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Honored Contributor
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Registered: ‎03-12-2010

Re: WHAT ARE YOU READING? AUGUST 2019

[ Edited ]

I'm reading a book called NIMA by an author whose name I can't spell.  It takes place on and around Mt. Everest and it's not very good so below are the interesting parts so if you're interested, you don't have to read it:

 

The author lived at base camp and knows what he writes, he worked for BBC for years and wrote magazine articles.

 

Nima lives on the Nepal side basically at the base of Everest and I had no idea these particular gentle Buddhist sherpas on the whole are terrible to their women.  Who knew?   

 

Most people know all people from Nepal people are oppressed (Tibetans, worse) but in this insular society the women are oppressed by their own. 

 

ETA:  (actually correct( it's Nepal, not Tibet.  Sorry!

Should have realized.  They don't have it easy in Nepal either but nothing like Tibet's problems and the sherpas live in Nepal and take that side's route up the mountain.

 

They are a tiny slice of Nepal, have never been to a city, their houses along with the occupants are regularly buried by avalanches so they're a closed society.  We need Margaret Mead here...

 

They don't even give the girls names.  Nima's family  has six girls and they are Eldest (her), Fifth, Fourth, etc.  The boy has a name!   

 

And they have bartered, arranged marriages -- her man was getting her AND her sister.  This is a novel but this stuff is real.  And the male sherpas beat their women, a lot. 

 

The women spend their time cooking, cleaning, having sex with thier men (and if your sister is married to him too, you sleep in the same bed) and birthing numbered girls and named boys.  And spend much of their time collecting dried yak dung, which above the treeline substitutes for firewood.

 

Nima wants to be a sherpa climbing up the mountain.  The mountain is precious to them and also guides are the only ones who make a good living.  Besides, Nima wants to be more than just a beaten yak-dung collecting baby factory.

 

But they don't allow women to be sherpas, to haul let alone climb.  They don't allow them up the mountain -- they're considered bad omens.

 

So she's run away from home the day before the wedding and is going to disguise herself as a man so she can live the life she wants, as a sherpa.  Hoping to work her way up to the elite group that gets to go all the way up the mountain.

 

Here's a little sample of how she's treated when she first tries to haul some cargo off-loaded from a small plane ahead of an expedition.  The head guy says to her:

 

"' What kind of woman comes alone to work?  Huh?  Women alone on the mountain is a bad omen and bad omens bring bad fortune.  Go back to where you belong.  Get out of here or we'll drop you into the gully.  No one will find you, no one will care.'"  .

 

Very fast book, even for me, classified for adults but the writing is more YA or even children's book at times.  

 

I've read multiple books about Everest but no focus on these insular sherpas and their culture. I've only read about Sir Edmund Hillary's beloved sherpa guide Tenzing Norgay and recently the 19 sherpas who died in one day in the same avalanche while preparing the mountain for the expeditions.

 

This small group of Nepalese Buddhist sherpas in this book resent the climbers without whom their lives would be even harder, much harder. 

 

I don't like reading the prejudiced name they use to describe the climbers.  Nima uses it too.   It upsets me.  But so do all the expeditions that take big money from wealthy climbers who don't have proper experience or training and who die themselves and litter the mountain with their bodies and trash and much worse, endanger others and even cause their deaths.

 

Very few people are born into this life and it's a rare inside look.

 

Once she's disguised as a man, in just a few pages, it will be her climbing and I've read and seen plenty about that.  I've referred to this book as Yentl of the Himalayas.

 

ETA:  So she hit the "city" (it's tiny), cut off her hair and got a job.  That's not why I'm adding it.  The city,in real life has a restaurant called YakDonald's and I just assumed it was connected to McDonald's but no, it's not.  Nor is the Starbucks, a fake, a climber tells her, clueless she has no idea what Starbucks is.

 

Do I recommend the book?  No, it's not well-written.  And hard to take.  But they are a unique people and that's why I wrote this.   Hope somebody enjoys reading it.  If not I won't know because you're not still reading it LOL.

 

[The Discovery Channel series Everest:  Beyond The Limit is re-run a lot, multiple seasons, nothing from the sherpas' side but it does show some of the very hard work they do, it follows the same expedition leader each season and the filming is amazing.  Also available on Comcast On Demand.]

 

 

 

 

Honored Contributor
Posts: 11,931
Registered: ‎03-09-2010

Re: WHAT ARE YOU READING? AUGUST 2019

Miss Julia Takes The Wheel, by Ann B. Ross.  Book #20

"Live frugally, but love extravagantly."
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Registered: ‎03-15-2010

Re: WHAT ARE YOU READING? AUGUST 2019

@LoriLori - very interesting about the Everest sherpas!

Honored Contributor
Posts: 12,110
Registered: ‎03-12-2010

Re: WHAT ARE YOU READING? AUGUST 2019


@dawg lover wrote:

@LoriLori - very interesting about the Everest sherpas!


 

Yay, you liked it!  Thanks!

Esteemed Contributor
Posts: 6,775
Registered: ‎08-30-2015

Re: WHAT ARE YOU READING? AUGUST 2019

I pulled the plug on American Marriage by Tayari Jones I just could no get into it.

 

Now reading I Let Her In by Adela Parks so far I am enjoying it very much!

Esteemed Contributor
Posts: 6,775
Registered: ‎08-30-2015

Re: WHAT ARE YOU READING? AUGUST 2019

I just read a part in the book I am currently reading I let her in, that literally makes my stomach turn, I need to take a break!

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Re: WHAT ARE YOU READING? AUGUST 2019


@CareBears wrote:

I just read a part in the book I am currently reading I let her in, that literally makes my stomach turn, I need to take a break!


Pull out one of the Mitford Series that always calms me down @CareBears Heart

"Live frugally, but love extravagantly."
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Posts: 3,539
Registered: ‎03-14-2010

Re: WHAT ARE YOU READING? AUGUST 2019


@LoriLori wrote:

@smoky22 wrote:

I read The Honey Bus by Meredith May (A Memoir of Loss, Courage and a Girl Saved By Bees).  This book is so beautifully written.  It's heartbreaking, heartwarming and  inspirational.  

 

I have to contrast it with Educated, the story of a brainwashed girl who went back to her dysfunctional family again and again.  I know it was very popular but that's my opinion.  I got nothing out of that book.

 

The Honey Bus is about a little girl who was plucked from (what she thought) was her perfect two parent family into a one parent dysfunctional one.  And with the help of her grandfather and the bees she rose above all the challenges she faced.  I can't begin to imagine how she survived living with her personality disordered mother all those years.  It made me cry several times This is one of the best books I've read this year.  Thanks to @LoriLori for recommending it. 


 

The day is young, Smoky, and you may have made mine already.  I could stand up and cheer (but not do splits anymore) that you loved it!!! 

 

I wish everyone would read it.  I wish it would be a bestseller.  Like I've said before, I'd like to buy the world a copy and keep them company!

 

As for her childhood it was a day at the beach compared to a lot I know...although yes, she was young and had no idea what others' experiences were...

 

...but overall it didn't matter.  Most of the book and all of the joy is GRANDPA AND THE BEES.  

 

I found a blog she has or something, forget how, but it had his obit and a picture.  It was exciting to see him! 

 

ANYONE WHO WANTS A PIECE OF HAPPINESS READ THIS BOOK!  Right, Smoky?  (PS:  Fascinating learning why they use the smoke around the bees)

 


I’m currently reading The Honey Bus, and so far I’m enjoying it! @LoriLori @smoky22 🐝🍯

Esteemed Contributor
Posts: 6,775
Registered: ‎08-30-2015

Re: WHAT ARE YOU READING? AUGUST 2019

After taking a break, I began reading again, and it is really a good book. I just have to try to forget that part, ans hope the disgusting person get's it in the end!  Now I sound evil, but it would make sense if you decide to read this book!

Esteemed Contributor
Posts: 6,407
Registered: ‎07-07-2010

Re: WHAT ARE YOU READING? AUGUST 2019

I just finished reading Murder At Hawthorne Cottage by Betty Rowlands.  This was book 1 and was about Melissa Craig, a mystery writer, who moved from London to a small English village to write the next book in her mystery series.  The book was good, action-packed, maybe a little too wordy, but several plot lines kept the interest.  Plenty of mystery.

The next time that I hear salt and ice together, it better be in a margarita!