Devourer of Books

Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Eva and Marg that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library.

Do you think that if I hide under my chair I can avoid the emails from the library telling me that more books I’ve put on hold are ready for pickup?  No, that probably won’t work, I’m too addicted to Twitter to leave the internet for TOO long.  Plus I’d come back and my Google Reader would be even more out of control than it already it.  Does any one know of any thing that keeps library holds at bay?  Crucifixes?  Holy water?  Silver bullets?  You know, anything besides self control, because it seems that I do not have that when it comes to my library.

Oh, friends, I was so proud of myself last week.  Remember how I took out NOTHING, and even returned a couple of books (unread, I think, but still returned).  Well, this week I took out 6 (including one DVD), and I already have *7* waiting for me next Tuesday.  I have most of my holds frozen, but I can’t freeze new holds if the books are available.  I do feel that I can pass off part of the blame, though, at least for many of next week’s holds.  If you don’t know, Nicole of Linus’ Blanket has started a new show on Blog Talk Radio called “That’s How I Blog” where she interviews book bloggers (the schedule, by the way, I’m going to be on sometime in the new year, we haven’t set a date yet).  The show runs on Tuesday and at the end they do something called ’20 minute book club’ where they discuss a book they’ve both read.  You can listen, participate in the chat room, and even call in to be part of the whole show, including the book club.  Well, a lot of the books that have been chosen for the upcoming shows I have not read, so I’m trying to get a bunch of them from the library.  See?  Nicole’s fault.  It will also be her fault when I have to give up sleep to try to fit in these extra books and reviews!

Okay, enough blaming Nicole, especially as she’s not at fault for what I need to show you right now.  I will try to blame the people responsible for these recommendations, though!  Here’s what I took out this week:

Those are:
The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary E. Pearson – because of Trish and Amy
Two Histories of England by Charles Dickens and Jane Austen – because of Heather
Going Bovine by Libby Bray – because of Justine Larbalestier, who mentioned this book at her signing
Sunflowers: A Novel of Vincent Van Gogh by Sheramy Bundrick – because of Jennifer and Kathy, among others
Ruined: A Ghost Story by Paula Morris – because of Jennifer and Swapna, among others

I also took out the DVD Food, Inc.

What about you, how’s your library/book obsession progressing?

Where Men Win Glory by Jon Krakauer

In May of 2002, Pat Tillman quit the National Football League in order to join the army, propelled to service by the war in Afghanistan following the attacks of September 11th.  On April 24th, 2004, Tillman was killed by members of his own squad in a friendly fire incident that was subsequently covered up over and over again, with his allegedly heroic-in-the-face-of-enemy-fire death used for political gain by the administration.

As always, Krakauer crafts his narrative masterfully.  He began and ended with the day of Pat’s death, weaving that thread together with Pat’s life from about high school onward, as well as a political history of Afghanistan and the events that led to 9/11.  Speaking of which, did you realize that the US didn’t just give the Mujahideen weapons to fight their war against the Soviets, they actually funneled weapons to the war lords in order to provoke war between Afghanistan and the Soviet Union?  Yeah, that really made me very angry.

Although Krakauer is up to his usual standards, this was not my favorite of his books.  I listened to the audio and, although the narrator was fantastic, I found myself completely tuning out whenever the topic turned to football (not a huge part of the narrative) or war and battle (a much larger part of the story).  I really appreciated many of the things I learned about the lead up to war as well as the early days of the war in Afghanistan.  Did you know that Jessica Lynch didn’t go down fighting?  Or that her captors actually tried to return her before her much-vaunted rescue?  No, neither did I.  However, I had mixed feelings about Tillman.  He seemed by turns to be a complete ass and a pretty good guy.   He beat another teenager pretty badly while in high school and tried to tell a fellow ranger that his faith in God was meaningless as they were pinned down in the firefight that eventually killed Tillman (really, now, HOW is that helpful?).

If you’re interested in football and/or the war in Afghanistan, or in Tillman’s story particularly I think this would be a spectacular choice for you to read, either in print or listening to the audio.  If you’re a fan of Krakauer, I would recommend picking this up at some point as it is well done as usual, but if you aren’t really interested in the subject matter you probably don’t need to rush out and get it right away.

Buy this book here to support this blog:
Powells – book/audio
A local independent bookstore via Indiebound – book/audio
Amazon – book/audio

Source: library

Liar by Justine Larbalestier

Micah lies.  A lot.  When she first started her new high school, she let everyone think that she was really a boy.  When her lie was finally exposed, she revised her story to say that she was born a hermaphrodite.  When her sometimes-boyfriend Zach is killed, Micah’s world turns upside down.  She both wants to stop lying and needs to keep lying in order to protect her family secret.  She really would like to be able to tell the truth, though, at least to her reader.

Weaving lies is one thing; having them weave you is another.

That’s why I’m writing this.  To keep me from going over the edge.  I don’t want to be a liar anymore.  I want to tell my stories true.

But I haven’t so far.  Not entirely.  I’ve tried.  I’ve really tried.   I’ve tried harder than I ever have.  But, well, there’s so much and it’s so hard.

I slipped a little.  Just a little.

Truly.

I’ll make it up to you, though.

From now on it’s nothing but the truth.

I love narrators who tell you straight out they are unreliable, and Micah is no exception.  Sure, she tells you she’ll tell you nothing but the truth, but come on, the title of the book is “Liar,” so you know that isn’t true.  In fact, Micah can’t really even help her lies.  I knew all along that I had to take everything she said with a grain of salt and I found it fascinating sorting through what was and was not true.  I’m still not completely sure what was true, but since neither is Justine Larbalestier, I’m okay with that.  Often ambiguous endings really bother me, but when they are done well, as they were in this case, they just make the book stick with me.  Liar is going to stick with me for a long time.

If you’re up for an unreliable narrator and an ambiguous ending, this is a must-read.

Buy this book here and support this blog:
Powells.
A local independent bookstore via Indiebound.
Amazon.

It seems like every female book blogger around has decided to be part of the Women Unbound Reading Challenge (which has a whole lot of really cool buttons, by the way). I resisted for awhile, mostly because all of the levels required a nonfiction book, and I was afraid I’d end up reading a dry treatise of feminism that didn’t interest me.  However, when Michelle of 1MoreChapter posted her list of suggestions, one of the nonfiction books she mentioned was one I already own, so I gave in.

This challenge runs from November 1, 2009 to November 30, 2010. The idea is to read books that at least loosely relate to the idea of women’s studies.

I will be joining at the philogynist level, which requires reading at least two books, at least one of which is nonfiction. I have no idea what fiction I will read, probably something by Margaret Atwood, but I’m planning on “Wild Swans” by Jung Chang being my nonfiction pick.

Since I’m joining a little later than everyone else, I’m going to include the starting meme in this post:

1. What does feminism mean to you? Does it have to do with the work sphere? The social sphere? How you dress? How you act?

I would say that feminism is about making sure that one’s choices in life are not limited by gender.

2. Do you consider yourself a feminist? Why or why not?

I’m big into the idea of equality of opportunity for all people, not limited by gender, class, race, etc, so I’d say yes.

3. What do you consider the biggest obstacle women face in the world today? Has that obstacle changed over time, or does it basically remain the same?

The feminist movement of the ’60s and ’70s made some great strides, but because things have stagnated some since then, I think it has been harder for women to figure out their roles in society.  Women have approached equality with men in the workplace (although it is not there entirely), but most workplaces are still set up for the men to be the primary workers, along with women who do not have children.  The lack of paid maternity and paternity leave in the US is a huge problem, along with the failure of many workplaces to be flexible or help in the provision of adequate childcare.   In addition, our conceptions of gender roles in the home has not changed as far as I think many in the earlier waves of feminism would have thought.  Many women work full time yet still bear the brunt of childcare and childcare decisions, as well as housework.  I think most men today are better at helping out than their fathers or grandfathers were, but not enough to achieve real equality around the house when women are increasingly living their lives in the public, not private sphere.

I had a pretty good week last week, overall.  It was my birthday on Thursday and, since I don’t work on Thursdays, my husband took the day off and we took Daniel to the Brookfield Zoo.  We were not able to get the pass from our library for free admission as we had hoped – when I called the week before they told me that the pass would be available November 5th, but when we got there they said it wouldn’t be available until the 6th.  However, we decided to head to the zoo anyway and it turns out that from October 1 – December 31 admission is free on Tuesdays and Thursdays anyway.  Daniel didn’t pay much attention to the animals, but he had a great time anyway, going on a VERY  long walk with mommy AND daddy.

Daniel also went with me on Wednesday night to see Justine Larbalestier, author of “Liar,” sign books at Andersons in Downers Grove.  I did a write up of the event (along with a giveaway!) this week too.

This was also a pretty decent reading week, I managed to polish off four books:

“Where Men Win Glory” was an audio book, and “Liar” was definitely my favorite, although I really enjoyed “The Seance” too, not so much “The Private Papers of Eastern Jewel.”

I’m already nearly done with a book today, so I’m hoping for 5 books this week, or at least four print books, if I don’t get through my audio.