Very interesting read. Makes me want to visit the Azores! ( )

The Tenth Island - Marcum
4 stars

Diana Marcum is a feature writer for the LA Times. This book is a mildly fictionalized memoir of her life as a reporter in California’s agricultural central valley. Among the many immigrant groups settled in central California, there is a thriving population of Azoreans. Some sections of this book added to my appreciation of California’s ethnic diversity. Other parts of the book made me feel as if I’d just been on an exotic vacation to the Azores.

Before I read this book, I’m not sure that I knew exactly where on the globe I would find the Azores. Somewhere in the middle of the Atlantic? Halfway to South America? It’s good to know; the Azores are an autonomous region of Portugal, an archipelago in the mid-Atlantic. Marcum is a skilled writer. This book is mostly structured as a series of anecdotes that travel back and forth between California and the Azores. Her stories are full of beautiful scenery and eccentric people. She is dryly sarcastic when she relates details of her personal relationships. Towards the end of the book, she returns to the Azores for a third time with her labrador retriever, Murphy. I enjoyed all of the book, but Murphy’s island antics were the best. ( )

A fun, light memoir about the Azores. ( )

The Tenth Island: Finding Joy, Beauty and Unexpected Love in the Azores 🍒🍒🍒🍒
By Diana Mercum
2018
Little A Books

Diana Marcums life changes when she discovers a group of immigrants from the Azorean Islands living in the Central Valley of California. They migrated to North America fleeing a Portuguese dictator and a massive volcanic eruption, between 1950 and 1980.

Her energy and fascination can be felt throughout her travels to the 9 Islands and learning of their formation, cultures, lifestyles and people. She learns of a culture that makes her question her own....a land she never knew existed and a land she can not forget.

" The Tenth Island is what you carry inside you. Its what's left when everything falls away. Those of us who live between worlds just know the Tenth Island better. No matter where I have lived--I have never left my Island. "
She never forgot these words.

Captivating and Recommended! ( )

What I liked about The Tenth Island was that it was a personal account of Diana's experiences in discovering the islands. It gives a wonderful sense of what it is like to find yourself fully immersed in a new culture, making friends, and learning traditions through beautiful narrative and story telling. Her descriptions really brought lush green and blue images to the mind to where you could almost hear the ocean (like an ebook seashell).

What I didn't like about The Tenth Island was that it was a personal account of Diana's experiences in discovering the islands. While it did have its merits with providing information in more than just facts and figures, it also had its limitations. For one, Diana returned to the islands three times, with gaps in between. (The gap between trip two and three was seven years. How do you remember anything from seven years ago?) While she graciously skipped over most of what occurred during these gaps, there were times when the story seemed to skid off the tracks and go down a Diana lane. These were thrown in pieces that really had nothing to do with the island. ("Oh, let me just throw in a chapter here about this guy I thought was cute once. Okay, now back to the island.") She also threw in some of her personal theories which were kind of cute, but sometimes didn't really fit.

The biggest issue I had with it being a personal account was that it reminded me a bit too much of my main criticism of Eat Pray Love and The Lost Continent: Sure, take a year off of work and go, for free, anywhere you want without feeling any need to learn the language or anything. It just blows my mind that someone wouldn't want to try to at least learn a little bit of the language where they plan to spend numerous months. (I also got weirded out by how people just let you stay in their house for months, no charge. Even when it's something like Airbnb, it creeps me out that you're in someone's home...with their stuff...in their beds...eating off their plates. I just couldn't do it. It gives me the willies just thinking about it.)

Speaking of strangers, there were also many times when I struggled to keep track of people who were glazed over, or thrown in as though they may be important but only appear for a sentence many chapters later, or worse, never mentioned again. I almost needed a list of who was who.

Don't get me wrong, I did really enjoy many of the stories and people introduced in this book. (Hence four stars.) I have not traveled much thus far in my life, but if I ever have the chance, I'd now love to visit the islands. Marcum brought the islands to life in her narrative and stories that took place there. However, I often felt like I wasn't sure where the book was going or how the tenth island theory worked in as it was briefly described once, hinted at a few more times, and ended with as though it was a continous main theme. It just didn't feel tied together in the end.

Overall, it was interesting, but left me wanting to know more (about the islands) and less (about Diana). ( )