System of the World by Neal Stephenson really shouldn't count for 52in52, as I started it before the start of this year. Well before the start of this year. Possibly even before the start of the previous year. In fact, I have the previous book in the cycle listed as a 2008 book, so it may well have been started in 2008.
I started the first book of the cycle in late 2003.
I was at about 75% of the way through System in early October, and posted a poll on FB asking whether I'd finish the book or the baby first. The results were unanimously in favor of the baby. Thank goodness they were right.
What a slog. I can't believe I read the whole thing, as Ramona Quimby said.
That said... I have this strange urge to start it all over again, on the theory that the whole thing will make a bit more sense now that I have a better idea of the bigger picture. It wasn't unenjoyable, just long and dense, with a little too much digression.
But first I need to learn more about that period of history, in order to better distinguish history from wild confabulation. Probably next year, when we reach that point in Story of the World. Just to keep things on-topic for this blog. And I'm not sure if I find it disturbing or satisfying that I'm starting to rely on SOTW for all the stuff I apparently never actually learned and/or retained my first time through grade school.
I actually finished Papa Married A Mormon a few weeks ago, breaking my long streak of not being able to finish a book, but didn't get around to writing anything about it. I checked it out from the library, and as I approached the due date, found that I couldn't renew it because someone else had reserved it. This is a book that had been checked out twice, including my checkout, since 2003. Go figure. At least it encouraged me to take the time to finish it!
This was a fun book - a biography/autobiography written by John D. Fitzgerald, author of The Great Brain series. It's much in the same vein as that series, but written for an adult audience. Anyone who loved The Great Brain should enjoy this book, which provides a bit more background on the family, which is more-or-less based on Fitzgerald's own.
Showing posts with label 52in52. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 52in52. Show all posts
Saturday, March 19, 2011
Thursday, January 20, 2011
52in52 #2 - God is Dead
I thought this was fitting for Secular Thursday...
My library online catalog allows you to schedule holds, so I can, for example, set up a hold now to be activated in May. When I hear of a book that sounds interesting but I'm not currently lacking for reading, I utilize this function, and schedule the book to pop up as a nice surprise at some point in the future when I've totally forgotten about it.
God is Dead by Ron Currie, Jr. is one of those surprises. I read a description of it somewhere, and it sounded interesting, but I can't for the life of me remember where that was. Probably some random homeschooler's blog.
So anyways, the book magically showed up at the library last week, and, after getting hung up on two other books, I decided to give it a try. It's 180 pages, and those pages are narrow, so it seemed like it would at least be a fast read, and it was, once I managed to get past the first chapter.
The premise of the book is that God becomes a mortal (this is apparently something he does from time to time) in the form of a Sudanese woman, and is killed, leaving the world godless. Most of the book focuses on individual and societal reactions to this crisis. It's rather Vonnegutian, full of thinly veiled absurdist allegory of our current society and what people choose to worship in the absence of God.
Actually, it's about as veiled as a 2x4 in the face. But it's a reasonably well-written 2x4, and I definitely felt some level of ironic discomfort reading the chapter about parents worshipping their children while simultaneously babbling to the baby about how perfect and smart and strong and wonderful she is (because, of course, such traits are totally apparent in a 3 month old).
A featured teenager observes, about clamming, "It was something he'd enjoyed, being united in purpose with his mother, being useful as something more than an object of adoration, carrying the great buckets of clams home by himself, with both hands." This seems a valuable observation.
I rather doubt I would have gotten past the first chapter, which has a very cynical tone, if it hadn't been for 52in52 and the obligation/motivation to finish something. But the book takes different voices from chapter to chapter, and, while the book overall takes a cynical viewpoint, it was varied enough that I got through it despite that.
So, overall, it had some worthwhile, though not particularly original or subtle, observations. I don't feel my time was wasted in reading it, though I doubt I'll be running out to recommend it to others, either.
Edit: Ironically, God Is Dead was stolen on the way back to the library.
I finished Five Children and It with the children. LemurBoy enjoyed it, anyways. LemurGirl always fell asleep. I enjoyed it, too - I never read it as a child, and somehow it always surprises me a little when old children's books are actually readable and interesting, but there were parts where I was laughing so hard that I had a hard time reading. It reminded me of an Edward Eager book, and I wouldn't be surprised at all to find that he was inspired by Nesbit.
LB also loved The Boxcar Children, which we did end up reading next. I didn't realize before starting that it's written in incredibly simple language, though that makes sense, since I remember reading it in first grade or so, and it was one of my first chapter books. I think we're going to try reading the second one together, taking turns.
We also finished The Milly-Molly-Mandy Storybook, another that I never read as a child. This was a "girly book" to read with LG. Somehow, despite being more into the whole reading thing than LB was, she has a lot less interest in listening to read-alouds, and has a tendency to fall asleep during our bedtime books (which is kind of the point actually, as that eliminates conflict over what music to listen to afterwards). So, I've been choosing "girly books" for her, and it's working. She refused to fall asleep while I read Milly-Molly-Mandy.
That said, though LB rolled his eyes when I started reading it at bedtime when we didn't have another option immediately on hand after finishing The Boxcar Children, he complained when I finished it that he'd missed some of the stories. I told him he'd be able to read it on his own very soon.
We FIAR'd it up by baking apple turnovers (complete with obligatory fraction lesson by measuring cup - LB is now figuring out addition of mixed fractions in his head) and making paper dolls. The kids now want apple turnovers tonight, too.
Now we're reading Otto of the Silver Hand for our bedtime Put-LG-To-Sleep story, which I decided on after reading someone else's 52in52 review of it. It's on the Ambleside Online free reading list for second grade, but we probably would have skipped it if not for seeing the review and realizing that it's set in the middle ages and fits right in with our history (our readings about knights and castles seem to be stretching out dramatically). He seems to be enjoying it, though he was relieved to hear that the next chapter FINALLY involves an actual kid. And it puts LG to sleep quite nicely.
My library online catalog allows you to schedule holds, so I can, for example, set up a hold now to be activated in May. When I hear of a book that sounds interesting but I'm not currently lacking for reading, I utilize this function, and schedule the book to pop up as a nice surprise at some point in the future when I've totally forgotten about it.
God is Dead by Ron Currie, Jr. is one of those surprises. I read a description of it somewhere, and it sounded interesting, but I can't for the life of me remember where that was. Probably some random homeschooler's blog.
So anyways, the book magically showed up at the library last week, and, after getting hung up on two other books, I decided to give it a try. It's 180 pages, and those pages are narrow, so it seemed like it would at least be a fast read, and it was, once I managed to get past the first chapter.
The premise of the book is that God becomes a mortal (this is apparently something he does from time to time) in the form of a Sudanese woman, and is killed, leaving the world godless. Most of the book focuses on individual and societal reactions to this crisis. It's rather Vonnegutian, full of thinly veiled absurdist allegory of our current society and what people choose to worship in the absence of God.
Actually, it's about as veiled as a 2x4 in the face. But it's a reasonably well-written 2x4, and I definitely felt some level of ironic discomfort reading the chapter about parents worshipping their children while simultaneously babbling to the baby about how perfect and smart and strong and wonderful she is (because, of course, such traits are totally apparent in a 3 month old).
A featured teenager observes, about clamming, "It was something he'd enjoyed, being united in purpose with his mother, being useful as something more than an object of adoration, carrying the great buckets of clams home by himself, with both hands." This seems a valuable observation.
I rather doubt I would have gotten past the first chapter, which has a very cynical tone, if it hadn't been for 52in52 and the obligation/motivation to finish something. But the book takes different voices from chapter to chapter, and, while the book overall takes a cynical viewpoint, it was varied enough that I got through it despite that.
So, overall, it had some worthwhile, though not particularly original or subtle, observations. I don't feel my time was wasted in reading it, though I doubt I'll be running out to recommend it to others, either.
Edit: Ironically, God Is Dead was stolen on the way back to the library.
I finished Five Children and It with the children. LemurBoy enjoyed it, anyways. LemurGirl always fell asleep. I enjoyed it, too - I never read it as a child, and somehow it always surprises me a little when old children's books are actually readable and interesting, but there were parts where I was laughing so hard that I had a hard time reading. It reminded me of an Edward Eager book, and I wouldn't be surprised at all to find that he was inspired by Nesbit.
LB also loved The Boxcar Children, which we did end up reading next. I didn't realize before starting that it's written in incredibly simple language, though that makes sense, since I remember reading it in first grade or so, and it was one of my first chapter books. I think we're going to try reading the second one together, taking turns.
We also finished The Milly-Molly-Mandy Storybook, another that I never read as a child. This was a "girly book" to read with LG. Somehow, despite being more into the whole reading thing than LB was, she has a lot less interest in listening to read-alouds, and has a tendency to fall asleep during our bedtime books (which is kind of the point actually, as that eliminates conflict over what music to listen to afterwards). So, I've been choosing "girly books" for her, and it's working. She refused to fall asleep while I read Milly-Molly-Mandy.
That said, though LB rolled his eyes when I started reading it at bedtime when we didn't have another option immediately on hand after finishing The Boxcar Children, he complained when I finished it that he'd missed some of the stories. I told him he'd be able to read it on his own very soon.
We FIAR'd it up by baking apple turnovers (complete with obligatory fraction lesson by measuring cup - LB is now figuring out addition of mixed fractions in his head) and making paper dolls. The kids now want apple turnovers tonight, too.
Now we're reading Otto of the Silver Hand for our bedtime Put-LG-To-Sleep story, which I decided on after reading someone else's 52in52 review of it. It's on the Ambleside Online free reading list for second grade, but we probably would have skipped it if not for seeing the review and realizing that it's set in the middle ages and fits right in with our history (our readings about knights and castles seem to be stretching out dramatically). He seems to be enjoying it, though he was relieved to hear that the next chapter FINALLY involves an actual kid. And it puts LG to sleep quite nicely.
Saturday, January 8, 2011
52in52 #1 - Long May She Reign
Reviews? I have to actually write something about what I read and think things out and have an opinion and all that? Ah well, I suppose that justifies it's inclusion in a homeschool blog...
Long May She Reign by Ellen Emerson White is the fourth book in a series about Meg, the teenage daughter of the first female president of the United States. The first three books were published in the 80's, and the fourth in 2007. "Updated" versions of the other three were released around the same thing - I couldn't tell you if there were any changes beyond the inclusion of modern technology (complete with awkward references to rating all the girls on the whole Face Book).
In the third book, Long Live The Queen, the protagonist is kidnapped by terrorists, suffering serious physical and emotional damage. The fourth book further addresses her recovery, physical and emotional (White seems to enjoy writing PTSD), and her first semester away at college.
When I was discussing the book with LemurDa, he commented that it must have been rushed to press before Hillary Clinton was eliminated from the primaries, and I can't help thinking there's likely some truth to that. I think it probably could have been cut by a third (of 707 pages), and still been effective. There were some parts where I wasn't really sure what message the author was trying to get across. Is she horribly selfish for not finding out all the nitty gritty details of her dormmate's lives like Good Friends Are Supposed To? Or are they typical media-obsessed jerks who can't comprehend that a high profile person under tremendous stress and in constant severe pain might, perhaps, be a little less than capable of being their most intimate best friend? Or is the point supposed to be that she's hiding her pain so well, in her political-savvy manner, that they don't realize that she has more to worry about than her RA's secret past (I don't consider that a spoiler, as there's rather heavyhanded foreshadowing in that direction) and joining them for dinner in the cafeteria?
The interaction between the dormies didn't really strike me as authentic (at the same time as they poke fun at movies for portraying dorms inaccurately), but that could be because I was kind of a loser in an a weird dorm (the "quiet dorm", which was full of people who were either antisocial or forced into it by their parents), so maybe I don't have the right perspective on that.
Her distress over considering offering sex to her kidnapper in exchange for safety strikes me as perhaps a bit overblown, given that she doesn't seem at all conservative or adverse to casual sex for any reason beyond political expedient. This isn't to say that someone couldn't be totally into casual sex and still be upset at being coerced into it it, but it still seems odd as a focal point of extreme angst given her overall attitude.
Homosexuality seems almost shoved into the book as a way of saying "Look, I'm modern and liberal and not written in the 80's!". GLBT content does not bother me. I wish there was more of it in YA and mainstream lit... included in a non-token, non-issue manner. But here, completely out of the blue from the other books, Meg claims that she is "totally straight... so far, anyways", her best friend starts making remarks that could be interpreted as heteroflexible, she has a dormmate who is ever-so-prickly about being a lesbian (about which Eminently Liberal And Ever Political Meg doesn't bat an eyelash), her mother hires a gay man for some top position, and even the president's sexuality is called into question, if jokingly. I cracked up at that point, as I'd commented to LemurDa shortly before that I expected they were going to out the president next.
But really, a lot of this is nitpicking. It wasn't an unenjoyable book - I enjoy Meg's sense of humor, and the relationship between members of the first family is fun to watch. The view into life in the White House and under Secret Service protection is fun (though how accurate, I couldn't say). And the series is oddly timely, with the shooting of Congresswoman Giffords.
And I eagerly await the 5th book where Meg and Preston finally get together. She is going to write that book, right? It's totally been foreshadowed since the first book.
Next book (perhaps. I may end up starting another before finishing it): April Fool's Day by Bryce Courtenay. I'm still reading Five Children and It with the kids, and it looks like that will extend through most of this upcoming week. We'll probably start The Boxcar Children after that.
Long May She Reign by Ellen Emerson White is the fourth book in a series about Meg, the teenage daughter of the first female president of the United States. The first three books were published in the 80's, and the fourth in 2007. "Updated" versions of the other three were released around the same thing - I couldn't tell you if there were any changes beyond the inclusion of modern technology (complete with awkward references to rating all the girls on the whole Face Book).
In the third book, Long Live The Queen, the protagonist is kidnapped by terrorists, suffering serious physical and emotional damage. The fourth book further addresses her recovery, physical and emotional (White seems to enjoy writing PTSD), and her first semester away at college.
When I was discussing the book with LemurDa, he commented that it must have been rushed to press before Hillary Clinton was eliminated from the primaries, and I can't help thinking there's likely some truth to that. I think it probably could have been cut by a third (of 707 pages), and still been effective. There were some parts where I wasn't really sure what message the author was trying to get across. Is she horribly selfish for not finding out all the nitty gritty details of her dormmate's lives like Good Friends Are Supposed To? Or are they typical media-obsessed jerks who can't comprehend that a high profile person under tremendous stress and in constant severe pain might, perhaps, be a little less than capable of being their most intimate best friend? Or is the point supposed to be that she's hiding her pain so well, in her political-savvy manner, that they don't realize that she has more to worry about than her RA's secret past (I don't consider that a spoiler, as there's rather heavyhanded foreshadowing in that direction) and joining them for dinner in the cafeteria?
The interaction between the dormies didn't really strike me as authentic (at the same time as they poke fun at movies for portraying dorms inaccurately), but that could be because I was kind of a loser in an a weird dorm (the "quiet dorm", which was full of people who were either antisocial or forced into it by their parents), so maybe I don't have the right perspective on that.
Her distress over considering offering sex to her kidnapper in exchange for safety strikes me as perhaps a bit overblown, given that she doesn't seem at all conservative or adverse to casual sex for any reason beyond political expedient. This isn't to say that someone couldn't be totally into casual sex and still be upset at being coerced into it it, but it still seems odd as a focal point of extreme angst given her overall attitude.
Homosexuality seems almost shoved into the book as a way of saying "Look, I'm modern and liberal and not written in the 80's!". GLBT content does not bother me. I wish there was more of it in YA and mainstream lit... included in a non-token, non-issue manner. But here, completely out of the blue from the other books, Meg claims that she is "totally straight... so far, anyways", her best friend starts making remarks that could be interpreted as heteroflexible, she has a dormmate who is ever-so-prickly about being a lesbian (about which Eminently Liberal And Ever Political Meg doesn't bat an eyelash), her mother hires a gay man for some top position, and even the president's sexuality is called into question, if jokingly. I cracked up at that point, as I'd commented to LemurDa shortly before that I expected they were going to out the president next.
But really, a lot of this is nitpicking. It wasn't an unenjoyable book - I enjoy Meg's sense of humor, and the relationship between members of the first family is fun to watch. The view into life in the White House and under Secret Service protection is fun (though how accurate, I couldn't say). And the series is oddly timely, with the shooting of Congresswoman Giffords.
And I eagerly await the 5th book where Meg and Preston finally get together. She is going to write that book, right? It's totally been foreshadowed since the first book.
Next book (perhaps. I may end up starting another before finishing it): April Fool's Day by Bryce Courtenay. I'm still reading Five Children and It with the kids, and it looks like that will extend through most of this upcoming week. We'll probably start The Boxcar Children after that.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)