Books
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My Name Is Red
My Name is Red is a somewhat convoluted murder mystery that takes place in late 16th century Istanbul. The main characters of the story are miniaturists, artists who draw and color the illustrations for books prior to the printing press, when books might be taken apart and rebound in a different sequence, depending upon who is paying for the story that is being told. The Sultan has commissioned a a new book, and he wants part of it to be painted in the new European style, showing things as they appear to people, rather than in the Ottoman tradition of showing the world through the eyes of Allah. For instance,…
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The Giver
I’ve just finished the first book in my Book Awards Reading Challenge, The Giver. The Giver is a children’s book, written for kids about Maya’s age (aka, probably found in the young adult section in the library), and it won the Newbery Medal in 1994. The Giver is sort of science fiction, set in the future, and at first appears to be a Utopian setting. The main character is Jonas, a 12-year old boy. At the age of 12, children learn what their careers are going to be. A group of elders watches them for a couple of years prior to them turning 12, while they volunteer throughout the community,…
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Admiration
Artwork by blueskysunburn I just started a summer read type book, The Sunday Wife, by Cassandra King. It’s the story of the wife of an up & coming preacher in small town Florida, who is strongly influenced by her friendship with one of the more powerful women in town, Augusta. Early on in the book, Augusta is reading from a book that the preacher husband has written. There’s a section of advice to women on how to keep their husbands happy. He longs for your praise and admiration more than anything. Brag on his accomplishments, tell him how much you admire him, and watch how he responds. Give him your…
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Cloud Atlas
Wow. That’s the word I have for this book, just Wow. For a little background, I picked this book up quite awhile ago, probably at my favorite San Francisco bookstore, Green Apple Books. Green Apple is one of those independent bookstores where the smart and savvy employees write little comments on a note card, tempting you to make purchases you might not have otherwise made. Thus it was with me, and I made the purchase, brought the book home, put it in my TBR pile, and promptly forgot about it. Months later, I picked it up, and started in. Chapter one was kind of boring, and I gave up and…
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Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie wins the Orange Prize for Half of a Yellow Sun!
Ms. Adichie, from the website for her book. Dewey over at The Hidden Side of a Leaf has interviewed me about my recent read, Half of a Yellow Sun. Coincidentally, I recently found out that Half‘s author won the Orange Prize for this book! She’s only 29 years old, so this makes her the youngest author ever to be awarded the Orange Prize, AND, I believe she is the first African to be awarded this honor. So, to Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, I say, CONGRATULATIONS!
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Scarlett’s Trilogy
While researching my list for the challenge, I noticed that Gone With The Wind won the Pulitzer Prize in 1937. I have mentioned a few times of my love for Gone With The Wind, how I’ve read it over and over again, how I can open it at almost any point in the narrative, and know exactly what’s going on. I have to say, though, that I have always felt a bit guilty for loving it, because of the racism of the writing, in addition to an overly romanticized view of the ‘gentility’ of the antibellum south. And yet…I’m sucked in. Sucked in so completely that I can’t resist a…
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Book Awards Reading Challenge
I discovered a new book reading challenge that I’m all over like a cheap suit…this one is called the Book Awards Reading Challenge. Coincidentally, Ted got me hooked last week on yet ANOTHER internet timesuck, which would be goodreads, where you can keep track of all of the books that you ever remember reading, look at what your friends are reading, compare your lists and ratings with them, and figure out what NEW books you might want to read. Fun, huh? Definately. (Mom, it looks like you can upload your spreadsheet maybe…if you want another time suck in your life. 😉 ) Back to the challenge…this challenge is to read…
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Half of a Yellow Sun
Last night, I finished the second book in my Chunkster Challenge, Half of a Yellow Sun, in which the author, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie tells the story of the small, short lived nation of Biafra. Biafra tried to seperate itself from Nigeria in a horrible civil war, from 1967 – 1970. Nigeria received support from the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union, while Biafra was supported covertly by France, Rhodesia and South Africa. While Nigeria certainly had military superiority, they mainly won victory by shutting off borders and shooting down relief planes, causing a famine that killed over a million people. It was from the horrors of Biafra that the humanitarian…
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Madame Bovary
(image from stereototal.com) I’ve finally finished Madame Bovary, just 2 months late for the Winter Classics Challenge. I have no idea why it took me so long to read this book, why I had so much trouble becoming engrossed in it, especially as I have read it before, perhaps 15 years ago, and I loved it then…so why don’t I love it now? Is it because I’m older now, and not as sympathetic to the youthful Emma Bovary? Or, as a married woman, I’m not as forgiving of a woman who strays from her marriage so readily? Or, maybe, I already know the story, and I’m out of touch with…
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Marguerite Duras
The other day, I was flipping through the latest New Yorker, and I came across a short story by Marguerite Duras, The Stolen Pigeons. My first thought was, “Hey, I thought Duras was dead?” Well, I was right about that, she died in 1996. I didn’t know that the New Yorker published fiction by dead authors…I mean, there are so many LIVE authors out there, who would LOVE to get their work published in the New Yorker, so why go with someone who doesn’t care? I guess this gives me away, and you all know now that I don’t read the New Yorker closely every time…just look for anything interesting,…
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Happy Easter!
Happy Easter to all of my Easter Celebrating friends! Whether you celebrate the Resurrection as part of your faith, or the return of spring, as symbolized by bunnies and eggs, I hope you have a wonderful day, and have some chocolate. 😉 This is my favorite Easter book, bar none. It’s about the Country Bunny, who wants to try out to be an Easter Bunny, but as she is a single mom, the old Easter Bunny doesn’t think she will be able to manage. But, like good single moms everywhere, she has taught her little bunnies to do all of the chores around the house, which they demonstrate by cleaning,…
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The House of Mirth
I’ve fallen terribly behind in my “Winter Classics Challenge”. I had vowed to read 5 classics during the months of January and February, and here we are, almost at the Ides of March (BEWARE!), and I’m just now finishing my 4th classic. I’m going to spread the blame out here, because East of Eden was kind of slow for the first 100 pages, and it was a mighty long book, too. Then there was the time I spent trying to get into Tell My Horse, which didn’t go very well, due to a regrettable lack of interest on my part. Add to these factors the return of Lost, Battlestar Galactica,…
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A Meme for Monday
I saw this meme at my mom’s blog, Maya’s Granny. You’re tagged if you read it, though of course, you can choose to play or not. I’m in, nice for a Monday, right? BOOKS I’VE READ MEME *Look at the list of books below. *Bold the ones you’ve read. *Italicize the ones you want to read. *leave blank the ones that you aren’t interested in. *If you are reading this, tag you’re it. 1. The Da Vinci Code (Dan Brown) 2. Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen) 3. To Kill A Mockingbird (Harper Lee) 4. Gone With The Wind (Margaret Mitchell) 5. The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King…
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Tell My Horse
The third book in my “Winter Classics Challenge” was Tell My Horse – Voodoo and Life in Haiti and Jamaica, by Zora Neale Hurston. I picked this book up because I enjoyed reading, Their Eyes Were Watching God several years ago. Because that book was a novel, I (wrongly) assumed that this was as well. Rather, it is a travelogue delving into the world of superstition and voodoo. Ms. Hurston traveled to Jamaica and Haiti herself in order to write this book, which is detailed in three parts. The first part is about life in Jamaica, and talks a lot about the culture, and the superstitions revolving around the ‘duppy’,…
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Are You a Re-Reader?
Are there books that you’ve read so many times, you can open them to any page, randomly, and know exactly where you are in the narrative? I am definitely a re-reader, though as I write this, I’m realizing that the books I’ve read and re-read so many times are all books I had read by middle school. Sometimes, I’m just sitting somewhere, minding my own business, and one of these books will call out to me. I wonder, is it the writing itself, or the simplicity of the story, that makes it so easy for me to return, again and again? What is so comforting about these books, that is…