June 2009 Reading Challenge: Fractured Fairy Tales

It’s time for our first Here’s To Us reading challenge! All details are below. Enjoy!

Rules / How To Enter:

1. Decide what book you want to read. It must either be based on a fairy tale or folk tale or have characters or events similar to a fairy tale. In this challenge, you must read at least one book matching this criteria.

2. Post a comment below, stating what you’d like to be known as in the challenge, your blog address (if you one), and the name of the book(s) you will be reading. Make sure that the email address you use in the form is yours and is valid! Please sign up by June 20, 2009.

3. [If you do not have a blog you can skip this step] On your blog, write a post announcing that you will be participating in this challenge. Be sure to keep your readers posted about how you are doing through either posts, a homemade “I’m currently reading…” widget such as mine, or a similar widget from a site such as LibraryThing, Shelfari, or GoodReads.

4. Once you are finished with the book, either send an email to herestousblog@gmail.com (that’s me) or post another comment here that states that you have finished the book.

5. [If you do not have a  blog you can skip this step] Write a review for your blog about the book(s) that you read. Be sure to include the title, author, and publisher, a link to the author’s website -or an official website designated to the book or series- and a picture of the book cover.

6. As soon as your review is published (or as soon as you post a comment saying you have finished the book, if you don’t own a blog), I’ll send you a little graphic: This is a certificate of sorts saying that you completed the challenge. If you have a blog, you can display it there, otherwise, keep it on your computer or print it out. Do what you want with it — this award is yours to keep.

Other Points:

• Don’t own a blog, but want one? If you have a Google account, you can create a free blog at http://blogspot.com. If you’re a student or teacher, you can create a free blog at http://edublogs.org. Or, you can create a free blog with only an email address at http://wordpress.com ~ This is my blog hosting system.
• Not sure what to read? My personal favorite fairy tale retelling is The Goose Girl by Shannon Hale. Another all-time favorite is Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine.
• Can’t find an image of the book cover, or not sure how to locate the author’s website? The best way to find a book image is by going to http://www.books.google.comand searching the book’s title. For an author’s website, first check on the back cover or About the Author of the book. If that is fruitless, try Google searching ” [author's name here] website”.  Usually the site will be the first or second search entry.

I’ll be reading The Sisters Grimm Book One: The Fairy Tale Detectives by Michael Buckley. My blog is, of course, http://herestous.wordpress.com , and I’ll want my name listed as Allegra. I’ll look forward to hearing from you!

Tides from the New Worlds: Aerophilia

Tides from the New Worlds: Aerophilia by Tobias Buckell

Installment 5

Buckell professes his love for airships at the beginning of this story, a fitting admission when you take in the title. I have to admit a secret love for the word dirigible here, too, which Buckell uses almost immediately. I think he and Hayao Miyazaki would get along very well, since Miyazaki is also known for imagining the improbably or impossible with flying devices. Aerophilia begins in such an imaginative airship, traveling through the cloudy, gaseous atmosphere of Riley, a planet colonized by humans far in the future.

Vincent is a captive of his own split personality, Vince, as are the crew and passengers of the zeppelin Vince has hijacked. Vince has grown tired of his whiny host, Vincent, and is out to make himself rich. But his plan goes awry when the original Vincent takes over again and calls for help from an old girlfriend, Suzie. But Suzie has plans of her own, and a grudge to vent agains Vincent.

This is a fun little romp that was a quick but entertaining read with an edge. Vincent/Vince is a washed up spacer, but he truly brings to mind an old cowboy trying to go home again, to a place that no longer exists. I was a little turned off by how crazy and bitter Suzie comes off, but I don’t think Vincent comes off too much better so they’re sort of meant for each other.

Mixed in the with the lighthearted banter between Vince and Vincent and the humor of the run in with the law and the old flame, there is the message that things change and the people you once knew change, even if you continue to refuse to. Some day the wrongs you’ve done will come back to you, and we all must atone eventually. Nobody comes out clean.

The twists at the end would make this story worth reading even if the rest of it was blah, which luckily it isn’t. Stay tuned for more installments.

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You can check out Tobias Buckell on his website, or follow him on Twitter @tobiasbuckell

The master post can be found here, Tides from the New Worlds

Looking Glass: Cyberpunk With a Heart

Looking Glass by James R. Strickland

Paperback: 308 pages

Publisher: Flying Pen Press LLC (June 1, 2007)

ISBN-10: 0979588901

When I first started reading Looking Glass, I was immediately reminded of cyberpunk classics by William Gibson and Snow Crash by Neil Stephenson. Similar settings: our near future gone totally tech crazy, new lingo, new lifestyles, corporations run amuck and the United States split up into multiple smaller, meaner countries. But Strickland manages something other cyberpunk authors haven’t, in my experience.

We are introduced to Dr. Catherine Farro, screen name Shroud, a woman who thinks she’s past her prime, stuck in the corporate world playing guard dog for OmniMart’s internal communications network. Relatively easy work for someone with her elite computer skills, but it’s the best she can get. The corporate grind is slowly wearing her down day by day, sapping her vitality and life, giving her excuses not to stretch herself any more, but she’s trapped in the life. That is, until some unknown but very powerful hacker cracks their network and kills her team of guard dog colleagues, including the woman she loves.

Thus begins the rebirth of Shroud, as she hunts down the people responsible for her friends’ deaths and her own exile from the company she has served well for eight years. As each lead is followed, and Shroud takes more and more dangerous risks to track down the killer, we are shown a world of technology, software, and hacker culture that most of us will never understand. She must fight against her own inner bitterness and physical limitations as well as the outside forces trying to stop her investigation.

The thing that Strickland does so well that other authors in the genre have failed at, is heart. Shroud is a complex woman of middle years, with many quirks and foibles that come off as natural and endear the character to the reader. Her relationships are as fraught with uncertainty and misunderstandings as those of the people reading along, and it’s very easy to root for her and understand her need for vengeance.

This is a woman that many of us could easily meet and know in real life, with her own imperfections and personality flaws. She’s more of an anti-hero than a super-hero. Another plus: the main love interest of Shroud throughout the book is Latino, although the book does suffer from an overabundance of nerdy white guys.

The two things that caught my attention quickly, beyond the likability of the character, were her physical ability, and her bisexuality. Shroud does all her work from the confines of a wheelchair, were she’s been bound since birth. She’s also very casual about her sexual preferences, although not negatively. She strikes me as very evenly bisexual, with equal desire for men and women. The scenes in the book with women are tasteful and well done, as are those with men. Strickland also doesn’t shy away from her paralysis, either, incorporating it into Shroud’s physical awareness freely and naturally. The problems with access that Shroud runs into in her world will translate very easily to those readers who deal with the same difficulties in their everyday lives.

Another aspect I liked very much was the easy-to-read story. Oftentimes when dealing with cyberpunk books, the author relies heavily on metaphors and the surrealism of working in a digital world, making the story hard to follow and the storyline difficult to grasp. Strickland incorporates all the elements of cyberpunk without losing his audience in a tangle of electrical descriptions and overdone jargon.

The story isn’t perfect, there are some of Shroud’s quirks that quickly got on my nerves, such as her endless literary quotes, although both Strickland and Shroud have an English background so I can see where that comes from. There is also a moment towards the very end of the story that struck me as very much a deus ex machina, no pun intended, and I feel like that scene was rushed just to get to the end of the book. I also think it detracted from the character of Shroud, as one of her big weaknesses was “magically fixed”. These minor hangups definitely didn’t kill the story for me, though, and I think as Strickland grows as a writer we’ll continue to see more and better work such as Looking Glass.

I’d highly recommend this book to any cyberpunk fans, and to any speculative fiction fans in general. The easy flow of the story makes for a great introduction to the cyberpunk genre for those who might otherwise be put off, and is a quick and fun read for those already indoctrinated. Pick up a copy from Flying Pen Press or your local independent bookstore. You’ll come away wondering which of your memories are real and which are merely false data.

the joy of reading 9:the first assistant

Clare Naylor and Mimi Hare take a snapshot at behind the scenes holywood in this fun book (another on couch and wine girlie book)

Lizzie received a promotion from Second Assistant to First Assistant at a film agency while she’s dating the ‘perfect’ dude (read wealthy) but she just wants to make it on her own and become a producer in a cut throat business. But there’s a chance that the boyfriend is cheating with a hot actress and the now second assistant who replaced her is out to steal her job already!

To make matters worse Lizzie is sent to  Thailand (my favourite place ever) for three months to work with a super air head teen star ie. babysit.

The book is dedicated to Lizzie trying to figure out the mess that has become her life when she was expecting the best out of her promotion. Fun book….but enough already now, I need to get into some serious reading.

I’m now onto my 10th book of the year and will post as I go along.

Happy reading!

The Flying Sorcerers

Assorted tales of comic fiction – edited by Peter Haining

I am not a major science fiction fan but always appreciate an entertaining or thought provoking storyline. And I got plenty of those as I read the ‘The Flying Sorcerers’. A motley collection of humorous fantasy tales – it covers a mix of science fiction and the supernatural.

What makes the book really special is that

A) It has the earlier works of some of the best names in the business – Terry Prachet, Arthur Clarker, PG Wodehouse ( I was surprised too!!) , CS Lewis to list a few

B) Every story begins with a little background on story telling in that genre and its interesting to learn more about authors and literature in that category

C) And lastly but most importantly is the collection of stories itself. Loosely classified under ‘Comic tales of fantasy’ each story is written with a sense of irony or humor – no story takes itself too seriously. Therein lies the entertainment.

The book has a collection of around 30 stories , some of the more remarkable ones being ‘Turntables of the night’ , ‘A Slice of Life’, ‘Danse Macabre’, ‘The Right Side’ ,’ The Shrink and the Mink’, ‘The Man in Abestos’ and ‘From Gustible’s Planet’

Verdict: Buy it if you enjoy fantasy fiction

Book Review: Forgiving the Dead Man Walking

Forgiving the Dead Man Walking: Only One Woman Can Tell the Entire Story by Debbie Morris

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a true story that everyone should read. Written simply and clearly Debbie Morris details her horrible trauma at the hands of a pair of rapists and killers.

The book describes her path since the abduction, leading to being able to forgive her captors. It was a long and difficult path, but one that I think we can all learn from. It was only after she was able to come to the position of being able to forgive that she could recover and move on from the ordeal. The refusal to forgive and desire to hang on to the hate will only eat you up.

I like that her forgiveness didn’t make her seem weak and glib. What she endured was awful but not unforgivable. Not unforgettable or un-punishable, but possible to forgive.

The main perpetrator was executed and wasn’t believed to ever show any remorse, so the act of forgiveness was for herself, for her own recovery and sanity.

Well done for sharing with us the journey I say !

This book will be an encouragement for anyone struggling with unforgiveness.

View all my reviews.

I always have very high expectations from award-winning books and I am usually not disappointed. The Blind Assassin was an exception.

The novel traces the story of Iris & Laura Chase – sisters – born into a rich but fading household in a small industrial town in Canada. The narrative is mostly from the point of view of Iris Chase, the elder sister, as she unravels her life history as a message to her enstranged granddaughter. It begins with the death of Laura Chase from where we go back into the memories of Iris, who traces, their lives from their childhood to the day Laura died.

In process, we learn of deep dark family secrets and dysfunctionalities. We learn of crudeness and evilness of human nature.An interesting aspect to the book is the novel within the novel approach – where a parallel thread of story is woven – moving the narrative forward – by use of book within the book.

I think it is definitely a challenge to write in this way, to have so many threads, and not make any chronological mistakes.The narrative is almost like a mystery – the author throws up clues as you read along- and you have to collect them and fit them together as you move towards the end of the book

What I really liked about the book was the language and the narrative. What I disliked was that it was a tad too long. Also , The Blind Assassin is a great book for someone who has not read these family dramas earlier. Unfortunately for me, I read this book when I have had my share of novels about self discovery and repentance and revelations.

Also, I was constantly irritated with the weakness of Iris’s character. Her failure to take life in her own hands – submission to her father , her husband , her sister-in-law and then to her daughter. Its very hard to like a book where you cant respect the main character.

Verdict: Borrow but don’t buy

TFTNW: In the Heart of Kalikuata

Tides from the New Worlds: In the Heart of Kalikuata by Tobias Buckell

Installment 2

This story centers around Andrea, a woman sentenced to indentured servitude after being shipped from her old home planet of Loki to the new Kalikuata, a cylindrical Orbital that’s basically a version of India in space. It begins with her disguised as a man and working as a rickshaw puller in order to pay off her handlers. Her rickshaw is designed to record the conversations of her illustrious passengers, and she is rewarded based on what is overheard.

When a simple assignment to carry a man from the spaceport to his estate goes awry, Andrea begins to realize that no matter where she ends up in the universe, she can’t continue to go on running from her problems.

Again I am impressed by the themes Buckell addresses in his story. Not only is Andrea a woman, she’s a woman of color. There’s a very telling line in this story, where Andrea accuses her handlers of using her based on her skin color. She’s dark skinned where they are white, she’s stuck doing the manual labor while they listen on high tech electronic devices in air conditioned rooms.

It’s the third world in space, and she’s found herself in a position where she has to decide whether to continue being used, or try and make a life for herself by standing up for herself. Nobody else is going to come and save this damsel in distress.

It’s a pro-woman, pro-people of color story, and the ending is very satisfying. You can still tell this is early days for Buckell, but the story is richer and more filled out than Fish Merchant. I can’t wait to share the rest of the anthology.

Does the Dog Die? A Brief Review of The Hamilton Case, by Michelle de Kretser - and a Discourse on Blogging

This book made me confront what I’m dealing with in writing this blog. Specifically, my “hook” is that I do book reviews for animal lovers. Most people end up here for other reasons, but I try to be consistent. There are about 84 billion blogs out there — I always wanted mine to have a theme, it does, and I’m sticking with it.

So what do I really mean by “book reviews for animal lovers”? I try to review books on two levels: is it good, and would it upset someone who doesn’t like to read about violence to animals or upsetting story arcs involving animals? Now, one of the reasons I chose that theme is because I don’t like those books myself. And I read a lot, at least one book a week, often two, so I’m a good person to screen those books out for others.

But — and this is really important in my review of The Hamilton Case — I have to repeat: I am disturbed by violence to animals and upsetting story arcs involving animals. Usually, I can mentally sift through disturbing treatment of animals in a book and address the book’s overall quality. In this case, I cannot.

Yes, I recognize that most people would like this book for the writing, the setting, the character development, the twists, etc., etc. There are even some beautiful passages incorporating appreciation of animals. And I agree with the critics who consider the book realistic.

But I didn’t like it. In fact, I intensely disliked it. Not only is it COMPLETELY UNSAFE for animal lovers, but there are also a couple of upsetting images that I can’t get out of my head and would love to. I couldn’t get past that and read the book on another level. So it probably is a good book, but I can’t recommend it.

As is often the case with such books, the people don’t fare so well, either. But, as I noted, the point of this blog is the treatment of animals in the book. And The Hamilton Case fails that test severely.

Book Review: Reasonable Faith by William Lane Craig

I am planning a preaching series on Christian Apologetics in the fall so I have started collecting several books on the subject, including Dr. William Lane Craig’s Reasonable Faith, 3rd Edition. Dr. Craig is a well known Christian apologist, having effectively defended the Christian faith for many years on university campuses across Canada and the United States (and no doubt around the world).

Let me say right away that Reasonable Faith is not light reading. It is 400+ pages filled with deep philosophical discussions about issues in Christian apologetics. That being said, Dr. Craig’s book is excellent and well worth the effort.

It  is divided into five parts with eight chapters: (with latin (I assume) in the titles, and my best guess translation in brackets since I don’t know latin but the words look familiar enough to guess)

Part One: De Fide (faith)

1. How do I know Christianity is True

Part Two: De Homine  (man)

2. The Absurdity of Life Without God

Part Three: De Deo  (God)

3. The Existence of God (I)

4. The Existence of God (II)

Part Four: De Creation (creation)

5. The Problem of Historical Knowledge

6. The Problem of Miracles

Part Five: De Christo  (Christ)

7. The Self-Understanding of Jesus

8. The Resurrection of Jesus

For each chapter (combined in chapters 3&4), Craig gives a history of the development of Christian apologetics for the topic being discussed. I found it very helpful to see the development of thought over time, and to know that Christians have been discussing and defending the faith for a very long time. It is also helpful to understand that some current apologetics issues are rooted in centuries-old debates that keep resurfacing.

For example, the issue of whether or not miracles can happen relates to Deism, the idea that God exists but is basically uninvolved in His creation.  In a Deist’s view of God, miracles are normally impossible. Today we often hear of Bible scholars who rule out large portions of the Bible as unhistorical. Their reason is because there is a miracle involved in the story, and that automatically disqualifies it as history, since miracles are impossible. Notice that there is no historical investigation done, it is just assumed that the story is untrue because they have already concluded that all miracles are impossible!  It is then helpful to know that this way of thinking is rooted in Deism from two hundred years ago, and that while there are few who would call themselves Deists, today, their thinking still lurks behind the scholarly work of many Biblical scholars.

After giving a historical overview, Craig gives the state of the debate today, and gives his best arguments in defense of the Christian faith. He interacts with different viewpoints, and explains why he believes his argument is correct. Sometimes it can get a little confusing, such as when he gets into discussions of multiple universes, string cosmology, theories of how time works, probability calculus, and reasons why infinity does not work in reality as it does as a mathematical abstraction (with the bizarre Hilbert’s Hotel of infinite capacity creating paradoxes when people check in and out in certain patterns…if you care to know what this has to do with the existence of God, see chapter 3). By the end of the book I think I was starting to grasp the probability calculus, and it is pretty cool in giving strong evidence for the resurrection using mathematics that were not available back when the famous philosopher David Hume declared miracles to be impossible.

But if you are now thinking, there is no way I want to read this book with confusing stuff like that, please don’t be dismayed, there are lots of other parts of the book that are much more understandable. For example, I jumped to the last chapter on the resurrection when I was about halfway through the book, in preparation for the Easter Message I preached at the Tab last month. It was extremely helpful and interesting, and I made much use of it in the message.

At the end of each chapter, Craig gives a ‘Practical Application’ section. I always enjoyed getting to this part, not only because it meant I was about to finish a long chapter, but because it was interesting to hear Dr. Craig’s less scholarly, more practical and more personal comments about the material he had just finished so meticulously presenting. He is very candid, admitting that some chapters have more practical value than others when dealing with everyday people. As a suggestion for improvement if there is ever a fourth edition, I would say that the Practical Application section was much too short and I would not have minded if it had been several pages longer in each chapter. I would also suggest reading Greg Koukl’s much shorter book, Tactics (my review is here), in combination with Reasonable Faith. Tactics gives very practical tools for how to use Christian apologetics information, such as the material contained in Reasonable Faith, in every day conversation, so that you don’t walk away from an evangelistic opportunity thinking of all the things you wished you had thought to say in the conversation.

One more note: I have a copy of the second edition of Reasonable Faith, and it contains a good chapter by Craig Blomberg, a respected evangelical scholar, about the reliablity of the New Testament. This chapter was omitted from the third edition, for reasons given by Craig in the preface (to keep the book’s length down, and to keep with his conviction that proving the historical reliability of the NT is not necessary to mount a strong apologetics case for the core truths of the NT (but note that Craig does have a high view of Scripture!!) ).

In addition to his book, Dr. Craig has put together a free website of the same name, that offers even more helpful Christian apologetics material – www.reasonablefaith.org . The other day I read a debate on the site between Dr. Craig and Dr. Bart Ehrman (click here for it), and it was interesting to see how Dr. Craig used the material presented in Reasonable Faith to counter the arguments of a leading skeptic in a live debate.

In summary, as I said a the beginning of this review, Reasonable Faith is a excellent book on Christian apologetics. I am happy to recommend it to you.

Recommended.

Craig, Dr. William Lane, Reasonable Faith Third Edition, Crossway, Wheaton, 2008, 415 pages.

The Importance Of A Personal History

The tradition of charting and maintaining a family tree is dying a gradual death. My eight year old son while unlacing his shoes after returning from the school hurled a question at me “Nana, what did your great, great,great, great, great, great, great, great, grandparents do?” I replied to him laughing out aloud that they lived in caves. He was puzzled and told me that it was not true. Yes it was not true and I do not know and will never know who they were, how they looked, what they did for a living and what their times were like. The real import of this question did not hit me till my parents came to stay with me after a gap of two years

I was surprised to see how much my parents have changed in the interim – both shrivelled and slowed down a lot. The shock of white hair on their heads was complete. There were times just a few years ago I used to search for white hairs in my mother’s hair and now I have to search for the opposite. They have aged a lot and quite suddenly. The feeling of suddenness probably was on account of my own unchanged mental image I had of them from my previous meeting. As they were settling down with updates on all the relatives and family friends including details on a couple of deaths and generous additions, I could not stop thinking that one day they too would be gone, leaving some traces for my children and probably none for my grandchildren and their progeny. Looking at my parents sitting and chatting up with their grandchildren, it struck me that they are not mere representatives of lives lived but lives that witnessed some momentous convulsions of modern India. In their own way and like millions of aspiring middle classes of India, my parents did their bit to building modern India. My father with his diligence in his job as a vet and my mother with a superbly refined emphasis on the education of her children. As I sat there thinking about my parents with a deep sense of gratitude and their enormous love, patience and sacrifice in shaping us, it struck me how little I know of their childhoods and their times and what of this will I be able to convey to my grandchildren when the time arrives. And even the very little that I know, I appear to be forgetting quite fast. In a sense, I was beginning to lose a huge slice of personal history to the vagaries of memory. I felt a little despondent that there is nothing much that I can do at this stage in terms of recovering the personal past that is rapidly getting lost, except, start building a richly descriptive family tree with the best of available information and keep passing it down the generations which hopefully will be enriched as it goes along

As I was thinking of the ways to document an elaborate family history and more specifically construct a family tree with the finer details of the actors there in and the hurdles I am going to encounter in the process, an unavoidable question around the utility of having a documented family history popped into my mind. How does it help me in knowing who my ancestors were and what they did? Does this exercise have a utility? The dictum that those who forget history are condemned to repeat it may well be applicable to aggregates, but is it applicable to individuals who are mere parts of a historical process? If some great, great grandmother or grandfather of mine was a right wing extremist or a brilliant mathematician or a failed business person or a successful artist, what is it that I am going to derive from it? What is it that I am going to gain deep diving into the past when the whole urge is to drive forward and achieve progress in the worldly sense of the word? These questions puzzled me a bit and I became ambivalent towards the utility of a personal history. I felt I needed to think much deeper than simply brushing off the idea. I allowed all my thoughts to ferment knowing well that anything that ferments will eventually rise up to provide something heady. Eventually it did and I found my answers in two simple but powerful words : Curiosity and Gratitude. To know what my ancestors were like, what they did, how they lived, what challenges they went through, what were their times like and mostimportantly what has been the trajectory on which we all stood over a period of time will be an interesting and humbling facet of a personal continuum to explore and understand. In the same breath, to stand where I am standing today, I owe it to successive generations of my ancestors who took it on them – knowingly or unknowingly -  to relay the best they had with the finest of intentions 

Attaching a utilitarian angle appears belittling my own past and not to feel a sense of gratitude would reflect on my own ungratefulness – either of which I loath to do

Not Quite A Husband by Sherry Thomas

Insomnia, you strike again!  Was it the 16oz iced white mocha or the shitty contest score sans published judge’s comments I received this evening?  Either way, it’s 1:15 in the Ante Meridiem and I’m wide awake.  Lucky for me, I have a brand spanking new historical romance to keep me company.

The inimitable, erudite and all-around badass Ms. Sherry Thomas’ third novel laid down today.  Not Quite A Husband, the story of a lady doctor at the turn of the last century who gambled her heart on a gorgeous, unattainable man and lost, is well…frickin’ awesome.  I’m about one third of the way through it and I have to say this story may turn out to be my favorite Sherry story yet.

It has all the elements I love: a reunion of former lovers (see plotline of my historical manuscript), an exotic locale (have I mentioned I’m tired of London??) and crisp, evocative writing (“Now his profile had become angular and precipitous, like the bleak heights that concealed the Kalash Valleys.”).  And while I enjoyed Private Arrangements and Delicious, Not Quite A Husband is firing on all cylinders for me .

Sigh.  It’s so unfair that the day I roll snake-eyes in a contest, I pick up this book and wonder how Sherry makes it look so easy (though I’m assured it wasn’t).  For a taste of this delectable treat for the romantically inclined, check out Sherry’s hilarious book trailer below.  Oh, and fair warning – Sherry and I share an appreciation for the precise usage of vulgar words to cover the full spectrum of word function, so if you don’t like to hear or read the F-bomb dropped like a guided missile into a underground bunker skip the trailer and the book.  Your loss because it fuckin’ rocks!

The Blood of Flowers

Title: The Blood of Flowers

Author: Anita Amirrezvani

Pages: 377

Genre: Multicultural Fiction, Historical Fiction

Rating: 5/5

In the fabled city of Isfahan, in seventeenth-century Persia, a young woman confronts a dismal fate: Her beloved father has died and left her without a dowry. Forced to work as a servant in the home of her uncle, a rich rug designer in the court of the Shah, the young woman blossoms as a brilliant designer of carpets. But while her talent flourishes, her prospects for a happy marriage grow dim, and she finds herself faced with a daunting decision – to forsake her own dignity or to risk everything in an effort to maintain it.

The basic plot of this novel is pretty familiar and much like Cinderella – a young girl falls on misfortune and is mistreated by the only family she has left. But The Blood of Flowers is much more complex than that. It deals with the highly controversial issue of temporary marriage, or sigheh. It also demonstrates how women can find themselves in very grave circumstances when they live in a society where one’s only source of financial security is a husband, or sex. Finally, it illustrates how a woman succeeds against all odds and creates a business out of nothing.

The Blood of Flowers reads very much like a fairy tale, which makes it very enjoyable to read and difficult to put down. The author laces the main story with Persian fables and tales. I found this to be unique and quite enchanting. The characters are well developed, if not a little predictable at times. But I don’t think that any predictability takes away from the story. I enjoyed seeing the anonymous narrator grow up from a little girl to a mature, at times jaded, but always ambitious young woman.

The first, and most controversial issue is the issue of temporary marriage. For security, the unnamed narrator consents to a temporary marriage to please her greedy family. But temporary marriage is represented in other ways, too. To one woman, it is a way for her to finally be with her true love after her first husband has died. In another case, it is void of any sexual connotation and simply used in order to make it proper for people to live in close quarters. In yet another case, it is offered as a way to make prostitution legal, which is how it is most often used in parts of the world today.

The second major issue is the issue of woman’s ability to be independent. The source of all of the narrator’s misfortunes is really that she has no other way to easily provide for herself outside of begging and prostitution if she has no male relatives left willing to care for her. She eventually overcomes this, after many years of suffering and hard work. But I feel that while these cultural and religious conventions may have been put into place originally to serve as a protection for women, they often times end up being a major obstacle, or even one of the causes for great suffering among women.

One thing I appreciate is that while there is a happily-ever-after ending, it’s not in the way novels like this traditionally end. There is no great love story, and no one rides off into the sunset together. I very much respect that the author didn’t play into this cliche.

I had not expected to love The Blood of Flowers as much as I did. I strongly recommend it to everyone.

Do Readers Want 'A Tragedy With a Happy Ending'?

“What the American public wants in the theater is a tragedy with a happy ending,” William Dean Howells said. Do people want this in novels, too? I gave a talk on The Story of Edgar Sawtelle at a library not long ago, and some members of the audience who loved the novel nonetheless disliked the downbeat ending. The reaction surprised me, because the reviews and publicity have made clear that the book has parallels to Hamlet, a tragedy in which corpses litter the stage in the last scene. Have the movies primed us to expect improbably happy endings? Or do the negative reactions have more to do with current events such as the recession?

Posted on May 16, 2009

337.  Deep Well of Wrath (May 14, 2009)

 

338.  Bureaucratic Ethnicities (May 14, 2009)

 

339.  The Most Glorious Year: A Modern Hermit (May 14, 2009)

 

340.  Are you Normal? (May 15, 2009

 

341.  The Near East Dilemma: The Background (Part 1, May 16, 2009)

 

342.  The Near East Dilemma: Discussions (Part 2, May 17, 2009)

Fighting with Crap

Londoners. They are insane. I promise.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/apr/24/espresso-book-machine-launches

I haven’t updated for a while, and in fact, I haven’t read or written much either. Too many exams, too little time, too little sleep, too much head-banging.

But!

With Obama’s fantastic decision to eliminate Guantanamo Bay, America needs a new torture device in three different varieties! It will make you want to be sick.

I really want to do a post on Maradonia and the Seven Bridges! It’s one of those crappy fantasy things written by an immature pre-pubescent girl on an ego-trip. I know that by mentioning its name, I am giving it yet more publicity, but to be honest, it’s just so funny!

I mean, it’s not meant to be; however… yeah. XD I’ve been writing a script for a video piss-take with my friend at school (he did most, in fact next to all, to be honest).

I’ll try and find the link for you–the first forty pages on the author’s “website”. (she puts random things in quotation marks). Now, you see, I like to help writers. Heck, on the Young Writers Society I do a lot of reviewing, and I try to improve their writing skills. I asked her to check out YWS for self-improvement, so that she wouldn’t have to self-publish it, and that she might one day improve. I meant it in genuine promise.

So far, she has only sworn grotesquely at me and claimed to be a best-seller and a better writer than me. I’m no Orwell, but she’s not better than me. Honestly. And I’m not trying to sound vain, or big myself up, because I’m still very bad and have a long time to go before publishing. I bet even you, reading this, are better than her. I cannot explain to you these atrocities without showing them to you. LOLLOLOLOL. She also believes she is the world’s youngest novelist.

(It seems she has removed the excerpt. I cannot find it through site-mapping. But nonetheless, it is of no disconcerting fact, as I have it stored on my computer in foreshadowing this wise move of hers, perhaps the first.)

Anyway. Before I get too caught up, I’ll direct you to some sporks already floating around the internet. I didn’t do them, obviously: respect to their rightful writers.

Impish Idea: Part One

Impish Idea:Part Two

Anti Shurtugal

They spork it much better than I. xD

I should be writing, shouldn’t I?

Best,

Mark

Review format

I’ve just updated – for the first time in a while – the list of books I’ve read, and you can now see the true horror of my backlog of reviews to do. There was a weekly geeks question last week about review formats, and while I didn’t participate, I read the responses with great interest and thought a good deal about the reviews I find most helpful. I came to the conclusion that the reviews I like best:

• Give the genre of the book
• Include a brief synopsis
• If it’s a book I haven’t read, include some good general thoughts that let me know whether or not it’s worth reading
• If it’s a book I have read, includes some more specific thoughts that give me an insight into the reviewer’s opinion

The other thing that’s important to me is the length of the review. I’m really not one for long reivews, but just a couple of words isn’t really good enough for me – I want to know more than that. However, I always feel pressured to write long, detailed reviews – which is probably the reason I don’t write very many of them. So from now on, in an effort to stop the pile mounting up, I will (a) attempt to keep to just the list of things I’ve written above, thereby making sure I’m actually writing reviews I’d want to read and (b) make a renewed effort to actually write some reviews in the first place. We’ll see how it goes, eh?

On another note, I’m also going to signal my temporary absence from the blogosphere. I’m going to be busy this week with a French exchange partner arriving, and directly after she leaves, I’m swanning off to Iceland (lucky me!). It’d all be wonderful if it weren’t for the fact that bloglines is going to be backed up to high heaven when I come back…

"Food Matters"

A book review guest post by Duff Beach.

Spend less money, eat healthier, and save the environment.  Sounds pretty good, right?  Mark Bittman’s Food Matters is a must read.

A good friend once said to me, “Moderation in all things . . . including moderation.”  Good advice that fits Bittman’s cooking style (see his award winning cookbooks How to Cook Everything and How to Cook Everything Vegetarian).  He provides simple recipes with several easy variations to make cooking great meals easy.  In my household we are devoted followers of the Bittman school of cooking, so much so that our copy of How to Cook Everything is that tattered, dog-eared, food-stained, broken-backed cookbook your mom may have had in her kitchen (my mom’s was the Joy of Cooking).  We like food, and Bittman has taught us how to make it for ourselves, simply, easily, and with tasty results.  So when Bittman published Food Matters, part industrial food production exposé, part cookbook, I had to give it a try.

Food Matters appeals to the moderate’s sensibility.  Bittman doesn’t tell you to be a vegetarian (he says he couldn’t do it).  He doesn’t tell you you need to shop at your local farmer’s market (though it’s not a bad idea) or Whole Foods.  And he doesn’t push any eating fads.  Instead he suggests moderate changes to our diet.  Cut back on dairy, poultry, pork and beef.  Cut way back on junk food (question any food with more than 5 ingredients).  Eat more grains (brown rice, oats, barley, etc.), legumes (he really likes beans, though I find, outside of hummus, I have a hard time getting on board), fruits and vegetables.

I was talking with a friend about this the other day (a vegetarian, at that).  She finds it easy to eat the right number of fruit servings per day, hard to get there with veggies.  Sound familiar?  When I came back from Costco (I’m not a locavore, but the strawberries were direct from Watsonville, less than 100 miles away) my wife was more than a little skeptical at the volume of vegetables I brought with me.  I threw together (and that’s about accurate, slice, stir, season, put in the oven) one of Bittman’s staple vegetable suggestions on Sunday to bring for lunch for the week.  Mi espasa tried a little and was blown away at how good it was.  I’ve been loving my Food Matters inspired lunches, and having no trouble getting enough veggies in my diet.  My point?  Bittman makes these foods accessible and yummy . . . and I’ll use all those veggies I bought.

The benefit of eating these great-tasting plant-based meals?  More nutrition, fewer calories, lower weight and cholesterol, and, as Bittman makes a big point of, it’s much better for the environment.  He doesn’t claim to write a treatise on everything wrong with industrial food production, but he does a nice job of presenting some compelling facts about its ills, including the brutal conditions factory farms subject animals to, the energy the industry uses, and it’s impact on the earth, including global warming.  As he puts it, if Americans ate, on average, three fewer cheeseburgers a week, we could drive our SUVs guilt free.  Bittman includes a blistering critique of the government’s complicity in the destruction of both the environment and our health.  The bottom line is that industrial food production, primarily surrounding animal products, is out of control, damaging to our environment, and damaging to us.

Bittman’s remedy is moderate, simple, and tasty.  Following his advice we become better stewards for ourselves, our families, and the environment.  In short, food matters.

Christian Wisdom

In the next couple of posts I am going to look at David Ford’s Christian Wisdom: Desiring God and Learning in Love (Cambridge University Press, 2007). Ford offers a low-flying biblical/exegetical/theological account of wisdom as the overriding concept of Christian theology. The first thing that struck me about this book is Ford’s clear concern to work closely with the biblical text. At several points he quotes larges portions of scripture to exposit, and the book, in many ways, is an explication of these central biblical texts. In one such instance, commenting on Luke 24:13-53 (Road to Emmaus), Ford states:

So the person who at the beginning of the Gospel is filled with wisdom and amazes the teachers in the Temple, and in the middle has exulted in knowing the Father, and in death has cried out in words from a Psalm, here interprets ‘all the Scriptures’. Yet, even as he does this and their hearts burn within them, the vital recognition of who he is does not occur through this conversation: it happens only through the breaking of bread” (37).

In an important methodological comment, Ford notes, “One of theology’s main temptations is to formulate doctrines or other theological conclusions with reference to scripture and then forget that reference, failing to keep open the engagement with scripture that is needed if the theology is to avoid becoming fossilised” (43) Theology therefore is oriented by hope in God’s promises, that desires a wisdom true to God’s desires, and navigates life through a pneumatologically rich reading of the text. The theologian must cry out to God for wisdom, and in so doing, find oneself calling out in a chorus of all those who cry out to God, even God himself, calling out to his Father from the cross.

Christian theology therefore, is “an engagement with scripture whose primary desire is for the wisdom of God in life now” (52). This is a “wisdom interpretation” of the scriptural texts that we as the community of God seek to undertake. In an important comment, Ford states:

All of them together [incarnation, cross, etc.] are essential to any Christian hermeneutic, but not as some sort of formula or method; rather as a reminder to return again and again to the particularities of the testimonies to Jesus Christ seeking the wisdom that he himself inspires in new contexts as the ongoing interpreter of them through his Spirit” (62).

This of course begs the question, What is reading in the Spirit look like? Ford suggest that the core practice of a distinctively wisdom oriented interpretation is rereading. He links the canonization itself to this concept of rereading, of rehearsing the tradition in such a way as to provide the context for wisdom. Our rereading then is not mere repetition, but is learning to read with the people of God, the whole people of God. “The question: With and for whom do we read and reread? is, after the question of God, the second (though simultaneous) question for wisdom interpretation…To live in the Spirit is to reread with others for the sake of God and the Kingdom of God and to let oneself be addressed, schooled and transformed accordingly” (68-69).

What do you think about this initial analysis? Is a “wisdom rereading” the way we need to go? We will see this played out more specifically in later posts, but I just wanted to stop and ask the question: Is this how we should develop an account of biblical reading? Any thoughts?

Now with Zombies

Pride And Prejudice And Zombies

I just obtained Pride And Prejudice And Zombies, a reworking of Jane Austen’s nearly 200 year old novel with an added zombie virus storyline. In this reworking, Elizabeth must battle the zombie hoards in addition to the romantic comedy of the original work.

This is what the public domain does for us. This is a brilliant use of the domain to create a new work from an older one, a remix, but mixed with modern popular culture.

Like it or hate it, this is quite awesome. Full review coming soon.

Double the reading for Mom's Day: Reclaim your identity as a mom AND talk to your teen

Formula for identity loss:

1. Take one multifaceted, intriguing human being.

2. Bless her with a child.

3. Mix with today’s cultural assumptions.

4. Add the demands of motherhood.

5. Presto! All identity except Mom disappears.

For every woman wondering what happened to the unique combination of gifts and abilities she was known for before kids came along, Caryn Dahlstrand Rivedeneira has good news: in Mama’s Got a Fake I.D., Rivedeneira helps moms reclaim their full identity as creative beings, gifted professionals and volunteers, loving friends, children of God-and mothers.

This inspiring and practical guide shows women how to break free from false guilt, learn a new language to express who they really are, and follow God’s lead in sharing their true self with others. After all, motherhood doesn’t have to mean losing one’s identity. Instead, being a mom makes it possible for a woman to discover a more complete identity as the person God made her to be.

Author Bio:

Caryn Rivadeneira has been a trusted voice to evangelical women since her first role editing Marriage Partnership magazine. In her nearly 10 years in Christian publishing, Caryn has held such influential positions as managing editor of Marriage Partnership, managing editor of Christian Parenting Today, and the first-ever managing editor of Women’s and Family Resources, a department she helped develop at Christianity Today International (CTI).

Today, her love of engaging and equipping Christian women continues in her role as a contracted managing editor of CTI’s latest venture: GiftedForLeadership.com, an online community for Christian women in leadership. This site which publishes some of the most influential Christian women leaders attracts more than 20,000 unique visitors every month. In her role, Caryn develops relationships with influential women leaders, edits their contributions, writes a popular monthly post, and creates downloadable booklets for women in leadership.

Caryn maintains an actives schedule as a freelance editor and writer. Her clients have included WaterBrook Press, Livingstone Corp., the Willow Creek Association, Scribe, and Christianity Today International. Caryn has published dozens of articles related to women, motherhood, and families—both in magazines and in online newsletters. These appeared not only for Marriage Partnership and Christian Parenting Todaybut also for ChristianityTodayMovies.com and as the “Resourceful Mom” and “Ask a Resourceful Woman” columnist in the MOMSense and Today’s Christian Woman e-newsletters.

Caryn her B.A. in English from Calvin College and attended the University of Chicago’s publishing program. Since the birth of her first child five years ago, Caryn switched from professional magazine editor to mother, editor, and writer, all of which she does from home, where the hours are insane but the payoff huge. Caryn spends most of her days snuggling with, reading to, playing with, singing silly songs for, and making chocolate milk for three of the best kids ever created. She, her husband, and their kids live in the western suburbs of Chicago with their four rescued pets: a relinquished Rottweiler, an abandoned bunny, and two feeder goldfish.

Looking for a way to use Mama’s Got a Fake I.D. with a book club, Bible study group of friends, bunch of neighbors, or gathering of any old bodies? You have a couple great options:

• Download the FREE discussion guide: Mama’s Talking Points!. It’s packed with some good thought provokers and conversation starters. Seriously good stuff.

Mama’s Talking Points!

• Download the FREE Bible study “When You Feel Like Mama’s Got a Fake I.D.” from ChristianBibleStudies.com based on Mama’s Got a Fake I.D.! It’s excellent. Click here to check it out.

DEAR MOM

Every mom knows how communicating with a teenage girl can be difficult, even impossible at times. One-word answers. Defensive conversations. Daily arguments. How typical for teens to put up such barriers. All the while, moms truly long to know what their daughters really think.

Best-selling author Melody Carlson, whose books for women, teens, and children have sold more than three million copies, bridges this chasm with trusted insight. She speaks frankly in the voice of the teen daughters she’s written for and she tells it like it is: struggles with identity, guys, friendship, and even parents-it’s all here. The straight-talk to moms covers such things as “I need you, but you can’t make me admit it,” “I’m not as confident as I appear,” and “I have friends. I need a mother.”

Instead of focusing on outward behaviors, Dear Mom looks at a young woman’s heart and reveals to moms:

• how to talk to teens so they hear,
• how to connect despite the differences of perspective or years and experiences,
• and how strengthen the bond every mom and daughter ultimately wants.

The lively chapters in Dear Mom can be dipped into topically or used as a read-through tool by moms and daughters alike to understand what motivates or deflates, troubles or inspires-and just in time for Mother’s Day and all the Mother’s Days ahead.

Great tips and lists you’ll find in Dear Mom

* 14 ways to help my self-esteem * 10 ways to humiliate me * 10 tips for how to act around my friends * 10 traits I admire most about you * 21 things I’ll never say when I’m a mom * 11 ways to totally alienate me * 10 ways to make me tune out * 9 things you say that shut me down * 6 things you say that help me open up * 12 things you’ve done that make me proud * 10 ways you could ruin my life * 13 ways we’re alike * 6 rules I might actually get * 14 things I don’t get about guys * 9 healthy ways you can help me express myself * 12 common fears I’ll never admit * 12 ways to encourage my spiritual life

Author Bio:

Melody Carlson is the award-winning author of more than one hundred books for adults, children, and teens, with sales totaling more than three million copies. Beloved for her Diary of a Teenage Girl and Notes from a Spinning Planet series, she’s also the author of the women’s novels Finding Alice (in production now for a Lifetime-TV movie), Crystal Lies, On This Day, These Boots Weren’t Made for Walking, and A Mile in My Flip-Flops. A mother of two grown sons, Melody lives in central Oregon with her husband and chocolate lab retriever. She’s a full-time writer and an avid gardener, biker, skier, and hiker.

A Boy's Own Story - Edmund White

Today I was able to spend a little time in the library, and because I have been watching so much television lately, I was able to devour this little book by Edmund White.This book is a very special boy’s own story. The nameless protagonist is both awkwardly self-conscious and painfully naive as he grows up in a world that categorizes all of his innermost feelings as unspeakable taboos. The book covers his adolescence roughly from age 11 to 18, although not in chronological order. The events and associated responses from our protagonist are at times funny, sweet and romantic, and tragic (and to me, a little hot), but the really outstanding passages are in the protagonist’s reflections upon his relationship with his mother and father.

I have a weakness for coming of age fiction, and that goes double for gay coming of age fiction, and every book I read brings a flood of self-reflection and mixed emotions. I have a couple of things I would like to share, one rather deep, one not at all.

1. The part of the book that I found most affecting was when the protagonist is describing the way that he interacts with his father not through verbal communication but through shared love of music.

I mention the constant music because, to my mind at least, it served as an invisible link between my father and me. He never discussed music beyond saying that the German Requiem  was “damn nice” or that the violin and cello concerto was “one hell of a piece,” and even these judments he made with a trace of embarassment; for him, music was emotion and he did not belive in discussing feelings.

His real love was the late Brahms, the piano Intermezzi  and especially the two clarinet sonatas. These pieces, as unpredictable as thought and as human as conversation, filled the house night after night. He could not have liked them as background music to work to, since their abrupt changes of volume and dynamics must have made them too arresting to dismiss. I never showered with my dad, I never saw him naked, not once, but we did immerse ouselves, side by side, in those passionate streams every night. As he worked at his desk and I sat on his couch, reading or daydreaming, we bathed in music. Did he feel the same things I felt? Perhaps I ask this only because now that he’s dead I fear we shared nothing and my long captivity in his house represented to him only a slight inconvenience, a major expense, a fair to middling dissappointment, but I like to think that music spoke to us in similar ways and acted as the source and transcript of a shared rapture.

This kind of hit me in the gut when I first read it, because like that of the novel, my own father is remote and not prone to share feelings or emotions, and more often than not, ideas either. And so, most of our conversations revolve around music. Like in White’s novel, my father and I do not share many common interests. Music has been the thing that has bound us together for as long as I can remember, and all of the happy memories that I have with him have been related to music. It is actually something that I have been thinking about recently. I have been wondering if as much as I try and laugh off the idea of striving for my fathers approval, I have pursued music because it’s the thing that gives him pleasure.

2. This is going to sound even more awfully shallow coming right off of that last thought, but I felt a little chagrined after reading the obligitory section where White’s protagonist goes off to a New England boarding school. Rampant (homo/hetero)sexuality in boarding schools is a well explored trope in everything from The World According to Garp to Matthew Rothschild’s excellent memoir, Dumbfounded. I always feel a little cheated when I read about hot underage gay sex in boarding schools becuase I went to one and that certainly wasn’t part of my experience.

A Way out of History

A Way out of History (May 7, 2009)

 

            The citizens of the developed Nations, within their own boundaries, feel that they have no longer any need to learn history or their own history.  History to the citizens of the developed nations is a drag, a waste of time, of no use, totally irrelevant. They are mostly correct in their feeling and appreciation of the uselessness of history relevant to their nation: first, they have reached as a society a level of social cohesion, awareness, appreciation of human dignity and human rights; and second, they are more concerned about their present state of affairs, maintaining their current level of comfort, consumerism choices, creating diverse opportunities, future availabilities for their desires and wishes.  These modern citizens have institutions to continue the good work; institutions to analyze whatever history is appropriate for the nation, institutions for research, for legitimacy, for governance, for economy, for finance, for strategic studies, for learning, for art, for marketing, and for studying the under-developed States and minorities.

History for the citizens of the developed nation is plainly relegated to the under-developed States. The Third World and Fourth World “citizens”, (we should create another term for citizenship for the under-developed world because it is frankly too pompous and inappropriate any which way you define a citizen), have nothing left but “history” for amusement and to give them reference to an illusory identity. History for the “history citizens” has been written by the vanquishers and then translated and interpreted by the colonial powers. The archeological sites in the land of the “amused archaic citizens” were dug out and investigated by the colonial powers and the artifacts were dusted off, cleaned, and conserved in secured museums that the traveling tourists and immigrants never visit.  The chasm between the developed and the “non-developed” States is huge and growing larger by the day.  History is still being taught in the developed nations simply because more immigrants are flocking in and some sort of integration in commendable.

More likely, a citizen would visit an immigrant friend to fill him in on current news and occasionally get a good laugh on stories of their respective ancestors; yes, the immigrant might know more details on the citizen’s ancestors and the history of the citizen’s country.  In fact, hard copy dailies are published to satisfy the voracious curiosities of the immigrants. Storytelling is a cultural trademark among immigrants and getting together is worthless and devoid of any interest if no bickering accompanies the assembly.

If there are rival “civilizations” it must be in the mind of the immigrants. They are attuned to any gesture, tone of voice, slang, or posturing that remind them of their “indignity”, their frequent humiliations, their total dependence on the host nation for understanding, leniency, forgiveness, compassion, and equal treatments under the laws. The immigrants are overachievers, hard working, on constant alert of changes in behavior and special laws, on foreign policies regarding their “homeland”, on unequal measures doled in foreign policies and moral values.

“Civilization clash” is in the mind of the immigrant: the citizen doesn’t care about the agony and tribulation of his immigrant friend.  The immigrant is a sponge for all kinds of curiosities in art, theater, intellectual life, and any association that invites him to participate.  The immigrant is most likely polyglot and can converse in many languages and he has to suffer being mocked for his accent in the local slang; he has to be corrected frequently because accent is the main avenue for integration and acceptance as a civilized individual.

Discrimination is in the mind of the immigrant.  A citizen would immediately recognize an immigrant for miles if he cared to focus a second on the individual.  The citizen in an administrative position has to call upon the cleric, the community leader, or the father of the immigrant before taking any decision for any kinds of permit application; the immigrant is supposed to be looked after as an immature kid no matter how old he is. Equal treatments are the domain of the citizens and interpretations of the law and customs are appropriate when dealing with an immigrant.  The whole gamut of the UN laws for human rights were targeted for the under-developed States that are shaming human kinds in their state of affairs.  Yet, many “non-citizens” would like to experience a new era when embargoes on military hardware, military trainers, and military experts are imposed on dictators, juntas, and oligarchies who are flaunting the UN human rights declarations in their under developed States.

Seriously learning the language of your immigrant friend is the first sign of real friendship. Blatantly observing the differences in culture and customs is an excellent sign of friendship. Vigorously and unabashedly critiquing divergence in opinions is sign of friendship. Make no mistake: any behavior that smack of covert apartheid is quickly sensed by your immigrant “friend”.  Make no mistake: the next generation of your immigrant friend will be exactly you, when you were younger. If you are serious for integration of your immigrant friend then behave as if you are dealing with the next generation, on a par.

TLC Book Tour: Precious by Sandra Novack

Title: Precious

Author: Sandra Novack

Genre/Pages: Fiction; 288 pages

Publication: Random House; 2/17/09

Rating: 4.5 BOOKMARKS

I’ve been thinking about Precious ever since I finished it late last month; Sandra Novack’s lyrical prose had a profound impact on me, hence the longer-than-usual review—this book deserves it! 

Set in rural Pennsylvania in the late 1970s, Precious tells the story of a family falling apart from the inside out.  Unable to find balance in her roles as mother, wife, and woman, Natalia Kisch is tired of feeling overwhelmed and runs off to Italy with a lover.  Shockwaves from Natalia’s decision ripple through her family, neighborhood, and community, fundamentally and irreparably damaging her children and spouse.    

Eldest daughter Eva’s anger is tinged with fear and humiliation and sets her on a self-destructive path of promiscuity.  She is powerless and can’t control anything except her own actions, which ultimately lead her to a heartrending decision. 

9-year-old Sissy exists in a hazy world, hovering between fantasy and reality.  She harbors guilt over her mother’s abandonment and over the disappearance of a former friend and neighborhood girl.  Avoidance is the only way she can cope.  At several points during the book I feared for her safety because she was so lost in her private, dreamy world.

Frank, father of the girls and Natalia’s husband, withdraws from his children, unable and unwilling to navigate the rocky waters of his emotions.  He’s ill-equipped to handle the anger, embarrassment, and pain that comes with his wife’s betrayal and abandonment.

Novack’s use of figurative language and characterization actually gave me pause at several points during the novel.  The simplicity and beauty of her diction helped to make this book one of the best novels I’ve read in the last ten months.   Themes of abandonment and loss resonate on each page.   Imagery is vivid– especially in the following passage—making Sissy’s terror palpable: 

“After Eva leaves, the day grows as long as a shadow.  By four the house will begin to feel ominous.  In the kitchen, the basement door will become a gateway to a place filled with cobwebby terror, unspeakable dread.  In the living room, Sissy will be certain someone lurks just outside the window: a mystery man, a murderer.  Upstairs, the shuttered closet in Sissy’s room will suddenly hold too many secrets; each slat will cause her to worry.”  (Novack, 22.)

I can’t recommend this book strongly enough.  It’s worthy of so much more praise than it has garnered.  I hope that with the exposure from TLC tours and book blogger word-of-mouth, it will finally receive the accolades it deserves.  Thank you to Lisa and Trish of TLC Book Tours for inviting me to host Sandra Novack’s Precious—it was truly my pleasure.

Five Free Business English Learning Resources| Web Collection

1, Business English Pod

The website provides free weekly MP3 podcast ESL lessons for intermediate and advanced business English learners.

Web address: http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=bizpod&view=playlists or http://www.businessenglishpod.com/

Business English Pod

2, Business English Study

Entrepreneurs, Companies, Products

Web address:  http://www.businessenglishstudy.com/?page_id=282

3, Business Spotlight

Business Spotlight is a language magazine for everybody who needs English at work. Read about international business and intercultural issues

Web address: http://www.business-spotlight.de/our-products

4, Macmillan Business

EnglishMacmillan’s Business English teaching resources

Web address: http://www.businessenglishonline.n/TheBusiness/resources.htm

5, ESL Business News

The website was founded in 2006 to provide a podcast summary of each week’s business news from aroud the world in slow, clear English.

Web address: http://www.eslbusinessnews.com/

Review of Matt Amsden's "RAWvolution"

Matt’s “RAWvolution” was the first raw food recipe book I picked up. For months, I had been living on barely edible green smoothies, chunky “dessert bars” and the same boring salad every night.  What attracted me to this book were its bright vibrant colours (there are gorgeous pictures on just about every second page), and its simplicity (some of the recipes only have 5 ingredients). I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in incorporting more raw food into their diet. Following these recipes, you won’t have to sacrifice taste and satisfaction for health.

FCBD 09: Millions of Comics to be Given Away Free

Saturday, May 1, more than 2,000 comic retailers are offering free comics — ranging from Wolverine to Owly – as part of an initiative to draw new readers. By the end of Free Comic Book Day, millions of comics will have been given away absolutely free.

The FCBD website’s Sponsors Page can locate participating retailers, and Dorian of postmodernbarney.com reviews the titles, giving advance knowledge of what’s available. There’s more info about the comics here.

One thing different about this year’s event is Hugh Jackman’s PSA. Mr. Jackman is the first big name star to endorse Free Comic Book Day through such means. Funny Book Fanatic features two posts thanking Jackman and discussing the significance of the PSA.