Sunday Salon: the April Showers Post

It’s a grey, rainy day here outside of my window, with clouds hinting that thunderstorms might not be far away. Which is perfect for curling up with tea and books, no? But before I start reading more books, it’s time to review all of my backlog. :) I’ve been going through a bit of a reading slump, so I only have seven books to talk about today*.

I can’t believe I haven’t written a full gushy post about The Hakawati by Rabih Alameddine! I loved this one so, so, so much, and I owe J.S. Peyton a huge thank you, since I picked it up based on her best of 2009 round-up. Alameddine was raised in Lebanon and now lives in the States, just like his modern-day narrator. The book is structured around the return of this narrator, after years of living in California, to Lebanon to sit at the side of his dying father. His reminisces about growing up form one of the core pieces of the book. Layered in with that, are all sorts of folk tales (which form two other main stories), because the narrator’s grandfather was a hakawati (story-teller). It’s a complicated structure, but Alameddine balanced it perfectly. I cared about each narrative storyline, and I loved the mix of magical, traditional folk tales a la Arabian Nights with a peek into pre-war Beirut and more. I read Arabian Nights last year, which certainly added a cherry on top of my enjoyment, but I don’t think it’s necessary pre-reading for the novel. I seriously loved every single thing about this novel: the characters (including lots of strong women!), the plots, the sense of place, the fun little twists on traditional stories, the hints at ‘issues’ (i.e. GLBT stuff, women’s rights, etc.) without them becoming the focus of the book…it was all completely perfect. Also, I think it’s a great folk tales read for the Once Upon a Time Challenge. :) Basically, I adore this book, and I highly recommend it to anyone who loves a good story!

I read Memoir: a History by Ben Yagoda for the Bibliophilia Challenge after reading Kim’s review. Unfortunately, this one didn’t really do it for me. Obviously, Yagoda is knowledgeable about memoirs through the ages, as evidenced by a ton of paragraphs consisting of nothing but lists. However, I found the book rarely rose above the comprehension level of Bloom’s taxonomy. I kept waiting for the analysis and the synthesis, or even just for some kind of argument on Yagoda’s part to tell me why I was reading the book. It never came. I could see the potential for a thought-provoking, interesting book, but for the most part Yagoda just threw titles and authors at me while I thought to myself ‘Why again do I care’? If you have a strong interest in memoirs, and you’re looking for reader’s advisory style content, this one might appeal to you. But as a book-lover who was more curious about the big-picture evolution of the genre than the minutia, this book disappointed me.

I shall resume gushing for the next nonfiction book I have to talk about: Eye of the Albatross by Carl Safina. This is my third Safina read (so now I have to wait until he publishes a new book *sigh*), and I’ve come to expect top-notch observations combined with a love of the world and all its inhabitants and outrage at the ecological damage inflicted throughout the years by humanity. Albatross met every one of those expectations! At its center, the book looks at the amazing life of the albatross, which flies hundreds of thousands of miles around the globe and spends most of its life soaring around the ocean. Before this book, I can’t say I had any inherent interest in albatrosses, but Safina’s passion definitely fixed that. ;) I’m also incredibly jealous of Safina; he gets to visit these remote, bird-filled islands in the name of research (since albatrosses only nest in places like that), places like the Galapagos only more so. He’s great at bringing to life the individual scientists doing research at these places, and putting a human face on Science. Also, in addition to general information about albatrosses and the various animals & plants connected to them, Safina looks at one particular albatross’ journeys, so that as a reader I felt an even deeper connection. All in all, this is a wonderful popular science book. I’m not going to lie: there are some very upsetting bits when Safina looks at the historical human relationship with albatrosses and how nowadays evil over-fishing* is putting them in danger. But you know what? Until people know about these bad things, and care enough to take action, we don’t do anything to change it, so I applaud Safina for including the darker side in his book. Anyway, this is another one that I highly recommend, because I think it captures the wonder and curiousity science has for our world. I read it for the Biodiversity Challenge, as a book about a particular branch of life.

I had high hopes for Here’s to You, Jesusa! by Elena Poniatowska, my first pick for the Mexico Reading Challenge. It’s essentially a fictionalised autobiography about a ‘peasant’ Mexican woman who lives through most of the important events of Mexico’s early twentieth century. Sounds neat, right? Well, for me, while reading it, I just kept being plagued by authenticity issues. Poniatowska wasn’t from Mexico’s lower class, and the whole novel just had this almost fetishisation of poverty feel to it that made me uncomfortable. I don’t know…it felt like some rich woman imagining how a poor woman might talk & see life. Also, it was unrelentingly depressing. I would have been fine with that if it weren’t for the authenticity issues, but as it was…it felt a bit voyeuristic. I can’t say I’d recommend this one to people, although I know it’s a classic in Mexico and that Poniatowska said she based it on long conversations she had with a Mexican peasant woman. So take my opinion with a grain of salt! ;)

I was so excited about The Needle in the Blood by Sarah Bower, which I read for the Art History Challenge since it’s historical fiction centered around the Bayeux tapestry. I had read several glowing reviews back in 2007, and they’d been in my mind ever since! :) Unfortunately, for me it was only an average read. I suppose I imagined it to be more directly about the tapestry, so while the first third of book I really enjoyed, the rest of it I spent wondering why I was supposed to care about this plot. So part of the problem was my expectations! But I just didn’t bond all that much with the two main characters, Odo and Gytha, and as the vast majority of the book’s almost 600 pages is about them, that made it a bit tedious to read. And it seemed to have some of the ‘conventions’ of historical fiction, like sex scenes and an accusation of witchcraft and the woman wise in herbs, etc….I’m not saying that’s a bad thing at all, but I couldn’t help thinking ‘haven’t I read this before?’ The writing style was good, though. So, even though this book didn’t do it for me, I can definitely see why others love it. :)

I grabbed Red Spikes by Margo Lanagan both because I loved Lanagan’s Tender Morsels and for the Colourful Reading Challenge. It’s a short story collection as well, and I happen to be a big fan of short stories! ;) That being said, if you’re a reader who isn’t always happy with the short story format, I wouldn’t recommend Red Spikes. These are definitely the kind of stories that make you imagine a whole novel attached to them! :) Lanagan is a fantasy writer, and each story conjures up a different world, but there is a certain ‘feel’ that unites the collection. Her writing style is marvelously evocative, and it’s what I enjoyed most in the book. The hardest bit, for me, was that all of the stories were pretty dark. So while I could admire Lanagan’s ability to create a whole world in a few pages, and to create a variety of characters each with distinctive voices, I wasn’t always enjoying my reading experience. That being said, I do plan on reading Lanagan’s other story collections! I’ll just make sure to have a happier book nearby to balance things out.

I was going to review Chrysalis by Kim Todd as well, but my wrist is feeling really sore, so I’m going to pop off the computer for a bit. Which means I only talked about six books today…oh well! Now I’m off to curl up with The Weed that Strings the Hangman’s Bag, The Ladies’ Paradise, The Jew in the Lotus, and Terra Incognita…the perfect rainy day antidote!

-*-

Footnote One: Remember, I missed last Sunday’s salon, so this is two week’s worth of reading! And for me, unemployed and sick at home, a slump is reading 200 pages or less a day. I’m hoping I’ll back into the groove soon, but in the meantime I’ve been enjoying season two of Pushing Daisies!

Footnote Two: Don’t even get me started on all the horrible ways people are murdering the ocean. :/ There’s a reason I won’t eat sushi anymore, despite its deliciousness. If you want to know, read Safina’s Song for the Blue Ocean, but I warn you: it might fill you with some righteous wrath.