Libraries are wonderful

The Lower River ~ by Paul Theroux, 2012, fiction (Malawi)

Ellis Hock never believed that he would return to Africa.  He runs an old-fashioned menswear store in a small town in Massachusetts but still dreams of his Eden, the four years he spent in Malawi with the Peace Corps, cut short when he had to return to take over the family business.  When his wife leaves him, and he is on his own, he realizes that there is one place for him to go:  back to his village in Malawi, on the remote Lower River, where he can be happy again.  Arriving at the dusty village, he finds it transformed: the school he built is a ruin, the church and clinic are gone, and poverty and apathy have set in among the people.  They remember him — the White Man with no fear of snakes — and welcome him.  But is his new life, his journey back, an escape or a trap?

A Constellation of Vital Phenomena ~ by Anthony Marra, 2013, fiction (Chechnya)

In a small rural village in Chechnya, eight-year-old Havaa watches from the woods as Russian soldiers abduct her father in the middle of the night and then set fire to her home.  When their lifelong neighbor Akhmed (a failed doctor) finds Havaa hiding in the forest with a strange blue suitcase, he makes a decision that will forever change their lives.  He will seek refuge at the abandoned hospital where the sole remaining doctor, Sonja Rabina, treats the wounded.  For Sonja, the arrival of Akhmed and Havaa is an unwelcome surprise.  Weary and overburdened, she has no desire to take on additional risk and responsibility.  But over the course of five extraordinary days, Sonja’s world will shift on its axis and reveal the intricate pattern of connections that weaves together the pasts of these three unlikely companions and unexpectedly decides their fate.

There Were Giants Upon the Earth: Gods, Demigods, and Human Ancestry: The Evidence of Alien DNA ~ by Zecharia Sitchin, 2010

In whose genetic image were we made?  From his first book The 12th Planet on, Zecharia Sitchin has asserted that the Bible’s Elohim who said “Let us fashion The Adam in our image and after our likeness” were the gods of Sumer and Babylon — the Anunnaki who had come to Earth from their planet Nibiru.  The Adam, he wrote, was genetically engineered by adding Anunnaki genes to those of an existing hominid, some 300,000 years ago.  Then, according to the Bible, intermarriage took place:  “There were giants upon the Earth” who took Adam’s female offspring as wives, giving birth to “heroes of renown.”  With meticulous detail, Sitchin shows that these were the demigods of Sumerian and Babylonian lore, such as the famed Mesopotamian king Gilgamesh as well as the hero of the Deluge, the Babylonian Utnapishtim.  Are we then, all of us, descendants of demigods?  In this book, Sitchin proceeds step-by-step through a mass of ancient writings and artifacts, leading the reader to the stunning Royal Tombs of Ur.  He reveals a DNA source that could prove the biblical and Sumerian tales true, providing conclusive physical evidence for past alien presence on Earth and an unprecedented scientific opportunity to track down the “Missing Link” in humankind’s evolution, unlocking the secrets of longevity and even the ultimate mystery of life and death.

What's wonderful about this Wednesday?  More books from the library.  When I returned two books, I brought home these three.  So this is a very good Wednesday.