Book a Week 2016 - BW9: March Gadabout

[Stacia]

I finished The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell after years on my to-read list.  I thought it was amazing.  It's one of those stories that stays with you long after you've finished.  I just loved how the characters were written in a way that it was natural for them to ask some of the major questions about God, theology, love, family, and purpose that so many of us have--believers or not!  It could have been totally forced in the hands of an amateur.  Just excellent.  Here is one short passage that I thought was beautiful:

 

She had meant to keep this one region of her past behind its old defensive walls, but the last barrier between them had come down.  When he heard it all, Jimmy thought his heart would break for her but he only sat and held her, long arms and endless legs enfolding her like a nestling, and waited for her to quiet.  Then he smiled into her eyes and asked, in the dry academic tones of an astronomer discussing a theoretical point with a colleague, "How long do you suppose I can go on loving you more every day?"  And he devised for her a calculus of love, which approached infinity as a limit, and made her smile again.

Our book club read that one years ago & it was still the very best book club conversation we've ever had. There's just such depth, so many angles to discuss, etc.... I loved it too, especially the first half where you just (or at least I did) fell in love with the characters. I went to book club expecting there to be some division in that some probably would love it, others hate it. But everyone loved it.

 

Years later, I read H.G. Wells' The Time Machine & saw so many parallels (& felt kind of clueless that I had missed so many things not having been familiar with "the original" in the first place).

 

I know Mary Doria Russell has a sequel to The Sparrow, but I've never read it. Do you think you will read it?

[Ellesmere]

I finished Good Omens this week (loved it) and I even remembered to come here and post. (Usually I forget and am here posting about what I read the previous week.) Now that I'm done with that, I still have sixteen books on my "currently reading" list and am suffering from "I have nothing to read syndrome". When I start feeling better, I will perk up and be able to commit. I hope. If not, I'll breeze through some more of the children/YA books I need to look at.

If I finish re-reading a book of Agatha Christie plays and read a book by a Nobel Prize author, I'll have one row on my bingo sheet done, so I should probably let that help direct me since I haven't been able to decide any particular book today.
 

But since it doesn't do this to me, it would be hard to give it up because it's in most everything I love! A friend dropped it when he noticed a link to his migraines, and I know it's hard for him because he still likes the taste of gluten-full food. So sometimes he thinks, "well, maybe it won't hurt this once." But I agree--if it was obvious that gluten made me feel horrible it would not be so appealing. I think it's just hard when there is a change--you could once eat it but now you can't.

I understand that. I have severe health issues from several food groups and have had to give up a lot of stuff. It's been hard for me. Not sure if it is because of my age when it started or if it's because my social circles are really food-centered or some other reason. I miss the taste of a lot of the foods I can't have. It's hard to be the only one at the table who can't have it. I don't assume it's hard for everyone but it is hard for me. I realize it is a small problem in the grand scheme of things and my list of restrictions is a bit longer than some, so I know my situation neither dire nor ordinary. Anyway, I sympathize with people giving up food whether because of allergies or celiac or migraines or blood pressure or other health issues.

[Lady Florida.]

 

 

And, Kathy, for fairy tale adaptation, I'd highly, highly suggest Mr. Fox by Helen Oyeyemi for you. It's an adaptation but with lots of other stuff in there, so even though there are references (Bluebeard, Reynard the Fox), they are from some (imo) lesser-known fairy tales & it doesn't feel fairy-tale-ish. Plus, I think the story is just fun because a male author's muse (female, of course) "comes to life" & reams him out because he's always killing off his female characters & she says he's a murderer. The book is really a showdown of their challenges & stories to each other. It's a really unique book that might let you fill that Bingo spot without too much angst.

 

 

 

 

 

I don't think these romances will appeal to you at all but years ago I got a kindle freebie titled Wickedly Charming by Kristen Graysonhttps://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9633279-wickedly-charming. It was hilarious about rather dissatisfied fairy tale characters living in our world because their fairy tale had gone bad. This one centers on Cinderella's Prince Charming meeting her Wicked Stepmother. The behind-the-scenes observations regarding the fairy tale were snarky snicker worthy. This was a book that I happened to click on during a really sad week that made me lol. Anyway several in this series are available on overdrive and I have wondering if they would qualify. I am planning to read them this year but a bingo square would be nice too. :)

 

Thanks for both of those suggestions. I made a note of them to possibly consider one later.

 

Stacia, I wasn't planning to play books bingo. I usually don't do that kind of thing but Rose keeps posting about how much fun she's having being challenged by it, that I decided to take another look at the squares. I can at least do one row, maybe even two. 

Edited March 3, 2016 by Lady Florida

[Lady Florida.]

Oh, and I made some choices for what to read next.

 

Fiction - The Expatriates. This one will fit the Picked by a Friend square since it was actually given to me by a friend. 

 

Non-fiction - Gnarr: How I Became Mayor of a Large City in Iceland and Changed the World - Thank you Stacia! This one could also fit Picked by a Friend but I think I'll use it for the Translated square since I don't see anything else on my TBR list for this year that's been translated.

[6packofun]

 

 

I know Mary Doria Russell has a sequel to The Sparrow, but I've never read it. Do you think you will read it?

 

I'm not sure.  I need The Sparrow to percolate a little more first.  LOL  Russell said that the sequel was a real challenge!  It's about what happens to the people of Rakhat because Emilio was there. Apparently he goes back because he has no choice...not sure what that means.  Hmmmm, just not sure about it.

 

Now you have me curious about The Time Machine!  I think it's on one of my high schooler's literature list for this year so I look forward to it.  :)

[Stacia]

I finished Smile as they Bow by Nu Nu Yi.

 

Wow. This story opened my eyes to an entire culture that I really didn't know existed (the natkadaws or spirit mediums/spirit wives at festivals in Myanmar). I was also surprised to learn that many of the natkadaws are gay men who openly dress as women, which is something I would have expected to have been illegal (or at least very dangerous) in a conservative society like Myanmar. Even though the story is fiction, a lot of the details seem to be very accurate. The story itself is fairly simplistic & not only revolves around the natkadaw Daisy Bond, but also his love for his assistant/helper Min Min. But then Min Min has his heart stolen by a girl visiting the festival. So part of it is cultural tale, part an unrequited love story. Daisy is one fiery, feisty, & flamboyant character, which keeps the story rolling along at a quick pace.

 

I provided some earlier links about some of the culture of the spirit festivals & the roles of the natkadaws. I also just read a very good article from Guernica about it that some of you would probably enjoy reading too:

After the Green Death: At the top of the pantheon of spirits in Burma are the Thirty-Seven Nats. Twirling on earth, in pink lace and a shimmering shawl, is their 74-year-old medium, U Nan Win. by Will Boast (article is from 2014).

 

The article did verify part of my thought that it probably is very dangerous to be an openly gay man in Myanmar, yet the 'job' of being a natkadaw (spirit wife) is one area where it is considered acceptable...

The junta’s attempts to subdue nat worship had an unintended effect: the role of the nat wife was embraced by an already marginalized group. Homosexuality is illegal in Burma and has been since its British colonizers instituted a late-nineteenth-century ban on “intercourse against the order of nature.â€
 

Government restrictions opened a professional vacuum, says scholar Tamara C. Ho. Becoming a nat kadaw offered the achauk—a Burmese term for gay and transgender men—both “a vocation and queer visibility.â€

 

If you're looking for an around the world book & want to try this one, send me a PM & I'll send it your way.

[MaeFlowers]

I went back through my notes and tagged items from A Passage to India and I think I’ll just share some of my disparate thoughts over a few posts this week and see if anyone has any thoughts or comments about them.

 

In a book full of enchanting quotes, my best-loved was in Part III (Temple) during the time of the birth of Krishna:

 

 

I think this encapsulates a  large part of the ephemeral and ecstatic experiences humans can have within religion and spirituality, and also the reason these experiences are easily dismissed. And are these experiences really hid from the unbeliever? What of all the believers who do not experience anything like this, or the unbelievers who do? Do some religions lend themselves more to these types of experiences by providing better opportunities to reach heights of ecstasy through rituals?

 

Religions may be human constructs in order to provide for certain behavior, or agreement of soldiers, or to build powerful nations, but perhaps there are experiences outside the bounds of time and space and religion, and when one tries to place these into boxes, they are changed or dissipated. There’s almost a bit of the observer effect (from physics) in what Forster is saying: how can we seize the experience when the act of seizing changes the thing itself? Are our conscious minds blunt tools that cannot precisely measure an experience such as this, and the more precise we try to be, the more it changes and eludes us?  And by placing these experiences outside of space and time, do we make them very vulnerable to being mocked? People have enough trouble with the question of what existed before time and space from both religious and cosmological persectives ("If God created everything, who created God?" and "What was before the Big Bang, if the Big Bang created time?"), so pulling a new experience out of time and space when time and space already exist, and are described by elegant equations, is something entirely different and easy to dismiss in a mechanistic age.

 

Forster provided a nice distinction between the Indians, who are more comfortable with these ways of thinking, and the British, with their increasingly time-oriented and scientific view. I enjoyed how Forster pointed out that for the birth of Krishna the Indians were for once on time precisely at midnight, and contrasted that with the "out of the bounds of time" experiences for the attendees.

 

Your last paragraph is kind of what I was thinking about when I said that the English were more cold/logical while the Indians were more emotional/mystical. I just didn't know how to express it. I think Western thought has possibly evolved in a way that dismisses the spiritual more so than the East. Christianity has dropped the mystical aspects in many ways. However, I think that maybe there is quite a bit of variance in Christianity with some denominations recognizing the experience of God through ritual more than others.

 

I haven't posted in a couple of weeks and missed last weeks thread. I have been in a funk and really haven't done much reading. I hope everyone is doing well.

 

 

[Stacia]

CaladwenEleniel, hope you start feeling better soon. :grouphug:

 

MaeFlowers, :grouphug: .

[Momto4inSoCal]

I just finished The Bluest Eye. I don't really know what to say about this book. My stomach is in knots and after reading the author notes at the end I really don't understand what message she was portraying. Apparently her focus was on racial issues of loving yourself the way you are and not wanting to be white. I just felt that part of the story was a little lost in the horrors portrayed in the book. It felt like she was presenting a mixture of issues all rolled into one but the last part definitely sticks out more than the rest. I won't give away the book in case anyone wants to read it. It's not an easy book to read by any means.

 

I picked this book up because it's name stuck out at me when someone on here had mentioned it and O assumed it was a book I had wanted to read. It just clicked this was the controversial books I had read about in high schools. I don't know how I feel about this book being read by high schoolers especially if it is my high schoolers.

 

 

 

Spoiler Triggers

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As a person who went through abuse I don't really like the way it is portrayed. A questioned you always struggle with is why. I think as a victim you learn to let that go as it's not a question that can be answered and in the end even of there was a why it wouldn't change anything or help. I feel like this book portrayed abusers as victims of their surroundings and upbringing. Even in an interview with the author she stated she wanted us (the reader) to see the abuse through the abusers eyes and that it was friendly and innocent. I disagree with her and it may be due to personal bias from my own past but I just don't care if an abuser has a checkered past or has bad influences I believe we all have something inside of us that tells us this is wrong and those people make a choice at that moment to ignore that conviction. I also am bugged about her (the author) using the character to portray what she was angry about in her friend as a child while simultaneously having her be the one who recieved the worst offense. She stated in the notes it was a destruction of the characters due to her wanting to be someone who she wasn't (which she does attribute to the character environment) but it's almost like the character is being punished. Maybe I'm reading this all wrong. I need to mule over it some more. It's too late...

Edited March 3, 2016 by Momto4inSoCal

[idnib]

Yesterday morning I was in London buying lattes and eclairs for breakfast; this morning I was home, walking the dog and doing laundry.  But morning here is mid afternoon there so my body is confused and my mind a bit fuzzy.....this jet lag business is really, really trippy!

 

Thanks for sharing your trip and the photo. I'm looking forward to seeing more!

 

My verdict, idnib, is that it had some educational merit but I will likely not watch again.

 

No more missions, then, eh?

 

Perhaps a better book would be All the Words You Cannot See  :laugh:

 

:lol:

 

I finished The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell after years on my to-read list.  I thought it was amazing.  It's one of those stories that stays with you long after you've finished.  I just loved how the characters were written in a way that it was natural for them to ask some of the major questions about God, theology, love, family, and purpose that so many of us have--believers or not!  It could have been totally forced in the hands of an amateur.  Just excellent.  Here is one short passage that I thought was beautiful:

 

I read that last year and it's still with me. I really felt like I knew the people, like I was included in their friendship. They had a certain humanity about them. Honestly, if you'd told me the plot of the book before I had read it, I would have been quite doubtful about reading it.

 

Your last paragraph is kind of what I was thinking about when I said that the English were more cold/logical while the Indians were more emotional/mystical. I just didn't know how to express it. I think Western thought has possibly evolved in a way that dismisses the spiritual more so than the East. Christianity has dropped the mystical aspects in many ways. However, I think that maybe there is quite a bit of variance in Christianity with some denominations recognizing the experience of God through ritual more than others.

 

I haven't posted in a couple of weeks and missed last weeks thread. I have been in a funk and really haven't done much reading. I hope everyone is doing well.

 

 

 

I hope you feel better and can get back to reading soon.  :grouphug:

I'm glad what I said resonated with you. I thought of what you had said while writing it. For myself, that feeling didn't really come out until the temple section.

Edited March 3, 2016 by idnib

[idnib]

A few mysteries for me from A Passage to India:

 

What do you make of the "God is love" vs. "God si love" issue? Did you find any significance in the misspelling? I really couldn't figure out why it was there, to why the Indians would write it in English at all. 

 

Also, why do you think Aziz lets his practice decline so much until he's more of a village healer? Do you think it's just moving out to a more rural area, or some kind of depression, or something else? I was thinking maybe his original version of medicine was more Westernized, and this is more Indian, after he stood motionless in the rain and said, "I am Indian at last." This was after he got the letter from Fielding and started "hating" the British. Thoughts?

 

Do you think there's anything weird about the caves, some sort of power or mystical experience? Or when the British women have their experiences in the caves with the echoes, etc. is it just their own disorientation?

 

Edited March 3, 2016 by idnib

[MaeFlowers]

A few mysteries for me from A Passage to India:

 

What do you make of the "God is love" vs. "God si love" issue? Did you find any significance in the misspelling? I really couldn't figure out why it was there, to why the Indians would write it in English at all.

 

Also, why do you think Aziz lets his practice decline so much until he's more of a village healer? Do you think it's just moving out to a more rural area, or some kind of depression, or something else? I was thinking maybe his original version of medicine was more Westernized, and this is more Indian, after he stood motionless in the rain and said, "I am Indian at last." This was after he got the letter from Fielding and started "hating" the British. Thoughts?

 

Do you think there's anything weird about the caves, some sort of power or mystical experience? Or when the British women have their experiences in the caves with the echoes, etc. is it just their own disorientation?

I think Aziz let's his practice decline because he became disenchanted with the Western world. If I understood correctly, his old practice was run by the English. I think he wanted to be accepted into that world and when it rejected him, he did the same in return. Maybe that gave him so sense of power over his own life back?

As for the caves, I don't think anything happened. I think they were in a strange place where they felt uncomfortable and their sensitivities were heightened.

[Rosie_0801]

I just finished reading 'The Secrets of Jin-Shei' by Alma Alexander.

 

From beauty to brutality to the possibility of redemption. 

 

I have the sequel here and am not sure whether it will be wonderful or awful. I guess it will be both.

[Jane in NC]

A few mysteries for me from A Passage to India:

 

What do you make of the "God is love" vs. "God si love" issue? Did you find any significance in the misspelling? I really couldn't figure out why it was there, to why the Indians would write it in English at all. 

 

Also, why do you think Aziz lets his practice decline so much until he's more of a village healer? Do you think it's just moving out to a more rural area, or some kind of depression, or something else? I was thinking maybe his original version of medicine was more Westernized, and this is more Indian, after he stood motionless in the rain and said, "I am Indian at last." This was after he got the letter from Fielding and started "hating" the British. Thoughts?

 

Do you think there's anything weird about the caves, some sort of power or mystical experience? Or when the British women have their experiences in the caves with the echoes, etc. is it just their own disorientation?

 

No clue on the "God si love" misspelling--other than to note that Forster was offering something for English majors everywhere to contemplate.  ;)

 

Agreeing with MaeFlowers (below) that Aziz needed to literally wash his hands of all things Western or at least British. 

 

But about those caves....

 

I do think that the echoes within could have produced a mystical experience--or something akin to one.  Weird confession on my part from an otherwise rational sort of person:  I love sacred spaces whether old world cathedrals or the Black Hills of South Dakota.  Perhaps an overly active imagination on my part, but I do feel that these kinds of sacred spaces can contain echoes of those who have gone before us.  Heck, I even channel my husband's grandmother (a woman I never met) by sitting in her rocking chair. The finish on the arms is worn from all those years of human touch.  There is something soothing about touching something or occupying the space that others have valued.

 

And if someone named Quested enters a cave, we know something is going to happen to her.  Whether the event involved another person or only exists in her mind (what is reality after all?), those echoes that haunt her are significant.  To me they are the echoes of the past, the echoes of souls trampled upon by the British in their colonization.

 

Frankly I think the caves did Adela a favor by estranging her from the wretched Ronnie--unfortunately at the cost of Aziz and others.

 

The caves also seem to produce a disenchantment in Mrs. Moore--but was she already disenchanted by those things witnessed in her lifetime (war, poverty)?  Mrs. Moore takes comfort in solitaire, the need for recurring patterns (which I so understand says she who always keeps a pair of socks going on knitting needles).  Ultimately I see Mrs. Moore seeking peace in a troubled world.

 

I think Aziz let's his practice decline because he became disenchanted with the Western world. If I understood correctly, his old practice was run by the English. I think he wanted to be accepted into that world and when it rejected him, he did the same in return. Maybe that gave him so sense of power over his own life back?

As for the caves, I don't think anything happened. I think they were in a strange place where they felt uncomfortable and their sensitivities were heightened.

[Mom-ninja.]

I finished The Floating Brothel last night. I found it at the library sale. Good timing for reading it as it fits in the Australia theme this week. If anyone would like me to pass it along to you let me know. 

[Chrysalis Academy]

Thanks for both of those suggestions. I made a note of them to possibly consider one later.

 

Stacia, I wasn't planning to play books bingo. I usually don't do that kind of thing but Rose keeps posting about how much fun she's having being challenged by it, that I decided to take another look at the squares. I can at least do one row, maybe even two. 

 

Yes, I'm feeling rather sheepish about my obsession with the Bingo. Not sure what's that about. Maybe I don't have enough externally validated challenges in my life these days?  :rolleyes:

 

But it has given some shape to my huge, sprawling, and somewhat amorphous TR list over the past couple of months! And gotten me to read a few things I wouldn't have done otherwise, or had always meant to read but not gotten around to.  

[Chrysalis Academy]

I'm not sure.  I need The Sparrow to percolate a little more first.  LOL  Russell said that the sequel was a real challenge!  It's about what happens to the people of Rakhat because Emilio was there. Apparently he goes back because he has no choice...not sure what that means.  Hmmmm, just not sure about it.

 

Now you have me curious about The Time Machine!  I think it's on one of my high schooler's literature list for this year so I look forward to it.   :)

 

I found The Sparrow to be utterly devastating when I first read it, many years ago. It has stuck with me to the extent that I've been afraid to pick it up again, although I'm always tempted when it comes up here. I'm pretty sure I read the sequel too, but they've mooshed together in my memory.  What a powerful book.

[Chrysalis Academy]

I finished Good Omens this week (loved it) and I even remembered to come here and post. (Usually I forget and am here posting about what I read the previous week.) Now that I'm done with that, I still have sixteen books on my "currently reading" list and am suffering from "I have nothing to read syndrome". When I start feeling better, I will perk up and be able to commit. I hope. If not, I'll breeze through some more of the children/YA books I need to look at.

 

If I finish re-reading a book of Agatha Christie plays and read a book by a Nobel Prize author, I'll have one row on my bingo sheet done, so I should probably let that help direct me since I haven't been able to decide any particular book today.

 

 

 

I thought Good Omens was hilarious, and my dd13 is reading it right now - I keep hearing her giggling around the house, and I know she's got her nose in that book! 

 

You're a girl after my own heart - I was just feeling proud that I've gotten my "Currently Reading" list down to 8 books.  That's about right - one all-year read, one read aloud with dd13, one audiobook, 4 "serious" books on a rotating stack, and one candy book that I read right before bed to help me fall asleep.  It's when Iet that serious book stack creep above 4 that I start to get into trouble.

 

Now, don't get me started on the teetering To Read stacks towering over the current stack . . . they are a little scary!

[Chrysalis Academy]

I just finished The Bluest Eye. I don't really know what to say about this book. My stomach is in knots and after reading the author notes at the end I really don't understand what message she was portraying. Apparently her focus was on racial issues of loving yourself the way you are and not wanting to be white. I just felt that part of the story was a little lost in the horrors portrayed in the book. It felt like she was presenting a mixture of issues all rolled into one but the last part definitely sticks out more than the rest. I won't give away the book in case anyone wants to read it. It's not an easy book to read by any means.

 

I picked this book up because it's name stuck out at me when someone on here had mentioned it and O assumed it was a book I had wanted to read. It just clicked this was the controversial books I had read about in high schools. I don't know how I feel about this book being read by high schoolers especially if it is my high schoolers.

 

 

 

Spoiler Triggers

 

I hear you. I've been unable to articulate my thoughts about The Bluest Eye as well.  I think that it, and The Color Purple, and books of that type make me so angry, so furious about the horrific treatment of young girls. I want to direct that fury somewhere. The first place I want to send it is to the men, the "fathers" or father surrogates. Ok, but am I sending it to individuals? to a culture? to black male culture?  Is that fair? What created that culture? were the men so beaten down, humiliated in their day to day lives that they had to take their rage, their frustration out in the only place where they had any power? So, is the fault really on the larger culture that treated an entire race of people as sub-human? Recent reads, like Between the World and Me and The New Jim Crow have certainly raised my awareness about what that experience must be like. Or, were family ties so broken down by the culture and legacy of slavery and discrimination that daughters seemed like legitimate sexual targets?  That's where I realize that it's totally unfair to put this on "black culture" and where books like Bastard out of Carolina make it clear that it happens everywhere - so then what is it about? Poverty? Ignorance? The cycle of abuse continuing?  It makes me feel so frustrated and discouraged about the human nature and lack hope for our children's future world.  That's when I have to glance down at the quote in my sig and remind myself that despair is a a cop-out.  But it's hard.

[Negin]

 

I'm sorry you're dealing with this, but try to be patient. Dh had to go on BP meds starting when he was 40. 

:iagree:  For years I tried everything I could to lower my blood pressure, but I had to take meds in the end. I still try to eat as healthy as possible, but sometimes you do need meds and no one should question that. 

 

While I was reading I'd apparently have a bit of a shocked countenance or whisper a bit of an exclamation and dh would look at me and ask what I was reading and I would turn bright red.  

Just wanted to say that I love your siggy quote. :D

 

Yesterday morning I was in London 

While on my 10.5 hour flight yesterday I finished reading The Paris Wife, which I really loved. 

Jenn, what a lovely trip! London and Paris are my favorites. I read "The Paris Wife" while we were in Paris five years ago. 

 

I read Being Mortal (Gawande) a few weeks ago. What a wonderful book

I really enjoyed this also and would like to read it again. 

 

I finished The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell 

This has been on my wish list for the longest while also. Too many books to read and too little time!

[mumto2]

We have been visiting South Carolina for a few days but are heading back to our base home away from home this afternoon. We have had a lovely sunny time with lots of great internet, so much internet that no reading has happened. Lol. My kindle is bursting with new books so I am ready to go back to internet at the library etc.

 

Haven't finished Death in Berlin by M.M. Kayehttps://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10221.Death_in_Berlinyet but probably won't have a chance to post about it later. Good nice mystery set in the period post WWII when Berlin had occupied quarters. This takes place in the British sector. Different characters this time.

 

I did get a hard copy of Kaye's The Far Pavilion from a library. The copy is huge and ancient yucky stained not old and basically clean. I have my limits! Going to return it and buy a copy when I get back home. I think I will be happier that way.

 

Also reading the next Linda Label Miller vampire romanced. Will probably finish that one too.

[Maus]

Hey, I'm on track!

 

9. "Girls on the Edge" by Leonard Sax.  Very thought provoking.  It makes some differences between how my older daughter learns compared to her brother make sense.  She does prefer to know the story behind what's being taught, for instance.  Working on "Boys Adrift" now, and I'm on the hold list for his latest book.

 

8. "Christ and the Inner Life" by Truman G. Madsen. (LDS)  This book illustrates the advantage of getting old! Ha!  I'm pretty sure I read it twenty-three years ago when my husband was taking a class taught by Dr. Madsen, but not a single word rang a bell.  I don't have to get all new books;  I can just start over with the ones I've already read!

 

7. "Gaze into Heaven" by Marlene Bateman Sullivan. (LDS)  So this is also an NDE book, but a different twist:  all the stories come from Mormon Pioneer journals, so they aren't contemporary stories.  Remarkably similar to modern reports.  I'd love to read other historical accounts from any or no faith background, but I don't know of any others.

 

6. "To Heaven and Back" by Mary C. Neal, MD.

5. "When Will the Heaven Begin?" by Ally Breedlove.

4. "Four" by Virginia Roth.

3. "Allegiant" by Virgina Roth.

2. " Insurgent" by Virginia Roth.

1. "Divergent" by Virginia Roth.

Edited March 3, 2016 by Maus

[MaeFlowers]

I did read finish one book last week. The Bones of Paris by Laurie R. King. I always enjoy her books. Usually I read the Mary Russell/Sherlock Holmes series but this is a murder mystery staring Harris Stuyvesant. I like her characters and the mysteries feel a bit more elevated than most mysteries I have read in the past. It's high fluff. I liked it so much, I thought I would pass it on if anyone would like it. It's kind of short notice but I will be going to the post office tomorrow.

 

I did order some books and am hoping to start The Painter tonight. I am also hoping to get back to HotAW and some other readings I have been moving through slowly.

 

 

 

 

[Ellesmere]

I thought Good Omens was hilarious, and my dd13 is reading it right now - I keep hearing her giggling around the house, and I know she's got her nose in that book! 

 

You're a girl after my own heart - I was just feeling proud that I've gotten my "Currently Reading" list down to 8 books.  That's about right - one all-year read, one read aloud with dd13, one audiobook, 4 "serious" books on a rotating stack, and one candy book that I read right before bed to help me fall asleep.  It's when Iet that serious book stack creep above 4 that I start to get into trouble.

 

Now, don't get me started on the teetering To Read stacks towering over the current stack . . . they are a little scary!

I'm looking forward to my kids reading it Good Omens a few years, too! I just realized it's not as far off for my oldest as I thought. 

 

Yeah, my goal is to get my currently reading down to under 10 with a healthy mix of fluff and serious stuff. Eight would be great. Officially my count is 16, but there are some I know I've started, could pick right back up without backtracking, and I forgot to put on the list. 

 

My To Read list is so long. And it doesn't include all the books I already own, so I feel guilty when I get anything while I still have a stack of unread books. I've tried to feel better by going to the library so I'm at least not spending money, but still. So many books, so little commitment.

 

I'm glad you and others posted about the Bingo squares too because I had dismissed it at first (again, commitment issues) and didn't think I'd remember to keep track. But it is helping me choose when suffering from indecision.

[SEGway]

I hear you. I've been unable to articulate my thoughts about The Bluest Eye as well.  I think that it, and The Color Purple, and books of that type make me so angry, so furious about the horrific treatment of young girls. I want to direct that fury somewhere. The first place I want to send it is to the men, the "fathers" or father surrogates. Ok, but am I sending it to individuals? to a culture? to black male culture?  Is that fair? What created that culture? were the men so beaten down, humiliated in their day to day lives that they had to take their rage, their frustration out in the only place where they had any power? So, is the fault really on the larger culture that treated an entire race of people as sub-human? Recent reads, like Between the World and Me and The New Jim Crow have certainly raised my awareness about what that experience must be like. Or, were family ties so broken down by the culture and legacy of slavery and discrimination that daughters seemed like legitimate sexual targets?  That's where I realize that it's totally unfair to put this on "black culture" and where books like Bastard out of Carolina make it clear that it happens everywhere - so then what is it about? Poverty? Ignorance? The cycle of abuse continuing?  It makes me feel so frustrated and discouraged about the human nature and lack hope for our children's future world.  That's when I have to glance down at the quote in my sig and remind myself that despair is a a cop-out.  But it's hard.

 

"To me, the grounds for hope are simply that we don't know what will happen next, and that the unlikely and the unimaginable transpire quite regularly . . . Despair is a form of certainty, certainty that the future will be a lot like the present, or will decline from it; . . . Optimism is similarly confident about what will happen. Both are grounds for not acting. Hope can be the knowledge that we don't have that memory and that reality doesn't necessarily match our plans."

 

-Rebecca Solnit, "Woolf's Darkness"

 

 

I just need to say how very much I love that quote (and how silly I feel for not having seen it before you referred to it in that post). Watching long-distance as people I love are getting hurt by systems and societies prejudices (different specifics from the ones in the book)...well, I really needed to read that. So, thank you!

 

Edited March 3, 2016 by SEGway

[Kareni]

 I like her characters and the mysteries feel a bit more elevated than most mysteries I have read in the past. It's high fluff.

 

 

We clearly need to start a list of fluff subcategories.  We already have:

 

 

Fluff (basic fluff)

 

Flufferton Abbey (regency fluff)

 

High Fluff (a more erudite breed of fluff)

 

 

Regards,

Kareni

[Kareni]

Last week I mentioned having read and enjoyed Essex County Volume 1: Tales From The Farm (Essex County) by Jeff Lemire.  Yesterday I finished the second volume of this series which I also enjoyed ~

Essex County 2: Ghost Stories by Jeff Lemire.  Now I'd like to read volume three, but I didn't think about it when I was at the library earlier today.  Oh, well.

 

There is a good review here: A tale of two brothers

 

Regards,

Kareni

[JennW in SoCal]

We clearly need to start a list of fluff subcategories.  We already have:

 

 

Fluff (basic fluff)

 

Flufferton Abbey (regency fluff)

 

High Fluff (a more erudite breed of fluff)

 

 

:laugh: 

 

Trying to decide if I've read any High Fluff, what exactly that would be. 

 

My personal fluff at the moment is Fantasy Fluff.  FF? Fluffership? (As in Fluffership of the Rings?)  I wouldn't say that all fantasy or sci fi is fluff, but this Brandon Sanderson title I'm listening to at the moment has the most cringe-worthy, fan-fiction sounding, dialog! It has to be categorized as fluff. 

 

Then there are cozy mysteries, which can be total fluff.

[JennW in SoCal]

 

I'm so glad you posted that - Morgan is playing a snooty French maitre d' in her next show, and she's been trolling for good (bad) French accents. I'll have to show her that clip!  

 

 

When I was trying to learn a bit of French to use on my trip, my really bad, snooty, joking around French accent kept getting in the way! Sacre bleu but old habits die hard! Too many Pepe Le Pew cartoons on top of Monty Python, not to mention the song Le Poisson from Little Mermaid. 

 

No matter my best honest attempts -- every shop keeper and waiter switched to English upon hearing my "Bon Jour!"

[Lady Florida.]

When I was trying to learn a bit of French to use on my trip, my really bad, snooty, joking around French accent kept getting in the way! Sacre bleu but old habits die hard! Too many Pepe Le Pew cartoons on top of Monty Python, not to mention the song Le Poisson from Little Mermaid.

 

No matter my best honest attempts -- every shop keeper and waiter switched to English upon hearing my "Bon Jour!"

 

:lol:  :lol:

[Robin M]

When I was trying to learn a bit of French to use on my trip, my really bad, snooty, joking around French accent kept getting in the way! Sacre bleu but old habits die hard! Too many Pepe Le Pew cartoons on top of Monty Python, not to mention the song Le Poisson from Little Mermaid. 

 

No matter my best honest attempts -- every shop keeper and waiter switched to English upon hearing my "Bon Jour!"

:lol:   

 

Hubby loves Pepe Le Pew and I bought him an ornament that talked last Christmas.    :P   We drove my poor son nuts!

 

I'm playing catch up, plus getting distracted from the internet by Nora Roberts. Her newest, The Liar, arrived.  And I may disappear completely when the fourth book Marked in Flesh in Anne Bishop's other series arrives on Tuesday. :hurray:   One of my classes actually has an assignment sending me to the book store to browse those sections not browsed before so going to have fun tomorrow.   Off to read all your posts.   :001_smile:

[Robin M]

Considered yourselves all liked since I just don't have enough to go around!!!!

 

Woohoo!  Just read that new Star Wars movie is being released on DVD in April!

 

Robyn:  The Rose Metal Press Field Guide to Writing Flash Fiction, which includes a history of flash an 26 chapters, each by a different author and each including an essay, a writing prompt and a short short story. (Except the last chapter, which for some reason is just an essay.)[/size]

Woohoo!   I'm also done with the nonfiction one.  Thanks for the interesting and provocative notes.   I sat next to James while we were doing school work, opened and started reading. :w00t: Okay,that can wait until later.   :lol:
 

Minerva: I have the biggest crush on everyone in this group. :001_wub: I love the books, the little snippets of your lives, the generosity of spirit. 

Aw!   :grouphug:
 
 

Jane in NC: As February comes to an end, I realize that I failed to open Out of Africa which had been on our list for the month.  So many books...

 
Same here, Thank you for leading the discussion on Forster and A Passage to India!   I'm sorry to say I got sidetracked and did get to it either. :leaving:      However, I'm loving the discussions and looking forward to reading it even more.  

 

 

 

PeacefulChaos:  Sigh.  I have had high blood pressure for a few years now, and it's been steadily rising so I finally decided to get something done about it.  I went last week and what they put me on hasn't helped yet, which I was expecting - while it would be great for the very first thing they tried, in the minimum dose, to work, the chances of it...  :p  Yeah.  

 

I've been on bp meds ever since James was born. However, whenever I go in to see the doctor, it goes through the roof.  He had me try different ones recently. Worked at first, but once built up in my system -  one gave me gout and the other turned me into a addlepated b**ch.  And the funny thing is the one that made me cranky, that's the one my technician has been on for a couple years and he's become quite forgetful and increasingly grouchy.  He wouldn't believe the medication was affecting him until he experienced his calm cool boss turning into a bear.  :zombiechase:

 

[Robin M]

Soror:  It is only Tuesday and I'm already behind. I am impossibly behind on this thread and send out thanks that you guys are welcoming anyway. I've either been busy or tired from not sleeping well and I've realized that the reason I can actually read books now is that I've mostly been sleeping well. I have 3 books in from the library and 3 from Goodwill and Don Quixote and The Well-Read Mind from Amazon- so I'm impossibly behind on my TBR pile as well with a week that promises to be very full. I'm finishing Big Magic this am- despite the fact that I don't have the time because I should have finished it 2 days ago. I promise not to let myself start another because I have too much to do and not enough time to do it and I must not get sucked into a book, despite how tempting they look- especially Boy, Snow Bird

Breath!  You really can't get behind because we are always here. It's a never ending house party so you can drop in anytime and someone will always be around to catch you up.  Don't rush through your tbr pile because it will keep having babies, so just take your time and enjoy.

 

 

Mom22es:  Speaking of troubles, I got some great news.  My kidney is just fine.  They said it was a shadow on the ultrasound.  It gave me such a scare, but I’m so relieved.  I am being referred to a GI doc for the other issues.  After almost 2 weeks of feeling miserable the meds have worked their magic and I’m feeling human again.

Yeah! 

 

 

Jenn:  So jealous and glad you had such a wonderful time. Thanks for the pictures and we get to live vicariously through your travels.  I'm thinking we either need to plan a 52 books road trip or a cruise.   :driving:

 

Rose: So I'm down to 3 bingo squares left: Revisit an old friend - in progress, Over 500 pages - in progress, and my final nemesis catoegory, pick a book based on the cover. Thanks to Stacia, I have Necropolis in line for that one.  But I feel quite a sense of accomplishment about the birth year square!

 

Awesome! I think you'll actually have fun picking a book based on the cover...because you have to go to the bookstore.   :hurray:

 

Lady Florida: Also, have you ever read a historical book, either fiction or non-fiction and hoped for a different outcome?  Except that it's actual history so you know the ending?

Yes.  When I read Inside the Kingdom of Ice, I got really attached to the characters and cried when they died, even though I knew it was coming. 

 

 

 

SEgway: There's not much time for keeping up with these threads, but even reading/responding in snippets has spurred me to read a lot more consistently and more ambitiously than I usually do.

Yes, very sweet! 

 

 

MaeFlowers:  I haven't posted in a couple of weeks and missed last weeks thread. I have been in a funk and really haven't done much reading. I hope everyone is doing well.[/size]

:grouphug:

 

 

Caladwen:  I understand that. I have severe health issues from several food groups and have had to give up a lot of stuff.

Hugs to you. I've been bad lately with corn and eating alot of corn chips and drinking pepsi's.  Nose is either stuffy or running and I know better... yet

 

 

 

Rose:  Yes, I'm feeling rather sheepish about my obsession with the Bingo. Not sure what's that about. Maybe I don't have enough externally validated challenges in my life these days?

 

Am I going to have to come up with a new one every quarter?   :laugh:

 

 

Mumto2:  We have been visiting South Carolina for a few days but are heading back to our base home away from home this afternoon. We have had a lovely sunny time with lots of great internet, so much internet that no reading has happened. Lol. My kindle is bursting with new books so I am ready to go back to internet at the library etc. 

 

Too bad you couldn't have coordinated with Jenn and meet in the middle of the airport.  Funny how y'all traveled to each other's area at the same time. 

 

 

Off to make dinner and get back to Nora!  :lol:

 

 

[Kareni]

I'm playing catch up, plus getting distracted from the internet by Nora Roberts. Her newest, The Liar, arrived.  And I may disappear completely when the fourth book Marked in Flesh in Anne Bishop's other series arrives on Tuesday.

 

 

How are you liking The Liar?   I began it, put it down, and then returned it to the library unfinished.  If you like it, I may give it another try.

 

I too am looking forward to Marked In Flesh.

 

Regards,

Kareni

[MaeFlowers]

:laugh:

 

Trying to decide if I've read any High Fluff, what exactly that would be.

 

My personal fluff at the moment is Fantasy Fluff. FF? Fluffership? (As in Fluffership of the Rings?) I wouldn't say that all fantasy or sci fi is fluff, but this Brandon Sanderson title I'm listening to at the moment has the most cringe-worthy, fan-fiction sounding, dialog! It has to be categorized as fluff.

 

Then there are cozy mysteries, which can be total fluff.

I don't know what high fluff is either! I just don't know how to describe her books. They are fun and easy to read but not in the annoyingly dumbed down way. I feel like they are well researched and written but not the type of book you analyze.

Maybe I don't understand what fluff means. I've assumed it meant quick reads at a lower level. Dime store paperbacks? Is this wrong?

[Stacia]

Last year, I know that Rose pointed us in the direction of Hogarth's retellings of Shakespeare plays.

 

Jeanette Winterson's The Gap of Time was the first one released (a retelling of The Winter's Tale).

 

Looks like another one came out last month: Shylock is My Name by Howard Jacobson (a retelling of The Merchant of Venice).

 

Next one looks like it will be released in June....

 

Just fyi...

[Soror]

Just finished Boy, Snow, Bird it was haunting and beautiful, although a bit hard to follow sometimes. My week has been crazy busy and I'm on borrowed time. Now onto finishing prep for book club, which I'm horribly nervous about (which is why I'm procrastinating on here right now).

 

 

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-Bowman

10. The Wild Trees- Preston

11. The Magician's Elephant- diCamillio

12. Wild- Strayed

13. The Last Child in the Woods- Louv

14. Good Omens- Pratchett and Gaiman

15. Beauty- McKinley

16. Pride and Prejudice- Austin

17. Big Magic- Gilbert

18. Bird, Snow, Bird -Oyeyemi

 

[Mom-ninja.]

Read What Would Audrey Do yesterday. Another look into snippets into her life. I'm still trying to figure out how her husbands could have cheated on her. I mean, she has been rated as the most beautiful and not to mention kindest, most loving woman in the world, and her husbands both treated her badly and were unfaithful. Boogles the mind. Anyway, nice little book that gives pointers on how to have grace and chicness in your life.

 

I try to have grace. However, I am much more like Katharine than Audrey. Both were amazing women of course. Katharine just had more lively-in-your-face-won't-take-crap-from-anyone spunk. My dh would definitely say that's me as opposed to being quiet and graceful. :lol:  

[MaeFlowers]

Read What Would Audrey Do yesterday. Another look into snippets into her life. I'm still trying to figure out how her husbands could have cheated on her. I mean, she has been rated as the most beautiful and not to mention kindest, most loving woman in the world, and her husbands both treated her badly and were unfaithful. Boogles the mind. Anyway, nice little book that gives pointers on how to have grace and chicness in your life.

 

I try to have grace. However, I am much more like Katharine than Audrey. Both were amazing women of course. Katharine just had more lively-in-your-face-won't-take-crap-from-anyone spunk. My dh would definitely say that's me as opposed to being quiet and graceful. :lol:

This is so interesting! I looked up the book and there are so many books of this sort. I saw many about Aubrey and some of Grace Kelly and others. I don't even know these existed. I might have to read a few.

 

I'd probably be a failure, though. I'm simply not "together". I've tried and it always looked and felt so wrong. I just have to keep to my natural ways, I guess.

[Chrysalis Academy]

Last year, I know that Rose pointed us in the direction of Hogarth's retellings of Shakespeare plays.

 

Jeanette Winterson's The Gap of Time was the first one released (a retelling of The Winter's Tale).

 

Looks like another one came out last month: Shylock is My Name by Howard Jacobson (a retelling of The Merchant of Venice).

 

Next one looks like it will be released in June....

 

Just fyi...

 

Oh, thanks for reminding me! I requested that my library purchase it. Looks like they did, I just put it on hold.

[Lady Florida.]

I finished Gnarr: How I Became Mayor of a Large City in Iceland and Changed the World. It was a quick read, and while it wasn't very well written (though with translated books I always wonder how much of that is on the translator) it was very interesting. 

 

There were times when I was cheering on The Best Party and agreeing with much of what he says (though I'm not an anarchist); other times I was kind of scared. There's a bit of that "We're fed up with politicians and going with a total outsider" happening in the current U.S. election cycle. Of course Gnarr and the particular U.S. candidate I'm thinking of are very different types, but the idea is the same. 

 

 

I finished only three books in January and four in February (though one of those I started reading in Jan.) and now suddenly I've finished two books in just over a week and will likely finish at least one (maybe two) more by the end of the weekend. Of course they are shorter, easier books, but on my list it looks like I hardly did any reading in the first two month of the year. 

 

I'm 21% into my current fiction read, The Expatriates and liking it so far. Before I start another non-fiction I'd like to finish Thomas Paine's The Age of Reason. 

 

 

Edited because I embarrassed myself by how many times I mixed numbers and number words in a paragraph, and sometimes even in a sentence.  :blushing:

Edited March 4, 2016 by Lady Florida

[Lady Florida.]

Well, I've learned one thing: 1971 was not a good year for book publications.  

 

 

Uh oh. Guess what year I was born?

 

I'm having the opposite problem. I was surprised at some of the books published in 1955. I've "narrowed" it down to:

 

-Lolita - I've never read it and am not sure if I can, but I think I should because it's one of those books you should read.

-Inherit the Wind - If we're counting books for more than one square this one will also count for Play. I've seen bits and pieces of the various movie adaptations on tv, but have never seen any of them from beginning to end.

-On the Road - Something I probably should have read when I was younger. Not sure if I can even enjoy it now that I'm an old fogey.

-The Talented Mr. Ripley - I did see the movie so this would be one of those backwards saw-the-movie-first reads.

-The Quiet American

-Cat on a Hot Tin Roof - another one that could also go in the Play square. And another one where I've seen parts of the movie on tv but never the whole thing.

-Profiles in Courage

-Hickory Dickory Dock - This would be the easy way out so I probably won't pick it. I haven't read this one though, and am almost always up for a Christie novel.

[idnib]

I think Aziz let's his practice decline because he became disenchanted with the Western world. If I understood correctly, his old practice was run by the English. I think he wanted to be accepted into that world and when it rejected him, he did the same in return. Maybe that gave him so sense of power over his own life back?

As for the caves, I don't think anything happened. I think they were in a strange place where they felt uncomfortable and their sensitivities were heightened.

 

Yes, I agree the return to a more village-style medicine away from his British-run practice was symbolic.

 

No clue on the "God si love" misspelling--other than to note that Forster was offering something for English majors everywhere to contemplate.  ;)

 

Agreeing with MaeFlowers (below) that Aziz needed to literally wash his hands of all things Western or at least British. 

 

But about those caves....

 

I do think that the echoes within could have produced a mystical experience--or something akin to one.  Weird confession on my part from an otherwise rational sort of person:  I love sacred spaces whether old world cathedrals or the Black Hills of South Dakota.  Perhaps an overly active imagination on my part, but I do feel that these kinds of sacred spaces can contain echoes of those who have gone before us.  Heck, I even channel my husband's grandmother (a woman I never met) by sitting in her rocking chair. The finish on the arms is worn from all those years of human touch.  There is something soothing about touching something or occupying the space that others have valued.

 

And if someone named Quested enters a cave, we know something is going to happen to her.  Whether the event involved another person or only exists in her mind (what is reality after all?), those echoes that haunt her are significant.  To me they are the echoes of the past, the echoes of souls trampled upon by the British in their colonization.

 

Frankly I think the caves did Adela a favor by estranging her from the wretched Ronnie--unfortunately at the cost of Aziz and others.

 

The caves also seem to produce a disenchantment in Mrs. Moore--but was she already disenchanted by those things witnessed in her lifetime (war, poverty)?  Mrs. Moore takes comfort in solitaire, the need for recurring patterns (which I so understand says she who always keeps a pair of socks going on knitting needles).  Ultimately I see Mrs. Moore seeking peace in a troubled world.

 

Probably entire dissertations have been written about "God si love" and I should leave it alone.  :D

 

I am enjoying your thoughts about the caves, and you've shed some light on the "echo" situation, which has also left me puzzled. A more prosaic explanation was some sort of mild PTSD, but I like a more superstitious explanation as it fits better with the feel of the novel.

[idnib]

-On the Road - Something I probably should have read when I was younger. Not sure if I can even enjoy it now that I'm an old fogey.

 

I did read this when I was around 20 and enjoyed it, and have zero desire to read it again now that I'm in my 40s.

[Stacia]

I did read this when I was around 20 and enjoyed it, and have zero desire to read it again now that I'm in my 40s.

 

(Re: On the Road)

 

I read this for my book club, probably when I was in my 30s. I thought it would be something I would like, but I didn't really end up liking it. Oh well.

 

[Robin M]

How are you liking The Liar?   I began it, put it down, and then returned it to the library unfinished.  If you like it, I may give it another try.

 

I too am looking forward to Marked In Flesh.

 

Regards,

Kareni

It's one you have to be in the mood to read, so guess it hit at the right time. Halfway through and no sex yet.   :lol:   Small town southern gal discovers deceased husband duped her, left millions in debt and returns back to small town. Lots of small town politics, a murder mystery and of course, a blooming romance.  Very southern and since I've lived in small towns in the past, totally get the byplay and gossip.  Not sure its one you'd totally enjoy.  

[Jane in NC]

It's one you have to be in the mood to read, so guess it hit at the right time. Halfway through and no sex yet.   :lol:   Small town southern gal discovers deceased husband duped her, left millions in debt and returns back to small town. Lots of small town politics, a murder mystery and of course, a blooming romance.  Very southern and since I've lived in small towns in the past, totally get the byplay and gossip.  Not sure its one you'd totally enjoy.  

 

And just what are you implying about our dear Kareni??

 

[Stacia]

Since Robin has declared this week to include reading from New Zealand, I figured it was a good time to pull up my Kindle copy of Into the River by Ted Dawe, the first book to be banned in New Zealand in 22 years. That was last year & when I first read about the ban, I immediately bought a copy. (Would you gals expect any less of me? ;) ) FYI, the ban in New Zealand has since been lifted.

 

 

An article from The Economist in Sept. 2015: New Zealand's censorship gives birth to a must-read

 

The board of review, which can consider the censor’s rulings, had decreed that a R14 restriction should be put on the book. School libraries found this difficult to administer, and the country’s deputy censor had removed the restriction. Mr Mathieson had previously wanted a R18 restriction placed on the book, and used his power under the law (which few people seemed to have noticed) to place a temporary ban on the book until the board of review could look at it again. It was the first time since the legislation was passed 22 years ago that a ban had been imposed. The ban will almost certainly be lifted once the board does meet within a month or so.
 

The book is about a Maori boy sent to an elite school. It has passages of sex, swearing, bullying and drug-taking. The author, a teacher, says he based it on activities he had observed in schools. He was profoundly upset by the ban, and the hate mail he received afterwards. The book had won two major awards.

 

An article from The Guardian in Oct. 2015: Ban lifted on New Zealand young adult novel Into the River

 

Into the River had been subject to a back-and forth censorship battle since its 2013 publication when it won top prize in the 2013 New Zealand Post children’s book awards.
 

The interim ban was widely criticised by authors and organisations including the New Zealand Book Council and the Publishers Association of New Zealand, while readers worldwide organised silent readings in protest and solidarity with Dawe.

<snip>

The interim ban, which made it illegal to sell or supply the book anywhere in New Zealand was the first in the 22-year history of the current law.

 

It's a YA book (not normally my type of genre) & I'm at the 20% mark according to Kindle. So far, I'm enjoying it.

[Robin M]

And just what are you implying about our dear Kareni??

 

:blushing:  :Angel_anim:  :wub:

[Kareni]

And just what are you implying about our dear Kareni??

 

 

Shh.  It's a secret!

 

Regards,

Kareni