What are we reading in February of 2014?

Been following with interest all your reads and comments about them over the past few months but was personally reading all books by men so I had little to say.

Today, however, I finished up The Quiet Little Woman by Louisa May Alcott. My mother had lent it to me around Christmastime being as the three short stories in the book all take place on that holiday, but I didn't get around it to right away. It's a short read so once I did start it, I was finished quickly.

I loved Alcott when I was a pre-teen and read many of her titles then but this was the first foray into her writing again since that time period; it felt almost surreal coming back to her after all this time. The stories in this collection are a funny combination of serious adult problems (poverty being the primary one) in simple declarative language better suited for children. The endings, while not the over-the-top fairy tale ending of marrying a prince, are still happy enough to warrant a sigh and a "if only" type attitude from an adult whereas a child might take the morality tale to heart and think if they were only good enough, wonderful things will be in store for them. So in sum, basically your average Alcott writing. :) I had the same feeling I had as when I re-visited A Little Princess again as an adult and thought despite the ending being so unbelievable, it's nice to visit for a while this sweet world where all good people are rewarded and bad ones punished.

An interesting tidbit was that Alcott wrote these stories for some young women who had been fans of her book Little Women, decided to start their own in-house publication like the March girls, and then wrote to Alcott about it. She allowed them to publish these stories in their newsletter for free even though she was a well-established author by this time.

Anyway, on a completely different note, my book group selected Let's Pretend This Never Happened by Jenny Lawson as February's read so that is what's up next for me. This is billed as a funny memoir from "The Bloggess" (whatever that may mean), but I really have no context for it. We'll see how it goes ...

Getting ready to start A Highly Unlikely Scenario, or Neetsa Pizza Employee's Guide to Saving the World.

Interesting feature in NYT magazine about Veronica Roth's dystopian trilogy: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/02/magazine/our-young-adult-dystopia.html

Just finished Syd Arthur about a woman's search for meaning in her life after her daughter goes off to college. Very funny! I didn't like it at first, but grew to enjoy it much more when I realized where it was going.

finished the autobiography of my mother the other day (hated it) and am slowly (time constraints) starting praisesong for the widow which i'm liking so far.

I'm reading Ordinary Families by E. Arnot Robertson, which is a coming-of-age tale with lots of birds and sailing - right up my street!

I'm about halfway through The Flight of Gemma Hardy. I noticed one of the tags was Jane Eyre, and it certainly applies. Intelligent orphaned girl, despicable aunt, harsh boarding school, placement as a governess to an absent, rich man. Frequently I like modernized classics, and I'm enjoying it.
My audiobook is Amy Tan's Valley of Amazement, I'm not in love with it but I will keep reading to find what happens. Gullible women always drive me crazy, nasty daughters the same. Put them together, this is not the most pleasant of books, but it does hold interest, for the most part.

>#2. nohrt4me2, thank you for posting that link to the NY Times article. I recently read Divergent, and I think that it has put me off YA fiction for the considerable future. Interesting that the article's author focused on Veronica Roth's age. What I think that the discussion missed was the whole Twilight phenomenon. Granted that those books could not be classified as a "dystopian trilogy," but neither could Harry Potter or really any of the other YA books mentioned other than The Hunger Games. Twilight was probably the next biggest thing after Harry Potter, and the similarity that I see with Divergent is not just the unpolished writing style and the banal romance themes, but also the strong religious background of the authors. Stephanie Meyer, a Mormon, was 30 years old at the time of Twilight's publication, so perhaps she was left out of the NY Times discussion because her age somewhat belied the author's point. 25 year old Veronica Roth is an evangelical Christian. I see more similarities between Roth and Meyer than I do any of the other YA authors, and perhaps there is something in those similarities that drives sales despite the pedestrian qualities of their fictional work.

Please do let us know what you think of A Highly Unlikely Scenario. I am intrigued by the book description, but haven't seen any non-promotional reviews yet.

>#6. Citizen Joyce, I really like Margot Livesey. She is the writer in residence at Emerson College where I was a student for a while. The Missing World was the first book of hers that I read and it is still my favorite. I found The Flight of Gemma Hardy to be really engaging, but there was a pivotal plot point that didn't work for me as well as Jane Eyre so I couldn't give it more than 3 stars despite the reading pleasure that it gave me.

About a third of the way through A Highly Unlikely Scenario, I'd say it's kind of a mess, a lot of dropped threads, not sure if this is a fantasy or a dystopian (genre benders are fine as long as the elements blend, and here they don't seem to), and I don't know much about medieval Judaism, which might help.

However, I almost always read everything I start to the bitter end. And I can't say that the book isn't diverting in spots.

>8 nohrt4me2:. Hmmmmm, methinks I won't rush.

I finished The Flight of Gemma Hardy and liked it very much. I especiallly thought the treatment of Iceland was perfectly done. I also liked, much better than Jane Eyre, the handling of the gloomy male character and Gemma's flights in general. I think I may need to read more by Margot Livesey. Vwinsloe, pm me and let me know what pivotal point troubled you.
ETA Now I've started Major Pettigrew's Last Stand for my RL book club. Humorous so far.

> 10 Read Major Pettigrew for my book club a few years back and I think I missed what the big fuss was about. I didn't dislike it per se, but I didn't love it the way so many other readers have. Be interested to hear your thoughts when you're finished with it.

I'm about 1/2 way through Major Pettigrew's Last Stand, and I can see both why people like and do not like it. Major Pettigrew is an entitled snob, misogynistic and resistant to change. When he comes out of his bubble and actually connects with people who are not of his entitled class the reader is enchanted. Mrs. Ali is strong yet submissive. She fights against those who want to crush her individuality, yet is always on the verge of giving in. Doing what is right is uppermost in both their minds, and Major Pettigrew is quite willing to bend doing what is right to doing what is best for him. When he steps out of the status quo it's somewhat like politicians who support gay marriage once they find out that someone in their family is gay. If doing what is good does not effect him personally, he's quite willing to pass on the effort. That said, the more I read of the book, the more I want to read. Maybe he'll wake up by the end.

>1 sweetiegherkin: I really like that story about allowing the young women to publish her stories. Very cool. I always mean to getting around to reading Little Women "one of these days."

Still trying to finish up with The Talented Miss Highsmith which I've lost momentum on several times and have paused to get through some other books in the meantime. It's just too darn long and, for me, hard to follow. But it's also got a lot of really interesting stuff thrown in every now and again, otherwise I'd have given up completely by now. I hate to say this, because I prefer books over anything on a screen, but I'd totally watch it as a movie, and probably enjoy it more than this book.

At the moment I'm reading Stone Butch Blues which is excellent but making me sad at the same time.

>12 Citizenjoyce:: I started reading Major Pettigrew's Last Stand with rather low expectations. I thought it would just be a light, airy, "chick lit" kind of thing. It's not deep, or particularly memorable, but there's more to it than I expected. I agree with your characterizations about both Major Pettigrew and Mrs. Ali. He, particularly, could be a character in a 50's sitcom. I hope you will be pleased by the end.

>13 lemontwist:, I heard the Highsmith bio was very difficult to get through. Do you find that enhances reading her novels at all? Am an admirer of her work, but she sounds like a "difficult personality," to put it mildly.

P.S., to anyone thinking of Neetsa Pizza: it's improving as I go. About 3/4 through it now.

>15 nohrt4me2:, Interestingly enough I've only ever read The Price of Salt, and had read Highsmith: A Romance of the 1950's by Marijane Meaker, which piqued my interest in reading more about Patricia Highsmith. I guess I'm more interested in her as a person than as an author, as she truly was a fascinating woman. I do want to pick up The Talented Mr. Ripley now, though, regardless of whether or not I finish this book. I think it'd be interesting reading it given what I now know about her and her writing process.

The Ripley books are superb (avoid the movies!). I also liked "The Price of Salt"; an early lesbian romance in which the characters were not punished or killed off as a "warning," and the plot turns hold up surprisingly well now.

I just started reading The Round House, and I love the writing so far. I'm surprised that I never read anything by Louise Erditch before. I read her ex-husband's (Michael Dorris) books many years ago and thought highly of them.

I'm moving Major Pettigrew up in the queue and have Neetsa Pizza on my wish list. Thanks all.

>19 vwinsloe: et. al. .... and now Neetsa is getting to obtuse again. Hoping the payoff is worth the time.

Final judgment on Neetsa Pizza is that it's kind of jumble, and incoherent in places if you don't know anything about medieval Jewish mysticism and the Kabbalah.

There's a brief interview with Cantor in the end of my edition that sheds some light on the whole thing.

It was flogged as a dystopian--and it is in the beginning. Quite a good set-up: Post-industrial world in which fast-food is the major employer and neo-communist revolutionaries are plotting to overthrow the whole set-up. But this is quickly abandoned to a time travel/romance plot-line. Just didn't gel for me.

This book owes something, I think, to A Wrinkle in Time; similar characters and structure, lots of allusions (though they were obscure to this reader).

I'd be interested to see what others think.

ROOTing ("read our own tomes") through a Mount TBR and I've picked up Francesca Kay's The Translation of the Bones. As an ex-Catholic (pre-Vatican2), of course I find it interesting. I'm about a third of the way through.

>21 nohrt4me2:. nohrt4me2, thank you. So many books, too little time. ;>)

ROOTing! I love it! I'm trying to be better about that this year. Already I've read 4 books that I've owned for quite some time, but The Goldfinch just came in from the library, so that's next...

I finished both Major Pettigrew's Last Stand and The Valley of Amazement and am glad they're behind me. After 300 pages full of the self centered antics of Pettigrew and his associates at least there was a well written and insightful ending. Amazement didn't even have that. In it's favor, there was much interesting information about the world of courtesans, but the female characters were all haughty and insistent on being blind to reality until they had no choice but to open their eyes, and the men are mostly charming deceivers. If this weren't written by Amy Tan I don't believe it could have been selected as one of the 100 best works of fiction of 2013.
Now I'm reading Mermaid in Chelsea Creek. This is my third book by Michelle Tea (though this time writing with Jason Polan. She always has a weird perspective on life. The story kind of has echoes of The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making, but grungier,

24> Actually, there's a group that does just that! I'm not a member but I stole ROOT from them. (You can find just about anything on LT.)

Got The Goldfinch from the library, so digging in. I've only been able to read it on the train, which is uncomfortable because I have to hold up the book. It's heavy! So it's been slow-going, as I can't read much at once.

I'm reading The goldfinch too, but on my kindle! It's engrossing so far (about 1/3 of the way through) although the side characters that I liked seem to have dropped off the radar at the moment.

I just finished Duplex , another notable book for 2013. (I'm not having such a notable time with these novels.) It feels as if the reader is dropped down into the middle of the story and has to open her mind very wide to take it all in. There's a street of duplexes, the story revolves around some of its inhabitants, including a family of robots. We go through the entire life of these people, even one of the robots pretends to age so that she can seem to fit in with her friends. There are scows in the sky which are referred to casually as if they are birds, no origin given. There's a parallel world that some of the characters wander into, again rather casually. Terms are given, then later in the book the story behind them. I could get with all that. But what threw me off was the language. It felt like the author was just throwing in sentences from random stories and connecting them at will. Last night I dreamed I was searching for a map. I'm thinking today that it was the map to the novel, without which I was completely lost.

>29 Citizenjoyce:, Citizenjoyce, I am SO glad that I have you to preview books for me. lol, as I strike another book off of my wish list.

Seriously, I read the promo reviews when these books come out and everything sounds so fresh and awesome. It is instructive to go back and look at reviews from real unbiased readers a year or two later and see how the stars have diminished.

>30 vwinsloe: Some of the adjectives on the back of the book, "rare, original, brave, cosmic, funny, brilliant." And I'm sure there are people who think all those things, just not me.

I finished an audiobook of Love in the Time of Global Warming , now that's an original book. A Queer Odyssey with Penelope as the adventurer. Well worth reading, plus it made me think it's time I re-read the original.

Well, I know that I can be overly cynical, but I'm convinced that at least the first ten "reader" reviews on Amazon and elsewhere are planted by the publisher. Or, I suppose in many cases, they could be friends and relations of the author. It really pays to wait.

@32: I don't think that's "overly cynical" at all! The Motley Fool uncovered the fact that Wal-mart paid people (probably poorly and without benefits) to post positive reviews of its brand on sites where people were being critical of the chain and its policies.

>32 vwinsloe: If only. But having someone on staff to do that would cost money, and publishers don't spend money if they can help it. :p

I've started another of the NY Times Notable Books of 2013 (link is here http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/08/books/review/100-notable-books-of-2013.html?re...;
and I think I've finally found a winner The Signature of All Things by Elizabeth Gilbert (of Eat, Pray, Love fame). I haven't read the latter book, but so far am finding this one enthralling. Poor English boy Henry Whittacre grows up to be rich due to his hard work and intellect, marries an overeducated Dutch woman, Bernice, who is plain of countenance but shining of intellect. They move to America and start a medicinal business based on botany, and daughter Alma is born at the turn of the 19th century. Also plain looking but educated by her mother to be scientific and well spoken, her life so far is exciting as she tramps through the woods surrounding her Pennsylvanian home studying botanical specimens. Now her mother, after unpleasant circumstances, has adopted Polly-Prudence because she has always wanted more children. Prudence is beautiful, Alma is jealous - oh please let the scientific part overshadow the beautiful vs plain part.

In audio, I'm listening to Pope Joan. It's okay, but follows the historical fiction formula pretty closely.

(>36 Nickelini: i don't read much historical fiction - what's the formula?)

i'm reading so slowly right now. =( really, really enjoyed praisesong for the widow and am now have a couple of men to read before getting to 96 hours for book group.

i don't read much historical fiction - what's the formula?

Take one plucky heroine, cover a span of years starting with her early life, add some oppressive patriarchy, and some unreasonable powerful characters, and set it some era in the past full of lots of details. Books that follow this formula are not necessarily bad--but there are many that are just awful. When the characters seem like modern people wearing period costume, the books really stink. My other pet peeve with HF is when they get details wrong.

>37 overlycriticalelisa: Very much liked Praisesong for the Widow, too, years ago. I should put it on the list for a re-read.

Finished Juno and Hannah. It would appeal to someone who enjoys magical realism more than I.

I'm reading Already Dead, and I am enjoying it. But I am ashamed, so there's that.

>40 nohrt4me2:

lol!

>40 nohrt4me2: I just drank a cherry beer with a grilled cheese sandwich, so we hang our heads together.

I'm about to start Lulu in Hollywood . I ordered it after finishing and loving The Chaperone. It'll be good to hear about her life from the horse's mouth, so to speak.

I just started Part Wild: Caught Between the Worlds of Wolves and Dogs. It's a memoir that I have not seen much information about, but I am interested in the subject matter so it caught my eye.

>38 Nickelini:
the historical fiction i've read has been real people fictionalized. i hadn't really thought of it really being all made up people set in an historically accurate time. ... although i guess i do call michener historical fiction if i'm put to it, but it feels different to me than say the first man in rome series by mccullough...

anyway i'm finally back to a female author, yay! about to start jenny and the jaws of life by jincy willett who is not someone i'm familiar with. always love trying someone new!

i hadn't really thought of it really being all made up people set in an historically accurate time

It happens equally with made up people and with historical figures.

I finally gave up on The Talented Miss Highsmith 300+ pages in. I almost never do that, but it was distracting me from reading other books. There's so much of interest in the book, but sadly it's hidden underneath layers and layers of repetitive gossip.

I'm on to James Tiptree, Jr. The Double Life of Alice B. Sheldon now, and I'm already fascinated only a dozen or so pages in. I'm sure this one will be a quick read.

>46 lemontwist:. James Tiptree, Jr. is one of the most fascinating biographies that I have ever read.

I finished the wonderful The Signature of All Things , it's about time I found one of the notable books of 2013 notable.. Aside from the fact that Alma's sexual fantasies are portrayed from a male pornographers perspective, it's a fascinating look at a whole, intellectual life. I can't imagine that any woman would find performing felatio to be her ultimate sexual fantasy - all the pleasure for someone else, none for her. That doesn't make sense to me. As the ad says, "if you read only one book in your lifetime...", well, that's not the one book I'd pick.
Now I've started The Zookeeper's Wife and am finding it fascinating. It's about a Polish zoo in WWII.

>48 Citizenjoyce:, I've never heard of "The Zookeeper's Wife," but my guess is that it's gonna be a weeper.

So far it's not a weeper, it's an anger maker - lots of stuff about Germany and the Polish resistance. Howevwer, Lots of animals have died in bombings, so I'm sure it's going to get much worse befoe it gets better. Hitler said he wanted to completely destroy the Polish culture, so 200,000 Poles have been killed by design so far, he wanted to kill anyone with influence including teachers and artists.

I finished The goldfinch last night, having found the whole book to be totally engrossing. I wanted to reach into the book at times and stop Theo from making some of his bad decisions. It was hard for me to relate to his dependency on drugs, but I can see how he fell into it as a result of his vulnerability after all the upheavals in his life. I'm really glad I gave in to the impulse to read this; Theo and his acquaintances will be haunting me for some time.

Now I've just started The accursed by Joyce Carol Oates.

#51. I finished The Goldfinch last night too. It's funny that I read 3 other books while reading it. I still think it was a great book so much so that I am having trouble picking up another yet. Theo is an unforgettable character and I'm so glad the ending was satisfying.

>48 Citizenjoyce: & 49. I listened to The Zookeeper's Wife on audiobook some time ago and enjoyed it. There are still so many unsung heroes in WWII; and it never gets old. Regarding the Elizabeth Gilbert book, Citizenjoyce, I will take your work for it because we seem to have similar taste. But I have to say that I absolutely despised her memoir Eat, Pray, Love.

I haven't read Eat, Pray, Love because it didn't seem at all appealing! or rather! I could see how the concept could appeal but also how it could be romanticized into mush. So I can't say how Signature differs, only that it doesn't romanticize and that it shows real growth.

As for unsung heroes, she says that in Poland if anyone were caught hiding Jews not only would they be killed but their whole family and even their neighbors. It's a wonder that anyone took the chance.

>54 Citizenjoyce: Many of the women I know who read Eat Pray Love really liked the first 3/4 of the book. So much so, they felt angry, hurt and betrayed by the author at the end. Gilbert spent the first 3/4 reinventing herself as a woman who did not define herself by her relationship with a man, and then in the final 1/4 "found the love of her life."

I'm reading a collection of short stories by Bonnie Jo Campbell, Women and Other Animals. With the very first story, Circus Matinee I remembered why I have a hard time with short stories. I wanted to know more about Big Joanie. I really wanted this to be a novel. But some of the stories, particularly Eating Aunt Victoria and the powerful Gorilla Girl are absolutely perfect the way they are. I've had this collection sitting on my bookshelf for at least a year. I'm glad I'm finally getting around to reading it.

I liked Campbell's American Salvage better than Women and Other Animals, which was a collection of her earlier stories.

I have that one too. I guess I'd best get to it.

vwinsloe-- Yeah and they actually split up very soon after they got together, which makes the book even more disappointing.

I'm Just finishing the last few pages of A Pilgrim At Tinker Creek. I had tried this one before and put it down. It took a group read to make me pick it back up. I definitely want to read more Dillard.

And I've started Alice Monro's Lives of Girls and Women for the RL book club next week.

>59 streamsong:, I didn't remember that streamsong, but yeah, what was the point?

>56 Citizenjoyce:. I don't read short stories much either. It's not that I don't like them; some of my most memorable reading experiences have been short stories (Jhumpa Lahiri, for example). But they are often just too short, and if I am reading on my commute then I end up reading half of something and another half of something else, and it really spoils whatever effect the author was going for.

56 & 57 > I also really enjoyed American Salvage. Let me know if her other stories are good as well.

#59 I think you're mistaken on that point, at least according to Gilbert's website bio. Her whole second memoir was about their relationship.

60, 62 -You two are absolutely right. I guess the last time I checked her bio was several years ago, and at that time they were in a bickering, breaking up, recommitting stage.

I went to lunch with an acquaintance some years ago who insisted on reading me excerpts from Eat, Pray, Love because she couldn't put it down. It took considerable cash outlay on my part to travel and buy my meal, and having to spend it listening to that drivel made me pretty annoyed.

I wanted to write a riposte to Gilbert's book for those of us low-income wage earners and can't travel the world to "find ourselves" in middle age. I'd call it "Skimp, Deny, and Take Your Xanax."

I like to think someone's already done it.

>64 nohrt4me2:. :>)

>64 nohrt4me2: now there's a book I'd read.

>60 vwinsloe:
i try to read short stories all in one sitting, and always put the book down and take even a short break between them to try to let them have their own place in space and time. i do feel like they order them to try to flow well together, but yes, i would think that reading half and half like that would be frustrating all around.

As far as I can make out, "EPL" is not about grace or "spirituality" as much as it is about chasing the blues away by treating yourself to the sensual distractions you've always dreamed of. Like Rhett Butler said (and he would know), "Money can't buy happiness, but it can buy the most remarkable substitutes." Even when Gilbert takes up celibacy (one of the few things she tries that doesn't require a high level of discretionary spending), it seems like just another novelty.

Maybe Barbara Ehrenreich's classic, Nickled and Dimed, would make a nice companion read with Gilbert's memoir.

>68 nohrt4me2:. I just picked up a copy of Nickled and Dimed on a library cart and am looking forward to reading it.

>64 nohrt4me2: "Skimp, Deny, and Take Your Xanax"

That is the best thing I've read all month. I'd preorder that book, nohrt-- write it already.

Sister, my problem as a writer is that I get good ideas for stories, but I can't sustain them to anything like a book length.

A beloved friend and I were thinking of parleying the whole "skimp, deny, and take your Xanax" philosophy to local TV, a kind of Wayne's World for middle aged women. We were going to call it "Don't Get Me Started," sit around in our bathrobes smoking and drinking coffee, going on rants, offering family advice, and calling up our elected representatives on a "hot line."

Four years ago, she got cancer and died because she didn't have any health care insurance. I miss her every damn day.

Wow, nohrt4me. Lots of hugs.

I'd watch that show. It needs chocolate in there somewhere, though.

Better than hugs, pay attention to whom you vote for and your state and nation's health care insurance policies. But thanks.

Chocolate, yeah. We always figured that eating the semi-sweet chips right out of the bag was the best way to go there. Why go to the expense and time of pretending you want to put them in cookies or dessert sauce, when what you really want is that raw hit of anandamide or whatever it is that releases the endorphins.

EZ mocha recipe: Put about 15 chips in your mouth while drinking cup of hot coffee. The caffeine, which is a stimulant, will slide that choco-buzz to your brain real fast.

That would be the type of thing on our show.

nohrt4me2, you have heard of the Australian Tim-Tam slam? Get your cup of hot coffee, nibble the corner off a Tim Tam (a very chocolatey biscuit with wafers and layers and coated in chocolate, diabetes on a stick, really), dip the opposing corner in your drink and SUCK the coffee up through the chocolate biscuit. Sugar and caffeine in one big rush.

Haven't read much women's writing this month, but did just finish Miles, Mystery & Mayhem, one of the Vorkosigan saga by the marvellous Lois McMaster Bujold. They look like potboiler space operas, but she challenges your assumptions and makes you think. These three stories (MM&M is one of the omnibus books) had common themes of gender identity and genetic manipulation.

And now I'm about to start Travel Light, a VMC.

I've decided to catch up on classic science fiction that I missed, so I just started Kindred this morning.

V, Kindred is a great and unsettling book! Hope you'll share your thoughts.

I have downloaded The Business of Being a Woman by Ida Tarbell and some of Nellie Bly's reportorial collections for spring break.

But before all that, I gotta see if I can find any Tim Tams in the "foreign food" section at the Kroger store. If these aren't available, am thinking, from Wookie's description of what is essentially a biscuit bong, that I might be able to achieve something similar with chocolate Pirolettes.

I will report back soon!

I just finished Beth Ditto's wonderful memoir Coal to Diamonds. Being an old fogey, I'd never heard of Ditto. Her early life is reminiscent of Dorothy Allison's Bastard out of Carolina, but it seems from the book that she has become a remarkably well integrated adult. In her mind punk is synonymous with feminism, anti racism and financial equality. Little did I know.
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=UECeJzd-G30&autoplay=1
I'm about half way through Elizabeth Smart's My Story, and it's quite an achievement. Leaving aside Smart's mormonism and the belief in miracles that that religion espouses, this is an empowered account of a girl who accepts herself, accepts the fact that she was raped repeatedly and rejects any blame for her attackers' actions. Also, I'm listening to it on audio, and even though Smart is now an adult, she reads it herself in what sounds very much like the sarcastic voice of the 14 year old she was then.

Anybody read Penelope Lively? Ran across a brief reference to her in the NYT Sunday. Recommend a good novel to start with?

Due to a recommendation on another site I've started Daughter of Smoke and Bone. I'm not that interested in paranormal novels anymore, especially not interested in angels and devils, yet, despite a silly romantic beginning, this is mighty intriguing. Good world building.

79> I don't at all care for angels and demons, but I do like this trilogy. (I just saw on Amazon that the third volume is due out in April.) I really wouldn't have picked it up if it hadn't been for Laini Taylor, though, because I really love her two Dreamdark books. I just wish she'd give us some more of Magpie and the "Dreamdark" world.

>78 nohrt4me2:: The only one of Lively's adult novels I've read is Moon tiger, which I enjoyed a lot. It won the Booker prize, so might be a good one to start with.

>79 Citizenjoyce:: I'll be interested to read your thoughts on Daughter of smoke and bone when you've finished it. I liked the first 2/3 of the book but was disappointed with the last part. I did love the chimerae and Karou's art school friends.

I'm into the last section of The accursed and am enjoying this Gothic historical novel. I used to spend a lot of time in Princeton so it's nice to read about the place as it was 100 years ago.

Hi everyone! I'm new to the group. I love empowering and supporting women so I knew this was the group for me. :)

Currently, I'm re-reading the May Bird series by Jodi Lynn Anderson. I love reading young adult novels and these books are some of my favorites. It features two of my favorite things: a strong female heroine and plenty of adventure! I really enjoy any book that can make me laugh, which these books always manage to do. I wrote a review for it as well!

I'm going to start on a new series soon but I'm having trouble finding one that really interests me! Any suggestions? I love anything paranormal.

>81 Sakerfalcon:: Sakerfalcon, I haven't read The Accursed, but it sounds very interesting! Let me know when you write a review! :)

78: very much enjoyed Consequences by Penelope Lively, a story of the three generations of women who make up a very interesting family

Well Brittany, if you like YA and you like paranormal, I'm going to recommend The Daughter of Smoke and Bone, it's the first of a trilogy, and I hear the second is even better. There's great world building about angels and demons, but in a magic rather than religious sense. Sakerfalcon, I guess I'm right at the point you stopped liking it, so I'll see tomorrow if I stand by my assessment.

I finished 2 good books by women. The first, My Story by Elizabeth Smart gives much to think about. A narcissistic religious freak kidnapped Smart from her bed when she was 14. He kept her for 9 months, raping her daily, keeping her filthy and frequently hungry and thirsty. He forced her to drink alcohol, which was against her Mormon upbringing, and to read pretty severe pornography and engage in sex acts that she didn't specify but found horrific. Well, not horrific. I think that's one of the points of the book. Smart is very matter of fact, even sarcastic, about everything that happened to her. She says the word rape with the same intensity she says the word hunger. It was a bad thing that happened to her but did not have a moral effect on her, and that's the basis for the questions. I wonder if Smart's extreme passivity while with her kidnapper stemmed from the fact that she was a good girl completely suffused with a patriarchal religion. The times she had the opportunity to cry for help, she remained silent because she was a good girl. She repeatedly emphasizes the fact that Mitchell said he would kill her and her whole family if she tried to escape, but I wonder if someone with a little less experience of being a good girl would have been so acquiescent.
Which leads to the second point. Elizabeth Smart is a happy woman, and I think this is also because of her Mormon faith. She knows she's a good person, she knows what her kidnapper did to her does not reflect on her own morality and, as her mother told her, her best revenge against him is to lead a happy life. At the time of writing the book Smart said she'd been alive 309 months, Mitchel had made 9 of those months miserable, but for the rest she is completely grateful, and that's a pretty good percentage.

The other great book I finished was My Prison, My Home: One Woman's Story of Captivity in Iran by Haleh Esfandiari, a woman with dual Iranian - American citizenship who, when she went to visit her mother in Iran, was captured by the Iranian Intelligence service and interrogated for 9 months, 3 1/2 of them in prison in solitary confinement. This is a good quick history of Iran in the 20th and 21st century emphasizing its relationship with the rest of the world and political crises within the country. Esfandiari was 67 years old when she was arrested. She writes toward the end of the book,
I appreciate as never before the idea of government subject to the rule of law. Autocrats and dictators may bring order and stability; but in the end, not answerable to the will of the people or anyone else, they grow reckless, trampling on human freedom and individual rights, wrecking their societies and their countries.
In every talk I have given since my return, I have reminded my audience of these common truths; and I have emphasized the need for all of us to speak out against governments and rulers who consider themselves above the law, who prey on their unprotected citizens.

Now I'm about to start Simple Dreams: A Musical Memoir by Linda Ronstadt.

>84 Citizenjoyce:. Regarding Elizabeth Smart, that's an interesting point to ponder in reference to the Stockholm (or Battered Women's) Syndrome. From your description, it doesn't sound as though she at all changed her values to adapt to her captor's world view in order to cope with her situation. It seems as though her strong religious faith somehow allowed her to keep her values and see herself as the blameless victim. But I wonder whether this isn't the norm?

My question may be arising out of an interesting discussion that I had on the commuter train this morning. I am reading Kindred and the gentleman sitting across from me was reading Twelve Years a Slave, and we noted how both books examined the culture of people born into slavery as opposed to those who were free and later taken into slavery, and how easy it seemed to be for the freeman to adapt to slavery when thrown into that culture in a situation fraught with violence and fear.

The Elizabeth Smart memoir sounds interresting. I was on holiday in Park City, Utah when she was kidnapped. Overnight posters went up on every available surface with her face on it--it was sort of creepy. My first reaction was that she was escaping her super-religious home and running away and told her sister to say a man came and took her -- how wrong was I! She does seem to be a very composed and stable young woman now, doesn`t she. I heard her say once that the reason he was able to make her stay was that the purity culture she had been raised in taught her that she was now garbage. She now speaks out against the abstinance sex education that teaches that you are a glass of water with spit in it or a piece of used scotch tape (do you know what I`m talking about) (Oh, look, I found a link to what I`m saying . . . . http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/may/09/elizabeth-smart-purity-cult...

Hope that made sense.

ETA: the example she uses in the article isn`t spit in a glass or scotch tape but used chewing gum. Nice.

>86 Nickelini:. Thanks for posting that link, Nickelini. That makes total sense to me, but I still wonder whether most 14 year old girls and boys would have acted similarly? Doesn't our entire culture have that view of "purity," to a certain extent at least when it comes to women and to men who are the victims of same sex rape?

but I still wonder whether most 14 year old girls and boys would have acted similarly? Doesn't our entire culture have that view of "purity," to a certain extent at least when it comes to women and to men who are the victims of same sex rape?

?? Maybe I'm not catching what you mean, but I don't personally know anyone who would have acted similarly or believed what Smart did (including myself at that age). Then again, I've never actually seen any purity culture here in Canada.

>88 Nickelini:. What I mean is that if you are a 14 year old kid who is kidnapped, physically assaulted and raped repeatedly, do you physically resist and attempt to escape? Or do you go along to get along, hoping to save yourself from even more brutalization?

According to the article that you posted, Smart said that she did not physically resist or attempt to escape because she felt like she was damaged goods and that no one would want her after she was raped, so she became passive. She thought that her reaction was due to the "purity culture" in her Mormon religion. But I argue that most people, particularly young teens, would have behaved the same way. Whether that is because "purity culture" is pervasive in American culture, or just because most people are not that brave (or foolish), or for some other reason (like the Stockholm syndrome)---or a combination of those things, I wouldn't venture to guess.

Ah, I see now. Thanks for explaining. I do see what you mean by a captive "going along, hoping to save yourself" and the Stockholm syndrome aspect.

Thanks for the great article, Other Joyce. Elizabeth Smart does come off as a very reasonable voice against the purity culture in her book, but I'm wondering if it's another example of the situation that occurs when conservative republicans find out they have a gay member in their family. All of a sudden they're pro gay rights. It takes a personal relationship for some people to become aware of discrimination. But, Smart has become aware of it, and her stance against abstinence only education is very helpful.
As far as Stockholm syndrome goes, she maintains throughout her book that she never felt any affection for her kidnappers or accepted their views and beliefs on anything.

>84 Citizenjoyce:: Thank you, Citizenjoyce! I'll add Daughter of Smoke and Bone to my library on here and Goodreads :) I love anything paranormal, ESPECIALLY demon and angel books so this sounds perfect. Thanks again!

>76 nohrt4me2:. I finished Kindred, and I agree that it is a powerful book. I find that there are very few books these days that can actually stir my emotions and make me care about the characters, and Kindred certainly did that. Although it is dubiously labeled science fiction, it does what first class science fiction does, which is to provide a vehicle to examine a situation from the point of view of an outsider. In this case, I think that what was being examined was situational ethics and feelings about choices. Well done.

V, I'm glad you liked "Kindred." I thought it was first rate, too.

I should read more Octavia Butler. I read Wild Seed some years ago, which is part of a series, and, while it took me a little while to get into the magic/mystical elements in the novel, I really liked it. New member Brittany might find it interesting, too.

I reviewed it here: http://thegrimreader.blogspot.com/2009/04/i-try-to-review-octavia-butler.html

nohrt4me2,I will definitely read more Octavia Butler if it comes my way, and after reading your intriguing review, I will put Wild Seed on my wishlist.

just started 96 hours for book group. not usually the kind of thing i read, which is one of the many things book group is good for!

Octavia Butler:

I've read Fledgling (5*****, best vampire novel I've ever read), Dawn (4½****), Adulthood Rites (5*****), and Imago (5*****), those latter three being the Xenogenesis trilogy.

I've also read Bloodchild and Other Stories which I've rated 3½*** only because the anthology itself is a mixed bag. Most of it really isn't all that good, but "Bloodchild" itself is one of my all-time favorite stories (not just sci-fi favorite, but favorite PERIOD) and the anthology also contains "Speech Sounds," a really top-flight post-apocalyptic story. Bloochild itself is available free online — and I don't know how, considering copyright, but it appears on a WashingtonPost.com page so it's obviously not some Pirate Bay pilfering or anything like that.

As to Kindred, I've made several stabs at it and for whatever reason just haven't been able to get that interested. I'm going to keep trying, though.

was in a feminist book group years ago when i lived in a different city with a member who was constantly after us to read kindred. not at all sure why we kept not choosing it but have intended for years to get to it one day with her in mind. currerbell, it sounds like i should read more than just that.

98> Aside from "Bloodchild" itself (which you can read on line), I'd suggest you start with Fledgling. It's a stand-alone novel so you're not getting yourself into a trilogy or a series. Fledgling's themes are major issues of race and gender — which are themes that of course are typical to a lot of Butler's work.

Currently dropping everything else to read The Undead Pool. It took me a day longer to get it after its release date because I bought BN.com online, which was selling autographed copies.

>97 CurrerBell:, wow, great, thanks for the reading list!

To chime in on the Octavia Butler conversation, Parable of the Sower is in my top 20 books of all time list, and she is one of my top 5 authors. We lost her too soon.

102> I know. There's just so much more of hers that I need to read!

If you were on a desert island with nothing to read but LeGuin and Butler, you'd be pretty well set. Many of these books bear re-reading, and they give you plenty to think about.

Just downloaded Fledgling, as I think I loaned out my paper copy and never got it back.

Hey, is anyone on here interested in sharing Kindle books? I've never done this before, but it doesn't involve postage or fees, as far as I know, and I'd be happy to throw out a list of items I have that folks can borrow.

>82 Brittany_Hawes:: I don't write reviews as such, but here are my thoughts on The accursed:

It was a really good read for anyone who enjoys Gothic novels. The final section seemed a bit too long, but up until then I found it hard to put the book down. It's told by a historian writing in the mid/late C20th about events that occurred in Princeton in 1905-6, and is a patchwork of documents linked and interpreted by the narrator. Fictional characters mingle with the likes of Woodrow Wilson, Grover Cleveland, Upton Sinclair and Mark Twain, to good effect. At the end I was still left wondering what had really happened, given the unreliable nature of the narrator and his evidence - although there was a final confession of sorts I doubted its legitimacy given how much possession there had been in the book, making characters speak and act against their will. The book won't please those who like a definite answer at the end of a story, or those who like a flowing narrative, but I very much enjoyed this clever book.

Now I'm starting The wild girl by Kate Forsyth, which is about the young woman who worked with the Brothers Grimm on their collection of fairy tales.

>104 nohrt4me2: totally agree, they are two of my favorite writers and never have let me down. Even their so so books are miles better than almost anything else.

I would be interested in sharing kindle books, although iirc the loan periods can be very short. When I lend books to my husband, he never seems to finish them in time.

>99 CurrerBell:
wait, is kindred not a stand-alone novel?

I finished Travel Light in one afternoon, and it was a great little fairytale story about a young girl raised by bears and dragons.

I then went on to start Tender Morsels by Margo Lanagan which I loved, but had to put aside for Burial Rites by Hannah Kent for bookgroup. I think I'm the only Australian not head-over-heels in love with Burial Rites (took me half the book to get into the story), but I think we can blame the timing for that (if I'd been able to finish Tender Morsels first...).

So, back to Tender Morsels now, and am still loving it.

I bought Daughter of Smoke and Bone at the bookshop the other day. Was tossing up between it and Ancillary Justice, but felt more like fantasy than sci-fi at the moment. Still, it was a hard choice! So many good books out there.

OK, just finished Fledgling in a one-day speed read. Quite good. Maybe a little draggy in the courtroom scene, but always interesting questions about relationships between people and the nature of coercion.

107> Gosh, I'm sorry, my reference to Fledgling as stand-alone wasn't meant to exclude Kindred from being stand-alone as well. I was referring to Fledgling as being stand-alone in contrast with the Xenogenesis trilogy -- and to sci-fi works generally, which often tend to be in trilogy or series format. That's wasn't meant to imply that Kindred isn't stand-alone as well. Sorry!

(And sorry too for my delay in responding to you. I'd unstarred this thread with the creation of the new March thread and only just noticed that there were a few continuing posts on here that I hadn't seen.)

>110 CurrerBell:

oh, great! thanks for the clarification!

(which i totally could have found on my own using google or something; didn't mean to make you do the work for me. and i feel like this was a perfectly fast response. i logged into my email yesterday for the first time in weeks, had 1910 messages dating back to just before xmas and immediately closed it again. that'sa delayed reply. assuming i get to the replying part one day.)