Paging All Bookworms! discussion
Book, Books, Books & More Books
>
What are Reading / Reviews - Febuary 2018
date
newest »
newest »
message 1:
by
Leah
(new)
Feb 01, 2018 11:30AM
Mod
reply
|
flag
The Swiss Family Robinson by Johann David Wyss, 5*****s
I loved this book! Even though I can see where some people might not, and there are many differences in some of the way we do things now and how we think as compared to 1812. It was written by a man who was born in 1743, so his views on men and women, and their "duties" would be very different 275 years later. Also, this book is very religious, and written as a way to teach his four sons. However, it was exciting, educational, entertaining, and sweet all at the same time, and really made me want to keep going with the story to tell what was going to happen next!
I listened to the audio on LibriVox which was read by Mark F. Smith, and I liked the way he read it so much that I think it made me like the book more than I might have! Big thumbs-up for this reader!
The Music Shop by Rachel Joyce, 4****s
I loved this quirky, cute, sad, and happy book!
There is a lot going on in it, but the main characters are Frank and Ilse.
Frank owns a music shop in 1988 in England, and will only sell vinyl. He refuses to deal in tapes or CDs, which are becoming very popular, as vinyl is going out. But Frank is adamant.
Frank has had an unusual upbringing -- a crazy mother! -- and she taught him everything he knows about music. So, even though he is somewhat damaged, he has an unusual talent of knowing what music a person needs when they walk into his store. So he has saved many marriages and even some lives! :)
Ilse enters the story by fainting outside Frank's store, and as they meet and get to know each other, she requests that Frank give her music lessons -- not about notes and technical music information, but how music feels and looks (You find out later why Ilse needs these lessons.).
He might bring Chopin, Beethoven, James Brown, and Led Zeppelin records to one of their lessons. So the music references in this book are wonderful if you're a music lover!
And as you can imagine, drama ensues, with some joy, quite a bit of sadness, and a dramatic climax, with a nice ending!
But what I enjoyed most was the way the author described the quirky characters and the funny things they said and did. And I can say that it was a "fun" book that I enjoyed very much!!
I highly recommend it :)
Xingu by Edith Wharton, 4****s
I really enjoyed this short story of a ladies' group that gets together for enriching, cultural talks. But while entertaining a distinguished guest author, the ladies get into a discussion that leads to an entanglement of words and conversation while trying to sound educated about "Xingu," of which none of them has ever heard.
This is a very entertaining story, and I found myself laughing out loud. It is also a reminder about not trying to sound like a "know-it-all" -- it might get you into trouble ;)
Big Stone Gap by Adriana Trigiani
5 ★
If you enjoy reading books by Fannie Flagg, you will enjoy reading about Ave Maria and her Big Stone Gap friends. Ave Maria is the pharmacist in the small town and a self-proclaimed spinster. She keeps herself busy helping everyone in town, but never really thinks of herself. Upon her mothers' death, Ave Maria learns about her mother's life and a secret that was kept from her. Ave Maria decides to start thinking about herself and reinventing her life. Big changes are coming. Ave Maria is a very complex character and I enjoyed watching her grow (even though she's in her 30s). She started off not trusting people or herself. She had amazing daydreams about what she thought people were saying (reading between the lines). Her friends in Big Stone Gap are very loving and people I would like to have as friends. Ave Maria has two love interests and I would have had a hard time choosing as well. The book moves at a good pace and although I was expecting things to happen quicker, it all comes together nicely.
Paulo Freire,
Pedagogy of the Oppressed
[1968, tr. 1970] 186 pagesI wish I had read Pedagogy of the Oppressed long ago; it is an amazingly rich book. While the book is based on Freire's experiences teaching adult education and literacy courses in rural Brazil and in Chile, and its main concern is with education, he treats education in the context of liberation and has much to say on general aspects of revolutionary thought and action. His main thesis is the contrast between education in the service of the oppressors -- in the first instance, the landowners and capitalists, and foreign interests -- which treats the student as an object to be "educated" by inculcating a certain pre-determined content of practical training and of attitudes of subjection, with education in the interests of the oppressed themselves, which must treat them as subjects who determine their own self-education and problematize the conditions of their lives and the relations in which they are embedded, and be a way of liberating themselves from those conditions.
The first type he calls "banking education", using the metaphor of a bank in which one deposits certain contents to be retrieved later; in other works he develops the metaphor in another sense, that the deposit is an investment from which the depositors intend to derive an advantage to themselves. (I also read more or less simultaneously with this book an article by Louis Althusser which also treats the theme of education and is really complementary to Freire's book, in that it explains what the dominant classes get out of their form of education of the working classes.) To the extent that his banking metaphor suggests a method of education by simply teaching "facts" to be memorized without understanding or questioning (although this method was in fact common in Brazilian official education at the time) it may seem to be a straw man in relation to modern methods of education -- most schools today would agree that simply memorizing "facts" is not really enough to be really educated. If we take the idea of depositing more broadly, however, as indicating the teaching of a content predetermined by the "educator" and to be simply assimilated by the "student" it has much more relevance; perhaps the term "explication" as used by Jacques Rancière in The Ignorant Schoolmaster, which was my previous favorite book on education, would be a more flexible concept (note that Rancière was a protegé of Althusser), but this is just a quibble. The opposition is real and the essential idea is treating the learner as a subject rather than an object of his or her own education. From my own experience in the official school system, both public and private, from kindergarten through college, and on the other hand with both attending and teaching courses in "political education" and other "unofficial" courses and tutoring in both academic and nonacademic subjects -- and I would also add certain book discussion groups in this, I can verify the contrast -- never in a discussion of curriculum or methods in "official" school education did it ever even occur to the "educators" to consult the students themselves in any way about what they were to be taught or how, and the distinction between the "teacher" and the "students" was clear and absolute; whereas in most of the unoffical courses I have taken and taught, we all decided ourselves together what we wanted to learn and what the readings should be, and the "teacher" and "students" were equal and all both taught and learned (i.e. the distinction was more one of who co-ordinated the classes and prepared the materials). It's always seemed to me that the most educated people I know, whatever their academic credentials, were basically autodidacts; and what Freire, like Rancière, is proposing is a kind of collective self-education.
Freire goes on to generalize this concept of education to revolutionary action -- and the revolutionary is above all an educator; he defines "sectarianism" -- the bane of every revolutionary movement -- as an imitation of the oppressor's method of education, as the presenting of the masses with a pre-determined program to which they must be "won over", as opposed to the real revolutionary method of dialogue in which the revolutionary organization develops the program in common with the masses themselves, supporting their own interests and praxis rather than trying to command them from a position of assumed intellectual superiority. He uses many examples from the Cuban revolution to illustrate his point. He objects to the idea that the "dialogal" method is impossible before the revolution takes power, and he points out that it is also indispensible after the taking of power, which is only one moment, although the most important, in the process of revolution. (The Althusser article I mentioned says that Lenin near the end of his life considered as one of his greatest failures that the Bolsheviks after the revolution had been unable to revolutionize educational methods sufficiently and that this constituted one of the major dangers to the revolution; I haven't verified this, but if so, it is something we should learn from -- and in fact, the Cubans, and even more the Sandinistas in their brief period in power, did emphasize adult literacy and collective self-education far more than the Russians did.)
Freire was a Christian (although he seems more Marxist than many "Marxists" I have read -- and worked with) and he applies the same contrast of methods to Christian missionary work -- interesting because one of my major problems in discussing anything with Christians (as with political sectarians) is that they are usually more interested in "converting" me to their predetermined doctrines than in dialogue. I believe Freire was an influence on the later developments of "liberation theology".
Even points he makes just in passing are worth reading; his pages on the "generosity" of the oppressors and manipulation explain the U.S. two-party system and especially the liberal Democrats so well it's hard to believe it was written with Latin America in mind.
Denis Collins, Paulo Freire: His life, works & thought [1977] 94 pages
As a pendant to reading Freire's Pedagogy of the Oppressed I decided to read this short biography which I had on my bookshelves. It was interesting as background to the development of his thinking and of summarizing things which were in his other books. It was written by a Jesuit and published by the Catholic Church, so it has some limitations; the author particularly finds it objectionable that Freire justified armed revolution (but he doesn't deny the fact that he did, so I assume the book is trustworthy in its account of Freire despite its own value judgments, although it may emphasize certain ideas rather than others.
The Snows of Kilimanjaro by Ernest Hemingway, 3***s
An interesting short story about a man who is about to die due to an accident. He looks back on his life and all the things he could/should have written but didn't.
Mod
Packing For Mars – Mary Roach – 3***
Subtitle: The Curious Science of Life in the Void. Another entertaining and informative read from an author who has become a favorite “science” writer for me. As she has done for sex, our alimentary canal, and cadavers, Roach turns her curiosity, sense of adventure and wit to the topic of space travel. Entertaining and informative (and with some laugh-out-loud moments).
LINK to my review
I’m currently reading Warcross by Marie Lu.I believe I’m on page 17. It’s really good so far!
Izzy wrote: "I’m currently reading Warcross by Marie Lu.I believe I’m on page 17. It’s really good so far!"
That's on my list! Let me know what you think of it, and I'll see if I need to move it up on the list ;)
I'll watch for your review :)
Amy Falls Down by Jincy Willett, 4****s
This is a fun book about Amy Gallup, a 62-year-old woman who teaches writing classes and has been an author, in the past -- her books are out of print at this point. When asked to do an interview with someone highlighting "past authors," she agrees, though she doesn't enjoy public attention and has stayed to herself for the past few years. However, right before the interviewer comes, Amy falls and hits her head on a birdbath in her back yard. She is able to get up, but is not in very good shape. Therefore, because of this minor head injury, she remembers nothing of the interview she gives! And suddenly, because of this quirky conversation, she is a celebrity author again! But she also begins to write again, which she hasn't done for years. And the story unfolds from there and is quite entertaining.
My favorite part of the book was Amy's eccentric personality and sharp wit, her vivacious agent, and her lovable dog. I just liked the way it was written (it is very funny!), and I recommend it :)
Kerry Young,
Pao
[2011] 289 pages [Kindle]The latest book for the Goodreads group reading Jamaican literature, Kerry Young's Pao narrates the life of a Chinese immigrant to Jamaica who rises to become the boss of the Chinatown underworld and later inherits a legitimate business empire from his wealthy father-in-law. The novel is obviously well-researched, and apparently based partly on the author's father who was also a figure in the Chinese underworld in Jamaica; like Pao's daughter Mui, Kerry Young went to London at the age of ten, so her knowledge of Jamaica is based on visits and reading (the novel contains a bibliography of sources -- including the 23rd edition of the Gleaner history which I reviewed a couple months ago!) The descriptions of Jamaican politics are knowledgeable and probably correct as far as they go -- mostly generalities about imperialism, neocolonialism and the need for unity among ethnic groups; although from a literary point of view it is somewhat disconcerting to find such political insight attributed to a character of that background and the political passages sometimes seem added on. The chapter titles are based on ideas from Sun Tzu's Art of War, which is also quoted frequently as a guide to the character's actions.
The book was well-written for a first novel, was relatively fast-paced and kept my interest. It begins with Pao's relationship to Gloria, an East Kingston prostitute, and his marriage to Fay Wong, the daughter of a rich merchant; his relationships to these two women and the children he has by both are a main thread throughout the book. It then turns back to his arrival in Jamaica and childhood, and traces his history forward until the first birthday of his and Gloria's granddaughter and the imminent return of his and Fay's daughter Mui from London. There are a large number of secondary characters, people that he helps or has conflicts with in his capacity as gang-boss and "protector" of Chinatown; while not always well-developed they are all easily distinguishable and generally seem realistic. His role in the community seems somewhat idealized for what he does.
I will next be reading her second novel Gloria, which is based on the character from this novel.
Mod
Etta and Otto and Russell and James – Emma Hooper – 3***
Eighty-two-year-old Etta has never seen the sea, so she decides one day to leave her Saskatchewan farm and head out on foot. It reminded me of Rachel Joyce’s The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, but it was not quite as engaging. Use of magical realism and non-linear timeline.
LINK to my review
Mod
Barbaro: A Nation’s Love Story – Tom Philbin and Pamela K Brodowsky – 1*
It seemed that some of this must have been written for a contemporary magazine or journal piece, and perhaps the other author came in to expand it to book length. The result is uneven and boring.
LINK to my review
Arthur Koestler,
Darkness at Noon
[1941] 216 pages Darkness at Noon has been on my reading list since I was in high school, but I could never find a reason for picking it up and reading it until it was the discussion book for one of my Goodreads groups. It is a very discouraging book to read. Stalinism was a crime against humanity, not only for what Stalin did in the USSR, but because it disoriented and virtually destroyed the revolutionary Marxist movement all around the world. Unfortunately, like most ex-Stalinists, Koestler wrote, not an anti-Stalinist book, but an anticommunist one -- because despite all the crimes of Stalin they could never break from the central dogma of Stalinism, the one that underlay all the others: Stalin was the logical heir to Marx and Lenin. Nowhere is that more evident than in this book. Throughout the novel, Rubashov, although supposedly an Old Bolshevik* and even an oppositionist of sorts (and the book among other things really slanders the opposition), considers Stalinism as the logical deduction from Marxism, as "consequent reasoning", when it was actually anything but. He presents the "old leaders" as differing from Stalin in their goals but not essentially in their methods (and I don't mean to deny that there were bureaucratic tendencies, "germs" of Stalinism, from the beginning, but they were not dominant until the rise of Stalin and the bureaucracy). While Stalinism was in its origins a distortion of Marxism, neither Rubashov, Ivanov nor Gletkin gives any evidence of having ever understood Marxism; their arguments are all rooted in bourgeois philosophy and religion, in abstract ideas about "means and ends", abstractions about "history" and so forth. There is no hint of dialectical reasoning, of praxis, but an almost religious epistemology that privileges the leader as somehow the only person who can perceive reality directly as it is. There is complete contempt for the party cadre, to say nothing of the working class and the peasantry. Perhaps this is fair enough as a description of the end-products of Stalinism, of decades of searching for justifications of a changing and counterrevolutionary "line", but it is not what someone like Rubashov or Ivanov would have originally believed. In the end, Rubashov/Koestler's "solution" is just mysticism and abandoning reason. Koestler's biography is "logical" and "consequent" with his book: he became an uncritical supporter of American imperialism and a creationist.
It is also difficult to read because there are no characters in the novel that a reader can even sympathize with -- Rubashov the self-described "oppositionist" was in fact nothing but a Stalinist of the worst kind, who enforced the whims of the bureaucracy against real revolutionists in Germany and elsewhere, betraying the world revolution as well as individual comrades; about the same can be said of Ivanov. Gletkin of course is a villain, even if -- or perhaps because -- he's portrayed as the symbol of reason. Arlova and Richard are essentially just victims, rather than real characters, and we pity them rather than actually respecting them. Basically, Koestler cannot have any positive characters because he sees Stalinism as logical continuity of the revolution rather than a betrayal of something essentially different, because he is rejecting the entire revolutionary enterprise since 1917 (or perhaps since 1793).
Is it, as some have claimed, a "well-written" book, worth reading as literature? It's hard to divorce form from content in a book this explicitly political; perhaps coming to it from a less political background I might have been impressed by the writing or felt some strong emotion in reading it, but as it was I kept looking for some insight into Stalinism and there was none. I wouldn't recommend this book -- unless maybe to a Marxist as a warning of what NOT to confuse with revolutionary thinking.
*Koestler uses the term "old guard", in keeping with his policy, which I don't understand, to avoid explicitly saying that this is the USSR and that "No. 1" is Stalin; who else could he be talking about? It is understandable when Orwell in 1984 -- a novel that is often, I think unfairly, paired with Darkness at Noon -- uses "Oceania" and "Big Brother" because he is not writing only about Stalinism but about the tendency he saw for Stalinism and capitalism to converge into the same kind of totalitarian statism -- not a position I think was correct, but one which had to be taken seriously at the time.
Max (Maximum Ride #5) by James Patterson
5 ★
Max and the flock head out into the ocean in a submarine to save her mom who has been kidnapped and investigate something that is destroying ships. Being in the sub is a challenge for Max, but she knows she must do it. This was another good one in the Maximum Ride series and you can really see the flock growing up and changing. They all have developed some new abilities and Angel has started to become rebellious and make her own decisions. Max doesn't like it, but finally realized that she can't change it. I think Angel may be becoming stronger than Max. I also enjoy the relationship growing between Max and Fang. It about time! There is a story line left open with Brigid that I'm hoping we learn more about. Also, what is up with Jeb and the voice in Max's head? Still waiting for more on that.
The Girl You Left Behind by Jojo Moyes, 4****s
This is the story of a French woman, Sophie, in WWI whose artist husband has painted a picture of her. As he is away fighting in the war, their village is occupied by German soldiers. The Kommandant becomes enamored of Sophie, and also loves the painting. Sophie finds out that her husband has been taken to a reprisal camp in Ardennes and, to try to save him, she offers herself to the Kommandant. They meet for a tryst which ends badly. And the next thing you know German soldiers are coming to take her away. She first thinks that they are taking her to her husband, then as things seems to get worse and worse, she realizes that she is getting sent to Germany.
Cut to 2006:
Liv Halston is the current owner of the portrait of Sophie. Her husband, David, bought it for her as a wedding gift. Long story short, her husband, of only four years, dies of an unexpected health issue. Now Liv is especially attached to this painting. However, the family of Sophie's husband, the artist, is searching for this "missing" painting and has hired a company who searches for stolen war treasures to find it.
Liv accidentally meets Paul and they fall for each other. However, Paul happens to work for the company searching for the painting of Sophie. Therein lies quite a bit of the drama, along with the fact that the media has nearly the whole city of London upset at Liv because she won't return this "stolen war treasure" back to the rightful owners. But, of course, you must read to the very end to get the whole story!
It was really very good. I liked the way all the pieces fit together like a puzzle. And as the story goes back and forth between 1916 and 2006, all things are revealed and the reader is given all the answers. Nothing is left hanging. I ended up liking this more than I expected to. Jojo Moyes does a very good job writing her stories :)
Mod
The Butterfly’s Daughter – Mary Alice Monroe – 2.5**
I knew this was a chick-lit, road-trip, find-yourself kind of novel going in. I was intrigued by the link to the monarch butterfly migration, and by the main character’s journey. I liked how Luz grew through the novel, and liked the various characters she picked up along the way and how they helped her. I also liked that the ending, while hopeful, was NOT just wrapped up in a pretty little happy-ever-after bow. But there were elements that dropped it a half-star, chiefly how bad the audio performance was. If you want to read it, do so in text format. Skip the audio.
LINK to my review
Mod
’Round Midnight – Laura McBride – 3.5***
As she did in her debut work, McBride tells the story of four different characters with little apparent connection, until their stories come together in one specific event. The reader gets a pretty clear idea of the connection of at least two of these women early on but must wait for events to unfold over several decades before the characters will catch on.
LINK to my review
Father Mine (Black Dagger Brotherhood #6.5) by J.R. Ward
5 ★
Zsadist and Bella are now parents and Z's past comes back (in his mind) to haunt him. He wonders how he's going to explain his tattoos and scars to his young as she gets older. Bella is afraid that Z no longer finds her attractive since the birth. This is a great story that shows how differently men and woman think. I had some of the same thoughts after I had my children. It was a sad, but heart-warming story that brought tears to my eyes. Zsadist really changes throughout the story and I think the changes may help him in the future.
The War I Finally Won by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley, 4****s
This book is the sequel to "The War That Saved My Life."
I had enjoyed the first book so much but wasn't sure that I needed to read this second book. But I'm very glad that I did! As this was written for 4th-7th graders, I thought the author did such a good job of being able to teach a young reader about so many topics: religion, the politics of war, child abuse, grief, and joy...just a myriad of issues! As a teacher I would highly recommend these two books for children ages 9-12, but also talk to them about what is happening in the book and what they have learned.
As an adult reader -- I just loved it! I could hardly put it down. I enjoyed getting to know all the characters and their backgrounds. And it also has a pretty nice ending, which always helps :)
Happy reading on this one!
Notorious RBG: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg by Irin Carmon, 4****s
I read this for book club and ended up really liking it! It was so interesting to read about RBG and her life's work. What an impressive lady!
Mod
It’s All in the Frijoles – Yolanda Nava – 2**
Subtitle: 100 Famous Latinos Share Real-Life Stories, Time-Tested Dichos, Favorite Folktales, and Inspiring Words of Wisdom. Nava has compiled the wisdom of our ancestors through the stories, legends, folktales and sayings they imparted. She divides the book into chapters, each dealing with a basic value: Responsibility, Respect, Hard Work, Prudence, Chastity, etc. These short vignettes (many barely a page long), are perfect for a daily meditation, so it’s a nice book to have around the house for that purpose. But reading it straight through just emphasizes how repetitious it is.
LINK to my review
Franz Kafka,
Der Prozeß
[written c. 1915, pub. 1925] 145 pages [in German, Kindle]I read this for my friend's class, but it also fits into my recent tendency to re-read in the original books I read in translation in college. I read The Trial almost fifty years ago, and I don't remember what my impressions were then beyond a vague idea of "the Kafka-esque". The plot concerns the arrest and trial of a bank official.
Often, books are described as having a "nightmarish" quality, by which is meant simply that the events are too horrible to be believable, even though we know these or similar events are happening in the real world every day. Kafka's novel, written in Austria during the heyday of Freud, is a nightmare in a different and more literal sense; while the events are rather banal, the structure is that of a real dream or nightmare. The book begins with the protagonist waking up to find two "watchers" who restrain him from his normal activities. After some meaningless conversation it turns out that he is "under arrest". He is unable to find out who these people are, what sort of police agency they may represent, or why he has been arrested. There is a senseless obsession with what clothes he is supposed to put on. He is taken into his neighbor's appartment where he converses with an "overseer". At some point, he realizes that three persons in the background are actually coworkers of his from the bank, who of course would have nothing to do with any arrest, and he is suddenly released and allowed to go to work. These are of course all marks of a dream structure -- an event which is unconnected with anything preceeding or following, conversations which don't actually make sense, people appearing from other unconnected parts of the dreamer's life in different roles, and restraint and release. Then we find him living in the "real" normal world, doing his job, talking to his landlady and the neighbor; while they sort of confirm that the events occurred, they don't seem to put any emphasis on them; it is almost as if they don't remember anything about it.
The next chapter is about his first hearing. I remember I once had a recurring dream for a while in which I would be walking on streets I didn't recognize in a ghetto neighborhood, looking for a building which I didn't remember the address or appearance of; I randomly go into a building, and there are hundreds of numbered doorways and I have no idea which number I am looking for; I randomly open a door and I find myself in my own apartment (which is not any apartment I actually ever lived in) with several of my roomates from twenty years earlier (but who were never my roomates at the same time) and my room is still waiting for me as if I have only been away for a short time. This is just about the structure of the second chapter of the novel; K. (the protagonist) is in an unfamiliar poor neighborhood,looking for the place of his trial, but he has no idea where it is; he goes into a building which has many stories, knocking on doors and apparently looking for his landlady's nephew (who has no connection with his supposed trial), gets directed into a room full of people, which turns out to be the place of his trial. There are many spectators, who cheer and clap for him as he makes his speech; suddenly he "notices" that they have insignias on their collars and so aren't just spectators after all . . . And so forth throughout the novel.
Despite the dream structure, it doesn't appear that Kafka is doing anything as trivial as writing a book about someone having a series of bad dreams. There is obviously an allegory here; the nightmare is our real world. We are confronted with a society and authorities which are somehow vaguely hostile to us, but who cannot or will not justify the source of their authority; with processes which make no sense to us, but which everyone around us seems to accept as normal and legitimate. Events occur without any apparent cause or warning; people shift roles suddenly for just as little reason. This definitely has a resonance with the life of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, especially of those who are, like Josef K., relatively apolitical citizens who try to make sense of the world from the descriptions of the media. I admit I have felt a bit like Josef K. since the past election.
There may be -- it's Kafka, so there probably is -- some sort of religious application as well, but I'm not so well attuned to that. The priest in the next to last chapter seems to explain everything with a parable, but actually explains nothing, just like all the other characters -- the parable is as meaningless as the main story, which it reflects, just as actual religion only reflects the society it pretends to explain.
The novel was published posthumously; one chapter is apparently unfinished (in this novel, how could you tell?) but there is no lack of an ending -- but of course the ending just ends the novel, it explains nothing as well.
Jorge Luis Borges,
Labyrinths: Selected Stories & Other Writings
[1962] 260 pagesLabyrinths is a selection of stories, essays, and short "parables" translated from the author's collections; it appeared about the same time as the other early translation of Borges, Fictions, which included only the stories from Ficciones. This translation includes stories selected from both Ficciones and El Aleph; since I had recently read both those collections in Spanish, I read this for the essays and other material. I won't duplicate here my reviews of the stories which are partly reviewed in my reviews of those two collections; I will concentrate on the essays.
"The Argentine Writer and Tradition" tries to explain what being an Argentine writer consists of, and denies that it means "local color" or following Argentine or Spanish traditions exclusively, but rather that any writer who approaches the world literary tradition from within Argentine culture is an Argentine writer. The second, "The Wall and the Books" -- this was written more than sixty years ago! -- notes that the Chinese Emperor Huang Ti was noted for two things, building the Great Wall and trying to burn all existing Chinese books, and asks what the psychological connection is between walling in your country and destroying its cultural traditions. A good question to ask today. The remaining essays are short discussions of various themes in intellectual and literary history, discussing Cervantes, Kafka, Valéry and Shaw among others. The last essay, "A New Refutation of Time" tries to show that idealist philosophy should have idealized time as well as space; a very interesting idea (which he doesn't actually argue for seriously.)
The parables are very short, one or two page mini-stories written after he became blind, which are similar to his stories in dealing with philosophical questions but even more condensed. The collection ends with a short poem called "Elegy".
The book is probably a good introduction to Borges for those who don't read Spanish; I read it just for the sake of completeness.
Mod
Autobiography of a Face – Lucy Grealy – 4****
What is more important to your sense of self than to recognize yourself in the mirror? What if the face you saw in the mirror was one you could not bear to look at? A face that could not possibly reflect the you inside? Grealy writes so eloquently and honestly about what she went through as a result of childhood cancer, and how she felt growing up “ugly.”
LINK to my review
Red Clocks by Leni Zumas, 4****s
This very interesting book is set in the not too distant future in a time when abortion has once again become illegal in America. It focuses on five different women and each of their situations as females in society. It is truly intriguing and written in a way that I initially didn't care for, but then began to enjoy. I can't exactly explain the style, but the closest I can come is "stream of consciousness." That isn't usually my favorite, but for some reason I caught onto it in this book and eventually didn't want to put it down! I don't know that everyone will love it, but I say -- give it a try and see... it will definitely make you think!
Book Concierge wrote: "Autobiography of a Face
– Lucy Grealy – 4****
What is more important to your sense of self than to recognize yourself in the mirror? What if the face ..."
I'm glad to see your review on this! A friend recommended it to me quite awhile ago and I never got to it. I guess I'll have to move it up on the list :)
Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy: Four Women Undercover in the Civil War
By Karen Abbott
4 ★
A riveting story about 4 women who risked everything to help the North and South during the Civil War. I was expecting the stories to all be told separately, but since the women do cross paths I enjoyed how the author made it one story. Belle, Emma (Frank), Rose and Elizabeth are very stronger women. And very opinionated women for that time period. My favorite story was that of Emma Edmonds who dresses like a man (Frank Thompson) and joins the Union soldiers. I believe many knew that she was female, but she was so good at her job as a spy that they kept their months shut. I was not as impressed with the snobby likes of the others. They acted out too much and seemed to feel entitled. They were wealthy, but still traitors in many eyes. The story is well told and flows well. Although I did keep getting confused by which side each women was on (take notes). The ending follows up well and lets the reader know what became of the women.
Kerry Young,
Gloria
[2013] 381 pagesGloria is the story of Gloria Campbell, who was introduced in Young's first novel, Pao, as Pao's mistress. The book begins with a bit of her history from when she was fourteen (although we don't learn all the details until the end of the book) and then describes her life in Kingston, her working as a prostitute, and her meeting with Pao. From that point on, the novel basically presents the same story as the first novel, but from the perspective of Gloria, and we realize how much Pao never knew (just as there are things in the first book Gloria doesn't know). It was an interesting idea, to present the same story from different sides in two novels (and apparently she plans a third book in the trilogy from another perspective; I presume Fay's, though there are other possibilities.) I've read some fantasy series that do this, but I don't remember another realistic novel series that does it. This novel is as one would expect more concerned with feminism than Pao, but both books share a concern with the political situation in Jamaica. There is also an interesting episode where the author volunteers in Cuba with the literacy campaign. As a whole, this is a somewhat better novel, but it shares the same fault, perhaps to a lesser degree, that the political statements sometimes seem more like the author preaching than what the characters would actually say in the circumstances. There are also "surprise" twists that were obvious well in advance, but I find that to be the case with most novels that try to have "surprises". Basically, a good, interesting novel with better than average politics (which I know isn't saying much ...)
Mod
You Remind Me of Me – Dan Chaon – 3.5***
Chaon’s skill as a short-story writer shows in his debut novel. The first four chapters of the book introduce us to four different characters and time frames. Eventually the connections between them will be clear to the reader. What I really like about Chaon’s writing is how he explores issues of identity, how characters are shaped by their environment, by chance and opportunity, and by the choices they make. There is much to dislike about these damaged people, and yet I am drawn to these characters and their stories.
LINK to my review
Uncommon Type: Some Stories by Tom Hanks, 4****s
I enjoyed this collection of stories by Tom Hanks. I listened to the audio book which he read. It was fun to hear him read his own book. It was good, not the best I've ever read, but I did like it.
Mod
The First Deadly Sin – Lawrence Sanders – 4****
I first read this back in about 1975 and was completely gripped by the writing and the suspenseful story. I liked it just as much on re-reading it.
LINK to my review
Mod
Isn’t It Romantic – Brett Fletcher Lauer & Aimee Kelley – 2**
Subtitle: 100 Love Poems By Younger American Poets. I like poetry, and I do not need a neat rhyme or rhythm to enjoy the form. However, many of these poems did absolutely nothing for me. Definitely not a “romantic” collection, in my humble opinion.
LINK to my review
Safiya Sinclair,
Cannibal
[2016] 111 pagesCannibal is a collection of poems by a Jamaican-American poet. Many of the novels I have read lately feature Jamaican women who go to America and become poets or playwrights talking about their experiences and I imagined the author as similar to these characters. The collection is inspired by Shakespeare's The Tempest, although I didn't find that obvious, despite the epigraphs from the play. The book is divided into sections; the first section is about her childhood in Jamaica, the second is about her college days at Bennington College and the University of Virginia Charlottesville, and the remaining parts seem to be a bit later in life. In many of the poems, especially in the Virginia section, she makes an effort to link her personal experiences with racial or colonial themes, and those were the ones I could relate to best, particularly the two series called "Notes on the State of Virginia" and "One Hundred Amazing Facts About the Negro, with Complete Proof."
Nevertheless, I did not enjoy this as much as some of the other Jamaican poetry I have read for the same Goodreads group this year (Kei Miller, Lorna Goodison). Sinclair writes in a very image-rich, non-conceptual style, which deliberately fragments her experience; this made it difficult to understand what she was actually talking about most of the time, especially in the more personal poems. The poetry reminded me in some ways of Aimé Césaire, the most famous Caribbean poet and playwright (whose play La tempête is quoted in one of the epigraphs), but where he was influenced by surrealism (and of course much more explicitly political), this poetry (despite the cover illustration) isn't really surrealist; it seems as if all the poems have a literal meaning but that meaning is occasionally just too private to grasp. I found myself thinking, this poem is about something specific that happened to her, some event in her life, but I don't have a clue what it was.
The interview podcast which was linked to in the Goodreads group made some of the poems more understandable and gave me a better idea of what she was trying to say, but poetry should not be dependent on interpretation outside the poems themselves. She also said that she was trying to "break" the colonial language which may account for some of the obscurity. Some of the poems talk about "diction", i.e. the question of Jamaican patois vs. "standard" English. The poems, or at least the images, are all in the same tone: bleak. Some of the imagery is good, and perhaps if I were more into modern poetry I would have liked the book more.
David B. DaCosta,
The Sun's Love Is Ours
[2006] 170 pagesThis was a read for the Jamaica group; I don't know why. It's a silly romance and about the most amateurishly written book I've ever read -- including my mother's creative writing group. Tower Isle Publishing doesn't have a website, so I assume this (free) e-book was self-published; the acknowledgements credit the author's siblings with the proofreading. Ordinarily, I'd say a self-published book like this needed an editor, but frankly I don't think an editor could have helped this one.
Mod
Silas Marner – George Eliot – 3***
A classic tale of the redemptive power of love, first published in 1861. A reclusive, miserly weaver’s life is changed when he finds a toddler on a snowy evening. As is typical of the novels of the era, the plot includes numerous coincidences that stretch this reader’s tolerance. There is much misery, but Eliot does give us a few moments of joy, and an ending full of hope.
LINK to my review
Mod
A Morbid Taste For Bones – Ellis Peters – 3***
I’ve heard about this series set in 12th century England for some years, and always wanted to try them. I found it rather slow moving, but really liked the lead character, Brother Cadfael. I’d be willing to read another in the series.
LINK to my review
Roland Barthes,
Mythologies
[1957] 247 pages [in French]Roland Barthes' Mythologies is a book I should have read long ago when I was college, if for no other reason than (as I recognized in reading it) that there are echoes of its ideas and terminology in so many other things I've read, especially in books or articles about literature. The book is divided into two parts; the first part is a collection of the author's articles, mainly from les Lettres Nouvelles, exposing various "myths" in everyday life and popular culture, while the second part is a theoretical explanation of his conception of what "modern myths" are and how they function.
The articles range from pro wrestling to criminal trials, child poets to detergent commercials. Some were too specific to France, or to the 1950s, to be entirely clear to me, or if they were clear, were no longer very relevant; I understand that recent English translations are annotated, but I read it in the original French paperback from 1957 so I was pretty much on my own. The article about the mythology of jet pilots, for example, would not apply today when commercial jet flights are totally routine, but it fit exactly with the mythology of the astronauts (who, as The Right Stuff shows, inherited their mythology from jet test pilots.) In reading it, I wished the author had published it a decade later, because I would like to have read his analysis of the space race as mythology.
The important part, of course, is the theoretical essay which makes up the last fifth of the book. Maybe it would have been better if that had been first, so I would have understood from the beginning what he meant in describing certain things as "myths", but on the other hand his examples in the first part probably made the essay easier to follow. He defines "mythology" in semiological terms, as a meta-linguistic phenomenon which begins from a "sign" (in the Saussurian meaning) in the object language, which he calls a "sense", and treats it as a "form" which is then a signifier for a "concept", creating a "significance". A myth is made up of repeated similar "significances". The definition, and the first example he gives (using a sentence in the object language as an example of a grammatical paradigm) makes his idea of mythology seem too general, but it soon becomes obvious that he is really talking about the mythology of bourgeois ideology.
One good point was his discussion of how the bourgeoisie is anonymous, that is how it never lets itself be named (I couldn't help but think of the passage in Fred Halstead's Out Now about the SDS demonstration at the beginning of the antiwar movement, where the speaker says he's going to call the people responsible for the war by their right name, and the older socialists (like Halstead) were disappointed that instead of saying "the capitalists" he said "the power elite"; and of the recent liberal euphemism, the "one percent", which always makes me want to reply, "call them capitalists, that's who they are".) The most important points, however, were that myths function to eliminate history and to "naturalize" artificial historically determined phenomena as if they were eternal natural facts, and that in doing so they "depoliticize" their objects. (It's just natural that in America there are just two parties, Democrats and Republicans, right?)
One point I would have to disagree with him on, is his contention that there are no important or "essential" leftist myths. I think he's correct that revolutionary thinking is necessarily historical and political, and hence excludes mythology, and that left myths are only possible when the "left" has ceased to be revolutionary -- his example is the myth of Stalin. I think he's mistaken when he says that leftist myths are only political and don't extend throughout society the way the rightist (bourgeois) myths do. Certainly Stalinist mythology extended throughout society in the USSR itself; the bureaucracy, like the bourgeoisie in the West, never let itself be named, and all the historically determined contradictions and privileges of the bureaucracy were naturalized. Perhaps he is implicitly limiting himself to left myths in the capitalist world, or perhaps (it was 1957) he had illusions in the Krushchev reforms (although he has a good footnote where he says that "Krushchevism" only devalued Stalinism, never explained it, and therefore never "re-politicized" Stalin.)
Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare, 4****s
I loved this one! I am not a big Shakespeare fan. But before I read this one I watched the 1993 movie and it helped me SO much! I could follow the story and the characters so much better than if I had just read it. Also, this movie is such a wonderful version of the play with a ton of big stars that do an amazing job of acting, and it is set in Italy so the scenery is beautiful!
So...this story has joy, comedy, drama, and romance. And, of course, everything is acted to the extreme, but it's Shakespeare! So I say, watch the movie, read the play, and enjoy yourself immensely! :)
Fractured by Karin Slaughter
(Will Trent #2)
4 ★
Will Trent is an agent with the GBI and he is called in to investigate a crime. A young girl and guy have been murdered and there may be one young girl missing. Will Trent takes over the case from the Atlanta PD and meets up with a nemesis from his childhood. He also has to work with a cop who has her own reasons for disliking Will. This is a good story with a twist. One that the reader discovers with Agent Trent. I really like the way Karin Slaughter writes. She gives you a lot of background on all the characters, but just enough on the smaller ones to keep you guessing. Will breaks some rules, but for a good reason. Will also has a secret that he tries to keep from his temporary partner. This secret helps him solve the case though.
Mod
TUESDAY – 13 Feb 18
Big Little Lies – Liane Moriarty – 4****
Moriarty uses the “minor” drama of helicopter parents to explore larger issues of school bullying and domestic abuse. The reader knows from the first chapter that someone has died … but who died and who was responsible will have to wait until the last 40 pages of the novel. Using multiple narrators, and different timelines seems a popular technique in novels these days. It’s difficult to do this well, but Moriarty is a master. Even the secondary characters fairly leap off the page.
LINK to my review
--------- * * * * * * * * --------
THURSDAY – 15 Feb 18
Elephant Winter – Kim Echlin – 4****
When she learns that her mother is dying, Sophie Walker must give up her nomadic lifestyle and leave Zimbabwe to return to the family farm in southern Ontario. This is really a character-based story, though there are some significant events, including a couple of violent altercations. Mostly, however, Echlin treats the reader to Sophie’s thoughts as she considers her mother’s condition, her role as daughter, lover, friend, her past and future. I really liked Echlin’s writing style. There was something so quiet and comforting about it. And still her imagery is very vivid.
LINK to my review
Mod
The Shack – William P Young – ZERO stars
Several people have recommended this to me, but it’s really not my cup of tea. I found the message heavy-handed and the writing simplistic.
LINK to my review
--------- * * * * * * * * --------
MONDAY – 19 Feb 18
The Silver Linings Playbook – Matthew Quick – 4****
What a delightfully quirky and touching story. I never saw the movie, but knew it was very popular. I put the book on my tbr knowing basically nothing about it and was pleasantly surprised by how much I liked it. Pat is a wonderful character and narrator. Tiffany is so confused and hurt and hopeful, that she, too, just pulls me in.
LINK to my review
Paging All Bookworms!
Books mentioned in this topic
The Shack (other topics)The Silver Linings Playbook (other topics)
Big Little Lies (other topics)
Elephant Winter (other topics)
Fractured (other topics)
More...
