Other Women's Stories

Monday, August 7, 2017

What I'm reading this week (8/7/17)

Last week I finished:

Wow, am I ever glad I picked up this book! As you know, I'm drawn to books about history, and this is one of those classic history books that was hugely popular in its day (1953), and it won the Pulitzer Prize in 1954. I also love books with lots of factoids, and this one satisfies that nerdy itch. This is the story of Charles Lindbergh's transatlantic flight in the Spirit of St. Louis, covering the 3,600 miles between New York and Paris in May of 1927. It is a remarkable book about a remarkable time. Imagine for a moment the world before airplanes; think of how flight opened up the nations of the world to each other, revolutionized trade, changed economies forever. It makes me wear a big dopey grin just thinking about it. In the book, Lindbergh spends time detailing the process of securing financial backing, overseeing the building of his plane, and hourly updates on his 36-hour flight. During the flight, he recounts stories of his childhood in Minnesota, his early days of flying (which were really only a couple years of experience before this historic flight), and other remarkable stories of frontier days and remarkable flights. He also details his battle with sleepiness throughout the flight. He was a barnstormer, wing-walker, a parachute jumper, and a military-trained pilot. He left university to take up flying. He seemed to know "something within him was superior to circumstance," and although he seems quite humble (almost humorless), he seems to have full confidence in his ability not only to make the flight, but to revolutionize the world with his flight. Lindbergh was not without a clearheaded idea of the risks involved in the attempt (many others had failed, some lost their lives trying), but he belonged to a long line of frontiersmen and -women who knew the advancement of the nation and society as a whole required risks. All along, he looked out for possible dangers, calculated the outcomes of errors should he make any, and constantly accessed his surroundings for safe places to land should the need arise. I loved everything about the book, its construction, and its modest narration. What a remarkable journey. And what a remarkable man--if you can ignore some of the heartbreaking events (the kidnapping of baby Lindbergh) and questionable things yet to come (his opposition to fighting Hitler, his multiple families on separate continents, etc.) in his life. Needless to say, I highly recommend this book. Though it is long (500 pages), it reads very quickly. My rating: 5 stars

Last week I began:

I'm also reading:

I have three books going in the evening: Viktor Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning; a collection of Pablo Neruda's odes, Odes to Common Things; and Jet Tila's 101 Asian Dishes You Need to Cook before You Die. I'm enjoying Neruda's odes, especially.

My audiobook:

I am absolutely loving my audiobook, The Poisonwood Bible. I have no idea how it will end, but the plot is really ramping up, and I can tell something tragic is about to happen. This is a phenomenal book.

Thursday, August 3, 2017

August 2017 reading list

My August reading list is full of books I've been wanting to read for months but haven't gotten around to. I'm really looking forward to these.

Fiction

Nonfiction

Memoirs

Poetry

Children's

Cooking

Audio

Wednesday, August 2, 2017

July 2017 wrap-up

I'm not sure, but I think this month may have produced the highest-rated reviews of the year so far. Lots of 4-star and 4.5-star reviews, and I fell in love with several of these, especially Anna and the King of Siam, Morality for Beautiful Girls, and West with the Night. The last title being my favorite read for weeks. I also think I was surprised by my books more this month than most months. It really was a great month.

One-word reviews below are linked to the full review.

3.5 stars

4.5 stars

4 stars

4 stars

4 stars

4.5 stars

4 stars

4.5 stars

3 stars

4 stars

*There was supposed to be an eleventh book this month, the third Ms. Marvel comic, but I lost interest and decided that forcing myself to read something was counterproductive. I did read over half of The Spirit of St. Louis, though, so I feel no guilt.

Tuesday, August 1, 2017

What I'm reading this week (7/31/17)

What I finished last week:

Well, it's going to be another one of those agonizingly hard reviews to write: a review for a book I loved. They are so much harder to write. I'll try to make this sound intelligent, but you guys, I loved West with the Night. This is ironic because when I put it down last June, I had no intention of picking it back up. I seem to remember reading in the intro that the memoir was based on actual events. And if there's one thing I hate, it's a memoir based on fact. If you're going to fictionalize your memoirs, just write a novel instead. Oddly, I didn't hear that line when I listened to it this month. The story swept me up right away, and I loved every minute of the book. It was read by Julie Harris (there are other editions with other narrators), and I'm sure I've listened to something by her before. It was a great book to listen to on audio, though I wished several times I could mark down a passage, so I imagine I'll be re-reading this someday. I did expect this to be a more traditional memoir that covers Markham's life from birth to old age, but it was more a series of stories of the high points of her life in Africa, her adventures on safaris, and her work in aviation. I did feel like I missed some things along the way, like what happened to her mother--she was not mentioned once, and how did she and her father come to live in Africa? It is so intelligently written, it's almost dense in parts, but it's so evocative. I couldn't get over how beautiful the writing was. The African adventures were so vivid. The stories just washed over me, and I could not wait to get to the next installment. I would definitely recommend the audio version, but I don't think you could go wrong with the book. This is a modern classic, originally published in 1942, that is well worth the read. If you like adventure and stories about other cultures, you'll love this. My rating: 4.5 stars.

I just read my 1800th poem this year, and I do believe I'm hitting a bit of a poetry-reading wall. I felt like I was slogging through Poems to Read. It wasn't a bad collection, but it definitely wasn't as good as Pinsky and Dietz's first collection, Americans' Favorite Poems. I think this book felt a little forced, a little too "handled." I've never been a fan of Robert Pinsky's poetry, finding it too dense, too pretentious, and just plain difficult. And as an editor, he seems to be drawn to the same kind of poem. Much of this collection is poems introduced by a "regular person" (usually teen-age students--can you say "my teacher offered me extra credit to submit my favorite poem"?), but the rest is either introduced by Pinsky or Dietz or has no introduction (therefore, also chosen by Pinsky or Dietz). You'll find some familiar poems here, and most of the poets are English class standbys. I did find a few jems, but I felt like I shifted through a lot of ho-hum poems to find them. My rating: 3 stars.

It's been awhile since I've had an English class. Like, a long while. So I was interested to take a little refresher course by reading Thomas C. Foster's How to Read Literature Like a Professor. What did I learn? Basically that everything is a symbol. Except if it's an allegory. Foster is also convinced that the authors intentionally used those symbols and intended for their readers to notice and understand them. I resisted this at first, but Foster argues that the masters writing in the 19th century, say, were very much clued into the imagery and symbolism of what came before. What kind of symbols are we talking about here? All kinds of things from Greek mythology to the Christ figure, from geography to seasons, from sex to food. Did I buy it? Mostly, I did. Books like this can go a number of ways; either you buy what he's saying because "he's the expert" or you don't buy a word of it for the same reason. I went into his discussion with an open mind, but ready to discount his theories if they seemed ridiculous. They weren't ridiculous. For the most part, I think he was right on track--in a college professor sort of way. Will it change the way I read literature? Perhaps. I'm listening to The Poisonwood Bible right now, and I'm trying to pick out the Biblical symbols that I'm sure Kingsolver used. I doubt if I'll always look at novels for their symbols and allusions, though, because that can really destroy the experience sometimes. I realized when finishing the book, that most of what Foster talked about here was something I already did subconsciously. Many of the symbols of a book are things we automatically decode. Take rain for instance. If you encounter rain or clouds in a book, story, or poem, you think of despair, grief, negative thoughts, foreshadowing of events. You don't think about those things consciously; they just seem to be encoded. Foster does talk about a number of novels, plays, and myths while applying his theories, but he doesn't spoil the plots or tell you what you must think. I don't know about you, but I could have used a couple more professors who didn't do the last one. So, in all I was satisfied with this book. I didn't feel like it was pedantic or inaccessible, so even if you've never had a college English lit course, you'll be fine with it. His approach is light (even humorous in spots) while still discussing things in an intelligent way. I would advise you that this book may not be best read in 50-page chunks like I did. I got burned-out with all the talk after awhile. It would likely be better as a pick-up-put-down book, depending on your stamina. My rating: 4 stars.

This week I'll be reading:

I'm 350 pages into The Spirit of St. Louis. Lindbergh is well on his way to Paris.

My current audiobook:

This is one of the rare times you'll hear this on my blog, but my brother was right! He's been telling me to pick up The Poisonwood Bible for years, and I've finally taken his advice. This book has been engaging from the first word.

Monday, July 24, 2017

What I'm reading this week (7/24/17)

Last week I finished:

Do I know Trevor Noah from a fence post? No, not really. I mean, I know who he is and what he does, but I've never watched his show or seen his standup comedy. This only allows me to be a little more objective about his book, Born a Crime. When celebrities write books that have nearly 3,000 perfect reviews on Amazon and over 7,000 on Goodreads, you know either folks are simply enthusiastically supporting a product by someone they like, or the book is amazing. So I went into this read knowing it could be anything. I came out with mixed feelings (no pun intended, Mr. Noah). First, the good. I think this is one of the best-written celebrity memoirs I've ever read. I sincerely hope he wrote every word himself (do celebs still do that?). It's a smart book dealing with difficult issues of race and poverty, but with a lot of humanity and humor. Some countries and systems of living are so bizarre, one can only survive them with humor. South African apartheid is such a system. Its arbitrary rules about who trumps who based on a cursory look at skin color is hard to fathom. But things didn't necessarily improve when Mandela was released and apartheid fell. South Africa had no coping mechanisms for moving on as a country after the odd structure of forced racial divide was dismantled. People, whole communities, fell through the cracks. The government did nothing to address unemployment, for instance. In some areas, when forced labor was taken away, people had nothing to do at all. Noah does a good job of presenting the life he lived in South Africa. He talks about growing up a mixed child (called "colored" in South Africa) of a black mother; not fitting in anywhere because the color of his face (colored) did not match the culture he came from (black); and struggling to resist the pull of the ghetto. He talks about being a troublemaker, some of it harmless childhood pranks, but much of it illegal, though, since everyone was doing it, he never considered what he did as illegal, immoral, or beneath him. He says he never regretted what he did to get by, though he eventually did see the soullessness of it. So that's where my mixed feelings come in. It distresses me to think that teens and young adults are getting their views of the world from someone who says "you do what you do to get by because though they taught you to fish, they never gave you a fishing pole." Race is an explosive issue in our country right now, and any view against the norm brands you a racist, so young people have stopped examining both sides critically. I'm not saying Noah isn't a good role model, because I don't know the guy, but he does talk about his days of illegal activity a little too flippantly for me. Still, I think he thought he was balancing things well in this regard, and I may be more sensitive to issues of morality than others. In the end, I found the book fascinating, his storytelling enormously entertaining, and his stories about South Africa enlightening. I would recommend this book, especially for book clubs, as there is much to chew on here. My rating: 4 stars.

I also finished the third book in Alexander McCall Smith's The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, Morality for Beautiful Girls. I enjoyed this one as much as the first book. In this installment, Mma Ramotswe is forced to combine her detective agency with Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni's Speedy Motors mechanic shop, when her business isn't bringing in as much money as needed and Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni is too depressed to care for his shop. She puts Mma Makutsi in charge managing Speedy Motors and its two lazy apprentices while she packs Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni off to rest and goes out to solve some cases on her own. I enjoyed the cases in this one: a government man thinks his brother is being poisoned by his wife; a boy is found who seems to have no facility for language and smells of lions; and the Botswana beauty pageant asks Mma Makutsi to determine which of its four beautiful contestants is the most moral and deserving of the title. In these books there is a traditional clarity of though when it comes to judging people, their actions, and right from wring, that would just not fly in contemporary American society. It's why I find them so wonderful. This one did make me wonder, though, exactly when these books are set. I thought it was present-day (well, 15 years ago, since this book is from 2002), but I found it odd that Mma Ramotswe had never heard of depression or Dr. Leakey's anthropological discoveries in Kenya. On the other hand, these naïvetés are kind of endearing. I loved this book, and I loved the audio version, as always; Lisette Lecat is brilliant. My rating: 4.5 stars.

This week, I continue reading:

I'm now about 200 pages in to The Spirit of St. Louis, and Lindbergh's plane is built. He's about to make his way to New York to begin his historic flight. I can feel the anticipation building.

I'll be finishing Poems to Read this week, and I'm ready to be done with it. While I'm enjoying it, I'm not absorbed by it. Could be that after reading 1,600 poems this year, I'm a little burned out on verse. Plus, Pinsky has always been a little too pedantic for me.

My audiobook:

You guys, what an absolute treasure West with the Night is! And to think that a year ago I set it down sure I would never pick it back up to finish. I'll have a full review up next week, but suffice it to say, this one is blowing me away.

Next up:

I don't know where the sudden fascination with stories of Africa has come from, but it will continue this week when I start Barbara Kingsolver's The Poisonwood Bible on audio. My brother has been telling me to read this one for years.

My last book of July will be How to Read Literature Like a Professor. I always save the book I'm most excited to read for last, and the fact that this is what I saved will tell you what kind of English major dork I am.

What are you reading this week?

Wednesday, July 19, 2017

2017 Reading Goals: An Update

It's past the halfway point of 2017, so it's time for an a reading goals progress report. Most of my goals have been met or will be met shortly. I'm already working on my 2018 goals ('cause I'm like that), and I'm basing them on what worked and didn't with these goals. I've included the original information for each goal below, and the original post can be seen here.

My 2017 Reading Goals:

1. Re-read Sense and Sensibility.

Each year I read a Jane Austin novel, and having completed them all last year, I'm starting over again this year with my first Austin read. I am so excited for this!

Finished: July 16

It wasn't quite how I remember it, mostly, I think, because I've seen the movie too many times since I first read it! Review here.

2. Read We Knew Mary Baker Eddy, vol. 2.

I read volume 1 in 2015, and I'm excited to delve into volume 2 this year. The first volume changed my life and gave me new spiritual understanding. I look forward to seeing how volume 2 will challenge me.

Finished: April 8

It was wonderful. Feeling so enriched, I need to think of a goal like this for next year, too.

3. Read 50 books carried over from 2016.

That's right, 50. Go big or go home, baby! This isn't as lofty as it might seem since my TBR is so long I can easily find 50 books I'm dying to read. But I'd also like to clear off some older items from the list that I'm a little less excited about.

So far I've read 43 books that I carried over from last year. By the end of July it will be 44. Not far to go to reach this goal. I plan to continue past 50 to see how much of the TBR can be cleaned up before the end of the year.

4. Read 25 books published in 2017.

Last year I finished 42 books published within the year, but it was an exceptional year for new releases. I'm trusting in the law of supply to find at least 25 new books that excite me this year.

I've finished 22 book toward this goal, and there are a lot of great books releasing this fall. I'll continue with this goal no matter when I finish it.

5. Read 10 (pre-selected) high-profile books.

There are so many books that "everyone but me" has read. It's time to try them and see if the raves hold up for me. To show you how gung-ho I am about this goal, four of these titles are on my January reading list: All the Light We Cannot See, The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, Where'd You Go, Bernadette, and Wonder.

I still have one book left in order to reach this goal. I think I'll read either Endurance or Homegoing. (I read all of the titles listed here, and I loved all but Where'd You Go, Bernadette which I really didn't like.)

6. Read 10 chunksters.

This goal appears each year. It keeps me honest and provides a good challenge. I have a lot of exciting options for this goal, including several presidential biographies.

Finished: July 9

I'm in the middle of The Spirit of St. Louis, and I have a few more planned before the year is out. I'll probably finish the year with 15-17 chunksters under my belt. (I didn't read any of my presidential biographies yet.)

7. Read 10 contemporary novels.

I finished 16 contemporary novels last year, and for someone who didn't read fiction up until a couple of years ago, that's quite the accomplishment. I'm not sure I'd need to have this goal anymore, since it was originally designed to force me to read fiction, but it gives me something to shoot for.

Finished: March 22

This has been quite a year for fiction. I've finished 23 contemporary novels, two classics, and nine children's novels, which means I've read more fiction books than nonfiction this year. My favorite novel so far has been Beartown, and I doubt I'll read anything to surpass it. You guys, just read that book!

8. Read 10 books about presidents, first ladies, first families, the White House, or American history.

This wasn't on my list of goals until just a little bit ago. I finally realized that if reading about history was one of my absolute favorite things, it should be a goal. It's something I would have done naturally, but I like seeing the goal there anyway. I have a feeling I'll read way more than 10.

I've finished seven books, have one in progress, and at least two more on deck for August. I've been reading so much fiction that this goal hasn't gotten quite the love I expected it to.

9. Read 10 children’s books.

This shouldn't be too hard. I've found I really enjoy children's literature.

I've finished nine children's books, and I plan to finish this goal in August. My favorites? Wonder and Eleanor & Park.

10. Read 1,000 poems.

This is a goal from last year that I enjoyed completing so much I brought it back for a second year.

Finished: April 25

As of this writing, I've read 1,592 poems this year. Perhaps I'll finish 2,000 poems by the end of the year. My favorite book of poetry was William Stafford's Ask Me. Phenomenal.

11. Read 100 books.

This is the general goal I set every year. Anything over 100 is gravy.

I've read 73 books so far this year, and at my current reading rate, I should finish this goal in late September or early October.

12. Read 50 picture books.

I always surpass this number, but I like having the goal to remind me to actually sit down and read them, not just hoard them for "someday."

I've read 31 picture books so far this year. My favorites include A Greyhound a Groundhog and Hotel Bruce.

13. Complete 5 mini-challenges.

This is something I just put on the list this morning, believe it or not. I've pared down my list of goals quite a bit from last year, and I was afraid I'd lost some of the whimsy of the multiple small goals of last year. Some challenges include: