photo via sarah.of.a.lesser.god
This feature (for now in the custody of sarah.of.a.lesser.god) is our way of sharing those book titles, both fiction and nonfiction, that have been standouts in recent reading, and hopefully getting some from our readers in return. The focus is primarily, but not necessarily exclusively, on books concerning women and feminism, and/or written by female authors.
My Pick: The Unfinished Presidency: Jimmy Carter’s Journey to the Nobel Peace Prize by Douglas Brinkley. I had read the first half of it about eighteen months ago, then put it aside to focus on schoolwork — but I didn’t pick it up again until earlier this month. (I decided to re-read the first half when I went back to the book.) While I read other books this month, I’m picking this one in part because of its subject.
SarahMC wrote about Carter’s statements on women’s rights, and it was heartening to read a great deal more about his commitment to equal rights and social justice in various fora. However, Brinkley is not writing a hagiography, and Carter’s post-presidential missteps are included along with his good works. I also learned a great deal about Carter’s remarkable mother, Lillian, who joined the Peace Corps at sixty-seven and traveled to India to take on the task of “teaching contraception to male workers and assisting with vasectomies” at a makeshift clinic; she studied Hinduism and became fluent in several local dialects, and was assiduous about not pushing her Christian faith on the Indian people. Lillian Carter said her time in India “meant more to me than any other thing in my life,” and the account of it was one of the best passages of Brinkley’s book.
So, having put in my two cents, what is everyone else reading and recommending these days?
If any of y’all are thinking of reading Julie Powell’s new memoir CLEAVING…don’t.
That is all.
Oh, Jimmy Carter! A good (Canadian) friend of mine insists that he is still her favorite American President–mostly because of his work in turning over the Panama Canal.
I recently got around to reading Judith Butler’s ‘Precarious Life,’ which is fantastic, especially the chapter “Indefinite Detention.” It’s a fascinating book to read now, since it was so deeply interested in criticizing the policies of the (then still in power) Bush administration…and, depressingly, most of it is still accurate post-Obama.
Also great is Shannon Sullivan’s book, “Revealing Whiteness: the Unconscious Habits of Racial Privilege.” Sullivan is a race theorist heading the philosophy department at Penn State, who came to race studies through her work in feminism [full disclosure: she's also the outside reader for my dissertation] and through growing up as a middle-class white woman in the deep South. I think the book is both theoretically incisive and refreshingly honest about her own struggles against internalized racism, without being wallowing or self-indulgent.
I’m actually reading Game Change, the much extracted book of the last Presidential campaign. And. I. Just. Can’t. Put. It. Down. It’s so horribly addictive hearing all this gossip about the candidates. Although I do feel slightly dirty afterwards.
As to recent recommendations – have to say nothing amazing springs to mind, I’ve been on a bit of a trash bender this month, sort of a splurge of bad yet addictive bonkbusters. I can’t explain why this happens but once or twice a year i feel a compulsion to read utter rubbish.
Oh also I wanted to add that I read Brinkley’s book on New Orleans and Katrina and it was great. Plus i second Becky, don’t read Cleaving, it’s garbage. I was relieved that I only had to read it for work purposes.
I want to hear more dirt on ‘Cleaving’, as a vegetarian the concept grossed me out and made me curious about how working in a butcher’s shop could be at all enlightening.
BeckySharper, believe it or not, your screen-name inspired me to finally read ‘Vanity Fair’, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I had no idea it was going to be so funny!
I’m now reading Primo Levi’s ‘If This is a Man’ and, although I’m only half-way through, I’m finding it astounding in a similar way to Antelme’s ‘The Human Race’: both go beyond descriptions of the concentration camp experience to reflections on their meaning for humanity as a whole, and both are written in a lyrical style which might at first seem almost incongruous but, I think, ultimately underlines the humanity of the writing and of the writers – which is precisely what Nazism tried to deny and negate.
P.S. Emilyanne, ‘bonkbusters’ is the best word ever.
hah, I considered “Cleaving” at the library just the other day, but decided it probably wasn’t worth it and would be annoying. I hate it when people say something isn’t “worth the calories” about food, but I do consider whether a book is worth my precious free hours for reading.
I’m almost finished rereading “Wise Children” by Angela Carter and am considering what will be next. My mother has recommended Kate Atkinson for several years and I just got a copy of “Case Histories” so I might give that a try. I appreciate everyone’s suggestions on the book threads, especially for nonfiction, which I don’t read enough. I may not pick them up soon, but they’re on the list!
The thing about CLEAVING is that it alternates between very detailed descriptions of how to butcher animals (cutting apart the carcasses, breaking the joints, etc) and the author’s extremely narcissistic reveries about an affair she had with a guy who sounds like a total skeezy douchebag. Of course, she knew he was a skeezy douchebag, and she LIKED that about him, and her whole relationship with him is described as being akin to an addiction. Her husband knew about the affair but wouldn’t leave because they were so ridiculously co-dependent, and she and he just mind-fuck with one another the whole time over who’s the worse person: her for fucking around or him for not growing a pair and leaving her.
Oh, and Powell says that the first time the skeezy douchebag struck her in the face during sex, it made her feel excited and “empowered.” BLARGH.
Well, that killed any vague interest I had in the book. Thanks BeckySharper.
This is making me realize how many dudes I’ve been reading recently. I can recommend Intuition by Allegra Goodman, though. The style was a little mannered for me, a bit removed from the characters’ emotional lives, but it was very precisely observed. A lot of interesting stuff about the little-p politics of scientific research, and about being a woman in a lab.
I got sucked into like two months of Neil Gaiman, and coming out the other end, I have to say: so overrated!
Wait, I have to correct myself. It’s not that the characters’ emotions in Intuition weren’t accessible and well expressed–really the opposite–it’s that the writing style itself was a bit cool or distant. Not a criticism of the book, just not my personal taste.
(I should probably add that my thanks are sincere, I’ve avoided wasting my time with that nonsense…)
LOL. You can buy me a pizza with the money I just saved you!
I’ve read two great books in the past few months.
The first is Feminine Ingenuity: How Women Inventors Changed America by Anne McDonald. Fascinating stuff, going back to the fight for Patents for women, a building showcasing women’s inventions at the World’s Fair in Chicago, etc.
The second is Hair Story: Untangling the Roots of Black Hair in America by Ayana D. Byrd. This book reads like a thriller. The politics of black hair is just mindblowing.
I just finished Joan Didion’s Where I Was From. In the book, Didion examines the history of California (where she was raised) and puts a critical lens to the idea that California is a state of golden dreams built by rugged individualists. The book is several years old, but still rings very true, especially given California’s current mess. As someone who has spent the bulk of her years in California, and who definitely was sold the “golden” version of California’s history in school, the book was really interesting to me.
Just finished Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder. Very timely as it is about the formation of Partners in Health which began in Haiti and was extremely important when the earthquake struck there recently. Excellent book! Highly recommend it.
@ShinyObjects: Atkinson’s “Behind the Scenes at the Museum” is brilliant.
Has anyone read “The Jade Cat” by by Suzanne Brogger?
Tall In Heels – I adored Where I was From, it’s my favourite Didion apart from Slouching Towards Bethlehem (I actually had a complete crush on Didion for most of my life and she’s the main reason I became a journalist, well her and crap UK kids drama Press Gang, but that’s a whole different story).
@Shiny Objects – Kate Atkinson is great. I second the brilliance of Behind The Scenes but Case Histories is also excellent, I didn’t like the second book in the Jackson trilogy but the most recent is also great.
Of course I scheduled this for noon, forgetting I’d be out for the next eight hours and unable to join in the comments!
Okay, I’d never consider reading Cleaving. Although I kind of did like Amy Adams’ version of Powell.
@emilyanne: I may have to buy Game Change. Or, more realistically, nick the copy my mom will inevitably have on her nightstand.
I just finished Wangari Maathai’s book/biography Unbowed, which was incredible. It was so motivating to see how her efforts became enormous and life-changing for so many people. That inspired me to pick up This Child Will Be Great, the autobiography of Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. She’s the first female President in Africa (President of Liberia.) It’s starting off describing the history of Liberia which is really interesting to me as an American, knowing the hand we played in creating it. I hadn’t realized that the British were also very involved, though. I’ve only just started it, but it looks like it will be good!
theorchidthief: i finished that book about 3 days before the quake, and it just devastated me. my office does some work with Paul Farmer and partners in Health, so I was directing everyone and their mother to donate. Reading about liberation theology now, thanks to Paul’s interest in it mentioned in the book. Then on to some of Paul’s written work.
Feminizzle: for a complimentary reading on Liberia, I really recommend The House at Sugar Beach. And I think I’ll add your books to my library hold list!
I just heard about The House at Sugar Beach on NPR yesterday and thought it sounded neat. Maybe I will check it out.
@SarahMC: The House At Sugar Beach is really good. I highly recommend it.
This month I read Three Cups of Tea (good), Year of the Flood (Atwood, scary and good and fit into Oryx and Crake in a way that made you understand both books better), and I am now reading PopCo by Scarlett Thomas which I picked up on a whim (on sale) and it’s keeping me up at night trying to figure out codes and math problems.
I, too, glanced at Cleaving so good to know to just skip it. After this, Hillary Clinton’s bio (from same sale).
Thanks for the recommendation, ImTheMarigold! I just looked at it on Amazon and it’s on my wish list…