Last night I finished The Poisonwood Bible, by Barbara Kingsolver. Goodness. Here's a quote for you, from the very end: "We constructed our lives around a misunderstanding, and if I ever tried to pull it out and fix it now I would fall down flat. Misunderstanding is my cornerstone. It's everyone's, come to think of it. Illusions mistaken for truth are the pavement under our feet. They are what we call civilization." The book is historical fiction, about a white Southern Baptist missionary family living in the Congo (Zaire) in the late 50s, early 60s. They came to bring salvation to the poor black natives...and they encounter a world that doesn't bend to their white, Christian ways. The story is told from the perspective of the family's four daughters. It's beautifully written, poetry through so much of it. It is sad, so much of it. But as usual with Kingsolver, once you finish the book you realize just how much redemption there was all through the story--it's just different redemption from what you expect. 543 pages.
-Tamie
Friday, May 30, 2008
Sunday, May 25, 2008
more from Buffy
Portuguese Irregular Verbs by Alexander McCall Smith 128 pages
Fiery Cross by Diana Gabaldon 979 pages
Kaline Klattermaster's Tree House by Haven Kimmel 152 pages
This was a fun, short chapter book (inside flap says ages 7-12) by the author of A Girl Named Zippy. Deals with imagination, divorce, and in a vague way, learning styles.
Fiery Cross by Diana Gabaldon 979 pages
Kaline Klattermaster's Tree House by Haven Kimmel 152 pages
This was a fun, short chapter book (inside flap says ages 7-12) by the author of A Girl Named Zippy. Deals with imagination, divorce, and in a vague way, learning styles.
Thursday, May 22, 2008
Sunny Nancy Drew (or, The Sun Y Nancy Drew)
Girl Sleuth: Nancy Drew and the Women Who Created Her by Melanie Rehak
This was a read for book club tonight. You definitely weren't tricked into thinking you were reading fiction, if you know what I mean, but it was interesting. And there was a really broad scope of history -- especially literature/women's roles in WWI and WWII, suffrage, and the feminist movement. 317 pages
May 2008 Sun Man, I love this stuff! 48 pages.
Buffy in Denver
This was a read for book club tonight. You definitely weren't tricked into thinking you were reading fiction, if you know what I mean, but it was interesting. And there was a really broad scope of history -- especially literature/women's roles in WWI and WWII, suffrage, and the feminist movement. 317 pages
May 2008 Sun Man, I love this stuff! 48 pages.
Buffy in Denver
Monday, May 19, 2008
post #70! The Unprocessed Child
Today I finished The Unprocessed Child, by Valerie Fitzenreiter. 241 pages.
As some of you will remember, this book was recommended on this very blog, so I immediately bought it, being quite interested in the subject. It's one woman's account of raising her daughter without schooling her at all. She didn't homeschool; she simply did not force any kind of curriculum or education, whatsoever, onto her child. Overall, I'm glad that I read it. It helped me think about childhood and schooling in ways I really hadn't thought about before.
Here is one really key quote: "The true aim of school seems to be conformity rather than learning." Yep, so true. She talks about how schooling coerces and manipulates and bullies children into "learning" things that they don't care about, thus ensuring that children associate learning with boredom, fear, and manipulation. Fitzenreiter believes that children are naturally curious and intelligent, and will learn whatever they need to learn, when they want and need to learn it. If you allow them to do whatever they want, they will investigate the world, they'll play and use their imaginations and experience lots of joy and peace in childhood. She uses her own daughter as an example of the truth of this theory. (Her daughter went straight from 18 years of being unschooled into college, where she earned a 4.0.)
She addresses many issues that may arise when parenting a child this way. She talks about bedtimes (they didn't have any set bedtime; her daughter simply went to sleep when she was tired, thus learning to listen to her body and natural rhythms); about discipline (there were very few rules, and certainly no discipline); about emotions, friendship, honesty, sexuality, and socialization, among a whole host of other issues. Overall, I found myself agreeing with her, and being amazed that more people haven't thought of this sort of thing earlier. It's clear that children and parents are both miserable with the way things are, but no one realizes that things truly could be different.
But, I just can't give this book a 100% favorable review. For one thing, after a couple chapters she really really starts to sound quite self-righteous. By the end of the book, I was quite turned-off by her better-parent-than-thou attitude. Parents don't want to be berated or belittled any more than children do. I think that the vast majority of parents are doing their absolute best to raise their children, and maybe they're not doing the best that could be done, but they are doing their individual best, and they need encouragement and praise for their efforts if nothing else.
Another thing that really rubbed me the wrong way was that she built up her opponents (school teachers for example) totally as strawpeople, and then burned them to the ground. Her assessment of the folks she disagreed with was totally unfair, and often inarticulate. This is truly unfortunate because she had some legitimate criticisms, but they were unsophisticated and just came off sounding uninformed. In general, in fact, she had done almost no research, and it sounded like she was basing her entire argument on her single experience with her single child. I really felt like she'd have convinced her readership SO much more if she'd have just told her story, in memoir-form perhaps, instead of preaching and haranguing. Because she was basing her argument for unschooling just on her own experience, she didn't seem to really take into account single-parent families, or impoverished families, or any number of other circumstances that I myself haven't thought of. Again, this is unfortunate because I'm sure that there are important and sophisticated arguments to be made for unschooling, that can work across the whole spectrum of cultures and socio-economic situations.
Overall what I would say is: investigate unschooling. It's an incredibly important idea. But read this book with a pinch of salt. Or whatever the expression is.
Peace! ~Tamie
As some of you will remember, this book was recommended on this very blog, so I immediately bought it, being quite interested in the subject. It's one woman's account of raising her daughter without schooling her at all. She didn't homeschool; she simply did not force any kind of curriculum or education, whatsoever, onto her child. Overall, I'm glad that I read it. It helped me think about childhood and schooling in ways I really hadn't thought about before.
Here is one really key quote: "The true aim of school seems to be conformity rather than learning." Yep, so true. She talks about how schooling coerces and manipulates and bullies children into "learning" things that they don't care about, thus ensuring that children associate learning with boredom, fear, and manipulation. Fitzenreiter believes that children are naturally curious and intelligent, and will learn whatever they need to learn, when they want and need to learn it. If you allow them to do whatever they want, they will investigate the world, they'll play and use their imaginations and experience lots of joy and peace in childhood. She uses her own daughter as an example of the truth of this theory. (Her daughter went straight from 18 years of being unschooled into college, where she earned a 4.0.)
She addresses many issues that may arise when parenting a child this way. She talks about bedtimes (they didn't have any set bedtime; her daughter simply went to sleep when she was tired, thus learning to listen to her body and natural rhythms); about discipline (there were very few rules, and certainly no discipline); about emotions, friendship, honesty, sexuality, and socialization, among a whole host of other issues. Overall, I found myself agreeing with her, and being amazed that more people haven't thought of this sort of thing earlier. It's clear that children and parents are both miserable with the way things are, but no one realizes that things truly could be different.
But, I just can't give this book a 100% favorable review. For one thing, after a couple chapters she really really starts to sound quite self-righteous. By the end of the book, I was quite turned-off by her better-parent-than-thou attitude. Parents don't want to be berated or belittled any more than children do. I think that the vast majority of parents are doing their absolute best to raise their children, and maybe they're not doing the best that could be done, but they are doing their individual best, and they need encouragement and praise for their efforts if nothing else.
Another thing that really rubbed me the wrong way was that she built up her opponents (school teachers for example) totally as strawpeople, and then burned them to the ground. Her assessment of the folks she disagreed with was totally unfair, and often inarticulate. This is truly unfortunate because she had some legitimate criticisms, but they were unsophisticated and just came off sounding uninformed. In general, in fact, she had done almost no research, and it sounded like she was basing her entire argument on her single experience with her single child. I really felt like she'd have convinced her readership SO much more if she'd have just told her story, in memoir-form perhaps, instead of preaching and haranguing. Because she was basing her argument for unschooling just on her own experience, she didn't seem to really take into account single-parent families, or impoverished families, or any number of other circumstances that I myself haven't thought of. Again, this is unfortunate because I'm sure that there are important and sophisticated arguments to be made for unschooling, that can work across the whole spectrum of cultures and socio-economic situations.
Overall what I would say is: investigate unschooling. It's an incredibly important idea. But read this book with a pinch of salt. Or whatever the expression is.
Peace! ~Tamie
Saturday, May 17, 2008
Becoming the Parent You Want to Be
Becoming the Parent You Want to Be by Laura David and Janis Keyser
I liked this book a lot. There were a few things that didn't jive with me -- I think mostly sleep stuff and the fact that I don't think time outs are the absolute best tactic... But in general, it's a great read. It's sort of set up like a textbook, as far as questions for reflection at the end of each chapter, divided into smaller sections, etc. Good stuff. 415 pages.
Buffy in Denver
I liked this book a lot. There were a few things that didn't jive with me -- I think mostly sleep stuff and the fact that I don't think time outs are the absolute best tactic... But in general, it's a great read. It's sort of set up like a textbook, as far as questions for reflection at the end of each chapter, divided into smaller sections, etc. Good stuff. 415 pages.
Buffy in Denver
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
I promise, I've got a non-fiction one to post soon.
Where Are You Now? by Mary Higgins Clark
An excellent example of where I go for my trash reading. A woman's brother disappeared 10 years ago, when he was 21, but calls their mother every year on Mother's Day. She determines to find him and in the process, the police begin to suspect that he is involved with a series of murders that have taken place during his disappearance. I wish I could make it sound more high-brow than that, but there you have it. 289 pages
The Eye of Jade by Diane Wei Liang
the first in a new mystery series -- been billed as China's answer to the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency -- maybe that's why it was just okay for me. Probably won't pursue the rest in the series, but I did get a good quote from it:
The Outcast by Sadie Jones 345 pages
The Mouse and the Motorcycle by Beverly Cleary 158 pages
Buffy in Denver
An excellent example of where I go for my trash reading. A woman's brother disappeared 10 years ago, when he was 21, but calls their mother every year on Mother's Day. She determines to find him and in the process, the police begin to suspect that he is involved with a series of murders that have taken place during his disappearance. I wish I could make it sound more high-brow than that, but there you have it. 289 pages
The Eye of Jade by Diane Wei Liang
the first in a new mystery series -- been billed as China's answer to the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency -- maybe that's why it was just okay for me. Probably won't pursue the rest in the series, but I did get a good quote from it:
All I'm saying is that sometimes being part of something painful is in fact what helps us to survive. It helps us go on with our lives.256 pages.
The Outcast by Sadie Jones 345 pages
The Mouse and the Motorcycle by Beverly Cleary 158 pages
Dreamers of the Day by Mary Doria Russell
interesting fiction about a teacher from Ohio who goes to the middle east after WWI and becomes acquainted with T.E. Lawrence and Winston Churchill. Part of the author's point is how much of our present comes from our past (generally of course, but specifically with regard to world history.) 249 pages
April edition of The Sun
Mentioned by Tamie previously. 48 pages.
interesting fiction about a teacher from Ohio who goes to the middle east after WWI and becomes acquainted with T.E. Lawrence and Winston Churchill. Part of the author's point is how much of our present comes from our past (generally of course, but specifically with regard to world history.) 249 pages
April edition of The Sun
Mentioned by Tamie previously. 48 pages.
Buffy in Denver
Monday, May 12, 2008
Cats and Kite Runners
The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents by Terry Pratchett (368 pages) - A hilarious young adult book about a cat and a bunch of rats who eat something that turns them into "people", that is they have thoughts and are self-aware. Includes a cat's reflection on his conscious, rat theology, and a stupid-looking boy.
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini (400 pages) - An intense book about a boy who grows up in Afghanistan then moves to America when his country goes to the Taliban. He packs a lot into 400 pages. Please read this one so I can talk to you about it...
-Michelle
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini (400 pages) - An intense book about a boy who grows up in Afghanistan then moves to America when his country goes to the Taliban. He packs a lot into 400 pages. Please read this one so I can talk to you about it...
-Michelle
Friday, May 9, 2008
where the red fern grows
Aaron recommended this book to me. It was good, sad. I'm sure most people have read it, but I hadn't yet. Thanks for the rec., Aaron. 212 pages. -Tamie
Thursday, May 8, 2008
Going to Extremes by Joe McGinniss
Going to Extremes by Joe McGinniss
So I'm leaving for Alaska in two days. I'll be salmon fishing from 11 May to 11 October under the lash of Tamie's uncles. In order to prepare for this ordeal, I decided to read a book about Alaska. It was recommended to me by one of my coworkers in Flagstaff. Thank-you Daniel Becker.
Joe McGinniss is an NYC journalist who decides to travel around Alaska for a year in the late 1970's. He starts in the middle of winter on a ferry sailing from Seattle up along the coast toward the Alaskan panhandle. To put it mildly, it seems like everyone on the ferry aside from the author, is a stark-craving lunatic. But they are also very vivacious people. His ferry ride sets the scene for what will become a never-ending series of meetings with very eccentric people living in a very eccentric climate. McGinniss travels via plane, boat, car, foot and train all over the Alaskan wilds, from Barrow to Nome, to Juneau, to Anchorage, to Valdez, to Fairbanks and to Mt. McKinley - the tallest peak in North America.
The book reads like a highly polished travel journal and could be picked up and started, without much loss of understanding, in the middle of the book. The writing style is similar to Michael Perry's Truck: A Love Story. for those have read or heard of this book about small-town life in northern Wisconsin. McGinniss mixes humor, description, casual conversation with locals, and irony in his writings. Perhaps it is tinged with a bit of exaggeration, but this, if it does occurr, only adds to the reading pleasure. Going to Extremes is an entertaining and informative read about what makes Alaskans tick - whether it be the search for personal freedom or a get-rick-quick mentality that so often goes hand in hand with the economy surrounding the then recently built Trans-Alaskan Oil Pipeline. The only chapter that falls short is the dragging final chapter, when McGinniss backpacks through the Brooks Mountain Range with some US Park Service employees. He is clearly awestruck by the ruggedness and beauty of this faraway land, but his attempt to translate this to prose results in him repeatedly sounding like a broken record in regards to his descriptions of his majestic surroundings. I really enjoyed this book, but the last chapter could have been both shortened and reworked. (285 pages). (Reviewed by Rob Jach).
So I'm leaving for Alaska in two days. I'll be salmon fishing from 11 May to 11 October under the lash of Tamie's uncles. In order to prepare for this ordeal, I decided to read a book about Alaska. It was recommended to me by one of my coworkers in Flagstaff. Thank-you Daniel Becker.
Joe McGinniss is an NYC journalist who decides to travel around Alaska for a year in the late 1970's. He starts in the middle of winter on a ferry sailing from Seattle up along the coast toward the Alaskan panhandle. To put it mildly, it seems like everyone on the ferry aside from the author, is a stark-craving lunatic. But they are also very vivacious people. His ferry ride sets the scene for what will become a never-ending series of meetings with very eccentric people living in a very eccentric climate. McGinniss travels via plane, boat, car, foot and train all over the Alaskan wilds, from Barrow to Nome, to Juneau, to Anchorage, to Valdez, to Fairbanks and to Mt. McKinley - the tallest peak in North America.
The book reads like a highly polished travel journal and could be picked up and started, without much loss of understanding, in the middle of the book. The writing style is similar to Michael Perry's Truck: A Love Story. for those have read or heard of this book about small-town life in northern Wisconsin. McGinniss mixes humor, description, casual conversation with locals, and irony in his writings. Perhaps it is tinged with a bit of exaggeration, but this, if it does occurr, only adds to the reading pleasure. Going to Extremes is an entertaining and informative read about what makes Alaskans tick - whether it be the search for personal freedom or a get-rick-quick mentality that so often goes hand in hand with the economy surrounding the then recently built Trans-Alaskan Oil Pipeline. The only chapter that falls short is the dragging final chapter, when McGinniss backpacks through the Brooks Mountain Range with some US Park Service employees. He is clearly awestruck by the ruggedness and beauty of this faraway land, but his attempt to translate this to prose results in him repeatedly sounding like a broken record in regards to his descriptions of his majestic surroundings. I really enjoyed this book, but the last chapter could have been both shortened and reworked. (285 pages). (Reviewed by Rob Jach).
A restful book, in some ways
Hunting and Gathering by Anna Gavalda
An internet friend read this and said I would like it -- I did. Translated from French. Perfect combination of hard lives/struggle with hope and fun. A good message for me right now. Camille, a talented artist exhausted by ennui and anorexia, cleans offices at night and cowers in a shabby garret by day. Philibert, the fastidious scion of a titled family, peddles museum postcards while squatting in his dead grandmother's Parisian manse, waiting for her estate to be settled. Philibert's roommate, Franck, a talented (and womanizing) chef with ambition to burn, motorcycles once a week to look in on his stubborn, ailing grandmother Paulette, an "inmate" at a retirement home. (Italics from Amazon).
488 pages
Buffy in Denver
An internet friend read this and said I would like it -- I did. Translated from French. Perfect combination of hard lives/struggle with hope and fun. A good message for me right now. Camille, a talented artist exhausted by ennui and anorexia, cleans offices at night and cowers in a shabby garret by day. Philibert, the fastidious scion of a titled family, peddles museum postcards while squatting in his dead grandmother's Parisian manse, waiting for her estate to be settled. Philibert's roommate, Franck, a talented (and womanizing) chef with ambition to burn, motorcycles once a week to look in on his stubborn, ailing grandmother Paulette, an "inmate" at a retirement home. (Italics from Amazon).
488 pages
Buffy in Denver
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
their eyes were watching god
Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston.
It's a book about a black woman, set in the South in the 1930s. It's about her life, her 3 marriages, her journey from object to subject. For most of her life she is owned, is the possession of her husband. But when she meets Tea Cake, her third husband, this all changes. There is great freedom and love and joy between them, and she becomes her own distinct person. Almost the whole book is written in dialect, which takes a little getting used to, but once you get used to it, you realize how necessary it is. I'm glad I read this book. 193 pages.
-Tamie
It's a book about a black woman, set in the South in the 1930s. It's about her life, her 3 marriages, her journey from object to subject. For most of her life she is owned, is the possession of her husband. But when she meets Tea Cake, her third husband, this all changes. There is great freedom and love and joy between them, and she becomes her own distinct person. Almost the whole book is written in dialect, which takes a little getting used to, but once you get used to it, you realize how necessary it is. I'm glad I read this book. 193 pages.
-Tamie
Where are all the May posters?
Tam, I have two Suns sitting here that I really want to read -- but I keep reading books instead --you and I have the opposite problem, it seems. :)
Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout
Interesting -- sort of a collection of short stories -- but the same person, Olive Kitteridge, appears in all of them, at various points in her own life, whether as the/a main character, or someone briefly glimpsed and discussed in the audience at a play. 270 pages
Mudbound by Hilary Jordan
Wow -- this was a pretty intense one. Set in the Jim Crow south after WWII. Main characters are two white brothers (the younger has just returned from the war, the older owns a farm and lives there with his wife), their father, the wife, a black couple who are their tenants on the farm and their son who has just returned from the war. Each chapter is told by one of these characters. 324 pages.
~Buffy in Denver
Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout
Interesting -- sort of a collection of short stories -- but the same person, Olive Kitteridge, appears in all of them, at various points in her own life, whether as the/a main character, or someone briefly glimpsed and discussed in the audience at a play. 270 pages
Mudbound by Hilary Jordan
Wow -- this was a pretty intense one. Set in the Jim Crow south after WWII. Main characters are two white brothers (the younger has just returned from the war, the older owns a farm and lives there with his wife), their father, the wife, a black couple who are their tenants on the farm and their son who has just returned from the war. Each chapter is told by one of these characters. 324 pages.
~Buffy in Denver
Thursday, May 1, 2008
last one for april & first one for may
The Dance of Dissident Daughter by Sue Monk Kidd
I feel like this had more to say to me this time than it did 3-5 years ago, when I first read it. 228 pages.
Remembering the Bones by Frances Itani
Interesting. Canadian woman (Georgie), born on same date as Queen Elizabeth, is invited to her (their) 80th birthday party at Buckingham Palace. Georgie crashes her car into a ravine on the way to the airport to go to the party. Entire story (after first 8 pages) are Georgie's thoughts as she lies, severely injured, in the ravine. 283 pages.
Buffy in Denver
I feel like this had more to say to me this time than it did 3-5 years ago, when I first read it. 228 pages.
Remembering the Bones by Frances Itani
Interesting. Canadian woman (Georgie), born on same date as Queen Elizabeth, is invited to her (their) 80th birthday party at Buckingham Palace. Georgie crashes her car into a ravine on the way to the airport to go to the party. Entire story (after first 8 pages) are Georgie's thoughts as she lies, severely injured, in the ravine. 283 pages.
Buffy in Denver
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