Reading seems to have picked up around here - I managed 4 books in August, which is twice as many books as I read for July. Apparently I neglected to ever post a wrap-up for July, but no matter - I'll just say that I am hoping this momentum sticks around. For September, after I finish celebrating what to me is the beginning of Fall, I hope to read at least 4 books, to at least match August's reading.
How was your summer reading? How's your reading for the last quarter of 2017 looking?
Thursday, August 31, 2017
Saturday, August 26, 2017
Tender Is the Night - F. Scott Fitzgerald
Another book I was supposed to read months ago for the Classic Book A Month Challenge - to be fair, I started this back in April with good intentions but had a hard time getting into it, so I've been reading it off and on since then and finally finished.
So, as you can see by my review of The Great Gatsby, I love that book, and I expected I'd love this one too. Sadly, that wasn't the case. I realize this book is in some ways autobiographical, but it was the writing that just didn't send me, as they say. Just wasn't my cup of tea.
So, as you can see by my review of The Great Gatsby, I love that book, and I expected I'd love this one too. Sadly, that wasn't the case. I realize this book is in some ways autobiographical, but it was the writing that just didn't send me, as they say. Just wasn't my cup of tea.
Saturday, August 19, 2017
A Raisin in the Sun - Lorraine Hansberry
I was supposed to read this book back in May for the Classic Book A Month Challenge, but better late than never, right? I seem to remember reading this book in school but I had forgotten everything about it, so it was like a new book. The play is a classic story of a 20th Century African-American family trying to make their way in a world that can be relentlessly hostile to them because of their skin color. The characters are so well drawn that I could picture them easily in my mind as I read, and I still can as I write this review. All in all a worthy classic that I am glad I got the opportunity to read again.
Saturday, August 12, 2017
The Truth Will Set You Free - Alice Miller
I've been meaning to read Alice Miller for ages, specifically her book The Drama of the Gifted Child, so when I stumbled on this book at the library I decided impulsively to grab it and see what I might find.
Miller is a psychologist who specializes in child abuse and the effects it has throughout a person's life. This particular book is geared toward what the subtitle spells out: Overcoming Emotional Blindness and Finding Your True Adult Self. The book describes learned patterns of child abuse that are then perpetrated on one's own children, because of "that's the way I was raised and I turned out fine!" and other similar excuses. In this regard, it would be helpful for someone who might be wondering if they really did, in fact, turn out OK, and if their parents' way of parenting was actually abusive.
At the end of the day, the book is an interesting treatise that more people should read, but I do wish it had had more practical information for people trying to recover from childhood abuse, and how to ensure abuse isn't just mindlessly perpetrated generation after generation. But definitely a good book if you're just trying to grapple with why (some) abuse still occurs as often as it does.
Miller is a psychologist who specializes in child abuse and the effects it has throughout a person's life. This particular book is geared toward what the subtitle spells out: Overcoming Emotional Blindness and Finding Your True Adult Self. The book describes learned patterns of child abuse that are then perpetrated on one's own children, because of "that's the way I was raised and I turned out fine!" and other similar excuses. In this regard, it would be helpful for someone who might be wondering if they really did, in fact, turn out OK, and if their parents' way of parenting was actually abusive.
At the end of the day, the book is an interesting treatise that more people should read, but I do wish it had had more practical information for people trying to recover from childhood abuse, and how to ensure abuse isn't just mindlessly perpetrated generation after generation. But definitely a good book if you're just trying to grapple with why (some) abuse still occurs as often as it does.
Saturday, August 5, 2017
Zap - Paul Fleischman
Where was this book when I was reading for the Alphabet Challenge? If you need a book that starts with Z, this play is a quick read!
I stumbled upon this play at the library and was intrigued by the jacket copy. It's a play that is meant as a kind of pastiche/satire of other types of plays (the English murder mystery, the Neil Simon/New York kind of play, a classic Russian play, and of course Shakespeare, etc.) and it's designed to appeal to high school drama departments. Overall I thought it was OK and the idea was interesting, but it seemed kind of confusing, and there were a couple of instances of dialogue that might have seemed OK in 2005, when the play was written, but strike me as somewhat racist and unnecessary here in 2017.
As a semi-related aside, I recently watched the first season of Lisa Kudrow's 2005 HBO show, The Comeback, and found a similar issue. In one of the episodes, Kudrow's character, who is an actress making a comeback in a sitcom, is given a line that is racist. The character doesn't want to say the line, (and it's ultimately changed) but no one ever identifies that it's a racist thing to say, and at no point does anyone just say, "this line is racist and we shouldn't say something like this on a mainstream sitcom." Were people just this oblivious to stuff like this in 2005? I dunno.
So back to the play at hand, it was a fast read and it wasn't awful, I just think it was sort of jumbled. It might make more sense as a stage production than as a "book" to read.
I stumbled upon this play at the library and was intrigued by the jacket copy. It's a play that is meant as a kind of pastiche/satire of other types of plays (the English murder mystery, the Neil Simon/New York kind of play, a classic Russian play, and of course Shakespeare, etc.) and it's designed to appeal to high school drama departments. Overall I thought it was OK and the idea was interesting, but it seemed kind of confusing, and there were a couple of instances of dialogue that might have seemed OK in 2005, when the play was written, but strike me as somewhat racist and unnecessary here in 2017.
As a semi-related aside, I recently watched the first season of Lisa Kudrow's 2005 HBO show, The Comeback, and found a similar issue. In one of the episodes, Kudrow's character, who is an actress making a comeback in a sitcom, is given a line that is racist. The character doesn't want to say the line, (and it's ultimately changed) but no one ever identifies that it's a racist thing to say, and at no point does anyone just say, "this line is racist and we shouldn't say something like this on a mainstream sitcom." Were people just this oblivious to stuff like this in 2005? I dunno.
So back to the play at hand, it was a fast read and it wasn't awful, I just think it was sort of jumbled. It might make more sense as a stage production than as a "book" to read.
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