Book report
Sep. 26th, 2008 01:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
stormkeeper_lovedorisHere’s my latest book report –
Dreams of Trespass: Tales of a Harem Girlhood by Fatima Mernissi – This book was really good. It’s Mernissi’s memoir; she great up in an actual harem in Morocco in the 1940’s. (Her father had “only” one wife but her grandfather had several, and so many generations of this family all lived together). I felt like I was looking into a secret, forbidden world. It was also a very sad one; while some of the many women in the family liked their lifestyle others felt like caged animals. (They could not set foot outside without an escort and permission, which were rarely obtained). Mernissi’s writing is subtle; she doesn’t hit you over the head with her feminism but she gets it across while also sharing the sights, sounds, and smells of harem life and Morocco. She also shares the different perspectives of the women of the household – from the more respected wives, to a disgraced divorcee, to the children, and to the slaves. It’s really interesting when she and a male cousin, who were close to each other when children, slowly realize they are growing up and growing into two vastly different worlds – one for men, one for women. Grade: B+
A Boy of Good Breeding by Miriam Toews – I had read two other novels by Toews (A Complicated Kindness and Summer of My Amazing Luck) and loved them both. She’s a fantastic writer who creates realistic, quirky characters, makes you care about them, and wraps them up in great storylines. This novel, though, wasn’t as good as the rest. It had her trademark characters and it wasn’t bad – but it just wasn’t as moving as her other work; I didn’t experience any of those magical or surprising or just insightful moments that are in Toews’ other novels. Sometimes when I like a few books by an author my expectations get too high, I know. I’ll still eagerly look forward to her next one. Grade: C+
More behind the cut!
The Hip Mama Survival Guide by Ariel Gore – This is a book of parenting advice “from the trenches”, written by a feisty, resourceful, young woman. She had her daughter when she was a teenager and she shares not only her opinions and wisdom but that of other “hip mamas” as well; Gore has a huge network. The book does attempt to cover a lot of topics and I think it doesn’t quite go into depth enough in any of them. The range of topics include pregnancy, dealing with doctors and hospitals, gender roles for kids, custody battles, surviving while poor, toilet training, and on and on. There is all sorts of good advice and humor in here, though overall it probably pertains most to those moms who are young/single/not middle-class. But hey, there are plenty of parenting books for those who are not in the above categories, and I really liked the different take this book had. If nothing else, it was nice to see that successful parenting can be done by those who live outside of the mainstream. I don’t have kids (not yet, maybe never) but really loved this book. Grade: B+
Landing by Emma Donoghue – I like this novelist and have read several of her other books (“Slammerkin” and “Stir Fry” being my favorites). This novel takes place in modern times and is a love story between two women, one who lives in Ireland, one in Canada. Something about the novel’s writing, particular the dialog, seemed just “off”. I read it thinking, ‘No one really talks this way’. Even the narration seemed like it was trying really really hard to sound hip and witty, and instead it came off as cloying, too over the top. As I progressed through the book, this flaw got more and more apparent and annoying. On the positive side, I enjoyed the storyline and the characters felt realistic. But Donoghue can do a lot better than this. Grade: C-
The Slave Girl by Buchi Emecheta – This novel was published more than 30 years ago. Taking place in Nigeria in the early 1900’s, it tells the story of young Ojebeta, who (as you can probably guess from the title) is sold into slavery. It might sound like the book is going to be relentlessly depressing, but it wasn’t; the main character tends to look on the bright side and - without giving too much away – she experiences a fair amount of luck. But, as with “Landing”, this book also suffers from Awkward Writing Syndrome. The narration doesn’t flow well at all. And I’m not sure how to articulate this, but I just felt that something was missing from this book. I didn’t mind reading it but can’t say it enriched my life much. Grade: C
Yikes, I think this book report contains more grade of “C” than I’ve ever given in one report. I don’t know if I’m becoming a tougher grader, or what.
Books I started reading but didn’t finish:
Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert – This book was a best-seller, so obviously a lot of people liked it. But I just couldn’t get into it, and I really tried – making it all the way to page 91. I’m not sure why this book didn’t click with me. I guess I didn’t find reading about the author’s travels all that interesting...maybe she seemed a bit too wrapped up in herself and a bit too melodramatic...maybe the book just seemed pointless to me. I dunno. I tried.
Dreams of Trespass: Tales of a Harem Girlhood by Fatima Mernissi – This book was really good. It’s Mernissi’s memoir; she great up in an actual harem in Morocco in the 1940’s. (Her father had “only” one wife but her grandfather had several, and so many generations of this family all lived together). I felt like I was looking into a secret, forbidden world. It was also a very sad one; while some of the many women in the family liked their lifestyle others felt like caged animals. (They could not set foot outside without an escort and permission, which were rarely obtained). Mernissi’s writing is subtle; she doesn’t hit you over the head with her feminism but she gets it across while also sharing the sights, sounds, and smells of harem life and Morocco. She also shares the different perspectives of the women of the household – from the more respected wives, to a disgraced divorcee, to the children, and to the slaves. It’s really interesting when she and a male cousin, who were close to each other when children, slowly realize they are growing up and growing into two vastly different worlds – one for men, one for women. Grade: B+
A Boy of Good Breeding by Miriam Toews – I had read two other novels by Toews (A Complicated Kindness and Summer of My Amazing Luck) and loved them both. She’s a fantastic writer who creates realistic, quirky characters, makes you care about them, and wraps them up in great storylines. This novel, though, wasn’t as good as the rest. It had her trademark characters and it wasn’t bad – but it just wasn’t as moving as her other work; I didn’t experience any of those magical or surprising or just insightful moments that are in Toews’ other novels. Sometimes when I like a few books by an author my expectations get too high, I know. I’ll still eagerly look forward to her next one. Grade: C+
More behind the cut!
The Hip Mama Survival Guide by Ariel Gore – This is a book of parenting advice “from the trenches”, written by a feisty, resourceful, young woman. She had her daughter when she was a teenager and she shares not only her opinions and wisdom but that of other “hip mamas” as well; Gore has a huge network. The book does attempt to cover a lot of topics and I think it doesn’t quite go into depth enough in any of them. The range of topics include pregnancy, dealing with doctors and hospitals, gender roles for kids, custody battles, surviving while poor, toilet training, and on and on. There is all sorts of good advice and humor in here, though overall it probably pertains most to those moms who are young/single/not middle-class. But hey, there are plenty of parenting books for those who are not in the above categories, and I really liked the different take this book had. If nothing else, it was nice to see that successful parenting can be done by those who live outside of the mainstream. I don’t have kids (not yet, maybe never) but really loved this book. Grade: B+
Landing by Emma Donoghue – I like this novelist and have read several of her other books (“Slammerkin” and “Stir Fry” being my favorites). This novel takes place in modern times and is a love story between two women, one who lives in Ireland, one in Canada. Something about the novel’s writing, particular the dialog, seemed just “off”. I read it thinking, ‘No one really talks this way’. Even the narration seemed like it was trying really really hard to sound hip and witty, and instead it came off as cloying, too over the top. As I progressed through the book, this flaw got more and more apparent and annoying. On the positive side, I enjoyed the storyline and the characters felt realistic. But Donoghue can do a lot better than this. Grade: C-
The Slave Girl by Buchi Emecheta – This novel was published more than 30 years ago. Taking place in Nigeria in the early 1900’s, it tells the story of young Ojebeta, who (as you can probably guess from the title) is sold into slavery. It might sound like the book is going to be relentlessly depressing, but it wasn’t; the main character tends to look on the bright side and - without giving too much away – she experiences a fair amount of luck. But, as with “Landing”, this book also suffers from Awkward Writing Syndrome. The narration doesn’t flow well at all. And I’m not sure how to articulate this, but I just felt that something was missing from this book. I didn’t mind reading it but can’t say it enriched my life much. Grade: C
Yikes, I think this book report contains more grade of “C” than I’ve ever given in one report. I don’t know if I’m becoming a tougher grader, or what.
Books I started reading but didn’t finish:
Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert – This book was a best-seller, so obviously a lot of people liked it. But I just couldn’t get into it, and I really tried – making it all the way to page 91. I’m not sure why this book didn’t click with me. I guess I didn’t find reading about the author’s travels all that interesting...maybe she seemed a bit too wrapped up in herself and a bit too melodramatic...maybe the book just seemed pointless to me. I dunno. I tried.
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no subject
Date: 2008-09-26 08:22 pm (UTC)I don't have interesting things to say about it today, but I always enjoy your book reports <3
no subject
Date: 2008-09-26 09:16 pm (UTC)How are you lately?
no subject
Date: 2008-09-26 09:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-09-26 11:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-09-26 11:16 pm (UTC)sometimes you read a crop of books that aren't *bad* but aren't all that great either. maybe next book report will be full of As & Bs :)
others have said eat pray love was a good book but even just reading the description, i didn't think i was going to get much out of it.
thanks for sharing!
no subject
Date: 2008-09-26 11:18 pm (UTC)And yeah, I really did try on "Eat Pray Love", but I guess that just cuz something's a best seller doesn't mean it'll click for you.