75 in 13 for Banjo

Happy New Year!
I am Rhonda, aka, Banjo123. I joined LibraryThing a year ago. It's been great for increasing and diversifying my reading. This year I would like to try the 75 book challenge. I read about 85 books last year, so this is definitely within reach. I am not really trying to increase this number, because I find that if I read much more, I won't absorb what I read. As for personal details: I am 54, live in Oregon, a social worker in the aging field. I have a wonderful partner, a teen-age daughter, one dog and two cats. I love the outdoors; hiking, camping, cross-country skiing.

I read a mix of fiction and non-fiction. Last year my favorite reads were:
A Half of A Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand
Disgrace by JM Coetzee
Macbeth by William Shakespeare.

Completed:

1. Wild: from Lost to found on the Pacific Crest Trail by Cheryl Strayed 1/3/13
2. The Anchor Book of Chinese Poetry 1/6/13
3. Seabiscuit by Laura Hillenbrand 1/7/13
4. The Hunger Angel by Herta Muller 1/13/13
5. Dream of a Common Language by Adrienne Rich 1/28/13
6. Midnight's Children by Salmon Rushdie 1/31/13
7. Shadow of Night by Deborah Harkness 1/30/12

8. Shades of Grey by Jaspar Fforde 2/7/13
9. Life and Death are Wearing Me Out by Mo Yan 2/9/13
10. The Songs of Mihyar of Damascus by Adonis 2/10/13
11. Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward 2/12/12
12. The Metamorphosis, In The Penal Colony, and Other Stories by Franz Kafka 2/16
13. The Fault in Our Stars by John Green 2/17
14. The Stranger by Albert Camus 2/19
15. Muhammad Ali's Greatest Fight by Howard Bingham 2/22/13

16. World and Town by Gish Jen 3/2/13
17. The Sisters Brothers by Patrick deWitt 3/4/13
18. 100 Tricks Every Boy Can Do by Kim Stafford 3/5/13
19. Native Guard by Natasha Trethewey 3/8/13
20. Dark Continent by Mark Mazower
21 Joseph Anton by Salmon Rushdie 3/13/13
22. The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera 3/16/13
23. Darwin's Ghost by Steve Jones 3/20/13
24. Color Me English by Caryl Phillips 3/26/13
25 Are You My Mother by Allison Bechdel 3/29
26 The End of Your Life Book Club by Wil Schwalbe 3/28

27. In The Shadow of the Banyan by Vaddey Ratner 4/4
28. Great Gatsby by Scott Fitzgerald. 4/9
29. Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson 4/14
30. One day the ice will reveal all its dead 4/17
31. The Sound and The Fury 4/18
32. Iron Curtain: THe Crushing of Eastern Europe by Anna Applebaum 4/26
33. The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander 4/24
34. The Parent's Guide to Hip Dysplasia by Betsy Miller 4/21

Currently Reading:

The Rape of Nanking by Iris Chang

Nice to see you over here.

Thanks qebo!
I was just reading your introduction, and realized we have something in common--hastily chosen user names based on our pets! Banjo is the name of my younger, fatter, cat.

Happy New Year, Rhonda! Great to see you here!

I'll be interested to see what you think of The Hunger Angel. Are you planning on doing the category challenge this year too?

I am on the fence about the category challenge. I think keeping up two threads might be a bit much for me.

So far, I am mixed on The Hunger Angel. Wish I could read it in German.

I am afraid I seem to be addicted to depressing books--just got back from vacation, the two books I had on my kindle to read were the Hunger Angel and then Garden of the Evening Mists I finished the Garden, and realized I could not do back-to-back slave labor camps. I then borrowed Perks of being a wallflower from my teenager. Before I picked it up, I asked, so, this book has no slave labor camps, does it? Her answer "Well it is set in a High School."

Welcome, Rhonda, I look forward to following your thread this year!

Welcome to the challenge, Rhonda, and good luck.

I'd never heard of the Strayed book until this week, when it is being serialised on the radio in the UK. Are you enjoying it?

Oh, I see from the Introductions that you enjoy reading about evolution. I particularly enjoy evolutionary biology and general life science books, and I hope to read a few this year.

Welcome to the group, Rhonda. Fellow newbie here... Starring your thread to follow along.

I work as a Social Services and Activity consultant for nursing homes so when I saw your introduction I thought "immediately star her!!" :)

Hi Rhonda I'm TJ.

I see you've read Macbeth, such a classic. What did you think about it?

Happy New Year!

Thanks, everyone, for the welcomes. I will stop by your threads as soon as I can.

>10 gennyt: Strayed has gotten a lot of positive press here, since she is from Portland. And I waited for a library hold for months. At first I was a little disappointed with the style--it's breezy and self-deprecating; rather than lyrical and deep. But the book is growing on me. It appeals to my outdoorsy side. I have a neighbor who hiked the Pacific Crest Trail a few years ago, for her 50th birthday.

>11 karspeak: I am not sure I actually ENJOY reading about evolution--just want to know more about it. I have a couple books lined up on the topic, and will see how it goes. I find evolution hard to grasp. I am excited that you enjoy the topic--maybe you can help me understand!

>12 TinaV95: It sounds like we have a lot in common! It will be fun to follow your reading (and wedding planning) this year.

>13 OMBWarrior47: Macbeth is AWESOME!!!! Dark and twisted and tragic--what could be better? I actually read the book for a drama class I audited this summer. Great class. What I realized about Macbeth, is that the Scottish kings back then were all a bunch of tribal warlords. I read a book about King David at the same time, who turns out to have been another dark and twisted tribal warlord. Who knew? Anyway, it made for some interesting comparisons.

Hi Rhonda! Welcome to the group! I'm sure you will make many friends here!

14. Yes, Macbeth is AWESOME!

Thanks for the greetings! I think I am going to like this group, but I am not sure how I will ever keep up!
In the meantime, I finished my first book for 2013.

Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail by Cheryl Strayed

In 1995, Cheryl Strayed was a hot mess. 26 years old, she was dealing from her mother's death, a recent divorce and a little problem with heroin. So she decided to hike the Pacific Crest Trail, from the Mohave Desert to Washington state. She had never backpacked before, her pack was twice as heavy as it should have been and her shoes too tight.
Really she should have turned around within 20 minutes. I would have. Cheryl Strayed, however, is tough--tougher than me. She spent three months on the trail and in the process transformed her self.
This is a compelling read. Strayed has a breezy, self-deprecating style. It's funny, sad and touching. I laughed and cried.
Strayed really covers the ways in which wilderness (and duct tape) can save a person. It makes me want to do more backpacking (though nothing quite so adventurous.) It also made me want to dig up my copy of Dream of a Common Language by Adrienne Rich. This book was Strayed's constant companion on her journey.

17: I am not sure how I will ever keep up!
You won't. :-) Nobody does.

#18 By coincidence I was listening to Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Trail on BBC radio this morning. Sounded a worthwhile read.

Macbeth is awesome! Now you'll be able to get all the asides about the Scottish Play...

And qebo is right, you'll never keep up with the threads.

I dislike superstition and have on occation said "Macbeth! Macbeth! Macbeth!" aloud in the theatre just to prove a point.

And the three witches didn't show up on your doorstep? Or in your dreams? Amazing!

Not a single witch. Shocking, isn't it!? (But then I have people accused of witchcraft in the family so maybe they don't visit "their own"...)

Haha I personally thought Macbeth was one of Shakespeare's best. It's the only shakespeare book I actually enjoyed. haha

Fellow Oregonian dropping by! I agreed with your comments on Wild. It was a great read.

Qebo, Rhian, Ren, Paws for Thought, TJ and Carol--thanks for stopping by.
Good to know that keeping up is hopeless! This thread will be like the rest of my life....
Wild really is worth reading. I wasn't crazy about the writing, but found the story completely enthralling.
As for the "Scottish Play", I think the superstition is mainly for theatrical types. I once used the "M" word with an Actress, and she paled.

I am having trouble figuring out how to post links and pictures, especially since getting a Mac. Hopefully this will work. here is a link to an amazing video of Ian McLellan as Macbeth.

And Carol, great to see another Oregonian!

27. I grew up in a theatre, though. Still consider myself an amateur actress, and couldn't care less about superstitious nonsense.

Oh, and because I'm annoying that way - it's Ian McKellan. With a K. Sorry for being a spelling police.

Oh, thanks for the spelling correction. I hate getting names wrong.
That's cool that you are an actress--what sort of things do you act in?

29. I haven't acted for years - except to myself in my bedroom, no group to involve myself in (not a lot of cultural life here). I did various plays and musical adaptions in my younger years.
I miss it every day, though, and would love to do it again.

I have never done any acting, but love to watch theater. I am hoping to get to the Oregon Shakespeare Festival this year, they are doing King Lear, which is really my favorite of Will's plays.
And later this month we will see a local production of Athol Fugard's Road to Mecca.

And a second book finished!

The Anchor Book of CHINESE POETRY edited by Tony Barnstone and Chou Ping.

I downloaded this to my kindle, because I was participating in the Reading Globally China read last quarter, and decided that I would not understand Chinese literature without some familiarity with Chinese poetry. I still think this is true, and this book is a good introduction to Chinese Poetry. It has a lot of footnotes, biographical and historical information. Also there is a very interesting discussion of translation.

I enjoyed most of the poetry, especially the older pieces. Here is a favorite:

Love Poem by Guan Daosheng (1262 - 1319)

You and I
have too much passion.
Where passion is, is hot like fire
I knead a piece of clay into a you
and a me
then smash them
and mix them with water.
Again I knead it into a you
then a me.
There is you in my clay
and me in your clay.
I'll share your quilt while we live
and your coffin after death.

Apparently, Daosheng's husband had suggested to her that he wanted to take a concubines. This poem was her answer to him. He did not take any concubines!

31. Lucky you. I'd love to see Shakespeare on stage, but the chance of that happening here is about the same as seeing the Beatles reunited.

>33 PawsforThought: You will have to visit. Theater in Portland is surprisingly good. (Of course, it might be easier to go to London and then the theater would be superb.)

32> I would never think to pick up a book of Chinese poems. But the one you posted... wow. Thanks for sharing it!

Hi banjo... just catching up!

A belated 'Welcome and Happy New Year' from me, Rhonda.

The Cheryl Strayed book looks like a one I am going to have to give a try. Thanks for the recommendation!

Hooray! I happily figured out how to put a picture on my thread. It took FOREVER! I don't understand my new Mac.

Carol, Tina and Stasia, thanks for stopping by. Stasia, I hope you like Wild.

I had a spot of insomnia last night, and finished another book, Seabiscuit by Laura Hillenbrand. Review to follow.

38: Oh, I'll be interested in your review; Seabiscuit is sitting on my shelf, acquired because Unbroken was such a page-turner.

Qebo, I picked up Seabiscuit for exactly the same reason. And for anyone who hasn't read Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption it is very much worth reading.

I wasn't as crazy about Seabiscuit. It is well-written and well-researched, but the story didn't grab me in the same way. I have no real interest in horse racing, and this was probably the problem. Still, in the end, I liked the book and was glad I read it.
Seabiscuit is a story about grit and determination; both from the horse and from his handlers. I like a lot of detail in non-fiction, and Hillenbrand provides this. I learned a lot about the horse racing industry--it is awful how jockeys were treated.

Laura Hillenbrand has an interesting story. She is basically house-bound, due to chronic fatigue syndrome. Here is a link to an article she wrote about this.

I guess that's not too much of a review, but now I am all out of brain cells! Maybe I will think of something to add later.

Totally know what you mean about keeping up two threads! Wonderful poem you quoted.

Good review of Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Trail ! I really loved it too and wanted to rush out and buy a backpack ... I got over the impulse quickly though!

Don't worry about trying to keep up ... I constantly behind and playing catch up. Things do get a little slower here January

Oooooh, nice picture choice!!!

Hi Rhonda - nice to find your thread. Half of a Yellow Sun was one of my top 5 books last year and Macbeth would have been in 1985 if I had been doing a list then! We did it at school and I loved it, and must re-read it one day.

Half of a Yellow Sun was among my favorites last year too! :)

I loved Garden of the Evening Mists, though it had some slow parts, but ended up reading The Rape of Nanking too soon after GotEM. Too much Japanese violence for my poor little head.

Thanks for stopping by folks! Katie and Chelle, I appreciate knowing that it's OK not to keep up with everything.
Tina--glad you like the picture.
Cushla and Rachel -- I am hoping to read more of Adichie's work soon. I am going to post a video of Adichie--she is very articulate.

I am now reading Life and Death are Wearing Me Out by Mo Yan. I am enjoying it, though I am irritated at Yan for coming out in favor of censorship, and I am not sure he deserved the Nobel Prize.

here is a TED talk with Adichie.

Stopping by to say hi, Rhonda! Last year I quite enjoyed Half a Yellow Sun, but I enjoyed Purple Hibiscus even more! Yes, it's difficult to keep up with all of the threads here! Another book that was one of my favourites and took place in contemporary Nigeria was Daughters Who Walk This Path by Yejide Kilanko. It might be more difficult to find because it is by a Canadian ( former Nigerian ) writer, but I really loved the story.

Deborah, thanks for stopping by! I am planning to read both books this year--I think that I should be able to find the Kilanko.

I finished the Hunger Angel and will post a review later. It was not my favorite book, so I am glad to be done!

Had a good weekend. Cross country skiing Sunday AM and the symphony Sunday night! We saw Andre Watts do Beethoven's Emperor, which was pure magic. I chose that concert in part because it was the piece featured in Doc by Mary Doria Russell--one of my favorite reads of 2011.

Here is my namesake, Banjo, lounging with Chica the dog.

Banjo is gorgeous! And well-fed (we don't like skinny cats in my family)!

Banjo looks like mine called Sophie! So cute! And Chica is gorgeous!

Cute fur-kids!

Awe.... fur-kids!!!!!!

thanks everyone for admiring my babies.
In fairness, here is our other cat, Francis. He is the bad boy of the family, very intense. Of course, we love him that way.

Isn't that some kind of law? There has to be one "bad" kid I'm every bunch?

Francis looks like he has an awesome panther-pounce.

Thanks Tina and Carol. Franny is very athletic, and he can be sweet, when he wants to. Very annoying though, when you want to type and he thinks the keyboard is his.

The Hunger Angel by Herta Muller

Leo Auberg is a seventeen year old, ethnic German, living in Romania, who is sent to a Soviet Labor camp after WWII. The book covers his life before deportation, at the camp, and afterwards. It is mostly a a series of vignettes about life in the camp, and about being very hungry. One of the central themes of the book was the separation between the narrator, and others in the camps, and their families. For Leo, this separation is enhanced by his homosexuality, which would be unacceptable to his family and in a soviet society. This book didn't work very well for me. It is beautifully written, but lacking in plot and character development.
To be fair, constant hunger and life in a Soviet Work camp would starve plot and character out of just about anybody. Last year I read A Day in The Life of Ivan Denisovitch. Solvenheitzen solves this problem by founding the book in the structure of a single day. Muller is comfortable writing with a little less structure.

The writing is wonderful, however. I suspect, from reading the translator's note, that it would be even more amazing in the original. Apparently Muller does new and exciting things with work combinations, etc. Here is an excerpt from the book.:

"I saw all of us standing in a giant box. It's top was made of sky, lacquered black by night and decorated with sharply whetted stars. The bottom was lined knee-deep with cotton wool, so that we would fall into softness. And the sides of the giant box were draped with stiff, icy brocade, silken tangles of fringe, endless lace. Toward the back of the box, between the watchtowers, a catafalque of snow was lying on the wall of the camp. And on top of that, as tall as the towers, a stack of bunk beds reached to the sky, a tiered coffin with room for all of us to be laid out, lust like in the barracks. And over the topmost tier was the black-lacquered cover of the night. From the towers at the head and foot of the catafalque, two honor guards dressed in black kept watch over the dead. At the head, nearest the camp gate, the guard lights shined like a candelabra. At the darker foot end, the snow draped crown of mulberry tree made a magnificent bouquet, with all our names on countless paper bows. Snow muffles sound, I thought, almost no one will hear the shooting. Our families are slumbering away, tipsy, unsuspecting, worn out from celebrating New Year's Eve in the middle of the world. Maybe they're dreaming about our enchanted burial in the New Year. "

Lovely photos of your animals!

I read A day in the life... many years ago: that was tough going. It's strange reading beautiful prose about difficult subjects, isn't it.

Just stopping in for a quick hello.... Hope all is well with you and yours :)

Thanks Genny and Tina! I am happy because I have a 4 day week-end. I work for the State of Oregon and we have a furlough day today. Then Monday is MLK day! I am jazzed about that--I think it is so cool that we get a day every year just to celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King, jr.

Today I need to catch up on stuff around the house, and also hoping to catch up a little on LT. Chica and I did take a walk this morning on Mt Tabor. This is a wonderful park a couple miles from my house, and the only active volcano within city limits in the world. There's a great view of the city from the top. Today it was amazing--the sky was blue, but the city, all the way to the Willamette river, was covered in a blanket of fog. Surreal. I wished I had my camera.

Then we do have some fun stuff for the weekend--tomorrow we get to do our favorite volunteer job. We are sorting books for Schoolhouse Supplies. THey provide school supplies to Public School teachers so that the teachers don't have to spend their own money on supplies for kids whose parents can't afford them. Powell's Books donates these huge boxes of books, and we get to help sort the books out into grade levels, so that teachers can give them out. We call it 'book diving' because the boxes are huge--I think 4 feet high. So that's going to be our MLK Day of service activity. Just the coolest thing ever!

And then we are going to a Blazer's game Saturday night and Sunday night Mah Jongg with some friends. We had hoped to do some cross country skiing this weekend, but the weather doesn't look too cooperative, so it's probably not a go. Maybe we will do a hike on Sunday.

The only downer for the weekend is dealing with my 16 year old. She's a good kid, but this fall/winter has been tough. She's not doing as well as I'd like at school, sick a lot, no energy. We are worried about her so I am taking her to the MD for a check-up. I am not looking forward to that as my daughter hates those sort of things, plus she is needle-phobic.

It sounds like a wonderful weekend overall! What a great project to do!

I'm sorry you're having a rough patch w your daughter. I hope they figure out what's going on with her :(
Prayers for y'all!

Ask the doctor whether there's a possibility of underactive thyroid with your daughter. I was diagnosed with this aged 15 - it made me slow right down with my school work which I'd previously been very good at. Certainly very lacking in energy - no sickness mind, so maybe its not that, but worth checking perhaps.

Tina and Gina, thanks so much for your concern. The visit went very. My daughter actually sees a nurse practitioner, who is great at talking to teens. She did test for low thyroid, and a few other things.

Yesterday was fun. At the book sort, we get to take home any books that they can't use at Schoolhouse Supplies. The first couple months, we came home with dozens! We were on special assignment yesterday, so I didn't see as many of the rejects and only came home with four:

Stephen King's On Writing (a damaged edition)
The Monkey Wrench and the Drowned and the Saved both by Primo Levi
and Oliver Sacks, An Anthropologist on Mars

We also came home with a giant cookie cookbook.

And the Blazers game was fun, though they lost , their 5th loss in a row. But, oh well, if you live in Portland you have to cheer for the Blazers.

Lurking around on the threads, in a desparate attempt to catch up, I find some people have shelves that are well-organized and neat. No I feel totally inadequate.





Of course, these are pics only show books that have made it onto shelves.

Hey, at least you have shelves, Rhonda. The majority of my books are just on whatever flat surface I can find to put them on!

> LOL--you make me feel better! I do also have a stack of 28 books on my bedside table (just counted) and three or four bags full of books in the basement (horrors!) because the place in the living room for books, got up-staged by a cat climbing structure when we re-modeled the living room.

66: Your books look fine! People don't necessary post photos of their less savory book storage situations. I have books stacked on the floor (aspire to keep books that have been entered in the LT catalog separate from books that haven't, but over time they get mixed up) and books stuffed onto approximately the correct shelf with the goal of further refinement someday. Also books that should have gone to the library sale but instead are sitting in a closet.

69: Thanks for the support. I would LIKE to get things organized, but so far, it hasn't happened, the opposite, in fact.

We actually have a plan to commission our neighbor, who is a cabinet maker, to put floor-to-ceiling bookshelves in our spare room. He does wonderful work, I think maybe a little fancier than we need in the spare room.

#66 -- You're a much braver person than I am. I am NOT posting any pictures of my shelves. Ever :)

Come on, Tina. We could have a disorganized shelves anonymous group.

I'm ashamed!!! Lol. Truly! The shelves I see in thus group are so well organized. I'm so overboard now, I've just got books shoved in wherever. I used to have them shelved by category, then by height so they looked good. Boy, those days are long gone!

I notice that we have a book about Genghis Khan on top of the complete Winnie the Pooh. I hope the two dudes are getting along.

Hahaha!!! :)

I have some books on shelves, but mostly they're in piles and bags on the floor, the chairs, beside the bed . . .

Glad your medical visist went well - hope that you and your daughter and the medical people find some ways to make things better.

My books are fairly well organized, though less so in recent years as I have no more room and have had to resort to piling books on top of others. I only have one set of shelves for books (I know, but there's no more room!) so. I don't really have a lot of books as I mostly borrow from the library or from my parents.

All the book from my childhood are stored in boxes at my parents' house so the ones at my place are just from the last ten years.

PawsforThought - I mostly use the library as well, but still manage to have far more than one bookshelf full.

Ardene and Tina, thanks for stopping by. I am always happy when other people's books are out of control as well.

My daughter is doing better, but I realized that she would be very upset if she knew that I discussed her medical information on a public forum. And I should respect her privacy, so I will leave it at that. Parenting is hard some days.

I have been in a funk this week--work's been hard. I probably should be job hunting, but have 18 years of seniority, so that's hard to walk away from. However, good news, it's the weekend! I have yoga later today, which ought to help with my funk, and we are seeing a production of Athol Fugard's Road to Mecca tonight.

Reading-wise---I have a number of books I am working on right now. I am hoping to finish one or two this weekend, I need to crank-up the reading if I am to get to 75 books this year.

78. Besides keeping all my childhood and teenage books at my parents', all books I dislike or don't care about have been donated to charity.
And I never buy books unless they're bound hardbacks with a cover I like.

Well, the last new hardback that I've bought was IQ84. I love the cover, but not as crazy about the book. Most of my books are used and somewhat battered paperbacks. We go through and purge every few years, but there are still more books than shelf space.

I loved The Road to Mecca. It was a really good performance, small theater, intimate space, so the intensity of the interpersonal relationships was highlighted. Themes included art and aging. The play is loosely based on the life of Helen Martin, a South African woman who, at the age of 45 or 50, start creating art in her home and yard. She got lots of derision during her lifetime. Now her home is a museum! Here's a photo:

Dream of a A Common Language by Adrienne Rich

One of my goals this year is to read more poetry. Cheryl Strayed mentions Dream of a Common Language prominently in her book Wild, and that got me interested in doing a re-read. This book had been important to me in my 20’s, but I haven’t re-read it since then.

Rich was an excellent poet, and I enjoyed the book as much this time around. There are a few bits that seem kind of dated, in an early 70’s feminist kind of way, but over-all, the poetry holds up beautifully. The 21 love poems are the strongest part, here is one of my favorites.

Since we’re not young, weeks have to do time
For years of missing each other. Yet only this odd warp
In time tells me we’re not young.
Did I ever walk the morning streets at twenty,
My limbs streaming with a purer joy?
Did I lean from any window over the city
Listening for the future
As I listen here with nerves tuned for your ring.
And you, you move toward me with the same tempo.
Your eyes are everlasting, the green spark
Of the blue-eyed grass of early summer.
The green-blue wild cress washed by the spring.
At twenty, yes: we thought we’d live forever.
At forty-five, I want to know even our limits.
I touch you knowing we weren’t born tomorrow.
And somehow, each of us will help the other live.
And somewhere, each of us must help the other die.

#74: I have a feeling that poor Pooh is getting the stuffing knocked out of him!

#80: I need to read 1Q84, but not while school is going on. Murakami is one of my LT discoveries.

Like you, I read a lot of Adrienne Rich in my 20s but not since. That's a beautiful poem. Thanks for reminding me how powerful her poetry can be.

Stopped by to say "hi" and drop a star. Our daughters live in Portland so we get there from time to time and really like it. Look forward to hearing about your reading and life in Portland.

Stasia--I also discovered through LT that I like Murakami, but I though IQ84 went on and on for too long. Nut others loved it, and the cover is really cool.

Katie -- thanks for stopping by. I am tring to add poetry into my reading this year. I read a poem or two every night. Rich was fun, because it turned out I had large portions of the book practically memorized.

Reba-- Portland is very nice, but this week it's all rain all the time. Thanks for the star!

Midnight’s Children by Salmon Rushdie

In this long and convoluted novel, the protagonist is born at the stroke of midnight on August 15, 1947, at the same instant that India achieves independence. Saleem Singh is born with a special tie to all of the other children born during this midnight hour. All of these children have special, supernatural powers. Saleem’s fate is tied to the fate of his country, India.

Rushdie describes Saleem’s family history in loving detail, but also makes it clear that in these times, the ties of families may not be as strong as the ties of nationalism.

“In fact, all over the new India, the dream we all shared, children were being born who were only partially the offspring of their parents—the children of midnight were also the children of the time: fathered, you understand, by history. I can happen. Especially in a country which is itself a sort of dream.”

Rushdie uses magical realism, an unreliable narrator and lots and lots of amazing sentences to put together a description of how the personal and the political are intertwined.

Shadow of Night by Deborah Harkness

I am not usually a vampire romance fan, but now and then, I enjoy a light read. This series has been described as Twilight for adults, which is, I think, an apt description.

This is the second book in the series, the first is A Discovery of Witches. I liked the first book in the series better than the second, but this was still fun. There is a time-travel element, and Christopher Marlowe as a highly annoying demon.

Honestly, I think that this book suffered when Diana and Matthew’s sexual tension was resolved. I thought the same thing about the final book in the Twilight series. I think that the lure of vampire romance is forbidden, impossible love and when that issue is resolved---well, all you have left is a domineering guy and a feisty, but besotted, female.

Did you like Midnight's Children? I read it soon after reading Rushdie's The Enchantress of Florence. I could hardly get through Enchantress but I rather enjoyed Midnight's Children. Not going to opt for any more Rushdie soon, though.

I did like Midnight's Children quite a lot. But I do find Rushdie's writing kind of thick, so I miss things.
Last year I listened to the Satanic Verses on audio-tape, which I thought was a good way to do it. I am planning to read Joseph Anton sometime this year, but I will give it a couple of months.

JANUARY WRAP-UP
Seven books read:

Two non-fiction: Wild by Cheryl Strayed
Seabiscuit by Laura Hillenbrand
Two Poetry: The Anchor Book of Chinese Poetry
Dream of a Common Language by Adrienne Rich
Two Global Reads: The Hunger Angel by Herta Muller
Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie
and one fantasy Shadow of Night by Deborah Harkness

Favorites were Wild and Dream of a Common Language.

Found you!

Your shelves look a lot like mine. Stacked up, double layers, sideways and diagonal... however you can cram them in, right?

And Planning for February:

I am sort of overwhelmed by the size of my TBR pile, and thought it would be easier if I had a list for the next month. Realistically, that's probably 6-ish books, but I can't resist setting unrealistic goals.

I want to
Finish my current reads:
The Dark Continent: Europe's Twentieth Century by Mark Mazower
Life and Death are Wearing Me Out by Mo Yan (completed)
The Songs of Mihyar of Damascus by Adonis (completed)
For the Social Justice Group I plan to read:
The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander
For heritage Month (African American) I thought I'd read
Salvage the Bones by jesmyn ward (completed)
For the Global read
Kafka's The Hunger Artist ( completed)

I am facilitating the 3rd quarter reading globally theme on Francophone literature, and want to start priming for that. I was going to start with
The Stranger by Albert Camus (completed)
Which doesn't fit the theme, since we are looking for non-Europeon Francophones, but I thought it would be background.

For Fantasy February:
Shades of Gray by Fforde. (completed)

And also I want to read Town and Country by Gish Jen, because I like her writing and the book has been on my bedside a long time.

Finally, I'd like to start a non-fiction book on a science topic. I am thinking about.
Darwin's Ghost by Steve Jones

Looks like an ambitious reading list. Hats off to you.

Thanks! THere is actually zero chance I will get through this list in February. But the list makes me feel better.

Hi Rhonda! I actually had your thread starred, but hadn't had a chance to say hi.

Anyway, thank you for sharing the Adrienne Rich poem. I actually have a place in my heart for seemingly dated 1970s feminism - I just purchased two Marge Piercy books from that era, while at Powell's and cannot wait to read them (actually, I believe one is from 1969). And speaking of Adrienne Rich, I have that exact copy of A Fact of a Door Frame on my shelves (from post #66)!

Thanks for stopping by, Kerri! Adrienne Rich's poetry is amazing.... Perhaps I will pick up The Fact of a Doorframe sometime soon.

Great review of Midnight's Children. I tried reading that many, many years ago and gave up because I felt I didn't know enough about India. Perhaps I should try it again. I haven't read Rushdie, but this one seemed like a good place to start. It appeals to me more than Satanic Verses.

Thanks, Katie! Midnight's Children is really all about Indian history-- I had to check things out in wikipedia, from time to time.

That's quite a February list! Kudos to you.... I have an idea of what I want to read, but haven't put it in writing for fear of disappointing myself.

Oh I'm sure you got a crash course on India! Midnight's Children isn't an easy book to tackle.

Tina--I have so many books that I want to read and sometiems I feel overwhelmed. I thought if I broke it down into books to read this month, I might feel better.

Katie, you are right. Not an easy book, but it was worth it for me.

Shades of Gray by Jaspare Fforde

This book has already been widely read and reviewed, so just a couple of quick thoughts. This is kind of dystopian, Alice in Wonderland-like novel. It's cleverly written and fast-paced. A lot of people I know love Fforde's writing. It was a bit too clever for me. I liked it OK, but probably won't read any more of his writing.

I, too, enjoyed Midnight's Children but easy it isn't.

Just *waving* at Rhonda!

Hi Rhonda, it's been fun catching up on your thread and seeing pics of your fur kids, especially your namesake.

81: I was curious about the Adrienne Rich book when I read Wild. I can see why this book was a good trail companion for Cheryl Strayed. Lots to ponder while struggling along.

Good luck with your list of books for February. I'm interested to see how you like the Mo Yan. Unfortunately, my library doesn't have any books by him.

> Reba, that's really true. I had to read Midnight's Children in only a couple of weeks, as it was a library loan, and that was a challenge.

> Hi Kathy, thanks for stopping by!

> Donna, nice to see you. That's a bummer about your library. The public library's in Portland are very good--it's seldom that I want a book that isn't in our collection. I am finding Mo Yan a bit of a slog at present. I think the book is longer than it needs to be. Almost done... hopefully I will finish and post a review tomorrow.

I was liking by Mo Yan for about the first half or so ... now I'm really ready for it to end. Only another 50 pages or so to go.

Hey Rhonda! Just checking in on you.

Tina-- thanks for stopping by. I had a fun, but hectic week-end, so not much time for LT. I'm going to try to catch up a little tonight.

Reba, I finished Life and Death are Wearing Me Out this weekend-- I think that my reactions to Mo Yan are similar to yours. I am going to try to hammer out a review very soon.

Life And Death are Wearing Me Out by Mo Yan

Mo Yan was awarded the 2012 Nobel Prize for "merging hallucinatory realism with folk tales, history and the contemporary." In this novel, landlord Ximen Nao is killed during the cultural revolution. The lord Yama, chooses to send him back to earth. He is re-born as a donkey belonging to his former peasant, Lan Lian. Lan Lian is now married to Ximen Nao's former concubine, and raising his children. As a donkey, Ximen Nao has an opportunity to observe and comment on the doings of his family and village. He is outraged and sympathetic in turn. When the donkey dies, Ximen Nao is born again and again over a 40 year period: as a ox, a pig, a dog, a monkey and finally as a big-headed baby.

This is a very creative book. The characters are wonderful. Yan's writing is bawdy and earth. The unique perspective of a former landlord now incarnated as a farm animal gives an entertaining and illuminating perspective on the cultural revolution and Chinese family life in a rural community.

However, this book also wore me out. It's just too long, and needs a few good edits.

In let year's Global Reads group on Chinese literature, Rebecca shared the following quotation from an article by Ian Johnson, which I think explains some of my problems with the book.

"Most striking in Chinese literature is the lack of editing. Indeed, publishing houses rarely revise or improve on drafts; many writers send in first drafts—after all, no one who reads it will object. Some of Yu’s own works exhibit these traits; Brothers feels about one hundred pages too long and, although poignant and hilarious, it is sometimes also maudlin and full of clichés. These problems go beyond literature: Chinese artists and academics are often astonishingly prolific because they tend to churn out works. One talented Chinese artist I know regularly produces three enormous shows a year; wiser and less greedy curators and gallery owners would have advised him against this. Academics sometimes publish a book a year, many of them regurgitations of earlier work or partially plagiarized material. The concept of blind peer reviews is all but unknown.

The unwillingness to criticize a “master”—whether he is an acclaimed writer, artist, or scholar—is ingrained in Chinese society. But these problems are also political. The Communist Party’s politicizing of journals and its ban on independent organizations inhibit the creation of the institutions of civil society—independent journals, professional groups, and open discussion—that are conducive to creative work."

Great review of Life and Death are Wearing me Out by Mo Yan. I've been looking at some of his books, but I appreciate your warning. Interesting book... but as you say, it needs editing . Duly noted!

Thanks Deb, I really appreciated having Rebecca's insights when I read this.

And I also finished a book of poetry, Mihyar of Damascus by Adonis. I liked it, some poems better than others. Here's a favorite:

I said to you I listened to the seas.
I heard them read their poems to me. I listened
to the bell that sleeps within the oysters
I told you I sang
at the devil's wedding.
that banquet of fairy tales
I told you I saw
in the falling rain of history, in the glare of distance,
I saw a genie and a house.

Because I sail within my eyes
I can tell you I have seen everything
right from the first step I took into the distance.

Great review of Life and Death are Wearing me Out, Rhonda. Most interesting comments about Chinese writing in general, too.

Nice review of Life and Death Are Wearing Me Out, Rhonda. I remember Rebecca's comments about it wearing her out, so I'll read Pow! and The Garlic Ballads before I decide to tackle it later this year.

Lol about Mo Yan wearing you out. Maybe it's a good thing that I can't get his books through my local library. Thanks for sharing the interesting thoughts about Chinese publishing. I quite admire Ha Jin as a writer, but then his books would be well edited as he lives in the U. S. now and writes in English.

>114 RebaRelishesReading: Reba, thanks. Maybe one of these days I will try to look up the article and read the whole thing! China is an interesting country.

> 115 Thanks, Darryl. I will be interested to see what you think of Pow! and The Garlic Ballads. I think I am going to take a break from Mo Yan, but I am thinking of reading Red Sorghum later in the year.

>116 Donna828: Hi Donna! I also really like Ha Jin. My impression is that he edits and revises quite carefully. And he also writes in English.

I am now totally absorbed in Salvage the Bones I am going to have to finish it quickly---I can hardly put it down, but the subject matter is so tough it's like ripping off a scab.

Wow - interesting comments on publishing in China. Poor readers!!!

Just finished Red Sorghum, it too is a bit like ripping off a scab, maybe from something that isn't quite healed yet.

Swinging in for a catch up visit. Hope all is well in Banjo land ;)

>118 cammykitty: Yes, between the heavy censorship AND lack of editing, it would be hard to read in China. Maybe you could just read classics?
>119 RebaRelishesReading: Now I really want to read Red Sorghum. Interesting comment.
>120 TinaV95: Thanks for stopping by, Tina! Things are pretty good here. Spring is on it's way in Portland--Our crocuses are out!

Salvage the Bones by Jessmyn Ward

In this novel, Ward has created a powerful teenage narrator. Esch Batiste is a bright young woman, living in conditions of poverty, squalor and emotional deprivation. Her mother died in childbirth, leaving Esch and her three brothers in the care of an alcoholic and emotionally distant father. Each of the children deals with this bleak upbringing differently; Esch turns to boys and sex; Randall to basketball; Skeetah to his pit-bull, China and Junior clings to his siblings.

The book has been criticized for its depiction of dog-fighting, and those scenes are hard to read but important to the story. Esch identifies with China, her brother’s pit bull. In dog-fighting, life is cheap and violence is an accepted part of life. This is also true of the world Esch and her brothers live in.

As the book winds towards its climax, Hurricane Katrina enters the narrative. We all know that the story is not going to end well. However, we also see the bonds of family ameliorating the horrors of the hurricane.

Ward tells the story through Esch’s voice. She does this brilliantly. Using a narrator, especially a young person, limits the author as she can only show us the story through the narrator’s eyes and perspective. In Salvage the Bones this focus sharpens as well as narrowing the story. I found the book very absorbing and could hardly put it down.

here is a very interesting interview with Ward. She answered a number of questions that I had about the book, such as the insertion of the story of Medea and Jason. I wanted to share one quotation from the interview which helped me understand what Ward’s purpose in telling the story the way that she did.

“My family and I survived Hurricane Katrina in 2005; we left my grandmother’s flooding house, were refused shelter by a white family, and took refuge in trucks in an open field during a Category Five hurricane. I saw an entire town demolished, people fighting over water, breaking open caskets searching for something that could help them survive. I realized that if I was going to assume the responsibility of writing about my home, I needed narrative ruthlessness. I couldn’t dull the edges and fall in love with my characters and spare them. Life does not spare us.”

Just thumbed your wonderful review of Salvage the bones. This is one I want to read, but am putting it off until my emotional life is in a more stable place.

Thanks also for the quote from Rebecca on publishing/editing in China.

Hi Rhonda! Great review of Salvage the Bones. You've reminded me that I should make this one a priority. It has been on my radar for a long time.

Thanks Ardene and Kerri! It really is a wonderful book, though not easy.

I have a 3 day weekend, and not too much planned -- dinner and a movie with friends tonight, tomorrow a belly dance show. Hopefully I will get some reading done. Right now I am working on Kafka, and am enjoying his writing but I totally don't understand him.

The Metamorphosis, In the Penal Colony, and other Stories by Franz Kafka

This collection was translated by Joachim Neugroschel. I think that it’s a wonderful translation, and I especially liked the introduction by Neugroschel.

In the introduction, he talks about the language used by Kafka. He points our that for the Jewish communitites in Europe, there was a rapid change in languages, from the Jewish languages (eg. Yiddish, in Kafka’s case) to non-Jewish Languages and in many cases on to a new language, (Hebrew in Israel.) National boundaries changed wildly during this period. Kafka was born in Prague in 1883 which was part of Austria-Hungary until 1919, five years before Kafka’s death in 1924. During this time, Jews in Prague were discarding Yiddish in favor of German, the language of the dominant culture.

Kafka used Prague German which apparently differed from the German spoken in German lands. Prague German was surrounded by Czech, but not by German dialect, and lacks the colloquialisms that color High German in most areas.

Neugroshel points out that Kafka has been seen as writing as for a universal audience, because he avoided “Jewish parochialism” (John Updike) and not using identifiable Jewish characters. Neugoschel points out how this shows the bias of the dominate culture “which takes itself for granted: it subliminally sees itself as universal and axiomatic while viewing external and smaller cultures as parochial and relative.” He points out that the same view is applied to other marginalized groups like women, gays and racial and religious minorities.

If Kafka had written about Jews, his audience would have been vastly reduced. However, there could be Jewish themes that are disguised within Kafka’s work. Neugroshel tells us that ”The Judgment” was written in an all-night session on the eve of Yom Kippur, which he feels opens the text up to readings on different levels.

As far as the stories go, I found them, well, Kafkaesque. They are easy to read, but mostly they were strange and I didn’t quite understand what Kafka was trying to do. I did really like three of the stories; “Metamorpphosis’; “A Country Doctor”; and ‘The Hunger Artist.”

Hi Rhonda - checking in on you. Hope you've had a good weekend!

I haven't read Kafka for a long time, and hadn't realized he was Jewish. I think I'm do for a reread. With hindsight, The Trial makes a bit more sense and perhaps even seems to have had a foresight. As for avoiding Jewish themes, even in 1920 it wasn't good to be a Jew in Germany. Hard to know if Kafka considered himself a "part of the dominant culture" but also Jewish, or if he felt marginalized. - I'm imagining Kafka's works being burned by the Nazis right now as I type this. Shiver.

Hi Tina! It has been a good weekend. I have today off, and should use it to get everything done that I put off doing on Saturday and Sunday. But so far I am on my 2nd cup of coffee and feeling lazy.

Katie, I didn't know that Kafka was Jewish, either. It sounds like his family was pretty assimilated.

See, I love it when you learn new things because of LT.
I always knew Kafka was Jewish (well, I knew since I was introduced to Kafta via The Metamorphosis which we read in school) and sort of assumed it was common knowledge. Not so, apparently.
He's buried at the New Jewish Cemetary in Prague, if anyone's interested - his grave is the most visited in the cemetery.

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

This wasn't on my February list. I had picked it up for my daughter. She is 16 and not doing as much reading as I'd like, so I keep trying to find books that will suck her in. THis one did, even though she complained that it was really sad. After she finished it, she told me to read it.

This is a young adult romance about teenagers with cancer. So you need the kleenex handy when you read it! But it's not a tear-jerker, really. It's more about living than dying. Hazel is living her life, knowing it will be short and limited by her crappy lung capacity. True love walks into the story... As we know, the course of true love never runs smooth.

I was especially moved by the relationship between Hazel and her parents. I suspect that for my daughter and most of the teen-age audience, that was peripheral; but as a parent it was touching and insightful. It was eye-opening to see how much dying kids still try to take care of their parents--something I suspect is very true to life.

Hi Paws! We cross-posted. I would love to visit Prague--now a new reason to go.

I loved Salvage the Bones, and the true-life story of Ward's Katrina experience is both horrifying and touching.

I need to read Kafka--that is some interesting background material.

The Fault in our Stars sure sounds like a tear-jerker to me! I'm glad it engaged your daughter enough for her to recommend it to you. Sounds like she is telling you she loves you through the suggestion to read this one!

Thanks for stopping by, Aruba--so far Salvage the Bones is my top book of 2013.

Hi Tina! That's a very sweet interpretation of my daughter's motives. I will go with it' though I think that she was mostly engaged with the star-crossed teen age lovers, theme.

My February reading is going well--another book completed.

The Stranger by Albert Camus

I found a copy of this book on my shelves, perhaps a used-book store purchase from decades ago. It’s an old, cheap, Vintage Paperback, with brittle, yellowing pages.
The translation was by Stuart Gilbert. I wasn’t able to make the touchstone work for this translator—it comes out as Matthew Wade.

I did an internet search, and found that Gilbert’s was for years the only translation available in English, but now Wade has supplanted him. A major difference is in the first sentence. Gilbert translates it as “Mother died today,” Wade as “Maman died today.”

My internet sources thought that Wade’s translation was more accurate, and that this makes a difference because it leads the reader to have more sympathy with the narrator. I am not sure how much sympathy the reader can be expected to have with a main character who is devoid of affect, insensitive to the suffering of others, and then murders a man, in cold blood, for no discernable reason.

Honestly, I don’t get this book. It is well-written, but I don’t understand what Camus’ point is. I guess existentialism is just not for me.

Muhammad Ali's Greatest Fight: Cassius Clay vs. The United States of America by Howard Bingham

"I ain't got no quarrel with them Vietcong."

I wanted to read The New Jim Crow this month, for the Social Justice challenge, but my hold at the library hasn't come through yet. So I am substituting this book, which I chose after reading Maggie1944's excellent review.

This book is written with a very large pro-Ali and very liberal slant. (Which I share, so that didn't bother me.) The writing is fine, but not great. I really enjoyed the book for the detailed look at race and politics during a specific historical period, and for the research regarding the political and legal shenanigans surrounding Ali's court case. The most inspiring thing about the book was watching Ali grow as a moral leader as a result of his anti-war stance.

My daughter took this picture of Chica at Crystal Springs garden

Hi Rhonda, good review of Neugroschel's translation of Kafka's works. You made some very interesting hints regarding Kafka's use of language and style/subject. Kafka is easy to read but not always understandable (well, for me at least). I liked reading Metamorphosis but wouldn't be able to say if and what Kafka wanted to get at.

Chica is just darling! We just gave our Bichon Friese/ poodle mix a hair cut and she looks amazingly like your darling Chica!

> 140 - Thanks, Paul. It sounds like you had the same reaction to Kafka as I did. Easy enough to read, but I am pretty clueless about what he was trying to do.

>141 vancouverdeb: - Thanks Deb! Chica's heritage is unknown; but the best guess is a poodle/terrier mix.

Chica is precious and that's a great photo. Pictures like that really appeal to my "I want a dog" side.

Hi Rhonda!

#138 - I'm very interested in reading something about Muhammad Ali. I believe David Zirin, the rather left-wing sportswriter, has written a biography of some kind, plus several other sports/politics-related books that intrigue me. And you've just reminded me to seek those out, so thank you!

I hope you're able to get to The New Jim Crow soon. I just read it, and it was fantastic.

#139 - Oh, Chica! Adorable.

Chica is quite the little beauty!! :)

Reba, Kerri and Tina! Chica is definitely a heart stealer. We feel so lucky to have her.

Kerri, I'm glad to hear your good words on The New Jim Crow. ! have been wanting to read this since it was published, but I am determined to wait out my library hold.

Well, here's the week-end. Had a busy week, work-wise, and now I have a cold...very annoying.

On Thursday, met 3 fellow LT-ers (Kim (Berly); Jan (Oregon Reader); and Carol at Annie Bloom's books and we had a very nice meet-up. Kim is going to post pictures sometime this weekend. A good time and we are definitely planning future meet-ups.

Today I went through the pile of books next to my bed, and sorted them. I removed all of the books that I don't plan to read this month, meaning that about 36 extra books had to find new homes. THey are now on top of the bookshelves, since there is no room inside the shelves. I really liked having a reading plan for the month, and I stuck to it, probably 50-60 %. So I am going to continue that.

February Wrap-Up:

A great month for reading: 8 books read. Amazing in a short month. 6 fiction; One Poetry; One non-fiction. I completed 6 of 10 books on my planned list, and have started 3 of the others, so I feel happy about that.

Best book of the month, hands down, was Salvage the Bones by Jessmyn Ward.

And plans for March:

I have six books that I am currently reading and want to finish:

Dark Continent by Mark Mazower completed 3/9/13
Darwin's Ghost by Steve Jones Completed 3/20
World and Town by Gish Jen completed 3/2/13
Native Guard by Natasha Trethewey 3/8/13
The Sisters Brothers by Patrick deWitt - completed 3/2/13
100 Tricks Every Boy Can Do by Kim Stafford --completed 3/4/13

and four others I'd like to read

Beyond Katrina by Natasha Trethaway abandoned
THe Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera completed 3/16
Color Me English by Caryl Phillips completed 3/28
Joseph Anton by Salmon Rushdie completed 3/13

First book for March:

World and Town by Gish Jen

I have really enjoyed Jen's previous books, especially Typical American, for the free-ranging sense of humor and insight into the lives of Chinese Americans. World and Town was not as much fun--it seems like of a Chinese-American Barbara Kingsolver sort of book. I missed the sense of humor, and had a harder time relating to the setting (small town Vermont). I liked the book, but would recommend that readers new to Jen's writing start with one of her earlier books.

I did love the heroine. 67-year old Hattie Kong has retreated to Riverlake after the deaths of her husband and her best friend. It's really nice to read a book where the protagonist is an older woman, who changes, grows, and has an impact on her world. Hattie has her dogs, her painting, and her yoga. However, the world, in the form of cell-phone towers, e-mails from her family in China; the neighboring Cambodian refugee family and Hattie's old beau, Carter Hatch, come to Hattie's door. This book is the story of how she interacts with the world from the base of a small Vermont town.

149: Oh, I should read Darwin's Ghost! I read On the Origin of Species last year.

Hi Katherine! How did you like reading The Origin of Species? I was thinking of trying it, but decided this would be easier.

Hi Rhonda! I'm glad to hear that the Annie Bloom's meet-up went well. I felt bad for not being able to go... but life conspired against me. I will try again for the next meet-up!

152: There's a thread devoted to the cause: http://www.librarything.com/topic/133601 . I've had it around for years and glad I finally got to it. Covers lots of territory. I especially enjoyed the bits where Darwin describes various experiments he did in his own back yard, you can see the delight he found in observing how plants and other critters behave.

Stopping by for a visit and sorry to learn that you have caught a cold! I hope you are feeling better soon, if not already!

>153 SugarCreekRanch: Hi Carol! We missed you--next time.
>154 qebo: I may give The Origin a try yet. I downloaded the free version onto my kindle, but I see it's the 1st edition and I think that's not what I want.
>155 lkernagh: Lori, getting better, but slower than I'd like. Now I have lost my voice, so I bagged work after half a day.

The upside--lots of reading time. I finished The Sisters Brothers which I LOVED.

The Sisters Brothers by Patrick deWitt

This is such a fun read! It's the story of two brothers, Eli and Charlie Sisters, who are hired assassins during the gold rush. This novel tells of their trip from Oregon City to San Francisco, many adventures and misadventures. It's hilarious in a dark and twisted sort of way.

One of the best parts of the book is the narrative voice of Eli Sisters, I listened in part to an audio-tape which was excellent.

This book reminded me of True Grit, and part of me would like to see it as a Coen brother's movie. But I'd hate to dilute the images that I have developed in my head.

I have also finished 100 Tricks Every Boy Can Do which is Kim Stafford's memoir about his brother's suicide. It's a very good book on a tough topic--I still need to think a little about it before I write a review.

#157 I listened to The Sisters Brothers on audiobooks well and it was a great listen. The Coen brothers would probably do a great job.

Wouldn't that be a fun movie, Rhian?

I am coming off a tough week--I was sick, work was hard, my daughter is 16. Things are on an upswing, though, on all three fronts. It's a beautiful weekend here in Portland. Looking forward to some time outside, a play tonight (Fugard's The Blood Knot), and maybe some reading time.

I have two books to review and I am now in the middle of Rushdie's Joseph Anton and enthralled. I love that feeling of being swept away by a book.

100 Tricks Every Boy Can Do by Kim Stafford

Kim Stafford is a second generation poet and essayist. He is the son of William Stafford, Oregon Poet Laureate and pacifist. William Stafford was a conscientious objector during WWII. He and his wife raised their four children in a loving, bookish principled home, mostly in Lake Oswego Oregon. The two boys, Kim and Bret, were close in age, almost twins. In this book, Kim Stafford attempts to come to terms with Bret’s suicide in 1988 at age 40.

Told in a series of 100 vignettes; this book is beautifully written. There is a wonderful sense of place. The Staffords loved the outdoors, and I loved reading a book set in my own, wonderfully lush, Pacific Northwest. “I have realized only recently that in my childhood we were poor. Maybe we felt rich because we lived with bountiful stories, ideas, places. Abundance was everywhere—the sky, rivers with their infinitely changing ways, mornings in summer that lasted longer than a life.”

The book is sad. Stafford searches through his memories of his childhood and his brother, looking for the reasons behind his brother’s depression and suicide. Bret was the good brother, Kim more the troublemaker. Kim wonders if this is what doomed Bret. Kim’s survivor’s guilt is palpable.

At times I wanted to shake Kim and tell him, maybe it isn’t about anything you or your family did or didn’t do. Maybe it was just lousy brain chemistry. Kim knows this at one level, but at another level can’t keep himself from looking for answers to the unanswerable.

Native Guard by Natasha Trethewey

I was introduced to this wonderful poet by LT--specifically Darryl (Kiddocz's) thread. Here is one of her poems:

Today the ants are busy
beside my front steps, weaving
in and out of the hill they're building.
I watch them emerge and--

like everything I've forgotten--disappear
into the subterranean--a world
made by displacement. In the cemetery
last June, I circled, lost--

weeds and grass grown up all around--
the landscape blurred and waving
At my mother's grave, ants streamed in
and out like arteries, a tiny hill rising.

above her untended plot. Bit by bit,
red dirt piled up, spread
like a rash on the grass; I watched a long time
the ants' determined work,

how they brought up soil
of which she will be part,
and piled it before me. Believe me when I say
I've tried not to begrudge them

their industry, this reminder of what
I haven't done. Even now,
the mound is a blister on my heart
a red and humming swarm.

Uggh--I typed up the above poem, but the formatting didn't come out the way it should have. Every other line should be indented. I think it reads better that way.

Wow, what a powerful and melancholy poem. Thanks for sharing it, Rhonda. I saw the meet-up pics on Kim's thread. It looked like you ladies had some fun! Sorry your week has been rough. I chuckled at your last reason..."my daughter is 16." Been there! This too shall pass.

Thanks for visiting, Donna! The meet up was really fun! Who knew that there were so many LT-ers in PDX? It was supposed to be beautiful and sunny here today--but instead it's grey and drizzly. Oh well, more reading time.

I have finally finished Dark Continent: Europe's Twentieth Century by Mark Mazower. It really highlighted for me that I know very little about European History. My take-away for the book, is that Europe looks all cultured and evolved; but in fact is as much a mess as any part of the developing world. I am not really up to a book review, but the dust jacket explains it "Instead of seeing Europe as the natural home of freedom and democracy, Mazower argues that it was a frequently nightmarish laboratory for social and political engineering, inventing and reinventing itself through war, revolution, and ideological competition."

Hi Rhonda!

#147 - Glad to hear the meet-up was successful! Yay meet-ups!

I too just weeded out a big pile of books from my collection. It feels quite good.

#157 - I keep meaning to get to The Sisters Brothers, as I've heard only great things about it.

> 166 The Sisters Brothers is so much fun. It's kind of like Doc or True Grit only super-funny. But definitely dark humor.

Just finished Joseph Anton and will work on thoughts later.

I keep getting hit by BBs for The Sisters Brothers!

Hi Tina! Thanks for stopping by.

It's a rainy day here in Portland. Spring has sprung--daffodils, crocuses and buds on the trees. I am feeling lazy this weekend--I should be going to yoga right now, but decided to stay home instead.

I have a couple of reviews to write; threads to catch up on... and then maybe I will get a little reading done.

Joseph Anton by Salmon Rushdie

The title of the book, a memoir about Rushdie’s years under Fatwa, is taken from the alternate identity he developed while in hiding. Joseph Anton represents the first names of two of Rushdie’s favorite writers—Conrad and Chekov. The British Secret Service called him ‘Joe”, which he didn’t particularly like.

The book highlights how hard it would be to be in hiding; not able to use your own name; not able to run simple errands on your own, and having to sneak around to visit with your 9 year old son. The difficulties are compounded by fearing for your life and the lives of those close to you. Hitoshi Igarashi, the Japanese translator of the Satanic Verses, was stabbed to death on 11 July 1991. It was also hard that Rushdie faced criticism from a number of sources who felt that he should no have insulted Islam.

Clearly, Rushdie’s intent was not to insult. As a secular Muslim, he was using his own stories, the stories from his culture, to create a work of art.

The book, all 600 plus pages, is written in third person. I particularly enjoyed the first half which provides a lot of context to Rushdie’s novels, and which feels intense and suspenseful. There is also lots of information and gossip about Rushdie’s wives, friends, and fellow literary figures. The second half drags a bit, as I believe that living in hiding dragged for Rushdie.

I love Rushdie’s view of literature and it’s role in society: “Literature tried to open the universe, to increase, even if only slightly, the sum total of what was possible for human beings to perceive, understand, and so, finally, to be. Great literature went to the edges of the known and pushed against the boundaries of language, form and possibility, to make the world feel larger, wider, than before. Yet this was an age in which men and women were being pushed toward ever-narrower definitions of themselves, encouraged to call themselves just one thing, Serb or Croat or Israeli or Palestinian or Hindu or Muslim of Christian or Baha’i or Jew, and the narrower their identities became, the greater was the likelihood of conflict between them. Literature’s view of human nature encouraged understanding, sympathy, and identification with people not like oneself, but the world was pushing everyone in the opposite direction, toward narrowness, bigotry, tribalism, cultism and war. There were plenty of people who didn’t want the universe opened, who would, in fact, prefer it to be shut down quite a bit, and so when artists went to the frontier and pushed they often found powerful forces pushing back.”

The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera

I found this book more enjoyable and easier to read than I had expected. I was under the impression that it was full of philosophy and abstract symbolism. Also, I have trouble with Eastern European writers, who I seem to find inexplicably weird.

This book has three basic layers. The backbone of this book is Kundera’s philosophy of life. Initially, this was a bit frightening, but actually I found these bits relatively straightforward, and not hard to understand. Another layer involves the events of the Prague Spring and the Soviet occupation. Over the top of the novel, is the story of Tomas and Tereza and their, somewhat unconventional marriage.

The story is not told in a linear fashion, and Tereza’s dreams vie with reality for our attention. This highlights the ways that Tomas and Tereza’s lives intersect with other characters ( most notably Tomas’ lover Sabine) and with different historical times.

There were parts of the book I didn't completely understand. (Why was the dog named Kareninen?) But overall, I enjoyed it. As a side note, the character of the dog, Karenenin and his/her relationship to Tomas and Tereza was very sweet and made me cry.

I am late finding your thread, Rhonda, but now have it starred. I have enjoyed reading through your reviews, several of which are of books that are on my TBR list. I am also intent on reading and learning more about poetry, so I have particularly enjoyed those poems you have shared. The Anchor Book of Chinese Poetry is going right to my wish list!

Hi Linda! I am enjoying learning reading more poetry--it's actually been years since I have really read poetry.

Darwin’s Ghost by Steve Jones

Once, when my daughter was 5, she asked me “Mama, how was the first person born?” So I tried to explain evolution and failed miserably. My daughter kept saying: “So the first person was born from an animal?” I would say, “Not exactly, it was over a really, really long period of time.” I think that I also tossed in a description of the Voyage of the Beagle, which didn’t help matters. Finally my daughter asked “Mama, do you even KNOW?”
I was stung, and realized that I needed a better grasp of evolutionary biology. I got a little book out of the library that was, I think, intended for middle school readers. I found out that, actually, evolution IS hard to grasp because it is difficult for the human mind to comprehend the vast period of time involved. Also there is the whole bit about primordial soup, which I find difficult to picture.
Since then, I’ve tried to review my knowledge of evolution from time to time, in case I am called on for another impromptu explanation. Thus I picked up Darwin’s Ghost which follows the outline of Origin of Species and supplements Darwin’s original discussions with more recent discoveries. There is no description of primordial soup, as this wasn’t in the original. However, lots of opportunity to reflect on the extended time periods involved.
This probably isn’t the best lay person’s book on evolution. Jones sticks to the structure of Darwin’s original work, and for this 21st century reader it seemed a bit arbitrary. However, there was a lot to ponder and I do feel more on top of the topic.
My main take away was the phrase “descent with modifications. This helped to think of evolution as messy and various with lots of dead ends. There is a tendency to think of evolution as an upward spiral: sort of like a giant wedding cake with single celled organisms at the bottom and a human male and female on top. In reality, we are a byproduct of evolution, not it’s purpose.

Hi Rhonda - A lot of serious reading is going on over here! I've not yet read Rushdie or Kundera. I'm slightly more interested in the latter and have several of his novels on the shelf. It's good to learn that The Unbearable Lightness of Being is more accessible than I had imagined. Nice review.

Have a lovely weekend!

Thanks, Kerri! I hope you enjoy Kundera when you get around to him. I did find the style straightforward to read, though I think that there were some layers that I missed. Personally I prefer Rushdie, however. He is harder to read, but his books have and intensity and personal focus which I find intriguing.

I am very impressed with my own reading this month. I am on track to complete all of my planned reads, and maybe more since I have this next week off of work. I never thought that would happen. I am thinking of abandoning Beyond Katrina however. I thought I'd like it as I was very moved by the poetry in Native Guard. But I am 50 something pages in and just not engaged. Maybe this isn't the right time for this book for me.

I have also started The End of Your Life Book Club. I am pulled in enough that I will for sure finish it, but something about that book is annoying me. It feels a little shallow, however, to be annoyed by a saintly woman dying of pancreatic cancer.

Hi Rhonda. I'm de-lurking to say I loved your review of Darwin's Ghost. What a great story about your daughter. I don't have kids but I can imagine feeling stung by the comment "Mama, do you even KNOW?" And I also loved your wedding cake analogy of evolution. I don't think I'll ever look at a wedding cake again without thinking of that!

Hope you enjoy your week off.

Chica is so cute!!!

Great comments on Darwin's Ghost. I can't imagine trying to explain evolution to a kid. The first version of evolution I remember hearing was in 9th grade biology class and it started with "First there was a bowl of soup and the soup existed for a long time. Then there was something, a cosmic zap, and a one-celled organism grew in the bowl of soup. It ate the soup and it was good. Then God said, don't procreate because that's when you get into trouble, but the one-celled organism did." Unforgettable, and probably unteachable that way now.

Hi, Rhonda, I just finished The Universe Within which was very good, very readable, and covered primordial soup through the rise of humans. It would probably dovetail nicely with Darwin's Ghost.

> Hi Pat! My daughter is a teenager, now, so I am used to not knowing anything. But the first time was tough.
> Katie--that's a great description of evolution. I'll have to remember it.
> Thanks Karen, The Universe Within looks very interesting--I just put it on hold with the library.

I spent the morning watching my daughter's softball lose two games very spectacularly. Tomorrow, I get to do the same thing again---it's a Spring break tournament. But they are a nice group of girls and my daughter is having fun. This afternoon I hope to get some reading done.

We just returned last night from a short road trip to Northern California and Southern Oregon to look at colleges with my daughter. We looked at Humboldt State in Arcata, California and Southern Oregon in Ashland. She liked both--Yay!

Humboldt is in the coastal redwoods, just a beautiful area. We saw snowy egrets when walking in a swamp there. Also, when driving back, a herd of Roosevelt Elk. I didn't know there were Roosevelt Elk that far south.

In Ashland, we went to see August Wilson's Two Trains Running at Oregon Shakespeare Festival. There were a lot of good parts to the play, and the acting was great, but overall, I didn't like it. It was just too long--over three hours, and repetetive.

Trillium in the forest behind Humboldt State. I was impressed that the trillium were out so soon, but when we stopped by my sister's in SW Portland,to pick up Chica, her trillium were out as well.

<img width="500" src="http://pics.librarything.com/picsizes/31/01/3101d06b3363907636e654c6751434b41716b42.jpg"

I didn't have the camera for the snowy egret, but here's a pic off the internet:

And likewise for the elk:

<img width="300" src="https://encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQnAnWUuMQvP8ZDhL4aQf0REFEZ6lnKHywuAbPGPVLiilOj-tbWRw"

And on to books!

The End of Your Life Book Club by Will Schwalbe is a very sweet book, about Will Schawlbe's mother and her death from pancreatic cancer. Mary Ann Schwalbe was clearly an amazing woman, among her many accomplishments she was a leader in international aide work with refugees and in her dying days focused on the need to establish a library in Afghanistan. During the two years between diagnosis and death, when going thorough chemo and other cancer treatments, she and Will had a 'two person book club' in which they read and discussed books together.
Schwalbe writes about the books they read and his relationship with his mother. I should love this book. It's a book about books, which I love, and it's about a strong older woman. But I didn't love it.
I think my main problem with the book was that Mary Ann was so GOOD. She did noble work, cared about others and took care of her family. I guess I like my main characters to have more of a dark side.
I suspect that she actually did have a dark side, but her son was shy about revealing it. I can't entirely blame him, I would be uncomfortable writing a book about my mother's flaws as well.
One point Schwalbe made, which I found interesting, is that it is very rare to have books about the mother son relationship. There are a lot of books about father son relationships, but it is considered somewhat unmasculine for men to write about their mothers.
I checked on LT and found that the tag "mother and son" is used 153 times, mainly for children's books. "father and son" has 486 uses.

And as for mothers with dark sides,I readAre You My Mother? by Alison Bechdel

This was not a winner. I read Fun House years ago and thought it was brilliant. This is not nearly as good. The story seems self-involved, and doesn't really go anywhere.

This is too bad, as it's very creatively done, interspersing conversations, Bechdel's childhood diaries, Virginia Woolf's To The Lighthouse and various pieces of psychoanalytic literature into Bechdel's drawings.

Color Me English by Caryl Phillips is a book about layer's of identity. Phillips, born in St. Kitts, moved to England as a baby. As an adult he has lived all over the world, settling in New York City. That was interesting as another book I recently read (Rushdie's Joseph Anton) also featured an immigrant writer who ends up in New York.

This is a book of essays on a variety of topics around migration and identity. He is a good writer, and I enjoyed most of the essays. I especially enjoyed the essays on Chinua Achebe and James Baldwin. It was interesting to read on the historical and cultural differences between Africans, African Caribbeans, and African Americans.

And a March wrap-up:

11 books read!! A recent record for me. 3 fiction, one poetry, and 7 non-fiction. Of the non-fiction, four were memoirs, so kind of non-fiction-lite.

My favorite read of the month was Rushdie's Joseph Anton. However, Rushdie, I think, is a specialized taste. Runner-up, and the one I've been recommended the most often was The Sisters Brothers

Great pictures.

and congratulations for having read 11 books, well done

My husband went to Humboldt State. He liked it there well enough, although it was too out of the way for people to do much visiting.

Also, my son got accepted there, but I don't think it's his first choice. He's still trying to make up his mind.

>191 paulstalder: Thanks, Paul!
>192 ursula: That's cool that your husband went to HSU, Ursula. It IS out of the way--7 hours drive from Portland. But gorgeous and would probably be a good fit for my daughter. She is a junior, though, so plenty of time to change her mind. What's your son thinking of?

Book Line Up For April:

The Sound and the Fury completed 4/18
The Great Gatsby completed 4/8
Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson complete 4/13
The Great Wall: China against the world by Julia Lovell
The Lost Continent by Bill Bryson
Three Strong Women by Marie NDiaye
Lady Oracle by Margaret Atwood
One Day the Ice will Reveal All Its Dead completed 4/17
Leaf Storm by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
In the Shadow of the Banyan by Vaddey Ratner completed 4/4

HSU is about a 6 hours' drive from his hometown in the east bay of California, too. It was a good fit for him too, though, and he enjoyed his time there. My son is waiting on the last couple of schools' responses - they're due tomorrow - but I think his top choices are Sonoma State and CU Boulder. He was originally thinking he wanted to stay in California, but he gradually became more open to going a little ways away.

Ursula, I hope your son gets his top choice! College applications seem so stressful these days!

Well, I just found out that he did, and he's accepted their offer - so he'll be going to CU Boulder. We're very excited! It's funny because he said since it was his top choice that accepted him, he just went with it right away to be done with it and know what he's going to be doing - so he's obviously glad to be free of the stress of the process too. :)

Hooray! Congrats to your son!

good news!

Boulder's a great place. I'm sure he'll have a blast!

Hey, April is poetry month! Here's a poem I like, to celebrate:

Blizzard

After agony had left his body to find another,
or in search of no one, just agony on its
own for once, merely cruising,
something stayed, like
a precipitate—grief, maybe,
that's what they said,
as if such had ever been
grief's properties ... Why is lying
to others always so much harder
than to ourselves? Yesterday, for example,
starlings in flight, the ice of
the frozen pond beneath them briefly
containing their shadows—not
reflecting them,
not the way water does, the way
the water did, the way it will
in spring when the pond has unlocked itself
all over again with
no more regard than disregard
for the wings and faces that pass, or don't,
across it, so what,
so what? When I say
I trust you, I mean I've considered
that you could betray me, which means I know
you will, that we'll have between us at last
that understanding which is a safer thing
than trust, not a worse,
not a better thing ... Wanderer,
whisperer,
little firework, little
not-my-own, soon enough
the non-world we've been steering for
from the start: colorless, stripped of motion, all those
pleasures you knew so well how to give to others
gone also—pleasure,
I can hear you say, what world
was that

CARL PHILLIPS

In the Shadow of the Banyan by Vaddey Ratner

This is an autobiographical novel. Vaddey Ratner was 5 when the Khmer Rouge came to power in 1975. Her family was Cambodian royalty and used to a privileged life in a loving family. She spent the next four years in forced labor, starvation and near execution. She survived, though many family members perished, and arrived in the US in 1981.

I was somewhat frustrated with this novel, and if you are going to read one book on growing up under the Khmer Rouge, I recommend When Broken Glass Floats by Chanrithy Him. Him’s book is a memoir, rather than a novel, which I feel works better for a writer who is mainly trying to bear witness to the horrors of an oppressive regime. In a novel, one expects plot and character development; a memoir can focus only on a story of survival against great odds. Also, Him’s writing style is more direct. When I read her book, I felt I had a much greater understanding of what it’s like to be so hungry that you will eat bugs, grubs, or whatever you can find. The craziness randomness of the regime, which, in addition to killing many, many people, also destroyed its own country’s economic and agricultural infrastructure was better illustrated. Him also described life in the refugee camps, which Ratner does not.

Another frustration with Ratner’s work is that her narrator’s voice did not ring true. Raami’s voice simply seems to sophisticated and too selfless for that of a young child.

On the positive side: I think that this story is very close to Ratner’s own experiences and is quite accurate, other than my quibble with the narrator’s voice. Her experiences were really similar to Him’s. Ratner does do a good job of showing the contrast between Raami’s previous life as a princess, and her life under the Khmer Rouge.

The strongest part of this book is Ratner’s description of her father and her relationship with him. Sisowath Ayuravann does seem to have been a remarkable man. He was a poet who told his daughter many stories. Ratner has the father tell Raami “I told you stories to give you wings, Raami, so that you would never be trapped by anything—your name, your title, the limits of your body, this world’s suffering.”

Rhonda, I was glad to see your recommendation of When Broken Glass Floats, as it is already among my TBRs. The only other book that I have read related to the Khmer Rouge, and would highly recommend if you have not yet read it, is The Gate by Francois Bizot.

181 etc: What a beautiful place!

Thanks, Linda! I have added Bizot's book to my wish list, although I am not sure that I want to read any more about the Khmer Rouge right away.

qebo--the coastal redwoods are just magical. I am kind of hoping my daughter picks HSU, so we will have an excuse to visit there.

This has been a busy weekend, so far. Yesterday I bought a new car, a Subaru CrossTrek. So far, I love it but I am kind of scared driving it, waiting for the first scratch. Previously I had been driving a 97 Camry that is covered with moss, so this is a big step up. But the whole car buying experience is so anxiety provoking--all that bargaining, etc.

And last night my partner and I went out to dinner, celebrating our 26th anniversary. We had a really nice dinner. We are planning to do a weekend away as well, but haven't organized that yet. Planning is not a strong suit in the Banjo Household.

I am off to the library now..I have several books on hold. Then I just need some time to read!

Congrats on the new car! About three weeks ago I picked up an Outback, so we're Subaru buddies!

>207 drneutron:-- Subaru's are great cars for the outdoorsy. We have an older outback, which has taken us on many happy adventures.

To get a new car is some work, but now you can enjoy driving it. and the first scratch does come anyway - don't worry, be happy :)

That new car smell is almost as good as new book smell. My husband lives to haggle over cars. Not me. I'm about due for a new car, too. Putting it off as long as I can.

Rhonda, I've noted both yours and Linda's recommendations for further reading on the Khmer Rouge for when I'm in the mood. I recently read In the Shadow of the Banyan so it might be awhile.

Thanks for stopping by Paul and Donna. I am getting used to the new car and enjoying in more. Donna, you are lucky to have a husband to haggle for you! I learned that the best way to do it is by e-mail, with a couple of dealers, and you ask them to match each other. Still stressful, but easier than going in, and I am pretty sure I got as good a price as I could get in Portland.

Donna--I now have several books about the Khmer Rouge to read, but I am not sure how soon I will feel up to it.

Nice car haul!! Way to go Rhonda! Pictures please. :)

Hi Rhonda!

#182 and 183 - Beautiful photos! Thanks for sharing.

#188 - I certainly didn't think Are You My Mother was as good as Fun Home, but I still found it kind of powerful and fascinating, despite all the psychoanalytic stuff that I could have done without. It's still possible that I may write a review. Ha!

#202 - Sorry this was disappointing. I believe it's on my wishlist, but I'll also check out your recommendation of When Broken Glass Floats.

Congrats on the new car!
Love those photos! Especially of the trillium! Very nice

Thanks for stopping by folks!
The new car is great. Tina, I will try to do photos over the weekend.

Kerri--I think I was too negative on In the shadow of the Banyan. I gave it 3 1/2 stars--it's a solid read, just not great, IMO.

Thanks Chelle, I was proud of the trillium shot.

I completed Great Gatsby last night. I liked it but didn't love it. I may skip the review, since I have my thoughts in the Group Read thread, and there are tons of reviews already. Glad I read it again though, since it's been referenced in several other books I've read lately, and my high school memories of it were spectacularly vague.

I had to share this.

Hi Rhonda, stopping by to get caught uo here. Sorry to see Are You My Mother wasn't as good as Fun House. Not sure I am up for another Bechdel read just yet, but I will keep your comments in mind if I do decide to read Are You My Mother, considering I really love Woolf's To the Lighthouse.

Congrats on the new car purchase!

Hi Lori, the To the Lighthouse references were very creative. If you are a fan, you might want to at least glance through the book.

Wow! Stop by your thread and get hit by a book bullet right away -and onto my wishlist When Broken Glass Floats. I've got In the Shadow of the Banyan, but you make a compelling case for the other.

Hi Deb! I am glad to have more people reading Chanrithy Him's book. I have to admit being extra excited about her book because she is an Oregonian.

Congratulations on your 26th anniversary and new car!

I abandoned Bechdel's Are you my mother recently because I had too many books out from the library to keep track of. Fun home seemed to me to have a story/narrative that could be easily followed, Are you my mother doesn't. It's very dense (complicated ideas explicated/explored). It also seems much more self-concious to me. It's not a bad book, but it was one I wasn't willing to spend more time on.

Thanks, Ardene. I think you made a good decision on Are You My Mother?

Oh Trilliums!!! You hurt me! Outside my window, fresh slushy snow. :(

Katie--I like snow, and we don't really get it in Portland.

I've finished the poems of Emily Dickinson. What I found with these poems is there were two sorts. Some of them were insightful and powerful. THe rest were, well, boring. And obsessed with death and religion. I skimmed through those, so the reading went pretty quickly. It's interesting to think about how DIckinson's restricted life and the era she wrote in impacted her writing, and how she would have written differently under different circumstances. I would liken this to imagining Grandma Moses after art school. I suspect this would have given more range, but maybe blunted the power.

Here's one of my favorite poems:

The soul selects her own society,
Then shuts the door;
On her divine majority
Obtrude no more.

Unmoved, she notes the chariot's pausing
At her low gate;
Unmoved, an emperor is kneeling
Upon her mat.

I've known her from an ample nation
Choose one;
Then close the valves of her attention
Like stone.

Thank you! You said what I've always thought about Dickinson, but I feel like I've always gotten shouted down before I cold say it.

That is one of her quirkier poems, and I don't think I've seen it before.

Thanks, Katie! I have always liked that poem, and now it reminds me of my daughter, who is quite an introvert.

I have finished One Day the Ice Will Reveal All Its Dead. I'll plan on doing a review tomorrow--I have the day off as unpaid furlough, so it's going to be my day to get everything done.

One Day the Ice Will Reveal All Its Dead by Clare Dudman

This is a novelized account of the life of Alfred Wegener. Wegener was a German scientist, with a degree in astronomy, interests in meteorology and geophysics. He was born in 1880 and served in the German army during WW1. Wegener is famous for originating the theory of continental drift. This theory was ridiculed during Wegener's lifetime, and that ridicule was often very hard for him to take.

This book is just very beautifully written. It's told in Wegener's voice, and we get a sense of what he is like as a man, a husband and father, and as a scientist. The expeditions to Greenland are told with a good deal of detail, and those were probably my favorite part of the book.

Unlike most LT reviewers of this novel, I had some trouble with this book, and found it a slow read. Wegener's voice had a detached quality which I found annoying.

The Sound and The Fury by William Faulkner

Many people, people I admire, love the book and love Faulkner. I can see why, but I am not in that camp.

Confession: I did not understand this book. The writing is amazing, but I could never figure out what was happening or when. I think maybe I am not smart enough for stream-of-consciousness narrative.

I ended up reading the summary on Spark Notes. Turns out that this book is about a dysfunctional Southern family that is in decline. Actually, I am not sure they are really in decline, since they seem to have always been unpleasant. The only exception is Dilsey, the African American servant.

The saddest part of the book is the treatment of Benjy, the brother who has a developmental disorder. He is really mistreated by everyone, except Dilsey, and maybe his sister Caddie. I am glad that there have been advances in the treatment of people with developmental disabilities, even though we still have a long way to go.

It's been a busy week and the weather here in Portland is just gorgeous. I have three books completed this week: The New Jim Crow; The Iron Curtain: the Crushing of Eastern Europe and Parent's Guide to Hip Dysplasia. I will work on getting those reviewed by the end of the weekend.

I have a busy day planned tomorrow, lots of errands, a craft fair, yoga, a party that I will probably try to skip. But I am going to try to spend some time getting caught up at LT as well.

The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander

This is an important book about the racial caste system in the US. I highly recommend the book, but with a couple of reservations. The first is stylistic. Alexander’s style is highly polemical, which I found annoying. I wish she would have trusted the reader enough to just lay out the facts; and not spent so much effort telling us how to interpret them. I agree with her interpretation, but resent being led to the conclusion quite so blatantly.

I also wish that Alexander had given a broader perspective on the history of prisons and social control. It would have been interesting to compare prison and social control across cultures and time. She makes broad statements, for example stating that we have “a penal system unprecedented in world history” without, I felt, enough discussion to prove those points.

However, these are minor quibbles. Alexander does do a good job of describing the current state of the US criminal system. It’s pretty ugly. Some facts:

Reagan announced the “War on Drugs” in 1982. At that time, less than 2% of the public viewed drugs as the most important issue facing the nation. Many local law enforcement agencies were reluctant to participate in the drug war, until they were given economic incentives to do so.

Drug use is quite common in the US. African Americans are, actually, less likely than whites to use drugs, but are 13 times more likely to be arrested and imprisoned for this. One in 9 black men between the ages of 20 and 35 was behind bars in 2006.

Changes in sentencing guidelines have increased the prison population, although the crime rate has not really increased.

It is very difficult for convicted criminals to obtain housing and jobs, making it more and more likely that they will re-offend.

The US strips voting rights for ex-felons in huge numbers. This isn’t the case in other countries.

The high incarceration rate for black men is a prime reason for the much-lamented failure of black men to meet their parenting responsibilities.

Iron Curtain: The Crushing of Eastern Europe by Anne Applebaum

This is very well-researched and readable non-fiction. Applebaum gives a really comprehensive description of how the communist regimes of Easter Europe were created, and what daily life under Stalinism was like. This book, as it has given me better insight into some of the Eastern European and Soviet literature, which I’ve recently read.

Applebaum is director of political studies at the Legatum Institute. Her neo-conservative leanings are apparent in parts of the book, particularly the chapter on the economic systems. I don’t, for the most part, agree with her political views. However, her research is top-notch, and the Soviets really were hideous.

Applebaum’s descriptions of Soviet control help explain some of the characteristics of Eastern European culture which I’d previously found a little baffling. Her chapters on Reluctant Collaborators and Passive Opponents were quite insightful.

The scope of the book is limited, covering the period from 1944 to 56. These limits give the book a nice focus, but leave me wondering about the history leading up to communism in Europe.

Wow, there are heaps of books on your list that I would love to get around to reading some time. I'm inspired! : )

Thanks for stopping by, Charles.

This next review won't be of general interest, but I am posting it anyway, because it was a lot of effort to write.

The Parents’ Guide to Hip Dysplasia by Betsy Miller

The hip is a ball and socket joint. If the ball (femoral head) doesn’t fit into the hip socket correctly, that’s dysplasia. In the US, about 1.5 % of babies are found to have hip dysplasia. Newborns are routinely tested for this, and the most common treatment is a Pavlick harness. The harness holds the babies hips in a frog-like position, which allows the ball and socket joint to correct itself. The Pavlick harness is successful in treating hip dysplasia about 90% of the time.

Here’s a picture of a really cute baby wearing a harness:



Sixteen years ago, my daughter was diagnosed with hip dysplasia. We had a very nice orthopedist, who first saw her before she was 24 hours old. He (and everyone else in the treatment team) let us know that this was very treatable, and she’d be fine. In fact, that’s what happened. She wore the harness, which really wasn’t bad, for about 6 months. Her hip moved into place, she grew normally, and is now a healthy, athletic teenager.

I picked this book from the early reviewers, because I thought my experience as a parent might be helpful in reviewing this book. To be honest, I am just glad we didn’t have the book when my daughter was a baby. It would have freaked us out. We did better just putting our trust into a confident orthopedist.

It turns out, now that I have read the book, that some babies aren’t cured with the Pavlick harness; and they can need braces, casts, and even surgery. Sometimes the dysplasia isn’t diagnosed right away, and that makes it even trickier. I guess I vaguely knew this at the time, but I focused on the most likely, positive outcome. As a new parent, that’s what I needed.

For parents’ of babies who need more extensive treatment, this book could be helpful. It has lots of personal stories, and tips for caring for babies and young children in casts.

Still, I think that this book would be more helpful if it were more reassuring. After all, even kids who need surgery usually do fine and grow up healthy.

I feel like that's a common problem with books about medical issues -- they just give you more terrifying things to think about, look for, worry about. I'm glad you didn't have that book when your daughter was small, too!

Thanks, Ursula, I feel lucky overall.

I am last in getting to the April wrap-up, and I want to plan my reading and start a new thread for May. Right now I am reading THe Rape of Nanking, which is too intense to read very fast. I've also started Bill Bryson's Lost Continent so that I had something light for balance. However, I find Bryson variable and I am not sure this book is going to work for me.

APRIL WRAP-UP

8 books read: 4 novels, 1 poetry, and 3 non-fiction.
I am very pleased with this pace of reading, and it looks like I will easily reach the goal of 75 for 2013.

I had a hard time deciding on a favorite book for the month, but I think its The Iron Curtain: The Crushing of Eastern Europe. This was really amazingly readable for a non-fiction work, and I learned a lot.