2013 Resolutions

The end of January is approaching, the sun is higher in the sky...this always seems to me to be a better time to make a resolution than right after all the mayhem of Christmas, when I'm always too tired to think clearly. Plus, all the talk by other people about resolutions gives me some inspiration, then I get some time to ponder my own. This year, I decided to implement some resolutions regarding my reading habits

Late in the year (last year), I vowed to read more non-fiction by listening to audiobooks on my commute. (That's another one of my tricks, implement the resolution before New Year's.) So far, I've completed one and am partway through another. I'm also planning to try to read more of a variety of genres this year, so I can better recommend titles for our patrons; as a former English major, I tend toward literary fiction for leisure reading, so last year I made an effort to add some mysteries and thrillers to my reading list. This year, I'll try to add Science Fiction/Fantasy and Romance to the mix. The final leaf on my resolution shamrock involves writing a sentence or two describing what I've read, pared down to its essence--a sort of review haiku. My hope is that it will help me to define the appeal of a book, and it will also serve as a resource for you, the reader. I will not, however, do the review haiku for Book Club selections or for picture books.

January's titles:

Mission to Paris by Alan Furst
An Austrian-American actor is loaned to another studio to make a film in Paris just as tensions ratchet up in the leadup to World War II, and he finds himself immersed in a world where everyone wants something of him, but no one's motives are to be trusted. I enjoyed peeking behind the scenes of filmmaking, as well as the way Stahl is slowly pulled into espionage; the pace is rather slow, but I think this serves to heighten the sense of dread and tension at the climax.

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green (Young Adult)
A lovely, thought-provoking boy-meets-girl love story, with a twist: they meet in a cancer support group. There is a book-within-the-book aspect that greatly enhances the story and lends a different voice without detracting from the book's essential question of how to live your life to the fullest.

Uglies by Scott Westerfeld (Young Adult)
Would the world be a better place if we leveled the playing field so everyone was beautiful and no one was judged by their looks? An intriguing look at this possibility, and one sure to appeal to fans of The Hunger Games trilogy.

Laurel's Kitchen by Laurel Robertson
This vintage title in our cookbook collection, collaborated on by three friends in Berkeley, California in the late 1970s, sings the praises of vegetarian cuisine and contains much nutritional information as well as recipes. I had to giggle a little at the photos and illustrations, but did find some useful recipes.

Midnight Rising : John Brown and the Raid That Sparked the Civil War by Tony Horwitz (Audiobook)
Horwitz paints a compelling picture of abolitionist John Brown, a man of strong convictions about right and wrong, but not a man who often succeeded at what he attempted. The bloodbath at Harper's Ferry was the culmination of a lifetime of poorly thought-out schemes on Brown's part, which nevertheless achieved his goal of starting America down the road to ending slavery.

Please feel free to share your reading resolutions for 2013!

January Book Club Meeting Notes

This month's selection, The Kitchen House by Kathleen Grissom, was a popular choice. All six of us who attended the meeting liked the book, which tells the stories of a planter's family, his slaves, and an Irish indentured servant girl in the late 1700s-early 1800s.

Dianne started us off with some facts about slavery: the period when America actually imported slaves was relatively short (c. 1581-1808); thereafter, all slave trade was with slaves already existing in the country. By 1860, the commercial value of the enslaved was :
--3x greater than the total amount of all capital in the north and south combined
--3x greater than the total amount generated by all manufacturing in the country
--3x greater than the amount invested in American railroads
--7x greater than the amount invested in American banks

We all enjoyed the fast pace of the book and the strongly drawn characters, but felt a little disappointed that the author didn't explore more fully some interesting issues she raised. For example, what would have been the social consequences of the Captain's liaison with Belle's mother, a slave he "married" and set up house with, had she not died? The Captain's mother seemed particularly amenable to the situation, treating the child as naturally as she would have a white grandaughter; what was the reaction of the world outside the plantation? Was it so disapproving that when the Captain married Miss Martha he hid the true nature of his relationship with Belle? We all would have liked to read more about this, and also more about the indentured servants who came to America.

We also all enjoyed the strongly drawn, distinctive characters, especially naive Lavinia and the steely Mama Mae and her family. The plot, however, seemed to take over the further one got into the book. From the beginning and the prologue, we knew something bad was going to happen, and the story seemed to progress from a march to a dead run, hastening us toward the end. While we all agreed the book was hard to put down because of this, we also agreed that it made the book a little uneven. We also all agreed that some parts of the story seemed a little contrived and convenient-- Miss Martha's sister agreeing to take on Lavinia's education, for example. There was some discussion about how likely the slaves would have been to do some of the things they did (another lost opportunity for detail on the part of the author), and also some discussion about the situation beween Belle, Ben and Lucy. Some felt this was another plot contrivance that did not ring quite true. Most everyone was disappointed with how Will and Lavinia's situation resolved itself, and we also wondered what Lavinia hoped to get out of her relationship with Martha, when she was so lovingly nurtured by Mama Mae and Belle (one idea was that she was instinctively drawn to Martha as someone who could provide her with knowledge that the slaves could not).

Some other titles were mentioned in the course of our discussion that would enhance the topic: Gone With the Wind  by Margaret Mitchell, The Help by Kathryn Stockett, and The Hemingses of Monticello by Annette Gordon-Reed. (All are available at the library.)

Next month's selection: Three Weeks in December  by Audrey Schulman.