Founding Mothers by Cokie Roberts
June 19, 2009 by Rebecca Reid
I like history and I always want to know more about American History. But in all the nonfiction and fiction about the Revolutionary War, it's rather limited to dead white guys who fought the battles and otherwise founded our nation.
Enter: Founding Mothers by Cokie Roberts. In a conversational tone, Roberts shares some of the stories about the women who founded the country. She, too, had been tired of hearing about how remarkable the men were founded the country: what about the women? This, then, is full of some of their stories. Roberts' conclusion was (interestingly) that the women behind those men were no more extraordinary than you and I: they simply did what was asked of them.
The book had plenty of flaws. Most of the author's asides and explanations were rather distracting, and it sometimes felt rambling and off-topic. I do wish it was better written or at least better organized. The casual tone made me feel like I was listening to random anecdotes rather than a comprehensive historical account. It didn't feel comprehensive, nor did it feel like a true historical record. It was a collection of stories about women, full of sometimes extraneous detail. And there were a lot of women!
However, because I was listening to the audiobook in short intervals, such an anecdotal format was okay for me. And the details did make it interesting.
Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare
June 2, 2009 by Rebecca Reid
There is something to be said for close, careful reading.
I must have read Shakespeare's Julius Caesar with the rest of my tenth grade class, but I honestly didn't remember any of it. I decided to read it this month as a part of the Martel-Harper Challenge, for which Yann Martel chooses "book[s] that ha[ve] been known to expand stillness."
Reading Julius Caesar just once didn't do anything to help "expand stillness." I was confused: it started in the middle of a dramatic scene. I didn't know who the characters were and why they were making the choices they made. Why did Caesar consider Brutus a friend? Why was Brutus called "honorable" when he was committing murder? What is "honor"? Did any of this really happen?
But as I spent a few days rereading portions of Julius Caesar, listening to the audiobook, watching the movie, and reading various commentaries about the play, I was enlightened. I think it did encourage "stillness" because I wasn't just reading to turn pages; I was reading to learn and experience. I seriously loved the experience of truly reading Shakespeare, even by myself.
Note that this post contains "spoilers."Continue Reading
The Midwife's Apprentice by Karen Cushman
May 25, 2009 by Rebecca Reid
I enjoyed The Midwife's Apprentice by Karen Cushman, a Newbery-winning novel. Cushman believably created a 1300s scene, and I liked learning about midwifery and superstition in the middle ages. While modern girls won't face trials as extreme as the girl's in the novel, they still must develop self-confidence and determine what their own dreams are. The story is therefore highly relevant to pre-teens today, and I only wished it had been longer and more fully developed.Continue Reading
Abandoned Book: Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley on the 101 Great Books Recommended for College-Bound Readers list, and I know I've seen it on many other "must-read" lists. I never read it in high school when many people apparently did, so I thought I should give it a go now. But I just cannot.
I've listened to three chapters of the audiobook, and I have yet to meet a solid, identifiable character. The dialog is forced and the setting is an unrecognizable scene many hundred years in the future. Huxley has spent three chapters "telling" me about the setting and characters. Thus far, it reminds me very much of Foundation by Isaac Asimov, which I disliked when I read it a few months ago.Continue Reading