Book Report
Oct. 25th, 2012 07:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
stormkeeper_lovesallNot having many hobbies aside from reading means that I can post book reports fairly frequently.
The 4-Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferriss - This book was a best-seller. Oddly, I found that I couldn’t put it down although I don’t have any plans to follow the advice in this book. Basically, the author takes you through his ideas on cutting down – way cutting down – the hours you work while improving your standard of living. In a somewhat disjointed format, this book provides ideas and resources on ways you can 1) work remotely from anywhere in the world, starting with ideas on how to get your boss to approve a remote-work agreement, 2) take advantage of technology and things like virtual assistants, and tips on how to cut down your time on email, 3) travel cheaply and live in areas of the world where your dollar stretches far, 4) start an internet-based selling business. I give Ferriss credit; he provides tons of resources and ideas on each step. I can’t quite figure out why I liked it so much given that I have no intention of doing any of this. The book was written in a droll and witty style; as I listened to this audio book a voice kept whispering in my head, ‘There’s a sucker born every minute.’ Not sure his ideas will really work in the real world – even though he provides testimonials from several people - but it made for a good listen. The voice actor who read this book was perfect for the role. Grade: B
How to Be Black by Baratunde Thurston – As it says on the back cover of this book, this is part stand-up routine, part political analysis, and part autobiography. The stand-up and political analyses sections were hilarious, and I loved the writer’s crisp, funny style. He had some good social/cultural insights. Grade: B
More books behind the cut.
Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal by Jeanette Winterson – Sometimes I read a book so good that words fail me. What I thought was exceptionally cool was the fact that this is a memoir by an award-winning novelist, and although I never was able to get into any of Winterson’s novels, I loved this memoir. I know I sound like I have the intellectual brainpower of a Kardashian when I say this but, I didn’t understand any of Winterson’s novels.*I still wanted to read her memoir though, and I’m so glad I did. Winterson was adopted at a young age by Pentecostalists who abused her, but this memoir isn’t a “woe me” tale. It’s introspective and yet the pace moves quickly. I fear that I can’t do this book justice in my review, so I will quote from some other reviews that I agree with: ”To read Jeanette Winterson's books is to know the exquisite torment of envying every bloody word she writes on the page. . . . Winterson may be one of the bravest writers of our time." And, ”Winterson pulls back the veil on her life as she really lived it and shows us that truth is not only stranger than fiction, but more painful and more beautiful as well. . . . Searing and candid . . . Winterson holds nothing back. . . . Written with poetic beauty.” Grade: A
‘* - Oh yeah, what I said above about not understanding any of Winterson’s novels? I should elaborate on that. Winterson has won a ton of awards, her work is very literary, has been called genius, etc. It’s been years since I attempted one of her novels, and they are definitely very…allegorical. Not straight-forward. Hard to follow. When I was in college, one of my professors shared a theory. She posited that people who grow up in households where communication is direct and without double meaning tend to later have trouble understanding art, understanding allegory. “We don’t get art,” she said. That describes me. Whereas people who grow up in households with poor communication, with parents who withhold information, they tend to do quite well in creating and understanding art, novels with allegory, etc. That describes Winterson. I don’t envy her her upbringing even though it largely contributed to her talent and her resulting literary awards.
Watermark by Vanitha Sankaran – One of the reviews on the back of this novel said it was “historical fiction at its finest”. I enjoyed the book and wasn’t bored while reading it, but I didn’t think it was anything extraordinary. Taking place in 14th century rural France, the novel tells the story of a young woman who is mute and who is the daughter of a papermaker. I thought the writing and storyline were actually kind of amateurish. Grade: C
How to Get a Girl Pregnant by Karleen Pendleton Jimenez – This is a memoir by a butch lesbian who desperately wants to get pregnant. At first, I was quite unimpressed with this book. I thought that it read like someone’s blog posts, with ‘just average’ writing (I was kinda like, ‘this memoir must’ve just barely gotten published!’). When I could put that aside though, I had to hand it to Jimenez. She sucked me into her story and I wanted to know whether or not she’d be successful in her endeavors, which included both working with sperm banks and with real, live men doing it the old-fashioned way. I appreciated her honesty and her opening up her life. She ponders her rapacious desire to get pregnant and have a baby; she questions whether she’s doing this because she’s trying to find some meaning in her life. (I’ve had the same questions about my desire to adopt). She shares that her efforts at getting pregnant have placed her thousands of dollars in debt, and I questioned the wisdom of bringing a baby into the world when you’re not just broke but also in debt. The costs of raising a child to the age of 18 are fairly astronomical. Maybe it was wrong of me to judge but, like I said, I appreciated Jimenez’s laying it all out on the table. Grade: B
Books I started reading but didn’t finish:
None this time!
The 4-Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferriss - This book was a best-seller. Oddly, I found that I couldn’t put it down although I don’t have any plans to follow the advice in this book. Basically, the author takes you through his ideas on cutting down – way cutting down – the hours you work while improving your standard of living. In a somewhat disjointed format, this book provides ideas and resources on ways you can 1) work remotely from anywhere in the world, starting with ideas on how to get your boss to approve a remote-work agreement, 2) take advantage of technology and things like virtual assistants, and tips on how to cut down your time on email, 3) travel cheaply and live in areas of the world where your dollar stretches far, 4) start an internet-based selling business. I give Ferriss credit; he provides tons of resources and ideas on each step. I can’t quite figure out why I liked it so much given that I have no intention of doing any of this. The book was written in a droll and witty style; as I listened to this audio book a voice kept whispering in my head, ‘There’s a sucker born every minute.’ Not sure his ideas will really work in the real world – even though he provides testimonials from several people - but it made for a good listen. The voice actor who read this book was perfect for the role. Grade: B
How to Be Black by Baratunde Thurston – As it says on the back cover of this book, this is part stand-up routine, part political analysis, and part autobiography. The stand-up and political analyses sections were hilarious, and I loved the writer’s crisp, funny style. He had some good social/cultural insights. Grade: B
More books behind the cut.
Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal by Jeanette Winterson – Sometimes I read a book so good that words fail me. What I thought was exceptionally cool was the fact that this is a memoir by an award-winning novelist, and although I never was able to get into any of Winterson’s novels, I loved this memoir. I know I sound like I have the intellectual brainpower of a Kardashian when I say this but, I didn’t understand any of Winterson’s novels.*I still wanted to read her memoir though, and I’m so glad I did. Winterson was adopted at a young age by Pentecostalists who abused her, but this memoir isn’t a “woe me” tale. It’s introspective and yet the pace moves quickly. I fear that I can’t do this book justice in my review, so I will quote from some other reviews that I agree with: ”To read Jeanette Winterson's books is to know the exquisite torment of envying every bloody word she writes on the page. . . . Winterson may be one of the bravest writers of our time." And, ”Winterson pulls back the veil on her life as she really lived it and shows us that truth is not only stranger than fiction, but more painful and more beautiful as well. . . . Searing and candid . . . Winterson holds nothing back. . . . Written with poetic beauty.” Grade: A
‘* - Oh yeah, what I said above about not understanding any of Winterson’s novels? I should elaborate on that. Winterson has won a ton of awards, her work is very literary, has been called genius, etc. It’s been years since I attempted one of her novels, and they are definitely very…allegorical. Not straight-forward. Hard to follow. When I was in college, one of my professors shared a theory. She posited that people who grow up in households where communication is direct and without double meaning tend to later have trouble understanding art, understanding allegory. “We don’t get art,” she said. That describes me. Whereas people who grow up in households with poor communication, with parents who withhold information, they tend to do quite well in creating and understanding art, novels with allegory, etc. That describes Winterson. I don’t envy her her upbringing even though it largely contributed to her talent and her resulting literary awards.
Watermark by Vanitha Sankaran – One of the reviews on the back of this novel said it was “historical fiction at its finest”. I enjoyed the book and wasn’t bored while reading it, but I didn’t think it was anything extraordinary. Taking place in 14th century rural France, the novel tells the story of a young woman who is mute and who is the daughter of a papermaker. I thought the writing and storyline were actually kind of amateurish. Grade: C
How to Get a Girl Pregnant by Karleen Pendleton Jimenez – This is a memoir by a butch lesbian who desperately wants to get pregnant. At first, I was quite unimpressed with this book. I thought that it read like someone’s blog posts, with ‘just average’ writing (I was kinda like, ‘this memoir must’ve just barely gotten published!’). When I could put that aside though, I had to hand it to Jimenez. She sucked me into her story and I wanted to know whether or not she’d be successful in her endeavors, which included both working with sperm banks and with real, live men doing it the old-fashioned way. I appreciated her honesty and her opening up her life. She ponders her rapacious desire to get pregnant and have a baby; she questions whether she’s doing this because she’s trying to find some meaning in her life. (I’ve had the same questions about my desire to adopt). She shares that her efforts at getting pregnant have placed her thousands of dollars in debt, and I questioned the wisdom of bringing a baby into the world when you’re not just broke but also in debt. The costs of raising a child to the age of 18 are fairly astronomical. Maybe it was wrong of me to judge but, like I said, I appreciated Jimenez’s laying it all out on the table. Grade: B
Books I started reading but didn’t finish:
None this time!
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Date: 2012-10-26 12:28 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-10-26 01:00 am (UTC)P.S. - Where's your icon pic from?
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Date: 2012-10-26 04:13 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-10-26 10:02 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-10-26 06:03 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-10-26 03:18 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-10-26 10:00 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-10-26 03:27 pm (UTC)Understand also that I'm not putting down Winterson or her novels--mostly because I haven't read any of her work, I have no idea what she's like, and it sounds to me like you got some enjoyment out of reading her regardless of your trouble with allegory.
However. I'm also a firm believer in the Death of the Author theory. It's a TV Trope. (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/DeathOfTheAuthor) The idea there is that while an author (or any creator of art) may have specific things in mind when s/he is creating the work in the first place, once that work is out in the world and subject to perusal from a non-biased audience, whatever that author originally intended to convey is no longer relevant. It's all the eye of the beholder at that point, and whatever you take from it is just as important, just as correct, as whatever the author intended. In other words, all art is subjective, and you, the audience, bring your experience to it when you're looking at it as much as the author brings his or her experience to it when creating it.
There are no right or wrong answers, is what I mean here, and I have very little patience for people who claim that certain others, for any reason, either won't or can't "get" art. THAT is what I'm calling bullshit on. Knowing more about the author's background can give you a new perspective on the same work, which is why I read books over and over instead of just the once, but that doesn't make your initial reading of it wrong.
Henry James once famously stated that when he wrote Ulysses--often held up as the epitome of allegorical literature--he was just blowing smoke to see what people would decide what it was "really about."
Yes, I'm a bit on the defensive here. In my defense though, I'm A) on my period and slightly bitchier than usual, and B) a writer, with more than just a vested interest in these things.
no subject
Date: 2012-10-26 03:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-10-26 08:27 pm (UTC)Thanks for being cool about it. You're awesome. *hugs*
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Date: 2012-10-26 09:22 pm (UTC)P.S.
Date: 2012-10-26 03:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-10-26 08:09 am (UTC)I don't know, though...my family didn't talk about some things and had issues, but my Mum was always straight up with me and we did have fascinating conversations, we read stories together up until I was 8 or 9, she always explained the things I saw and didn't understand, etc. I wonder if it's also exposure to a diverse variety of art, both as a participant and a viewer. I've always heard that kids who go to museums and talk about it with their parents are much more likely to appreciate and understand art as adults, and that was the case for me. Also, my Mum never censored anything; if I wanted to read Edgar Allan Poe as my bedtime story, she let me do it.
On the subject of literary novels, though...sometimes I think when a novel or a play gets a reputation for being "literary" or cerebral, it's a case of The Emperor's New Clothes. The work is just not good or well constructed and people are afraid to say it because they think they just don't get it. They don't realize there's nothing TO get. I worked at a play like that one year. It had a lot of Latin in it, and references to Roman poets, and everyone thought it was so very intelligent. In truth it was just a badly written play with a lot of Latin in it.
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Date: 2012-10-26 08:12 am (UTC)Maybe one other thing with allegory and references is that you have to have the background to understand them. Like in a series I'm reading, Heck, there are all these historical figures (the series is about two kids who die and go to Heck, because they are too young to go to Hell. Heck is a reform school with teachers like Lizzie Borden, Richard Nixon, etc.). If you didn't know those historical figures you just wouldn't get the inside jokes.
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Date: 2012-10-28 06:31 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-10-28 07:33 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-10-28 12:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-10-30 02:11 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-10-30 02:20 pm (UTC)In any case, hang in there. *Hugs*