love

Author Topic: Book Dictator Club Write-ups  (Read 11782 times)

ses

  • Administrator
  • Objectively Awesome
  • ******
  • Posts: 14979
    • Sarah's Kitchen Adventures
Re: November/December/January Book Dictator Write-ups
« Reply #10 on: February 10, 2009, 06:59:53 PM »
I finished my book some time ago, I promise I will post about it this week.
"It's a fool who looks for logic in the chambers of the human heart"

http://sarahskitchenadventures.blogspot.com/

Junior

  • Bert Macklin, FBI
  • Global Moderator
  • Objectively Awesome
  • ******
  • Posts: 28709
  • What's the rumpus?
    • Benefits of a Classical Education
Re: February Book Dictator Write-ups
« Reply #11 on: February 17, 2009, 06:40:18 PM »
So, here it is.



The Thurber Carnival by James Thurber

First let me say that I have not finished the entirety of this book. I hope that through this write-up I will convey why I haven't finished yet.

This is a book of short stories and essays and cartoons written and drawn by James Thurber throughout his long career. The stories and essays are chosen from an even larger collection of books and are mostly mixed in with each other while the cartoons are at the back of the book. I've read 1/2 to 2/3 of the words and most if not all of the cartoons.

The stories reminded me a bit of Roald Dahl's short stories which I enjoyed quite a bit. They deal with regular people in unusual situations (as most shorts seem to do) and they are fantastically written. An early one (the earliest one, maybe) involves a man who is so straight-laced that he isn't even considered to be a suspect in a murder plot that he pretty clearly planned. This kind of... silliness (although that's not the right word) works well within the short story context for Thurber but really shines in his essays about his life. He was a newspaperman in Europe during one of the two world wars though he and his friends didn't seem to do very much. And his stories about Connecticut were really great, although that might be a bit of home state favoritism. In all he is a really funny writer, somebody I look to as a forefather of David Sedaris and his modern ilk (bloggers, too). And maybe me, someday.

The cartoons are also pretty awesome, especially the Battle of the Sexes series that ends the book. The day after I read that series my professor brought it up in class and I was the only one who had even heard of Thurber, much less the series. It was pretty cool.

In all, I can highly recommend this book to people who want to smile and laugh (which is what I told worm to give me, if possible. MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!) and get a great deal for your money. There is so much content here that it would take me forever to get to everything, which is great.
Check out my blog of many topics

“I’m not a quitter, Kimmy! I watched Interstellar all the way to the end!”

worm@work

  • Godfather
  • *****
  • Posts: 7445
Re: February Book Dictator Write-ups
« Reply #12 on: February 17, 2009, 09:03:11 PM »
Sounds like you did have fun with it, Junior.. and that was exactly what I was hoping for. I agree that his writing works best in the stories about his own life. I never thought of him as a precursor to bloggers and such (they didn't exist when I read Thurber :p) but yeah, I totally agree.

I just wanted to dictate you something that's light and can be read over time and looks like it worked! Enjoy the rest of the book whenever you get to it and thanks for doing such a great job with the write-up :D.


Junior

  • Bert Macklin, FBI
  • Global Moderator
  • Objectively Awesome
  • ******
  • Posts: 28709
  • What's the rumpus?
    • Benefits of a Classical Education
Re: February Book Dictator Write-ups
« Reply #13 on: February 17, 2009, 09:05:09 PM »
Thank you for being such a kind dictator! I will certainly be returning to it throughout the year. Doesn't hurt that I got it for ten cents!
Check out my blog of many topics

“I’m not a quitter, Kimmy! I watched Interstellar all the way to the end!”

Emiliana

  • Elite Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 2239
  • Life is a Cabaret!
Re: Book Dictator Club Write-ups
« Reply #14 on: March 25, 2009, 08:45:45 AM »

Unaccustomed Earth
(Jhumpa Lahiri)

I’m going to start writing about this book now, having finished only the first of the six stories, because otherwise I may forget what my reactions were exactly.

As in her first short story collection, Interpreter of Maladies, Lahiri writes about people who immigrated to the United States from India, and the next generation, i.e. the first one born in America.

The titular story, Unaccustomed Earth, is about Ruma, mother of a young boy, with another baby on the way. She is married to a nice American man who is frequently away on business trips. Recently, the young family moved to Seattle, putting the whole country between them and Ruma’s father, who lives alone in Pennsylvania after the sudden death of Ruma’s mother in what should have been routine surgery.

In the story, Ruma’s father comes to Seattle for a week to visit his daughter. The two of them cautiously explore the relationship they have now: Ruma’s mother was the focal point of the family for both of them, and now she is no longer there. Ruma has made numerous decisions that complicate the process of her and her father understanding and connecting with each other: her marrying an American, moving across the country, leaving her job as a paralegal to be a full-time mother, her deciding not to teach her young son the language of his grandparents.

But there are also questions  concerning her father that cause Ruma to find herself a little baffled as to how to connect with him: what is his life like without her mother now? Does he travel around the world because he genuinely enjoys it, or does it merely help to pass the time? Is he waiting for her to ask him to move in with her, now that he is all alone (which is what any good Indian daughter would be expected do)? Would he actually want to move in with her new family? What would it be like to have him living with them?

All these questions are explored with immense sensitivity and subtlety. In only 60 pages, and in only a few scenes from their daily routine, Lahiri gives us such a clear picture of who these two people are, how they think and feel – there is an amazing understanding of the human psyche on display here.

Even more remarkable is the writing style of the story: Lahiri’s language is very simple and to the point, with moments of tremendous poetry and insight effortlessly interwoven into the very commonplace occurrences. But the truly remarkable thing is the effect her language had on me while reading it. I could feel myself slowing down and calming down every time I read a bit further (and I read the story primarily on public transport on the way to and from work, which are some decidedly un-peaceful conditions). The language drew me in to a degree that shut out my hectic surroundings completely. I was able to feel the characters’ quiet loneliness and melancholia in every word I was reading. I have rarely experienced this drastic effect of language on me as a reader – all I can say is that I am extremely impressed.

Thank you w@w, for giving me that little nudge to read Unaccustomed Earth – I think I am going to spread the stories out over a longer period, reading other stuff as palate cleanser in between, so that I can experience the full effect of every single one of them.

worm@work

  • Godfather
  • *****
  • Posts: 7445
Re: Book Dictator Club Write-ups
« Reply #15 on: March 25, 2009, 09:04:30 AM »
w00t! I loved what you wrote about Lahiri's writing style. She has that exact same effect on me and something about the way she is able to express a very specific feeling from a particular time in the characters' lives with such spare writing gets me every time. The title story is probably my favorite one from the collection but the rest don't disappoint either.
I read these for the first time on a plane back home to India and it was the easiest 20-hour flight I ever took.

Thanks for reading and writing, Emiliana. This also means, gman1050 gets to have a book dictated to him by you! I've edited the pairings thread.

'Noke

  • Objectively Awesome
  • ******
  • Posts: 11799
Re: Book Dictator Club Write-ups
« Reply #16 on: March 25, 2009, 11:30:43 AM »
This also means, gman1050 gets to have a book dictated to him by you!

Woot!!!!
I actually consider a lot of movies to be life-changing! I take them to my heart and they melt into my personality.

jbissell

  • Objectively Awesome
  • ******
  • Posts: 10915
  • What's up, hot dog?
Re: Book Dictator Club Write-ups
« Reply #17 on: April 20, 2009, 10:27:24 PM »
After months and months, I have finally finished my book

West with the Night by Beryl Markham

I’d never heard of Beryl Markham before reading her autobiography so I wasn’t sure what to expect from this book.  My dad is big on those old novels about colonial Africa and big-game hunting so I was pleased to discover that many of the stories she tells deal in an area I have some familiarity with, and are even more fascinating because they're coming from a woman.  I was surprised by her strong prose; there really were too many great, beautiful passages to count.  There are many tales of her childhood in Africa, where she went along on hunts and eventually became a champion horse trainer.  The story then transitions into her new career as a pilot.  I enjoyed this book a lot more than I was expecting and I wouldn't be surprised if there is eventually some film about her life because it was quite fascinating.

worm@work

  • Godfather
  • *****
  • Posts: 7445
Re: Book Dictator Club Write-ups
« Reply #18 on: April 21, 2009, 03:06:02 PM »
This is long overdue. I finished the book ages ago but forgot to post in this thread.

Dracula - Bram Stoker

Yeah, so I can see why people are still reading and enjoying this book. I had a really fun time with it. In the beginning, I was a bit put off by a couple of things. For one, given that most of the book is in the form of entries in a journal or letters, there are a lot of paragraphs that are basically a recounting of a series of events that ends with, "And then (s)he said--". This is then followed by an entire paragraph which is basically just that character's dialogue. I found this cumbersome for a while but got over it once I was fully absorbed in the tale.

There was also the condescending tone that Van Helsing uses with women that bugged me quiet a bit. For instance, these lines from Pg. 251 in my edition (Barnes & Nobles Classics)

Quote from: Bram Stoker
Ah, that wonderful Madam Mina! She has man's brain - a brain that a man should have were he much gifted - and a woman's heart. The Good God fashioned her for a purpose, believe me, when He made that so good combination....
... We men are determined - nay, are we not pledged? - to destroy this monster; but it is no part for a woman. Even if she be not harmed, hr heart may fail her in so much and from her nerves, and in sleep, from her dreams.


Yeah, alright ::).

And this
Quote from: Bram Stoker
Ah, then you have good memory for facts, for details? It is not always so with young ladies.

Boo. In general, I was under the impression that this Van Helsing dude would be a badass but he turned out to be such a pompous a$$ and these statements didn't exactly endear him to me either. He's also given a foreign accent in the book, by means of dropped articles and some other similar tricks that just made him incoherent to me in parts. I didn't really think that it helped particularly.

I liked all of Lucy's suitors actually and Mina and Lucy as the contrasting female characters worked okay too. Also, the way that Mina is praised as being a good woman because she is so devoted to her husband and so on but she is also strong and intelligent and rises above what the men seem to think of her. I also thought that the book was really interesting in terms of how well it works as a portrait of Victorian society. The first few chapters were probably my favorite and the dream-like quality of those first few chapters really sets the tone for the rest of the book. But throughout the book, there's enough thrill and suspense to be had and the formal language in the book was a fun contrast to the book club pick that I was also reading simultaneously.

Thanks for the dictation, edgar. This was fun :).


pixote

  • Administrator
  • Objectively Awesome
  • ******
  • Posts: 34237
  • Up with generosity!
    • yet more inanities!
Re: Book Dictator Club Write-ups
« Reply #19 on: April 21, 2009, 03:27:58 PM »
This thread needs more screenshots.

pixote
Great  |  Near Great  |  Very Good  |  Good  |  Fair  |  Mixed  |  Middling  |  Bad

 

love