The Five Borough Book Review

June 1: Next On the List

noreply@blogger.com (Kari) — Fri, 01 Jun 2012 19:10:00 +0000

In my mind, the end of May signals the end of Spring, and that is fabulous. Not that Spring is bad; it's just the most frustrating of the months for me. My mind, body, and soul crave the summer sun, and when it goes back and forth between sunny warmth and chilly rain, it makes me want to explode!

The end of May also thankfully signals the end of the semester, and summer vacation begins! Ok, it's not real summer vacation, since I still have a 9 to 5 job that keeps me at a desk all day, but it means I don't have to schlep to Queens and write papers! Library school isn't too demanding, but once I have a vacation, I do realize it's more time consuming than I think. The end of the Spring 2012 semester marks my halfway point of earning my MLS—three semesters down and three to go. I can't wait to finish it!

W H A T I ' M R E A D I N G

I've had the goal lately of reading what's already on my shelf instead of seeking out more books, and I've been pretty good at sticking to that. I just finished David Treuer's Rez Life, on Jill's recommendation at FizzyThoughts, and it was both fascinating and a little boring. I'm planning on really looking back through the book and taking a few notes for my post on it, because it has some really interesting points I want to remember.

But that's where my stretch of reading what I own seems to end; I got a little Hold Happy on the NYPL site the other day, and now all my requests are coming in. I just started Christina Sunley's The Tricking of Freya, also on a long-ago recommendation of FizzyThoughts (geez, Jill, it's not even a contest of who I get most of my book recs from). Also on the immediate backburner: Are You My Mother?, Alison Bechdel's newest graphic memoir (I loved Fun Home) and The Half-Mammals of Dixie, a short story collection by George Singleton (a recommendation I'd starred long ago from BermudaOnion). So maybe none of these help clear off my own shelves, but at least I'm helping keep my library in business!

And I know this is a book blog, but I just have to mention another thing taking up my time... There are few things more satisfying to the literary soul than getting hooked to a really quality, amazing TV series. The last one for me was Friday Night Lights (if you haven't watched it...seriously...go do it), and I'm fairly certain nothing can top that. However, I'm finally starting Mad Men from the beginning. I'm about eight episodes in and so far, I just don't much care, but I will give it to the end of the season and re-assess. I also just started the second season of Veronica Mars. Colin and I just binged our way through the first season and it was so fabulous that I don't think it can be topped. But I love the characters so much that I have to keep going. I really love Netflix.

W H A T ' S C O M I N G N E X T

As everyone knows, BEA is next week! I'll probably be attending only one day, and in a "company capacity", but I'll still be around for many of the festivities! I love attending book conferences in a blogger/librarian capacity (as opposed to manning an exhibition booth!)—discovering what's new and getting excited about all the amazing book industry has to offer. If you are around BEA or any of its festivities be sure to shoot me a message!

Summer is here; time to stretch out in the sun—whether at the beach, in a park, on the lake, or in your backyard—and relax with some books. My favorite time of year!

Happy June!

Fiction | An Enticingly Meandering Mystery

noreply@blogger.com (Kari) — Wed, 30 May 2012 20:01:00 +0000

If you're having trouble choosing what to read next, if you just can't seem to decide what kind of genre you're in the mood for, CHOOSE THIS BOOK.

Carlos Ruiz Zafón's The Shadow of the Wind is the strangest kind of book in the most satisfying of ways, because it's many types of books, all rolled into one. It's a love story; it's historical fiction; it's a crime thriller; it's a mystery. And overall, I found it completely magical.

In Barcelona, 1945, wounds from the Spanish Civil War are still fresh. The city has a gothic fog hanging over it which creates the perfect aura of mystery and turmoil for Zafón's tale. Daniel is the son of an antique bookseller. His mother has passed away, and he finds solace in a mysterious book found on a trip with his father to the Cemetery of Forgotten Books. The book in question is called The Shadow of the Wind by a little-known author named Julian Carax. As Daniel begins a quest to find other books by Carax, he stumbles upon a bit of a mystery—someone has been destroying every copy of every book by Carax.

I really can't conclude this summary in a more gripping manner than the back cover blurb:

"Soon Daniel's seemingly innocent quest opens a door into one of Barcelona's darkest secrets - an epic story of murder, madness, and doomed love."

The pacing of this story is slow...twisting and turning in a delightful, delectable manner. We're learning as Daniel learns, growing as Daniel grows, discovering as Daniel discovers. We're experiencing the story through Daniel's eyes, but we're also getting to know Daniel. That's what this book is so good at—creating an intimacy with all the characters that you're aching to know what happens next, how they end up. We have this main character, Daniel, whose life has become so entwined with Julian Carax, a character we (and Daniel) only know through stories. And as Daniel fords through adolescence and learns more about Julian, their lives begin to parallel until their stories reach the same moment of truth, asking a bigger question of all—will our next decision determine the outcome or is it only a matter of fate?

But on top of this character study, we also have this thriller, this gothic mystery, dragging us along and slowly unraveling. The mystery is never too convoluted to understand and the outcome never too outrageous to predict. You're not just following one story; as I said earlier, this isn't a straightforward novel, and the subplots engage while revealing clues to the main story.

I hesitate to go into too much depth about this story here, because I don't want to give any spoilers to those of you who haven't read it. Even I avoided my usual concurrent Google searches while reading, because I didn't want to spoil a thing. Therefore, you're just going to have to listen to my recommendation and take note of my enthusiasm. [However, if you've read and are itching to discuss, comment away!]

I don't want to recommend this as a "beach read" because it has much more substance that what that label generally denotes. But in reality, it is the perfect beach read, because it's easy and gratifying and you'll be hooked to the blanket long enough to get a sweet tan.

Nonfiction | Oh, to Be a Farmer

noreply@blogger.com (Kari) — Fri, 25 May 2012 14:44:00 +0000

My 16-year-old self would be so disappointed with my 26-year-old self.

When I was 16, I was aching to move to the big city. I dreamed of living "anywhere but here" (here being Tennessee) and my personal mission was to end up in New York because I just swore I was a city girl at heart.

Well, I did that. I am in New York now and have been for the past eight years. And what have I learned in those eight years? That maaaaybe I'm not as much of a city girl as my 16-year-old self would've thought. I still remember one of my first visits here as a high schooler, and I was astounded at how people's intimate lives are forced together—that I could see into another person's home through a window across the way; that I could hear their personal conversations without intentionally eavesdropping. I craved that kind of city living, being in the middle of it all, always encountering someone new.

And now, the thing I crave is quiet. And nature. And privacy. And not having to deal with strangers first thing in the morning. And sitting outside knowing that I am totally alone and no one can see me.

Ah, well. You can't win them all, can you? It's because of this recent affinity for rural settings that my interest was piqued by Jenna Woginrich's memoir Barnheart: The Incurable Longing for a Farm of One's Own back in March when I saw it on display at the PLA conference. And thanks to the lovely booth rep, I walked away with my very own copy.

Jenna had a similar craving to mine. As a twenty-something, she packed up and followed a new job to rural Vermont, determined to fulfill her dream of running a productive farm. This book is one of those blog-to-memoir examples, and Jenna has established an internet presence over the past few years at her blog Cold Antler Farm. Barnheart is told somewhat chronologically, but her chapters are structured more as vignettes, detailing a certain experience—like buying her first goat, attempting to become a shepherd, or making friends with the somewhat exclusive locals.

I did have some issues with Jenna's attitude at certain times. She can come off as awfully judgmental of lifestyles other than her own. She expresses her disgust at city folk owning vacation homes in the country where the land "isn't put to use;" she makes snide remarks about people who are uninformed about the food industry and who don't buy local / buy organic / support or adopt a sustainable lifestyle. It somewhat blemished a narrative that otherwise seemed like it wanted to be so positive and encouraging, sharing stories about the transition to farm life. I hope that, in real life, Jenna would support others following a similar path with enthusiasm and not judge everyone else who isn't.

I did enjoy hearing her story, though, and was inspired afterwards to read her blog. Being someone that lives a completely opposite lifestyle, Barnheart had the effect of taking me away to a life that part of me craves. As I sit in front of a computer all day every day, I can't help but desire an active outdoor lifestyle that is so different from the one I am currently living. I can't help it—I think I really am a country girl at heart (...or maybe more of a mix, but definitely not at 24/7 city girl).

Fiction | Why Thirteen Reasons Matter

noreply@blogger.com (Kari) — Wed, 23 May 2012 13:37:00 +0000

If you are at all attune to the YA community, you've no doubt heard of Jay Asher's Thirteen Reasons Why—the story of a boy, Clay, who comes home one day to find a box of cassette tapes on his doorstep. When he starts to listen, he's astounded to hear the voice of his classmate Hannah Baker, because Hannah committed suicide two weeks earlier. These tapes are essentially her suicide note, informing thirteen different people how they contributed to her eventual breakdown.

Unpopular opinion: I did not really like Thirteen Reasons Why.

I know that reading YA as an adult, you sometimes have to forget your grown-up cynicism and glaze over the stereotypical teen angst. Oftentimes, underneath all of that, there's a really great story. I think Thirteen Reasons Why had the potential and has its merits, but there were just too many things about it that bothered me.

[Note: Spoilers ahead, so beware if you haven't read it!]

The angsty reactions of Clay, the thoughts in his head, that we read as he listened to the tapes made me just want to smack him. Yes, it is a very serious subject, but I just didn't buy the gut-wrenching horror and pain that he felt, because...
I didn't think his immediate hatred of all these people on these tapes for the "horrible things" they did was justified. A lot of the stories that Hannah tells involve very small actions. I think Asher's point that small actions can lead to big consequences is spot on, but I don't think it's fair for Clay to immediately judge all of these people for the small things they may not have even realized they were doing. Though some stories were worse than others and are judgment-worthy, many of them could just be chalked up to bratty teen behavior—something every teenager is guilty of. Clay's immediate judgment and reactions toward other people, just because he knew the outcome for Hannah, was a lot of what led to reason A.
Most importantly, I just couldn't sympathize with Hannah. I understand the point of this story, and I think it is a wonderful point—the little things you do could affect someone else without you realizing it. Yes, TRUTH IN A BOTTLE. However, I thought Hannah incredibly selfish. I personally didn't think any of the things that happened to her were awful enough to justify immediate feelings of suicide. To a strong, confident person, they would easily be brushed off and ignored with the knowledge that these classmates are just immature jerks. And I do understand that she may have had other issues and these little events just tipped the scales. But she didn't acknowledge that. She just blamed others. She tries to make you think she wanted to get help, but she didn't. She only went to the teacher to audio record their session to add him to her tapes. To add another person to her list of blame. Her decision was already made, and her cry for help was, to me, a total farce. And the fact that she's just forcing people to listen to all these tapes of her post-mortum is pretty sadistic.

But as I said earlier, maybe it's just my adult perspective that darkens my opinion. I apparently seemed to have gone to high school in some sort of magical convent of joy and friendship where there was little drama and the biggest scandal involved someone bringing vodka in a Gatorade bottle to Anatomy class.

That being said, though I found issues with this story, I am glad this book has gained the notoriety it has in the YA community. The idea that "your actions have consequences" cannot be stressed enough with this group, in my opinion, and maybe something in your face like this, no matter how trite I may find it, is what's needed to get the message across. For this I commend Jay Asher, because I know that not all high school experiences are as simple and positive as mine was.

I'm sure many of you have read it—what did you think?

Joint Reading: Lions of the West, Chapter 9

noreply@blogger.com (Kari) — Mon, 21 May 2012 13:43:00 +0000

Here we are on the final chapter of Aarti's and my joint reading of Robert Morgan's Lions of the West (except for the epilogue and final thoughts, which she'll post later this week!). This book looks at America's westward expansion by way of a few key figures that made a big impact during the era. Chapter 9 focuses on Nicholas Trist, a person I had never heard of and, frankly, didn't much impress me. However, the point of this joint reading was for Aarti and I to share our agreements, disagreements, and discover how our own personal experiences with history have shaped our opinions.

We hope these posts have been informative, enlightening, thought-provoking, or maybe inspired you a little bit to explore some history on your own. You can read up on the rest of the book both here and over at BookLust.

Nicholas Trist: The Search for a Father Voice

Kari: Nicholas Trist really seems to be the biggest pansy out of this group. I mean, look at him! He was basically a secretary, turned advisor, turned negotiator, strictly because of his political connections. He didn’t discover anything; he didn’t fight a war; he didn’t win an election. Overall, it was hard for me to figure out what on earth he did to earn him a chapter in this book.

Aarti: Aw, I liked Trist! I actually thought Morgan gave him the short end of the stick. While he didn’t go conquer the Western states for America, he did bring a lot of diplomacy to the table, and I enjoyed learning about someone who did more of the grunt work. But I agree that he wasn’t particularly lovable. :-)

Kari: Throughout his chapter, I just kept thinking that this is an unfortunate soul who could’ve done a lot more than he did. He was incredibly well-educated. He was well connected. He showed some fire and initiative by dropping out of West Point, despite Jefferson wanting him to go. But it’s like he just never really decided what he wanted to do with himself, and he stuck around Jefferson because he was in love with Jefferson’s granddaughter. He just sorta did what he did because people expected him or urged him to. He didn’t seem to make many decisions of his own, which is completely opposite of the Western mentality that has dominated the characters of this book.

On the other hand, it is commendable how Trist worked his way into so many political machines. He was a trusted and respected advisor to many. I can only think that perhaps Morgan included Trist in this book to show an example of a “little man” who can have a big influence on the decision-makers—to show the complexities and nuances that led to the US expansion. His biggest role was that of negotiating with Mexico, but even that is something he fell into; he didn’t seek out that role on his own.

Aarti: It does seem as though Trist was more an observer than a dominant force in his own life. But I have known people like that myself. While I think I’m intelligent and have strong opinions, I don’t know that I’m necessarily a leader on the scale of Thomas Jefferson- but hopefully that doesn’t mean that I don’t have something to offer, too. In that way, I appreciated the inclusion of Trist in this book, but I agree with you that he seems an awkward choice for a book called Lions of the West. There wasn’t anything lion-like in Trist’s personality that I could see, and this book was supposed to be about the people who really made the decisions and dreamed big, not the ones who carried out other people’s orders.

Kari: The most interesting thing Morgan says about Trist is how disillusioned he became with American society, and this really gives a picture of how the country changed after the era of the founders. He says, “The whole nation seemed bent mostly on making money. The neoclassical, agrarian world of reason, dignity, and liberty that Jefferson and Madison had envisioned had not come about. Instead, schemers, con men, salesmen, and revival preachers seemed to have overrun the new society.” This sums up, in a nutshell, what expansion and the west symbolize; any person in the country now has the opportunity for success and fortune. The west has no rules, no code; you don’t need to be born into wealth or position to make something of yourself. This is what has ultimately defined the United States, but at the time, it apparently threatened the classicists like Trist who envisioned a different kind of country. It makes me wonder what America would be like today if it had followed their “vision,” whatever that was.

Aarti: I love this whole paragraph of yours because it sums everything up so nicely. That quote seems to describe America today just as well as it did in Trist’s time. (And maybe that was Morgan’s goal.) In many ways, it seems like America hasn’t lived up to the ideal we all set for it, the grandiose idea of people living free to do their best and most important work. And I can see why Trist became so disillusioned, if he had worked so hard to bring that America about.

Reading Roundup: YA Multicultural Picks

noreply@blogger.com (Kari) — Mon, 14 May 2012 15:58:00 +0000

I've mentioned a couple of times that I am reading a ton of children's books for one of my library school classes, and I'm really enjoying these nice, easy breaks from my own, often heavier, reading. So technically, "Children's Literature" covers the JUV section, ages 0-12. There's a whole separate class for YA materials (which I will be taking in the fall!), but one of our most recent reading assignments had us reading books for the higher end of that range—two books that are classified by the library as Young Adult but could be read by your more advanced JUV reader.

We read these books during our week on multicultural literature (something I want to post more in depth on at a later date). I enjoyed them both, which, because I'm an adult, expands their "appropriate-for range" even further beyond YA classifications! (YA is so good at that, isn't it?)

The first was Shabanu: Daughter of the Wind by Suzanne Fisher Staples. This is the story of a 12-year-old Pakistani girl who is the younger sister in a family with two daughters and no sons. They live in the desert and raise camels, a lifestyle that is heavily dependent on what nature throws at them—they could pack up and move if rainy season comes late, and a windstorm could mean destruction. Shabanu would have it no other way, though; she loves the desert and calls it home. As two girls approaching womanhood, both Shabanu and her sister Phulan have already been promised to husbands and, when the time comes, will leave their childhood lives behind to become property of these men. While Phulan anxiously anticipates her wedding day, Shabanu has not quite bought into the norms of her culture. She's fiesty and independent and is reluctant to live a life she has not chosen.

I feel the main purpose of this story is to enlighten readers (especially American ones) to a lifestyle so drastically different from their own. The author spent many years living and working abroad as a journalist and spent much time in Pakistan assessing the conditions of women for the US government. I did enjoy this book—it's rich in detail—but once I finished, the plot seemed relatively...weak? It feels like a book in which setting/lifestyle/place was the first priority, and story came second. However, this is the first in a trilogy, so maybe it does develop. Overall, I think this is a good choice to enlighten young readers (or even adult readers!) on the lifestyle in this part of the world. And if you read it, report back with what era you thought this was set. You'll be quite surprised late in the book when one little detail pops up that gives this story a concrete place in time!

The second book, and one that I'd been wanting to read for a while, was Sherman Alexie's The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian. Junior is a teenager living on the Spokane Indian Reservation and desperate to get off of it. He leaves his school on the rez and starts attending the all-white town school where he definitely stands out as the only Indian. Not only does he have to struggle as the minority in a semi-racist town, the rez (including his best friend) pretty much views his decision as a betrayal making his home life even more difficult. Junior is not one to mope or complain, though, and he throws all his energy into the two things he's good at: basketball and comics.

I've read Alexie's most famous short story collection, The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fist Fight in Heaven, and the whole while I kept feeling that there could be more. This book is an answer to that wish—a complete story that focuses on one character, highlighting all the ups and downs of modern life on a reservation. I really loved this book because it was so simple and easy; it wasn't in your face with a message of, "This is life; it's hard," and didn't have any dramatic struggles. Rather, Junior is a likable guy and we can understand the intricacies and contradictions of his life and culture from the little things Alexie put in the story. You sense that life is much darker for some people on the rez, but that prevailing sense of hopelessness hasn't set in for Junior yet. He's the anomoly—optimistic, realistic, self-aware, and willing to take action. The writing and format of this book make it so enjoyable and accessible that I can understand why my professor simply summed this book up by saying, "Oh, everyone loves it."

Joint Reading: Lions of the West, Chapter 7

noreply@blogger.com (Kari) — Fri, 04 May 2012 13:58:00 +0000

As you may recall, Aarti and I have been reading Robert Morgan's Lions of the West for the past couple of weeks, delving into the history of key individuals who played a big role in America's expansion out west. We hope that you'll join in the discussion on the complexities and contradictions that have built this country's history.

You can also catch up on our previous discussions:

Chapter 1: Thomas Jefferson
Chapter 2: Andrew Jackson
Chapter 3: John Chapman
Chapter 4: David Crockett
Chapter 5: Sam Houston
Chapter 6: James K. Polk

Winfield Scott: Old Fuss and Feathers Goes to the Mountain

Kari: Winfield Scott is a person I wouldn’t have been able to tell you anything about before reading this chapter. And thankfully, I enjoyed this chapter more than the last, probably because we learned more about Scott as a human and not just achievements in politics or on the battlefield. In fact, I was actually interested in the descriptions of war battles and strategy. The way Morgan described Winfield Scott and his strengths made me realize that there is actually a lot of strategy surrounding war. It’s not just charge and destroy; to Scott, it was an art, and one at which he excelled.

Aarti: Yes, I liked learning about Scott, too, because he sounds FASCINATING. I loved learning just how complicated he was. One theme throughout this book is that so many of the characters in it made up tall tales and stories about themselves, and I think Scott is totally one of those people who fell in love with his own stories. But he did what he loved, and he was good at what he loved.

Kari: This was also a chapter that made me dislike Polk even more. Where Polk can be described as a certain kind of jerk, Scott should be described as a certain kind of saint in comparison. This chapter on Scott relates a person that possesses that special something that makes him a man of this era of western expansion. He had the ingenuity, forethought, and dedication to actually train an army because he knew it would be beneficial to his country’s future. He continued to fight for his cause despite personal conflict with his superiors (Polk)—enough conflict to drive most men away from frustrations.

Mostly the difference between him and the leaders of his time was his humane mentality on war. He treated a battle as a match of wits where the most skill and ingenuity would prevail. He didn’t attack with a vendetta; he wasn’t trying to fuel his ego; he wasn’t out to kill. It’s like war was a game to him, and he treated the “losers” with respect, not like he was better than them. He was constantly applauded by enemies for his compassion, and at one point, Morgan notes that Scott has been called one of the “most capable soldiers this country has ever produced.” With such regards bestowed upon this one man from such a popular era of history, I am surprised I have never known nor heard much about him.

Aarti: Yes, there was so much here that was surprising about an army general! That said, though, I can only take what Morgan says with a grain of salt. As we have discussed before, Morgan seems to really show people in either one light or another. He very clearly dislikes Polk a great deal, and he obviously adores Winfield Scott and thinks Scott deserves much more notice in history than he has received. I wish Morgan would just not insert himself into the biographies so much and make so clear his feelings about everyone he talks about because I can’t help but think we are only getting one side of the story. So I guess that means I’ve just added Winfield Scott to my list of people to learn more about!

Kari: Ha, you’re totally right, and though we’ve been talking about Morgan’s bias the entire time, I didn’t even think of it in this case! Looks like I am quick to judge people right off the bat on whether they sound likable or not. I think this point is the most important thing to remember while reading this book—grain of salt!

Aarti: As to why we have never known or heard about him, that really interested me, too. I found the theory presented as interesting and viable:
“Howe speculates that Americans have paid little attention to the extraordinary accomplishments of the Mexican campaign because they believe the annexation of the West was somehow a natural, inevitable process. To recognize the glory of Kearny’s, Taylor’s, and Scott’s actions would lessen the sense of ordained, unfolding destiny.”

Considering that no one ever learns about the War of 1812 or the Mexican War in history class, this makes a lot of sense to me. I think we basically jump directly from the Revolutionary War to the Monroe Doctrine to the Civil War, and miss so many of those points in between. If that’s because we don’t like to present ourselves as aggressive conquerors, then it makes sense.

Kari: Ooh, really good point! I think it’s the Columbus Effect that this country is so guilty of in education. We learn about the good and try to blur the bad.

The passage about Polk’s qualities that I referenced earlier actually popped up in this chapter without me realizing it. In regards to Polk’s boorish attitude towards Scott: “That he would even consider taking command out of the hands of one of the ablest generals in modern history, for fear he might run for president and hand it over to a politician with little if any military experience suggests a small man, frightened by the truth and dedicated to politics and not to his country...Perhaps we should just say Polk was blinded by political ambition and leave it at that.” Clearly Morgan doesn’t think too highly of Polk, either!

Aarti: I know! It’s just too much for me- Polk is lambasted in every single chapter going forward, and I wish Morgan would be a bit more... discreet? I don’t know. I like the honesty in some ways, but in others, it just seems unprofessional.

May 1: Next On the List

noreply@blogger.com (Kari) — Tue, 01 May 2012 16:26:00 +0000

April was a pretty successful reading and blogging month for me. I was able to get through a nonfiction chunkster as part of a joint reading effort with Aarti, and I still worked in a few books that served as a nice distraction. We've both finished reading Lions of the West at this point, but we haven't finished discussing it yet (oof, it did start to drag a bit), so you can read more on that later.

I've also (mostly) caught up on the blogging, which is a huge success!!

W H A T I ' M R E A D I N G

I've been reading a ton of JUV fiction lately for my Children's Lit class, and I'd like to do a reading roundup to summarize them. I actually read The Giver for the first time, and...well...I think it's a book you need to read at a particular moment in your life. It's the favorite book of one of my closest friends, but she read it as a child and loved it, while I just found it "meh". Maybe reading it as an adult loses some of the magic. Speaking of dystopian, I also read The Hunger Games for the first time. Dystopian lit isn't my thing, but I enjoyed it for the most part.

I'm currently reading Jay Asher's Thirteen Reasons Why on my eReader. I know it was all the buzz a while back, but I've just come to the conclusion that if I want to be a YA librarian, I should probably read more young adult books. I went to a local school librarian conference for work last week, and one of the sessions I attended was about YA materials. Plus, I just got into my two classes for next semester which are YA Literature and Programs and Services for Young Adults. Hence my inspiration.

I don't have anything on my upcoming reading schedule, and I'm still working on getting through what's on my own shelves before I start acquiring a ton new things...

W H A T ' S C O M I N G N E X T

And I speak of acquiring new books because we all know BEA is coming up in the very near future! I'm not sure exactly when I will be attending yet (gotta work it out with the work schedule) but it's always enjoyable to attend, even if just for an afternoon. It's much more fun to be an attendee than a booth rep!

Another exciting thing to come is that Emily St. John Mandel has a new book coming out this month, The Lola Quartet, just as I finally read Last Night in Montreal and I was hoping she'd write something new! Plus, she's coming to WORD for the book's launch party later this month.

In my own personal excitement, I'm finished with school for the summer in two weeks. I'd like to say this gives me more free time to read, but that's probably not true; I read so much on my commute, that I'll probably read less once I finish and spend time doing other things. However, summer is coming which means beach time and park time, never without a book in hand.

Happy May!

Fiction | Giving The Hunger Games a Chance

noreply@blogger.com (Kari) — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 13:30:00 +0000

Long, long ago, in my early blogging days of 2009 (when I must've had more free time because, wow, 24 posts in one month???), I swore I would never read Catching Fire because, at the time, I was so sick of seeing it everywhere. I remember how The Hunger Games was all the rage with the bookish community at my first BEA, but you know, it just wasn't for me. I don't generally like dystopian fiction and the premise just seemed "meh," so I never bothered to read it.

But then The Hunger Games moved beyond the book blog community and now everybody loves it. And anytime anything gets that popular, I have to see what's up, on principle. I can't zealously praise it or trash it based on mass opinion, can I? I need to find out for myself. So I decided that now, in 2012, was the time for me to finally read The Hunger Games, and thanks to a friend who owns it, I didn't have to wait in a massively long library queue.

Once I had decided a couple months ago to read it, I purposely avoided all things Hunger Games in the media and on the web. If I was going to read it for the first time, I didn't want any spoilers. I was a little bummed I already knew the movie cast and would therefore probably picture them as reading, but that was a sacrifice I was willing to make. (And now I kind of want to see the movie to see how they put this on film.)

Overall, while I was entertained and engrossed in The Hunger Games, it's still not really my thing. I liked the characters, and the plot was gripping, but I have to say I am still somewhat disturbed by such a twisted premise! I am known (and often ridiculed) for my often simplistic tastes in entertainment. I don't like violence; I don't like situations that show a twisted, dark side of humanity. (The Dark Knight actually gave me nightmares from the whole dual boat bomb scenario.) I like laughter and joy and love, and the darker side of literature and entertainment I enjoy is usually emotional kind, not the violence and death kind! However, I can see why The Hunger Games has such mass appeal without much criticism on the premise. It's got the kind of literary details—mostly the character development—that gets you engrossed in their plight and forget about the reality of what's going on around them. You focus on the story of Katniss and Peeta and almost glance over what their situation really means.

I generally have a hard time glancing over situations like that, which is why dystopian literature isn't really for me, but my opinions can't discredit a book or an entire literary genre. I did enjoy The Hunger Games and am glad I read it so I know what it's all about. But it's just not totally for me, and I'm probably not going to read the rest of the series unless someone just hands me the books!

On a related note, enjoy this humorous video on when "it's not for you."

Review: The Thirteen by Susie Moloney

noreply@blogger.com (colin) — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 12:00:00 +0000

In Haven Woods the death of a local woman nearly brings an end to a tight knit group of friends who on the surface seemed perfect and unshakeable. When Paula Wittmore loses her job she returns she to her home in Haven Woods to care for her suddenly ailing mother. Everyone in the town greets her with warm embraces. But the promises of joy and eternal happiness don’t come without a price.

The suburbs are hell in Susie Moloney’s eyes. In order to maintain the pristine lawns, immaculate hedgerows, and quiet streets an entire community makes a pact with the devil. Not the most outlandish claim, especially to anyone who’s grown up in suburbia. The façade falls away and we are left to see the festering and poisonous set pieces that make up the (North) American Dream.

Moloney’s writing speeds along. From the prologue we are thrust into a world of death, decay, and intrigue. Characters reveal themselves in interesting and transparent ways. Standing over a friend while she appears to have a have a heart attack doesn’t scream compassion. Then again, in Haven Woods, who would dare to have a heart attack? Death is avoidable for the women of Haven Woods, but that isn’t always the case for their loved ones. When deals are too good to be true, someone must pay.

Moloney’s frequent asides stuck out in interesting and humorous ways. The author often put brief ideas and impulses on separate lines—drawing attention to these moments with a dash of wit. Her characters' voices are young and vibrant. Occasionally an aside takes us into the mind of a character reminding us through repeated expletives that those in Haven Woods are people trying to make sense of everything.

The supernatural elements of the book don’t overshadow Paula Wittmore’s journey home. A suburban underworld is the perfect place to test someone’s mettle. I only wish the character’s limits were tested more. Paula questions everything, but is never pushed to the brink of being seduced by evil’s allure.

Oh, and try to avoid the American cover. The Canadian version (above) is much more ominous. Sometimes I just don't understand marketing teams...

Reading copy graciously provided by publisher.

Joint Reading: Lions of the West, Chapter 5

noreply@blogger.com (Kari) — Sun, 22 Apr 2012 20:19:00 +0000

The fifth chapter in Robert Morgan's Lions of the West was my favorite from this past week. I've always associated Sam Houston 100% with Texas, and I enjoyed leaning more about him outside of that.

Catch up on the first four chapters of our joint reading:

Chapter 1: Thomas Jefferson
Chapter 2: Andrew Jackson
Chapter 3: John Chapman
Chapter 4: David Crockett

Chapter 5, Sam Houston: The President Who Loved to Dance

Kari: This chapter was by far the most interesting to me! Naturally, I knew of Houston’s associations with Texas, and that is what he’s always been linked with in my mind. I never knew that he had such a history in Tennessee, though...and that’s my state! (In fact, three out of these five chapters have strong ties to Tennessee. Guess we were just instrumental in western expansion!) Throughout this chapter and the Jackson and Crockett chapters, there are many individuals whose names I recognize because they are used in Tennessee geography—Jackson, Old Hickory, Grundy, Polk. But I don’t know of anything using the Houston name in Tennessee, which is why Houston’s associations with this state and the city of Nashville really surprised me. I thought after reading the chapter that it probably has something to do with his somewhat shameful exit from Tennessee politics. Perhaps the state decided its former Governor was not worthy of a Tennessee legacy? It is surprising, and unfortunate, though, that such history has not been as widely shared.

Aarti: So much about history in that way makes me sad. We like to present history as series of unblemished heroes instead of presenting the more accurate, tarnished accounts, and that makes it seem like no one ever made a bad decision or wavered over an issue before in the world, which I think is a really dumb way of teaching history. I agree that this was a FASCINATING chapter. I really knew NOTHING about Houston going in. I am astonished at everything about him, including his very Indian upbringing, his crazy marriage (all of his crazy marriages, really), his ridiculous habit of duelling with people, his alcoholism....

Kari: We realize that there is much more to the stories of each of the individuals we have read about so far. They all seem complex, somewhat contradictory; we’re not fully sure from these brief snippets if Morgan is depicting them in a realistic light or not. Houston, though, seems to me to be the first individual who is extremely conflicted within his own self. He’s not only conflicting with society or persons around him; he just strikes me as a guy who has a lot going on in his own head. It’s like he can never really figure out quite where he belongs.

Aarti: Right, and Houston is also the first person (besides Crockett, to be fair) that we really see in a long-term light. Jefferson and Jackson were presented to us in a very “spotlight on this particular period” way, whereas Crockett and Houston had a more long-term perspective to their chapters that gave us much more of the nuance and complexity that we missed in the earlier chapters. Houston seemed like he was haunted by a lot of devils, particularly that of drinking too much. It was so sad to see his life slip away so quickly through addiction. Though he seemed very well able to strike right back up again! That made me feel a bit better, really- sometimes I get really upset by how quickly people forget the horrible actions of famous people, but it looks like they did the same thing in the past, too.

Kari: Oh you’re right, I didn’t even think of that long-term versus short-term perspective. Morgan really did show a lot more about Houston’s own history and experience which helps when trying to explain/justify his actions and beliefs. We don’t get that full perspective for some of the figures in this book.

I thought his history was fascinating, how he ran off to live with the Cherokee Nation for three years as a teenager, and this influenced his behavior for his entire life. As a young man, he took a path that society expected—law degree, politics, marriage—but he struggled in making it all work. His marriage fell apart because, it seemed, he and society pressured a young, immature girl that didn’t love him into the marriage. It’s like he wanted the ideal life but it didn’t quite work for him. He had eccentricities; he had a prolific personal life. And for him, the West was a place to start again.

Aarti: That’s such a good way of putting it. He wanted a clean slate, so he literally went somewhere that had no history (at least, no history in the way Americans defined it) and set out to create one for himself. I also thought his history with the Cherokees was fascinating, though he seems to have used it to his advantage.

What interested me most about Houston’s history with the Indians was that he believed so strongly in displacement, for the good of the Indians. “As a defender of Indian rights, especially Cherokees’, he would be expected to resist their loss of traditional lands and relocation to a strange place. Instead, he had come to see the future of the eastern-dwelling Cherokees as bleak at best.” He really seemed to think the national government had Cherokee interests at heart. Put this way, I can somewhat (but not really) understand Jackson’s refusal to enforce the Supreme Court ruling that the Cherokees had the rights to defend and keep their homeland, if he truly thought they would be safer in the west. But it’s hard with hindsight to believe the US government would ever keep its word when it so badly wanted to take over the entire country. It is important to remember that, at the time, perhaps westward expansion from coast to coast didn’t seem quite as inevitable as it does now.

Kari: That’s true, and it might just be that Indian Removal was the beginning of America’s trend of using altruistic justification to get what they want! Sure, we’re totally doing this for their own safety, not just because we want their land and resources! (I’m not buying it!)

The Jackson and Crockett chapters spoke greatly about the West as a place for the poor to settle and purchase land. The idea seemed to be, if they can conquer it, they can have it. But Crockett and Houston themselves represent another type of draw of the West; it’s a place for the people who have had it with America’s “old world” rules and lifestyle. The renegades, the disgraced, the ones who don’t quite fit in. The West is a place for them to start over and make their own rules that don’t need to conform with the strict standards of eastern society.

Aarti: Well, if anyone didn’t conform, it was Houston! I know I’ve said this in every chapter, but I just want SO MUCH MORE DETAIL on all these marriages! He must have been a truly horrible husband- drunk, abusive, cruel and so much more. And it seems like his wives just got progressively younger, too, so he clearly wanted someone that he could dominate... and yes, the more lax rules of the west worked well for him. But I wonder what else it was about eastern society that really bound him. He did so well in Texas, so I wonder if he just really needed the ability to make decisions in a somewhat dictatorial manner, with no one allowed to question him and the opportunity to control every aspect of what he wanted. I think he really thrived on being in charge of every detail, and the west gave him that option.

Kari: Oh wow, that is definitely a perspective I didn’t see! I just viewed him this whole time as this pathetic, sorry drunk, not some cruel domineering husband! Since Morgan has a habit of only showing us one side of these people, I’ll just assume Houston was really somewhere in the middle. ;)

Reading Roundup: Hook, Line, and Sinker

noreply@blogger.com (Kari) — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 18:51:00 +0000

I mentioned that my class commute really ups my reading numbers—I'm certainly reading faster than I can write. I breezed through all three of these last month, and I can only attribute ample free time as part of the reason; each of these captured my attention so strongly that I didn't want to put them down. They all have very different styles, but the stories were each equally as compelling.

The Go-Between by L.P Hartley was my book club's March selection. It's the story of a 12-year-old schoolboy, Leo, who spends summer vacation on a friend's grand English estate and gets caught up, unknowingly, as the messenger in an illicit love affair by the friend's beautiful older sister. The setting is very Downton-esque with strong class distinctions, but perhaps a little less grandeur, because I can't imagine our Lady Mary swimming in a lake. The story is essentially about Leo's coming-of-age and loss of innocence as he begins to consider the feelings of others and not just himself. The author tells this story in from a first-person retrospective, which allows more reflection and depth than if told in real-time. This reminded me a bit of Atonement but without so much melodrama. I think it was universally enjoyed in book club, but it was a fairly easy discussion.

Emily St. John Mandel's Last Night in Montreal has been sitting on my shelf for years, and I've intended to read it since I enjoyed her second novel, The Singer's Gun. Last Night in Montreal is her first book, and it's a thriller of sorts. The story focuses on Lilia but it begins with Eli. Lilia has just run out on Eli, abandoning their Brooklyn apartment and, essentially, disappearing. Eli's quest to find her leads to Montreal where he discovers a lot about Lilia's past—that she's been moving cities, changing identities her entire life. What's interesting about this story is that we experience it through Eli's perspective in real-time, and learn Lilia's past through flashbacks, but we never hear from Lilia in real-time. To us, the reader, she has also just disappeared. It's not all plot-driven though; Mandel creates a highly thematic story with complex characters. The Singer's Gun taught me that her endings aren't trite and predictable, so you'll be hooked to find out how the story ends.

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows is probably not one that needs much introduction; it made the book blog rounds and best seller lists a couple years ago and is pretty well known. In fact, it's been sitting on my shelf since I won it in a giveaway around that time, and I just now picked it up. I didn't realize that this story is told entirely through letters, so that was sort of a fun surprise. The premise of this book (real quick) is an author receives a letter from a stranger in Guernsey, which introduces her (and us) to the story of Guernsey during German occupation in World War II. The story moves quickly, and the conversational tone really lends itself to being an engrossing read. The relationships and friendships formed through the letters are heart-warming, while some of the stories from the war are heart-breaking. This is the kind of book I recommend to my mom because it has some depth but can still be categorized as a light read.

Joint Reading: Lions of the West, Chapter 3

noreply@blogger.com (Kari) — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 02:38:00 +0000

Continuing on Aarti's and my joint reading of Robert Morgan's Lions of the West: Heroes and Villains of the Westward Expansion, we've moved on to the early 1800s and the man you probably know as "Johnny Appleseed."

Catch up with chapters 1 and 2, Jefferson and Jackson, respectively.

Chapter 3, John Chapman: Apples and Angels

Kari: I thought that this chapter was quite a departure from the previous two on Jefferson and Jackson, and I thought this for a couple reasons. The first being, Chapman is a figure who was “monumental” in westward expansion...but he actually had zero power! He was not political; he was not a general; he was just a guy, yet he is remembered for his role in western settlement. (To be honest, I’ve never associated him with western expansion, but since Morgan is including him in this book, I’ll just give it to him without argument.)

Aarti: I never associated Johnny Appleseed with westward expansion, either! Though to be fair, I always thought of him as a “frontier man,” though never in the sense of Pennsylvania and Ohio being the frontier. I do really like him, though, so I am glad he got his own (very short) chapter.

Kari: The second difference is that Chapman didn’t play the same role that Jefferson and Jackson had—that role of conquering, compromising, defining. He represented a different side of the expansion, one that was more idyllic than the forceful nature of the Presidents. He stood for more than just his actions; he represented something, an ideal, that meant more than what he actually did. If anything, the most important role he played in western conflict was that of a mediator, making things better between opposing sides by acting as a message man and looking out for others. It’s like he worked to prevent conflict while he went about doing his own thing. Basically, Chapman strikes me as an 18th century wandering hippie type. He just went around, never getting too caught up in the lives of others, holding strong to his own set of ideals and lifestyle, not caring what others thought. It’s not an image you really associate with this time period!

Aarti: You really hit the nail on the head here. In a way, Chapman is the anti-Manifest Destiny guy, and it’s refreshing to read about him. I can just imagine how much he flummoxed the people he encountered - wearing rags, preaching a very obscure branch of Christianity, planting apple trees, giving girls ribbons... It’s sad because I feel like if I were to come across Johnny Appleseed today, I’d be totally freaked out by him, with the evangelizing and the torn clothes and the weird gifts to little girls. But reading about him, I am totally enthralled. And so happy that people were so kind to him, too.

Kari: Hahaha, that is quite an idea—picturing him today. Society would probably be a little freaked out by him!

One idea that piqued my interest was how nature often dictated the actions of people for settlement. The idea that Chapman went across the country, planting trees, so that they would be fully grown and fruitful by the time the rest of the people made it out there was fascinating. In a sense, he was dictating how the west was developed and where people stopped to settle. Maybe that is giving him too much credit, but to some degree, it did have an effect. And the fact that he thought ahead like that, and struck out on his own across open lands, definitely took a certain kind of person.

Aarti: I actually spotlighted Johnny Appleseed in a Sunday Salon post a while ago and was also struck by just how enterprising he was. He actually died with a good amount of property to his name because he was very good at guessing where pioneers would go next. Michael Pollan referred to him as the “American Dionysius” because wherever he went, hard apple cider followed :-) I wonder if he just struck a path and people followed him because the way was already paved there or if he really thought he knew where people would go. Either way, it’s a very interesting strategy for growth, and it seems to have worked very well for him!

Kari: Morgan emphasizes the legend that runs alongside “Johnny Appleseed” and how the stories of him have been passed down and down again. We (or at least I) usually associate the western frontier at this time with a strong storytelling culture, and it’s almost like the chicken and the egg; which came first? Did Chapman’s story sort of spark the verbal histories of American folk tale legends, particularly in the west, or was this already a large part of the culture of these people moving to the frontier?

Aarti: This really struck me, too, not only with Chapman but also with Davey Crockett (more on that later). I thought it was interesting the way that Morgan said that the larger-than-life characters of westward expansion really epitomized what people wanted to believe about themselves, or mocked parts of themselves that they were self-conscious about. In that way, I think Chapman was really the ideal- he was a kind man who took care not to judge too quickly and got along with everyone, whites and Indians. And he was really, really good at surviving out on his own! One thing that wasn’t mentioned in this chapter but that I learned through my own research was that Chapman was vegetarian! I find this so fascinating for someone who lived in the old frontier- I associate that culture so strongly with hunting that it was really mind-blowing to find out that someone was so out of the norm at that time.

Kari: A particular passage I liked: “It is something of a mystery why certain people become figures of myth and folklore...What is it that makes virtually everyone who knew them remember and talk about a Daniel Boone or a John Chapman?...The stories reveal how they like to see themselves, the potential, the ideal of an age.” (p 111)

Aarti: Oh, there’s the quote I was mentioning above! Yes, I agree. And if everything I know about John Chapman (it is hard for me to think of him as that name, as opposed to Johnny Appleseed) is true, then I am fine with him being an ideal for us. He really seems to be the nicest of the bunch we’re going to “meet” in this book, and I was really glad to learn more about him here, even if the stories are probably very exaggerated.

Joint Reading: Lions of the West, Chapter 2

noreply@blogger.com (Kari) — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 13:30:00 +0000

I've been talking about this western reading project of mine for a couple months now, and one thing that inspired it in the first place was finding Robert Morgan's Lions of the West while browsing the shelves at the library. I thought the format of this book is pretty cool. Morgan tells the story by focusing on ten different individuals who had an impact on western expansion. There's just something about "the West" that grabs my interest—this adventurous spirit, the lifestyle of survival, the melding of peoples and cultures. I immediately wanted to read this book, but I thought it'd be a lot more interesting (both for me and for you!) to read it alongside someone so we can discuss.

So I approached Aarti over at Booklust to see if she might be interested in joining me. In the past couple of years that I've read her blog, I've noticed an increasing interest in nonfiction, and she is always great with finding points of interest within a text. I thought she'd be a great reading partner and luckily, she hopped on board! We're going to be reading Lions of the West chapter by chapter over the next few weeks. Aarti started the discussion on Chapter 1, about Thomas Jefferson, on Tuesday, so catch up now if you haven't already!

Chapter 2, Andrew Jackson: Old Hickory at the Bend

Aarti: This chapter is where the chronology that Robert Morgan forced himself into really bothered me. It seemed like a cop-out to me that he focused on Andrew Jackson before he became President, especially considering that Jackson earned the name “Indian Killer” during his tenure and was the mind behind the Trail of Tears. I understand that Morgan focused on a major battle between Americans and Native Americans, and that he chose the one in which Jackson earned his stripes, as it were, but I thought there was too much focus on the battle and the military tactics themselves than on Jackson and his mindframe.

In a sense, I understand this. I don’t know much at all about Andrew Jackson except, really, that he was called the Indian Killer and that he forcibly removed many Native Americans from their lands and drove them further and further west. I didn’t realize that he had such a striking personality as well. Here again, we have a very ambiguous and complex man whittled down into several pages. It’s not fair of me to complain that these chapters aren’t longer, but I do complain that so much of Jackson’s chapter was given over to battle tactics instead of to a higher-level strategy and description of his overall character.

Kari: Having grown up in Nashville and taken many a school trip to Jackson’s home outside of Nashville, The Hermitage, I was particularly interested in reading this chapter because despite this, I don’t actually know all that much about him. I knew he was around for the War of 1812; I knew he fought some Indians; and I knew he had a wife named Rachel. It’s not like the state of Tennessee automatically painted a Tennessee President in a positive light; he wasn’t really painted in any light when I was learning about him in school. He was just from Tennessee, and we learned the basic facts mostly without bias. It wasn’t until I came up to the North that I heard such strong opinions about Jackson one way or the other (though mostly the opinion that he was brutal and ruthless against the Indians).

Aarti: Haha, as I grew up in Illinois, the Land of Lincoln, I think I know what you mean. We LOVE Lincoln here. Though admittedly, I think Lincoln very worthy of lots of love ;-) But also a very complex man, and I didn’t realize how complex until reading Team of Rivals a couple of years ago.

Kari: I actually found his story and background completely fascinating. I had no clue about his childhood and adolescence—his early encounter with the British and the early death of his mother and brothers that left him on his own at such an early age. He was a bit wild as a youth (to say the least!); he practiced law (no idea!); and he had no formal military training when he was named commander of the Tennessee militia. Again, Morgan gives us such a small bit of what is clearly a complex and often contradictory individual, especially depending on who is writing the history and from what perspective.

Aarti: I know! I wanted so much more. I admit I wanted WAY more on his marriage to Rachel, particularly as there were hints that perhaps it was a bigamous marriage. How interesting, too, that he was fine terrorizing people in multiple arenas, but was so gentle and kind to her. She must have been something! It piqued my interest to learn that she was “frantic” and “hysterical” in her letters to him, urging him to come home- I would have thought that would get annoying after a while to someone in the militia, but it seems like Jackson never lost his temper with her. I also would love to learn more about his relationship with his adopted Indian sons.

Kari: And all the military talk was pretty snooze-worthy—and I think that is my fear about reading a full biography on any of these historical figures. At least these segments are pretty short!

Aarti: However, it was utterly compelling to read about the Creek tribe and the way they were set up. I really eat up anything that gives me insight into Native American culture, because we have so little. I don’t know where I read it, but one fact really stands out so profoundly to me about Native American history- when Americans first start talking about the Indians, they are specific to point out tribe names, and there are very distinct differences that everyone call tell between each tribe and the people. But somewhere along the way, we messed all of that up, and now we group all the tribes together (possibly because so few people are left) and act as though they all have the same history and culture and beliefs when they absolutely do not. I don’t think there can be a more damning and heart-breaking way to describe the history of Indians in the US - that they went from having proud and distinct identities to being grouped together as one general group.

That’s why it was so great to read about the Creeks specifically and learn about how their culture worked. How interesting that they have white (peace) and red (war) villages and draw leaders according to the type of village they come from! I’ve never encountered anything like that before and am so fascinated by the repercussions of that- does it mean that people learned different skills in different villages? That a leader could be deposed or set aside depending on the current circumstances? I wanted to know so much more!

Kari: This is something I also think is pretty tragic but also fascinating to read about. This whole western reading theme I’ve had going on has really led me recently into exploring a lot about Native American history. It’s something that has always intrigued me since I was a kid, but I’ve decided lately to start learning more details than the generic history that we’re taught in grade school. [Check out PBS’s five-part American Experience called We Shall Remain if you’re interested in American Indian history (available instantly on Netflix!); I recently watched it and it actually served as a nice background to several events mentioned in these chapters.]

Aarti: [Ooh, I just watched a different American Experience documentary today on the Great Famine in Russia, but I will definitely watch We Shall Remain - thanks!]

Kari: The thing I just can’t get over is the overarching mentality of imperialism that defined the birth and growth of America. I mean, people lived here already. Millions of people with highly complex cultures and histories. And the Europeans (and then Americans) just viewed this entire land mass as open for the taking.

Aarti: Have you ever seen the Eddie Izzard sketch on conquest by flag? It really puts the ridiculousness in a sad but true context.

From what I have read and learned, the Americas did support huge populations of people before the Europeans arrived- and then they were wiped out by disease in huge, unimaginable numbers. So that when the Europeans started coming for good, there were just so many fewer of them left to defend their lands and their rights, and they just were trod upon.

Kari: From our modern day perspective, it just sounds like the equivalent of going to Australia and setting up camp, declaring that all current inhabitants are inferior and unfit to rule the land.

Aarti: Which basically *is* what happened in Australia, too...

Kari: Haha, you’re right, but I was meaning going to some “far off land” (and Australia was the go-to in my head) today in 2012 and just deciding, “Well guys, we’re taking over. Sorry about your current life.”

It just sounds insane. It makes me wonder why this land; why was this region viewed as up for grabs? When did Europeans discover other nations across oceans (Eastern Asian, for example) and why did they not try and conquer those lands and those peoples? What impression did the Americas give that this land, despite already being inhabited, was available for settlement?

Aarti: I think I disagree with you on this point. Europeans (and many other civilizations through history) really did go and conquer other lands and other people, throughout history. The Romans did it throughout Europe, and then as time went on, all the Europeans did it to much of Africa and Asia and the South Pacific. The same thing happened with Attila the Hun, Saladin, Alexandar the Great, the Mughals... really, so much conquering throughout human history. People seem to have this compulsion to spread and to “conquer,” as though that is some sort of great win for them, and then they consider themselves better or different than the people who were conquered and, as we all know, that just leads to a lot of heartbreak. I think what made it so much more devastating for the Americans (and much the same with the Aborigines in Australia) was that they had never encountered foreign people before and so were ill-equipped to deal with totally foreign cultures and diseases.

Kari: You’re totally right; I guess I was just viewing it from the perspective of this particular moment in history. Every land has been “conquered” at some point in history, some lands many times. I was just thinking about an event like when Europeans discovered China (just using this as an example)—why did they not try to conquer that land and settle there? (And maybe they did, and I just need a refresher in European history!) Europeans “discovered” China during the Age of Exploration, but this opened up trade; they didn’t conquer and settle. And this is the point I was trying to get at—I wonder about the different decisions of Europeans in what they will do with the countries they “discovered.” (I say discovered, because this is from a Euro-centric perspective.)

You talked about how unfortunate it is that all Native American tribes get lumped together as one group of people, but would things have been any different if all native peoples had been united as one long ago instead of many distinct and unique tribes?

Aarti: It is easy to think “What if?” in American history- or in all history, I suppose. But it’s so heart-breaking to see instances of Native Americans fighting each other, not even across tribes, but within different factions of the same tribe. There was just so little unity, and I feel like if they had been able to communicate and band together and negotiate as one force, then maybe they’d be able to keep more of their rights. But really, maybe it just would have delayed the inevitable.

And what if the Native Americans had had white skin? I wonder if that would have changed things.

This discussion segues really well into the commentary on Tecumseh in the Jackson chapter. WOW. I did not know any of that stuff about Tecumseh! I thought he was just this really amazing war leader. I didn’t know he was so extreme in the goals he set out to achieve. It’s so interesting that he had such a spiritual element to his leadership- and I think this is something that is present in many Indian leaders. He really inspired people to follow him not just through his battle skills but because he made them believe in this very far-fetched idea that if they just came together for a little while, they could get rid of all the Europeans.

Kari: [One episode of that We Shall Remain series is all about Tecumseh, so you should definitely watch!]

One tiny little sidenote that I thought was interesting was how Morgan mentioned in the Jefferson chapter about how the US Treasury right after the Revolutionary War was empty; the country had no money. And that just kind of indicated how much it all is really about money. A country is like a business and the intent is to profit. Sure, some Puritans headed here early on for religious freedom, and the US prides itself on its foundation of natural rights, but eventually it’s just all about the Benjamins.

Aarti: Right. And money as the route to power, which in its infancy, the US really needed in order to be taken seriously by the Europeans powers. I laughed to read that the US declared war on Britain in 1812 with no army or navy and very little money- and yet, we still consider the war a win. It makes so much more sense, now, why we NEVER learn about the War of 1812 in school! Probably because we don’t come out looking very well...

Reading Roundup: Memoirs Memoirs

noreply@blogger.com (Kari) — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 13:02:00 +0000

I know lots of you can read multiple books at a time and have a long queue of books to write about that, and I don't know how you do it! I have a single track mind. I told you I was really behind on posting, and it's just stressing me out. This week, I'm finally starting a long-awaited read-along of Lions of the West with the wonderful Aarti, and I want to be focused. Therefore...it's reading roundup time!

I can't remember what inspired me to put Samantha Bee's memoir I Know I Am, But What Are You? on my to-read list. I think maybe I heard her on NPR, but it actually took me forever to get my hands on a copy. Samantha Bee is most well-known as the first woman (and first Canadian) correspondant on The Daily Show. Her memoir is a collection of essays and anecdotes chronicling such things as Bee's awkward adolescent years, her stint as a Japanese anime character, and her rise out of obscurity on Comedy Central.

This is just a funny, entertaining book to read. If you liked Tina Fey's memoir, this is written in a similar style (though this was actually published first), and you'll probably enjoy this one as well. Bee has got some amusing stories to tell, often awkward, sometimes a bit vulgar. It caused me to laugh out loud a few times on the subway, and you can't ask for much more than that.

Marzi by Marzena Sowa caught my eye in the Random House booth at the ALA Midwinter conference, and the nice booth rep gave me an extra copy at the end of the show. (Thanks, person!) It's been a while since I've read a graphic novel, and I do enjoy those of the memoir variety. This one tells the story of Marzi's childhood growing up in Communist Poland in the 1980s. Political events unfold through the eyes of a child, and though Marzi sees what is happening around her and understands that it is important, she doesn't fully grasp its meaning (and thus, the same for us, the reader). There is a great mix of the big events happening in Marzi's world around her and in her own little day-to-day world. The interaction of the two create a very rich, full picture of Marzi's childhood.

My only feeling of unfulfillment is wanting to know more about Marzi's relationship with her mother. You can just feel tension between the two through the words and pictures, but it's not explored in much depth. I don't know why I need to know this intimate aspect of the author's life, but it's just hinted at so strongly that it left me curious! But beyond that, this was a good graphic pick-up.

Sneak Peek: Farm Anatomy by Julia Rothman

noreply@blogger.com (Kari) — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 16:58:00 +0000

It's no secret that I really want to live on a farm. I don't want it to really be a working one, because frankly, I'm too lazy for that—utmost respect for all working farmers. I just want to be surrounded by nature and know all the little details about plant and animal life that my mom seems to know. (How does she know these things?? She can ID any flower in about 3.2 seconds.) And I want at least two pigs, two goats, two sheep, two horses, and two chickens (so they can each have a friend, obviously). And lots of cats and a farm dog. And some owls.

I saw this book on display in the Workman booth at PLA, and it was just so awesome that I came home and special ordered it from my local bookstore, WORD. It's like a guidebook to rural living, and soon I'll be able to tell you how to make maple syrup and what kind of apple it is you're eating. The only thing it lacks, to me, is a quick guide to common flower and tree species, but I guess that's not specific enough to a farm. Oh well!

I'm sharing some photos I took of the illustrations, because I think they're wonderful. I hope you do too.

Westward Ho!: The Life of a Town + Giveaway

noreply@blogger.com (Kari) — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 22:07:00 +0000

Jonathan Evison created an epic in West of Here—a century-sweeping history of a fictional town called Port Bonita in Washington's Olympic Peninsula. I grabbed this at BEA a couple years ago and have been waiting for the perfect opportunity to pick it up since, and my current reading project afforded me that chance.

This 500-page chunkster flips back and forth between the early days of Port Bonita in the 1880s and the present early 2000s. Not only is West of Here expansive in terms of time; there are also lots of characters to follow, from early explorers and a hard-headed 19th-century prostitute to a Sasquatch hunter and 21st-century Indian. For the most part, the characters each have their own storyline, but they do often overlap and interact. As the reader, you're constantly thrown back and forth between times, which may sound a bit overwhelming, but it's not; it's a smooth read.

I have to say, I didn't give this book much thought as I was reading it. For a chunkster, I got through it fairly quickly, and it was an enjoyable read. I love this kind of epic story that pulls us into the past and present and introduces us to a number of unique characters and their lives. However, there's not much of an over-arching plot; it's more a series of stories and experiences. And the whole time, I found the characters just meh. Not that they weren't well written or strong; I just didn't particularly like any of them. But then again, I didn't particularly dislike any of them either, so what I'm trying to say is that I didn't have a strong emotional tie to any of them.

It wasn't until now, as I'm writing this, a month after finishing it, that I'm starting to really think of the themes of this book. The obvious ones are man as relating to his environment—nature, progress, development. Nature plays such a huge, conflicting role in all of these stories. Should it be conquered for progress' sake? Preserved for progress' sake? No matter which viewpoint, the characters possess that rugged, frontier relationship with nature in which it is there and they are a part of it and must react accordingly.

Because this book is a fairly easy one to read, I think it's also easy to miss the point of it all, easy to close it once you've finished and think no more about it, because its themes need no deep analysis. And I think that's selling it short. I probably won't be clamoring to read this again, but its perspective on man's attitude in the face of nature is worth hearing.

I have an extra copy of this book to giveaway. If you're interested, leave a comment below and I'll shoot you an email. (Of course, I fully expect you to discuss it with me after reading!)

April 2: Next On the List

noreply@blogger.com (Kari) — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 03:42:00 +0000

I am way behind on my posting. Way behind. It's actually starting to stress me out a little, because I don't think I've ever been this slow at it before! I've got a back log of at least five books to write about (I know, I know...to some of you, that is normal), but my reading is not slowing down. I have class to thank for this. As I've mentioned before, that gives me so much reading time on the back and forth commute.

Anyway, that's all boring and probably of zero interest to anyone, but hopefully I'll have some time to catch up this month with both Spring Break (which only means no class for a week; doesn't mean as much when you still have to work full time) and a week-long trip to Nashville (which will hopefully mean a week spent relaxing in the sun by my parents' pool).

W H A T I ' M R E A D I N G

I'm unable to attend book club this month because of class, so I officially have nothing on my reading schedule. This is giving me the perfect opportunity to read some things that have been sitting on my shelf for-ev-er. I just read Emily St. John Mandel's Last Night in Montreal, which I won from a book blog at least a couple years ago, and I'm currently in the middle of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society, which I also won somewhere years ago. My goal may just be to go through a single shelf and read everything that's been sitting there for at least a year.

I've still got several things on my list for my Westward Ho! reading project. I have at least one review for that pending, but I want to read at least one title from my original list this month. I also am planning on bringing back my JUV FIC Corner, because I've been reading tons of books for my Children's Lit class. I did not read all of them as a kid, which was the original theme of the project, but still reading from an adult perspective is thought-provoking.

A short but sweet summary; here's to the end of March (thank God; it's the worst month) and looking to warmer days ahead.

Fiction | The Dawning of the Ibis

noreply@blogger.com (Kari) — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 18:46:00 +0000

For my book club last month, we read Amitav Ghosh's Sea of Poppies. I haven't written about it until now partly because I'm lazy and busy, but also partly because I'm not sure exactly what to say about it—a trend I am finding to be true more and more with my book club's selections.

Sea of Poppies is sort of a difficult book to read. It's the story of a ship, the Ibis, and its crew, shedding light on a particular moment in history, when British colonialism still ruled India, and the 19th-century Opium Wars were just around the corner. The crew is a mish-mosh bunch from various walks of life, all part of a society in which caste and place hold significance and left to wonder how much that matters when you're all thrown on a ship together.

This is the first of a planned trilogy, and therefore feels more epic in stature than a standalone novel would. It can be very hard to follow from the beginning. Its structure reminded me a great deal of The Known World, also a book club pick, because many different characters are thrown at you from the beginning, and you feel like you're rushing around to keep track of them all. The novel begins feeling more like a collection of scenes that eventually come together as a cohesive story as the characters begin to interact and overlap.

Ghosh says that inspiration for this story first came because he wanted to tell about the lives of Indian indentured workers which were inextricably linked to British colonialism. Sea of Poppies highlights the detrimental influence of this colonialism in India, and though this one is set immediately prior to the Opium Wars, opium still plays a huge role in the rise and fall of the characters. (And I believe that Ghosh's planned sequels will get deeper into the Opium Wars.)

One reason this novel is hard to get into is because of the writing. Style and language shifts from character to character, including one character who speaks in pidgin English. It's confusing for the reader, which I believe mirrors the confusion for the characters themselves as they are thrust in a setting and have trouble relating to each other. The longstanding divisions of race and class are broken down on the ship and a person's future is determined by fortune's wheel rather than their place in society. The usual rules of power and influence have been discarded. One of the characters, Captain Chillingworth, has a line that I found most descriptive of this story's themes:

"Men do what their power permits them to do."

I ended up liking Sea of Poppies, particularly after our discussion, but I have to be honest; it's generally not my kind of story at all, and I doubt I would've liked it had I read it alone and without my book club. Call me a wimp, but I just don't like to read about the darkness of man and how cruel people can be to each other (and this often seems to be the kind of story we read in book club). It's just my own tastes. Regardless of the overarching theme or redeeming qualities, it's hard for me to look past those things. Several people in my group thought this book amazing, but I just don't have a desire to keep reading the trilogy.

Fiction | Ahwooo, Again

noreply@blogger.com (Kari) — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 15:42:00 +0000

Yesterday, you read a nice guest post from Maryrose Wood, author of the Incorrigibles series, and today I'll give you a sneak peek of the third in the series, The Unseen Guest, out next Tuesday the 27th!

After the disastrous trip to London, the three Incorrigible children—Alexander, Beowulf, and Cassiopeia—are back at Ashton Place with their trusted and beloved governess, Penelope Lumley. Their wolf side has been further tamed, and they are working hard on their lessons—currently, studying birds outside the nursery window. All is running fairly smoothly until Lord Frederick's mother, the Widow Ashton, shows up with a suitor, the adventurous Admiral Faucet, and his ostrich that has suddenly flown the coop. Faucet enlists the help of the Incorrigibles and their superb tracking skills for a trip into the woods to find Bertha the ostrich. Naturally, things don't go as planned, and chaos ensues as Miss Lumley fears the Incorrigibles will abandon the nursery for their home in the wild.

Like the previous two Incorrigible titles, the third brings up many more questions on the past of both the Incorrigibles and their governess. But this time, we learn that Lord Frederick Ashton and his family may also play a role. Like why does Lord Frederick have itching fits around a full moon? And did his father really die a tragic, gruesome death in a tar pit?

For a children's series, let me tell you...I certainly cannot figure out the mystery at all. Throughout the series, nothing is answered and more questions are asked, leaving me curious as to just how long Wood plans to drag this series out! These books are, without a doubt, loads of fun, but waiting a year for the next installment tests my (extreme lack of) patience! This is not a series of self-contained stories, as many children's series are—episodic but featuring the same characters. This is like getting through a season of a television show where you're constantly wondering what happens next. I think this series will be great for middle grade kids when all the books are released and they can absorb one after the other, but right now, I fear children would either forget the story from one book to the next or outgrow the reading level by the time the next one is released. However, I have to do a booktalk for one of my library school classes in two weeks, and I'm planning on doing it on the Incorrigibles.

And so I sit here and wait, thinking, "NEXT, PLEASE!"

Guest Post: Author Maryrose Wood

noreply@blogger.com (Kari) — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 13:16:00 +0000

I was delighted to be approached as a potential stop on Maryrose Wood's blog tour for installment number three of the Incorrigible Children series. I loved the first two and had already put my name in the queue on the library's hold list for when number three, The Unseen Guest, would finally be released.

Today, enjoy a guest piece by author Maryrose Wood, but check back tomorrow for my rundown on the latest in the Incorrigibles' adventurous saga!

“It is easier to change one’s boots than to change one’s mind, but it is far easier to change one’s mind about whether or not to wear boots than it is to change the weather.” —The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place, Book 3: The Unseen Guest

Since the publication of The Mysterious Howling, the first title in the Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place series, I’ve been asked many times about the origins of the sayings of Agatha Swanburne, which pop up frequently in the series. Did I find them in a dusty old tome in some attic somewhere? Was (or is) there an Agatha Swanburne figure in my own life? Do I spend a lot of time eating fortune cookies in hopes of finding pithy nuggets of wisdom to steal?

If only it were that simple. The above-quoted “Swanburnism,” as I’ve come to think of them, was written the way all the rest of them are: our heroine, Miss Penelope Lumley, gets in some sort of predicament, and I, her author, push my chair back from the desk, scratch my head and think, hmm! What specific advice does my plucky young friend need to get out of this jam? It’s the fiction writing process in miniature: we chase our characters up a tree, set a bunch of hungry lions loose around the bottom, and then try to figure out what happens next.

The Swanburnism above is from the first chapter of The Unseen Guest (in stores March 27th). In the scene, Penelope has rather impulsively made a rule, which turns out not to work quite as well as she had hoped. Should she stick to her guns regardless, to avoid looking foolish? Add a slew of new rules to mitigate the untended consequences of the first one? Or should she admit her mistake, learn from it, and start over?

Naturally, she relies on the wisdom of Agatha Swanburne to help her figure out what to do. The adage she recalls is meant to capture the complex nature of making decisions in changing circumstances. One might have many excellent reasons to wear shoes instead of boots, but if it starts to rain, it’s time to rethink your decision—and your footwear. With the help of Agatha Swanburne’s advice, Penelope does exactly that. She scuttles her original plan, sets a new course and leads her young charges into a fresh adventure.

Have you ever found yourself in a situation like Penelope’s? If so, how did you handle it?

(On March 21, the Incorrigible blog tour continues with another Swanburnism discussed, this time at www.readnowsleeplater.com. Please drop by and leave a comment.)

Maryrose Wood is the author of The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place series for middle-grade readers. You can find her online at www.maryrosewood.com, and on Twitter at @Maryrose_Wood.

A PLA Conference Recap

noreply@blogger.com (Kari) — Sat, 17 Mar 2012 15:58:00 +0000

Part of my job in publishing is attending book industry conferences, which can be both incredibly exhilarating incredibly and exhausting. This week, the Public Library Association had its biennial conference in Philadelphia, which was easy travel—only a short train ride away. I was particularly excited to attend PLA because the public library is my intended area of work once I finish my MLS degree!

Conferences are great when you work in publishing because A) it's a nice change of pace from sitting at a desk in front of a computer all day [the worst!!!] and B) you get to chat with the people who actually use your product and it's nice to hear what is working and what isn't. Of course, the thing that stinks for me as an exhibitor, at this conference in particular, is that I'm stuck in a booth all day when I want to attend the sessions and book signings and absorb it all.

However, I did randomly run into a former colleague from the library I used to work at during high school—the job that cemented my future in libraries in the first place. And in the exhibits' closing hours, I did manage to rack up a small collection of some solid books, which is always a plus. But just as a helpful hint, booth representatives from certain major trade publishers: just because I'm wearing an "Exhibitor" badge is no reason to be a jerk to me; we're not even competitors, and I STILL LIKE TO READ AND MAY BUY YOUR BOOKS.

My swag includes:

Rez Life by David Treuer—a recent recommendation from Jill that I happily stumbled upon; and this booth rep was lovely, fyi
The Lost Saints of Tennessee by Amy Franklin-Willis—because any book with the word Tennessee in the title immediately interests me
Heft by Liz Moore—someone I know through Tumblr and was happy to stumble upon her book
Barnheart by Jenna Woginrich—recommended by the Workman rep who was super nice once I showed interest in an awesome book I will buy called Farm Anatomy that is like an illustrated guide to rural living; he told me the author lived in Brooklyn and decided to move and live on a farm, and I do live in Brooklyn and dream of moving to live on a farm

Fiction | Revolutions of the Personal and National Kind

noreply@blogger.com (Kari) — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 17:18:00 +0000

I picked up Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly at BEA a couple years ago, and it's been sitting on my shelf since. It's made it through the occasional shelf weeding, because I've always thought the premise sounded ok and if I ever needed an easy YA read, this is where I'd go. And that time had finally come!

Revolution is about a moody troubled teen, Andi, living in Brooklyn. Her 8-year-old brother tragically died the previous year (though we don't know how for quite some time), her mom has gone a little crazy with grief, and her dad is off somewhere being a famous geneticist. It's her senior year, and with the way she's heading, she's probably not going to get to graduate. She doesn't do her work; she's not working on her senior thesis; she just doesn't care about any of it. The only thing she does care about is music lessons, and she's an extremely talented guitarist.

When Christmas vacation rolls around, Andi's dad drags her to Paris where he is working on a special project to prove whether or not a tiny, preserved heart (eww, I know) was that of Louis Charles, the son of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette who was imprisoned by Revolutionists until his death. In Paris, Andi finds an old guitar and journal belonging to a girl named Alexandrine who lived during the Revolution and was closely tied to Louis Charles. Andi becomes obsessed with the journal and begins a quest to find out how it all ended while coming to terms with her own tragedies and future.

I really did like this book, and I'm glad I'd never weeded it off my shelf! I loved the historical story; it was almost like a scavenger hunt that we, the reader, got to play alongside Andi as she made new discoveries. But there's one thing...and maybe this is just intrinsic to the written word format...but teenage emotions just sound so whiny on paper. I was thinking the whole time that if this was a movie, the subtlety of expression and staging of the scene would convey a mood without any words needing to be uttered, but because it's on paper, all of that is described and it just makes me roll my eyes and say, "Oh boy, here comes the flood of emo." I honestly don't think there's a solution, and maybe it's just me—cinematography has somewhat ruined descriptive language for me. And it's certainly not an issue unique to this book (so don't be turned off by my rambling!), but I just especially noticed it.

On a coincidental side note, a few days after I finished this, Marie Antoinette popped up on my Netflix queue, and I love that movie. It is just so stylistically beautiful yet apparently slightly controversial in its portrayal of Marie Antoinette. And both of the trailers featuring New Order were perfection.

March 1 (ok, 5th): Next On the List

noreply@blogger.com (Kari) — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 15:37:00 +0000

Ok, so I'm a few days late with the beginning of the month update, and that is just representative of my February and March so far. February was a pretty pathetic reading month for me. I finished a whopping two books, which is pathetic considering I have more time than usual to read as I haul 75 minutes to and from class twice a week.

W H A T I ' M R E A D I N G

I've officially given up on Jonathan Raban's essay collection, Driving Home. I got up to page 180 or so and was intending to read and post on it in stages. I reached a stopping point so I could read Sea of Poppies for book club, and as you can see, I still have not written about that first chunk of Driving Home (or Sea of Poppies, for that matter). Once I tried to get back into it and write about the first part, I couldn't even remember anything significant, and it was just looming as something I thought I should read but wasn't really enjoying. And I think this ended up holding me back for a lot of last month. Overall, this book was just not what I expected. A couple of the essays were really good, particularly one about Mark Twain, but the rest were not a journey of America, per say. They felt more like literary analysis of various authors, some of them not even American! In a nutshell, I was looking for a road trip, and this was not one. Oh well.

The other pitiful part of February is that I've been reading the same two books for 2-3 weeks. I don't usually read more than one book at once, because my brain can't focus in depth on more than one story. I've been reading the new graphic novel Marzi by Marzen Sowa since before Valentine's Day. I really like it, but this is something I'd usually breeze through in a weekend. When I didn't finish it one weekend, I needed a novel to read, because I didn't want to carry the large graphic novel in my purse, so I started West of Here by Jonathan Evison, which is a chunkster. It's almost 500 pages, so it's just taking a while for that reason. Plus, I don't really like any of the characters too much. The ones in the present day sections are just so miserable, and I hate reading about miserable people. It puts me in a miserable mood. So perhaps this is also why I'm not flying through it. Add to this the numerous children's books I have to read each week for class, and my leisurely reading is just subpar right now.

W H A T ' S C O M I N G N E X T

This week...THIS WEEK...I will finish BOTH of these books! On the coming agenda, I have a couple things:

The Go-Between by I. P. Hartley, finally another NYRB classic for my next book club meeting. The meeting isn't until the 22nd, so I've got a bit of time.
The Unseen Guest by Maryrose Wood, the third in the Incorrigible Children series. I was so excited to receive an advanced copy for an author tour which will happen later this month!
Lions of the West by Robert Morgan is still on my agenda...I just have to get through these two books first!

Did you know that this month is the Public Library Association conference in Philadelphia? I am attending for work, but I'm especially excited since the public library is the realm I intend on entering once I finish my MLS program. (And I am also very excited for the cheesesteaks.) You know what conferences mean...NEW BOOKS. I only hope to duplicate my awesome book score from ALA in January!

Happy March!

Westward Ho!: Sherman Alexie's Modern Indian

noreply@blogger.com (Kari) — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 22:36:00 +0000

When I was in the fifth grade, my teacher made me read a book and write a report on it...that NO ONE ELSE HAD TO DO. The intent of it, I know, was to keep my mind challenged because there was no "Encore" program at my middle school, but the overall significance of this was lost on me as an eleven-year-old; I was just bitter I had to do more work than everyone else. Though I have no idea what the book was called nor what it's plot was, I know it was about the Trail of Tears. And I remember its existence because it sparked in me a curiosity of these cultures that are spoken of so predominantly in terms of the past and not the present.

I've been wanting to read some Sherman Alexie for a while now, since I've been motivated to read about American cultures and lifestyles that are unfamiliar to me. The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fist Fight in Heaven is the short story collection that pulled Alexie out of the blue and to the forefront of modern Native American literature. Earning a Hemingway/PEN Award nomination in 1993, The Lone Ranger and Tonto is partially a memoir of Alexie's life growing up on the Spokane Indian Reservation. The stories are somewhat connected, mostly by character overlaps, and often focusing on a character named Victor who has quite a cynical outlook on life.

That, in fact, is the predominant tone that just drips from Alexie's stories: cynicism. Some of the stories are told from Victor's perspective and some are told about him by others, but no matter the narrator, most are just filled with an overwhelming disenchantment with people and society. A common theme that shows up in many of the stories is alcoholism and how widespread and destructive it is in this tribe. The edition of this book that I read had a preface by Alexie in which he stated (and I'm summarizing by what I remember) that he did not have a motive in writing about the alcoholism; he was not trying to make a statement nor validate a stereotype; he was just writing about what is. I would hate to believe that this is, in fact, the life and mindset of today's Indians, but as I said before, it's a lifestyle unfamiliar to me and one I am trying to learn more about. And though Alexie is perhaps the most well-known modern Indian author, he is but one voice, and his voice alone should not define or generalize a vast group of people.

Alexie's stories are not deeply complex, nor action-filled. They are brief snippets of time or conversation between characters, revealing thoughts and emotions that Alexie has seen and felt. In the first story, "Every Little Hurricane," a nine-year-old Victor witnesses a fight between his uncles on New Year's Eve. We see pieces of a young Victor's history and will be able to understand, as the stories progress and Victor ages, where he is coming from and what he is relating to. "The Only Traffic Signal on the Reservation Don't Flash Red Anymore" merely contains a conversation between two characters on a young, talented basketball player who succumbed to alcoholism and their hopes that a young, talented artist doesn't follow suit. These stories, no matter how brief, create a history for the reader, so that we will understand how experiences have led to how these people see the world today.

I had a thought while reading this, one that doesn't have much literacy importance but is a discussion point nonetheless: the appropriate term for indigenous peoples of America is still a tricky one to define, depending on who you're talking to. Most of us probably developed the habit of using "Native American" while in grade school, as "Indian" was deemed to have negative stereotypes. But throughout Alexie's book, the only term he uses (when using as a blanket statement and not referring to specific tribes) is "Indian." Now, before reading this, I was still in the grade-school mindset in which "Indian" seemed slightly un-politically correct, but this made me think—think about the history of the term and the environments that have demanded specific language—and the "Native American" I had been so used to suddenly sounded, to me, so...forced. With an evolving language, it's difficult to get an entire population on the same page, and what sounds correct to some may still hold inappropriate connotations to others. So this, and so many more examples of "politically-correct" terms, are still drifting in uncertainty.

Overall, I felt Alexie presented a strong voice through his stories, but he's still only one voice of a population of people that is over-generalized despite carrying vastly different cultures and histories. And to further understand the whole, you need to explore its individual pieces.