Jodyanna's comments (member since Dec 27, 2007)

Jodyanna's comments from the Constant Reader group.

what a list! I have not read this Faulkner selection or Dom Casmurro, and will join in the conversations for these 2 books. Bowles and Naipul or good reads and I think all will enjoy them. I am glad that Dom made it as I have been planning on reading it and live in a portuguese american community..........no ability to speak or read the language though beyond a few snippets here and there!

I have not read Mahfouz before, but am looking forward to the pleasure based on the collective consensus on this board and the delightful picture shared by, Theresa, whether or not 'Children of the Alley' makes the official list. The Poisonwood Bible was a good read for me, too, Suzanne! As for classics, I read atypical things as a child due to frequent moves between the US and abroad. The only static reading choice in my household was a very old set of encyclopedias that traveled with us, school reading requirements and anything I could supplement that with at a library. So, I have read some very obscure classics, some modern classics, but missed Ulysses, Hansum and any and all Flaubert from the current list............it is getting exciting to ponder what will make the list and which of the selections I will place on my tbr pile even though they did not make the final cut!

this is a very interesting thread, not only for the many fine contributions, but also for the thought provoking questions about culture, transmission of thought/ideas, etc......... I loved "The Bone People" and concur with all that has already been said about the book on this thread. Assignment to the "classics" realm, for me, must have something to do with the reads ability to speak about the human condition across time that touches us intellectually and at the level of the soul....... so I agree with the previous statement about some sort of collective unconscious synergy having a part in the process. That said, what might be a labeled a classic is probably very biased/skewed by academia from country to country. I would love to read more works by foreign authors, whether classic or not, but find that translations cannot always capture the essence of the writer's intent, albeit, the translations are often powerful and rich.......... and, well known authors in other countries have at times, been relatively unknown in the US, but, thankfully, that seems to be changing a tad these days.

Hi, Ricki,
My nomination messages were bounced back to me today, so I will not be nominating, but, do look forward to the new list when it is available!

oops! First time nominator here, and was not sure of the process. Thanks for clarifying and I will contact Ricki with only 2 of the listings above! Thanks, Sherry!

There are many books for the classics list that I could suggest for consideration and of the many, here are the few: The Decameron, Boccaccio; Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Carroll; The Wide Saragasso Sea, Rhys; Invisible Man, Ellison; The Garden of Forking Paths, Borges and Dream of the Red Chamber, Ts'ao Hseuh-chin. Good luck to those who are tasked with selecting from all of the remarkable reads suggested by so many!

perhaps one day you will wish to reconnect, although it appears, that time is not now. even though I do not know you and have far too little time to really visit as often as I wished, or post much of anything here at CR (even though I did try, starting with the month and year we read "The Road"), I would welcome your presence and perspectives on any forum we might happen to mutually occasion. and if you ever did choose to come back and post here, you would be welcomed warmly. Be well, Andy. I refuse to say goodbye to either you or candy. too final and sad for me.

Good luck with your writing, Yoby! If your posts are any indication of your writing style, whatever you aspire to in the field of communication will surely meet with success. I am in awe of all of those on CR who can manage to both read, write and create as much as you all do. I barely have the energy or time to read much less write! and create? Do "to do" lists count? Maybe I need geritol!

I think the most remarkable thing about this thread is the respect for differing opinions and the amount of civility each person, including myself, has been accorded. Perhaps there could have been a better way for me to express my thoughts on the power struggle I felt was developing between the moderators and Candy. I still feel somehow, that Candy felt marginalized, and that the moderators did need to uphold boundaries/limits, as all leaders must and do. Both have their viewpoint in this matter, and I respect both, knowing I do not know nearly enough about the complexities of the situation to offer a thoughtful and sensitive remark. My very knee jerk reaction was more about observing how perceived (self or otherwise)powerlessness can often hold unspoken power in the midst of conflicts and how having power can become a helpless position, whether that is acknowledged or not. I was not clear. My post was not meant to be an indictment about the moderators or a support statement for Candy, although I can see how it could be construed either way. My apologies. It was purely, a direct reflection of my own discomfort at seeing how a post on grammar could elicit such heated individual and group debate/division: a clear sign in my view that this conflict was about much more than the stated words being expressed. The mud got pretty thick for awhile but, interestingly, has led to some bridges being built. Hurray for processing! I am still hoping for some sort of re"soul"ution, because I am an optimist at heart. Growth is messy.

after months of silence and episodic browsing, I feel the need to weigh in. This conflict appears less about dialogue than demagogue at times, and has become very tragically triumphant in its ability to polarize. Given my own very narrow/limited/biased human mindsight, it would appear that each camp (yes, to me, it does appear that there are camps here) is really just the mirror flip side of the same coin. it is ironic that a current reading selection is 'war and peace', as the whole cast of human characters, crisis and proclivities are being displayed on this forum. I gave up following the thread after it just kept being drug through the mud without end. Then, too, my own uneasy feelings of walking through a land mine of hidden agendas kept emerging through the words as I read. I feel uneasy, anxious, saddened and appalled by all of it.......... mediation and uncovering what the real source of all of this is (which may or may not be about power/powerlessness, growing pains, differentiation or some other human condition in groups), sounds like one possible way to resolve what has become what feels like an all out war fueled by the need to be right, rather than a way to explore differing points of view. Sadly, this is not what I had hoped for in joining CR.

I read quite a bit of nonfiction and would join in! I have participated in constant reader before and am likely to continue to do so, despite my hectic schedule.
BTW, I also enjoy Borges.

lol! I can relate, Susan......I was lost in my own brain thinking hmmmm, OCB,OCB.... obsessive chapter browsing????? When the big DUH hit me! Not sure I will be able to obtain and read OCB in the few days until discussions starts.... I will be thinking of you all as you go forward with this one and catch up in March with the next selection......I am intrigued enough by the couple's therapy slant to pick this book up for my tbr pile!

Courtney, there are no words to capture the loss of one you love. May you be blessed with support and comfort in the months to come.

The Golden Notebook...well, I've finished after nights of wading upstream, against the tide, at bedtime. It seems to me that neither Molly or Anna were free in the sense I would define "free", at any point in the book. Part of that, I am sure is just zeitgeist differences. I did find myself at times, charmed, amused by the gender tension, intrigued by the political climate of the time, mortified and completely angry when Anna gave Nelson, the golden notebook.......... ahhh...but then i began to wonder if that scene reflected Anna's recognition that the golden notebook was a reflection of all sorts of idealization or ideation rather than authenticity and was, therefore, all too glad to rid herself of its possession????

I appear to be a bit out of sync with others, because, on first read, I like this story. I've never thought of myself as intrepid, Unlce Steve, other than after reading "The Shawl" by C. Ozick, and the poems of: Paul Celan "Todesfugue/Death Fugue" and Nelly Sachs: "Mein Blaues Klavier/My Blue Piano". So, Erdrich's story take one: It is a coming of age story, the mythic hero-ines voyage, a story about stepping between two worlds/dualism and not feeling firmly rooted in either in the in between-ness of it all; a story about difference/confusion, searching for self in others; searching for self outside of one's familiar comfort zones; what happens when you live the life of/written by/ self or other imposed by someone else, based on their ideals and beliefs rather than one's own (the excitement and danger and sorrow!) and coming to grips with this; a story about the difference/similarity between the new and the old/generational connections and disconnections, the collision of cultures and the impact still resonating today; a story about the voyage within/the soul's labyrinth that is often "trip" like ecstatic and instructional and/or terrifying; a story about discovering and claiming authenticity in the brutality/sensuality and vagaries of everyday life, a story about losing every shred of the ego, all of its rigid beliefs, schemas, constructs (like dorothy who supposes herself one way until she crash lands into another world and discovers not only herself as other than she thought in so many ways, but the whole world as familiar and odd simultaneously), where all you thought you WERE comes undone and ultimately leads you backwards and forwards .......... the grandfather and nonette together with the tobacco pouch at sunset is so symbolic; the ties, pouch or otherwise, that bind. the story is poignant and beautiful and rich and real. I have to read it again because i very seldom "get" the simplicity of complex things or the complexity of simple things, at first glance.

I have so little time to do as much as I would like to......... BUT, I will follow the internet link to read the story as Louise Erdrich is a writer I enjoy. I know what leaving a child at college is like, then having them return home confused, not having found their niche at a time when peers did. Runs in my family...late bloomers, by about a decade or so. So I will, quite characteristically, bloom late into this story as well! Hope to post again this pm or tomorrow morning!

the mom thing........... upon reflection, it is interesting to note that the mother and the female companion at the end of the book are placed in stark juxtaposition to one another symbolically: female as life giver/life taker, truly horrifying to have a being capable of simultaneously being creator/destroyer (mom and possibly nature), and the "feminine" (principles, ethics, ways of knowing, etc, etc.......by the way, I thought it was the female at the end of the story that wore the yellow jacket????) as potential arms of safe haven (shades of statue of liberty) dawn of a new beginning/the future, restorer of hope/possibility?
I do not think that humans need a mechanical rabbit, but do marvel at the usefulness of kyle's questions, astute as always; they brought up alot of thoughts for me. The mechanical rabbit is derived from a mechanistic world view: isolationism, rationalism as the be all end all.... could the author be depicting and taking us on our own journey towards the true need for reconnection with emotion, intuition and most importantly, with the Soul of our individual selves and collective one anothers? He sure has connected many folks via discussions of this book!

to return to the state of childlikeness: open, uncloaked, free of social convention/cultural constraints, prejudice, inhibition.........is the child godlike or simply self/other/life aware, observant in ways that adults are not? more in connection with the infinite names and ways of reality and the transcendent? look at the purity and beauty of sherry's granddaughter's "list" posting........ it is so essentially her "truth in the moment", uncensored, "real".....I know as an adult, I can often use masks and pretense to shield myself from much of what is truly before ans within me........... and, am more jaded and confused about the concept of "God" than children are..... children are natural buddhists or could be it seems.

and by the way........who is the Young Buddhist that Uncle Steve speaks of........Rich???? Kyle eliminated himself with his post. and ahhh..12 step groups...........i prefer charlotte kasl's 16 step groups myself, and by the way, unfortunately, any step group can become dogmatic and hierarchical rather than helpful. What a party pooper I am! yikes! maybe i need a 12-16 step refresher course!!!!!

wow. very insightful and inspiring reading all of the posts for this story! sherry was kind enough to send the story to me and i confess, i just made the time to read it this morning. pretty powerful for me who actually did almost drown years ago and people mistook my pleas for help as "waving", not "drowning". Eventually, someone did come and help me, but the emotional shut down at that point led to a surreal, complacent acceptance of what I was certain would be "death": a shock reaction that led me out of both time and direct contact with the reality of the situation, very much like the characters in this story. Does one have a "choice" at this point, the ability to recognize power/helplessness/personal capacity for change in the struggle to survive? or is the pain and horror of the situation so complete that other mechanisms of the mind take over and create that distortion of sight so clearly captured by the imagery of people looking at the surface of the water as if it were the sky, splendid with flight? there is a protectiveness in that fog not visible from the outside looking in.

started the book but need to pick up the pace in order to be able to participate in the discussion.

I am not sure if it was being a doormat or hoping for change in someone she cared about........... maybe there is a fine line between caring and being a doormat in some instances? Watching someone self destruct is never easy and perhaps ann was moved by pity more than love? perhaps taking care of her friend sheltered her from her own vulnerability/helplessness personally and professionally and gave her a marginal sense of control, or worthiness? I don't know............you have given me another angle to consider. I am beginning to think that I am a rather shallow reader, taking in only the surface rather than the depths of the written word......