10 & 11 DOWN, 39 MORE TO GO
I've been a reading fool this week. With two doctor's offices to sit and wait in and lots of vacation time, I've had the luxury of reading! I just finished one of the books today. The other one was finished a week and a half ago, but I've been under the weather, and thus, didn't feel like writing about it.
My goal of get 50 books read in a year seems like it's an insurmountable task now, but I'm going to give it a valiant effort during these Fall Break weeks! So, without further adieu, here are my thoughts on my two most recent reads.
Very Valentine by Adriana Trigiani (photo copied from the amazon.com page: http://www.amazon.com/Very-Valentine-Novel-Adriana-Trigiani/dp/0061257052)
As many of you know, Adriana Trigiani is a favorite author of mine. I fell in love with her Big Stone Gap series. At the time I read the series, I was going through a dark period in my life, and her main character Ave's struggles really mirrored many of my own struggles. It struck a very deep and resonate chord with me. Who knew I'd move to the state so closely related to the action and setting of the book!?!? Karma, fate? Whatever, it's so cool!
So, I was very eager to get my hands on this book, Very Valentine, and read it cover to cover. It did not disappoint!
Granted, it wasn't filled with my sweet characters from Big Stone Gap ... those characters will always hold an indelible place in my heart, and are not at all replaceable. However, I loved reading about the world of shoes ... the Old World way of designing and creating them ... and I just LOVED that the book didn't end in a sugary-sweet, everyone-gets-the-guy-in-the-end way that so many books do. It followed a certain line of real life, and that was refreshing for me.
I just love the way Ms. Trigiani paints a picture in my mind, and as I always tell my fourth graders, the mark of a good author is that he or she can paint a vivid picture in their readers' minds with their words.
That she did!
One Thousand White Women: The Journals of May Dodd by Jim Fergus
This book I sort of compare with the movie Schindler's List. The movie was good, but you didn't walk away with a warm and fuzzy feeling. In fact, you walked away emotionally, mentally, and physically drained, with much to chew on.
I finished this book, our latest book club selection, this afternoon, and I've been puzzling over it ... chewing on it's content ... ever since. I can't say that I loved the book. I can't say that I hated the book. The book, for me, just was. What I can say is that it's left me thinking about the religious implications, and the social implications and the social statements on Native Americans, African Americans, and women in our culture, and any sort of book that can do that has to have some redeemable value, right?
I did find it extremely interesting that Jim Fergus did a relatively believable job of writing from a woman's perspective, which, I have to admit, I thought would fail miserably. I did feel at times, that May Dodd, his main character, was still a bit silly, but again, he's a male attempting to write the female perspective.
I don't want to give the plot away, as there are twists and turns that are both predictable and not so predictable, throughout the book. However, I will say that the general premise of the book is that the American government, in 1875, agrees to trade the Cheyenne nation 1,000 horses for 1,000 white women in a plan that is so silly in it's simplicity, you feel like it's something that could actually have been proposed.
It has many weighty issues that I am sure will be debated brilliantly in our next book club.
My goal of get 50 books read in a year seems like it's an insurmountable task now, but I'm going to give it a valiant effort during these Fall Break weeks! So, without further adieu, here are my thoughts on my two most recent reads.
Very Valentine by Adriana Trigiani (photo copied from the amazon.com page: http://www.amazon.com/Very-Valentine-Novel-Adriana-Trigiani/dp/0061257052)As many of you know, Adriana Trigiani is a favorite author of mine. I fell in love with her Big Stone Gap series. At the time I read the series, I was going through a dark period in my life, and her main character Ave's struggles really mirrored many of my own struggles. It struck a very deep and resonate chord with me. Who knew I'd move to the state so closely related to the action and setting of the book!?!? Karma, fate? Whatever, it's so cool!
So, I was very eager to get my hands on this book, Very Valentine, and read it cover to cover. It did not disappoint!
Granted, it wasn't filled with my sweet characters from Big Stone Gap ... those characters will always hold an indelible place in my heart, and are not at all replaceable. However, I loved reading about the world of shoes ... the Old World way of designing and creating them ... and I just LOVED that the book didn't end in a sugary-sweet, everyone-gets-the-guy-in-the-end way that so many books do. It followed a certain line of real life, and that was refreshing for me.
I just love the way Ms. Trigiani paints a picture in my mind, and as I always tell my fourth graders, the mark of a good author is that he or she can paint a vivid picture in their readers' minds with their words.
That she did!
One Thousand White Women: The Journals of May Dodd by Jim Fergus
This book I sort of compare with the movie Schindler's List. The movie was good, but you didn't walk away with a warm and fuzzy feeling. In fact, you walked away emotionally, mentally, and physically drained, with much to chew on.
I finished this book, our latest book club selection, this afternoon, and I've been puzzling over it ... chewing on it's content ... ever since. I can't say that I loved the book. I can't say that I hated the book. The book, for me, just was. What I can say is that it's left me thinking about the religious implications, and the social implications and the social statements on Native Americans, African Americans, and women in our culture, and any sort of book that can do that has to have some redeemable value, right?
I did find it extremely interesting that Jim Fergus did a relatively believable job of writing from a woman's perspective, which, I have to admit, I thought would fail miserably. I did feel at times, that May Dodd, his main character, was still a bit silly, but again, he's a male attempting to write the female perspective.
I don't want to give the plot away, as there are twists and turns that are both predictable and not so predictable, throughout the book. However, I will say that the general premise of the book is that the American government, in 1875, agrees to trade the Cheyenne nation 1,000 horses for 1,000 white women in a plan that is so silly in it's simplicity, you feel like it's something that could actually have been proposed.
It has many weighty issues that I am sure will be debated brilliantly in our next book club.
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