![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
So! I got way behind on writing and posting these. Catching up now, on 30 Nov *cough*
Committed by Elizabeth Gilbert: This was a delightful, if slightly meandering, read through the history of (Western) marriage, and Elizabeth’s own relationship. Had some startling and enraging points – American women had to become citizens of their foreign-born husband’s country. American husbands got to keep theirs (and their wives became American citizens Or Else) because apparently you got swallowed whole by your husband when you marry.
Does my head look big in this? by Randa Abel-Fattah: Meghan, don’t bother with this book :P It’s a story of a Muslim teenager growing up in Melbourne, and it’s very much a Muslim women are people too! And not oppressed! Or terrorists! Which is a depressingly needed message, but doesn’t make it any less a polemic brick. I had to remind myself that ‘keeping yourself “pure” until marriage’ is still a shitty, anti-sex message, no matter the creed of the speaker. It’s also achingly, wonderfully Australian, and I kinda adored it for that.
The winter of our disconnect: by Susan Maushart: The author of Wifework and her three teenage children pull the plug on their technology, first by going without power for two weeks, and then banning almost everything with a screen (TVs, laptops, mp3 players) from the house for six months. There possibly wasn’t quite enough material to justify the length of the book, but it was still an interesting read about how technology has radically changed our lifestyles and the personal impact of the experiment on her family: her son retakes up the saxophone, and after hours of practice, goes out and joins a band; all of them get way more sleep, and start catching up on their serious sleep debts; one of her daughters learns how to cook, etc. There’s no real conclusions here, but I kinda want to read Walden now. Worth picking up.
The stuff of nightmares by Malorie Blackman: This was originally mistagged in our system as ‘Short stories’ and it was the process of figuring out if it was or not that got me curious enough to read it. Actually, it probably could have been short stories, or at least, didn’t have enough plot material for a whole novel. Also, the father was a self-absorbed, emotionally and verbally abusive jerk, to the point when he did actually turn up saying ‘Son, X was not your fault’ I didn’t actually believe that the character could really mean it: I hadn’t seen anywhere near enough growth, let alone acknowledgement of how much of an arsehole he’d been.
Committed by Elizabeth Gilbert: This was a delightful, if slightly meandering, read through the history of (Western) marriage, and Elizabeth’s own relationship. Had some startling and enraging points – American women had to become citizens of their foreign-born husband’s country. American husbands got to keep theirs (and their wives became American citizens Or Else) because apparently you got swallowed whole by your husband when you marry.
Does my head look big in this? by Randa Abel-Fattah: Meghan, don’t bother with this book :P It’s a story of a Muslim teenager growing up in Melbourne, and it’s very much a Muslim women are people too! And not oppressed! Or terrorists! Which is a depressingly needed message, but doesn’t make it any less a polemic brick. I had to remind myself that ‘keeping yourself “pure” until marriage’ is still a shitty, anti-sex message, no matter the creed of the speaker. It’s also achingly, wonderfully Australian, and I kinda adored it for that.
The winter of our disconnect: by Susan Maushart: The author of Wifework and her three teenage children pull the plug on their technology, first by going without power for two weeks, and then banning almost everything with a screen (TVs, laptops, mp3 players) from the house for six months. There possibly wasn’t quite enough material to justify the length of the book, but it was still an interesting read about how technology has radically changed our lifestyles and the personal impact of the experiment on her family: her son retakes up the saxophone, and after hours of practice, goes out and joins a band; all of them get way more sleep, and start catching up on their serious sleep debts; one of her daughters learns how to cook, etc. There’s no real conclusions here, but I kinda want to read Walden now. Worth picking up.
The stuff of nightmares by Malorie Blackman: This was originally mistagged in our system as ‘Short stories’ and it was the process of figuring out if it was or not that got me curious enough to read it. Actually, it probably could have been short stories, or at least, didn’t have enough plot material for a whole novel. Also, the father was a self-absorbed, emotionally and verbally abusive jerk, to the point when he did actually turn up saying ‘Son, X was not your fault’ I didn’t actually believe that the character could really mean it: I hadn’t seen anywhere near enough growth, let alone acknowledgement of how much of an arsehole he’d been.
Tags: