You'll love this one...!! A book club & more discussion
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Cherie and TJ - Keeping it real together in bio-memoir
Here are more bio/memoir we share on our TBR lists:The Places in Between
Lab Girl
A Street Cat Named Bob: How One Man and His Cat Found Hope on the Streets
Hi TJ! I was home with a migraine yesterday and did not do any checking into GR until today. I am tickled to be paired with you and thank you for setting up the thread. I have no real preference to what we read. I put my memoir/biography books that I want to read on my shelf called "non-fiction-to-be-read", normally. I see that we have 97 books in common and you have compiled a list, sweet! Do you have a preference? I am kind of attracted to The Olive Farm book. Maybe I'm hungry though. :o)
Ouch, so sorry you were suffering with bad headache.
Mmm, sounds good : )Let's go for The Olive Farm book.
I've placed a hold request at my neighborhood public library.
Do you have a copy already available to you?
I'm also kind of attracted to the backpack, bear, and eight crates of vodka.
I will check both books and see what is available from my library and let you know.
I have placed requests for both books, TJ.
Very interesting choices. Look forward to know your thoughts about the book you finally choose.
Good choice. Hope you both enjoy it. It is a good fun read!
Hi TJ - I am picking up both books tonight. A Backpack, a Bear, and Eight Crates of Vodka: A Memoir and The Olive Farm: A Memoir of Life, Love, and Olive Oil in the South of France. I will be ready to read either when you are.
Cherie, I've had the flu and been pretty zonked for past few days. Getting better now. Was able to download one yesterday evening, and the other is available for pick up. Will make a.library run this afternoon.
I am so sorry to hear that you have been sick. I hope you are feeling better and will be fully recovered soon. Let me know which one you want to start with. I am sure we can manage to read both of them. ;o)
Thanks, Cherie. I'm on the mend. Still congested and lower energy but up and about some so that's good.I'm happy to read both books. I started A Backpack, a Bear, and 8 Cases of Vodka last night.
I didn't get far because I got so sleepy, but I enjoyed the beginning.
I will start it tomorrow. I read late yesterday and I am tired tonight. I finished the Nicci French book earlier and I think I will turn out the light after I catch up on all the posts.
I made it through the first 18 pages. He is currently talking about how they managed the complainers. Amazing!
I'm reading it as an ebook. I've only just completed the first two chapters. When the author describes getting roughed up during the gas mask drill, at first I thought his bullies were picking on him because they were older, but then I realized, nope, it's because he's Jewish. I'm really glad to be reading this book as I didn't realize that anti-Semitism was still a thing in Russia during this time period. And also that they were still up to classifying dissidents of any stripe as insane. It's so inhumane and unethical to use medical doctors and treatments to deliberately cause harm in the name of political dogma and intolerance of dissent. Scary stuff!
I am on page 45, in chapter 5 "@Mikhail". I just noted on Janice's Zodiac thread that it feels like ancient history and it was only 30 years ago.
I never had any idea all of this was still going on then either. I have to look up so many words. I have never known any Jewish people, not personally. My family were all Mormons on my mother's side. My father's mother and her family were German.
I remember Chernobyl.
The page I am on talks about the Slavic thunder God, Perun. Too funny, but I learned about him in the Iron Druid series.
I've had various close family friends, neighbors, co-workers, and employers who are Jewish. I've been to many bar/bat mitzvahs and several other Jewish ceremonial events. The two cities in Texas where I've primarily lived, Dallas and Austin, both have strong Jewish communities, which isn't the case every where across the US. I dated a few Jewish guys along and along, tho things never got serious. Freaked my mother out, which wasn't my intention. I came to understand that she wanted to be sure I was at least aware of potential difficulties a cross-religious marriage might entail.
I have a lot of German ancestry per my dna profile, according to Ancestry.com. But I don't really know about any specific ties back to Germany as yet. I do know a little about ties back to England, Scotland, Ireland, and Denmark.
Chernobyl was/is scary stuff.
That's so fun when really unrelated books overlap in some way, like Iron Druid and this book with Perun.
"I considered the bullies lucky: they only had to see me once in a while; I had to live with myself every day. I envied them."So sad thing to have learned and internalized such self-hatred. And yet not at all uncommon.
I did not get much farther into the story last night. I had some dental work done yesterday afternoon and had to take a pain reliever. I could not keep my eyes open long after that. Hopefully I will get more done tonight.
Oh, I hope you're dental work went well and isn't causing you pain. Sleeping is good for giving the body time to heal and recuperate.
No suffering today, TJ, but I think I need to go back. Now that I can chew (had oatmeal for dinner last night) and everything is awake and my jaw working properly (2 1/2 hrs of open mouth with head tilted back) the tooth in the back (he worked on two back molars in the upper left) feels like it has a high spot. My retainer feels off too. My dentist is great and he said to call back and he will work me in to fix it. Anyway - back to the book. I was just reading on page 74, about how "the word Jew can mean one of two things. First, it can denote a follower of Judaism, which is a religion... However, Jew can also refer to an ethnicity, a hereditary genetic makeup that's as immutable as the rest of the genome." This just knocks my socks off! What genome? There is a Jew genome? I am saving this post so I can go look it up.
I'm glad you noted that for follow-up, Cherie, about the assertion that there is a Jew genome. I can see how dna mapping and genealogy research can be compared and certain genetic markers found that tend to go with being Jewish, but I don't think it's as cut and dried as the author makes it sound. Hmm??Your poor jaw - 2 1/2 hours of keeping mouth open! At least fixing the high spot will probably be pretty quick work. Good to be on top of these dental issues, tho not fun.
There were a lot of different answers to the genome, ethnicity questions. I understand a little more about the Russian Jew situation now. I always assumed it was a religious difference, for the reasons that the Jews were persecuted. I always wondered how someone could "tell" who was a Jew and who was not. (Same thought as how can someone tell if someone is gay or not?) I understood his discussion of how one could be Catholic one day and the next day decide they were not. I also understand having a mother or father who is Jewish but the child not considering him/herself as Jewish and vice versa. The Eskimo example did not make sense, nor did the American Indian example - they look different - don't they? The Croat and Serbian fighting never made sense to me, because they did not look different, but I understand it better now. It is still not gelled into my being, and I feel like I will be reading the rest of the story with a little bit of distrust in the back of my mind. Maybe that is not the correct word. I am still open to learning more. The ham conversation was pretty surprising too.
Page 82. I cannot believe this little kid is taking Three Men in a Boat, as one of his book, with him as they leave the USSR. I cannot believe that this book has been mentioned so many times in various books I have been reading over the last couple of years.
I was completely shocked to learn pork was a staple in the diets of Russian Jewish people. I totally relate to his love for bacon. I could almost be vegetarian except for bacon ; )
There's a lot to reflect raised in this book. I was also amazed and a bit amused that Three Men in a Boat was one of the few books he took out of Russia with him. That book does get referred to quite often in books. I think that was why I decided I needed to read it.
I thought that was interesting reading about Russian Jews being in a better position to immigrate because of the non-political/non-national aspect of their Jewish identity in contrast to Estonians, who of course didn't really want to immigrate. Instead, they wanted the USSR to get out of their country.
Back to your mention of the Slavic thunder god, Perun...I highlighted a quote there that I liked... "Peron continued to be revered in the countryside, only now he was worshipped as Elijah, the ominous prophet who rolled through the skies in his fiery chariot. In Russian Orthodoxy, as in other syncretic religions, old deities don’t die; they just get makeovers."
I love.that last bit, "old deities don't die, they just get makovers."
That was an important concept in at least one of my recent reads, American Gods by Neil Gaiman. Actually, it was relevant in another recently read book, The Hog Father.
But more to the point, it holds so much truth historically. Comes up in the biography about Edward S. Curtis I also recently just read, The Short Nights of the Shadow Catcher by Timothy Egan.
I read to the next part and the family is on the buss out of Russia (page 103). It is so hard to imagine the terror and stress they lived through at the last check station before being released to leave. And the people that had come with them on the bus, and waited all night outside in the cold, turn around and have to walk to the nearest town and take the train back home. How amazing! I read American Gods a couple of years ago. It was confusing to me and I really did not enjoy it. I have learned a lot more now and probably would get more out of it if I read it again. I like how the old Gods are recycled too.
He mentioned the Berlin Wall and how the attitude had changed to allow it to come down. There was a Facebook post yesterday that said that the wall has not existed now for as long as it was up, something over 10,000 days. (About 27 1/2 years.) It was more like 29, I think. It was built in 1960? I don't remember it.
I've caught up now, I think, to about where you are. Completed Part 1. Just starting Part 2. They're on the road in Czechoslovakia. After their nightmare with the border tamozhnya/tamozhniki.
I love that the opening quote for Part 2 is from William Least Heat-Moon's book, Blue Highways, which I read last March : )When you're traveling, you are what you are right there and then. People don't have your past to hold against you. No yesterdays on the road.
I finished reading to page 121. The next chapter is called Where People Have No Names.The family has just been to the Israeli embassy and then to the US embassy in Vienna and Lina got some boots.
I did not know that Yiddish was an old dialect of German. Don't ask me what I thought it was. I just knew that it was a language that old people used to speak in the movies and in books. I thought it was "Jewish", if that makes sense.
I do understand - I used to think that exact same thing!I guess we're not going to finish before the toppler. Oh well.
I read another 20 pages at lunch today. I am almost at the end of The Forester chapter. (view spoiler)I had to renew my library books today. I can't believe that I have had them for three weeks already.
Peter is certainly an enigmatic but useful person to know it seems. Seems fortuitous that Lev's father came to have him as a friend.
I'm now at the chapter titled, A Simple . Request. Don't know page number. Our internet is down and I've had trouble checking in. Sorry!
I am two chapters in front of you, in Part Three, Refugee Sponsorship ForDummies. The family just arrived at their new home in the previous chapter.Lev is talking about the overwhelmingness (my word) of everything!
Did you laugh when Lev came out of the closet with the US Atlas and told his family that he didn't know where they were going because he had identified seventeen Lafayettes?
My youngest daughter lives in Lafayette, Oregon.
It is an interesting story, but it doesn't pull me in and make me want to keep reading. I cannot feel connected to him. It makes me feel sad to say so. I think he has gone out of his way to not make it all factual, but the human factor feels edited out. Maybe it will be different or better now.
I have been sick and in bed the last two days. I took Friday off from work and slept all day. I have a head cold and post-nazel drip that keeps my throat sore. There is just enough sinus pressure that it makes my eyes tired while I'm reading. Hopefully, I will be able to get our book done in time.
I must be in a better mood this morning. I am finding a level of sarcasm that the author may not have intended. I'm not sure. However unintentional, it is appealing to me.
I know what you mean, Cherie. It's made the book more entertaining. I've finished up to the chapter, Where Else Does She Belong. I'm liking to read about their experiences in the US. I don't entirely like the layout of the book with the moving back and forth in time from 1990 to 2007.I did laugh when I read the part about 17 Lafayettes. That's interesting that they have unique names for all their towns and cities. Makes sense to me!!
Yes, I don't like the back and forth much either. It breaks the tempo of the story line. It seems intentional though. I think we are supposed to pause and reflect on what he wrote . I am at Where The Weak Are Killed And Eaten. (view spoiler)Some of the chapter titles have been a good choice of words. The chapter you are on was a surprise to me. I wouldn't have believed it.
We still seem to be two chapters apart. What did you think of the people who became their sponsors?
Their sponsors were really amazing! And the town really rallied to help them.
Okay, I've now read the next two chapters. What did you think of Lev's theory that Peter had been responsible for pulling strings, like for explaining how/why they wound up in Lafayette?It was interesting to learn that Lev wasn't unique in his rejection of all things Jewish. It's sad the way he hated to see his own reflection, how it would instantly bring back his hated Jewish label from childhood.
I just finished the chapter. The next one is back in 1989 and I stopped there.I felt that Peter must have had a hand how the family ended up. It was too bad that Lev could not bring it up with him.
I think that was the most honest chapter in the book! I felt awful for him, not being able to look at himself. It is still very hard to comprehend the zhid. I understand the religion part more but it is still hard for me to get my head around the ethnicity part. I jotted some things on a note card that were mentioned. I will try to put them down tomorrow when I am at my keyboard instead of typing with one finger on my iPod.
Page 232/233 - the language barrier. I just cannot imagine how hard it must be for the people who come here to get their minds wrapped around learning English. I understand our attitude too though, but we should not make them feel stupid or be-little them. We really are too impatient and rude most of the time. Page 235 - they have to pay a fee to belong to a Jewish Temple?
Page 236 - Bitter feelings from American Jews - I can understand that the organizations like HAIS and Joint would expect the poor people that they had worked so hard for to want to be grateful to them for their support, but I thought Lev was very honest in his response - they just wanted out of Russia. They have nothing and want everything. It IS hard on both sides. No one who has not had any insight into the Immigration processes can understand. First of all - I am amazed at how much money it costs. The paperwork and time lines are totally crazy too. If one piece of documentation expires - like a background check - everything goes on hold and you almost have to start over. The political refugees have nothing, but they need jobs and housing and so much support.
Page 239 - The best part of Emigration is hope.
I feel like I am forcing myself to have to finish this tonight and tomorrow. I have 61 pages left.
i just completed the book. I liked the epilogue very much, somewhat to my surprise. And I loved the prayer quoted right before the epilogue by Archbishop of San Salvador Oscar Romero, assassinated in 1980.More after more time for reflection.
I enjoyed reading your notes and comments, Cherie. Thanks for hanging in there!
You'll love this one...!! A book club & more
Books mentioned in this topic
Blue Highways (other topics)Three Men in a Boat (other topics)
A Backpack, a Bear, and Eight Crates of Vodka: A Memoir (other topics)
The Olive Farm: A Memoir of Life, Love, and Olive Oil in the South of France (other topics)
The Places in Between (other topics)
More...
Here's what jumped out at first look see:
Driving Hungry: A Memoir
A Backpack, a Bear, and Eight Crates of Vodka: A Memoir
The Olive Farm: A Memoir of Life, Love, and Olive Oil in the South of France
You're Never Weird on the Internet