Moloka'i

Moloka'i by Alan Brennert

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


The good thing about being a member of a book club is going out of your comfort zone and reading books you wouldn't have chosen. Some of my favorite authors I never knew about until I learned about them through a book club. And the other side of the coin is sometimes I feel obligated to read a genre I don't really like.

I don't like historical fiction, but I read this book to the bitter end. Moloka'i is an island of Hawaii that became a leper colony in the 1800's. The story follows the life of Rachel who developed leprosy at the age of seven through over fifty years of living on Moloka'i. The story covers the history of Hawaii as it unfolded in the secluded lives on Molokai, through changes in government, war, tsunami, clinical trials and an eventual cure for what is now called Hansen's Disease.

Rachel leads a productive life in spite of being separated from her family and having little contact from them for many years. It is a very sad story.

The author weaves in some of Hawaiian tradition that ran counter to the teachings of the Catholic missionaries who taught and nursed the residents of the colony. I found the burial traditions most poignant when carried out by Rachel in spite of her Christian upbringing.

I didn't hate this book, but it did seem to go on and on and on.



View all my reviews

Goal Setting for the New Year - Staying on Track

By Guest Blogger Melanie Bowen:

For many, the start of a new year means new beginnings and new resolutions to undertake. To help improve quality of life, having tangible goals and putting your thoughts into words is crucial to crystallizing intent and helping ensure that you follow through with your dreams.

Writing down a goal helps it become more concrete. For example, a familiar New Year's resolution for many people is, "I want to lose weight." However, many people fail to write down this mantra. Over time, it is easy to become distracted. Writing this goal down somewhere you will look at it every day is a better way to remind yourself of your dream.

Blogging is a great way to start the process. With virtually the entire Internet as your audience, you are more accountable to upholding your promises. The support you can receive from followers on the road to achieving your goal can be overwhelming and help you face odds with determination and confidence even through difficult setbacks. For example, for people suffering from rare cancers like mesothelioma to a more common disorder like diabetes, the love and support that an unexpected community can provide can be the push one needs to make it through any prognosis.

Here are some easy ways to start the process:

- Write down your goals on paper. This will help you create concrete objectives so you can accomplish your goals.

- Be specific. Set goals for yourself that are realistic and obtainable, the more specific the better. For example, "I will take one hour out of each day for myself" is more realistic than "I will make sure to have free time."

- Set a period of time in which to accomplish your goal.

- Share your goals! Communicating with others will help you feel accountable to yourself. Once you finish them, the support and encouragement you get will continue to spur you on.


As you begin to accomplish your goals, your quality of life will improve. This method works not only for resolutions like weight loss, but also for overall lifestyle improvements. Are there things you've always wanted to do, or places you've always wanted to go? Make a list. Put the ideas into concrete words. This will reinforce the desire to accomplish those things, and soon you will feel empowered and strong enough to do anything.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (The Movie)

I read the book months ago and reviewed it here. It was one of those books that grabbed me and wouldn't let go until I had read all three books in the trilogy. I like to read the book before I see the movie.

Books usually allow you to use your imagination for the details of a person's appearance. Even though Stieg Larsson left little to the imagination in portraying Lisbeth Salander with her diminuitive size, her piercings, and that graphic tattoo, in my mind she became less harsh in her appearance as the story developed. I started to see her as a frail victim of a system that treated her as disposable.

The movie on the other hand gives you this and you deal with it even as you see her softer side, the vulnerable little girl with a kick-butt attitude.

I saw Rooney Mara in an interview this week. She has dimples, and she actually blushed when Ann Curry talked about her Golden Globe nomination. Where could Rooney's portrayal of Lisbeth Salander come from? She said she had read the books, and fell in love with the character as millions of readers did.

I saw the movie today. Hubby hasn't read the book, and probably won't. While I was enthralled with Mara's performance, he was watching the time tick away. It's a loooong movie, at 158 minutes. I didn't notice the length until it got to the anti-climactic part after the Harriet story had been solved. Then I realized the movie had missed too much of the Lisbeth story that I read in the book, and the reason I kept reading through three episodes. The movie makes her a background character. I will say though that Rooney Mara made the most of her time on the screen. All the subtle looks of disgust, endearment, fear tell a lot about the girl fighting to have her life back, even without the backstory of confinement in mental institutions when she was a little girl. I suppose the screen-writer is saving that for the next installment.

I give the movie four stars.

I'm Done!

I reached my goal in NaNoWriMo. No, I didn't complete writing 50,000 words in the month of November, 2011 and I won't get a certificate for winning the challenge. I did what I set out to do, which was to complete the novel I started in NaNo2009 and NaNo2010. I reached the end of the story, and I did it before my Thanksgiving company arrived, with a few days to spare.

I will say that this time NaNoWriMo was a life-changing experience. I've never done that kind of heads-down pounding out words, most of which had something to further the plot of my story. Sometimes my characters went off in directions I had not planned for them, but they and I grew in the process. We grew so much that I changed my working title again. This one I'm not ready to reveal, but it has more grit than the first two titles I tried.

I have backed up this one, my first draft and don't intend to even look at it again until January. I have Thanksgiving and Holiday parties to get through before I'll be ready for the tearing apart and rewriting of my Nano-stuff. Wish me luck.