Book Summaries: Around the World in 120 Days, Week Three, Day One

Introduction: Around the World in 120 Days, Week Three, Day One

This is the third week, day one of the book summaries for Around the World in 120 Days for The Invisible Mentor’s Virtual Literary World Tour. Last week we stopped our Tour in Toronto, Canada after we visited Kingston, Jamaica.

This week we will tour the United Kingdom – England, Scotland and Northern Ireland – but we’ll take a side trip to Laos for The Coroner’s Lunch by Colin Cotterill. The story is set in Laos.

Cotterill was born in London, but lives in Thailand. I really enjoyed the book because it gives us great insights into what life is like in Laos (Lao People's Democratic Republic, which is in Southeast Asia, bordered by Burma and China). Some of these authors wrote their books as a social commentary of what was going on in their external environment.

This week the interviewees are not from the UK or Laos, that’s just the way it is, and this time around, they recommend their five books, and suggest places for people to visit where they live – no recipes.

Around the World in 120 Days, Week Three, Day One

1. Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe: A Celebration of the First Edition (The Chronicles of Narnia), CS Lewis
2. Black Beauty (Signet Classics), Anna Sewell
3. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, 25th Anniversary Edition, Douglas Adams
4. Frankenstein, Mary Shelley
5. The Coroner's Lunch, Colin Cotterill

 Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe Black Beauty (Illustrated by Robert L. Dickey) The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Frankenstein The Coroner's Lunch

Book Summaries: Around the World in 120 Days, Week Three, Day One

The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by CS Lewis

 The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (The Chronicles of Narnia)

Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy are sent away from London to the home of an old professor because of air raids during World War II. The professor is a bachelor, living in a large house in the country, with a housekeeper, named Mrs. Macready, and three servants – Ivy, Margaret and Betty.

The children are anticipating their stay because there is so much to explore. The following morning it's raining heavily so they start to explore inside the house and the adventure begins.

One room they enter is empty except for a wardrobe with a mirror. Thinking there is nothing of interest, they all leave the room except for Lucy who is the youngest of the lot. Being the curious type, she opens the door and finds mostly fur coats. Leaving the door open she steps into the wardrobe to explore and finds another row of coats. She steps further into the wardrobe, and it gets darker and there seems to be no end to this wardrobe. Lucy keeps on moving forward until she finds herself outside in the woods with falling slow. How frightful for her, but being the nosy kind, she doesn't let it prevent her from getting to the heart of the matter. She looks behind her and can see the entrance that leads back into the wardrobe.

Looking ahead, Lucy follows a light and comes to a lamp post which is odd considering she is in the middle of the woods. Her first encounter is with a faun, a goat-man – the top half human and the bottom half a goat – named Tumnus. He is startled to see her and drops all his parcels. It's Tumnus' first encounter with a human, Daughter of Eve. After conversing, for a bit, Lucy learns that she has stepped into Narnia. It's winter in Narnia, and summer where she came from.

As the story unfolds, her brothers and sister enter the world of Narnia and we meet the White Queen and Aslan, the great lion and King of Narnia. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by CS Lewis is a beautiful story, and one of the major lessons that we learn is that we are far more capable that we give ourselves credit for.

Black Beauty by Anna Sewell

“The special aim of writing [Black Beauty] is to induce kindness, sympathy, and an understanding treatment of horses,” says Anna Sewell, author of Black Beauty. This story brought tears to my eyes.

Black Beauty by Anna Sewell is told from the point of view of a horse. When he is young, while he is rough-housing with six other young colts, his mother, Duchess, schools him on horse etiquette. “You have been well bred and well born….I hope you will grow up gentle and good, and never learn bad ways. Do your work with a good will; lift up your feet well when you trot, and never bit or kick even in play.” This advice he used to guide him throughout all his life.

The story chronicles the life of Black Beauty – ups and downs, similar to the ups and downs that we experience in life. At the end of the story, you will look at animals in a new light. And in fact, Black Beauty by Anna Sewell changed the way people treat their animals.

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams

 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy was written Douglas Adams, a screenwriter who never saw himself as a science fiction writer. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy was a series on the radio, and Pan Books asked Adams to turn his radio scripts into a book. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams was such a success that 100,000 copies were sold in the first month, and this was pre-Internet days in 1979.

Mr. L Prosser, a local city council worker, is tasked with demolishing the home of Arthur Dent, a 30 year old who works for the local radio. To prevent the demolition of his home, Dent lies in the mud in front of the bulldozer. The City wants to demolish the house so they can build a bypass. Dent first learned about the City's intent the previous evening, and was told that the plans were on display.

“It was on display in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign of the door saying Beware of the Leopard,” Dent tells Prosser.

While lying there, trying to out-wait those trying to demolish his home, Ford Prefect appears. Prefect first arrived on Earth 15 years ago and has worked at blending in, telling others that he is an out of work actor. He wants to have a conversation with Dent, but he wants to do it while they are at the pub – the Horse and Groom – drinking. Prefect convinces Prosser to lie in front of the bulldozer while he and Dent go to the pub to have a drink. And he also casts a spell over Dent so that he will willingly follow him to the pub.

Prefect wants to dull Dent's senses while he tells him that he isn't from Guildford, but from a planet close to Betelgeuse, and that the world is coming to an end. Something is moving through the ionosphere, and Prefect can sense it with his Sub-Etha Sens-O-Matic, a small black device which he carries inside his leather satchel. These somethings are “biding their time, grouping, preparing.”

Douglas Adams takes readers on a science fantasy adventure far away from earth to find the answer to the ultimate question – What is the meaning of life?

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

I found Frankenstein by Mary Shelley to be very dark and the story was very upsetting to me. After reading such a book, your next book has to be much lighter, preferably something funny. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley starts off with Robert Walton corresponding with his sister Margaret Saville. Robert is painstakingly preparing to go an expedition that could possibly take up to a few years. He is making sure that he hires the right people and has all that he needs for the trip. From the letters, you get the sense that Robert is very driven at age 28 and really wants to succeed.

Robert starts his expedition, and one day they spot someone travelling on a sledge, but it is too far away for them to see a whole lot. On another day, his crew rescues another man on a sledge, and most of his dogs have died, and he is looking emaciated. The man doesn't want to board the ship until he knows where it is heading. He is pleased when Robert tells him that they are heading to the North Pole – he appears to be happy with that response.

Robert helps to nurse the stranger back to help when is not busy with other matters relating to his expedition. He treasures the conversations he has with this man. The stranger sees that Robert is going to make the same mistakes that he made in life, and wants to share his experiences that Robert may learn from them. Robert reports what the stranger tells him, and the story unfolds. The story is about Victor Frankenstein, and Mary Shelley uses flashbacks to tell her story.

The Coroner’s Lunch by Colin Cotterill

 The Coroner's Lunch (Dr. Siri Paiboun Series #1) by Colin Cotterill

The Coroner’s Lunch by Colin Cotterill is set in Laos – Lao People's Democratic Republic – just after it became a communist state. Dr Siri Paiboun has been a member of the Communist Party for 50 years, and joins because of Boua, a beautiful woman he falls in love with while they are both students. She is very clear and upfront about her political leaning. It’s interesting because Siri has two opposing views of communism, “That communism was the only way man could be truly content, and that, given his selfish ways, could never practice communism with any success.”

After Siri meets Boua, his medical studies suffer and he barely passes, but the patients love him because he is very good with them. After Laos becomes a communist state when he is 72 years old he assumes that he will be able to retire. But that is not to be, Comrade Khan tells Siri that he is healthy and therefore still able to contribute to the common good.

Siri is appointed head coroner of Laos, a position he is not qualified for. The way those in power see it is that he is a medical doctor therefore he should be able to perform the role of coroner. He is given no training and he doesn't even have the tools of the trade to do a good job. Despite these odds, with the aid of books, Siri teaches himself what he needs to know to perform his new role.

Judge Haeng who could be Siri's grandson is very disrespectful and is constantly summoning the coroner and making demands. Siri doesn't pay a lot of attention to him and does his work. The good thing about Siri's position is the two people he has working with him – Dtui, a nurse, and Mr. Geung who has downs syndrome.

One day Mrs Nitmoy, Comrade Khan's wife is brought in for an autopsy. She died while at lunch at her club. Siri begins the autopsy and is able to rule out many causes of death. Because of his inexperience, it is very difficult for him to have ideas about what could have caused her death. A big thing that Siri has going for him is his power of observation.

After he has conducted the autopsy, Comrade Khan returns from his trip, ready to claim his wife's body to bury her. Khan tells Siri that he knows what killed his wife – he indicates that she died from eating too much raw meat. Siri doesn't believe him, but there isn't much he can do. Later the coroner discovers that Comrade Khan has stolen his autopsy report. This makes him determined to solve the case. Fortunately for Siri he has his assistant’s notes.

What makes The Coroner’s Lunch by Colin Cotterill so compelling are the multiple cases Siri is working on, which creates multiple story lines. Additionally, Siri gets assistance in solving the cases from the deceased themselves, and it doesn’t hurt that Cotterill throws in an exorcism into the plot. The plot will take you on a journey all over Laos and you will get a sense of what it is like to live in Lao People's Democratic Republic.

Interview With Marilyn Johnson

My five books:

1. The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream (Vintage), Barack Obama
2. How Women Lead: The 8 Essential Strategies Successful Women Know, Sharon Hadary
3. My American Journey, Colin Powell
4. Outliers: The Story of Success, Malcolm Gladwell
5. The Art of Racing in the Rain: A Novel, Garth Stein
6. The Bluest Eye (Vintage International), Toni Morrison

To influence visitors:

James Hilton must have visited Austin, TX in the early 1930s so he could better describe Shangri La. This city is musically harmonious, wonderfully vibrant, while adorned with wild flowers. It’s filled with diverse residents (who are technologically savvy) and great neighbors.

About Marilyn Johnson: Recently retired IBM Vice President of Marketing after thirty five years. I am a mother of one son and one daughter, and grandmother of one boy and one girl. I am single, happily dating and I enjoy traveling, reading, learning and growing. New owner of a puppy named Jinx, a twenty week old Bichon Frisè. My new passion is public speaking, continued mentoring, and modeling. I am represented by the Wilhemena Brown agency in Texas exclusively. And Buzz Media Marketing Globally. I love living every day like it's my “first” and “my last”.

The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by CS Lewis; Black Beauty by Anna Sewell; The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams; Frankenstein by Mary Shelley; and The Coroner’s Lunch by Colin Cotterill are five very different books and they will take you on an incredible journey – both mentally and virtually. In all the books you have the main characters traveling.

Global Reading List: Around the World in 120 Days, Week Three, Day One

1. Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe: A Celebration of the First Edition (The Chronicles of Narnia), CS Lewis
2. Black Beauty (Signet Classics), Anna Sewell
3. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, 25th Anniversary Edition, Douglas Adams
4. Frankenstein , Mary Shelley
5. The Coroner's Lunch, Colin Cotterill
6. The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream (Vintage), Barack Obama
7. How Women Lead: The 8 Essential Strategies Successful Women Know, Sharon Hadary
8. My American Journey, Colin Powell
9. Outliers: The Story of Success, Malcolm Gladwell
10. The Art of Racing in the Rain: A Novel, Garth Stein
11. The Bluest Eye (Vintage International), Toni Morrison