Book a Week 2016 - BW5: February Safari

[Kareni]

My job is done here, people.

 

 

You guys are cracking me up!

 

 

Ali is amused.

"You guys are cracking me up!"

Shage's work here is done.

 

 

Regards,

Kareni

[Jane in NC]

She sees what we miss.

Haiku between the spoilers.

Regards, Kareni.

 

[idnib]

I've been staring out my window for the last few minutes. Here's my haiku:

 

New birds come to feed

I think of Jane, far away

Seeds fall to the ground

[Butter]

You all make me laugh.

Life is fun when you read books.

Could not be better.

[Kareni]

She sees what we miss.

Haiku between the spoilers.

Regards, Kareni.

 

I've been haiku-ized

Now I've finally arrived

Thanks, Jane in NC

 

 

Regards,

Kareni

[shage]

If haiku-ized is

A word then please explain how

To be limerick-ed.

[Pam in CT]

If haiku-ized is

A word then please explain how

To be limerick-ed.

I dunno, I'm thinking maybe we'd best hold limericks off for another week?  Spread the love...

[shage]

I dunno, I'm thinking maybe we'd best hold limericks off for another week? Spread the love...

:-D

[Mom-ninja.]

Ever find yourself drawn into your kids' audio book simply because you are a captive audience? They are listening to the Sea of Trolls trilogy and I'm rather enjoying it. Everything you can think of is in the books: trolls, elves, fairies, hobgoblins, monks, bards, berserkers, wise women, dragons, picts, and of course magic. Fun romp through fantasy land. 

 

For myself I started yet another book I had planned to read in December but didn't get to it. Whiteout by Ken Follett. 

Edited February 5, 2016 by Mom-ninja.

[Kareni]

Perhaps we'll need to add a one poetry form per week rule to the Book a Week guidelines!

 

I can do haikus

Maybe even limericks

Sonnets?  Forget it.

 

Regards,

Kareni

 

[KathyBC]

This week's title was for book club, Where'd You Go, Bernadette? This novel is hilarious. Set in Seattle, the author takes some nice shots at Microsoft and Pacific Northwest culture in general. I loved the main characters. Some details of the major plot turn disappointed me, but it came around to the ending I was rooting for. I thought the story deserved a better title.

 

A reclusive mom

When creatively deprived

Becomes a hazard

[mumto2]

Ever find yourself drawn into your kids' audio book simply because you are a captive audience? They are listening to the Sea of Trolls trilogy and I'm rather enjoying it. Everything you can think of is in the books: trolls, elves, fairies, hobgoblins, monks, bards, berserkers, wise women, dragons, picts, and of course magic. Fun romp through fantasy land.

 

For myself I started yet another book I had planned to read in December but didn't get to it. Whiteout by Ken Follett.

I love Sea of Trolls! I actually reread them later.......

[Jane in NC]

I love Sea of Trolls! I actually reread them later.......

 

I remember listening to Sea of Trolls with my son when he was much younger. And Mom-ninja might be interested to hear that The Archaeologist borrowed them from the library over the holidays for a down time reread!

[Ali in OR]

Perhaps we'll need to add a one poetry form per week rule to the Book a Week guidelines!

 

I can do haikus

Maybe even limericks

Sonnets?  Forget it.

 

Regards,

Kareni

 

Ooh! I can do sonnets! Or I once could anyway. A friend taught me in college--just get that iambic pentameter beat going in your head (da DA, da DA, da DA, da DA, da DA), fit some words to it, make it rhyme in the right pattern, add a pithy couplet at the end (is this the Shakespearian sonnet??). Here's the one we came up with at the beach over spring break, trading off each line (I'm sure Charlotte's were the good ones--she must have been the one to use "evanescent!").

 

The sky is blue, the sand is grey and rough.

The wind blows free and beckons us to come

To watch the birds beneath the sandy bluff:

Red on black, the winged creatures from

Across the sea. The water sparkles bright,

Foaming, evanescent drop on drop.

The sound of breaking waves is my delight

Their primal fevered echoes never stop.

The waves repeat the pounding of my heart

Unceasing fire, guardian of my soul.

Ah, Nature, thou above all Art

Fuel this mortal frame for lifetime full.

 

Our thoughts these lofty heights do reach

While lying on a sandy beach.

[marbel]

Ever find yourself drawn into your kids' audio book simply because you are a captive audience? They are listening to the Sea of Trolls trilogy and I'm rather enjoying it. Everything you can think of is in the books: trolls, elves, fairies, hobgoblins, monks, bards, berserkers, wise women, dragons, picts, and of course magic. Fun romp through fantasy land. 

 

For myself I started yet another book I had planned to read in December but didn't get to it. Whiteout by Ken Follett. 

 

I might have to look into that one for myself.  :-) 

 

Ob. haiku, great children's books:

 

Swallows, Amazons

Kids' adventures with sailboats

Arthur Ransome rocked

 

[Soror]

You ladies are so witty. No time for haikus for me but I'm checking in for progress. I finished The Once and Future King this week and The Wild Trees. 5 stars for The Wild Trees, it immediately sucked me in, such fascinating information. I've also been intrigued by the Redwoods but to find out more about them makes them all the more interesting. I'm also a big fan of climbing and reading the book led me to look for places to learn to climb trees(with ropes and such)- I sent a link to my dh this morning, seems like a grand idea for our anniversary to me.

 

Up next I have The Last Child in the Woods- (I know I've wanted to read this forever but I don't think I have) and Wild borrowed from the e-library.  I also have another book by Louv and Walden by Thoreau here. I've got The Hot Zone by Preston requested, I had read some about the Ebola outbreak in National Geographic  but would love to read more. I've also put in some requests for some of the recommendations from this thread :)

 

1. The Crystal Cave- Stewart

2. The Hollow Hills- Stewart

3. The Last Enchantment- Stewart

4. The Wicked Day- Stewart

5. Younger Next Year for Women

6. Very Good Lives- Rowling- very, very, extremely short

7. The Once and Future King- White

8. The Lost Art of Walking

9. Move Your DNA

10. The Wild Trees- Preston

Edited February 5, 2016 by soror

[Onceuponatime]

"As to us, we shall have to find someone badly transgressing against us, before we can in decency ask the giraffes to forgive us our transgressions against them." -after seeing two giraffes confined in a box on on a ship, on the way to a Hamburg travelling menagerie.

 

Our book club met yesterday. Everyone loved the book (Out of Africa). We discussed the differences in time and attitudes and agreed that it was a legitimate glimpse of the past that should not be thrown out because of discomfort. In spite of Baroness Blixen's aristocracy, she shows a measure of defiance to accepted social norms for women, and a measure of compassion, understanding, and love for Africa, in spite of what we might consider an unfortunate and seemingly prejudicial way of expressing herself. She was definitely ahead of her time. One book club member suggested that we should no more dismiss this book than we would Huckleberry Finn. I agree.

 

I am not finished yet, and as I near the end, the short stories, vignettes really, are becoming more random and not part of a chronological narrative. They appear to be included because they gave the author some particular insight valuable to herself.

Edited February 6, 2016 by Onceuponatime

[Kareni]

Ooh! I can do sonnets!...

 

 

Very nice!  I'm seriously impressed.

 

**

 

Yesterday I read a new adult romance featuring two young men; I enjoyed it.  Trigger alert: a past rape is recounted.

Off Campus (Bend or Break Book 1)  by Amy Jo Cousins.

 

"Everyone’s got secrets. Some are just harder to hide.

 

Bend or Break, Book 1

 

With his father’s ponzi scheme assets frozen, Tom Worthington believes finishing college is impossible unless he can pay his own way. After months sleeping in his car and gypsy-cabbing for cash, he’s ready to do just that.

 

But his new, older-student housing comes with an unapologetically gay roommate. Tom doesn’t ask why Reese Anders has been separated from the rest of the student population. He’s just happy to be sleeping in a bed.

 

Reese isn’t about to share his brutal story with his gruff new roommate. You’ve seen one homophobic jock, you’ve seen ’em all. He plans to drag every twink on campus into his bed until Tom moves out. But soon it becomes clear Tom isn’t budging.

 

Tom isn’t going to let some late-night sex noise scare him off, especially when it’s turning him on. But he doesn’t want any drama either. He’ll keep his hands, if not his eyes, to himself. Boundaries have a way of blurring when you start sharing truths, though. And if Tom and Reese cross too many lines, they may need to find out just how far they can bend…before they break."

 

 

The author has a few currently free Kindle novellas if you'd like to try her work.  Note: all of her woks have adult content.

 

Full Exposure: A Don't Read in the Closet Novella

 

Five Dates

 

The Rain in Spain

 

Callie, Unwrapped: A Play It Again Novella

 

Regards,

Kareni

[Violet Crown]

... and the horrendous nightmares have disappeared as abruptly as they arrived. Yeah! Thanks for the commiseration. And now I'm reading Newman again.

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.

Hope your dh got home safely. I read A Canticle for Leibowitz in high school, and recall liking it very much; but somehow I didn't think of it as science fiction. I think I must have a sort of reverse-no-true-Scotsman fallacy going: if I like it, it must not be genre fiction. Great Girl read it more recently and liked it. I recall vividly the main character, living ascetically out in the desert, confessing that on a fast day he had had a go at a lizard, and his confessor sighing.

 

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.

I agree. And now being old enough to have known many people raised in very strict religious communities, I found it a little annoying how one-dimensionally the puritan society was portrayed, with no redeeming elements at all. Communities are more complex than that.

 

Odd you should mention spiders. One of Wee Girl's worst phobias is spiders, and many of her night fears are about them being on her and on her bed. In the closest thing to a psychotic episode she's ever had, she was convinced they were crawling all over her, even though the light was on and she could see there weren't any. Yeah: the terror is hard to take, when you know that nothing you do can make it better and you can only be there with them.

 

 

I finished On the Nature of Things (De rerun natura), an epic poem about Epicureanism. It was really interesting to read and it made me realize how much can be gleaned from simple observation of daily phenomenon. Lucretius, the author, we now know was wrong on many ideas, but it was a bit shocking exactly how modern and correct he was much of the time, particularly about atomism, which later fell out of favor for far too long.

 

I also was able to learn a lot more about Epicureanism, about which I knew very little, previously. At some point this year I'd like to read The Swerve: How the World Became Modern. An excerpt from the Wikipedia page for the book:

 

 

I keep meaning to read De rerum. You encourage me to move it nearer to the top of the pile.

 

 

[Violet Crown]

Oh, books. Yesterday I finished Frank Norris' San Francisco classic, McTeague. Oddly, while I haven't been able to appreciate Naturalism in Flaubert or Zola, I really liked Norris. A book of awful people behaving awfully, that I couldn't put down. Maybe I just needed something less French. Now, besides Newman, I'm reading Ivanhoe, in another installment of Books I'm a Little Embarrassed Not to Have Read Already.

[Chrysalis Academy]

 

You ladies are so witty. No time for haikus for me but I'm checking in for progress. I finished The Once and Future King this week and The Wild Trees. 5 stars for The Wild Trees, it immediately sucked me in, such fascinating information. I've also been intrigued by the Redwoods but to find out more about them makes them all the more interesting. I'm also a big fan of climbing and reading the book led me to look for places to learn to climb trees(with ropes and such)- I sent a link to my dh this morning, seems like a grand idea for our anniversary to me.

 

Up next I have The Last Child in the Woods- (I know I've wanted to read this forever but I don't think I have) and Wild borrowed from the e-library.  I also have another book by Louv and Walden by Thoreau here. I've got The Hot Zone by Preston requested, I had read some about the Ebola outbreak in National Geographic  but would love to read more. I've also put in some requests for some of the recommendations from this thread :)

 

 

I highly recommend Spillover: Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic by David Quammen.  Ebola and more, and he's a great science writer. 

[Chrysalis Academy]

Books: I finished Richard III, Aristotle's Children, and Theogony this week.  And I bailed on about 4 or 5 books, too, they were just the wrong thing for the mood of the moment.  I think I'm really annoying the librarians.  But today I started a few things that seem to be sticking, including Strange Bodies by Marcel Theroux, which Stacia recommended last week, and The Strangled Queen, the second book in The Accursed Kings series. I do love some good historical fiction.  I've been listening to The Plantagenets all week, so I figured it was time to give medieval French royalty some love.

[melmichigan]

I haven't caught up on the thread, but I wanted to share that I just finished Grave Visions by Kalayna Price.  This is the series that I couldn't remember the name of, and no wonder, it's been four years since the last book was published.  I remembered the love triangle between Alex, Death, and Falin, and The Bloom is the bar with the endless dance that is a portal to Faerie.  Mystery solved!

Edited February 6, 2016 by melmichigan

[Stacia]

Kathy, sending :grouphug: :grouphug:  to you & your family. What a beautiful Sheltie.

 

Eliana, re: Strange Bodies. From what I remember, I think you could handle it w/out problem. Since Rose is reading it now, maybe Rose can give a more recent update???

 

 

 

re Oscar Martinez' La Bestia/The Beast: Riding the Rails and Dodging Narcos on the Migrant Trail:

 

(Stacia, I thought Beast was among the most critical books I read in 2015... and I still haven't been brave enough to crack Guantanamo Diary, which has been sitting on my table for close to a year now, but... I'll get on it.)

 

Jenn, for me the shock of Beast wasn't so much that that it was new news, but the manner in which the stories were told -- the writing really is masterful, a weird fusion simultaneously so up-close-and-powerful, and also disorientingly matter-of-fact.  The Spanish subtitle is  Los migrantes que no importan, and it's that sense -- that these people do not matter, here there or anywhere... that makes reading the narrative so disorienting.  Then he does an epilogue, in which the tone abruptly shifts and for the first time a Very Strong Editorial Voice emerges:

 

For me, good journalism has the ability to fulfill two basic roles: illuminating the darkest corners of our society so we can begin to see what goes on in them; and making things more difficult for the corrupt, the abusive, and the merciless, so that things might become a little easier for the needy.

 

Illuminating these dark, forgotten and depraved corners of Mexico, so far from any of the major citites, was my mission in publishing this book in Spanish. I now wonder what is the importance of publishing it in English…

 

I don’t think compassion is that useful.  I don’t think it’s a durable engine for change.  I see it as a passing sentiment, a feeling too easy to forget.  In Mexico, every time we presented the Spanish version of this book I’d say to the audience that my goal was to incite rage.  Rage is harder to forget.  Rage is less comfortable than compassion, and so more useful. Rage and indignation, these were my objectives in Mexico.

 

Now (with the English translation) I consider what feelings I hope to incite in an American reader. I’m not hoping readers will feel compassion for the men and women who go through this hellish trial in order to wash your places, to cut your grass, to make your coffee. I hope, rather, that the book generates respect for these men and women… Respect for this drive that migrants have, a drive which is stronger than the criminal cartels, a drive more powerful than the train engine and a drive more vital than any limb — a leg, for example — of our very body.

 

Many of them — the majority — will continue to be undocumented. This we already know. But to understand a group of people we have to know their history, not just their immigration status.

 

 

I love this, both your description & Martinez' hopes of triggering both rage & respect. I think he does a great job of bringing forth both.

 

And, Pam, if you read The Beast, you can definitely handle Guantanamo Diary.

 

There was a critic a few years ago who suggested something to the effect that right at the moment, books from exotic (to westerners) locations were read differently than those from more familiar settings.  THis was in relation to the plagerized book Cranes' Morning, which received great reviews even though the source book, The Rosemary Tree, was often considered rather precious and parochial. 

 

I can definitely see this being the case sometimes.

 

And, in the case of We Need New Names, I can see that it may appeal more to people who may never have read books from African countries; if it's the first or one of the first books you've ever read from Africa, I do think may have more of an impact & be more eye-opening? Not that I've read tons of books from Africa, but I do try to 'read around the world' so perhaps my less than stellar review of the book is partly because I'm comparing to a variety of other books from distant locales so different from my own.

[Soror]

I highly recommend Spillover: Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic by David Quammen.  Ebola and more, and he's a great science writer. 

Thanks for the recommendation, I love good science writing, sounds interesting.

[Onceuponatime]

I finished Out of Africa. It was a very difficult ending in many ways, even though it was described from an emotional and physical distance. I shed a few tears.

 

I think I will look for something fluffy to read now.

[Chrysalis Academy]

Re: Strange Bodies

 

Is this something I might be okay with?  It looks facinating, but as if it could easily veer into territory I avoid.

 

 

 

 

 

Eliana, I'd be glad to give you feedback on this. So far there hasn't been anything disturbing or that I would think to warn anyone about, but I'm less than halfway through at this point.  I guess I don't have a good idea of what an "Eliana-filter" would look like, you seem like a pretty brave reader to me.  You read Lolita and we are still friends, after all!  :)

[Ethel Mertz]

After finishing the Bonhoeffer book a few days ago, I needed some fluffy reading material. I read all 4 of Sherri Bryan's Charlotte Denver series. They are fast reads, light cozy mysteries, and had me in tears at the end of each of them.

 

Now I'm pre-reading for DS The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate. I've got a couple of books on hold at the library that I need to pick up before the next snow event, including Ronnie Gilbert: A Radical Life in Song.

[mumto2]

After finishing the Bonhoeffer book a few days ago, I needed some fluffy reading material. I read all 4 of Sherri Bryan's Charlotte Denver series. They are fast reads, light cozy mysteries, and had me in tears at the end of each of them.

 

Now I'm pre-reading for DS The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate. I've got a couple of books on hold at the library that I need to pick up before the next snow event, including Ronnie Gilbert: A Radical Life in Song.

Naturally I had to go looking for the cozy series. ;) Just wanted to let people know the first book in this series by Sherri Bryon is free on kindle. I downloaded it. :) They look fun and the "too American" has me curious.https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25599162-tapas-carrot-cake-and-a-corpse?from_search=true&search_version=service.

[JennW in SoCal]

Naturally I had to go looking for the cozy series. ;) Just wanted to let people know the first book in this series by Sherri Bryon is free on kindle. I downloaded it. :) They look fun and the "too American" has me curious.https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25599162-tapas-carrot-cake-and-a-corpse?from_search=true&search_version=service.

 

Thank you Ethel and Mumto2.  Free fluffy mystery has been downloaded onto my kindle app, which kindly tells me typical reading time is 2 hours and 19 minutes!  Never seen that listed before on a kindle book.  Wonder if they offer that for epic fantasy reads or Moby Dick?!

[mumto2]

Thank you Ethel and Mumto2. Free fluffy mystery has been downloaded onto my kindle app, which kindly tells me typical reading time is 2 hours and 19 minutes! Never seen that listed before on a kindle book. Wonder if they offer that for epic fantasy reads or Moby Dick?!

As you may have figured out our family owns several kindles....I now have 5. :lol: The newer Kindle fires all tell me my estimated read time for the book when I start. I can also look at time left in the book or chapter as I read. Of course this all gets really messed up if I leave the kindle on a read a bit while doing something else like cooking, suddenly 50pages is estimated as several hours! :lol:

[Angel]

Home from vacation!  Brrr!  

 

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 was a sleep walker!  I've only done it twice as an adult.  My mom would commiserate with you!  She told me she knew when my feet hit the floor and was always amazed at how quick I could be.  There was a lock out of my reach on the front door.  Mom was always worried I would end up in the lake in the middle of the night.  

 

 Finished The Martian.  Perhaps a Haiku tomorrow. Now I want to see the movie.  Speaking of Movies, we watched Jurassic World last night.  Pretty good and intense, despite the pitiful acting.   :lol:

 

 

Dh and I watched The Martian on vacation.  And we all loved Jurassic World.  We are huge Jurassic Park fans (I'm a fan of both the books and the movie) and was pleased that it was well done.  We also loved all the little things that were throwbacks to the original.

 

 

February is shaping up to be a bittersweet month for us. Bitter because we are going to have to put our 11-1/2 yo Sheltie down very soon - probably no later than Monday or Tuesday. He's been in poor health for a while, but it's gone downhill quickly the past few days. He's been such a sweet dog. We got him for ds on his 7th birthday because we wanted him to grow up with a puppy just like we each did. They've been inseparable from the beginning. My heart is breaking because I love the dog, but also because my 18 yo not so tough guy is having a hard time letting go even though he knows it's what we need to do. I changed my avatar to honor our sweet boy. It was my avatar for a long time and I don't even remember why I changed it to the sunrise photo I've been using for the past year or so.

 

 

:grouphug:  :grouphug:  My parents lost their sheltie a few years ago.  It was hard on all of us.  They are amazingly smart and loyal dogs.  Our prayers will be with you!

 

I'm almost finished with the book I started on vacation so I'll be back later to report.

[Kareni]

Here's a Kindle book that is currently free.  I believe this is a one day only event.

 

The Original Miss Honeyford (The Love and Temptation Series Book 1) by M. C. Beaton

 

 

Regards,

Kareni

[Onceuponatime]

Serendipity: Today the mailman delivered my next read , Miss Pettigrew Lives For a Day.

[mumto2]

I haven't caught up on the thread, but I wanted to share that I just finished Grave Visions by Kalayna Price. This is the series that I couldn't remember the name of, and no wonder, it's been four years since the last book was published. I remembered the love triangle between Alex, Death, and Falin, and The Bloom is the bar with the endless dance that is a portal to Faerie. Mystery solved!

Mel, I am glad you found the mystery series. I did have fun hunting for it and am a bit surprised I didn't run into it before because one of my libraries does have the series in overdrive. I plan to read the first one soon!

 

I finished Silver Borne in Patricia Brigg's Mercy Thompson series so a Bingo block completed. One of this year's reading goals is to finish reading that series.

[Jane in NC]

Serendipity: Today the mailman delivered my next read , Miss Pettigrew Lives For a Day.

:hurray:

 

Having read this for the first time in '15, I wonder why it took me so long to find this book.  Enjoy!

[Butter]

I was going to read a lot today.  And then we went to Bed Bath and Beyond to get birthday presents for my daughter (she'll be 16 a week from Monday and asked for pretty cooking supplies).  I am dangerous in that store.  I got a bunch of kitchen things for me and so I've spent the rest of the day organizing and deep cleaning my kitchen.  So much for reading...

[mumto2]

Here's a Kindle book that is currently free. I believe this is a one day only event.

 

The Original Miss Honeyford (The Love and Temptation Series Book 1) by M. C. Beaton

 

 

Regards,

Kareni

MC Beaton has written several historical romances that are fluffy and fun under the pen name of Marion Chesney. They republished them as ebooks and used the Beaton name fairly recently. They offered several first in series last year for free. These are easy emergency reads.....most that I have read are less than 200 pages. Here's a list http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/c/marion-chesney/

 

Thanks for letting everyone know Kareni!

[Chrysalis Academy]

I finished The New Jim Crow today.  I went so far as to post on Facebook that I think everyone I know should read the book. I never do that! But I think that this is the most important book I have read in a long time. And strangely, despite how horrifying and shocking the reality it describes may be, and how hard it was to read at times, the book ended up with a message that was, ultimately, hopeful.

 

"Seeing race is not the problem. Refusing to care for people we see is the problem. . . We should hope not for a colorblind society but instead for a world in which we can see each other fully, learn from each other, and do what we can to respond to each other with love."

 

Words to live by.

[shage]

I finished The New Jim Crow today. I went so far as to post on Facebook that I think everyone I know should read the book. I never do that! But I think that this is the most important book I have read in a long time. And strangely, despite how horrifying and shocking the reality it describes may be, and how hard it was to read at times, the book ended up with a message that was, ultimately, hopeful.

 

"Seeing race is not the problem. Refusing to care for people we see is the problem. . . We should hope not for a colorblind society but instead for a world in which we can see each other fully, learn from each other, and do what we can to respond to each other with love."

 

Words to live by.

By everyone, do you have an age in mind? Asking because my teen daughter expressed an interest in it. She has heard me talk over the years about many of these issues because of my job and is not squeamish, yet I still wonder....

[Angel]

I finished my beach read at home today.  Lost Empire by Clive Cussler certainly wasn't small at 497 pages!  It was bigger than it looked!  This was my first time reading Clive Cussler.  I enjoyed not only the adventure but that it was clean as well.  Joining Sam and Remi in their exploration was fun.  We traveled to Zanzibar, Tanzania, USA, Madagascar, and Indonesia with a very brief stop in England and Mexico.  The story also led me to look up the eruption of the volcano Krakatoa in 1883 which was absolutely fascinating as the loudest eruption in history being heard up to 3000 miles away!  On the down side I found it a little too technically descriptive in some parts.  I didn't need to know, nor did I care, about all the specific parts of their boat or plane or helicopter.  I won't be rushing out to pick up another book of his, but I will definitely read him again.

[Chrysalis Academy]

By everyone, do you have an age in mind? Asking because my teen daughter expressed an interest in it. She has heard me talk over the years about many of these issues because of my job and is not squeamish, yet I still wonder....

 

I think it would be absolutely appropriate for an interested teen. I will have my dd read it when we study modern history in high school, in a few years. It doesn't focus on any squeamish details, it is really about how the system of mass incarceration was created and is maintained. I've read books with graphic descriptions of police brutality, the actions of lynch mobs, etc. This has nothing like that. I wouldn't hesitate to read and discuss it with an older teen.  I don't think my 13 year old has enough context or life experience to really get it yet, but an older teen definitely would be able to grasp the arguments, even if she might need some help with the historical context.

[Rosie_0801]

 On the down side I found it a little too technically descriptive in some parts.  I didn't need to know, nor did I care, about all the specific parts of their boat or plane or helicopter.  

 

It's funny, isn't it? I wouldn't appreciate this kind of detail either, but am frustrated by the lack of detail in books about pantries. Yes, I know the author couldn't imagine refrigeration because ice boxes hadn't even been invented yet, but I want to know how long that leg of mutton is going to sit in your pantry, Mrs Fiction! Are your shelves made of stone? I want to know!!!!!!!!

[Bluegoat]

I read a fair bit in Small Is Beutiful.  In this section he is talking about the kind of aid that is actually likely to be effective in developing ecoomies, as opposed to importing very modernized industries with high capital costs and technology levels.  He said these tend to create a dual economy and destroy the economic viability of rural areas and create mass migration to cities, which then threatenes the new created economy.

 

He suggests what is needed is mass employment where people live - throughout rural areas, and that initially more employment is actually more important than more production in abstract terms.  For this, he says it is impoartant to look at using what he calls intermediate technologies - ones that are apprpriate to the level of capitals available when creating so many industries, and thta will operate with the level of education, the ability to source resources locally, do repairs and so on.

 

I think that in fact this has been more often the direction of forign aid for economic development since the book was written.  One of the things he said which I likes is that it is wrong to think of intermediate technologies as being less developed or from the past or somehow less progressive - they are in fact just as as-the-moment as different solutions, they are simply responses to different environments.

 

He talked quite a bit about regional development being important in order to avoid all development being concentrated in urban centers.

 

I also though that there was some application to problems of rural vs urban development today where I live and I think in other developed economies as well.  It seems like in many places big cities are sucking the life out of surrounding countryside and are becoming to o unwieldy to function as they ought to themselves - I think of places like London or NYC, where people have to commute so far to get to the jobs that the city has ceased to be an efficiency for them.  Small towns lose their industry and rural areas are epty of all but the elderly and out-of work, and they become commuter villages.

[Angel]

It's funny, isn't it? I wouldn't appreciate this kind of detail either, but am frustrated by the lack of detail in books about pantries. Yes, I know the author couldn't imagine refrigeration because ice boxes hadn't even been invented yet, but I want to know how long that leg of mutton is going to sit in your pantry, Mrs Fiction! Are your shelves made of stone? I want to know!!!!!!!!

:lol:  Yes, there are some things that enquiring minds want to know!!!

 

I can't find who mentioned the cozy mystery Tapas, Carrot Cake, and a Corpse in this week's thread (mum2 maybe??) but it is currently free for Kindle.

[Rosie_0801]

I read a fair bit in Small Is Beautiful.

 

Ooh! Thanks for the rec! This might just progress a conversation my brother and I have been trying to have for years. :)

[shage]

I think it would be absolutely appropriate for an interested teen. I will have my dd read it when we study modern history in high school, in a few years. It doesn't focus on any squeamish details, it is really about how the system of mass incarceration was created and is maintained. I've read books with graphic descriptions of police brutality, the actions of lynch mobs, etc. This has nothing like that. I wouldn't hesitate to read and discuss it with an older teen. I don't think my 13 year old has enough context or life experience to really get it yet, but an older teen definitely would be able to grasp the arguments, even if she might need some help with the historical context.

Okay, I think she would have the context for it, or at least close enough to fill in the gaps. It's on hold.

[Mesamin]

I finished Jodi Picoult's "Nineteen Minutes".  If you have a loved one in a public school, I don't suggest it.  It is well written.

 

Next I start Susan Vreeland's "Lisette's List" which supposedly has recipes, art and some history all rolled into one story about pre-World War II in southern France.  It comes to me highly recommended by a friend so I have high hopes that this will be a good one to curl up with.  

Edited February 7, 2016 by Mesamin

[Stacia]

 

re Oscar Martinez' La Bestia/The Beast: Riding the Rails and Dodging Narcos on the Migrant Trail:

 

 

(Stacia, I thought Beast was among the most critical books I read in 2015... and I still haven't been brave enough to crack Guantanamo Diary, which has been sitting on my table for close to a year now, but... I'll get on it.)

 

Jenn, for me the shock of Beast wasn't so much that that it was new news, but the manner in which the stories were told -- the writing really is masterful, a weird fusion simultaneously so up-close-and-powerful, and also disorientingly matter-of-fact.  The Spanish subtitle is  Los migrantes que no importan, and it's that sense -- that these people do not matter, here there or anywhere... that makes reading the narrative so disorienting.  Then he does an epilogue, in which the tone abruptly shifts and for the first time a Very Strong Editorial Voice emerges:

 

 

For me, good journalism has the ability to fulfill two basic roles: illuminating the darkest corners of our society so we can begin to see what goes on in them; and making things more difficult for the corrupt, the abusive, and the merciless, so that things might become a little easier for the needy.

 

Illuminating these dark, forgotten and depraved corners of Mexico, so far from any of the major citites, was my mission in publishing this book in Spanish. I now wonder what is the importance of publishing it in English…

 

I don’t think compassion is that useful.  I don’t think it’s a durable engine for change.  I see it as a passing sentiment, a feeling too easy to forget.  In Mexico, every time we presented the Spanish version of this book I’d say to the audience that my goal was to incite rage.  Rage is harder to forget.  Rage is less comfortable than compassion, and so more useful. Rage and indignation, these were my objectives in Mexico.

 

Now (with the English translation) I consider what feelings I hope to incite in an American reader. I’m not hoping readers will feel compassion for the men and women who go through this hellish trial in order to wash your places, to cut your grass, to make your coffee. I hope, rather, that the book generates respect for these men and women… Respect for this drive that migrants have, a drive which is stronger than the criminal cartels, a drive more powerful than the train engine and a drive more vital than any limb — a leg, for example — of our very body.

 

Many of them — the majority — will continue to be undocumented. This we already know. But to understand a group of people we have to know their history, not just their immigration status.

 

 

Pam, can I ask what version of The Beast you read? I finished it a little while ago & my version didn't have the epilogue. I'm sorry about that because I think it's totally fitting & appropriate for the book. I'm so glad that you posted & shared the epilogue!

 

What an impressive book. Thanks to both Eliana & Pam for putting this on my radar last year. Imo, required reading for anyone who lives in the Americas.

 

Idnib, if you haven't yet read this one, I think it's one you'd definitely want to read. It even has an entire chapter dedicated to Juarez (making me think of some of the scenes in Sicario).

[Pam in CT]

re Oscar Martinez' La Bestia/The Beast: Riding the Rails and Dodging Narcos on the Migrant Trail

Pam, can I ask what version of The Beast you read? I finished it a little while ago & my version didn't have the epilogue. I'm sorry about that because I think it's totally fitting & appropriate for the book. I'm so glad that you posted & shared the epilogue!

 

What an impressive book. Thanks to both Eliana & Pam for putting this on my radar last year. Imo, required reading for anyone who lives in the Americas.

 

Idnib, if you haven't yet read this one, I think it's one you'd definitely want to read. It even has an entire chapter dedicated to Juarez (making me think of some of the scenes in Sicario).

 

I have this version, on Kindle, copyright 2014.  That's too bad, that your version didn't have the epilogue -- I found it to be quite insightful in laying out that role of "witnessing" that Nan was talking about a couple of weeks ago.  I excerpted a little more of it in my blog here.

 

Impressive -- yes.