Read This

First to explain the photo. It is taken at the Chicago Cultural Center in downtown Chicago which has a gorgeous series of mosaics some of which contain quotes pertaining to reading. The building was formerly the main downtown library branch until it was replaced by a modern building a few blocks away. Now the building is used for cultural events and it is still a wonderful public space. It took a little research to translate and identify the quotation (and Google translate failed miserably) even though I read a bit of Hebrew but I found that the quote is from Isaiah.
Here it is in Hebrew: ונתן הספר על אשר לא ידע ספר לאמר קרא נא זה
This is the quote with context although I might quibble with a few details of the translation: 11 For you this whole vision is nothing but words sealed in a scroll. And if you give the scroll to someone who can read, and say, “Read this, please,” they will answer, “I can’t; it is sealed.” 12 Or if you give the scroll to someone who cannot read, and say, “Read this, please,” they will answer, “I don’t know how to read.”

Now for the reason I chose this photo.  I was reading an Israeli novel (in English, my Hebrew's not that good!) and I couldn't resist sharing a quote.  The novel is The Liberated Bride by AB Yehoshua, an author I've read and enjoyed before.  I haven't finished this particular book but my current impression is that it is overlong and that although I like the insights into Israeli and Arab culture, I don't particularly like the main character.  He gets on my nerves to say the least. 
The writing, however, is wonderful, and this paragraph in which two academics discuss a paper about Algerian history made me chuckle. 
The young postmodernist was happy to explain.  In articulate, if rather mechanical and (Rivlin thought) smugly jesuitical language, he demystified the devious concept of national identity, which served to ghettoize the lower clases and deprive them of their rights within the rigid framework of the national state, whether----for there was no difference----this was of an openly totalitarian or an ostensibly democratic nature.
In case you are mystified, what made me laugh was how perfectly the author captures a certain type of academic-speak and why I avoid a certain type of University of Chicago gathering.  Content be damned, it seems to say, so long as you say it articulately, if mechanically!

Without Reservations

Siena, Italy

I just finished reading Without Reservations by Alice Steinbach. It is the story of a nearly year long "sabbatical" she took from her career as a journalist to live and travel in Europe and try to find herself along the way. I saw a lot of myself in the book as I read about her. She was 50 something at the time, her kids had left home and she was coming to terms with being in the latter half of her life.
This has been on my mind a lot of late too. Many existential questions of where do I go from here? On the one hand I think I love my work--note that even there I am losing my certainty. On the other hand part of me wants to "run away from home" and find a new life.
The back to school season leaves me thinking about transitions and empty nests--my oldest has moved into his own apartment near campus and my youngest started high school. In four years it will just be me and my husband, cats, turtle and fish rattling around in a too big house. Even before Alice suggested the idea by her own life choices, I had been thinking about what the next steps will be.
There are all these lists nowadays--50/100/1000 things to see/do/read before you die. I don't need a book to come up with my own list. It is there in my mind, more so when I get itchy feet and need to do something new or challenging.


Paris, France

Ms. Steinbach spends her year of wandering in France, Britain and Italy. She writes concisely as in a series of essays about her experiences of each place she stops, as well as her experience of herself in those places. Not everyone can do what she did--it requires a financial freedom and a freedom from pressing responsibilities that not everyone has. It also requires a degree of courage and spirit of adventure to make the leap.
I'm not likely to make any great leaps until my son graduates high school and heads off to college but I'm dreaming now. I hope I make the right choices for me when the time comes.
But back to the book. I very much enjoyed it. It is a relatively light read--easily accomplished in a couple of days but journeying with the author was a pleasure. It also may inspire me to pick up the works of some of her favorite authors: E.B. White, Freya Stark and Janet Flanner.
What's on your life list?

Loot

Wupatki National Monument, Arizona (my own photo)

I'm racing through my back-pile of books to read although I sheepishly have to admit that the local Border's is closing and I bought a pile of new books at 60% off. It seems unlikely that I'll ever clear out a bookshelf.
My next book to review is Stealing History: Tomb Raiders, Smugglers, and the Looting of the Ancient World, by Roger Atwood. I had a great time reading this one. It is a non-fiction work about the illicit trade in antiquities, centered largely on Peru. It reads like a book on Global Warming--message, the world is going to hell in a handbasket and no one can do anything to stop it.


Petroglyphs, Petrified Forest National Park

It is also reminiscent of the effort to protect wildlife in poor countries. How can you stop the poachers (in this case looters) from taking items they can sell for a profit when the crime is supported by the need of poor people to eat and by the desires of rich people for more trophies for their collections? In Peru, ancient tombs are being raided daily by local people, but the trade is fueled by the wealthy buyers (including museums)in developed countries.
The author interviews people at all sides of the antiquities industry from the looters themselves, to private collectors, archaeologists and law enforcement people. His message is that the world has to collectively take action to prevent the destruction and theft of local treasures.
I can understand the urge to dig for buried treasure and then to hoard and acquire these treasures. I'm not confessing to any misdeeds, mind you, but I've always wanted a chance to participate in an archaeological dig. Not that I ever considered a career in archaeology but maybe after my younger son leaves home, I'll sign up to volunteer to sift sand in some exotic place. I'd love to find a few pot shards or ancient bones and I promise not to keep any for myself!
Back to the book--it's great. Read it.

Because It's There

I joined a couple of book memes last month. I had done a few when this blog was younger and am trying to wake up both myself and this blog so went back to them. They are both TBR memes. TBR means to be read and they have to lofty goal of getting rid of books from old piles or shelves of unread material. In my case, there is no shortage of TBR books.
I am now proud to report that I have read 4 of 12 books on my list with an additional one almost finished. These were books I have been procrastinating on reading, some for years. So I'm half embarrassed at how easy they were to pick up and read with the right motivation. Now I'm procrastinating on reviewing the books but here's the first.
Eiger Dreams: Ventures among Men and Mountains, by Jon Krakauer.
I very much enjoy Krakauer's writing and am an armchair mountain climber. Except for my dream to someday climb Mount Rainier (a non-technical climb that can be achieved by wimps like me), I have no ambition to confront my fear of heights and dying in a more direct fashion. Even so, I love to read of other people's courage, drive and stupidity.
Eiger Dreams turned out to be great fun. There is some stirring prose and plenty of humor. Here is a bit of the former: "By and by, your attention becomes so intensely focused that you no longer notice the raw knuckles the cramping thighs, the strain of maintaining nonstop concentration. A trance-like state settles over your efforts, the climb becomes a clear-eyed dream. Hours slide by like minutes. . . . At such moments, something like happiness actually stirs in your chest, but it isn't the sort of emotion you want to lean on very hard. In solo climbing, the whole enterprise is held together with little more than chutzpah, not the most reliable adhesive." By G-d, I almost get it.



There is a piece on canyoneering that had me itching to grab my hiking boots and head to Utah, and stories on the dangers and physical trials of climbing that had me vowing never to climb anything taller than the flight of stairs to my office.
Here is Krakauer describing inside terminology for falling off a cliff:
"'Peel,' 'catch some air,' 'take a screamer,'log some flight time';such are the quaint turns of phrase climbers use to denote the act of falling."
Actually hitting the ground in a fall (as opposed to being rescued by one's ropes), is referred as "cratering." Cool.
I have made a commitment to myself to take my family backpacking next summer. That will probably be adventure enough for me. As to this small collection of essays, they are not of the caliber of some of Krakauer's longer books, such as Into Thin Air and Into the Wild, but it is well worth a few hours of reading.

P.S. The photos, as always, are my own--Half Dome in Yosemite and a slot canyon in Zion National Park.

In Haste

I'm heading out of town first thing tomorrow. So this is a hasty post.
I decided to join another TBR (to be read) book challenge. I like the idea of getting a pile of books read that have been loitering on my shelves for far too long. My hope is also to add a bit of literary life to my blog which is still alive but not as active as I would like it.

Here is my list of 12 books which have desperately needed reading with alternates.
1. Mary Mackie, Cobwebs and Cream Teas: A year in the life of a National Trust house
2. Andy Behrman, Electroboy
3. Mark Oppenheimer, Thirteen and a Day
4. Russell Martin, Beethoven’s Hair
5. Edward Himes, School of Dreams
6. Jon Krakauer, Eiger Dreams
7. Roger Atwood, Stealing History
8. Peter Gay, My German Question
9. Bernhard Schlink, The Reader
10. Doreen Orion, Queen of the Road
11. Sherwin Nuland, The Mysteries Within
12. Naguib Mahfouz, Midaq Alley

Alternates

1. Das Sijie, Le Complexe de Di
2. Madhur Jaffrey, Climbing the Mango Trees
3. Wallace Stegner, Where the Bluebird Sings to the Lemonade Springs
4. Maya Angelou, Gather Together in My Name
5. Simon Winchester, The Professor and the Madman
6. Howard Dully, My Lobotomy
7. Muriel Barberry, L’elegance du Herisson
8. Lauren Willis, The Secret History of the Pink Carnation

Some of these books have a back story (where I bought them or why but that will have to wait until I return.

The Trouble is Just Begun

I just began reading The Devil in the White City, a book I picked up via Bookmooch. I don't know why I never started reading it before. Given the focus on Chicago history you'd have thought I would but I've never really taken to true crime stories. The first thirty pages or so cover more about Chicago architecture than anything else and that I did enjoy. Here is what Chauncey Depew says of Chicago, as quoted in the book:
Chicago is like the man who marries a woman with a ready-made family of twelve. The trouble is just begun."
The book itself relates to the 1893 World's Fair which took place just walking distance from my house. Unfortunately there is little left of the site but a museum, a park and a lagoon or two but reading about Chicago over a century ago is a lot of fun. We'll have to see how I feel about the murderous bits. Here is a 1919 postcard to put us in the mood for Chicago architecture.

Post-apocalyptic

Post-apocalyptic novels were quite popular when I was a kid and I read many of them. I guess it is a product of growing up during the Cold War. It is hard to say how much a person is affected by knowing there are nuclear weapons pointed at you at all times, but I think like most kids I was generally more preoccupied with the normal day-to-day, fighting with my younger brother, worrying about grades at school and so on. The books themselves generally made for a good yarn and probably were fascinating in the way that a good thriller or horror novel is fascinating.
Apocalyptic books come and go, besides. I recently picked up Children of God by PD James and The Road by Cormac McCarthy. I guess the end of the world never goes out of style.
This week I was trolling the give-away pile outside my local used bookstore and found a copy of On the Beach, by Nevil Shute. It was published in 1957 and there was also a movie made starring Gregory Peck, Ava Gardner, Fred Astaire and Anthony Perkins. I wonder if Astaire managed to dance in it. I decided to revisit the book to see if more than 30 years later, I still liked it.



The writing is a bit stiff at times but the more I read the more gripping I'm finding the story. It isn't the usual, disaster survivors struggling to live against the odds, story. It is a quiet book about a group of Australians and Americans waiting for the end as radiation clouds drift toward the south from a northern hemisphere that has already been obliterated. It is the quietness that makes for the creepy shivers up the spine, not the horrors which are largely not portrayed. The characters throw parties, garden and picnic while they anticipate an unpleasant death from radiation sickness.
The other book I remember from this period in my reading life is Fail-safe (the basis for the movie Dr. Strangelove, but without the humor). Maybe I'll have to pick that up next. I'd be curious if any one else has read these books. I doubt so if you are under 35 or so. It's a good read if you don't mind a tear jerker and can find a copy. I might try to locate the movie too.

Banned Books Week

"First they came for the Communists, and I didn’t speak up, because I wasn’t a Communist. Then they came for the Social Democrats, and I didn’t speak up, because I wasn’t a Social Democrat. Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I didn’t speak up, because I wasn’t a Trade Unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up, because I wasn't a Jew, Then they came for me, and by that time there was no one left to speak up for me." - Pastor Martin Neimoller

I know this book is about the Holocaust, but there are two points I want to make by quoting it. The first is that when we talk about banning books we don't feel are appropriate, we forget about the slippery slope. The questions are, where do we draw the line and whom do we trust to pick the books to ban? There are books I don't want my 12 year old reading although I would have read them myself at 12. But I defend his right to pick up anything he can find in a public library or bookstore and reading it when my back is turned. If something disturbs him, he can come to me and talk about it. My second, less important point, is that the Nazis didn't just burn people, they also burned books.
A couple of years ago, I was at my son's school during parent teacher conferences. The parent in line ahead of me was asking the teacher to censor a book her daughter was going to read in class. She had highlighted passages she feared would disturb her daughter and suggested that the teacher paste over the lines some lines of her own creation that were safer. I was truly stunned. My son wasn't in the class reading that book but I told the teacher that I absolutely would have insisted that my son be given the unedited version of the book. Unfortunately the teacher was young and new to the school and didn't seem to have the strength to stand up to this mother. I feel sorry for her daughter. Imagine living a censored life!
Banned books are a funny thing. A fellow blogger wrote about kids passing around the list of books banned by the Catholic school nuns and reading more of them than of the ones on the approved list. When I tried to look up a list of banned books just now, I was reminded of trying to read Lady Chatterly's Lover as a kid because I had heard of its sexual content. At the time, I found it a huge disappointment. Apparently what was considered prurient by the previous generation, didn't mean much to a 70's preteen. My mother had far more lurid books on her shelves than Chatterly and I can tell you I read them all. As far as I can tell, none did me any harm. I noticed that one of the books I read back then is still on the often banned list today.
The kind of content that is "controversial" nowadays seems to fall into a few themes:
sexuality (duh), homosexuality, profanity (as if every 5 year old in this country doesn't speak fluent four letter words), death (I guess our kids won't learn about suicide until it happens to a kid in their high school or to someone in their family), rape and molestation (ditto), anything not Christian, anything leftist in leaning, anything containing the "N" word--sorry Mark Twain, and books about magic and the occult (begone foul Harry Potter).
Well, I need to get to work and then out scouring the bookshelves for a few banned books to read. I hope I inspire you to read one or two yourselves.

Bibliomania

Detail, Blackstone Branch Library, Chicago, Illinois

Yes, I've admitted it, I'm addicted to books. Worse yet, I don't even read them all! Sometimes I'm amazed that my house doesn't sink under the weight of my books. In yet another vain attempt to declutter I joined the ranks of the Bookcrossers.
There are no good thrift stores to drop off books in my neighborhood. I'm not even aware of a Salvation Army or Goodwill bin nearby. So getting rid of books that way requires a trip to a store at least 20 minutes away. I'm always struck by the irony of burning lots of gas to recycle books and used clothes. I was raised to respect books and cannot, for the life of me, throw one out no matter how trashy unless it is mildewed or water damaged. So what to do?
I had heard, as have most people who randomly surf the internet, of Bookcrossing. The principle is simple, give your unwanted books to other people. So yesterday I signed up. It turns out, there's a catch. There always is, isn't there? And no, money is not the catch. The catch is that you are supposed to "release" your books "into the wild." That means leave them somewhere and hope someone else picks them up and enjoys them. But where to go? You can't leave them in a bookstore, obviously. Outside runs the risk of rain. Cafes might work but how to casually abandon a book in one? I'm not in train stations, airports, airplanes or hotels often enough for that to be useful. In short, I registered one book and have been carrying it around for the past day unsure where to leave it. There are supposed to be Bookcrossing Zones--places that have agreed to let you leave books for swap--but I could find none near me. And I live near a University!
I think I've given up on Bookcrossing. I need to be able to unload my books easily. Next, I tried Bookmooch. The principle of Bookmooch is that people are able to post their books up for mooching and get credits to mooch books for themselves. I posted 3 books and within hours two people had requested copies of two of them. The down side is I had to run to the post office. So for a grand total of less than $5 I got rid of two books. I listed on my wishlist some books I was interested in owning and now have one on the way here. It was so fun and easy I listed two more books to give away. One thing I like about this process is that I can get rid of books that I didn't like and wouldn't send to a friend. The down side? I'm still taking in new books, it is hard to find books I actually want to mooch, and I have to keep track of what books I have listed to send. I also have to be willing to run to the post office periodically, not something I am good at. Then there's the odd thought of paying money to get rid of books!
I'm going to keep it up for a time and see how it goes. I can donate my book credits to charity if I want to keep more books leaving than arriving. And there is a certain pleasure in the thought that my books are currently winging their way to new owners.

For the Love of Books

Someone gave me this great old book, sort of as a thank you for something I had done. It is a ratty old book but that is part of its charm. It is a 1924 edition of one of the Oz series books, not even by the original author. The front page illustration is captioned: Grampa was an old soldier who had fought in Nine Hundred and Eighty Battles. In the picture Grampa is frighteningly ugly.
I read a number of the Oz series as a kid. They were dated even in the 60's when I was reading them. I doubt many kids today even realize there were sequels to the Wizard of Oz (or maybe even a book at all behind the movie). When I was a kid, we used to get to stay up late to watch the Wizard of Oz when it came on our (black and white) TV once a year. Another thing my kids wouldn't get. What, no TIVO?
I picked this book to start the post because I found a new, old, used bookstore. It is one of a rare breed these days--a used bookstore full of piles of musty old books which are prone to falling over when you try to extricate the bottom one. The proprietor is clearly an eccentric. When I declined to have a bag for the books I bought he said to me: "Then everyone will know what you are into." It gave me pause since it wasn't as if I had bought pr-n or something!
He was talking to another customer about his experiences living in SRO apartments and various bits of other odd gossip. I couldn't help but overhear; it was such a small store. It was clear that all sorts of odd ducks frequent the store. He mentioned one older guy who came in all the time (sounded like one of those hoarder types) but hadn't lately. He was worried since the fellow hadn't shown up. Apparently this guy's job was working at an adult bookstore (speaking of pr-n). By the way, I'm intentionally misspelling a certain word to avoid a certain kind of Google search.
It made me wonder if I'm one of those eccentrics since I was in the store too after all. I picked up a couple of old books that had been discarded from a library. I want to play with the old print and illustrations. Not sure what for yet.
Everything in the store was dirt cheap and discounted from the price written in the jacket.
In contrast a few blocks away I had stumbled on another used bookstore. I walked in and started looking and the clerk asked me to check my purse. Now, I don't mind checking a backpack (except I don't like to check my camera) or shopping bag but a purse! In a used bookstore. I'm going to risk jail to shoplift a used paperback novel? I objected and she said I could put my wallet in my pocket. Well there is my big, fat wallet, my cell phone, my i-pod. I decided it wasn't worth it (or my pockets weren't big enough). I politely told the woman that they had just lost a customer and left. Who needs this? I'm sure if they are so worried about shoplifting that the books must have been overpriced anyway. I'll go to the musty, asthma-inducing, store instead. There is always a bargain to be had and some juicy gossip to eavesdrop in on. I'll be back at this store until it, inevitably, goes out of business.
Here's hoping you all have something good to read.

Bookshelves: Part 2

Book 7: The Great Gatsby. I read another book that referred to Gatsby so often I decided I had to finally read this. It is an American classic that some how managed to slip by me as a student. I’m not sure how many other “classic” American authors I’ve managed to avoid reading in my 40 something years. Probably not many. I enjoyed this book. Of course, bought used. Thank heaven my neighborhood is blessed with great used bookstores.
Book 8: Into the Wild. I loved this book. I spoke about it a bit in an earlier post but I’d recommend the book, the movie and the soundtrack. That is a lot of recommendations in one for me.
Book 9: Les Fleurs du Mal. Great poems. Very dark. Baudelaire is one of my favorite poets. I took this out of hiding to post about it but never did. This is a very old edition that I think I bought when I lived in France in the early 80’s.
Book 10: Beautiful Boy. A beautiful book but a heartbreaker. A man writes about his son’s struggle with Methamphetamine addiction. This memoir is painful to read and makes me intensely grateful there isn’t much Meth abuse in Chicago. I have enough on my hands without that!
Book 11: Where the Bluebird Sings, etc. Bought on one of my travels west. I tend to buy books that pertain to my travels but sometimes don’t follow up by actually reading them! It is supposed to be a classic of western writing. I have to get to it one of these days.
Book 12: Anil’s Ghost. I read something by Ondaatje for the writing class I took in Iowa last summer. That was more of a film criticism book but it made me want to know the author better. I didn’t love this book. It is more like Book 1, Disgrace, in that it made me think but still made me feel a bit as if I was reading it out of academic duty not sheer pleasure. I learned a lot about Sri Lanka from it though.

So, do you know a bit more about me now? Probably. See how much one’s shelves reveal?

Looking through bookshelves

When I visit someone’s house I always wind up looking at their bookshelves. I try to be unobtrusive about it but my eyes inevitably gravitate there. In part, I cannot help myself. Books are my addiction. In part, I’m honestly nosy. I learn so much about people from what they read.
I have some good friends whose bookshelves are nearly empty. I can tell you that their books are the same few that they’ve had for 20 years. On the other hand they have an amazing DVD collection and I generally like their taste in movies. Sometimes I wonder what I have in common with people who have such vacant bookshelves. But of course, who needs to have something in common with their friends? Besides 20 years of shared history. These people are like family in their way. They are good people and I need them in my life. So we don’t need books in common!
I was thinking about what my shelves reflect of me besides an obsession with printed matter. So I took a random picture of the most accessible shelf. Now I’ll tell you what is there and why. This might take two posts, by the way.

Book 1: Disgrace. I know someone who knows Coetzee and the book was on the $1 shelf at a used bookstore. I read it recently on vacation and the book bothered me. It is about the scandal of a professor who sleeps with a student. To me this is one of those taboos, almost like incest. It made me feel creepy by association. I also didn’t like the main character. The book made me think so much that I know it was good anyway.

DVD 1: Oliver. My son played a pickpocket in the school version of Oliver and I got the DVD for him. This isn’t the musical version I remember seeing as a kid which gave me nightmares. I was very scared by the scene of Bill Sykes hanging. I still hum some of the tunes, though.

DVD 2: Nutcracker 2006. The first year my son performed in it. I wasn’t in that year’s version.

Book 2: Windows on the World. Actually in French despite the title. I planned on reading it but haven’t gotten to it due to laziness. It takes more work for me to read in French so I need to feel energized. It is about the last day of the twin towers.

Book 3: I’m not mad, etc. Parenting book. I heard Roni Cohen-Sandler talk a few years ago and thought she was quite interesting. I don’t have daughters and haven’t read it even though it has utility for my work. I bought it used. It is definitely on my TBR list.

Book 4: The Family Tree. Picked up used. I haven’t read it but I’ve liked some of Tepper’s novels. Sci-fi/Fantasy genre.

Book 5: How to Stay Alive in the Woods. Survival classic. I’m using as a reference for my first novel about the kid who runs away and lives in the woods. I’m pretty sure I read bits of this book as a kid when I had my own running away fantasies. Bought used.

Book 6: Junior Classics. Old book I rescued from my in-laws’ place. I haven’t read it although I went through a phase in my school days when I read every fairy tale I could get my hands on, including the not-prettied up Grimm tales and so forth. I’m in love with vintage children’s books.

More tomorrow.

Forbidden

On Thursday, I posted about bad books. Today the item on the menu is banned books. Today’s Sunday Scribblings is perfect for me because I was planning a post in honor of Banned Books Week (which alas was last week, late again sarala). Last year I posted about reading Perks of Being a Wallflower, by Stephen Chbosky in honor of the week. Thanks to A Free Man for reminding me of the week in his very interesting post.

I have copied the ALA’s list of most frequently challenged books of 2007. Here they are:

1. And Tango Makes Three, by Justin Richardson/Peter Parnell
Reasons: Anti-Ethnic, Sexism, Homosexuality, Anti-Family, Religious Viewpoint, Unsuited to Age Group
2. The Chocolate War, by Robert Cormier
Reasons: Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Violence
3. Olive’s Ocean, by Kevin Henkes
Reasons: Sexually Explicit and Offensive Language
4. The Golden Compass, by Philip Pullman
Reasons: Religious Viewpoint
5. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain
Reasons: Racism
6. The Color Purple, by Alice Walker
Reasons: Homosexuality, Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language,
7. TTYL, by Lauren Myracle
Reasons: Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Unsuited to Age Group
8. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, by Maya Angelou
Reasons: Sexually Explicit
9. It’s Perfectly Normal, by Robie Harris
Reasons: Sex Education, Sexually Explicit
10. The Perks of Being A Wallflower, by Stephen Chbosky
Reasons: Homosexuality, Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Unsuited to Age Group

Which book to pick? I think I might go for Maya Angelou. I haven’t read the Caged Bird and it sounds like a good idea. I have read Huckleberry Finn and really enjoyed reading it for a college class. The racism is difficult (why people have tried to ban it) but I just read a Dicken’s novel and The Great Gatsby which had anti-Semitic parts to them and there are racist comments in Gatsby. It didn’t prevent me from reading either novel and wouldn’t prevent me from recommending either book to others. We need to take this old literature within the cultural context of when it was written.
I recently read the first of the Golden Compass trilogy and could move on to Book Two. I actually enjoyed the anti-religious viewpoint. Criticism of religious intolerance is pretty common in Science Fiction and Fantasy. The only likely reason this particular series is on the banned list for ’07 is because it became a popular movie. Maybe they should ban the movie instead.
I think It’s Perfectly Normal is a great book that should be in the library of most families with kids. Personally, I don’t feel the need to read it. I’m a bit old for most of the information it shares. Plus I’m a doctor. I give sex ed. Reminds me, I recently talked to an adolescent who believed that birth control was irreversible. She said she wouldn’t use it because someday she wanted to have kids. Apparently her middle school only provides abstinence education. There are quite a few teen parents in the high school this school feeds into. Guess abstinence isn’t quite working out.
Do you have any favored banned books? Any on your reading list for this year? I’ll let you know what I wind up reading.

Breaking news, I bought I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, by Maya Angelou. I'll post on how I like it as soon as I've read it.

Books I didn't like

I decided to do a Booking Through Thursday today. The question was what book/s have I not liked that were considered good books? My mind immediately went back to books I hated as a kid. Not that I haven't read or tried to read classics more recently that I could not warm up to. But as a kid I remember encountering a few books that were supposed to be good for me that I simply loathed. It would be interesting now to see if I liked them better or if my feelings would be the same. For better or for worse, I rarely hate a book now. If I think a book is awful, I simply put it down. So for truly intense emotions I go back to my youth.
Book 1:
Curious George.
Not exactly a classic but it was my younger brother's favorite series and I read it to him many times. I couldn't stand and still will not go near the Curious George series of picture books. It still makes me shudder internally.
Book 2:
Kim, by Rudyard Kipling. An elementary school teacher I much admired suggested I read Kim. Since I loved some of Kipling's short works (the Jungle Books and Rikki Tikki Tavi) I had a good attitude going in. I couldn't stand it. I really tried because I loved the teacher. Was I just too young?
Book 3:
Emma, by Jane Austen. The same teacher assigned this book. It is the only book I ever used Cliff Notes on. I couldn't finish it. Incidentally I loved Pride and Prejudice and enjoyed Sense and Sensibility well enough.
Book 4:
An American Tragedy, by Theodore Dreiser. I don't remember why but I couldn't stand it. I felt it was truly boring.

I'm reluctant to go back to any of these books because they left such a bad feeling. Maybe I should just to prove how open mind I can be. But so many books, so little time.

Vision Thing

“A political view encompassing the longer term as distinct from short-term campaign objectives. The expression comes from the response of the American Republican statesman George Bush (1924- ), who in 1987 responded to the suggestion that he turn his attention from short-term campaign objectives and look to the longer term by saying, `Oh, the vision thing'”.
(Defined by AskOxford.com)

What a great definition! So now that we are in a campaign year, or century, or eternity, we ought to be hearing a lot about vision. But, truthfully, do any of us believe that our politicians have vision beyond the one of themselves holding down a position of power? I want to believe but sometimes it is hard. Perhaps I lack vision.
At times I wonder what my vision is: Parity for the treatment of mental illness? Universal health care? Peace in the Middle East? At other times, cynicism overtakes me and I think my personal vision or lack thereof is irrelevant to the fate of the world. Sometimes I wish I could be more like those people, who have a clarity of vision that I think I lack.
On the other hand, vision can too easily turn into fixation. In a way, this was the death of the young man (Chris McCandless) in Into the Wild (which I just finished). He had a dream of man living in harmony with nature. In the end, nature succeeded in killing him. Was it worth it to him to attempt his dream and live off the land in Alaska? Was it worth his witting or unwitting cruelty to his parents and sister? If I am haunted by visions of this man’s death by starvation, imagine how his family feels.
I sometimes try to teach another kind of vision to the parents I work with. I try to share with them a vision of their child grown to be a happy, healthy, productive young adult. It surprises me a bit, but some parents only see their own fears, that their son/daughter will grow up to be underemployed, addicted, “lazy” or in some way (in their own words/fantasies) a useless human being. I think that McCandless’ parents must have been terribly worried by his society-defying ways long before he vanished into the wild.
I try to explain to the parents I know about self-fulfilling prophecies. I fear their dismal predictions have the weight of prophecy and explain to them that their optimism for their children can also be self-fulfilling. I am a parent myself and understand that to an extent all parents worry that we may be enabling our children by giving them too much love, or too much self-confidence. We pour on the discipline and the stern parental lectures to prevent a “bad outcome.”
Work of a psychologist, Carol Dweck, suggests we praise our children too much. I’m obviously simplifying here but the idea is that unearned praise rather than building self-esteem, leads to that very mental laziness the parents I’m talking about fear. My gut feeling is that most of the kids I work with don’t suffer from too much self-esteem or an overdose of praise.
Like most accepted wisdom, the wisest path is to seek balance. Kids need praise and their parents’ positive regard. They still need their artwork, however inept, stuck onto the refrigerator door. Regarding trends in psychology, we might be better off just listening to our own best judgment.
Getting back to “the vision thing.” In Into the Wild, Krakauer speaks of youth: “It is easy, when you are young, to believe that what you desire is not less than what you deserve, to assume that if you want something badly enough, it is your God-given right to have it.” I am no longer young. I am not sure where my “vision” takes me beyond life-long near sightedness and middle-aged far-sightedness (gotta love those bi-focals). Do I hunger for world peace or a better retirement plan? Or perhaps, in the moderation of mid-life, I hunger for all of the above.

Book Reviews in Short

American Alligator, seen in Louisiana swamp.

If I don’t do these, in brief, and now, they will never get done. Here is a list of some books I recently read:

When a Crocodile Eats the Sun: A Memoir of Africa by Peter Godwin—highly recommended. This is a moving memoir, not of a dysfunctional family but of a family living in a dysfunctional country, Zimbabwe. Peter Godwin is a journalist based in New York City but he writes eloquently of his family’s history and his own childhood growing up in Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe. It makes for a fascinating study of a slice of history about which those of us, such as myself, who don’t listed to the BBC News or read the Economist often enough, might otherwise remain comfortably ignorant.



Almost Home by Jessica Blank is a young adult novel about a group of homeless youth in Los Angeles. It is well written and the kids are believable enough although sometimes the inner musings of the teens represented is unconvincing to my ear. The story is unrelentingly grim even though it attempts to end with the hope of redemption for at least one character. Intense themes include rape, molestation, prostitution, and drug abuse. It isn’t a pretty story and I’m not sure most teens would feel comfortable reading it. I know it made me sad without leaving me with a sense of why I was reading it other than my vested interest in mental illness and my literary effort in writing about a foster child/runaway. I have never worked much with the homeless adolescent population although I have met many addicted youth and homeless adults. It is deeply saddening to confront, even in a work of fiction.



The God of Animals, by Aryn Kyle—I would call this a “coming of age novel” about a 12 year old girl living on a Colorado ranch with her hard-working father and mentally ill, depressed mother. It is about how children can be neglected even by well-meaning parents in an intact home. Unlike in the previously reviewed novel, this book balances hope and despair in a way that is quite effective. The writing is tight and the characters well-drawn. My main objection is to what felt to me as a slight excess of melodrama—a dead classmate and a crush on a teacher are two key plot points that seem overdone. I’m still not clear whether there is an unspoken convention for “coming of age novels” that a hopeless crush/love affair with a teacher is required. Or maybe I am just jealous that unrequited love with a pedophilic teacher passed me by when I was 12. None of my classmates died either. I guess I would have made for a boring character in a novel. Nonetheless it is a classy novel and a good read.

Planet Earth Reading Challenge

Well, I figured I was overdue for a reading challenge and stumbled across this one which inspired me. In honor of UN International Year of Planet Earth Classical Bookworm created a challenge based on 4 spheres of earth science: the lithosphere, atmosphere, hydrosphere and biosphere. The charge is to read books from each domain or several geology books. For this challenge I have chosen the following:
Lithosphere (geology)—Krakatoa by Simon Winchester
Atmosphere—The Cloudspotter’s Guide: the Science, History, and Culture of Clouds, by Gavin Pretor-Pinney
Hydrosphere—Hell and High Water by Joseph Romm

Three books—one major disaster (a volcanic eruption), a bit of weather (maybe I’ll remember details from the meteorology class I took some 30 years ago), and an even more major disaster (global warming). Should be fun reads.
I’m already 135 pages into Krakatoa. We’re kind of volcano fans in my family. My older son started collecting volcano facts when he was around 4, visited Mauna Loa and Kilauea shortly thereafter and watched every National Geographic video ever made about volcanoes at least 30 times. And they make for exciting viewing! We made our trip to Hawaii when younger son was around 4 months old so I missed some of the fun since long hikes across unshaded lava fields isn’t recommended for infants.
While he has since moved on, no one can deny that volcanoes are cool. I personally have a dim memory of watching that classic movie Krakatoa, East of Java (it turns out it is west of Java) as a kid. Actually, all I remember is the name of the movie itself. But I’m sure I saw it.

If any of the three books gets too boring I may yet switch to a different book. And since I have not yet picked a representative of the biosphere, I may be adding to the list. Thanks to Classical Bookworm for a great idea.

I’ve also decided to institute a quote a day on my blog. I’ll try to pull things from my daily reads but in a pinch might resort to a quotation site from the internet.

Today’s quote is from the Kilauea Daily Update, the eruption report from Kilauea:
“The TEB pahoehoe flow entered the ocean about 11:30 pm March 5. Seismic tremor levels and sulfur dioxide emission rates continued elevated to several times background levels at Kilauea summit.”

Pahoehoe is one of my favorite volcano words. It is a Hawaiian word referring to smooth lava flows (as opposed to jagged, sharp flows—known as a’a’). The mnemonic I learned for remembering a’a’ is that it is the sound that one makes when stepping barefoot on a dried a’a’ flow. As Greenlanders have many words for snow, Hawaiians evolved a vocabulary of lava. For more on volcanoes, and a photo glossary of volcano words go to the USGS web site: http://www.usgs.gov/science/science.php?term=1209&type=feature or read Krakatoa.

Booking Through Thursday--Who's My Heroine?

Who is your favorite female lead character? And why? (And yes, of course, you can name more than one . . . I always have trouble narrowing down these things to one name, why should I force you to?)

I decided to do Booking Through Thursday today. After all it is a pretty good question.
I guess I would choose Elizabeth Bennett from Pride and Prejudice because I really do like the character and she came up in conversation just last night. The topic was why women would be attracted to men who look down on them. It occurred to me to use P & P as an example. Of course, most of us know that Mr. Darcy considered Elizabeth beneath him due to her family "connections" and his first confession of love was disdainful at best. It is only after Mr. Darcy has gotten his hands dirty helping Elizabeth's low connections and been humbled by his love that he becomes an acceptable suitor. It strikes me that it is the humbling process or at least the wish to see the man humbled that makes a woman see an arrogant, condescending man as an acceptable partner.

I'm going to also choose Meggie of Inkheart by Cornelia Funke. This is a kid's book but I really enjoyed it myself. I'd put it up there with Harry Potter among the truly memorable books for kids. Meggie is a reader, semi-orphaned and a devoted daughter to her father. She handles multiple adventures with frightening villains and a new brand of magic with considerable spirit.

I also like women detectives, namely VI Warshawski, Kinsey Milhone, Anna Pigeon, Mma Ramotswe, Stephanie Plum and Temperance Brennan. If you want to know authors and books let me know in a comment.

Of course there are many other powerful women characters in literature but I would like to end with one observation. That is that we are still biased towards men in literature. Too many books with strong female protagonists wind up consigned to the chick lit pile. It is hard to get a boy to read a book about a girl but the reverse is not necessarily true. As a kid I read Nancy Drew but I also read the entire Hardy Boys series. Try to catch a boy reading Nancy Drew (at least in public)! And in mainstream novels too many female characters are afterthoughts or actually men in women's clothes, as it were.

Have a great Thursday and thanks for reading.

More from my reading list, or a guilt trip

Not quite K2 but mountains, nonetheless.

I guess I am on a roll for book reviews. This is generally a good thing, unless I am boring you, the gentle reader (or not-reader as the case may be). I seem also to be on a non-fiction kick. My reading habits signal a lot about my mental state. No books or no books I'd care to admit to in public, means I am tired and low on energy. If I'm only reading "comfort books," in other words, books I read 14 times when I was a kid, then I'm depressed. For the years of medical school, graduate school, kid #1 in diapers, residency, fellowship, kid #2 in diapers, I hardly read anything not assigned reading unless it was a beach novel on one of my rare vacations.
Then a miracle happened. I quit my insane, 60 hours a week plus call job, started working for myself and my kids aged out of diapers. Books started looking like something other than useful doorstops. I have only read one novel in French in the past 10 years, but that requires that my brain cells be on overdrive. So anyway, here is another book review.
This time I wandered over to Pakistan and another kind of poverty. Sometimes I wonder about books that are shamelessly promoted at Border's but this one came recommended by a family member. The book is Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin. The book had a few interesting prerequisites: an exotic locale, a do-gooder mentality, and some very tall mountains. So I read it. The premise is so hard to believe that I wonder if I should check it out on the net (since I fell so ignominiously for A Million Little Pieces--see this post).
But I choose to believe that not everyone who is noble, heroic or addicted in this world is a liar. So I choose to believe that Mortenson really is a former mountaineer who gave it up to build schools for Muslim children, especially girls, in Pakistan and later Afghanistan. Other than the obstinacy necessary to attempt an assault on K2, Mortenson has none of the obvious credentials for a major philanthropist. After getting lost on the way down a mountain, Mortenson stumbles into a village of friendly but poor people who help him recover from his ordeal. He learns they dream of having a school for their children and one thing leads to another. Next thing you know Mortenson is building schools throughout two countries, learning to pray like a good Muslim, being kidnapped by bandits (does he know Venkatesh of my previous book review?), and heading a major charitable organization. All of it is in the name of peace, love, fraternity and education.
So, what does this have to do with guilt trips? Well, books like this make me, and probably most other people with Catholic or Jewish guilt, feel like we ought to be doing more for this world. Even though I am in a helping profession, I haven't changed the lives of thousand of poor children in a far off country. I ponder joining Doctors Without Borders or the Peace Corps. I wonder if I should retrain in surgery (not) so I can repair cleft lips and palates in a third world country. As traveling in third world countries has alas taught me, I don't have the GI tract for unsanitary living conditions. I think in a month or so, I'd wind up a casualty of my own charitable inclinations, getting IV rehydration salts and using up the scarce supply of antibiotics. Which makes for a convenient excuse to hang out here at home doing what I am best at, helping American kids and adults deal with their own traumas.
Anyway, I am not trying to tell you how I console myself for my own role in world affairs. There is always someone out there who is better, smarter, poorer, more talented or holier than thou or thee. If you like this kind of thing, read this book. It is a great read, whether as an adventure story or as the book jacket proclaims, as "a testament to the power of the humanitarian spirit." Besides, Borders has it on the "buy 1, get 2nd 50% off" table.

Gang Leader for a Day: a Book Review

A Tale Told by an Idiot: Gang Leader for a Day, by Sudhir Venkatesh

I just read a great book. So why am I titling my review of this book in the above manner? Sudhir Venkatesh is a sociologist, formerly a graduate student at the University of Chicago, who takes it into his head to study poverty in the Chicago Housing Projects. In so doing, and in spite of all good sense and nearly totally abandoning the scientific methods of his profession, Venkatesh manages to learn more about the inner workings of a Chicago gang then most people before and since.
Imagine a young, naïve, Indian graduate student who stumbles into an abandoned housing project on the south side of Chicago at the height of the crack epidemic of the in 1989. Armed with nothing but a clipboard of survey questions about poverty and census data about poor African American families on the South Side of Chicago, Venkatesh launches himself into danger and into a great story. Like the gang members who hold him up at knife and gun point his first day, I had to laugh at this fellow who plans to ask these fellows multiple choice questions such as: “How does it feel to be black and poor?” Possible answers consist of: “Very bad, somewhat bad, neither bad nor good, somewhat good, very good.” In spite of his questionnaire, Venkatesh is mistaken for a Mexican gang member and is assumed to be spying on the gang.
With this introduction, Venkatesh makes a connection with members of the Black Kings gang. Wiser people would have spent the remainder of their days safely ensconced in the Ivory Tower, thanking the powers that be that they survived their youthful idiocy. Not Venkatesh. Instead he forms an acquaintanceship with one gang leader and over the next few years he is allowed to follow this young man, “J.T.,” as he organizes drug deals, meets with his superiors and disciplines his underlings. He meets J.T’s mother and regularly eats (only vegetarian) at her house. He learns how this gang manages the finances of running a successful crack cocaine business. He is becomes a regular visitor to the Robert Taylor Homes, now all razed, and is generally accepted there, in part because he has the Black Kings’ protection (although this deserts him when he visits the next building over in the complex).
I enjoyed this inside scoop on gang and project life and especially enjoyed following Venkatesh’s thought process about the moral complicity of his connection with a group with serious criminal activities. He also shares his self-doubt about his objectivity as he observes a community he is “embedded in” much like a journalist following a military unit in combat.
The title of the book is clearly intended to sell more copies. Venkatesh was declared gang leader by J.T. but his leadership role is highly circumscribed and largely kept a secret. Unfortunately the title sensationalizes a story that is largely a serious and thoughtful analysis of race relations, poverty, public housing, drugs and gangs in Chicago’s inner city.
If you get a chance, read this book. It is a fascinating tale and a learning experience.