Space Station Mir

The Castillo de Santa Barbara looms over the small modern city Alicante. The castle is a fortress dating from 900 AD. The original occupants were Muslim kings. However, the castle has hosted Romans, Iberians, notably Felipe II in the sixteenth century, and was occupied when Alicante was captured by Napoleon and also by Franco's army in the Spanish Civil War. The legend of the castle, which we learned after our long walk up (during which we learned the above historical facts), is where the name "Alicante" derives from. The Muslim king had a beautiful daughter, Cantara, who was of age to marry. Two noble Muslim brothers each wanted to marry her. The king told them to go and bring him back something so precious he could not find it anywhere else. Whoever brought him the precious gift could marry Cantara. Ali, the first brother, wrote love letters to Cantara while he was away. The other brother did not, but he was the first to return with a precious gift, spices from India. T...

2. A Tangled Web by L.M. Montgomery A Tangled Web is one of my favorite books, certainly one of my most frequently read. Since I didn't bring my copy with me to Spain, I was happy to find it for free online, at Project Gutenberg Australia. The Darks and Penhallows are an idiosyncratic clan living on Prince Edward Island. Aunt Becky, or Mrs. Theodore Dark, nee Rebecca Penhallow, the "not particularly beloved" head of the clan is the owner of the old Dark jug, a hundred year old artifact with sentimental value, though some want it for prestige within the clan or because they feel they deserve it through descent. Aunt Becky decides to have her last fun "this side of the grave" and leave the jug with a trustee for a year, along with an envelope containing a name, or instructing him to choose according to certain criteria. The book covers Aunt Becky's announcement, and then the year after her death and the extraordinary happenings among the clan because of the j...

Views from the mountain village of Guadalest The Casa Orduna is built into the mountain, it belonged to a noble family in the sixteenth century. The beach is in the fishing village of Villajoyosa. The hot chocolate and churros were magnificent, we ate them in Campanillo, another village. There's a premiere chocolatier shop there. The hot chocolate was the thickest I've ever had in my life, it was almost fondue.

The missing woman is in orange holding her baby. She is my friend's sister. My friend Chacha wrote this: Her name is Juliette Thercy and her phone numbers are and She lives in Delmas 36. She is 5'3' and about 130. If someone picks up just say "Ah-low Juliette" (Hello Juliette). If someone responds please say "Ray-lay sair-oo Chacha" (call your sister Chacha). Please call me if you hear a voice. Also the tall woman wearing the brown outfit is my friend Gabie, she is the Executive Director of Sonje Ayiti "Remember Haiti" a non-profit in Haiti that helps Haitians empower themselves in Haiti. She is also in Port-au-Prince and I haven't been able to talk to her but she's alive and may know my sister's location. The boy holding my niece is my sister's cousin and he loves to do my niece's hair and he is so sweet. We keep calling and calling and sometimes I get a ring other times the "earthquake message" but if y...

1. The Lady Queen: The Notorious Reign of Joanna I, Queen of Naples, Jerusalem, and Sicily by Nancy Goldstone I read Goldstone's book Four Queens last year and was impressed with her scholarly work and the relative obscurity of her subjects. Here, Goldstone picks another little-known historical figure and places her within a tapestry of her time period. I had never heard of Joanna I, Queen of Naples, previously, though she is apparently notorious for murdering her first husband and being a key player in the Great Schism of the Catholic Church in fourteenth century Europe. I did not enjoy this book as much, both because I found the subject less interesting (though still interesting) and Goldstone's scholarly style seemed to have suffered a little. I felt she made many more assumptions with this book than the previous book and her conclusions about the opinions of the Queen,her advisors and family members, and the various Popes who figure largely in the book, appeared far from o...

Speaking of cultures and society, I leave for Spain on January 9. Instead of continuing as a book blog with a specific goal for number of books to read in a year, Space Station Mir will become a chronicle for my adventures in Spain. Expect a post for each new place that I visit, with pictures! I also plan to continue reviewing books, however I will not make a set goal for number of books to read this year. I do pledge myself to read at least one book in Spanish that was not assigned for a class. In terms of my goals for 2009, I was not diligent enough in keeping track of them. Looking back, I've fulfilled some of them and not others. The greatest trend in my reading this year, which marks a huge deviation for me, is that I've read more non-fiction than I think I've read any other year in my life. I've finally developed the ability to sustain interest in non-fiction other than biographies. For a while, biographies were the only non-fiction I ever read, with the exception...

65. White Teeth by Zadie Smith My last book of 2009, a Hannukah gift from my father, was an interesting end note. While the tooth theme was a bit too understated to be part of the title, in my opinion, Zadie Smith does an admirable job of weaving together an interconnected story of three families in London in the 1980s and 1990s. Archie Jones and Samad Iqbal are old buddies who served together in World War II. Both marry (in Archie's case, re-marry) young wives who provide them with children growing up in the strange new age. Samad, a Bangladeshi Muslim, agonizes as he sees his twin sons, Magid and Millat, moving away from the tradition that he so idealizes and fails to adhere to in his own life. His wife Alsana is a character, though she is young, she is defiant and opinionated, prejudiced against both Samad's idealization of tradition and her sons' rejection and permutations of it. Archie's wife Clara is from Jamaica, raised a Jehovah's Witness, from which she reb...