Ruby Ramblings

July disappeared faster than a short February holiday in Bermuda.  Hence, I read very little, but travelled much.

All of my reading this month was mandatory.  It was either for a book club meeting, or something I owed to someone on BookObsessed.

An Acceptable Timeby Madeline L’Engle The fifth book in the Wrinkle In Time series. Polly, the grandchild of the infamous time traveling couple, comes to visit for the summer and gets wrapped up in a time warp that leads to Celtic times. It was cute, and better than the 4th book, but nowhere near as good as the original three.

Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith
Probably the best book I read this month. A detective during Stalinist Russian times uncovers a serial killer who is using the notion that the only violence that exists is controlled by the government to his advantage. When Leo decides to investigate, he finds himself targeted for crimes against the state.

A Thousand Splendid Sunsby Khaled Hosseini
I read this for the Seoul Women’s Bookclub, and I’m glad I did.

The Lightning Thief The first in a series of books where a young boy discovers he is the son of Olympian God. Fantastic, made me want to run out and find the next ones, alas, they don’t seem to be here yet.

*Ruby looks woefully at this list.* I must have read more than that?

Open your current read, pick two lines that aren’t spoilers, share….

” The tree tops swayed in the breeze, and she imagined they were nodding their welcome to her. Mariam steadied herself against the waves of dismay passing through her.”

A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini

I have been avoiding reading this book since it came out. Because it was picked for the Seoul Women’s Bookclub this month, I had to suck up and read it to join the discussion. (Actually I’m sure they would have welcomed me anyway, but I am somewhat interested in reading it.) I may be the only person who read The Kite Runner, and wasn’t at all crazy about it. Although I enjoyed the imagery, and was happy to see a major, popular work from an Afghani writer, I found the book to be completely improbable. Although this book starts out great, I have a feeling I will think the same . Too many events line up to make what would have been a tragic life, a bearable one. Not that I want the characters to suffer, but they way they are saved in Hosseini’s books just seems so unlikely.

I was sitting in a shop of a Pakastani friend, and we were having fun picking through all the Pashtu words mixed into the text. Although his first language is Urdu, his mother spoke Pashtu, and he found most words quite recognizable. A side note is that the word harami in this book refers to an illegitimate child, where as in his region he said it was used for men who are backstabbers.

Hosted by Should be Reading.

I finally caved and did the fifteen first memorable books you think of on facebook. I figured since I did all the work to do it, I might as well post it here as well. Here I was able to add interviews and such.

1. The Sparrowby Mary Doria Russell – an anthropological team explores a new planet. Nothing goes as planned. Everyone dies. That is a way oversimplified version of a truly inventive and creative book. Amazing writing, characters you would swear you actually know, and lots of social commentary.

2. The Handmaid’s Taleby Margaret Atwood Ah, distopian novels are my favorite. Some call this too feminist, I call them chicken. Chemical disruptions have created a society where procreation has become almost impossible. The few possible fertile women are forced into being “handmaids”, vessels for the future of rich men’s families. In the book torture is justified as a means to national security.

3. Oryx and Crakeby Margaret Atwood – Atwood’s answer to the Handmaid’s Tale being too feminist. Also a distopian novel, but the two main characters are boys, one sweet and kind, his best friend a mastermind who has discovered a way to destroy the world. The book opens with “snowman” as the kind child is known, wishing he had believed his friend when he said he would push the button.

4. A Prayer for Owen Meanyby John Irving One of my all time favorites. I don’t feel the need to explain it. Just read it.

5. The Cider House Rulesby John Irving The book takes place in Maine. I grew up in Maine. But I read it while living in Nepal. Surreal.

6. Finding George Orwell in Burmaby Emma Larkin – Classic travel narrative. A woman traces George Orwell’s path across Burma trying to find links to his writings and inspiration.

7. The Snow Leopardby Peter Matthiesen – My first trip to Asia was to Thailand. I was trying to get to Nepal, but got offered a teaching position in Kanchanaburi instead. I read this while living there, and was completely inspired, but it wasn’t until seven years later that I actually made it to the himilayas.

8. She’s Not There: A Life in Two Gendersby Jennifer Finney Boylan
I loved this book and recommend it to anyone who is open minded about such things. Jennifer teaches at a University in Maine, and I met her once, a brief touch with someone who is almost famous. The writing is great, and it goes more into the emotional side of being transgendered than looking at the actual mechanics of deciding to get a sex change.

On a side note apparently the premiere place to get a sex change is Thailand. Due to the large number of wives cutting off their husbands wangs, Thailand’s doctors have become masters of unattaching and reattaching such things: courtesy of The Geography of Bliss: One Grump’s Search for the Happiest Places in the World by Eric Weiner.

9.Snowby Orhan Pamuk

10. Geishaby Liza Dalby An anthropology dissertation that reads like a travel narrative. Great writing, great imagery. This book was actually the basis for most of Arthur Golden’s research for Memoirs of a Geisha. Dalby lived in Japan from the time she was a teenager, and was the first western woman to ever become a fully fledged Geisha.

11. Speaker for the Deadby Orson Scott Card An anthropology based Sci-Fi. One of those books I recommend to everyone – it’s really not just for sci-fi fans. But you really should read Ender’s Game first.

12. Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Placeby Terry Tempest Williams
My first memorable introduction to writing on environmental issues. Williams lives in the Salt Lake City area and talks about the shrinking lake, toxins, nuclear testing, and all things you didn’t even know you should be worried about. I also met her at College of the Atlantic when she received an honorary masters from there.

13. Small Wonderby Barbara Kingsolver I love Barbara Kingsolver, and this is a particularly good collection of essays by her. My least favorite book of hers is most people’s favorite: The Poisonwood Bible.

14. Memories of My Melancholy Whoresby Gabriel Garcia Marquez – “We already are old, she said with a sigh. What happens is that you don’t feel it on the inside, but from the outside everybody can see it.”

15. There Is No Me Without You: One Woman’s Odyssey to Rescue Her Country’s Childrenby Melissa Greene – an expose of a widow in Ethiopia who decides to open her home to HIV positive orphans. Besides being a moving story, it shows how things can go very sour when western influences get involved, offer large sums of money, and the rest of the neighborhood gets jealous.

There are so many more…..

Teaser Tuesday, hosted by Should be Reading.

“More likely the two older boys discovered that their five-year-old victim did not mind the excursion; that far from struggling and shrieking, he merely gazed at the skeleton with cool appreciation.

When his eyes settled back upon his captors, it was they who fled.”

Pg. 39 – The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America by Erik Larson

What with the big overseas move and all, it was a slow reading month. Quarantine has allowed me to catch up a little.

Funny in Farsi: A Memoir of Growing Up Iranian in America

Free PDF version of Funny in Farsi here.
Interview with Firoozeh Dimas

  Full interview HERE.

Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation by Lynne Truss Brought to us from one of the “supply drops” in the quarantine. Relevant reading for English teachers who always need a brush-up on the rules of their own language.

The Magician’s AssistantI am a fan of Ann Patchett’s, but I’m not finding this book all that engaging. A woman married to a gay man, her boss, best friend, and the magician she assists, finds an unexpected history of her husband after he dies suddenly.

On a lighter note
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Book 5)

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Book 6)

Atticus After spending his life being an eternal f*^-up, a middle age man moves to Mexico and kills himself. The father goes to Mexico and quickly suspects it wasn’t suicide. Unfortunatly, the author gives the answer to mystery way too soon, and the second half of the book fizzles into nothingness.

Things I’ve Been Silent About by Azar Nafisi

Book TV interview with Azar Nafisi

Even more interesting than seeing Nafisi talk about her own book, is this video of her talking about Ayaan Hirsi Ali:

Ali is a dynamic, powerful, and very outspoken author and politician, who is not afraid to blatenly call out inconsistancies and things she finds disgusting about the Islamic faith in which she was raised in Somalia. For her views she has had to go into hiding from death threats she has recieved from Islamic fundamentalists (who killed her friend, director Theo Van Gogh.)

Some people find her militant or inflammatory. I read two of her books last year, and find her insightful and intelligent.

Infidel

The Caged Virgin: An Emancipation Proclamation for Women and Islam
I read the Caged Virgin while staying at ZZZ’s house,in Belgrade, Serbia, who initially introduced me to Hirsi Ali and her story.

Theo Van Gogh and Hirsi Ali made the movie Submission: Part 1, which caused such controversy and outrage in the Dutch Muslim community that Theo was shot and stabbed to death in broad daylight and left with a note saying Hirsi Ali was next. Ian Buruma wrote a very insightful book on the events, Murder in Amsterdam: Liberal Europe, Islam, and the Limits of Tolerence.

January, February, March, and April Reads