We had a busy weekend with my brother's wedding on Saturday. It was a short and sweet outdoor wedding at a park (lake, gazebo, mosquitos, the works) with all five of their teenagers in the wedding. I'm excited to have a "sister" again--and to finally have nieces! On Sunday, we caught up around the house and I ended up taking a two-hour nap, meaning I didn't read a single page of anything this weekend. Maybe the week will be less busy!
Last week I finished:
I'm not sure where to even start with The Poisonwood Bible. There is so much here. Briefly, the story: the Price family (Nathan and Orleana, teenagers Rachel, Leah, and Adah, and young Ruth May), Baptist missionaries, arrive in the Belgian Congo in 1959. In their less than two years there, all manner of tragedy will befall not only the family but the Congo itself when its push for independence is short-lived. The book also follows the surviving members of the family--half of whom stay in Africa, the other half returning to the United States--in the thirty years after their mission trip. This is a huge story, and a writer less talented than Kingsolver would have made a terrible mess of it. At times, especially toward the end of the novel, I felt her hand was a bit heavy, but it's likely hard not to let personal views enter the narrative. This would be the perfect book for a book club; I'm not sure I've read a book I thought was more suited for discussion. Not only do you have the African history and clash of cultures, but you have the missionaries and certain (and uncertain) Biblical views. You also have difficult, even volatile, family dynamics--stemming from both culture and religion. You have racism, politics, medicine, escape, healing, forgiveness, and love. All big topics. To me, this was a book about freedom and independence, both spiritual and corporeal, and what it means and what it costs. You many know a bit about the Congo's troubled history, which will help some while reading. Knowledge of the Bible also helps. My only disappointment with the story is that the post-Congo portion of the book seemed long and didn't feel entirely necessary to me. We do get more of the recent history of the Congo (renamed Zaire, and currently Democratic Republic of Congo), but other than that it just proved to depress me further. I listened to the audio of this one, and it was superb. The narrator, Dean Robertson, does a fantastic job with the different personalities of the story. I looked her up (yes, Dean is a woman), and she said this was her first audio narration and that she did not read the book before recording. This is astounding considering how many French and Congolese words are used throughout, as well as the girls' misuse of words and just the complexity of the story. I do recommend the audio version highly. This is a masterful book. I just don't read many like it. My rating: 4.5 stars.
On the same day I finished my audio of The Poisonwood Bible, I finished Bellevue: Three Centuries of Medicine and Mayhem at America's Most Storied Hospital. A couple of years ago I read Sheri Fink's Five Days at Memorial about Memorial Hospital in New Orleans when Hurricane Katrina hit. I found that book so well done, I've been stalking Fink for another wonderful book like it, but in the meantime, I found Bellevue. In hopes that it would be similar, I bought it when it came out. I'm happy to report that Bellevue is presented at the same caliber as Five Days at Memorial. Oshinsky chooses the right moments in the hospital's history to present, gives you just want you need to know of the medical terminology and history, and sets a quick pace while being thorough and remaining impartial. It's a well-written account. But it's also just plain fascinating. I'm not one to be fascinated by the medical, but I do love a good history lesson, and the hospital served as a backdrop of American history. From the early epidemics (cholera, tuberculosis, etc.) to modern epidemics (influenza and AIDS), from the Civil War to World War II, from the rise of modern medicine and medical education to the appearance of women nurses and doctors, from 9/11 to Hurricane Sandy, everything is covered. Bellevue began in 1738 as an almshouse and has always given care to anyone who came in the door. And it continues to serve as a public hospital to this day. This really was just a wonderful book. I recommend it. My rating: 4 stars.
And then there's this. A friend at work lent me her copy of I Could Pee on This knowing I like cats and poetry, and I read it in a few minutes. It's a collection of 60 amusing poems about cats, most (all?) written in their voice. I tend to put more thought, huh hem, into my book reading, but every now and then you need to just read a book with a kitten on the cover and the word "pee" in the title. While not high literature, I was entertained by the poems, and I found two particularly amusing: "I Lick" about the obsessive way cats clean themselves, and "Most Amusing" about a cat laughing at a dog in a sweater. My rating: 3 stars.
Last week I began:
I've had a copy of Rocket Boys on my shelves for a long time, and in an effort to read through the long-timers, I finally picked it up. Earlier this year I read Homer Hickam's fictionalized account of his parents' early years together, Carrying Albert Home, and I was to taken with Hickam's storytelling that I knew I'd love Rocket Boys. And so far, I am.
I also started Billy Collin's Ballistics, which I can't not love.
This week I continue with:
I'm about a third of the way through both Man's Search for Meaning and 101 Asian Dishes You Need to Cook before You Die. I have issues with both as neither is quite what I was expecting.
My audiobooks:
I began two history audiobooks last week: The Perfect Horse (Nazis, WWII, and the Lipizzaner Stallions) and Thomas Jefferson and the Tripoli Pirates. Both are quite good.
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