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Since I really slacked off in getting the posts here during this discussion, I'll catch it up in one comment.  If you see that I've "slacked off" again, you can always catch the discussion 'live' at Shelfari.com in the "MLWT Book Discussion Group".

Here we go for the entire discussion:

Jessica M 

I'm game! I adore women aviators and their stories. :)

My Life Works Today! 

Then let's go for it! We can start January 9th~ gives you time to grab the book! This is a really great read~ glad to be sharing it with you!

Jessica M 

Cool. I'll try to pick it up this weekend and get started. :)

Jessica M 

Got it last night at the used bookstore down the street. Planning on starting it tonight. :)

My Life Works Today! 

I'll see you here on Sunday then~ I have a biography of her, too, that I'll keep handy for reference. She was one complex gal!

My Life Works Today! 

Man, connection problems all night! Okay, so I have to admit I got a late start on the reading, but, since this is not my first round, I think we can go ahead and start. Jessica, how far did you get into it and what are you thinking so far? What I truly love about this book is the writing. It is unpretentious when she talks about the places she visits, how she describes her thoughts and shares her experiences with the reader. Just a simple eloquence that keeps you both wanting to read and wishing you could be sitting there listening to her tell her story in person. I love reading about strong-willed women and am in awe of those women who sought out dangerous things to do...not just prove, but, like she puts it, "It is a job of work..."(Pg.13) To live with such a simple, focused sense of purpose. I doubt I would've lasted very long on that flight...too much uncertainty and fate involved for this semi-control freak! Check in here with where you're at and I will get to reading more this week.

Jessica M 

Ok, I'm on page 97 so far. I'm loving this.....her way with words is just beautiful! The flying stories are one thing, but the hunting stories just captured me. And her ability to forgive the lion who attacked her? Wow. "He was a good lion".

My Life Works Today! 

I caught up this morning~ That forgiveness also permeates Isak Dinesen's writing about Africa. There is such a striking sense of moment and honor that Markham shows clearly in her stories here in the book and throughout her life as written in the bio "Straight on Till Morning" (by Mary S. Lovell, St. Martin's Press, 1987). There is the humor in life's simplicities (like the guy laughing about how the plane was smooth, pg. 21) and, on pg. 89, in the wise words about how "Talk lives in man's head...", how sometimes it is lonely because there isn't anything to keep it company. lol!

I love the way she observes the details in a moment so effortlessly. As in her description of Bergner dying of black water and his need to hear news about the rest of the world. That what "...makes death so hard - curiosity unsatisfied." (pg.25) Or how in the story about Arab Maina challenging the lion while hunting for the boar and the moment of eye contact with it, she thought even "...the ants in the grass paused in their work." (pg.87)

I love the way her stories are grounded by the animals (like giraffes with telegraph wires wrapped around their necks because they didn't duck while running by, pg. 69) and so many of the people she draws inspiration from as she develops her sense of being (her disappointment that the lion didn't attack so that she could hold her place among the other hunters, pg. 88).

Then, there's just the magic that Africa, during that time, offered anyone with a need to risk and challenge their mortality. Sometimes I think I was born a couple of generations too late. Then, again, I struggle with where the outside influences politically and spiritually was taking that continent while she was there. Beryl seemed to have a solid emotional mix of both deep respect for the country and a sense of entitlement to experience it before it was gone.

Let's just keep reading and I won't get into leading the conversation...I hate doing that. I just want to hear what you're getting out of it~ glad you're liking it so far!

Jessica M 

Ok, I haven't abandoned the discussion - it was just a crazy week. I'll update today or tomorrow once I collect my thoughts. I'm to the part where her father is leaving Africa and she's making the choice not to. I love some of the quotes that I'm pulling from this book. And there's the section where her playmate loses his father in war - I've got some thoughts on that too.

Haven't checked Wikipedia, but do you know what happened to her mother? Just curious.

      My Life Works Today! 

I know - my week has been crazy, too. That translates to lots of reading tonight. As for her mom, according to the bio I have here, she returned to England (shortly after Beryl's brother, Richard, in 1906. It is said that she couldn't adjust to the living standards in Africa and, as Beryl mentions in an interview in 1986, she "ran off" with a guy (whom she did end up marrying). Beryl apparently never forgave her, but the bio author (Mary Lovell) speculates that her mom may have planned on returning and just didn't think it fair to uproot Beryl, who was obviously thriving there in Njoro at her young age (4 yrs old.)

I'll get busy reading and look forward to hearing what you're picking up. There are a lot of great things in this book and that's why I reread it every year. I'm having some trouble this year, though, and I'll probably be sharing that tomorrow.

Jessica M 

So I've finished the book - took the afternoon yesterday to sit at the coffee shop and just read. I really do think i'll be re-reading it again over the years!

I found the part where she's leaving Africa with Blix interesting - this passage speaks to me: "Blix would see it again and so should I one day. And still it was gone. Seeing it again could not be living it again. You can always rediscover an old path and wander over it, but the best you can do then is to say, "Ah, yes, I know this turning!" - or remind yourself that, while you remember that unforgettable valley, the valley no longer remembers you."

Also this passage really moved me: "A messenger came to the farm with a story to tell. It was not a story that mean much as stories went in those days. It was about how the war progressed in German East Africa and about a tall young man who was killed in it.
I suppose he was no taller than most who were killed there and no better. It was an ordinary story, but Kibii and I who knew him well, thought there was no story like it or one as sad, and we think so now."

o        My Life Works Today! 

I love that passage - about us remembering a place, but it not remembering us. I know I've returned to old haunts, reunions, and even friendships and have felt the same way...I remember the moments, but I feel as though I'm on the outside looking in to a person I don't know anymore. Yet, those places and experiences make us who we are, right? She didn't go back and Blix's ex-wife & second cousin Karen (Isak Dineson) never did either supposedly for the same reason. The life there at that particular time must have been so profound and life-changing that nothing would ever match it. Can you imagine carrying that in your memory banks? Everything else would feel so small, no wonder she kept searching for more. How about that fortune teller saying that she will be going on a long journey over the ocean alone? Not only did it seem fitting that Blix would hope she dumps him somewhere next to a bar, but that she would answer his question of whether she believed the fortune by saying "I believe it all. Why not?"

Jessica M 

Also I know you've got some background info on her, but I did dip into Wikipedia too at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beryl_Markham . She's fascinating. The young age that she did some of these things....and then just walking away and hopping on her horse at 18 to train racehorses in Africa while her father moved to Peru.

o        My Life Works Today! 

I would love to think that I had the same fire in me at age 18, but I know that being wild wasn't in me...yet. Actually, that is what I've struggled with this time reading this book. I always look to it to inspire me to cry Towanda! and just do things with fire not holding back with doubt, worry or self-imposed barriers. I had a tougher time getting that fire going this time and found myself becoming so frustrated, feeling like I'm not accomplishing or doing enough with my life. Here she is simply doing whatever she feels compelled to without much more thought than - "yeah, okay. " Man, I can beat myself up emotionally for days on even the most benign decisions...it's embarrassing, really. LOL! I loved reading more about her as the person and not just the experiences, too. I love to read about strong women and maybe my take on things this time around is that it's just been too long since I've done so.

Thanks for keeping the faith here, Jessica~ lots of life crap going on distracting me. I believe it's a better "tail wind and happ[ier] landings" now.

·         My Life Works Today! 

I would have to say that the point where she talks about the solitude while flying the airplane is probably the most intense part for me. I feel claustrophobic when she talks about the engine sputtering, stalling and her intentionally guiding the plane downward, gliding under 300 feet above the ocean. Her reaction to her situation amazes me, though. She doesn't view the potential ending of her flight/life with feelings of terror, but of familiarity. I guess we all practice in our heads the worst that could happen as a way of preparing for future events, even though there is never a guarantee they will go the way we plan them to. That is what she talks about - there is no need to be afraid if you've gone over it dozens of times already. All you can do is what you know.

I really like the way she ends her story here - she brings you into an experience that was so natural for her and she lets you in to a situation where you can't help but compare your possible reaction to the events with hers. Throughout the whole book, her writing resonates within me a simple reasoning to follow what your heart tells me, live my days as if that is all I have to do and know that "time [moves] on, overcoming many things it met on the way."

I'm really glad you enjoyed this book~ I see that it has actually been read more than I though it had. I don't know how many copies I've given to friends as gifts. It's just one of those books that is a quick reminder to seek some adventure.

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