Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov

Has any non-religious book been analyzed and discussed more? I have nothing to add to the debate, no particular insight.

While it can be read as a metaphor, it is indeed the story of a middle-aged man who is sexually obsessed with "nymphets" - young (less than 14 years old) girls who have a particular sexual allure imagined by him. He is textbook pedophile, and it is creepy to read about. Not just from a moral standpoint (though as one sworn to protect children, as I am, it's troubling), but psychologically. He speaks of her sobs each night once he's essentially abducted her to be his sextoy. She's a lonely child whose only power is over him is sexual, and then only in peculiar ways. It's disturbing. It's not only an allegory.

At the same time, it is fascinating. It reminds me of "The Tell-Tale Heart" by Poe because of its narrative structure - the crazy man "justifying" his actions. I found a lot of borrowing there. How the narrative is propelled is interesting - the journey and the automobile. The psychology of power and abuse, also fascinating.

It's worth reading, but it did lose my interest near the end. I think the ultimate crime is just a plot vehicle (to be more "Tell-Tale-Heart"-ish) and I don't find it plausible.

For summary: http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/lolita/summary.html

For better insights see Reading Lolita in Tehran - a very good book.

From the Land of Green Ghosts: A Burmese Odyssey

From the Land of Green Ghosts: A Burmese Odyssey by Pascal Khoo Thwe

The author was born and raised Kayan Padaung in the remote hills of Burma/Myanmar (famous for the tradition of "giraffe-necked" women - the many gold rings creating the illusion of extending their necks). He writes vividly of the traditions and realities of that life.

He entered seminary at a young age (the village had been Catholicized a couple generations ago), then moved into university with a particular interest in English literature. His descriptions of learning at the Mandalay university are intriguing - students are to never disagree with teachers (having an original opinion can lead to severe consequences - such as the student who asked a question and was imprisoned and tortured to insanity), exams are repeating dictated essays that have been memorized, and the literature for an entire year consisted of perhaps 15 poems, one play, and one novel. During this time he worked at a restaurant, where he met a Cambridge professor.

Burma has had a military dictatorship for years (Aung San Suu Kyi is a remarkable dissident), and the author's education was seriously disrupted. During riots protesting the political state, he became a student activist. When the rebellion was crushed, he fled into the jungles and eventually into Thailand, where the Cambridge professor "rescued" him. The author then entered Cambridge - the first Padaung to receive a western education (few have any education), where he graduated and wrote this book.

It's a fascinating book - especially for the insights into Padaung and Burmese culture. If you can't place Myanmar/Burma on the map and are unaware of the Karenni rebels, I highly recommend it.

Winston Churchill's Afternoon Nap

Winston Churchill's Afternoon Nap: A Wide-Awake Inquiry into the Human Nature of Time by Jeremy Campbell

Chronobiology, time as seen within biological context, is a fascinating subject. What happens when we sleep? Do we also have cycles while awake (when more alert)? What makes us able to understand and participate in conversations and music? What are different ways of perceiving time - must we make spatial analogies, and how do past-present-future interplay? Is there one "master clock" guiding all our processes, which gets reset regularly by external stimuli (light, conversation, etc.), or are there myriad clocks, each guiding its own cycles? Why do some situations seem so much faster or slower than others? (Ten minutes waiting for the dentist doesn't feel the same as ten minutes watching a favorite movie.) Why do some people? What causes time to condense in memory? How do short- and long-term memory interplay with time?

So many interesting things discussed in this book - including differences between episodic memory (events; "I remember") and semantic memory (concepts; "I know") which rang personally close (and definitely validated my sense-making).

And, as is often the problem with "so many interesting things" - the book is dense, dense, dense. It took me FOREVER to slog through it. As the reviewers said, "Chock-a-block" and "everything one could possibly want to know" and "packs between two covers so much information." I found another review on-line that says Campbell beat the topic to death. I'd disagree - but he was definitely exhaustive (and exhausting at times to this reader).

Very much worth reading though. While it's written in accessible prose, some understanding of biological and brain functions would be helpful or else it's quite slow-going. I'd also be interested in a more modern version (I've been carrying this damn book around since 1986 when it was published) that would reflect more up-to-date research - but this was a very good foundational book. I had looked forward to passing this book along as soon as I finished (trying to clear off the bookshelves), but when a friend was over last night I kept alluding to things I'd learned. Guess I should keep it to refer back to. Sigh.

Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser

EVERY PERSON IN THE UNITED STATES MUST READ THIS BOOK!! You will learn much more than you ever wanted to know about fast food and meat and ... the very very dark side of school lunches.

Our earlier books

Books we read earlier:

Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks - very interesting personal narrative from the time of the bubonic plague in England. This book that Gail and I chose got people interested in coming back each month for more.

Davita's Harp by Chaim Potok - an interesting book by the author of The Chosen (which I would recommend to everybody). D.H. is mostly about political extremism standing in the way of humanity, but The Chosen is about overcoming barriers for friendship and love - in this case, of Orthodox v. Reformed Judaism.

The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd - WOW. This book made me cry and decline social invitations in order to finish it. Set in South Carolina in 1964, the protagonist is a girl who killed her mother as a young child and runs away with her Black housekeeper.

West with the Night by Beryl Markham - Markham was raised in Africa in the early 1900's and details an adventurous life there. Most intriguing for her unwillingness to compromise in life.

My Antonia by Willa Cather - an American classic, her writing style will take you to the prairies of Nebraska. Though the plot is also interesting, the character development are what make this book required reading.

Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden - I couldn't stand it!! Why on EARTH was this such a popular book?? This was so clearly written by a man who doesn't understand the first thing about being a woman.

No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith - Written by a Scottish man who grew up in Africa, this series of books is so engaging. When I finish, I feel that I know and love the characters, that I can smell the dust and taste the bush tea. A light read, enjoyable and lightly thought-provoking, these books make me keep wanting more. Fortunately, he's still writing..

Book of Salt by Monique Truong - I liked this book though others didn't. Told from the perspective of the Vietnamese "houseboy" of Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas, it is fascinating. Without any Stein or other background knowledge though, it can be a tough read.

The Red Tent by Anita Diamant - told from the perspective of Dinah from The Old Testament. Apparently this is a controversial book because it gives a woman's perspective to the Bible, but it doesn't seem at all sacreligious to me. Also not very compelling to me, though others really enjoyed it.

Country of the Pointed Firs by Sarah Orne Jewett - we read this for our Maine member, and I found it in a gorgeous setting, but stylistically a bit tedious.

Moonstone by Wilkie Collins - um, I don't think anybody actually read this book. I tried but was really uninterested.

Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie - (review by Gail):
I liked it. It was good, and the ironic twist of everything paralleled other things that were going on at that time.

It's about the reeducation of two Chinese teenager boys during the entire Cultural Revolution in China. With the schools closed, these two boys that were considered a threat (because their fathers were educated...one was a dentist...and the other? What was he? I forgot...) and shipped off to the country to do manual labor in a village. Often, these kids are sent there for years to be "reeducated".

Mao Tse Tung changed a few things around when he came into power, like stopping education so that people could not be educated more, from science to philosophy to things going on around the world. He believed that we should all get to root of things by working the fields and such, instead of exercising the mind. Why? Keep the people simple-minded, and it's easier to control them all (my own opinion of what he was planning anyways). Hasn't it been that way in other cultures/power struggles and systems as well?

The more you know, the more questions you have...the more you know you don't know..and the more you know, the more responsibility you have to do something with your knowledge. Perhaps that is why they say that "ignorance is bliss". And ignorance allows others to dictate your life - you don't make the choices, but someone else does instead...

The Bee Season by Myla Goldberg

Now *this* book shows the true dysfunction of American families - none of the members really knows each other, and everybody's looking for God in their own way.

The protagonist, a rather unremarkable girl, wins the spelling bee at her school and gets noticed. And the season of this bee creates chaos in her family ... no, doesn't create. Brings to light.

And I realize my problem with reading is that I really get too much into the books. Too much empathy for imaginary people. Not a good thing. Despite what the author of Reading Lolita in Tehran said.

I guess it was a good book, if good means the characters come alive and you relive your own childhood with an emotionally absent mother, and you're compelled to finish to know what the hell happens. Good narrative structure, interesting plot twists, very plausible all of it even in extremely mystical and pathological moments. But not good like I would ever want to read it again. But good like it will haunt me. But not in the good way. Makes me call all the people I love and tell them that and regain emotional closeness so we do not all die inside.

Snow by Orhan Pamuk

Set in eastern Turkey, the protagonist (a Turk who had lived several years in political exile in Germany) visits a remote town to allegedly investigate a rash of suicides by girls forced to not cover their heads as a religious gesture. But really, he's there to pursue his one true chance at love and to find himself.

The focus of the book soon moves beyond the scarf suicide girls to a culmination of events involving Islamist extremists, Kurdish nationalists, military/police/secret service, and a coup led by a visiting theatre troupe. For the few days the town is cut off from the rest of the world due to a raging blizzard, rules of reality change. I learned that those rumors about Turkish prisons aren't really exaggerated, and to better understand extremism and nationalism, Turkish culture in general - particular the tension between the secular and the religious, and the inanity of love.

All that said, and yes I did learn from it, "Snow" is a great title because reading this book was very much like slogging through a very deep snow. Not a book I read to finish out of delight and interest, but something to get through to get the damn thing done. Take all the worst aspects of some of my favorite writers - Kundera, Dostoyevsky, Tolstoy, Peter Hoeg, Italo Calvino - and mishmash them together in a blizzard - that's what we have here.

The book cover notes include one critic's comment "Hilarious." There wasn't anything hilarious in it. There was some weirdness, but nothing at all funny. And suggestions of Nobel Prize? Yawnsky. It's not "thrilling" if you don't give a damn about any of the characters after he kills off the one sympathetic one. I have a hunch that the timeliness of the theme (particularly religious fundamentalism) causes this outpouring of positive reviews rather than literary merits on its own.

The Jungle Books by Rudyard Kipling

How ironic that two of the stories in "The Jungle Books" actually take place in the Arctic? No matter.

They're delightful, especially the tales of Mowgli and of Rikki-Tikki-Tavi.

1. Why do children (and our inner children) so love anthropomorphization? Speaking to animals, thinking of them as furrier humans ... fascinating that we are so fascinated by it. Perhaps as children we feel stronger kinship with more diverse beings and we find the delineations drawn later in our lives to be artificial. But I hate how Walt Disney cartoonizes it all. Blah. Walt Disney sucks. Cartoons suck. The real stories are so much better than "Bear Necessities."

2. Social capital and information as power. Once Mowgli becomes "Lord of the Jungle" all creatures, including Ka, keep him informed of the comings and goings. His life is saved by his friends letting him know about Shere Khan. Instinctively I've always known that the more I know, the better off I am - when the janitors and secretaries and everybody trust me to tell me what they know, I am rarely surprised and usually on strong footing. Only within the past year have I understood conceptual theories about this - but networking is so, so key.

3. I just can't help but love Rikki-Tikki-Tavi. The curiosity of this mongoose, the lack of fear, the loyalty, and glowing red eyes when angered and fighting to the death - what's not to love?

4. Materialism - ah, weren't we just discussing that yesterday? When Mowgli takes the ankus from the cobra-guarded treasure, it does indeed bring death because "man" is so consumed with greed. Yes indeed, suffering is caused by desire.

5. I'll ignore Kipling's colonialist and rigid social constructs here. They aren't glaring, and I'm not an historical revisionist. It is possible to just enjoy some good tales here.

Eats, Shoots & Leaves by Lynne Truss

This is the funniest book I have ever read. It is almost embarrassing how much I am laughing aloud. Who knew punctuation was my pleasure trigger?

Yup, this book is about punctuation. Apostrophes are her particular passion, but she gives time to all its friends - comma, period (full stop in Britain), semi-colon, colon, etc. It's a good reminder of correct punctuation, but her writing and examples are bust-a-gut-laughing funny.

She cries out, "Sticklers unite!" And anybody who knows me knows that I am indeed a stickler. Maybe because I'm a double Virgo, maybe because my grandmother was an English teacher - no matter the cause, I am. And Lynne Truss gives me permission to embrace this side of myself and know that there are others at least as stickleresque as I.

For an excerpt: http://www.eatsshootsandleaves.com/excerpt.html

And now that I feel empowered, I *will* start correcting signs such as "Smile your on camera" (near my old house by Sierra) and others which caused me tremendous amounts of emotional pain. For a while in my youth I carried a red marker with me for those very purposes, but I was convinced I was too extreme. Oh no, I'm not too extreme. I'm not nearly extreme enough. Lynne Truss suggests a balaclava and a weapon - I'm more the sneaky type with my punctuation corrections.

But yeah, if I stop posting here - I'm probably in jail needing somebody to make bail for me. Punctuation correction commando style seems to not be honored in this culture.

Artemisia by Alexandra LaPierre

This is a novelized account of the life of Artemisia Gentileschi, a famous artist from 1600's Italy.

The author pulls upon a rich collection of primary source material. Nevertheless it really is a novel, which annoyed me (as did the very French style of writing). It was pretty good - but seemed to take forever to get through as it's quite dense and not extremely compelling to me.

I did learn much of Italy and Europe of the time - such as information about the 30 Years War which the author pulls in extremely well. I admit, I'm not terribly knowledgeable of European history, and not terribly interested in European art. But it's good to broaden my horizons.

What's most interesting is the title character herself. Artemisia Gentileschi is one of the most academically studied folks because of what an exception to all the rules she was. In addition to being a very talented painter, she created a life unknown to women at the time.

What was most interesting to me is how little has changed. Genius is all about not compromising, and being a woman in our culture is very much about compromising. Makes it difficult to be both without severe schizophrenia with multiple personality disorder.

Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America - Barbara Ehrenreich

Great book. The author (a PhD in biology oddly enough) is a sociology essayist. She undertook field research - she started in Key Largo and got a waitress job and tried to survive on the wages for a month. Then she repeated the experiment in Maine, where she worked as a maid and residential care assistant (two jobs). Then in Minnesota, at Wal-Mart.

What'd she discover? How impossible it is to survive on minimum wage. How many of her coworkers were homeless, hungry, and unhealthy (no health care). Minimum wage is nice if you just want to buy some CD's and you're 16. But if you have any type of adult responsibility, it just doesn't work.

In particular, I really appreciated her footnotes (great source material) and her "evaluation" essay at the end was extremely compelling (she even elicited some "wow's" from me). Exellent book. The problem with poverty in our country is not unemployment - it's underpaying. People work really really hard and suffer from it.

IT was on the New York Times Bestseller list for a long time, and that makes me chuckle - those readers aren't usually people who've ever done these types of jobs. Great for Ehrenreich to make visible the people who fuel forward our country - the underpaid.

I didn't need that convincing - and it made me realize why I'm so adamant about so many of my political beliefs. I've been those underpaid people. In addition to working at WIC, with migrant farm laborers, and with abused women and children, I've also been the poor underpaid person myself. I've:

delivered newspapers
weighed dump trucks
been a secretary (so many times)
worked at a gas station
been a waitress
worked in fast food (I hate cleaning grease traps)
been a hotel maid
been a housecleaner
worked at a hotel front desk
been a nanny (more than once)
been a clerk-typist
worked picking and cleaning produce
worked as a clerk-cashier (more than once)
worked as a bottle clerk in a grocery store
worked as a "courtesy clerk"
been a parking lot checker
been a home-health care aide with elderly and disabled people

... and the list could go on much longer. If you haven't really lived it, it's difficult to understand. The indignities, the really bone-exhausting work - it's soul-numbing.

If we keep looking to education to right the social wrongs, we're really barking up the wrong tree. As the rich get richer and the poor get poorer, we just keep barking at the wind.

Driving Mr. Albert: A Trip Across America with Einstein's Brain by Michael Paterniti

Yeah, the author really did drive across America with Einstein's brain.

When Einstein died in 1955, the pathologist at the hospital removed Einstein's brain and kept it. The author met this former doctor and they traveled to California with the brain (in a Tupperware container) in the trunk.

It's the kind of goofy premise I love. The book is "part travelogue, part memoir, part history, part biography, and part meditation" - which means really not much at all about the brain and all that, which is unfortunate. Nonetheless, there are some interesting spots in the book, and it's a short easy read.

The Coffee Trader - David Liss (December)

Did you know that Amsterdam in the 1600's was a cosmopolitan business city - people from all over the world coming to the stock exchange for its commodities, stocks, futures (yes, they dealt in futures then)?

Do you know about the "conversos" - Portugese Jews who were forced to convert to Christianity during the Inquisition, yet many secretly practiced the faith of their fathers?

The Coffee Trader is a tale of betrayal and love and family and individuality and loyalty. I found some of the treachery and gambling to be a bit tedious (I refuse to do either, so have little sympathy), but learning of the introduction of coffee to Europe was interesting. The characters were not perhaps as humanly developed as I prefer, but they were somewhat interesting and I appreciated the strong authentic female characters.

Not a great book, but a pretty good one especially for the historical aspects. An interest in commerce or Judaism or coffee should be enough to encourage you to read this book.

Bless Me, Ultima - Rudolfo Anaya (November)

Highly recommended!! I'd consider on par as the Chicano version of Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe.

Told from the perspective of a boy in rural New Mexico during the 1940's, it's the tale of when a curandera (traditional healer) comes to live with his family. He struggles with his religious faith, with family values, with loyalty, with myth and reality, with good and evil, with modern times vs. traditional ways. It flows very well - an easy read with characters that are sympathetically human.

Too many books I read of late focus on characters' flaws, and I find that tedious. We're all flawed, so we move on - which is the philosophy of this book, too. It's probably too dichotomously simple to be great, but it's a very enjoyable read. And yeah, I'll 'fess - I can be a fan of mysticism and magical realism.