Reviews By Charline

“Shine in Kashmir”

Author: D. Chris Castagna

I came across the title “Shine in Kashmir” a few weeks back and decided to read / review it. One of the main reasons for my choice was because the author, D. Chris Castagna, has set this novel in India. I, myself, have done a fair amount of world-traveling but unfortunately I haven’t made it to India yet. I find that India intrigues me, for a variety of reasons, and I was curious to see what route Castagna’s story would take and how much of a part India, as a country, would play in it.

My copy arrived and after closely examining the cover artwork I began my journey through Castagna’s novel. In the story “Shine in Kashmir” we, the reader, follow Justin Conrad, a twenty-four year old American who has just finished his Fulbright Scholarship in Sri Lanka. For his travels Justin packs the basics he needs to survive plus his journal and his camera. His camera is probably one of his most important items since Justin realizes that words may not correctly convey what happened and memories do fade but a picture will always stay true to his actual encounters. Consequently when his trusty little Pentax broke and couldn’t be repaired by the date he planned to set out on his next travels Justin was understandably upset. Luckily he did happen to find an inexpensive Kodak marked “For Sale Only in India” to take its place. After getting the camera situation resolved and stocking up on reading material Justin leaves Delhi headed for Ladakh. What he discovers there is nothing short of miraculous and yet his adventures aren’t over. He winds up in Kashmir, the city that the book’s title is based on, and you would think that the story ends there but…it doesn’t. We actually follow Justin all the way to Peru which is where he finally finds that “certainty” he has been searching for all this time.

As far as my thoughts, I found “Shine in Kashmir” to be an interesting read. It certainly delved into a lot of the things that makes India unique to the rest of the world: tantra, Buddhist traditions, the Islam conflict and Hermetic ways of thinking just to name a few. Overall I found “Shine in Kashmir” to be a well-written book. Castagna has done a good job of making the plot interesting, the various characters and their dialogues are easy to follow, and the way the Indian culture, people and places are described makes it easy to see that the author has actually lived there.

“From Jerusalem to Beverly Hills: Memoir of a Palestinian Jew”

Author: Eitan Gonen

A couple weeks ago I was asked if I would be interested in reviewing “From Jerusalem to Beverly Hills: Memoir of a Palestinian Jew” by author Eitan Gonen. I really enjoy reading biographies; I love learning about some of the other people whom I share this world with so I immediately accepted. To sum up quickly…“From Jerusalem to Beverly Hills” was a riveting read. This was a book I was immediately sucked into as soon as I began reading and I didn’t want to put it down. Gonen has a wonderfully descriptive writing style. His life story is amazingly interesting and his personal memories flow across the pages of this book with the same ease that water runs downstream.

In “From Jerusalem to Beverly Hills” Gonen explains how his parents, pioneers from the Soviet Ukraine Diaspora, came to be in Jerusalem. Gonen’s own recounting begins in Jerusalem when he is just four years old and I was impressed by the amount of detail he remembers from such an early age. Gonen shares the challenges his mother had with various schools when she was trying to enroll him in first grade. A religious school eventually accepted him and we follow along as Gonen shares with us his life as he remembers it. During all of this World War II was also happening. Gonen shares his memories of waiting for his father, who had taken a construction job with the British military, to come home. Toward the end of the war the British were limiting Jewish immigration and there were times when Gonen’s father worked too far away and could not safely make it back for Shabbat.

I don’t want to give any more of Gonen’s story away but I will say that he has definitely lived a full life. He has endured much: hunger, personal loss, family displacement and more. He has seen things that no one should have to see. He has experienced things that no one should have to go through and yet through it all I would say he has triumphed. He is a true survivor.

In closing I give “Jerusalem to Beverly Hills” a five-star rating and would say this book is a “must read” for anyone who loves biographies or history.