Resources: Eagle Harbor Book Company

I missed Yan Martel's reading of his Life of Pi last evening. Fortunately, fellow blogger Wendy made it and posted a review worth reading (as is her site).

"Yann Martel spoke at a the bookstore here on Bainbridge Island Friday night. His novel, Life of Pi, is re-releasing (they do this with books now, not just movies, apparently) with an illustrated edition. Winner of an international contest for illustrations of Life of Pi, Croatian Tomislav Torjanac also commented on the slide presentation and discussed his artistic process.


"I read this book last year for my book club, and we had The Best discussion afterwards. Martel carefully crafted the story to leave it to readers to decide which of two versions describing how a shipwrecked boy lived after more than 200 days adrift at sea was The True Version.

"I was giddy hearing Martel discuss what he felt about choices of reason versus faith.

"The only annoyance of the evening came in the form of a woman who twice asked questions/commented and started each time by saying, “I haven’t read your book, but….” She was probably the only one on the whole block and yet, there she was taking up Our Time, those of us with Questions, those of us looking for Answers (or at least hints) from Martel about which is The True Story.

"Geesh, lady!! How about you go home, read the book, and then come ask your questions? Or, I know, how about you just go home?

"It was like being at a Queen concert, singing all the words to all the songs, and having some tall, fat bozo blocking your view and gazing around the room, like he took a wrong turn going to the James Taylor concert. Who even let you in here? We have serious artistic worshipping to do and you are IN. THE. WAY!

"Other than Her, I had an amazing time and feel like I should be writing up a report to present for my fellow book club losers members who could not attend.

"Nah. Maybe I’ll keep all Martel’s explanations to myself. He he he he……"

A Coloradan's impression of Bainbridge

You know I'm biased about Bainbridge because I gave up a tenured position to move back here. It's nice to be able to report that I'm not alone in my opinion of how strong the sense of community is on the island. Here's a post written by a visitor from Colorado:


One night in Bainbridge

On a recent trip to the Northwest, I went to a reading and book signing by Washington Congressman Jay Inslee. Inslee, a member of the House Natural Resource Committee, just wrote a new book, Apollo’s Fire, about building a clean energy economy in the United States and I the world. After the talk, reading and questions, the conversation inevitably shifted from energy to conservation.The crowd of 200 that packed into Bainbridge Island’s Eagle Harbor Book Company talked values and ethics as they relate to the environment. Even Inslee commented that the transition from discussions of clean energy to conservation values often occur in his public forums.The best part: This audience was genuine, engaged and informed. I was curiously overwhelmed with a sense that all was not lost. At least this group of people on this night could make relevant connections among their personal outdoor and environmental ethics, the ethics of their community and their natural environment. It was exhilarating.
-Susy

Mortenson on Bainbridge

Another reason to love living here. Bainbridge (and beyond: the rest of Kitsap County) was asked by Eagle Harbor Book Company and the Kitsap Library to read Three Cups of Tea, the story of Greg Mortenson's mission to build schools for girls in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Last evening, the high school gym was packed to the back doors with those of us who read the book. I came away with a keen sense that fighting terrorists is futile; that fighting for peace through education is powerful and worth while. I learned that a penny buys a pencil in Pakistan, and that that pencil gives hope to someone's future mother. A penny! Over and over Mr. Mortenson stressed an African proverb: To educate a boy is to educate an individual; to educate a girl is to educate a community. I have a renewed appreciation not only of what Mr. Mortenson is doing in the Middle East but of what our teachers are doing right here.