Monday Review: A sick day means time to read

It was my first day to do nothing for weeks. To sit at home with my cat and relax. I could have watched my new collections of The Muppet Show or whatever is available on NetFlix Instant Viewing this week, but I've been drooling at the sight of a pile of books just waiting for me even since before Christmas. I decided to read a chapter from some of those books today from the moment I woke up until now...

1. THE WOMAN WARRIOR by Maxine Hong Kingston
I purchased this text for myself while Christmas shopping. I ordinarily refrain from buying any books for myself during the holidays, but I consider this book research. THE WOMAN WARRIOR is a memoir about the author's family and culture as a second generation Chinese immigrant. What moves me the most about her writing is her ability to twist the perspective on stories for which most of us have bucket responses. To a story about an adulteress mother who killed herself with her infant in the family drinking well, we would say, "How tragic," or "What cruelty led a woman to such a drastic act?" Kingston, however, in writing about her aunt with no name, a woman the family will punish for all time by actively forgetting her, pretending she was never born, the author fears she does her aunt no favors by writing about her. She feels her aunt is the watery sort of soul anxious for a replacement... she sees, perhaps, the seduction and absolution in just running away, in displaying sympathy. In my own writings about family, I hope to reach beyond the obvious like this brave Chinese woman.

2. A gift from someone I love
I will not name the next book I opened because it was actually a thoughtful gift from a dear person who has recently become a special part of my life... but it's dreadful. Written by a fanatic who has learned to make money off of people too lazy to think for themselves, the book is jam packed with poorly researched drivel, cheap rhetoric, and senseless antisemitism. I doubt my friend has read this book, but I know why it was chosen, and I appreciate it... and so will the library when I donate it this week.

3. OLIVE KITTERIDGE by Elizabeth Strout
Aside from the fact that this book won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2008, I can tell this is going to be a good read. In the first chapter, the reader follows Olive's husband, Henry Kitteridge, to work. He's a pharmacist and develops a relationship with a young woman hired to help around the drug store. Though your mind might lean towards assuming a romantic connection, Henry pursues a much more fatherly route when interacting with her as she loses her first husband to a hunting accident and starts the hard road toward living on her own. It's simple, but engaging. I care about what may happen to these people... as well as the title character. So far, Olive has been an auxiliary character... argumentative, disagreeable, and civil when forced to socialize. I'm interested in what the author will do with her... what makes her significant enough to have the title role.

4. CLEAVING by Julie Powell
So, I just took another chapter out of Powell's dark memoir. I've found I kind of hate her lover. Not only because the situation is ugly, but because he reminds me of guys I once permitted to use me. I had the luck to get that out of my system before I'd qualify as an adulteress, but I don't think that puts me or anyone else above Powell and the troubles that drove her to this useless prick. I've also found my first complaint about the book - well, maybe it's just how I read. I'm having trouble imagining the scenes in which she's performing her butchering tasks, the cutting, dividing, etc. I don't know if this is an issue of how clearly she describes these activities or my lack of visual imagination. I'm still consumed in her story, but struggling with the guts and gore.

5. THE ESSENCE OF SHINTO by Motohisa Yamakage
This was a Christmas gift, but I also consider it research into my grandmother's homeland. I feel very fortunate to have it... it's actually pretty difficult to just walk into a bookstore and find a decent volume on the subject of Shinto. But, Yamakage's volume is not terribly... readble. It's translated from Japanese... and that aspect of the writing stands out loudly. I fell asleep twice trying to make it through very short chapters. And yet, the subject matter is like coming home. So far, as I understand it, the things I connect to the most within Shinto philosophy is the lack of a founder, the lack of an idol or image for the Divine, and a deep reverence to nature. More than once, Yamakage has referenced Lovelock's Gaia hypothesis; the concept that earth is not a mechanical, revolving rock, but a living, breathing organism. As long as I set aside time for coffee, I think I'll make it through this book and gain a little more faith in the process.

6. CONTACT by Carl Sagan
I've been reading this book bit by bit for... well, more years than I want to admit. For some reason, every time I start it, something comes up and I can't finish it. School, holidays, family and friends issues, etc. I used to feel badly, but, now I consider it the best part of my love affair with the work of Sagan. I'm just taking it slow, so to speak. I think I might be reading and re-reading this novel for many years to come... falling in love again and again with Sagan's creativity, believeability, and scientific poetry.

7. AMY AND ISABELLE by Elizabeth Strout
It was interesting reading two works by the same author. I had my natural concerns that the books would sound the same, but Strout's voice changes for this book about the relationship between mothers and their teenage daughters. The whole first chapter is pure tension. I picked this book up while at the charming used book store in Colonial Williamsburg. It was the book that almost made it for the last book my book club will read together as a group. I'm still satisified with the choice that was made (CEREMONY by Leslie Marmon Silko), but I can see why Strout's book was suggested.

8. EATING ANIMALS by Jonathan Safran Foer
I was afraid this would happen... while Foer is somewhat extremist in his thinking, his research and arguments are still sound. I don't know if I'll be able to eat sushi again for a while... I've already tried weaning away from foods that come from unknown sources, places where I cannot feel secure that the animals were raised and slaughtered in a humane fashion. But, the situation with fish is disturbing.


The only book I didn't make have a chance to open yet is my gift from my Secret Santa... Geraldine Brooks' PEOPLE OF THE BOOK. I've really been looking forward to this one. I see it in airports and bookstores, but I never see it when I'm in the mood to justify buying something for myself. I'll be jumping into that after I log off here and go to bed.

Great way to feel like dirt... surrounded by tea and books... and my new book embosser, a Christmas gift from Anya. I'm working my way through every book in my collection to emboss them with my initial.

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