The Improper Life of Bezellia Grove - Susan Gregg Gilmore

the  improper life of bezellia grove
susan gregg gilmore
c. 2010
256 pages
completed 5/9/2011

read for: i want more challenge

*may contain spoilers*

Apparently among those who consider their social standing some measure of importance, I am to be admired for I am one of the view Nashvillians who can claim with infallible certainty that a blood relative had lived in this town since its inception.

Bezellia Grove is the last in a long line of first born daughters named for their pioneering ancestor who picked up her dead husband's musket in order to fight off the attacking Chickamauga tribe (though the accuracy of the story is debatable). Growing up in an affluent and wealthy family, Bezellia's life should be breezy and idyllic. But as her mother descends into alcoholism, her father becomes more and more distant, and her younger sister enters her teens still making mud pies and clinging to her doll Baby Stella, Bezellia's life is anything but. She finds herself drawn to the family she creates from the African American help, Maizelle the family cook and Nathaniel the driver. Her life takes a turn when she develops a friendship with Nathaniel's son Samuel and Bezellia is introduced to 60s Tennessee racism first hand.

While I have to admit I enjoyed Gilmore's first novel Looking for Salvation at the Dairy Queen better, I still really enjoyed Bezellia. Southern lit like this can sometimes be dismissed as merely fluff, but she tackles some heavy topics like alcoholism and racism and inter-racial relationships in a very realistic and non sugar coated or fantastical way. I found the inclusion on some not-so-nice remarks from Bezellia's cousin, who was all for Bezellia's crush on Samuel, to be more telling of the blatant racism than any of Mrs. Grove's hysteric outburst. Mrs. Grove is portrayed throughout much of the book as a somewhat larger than life villain (before we come to see her as more complex) so it's kind of accepted that of course someone like that would be racist. But Bezellia's cousin is supposed to be a good character, someone on Bezellia and Samuel's side. For her to make those comments shows how deeply rooted the racism was.

I did find some fault (maybe that's the wrong word??) in the characterization of Maizelle and Nathaniel. In my opinion, I viewed them as a little too...perfect? Against the villainy of Mrs. Grove they were almost angelic in their long suffering and unconditional love for Bezellia and her sister. I thought they were a little too influenced by Mamie or Uncle Tom stereotypes (Maizelle a little more than Nathaniel) in their devotion to Bezellia. It wasn't super blatant or anything, just something that I picked up on. Samuel, on the other hand, was an entirely different matter, a well rounded character and equal to Bezellia.

As for the ending, I was somewhat torn. The hopeless romantic in me wished Samuel and Bezellia could have taken on the world, but the historian in me was more satisfied that they didn't.

4/5

One Amazing Thing - Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

one amazing thing

chitra banerjee divakaruni

c. 2009

220 pages

completed 4/13/2011

read for: south asian challenge

*may contain spoilers*

When the first rumble came, no one in the visa office, down in the  basement of the Indian consulate, thought anything of it.

Expecting an ordinary day with nothing more than a few inconveniences, several people have gathered at an Indian consulate in American. Each are preoccupied with their own lives and give little notice to each other as they wait to finish getting visas. Their lives quickly come together, however, when they are hit by an earthquake and become trapped in the basement of the consulate. As their situation becomes more and more dire, the companions, with little else to pass the time, tell each other their stories.

It hadn't happened in a while, but I read this book in only two days. Maybe not such a feat for others (as the book is only 220 pages) but I tend to read annoyingly slow. But I found this extremely hard to put down. I've been pretty unmotivated lately, either to read much or blog or even read other people's blogs, but I'm trying to get all three back on track.

I read this about a month ago, so the review may be a little lacking or disjointed, so I'm sorry.

I always find it especially enjoyable when I feel a personal connection to what I'm reading, especially if that personal connection is something somewhat arbitrary. Like when I'm reading a historical fiction novel and they happen to be discussing an aspect of history that I just learned about in one of my classes or something like that. In this book, I noticed pretty early on in their time together, that the group stuck in the consulate were going through the five stages of team building. When I served in AmeriCorps, we ended up having to talk about team building all the time, and we'd do all those ridiculous games and exercises to make sure we had smooth running teams. It's one of those things that is important to do, but everyone kind of hates doing it so you have to kind of make fun of it. I spent two years in AmeriCorps and we talked about team building (or I guess were lectured about team building) all the time. So it was kind of funny for me to read this and make note of when they transitioned into the next stage. For anyone interested the five stages are forming (when you first meet), storming (when everyone is fighting), norming (when the team starts to understand how everyone else works), performing (when you're able to work at the team's utmost potential), and celebrating (when the job's all done). I wish they could have come up with a rhyming word for the fifth stage.

I found myself enthralled with the stories told by the group of trapped people. Just as I like certain members of the group more than others (I'm looking at you, Mr. Pritchett. You were super annoying), I liked certain stories more than  others. I particularly enjoyed the stories set in India. I had no idea there was such a history of Chinese emigration to India and subsequent racism against them. I really enjoyed Mangalam and Malathi's stories of being almost forced to come to America. The Pritchett's stories both left me a little cold, however.

The only major issue I had with the book was the end, and part of that is just my own personal preference. I don't enjoy ambiguous resolutions, and we're left not knowing if the group is rescued and survives (for my part, I'm apparently a Debbie Downer because I don't think they did). And also, I don't think I totally got the ending of Uma's story, the deal with whether or not the aurora was real. I didn't realize that was questionable until she said she lied to Jeri. Maybe I should re-read the last chapter and see if I have any divine revelations.

4/5

The Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck

the grapes of wrath
john steinbeck
c. 1939
619 pages (232 read)
stopped reading 3/28/2011

read for: back to the classics challenge, page to screen challenge, 1001 book, penguin classics

*may contain spoilers*

To the red country and part of the gray country of Oklahoma, the last rains came gently, and they did not cut the scarred earth.

Tom Joad is released from prison after serving a four year sentence for killing another man in a bar fight. He returns home to his family in Oklahoma and finds them packing all their belongings in one lone truck, having been pushed off the land in favor of faster and more cost efficient tractors. Deciding to break his parole, Tom joins his family as they journey to California in search of the American dream.

It took me two months and I only got this far. Some of that I can attribute to the end of the quarter and finals and all, but that's mostly an excuse. I wanted to like this book so badly! So much so that I may actually revisit it at some point. But for now I'm deciding to put it down. Despite writing my senior AP English paper on Steinbeck when I was in high school, I haven't read a whole lot of his work (in all honestly, of the three major texts I discussed in said paper, one of them actually was The Grapes of Wrath even though I didn't read it). The two novels of his I've read are not even quintessential Steinbeck. Instead of East of Eden or Of Mice and Men, I've read The Winter of Our Discontent and The Pearl. Both I really enjoyed, and I looked forward to reading his more popular work.

And there were things about Grapes I really enjoyed. Steinbeck has a beautiful voice, and he has an incredible ability to transport his readers with his words. And his characters are complex and flawed and deeply relatable, even though I've obviously never lived in Depression-era Oklahoma. Those elements were alive and well in Grapes and in those respects I really enjoyed it.

My problem reading The Grapes of Wrath came from the supplementary chapters. Every other chapter followed the story of parolee Tom Joad and his family's exodus to the bounty of California. The ones in between explored the experience of the Depression and the Dust Bowl on a more national level. These chapters were often beautifully written and were I to ever become a history teacher, many of them would be read in my class during our discussion of the Depression. However, for me, the way they broke up the action of the story completely stalled the momentum. Everything would come to a screeching halt, and the fits and starts kept me from fully engaging in what was going on. Like I said, maybe at some point I will try again, but for now I need to put it down.

1/5

Are you There God? It's Me, Margaret - Judy Blume

are you there god? it's me margaret
judy blume
c. 1970
149 pages
completed 3/13/2011

read for: back to the classics challenge

*may contain spoilers*

Are you there God? It's me, Margaret.

Margaret is an eleven year old girl who moves to New Jersey with her parents. While her parents are determined to raise their daughter as neither Christian of Jewish, her grandparents are tugging her in both directions and Margaret can't decide which one she thinks she is. While dealing with this internal struggle, Margaret also has to navigate a new school and new friends all while trying to grow up.

I read this for the Back to the Classics Challenge (see sidebar) in the category of young adult classics, because I think this is often touted as like the ultimate young adult book. As such, I feel a little weird reviewing it (especially since I didn't love it), so this will be a short review. Somehow I missed Judy Blume when I grew up. I mean, I knew of her and her books, but I was always more of a Ramona Quimby or Alice McKinley girl myself. I think maybe that's one of the reasons I didn't enjoy reading Margaret more now that I'm older. I don't have any nostalgic blinders on. Like, my sister the literature scholar and I like to have dance parties where we jam to the Backstreet Boys. We used to love the Backstreet Boys when we were much younger and had questionable taste in music. Had Justin Beiber and the Jonas Brothers come out in the 90s when we were that age we'd probably love them too. But since they didn't and we're all grown up now and have still questionable exceptional taste in music, we can't judge them with our little girl brains. We judge them with our all grown up brains and know that our tastes are far too sophisticated for Justin Beiber (except that one really catchy song, and only because they sang it on Glee). So that's how I feel about Judy Blume. Had I read it as a young adult maybe I'd still think it was awesome. But reading it as an adult?

I felt like the issues raised never got resolved. Like her confusion about God and that fact that her new best friend was not exactly a very nice person. And I have to say, I never knew anyone who was 11 or 12 and was as obsessed with getting their period as the girls in young adult books. It was not nearly as big a deal as its made out to be. Neither I nor any of my friends used it as a marker of how grown up we were and no on I knew was super excited for it to happen, seeing as how when it's never happened to you it just sounds kind of gross and inconvenient. I think some good issues were raised in the book, things that are important to talk about with kids, but it ended kind of flat for me.

3/5

On Beauty - Zadie Smith

on beauty
zadie smith
c. 2005
443 pages
completed 9/9/2010

read for: before i die challenge, 1001 books, EW new classics

*may contain spoilers*

One may as well begin with Jerome's emails to his father.

Howard, a white British art history professor, is trying to make things right with his African American wife Kiki after she catches him in an affair. Their three children, Levi who is still in high school and Jerome and Zora who are attending college, are all trying to make sense of the world around them and their place in it.

I'm finding it really difficult to give a decent synopsis of this book. There was a lot going on. Each of the five family members had their own personal story taking place. And sometimes there were other people's stories thrown into the mix just for good measure. So it could take me a long time to really describe the basic plot. Instead, I will just say, thematically I think this books centers around discovering how you identify yourself and how that identity may clash with family. For example, Levi, the youngest child, identifies very strongly as African American. To Levi, being black is equal to being urban, unintellectual, and "street." Despite being raised in the suburbs in a intellectual household, Levi uses what he describes as street language as a way to connect with his heritage. His older siblings, though African American through their mother, were both born in England and don't have this same pull to be "black" the way Levi does.

Severe differences within the family led to a very difficult family dynamic. They were each on such different ends of all kinds of spectrums: white vs. black, British vs. American, intellectual vs. plebeian, religious vs. secular, artistic vs. realistic, among others. At times it really seemed like these people didn't know each other at all. The relationship between Levi and Howard was especially awkward to witness. They had absolutely nothing to say to each other. This leads me away from describing the book into talking about what I thought of it...

While thematically it was interesting, I hated every single character. This was a family who claimed to love each other and yet I could not get passed the complete disrespect they all displayed toward each other. I couldn't get behind any of the choices any of them made especially Howard. I find it hard to like a book when I don't like any of the people.

I also had trouble with the gaps in the story. By that I mean, an episode of the story would be happening, conflict would arise, and just when it looks like we're getting to the climax of the action, the chapter would end kind of cliffhanger-like and the next chapter would start several weeks or months later already well into the aftermath. I would have liked to have seen how things actually played out. And sometimes the issues or debates just petered out instead of coming to any kind of conclusion. For example, there is a major debate throughout the college Howard teaches at regarding "discretionaries" (underprivileged people not enrolled at the school but who are found by professors to show extraordinary promise in their field and who are then allowed to take class). Howard is for discretionaries, his professional rival is not. A lot of time is spent setting up this issue, but then instead of addressing it and coming to any kind of conclusion, something happens to make Howard's rival's opinion moot and so the whole thing just blows over. Also from the tone of the book, I think I come down on the wrong side of the debate.

I was interested in the themes and the story, but it kind of fell short for me. I wish I could have cared about any of the characters.

3/5

It's Tuesday, where are you?

The Known World
Manchester County, Virginia 1841

It's Tuesday, where are you?

On Beauty Boston, Massachusetts, USA 2005

Jim the Boy - Tony Early

jim the boy
tony early
c. 2000
256 pages
completed 7/22/2010

read for: tbr challenge

*may contain spoilers*

During the night something like a miracle happened: Jim's age grew an extra digit.

Jim is a boy living in a small town in North Carolina during the Great Depression. During the year he turns ten his life teaches him lessons on friendship, family, and what it means to be a man.

It's been a little while since I finished this book. My head has been in another space the past week since I just moved to a new apartment in Seattle with my sister the literature scholar. So this review is probably going to be a little short. I should have written it closer to when I had finished it.

This was a very quiet little book. Much of it was very sweet and somewhat idyllic: a small boy living with a mother and uncles who love him whose biggest problem seemed to be a competition with another boy from school to see who was better at everything. Things took a bit of a turn at the end and Jim came in contact with some much bigger issues (poverty and polio among other things). For the most part, though, I was reminded of books like Little Women and Little House on the Prairie with simple episodic life lessons.

4/5

A Prayer for the City - Buzz Bissinger

a prayer for the city
buzz bissinger
c. 1998
379 pages
completed 7/16/2010

read for: hstaa303 (modern american civilization)

*may contain spoilers*

Success followed success and as he persuaded more and more people with the spontaneous symphony of his hands and the infectious rhythm of his voice to see a place he saw, it became easier to believe that there was something wondrous about him, regardless of the patches of hair sprouting from his head like a failed English garden, not to mention the balled-up blue suits that looked as if they had been burrowed away in gym bags.

During the early '90s, Buzz Bissinger enjoyed almost unfettered access to the Ed Rendell, mayor of Philadelphia. The information he gathered was used to novelize the first five years of Rendell's term in office attempting to rebuild a city that was falling apart. A Prayer for the City tells a story of race relations, unemployment, murder, but also one of hope and hard work. Littered with characters who worked within Rendell's administration such as his chief of staff David Cohen, as well as people just trying to survive in the city, such as Linda Morris, Fifi Mazzccua, Mike McGovern, and Jim Mangan, we are offered insight into the unimaginable struggles to keep America's cities afloat.

I was supposed to read this for my America History class this past quarter. And I did. Or at least I read about half of it by the time the final came around. But that was fine. I had read enough to participate in the discussions and write about it on final if I had to. Most books like this assigned for a particular class I would have abandoned as soon as I turned in that bluebook, but there was something that kept pulling me back to pick it up and read a little bit more. The people discussed were compelling and the draw of the city itself and wanting to see it get better forced me to continue. So here I am, a month after the quarter ended, finally finished with the book.

A Prayer for the City is non fiction but it's written almost as a novel. There's conversation and character development and a somewhat moving plot. We not only see the struggles of the city from the government's point of view, but also just from the people. We watch Mike McGovern make the decision to give up his life as a Philadelphia district attorney and take his family to the outskirts of the city and take up criminal defense. We see Jim Mangan soldier on during cut backs at the ship yard until the yard is closed entirely. And we see Fifi Mazzccua raise her children and grandchildren in a poor area of the city, some of whom fall into violence and jail time, but some who don't. It was easy to feel a connection the these people and a hope for them to succeed. Ed Rendell became mayor to one of the most struggling cities in America, but despite a lot of set backs and failures, there was progress.

4/5

Broken Paradise - Cecilia Samartin

broken paradise
cecilia samartin
c. 2007
340 pages
completed 7/11/2010

read for: tbr challenge

*may contain spoilers*

Dear Alicia, I'm told this letter may not get to you as the communists will cut it to shreds, but when I saw the picture of us together at Varadero beach I knew I had to write it anyway.

Alicia and Nora are more than cousins, they are best friends. Together, they spend an idyllic childhood in Paradise on the beaches of Cuba, with little more than laughter, love, and family around them. As children they don't always understand the politics their parents are discussing, wanting Cuba to rid itself of its President Batista and hold free elections. Alicia father Carlos is especially vocal in his opposition to President Batista and is instrumental in his eventual downfall. But Batista's downfall does not bring about the changes the people of Cuba were hoping for. Instead, with the rise of Fidel Castro and the Communist Party, the country begins to fall into poverty and Nora and Alicia's lives are changed forever. Nora's family emigrates to the United States to escape Cuba's ruin, but Alicia's family stays behind determined to stay true to Cuba. Though they stay connected by exchanging letters, both Nora and Alicia have a very different path to travel.

I think there might have been something a little off in the time line of this novel. Or if not that there was some simplification in the politics and the succession of Cuban presidents. With almost no knowledge of Cuban politics, from reading this book I took from it that immediately after President Batista's downfall Castro became President. But from the little bit of research I've been doing it seems that was not the case and that, while Castro was a leader among the rebellion that took down Batista, he didn't become President of Cuba until seventeen years later. So the time line of things seems to somewhat simplified or condensed.

Alicia and Nora's stories took completely different turns, but I felt that both were compelling. I did have a little trouble relating to Nora once she and her family escaped to California. I've never lived anywhere other than the US. I have lived in really different regions of the US, but my sister has always said I'm like a sponge and I'll almost immediately pick up the accent and regional dialects without even realizing it. I know you can't really compare moving to a new state to moving to a whole new country, but I don't think I would have held onto Cuba in quite the same way Nora did. It was so easy for Marta to embrace her new country, but it took Nora a long time. I think maybe it wasn't Cuba itself that Nora was clinging to, but Alicia. Because she couldn't let Alicia go, she couldn't let Cuba go. 

The culture clash between Nora and Jeremy I thought was very well done. Most of the time it was very subtle. As Nora learned English and tried to enmesh herself within American society, Jeremy was trying to learn Spanish and about Latino culture before being deployed with the Peace Corps. I think I got a little annoyed with him once he and Nora were reunited and began rekindling their relationship. He seemed to think that since he'd been to Peru with the Peace Corps he now understood what made Nora who she was. I felt he kind of steam rolled her a little when he pushed her to ignore the feelings of her parents and return to Cuba to visit Alicia. I agree that it was good she went back to Alicia, but I thought Jeremy's pushing was unfeeling of Nora's relationship with her parents and even her relationship with Cuba itself. I was not Jeremy's biggest fan.

While I was interested to see the different lives Alicia and Nora would live after each being forced down opposite forks in the road, I think I enjoyed the first third of the novel the best, and not just because that was the time when everything was happy. The descriptions of life in Cuba did seem like paradise, the beautiful beaches, the food, the family. This section was beautifully written and really transported the reader right to Cuba. It was interesting to me how life in Cuba before the revolution seemed so idyllic, yet there were still big social issues that were demonstrated in the beginning of the novel, specifically racism. While Beba and Lola were treated well and love by Nora's family, by being black women they were still of a different social status. Not everything in life before the revolution was perfect.

4/5

It's Tuesday, where are you?

A Prayer for the City
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA 1992

Belong to Me - Marisa de los Santos

belong to me
marisa de los santos
c. 2008
388 pages
completed 5/23/2010

read for: before i die challenge

*may contain spoilers*

My fall from suburban grace, or, more accurately, my failure to achieve the merest molehill of suburban grace from which to fall, began with a dinner party and a perfectly innocent, modestly clever, and only faintly quirky remark about Armand Assante.

Belong to Me follows the story of three completely different individuals, Cornelia, Piper, and Dev. Cornelia is newly moved to the suburbs with her husband, but is an outcast due to her city ways. Piper, the queen bee of the suburban ladies, is dealing with her best friend's cancer and growing problems within her marriage. And Dev has just been dragged across the country by his mother, skipped two grades, and is beginning to question the whereabouts of his absent father. All three cross paths in a small suburb in Philadelphia, and while there may be nothing to initially bond them together their lives soon begin to intertwine.

I keep getting books that I put on my TBR list years ago and cannot for the life of me remember what would have induced me to want to read them. This book is no exception. I don't read a lot of "women's fiction" or anything set in a contemporary America. And (just like my last review, I might be a little bit crass here) I'm really not into "cancer books." Cancer really sucks, I know, but I don't want to read a whole book about how much it sucks. So I was extremely wary going in and was convinced that this book was going to be consumed by its cancer plot. Thankfully it was not. Yes, Piper's best friend Elizabeth had cancer, but her's was not the story being told. Instead Elizabeth's problems were just another part of Piper's life.

Each chapter in this book is told from the point of view of one of the three main characters. Cornelia is the only one who actually narrates which I thought was a little odd, but the other two are just as insightful into their respective characters. I was really surprised by how much I liked this book. It was funny and heartfelt, and I really enjoyed most of the characters. I never could quite get behind Lake. I was pretty put off by her even before the secret came out. I absolutely LOVED her son Dev, however. It was the third chapter when he was introduced, and it was this chapter where I began to be sure that I would enjoy this book. Really, I think it was just Dev's mention of Green Day. How could I not like a book where the main kid is introduced listening to Green Day as he is dragged across the country?

To be honest, I was least interested in Piper's storyline. I'm torn though because, while I could have done without her story, I loved HER. She starts out as just this horrible person that I would love to hate, but ended up being pretty okay. But her inner monologue was just hysterical, thinking about how short people try too hard or how she likened dealing with a friend who'd joined the world of runners with living with a friend who'd joined a cult or gained a recreational drug habit. Probably her best rant was against all things New Age "a heading under which she corralled crystals, chiropractors, ESP, yoga, Dr. Andrew Weil/Deepak Chopra, aromatic candles - excepting cinnamon and vanilla holiday candles - echinacea, singer/songwriter music, and the entire country of India." She kind of reminded me of myself in some ways. Not the way she acted or her specific likes and dislikes, but just the way her inner monologue sometimes went. I don't know...I don't think I can explain it. Anyway, surprisingly enough, I liked this book quite a bit.

4/5

Angela's Ashes - Frank McCourt

angela's ashes
frank mccourt
c. 1996
362 pages
completed 5/8/2010

read for: reading western europe challenge, EW new classics

*may contain spoilers*

My father and mother should have stayed in New York where they met and married and where I was born.

Frank McCourt's memoir of his early life. Born in New York at the beginning of the Great Depression, McCourt's family moved to Ireland when he was four. McCourt's memoir begins before his birth and continues through years of abject poverty until he turns nineteen.

I feel a little weird reviewing memoirs, like it's not my place to dislike it because this was actually the author's life. So this review will probably be short.

To be honest, I thought very seriously on several occasions about abandoning this book. I didn't, mostly because that would have been the third book in little more than a month that I had abandoned and I was not down with that, so I stuck it out. I have problems with people who take artistic license with punctuation. I know I've said this before, but I really do believe we have rules on punctuation for a reason. It seems to happen a lot in memoirs especially that people just decide that they have no need for quotation marks. I have a need for quotation marks.

The story (should I call it that in a memoir?) is what I really have trouble critiquing because how can one critique what actually happened? As such I will just say that there was only so much detail on such abject poverty that I could take before I began to get irritated with certain people. And then I felt bad that I felt irritated, but I couldn't stop feeling irritated. I think this book was invoking emotions in me that it wasn't supposed to. There were parts of the book I liked. I thought it was really funny and touching in some places, mostly concerning Frank and his brothers. I did really like Frank. Not so much Angela. She was the one I really got irritated with. And then felt bad about. I'm glad I managed to finish this, but I don't think it's going to stick with me.

3/5

Sister Carrie - Theodore Dreiser

sister carrie
theodore dreiser
c. 1900
501 pages
completed 4/9/2010

read for: hstaa303 (modern american civilization), penguin classics, 1001 books

*may contain spoilers*

When Caroline Meeber boarded the afternoon train for Chicago, her total outfit consisted of a small trunk, a cheap imitation alligator-skin satchel, a small lunch in a paper box, and a yellow leather snap purse, containing her ticket, a scrap of paper with her sister's address in Van Buren Street, and four dollars in money.

Sister Carrie is a small town girl who arrives in the big city of Chicago at the turn of the twentieth century. As the country, especially in the cities, is becoming more defined by consumerism, Carrie is swept along with it, longing for the nicer things in life. With a constant increase in her desire food nice clothes, nice food, and a nice house as her driving force, Carrie rises up from the menial world of the working class to a life of security and luxury. Carrie has to learn what this material world is worth.

I am taking a modern American history class this quarter and we read this book as one of our primary sources which led to a very interesting discussion on whether fiction of whatever medium (literature, movies, etc) should be considered as reliable source material for historical study. In my opinion, I think it absolutely can. This book is a great example. Written about the time period it was written in, it gives an incredibly detailed look at a lot of different aspects of like in the 1890s and 1900s. Books like this can give the reader a lot of insight into how the public viewed certain social and political aspects of the day. Sure, you have to be careful and do your research on the author and who the audience was meant to be, but you need to do that with any primary source. And fiction that is not written about the time period it was written in or not written directly about the subject it's commenting on can give the same sorts of insights. Again, you need to be careful not to read too much into what you're reading (sometimes King Kong is just a big gorilla), but metaphorical and allegorical fiction can also provide incredible insight (sometimes King Kong is a reflection on Western imperialism and treatment of aboriginal peoples). So yes, in my opinion, fiction just as much as anything else produced in any given time period reflects on its society in a way people can learn from.

Anyway, onto the book itself. With a lack of any sympathetic characters, it was hard to root for anyone and I like a book where I can root for someone. All three main characters, Carrie and her two gentlemen friends Drouet and Hurstwood, are all obsessed with attaining and maintaining wealth and social status. They were interesting enough for me to want to know what was going to happen to them, especially after Carrie and Hurstwood relocated to New York, but for me the characters were not exactly what made this book enjoyable for me. Instead, I was pretty fascinated by the detail of daily life that was included and really enjoyed the addition of important currant events. There were intricate descriptions of factory work, what areas of the city were considered fashionable, how the poor were treated, and some kind of unorthodox relief services for the unemployed and a long segment on the Pullman car strikes that involved one of the characters as a scab.

This book provided a lot of commentary on many social aspects of the turn of the century, most especially the nation turning to be defined by consumerism. But also interesting was the way it kind of challenged ideas on what was morally acceptable for a woman and on gender roles in particular. For example, there was a lot of controversy when this book was first published. Carrie makes some decisions that were maybe not the moral norm of the time, but nowhere throughout the book is she censured for these decisions.

So to sum up, I definitely enjoyed this book and thought it was a great choice for a class studying the beginning of the twentieth century. The story is entertaining, the rise of Carrie and the decline of Hurstwood, but like I said the characters aren't exactly sympathetic. But I think you could get over that, especially if you were interested in the time period.

4/5

It's Tuesday, where are you?

Sister Carrie
New York City, New York USA 1900

What They Fought For - James McPherson

what they fought for
james mcpherson
c. 1994
69 pages
completed 3/16/2010

read for: hstaa (american history: first century of freedom)

*may contain spoilers*

Invoking his state's Revolutionary motto, Sic Semper Tyrranis, a young Virginia officer filled letters to his mother with comparison's to the North's "war of subjugation against the South" to England's "war against the colonies."

This is a really quick little read, so this is going to be a really quick little review. There's not a whole lot to say about a book like this. I had to read it for one of my classes and surprise surprise I finished the whole thing. Granted, it was only 69 pages so it's not like that was too hard. Anyway. I thought this book was very informative without being too dry. It digs a little deeper into what people were actually fighting for during the Civil War. It's actually not nearly as cut and dry as you might believe. In fact, by reading hundreds of personal letters and diaries from soldiers of the Civil War, McPherson points out that very few of them mentioned slavery as a primary motive for fighting the war on either side. So if you're interested in the Civil War at all, this is a great little book that looks at the ideals of the soldiers and why they stayed on the battlefield for so long.

The Whiskey Rebels - David Liss

the whiskey rebels
david liss
c. 2008
522 pages
completed 3/15/2010

read for: what's in a name challenge, year of the historical challenge

*may contain spoilers*

It was rainy and cold outside, miserable weather, and though I had not left my boardinghouse determined to die, things were now different.

Ethan Saunders is a veteran of the American Revolution who was shamefully and unceremoniously ejected from the army as a traitor. Joan Maycott is a young bride who risks everything with her husband to try for a new life on the frontier. The country is new and under the leadership of George Washington, but with Thomas Jefferson, the Secretary of State, and Alexander Hamilton, the Secretary of Treasury, bitter rivals. As Hamilton attempts to launch his new pet project, the National Bank, Ethan and Joan find themselves on opposite sides of a plot to take down the government.

This book was a lot of fun, especially coming off a quarter of school where I studied the National Bank and the rivalry of the Hamiltonians and Jeffersonians. Yea school! I've read a good deal set during the Revolution or leading up to the Revolution, but I don't think I've ever read anything set directly after it when the government was in such a precarious position and was already making some major changes from what the authors of the constitution had in mind (political parties anyone?). So I was very intrigued with the setting and glad I already had some knowledge of the contemporary issues. I don't think it would take anything away from the novel if you went into without knowing anything about the conflict between Hamilton and Jefferson, but I enjoyed knowing. All the reader would really need to know is Hamilton=pro bank and Jefferson=anti bank.

The way the story is told is very interesting. Chapters alternate following Ethan and Joan, with each speaking in first person. Joan's story starts several years before Ethan's and about halfway trough her story begins to align with the beginning of Ethan's. So questions about the beginning of Ethan's story get answered once the reader is privy to Joan's side. Eventually the two stories meet up and we see the end play out. I felt this way of telling the story was very effectual. At first, I was slightly put off because the two stories seemed so distant from each other that it felt a little abrupt going from one to the other, but I quickly began to enjoy the back and forth.

I had very few complaints with the story. For the most part I was constantly entertained, I thought the history was extremely accurate, and the characters were well fleshed out. I did not, however, find the relationship between Ethan and his slave Leonidas to be believable. Whether or not Ethan was against slavery, very rarely at this time would an anti-slavery stance equal a stance of racial equality, so I found it hard to believe that Ethan, Lavien, Joan, and all the others in their respective groups would treat Leonidas as companionably as they did. I also found the end to be a little abrupt. I felt like we got a good wrap up on Joan's side. She explained what happened to her and the rest of her friends. But I didn't get the same sense of closure from Ethan's side. What happened to him and Lavien? Why exactly was Pearson out to get him? I could have used a few more answers. I will have to look into more by David Liss.

Once again, I have added a new author to my ever growing list of authors to continue reading.

4/5

It's Tuesday, where are you?

A Shopkeeper's Millenium Rochester, New York, USA 1815

The Virgin of Small Plains - Nancy Pickard

the virgin of small plains
nancy pickard
c. 2007
336 pages
completed 1/11/2010

read for: tbr challenge

*may contain spoilers*

Abby Reynolds braked her truck on the icy highway, startled by what she imagined she saw off to the side of the road.

In January of 1987, a young woman is found frozen to death on a cattle ranch in Small Plains, Kansas. She goes unidentified into her grave, the whole town pitching in to pay for her funeral and tombstone. Over the years, the girl becomes simply known as "the Virgin" and local legend speaks of her almost as someone with saint-like qualities. Now it is 17 years later, and three teenagers, whose lives were forever altered on the night of the Virgin's death, have come back together as adults to answer the unanswerable questions and reveal the hidden secrets of their pasts and the life of the Virgin.

This book has been on my To Be Read list for over a year (though if I'm honest, so have a lot of books). When I got it from the library and read the back cover I had serious trouble remembering why I had put it there in the first place. I don't tend to read a whole lot set in modern times. So I kind of went in to this without huge expectations. I COULD NOT PUT THIS DOWN. I know, I was so surprised by how completely hooked I was. I'm sure I had other things I should have been doing this weekend but nope! I was reading my book and that was good enough for me.

I think one of the major draws for me were the characters. I was so interested and invested in them. I felt like they were very real. They had genuine confused emotions and they made stupid decisions sometimes, but those decisions were very reflective of their characters. I was also very happy and impressed with the connection the characters had between their teenage selves and their adult selves. Sometimes when books jump back and forth in time like this I can't envision both versions being the same person. But in this case you could easily see how these kids grew up to be these people.

Throughout the whole novel I was continually coming up with one wild theory after another to explain all the secrets and mystery, and there were definitely some instances where my predictions turned out true. I know when that happens sometimes you feel like the book is too predictable, but I don't think I ever felt that way even when my theories were coming true. Instead I just felt vindicated in a sort of "see, I told you so!" kind of way. And maybe that's because my theories weren't so much predictions as they were hopes to justify my love for certain characters.

2010 is definitely starting out well in the reading department!

5/5

The Scarlet Letter - Nathaniel Hawthorne

the scarlet letter
nathaniel hawthorne
c. 1850
166 pages
completed 11/15/2009

read for: comp lit 211, 100 greatest novels, 1001 books, penguin classics

*may contain spoilers*

Hester Prynne, a woman living in Puritan Boston, is sentenced to live out her life with a scarlet "A" emblazoned on her dress after she bears a child out of wedlock. For the next seven years, she tries to devote her life to her child, Pearl, but her life is inevitable intertwined with the lives of two men from her past, Roger Chillingsworth and Arthur Dimmesdale. One man is destroyed by guilt and the other consumed by a relentless pursuit of revenge until finally all their secrets are revealed.

I had to read this for the first time in eleventh grade English (back in 2002) and now have to read it again for my Comparative Literature class. Now, normally I don't review books I've read before. I don't really see the point. However, if I'm being honest (and Dad, this is about where you should stop reading this sentence), I didn't actually read this in eleventh grade. I maybe made it through four chapters. Sorry, Mrs. Davies, I kind of faked my essay. But I have turned over a new leaf what with going back to school this year, so I am actually finishing all the books I'm assigned. Which is impressive for me. But onto the Scarlet Letter...

I have to say, I am not a fan. Apparently Nathaniel Hawthorne originally meant for this to be a short story and then someone else suggested he make it into a full novel. I feel this someone else gave Hawthorne some bad advice. This story could have been told in probably half the amount of pages Hawthorne took to tell it, and possibly then it would have been more entertaining for me. As it is, I kind had to slog through it. There's too much back and forth between action and reflection for me. I felt like every other chapter progressed the story and then the chapters in between were reflections on what just happened or what was about to happen. And sometimes Hawthorne would skip an action chapter, which by themselves weren't bad, and there would be chapter after chapter of reflection and character study. So for me, this was kind of a dull read.

I will say, they last two chapters picked up a little bit. I really enjoyed the final interactions between Hester, Pearl, and Dimmesdale; I felt there was finally some emotion expressed other than oppressive guilt. And I enjoyed the slightly ambiguous wrap up of Pearl and Hester's stories. But overall I will definitely be glad to be done with this book in class and moving on to the next book.

3/5