Tiny Navajo Reads: Humans Wanted

Humans Wanted edited by Vivian Caethe

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*Published August 7, 2017*

Alright, if y’all haven’t seen the tag #humansarespaceorcs or #spaceaustralia then you need to go out and read some of the stories floating around in those tags. They are wonderful and this book is just a small selection of them once people realized that a book focused on the good humanity can do because of how versatile we are. Simple fantastic!

Humans Wanted edited by Vivian Caethe

Humans are tough. Humans can last days without food. Humans heal so quickly, they pierce holes in themselves or inject ink under their epidermis for fun. Humans will walk for days on broken bones in order to make it to safety. Humans will literally cut off bits of themselves if trapped by a disaster.

You would be amazed what humans will do to survive. Or to ensure the survival of others they feel responsible for.

That’s the other thing. Humans pack-bond, and they spill their pack-bonding instincts everywhere. Sure it’s weird when they talk sympathetically to broken spaceships or try to pet every lifeform that scans as non-toxic. It’s even a little weird that just existing in the same place as them for long enough seems to make them care about you.

But if you’re hurt, if you’re trapped, if you need someone to fetch help? You really want a human.

Twelve authors provide their perspectives on human ingenuity and usefulness as we try to find our place among the stars. From battletested to brokenhearted, humans are capable of amazing things. Humans Wanted shows not only what we are, but how awesome we can be.

Humans Wanted is a great start to your collection of stories that show how awesome and scary we as humans can be just because of where and how we evolved. We are some of the best hunters because of our endurance. We can adapt quickly and almost always easily. We will pack-bond with ANYTHING, with or without a brain. We, as humans, are weird, weird creatures and that just may be our saving grace when it comes to being integrated into a galactic society someday.

What I enjoyed most about these stories was how the humans always proved themselves to be better than expected, to be not the stereotype, even if that stereotype is warranted. Humans are always thought to be the scourge of the earth, or whatever planet we are on, because we tend toward destruction as a whole. Yet these stories show that we as a whole can also be some of the most useful and wanted species because of our ability to be destructive with a purpose, as well as the ability to form close connections with just about everyone quickly.

If you are in need of some hope in this time of hopelessness, then maybe pick up Humans Wanted and just how wonderful you can be. What do you think is your best trait? What is your favourite thing about yourself? Comment below, if you’d like, but honestly think about it and find something to love about yourself and write it down today!

Tiny Navajo Reads: The Little French Bistro

The Little French Bistro by Nina George

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Have you ever come across an author and wondered why you haven’t come across them before? This is how I felt about Nina George, a French author who has now written TWO of my favorite books and I’m so glad that we have translators in the publishing world so that I would read The Little French Bistro.

We open in this book with our main character deciding that she is tired of her life, a life that she hasn’t lived, and so decides that she’ll end her life in Paris, a city she has always wanted to visit. But her wish is denied by a passer-by and she essentially runs away to find a place where she could take her life.

As Marianne who makes her way across the French countryside to the coast of Brittany, a colorful place where she feels as though she may finally be able to do as she wishes with her life, without anyone else telling her what to do. As Marianne continues to find a reason to take her life, she lives each day to its fullest, and she discovers that she no longer wants to take her life, she just wants to live her life her way. And she discovers that it is never too late in life to live the life that she wants.

I absolutely loved this book, and I rarely read contemporary books, but there’s just something about the way Nina George writes that makes me want to keep reading her books. She pulls you into the story and you want nothing more than to experience the life that she gives her characters, and it always seems to be the most idyllic way of life EVER! Granted, I know that I wouldn’t be able to live the life she gives her characters, but it would be amazing if I could anyway.

What I loved most about this book is that Marianne, the main character, learns that her life that she has been living isn’t what she wanted. It’s never been what she’s wanted and so she’s decided to finally take her life into her own hands and do what she wants to do for a change. Granted, that change is to, you know, take her life away, but it is her decision. But afterward, when her life was saved, it’s when she trying to decide whether or not she wants to actually take her life away that she learns that she wants to have her life to be her life, not anyone else’s life. She gains the courage to live her life, and I love that story, so much!

What author writes the way you want to live? Comment below and let me know!

Tiny Navajo Reads: Half a Lifelong Romance

Half a Lifelong Romance by Eileen Chang

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From one of 20-century China’s greatest writers is an unforgettable love story that spans half a lifetime. This has been one of the more interesting reads of this year, I had no idea what I really expected, but it was not this. I enjoyed it, it gave me a feeling of actual life in a way.

Our two main characters, Gu Manzhen and Shen Shijun, meet as coworkers in a Shanghai factory in the 1930s. Despite their differences in background, they fall love and start to tentatively plan their future together. But through the two years that they date/court, life starts to spring up. Manzhen knows that she still needs to be able to work, in order to provide for her family, her aging mother, and grandmother, along with all of her younger siblings. Shijun wants to help Manzhen support her family, which is usually done through marriage, but Manzhen won’t let him, saying that he needs to focus on his career before he has to support her family.

When Shijun gets news that his father’s health is starting to fail him, Shijun quits his job at the factory to take over the family business. As he starts to figure out his life in the country, Shijun and Mazhen’s relationship starts to strain and they start to think that maybe they don’t really know what they want. As their relationship breaks, and they start to go their separate ways in life, they both realize that they still love each other, in the little ways they perk up with a name is mentioned, when they walk through a familiar section of Shanghai, all the little things that trigger your memory of a past lover.

Manzhen and Shijun find that they have suddenly shot forward in life after they separated from each other, and they see that their lives have become very different from the one they vaguely envisioned with each other. They are able to see each other one last time, almost by accident, in Shijun’s hometown, where they are able to finally say goodbye to each other, and to the life they might have had.

This was a heart-wrenching story in a way that makes it real. With the title of this book, I expected to read a story about two characters who had a whirlwind romance, separated by war, to be brought back together to enjoy the rest of their lives together. Not at all what I got, but I still felt the realness of this love story. I still felt the love the two main characters had, not only for each other but for their families as well, which influenced their stories more than they thought their families would originally. I just loved the writing and the story that unfolded through half a lifetime of living that the two had.

What book has given you a different story than what the title told you it would be? Comment below and let me know!