State of Wonder

Our friend Kristina told us about this book when she visited in July. She had bought it to read but hadn't read it before her trip from Arizona to Wisconsin so she decided to get the audio version and listen to it while driving. She was really enjoying State of Wonder and recommended it to me.
I wasn't sure how much I would like reading a book set in the Amazon jungle, but to quote a passage from the book: "Never be so focused on what you're looking for that you overlook the thing you actually find." What I found was a thought-provoking novel about science and sacrifice in the rain forest; an adventure story with poison arrows and boa constrictors; and the difficult choices made in the name of discovery and friendship.
From the frontispiece: "Dr. Marina Singh, a research scientist with a Minnesota-based pharmaceutical company, is sent to Brazil to track down her former mentor, Dr. Annick Swenson, who seems to have all but disappeared in the Amazon while working on what is destined to be an extremely valuable new drug. Nothing about the assignment is easy: not only does no one know where Dr. Swenson is, but the last person who was sent to find her, Marina's research partner Anders Eckman, died before he could complete his mission. Plagued by trepidation, Marina embarks on an odyssey into the insect-infested jungle in hopes of finding Dr. Swenson as well as answers to troubling questions about her friend's death, the state of her company's future, and her own past.
It has been awhile since I read Patchett's award winning Bel Canto. Our library has it as well as more of Patchett's books. I am going to be checking them out.

Dana Stabenow's Kate Shugak mysteries were another of Kristina's recommendations. As I've said before, I'm really liking this tough Aleut investigator.
While on a school field trip, Johnny Morgan, the son of Kate's deceased lover and now her ward, discovers a frozen body in the path of a receding glacier. When it is identified as Len Dreyer, the park's low-profile handyman, it is also discovered that no one even knew he was missing nor for how long. State trooper Jim Chopin asks Kate to help him in the investigation, hoping that finding out something about Dreyer's background will help find a reason for his murder.
Kate begins questioning all the park's residents about Dreyer then her cabin is burned down. Luckily she and Johnny are not there at the time. Someone did not like her nosing around, but who? As with all these novels, there are many glimpses into Alaska's wild beauty, the lives of the native people and the politics of America's last frontier. I liked hearing Johnny's voice in the form of journal entries which prefaced several of the chapters. And I'm beginning to warm toward 'Chopper Jim'. I may even get to the point where I'm going to have to start watching Alaska State Troopers on the Nat-Geo channel. Nah, probably not. I'll stick with reading Stabenow.

Last July after one of those small world happenings where I met online a woman who had once lived in Guss and knew my aunt & uncle and cousins, we began reading one another's blogs. She commented on one of my book reviews that the best book she had read lately was Laura Hillenbrand's Unbroken. I determined to read it. It took awhile - apparently it was a popular book at the library.
As the cover states: "A World War II story of survival, resilience and redemption." It is the true story of  1936 Olympics runner Louis Zamperini and what happens to him when he volunteers to serve his country after Hitler's blitzkrieg across Europe. Finland was set to host the summer game for which Zamperini was training. Helsinki's Olympic stadium was partially collapsed, toppled by Soviet bombs. The 1940 Olympics were cancelled.
Louie became a bombardier in the Army Air Corps. He was assigned to a crew on a B-24 Liberator. On a May afternoon in 1943 (six months before I was born), his plane crashed into the Pacific Ocean. He and two crew mates were the only survivors. The three of them managed to get into two of the two-men inflatable rafts. Ahead of them lay thousands of miles of open ocean, leaping sharks, a foundering raft, thirst and starvation, enemy aircraft, and, beyond, a trial even greater.
This is a hard book to read from an emotional standpoint - to understand what prisoners of war endured under the Japanese. It is a wonder any of them survived. I think I was depressed the whole time I was reading, but I couldn't stop. As Donna commented: "Veteran's Day will never be the same to us."
The copy of Unbroken I read was donated in honor of the 2010-2011 past president of Friends of the Library. I happened to walk into the Y with Kay this morning. I told her I had just finished the book her daughter gave in her honor. We both agreed it was a tremendous book, even if it was hard to read. Then she asked if I had read Hillenbrand's award winning Seabiscuit: An American Legend. I told her I had not, but that I saw the movie and thought it was great. "You really should read the book, too", she said. I will.