Looking Back: February 2011

By way of review, here’s what my February looked like:

Books

Looking Back: February

Total books read: 5
Total pages read: 1,880
Favorite book: The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver and Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
Least favorite book: Are You Somebody? by Nuala O’Faolain

Audiobooks

Total audiobooks listened to: 6
Total hours listened: 38 hours, 33 minutes
Favorite audiobook: The Heretic’s Daughter by Kathleen Kent
Least favorite audiobook: Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K. Jerome (the book itself, not the reading–Martin Jarvis narrated this one, and he’s fantastic!)

Erin Reads

On Erin Reads last month:

Your Turn!

That was my February. How was yours?

My Week in Books: February 20-26

My Week in Books

Welcome to my weekly Saturday feature here at Erin Reads, where I highlight new books that have entered my life, what I’ve been reading, and what’s happened on Erin Reads over the past week.

New Acquisitions

It was a good week for book acquisitions! Here’s what found its way to me:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3IOU-_wzdAU

These next three I received for review from publishers. They’re all set to be released in April.

  • The Sandalwood Tree by Elle Newmark: Set in India in the 1940s, this novel tells the story of a woman living in India with her husband who discovers the letters and journal of two English women who lived in the same home a hundred years earlier.
  • Nazareth, North Dakota by Tommy Zurhellen: As the back of the galley says, “A modern retelling of the story of the young Messiah.” I’ve read the first chapter, and I must say, my interest is piqued!
  • The Bee-Loud Glade by Steve Himmer: I’m really not sure I can do this one justice by summarizing it, but I am looking forward to reading it!

TBR Additions

Both books I added to my TBR list this week are *gasp* nonfiction!

Read This Week

This week I wrapped up The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver for February’s Reading Buddies, and I loved it. For my IRL book group meeting next week, I’m working on The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera, and it hasn’t won me over yet. However, I’ve just started Madre: Perilous Journeys with a Spanish Noun by Liza Bakewell, and so far I’m really enjoying it!

After zipping through the very short The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett earlier this week, I’m now working on Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K. Jerome. It’s fun, and very well read (oh, Martin Jarvis, how I love your audiobooks!), but maybe not the thing to follow The Poisonwood Bible!

Erin Reads Recap

Your Turn!

How was your reading week? Do tell!

Reading Buddies Wrap-Up: “The Poisonwood Bible” by Barbara Kingsolver

Just a quick note about scheduling, before I get to The Poisonwood Bible: looking ahead, March has only four Fridays, but April has five, one of which is April 1st. To make sure we stay closer to the end of the month than the beginning, I won’t be posting about March’s books until 3/11 and 3/25 for The Appointment by Herta Muller and 3/18 and 4/1 for Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro.

Reading Buddies Button

Now. On to The Poisonwood Bible. I will start by warning that spoilers are fair game here and in the comments, so if you haven’t read The Poisonwood Bible, beware!

I have to say, I was deeply impressed by the novel, and it drew me in completely. The number of characters Kingsolver developed, the number of issues she tackled, and the story into which she rolled them all just blew me away. I don’t think it would’ve been possible for me to take in everything Kingsolver did the first time I read The Poisonwood Bible; I know some parts stood out to me in particular. I’m quite interested to see which areas stood out most for each of you.

The characters were the first thing I noticed and the piece that carried me through to the last page. I mentioned this aspect in the discussion post for The Poisonwood Bible, but I’ll do so again here. Each daughter was so very unique, but believably so. I loved their different interests, the way each saw the world, even their particular styles of narrating. I kept changing my mind about which girl’s voice was my favorite; eventually I gave up and recognized that they’re all pretty amazingly written. I’m glad Kingsolver let us see the remaining Price girls grow up. I would not have been able to imagine each girl’s future on my own, but the directions they went seemed to suit them to perfection. The distance between Leah and Rachel was, for me, especially striking, as they were on completely opposite ends of the spectrum of American involvement in Africa. By the end of the book, I just wanted to slap Rachel every time her chapters came around!

The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver (cover)Of the many themes Kingsolver introduces, religion stood out most strongly for me. It permeated the book, so that even the structure was based on it. Religion started the whole story off, landing the Price family in the Congo as missionaries. It also wrapped the story up, with each girl finding her own equivalent of or replacement for religion. Even that very last chapter, the only one without a name assigned to it, had a spiritual slant to it. I was fascinated to see Reverend Price’s strict Christianity bump against the local religion as well as Brother Fowles’s own brand of Christianity. I liked hearing about each girl’s take on religion and spirituality as she considered what she saw in the world around her and seeing how the views of each evolved. I think religion served well as a lens through which the characters approached the Congo.

I also learned much more than I would have expected about the Congo in the 1960s (and after): history, politics, culture, society, environment, even language. I knew pretty much nothing going in, but now I feel like I have a sense of what it might have been like. I certainly didn’t realize the huge and sinister role played by the US in the Congo’s recent history. I also never realized the size of the gap between Africans and foreigners so clearly delineated by Rachel and her life path. There is something about being set down in a place, witnessing a story and spending time with people, whether real or imagined, that brings to life for me places and situations I find difficult to understand through more abstract approaches. Reading The Poisonwood Bible gave me plenty to explore.

In short: I really loved this book! Thank you, reading buddies, for nudging me to finally pick it up and reading it along with me.

Now I’m wondering what other fiction set in Africa–or anywhere in the world, really–I might enjoy as much (and that might transport and teach me as thoroughly) as Kingsolver’s novel. Any suggestions, reading buddies?

Other participants (if I missed you, let me know!):

Thoughts on “The Professor and the Madman” by Simon Winchester (Audiobook)

I’d always meant to read something by Simon Winchester, and The Professor and the Madman was the title of his that most appealed to me. When I needed a new audiobook, I decided to give this one a try. Thankfully, my library had a copy.

About the Book:

The Professor and the Madman by Simon Winchester (cover)The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary is the story of the OED, but it is also the story of two men. First, there is James Murray, one of the editors of the massive lexical undertaking that is the OED. Second, there is W.C. Minor, the eccentric and uniquely positioned volunteer who contributed thousands upon thousands of quotations to the dictionary. Winchester examines not only the lives of the two men, but how their lives intersected and affected the OED as well as some history of the OED itself.

My Thoughts:

The Professor and the Madman really was a treat to listen to. I learned all sorts of things about the Oxford English Dictionary, including why it was needed, how it was assembled, and how long the project ended up taking. As someone who enjoys words and languages, I was fascinated by this aspect of the book. At times, it kind of made me want to crack open a good dictionary…though thankfully, the urge quickly passed!

Twined around this history, Winchester adds another level by examining one of the dictionary’s several editors (Murray) and one of its most prolific volunteers (Minor). Minor’s was the more fascinating background to me, and I was interested to hear how his unique position allowed him to be such a help to Murray and the rest of the OED staff. I’ll let you uncover Minor’s tale yourself; suffice to say that even Murray was shocked when he discovered who his great helper really was.

Winchester blends history and biography together, dipping into each as needed, with a skill like Bill Bryson’s — though admittedly without Bryson’s cheeky wit. Humor aside, Winchester’s writing was intelligent and articulate, both easy and enjoyable to read. He is obviously an author and researcher with the skill to bring his chosen subject to life, and I’m definitely interested to read more of his books.

Winchester himself reads the audiobook. I’m always leery of such situations, as often I’ve found authors do not make the best readers. Winchester, however, was an exception. He read at a lively pace; his tone was conversational and engaging. Sometimes with nonfiction audiobooks I find myself drifting off now and then, but in this case I never had that problem.

Overall, The Professor and the Madman was a well-written account of a piece of fascinating but little known history. It will appeal to readers interested in history, words, and odd little stories everywhere.

Those are my thoughts. Check out The Professor and the Madman by Simon Winchester on GoodReads or LibraryThing, read other bloggers’ reviews, or listen to an Audible sample!

Your Turn!

What fascinating, little known stories have you uncovered in your reading lately?

CRP: “Beowulf” translated by Seamus Heaney (Audiobook)

The Classics Reclamation Project is my personal challenge to read and enjoy the classics. Each Wednesday, I post about the classic I’m reading at the moment.

The Classics Reclamation Project

Since I’d listened to The Odyssey and The Epic of Gilgamesh, I figured I should go ahead and do Beowulf as well. I’d read part of Beowulf in high school (though I hardly remembered it) and hadn’t really realized there was more. As with the other two epics, I chose to listen to Beowulf; I love hearing these ancient texts read aloud, and this was no exception. I chose Seamus Heaney’s translation because of how lovely I’d found his The Burial at Thebes, his version of Sophocles’ Antigone. Heaney himself was the reader, which was a treat.

Set in Scandinavia and composed by an anonymous poet between the 8th and 11th centuries, Beowulf tells of a great hero of the same name and is considered to be one of the great works of Anglo-Saxon literature. The epic opens with the lineage of Hrothgar, king of the Danes, and then focuses on a point during Hrothgar’s rule when his mead hall is being repeatedly attacked by a monster named Grendel. Hearing of the Danes’ woes, an exceptionally strong hero of the Geats named Beowulf sails to Hrothgar’s aid. The story that follows encompasses Beowulf’s three major battles, two in service to Hrothgar and the last back in his homeland.

Beowulf (cover)One thing that stood out to me about Beowulf is the way it’s structured. It opens with Hrothgar’s story and problems; I assumed Beowulf would come from amongst the Danes to save the day. I did not expect him to come sailing across the sea out of nowhere. And once he did so, and had fought his battles, I figured the story would be over, seeing as Beowulf was no longer needed in Hrothgar’s kingdom. Instead, the epic followed Beowulf back to his homeland and traced the rest of his life. I liked this structure. It was like having a stage set, having a great and unknown hero suddenly stride across it, and then getting a look at the man behind the heroic deeds.

Of the three epics listed above, Beowulf was my second favorite. The Epic of Gilgamesh would be hard to beat out as my favorite, and though I certainly enjoyed it, The Odyssey is perhaps too long and too familiar to climb higher on the list. Beowulf is not as old as some of the other famous epics, yet I found Beowulf shared certain characteristics with the others; all are episodic stories of great heroes facing monsters. Beowulf and The Odyssey shared more: the emphasis on storytelling within the stories, for instance, and the recounting of lineages and personal histories.

Yet despite their similarities, it amazes me how different the flavors of the three epics are. I’m having a hard time putting their particular characteristics into words. Each evoked for me a very different world and culture, both within the stories themselves and of the society that produced them.

Heaney’s translation was, as I anticipated, quite wonderful. I loved hearing him read his own words. He read slowly, but I never felt bored or tempted to increase the playback speed. My one complaint–and it’s certainly not against Heaney–was that I couldn’t figure out if the recording I had was abridged or not. Most sources said yes, it was, but the recording was the same length as another translator’s unabridged reading I came across. Either way, I ended up feeling like I’d heard the whole story, and I’m happy I chose Heaney’s translation and reading over the alternative.

On the whole, I’m quite surprised by how much I’m enjoying all these old stories. Do you happen to have any favorites you’d like to recommend?