Mariana Sánchez Celis has traveled the world as a pianist trained at the Juilliard School of Music. But when her mother has a stroke and her beloved uncle suddenly disappears, Mariana must put her life on hold to return to her home in Ayotlan, Mexico. She soon discovers her town is no longer the place she remembers. Ayotlan’s beaches, sea turtle colonies, and historic center are decimated under decades of neglect and abuse. What part did her late father have in this? And could it be related to her uncle’s disappearance? When Fernanda Lucero, a member of the indigenous Concáac people, convinces Mariana to join her sea turtle and architectural conservation projects, the deepening love between Mariana and Fernanda threatens to put them both further in harm’s way. This, together with the web of secrets Mariana unravels, stands to radically transform her and her family’s fate. Arribada is the story of a well-to-do woman pushed to confront her role in environmental and social injustice. It is the saga of a family faced with the realization that their comfortable position rests, beyond a strong work ethic, on crimes against what they hold dearest: the natural world, their town, and their loved ones.
Book Review: Educated
Review by Gold Mine Processing Associate Eric Brown
Educated is a memoir by the American author Tara Westover. Tara recounts overcoming her survivalist Mormon family in order to go to college, and emphasizes the importance of education in enlarging her world.
She explores her struggle to reconcile her desire to learn with the world she inhabited with her father.
Tara details her journey from her isolated life in the mountains of Idaho to completing a PhD program in history at Cambridge University. She started college at the age of 17 having had no formal education. She explores her struggle to reconcile her desire to learn with the world she inhabited with her father.
Having grown up in rural southern Idaho, reading this memoir was more relatable and tangible than other memoirs I have read. Her story of resiliency, courage, and hope is inspiring for me, as well as many others.
Unsaid, but Understood
Listening and Silence in Sabrina & Corina
with Dr. Dora Ramírez
The Latinx/Indigenous community’s experiences and stories in Kali Fajardo-Anstine’s short story collection Sabrina & Corina are often told through silence, of what is left unsaid. In “Ghost Sickness,” Ana’s mom reminds her that memory “doesn’t have to be story-memory […] It can be a picture, a feeling” (202). This text draws out intergenerational trauma by letting us enter the experiences of two generations struggling to take ownership and define the community’s historical memory. The older generation in this text carry an incredible burden of pain and disappointment, of the racism the community has experienced including environmental degradation, the missing and murdered women, and the effects of colonization on the family structure. The younger generation slowly learns to understand what is left unsaid in their community as they learn to read the silences.
Dr. Dora Ramírez is a Professor of Ethnic Studies and the Director of the Anti-Racism Collective at Boise State University in the Department of Sociology. She holds a doctorate in English, with a focus on Ethnic Literature, from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Her research focuses on ideas of nation-building while examining the internalization of socio-political global effects and the influence of colonization among Latinx and Indigenous populations in the United States and the U.S./Mexico border. Her work appears in various journals and she is the author of Medical Fragmentation: Literary Modernism, Scientific Discourse, and the Mexican, Indigenous Body, 1870-1940s which analyzes the medical industry’s colonial influences on indigenous peoples at the turn of the 19th century. She is currently working on a book titled, Victim: Another Meaning, which analyzes the rhetorical uses of the concept “victim” and seeks to disentangle the varied definitions from the reality of what it means to be a victim in a polarized and racialized society in contemporary United State culture.
This event is part of the 2023 Winter Read of Sabrina & Corina. Read more about the Winter Read here.
The program will be livestreamed and available to watch later. Click here to watch online.
“Sperm Whales: The Gentle Goliaths of the Ocean”
with Gaelin Rosenwaks
For centuries, the sperm whale has fascinated us—the world’s largest toothed predator. Like many of our co-inhabitants on the planet, sperm whales were nearly hunted to the brink of extinction. While the most famous sperm whale of all is Moby Dick, it was a young male nicknamed Physty—who fell ill in the early 1980s and came ashore just off Long Island, New York—that captured the heart of Gaelin Rosenwaks and started her on a career in marine science: studying, protecting, and documenting the world’s most marvelous ocean species.
SPERM WHALES: THE GENTLE GOLIATHS OF THE OCEANS is a beautiful look at these magnificent animals. In the waters off Dominica, Rosenwaks observed—eye to eye—the close bond between mother and child firsthand. What she found is that these animals live in matriarchal family units made up of remarkable females that stay together for generations. Like elephants and humans, they take care of one another. She was able to document them sleeping, playing, nursing, and so much more about their vibrant lives both under the sea, and above it. Through her breathtaking photography and inspiring words, readers can join Rosenwaks and the whales and be inspired to help save them for future generations.
Join us for an evening with Gaelin as she discusses her book and work. This program will be in-person only (no livestream or recording available). A book signing with Chapter One Bookstore will follow. In partnership with Dent the Future.
Gaelin Rosenwaks is a marine scientist, explorer, photographer, filmmaker and author of Sperm Whales: The Gentle Goliaths of the Oceans (Rizzoli, 2022). She began her career at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution conducting research in Antarctica and then earned her Master’s Degree in Coastal Environmental Management from Duke University researching Giant Bluefin Tunas. Alarmed by the changes happening in the oceans, Gaelin founded Global Ocean Exploration Inc. to share her passion for ocean exploration, marine conservation and storytelling. She now participates and conducts expeditions in every ocean to alert the public not only to the challenges facing the oceans, but also to what science is doing to understand these changes.
A Fellow of the Explorers Club and Royal Geographical Society and Member of the Society of Women Geographers, she has published articles in scientific journals, newspapers and magazines and has delivered lectures at global conferences and many institutions. She has appeared as an expert and host on TV programs including on The Discovery Channel, Science Channel, CBS News, and National Geographic Channel, and is one of the few women to be featured on the cover of Outside Magazine. Her photography has been displayed in many exhibitions, including solo exhibitions at Duke University, The Maritime Aquarium, and the Patagonia Upper West Side Store in NYC. To Gaelin, a licensed Coast Guard Captain, there is nothing better than being in the open ocean surrounded by endless blue water and passing wildlife. She is also completing a film, Finding Physty, about her personal connection to these majestic animals.
Register for the event here. (No livestream or recording available.)
Book Review: Love on the Brain
by Ali Hazelwood
Reviewed by Sara Zagorski, Gold Mine Thrift Store Retail Manager
Now, I’m not generally one to (admit that I) like romance books or anything of the genre, but after the holidays I most definitely needed a bit of lighter fanfare than my usual sort. During the last bit of the year my stress level is generally at an all-time high and whatever book I find myself reading has no business adding to it. Queue: Love on the Brain.
Two mortal nemeses find themselves paired together on a project for NASA that will either make or break Dr. Bee Königswasser’s career. Bee has devoted herself to neuroengineering and the simple question: What would Marie Curie do? From the very beginning the pushback from said nemesis, Levi Ward, is apparent and disheartening. The two had previously met in grad school where Ward made his feelings rather obnoxiously known—that life would be a heck of a lot easier if they stayed galaxies far, far away. (There’s a lot of Star Wars references sprinkled throughout, both a treat and an all-too-typical nerd trope. I digress.) Bee is determined to overcome this and prove to Ward that, not only is she the best fit academically for the new technology they’re seeking to implement, but also a more than capable scientist overall.
…life would be a heck of a lot easier if they stayed galaxies far, far away.
In addition to her workplace drama, she also finds herself the secret owner of a Twitter account that’s reached accidental fame, partially due to its questioning of the systems set into place concerning traditional testing and acceptance of new students into doctorate programs. She takes her real-life fight and that of her internet crusade on with an ardor that’s both admirable and exhausting to consider.
My final thoughts are as follows. Entertaining? Certainly. Light-hearted? Yes, as long as you don’t actually sit and dwell on the practices and (still somehow) modern thoughts about women in science. Would I read it again? Probably, ask me around January 5th next year.
Winter Read Kickoff and Exhibition Opening
“La Catrinas: A Celebration of Mexican Culture”
Join us as we kick off the 2023 Winter Read of Sabrina & Corina: Stories by Kali Fajardo-Anstine.
We’ll be opening a new exhibit, giving away books, and sharing how you can participate in this community-wide read!
The exhibit, “La Catrinas: A Celebration of Mexican Culture,” features the exceptional paper mache art of Mexican artist Carlos Lecanda and showcases a variety of traditional characters with an exclusive art piece inspired by Fajardo-Anstine’s stories, all crafted with intricate detail and expert technique.
Carlos Lecanda is a skilled and highly regarded artist who has been creating beautiful and expressive paper mache art for many years and has received numerous public acclaim for its craftsmanship and cultural significance. The exhibit is a celebration of Mexican culture and heritage, as expressed through the art of Catrinas. These elegantly dressed skeletons are a popular theme in Mexican art and folklore, and are often used to honor the deceased and celebrate the cycle of life. Lecanda has captured the essence of these characters in a way that is both beautiful and thought-provoking.
The exhibit will be open to the public from January 30 through late March.
The Winter Read is a community-wide read and collaboration with the Hailey Public Library, Bellevue Public Library, and Stanley Community Library. Read more about the Winter Read and upcoming events here.
