Sample dialogue

Me: Hey, the last book in a trilogy I'm totally obsessed with is going to come out while I'm visiting you*. Is there a bookstore in town where I can pick it up?

My sister (doubtfully): Well, there's a Christian bookstore...

Me: [Hyperventilating]

* In a small town in Wyoming.

Breaking news: Julia's Hunger Games obsession validated in NY Times

See, totally respectable!

(Ok, I wasn't actually feeling anxious about it. But the story's illustration is exactly how I fear I'm going to be as a mother.)

Bella before Edward or a period of time that is now known as BBE

So, after I read Twilight the first time I came away hating Bella.  I found her way too angsty and all too willing to let herself get lost in her relationship with Edward. These traits are to be expected for teenagers, but I don’t want to read books about them and I resent that teenage girls are looking to Bella as a role model.

Well, upon reading it a second time, I made a discovery.  Bella is actually pretty awesome… that is before her relationship with Edward.  She definitely has a Daria vibe going for her…she’s smart, likes to read, doesn’t understand other teenagers, and won’t participate in gym volleyball.  I mean the girl would prefer to go to a book store in Seattle over going to a school dance, which is obviously a way better thing to do, but I wasn’t cool enough in high school to know that…she is and it comes so naturally to her! She also writes about, “whether Shakespeare’s treatment of the female characters is misogynistic.”   Not groundbreaking, but hints at feminism.  Basically, she’s not a typical teenager.  Jessica, Mike, Angela are all the typical teens who Bella is too indifferent to say “no” to being friends with.   They are drawn to her because she’s smart, pretty, and way cooler than all of them.   Bella is not a poser (yet) and is way more comfortable with herself than most teens, yet is still growing and trying to decide who she is.  THIS IS A GREAT CHARACTER TO BEGIN A NOVEL!

Infidel

Well, since everyone enjoyed Larry's post on female genital mutilation, I'd thought I'd recommend a book that gives and interesting look into the subject.  Infidel  by Ayaan Hirsi Ali is a very interesting and engaging memoir about a Somalian woman who grows up in 
Somalia, Kenya, and Ethiopia, eventually ending up in Holland to become a member of parliament.  
She details her experiences growing up Muslim, her own genital mutilation, arranged marriages,  
integrating into Western culture, and finally giving up on Islam.  She does not hold back on detail or 
her opinion.  This works to create a very interesting read, but can be frustrating when it seems as 
though she generalizes her own experience to represent the experiences of all Muslim women in Africa.  
Either she or her editor wanted to use her experiences educate Westerners on "what happens" 
to women where she's from, but she's not writing about a group of women, she's writing about herself.  
Considering that most Somlian women don't leave the country and those who do don't end up as 
members of parliament, I would say her experience is anything but generalizable. If you can get past 
the "let me educate you Westerners about the horrors of the rest of the world" subtext, it's an exceptional
book about an exceptional person.  I definitely recommend it.

Hey Jess!

Tiger Beatdown did a review of Twilight. I don't know if you want to read it before you finish the books so I'm putting the link here so we can go back to it.

Love you and looking forward to your take on Twilight (and even more, Infinite Jest!)

Happy Birthday To Kill a Mockingbird...Birthday Party?

So I read this article in the New York Times about all the parties going on for the 50th anniversary of the publication of To Kill a Mockingbird.  I feel like we have to jump on the bandwagon and organize an FBC to celebrate the book.  Let's pick a date, plan on re-reading it (or at least watching the movie)!

Also call me a nit-pick but the article mentions Monroeville, AL is also called the "literary capital of Alabama" because Harper Lee grew up there but fails to mention Truman Capote also lived there (NEXT DOOR TO HARPER LEE) which I imagine also adds to its literary posterity.  I've been on quite a Capote kick lately so reading To Kill a Mockingbird this summer works in quite nicely since Harper Lee was working on this during the time she was helping Truman Capote write In Cold Blood.  They were extremely close childhood friends and in To Kill a Mockingbird Scout is meant to represent Lee and Dill is meant to represent Capote.  Capote's first novel Other Voices, Other Rooms also has a character based on Lee. SO MANY CONNECTIONS!!!

We need a new post!

So I am going to talk about a series of books I love with a slightly abashed love.

The Flashman Papers.

The main character is everything a good feminist (indeed, a good person) ought to revile: a cowardly self-centered bully who is openly racist, sexist, and xenophobic.

The problem is, the books are HYSTERICAL. I read the first one in an airport and couldn't stop guffawing; at one point someone came over (I thought he was going to shush me) and said how much he loved the books too. (They are also remarkably thoughtful and brilliantly researched. In fact the first one was taken as non-fiction by a number a reviewers when it first came out.) Flashman is a member of the British Army in the latter half of the 19th century, so he spends time in Afghanistan, India, Borneo, Madagascar, the Crimea, the U.S., etc. - and everywhere he goes, he wins plaudits as a hero while attempting to shirk his duty and fainting of terror and incessantly womanizing and observing everything with a cynical smirk.

If you can put up with an anti-hero as your protagonist, and like getting a different perspective on history, and have the right kind of sense of humour, these books are for you. Again, I LOVE 'em, and will happily lend them out to FBC members.

In Cold Blood

Melissa Blum recommended In Cold Blood by Truman Capote at the last book group.  She accompanied her recommendation with the revelation that many people think that Capote was in love with one of the killers in the book and that reading with this lens was worthwhile (even if you had read the book before).  I took the bait and was quite quickly absorbed into the novel.  I had not read the book before so I was trying to take in as much as could as a firsthand account, while keeping Melissa’s subtext in the back of my mind.  The book was of course, wonderful.  I feel it lives up to the hype of literary masterpiece, while at the same time being a very approachable novel.  On the surface it is very straight forward and a fascinating story, interesting in and of itself before examining the literary technique.  I will admit I had to read more before understanding what was meant by “non-fiction novel”, a genre of literature Capote claims to have invented with this novel.  In 1966 Capote sits for an interview with the New York Times to discuss In Cold Blood (find it here http://www.nytimes.com/books/97/12/28/home/capote-interview.html)  I find it really interesting how Capote describes manipulating non-fiction characters so that his own perspective of them can be understood by readers

Book Review: Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

This book was given to me by mom and it was quite a nice read. Authors Shaffer and Barrows create an charming community in Guernsey that I, along with the protagonist Juliet, long to join. I think I was most enchanted by the fact that the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society follows the same meeting decorum of the FBC: they all read a book that appeals to them, come and pitch their book to the group,  exchange the ones they like, and eat as much food (even during war time) as they can. This book was a bit of a history lesson for me, in that I never knew that the Channel Islands, part of English Commonwealth, were occupied by Germany during WWII. At the center of the novel is the brace Elizabeth McKenna who is quick to stand up to German soliders, stands on principle and as a result becomes a lifeboat for others on the island during the Occumpation of Guernsey. The book is written as a series of letters from an author in London to her editor, her best friend, and the people of Guernsey. While the storyline is quite predictable and superficial, the character development is well done entertaining and overall this book is a delightful read. Once again, I may be biased because I would like to think the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie society and FBC are sister groups :)

Apology for getting up on a soapbox last night.

Last night at book club we talked a bit about a woman in a book we all read (Zeitoun) who is Muslim and wears a headscarf. I'm afraid I may have kind of ranted at people while they were just trying to express their thoughts, so I wanted to share some resources/less heated thoughts:

1. Leila Ahmed is a respected scholar of Islam and Feminism. Here is a link to the chapter on veiling in her seminal work, "Women and Gender in Islam: Historical Roots of a Modern Debate", which is both essential and accessible reading on the topic.

2. Lawmakers in Belgium and Canada have been discussing limiting/banning the wearing of the veil. Here is an editorial critical of the Canadian law, and here is an editorial that supports a measure in Britain to ban the niqab.

3. Islam is a complex and diverse religion. Islamic law is based on the Koran (individual chapters of which are called sura) and the hadith, which are traditions about what the Prophet said or did during his lifetime. The hadith were passed down chains of oral transmission and traditionally, jurists (qadi) memorized hadith and their interpretations. To complicate matters, there is one major doctrinal split in Islam (Sunni or Shia; the debate is about how the authority to be the Caliph, or the Prophet's regent, is passed on) and some minor doctrinal splits (Twelver versus Seven Shiites, etc.) and different schools of law (4 major ones in Sunni Islam and lots of minor ones, which would affect how any qadi had learned to interpret specific sura and hadith) and different sects (Sufis, Kharijites, etc.) and syncretism with local traditions all over the world - so really, it is impossible to make any kind of blanket statement about what 'Islam' prescribes for women w/r/t clothing. There are almost as many versions of Islam as there are Muslims.

4. The sura that is most often cited as the basis for veiling charges believers (women and men) to behave modestly. Modesty is obviously a subjective matter. Ideally it would be up to any given believer to decide for him or herself (and only for him or herself) how to behave modestly.

5. There appears to be a relationship between being a majority Muslim place where women are not empowered (Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia) and being a place where women do not have a choice about veiling. I think mandatory veiling is a dependent variable and the important thing is advocating for women's right to education, to hold property, to vote, to run for office, to consent to marriage, etc. I think it is a distraction to talk about mandatory veiling (a symptom) rather than the rights that, fully exercised, will enable women to have meaningful choice about what modesty means for them as individuals.

Book Review: The Help

 I just finished reading The Help by Kathryn Stockett last night.  Overall it’s well written, easy to read, and kept me interested.  It did not revolutionize any ideas I had about race relations in 1960’s South or women’s roles in society at the time, but it was a nice story about some interesting women.  Apparently, Stockett’s inspiration for the book was the relationship she had with her housekeeper growing up in Jackson, MS and her desire to become a writer in New York.  The book is written from the narratives of a young white society woman and two black housekeepers.  

WHERE ARE THE BOOKS?

"So Jessica...why did you start a blog about a book club if you don't post any books on it?"

Well I'm glad you asked that question.  Honestly that's the question/criticism I get about FBC in general from new members coming to FBC for the first time.  People think of a book club and what comes to mind is a group of people reading a book and then coming to discuss said book.  Perhaps it's because we're busy or not motivated or reading too many school books or all of the above, but an underlining principal of FBC is: READ IF YOU WANT.  When forming the group we all felt too busy and too poor to commit ourselves to a book a month, so this was the alternative we came up with: trade books and talk about feminist issues.  As a result our book club is much more heavy on the feminist issues and lighter on the books.  However, my new pledge for the summer is to try and read two books a month and report back on them.  I will be encouraging other FBC members to do the same (not the two book thing, but the reporting back thing).  This way the blog can start to reflect it's namesake as well as the fabulously intelligent women who belong to FBC. 

Stay tuned for our group consensus on Zeitoun...rumor is we will be meeting THIS Sunday to discuss!

Male Brain vs. Female Brain or How to take scientific studies and manipulate them into social discourse

In an article posted on CNN today "Love, Sex, and the Male Brain" Dr. Louanne Brizendine discusses her new book The Male Brain.  She claims that the physical make-up of the male brain differs from the female brain (ok....I'm with you on that one) and this difference causes men to to oggle big breasted women (sort of losing me here) want sex ALL the time (hmmmm....ok), but eventually leads him to want a mate for life and become an adoring father (wait...what...contradiction much?).  This book is a follow-up to New York Times Bestselling The Female Brain in which Dr. Brizendine discusses the make-up of the female brain and how that causes us to gab so much (the cover is even a telephone cord shaped to look like a brain).   So when I first read the article, I had no trouble getting on board with the fact that the male and female brains are in general different from one and other.  What I have trouble with is the connection between the differing size of certain nerve centers being the cause of certain social behaviors. Apparently I am not alone: http://158.130.17.5/~myl/languagelog/archives/003419.html ; http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/003894.html ; http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/10/books/review/Henig.t.html

I'm proposing one of these as our next books!

See more at : http://www.coverbrowser.com/covers/i-can-read-movies

I am in the mood for some SyFy...suggestions?

So Melissa sent me this article today http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/mar/17/lord-of-the-rings-feminism
(which I saw 6 hours later on Jezebel, so way to go Melissa for being in the know) arguing the case that Lord of the Rings is a woman friendly book that should be embraced and not discarded as misogynistic.  Personally I have a difficult time with Tolkien's writing stylistically, too much description for me (which is horrible to say since I know his meticulous detail in the series is what sets him apart from many other authors).  But it reminded me that I have been looking for some science fiction or fantasy to include to my reading list, especially if it has a female heroine or a feminist slant.  The only think I've read in the past few years is Kindred by Octavia Butler, which I LOVE.  Let me know if you have any suggestions...

Zeitoun

We are diverging from the norm and all reading the same book this month...Zeitoun by Dave Eggers.  This book was chosen because many members love Dave Eggers and it takes place in New Orleans during Katrina.  Time and place for the next meeting are to be decided.