Tag Archives: family

Sugar Birds, by Cheryl Grey Bostrom

Sugar Birds was an atypical reading choice for me on several counts, but its convergence of birds, faith, and neurodiversity piqued my interest. Though I don’t read many fiction titles from Christian publishers, I keep an eye on them, and few, it seems, are written by naturalists or feature neurodivergent characters.

An added attraction for me was the Pacific Northwest setting. Astute descriptions of the natural world merit one endorser’s invocation of Annie Dillard. Bostrom, a poet, delivers Craftsman-style prose–clean, flowing lines, artful but free of excessive ornamentation.

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Darius the Great Is Not Okay, by Adib Khorram

A couple of years ago my daughter, then fifteen, read this book (twice, I think). She promised I would love it too. I finally got around to it, and she was right. I do–for so many reasons.

To start with, the plot spans Portland, Oregon, and Iran. Twenty-five-and-some years ago Persian language brought my husband and me together in Portland; we still live in Oregon. We later spent two years in the Persian-speaking country of Tajikistan, during which time we were able to travel for a week in Iran. It was the trip of a lifetime (we still hope to go back someday).

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Middle East refugee stories: The Mountains We Carry, by Zaid Brifkani, and A Map of Salt and Stars, by Zeyn Joukhadar

An unconscionable number of months have passed since I listened to these two audiobooks, back to back. However, the length of time between reading and review is no reflection of the impression they made.

The Map of Salt and Stars follows two journeys: An Arab-American family’s harrowing flight from Syria in 2011, and the travels of a young woman apprenticed to twelfth-century cartographer Muhammad al-Idrisi. It is not uncommon, in dual-narrative stories, for one to overshadow the other. In this case, however, both plot lines hold equal appeal. The dangers and threats of the contemporary tale impose greater suspense. But the twelfth-century tale charms with its touch of mysticism, aptly reflected by the novel’s frame-worthy cover.

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