Take it or Leave It - June Challenge #4 - personal connections

A thread for people to post their personal or family connections to the books read under challenge 4.

Return to main thread here: http://www.librarything.com/topic/154743

So I'm reading No Picnic by Julian Thompson, a non-fiction account of the Falklands Conflict from the Commander of 3 Brigade.

My connection. I grew up 10 miles from Portsmouth, from where a substantial portion of the fleet departed. In a school of navy children, a good 20% of my class had parents that were on ships. My brother's godfather was on HMS Intrepid, one of the primary landing ships. My dad, who was in the Marine reserves, was one of those who would have been called up - not to go but to replace enlisted forces in less critical roles. It never happened and I didn't know that at the time.

It's stuck in my memory, as I was 10 at the time - just old enough to start to know what's going on in the wider world. This was the first time that I can remember an event that I had some experience of benig on the national news - the first time in my life that watching the news or reading a newspaper made sense to me. In the years after I read a lot of the works published, this is the first time, in a number of years, that I've revisited one of them.

My book this month is The Turnaround by George Pelecanos.

The books by George Pelecanos are really fun. He's local to Washington, DC area, especially the Maryland suburbs of DC. I knew that but have never read any of his books before last month because I didn't much care for crime fiction. Or so I thought. His name-dropping of local places is hilarious. I love it. I can be reading a book (er, listening to a CD) about Veirs Mill Road while driving down that very road.

I know the DC area pretty well, having lived here since 1968 and having worked as a visiting nurse both in DC and in DC's Maryland suburbs. Like George Pelecanos, I really love the DC area - with its faults as well as its advantages. It's an amazing place with its diversity of population and class strata.

There was one line in {The Turnaround that was so hilarious that I had to turn off the CD while I had a hearty laugh. The protagonist of the book, Alex Pappas, attended Montgomery College (which was formerly called Montgomery Junior College). Branches of it are located in Montgomery County, Maryland, USA. Both I and my older son graduated from that college. My younger son attended classes there before going to welding school in Cleveland. Montgomery College is affectionately (and sarcastically) called "Harvard-on-the Pike", referring to it's location on Frederick Road (an extension of the better known Rockville Pike in Rockville, Maryland). When Pelecanos mentioned "Harvard-on-the-Pike", I did have to laugh. It reminded me that we also used to call Montgomery College by the name of "MK". We'd say we were attending "MK" (instead of the obvious "MC"). When someone would ask what the "k" was for, we'd answer "Kuality"! :D

Thanks for this challenge and thread, Helen. I look forward to reading the stories of others.

The book I'm reading is Here I Shall Die Ashore by Caleb Johnson

It's a biography/history/genealogy of Stephen Hopkins, who came over on the Mayflower to Plymouth. He happens to be my tenth-great grandfather, and apparently was quite a guy. Besides coming to America as a Pilgrim, he had also been to Jamestown and in a shipwreck, inspiring one of the characters in The Tempest. My grandmother knows the direct lineage (and also lent me the book), but basically depending on which line you trace, I'm a direct descendant of both his daughter Constance and his son Giles, who were the kids by his first wife and born in England.

I'll be reading Fatal Journey by Peter C. Mancall, an account of Henry Hudson's last voyage -- or at least of what we know about that voyage, which I understand is precious little. Apparently he and his son were set adrift in Hudson Bay by mutineers and never seen again; the only accounts we have of the voyage were given by people with strong motivation to lie.

For the family connection: my maternal grandmother's maiden name was Hudson, and from there we go right back to the explorer's brother. So says my aunt, the family genealogist. More than that I don't know, even the name of the brother in question.

I'm always terribly impressed when people can trace their family tree back beyond a century or so. Ours peters out in a host of rather unimportant (and, if I'm honest somewhat worthy but uninteresting) farm labourers and other manual workers sometime in the late 1700s. You do need a fair dose of luck, and an at least middle class ancestors to get back much further.

Hope the ancestors prove interesting.

Hi Helen - Would being a former student of the author be an acceptable personal connection? I'm only seeing connections to subject matter, so I'm not sure.

Thank you!

Hi Kerri - yes, I think that would count. As long as there's a story to tell, there's a connection to be made between you are the book then that falls under the rather loose umbrella I've put up.

I think it was easier for me to think of subject matter examples, rather than I was consciously limiting it to subject related connections.

Is it ok if I reread Slaughterhouse-Five for this challenge?
I've been meaning to re-read it for a while now and I have a bit of a connection:
During WWII my grandfather (like many Dutch men) was taken to Germany as a forced laborer. He was stationed in Dresden and witnessed the bombardement, surviving because he was 'lucky' enough not to be in a bombshelter. Naturally, this was a very traumatizing event for him and has been very important throughout the rest of his life. He sadly passed away two years ago.

Britt, yes a re-read is fine, and that seems to be more than sufficient a connection to the subject matter - they both witnessed the same event. That's some event to have lived through, and I imagine it never leaves you.

No, it never did... Just before he died he became really confused and started reliving it, seeing things, having terrible nightmares... It was horrible, he just kept crying and telling us that there were so many dead people and so much fire. So, in the end, his death was in a way a blessing.
I often find it really weird to think that he went through something like that. I mean, to me he was just my granddad, he would always be joking with us when we were little, and he was a very loving and caring man. I can't imagine what it must have been like, especially considering the fact that he was only 21 when it happened... Just reminds us how terrible war is, and how so many people are affected by it even people who aren't in the army or anything...

I'm adding A River Runs Through It which is also a reread for me, although I have not previously listened to the audiobook.

I grew up in Missoula, the town with the river. I've fished in the river, (although my father spurned the river and preferred the creeks) and used to swim somewhat regularly at Lolo Hot Springs.

In the early 70's before this book came out, Norman Maclean spent time in Missoula as well as in Chicago where he had his faculty position. He would stop by the bookstore where I worked and we'd talk as we had a bit in common.

My father also believed in the religion of dry flies (which he somewhat unsuccessfully grafted onto me).

My now-ex husband was a wilderness ranger stationed out of Elk Summit--the remote wilderness cabin that is the base site for the third of the novellas in this collection, "USFS 1919: The Ranger, the Cook and a Hole in the Sky". As a wilderness volunteer, I'd done the hike from Elk Summit to the top of Blodgett Pass--although not all the way to Hamilton as Maclean relates in the novella. I was also being familiar with much of the other area Maclean talked about. Young and in love, I was as much in love with that part of the Idaho backcountry as my husband and Maclean were.

After A River Runs Through It was released, we saw far less of Norman Maclean at our small bookstore. I do remember his initial booksigning and bought several of the signed first editions for Christmas gifts. And then the book exploded.....

The reader of this audiobook is Ivan Doig, a well-respected Pacific Northwest writer who I have met and heard read several times. I've started listening and the combination of Doig reading this particular book is absolutely magical.

Incidentally, I also know people that worked on the movie that was made from this book. ETA They==not me-- coached Robert Redford with his fly fishing techniques.

I'm really enjoying the personal connection stories here!

I just finished The Last Lecture which I was going to put in this challenge because of a recent encounter with mortality. We all know we're going to die "some day" but for the most part don't believe it. The past month I've been very sick. My surgeon assured me that I wasn't going to die, but I felt like it. I went from being an active, energetic work out 3 times a week, walk the dogs 3 miles a day 66 year old to a frail 80 year old who spends most of her days sleeping. Life is getting better, I hear a couple of more weeks and I can try gaining back all the muscle I've lost, but Randy Pausch seemed to have dealt with his very dwindling mortality much better than I have with my little hiccup. So, may I place it here, or should I try somewhere else?

Goodness Joyce, that sounds rough. I do hope you're back to the active 66 yr old you'd rather be. From the outside, that certainly sounds like you're in a position to connect with the surmise of the book - thinking you might be in that situation (even if the medical profession thought otherwise) sounds more than enough to make you face facts about your own mortality.

Please - add it to the challenge. And I hope that is nothing like the last book you read.

Oh, it won't be. I'm listening to Life After Life now which seems a reasonable progression.

Oh, Joyce, thank heaven you're on the way to recovery. Please be well and stick around with us. We need you.

Years ago, I faced that mortality question myself (in a different situation). We can only be grateful for the time we have here on earth with others, and especially for those times that we are in good enough health to enjoy that time.

A speedy and complete recovery to you.

Thanks very much. The recovery hasn't been speedy, but it is happening.

Well, hm. I'm not sure this qualifies but I am going to try anyway. Pilgrimage by Annie Leibovitz. My connection is personal in a different way. Her latest exhibit, Pilgrimage, is at the San Jose Museum of Art (where I live) and I saw it last weekend. The book was signed by her and purchased in the museum gift shop. Not only did I see the exhibit, and have now read the accompanying book - which is gorgeous - but I am a photographer and count Leibovitz as an influence. I was moved to tears by the experience.

Stephanie - I'm not sure it's really up to me to define what's a connection to anyone else here. You've seen the exhibition - read the book, admired the work and been emotionally moved by it then I'd agree that the book has connected with you. Just needs you to be inspired by it to produce something yourself - we'll all come & buy that book >:-)

#21 Helen, oh I have a HUGE idea after reading the book. Need to listen to it for a while and let it take shape. Falls right into the "moving in the right path" category since I'll be laid off from my current job at the end of July. Scared and anxious? Oh heck yeah! But excited at the prospects too.