a book a week for 2010

I've never done this before -- I'm taking the "book a week" challenge - 52 books this year!

Week 1: A Girl Named Zippy

some days just go well

I have been able to read today...working on my book (technically book-and-a-half) for book club this Saturday: Black and half of Red by Ted Dekker (we'll be finishing up with the second half of Red, and all of White next time we meet. While the writing engaged from the first page, I had a hard time buying-into the books until two or three chapters in. They are a hybrid of fantasy, science fiction and Christian allegory. I just have to keep convincing myself that, like C. S. Lewis and Tolkien, not everything is a symbol...sometimes a house is just a house and a room is just a room. However, much of the book is allegory, and I had to seek out some insight from reviews on the web. Interesting books...Tom goes to sleep in one reality, and is immediately awake in another; the scenario swaps and he as confused as can be. An MMA phenom for a hero, a pandemic-level virus, trees that glow, fruit that heals, damsels in distress, ugly guys with bad skin dwelling in tents in the desert, screeching black bats, white furry flying creatures, green water, religious "compromisers" [sic] who turn out to be the truth-keepers. You know, everyday stuff. *If you don't know what this is, ask your hubby...he will know if he's anything like mine.

My new Peter Reinhart white bread recipe rocks. There used to be eight rolls, now there are four. The sandwich bread has a substantial crust, but the crumb is delightfully soft and flavorful. Rolls and bread from the same recipe. Mmmmmmm.

On Monday, I had made PR's Italian bread (a two day process) and it was so good that it disappeared in no time flat. Definitely a re-make.

The girls have been coloring all day. This morning they took their stuff outside and colored at the picnic table ala Princesses. You can see our tree behind Ingrid, leaning a bit east...but it didn't fall over in the serious monsoon storm yesterday. I would love to know how much rain fell. It was, by far, the most-substantial storm I've seen since the first year we were here. It rained consistently for about three hours. This morning, I went outside to check the condition of the yard (there was some heavy wind at the leading edge of the storm) and all was fine; however, I'm glad the wind led the storm and didn't follow, as the rain completely saturated the ground, and the mesquite is leaning a bit. We are definitely going to have to add a third support pole. By now (two years in the ground) the poles really shouldn't be needed, but for some reason, the roots have just not developed strongly enough to secure this tree upright. I think the ground dirt might not be dense enough as they probably scraped the entire caliche layer off of the front yard when they planted.

copycat post

I'm following La Vida Dulce's lead, and composing a random post today.

• I love how the girls find a toy and just play and play and play with it. Right now it's the cash register. They've been playing store for an hour now. I love how amazingly polite they are to each other while playing this game. "How may I help you today?" "Thank you!" "Have a nice day" over and over again, yet some days, it is all I can do to beg them to be civil to one another.
• Ingrid and Ilsa finished their first swimming lesson session on Thursday; the session concluded with "safety day" -- how to safely attempt to help a friend in the pool who has gotten themselves in trouble, what to do when you are wearing a life jacket, how to get help quickly. Ingrid was the only "little" girl (under the age about 8) to volunteer to be capsized in a mini boat. She did very well! The pinnacle was the chance to take trips down the big curly-q slide and jump off of the diving board. Both girls went down the slide with gusto, and Ingrid had no fear of the diving board. Ilsa didn't want to do the diving board, but that's okay, she's only 3 1/2 after all. BUT....there were two other little girls in their class who were indecisive about attempting either. I'm not judging that fear whatsoever, BUT both the teacher and their Mom just let them stand there, hem and haw for at least 5 minutes each time. That's a total of 20 minutes that the other kids couldn't use either. The teacher was sooooo encouraging, but at what point should he have stopped and said, "You know Lulabelle (not her name obviously), why don't you try this another day." Ditto to the Mom. I'm a patient woman, but my patience was wearing thin. This was the only place that the girls could do this. They aren't allowed to go "tandem" at the Base pool, nor are they allowed to be caught at the bottom of the Base slide or diving board. What would you have done?
  
• Anyone out there read the Circle Trilogy by Ted Dekker (individually known as Black, Red and White)? Weird -- VERY weird. But strangely, I can't put the book down. I'm reading for book club, and I just can't think of anything "meaningful" or "smart-sounding" to say about the book...purely entertainment. I guess that's okay!
  

book review = their eyes were watching god

Zora Neale Hurston is considered one of the first important African American female authors, and THE dominant African American female author in the era after the Korean war. She was born in 1891 to a carpenter/Baptist preacher and a schoolteacher.

The book was first published in 1937, but more people have read it since 1975 than read it all the years from publication until then.

A brief synopsis: Set in the 1930s, the main character, Janie is a fair-skinned, straight-haired (important to teh story) beautiful African American girl whose parents are out of the picture. It is implied that her father was white. She was raised by her grandma who was a former slave. Sour and angry, Nanna says she wants "more for her Janie" than she ever had, but basically that means anything better than slavery, so as fast as she can, she arranges a marriage for Janie at the age of 16 to a much older widower. This is the first of three marriages (the first one is never formally ended; she gets married to #2 while still married to #1) of varying degrees of happiness. The first man isn't terrible, she's just very young and is bored; she is spirited away by #2 after only 2 months of marriage. #2 (Jody) is a flashy and charismatic social climber, and apparently sees Janie's beauty as a way to hasten his prospects. They remain married for 20 years or so. It is a pitiful, loveless marriage. She runs the general store that they own, while he is the bigshot mayor of a respectable, but small town. He demands that she hide her beauty, as well as her voice. He dies old and bitter, hating her.

Soon after Jody's death, she meets Tea Cake. There is about a 20 year age difference -- SHE is 40 and Tea Cake about 20. They fall madly in love and are married very quickly. The few years they have together are exciting and full, full of hard work, friends and hardship. He isn't perfect, but he does recognize her intelligence, voice and strength. She is the one with the money in the relationship, due to the estate that is left after Jody's death. She is seen as beautiful by all around her, yet she is not on the pedastal taht Jody placed her on, which eventually was the undoing of their marriage. Tea Cake contracts rabies from a mad dog who bites him, and dies tragically from a gunshot wound by Janie's hand, when he is mad with the rabies and tries to kill her in his delusional state. It is a horrible end to a beautiful life.

Skin color (beyond "black and white" into shades of brown) and social status, beauty, community, independence, interdependence, lonliness, envy, bitterness and hatred are some of the main themes represented in the novel. Janie is so lonely for much of her life. Because Jody hides her beauty and she loses her "voice" due to his constant verbal abuse, she is to herself; the townspeople see her as aloof and stuck up, which she isn't at all. Light skinned blacks like her because of her beautiful coffee-colored skin and straight hair, and dark-skinned blacks think that she believes she is better than they; this is not the case. She's stuck in the middle.

While a very compelling book, it was quite hard to read at first due to the speech patterns duplicated phonetically. Here's an example:

Ah was wid dem white chillun so much till Ah didn't know Ah wuzn't white till Ah
was round six years old.

Once that challenge was surmounted, the story came to the forefront rather than the writing...it was distracting at first.

The Janie character is of the tragic genre, but is strong and her own woman. Alice Walker says, "There is no book more important to me than this one."

As a side, Halle Berry starred as Janie in a 2005 TV movie based upon the book. Ruby Dee is "Nanna" (the grandma). Jazz great Terence Blanchard did the soundtrack.

Book club wrap-up on "The Hiding Place"

Book club was today. First of all, I love my girls, but it was REALLY (can I emphasize it enough??) nice to get away for three hours of insightful and meaningful conversation. We meet bi-monthly. We've read four books now: A Severe Mercy, Whose Body?, Quo Vadis and The Hiding Place. All have been good choices (except for Whose Body, which is a fun book, but I don't think it really lends itself to discussion).

It was beneficial to read Quo Vadis (QV) and The Hiding Place (THP) in succession. Both speak to the dissolution of moral/social structure, persecution, tyranny. Both also portray selflessness in the face of the seeming need for self-preservation.

Some great discussion points:

• Corrie's sister, Betsie was her "Aaron" -- just like Moses had doubts and fears, so did Corrie, but her beloved Betsie always put her back on track and pointed her face back to the Lord's face.
• What could have been a source of lifelong disappointment for many women, actually made easier Corrie and Betsie's task to save hundreds of lives: neither were married; they were "spinsters". But without spouses or children, their lives were freed-up to complete this mission.
• Corrie thought that the activities conducted within the "Beje" (their business and home) were so secret. But much of Haarlem knew! And kept their secret, too.
• Corrie was over 50 when interned at Ravensbruck.
• The smallest details of our lives are important to the Lord...and possibly working a good that we will only know later, or never. Corrie wanted to curse the fleas -- Betsie thanked the Lord for them. Later, those fleas kept the guards away, giving Corrie and Betsie freedom to conduct Bible studies right under the guards' noses.

Then we started talking about childrearing, adoption, storytime at the library, subtle social messages in children's books (I CAN'T STAND "The Rainbow Fish". Maybe I'll blog on that sometime.) Oh well, so much for enlightened discussion, but it was great while it lasted.