Okay, class, please turn in your summer book reports...
I know that I'm an English dork when I sort of wish I had been assigned a sort of book report to do this summer on a few books I'd read during my blissful ten weeks of freedom, unhinged from the pressure-block of Shakespeare outlines due, of Canterbury Tales papers, etc. So I'm going to do just that:
An Impromptu Summer Book Report Of Two Very Important Books
1) The Bean Trees
I must sound like a broken record by now, always spewing out Barbara Kingsolver recommendations. But I was in a bit of a funk, and I decided to read this book again. And let-me-tell-you! It gets you every time. I laughed (I chuckled out loud-- I'm serious). I cried, and this I'm serious about too. And I'm long gone from my period, so it wasn't emotional instability or anyting. This book is just really good.
It's an intriguing story about immigrants, how lucky you are, the power of nature and what love really means. I finish it, and I feel inspired, moved, and in awe. It's not trash, a la Gossip Girl, but it's just as--make that more-- enjoyable.
The experience of reading it, with Dar and the Indigo Girls humming folky love in my ear in the background really does make for just that-- and experience. I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw, lo and behold, the geniuses over at Sparknotes had gotten a hold of my favorite book (although, they've done Harry Potter, I don't know why I'm surprised). If you use the site as a tool, as I did with a sneaky smile and a fascinated air just now, then fine, it's a cool resource. But the thought of a lazy teen with The Bean Trees for "Summer Reading" logging on to SparkNotes, cracking her gum and twirling her over-straightened hair pains me. That's a good experience you're throwing away right there, missy.
Please read this book.
Please.
2) The Feminine Mystique
Considering my userinfo, which contains a plethora of women's rights and feminism-esque Interests, you'd think I'd have already read this. It should have been required reading on Day 1 of Women's Studies Club at WHS. This book, from page one, was extraordinary. Hell, it IS extraordinary. What she says, really, no offense, is not too mind-boggling, it's not brain-science:
Women are people. Women have to realize their full self-potential. To have an identity not as somebody's mother or so-and-so's wife, but as yourself. You can't just stop when the wedding band goes on, you have to keep learning and living. You need to balance career (which, as Ms. Friedan says, is a "dirty, dirty word") and family. You need to make time for yourself. You need to live your OWN life, not that of your son's or husband's.
She goes into a lot of detail, investigating everything from marketing campaigns of pie-mixes to sex-lives and orgasms. I'd recommend, for most people who may not have time to hunker down with a relatively thick, small-fonted nonfiction book (that, yes, can get repetitive), to read the first hundred pages and the last chapter of the book. Those first few chapters pulled me in, and, like a little girl in the Barbie aisle, captivated me. I was honestly dog-ear-ing pages to remember the fascination and the power I felt.
That's all. Class dismissed.
An Impromptu Summer Book Report Of Two Very Important Books
1) The Bean Trees
I must sound like a broken record by now, always spewing out Barbara Kingsolver recommendations. But I was in a bit of a funk, and I decided to read this book again. And let-me-tell-you! It gets you every time. I laughed (I chuckled out loud-- I'm serious). I cried, and this I'm serious about too. And I'm long gone from my period, so it wasn't emotional instability or anyting. This book is just really good.
It's an intriguing story about immigrants, how lucky you are, the power of nature and what love really means. I finish it, and I feel inspired, moved, and in awe. It's not trash, a la Gossip Girl, but it's just as--make that more-- enjoyable.
The experience of reading it, with Dar and the Indigo Girls humming folky love in my ear in the background really does make for just that-- and experience. I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw, lo and behold, the geniuses over at Sparknotes had gotten a hold of my favorite book (although, they've done Harry Potter, I don't know why I'm surprised). If you use the site as a tool, as I did with a sneaky smile and a fascinated air just now, then fine, it's a cool resource. But the thought of a lazy teen with The Bean Trees for "Summer Reading" logging on to SparkNotes, cracking her gum and twirling her over-straightened hair pains me. That's a good experience you're throwing away right there, missy.
Please read this book.
Please.
2) The Feminine Mystique
Considering my userinfo, which contains a plethora of women's rights and feminism-esque Interests, you'd think I'd have already read this. It should have been required reading on Day 1 of Women's Studies Club at WHS. This book, from page one, was extraordinary. Hell, it IS extraordinary. What she says, really, no offense, is not too mind-boggling, it's not brain-science:
Women are people. Women have to realize their full self-potential. To have an identity not as somebody's mother or so-and-so's wife, but as yourself. You can't just stop when the wedding band goes on, you have to keep learning and living. You need to balance career (which, as Ms. Friedan says, is a "dirty, dirty word") and family. You need to make time for yourself. You need to live your OWN life, not that of your son's or husband's.
She goes into a lot of detail, investigating everything from marketing campaigns of pie-mixes to sex-lives and orgasms. I'd recommend, for most people who may not have time to hunker down with a relatively thick, small-fonted nonfiction book (that, yes, can get repetitive), to read the first hundred pages and the last chapter of the book. Those first few chapters pulled me in, and, like a little girl in the Barbie aisle, captivated me. I was honestly dog-ear-ing pages to remember the fascination and the power I felt.
That's all. Class dismissed.