Summer Scorecard - Books, Birds, Art and a Loss

As summer comes to a rolling stop I was doing a mental stock take on how this summer fared -“Mixed” was my answer. Books, Birds and Art would’ve been the theme for this summer as we got a healthy dose of all three the past 3 months.

I will start with the books, where I continued with my year of reading women and also managed to sneak in a bit of OBOC. Jhumpa Lahiri and Alice Munro’s collection of short stories have made me re-evaluate my feelings towards short stories. “Interpreter of Maladies” by the former and “Runaway” and “Too Much Happiness” by the latter were fantastic collections! I also couldn’t resist Zadie Smith’s “NW” after having read her “On Beauty”. It was gritty, showed me a different side of London and a different side of women that I didn’t know existed. Having skipped all of Harry Potter, I went straight to “Casual Vacancy” by J.K.Rowling. Very similar to NW but different geography – a very honest portrayal of provincial towns of England. Then I re-read “Wordy Shipmates” as we were heading to Boston for a short vacation – my first time in Boston in the summer. Walking along the Freedom Trail, Sarah Vowell’s seemingly irreverent take on the early New England settlers provided me a nice background commentary for the trail. Although not a diamond ring/jewelry person, I picked up “The Engagements” by J.Courtney Sullivan DESPITE it being recommended by People Magazine (not a magazine on my reading list) as I later found out. Totally enjoyed the 5 stories weaved into one book and am glad there was at least one character who shared my attitude towards diamonds in it. 6 women this summer – not bad you say, but here comes my crown jewel!

Eleanor Catton’s “The Luminaries” –  The two weeks I spent with this book I was completely lost to the outside world and my family. I caught myself thinking about the book in uncanny places and situations (including a few dull meetings or when on hold). 19^th century New Zealand, murder mystery, manipulation of time that would make Christopher Nolan proud, weaving in the Zodiac, language that mimicked the Victorian novels, hidden tricks and treats that makes a second reading even more rewarding – this is THE book I am recommending to every one. This was my pick for OBOC- New Zealand, and I haven’t been able to pick up another book since I wrapped this one up as I am still “marinating” in it. Eleanor Catton deserves the Booker and more!

I have with me “The plague of doves” by Louise Erdrich which I will pick up soon, and another novel for OBOC-Nepal as I don’t want to give up on OBOC. Also just started "A visit from the goon squad" by Jennifer Egan. So on the book front this summer scored a perfect 10! 

This was also a great summer of birds for us. We were part of the conservation effort for the California Least Tern, and my daughter and I spent many weekends “ternwatching”. I am happy to say that this year San Diego (and us) witnessed the birth of a 100 terns which have all successfully fledged and are now somewhere down in South America. The day the last chick flew away, I learned for the first time what it means to be an “empty nester”. It was a unique opportunity to observe an endangered species in such close quarters and observe their mating, nesting, feeding, predator chasing behaviors. We will look forward to doing this again next summer. We also spent a week in Oregon chasing bald eagles, and the summer in Boston was filled with Cardinals, Chickadees and Woodpeckers.

I also got my art fix more than satisfied this season. Starting from visits to our local Mingei International Museum to LACMA, MFA in Boston, and Worcester Art Museum we were treated to so much art especially the Impressionists, that even my husband can now name a few :)

 

All in all sounds like we had a pretty terrific summer. Doesn’t tally with the “mixed” review I gave it at the beginning.  It got a mixed score mainly because of two events –  the cancellation of our trip to India due to a summer flu that afflicted all of us and more importantly the loss of a cousin to cancer. 

Loss of any kind is hard enough, but this one was a bit too much even for a battle hardened family like ours which by now should have gotten used to losing many warriors to cancer. Srimathy was 51, full of life and warmth, faced anything that life threw at her with a resilient spirit, and always ready to try anything new. She was a large part of my life as we grew up together and was an older sister to my brother and I and although she was our mother's niece she took on the role of a  younger sister to our mother. She had an uncanny ability to fit into any environment, make herself at home and becoming indispensable. She did not have an easy life, starting with a debilitating eye condition from birth which forced her away from her parents on account of medical care, but that never stopped her from working hard, not once have we heard her whining about the cards she was dealt with - lessons from her life that I take away. I used to tell her that her life can be easily turned into a book or a tearjerker movie full of drama and she would just laugh away. I think of all the roles she took on she probably cherished being a teacher and later Director at a local school. As I stood in the MFA staring at Gaugin's masterpiece "Where do we come from? What are we? Where are we going?" I can say Srimathy was on my mind. She will be sorely missed!

 
 

So as I look back on this summer and am reminded about how fragile life can be, I am grateful for the small pleasures of everyday - be it a book, a work of art, or a bird that chose to halt briefly in my neck of the woods before continuing its long journey.