FOR BOOKLOVERS: When Davina Morgan-Witt had children, she realized her browsing days at bookstores were history. So she started an Internet bookbrowsing site called, not surprisingly, BookBrowse.com. There people can browse at will, with or without toddlers.
And some 200,000 do so each month. She and husband Paul started the site in '97. Shortly thereafter they won the Yahoo Incredibly Useful Site of the Day award. The site lists eight book choices weekly, plus an author interview. The books selected include reviews, excerpts from the book, the book jacket blurb, and something about the author.
Davina doesn't read every book she puts on the webpage, but if she doesn't, someone she trusts does. Reviews are from well-regarded periodicals such as Publishers Weekly and the New York Times Review of Books. The market she targets is the intelligent, well-educated reader. (And don't we all fit that bill?)
Her business background is in marketing, so after starting a family, this site was a natural segue. Her email is Davina@bookbrowse.com. BookBrowse also puts out a newsletter and offers tips to those starting or running a book-reading group. For information, call 408.867.6500.
Viewers can submit their own reviews, which are then listed on the website. Davina was the first to review one current bestseller, The DaVinci Code.
MONGRELIZATION: Indian-born professor Dr. Bharati Mukherjee of UC-Berkeley spoke at the Foothill Club recently about her life as an immigrant and how she redefined herself in each culture. Mukherjee was born into an upper-class, traditional Indian family.
The family compound housed 4550 relatives and was defined with an entrenched caste system, a system that rigorously controlled religion, class and gender. There was little to indicate that Mukherjee would fall in love with a blue-eyed Westerner, marry within two weeks and end up teaching at a California university.
Except for the fact that she "lived inside books" and was a cultural rebel, thanks to the many mistreatments borne by her mother, who was low in the family pecking order. Though a child when India gained its independence, "the Raj cast a bullying shadow."
She remembers the taunts and torments from that period. She was taught English by Irish nuns, "a BBC-type English," so she finds her speech patterns slipping back and forth from British English to Indian English to American English. "American English is the most empowering."
Throughout her life, Mukherjee has had to reinvent herself, driven by adversity. Her life has been a rocket ride, crossing many bridges to emerge from the homogenous Hindu feudal society of Calcutta to her present-day "mongrelization."
In assimilating the teachings of three diverse cultures, she's arrived at her own beliefs: that the visible and invisible carry equal weight; that she embraces a cross between karma and individual resourcefulness; reincarnation is similar to cremation—the dead become part of air, water and earth; God stands for goodness, oneness and diversity.
The mongrelization of America is a positive description, since immigrants can assume the elements that suit them best. Mukherjee is the author of 10 books; two are nonfiction, two are short-story collections. She knew she'd be a writer from the age of 3, when she taught herself to read.
YOUTHFUL THESPIANS: The latest production from the Peninsula Youth Theatre is Les Miserables, playing Nov. 1523 at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts with a cast that includes 11 local youngsters. The show is double cast, and five of the locals have major roles. They are Chip Kraemer as Jean Valjean, red cast; and Blythe Faxon as Madame Thenardier, black cast. Both are Saratogans. Those from Monte Sereno are Rachel Balma as Cosette, red cast; Katie Pimentel, young Cosette, black cast; and Jon Oleson, Enjolras, black cast.
Others playing multiple roles in the ensemble are Johanna Hembry, red; Taylor Karl, black; Justine Lauren, red; and Lindsay Wilkinson, red, all of Los Gatos. Also, Jillian Lawson, black; and Kelly Meulema, red, both of Saratoga.
Tickets are $16 and $13. Call the box office at 650.903.6000.
MAJOR RELIGIONS: Here's the KSAR lineup for the talks on the world's foremost religions, presented as part of Building Bridges during the week of Oct. 21. The talks were televised and can be seen over Channel 15—Christianity, Nov. 15 at 10 a.m., Nov. 16 at 7 p.m., Nov. 22 at 10 a.m., and Nov. 23 at 7:30 p.m.; Hinduism, Nov. 15 at 4 p.m. and Nov. 22 at 4 p.m.; Islam, Nov. 15 at 7 p.m. and Nov. 22 at 7:30 p.m.; Judaism, Nov. 16 at 10 a.m. and Nov. 23 at 10 a.m.; Buddhism, Nov. 16 at 4 p.m. and Nov. 23 at 4 p.m.
Got a tip for Saratoga Sampler? Send email to
maryanncook@earthlink.net.
By Mary Ann Cook