Book report
Nov. 28th, 2010 01:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
stormkeeper_lovedorisBook Report
Ad Nauseum: A Survivor’s Guide to American Consumer Culture by Carrie McLaren and Jason Torchinsky – I think sometimes that we are in denial about how much we are impacted by living in a consumer culture, one where advertisements scream at us constantly from every possible medium and subconsciously shape our desires. This was a fantastic anthology, talking about this culture and its impacts, techniques advertisers use to get us, and much more. Also, a few segments were so funny that I laughed out loud. Grade: B+
Learning to Breathe by Alison Wright –Wright is amazing. She is an adventurer who has traveled the globe and lived among people in every corner of the world. During a bus crash in Laos, she sustains injuries that should have killed her, and she languishes for 14 hours before she can get any halfway decent medical care. Her story had me glued to the page. She talks about her adventures before the accident and her long road to recovery afterwards. Less than 2 years after nearly dying, she climbs Kilimanjaro. Grade: B+
More books behind the cut!
Loyal to the Sky by Marisa Handler – This is a memoir by an activist. She has spent her life fighting the good fight – against apartheid in her native South Africa, trying to close the School of the Americas (a place in the USA that trains death squads that go to Latin America), against the Iraq war during Bush’s reign (where the military presence and – literally – tanks -- made exercising any sort of free speech almost impossible), and much more. Parts of the book dragged just a bit but it was good enough; it held my interest and Handler also shared some good insights she gained too. Grade: B-
Autobiography of a Geisha by Sayo Masuda – I read this book in one day. I couldn’t put it down. Forget the best-selling novel “Memoirs of a Geisha” by Arthur Golden. This is the actual autobiography of a woman who worked as a geisha, first published in Japan in the 1950’s. I really enjoyed hearing about this real person’s life, in a time and place that are so different from the one I live in. Masuda’s parents weren’t married and she was sold off at an early age to work as a maid for a family in the countryside, before being sold to apprentice as a geisha. As you might suspect, the life of a geisha was far more difficult than glamorous. Her story was riveting. Grade: A
Shanghai Girls by Lisa See – The best-selling author (“Snow Flower and the Secret Fan”) is back with another tale of Chinese women, this one centering around two sisters living in Shanghai in the 1930’s. I was relieved that this novel was so good. I had listened to See’s “Peony in Love” and honestly thought it was terrible, and about four times as long as it should’ve been. But I liked this one a lot. I won’t give much away except to say that we see a lot about the two sisters’ lives and interactions, there are a few surprises, and several tragedies. I did think that the ending was a bit rushed, almost like See realized that she’d been going on for a while and should end it. This one could, I think, merit a sequel. Grade: B
Ad Nauseum: A Survivor’s Guide to American Consumer Culture by Carrie McLaren and Jason Torchinsky – I think sometimes that we are in denial about how much we are impacted by living in a consumer culture, one where advertisements scream at us constantly from every possible medium and subconsciously shape our desires. This was a fantastic anthology, talking about this culture and its impacts, techniques advertisers use to get us, and much more. Also, a few segments were so funny that I laughed out loud. Grade: B+
Learning to Breathe by Alison Wright –Wright is amazing. She is an adventurer who has traveled the globe and lived among people in every corner of the world. During a bus crash in Laos, she sustains injuries that should have killed her, and she languishes for 14 hours before she can get any halfway decent medical care. Her story had me glued to the page. She talks about her adventures before the accident and her long road to recovery afterwards. Less than 2 years after nearly dying, she climbs Kilimanjaro. Grade: B+
More books behind the cut!
Loyal to the Sky by Marisa Handler – This is a memoir by an activist. She has spent her life fighting the good fight – against apartheid in her native South Africa, trying to close the School of the Americas (a place in the USA that trains death squads that go to Latin America), against the Iraq war during Bush’s reign (where the military presence and – literally – tanks -- made exercising any sort of free speech almost impossible), and much more. Parts of the book dragged just a bit but it was good enough; it held my interest and Handler also shared some good insights she gained too. Grade: B-
Autobiography of a Geisha by Sayo Masuda – I read this book in one day. I couldn’t put it down. Forget the best-selling novel “Memoirs of a Geisha” by Arthur Golden. This is the actual autobiography of a woman who worked as a geisha, first published in Japan in the 1950’s. I really enjoyed hearing about this real person’s life, in a time and place that are so different from the one I live in. Masuda’s parents weren’t married and she was sold off at an early age to work as a maid for a family in the countryside, before being sold to apprentice as a geisha. As you might suspect, the life of a geisha was far more difficult than glamorous. Her story was riveting. Grade: A
Shanghai Girls by Lisa See – The best-selling author (“Snow Flower and the Secret Fan”) is back with another tale of Chinese women, this one centering around two sisters living in Shanghai in the 1930’s. I was relieved that this novel was so good. I had listened to See’s “Peony in Love” and honestly thought it was terrible, and about four times as long as it should’ve been. But I liked this one a lot. I won’t give much away except to say that we see a lot about the two sisters’ lives and interactions, there are a few surprises, and several tragedies. I did think that the ending was a bit rushed, almost like See realized that she’d been going on for a while and should end it. This one could, I think, merit a sequel. Grade: B
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no subject
Date: 2010-11-30 06:46 am (UTC)the consumer culture book sounds good... its amazing how much advertising stuff is shoved into every little thing. i mean... a few weeks ago i was watching an old (early 80s) movie, and in it the characters were carrying around generic beer. and it wasn't because the characters were broke and had to buy "generic" beer, it was just not done to put name brands in there. now sometimes you see a movie and it seems to just be a vehicle for the advertisers. crazy.
ooo autobiography of a geisha sounds great! i think that's gonna end up on my to-read list
re: lisa see - don't you hate it when an author is so spotty in their writing? some stuff is spectacular and then you read something else and you're thinking 'what the hell happened here??' i still haven't gotten to snow flower and the secret fan but i will read it one of these days :)
thanks for sharing, as always :)
no subject
Date: 2010-11-30 02:57 pm (UTC)That is a great point. "Bitch" once ran an article called "The Triumph of the Shill". We've just gone off the deep end on this, in a short amount of time.
That geisha book was incredible. I love real-life stories like that, especially of someone who lived in a culture that's so different than ours.
I don't know if other people disliked "Peony in Love" as much as I did. Would love to hear some others' opinions. But yes, do start with "Snow Flower"; that was really good though the descriptions of foot binding were pretty hard to read.
Thanks for reading!