RidgewayGirl Reads in 2014 -- Part One

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Intro -- To come, soon.

Read in 2014

January
Night Film by Marisha Pessl
Toronto Noir edited by Janine Armin
The Saturday Big Tent Wedding Party by Alexander McCall Smith
Sorry by Gail Jones
Five Days at Memorial by Sheri Fink
The Imposter Bride by Nancy Richler
Love in Infant Monkeys by Lydia Millet
Dare Me by Megan Abbott
Schneewittchen Muss Sterben (English title: Snow White Must Die) by Nele Neuhaus

February
The Minor Adjustment Beauty Salon by Alexander McCall Smith
The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
CivilWarLand in Bad Decline by George Saunders
Scarlet by Marissa Meyer
Much Obliged, Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse
The Limpopo Academy of Detection by Alexander McCall Smith

March
A Blade of Grass by Lewis DeSoto

Looking forward to your reviews!

Happy New Year!

I enjoyed Sorry, and will look forward to your comments. I'm reading Bloodlands currently and am constantly flabbergasted by his way of synthesizing things and all the new ideas. Also delighted to see the pretty Bloomsbury Group titles in your newly acquired section! I hope you like the Henriettas!

I read Bloodlands either last year or the year before - it wasn't the kind of book one can really "enjoy" per se, but I did think it was an extremely well-written piece of history on a topic that hasn't received much attention. I think it was this book that also focused a lot on memory, forgetting, and rewriting history in these areas as they were conquered by successive powers.

Kris, I'm not expecting it to be a light-hearted romp and after In Europe: Travels Through the Twentieth Century, I'm eager to read more deeply into the history of Eastern Europe.

Bloodlands was eye-opening for me, shocking, horrifying (and a lot more). But a remarkable and important book.

Good friends came to visit us from SC and we all went to Prague, which I last saw 15 years ago. It's more touristy now, but still amazing and like something out of a weird fairy tale. The kids liked it and I enjoyed finding historical bits that would interest two ten year old boys. They liked the golem (even finding a bakery van which featured the golem as a waiter. The golem had quite the six-pack) and really enjoyed the castle tour. We saw a great hall that once held jousting inside and then I found the story of the defenestration of two Catholic officials which started the Thirty Years War. They were saved because the hall had just been swept out and they landed on the dung-heap.

Traveling with children is a different experience. They are amazed by the buildings, but the history has to have a fun story to it. I think the sheer number of names on the walls of the Pinkas Synagogue lessened the impact, although they did display more respect for their surroundings than I had expected.

It was a fun visit and we loved having old friends see our new stomping grounds. There was, however, no time for reading. Today we are just hanging out doing nothing and I've managed the first third of Night Film by Marisha Pessl, which is gripping. I'm going to make a cup of tea and get right back into it.

I put Bloodlands on my list when Rebecca reviewed it. Now that you and Lisa are reading it, I'll have to move it closer to the top of the TBR pile.

Kay, that picture is beautiful.

Many, many years ago, I studied in Prague. I wonder how today's version would compare to my memories. The photo is beautiful. And I hear you about travelling with a ten year old(s). That's my daughter's age, and we went to France for three weeks this summer. She did really well, but still, it's different. But then, so is travelling with my husband!

I think I mentioned before that I was in Prague in the early 90s. Although it was soon after the Wall came down, it was already starting to have an influx of young travelers.

Gorgeous photo! I really enjoy hearing about your new life in Munich - thanks for sharing.

I love the picture - last time I was in Prague, it was freezing and wretched. I really love and concur with your comment that it's "like something out of a weird fairy tale".

What a wonderful photo! Love hearing about your expat life in Munich. Looking forward to hearing about what you read this year.

aruba, it will be interesting to compare what we all think of Bloodlands and to compare my reactions with those who have already read it.

Thanks, Colleen, Kate and Vivienne. I wonder about posting about my travels around, but since I like it when others do that, I decided to just go ahead.

And, yes, I am jealous of both of you, Rebecca and Lisa! Prague is full of tourists, but I don't think it has hurt it too much. It kind of deserves prosperity, doesn't it? I am looking forward to getting to places less well known as we are here longer, but for the kids nothing beats places like Venice, Paris and Prague.

Kris, did the weather add to the atmosphere? Prague, like Paris, is best under cloudy skies and a cold wind, and Venice was lovely in the rain -- possibly because it cleared the streets of tourists.

>18 RidgewayGirl:, Oh yes. This is probably an idiotic comment, but I don't feel like I'm in Eastern Europe unless its windy, overcast, and drizzly. There's something about being bundled up and having freezing toes that just feels so apt. Did Sofia (Bulgaria) on the same trip - same weather, perhaps worse. Loved it.

lol, I've been in Prague and Budapest and Vienna and Bratislava in July or August. There's been the occasional rainy day, but mostly hot sun. They get plenty of that in those countries, lol.

Scott McGrath was a respected investigative journalist until he began researching reclusive horror movie director Stanislas Cordova. An ill-timed outburst on a talk show has his career and reputation in ruins and precipitated his divorce. Now Cordova's daughter is found dead of apparent suicide and McGrath is drawn back to his subject matter. The trail is both labyrinthine and dangerous, but he's joined by two unlikely fellow detectives; a coat check girl and a small time drug dealer.

McGrath is the embodiment of that guy, the arrogant one who doesn't get that the lives of other people are as concrete and important as his own. He's an interesting narrator to follow behind, between longing to give him a good kick in the shins and sharing the exasperation of those he comes into contact with. Marisha Pessl keeps him from being a two-dimensional by having him occasionally pause at the disappointment of others, recognizing it might be right, but unable to continue his relentless pursuit of The Story.

I'm not sure what I think about Night Film. It's a tremendously suspenseful mystery novel with a suitably break-neck pace to it. It's a hard book to put down and the addition of things like webpage screenshots and newspaper articles keep the story from bogging down. Pessl was clearly aiming for more than a good thriller, though and while the ending was suitably ambiguous (or maybe not) I'm not sure Night Film is more than a well-plotted and sometimes scary suspense novel along the lines of Shutter Island. Which is not a bad thing to read at the end of a busy holiday season, with a cup of tea and a dog at my side. Once I started it, I had a hard time putting it down and I did enjoy it. I'm not a good judge of horror, not because I don't scare easily, but because, when pushed too far, I have a tendency to suddenly find it all a bit silly. That didn't happen with Night Film; I was along for the entire ride.

I am pretty sure that Night Film is on my wishlist, after reading the free sample pages that you can get on the Kindle - it grabbed me pretty quickly. Glad to hear that you enjoyed it, whether or not there turns out to be more to it than a gripping story.

That does sound like fun, but when you said "Pessl was clearly aiming for more than a good thriller," I found myself nodding my head because that was more or less my problem with Special Topics in Calamity Physics: I felt Pessl kept wanting the readers to pat her on the back for being so clever and being able to bring Issues into her story.

Rebecca, I can see that. And it may be why Night Film is, in the end, a less successful book than Gone Girl, which is unashamedly what it is.

Gone Girl is another one I've been avoiding!

>25 rebeccanyc:, oh that's too bad! Gone Girl is quite good and rather twisted in a way that I really loved. It also captured the dreariness of the Midwest in a way that was very convincing to me.

Rebecca, you might like Sharp Objects, which I think is a better novel and has no hype attached.

Well, I will probably succumb some day, Kris; it's just that I'm a little allergic to books that have so much hype!

Love hearing about your travels and enjoy your reviews. Happy New Year!

>28 rebeccanyc:, If you're ever looking for other questions for the avid reader, that would be an interesting one to throw out to the crowd - does hype make you more or less likely to want to read a book? or something along those lines, assuming it wasn't done last year.

First, thanks for the beautiful picture! Loved your review of Night Film. It sounds really good - especially with the inclusion of web screenshots & articles to make it seem more real.

Thanks, Kris. Good idea. I'll be soliciting ideas at some point.

For the uninitiated, Akashic Books is a small publisher who has found a niche in producing a series of short story collections, each set in a different city or location and featuring writers who live or have some connection to that area. The stories are all noirish in tone, although that depends largely on what each guest editor interprets as noir. The quality of these collections is generally uneven, depending largely on the available writer population. Despite all that, or maybe because of it, I like the series. I usually finish a book with new authors to look into and a few to now avoid.

Toronto Noir, which was edited by Janine Armin, was a good addition to the Akashic Noir collection. There were solid stories from well known authors Peter Robinson and Andrew Pyper as well as from less prominent writers like Gail Bowen and Michael Redhill. There were a few lackluster entries, including one I could not finish (hint: don't write in dialect unless you are very, very good at it. And maybe not even then). Some of the stories used the Toronto setting as integral to the plot, others just referenced place names.

>33 RidgewayGirl: That one sounds interesting, Kay. I've read very few short story collections. I usually steer clear of them for some unknown reason.

Everybody has their comfort reads and the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency is mine. Presented as mysteries, the mystery is always subordinate to the gentle, pleasant lives of Precious Ramotswe and her compatriots in a fantasy version of Africa where everything works out well and the problems of the real world exist only in passing or from far away. In this episode, The Saturday Big Tent Wedding Party, Alexander McCall Smith takes us through the days before Mma Makutsi's wedding to Phuti Radiphuti. There are a few snags, but nothing that isn't solved or resolves itself on its own. There's a problem involving Charlie, Mr J.L.B. Matekoni's feckless apprentice and a slight mystery that Mma Ramoswe solves to everyone's satisfaction. All is well in this glorious version of Botswana.

My current reading pace will not hold. Holidays are over and it's back to glorious routine come tomorrow.

Yay! Another #1 Ladies Detective fan! :)

Have you seen the HBO TV series? (Unfortunately, there is only one season.)

I went to Prague a few years ago for the Xmas markets and now every Christmas the devil appears among my decorations. (In the Czech Republic Santa goes around with an angel and the devil - if you think that's a bit rough check out Iceland and the Christmas Cat). At the time Prague was beginning to get a reputation as a destination for stag nights but thankfully that has started to fall off a little.

>36 avidmom: - allegedly the series is still in production but neither the BBC nor HBO have said when they will make some more.

Jargoneer, my favorite is the Austrian Krampus. He's nightmare-worthy.

Love it!

>38 RidgewayGirl: Kay, that is very creepy!

You can buy little chocolate Krampuses to eat. We in the US have forgotten the art of terrifying children before the holidays. Sure the Elf on a Shelf is creepy, but does he have that tongue? Will he put you in a sack and beat you?

Sorry by Gail Jones is the story of Perdita Keene, the only child of two unsuitable parents, Nicholas, who is unhappy with being sent into the outback to research aboriginal culture instead of having a prestigious university job and Stella, who is obsessed with Shakespere and mentally fragile. Perdita spends her days with Mary, an aboriginal girl and Billy, who does not talk and is considered to be not all there. She's unaware of the oddity of her life, living in a shack in the bush surrounded by mouldering books and walls plastered with newspaper pictures of the war. Everything changes when her father is murdered.

This was an odd little book. Jones' has a lyrical writing style, and here she writes from the narrow point of view of a young girl with a limited experience of the world. The world of the Australian outback and Perth during the Second World War is vividly described. Perdita's an outsider by both circumstances and nature, and her observations are those of someone looking in. The book simultaneously places the reader apart from the people and events described, while always staying in close proximity to Perdita. I liked Sorry quite a bit, but prefer her later novel, Five Bells which is less constrained.

I am intrigued. I have Five Bells on my wishlist. I'm trying to decide whether to add this one. My wishlist is bulging at the seams.

Sorry sounds fascinating! Another for the TBR. :)

I enjoyed Sorry too, but have not read anything else by the author. I'm not sure why. Maybe I'll look for Five Bells.

I had mixed feelings about Five Bells, enough so that I haven't explored more by Gail Jones.

Love post 38.

That sounds interesting, but I don't think it's one for my own wishlist.

For some reason I have not been able to convince myself to open Dreams of Speaking, which is on my TBR. I wasn't crazy about the plot for Sorry because I felt a little too manipulated, but I found the writing exceptionally beautiful.

The big reveal at the end? Yeah, I can see that. I disliked the saintliness of one excessively self-sacrificing character and what happens to them in the end, but liked how the book focused on how language shapes us.

Nice review of Sorry, Kay. I haven't been tempted enough to read it or Five Bells yet.

Not that, Kay. It's been awhile since I read it, but i recall it is constructed to make us sympathize with the fate of the Australian Aboriginals (although admittedly, I cannot remember exactly the details.)... (I'm starting to worry if I even have that right)... It's a noble goal. What I did not like was what I took as fictional compromises to make that point.

ETA - Darryl - Hope you are tempted to read Jones sometime. She is not just a pretty writer, her writing can be magnificent.

>38 RidgewayGirl: This Christmas the TV show Grimm made a great episode centered on Krampus :)

When Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, it was unprepared. The entire country was unprepared and it was unnecessarily disastrous. In Five Days at Memorial, Sheri Fink looks at what happened in a single hospital during the hurricane and in the days that followed, as power failed and the people inside began to wonder if they would all survive. This is non-fiction that reads like a novel, with the days in the hospital described in chaotic detail. Things were a mess and there was a distinct lack of leadership, both within the hospital and on the part of the hospital's corporation and the American government outside of it.



In the aftermath, after everyone had left and the flood waters receded, there were found to have been too many deaths, especially when compared to the similarly struck Charity Hospital. There were rumors that some of the medical personnel had taken matters into their own hands, believing that certain patients were too ill to be rescued, if indeed rescue was even coming. Several patients had all died during the same time frame and all had high levels of morphine and sedatives in their bodies.

An investigation is opened, spurred along by intense media interest, and focusses on two nurses and the physician Anna Pou. Five Days at Memorial follows the investigation and the lives of those who were affected closely as lines are drawn between those who think this is a politically motivated witch hunt and those concerned that people got away with murder.



This is a gut-wrenching story. I changed my mind about what went wrong, who was to blame and what the motivations were for those medical personnel several times throughout. It was interesting to note how adeptly the corporations involved sidestepped any real accountability. The hospital CEO and a few other executive officers were present during the debacle, but stayed largely in the one wing of the hospital that retained power and air conditioning, relaxing and watching TV and eating chicken noodle soup while across the way patients died in 110 degrees heat and without respirators. The CEO failed to lead, although he did graciously bring nurses some coffee. It seemed to have occurred to no one to move the patients into the one place where their suffering could have been alleviated. And after rescue, while those same patients lay on the floor of an airport with inadequate care, those same executive officers were flown away in the corporate jet.

Meanwhile, the medical and support personnel were given no or conflicting information. There was no plan of rescue. Those patients flown out had to be carried down several flights of stairs, pushed through a maintenance shaft, driven through a car park, then carried up several flights of rickety stairs to a decaying heliport. Helicopters left without passengers when they were delivered too slowly. Seriously ill patients had to lay outside in the sun for hours waiting for the next helicopter to fly in. And there were constant rumors and fears that the hospital would be overrun at any time by gangs of looters.



Five Days at Memorial brings those days to vivid light. It was compelling and uncomfortable reading. The book has been nominated for the National Book Critics Circle Award. It would be a worthy winner.

Thanks to both Daryl and Merrikay for pushing me to go ahead and read this one.

Kay, Excellent review! Such an awful situation all the way around. There have been so many wonderful reviews of this book, that I know I do have to get to it. Your review just pushed it to the sooner rather than later list of TBRs.

Great review of Five Days at Memorial, Kay! I'm glad that you spoke about the lack of response by Memorial's CEO and other top non-clinical administrators (I can't remember offhand if Memorial had a CMO (chief medical officer), and if so what role (s)he played in this tragedy). Dr. Fink's book was nominated as a finalist for the 2013 National Book Critics Circle Award yesterday, and hopefully it will receive several other accolades and prizes as well.

When will my copy arrive?!

Another great review of Five Days at memorial

All these reviews, and I'm still learning. The actions of the executives is so - un-medical. That is upsetting. Thanks for the pictures and great job incorporating them into the review.

>54 RidgewayGirl:, Excellent review and the pictures really add something. It's hard to imagine that things like this can actually happen.

>57 labfs39:, I know, me too! I think I'm #30 something on the hold list for Five Days At Memorial.

Five Days at Memorial sounds like a compelling read. But I think I would be compelled to throw it against the wall 'cause I'd be too ticked to actually read it!

Thanks, Colleen, Lisa and Kris. I'm looking forward to finding out what you think of the situation and the book.

Daniel, is it shallow that I like things to be illustrated?

Thank you, Daryl. It was your review that prompted me to get it and read it right away, rather than put it on a list of things to maybe read later. I was angry through much of the book, and those executive officers talking about how good it was to relax and cool off irked me.

avid, I am with you there. However, my kindle is elderly and I would like to get a few more years out of it.

I would have liked Nancy Richler's book, The Imposter Bride, more if it hadn't been shortlisted for Canada's Giller Prize. That nomination set my expectations higher than the book could sustain. If it hadn't been on the shortlist, on the other hand, I would never have looked twice at it. The cover art is banal and inaccurate and my copy of the book described it inaccurately on the back cover. It's marketed one way -- to appeal to the person who would enjoy a lush, romantic historical read, and it's placement on the Giller shortlist says something different -- that here is a novel of substance, that says something important in a new or especially skilled way.

The Imposter Bride falls somewhere in between these two promises. It's the story of a Polish-Jewish woman, Lily Azerov, who manages to be let into Canada in 1945 by becoming engaged to a Canadian man, Sol Kramer, who, upon seeing her emerge from the train carriage, decides that he can't follow through and marry her after all. His older brother, however, steps in and marries Lily himself and they settle into his mother's apartment in a Jewish working class neighborhood in Montreal. Lily has been scarred by her survival on the eastern edge of Poland during the war. She can't adjust to life in provincial Montreal and she is holding on to both her past and some sizable secrets, which affect her ability to form a new life in Canada.

The book may be about Lily, but she is never revealed, leaving a hole at the heart of the story. Even when the secrets of her past are brought to light, she remains in shadow, with that story, which could have been a novel of its own (and a much more exciting and powerful one), told in the most remote and unemotional way possible. What is left is the story of growing up in mid-century Montreal, in the small Jewish community there, which would have been an interesting story on its own were it not secondary to that of the enigmatic Lily's.

Richler may well someday be an author to be reckoned with, and this novel displays great research skills in depicting a small community at a specific place and time.

The premise would have induced me to pick this one up; I'm glad you took one for the team and wrote such a good review. I'll pass on it now.

rg, provincial Montreal???. Say it isn't so! Is Nancy Richler engaging in some sort of revisionism? In the years immediately post WWII, Montreal had the largest Jewish population in Canada, at slightly over 100,000 people, in a city of just over 1 million, making both the Jewish population and the city as a whole the largest in the country.

Interesting that in 2012, three of the short listed authors were from Montreal.

I haven't read The Imposter Bride yet, dissuaded by that same back cover summary and cover, but I enjoyed your review.

Finally catching up - interesting reads, great reviews and fun travels. Five Days at Memorial sounds like a tough but informative read.

Is Nancy Richler any relation to Mordecai Richler??

>67 janeajones: Their grandfathers were brothers. I think that translates to second cousins.

Yes -- second cousins. One of the things I'm known for in my family is my ability to understand the degrees of cousinliness and once removed, etc. :-)

Five Days at Memorial was not a book on my radar. Your excellent review has put it on my radar.

SL, more in the sense that life was constrained into proper behaviors and employments.

Rebecca, that's a skill worth having. In my family, everyone not actually a parent is relegated to either uncle, aunt or cousin, including people not actually blood relatives. It's sheer laziness.

Mary, I'd be interested to find out what you think about it, if you read it.

Glad to be of service, Lisa! It was good to read a book that wasn't deeply affecting after Five Days at Memorial.

ljbwell, do you know how people thought about Katrina outside the US? I was in England at the time, but having just moved with two small children, my thoughts were elsewhere.

Love in Infant Monkeys is a Pulizer Prize shortlisted book of short stories by Lydia Millet. The stories are all very different, yet joined together by the conceit that each story features both an animal and a famous person, with the people ranging from Noam Chomskey (gerbils) and Jimmy Carter (rabbits, of course), to Madonna (pheasants) and a Sharon Stone impersonator (komodo dragons), to Nikola Tesla (pigeons) and Thomas Edison (an elephant). There is an odd, distanced feel to many of the stories, with several being narrated by a third party or presented as a historical report.

The first story in the book, Sexing the Pheasant, was, for me, the weakest of the collection and had me mildly disliking the book for the first half, before Millet finally won me over. The title story benefitted the most from the distant narrative style; without it, the story would simply have been too much to bear reading.

I'm left less that impressed with Lydia Millet's writing, but when I first picked up this book someone told me that this is her weakest collection, so I'm inclined to try her again. The conceit of having each story be about someone famous and an animal is clever, but not clever enough to power an entire book. A few of the stories, such as Jimmy Carter's Rabbit, Love in Infant Monkeys and the final story in the book were very good.

>71 RidgewayGirl:- Good question. As I recall, it was on the news a lot. Haiyan this past November was also very prominent and has led to many fundraisers here in Sweden. I honestly just don't remember whether there was that same kind of response for Katrina here. For some reason I'm also thinking I was on vacation in the States when or soon after it happened, so it may seem like it dominated news more than it did.

> 71, 73

I was in Bulgaria at the time - Katrina was leading the news for days... August is a slow season (to say the least) so pretty much anything would have led but it was there - with emphasis on the destruction of New Orleans more than of the human story. Although one of the running themes was the comparisons with the Phuket tsunamis of Dec. 2004 - both disasters came too close to one another...

Adding my voice to the compliments for your great review of Five Days at Memorial. Before I read the book I admit to having some preconceived notions about the allegations of mercy killings, and like you my sympathies changed as I read the book.

And thank you for posting the pictures. My three oldest children were born at Memorial (then known as Southern Baptist), in 1978, 1980 and 1983, and a great deal has changed since then. While I could visualize the airboats edging up to the entry, I can now more deeply understand just how daunting getting to the helipad was.

Lisa (labfs39) is going to open a discussion thread about Five Days at Memorial. It will be an interesting conversation, if the scattered comments are any indication. I'm looking forward to it.

Aruba, I changed my mind several times while reading the book. I went looking for pictures when I'd finished just to get a better idea of what was going on. I omitted the ones of the bodies, but the helipad picture was the most valuable to me in terms of understanding what they were up against.

Annie and ljbwell, it's so interesting to see how events are perceived and understood from different angles.

Schneewittchen Muss Sterben (English title: Snow White Must Die) is a crime novel by German author Nele Neuhaus. Tobias is released from prison after serving his sentence for the murders of two of his classmates when he was seventeen. The bodies of the two girls were never found. He returns to the village outside of Frankfurt, where he had grown up and where his family has run the local restaurant/bar/guest house to find his mother has left, the restaurant shuttered and his father living in filth. His original plan had been to go far away where he could start his life over, but he decides to stay to clean up the property and to help his father who is deeply depressed. Soon they are subjected to a campaign of harassment as the village bands together to eject Tobias from their midst. Meanwhile, the body of one of the girls is discovered, a new girl comes to town who is asking too many questions and the fault lines begin to show.

A lot happens in this book. A lot. There's no one in the village not involved in the action in some way or another. The book strains the reader's ability to go with the events occurring as there is just so very much happening. And while the village of Altenhain is so small and insular as to have the residents close ranks against outsiders and act in unison, it's also near Frankfurt and large enough to produce TV stars, government ministers and multimillionaires. There are a large number of unusually attractive people, including a few of the detectives investigating the crimes. There are murders, both old and new, an unusually large supply of unscrupulous con men and heartless murders for such a small place, and even a Lisbeth Salander-like character, who arrives to shake things up a bit, but who is quite pretty when she removes her piercings and behaves in a more lady-like way.

The book was not good. It wasn't terrible, but nor was the plot believable, even in a crime-novel-featuring-serial-killers way. The characters are two dimensional at best, with a lot of wish-fulfillment and convenient deaths going on. The police were not at all believable as police, with the investigating officers happily telling every suspect every bit of evidence against them, including the identities of witnesses. I was also surprised to find that the author is a woman since there is a rape in the book that is explained numerous times as being because the victim was a tease and her death was considered less important than that of the other girl, who was nicer. Women were portrayed as perfidious liars and emasculating controllers. On the other hand, I was reading this book in German and the short segments and constant action made the book move along quickly.

Hmm, I think it's save to say I'll skip this one.

I have created a thread to discuss the book Five Days at Memorial. Please join me there if you have read the book and would like to discuss it.

Oh boy Ridge your reading this year is so intriguing! I am only now getting caught up, as I'm without internet awhile and just using public when I can. SO MANY of your reviews interest me. Of course the Five Days! What an amazing book. Add me to the list of those who changed their minds repeatedly. I'm so glad you enjoyed it. Can't remember the name of a book I read that called for the impeachment of Bush based on Katrina alone. It was all legal arguments. Interesting. I had to agree. I go back and forth between local and national responsibility, but in the end it looks to me as if people in the middle of the tragedy are too traumatized to be able to respond very well (speaking of government). Although, some of those people in the hospital certainly functioned well - too bad it was with misinformation.

I enjoyed hearing about Prague and enjoyed the pictures. That's where my husband would like to go.

Also thanks for the explanation about Akashic. I need a list of publishers denoted by their specialities.

All of the reviews and discussions were so interesting.

Megan Abbott had me with the first book of hers that I read, Queenpin. Her books are tightly plotted novels about crime and darkness. Her early books are classic hard-boiled stories set in the thirties and forties, while her newer offerings are modern noir, but they share strong female protagonists and a writing style that doesn't waste a single word. Dare Me is set in the world of high school cheerleading, told from the point of view of a girl who describes herself as the best friend of the captain of the squad, a girl used to getting her way and who has a strong destructive streak. When the school hires a new coach for the cheerleading team, one who demands more from the girls than popularity and hip-popping dances, tensions arise.

Dare Me is much more than a story of cheerleaders gone bad. Abbott likes to look at the shiny surface of things, but she's then compelled to look at the dark places underneath and she's not afraid to show the reader everything. Cheerleaders are easy to mock or dismiss, but Abbott understands the motivations and emotions that cause a girl to work as hard as a competitive cheerleader does to excel, while also examining the place these girls have in high school social circles.

I prefer Abbott's old school noir to her novels with contemporary settings, but any book by Abbott is a reason to silence the cell phone and leave the laundry where it is for an evening.

Great review of Dare Me - I love this comment: Cheerleaders are easy to mock or dismiss, but Abbott understands the motivations and emotions that cause a girl to work as hard as a competitive cheerleader does to excel, while also examining the place these girls have in high school social circles.

I'm curious about Abbott's other books. What would be a good intro for both the old school noir and the modern noir?

Kris, Dare Me is Abbott's break out book and it makes for compulsive reading. Her books tend toward the short side because she doesn't let the action lag. As for the old school noir, Queenpin is such a wonderfully classic hardboiled story in which a young woman is mentored by a powerful crime boss. Abbott does a wonderful job turning the misogynistic hardboiled world on its head by having the women be in control of their destinies and much more ruthless than the men in their lives.

I have to add Queenpin to my TBR!! :)

July 1914: Countdown to War is a factual and somewhat dry account of the assassination of the archduke Franz Ferdinand on June 28th, 1914 and the days following, up until August 4th, when Germany invaded Belgium and Britain declared war on Germany. Sean McMeekin spends the majority of the book providing a moment by moment account of what the various government officials and heads of state were doing and planning.

A few things stood out, like how avoidable the Great War was. There were saber-rattlers in every country, but so were there men who, if they weren't aware of how big the conflict could become, were interested in preserving the peace. But in a time when messages were mostly delivered by telegram, with a time delay caused by having to go to a telegraph office and by the need to encrypt important messages on one end and decrypt them on the other, delays in communications caused mixed messages. With the need to have various men, with their own agendas, deliver and discuss information with officials from the various countries, who also had their own aims, messages became skewed. And these guys did not pride themselves on clarity, but rather seemed to relish ambiguity.

McMeekin's book is somewhat controversial in that he doesn't think the outbreak of hostilities was entirely Germany's fault. He makes a convincing case for there having been a few idiots in the Austro-Hungarian Empire who were gagging for war and that Russia had some powerful motivations to want a conflict. Both Russia and France did mobilize their armies before Germany did. Germany's main fault lay in its inflexibility. Their war plans were the most thorough, with an amazing attention to detail, but that detail meant that there was no way to change any aspect of it. So that when it looked as though war with Russia was inevitable, Germany had to simultaneously go to war with France because their plans only allowed for this scenario. Even worse, the to-do list had "declare war" up at the top, so Germany declared war before it began mobilization, unlike both France and Russia, who were more attuned to how being the first to declare war would look to the outside world.

Britain, preoccupied with problems in Ireland (Churchill wanted to go and shell Belfast, just to teach them a lesson), wanted to avoid involvement, eventually deciding it could get out of participating if Germany left Belgium alone. But those inflexible war plans meant Germany had to march through Belgium. And so it all began.

McMeekin makes a strong argument that Germany was not the only one responsible for starting the First World War. Certainly, Russia, Austria-Hungary, Serbia, Britain and France all share blame for that. But Germany's inflexibility meant that once things got rolling, there would be no turning back.

Oddly enough, the one person who came through this book looking pretty good was Franz Ferdinand. Born into the decaying royal family in a moribund empire, he nonetheless had the courage to marry a woman his family considered of too low a rank to be suitable and to have seemingly forged a happy marriage out of that. He might have been able to stop those who were determined to invade Serbia, as he had been a voice against such actions before his assassination.

edited to add that I had a hard time writing these comments without using the words "jerkwad" or "fuckwit." But as this was a (very) serious look at the causes of World War I, it didn't seem appropriate. They are, however, implied.

I just fell off my chair in Starbucks and everyone is looking at me. I of course yelled What are you jerk wads looking at? Excellent and informative review. Thanks.

LOL! You are both too funny. Excellent review, even if dampened down for a mixed audience. ;-) I have always thought the war was caused because of multiple missteps all around. I guess I missed the blame it all on Germany memo. Interesting point about Germany's inflexibility.

As I understand it, in Europe (*) blame it all on Germany was all the rage just after the war, and there are still some fans today, but as Germany has become one of the pillars of the EU and we're all supposed to be good friends now, it has become a bit embarrassing for everybody. It's easier to say that it was inevitable but nobody wanted it and French and Germans were all fraternizing like crazy in the trenches, and everybody was a victim and we're all brothers :-P

Thanks for the review, I think I'll add that book to my wishlist.

(*) ETA: please note that this is written from a French point of view, so maybe this should read "in France".

It is interesting how our views on things change as time passes and allegiances shift. Dare I mention the US and Osama bin Laden?

Let me first say that I don't like cozy mysteries. I really don't. Yet, I can't resist the pleasant fantasy version of Africa Alexander McCall Smith has created in The Number One Ladies' Detective Agency series.

In The Minor Adjustment Beauty Salon, Mma Makutsi has her baby, Charlie the hapless apprentice displays a bit of depth, Mma Ramotswe realizes how much her associate detective means to her and Mr JLB Matakoni takes a course in how to be a modern husband. There are also two mysteries, which are entertaining, but negligible. Smith knows what he's doing with this series, and the only misstep in this installment is the woman teaching the Modern Husbands class.

>90 RidgewayGirl: I enjoy this series too. I just finished The Double Comfort Safari Club and will comment about it shortly. Glad to hear they are still going strong.

Loved your comments on Smith's latest. The lady teaching the Modern Husbands class - that whole scene, actually - cracked me up, especially Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni's attempt to be more "modern" in the kitchen. :)

Enjoyed your review of July 1914. It is in my WWI pile. I appreciate that McMeekin explains the war as a conscious decision resulting from decisions individuals made. While it's perhaps true that these individuals did not understand the nature of the war they were starting, I am somewhat tired of claims that the war was inevitable.

Susie, it did do that, didn't it? I thought it was odd, though, that she would choose to berate the men who signed up for a class in being a modern husband. Surely those are the guys who, to some extent, got it. I think McCall was aiming at a straw man. He does this in his other series (which I no longer read) -- sets up someone as indicative of a group and then makes them look stupid. He's avoided it up til now with this series, and I'm hopeful this was just a one-off.

Colleen, like Wodehouse's Bertie and & Jeeves novels, the Number One Ladies Detective Agency series are all pretty much the same novel, aren't they? It's part of the charm.

Thanks, Kris. Saying it was inevitable does absolve everyone of responsibility, though. And there were several quotes in July 1914 that indicated that quite a few men recognized how widespread and disastrous the consequences could be.

Excellent review of July 1914: Countdown to war. I don't think I will read this as it sounds just too detailed as it describes a blow by blow account of what happened in the summer of 1914.

bas, I picked it up on a whim (since its the anniversary and all) and since it was an ebook, I had no idea how long it was. I would have much preferred to have read more of an overview, but I can't say I'm sorry to have read it.

Great review of July 1914, a book I know I'll never read. I did, however, after reading your review, go off to see if it's available in French for my history-loving, French-speaking husband...but sadly not.

97> May I recommend for your husband 14-18, retrouver la guerre? It's a very interesting analysis of the war's impact. I am supposed to write a review of it since I finished it last weekend, but I've been distracted by other things.

edited to add that I had a hard time writing these comments without using the words "jerkwad" or "fuckwit."

Enviable self-control! :)

I'm not particularly charmed by Franz Ferdinand myself, but if you are curious about him, this is worth a look:

http://www.franzferdinandsworld.com/the-project/

LT member jcbrunner originally wrote about it here:

http://www.librarything.com/topic/162333

Continuing to get a kick out of your (anti)suffragist cartoons on top.

It's fairly new, Rachel. Don't translations take time?

Florence, your review of 14-18 was excellent. I think that I'll read something fictitious on WWI next, though.

Lola, thanks for the link to the Franz Ferdinand World Tour. I'll be following him. And thanks for liking the anti-suffragist cartoons. I'm sure I'm offending someone, but I love 'em.

By now everyone's heard the story about J.K. Rowling writing a mystery novel under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith and although the few reviews about it said it was quite good, no one noticed it enough to read it. And then the real author's name was leaked and now it's very popular. So popular, that last week, just as I was reading it on the train, so was the guy sitting across from me. So, the question is, how good is it, really? I'm happy to tell you that it is very good, but nothing at all like the Harry Potter books, so if you loved them, you may well not like The Cuckoo's Calling, but if you're a reader of mystery novels, you will probably enjoy this solid and respectful entry into the genre.

Cormoran Strike is an ex-Red Cap (that's the British version of the military police), who left the army when he lost part of a leg in Afghanistan. He's just broken up, for the last time, with his fiancee and his private detective business is heavily in debt. He's living in his small set of offices and drinking a fair amount. He is simultaneously stuck with a secretary from a temp agency, which he really can't afford, and given a solid and well-paying case to investigate. The brother of a supermodel who committed suicide is convinced she was murdered and wants Strike to prove it.

As a fan of the mystery novel, it was a pleasure to read a well plotted, well written book that clearly demonstrated Rowling's own love of the genre. Cormoran Strike is a great addition to the ranks of private eyes in fiction. He's big and hairy and methodical and insightful. He has an understanding of human nature, but is still able to show empathy. I like him. The mystery is very much the focus of the story, although Rowling seems to be setting up for a potential series by giving the reader part of Strike's background. I hope she does continue to write about Cormoran Strike.

hmm think I'll check out the Cuckoo. And my library has it as an ebook which is VERY handy since I am out of town.

I think it's a shame that Rowling wasn't allowed to see how her book would have been received without the HP label. I think she was quite upset about the leak, and I wonder if it will effect her decision to write another in the series.

Kay, Did you read her first adult novel, Casual Vacancy? I read it when it first came out. The writing was good, but I almost felt like she had to shove every plot device into it. Drugs, sex, race, etc. I remember thinking, "we're not in Hogwarts anymore".

Good review of The Cuckoo's Calling, Kay. I'm in the midst of it right now myself, and really enjoying it. Nana, so far I think it's better than The Casual Vacancy.

Do you own it Chris? Or should I buy it?

Lisa, it would have been nice if she could have continued with the series, writing in obscurity until it took off on its own merits, but the profits are probably better with the leak -- everyone is reading it now.

Merrikay, I'd be very interested in finding out what you think about it.

Colleen, I haven't read The Casual Vacancy. I heard Rowling talking about it and thought it sounded interesting, but never got around to it. I was lukewarm on the Harry Potter books, but my kids liked them - my daughter identifying strongly with Hermione, which led to discovering that if she was going to be Hermione for Hallowe'en, I'd have to make the costume, unwilling as I was to let her go dressed as stripper Hermione.

I'm glad you're enjoying it, Chris!

True though I don't think Rowling was writing it for the profit. She's set for life with the HP books. I think it was more of a self-challenge. Can I write well in another genre? After The Casual Vacancy, I think she knew she would need to use a pseudonym to find the true answer to that question.

I'm not usually a mystery reader, so I'll probably pass, but it's nice to hear that it is well written.

ETA The Cuckoo's Calling that is.

Lisa, I wouldn't say that the writing in Casual Vacancy was bad. In fact it was quite good. I just thought she got a little carried away with everything that she put into it.

Laughing at 'stripper Hermione'! What an image!

Given that twice now she has tried the pseudonym thing and both times it has been busted, resulting in millions of sales (before the book was even out yet, the first time), I have to doubt that she is really doing it in attempt to be discreet. If that were the case, surely she would have succeeded, for at least a little while. She may not "need" the revenue, but she's probably quite fearful that her writing wouldn't garner any amazing reviews without her name attached to it and is afraid to see her new ventures flop. And especially to have them flop and then have people find out it was her and then go "oh see her writing really isn't so good, look, no one even cared when her name wasn't on it she just lives on HP overhype" and so forth.

I've heard a few interviews of J.K. Rowling and read a few articles about her and she strikes me as the author who least seeks out that kind of attention. Given the amount of scrutiny her every movement incurs, I think that those leaks weren't due to her being narcissistic and attention-seeking (she comes across quite the opposite) but as the result of both her publisher maybe seeing the dollar signs or being found out by those with an excessive interest in her.

There are quite enough narcissistic authors out there -- no sense pretending there are more of them then there are! And yes, I'm talking about you, Nicholas "my novels are as meaningful as Hemingway's" Sparks.

I remember watching one of the HP movies with a couple of my grandchildren. We were watching the extra features, and the director, of whichever movie it was, talked about the amazing detail in Rowling's family tree for one of the fictional families. I think there were probably very few plot holes in those stories based upon the detail she put together. When you think about the complexity of the books as the characters got older, she really thought about her audience getting older. I think that was brilliant. I'm looking forward to The Cuckoo's Calling.

My impression from the Harry Potter books, 1-4 in particular, is that she is very good on plot.

And yes, I'm talking about you, Nicholas "my novels are as meaningful as Hemingway's" Sparks.

LOL! I've never touched one of his and you'd have to shove one into my cold dead hands in order to change that! Bahaha.

>114 LolaWalser: I agree, and I think that's why The Cuckoo's Calling works much better than The Casual Vacancy, which was a foray into more literary fiction. The mystery genre plays to her strengths.

Quite the poster in >1 RidgewayGirl:. Do you know the date?

>98 FlorenceArt: thanks Florence, I'll have a look for that for him instead.

>100 RidgewayGirl: Ah, ok, I hadn't realised it was so new; that may well explain why there's no French translation. Sometimes translations take time...and sometimes they just don't happen.

Wow, that new poster you put up is impressive and disturbing.

Sassy, the site I found it on says it was from 1915.

Florence, I picked this one (believe me, there are tons of anti-women's suffrage cartoons, drawings, posters, etc… out there) because I was given just that argument during Wendy Davis's Texas filibuster. A guy told me that a woman friend of his was opposed to being given the right to make her own decisions. The more things change, etc…

Rachel, I think we can all agree that too few books are translated.

Kay I have also been enjoying the posters very much!

Well, on that subject, I was recently directed to a site in which the female author expressed the view that hiring should be discriminatory - if there is a qualified male candidate, a woman should not be hired. Because this will strengthen families and also the downfall of western civilization is caused by female suffrage. So this opinion still exists, at least in the US. Of course, her feelings about people who are not white or not heterosexual are also quite regressive. I am banning myself from the non-bookish internet for a while. I prefer to regard these cartoons and posters as quaint relics from yesteryear.

120-122> What worries me most is that young women, in France anyway, don't get it. They feel comfortable in the current situation and don't see any problem with it. Of course it's better than it used to be, I personally don't feel especially oppressed, but it's still a lie to pretend that there is equality between men and women, and the least we could do is be aware of all the subtle or not so subtle ways that differences between men and women are built and used to maintain inequality.

A female co-worker under 30 once asked me "but what if women don't want to be engineers?" I never really discussed this with her but I got the feeling that she felt somehow wronged when inequalities in male and female careers were pointed out. Why, I don't know. She didn't have to be an engineer if she didn't feel like it. She did work in IT though ;-)

123 also, then you have to ask the question, why DON'T women want to be engineers? Why do they choose to be nurses, teachers, social workers? You know, all the corporal works of mercy. We don't see our own socialization. Then they will say but men are better at it. Which of course leads to why are men better at it? Then you have to look at what toys we played with and how that effects brain development. Playing with Tinker Toys (dating myself) erector sets and other building toys develops a different part of the brain than laying dolls. Then she'll say but they chose their own toys. Which leads to oh really? Is there not a girls toys section in your store versus boys toys? Did the parents choose to decorate the nursery with planes and trains or princesses while the child was still in utero? Rant over. Thanks for listening.

ok one more - you know there really was a barbie doll that was programmed to say "Math is hard" and there really was a group that went into toy stores and switched their recordings with the GI Joes. I love those people. What a great Christmas that was.

ok I think I'm finished. :)

Lovely thread and an interesting variety of books you have read. It would never have occurred to me to read Five Days at Memorial. Now it is on my must read list. Love the comment about Nicholas Sparks whose writing is deplorable.

124> Yes, that's the kind of things I meant by building inequalities. I love the idea of switching recordings between Barbie and GI Joe!

>124 mkboylan:

I played with Barbies when I was a wee lass. My Barbies had adventures. They participated in the helot uprising at Sparta and were members of the French resistance. Had I realized at the time they had missile breasts, who knows what new heights of resistance to which they might have risen ;-)

Barbie Trivia: The very first Barbies had molded breasts complete with nipples. The nippled Barbies were quickly withdrawn as a marketing mistake.

Merrikay, I dressed my daughter in non-gender specific clothing (easy to do in Germany, I don't think I could have done this in the US) and, when she was three, she still became enraptured with pink and Disney and Barbies. And by ten, that was all over. Thankfully.

Florence, there are women here who refuse to consider themselves as feminists. If you tell them what a feminist believes, they will agree with all of it, but still they think "feminist" means a man-hating harpy. The mind, it boggles.

Mary, Daryl (kidzdoc) wrote a fantastic review of Five Days at Memorial. I am easily influenced, especially here.

I also played with Barbies, with my friends Brenda and Karen who were not only sisters, but sisters whose mother watched Edge of the Night. Our Barbies got divorced a lot, and Ken spent long stretches in a coma, while the various Barbies schemed to take his money. Good times.

If ever a man needed to spend prolonged periods in a coma, it was Ken.

All those little girls don't go to the store and buy Barbies on their own. Just saying.

>130 urania1: That's too funny!

I think the engineer question is a red herring. How many men want to be engineers now? I'm not sure how it is the US but here in the UK we are facing a shortage of engineers because there aren't enough of both genders doing it - incredibly, one of the reasons is that it is too hard.
But on the subject of women in the sciences, in the UK female students now dominate so much in medicine people have started asking how to get more men to do medicine.

I was a firm believer that nurture had more to do with gender than nature, but now I'm more inclined to give nature a nod too. I was bound and determined not to fall in the gender trap. My daughter has dressed in my nephew's hand-me-downs. She had blocks, tinker toys, and trucks, as well as creative art supplies galore. When people said "what a strong little guy", I said thank you. (But my husband always corrected people and said "no, it's a girl", to which the response was "she's so pretty" EVERY TIME.) She, however, created nests out of blankets and sat on round blocks, saying she was hatching chicks. She wrapped her plastic animals in tissues and put them to "bed" in the backs of dump trucks. I don't know. I think there is a nurture gene in their somewhere that we can't eradicate (nor would I want to). On the other hand, I have friends with boys who bought them dolls, mini kitchens, etc. but who would still take sticks and whack things with them. I think we can do a lot to even up the playing field, but after having a child of my own, I no longer think nurture trumps nature as significantly as I thought pre-kid.

My mother has a theory called "The Ruler and the Wonder Bread" about gender. It goes something like this:

1) Take 10 boys and 10 girls on a field trip
2) Give said children (age 10ish)
A) a ruler
B) a mini loaf of Wonder Bread
3) Return them to school
4) The children will disembark, thus
A) 10 boys will have whacked the bread flat and/or possibly broken their rulers
B) 10 girls will have tidy rulers and bread still in the shape it started

She taught in public schools 41 years; and raised a boy and a girl. Not once ever did her observations deviate. She is positive that there is an age when boys are violent heathens and girls are nurturing angels. Having said that, she doesn't believe either state is permanent.

I think aggression in males and nurture in females has been an evolutionary necessity. The males had to hunt, and defend the territory, and the females, and fight each other for the choicest females.

The women had to take care of the young, gather roots and berries, and clean the cave. With the mortality in childbirth and the infant mortality rates, it took a lot of wives and children to end up with descendants.

Even as late as the 19th century, before Semmelweiss, there was huge mortality in childbirth. Women were accustomed to have five or six children to insure that at least one of them survived.

My own grandmother had five, and only one died in infancy. She considered herself very lucky. My paternal grandmother died in childbirth, and my father became an ob/gyn! I had childbed fever myself, from a sloppy delivery, but penicillin fixed it instead of killing me.

In parts of Africa where there are no doctors or midwives many women have fistulas after an unattended delivery. Some of those 'women' had been sold by their fathers, and are no more than 12 years old.

Have any of you seen the Goldie Blox toys? A female engineer developed them to interest young girls in engineering. I think it's great, and much better than the Legos approach of appealing to girls by making their toys pink and about shopping.

I was so excited when Legos announced they were going to start a line aimed at girls. Then they came out with the horrid "Friends" sets. I was so angry. Fortunately my daughter is at the age where she prefers building the Creator Modular Buildings. She's done the emporium, fire station, town hall, and pet shop. She's saving up for the Parisian cafe. I recommend them, although they are pricey.

I never had Barbies etc. - never wanted them. I'm sure I never went through a nurturing phase, unless you count the fact that I had stuffed animal toys and played vet. I played with Mechano, which naturally had been bought for my brother, and asked repeatedly for a toy sword which was never forthcoming. (I wanted to be Zorro.) Though I couldn't pronouce it at the time, my first ambition was to be a palaeontologist.

And yes, I was aware from an early age that there was "something wrong with me"... :)

Urania - you HAVE to read Memorial!! It is So interesting! and I LOVE learning about gender. I love the idea of your missile breasts. Not sure what to do with them but I AM rolling on the floor laughing.

Laughing at Barbies watching Edge of Night. and poor Ken in a coma!

132 good point about the engineering. Replace it with any male dominated field of your choice. I also think it will be interesting to keep an eye on doctor salaries. It was also in one of my videos that historically, when women move into a previously male dominated area, specifically noted were bank tellers, that the salaries drop. I haven't seen the research. Thinking about Rosie the Riveter etc. also.

labs I agree about nature vs. nurture. and I'll tell you exactly when I really, really got it. Menopause. When those female hormones decreased and there was no longer any estrogen to mediate the effects of my testosterone I was knocked out and overwhelmed by the difference in the way I felt. The famous rage often talked about that comes with menopause. Oh man! You just did not want to mess sigh me cause I was just hoping for the opportunity to kill somebody.

135 - There have been some cultures that were matriarchal and childcare done by males, but they are few and far between. In fact, I can only remember finding information on two, one of which was in China. I'll have to go see if I still have that book. Still, there must have been some economic, survival reason for that related to a specific environment, right? very small group. Happens more in other species. See Parenting Papas, one of my favorite books. Any anthros on here who can speak to that?

137 labfs do you remember when girl focused legos came out and it turned out they were pastel pink and blue and were kitchen focused? My girls had those.

Sassy - at the ripe old age of 65 I confess I still struggle with peer pressure. I have such a hard time when my granddaughters want something I think is too gender limited but they want it so bad. They are used to getting two presents, which I describe as here's the one you wanted and here's one I wanted you to have. :)

One of my favorite texts I used when I was teaching was Sandra Bem's An Unconventional Family, the story of her experiences raising her two children, male and female with gender neutral and sex positive attitudes. It is a great, run, quick read. It ends with a chapter by each of the children when they were adults. Basically, the girl felt like it expanded her options, the boy maybe not so much. It was harder as an adult for him to fit in. I bet he fits in now tho. Bem and her husband were both professors at Stanford. She won a gender bias lawsuit against Stanford.

Can you tell I like this topic? I sure enjoyed everyone's comments.

On the aggression/non violence subject which fascinates me (I had the nasties before menopause).In college we read Ruth Benedict's Patterns of Culture and it showed a nurturing tribe with no violence ( the Arapesh) and a violent one (The Kwaikutl). I don't know if the anthropology was scientifically accurate, because so much of the early stuff has been repudiated. It was interesting though, to see a whole society being kind, and another being violent. The genes couldn't have done all that imo.

I read that book more than 60 years ago so I think my memory may hold up for a little longer!

I don't mind children who conform to gender stereotypes. What is much more harmful are fathers who freak out whenever their son does anything he perceives as traditionally feminine. You know, shows kindness, gentleness, style or creativity. I had a friend who had a crisis when his pre-school son wanted the "My Buddy" doll, and last year, two of the boys on my son's soccer team tangoed across the field when they won the last game of the season. One of the boys' fathers got really angry. While those fathers looked like insecure idiots, it's the sons who will be forced into gender conformity.

Aren't we better off nurturing whatever inclinations and talents our children show? My son loved the kitchen at pre-school (making eggs for the Batman action figure) and now he loves to cook and knows his way around a kitchen much better than his older sister. My daughter loved dressing as a princess, and who wouldn't? Let them be who they are.

Those girl Legos are the worst. No girl I know would touch 'em.

There's just no way to discount the influence of the environment.

#141

My brother loves to cook and learned to cook long before I did. He talked about having children since he was a kid himself (his heart's desire was to have eleven, a football team; so far he managed to convince the wife about two). He was a sharp dresser, practically a dandy, before he even hit puberty, adores shopping--for clothes! for ANY clothes! with his wife! with my mom! with anyone who likes shopping equally!--can tell the maker of a good Italian shoe from half a mile and a fake from real Hermès item blindfolded. In a culture of heavy drinking and nicotine addiction ('tis manly!), he's never had a lick of alcohol or a first-hand smoke. Fortunately he's over six feet tall, a tennis champ, and a registered, clubbing, extreme motorcycle and racing freak, so we're fairly sure he's not a girl.

As I had very right-on parents, I was bought an equal number of cars and dolls. I never could work out what I was supposed to do with the dolls - cars were much more fun!

Mind you, as an adult I don't have much nurturing instinct...

Aren't we better off nurturing whatever inclinations and talents our children show?

Absolutely. The trouble is telling where their natural inclinations lie and where they are being manipulated by pink toys and macho relatives. My daughter went through her pink tutu phase. Princesses and all. But is now a tree-climbing, yoga pant wearing, insect collecting, soccer playing tomboy. I paid for ballet lessons at four and found her a entomologist mentor when she was eight. It's all good as she explores who she is and wants to be. Just interesting how the rest of the world treats her as she does her exploring.

Does anyone read Raising My Rainbow? http://raisingmyrainbow.com/ I love her posts. I love that she and her husband accept their sons 100%.

Also, has anyone seen that Barbie is the cover for the 2014 SI Swimsuit edition? http://bit.ly/MfMhCC (Google News)

Thanks for hosting this party Kay! Quite fun!

145 - Thanks for those links! I enjoyed them.

Lola, I am guessing that he does not go shopping with you? I dislike shopping, bookstores and art supply shops excepted. But my SO loves to shop. Anywhere.

Lisa, my daughter is now a math and science loving girl who plays soccer and has chosen a reptile rescue group as her community service project. And she loves make-up and fashion.

Barbies: I had Barbie dolls when I was little (my mother was ideologically opposed to them but inevitably some got through as birthday gifts). However I found the clothes too fiddly and so my Barbies always used to just hang out naked.

#147

Go shopping with him?! Who could stand that arch disapproval, those judgy smirks! Or the endless HOURS it takes. My limit for apparel shopping is more like twenty minutes, going into more than one store can bring me to tears and make feel that life isn't worth living. Not to mention that I start fibrillating at the mere idea of dropping 400 euro on a pair of shoes.

#148

so my Barbies always used to just hang out naked.

The ideal state in general!

I'm having the opposite experience of a lot of you, raising two boys after being raised in a family with sisters. This is kind of a foreign world for me, but I'm enjoying it. Our first big present for our son was a play kitchen which he loves, but then, my husband does all the grocery shopping and cooking, so he has a good role model. I try to not overdo the "boy toys", but I have found that my older son (the younger is only 1 so too early to tell) loves building, learning about science, and rough-housing. In fact they are both (even the 1 year old) way more reckless and fearless with their bodies than my sister and I ever were (my mother confirms this!). Hard to tell how much of that is me really not being over-protective about keeping them from getting hurt. I like to think I'd be the same if I had girls. I will tell you that I will NEVER utter any of the following phrases to my boys - "act like a man", "don't cry like a girl", "tough it out", etc.

I remember reading somewhere, possibly in the excellent - both readable and scientific - Pink Brain, Blue Brain, that in families with children of the same sex, the gender stereotypes end up being more true and prevalent and in families with children of opposite gender, that is tempered especially in the younger children.

One more story - my husband and I are Marines in the US Marine Band. My son knows many of our friends who are all Marines but also musicians. We are the only unit in the Marine Corps that are not riflemen first - no boot camp either. Anyway, we lived close to the barracks so we'd always see the Marines standing guard when we were driving to my son's daycare. When he was about two he started asking what instruments they all played. At 4, he still doesn't really understand that Marines aren't all musicians!

Love this discussion!

For those who haven't read it yet, I highly recommend Backlash by Susan Faludi. It's old but things haven't changed that much since then I think, except for the pseudo-science. After all, when Faludi wrote her book, the crockus hadn't been invented yet.

Japaul - I love your story about the marines! I do think that small children are always trying to work out the rules by which the world works - as you see in stories like that. And if what you see on TV and in books is girls wearing dresses and being pretty, that's the rules you end up with! I recommend Delusions Of Gender for a really interesting book about how this stuff gets inculcated even when parents think that they are raising their children in a gender-neutral environment.

Great discussion -- I became a mother in the late 70s at the height of the gender discussions. My kids grew up on Free to Be You and Me -- but nature did sometimes trump nurture -- my son was a sports fanatic, playing baseball and tennis, and daughter danced and acted (an inheritance from her father).

Plastic toys littered the house from Transformers to Skeletor to Stars War to Barbies and Strawberry Muffin dolls. Now grown up, both are in pretty egalitarian relationships -- each of their partners does more of the cooking (I'm not sure what that says about me as I was the primary cook in the family), but everyone works and shares in childcare.

I do hate the gender toy aisles at Target -- why separate boys and girls' toys -- and why is everything domestic, pink? I've been hunting for a shopping cart for my grandson, and all I can find is pink plastic (except at an independent toy store that has a metal shopping cart priced at $80 -- beyond my budget) -- the one I bought for my son was yellow and red and cost under $10.

>153 janeajones: Jane, Amazon has Little Tykes shopping cart in yellow and red, and another Step 2 Little Helper has blue and green. Hope that helps.

I am enjoying this discussion.

Or get your grandson the pink one. ;-) why is pink a "girl" color and blue a boy color? What's the science/history behind that, anyone know?

>155 labfs39: that's a good question, Lisa - where did that come from?

I have a fantastic 3-year old step-daughter who knows her own mind and plays a lot with her 5-year old brother - they sit and draw together, or race cars, or run around the garden. Dolls (we have plenty) don't really feature (she likes to take one to bed but that's about it). Her 9-year old sister is frustratingly (to me) bound by gender stereotypes so I'm delighted to see the younger one do this...but I was less than delighted at Christmas, when my in-laws had got together to coordinate the little one's presents: a doll in a pink stroller, a set of mini feeding bottles and steriliser, and a mini baby bath and towel set (all pink), 'because you're going to have to learn to help Rachel take care of the new baby'... Meanwhile her brother, who is far more interested in his new sibling-to-be (he kisses my bump goodnight every night and is forever asking about what he'll be able to do for the baby) received board games and cars... The games and cars get a lot of use (both children) but all the baby doll stuff is shoved in a corner. Why, why try to force this poor child to be something she's not? It's the same every birthday and Christmas.

I wonder, Rachel, if you or your partner could casually mention some toy your daughter would like to your in-laws a few months before Christmas? That is frustrating. My brother-in-law and his wife did that all the time - we have an expensive set of kid's baking equipment that my daughter never even looked at, while my son would have loved it. He's thrilled with things like whisks and knives. Luckily, they have hit the age where relatives mainly send them iTunes cards. (And my son has asked for a young sibling, as have many of his friends, while my daughter thinks its a very bad idea (I do too!)).

I have noticed that the US is relentless with the gender specification, while Europe is much more relaxed. It's more "girls like horses, boys like pirates", without too much of the color stuff -- although there's Angelina and Prinzessin Lillifee to make up for that.

With books, going into schools with Books for Keeps, the kids didn't really pick gender specific books until fourth and fifth grade. Junie B. Jones and Diary of a Wimpy Kid are equally popular with both sexes, as were sports and animal books. But once the kids hit ten, then there was a great demand for books written specifically for girls. Maybe it's a hormonal stage we just all have to go through?

I have 7 grandchildren, 5 girls and 2 boys. Only the youngest of the girls has shown any real interest in dolls. I think they all asked for princess dolls at one time or another based upon peer pressure and TV ads, but they never really played with them. The four youngest, two girls and two boys, are obsessed with stuffed animals (cuddlies as they call them). The three older girls all went through a stage where they would only wear dresses. That was when they were very little. That changed, and it has been pretty much jeans for them ever since.

I just think that kids are going to be whatever they want to be. I think exposure to sports and music and, of course, reading is important so that they can choose the things they like. We should be there to teach them to think for themselves, and to set examples for good behavior and respect for others.

Laughing at myself remembering the Christmas I got a radio control racecar for my grandson. I walked out of the store and thought, "What is wrong with me?" and went back in and got one for my granddaughter. Went back in a third time and got one for their dad. They had a blast.

Kay, interesting comparison with Europe and the U.S.
And Lord don't even get me started on Disney. Anyone seen the video Mickey Mouse Monopoly? It pulls out the clips of repetitive sexism and racism. Talk about brainwashing.

You can find parts of it on youtube. It used to just make my students so mad when I showed that because they hold Disney sacred. My personal favorite is when they interview a 10 yr old girl saying she learned from Beauty and the Beast that if she could just be good enough, she could change him.

Oh Lord just saw your pic up top Kay. LOL I'll be so glad when Valentine's Day is over and there won't be (so many) commercials on tv showing women melting in ecstasy when men give them shiny baubles.

I could say tons--look, it's my pink & purple hobby-horsie!--but I'm not sure Kay would relish a whole UNESCO-worthy congress on the topic of gender inequality in her thread... :)

Suffice it to say that as a woman in science I am deeply resentful of the idea that my proclivities are somehow less natural than a man's in the same profession, or that I am somehow less of a woman because of them (less of a woman than a ballerina or a nurse are). I've had to battle these notions in myriad forms and from most unexpected quarters all my life and I resent that too, because that's an extra burden and distraction unrelated to the already many difficulties of the profession or my chosen way of life.

I can understand how painful it is for parents to think that they are not in full control of their children's well-being, that others are encroaching, interfering, threatening. But unless you are raising your child in a cave on the Moon, cut off from everyone except yourself, this is happening. Others are encroaching and interfering, others are "raising" your child along with you. And, there's no other world to run off to. This is it, the place where being in charge is for men and being submissive and dependent is for women. You may not believe it, you may actively banish it from your home, but this is the message broadcast around the planet all the time, and it's getting through in ways you'd least expect. It gets through even by virtue of fighting it!

This is upsetting, and stereotypes are comforting in a way. If women are only good for childcare and housekeeping, then it's no great loss that one has missed on this or that opportunity, ambition, dream, it's fair that men should rule and own everything, and we live in the best possible world after all.

Lola, do go on. This is my hobby-horse as well. Coming from the opposite direction -- I'm currently a stay at home mom (really dislike that term) who thinks that women are strongest when we help each other and fight for the rights of each of us to do what we are best suited for. I hate that artificial divide between women who work and women who are privileged (by finances and temperament) to stay home with the kids. And that artificial divide between women who have children and women who choose not to. We may not agree on everything, but we can agree on our right to make our own life decisions, can't we? And to support other women whenever we see a need?

I would argue that even if a woman primarily concerns herself with childcare and housekeeping, it is still a great loss if opportunities and choices are lacking and men own and rule everything. If my daughter wants to be a physicist or an engineer, I want that path as open to her as it is to my son. If my son wants to be a stay at home dad or a nurse, I want those paths open to him without disapproval. And the same is true for the reverse. I guess now I need to lead a rousing round of Free to be You and Me.

We can't control all the influences our children are under, but we can discuss them and model behaviors we'd like them to eventually have.

Meanwhile the cat simply looks on smugly. He is content with his own life choices.

162 Well sure but what about the female cat?

161 - I think you are so right on. If you are not resisting actively, you are going with the flow. Not purposely, just that resisting is the ONLY way to counteract the socialization. Pepper Schwartz talks about that regarding marriage Between Equals, an excellent book I also used as a text. Society is just so set up to support the gender bias that of course it happens automatically. Kay, Schwartz also says that that increased discussion, which is necessary if you are doing it differently, leads to increased intimacy in relationships and I say argue with parents/children also.

Schwartz book by the way is a great and quick read. It shows how relationships with partners fall into those traps inadvertently. highly recommended for that piece as well as the shared parenting chapter.

I would argue that even if a woman primarily concerns herself with childcare and housekeeping, it is still a great loss if opportunities and choices are lacking and men own and rule everything.

Unsurprisingly, I agree! ;)

This is why I'm so sensitive to how women's choices are portrayed. If we assume that choosing to be "only" a mother and a housewife, or a nurse or a teacher and similar is an expression of "nature", of innate femininity, then what the heck are women who'd like to do something else?

No, we are all women, and we are all as different as men are. Unfortunately we exist in much narrower space than men, even in the West. Doesn't mean we choose it or prefer it that way.

If my daughter wants to be a physicist or an engineer, I want that path as open to her as it is to my son. If my son wants to be a stay at home dad or a nurse, I want those paths open to him without disapproval.

Exactly, that's the ideal. The problem isn't that most women might choose this or that, the problem is that in an unequal society they can't begin to exercise free choice. It's like asking illiterates what they'd like to read.

I think often of a poll from some years back, in Turkey, about wife-beating (there was another one from Afghanistan, more recent, similar results). Some crazy percentage of polled women said it was OK if the husband beat them up occasionally. Showed that he cared, you see.

Nature or nurture? :)

Culture. This is the same discussion we were having in the 1970s.

women are strongest when we help each other and fight for the rights of each of us to do what we are best suited for

Yes! The arguments are so artificial, and I especially can't stand the sanctimoniousness that comes out about the impact on children. Surely it's obvious that the best thing for a child is to have a mother who is happy, whether that mother is working or not.

There still is a real issue about childcare. Men with children don't seem to agonize over leaving them, but women certainly do. I spent 13 years at home with my children, and it took a big bite out of my career path. It took years to catch up to men who never left the ladder.

Not only childcare, but society's attitude toward work. I regularly had children over on days where the schools were closed, but employers unwilling to adjust. Even companies who advertise how "family friendly" they are, don't allow much scheduling flexibility or the ability to work from home as needed. In the UK, there were jobs designed to work around the school day, but that's too progressive for us.

And high quality after school care, that isn't glorified warehousing. And day care, as well. It's a middle class issue to have to choose between working and staying home, while many women never get that choice, they have to work in order for their families to survive. And that guilt for being "selfish" is still added. It was an anomaly that for a few decades a middle class family could do well on one salary, previously women had to work and we've returned to that.

As far as having children, the pattern for people in more demanding employment seems to be that women can perform and compete at the expense of ever having children, while men get to have the children, they just don't get to know them.

In Germany, there is much more of an acceptance that, of course, a mother will also have a career and there is more of an emphasis on actually spending time together as a family. There are many more holiday days, and six weeks of vacation a year. Stores are closed on Sundays and restaurants often close for weeks at a time so that everyone can have a vacation. How can we move that attitude to the US, without a fundamental shift in our attitudes toward money and our values?

Great discussion going on here!

Someone above asked about the blue/pink thing, and I didn't see the answer mentioned, so, as it's something I've read articles about before, I'll toss out what I know:
Originally, children simply wore white gowns (I'm sure everyone has seen some of those old b&w photos!), but in the early 20th century people started deciding that colors should be used, and what did they go with? Pink is for boys, and blue for the girls. Reason being, pink was seen as a stronger color, as it's from bold fiery red, so proper for boys, while blue was more delicate and dainty, so pretty for the girl. It wasn't until the 1940s that it made the switch to the way we are familiar with it today. Why that switch came about, I don't think there's a real answer to.

169> Interesting! I read a couple of books about color but don't remember this pink-blue thing being mentioned. What I can say is that blue has been the favorite color cited by a vast majority of Europeans for a couple of centuries (since surveys started being done on the question anyway). In France it was the color of kings, and it's also the color of the Virgin Mary. Since it's such a dominant color, maybe it was natural that is was assigned to boys? Blue, as I remember it, is consistently assigned positive values, with red it's not so clear-cut, it's a bit fickle, hence feminine? It's strange about the switch though.

I googled it and found the book you probably read about, PM: Pink and Blue: Telling the Boys from the Girls in America.

ETA: did some more googling and every web page seems to have a different explanation, none of them particularly documented. Something about the Greek antiquity came up on two pages: boys were more valued than girls and wore blue clothes to attract divine protection on them. Blue was the color of gods because it is the color of the sky, where they resided.

So possibly blue was attributed to boys early on, but girls had no color (why bother, right?) until, again according to a web page that is unsigned and does not cite sources, the marquise de Pompadour, Louis XV's mistress, fell in love with that color and put it everywhere in Versailles, including on girls' dresses.

Maybe in some places blue=boys early on, but in most, like I say, it was white for all, then then blue was for girls. There's articles you can find quoted online, the 1918 Ladies Home Journal I think it was, where they explain the bit I mentioned in 169, about why blue=girls and pink=boys. They at least had their "reasons," even if they're a bit wishywashy. But the switch in the 40s appears totally up in the air.

The art group The Blue Rider chose blue as blue is the ideal color.



And now you've distracted me off topic.

>173 RidgewayGirl:,

Are you trying to tempt me. I'll be at your doorstep in a nonce if you keep this up.

Mary, can you believe that this was painted in a half hour? It's more impressive in person.

Tenth of December is one of the best book of short stories I have read, so I was excited to go back and read George Saunders's first collection, CivilWarLand in Bad Decline. It isn't a strong or as varied as the later book, but it is interesting to see some of the themes repeat. He's got a wild imagination, which, in CivilWarLand centers much more on the theme park in a dystopian world idea. The title story is set in a historical park which has a full-time ornithologist to make sure the birds flying around are the same birds of two hundred years ago, but is so sloppy it has Chinese coolies building the Erie Canal. Then there is The Wavemaker Falters, a melancholic story involving accidental deaths, wayward nuns and several ghosts, including one who sometimes picks his nose. Bounty, the longest story in the book, and begins in a theme park set in a world which is divided between "normals" and "flaweds," who have no rights at all.

At the end of the book, Saunders explains his fascination with theme parks, telling us that when he put a theme park in a story, it removed the story into the realm of the comic, and ensured that his writing wouldn't sink under the weight of itself. I found Saunders' tale of how he became the writer he is one of the most powerful and interesting parts of this book.

A young girl gets extremely worked up on the honeymoon and the next thing she knows her new husband is scampering into the kitchen for a zucchini squash. Even through my crying he insisted, saying it would bring us closer together. Imagine the humiliation of being just eighteen and having to go to your family doctor with an infection difficult to explain. Finally he found it in a plant book.

But more than the theme parks, the common thread running through Saunders' stories here are the main characters. They're losers, both through their own misguided efforts and due to circumstances beyond their control. You can't help but feel for them, even as Saunders never allows the reader to forget their flaws. They are also men who love a woman, whether their sister, wife or repulsed co-worker, and much of each story revolves around those relationships; flawed, doomed or nonexistent though they may be.

If I could see her one last time I'd say: Thanks very much for dying at the worst possible moment and leaving me holding the bag of guilt. I'd say: If you had to die, couldn't you have done it when we were getting along?

While I would suggest that a reader who has never read anything by George Saunders begin with the superlative Tenth of December, if you are already familiar with his off-center view of the world, you will not want to miss reading his debut collection.

Just catching up and fascinated by the whole discussion! Although I don't have much to add.

I went to a theme park - once. Enjoyed your review of Tenth of December

>175 RidgewayGirl:,

How soon can you have your guest room ready :-)

Mary, our guest room is always ready.

Wonderful conversation on your thread, Kay. Wish I had the time to reread it again! I'd contribute, but I'm not sure I have anything to say that has been said by someone already, except that I have two daughters and one son (same motherhood era as Jane, beginning in the late 70s). The oldest daughter wasn't interested much in dolls except She-Ra, Princess of Power. She liked puzzles of all kinds, Legos and building car models. She was also musical (vocal and instrumental), joined the National Guard, and got a science degree in college. The other daughter loved dolls of all kinds. Not big on Legos, but was very artistic and musical (again, vocal and instrumental). She became a science teacher (still haven't figured out how that happened). My son is the youngest, a computer engineer, who referees for roller derby (no doubt has because he has some history with girls yelling at him!) You just never know, but I think we were okay with whatever they gravitated to and encouraged it as best we could.

"--if a painting really works down in your heart and changes the way you see, and think, and feel, you don't think, 'oh, I love this picture because it's universal.' 'I love this painting because it speaks to all mankind.' That's not the reason anyone loves a piece of art. It's a secret whisper from an alleyway. Psst, you. Hey kid. Yes you."

And it's the same with books; the way one book will be read and thought good and worthy and cause thoughts like, 'I can see why this is a classic.' or 'I'm glad to have read it, even if I didn't enjoy the reading of it all that much.' And then you pick up another book and you lose chunks of time, dishes remain in the sink, unwashed, you'll count the hours until you can reasonably spend time with the book again. The Goldfinch, Donna Tartt's third novel, was that kind of book for me.

The Goldfinch is the story of Theo Decker who, when the book opens, is a not particularly well-behaved thirteen year old who is on his way, with his mother, to a meeting with his school's headmaster, to discuss Theo's suspension. On the way, there is a sudden rainstorm, causing he and his mother to duck into the Met and then into a special exhibit to visit his mother's favorite painting, by Carel Fabritius, of a small pet bird.

Things happen. Theo's life changes drastically, over and over again. Tartt shows how precarious the life of a minor child is, no matter how secure their lives seem to be. In a moment, he's left adrift and at the mercy of distant relatives, the parents of friends and the kindness or indifference of strangers. Theo is thrown from one precarious refuge to another, often without a clear understanding of how long he'll be staying, always trying to stay out of the way. He's adrift and responsible for his own life in a way no teenager can manage.

I'm not the best judge of this book; I liked it far too much to be objective. I can say that it's meaty and complex and surprisingly fast-paced and that I enjoyed it enormously.

I have The Goldfinch on my Kindle, and was saving it for my vacation in Florida in a couple of weeks. I think that Chris just finished it this weekend. I haven't seen her review yet, but you two seem to be following a similar reading path this year. I'm glad to see that you liked it, as I tend to like most of the books you like.

I've been on the fence about it since its so long and I didn't love The Secret History, but maybe I'll give it a shot.

>184 japaul22:,

The Goldfinch is quite different from Donna Tartt's two earlier novels. Have you read her novel The Little Friend. It is creepy. Near the end of the novel, I had to read in short bursts because I couldn't take the anxiety.

I found The Goldfinch to be a lovely novel.

Thank goodness you have finished The Goldfinch and you can get back to washing the dishes. Enjoyed your review

urania1 - I've only read The Secret History so I will have to give some of her other works a chance. Thanks for the nudge!

I loved The Secret History but couldn't read The Little Friend. I've been hoping that The Goldfinch is not as creepy (thanks Urania, I think that's exactly the word I was looking for). I can't stand that feeling in a book or movie that something horrible is going to happen through a series of totally avoidable ordinary mistakes if feels unstoppable. Of course the writer could stop it but they seem to be looking at you with a sardonic evil overlord crazy smile and to say "Didn't like this one, did you? Well, how about that? Mwahahahah!"

I love your description of how reading The Goldfinch affected you. As you know, I didn't have quite the same reaction, but you picked out what for me was the most effective part of the book--the precarious life of the minor child. I found it so upsetting that he was not consulted and that he had no say. The adults in his life rarely bothered to explain anything to him. I was particularly incensed that the adults, I think without exception, were suspicious of the father's motives in taking Theo, and clearly thought he was better off where he was, but as far as we know no one made a move to challenge him..

Lovely reviews. I've heard nothing but good things about Tenth of December, and very mixed reviews of The Goldfinch. I'm glad you enjoyed both.

Colleen, since Chris didn't like it, and I did, I guess you're the tie-breaker. No pressure!

Jennifer, as Mary says, it's different from her other two novels. I think it's by far her best one, but there are those who disagree.

Thanks, Bas and Lisa.

I hadn't noticed that, Chris. I guess I just thought that because it was his father who was claiming him, no one could really raise any concerns. At least they were unwilling to have his grandfather put him up at the Holiday inn!

Florence, The Goldfinch isn't ceepy, but there is a sense that everything could go disastrously wrong at any moment.

Thanks for the info! I think I can live with "could go disastrously wrong". What I have a problem with is "will definitely and predictably go disastrously wrong just because it's that kind of book".

The Goldfinch is the first book I've downloaded on my new Kindle -- hope I have time to read it soon. Not sure what my reaction to reading on a Kindle will be.

Scarlet is the second book in Marissa Meyer's Lunar trilogy. The first book, Cinder, was an imaginative reworking of the Cinderella fairy tale set in a dystopian world where technology is advanced, with spaceships and cyborgs, but living conditions aren't fantastic. The earth is menaced by the Lunars, a super-human race that lives on the moon. In this second book, the story shifts to a reworking of Red Riding Hood, with a girl in a red hoodie whose grandmother is in danger.

I'm not the audience for these books, being neither a teenager nor a fan of urban fantasy, but the first book was inventive enough to keep me interested and it was fun to read a book with my daughter. This second book is mainly there to set the stage for the final book in the trilogy and so is far inferior to the first in the series. The main character is one dimensional. Her characteristic is feisty. Her love interest is Wolf. That's his name and his characteristic. Luckily, there is enough about Cinder and her adventures to keep me reading, as she's a three-dimensional person and her eventual companion, Carswell Thorne, is a hoot. It's like Meyer spent a lot of time planning Cinder's adventures and was somewhat bored with Scarlet and Wolf, borrowing a plot for them from a drugstore romance novel.

While entertaining, there were a few problems with this book, especially given that many of its readers will be young teenagers. The romance between Wolf and Scarlet was largely based on the alpha-wolf claiming his mate trope, which is troublesome. If you're an adult and you're excited by a man who declares ownership over a woman and attacks the other guy, fair enough. But do we really need to teach our daughters that ownership equals love? Sure, Scarlet is feisty, but she's also fine with the idea that a guy she's known a few days is claiming her as a possession.

And on a plot level, I'm not feeling these Lunars. They're the bad guys who can control the actions and even the emotions of humans. So the answer is that it's Lunars or part-Lunars who must save the world. Which is less interesting than humans saving themselves, but it is an entertaining series and I will probably read the final book since it has been set up to be much more interesting than the middle book. And with Scarlet and Wolf paired off, I'm hoping we won't have to see much of them.

The romance between Wolf and Scarlet was largely based...

Ick. In Fables (the graphic novel series) Snow and "Bigby Wolf" (get it, big b(ad)) are coupled, but it's because he fell in love with her centuries ago and then she finally realizes the whole gruff exterior thing is just the exterior and he's a good guy (er, wolf, er, whatever exactly he is) and all that and they're happy together, but she's just as strong and alpha-personality as he is, she's the one who was running the town all those years (because the mayor is pretty incompetent and she worked for/with him), and whatnot. It's a good relationship. Plus, while teens may read it, it's definitely not aimed at a YA market (which, doesn't change the fact of the whole "dominant male taking over female" crap is ick no matter who it's aimed at!), either. That is definitely not a book I'd want my kid reading, or at least not without some serious discussion about the issues. bleh.

Yeah, my kids are resigned to many talks about whatever is happening around them. Music lyrics usually. The alpha male crap is all around, but I'd hope a book, allowing as it does for more room to talk about stuff, would be able to be more nuanced. Now, Scarlet is feisty, but that's it and I'm not sure that that's enough. I mean, it's fine to be owned if you're sarcastic? And the Wolf guy sometimes behaves like a chastened dog, which is also odd, in that I kept waiting for him to pee on stuff. Sometimes you can take an analogy too far.

On the other hand, I'm glad to get to discuss this with my daughter, although I have to wait until she finishes the book. It's telling that she devoured the first book and put this one down a few chapters in and has wandered off to read other things.

Hah, yes, very telling!

>197 RidgewayGirl: I kept waiting for him to pee on stuff. Sometimes you can take an analogy too far.

Ha, ha! I agree!

ETA Cool. First time I've used the new number feature. Just type the bracket and post number and the poster's name is automatically entered.

>199 labfs39: Hey, that is cool. I'd been wondering why that was showing up.

I just used it too. It's actually a link back to the post.

So useful when referring to a post long past. Otherwise not.

New thread time!

http://www.librarything.com/topic/170965