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Circling the Sun: A Novel

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Dwarf planet Pluto, on the other hand, has a fairly squashed orbit. Mercury, the closest planet to the sun, has the most eccentric orbit, with the difference between the distance at perihelion and aphelion being 0.17 AU. That is quite a lot for Mercury, which orbits on average at only 0.39 AU. I had a hard time reading the ending because I knew how it would end for her and Denys. That's the negative thing about reading a book about real people. You know how it all will end. Also, it was a bit hard to read about her and Denys because in my mind he and Karen have always been a couple since the first time I saw Out of Africa. I loved Beryl and Denys together, but at the same time, I felt that they were betraying Karen. It's tough sometimes to read books. Beryl is forced to be independent from a very young age. How do you think this shaped her personality?

Eventually she finds love with a different sort of man, a gentle and wealthy aristocrat from England who claims a desire to fulfill her ambitions to have her own horse farm in the land she calls home. But on a visit home with her and their infant son, he changes his mind under the influence of his dominating snobby mother. The scenes with her visiting her son, telling him stories of Africa and promising to show it all to him someday, were particularly moving for me. Enchanting . . . a worthy heir to [Isak] Dinesen . . . Like Africa as it's so gorgeously depicted here, this novel will never let you go." -- The Boston Globe I skimmed the last third of this book, frustrated that such a self-indulgent character was being passed off as progressive. The writing, which flowed richly at the start, degenerated into passages similar to those Hollywood quasi-intellectual quotes of the "if you build it they will come" variety. Tired dialogue, with cliche reflections on the nature of women's independence. If you loved Out of Africa, the book and/ or the movie, you will be enthralled . You'll see the same beautiful and wild Kenya and meet again with Karen Blixen and Denys Finch Hattan. I wish I could do justice to the wonderful story telling and writing by Paula McLain. The author notes that Markham wrote a memoir called West With the Night and I look forward to reading it . The narration by Katharine McEwan was good, but her voice fits better the young naive Beryl of her youth rather than the determined woman she came to be. It was slow, which I like. Sometimes I could not distinguish every word clearly.

Reader Reviews

This novel is a fictionalized account of a remarkable woman, Beryl Markham, who lived in the early part of the 20th Century in Kenya as a horse trainer. The story is very captivating and maintains a solid pace throughout. Though I read this a couple of years ago, I thoroughly enjoyed it and it remains somewhat clear in my memory (I have recall issues from a Traumatic Brain Injury 9 years ago). So, it made a very positive impression! And yet. And yet. As Janis Joplin famously sang, “Freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose.” At one pivotal soiree, one of the characters says, “It’s all just a little empty…I don’t understand that kind of sport.” Liberated from conventions and propriety, Beryl is untamable and often unlikable. The one constant is her self-absorption (e.g., her friendship with Karen Blixen and her betrayal of that friendship to pursue an affair with Fitch Haddon. Or her several marriages of convenience while loving the unattainable Denys.) Self-absorbed people can often be fun to be around…until they aren’t anymore. Beryl is forced to be independent from a very young age. How do you think this shaped her personality (for better or for worse)? After meeting Karen Blixen, aka Isak Dinesen (author of Out of Africa,) Markham starts comparing herself to Blixen and theorizing about which woman can snag the rustic, Whitman-quoting adventurer who's now her "soulmate." Years later, when the two say goodbye, Markham has her Field of Dreams moment and reflects on the novel that Blixen would soon write about her years in Africa: a b Dawkins, Richard (2016). "The Poverty of Agnosticism". The God Delusion (10th Anniversaryed.). Random House. pp.69–77. ISBN 9781784161934.

While it is clear he loved his daughter, do you feel Beryl’s father was a good parent? Do you think Beryl would have said he was? Did you sympathize with him at any point?Abandoned as a young girl by her mother who leaves Beryl and her father to return to England, Beryl forms a bond with her father and begins a life long love affair with Kenya . She becomes an amazing , independent woman , a horse trainer in a world dominated by men and later an aviatrix flying solo across the Atlantic. Her independent spirit fostered by her aloneness as she ran wild as a child and which couldn't be tamed by school, by her father or her husbands is beautiful to see , I have to say. Clearly we have a great deal of evidence against teapotism. For example, as far as we know, the only way a teapot could have gotten into orbit around the sun would be if some country with sufficiently developed space-shot capabilities had shot this pot into orbit. No country with such capabilities is sufficiently frivolous to waste its resources by trying to send a teapot into orbit. Furthermore, if some country had done so, it would have been all over the news; we would certainly have heard about it. But we haven't. And so on. There is plenty of evidence against teapotism. [9]

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