Another
school year has passed, and another summer break has begun. I've enjoyed the last week just relaxing, and
though I've been semi-productive, everything I've done has been on my own
time. I didn't have to worry about what
time it was, ever. The freedom from my
usually beloved schedule has been the best vacation so far. But because my nature still needs some sort
of task to accomplish, lest I slip into introversion and self-analysis that can
only lead to misery, I have been devouring books like it's my job. Here are a few snippets of my thoughts so far.
The
Submission by
Amy Waldman
Sometime
last year the peeps revived book club after a long hiatus, and although I opted
out of several selections because of the busy-ness of last winter, I have read
the last few and have surprisingly enjoyed a few books that I never would have
picked for myself. The Submission was
one of them, chosen by our dear friend Martha.
It is set just after the attacks of 9/11, and a jury of artists,
architects, and one widow are given the task of choosing the design, and
designer, of the memorial. After an arduous
process that kept all candidates anonymous until chosen, it turns out that the
jury has selected a Muslim architect. Of
course, the shock of this reverberates throughout the country, and to call
thought-provoking Waldman's
speculation on how a grief-stricken America might react to the idea of a person
who claims the same religion as the attackers creating a memorial to the
attacked is a vast understatement.
Little
Women by
Louisa May Alcott
I
had read this beautiful story once before when I was very young, too young to
remember and understand the most touching and teaching parts of it. So, when Rob and Tracy and I ventured across
the country to DC in March (how appropriate), Rob and I took turns reading it
in the car. I won't tell you how many
times she had to stop when she found me shamelessly sobbing in the back seat.
We got about 2/3 of the way through it, but then I was back at school, and life
didn't slow down, so I had to wait until early last week to pick it up again. The story of the precious March family and
the trials and victories the girls encounter while growing up is a classic
masterpiece. One can't help but fall in
love with them all and rejoice when they rejoice and weep (literally) when they
weep. I haven't read the subsequent
stories of these characters, Little Men and Jo's Boys, yet, but they're on my
list to tackle as soon as my fragile emotions have recovered.
Ender's
Game by Orson Scott Card
This
was another book club selection, chosen by Becky. The idea in iBooks' blurb (because I read
nearly everything on my wonderful iPad now) of a young boy being trained as a
soldier to fight off an alien invasion did not appeal to me in the least. However, the intense struggle of Ender, a
young, empathetic genius in a futuristic universal world, to overcome his
circumstances, and often himself, held my interest to the end. I am often irritated by books that begin in
medias res, dropping me down in the middle of the action (especially in a
world so different from my own), but the way that the characteristics of this
new place were gradually revealed was exciting because I was always searching
for clues in the text. It was very well
written and nearly thrilling and had me rooting for the young genius until the
End(er).
The
Hunger Games by
Suzanne Collins
I
have been told by many people that I am perhaps the last person on the planet
to read this book and its sequels. It's
been on my reading list for at least three years, but I've never been
interested enough to pick it up because I feared it was another Twilight, and
don't get me started on the ridiculousness of that phenomenon. However, I had several beloved students this
year who were super in love with The Hunger Games (so much so that the
girls all braided their hair to be like Katniss's on our Senior High Retreat,
which was the day after the movie's midnight premiere), so I had to find out
what all the fuss was really about. I
didn't expect to really enjoy it, and I won't say that I'm sucked in. But Collins did make me care about her
characters, and I'll say this for her:
She knows how to sell a sequel.
The cliffhanger at the end of The Hunger Games makes me thankful
I waited so long to read them because I'd be miserable if I were waiting for Mocking
Jay to finally be released.
Well
those are the books I've finished this week.
Don't hold me to this high weekly standard for the rest of the summer,
but I do plan to finish several more.
I'm also reading/listening to Les Miserables along the
way, but I don't have the focus it takes to get through those roughly 3000
pages without several breaks. I've seen
the musical, and I have been saying I was going to read it someday for
sometime. Rob and I are planning to see
the musical again in October, so I thought this was the perfect time. I like a task I can check off of a list, and
setting a goal of getting through Hugo's magnum opus by then seemed
perfect. I'll keep you updated on how
it's going. So far I'm on page 86 of
2820.
