Challenges | Fizzy Thoughts

World Party Reading Challenge

12 March 2010

Are you ready to get this party started? I was going to wait a few months to start this challenge, but it looks like the party is ready to go…

worldpartybutton World Party Reading Challenge

Welcome to the World Party Reading Challenge, where each month we will celebrate both a US holiday/observance AND a different country. Because what better way to party than with a book. The idea is to read more international literature, but I used US holidays and observances as the inspiration. Some connections might be obvious, others less so. I promise I’ll divulge the secret workings of my brain, but not until the beginning of each month (actually, it will most likely be the week before, and I’ll try to include some reading suggestions with each post), when I’ll post a little bit about my choice for the month. Don’t worry, I will give you the complete list ahead of time, it’s just that, for now, you might be left wondering why we’re reading about England in honor of Valentine’s Day.

Details:

12 months, 12 countries, 12 books. Each month we will read one (or more, if you’d like) book either set in, or written by an author from, the featured country (in a few cases I’ve been vague and you just have to stick to the criteria). If you’d like to read a non-fiction book about the country, that works, too. However, I do ask that you avoid books like Eat, Pray, Love and You Shall Know Our Velocity!, which feature multiple countries. The intent is to try to get a sense of place from your book or author. And yes, audio books are allowed. Also, my apologies to the under-represented South American and Pacific countries. Next year I’ll have to find a National Shoe Day and then we can read about the Philippines.

Do you have to participate all 12 months? That would be swell, and if you want to consider the challenge completed, then yes, all 12 months are required. However, if you have a burning desire to read a book about Rwanda and only want to participate for that month, I won’t turn you away. Party crashers are always welcome.

I will post a Mr Linky each month for the reviews about the featured country. Feel free to go back and enter reviews as the year goes on…I won’t hold you to India in October if it takes you until January to finish. The only advantage to posting your reviews timely is that I MIGHT do an occasional giveaway for participants. However, I make no promises.

The challenge runs April 2010 to March 2011. If we have fun, I’ll do it again next year with different holidays and different countries.

partyglobebutton World Party Reading Challenge

Here is the list of US holidays and observances that we will be celebrating with a book from another country:

April – April Fool’s Day – France
May – May Day – a communist country of your choice, past or present
June – Juneteenth – Liberia
July – July 4th – Rwanda
August – Women’s Equality Day – New Zealand
September – Native American Day – any sovereign Native American tribe
October – Columbus Day – India
November – Thanksgiving – Turkey
December – Happy Holidays – choose your own country. It’s my little gift to you.
January – Martin Luther King, Jr Day – Cambodia
February – Valentine’s Day – England
March – Saint Patrick’s Day – Ireland

Please sign Mr Linky if you plan on joining the party. You do not have to post a reading list, although if some of you would like to post a reading list (yes, I’m looking at you, Eva), feel free to leave the link below. Otherwise, you can just leave a link to your blog or your post stating your intent to join. And I’ll post about the April holiday and books about France later this month, so stay tuned.

Possibly the longest post ever

7 March 2010

This is going to be a long post today. I’m sorry, but I’ve got a variety of things to chat about.

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We Have a Winner

First of all, I need to announce the winner of This Book Is Overdue. After consulting with my advisor (random.org), I’ve been told that Jenners from Find Your Next Book Here is the new owner of this delightful book.

Woo-hoo!! Congratulations, and please email me with your address.

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So How’re You Doing With Those Reading Challenges, Softdrink?

Thanks for asking. I decided it was time to sit down and pretend like I’m being organized about reading challenges. Let’s start with a look at the current challenges:

South Asian Authors: I just finished my first of three books for this challenge, One Amazing Thing. The review will post sometime this week. I’ve also started my second book, The Space Between Us, so I’m in good shape with this challenge. I’m also reading books that were already on my bookshelf, making this an especially successful challenge.

Women Unbound: I committed to the Suffragette level (8 books, at least 3 non-fiction). I think I’ve more than completed this challenge…the thing is, I keep finding more books I want to read! So don’t be surprised if I pretend I’m still participating. Here’s what I’ve read:

O.A.T.E.S.: The idea here is to read books by Oates, Atwood, Tolstoy, Ernest Hemingway and Steinbeck. I signed up for Rolled Oates, or two books, and I’ve finished. Yippee! I actually read 2 books by Atwood, The Penelopiad and The Year of the Flood, and one Steinbeck, East of Eden, so I’ve fulfilled my pledge to read two books.

The NY Challenge: My own challenge, and I haven’t even started the one book set in NY I need to read. This is why I set the requirement at one book.

I’ve been trying to resist, but there have been a few new developments that I just can’t resist:

Lu at Regular Rumination will be Exploring American Authors this year, and I’m going to join in. I’m going to try to read one book a month by an American author not from Canada or the US. Which isn’t to say I don’t love Canadian authors, ‘cause I do. It’s just that I already read Canadian authors. It’s the Mexican, Brazilian, Chilean, Honduran, Peruvian, (you get the idea) authors that I tend to ignore. This isn’t really a challenge, more like an informal read-along, which is just perfect for me.

Carrie at Books and Movies is hosting the Ireland Challenge. Since I’m Irish waaaaaay back in the family tree, and my dad was born on Saint Patrick’s Day, I just can’t say no (and in my mind those are perfectly logical reasons for joining a challenge). Some possibilities for this challenge are Venetia Kelly’s Traveling Show, The Irish Country Doctor and How to Paint a Dead Man, all of which are currently residing inside of my house. How convenient. Oh, and I’m going with the Shamrock level, which is 2 books.

Also,Trish of Trish’s Reading Nook is hosting the Non-Fiction Five Challenge. I’m sure I can squeeze this one in. I’m going to use it to try and finish some of the non-fiction books I’ve started but have yet to finish. Please don’t make me name them…just know that there are plenty sitting around the house.

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Because the World Needs More Challenges

Okay, not really, although I’m sure there are some junkies out there looking to score. So just for them, I have a few things of my own in the works. Inspired by Ti at Book Chatter’s Moby Dick Monday (at which I totally failed), I’ll be doing a Wuthering Heights Wednesday read-along sometime soon. It’s tentatively planned for April, I just have to figure out how it’ll work. I’m also planning a quirky year-long international literature challenge, but that won’t kick off for a few more months. But if I put it down here, then it’s gotta happen, right? So stay tuned.

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Books! For You! (maybe)

Are you still with me? I also have a few books in need of new homes. These are all previously read, but I promise they’re in good shape. If you’re interested in a book, let me know in the comments. First come, first served, and one per customer, please.

Vanishing America
The Age of Orphans
Fault Lines (complete with creepy eye)
A Taste of Caviar
Wife of the North (this is an ARC. And I’ve tried to read it, but it just wasn’t working for me.)

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The End

Whew. I think that’s it.

Undress Me in the Temple of Heaven

6 March 2010

temple of heaven

Undress Me in the Temple of Heaven
Susan Jane Gilman
2009
304 pages

Last year when this book was first published I saw all sorts of reviews and thought… “Meh. China. Not interested.” Because China is one place I have no interest in traveling to. Call me eurocentric, but when I think about places I want to travel, I think of Ireland, and England, and Croatia, and Czechoslovakia, and Canada, and lots of places in the US, and if I’m really feeling adventurous, Mexico (because Hamburger thinks the cheaper the better, and if I ever travel to Mexico again I just know I’ll be sharing a room with a cockroach, and that’s so not my idea of a good time…and there’re a few cockroach scenes in this book that support this).

But then I read Dawn’s review and she included a few quotes from the book and I thought, “Hey. I like the way Gilman thinks. Maybe I should read this one after all.” And so I did. And it was totally worth it.

After college graduation, Susan and Claire, two casual college friends, decide to backpack around the world. They start their trip in China, which in 1986 had just started to allow tourists, and then the plan was to work their way west. Unfortunately, after a few weeks in China, Susan started to notice Claire was acting a bit paranoid. At first she explained away her observations with excuses like Claire just needed some alone time. However, it soon becomes very apparent that Claire was experiencing some sort of mental breakdown.

Since I’ve done the student backpacking trip (7 weeks through France, Belgium, Switzerland, Italy, Greece, (staring at the Yugoslavian countryside from the train because we had no Visa for Yugoslavia, and I just dated myself), Hungary, Austria and Germany (whew) I must say I spent most of the book feeling very grateful for the sanity of my college roommate, who was an awesome traveling partner, and with whom I’m still on speaking terms (although infrequently, as we now live in different states). My 40 year old self was appalled by some of the decisions that were made, although if I think back to my 21 year old self, she wouldn’t have been quite so shocked.

Anyways, I seem to be digressing more than usual in this review. Besides the fact that Claire’s increasing paranoia makes for an interesting story, and if you’ve ever done the student travel bit parts seem distressingly and comfortably familiar, and the people they meet are fascinating, Gilman has some fantastic observations about travel. Here are a few:

For perhaps the first time in my life, it became viscerally clear to me just how little I mattered, just how much I was not the center of the universe. It was like a swift kick to the gut. p. 13

…travel is a bit like the Internet – there’s a protective anonymity to it. Cast into a situation with people you never have to see again and shielded from repercussions, you turn brazenly candid. p. 41

Being a tourist, I was beginning to see, meant being infantilized much of the time. All power is contextual. Take a brain surgeon in Uzbekistan and stick him in Manhattan; take the toughest homeboy from Compton and leave him in Tuscany. Drop any of us, anywhere, in an alien environment, and you’ll see our IQ plummet. “IS THIS THE BUS STOP?” we holler at strangers, while dementedly pointing to the bus stop. To buy a sandwich, we’ll pantomime chewing. This is why, I suspect, so many otherwise decent people back home behave like assholes abroad: There’s nothing quite like feeling helpless to turn you into a world-class control freak, to make you forget your manners and throw a tantrum if your room isn’t ready and there’s no ice in your drink. In a strange environment you feel like a baby, and you’re often treated like a baby, and so you act like one. pp. 59-60

Soon we were all vying to establish our backpackers’ street cred, to prove how intrepidly we’d been traveling, how much discomfort we’d incurred at how little expense. The irony of this was wholly lost on us. We were too young and myopic to recognize the perversity of a logic that equates voluntary deprivation with authentic experience. We thought that by wearing burlap pajamas, contracting intestinal parasites, and opting to ride in third class with ‘the people,’ we were somehow being less Western and more Asian. pp. 147-148

If you like travel memoirs, I’d highly recommend this one. It would most definitely go on my list of bestest travel books, if I had such a list.

unbound2smaller Undress Me in the Temple of Heaven

It’s also a great book for the Women Unbound Reading Challenge. Two young women backpacking in China? It doesn’t get much more unbound than that! For a variety of reasons, their trip took an amazing amount of guts and fortitude. And rumor has it, one of Gilman’s other books, Poufy White Tiara, would also make an excellent book for the challenge. I see that one in my future, too.

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

5 March 2010

henrietta lacks

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
Rebecca Skloot
February 2010
384 pages

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FTC: This one came from the bookstore, so nothing to confess here, move along.

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If you read one non-fiction book this year, make it this book.

Seriously.

At first, I was a little leery of this book, but only because of the science. I pretty much consider science to be Boring. But this book doesn’t read like a science book. It hardly reads like non-fiction. Skloot focuses on the people, and in doing so, she tells the story of Henrietta Lacks AND her cells.

In 1951, Henrietta Lacks was 31 years old, mother to 5 children, and wife to David Lacks. The Lacks family was descended from both slaves and slave owners. The extended family grew up together, working in the tobacco fields. Henrietta and David were first cousins, both raised by their grandfather in an old slave cabin. In the 1940s David left for Baltimore, to find work in the shipyards, and after a few years, Henrietta and the children were able to join him.

However, by the late 1940s, Henrietta knew something wasn’t right. She felt a knot on her womb, and eventually went to Johns Hopkins. This was a huge step for Henrietta, as Johns Hopkins had a shady reputation among the poor black population of Baltimore. People believed that the hospital would snatch children off the street for use in medical experiments. However, it was the only option available to Henrietta.

Diagnosed with cervical cancer, Henrietta underwent treatment (radium tubes sewn into her vagina, followed by radiation treatments that scorched her skin). Initially, the doctors thought that the treatments were successful, but the tumors soon spread and Henrietta eventually died a very painful death from uremic poisoning (due to the tumors, she couldn’t pee, meaning the toxins built up in her body).

During the ‘40’s and ‘50’s, cell research was taking off. Henrietta’s doctor took a sample of her cancer cells. These cells became the first cells to be kept successfully alive in a laboratory. What’s more, they reproduced. The HeLa cell line, as it became known, is still used in medical research today. Henrietta’s cells have travelled the globe (and into space), and were used for research when developing the polio vaccine, in cancer research, and in cloning.

However. And this is a huge however. Neither Henrietta nor her family ever knew that her cells had been “harvested” for research purposes. When her grown children finally heard that their mother’s cells were immortal, they were outraged. And it reinforced the idea that Johns Hopkins was the enemy.

In The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Skloot tells Henrietta’s story through her children’s search for understanding. Skloot had long been fascinated by Henrietta Lacks, ever since she had heard a brief mention of her in a community college class taken as a high schooler. Skloot spent years researching Henrietta Lacks, and convincing her children that she meant no harm in digging into their mother’s past.

While the book focuses on the people (the Lacks family, as well as the doctors and researchers involved), it raises excellent questions about medical ethics. Besides Henrietta’s story, it touches on the Tuskegee syphilis experiment and other individuals who have been unwitting victims of scientific research. It also ventures into the murky area of who owns cells.

This is a fascinating book, as it provides a look into how the scientific study of cells brought about both good (scientific advances) and bad (the trauma and misunderstanding brought upon a family who knew nothing about what happened to Henrietta’s cells).

unbound2smaller The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

While Henrietta certainly didn’t intend to become a medical pioneer, that’s what ended up happening with her cells. Her contribution to science and history is enormous, and she definitely deserves her spot in the Women Unbound Reading Challenge.

March NY mini-challenge

1 March 2010

Did you know that March is National Women’s History Month?

So for the March mini-challenge (part of my larger NY Challenge, if you need some back story), we’re going to focus on women, New York, and history. All you have to do is write a post that features those three things. You could discuss Eleanor Roosevelt (she was born in NY), Lillian Wald (possibly the first public health nurse, who worked in NY), Zoe (an orange Muppet who lives on Sesame Street), even your great-aunt Gertrude (as long as she has some connection to NY).

Once you’ve written your post, come back and sign Mr Linky. And once again, I have NY-themed loot to give away to one lucky participant. I will draw a winner on April 1st (no joke). And thanks again to everyone who is playing along!

Start Spreading the News…

2 February 2010

liberty cartoon

Yesterday I announced my first ever reading (and a little bit more) challenge…The New York Challenge. So while you’re considering what book you want to read (come on, you know you wanna), I have the first of the promised mini-challenges for you.

For the month of February, your task (should you choose to accept it) is to compile a list of ten things about New York. It can be a reading list, a list of songs, restaurants, places to visit (or that you’d like to visit), places to avoid…whatever you want to share. After you’ve written your post, come back and leave the link in Mr Linky.

At the end of February, I’ll pick from the list of participants and the winner will get a little somethin’ somethin’ from The Strand. Have you seen their tote bags?

The New York Challenge

1 February 2010

Last night I woke up in the middle of the night (1:30am) and couldn’t fall back asleep. It’s amazing what you start to think about at 1:30 in the morning (and how hungry you can get, but that’s a different story).

Somewhere around 2am I came up with my first ever reading (and a little bit more) challenge…The New York Challenge.

liberty cartoon

Since BEA and the Book Blogger Convention are on a lot of people’s minds right now, I thought New York needed its own reading challenge. Many readers like to read about places they will be visiting, so this will give the BEA attendees a chance to start thinking about NY (like we need an excuse). And if you can’t make it to BEA this will give you a chance to still have some NY fun.

The reading portion of the challenge will be super easy. All you have to do is read one book set in New York City. The rest of the challenge is optional, and devoted to fun New York stuff. Over the next few months I’ll be asking you to write posts about New York…memories, travel tips, lists, trivia…you get the picture. Then, during the week of BEA I’ll feature a few wrap-up posts, highlighting everyone’s posts (and New York!). And yes, there might even be a few prizes along the way…I’ll have to hunt down a few NY-themed goodies.

The rules:

1. The challenge runs from February 1st through May 15th, 2010.

2. Between now and May 15th, read 1 (one) book set in New York City and post your review. You can certainly read more, if you’re the overachieving type, but I’m trying to get maximum participation. The book can be non-fiction or fiction, poetry or prose, graphic novel or audio book…whatever floats your boat. It can even be a guidebook. It just has to have New York City as its primary setting. And no fair using a book you’ve already read. I’m considering this bad boy.

3. I will create a separate post with a Mr Linky for everyone to post their reviews. Look for that soon.

4. Each month I will also post a sort of mini-challenge asking people to write a post about New York. You do not have to participate in any of these, but I certainly hope you will. My goal is to have a fun collection of posts by the time BEA arrives. Each mini-challenge will have a New York themed prize for one of the participants. The February mini-challenge will be posted tomorrow.

ny The New York Challenge

5. One last rule – have fun!

So whaddya say? Are you ready to take your blog on a trip to New York?

It’s time for some OATESmeal

9 January 2010

I wasn’t going to join anymore challenges, but then Trish from Hey Lady! Whatcha Readin’? came up with the O.A.T.E.S. Challenge:

O – Joyce Carol Oates
A – Margaret Atwood
T – Leo Tolstoy
E – Ernest Hemingway
S – John Steinbeck

And since I’m already 1 1/2 books into this, I figure, why not?

Per Trish, here are the rules/details:

The challenge goes from January 1, 2010 through December 31, 2010.
Anyone can participate! You do not need a blog!
Challenge books can overlap with other challenges.
You do not need to pick your books in advance.
You can change levels mid-challenge!

Levels:

Instant OATES – 1 book
Old Fashioned OATES – 2 books
Rolled OATES – 3 books
Steel Cut OATES – 4 books
Whole OATES – 5+ books

Last weekend I read The Penelopiad, by Margaret Atwood and I’m currently reading Steinbeck’s East of Eden. I have a book by Hemingway sitting on the shelf, as well as Anna Karenina (not that I’m committing to finishing it). So I’m definitely planning on Old Fashioned OATES, although Steel Cut OATES (my favorite) is not out of the question.

When Everything Changed

5 January 2010

When Everything Changed

When Everything Changed
Gail Collins
2009
471 pages

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Oh FTC, you’re gonna love this one: I bought this book (in hardback, no less) because it looked so awesome. And then I won a copy as part of BBAW. But I gave my extra copy to a friend. Whattaya gonna do about that, huh?

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Synopsis (from Barnes and Noble):
Picking up where her previous successful and highly lauded book, America’s Women, left off, Gail Collins recounts the sea change women have experienced since 1960. A comprehensive mix of oral history and Collins’s keen research, this is the definitive book about five crucial decades of progress, told with the down-to-earth, amusing, and agenda-free tone this beloved New York Times columnist is known for. The interviews with women who have lived through these transformative years include an advertising executive in the 60s who was not allowed to attend board meetings that took place in the all-male dining room; and an airline stewardess who remembered being required to bend over to light her passengers’ cigars on the men-only ‘Executive Flight’ from New York to Chicago.

We, too, may have forgotten the enormous strides made by women since 1960–and the rare setbacks. “Hell yes, we have a quota [7%]” said a medical school dean in 1961. “We do keep women out, when we can.” At a pre-graduation party at Barnard College, “they handed corsages to the girls who were engaged and lemons to those who weren’t.” In 1960, two-thirds of women 18-60 surveyed by Gallup didn’t approve of the idea of a female president. Until 1972, no woman ran in the Boston Marathon, the year when Title IX passed, requiring parity for boys and girls in school athletic programs (and also the year after Nixon vetoed the childcare legislation passed by congress). What happened during the past fifty years–a period that led to the first woman’s winning a Presidential Primary–and why? The cataclysmic change in the lives of American women is a story Gail Collins seems to have been born to tell.

Months ago I started listening to the audio book of The Feminine Mystique. While initially interesting, after what seemed like eons later (but was really only 5 hours of listening) I realized that it felt like I was hearing the same stories over and over (Friedan includes a lot of commentary from women that she interviewed). And Parker Posey’s (the narrator) voice was Extremely Irritating. Also, the term preaching to the choir is applicable here. So the thought of listening to 10 more hours of Parker reciting even more anecdotes was just more than I could bear. Even though this a feminist classic that I felt like I should read.

But then I saw When Everything Changed in the bookstore and I thought it would be the perfect alternative. And it was. Although it is a bit similar in style (it is filled with first hand accounts), which had the unfortunate consequence of me hearing Parker Posey’s voice as I was reading. Aaaaaggghhh!! I swear I was probably 1/3 of the way through the book before I could shake her. However, the big difference was this book has variety. And it’s current, as it looks at the past 50 years of women’s history. In contrast, Friedan’s book, although revolutionary in the 1960s, was a reaction to women’s lives in the ’50 and ‘60s, and is therefore somewhat dated. When Everything Changed, on the other hand, is not a reaction. It is history, but an interesting history comprised of first hand accounts that provide a powerful illustration of how much has changed.

There is a TON of information in this book, making it somewhat difficult to review (and also, occasionally, just a wee bit clunky to read…but only occasionally!). However, I highly, highly recommend it, especially if you’re participating in the Women Unbound Reading Challenge.

unbound2smaller When Everything Changed

The Woman Warrior

3 January 2010

the woman warrior

The Woman Warrior
Maxine Hong Kingston
1975
209 pages

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FTC: I also bought this one. You should give me an award for stimulating the economy.

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I’m pretty much speechless. So I’m going to steal the description from Wikipedia:

The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts is a memoir by Maxine Hong Kingston, published by Vintage Books in 1975. Although there are many scholarly debates surrounding the official genre classification of the book, it can best be described as a work of creative non-fiction.

Throughout the five chapters of The Woman Warrior, Kingston blends autobiography with old Chinese folktales. What results is a complex portrayal of the 20th Century experiences of Chinese-Americans living in the U.S in the shadow of the Chinese Revolution.

The Woman Warrior has been reported by the Modern Language Association as the most commonly taught text in modern university education. It has been used in disciplines as far reaching as American literature, anthropology, Asian studies, composition, education, psychology, sociology, and women’s studies. In addition, it has also won the National Book Critics Circle Award and has been named one of Time Magazine’s top nonfiction books of the 1970s.

Back to me being speechless. Unfortunately, I don’t mean that in a good way. This book baffles me, totally and completely. Not so much the interweaving of the folktales (although it was a little confusing at first), but the style. I found her writing choppy and disjointed. One minute we’re in the folktale, then whammo, there’s a random observation, then Kingston relates an episode from her childhood. Except it doesn’t flow…it’s as if the random observations are non sequiturs, and by the end I was totally frustrated.

unbound2smaller The Woman Warrior

However, despite my frustrations with this one, it does work for the Women Unbound Reading Challenge. There is plenty of information contrasting the roles of women in traditional Chinese society with Kingston’s determination to break free of her mother’s traditional expectations. Then there is her mother, who despite her Chinese medical degree conforms to traditional beliefs about daughters being less worthy than sons. Finally, Kingston’s interpretation of Chinese folktales can be pretty kick-ass.