Book a Week 2016 - BW3: Martin Luther King

[PrairieSong]

I finished A Wizard of Earthsea, am still plugging away at Emma, and am about 120 pages into Ancillary Justice.

 

Eliana, thank you so much for all the work you put into the MLK post. So much there to ponder and hopefully read, if not this week then someday. The MLK theme reminded me of this youtube video I saw a few years ago, a wonderful reading of "Ain't I a Woman?"

 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=4vr_vKsk_h8

[Robin M]

Your new picture is adorable, Kara!

[PeacefulChaos]

Thanks!  :)  I'm really happy with my new hair lol.  :D  

[Violet Crown]

After no internet access for a week, you'd think I would have gotten more read, but no. I did read Alphonse Daudet's Letters From My Windmill on outbound travels, but almost no reading during the extended-family fun in the frozen north. I'd brought my nifty Oxford edition of War and Peace (Maude translation, super-compact, with teeny onionskin fold-out maps showing the various campaigns!) but am only 200 pages in and now wondering if I'm going to finish. I'm not counting it as a re-read because different translation, right? But now there are so many other books waiting for me. And someone is apparently expecting a cake tomorrow with an enormous number of candles on it. And snow clothes to unpack and clean and put away. Snow! Bison! Skiing! Who had time for books?

 

The Daudet was to be recommended, by the way. Little vignettes of Provence. Very pleasing.

 

(Edited on sudden realization that, while Provençal has a cedilla, Provence doesn't.)

Edited January 18, 2016 by Violet Crown

[Pam in CT]

Well, we just all went out for a spontaneous second viewing of Force Awakens.  No time for books, but  (no real spoilers):

 

 

 

1.  Still no idea who are Rey's parents, and

 

2.  Still no idea how Maz got Luke's saber, but

 

3.  Tell me Finn doesn't have Force.  Go ahead, make my day, try.

 

That's all I've got.

[Violet Crown]

I had a couple of long plane rides this week (family vacation to Yellowstone!) so I finished:

 

2. The Norton Psychology Reader (ed. Gary Marcus).

 

A good read for early in the year, because it's composed of excerpts from many longer works, so I now have lots of new books on my to-read list. I enjoyed the mix of subjects, and particularly the balance between interesting anecdotes and careful scientific studies.

 

Still deciding what to read next. I'm turning 20 tomorrow; I feel like I should pick something special for my first non-teenage book.

Read something your mother wouldn't approve of. ;)

 

I can give you the list of books we sold when you graduated from picture books....

[Guest]

My top two reads last week were:

 

Between Barack and a Hard Place: Racism and White Denial in the Age of Obama: I shared some quotes above in the intro post, words that reached my heart and made want to hear some more insights about white responsibility and action in response to racism and race issues.  ...but the book itself isn't one I'd recommend everyone go out and read at once.  I have the impression that some of his other books have more substance.  So I am waiting for Dear White American from the library...

 

Signs Preceding the End of the World: (thank you, Stacia for recommending this!) For all the action, this book has a still, quiet center and a spare, poetic prose which make the grim situations reverberate powerfully.  Highly recommended.

 

Other short works read:

 

Home by Toni Morrison: I read Beloved for the first time last year and it is indeed a wild, powerful, devastating book.. and Song of Solomon which really, really did not work for me at all.  ...but then Pam read this and wrote a bit about it here, and I starting eying it sitting on my shelf... but it was only as I was thinking about this week's post that I could bring myself to pull it off the shelf.  ...and it is a quiet little masterpiece.  It is a slim book, without the magical realism/folklore aspects of the other two Morrisons I've read, and with less over-the-top plot.  It is still an intense, painful book, and it, like the other two, has some harsh, grim, relatively explicit horrors, but it is a more interior book, and one with more healing and hope....

 

The Beautiful Struggle by Coates: I found this memoir less accessible than Between the World and Me - the language and references felt more foreign - and the narrative arc was less clear, but this was still an interesting and moving read. 

 

Our Ajax by Timberlake Wertenbaker: I've meant for years to track down more plays by this author.  Her Our Country's Good based on early history of Australia's "settlement" is a powerhouse of a play - not a comfortable one to see or read, but one that struck me hard as a teen and each time I've revisited it.  This has a modern Ajax (probably a British officer in the second Iraq war, but it isn't made specific), but is deeply rooted in Sophocles's character and even, at times, lines.

 

The Annotated Ancient Mariner by Coleridge: (Thank you, Rose for mentioning it here and Nan for asking what the annotations add!) I can't tell if it was the fascinating annotations or just being so much older, but I now have a much greater appreciation for this amazing poem...

 

Twenty Four Hours in the Life of a Woman by Zweig: I think I might have liked this better if I had never read other (and better) Zweig.  His writing is superb, but this story didn't touch me the way some of his others have.

 

Two longer books finished:

 

Mirrors of Our Lives by Holly Pavlov: As part of my intention to have more of my Torah reading being works by women, I pulled this gem off my shelves to revisit.  ...and in the more than a decade since I first read it, it has gotten even better!

 

History of the Medieval World by SWB: Trailing in way after the rest of you...  I always enjoy reading Susan's prose and a love her gift for explanation and for making connections across cultures and regions.  ...but I was bothered by a few niggling discontents reading this.  1) I kept feeling as if empire building was being, subtly, approved of, as if the authorial voice was implying that expansion of domains was a positive, or at least a necessary thing... and I disagree strongly with that interpretation.  2) I was bothered by the heavier weight given, I felt, to Xtianity and the nations controlled/influenced by it.  3) I hate how invisible my people are (and I came to this book already bothered by our absence in SOTW) - it is not uncommon for Jews to show up solely as precursors to Xtianity and victims of the Holocaust, especially in books focused on nation building, but it is always a disappointment.  (And, to be fair, there are the occasional mentions that we existed here and there in HOTMW, but I am going to be very unhappy it the trend continues into HOTRW)  4) There are a few areas where I disagree with the presentation, but this type of overview necessitates so much simplifying that such a reaction is near inevitable.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Teegarden]

Read something your mother wouldn't approve of. ;)

 

Non-teenage, mom.

 

By the way, I can't remember who linked the Tony Hoagland poem in the last thread, but I wanted to say thank you -- I've had it open on my computer since and read over it many times. I think it may be a new favorite.

 

    In documents elsewhere I have already recorded

    my complaints in some painstaking detail.

    Now, because all things are joyful near water,

    there just might be time to catch up on praise.

 

...maybe it's time to head down to Barton Springs again.

[marbel]

Whoa, people, you move fast!  I was out all day so had a lot of reading in one fell swoop!

 

Lots of great links this week; thank you!

 

I haven't finished anything new.  Still working on a lot of long books. Tomorrow I will have several hours to read so maybe I'll finish something!

 

I have fond memories of Catch-22 from years ago; I had been thinking I should hand it off to my son.  I think he'd like it. 

[shage]

Adding yet another thank you to Eliana.  What a wonderful summary and collection of resources.

 

In my small of corner of the universe, I do see a bright spot at the intersection of race, gender, incarceration, and treatment of mental illness in restorative justice programs.  Here is a link to a program not local to me, but close enough that I hear of the impact:  Restorative Justice for Oakland Youth.  Here is their resource list with endless bunny trails. 

 

Transitional justice programs seek similar goals but on much larger scales, for example, in cases of genocide or rampant human rights abuses.

 

[Angelaboord]

I finished 3 books last week: Life from Scratch: A Memoir of Food, Family, and Forgiveness by Sasha Martin, and books 1&2 in Robin Hobb's new Fitz and the Fool trilogy -- Fool's Assassin and Fool's Quest. I loved both Fitz books because I am a big fan of Fitz, and Hobb is such a great fantasy writer, one of the best. Assassin was better than Quest, I thought, but then Quest is also a middle book. I can't wait till book 3 comes out later this year, and now I am sad I read the books so fast.

 

I actually read Life from Scratch in the middle of Fool's Assassin in a vain attempt to prolong that book. Life from Scratch was a good memoir about a difficult childhood and the author's attempt to patch her adult life together by cooking, specifically by starting a food blog to cook dishes from each country in the world over a period of 4 years. The blog clearly became a source of control for her, which also became a part of her complicated family relationships. There are recipes, some of which I'd like to try, others which look somewhat intimidating. I read another memoir over Christmas that was built on the same structure, a book called Stir (can't remember the author's name now) which was written by a woman who used cooking as a way to help her complete the grueling process of recovering from an aneurysm and infection. The recipes in Stir were a little more complicated to me and the emotional issues in Life from Scratch more complex, so I would probably give a slight edge in interest to Life from Scratch, but I enjoyed reading both.

 

Oh, and re: the randomness of book lists... That was one of the things that bothered me so much about my booklist last year! For some reason it bothered me that when I checked my challenge status on Goodreads, all my covers looked completely haphazard due to the fact that I would read science-y books for a while, then switch to cookbooks and emergency preparedness, then over to post-apocalyptic fiction, followed by Rainbow Rowell novels and a couple of Uncle Wiggily compilations as a read-aloud to my younger kids. Everybody else's covers looked so cohesive! Lol I have no idea why that should bother me so much. But I do read in several genres, not to mention the jags I go on when I find a particular area of interest, so I guess I am doomed to randomness. Anyway...

 

I am also enjoying the Georgette Heyer conversation. I have never actually read one of her novels, but she is my mother's favorite author. She has owned her copies since high school and rereads them so often they are now literally falling apart. I keep meaning to read one, but have never gotten around to it.

 

--Angela

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[felicity]

Hi,

 

I joined you for about two weeks last year and then dropped almost all of my reading for a month or two and never joined back. So I'm going to try again this year. I'm planning to do more reading this year--with an actual plan so hopefully that will help.

 

I'm still planning to go through all of the MLK reading in the first post, but I wanted to mention a really interesting and readable book about the Great Migration of African-Americans from the south to cities in the north in the early to mid part of the 20th century. The book is called The Warmth of Other Suns and it draws you in by focusing on three people that made the migration and then uses their individual experiences to discuss the societies around them. Really interesting and thought provoking. My 13yo and I were studying the I Have a Dream speech last week and it really added a lot to my own understanding and our discussion.

 

In other reading news: my 10yo is listening to the 3rd Harry Potter, so that means the rest of us are as well.

 

I'm reading The Paris Wife, Salt Sugar Fat, and Queen Bees and Wannabes (see above 10yo dd).

 

Thanks for letting me join in again and I will stay faithful this time. I will.

[shage]

As far my reading this week, I am still plugging along with The Narrow Road to the Deep North.  The story picked up in pace and believability once the main character becomes a POW on the railroad line and fades into the background.  I am now at the post war years and, once again, the most compelling part of the story occurs in post war Japan with the main character completely absent. 

My other read this week was Wendell Berry's Our Only World: Ten Essays, read alongside my oldest son.  I count Wendell Berry as one of the major intellectual influences on my life and it was a homeschooling triumph to share this.  Not sure why I waited so long.  My son is both academically talented and loves to work with his hands in a way that is reminiscent of Berry's own background.  The timing was right.  My son is considering college options at the moment and came away with a hope that work-of-the-hands and work-of-the-mind can be of intertwined value.

Edited January 18, 2016 by shage

[Stacia]

I finished Gnarr! It was a quick, easy, fun, & inspiring read. It really hit the spot for me this week.

 

I think it's one my ds will enjoy too.

 

There were some good quotes in here (unfortunately I didn't mark them as I read), but I did like this one, when Gnarr was becoming mayor...

 

I had no idea what a mayor actually did. We'd had mayors who were mentally unstable and others who were alcoholics. I was neither.

 

Edited January 18, 2016 by Stacia

[NoseInABook]

I finished Silver Borne by Patricia Briggs, Judith Arnold's Changes which I want to say Kareni recommended, and Karma Girl by Jennifer Estep. Not sure how it ended up on my Kindle but I enjoyed it enough to grab the other four in the series. It was a super cute and cheesy superhero romance. I'm onto the second book in the series, Hot Mama.

 

I got my laptop back in time for the charger to give up the ghost and there's been no time to head to the store to fix it. Glad I finally got Tapatalk to work on my phone so I can catch up!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Loesje22000]

I finished another 'hidden pearl' of our library : bride flight'

About the plane race with one plane filled with young women who had a fiancee waiting in Australia.

Unknown part of the history to me.

 

I also read 'Lady of the Camino' a roman, written by a theologician? Who walked a part of the road to Santiago de Compastella, a pelgrimage.

It wasn't a very strong, but still interesting book.

 

And I've almost finished a thriller from Elizabeth George.

In pursuit of the proper sinner.

[idnib]

I am still reading House of Leaves (which has become terrifying and can only be read in small doses), Basin and Range (taking 3x as long as I Google map all the locations mentioned so I can actually see these geological formations, must have been a faster read pre-Internet), The Hobbit (to the children), and On the Nature of Things (fascinating and amazingly modern). I finished An Illustrated Life and picked up my held copy of Grain Brain but didn't crack that one yet.

 

I volunteered for this week because our discussion last year, and my own tentative readings, had left me wanting to give more time and reading space to African American history and culture.

 

 

Eliana, thank you so much for putting together this post. There are lots of things I need to look into from it. I thought I might suggest looking into Nikki Giovanni as well, if you're not familiar with her work. 

 

Today I was in the car with the kids and we were listening to KZSU, Stanford's student station. They were playing MLK speeches over nice music and one passage stuck out for me. I don't recall hearing it before:

 

 

 

 

“You may be 38 years old, as I happen to be. And one day, some great opportunity stands before you and calls you to stand up for some great principle, some great issue, some great cause. And you refuse to do it because you are afraid…. You refuse to do it because you want to live longer…. You’re afraid that you will lose your job, or you are afraid that you will be criticized or that you will lose your popularity, or you’re afraid that somebody will stab you, or shoot at you or bomb your house; so you refuse to take the stand.

Well, you may go on and live until you are 90, but you’re just as dead at 38 as you would be at 90. And the cessation of breathing in your life is but the belated announcement of an earlier death of the spirit.â€

 

And I just had this cute picture of DS doing puzzles that I wanted to share.  Because he's cute!

 

 

What a cutie! I did a double-take because we have the same furniture! Same buffet, same chairs, except our table is oval. We have the same table pad and latch to lock the pieces together. Oh, except our buffet has Sharpie marks on the front from a little artistic adventure DS had when he was 3.  :001_cool:

Edited January 18, 2016 by idnib

[Onceuponatime]

Re Calvino: This is the first time I've come across the idea of deliberate product placement in books. At first I thought he was joking, but I googled it (😉). It really is a thing. The Mr. Penumbra book wasn't an anomaly. (I did enjoy that one, though.) I'm trying to decide how I feel about this. On one hand, I think I will be more aware when I read, just as I am when I watch TV and movies. On the other hand, I'm pretty sure it will annoy me if I notice it. Where is the line drawn between being an author and an advertiser? Is there a line? Does this bother anyone?

[Jane in NC]

Non-teenage, mom.

 

By the way, I can't remember who linked the Tony Hoagland poem in the last thread, but I wanted to say thank you -- I've had it open on my computer since and read over it many times. I think it may be a new favorite.

 

    In documents elsewhere I have already recorded

    my complaints in some painstaking detail.

    Now, because all things are joyful near water,

    there just might be time to catch up on praise.

 

...maybe it's time to head down to Barton Springs again.

 

Happy Birthday Sophia!

 

Concerning Hoagland, you are welcome.  But how you came to Barton Springs demonstrates the joy and wonder of the BaW thread.  Crstarlette offered fellow readers a Hoagland poem last year putting the poet on my radar.  My library did not have the book she mentioned but another from which I offered a selection, the poem Wild.  I also provided a Youtube link featuring Hoagland reading both Wild and Barton Springs. And you latched onto the latter.

 

Such a lovely demonstration of the magic of this thread!

[Loesje22000]

After no internet access for a week, you'd think I would have gotten more read, but no. I did read Alphonse Daudet's Letters From My Windmill on outbound travels, but almost no reading during the extended-family fun in the frozen north. I'd brought my nifty Oxford edition of War and Peace (Maude translation, super-compact, with teeny onionskin fold-out maps showing the various campaigns!) but am only 200 pages in and now wondering if I'm going to finish. I'm not counting it as a re-read because different translation, right? But now there are so many other books waiting for me. And someone is apparently expecting a cake tomorrow with an enormous number of candles on it. And snow clothes to unpack and clean and put away. Snow! Bison! Skiing! Who had time for books?

 

The Daudet was to be recommended, by the way. Little vignettes of Provence. Very pleasing.

 

(Edited on sudden realization that, while Provençal has a cedilla, Provence doesn't.)

We own Daudet in French, is it something I can let read 13yo dd?

Or has it more adult content?

It has no backflap so I have no idea what it is going about...

 

I'm watching the BBC serie now, of War and Peace, and I hope it encourage me enough to start reading W&P. I know nothing from the book except that it is long....

I liked Anna Karenina and Fathers & Sons, but didn't like the brothers Karamazov.

[mumto2]

We own Daudet in French, is it something I can let read 13yo dd?

Or has it more adult content?

It has no backflap so I have no idea what it is going about...

 

I'm watching the BBC serie now, of War and Peace, en I hope it encourage me enough to start reading W&P. I know nothing from the book except that it is long....

I liked Anna Karenina and Fathers & Sons, but didn't like the brothers Karamazov.

Are you enjoying the War and Peace series? I have been recording it but haven't had a chance to watch any of it yet. I am also hoping to like the show enough to read the book. ;) I never watch first but I need motivation to read that chunky of a book!

[Loesje22000]

Are you enjoying the War and Peace series? I have been recording it but haven't had a chance to watch any of it yet. I am also hoping to like the show enough to read the book. ;) I never watch first but I need motivation to read that chunky of a book!

Yes I am.

I also record the serie and watch them afterwards.

The serie has a good pace in my opinion and not too slow.

The serie is sometimes also predictable, but I think that will be the same in the book(s).

[Violet Crown]

We own Daudet in French, is it something I can let read 13yo dd?

Or has it more adult content?

It has no backflap so I have no idea what it is going about...

 

I'm watching the BBC serie now, of War and Peace, and I hope it encourage me enough to start reading W&P. I know nothing from the book except that it is long....

I liked Anna Karenina and Fathers & Sons, but didn't like the brothers Karamazov.

There's absolutely no content problems with Daudet. Very gentle little stories and portraits of the Provence region and its inhabitants. It may be that a 13-year-old would find it dull, but not necessarily.

[Loesje22000]

There's absolutely no content problems with Daudet. Very gentle little stories and portraits of the Provence region and its inhabitants. It may be that a 13-year-old would find it dull, but not necessarily.

Thank you!

We can handle dull :)

[Alice]

Wow, Eliana. I need some time to digest your post, but thank you so much for writing it. 

 

I read What is the What by Dave Eggers last week. It's hard to even talk about my reaction because it was such a difficult but amazing book to read. Briefly, it's the fictionalized autobiographical account of Valentino Achak Deng, one of the Lost Boys of Sudan. 

 

I'm staying in Africa but reading something a bit lighter with Black Dove, White Raven by Elizabeth Wein. 

[Chrysalis Academy]

I am still reading House of Leaves (which has become terrifying and can only be read in small doses), Basin and Range (taking 3x as long as I Google map all the locations mentioned so I can actually see these geological formations, must have been a faster read pre-Internet), The Hobbit (to the children), and On the Nature of Things (fascinating and amazingly modern). I finished An Illustrated Life and picked up my held copy of Grain Brain but didn't crack that one yet.

 

 

 

 

I am having the same experience with The Control of Nature - I've had to stop and look at pictures of the Atchafalaya River and volcanoes in Iceland and Hawaii, and to read all about what's been happening over the last 30 years since the book was written.  The LA section, I haven't had to look anything up online- I grew up in LA and have vivid memories of what he's talking about - catchment basins for debris flow, houses getting inundated with mud & rocks.  A mudslide filled a friend's house when I was a little girl, I remember picking out clothes and stuffed animals to give to her, to help replace the everything that she had lost.

[aggieamy]

 

What a cutie! I did a double-take because we have the same furniture! Same buffet, same chairs, except our table is oval. We have the same table pad and latch to lock the pieces together. Oh, except our buffet has Sharpie marks on the front from a little artistic adventure DS had when he was 3.  :001_cool:

 

Another Ethan Allen fan!  And a good reminder about securing the location of the sharpies in the house.  :)

[MaeFlowers]

Wow. I tried to read Elaina's guest post but it's way beyond what my brain is capable of handling this morning. I look forward to reading it again when I can process.

 

So, I spent a good deal of the day yesterday reading A Suitable Boy. It's been a incredibly slow read for me. I usually am a quick reader and am starting to feel like this book never ends. I'm not complaining, though. The book is so interesting and I am enjoying it. I am also still reading HotAW. I tend to read two books at a time because that's all I can handle.

 

We are starting back to school this week after a much longer than intended winter break. This usually slows me down as I am incredibly disorganized. I am working on trying to create a personal daily routine which sets aside time for reading. If only I can get the others in this house on board, maybe it will work this time.

[Pam in CT]

May everyone have a restful and thoughtful MLK Day!

 

Catching up from last week:

 

 

 

re: Effecting change at individual v. systemic levels

Pam-

I,m still not sure what The New Jim Crow will tell me that the people who have been mangled by the system can,t, since I,m not eloquent enough to be able to use its facts and figures to convince the people in power who might be convinced by those means, but I guess I,m going to have to read it to see.

It isn,t that I don,t think changing the system isn,t a big part of changing the world. Or that the system, all by itself, gives shape to things and limits the power its administrators have. (My husband deals with the FDA lol.) It,s just that I can,t change it so I prefer to work in places where I can make a difference. Well, I guess that isn,t true. I did get someone in power to sign something once, but the means I used are no longer available to me, and it was something of a fluke, and I rather cheated to do it. I,m more useful in other ways, ways that require less brain power and that don,t overwhelm me to the point that I am useless.

 

__________

As far as faith in the justice system goes, I want to say count your blessings that you have learned about its realities through books rather than your children,s friends, but I am dead positive that you are already doing this. I think whoever said that money can,t buy happiness must not have had teenagers - groan.

Syncopation is a kind word. : )

Peace, Pam, and many hugs.

Nan

Nan dear, your eloquence and quiet passion can move mountains, but I am dead positive you already know this.  

 

And for every area in which social change has occurred over our nation's history -- abolition, child labor, tenement housing, expanding suffrage, up through more recent civil rights movements -- there have been some people who worked at the level of convincing individual hearts and minds (writing Uncle Tom's Cabin, one by one conversations over cups of tea) and others who worked to change legislation or through the courts.  There are different ways to be a change agent.  Another kind of syncopation   :laugh: .

_____

 

Yes.  I count my blessings every.single.day.

 

 

 

 

re: Last Child in the Woods/ loss of the sustenance of the outdoors...

...We have fond memories of Blueberries for Sal from our read-aloud days. We go blueberry picking here every year. Ds would love to take a survival course where he learns what you can eat. There are a lot of bad (poisonous) choices here in Florida. He devoured books like My Side of the Mountain and at one point couldn't get enough of books about young people in survival situations.

 

He loves being outdoors, and has been trying to get a group of his friends to go on a camping trip. We talked about it recently and I realized how sad it was when he lamented that, "Nobody wants to be outside". 

 

_______

 

 

Come take a walk with me. I might not be able to tell you what's good to eat, but I can at least tell you what to avoid. And I can tell you the names of most of our flora and fauna. I can even tell you what's native and what's invasive. We have been gradually switching to all native or well-adapted and non-invasive plants in our yard. I'd love to show someone my Florida, the real Florida. The Florida that doesn't include a big mouse or Harry Potter or beaches so built up you can't seen the ocean. My Florida does exist and it's absolutely beautiful.

That disconnection with Outdoors is so rampant here as well, and it's so... sad, because where I live we're surrounded by small reserves and conservancies and hiking/biking/dogwalking trails.  Which, I can't imagine we'll be able to hang onto in the decades ahead if people don't actually feel attracted to use them....

______

 

I love to wander and wonder at the different flora and fauna in different parts of the country... I'd love to see your Real Florida.  We spent a day looking at birds -- I wouldn't really call it "bird-watching" since that would suggest a level of knowledge that would not be true -- in the Everglades on our last trip that was just magical...

 

 

 

 

One of my favorite bed time books is In the Night Kitchen. I should buy it. In fact I should buy two copies and give one to my library because the library copy was vandalized by some person who thinks it is okay to impose their standards on everyone else.  :thumbdown:

Oh that is So.Not.Okay.  There is a special circle in hell for that.

[Bluegoat]

works by women, I pulled this gem off my shelves to revisit.  ...and in the more than a decade since I first read it, it has gotten even better!

 

History of the Medieval World by SWB: Trailing in way after the rest of you...  I always enjoy reading Susan's prose and a love her gift for explanation and for making connections across cultures and regions.  ...but I was bothered by a few niggling discontents reading this.  1) I kept feeling as if empire building was being, subtly, approved of, as if the authorial voice was implying that expansion of domains was a positive, or at least a necessary thing... and I disagree strongly with that interpretation.  2) I was bothered by the heavier weight given, I felt, to Xtianity and the nations controlled/influenced by it.  3) I hate how invisible my people are (and I came to this book already bothered by our absence in SOTW) - it is not uncommon for Jews to show up solely as precursors to Xtianity and victims of the Holocaust, especially in books focused on nation building, but it is always a disappointment.  (And, to be fair, there are the occasional mentions that we existed here and there in HOTMW, but I am going to be very unhappy it the trend continues into HOTRW)  4) There are a few areas where I disagree with the presentation, but this type of overview necessitates so much simplifying that such a reaction is near inevitable.

 

I think you're right, it's a problem inherent in big sweeping overviews.  Which isn't to say there is no place for an overview of, say, medieval Europe, but I think it is always going to give more of a bare outline of major groups and paradigm changes.  Anything more subtle will really need to be handled in more specific books. I think perhaps the desire to be very inclusive in history books is often less than successful, it can end up losing the narrative and seeming fragmented, and only lip service can be given to many elements.

[Bluegoat]

Re Calvino: This is the first time I've come across the idea of deliberate product placement in books. At first I thought he was joking, but I googled it (😉). It really is a thing. The Mr. Penumbra book wasn't an anomaly. (I did enjoy that one, though.) I'm trying to decide how I feel about this. On one hand, I think I will be more aware when I read, just as I am when I watch TV and movies. On the other hand, I'm pretty sure it will annoy me if I notice it. Where is the line drawn between being an author and an advertiser? Is there a line? Does this bother anyone?

 

Yes, it bothers me.

 

I even feel a little weird about stories that deliberatly incorporate readers, the way Ian Rankin does.  I can see why it would be quite fun for a reader, especially as a one-off.  But it seems a bit too much like reality tv somehow.

[Ellesmere]

We are goodreads friends! I see your avatar on my friend list.  I'm Rose, no pic or anything.

 

ETA: Here's my goodreads link, in case anybody else wants to be friends: Rose on Goodreads

 

Yes, my mom loved romances, she read a lot of Harlequins when I was a kid, which I wasn't supposed to read but I'd sneak sometimes. Then an older co-worker of hers introduced her to GH and she was in love, and she shared them with me. My dad was initially really against it - Romance Novels! Surely I was too young! But we pretty much ignored him, The Grand Sophy was the first one I ever read, and still my favorite.

 

I do like her mysteries.  They are vaguely similar to Agatha Christie, especially the Inspector Hemingway mysteries - set in an English manor, full of conflict between the stuffy elders and the "modern" young people, with a clever detective and a bumbling constable as a foil.  That's kind of a general rundown of most of them. Very entertaining.  Her one darker mystery is my favorite, it's called Penhallow.  Very good psychological/family drama.

For some reason, I didn't know she did mysteries. I grew up on Agatha Christie, so maybe I will give Georgette Heyer another try. I'm not sure which of hers I tried first but it wasn't Penhallow or The Grand Sophy. I started & forgot about it, surprised because someone with similar reading tastes as me had suggested I try GH. I'll probably try one of her mysteries this time around.

[Chrysalis Academy]

For some reason, I didn't know she did mysteries. I grew up on Agatha Christie, so maybe I will give Georgette Heyer another try. I'm not sure which of hers I tried first but it wasn't Penhallow or The Grand Sophy. I started & forgot about it, surprised because someone with similar reading tastes as me had suggested I try GH. I'll probably try one of her mysteries this time around.

 

Penhallow isn't a particularly Agatha Christie type mystery, I don't think. Meaning, it doesn't have the same kind of recurring detective character.  She has two "series" like that, although they are stand alone books - Inspector Hannasyde and Inspector Hemingway.  Those are the ones that have more of an AC "feel" to me.  Penhallow is my favorite, but it's a little darker, a little more psychological - more like PD James than Agatha Christie.  FWIW.

[Bluegoat]

I had a very long bath yesterday after 3 hours of shoveling snow, so I am a good way into The End of Growth. 

 

He has been talking about how economists have in thought about how to determine an economy's potential productivity, and tried to maintain it at around that level.  He is arguing though that there has been a substantial change that is making the economist's analysis unreliable - the growth rates they are used to a predicated on oil at about $20 a barrel.  When the energy that drives the economy is much more expensive to obtain, it creates a limit on growth.  He thinks this is, one way or another, lead to a different kind of economy than the one we have been used to since the advent of petroleum based industry.

 

I'm interested to go on and see how he thinks of how it will connect with other elements.  In the Elizabeth May biography I just finished, she argues that expensive oil, though a reality, will not end up being the thing that limits the oil economy, it will be the saturation of our resources to deal with the by-product - that is, while oil is likely to be somewhat viable as energy source for many years, we are already past the limit of waste the atmosphere can absorb.  I'm interested if my new book talks about this at all - the author is an economist so I wonder how likely he is to think about that element.

 

I am afraid I went a bit crazy on our library website yesterday, when I put a hold on Small Is Beautiful.  It's the pesky recommends at the bottom of the page that did me in.  I can't remember everything I put on hold, but I think I have four.  One is about permaculture and plant guilds, and the others might be about economics.

 

I still have not got the Newman sermons, as I missed church yesterday due to digging.  I am being sent some essays on covetousness that I have to turn into a short talk, which I am looking forward to producing and dreading reading.

 

From the last thread - The Story of Ping - Chrysalis Academy mentioned finding this creepy as an adult.  I think it is a bit.  I loved it as a child, but not in a comforting way - I was fascinated by the choice Ping had.  As an adult, the knowledge that PIng was still going to be eaten, in all likelihood, makes the story a little more horrific.  I suppose it's a bit like the Burns poem - it is perhaps a kindness that small animals have no sense of the future to weigh on them.

 

Speaking of which - does anyone do anything to celebrate Burn's day?

 

 

 

 

[Minerva]

Happy Birthday Sophia!

 

Concerning Hoagland, you are welcome.  But how you came to Barton Springs demonstrates the joy and wonder of the BaW thread.  Crstarlette offered fellow readers a Hoagland poem last year putting the poet on my radar.  My library did not have the book she mentioned but another from which I offered a selection, the poem Wild.  I also provided a Youtube link featuring Hoagland reading both Wild and Barton Springs. And you latched onto the latter.

 

Such a lovely demonstration of the magic of this thread!

 

I was very happy to see someone else reading Hoagland at the same time I was. 

 

My brother passed away eight years ago, and it has taken me all of these years to be brave enough to open the box of personal items that my parents hastily stashed away after his death. Among his photographs and letters was this book. I was so surprised when I saw (last week?) that he was a poet that someone else here is reading.

 

Magic of this thread, indeed. 

[Pam in CT]

Adding my heartfelt thanks to the Eliana Chorus.  I ordered the Sonia Sanchez poems and Reproducing Racism, and put several others including Between Barack and a Hard Place on the TBR list.

 

 

As well, I'd recommend for MLK Day reading this essay in the Atlantic that Ta-Nehisi Coates wrote in the summer of 2014, which the MacArthur foundation cited (along with Beyond the World and Me) when he received the Genius Award last fall.  In it he makes the case for reparations for the legacy of slavery and subsequent structural seizure of black labor and resources, tracing back to a national founding based on the intertwined principles of "white democracy and black plunder":

 

 

"One cannot escape the question by hand-waving at the past, disavowing the acts of one’s ancestors, nor by citing a recent date of ancestral immigration. The last slaveholder has been dead for a very long time. The last soldier to endure Valley Forge has been dead much longer. To proudly claim the veteran and disown the slaveholder is patriotism à la carte. A nation outlives its generations. We were not there when Washington crossed the Delaware, but Emanuel Gottlieb Leutze’s rendering has meaning to us. We were not there when Woodrow Wilson took us into World War I, but we are still paying out the pensions. If Thomas Jefferson’s genius matters, then so does his taking of Sally Hemings’s body. If George Washington crossing the Delaware matters, so must his ruthless pursuit of the runagate Oney Judge.

 

In 1909, President William Howard Taft told the country that “intelligent†white southerners were ready to see blacks as “useful members of the community.†A week later Joseph Gordon, a black man, was lynched outside Greenwood, Mississippi. The high point of the lynching era has passed. But the memories of those robbed of their lives still live on in the lingering effects. Indeed, in America there is a strange and powerful belief that if you stab a black person 10 times, the bleeding stops and the healing begins the moment the assailant drops the knife. We believe white dominance to be a fact of the inert past, a delinquent debt that can be made to disappear if only we don’t look."

 

 

(Re-reading it today, I made a connection I did not the first time through, about how until recently both the agricultural and industrial sectors of the US economy needed black labor (which drove specific forms of plunder)... while over the last several decades, global economic factors have resulted in an excess of US workers looking for employment... I don't recall Alexander's book expressly connecting slack employment markets today to mass incarceration, but now I'm wondering...)

 

[Pam in CT]

I was very happy to see someone else reading Hoagland at the same time I was. 

 

My brother passed away eight years ago, and it has taken me all of these years to be brave enough to open the box of personal items that my parents hastily stashed away after his death. Among his photographs and letters was this book. I was so surprised when I saw (last week?) that he was a poet that someone else here is reading.

 

Magic of this thread, indeed. 

:grouphug: .

[Stacia]

In re: to the BaW thread theme this week, I also highly recommend Langston Hughes' The Ways of White Folks.

 

From wikipedia:

 

The Ways of White Folks is a collection of short stories by Langston Hughes, published in 1934. Hughes wrote the book during a year he spent living in Carmel, California. The collection, "marked by pessimism about race relations, as well as a sardonic realism or, contextually: humorous racism," is among his best known works.

 

Edited January 18, 2016 by Stacia

[Stacia]

Oops. Double-post.

Edited January 18, 2016 by Stacia

[Stacia]

I was very happy to see someone else reading Hoagland at the same time I was. 

 

My brother passed away eight years ago, and it has taken me all of these years to be brave enough to open the box of personal items that my parents hastily stashed away after his death. Among his photographs and letters was this book. I was so surprised when I saw (last week?) that he was a poet that someone else here is reading.

 

Magic of this thread, indeed. 

 

:grouphug: :grouphug:

[Stacia]

Sophia, now that it's officially your birthday...

 

Happy Birthday!

 

[Pam in CT]

Books:

 

 

Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End, by Atul Gawande.  Rose gave this analysis of end-of-life issues 6 stars out of 5 last fall, and I can see why... written by a surgeon/Harvard Medical professor/son of two doctors, fusing scholarly research, case study, personal and -- most importantly, I think -- ethical viewpoints... it's hard to describe in form, but very important.  Highly recommended.

 

 

The Mathematician's Shiva, by Stuart Rojstaczer.  This novel was for one of my IRL book groups; it tells the story of a kabal of high-powered mathematicians from around the world (but mostly former USSR and Poland) who descend like locusts upon the family of a #Genius Russian emigre female comrade who never got the Nobel she deserved upon her death.  Turns out they suspect that she had worked out the solution to a famous (well, ok, famous in a small circle  :laugh: ) Navier-Stokes problem but never published. Rollicking good fun to read with deeper long term resonance than I expected at first; it sparked a fantastic discussion.  Highly recommended.

 

The Nightingale, by Kristin Hannah.  This was for another IRL book group, a novel set in occupied France focusing mostly on two sisters, one of whom plunged into Resistance work while the other stayed in the village with her daughter with a German soldier billeted in her house.  I had mixed feelings about this one -- it attempts to grapple with some important issues of encroaching complicity and shifting lines in sand that moves... and the emerging portraits of the two sisters had many compelling and believable moments... but too many of the supporting characters were no more than caricatures; and Hannah evidently never got that 9th grade writing memo re: show, don't tell... so I was left frustrated at the uneven-ess of the whole.

 

Sundiata, An Epic of Old Mali, by DT Niane, a retelling of a 13th century epic cycle on the early life and re-conquest of the rightful King Sundiata, containing the bones of The Lion King narrative.  Very enjoyable.  I thought this bit would work quite well as a Lin-Manuel Miranda rap battle: 

 

Up until that time, Sundiata and Soumaoro had fought with each other without a declaration of war. One does not wage war without saying why it is being waged. Those fighting should make a declaration of their grievances to begin with…

 

‘Stop, young man. Henceforth I am the king of Mali. If you want peace, return to where you came from,’ said Soumaoro.

 

‘I am coming back, Soumaoro, to recapture my kingdom,’ (retorted Sundiata). ‘If you want peace you will make amends to my allies and return to Sosso where you are the king.’

 

‘I am king of Mali by force of arms. My rights have been established by conquest.’

 

‘Then I will take Mali from you by force of arms and chase you from my kingdom.’

 

‘Know, then, that I am the wild yam of the rocks; nothing will make me leave Mali.’

 

‘Know, also, that I have in my camp seven master smiths who will shatter the rocks. Then, yam, I will eat you.’

 

‘I am the poisonous mushroom that makes the fearless vomit.’

 

‘Behave yourself, little boy, or you will burn your foot, for I am the red-hot cinder.’

 

‘But me, I am the rain that extinguishes the cinder; I am the boisterous torrent that will carry you off.’

 

‘I am the mighty silk-cotton tree that looks from on high on the tops of other trees.’

 

‘And I, I am the strangling creeper that climbs to the top of the forest giant.’

 

‘Enough of this argument. You shall not have Mali.’

 

‘Know that there is not room for two kings on the same skin, Soumaoro; you will let me have your place.’

 

‘Very well, since you want war I will wage war against you, but I would have you know that I have killed nine kings whose heads adorn my room. What a pity indeed, that your head should take its place beside those of your fellow madcaps.’

 

:lol: 

[Kim in Appalachia]

Well, we just all went out for a spontaneous second viewing of Force Awakens.  No time for books, but  (no real spoilers):

 

 

 

1.  Still no idea who are Rey's parents, and

 

2.  Still no idea how Maz got Luke's saber, but

 

3.  Tell me Finn doesn't have Force.  Go ahead, make my day, try.

 

That's all I've got.

 

 

I'm just going to say that I really loved Finn. John Boyega did an excellent job.  His facial expressions were spot on.  Not going to argue if he had the Force or not......but I am looking forward to seeing more of him. :)

[Kim in Appalachia]

I'm about 30% into Crake and Oryx by Margaret Atwood.  The story is good, but I don't care about the main character.  I'll keep going, but it's hard, the Abercrombie book I was waiting on came in from the library and now I want to read it.  I know it will go fast and I like the story, and I feel invested in the character.

 

Someone mentioned PD James.  She has been on my to-read list forever.  Next time I want a mystery I need to check her out.  

 

And I'm just going to mention, that I like Hemingway too.  I didn't read any of his works as a kid. I only got to it a few years back, and I was so impressed by the power of each sentence.  Each word was so carefully chosen to convey his story.  Loved it.  But I get so excited by good writing. :)

[Bluegoat]

I re-read most of P.D. James when she died in 2014.  She's one of my favotite mystery novelists.  It might not be the thing to say, but I think especially in her later career, she was much better than Agatha Christie.

 

ETA - I gave up reading Atwood some years ago, because I always wished the main characters would just die.

Edited January 18, 2016 by Bluegoat

[Kim in Appalachia]

I re-read most of P.D. James when she died in 2014.  She's one of my favotite mystery novelists.  It might not be the thing to say, but I think especially in her later career, she was much better than Agatha Christie.

 

ETA - I gave up reading Atwood some years ago, because I always wished the main characters would just die.

 

Yes, that is the pattern I'm sensing too. I'm not ready to give up yet, but this will probably be the last book I read by her. 

[Mom-ninja.]

I had a couple of long plane rides this week (family vacation to Yellowstone!) so I finished:

 

2. The Norton Psychology Reader (ed. Gary Marcus).

 

A good read for early in the year, because it's composed of excerpts from many longer works, so I now have lots of new books on my to-read list. I enjoyed the mix of subjects, and particularly the balance between interesting anecdotes and careful scientific studies.

 

Still deciding what to read next. I'm turning 20 tomorrow; I feel like I should pick something special for my first non-teenage book.

 

Happy birthday!! The first book that popped into my mind was The Mists of Avalon but you may have read it.

 

 

 

I feel like the BaW curmudgeon....

 

I like, perhaps even love, Hemingway.

 

I'm guessing I might like Catch-22.

 

I found Mansfield Park so boring & agonizing to read I never made it very far before quitting it. I have absolutely no desire to ever try it again.

 

:tongue_smilie: :lol:

 

I will see your hand and raise by one. I do not like Georgette Heyer. I read The Grand Sophy and was bored out of my mind. I don't plan to ever read one of her bore me to tears books ever again. 

 

Dangerous confession to this crowd. I'll hide behind you.

[Pam in CT]

...

 

Speaking of which - does anyone do anything to celebrate Burn's day?

 

Mmm.  There's a chance Ode to a Haggis may have been, on occasion, trucked out. :leaving: 

 

 VC  may have Texas variations...

[Jane in NC]

Given our recent discussions, an event in North Carolina history (well, American history) should be mentioned. 

 

Prior to 1898, Wilmington, NC, was the largest city in the state and in fact had a black majority.  It was home to many professional and middle class African Americans until the coup d'etat.  In 1898, a group of white supremacists formed a militia, destroying a black owned newspaper and driving thousands of African Americans from the town without their possessions. A mix raced city council that had been legally elected was tossed from office and in their place a group of white supremacists assumed their roles.  Because of the lack of record keeping, we are unsure how many died that day.

 

In the following year, a poll tax was instituted in NC.

 

On the one hand, we have people today who say that these events are of the past and those of us alive today cannot be responsible.  But my heart bleeds because I have met members of families who boasted artisans and professionals, who were reduced not only to penury but enslavement via Jim Crow after the events of 1898.

 

I don't have answers.  But I do think that the episodes in history--our shared history--should not be buried because they make us squirm in discomfort.  Silence does not help this situation.

 

And to bring this to books...  The Wilmington coup d'etat enters into the storyline of John Sayles' novel A Moment in the Sun.  I believe Stacia has read it.  Cape Fear Rising is another novel which tells the tale.

[Stacia]

And to bring this to books...  The Wilmington coup d'etat enters into the storyline of John Sayles' novel A Moment in the Sun.  I believe Stacia has read it.

 

I have it here on my shelf. I started it a couple of years ago. It is a huge book & is one that will take me a long, long time to finish (w/ all the digressions, rabbit trails, etc... to look up). At the time, I couldn't devote the time to it.

 

But, what I read, I loved. I hope to get to it later this year.