Read Between the Wines discussion
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The Warmth of Other Suns
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Der. :)
I've read about a third. I'm having a hard time picking it up again. At this point, I'd say it's an earnest-but dull-effort. Looking for some warmth...
I want to finish The Magic Mountain first so I think I'm going to start it late. It might even run into October. Sorry for falling behind our first month back, guys!
Jason wrote: "I want to finish The Magic Mountain first so I think I'm going to start it late. It might even run into October. Sorry for falling behind our first month back, guys!"That's my other struggle for September...which I started last month. I've got a pile of real books from Amazon which look more tempting by the day...
when I'm reading this book, I mostly enjoy it, but I don't find myself itching to get back to it. it has been easy to ignore.
Janice wrote: "when I'm reading this book, I mostly enjoy it, but I don't find myself itching to get back to it. it has been easy to ignore."My thoughts exactly...
Ok I was going yo pick this up to read on holiday in Italy next week but I will give it a miss now :( have other good stuff to get through ! On the plus side, we fly Thursday week for 10 days in glorious Italy :) hope everyone had a great summer ?
I'm glad we spared you lugging this along. Have a blast...
I'm at the halfway point, and things are picking up. Maybe the first section about life in the South under Jim Crow was intentionally dull and repetitive...
I'll keep plugging away then....thanks for the ray of hope!
Thanks Gary reading some nice light books for the trip :)
Which light books are you reading, Katherine?
Transatlantic by Colum Mccann & The Rex Door by Nark Haddon, it's plenty. Our very own Colin Tobin was shortlisted for The Booker Prize today, great news altogether !
Here's my review. The book isn't exactly captivating but it is worthwhile.http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
Jason wrote: "I started this book yesterday. I'm on page 24 and I can't believe [spoilers removed]!"Maybe this should have been our pick for October.
Ha!
I have the book on audio, beautifully read in all the right accents. It is long-winded but really well written and has some shocking stats/anecdotes, reminders of the old South Africa. A few years ago I visited the Apartheid Museum in Johannesburg - really worth a visit - and I was amazed by the linkages between Apartheid and other forms of discrimination around the world which fed into Apartheid, such as Nazism and slavery. Books like these are not 'feel good' books but we need to read them. Well done for the selection, and many happy returns to the bookclub being back in action. I was behind, but am catching up, just read Beautiful Ruins and Lolita, will post those reviews at last!
Keryn wrote: "Books like these are not 'feel good' books but we need to read them."Yeah, I know what you mean. Sometimes a book has something "important" to say, and of course it doesn't hurt if the book is also well-written! I do like the feeling, though, of having my eyes opened—even if just a little bit—by a book.
I'm almost halfway done. This book is repetitive at times, but I do think the premise is interesting, and I really did not know much about the Great Migration. A lot of the injustices that these folks dealt with were horrifying and make my pulse race and I can feel myself getting angry on their behalf. I am such a dork.
White privilege is something I have understood only on a superficial level but I think this book has opened my eyes to the day-to-day frustrations that black people in the South have had to contend wth during the first half of the 20th century, and these frustrations are what build to the point of Race Riots. It was truly the most vicious cycle imaginable.
One of the things that disturbed me more than anything else is the South's response to the evacuation of blacks. They obviously knew why blacks were leaving the plantations and their jobs and even their families, but instead of making changes to the way they were being treated (fair wages, civil rights, etc.) their immediate responses were more in the range of intimidation and propaganda tactics. Fucking amazing.
God Bless America-as long as you're a white Protestant. I'm sure that this Tea Party mess is racially motivated. Can't trust President Blackenstein as Bill Maher says...
He called him that?
Oh, I just looked it up. He was satirizing the Tea Party's response to his policies. Yeah, there's definitely plenty of racism that goes on even in high-level politics. Like demanding Obama's birth certificate was another thing that really irritated me. I don't remember asking any white presidents for their birth certificates.
What I was thinking before, while I was reading this, was that even though the blacks weren't leaving the south for a place that didn't have racism, they were at least leaving for a place that had civil rights. One step at a time, I guess.
Nice!
Does anyone have suggestions for excerpts I might use in an AP English class? I'll be reading Song of Solomon with my students in a month or so, and I think some of the background about the Great Migration will be really helpful for them to understand the novel. I have a copy of it but haven't had a chance to read it yet. Ah, the irony of being an English teacher and never having time to read (except for summers of course).
There are some excerpts on the NPR website.http://www.npr.org/templates/story/st...
But if you tell me what you're looking for specifically (trials of leaving, causes for leaving, adapting to the North/West, differences between jim crow and under-the-table racism, etc.), I can probably find you a good excerpt. I have the hardcopy at home.
2, 3, and 4 listed. One of the characters (Guitar) is from the South and gets annoyed with the main character (Milkman) for being so nonchalant about racism in general. The main family moves from the South to the North, so reasons for relocation would be helpful too. Thanks for the help! Want to be my assistant teacher?
I finished this book last night.I liked it, and was glad for the enlightenment of what black Americans really went through living in the Jim Crow south. We hear about segregation and injustice but they have almost been intangible concepts to me. This book opened my eyes to the day-to-day horrors of Jim Crow.
It was a little longer than it needed to be, though. I thought the book could have ended with the end of the migration but the author continued the story of the three protagonists through their deaths, so toward the end, the book became more anecdotal in nature. Which is fine, I usually like human interest stories, but I was really (in this case) more interested in the migration itself: why certain cities flooded with southern blacks versus other cities, what the experience was like for them to uproot and resettle in what was almost a foreign land, etc.
I'll post a link here if and when I write a review.
And Kate, I'll look today for those passages you asked for.
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Sorry, Kate. It's been crazy.Here is an excerpt similar to the NPR one I linked to earlier, except this one is more complete. It is from the beginning of the book where she's describing the three families leaving the South, before she goes back to fill in their histories, one by one. Those families, by the way, left all at different times, in different decades. Here: http://www.thetakeaway.org/story/9446...
Here is another one which describes some of the Jim Crow laws, which were state-sanctioned in those Southern states. These weren't just unspoken social rules, these were law. Mostly it was these laws which led to public lynchings of blacks, and those lynchings which initiated (in most cases) the migration Northward (and Westward). Here: http://naimarei.wordpress.com/2011/01...
Here is an interview with the author, which is a great insight to her motivations for writing the book and how she approached it, and why it is important: http://www.democracynow.org/2010/9/29...
Oh, and here are some quotes: https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes...
Unfortunately my book was due back at the library yesterday and I didn't have time to search for excerpts directly in the book myself.
In fact I bolded that interview because I think it's really great, and anyone else who read this book (or wants to) might find it interesting.
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