News
Read to Roam Book for March
"Fencing with the King" by Diana Abu-Jaber
I've wondered if we each carry an ancestral homeland in our DNA--a familiarity with a place from which our great, great, great grandparents came. Perhaps you've traveled to that tiny corner of Finland that your relatives left a century and a half ago, or that farm on the coast of Ireland or that city in east Africa from which your family was once exiled and you've experienced that sense of recognition.
Diana Abu-Jaber's newest novel interrogates this idea. Her father emigrated from Jordan when he was a young man--upset that his marriage proposal had been refused-- and her grandmother, her dad's mother--had come from Palestine and into Jordan in the years before she married.
So, Diana carries the blood of Jordanian Bedouin and refugee Palestinians in her veins--a "tribe of poets, dreamers and storytellers," she says, and she's interested in what a homeland means to the generations that follow.
Here's how her central character, Amani, a 31 year old poet whose life has undergone some tumutuous change, contemplates this in "Fencing with the King:" as she travels to Jordan: "She told herself this place wasn't really meant for her. It wasn't her province. And yet she felt it calling--a long breath exhaled through her dreams, drawing her like a summons, attracting and frightening her as she entered."
Where is SirenSojourns Going??
Thank you to all of the new subscribers who are now traveling the world through books with my Roaming & Reading newsletter!
Some of you have emailed to ask where I'm headed beyond what's featured on the SirenSojourns.com website.
Cue the Carly Simon soundtrack: "Anti-c-i-pa-a-tion....."
So, since we're among friends, here are the trips (and dreams) in progress on the secret whiteboard in Siren World Headquarters:
Cuba, Mid-April 2024. (chicks-only) The itinerary will be up on the SirenSojourns site by late spring.
Kayaking in the Galapagos Islands/Amazon Rain Forest.
A hiking trip to Albania, one of Europe's last, uncrowded spectacular destinations. You won't believe the stunning scenery!
A Reader's Pilgrimage on The Portugal Way that winds along the Galician coast.
Dolomites & the Letterature Festival in Italy.
Antarctica.
If any or all of those trips ignite wanderlust in you, email me and I'll be sure to keep you in the loop as the trip planning comes together.
Kerri's Adventurous Book Club
I've chosen the next book for my Adventurous Book Club and it will be arriving on your doorstep from a Midwestern indie bookstore in early April.
I think you're going to love this novel!
Join the Book Club by March 20th and I'll put you on the list for April's adventurous mailing!
Sightsee in a Library!
One of my fave things to do in Amsterdam is visit their waterfront public library. It's beautiful and welcoming with a great little cafe that serves luscious soup. In fact, I visit a public library in almost every burg I go to.
Here's a cool article from Book Riot about repurposed buildings that now house books!