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Book Report
Oct. 27th, 2014 12:44 pmBook Report
Outlaw Marriages by Rodger Streitmatter – In this book, the author profiles fifteen same-sex couples in American history, couples which made significant contributions to American culture. It was really interesting and well-written; Streitmatter provides just enough information on each pairing – their lives before they got together, how they met, how they worked together, how one inspired the other, and their work. I learned a lot and was very into it. I think only one member of one pair is still alive today, so the book is great for history buffs. One aside, which doesn’t have anything to do with the quality of the book – it was kind of sad to see how many of the couples had a stormy relationship. With about three exceptions, most of the couples spent years separated and/or didn’t end up together in the long run and/or had affairs (not in the context of an agreed-upon open relationship)….there weren’t a lot of really ‘happy endings’. The exceptions appeared to be Jane Addams and Mary Rozet Smith, Gertrude Stein and Alice B Toklas (although I know from a bio I read on the two that Toklas was pretty miserable the decades after Stein died, so not a lot of ‘happy’ in that regard), and the filmmakers Ismail Merchant and James Ivory. Grade: B
Little Heathens: Hard Times and High Spirits on an Iowa Farm During the Great Depression by Mildred Armstrong Kalish – Exactly what you can guess from the subtitle, the book is a memoir about growing up on a farm in the 1930’s. I so totally loved it. I guess it’s a contradiction that I love hearing stories about living this way, even though I myself would not really want to live the way Kalish did. What do I mean by “living this way”? Kalish and her siblings worked on the farm from sunup to sundown, managing schoolwork on the fly. The aspects that I like and envy were how they took pleasure in “small” things like their aunt making popcorn and playing the piano, how even though the work hours were long the work itself was satisfying, there were no TV screens or other types of screens to zone out to, and how everyone in their community knew everyone else. It goes without saying on the parts I don’t like – there was little affection, no discussion of sexuality, strict gender roles, a stifling community where one could not step out of their prescribed roles or avoid gossip (like even a married woman got flack when she got pregnant if the neighbors felt like she’d had too many children. So when exactly is sexuality okay???) But the positive aspects of their lifestyle sure were worth something. In any case, the memoir was riveting. Grade: B+
A Place of Secrets by Rachel Hore – This novel serves as my 100th reminder that if a book isn’t working out, I need to abandon ship. It was so not worth it to slog through 370 pages, hoping that the semi-interesting setup and ok main character would morph into an intriguing plot and lead to a payoff. The ‘secrets’ of the title were nothing exciting, and there was a lot of extraneous gunk in here that should’ve been cut out. While reading this book, I also was listening to a boring novel on audio, a novel that should have captured me more. (The book was “Queen Sugar” by Natalie Baszile, which possibly was going somewhere interesting but taking far too long to get there). Even though I unfortunately stuck it out with this book, at least I put the audiobook away after 3 of its 11 CDs. Grade: D
Little Princes by Conor Grennan - Grennan went to Nepal where he was moved to fight the trafficking of children and help unite kids with their families. During Nepal’s civil war, many parents in remote, impoverished areas fell prey to traffickers who promised to bring their children to safety but instead sold them in larger cities. Grennan first volunteers at one of the children’s shelters and then takes risky treks into the mountains to the remote villages to meet with the parents and help them understand what had happened. One section was particularly intense when Grennan is in the mountains, racing against time (once it starts to snow, he might be trapped the entire winter), fighting a knee injury, at the mercy of semi-competent porters, and realizes they are lost. He told his entire story well. Grade: B
On Becoming Fearless by Arianna Huffington – This was a short book that I listened to on audio. It reminded me of once when I was at a women’s leadership conference. On the final day of the conference, the team booked the perfect speaker. She was someone who shared with us insights and reminders on stuff we already knew but needed to hear again. It was like a light sorbet, someone commented. Nothing too heavy, nothing shocking, but sweet positive messages that we really need to put at the front of our minds. That’s how this book was too. Huffington shares with us her thoughts on beauty (like not getting caught up in it if you don’t look like Angelina Jolie), aging, living the life you want, taking risks, that sort of stuff. I liked that aspect a lot. But two things I did not care for at all. I always dislike when an author assumes that every reader is heterosexual, but Huffington makes multiple comments that assume that every woman wants to find or keep a man. (She even makes comments that assume that every man is interested in women). I found that odd given that sometimes I read very LGBT-friendly articles on FB from Huffington post. Secondly, I know this is uncool to say but I hated Huffington’s voice! I felt she did a terrible job narrating her book. Am I prejudiced against people with heavy “accents”? But I loved Deepak Chopra’s reading of his book, and he has an “accent”! I really would’ve hired an actual actor to read this book instead. Sometimes Huffington would mention an author or speaker or someone and I had no idea what that’s person name was, based on her pronunciation. Grade: B-
(Okay, one other thing about Huffington’s reading of her book. The more I think about it, it seems that language has a certain ‘music’ to it when spoken. Maybe it comes down to the fact that Chopra spoke English with the right kind of music in his voice, while Huffington did not).
Books I Started Reading But Didn’t Finish
In addition to “Queen Sugar”, as mentioned above -
China Dolls by Lisa See – Generally I like Lisa See’s novels. I don’t think they exactly qualify as great literature, but she can spin a good story. I began listening to “China Dolls” on audio and I couldn’t get passed even the second CD out of 11. The two main issues were that the dialog was laughably bad – almost like a parody -- and the voice actor was no better than the dialog. Like somehow the voice actor made the terrible dialog even worse. I might have stuck it out had the plot intrigued me more, but it didn’t see myself putting up with 10 more CDs of this. I also remembered my experience with “Queen Sugar”, which had fine dialog and a strong actor, but was a fail in the plot department.
Outlaw Marriages by Rodger Streitmatter – In this book, the author profiles fifteen same-sex couples in American history, couples which made significant contributions to American culture. It was really interesting and well-written; Streitmatter provides just enough information on each pairing – their lives before they got together, how they met, how they worked together, how one inspired the other, and their work. I learned a lot and was very into it. I think only one member of one pair is still alive today, so the book is great for history buffs. One aside, which doesn’t have anything to do with the quality of the book – it was kind of sad to see how many of the couples had a stormy relationship. With about three exceptions, most of the couples spent years separated and/or didn’t end up together in the long run and/or had affairs (not in the context of an agreed-upon open relationship)….there weren’t a lot of really ‘happy endings’. The exceptions appeared to be Jane Addams and Mary Rozet Smith, Gertrude Stein and Alice B Toklas (although I know from a bio I read on the two that Toklas was pretty miserable the decades after Stein died, so not a lot of ‘happy’ in that regard), and the filmmakers Ismail Merchant and James Ivory. Grade: B
Little Heathens: Hard Times and High Spirits on an Iowa Farm During the Great Depression by Mildred Armstrong Kalish – Exactly what you can guess from the subtitle, the book is a memoir about growing up on a farm in the 1930’s. I so totally loved it. I guess it’s a contradiction that I love hearing stories about living this way, even though I myself would not really want to live the way Kalish did. What do I mean by “living this way”? Kalish and her siblings worked on the farm from sunup to sundown, managing schoolwork on the fly. The aspects that I like and envy were how they took pleasure in “small” things like their aunt making popcorn and playing the piano, how even though the work hours were long the work itself was satisfying, there were no TV screens or other types of screens to zone out to, and how everyone in their community knew everyone else. It goes without saying on the parts I don’t like – there was little affection, no discussion of sexuality, strict gender roles, a stifling community where one could not step out of their prescribed roles or avoid gossip (like even a married woman got flack when she got pregnant if the neighbors felt like she’d had too many children. So when exactly is sexuality okay???) But the positive aspects of their lifestyle sure were worth something. In any case, the memoir was riveting. Grade: B+
A Place of Secrets by Rachel Hore – This novel serves as my 100th reminder that if a book isn’t working out, I need to abandon ship. It was so not worth it to slog through 370 pages, hoping that the semi-interesting setup and ok main character would morph into an intriguing plot and lead to a payoff. The ‘secrets’ of the title were nothing exciting, and there was a lot of extraneous gunk in here that should’ve been cut out. While reading this book, I also was listening to a boring novel on audio, a novel that should have captured me more. (The book was “Queen Sugar” by Natalie Baszile, which possibly was going somewhere interesting but taking far too long to get there). Even though I unfortunately stuck it out with this book, at least I put the audiobook away after 3 of its 11 CDs. Grade: D
Little Princes by Conor Grennan - Grennan went to Nepal where he was moved to fight the trafficking of children and help unite kids with their families. During Nepal’s civil war, many parents in remote, impoverished areas fell prey to traffickers who promised to bring their children to safety but instead sold them in larger cities. Grennan first volunteers at one of the children’s shelters and then takes risky treks into the mountains to the remote villages to meet with the parents and help them understand what had happened. One section was particularly intense when Grennan is in the mountains, racing against time (once it starts to snow, he might be trapped the entire winter), fighting a knee injury, at the mercy of semi-competent porters, and realizes they are lost. He told his entire story well. Grade: B
On Becoming Fearless by Arianna Huffington – This was a short book that I listened to on audio. It reminded me of once when I was at a women’s leadership conference. On the final day of the conference, the team booked the perfect speaker. She was someone who shared with us insights and reminders on stuff we already knew but needed to hear again. It was like a light sorbet, someone commented. Nothing too heavy, nothing shocking, but sweet positive messages that we really need to put at the front of our minds. That’s how this book was too. Huffington shares with us her thoughts on beauty (like not getting caught up in it if you don’t look like Angelina Jolie), aging, living the life you want, taking risks, that sort of stuff. I liked that aspect a lot. But two things I did not care for at all. I always dislike when an author assumes that every reader is heterosexual, but Huffington makes multiple comments that assume that every woman wants to find or keep a man. (She even makes comments that assume that every man is interested in women). I found that odd given that sometimes I read very LGBT-friendly articles on FB from Huffington post. Secondly, I know this is uncool to say but I hated Huffington’s voice! I felt she did a terrible job narrating her book. Am I prejudiced against people with heavy “accents”? But I loved Deepak Chopra’s reading of his book, and he has an “accent”! I really would’ve hired an actual actor to read this book instead. Sometimes Huffington would mention an author or speaker or someone and I had no idea what that’s person name was, based on her pronunciation. Grade: B-
(Okay, one other thing about Huffington’s reading of her book. The more I think about it, it seems that language has a certain ‘music’ to it when spoken. Maybe it comes down to the fact that Chopra spoke English with the right kind of music in his voice, while Huffington did not).
Books I Started Reading But Didn’t Finish
In addition to “Queen Sugar”, as mentioned above -
China Dolls by Lisa See – Generally I like Lisa See’s novels. I don’t think they exactly qualify as great literature, but she can spin a good story. I began listening to “China Dolls” on audio and I couldn’t get passed even the second CD out of 11. The two main issues were that the dialog was laughably bad – almost like a parody -- and the voice actor was no better than the dialog. Like somehow the voice actor made the terrible dialog even worse. I might have stuck it out had the plot intrigued me more, but it didn’t see myself putting up with 10 more CDs of this. I also remembered my experience with “Queen Sugar”, which had fine dialog and a strong actor, but was a fail in the plot department.
