career of the artist, surfaces and what is not so easily seen. In one so young, it is all the more striking to find such profound exploration and depth in this slim volume published by My Lucky Guitar Press in Australia. The book can be purchased here http://www.lulu.com/content/2464047 ($14.92). Dempsey's previous books of poetry and short stories has been published by Work Audience (www.worldaudience.org).

While formally written in unrhymedverse, still there is something about the somberness of this search for moral principles that reminds me of Victoria poets such as Lord AlfredTennyson, AnneBronte, Rudyard Kipling, and Thomas Hardy writing in the 19th century. Bringing these themes into 21st century views is an interesting task.

The title "Two Candles" came out of a writing practice Dempsey began in last winter. Ernest say, " I had a few candles in my room to light the place in case of a load-shading episode. One night, I just felt like writing a poem and doing so in candle light. So I switched off the electric bulb and let my creative flow along with my pen on paper in the aura generated by candle light."

Thus started a writing habit that lasted for a couple of months. Ermest switching off the light, lit two candles and wrote a poem or sometimes two poems each night.

Dempsy discovered that not only did two candles provide more light, but somehow seemed more beautiful and soothing than one, providing comfort in his solitude. Symbolically, Dempsey believes the second candle came to represent, his brother Shais, "my second self, my half being," whom the book is dedicated to.

The poetry collection "Sightlines: A Poet's Diary" by Janet Riehl is a soaring, poignant homage to family, sorrow, and the rebirth that comes with pain and loss. Written after the death of her sister in a tragic automobile accident, Riehl cobbled together her father's mournful poems as well as her own and set out to document the ties that bind and the things that matter most.

Interwoven with collections of family photographs are meditations on the importance of family and the comfort of kin. Using memories and recollections as her foundation, Riehl's poems are heartwrenching and triumphant. Many of the poems read as journal entries, and diary submissions. There's no belletristic prose or coruscate syntax, it's simple, it's original and straight from the heart.

Though the book obviously caters to those who have experienced a similar loss, there is a resounding conviction in her writing that allow her words to enter into the hearts of the reader. Much like Jane Brox's family memoir "A Thousand Days Just Like This One," Riehl retraces family steps while revisiting classic bits of dialogue. An example of this is in "Catechism":

Mother: "Dad Died?
Janet: Yes.
M: When?
J: Maybe forty years ago.
M: Why didn't I know about it?
J: Maybe you forgot.
M: That's possible. What else is possible?
J: I don't know, Mom.
M: Where are they now?
J: Up in heaven, I guess."

Though the book's center is initially Riehl's mourning of her lost sister, it's the pieces about caring for her ailing mother and her recollections of her Midwestern childhood that leave an indelible mark.

One of Riehl's better poems is "Praising Mother":

Your magnolia petal soul bobs down the creek
Navigating shallows and peering into depths
Delicate titmouse feather Mama, same as those
Miniature birds you feed
Before they dart into ground places.

No, Riehl's book isn't a New York Times bestseller and no, it probably won't garner glowing reviews from the folks at Harper's and Kirkus Review, but Riehl's work is both reflective and significant, and those two aspects are enough to earn this book a positive recommendation. More information on Riehl is available at her Web site www.riehlife.com.

A Coming of Age Story of a Girl and a Country

While set in Botswana and praised by Alexander McCall Smith as a "striking portrait of one of the world's most beguiling countries," the deeper subject of Twenty Chickens for a Saddle turns out not to be Africa at all. Rather, Robyn Scott has written a searching portrait of the limits of individualism and an exploration of education in its several forms.

Ordinarily, the problem with being idiosyncratic is that there you are, all by yourself. In this story, however, there's an entire clan of stark, raving individuals who totally delight one another and somehow come together as a family of eccentrics. I knew a family much like them when I lived in Botswana for three years in the 1970s, learning to speak Setswana.

What constitutes a good education? What makes a family, a culture, a nation? How does the individual fit into these gathering units? What is the trajectory of a marriage? What are the limits of change? How is the dignity of a human being colored one way or another? Searching for Robyn Scott's views on these basic questions kept me reading. Clearly, this is more than an exotic memoir of a faraway country and people having nothing to do with the rest of us except to entertain.

It is with a sense of homecoming that I enter Robyn Scott's Twenty Chicken world. Her family is one of a maverick breed of outlanders that has loved this country and contributed to Botswana's peaceful and harmonious development.

Seven-year-old Robyn came to Botswana in 1988, about 11 years after I returned to the United States. She was homeschooled by her mother until 1995, when her formal education began. A successful adult, she appears to have suffered in no way from her early fluid education of learning by doing, by observing, and by being read to.

Graceful asides define Botswana's history, culture, and challenges, including the AIDS crisis, which is told in frank language. Written mostly from the point of view of a child, this is a coming-of-age story of the best kind. As Robyn matures, she takes us through Botswana's changing fortunes in the Selebi-Phikwe area of the Limpopo River and later on a game farm closer to South Africa. This is an environment that both embraces her and allows her to grow up on her own terms.

Twenty Chickens is particularly good at describing Botswana's plant life and wildlife and the freedom of the bush land. The narrative is complemented by photos, a rough map, endearingly drawn icons, and glossaries of Setswana and Afrikaans. An index would make the book even more accessible.

One of my favorite sections is Chapter 16, The Whole Family's Half of an Island. Here, more than in other chapters, we are given a direct sense of Botswana culture and relationships and the heartfelt hospitality lavished upon extended family, even if part of that family is white. There is playfulness and ingenuity here, and a demonstration of natural Batswana diplomacy which is wonderfully revealing of this quiet people living in a vast land.

HUNGRY by Alethea Eason

1) Click here to read a review of HUNGRY by Alethea Eason on Reader Views by 13-year-old Emily Robbins.

This review was just picked up by Reuters. Way to go, Alethea! How does the world look from Chile where she has recently re-located? Find out on Alethea's new blog

2) Also, read the Riehlife post on Alethea's book in 2007.