Book Discussion: Episode 31 - The Light Pirate by Lily Brooks-Dalton - Collier County Public Library

hi everybody I'm Miss Irene with the Clark County Library and this is Andrew he's also with the Collier County library and today we're going to be discussing one of our um Now new favorite books yeah um definitely a great book it's called the light pirate by Lily Brooks Dalton can we see it new release new release it came out in December and um this is her second novel her first novel was good night midnight and it actually became a Netflix movie with George Clooney that's right so she has written a novel before but this one is definitely different it's different than anything I've ever really read before um her background is as a writer um she has her writing um VA so that's pretty much what she's been doing in her whole life she also wrote a book about motorcycles as a memoir which I think would be interesting so I think everything she writes is just a little different than everything else um so I'm gonna give you a quick summary of the book this book is set in Florida and we basically have a family that is a stepmother a father and two boys and they're preparing for Hurricane Wanda to come and this storm is big but the father is a lineman and he basically says don't worry about it the storm's fine we're gonna prepare we don't evacuate we don't evacuate we're gonna be okay and there are gonna be spoilers in this discussion so just be prepared not spoiler-free be prepared for that so basically in this terrible first chapter um we lose one of the boys and Wanda's mom who is the mother she gives birth of Frida she gives birth to Wanda and Wanda is basically the central character of the story and it follows her life throughout after this this experience so that's the beginning of the book that Florida is definitely in um the tides are coming in the storms are coming in they're taking over and really are we evacuating and should you evacuate is the question kind of throughout this whole book yeah definitely your thing that comes up in pretty much every part at least the first three parts um of the book The last part is I think only like five to ten pages is really short but they're constantly wondering if it's time to leave um whether it's a storm whether governments are shutting down uh local governments or the federal governments um they're constantly wondering whether it's time to to leave or not um which I think is really interesting have you ever evacuated during a storm no I've always stayed yeah I've never evacuated either I think supporting race in Florida so I've never really felt like the need I think a lot probably like the characters especially the male characters and the the first part of this book is like why would you leave I mean you also don't know the story would really shift so you never know yeah he was under the impression they weren't going to be in the eye that she was basically worrying because she was pregnant and she was a nervous Nelly kind of like in the lines and it ended up proving that the storm came right at them and one of the unique things is when he comes back and finds uh for is it Frida Frida Frida um she's given birth Wanda and she's not doing well and she insists that they name the baby Wanda After the Storm correct which I found very strange because why would you want to remember this horrible day and being named after it and the town kind of looked at her funny because she was a remembrance of a time that was not pleasant yeah I think characters mentioned that they reminded her of the bad times or like that she was kind of like the the origin of all the bad things that happened to to the city or the town of Rudder where the story is at so overall I always like to start with our overall opinions so we could be completely different um what was your impression of the book um on a Goodreads scale of one to five what would you give it I would probably give it like a four to a 4.5 that's right now what about you I really like the book I liked the writing um and it was very unique so I would probably give it a solid four um because there were some parts in there that got to me where I felt like I had to skim so there was some parts where she got a little monotonous about but then again I'm from Florida so when she's talking about the Everglades and she's talking about the birds and everything else that's in Florida I'm very familiar with it so maybe it isn't as much of an interest to me as it would be to somebody else so I felt like I had to skim it had a crawdad's feel to it when it was when she was kind of talking about the nature um but it was uh definitely a solid a solid book to read and something complete different I would recommend it um go ahead if you do question number two sure uh do you think Kirby was wrong to continue to stay in Rudder after Wanda was born Kirby was a lineman and he had a solid job with a solid pay and I think he felt like we kind of just felt like after we Anne just hit was oh it was the Storm of the Century would it happen again so do I think he should have taken Wanda out of rudder I'm kind of torn there I kind of understand where he was coming from I would say I don't think he was wrong because I think he was also married to the memories there that's where his kids were that's where the memories of his children were that's where um Phyllis who actually becomes kind of like a babysitter to Wanda is and he's got some security in that and something to take care of her but at the same time you could take it the other side too what do you think um I think it's a hard question for me to answer personally because I really just like the character of Kirby so I definitely agree with a lot of his choices in the story I found him to be kind of annoying he seemed like he was really incapable of making decisions um whether it was like romantic just his rooms later in the book or whether it was decisions on like parenting or above or marriage I feel like he was kind of just like very complacent even in work and he like would have these moments or these glimpses of like well maybe I should be a better husband or maybe I should be a better father like I want to be a better father and then like something immediately would happen and he'd be like I'm angry and I'm just gonna storm out or I just I don't know I just I I had a hard time with his character um so it's hard to say I don't know if he he was really great at making choices so he did what he did and I don't really know if I could place like a judgment call on it but I think it was great for the story that they sing yeah and he stayed in Rudder um you know to this point we're sitting there we're saying he's got a secure job he's got a babysitter he's got everything that he needs to keep going yeah um let's talk about Lucas Lucas was the son that made it so do you want to tell a little bit about that part of the storyline with the with the brothers sure um so Flip Flip Philip uh Phillip flip um for sure and are Kirby's two sons from his first marriage um and they don't live with Kirby and Frida full-time they are only staying there for the summer I believe and um that is coincidentally when this hurricane water is hitting um and Lucas is the kind of like bullying obnoxious older brother who makes some questionable decisions um in the first part of the book and as a result of those decisions um his younger brother Flynn ultimately dies spoilers first part of the book it's like the first 50 years of Ages I think maybe 600 so it's not too big of a spoiler um and uh so that's how their origin of the in the story kind of plays out but um what was the question so do you think he made the right decision so later on in this story he's responsible for Wanda Phyllis is taking care of Wanda and Lucas is responsible now for Wanda and did he make the decision this is kind of like the same question but from Lucas for Wanda to stay with Phyllis in Rudder or should he have taken with her with him to his college experience and to out of town to a different place it's a really hard question because right in the story he actually leaves her with Phyllis twice right so he leads her to go to UC Berkeley yes he goes to California when he's like 22 I think I think he also leaves comes back later once things out in the world have gotten worse um as a result of climate change and kind of horstopian and then he comes back for a visit for like a month and then he ultimately leaves her again so I'm not sure I think that both times are probably the right choice like I don't think I couldn't imagine being like a I was always a younger brother but I couldn't imagine being an older brother at age 22 and taking care of a 10 year old like I don't know about you I just could not simultaneously going to college and I think that in the second part I mean what do you think do you think that there's any place the least describe doesn't sound like he was literally in any kind of condition or place to be like to be able to take her on yeah even when she was like 16 I think at that point I think that's where she was so he would have been like almost 30. and I think it would have been such an upset to Wanda because she had lived her whole life anthems are attached to the list and at this point Phyllis is like her surrogate mother who she never really knew and you know she's teaching her botany she's teaching teaching her Sciences survival skills all these things that are really important um in this new environment and so I feel like I think he made the right decision both times um but I think it was a very difficult decision to make because he said to her when he left I don't know if I'll ever be able to come back and see you again and he didn't he was never able to make it back to Rutter again because there wasn't Transportation there wasn't places to get there there was no way to break the Wild and even find them or know where they would be in Rudder because the second time yeah right because the cell towers I think at that point down and he was like communicating by CB radio or they were um but also to that last point though is I think if I recall correctly both times I think Phyllis talked him out of it I mean the first time she did actually I think she was like you need to go to college like this is what your father would have wanted you to do anything second time maybe you should change for two no more but I was like you should stay here right right he she wanted him to stay with them but she didn't want him to take one yeah she was incredibly attached to one absolutely at that point for sure so question number four you want to read it for us awesome let's see that's enough these are the world's problems Kirby and Frida grapple with the idea of bringing a new child into the world Phyllis is intentional about not wanting to become a mother today some couples are choosing not to have children in the name of environmental responsibility where do you fall in this Faith so we've talked about this a little bit earlier off camera but I want to hear from you and what you have all notice so I think it's very interesting children um we talked a little bit about this I think it's not so much for the environment as it is for financials um I think it's more it's very expensive to have children um but they did grapple with bringing somebody into this world because they were in a different world than we're in and I was in the world where hurricanes were hitting you know four to five times a year and they were really you know disastrous and we were completely losing our electrical grid on a regular basis and we were in that type of environment I I don't know that I would want to bring or raise a child in that environment either I think it would have been a difficult decision to make you know it's further too because in the story that doesn't really give us an exact time timing right for setting your place and time we have a place for sure it's Florida but I don't think there's ever it ever tells us like an exact date we get a few clues that we have cell phones so we know that it's kind of modern times but you get the idea that it's maybe like 10 to 15 to 20 years in the future that was my first question of it right like at this point the waters have already started like consuming houses and like there's this place called the edge of Rudder which is like where the beach and the ocean have kind of like started taking over the streets and and so like infrastructure things are starting to fall apart and crumble at this point so I think that it would be so difficult to want to have kids in this world um definitely different than it is right now I mean I can understand the sentiment of not wanting to have kids right now but in this world in particular I think it would be challenging because you're literally watching like nature destroy these man-made structures and it's like why would you want to bring a child into that I couldn't imagine well and I think one of the key themes of the book was especially with Kirby who that could not make a decision was he knew what was coming he just didn't think it was going to come so soon so maybe some of the decisions whether okay well this is in the future we all know it's coming in the future but we didn't think the future is now and if somebody was to tell me right now A hurricane's going to hit Naples and wipe it completely off the map um I would say that's not going to happen you know or that's way in the future it's not something I have to worry about so in some ways I but for them they really were experiencing and they had gone through she had actually this is the piece we didn't talk about Frida lost her mother to a hurricane the year before hurricane Wanda had correct I think it was Puerto Rico or something like that yeah in Puerto Rico I think they're in San Juan she met him because he was a lineman um basically doing the infrastructure in Puerto Rico after that hurricane so it was it was definitely an interesting uh place to be and make a decision yeah I do remember that he even he even does say like it happened there which is something I feel like I hear all the time in the news even it's like it happened there but I never thought it could happen here um which I thought is so interesting because I think that was probably something that we heard quite a bit during Hurricane Ian absolutely in in previous hurricanes as well I mean you see is kind of like natural destruction um um in these images and these videos and you're like oh it seems so far away and removed and like The Fallout from what those storms um can cause and what they have flipped on people and it seems so far away and I think that's he does mention that like in Puerto Rico sure I could see the infrastructure crumbling and people not having cell service in the government not being as effective there um but he didn't see it happening in his own backyard which I think was pretty alarming so I think they went ahead um with it and they kind of jumped in that I mean they didn't know each other very well they really jumped in because they were having Wanda when he got married at the beginning it was just him and Frida and they were painting the house and prepping and then the boys came and that changed the dynamic and then this hurricane comes and really changes um the Navajo unfolds in four parts which I find beautiful I love the way that they did this in the story um is called power light I'm sorry Power Water light and time how does the book's unique structure mirror Wanda's Journey from childhood to death so the power the water the light and time as you go through the power in the very beginning is the power grid that's how I feel the power was it was in an environment where there still was power there was still a power grid there there was still some type of um natural not natural but unnatural civilization I'm still existing um and then we get to the point of the water the water pretty much overtook it everything I mean there was nothing left um the light was Wanda she was Supernatural she was able to bring about light as well as she had to become nocturnal do you remember oh yeah which was light it was so hot during the day scorching hot they would sleep during the day and they because it was too dangerous the temperatures Rose and they were too high and they wouldn't function outside absolutely dehydrate and have Sun exhaustion and then time at the very end is is very short it's like you said maybe five pages yeah super short and it kind of is the epilogue of what happens to Wanda um so I do think it it mirrors her journey from childhood to death I think in each of those chapters follow um the path that happened until the very end of the book I finally passes away I really enjoyed it but there are I feel like we've mentioned this off camera but we we've talked about how this book would be a good movie or like maybe a good miniseries or a good series what do you think I absolutely think so I think it would be great too but I would like to see less emphasis I think on part one I think we could maybe wrap that like if this was a series I would like to see less of part one I think maybe because the characters yeah but she did a good job with the characters because she really made you not like not like yeah um I did like part two which was water which was follows Wanda I think around the age of 10. yeah up to 16. maybe I don't remember I thought 16 was perch no no yeah you're right it's like 10 and then near the end it's age 16 and then part three I feel like we don't really get a good is it actually 26 almost 30 maybe it's almost on purpose they they basically do away with the time they do away with dates they do away with everything because it's just you waking up and you're going to sleep and you're waking up and you're going to sleep in the sense of having a year just wasn't there anymore yeah there was no there was no there was no time yeah it seems like part one which is like a hundred Pages almost takes place kind of in modern times where we are right now and then part two would be like 10 years in the future maybe and then part three would be like 30 years in the future I think I'm more interested honestly in like Wanda's childhood and her teenage years like part three when especially part three is when Society has basically collapsed entirely like right there's there's no more government structures there's no electricity uh people are hunting and foraging for their food I think that is like my favorite part of the story I would like to see more I think you could do a lot of interesting things with like World building and and that's just full Universe um how people survive so I I enjoyed the four parts of the novel but I wish that some parts were maybe a little bit shorter in other parts were yeah exactly um in your own life how do you think about and prepare for changing Landscapes and weather how did the authors depiction of the events make you think about our planet's future well I have to tell you reading this book was a little bit shocking um it definitely put me in a different perspective of a hurricane and what it could do it also was very shocking to me because recently we've had good friends who went through Ian who literally lost their entire homes um and we're on their roofs surviving during the event because the waters were so high and that was right here in Naples yeah and I feel like that wasn't that long ago and it really wasn't but it felt like six months ago but we are rebuilt and nobody talks about it and we've moved on from it it hasn't it's it's like we didn't maybe we're a little bit of kirby-esque in our thinking I don't know sure um because am I you know have I really done something different and changed about or you know in preparation for a hurricane and not really no but I think even this morning when we were talking about her because I just finished work last night and I came in we were talking about it and I mean I was like if anything it's inspired me to like maybe want to learn more Survivor skills um like like maybe grow my own food and there's a character in the book we've already mentioned Phyllis who is like a scientist and a survivalist and is really what helps allow Wanda to survive in this story I mean without Phyllis I don't know if even yeah I mean so she's incredible and I mean that I think inspired me she's a very inspirational figure and I would like to maybe change the way I approach natural disasters or maybe just the future in general as a result of that I actually thought about buying one of those things that you can make your water clean like like people use them when they're camping but I'm like maybe I need one of these and maybe I need a Swiss army knife I don't know there's like silly things out there but I'm like I'm I definitely am underprepared in the sense of um like I only have an electronic can opener that's probably not good yeah you should definitely a manual piano better I mean I'm going silly with this but but no if not it's things you think about like like basic you know we are spoiled I mean in the last part of the book it's only like five to ten pages long but they have that funny moment where Society has completely collapsed and it's like tribal and people are like basically living outside um or maybe in man-made communities that are like not super well structured um it's safe but at one point Wanda and another character are talking and they're like do you remember tops like do you remember faucets like you just like turn like like you didn't have to go out and like find fresh water eat enough like row a boat and and Source this thing if you just don't walk to your kitchen and like turn a thing and they're joking about like what was this thing what was it called and I mean we take so many of those things for granted right I mean knives or hand openers or fresh water absolutely so it definitely gives you a different perspective on all of those things number seven okay what was the significance of the light Wanda had when she touched the water so wait before we talk about this yes you mentioned you did mention um genre yes I think before we even talk about this question we should talk about genres yes but what do you think what what's the genre here it's a popular lipstick for sure and and also Mr Gold yeah I would agree I think it's like I think the best way I would describe it was probably like I described it as magical realism um in my another one of our co-workers um in the library also read it was like that is a magical and like yeah this kind of discussion about it this morning and I don't know I still think it's pretty magical especially the other characters um Society has collapsed these people develop new skills or abilities I guess um and so I don't know um but I would definitely possibly kind of as magical maybe a little Supernatural I don't really know definitely not scientific though because Phyllis considers herself a scientist and she is and she even like says that she struggles with this power right like Wanda can admit light from her body um and over water and um so I think that's interesting she's like she can't explain it she like wants to explain it in scientific means but she's still kind of like the language or the tools to to express what one of those power is um and I kind of went the opposite way and said maybe it's not magical maybe it's us becoming evolving in this new Society where we are evolving to have traits that are going to be better um Paris to be a survivalist because it does talk at the end of the book that there's more than one like somebody who can hear more so they can actually hear the fish and they could see and so they were able to catch the fish and she could have been light in the water and it was just and it was passed on the mystical part was is that the very end at the very end it's passed on to another girl yeah and so the question is is was it passed on or did she also have the gene yeah I don't know it's I think it's really up to interpretation yes definitely but I enjoy that either way yes I liked that part of the book all right question eight as the novel progresses we see examples of both the danger and the necessity other people pose to Wanda what are your thoughts on this conundrum how would you navigate weariness and Trust in such a brutal world so putting this into perspective Wanda will go days months I mean there isn't really time but without seeing anybody yeah in part three correct right when there's there's bigger left to fend for themselves it's just her and Phyllis and then it looks like children flashbacks right yeah it's like sold in her time after Phyllis and then also when she is with Phyllis but in both cases I think they don't really see other people no and so the thought was this you know Phyllis always told her people aren't good and you need to be wary of people and her first encounter really kind of reinforces that um because we have two men that come in and basically they follow them back with their canoe and realize that they have afforded food because they've been survivalists and they want to take their food and um we won't get into how what happens at that point but it definitely is a horrible experience for Wanda but even before that I mean that is part of what she's Wanda's trauma and her inability to trust other people but also like in the very first part um like almost like the first scene that we meet Wanda as a child she we show or it's revealed that she has issues trusting keep trusting people because there's a scene I think she's 10 years old where she has gone on this kind of Adventure she's broken the rules uh she wants to go see the edge which is where the ocean has kind of overtaken the land at this point and she's pushed underwater and like almost drowned by another child um yeah I think that's like the first big piece of that like shows us why Wanda has difficulty trusting people um but then the second encounter as well that one was you can't spoil that one right right yeah she has trouble trusting people and then it's shown later um in part three as well after Phyllis um and right she she needs who she needs I calls her bear dog and it's actually one of the girls that bullied her when she was younger yeah a bird's dog she is very weary because bird dogs in a community she's with a bunch of other survivalists um and in time Wanda overcomes her fears because she misses there's like a innate part of her that misses being around other people deep inside yeah I think her inner voice uh I just got it it says her inner voice tells her how these people let them help you back which is something that she really really struggles with yeah um think that it's handled in such a beautiful way and she really learns to just listen to that that inner voice throughout the book and find ways to grow I mean and she's an amazing character I absolutely love her no it's definitely my favorite character a brand for Phyllis probably I had a hard time with the first part of the book because of I just really disliking her parents and one of her brothers but half of those characters die and the problem solved itself so um Wanda was definitely the best character I enjoyed all of her her Parts the most um so that's the end of our questions in follow-up I um I just want to say this book is something that it's it's something you've never had before it's something I don't think you've ever read before I'd give it a try oh my gosh absolutely um I I don't think I would ever have picked this up I went into it knowing very little Irene suggested this book about like three months ago when we first got into planning stages of this so I was like I think I looked up already on Amazon and I was like sure why not I'll give it a try and um started reading it maybe two weeks ago um a week and a half ago and I couldn't put it down um it was it was so so good um I mean we're in our offense even yes they're exciting about it there's another person who read it there's another person um who's currently reading it I think like by the end of this week half the people in office are gonna have wedding so I think that you guys should all be reading this book too uh I think that's my recommendation so if you want to join us for a book discussion we do a zoom discussion so you can email me at irene.johnson at Collier County Florida or fl.gov or you can sign up at Collier County or call your library.org events and then find our book discussion it is um March 28th at 2 p.m and basically we do it over zoom and we have a really good time right now I think we have 5 six people signed up but we would love to have more sure thank you guys so much have a great day