Book Blog – Page 33 – …on the B.L.

The Handmaid’s Tale

February 8, 2017 RaeAnna

Read Yes
Length 311
Quick Review It’s a remarkable work of dystopian fiction, which has been talked about for decades. It’s a highly influential book in the world of contemporary fiction.

I have been hearing about The Handmaid’s Tale for a long time now. It’s been on my to read list for just as long. Amazon has created a TV show of the same name, and I wanted to read the novel before watching the show. So that was my shallow push to finally get around to reading it.

To be honest, it’s a book I read because it is so widely talked about, and not out of pure love for the genre. As a reader, I do not like Atwood’s style throughout. It’s odd and difficult to follow at times. Nor does it follow grammatical rules at all whatsoever. I majored in Literature in college, and have experience with textual analysis. From a scholarly standpoint, the style is incredibly compelling and fully supports the plot. More importantly the style gives credence to Offred, the protagonist, as well as help the reader understand where she starts and her evolution. The style changes throughout the story as Offred progresses taking steps to reclaim her previous self. I won’t say more, so I don’t ruin it for you. The style is intrinsic to the story. I do not think it would be such a compelling work of fiction if the style were more traditional.

It was a difficult book to read, at this point, for me. I live in a country which is experiences a lot of upheaval and frankly illegal/unconstitutional actions. These are the first steps towards societies depicted in dystopian fiction. For me it was difficult to read because there were points where the novel was not depicting a fictional world, but things I see happening right now today.

I was entirely uncomfortable reading The Handmaid’s Tale because of how women are treated. As a self-proclaimed feminist, I was uncomfortable and at times a bit queasy. Although, these are all intended by the author, I’m sure; no one writes dystopian fiction saying: yes this is the perfect world.

I had a hard time getting into the novel because of the style, but once I got used to it, I really enjoyed it. For me, the ending was both perfect yet entirely unsatisfying.

Read it. It’s fabulous and deserving of the hype surrounding it. It ranks high within my list of interesting dystopian novels.

Memorable Quotes
“It’s good to have small goals that can be easily attained.”
“They blamed it on the Islamic fanatics, at the time.”

Title: The Handmaid’s Tale
Author: Margaret Atwood
Publisher: Anchor Books
Copyright: 1986
ISBN: 9780385490818

Books

The Trump Survival Guide

February 3, 2017 RaeAnna

Read Yes
Length 208
Quick Review If you have any questions about how you can get involved in post-election America, this is a great place to start.

On November 8, 2016, Donald Trump was elected to the highest elected office in the nation. On January 10, 2017, Gene Stone’s The Trump Survival Guide was published. In two months and two days, Stone put together a comprehensive speculation on the many things that could possibly go wrong in the following four years.

My biggest issue with the book is how quickly it was sent to press. It is evident the book was written and published in haste because it is riddled with minor grammatical errors. However, the facts in the book do not have the same fault. It is well researched.

The book is tackles twelve issues separately. Each issue is started with an apropos Trump quote or tweet. Followed by a brief overview of the issues history in the US, what Obama did in regards while in office, what Trump could do, followed by a What You Can Do section, and a list of important books to read. Though it does not cover every issue imaginable it touches on the hot button issues from economics to women’s issues and health care to LGBTQ.

It is nowhere near unbiased; incredibly left leaning. But what did you expect with a title like The Trump Survival Guide Everything You Need to Know About Living Through What You Hoped Would Never Happen. I loved it. It was short and sweet. I finished it in a few hours. It dealt honestly with really difficult subjects. There was an underlying sense of humor about the entire thing, though. Trying to bring a smile to the reader’s face even in the darkest of times because for those of us who did not vote for this president, that is exactly what these are: dark times.

Memorable Quotes
“From the late nineteenth century to the mid-twentieth century, white terrorism against non-white communities spiked…”

Title: The Trump Survival Guide
Author: Gene Stone
Publisher: Dey St.
Copyright: 2017
ISBN: 9780062686480

Books

The Little Prince

January 30, 2017 RaeAnna

Read Yes
Length 84
Quick Review This has become an iconic children’s story. It’s been translated into so many languages, you don’t have a reason not to read it.

Le Petit Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry is a fantasy children’s novella for adults. Though, he penned many, this is by far his most renowned work.

The narrator, no other than Saint-Exupéry himself, begins the story by talking about his childhood dream of being an artist. The narrator happens to be an airplane pilot, who crashes in the desert with no rescue in sight. A little boy, hailing from Asteroid B-612, shows up demanding a picture of a sheep be drawn for him. After this, the little prince tells the narrator about his journeys and how he is trying to return to his home planet and his rose. I won’t ruin the beauty of it for you.

For me, this is such a nostalgic story. The first time I read it was also the first time I read a book in French. It was a struggle because this was before I had WiFi or easy access to a computer, so every word I did not know – which was a lot back then – I had to look up in a dictionary. It took me hours longer than my classmates because I was technologically far behind. Now, I can breeze through it easily in the amount of time it took me to read five pages. Though, it is by far the syntactically simplest book I have read in French at this point, every time I read it I still feel a small pang of triumph.

I would talk more about style and syntax and what a masterpiece it is, but if you don’t have time to read 84 pages, then you’re just going to have to miss out.

Memorable Quote
“All grown-ups were once children… but only few of them remember it.”

Title: Le Petit Prince (The Little Prince)
Author: Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Publisher: Harcourt, Inc.
ISBN: 9780156012195

Books

Adulting

January 22, 2017 RaeAnna

Read Yes
Length 273
Quick Review Easy, breezy, beautiful, might as well be Covergirl. It’s a hilarious step by step introduction into the wonders and horrors of standing on your own two feet.

Kelly Williams Brown is not afraid to be funny, young, energetic, readable, or covers literally any topic in Adulting: How to Become a Grown Up In 468 Easy(ish) Steps. It’s a great read if you want to laugh and have a learn a few things. I like to think of myself as a fairly self-sufficient adult with quite a bit of experience under my belt, but I still learned a few things. It’s like having a discussion with a friend. She shares her adulting tips in a non-pushy, non-judgemental, hey this worked for me kind of way.

One of the more poignant moments that reverberated deeply in my soul is the commentary on how nothing whacks you into the reality of adulthood quite like the comprehension of having to repeatedly buying toilet paper. Many years ago, when I realized I was truly an adult was the moment I was sitting on the toilet with no toilet paper because for some reason it no longer magically appeared. Since then, I tell every newly branded adult to buy two packs of toilet paper in order to delay this instance. This touching moment occurs within the first twenty pages of the book. It was the moment I knew Kelly and I could be best friends, and I committed to finishing the book.

She’s full of the kind of advice your mom won’t necessarily hand out like: don’t hook-up with people in your office or HPV is a thing or friends with benefits isn’t always bad or sometimes you have to kiss ass. Then again she’s full of advice your mom (or someone) did tell you but you didn’t listen to because they’re old like: clean your cuts don’t suck them or know how much money you have coming in or RSVP it’s polite or send thank you notes.

In my opinion, she’s a successful adult. She has a job, a place to live, a cat, a bestselling novel, and another on the way all by the age of 27. I wish I were that good at adulting, but a girl can dream.

Memorable Quotes
“Oh love. It’s great, except when it’s awful.”
“Nothing is beneath you, right now, except doling out handjobs by the water-cooler. That is beneath you.”

Title: Adulting; How to Become a Grown-Up in 468 Easy(ish) Steps
Author: Kelly Williams Brown
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Copyright: 2013
ISBN: 9781455516902

Books

Forgotten English

January 15, 2017 RaeAnna

Read Yes
Length 256
Quick Review I would love to tell you that this book is the end-all-be-all, but unless you have an obsession with words and history like me, you might find it a bit pedantic. It’s great, though.

Jeffrey Kacirk’s Forgotten English is full of interesting words, historical references, oddities, and modern influences, it’s a fun game to try and work these new words into your vocable rotation.

This book just tickled my fancy in every way. I wish it would do the same to you, but most people are not ridiculous word fanatics like me who want to know the origin, history, influence, and modern connotation. I truly found myself in this book because I found the word to describe myself BIBLIOMANIAC – see below.

Though, bibliomaniac was my favorite word, I found many other interesting words. Here are some of the standouts. Bone-fires were a summer pagan ritual for burning bones to frighten off spirits and such eventually evolving into large outdoor gatherings in the middle ages and are now known as bonfires – non spirit frightening outdoor fires. The mandragore is a bygone word for mandrake, but I just highlighted because of Harry Potter. Inkling is derived from inkhornism which was used during the 1700’s and 1800’s and connotated a literary composition was overworked and unnecessarily intellectual; back then it literally meant “smelled of the lamp,” enchanting no? Wedd used to mean to gamble or to wager; sometimes being wed really does feel like that, what say ye married folk? The saying to wear one’s heart on one’s sleeve comes from the eighteenth century custom where a man would wear his beloved’s name written upon a heart-shaped paper on his sleeve. Morning dew collected on a certain day of spring (I don’t remember) was believed to bring about longer lasting youth; this may be why we still associate dew with youth or a dewy complexion.

I’m devoting a whole paragraph to this word: fribbler. A fribbler was an “eighteenth-century word for a man who expressed profound infatuation with a woman but was unwilling to commit himself to her.” Let’s just call this what it is dating today, or, at least, it feels like dating today. Fribbling. Where one person likes another, but doesn’t want to commit, so everyone involved is stuck in the perma-who-knows! situation. Fribbling… frustrating as fuck. Bring this word back. Please and thank you.

I have quite the collection of books, but the biggest thing Kacirk has done for me is to show me I could be so much worse. Richard Heber, a bibliomaniac, had over half a million books at the time of his death. I will never be as extreme as Mr. Heber. Not for the lack of desire, but for the lack of funds because unlike him I do not come from family money. So unless I write the next Harry Potter or Fifty Shades of Grey (gross), I will never own a library to compete with that of Congress’.

Forgotten English is a great book. It’s downfall is it’s a little hard to read all at once because it bounces from word to word. It’s like a far more interesting dictionary or a very concise encyclopedia.

Memorable Quotes
“Bibliomaniac – Someone with a lunatic’s passion for acquiring books.”
“In reference to the barnacle-goose “the currently used scientific name anatifera, or “goose-bearing,” as a classification for a type of barnacle.”
“Farctate – The condition of being bloated or full following a large meal. … from the Latin Farcire, to stuff.”
“Grog-blossom – Eighteenth-century expression for the red nose of a drunkard caused by dilation of blood vessels in long-term alcohol consumption.”
“Dog-Flogger – “minor church official, from at least the sixteenth century until 1861, whose duty it was to supervise and discipline unruly canines that traditionally accompanied their owners to English church services.”
“Sinne-Eater – A poor person hired to absorb the sins of recently deceased souls and thereby spare them the discomforts of purgatory.”

Title: Forgotten English
Author: Jeffrey Kacirk
Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks
Copyright: 1999
ISBN: 9780688166366

Books, Fiction

Half of a Yellow Sun

January 8, 2017 RaeAnna

Read Yes
Length 433
Quick Review If you want to read a novel about Africa and the consequences of colonization, this is it. It humanizes a continent, issue, country and people the media have consistently dehumanized. Incredibly relatable while highlighting issues spanning the world.

“Flawless” introduced Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie to the world’s dinner tables, bars, study halls, car concerts, Grammy’s, and the multitudes of other ways the pop-culturally aware socialize. I am not that person. I listened – just now, by the way – to “Flawless” by Beyonce because of Adichie.

I am the bibliophile extraordinaire. I would love to say I know about what’s going on in the world of Hollywood or music, but I don’t. I knowish what’s going on in the science world. Definitely the literary scene. Linguistics, I’m on top of it. My Western European pop culture references between the years of 1520 and 1890 are pretty top notch, but today’s world I can tell you what lol means. Can someone please explain what smh or af means? Snapchat’s Cosmo thingybopper consistently loses me lexically.

I had a Chinua Achebe revisiting phase a few years back. Adichie’s work was referenced in various places as they are both Nigerian writers of Igbo heritage. I stuck her on my list. Unfortunately, I have a tendency to put contemporary authors towards the end of the must read list. After putting her off for a good three or so years, I finally read one of her books, then a short story, then an essay, another short story, and now another novel.

Half of a Yellow Sun is fabulous, timeless, human, vibrant, and utterly engaging. The narrative follows several different characters through the early and late sixties during the war fought against Nigeria to found the independent nation: Biafra. The different viewpoints show male, female, rich, poor, business person, intellectual, servant, and those in between. With twists and turns, you’re never bored during a story, which could have easily been bogged down by sadness.

Adichie’s writing is graceful, and the five hundred pages go by easily. Though the writing flows, her ability to nuance is unparalleled. There is no wavering in the most difficult passages. She is straight forward with the simultaneous yet contrasting hope and anguish war brings. The imagery is striking and heartbreaking yet quintessentially human.

For a topic I knew nothing about, I could not have become more invested in a story so far away from my own reality. Through Adichie’s story telling, I have learned so much about a country I knew little about. I would absolutely recommend this book.

I watched the movie version. It was good, but like always the book is better. The screenplay had to leave a lot of really important things out, and I was disappointed. In general, I think it completely missed the point of the book: how normal and good people are affected, changed, and ultimately take part in the atrocities of war.

Memorable Quotes
“It did not kill me, it made me knowledgeable.”
“You must never behave as if your life belongs to a man… Your life belongs to you and you alone.”

Title: Half of a Yellow Sun
Author: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Publisher: Anchor
Copyright: 2007
ISBN: 978-1400095209