Library books vs. books I owned (and thus removed from the home abode): 6 library books, 1 owned books and 0 e-books.
Plans for July 2020 include a month of teaching online Summer School at the university, prepping their lectures and grading work… Apart from that, lots of reading, jigsaw puzzles and hanging out. Temperatures are very hot outside for the most part, so it’s a pretty indoor life right now. š
Our city has a few lakes and flooded canyons. Here is one of them on a lovely weekend morning walk the other day.
Summer is now here and for me, life has slowed down (but just until I start teaching Summer School). In the meantime, Iāve been focused on learning about racial and social issues and how I can impact those.
My first step in that plan is to be quiet, listen and to learn, so Iāve been doing a lot of that. On a more practical level, Iām also planning on working some voter registration drives ā a cause that I believe will be critically important this autumn. I am cautiously optimistic that perhaps this countryās (and the worldās) social unrest will be the catalyst for some long-overdue societal changes but again ā that leads back to the upcoming U.S. election.
Iād like to really encourage you to take some action in your own community, however youād like to do that. If youāre interested in registering more voters, then you might follow up with your local League of Women Voters (LWV), a non-partisan non-profit focused on getting voters (of any stripe) signed up ready to do their civic duties. If you happen to live in a mid-sized (or up) city (or near one), I bet there is a chapter near you. Pretty fun and important to do at the same time.
A tricky (and miniature) jigsaw puzzle completed the other day. š
Moving on, Iāve been reading some books, working on a jigsaw puzzle or two, and messing around in the garden a bit. Just bibbling around really, but itās been fun and relaxing. Our local gym opened up the other day ā thank goodness! ā and so weāve been spending time there, trying to catch up for the previous slacker COVID months when nothing was open.
I went through a patch when I had a reading block, but that seems to have lifted now, so let me give you a brief taste of some of the titles Iāve finished recently:
Wallis in Love ā Andrew Morton. Let me save you some time here. Interesting story but itās Andrew Morton. He writes for drivel such as the English red-top newspapers so itās pretty hard to take him seriously, but as a gossipy frothy look at Wallis Simpson and her influence on the British monarchy, it was ok. No one was portrayed well throughout this recounting of this story, but at least the book was grammatically correct. š
Offramp ā Hank Stuever. NF travel essays by Stuever who writes a little aimlessly about his journeys to the smaller towns and communities just off the larger highways that crisscross America. I had quite high hopes for this, but it was not to be. Although fairly well written, the essay collection was only tangentially related to the overall theme of road travel and was more of a lame excuse to lump these texts together. Not bad, not great. Just ok.
Mr. Loverman ā Bernadine Evaristo. Fiction. Truly excellent. Will definitely make my Top Ten Books of 2020. See my review here and then go and read this book. Youāll love it (but let me know what you think about that last chapter!)
The graphic novel version of Atwoodās The Handmaidās Tale. Loved this, although it was a necessarily shortened recounting of the novelās more-involved plot. Still, a good reminder of Atwoodās plotting excellence and gave me impetus to check out the third volume in the MaddAdam trilogy.
My Sister, the Serial Killer ā Oyinkan Braithwaite. A satirical take on what might happen if your actual sister was a real serial killer and you were involved each time with the clean-up and cover-up of the victims. Well written Nigerian title. Good descriptions of life in this modern African country.
Tomboy ā Liz Prince. An autobiographical graphic novel which looks at the role of gender and how its then-limited definitions impacted the childhood life of the author. This might be a helpful read for middle-school-and-up readers who are struggling to fit in with their peers without giving up their own individuality. Good artwork along with the evergreen message of staying true to yourself.
After this string of OK reads, Iām also relieved to report that Iām now thoroughly immersed in the 1946 novel, āThe Streetā, by Ann Petry, a Black* writer. An early literary thriller and a huge bestseller, this title is notable for being one of the first bestselling novels to be published by a Black female writer.
Black writing had been published before this, naturally, but the general term of āBlack litā typically referred to only male writing. This was a woman writer who had centered her story in Harlem and featured the hard scrabble side of life. It covers serious issues such as sexism, racism, poverty, and unemployment, but at the same time, the story has a seam of hopefulness and almost optimism throughout the plot. Really good read so far. More deets later.
*Note: I am using the term āBlackā in favor of āAfrican-Americanā since that is the recommendation from the National Association of Black Journalists and the Associated Press. See here for more details.
Well, I apologize for that unintended slightly-longer-than-I thought break there. Life has gone a little awry (just as it probably has for you all as well), and itās taken me a little bit to get my bearings back. Our university classes all had to be moved online in a remarkably short amount of time, and it seems that I have spent most of the last couple of weeks either online in workshops learning how to do this effectively or messing around with the software needed to do it.
However, I feel more comfortable with the software now and have a stronger idea of just how to make this transition work for both the studentsā academic experience and my own personal one. Iāve learned to keep things as simple as possible and weāre all taking it day by day.
Like an awful lot of others out there in book-blogging land, I found it hard to concentrate on reading for a little while, but this is coming back to me now. Thank goodness.
Anyway, I thought I would make this post more of a catch-up post than anything and then I can move onto getting back into the swing of things.
So ā to the reading. I really enjoy Cathy746ās blog which focuses on reading from Ireland, and when I learned that she would be running February as āRead Irelandā month, I really wanted to join in with that. I toddled off to the TBR shelves and read the following as a tribute to the Emerald Isle:
The Things We Lose, The Things We Leave Behind ā Billy OāCallaghan (F/short stories).
For two titles without links, Iām afraid that I didnāt write up official reviews for them. However, I can report that the Binchy was a great read ā like “a big cup of tea with chocolate digestives” good read and it hit the spot at a time when stress was quite high re: the class online transition. (To give you an idea of that, I have never taught online nor have I ever taken a class online, so I had a lot of learning to do! Iām much more comfortable with the whole process now, thankfully to the high level of support from both the university and my faculty colleagues.)
The OāCallaghan short stories were good with a couple of great ones in there. I think reading short stories as a unit is a bit of a gamble, and to be honest, Iām not convinced that reading the stories one after the other (as I did with this title) was the best way to experience them. I think Iāll probably make more of an effort to spread out the short-story reads a little more in the future. I bet that is a completely different reading experience that way.
Anyway, OāCallaghan is an Irish author and this was a good read. I also have one of his novels on deck so perhaps that might be more up my alley.
Another read that was definitely up my alley was an old collection of themed essays from the acclaimed zoologist Sir David Attenborough. Called āJourneys to the Pastā, this collection of writing pieces goes back to the 1960s when Attenborough was traveling to far-flung places such as Madagascar, Tongo and Australiaās Northern Territories ādoing what he does best, journeying with camera and pen to observe animals and tribal customs in some of the remotest parts of the world,ā says the book cover.
Although written 60 years ago, this essay collection more than meets the mark for excellence in nonfiction writing. I had wondered if there would be some non-PC descriptions of places and peoples, but there were none. (I shouldnāt have worried. It was Attenborough, after all.) A thoroughly enjoyable armchair travel with an erudite and humorous host who plainly adores what he was lucky enough to do. Heās is just as thrilled meeting the local tribal representatives and learning their customs, despite his main focus being on animals, and his enthusiasm and respect for the individuals who he meets in the course of his travels were a balm for this frazzled soul.Ā
This was by far one of the best of the reads Iāve had in the past few weeks, and if youāre looking for some gentle reads combined with some far-off travel (from the comfort of your own shelter-in-place home), then you wonāt go wrong with Sir David.
A completely different read from Attenborough was a short read by NYT critic, Margo Jefferson, who wrote a small collection of provocative essays about Michael Jackson. (Yes, that Michael Jackson. Thriller one.) Jefferson takes a pretty academic lens to Jacksonās life and provides much food for thought about him. Iām still thinking about this read and am contemplating putting together a full review of this book since itās got a lot of material inside the slim page count. (Iāve read some other Jefferson work: check out the review of Negroland here.)
So, Iāve been reading. And napping. And learning new software. And playing with my animals. And going for walks. And more napping. š Iām planning on adding more reading to this list from now on.
If youāre on FB at any time, you might look up George Takei (yes, that one) and read his feed because he has some good stuff going on. You also might be interested in looking up this graphic memoir because itās fascinating and itās really well done.
Takei is a son of first-generation immigrants from Japan ā his fatherās parents had immigrated from there and his mother, although born in the U.S., had been sent to Japan to go to school. George (and his young brother and sister) were raised with a foot in both cultures ā all U.S. citizens but fully cognizant of their Japanese roots.
(Interestingly, George gets his name from Anglophile father after King George VI and his brother, Henry, is named after King Henry VIII [since he was a chubby healthy infant when he was born]. The sister didnāt get a royal name though, but was named after one of the parentsā friends for whom both the parents had high admiration.)
So, the Takeiās were a typical immigrant family, working hard and minding their own [dry cleaning] business. It was at the start of the American involvement in WWII and although the war seemed distant, all that changed when Japan launched its attack on Pearl Harbor catapulting the U.S. into this event. It also immediately changed the lives of the Takeis and thousands of other Japanese-American families.
Iād been sort of familiar about the awful history of the U.S. internment (really, imprisonment) of Japanese-Americans at the start of WWII, but reading about Takeiās experience of this was heartbreaking. And the fact that the Powers That Be reacted to an outside force in such a knee-jerk and paranoid way reminds me of another U.S. administration, 70 years later, but whoās naming names? ;-]
George Takei, actor and SJW.
This is a thoughtful read through the memories of Takei from when he was a young boy and from the after-dinner conversations that he has held with (mostly?) his father, it seems. I really appreciated how honest Takei is when he admits that his childhood memories of how fun and novel this whole situation was for him as a kid starkly contrasts with his parentsā more honest appraisal of how this edict uprooted them and forced them to lose almost all their possessions.
Looking back upon this time, itās quite astonishing that the U.S. government allowed this situation to happen (let alone continue for a few years), but sometimes power corrupts. Hmm.
Good read about a shameful historic time that has led me down a few rabbit holes since finishing it.
February has passed pretty quickly for me, but itās also a short month and smack in the middle of the school semester so itās not surprising really. Still, weird to believe that Spring Break is just around the corner and then, itās only a matter of weeks until the summer break. Whoosh. Time does fly faster as you get older, doesnāt it? š
My February reading was steady but slow, sadly. The most impactful read for me (as part of Black History Month) was, no doubts about it, Invisible Man by Ellison. What an amazing read. (Itās also a Scary Big Book [in terms of page count – 581 pp], but the story carries you along nicely for the most part. Ā
I must admit to wading in the weeds of confusion for parts of it, but the big picture is that itās a memorable read and is a classic for a reason.
If you havenāt read it, do pull this title off the shelf. Just know that there are passages that are a little dense (or perhaps it was me who was a little dense?) Just keep on truckinā through these and know that it all makes sense in the end. š
They Called Us the Enemy ā George Takei et al. (NF/Graphic/Memoir) POC (post to come)
In progress:
Eye on the Struggle: Ethel Payne, the First Lady of the Black Press ā James McGrath Morris (NF/auto) POC
Inside this Place, Not of It: Narrative from Womenās Prisons ā Robin Levi and Aeylet Waldman (NF/bio) POC
Total number of books read in February: 4
Total number of pages read: 1,229 pages (av. 308 pages)
Fiction/Non-Fiction: 2 F and 2 NF
Male authors: 4. Female authors:0. (Yikes.)
Library books vs. books I owned (and thus removed from the home abode): 1 library book and 3 owned books. 0 e-books this month.
Books off TBR pile this year: 12. (Go me.)
Plans for March? Spring Break is on the horizon, so very looking forward to that (as are the students!) Iām also going to continue the POC topic/author and the reading-my-own-TBR trends and yet, at the same time, open my reading selection up to the rest of my TBR pile. There are some other authors Iāve been itching to get my little hands onā¦
And Iām not sure if Iāve told you this yet, but Iām also on a serious book-buying ban. It started on January 27 and Iām holding out until the end of April. An occasional library book can get thrown in the mix, but for the most part, my focus is on my own TBR. Itās going pretty well so far ā only one book purchase and it was for the Kindle. :-}
Continuing on with my focused reading for Black History Month (and also continuing my focus on my own TBR), I selected “BlackkKlansman: A Memoir” by Ron Stallworth (2018) since it met both of those criteria. My curiosity was also piqued by the movie (directed by Spike Lee) on the book’s events, so the title seemed to tick a lot of boxes for me.
I wasn’t that well-versed in what the book actually covered (apart from an African-American man infiltrating the KKK – a true story), and so I entered the read with a mostly-open mind about it. It turned out that it was both a better AND a worse read than I had originally expected.
To the narrative: Ron Stallworth was a young detective in the Colorado Springs Police Department, at a time when he was the very first POC to hold that coveted law enforcement position. At the same time as having to prove his worth to his colleagues, he also applied (as a lark) for membership to Colorado Springs branch of the Ku Klux Klan. Yes, Stallworth is black. Yes, to the Ku Klux Klan. So, how did this actually work?
Before I read the book, I had the idea in my head of Stallworth attending the meetings in person but being hidden by wearing the stupid bedsheet uniform of the KKK, but it turns out that he didn’t actually attend the meetings but sent in a (white) surrogate, which in retrospect was the safest and most sensible thing to do. (I just had it different in my head.)
So the Colorado Springs KKK accept his application (without knowing that Stallworth was black) and the detective continues to develop his relationship with the leadership of the pretty small group by only having telephone conversations and sending this other guy to the actual F2F encounters. It’s actually quite funny to think about this African-American law officer having detailed phone conversations with a local leader of the KKK. (I was also rather glad that the KKK leader is also portrayed as being highly incompetent and badly organized but with high goals for increasing membership.)
The actual campaign of undercover KKK membership only continues for a few months, but in these weeks, Stallworth manages quite a lot of contact with various KKK officials, including David Duke, the Grand Wizard (dumb name). However, as the book continues and I turned the pages, I started to become pretty distracted by several things which detracted from the narrative plot.
One was that the book was really terribly written. I understand that Stallworth is not a professional writer, but that’s what editors are for. However, in the Acknowledgments at the end of the book, the author goes out of his way to thank an editor for his work on the writing, so it may have been that the writing had been even worse than before it had been edited. (Hard to imagine – repetition galore. Poorly organized points. More repetition. Holding grudges longer than 20 years for former work colleagues and supervisors. Leaving out important points that make it hard to follow. More repetition… The readerly cringing never ended.)
And, after all this (and after more than 200 pages), as Stallworth is summarizing up the operation, he admits that it didn’t actually achieve anything of note re: the KKK. It didn’t change anything. It didn’t really add important previously-unknown knowledge to the files. He’d also “lost” the only photo that proved he did what he did with David Duke (and he bragged about this to no end – but come on. Show me the money! ;-)) This actually became endlessly irritating for me as the reader and when I turned that final page (because I stubbornly refused to DNF this one), I was pretty annoyed at having wasted my time (and money) on this.
I think that Stallworth was brave to attempt to infiltrate a group such as the KKK (that’s the good thing about the book), but in the end, it seemed like a lot of fuss for not much result, so I’m not sure how good the associated movie is going to be (unless they take some creative leaps in how things turned out).
This could have been such a good read – it’s a brave project but the courage is rather covered up in the author insisting on airing his personal slights to former colleagues (repeatedly) and professing to having lost some of the evidence (apart from a notebook and a few files). To add to this, Stallworth reports that the Colorado Springs Police Chief made the whole case “disappear” from official records and so there is no trace of it actually happening.
Hmm. It all makes me rather wonder about the whole situation. I’m pretty disappointed in this read as it could have been sooooo much better and I’m very surprised that the publisher actually went ahead and published it as it was written. It was a shame in the end.
Good story but so spoiled by the other factors that you just couldn’t appreciate it in the end. Probably not going to see the movie (even though I like Jordan Peele).
āWhen this book was first published, I hoped it would soon become only a history of what racism used to be. I feel profound regret that it has not.ā Lois Mark Stalvey.
When I was reading through āWhy Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria: And Other Conversations About Raceā by Beverly Daniel Tatum (2003) last semester, I found it to be an amazing resource for several things, one of which happened to be a bibliography of further reading. Thatās where I came across mention of Stalveyās book, considered by some to be a historical publishing landmark in terms of sociology and racial awareness in the U.S.
Piqued by the title, I tracked it down in the university libraryā¦ And then, I even read it. š
A biography of sorts, a journey in many ways, Stalveyās book recounts her (and her familyās) gradual awareness of racism in its many forms in the U.S. in the 1960s. At first just living on the peripheral edge of racismās impact, the Stalvey family (who were White and who are led mostly by Lois) slowly become more knowledgeable about the Civil Rights Movement and its importance. Seeing it negatively impact their friends, family and community, this social āawakeningā (of sorts) leads to a solid commitment to Stalvey and her husband to become deeply involved in the issue. And involved they get. The family jumps in with both feet first.
This autobiography of a familyās experience of one of the most troubling social ills of our time was eye-opening for me in several ways. I used to think I am quite informed about the issue on the whole, but to actually LIVE it, every day… To commit your family to the cause with such focus is the stuff of legend. The Stalvey family didnāt just walk the walk.
Itās especially amazing when one considers the time period when this occurred. Itās the early 1960s. Racism is rampant throughout the country. Segregation is widespread throughout the American culture and there is a lot of societal resistance to any changing of the ways (notably from the whites). There are increasing pockets of violence and unrest in the larger cities, and the U.S. is facing one of its toughest challenges: how to integrate (or even if they should integrate). It reads as though the place is a tinderbox (which it was in many ways).
As the book continues, you read about the family and their efforts to effect change: among their friends, in the community, and in the larger area of federal impact (such as housing and education). The family face ongoing racist resistance from their neighbors; they lose friends and have to move to different cities from time to time, but their commitment doesnāt waiver. (They are scared. They are worried. But they donāt lose their bravery.)
Looking back at this time from the twenty-first century, itās very sad and disheartening to see how far we havenāt come. The Civil Rights Movement was more than 60 years ago, and the country has improved in some ways. Thatās true. But reading this book was a constant reminder of yet how far the U.S. has to travel to make the promises of yesteryear come true.
This was an astonishing and very sad read for me. It has removed any doubts I may have had about how societally-entrenched racism and other social ills are in the fabric of our world here in America, and I finished the book feeling rather low about any hopes for change in the future.
But you have to pick yourself up, brush yourself down and keep on truckinā. Change comes. It may not come on my timetable, but its forward movement is incremental but inevitable. Educate yourself first. Then do something about the world around you. Itās evolving, but crikey. Itās slow.
January has come and January has gone, and what do I have to show for it? Not a bad turnout for reading, as it happens. I’m particularly chuffed about the number of titles that have been picked from the TBR, a trend I am planning on continuing since I’m on a book-buying ban until May. (We’ll see how that goes, yes?) Additionally, five titles meet the criteria for being POC-related. Here are the deets:
Living Earth – DK Eyewitness Books – Miranda Smith (ed.) (TBR) – no blog post
Bop – Maxine Chernoff (F- short stories) (TBR) – this was a DNF. – no blog post
101 Things I Learned in Culinary School – Louis Eguaras and Matthew Frederick (NF) (TBR) – no blog post
A slight lack of blog posts about a lot of these reads, but this was a combination of being busy, going on vacation, going back to school and procrastination/not that much to say, so it’s all good.
Moving on to February, it’s one of my favorite celebratory occasions – Black History Month – so expect some focused reading on that. Right now, I’m fully immersed in Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man (1947) which is an amazing read. It’s a large book (Scary Big Book in terms of page numbers) – 580 pp – so it’s taking a little while. But whoo-whee — it’s good.
As I’ve done for the past few years, I’m choosing to recognize and celebrate the U.S. Black History Month for February, which means that I step up my ongoing focus on reading POC authors and related topics. (It’s become more of a year-long focus now, but I specifically make an effort to bring attention to POC authors/topics during these weeks.)
I’ve pulled the pile (above) as a collection of titles which fit the bill from my own TBR (plus a couple from the library), and I’m excited to see which ones appeal to me as I go on to read some of them. What’s in the pile? Let’s take a looksie.
(Top to bottom in picture):
The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, The African ā Olaudah Equiano/ Gustavus Vassa (NF/auto) 1789
The Free People of Color of New Orleans ā Mary Gehman (NF/history)
Mr. Loverman ā Bernardine Evaristo (F) 2014
Invisible Man ā Ralph Ellison (F) 1952 (?). (Read this. Wow.)
Colour Bar: A United Kingdom ā Susan Williams (NF/bio) 2017
They Poured Fire on Us From the Sky ā Benjamin Ajak, Benson Deng et al. (NF/auto) 2015
The Underground Railroad: Authentic Narratives and First-Hand Accounts ā William Still (NF/history/bio) 2011
Eye on the Struggle: Ethel Payne: The First Lady of the Black Press ā James McGrath Morris (NF/bio) 2015. In progress.
The lovely FoL group had a half-price book sale a weekend or two ago, and who am I to turn down such a kind invitation to see what new titles I could find? So, I went and I found. š
I really tried to stay on target and not fill up my shopping bag (since the December FoL Book Sale was still so recent), but I did find one or two titles to fit my needs!
Bottom to Top:
The Not so Big House – Susanka (really good interior decorating/design book).
Turtle Diary – Russell Hoban (1975) – epistolary novel that I saw somewhere that looked good and the library didn’t have its own copy. ETA: Read. Post to come.
Olive Kitteredge – Elizabeth Strout (2008) – the first novel introducing an interesting character – there’s been a recent release of a follow-up title, but since I couldn’t remember the original story, thought I’d better reread this before picking up that new one!
Bettyville: A Memoir – George Hodgman (2015, NF/auto).
And then I had briefly mentioned that quick visit to the bookshop on Venice Beach but didn’t give the deets on the title that I bought there? Here it is: Girl, Woman, Other by Bernadine Evaristo (2019)… I’ve heard a lot about it from the British bloggers and I was waiting for it to come out in paperback. Very looking forward to that read!
ETA: I’m already reading the Evaristo book. Wow. It’s good.Here’s my review.
