Kate’s 2¢: “The Dutch House” by Ann Patchett

“The Dutch House” by Ann Patchett

Kate’s 2¢: There is a plethora of in-depth biographies of authors and reviews of their books, that state the title, author, published date, and genre; as well as,     describing what the book is about, setting, and character(s), so, Kate’s 2¢ merely shares my thoughts about what I read.  I’m just saying…

I’m so used to listening to the BARD real readers, that it takes a while to understand the synthesized voice reading a BookShare story. It is apt to voice the quote marks and astericks, as well as, all the page numbers. I think these features would be helpful to students if they were consistent in which features it announced. The synthesized cadence is a bit awkward at times, but one can get the gist of the story. The BookShare synopsis sums up the narrative arc and poses several interesting issues to ponder after reading the story.   

   Some of the thoughts expressed during a book discussion group I attended were how the house took on being a powerful character on its own and/or it symbolized the last time Mav, Dan, their Dad and Mom were a family. The author used the house as a narrative technique to focus the wide spread time-line and that the author seems to have a big house featured in most of her stories.  

   The facilitator of the Book Discussion group said her favorites by Ann Patchett were “Bell Canto”, “Magician’s assistant”, and “Commonwealth”.

From the WEB:

If you’re into watching youtube and other videos, bing ‘Ann Patchett’.

From : BookShare: Synopsis

Ann Patchett, the New York Times bestselling author of Commonwealth and State of Wonder, returns with her most powerful novel to date: a richly moving story that explores the indelible bond between two siblings, the house of their childhood, and a past that will not let them go.

“’Do you think it’s possible to ever see the past as it actually was?’ I asked my sister. We were sitting in her car, parked in front of the Dutch House in the broad daylight of early summer.”

At the end of the Second World War, Cyril Conroy combines luck and a single canny investment to begin an enormous real estate empire, propelling his family from poverty to enormous wealth. His first order of business is to buy the Dutch House, a lavish estate in the suburbs outside of Philadelphia. Meant as a surprise for his wife, the house sets in motion the undoing of everyone he loves.

The story is told by Cyril’s son Danny, as he and his older sister, the brilliantly acerbic and self-assured Maeve, are exiled from the house where they grew up by their stepmother. The two wealthy siblings are thrown back into the poverty their parents had escaped from and find that all they have to count on is one another. It is this unshakeable bond between them that both saves their lives and thwarts their futures.

Set over the course of five decades, The Dutch House is a dark fairy tale about two smart people who cannot overcome their past. Despite every outward sign of success, Danny and Maeve are only truly comfortable when they’re together. Throughout their lives they return to the well-worn story of what they’ve lost with humor and rage. But when at last they’re forced to confront the people who left them behind, the relationship between an indulged brother and his ever-protective sister is finally tested.

The Dutch House is the story of a paradise lost, a tour de force that digs deeply into questions of inheritance, love and forgiveness, of how we want to see ourselves and of who we really are. Filled with suspense, you may read it quickly to find out what happens, but what happens to Danny and Maeve will stay with you for a very long time.

A New York Times Bestseller

Copyright: 2019

Book Details

Book Quality: Publisher Quality

ISBN-13: 9780062963697

Related ISBNs: 9780062963673

Publisher: HarperCollins

Date of Addition: 11/15/19

Copyrighted By: Ann Patchett

Adult content: No

Language: English

Has Image Descriptions: No

Categories: Literature and Fiction,Parenting and Family

Submitted By: Bookshare Staff

Usage Restrictions: This is a copyrighted book.

Kate’s 2¢: “The elephant whisperer: my life with the herd in the African wild” by Lawrence Anthony with Graham Spence

“The elephant whisperer: my life with the herd in the African wild” by Lawrence Anthony with Graham Spence

Kate’s 2¢: There is a plethora of in-depth biographies of authors and reviews of their books, that state the title, author, published date, and genre; as well as,     describing what the book is about, setting, and character(s), so, Kate’s 2¢ merely shares my thoughts about what I read.  I’m just saying…

   Well done! I enjoyed every tense moment, shared in the cheers of success, and choked up with deaths and failures.

   A heart warming call to help protect the creatures with which we share this earth.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Anthony was born in Johannesburg, South Africa. In the 1920s, his grandfather, who was a miner in Berwick-upon-Tweed, England had migrated to the area to work in the gold mines. His father, who ran an insurance business, went about establishing new offices across Southern Africa; Anthony was raised in rural Rhodesia (now called Zimbabwe), Zambia, and Malawi, before settling in Zululand, South Africa.[4]

Following his father, Anthony also started his career in the insurance sector, though subsequently started working the real estate development business. Meanwhile, he started working with Zulu tribespeople, by mid-1990s, his passion for the African Bush inspired him to switch careers, when he bought the Thula Thula game reserve, spread over 5,000-acre in KwaZulu-Natal starting his career as a conservationist.[4] A turning point in career came when he was called by a conservation group to rescue a group of nine elephants who had escaped their enclosure and were wreaking havoc across Northern Mpumalanga,[5] and were about to be shot. He tried to communicate with the matriarch of the herd through the tone of his voice and body language, eventually rescued them and brought to the reserve, and in time came to be known as “Elephant-whisperer”.[1][4]

In the following years, he established a conservation group, The Earth Organization in 2003, and his efforts lead to the establishment of two new reserves, the Royal Zulu Biosphere in Zululand and the Mayibuye Game Reserve in Kwa Ximba, aimed at providing local tribe people income through wildlife tourism.[4]

Anthony had a reputation for bold conservation initiatives, including the rescue of the Baghdad Zoo at the height of the US-led Coalition invasion of Iraq in 2003, and negotiations with the infamous Lord’s Resistance Army rebel army in Southern Sudan, to raise awareness of the environment and protect endangered species, including the last of the Northern White Rhinoceros.

Anthony died of a heart attack at the age of 61 before his planned March 2012 conservation gala dinner in Durban to raise international awareness for the rhino-poaching crisis and to launch his new book, The Last Rhinos: My Battle to Save One of the World’s Greatest Creatures.[2] Following his death, there were reports that some of the elephants he worked to save came to his family’s home in accordance with the way elephants usually mourn the death of one of their own.[3]

www.grahamspence.comActions for this site

GRAHAM SPENCE is a journalist and editor. Originally from South Africa, he lives in England. Together he and Lawrence Anthony wrote Babylon’s Ark: the Incredible Wartime Rescue of the Baghdad Zoo.

From NLS/BARD/LOC:

The elephant whisperer: my life with the herd in the African wild DB85906

Anthony, Lawrence; Spence, Graham. Reading time: 13 hours, 9 minutes.

Read by Jon Huffman. A production of the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped, Library of Congress.

Animals and Wildlife

Nature and the Environment

Conservationist relates his experiences caring for a rogue herd of elephants on his South African game reserve. Describes his misgivings in accepting them, challenges faced with both the herd and local communities, lessons learned from individual elephants, and the joys and sorrows he encountered. 2009.