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October 24, 2007
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Sarah
is currently reading:
The Professor's House (Vintage Classics)
by Willa Cather
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Sarah said:
"10.24.07
Continuing on with more willa cather....i have read less than twenty pages and as usual i am down with the characters already. Boo-yah! More to come.
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October 19, 2007
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Sarah
is currently reading:
Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books (Paperback)
by Azar Nafisi
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Sarah said:
"10.19.07
Listening to books rocks! yay.
I began this book once before - in printed form - and must have gotten distracted, or moved on to something else. I can kind of see how that might have happened; if i were not doing something else simultaneou...more
10.19.07
Listening to books rocks! yay.
I began this book once before - in printed form - and must have gotten distracted, or moved on to something else. I can kind of see how that might have happened; if i were not doing something else simultaneously, this time around, i might again find the book a little slow and time-consuming. but since i am working anyway, i keep listening, and i am glad, because there are segments of the book that are so revealing (to someone like me) and insightful about women's experiences living under a totalitarian regime that devalues all females. basically, i hadn't realized (or maybe hadn't thought about, because it is not convenient or easy to think about) what women suffer in some societies...being policed and criticized at every turn and made to bow down to a man, any man, EVERY man.
I absolutely love the way that, in the book, the author uses her insights on works of literature to help describe the collective and individual emotional experiences of Iranian women. and i love it that in the book she describes her work with female and male students... how they read these novels together, and they encouraged one another to explore and express their own feelings and ideas, relevant and irrelevant to the literature. and i love it that the author combined these different types of insight, these different stories: that of her personal love for the novels, that of the reading group, and that of the ebb and flow of religion's grip on state, specifically in Iran in this period of time, but also, generally, in the world...which, sort of creates the opposite effect of a good novel: the scope of perception is narrowed, critical thinking is discouraged, and aesthetics are trumped by restraint. i cannot imagine a world without doors that open to the turn of a page....less
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Sarah
is currently reading:
The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana (Paperback)
by Umberto Eco, Geoffrey Brock, trans.
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Sarah said:
"10.19.07
Listening to this on another digital audio-book thing. I love the library!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
anyway the first half of the book went smoothly for me, i was engrossed in the plot and taken in by the gimmicky premise. and Eco's language (well,...more
10.19.07
Listening to this on another digital audio-book thing. I love the library!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
anyway the first half of the book went smoothly for me, i was engrossed in the plot and taken in by the gimmicky premise. and Eco's language (well, in translation) can be lovely. but the abundant literary allusions....what can i say, got on my fucking nerves. and after a while, the amnesia dude's search for his past (that could just as easily have been told to him, for the most part) starts to seem really self-obsessed and obnoxious. he's all, then i picked up THIS tiny little object, and here's seven hundred details about my feelings about it, and then i picked up THAT tiny little ojbect, and here are seven million details about my feelings about every association i have with it, etc. etc.
So. i am taking a break from this book, because i think the narrator is a big fucking baby, and i resent his apparently abundant leisure time....less
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Sarah
gave
to:
The Hormonally Vulnerable Woman: Relief at last for PMS, mood swings, fatigue, hair loss, adult acne, unwanted hair, female pain, migraine, weight gain, ... all the problems of perimenopause (Hardcover)
by Geoffrey Redmond
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recommended for: psycho bitches on the rag, or about to be
read in October, 2007
Sarah said:
"10.06.07. Just wanted to see what kind of info is out there about hormones, and maybe learn more about how i might temper them (or at least sort of understand the fucking hell that is pms). this user-friendly book breaks things down by life stages, a...more
10.06.07. Just wanted to see what kind of info is out there about hormones, and maybe learn more about how i might temper them (or at least sort of understand the fucking hell that is pms). this user-friendly book breaks things down by life stages, and also, by particular hormones, and also also, by different categories of troubles you can get from hormones. so it's pretty easy to find the chapters that get into your particular resentments. the doctor makes a lot of suggestions about what pills to take, but does also acknowledge and describe (and sometimes tout) various natural remedies. he seems to be all about lifestyle changes too, which makes me respect his position, and therefore consider taking his advice on using "artificial" pharmaceuticals to adjust/correct my "natural" hormonal imbalance -- which is counter-intuitive for me, as i tend to defensively side with the perspective that womanhood is not shameful, nor does it need to be "fixed." what needs to be fixed in some of us, not all, is a goddamn hormonal imbalance. duh. The thing with medical/health books is that you never know whether the author is a quack or not, because facts and statistics can be so easily manipulated to support anyone's hokey idea. and even if they are totally sincere, they could just be wrong. But i am pretty sure this guy is giving it to us straight about pretty widely-accepted ideas, and that gynecologists just leave all this stuff out when you complain about hormones, mostly because they are in such a goddamn hurry to cram fifty patients in. So about the book: at the very least, it is helping me get an idea of which birth control pills would likely make me more crazy and which might ease the psychosis.
AND anyway it's never too early to get educated on menopause, if you have the time to read about it. but i am skipping those sections, i have enough to worry about....less
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Sarah
gave
to:
Everything Is Illuminated: A Novel (Paperback)
by Jonathan Safran Foer
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my rating:
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recommended for: everyone
read in September, 2007
Sarah said:
"10.06.07. Two things:
1. this book rocks, and i am dying to finish it but also wishing it would go on forever, because it has that super-amazing blend of intelligence and humor and corniness and adventure and satire and tragedy and cliche and origi...more
10.06.07. Two things:
1. this book rocks, and i am dying to finish it but also wishing it would go on forever, because it has that super-amazing blend of intelligence and humor and corniness and adventure and satire and tragedy and cliche and originality that makes me freak out in a good way.
2. i am in love with this new technology i discovered at the library recently...the concept is ingenious and so so so perfect for me because of what i do for a living. there is an entire single book (for example Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer, my first) living inside a little mp3 player-like device, and you plug your headphones into it, and go. it fits in your pocket (or tool belt), and while you toil and sweat all day with your hands, you can exercise your overactive mind at the same time...or pacify it, however you want to look at it. all i know is, it gets me through the day AND gives me an additional feeling of accomplishment. yay! my brain is no longer melting!
10.19.07
i had a great time listening to this book and am tempted to listen again, but i have since started others. definitely a candidate for multiple re-reads though. i love the story and the two narrators' developing perspectives, and thought so much about relationships --all kinds of them, not just lovey dovey ones-- the whole time i was listening. i love it that the author is so unafraid to point out the sadly obvious, or obviously sad, because once it is pointed out, it becomes less painful. i felt so open and hopeful during the whole experience, even while the story became tragic and shocking. i really love things that remind me of the universality of love and of the stages of life, which, in the end, all revolve around different types of love. i think this came to me at the right time, because i really needed a boost of confidence about my own potential to be close to others, and a little reminder that love is not a state, but a series of actions....less
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Sarah
gave
to:
Running with Scissors: A Memoir (Paperback)
by Augusten Burroughs
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my rating:
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recommended for: people who are sort of bored
read in August, 2007
Sarah said:
"10.03.07. Rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrmmmm,
This book frustrates me. The whole "is it a memoir, or is it fiction?" thing is dumb, but at the same time, i find myself feeling annoyed with the author for even making that an issue by calling it Blahblahb...more
10.03.07. Rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrmmmm,
This book frustrates me. The whole "is it a memoir, or is it fiction?" thing is dumb, but at the same time, i find myself feeling annoyed with the author for even making that an issue by calling it Blahblahblah: A Memoir. Like he has to justify it somehow or something. If it was a good story, pure & simple, it wouldn't matter! and he would just call it Blahblahblah, and let it stand on its own legs.
Anyhow i do'nt mean to be so hard on him, because some of what he has written is clever and poignant, and some of it is very original and disturbing in a good way. but then there are situations that are annoying because they are so BORING in their extreme and absurd sickness, that i would much rather not be bothered with them. Is there a word for that kind of annoying?
Sadly, i find myself not wanting to go back and finish the last 20 or 30 pages of this book, because i feel like a sucker (or a victim of manipulative marketers) the whole time i am reading, and i am all, "this better be good!" which is totally distracting. But not finishing books makes me an ass, so, sigh, i will suck it up and pick it back up eventually.
10.19.07
i didn't finish after all. other stuff was looking too tasty.
...less
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October 06, 2007
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Sarah
gave
to:
The Year of Magical Thinking (Paperback)
by Joan Didion
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my rating:
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read in October, 2007
Sarah said:
"10.03.07. Intending to re-read this lovely and thought-provoking book for a book group next week - my first event of this kind in FOREVER. Exciting!
I remember having mixed reactions - awe, fascination, jealousy - to joan didion's words the last t...more
10.03.07. Intending to re-read this lovely and thought-provoking book for a book group next week - my first event of this kind in FOREVER. Exciting!
I remember having mixed reactions - awe, fascination, jealousy - to joan didion's words the last time i read this. In general, i think a lot about relationships, all kinds of human relationships, and of course that includes the romantic, so i was very interested in this woman's feelings (and observations about her own feelings) surrounding the death of her husband slash best friend. The most significant thought i had while reading was "how can she complain? so what if he died. most of us never even find that in another person and at least she had it once."
Being in a different place now, a more positive one, i think maybe this book will affect me differently this time. Let's see...
10.19.07
i surprised myself with the tender affection i found for joan's position upon my second reading of her memoir of grief, and the way i defended her in the book group when many were calling her selfish, self-obsessed, over-analytical, etc. i guess i realized that, in addition to expressing her "self pity," she is only emphasizing the fact that it is our relationships with other people, above all else, that really give meaning to our lives. i envy but also truly respect and find inspiration in her story of her marriage and the anecdotal evidence of healthy bonds between joan and john, and joan and daughter quintana. there is nothing wrong with having a lovely life, and appreciating it. ...less
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Sarah
is currently reading:
Notes from Underground; The Double (Penguin Classics)
by Fyodor Dostoevsky
bookshelves:
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my rating:
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Sarah said:
"10.03.07. Ok for some reason i cannot get past page three. I think this is not the ideal book to try and read while
a) riding on a van with ten rowdy construction workers,
b) lying on the beach with someone you have a huge crush on, or
c) playing ...more
10.03.07. Ok for some reason i cannot get past page three. I think this is not the ideal book to try and read while
a) riding on a van with ten rowdy construction workers,
b) lying on the beach with someone you have a huge crush on, or
c) playing involuntary but much needed hooky from your exhausting job on a rainy day.
However those three pages are really interesting - i have read them ten times! And i am definitely curious about the narrator. I just need to attack this book when i have more extraneous time and energy! I will keep you posted. ...less
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