books

This book is really interesting but contains inaccuracies about Sojourner Truth that bother me. Hooks acknowledges its "flaws and imperfections" in the preface, so that's something at least. She wrote it when she was much younger. Importantly, it's about black women and their relationship to feminism, the differing ways in which black women and white women have experienced sexism, and the prevalent role of racism in feminism. It's an important read for anyone interested in intersectional feminism.

I listened to this via Audible. It's a sweet and whimsical book filled with all kinds of stories about the people who live in Mink River. Sad, funny, hopeful, comforting.

I think the writing is pretty good - the villains almost literally left a bad taste in my mouth. I could almost feel their griminess and smell their cigarettes and feel their aches and pains and illness. But there is just a bit too much unpleasantness about it, and what seems like a super forced attempt to create strong female characters. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate it when authors don't treat their female characters like throwaways, but something about this story seems overdone to me (and, indeed, some of the female characters are used in a pretty gross way). I don't think I can be convinced to finish the series.

I had never read A Christmas Carol before! But when I saw the trailer for The Man Who Invented Christmas, I knew I wanted to see the movie. And I knew that in order to do that, I need to read the book that it's about. So, I did. And I loved it. It's just perfect, as you all know. It's also very short, so that helps. Read it, and then watch The Man Who Invented Christmas - it's all very heartwarming. 

This was a pretty eye-opening book for me. The U.S. (and the West in general) is ultra biased in favor of extroverts, much to our detriment. I'm always happy to have it affirmed that introversion is not an affliction, and it's really gratifying to read about the many ways in which introverts should be valued and respected for their strengths. I feel like everyone should read this - introverts to make yourselves feel better, and extroverts to learn how important it is to stop and listen every once in awhile (else we might end up with another market crash).

books!

I needed to read something silly to feel better after the last 2 books I read. Garrison Keillor always comes through. He takes these big heavy topics about suburban, adolescent suffering and just mocks them mercilessly. You come away with the newfound knowledge that none of it matters at all, except as a thing to laugh about.

If all social scientists could write with the emotion and descriptive talent that Du Bois could...

One of my favorite chapters is "Of the Meaning of Progress" just in terms of the way he writes. It's a sad chapter, as the book itself is just innately sad, but he writes with such beauty. He really immerses you in things and places and people you've never experienced.

It's interesting to look back at the relative beginnings of the racial segregation that we face today, and to read about it from the point of view of someone who witnessed it.

A few complaints: it is very very male-centric. And at times, he does seem to romanticize slavery in a way - he obviously doesn't condone it, but he seems to suggest that the relationship between master and house slave was better than the contemporary relationship between whites and blacks. This is so, he argues, because they used to share the same home, go to the same church, and sometimes share family blood. But he doesn't mention the giant gap in living conditions in the home, the designated places for everyone to sit in the church, or the horrifying reason that they shared family blood.

I feel the same about this book as I did about the two that come before it. Three down, two to go!

I was really hoping, based on the reviews, that this would help me believe something. It's interesting and creative and imaginative, but it doesn't do anything for a skeptic. I really badly want to believe that there is something after we die - I want to believe Pop and Gmaw are still somewhere. But I just don't know, and this book doesn't do anything at all to even nudge me in the direction of believing. If anything, it makes me wonder about the author's sanity.

Scary for sure, and obviously a great story. But. I do not like the way he uses Beverly. Especially at the end. He couldn't think of any other purpose for her? Any other way she could possibly use, perhaps, her brain to help her friends get out of the tunnels? And the worst part is that she is eleven years old. And so are her friends. It just...is so disturbing. That's the part of the book that nags at me. Not clowns or gruesome murders or spiders or bullies or townsfolk looking the other way. It's that Steven King thought it would be useful and make sense for his one female main character to essentially be an object of sex, even when she is a child, and that everyone was like - oh, ok, cool. I did still like it though, and if it wasn't for the way he treats Beverly, I'd give it 5 stars.

books

Bastard out of Carolina is a good book, but it's really tough to read. It was slow going for me. There are some bright spots, but it's mostly a tragic life full of poverty and terrible, terrible abuse. It has a devastating ending. Well written and emotional, but not enjoyable in any way. I'm not 100% sure what can be taken from it, other than that sometimes the people we love do horrifying things and we tend to love them anyway, and sometimes it's easier to forgive ourselves for that than it is to forgive others.

I started off feeling like The New Jim Crow was mostly a bunch of stuff that I basically already knew. But Michelle Alexander sort of weaves it all together into what seems like an insurmountable system of oppression that most of us really have no idea exists. It's infuriating and astounding and eye opening, and I honestly feel like everybody should read this book. Everybody. It can be dry at times, and a bit repetitive, which is why I'm only giving it 4 stars, but there are some really, truly valuable facts and insights that you don't want to miss. Here are some basics:

• The drug war is the impetus for mass incarceration. Although whites and minorities break US drug laws at very similar rates, police very disproportionately target black people, often in ghettos. The justice system provides "discretion" for prosecutors and judges, who charge blacks with more severe crimes and hit them with more severe punishments. As long as nobody talks about race, there's no way to prove than anyone is racially profiling anyone.

• Many of the people the cops arrest can't afford legal representation. Something I didn't know is that public defenders are so overloaded with cases that it can take an incredibly long time for them to see their clients, and it's often only for 15 minutes, once, before their hearing or trial. To make things easier on everyone, and because the charges are almost always so trumped up, the public defender will usually recommend that the defendant take a plea bargain, even if he is innocent.

• Most people do end up taking plea bargains, out of fear of being found guilty of a staggering number of terrible charges. This can help them get out of jail more quickly, but they don't realize that as felons, they no longer qualify for public aid for anything, including housing or food for their children. They also are subject to background checks, which essentially guarantee that they will find it extremely difficult if not impossible to find employment in the future. They also are inexplicably often disenfranchised from voting for many years, if not forever. 

• Without a job, people can't provide for themselves. Without public assistance to make up for that, people's lives are truly in danger. It is nearly impossible for these people to participate in the legal economy, as Alexander says, forcing them into illegal activity like selling drugs. And the cycle continues.

• Add to that the fact that prisons are by and large constructed in rural, mostly white communities. Prisoners are counted as part of those communities' populations, but they are not able to vote. The rural white communities are politically over represented while the decimated communities that the prisoners come from are under represented. I suspect this provides some explanation for why Trump was elected President. 

• We tolerate and even embrace this system because we can't seem to wrap our minds around the fact that whites break just as many drug laws as blacks. Alexander provides plenty of sickening info on the incredible numbers of black men who end up in the prison system, and we tend to blame this on poverty, lack of education, etc. But the fact is that the justice system is forcing people to serve lengthy sentences for non-violent crimes (more people than any other country in the world), and then continuing to punish them for the remainder of their lives. 

• We also tend to look at people like Barack Obama, Colin Powell, and Condeleeza Rice and say "see? black people can succeed if they try!" Well, yeah, some can. But the truth is that they are the exception that allows us to be complacent about forcing huge numbers of black people into a cycle of incarceration and poverty that deprives children of their parents and makes it impossible for people to achieve the American Dream that we're all so proud of.

There is obviously so much more to this book, and I just wish I could present it more concisely and eloquently and convince you all to read it. 

what I've been reading recently

I've been doing a bit of reading lately, so I thought I'd write all this down so I can try to remember. Because I will forget.

First let's talk about the Chronicles of Prydain. These are the books that the much-maligned Disney movie The Black Cauldron is based on. I don't really remember watching it as a kid, but I bought the DVD because it included a short Donald Duck Halloween special at the beginning that I definitely do remember watching as a kid. Lil Sis knew a lot about the movie tho (she knows a lot about movies in general), and she told me all about its troubles and how nobody liked it. We watched it together and I didn't think it was necessarily the worst thing ever, but the production quality was definitely not up to snuff. Anyway, I read an article (maybe because Lil Sis sent it to me?) written by somebody who was all - "The Chronicles of Prydain are the best fantasy books for children evar! Better than Harry Potter, better than the Lord of the Rings, nothing will ever come close to their awesomeness!" I can't find the article now, but that was basically what I took away from it.  Then, Lil Sis bought me the whole series for Christmas!  I have read two of the books so far.  I think that if I were a child, I would enjoy these books more than I enjoyed Lord of the Rings.  Lord of the Rings is really kind of a difficult read for kids, you know?  But it has way more depth than these books, and I have to say that as an adult, I would much prefer to read Lord of the Rings.  Harry Potter?  HAH. Neither of these series comes anywhere close to Harry Potter.  As a child or as an adult, those books are simply more exciting and magical to read. So, I think the fact that someone tried to compare this series to the others might be influencing my rating a bit, but also, they are just simple books that are definitely written for young readers, which is fine, but I'm not in love.  Perhaps if I'd read them as a kid I'd have a different view on them.

This is a memoir of sorts, written by Willie Nelson, who I adore.  It has some memories, some song lyrics, some thoughts on current events (which are not so current anymore), and some pretty dumb jokes.  I liked it because I love Willie Nelson, and I wish I knew him, and I can't separate in my mind the sound of his voice from memories of my dad. But I didn't really love the book - it made me want to read a real memoir, or a real biography, because I don't understand why his parents left him as a child to be raised by his grandparents. Things like that. He doesn't write in an organized or chronological way, and he doesn't explain much, which is his prerogative. Maybe there is a book like that out there somewhere, and I just have to find it on Amazon.  Also, I wasn't a huge fan of some of the jokes about how useless and dumb women are, but I know Willie has somewhat of an "old fashioned" history with women and that's just something I have to accept about him. Just like I accept all my dad's many flaws. *shrug.

I know I'm not giving this book a fair shake by calling it "ok". I think Ta-Nehisi Coates is phenomenal. He's an amazing, thoughtful writer, and he has a real talent for persuasion and for making difficult concepts accessible. I love his writing. But can I really say I liked reading a book that made me so sad? This book...to me, it seems bleak and hopeless, and I know that isn't what he was trying to convey. It's a well-written, philosophical, Baldwin-esque letter to his son. But. The thing that bothered me about it was his staunch atheism. Please don't misunderstand - I don't care if others are atheists, I don't judge them, I love them if they are lovable, and I would never try to influence their beliefs. But I can't identify with it, and it makes me terribly sad, and almost panicked, to contemplate an existence without anything else. I cannot stand to imagine that when my loved ones die, there is nothing left of them. And I know the atheist argument is that exactly - humans have a very hard time with this concept, and so we invented religion that we might cope.  Maybe that is true, but I don't know, having never died, and I don't think anyone really knows, and I choose to remain hopefully agnostic. But Coates knows, in his heart, that there is nothing beyond this short life, and he instills this knowledge in his son along with the urgent plea to protect his body and his life from the destruction that comes all too easily to black boys and men. He is a beautiful writer, but I didn't like it.

The title of this book is a bit of an eyebrow-raiser, but it's not what you think.  It's the memoir of a Jewish woman who grew up in a tiny southern town in the first half of the 20th century. Apparently, there was a well-known phenomenon in small southern towns - low-priced stores, owned and operated by Jews, whose patrons included anyone who couldn't afford to shop at the big department stores. And everyone (including the proprietors) called them Jew Stores. The writer's parents, both immigrants, were their town's first Jewish residents, and the memoir chronicles their gradual, not-quite-assimilation and the town's grappling with its own antisemitism. 

I didn't like these books at first.  They are very similar to the Dresden Files, which, while conceptually interesting, treat women with just a lot of weird, gross fetishism and not much care or thought. These books really are very Dresden-esque, and I was worried when we first met the narrator's love interest, who is described in very physical terms. He also passes a lot of judgment on women from his past, some of whom have had cosmetic work done. But, he redeems himself throughout the books with fairly strong female characters, including his girlfriend, who is often the hero. There is one recurring female character that I don't even have a super clear idea of what she looks like, and I'm actually impressed by that. Aside from all that, the stories are fun and enjoyable, and the world he creates is interesting. Drew Hayes is not as good a writer as Jim Butcher, but I'm willing to bet he's a better person.   

This book was interesting to me in a historical sense. It's written from the point of view of a young American woman in the 60s who has moved to London to meet a man. You think you know what she's up to, but there is a plot twist halfway through that is pretty surprising. I enjoyed reading about the things people did with their time in London in the 60s, the way they behaved, the sort of nagging friction between Americans and Brits in general, and the way they spoke and dressed. The story itself was interesting as well, and Dundy does an excellent job of making us sympathize with an unlikable character.

I re-listened to this audiobook on our drive to and from SWVA with the seesters. It was entertaining enough. A cute story about an overworked, overstressed London lawyer who, by weird happenstance and total lack of communication-turned-outright-lies, ends up working as a completely inept housekeeper. But she makes a friend who saves the day, and basically her life. Would you be surprised to find out that this friend is a man? The workup to the ending got a little out of hand, almost as if Kinsella's editor was like - you need more conflict! It had a happy ending though, and it was fine, and everyone was entertained by the reader's lovely voice and accents. 

morocco

The last couple of days have been kind of uneventful. The Professor has been working hard on a presentation he's doing with a group of people he's doing research with. I've been kinda working and kinda gardening and kinda doing chores and stuff, but I haven't been sleeping well so I'm feeling a bit half-hearted about everything.

I finally uploaded the pictures from my trip to Morocco with Mr. Bear in January 2014 to Flickr. It was our last trip together, and looking at the pictures made me remember so clearly how unhappy I was, and it made me feel really sad. It's kind of hard to look at them. I also don't really remember a lot of the details - we went to some ruins that I guess are Roman, and I have no idea if they are, in fact, Roman, or what their significance is.  So that's awesome.

I like this picture though:

it's a rooster.

I've been reading Island Beneath the Sea by Isabel Allende, which is really good, as is everything she writes.

My anxiety about the side yard is kind of ridiculous. I'm waiting for another storm to come through and destroy everything, and part of me dreads it and part of me wishes it would hurry up and get it over with.

So that's what's going on today.  Nothing exciting, or particularly happy.  But I'm just so tired, and feeling really blah, and the rainy weather isn't helping my mood.

Looking forward to feeling better - I know I will in a day or two.

have courage and be kind

I listen to these audiobooks sometimes - the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series. I know that the books are problematic in that they're written by a white colonialist man in the voice of a black African woman, but they're gentle stories with whimsical musings and happy endings, and they're comforting to me. Especially when read by the narrator that I enjoy so much, Lisette LeCat.

So right now, I'm listening to the most recent one, The Woman Who Walked in Sunshine. And that's sort of how I imagine the main character - she has a simple and pleasant life filled with love, and the small things bring her joy.

I listened all morning while I did my chores, and then I got caught up on work that I didn't do yesterday while I was running around all over everywhere.

Then I went to Mom's to have dinner and watch a movie. We got a bunch of desserts from the sub place nearby, and then we went and got shawarma at a Lebanese place.  It was fine, but man... if there's one thing I miss about Saudi Arabia, it's the shawarma.

We watched the new Cinderella with the Downton Abbey actresses. It was a very pretty movie. And it gave some excellent advice, which I will always try to remember: Have courage, and be kind. I think maybe there is no better advice than that.

three books

The History of God by Karen Armstrong - There's so much to say about this book, but I don't want to bore anyone to tears (I'm getting pretty good at boring people to tears, eh?) It was good, yes, if you like the instructional kind of non-fiction (as opposed to the memoir type) (and whatever other types there are). I think the most important thing I got out of it was a bit of perspective on how much we change our beliefs in God to suit our own ideals and opinions. It's interesting to look at a condensed version of the history of the 3 big monotheistic religions, at where they started and what they have become - and why. I think, regardless of your faith (or lack thereof), it's a good book to read just to get a little perspective, and perhaps to think about the way people see and treat those whose beliefs are different from their own.


Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult - I like Jodi Picoult novels but this one was one of my least favorite (along with My Sister's Keeper, which I will definitely not be seeing in a theater near me). It was interesting and all, but I don't think it was as creative or enthralling as some of her others. There was a plot twist at the end, as usual, but she kind of just spit it out and ended the book abruptly. It wasn't even really a super thrilling plot twist either. The book was fine, but if you really want to read a good Jodi Picoult book, get Plain Truth or Second Glance.





Twilight by Stephenie Meyer - I finally decided I better read Twilight already, for crying out loud. There's only so much chatter about any particular subject that a person can listen to without getting curious. I was thinking that with all the hype and hysteria and comparisons to the greatness of Harry Potter, maybe it would help me escape into a happy fantastical world where work and floor-staples don't exist. I was hoping it would be as absorbing as the Harry Potter books, and I could rely on it to carry me away when real life became too tedious. It didn't really work. I'm annoyed that it's been compared to Harry Potter. It was good, don't get me wrong, and I will definitely buy all the books in the series, but c'mon people! You really can't be serious when you say it's as good as Harry Potter! This vampire world is interesting and all, but HP's world was brand new! It was so enchanting and creative and different and magical! Every chapter had some new and amazing idea! Twilight is not even in the vicinity of the greatness that is Harry Potter. Twilight is all "oh, I love you" "oh, I love you too, I want to be with you forever" "oh sweetheart, let me carry you because you can't be trusted to walk on your own without hurting yourself, my love, my darling, I love you" "oh, my dearest, you are my hero". Seriously, Bella needs to have her inner ear checked or something.

My Name is Sei Shonagon by Jan Blensdorf

Maybe 2 stars is a little harsh, but man, this book had potential.

So much could have been said about Sei Shonagon, or the narrator's childhood, or her struggles with her identity, or her relationship with her uncle, or her two marriages, or the people she counseled while sitting behind a curtain in a room of an incense shop.

But the whole thing is one giant glossing-over. So many subjects to explore and elaborate on, but really, nothing was said. I guarantee you I will forget this book entirely. Sad.

One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Well, I guess this Marquez dude won the Nobel prize for literature for a reason.

The story isn't a happy one, but it's so amazingly imaginative, fantastic, and surreal that you cannot be miserable reading it. Or even faintly sad.

I've always loved stories that follow a family through its generations, births, and deaths (The Thornbirds, The House of the Spirits) and this is one of them (although it is from a decidedly male perspective, unlike the others). But it has the added bonus of also being one of those stories in which fantastical, crazy, bizarre things happen and no one blinks an eye. Not even the writer. Especially not the writer. You are forced to just accept it, and I enjoy that because literature is the only place that I can accept it.

There are a few aspects of the book that I found unappealing (I think there is an undercurrent of disregard for women and for real love), but I will keep them to myself as this is a family-friendly blog. Read it, and decide for yourself.

I did really love the book though, and I recommend it, and I plan on reading some of Gabriel Garcia Marquez's other books.

The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas

Warning: This book review lacks even a smidgen of substance. But it's Friday. So cut me some slack.


Reading old books can almost be like a history lesson, even if they're entirely fictional. The way people spoke, the way they reacted to things, governed themselves, scheduled their days - even the ways they coped with hardships... all of those things are so fascinating to me!

It was at first a little hard to keep track of all of the Counts and Barons and Countesses and Viscounts and Baronesses and various forms of royalty and excellency, but I did eventually get a handle on who was doing and saying what.

Most of this book was about revenge, which I'm not exactly a fan of, and which makes me sort of uncomfy. But, there was also lots of adventure and romance and mystery and history, which more than made up for the revenge aspect. It was not really a profound work of art, or even really thought-provoking, but it was a fun read that I recommend to you, but do not demand that you read.

Also, it had a relatively happy ending. Yay Monte Cristo!