Minerva Posted February 1, 2016 Share Posted February 1, 2016 I read The Marriage of Opposites this week. I am a sucker for magical realism, and for historical fiction, and for strong women characters, and for the tropics, so this book was right up my alley. I didn't feel like it was as tight or gripping as The Dovekeepers, but still a good read. I am in the middle of Queen Bees and Wannabees. Has anyone else read this who has preteen or teenage daughters that homeschool? I am finding it insightful, although my ten year old daughter isn't yet at this stage, even though puberty has begun. I am wondering if homeschooling changes these dynamics at all or if this is just universal behavior? I abandoned listening to Ruth Ozeki's All Over Creation. The only time I have to listen to audio books is when I am cooking dinner. It was too adult to have playing while the kids were around. I am not missing it, so probably wont go back. I did like the narrator and I did like how easy it was to pick up where I left off, but I wasn't invested in it in any way. We have one more chapter of The Silver Chair to read at bed time and we also read a nice Scholastic biography of Lincoln this week. I started the Martian and will join with reading A Passage to India because I have a copy on my shelf. A heartfelt thank you to Book a Week for inspiring me in many ways. 18 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chrysalis Academy Posted February 1, 2016 Share Posted February 1, 2016 (edited) I finished the 3rd book of the Last Policeman trilogy, World of Trouble, last night. It ended in such an unexpected and perfect way, which is kind of strange to say for a trilogy that you know, from page 1 book 1, is going to end with a giant asteroid destroying the planet. I cried and cried. We were talking about Atwood/Wells characters that didn't touch us, left us cold? Well, these characters really touched me. I think Winters draws quirky and unusual characters under extreme pressure with a very deft hand. And for me, that is the draw to postapocalyptic/disaster fiction in the first place: I'm interested in the human element, in how real-seeming people respond under difficult, stressful, unimaginable circumstances. What this trilogy showed was that you don't change, you only become more firmly who you already are. Each of the characters, major and minor, followed the logical trajectory of their own lives, personalities, experiences, temperaments. What you cared about during your life is what you focused on before your death. And I think this is True, and I appreciate the way he showed this through the story This trilogy would be appealing to someone who likes a good psychological dystopia, and someone who likes the more gritty crime/mystery novel. Not super violent or gory, but not Agatha Christie-ish, either. I liked the first book best, but the last book wrapped it all up in an unexpectedly satisfying, yet tragic manner. Edited February 1, 2016 by Chrysalis Academy 13 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mumto2 Posted February 1, 2016 Share Posted February 1, 2016 To those with kids into dinosaurs: I just checked and Coursera is currently running its Dino 101 course. I watched the videos with my youngest about two years ago and thought it was well worth our time. Just wanted to second this course. It came out a bit after our dinosaur phase had passed but both dc's enjoyed going through it. I believe this is one of the Coursera classes we did with really enthusiastic teachers who emailed new findings for awhile even after the course was done. 11 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mumto2 Posted February 1, 2016 Share Posted February 1, 2016 I was just browsing online and ran into thishttps://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1587987.Books_Baguettes_and_Bedbugsbook by Jeremy Mercer which looks wonderful. Several here including Jenn might be interested after reading The Movable Feast. Book, Baguettes and Budbugs: The Left Bank Worls of Shakespeare and Company is a book I would love to read. 11 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ellesmere Posted February 1, 2016 Share Posted February 1, 2016 Last week ended well with new Goodreads friends (thank you!) and reading The Razor's Edge by W. Somerset Maugham (thank you, Stacia -- pretty sure I put that on my list after reading a BaW post from you.) Anyway, I never updated last week ... I think I had planned to finish up the pile of book club books my mom lent to me (her book club, not mine) after I finished her copy of The Book Thief. Instead, I read more youth WWII fiction: When My Name Was Keoko by Linda Sue Park and The War that Saved My Life by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley. Then I went back and finished The Razor's Edge. I got through those other books because my mom came by to help me (and the kids) while I was miserably sick and gave me some time to just sit and read. That reminded me to get back to her pile of book club books, so I started The Birth House by Ami McKay. Not sure if it is me, how I was feeling, or what, but I just can't get into it. Putting aside, I think, and I am hoping that tonight I will commit to one of the 16 books I have started. Putting them on a "currently reading" list in Goodreads made me realize (again)-- I really do have commitment issues. :huh: 15 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kareni Posted February 1, 2016 Share Posted February 1, 2016 A few thoughtful Tor.com posts that some might enjoy ~ Five Books About Weird Spies by Max Gladstone (Jane in NC: I see that the Lymond Chronicles are mentioned) No Mother Tongue: Language in the world of Magic by V. E. Schwab Building a Solid Writing Practice One Goal at a Time by Veronica Rossi Regards, Kareni 11 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Butter Posted February 1, 2016 Share Posted February 1, 2016 Heather, are you back up to full-speed these days? So glad your recovery went so well! :grouphug: Yes, I pretty much am! Surgically, I am all better. I got a cold a few weeks ago and was left with a cough that won't go away. I went to the doctor a week and a half ago and he said it's a post-infection cough and for some reason that cold that's going around is leaving a lot of people with one. It's lasting several weeks. I'm 3 1/2 weeks into the cough and it does seem to be getting better. I was a bit worried about things that are left prolapsing, but everything's holding up nicely. This is the first time in years that I've had a cough longer than a week without urine leakage. I am SO happy with how well the bladder repair and sling are working. Starting today I'm taking back the sweeping and mopping of all the rooms in the house (I do a room each weekday). My 14 year old son is more than happy to be done with that chore he took over from me all the way back in October. Over the course of the last month I added a room a week for me to do. Cameron still did the bathrooms and hallways and stairs last year since that takes the most effort (because of the stairs). I have a list of deep cleaning type things I do every first of the month and this morning for the first time since I prolapsed I did the entire list. I'm slowly getting back to 10,000 steps a day. I'm doing a certain goal for 5 days straight and then I add 500 steps for the next 5 days and so on. I'm on the 4th day of 7,000 steps (I started at 4500 at the beginning of January). So in about a month I'll be back to 10,000. It's nice getting back to myself! 16 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Butter Posted February 1, 2016 Share Posted February 1, 2016 Yesterday I finished three books. I'm still rotating through a bunch of books a chapter at a time. It's working for me right now. The thought of reading one book straight through is just totally unappealing at the moment for some reason. It is not normal for me to read like this, but I have mostly been reading this way since mid-December. I usually only do it if I am reading a heavy book (like History of the Ancient World or Les Mis) because I need mind vacations from that sort of book. And usually then I only alternate between two books. But, whatever, this is how I'm reading for now. 10. Little Lord Fauntleroy by Frances Hodgson Burnett - I loved it. It's such a sweet story about what unconditional love can do. The little boy is 7 like my little boy and at that age they just have such hearts of gold. 11. The Silver Chair by CS Lewis - I didn't like it as much as Dawn Treader or Prince Caspian, but I still liked it. I like Jill. She and Eustace are a good pair. And the marsh-wiggle was just funny. 12. Bundles of Joy by Linda Fairley - This is the second book of memoirs by the longest serving midwife at a single institution in the UK. This one picks up where The Midwife's Here leaves off, just after she became a fully qualified midwife. It's full of memorable birth stories (she's delivered over 2,000 babies) interwoven with her own life. She ended this book with the most memorable to her birth story of all - her own grandson's birth. I enjoyed this book very much. 12 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JennW in SoCal Posted February 1, 2016 Share Posted February 1, 2016 A Moveable Feast will certainly put you in the right frame of mind for your trip, Jenn. May I also suggest you look at David Lebovitz's blog? He is a food writer who lives in Paris. Oh my. Salivating. This pairs well with another food site I found, Paris by Mouth, which not only organizes food tours but has neighborhood guides to food, restaurants, bakeries, bars and stores. I've never eaten game (city girl that I am), and keep hearing it is what you eat in France in the winter. I wonder if I'll be "game" enough to finally try some? I may never come home! Thank you, Mumto2 for the book recommendation, and Heather, aka Butter, a high five to you for the freedom to cough and sneeze without, erm, incident! It is liberating, isn't it?! 9 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pam in CT Posted February 1, 2016 Share Posted February 1, 2016 Jane, thank you for another fabulous launch. I'll join in Passage, which I believe I read in college but the memories are very very dim.... loesje, I hope you feel better... and melissa, I'm so sorry you're dealing with this; and glad your primary doctor is responding so actively and positively. Holding you in the light. Kareni, good to hear about your mother, and positive kharma to your sister. Ali. Well done re: multi quoting!! As a woman who craves validation for successful forays into technology, however small, let me take this moment to :hurray: :hurray: :hurray: :hurray: :hurray: :hurray: :hurray: ....I am still getting thru Rare Bird. It's a memoir about the first year or so in the life of a family that lost their 12 yo son in a flooding creek. It happened in Vienna, Va, and I know the storm she's talking about. It is a very, very emotional read for me, and I've had to tell myself, "You only need to read 5 pages" and that sort of thing, in order to get thru it. I like her writing, and I like what she says about grief and grieving. It's very real. 1000 Gifts (Voskamp) is a re-read, but oh--it is also so danged emotional for me. I am going deep into my parenting and my life in the last 15 years, and my marriage and my relationship to God. I did not realize how taking up reading again would affect me--I've been an emotional mess of sorts. I knew I wanted to exercise my brain in reading again, but I didn't realize how I'd be putting my beliefs and my heart thru the ringer, too. There's just something about the words--words in general, I guess! lol--So much beauty and truth, and so deep, and there's the pain and the gore of a life, my life, that's an open sore in some spots I've just covered over, and the WORDS are seeping in and I don't know if I can stay open to the healing or if I need to cover again because the prodding is so deep and I get lost and sinking and don't trust there is anything, any rope, any thought, to hang on to while I'm being flooded with such...words--other's words that bring MY words to the surface, and name and define the bits and pieces of me. I can't really express it, but reading has opened me again. I don't know if I can take it, honestly. ... Chris, this is so beautiful and true, and... There are seasons for everything. You felt led to begin reading again and here you are. If it is too much too soon, take a break and read something fluffy before returning to heavier titles. But respect both your need for prodding and your need for protection from too much prodding. ...this, exactly. :grouphug: ...I'm scheduled for my C-section on Friday, so this week is going to be about light reading. I have some fantasy sitting around the house... But I am hoping not to read everything so I'll have something to take to the hospital with me! I don't usually read much in the hospital due to pain meds, etc., but I wouldn't feel packed without a book.... Congratulations! Our thoughts will be with you... I read The Marriage of Opposites this week. I am a sucker for magical realism, and for historical fiction, and for strong women characters, and for the tropics, so this book was right up my alley. I didn't feel like it was as tight or gripping as The Dovekeepers, but still a good read. ______ I am in the middle of Queen Bees and Wannabees. Has anyone else read this who has preteen or teenage daughters that homeschool? I am finding it insightful, although my ten year old daughter isn't yet at this stage, even though puberty has begun. I am wondering if homeschooling changes these dynamics at all or if this is just universal behavior? ....... I loved Dovekeepers... will keep an eye out for Marriage of Opposites... _______ re: Queen Bees: this book actually changed my eldest daughter's life (who mostly was not homeschooled, FWIW). I chucked it at her rather thoughtlessly during a rough spot during 5th grade because I thought the constructs would give her a kind of vocabulary to name particular dynamics... and she just sort of glommed on to it and ran... it enabled her to adopt a sort of anthropological perspective on tween and teen dynamics as she went through them... ended up hoovering up every parenting book she could get her hands on, and developed a correspondence with Rosalind Wiseman (who was marvelously generous in her correspodence, and did a workshop at her school) ... and I would trace her current focus on sociology as all starting with Queen Bees. One data point :lol: ... Will be back after errands & pickups for books... 17 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mom-ninja. Posted February 1, 2016 Share Posted February 1, 2016 (edited) Thanks for the dino links and info. Much appreciated. Also, here is a BIG drawback to a Kindle or Nook.....when you forgot to charge it, leave the house with it, try to read, and then realize it's dead. Then you sit there with NOTHING to read. Makes you almost cry. Edited February 1, 2016 by Mom-ninja. 15 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kareni Posted February 2, 2016 Share Posted February 2, 2016 Late last night I finished Armed & Dangerous (Cut & Run Series Book 5) by Abigail Roux. The first four books of the series were written by two authors, but something caused the authors to part company and subsequent books in the series have only one author. Either I'm unobservant or the author is exceptional because I noticed no difference in style. [it does make me wonder how different author pairs split the work. I've heard that sometimes joint authors will have one plot and the other write or one author may write one character's dialogue or the authors may alternate writing chapter by chapter.] In any event, I enjoyed the book. This series is best read in order. "Left alone in Baltimore after his unpredictable lover bails, Special Agent Zane Garrett takes his frustration out on everything in his path until he is ordered to Chicago to back up an undercover operative. When he gets there, though, he finds himself face to face with his wayward partner, Special Agent Ty Grady. They have to deal with the uncertainty lingering between them while they work to retrieve their intended mark, a retired hit man and CIA wet-works operative named Julian Cross.Ty, once a Marine and now an FBI hotshot, has a penchant for being unpredictable, a trait Zane can vouch for. Zane is a man who once lived for his job but has come to realize his heartbreaking past doesn’t have to overshadow his future. They're partners, friends, lovers, and the go-to team for unusual cases. With Cross and his innocuous boyfriend, Cameron Jacobs, in tow, Ty and Zane must navigate the obstacles of a cross-country trek, including TSA pat-downs, blizzards, their uncooperative prisoners, CIA kill teams, a desperate lack of sleep and caffeine, and each other. Ty and Zane are determined to get Julian Cross to DC in one piece, but it’s starting to look like it might be the last thing they do." Regards, Kareni 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ethel Mertz Posted February 2, 2016 Share Posted February 2, 2016 I finished Steve Burrow's A Siege of Bitterns and enjoyed it greatly mostly because my spouse and DS are avid birders. I gave it 4 stars as I thought the characters could have been drawn out more. I also finished Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle and found it immensely helpful as our family tries to hone eating more locally. We know our local farmers and fishing families well, and are trying to lessen our dependence on pre-packaged, shipped-from-across-the-country foods. I gave it 5 stars. I'm still working through Eric Metaxas' Bonhoeffer. It is a very intense book, revealing details about the Nazi resistance movement of which I was hitherto unaware. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Angel Posted February 2, 2016 Share Posted February 2, 2016 Before vacation, I read Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, another book for Aly's Worldview class. This was a reread for me, and I enjoyed it again. I found myself looking a little deeper while reading, which I certainly hadn't meant to do. Last time I'm not sure that I really gave the story or characters much thought. At least, I don't remember doing so. I admit that this time I was wondering why Dr. Jekyll would want to explore that darker side of his nature. Though I could not compare him to Dr. Frankenstein (as he is in a category all by himself), I found Dr. Jekyll foolish and reckless in a different way. Like Dr. Frankenstein he dabbled in things that were best left alone, but unlike Frankenstein, Dr. Jekyll did take responsibility for his actions. And as always, it is fun to hear Aly's thoughts during the discussion. Today I finished Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, one of my favorite Harry Potter books! Since it has been a while since my last reading of this, I found lots of things I had forgotten, especially the differences between the movie and the book (like Dobby and Kreacher). I have enjoyed picking up even more clues and hints this time around, knowing how the story ends. I love those little nuggets! Since I'm on vacation for a couple more days, I'm going to pick up a smaller beach read before delving back into Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. *01. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley (classic - the Arctic, Switzerland, Germany, England, Scotland, 18th century) *02. Snow Treasure by Marie McSwigan (children's book - historical fiction - Norway, 20th century) *03. Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe (BaW rec - Nigeria, 19th century) *04. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson (classic - reread - England, 18th century) *05. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling (fantasy - reread - England) Tomorrow we might hit 80 here so we've decided it will be a beach day. I love reading on the beach. Two of my favorite things coming together :001_wub: 13 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pam in CT Posted February 2, 2016 Share Posted February 2, 2016 Reading: I seem this week to have concentrated mostly on follow-up to prior readings: The Beautiful Struggle, by Ta-Nehisi Coates - this is his coming-of-age memoir, and in some ways I wish I'd read this one first, before the much-discussed Between the World and Me. It is similarly allusive and insightful and genre-busting (and Angry and in parts hackle-raising), but there's a... ruefulness and self-aware humor that I didn't find in Between the World and Me, and also a kind of poetry -- there truly is beauty in the struggle he describes, among all the chaos and violence and bafflement... and this kind of jumpy hip-hop infused narrative throughout, telescoping in and out between him, then, baffled and distracted, and him, now, calling from the other side, with Knowledge and context and perspective and empathy towards the people who surrounded his former self (particularly his imperfect father) but having lost the.... sweetness, I guess... of his younger self. Very powerful. An Uncertain Path: Justice for Crimes and Human Rights Violations against Migrants and Refugees in Mexico, by José Knippen, Clay Boggs, and Maureen Meyer. This is an overview of information collected by several Mexican non-profits working in southern Mexico (particularly Chiapas, Tabasco, and Oaxaca) with migrant populations making their way north since the stepped-up Southern Border Program between US and Mexican authorities. It follows up and expands upon the stories told and issues raised in Oscar Martinez' excellent La Bestia/The Beast: Riding the Rails and Dodging Narcos on the Migrant Trail, which several of us read last year (and which I'd also highly recommend). The US-City of Ferguson proposed consent decree, which was released last Wednesday and is currently in a review interval in which stakeholders throughout the city have a series of opportunities to provide feedback before the City Council votes on it on February 9, provides a framework for addressing many of the issues laid out in the DOJ report of last spring and which, it appears, the city is likely to accept rather than go to further litigation. I had mixed reactions. While the framework does specify a number of measures to shift law enforcement to a more (shage's term) community-based model, and calls for the elimination of particularly egregious/demonstrably racially biased in enforcement ordinances ("manner of walking"), and imposes data collection and monitoring at many of the stages in both LE and within the municipal court system that underpinned the "revenue generation by arrest fines and court penalties" model... there remain a lot of gaps around enforcement of the decree, and the fundamental revenue problem that drove the issues to begin with have yet to be solved. And while I have mixed feelings, I think I end up troubled that the clarity of the language around the identified racial discrepancies that rang clear in the DOJ have been tamped down essentially into silence: the consent decree barely acknowledges race explicitly, which to my mind makes addressing race-related problems nearly impossible. The Art of Waging Peace: A Strategic Approach to Improving our Lives and the World, by Paul Chappell. This author was recommended by dotwithaperiod over on one of those Epic Threads, and I'm so glad I followed up on it. Chappell is a West Point graduate who served in Iraq; he's part African-American and part Korean; had a difficult childhood that left him traumatized; and has integrated his various experiences to become a full time peace advocate and conflict resolution trainer. The book's title echoes Sun Tzu's Art of War, and Chappell draws on ancient military strategists, ancient myths, and the writings of Douglass /Gandhi/ MLK, among others, to build a case that the structural systems (there we go again, huh) supporting war, far from keeping us safe, are actually endangering our very survival. It ricochets between personal memoir, concrete conflict resolution techniques, and storytelling drawing upon his wealth of reading, myths and metaphors in a way that I found very engaging. It's not without flaws -- he does tend to lapse on occasion into perfectly useless box-and-arrow diagrams and, less often, toward inspirational Covey-speak, but overall very worthwhile. It gets to some of the issues and techniques covered in Crucial Conversations from a different angle, one which is closer to my own orientation. 12 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stacia Posted February 2, 2016 Share Posted February 2, 2016 (edited) It's hard not to feel totally appalled when reading The Beast: Riding the Rails and Dodging Narcos on the Migrant Trail by Óscar MartÃnez. (The link has a half-hour podcast interview on NPR with the author, available in both English and in Spanish, as well as a soundtrack the author put together.) Pondering history where people gave up their livelihoods, their families, everything they knew as familiar... & instead faced the great unknown (maybe hopping in a less-than-seaworthy ship to try to make it across the Atlantic or heading west in a covered wagon), I always wondered how bad their daily lives had to be to become so desperate to go somewhere else when the odds are bad, the conditions unknown (but likely very dangerous), the outcome iffy? What can make someone face such a daunting, difficult, & dangerous trip (even if the potential end location seems worth the risk)? We are seeing the same thing in places around the world today. Reading The Beast makes me better appreciate (or be horrified by?) the plight just to our south & the shocking conditions & almost insurmountable odds facing those from Central America trying to trek out of their own countries, across Mexico, & eventually to the US. A couple of quotes that have shocked me from my own complacent & privileged life... Re: physical dangers of trying to hop on/stay on a moving train... (pgs. 52-53) (Caution to sensitive readers -- you may want to skip this particular quote): "I saw one guy, " Wilbur remebers, speaking as calmly as if he were remembering a soccer match, "who got his leg chopped off by a wheel. The guy just couldn't lift himself up once he was already running. And since the train was going so slowly, he had enough time to see his chopped leg, think about it, and then put his head under the next wheel. You know," Wilbur says, "if he was heading north because he couldn't get work down south, what could he possibly find with only one leg?" Re: dangers facing women... (pg. 84) Salvadoran and Honduran consuls explained to me that many Central American women who decide to migrate are running away from this type of precarious situation, in which they live in perpetual fear of a gang or find living at home to be as bad or worse than living on the street. They come from circumstances that encourage the normalization of prostitution, rape, and human trafficking. It's a reality in which kids die by the dozen, fathers are aggressors, and neighborhoods are war zones. Re: mass kidnappings of migrants by organized gangs/cartels becoming more & more common... (pgs. 102-103) The unspoken question becomes evident. How is it possible that the kidnappings are still happening when the local governments, the countries of origin, the media, the Mexican government, and the US government all know exactly what's going on? <snip> What Consul Ortiz says is clear: everybody knows, nobody acts, and the kidnappings continue. and (pg. 105) A warning we had gotten back in Coatzacoalcos comes to mind: "If you go there asking about the kidnappings, Los Zetas will know in eight minutes. If you talk to any of the town's authorities, they'll know in three." and (pg. 112) By the time authorities found the ranch, the migrants knew that they'd met the famous storybook wolves: Los Zetas. They already knew by heart the chilling threat the kidnappers used to introduce themselves: "We are Los Zetas! Don't move or we'll kill you!"In these small towns, there's no need of an ID, or any other kind of credential, to prove Zeta membership. If someone says they're a Zeta, they're a Zeta. If they say they're a Zeta and they're not a Zeta, it won't be too long before they're dead. I said in my first post that this author (& his photographer) are basically like front-line war journalists. I applaud them for having the courage & perseverance to do this work. It needs to be seen & heard. This is gritty & hard to bear... and it should be required reading for all who reside in the Americas. And I'm not even halfway through the book.... Edited February 2, 2016 by Stacia 16 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Violet Crown Posted February 2, 2016 Share Posted February 2, 2016 Still struggling with sleep deprivation and reading little. Spare a thought for Wee Girl whose night-disturbing anxieties have come back into full flower. At least with dh home there are now two parents to handle the nights. Dh, flush with his success at last in finding a sceince fiction book I liked (Roadside Picnic), convinced me to read The Chrysalids by John Wyndham (better known for Day of the Triffids). It was all right for a while and then collapsed into standard YA post-apocalyptic stuff. I suppose being fifty years old it was probably one of the first such, but still. I've completely lost my copy of War and Peace and Newman is beyond my current intellectual powers so currently reading neither of those but instead Frank Norris' McTeague, which has been in dh's TBR pile since we got married. And now I'm going to have read it first, ha. 16 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
idnib Posted February 2, 2016 Share Posted February 2, 2016 Still struggling with sleep deprivation and reading little. Spare a thought for Wee Girl whose night-disturbing anxieties have come back into full flower. At least with dh home there are now two parents to handle the nights. :grouphug: 11 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kareni Posted February 2, 2016 Share Posted February 2, 2016 Still struggling with sleep deprivation and reading little. Spare a thought for Wee Girl whose night-disturbing anxieties have come back into full flower. Sending some sweet dreams vibes for Wee Girl. Regards, Kareni 10 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JennW in SoCal Posted February 2, 2016 Share Posted February 2, 2016 Still struggling with sleep deprivation and reading little. Spare a thought for Wee Girl whose night-disturbing anxieties have come back into full flower. Oh my. Neil Gaiman's first Sandman comic story line has the actual Sandman being held captive by a cut-rate magician, and the resulting sleep and dream populations in random people across the globe. Here's hoping the Sandman gets his act together and sends the proper sweet, sleep inducing dreams to your little corner of the world. (Oh my. The word "musician" naturally flowed out of my fingers after the phrase "cut-rate". I had to catch myself and carefully type "m-a-g-i-c-i-a-n".) 12 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tawlas Posted February 2, 2016 Share Posted February 2, 2016 This is a week "off" from school in our house, so I'm hoping that (now that I have the biggest cleaning projects out of the way) I can sit down and get a bunch of reading done. Also, tomorrow is town day and I think I have several books in for me! Finished off listening to Renaissance, Reformation and the Rise of Nations from Great Courses today while over-hauling toddler's room today, so that's the last one off my six week list. As for the next six week list I'm well into Oliver Twist as my WEM read, Life at Home for a whim read, and about to start History of the Medieval World by SWB. Let's see, other books . . . a book about rebuilding soil by Rodale, Five Good Minutes With the One You Love to aid me in my yearlong quest for more connection, and Homeschooling Your Struggling Learner on my kindle app. I believe that Trail of Broken Wings is waiting for me and I'm looking forward to some really good fiction - it's supposed to be good, anyhow! Jane, you've inspired me to see if Passage to India is available in my library! Thank you! 11 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeacefulChaos Posted February 2, 2016 Share Posted February 2, 2016 Yay! I got caught up! And, of course, I added more books to my Goodreads list. ;) Unfortunately, it's also 1:30am. Sigh. I got up at 8am this morning (yesterday morning? Whatever. Monday.) and felt like I got so much done! But my internal clock is not set for those hours very well, and before I know it at night, it is incredibly late, and I am then unable to wake up at such hours in the morning. This morning I sort of had to - the internet guys were coming to do some installation and I wasn't sure if they'd need to be inside. I can get up fine when needed - it's when it's just a regular day that I just... don't. I can't. I guess I could, but the motivation just isn't there. :( But I digress. As for me, I finished up The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up. I continue to love it. Though it is true that all I've done so far is read through the entire book, I'm literally giddy to begin discarding things. Let the fun begin!! (Well. Soon... :D ) I totally can't wait, though, seriously. I'm hoping to begin tackling my clothes one day this week. The weekend brought some unexpected reading time, as a kidney stone kept me up most of the night Saturday into Sunday morning. Kidney stones are no unusual circumstance for me, but having one that was just painful enough to bother me but yet not quite painful enough to send me to the ER (I was out of meds) was quite unusual for me. I drank about 50-60 oz of water, took ibuprofen, tylenol, flomax, and zofran (at the very least, even if I didn't have pain medicine, I didn't want to be getting sick!) and, in times when I could, took my mind off the pain with a book. :P At that point, I started another re-read out of my 'books I once read for groups at church' pile, Woman of Influence. I've gotten a few chapters in, and so far I'm still liking it, though I'm a bit ambivalent about things like having a 'passion'. But all in all, it's one I'll probably keep around after finishing it. Unless I get further in and it totally loses me. Who knows, anything is possible. :) I'll also be picking up a pre-read for Link (who is turning TWELVE on Wednesday!!!) sometime this week. And today I read Cantos I-V of Dante's Inferno, and thought to myself hmm... I should put this on my reading list for this year. :lol: So anyway. So far this year: 4. The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up (Kondo) 3. The Heavenly Man (Yun) ​2. Captivating (Eldredge) 1. This Present Darkness (Peretti) 11 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted February 2, 2016 Share Posted February 2, 2016 (edited) 3 African-American related books: Let Your Motto Be Resistance: This is as stunning a collection as the dust jacket copy proclaims it - the photos themselves are amazing, the brief bio sketches informative, and the opening and closing essays thought provoking. Adding this to my 'to buy' list... [ETA book description and to clarify which AA I meant] "This stunning collection of photographic portraits traces US history through the lives of well-known abolitionists, artists, scientists, writers, statesman, entertainers, and sports figures. Drawing on the photographic collections of the National Portrait Gallery, author Deborah Willis explores how these images—many by famous photographers—reveal the nation's history through an African American lens and challenge us all to uphold America's highest ideals and promises. Let Your Motto Be Resistance is the inaugural publication of the Smithsonian's new National Museum of African American History and Culture." Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria: This wasn't as helpful as I had hoped it would be, but it was interesting and complemented some of the other reading I've been doing. (Thank you to the BaWers who recommended this - it has been on my TBR list for an embarrassing number of years) The Fire This Time by Kenan: I read another book by this title (there are quite a few!) which I *thought* was the one Stacia had read and recommended (It is about the Watts uprisings of the '60's and is a valuable, if a bit dry, book with a fabulous mixture of nitty gritty detail (like No Cause for Indictment) and bigger picture analysis)... this one is more like Baldwin's Fire Next Time or Coates' Between the World and Me. Not as well written as either of them, but I found it a nice complement to those - Kenan is much more optimistic (I know, it doesn't take much) and he falls between Baldwin and Coates in age, I believe, and has an interesting life story and perspective. One book of poetry & one of "prose poems": Dream of a Common Language by Rich: Rich will probably never be quite my cup of tea, but *wow* do I appreciate her more now than I did as a young adult! Some of these were very powerful - and by the time I was midway through the (slim) book, I had adjusted, mostly, to her style. Fires by Yourcenar: Not nearly as amazing as Memoirs of Hadrian, but the use of classical stories/characters and the intensely personal snippets interspersed between the stories was always interesting and some of the stories were mini-masterpieces. (Rose, you might be interested in her Clytemnestra story - though I don't know if you would want to share it with your daughter. If you're considering the Penelopiad, this would be fine, though I'd hesitate to share the collection as a whole with a 9th grader, it is not a happy viewpoint on love.) One religious book & one comfort reread: The Elucidated Tomer Devorah: TD is a mussar (character development) book which is heavily rooted in classical Jewish mysticism. This (relatively thick) book elucidates only the very first chapter. There was much I found useful and inspiring, but I didn't care for the invented stories to illustrate each trait - I felt they over simplified in the extreme and, honestly, there were some gender things which (lightly) pushed some of my buttons. (not, to be clear, in the text itself or in the commentary, just in the cardboard stereotypes of illustrative stories.) Coronets and Steel by Sherwood Smith: Smith is one of my favorite comfort read authors and although I reread this trilogy last year, it is the least reread of her books... Edited February 2, 2016 by Eliana Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted February 2, 2016 Share Posted February 2, 2016 I am so behind on the thread already! (And with so many things I wanted to respond to from last week and the week before!) Private Life by Josep Maria de Sagarra was a little slow going for me initially. This is a new Archipelago edition of a Catalan classic from 1932, a tale of declining aristocrats in a time of change in Europe. At this point there are no sympathetic characters which probably accounts for the slow start. But I am now sufficiently intrigued. And I am savoring the essays by Charles D'Ambrosio in Loitering. Jane, thank you for the inspiring intro to Forster! I am pulling out my copy of Passage to India with great enthusiasm - there's a lovely discussion of the first line in Eagleton's book on reading lit (which is what inspired me to consider reading this - I'd been put off by reading about it...) G-d willing, I will try to share it later this week. Both of these books look delightful - adding them to my tbr list (and hoping my library might have them....) I read Mrs. Bridge - 5 Stars - I loved this book – my first 5-star read of 2016! I finished the last few pages sitting in the car while waiting for my son to buy lunch and was almost in tears. I came home and started telling my husband about it and then, of course, I was sobbing. It’s a perfect read, impeccably written, and unique. The chapters are short and a pleasure to get through. They’re more like vignettes than chapters. Parts of it are funny, other parts are heartbreaking. It’s a perfectly observed story of an upper-middle class American woman in the suburban Midwest before World War II. All in all, it’s a simple and subtle read. Nothing incredible or major happens. No huge plot twists and turns. Yet it has profound depth and is incredibly insightful. Negin, I have thought about reading this many times, but was never committed enough to the idea... you've convinced me it should be on the list... thank you! (And also alerted me that I should, perhaps, not try reading it when emotionally fragile!) I'm listening to The Plantagenets by Dan Jones. It's perfect for an audiobook, something to listen to while I'm doing other things - kind of a summary coverage, not too in-depth, very story-form. I'm enjoying the audio version, I doubt if I would sit and read it, though. With the kids, I have Richard III, Robin Hood, and Shakespeare's Sonnets ongoing. I'm on chapter 10-ish of HotRW. Rose, you'd asked me about this last week, but I didn't make it back to the desktop where I can type easily... I abandoned it because it is, as you observe, a very surface glance at the period and this is a period I am very familiar with (and have rather strong feelings about). The book wasn't adding anything, had enough things that felt inaccurate or overly simplified (or just seen from an angle other than my own!), and the author doesn't have a style that makes me eager to continue despite the imperfections (Mattingly's Catherine of Aragon or Warrens' King John. on, the other hand, had prose styles I dove into and didn't want to come out of) re: RIII: you might enjoy Ada Palmer's essay on Tor: How Pacing Makes History into Story And you'd asked about as SFF series to read next... I think you desperately want to read Walton's Thessaly series ...and I say that with the third book not yet published... and me having missed out on getting to beta read it :( They have Jo's special blend of mind and heart (the only thing her books really have in common), but these take that to another dimension... The Just City is in powerful, challenging dialogue with Plato, but, at its core, is about agency and choice. The second book Philosopher Kings is one I love immoderately. Its center is about becoming our best and truest self... I wouldn't press this on anyone, but I think you would love them. (And I apologize abjectly in advance if I am wrong!) I did not realize how taking up reading again would affect me--I've been an emotional mess of sorts. I knew I wanted to exercise my brain in reading again, but I didn't realize how I'd be putting my beliefs and my heart thru the ringer, too. There's just something about the words--words in general, I guess! lol--So much beauty and truth, and so deep, and there's the pain and the gore of a life, my life, that's an open sore in some spots I've just covered over, and the WORDS are seeping in and I don't know if I can stay open to the healing or if I need to cover again because the prodding is so deep and I get lost and sinking and don't trust there is anything, any rope, any thought, to hang on to while I'm being flooded with such...words--other's words that bring MY words to the surface, and name and define the bits and pieces of me. I can't really express it, but reading has opened me again. I don't know if I can take it, honestly. :grouphug: I've never stopped reading, but I am having a similar experience as I go through my own struggles. It is amazing, magical, and scary as anything. ...and sometimes, yes, too much. Sometimes I have to change reading gears and find something that doesn't riff so powerfully and painfully off my own heart and life... to find things that approach me more obliquely... :grouphug: Trust yourself as you move through this. Sometimes switching genres can help - to nonfiction, to poetry, to plays...sometimes just switching styles or reverting to 'safer' more familiar territory... or mixing things up by reading multiple types/flavors of books at the same time. I finished Ancillary Justice earlier in the week, and just finished Ancillary Sword a few minutes ago, then turned around and ordered Ancillary Mercy. So much for delayed gratification. [emoji5] I liked Justice better than Sword, which I found somewhat more unfocused and soapboxy, but I still gave Sword 4 stars on Goodreads. And of course I did immediately order the 3rd book in the series...I'm scheduled for my C-section on Friday, so this week is going to be about light reading. I have some fantasy sitting around the house... But I am hoping not to read everything so I'll have something to take to the hospital with me! I don't usually read much in the hospital due to pain meds, etc., but I wouldn't feel packed without a book. I enjoyed all three, but Justice was the one that blew me out of the water. The others developed and built on it (and so beautifully, I think), but I did find Sword more middle book-y than some 2nd of a trilogies... in part because I wasn't sure what the arc of the story was and couldn't see, yet, which bits were really going somewhere. I agree with Rose that Sword is more satisfying having read Mercy. I will be thinking of you and your little one Friday! :grouphug: I'm still working on Out of Africa. It is definitely good story telling. There is a lot of pausing for me whenever she mentions ways in which Africa had changed and was changing before her eyes, especially the land and the animal life. The people are more complicated. They are all alike in so many ways yet so different, too. All the people tend to manipulate each other and their environment to suit themselves. The reasons and methods differ according to culture and values. The land and the animals have no such ability or choices. Your comments have moved me from vaguely wanting to read OoA to very, very eager - thank you! ...and your last sentence offers much food for reflection.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jane in NC Posted February 2, 2016 Share Posted February 2, 2016 Eliana, I will mail Private Life to you after I finish reading it. Best regards from Jane (who should be sleeping--sigh...) 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rosie_0801 Posted February 2, 2016 Share Posted February 2, 2016 I am in the middle of Queen Bees and Wannabees. Has anyone else read this who has preteen or teenage daughters that homeschool? I am finding it insightful, although my ten year old daughter isn't yet at this stage, even though puberty has begun. I am wondering if homeschooling changes these dynamics at all or if this is just universal behavior? I read it ages ago. We don't have any of that kind of nonsense in our homeschooling group and when I was a brownie leader, we didn't have any of it either. When our troop was turned over to new leaders, the atmosphere became very Queen Bee and Wannabe within weeks. It was so, so very ugly. 11 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pam in CT Posted February 2, 2016 Share Posted February 2, 2016 :grouphug: to Wee Girl. May solid sleep return. Oh my. Neil Gaiman's first Sandman comic story line has the actual Sandman being held captive by a cut-rate magician, and the resulting sleep and dream populations in random people across the globe. Here's hoping the Sandman gets his act together and sends the proper sweet, sleep inducing dreams to your little corner of the world. (Oh my. The word "musician" naturally flowed out of my fingers after the phrase "cut-rate". I had to catch myself and carefully type "m-a-g-i-c-i-a-n".) :lol: 8 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jane in NC Posted February 2, 2016 Share Posted February 2, 2016 Good morning all! I realize that some who intend to read A Passage to India this month have not had the opportunity to crack open the book yet. Nonetheless I hope you won't mind if I make a couple of small comments on the early part of the novel. Notice the names? It feels that we are embarking on an allegory as we encounter Adela Quested and Mrs. Moore. The latter in particular seems to understand and desires to learn more than the average Anglo-Indian as Forster terms the British residents. Two of Mrs. Moore's actions set the stage for this character. She escapes the stifling Anglo club to visit a mosque. Dr. Aziz who is enjoying the tranquil space by himself reacts angrily to her presence until he realizes that she has removed her shoes. Her awareness changes everything. Shortly after that incident, Mrs. Moore encounters a wasp on a peg where she is about to hang her cloak. Unlike most of us who would swat at the insect, she instinctively takes the Hindu path of respecting life. She calls it "pretty dear" and leaves the wasp undisturbed. Forster is painting a portrait of a very different sort of Englishwoman. 13 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bluegoat Posted February 2, 2016 Share Posted February 2, 2016 Still struggling with sleep deprivation and reading little. Spare a thought for Wee Girl whose night-disturbing anxieties have come back into full flower. At least with dh home there are now two parents to handle the nights. Dh, flush with his success at last in finding a sceince fiction book I liked (Roadside Picnic), convinced me to read The Chrysalids by John Wyndham (better known for Day of the Triffids). It was all right for a while and then collapsed into standard YA post-apocalyptic stuff. I suppose being fifty years old it was probably one of the first such, but still. I've completely lost my copy of War and Peace and Newman is beyond my current intellectual powers so currently reading neither of those but instead Frank Norris' McTeague, which has been in dh's TBR pile since we got married. And now I'm going to have read it first, ha. I hope you get the night issues under control. Two parents are surely better than one for such things though. My dh was supposed to arrive home yesterday, they were on the little plane, and one of the engines broke. So they are waiting today for a mechanic to be flown out to fix it, or failing that to bring them home. The weather looks good so hopefully they will be able to land and take off. Science fiction - one you might try is A Canticle For Leibowitz. It is also post-apocalyptic, a fairly early novel of that type, but it has some really interesting features. IIRC it was the first science fiction novel ever reviewed in THe New York Times Book Review. You might find it has some appeal. 11 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mom22es Posted February 2, 2016 Share Posted February 2, 2016 Jane – thank you for the wonderful write up on Forster. I will definitely join in for A Passage to India. I remember the first time I read a Room with a View. The beauty of the writing literally took my breath away. After that I immediately read Howard’s End and enjoyed it. But I have never read APtI. I can’t wait to start it since I’ve also never done a read along. I have to figure out the quote and multi-quote thing so I can comment on all the books mentioned in these threads. So many good books – happy sigh. Update on my dad. He’s still in the hospital, but he is probably the luckiest man I know. He will come away from this without any significant neurological deficits which his doctors have told us is just amazing. We are thinking he will be discharged sometime this week. I’ve been staying with him pretty much this whole time so I’m looking forward to being home with my family again. I started reading Brideshead Revisited a few days ago. Andrew Kern mentioned it a lot at the last Circe Conference and I have wanted to read it for a while. It’s pretty much all I’m reading right now, since Dad requires so much of my time. I think I have abandoned Mansfield Park. As much as I wanted to revisit it, it was turning into a chore to read. If I decide to re-read an Austen I’d much rather read Persuasion since it’s my favorite. I plan to start A Passage to India when I finish Brideshead and I also want to start St. Athanasius’s On the Incarnation this week. David Hicks mentioned it several times at the same Circe Conference and I’m curious. I’m also a few chapters into Light in August by Faulkner. I liked it enough to continue once I’m settled back home again. Please forgive all my typing errors, I’m quite sleep deprived – grin. 13 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chrysalis Academy Posted February 2, 2016 Share Posted February 2, 2016 (edited) Still struggling with sleep deprivation and reading little. Spare a thought for Wee Girl whose night-disturbing anxieties have come back into full flower. At least with dh home there are now two parents to handle the nights. Dh, flush with his success at last in finding a sceince fiction book I liked (Roadside Picnic), convinced me to read The Chrysalids by John Wyndham (better known for Day of the Triffids). It was all right for a while and then collapsed into standard YA post-apocalyptic stuff. I suppose being fifty years old it was probably one of the first such, but still. I've completely lost my copy of War and Peace and Newman is beyond my current intellectual powers so currently reading neither of those but instead Frank Norris' McTeague, which has been in dh's TBR pile since we got married. And now I'm going to have read it first, ha. I re-read this recently too, and has a similar reaction. I was more drawn to the whole leaving-the-cult angle, but it worked better for me as a youngster than it does now. And, sorry about Wee Girl's sleep struggles. I have a little dd who awakens with horrible nightmares of spiders and dead mothers. Less often now than she used to. Sleep deprivation is tough to handle, but the terror in their little faces is truly heartbreaking. Edited February 2, 2016 by Chrysalis Academy 8 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chrysalis Academy Posted February 2, 2016 Share Posted February 2, 2016 Rose, you'd asked me about this last week, but I didn't make it back to the desktop where I can type easily... I abandoned it because it is, as you observe, a very surface glance at the period and this is a period I am very familiar with (and have rather strong feelings about). The book wasn't adding anything, had enough things that felt inaccurate or overly simplified (or just seen from an angle other than my own!), and the author doesn't have a style that makes me eager to continue despite the imperfections (Mattingly's Catherine of Aragon or Warrens' King John. on, the other hand, had prose styles I dove into and didn't want to come out of) re: RIII: you might enjoy Ada Palmer's essay on Tor: How Pacing Makes History into Story And you'd asked about as SFF series to read next... I think you desperately want to read Walton's Thessaly series ...and I say that with the third book not yet published... and me having missed out on getting to beta read it :( They have Jo's special blend of mind and heart (the only thing her books really have in common), but these take that to another dimension... The Just City is in powerful, challenging dialogue with Plato, but, at its core, is about agency and choice. The second book Philosopher Kings is one I love immoderately. Its center is about becoming our best and truest self... I wouldn't press this on anyone, but I think you would love them. (And I apologize abjectly in advance if I am wrong!) Eliana, thank you for all the suggestions, they have all gone onto my to-read list. I'd love to hear all your favorite history/historical fiction selections from the HotRW period, as I'm making an effort to do lots of read-alongs. And the Tor essay was fabulous! Part of the reason I'm delving so much into this period is that Shannon and I are flirting with the idea of doing a "Shakespeare in/as History" course in 10th grade, in lieu of a more standard Medieval/Renaissance history study, and that essay was perfect. I think, being a thespian, she'd enjoy focusing on the plays, and as a storyteller, she'd enjoy thinking about how stories are constructed from real events. And my goal, as always, is to help her learn to be a critical reader! We've sidetracked into a couple of Shakespeare plays this year and are catching up on all the movie versions we can get our hands on, because both girls are in a Shakespeare production right now, a kind of medley piece. It's been very enjoyable. 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kareni Posted February 2, 2016 Share Posted February 2, 2016 3 AA related books: Let Your Motto Be Resistance: This is as stunning a collection as the dust jacket copy proclaims it - the photos themselves are amazing, the brief bio sketches informative, and the opening and closing essays thought provoking. Adding this to my 'to buy' list... I'll admit to wondering initially why you were reading about Alcoholics Anonymous. The first title and description did nothing to disabuse me of the idea! Update on my dad. He’s still in the hospital, but he is probably the luckiest man I know. I'm glad that your father is doing better. I hope that you soon can reunite with your own family and get some rest. The weekend brought some unexpected reading time, as a kidney stone kept me up most of the night Saturday into Sunday morning. Wishing you well! Sending good thoughts to all who are struggling with issues of any kind. Regards, Kareni 8 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted February 2, 2016 Share Posted February 2, 2016 Melissa, sending you (gentle) hugs and hopes for healing. I am so glad you have found a way to still be here with us - let us know if there's any support we can offer you. I can only imagine how hard (and scary) things must be right now. Kareni: Still keeping your mother in my thoughts. :grouphug: Heather: So glad your recovery has gone so well (and that your hard work resting and taking it gently has paid off!). I hope you can kick this cough soon too... Pam: How did the bas mitzvah go (or is it yet to come)? VC: I'll keep Wee Girl in my prayers - and you. It is hard having a kid struggling. :grouphug: Yay! I got caught up! The weekend brought some unexpected reading time, as a kidney stone kept me up most of the night Saturday into Sunday morning. Kidney stones are no unusual circumstance for me, but having one that was just painful enough to bother me but yet not quite painful enough to send me to the ER (I was out of meds) was quite unusual for me. I drank about 50-60 oz of water, took ibuprofen, tylenol, flomax, and zofran (at the very least, even if I didn't have pain medicine, I didn't want to be getting sick!) and, in times when I could, took my mind off the pain with a book. :p I'll also be picking up a pre-read for Link (who is turning TWELVE on Wednesday!!!) sometime this week. You're caught up! :hurray: I am trailing along behind.... but loving what I have caught! Oh dear, kidney stones (and worse yet, they aren't a rare occurrence in your life!) :grouphug: Happy birthday to your (almost) teen! Reading: I seem this week to have concentrated mostly on follow-up to prior readings: The Beautiful Struggle, by Ta-Nehisi Coates - this is his coming-of-age memoir, and in some ways I wish I'd read this one first, before the much-discussed Between the World and Me. It is similarly allusive and insightful and genre-busting (and Angry and in parts hackle-raising), but there's a... ruefulness and self-aware humor that I didn't find in Between the World and Me, and also a kind of poetry -- there truly is beauty in the struggle he describes, among all the chaos and violence and bafflement... and this kind of jumpy hip-hop infused narrative throughout, telescoping in and out between him, then, baffled and distracted, and him, now, calling from the other side, with Knowledge and context and perspective and empathy towards the people who surrounded his former self (particularly his imperfect father) but having lost the.... sweetness, I guess... of his younger self. Very powerful. An Uncertain Path: Justice for Crimes and Human Rights Violations against Migrants and Refugees in Mexico, by José Knippen, Clay Boggs, and Maureen Meyer. This is an overview of information collected by several Mexican non-profits working in southern Mexico (particularly Chiapas, Tabasco, and Oaxaca) with migrant populations making their way north since the stepped-up Southern Border Program between US and Mexican authorities. It follows up and expands upon the stories told and issues raised in Oscar Martinez' excellent La Bestia/The Beast: Riding the Rails and Dodging Narcos on the Migrant Trail, which several of us read last year (and which I'd also highly recommend). The US-City of Ferguson proposed consent decree, which was released last Wednesday and is currently in a review interval in which stakeholders throughout the city have a series of opportunities to provide feedback before the City Council votes on it on February 9, provides a framework for addressing many of the issues laid out in the DOJ report of last spring and which, it appears, the city is likely to accept rather than go to further litigation. I had mixed reactions. While the framework does specify a number of measures to shift law enforcement to a more (shage's term) community-based model, and calls for the elimination of particularly egregious/demonstrably racially biased in enforcement ordinances ("manner of walking"), and imposes data collection and monitoring at many of the stages in both LE and within the municipal court system that underpinned the "revenue generation by arrest fines and court penalties" model... there remain a lot of gaps around enforcement of the decree, and the fundamental revenue problem that drove the issues to begin with have yet to be solved. And while I have mixed feelings, I think I end up troubled that the clarity of the language around the identified racial discrepancies that rang clear in the DOJ have been tamped down essentially into silence: the consent decree barely acknowledges race explicitly, which to my mind makes addressing race-related problems nearly impossible. The Art of Waging Peace: A Strategic Approach to Improving our Lives and the World, by Paul Chappell. This author was recommended by dotwithaperiod over on one of those Epic Threads, and I'm so glad I followed up on it. Chappell is a West Point graduate who served in Iraq; he's part African-American and part Korean; had a difficult childhood that left him traumatized; and has integrated his various experiences to become a full time peace advocate and conflict resolution trainer. The book's title echoes Sun Tzu's Art of War, and Chappell draws on ancient military strategists, ancient myths, and the writings of Douglass /Gandhi/ MLK, among others, to build a case that the structural systems (there we go again, huh) supporting war, far from keeping us safe, are actually endangering our very survival. It ricochets between personal memoir, concrete conflict resolution techniques, and storytelling drawing upon his wealth of reading, myths and metaphors in a way that I found very engaging. It's not without flaws -- he does tend to lapse on occasion into perfectly useless box-and-arrow diagrams and, less often, toward inspirational Covey-speak, but overall very worthwhile. It gets to some of the issues and techniques covered in Crucial Conversations from a different angle, one which is closer to my own orientation. Pam, You are (as always) inspiring. Thank you, love. I loved BtWaM, but only liked Beautiful Struggle. (Though I am very, very glad I read it). The latter gave me a glimpse of a foreign world, the former helped me see it a bit through his eyes... and to connect it to my own experiences, questions, struggles, and hopes. The Art of Waging Peace is on my TBr list (and my shelves), but I wasn't sure it is what I am looking for right now... but I am intrigued by your description and, also, looking for things from a similar orientation, I think. I've bookmarked An Uncertain Peace, but am almost afraid to revisit Latin American issues from that angle again. ...that was one of my areas of passion and volunteerism pre-kids (and a bit when my eldest was a baby - she was such a *portable* child, very eager to ride along with me everywhere. My other babies, especially my youngest, would not have made it feel so, relatively, easy, to keep doing all of those things with baby-in-tow... ) 10. Little Lord Fauntleroy by Frances Hodgson Burnett - I loved it. It's such a sweet story about what unconditional love can do. The little boy is 7 like my little boy and at that age they just have such hearts of gold. I have always been so fond of Little Lord Fauntleroy... and I probably still believe, on a heart level, that innocence and love can be that transformative. Have you read The Lost Prince? I'm about half way through The Buried Book. (Thanks again, Eliana!) The story of the discovery of the Epic of Gilgamesh is really fascinating. The book discusses how a local Iraqi archeologist, Hormuzd Rassam, had credit taken from him for his discoveries during his lifetime. He wrote several books, one of which is Asshur and the Land of Nimrod, of which I found Google-digitaized version of Harvard's copy online. I'll just copy a bit of the story of the lack of archeological credit related in The Buried Book because I was reminded of it when Jane mentioned above the colonial British idea of superiority. Not I - though it is on my TBR lists. Rose read it recently, I believe (but I think I quoted her expressing interest, so that might be what you remember) And, because of a conversation a couple of weeks ago at church, I started reading Tess of the D'Urbervilles. I didn't really read any summaries/synopsis ahead of time, so I didn't know if it was going to be a happy book or not. And, I was so disturbed by how ...ugh...injust the whole thing turned out to be for that child. I feel so outraged. And, there's no castle to storm. It was a different time with different conventions and norms. The characters weren't even real. But, I feel like DOING something. And, there's nothing to do. It's just wrong. And over. And.....disturbing. I think I should read something as a palate cleanser. But, that seems dismissive. And, ick. I read Tess when I was 15 or so and haven't quite recovered yet. :grouphug: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kareni Posted February 2, 2016 Share Posted February 2, 2016 I'm continuing to re-read my way through the Cut and Run series. Most recently I finished Stars & Stripes (Cut & Run Series Book 6) by Abigail Roux. I'm enjoying revisiting these books. Once again, this series is best read in order. (Adult content.) "Special Agents Ty Grady and Zane Garrett have managed the impossible: a few months of peace and quiet. After nearly a year of personal and professional turmoil, they're living together conflict-free, work is going smoothly, and they're both happy, healthy, and home every night before dark. But anyone who knows them knows that can’t possibly last.When an emergency call from home upsets the balance of their carefully arranged world, Ty and Zane must juggle family drama with a perplexing crime to save a helpless victim before time runs out.From the mountains of West Virginia to a remote Texas horse ranch harboring more than just livestock and childhood memories, Ty and Zane must face their fears — and their families — to overcome an unlikely enemy and bring peace back into their newly shared world." Regards, Kareni 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted February 2, 2016 Share Posted February 2, 2016 I'll admit to wondering initially why you were reading about Alcoholics Anonymous. The first title and description did nothing to disabuse me of the idea! Oh, dear. I'll go fix that, shall I? African-American... *sigh* Sorry about that. Eliana, thank you for all the suggestions, they have all gone onto my to-read list. I'd love to hear all your favorite history/historical fiction selections from the HotRW period, as I'm making an effort to do lots of read-alongs. And the Tor essay was fabulous! Part of the reason I'm delving so much into this period is that Shannon and I are flirting with the idea of doing a "Shakespeare in/as History" course in 10th grade, in lieu of a more standard Medieval/Renaissance history study, and that essay was perfect. I think, being a thespian, she'd enjoy focusing on the plays, and as a storyteller, she'd enjoy thinking about how stories are constructed from real events. And my goal, as always, is to help her learn to be a critical reader! We've sidetracked into a couple of Shakespeare plays this year and are catching up on all the movie versions we can get our hands on, because both girls are in a Shakespeare production right now, a kind of medley piece. It's been very enjoyable. I still owe you some typed up ancient lit thoughts, but I do have suggestions for M/R... especially Shakespeare things... I'll try to type up some of those thoughts too. Update on my dad. He’s still in the hospital, but he is probably the luckiest man I know. He will come away from this without any significant neurological deficits which his doctors have told us is just amazing. We are thinking he will be discharged sometime this week. I’ve been staying with him pretty much this whole time so I’m looking forward to being home with my family again. :hurray: I hope you can be home soon - but, oh, how amazing that he is recovering so well! I am so relieved...and so happy for you and your family. :grouphug: Good morning all! I realize that some who intend to read A Passage to India this month have not had the opportunity to crack open the book yet. Nonetheless I hope you won't mind if I make a couple of small comments on the early part of the novel. Notice the names? It feels that we are embarking on an allegory as we encounter Adela Quested and Mrs. Moore. The latter in particular seems to understand and desires to learn more than the average Anglo-Indian as Forster terms the British residents. Two of Mrs. Moore's actions set the stage for this character. She escapes the stifling Anglo club to visit a mosque. Dr. Aziz who is enjoying the tranquil space by himself reacts angrily to her presence until he realizes that she has removed her shoes. Her awareness changes everything. Shortly after that incident, Mrs. Moore encounters a wasp on a peg where she is about to hang her cloak. Unlike most of us who would swat at the insect, she instinctively takes the Hindu path of respecting life. She calls it "pretty dear" and leaves the wasp undisturbed. Forster is painting a portrait of a very different sort of Englishwoman. Eliana, I will mail Private Life to you after I finish reading it. Best regards from Jane (who should be sleeping--sigh...) Aww! Thank you, love! ...and thank you for the observations about the opening of APtI! I remember from Eagleton's analysis of the first lines that Forster's work is very crafted and intentional. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kareni Posted February 2, 2016 Share Posted February 2, 2016 Oh, dear. I'll go fix that, shall I? African-American... *sigh* Sorry about that. No need to apologize or change it! I was enjoying the humor of my mistake. Regards, Kareni 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TechWife Posted February 2, 2016 Share Posted February 2, 2016 My latest review is up: In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin. I don't think it's the author's best work, but as always, Eric Larson gave me some things to think about. I am still reading The New Jim Crow. In all honesty, I haven't picked it up this week. Today I heard an interview that inspired me to pick it up again, so I am back at it. The subject is too important to ignore, even when it's hard. The interview was with Father Greg Boyle, a Jesuit priest that started a jobs program in Boyle Heights, an LA neighborhood with a gang problem. That jobs program has now grown into Homeboy Industries and is now a comprehensive gang intervention program with an impressive success rate. Although not specifically about incarceration, it did remind me of the importance of the topic because I saw Father Boyle's program has been an effective way to slow the school-to-prison pipeline. Perhaps next week I'll be able to share my reflections on The New Jim Crow. 10 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stacia Posted February 2, 2016 Share Posted February 2, 2016 The Fire This Time by Kenan: I read another book by this title (there are quite a few!) which I *thought* was the one Stacia had read and recommended (It is about the Watts uprisings of the '60's and is a valuable, if a bit dry, book with a fabulous mixture of nitty gritty detail (like No Cause for Indictment) and bigger picture analysis)... this one is more like Baldwin's Fire Next Time or Coates' Between the World and Me. Not as well written as either of them, but I found it a nice complement to those - Kenan is much more optimistic (I know, it doesn't take much) and he falls between Baldwin and Coates in age, I believe, and has an interesting life story and perspective. The book I read was The Fire This Time by Randall Kenan. It, like Baldwin's The Fire Next Time & Coates' Between the World and Me, is a series of personal essays/letters. Here is what I wrote recently about it (Kenan's book): ------------------- Finishing this rounds out my trio of reading letters/essays about race in America: The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin (1963) The Fire This Time by Randall Kenan (2007) Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates (2015) I have to say that this book resonated the most with me of the three. Perhaps it is because the author & I are closest in age/time growing up, perhaps it is that we both spent part of our childhoods in rural North Carolina (he lived there; I had extended family that lived there & spent a good bit of time there as I grew up), perhaps it is that we have similar news/cultural/social references (being from the same generation). I've found all three books to be intensely personal & hard to rate. They have stretched my brain & my heart, my soul too. Simply because of something called race, they have lived & experienced a different life than I have; fortunately, they have shared their experiences, thoughts, & feelings on paper. There is a lot to think about here in these letters & essays, especially in light of all our race-related killings, riots, protests, & crimes in this 'modern' day & age of 2015. We've come a long way, yet have an awfully long way to go too. Thank you, Mr. Baldwin, Mr. Kenan, & Mr. Coates. ------------------- I think I liked Baldwin's book best, Kenan's resonated most with me, & I appreciate Coates' because it pushed me to read both the Baldwin & Kenan works too. 9 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pam in CT Posted February 2, 2016 Share Posted February 2, 2016 re Father Greg Boyle (Jesuit priest working with Latino gangs in LA) My latest review is up: In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin. I don't think it's the author's best work, but as always, Eric Larson gave me some things to think about. I am still reading The New Jim Crow. In all honesty, I haven't picked it up this week. Today I heard an interview that inspired me to pick it up again, so I am back at it. The subject is too important to ignore, even when it's hard. The interview was with Father Greg Boyle, a Jesuit priest that started a jobs program in Boyle Heights, an LA neighborhood with a gang problem. That jobs program has now grown into Homeboy Industries and is now a comprehensive gang intervention program with an impressive success rate. Although not specifically about incarceration, it did remind me of the importance of the topic because I saw Father Boyle's program has been an effective way to slow the school-to-prison pipeline. Perhaps next week I'll be able to share my reflections on The New Jim Crow. I read Father Boyle's book, Tattoos on the Heart: The Power of Boundless Compassion, last year. He's pretty... uh...well, inspiring doesn't really do the trick. Every so often I come across people who truly, almost literally, strike me as angels walking the earth. Krista Tippett ( :001_wub: :001_wub: ) also interviewed him last year at her marvelous onbeing.org show; and I wrote about his book in my blog here. 8 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stacia Posted February 2, 2016 Share Posted February 2, 2016 mom22es, so glad that your dad is recovering so well. :grouphug: :grouphug: Violet Crown, sending hugs to Wee Girl & all of you. Hoping her night/anxiety life soon settles down into something more pleasant. 8 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marbel Posted February 2, 2016 Share Posted February 2, 2016 (edited) Ah, I can't keep up. Thanks for all the links to books and associated reading material! Not sure I can partake of it all... Sorry to hear about sicknesses and sleep troubles, but happy to hear about recoveries! I'm alternating between homeschool reading and fluff. Finished another William Monk novel last week, so I am on track for my 50 books this year. So far. But I discovered that my daughter needs more attention with her homeschool anatomy reading so I'm adding that into my mix. This is my science-despising artistic child, who is doing anatomy/physiology in a rather light way so she can incorporate drawing and not have to do icky labs. (A friend of hers, taking AP A&P in school, is currently dissecting cats. My girl is appalled.) I thought she was able to manage the reading on her own, but...she is not. So, we are starting to read/discuss together. A little late in the school year but we can be flexible around here. I've also been listening to The Girl in Hyacinth Blue but that is going slowly as I haven't had much solo drive time lately, and home chores are being done in tiny bits and pieces on the fly. I am requesting A Passage to India from the library. That has been on my list for a long time now. My system does not have an electronic copy, and I've seen a few reviews of the cheap Kindle edition that reference missing sections (not sure how extensive or even true that is, of course) so I don't want to buy that, so I'll be doing it the old-fashioned way. :-) Edited February 2, 2016 by marbel 11 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kareni Posted February 2, 2016 Share Posted February 2, 2016 But I discovered that my daughter needs more attention with her homeschool anatomy reading so I'm adding that into my mix. This is my science-despising artistic child, who is doing anatomy/physiology in a rather light way so she can incorporate drawing and not have to do icky labs. ... I'm wondering if you're familiar with Mahlon Hoagland's books. I think they'd appeal to someone with an artistic bent. The Way Life Works: The Science Lover's Illustrated Guide to How Life Grows, Develops, Reproduces, and Gets Along Exploring The Way Life Works: The Science Of Biology Regards, Kareni 8 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Minerva Posted February 2, 2016 Share Posted February 2, 2016 _______ re: Queen Bees: this book actually changed my eldest daughter's life (who mostly was not homeschooled, FWIW). I chucked it at her rather thoughtlessly during a rough spot during 5th grade because I thought the constructs would give her a kind of vocabulary to name particular dynamics... and she just sort of glommed on to it and ran... it enabled her to adopt a sort of anthropological perspective on tween and teen dynamics as she went through them... ended up hoovering up every parenting book she could get her hands on, and developed a correspondence with Rosalind Wiseman (who was marvelously generous in her correspodence, and did a workshop at her school) ... and I would trace her current focus on sociology as all starting with Queen Bees. One data point :lol: ... Will be back after errands & pickups for books... I am so impressed with this. It would never have occurred to me to give this to my daughter to read; I am not sure she is ready for it yet, but I am saving this up for the future. Also, wow, that your daughter used it for fuel for bigger stuff. 9 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stacia Posted February 2, 2016 Share Posted February 2, 2016 Just thought of something since a few of you have recently mentioned reading Frankenstein.... You might want to check out Strange Bodies by Marcel Theroux. I read it a few years ago (after a suggestion from JennW) & enjoyed it. 8 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marbel Posted February 2, 2016 Share Posted February 2, 2016 I'm wondering if you're familiar with Mahlon Hoagland's books. I think they'd appeal to someone with an artistic bent. The Way Life Works: The Science Lover's Illustrated Guide to How Life Grows, Develops, Reproduces, and Gets Along Exploring The Way Life Works: The Science Of Biology Regards, Kareni Yes, we have had both books. She despised both. "Too cartoony." Sigh. Thank you, though, for thinking of me and sending the links. I do appreciate it! 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Butter Posted February 2, 2016 Share Posted February 2, 2016 (edited) I have always been so fond of Little Lord Fauntleroy... and I probably still believe, on a heart level, that innocence and love can be that transformative. Have you read The Lost Prince? No, but it's now on my to be read list :) Little Lord Fauntleroy is only the second FHB book I've read. I've loved The Secret Garden since I was 7 or 8 and have read it many times. Edited February 2, 2016 by Butter 9 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TechWife Posted February 2, 2016 Share Posted February 2, 2016 re Father Greg Boyle (Jesuit priest working with Latino gangs in LA) I read Father Boyle's book, Tattoos on the Heart: The Power of Boundless Compassion, last year. He's pretty... uh...well, inspiring doesn't really do the trick. Every so often I come across people who truly, almost literally, strike me as angels walking the earth. Krista Tippett ( :001_wub: :001_wub: ) also interviewed him last year at her marvelous onbeing.org show; and I wrote about his book in my blog here. That is a beautiful review, Pam! I'm putting his book on my list - at the top! During the interview today he said his funeral total for his sons is 202. I can't imagine. He is speaking in my area tomorrow. Well, about an hour away. I might go if I can find someone to go with me. 8 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
swimmermom3 Posted February 2, 2016 Share Posted February 2, 2016 (edited) For reasons unknown even to me, I am avoiding the more intellectually challenging books in my "to read" pile and have reverted to old, comfort standbys and one new read: The Angel's Game by Zafon. 19. The Balloon Man - Charlotte MacLeod 18. The Odd Job - Charlotte MacLeod 17. The Resurrection Man - Charlotte MacLeod 16. The Gladstone Bag - Charlotte MacLeod 15. The Silver Ghost - Charlotte MacLeod 14. The Recycled Citizen - Charlotte MacLeod 13. The Angel's Game - Carlos Ruiz Zafon 12. The Plain Old Man - Charlotte MacLeod 11. The Convivial Codfish - Charlotte MacLeod 10. The Bilbao Looking Glass - Charlotte MacLeod 9. The Palace Guard - Charlotte MacLeod 8. The Withdrawing Room - Charlotte MacLeod 7. The Family Vault - Charlotte MacLeod 6. The Shadow of the Wind 5. The Ransom of Russian Art 4. Titus Andronicus 3. The Woman Who Would Be King 2. Sibyl - Lagerkvist 1. An Innocent Abroad: Life-changing Trips from 35 Great Writers I am not sure why, but I didn't enjoy the Sarah Kelling series by Charlotte MacLeod nearly as much as I had in previous readings. In fact, I don't think I like Sarah Kelling as she evolved as a character and while I generally enjoy MacLeod's writing, this time I found myself irritated with some of the stilted conversations or things like Max calling Sarah "kiddo." The pleasant surprise is that I must have been on a MacLeod tear previously, bought all the books in the series (12), but had not yet read the last three and I did enjoy them as "Dorito" reading. I am also not sure what to write about The Angel's Game. I enjoyed the first book in the series and I did stay up all night to read this one, but was a bit frustrated with the ending. I don't mind when an author takes certain liberties as long as he doesn't take them too far. I will probably have to talk about it with our Spaniard's mom for a different perspective. I would rate it "fun, but not necessarily highly skilled." Edited February 2, 2016 by swimmermom3 9 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mumto2 Posted February 2, 2016 Share Posted February 2, 2016 (edited) Just thought of something since a few of you have recently mentioned reading Frankenstein.... You might want to check out Strange Bodies by Marcel Theroux. I read it a few years ago (after a suggestion from JennW) & enjoyed it. This book looks fabulous but sounds really familiar. I am going to request it and see if I have already read it. VC ....I hope Wee Girl is able to start sleeping through the night soon. DS used to walk in his sleep when he was upset by anything. Crossing my fingers that it stays in the past. It is hard to sleep when you are listening for the slightest odd noise. Much better a shared responsibility for both parents. ;) I have talked about trying to read a Terry Prachett book for awhile. Many of you and my dd love them. I have started (thanks to my Kindles not syncing correctly I read many of the beginning bits multiple times in order to find my place) and am finally enjoying Guards!Guards! . Not sure that I will read more of this series because the lack of chapters is really irritating. Are all of his books one long chapter? It is funny and I do enjoy the characters but may not be me for 40 or so books! I picked it from a list of Epic books for Bingo. I wasn't in the mood for LotR or Narnia. It's number 38 on this list http://bestfantasybooks.com/best-epic-fantasy.html. Edited February 2, 2016 by mumto2 11 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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