One of our warm-weather correspondents, Elaine Hills, has written again. Last spring when she stopped in at school, she said she had some contributions in her pocket, but we didnžt find time to get to them. Well, they arrived by e-mail and they were worth waiting for.

"I hope it is okay to e-mail you at this address still. How fun to see my name in print. I really should slow down when I describe these books to you. Some of what I said probably didn't make sense to all. Oh well, such is life in a hurry.

"Here are my long overdue recommendations that I promised you back in May:

"First is Linda Hogan. A couple years back I read, and then out of sheer love for the novel, re-read Mean Spirit. I recommend it to all who love and appreciate works written by and about Native Americans (or whichever politically "correct" term you choose for indigenous peoples that our government has repeatedly lead on and on). Well, I didn't mean to get political, but it is an election year and I fear greatly for our society. Anyhow Mean Spirit is a must. So I decided to take another shot at Linda's work, this time her poetry. I read the collection titled the Book of Medicines. I really enjoy the way Linda presents an interplay between Catholicism and native traditions. What moved me most was the poem entitled Grandmother's Songs.

"Since I was reading for pleasure this summer, I saw no need to stray from my interests, so then grabbed Louise Erdrich's Tracks. Louise is another native writer with ties closer to good ol' Minnesnowta (I believe). Louise also wrote Love Medicine (which I read a few years ago but mistakenly tried to read during school). Love Medicine was a little confusing to me because I kept picking it up and then putting it down. You can't do this with her novels because each character is a part of a web of stories. She continues these webs with the same family of characters in Love Medicine, The Beet Queen, and Tracks (I don't recall the order).

"Tracks was a lot easier for me because I sat down and just read it (and loved it). Louise gives an excellent representation of the battle between Native tradition and those who've adopted Catholicism. Louise's writing is very symbolic. She starts slowly, but can reel in any attentive reader. For me this was especially interesting because I don't adopt any set of spiritual beliefs. Most refer to me as atheist if they have to. To me, I'm just me and I know that I can't stand the thought of Catholicism. Tracks simultaneously analyzes Catholicism and native spirituality from both the inside and outside perspectives. Tracks shows that there are struggles to deal with from both sides. Some readers might attribute the strength or weaknesses of the characters to certain beliefs in gods or spirits. I think Louise does a great job of leaving this open for the reader. I would say these characters get their strengths from within themselves as they should.

"I've been slacking on the reading for the last month or so. My spare time consists of contacting speakers and submitting proposals on them for the anthropology club I'm heading up here at USF. My first speaker is going to be Jonathan Marks who is a physical anthropologist from Yale. He wrote a book titled Human Biodiversity: Genes, Race and History. I plan on reading that next, providing that it isn't too much of a textbook. I have 18-credit hours ahead of me this fall for textbook reading. I've been working full time this summer as a teller at a local credit union. I figured I would have more time for reading, but my boss likes to put me at the main windows where our members always go first because she knows I'll get the job done. So much for being a slacker on the job. I'm sure I'll thank myself in the long run."

Thanks, Elaine, for the Linda Hogan recommendation and the reminder about Louise Erdrich. Ižve been a fan of her books since I read Love Medicine (which I liked better than the later ones). The mystery of the summer will be, did you really read Human Biodiversity: Genes, Race and History?

Salon interview with Louise Erdrich.
Profile of Louise Erdrich from "Voices from the Gap" project at the University of Minnesota
Profile of Linda Hogan from "Voices from the Gap" project at the University of Minnesota