A Fine Balance

I picked another hefty Booker contender for my next read.  A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry.

It took a while for the cover picture to resolve itself into its separate parts.  That's the whole book in so many ways - the balance between hope and despair, between protecting one's self and sheltering others.  The balance between protection and exploitation.  I'm intentionally not going into detail here, because it's better to read it not knowing much going in.  

One of the best parts of this book is the writing.  It's a very well-written book, but it's not arty or overdone.  The story is the point, and that's the focus.

We follow four people, each with painful histories, who slowly forge a family in horrific circumstances.  You hope that their lives will get better, or at least less precarious, as the book moves forward, but that doesn't happen in any kind of way that makes you feel better for them.

One of the four has a very different fate than the others, and the reason for it is one of the big questions the book asks.  This story also shows how a breakdown in the protection of basic human rights victimizes nearly everyone.  Character A steps on the back of Character B to avoid being crushed by Character C.  And then there's the appalling but very human Beggarmaster.  One of the most complex characters I have come across in a long time.

I'll be honest, I nearly stopped reading several times. I empathized to such a degree that I could hardly bear to keep going.

The extreme fragility of living in poverty will stay with you long after you put the book down.

But.  I finished it, and it's beyond rewarding.

Final call:

You need a good dose of emotional fortitude to make it through A Fine Balance, but please do.

Adorable Alert, Kestrel Edition

In one of life's little serendipitous moments, I ran into a friend Sunday evening, and she invited me to watch kestrel chicks being banded tonight.  It felt like Christmas in not-quite-July :)

These kestrels live on land owned by the county's landfill.  They have had boxes for three or four years, if I remember correctly.  We checked two boxes, one with four chicks and one with five.  The first box of nestlings were very calm.  The second box, man, they had attitude.

This is the bander, collecting the chicks from the nest and putting them into a cardboard box lined with wood chips.  Then, each chick has head and wing measurements taken and is weighed.  Finally, they are carefully fitted with a leg band.

A chick is in the blue bag.  This method keeps them calm and also contained.  We did have a runaway chick - fortunately it only escaped into the back of the truck, and not out into the field.  They can't fly at this point, but they still move pretty quickly!  

When the bander fished the five chicks out of the second box, he told us it was really four and a half.  The fifth chick was very noticeably smaller than its siblings.  But just as outraged at its treatment :)

They were mostly content to sit on the bander's hand and pose for the paparazzi.  Kestrels are a type of falcon, and you can see here that typical falcon beak.  Notched, all the better to tear you apart with!

The second box had a dominant chick that spent a lot of time making alarm calls and kicking its feet anytime a hand went in the box.  I have some video of those shenanigans that I will post next time.

Adorable Alert, Kitten Edition

There are two kittens at the family farm.  They're too scaredy to pet, and were always very cautious around us, but that didn't stop them from having a great time with each other late one evening:

Cat about town

We take walks around town from time to time, and last night was no exception.

Sometimes we run into porch cats, and if we're really lucky, they let us mess with them :)

This nice little tabby was on an elevated porch. So I was actually holding my camera a little above my head to get these pictures.   Sad eyes, and then curious kitty emerged:

This cat is the same basic model as my cat, just maybe half the size and a lot friendlier to strangers!

The Fault in Our Stars

I decided to read this book because I saw it on a list of "books to read before the movie comes out this summer," and because Amazon had it on sale for $3 or $4 at one point.

Technically, I believe this is a young adult book, but it's perfectly entertaining for adults, too.  No, not much of the plot is realistic.  Especially the parts that involve the eccentric author of the main character's favorite book.  And the teenagers are all smart and full of witty repartee (if only this reflected reality!).

But it doesn't matter.  There's a lot of laugh out loud moments.  I snuffled my way through the last third of the book.  It pulls at your heartstrings, that's the long and the short of it.  There's some 'meaning of life'  and 'why are we here' stuff that keeps it from being total fluff, but it's close to the line.

Final call:


Give it a shot.  Eat some ice cream and cry like a baby.  Don't feel bad about it  :)



 

Pinelands by night

The nights we camped in the Pinelands of New Jersey were blessed with a bright moon.  So bright, I thought it would be neat to try a little night photography.

Here's what I ended up with - pine branches backlit by the moon.

Kaleidoscopic

Any idea what this is?



I spent some time this evening at the family farm, looking at the barn.  When the sun is setting, spikes of light come through the knotholes and spaces between the boards.  Here's an idea of what it looks like.

But when I was playing with my camera, I noticed that the light seemed to read funny on the screen.  A slight sideways movement, and the spaces seemed to widen.  That gave me the idea to move the camera just a bit, horizontally, while taking a picture.  I really like the result!