Teaser Tuesday (Apr 20)

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

My teaser this week is from West with the Night, byBeryl Markham. It is awesome. (It’s also my final book for the Women Unbound Challenge.)

The tease:

We were leaving the scene of our mutual discouragement when Arab Kosky’s curiousity overcame his natural caution. He bent down in front of the dark hole and the warthog came out. It was more like an explosion than an attack by a wild pig.

What’s your teaser?

Review: The Bean Trees

Barbara Kingsolver’s The Bean Trees has a lot of the same themes as her best known work, The Poisonwood Bible: family (and what makes one), culture shock, morality, and how outsiders are treated. Unlike PB, this is a quick read, less upsetting, but also a bit less impactful, at least to me.

Missy/Taylor Greer is brought up in rural Kentucky, and is determined to make her way out of it someday. She stays in school, avoids getting pregnant (apparently half of her female class ends up dropping out of school because of pregnancy), and even gets a job at a hospital. After buying a car and saying goodbye to her loving, fantastic mother (seriously, loved her!), she takes off for the mountains of the west. And along the way, picks up the one thing she told herself she never wanted: a child. Taylor and Turtle, the silent American Indian girl she’s now caring for, make their way to Tucson and make a family for themselves among a cast of eclectic, warm characters.

Almost despite myself, I really liked everyone in the book. Taylor is so naive as to be almost childlike, and like a child, she expresses wonder and acceptance of all the good she’s shown. Mattie, garage owner and an immigrants-rights advocate (well, more than advocate…) was straight-up awesome. Lou Ann had me laughing, and even reminded me a bit of my own mother. Again, Kingsolver proves that she just writes great, strong, funny, well-rounded female characters that you’d be happy to call your friends.

The one thing I couldn’t get over–and perhaps this is a limitation on my part, as a reader–was how differently I would have handled everything from Taylor. Her way made for much more interesting reading, I’m sure, but it stretched my suspension of disbelief that a) a woman tells you to take a baby and b) you DO, without demanding answers or checking over the baby to see if it’s injured or anything. It’s what the whole novel is built on, and it was pretty shaky ground for me.

Otherwise, though, I did love the characters themselves, and the themes that families can be made, not born. Taylor’s relationship with Turtle was really moving, as a mother and daughter who sort of fell into one anothers’ lives and ended up being exactly what the other needed. Estevan and Esperanza’s side story was also handled sensitively and interestingly, and gave the book an added dimension that I wasn’t expecting–immigration and morality.

Overall it’s interesting to see how her writing and story-telling has matured, from The Bean Trees all the way to Prodigal Summer. I would recommend it to fans of Kingsolver and women’s lit, definitely.

This is my final fiction read for the Women Unbound Challenge. One nonfiction left to go before I reach the Bluestocking level!

Bookwanderer Rating: Three and a half stars

Bookwanderer Tagline: Taylor and Turtle make two!

Review: The Commoner

I’ve always found Japan’s history and culture extremely interesting, so when I stumbled across The Commoner, the tale of an  ordinary girl becoming Empress of Japan by John Burnham Schwartz, I was immediately set on reading it. I’m glad I did–I enjoyed it, though that doesn’t mean I didn’t have some issues with it.

Based on the real Empress of Japan, Michiko, the novel details the life of the first commoner to marry into the Japanese imperial family. In the fictionalized version presented, her name is Haruko Tsuneyasu, and she takes us through her life growing up in post-WWII Japan, becoming a young woman, and eventually marrying the Crown Prince of Japan, against the advice of her father.

Learning about the secretive, tradition-bound world of the Japanese royal family was really intriguing. Haruko is the perfect narrator, as she too is learning about these rules for the first time. It was easy to see how stifling the court rituals were, and therefore not surprising to see Haruko begin to wither away. Until relatively recently in Japan, the Emperor and his family were worshiped as descendants of the gods. On the surface, that sounds great–you’ve got servants at your beck and call, live in the royal palace, don’t have to work, etc, etc. But where The Commoner really shines is showing how being perceived as gods is actually an awful burden. Besides coping with the endless rules (always enter the room behind the Prince, never speak before he does), Haruko is nearly robbed of her humanity. Becoming the Crown Princess changes her relationship with her parents, introducing stiff formality and distance between them all. Haruko is barely allowed to see her son–nurses feed and change him, and only hand him off during prearranged visits. She has no real friends in the palace, no one she can trust or talk to. It’s heart-breaking to read.

Schwartz does an admirable job writing from the voice of Haruko. She is dedicated to her loving parents, but headstrong and her own person; her voice, though traditional in style and prose, shows just how deeply the strict rules of the court affect her, and how much, in her own small ways, she challenges them. (Also, though it’s not a large part of the book, I really related to the parts where Haruko described her aimlessness after graduating school without knowing what she truly wanted to do with her life.)

One thing I would have liked more of were the “middle years” of Haruko’s life; the book covers her early life as Crown Princess very well, and her later years as Empress, but completely cuts out her life from her late 20s to late 40s. I may have just read it too quickly, but despite the lingering treatment Schwartz uses on Haruko’s post-college and early Princess years, the book felt very short. (And to some, the ending might seem straight-up wish fulfillment, but I didn’t care–I was cheering for Haruko and Keiko to pull it off the entire time.) I also felt that the book was a little weaker in the second half, once the excitement and then dread of Haruko’s marriage wore off, but it did still keep me reading.

It’s overall an interesting, worthwhile read, especially for those who are interested in getting a glimpse behind the scenes of Japan’s royal family–and learning about the women who suffered under, and eventually changed, the system.

This book counts towards the Women Unbound Challenge.

Bookwanderer Rating: Three and a half/four stars

Bookwanderer Tagline: A sad but ultimately hopeful look at the world of the Chrysanthemum Throne.

Second Opinons:
Breaking the Fourth Wall
Book Reporter

Review: The Boys of My Youth

“Oh God,” I thought while reading the first story or two in Jo Ann Beard’s The Boys of My Youth. “I’m not liking this. I’m going to have to write ANOTHER negative review about a memoir! People are going to think I’ve got it in for memoirs!”

I am so, so glad I kept reading. The Boys of My Youth is actually a fantastic collection of creative non-fiction focused on Beard’s childhood in the Midwest, her relationships with her parents, siblings, and friends, and her tumultuous marriage. I feel like it’s somewhat misnamed; “The Boys of My Youth” is one specific story in the collection, not really the theme of ALL of the pieces. I’d say it focuses much more intimately on Beard’s family and female friends, and it’s pretty affirming.

The stories range in subject and length from the short, “Against the Grain,” about living with a perfectionist, to the long, titular story, that highlights how the relationship between Beard and her childhood friend Elizabeth has changed–and, more importantly, remained the same. That one especially is cute and cutting at the same time, as it depicts the ways the two friends support each other through divorces, while at the same time flashing back to when they were girls playing pranks on the boys in their neighborhood.

They all have, for the most part, a slow, sad sort of air about them, with little bursts of humor (yes, real humor!). “The Family Hour” is about Beard’s parents’ rocky relationship, due to her father’s alcoholism. ”Waiting” is about Beard and her sister choosing their mother’s coffin, and the last days of her life.  ”Out There” is about Beard’s frightening run-in on with a trucker on an abandoned road. So the majority of these diverse stories are upsetting, yes, but also SUPER good. I felt like a got a really good feel for the kind of person Beard is, too, and I LIKED her.

One of my personal favorite stories, “The Fourth State of Matter,” is ostensibly about the slow, graceless decline of a pet dog and the end of Beard’s marriage–and then the main conflict comes at you out of nowhere and leaves you, like Beard in the story, a shaking mess. If you only read one story in this collection (and why would you do that??), make it that one. A million stars.

Interestingly, my least favorite stories of the collection were the most experimental: “Coyotes” was a sappy chore to read. (I can appreciate what she was doing and how she was using form and tone, but I don’t have to like it. And I LIKE nature writing!) “Behind the Screen” and “Bonanza,” the former about watching fireworks with her family and the latter about her grandparents, were two of the weaker stories, I felt. There was a shift in tone, a sense of trying too hard, or something else that I can’t quite pinpoint, but it definitely affected my enjoyment of those stories.

Overall, though, this was a thoughtful, enjoyable read that should appeal to even those who think they don’t like memoirs. Her tone is serious and funny where it needs to be, and she’s a talented writer with a well-developed sense of pace and plot. I especially liked the fact that the most defining characters in her life were the women: her mother, her cousin, her childhood best friend. All of these women supported her and shaped her in some way–made her stronger, really–and she regards them with a good mix of humor and honesty.

In my opinion, though, the collection is worth buying for “The Fourth State of Matter” and “The Boys of My Youth” alone.

This book counts as a non-fiction pick in the Women Unbound Challenge.

Bookwanderer Rating: Four stars

Bookwanderer Tagline: The boys (and girls!) of a Kansas childhood and tumultuous adulthood.

Second Opinions:
New York Times Book Review
Meat and Potatoes

Review: Fingersmith

YOU GUYS. This book is so good. Let me tell you how good this book is:

Recently, I had to get up very, very early to get on an Amtrak train. Like, 6 am early. I am really not a morning person, and on this particular morning I’d only gotten four hours sleep, so I was struggling. Once on the train, I had a choice: I could go back into warm, delightful sleep, OR I could keep reading Fingersmith, by Sarah Waters. And I chose to read.

A book has to be seriously good to make me choose it over sleep. It’s a testament to how gripping and well-plotted Fingersmith is that I did. No spoilers!

On its surface, Fingersmith is a Victorian thriller about an orphan, Sue Trinder, who plots with a fellow named Gentleman/Richard Rivers to trick lonely, also-orphaned Maud Lilly out of her fortune. Sue becomes Maud’s maid, in order to better persuade her to marry Gentleman, so they can get their hands on her money…and then get rid of her. Seems straightforward, doesn’t it? The twists and turns that the plot takes makes it SO much more, and turns a gothic drama into a sprawling tale filled with love and betrayal and huge secrets that you never saw coming. There are madhouses and villains and dead mothers and crossings and DOUBLE crossings and ack, my heart could hardly take it all.

Now, if you know anything about Sarah Waters, you know that she’s reknowned for her treatment of lesbian relationships. The emotionally-charged relationship that develops between Maud and Susan is handled deftly and with a light touch. I thought it was a thoughtful, sensitive exploration of a love that, due to the restrictive socio-sexual beliefs of the era, was not only looked down upon but was taboo, and actually considered a mental disease that could be cured. (Actually…that sounds sadly familiar). Fair warning for the faint-hearted or intolerant: Fingersmith does contain some (in my opinion, very innocuous and not gratuitous) sex.
 
Trying to avoid spoilers here, so let’s move on! Waters is a genius at creating atmosphere. You can pretty much FEEL the grit and smog of London accumulating on your clothes and making its way down into your lungs; the streets are confusing and crowded and threatening. The country manor Briar, on the other hand, is silent, cold, and dreary. Each place is stifling in a different way. (It actually reminded me very much of the atmosphere in the novel Housekeeping, by Marilynne Robinson, in terms of feeling the wet and cold coming right off the page.) And both places are by turns menacing, dull, and “home.”

Okay, I am stemming the flow of gushing now. Just…go read Fingersmith. Read it now!
 
This book counts towards the Women Unbound Challenge.

Bookwanderer Rating: Five out of five stars

Bookwanderer Tagline: Villains and lovers and schemers, oh my!

Second opinions:
A Striped Armchair
Booklust
books i done read
Caribousmom

The Women Unbound Challenge

Instead of a Friday Find this week…I’m joining another reading challenge! I’m trying to pace myself, since a) I’ve never done reading challenges before, b) I hate leaving things unfinished, and c) I’ve got a busy job/life.

But…I’m really excited about this one, which I found on A Striped Armchair. I argued with myself and finally decided to go for it and join the Women Unbound Challenge. According to the challenge blog:

Participants are encouraged to read nonfiction and fiction books related to the rather broad idea of ‘women’s studies.’ The definition according to Merriam-Webster is “the multidisciplinary study of the social status and societal contributions of women and the relationship between power and gender.”

There are three levels of participation:

• Philogynist: read at least two books, including at least one nonfiction one.
• Bluestocking: read at least five books, including at least two nonfiction ones.
• Suffragette: read at least eight books, including at least three nonfiction ones

The Women Unbound Challenge runs from November 2009 to November 2010. If you want to get involved, head over to the challenge blog and sign up!

I’m going to aim for Bluestocking this time around. (Suffragette, maybe next year!) As for a possible reading list to complete the challenge, I’ve got:

• The Commoner, by John Burnam Schwartz: A fictional account of a woman who becomes the first commoner to marry into the Japanese royal family, whose “freedom and ambition suffer under the stifling rituals of court life.” Bonus: it’s based on the real life of Empress Michiko of Japan.
• Fingersmith, by Sarah Waters:  A gothic novel about the intertwined lives of two orphan girls and the misfortunes that they participate in, with more twists and turns than a maze. I’m about 2/3 of the way through right now. SO GOOD.
• The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman: This was my Friday Find last week, a story about a woman locked in a tiny room after giving birth.
• Out, by Natsuo Kirino: The story of four female Japanese factory workers who become linked due to a crime, and the covering up of the crime. It’s been praised for its gritty portrayal of domestic Tokyo life.
• Year of Wonders, by Geraldine Brooks: A historical fiction novel about the lengths a small Derbyshire village goes to to keep a 17th-century plague from spreading. I’ve read that the female narrator has great inner strength while dealing with the deaths of her fellow villagers. 
• The Boys of My Youth, by Jo Ann Beard: A series of memoir-ish essays of growing up in the ’60s, and the author’s relationships with family, friends, and men.  
• Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, by Harriet Jacobs: One of the first personal narratives written by a slave in the United States during the late 1800s, and one of the only written by a woman. It features cruelty and subjugation, yes, but also kindness, justice, and above all, the strength and will of Harriet. A re-read for me, but a powerful one.
• Birding on Borrowed Time, by Phoebe Snetsinger: The true story of a woman who, after being diagnosed with malignant melanoma, decided to dedicate the rest of her life to birding and became one of the “big listers”–a birder who has seen and identified 7000+ species!
• Odd Girl Out, by Rachel Simmons: The author, a journalist, investigates the “hidden aggression” in girls and the ways they express it by interviewing 300 girls at 30 different schools.
• Sex with Kings, by Eleanor Herman: A history of royal mistresses and the power they wielded in Europe that serves as an account ”of the “art and science” of being a royal mistress.” 

This is a tentative list; I still haven’t quite decided what to read. What are some feminist fiction and non-fiction books that I’ve missed or ones that you love?  Leave a comment and let me know!