Random House – Page 5 – …on the B.L.

We Should All Be Feminists

February 2, 2018 RaeAnna

Read: Yes
Length: 52
Quick Review: An essay about the importance of feminism. Beginning as a Tedx Talk, Adichie redefines feminism for the new generation of feminists.

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is one of my favorite authors. If you’re a repeat reader, I’m sure that is clear already. She is one of those writers you cannot ignore. With her unique voice and story telling ability, she has grabbed the attention of the world. I found her about a year ago, in which time, I have read the majority of her works. (I only have Purple Hibiscus left to read.) I am rereading We Should All Be Feminists again because it is just that good.

For the majority of the world when the word feminism is uttered, people immediately and solely think of it as something applying to women or even cared about by women. Feminism is seen as benefiting women.

Adichie begins her essay with a few examples of the differences women face in the world based on their gender. She also turns the idea of feminism on its head by explaining the benefits feminism has for men and boys as well. Without feminism, culture is a hindrance to men because they must conform to the idea of masculinity and “stifle their humanity.” Although Adichie discusses the positives of feminism for men, it is more important for girls. Without feminism women spend their lives defining their place in the world by their relationship to men.

Adichie writes succinctly and effectively. There is a fire in her words fueled by anger and hope. She is one of the most talented storytellers, but she is incredibly gifted as a nonfiction writer. Her novels and short stories take the reader to another place, but her essay grounds the reader in reality. Adichie lets the reader get to know her a little.

I can’t recommend We Should All Be Feminists more. The essay should be mandatory reading for everyone. It is an amazing, concise, and quick read. Taking less than half an hour. Sit down and read it the moment you can!

Memorable Quotes
“… both of us bristling with the half-baked knowledge of books we had read.”
“At some point I was a Happy African Feminist Who Does Not Hate Men And Who Likes To Wear Lip Gloss And High Heels For Herself And Not For Men.”
“But our ideas of gender have not evolved very much.”
“… it is one thing to know something intellectually and quite another to feel it emotionally.”
“There are far fewer guides for men about pleasing women.”
“And then we do a much greater disservice to girls, because we raise them to cater to the fragile egos of males.”

Title: We Should All Be Feminists
Author: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Publisher: Anchor Books (Random House)
Copyright: 2012/2014
ISBN: 9781101911761

Books

Dreams of Joy

December 30, 2017 RaeAnna

Read Yes
Length 354
Quick Review At 19, Joy finds out her family’s biggest secret. She runs away to find her father in her ancestral homeland of newly communist China.

I have had the accident of unknowingly buying sequels without reading the first. Fortunately, they have not been dependent upon the first book, so I am not totally lost while reading.

I did this again with Dreams of Joy by Lisa See, which is a sequel to her book Shanghai Girls. Joy and May were young sisters in the first novel; now, they are middle aged women with a dark secret embodied in their daughter Joy.

Joy is an idealist nineteen year old born in Los Angeles to Chinese parents. She yearns to go to China to build a Republic based on equality. When she learns her mothers’ secret, she runs away to China to find her father, who happens to be a famous artist. Spending time in communes and in the upper echelons of society with her father, it takes time for her to fully see the true meaning of Red China. Pearl embarks on her own mission to bring her daughter home to America. She returns to China and Shanghai after more than two decades away. Bittersweet. Many things have changed, but many have stayed the same.

Dreams of Joy is told from two perspectives: Joy, the daughter, and Pearl, the mother. They have their own unique viewpoints and voices. Their voices and views fit their age and experience. Pearl’s voice comes across more naturally. Joy’s voice is more forced with a tendency toward explanation and immature phrasing. It feels like the author isn’t fully invested or understanding of the characters perspective or psyche.

See discusses many horrible aspects of Chinese culture during the early years of communist China. Foot binding had been outlawed for many years in China, but there were still women alive who had endured the experience during the early years of the government shift. Infanticide and more atrocities were common practices during the famine. The desire to have male children was a violent and sincere part of culture even when men and women were considered “equal” by the government. See has no qualms about jumping head first into the ugly sides of history in her novel.

I really enjoyed Dreams of Joy and suggest it to anyone looking to learn a little more about Eastern culture. It’s a story of motherly love, idealism, and harsh reality.

Memorable Quotes
“She’s so sure of herself, but anyone can be sure at nineteen.”
“Those who have little to lose don’t want to lose what little they have.”
“To lose a daughter is sad, they tell me. To lose a son is tragic.”
“Mao my day women hold up half the sky, but it is the lesser half.”
“That means all food must go to males first.”
“Fu Hsüan’s famous poem that begins, “How sad it is to be a woman! Nothing on Earth is held so cheap.””

Title: Dreams of Joy
Author: Lisa See
Publisher: Random House
Copyright: 2012
ISBN: 9780812980547

Books

A Week in Winter

December 18, 2017 RaeAnna

Read Yes
Length 464
Quick Review How one woman’s dream brought a group of strangers together while they struggle through their own difficult situations.

A Week in Winter was her last novel and published posthumously in 2012 after her death in the same year. Binchy has written a multitude of novels, but this is the first I have read. In my opinion, it’s a wonderful novel to end an already amazing literary career.

Binchy was Irish and wrote about her country in A Week in Winter. Chicky Starr is from a remote town, Stoneybridge, in west Ireland. After moving to New York City in her youth, she returns to Stoneybridge, where she turns an old house into a beautiful hotel, Stone House. The town believes her crazy, but a few devote their time and futures into the dream. The dream comes to fruition when a hodge-podge group of people stay during the opening week.

The book is divided into chapters focusing on individuals lives and the events which bring them to the house. The characters are flawed and looking for respite or wholeness or the hotel has simply happened upon them. The hotel becomes a beautifully silent and simultaneously powerful character supporting each character through their personal journeys. The characters come from all walks of life and several countries in Europe. Some lives intertwine with others in close or remote ways. Binchy does not strive to have her characters adored. Like people, she writes them with various characteristics, flaws, and, at times, no redeeming qualities.

This novel isn’t a Christmas story, but it is a winter story. The perfect companion for a chilly evening, a fire, and a mug of something warm, or if you live somewhere warm, it will make you crave a chilly winter.

Memorable Quotes
“And anyway, there’s more to life than just sex and kittens.”

Title: A Week in Winter
Author: Maeve Binchy
Publisher: Anchor Books (Random House)
Copyright: 2012
ISBN: 9780307475503

Books

Eligible

November 30, 2017 RaeAnna

Read Yes
Length 488
Quick Review A hilariously modern reworking of Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. Sittenfeld turns something old new, while maintaining the integrity of the original.

I bought the book solely on my admiration for Sittenfeld’s short stories. Her ability to write is captivating. I picked up Eligible apprehensively because I abhor retellings or fanfiction. They are never done well. I can no longer say “never.” I have been proven wrong.

Pride and Prejudice is a universally beloved novel with themes still present in today’s society. That being said, it does not lend itself to modern reinterpretation. The status of women has changed a touch in the past 150 years. No longer are we dependent on men and marriage. How do you take a novel about five unmarried women and their ludicrous behavior and adventures which are incredibly relevant to their time and make it relevant in our time? Age them and a whole load of other things.

Set in Cincinnati, of all places, the Bennet sisters are unmarried and majorly dependent upon their ailing father and ridiculous mother. After a heart attack on Mr. Bennet’s part, Jane and Liz return home from New York to help care for him, when they meet surgeons Chip Bingley and Fitzwilliam Darcy along with the abhorrent Caroline Bingley. Chip comes from a famous family and was on a reality TV show Eligible (the equivalent of “The Bachelor”).

The characters personalities are all intact and even more vibrant than their original namesakes. Collins being the exception, I found him less dreadful than in Pride and Prejudice, maybe it’s because I know a good few of the modern Collins’ that I can tolerate him. Caroline, however, is truly oddious in a way Austen always implied. Sittenfeld split Wickham into two characters. Throughout the entire novel I was expecting one thing to happen, and was surprised when a vastly different something happened. In the original, it is understandable why all the sisters are at home doing a whole lot of not much because that’s what they did then, and they were young. I found it grating that four sisters in their twenties and thirties could be so lazy; Liz, of course, being the exception. Mrs. Bennet, in true form, was a neurotic basket case. I truly wanted to like Mr. Bennet more, but alas, he too had his faults. Enough said.

I finished the 500 plus pages in a day. It is a fabulous novel with real depth and wit. Sittenfeld took an untouchable classic and made it relevant.

Memorable Quotes
““That’d be like watching a burlesque show with one’s eyes closed.””
“Caroline was on Darcy’s other side and had spent midst of the meal curled toward him in conversation like a poisonous weed.”
““You have no idea how lucky you are that someone like him would settle for you.””
“If you really want to do something unselfish, adopt a seven-year-old black boy from foster care.”

Title: Eligible; A Novel
Author: Curtis Sittenfeld
Publisher: Random House
Copyright: 2016
ISBN: 9780812980349

Books

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

October 20, 2017 RaeAnna

Read Yes
Length 226
Quick Review A look into the psyche and thought process of a teen boy with Autism. He goes on an adventure to solve a mystery but solves a much larger one.

Christopher Boone is a fifteen year old boy living in Swindon, England; he is an autist. Late one night, he goes for a walk only to find his neighbor’s dog has been murdered. He loves dogs because they do not lie, so he is devastated by the murder. Christopher decides to solve the mystery of who killed the dog because detectives use logic and facts to solve problems, and he is very good at solving problems with facts and logic.

Mark Haddon does fantastic work creating a world inside the mind of an autistic boy allowing the outside world to better understand how autists perceive the world around them. Christopher is telling the story. He is unable to lie and is fairly impartial spectator in the world and even his own life. He is very logical preferring science, facts, and numbers to everything else. He prefers prime numbers, so the chapters are labelled with prime numbers instead of the more common numerical order.

This is an incredibly important novel because autism is a highly misunderstood part of society. Haddon is able to convey this through how Christopher views and interacts with the world around him and his comments on how people interact with him. Society does not view autists as capable contributors to the world, when in fact they can be if we took extra time and effort to understand and help them. Christopher is incredibly intelligent, but he functions differently in perceiving and interacting with social cues in the world. Christopher is demanding because of his autism, and that affects those around him. Haddon is not afraid to show the difficulties his caretakers go through emotionally to help him have a better life.

I think this book should be read far and wide because it raises awareness for a population that is under-served and misunderstood.

Memorable Quotes
“Also, dogs are faithful and they do not tell lies because they cannot talk.”
“…maths wasn’t like life because in life there are no straightforward answers at the end.”
“It is difficult to spot a rhetorical question.”

Title: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
Author: Mark Haddon
Publisher: Vintage Books (Random House)
Copyright: 2003
ISBN: 9781400032716