I am sure there are sufficient reviews of The Bell Jar anywhere someone decides to stick his nose. However, it deserves an entry here, perhaps not an intentional review, both because of the reaction the Franklin branch librarian gave me upon check out and because, despite that reaction, I loved this book.
I have wanted to read The Bell Jar for quite some time now simply because of a friend’s personal relationship with the book. So my second review of the book from the librarian: “Get ready. This is depressing,” wasn’t necessarily shocking, but it did question whether I would be able to finish.
Plath’s story follows a successful academic college girl to New York City to a prize winning job with a top fashion magazine as a Junior Editor. On the surface the book is about her descent into an all-consuming depression, which Plath describes as being enclosed in a bell jar: “black and stopped as a dead baby, the world itself is a bad dream.” While absolutely the book is about this depression, I did not find the book depressing, as the librarian forewarned. Maybe my opinion is skewed because I have just returned from a pretty negative year working in publishing in an east coast city, but I see Plath’s story as a comfortable and friendly way to discuss difficult and painful periods of a person’s life. Despite the subject matter, the prose is light, jovial and unassuming. This is not a depressing story, but this is an important story. And since it is easy to read, I recommend it especially to any young person, just trying to make his future.
Friday, September 23, 2011
Thursday, September 22, 2011
Food themed book club books??
In reading a bit about Wine and War after my last entry, I have come across a number of delectable titles that we may need to add to a specially themed list of possible book club books. So here inuagurates the food book list:
The Passionate Epicure, Marcel Rouff
In the classic French novel The Passionate Epicure, Marcel Rouff introduces Dodin-Bouffant, a character based loosely on Anthelme Brillat-Savarin, an infamous bachelor and epicure dedicated to the high arts: the art of food and the art of love. This edition contains a Preface by Lawrence Durrell and a new Introduction by Jeffrey Steingarten, the food critic for Vogue magazine and author of the bestselling book The Man Who Ate Everything.
The Man Who Ate Everything, Jeffrey Steingarten
The food critic for Vogue conducts his readers on a mouth-watering and outrageously funny survey of practically everything that anyone anywhere has ever called "dinner."
Like Water for Chocolate, Laura Esquivel
Earthy, magical, and utterly charming, this tale of family life in turn-of-the-century Mexico became a best-selling phenomenon with its winning blend of poignant romance and bittersweet wit. The classic love story takes place on the De la Garza ranch, as the tyrannical owner, Mama Elena, chops onions at the kitchen table in her final days of pregnancy. While still in her mother's womb, her daughter to be weeps so violently she causes an early labor, and little Tita slips out amid the spices and fixings for noodle soup. This early encounter with food soon becomes a way of life, and Tita grows up to be a master chef. She shares special points of her favorite preparations with listeners throughout the story.
Crescent, Diana Abu-Jaber
When a handsome professor of Arabic literature and Iraqi exile enters her life, single, 39-year-old Sirine, a passionate cook in a Lebanese restaurant, finds herself falling in love and, in the process, starts questioning her identify as an Arab-American.
The Edible Woman, Margaret Atwood
Ever since her engagement, the strangest thing has been happening to Marian McAlpin: she can't eat. First meat. Then eggs, vegetables, cake, pumpkin seeds--everything! Worse yet, she has the crazy feeling that she's being eaten. Marian ought to feel consumed with passion, but she really just feels...consumed. A brilliant and powerful work rich in irony and metaphor, The Edible Woman is an unforgettable masterpiece by a true master of contemporary literary fiction.
Consider the Oyster, M.F.K. Fisher
(Author of The Art of Eating also recommended but at 600 pages, I kept off of our list. Translated The Physiology of Taste by Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin, not available at all from the public library, but I'd be willing to read this one as well.)
M.F.K. Fisher, whom John Updike has called our "poet of the appetites," here pays tribute to that most delicate and enigmatic of foods---the oyster. As she tells of oysters found in stews, in soups, roasted, baked, fried, prepared à la Rockefeller or au naturel--and of the pearls sometimes found therein--Fisher describes her mother's joy at encountering oyster loaf in a girls' dorm in he 1890's, recalls her own initiation into the "strange cold succulence" of raw oysters as a young woman in Marseille and Dijon, and explores both the bivalve's famed aphrodisiac properties and its equally notorious gut-wrenching powers. Plumbing the "dreadful but exciting" life of the oyster, Fisher invites readers to share in the comforts and delights that this delicate edible evokes, and enchants us along the way with her characteristically wise and witty prose.
Summaries were used from the Hennepin County Library catalog, "Food in Fiction" from the Multnomah County Library and Random House Publishing.
The Passionate Epicure, Marcel Rouff
In the classic French novel The Passionate Epicure, Marcel Rouff introduces Dodin-Bouffant, a character based loosely on Anthelme Brillat-Savarin, an infamous bachelor and epicure dedicated to the high arts: the art of food and the art of love. This edition contains a Preface by Lawrence Durrell and a new Introduction by Jeffrey Steingarten, the food critic for Vogue magazine and author of the bestselling book The Man Who Ate Everything.
The Man Who Ate Everything, Jeffrey Steingarten
The food critic for Vogue conducts his readers on a mouth-watering and outrageously funny survey of practically everything that anyone anywhere has ever called "dinner."
Like Water for Chocolate, Laura Esquivel
Earthy, magical, and utterly charming, this tale of family life in turn-of-the-century Mexico became a best-selling phenomenon with its winning blend of poignant romance and bittersweet wit. The classic love story takes place on the De la Garza ranch, as the tyrannical owner, Mama Elena, chops onions at the kitchen table in her final days of pregnancy. While still in her mother's womb, her daughter to be weeps so violently she causes an early labor, and little Tita slips out amid the spices and fixings for noodle soup. This early encounter with food soon becomes a way of life, and Tita grows up to be a master chef. She shares special points of her favorite preparations with listeners throughout the story.
Crescent, Diana Abu-Jaber
When a handsome professor of Arabic literature and Iraqi exile enters her life, single, 39-year-old Sirine, a passionate cook in a Lebanese restaurant, finds herself falling in love and, in the process, starts questioning her identify as an Arab-American.
The Edible Woman, Margaret Atwood
Ever since her engagement, the strangest thing has been happening to Marian McAlpin: she can't eat. First meat. Then eggs, vegetables, cake, pumpkin seeds--everything! Worse yet, she has the crazy feeling that she's being eaten. Marian ought to feel consumed with passion, but she really just feels...consumed. A brilliant and powerful work rich in irony and metaphor, The Edible Woman is an unforgettable masterpiece by a true master of contemporary literary fiction.
Consider the Oyster, M.F.K. Fisher
(Author of The Art of Eating also recommended but at 600 pages, I kept off of our list. Translated The Physiology of Taste by Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin, not available at all from the public library, but I'd be willing to read this one as well.)
M.F.K. Fisher, whom John Updike has called our "poet of the appetites," here pays tribute to that most delicate and enigmatic of foods---the oyster. As she tells of oysters found in stews, in soups, roasted, baked, fried, prepared à la Rockefeller or au naturel--and of the pearls sometimes found therein--Fisher describes her mother's joy at encountering oyster loaf in a girls' dorm in he 1890's, recalls her own initiation into the "strange cold succulence" of raw oysters as a young woman in Marseille and Dijon, and explores both the bivalve's famed aphrodisiac properties and its equally notorious gut-wrenching powers. Plumbing the "dreadful but exciting" life of the oyster, Fisher invites readers to share in the comforts and delights that this delicate edible evokes, and enchants us along the way with her characteristically wise and witty prose.
Summaries were used from the Hennepin County Library catalog, "Food in Fiction" from the Multnomah County Library and Random House Publishing.
Wine and War, Don and Petie Kladstrup
My mother gave me a copy of Wine and War after I returned home from a summer teaching English in France in 2007. I had stayed at Chateau d’Azé, Saone-et-Loire in the Burgandy region of France, which is now rented out to the company, Nacel, running the camp. Azé is outside of Mâcon, famous for decent, and relatively inexpensive, white and red wines (look for Maison Louis Jadot, Mâcon Villages, for a taste of a white). I do not know much about wine, nor do I always enjoy drinking wine, but the stories in Don and Petie Kladstrup’s Wine and War were very real to me, some of them akin to the stories the Chateau d’Azé property manager shared with our group of counselors about the very buildings, grounds and vineyards we slept and taught within.
The Kladstrup’s write about how France saved their greatest treasure of wine during World War II, Nazi occupation, but they also tell stories of families, across borders, struggling to follow a moral path and to save each other. The book is certainly filled with fascinating and wonderfully powerful stories about winegrowers burying wine in gardens or building fake walls within caves (wine storage building, some winegrowers also buried wine in les grottes (caves in English) as well). It is also about a certain pride of people, who deceived Nazi leaders demanding wine, labeling poor quality bottles of wine with expensive, high demand labels. It is about the French soldiers who laughed and celebrated the deception while discovering the bad wine at the Eagle’s Nest, one of Hitler’s personal properties. Within these stories of French deception, readers will discover far more powerful accounts of soldiers, mothers, neighbors and children from many countries and backgrounds.
If you are like me, and have never felt much excitement about wine, this book will inspire you to raise a glass and learn more. It is also my inspiration for recommending Hidden in Plainview, a book about deception and ordinary lives involved with the underground railroad, as a possible book club read.
The Kladstrup’s write about how France saved their greatest treasure of wine during World War II, Nazi occupation, but they also tell stories of families, across borders, struggling to follow a moral path and to save each other. The book is certainly filled with fascinating and wonderfully powerful stories about winegrowers burying wine in gardens or building fake walls within caves (wine storage building, some winegrowers also buried wine in les grottes (caves in English) as well). It is also about a certain pride of people, who deceived Nazi leaders demanding wine, labeling poor quality bottles of wine with expensive, high demand labels. It is about the French soldiers who laughed and celebrated the deception while discovering the bad wine at the Eagle’s Nest, one of Hitler’s personal properties. Within these stories of French deception, readers will discover far more powerful accounts of soldiers, mothers, neighbors and children from many countries and backgrounds.
If you are like me, and have never felt much excitement about wine, this book will inspire you to raise a glass and learn more. It is also my inspiration for recommending Hidden in Plainview, a book about deception and ordinary lives involved with the underground railroad, as a possible book club read.
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
On Chesil Beach, Ian McEwan
I think this would be a fabulous common reading book for first year college students. It is quick but wonderfully uncomfortable to read. McEwan allows readers to learn the thoughts not communicated between sexual partners.
The surface story is about two newlyweds negotiating how they will consummate their marriage. However, the two main characters are really negotiating much more about relationship roles and control. Florence and Edward are finally free from young adulthood, but McEwan highlights norms that keep them constrained. They eat dinner because it is dinnertime and it is a logical thing to do. Similarly, they move towards the four-poster bed after dinner because it is that time of their marriage, and it is the logical next step. Even Florence follows the guidebooks of how she should act during sex, and Edward has prepared for a week to be the best husband he can be.
Perhaps the best part is McEwan's ability to show the complex nature of Florence and Edward's emotions throughout the entire episode. They love each other, but in the act, they question their freedom as a married couple, the revolting nature of specified gender roles in sexual relationships, and begin to discover a positive sexual partner relationship. This book exposes negative sexual relationships in a safe and uncomfortably funny story, and it offers the opportunity to think and discover what a positive sexual relationship could look like.
The surface story is about two newlyweds negotiating how they will consummate their marriage. However, the two main characters are really negotiating much more about relationship roles and control. Florence and Edward are finally free from young adulthood, but McEwan highlights norms that keep them constrained. They eat dinner because it is dinnertime and it is a logical thing to do. Similarly, they move towards the four-poster bed after dinner because it is that time of their marriage, and it is the logical next step. Even Florence follows the guidebooks of how she should act during sex, and Edward has prepared for a week to be the best husband he can be.
Perhaps the best part is McEwan's ability to show the complex nature of Florence and Edward's emotions throughout the entire episode. They love each other, but in the act, they question their freedom as a married couple, the revolting nature of specified gender roles in sexual relationships, and begin to discover a positive sexual partner relationship. This book exposes negative sexual relationships in a safe and uncomfortably funny story, and it offers the opportunity to think and discover what a positive sexual relationship could look like.
Song Yet Sung, James McBride
I thought I might counter the book group discussion from Sara Gruen's Water for Elephants with my own review of James McBride’s Song Yet Sung. The book is a fictional account of the underground railroad, and McBride, similar to Gruen, did his research. His very inspiration was a visit to the Chesapeake, and more specifically, Harriet Tubman’s birthplace. In many ways his story gives life to realities of a significant time and place, and he expertly allows his reader to connect with this setting. It is truly McBride’s mid nineteenth century Chesapeake that allows his question of freedom, among slaves and freemen, black and white, to flourish.
Rather than inviting his readers into the climate and landscape of Maryland’s shore, McBride forces readers to understand the harsh environmental surroundings. McBride writes that the watermen harvest oysters in every month with the letter R, and, in the other months, they farm. He leaves the reader to act on the information. Certainly his characters create conflict with each other, but McBride allows the landscape to challenge each individual, and in fact the majority of conflict in the story is directly caused by the landscape and climate. The land is jutted imperfectly against the ocean, so that no one truly knows it perfectly. Swamp land rises in and out of firm land and it can never be predicted when and where horses and humans will need to struggle to get through. The ocean itself adds additional complexity to the surroundings and narrative.
This same land and water, where McBride characters survive, is less than 100 miles to the state border and freedom. Though the story explains that freedom at the state line is hardly a reality, with noted slave catchers traveling to the Canadian border to find runaways, McBride highlights this landmark purposefully in character conversations. His characters ask whether this line, made by the men who allow slavery existence, is truly where everyone can be free. Does that border to Canada hold the same freedom? If we do everything we are told, not just from our government or slave holders, but if we behave as Christians, students or mothers or daughters, will our future hold freedom?
Library Journal is correct to attribute flat characters to this story, but the story is not about the characters. It is about the question freedom and land.
Rather than inviting his readers into the climate and landscape of Maryland’s shore, McBride forces readers to understand the harsh environmental surroundings. McBride writes that the watermen harvest oysters in every month with the letter R, and, in the other months, they farm. He leaves the reader to act on the information. Certainly his characters create conflict with each other, but McBride allows the landscape to challenge each individual, and in fact the majority of conflict in the story is directly caused by the landscape and climate. The land is jutted imperfectly against the ocean, so that no one truly knows it perfectly. Swamp land rises in and out of firm land and it can never be predicted when and where horses and humans will need to struggle to get through. The ocean itself adds additional complexity to the surroundings and narrative.
This same land and water, where McBride characters survive, is less than 100 miles to the state border and freedom. Though the story explains that freedom at the state line is hardly a reality, with noted slave catchers traveling to the Canadian border to find runaways, McBride highlights this landmark purposefully in character conversations. His characters ask whether this line, made by the men who allow slavery existence, is truly where everyone can be free. Does that border to Canada hold the same freedom? If we do everything we are told, not just from our government or slave holders, but if we behave as Christians, students or mothers or daughters, will our future hold freedom?
Library Journal is correct to attribute flat characters to this story, but the story is not about the characters. It is about the question freedom and land.
Saturday, September 17, 2011
Current Suggested Reads
When The Emperor Was Divine, Julie Otsuka, November Meeting Book
Julie Otsuka's commanding debut novel paints a portrait of the Japanese internment camps unlike any we have ever seen. With crystalline intensity and precision, Otsuka uses a single family to evoke the deracination--both physical and emotional--of a generation of Japanese Americans. In five chapters, each flawlessly executed from a different point of view--the mother receiving the order to evacuate; the daughter on the long train ride to the camp; the son in the desert encampment; the family's return to their home; and the bitter release of the father after more than four years in captivity--she has created a small tour de force, a novel of unrelenting economy and suppressed emotion. Spare, intimate, arrestingly understated, When the Emperor Was Divine is a haunting evocation of a family in wartime and an unmistakably resonant lesson for our times. It heralds the arrival of a singularly gifted new novelist.
True Believer, Virginia Euwer Wolff
Living in the inner city amidst guns and poverty, fifteen-year-old LaVaughn learns from old and new friends, and inspiring mentors, that life is what you make it--an occasion to rise to.
The Weight of All Things, Sandra Benítez
Sandra Benitez received international acclaim for her first two novels: A Place Where the Sea Remembers and Bitter Grounds. Now she returns with an unforgettable tale of life in war-torn El Salvador. The Weight of All Things, like Kosinskis The Painted Bird, illuminates and makes particular the horrors that people at war can inflict on a young boy. More than any report of events in El Salvador, the story of Nicolas Veras and his terrible odyssey in a war torn country will stay with you.
Beloved, Toni Morrison
Sethe, an escaped slave living in post-Civil War Ohio with her daughter and mother-in-law, is persistently haunted by the ghost of her dead baby girl.
New Suggestions
Sarah's Key, Tatiana de Rosnay, December Meeting Book
Paris, July 1942: Sarah, a ten year-old girl, is brutally arrested with her family by the French police in the Vel' d'Hiv' roundup, but not before she locks her younger brother in a cupboard in the family's apartment, thinking that she will be back within a few hours. Paris, May 2002: On Vel' d'Hiv's 60th anniversary, journalist Julia Jarmond is asked to write an article about this black day in France's past. Through her contemporary investigation, she stumbles onto a trail of long-hidden family secrets that connect her to Sarah. Julia finds herself compelled to retrace the girl's ordeal, from that terrible term in the Vel d'Hiv', to the camps, and beyond. As she probes into Sarah's past, she begins to question her own place in France, and to reevaluate her marriage and her life. Tatiana de Rosnay offers us a brilliantly subtle, compelling portrait of France under occupation and reveals the taboos and silence that surround this painful episode.
Hidden in Plain View, Jacqueline L. Tobin and Raymond G. Dobard
"There are five square knots on the quilt every two inches apart. They escaped on the fifth knot on the tenth pattern and went to Ontario, Canada. The monkey wrench turns the wagon wheel toward Canada on a bear's paw trail to the crossroads--" And so begins the fascinating story that was passed down from generation to generation in the family of Ozella McDaniel Williams. But what appears to be a simple story that was handed down from grandmother to mother to daughter is actually much, much more than that. In fact, it is a coded message steeped in African textile traditions that provides a link between slave-made quilts and the Underground Railroad. In 1993, author Jacqueline Tobin visited the Old Market Building in the historic district of Charleston, South Carolina, where local craftspeople sell their wares. Amid piles of beautiful handmade quilts, Tobin met African American quilter Ozella Williams and the two struck up a conversation. With the admonition to "write this down," Williams began to tell a fascinating story that had been handed down from her mother and grandmother before her. As Tobin sat in rapt attention, Williams began to describe how slaves made coded quilts and then used them to navigate their escape on the Underground Railroad. But just as quickly as she started, Williams stopped, informing Tobin that she would learn the rest when she was "ready." During the three years it took for Williams's narrative to unfold--and as the friendship and trust between the two women grew--Tobin enlisted Raymond Dobard, Ph.D., an art history professor and well-known African American quilter, to help provide the historical context behind what Williams was describing. Now, based on Williams's story and their own research, Tobin and Dobard, in what they call "Ozella's Underground Railroad Quilt Code," offer proof that some slaves were involved in a sophisticated network that melded African textile traditions with American quilt practices and created a potent result: African American quilts with patterns that conveyed messages that were, in fact, essential tools for escape along the Underground Railroad.
Untold Story, Monica Ali
"What if Princess Diana hadn't died? Diana's life and marriage were fairy tale and nightmare. Adored by millions, in her personal life she suffered heartbreak and betrayal. Within a life of privilege, she frequently felt trapped and alone. Constrained by protocol and precedent, she refused to follow the rules. Untold Story takes the life of the world's most famous woman as a point of departure, examining the past and imagining a future. The fictional princess who is the novel's heroine is at breaking point and, believing that the Establishment is plotting her assassination, she makes an irrevocable decision: to stage her own death and begin a new life under an assumed identity. After a period of intense upheaval, Lydia (as she is known) settles in small town America and establishes a fragile peace. It is threatened by thoughts of what she has lost: not the glamour and glitz of royalty but that which is most precious - her children. She is, at least, safe in the knowledge - having altered her appearance and ten years after her 'death' - that her secret will never be uncovered. But then a chance encounter with a member of the paparazzi robs her of that certainty. Will he recognize her? Should she flee or remain calm? Is there anyone she can trust and turn to, or will she inevitably be betrayed? Untold Story is a novel about family and friendship, intrigue and obsession, the meaning of identity, and the peculiar calamity of fame." --Provided by publisher.
Influenza 1918, Lynette Lezzoni
Influenza 1918 is the true story of the worst epidemic the United States has ever known -- a deadly virus that made its silent appearance 80 years ago at the start of World War I and went on to take the lives of over 600,000 Americans. In one month alone, October 1918, over 195,000 Americans were stricken with the disease and died. In Philadelphia, the city could not cope -- the dead were left in gutters and stacked in caskets on front porches. People hid indoors, afraid to interact with their friends and neighbors. "If the epidemic continues its mathematical rate of acceleration", warned the Surgeon General, "civilization could easily disappear from the face of the earth within a few weeks".
New York, Edward Rutherfurd
A tale set against a backdrop of New York City's history from its founding through the September 11 attacks traces the experiences of characters who witness such periods as the Revolutionary War, the city's emergence as a financial giant, and the Gilded Age.
Everything Beautiful Began After, Simon Van Booy
While in Athens, Rebecca--young, beautiful and lost--finds a confidant in George, a translator whose closest friends are Aristophanes and Jack Daniels, but their blossoming relationship becomes complicated when they meet Henry, a happy-go-lucky archaeologist who changes their lives forever.
You Know When the Men are Gone, Siobhan Fallon
A collection of interconnected stories relate the experiences of Fort Hood military wives who share a poignant vigil during which they raise children while waiting for their husbands to return.
All summaries quoted from the Hennepin County Library Catalog.
Julie Otsuka's commanding debut novel paints a portrait of the Japanese internment camps unlike any we have ever seen. With crystalline intensity and precision, Otsuka uses a single family to evoke the deracination--both physical and emotional--of a generation of Japanese Americans. In five chapters, each flawlessly executed from a different point of view--the mother receiving the order to evacuate; the daughter on the long train ride to the camp; the son in the desert encampment; the family's return to their home; and the bitter release of the father after more than four years in captivity--she has created a small tour de force, a novel of unrelenting economy and suppressed emotion. Spare, intimate, arrestingly understated, When the Emperor Was Divine is a haunting evocation of a family in wartime and an unmistakably resonant lesson for our times. It heralds the arrival of a singularly gifted new novelist.
True Believer, Virginia Euwer Wolff
Living in the inner city amidst guns and poverty, fifteen-year-old LaVaughn learns from old and new friends, and inspiring mentors, that life is what you make it--an occasion to rise to.
The Weight of All Things, Sandra Benítez
Sandra Benitez received international acclaim for her first two novels: A Place Where the Sea Remembers and Bitter Grounds. Now she returns with an unforgettable tale of life in war-torn El Salvador. The Weight of All Things, like Kosinskis The Painted Bird, illuminates and makes particular the horrors that people at war can inflict on a young boy. More than any report of events in El Salvador, the story of Nicolas Veras and his terrible odyssey in a war torn country will stay with you.
Beloved, Toni Morrison
Sethe, an escaped slave living in post-Civil War Ohio with her daughter and mother-in-law, is persistently haunted by the ghost of her dead baby girl.
New Suggestions
Sarah's Key, Tatiana de Rosnay, December Meeting Book
Paris, July 1942: Sarah, a ten year-old girl, is brutally arrested with her family by the French police in the Vel' d'Hiv' roundup, but not before she locks her younger brother in a cupboard in the family's apartment, thinking that she will be back within a few hours. Paris, May 2002: On Vel' d'Hiv's 60th anniversary, journalist Julia Jarmond is asked to write an article about this black day in France's past. Through her contemporary investigation, she stumbles onto a trail of long-hidden family secrets that connect her to Sarah. Julia finds herself compelled to retrace the girl's ordeal, from that terrible term in the Vel d'Hiv', to the camps, and beyond. As she probes into Sarah's past, she begins to question her own place in France, and to reevaluate her marriage and her life. Tatiana de Rosnay offers us a brilliantly subtle, compelling portrait of France under occupation and reveals the taboos and silence that surround this painful episode.
Hidden in Plain View, Jacqueline L. Tobin and Raymond G. Dobard
"There are five square knots on the quilt every two inches apart. They escaped on the fifth knot on the tenth pattern and went to Ontario, Canada. The monkey wrench turns the wagon wheel toward Canada on a bear's paw trail to the crossroads--" And so begins the fascinating story that was passed down from generation to generation in the family of Ozella McDaniel Williams. But what appears to be a simple story that was handed down from grandmother to mother to daughter is actually much, much more than that. In fact, it is a coded message steeped in African textile traditions that provides a link between slave-made quilts and the Underground Railroad. In 1993, author Jacqueline Tobin visited the Old Market Building in the historic district of Charleston, South Carolina, where local craftspeople sell their wares. Amid piles of beautiful handmade quilts, Tobin met African American quilter Ozella Williams and the two struck up a conversation. With the admonition to "write this down," Williams began to tell a fascinating story that had been handed down from her mother and grandmother before her. As Tobin sat in rapt attention, Williams began to describe how slaves made coded quilts and then used them to navigate their escape on the Underground Railroad. But just as quickly as she started, Williams stopped, informing Tobin that she would learn the rest when she was "ready." During the three years it took for Williams's narrative to unfold--and as the friendship and trust between the two women grew--Tobin enlisted Raymond Dobard, Ph.D., an art history professor and well-known African American quilter, to help provide the historical context behind what Williams was describing. Now, based on Williams's story and their own research, Tobin and Dobard, in what they call "Ozella's Underground Railroad Quilt Code," offer proof that some slaves were involved in a sophisticated network that melded African textile traditions with American quilt practices and created a potent result: African American quilts with patterns that conveyed messages that were, in fact, essential tools for escape along the Underground Railroad.
Untold Story, Monica Ali
"What if Princess Diana hadn't died? Diana's life and marriage were fairy tale and nightmare. Adored by millions, in her personal life she suffered heartbreak and betrayal. Within a life of privilege, she frequently felt trapped and alone. Constrained by protocol and precedent, she refused to follow the rules. Untold Story takes the life of the world's most famous woman as a point of departure, examining the past and imagining a future. The fictional princess who is the novel's heroine is at breaking point and, believing that the Establishment is plotting her assassination, she makes an irrevocable decision: to stage her own death and begin a new life under an assumed identity. After a period of intense upheaval, Lydia (as she is known) settles in small town America and establishes a fragile peace. It is threatened by thoughts of what she has lost: not the glamour and glitz of royalty but that which is most precious - her children. She is, at least, safe in the knowledge - having altered her appearance and ten years after her 'death' - that her secret will never be uncovered. But then a chance encounter with a member of the paparazzi robs her of that certainty. Will he recognize her? Should she flee or remain calm? Is there anyone she can trust and turn to, or will she inevitably be betrayed? Untold Story is a novel about family and friendship, intrigue and obsession, the meaning of identity, and the peculiar calamity of fame." --Provided by publisher.
Influenza 1918, Lynette Lezzoni
Influenza 1918 is the true story of the worst epidemic the United States has ever known -- a deadly virus that made its silent appearance 80 years ago at the start of World War I and went on to take the lives of over 600,000 Americans. In one month alone, October 1918, over 195,000 Americans were stricken with the disease and died. In Philadelphia, the city could not cope -- the dead were left in gutters and stacked in caskets on front porches. People hid indoors, afraid to interact with their friends and neighbors. "If the epidemic continues its mathematical rate of acceleration", warned the Surgeon General, "civilization could easily disappear from the face of the earth within a few weeks".
New York, Edward Rutherfurd
A tale set against a backdrop of New York City's history from its founding through the September 11 attacks traces the experiences of characters who witness such periods as the Revolutionary War, the city's emergence as a financial giant, and the Gilded Age.
Everything Beautiful Began After, Simon Van Booy
While in Athens, Rebecca--young, beautiful and lost--finds a confidant in George, a translator whose closest friends are Aristophanes and Jack Daniels, but their blossoming relationship becomes complicated when they meet Henry, a happy-go-lucky archaeologist who changes their lives forever.
You Know When the Men are Gone, Siobhan Fallon
A collection of interconnected stories relate the experiences of Fort Hood military wives who share a poignant vigil during which they raise children while waiting for their husbands to return.
All summaries quoted from the Hennepin County Library Catalog.
Friday, September 16, 2011
Book club kit for November meeting.
Please note there is no book club kit for the October meeting. We will be using a library kit for the November meeting. Please pick up your copy at the October meeting from Caroline.
Borrowed books must be turned in at the November meeting, and the library will charge for missing books.
Borrowed books must be turned in at the November meeting, and the library will charge for missing books.
Water for Elephants, Sara Gruen
If you are looking to relax and find early twentieth century circus culture, horses, elephants and love stories exciting, this is your book for a rainy day.
Consensus from the club says that this book is a good read simply because it is a story. Gruen sets up a fabulous scene whenever the big top is up, uses true historical events to create the story, introduces the story through the eyes of a tired, old man and shows compassion for the show animals. If anything her success in writing a thoughtful and interesting story, should be appreciated.
It is frustrating to think that the bones of this project deserved to be so much more. Though the magic of the big top is powerful when risen and first described, Gruen’s story seems to ignore the larger backdrop of the depression, and the constant sadness, loneliness and hardness of circus and traveling show culture of the early twentieth century. Gruen depends on her characters and narrator to tell readers about character narratives and the show. She is limited in almost only visual imagery. She writes on about the piles of delicious food available to circus performers and workers, but she forgets to juxtapose the abundance with the hunger of the circus audience. She shows the wonder and mystical nature of a show as it is performed, but she fails to describe all the truly terrible, and often disgusting, smells and sounds of the show on the train or behind the curtains. It seems that Gruen is focused only on placing history and hardship to the narrative, as opposed to finding a narrative in the history and hardship.
The characters, human and animal, added a second disappointment to the book. Each character was absolutely flat and, at times, unforgivably so. Main character, Jacob, loses his parents and seems forget all about them. Within a hot minute he has run off thinking of his college lust, Catherine, only to join a circus and find his new object of lust. Very soon after, he loses his virginity in unnecessarily disgusting acts, but Gruen keeps him focused on his own involvement and remorse rather than ever allowing him to admit or show vulnerability. Similarly, the older Jacob, looking back on his life from a nursing home, never admits faults or mistakes in his younger self.
Like Jacob, each character seems to have his defined role within the story, including the animals. Actually, the only character these strict definitions seem to fit well is Uncle Al, owner and producer of the Benzini Bros. Circus. His flat character complements the idea and magic of the show. Uncle Al is larger than life. His story is almost always told through his acts: redlighting or docking pay or through stories from other men. He is larger than life, and he is supposed to be.
Like Uncle Al, you never see a full picture in Water for Elephants. You will always see the show. And really, that is part of what makes this book such a fun and relaxing read. It is a show. If you have no other expectation, you will love reading this story.
Consensus from the club says that this book is a good read simply because it is a story. Gruen sets up a fabulous scene whenever the big top is up, uses true historical events to create the story, introduces the story through the eyes of a tired, old man and shows compassion for the show animals. If anything her success in writing a thoughtful and interesting story, should be appreciated.
It is frustrating to think that the bones of this project deserved to be so much more. Though the magic of the big top is powerful when risen and first described, Gruen’s story seems to ignore the larger backdrop of the depression, and the constant sadness, loneliness and hardness of circus and traveling show culture of the early twentieth century. Gruen depends on her characters and narrator to tell readers about character narratives and the show. She is limited in almost only visual imagery. She writes on about the piles of delicious food available to circus performers and workers, but she forgets to juxtapose the abundance with the hunger of the circus audience. She shows the wonder and mystical nature of a show as it is performed, but she fails to describe all the truly terrible, and often disgusting, smells and sounds of the show on the train or behind the curtains. It seems that Gruen is focused only on placing history and hardship to the narrative, as opposed to finding a narrative in the history and hardship.
The characters, human and animal, added a second disappointment to the book. Each character was absolutely flat and, at times, unforgivably so. Main character, Jacob, loses his parents and seems forget all about them. Within a hot minute he has run off thinking of his college lust, Catherine, only to join a circus and find his new object of lust. Very soon after, he loses his virginity in unnecessarily disgusting acts, but Gruen keeps him focused on his own involvement and remorse rather than ever allowing him to admit or show vulnerability. Similarly, the older Jacob, looking back on his life from a nursing home, never admits faults or mistakes in his younger self.
Like Jacob, each character seems to have his defined role within the story, including the animals. Actually, the only character these strict definitions seem to fit well is Uncle Al, owner and producer of the Benzini Bros. Circus. His flat character complements the idea and magic of the show. Uncle Al is larger than life. His story is almost always told through his acts: redlighting or docking pay or through stories from other men. He is larger than life, and he is supposed to be.
Like Uncle Al, you never see a full picture in Water for Elephants. You will always see the show. And really, that is part of what makes this book such a fun and relaxing read. It is a show. If you have no other expectation, you will love reading this story.
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