book

Searching for Home in Tibet

I was originally drawn to this book for two reasons. One, Tibet is on my bucket list and I am determined to go there. Second, the tag line, A Journey in Search of Home made me think it had something to do with being a Third Culture Kid. TCK’s never know where home is.

This book is not about Tibet or TCK’s. Haha. Laughs on me. However, it is an amazing book!

Several years ago I had explored taking a trip to the Upper Mustang Region of Nepal. It is a remote place on the Tibetan border. Upper Mustang was a restricted area and forbidden to outsiders until 1992. Even today one needs special permits to go there and there is a limit of 1000 permits per year. It was formerly known as the Kingdom of Lo and became a dependency of Nepal from 1795 to 2008, when it ceased to exist. The capital was the ancient walled city of Lo-Manthang. It is known for its rich Tibetan culture and history.

Rose Lane, an Australian, discovered her family home was going to be sold. She hadn’t lived there in years but when she heard this it hit her hard. She felt loss and grief. As she travels on horseback through this very remote area, she reflects on what that house meant to her and the important moments she lived through growing up in that house.

It is a journey of self discovery but also a real journey. She carries with her a copy of Michael Piessel’s book, Mustang: A Lost Tibetan Kingdom, which was published in 1967. He was one of the first if not the first person from the West to travel to and write about the area. Rose notices garbage along the way, motorcycles, things he would not have seen. There is now a semblance of a road that allows people to travel on four-wheel drive jeeps to the area but mostly people still go as trekkers or on horseback. She imagined herself as Freya Stark or Alexandra David-Neel, a fearless woman explorer.

Rose takes us through vast areas of empty mountain deserts. I wished there were photos because it sounded like it was breathtaking. The trip was not easy, it was rugged. No hot water, squat toilet outhouses, milky tea and noodles, and very high altitudes but amazing sights. Monasteries, palaces, prayer flags. All worn and many destroyed from the recent earthquake.

I was enthralled by it all.

At one point she says she would like to go to Timbuktu but it is impossible to get there these days. She contacted a friend about going there and he told her that she could try stowing away in a boat and go up the river. And here is my favorite quote of the book:

“There’s fearless and then there’s stupid.”

February Books

I recently read a couple of books on the Lost Generation. Gertrude Stein An Afterlife by Francesca Wade was excellent. If you are a Gertrude fan, like I am. This book covers her life but also tells us what happened after her death. Where all her writing went, what happened to Alice. Gertrude was pretty much a nut but she had a very interesting life. I found out that in December 1970, long after she and most of her family were dead, the MOMA in New York City put on an exhibit of all the paintings they purchased. They were able to gather them up from various owners around the world and put on a show called Four Americans in Paris featuring the collected art purchased by Gertrude, her brothers Leo and Michael and Michael’s wife, Sarah.

Gertrude and her two brothers, Leo and Michael

I managed to find the brochure from the MOMA website. The exhibit is impressive with about 100 Picasso’s alone, along with Matisse, Manet, Laurencin, Gris, Cezanne and many others.

I also read The Paris Wife by Paula McLain. It is a novel based on Hemingway’s first wife, Hadley Richardson. Of course Gertrude is in it as well as Fitzgerald, Pound and others. It was an easy and interesting read. I learned a lot about Hemingway and the others. I got the impression that Hadley was his one and only true love. It made me want to learn more about Hemingway. He was another character.

I read one other book that had nothing to do with Paris. It came with all kinds of recommendations from celebrities and is on lots of “lists”. This Is How It Always Is by Laurie Frankel. It is a novel about a family with five boys except the youngest wants to be a girl. To be honest I thought this book was pretty ridiculous. But since it was presented as a novel, I read the whole thing. What topped it off for me was the Author’s Note at the end where the author spends three pages telling us about her transgender child and that this book has nothing to do with her personal story. Why? Who cares? There is no way I could ever believe this story was true. It was totally unrealistic. No reason to tell me it was not true and no reason to spend three pages doing it. Ugh.

Yes, the subject is real but the way this family handled it was truly unbelievable. My opinion.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

The Holidays

That time of year again. I spent Christmas Day watching the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Seems to be my new holiday ritual. I always see new things in it. This year I paid particular attention to the landscape since I have just been to New Zealand. I did recognize some of it. That was fun. Of course it always ends well which is another plus.

This year was pretty eventful. I went to Mexico in January. Enjoyed the good food in Oaxaca. I was surprised by how hot it was, though. Oaxaca is at 5000 feet and I would have thought it would have been cooler in January but not so. Did some traveling around the countryside and saw some ruins and some textiles and some art. All good.

I was called for Jury duty. One boring day of sitting around and then nothing more. Big disappointment. I was hoping for a juicy trial.

May took me to Miami and Key West. Another hot one. Nice to see the ocean and old friends.

In August I went to see Taliesin in Spring Green, Wisconsin. This was where Frank Lloyd Write lived and worked. He was quite the eccentric. It is a beautiful setting.

At the end of August my book came out but I had to postpone my launch until December. The launch went really well and I am pleased with the book. You should read it!

In October I went to Fiji and New Zealand. Wonderful trip. I had to go to Fiji because my father always said it was his most favorite place to visit. I would concur, it was pretty great. And New Zealand was beautiful plus I got the bonus of seeing a couple of old friends.

November was my son’s wedding. It was a lot of fun and I am happy for him.

I have three book ideas I am working on. Actually I think I have narrowed it down to two. It is kind of slow going but as the days get lighter so do I. The brain is churning away.

Looking forward to Florida, Spain, and Belgium in the new year. And who knows what else. Anything can happen!

I hope you and yours have a wonderful New Year!!

My New Book is Out!

The day has finally come. It feels like I have been working on this book forever.

But now, here it is!

I have set up some pages to go with the book. Lots of pictures and videos. Praise from readers. And info on where to get it. Also info on how to get a review copy. Click on Much More Info below or on Echoes of a Global Life in the menu above.

ECHOES OF A GLOBAL LIFE by Kathleen Gamble
A story of survival from Burma to Moscow and beyond. Memoir. Travel stories. Living in interesting times.

Echoes of a Global Life is part memoir, part travelogue, part history lesson. Kathleen lives in a world of constant change. Moving from city to city she says goodbye to one and starts to explore the next. Never two the same. She is a survivor. She keeps on going. Through trauma, including a plane crash, and other scary times, there is also humor. Kathleen was born in Asia and lived on five continents before she was eighteen. She takes you to Burma, USA, Mexico, Colombia, Nigeria, Switzerland, and Russia. She weaves in parts of each country she carries with her. Her family lives through a coup in Burma, student rioting in Colombia, two coups in Nigeria, and political unrest in Russia. Sometimes things are fabulous. Sometimes they are not. She is a Third Culture Kid, rootless and restless. As an adult she lived in Moscow for nine years during the 1990’s where she witnessed history in the making and a terrifying exit. Life is never boring.

Much more info

Summering Along

Summer is half over. Moving along. I don’t have much to show for it. I’m hoping my book will come out the second week of August. Fingers crossed.

Books I have read recently. Brazzaville Beach by William Boyd. Kind of a weird book about chimpanzees attacking each other in central Africa. It was really three stories in one and I found I was skipping over one of them because I didn’t really get how it was important to the rest of the book. I don’t know, I wasn’t crazy about it.

The Paris Novel by Ruth Reichl. I have read several of her books and I usually find them entertaining. She mostly writes about food but this is a novel about a dress. The history of the dress, the people surrounding the dress. All set in Paris. It is very light reading but good for a distraction.

I forgot all about doing the Monday photo thing. I just get distracted. The news is so disturbing lately. There was an article in The NY Times today about the couple who were caught out at the Coldplay concert. They were having an affair and the camera caught them embracing at the concert and then everybody filmed them ducking out of the camera trying to hide themselves. Of course it exploded all over the internet. The point of the article was that the guy actually did the right thing and resigned. He took responsibility. He probably didn’t have much choice and I’m sure he got a good severance package since he was the CEO of a company but these days it seems so few people are taking responsibility for their actions. People just do whatever they want and think it doesn’t matter how it will affect others. Pointing fingers directly at congress and the orange one. I really wonder how they can live with themselves.

In order to rid ourselves of all these pesky immigrants, ICE has 10,000 job openings. Can you imagine? What will this country look like this time next year? I shudder to think. And the food banks are already becoming bare. The poor are getting poorer by the minute. And they are erasing our history, taking down information from websites and information posters. Are we just waiting for the storm troopers to march down our streets?

This whole Epstein thing is ridiculous. The orange one has already been convicted of how many felonies and sexual harassments. Does anybody really care if he cavorted with a pedophile? I really wish somebody did. But I’m sure the orange one will get to Ghislaine first and shut her up. If there is anything there.

To the question whether there is any hope outside this world, since life in this world seems to be without hope, Kafka answers: ‘Plenty of hope—for God—an infinite amount of hope—only it is not for us.’ 

Maybe too dark. Maybe not. Time will tell.

A few photos from The Numbers Game #82:

Alebrijes on Raspberry Island

From the Minnesota Latino Museum: “Alebrijes are a Mexican folk art of colorful and fantastical creatures, often the combination of multiple animals (for example, the head of a fox with the body of a goose, fish fins, and horse legs). “

These creatures are made from papier-mâché and/or wood. When I visited Oaxaca in January I saw a lot of these but they were much smaller. These are giants. They are here for the summer located on Raspberry Island in the middle of the Mississippi River just south of St Paul.

In other news….

I read the second book in the Chara series, Ocean. You will remember I read the first book, Atmosphere a few weeks ago. Ocean is the second book in David Scott Moyer’s Chara series. It continues with the original characters from the first book and adds more humans from Earth into the mix. However, they have a very different mission and threaten to destroy all the first mission was able to accomplish. This book is full of tension and suspense and surprises. Again, I found it hard to put down. I recommend it and look forward to the third book in the trilogy.

I also read and enjoyed The Wedding People by Alison Espach. I found it kind of predictable but it was an overall “feel good” novel with good insights into human relationships and self discovery.

It is has been super hot here and my air-conditioning decided to quit working at the peak of the heat so have been a bit stressed lately. Was told I have to wait a week for service. Plus I just bought a new unit so not happy. Plus plumpie just started a war so am dreaming of foreign shores….

Have a great day! 🙂