tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-58835759800862121462024-03-13T06:09:38.297-05:00 Smoke & MirrorsHi! I'm Lynn and this is a forum to share my interpretations of books, music, or to comment on life in general. I hope those who visit will leave comments to create a true discussion. Rather than summarize books, I provide my personal reactions to what I've read: how it connects to my life and/or me personally. Having been indisposed in 2017, I am trying to get back in the blogging game, starting with Literary Wives (January 2018), Book Challenge by Erin 8.0, and 24in48Readathon January 2018.Lynn @ Smoke & Mirrorshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00464153596817995684noreply@blogger.comBlogger269125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5883575980086212146.post-62739992267815022602022-03-07T13:35:00.006-06:002022-03-15T14:07:06.980-05:00Literary Wives #51<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: x-large;"><b><i> I'm Fine and Neither Are You<br /></i></b></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: x-large;"><b>Camille Pagan</b></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: x-large;"><b><br /></b></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: x-large;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiIr_40IzPg55JWjJKlFbp9SmRLp2ck8wCr4_kS-b-RbHp43tnK_XasBPrEGJq-PlV_VNfHGWJz1jYindLy2gd9AYh5RSBRCs0b2jfxe_8_yd84kY3x8c_L5NlrvQvatIn10RtJSDgyUuhzVMkcpU0Hw9n0JwZ1HiY-xTrVtMkNdrdWEnWq2Qv7i60j=s318" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="318" data-original-width="318" height="318" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiIr_40IzPg55JWjJKlFbp9SmRLp2ck8wCr4_kS-b-RbHp43tnK_XasBPrEGJq-PlV_VNfHGWJz1jYindLy2gd9AYh5RSBRCs0b2jfxe_8_yd84kY3x8c_L5NlrvQvatIn10RtJSDgyUuhzVMkcpU0Hw9n0JwZ1HiY-xTrVtMkNdrdWEnWq2Qv7i60j" width="318" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></div></span><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;">This is the 51st book read and reviewed for the <a href="https://books-n-music.blogspot.com/p/blog-page.html">Literary Wives</a> online book discussion group! </span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Check us out on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/literarywivesblogseries">Facebook</a> and Twitter #LiteraryWives!</span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></div><div><span><div style="text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="color: #990000; text-align: left;">The Literary Wives virtual book club "meets" every third month/once per quarter </span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="color: #990000; text-align: left;">to discuss a book </span><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="color: #990000; text-align: left;">with the word "wife" or "wives" in the title <b>or</b> </span><br /><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="color: #990000; text-align: left;">a book that discusses marriage but whose title lacks either of these words. </span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="color: #990000; text-align: left;">We are particularly interested in the way(s) in which wives are portrayed in literature. </span><br /><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="color: #990000; text-align: left;">We try to answer this question:</span><br /><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="color: #990000; text-align: left;"><br /></span></span></div></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><b style="color: #990000;"><span style="font-size: medium;">What does this book say about wives </span></b></span></span></div><div><span><span style="font-family: arial;"><b style="color: #990000;"><span style="font-size: medium;">or about the experience of being a wife?</span></b><br /></span><div style="text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: arial;">Each of us extends our discussion into more specific areas we can </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: arial;">personally relate to which makes for enlightening comparisons!</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: arial;">We read books across genres and hope to generate discussion about each title.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-N35AVag3y08/YDxaIEqBO0I/AAAAAAAAHZw/DmQeq2SNgmY-fg8NiNL1eozDOr9qZaiQwCLcBGAsYHQ/s190/Literary%2BWives.jpg" style="clear: left; display: inline; float: left; font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><img border="0" data-original-height="190" data-original-width="152" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-N35AVag3y08/YDxaIEqBO0I/AAAAAAAAHZw/DmQeq2SNgmY-fg8NiNL1eozDOr9qZaiQwCLcBGAsYHQ/s0/Literary%2BWives.jpg" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b style="color: #990000; font-family: arial;">And...YOU can join us! </b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: arial;"><b>That's right!</b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: arial;"><b>Literary Wives Has Openings! </b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: arial;">Some members have recently resigned and we will miss them!</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: arial;">We are anxious to recruit a few new members into the club!</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: arial;">If you are interested in becoming one of those, </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: arial;">please let us know!</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: arial;">You can comment here </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: arial;">or on one of the other cohost's blogs (listed below)</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: arial;">to inform us of your interest:</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: arial;"><b>Noami</b> of <a href="https://consumedbyink.ca/" target="_blank">Consumed by Ink</a></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: arial;"><b> Kay</b> of <a href="https://whatmeread.wordpress.com/" target="_blank">WHATMEREAD</a></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: arial;"><b>You might ask...</b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: arial;"><b>What Does Literary Wives Membership Involve?</b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: arial;">You only need to be a reader interested in </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: arial;">discussing how literature depicts wives and marriage.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: arial;">We read and review four books per year. </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: arial;">You would need to post a review on your blog on </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: arial;">the first Monday of </span><span style="color: #990000; font-family: arial;">March, June, September, and December.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: arial;">That's it! </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: arial;"><b>And NOW is the time!</b> </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: arial;">Our next book review isn't until June 6, 2022,</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: arial;">and we are just beginning the book selection process for the next two years!</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: arial;">You would begin by reviewing our listing of books to be considered, </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: arial;">then voting for your favorites to help compile a listing of the 8 top vote-getters!</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: arial;">This process is set to begin once we have some new members!</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><b>We wish to expand the Literary Wives club and hope you will join us! </b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span><div style="color: black; font-family: helvetica; text-align: center;">And now on to my review of<i> I'm Fine and Neither Are You</i>! </div><div style="color: black; font-family: helvetica; text-align: left;">As is typical for me, I knew little to nothing about this book before reading it. And I was blown away! I found it to be a very compelling read and as noted in my Goodreads review, found it to be the most realistic book I've read regarding marriage and was thrilled there was no depiction of yet another man/husband who refused to remain faithful to his wife/partner! (My disclaimer: I do not believe "marriage" or any other long-term relationship must include only one "male" and one "female." Any combination makes a couple, in my opinion! But for this discussion we are concentrating on this marriage between Penelope and Sanjay.)</div><div style="color: black; font-family: helvetica; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: helvetica; text-align: left;">I appreciated the fact that although these two people were from diverse backgrounds that aspect of their lives together was not emphasized. Pag<span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; text-align: center;">á</span>n just wrote about this couple, noting Sanjay's Indian parents and background, but not making that the core of their story or relationship together. I felt this leant a more relatable and realistic emphasis on their marriage.</div><div style="font-family: helvetica; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: helvetica; text-align: left;">Penelope and Sanjay have two children, the younger, Miles at 6 years old, and the elder, Stevie (named for Sanjay's musical hero Stevie Ray Vaughn) at nearly 8 years of age. They have been married 11 years and stress is starting to erode their marriage relationship... At least for Penelope, the stress is becoming unbearable as she is the adult responsible for everything: making sure they have toilet paper in the house as well as all other groceries, planning and preparing all meals, doing laundry, scheduling household repairs, coordinating their children's schedules and transportation, and earning the only consistently reliable income to support them all... Too much. Way too much... I should know. This was my life at 10 years of marriage as well. I could definitely relate to Penelope's feeling that she "wanted out" of this marriage. I could remember the same feeling...</div><div style="font-family: helvetica; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: helvetica; text-align: left;">Sanjay and Penelope met while working and living in New York and then after knowing each other for 10 years and having been together for 7 of those years. When Stevie was 6 months old, they are moving to the midwestern US so Sanjay can attend medical school. Penelope was reticent about his plan, feeling Sanjay was pursuing a medical career to please his parents rather than pursuing what truly interested him...which was writing and music. Writing about music, actually! </div><div style="font-family: helvetica; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: helvetica; text-align: left;">They move and Penny begins working full-time in development for this midwestern university, making just enough to support her family, which now includes not one, but two children. Sanjay quit medical school after the first year and became a stay-at-home parent, though he accomplished little more in a day's time than caring for the children--no cleaning or laundry, etc., which still fell to Penny to do. Thank goodness she has a best friend, Jenny, whose presence makes it bearable for Penny to keep doing the day-to-day routine drudgery of work, kids, laundry, dishes, sleep, repeat... Though Penny discovers there is much about Jenny that she did not know...</div><div style="font-family: helvetica; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: helvetica; text-align: left;">Jenny's marriage and life appeared to be "pristine" in all ways, though the reality of her life was much different. Jenny suffered with endometriosis, requiring pain relievers. She was addicted to opioids. She and her husband, Matt, avoided each other as much as possible--their relationship was distant and flawed, at best. He chose to travel for his job at every opportunity and she immersed herself in an extremely successful blogging life. They had one child, Cecily, who was within two months of Miles' age. As is typical for most any survivors of a loved one's downfall, both Matt and Penny keep thinking of the "what-ifs" regarding Jenny's demise...what if they had done this differently or said this instead of that in the past and saved Jenny? I believe it is only natural to have such thoughts.</div><div style="font-family: helvetica; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: helvetica; text-align: left;">In the wake of Penelope's discoveries of Jenny's 'behind the scenes' traumatic life, she decides that she must change her life so she can be less stressed out and happier or at least more relaxed and comfortable day in and day out with her family, work, and very little to no leisure time. <span style="font-family: arial;">Jenny's last text message to Penny read</span></div><div style="font-family: helvetica; text-align: center;"><i style="font-family: times;"><b>If you're not happy, make a change</b>. </i><span style="font-family: times;">(80)</span></div><div style="font-family: helvetica; text-align: left;">Penny realizes that although Jenny can no longer do this, she can. Sanjay agrees to her solution: each of them will present the other with a listing of three things they want the other to change about themselves in order to restore their marriage to a better place and make a more enjoyable, happier, home life for all four of them. And, the main caveat is that they must each be honest with the other person. Totally honest. As Sanjay states,</div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;"><b><i>To be honest with you, Penny, I worry that too much honesty might be a bad idea.</i> </b>(91)</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">I admit to nodding my head in agreement as I read that sentence. After two 20+-year relationships I would agree that not every single thing needs to be honestly communicated to the other person at all times...</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: helvetica; text-align: left;">As Penelope thinks,</div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;"><i><b>There was a reason that instead of daydreaming about my husband taking me passionately </b></i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;"><i><b>against a wall, I fantasized about replacing him with a wife.</b> </i>(61)</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Let's just say that Sanjay was not keeping up with his role as the "stay-at-home parent" in many ways. Penelope was still doing all the housework, paying all the bills, doing all the grocery shopping and meal planning, etc. He was there for the children, but that was about it. She wants him to start doing more around the house, etc., since she is the only one working full-time outside the home. He readily agrees and follows through. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">He wants more sex. Admittedly, when Penelope thinks about it, they are rarely having sex/making love any more. And she realizes she misses it as well, though being stressed out every day and bone tired every night makes it difficult for her to even imagine it. But she does start trying...</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Penny's second request of Sanjay is that he start making more financial contributions to the family, i.e. he get a job. Even a part-time job that would allow him more time to write would be a help. Fortunately, he immediately agrees that he has been "coasting" way too long and the financial burden and stress all falls unfairly on Penny. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Penny's third request is that Sanjay actually "be there" when he "is there." Rather than not listening to and participating in family conversations/interactions, he should be an active participant. For her and the children, rather than looking at his phone or staring out the window, he should actively listen. Though this is a bit more difficult for Sanjay to envision, he eventually realizes she is correct, and adjusts accordingly. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Sanjay's second request of Penny is to be more honest and quit trying to look as if she is "just fine" and nothing is wrong <b>all</b> the time. Of course, once she decides to finally stand up to the obnoxious 'barge in your house at any time' neighbor, Lorrie, is the one time her daughter, Olive, is with her and unfortunately, Penny yells at her,</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;"><b><i>"I'm going to need you to knock before coming into our house...</i></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;"><b><i>And when you knock, you are going to wait until Sanjay or I answers and asks you to enter. </i></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">You cannot keep walking in like you live here, because it's terrifying. Okay?" </i>(161)</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">And then,</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;"><b><i>[Olive] stood in front of me, teeth bared. "You're a mean lady!" she spat. "Mean!" </i></b></span><span style="font-family: times;">(161)</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">After which Sanjay admits that maybe this wasn't exactly what he meant about being more honest... :)</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">In the end, this marriage is definitely strengthened though there were a few hitches along the way: Penny somewhat alienating Matt and Cecily due to her honest advocacy for Cecily's well-being, and Penny agonizing over Sanjay's confession that he quit the band due to an uncomfortable interest that one of his band mates, Christina (a female), appeared to have taken in him. Penny and Sanjay spend four days back in New York together and this helps them overcome some of the rigid routine of their married life once they return to the Midwest. Sanjay gets a full-time job and a literary agent, and he and Penelope are tackling life head-on as true partners. And, Sanjay helps reunite Penny with her estranged father as he begins battling stomach cancer. Since her mother had abandoned her family when Penny was young, her father had to be a single parent and his way of handling that was to travel all the time for work while Penny cared for her younger brother, Nick. This is one big reason Penny feels bound to advocate for Cecily in the wake of her mother's death. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Pag</span><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: 12pt; text-align: center;">á</span><span style="font-family: helvetica;">n seems to advocate for a "wife" who is real and honest about her needs and desires. Though this does require a "husband" willing to listen and change. And for the "wife" to also listen and change. It should be compromise on both sides. I often used to tell my ex-husband that we needed to work on our relationship/marriage as the children grew up so that we would have a healthy relationship once we were empty-nesters. Little did I know he had no intention of remaining in a relationship with me, but I could definitely relate to Penelope's plight and I was very glad that Sanjay truly loved and respected her and was also willing to work on their relationship/marriage! </span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">I will definitely plan to read more of </span><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Pag</span><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: 12pt; text-align: center;">á</span><span style="font-family: helvetica;">n's writing. As a matter of fact, I would appreciate at least a sequel to this book. It would be interesting to see where Penelope and Sanjay end up after this...</span><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Literary Wives will return on June 6th with another review! Join us! </span></div></span></div></div></span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Please check out the other co-hosts' reviews:</span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></div><div><div><span style="color: #990000; font-family: arial;"><b>Noami</b> of <a href="https://consumedbyink.ca/" target="_blank">Consumed by Ink</a></span></div><div><span style="color: #990000; font-family: arial;"><b>Kay</b> of <a href="https://whatmeread.wordpress.com/" target="_blank">WHATMEREAD</a></span></div></div><div><br /></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">Happy reading!</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">~Lynn</span></div></div>Lynn @ Smoke & Mirrorshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00464153596817995684noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5883575980086212146.post-62306903165415327652021-02-28T23:58:00.011-06:002021-03-09T11:25:15.062-06:00Literary Wives #47<p style="text-align: center;"> <span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: x-large;"><i><a href="https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Every-Note-Played/Lisa-Genova/9781476717814" target="_blank">Every Note Played</a></i> <span>by Lisa Genova</span></span></p><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">This is the 47th book read and reviewed for the <a href="https://books-n-music.blogspot.com/p/blog-page.html">Literary Wives</a> online book discussion group! </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Check us out on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/literarywivesblogseries">Facebook</a> and Twitter #LiteraryWives!</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">I have been totally out of it with regard to Literary Wives for quite some time now, </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">but am determined to get back into this group on a regular basis. </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">I have been reading the books but never getting a review posted.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">As you can tell, I have neglected my blog for a very long time now. </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">I also hope to remedy that and return to posting reviews much more routinely.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-N35AVag3y08/YDxaIEqBO0I/AAAAAAAAHZw/DmQeq2SNgmY-fg8NiNL1eozDOr9qZaiQwCLcBGAsYHQ/s190/Literary%2BWives.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="190" data-original-width="152" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-N35AVag3y08/YDxaIEqBO0I/AAAAAAAAHZw/DmQeq2SNgmY-fg8NiNL1eozDOr9qZaiQwCLcBGAsYHQ/s0/Literary%2BWives.jpg" /></a></div><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Please check out the other co-hosts' reviews:</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><div><div><div style="text-align: center;"><span face=""helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">Naomi of</span><span face=""helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"> <a href="https://consumedbyink.ca/2021/03/01/literarywives-every-note-played-by-lisa-genova/" target="_blank">Consumed by Ink</a></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><span face=""helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><div style="text-align: center;"><span face=""helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">Kay of</span><span face=""helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"> <a href="https://whatmeread.wordpress.com/2021/03/01/review-1622-literary-wives-every-note-played/" target="_blank">whatmeread</a></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span><span face=""helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">Eva of </span><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><a href="https://thepaperbprincess.wordpress.com/2021/03/01/literarywives-every-note-played/" target="_blank">The Paperback Princess</a></span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span><br /></span></div></div></span></div><div style="text-align: right;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Lisa Genova is one of my all-time favorite authors and I have now </span><span style="font-family: helvetica;">read all five of her books.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">I can highly recommend each and every one of them. </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Each book features a character enduring a neurological disease. </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">In this book we meet Richard, a professional pianist diagnosed with ALS and we learn of the changes to his physical body as well as his distressed mental health. </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">But there is so much more than that included in Genova's books. </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Her characters are complex and realistic and she includes many more issues than just the main character's diagnoses and physical/mental decline. </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">With all of this, Genova's humor comes through to relieve any depressive edge.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Richard Evans first encounters Karina in Sherman Leiper's Techniques class at Curtis. It takes all semester before he finally has the courage to speak to her. He is enamored with her Polish accent. Karina was born in Zabrze, Poland and emigrated to the United States by herself before she was even 20 years old. Her piano teacher, Mr. Borowitz, taught all his students to play Chopin:</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">In Poland, Chopin is as revered as Pop John Paul II and God. Poland's Holy Trinity </i>(p 9)</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">That did make me laugh! Karina lost no time in leaving home because she was determined to not have the same life as her mother--remaining in Zabrze, married to a coal miner, and trying to raise <b>five</b> children. As she states,</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">Raised under Russian oppression, she'd seen more than a lifetime's worth of weeping </i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">before she could tie her own shoes. </i>(p 119)</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">While Richard is a well-known virtuoso worldwide, Karina gives piano lessons in her living room. Most of her students take piano lessons so they can add "plays piano" to their college applications. None of them are serious enough (nor evidently skilled enough) to pursue piano beyond high school. Eventually we learn that Karina actually outshone Richard when they were students. </span><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Her piano playing was much more emotive than his.</span><span style="font-family: helvetica;"> B</span><span style="font-family: helvetica;">ut then Karina discovered and became enamored with jazz and began concentrating on that rather than classical music, enabling Richard to be the 'best' classical pianist at Curtis. Meanwhile, Richard accepts a faculty position at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, so they leave New York City where Karina was beginning to play jazz in local clubs. She finds upon landing in Boston that there is no such live jazz there as in New York, wondering if Richard was already aware of that fact... After just two years as a faculty member, Richard's musicianship jumps to a new/higher level--he is playing with emotion and 'feels' the music as never before. He begins playing concert tours around the world and allows Karina to relocate them wherever she would like. She selects a Boston suburb where she raises Grace, their sole child, basically as a single parent since Richard travels constantly. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Grace moves a thousand miles away for college and Grace is lonely. First, Richard leaves as their marriage dissolves and the divorce is finalized, and then her daughter.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;"><b><i>She's forty-five and divorced. Single. In Poland, she'd be considered a disgrace. </i></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;"><b><i>But she's been in America now for over half her life. </i></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;"><b><i>Her situation is common in this secular culture and imposes no shame. </i></b></span><b style="font-family: times;"><i>Yet, she feels ashamed. </i></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">You can take the girl out of Poland, but you can't take Poland out of the girl. </i>(p 15)</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">While attending a high school graduation party for one of her students she learns from a mutual friend that Richard has been diagnosed with ALS and canceled the rest of his current concert tour.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-E93PJCVKDF0/YDxoR1riY8I/AAAAAAAAHZ4/LmOvTVXoSo8m0XpttV8jtf9g2CsFuvMWgCLcBGAsYHQ/s278/Every%2BNote%2BPlayed%2BCvr%2BImage.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="278" data-original-width="182" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-E93PJCVKDF0/YDxoR1riY8I/AAAAAAAAHZ4/LmOvTVXoSo8m0XpttV8jtf9g2CsFuvMWgCLcBGAsYHQ/s0/Every%2BNote%2BPlayed%2BCvr%2BImage.jpg" /></a></div><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="color: #073763;">And now for that Literary Wives question:</span></div><div><span style="color: #073763;"><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><b>What does this book say about wives </b></span></span></div><div><span style="color: #073763;"><b>or about the experience of being a wife?</b></span><b style="color: #cc0000;"> </b></div></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #073763; font-family: helvetica;">I admired Karina's fortitude for suggesting and then following through with Richard's move back into 'their' house. She received the house free and clear in the divorce settlement and Richard moved to a fourth-floor walkup in an elite area complete with an exorbitant mortgage. Though she visited him upon learning of his diagnosis, to say the visit was a wasted effort is an understatement as it ends with her breaking a bottle of his expensive wine on the kitchen counter just before she walks out. </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #073763; font-family: times;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">Part of her believes she caused his illness, </i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #073763; font-family: times;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">even though she knows that such thinking is narcisistically absurd. How many times has she wished him dead? </i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #073763; font-family: times;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">Now he's dying, and she's a despicable, hellbound, horrible woman for ever wishing such a thing, and worse, for having derived sick pleasure from it. </i>(p 26)</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #073763; font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #073763; font-family: helvetica;">Eventually Richards ends up with three aides who care for him a total of 4 hours throughout each day. But he makes a rash decision one day to take a walk by himself once his arms are both paralyzed and hanging uselessly at his sides. Needless to say, he becomes very tired after just walking three blocks and sits on a park bench to rest. It is as he is trying to make it back home that the laxative administered to him that morning decides to work. He is desperate and uses his voice-activated cell phone to call his neighbors for help, neither of whom are home. When he decides to call the home healthcare company he inadvertently gets Karina, who just so happens to be in the city for a doctor's appointment and is only a mile or so away. It is in the aftermath of getting Richard cleaned up, etc., that she realizes he needs more care than he can afford since he can't work and he must sell his place for enough to cover the high mortgage he owes. It is then she realizes he must move "home" and she must care for him. His father nor either of his two brothers would or could take over his care, and unfortunately, his mother died when he was just 19 years old. In effect, she is "it." Karina makes room for him in the den. Though he doesn't particularly like the fact that the door to the den must be left open, </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #073763; font-family: times;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">...a lack of privacy traded for the ability to come and go without needing to call </i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #073763; font-family: times;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">for Karina to come and open the door. Like letting the dog out. </i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #073763; font-family: times;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">He's an animal in a cage. </i></span><i style="color: #073763; font-family: times; font-weight: bold;">A pig in a pen. An ex-husband in the old den. </i><span style="color: #073763; font-family: times;">(p 130)</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #073763; font-family: helvetica;">Again, I had to laugh!</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #073763; font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #073763; font-family: helvetica;">Richard was quite aware that moving Karina from New York to Boston would deprive her of further refining her jazz playing at live venues. </span><span style="color: #073763; font-family: helvetica;">But he did it anyway.</span><span style="color: #073763; font-family: helvetica;"> </span><span style="color: #073763; font-family: helvetica;">Turns out, he vehemently despises jazz music. He considers it to be "noise." In effect, as with so many of the books we've read and reviewed, the wife abandons her dream to follow the husband wherever he wants to go to pursue his dream. And then, Richard keeps having affairs with other women while on the road. Though he keeps referring to what Karina did to ruin their marriage, it isn't until almost the end of the book that we learn she had purposefully deceived him about having more children following Grace's birth. She had an IUD implanted and when she wanted to have it removed 10 years later, discovered the procedure would require surgery, so she had to confess to Richard about her decade-long deception. It wasn't just bad luck that she had never gotten pregnant, she had planned for no more children although he wanted more. (Of course he did! It's not as if he would be home to help raise them or anything!) </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #073763; font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #073763; font-family: helvetica;">In the wake of the divorce, and while he was married,</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #073763;"><span style="font-family: times;"><b style="font-style: italic;">Richard's relationships with women had about the same shelf life as a carton of milk. </b>(p 53)</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #073763; font-family: helvetica;">The one who stayed longest actually left not long after the ALS diagnosis. </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #073763;"><span style="font-family: times;"><b><i>To everyone's disappointment, he's never been able to love a woman the way he loves the piano. </i></b></span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #073763;"><span style="font-family: times;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">Not even Karina. </i>(p 53)</span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #073763; font-family: times;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">He loves women, appreciates them as much as any man, but ultimately they find themselves </i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #073763; font-family: times;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">achingly hungry with him. And he refuses to feed them. </i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #073763; font-family: times;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">His artistry for playing piano seduces them. His lack of artistry as a man is why they leave. </i>(p 54)</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #073763;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Richard even admits to his daughter, Grace, that he did chose the piano over her. Therefore, he spent little time with her and really doesn't know her, nor does she know him. </span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #073763; font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #073763; font-family: helvetica;">As chewing and swallowing become more difficult, ALS patients lose weight. His NP at the ALS clinic recommends "high-fat, high-density foods and liquids" to help stabilize his weight. He replies, "Everything my cardiologist recommends." Kathy then admits, "We're not going to worry about heart disease." Richard thinks to himself,</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #073763;"><span style="font-family: times;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">Right. A heart attack would be a blessing. </i>(p 59)</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #073763; font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #073763; font-family: helvetica;">Early on when Richard could still use his left hand, he held a note with the pedal and just listened to it until it was gone...</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #073763; font-family: times;"><b><i>Every note played is a life and death</i>. </b>(p 50)</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #073763; font-family: times;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #073763; font-family: helvetica;">Although Richard and Karina are initially in love, eventually, they each find ways to hurt the other throughout the years of their marriage. I believe such things can and do happen in some long-term relationships. </span><span style="color: #073763; font-family: helvetica;">(Probably more so than we know...) </span><span style="color: #073763; font-family: helvetica;">Resentment grows and actions are taken regardless of the other person's wishes or needs. I believe Karina would have been perfectly happy to remain in New York playing jazz and childless. It was totally unfair and selfish for Richard to knowingly move her to an area where she would have little to no opportunity to play jazz. He was imposing his own musical preferences upon her and ruining her chance at a successful career. Then he not only carries on affairs with other women while still married, but even leaves proof where he knows Karina can and probably will discover it. She's right, he is a "prick"! </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #073763; font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #073763; font-family: helvetica;">Once Grace is born Karina then makes sure she doesn't get pregnant again, while pretending to Richard that they're just unable to conceive... She didn't want to be stuck raising five children as he mother had done...</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #073763; font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #073763; font-family: helvetica;">Although it was not fair of Karina to keep the birth control a secret, IMO, Richard deceived her first and foremost by moving her away from the New York jazz scene and then defying his marriage vows by screwing around with other women. Neither of them is without fault, but I believe Richard is much more to blame for the alienation and eventual divorce. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #073763; font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #073763; font-family: helvetica;">Have you read this one? If so, what were your thoughts?</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #073763; font-family: helvetica;">Feel free to comment below!</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #073763; font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #073763; font-family: helvetica;">Join us on Monday, June 7th as we review </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #073763; font-family: helvetica;"><i><a href="https://www.suemillernovelist.com/monogamy" target="_blank">Monogamy</a></i> by Sue Miller</span></div><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-XdobEzEkiy0/YDyCVVYFmpI/AAAAAAAAHaA/wmxchVcDBC4b8SZGtMohM0GCnK65sB2pgCLcBGAsYHQ/s308/Monogamy%2BCover%2BImage.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="164" data-original-width="308" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-XdobEzEkiy0/YDyCVVYFmpI/AAAAAAAAHaA/wmxchVcDBC4b8SZGtMohM0GCnK65sB2pgCLcBGAsYHQ/s0/Monogamy%2BCover%2BImage.jpg" /></a></div></div><p></p>Lynn @ Smoke & Mirrorshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00464153596817995684noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5883575980086212146.post-5656611165614285402020-05-08T16:26:00.000-05:002020-05-26T10:00:33.118-05:00What is that building with the birdie sailing back and forth?<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #660000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><b><i>The Embassy of Cambodia</i> </b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #660000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>by Zadie Smith</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #660000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This is a 70-page novella <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2013/02/11/the-embassy-of-cambodia">published on the New Yorker website</a> in February, 2013. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #660000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It is available to read for free! </span></div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-dwZZ99a2XcU/XrWsOktAG_I/AAAAAAAAHKA/i50Cka-WEjg-w9rGOL4nzWWzOeFz7gRfwCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/The%2BEmbassy%2Bof%2BCambodia%2BCvr%2BImage.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1141" data-original-width="886" height="200" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-dwZZ99a2XcU/XrWsOktAG_I/AAAAAAAAHKA/i50Cka-WEjg-w9rGOL4nzWWzOeFz7gRfwCLcBGAsYHQ/s200/The%2BEmbassy%2Bof%2BCambodia%2BCvr%2BImage.jpg" width="155" /></a><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #660000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I have read <i>On Beauty</i> and <i>Swing Time</i> by Zadie Smith </span></div>
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<span style="color: #660000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">and was cnurious to read another of her books. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #660000;">I am honestly undecided about her writing. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #660000;">I enjoyed both <i>On Beauty</i> and <i>Swing Time</i>, </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #660000;">but I wouldn't consider either book as a "favorite read."</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #660000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Although I rarely read ebooks, </span></div>
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<span style="color: #660000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I felt this is short enough I could </span></div>
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<span style="color: #660000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">survive reading it in the digital format. :)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #660000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">And...it's free! :)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #660000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Fatou passes this building for the first time as she heads to the heated pool in the health center adjacent to the Embassy. This is, as far as most people are aware, the only embassy built in a suburb, Willesden, and not located in the center of the city. The people of Willesden being more "prosaic" than "poetic":</span></div>
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<span style="color: #660000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><i>I doubt there is a man or woman among us, for example, who--upon passing </i></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #660000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><i>the Embassy of Cambodia for the first time--did not immediately </i></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #660000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">think: 'genocide.'</i> (p 3)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #660000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This made me stop and consider, since that was one of the first words that crossed my mind... </span></div>
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<span style="color: #660000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">We learn that Fatou is a chambermaid who has taught herself to swim while at the Carib Beach Resort in Accra. No tourist ever ventured on the trash-covered beach at the Resort and employees were not allowed to use the hotel's pool. So Fatou rose and sank with the water's motion in the early morning hours each Sunday as she taught herself to swim in this "cold and treacherous sea." The only way she is able to enter the health center and swim in their pool is by using free guest passes stolen from her employer, the Derawals. But she can only do this on Mondays as both Mr. and Mrs. Derawal are both working on this one day each week. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #660000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Badminton is being played inside the embassy's high walls with only the shuttlecock visible as it arches over the net with each hit: "Pock, smash, Pock, smash." The only arrivals to the Embassy that Fatou has ever seen are white males with backpacks--no one who looks to be in the least "Cambodian." She assumes they are seeking visas. Although a basketball goal was newly visible above the Embassy's high wall, there never appeared to be anyone playing basketball--only the "Po</span><span style="color: #660000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">ck, smash, Pock, smash" of badminton play could be heard.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #660000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Fatou has confirmed her assumption that she is not actually a slave upon reading an abandoned article describing the life of a Sudanese girl kept in a rich man's London house as a slave. It was her father, not a kidnapper, who took her from the Ivory Coast to Accra in Ghana at age 16, where they both obtained work at the same hotel. From there he sent her to Libya then on to Italy at age 18. And although she has not seen her passport since her arrival, nor is she paid a wage by the Derawals since that money is retained by them as payment for her room and board while living there, she can come and go as she pleases. She is not restricted to the Derawal residence. For example, she meets a friend, Andrew, on Sunday mornings to attend church and he treats her to coffee and cake afterwards at a Tunisian cafe. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #660000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Andrew is educated and Fatou feels she can have "deep" discussions with him, unlike anyone else in her everyday life in London. One day they discuss the Holocaust versus the genocide in Rwanda, and the resulting worldwide knowledge. Fatou expresses her belief that Africans "have more pain" than other ethnicities in the world, e.g. the Chinese. They briefly discuss the Khmer Rouge policies in Cambodia--forcing all the New People (who live in cities) to move to the country and become "Old People." Andrew explained you would be killed for wearing glasses as that implied you "thought too much." </span></div>
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<span style="color: #660000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Following Fatou's baptism and conversion to Christianity, she realizes her daily life is still the same routine. She emphasizes that she can recognize the "Devil" in people, rather than concentrating on "God's love." We learn that a Russian raped her while working in a hotel, so she is not a virgin...</span></div>
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<span style="color: #660000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Fatou performs the Heimlich maneuver to save one of the four children in Derawal household from choking, and then is fired within the next day or two. For no apparent reason other than they need "a housekeeper who cleans properly," not a nanny, and she pays too much attention to the children. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #660000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Fatou calls Andrew, the only other person she knows in London, and he will meet her four hours later. They will sleep in shifts, etc., as she moves into his apartment. He assures her he respects her and it will all work out.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #660000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Fatou could speak English and some Italian, and was obviously more well-read than you might assume, considering her background. Though her life was obviously a very lonely one with no one but this Andrew to help her at all while in London. No mention was made of her father, so we assume he simply sent her to a place where he believed she could have a better future.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #660000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I am always so sad when parents feel they must separate themselves from their children to possibly provide a better life for the children. I just feel so grateful not to have ever been put in a similar situation, as a child or a parent...</span></div>
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<span style="color: #660000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I felt this story was at the very least poignant and bittersweet. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #660000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Perhaps Fatou is not technically a "slave" in the strictest sense of the word, </span></div>
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<span style="color: #660000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">but her life doesn't appear to be very different in many ways, at least to me.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #660000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Have you read this?</span></div>
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<span style="color: #660000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">What are your thoughts?</span></div>
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<span style="color: #660000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I don't believe Zadie Smith's writing is ever particularly 'cheery' or entertaining,</span></div>
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<span style="color: #660000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">but she does make me think and consider...</span></div>
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<span style="color: #660000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #660000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Happy reading!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #660000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">~Lynn</span></div>
Lynn @ Smoke & Mirrorshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00464153596817995684noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5883575980086212146.post-12577732472094416222020-04-29T12:51:00.001-05:002020-04-29T12:51:31.092-05:00The Return Journey by Maeve Binchy<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><i><a href="http://maevebinchy.com/project/the-return-journey/">The Return Journey</a></i> <span style="color: #274e13;">by Maeve Binchy</span></span></div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9hmNw-YdIyQ/XqioDeovcJI/AAAAAAAAHJo/LYuW7JpeaT8BPVp33_FwN23cV_2z1jYtwCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/The%2BReturn%2BJourney%2BCvr%2BImage.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="475" data-original-width="317" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9hmNw-YdIyQ/XqioDeovcJI/AAAAAAAAHJo/LYuW7JpeaT8BPVp33_FwN23cV_2z1jYtwCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/The%2BReturn%2BJourney%2BCvr%2BImage.jpg" width="213" /></a><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #274e13;">This book is one that has been in my house for years. </span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #274e13;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">It perfectly satisfied </span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">a prompt </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #274e13;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">for an April 2020 </span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">reading challenge, </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #274e13;">so I finally picked it up</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #274e13;">and read it! </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #274e13;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Maeve Binchy is one of my absolute favorite authors. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Although she died in 2012, </span></div>
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<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">I will be collecting and reading all books </span></div>
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<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">authored by her that I have not yet read...</span></div>
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<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">I mainly read for characterization, </span></div>
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<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">and in that respect, </span></div>
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<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">she is one of the masters!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">This is an absolutely delightful collection of short stories.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">In "The Return Journey" Gina travels to her mother's home country, where her mother has never visited after emigrated to the United States from Ireland. During that visit, Gina meets a man and decides to settle down in her mother's childhood hometown. History repeating itself...?</span></div>
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<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Ms. Grant and Mr. Green each manage to somehow pick up "The Wrong Suitcase" at the airport, each not realizing their error until opening the case in their possession. As they meet to exchange cases, they shake hands and simultaneously claim not to have read the other's papers...in unison...each then realizing the other was lying. :) Human nature! We are curious about each other, aren't we?</span></div>
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<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">"Miss Vogel's Vacation" is a lovely story about a woman who takes life as it comes...disappointments and all, retaining a positive attitude. In the end, she realizes she has had it much better than some whom she felt had cheated her out of a 'better' life. Good for Miss Vogel!</span><br />
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<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Shane and Moya in "Package Tour" believe themselves to be soul-mates... Until they plan to travel together and each of them is preparing to pack. Then differences arise that are seemingly insurmountable. They both wonder why this disparity couldn't have been discovered <b>before</b> they fell in love? Personally, I felt that if they did indeed love each other, they could have managed...but that's just me! :)</span><br />
<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">In "The Apprenticeship," both Florrie and Camilla manage to raise themselves to a much higher social status than that to which they were born. As Camilla is marrying an elite male, Florrie realizes that in their training to 'marry up' on the social ladder they have overlooked the concept of love in a relationship. She vows to incorporate this into her life as she searches for an acceptable spouse. Quite naturally, my thought is, "Uh-oh. That may prove to be the downfall of your training!" :)</span><br />
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<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Lena gets a lesson on "love" in "The Business Trip." She has managed to convince herself that she is "in love" with her boss. However, her aunt Maggie, feels otherwise and encourages her to use the opportunity of this time spent alone with Shay to learn more about him so she can determine (1) how well she truly knows him, and (2) whether he really is the person she believes him to be. Lena feels a sense of relief as she determines Shay is incompatible with her attitudes and behaviors...and anxiously anticipates arriving home to begin life anew after four years of devotion to a person she only thought she knew... Awwwww...</span><br />
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<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">"The Crossing" depicts an all-too-familiar occurrence of connecting intensely with a total stranger and then parting ways without ever exchange contact information or expecting to see the other person again. This is so true, isn't it? We often glean information and/or insights from strangers that prove to be very beneficial, yet, the other person never knows of their impact because we never communicate with them again after that initial meeting. Life can be very strange sometimes. :)</span><br />
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<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Paul the Purser gets a very good lesson in "implicit bias" when he becomes rather obsessed with a trio of passengers which includes the one male, Charlie, and "The Women in Hats," Bonnie and Charlotte. The woman he has already befriended on this voyage, Helen, informs him in no uncertain terms that while he believes others should willingly accept the fact that he is gay and is devoted to a male partner, he is unable to drop his own prejudice against overweight people, especially a "fat" female. This was very interesting. Helen tells him in no uncertain terms of his despicable behavior that has deeply offended her. But she refuses to divulge her connection to the issue. I just love Maeve Binchy's ability to write such simple yet powerful stories within only 18 pages.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">In all their "Excitement," Rose and Ted plans what appears to be a concrete immovable plan to have an overnight tryst, away from both of their respective spouses and families. However, both discover relatives at the same hotel where they have a reservation and end up with no more "excitement" than returning to their families without the extramarital sex they had planned to obtain. This was quite humorous! </span><br />
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<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">In "Holiday Weather" Frankie and Robert are planning their usual annual vacation together when plans are interrupted at the last minute--the destination is changed and Robert must work the whole week. This gives Frankie time to get to know Shane, the innkeeper better. She decides to stay in Ireland before the week ends... Robert is married. Interestingly, once chaos inserts itself into their plans, and neither of them is any longer in 'control' of their situation, previously unrevealed incompatible aspects of their personalities emerge...and the relationship ends. I suppose it is easy to maintain an extramarital affair when everything remains under your control, but if not, perhaps alter egoes show themselves...</span><br />
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<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Victor in "Victor and St. Valentine" is perhaps one of the last truly romantic males. He was raised in a household where Valentine's Day was intensely celebrated, but has learned as an adult, that the females he has known overall do not appreciate honest "Valentine" sentiments. Until as an electrician, he gets to know Mrs. Todd, one of his clients, very well and ends up offering to escort her to Australia to visit her granddaughter, Amy. It is Amy who gives Victor his first adult Valentine's gift and card, and I believe Victor may well end up in Australia permanently! :)</span><br />
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<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">In "Cross Lines" Martin and Kay demonstrate just how incorrect our first impressions can be until we actually speak with and get to know a person. They make assumptions about each other simply from visual input, then they actually have a conversation. Again, strangers meet and impart information/opinions, and then assume they will have no further contact. However, as each of them rides in separate taxis to their hotel, they are unknowingly headed to the same place and will most likely encounter each ot her again, very soon! </span><br />
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<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">In "A Holiday with Your Father" Rose fantasizes about the relationship between a younger female and older wheelchair-bound male she observes in the airport. She is immediately jealous as she assumes he woman is his daughter and they are traveling together by choice. She wants her father to travel with her. But when she broaches the subject with her own father yet again, he insists he still cannot do so, but perhaps once he is retired... And she finally agrees they could discuss it then. Rather poignant. And I was jealous! Having never had my biological father in my life, nor living with a stepfather, etc., I believe I have always fantasized a close father-daughter relationship and all that might entail. Though who knows? Perhaps I would have despised him in the end...but I will never know as he has been dead 20+ years. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Even if short stories aren't necessarily your thing, I can highly recommend this collection.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">They certainly worked well for me!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Happy reading!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">~Lynn</span></div>
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Lynn @ Smoke & Mirrorshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00464153596817995684noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5883575980086212146.post-80594130067098654792020-04-28T16:57:00.000-05:002020-04-29T14:02:18.433-05:00#MeToo: Essays... Part 2<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">#MeToo: Essays About How and Why This Happened, </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">What it Means and How to Make Sure It Never Happens Again </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">by Lisa Perkins</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I established a 30-day free trial account on scribd to mainly listen to the audiobook of poetry, <i>Long Way Down</i> by Jason Reynolds, to satisfy the 2020 Read Harder Challenge prompt #8.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I rarely listen to audiobooks and didn't wish to pay for something I wouldn't listen to again. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">If you happen to listen to this, be sure to listen to his interview at the end. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">t is definitely noteworthy! I did find Reynolds' narration to be wonderful </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">and would highly recommend this audiobook.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">However, I will also own the actual book and read it as well. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Just because I overall prefer a book in my hands. But on to #MeToo.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This review will cover the last half of this book. You can find Part 1 of this review <a href="https://books-n-music.blogspot.com/2020/04/atmetoo-essayspart-i.html">here</a>. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Thus far I have been very impressed, </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">as well as sometimes shocked at these revelations of </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">males' aggressive, abusive, and misogynistic behaviors toward females.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">But I also realize that I am now at a much different place in my life. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">As an older female, I don't give a damn! If you are a male and you're even halfway considering mistreating or abusing me, you'd better carry a big stick with you! </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">'Cause I'm comin' after you with whatever I have on hand...and I know some moves!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">So beware! And, honestly, I have always been much more combative in this regard than most of the other females I've known throughout my life, no matter at what age.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">My husband researched interpersonal violence between males and females for his PhD. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Before we were even dating, in those first 9 months as very best friends, I once asked </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">him if I demonstrated enough self-confidence to hopefully avoid being attacked. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">His response? "If a male selected you as a potential victim, he needs to do something else.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">You are definitely not a woman any man with sense would dare mess with." </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">(I am paraphrasing from memory.) I just remember feeling proud of that. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Now, back to the book!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Katherine Ramsland describes the concept of <i>narcissistic immunity</i> in "Tit for Tat." These repeat offenders who often take big risks</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">have a talent for rebounding from setbacks because they're certain of their invulnerability. This comes not just from their repeated success, </i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">but also from the knowledge that those who know what they're doing </i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">won't stop them. </i>(p 81)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Ramsland goes on to describe a situation where a male was implicitly stating he would give her what she wanted if she gave him what he wanted. And then everyone would be happy and satisfied. Was this ever expressed in explicit terms? No, of course not. As Ramsland states,</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><i>Situations of subtle compromise are probably the most frequent abuse of power, </i></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><i>and the most difficult to identify as sexual misconduct, </i></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><i>because the aggressor can easily say he was misunderstood. </i></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><i>He slips away, leaving his target violated in a non-specific way. </i></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><i>Even if she complains, it's difficult to make anything stick. </i></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><i>She will also be labeled in some negative way, not to mention ostracized.</i></b> (p 78)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">And this is how the cycle perpetuates itself with no male ever being held accountable.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Predators plan. They use "deflection, social miscues, and misinformation" to exude charm and success which work to "falsely engender trust" in a very relaxed and confident manner. So change must occur on both a cultural and personal level. We need to learn about sexual predators as well as our own vulnerabilities to help this collective movement make a better world for everyone, but particularly those historically deemed to be most vulnerable and socially subjugated by males--females!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Catherine Gigante-Brown describes how and why she believes </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><i>"I was only..." are three of the most dangerous words in the English language.</i></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><i>"I was only joking."</i></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><i>"I was only trying to help."</i></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><i>"I was only..."</i></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">No. You weren't. </i>(p 89)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Not the best friend's uncle who put his hand on her crotch at age 12. Not the nice blind man who ran the newsstand and forced his tongue down her throat for a "friendly" good-bye kiss at age 17. And especially not the man in the park who said of her at age 19, "We're following her. I like the way her ass jiggles when she walks." These are weak excuses offered by men--only because they're caught! To her credit she confronted the last man in the crowded public park and ended up shaming him into an apology. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">Yes means yes. No means no. </i>(p 89)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">And no man has a right to assault a woman. Period. Until you ask and the answer is "yes," just don't. As the author notes, it feels good to stand up for herself, but 40 years later she must still do so. It will not stop until we view each other with respect, kindness, and acceptance...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">It starts here. It starts now. It starts with us. </i>(p 90)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">We will raise our young girls to be self-confident self-assured individuals who will defend themselves any time and anywhere by confronting and calling out these abusers.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Kate Mara addresses an issue I'd never experienced or considered before in "Me Too: Protecting Men from Themselves." Once she informed her mother that her own uncle (her mother's own brother) had attempted to rape her but she'd been lucky enough to get away, her mother's reply was to never tell her father because he would kill the man. At age 12, Kate agreed. But wait! Now this child must somehow keep herself out of harm's way when visiting her own grandmother (with whom her uncle lived) AND protect her father from the truth that would make him lose control and murder someone, his own brother-in-law. It is this cycle of "silence and violence" that also helps perpetuate the misogynistic culture of our time and the past. Men can't be trusted to respect women and yet those who would be their most intense defenders also cannot be trusted to control their violent behaviors...? My immediate thought? Men are messed up!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Jude M. Lucien points out in </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">"Men, Women and #MeToo" males are also sexually assaulted and seem to have no recourse for reporting such abuse. None. It is just unacceptable for a male to claim that he was assaulted. It seems like such an aberration. A near impossibility. Likewise to a great degree for any female sexually assaulted by another female. However, Lucien is very clear about the vast difference between a female victim of male sexual assault and the other two scenarios--it boils own to the "fear" culture created by the continued and unchecked misogynistic behaviors of men toward women. Women must always operate by a different set of social/cultural rules than those of men: (1) never ride in an elevator alone with a male, (2) never walk alone at night in a parking garage, (3) never walk alone anywhere after dark, etc. As Lucien states,</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">Women have physically violated my sexual boundaries many more times </i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">than have men because my sexual relationships have always been with women. </i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">But all those years that men catcalled, bra-snapped, commented and </i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">attempted to rape me structured my life in a way that those women simply can't. </i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">(p 99)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">"Every Book I Have Ever Written is a #MeToo Novel" (The grammar nerd in me realizes it should read <b>an</b> #MeToo...) by Trinity Blacio describes how using her own helplessness against sexual assault in her youthful past is reflected in her very strong and self-sufficient female protagonists. In her worlds women support each other and have each other's backs. Where an 8-year-old can feel comfortable confiding to her mother of her stepfather's inappropriate behaviors toward her. Where a 15-year-old can confide to her father that the employee who took her on a date at her father's behest took her to an abandoned cabin and date-raped her and feel vindicated that a process was followed to hold the 20-year-old accountable beyond just losing his job... </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">And if for some reason she doesn't have those options, </i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">perhaps she'll read a novel where she'll see her reflection </i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">and know that she will survive, and, maybe, save the world. </i>(p 104)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In "#NotMe's Instead of #MeToo's" by Nikki Prince details the trauma in the aftermath of molestation by a family member and family friend, before she even reached age 10. She believed herself to be "voiceless" and said nothing about it until she was in her 20's. She still has dreams about these incidents. As the mother of both a son and a daughter she believes we must start by educating our children at home, with reinforcement occurring at school. Teaching them agency for their own bodies and that when something doesn't feel good or right, they have a voice. (The one thing she didn't mention is to be sure to back them up fully if/when they do come to you as a parent.)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><i>This is for me, this is for my children, and this is for the world to hear. </i></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><i>We are here, we are the #MeToo's, and we will not remain silent ever again.</i></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">Let's make a world where there are #NotMe's instead of #MeToo's. </i>(p 107)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">"Not Them Too" by Louisa Bacio. Imagine that it is your first job in publishing and you're in the elevator with the Vice President for Advertising and he says</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">"Are those $1000-a-night fuck-me pumps?" </i>(p 109)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">What do you say? Alone with a man in an elevator...at work! And this happens! Of course, this was not the incident to occur to Louisa. The editorial director informed her she would not be allowed to travel as part of her job because she was "female and attractive." The staff was 98% male. Good old misogynistic patriarchy at work! Don't change male behavior, instead, restrict the life of females to prevent 'incidents'. Ugh! At another magazine on her first day of work one of the senior editors (the only female one) called her into her office and explained that she would never be able to advance because there was </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><i>only "room" for one female editor and it was going to be her. </i></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><i>That troubled magazine went bankrupt, and when the doors closed </i></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">there was only one female editor: It was [Louisa]. </i>(p 109)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This story made me smile! Louisa goes on to describe the scariest occurrence that happened in her own home. Her roommate befriended two strange men and had them follow her home in their car. Fortunately, Louisa awakened as they were walking down the hall toward her room, saying </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><i>"Can we look at your roommate? Is she pretty?" A man's voice woke me in the middle of the night. I was 23, in grad school. "She's asleep," my roommate said.</i></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><i>"It's all right. We won't do anything. Just look at her."</i></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><i>I lay in bed, listening to footsteps come down the hallway, and stop outside my closed bedroom door. The doorknob rattled, and turned.</i></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><i>At that moment, I jumped out of bed, yanked on the handle, and screamed:</i></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">"What the fuck do you think you're doing? Get out of my house!" </i>(p 111)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Louisa chased them out, locked the door, and promptly evicted her roommate the very next day. She now has two daughters and is</span></div>
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<i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-weight: bold;">...teaching [them] how to stand up for themselves. Hell no, not them too! </i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">(p 112)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In "Why We #MeToo" Jennifer Wedmore describes how she </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">became two people, the one who suffered during the night/early morning, and the one who got up and went to school and functioned normally. </i>(p 114)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This occurred for 10 years of her life as a young girl. She also describes other much more minor incidents where men "accidentally" brushed up against her, etc., throughout her life. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">The everyday fear women have of walking to our car by ourselves or walking by a group of men must stop! We should feel safe in our environments! </i>(p 114)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Then she mentions being "afraid" to ask her teenage daughter if she has experienced any such incidents... That seems hypocritical to me. If you don't ask, you won't know, and then you can' help her talk it out and decide how best to handle it in the future. We need to enable girls/women to expose these incidents so they can know it is not their fault and how best to counteract such behaviors. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">As Gen Ryan states in "Until When #MeToo":</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">The problem isn't with women not coming forward, because as we have seen </i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">recently in the media that women are flocking and coming together more than ever. </i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">It's how, as a society, we view the female. </i>(p 117)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Females' every detail of their life experience, background, and history are examined to find fault. Ryan claims that </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-weight: bold;"><i>...as a society, we [must] stop villainizing the victims and start holding the </i></span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-weight: bold;">[offending] </i><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-weight: bold;">individuals accountable for their actions. </i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">(p 119)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I am anxious for exactly that! Perhaps convicting and imprisonment of Harvey Weinstein is a positive sign for lasting change. I have my fingers crossed!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Carmela Caruso describes how a "friend" became an attacker in "Doing What We've Always Done: Gender Roles and Sexual Assault." This person was someone who lived in the same small town and Carmela saw around town off and on. They would exchange simple greetings: "Hello," etc. One night he invited her to join himself and some of his friends at a restaurant. He ended up walking her home even though she had told him point blank she did not want him to go with her and she was not going to have sex with him. (She was feeling uncomfortable about him at that point in time. Once in her house he tried to have sex with her several times and she kept refusing to cooperate, saying "No!" A couple of months later he approaches her asking why she never contacted him. She stated she felt he had sexually assaulted her and he was genuinely surprised...and apologized. He explained that</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">he'd been in a similar situation many times before and found women </i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">thought they should act distant and unavailable to </i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">avoid being labeled a "whore" or "slut" for wanting sex. </i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">Men, he said, were expected to show force to which the woman, </i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">throwing down her feigned resistance, would respond. </i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">It's what women wanted, he said. </i>(p 124)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I would love to think this was simply a bullshit answer, but I believe there are males who have never been taught nor learned otherwise. Strictly caveman stuff! You can't make this shit up! Now she better understands the statistic that 85% of women who are sexually assaulted know their attacker. How sad... She also cites generic statistics regarding the likelihood any accusations will never make it to court and the victim/woman will be vilified and made out to be the reason for the assault. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">"For Men the 'MeToo' Movement Should Be More Than a Hashtag" by Ivan Natividad</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Tarana Burke, a Broolyn-based youth activist, first used the words "Me Too" to found a movement meant </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">as a rallying cry to support young women </i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">who had survived sexual abuse, assault and exploitation. </i>(p 127)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">To let them know they were not alone. Because, unfortunately, they are only one of many...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><i>According to the Rape, Abuse, and Incest National Network, every 98 seconds someone in our country is sexually assaulted, and one out of every six women has been the victim of an attempted or competed rape in her lifetime.</i></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">Moreover, 90% of adult rape victims are female, </i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">and females ages 16 to 19 are four times more likely </i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">than the general population to be victims of </i></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">rape, attempted rape, or sexual assault. </i>(p 128)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">No wonder that within 24 hours of the launch of the #MeToo movement, there were more than <b>12 million</b> Facebook posts, comments and reactions made. TWELVE MILLION. Let that number sink in. Within 24 hours. Unbelievable. And so scary! Ivan describes being able to shrug off uninvited sexual touching as a young man simply because, unlike a woman, he had no danger to fear. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><i>Never did I worry about being followed down a dark alley afterward.</i></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><i>Never did I worry about a woman stalking me at my house or </i></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">place of work because I did not reciprocate their advances. </i>(p 129)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Best estimates are that only 6 of every 1,000 rapists end up in prison. Natividad believes men can help make permanent changes for the better by not "supporting or condoning a culture that hyper-sexualizes women." </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><i>We can redefine our masculinity to detach it from abusive stereotypical behavior. </i></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">Our character is based on what we do, not what we think we believe. </i>(p 130)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">So do more than just like certain #MeToo comments/posts on social media, actually begin to set a good example for sons, brothers, cousins, or just other males who are complete strangers. Call others out on their inappropriate behaviors/attitudes/actions and be sure you are acting respectfully...to everyone, including females! Will it make you everyone's 'best friend'? Perhaps not. But those who choose to spend time with you will be comfortable with you...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">"For Guys Reading #MeToo Testimonies" by Courtney E. Martin. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">Feel the excruciating pain of complicity. </i>(p 133)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Martin encourages men to read the stories of #MeToo and then just sit. Close their eyes and sit...and feel. Feel what it must be like to live in a world filled with "sexual harassment and assault"...as a man. Much as Martin tries to deal with the fact that she is "white" and yet not in the least bit associated with white supremacists and the hatred and violence they spew. But she must deal as part of that culture by the fact that her skin is also white. (I can relate to that...) So as much as a specific male may have never mistreated or abused a woman, he is still part of the culture by definition, just as she is part of white supremacy. She encourages men to feel what they feel and then talk with other men about their feelings...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">A world this riddled with sexual harassment and abuse will never be healed </i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">by a hashtag, that's for sure. Yet this moment could be the first one </i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">in which you choose to do something different, to lay the first brick </i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">in a world that is built</i></span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-weight: bold;"> differently, a world safe for women's bodies </i></div>
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<i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-weight: bold;">and men's feelings, a world worthy of everyone's wholeness. </i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">(p 135)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Hallelujah! You preach it, sister! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">"The Wild Feminine Freed #MeToo" by Jamie Della. Jamie studies wicca and writes about this religion. Her emphasis is on the feminine goddess. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><i>If only we remembered that they key to freedom hides in our womb. </i></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">We must claim our sovereignty by owning the power of the pussy.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i></i><b><i>Our liberation awaits when we draw out the lusty Baba Yaga: </i></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><i>the Goddess who dares us to go boldly in the direction of our bliss, </i></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><i>face our fears and liberate our shame. </i></b>(p 137)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">We should revel in our femininity and let no one shame us for that! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">"Our Bodies Are Not the Problem" by Liz DeBetta</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">She has a very poignant concise poem and claims that women must make others uncomfortable before things can change for the better. It is nor our bodies that are problematic, but others' refusal to respect women as people!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">"Hush" by Sherri Donovan</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">A poem definitely worth reading! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">"Sexual Harassment on the Job from HR's Perspective" by Marina Jumiga</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Marina describes her experience with pursuing an HR complaint on behalf of another employee in her facility who was "tapped on the butt" as acknowledgement, when a simple "Hello!" would have sufficed. the employee was eventually reprimanded and terminated and training was completed by all other employees. Sign-in sheets were used to prove training was completed so that no employee could claim ignorance of the sexual harassment policy. Very smart!! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">"Why the #MeToo Movement Is a Call to Arms for Men Everywhere" by Mark Radcliffe</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">As Mark saw all of the #MeToo Facebook postings from his female friends, he realized that as a man</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><i>it's not enough for us men to just not assault women. We have to do more.</i></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">Not just not be part of the problem, but actively be part of the solution. </i>(p 155)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Agreed! It is time for men to act as role models for other men. Past time!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">If their days are filled with dread/fear/anxiety/oppression, </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">then their lives are forever worsened. </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">And we share those lives with them--if one part suffers, every part suffers with it. </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">As a result, women are understandably less open with us, less trusting of us, </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">and less able to be fully alive and present in our lives as well. </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">And this simply cannot be. </i>(p 155)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Men need to mentor other men.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">...as Edmund Burke once wrote, </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing." </i>(p 155)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">That is so true. Silence is complicity... But h</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">ow to do more?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">...start by simply being the kind of friend/boyfriend/husband/colleague </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">that a woman feels comfortable discussing her assault with. </i>(p 155)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Be that person who believes her...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><i>This is just the beginning. </i></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><i>The real challenge is...working on our fellow men. Every. Single. Day. </i></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><i>Being an agent of change in the daily conversations we're a part of. </i></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">When an entire conversation with "the boys" at a restaurant is </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">about the waitress' ass, what are we doing to change that? </i>(p 156)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Saying nothing is complicity. </span></div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><i>Because if their moral compass won't compel them to act differently, </i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><i>then we must make the consequences of their actions force them to change--</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><i>b</i></b></span><b style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>oth in their behavior and attitudes. </i></b><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">And if we do that, then we will no longer be fully complicit in a world that results in umpteen million women having to post "#MeToo" in their Facebook feed today.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i></i><b><i>So gentlemen, let's pledge to have a lot more difficult conversations between ourselves, so that there are fewer difficult "#MeToo" posts </i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><i>from the women in our lives. </i></b>(p 158)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Exactly!</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i><b><br /></b></i></span>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">"Politics is My #MeToo" by Alessandra Biaggi.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><i>...we are just beginning. The road is long, and we will grow weary, </i></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><i>but we must never give up or give in. I am honored to join the stories of my sisters; together our voices will reverberate--throughout the streets, rounding corners that echo through the halls of Congress and state legislatures; that rip through industries, which have historically protected predators and upheld systems of abuse. </i></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">Enough. Our message--spoken + written = united. #MeToo</i> (p 162)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I must admit I am so ignorant I was unaware there was such a thing as </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">a "nondisclosure agreement" to cover up abuse. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Let us hope this is the beginning of the ending of such nonsense.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">And that men are held responsible for their behaviors.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Happy reading! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">~Lynn</span></div>
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Lynn @ Smoke & Mirrorshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00464153596817995684noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5883575980086212146.post-62327885262066962302020-04-09T17:06:00.000-05:002020-04-29T14:00:18.138-05:00#MeToo: Essays...Part I <div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">#MeToo: Essays About How and Why This Happened, </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">What it Means and How to Make Sure It Never Happens Again </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">by Lisa Perkins</span></div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-j05lt38fskE/XoYnNueYOhI/AAAAAAAAHHs/SPUbJk6wbqYLsAxluz2qYlcAKNuM8hCkQCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/%2523metoo%2Bcover%2Bimage.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="475" data-original-width="317" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-j05lt38fskE/XoYnNueYOhI/AAAAAAAAHHs/SPUbJk6wbqYLsAxluz2qYlcAKNuM8hCkQCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/%2523metoo%2Bcover%2Bimage.jpg" width="213" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I established a 30-day free trial account on scribd to mainly listen to the audiobook of poetry, <i>Long Way Down</i> by Jason Reynolds, to satisfy the 2020 Read Harder Challenge prompt #8.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I rarely listen to audiobooks and didn't wish to pay for something I wouldn't listen to again. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">If you happen to listen to this, be sure to listen to his interview at the end. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">t is definitely noteworthy! I did find Reynolds' narration to be wonderful </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">and would highly recommend this audiobook.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">However, I will also own the actual book and read it as well. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Just because I overall prefer a book in my hands. But on to #metoo.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I wanted to read a collection of essays regarding the #metoo movement.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I wanted a bit of introduction to some of the stories out there.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Another Goodreads member had read this and recommended it. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">And since I had another 2 weeks left of that 30-day free trial, I decided I would read the ebook on scribd. Just because... </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This ebook was published by Smashwords.com.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Not a publisher with which I am familiar. They have a very intimidating message in the "Smashwords edition, license notes" to be sure to purchase this book and any more copies of this book that you may wish to gift to others so they can also read it. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Okay. Fine. I get that. "Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author." </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Again. I agree wholeheartedly. But...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">On page 10 of 165 (actually the first page of text) </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">there is a VERY obvious typo--defiNed rather than defied!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It is such a glaring error because the sentence is about a woman </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">who literally DEFIED the nondisclosure agreement she had signed. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Obviously, this particular book could have used a good editor's scrutiny just one last time!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Or maybe even a mediocre editor's once over...but whatever. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I am reading it for free. </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">What did I expect? So onward and upward...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Perkins begins by detailing two encounters she had with </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">"totally out of place sexual behavior within a work environment."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">These two stories alone enraged me! We can be so gullible and naive when young, </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">can't we? </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">She admitted she had never told anyone </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">nor had she written about these experiences, </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">until now. As she states:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><i>We have to tell our stories, point the finger, shame this behavior and make it stop.</i></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">And if we have to do it every day for the next month, or year, or decade, we have to make that commitment. </i>(p 13)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Agreed! We may well need to do this for the rest of our life!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">...we have to change how we look at the behavior, and make sure that there are consequences. </i>(p 14)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">We are not a mob. We are a movement. </i>(p 14)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">And, as she notes, this movement which Patricia Douglas initiated clear back in 1937 in Hollywood, through Anita Hill's brave testimony, is now a worldwide/global call to action!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">Back legislation to change the nondisclosure laws in the workplace. </i>(p 14)</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I remember being horrified when I learned this was even a thing! </span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">And a perfectly LEGAL, often used thing, at that! </span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">That was with regard to Donald Trump's own sexual antics revealed during the 2016 Presidential election. (And how has that worked out for our country?)</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I love this quote:</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">Don't just lean in. Take the reins. </i>(p 14)</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I did read Sheryl Sandberg's <i>Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead</i> as part of our campus Office of Women Book Club about six months after its release in 2013. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I felt the main point it made was that each individual should have the right to choose </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">what they do with their life, regardless of gender. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">But I know the book received some negative reactions...so this did make me chuckle.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Perkins states her goal is "to reach people in the most permanent ways possible" and to achieve that end, the paperback version of this book is being sold at cost.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">So pass this book around. Share it with your sons, brothers, fathers, </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">your daughters, sisters, mothers, your co-workers and friends. </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">Read passages to them, if they won't read it for themselves. </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">Leave it on the desk of someone who should know better. </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">Help us make this movement more than a hashtag. </i>(p 15)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">1937. That is the year Patricia Douglas became the first woman to publicly call out the studios (MGM specifically) for such behaviors. At the age of 20 she was one of 120 women to show up for an audition for<i> You Must Remember This</i>. Each woman was</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> "fancied up" and "given a skimpy outfit" and taken to a party thrown for studio executives and 300 salesmen, as the evening's entertainment. (In addition to the 500 cases of scotch and champagne.) Patricia (and all the other women) were repeatedly sexually assaulted and eventually Patricia was raped. Since MGM owned everyone and everything at that time, nothing came of the criminal charges filed although a grand jury was convened). Civil lawsuits went nowhere, but Douglas persevered and finally tried to file a lawsuit in federal court, to which her own lawyer did not appear, nor any of the MGM bigwigs, so it was dismissed. However, this </span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i><b>was "an apparent legal first" in that </b></i></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i><b>"</b></i></span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>a female plaintiff </b></i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b style="font-style: italic;">made rape a federal case, based on its violation of her civil rights.</b> (p 21)</span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Even when interviewed at the age of 86, Douglas stated</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">"It ruined my life. It absolutely ruined my life"...</i></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">"They put me through such misery. It took away all my confidence." </i>(p 21)</span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Patricia was willing to go public again due to her advanced age.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">"When I die, the truth dies with me, and that means those bastards win." </i></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><i>Not today. </i></b></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">(p 22)</span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Thanks to Raechal Leone Shewfelt and Lisa Perkins, that is not what happened. Patricia Douglas's story has seen the light of day... :)</span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">A.M. Carley asserts that such abuse is common knowledge, especially when you consider the 2016 Presidential election when the current "Predator-in-Chief" was 'elected' by the electoral college, not by the popular vote. Carley cites the Stockholm Syndrome as the main reason so many "conservative white middle-class women voted Republican." </span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><i>They took on the views of their oppressors long ago. </i></b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><i>Now, like the rest of us, they're wedded to their story, </i></b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">and recalcitrant about ceding any ground. </i>(p 30)</span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">What should we do to fight back? Promote "girl power"! Educate all children, female and male, about when "physical contact feels unwelcome" and how to report it. But most of all, train society to believe such reports and act upon them. Empower all individuals so each person can think clearly and form their own attitudes and opinions without caving to the oppressors and their desires. Most importantly--MOBILIZE and VOTE THEM OUT OF OFFICE! 2020 is <b>our</b> year! </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">But only if we exercise our rights. And, as Ambassador Susan Rice said on March 2nd as a Steward Speakers Lecture Series presenter in Indianapolis, Indiana, (I'm paraphrasing): It is not only imperative that YOU vote, but that you make sure all your family and friends vote as well! </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Jesse Berdinka writes in "The Bully Culture of the Weinsteins" what really resonated for him was not to be on the red carpet, but rather the idea of the "culture of constantly trying to be the best at something, trying to prove something." As Berdinka says, the Weinsteins always portrayed themselves as "two kids from Queens fighting and besting a system that didn't think they were good enough to get in." That attitude permeated all the way down the authority chain. He describes how anyone could move up in the Weinstein corporation and in fact, it was perhaps easier for those from the 'outside' to do so than the typical Ivy League grad...</span><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">The problem is you can't be the outsider forever. </i></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">At some point you have to find something to be for instead of against. </i></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">Scrappiness often turns into ego. Ego turns into anger. </i></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">The culture was one where you had to make a choice. </i>(p 40)</span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">He describes how you had to become a bully to "fit in." And then rationalize that in whatever way you saw fit--typically self-medicating with alcohol and/or drugs. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">The real power of abuse isn't the big things. It's the subtle drip. </i></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><i>The slow wearing down of a person, by small comments, looks or actions.</i></b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><i>It wears on you day after day, sand blown hard even against the hardest of rocks. </i></b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">(p 42)</span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">He admits to having witnessed absolutely reprehensible and unacceptable behaviors and doing nothing since they were not "crimes." But as he notes, is that our level of attention? Only when such behavior qualifies as <i>criminal</i> is it to be addressed? For him, it came down to a choice regarding what he valued as a person. He determined that he valued kindness, and he left the Weinstein corporation. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Paul M. Sammon describes "The Big Ugly" as "pay to play" that has always existed in the underbelly of Hollywood. He is aware of many such alliances with "willing" participants. He describes several situations where he was able to extricate himself before anything untoward or unwelcome was offered to him directly. He credits a law enforcement background and knowledge for this 'sixth sense' of avoidance. Sammon also realizes that as a male he is certainly much more able to care for himself than females and doesn't even try to extend his own experiences to any others. He also has a 40-year-long successful marriage, so has found it easy to remember that any short-term pleasure is not worth risking that long-term committed relationship. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">I do know that I don't like bullying. Of any kind. To any gender. </i>(p 50)</span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Sammon believes the "casting couch" culture will persist.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">Because demanding unwanted sexual favors is a smaller manifestation of our country's larger, ongoing, deeply troubling war against gender equality--a war which some men continue to wage by using fiscal threats and sexual coercion as anti-woman power tools. </i>(p 51)</span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">As successful actor, screenwriter, and producer Brit Marling states: </span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">The real danger inside the present moment...would be for us all to separate the alleged deeds of [Bill] Cosby, [Roger] Ailes, [Bill] O'Reilly, or Weinstein </i></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">from a culture that continues to allow for dramatic imbalances of power. </i></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">It's not these bad men. Or that dirty industry. It's this inhumane economic system </i></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">of which we are all a part. As producers and as consumers. </i></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">As storytellers and as listeners. As human beings. </i></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">That's a very uncomfortable truth to sit inside. </i></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">But perhaps discomfort is what's required. </i>(p 52)</span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Agreed. Discomfort is the least of it. I feel that Harvey Weinstein being convicted AND jailed is just a start...</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In "Wall Street Assets" Veronica Vera describes her early days on Wall Street, which included mind-blowing sex with one of the worst sexual predators, but the highest-earning salesperson, in a major Wall Street Firm. Of course, this man was retained at this firm because of his "success." At least "success" as measured in dollars of sales. Otherwise, he was one of the worst creeps! (Granted this was in the 1960's, but still...) Veronica did come around to a feminist mindset and has done well for herself and serves as a mentor to others in many ways. But that description of her first job and the sexual relationship with this guy...gave me the creeps! Seriously, I had to take a break from reading this and return to it. Ugh.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Camilla Saly-Monzingo provides some details of her life as a rock'n'roll runaway teen in the 1970's. Scary to read of the times she was raped and otherwise assaulted. And I keep asking myself: Why do these men feel this is "right"? Obviously, our society gives them permission to do as they please. Period. Fortunately for her, Camilla becomes a stable adult who serves as a teacher and mentor to others. </span><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">This myth that men often cite, that the girls are hanging around, in my case </i></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">in a club or backstage or in a hotel lobby, "because they want it, and that means "they were asking for it," has to be dissected, examined and addressed. </i></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">I did want attention. I did want approval. I was a sexual being. </i></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">But I did not want to be coerced, abused and raped. </i></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">Those are very, very different things. </i>(p 64)</span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">While we do need to empower girls/females as Saly-Monzingo states, we must educate <b>boys/men</b>/<b>all adults</b> to realize their responsibility to others, but especially those younger than themselves/teens/children! </span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">We also have to teach men that, when dealing with young people, </i></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">what looks to them like "I'm into it" doesn't give them license to do whatever </i></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">t</i></span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-weight: bold;">hey want, regardless of the power and age differential. </i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-weight: bold;">And it is never okay to coerce or force sex on anyone. </i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">(p 68)</span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In "Consent: Breaking the
Silence" Mary Billiter describes the initial sexual assault she suffered,
at the hands of "a distant family relative" who began staying at her
parent's house. He would come to her room at night, always when she was
sleeping and rape/sexually assault her. She was 11 years old. And as so often
happens, her parents blamed her for the nightshirt she wore. At this point in
the story, I am saying out loud: "un-fucking-believable"! When the
people on whom you should be able to rely the most to listen to and believe you
and then protect you from further harm deny your truth, where the hell can/do
you turn? As with many children--alcohol became the answer. To escape and mask
the pain. Fortunately for Mary, a friend called her years later in the
aftermath of a sexual assault she had suffered which prompted Mary to finally
discuss and disclose her own sexual assaults. Billiter quotes some of the
astounding statistics available: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">(1) 80% of female rape victims are
assaulted before the age of 25<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">(2) One of every six American women
has been the fiction of an attempted or completed rape in her lifetime<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">(3) Nine of every ten victims of
rape are female<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">(4) Per a survey conducted by the
Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network (RAINN) focused on what the sexual
assault survivor was doing when the crime occurred:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">48% were sleeping<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">29% were traveling to or from
school or work<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">12% were working<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">7% were attending school<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">5% were doing an unknown or other
activity<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">No matter the situation, sexual
assaults are </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><i>physically debilitating, emotionally draining, unimaginably traumatic and shameful.</i></b></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">There is no timetable for when someone will heal form a sexual assault. </i>(p 74)</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Since I am about halfway through this book, I am ending this Part 1 review here...</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">you can find Part 2 <a href="https://books-n-music.blogspot.com/2020/04/metoo-essays-part-2.html">here</a>!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Happy reading!</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">~Lynn</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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Lynn @ Smoke & Mirrorshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00464153596817995684noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5883575980086212146.post-62432993462821014172020-03-24T18:33:00.001-05:002020-03-30T20:45:22.995-05:00Literary Wives #43<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><i><a href="http://tammycohen.co.uk/books/" target="_blank">War of the Wives</a></i> <span style="color: #351c75;">by Tamar Cohen</span></span></div>
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</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Welcome to the 43rd "wifely" book review for the <a href="https://books-n-music.blogspot.com/p/blog-page.html">Literary Wives</a> online discussion group!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">#LiteraryWives</span></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Check out our </span><a href="https://www.facebook.com/literarywivesblogseries" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" target="_blank">Facebook page</a>!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">And PLEASE, if this interests you, </span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">read with us and participate in the discussions!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">You can post your own review and link it to the FB page and any or all of our blogs!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Or just comment right along with us!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Please make sure you read </span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">the other hosting bloggers' reviews:</span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75;"><span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Naomi of</span><span style="color: #990000; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> <a href="https://consumedbyink.ca/2020/03/02/literarywives-war-of-the-wives-by-tamar-cohen/">Consumed by Ink</a></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75;"><span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Kay of</span><span style="color: #990000; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> <a href="https://whatmeread.wordpress.com/2020/03/02/review-1478-literary-wives-war-of-the-wives/">whatmeread</a></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"><span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Eva of </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://thepaperbprincess.wordpress.com/2020/03/07/literarywives-the-war-of-the-wives/">The Paperback Princess</a></span></span><br />
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5TmNyY2gnl8/Xlx4t2gT7XI/AAAAAAAAHF0/swi0P95hGc0pm9Ri49lPWVCXfiHTfEsfACLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/War%2Bof%2Bthe%2BWives%2BHdcvr%2BImage.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1043" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5TmNyY2gnl8/Xlx4t2gT7XI/AAAAAAAAHF0/swi0P95hGc0pm9Ri49lPWVCXfiHTfEsfACLcBGAsYHQ/s320/War%2Bof%2Bthe%2BWives%2BHdcvr%2BImage.jpg" width="208" /></a></div>
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I am interested as to others' reactions to this book.</span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I found it to be extremely compelling. </span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I literally read it in one day. I simply could not put it down. </span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I did not remember this was a mystery...but...bonus! :)</span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I not only found the mystery compelling, but the characters and their interactions were just as compelling to me as my need to know "whodunnit" if Simon did not commit suicide. </span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It seemed as if every single character prompted both compassion and sympathy/empathy. </span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Each character was complex, while still being relatable.</span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I was reminded of <i><a href="https://books-n-music.blogspot.com/2013/10/literary-wives-4-aviators-wife-by.html">The Aviator's Wife</a></i> by Melanie Benjamin, </span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">since Charles Lindbergh was also a bigamist. </span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Actually, he had multiple families around the world.</span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Quite the "family guy," huh?</span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Simon was rather similar, though he only had </span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">two "wives" and one mistress. That we know of...</span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In addition to being wives, both Lottie and Selina </span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">were mothers to teenagers. They both had their </span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">challenges dealing with their children in the wake of Simon's death.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I particularly appreciated Selina and Lottie's various challenges in dealing with their children. As </span><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Lottie says:</span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><i>I can understand why Mum worried so much. When your children are younger </i></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><i>you think you want to raise them to make their own choices, but gradually </i></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">you realize what you really mean is the right choices, your choices. </i>(p 42)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I did laugh at this, because I believe it is a trap most parents fall into very easily. However, I'm sure in no small part in reaction to my own mother's overbearing and overly judgmental behaviors, I tried very hard not to expect my sons to do what I wanted them to do, but rather tried to educate them to all the possibilities their adult life presented to them. It is, after all, <b>their</b> life...not mine! And I refuse to try to 'live through my children'. That is so unfair and unjust. </span></div>
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Dealing with my own children became trickier as they aged. As they become adults, you truly have no control and very little opportunity for meaningful input. For the most part you simply sit back and watch unless you intend to alienate them by giving your opinion(s) and/or 'lecturing' them... As Selina discusses what she wishes to say to her daughter Flora regarding her hairstyle: </span><br />
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">...or any of the stupid things overbearing mothers want to </i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">say to their grown-up daughters. </i>(p 13)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I had to chuckle at this statement. Though it made me recall the fact that my own mother never <b>ever</b> hesitated to give me her opinion, no matter how rude or overbearing she may have been in doing so. (That would go a long way in describing our fraught relationship.) Likewise Lottie with her teenage daughter, Sadie, often choosing to keep her comments to herself to hopefully encourage the girl to confide in her as much as possible. As Lottie states, </span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">There's something about mothers and daughters, isn't there? </i>(p 39)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Sadie was a "daddy's girl" according to Lottie. I wouldn't know about that either since I never had a father in my life. But I feel as if I would have connected better with a male since I tend to be quite androgynous in my behaviors in many ways. </span><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">While I have never dealt with a daughter I know that it can be a very difficult relationship to maintain between mothers and daughters, at least from my perspective as a daughter of an extremely judgmental mother. But I digress...</span><br />
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I could appreciate Lottie's bemoaning the fact that her mother didn't live long enough to see just how happy she and Simon have been...</span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">Sometimes I wonder if that's the thing you miss most when someone dies, </i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">not so much the person themselves as the things they'll never know about you </i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">and what's happened in your life. The you they'll never meet. </i>(p 42<i>)</i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">As I read this I remembered a friend who stated that he felt what I missed most in the wake of my mother's death was that there would never be a chance for us to have a good relationship since she was no longer in this world. And he was correct. That is what I yearned for my whole adult life and now knew I would <b>never</b> have...</span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Selina feels "Grief has made her selfish." (p 57) This is the result of her being unable to speak with her son Josh regarding his own grief and emotions in the wake of his father's death. Though I would argue that Selina had buried her own feelings and needs for so long that she was unable to express her own emotions, let alone help her children do so. She cites the fact that "Josh has never been faced with something irreversible" (p 98) and is finding the "brutal finality" of it difficult to accept. </span></div>
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<b><i><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">When the worst that can happen has already happened, </span></i></b></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">what can you do but start again?</i> (p 356)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Through all this family trauma, and was there ever trauma, Cohen manages to slip in some humor, mainly through Selina. For example, as she describes the downsides of Skyping: </span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> (1) you can never get away/hang up</span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> (2) you can see each other and that is so "intimate." </span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I don't Skype but I had never considered those two factors. I'm sure that's true. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In the end, Lottie discovers after the funeral that she is pregnant with Simon's child and it is hopeful to see Selina and her own children rally round Lottie during the pregnancy and childbirth. While looking at the new baby, Hope, in her hospital bed</span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>[Lottie]<i> felt that jolt of betrayal when she thought about Simon, </i></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><i>but the pain had eased, </i></b></span><b style="color: #351c75; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>and sometimes now she could remember him just as he was, without that need to eulogize or attack him. </i></b></div>
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<b style="color: #351c75; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>S</i></b><b style="color: #351c75; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>he could see now that he hadn't been a bad person.</i></b></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">He'd just been able to tuck secrets away in pockets so far inside him </i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">that he didn't need to see or think bout them--until it was too late. </i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">And he'd convinced himself that love was the thing, </i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">that you could forgive yourself anything if it was done for love. </i>(p 373)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I guess that is true... I feel as if Lottie is a much more forgiving person than I, however...</span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The woman in the hospital bed next to Lottie's comments:</span><br />
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><i>'You've a big family...</i></b></span><b style="color: #351c75; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Is your husband around?"</i></b></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><i>"No."</i></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><i>"Oh, well...You've got plenty of support from the looks of it, so who needs him, hey?</i></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><i>It's his funeral, at the end of the day."</i></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">Just a silly expression, so the woman couldn't really understand why her neighbor ...seemed to find it so very, very funny. </i>(p 374)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Sometimes, unconsciously, others say things that just capture the truth in a very humorous way...</span></div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-TQ99tqcGq8c/XeRjEoudWrI/AAAAAAAAHA4/9YkJK5bXpSIkO0iNMXhlU0gq2q1SOPXZgCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/literarywives2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-TQ99tqcGq8c/XeRjEoudWrI/AAAAAAAAHA4/9YkJK5bXpSIkO0iNMXhlU0gq2q1SOPXZgCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/literarywives2.jpg" /></a><br />
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">And now for that Literary Wives question:</span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>What does this book say about wives </b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>or about the experience of being a wife? </b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I felt this book had much to say about wives and </span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">the experience of being a wife.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Each of these wives, Selina and Lottie, loved Simon in their </span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">own way. However, they were very different people and</span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Simon's relationship with each wife was very different,</span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">as depicted in the following conversation:</span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Simon: </span><b style="color: #351c75; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: italic;">I know now that happiness isn't about sipping fine chianti while the sun </b><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i><b>sets over the hills. </b></i></span><i style="color: #351c75; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>It's something else, something visceral.</b> </i><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">(p. 363</span><i style="color: #351c75; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">)</i></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i><b>I can't explain. I feel known by her. I feel like me</b>... </i></span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Selina: <b><i>You're saying I stop you being who you are?</i></b></span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Simon: <b><i>Sel...</i></b></span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Selina: <b><i>You're wrong!...I give you the stability to go off into the world </i></b></span><b style="color: #351c75; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>and be who you are. Stability is the thing--not love.</i></b><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">(p. 364)</span><br />
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This is included at the very end of the book. We learn that Simon had actually been honest with Selina at one point in time and tried to divorce her. However, upon learning she is pregnant with their third child (a lie Selina perpetrates to keep him in the marriage), he decided to remain married to her... I admit that for me, this conversation brought back memories. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Selina's situation of remaining in a loveless marriage was familiar to me. I remained in my first marriage for another 12 years after I decided my spouse was never going to be the parent he had claimed he would be to our three sons and I was "stuck" due to lack of financial resources. I could not see how it would be possible to raise my sons as a single mother. This was before social safety net programs to help poor folks survive were available and I'm sure I was petrified to try it, as well. So I spent 12 years never considering or evaluating my own happiness in a relationship, it was simply a means to an end--hopefully somehow being able to raise my own children to be responsible, kind, caring adults, regardless of the poor role model I felt their father portrayed.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">So that paragraph above sounded rather familiar to me. I don't know if I would have lied to Simon to keep him or not, but perhaps I would have done the exact same thing as Selina. I'm not sure Selina was the type of person capable of forming a truly 'passionate' relationship. She seemed rather cold and distant, though she was phenomenal at organizing her life to keep current on all tasks and provide everything to be expected of a wife and 'good' mother, particularly one whose husband is stationed away from home at least half the time. I'm not sure we can ever know how we might react to any given situation until we are in it ourselves. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Selina is very proud of the fact that she and Simon do not feel the need to talk to each other all the time, or even every single day. In describing her best friends' relationship:</span><br />
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><i>Hettie and Ian...call each other ten times a day to talk about absolutely nothing at all...</i></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b style="font-style: italic;">And always finishing with an "I love you." So unnecessary. </b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b style="font-style: italic;">Love is like any other commodity. The more you flaunt it, the less value it has. </b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b style="font-style: italic;">The real trick is to make the other person feel loved... </b>(p 19)</span></div>
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"></span><br />
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This made me pause. I do believe it to be true...for me, at least. However, I also realize that any two people need to construct their own relationship in ways that are meaningful to them. It is not up to me to decide what is 'good' or 'bad' in any other relationships, only to try to make my own relationships work well for me and the others involved. Is that easy? Sometimes. But certainly not all the time. There are definitely challenges and pitfalls to be overcome. But there should also be times of harmony and happiness and those need to be recalled as often as possible to help overcome the challenging bits, in my opinion.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I could particularly relate to Selina's belief that if she made all the effort to do her best to raise her children and make her marriage work as well as possible, there would be some reward. That was the same fairy tale in which I believed as I stayed in a marriage even after I had lost virtually any respect for my spouse. And even worse for her since she KNEW that Simon was no longer as invested in their relationship and really wanted out, having found another person with whom he could "feel like me." She thought if she was a 'good wife and mother' she would reap rewards. Not necessarily so, however. And, of course, Selina was all about the easy 'rich' lifestyle to which she had become accustomed, hence a further discouragement from divorcing.</span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold; text-align: center;"> Maybe in the end we all settle, just to be left with nothing. </i><span style="text-align: center;">(p 280)</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Unbeknownst to Selina, Simon decided to "marry" this 'other woman', Lottie</span><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">. So although Selina lied to Simon so he would not divorce her, she did know he was in a relationship with another woman at that time. What she didn't know was that he was maintaining two families in addition to an "extramarital affair"/another sexual relationship which extended over 30 years. All I can say is, Simon evidently had an unlimited supply of energy... And I honestly wondered just how many other women he had sex with while "married." I admit to being very old-fashioned when it comes to the concept of marriage. I always wonder why men can't just keep their pants zipped and maintain a monogamous relationship. It doesn't seem that difficult to do, IMHO! It is a commitment you made, so "just do it"! (Or don't "do <b>it</b>," however you wish to state it. :))</span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">According to Simon</span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">Love is about wanting more. </i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">Wanting more of someone, more for someone, more life, more love. </i>(p 355)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">But as Lottie watches Karen Griffiths embrace her husband and realizes that she followed him and waited for the appropriate time to intervene, loving him regardless of his dependence upon lithium to maintain emotional balance, she felt that Simon's definition was somehow incorrect. Perhaps there was more to love than Simon's definition... Though Simon was definitely selfish with his life. He wanted what he wanted but he lacked the balls to divorce Selina so he could have a monogamous relationship with Lottie--though I feel monogamy was perhaps not an attainable goal for Simon since we know he also maintained a relationship with a third woman throughout these 30 years, albeit off and on... </span><br />
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Once Selina learns there is a reasonable chance that Simon was actually murdered and did <b>not</b> commit suicide, she feel</span><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">s relieved, thinking </span><br />
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">Maybe I'm not such a failure as a wife, if my husband didn't choose to leave me. </i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">(p 320)</span></div>
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Uhm. Actually, he <b>did </b>choose to leave you years ago and you convinced him to remain by lying to him about a third pregnancy. But our memories can become selective, can't they? Again, I believe she thought she had 'played the game well' and deserved a prize/reward, rather than destitution. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">As Selina apologizes to Greg's wife (Simon's partner with whom she has been having sex) she thinks...</span><br />
<i style="color: #351c75; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-weight: bold; text-align: center;"> All of us sorry. None of us safe. </i><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; text-align: center;">(p 320)</span><br />
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I truly wondered what Cohen meant by this statement. Perhaps we are all 'sorry' for people wronged? Yet we know we can become a victim at any time? I thought it a rather ominous thought.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">So what exactly is love? And does that lead to other feelings such as commitment that overtake passionate feelings or even hopes and desires? I believe it is different for different people, just as Lottie and Selina obviously provided very different experiences in a marriage for Simon, so do each of us provide "unique-to-us" experiences for our own partners. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Happy reading!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">~Lynn</span></div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-HlkprkJRoRU/XnqWzs9ivQI/AAAAAAAAHHE/_a4vobWWf1QWMprYAUyldfQ3onCmjZZPACLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/The%2BDutch%2BHouse-Patchett%2Bcover%2Bimage.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="935" data-original-width="1240" height="241" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-HlkprkJRoRU/XnqWzs9ivQI/AAAAAAAAHHE/_a4vobWWf1QWMprYAUyldfQ3onCmjZZPACLcBGAsYHQ/s320/The%2BDutch%2BHouse-Patchett%2Bcover%2Bimage.jpg" width="320" /></a><br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">This is the next book we will review </span><br />
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">on Monday, June 1st! </span><br />
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i><a href="http://www.annpatchett.com/titles#/the-dutch-house/">The Dutch House</a></i></span><br />
<span style="color: #cc0000;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">My first Ann Patchett!</span></span><br />
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Lynn @ Smoke & Mirrorshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00464153596817995684noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5883575980086212146.post-85365630097551992272019-12-01T22:26:00.000-06:002019-12-12T13:46:28.775-06:00Literary Wives #42<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: x-large;">The Home-Maker</span></div>
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<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: x-large;">by Dorothy Canfield Fisher</span></div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-vlMLm_gHV-I/XeQ3rLx6rmI/AAAAAAAAHAs/B465m5QdTwMBUTTuE88WBxRqoZNKNy3bQCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/The%2BHome-Maker%2BCvr%2BImage.jpe" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="267" data-original-width="189" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-vlMLm_gHV-I/XeQ3rLx6rmI/AAAAAAAAHAs/B465m5QdTwMBUTTuE88WBxRqoZNKNy3bQCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/The%2BHome-Maker%2BCvr%2BImage.jpe" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Actually, one of my favorite reads for this year!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">This is one of my classic literary favorites! </span></div>
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<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">I had never read any of this writer's works before, but I will definitely read more!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">I love the cover image depicted here. This is a <a href="http://www.persephonebooks.co.uk/">Persephone</a> reprint I ordered months ago. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">If you are not familiar with this UK company, please follow the link to learn more.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">I love their books: the paper used, the cover formatting, etc. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">I find their pricing reasonable considering the quality of materials and their purpose--</span></div>
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<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Per <i>The Guardian</i>: "A unique publishing house that champions forgotten female authors."</span></div>
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<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">I'm not sure exactly how "forgotten" Fisher may have been since there is the </span></div>
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<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://libraries.vermont.gov/services/children_and_teens/book_awards/dcf">Dorothy Canfield Fisher Book Award</a> selected by 4th - 8th graders each year.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Though I admit I was unfamiliar with her.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Welcome to the 42nd "wifely" book review for the <a href="https://books-n-music.blogspot.com/p/blog-page.html">Literary Wives</a> online discussion group!</span></div>
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<b><span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">#LiteraryWives</span></b></div>
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<span style="color: #274e13;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Check out our </span><a href="https://www.facebook.com/literarywivesblogseries" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" target="_blank">Facebook page</a>!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">And PLEASE, if this interests you, </span></div>
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<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">read with us and participate in the discussions!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">You can post your own review and link it to the FB page and any or all of our blogs!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Or just comment right along with us!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Please make sure you read </span></div>
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<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">the other hosting bloggers' reviews:</span></div>
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<span style="color: #274e13;"><span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Naomi of</span><span style="color: #990000; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> <a href="https://consumedbyink.ca/2019/12/02/literarywives-the-home-maker-by-dorothy-canfield-fisher/">Consumed by Ink</a></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #274e13;"><span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Kay of</span><span style="color: #990000; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> <a href="https://whatmeread.wordpress.com/2019/12/02/review-1423-literary-wives-the-home-maker/">whatmeread</a></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Eva of </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="https://thepaperbprincess.wordpress.com/2019/12/05/literarywives-the-home-maker/">The Paperback Princess</a></span></div>
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<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">This book was released in 1924, but the issues depicted are still relevant in today's society. </span><br />
<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Which is sad...just plain sad. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Although overall I believe U.S. society is becoming much more accepting of </span></div>
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<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">non-traditional roles, especially within families, the stigma still exists very strongly.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Whether we are discussing two same-sex partners or a heterosexual couple who play 'reverse roles' within the family, or single parents, anything other than a "traditional" arrangement (male father, female mother), </span><span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">there are still </span><span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">way too many people in this country </span><span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">who view such family units as "unnatural," even "immoral." </span></div>
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<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Each person and each partnership is unique. </span><span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">My recommendation? Live and let live. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">It makes for a much happier, more contented life.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">But, back to this book!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">According to Karen Knox in the preface, </span></div>
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<span style="color: #274e13;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>Dorothy Canfield Fisher published eleven novels between 1907 and 1939: </i></b></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #274e13;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>all of them illustrate her conviction that it is inner, personal change that makes the most difference in the lives of human beings rather than changes in external circumstances.</i></b> (viii)</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #274e13;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">And it is exactly this that I most appreciated about this book! Especially with regard to Stephen, the youngest and most ill-behaved of the three Knapp children. Though we also get 'inside the heads' of the other two older children, Henry and Helen, it is Stephen of whom we learn the most. </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #274e13;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">In Part One we learn of the wife, Evangeline's/Eva's, thoughts and behaviors during daily life. It is not good! I could connect directly with Eva in several ways... As the one person in the family to be relied upon...seemingly for <b>everything</b>! It was that way for me when raising children. Though at least Lester worked! Not so with the father of my children... She suffered from eczema, just as I did from ages 6-9. For me, it was simply a result of my mother's own anxious behaviors and actions toward me inducing these symptoms. It was quite unpleasant. I realized from the beginning Eva was inadvertently/unconsciously doing this to herself. And finally how I, like her, did everything 'from scratch' to save money and make a healthier home environment for the family. Though obviously it wasn't healthier for her. Unfortunately, Eva shared many personality characteristics with my own mother: perfectionism, anxiety over every little detail...of everything, and constant worry of what others thought...of both herself <b>and</b> me. Though my mother also excelled in criticizing every-body for every-thing, making for a very negative environment--I didn't get the impression Eva did that as she was too busy criticizing each and every little move her children and husband did or did not make! </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #274e13;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Lester's personality is also depicted in Part One. We learn he is suffering from constant indigestion, especially intense immediately after eating. I recognized this as a result Eva's constant 'vigilance'/criticism, although she made it a point to "never criticize their father before the children." Her silences made her disapproval quite clear to everyone, especially to Lester. They weren't even allowed to eat supper in peace but Eva was salting Helen's potatoes right on her plate until they suited Eva, and Stephen was told to take smaller mouthfuls, until eventually Eva states</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #274e13;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>I know I keep at the children all the time! But how can I help it? </i></b></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #274e13;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>They've got to learn, haven't they? It certainly is no <u>pleasure</u> to me to do it!</i></b></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #274e13;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;"><u>Somebody's</u> got to bring them up! </i>(22)</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #274e13;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">After supper one night she congratulates herself on never making "scenes" and never having "lost her self-control" until a "terrifying but really unavoidable breakdown" one night. Eva complains to herself that there were</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #274e13;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">...moments in a mother's life about which nobody ever warned you,...moments of arid clear sight when you saw helplessly that your children would never measure up to your standard, </i></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #274e13;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">never would be really close to you, because they were not your kind of human beings,...but </i></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #274e13;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">merely other human beings for whom you were responsible. How solitary it made you feel! </i>(36)</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #274e13;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Henry suffers from nausea and vomiting, which bouts appear to be a direct result of Eva's anger regarding anything that messes up her perfectly clean house! We learn that Helen is rather puny, often suffering from a cold. Eva actually corrects Helen's wringing out of the wash rags by redoing it and rehanging them in a 'perfect' fashion to dry. She constantly corrects and reminds the children how to do every single little thing in their life! How to walk. How to take off their shoes. How to place their shoes on the floor. They can't get more than a few feet into the house without being told how to do 3-4 different things! It's a wonder these people are still functioning at all. Though we can see they are about at a breaking point. Especially poor little Stephen who is still a preschooler and under his mother's thumb each and every minute of each and every day. Poor little guy...</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #274e13;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">As the book opens we see Eva scrubbing away all afternoon on the grease spots Henry has left on the kitchen floor by tipping the meat tray as he brought it into the kitchen from the dining room after supper the evening before. She is angry as hell about this! Then she notices Stephen is missing. She begins to hunt for him, getting angrier all the time, as the bucket of cleaning water in the kitchen cools while she hunts in every imaginable spot for her youngest child, who, we learn, is purposefully hiding from her! It's due to his Teddy-bear, which he has just discovered poorly hidden in a drawer in his/his parents' bedroom. (Due to limited space in their house, Stephen sleeps on a cot in Eva and Lester's bedroom.) Eva had confiscated it during the night until she had the opportunity to wash it. But Stephen had seen the results of a 'washed' Teddy-bear and it wasn't good... To Stephen </span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #274e13;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">...Teddy meant quiet and rest and safety...and Stephen needed all he could get of those elements </i></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #274e13;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">in his stormy little life, made up, so much of it, </i></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #274e13;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">of fierce struggles against forces stronger than he. </i>(11)</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #274e13;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #274e13;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>He would hold Teddy in his arms as long as he could, and hide, and let Mother call to him all she wanted to, while he braced himself to endure with courage the tortures that would inevitably follow...the scolding which mother called 'talking to him', the beating invisible waves of fury flaming at him from all over Mother, which made Stephen suffer more than </i></b></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #274e13;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>the physical blows which always ended things, for by the time they arrived </i></b></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #274e13;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>he was usually so rigid with hysteria himself that he did not feel them much.</i></b></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #274e13;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">Under the stairs...she would not think of that for a long time. </i></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #274e13;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">He crept in over the immaculately clean floor, drew the curtains back of him, sat upright, </i></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #274e13;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">cross-legged, holding Teddy to his breast with all his might, dry-eyed, scowling, </i></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #274e13;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">a magnificent sulphurous conflagration of Promethean flames blazing in his little heart. </i>(14-15)</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #274e13;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">This passage! Those descriptors! I read that passage several times just because...it was so powerful! I could easily picture Stephen...</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #274e13;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #274e13;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">As Stephen walks about the bedroom "drawing long breaths" he notes that </span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #274e13;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>The bed, the floor, the bureau, everything looked different to you in the times when </i></b></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #274e13;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>Mother forgot about you for a minute. It occurred to Stephen that maybe it was a rest to them, </i></b></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #274e13;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>too, to have Mother forget about them and stop dusting and polishing and pushing them around. They <u>looked</u> sort of peaceful, the way he felt. </i></b></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #274e13;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">He nodded his head to the bed and looked with sympathy at the bureau. </i>(11)</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #274e13;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Eva created so much tension that nobody could be healthy in the environment she created! It struck me yet again that if my mother and I had not lived with my grandmother so that she was my main caregiver, my daily life would have been so much worse! My mother would have been just as bad (or maybe even worse?) than Eva. I had been lucky in that regard. Not so for Stephen! Until...</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #274e13;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #274e13;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Lester despairs after having been fired from his job at the local department store and purposefully throws himself off his neighbor's icy roof as he ostensibly hauls water to try to extinguish a fire. His thought was to provide for Eva and the children via the life insurance money they would have as a result of his death. But as he later bemoans, he can't even cause his own death, but rather simply causes his legs to be useless in the aftermath. The medical prognosis is that he may be able to regain use with time, but there are no guarantees. </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #274e13;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #274e13;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Part Two depicts Jerome and Nell Willing, the two new co-owners of the local department store, inherited from Jerome's uncle who owned and managed it for many years. They are both college-educated with experience working in retail institutions and are determined to build this small-town store into a much more economically efficient machine. All for the good of the local/rural folks, of course! [Wink! Wink!] The fact that they would have more money is viewed simply as a bonus to the changes and expansion they have planned. They debate the need for a store manager to free Jerome to complete buying trips. If only they knew someone who would be capable and yet personable with customers... </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #274e13;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #274e13;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">And you guessed it! Three weeks after returning the Willings' check for $100 sent to her immediately following Lester's accident, Eva enters the store to ask for a job. Jerome has a practiced interviewing technique and recognizes what he feels is her natural affinity, knowledge, and pertinent skills set to work in retail. After all, her father owned and managed his own store in which she worked as a child/teen, so she also has on-the-job experience. It is many of those same skills that have worked to drive her children and husband to physical ailments as well as create an environment of nearly unbearable psychological stress for them. It isn't that Eva isn't a devoted "home-maker" or that she doesn't love each member of her family, it is just her emphasis on perfection with no regard for others' feelings or respect in the wake of her unrealistic expectations. </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #274e13;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #274e13;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">As you might well have also guessed, Eva excels at the store and is immediately promoted from stock girl to seller. She even takes notes in the evenings of her ideas/plans for work. Eva actually learns to overlook a 'less than perfectly' clean house when she is home. Her earnings allow them to hire a housekeeper who cleans once a week to prevent Eva from spending her leisure time working constantly in the house. (Per doctor's orders.) And then Miss Flynn, the department manager resigns and Eva is promoted and earning even more money than Lester ever made or ever thought he would be capable of making at the same store.</span></span><span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> Of course, Jerome and Nell plan to groom Eva to become the store manager they had foreseen needing. She fits in beautifully with their own management philosophy.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">This book has prompted me to relate plot details to a much greater degree than I usually do, but I feel it is very important to truly understanding the ramifications to each character in the book. Part Three depicts the astounding affect that Lester has on his children as he takes over as a true "home-maker" (not just "housekeeper") by cooking and caring for the children. Due to his physical limitations he is unable to accomplish much cleaning, but the children pitch in as they can. Friends and neighbors help as well. We learn Lester had befriended and helped quite a few people in town who were more than happy to return the favor in his hour of need. Lester provides to the children what Eva was unable to provide: patience, caring, and respect. She was very efficient in the pragmatic tasks of "house-keeping," but quite lacking in creating a nurturing, gentle, and kind environment. It is this section I liked best. Fisher does a very believable job of recreating how I would imagine these children might feel as they are freed to become themselves and develop their own interests and skills while experiencing a supportive relationship with their father. </span></div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-TQ99tqcGq8c/XeRjEoudWrI/AAAAAAAAHA4/9YkJK5bXpSIkO0iNMXhlU0gq2q1SOPXZgCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/literarywives2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="190" data-original-width="152" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-TQ99tqcGq8c/XeRjEoudWrI/AAAAAAAAHA4/9YkJK5bXpSIkO0iNMXhlU0gq2q1SOPXZgCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/literarywives2.jpg" width="256" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">And now for the Literary Wives portion </span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">of the review!</span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #351c75;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<b style="color: #351c75; font-family: "helvetica neue", arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">What does this book say about wives or </b></div>
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<b style="color: #351c75; font-family: "helvetica neue", arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">about the experience of being a wife?</b></div>
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<b style="color: #351c75; font-family: "helvetica neue", arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></b></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">One of my first observations is that finally we have </span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">a book which does not have a philandering male </span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">as the "husband." I appreciate that! </span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I admit that I was disappointed in all these </span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">characters </span><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">in Part Four which deals with the </span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">fact </span><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">that Eva and </span><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Lester both realize he has </span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">regained control of his legs and </span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">could walk if he chose to do so. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">However, rather than creating joy, </span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">this realization creates much more stress</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">for each of them as they consider the ramifications.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">An able-bodied male remaining at home as a "home-maker" while his wife works to provide income to support the family was just not feasible, according to Eva. She refuses to even consider this due to the social stigma of such an arrangement. Lester's refusal is based upon the benefits he now realizes he provides to his children, and the fact that Eva is much happier and more fulfilled by working outside the home than she ever was being a "home-maker." Though I would argue she was a "house-keeper" much more than a "home-maker," as distinguished by the title, which, according to Elaine Showalter's afterword, </span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b style="font-style: italic;">...clearly signaled [Dorothy Canfield Fisher's] subject and her educational mission...</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b style="font-style: italic;">Calling someone a "home-maker" rather than a 'house-keeper' </b></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b style="font-style: italic;">implies more importance, authority, and creativity. </b>(269)</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Although I had never thought of these two words in this way, I can recognize the underlying logic. It is stated multiple times in the book that being a wife instantly meant you were the home-maker, the patient caregiver, the nurturer. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">That complacent unquestioned generalisation, 'The mother is the natural home-maker' </i>(257)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Proved to not always be true! Just being born 'female' or just being in the designated 'working-at-home' role doesn't automatically mean you have these skills. I knew a woman who was a "stay-at-home" mom but her children literally lived with her parents until they started school and since her parents' home lay outside their home school district, they would stay with their parents Monday-Friday and spend weekends and all vacations at their grandparents' house. So just being at home all the time doesn't mean you are parenting, or necessarily an effective parent. Each of us is different, regardless of our role or gender. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Likewise, Lester feels himself to be a complete and total failure since </span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">he had long ago seen that he was incapable of giving to Eva and the children anything that anybody in the world would consider worth having. The only thing he was supposed </i></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">to give them was money, and he couldn't make that. </i>(68)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">So we see very distinct roles set by society for a woman as a wife and a man as a husband. One is to be at home caring for the house and children and the other is to earn sufficient income to support them all. However, if it weren't for Lester becoming the "home-maker," no one would have realized the trauma Stephen underwent regarding his Teddy-bear. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">What was terrifying to Lester was the thought that the conception of </i></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">trying to understand Stephen's point of view had been </i></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">as remote from their minds as the existence of the fourth dimension. </i>(145)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I can understand being so busy as a parent that you overlook and/or are oblivious to some aspects of your children's psychological needs. It is sad when that happens. It was this realization that awoke in him a "desire to get well, to live again."</span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Fisher addresses the issue of consumerism as she describes Jerome Willing's "notion of being a good business-man" was to exploit women by "play[ing] for his own purposes on a weakness of theirs only too tragically exaggerated already, their love for buying things." (That stereotype of a women always shopping/buying things!) He tried to ignore the fact that, in his opinion, Eva was doing the exact same thing. And although there is a strong emphasis on the rights of children to have love, security, and unconditional positive regard/respect, Fisher also points out that with the extra income from Eva's work, they would be able to save for their children's college education and provide more for their children. As Eva states,</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>She felt an impulsive longing to share her emotion with Lester, to put her arms </i></b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>about his neck and let him know that she did not take his loyalty, his gentleness, </i></b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>his faithfulness, his fineness, so coldly for granted as she had seemed.</i></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>She had been unhappy about their hideous poverty. That was all. It was abominable to be poor! </i></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>It brought out the worst in everyone. When you were distracted with worry about money, </i></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">you simply weren't yourself. </i>(236)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I do believe finances are at the heart of many relationship break-ups. Statistics do prove that out. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">As Lester considers the possibility of both he and Eva working he muses over the possibility of hiring someone to care for the children:</span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>...it was conceivable that by paying a high cash price you might be able to hire a little intelligence, </i></b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>enough intelligence to give them good material care. </i></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>But you could never hire intelligence sharpened by love. </i></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>In other words, you could not hire a parent.</i></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">And children without parents were orphans. </i>(255)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">As Lester contemplates the possibility of him being able-bodied once again, </span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>...the fanatic feminists were right, after all. Under its greasy camouflage of chivalry, </i></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>society is really based on a contempt for women's work in the home. </i></b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>The only women who were paid, either in human respect or money, </i></b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>were women who gave up their traditional job of creating harmony out of human relationships </i></b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">and did something really useful, bought or sold or created material objects. </i>(260)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It is true. You are paid nothing to be a full-time parent. But there is great satisfaction in knowing that you gave it 1000% when they were young and dependent. My finances as an older adult reflect the fact that I did not work outside my home for 13 years while raising my children, but I wouldn't trade the experiences with and insights into my children gained over those years for anything. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I can imagine this was quite a groundbreaking work when released in 1924. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Unfortunately, I fear we still have a long way to go before this changes significantly. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">But I do believe progress has been made and more and more people are learning to </span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">not only accept and respect, but also appreciate alternative family units to the </span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">"traditional" male-income-earner-husband and female-"home-maker'-mother model. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">The War of the Wives by Tamar Cohen</span></div>
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<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Join us March 2, 2020</span></div>
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Lynn @ Smoke & Mirrorshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00464153596817995684noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5883575980086212146.post-40114998681434377692019-08-05T06:17:00.002-05:002019-09-05T08:44:52.144-05:00Literary Wives #40<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><i><a href="https://www.europaeditions.com/book/9781609453862/ties">Ties</a></i> by Domenico Starnone </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-large;">translated by Jhumpa Lahiri</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Welcome to the 40th "wifely" book review for the <a href="https://books-n-music.blogspot.com/p/blog-page.html">Literary Wives</a> online discussion group!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">the other hosting bloggers' reviews:</span></div>
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<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Naomi of</span><span style="color: #990000; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> <a href="https://consumedbyink.ca/">Consumed by Ink</a></span></div>
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<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Kay of</span><span style="color: #990000; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> <a href="https://whatmeread.wordpress.com/">whatmeread</a></span><br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #274e13;">Eva of </span><a href="https://thepaperbprincess.wordpress.com/" style="color: #990000;">The Paperback Princess</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I will mention that I highly recommend reading Jhumpa Lahiri's introduction to this book. I loved the background she gave to her familiarity with this book and her knowledge of the Italian language. She gives a general outline of the book's organization as she views it and also some insight to her word choices as she translated. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I was fascinated by this cover image. And now that I've read the book, I believe I "get it." Since their father has been out of their life for several years, it is important to Anna (the younger child and only daughter) to determine whether it was their father who taught her brother (the elder child and only son) Sandro to tie his shoelaces, since he does it in a different way than Anna and her mother, Vanda. As Sandro tells Anna,</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>This story about the laces involves all of us. Dad came back for Mom, for me, for you.</i></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">And the three of us wanted him to come back. Get it? </i>(135)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Honestly, I'm not sure I get it! I guess Sandro's point is that Aldo didn't return to his family due to any <b>one</b> of them, but for all three of them. Though we learn he never truly <b>returned</b> in heart, only in physical presence and providing financial support. Once Vanda believed that Aldo had finally returned to his family to stay, the wedding band that she had once thrown across the room onto the floor during an argument with Aldo, who was estranged at the time, reappeared on her finger.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>It meant: I feel tied to you again, what about you?</i></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>The mute question had the new imperative tone, it demanded an immediate reply, silent or blaring.</i></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">I resisted for a few days, but I saw that she was turning the ring around her finger in an increasingly anxious way. </i>(108)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">So, although Aldo had at some point in the past cut his own wedding band off his finger, as he later admitted, symbolically cutting Vanda out of his life, he now relented and had a jeweler make a gold wedding band for him, engraved with the date of their reconciliation. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b style="font-style: italic;">Neither of us said anything. But in spite of the ring I had a lover </b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b style="font-style: italic;">almost immediately--</b></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b style="font-style: italic;">three months after I came back home--and I've been </b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b style="font-style: italic;">stubbornly unfaithful up until a few years ago. </b>(108)</span><i style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold;"> </i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">They are now in their seventies. All I could think was how awful that must have been. For him. For her. And especially for their children. You think children don't know, but I'm convinced they usually do, unless you do an extremely conscientious job of pretending. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">As I learned some 10 years after my own divorce, my youngest son, who was 16 and still living at home when I finally split from his father--my children were clueless. At least as far as my reasons for divorcing their father. I admit I can't believe they were not aware of the tension between us, but in effect, I am glad that they weren't. I knew I kept my mouth shut around them and only spoke to a couple of very close friends (as well as several different therapists!) of my unhappiness and dissatisfaction in the marriage. It took me two long-ass years to save every dime needed to file for divorce, but I was determined to pay for it myself...because, believe me...it <b>WAS</b> <b>personal</b>!! And I wanted him to know that. I wanted out at 10 years in and lasted another 12 before I could finally end it. I do believe many marriages would end much sooner if more women were financially secure, enough to support themselves and their children. Vanda was much the same. She began working at whatever job she could find and had to move due to not being able to afford to remain in the same house during those four years Aldo lived elsewhere. That was what kept me in my marriage, even though we rarely had enough money for living expenses, I only had two years of college completed and hadn't worked outside the home in 13 years, and I had no other financial resources as backup. And there were virtually no social safety net programs for people in such situations at the time. I did manage to complete my degree and then started working. I figured it was way past time that one of us did! ;) But enough about me...back to Vanda and Aldo.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">From the crisis of many years ago we have both learned that we need to hide a great deal from each other, and tell each other even less. It's worked. </i>(108)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I admit I kinda chuckled at Aldo calling his abandonment of his wife and children a "crisis"! I guess that's what he considered it to be, but naturally Vanda felt differently about it all. I did appreciate Starnone's organization of the book. We first read Vanda's version of their relationship, then we read Aldo's version of those same years. And boy, do we ever get two different versions, just as I'm sure would be true for any such two people in a relationship. Then finally, we have the two children, Sandro and Anna, who give the reader a summary of their own feelings, about each other, and their parents, particularly with regard to their marriage. I found this last perspective from the children to be the scariest. In some respects it would seem that we just have no idea as we "parent" through the daily routine of life exactly how we are affecting our own children. And although one parent, such as Vanda did, can represent a positive role model, the dysfunctional truth of the relationship overall is typically revealed to the children. Though they may not realize it themselves, their actions and behaviors could very well depict their own emotional trauma as they enter and continue through adulthood. That seemed to be the case for Sandro and Anna. I did have to chuckle at the way each of them could easily "analyze" the other. It is always most difficult to objectively analyze our own behaviors, isn't it? </span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">We are here to answer </span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">the Literary Wives question: </span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>What does this book say about wives or about the experience of being a wife?</b></span><br />
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Yet once again we have a heterosexual female who is committed to her relationship with a spouse and the biological father of her children, but he cannot stand the monotony and practical routines of childcare, working for a living, and having sex with the same woman for many many years. So, of course, he has a "crisis" and decides he must abandon his wife and children for a younger single woman. Sounds familiar, doesn't it? </span><br />
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I sometimes wonder if that ol' biological "instinct" for males to go plant their seed to increase the population of the tribe as much as possible is still active and well... It certainly seems to be the case. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; text-align: left;">Vanda writes a series of letters to Aldo during his four-year absence and it is her story we get first. I love how her first letter begins:</span><br />
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>In case it's slipped your mind, Dear Sir, let me remind you: I am your wife. </i></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">I know that this once pleased you and that now, suddenly, it chafes. </i>(23)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I love the visualization prompted by the word "chafe"! That is such an ugly and uncomfortable feeling! I could so readily relate to Vanda's feeling that this had happened so suddenly. That was exactly how I felt... It is an unreal feeling, just as if you were plopped down in the middle of a strange planet with no knowledge of the beings, their culture, etc. For me, it was totally disorienting. I felt much the same as Vanda. Although my ex-husband didn't take off and abandon us, it felt much as if he had. (I think even he was smart enough to realize I would probably hunt him down and shoot him if he did! :))</span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I did chuckle as I read the remainder of her first letter to Aldo:</span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">I bet she was the one who kissed you first. I know you're incapable of making the first move, </i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">either they reel you in or you don't budge.</i> (24)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Exactly! So many men are truly 'gutless wonders', in my experience. One thing my ex did say several times: "Women are the ones who truly get things done. If not for them, men would be lost." (Yes, he did have some sense on occasion...) Though this is certainly not ALWAYS true, it seems to hold up much more often than not. And her use of the plural pronoun <b>they </b>seemed to be quite telling, indicating to me that she was well aware this woman was not the first with whom Aldo had had sex with during their marriage of 12 years. Even if you are uncertain, as I was, I immediately told myself it didn't matter--I knew of ONE and ONE was enough! </span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>Do you want to know what I think?</i></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">I think you have yet to realize what you've done to me. It's as if you've stuck your hand down my throat and pulled, pulled, pulled to the point of ripping my heart out, don't you get it? </i>(24)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">As I read this, I said aloud, "No, he doesn't. He doesn't 'get it' and he doesn't care...about you or your children, or even that he doesn't 'get it'!"</span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Aldo explained that his "parents' miserable marriage ruined [his] childhood." I did cringe at Vanda's memory of his description of abuse:</span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>...you said that your father had wrapped barbed wire around your mother, and that every time </i></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">you saw a sharp clump of iron pierce her flesh you suffered.</i> (25)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I admit I cringed upon reading this description. And hell yes! Of course that child would suffer, and probably be psychologically disturbed to some degree for life! But these are your wife and children, to whom you should feel a lifelong devotion and commitment! It is your opportunity to be a partner and parent in a very different way than your father evidently did. To set a good example and be a positive role model for your own children--the exact opposite of what you evidently experienced! </span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Vanda continues to describe his machinations in stating how "imprisoned" they were by their marriage and parenting roles, and finally...</span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">It dawned on me somewhat late that you were trying to be helpful. </i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">You wanted to make me realize that, by destroying the life we shared, </i></span><i style="color: #351c75; font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold;">you were in fact </i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i style="color: #351c75; font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold;">freeing me and the children, and that we should be grateful for your generosity. </i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i style="color: #351c75; font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold;">Oh, thank you, how kind of you. </i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i style="color: #351c75; font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: bold;">And you were offended because I threw you out of the house? </i><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">(25)</span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">What a magnanimous gesture! Right?!? So his rationale was that he would get out of the marriage/parenting role before he could turn into the physical (and I'm sure mental/emotional) abuser his father had been. You know...if he left, it would keep them safe from him... All that sounds good, doesn't it?!? Not to me, but maybe someone would believe such bullshit. </span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I could definitely understand Vanda's fears that Aldo will turn their children and others against her...</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b style="color: #351c75; font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><i>You want to isolate me, to cut me out completely. And...you want to avoid </i></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>every attempt to reexamine our relationship. This is driving me crazy. </i></b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>I, unlike you, need to know; it's crucial that you tell me, point by point, why you've left. </i></b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>If you still consider me a human being and not an animal to ward off with a stick, </i></b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">you owe me an explanation, and it had better be a decent one.</i> (29)</span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I admit that some of these same thoughts went through my head, too. I wondered if he would try to turn my own children and/or others against me. But those were unnecessary worries. Everyone in my ex's own family except his mother and aunt felt it was way past time for me to have ended the marriage. Only two people were at all sympathetic toward him, even in his own family. That <b>is</b> sad... Though as far as I know, it didn't bother him at all, and he cut off virtually all ties he had with his family in the aftermath of the divorce. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">So exactly what does all this say about Vanda's role as a a wife? For me, the main message was that a "wife" is always stuck. She seems to be the one who is committed to the marriage as well as raising the children. She is long-suffering. However, for Vanda it is also a case of setting expectations for the future from that point forward. As Aldo notes, there is a "new imperative tone" Vanda uses with him. She is the one running the show and he is to acquiesce and do as told. I remember that same feeling once I decided to allow my ex to stay, as long as he got a job and gave me money to pay the bills such as rent, utilities, etc. That lasted two years until I could pay for a divorce. By that time he wasn't spending many nights at home anyway. Sometimes you just have to move on.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Vanda states that she married for love and then was committed to the relationship and particularly to parenting their children once they were born. She expressed incredulity that this wasn't the same for Aldo. I remember feeling the exact same thing. It was my assumption that my husband's commitment to our marriage and especially our children was the same as mine. I now realize the folly of that assumption, but just as Vanda did, I also assumed he would be there...he would remain faithful. But that was not the way it played out. I was also shell-shocked... How could anyone not carry through with their commitment? To their marriage. To their children. As I told my then-husband, for me, I disregarded the idea of "love" as a sense of commitment took over throughout the years. As Vanda states:</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">I believed real feelings never changed, especially in marriage. </i>(26)</span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Yep! You and me both, Vanda! And we both got caught up in a situation proving our assumptions to be dead wrong. I realized that at 10 years into my marriage I had never once considered whether I was "happy" or not. How sad is that?!? My sense of commitment to marriage and parenting overrode any other considerations. Not so for others, I soon discovered...</span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I had always felt that "divorce" was not in my vocabulary. I had to disabuse myself of that silly notion! I worked very hard for another 10 years to try to salvage my marriage, but finally decided I could never again be happy in that relationship, especially after discovering his unfaithfulness. I am evidently not the forgiving kind when it comes to this type of situation and the resulting feelings of betrayal and abandonment. Vanda was a much more pragmatic person than I, in the end. I eventually realized I had done everything I could do and it would not work...and then I began to consider my own feelings and prioritize around them. Lesson learned! </span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Vanda and Aldo were a good example of how feelings and people can change over time. And each of you must decide how you are going to handle those changes. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Will they drive you apart? Will you work together to resolve conflict and/or</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">make the relationship positive for each of you once again? </span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Or will you, as Aldo did, simply leave and refuse to 'work' on the relationship?</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">And was it a good thing for them to reunite?</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It's not as if their children didn't recognize and suffer in their own ways </span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">from their parents' dysfunctional relationship.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">That is quite obvious from their discussion and actions at the end of the book. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">If you've not read this book, I would recommend it.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It is rather short, yet dense, in my opinion.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">There is much revealed in those mere 150 pages!</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I am rarely ever forgiving of a spouse who is 'unfaithful'.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">How about you? </span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">What's next for Literary Wives?</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">On October 7th we will discuss</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i><a href="http://www.carol-shields.com/happenstance.html">Happenstance</a></i> by Carol Shields</span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-QXgoKzMGiNs/XUcvQQ6UU9I/AAAAAAAAG7I/nxdEnh-3gHY8vvUN7QbXh6KoaZqMjNK8wCLcBGAs/s1600/Happenstance%2BCvr%2BImage.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="226" data-original-width="147" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-QXgoKzMGiNs/XUcvQQ6UU9I/AAAAAAAAG7I/nxdEnh-3gHY8vvUN7QbXh6KoaZqMjNK8wCLcBGAs/s1600/Happenstance%2BCvr%2BImage.jpg" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This is a very uniquely formatted book.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Two books in one, really. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">One book reads front to back and the other back to front.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This should prove interesting!</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Happy reading!</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">~Lynn</span></div>
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<img height="320" src="https://i1.wp.com/www.24hourreadathon.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/summerRAT.png?w=1180" width="320" /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: purple; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">This <a href="http://www.24hourreadathon.com/">Dewey 24-Hour Reverse Readathon</a> worked well with the </span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: purple; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Bookworm Bitches' August 2019 Read-a-Thon </span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: purple; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">which is basically a weekend-long challenge to read as much as possible...</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: purple; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">each and every weekend in August! </span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-grzQmtDecU0/XUdj8L9CJlI/AAAAAAAAG7Y/Wuv7ubDXJbszJdJfjMplw4P0vNCvNOLxgCLcBGAs/s1600/A%2BClosed%2Band%2BCommon%2BOrbit%2BCvr%2BImage.jpe" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="278" data-original-width="181" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-grzQmtDecU0/XUdj8L9CJlI/AAAAAAAAG7Y/Wuv7ubDXJbszJdJfjMplw4P0vNCvNOLxgCLcBGAs/s1600/A%2BClosed%2Band%2BCommon%2BOrbit%2BCvr%2BImage.jpe" /></a></div>
<br />
<span style="color: purple; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I did end up finishing </span><i style="color: purple; font-family: verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Closed_and_Common_Orbit">A Closed and Common Orbit</a></i><span style="color: purple; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> by Becky Chambers, </span><br />
<span style="color: purple; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">the second installment in her Wayfarer series.</span><br />
<span style="color: purple; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Although this book only follows two of the Wayfarer characters from </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: purple;">the first book, </span><i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Long_Way_to_a_Small,_Angry_Planet"><span style="color: blue;">The Long Way to a Small and Angry Planet</span></a></i><span style="color: purple;">, </span></span><br />
<span style="color: purple; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">it was just as wonderful!</span><br />
<span style="color: purple; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Becky Chambers is one of my absolute favorite authors!</span><br />
<span style="color: purple; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I am so anxious to read the third in this trilogy, </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i><a href="https://www.hodder.co.uk/titles/becky-chambers/record-of-a-spaceborn-few/9781473647626/"><span style="color: blue;">Record of a Spaceborn Few</span></a></i><span style="color: purple;">.</span></span><br />
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-3dhP0IdHOhQ/XUdqkktyLKI/AAAAAAAAG8U/lEpnbkzkZ8UCveplynZPPWuQcrWesnmxQCLcBGAs/s1600/Record%2Bof%2Ba%2BSpaceborn%2BFew%2BCvr%2BImage.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="603" data-original-width="400" height="200" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-3dhP0IdHOhQ/XUdqkktyLKI/AAAAAAAAG8U/lEpnbkzkZ8UCveplynZPPWuQcrWesnmxQCLcBGAs/s200/Record%2Bof%2Ba%2BSpaceborn%2BFew%2BCvr%2BImage.jpg" width="132" /></a><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-7VQDDvdGp-k/XUdqjSOY7pI/AAAAAAAAG8Q/Bbjg-FezGaACv9NK-ZYBDVeqTpc3hrp_gCLcBGAs/s1600/The%2BLong%2BWay%2Bto%2Ba%2BSmall%2BAngry%2BPlanet%2BCvr%2BImage.jpe" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="281" data-original-width="179" height="200" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-7VQDDvdGp-k/XUdqjSOY7pI/AAAAAAAAG8Q/Bbjg-FezGaACv9NK-ZYBDVeqTpc3hrp_gCLcBGAs/s200/The%2BLong%2BWay%2Bto%2Ba%2BSmall%2BAngry%2BPlanet%2BCvr%2BImage.jpe" width="127" /></a><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: purple;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: purple;"><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /></span></span>
<span style="color: purple; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I read further in </span><i style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.europaeditions.com/book/9781609453862/ties"><span style="color: blue;">Ties</span></a></i><span style="color: purple; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> by Domenico Starnone, </span><br />
<span style="color: purple; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">which I actually finished reading today, Sunday, August 4. </span><br />
<span style="color: purple; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">And I am now composing my review to be posted tomorrow morning </span><br />
<span style="color: purple; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">for the <a href="https://books-n-music.blogspot.com/p/blog-page.html">Literary Wives</a> online book discussion group.</span><br />
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-sBL1ijiDW2Y/XUdqqWbO-aI/AAAAAAAAG8Y/pxu2A02aAvMaBOqCQRJleji-LC0sZ8HWgCLcBGAs/s1600/Ties-Starnone.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="467" data-original-width="300" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-sBL1ijiDW2Y/XUdqqWbO-aI/AAAAAAAAG8Y/pxu2A02aAvMaBOqCQRJleji-LC0sZ8HWgCLcBGAs/s320/Ties-Starnone.jpg" width="205" /></a><br />
<span style="color: purple; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">This was a uniquely formatted book. Each section reveals a different </span><br />
<span style="color: purple; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">character's interpretation of this long-term marriage. </span><br />
<span style="color: purple; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Definitely a realistic depiction in many ways.</span><br />
<span style="color: purple; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: purple; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Did you participate in this readathon?</span><br />
<span style="color: purple; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: purple; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">If so, what did you read? Or what have you been reading lately?</span><br />
<span style="color: purple; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: purple; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Happy reading!</span><br />
<span style="color: purple; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">~Lynn</span></div>
Lynn @ Smoke & Mirrorshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00464153596817995684noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5883575980086212146.post-48317552906235299582019-07-30T10:07:00.003-05:002019-08-04T18:01:57.991-05:00Dewey's Summer Reverse Readathon<div style="text-align: center;">
<img height="320" src="https://i1.wp.com/www.24hourreadathon.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/summerRAT.png?w=1180" width="320" /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: purple; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">This <a href="http://www.24hourreadathon.com/">Dewey 24-Hour Reverse Readathon</a> will work well with the </span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: purple; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Bookworm Bitches' August 2019 Read-a-Thon </span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: purple; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">which is basically a weekend-long challenge to read as much as possible...</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: purple; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">each and every weekend in August! </span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: purple; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I have found that I am even more motivated to read </span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: purple; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">just knowing I will post my progress on Monday morning! </span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: purple; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">(Or whenever I get to it later in the week! lol) </span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: purple; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: purple; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Here are the books I will target for this challenge:</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: purple; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: purple; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Closed_and_Common_Orbit">A Closed and Common Orbit</a></i> by Becky Chambers</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: purple; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">(If I have not had time to complete reading it by then!)</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: purple; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I am finding it to be a very easy read, even late at night when I'm tired. </span></div>
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<span style="color: purple; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i><a href="https://www.europaeditions.com/book/9781609453862/ties"><span style="color: blue;">Ties</span></a></i><span style="color: purple;"> by Domenico Starnone</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: purple; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">for the Literary Wives online book discussion group</span></div>
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<span style="color: purple; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">whose next posting is scheduled for Monday, August 5!</span></div>
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<span style="color: purple; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i><a href="https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250130921">The Wife Between Us</a></i> by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen</span></div>
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<span style="color: purple; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">for the August Popsugar Monthly Read!</span></div>
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<span style="color: purple; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i><a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/2354/the-girl-who-chased-the-moon-by-sarah-addison-allen/9780553385595/">The Girl Who Chased the Moon</a></i> by Sarah Addison Allen</span></div>
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<span style="color: purple; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">for the IRL "Borders" Book Club I facilitate!</span></div>
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<span style="color: purple; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i><a href="https://www.celesteng.com/little-fires-everywhere">Little Fires Everywhere</a></i> by Celeste Ng</span></div>
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<span style="color: purple; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">for an IRL book club at my favorite used bookstore!</span></div>
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<span style="color: purple; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I have been wanting to read this ever since I learned she had a second release.</span></div>
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<span style="color: purple; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I adored her debut novel, <i>Everything I Never Told You</i>. </span></div>
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<span style="color: purple; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: purple; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">So I have plenty to choose from! </span></div>
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<span style="color: purple; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">And...I have no plans for either Saturday or Sunday this coming weekend</span></div>
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<span style="color: purple; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">so I anticipate a lot of reading to be done!</span></div>
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<span style="color: purple; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: purple; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Good thing, 'cause I didn't get much read this past weekend, </span></div>
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<span style="color: purple; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">though I did purchase more books at my favorite bookstore's sidewalk sale! :)</span></div>
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<span style="color: purple; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Happy reading,</span></div>
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<span style="color: purple; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">~Lynn</span></div>
Lynn @ Smoke & Mirrorshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00464153596817995684noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5883575980086212146.post-70960022078162856652019-03-03T17:15:00.000-06:002019-03-05T13:58:48.215-06:00Secrets kept? Perhaps...but at what cost?<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><i><a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/548794/two-can-keep-a-secret-by-karen-m-mcmanus/9781524714727/">Two Can Keep a Secret...If One is Dead </a></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-large;">by <a href="https://www.karenmcmanus.com/two-can-keep-a-secret">Karen M. McManus</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Secrets are rarely a good idea, are they?!?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Though I guess it depends what the actual secret is and the context, doesn't it?</span></div>
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-bkBvEwbKxUE/XHw_pY6ioHI/AAAAAAAAG10/ZL5ii25L-nYYMzQPvJ8JeEE5u5qibj40QCLcBGAs/s1600/Two%2BCan%2BKeep%2Ba%2BSecret%2BCvr%2BImage.webp" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="282" height="200" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-bkBvEwbKxUE/XHw_pY6ioHI/AAAAAAAAG10/ZL5ii25L-nYYMzQPvJ8JeEE5u5qibj40QCLcBGAs/s200/Two%2BCan%2BKeep%2Ba%2BSecret%2BCvr%2BImage.webp" width="140" /></a><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I admit to being a bit more enamored with this book than McManus's debut, <a href="https://www.karenmcmanus.com/one-of-us-is-lying" style="font-style: italic;">One of Us Is Lying</a>, mainly due to the different story arcs.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">(And...neither cover is appealing to me for some reason.)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Though both mysteries are a bit creepy (for me, at least), </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">they are both, in my opinion, extremely well-written,</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">particularly with regard to characterization, especially </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">this second book. I loved Ellery and Ezra! (And what cool names!) </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">My suspicions kept bouncing around to virtually all characters</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">at one time or another as I read. (I love that about mysteries!) </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">And in the end, I didn't <i>fully</i> realize the solution </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">until Ellery and Ezra did! Of course, by then it was a bit too late, </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">at least for their own safety.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">While I typically have no qualms including spoilers in my reviews, I definitely will not do so for this book. But if you love mysteries or thrillers, I would highly recommend this book. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It is, in my opinion, a psychological thriller.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">McManus is now one of my favorite writers! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I fully appreciate the fact that one of the protagonists, Ezra, is a teenage male who happens to be gay. It is simply part of this character's background. Very cool...no big deal...that's just how it is. I'm glad that literature/novels can simply reflect the diversity of humanity. Ezra is the male portion of a set of fraternal twins, along with his sister, Ellery, who tends to be very analytical, always looking for connections, or as several characters say, creating "conspiracy theories." She has always been extremely interested in the seemingly inexplicable and sudden disappearance of her aunt, her mother's identical twin sister at the age of 17. And since her mother is now in residential rehab for challenges with addiction, she and Ezra are forced to move in with their maternal grandmother in the small town where her mother and aunt grew up, Echo Ridge. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Fortunately for Sadie, their mother, although she drove through and destroyed a store front, the judge overseeing her case believes in "treatment" rather than jail time. Hence their grandmother is paying for Sadie's rehabilitation treatment and also raising her grandchildren until their mother can hopefully return to daily life and resume responsibility for them. Sadie was a rather unsuccessful actress near Hollywood in California and the twins have lived in some fairly undesirable apartments and neighborhoods throughout their lifetime, so Echo Ridge is 'pastoral' by comparison and their grandmother's house is large with more-than-enough room to live comfortably. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">However, on the drive to Echo Ridge from the airport, they encounter a hit-and-run victim in the road who is already dead. He would have been Ellery and Ezra's high school teacher had he lived. No one can unravel the mystery of his death until Brooke is drunk one night and behaves in such a way as to inadvertently initiate an investigation by Ellery which eventually leads to her and the police identifying the killer. I could appreciate Mr Bowman's epitaph on his tombstone:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>Tell me and I forget</i></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>Teach me and I may remember</i></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">Involve me and I learn </i>(49)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">So very true! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Having lived in small towns, or rural/"country" areas outside of small towns, I felt McManus's descriptions of the interactions and immediate spreading of news, rumors, and gossip, were spot on. The older I get the less I can bear the pettiness that results from such a social environment. I guess I should pity those who have nothing better to do with their lives than 'spy' on friends, neighbors, and enemies, and then talk about everyone behind their backs. My mother was a champion at that, so perhaps that helps explain my disgust with such behaviors. It is harmful. No matter how a person may justify it, it can do so much harm to innocent and even not-so-innocent people. My motto has always been, "If they're talking about me, at least they're leaving some other poor innocent person alone..." :)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Ellery perfectly describes her role as peacemaker and "positive communicator" with her mother as they begin a telephone conversation:</span></div>
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<b><i><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">I could refuse to play along, I guess. But as my eye catches the photo of her and her sister on my bookcase, I already feel myself wanting to please her. To smooth things over and make her smile. </span></i></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">I've been doing it my entire life; it's impossible to stop now. </i>(36)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">So many times this is exactly how it is with children of parents with erratic personalities and other challenges, especially addiction. They, in effect, attempt to not only serve as parents to themselves, but also to 'parent' their own parents! They never get to be children! Another telling scene is Ellery's relief and pleasure when her grandmother encourages her to consider where she might like to attend college and to schedule her SAT exams. When she describes her lack of interest in the past due to financial insecurity, her grandmother assures Ellery that she will help her. I appreciated how this opened up all new avenues of possibilities and hope for a better future for Ellery and Ezra. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">One of Ellery and Ezra's Echo Ridge friends is Malcolm, brother of Declan, former Homecoming King, and boyfriend of the Homecoming Queen who was murdered in Echo about 5 years ago...at the age of 17. Unfortunately, he was the main suspect and appears to still manage to be at the wrong place at the wrong time...therefore, when Malcolm is the last person to see Brooke alive, it appears he may well be carrying on a frightening 'family tradition as suspect number one', just as Declan was in the past. Brooke was on the Homecoming Court and may have become Homecoming Queen herself, had she not disappeared in the 2 weeks prior to the Echo Ridge Homecoming weekend. Malcolm has always resented the fact that Declan was able to simply move away from Echo Ridge and didn't have to continue to deal with the town gossip and rumor mill about himself. Although once Declan returns and connects with his little brother, Malcolm realizes that "Declan's life is a lot shitter up close than it seems from a state away." Declan's move to another location certanly didn't solve all his problems. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Ellery becomes obsessed with her desire to "do something. For the missing girls, and the ones left behind." It is always a challenge for those left alive to deal in the aftermath of a disappearance or murder. There is a breakthrough in the 'case' when Brooke becomes drunk and states,</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">I need to get it back. I shouldn't have...I just shouldn't have. </i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">I have to show them. It's not right, it's not okay. </i>(135)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This is only the beginning of many clues and unanswered questions for Ellery, Ezra, and Malcolm, as they try to solve several different crimes. In the process of investigating, Ellery and Ezra discover the identity of their previously-unknown-to-them biological father, as well as a whole new family of half-siblings. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">There is a missing custom-made bracelet,</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">a high school class ring at a murder site, </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">a receipt for car repairs under a fictitious name, </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">and...paper clips.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">And you are a better investigator than I if you solve all three of these crimes </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">before Ellery and Ezra do...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I highly recommend this book if you like mysteries!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Have you read any good mysteries lately?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Are you anxiously anticipating the release of any new ones?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">My message to Ms. McManus: All I ask is that you please keep writing--faster!! :)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Happy reading!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">--Lynn</span></div>
Lynn @ Smoke & Mirrorshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00464153596817995684noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5883575980086212146.post-7687640121904772762019-02-24T12:06:00.002-06:002019-02-25T10:21:48.132-06:00Classics Club Spin #19: Giovanni's Room<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giovanni%27s_Room" target="_blank">Giovanni's Room</a></i> </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><span style="color: #351c75;">by</span> </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Baldwin" style="font-family: "helvetica neue", arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: xx-large;" target="_blank">James Baldwin</a></div>
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-OtNO04iLRsI/XGYs_OkiMDI/AAAAAAAAG1I/6ACvLHeTBOsiyvoJ5BeZAR6h9YeC7ffDgCLcBGAs/s1600/Giovanni%2527s%2BRoom%2BCvr%2BImage.jpe" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="281" data-original-width="180" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-OtNO04iLRsI/XGYs_OkiMDI/AAAAAAAAG1I/6ACvLHeTBOsiyvoJ5BeZAR6h9YeC7ffDgCLcBGAs/s1600/Giovanni%2527s%2BRoom%2BCvr%2BImage.jpe" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This man was so talented!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I felt compelled to read more of his work </span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">after reading and reviewing </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://books-n-music.blogspot.com/2015/01/classics-club-spin-8-intense-honesteye.html" style="font-style: italic;" target="_blank">Go Tell It on the Mountain</a>.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This book did not disappoint! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #351c75;">Neither did</span> <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fire_Next_Time" target="_blank">The Fire Next Time</a> </i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">which I read just before <i>Giovanni's Room</i>. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">My immediate reaction to reading this book:</span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">"Wow... That was really depressing..."</span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">However, depressing as <b>I </b>may have felt it to be, </span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I quickly decided this was likely an accurate reflection </span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">of more than just one man's conundrum </span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">when faced with sexual attraction </span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">that did not appear to fit </span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">with the heterosexual norm </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">of the time. </span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This book begins with David looking out of the window of the house in southern France that he and Hella had rented. This is following Hella's departure and an official end to their engagement. He is wondering if he ever really truly loved Hella at all... Then we learn that he had been living with Giovanni. In his "room." It was literally only a room. And not even "big enough for two." In so many ways...</span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">David muses that perhaps his desire to "moor" himself to Hella and her decision to accept his proposal while traveling in Spain was nothing more than a desire to dispense with their "freedom," which he believes to be "nothing more unbearable, once one has it, than freedom." This is a rather well-worn conundrum. How effective is a human at handling complete "freedom," as it were? And, really, is there such a thing? I believe that in reality all of us humans "conform" to many varied social and cultural expectations, else there would be complete chaos and no cooperation or coordination amongst us, wouldn't there?</span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>But people can't, unhappily, invent their mooring posts, their lovers, and their friends,</i></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>anymore than they can invent their parents. Life gives these and also takes them away</i></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">and the great difficulty is to say Yes to life. </i>(10)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In recalling his first sexual encounter with another man, David depicts his great shame at the "vileness" represented by the tangled sheet at the foot of Joey's bed. Then he fears losing his manhood if others find out and finally, of his own father, who has no one (David believes) but him in his life since David's mother had died. Though it's rather obvious that David's father is an alcoholic who more often than not drags himself home late at night 'drunk as a skunk', as they say. His father's sister, Ellen, with whom they live, tries to get his father to realize what affect his behaviors can have on David:</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>'I certainly don't care...what you do with yourself. It isn't you I'm worried about...</i></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>It's only that you're the only person who has any authority over David...</i></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>And he only listens to me when he thinks it pleases you. </i></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>Do you really think it's a good idea for David to see you staggering home drunk all the time?</i></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>And don't fool yourself...that he doesn't know where you're coming from, </i></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">don't think he doesn't know about your women!' </i>(3)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Unfortunately, David had never even considered women in his father's life...until then. And forever after he could never see a woman without wondering if his father had been "interfering" with her... Their argument concluded,</span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>'And listen,' said my father suddenly, from the middle of the staircase, </i></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>in a voice which frightened me, 'all I want for David is that he grow up to be a man. </i></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>And when I say a man, Ellen, I don't mean a Sunday School teacher.'</i></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>'A man,' said Ellen, shortly, 'is not the same thing as a bull. Good-night.'</i></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>'Good-night,' he said, after a moment. </i></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>And I heard him stagger past my door.</i></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>From that time on, with the mysterious, cunning, and dreadful intensity of the very young, </i></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>I despised my father and hated Ellen...I don't know why.</i></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>But it allowed all of Ellen's prophecies about me to come true. </i></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>She had said that there would come a time when nothing and nobody would be able to rule me, </i></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">not even my father. And that time certainly came. It was after Joey. </i>(23-24)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">David admits</span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>The incident with Joey had shaken me profoundly and its effect was to make me secretive and cruel. I could not discuss what had happened to me with anyone, </i></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>I could not even admit it to myself; and, while I never thought about it, it remained, </i></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>nevertheless, at the bottom of my mind, </i></b></span><b style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><i>as still and as awful, as a decomposing corpse. </i></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>And it changed, it thickened, it soured the atmosphere of my mind. </i></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>Soon it was I who came staggering home late at night, it was I who found Ellen waiting up for me, </i></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">Ellen and I who wrangled night in and night out. </i>(24-25)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This basically sets the tone for the whole novel, as David later becomes embroiled in an affair with Giovanni, while his fiance is traveling in Spain, trying to decide whether she wishes to accept David's proposal of marriage. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I could not help but wonder what affect a more open society might have had on David. When he specifically mentions there is NO ONE with whom he can speak about his male-to-male encounter with Joey and his father's irresponsible and neglectful behaviors. Would counseling have helped David better cope with these experiences? I just can't imagine that having someone he could trust to confess these feelings to wouldn't have helped him and perhaps he could have better determined his place in this world. Am I being too hopeful? An eternal optimist? I don't know, but I can't think it would have made his situation and adult life any less than it was... He was a "lost soul," in my opinion. And I felt so very sorry for him at this point. To feel totally abandoned, on your own, with no confidante or other support...that can be disabling. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>We were not like father and son, my father sometimes proudly said, we were like buddies.</i></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>I think my father sometimes actually believed this. I never did. </i></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">I did not want to be his buddy; I wanted to be his son. </i>(26)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">A friend and I were discussing this very issue just the other day. It is a line that can be very difficult to determine sometimes--as a parent you don't want to alienate your child, yet there are situations when you must assert yourself as the "parent" and risk that occurring. And there is no tried and true "rule" to follow, it is a crap-shoot at best, and each child and parent relationship is totally unique to those two individuals. There is nothing easy about it. But it is obvious that David's father was living his own life independent of any parental responsibility or positive role modeling. Therefore, David is adrift in life and never seems to achieve any sense of stability. David continues,</span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>He wanted no distance between us; he wanted me to look on him as a man like myself. </i></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">But I wanted the merciful distance of father and son, </i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">which would have permitted me to love him. </i>(26)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">David is hospitalized after causing a wreck in his car which was full of his friends. It is after his father's visit that he realizes his father is in no shape to be a true parent. David finally moves out on his own which creates enough distance </span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>...much easier to deal with him and he never had any reason to feel shut out of my life </i></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>for I was always able, when talking about it, to tell him what he wished to hear. </i></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">And we got on quite well, really, for the vision I gave my father of my life </i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">was exactly the vision in which I myself most desperately needed to believe. </i>(30)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It is at this point in the book that Baldwin waxes philosophical in a way I believe only he can/could do...</span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>...I am--or I was--one of those people who pride themselves on their willpower, </i></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>on their ability to make a decision and carry it through. </i></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>This virtue, like most virtues, is ambiguity itself.</i></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">People who believe that they are strong-willed and the masters of their destiny </i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">can only continue to believe this by becoming specialists in self-deception. </i>(30)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">As he continues within that long paragraph I realize that I have lived in exactly that same self-deception in adulthood. I convinced myself at 10 years into my first marriage that I could do this. I could manage to withstand a spouse who refused to work for consistent income and spent every evening drunk, to raise my sons in a home where I could provide a counter-influence as a responsible hard-working adult. I managed to convince myself I had done exactly that for another 12 years, but at what cost to myself. For those 12 years I was rarely ever "happy" as a person, but I managed to survive, as did my sons. There was much chaos and some tragedy, but I don't know that our lives would have ended any better if I had left at that time and immersed us into dire poverty. If only I'd had financial security, then I could have established a single-parent household and provided a relatively secure future for my children. But I didn't have any money to fall back on and had to make the best decisions I could at the time. But yes, it did definitely require me to become a "specialist in self-deception." I had to continually convince myself this was the best decision of all alternatives. I could indeed do this... Baldwin is so very intellectual, yet so very perceptive and emotionally aware. And...he could put all that into words that resonate so deeply and clearly, even 63 years later!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">As I read, I kept reminding myself that this book was first published in 1956!! Amazing! I would think Doubleday & Company took quite a risk in releasing this book at that period of time in the US. The world, especially in the US was decidedly NOT open to such sexuality! At least not in my part of the world, the US midwest. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">David describes how his life continued in much the same pattern, he would convince himself he could be heterosexual until he found himself attracted to and in bed with another male which occurred intermittently throughout his life. Even while in the army, with another soldier who was eventually court-martialed out for his sexuality. It is when Giovanni enters his life that he finally submits to a full-on relationship with another man...</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>The room was small, I only made out the outlines of clutter and disorder, </i></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>there was the smell of the alcohol he burned in his stove. He locked the door behind us, </i></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>and then for a moment, in the gloom, we simply stared at each other--</i></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>with dismay, with relief, and breathing hard. I was trembling. </i></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>I thought, if I do not open the door at once and get away from here, I am lost. </i></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">But I knew I could not open the door, I knew it was too late; </i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">soon it was too late to do anything but moan. </i>(86)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">What struck me the strongest was the immediate immersion of David into Giovanni's sub-culture of homosexuality. As if there is a separate world within society-at-large to which "these people" are relegated. And I assume that is true. One of my cousins lived in just such a world and I did somewhat understand that his sexuality plunged him into a "sub-culture," a world in which I could never be a part. And that is just so sad, in my opinion, because it automatically creates separation and that sense of social isolation--having no one in whom you can confide or even just honestly share your thoughts and feelings, let alone life experiences. He eventually turned to drugs and alcohol to escape or numb himself to the reality of his life and died young. Although his family has never, to my knowledge, honored or publicly acknowledged his death and life, I think of him each and every day, concentrating on the positive memories. That is my homage to him, and hopefully, thereby to all who are similarly marginalized by our society. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>...Giovanni had lost his job and we walked around in the evenings. Those evenings were bitter.</i></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>Giovanni knew that I was going to leave him, but he did not dare accuse me for fear of being corroborated. I did not dare to tell him. Hella was on her way back from Spain </i></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>and my father had agreed to send me money, which I was not going to use to help Giovanni, </i></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">who had done so much to help me. I was going to use it to escape his room. </i>(100)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I believe Giovanni did love David, and perhaps too much. Giovanni struck me as a "clinger," someone who wants one person to provide him/her with everything necessary in their life, to be with them every second possible and have no separate life experiences--"smothering," in a word. This made Giovanni quite vulnerable, as David became all too aware. Though David realized he must leave in order to 'save himself,' as it were. Added to this was the claustrophobic atmosphere created by "the room," which Baldwin does an excellent job of describing to make the reader feel the cloistered atmosphere contained therein. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">David takes the coward's way out, just simply leaving Giovanni, with no forewarning, effectively abandoning him. (I admit I hated him for doing that to Giovanni. Though in a demented way, I could kinda understand...) In the aftermath, Giovanni becomes partner to a "sugar daddy" and eventually is convicted of killing a man and is sentenced to death. Once Hella returns to France from Spain, David tries to "find [his] way in her again, as though she were a familiar, darken'd room in which I fumbled to find the light." Ah, what great literary talent! Referring back to "that room" but in the context of trying to re-establish a heterosexual relationship with Hella! Their first evening upon being reunited in Paris,</span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>I held her close and kissed her, closing my eyes. </i></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>Everything was as it had been between us, and at the same time everything was different. </i></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>I told myself I would not think about Giovanni yet, I would not worry about him yet;</i></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>for tonight, anyway, Hella and I should be together with nothing to divide us. </i></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>Still, I knew very well that this was not really possible: he had already divided us. </i></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">I tried not to think of him sitting alone in that room, wondering why I stayed away so long. </i>(160)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Ah, it would seem David's ability at self-delusion has finally self-destructed...</span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It is in David's last encounter with Giovanni that his inability to reconcile his homosexuality with the reality of his life expresses itself as he accuses Giovanni of being afraid to "go after a woman":</span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>[Giovanni] was pale. 'You are the one who keeps talking about <u>what</u> I want. </i></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>But I have only been talking about <u>who</u> I want.'</i></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>'But I'm a man, [David] cried, 'a man! What do you think can <u>happen</u> between us?'</i></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>'You know very well,' said Giovanni slowly, 'what can happen between us. </i></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">It is for that reason you are leaving me...<u>If</u> I could make you stay, I would.' </i>(189)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I felt so very sorry for Giovanni at this point. While I had some insight into David's decision, I still felt sympathy for Giovanni--he was in love! That is all he knew! And although David did love him, he realized, for a myriad of reasons, he was unable to commit to their relationship long-term. Always sad for one person to be totally committed and the other is unable to reciprocate those feelings... And then, David is similarly unable to commit to Hella, in that she senses his reticence in their own relationship which now exists, and she is unable to accept his distance and their lack of sincere spontaneous interaction. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I particularly appreciated Baldwin's emphasis on Guillarme, the murdered man, being mythologized in the aftermath of his death, mainly owing to the fact that his family once held an immense fortune and well-known history of affluence. Other homosexual males living in the same area were totally shunned by society, as was he in his lifetime. Amazing what a difference 'social status' can make, isn't it?</span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">As mentioned above, I initially thought this was a depressing read, but then realized it was simply a description of life for those who are marginalized and forced to try to reconcile their feelings in accordance with society's mores and norms, and that more often than not, this is impossible for individuals to accomplish successfully. Ah...it is just so sad...</span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Have you read this novel?</span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Have you ever wondered about it?</span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I would strongly recommend that you experience it for yourself. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I found it to be informative and enlightening in a very personal way.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I could easily connect certain aspects of David's relationships to my own.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Happy reading!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">--Lynn</span></div>
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Lynn @ Smoke & Mirrorshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00464153596817995684noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5883575980086212146.post-49094646728391099662019-02-14T19:13:00.003-06:002019-02-15T12:57:41.478-06:00Literary Wives #37<br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><i><a href="https://www.persephonebooks.co.uk/they-were-sisters.html" target="_blank">They Were Sisters</a></i> <span style="color: #274e13;">by</span> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dorothy_Whipple" target="_blank">Dorothy Whipple</a></span></div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-SIgE5ypHaxg/XFd9fuQOITI/AAAAAAAAG0g/uSIcWe7hYG4CNZQFF6I5Rdzh8VH7kymKgCLcBGAs/s1600/They%2BWere%2BSisters%2BCvr%2BImage.jpe" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="266" data-original-width="190" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-SIgE5ypHaxg/XFd9fuQOITI/AAAAAAAAG0g/uSIcWe7hYG4CNZQFF6I5Rdzh8VH7kymKgCLcBGAs/s1600/They%2BWere%2BSisters%2BCvr%2BImage.jpe" /></a><span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Dorothy Whipple is now one of my favorite authors. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I do not remember which of the Literary Wives' </span></div>
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<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">hosting bloggers </span><span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">submitted this as a suggested read, </span></div>
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<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">but I am so very glad they did!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This exemplifies what I term to be "classical writing";</span></div>
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<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">a "slice of life," if you will, with an emphasis</span></div>
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<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">on characterization and not so much on 'action'.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I cannot remember when I have despised a character </span></div>
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<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">as </span><span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">much as I despised Geoffrey. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Honestly, as I read, I was fantasizing all </span></div>
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<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">sorts of ways </span><span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">in which he could die...</span></div>
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<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">preferably a very slow and extremely painful death...</span></div>
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<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">much as that to which he subjected Charlotte, his wife.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This book was originally released in 1943.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Celia Brayfield's afterword </span><span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">in the </span><span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Persephone print edition </span><span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">describes Whipple's writing process, explaining that she required several years to complete this book, </span><span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">given the distraction that was WW II. </span><span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In actuality it was released as a serial publication and it wasn't until the first installments were released that she was truly able to focus and finally complete the book. </span><span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I hope to make time to watch the movie sometime this next week. It will be particularly interesting to view the performance of James Mason since it has been noted as an incredibly skilled portrayal of the reprehensible Geoffrey Leigh. Interestingly, Mason admitted to filming while suffering from "a permanent hangover" as a way to deal with his frustration of the role and the British film industry in general at the time. (Wikipedia) I would think any decent human being would need to use some sort of personality-altering substance to enact such an evil and cruel persona. Ugh! </span><br />
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<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">At least 3-4 times throughout the book Whipple sneaks in some social commentary regarding urban environments juxtaposed against rural/country environments. Being a displaced 'farm girl', I appreciated her comments regarding the fact that humans have truly messed up their world. Lucy muses about the need for people living in cities to keep themselves "aloof" while not engaging with every person they encounter as a matter of self-preservation since they would be exhausted otherwise. Whereas, those living in the country have such peace and tranquility living in comparative isolation, that they can still enjoy and welcome interacting with others when the opportunity presents itself. Quite insightful! Though as usual Lucy is appalled by Vera's lack of tact and foresight when she claims in a loud and clear voice while riding the train into town that she never does know what "that stuff" is in the fields... These people make their living by planting, harvesting, and selling "that stuff" and Lucy imagines she can sense the "shock" such a seemingly uncaring and inconsiderate comment sends throughout the other train passengers.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">As you may surmise, this book describes the marriages of all three sisters: Charlotte, Vera, and Lucy. Each marriage is unique, as is each sister. Lucy is the oldest who at the age of 18 in the wake of their mother's death had to forego her educational/career plans to become full-time caretaker of the house, her siblings (Charlotte 13, Vera 11), and serve as her father's companion. She fulfilled these duties until her sisters were married and her father had died. While she could remember her mother sitting in a chair and knitting in the evenings while overseeing the children and "listening" to her father, Lucy soon realized her mother was NOT actual listening to him but rather simply responding as if she was, which was enough to keep him talking. He felt renewed by such 'conversation' with his wife. However, once Lucy truly began listening to him, she noted that he charged her with helping him </span><br />
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<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><b>...keeping the boys straight and watching continually over the girls. </b></i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><b>There was a strain of wildness or weakness in the family.</b></i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b style="font-style: italic;">'From your mother's side, you understand,' he said. 'Not from mine. </b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b style="font-style: italic;">My people, Lucy, are and always have been a steady, upright, God-fearing lot.' </b>(3-4)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Lucy realizes she and her siblings have always poked fun at her father's family for not being as fun as her mother's family, but now that she must assume responsibility for them all, she "sees the dangers." Interesting how the change in roles shifts her perceptions! </span><br />
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<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Charlotte and Vera, especially Vera, treated Lucy just as they would a parent, becoming silent once she entered a room, lying to her...</span><br />
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<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>They made her weep into her pillow at night, because she loved them with all her heart.</i></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">They were her responsibility, her anxiety and her happiness. </i>(8)</span></div>
<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Ah, yes, children can easily bring you joy as well as heartache. Once her sisters were married and her father had passed on, Lucy </span><span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">was finally able to live her own life and managed to marry a man everyone considered to be "solid" and "stolid" but who became almost as loving and caring as Lucy through the years as he helped her deal with her family. He was kind and considerate--a true partner in so many ways. They were not blessed with any biological children of their own, but ended up parenting some of Lucy's nieces/nephews. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Vera was the "beauty" of the three and quite the drama queen! She would lie and manipulate to get her way even with her own siblings! Her family would cater to her every whim, even allowing her to lead whenever they were together simply "ranging" behind her. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Charlotte is charmed by Geoffrey and becomes his abuse victim until her untimely death as a result of alcohol and drug addiction to escape/cope with her daily life. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">We are here to answer </span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">the Literary Wives question: </span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><b>What does this book say about wives or about the experience of being a wife?</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Please make sure you read </span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">the other hosting bloggers' reviews:</span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Emily of <a href="https://thebookshelfofemilyj.com/2019/02/04/dorothy-whipples-they-were-sisters/">The Bookshelf of Emily J</a></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Naomi of <a href="https://consumedbyink.ca/2019/02/04/literarywives-they-were-sisters-by-dorothy-whipple/">Consumed by Ink</a></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Kay of <a href="https://whatmeread.wordpress.com/2019/02/04/review-1311-literary-wives-they-were-sisters/">whatmeread</a></span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #20124d;">Eva of </span><a href="https://thepaperbprincess.wordpress.com/2019/02/04/literary-wives-they-were-sisters/">The Paperback Princess</a></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">#LiteraryWives</span><br />
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">I thought this book had much to say about </span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">"being a wife"!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">There were three marriages and </span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">three very different relationships...</span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The book opens with a scene of Lucy and William at the breakfast table. Amazingly, William's treatment of his tie in the mornings denotes much about Lucy's marriage...</span><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">He knew he was splashing, too, because from time to time he made absent dabs at the tie </i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">with his free hand, rubbing the porridge in under the delusion that he was rubbing it away. </i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">This was a concession to Lucy. He didn't care about his tie, but he knew she did and </i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">Lucy felt a faint pride. After eleven years of marriage she was still secretly gratified </i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">by any evidence of her influence over William, because William was less influenced by other people than seemed humanly possible. If William didn't go his own way, which he usually did, </i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">he went hers; but never, if he could help it, other people's. </i>(1)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Awww...isn't that sweet? I felt this scene accurately depicted this marriage grounded in mutual respect where each person worked with the other. In my opinion, any relationship between two people requires certain "concessions," but especially if people are living together, and particularly if they are in an intimate relationship. I gathered that William and Lucy had a stable relationship where each was comfortable with the other. As a wife, Lucy seems to have maintained her nurturing behaviors much as she had and continued to apply to both of her sisters, and now also to their children. She was a born nurturer. I do believe that was a basic foundation of her personality, but also perhaps it had been further developed as a result of serving as mother to her siblings and companion to her father in the wake of her own mother's death. This was definitely the best of the three marriages...it just goes downhill from here.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Vera, the spoiled brat "beauty," </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">ends up marrying Brian who provides quite well for himself, his wife, and children. Though we do learn that his mother contributed most of the money that allowed Vera to constantly host dinners and parties, and paid for many of the servants. However, Vera being Vera, she decides her husband is boring and seeks male companionship elsewhere. Right under poor Brian's nose! In their own/his house! She is constantly playing hostess and guests are seemingly always in the house. Neither she nor Brian spend much time with their two daughters, Meril and Sarah. Vera fully expects to be waited upon hand and foot, wherever she is! </span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In the wake of his mother's death, Brian ends up moving to the United States, taking Meril (and her new governess) along. Ostensibly, this move would enable him to run the United States portion of the business more closely and would be safer in the event of war. Eventually he invites Vera and Sarah to join him as he chooses to remain in the U.S. In response to Vera's insistence to remain in the U.K., he divorces her and marries the governess. Ha! Then Vera becomes enamored with Terry, a younger man who is married to another woman. Though it is his wife who actually has money and supports them. Vera does everything possible to retain her good looks, including dying her hair which was unheard of in 1943. In the end, she refuses to believe the reality of Terry's manipulation of her teenage niece, Judith, and decides to be just as victimized as was Charlotte; they are moving to South Africa to 'camp'. As Lucy's husband, William, notes, that 700 a year from Vera will likely prove handy to Terry, and her, as they embark upon this camping expedition/lifestyle. Vera. Camping. Yeah, that's a laugh! This, the woman who must have everything done for her!</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Once Sarah and Judith both walk up to Vera's house, each with a packed suitcase, Lucy realizes they will remain there and just hopes that Vera will relinquish custody to her. Though she is rather concerned about William's reaction to two teenage girls living with them permanently, she needn't have been. Upon being asked, William replies,</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">'They're an improvement upon their mothers in one way, at least...</i></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">They obviously think of each other instead of all the time of themselves.' </i>(440)</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It was ironic that of these three sisters, only one appeared to have a truly nurturing nature, but she is the one to never become pregnant and have children of her own. Thankfully for Sarah and Judith, she is able to take them in and finally provide a loving environment with subtle direction and guidance. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">And finally we come to the <strike>victimization/</strike>'marriage' of poor Charlotte. Whereas Vera had all the self-confidence in the world, Charlotte seemingly had none. The only thing she appeared to be certain of was her sick devotion to her "husband" (only in a legal sense)/abuser Geoffrey Leigh. As Brayfield notes, this book was quite unique in that it was one of the first to ever describe an abusive marriage relationship in such detail. U.S. society was still very much patriarchal at the time, so men could treat women however they pleased with no repercussions...particularly within a marriage relationship. A man had all legal rights backing him while a woman was still subjugated to the whims of a husband--mysogyny in its purest form! Divorce was relatively rare and only granted when adultery could be proven (As confirmed by "witnesses"! I do wonder exactly how that worked in a courtroom!) and you would expect, it was men who divorced women, not the other way around! Women were only to run a household and never to work outside the home or earn their own money. If they were lucky they had inherited money, though that typically meant some man was going to marry and use them for that consistent income/"free living." </span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">One day at lunch, Charlotte has finally had enough of putting on appearances for the servants and children and arrives totally disheveled, rather drunk, with her "ravaged face, swollen-lipped, [and] red-eyed," even Geoffrey was "startled."</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>For the first time, her face silenced him. By God, he thought, she looks awful. </i></b></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>He felt something like awe, not of her, but of the effect his anger had on her. </i></b></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>Obscurely, he felt a pride in his domination of another human being...the line of reasoning</i></b></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">her pursued was that he must be important if what he did had such disastrous consequence. </i>(120)</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I do not have enough words to express my amount of hatred and disgust for Geoffrey's character! UGH!! We do learn that as a child he was coddled to the extreme and always the center of attention of his mother and sister who lavished nothing but praise on him. His father had died and was not a presence in his life.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Geoffrey not only manipulates and overwhelms his wife, but also his eldest child, a daughter, Margaret. I honestly don't know which made me angrier, his abuse of his wife or his daughter! He was one sick bastard! Even as a baby he "trained" her to respond to him as he wished, by withholding affection, etc. Though there was never any direct mention of him approaching his daughter sexually, in my mind, that was virtually inevitable. He even confiscates letters from the boy she met while away at Vera's the only time she was permitted away from home/her father, just so he can maintain total control over her. Margaret becomes his secretary and 'constant companion', neglecting any attempt at a life of her own or an education. When he doesn't get his way or needs to focus everyone's attention back on himself, he fakes heart trouble, gasping and writhing on the floor. These 'fits' usually coincide with actual indigestion attacks, so that afterwards he can order a bicarbonate of soda and then relieve his discomfort. Naturally, he has demanded that a doctor no longer be called when these occur...since, of course, there would be a risk that he might reveal Geoffrey's deception to his family and servants! </span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Geoffrey finally managed to totally alienate his other two children, Judith and Stephen, all over a dog someone had given to him, so he simply passed it on to his children who had wanted a dog all along. As you can imagine, that caused great hardship to Geoffrey. There was another being in the house who the children cared for much more than him! And his name was Crusoe! Attention was being diverted from him as their father (and abuser) and they were disobeying him! Unacceptable! So he made sure to humiliate and terrorize them by literally handing the dog off to the innkeeper where they sometime vacationed. Just as they were packed and leaving. However, Crusoe, wounded, exhausted, and starved, somehow traveled all the miles back to them at their home. But Geoffrey found out and managed to take him away, for good. Stephen and Judith never forgave him. He had to really work to get back into Margaret's good graces, but finally he did, especially as he would take her to the cinema and/or performances, just as he should have been accompanied by his wife and/or the whole family! What a manipulator! When Charlotte informed him she was moving her things, Geoffrey laughed:</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>What an anticlimax...You can't stand any more so you'll sleep in the turret-room.</i></b></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">Sleep where you damn well like. What the hell does it matter to me? </i>(180)</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Even Cook gave notice.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>She said she couldn't fancy cooking for a man who would destroy a little dog in cold blood, </i></b></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>to say nothing of breaking a boy's heart. </i></b></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">'You're a bigger fool than I took you for,' said Geoffrey blandly, paying her off. </i>(181)</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Stephen left home as soon as he could save enough money. Lucy had taken Judith under her wing, but in the end, she and Geoffrey fought over Charlotte so that he managed to grant custody of Judith to Vera, in the aftermath of Charlotte's death. Vera had not fought with him. Geoffrey and Margaret moved so he could take another position with his company, and Judith went to live with Vera, whose married boyfriend manipulated the girl, forcing her to run away with Vera's daughter, Sarah, to Aunt Lucy and Uncle Williams' house. Poor Sarah. Her only true skill was dancing, which was disfavored by Brian's mother and sister, while Meriel was the favored granddaughter. I believe Sarah suffered from ADD, it was extremely difficult for her sit still and listen, etc. The fact that she loved to dance with the movement and energy required rather proved that diagnosis to me...</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Vera has some personal revelations after Charlotte dies and swears that she will change and do better... She claims to regret the way she ignored Brian and intends to make up for it in the future by caring better for Sarah, and Lucy, etc. Unfortunately for those around her, this change of heart doesn't last long. Once her mother-in-law dies and Brian departs, Vera is ostracized and no longer has any man she wishes at her disposal to manipulate as she pleases. This is brand new for Vera, so she immediately latches onto Terry, in order to avoid being alone once Sarah is in bed for the night. </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It is during this point in her life that Vera begins to realize just how different she and Lucy are. Whipple brings religion into this book intermittently, but it is here that she has Lucy explain her beliefs to Vera in some detail. Vera believed Lucy's open interest in God was "eccentric." Lucy explained that</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>She wanted to know more and more about God...life was discovery and that was why you didn't need to mind about growing old, because the older you got the farther you went </i></b></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>down the road of life and the more you found out. </i></b></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>She thought that after death you went on learning. </i></b></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>She really believed it, you could see it in her face, glowing with an interest </i></b></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">which merely surprised Vera who felt nothing of it at all. </i>(286)</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Vera starts bemoaning the fact that she will become an "old hag" and no man will want her. </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>'I don't know why that worries you, said Lucy staunchly. </i></b></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>'You've never valued the admiration you've aroused, so far as I've seen.</i></b></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>'Ah, but you know that the more you have of anything the less you want it. </i></b></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>I'm afraid the opposite holds true, too. </i></b></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>I'll probably be going about looking anxiously for it when I can't get it.'</i></b></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>'Of course you won't,' said Lucy. 'You'll be too proud.'</i></b></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">'I don't know what I'll be when old age starts undermining my defences,' said Vera. </i>(285-6)</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">As her brothers used to say, "Vera doesn't want much...she only wants everything." And Brian makes sure that ends when he obtains a divorce from her and forces her to live on her own with an allowance of 700 a year. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">When Lucy finally visits Vera in the aftermath of her divorce, Vera realizes that something in Lucy makes her never give up caring for others, especially her sisters and that without Lucy's oversight, the three of them would have lost touch years ago. Though Lucy urges Vera to send Sarah to boarding school, Vera is adamantly opposed. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>'Why do you harp on it?' said Vera coldly. 'I've said I won't.'</i></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>'She's going to have a bad time then,' said Lucy. 'She's devoted to you, </i></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>and that's pathetic because she isn't devoted to anyone else. If you let her down, she'll suffer. </i></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>If you're not prepared to put yourself aside and devote yourself to her, </i></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>you'd far better send her away to a good school where other people will look after her, </i></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>and keep her out of emotional conflicts until she's old enough to face them. </i></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>You're making yourself Sarah's only companion and it's a great responsibility.'</i></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">'I wish you'd mind your own business,' said Vera. </i>(313-314)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Poor Lucy! Forever the mother to her two sisters! Vera was never a real wife to Brian and she certainly was never a real mother to her daughters. She definitely gets what she deserves, a life alone or with a younger man who will not provide for her and will eventually ditch her for someone younger/prettier. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Charlotte eventually becomes addicted to drugs and alcohol in order to cope and ends up dying young. Lucy and William are raising Judith and Sarah throughout the remainder of their teen years. While Vera goes off with Terry, with disastrous results in the future, as Lucy and William are certain. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">What of these wives? Charlotte was truly a mouse and unable to cope with or remover herself from Geoffrey's abuse. She was committed to her marriage, come what may, and as a result died young, abandoning her children. Vera was selfish and self-serving to the core and it ended up biting her in the ass once Brian abandoned her. It's rather certain she'll end up abandoned in the end, old and lonely. Perhaps Lucy will be able to rescue her in the future, but perhaps not... Meanwhile, Lucy is the only one who ended up in a marriage that was a partnership. Whipple does demonstrate that a man/husband could be manipulative and abusive with no consequences whatsoever to him for his behavior (Geoffrey), however, a woman who acted the same way could be punished, not only being ostracized from society, but also financially (Vera). However, Lucy was compassionate, kind, and had common sense, though she was never really allowed nor allowed herself to be a child, she was the one of these three sisters who had a reasonably sane adulthood and marriage. I find it interesting that the mysogyny of the day is further depicted by Lucy's own father: he feels it necessary to remove his sons from Geoffrey's manipulation and influence, but has no qualms about his daughter falling under the man's spell. She's 'just a girl,' after all!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Have you read this book? </span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">If you're at all interested, I would highly recommend it.</span></div>
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<a href="https://sandstonepress.com/u/covers/_cover/9781910985380.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="Wait for Me, Jack by Addison Jones" border="0" height="200" src="https://sandstonepress.com/u/covers/_cover/9781910985380.jpg" width="130" /></a><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Please join us April 1 (no foolin'!)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">for our reviews and discussion of </span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i><a href="https://sandstonepress.com/books/wait-for-me-jack">Wait for Me, Jack</a></i> by Addison Jones. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This is a work of historical fiction. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I am anxious to read it! </span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I think the time period will have much to offer in analyzing a marriage!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Happy reading,</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">--Lynn</span></span></div>
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<img src="https://www.thatartsyreadergirl.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/TTT-BLC.png" /></div>
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<a href="http://books-n-music.blogspot.com/p/top-ten-tuesdays.html" style="font-family: "helvetica neue", arial, helvetica, sans-serif;" target="_blank">Here</a><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; text-align: center;"> </span><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; text-align: center;">are previous Smoke & Mirrors </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Top Ten Tuesday posts.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This meme was created by </span><a href="http://www.brokeandbookish.com/p/top-ten-tuesday-other-features.html" style="font-family: "helvetica neue", arial, helvetica, sans-serif;" target="_blank">The Broke and the Bookish</a><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">and </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">hosted by that site </span></span><br />
<span style="color: #990000;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">until </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">January 2018 when </span></span><a href="http://www.thatartsyreadergirl.com/top-ten-tuesday/" style="font-family: "helvetica neue", arial, helvetica, sans-serif;" target="_blank">That Artsy Reader Girl</a><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="color: #990000; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">took on the hosting duties!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Today's theme is <b>The Ten Most Recent Additions to my To-Read List!</b></span></span><br />
<a href="http://lydiaschoch.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/The-Person-You-Mean-to-Be-How-Good-People-Fight-Bias-by-Dolly-Chugh-199x300.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://lydiaschoch.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/The-Person-You-Mean-to-Be-How-Good-People-Fight-Bias-by-Dolly-Chugh-199x300.jpg" /></a><br />
<span style="color: #990000;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This is from </span></span><br />
<span style="color: #990000;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://lydiaschoch.com/top-ten-tuesday-books-i-meant-to-read-in-2018-but-didnt-get-to/" target="_blank">Lydia Schoch's Top Ten Tuesday listing for January 22</a>! </span></span><br />
<span style="color: #990000;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Thank goodness she stopped by and commented on my </span></span><br />
<span style="color: #990000;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Top Ten Tuesday posting for that day! </span></span><br />
<span style="color: #990000;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Else I might never have visited her listing!</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #990000;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="color: #990000;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i><a href="https://www.harpercollins.com/9780062692146/the-person-you-mean-to-be/" target="_blank">The Person You Mean to Be: How Good People Fight Bias</a></i></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #990000;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">by Dolly Chugh</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This is a topic near and dear to my heart! </span><br />
<span style="color: #990000;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">We all have biases. Period. To deny that is to deny reality. </span></span><br />
<span style="color: #990000;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">However, that doesn't mean we can't fight </span></span><br />
<span style="color: #990000;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">to eliminate just as many of our own biases as possible!</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This book has an amazing 4.57 rating on Goodreads! </span><br />
<span style="color: #990000;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">And that is with 161 ratings! (Not just one...or two!)</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #990000;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Ooohhh, how exciting!! :)</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #990000;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<a href="https://images.macmillan.com/folio-assets/macmillan_us_frontbookcovers_1000H/9781250167026.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="Anger Is a Gift" border="0" height="200" src="https://images.macmillan.com/folio-assets/macmillan_us_frontbookcovers_1000H/9781250167026.jpg" width="125" /></a><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #073763;">A second book from Lydia's TTT posting last week!</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #990000;"><span style="color: #073763; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i><a href="https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250167026" target="_blank">Anger is a Gift</a></i> by Mark Oshiro</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #990000;"><span style="color: #073763; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This is a debut novel.</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #990000;"><span style="color: #073763; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Trying a new author always excites me! </span></span><br />
<span style="color: #073763;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #990000;"><span style="color: #073763; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">How relevant this story arc is...</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #990000;"><span style="color: #073763; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">A child dealing with the aftermath of a parent </span></span><br />
<span style="color: #990000;"><span style="color: #073763; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">having been killed by the police!</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #990000;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<a href="https://thecowkeeperswish.files.wordpress.com/2018/06/cover-only.jpg?w=1879" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://thecowkeeperswish.files.wordpress.com/2018/06/cover-only.jpg?w=1879" width="139" /></a><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #660000;">And a third book from Lydia!</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #990000;"><span style="color: #660000; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">(Lydia and I would evidently make a good reading team!)</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #990000;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i><a href="https://thecowkeeperswish.com/" target="_blank">The Cowkeeper's Wish: A Gealogical Journey</a></i> </span></span><br />
<span style="color: #990000;"><span style="color: #660000; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">by Kristen Den Hartog and Tracy Kasabaski</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #660000;">I am utterly fascinated by this book!</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #990000;"><span style="color: #660000; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It is nonfiction, a recounting of past generations </span></span><br />
<span style="color: #990000;"><span style="color: #660000; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">of these two sisters' ancestors and their journeys </span></span><br />
<span style="color: #990000;"><span style="color: #660000; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">to create a better life for themselves as well as their offspring.</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #990000;"><span style="color: #660000; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">These people start by walking from coastal Wales to London, with their cattle in tow! Their great-granddaughter ends up in southern Ontario!</span></span><br />
<span style="clear: left; float: left; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></span><span style="color: #990000;"></span><br />
<span style="color: #990000;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/4f/The_Goblin_Emperor_cover.jpg/220px-The_Goblin_Emperor_cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="The Goblin Emperor cover.jpg" border="0" height="200" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/4f/The_Goblin_Emperor_cover.jpg/220px-The_Goblin_Emperor_cover.jpg" width="134" /></a><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #990000;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The fourth and book that I became familiar with </span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #990000;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">from Lydia's TTT post last week...</span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #990000;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></span></span>
<span style="color: #990000;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Goblin_Emperor" target="_blank">The Goblin Emperor</a></i> by Katherine Addison</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #990000;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="color: #990000;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Normally I might not be drawn to this type of book, </span></span><br />
<span style="color: #990000;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">but I admit the Goodreads synopsis intrigued me!</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #990000;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="color: #990000;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This is the initial installment in a series, </span></span><br />
<span style="color: #990000;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">so hopefully she will continue it in the near future...</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #990000;"><span style="color: #783f04; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<a href="https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/9780316483292.jpg?fit=450%2C667" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Sisters of the Winter Wood" border="0" height="200" src="https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/9780316483292.jpg?fit=450%2C667" width="134" /></a><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="color: #783f04; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">And finally, book #5, graciously offered by Lydia:</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #990000;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i style="color: #990000;"><a href="https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/rena-rossner/the-sisters-of-the-winter-wood/9780316483292/" target="_blank">The Sisters of the Winter Wood</a></i> <span style="color: #783f04;">by Rena Rossner</span></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #990000;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #783f04;"><br /></span></span></span>
<span style="color: #990000;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #783f04;">The synopsis of this rather reminds me of </span></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #990000;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #783f04;"><i><a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/251789/the-bear-and-the-nightingale-by-katherine-arden/9781101885956/" target="_blank">The Bear and the Nightingale</a></i>, which I loved!</span></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #990000;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="color: #990000;"><span style="color: #783f04; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Fantasy. Magical Realism. And Historical Fiction.</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #990000;"><span style="color: #783f04; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">All in a book classified as Young Adult!</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #990000;"><span style="color: #783f04; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Yes! Lead me to it! </span></span><br />
<br />
<a href="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1524485741l/39926661.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="Unmarriageable" border="0" height="200" src="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1524485741l/39926661.jpg" width="131" /></a><br />
<span style="color: #990000;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i style="color: #990000;"><a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/567399/unmarriageable-by-soniah-kamal/9781524799717/" target="_blank">Unmarriageable</a></i> <span style="color: #134f5c;">by Soniah Kamal</span></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #990000;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #134f5c;">Book #6...</span></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #990000;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #134f5c;">I became acquainted with this book </span></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #990000;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #134f5c;">on Goodreads.</span></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">A retelling of </span><i style="color: #134f5c; font-family: "helvetica neue", arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Pride and Prejudice</i><span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">, </span><span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">set in Pakistan. </span><br />
<span style="color: #990000;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #134f5c;">However, it has been so long since I read </span></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #990000;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i style="color: #134f5c;">Pride and Prejudice</i></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I should probably reread it before reading this! </span><br />
<span style="color: #990000;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<br />
<a href="http://www.ericabauermeister.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/SCENT-KEEPER_Final-final.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="scent cover" border="0" height="200" src="https://www.ericabauermeister.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/SCENT-KEEPER_Final-final.jpeg" style="cursor: move;" width="131" /></a><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">That brings us to book #7 for this posting.</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #990000;"><span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I am thrilled to report that one of my all-time favorite authors, </span></span><br />
<span style="color: #990000;"><span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #a64d79;">Erica Bauermeister, has another novel set to release May 21st 2019:</span> <i><a href="http://www.ericabauermeister.com/the-scent-keeper" target="_blank">The Scent Keeper</a></i><span style="color: #a64d79;">! </span></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #990000;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #a64d79;">This woman uses language in such exceptional ways </span></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #990000;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #a64d79;">as to be totally unique! </span></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I cannot wait for this and will definitely have my favorite </span><br />
<span style="color: #990000;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #a64d79;">used bookstore owner order it in so I can </span></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #990000;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #a64d79;">have it as soon as possible following the release date! </span></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #990000;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #a64d79;">If I'm really lucky I'll pick it up on a weekend </span></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #990000;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #a64d79;">and be able to read it the same day!</span></span></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-QJO42LwRwgs/XE9oOxf5GyI/AAAAAAAAGz8/buyk0npIUbUHy1r8eX3ySEU6MWMpi66VACLcBGAs/s1600/Hope%2Bon%2Bthe%2BInside%2BCvr%2BImage.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="312" data-original-width="820" height="152" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-QJO42LwRwgs/XE9oOxf5GyI/AAAAAAAAGz8/buyk0npIUbUHy1r8eX3ySEU6MWMpi66VACLcBGAs/s400/Hope%2Bon%2Bthe%2BInside%2BCvr%2BImage.png" width="400" /></a></div>
<span style="color: #990000;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #a64d79;"><br /></span></span></span><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #134f5c;">Book #8 is <a href="https://www.facebook.com/pg/mariebostwick/posts/" style="font-style: italic;" target="_blank">Hope on the Inside</a> </span></span></span><span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">by Marie Bostwick.</span><br />
<a href="about:invalid#zClosurez" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><span style="color: #134f5c;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Everybody in my book club adored the two </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Marie Bostwick books we've read, </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #134f5c;"><i><a href="https://www.mariebostwick.com/books/" target="_blank">A Single Thread</a></i>, the first in the Cobbled Court Quilts series, </span></span><span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">and </span><i style="color: #134f5c; font-family: "helvetica neue", arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.mariebostwick.com/books/" target="_blank">The Second Sister</a></i><span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">.</span><br />
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Q3P6QVBIxnE/XE9zG5ksZNI/AAAAAAAAG0I/rAh8qZt1294yy-AhtyLk2o9QdyHunoWuQCLcBGAs/s1600/If%2BBeale%2BStreet%2BCould%2BTalk.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="321" data-original-width="220" height="200" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Q3P6QVBIxnE/XE9zG5ksZNI/AAAAAAAAG0I/rAh8qZt1294yy-AhtyLk2o9QdyHunoWuQCLcBGAs/s200/If%2BBeale%2BStreet%2BCould%2BTalk.JPG" width="136" /></a><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #a64d79;"><br /></span></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #990000;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #073763;">Book #9 is<i> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/If_Beale_Street_Could_Talk" target="_blank">If Beale Street Could Talk</a></i> by James Baldwin</span></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #073763;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">A movie adaptation is due to be released this year. </span></span><br />
<span style="color: #073763;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The first Baldwin novel I read and loved was </span></span><br />
<span style="color: #073763;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i><a href="https://books-n-music.blogspot.com/2015/01/classics-club-spin-8-intense-honesteye.html" target="_blank">Go Tell It on the Mountain</a></i>. </span></span><br />
<span style="color: #073763;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I recently read </span><i style="font-family: "helvetica neue", arial, helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: left;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fire_Next_Time" target="_blank">The Fire Next Time</a></i><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span></span><br />
<span style="color: #073763;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">and </span></span><i style="color: #073763; font-family: "helvetica neue", arial, helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: left;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giovanni%27s_Room" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">Giovanni's Room</span></a></i><span style="color: #073763; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">. </span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Both are intense reads, </span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">despite the relatively small page count for each.</span><br />
<a href="about:invalid#zClosurez" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><a href="about:invalid#zClosurez" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="Image result for Between Shades of Gray ruta sepetys cover image" border="0" src="data:image/jpeg;base64,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" /></a><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #a64d79;"><br /></span></span></span>
<span style="color: #990000;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #351c75;"><br /></span></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span><span style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">And lastly, book #10 is </span></span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i><a href="http://www.betweenshadesofgray.com/" target="_blank">Between Shades of Gray</a></i> by Ruth Sepetys. </span></span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I adored <i><a href="https://books-n-music.blogspot.com/2016/03/a-heart-wrenching-yet-beautiful_24.html" target="_blank">Salt to the Sea</a></i> when I read </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #351c75;">and reviewed it </span></span><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">almost 3 years ago! </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #351c75;">I have since acquired a copy of <i>Between Shades of Gray </i></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #351c75;">and hope to read it yet this year!</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"></span><span style="clear: right; float: right; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></span><span style="color: #351c75;"></span><br />
<span style="clear: right; color: #351c75; float: right; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><br /></span><span style="color: #990000;"></span><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #660000;">What books have you recently added to your TBR listing?</span></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #990000;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #660000;"><br /></span></span></span>
<span style="color: #990000;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #660000;">Have you read any of these?</span></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #990000;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #660000;"><br /></span></span></span>
<span style="color: #990000;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #660000;">Happy reading!</span></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #990000;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #660000;">--Lynn</span></span></span><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="clear: left; float: left; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></span><span style="color: #990000;"></span></div>
Lynn @ Smoke & Mirrorshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00464153596817995684noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5883575980086212146.post-34280073164155303102019-01-21T22:14:00.001-06:002019-01-21T22:14:16.701-06:00Unworthy by Antonio Monda<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><i><a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/558171/unworthy-by-antonio-monda/9780385542944/" target="_blank">Unworthy</a></i> <span style="color: #444444;">by</span> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonio_Monda" target="_blank">Antonio Monda</a></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Firstly, thank you to the publisher for a free copy of this book</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">as part of the Turning the Pages Goodreads book discussion group.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I seriously doubt I would have read this book otherwise. </span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Although I truly enjoyed Monda's writing style, </span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I found this book to be thoroughly frustrating. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I do not currently subscribe to any 'organized religion'. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Nor have I for almost 30 years.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">It no longer appeals to me nor am I interested in it.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The main reason for that? It's simple really... </span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The hypocrisy I have witnessed among it's "believers" and leaders. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I suppose I could best describe myself as a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humanism" target="_blank">humanist</a>. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I do believe in both the collective and individual </span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">ability of humans to create our own world. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The one book that opened me up to a whole new belief system was </span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Celestine_Prophecy" target="_blank">The Celestine Prophecy: An Adventure</a></i> by <a href="https://www.celestinevision.com/" target="_blank">James Redfield</a>. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I spent the first 5-6 years of my 3rd decade of life reading and studying alternative forms of religion, both organized and otherwise. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I was searching because the Christian religions to which </span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I had been exposed just didn't work for me. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">"Just have faith." </span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">"You must have faith."</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">"You must simply believe..." </span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The only symbols offered for such unlimited and eternal "faith" and belief </span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">seemed ethereal/nonexistent, unreliable, and undependable at best. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">If nothing was absolute, then why couldn't I learn </span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> to simply develop MYSELF/ME? </span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Surely I could benefit just as much, if not more, by simply living my daily life to the best of my ability, since I really have very little to no control over my life circumstances to a great degree. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I refused to believe some mythical being had predetermined my life. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Nope. That did not work for me...</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Once I began reading about other worldwide belief systems I realized many of the same underlying tenets were present for many, if not most, of them.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Now that you have a bit of my 'religious' history, you can perhaps understand why I would not typically be interested in reading this book. :)</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">However, I found the writing to be easily accessible even if it was a bit dense and definitely thought-provoking. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-2wjgPws5SL4/W8JJ_QsOVcI/AAAAAAAAGpg/xSYL09sSpaQBD-ygXKhyejymgigqq2_xACLcBGAs/s1600/Unworthy.jpe" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="450" data-original-width="277" height="320" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-2wjgPws5SL4/W8JJ_QsOVcI/AAAAAAAAGpg/xSYL09sSpaQBD-ygXKhyejymgigqq2_xACLcBGAs/s320/Unworthy.jpe" width="196" /></a><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The whole book deals with "Father" Singer (Abram) and his battle with Catholic beliefs, </span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">especially regarding the personal activities expected of priests, in his own daily life. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Firstly, a priest is to remain celibate. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">(Admittedly, this has never made sense to me.)</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Whereas, Abram has had relationships with three different women thus far during his priesthood years.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Granted, the first two were very brief in nature, </span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">but this third woman, Lisa, he truly loves and I believe she truly loves him, even while realizing the limitations of their relationship given his vocation. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Now, really, I admit that overall, this doesn't bother me nearly as much as the fact that </span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">he is constantly </span><b style="color: #444444; font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">stealing</b><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> from the church. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Secondly, a priest should NOT be a thief!</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">He steals from the collection plate consistently to purchase gifts for Lisa, meals and even to finance a short trip </span><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">for them both. </span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Abram states that each of these three women have stated to him:</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">You're a priest, aren't you ashamed? </i>(6)</span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Though Lisa says </span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">...it with a caress, because she loves me as she loves her own life... </i>(6)</span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Lisa even undergoes an abortion during the time they are together. I wondered who paid for that. His stolen funds?</span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Fortunately, this book is relatively short--only 175 pages in length, because I kept wanting to shout out loud about every other page, "<b>WHY?</b>" Why would a person persist in perpetuating himself in such a sham of a vocation and societal/cultural role when he is a total and complete hypocrite? I would agree with some of the Turning the Pages members who cited that Abram's ego was the true motivation for his becoming and remaining a priest. He exhibits this as he realizes that many people recognize him as "Father" even when he is not wearing his vocational 'costume'/robe. He likes that. He very much loves the idea of others viewing him as pious and a good role model, even when he knows he is anything but. As one of the members stated, he loved the idea that he was fooling everyone! Hence it fed his ego... I believe that was a large part of his motivation for remaining in the priesthood. </span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Though he describes how he could "see God in everything" when he was working as a construction worker building skyscrapers:</span><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><b><i>In my fellow workers' eyes, filled with enthusiasm and hope.</i></b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">In our callused hands, which defied first the sea and then the sky. </i>(8)</span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Now this I could relate to. We should be able to recognize spirituality in every aspect of our daily lives. However, it seemed that once he entered the priesthood that sensible spirituality left him. Rather ironic... It was then that he became successful at building up the diocese, increasing attendance, etc. I felt he exchanged this "success" for the insightful reverence for everyday interactions and tasks. </span></div>
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">And I must wonder at the author's intent in writing this book. Perhaps Phillip Roth put it succinctly:</span><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><b><i>With storytelling finesse, Monda has written a compact and forceful book that might be </i></b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">a morbid erotic tale out of Boccaccio, exposing the tormented lust of the clergy.</i> (Wikipedia)</span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Monda is a practicing Catholic. Which seems to make no sense as I feel this whole book meant to undermine the Catholic religion for its unrealistic expectations with regard to the humans who serve as its leaders and champions. Perhaps he would like to incite change? Or is he merely trying to prove that all sinners are absolved even if they never truly change their behaviors? It is this tenet of the Catholic religion with which I specifically disagree. There is accountability to be had for your efforts to improve and change for the better, in my opinion. Without that, there is no real positive change to be had. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I could appreciate Monda's description of the Twin Towers (at least I suppose that was the construction project he was working on and describing in NYC in the '70's) and one politician's description:</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">On the day of his inauguration, Mayor Beame declared that at least fifty thousand people </i></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">would work in those two skyscrapers, and that within a few years the buildings </i></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">would be welcoming two hundred thousand visitors every day. </i></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">A monument to the future, he said, a monument that nothing and no one could scratch, </i></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">and would bear witness forever to the power of the city whose mayor he had the honor to be. He thanked us all, Mayor Beame did, speaking in the same vibrant tones that he would employ before too long when begging President Ford to help the invincible city avoid bankruptcy. </i>(10)</span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Talk about "tongue in cheek"! To me, this whole book was about ironies...</span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Abram describes confessing to Father John and the "severity with which he absolved" him, followed by the "kindness with which he put his arms around" Abram. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><b><i>...I also remember his gray face when he died a few weeks later.</i></b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><b><i>I felt guilty, as if I had been the cause of the aneurysm, and I wept like a baby, </i></b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">because...I realized that from that moment on, </i></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">nothing and no one would stop me from going adrift. </i>(15)</span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">How hypocritical! We are to believe that without this one man, Abram is now incapable of controlling himself? What happened to God?!? and faith?!? Or is that a manifestation of the Catholic religion? I have always understood that it is the priest who controls a believer's relationship with God, that a priest is the only conduit, so there is no supposedly personal relationship between "God" and any believer. That makes even less sense to me than the religions to which I have directly been exposed. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Abram states that he's "always been afraid of losing the privilege of his religion." That statement caught my attention. I often wonder how many times people simply "go with the flow" and assume or even pretend to have "faith" and "believe in God" simply as a way to "fit in" with society. It has been quite a journey for me to begin to feel halfway comfortable stating that I subscribe to no organized religion, nor do I hold any belief in a deity. But I can state that my own spirituality is very much hands-on and practical, with its foundation in my everyday interactions, behaviors, and actions. This usually shocks people. They appear to be dumbfounded that anyone could state such certainty in such a completely 'unreligious' belief system. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I cannot say I enjoyed reading this book, though I admit it did make me think. Mostly in an angry and frustrated way, however. In my own world, this book depicted much of what I feel is "wrong" with organized religion, particularly Catholicism. Just keep "sinning" and as long as you beg forgiveness, all is well.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Have you read this book? </span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">If so, what are your thoughts?</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I would love to know the reactions of a Catholic believer to this one...</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Happy reading!</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">--Lynn</span></div>
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Lynn @ Smoke & Mirrorshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00464153596817995684noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5883575980086212146.post-23711678929109130982019-01-21T19:33:00.000-06:002019-01-22T13:27:44.429-06:00Top Ten Tuesday for January 22, 2019!!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="http://books-n-music.blogspot.com/p/top-ten-tuesdays.html" style="font-family: "helvetica neue", arial, helvetica, sans-serif;" target="_blank">Here</a><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; text-align: center;"> </span><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; text-align: center;">are previous Smoke & Mirrors </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Top Ten Tuesday posts.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This meme was created by </span><a href="http://www.brokeandbookish.com/p/top-ten-tuesday-other-features.html" style="font-family: "helvetica neue", arial, helvetica, sans-serif;" target="_blank">The Broke and the Bookish</a><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">and </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">hosted by that site </span></span><br />
<span style="color: #990000;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">until </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">January 2018 when </span></span><a href="http://www.thatartsyreadergirl.com/top-ten-tuesday/" style="font-family: "helvetica neue", arial, helvetica, sans-serif;" target="_blank">That Artsy Reader Girl</a><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="color: #990000; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">took on the hosting duties!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Today's theme is <b>Books I Meant to Read in 2018!</b></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">And trust me, there are MANY!</span></div>
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-dTSY-GS9TNU/XETnF3ipORI/AAAAAAAAGxs/-LvKcr-CGFsxiSf67mt3auZ-u3JVnNKNwCLcBGAs/s1600/Beasts%2Bof%2BExtraordinary%2BCircumstance%2BCvr%2BImage.webp" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="335" data-original-width="220" height="200" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-dTSY-GS9TNU/XETnF3ipORI/AAAAAAAAGxs/-LvKcr-CGFsxiSf67mt3auZ-u3JVnNKNwCLcBGAs/s200/Beasts%2Bof%2BExtraordinary%2BCircumstance%2BCvr%2BImage.webp" width="131" /></a><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i><a href="https://www.ruthemmielang.com/" target="_blank">Beasts of Extraordinary Circumstance</a></i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">by Ruth Emmie Lang</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">A very good friend graciously loaned this book to me </span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">at the beginning of 2018 </span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">and I am appalled to realize I have yet to read it. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I intend to change that this year </span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">and hope to get it read next month, </span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">in February 2019!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-QQ1qa5E_uA0/XEZOEmW3mAI/AAAAAAAAGx8/qddT_EwYLpA5h4iOtSoTd3JXmQeVdJ4WQCLcBGAs/s1600/Chocolat%2BCvr%2BImage.jpe" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="281" data-original-width="180" height="200" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-QQ1qa5E_uA0/XEZOEmW3mAI/AAAAAAAAGx8/qddT_EwYLpA5h4iOtSoTd3JXmQeVdJ4WQCLcBGAs/s200/Chocolat%2BCvr%2BImage.jpe" width="128" /></a><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chocolat_(novel)" style="color: blue; font-style: italic;" target="_blank">Chocolat</a><span style="color: #990000;"> by Joanne Harris</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #990000;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #990000;">I have wanted to read this book for several years, </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #990000;">ever since two of my best friends and I </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #990000;">sat and watched it in a theater 3 times in a row! </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #990000;">(And, no, no one ever chased us out or made us pay more...)</span></span><br />
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-oKd9XE-7FsU/XEZPEvD252I/AAAAAAAAGyE/gkgP56uvKhwSQzU604wGTAmHSsyxWzsjwCLcBGAs/s1600/Chocolat%2B2-The%2BGirl%2BWith%2BNo%2BShadow%2BCvr%2BImage.jpe" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="276" data-original-width="183" height="200" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-oKd9XE-7FsU/XEZPEvD252I/AAAAAAAAGyE/gkgP56uvKhwSQzU604wGTAmHSsyxWzsjwCLcBGAs/s200/Chocolat%2B2-The%2BGirl%2BWith%2BNo%2BShadow%2BCvr%2BImage.jpe" width="132" /></a><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #990000;"><br /></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #990000;">I hope I will enjoy it </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #990000;">since I already own </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #990000;">the second book in the series, </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #990000;"><i><a href="https://www.harpercollins.com/9780061562693/the-girl-with-no-shadow/" target="_blank">The Girl With No Shadow</a></i>.</span></span><br />
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-MgK6JatVZP8/XEZQFjBhWFI/AAAAAAAAGyM/wz9JbfkNDwMwjjV-89qbnmJfmg0ohQacQCLcBGAs/s1600/Chocolat%2B3-Peaches%2Bfor%2BFather%2BFrancis.jpe" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="259" data-original-width="194" height="200" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-MgK6JatVZP8/XEZQFjBhWFI/AAAAAAAAGyM/wz9JbfkNDwMwjjV-89qbnmJfmg0ohQacQCLcBGAs/s200/Chocolat%2B3-Peaches%2Bfor%2BFather%2BFrancis.jpe" style="cursor: move;" width="149" /></a><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #990000;"><br /></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #990000;"> And, of course, if I enjoy those two, </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #990000;">then I <b>must</b> read the third installment </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #990000;">in the series, </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #990000;"><i><a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/312107/peaches-for-father-francis-by-joanne-harris/9781101593608/" target="_blank">Peaches for Father Francis</a></i>.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #990000;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #990000;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #990000;">And as of April 4, 2019,</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #990000;">the fourth installment, <i><a href="http://www.joanne-harris.co.uk/the-strawberry-thief-2/" target="_blank">The Strawberry Thief</a></i>, </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #990000;">is due to be released! Bonus!!</span></span><br />
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-PNEQteYynWE/XEZTlwqfA7I/AAAAAAAAGyY/SU4adYaGJ9AcmsWDD_EqlJGuRBIITjkjgCLcBGAs/s1600/Flight%2BBehavior%2BCvr%2BImage.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="242" data-original-width="160" height="200" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-PNEQteYynWE/XEZTlwqfA7I/AAAAAAAAGyY/SU4adYaGJ9AcmsWDD_EqlJGuRBIITjkjgCLcBGAs/s200/Flight%2BBehavior%2BCvr%2BImage.jpg" width="132" /></a><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #990000;"><br /></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #990000;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #990000;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #990000;">Third on this list is <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flight_Behavior" target="_blank">Flight Behavior</a></i> by Barbara Kingsolver.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #990000;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #990000;">It has been about 5 years since </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #990000;">I read a Kingsolver book </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #990000;">and I am soooo looking forward </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #990000;">to reading this one in 2019!</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #990000;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #990000;">It will satisfy several prompts for reading challenges!</span></span><br />
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Ow_EeTCF_H8/XEZVZXCUvRI/AAAAAAAAGyk/c4EFjTeqFCE7kVO7CgpG6MaASKeDwKA8ACLcBGAs/s1600/Every%2BNote%2BPlayed%2BCvr%2BImage.jpe" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="138" data-original-width="90" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Ow_EeTCF_H8/XEZVZXCUvRI/AAAAAAAAGyk/c4EFjTeqFCE7kVO7CgpG6MaASKeDwKA8ACLcBGAs/s1600/Every%2BNote%2BPlayed%2BCvr%2BImage.jpe" /></a><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #990000;"><br /></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #990000;">Fourth is <i><a href="https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Every-Note-Played/Lisa-Genova/9781476717814" target="_blank">Every Note Played</a></i> by Lisa Genova.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #990000;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #990000;">Everyone in my book club adored <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lisa_Genova#Still_Alice" target="_blank">Still Alice</a></i> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #990000;">and I went on to read and love</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #990000;"><i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lisa_Genova#Still_Alice" target="_blank">Left Neglected</a></i> and <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lisa_Genova#Still_Alice" target="_blank">Love Anthony</a></i>.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #990000;">I also own but have yet to read <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lisa_Genova#Still_Alice" target="_blank">Inside the O'Briens</a></i>.</span></span><br />
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-5z5rYfnOork/XEZYlWdQFbI/AAAAAAAAGyw/jVTRO1x-z_ogsGTOlncnGg3Nkaq0_s0EwCLcBGAs/s1600/The%2BGirls%2Bin%2Bthe%2BPicture%2BCvr%2BImage.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="358" data-original-width="250" height="200" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-5z5rYfnOork/XEZYlWdQFbI/AAAAAAAAGyw/jVTRO1x-z_ogsGTOlncnGg3Nkaq0_s0EwCLcBGAs/s200/The%2BGirls%2Bin%2Bthe%2BPicture%2BCvr%2BImage.png" width="139" /></a><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #990000;">Fifth is <i><a href="http://melaniebenjamin.com/girls-in-the-picture.php" target="_blank">The Girls in the Picture</a></i> by Melanie Benjamin.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #990000;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #990000;">I loved <i><a href="http://melaniebenjamin.com/alice-i-have-been.php" target="_blank">Alice I Have Been</a></i> and </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #990000;"><i><a href="https://books-n-music.blogspot.com/2013/10/literary-wives-4-aviators-wife-by.html" target="_blank">The Aviator's Wife</a> (this links to my review).</i></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; text-align: start;">And I have yet to read </span><i style="color: #990000; font-family: "helvetica neue", arial, helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: start;"><a href="http://melaniebenjamin.com/swans-of-fifth-avenue.php" target="_blank">The Swans of Fifth Avenue</a> </i><span style="color: #990000; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; text-align: start;">or </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #990000;"><i><a href="http://melaniebenjamin.com/mrs-tom-thumb.php" target="_blank">The Autobiography of Mrs. Tom Thumb</a>, </i></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #990000;">which Ms. Benjamin claimed to be her personal favorite </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #990000;">when I met her a few years ago!</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #990000;">She is one of my absolute favorite writers!</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #990000;">And she has another release scheduled for May 21, 2019:</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #990000;"><a href="http://melaniebenjamin.com/mistress-of-the-ritz.php" style="font-style: italic;" target="_blank">Mistress of the Ritz</a>!</span></span><br />
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Xnh7_ZJEwhg/XEZczeSppFI/AAAAAAAAGy8/er_nZfyf8oEgNTPEYEllovKL1PzyCdLfwCLcBGAs/s1600/Lionboy%2BCvr%2BImage.jpe" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="259" data-original-width="194" height="200" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Xnh7_ZJEwhg/XEZczeSppFI/AAAAAAAAGy8/er_nZfyf8oEgNTPEYEllovKL1PzyCdLfwCLcBGAs/s200/Lionboy%2BCvr%2BImage.jpe" width="149" /></a><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #990000;">Sixth is <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lionboy" target="_blank">Lionboy</a></i> by Zizou Corder</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #990000;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #990000;">I purchased this book on a whim several years ago </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #990000;">from a clearance rack at <a href="http://www.booksamillion.com/" target="_blank">Books-A-Million</a>. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #990000;">Then in the course of researching books for the </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #990000;">"book written by two female authors" </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #990000;"><a href="https://books-n-music.blogspot.com/p/2019-ultimate-popsugar-reading-challenge.html" target="_blank">2019 Ultimate Popsugar Reading Challenge</a>, </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #990000;">I learn Zizou Corder is simply a pseudonym </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #990000;">for a mother-daughter writing team! </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #990000;">And it is the first of a trilogy... </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #990000;">Now I am truly fascinated and anxious to finally read it!</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #990000;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #990000;">Seventh, eighth, and ninth are <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giovanni%27s_Room" style="font-style: italic;" target="_blank">Giovanni's Room</a>, <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fire_Next_Time" target="_blank">The Fire Next Time</a></i>, </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #990000;">and <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/If_Beale_Street_Could_Talk" target="_blank">If Beale Street Could Talk</a></i>, all written by James Baldwin.</span></span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-XdSmmSxdYJk/XEZqm8ipt9I/AAAAAAAAGzI/2_jbPKc-KEsMBsQMhG6DoW8lxWSi-Xw7wCLcBGAs/s1600/Giovanni%2527s%2BRoom%2BCvr%2BImage.jpe" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="281" data-original-width="180" height="200" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-XdSmmSxdYJk/XEZqm8ipt9I/AAAAAAAAGzI/2_jbPKc-KEsMBsQMhG6DoW8lxWSi-Xw7wCLcBGAs/s200/Giovanni%2527s%2BRoom%2BCvr%2BImage.jpe" width="128" /></a><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-tHaOGnM-zp8/XEZtOBtqAdI/AAAAAAAAGzc/7byN8-9HDHElqIK90vXBJOW9E0A4SKttACLcBGAs/s1600/The%2BFire%2BNext%2BTime%2BCvr%2BImage.jpe" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="279" data-original-width="181" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-tHaOGnM-zp8/XEZtOBtqAdI/AAAAAAAAGzc/7byN8-9HDHElqIK90vXBJOW9E0A4SKttACLcBGAs/s1600/The%2BFire%2BNext%2BTime%2BCvr%2BImage.jpe" /></a><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-vwC471eBadE/XEZsp5fZTXI/AAAAAAAAGzU/L3VrD5u2KAINpGxqT7ChUflzOMn9aVciwCLcBGAs/s1600/I%2BBeale%2BStreet%2BCould%2BTalk%2BCvr%2BImge.jpe" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="279" data-original-width="181" height="200" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-vwC471eBadE/XEZsp5fZTXI/AAAAAAAAGzU/L3VrD5u2KAINpGxqT7ChUflzOMn9aVciwCLcBGAs/s200/I%2BBeale%2BStreet%2BCould%2BTalk%2BCvr%2BImge.jpe" width="129" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #990000;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; text-align: start;">I LOVED </span><a href="https://books-n-music.blogspot.com/2015/01/classics-club-spin-8-intense-honesteye.html" style="color: #990000; font-family: "helvetica neue", arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: italic; text-align: start;" target="_blank">Go Tell It on the Mountain</a><i style="font-family: "helvetica neue", arial, helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: start;"><span style="color: #cc0000;"> </span><span style="color: #990000;">(links to my review)</span></i><span style="color: #990000; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; text-align: start;">!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #990000;">I want to read more classics this year. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #990000;">I already know I love this man's writing style, </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #990000;">so these are definite reads for 2019!</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; text-align: start;">Then I'll be anxious to see the movie adaptation for </span><span style="color: #990000; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; text-align: start;"><i>If Beale Street Could Talk</i>!</span><br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; text-align: start;"><br /></span>
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-dcg7jrd3PYk/XEZwEJnCKkI/AAAAAAAAGzo/KbAsI2lbUQ4d5sQoOWBdYuRUB3wQ8GLKwCLcBGAs/s1600/Soul%2Bon%2BIce%2BCvr%2BImage.jpe" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="131" data-original-width="131" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-dcg7jrd3PYk/XEZwEJnCKkI/AAAAAAAAGzo/KbAsI2lbUQ4d5sQoOWBdYuRUB3wQ8GLKwCLcBGAs/s1600/Soul%2Bon%2BIce%2BCvr%2BImage.jpe" /></a><span style="color: #990000; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; text-align: start;">The tenth book for this posting follows this theme </span><br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; text-align: start;">with a reread of a classic, </span><br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; text-align: start;"><i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soul_on_Ice_(book)" target="_blank">Soul On Ice</a></i> by Eldridge Cleaver. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; text-align: start;">I first read this at the 'ripe old age' of 13 and I am CERTAIN</span><br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; text-align: start;">I didn't grasp much from it.</span><br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; text-align: start;">I trust my reading of it some 50 years later </span><br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; text-align: start;">will prove to be much more enlightening and informative!</span><br />
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; text-align: start;">What's even more fun is that this year, all of these books (and more!) will fulfill prompts for both the <a href="https://books-n-music.blogspot.com/p/2019-around-year-in-52.html" target="_blank">2019 Around the Year in 52 Books Reading Challenge</a></span><br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; text-align: start;">and the <a href="https://books-n-music.blogspot.com/p/2019-ultimate-popsugar-reading-challenge.html" target="_blank">2019 Ultimate Popsugar Reading Challenge</a>.</span><br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; text-align: start;">I have created a page for each of these challenges which I update as I finish reading books </span><br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; text-align: start;">and it is so much fun to see just how many prompts can be fulfilled with each book!</span><br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; text-align: start;">If I had the time, I would certainly prefer to read a separate book for each prompt, </span><br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; text-align: start;">but I do not, so I will approach these challenges in this way...</span><br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; text-align: start;">I have listed each book already selected for each of the book clubs in which I participate </span><br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; text-align: start;">and secondly, am trying to read as many from the current stock of books </span><br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; text-align: start;">I already own as possible. </span><br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; text-align: start;">Though I already know I will purchase more books in the year to come as well. </span><br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; text-align: start;">But I am trying to complete blog posts for books I've read and then give them </span><br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; text-align: start;">to my favorite used bookstore to be resold, </span><br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; text-align: start;">hoping to decrease the total amount of books in my household throughout 2019. </span><br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; text-align: start;">At least that is my goal!</span><br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; text-align: start;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; text-align: start;">What books did you intend to read last year but didn't manage to get to?</span><br />
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; text-align: start;">Happy reading!</span><br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; text-align: start;">--Lynn</span></div>
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Lynn @ Smoke & Mirrorshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00464153596817995684noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5883575980086212146.post-22464808310293478992018-12-31T16:47:00.000-06:002019-01-10T12:05:43.472-06:00ATY and Popsugar reading challenges for 2019!<br />
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<a href="https://media1.popsugar-assets.com/files/thumbor/rpCuApkVq9xzHW8XXp4HImxdUfA/fit-in/1024x1024/filters:format_auto-!!-:strip_icc-!!-/2018/11/09/096/n/1922283/3e6e2a8d5be6322a289b30.95285603_/i/Reading-Challenge-2019.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Reading Challenge 2019" border="0" height="320" src="https://media1.popsugar-assets.com/files/thumbor/rpCuApkVq9xzHW8XXp4HImxdUfA/fit-in/1024x1024/filters:format_auto-!!-:strip_icc-!!-/2018/11/09/096/n/1922283/3e6e2a8d5be6322a289b30.95285603_/i/Reading-Challenge-2019.jpg" width="213" /></a><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I have never before participated in one of the more intense long-term reading challenges such as </span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://books-n-music.blogspot.com/p/2019-around-year-in-52.html" target="_blank">Around the Year in 52 Books</a> (ATY) </span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">or <a href="https://books-n-music.blogspot.com/p/2019-ultimate-popsugar-reading-challenge.html" target="_blank">The Ultimate Popsugar Reading Challenge</a> (Popsugar). </span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">But that is about to change with the start of a new year!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I have decided to fully indulge my love of listing </span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">books to read and 'scheduling' my reading!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Since I do not have a ton of spare time due to </span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">working full-time and still working out at the gym and heated therapy pool at least 10-15 hours per week </span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">to fully rehabilitate these new knee joints </span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">and get in the best physical shape I can accomplish, </span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I will approach this a bit differently than I might </span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">if I had more reading time.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I will list the books I must read for the book clubs in which I participate first. </span><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Then books I own... </span></div>
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<a href="https://images.gr-assets.com/groups/1544888236p3/174195.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Around the Year in 52 Books " border="0" height="200" src="https://images.gr-assets.com/groups/1544888236p3/174195.jpg" style="cursor: move;" width="200" /></a><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">And then there will, of course, be some books that are new, or at least new-to-me, that I still need to own and read! :)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Rather than select one book for each prompt, </span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I will fit each book into as many prompts as possible, </span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">thereby guaranteeing that I cover all the prompts with fewer books! </span><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Pretty nifty, huh?</span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Did I mention that both of these groups are located on Goodreads? If not, I should have...</span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">And as much as I despise the fact that Jeff Bezos/Amazon </span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">owns and manages Goodreads, I am still using it. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Seems as if Bezos encroaches upon everyone's life in one way or another, if not through Amazon or Goodreads, then IMDB...or Whole Foods...or...? </span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I just avoid all the other entities except Goodreads, which serves as my "bible" in so many ways!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #741b47; font-size: large;"><b>On to the listing of book club reads </b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #741b47; font-size: large;"><b>currently scheduled for 2019!</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #990000;">Although the company has been bankrupt for some years, </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #990000;">the book club I founded while working there has survived!</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #990000;">I was absolutely thrilled when the core of six reliable members </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #990000;">chose to continue the book club after our local store closed!</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This group meets each month and we currently have books selected through July 2019:</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>January 2019: <i><a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/311368/we-are-okay-by-nina-lacour/9780525425892/" target="_blank">We are Okay</a></i> by Nina Lacour</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I am about one-third through this one and am really enjoying it. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I admit the cover initially confused me--my immediate thought was this was a graphic novel!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It is not... :)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>February 2019: <i><a href="https://andrewgreer.com/less/" target="_blank">Less</a></i> by Andrew Sean Greer</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">2018 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">(We selected this way before the Pulitzer Prize winners were announced!)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>March 2019: <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chocolat_(novel)" target="_blank">Chocolat</a></i> by Joanne Harris</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I have such great hopes for this book! I absolutely loved the movie!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>April 2019: <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Night_Circus" target="_blank">The Night Circus</a></i> by Erin Morgenstern</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Another one I am anxiously anticipating and just hope I won't be disappointed!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>May 2019: <i><a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/9072/the-truth-according-to-us-by-annie-barrows/9780385342957/" target="_blank">The Truth According to Us</a></i> by Annie Barrows</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">That name may look familiar--she was the co-author of </span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Guernsey_Literary_and_Potato_Peel_Pie_Society" target="_blank">The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society</a></i>! </span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">A book this same club read and everyone loved!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>June 2019: <i><a href="https://elinorlipman.com/on-turpentine-lane.html" target="_blank">On Turpentine Lane</a></i> by Elinor Lipman</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The cover image is quite intriguing!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>July 2019: <i><a href="https://carolynhaines.com/book/them-bones/" target="_blank">Them Bones</a></i> by Carolyn Haines</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This selection is the result of my having purchased one of the later books </span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">in this Sarah Booth Delaney Mystery series at a library sale for 50 cents.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">What can I say? I loved it! </span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Sometime this summer we will select another 12 books to read over the following year, </span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">so there will be at least 5 more books for this book club alone!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The next book club is the <a href="https://books-n-music.blogspot.com/p/blog-page.html" target="_blank"><b>Literary Wives</b></a> online book discussion group.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">We "meet" every other month to discuss a book with regard to this question:</span></div>
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<b style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">What does this book say about wives or about the experience of being a wife?</b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Our reviews are posted the first Monday of that month.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The cohosts of this club are rather diverse in their opinions and analyses of these books.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It makes for varied reactions and great discussion!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Check it out on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/literarywivesblogseries" target="_blank">Facebook</a>!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Here are the six books selected for 2019...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>February 4, 2019: <a href="https://www.persephonebooks.co.uk/they-were-sisters.html" style="font-style: italic;" target="_blank">They Were Sisters</a> by Dorothy Whipple </b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This is a Persephone reprint and my copy has already shipped from the UK to me in the US!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I am hopeful it will arrive this week. I believe this one may be intense!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It is a "classic" originally published in 1944.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>April 1, 2019: <a href="https://sandstonepress.com/books/wait-for-me-jack" target="_blank">Wait for Me, Jack</a> by Addison Jones</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The subject is a marriage that has lasted 60 whole years! Wow!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>June 3, 2019: <i><a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/537057/a-separation-by-katie-kitamura/9780399576119/" target="_blank">A Separation</a></i> by Katie Kitamura</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>August 5, 2019: <i><a href="https://www.europaeditions.com/book/9781609453862/ties" target="_blank">Ties</a></i> by Domenico Starnone, translated by Jhumpa Lahiri</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Interesting cover image! Makes me wonder!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>October 7, 2019: <i><a href="http://www.carol-shields.com/happenstance.html" target="_blank">Happenstance</a></i> by Carol Shields</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>December 2, 2019: <i><a href="https://www.persephonebooks.co.uk/the-home-maker.html" target="_blank">The Home-Maker</a></i> by Dorothy Canfield Fisher</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Another Persephone reprint that is making it's way to the US and my house!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Anxious to read this role reversal where a stay-at-home wife and mother </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">is forced to work outside the home to support her children and newly disabled husband. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Originally published in 1924!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>February 3, 2020: <i><a href="https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/1090008/the-war-of-the-wives/9781446465158.html" target="_blank">The War of the Wives</a></i> by Tamar Cohen</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">(I can cheat and read this in 2019! lol)</span></div>
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<a href="https://scontent-ort2-2.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/14702369_484160061776085_3038877729427601815_n.jpg?_nc_cat=108&_nc_ht=scontent-ort2-2.xx&oh=3d0bcc81077b027155f66b4a8b3602d9&oe=5CC6C3ED" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="No automatic alt text available." border="0" src="https://scontent-ort2-2.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/14702369_484160061776085_3038877729427601815_n.jpg?_nc_cat=108&_nc_ht=scontent-ort2-2.xx&oh=3d0bcc81077b027155f66b4a8b3602d9&oe=5CC6C3ED" /></a><span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b><a href="https://www.facebook.com/pg/SecondFlightBooks/events/?ref=page_internal" target="_blank">Second Flight Books Backlist Bookclub</a></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">This club meets monthly at my favorite bookstore!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">There is currently only one book scheduled:</span></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><b>January 27, 2019: <i><a href="http://janeharper.com.au/Books/The-Dry" target="_blank">The Dry</a></i> by Jane Harper </b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">I am quite anxious to read this mystery!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">I believe it will be a series </span></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">I will want to continue reading!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Never fear, Laura and Justin, the owners, </span></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">will schedule 11 more for 2019!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">I have definitely read outside my comfort zone for this group and have had only one DNF! :)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.iupui.edu/" target="_blank">IUPUI</a> Book Club</span></div>
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Perhaps I left this one for last because it is my <u>favorite</u> book club!!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Why? Simple. It offers the greatest diversity among the participants:</span></div>
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">including faculty, staff, and students of varied ethnicities, </span></div>
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">geographic origin, and life experience. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">All this variety creates such wide-ranging reactions and opinions! </span></div>
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">I <b>love</b> that!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">IUPUI is a joint venture higher-education institution located in Indianapolis, Indiana.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The school is administered by Indiana University (main campus in Bloomington, Indiana), </span></div>
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">but includes Purdue University School of Engineering and School of Science. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Unfortunately, this group meets just 3-4 times per year.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The next book selected is <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_Absolutely_Remarkable_Thing" target="_blank">An Absolutely Remarkable Thing</a></i> by Hank Green. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Yes, THAT Hank Green! Brother to and cohost with brother John Green. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Check it out on YouTube: <a href="https://youtube.fandom.com/wiki/Vlogbrothers" target="_blank">Vlog Brothers</a>!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">There will be another three books or so selected for this group in 2019 as well!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Now that I have this posting done, I will work on a page </span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">for each the ATY challenge and the Popsugar challenge! </span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I have at least one book listed for almost all 102 prompts--</span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">52 for ATY and 50 for Popsugar. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">However, there are <b>way</b> fewer than 102 books listed overall.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Remember, I am counting each book for every prompt it fits!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">You are welcome to return to follow my progress!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">How about you? Have you ever participated in either or both of these events?</span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">If so, please let me know your thoughts!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">If not, why not?!? ;)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Happy reading!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">--Lynn</span></div>
<!-- Blogger automated replacement: "https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-l0V0gbq-de8/Uu7qIbZfhsI/AAAAAAAAA0A/cW_GgS3cbbI/s1600/literarywives2.jpg" with "https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-l0V0gbq-de8/Uu7qIbZfhsI/AAAAAAAAA0A/cW_GgS3cbbI/s1600/literarywives2.jpg" --><!-- Blogger automated replacement: "https://images-blogger-opensocial.googleusercontent.com/gadgets/proxy?url=http%3A%2F%2F3.bp.blogspot.com%2F-l0V0gbq-de8%2FUu7qIbZfhsI%2FAAAAAAAAA0A%2FcW_GgS3cbbI%2Fs1600%2Fliterarywives2.jpg&container=blogger&gadget=a&rewriteMime=image%2F*" with "https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-l0V0gbq-de8/Uu7qIbZfhsI/AAAAAAAAA0A/cW_GgS3cbbI/s1600/literarywives2.jpg" -->Lynn @ Smoke & Mirrorshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00464153596817995684noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5883575980086212146.post-18693959613999773422018-12-20T15:39:00.000-06:002018-12-20T15:39:22.016-06:002019 Historical Fiction Reading Challenge at Passages to the Past<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-fdHqYYTWCXg/W_rEa8Gy1HI/AAAAAAAAGrM/cdjgTpk7qLkjBIH2G21_h5pI4q3-C7caACLcBGAs/s1600/2019%2BHist%2BFict%2BRdg%2BChall%2BImage.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="304" data-original-width="400" height="243" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-fdHqYYTWCXg/W_rEa8Gy1HI/AAAAAAAAGrM/cdjgTpk7qLkjBIH2G21_h5pI4q3-C7caACLcBGAs/s320/2019%2BHist%2BFict%2BRdg%2BChall%2BImage.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">#HistFicReadingChallenge</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I am determined to get back into the blogging game in 2019.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I made a restart in 2018, but not nearly as much as I would like...</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The good news is that with all the exercising I've been doing, </span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">both of my knee joints are in considerably better shape </span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">and causing little to no disruption to my daily activities. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Though per my surgeon, no jumping allowed, </span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Though I honestly don't remember the last time I ever actually tried to jump! ;)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #990000;">But on to the </span><a href="http://www.passagestothepast.com/2018/10/2019-historical-fiction-reading.html" target="_blank">historical fiction reading challenge for 2019</a> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #990000;">which is hosted once again by Amy of </span><a href="http://www.passagestothepast.com/" target="_blank">Passages to the Past</a>.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">There are six different categories:</span><br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Twentieth Century Reader--2 books</span><br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Victorian Reader--5 books</span><br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Renaissance Reader--10 books</span><br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Medieval Reader--15 books</span><br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Ancient History--25 books</span><br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Prehistoric--50 books</span><br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">While I would love to think I could read and review 50 historical fiction novels </span><br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">in 2019, I am forcing myself to be more realistic! </span><br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">My goal is to read and review at least 5 books for the Victorian Reader level.</span><br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">But I am really hoping to make it to </span><br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">the Renaissance Reader level with at least 10!</span><br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">What are some of these books that I hope to read in 2019?</span><br />
<a href="https://sandstonepress.com/u/covers/_cover/9781910985380.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Wait for Me, Jack by Addison Jones" border="0" height="200" src="https://sandstonepress.com/u/covers/_cover/9781910985380.jpg" width="130" /></a><br />
<span style="color: #7f6000; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i><a href="https://sandstonepress.com/books/wait-for-me-jack" target="_blank">Wait for Me, Jack</a></i> by Addison Jones</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #7f6000;">This is a historical fiction novel about a marriage</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #7f6000; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">that has lasted for 60 years. </span><br />
<span style="color: #7f6000; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Wow...that is unbelievable to me! </span><br />
<span style="color: #7f6000; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I am anxiously anticipating reading this in March </span><br />
<span style="color: #7f6000; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">for the <a href="https://books-n-music.blogspot.com/p/blog-page.html" target="_blank">Literary Wives</a> April 1st 2019 review postings. </span><br />
<a href="https://www.facebook.com/literarywivesblogseries" style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;" target="_blank">Please join us on Facebook</a><span style="color: #7f6000; font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">!</span><br />
<a href="https://www.bookmanager.com/i/b?b=19NIh1S7LJj1qPhj0oCD-g&cache=1538942308" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="Cover image for Night Circus" border="0" src="https://www.bookmanager.com/i/b?b=19NIh1S7LJj1qPhj0oCD-g&cache=1538942308" /></a><span style="color: #990000; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"></span><br />
<i style="color: red; font-family: verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/211964/the-night-circus-by-erin-morgenstern/" target="_blank">The Night Circus</a></i><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> <span style="color: #cc0000;">by <a href="https://erinmorgenstern.com/writing/the-night-circus/" target="_blank">Erin Morgenstern</a></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I admit I have always been fascinated by this book and am very anxious to finally read it!</span><br />
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">It happens to be the April 2019 selection for the </span><br />
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">face-to-face book club I facilitate! </span><br />
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">There is romance, fantasy, </span><br />
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">and this is also classified as historical fiction! </span><br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="color: #990000; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i style="color: #990000;"><a href="https://www.persephonebooks.co.uk/the-home-maker.html" target="_blank">The Home-Maker</a></i><span style="color: #660000;"> by Dorothy Canfield Fisher</span></span><br />
<a href="https://prodimage.images-bn.com/pimages/9781906462130_p0_v1_s550x406.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Home-Maker" border="0" height="200" src="https://prodimage.images-bn.com/pimages/9781906462130_p0_v1_s550x406.jpg" width="141" /></a><span style="color: #660000; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">This is the December 2019 selection for the </span><br />
<span style="color: #660000; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://books-n-music.blogspot.com/p/blog-page.html" target="_blank">Literary Wives</a> online discussion group. </span><br />
<span style="color: #660000; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I am quite interested in reading this one. </span><br />
<span style="color: #660000; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The main character is a "stay-at-home mom." </span><br />
<span style="color: #660000; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">However, due to unforeseen circumstances, roles are reversed when she is forced to work outside the home to support the family, which now includes a disabled husband. This book explores the repercussions for </span><br />
<span style="color: #660000; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">her children and marriage in the ensuing upheaval. </span><br />
<span style="color: #660000; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">This is listed as a feminist read, so I expect it to be fascinating, given that it was initially published in 1924!</span><br />
<span style="color: #660000; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I wonder how it might compare to <i><a href="https://books-n-music.blogspot.com/2018/01/literary-wives-30.html" target="_blank">A Lady and Her Husband</a></i> </span><br />
<span style="color: #660000; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">which we technically reviewed in December 2017, </span><br />
<span style="color: #660000; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">though my own review was not published until January 1, 2018. </span><br />
<a href="https://media3.picsearch.com/is?ul7AYyijms7PdDkem_2BOjuAkLzBjVQwhXEX3Aqfico&height=320" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://media3.picsearch.com/is?ul7AYyijms7PdDkem_2BOjuAkLzBjVQwhXEX3Aqfico&height=320" width="131" /></a><span style="color: #990000; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: blue; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i><a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/9072/the-truth-according-to-us-by-annie-barrows/9780385342957/" target="_blank">The Truth According to Us</a></i> </span><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">by</span><span style="color: blue; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> <a href="http://anniebarrows.com/" target="_blank">Annie Barrows</a></span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">This is the May 2019 selection for the face-to-face book club </span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I facilitate and is another historical fiction novel! :)</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">(Wow...I may have 5 historical fiction novels just among those already scheduled for book clubs in 2019! Cool!)</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">I think this will be an excellent read!</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">Annie was the co-author of </span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="http://anniebarrows.com/grown-up-books/the-guernsey-literary-and-potato-peel-pie-society/" style="font-style: italic;" target="_blank">The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society</a>, </span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">another historical fiction novel and one that </span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">each member of this same book club absolutely adored! </span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">That bodes well for this book! This is all about secrets!</span><br />
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-LMfF9V47pXw/XBwIdnqu-wI/AAAAAAAAGv4/oS6cWK5IKJAusBVHF2p2NLWKIyvI8aK0QCLcBGAs/s1600/The%2BShape%2Bof%2BWater%2BCvr%2BImage.webp" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-LMfF9V47pXw/XBwIdnqu-wI/AAAAAAAAGv4/oS6cWK5IKJAusBVHF2p2NLWKIyvI8aK0QCLcBGAs/s320/The%2BShape%2Bof%2BWater%2BCvr%2BImage.webp" /></a><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: verdana, sans-serif;"><i><a href="https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250165374" target="_blank">The Shape of Water</a></i> </span><span style="color: #274e13; font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">by Guillermo del Toro</span><br />
<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">Oh, my! I did not realize </span><br />
<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">(or remember from watching the movie) </span><br />
<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">that this is historical fiction based upon </span><br />
<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">the legend of the Amazonian fish-god!</span><br />
<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">I cannot describe just how much I loved this movie and on so many levels! </span><br />
<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">As soon as I discovered the book, </span><br />
<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">I had the owner of my favorite used bookstore </span><br />
<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">order it in for me! </span><br />
<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">This is the book I plan to read on New Year's Day.</span><br />
<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">I just cannot wait. </span><br />
<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">I am fascinated with the whole story </span><br />
<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">from watching the movie </span><br />
<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">and though I rarely rewatch movies, </span><br />
<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">I will definitely be doing so with this one! </span><br />
<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">So I know I will at least have 5 historical fiction books </span><br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">read and reviewed in 2019! </span><br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">Who knows? </span><br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">Maybe I will make that Renaissance Reader level with 10! </span><br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">And each of these can be used to fulfill multiple prompts</span><br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">for both the ATY 2019 and Popsugar 2019 reading challenges! </span><br />
<span style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #990000;">Cool!</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">How about you? Do you enjoy historical fiction?</span><br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">Have you ever participated in this challenge?</span><br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">Happy reading!</span><br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">--Lynn</span></div>
Lynn @ Smoke & Mirrorshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00464153596817995684noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5883575980086212146.post-76208712994038372862018-12-19T16:17:00.000-06:002018-12-19T16:22:27.022-06:00Top Ten Tuesday for December 18, 2018!<div style="text-align: left;">
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<a href="http://books-n-music.blogspot.com/p/top-ten-tuesdays.html" style="font-family: "helvetica neue", arial, helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: center;" target="_blank">Here</a><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; text-align: center;"> </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; text-align: center;">are previous Smoke & Mirrors </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue", arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Top Ten Tuesday posts.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This meme was created by </span><a href="http://www.brokeandbookish.com/p/top-ten-tuesday-other-features.html" style="font-family: "helvetica neue", arial, helvetica, sans-serif;" target="_blank">The Broke and the Bookish</a><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue", arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">and </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">hosted by that site </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">until </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue", arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">January 2018 when </span><a href="http://www.thatartsyreadergirl.com/top-ten-tuesday/" style="font-family: "helvetica neue", arial, helvetica, sans-serif;" target="_blank">That Artsy Reader Girl</a><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue", arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue", arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">took on the hosting duties!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Today's theme is <b>Winter 2018 TBR!</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Oh, so many! I currently have 6833 books on my Goodreads "Want to Read" shelf!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Of those, here are some I am most anticipating reading this winter...</span><br />
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-04XQjkGzg34/XBqCRkBafMI/AAAAAAAAGug/7HdlpY4_9LYgLt49wiGL9R8d0FimHHrNwCLcBGAs/s1600/Becoming%2BCvr%2BImage.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1192" height="320" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-04XQjkGzg34/XBqCRkBafMI/AAAAAAAAGug/7HdlpY4_9LYgLt49wiGL9R8d0FimHHrNwCLcBGAs/s320/Becoming%2BCvr%2BImage.jpg" width="238" /></a><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-so65CD3YG5A/XBqEI3bcH8I/AAAAAAAAGus/G5ahRPDx7sIqUWlFX8j3ajWGmzWAFoIkACLcBGAs/s1600/Dreams%2BFrom%2BMy%2BFather%2BCvr%2BImage.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="304" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-so65CD3YG5A/XBqEI3bcH8I/AAAAAAAAGus/G5ahRPDx7sIqUWlFX8j3ajWGmzWAFoIkACLcBGAs/s200/Dreams%2BFrom%2BMy%2BFather%2BCvr%2BImage.jpg" width="131" /></a><i style="color: #990000; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="https://becomingmichelleobama.com/" target="_blank">Becoming</a></i><span style="color: #990000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">, Michelle Obama's autobiography, </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">is a definite read for me </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">during this winter. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">She and Barack are </span><br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">two people for whom </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I have the utmost respect. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-KPb513xUdcI/XBqFwtzJTDI/AAAAAAAAGu4/xeJoVIhzOvgQuF8IPB63aU42h8c5TStpACLcBGAs/s1600/The%2BAudacity%2Bof%2BHope%2BCvr%2BImage.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="334" data-original-width="220" height="200" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-KPb513xUdcI/XBqFwtzJTDI/AAAAAAAAGu4/xeJoVIhzOvgQuF8IPB63aU42h8c5TStpACLcBGAs/s200/The%2BAudacity%2Bof%2BHope%2BCvr%2BImage.jpg" width="131" /></a><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I also really want </span></span><span style="color: #990000;">to finally read his two books:</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dreams_from_My_Father" target="_blank">Dreams From My Father: </a></i></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dreams_from_My_Father" target="_blank">A Story of Race and Inheritance</a></i> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">and </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Audacity_of_Hope" target="_blank">The Audacity of Hope: </a></i></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Audacity_of_Hope" target="_blank">Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream</a></i></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I just feel the need to remind myself </span><span style="color: #990000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">that there will be a return to </span><br />
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">decency, </span><span style="color: #990000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">compassion, </span><span style="color: #990000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">and intellect </span><span style="color: #990000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">among those occupying </span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">the main leadership positions </span><span style="color: #990000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">of this country... </span><span style="color: #990000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Those changes cannot arrive too quickly!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-X7YT-eRGFl0/XBqZ3tQSDJI/AAAAAAAAGvQ/Ggve__tBqu0ndqtQfUfHwCePX--YagW7wCLcBGAs/s1600/The%2BDry%2BCvr%2BImage.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="416" data-original-width="828" height="160" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-X7YT-eRGFl0/XBqZ3tQSDJI/AAAAAAAAGvQ/Ggve__tBqu0ndqtQfUfHwCePX--YagW7wCLcBGAs/s320/The%2BDry%2BCvr%2BImage.jpg" width="320" /></a><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-G-cp2-_k5UA/XBqU-BiTAvI/AAAAAAAAGvE/n3RyZD0WK_U7D-IUdSOUVO7LoXd_H_BkQCLcBGAs/s1600/We%2Bare%2BOkay%2BCvr%2BImage.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="450" data-original-width="292" height="200" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-G-cp2-_k5UA/XBqU-BiTAvI/AAAAAAAAGvE/n3RyZD0WK_U7D-IUdSOUVO7LoXd_H_BkQCLcBGAs/s200/We%2Bare%2BOkay%2BCvr%2BImage.jpg" width="129" /></a><span style="color: #990000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The January 2019 </span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">read for the face-to-face book club </span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I facilitate is<i> </i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i><a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/311368/we-are-okay-by-nina-lacour/9780525425892/" target="_blank">We Are Okay</a></i> </span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">by Nina LaCour. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">And then there is </span><i style="color: #990000; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://janeharper.com.au/Books/The-Dry" target="_blank">The Dry</a></i><span style="color: #990000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> by Jane Harper for the Second Flight Books Backlist Book Club in January. I have a feeling I will immediately want to follow this with </span><i style="color: #990000; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Force of Nature</i><span style="color: #990000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">. These are book #1 and #2 in her Aaron Falk series.</span></div>
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-QMSd6AsXvKs/W8YztwA00WI/AAAAAAAAGqE/r8t4hGwiVJo2FCDSHfuTRe3-ARTwTy6EgCLcBGAs/s1600/The%2BImmortal%2BLife%2Bof%2BHenrietta%2BLacks%2BCvr%2BImage.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-QMSd6AsXvKs/W8YztwA00WI/AAAAAAAAGqE/r8t4hGwiVJo2FCDSHfuTRe3-ARTwTy6EgCLcBGAs/s200/The%2BImmortal%2BLife%2Bof%2BHenrietta%2BLacks%2BCvr%2BImage.jpg" width="131" /></a><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-O1f_ANJ1pKk/W8YzZE1PKVI/AAAAAAAAGp8/i10JTj2u4ekA3c5WNFtfoRVb2cCVFPDoACLcBGAs/s1600/Life%2527s%2BWork%2BCvr%2BImage.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-O1f_ANJ1pKk/W8YzZE1PKVI/AAAAAAAAGp8/i10JTj2u4ekA3c5WNFtfoRVb2cCVFPDoACLcBGAs/s200/Life%2527s%2BWork%2BCvr%2BImage.jpg" width="129" /></a><span style="color: #990000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">But...before any of these </span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I am currently finishing </span></div>
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<i style="color: #990000; font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Lifes-Work/Dr-Willie-Parker/9781501151132" target="_blank"><span style="color: #cc0000;">Life's Work: A Moral Argument for Choice</span></a></i><span style="color: #990000; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> </span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">by </span><span style="color: #990000; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.drwillieparker.com/" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif;" target="_blank">Dr. Willie Parker</a>.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">I have found this to be even more interesting </span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">and informative than I at first imagined </span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">it might be. </span><span style="color: #990000; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">I am enjoying his writing </span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">as well as the details of his life.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Immediately following that is </span></div>
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<i style="color: #990000; font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Immortal_Life_of_Henrietta_Lacks" target="_blank"><span style="color: #cc0000;">The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks</span></a></i><span style="color: #990000; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> </span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">by </span><span style="color: #990000; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://rebeccaskloot.com/" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif;" target="_blank">Rebecca Skloot</a>.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">I selected both of these books for <a href="https://books-n-music.blogspot.com/2018/10/nonfiction-november-2018.html" target="_blank">Nonfiction November</a>, a reading event </span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> cohosted by the following five bloggers: </span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.sarahsbookshelves.com/announcing-nonfiction-november-2018/" target="_blank">Sarah of Sarah's Book Shelves</a>, </span><a href="https://doingdeweydecimal.com/2018/10/01/nonfiction-november-is-back-2/" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif;" target="_blank">Katie of Doing Dewey</a>, <a href="http://www.sophisticateddorkiness.com/2018/10/nonfiction-november-is-back/" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif;" target="_blank">Kim of Sophisticated Dorkiness</a>,<br />
<a href="https://whatsnonfiction.com/2018/10/01/nonfiction-november-is-coming/" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif;" target="_blank">Rennie of What's Nonfiction</a>, <a href="https://julzreads.com/2018/10/01/nonfiction-november-announcement/" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif;" target="_blank">Julz of JulzReads</a></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">And although November has come and gone, I am determined to complete these books before 2019 arrives! (Better late than never!) I have anxiously anticipated reading both of these books for sooooooo long! :)</span></div>
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-73tnwgveKDU/XASMLd5N-0I/AAAAAAAAGtw/l8gy8EjwwKUUKh_S4mvvExCCXngmZ74HgCLcBGAs/s1600/They%2BWere%2BSisters%2BCvr%2BImage.jpe" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-73tnwgveKDU/XASMLd5N-0I/AAAAAAAAGtw/l8gy8EjwwKUUKh_S4mvvExCCXngmZ74HgCLcBGAs/s200/They%2BWere%2BSisters%2BCvr%2BImage.jpe" /></a><span style="color: #990000; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-oLyBGmajZ0k/XBq7DzxbfAI/AAAAAAAAGvc/v5i3y42rEb01lSGrfVIrHStSa5oxS16yACLcBGAs/s1600/Giovanni%2527s%2BRoom%2BCvr%2BImage.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="926" data-original-width="600" height="320" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-oLyBGmajZ0k/XBq7DzxbfAI/AAAAAAAAGvc/v5i3y42rEb01lSGrfVIrHStSa5oxS16yACLcBGAs/s320/Giovanni%2527s%2BRoom%2BCvr%2BImage.jpg" width="207" /></a><span style="color: #990000; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Sometime during January, I will read and review </span><br />
<i style="color: #990000; font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.persephonebooks.co.uk/they-were-sisters.html" target="_blank">They Were Sisters</a></i><span style="color: #990000; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="color: #990000; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">by Dorothy Whipple </span><br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">for the February 4, 2019, </span><br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://books-n-music.blogspot.com/p/blog-page.html" target="_blank">Literary Wives</a> review posting. </span><br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">This is a Persephone reprint </span><br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">so </span><span style="color: #990000; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">I'll definitely be ordering a copy!</span><br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">It sounds rather intense!</span><br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Also in January I will be </span><br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">reading and reviewing </span><br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">James Baldwin's <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giovanni%27s_Room" target="_blank">Giovanni's Room</a></i> </span><br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">for the <a href="https://books-n-music.blogspot.com/2018/11/classics-club-spin-19.html" target="_blank">Classics Club Spin #19</a>! </span><br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">I was totally enthralled by his book</span><br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><i><a href="https://books-n-music.blogspot.com/2015/01/classics-club-spin-8-intense-honesteye.html" target="_blank">Go Tell It on the Mountain</a></i>.</span><br />
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-wkf8my3HzRM/XBrCY68tBBI/AAAAAAAAGvo/bv6jmhLlyfMXlYx0wBT1ZFgClRhUn6yywCLcBGAs/s1600/The%2B7%2B1-2%2BDeaths%2Bof%2BEvelyn%2BHardcastle%2BCvr%2BImage.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="771" data-original-width="500" height="200" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-wkf8my3HzRM/XBrCY68tBBI/AAAAAAAAGvo/bv6jmhLlyfMXlYx0wBT1ZFgClRhUn6yywCLcBGAs/s200/The%2B7%2B1-2%2BDeaths%2Bof%2BEvelyn%2BHardcastle%2BCvr%2BImage.jpg" width="129" /></a><span style="color: #990000; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The Ultimate Popsugar Reading Challenge group </span><br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">is hosting a group read of </span><br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><i><a href="https://www.sourcebooks.com/blog/the-7-12-deaths-of-evelyn-hardcastle-is-an-indienext-pick" target="_blank">The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle</a></i> </span><br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">by Stuart Turton </span><br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">for January 2019.</span><br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">I am intrigued by this book for many reasons. </span><br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">It would fulfill quite a few prompts </span><br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">for the Popsugar 2019 and ATY 2019 challenges as well.</span><br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Both of these challenges are on Goodreads.</span><br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> If you're interested, look for them in "groups" on Goodreads.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">And then? I have so many more I want to read...</span><br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">How about you? What is on your Winter 2018 to-read listing?</span><br />
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Happy reading!</span><br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">--Lynn</span></div>
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Lynn @ Smoke & Mirrorshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00464153596817995684noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5883575980086212146.post-14085021882254159222018-12-03T06:31:00.001-06:002018-12-04T09:23:04.745-06:00Literary Wives #36<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><i><a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/228116/the-stars-are-fire-by-anita-shreve/9780345806369/" target="_blank"><span id="goog_958308078"></span>The Stars Are Fire</a><span id="goog_958308079"></span></i> by <a href="http://anitashrevebooks.com/" target="_blank">Anita Shreve</a></span></div>
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-n2k92y5vzgw/XARLwKG3lBI/AAAAAAAAGtk/Mh4KMUCN-BQ-ORoxCOkGFD0T5DOErdR3ACLcBGAs/s1600/The%2BStars%2BAre%2BFire%2BHB%2BCvr%2BImage.jpe" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="447" data-original-width="300" height="200" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-n2k92y5vzgw/XARLwKG3lBI/AAAAAAAAGtk/Mh4KMUCN-BQ-ORoxCOkGFD0T5DOErdR3ACLcBGAs/s200/The%2BStars%2BAre%2BFire%2BHB%2BCvr%2BImage.jpe" width="133" /></a><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-AzHReIQJcVA/XARJ3fDYvJI/AAAAAAAAGtQ/nftv83duphU57lBxs1PpHZNoXCILjYUFgCLcBGAs/s1600/The%2BStars%2BAre%2BFire%2BCvr%2BImage.jpe" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="279" data-original-width="181" height="200" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-AzHReIQJcVA/XARJ3fDYvJI/AAAAAAAAGtQ/nftv83duphU57lBxs1PpHZNoXCILjYUFgCLcBGAs/s200/The%2BStars%2BAre%2BFire%2BCvr%2BImage.jpe" width="129" /></a><br />
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">My copy of this totally enthralling book was the hardcover with the image </span><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">on the right. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">However, I prefer the cover image on the left </span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">as I feel it better portrays Grace.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I started reading this at about 10:30PM one </span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Saturday night and stayed up until 3:30AM </span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">on Sunday morning, trying to finish it, but just</span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">couldn't get those last 10 pages or so read </span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">before I was so tired I had to call it quits! </span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">That is exactly how enthralling I found this </span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">book to be. Totally!! </span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It has been a very long time since a book kept me so interested...</span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Having read and enjoyed <i><a href="http://anitashrevebooks.com/books/body-surfing" target="_blank">Body Surfing</a></i>, I have decided that Anita Shreve </span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">belongs on my favorite author list! I have been wanting to read <i><a href="http://anitashrevebooks.com/books/the-pilots-wife" target="_blank">The Pilot's Wife</a></i> in forever, and think that has definitely moved up on my TBR listing! </span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It was an <a href="http://www.oprah.com/book/oprahs-book-club-becoming?editors_pick_id=26790" target="_blank">Oprah Book Club</a> selection, so even more encouraging...</span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">But I digress...on to my review of this current <a href="https://books-n-music.blogspot.com/p/blog-page.html" target="_blank">Literary Wives</a> selection!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I was thrown off just a bit by the title of the first chapter, "Wet." All I read about this novel talked of drought. Huh? But ironically, the spring prior to the extreme summer drought was very wet and damp with much rain. I used a clothes line when I lived in the country and thoroughly enjoyed Shreve's description: </span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">On the last beautiful afternoon, over two weeks ago, there was wash on the line in every </i></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">front porch and backyard. With white sheets, undershirts, and rags flapping in the wind, </i></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">it looked as thought an entire town of women had surrendered. </i>(3)</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">That was the end of the first paragraph and it made me laugh out loud. Definitely a good start! As the rains continue, Grace hangs clothes in the house to dry. Then leaves burners lit on the stove at night to make provide enough heat to dry them! </span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">They live in a shingled bungalow two blocks inland from the ocean. </i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">Good investment, Gene always says. </i>(4)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Indeed, I could imagine living that close to the ocean with constant rain and all the humidity that would gather and just hang in the air, even inside the house. That would get old! And the children wouldn't be able to go outside and play nearly as often. </span><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Once dryer weather reappears and Grace is walking through Hunts Beach, she</span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">thinks the fluttering sheets and clothes are not, after all, </i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">a sign of surrender, but instead a symbol of survival. </i>(17)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">It all depends upon your perspective, doesn't it? </span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">I admit that the fact that Grace is a smoker was a bit unsettling to me. And then Dr. Lighthart smokes, too! Yikes! Though this was a different day and age, in 1947, when no one gave a second thought to smoking cigarettes. We learn that during this time there is an encouragement to ration and cut back to help "feed Europe." </span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">As I got to the part of the book where an uncontrolled and uncontrollable fire destroys all of Hunts Beach, the Camp fire was similarly burning in California. It felt a bit surreal. Thankfully, Grace had piece of mind to not only get herself and children into the edge of the ocean and covered with water-soaked materials, but also to instruct Rosie to do the same. Neither husband was home when the fire hit, so these women had to think for themselves and survive it intact. The aftermath is what would seem unbearable to me. No home. No job. No money. Completely displaced. And for Grace, no husband. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Grace, her mother, and her children, stay with some of her mother's friends temporarily, until she realizes that her mother-in-law's house is empty. There is no word of Gene, though Grace checks everywhere and with everyone she can. (Communication is not instantaneous as it is now with the internet, cell phones, etc.) She decides to move her mother and children into her husband's inherited house. The first time she enters the house, she realizes with a start that someone is in the house and playing the piano! This person has also been displaced and was simply squatting in the house/on the property. However, Grace decides to allow Aidan to remain in the house as long as he pays rent. This works well, and Aidan and Grace provide each other company in the evenings as they both read and converse. Slowly but surely, Grace realizes she is falling in love with Aidan and they finally consummate their relationship. Then Aidan gets a job and must resume traveling on the road from concert to concert, leaving Grace with her children and mother once again. A very much different and wounded Gene reappears in their life. Though extremely scarred and injured by the fire, he has survived months of hospitalization to return home. He is a completely different person, and not in a good way. How will Grace bear caring for a husband who is belligerent at best and violent at worst? </span></div>
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-l0V0gbq-de8/Uu7qIbZfhsI/AAAAAAAAA0A/cW_GgS3cbbI/s1600/literarywives2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; display: inline; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-l0V0gbq-de8/Uu7qIbZfhsI/AAAAAAAAA0A/cW_GgS3cbbI/s1600/literarywives2.jpg" width="255" /></a></div>
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<span style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">We are here to answer the Literary Wives question:</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><b>What does this book say about wives or about the experience of being a wife?</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Please make sure you read </span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">the other hosting bloggers' reviews:</span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Emily of <a href="https://thebookshelfofemilyj.com/2018/12/03/literary-wives-the-stars-are-fire/" target="_blank">The Bookshelf of Emily J</a></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Naomi of <a href="https://consumedbyink.ca/2018/12/03/literarywives-the-stars-are-fire-by-anita-shreve/" target="_blank">Consumed by Ink</a></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Kay of <a href="https://whatmeread.wordpress.com/2018/12/03/day-1290-literary-wives-the-stars-are-fire/" target="_blank">whatmeread</a></span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #20124d;">Eva of </span><a href="https://thepaperbprincess.wordpress.com/2018/12/03/literary-wives-the-stars-are-fire/" target="_blank">The Paperback Princess</a></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">I thought this book had much to say about </span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">"being a wife"!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">As Grace and her family sit at the dinner table that first night, she thinks to herself:</span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">These are her happiest moments, with her family in harmony. </i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">In many ways, she thinks, her family is perfect. </i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">Two beautiful children, a boy and a girl; a husband who works hard at his job </i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">and doesn't resist chores at home. Every night, Gene washes the dishes... </i>(4)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">We do learn that Gene is often gone 2-3 nights during the week due to his work as a surveyor on the Maine Turnpike Project. However, it appears that when he is home he is a good father and husband, making their home tranquil.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">As Grace considers her plans for the day and what Gene might wish her to do for his mother, rather than going to visit with her own mother, she wonders </span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">Would he care or would that go into the category of "women's work," </i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">a subject that allows him to dismiss it? </i>(7)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Oh, boy. Did that ever bring back memories. One of my ex-husband's favorite things to say was that something or other was "women's work" and therefore, he shouldn't do it...and trust me, he wouldn't! Even after I returned to work full time with three young children! Ugh! Bad memories... I shook my head as I read this. Poor Grace... I know how that feels.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>When Grace walks into her mother's home, she has a sensation of great warmth and safety.</i></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">This doesn't occur in her own house despite the fact that at night and on Sundays, </i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">there's a man to protect her...Even in the vestibule...the familiar scent--from the walls, </i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">the rugs, the coats hanging on hooks--transports Grace to a universe before she met Gene, </i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">before life became uncertain and even a little frightening. </i>(12)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Ooohh...so as soon as page 12 we begin to get a different impression of Grace's home life other than that picture of a "perfect" family. And she eventually loses this comfortable haven as her mother's house also burns down in the Maine fires. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>That night, after Grace has put the children to bed, she slips her slicker from a hook </i></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>and walks down her front path to the sidewalk. </i></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>She has maybe a minute before Gene will notice her absence. </i></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">It isn't much, but it's everything. She is who she is, nothing more. </i>(15)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">I could very much relate to her feeling that just for a minute she could do whatever, think whatever, just be...without anyone needing or wanting her for anything. Having spent 13 years at home with my own young children, I definitely knew times like that.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Once she returns to the house she knows that Gene will say "he is going up." </span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">...she must listen to the inflection in his voice and watch his face to know if she is to go up </i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">with him, or whether she can sit at the kitchen table and have another cigarette. </i>(15)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Oh, my. This is not a good relationship. She must basically read his mind? About when she is supposed to go to bed? Yikes! And then we learn that their sex life is anything but satisfying. As Grace describes their sexual encounter that night, I couldn't help but think that Gene was raping his own wife. And causing her pain--purposefully! In the aftermath Grace realizes that although Gene uses a poignant nickname, Dove, for her, </span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">It seems unlikely now that she will ever have a fond nickname for her husband. </i>(16)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Yeah. No kidding! Neither would I! What an asshole. Of course, then I had to consider...had Grace actually told him that it hurt her where the episiotomies had been performed? As mousy as she seemed to be with him, perhaps not? I don't know, but I do know that the sexual encounter she described seemed in no way pleasurable to her...or maybe even to him. And I could relate. It took six months following the birth of my first child before sex became bearable due to the site of the episiotomy. :( </span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Then there is the night Gene brings home a wringer washer and helps her learn how to use it, ending with him tilting her face up to his so he can leave "a gentle kiss on her lips" and calls her "Dove." She immediately wonders if a wringer washer can save a marriage...and believes the answer may be "yes." :) Isn't it true? No matter how bad a relationship it seems that every once in awhile your partner does or says something that immediately makes you feel good and then you wonder...and hope...that maybe...just maybe...</span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">If not for Grace's next-door neighbor, Rosie, I'm not sure what might have happened to Grace. Rosie helps to ground her, to keep her sane, and to provide a reality check periodically to Gene's behavior(s) and her reactions to them. When Grace admits that Gene makes her feel guilty about his mother's death:</span><br />
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>If I had gone to see his mother once in a while, she wouldn't have gotten breast cancer. </i></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">[Rosie] <b><i>That's the stupidest thing I ever heard.</i></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">[Grace] "<b><i>Yes, well." She thinks for a moment. "But you know what? It feels true." </i></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>It feels true that she might have wished her mother-in-law gone. Not dead, just gone. </i></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>It feels true that she caused the hurtful night in bed, even though she sort of knows she didn't. </i></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>She does know, however, that it's been too long since she and Gene have had sex.</i></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">It feels sort of true that she doesn't want to start up again. </i>(23)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">I am not a bit surprised. Gene does nothing to try to ensure Grace's happiness on an interpersonal level. He provides for his family. He buys a wringer washer and surprises Grace with it, but as a partner on a personal level, he sucks! Big time! Though this is set in a different time when men were not expected to be considerate and women were simply expected to acquiesce. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Grace had become pregnant from the last unpleasant sexual encounter with her husband, and she loses the baby in the aftermath of the fire. She admitted to having had some doubts about a child conceived in a such a violent manner, then figured that was an old "wives tale." Upon Gene's return her life becomes pure and absolute drudgery. Her mother leaves as she can't handle the isolation and constant caregiving her two grandchildren require.Once Grade admits to her that she wants to leave Gene, her mother informs her, "You have to stay." And when Grace asks "Why?" She replies, "You're married."</span><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> So being married can seem like a death sentence? Evidently, according to her own mother. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Grace is abandoned to a 'hell on earth' trying to deal with Gene who is determined not to help himself, as well as raise her children. She has managed to get a job and has a vehicle, but Gene sabotages the car and then has it sold. She must quit work due to no transportation and once she learns of Gene's interference, and the true reason he married her, she is determined to leave. After unwittingly discovering her mother-in-law's jewelry stash, she decides to leave Gene to his own devices. Though she does hire a full-time therapist to oversee his care and recovery before leaving with the children. I don't know that I could have been so generous, although it isn't as if his current health is his fault; he was trying to fight the fire when he was hurt... He was trying to do the right thing and help himself and others. I was reminded of Celestial's similar situation in <i><a href="https://books-n-music.blogspot.com/2018/09/literary-wives-35.html" target="_blank">An American Marriage</a></i> regarding commitment to a man/marriage, though Roy was unjustly incarcerated, whereas Gene had suffered physical and mental anguish, both Grace and Celestial faced the same conundrum--when is a "wife" released from duty and commitment to a marriage in seemingly unbearable conditions? It is easy for those who have never been faced with such life events to berate a wife who doesn't remain committed faithful to her marriage vows, but I believe none of us really knows for certain how we might react in similar situations. I do know I remained committed to my first marriage an additional 12 years beyond when I was "happy," but we all must make our own decisions. In Grace's letter to Gene in the wake of her departure, she states</span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>I think that if the fire hadn't happened, we'd have continued as the little family that we were. </i></b></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>In time, I believe, we would have come to care about each other in a way that was companionable. But the fire did happen, and that changed everything.</i></b></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">I hope you'll be happier and that your injuries will heal. </i>(221)</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">She does reassure him that she will bring the children to visit him in the future and not deny him access to them. All in all, I thought she was quite kind and generous. Though I felt "companionable" is not the goal to which a marriage should strive. Shouldn't there be some true love, caring, and kindness? That just made me sad, because I couldn't help thinking how different things might have been had Grace not discovered the jewelry and been able to sell it for cash to leave and create a new life for herself and her children. And the irony that her mother-in-law inadvertently provided a way out of her marriage to Gene was not lost on me! I bet she was turning over in her grave! I couldn't help but wonder what the woman's goal was in sewing the jewels into her clothing, other than to hoard what she had so no one else would discover it? It just seemed like such a greedy action!</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">What goes around, comes around! And it is Rosie who now rescues her! Grace has enough money from the jewelry to build a house and settle down in Canada next to Rosie and her family. As she and Rosie discuss Gene's physical and mental state, and the implications for his relationship with Grace and his children, Grace tells Rosie, "...you and Tim are so good together!" To which Rosie replies:</span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">Oh, we are. But, you know, a marriage is a marriage. </i>(237)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">For me, this statement reflects the fact that after enough years together there will always be times when each partner frustrates the other, usually at least in small ways, but many times in much more substantial ways, creating a stressful relationship to some degree. It is never all good all the time...and requires effort from both parties to work on a daily basis. So while marriage does require commitment, when can that be abandoned? For Celestial in <i><a href="https://books-n-music.blogspot.com/2018/09/literary-wives-35.html" target="_blank">An American Marriage</a></i> it took years before she could no longer bear remaining committed to her marriage. For Grace it required only weeks. I feel it was much more intense for her having to deal with Gene face-to-face. I felt Gene was at least suffering from PTSD and possibly other mental/emotional challenges in the wake of months spent comatose as well as other physical injuries. Should Grace have stayed? Was that to be her only option as his wife? I don't know. There is no easy yes or no answer to these questions, in my opinion. I watched as my uncle remained faithful (as far as any of us knew, anyway) and committed to his wife, my mother's sister, in the wake of her diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia and her intermittent institutional treatments, and wondered, even as a child, at his ability to do so. Much as I feel marriage should be an overriding commitment, there are exceptions, in my opinion. One person's happiness shouldn't necessarily be totally sacrificed to keep a commitment once the situation is so drastically altered, should it? Though I feel as of our current society still expects this, just as Grace's mother told her she must stay with Gene because she is "married." Though obviously, her mother feels no similar commitment since she left the situation herself...</span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">And while on a girls-only weekend excursion, Grace discovers a piano concert poster for none other than Aidan's upcoming concert. Needless to say they attend and Rosie leads Grace backstage afterward. She and Aidan reconnect and the book ends with Grace imagining all kinds of possible scenarios for their relationship into the future, though she is very uncertain, all she knows right now is that Aidan's "grip on her wrist is fierce," so I felt this book ended with some hope for Grace to enjoy a relationship that would give her pleasure, and perhaps without the eternal commitment seemingly demanded of a "wife" as she had recently experienced.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">I loved this book and can highly recommend it. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">What do you think? Should Grace have suffered through the remainder of her life with a newly damaged husband? Ironically, when she visits Gene, it appears that his full-time live-in therapist is actually his new partner in life, and his health has improved greatly.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">I doubt he would have had such improvement if Grace had stayed.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Perhaps they both needed a new life in order to progress and move forward...</span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">This kinda makes sense to me as I feel we can allow ourselves (especially females) </span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">to believe it is impossible make drastic changes in our lives and be successful. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">I believe we can and should when we're unable to be happy in the current situation...</span></div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-wSg6sm3OC-Q/W7GZ1r1-d2I/AAAAAAAAGpE/_Ns9tRrzKMc0phV-Za3ZgQJqzOqIh9PzQCLcBGAs/s1600/The%2BStars%2BAre%2BFire%2BCvr%2BImage.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-wSg6sm3OC-Q/W7GZ1r1-d2I/AAAAAAAAGpE/_Ns9tRrzKMc0phV-Za3ZgQJqzOqIh9PzQCLcBGAs/s200/The%2BStars%2BAre%2BFire%2BCvr%2BImage.jpg" width="130" /></a><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #351c75;">I really liked this cover, </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #351c75;">but don't believe it accurately reflects the novel's overall theme.</span></span></div>
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-73tnwgveKDU/XASMLd5N-0I/AAAAAAAAGtw/l8gy8EjwwKUUKh_S4mvvExCCXngmZ74HgCLcBGAs/s1600/They%2BWere%2BSisters%2BCvr%2BImage.jpe" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="266" data-original-width="190" height="200" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-73tnwgveKDU/XASMLd5N-0I/AAAAAAAAGtw/l8gy8EjwwKUUKh_S4mvvExCCXngmZ74HgCLcBGAs/s200/They%2BWere%2BSisters%2BCvr%2BImage.jpe" width="142" /></a><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Our next read for February 2019 is</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><i><a href="https://www.persephonebooks.co.uk/they-were-sisters.html" target="_blank">They Were Sisters</a></i> by Dorothy Whipple</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">This is a Persephone reprint! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">I'll definitely be ordering a copy!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Join us on February 4, 2019!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">We will have left 2018 far behind us by then!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Happy reading!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">--Lynn</span></div>
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<!-- Blogger automated replacement: "https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-l0V0gbq-de8/Uu7qIbZfhsI/AAAAAAAAA0A/cW_GgS3cbbI/s1600/literarywives2.jpg" with "https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-l0V0gbq-de8/Uu7qIbZfhsI/AAAAAAAAA0A/cW_GgS3cbbI/s1600/literarywives2.jpg" --><!-- Blogger automated replacement: "https://images-blogger-opensocial.googleusercontent.com/gadgets/proxy?url=http%3A%2F%2F3.bp.blogspot.com%2F-l0V0gbq-de8%2FUu7qIbZfhsI%2FAAAAAAAAA0A%2FcW_GgS3cbbI%2Fs1600%2Fliterarywives2.jpg&container=blogger&gadget=a&rewriteMime=image%2F*" with "https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-l0V0gbq-de8/Uu7qIbZfhsI/AAAAAAAAA0A/cW_GgS3cbbI/s1600/literarywives2.jpg" -->Lynn @ Smoke & Mirrorshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00464153596817995684noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5883575980086212146.post-15534228819511741342018-12-02T14:53:00.000-06:002018-12-02T14:53:10.181-06:00Nonfiction November 2018--Week 5!<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-R9nUT5ewOZc/W8YHed8kWvI/AAAAAAAAGpw/r0TAyX-llXA5DGbeHoIDQNjp7TDKtlgkQCLcBGAs/s1600/Nonfiction-November-2018%2BImage.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="300" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-R9nUT5ewOZc/W8YHed8kWvI/AAAAAAAAGpw/r0TAyX-llXA5DGbeHoIDQNjp7TDKtlgkQCLcBGAs/s1600/Nonfiction-November-2018%2BImage.png" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif;">This event is being cohosted by the following five bloggers: </span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.sarahsbookshelves.com/announcing-nonfiction-november-2018/" target="_blank">Sarah of Sarah's Book Shelves</a></span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://doingdeweydecimal.com/2018/10/01/nonfiction-november-is-back-2/" target="_blank">Katie of Doing Dewey</a></span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.sophisticateddorkiness.com/2018/10/nonfiction-november-is-back/" target="_blank">Kim of Sophisticated Dorkiness</a></span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://whatsnonfiction.com/2018/10/01/nonfiction-november-is-coming/" target="_blank">Rennie of What's Nonfiction</a></span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://julzreads.com/2018/10/01/nonfiction-november-announcement/" target="_blank">Julz of JulzReads</a></span><br />
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">#NonFicNov</span><br />
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Week 5</b> (November 26-30): <b>New to My TBR</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #990000;">(</span><a href="https://doingdeweydecimal.com/" target="_blank"><span style="color: #cc0000;">Katie of Doing Dewey</span></a><span style="color: #990000;">)</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">By now, it has been a month full of amazing nonfiction books!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Which ones have made it onto your TBR listing?</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">(Be sure to link back to the original blogger who posted about that book!)</span><br />
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-aSC52UWJYC8/XAQpI6CMF1I/AAAAAAAAGr8/Yeawb118NZE1xfnUZThHARyqUXYKsQmfgCLcBGAs/s1600/Forty%2BAutumns%2BCvr%2BImage%2B2.jpe" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="279" data-original-width="181" height="200" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-aSC52UWJYC8/XAQpI6CMF1I/AAAAAAAAGr8/Yeawb118NZE1xfnUZThHARyqUXYKsQmfgCLcBGAs/s200/Forty%2BAutumns%2BCvr%2BImage%2B2.jpe" width="129" /></a></div>
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-FqoZJSislPU/XAQpLw63t9I/AAAAAAAAGsA/fHpD4Wd5Wlg6v6KAbXNx5tjDRk65dUkYQCLcBGAs/s1600/Forty%2BAutumns%2BCvr%2BImage.jpe" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="281" data-original-width="179" height="200" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-FqoZJSislPU/XAQpLw63t9I/AAAAAAAAGsA/fHpD4Wd5Wlg6v6KAbXNx5tjDRk65dUkYQCLcBGAs/s200/Forty%2BAutumns%2BCvr%2BImage.jpe" width="127" /></a> <i style="color: #990000; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.harpercollins.com/9780062410313/forty-autumns/" target="_blank">Forty Autumns</a></i><span style="color: #990000; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> by Nina Willner</span><br />
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Ironically, this came from </span><br />
<a href="https://doingdeweydecimal.com/2018/11/22/nonficnov-reads-like-fiction/" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;" target="_blank">Katie @ Doing Dewey's</a><span style="color: #990000; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="color: #990000; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Nonfiction that reads </span><br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">like Fiction posting for </span><span style="color: #990000; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Week #4.</span><br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">This sounds absolutely </span><span style="color: #990000; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">fascinating </span><span style="color: #990000; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">and </span><br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">I'm </span><span style="color: #990000; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">wondering </span><span style="color: #990000; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">how I missed it!</span><br />
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> One woman escapes from </span><span style="color: #990000; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">East to </span><span style="color: #990000; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">West </span><br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Berlin, </span><span style="color: #990000; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">eventually settling in </span><span style="color: #990000; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">the US </span><br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">and her daughter becomes </span><br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">the first female Army Intelligence Officer </span><br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">to lead sensitive intelligence operations in East Berlin </span><span style="color: #990000; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">at the height of the Cold War. </span><br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Though only a few miles separated American Nina and her German relatives--grandmother Oma, Aunt Heidi, and cousin Cordula, a member of the East German Olympic training team--a bitter political war kept them apart. I'm already hooked! </span><br />
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-GqBa69qQNh8/XAQxhl0vdZI/AAAAAAAAGsQ/nD8bIWHqOdk9cOYRnsjvCcIJoNiFMUOGwCLcBGAs/s1600/Neurotribes%2BCvr%2BImage.jpe" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="225" data-original-width="225" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-GqBa69qQNh8/XAQxhl0vdZI/AAAAAAAAGsQ/nD8bIWHqOdk9cOYRnsjvCcIJoNiFMUOGwCLcBGAs/s1600/Neurotribes%2BCvr%2BImage.jpe" /></a></div>
<a href="https://katenread.wordpress.com/2018/11/19/nonficnov-2018-week-4-reads-like-fiction/" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;" target="_blank">Katherine @ The Writerly Reader</a><span style="color: #990000; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="color: #990000; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">listed </span><br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/310415/neurotribes-by-steve-silberman-foreword-by-oliver-sacks/9780399185618/" target="_blank">NeuroTribes: </a></i></span><br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/310415/neurotribes-by-steve-silberman-foreword-by-oliver-sacks/9780399185618/" target="_blank">The Legacy of Autism and the Future of Neurodiversity</a></i> </span><br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">by <a href="http://stevesilberman.com/book/neurotribes/" target="_blank">Steve Silberman</a> as a nonfiction book </span><br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">that reads like fiction.</span><br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Actually, this has been on my TBR listing for awhile, </span><br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">but I have not yet read it!</span><br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">I must move it up on that listing. This sounds like an amazing book with much to teach me. </span><br />
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-kdbbUZe32i0/XAQzBHMzgaI/AAAAAAAAGsc/9ZzcnFdD-0os-VG304yCxyyRFiyPnCFVQCLcBGAs/s1600/Narrative%2Bof%2Bthe%2BLife%2Bof%2BFrederick%2BDouglass%2BCvr%2Bimage.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="320" data-original-width="208" height="200" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-kdbbUZe32i0/XAQzBHMzgaI/AAAAAAAAGsc/9ZzcnFdD-0os-VG304yCxyyRFiyPnCFVQCLcBGAs/s200/Narrative%2Bof%2Bthe%2BLife%2Bof%2BFrederick%2BDouglass%2BCvr%2Bimage.jpg" width="130" /></a><span style="color: #990000; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://reesewarner.blogspot.com/2018/11/nonfiction-november-reads-like-fiction.html" target="_blank">Reese @ Typings</a> </span><span style="color: #990000; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">listed </span><br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narrative_of_the_Life_of_Frederick_Douglass,_an_American_Slave" target="_blank">The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: </a></i></span><br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narrative_of_the_Life_of_Frederick_Douglass,_an_American_Slave" target="_blank">An American Slave Written by Himself</a></i></span><br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">as another nonfiction book that reads like fiction.</span><br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">This has also been on my TBR listing for awhile,</span><br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">and is included in my current <a href="https://books-n-music.blogspot.com/2015/08/becoming-official-classics-club-member.html" target="_blank">Classics Club challenge list</a>.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><i><a href="https://thepaperbprincess.wordpress.com/2018/11/21/nonfiction-november-reads-like-fiction/" target="_blank">Eva @ The Paperback Princess</a></i> lists all of Erik Larson's books:</span><br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><i><a href="http://eriklarsonbooks.com/the-books/dead-wake/" target="_blank">Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania</a></i>,</span><br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><i><a href="http://eriklarsonbooks.com/the-books/in-the-garden-of-beasts/" target="_blank">In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin</a></i>, </span><br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><a href="http://eriklarsonbooks.com/the-books/the-devil-in-the-white-city/" target="_blank"><i>The Devil in the White City: </i></a></span><br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><a href="http://eriklarsonbooks.com/the-books/the-devil-in-the-white-city/" target="_blank"><i>Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America</i></a>, </span><br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><i><a href="http://eriklarsonbooks.com/the-books/thunderstruck/" target="_blank">Thunderstruck</a></i>, </span><br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><i><a href="http://eriklarsonbooks.com/the-books/isaacs-storm/" target="_blank">Isaac's Storm: A Man, a Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in History</a></i>, </span><br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><i><a href="http://eriklarsonbooks.com/the-books/lethal-passage/" target="_blank">Lethal Passage: The Story of a Gun</a></i>, </span><br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">(though published in 1994, just the story of how he began this search is enthralling).</span><br />
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-9aHVY9GgpL4/XARExaL_BBI/AAAAAAAAGs4/dAncf-6_6vIMSG6lLTgTU2Q7WdbpzvzMgCLcBGAs/s1600/The%2BDevil%2Bin%2Bthe%2BWhite%2BCity%2BCvr%2BImage.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="284" data-original-width="171" height="200" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-9aHVY9GgpL4/XARExaL_BBI/AAAAAAAAGs4/dAncf-6_6vIMSG6lLTgTU2Q7WdbpzvzMgCLcBGAs/s200/The%2BDevil%2Bin%2Bthe%2BWhite%2BCity%2BCvr%2BImage.png" width="120" /></a><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-1aJLFHUEV3U/XAREwqzvAoI/AAAAAAAAGso/YlPkEJbkRzMdoVDiTN-LKrdbzZnUfQP4ACLcBGAs/s1600/Dead%2BWake%2BCvr%2BImage.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="249" data-original-width="170" height="200" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-1aJLFHUEV3U/XAREwqzvAoI/AAAAAAAAGso/YlPkEJbkRzMdoVDiTN-LKrdbzZnUfQP4ACLcBGAs/s200/Dead%2BWake%2BCvr%2BImage.png" width="136" /></a><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-XULITpQ9l20/XAREwvrp3JI/AAAAAAAAGss/P2ClKI8OH-0yNO5ZSdOgQrrVWpVyya8qQCLcBGAs/s1600/In%2Bthe%2BGarden%2Bof%2BBeasts%2BCvr%2BImage.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="284" data-original-width="171" height="200" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-XULITpQ9l20/XAREwvrp3JI/AAAAAAAAGss/P2ClKI8OH-0yNO5ZSdOgQrrVWpVyya8qQCLcBGAs/s200/In%2Bthe%2BGarden%2Bof%2BBeasts%2BCvr%2BImage.png" width="120" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-hhQlmM0nm6o/XARExEq0eKI/AAAAAAAAGs0/DWsvwl7ZsF4hdYZljsPAT2fo0AjsQqrswCLcBGAs/s1600/Lethal%2BPassage%2BCvr%2BImage.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="284" data-original-width="171" height="200" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-hhQlmM0nm6o/XARExEq0eKI/AAAAAAAAGs0/DWsvwl7ZsF4hdYZljsPAT2fo0AjsQqrswCLcBGAs/s200/Lethal%2BPassage%2BCvr%2BImage.png" width="120" /></a><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-0q2sbIpxxOk/XAREx8nzhPI/AAAAAAAAGs8/IWsEPUjLn5svZcFyCDFyIGhxDHghNHiqwCLcBGAs/s1600/Thunderstruck%2BCvr%2BImage.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="284" data-original-width="171" height="200" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-0q2sbIpxxOk/XAREx8nzhPI/AAAAAAAAGs8/IWsEPUjLn5svZcFyCDFyIGhxDHghNHiqwCLcBGAs/s200/Thunderstruck%2BCvr%2BImage.png" width="120" /></a><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-PZmuRemI154/XAREwo_pQII/AAAAAAAAGsw/XCdyWeyIkPETEm6NlLVPSxCrQM0PvkgHQCLcBGAs/s1600/Isaac%2527s%2BStorm%2BCvr%2BImage.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="284" data-original-width="171" height="200" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-PZmuRemI154/XAREwo_pQII/AAAAAAAAGsw/XCdyWeyIkPETEm6NlLVPSxCrQM0PvkgHQCLcBGAs/s200/Isaac%2527s%2BStorm%2BCvr%2BImage.png" width="120" /></a></div>
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">My conclusion:</span><br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I really must start reading Erik Larson!</span><br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I just need to increase my nonfiction reading, with particular attention to these books!</span><br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">What additions to your TBR have been made </span><br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">as a result of the Nonfiction November postings?</span><br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Happy reading!</span><br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">--Lynn</span><br />
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Lynn @ Smoke & Mirrorshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00464153596817995684noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5883575980086212146.post-45388445131512461102018-11-26T15:05:00.002-06:002018-12-19T08:25:07.547-06:00Classics Club Spin #19!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-PeMVI74pGC8/W_xSQ2KB7MI/AAAAAAAAGrk/gkyhO2GBDgwOCNy0YX9NlP7ywDD2wcAJwCLcBGAs/s1600/Classics%2BClub%2BImage.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="155" data-original-width="155" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-PeMVI74pGC8/W_xSQ2KB7MI/AAAAAAAAGrk/gkyhO2GBDgwOCNy0YX9NlP7ywDD2wcAJwCLcBGAs/s1600/Classics%2BClub%2BImage.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">#ccspin</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">I wasn't going to participate in this event, but then I saw </span><a href="https://bookertalk.com/2018/11/26/classic-club-spin-19/" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;" target="_blank">Karen of BookerTalk</a><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> </span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">had posted her listing for the </span><a href="https://theclassicsclubblog.wordpress.com/2018/11/19/cc-spin-19/" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;" target="_blank">Classics Club Spin #19</a><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">, and I just couldn't resist! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">After all, we do have until the end of January 2019 to read this one! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">I have had mixed results in the past and haven't always finished these books,</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">but that doesn't mean I should try again, does it? Of course not... :)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Unlike Karen, I still have oodles of books left on my list. In fact, I need to revise my listing. Perhaps that will be an end-of-year task! </span><br />
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<span style="color: #7f6000; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">12-3-18 UPDATE: The spin was #1 so I will be reading</span><br />
<span style="color: #7f6000; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"> Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin!</span><br />
<span style="color: #7f6000; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"> Now to make that fit a category for both </span><span style="color: #7f6000; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">the ATY 2019 and PopSugar 2019 </span><span style="color: #7f6000; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">challenges </span><span style="color: #7f6000; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">on Goodreads!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Here are my 20 books for this spin:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">1)<i> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giovanni%27s_Room" target="_blank">Giovanni's Room</a></i> by James Baldwin</span><br />
<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> I loved <i><a href="https://books-n-music.blogspot.com/2015/01/classics-club-spin-8-intense-honesteye.html" target="_blank">Go Tell It on the Mountain</a></i> and want to read this one! I own it, too! :)</span><br />
<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">2)<i> <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/333494/at-fault-by-kate-chopin/9781101177174/" target="_blank">At Fault</a></i> by Kate Chopin</span><br />
<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">3) <i><a href="http://www.michaelcunninghamwriter.com/books/the_hours" target="_blank">The Hours</a></i> by Micheal Cunningham</span><br />
<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> I truly know nothing about this one, but so many have recommended it and I have </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> read </span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">several references to it lately. Added bonus: picked up a copy in the Half Price </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> Books </span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">clearance section for $2!</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">4) <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mystery_of_Edwin_Drood" target="_blank">The Mystery of Edwin Drood</a></i> </span><span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">by Charles Dickens</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #660000; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">5) <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Age_of_Innocence" target="_blank">The Age of Innocence</a></i> by Edith Wharton</span><br />
<span style="color: #660000; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> Really feel the need to read one of her books! So many bloggers reference her work!</span><br />
<span style="color: #660000; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">6) <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Old_Man_and_the_Sea" target="_blank">The Old Man and the Sea</a></i> by Ernest Hemingway</span><br />
<span style="color: #660000; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> Have yet to read one of his novels. (I know, I know...) :)</span><br />
<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">7) <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Catcher_in_the_Rye" target="_blank">The Catcher in the Rye</a></i> by J.D. Salinger</span><br />
<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> Yeah, I know. Unbelievable that some English/literature teacher in my past never </span><br />
<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> got to this </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">one, but I am very curious.</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">8) <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Things_Fall_Apart" target="_blank">Things Fall Apart</a></i> by Chinua Achebe</span><br />
<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> Can. Not. Wait! I felt drawn to this book and shouldn't delay reading it any longer!!</span><br />
<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">9) <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freckles_(novel)" target="_blank">Freckles</a></i> by Gene Stratton-Porter</span><br />
<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">10) <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Girl_of_the_Limberlost_(novel)" target="_blank">A Girl of the Limberlost</a></i> by Gene Stratton-Porter</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #20124d; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">11) </span><i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Moonstone" target="_blank">Moonstone</a></i> by Wilkie Collins</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">12) <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Anne" target="_blank"><i>Mary Ann</i> by Daphne du Maurier</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">13) <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamaica_Inn_(novel)" target="_blank">Jamaica Inn</a></i> by Daphne du Maurier</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> I finally read <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rebecca_(novel)" target="_blank">Rebecca</a></i> for the RIP challenge this year and loved it!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">14) <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Separate_Peace" target="_blank">A Separate Peace</a></i> by John Knowles*</span><br />
<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> Read this at age 15, loved it, and am anxious to see how I feel about it now, some </span><br />
<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> 40+ years </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">later! :)</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">15) <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ship_of_Fools_(Porter_novel)" target="_blank">T</a></i></span><i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ship_of_Fools_(Porter_novel)" target="_blank">he Ship of Fools</a></i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> by Katherine Anne Porter </span></span><br />
<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> First read when I was 13. I loved it then and am anxious to see how it resonates </span><br />
<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> for me now.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #741b47; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">16) </span><i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_American_Tragedy" target="_blank">An American Tragedy</a></i> by Theodore Dreiser</span><br />
<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> Read it at 13 and LOVED it! So dramatic! So romantic! So tragic! So sad! Wonder how </span><br />
<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> it will resonate for me now, some almost 47 years later. I am betting much the </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #741b47; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> same. </span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Though I'm sure there are many similarly-themed movies and books, I thought </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> Woody </span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Allen's</span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> </span><i><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0416320/?ref_=nm_flmg_wr_14" target="_blank">Match Point</a></i><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">(2005) was a well-done similarly-themed movie. Neither of t</span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">hese w</span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">orks is uplifting in the least, but accurate, in my opinion. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #741b47; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">17) <a href="http://.../">...</a></span><i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%22...And_Ladies_of_the_Club%22" target="_blank">And Ladies of the Club</a></i> by Helen Hooven Santmyer</span><br />
<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> OMG! I absolutely loved this book when I read it at age 20! The characters were </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #741b47; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> living </span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">and breathing right alongside me! Definitely one to revisit!</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">18) <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cherry_Orchard" target="_blank">The Cherry Orchard</a></i> by Anton Chekov</span><br />
<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> Read it for college and was rather lost. Oh, I aced the exam, but hope I can truly </span><br />
<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> understand it this time around, many many years later! (Sometimes life experience </span><br />
<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> really helps with that!)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #741b47; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">19) </span><span style="color: #20124d; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micah_Clarke" target="_blank">Micah Clarke</a></i></span><span style="color: #20124d; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="color: #20124d; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">by Sir Ignatius Arthur Conan Doyle</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #20124d; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">20) </span><i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invisible_Man" target="_blank">Invisible Man</a></i> by Ralph Ellison</span><br />
<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> Feel I should read it so I can understand the references made to it.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">So here I go with another spin challenge!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Tomorrow I will know which of these 20 I will be reading and reviewing </span></div>
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">by the end of January 2019!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Plus, as a bonus I did notice that I have read quite a few of the classics on my original list and simply need to complete and post reviews for them! YAY!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">How about you? </span></div>
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Which classic do you wish to read or re-read?</span></div>
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Have you read any of these I have listed?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Happy reading!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">--Lynn</span></div>
Lynn @ Smoke & Mirrorshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00464153596817995684noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5883575980086212146.post-12311407541865069562018-11-25T13:14:00.000-06:002018-11-26T09:47:52.757-06:00Nonfiction November 2018--Week 4!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-R9nUT5ewOZc/W8YHed8kWvI/AAAAAAAAGpw/r0TAyX-llXA5DGbeHoIDQNjp7TDKtlgkQCLcBGAs/s1600/Nonfiction-November-2018%2BImage.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="300" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-R9nUT5ewOZc/W8YHed8kWvI/AAAAAAAAGpw/r0TAyX-llXA5DGbeHoIDQNjp7TDKtlgkQCLcBGAs/s1600/Nonfiction-November-2018%2BImage.png" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">This event is being cohosted by the following five bloggers: </span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.sarahsbookshelves.com/announcing-nonfiction-november-2018/" target="_blank">Sarah of Sarah's Book Shelves</a></span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://doingdeweydecimal.com/2018/10/01/nonfiction-november-is-back-2/" target="_blank">Katie of Doing Dewey</a></span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.sophisticateddorkiness.com/2018/10/nonfiction-november-is-back/" target="_blank">Kim of Sophisticated Dorkiness</a></span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://whatsnonfiction.com/2018/10/01/nonfiction-november-is-coming/" target="_blank">Rennie of What's Nonfiction</a></span><br />
<a href="https://julzreads.com/2018/10/01/nonfiction-november-announcement/" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif;" target="_blank">Julz of JulzReads</a></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">#NonFicNov</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Week 4</b> (November 19-23): <b>Reads Like Fiction</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #990000;">(</span><a href="https://whatsnonfiction.com/" target="_blank"><span style="color: #cc0000;">Rennie of What's Nonfiction</span></a><span style="color: #990000;">)</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Nonfiction books are often praised for how they stack up to fiction. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Does it matter to you whether nonfiction reads like a novel?</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">If it does, what gives it that fiction-like feeling?</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Does it depend on the topic, the writing, the use of certain literary elements and techniques?</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">What are your favorite nonfiction recommendations that read like fiction?</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">And if your nonfiction picks could never be mistaken for novels, </span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">what do you love about the differences?</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Perhaps the most common nonfiction books I read </span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">that do not necessarily read like fiction are memoirs/autobiographies/biographies.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">There is typically little tension/drama, though some defy that definition.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I have read several that I would highly recommend:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i><a href="https://books-n-music.blogspot.com/2018/11/gloria-steinem-goes-on-my-hero-list.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">My Life on the Road</span></a></i> <span style="color: #990000;">by Gloria Steinem</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I learned sooooo much by reading this one book! She is a wealth of knowledge!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i><a href="https://books-n-music.blogspot.com/2016/03/m-is-for-memorable-memoir-andh.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">H is for Hawk</span></a></i> <span style="color: #990000;">by Helen Macdonald</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I was absolutely fascinated by the details of training/'manning' a goshawk </span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">in the wake of her father's death and trying to re-establish her own life without him.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i><a href="https://www.counterpointpress.com/dd-product/heart-berries/" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">Heart Berries: A Memoir</span></a></i> <span style="color: #990000;">by Terese Marie Mailhot</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Be forewarned! Do NOT be fooled by the small size and length of this book!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Her text may be sparse and poetic, but it is definitely intense!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/692234447" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">Gift from the Sea</span></a></i><span style="color: black;"> </span><span style="color: #990000;">by Anne Morrow Lindbergh</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #990000;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This would make a wonderful gift! Such a collection of timeless observations...</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #990000;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i><a href="http://books-n-music.blogspot.com/2016/09/west-with-night-markhams-autobiography.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">West With the Night</span></a></i> <span style="color: #990000;">by Beryl Markham</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">What a life this woman led! So many female firsts!</span><br />
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Absolutely fascinating...and I loved the writing!</span><br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">And I just now realized that all of these are written by females! Ha! </span><br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Guess there aren't many males whose lives interest me much at this point. </span><br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Though I do intend to read Barack Obama's books at some point in the future, </span><br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">and am extremely anxious to read <i><a href="https://becomingmichelleobama.com/" target="_blank">Becoming</a></i>, Michelle Obama's autobiography!</span><br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Then there are the nonfiction books I've read and truly felt like fiction.</span><br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">There are many reasons: mainly the pacing. </span><br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">These books do not just present a bunch of facts, rather they are excellently written stories, </span><br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">providing some tension and creating a desire within me to keep reading to find out...</span><br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">And, in my humble opinion, that is what any 'good' book does!</span><br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Be it fiction or nonfiction.</span><br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i><a href="http://www.theradiumgirls.com/" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America's Shining Women</span></a></i><span style="color: #990000;"> by</span><span style="color: purple;"> </span><a href="http://www.kate-moore.com/home/4583697050" target="_blank">Kate Moore</a></span><br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This was amazingly written and so very informative!</span><br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Trust me! We all owe our lives (literally) to the women in this group </span><br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">who survived to live long lives!</span><br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Boys_in_the_Boat" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics</span></a></i><span style="color: purple;"> </span><span style="color: #990000;">by</span><span style="color: purple;"> </span><a href="http://www.danieljamesbrown.com/" target="_blank">Daniel James Brown</a></span><br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This is truly one of the very best books I've ever read! </span><span style="color: #990000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I learned so much about rowing! </span><br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">And especially the challenges experienced by this one team.</span><br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Brown does an excellent job of characterization and building tension all within a true story!</span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I am especially interested in Social Justice and these books were so informative </span><br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">in different ways...and each of them well-crafted!</span><br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://newjimcrow.com/" target="_blank"><i><span style="color: blue;">The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness</span></i></a><span style="color: #cc0000;"> </span></span><br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">by Michelle Alexander</span><br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Heartbreaking. Unbelievable just how inherently unfair our "justice" system is...</span><br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #990000;">(And...an excellently-written fiction book that depicts the personal cost of unjust arrest, charges, and incarceration is </span><i><a href="https://books-n-music.blogspot.com/2018/09/literary-wives-35.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">An American Marriage</span></a></i><span style="color: #990000;"> by Tayari Jones.)</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20342617-just-mercy" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">Just Mercy</span></a></i> <span style="color: #990000;">by</span> <span style="color: #990000;"><a href="https://eji.org/just-mercy" target="_blank">Bryan Stevenson</a></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">This one man is such a hero! He makes me want to move south to help him in his fight!</span><span style="color: #990000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"></span><br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">What a heartbreaking but so very necessary book! And his writing just flows...</span><br />
<span style="color: blue; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: blue; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i><a href="http://books-n-music.blogspot.com/2016/07/can-ghosts-cast-shadows.html" target="_blank">The Long Shadow of Small Ghosts: Murder and Memory in an American City</a></i></span><br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">by Laura Tillman</span><br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This is one of the first books I've read that truly depicted the marginalization of the poor and emotionally under-equipped to survive, let alone thrive, in this world...</span><br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Having worked in the as a mental health advocate, this hit home as so very accurate...</span><br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i><a href="https://www.timothyeganbooks.com/the-big-burn/" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">The Big Burn: Teddy Roosevelt and the Fire That Saved America</span></a></i><span style="color: #990000;"> by Timothy Egan</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I learned so very much from this book and it read just like fiction! </span><br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I will definitely read anything this man writes!</span><br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4645750-horse-soldiers" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">Horse Soldiers: The Extraordinary Story of a Band of US Soldiers Who Rode to Victory in Afghanistan</span></a></i><span style="color: #990000;"> by Doug Stanton</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I read this while working at Borders in 2009. Though I am by no means interested in the military or reading about it, I found this book enthralling!</span><br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I see it has now been made into a movie entitled 12 Strong and they have released the original book under a new title: <i><a href="http://dougstanton.com/horse-soldiers-doug-stanton/" target="_blank">12 Strong: The Declassified True Story of the Horse Soldiers</a></i></span><br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lost_City_of_Z_(book)" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon</span></a></i><span style="color: #990000;"> by David Grann</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I also read this book while working at Borders. It was fascinating!</span><br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I would definitely read anything this man has written!</span><br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">What nonfiction books would you recommend as reading like fiction?</span><br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Happy reading!</span><br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">--Lynn</span></div>
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Lynn @ Smoke & Mirrorshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00464153596817995684noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5883575980086212146.post-3575092615994319032018-11-25T11:27:00.000-06:002018-11-25T11:30:31.535-06:00Gloria Steinem goes on my hero list! <div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><i><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15451058-my-life-on-the-road" target="_blank">My Life on the Road</a></i> by <a href="http://www.gloriasteinem.com/" target="_blank">Gloria Steinem</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I have a new hero! Her name is Gloria. Gloria Steinem.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I only read this book because it was the first selection for </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/179584-our-shared-shelf" target="_blank">Emma Watson's Feminist Book Club on Goodreads</a>.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Although I find it a bit difficult to participate much in the online discussions due to the many many many participants, I do check in every once in awhile and have found even that to be beneficial! </span></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #cc0000;">I am grateful to have had the opportunity to read this book and get to know about Ms. Steinem's </span></span><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">life and accomplishments, which are by no means trivial! </span><br />
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>And...I learned so very much!</b></span><br />
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-fZwmUMBjGWA/VvhyPWLchjI/AAAAAAAAE7Q/E-isiD0URncceAwiszVAf-YyzapZ-fL7A/s1600/My%2BLife%2Bon%2Bthe%2BRoad%2BCvr%2BImage.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; display: inline !important; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-fZwmUMBjGWA/VvhyPWLchjI/AAAAAAAAE7Q/E-isiD0URncceAwiszVAf-YyzapZ-fL7A/s1600/My%2BLife%2Bon%2Bthe%2BRoad%2BCvr%2BImage.jpeg" /></a><span style="color: #cc0000;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The book opens with a story about the annual motorcycle Rally in Sturgis, South Dakota! </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">(I am only familiar with this due to the fact that my husband is a biker who has been there.) Please</span></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #cc0000;">. Do not make erroneous assumptions. Ms. Steinem was not there to participate in the rally herself, rather she was simply traveling there for a meeting. When to their surprise, this diverse group of six women find themselves smack dab in the middle of thousands of bikers!</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">She admits they were initially a bit intimidated, even if not by the presence of 'bikers,' definitely overwhelmed at the vast numbers of them everywhere they looked! </span><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">She happens upon a couple (man and wife) who are well into their "empty nest" years. The woman describes her transition from riding behind her husband to owning and operating her own motorcycle--a "big gorgeous purple Harley"! </span><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">According to her, she had to "put [her] foot down" to be able to "[take] the road on my own," and now she and her husband are truly partners and he is quite comfortable with the arrangement and especially her autonomy. Beyond being entertaining, Steinem notes there are lessons to be learned:</span></div>
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">What seems to be one thing from a distance is very different close up.</i> (xv)</span><br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Sure! Compare seeing thousands of motorcycles and bikers in your immediate environment with getting to know two of those bikers personally. Big difference! </span><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">My note about this experience: This is the same for any prejudice about any group of people; once you get to know some of the individual 'members,' you realize they are just people, like you, just with different life experiences and circumstances.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Steinem quotes Robin Morgan: </span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">"Hate generalizes, love specifies." </i>(xxi)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I believe that is so very true. Those who are prejudiced always discriminate against <b>groups</b> of people: females, non-whites, etc. While those who love indiscriminately typically know individuals within these groups... </span><br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>...I've come to believe that, inside, each of us has a purple motorcycle.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">We have only to discover it--and ride. </i>(xv)</span><br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I agree. Though I would no longer trust myself to learn to physically handle a motorcycle on my own at this age, had my circumstances been different in the past, </span><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I would have almost certainly 'taken the road on my own!' Riding is a blast!</span></div>
<span style="color: #cc0000;"></span><br />
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-OMgBGUw-V4o/VvhyVr5clxI/AAAAAAAAE7Y/sGM5RG35A68S9FYHVgj9sqMbVQpVTl6UA/s1600/My%2BLife%2Bon%2Bthe%2BRoad%2Bmeme.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; display: inline !important; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-OMgBGUw-V4o/VvhyVr5clxI/AAAAAAAAE7Y/sGM5RG35A68S9FYHVgj9sqMbVQpVTl6UA/s1600/My%2BLife%2Bon%2Bthe%2BRoad%2Bmeme.jpeg" /></a><span style="color: #cc0000;">Steinem has a very subtle and gentle sense of humor throughout the book as she describes her varied experiences and the knowledge she has gained from them.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>When people ask me why I still have </i></b></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #cc0000;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>hope and energy after all these years, </i></b></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #cc0000;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>I always say: </i></b></span></span><b style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i>Because I travel.</i></b></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">For more than four decades, I've spent </i></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #cc0000;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">at least half my time on the road. </i>(xvii)</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #cc0000;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000;"><i style="font-family: times, "times new roman", serif; font-weight: bold;">Since learning causes our brains to grow new synapses, I like to believe </i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000;"><i style="font-family: times, "times new roman", serif; font-weight: bold;">that the road is sharpening my mind and lengthening my life with surprise. </i><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">(181)</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">I became a person whose friends and hopes were as spread out as my life. It just felt natural that the one common element in that life was the road. </i>(xvii)</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I was amazed to discover that Steinem's childhood included much moving around with little stability. Not even a real house for much of the time. She believes her penchant for travel as an adult is much derived from this rather 'gypsy-like' beginning to her life. Of her father:</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>When he swung through a state where he had friends, he never called in advance; </i></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>he just dropped in. He didn't even make plans for poker and chess games he loved so much,</i></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>but found them by happenstance. He took comfort in not knowing about the future.</i></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">As he always said, "If I don't know what will happen tomorrow, it could be wonderful!" </i>(19)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I guess that's true...with no expectations or plans you can always be surprised! The men got points from me for creativity:</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">My father was unable to resist swearing, and my mother had asked </i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">that he not swear around his daughters, so he named the family dog Dammit. </i>(19)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I couldn't resist laughing at that! :) Steinem's description of her father is especially poignant, for although some of his child-rearing practices might not have been stellar (i.e. allowing them to watch whatever movie he wanted to watch, etc.), Steinem feels that</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">Because of my father, only kindness felt like home. </i>(23)</span><br />
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>...his faith in a friendly universe helped balance my mother's fear of a threatening one. </i></b></span><br />
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">He gave me that gift. He let in the light. </i>(23)</span><br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">That, as opposed to:</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">Whether by dowry murders in India, honor killings in Egypt, </i></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">or domestic violence in the United States, </i></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">records show that women are most likely to be beaten or killed at home and by men they know. Statistically speaking, home is an even more dangerous place for women than the road. </i>(xxv)</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I had never considered the overall statistics from this perspective, but that is correct. Such a very sad statement about humanity's progress, or more so, the lack thereof in these areas. </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>Perhaps the most revolutionary act for a woman will be a self-willed journey--</i></b></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">and to be welcomed when she comes home. </i>(xxv)</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I admit to being jealous of her life as a young adult. Not only did she complete her bachelor's degree in a timely manner, but then she took off and lived in India for two years! Wow! I am impressed! And it is from her time spent in that country that she learned invaluable and indelible lessons about organizing people. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>...I discovered the magic of people telling their own stories to groups of strangers.</i></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">It's as if attentive people create a magnetic force field for stories </i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">the tellers themselves didn't know they had within them. </i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">Also, one of the simplest paths to deep change is </i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">for the less powerful to speak as much as they listen, </i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">and for the more powerful to listen as much as they speak. </i>(xxiii)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">So true, and yet not so easily accomplished, especially when those with social status and political power <b>refuse</b> to listen, ever. It was in these two years that Steinem discovered, experienced, and facilitated "Talking Circles." In coordination with Gandhi organizers, she traveled to remote villages and helped educate and organize the females. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>It was the first time I had witnessed the ancient and modern magic of groups in which anyone may speak in turn, everyone must listen, and consensus is more important than time. </i></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>I had no idea that such talking circles had been a common form of governance for most </i></b></span><br />
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>of human history, from the Kwei and San in southern Africa, the ancestors of us all, </i></b></span><br />
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>to the First Nations on my own continent, </i></b></span><br />
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>where layers of such circles turned into the Iroquois Confederacy, </i></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">the oldest continuous democracy in the world. </i>(36)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Now that is some TRUE history, not just an anglo-centered view of U.S./World history as most of us were taught in school! I had read many years ago that the Iroquois Confederacy was the true model used for the U.S. government when first established. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">Talking circles once existed in Europe, too, before floods, famines, </i></span><br />
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">and patriarchal rule replaced them with hierarchy, priests, and kings. </i></span><br />
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">I didn't even know, as we sat in Ramnad, that a wave of talking circles and "testifying" </i></span><br />
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">was going on in black churches of my own country and igniting the civil rights movement. </i></span><br />
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">I certainly didn't guess that, a decade later, I would see consciousness-raising groups, </i></span><br />
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">women's talking circles, giving birth to the feminist movement. </i></span><br />
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">All I knew was that some deep part of me was being nourished and transformed</i></span><br />
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;"> right along with the villagers. </i>(36)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The organizing wisdom she gleaned from these experiences:</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>If you want people to listen to you, you have to listen to them.</i></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>If you hope people will change how they live, you have to know how they live.</i></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">If you want people to see you, you have to sit down with them eye-to-eye. </i>(37)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">She makes a point of noting that Indira Gandhi instituted the first national family planning program, knowing from these informal talking circles that </span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b style="font-style: italic;">"ordinary women would use it, even if in secret, and literacy had little to do with it."</b> (34)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">For although these women might have few literacy skills, they were smart enough to know when their bodies were suffering from too many pregnancies too close together. Steinem abandoned most all her possessions while traveling throughout India and admitted she "felt oddly free" traveling so light and relying upon the kindness of villagers for her needs. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">What we're told about this country is way too limited by generalities, sound bites, </i></span><br />
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">and even the supposedly enlightened idea that there are two sides to every question. </i></span><br />
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">In fact, many questions have three or seven or a dozen sides. Sometimes I think the only real division into two is between people who divide everything into two, and those who don't. </i>(xx)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Ooohh. I love this so much! There are always more interpretations/perspectives than you may believe possible!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Some of her favorite experiences:</span></div>
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<i style="color: #cc0000; font-family: times, "times new roman", serif; font-weight: bold; text-align: center;">...being interviewed by a nine-year-old girl who was the best player on an otherwise </i><br />
<i style="color: #cc0000; font-family: times, "times new roman", serif; font-weight: bold; text-align: center;">all-boy football team; and meeting a Latina college student, the daughter of undocumented immigrants, who handed me her card: CANDIDATE FOR THE U.S. PRESIDENCY, 2032. </i><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; text-align: center;">(xxiii)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; text-align: left;">Although she had bunches of reasons for her conscious decision NOT to attend Martin Luther King, Jr.'s march on Washington in 1963,</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>...I found myself on my way. All I can say years later is: </i></b></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>If you find yourself drawn to an event against all logic, go. </i></b></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">The universe is telling you something. </i>(41)</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">And that is certainly the truth. Follow your gut! The one thing her companion noted was the lack of females on the podium--only ONE! </span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">Even the dictionary defines adventurer as </i></span><i style="color: #cc0000; font-family: times, "times new roman", serif; font-weight: bold;">"a person who has, enjoys, or seeks adventures," </i></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">but adventuress is </i></span><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">"</i></span><i style="color: #cc0000; font-family: times, "times new roman", serif; font-weight: bold;">a woman who uses unscrupulous means </i><br />
<i style="color: #cc0000; font-family: times, "times new roman", serif; font-weight: bold;">in order to gain wealth or social position." </i><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">(xxv)</span></div>
<span style="color: #cc0000;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Unbelievable! Our society's attitudes are so skewed regarding gender!</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i style="font-family: times, "times new roman", serif; font-weight: bold;">When humans are ranked instead of linked, everyone loses. </i><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">(44)</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i style="font-family: times, "times new roman", serif; font-weight: bold;">I vowed silently that I would never become an obstacle to any man's freedom. </i><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">(xxiv)</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Steinem admitted that at political meetings, she had typically given suggestions to a man sitting next to her, "knowing that if a man offered them, they would be taken more seriously." Until she was chastised by a black woman, </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>"You white women,...if you don't stand up for yourselves, </i></b></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>how can you stand up for anybody else?" </i></b></span></span><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">(42)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">More truth! This one remark certainly hit home for me. I had rather figured that out decades ago, if I wasn't able to advocate for myself and 'my kind,' how could I ever advocate for others? "Practice what you preach"! :)</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">...the most reliable predictor of whether a country is violent within itself--</i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">or will use military violence against another country--is not poverty, natural resources, religion, </i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">or even degree of democracy; it's violence against females. </i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">It normalizes all other violence. </i>(43)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Now that is some powerful stuff! Quantitative stats to uphold what is ethically and morally "right"! I love it when that happens!</span><br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><i style="color: #cc0000; font-family: times, "times new roman", serif; font-weight: bold;">Polls show that what women fear most from men is violence, </i></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">and what men fear most from women is ridicule. </i>(180)</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Perhaps why female comedians are not given more positive attention? </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i style="font-family: times, "times new roman", serif; font-weight: bold;">"Only in comedy does an obedient white girl from the suburbs count as diversity."</i><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> (180)</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Tina Fey on the predominance of males, white males, in comedy. </span></span></div>
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<b style="color: #cc0000; font-family: times, "times new roman", serif; font-style: italic;">Altogether, I can't imagine technology replacing bookstores completely, </b></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b style="font-style: italic;">any more than movies about a country replace going there. </b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b style="font-style: italic;">Wherever I go, bookstores are still the closest thing to a town square. </b>(53)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Magical words for us obsessive bibiophiles! :)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>Recently, an Ethiopian and several Kenyan drivers have sounded a bigger alarm. As one said,</i></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>"I never thought I would see a second wave of colonialism, but there is one and it's Chinese. </i></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>Our countries are becoming wholly owned subsidiaries of China."</i></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">Maybe U.S. policy makers should talk to taxi drivers. </i>(75)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I admit that initially I was not a fan of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), however, once I learned more about China's increasing influence in the world, I realized this may well be a case of 'keeping your enemies closer'...or at least those who may try to dominate the world.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>Public opinion polls have long proved there is majority support for pretty much every issue that the women's movement has brought up, but those of us, women or men, </i></b></span><br />
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>who identify with feminism are still made to feel isolated, wrong, out of step. </i></b></span><br />
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>At first, feminists were assumed to be only discontented suburban housewives; </i></b></span><br />
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>then a small bunch of women's libbers, "bra burners," and radicals; then women on welfare; </i></b></span><br />
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>then briefcase-carrying imitations of male executives; then unfulfilled women </i></b></span><br />
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>who forgot to have children; then women voters responsible </i></b></span><br />
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>for a gender gap that really could decide elections. </i></b></span><br />
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>That last was too dangerous, so suddenly we were told we were in a "postfeminist" age, </i></b></span><br />
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>so we would relax, stop, quit. Indeed, the common purpose in all these disparate and</i></b></span><br />
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i> contradictory descriptions is to slow and stop a challenge to the current hierarchy.</i></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">But controversy is a teacher. The accusation that feminism is bad for the family </i></span><br />
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">leads to understanding it's bad for the patriarchal variety, </i></span><br />
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">but good for democratic families that are the basis of democracy. </i></span><br />
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">The idea that women are "our own worst enemies" forces us to admit </i></span><br />
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">that we don't have the power to be, even if we wanted to. </i>(102)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">I've noticed that, if an audience is half women and half men, </i></span><br />
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">women worry about the reaction of the men around them. </i></span><br />
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">But in one that is two-thirds women and one-third men, </i></span><br />
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">women respond as they would on their own, and men hear women speaking honestly. </i></span><br />
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">When people of color are in the majority instead of the minority, </i></span><br />
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">audiences are often the best education that white listeners can have. </i>(102-103)</span></div>
<span style="color: #cc0000;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Oh, so true! Over the past year I have had the immense pleasure of being in direct contact with more 'people of color' in one place than ever before in my life. It has been and is so much fun to get to know more people who don't look like me even better! And it does make a difference as to the overall make-up of a crowd regarding what overt reactions and behaviors you will witness.</span></span></span>
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<span style="color: #cc0000;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">You should read this book for her description of at the 1971 <i>Harvard Law Review</i> banquet. Suffice it to say, one of the male Harvard faculty becomes outraged and blasts her for having dared to judge the Harvard Law School at all. As was suggested to her later, in the future when any similar disruption occurs, basically proving your point, "Just pause, let the audience absorb the hostility, then say, 'I didn't pay him to say that.'" Ha! What great advice!</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">During a protest at an abortion clinic...</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">A staff member tells me that one of the female picketers has come in </i></span><br />
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">when the men were not around, had an abortion, and gone back to picket the next day. </i></span><br />
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">This sounds surrealistic to me--but not to the staff member. She explains that women </i></span><br />
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">in such anti-abortion groups are more likely to be deprived of birth control and </i></span><br />
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">so to need an abortion. They then feel guilty--and picket even more. </i></span><br />
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">This restriction on birth control may also explain why studies have long shown that Catholic women in general are more likely to have an abortion than are their Protestant counterparts. </i>(190)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I sit and sigh as I type this... This is one major reason for my atheistic/secular humanist beliefs--the hypocrisy that organized religion engenders!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Steinem talks about being in historical places and the spiritual/mystical feelings that can result. Then once she has returned to New York she is sitting in her favorite place amid the tall outcroppings of igneous rock in Central Park, just a short walk from her apartment and thinking:</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">Who rested in this same place long ago, before theDutch and then the English arrived?</i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">Whose hand touched this stone, and who looked at the same horizon? </i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">This vertical history feels more intimate and sensory than written history. </i></span><br />
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">It's been reaching out all along, I just wasn't paying attention. </i>(217)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I have had very similar experiences at George Washington's Mount Vernon and Thomas Jefferson's Monticello, particularly thinking of the slaves and servants; especially walking the same land on which lived Abraham Lincoln in both Indiana and Illinois. I often wonder if it is just fanciful imaginings of my mind...or a true aura. It truly doesn't matter to me. I love that feeling!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Much information about Native Americans:</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">...across that diversity, they shared such common struggles as dealing with </i></span><br />
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">a federal government that had yet to honor one treaty in its entirety, </i></span><br />
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">gaining control of the schooling and treatment of their own children, </i></span><i style="color: #cc0000; font-family: times, "times new roman", serif; font-weight: bold;">protecting their land </i><br />
<i style="color: #cc0000; font-family: times, "times new roman", serif; font-weight: bold;">from exploitation for oil, uranium, and other resources on it--</i><i style="color: #cc0000; font-family: times, "times new roman", serif; font-weight: bold;">and much more. </i><br />
<i style="color: #cc0000; font-family: times, "times new roman", serif; font-weight: bold;">For instance, women on reservations suffered the highest rate of sexual assault in the country, </i><br />
<i style="color: #cc0000; font-family: times, "times new roman", serif; font-weight: bold;">yet the non-Native men who were the majority of their assaulters were not subject </i><br />
<i style="color: #cc0000; font-family: times, "times new roman", serif; font-weight: bold;">to tribal police or jurisdiction, and were mostly ignored by the larger legal system. </i><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">(221)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This immediately brought to mind <a href="https://books-n-music.blogspot.com/2015/03/sometimes-you-just-make-your-own-justice.html" style="font-style: italic;" target="_blank">The Round House</a> by Louise Erdrich! The point is made that unlike other First Nations/first peoples/indigenous cultures around the world, theirs exist only here...in their home country, and if their children do not learn it from them, it will die since there are no other places for them to return to to learn such knowledge. Good point! Many times these children were starved and abused, but even when their treatment was relatively humane, </span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">...teaching Native languages and practicing Native religion was illegal, </i></span><br />
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">something that continued until the 1970's. </i>(222)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">...in the 1970's the Indian Health Service of the U.S. Government admitted </i></span><br />
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">that thousands of Native women had been sterilized without their informed consent. </i></span><br />
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">Some called it a long-term strategy for taking over Indian lands, </i></span><br />
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">and others said it was the same racism that had sterilized black women in the South. </i></span><br />
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">Both the traditionalists and the young radicals of the American Indian Movement </i></span><br />
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">called it "slow genocide." It also took away women's ultimate power. </i>(222)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">...Native nations were often matrilineal: that is, clan identity passed through the mother, </i></span><br />
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">and a husband joined a wife's household, not vice versa. Matrilineal does not mean matriarchal, which like patriarchal, assumes that some group has to dominate--a failure of the imagination. Rather, female and male roles were distinct but flexible and equally valued. </i></span><br />
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">Women were usually in charge of agriculture and men of hunting, </i></span><br />
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">but one was not more important than the other. </i>(222)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Native American women used herbal compounds to naturally abort fetuses when they discovered they were pregnant and realized it was too soon for their bodies to have recovered and carry another child to term. I never knew this! This is a demonstration of common sense for the overall health and well-being of females!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Many Native languages lack gendered pronouns like <i>he</i> and <i>she</i>. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><b>A human being was simply a human being. </b></i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b style="font-style: italic;">Even the concept of chief, an English word of French origin, </b></span><br />
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b style="font-style: italic;">reflected a European assumption that there had to be one male kinglike leader. </b></span><br />
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b style="font-style: italic;">In fact, caucus, a word derived from the Algonquin languages, better reflected </b></span><br />
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b style="font-style: italic;">the layers of talking circles and the goal of consensus that were at the heart of governance. </b></span><br />
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b style="font-style: italic;">Men and women might have different duties, but the point was balance. </b></span><br />
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b style="font-style: italic;">For instance, men spoke at meetings, </b></span><br />
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b style="font-style: italic;">but women appointed and informed the men who spoke. </b>(223)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">While in California, seated with a professor of premonotheistic spirituatlity, plus several women from some of the California tribes (California has more Native Americans than any other state):</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>All agreed that the paradigm of human organization had been the circle, </i></b></span><br />
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>not the pyramid or hierarchy--and it could be again.</i></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>I'd never known there was a paradigm that linked instead of ranked.</i></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">...Ben Franklin had indeed cited the Iroquois Confederacy as a model.</i></span><br />
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;"> He was well aware of its success in unifying vast areas of the United States and Canada by bringing together Native nations for mutual decisions but also allowing autonomy in local ones. He hoped the Constitution could do the same for the thirteen states. </i></span><br />
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">That's why he invited two Iroquois men to Philadelphia as advisers. </i></span><br />
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">Among their first questions was said to be: "Where are the women?" </i>(224)</span><br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>...it was the equality of women in those nations that inspired white women neighbors to begin organizing the suffrage movement.</i></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b style="font-style: italic;">...Feminism is memory. </b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>"Feminists too often believe...that no one has ever experienced the kind of society </i></b></span><br />
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>that empowered women and made that empowerment the basis of rules and civilization. </i></b></span><br />
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>The price the feminist community must pay because it is not aware...is necessary confusion, division and much lost time.</i></b>(225)<b style="font-style: italic;"> </b></span><br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b style="font-style: italic;">The root of oppression is the loss of memory.</b> (226)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>YOU CANNOT THINK YOURSELF INTO RIGHT LIVING.</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>YOU LIVE YOURSELF INTO RIGHT THINKING.--Native Elders</b> (234)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><b>Clearly, Columbus never "discovered" American, in either sense of that word.</b></i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b style="font-style: italic;">The people who knew it were already here. </b>(238)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Wilma, who was the first woman to be Principal Chief, undergoes daily chemotherapy for cancer.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">"Every day is a good day--because we are part of everything alive." </i>(239)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">Roots can exist without flowers, but no flower can exist without roots.</i> (117)</span></div>
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-XM0O6BJqEag/VvhyVnxNCOI/AAAAAAAAE7U/qUEZ96KriTgL4ww-2k3h7Ds1JfgTDKNmw/s1600/My%2BLife%2Bon%2Bthe%2BRoad%2Bmeme%2B2.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-XM0O6BJqEag/VvhyVnxNCOI/AAAAAAAAE7U/qUEZ96KriTgL4ww-2k3h7Ds1JfgTDKNmw/s1600/My%2BLife%2Bon%2Bthe%2BRoad%2Bmeme%2B2.jpeg" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; text-align: left;"> No matter what your political beliefs, this book is so much more </span><br />
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; text-align: left;">than just a reminiscence of a life lived!</span><br />
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; text-align: left;">Do yourself a favor and check it out!</span><br />
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; text-align: left;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; text-align: left;">Happy reading!</span><br />
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; text-align: left;">--Lynn</span></div>
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Lynn @ Smoke & Mirrorshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00464153596817995684noreply@blogger.com0