Karen
The lifelong friendship of Leah Hanwell and Natalie (Keisha) Blake takes place against the backdrop of Willesden, a working class borough in the Northwest of London that is home to Irish, South Asian, and African immigrants. The two girls lived there with their families as children, did well enough in school to go to university, and have both made it "out" of the neighborhood as adults, but are still very much rooted there. Although the action of the novel centers around Leah, Natalie, and a young man named Felix, Willesden itself is arguably a character in its own right. Its shops and restaurants, alleys and bus stops, parks and churchyards are populated with people who are struggling, joyful, weary, gentle, violent, philosophical, etc. There are some truly delightful scenes that depict the character of the place.
Although I enjoyed the novel, I didn't understand the structure of it. The central section (and the longest), called Host, tells the story of Leah and Natalie's friendship from its beginning when they were girls to a point where Natalie comes to a crisis in her adult life, in 178 sections ranging from as short as one sentence to as long as several pages. The sections before and after Host are fairly traditional narratives, so this read to me at first like notes for the backstory of the novel. After a while I got used to the different pace and structure of that section and it didn't feel so disjointed anymore, but I still wonder about the reason for the style change.
Anyway, if you like novels about female friendship, give this one a try. The two main characters are excellent and their friendship is real.
The lifelong friendship of Leah Hanwell and Natalie (Keisha) Blake takes place against the backdrop of Willesden, a working class borough in the Northwest of London that is home to Irish, South Asian, and African immigrants. The two girls lived there with their families as children, did well enough in school to go to university, and have both made it "out" of the neighborhood as adults, but are still very much rooted there. Although the action of the novel centers around Leah, Natalie, and a young man named Felix, Willesden itself is arguably a character in its own right. Its shops and restaurants, alleys and bus stops, parks and churchyards are populated with people who are struggling, joyful, weary, gentle, violent, philosophical, etc. There are some truly delightful scenes that depict the character of the place.
Although I enjoyed the novel, I didn't understand the structure of it. The central section (and the longest), called Host, tells the story of Leah and Natalie's friendship from its beginning when they were girls to a point where Natalie comes to a crisis in her adult life, in 178 sections ranging from as short as one sentence to as long as several pages. The sections before and after Host are fairly traditional narratives, so this read to me at first like notes for the backstory of the novel. After a while I got used to the different pace and structure of that section and it didn't feel so disjointed anymore, but I still wonder about the reason for the style change.
Anyway, if you like novels about female friendship, give this one a try. The two main characters are excellent and their friendship is real.
I was in middle school when Ronald Reagan was elected and a teenager when AIDS was an epidemic. I remember Angels in America coming out and people talking about it, but this is the first time I've read it. Reading and talking about drama is not my forte, but this play (these two plays?) put me back in those times. Although I remember that expectations around masculinity and femininity were rigid and the stigma against being gay was absolute, it's easy to intellectualize it now and forget the feeling of airlessness and stricture the sexual politics of the time had. Not that these issues are all in the past....
In 2025 putting these issues, and the intimate details of the lives of gay men with AIDS, on stage doesn't seem daring, however relevant it might still be. But in the early 1990's it must have been radical. Reading this play now, I am thankful to Tony Kushner and everyone else who insisted on talking about the lives of gay men during the AIDS epidemic, about the lives of gay and lesbian and transgender people in general, and on putting those issues in front of Americans. This play brings the hypocrisy, denial, shame, and racial and sexual bigotry that lurked behind the US's official policies toward gay men in particular out into the light of day, and let some air into the room for everyone to take a breath and see a little more clearly. If we were willing.
I was in middle school when Ronald Reagan was elected and a teenager when AIDS was an epidemic. I remember Angels in America coming out and people talking about it, but this is the first time I've read it. Reading and talking about drama is not my forte, but this play (these two plays?) put me back in those times. Although I remember that expectations around masculinity and femininity were rigid and the stigma against being gay was absolute, it's easy to intellectualize it now and forget the feeling of airlessness and stricture the sexual politics of the time had. Not that these issues are all in the past....
In 2025 putting these issues, and the intimate details of the lives of gay men with AIDS, on stage doesn't seem daring, however relevant it might still be. But in the early 1990's it must have been radical. Reading this play now, I am thankful to Tony Kushner and everyone else who insisted on talking about the lives of gay men during the AIDS epidemic, about the lives of gay and lesbian and transgender people in general, and on putting those issues in front of Americans. This play brings the hypocrisy, denial, shame, and racial and sexual bigotry that lurked behind the US's official policies toward gay men in particular out into the light of day, and let some air into the room for everyone to take a breath and see a little more clearly. If we were willing.
This is a great anthology of folktales from around the world and many different cultures featuring women and girls as heroines who solve problems and rescue others with their wisdom, intelligence, and courage, and who make their own destinies instead of having them made for them by others. Each story has a brief commentary (1-2 short paragraphs, half a page at most) by the author at the end. I found the commentary a little uneven, but it's a small enough part of the book that it's easy to ignore. There are end notes and an index in the back, along with a list of selected "further reading," including picture books, young adult books, and secondary literature.
Overall, I really enjoyed this!
This is a great anthology of folktales from around the world and many different cultures featuring women and girls as heroines who solve problems and rescue others with their wisdom, intelligence, and courage, and who make their own destinies instead of having them made for them by others. Each story has a brief commentary (1-2 short paragraphs, half a page at most) by the author at the end. I found the commentary a little uneven, but it's a small enough part of the book that it's easy to ignore. There are end notes and an index in the back, along with a list of selected "further reading," including picture books, young adult books, and secondary literature.
Overall, I really enjoyed this!
This murder mystery set in a upper class girl's school in Dublin has a poignant portrayal of friendship and solidarity among a group of four girls as they navigate high school and teenage social pressures together. Although they are at an all girls' school, the corresponding all boys' high school is right next door and they interact with the boys regularly. When one of the students from the boys school turns up dead on the grounds of the girls' school and the police fail to find the murderer, it leaves everyone at the school uneasy. This story starts when one of the girls brings a postcard that announces "I know who killed Chris Harper," which she found posted in her school, to an ambitious detective in the Cold Case division of the police. The framing of the story is that this Cold Case detective brings the postcard to the detective in the Murder division who was in charge of the case when it first was investigated and the two of them revive the investigation.
The investigation aspect of the story was the least compelling to me. I really wasn't interested in the dynamics between the two detectives, and I found it hard to swallow the idea that the entire investigation portrayed in the book took place over the course of one long day. But I truly enjoyed the part of the book that focused on the friendship between the girls, and the hostilities with a rival group headed by their archnemesis Joanne. If Tana French had left the cops out of it and let the girls figure it all out amongst themselves, The Secret Place might have been really interesting. As it was, it was a pretty good mystery.
This murder mystery set in a upper class girl's school in Dublin has a poignant portrayal of friendship and solidarity among a group of four girls as they navigate high school and teenage social pressures together. Although they are at an all girls' school, the corresponding all boys' high school is right next door and they interact with the boys regularly. When one of the students from the boys school turns up dead on the grounds of the girls' school and the police fail to find the murderer, it leaves everyone at the school uneasy. This story starts when one of the girls brings a postcard that announces "I know who killed Chris Harper," which she found posted in her school, to an ambitious detective in the Cold Case division of the police. The framing of the story is that this Cold Case detective brings the postcard to the detective in the Murder division who was in charge of the case when it first was investigated and the two of them revive the investigation.
The investigation aspect of the story was the least compelling to me. I really wasn't interested in the dynamics between the two detectives, and I found it hard to swallow the idea that the entire investigation portrayed in the book took place over the course of one long day. But I truly enjoyed the part of the book that focused on the friendship between the girls, and the hostilities with a rival group headed by their archnemesis Joanne. If Tana French had left the cops out of it and let the girls figure it all out amongst themselves, The Secret Place might have been really interesting. As it was, it was a pretty good mystery.
I was a fan of Alison Bechdel's comic strip Dykes To Watch Out For back in the early 90s, but this is my first book length Bechdel. I liked it! This is at once a memoir and analysis of Bechdel's relationship with her mother from childhood to the present and a mini course on the life and psychological theories of D. W. Winnicott, who is known for his insights into children's psychological development.
Bechdel is open about her struggles with not feeling loved and valued by her mother (or, secondarily, by anyone else), depicting herself in therapy sessions, in conversations with her mom where she looks for affirmation and doesn't receive it, and in relationships with women who are ambivalent about committing to her. Her use of WInnicott's theories to analyze what might have been going on between her and her mother is a little technical and dry for someone not used to reading psychology texts, but her illustrations and the bits of information about Winnicott's life that she provides helped me through. Virginia Woolf and her novel To the Lighthouse also figure in this book. My favorite parts were when the text of the comic was about something from Winnicott or To the Lighthouse, but the illustration showed Bechdel and her mother having an interaction.
Overall, I'd recommend this if you already like Alison Bechdel or if you struggle with your relationship with your mom. Either way, it's insightful, compassionate, and the illustrations are great.
I was a fan of Alison Bechdel's comic strip Dykes To Watch Out For back in the early 90s, but this is my first book length Bechdel. I liked it! This is at once a memoir and analysis of Bechdel's relationship with her mother from childhood to the present and a mini course on the life and psychological theories of D. W. Winnicott, who is known for his insights into children's psychological development.
Bechdel is open about her struggles with not feeling loved and valued by her mother (or, secondarily, by anyone else), depicting herself in therapy sessions, in conversations with her mom where she looks for affirmation and doesn't receive it, and in relationships with women who are ambivalent about committing to her. Her use of WInnicott's theories to analyze what might have been going on between her and her mother is a little technical and dry for someone not used to reading psychology texts, but her illustrations and the bits of information about Winnicott's life that she provides helped me through. Virginia Woolf and her novel To the Lighthouse also figure in this book. My favorite parts were when the text of the comic was about something from Winnicott or To the Lighthouse, but the illustration showed Bechdel and her mother having an interaction.
Overall, I'd recommend this if you already like Alison Bechdel or if you struggle with your relationship with your mom. Either way, it's insightful, compassionate, and the illustrations are great.
Almost 300 pages into this book, author Leigh Clare La Berge describes Carl Van Vechten's 1920 book The Tiger in the House with this sentence: "Indeed, the reader can never be entirely sure whether she is reading a proper academic study or a farce." I might describe La Berge's book the same way. In Van Vechten's case, La Berge cites the lack of politics in the book that takes away from its gravitas. In La Berge's case, it isn't a lack of politics that causes the confusion, but the inclusion of puns, playful metaphors, and a distinct sense throughout the book that the author had a twinkle in her eye as she wrote it. In fact, I feel sure that she wrote the sentence above knowing that it applied to her book as well.
Ostensibly about the way that cats have served as symbols for different elements or forces in political life from feudal times to the present, the book also asks whether Marxism can expand to include non-human animals in its scope. The style is academic, but also a bit mischievous, and includes tiger's leaps of imagination. Nerdy fun for left leaning animal lovers.
Almost 300 pages into this book, author Leigh Clare La Berge describes Carl Van Vechten's 1920 book The Tiger in the House with this sentence: "Indeed, the reader can never be entirely sure whether she is reading a proper academic study or a farce." I might describe La Berge's book the same way. In Van Vechten's case, La Berge cites the lack of politics in the book that takes away from its gravitas. In La Berge's case, it isn't a lack of politics that causes the confusion, but the inclusion of puns, playful metaphors, and a distinct sense throughout the book that the author had a twinkle in her eye as she wrote it. In fact, I feel sure that she wrote the sentence above knowing that it applied to her book as well.
Ostensibly about the way that cats have served as symbols for different elements or forces in political life from feudal times to the present, the book also asks whether Marxism can expand to include non-human animals in its scope. The style is academic, but also a bit mischievous, and includes tiger's leaps of imagination. Nerdy fun for left leaning animal lovers.
This story of a schoolgirl friendship that grows complicated in cultural revolution era China is short, but powerful. The difficulty of retaining your humanity in a totalitarian society is a major theme.
This story of a schoolgirl friendship that grows complicated in cultural revolution era China is short, but powerful. The difficulty of retaining your humanity in a totalitarian society is a major theme.
An accessible book which attempts to establish which of the Mary stories in the four canonical Gospels are about Mary Magdalene, based on biblical evidence, and then interprets the significance of those stories for people in the modern world. I read this book just at Easter, so the story of Mary Magdalene at the tomb was fresh in my mind. I find methods of interpreting ancient texts fascinating, so this topic was interesting to me. Dr. McNutt doesn't think the "woman taken in adultery" or the sinful woman washing Jesus's feet and wiping them with her hair are Mary Magdalene, and offers compelling arguments to support her case. I'd love to see the best arguments on the other side. It's hard to imagine that they would measure up.
An accessible book which attempts to establish which of the Mary stories in the four canonical Gospels are about Mary Magdalene, based on biblical evidence, and then interprets the significance of those stories for people in the modern world. I read this book just at Easter, so the story of Mary Magdalene at the tomb was fresh in my mind. I find methods of interpreting ancient texts fascinating, so this topic was interesting to me. Dr. McNutt doesn't think the "woman taken in adultery" or the sinful woman washing Jesus's feet and wiping them with her hair are Mary Magdalene, and offers compelling arguments to support her case. I'd love to see the best arguments on the other side. It's hard to imagine that they would measure up.
Stories based on Tim O'Brien's service in the Vietnam War. Difficult to read, but so beautifully written. In our book club discussion, we pondered how many of these stories were likely to be factually true vs. conveying the truth of the experience of being an American soldier in the Vietnam war.
Stories based on Tim O'Brien's service in the Vietnam War. Difficult to read, but so beautifully written. In our book club discussion, we pondered how many of these stories were likely to be factually true vs. conveying the truth of the experience of being an American soldier in the Vietnam war.
