Late November Readings
As I said, I've been in a reading fury. The trunk of my car is filled with library books...literally. I cannot walk into the library without walking out with at least 3 books...often over 10. And, I've been spending a lot of time with the online library catalogue, putting in book requests. If I find an author I really enjoy, I start requesting their other novels.
Anyway....this is what I read during the second half of November.
The Binding Chair – or a Visit from the Foot Emancipation Society by Kathryn Harrison
Such a fascinating story about an extraordinary, one-of-a-kind woman living in a world where women were not allowed to be unique. Woman behavior is strictly regulated and controlled. As a child, May’s feet are bound, just like any other upper-class Chinese woman. This excruciating process of slowly breaking a woman’s feet so that she is barely able to support her own weight, and which will cause her problems for her entire adult life in the form of infection and daily pain, is inflicted on young girls by other women. In May’s case, it was her grandmother. Women damaging women for the sake of their men. I could have cried as I read about the little girl lay sobbing on the floor, crying out to her grandmother, “Help me!” Her grandmother forces her to walk on her splintering feet and says, “I am.”
As was expected, May is given in marriage. From the first, she is disrespected and abused by her new family. Unaware that she was the fourth bride, rather than the first, she was forced to sit in her private rickshaw in the street for hours before being allowed into her new home. The promised wedding ceremony was not provided. Instead, she was married by a quick, little affair that was clearly intended to insult, but from which she had no recourse. Her husband was abusive and twisted, and to escape her degradation, she attempts suicide. When she fails, she is subjected to further punishment from her new family. Her grandmother basically tells her to quit whining and tough it out.
At this point, May decides to break way and to become her own woman. She steals some jewels from her husband, and bribes a gardener to help her run away by carrying her on his back. As a woman, she finds herself helpless many times, but determinedly uses her wiles to get what she wants. She becomes a prostitute in a fancy house, and only sells herself to foreigners. She refuses to allow herself to be used by a Chinese ever again. Her plan is to make a foreigner fall in love with her so she can escape the lifestyle of a Chinese woman. It takes years, but she succeeds.
She is married by a European man who is living with his sister and her family in China . May’s story is told from the vantage of her caucasian niece. Living in a family of caucasians, May’s life was not without it’s trials. But, clearly, her niece celebrates this woman, even during the period of time when the young woman is rebelling against her authority. One telling scene is when the rebellious teenager takes a Chinese lover, to May’s outrage. May rants, “After everything I have done, you would do this…..lay with a Chinese!”
And yet, it is the restrictions of the Chinese woman that May rejects, not her Chinese-ness. She is still as bound to the stories and superstitions as she is confined by her bound feet. This contradiction in character is confusing to the niece, and perhaps to the reader. But it is still one of the essences of May that make her a fantastically fascinating character.
Brother One Cell – an American coming of Age in South Korea’s Prisons by Cullen Thomas
A true story. Cullen is a cocky young American, who goes to Korea to teach English, thinking it will be a great adventure. Instead, he finds his job tedious, and he start itching for a little “excitement.” He describes how he felt “outside” of Korea ’s society and laws and, as a result, invincible. He then made a decision that impacted the rest of his life. He runs hashish into Korea , gets caught, and is sentenced to 3.5 years in the Korean prison.
What makes this book interesting is Cullen’s take on his confinement. He truly grows into a better person by his ordeal, and comes to respect the Korean people greatly. He makes no excuses for himself, although in the beginning he feels like he is being treated unfairly. He acknowledges that, through his own arrogance and stupidity, he has placed himself in this situation, and thereby caused tremendous suffering for his family.
Life in the Korean prison is different from that of U.S. prisons. The normal schedule is that 23 out of every 24 hours is spent in confinement in a tiny solitaire cell. Sometimes, such as when execution are being performed, they would not be let from their cells for days. The lights are never turned off. There is no toilet. There is a bucket, and there is a trough on one end of the cell through which water runs once a day. They get their drinking and cleaning water from this trough. They wash their own clothes. There is no heat or air conditioning, and the temperatures in their cells can be extreme. They suffer from frost bite in the winter. The greatest danger was not from the other cell mates, but of going crazy from loneliness. Very few prisoners were allowed to participate in work programs. But, because Cullen is American, he is in demand, and is allowed to teach English to several people.
Despite the difficulties described above, Cullen admits he is treated well by the Korean authorities. He describes them as a polite, gentle people. Once he learns to obey their system of etiquette (their rules of politeness are subtle and complex), his life gets easier. In short, he finds that his incarceration turns him into a thoughtful, thankful, respectful person, whereas before he was restless and selfish.
On Agate Hill by Lee Smith
This is a pretty interesting book about a young orphan girl raised in a southern family that has been shattered by the Civil War. Their plantation, Agate Hill, is full of ghosts – her parents, her siblings, her aunts and uncles…..all the deaths that came with a sad time of deprivation. Molly and her baby brother are taken in by her Uncle Julius, but he is past caring about life. And Molly is forced to watch as life around her crumbles. She often refers to herself as ghost, as she is often forgotten and ignored and left to made do for herself. Her aunts come and take away her little brother, but leave her behind…..forgotten? Can you imagine how she must have felt?
She has a friend for a short while. When her aunt comes to “take care of” Uncle Julius, she brings her granddaughter, Mary White. The two are as close as can be; but when the aunt and Mary White later leave, it seems to only reinforce poor Molly’s isolation. Years later, she finally leaves Agate Hill, and we watch Molly grow, become a school teacher, fall in love, live and love with abandon. In her later years, she returns to Agate Hill.
I enjoyed this book, written in the epistolary form of letters, diaries, etc.You really get a feel for post-Civil War south.
The Kitchen Witch by Annette Blair
If you want a really quick read that will give you a fit of the giggles, read this book.
By page 17 I was laughing out loud so much that Minao asked me to read the book to him….but, since the book is spicy in more ways than one, I couldn’t do that.
Basically, this book is a romance. At first I though….ugh, a Harlequin-type book. But, it’s a bit racier than that without getting out and out pornographic. LOL!
The book starts out with Logan, who is completely stressed out because he has to be to work in 20 minutes, and he has no babysitter. He is begging a friend, a retired Judge to please watch his son, but she can’t because she has started a new job – cemetery tours. We quickly learn his background – he’s an executive who has just landed a job at the local TV station, WHCH (witch – get it?) in Salem , Philadelphia . He’s stressed, because he’s also landed a son. His wife had left him 4 years ago when she was pregnant. He spent a lot of money on a detective, but could never find her. She suddenly shows up on his doorstop with their 4-year-old son and says, “I’m done. You take him.” And she’s gone. The little boy asks every day when his mother is coming back for the first few weeks, and then quits. Can you imagine???? On top of that, his new boss is completely insensitive to the single-Dad situation, and is doing what he can to make Logan completely miserable.
So, immediately you are rooting for Logan because he is busting his butt trying to build a relationship with his son, worried that he might be damaged by his mother, and – essentially – put his son first in all things. A truly awesome dad.
Anyway….his retired judge friend tells him to ask Melody to watch Shane (the son). Melody lives in the apartment below Logan , but he hasn’t met her yet.
Enter Melody. She’s drop-dead gorgeous, vivacious, funny, a “magical” personality………and a total disaster. She can’t hold down a job. And she has a father who reminds her on a regular basis how much of a failure she is at everything. He’s rich, and he gives her money, but she refuses to use his money for herself. Instead, she signs the checks over to charities……homeless, unwed mothers, etc……which drives him crazy. When she finds out that Logan works for WHCH, she gets excited because she knows that station is starting a new cooking show, and she thinks she would be perfect as the hostess of the show! She gets an interview through Logan , and comes up with the Kitchen Witch idea, a combination of “make-believe” magic and cooking, and the boss of the company LOVES the idea. She’s in!
The problem……she can’t cook. Her chickens explode. The night she babysits Shane, she tells him she wants to cook a meal to impress his dad (to get the interview). This hysterical chapter has you totally in love with her and the little boy, and you’ll need to change your pants because you’ll laugh so hard that you’ll wet yourself. And if you think that’s funny, wait until her first cooking show broadcast. Wow!
The love dilemma….. Logan is falling for Melody. Who wouldn’t, since she’s gorgeous and funny and everything. But, he’s very focused on providing a safe, reliable home for his son, and Melody reminds him in many ways of his first wife….flighty, out of control, dangerous. For his son’s sake, he thinks he needs to stay away from her, but it gets complicated because his son adores her. And Melody is so good with the little guy, you can see why.
What’s best…..it’s a FAST read. One day, maybe two, and you’ll be done.
Anyway....this is what I read during the second half of November.
The Binding Chair – or a Visit from the Foot Emancipation Society by Kathryn Harrison
Such a fascinating story about an extraordinary, one-of-a-kind woman living in a world where women were not allowed to be unique. Woman behavior is strictly regulated and controlled. As a child, May’s feet are bound, just like any other upper-class Chinese woman. This excruciating process of slowly breaking a woman’s feet so that she is barely able to support her own weight, and which will cause her problems for her entire adult life in the form of infection and daily pain, is inflicted on young girls by other women. In May’s case, it was her grandmother. Women damaging women for the sake of their men. I could have cried as I read about the little girl lay sobbing on the floor, crying out to her grandmother, “Help me!” Her grandmother forces her to walk on her splintering feet and says, “I am.”
As was expected, May is given in marriage. From the first, she is disrespected and abused by her new family. Unaware that she was the fourth bride, rather than the first, she was forced to sit in her private rickshaw in the street for hours before being allowed into her new home. The promised wedding ceremony was not provided. Instead, she was married by a quick, little affair that was clearly intended to insult, but from which she had no recourse. Her husband was abusive and twisted, and to escape her degradation, she attempts suicide. When she fails, she is subjected to further punishment from her new family. Her grandmother basically tells her to quit whining and tough it out.
At this point, May decides to break way and to become her own woman. She steals some jewels from her husband, and bribes a gardener to help her run away by carrying her on his back. As a woman, she finds herself helpless many times, but determinedly uses her wiles to get what she wants. She becomes a prostitute in a fancy house, and only sells herself to foreigners. She refuses to allow herself to be used by a Chinese ever again. Her plan is to make a foreigner fall in love with her so she can escape the lifestyle of a Chinese woman. It takes years, but she succeeds.
She is married by a European man who is living with his sister and her family in China . May’s story is told from the vantage of her caucasian niece. Living in a family of caucasians, May’s life was not without it’s trials. But, clearly, her niece celebrates this woman, even during the period of time when the young woman is rebelling against her authority. One telling scene is when the rebellious teenager takes a Chinese lover, to May’s outrage. May rants, “After everything I have done, you would do this…..lay with a Chinese!”
And yet, it is the restrictions of the Chinese woman that May rejects, not her Chinese-ness. She is still as bound to the stories and superstitions as she is confined by her bound feet. This contradiction in character is confusing to the niece, and perhaps to the reader. But it is still one of the essences of May that make her a fantastically fascinating character.
Brother One Cell – an American coming of Age in South Korea’s Prisons by Cullen Thomas
A true story. Cullen is a cocky young American, who goes to Korea to teach English, thinking it will be a great adventure. Instead, he finds his job tedious, and he start itching for a little “excitement.” He describes how he felt “outside” of Korea ’s society and laws and, as a result, invincible. He then made a decision that impacted the rest of his life. He runs hashish into Korea , gets caught, and is sentenced to 3.5 years in the Korean prison.
What makes this book interesting is Cullen’s take on his confinement. He truly grows into a better person by his ordeal, and comes to respect the Korean people greatly. He makes no excuses for himself, although in the beginning he feels like he is being treated unfairly. He acknowledges that, through his own arrogance and stupidity, he has placed himself in this situation, and thereby caused tremendous suffering for his family.
Life in the Korean prison is different from that of U.S. prisons. The normal schedule is that 23 out of every 24 hours is spent in confinement in a tiny solitaire cell. Sometimes, such as when execution are being performed, they would not be let from their cells for days. The lights are never turned off. There is no toilet. There is a bucket, and there is a trough on one end of the cell through which water runs once a day. They get their drinking and cleaning water from this trough. They wash their own clothes. There is no heat or air conditioning, and the temperatures in their cells can be extreme. They suffer from frost bite in the winter. The greatest danger was not from the other cell mates, but of going crazy from loneliness. Very few prisoners were allowed to participate in work programs. But, because Cullen is American, he is in demand, and is allowed to teach English to several people.
Despite the difficulties described above, Cullen admits he is treated well by the Korean authorities. He describes them as a polite, gentle people. Once he learns to obey their system of etiquette (their rules of politeness are subtle and complex), his life gets easier. In short, he finds that his incarceration turns him into a thoughtful, thankful, respectful person, whereas before he was restless and selfish.
On Agate Hill by Lee Smith
This is a pretty interesting book about a young orphan girl raised in a southern family that has been shattered by the Civil War. Their plantation, Agate Hill, is full of ghosts – her parents, her siblings, her aunts and uncles…..all the deaths that came with a sad time of deprivation. Molly and her baby brother are taken in by her Uncle Julius, but he is past caring about life. And Molly is forced to watch as life around her crumbles. She often refers to herself as ghost, as she is often forgotten and ignored and left to made do for herself. Her aunts come and take away her little brother, but leave her behind…..forgotten? Can you imagine how she must have felt?
She has a friend for a short while. When her aunt comes to “take care of” Uncle Julius, she brings her granddaughter, Mary White. The two are as close as can be; but when the aunt and Mary White later leave, it seems to only reinforce poor Molly’s isolation. Years later, she finally leaves Agate Hill, and we watch Molly grow, become a school teacher, fall in love, live and love with abandon. In her later years, she returns to Agate Hill.
I enjoyed this book, written in the epistolary form of letters, diaries, etc.You really get a feel for post-Civil War south.
The Kitchen Witch by Annette Blair
If you want a really quick read that will give you a fit of the giggles, read this book.
By page 17 I was laughing out loud so much that Minao asked me to read the book to him….but, since the book is spicy in more ways than one, I couldn’t do that.
Basically, this book is a romance. At first I though….ugh, a Harlequin-type book. But, it’s a bit racier than that without getting out and out pornographic. LOL!
The book starts out with Logan, who is completely stressed out because he has to be to work in 20 minutes, and he has no babysitter. He is begging a friend, a retired Judge to please watch his son, but she can’t because she has started a new job – cemetery tours. We quickly learn his background – he’s an executive who has just landed a job at the local TV station, WHCH (witch – get it?) in Salem , Philadelphia . He’s stressed, because he’s also landed a son. His wife had left him 4 years ago when she was pregnant. He spent a lot of money on a detective, but could never find her. She suddenly shows up on his doorstop with their 4-year-old son and says, “I’m done. You take him.” And she’s gone. The little boy asks every day when his mother is coming back for the first few weeks, and then quits. Can you imagine???? On top of that, his new boss is completely insensitive to the single-Dad situation, and is doing what he can to make Logan completely miserable.
So, immediately you are rooting for Logan because he is busting his butt trying to build a relationship with his son, worried that he might be damaged by his mother, and – essentially – put his son first in all things. A truly awesome dad.
Anyway….his retired judge friend tells him to ask Melody to watch Shane (the son). Melody lives in the apartment below Logan , but he hasn’t met her yet.
Enter Melody. She’s drop-dead gorgeous, vivacious, funny, a “magical” personality………and a total disaster. She can’t hold down a job. And she has a father who reminds her on a regular basis how much of a failure she is at everything. He’s rich, and he gives her money, but she refuses to use his money for herself. Instead, she signs the checks over to charities……homeless, unwed mothers, etc……which drives him crazy. When she finds out that Logan works for WHCH, she gets excited because she knows that station is starting a new cooking show, and she thinks she would be perfect as the hostess of the show! She gets an interview through Logan , and comes up with the Kitchen Witch idea, a combination of “make-believe” magic and cooking, and the boss of the company LOVES the idea. She’s in!
The problem……she can’t cook. Her chickens explode. The night she babysits Shane, she tells him she wants to cook a meal to impress his dad (to get the interview). This hysterical chapter has you totally in love with her and the little boy, and you’ll need to change your pants because you’ll laugh so hard that you’ll wet yourself. And if you think that’s funny, wait until her first cooking show broadcast. Wow!
The love dilemma….. Logan is falling for Melody. Who wouldn’t, since she’s gorgeous and funny and everything. But, he’s very focused on providing a safe, reliable home for his son, and Melody reminds him in many ways of his first wife….flighty, out of control, dangerous. For his son’s sake, he thinks he needs to stay away from her, but it gets complicated because his son adores her. And Melody is so good with the little guy, you can see why.
What’s best…..it’s a FAST read. One day, maybe two, and you’ll be done.
posted by Rhonda L at 12:12 PM
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