Book report
Dec. 4th, 2013 11:56 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
stormkeeper_lovedorisHere’s a book report. Being on a cruise means I have a lot of time to read. I am going to log into the internet to post this, but forgive me – because internet access here is so pricey, I haven’t read anyone’s LJ entries since Saturday. I do always say when I am out though: please feel free to comment with links to post of yours that you’d like me to read, and I will eagerly do so when I am home!
Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness by Susannah Cahalan – In this memoir, the author tells us of her struggle with a mysterious illness. She was leading a ‘normal’, productive life when all of a sudden she starts acting mentally ill. Due to the failings of the medical system, she nearly misses a lifesaving diagnosis. Definitely a page-turner. If I am ever unlucky enough to see someone I love in this position, I need to be sure that I am as relentless as Cahalan’s family was in getting the right diagnosis for them; some medical personnel just wanted to give up and institutionalize her. Now she is totally back to normal, thanks to the persistence of her parents and boyfriend. Grade: B
Vagina: A New Biography by Naomi Wolf – I think that maybe Naomi Wolf is a lot like Dan Savage; there’s plenty to disagree upon with the ideas in her books but she does have some flashes of insight. So this book, as you may guess, is all about vaginas and women’s sexual contentment. Wolf takes us through some biology, some history, some literary references, tantric sex, and much more. Her section on porn was very well done; she provided a lot of evidence on how it harms both men’s and women’s sexuality. (I’m not judging anyone for using porn and have used a ton of it during my lifetime, just FYI). Her repeated use of the term “violent rape” (as opposed to….what, nice and romantic rape?) is really problematic and I hate how she creates a dichotomy between “clitoral orgasms” versus “vaginal orgasms” or the never-really-explained “combination orgasms” – I’m in the camp of most researchers that an orgasm is an orgasm is an orgasm, and all orgasms are clitorally-based to some extent since the clit actually covers a lot more space than most people think. I guess I just really dislike her assertion that one way of having orgasms – her way, of course – is better than others. Also, Wolf’s book is focused on heterosexual women only, but that aspect didn’t bother me that much since she defines it from the get-go and indicates that she doesn’t have the bandwidth (or, presumably, the interest) to cover lesbian and bi women. I guess the book is worth a read though; I don’t have to agree with everything an author says in order to gain some wisdom from her. I should try tantric sex one of these days if Doris wants to. Grade: B
More books behind the cut!
The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker – Wow! This was an amazing page-turner of a novel. The young protagonist and her family awake to learn, along with the rest of the world, that the rotation of the earth has suddenly begun to slow. The days and nights get longer, gravity is impacted, and the environment starts to dwindle into chaos. The prose is beautiful and it’s just an emotionally compelling, fantastic story. It feels like a long time since I gave a novel a grade of A, but this one deserves it. Also, it reminds me thematically of one of my all-time favorite novels, “Into the Forrest” by Jean Hegland. Grade: A
Willpower’s Not Enough: Recovering from Addictions of Every Kind by Arnold Washton and Donna Boundy – I could write a few pages on this book, but I won’t. I’ll just say that it amazes me how long I’ve been in denial about being an addict. Other people were addicts, not me; I was never addicted to drugs, alcohol, porn, gambling, or anything like that so I wasn’t “one of them”. But I’ve come around to seeing my love for “fandom” as an addiction itself, not unlike shopping or gambling. This book was published in 1989 but I found it very relevant today and it is inclusive of people struggling with a broad range of addictions (though obviously it doesn’t cover internet addiction, given the date it was published. I wonder if a similar book published today might cover fandom addiction?) I learned from the book that I really need to change my mindset and world view. It won’t be easy but I look forward to working through the steps in this program. Grade: B+
Give Me Everything You Have on Being Stalked by James Lasdun – This is the author’s account of being stalked by a former student. It lL starts out innocently enough as Lasdun describes it: after the class concluded, they exchanged a few emails, and he offered to put her in touch with his agent to review her work-in-progress novel. At some point, the former student starts actubg crazy and begins to stalk him – mostly by sending him dozens of harassing emails each day and undertaking a smear campaign of his name (via a number of different websites and by contacting his employers). What a terrifying situation – to have someone you barely know decide to out and out ruin you. Lasdun covers his experience with trying to get the law to come to his aid, but his book suffers because of the inexplicable detours he takes. He goes off on long tangents about train trips, his father’s architecture career, his visit to Israel. They are related to the main point of the book; he does weave them in but in my eyes they really detract from the urgency of the storyline. I’d have given the book a grade of B if it weren’t for all the tangents. Grade: C+
Books I started reading but didn’t finish:
Children of the Jacaranda Tree by Sahara Delijani – I’ve not exactly had a banner year in terms of being able to stay focused on things, for lack of a better way of putting it. I listened to this novel on audio. It takes place in Iran from the 1980’s till current times, and it weaves together stories of interrelated characters, many of whom have been imprisoned in harsh conditions for offenses such as signing a petition. Right away I admired the author’s writing skills and her ability to use metaphor and create characters. Due to a variety of reasons, probably none of them the fault of this book, I just couldn’t stay focused on the novel. I’d pop in a music CD during my commute and not want to put this book back in.
Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness by Susannah Cahalan – In this memoir, the author tells us of her struggle with a mysterious illness. She was leading a ‘normal’, productive life when all of a sudden she starts acting mentally ill. Due to the failings of the medical system, she nearly misses a lifesaving diagnosis. Definitely a page-turner. If I am ever unlucky enough to see someone I love in this position, I need to be sure that I am as relentless as Cahalan’s family was in getting the right diagnosis for them; some medical personnel just wanted to give up and institutionalize her. Now she is totally back to normal, thanks to the persistence of her parents and boyfriend. Grade: B
Vagina: A New Biography by Naomi Wolf – I think that maybe Naomi Wolf is a lot like Dan Savage; there’s plenty to disagree upon with the ideas in her books but she does have some flashes of insight. So this book, as you may guess, is all about vaginas and women’s sexual contentment. Wolf takes us through some biology, some history, some literary references, tantric sex, and much more. Her section on porn was very well done; she provided a lot of evidence on how it harms both men’s and women’s sexuality. (I’m not judging anyone for using porn and have used a ton of it during my lifetime, just FYI). Her repeated use of the term “violent rape” (as opposed to….what, nice and romantic rape?) is really problematic and I hate how she creates a dichotomy between “clitoral orgasms” versus “vaginal orgasms” or the never-really-explained “combination orgasms” – I’m in the camp of most researchers that an orgasm is an orgasm is an orgasm, and all orgasms are clitorally-based to some extent since the clit actually covers a lot more space than most people think. I guess I just really dislike her assertion that one way of having orgasms – her way, of course – is better than others. Also, Wolf’s book is focused on heterosexual women only, but that aspect didn’t bother me that much since she defines it from the get-go and indicates that she doesn’t have the bandwidth (or, presumably, the interest) to cover lesbian and bi women. I guess the book is worth a read though; I don’t have to agree with everything an author says in order to gain some wisdom from her. I should try tantric sex one of these days if Doris wants to. Grade: B
More books behind the cut!
The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker – Wow! This was an amazing page-turner of a novel. The young protagonist and her family awake to learn, along with the rest of the world, that the rotation of the earth has suddenly begun to slow. The days and nights get longer, gravity is impacted, and the environment starts to dwindle into chaos. The prose is beautiful and it’s just an emotionally compelling, fantastic story. It feels like a long time since I gave a novel a grade of A, but this one deserves it. Also, it reminds me thematically of one of my all-time favorite novels, “Into the Forrest” by Jean Hegland. Grade: A
Willpower’s Not Enough: Recovering from Addictions of Every Kind by Arnold Washton and Donna Boundy – I could write a few pages on this book, but I won’t. I’ll just say that it amazes me how long I’ve been in denial about being an addict. Other people were addicts, not me; I was never addicted to drugs, alcohol, porn, gambling, or anything like that so I wasn’t “one of them”. But I’ve come around to seeing my love for “fandom” as an addiction itself, not unlike shopping or gambling. This book was published in 1989 but I found it very relevant today and it is inclusive of people struggling with a broad range of addictions (though obviously it doesn’t cover internet addiction, given the date it was published. I wonder if a similar book published today might cover fandom addiction?) I learned from the book that I really need to change my mindset and world view. It won’t be easy but I look forward to working through the steps in this program. Grade: B+
Give Me Everything You Have on Being Stalked by James Lasdun – This is the author’s account of being stalked by a former student. It lL starts out innocently enough as Lasdun describes it: after the class concluded, they exchanged a few emails, and he offered to put her in touch with his agent to review her work-in-progress novel. At some point, the former student starts actubg crazy and begins to stalk him – mostly by sending him dozens of harassing emails each day and undertaking a smear campaign of his name (via a number of different websites and by contacting his employers). What a terrifying situation – to have someone you barely know decide to out and out ruin you. Lasdun covers his experience with trying to get the law to come to his aid, but his book suffers because of the inexplicable detours he takes. He goes off on long tangents about train trips, his father’s architecture career, his visit to Israel. They are related to the main point of the book; he does weave them in but in my eyes they really detract from the urgency of the storyline. I’d have given the book a grade of B if it weren’t for all the tangents. Grade: C+
Books I started reading but didn’t finish:
Children of the Jacaranda Tree by Sahara Delijani – I’ve not exactly had a banner year in terms of being able to stay focused on things, for lack of a better way of putting it. I listened to this novel on audio. It takes place in Iran from the 1980’s till current times, and it weaves together stories of interrelated characters, many of whom have been imprisoned in harsh conditions for offenses such as signing a petition. Right away I admired the author’s writing skills and her ability to use metaphor and create characters. Due to a variety of reasons, probably none of them the fault of this book, I just couldn’t stay focused on the novel. I’d pop in a music CD during my commute and not want to put this book back in.
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Date: 2013-12-05 03:55 am (UTC)For the Willpower book, if and when you're ready to work through it, I think it will be a good help. I will keep LJ posted on my progress when I start.