Review: Tributary by Barbara K. Richardson

via

Reviewed by Connie

*I received a complimentary advanced review copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Published: September 15, 2012 (tomorrow)

It's about: This book follows the life of Clair Martin, who begins life in a Mormon settlement in 1870s Utah. Her life's journey takes her away from the teachings of the Mormon church, all the way to Louisiana, and finally back to Utah as she struggles to define who she is and what she believes.

I thought: I debated with how personal I should get when writing this review, but as the book centers around a strong female character who abandons her Mormon upbringing because it seems too patriarchal, and as I myself am a Mormon feminist, I finally concluded that my most valuable insight into this book is from a more personal perspective. So forgive me for this different style of review.

Clair Martin is certainly what the book blurb professes her to be -- a strong female who will bend to neither man nor religion. Richardson does a fair job of developing her character (though this is not true for the other characters, who tend to be over-simplified). She also does a commendable job writing about the allure and appeal of the Western landscape to those who have history there. However, the list of Richardson's successes ends here.

Obviously, Mormonism plays a huge role in this book, as the heroine begins her journey in a Mormon settlement in Utah and spends the book trying to define her religious beliefs. The author was a practicing Mormon early in life but left the church shortly after starting college in NYC because she found the church's teaching incongruous with her feminist beliefs. As a Mormon feminist myself, I was particularly interested in reading her perspective.

However, after carefully considering her treatment of the Mormons, I can't say that Richardson writes about Mormon history in a thoughtful, circumspect, or carefully considered manner. Instead, she simplifies, reduces, and vilifies Mormon history. For example, there is not a single Mormon character who is genuinely a kind, compassionate person. They are all creeps. All the men, especially, are sex-craved maniacs looking to force women into submission. **some spoilers here** The one character -- a bishop -- who at first appears to be genuine turns into a creep when he asks 18-year-old Clair to be his third wife. And when Clair later finds true love, she loses him when he returns to church activity and runs away to become a polygamist with three teenage wives. Another creep.**end spoilers**

Richardson's Mormon settlement is reduced to one elaborate, patriarchal scheme, headed up by a greedy Brigham Young and perpetuated by perverted men in leadership positions looking for sex and domination.

I would have respected and enjoyed the book much more had Richardson tried to depict Mormon history -- particularly in relation to the women -- more accurately and fairly. It is a complicated and nuanced past that Mormon feminists today still struggle to fully understand. Richardson's reductionist portrayal adds little to the conversation.

Verdict: Rubbish Bin

Reading Recommendations: Readers interested in learning more about the complicated relationship between Mormon beliefs and feminism should turn to more thoughtful books, such as Joanna Brooks' Book of Mormon Girl (read our review here).

Warnings: one scene of rape

What I'm reading next: Still working on Sophie's Choice. It's a long one.

Review: Modelland by Tyra Banks!!!!! BEST BOOK EVERRRRRR!!!!!!!

Reviewed by Christina. I've known I would have to read this ever since Connie mentioned it in a post almost two years ago.

Published: 2011

It's about: Poor Tookie de la Crème is 15 and hideously ugly. She doesn't even hope for the same thing every other teenage girl wants: to be selected for celebrity training in a mysterious mountaintop kingdom called Modelland.
But then- shock of shocks!!!!! She IS selected! Tookie, of all people, learns the Ins and terrible Outs of the place where every girl's dreams are supposed to come true.

I thought: YOU GUYS!!!!!!! This book is INCREDIBLE!!!!!

Tookie, as a character, is like SUPER pathetic and sad, and she hates herself so OF COURSE every reader is going to love her and relate to her, especially teenage girls. She's so sad! She's even worse off than you! But even if you don't love Tookie, you'll LOVE all the super clever, alliterative names for everything in this book. It's like a marketing department was consulted for pretty much every sentence! Cray cray, right???? There's also LOTS of rhyming. And these really cool second-person interludes in which the reader is addressed as "dahling." It's kinda like a Greek chorus, only so much more adorable! And so endearing!!

I also LOVED that absolutely nothing is based in any kind of reality. It's like, you have to have faith in the mind of Tyra Banks to read this book. And if you don't believe in her AMAZING imagination, you just aren't going to be able to follow it!!! So BELIEVE. BELIEVE IN TYRA, PEOPLE. Believe in her ability to string together hundreds of incredibly stupid ideas into one really long book! (You can read this totally awesome review if you want more specifics about the bizarre plot.)

But it's not all fantasy and fun. Oh no no. There are some serious issues that we ALL should take to heart more often than we do. Here are the main issues:

• the perils of sharing makeup with your friends
• the moral inferiority of designer knock-off handbags

OMG!!!! I can't believe I haven't spent more of my brain power thinking about these SUPER IMPORTANT issues!!!! I mean, people may be starving and dying and stuff in the world, and that's really sad. But WOAH, don't make the world an even worse place by buying a fake Gucci purse from a street vendor in New York because that is SICK AND WRONG.

There are so many things that are really super great and awesome about Modelland, but you shouldn't just take my word for it: you've got to read it for yourself!!!!

Verdict: STICK IT ON THE SHELF!!!11!!!!!!!!

Reading Recommendations: This book will make you feel really pretty and happy about your life because at least you're not as ugly as Tookie. So read it when you need a little boost!
And you don't have to take my word for it. Peep the Goodreads reviews if you really want to know how FAB and FRESH this book is!!

Warnings: Swears and disturbing subject matter and crippling inanity but IT'S SO WORTH IT!!!!

Favorite excerpts: “The Land you thirst for has loomed at the top of the mountain in Metopia for as long as you can remember. But for most of the year it is covered in fog, its color changing with each passing day as if it were a gargantuan mood ring. You begin your mornings staring at the fog hoping for the fateful evening when it will turn a golden yellow and then, finally, like a push-up brassiere, lift.”

What I'm reading next: Till We Have Faces by C.S. Lewis

Happy April Fools' Day!

Review: A Natural History of the Senses by Diane Ackerman

Diane Ackerman (via)

Reviewed by Ingrid

Published:1991

It's about: Diane Ackerman explores the science behind our five senses and how different cultures have sought to stimulate the senses throughout history. She writes, “what is most amazing is not how our senses span distance or cultures, but how they span time. Our senses connect us intimately to the past, connect us in ways that most of our cherished ideas never could.”

I thought: The Chicago Tribune blurbed, "Diane Ackerman's A Natural History of the Senses is an aphrodisiac for the sense receptors. Read a chapter, then step outside and voila: The sky is a deeper blue, the birds sing a sweeter song. How could the world seem otherwise, after feasting on such voluptuous prose?"

Hmm. Not sure I agree there.

The phrase "voluptuous prose" should be your first warning signal. Granted, I'm extremely critical of any sentimental or flowery writing - I don't like it at all. Some may like it, and that's fine, but it's one of those things that just makes my skin crawl. It's what I like to call "schmaltzy." (That is just a great word, isn't it.)  I think she wrote this way because she wanted the book to feel indulgent and sensual, but it just didn't work for me.

Not only was the writing over the top, but Ackerman seemed to be so swept up in her words that she goes off on strange tangents. For example, in the section on smell, she segues to this little spiel from a time she went scuba diving:

As a human woman, with ovaries where eggs lie like roe, entering the smooth, undulating womb of the ocean from which our ancestors evolved millennia ago, I was so moved my eyes teared underwater, and I mixed my saltiness with the ocean’s. Distracted by such thoughts, I looked around to find my position vis-a-vis the boat, and couldn’t. But it didn’t matter: Home was everywhere.

Speaking of crying, it seems Ackerman is moved to tears on every other page. It's ok to be moved to tears, but once you start crying so often, it feels artificial and starts to move into cheesy territory (a place I like to avoid.) For example, in the chapter on sight she admits:

In the Hall of Gems at the Museum of Natural History in New York, I once stood in front of a huge piece of sulfur so yellow I began to cry.

Besides the writing and the crying, I wasn't very impressed with the way Ackerman presented a potentially intriguing topic. I want to learn about how the senses enrich the human experience - I don't really care about receptors in my nose or whatever. (Christina likes science writing. I suspect she would have liked these sections more than I did.) There was also quite a bit of anthropology. After awhile I got tired of reading that we smell because the cave people needed to smell to know where to get food, or that women have a good sense of hearing because they needed to hear from far away in caves, or whatever, that doesn't make any sense, but you get my point. I just really have no interest in cave people or how humans developed. I'm much more moved by works I can relate to my own emotions and experience.

I realize the title of this book implies there will be science and Anthropology involved, I just think it could have been a much better book if it hadn't focused so much on how our senses work and instead how they make our lives rich and meaningful. (You can tell I'm a Humanities person, can't you.)

Overall, not my favorite book.

Verdict: Throw it in the rubbish bin. Sorry.

Warnings: A few mentions of sex, but in ways that will make you laugh.

What I'm reading next: Behind the Beautiful Forevers by Katherine Boo

Review: Hippie Boy by Ingrid Ricks

Reviewed by Ingrid

Published: 2011

It's about: Ingrid's parents divorced when she was young. Her mother remarries a yucky guy named Earl and her father is never around. Ingrid looks forward to the summers she spends with her father traveling across the country selling tools. Perhaps because her life at home with Earl is so difficult, Ingrid idolizes her father and loves spending time with him.

Ingrid's mother has had a difficult life and clings to her religion as a sort of buoy to keep her afloat. Earl senses this and takes advantage of her naïveté by patronizing and emotionally abusing her and her daughters. Ingrid struggles to find her sense of self within her family at home and in her relationship with her dad.

I thought: The only reason I bought this book was because the cover looked interesting, the author has the same name as me, and it was only $3.00 to buy on my kindle. Soon after I bought it I found out it was self-published, which doesn't surprise me. (The cover fooled me. Most covers of self-published books are poorly designed and have Papyrus or Comic Sans all over them.) Self-published books tend to be lower quality, mostly because no publishers will take it. I have a little bit of faith that there could be some quality self-published books out there. This, however, wasn't one of them.

This story was a huge pity fest. This is the stuff Lifetime movies are made of. (No offense Lifetime movies. I secretly watch you sometimes.) Because this book was a memoir, I want to make it clear that I totally respect Ingrid Ricks' experiences. However, I think her book was low quality. The writing was blah and uninteresting. The exaggerated characters were all good or all bad, and I had no pity for them - except for Ingrid's mom, who was so vulnerable and weak it bordered on pathetic. I felt bad for her, but not in an interesting, thought provoking way - more like in a Lifetime movie way.

Verdict: Because I felt so bad for the mom character, for some reason I feel bad putting this one in the Rubbish Bin. Let's say it's on the floor next to the rubbish bin.

Reading Recommendations: If you are an Amazon Prime member, you can read this book for free. If not, I wouldn't waste your money.

Warnings: A few mild swear words.

Excerpts:

"I took a seat on the other side of Mom and hugged her. Mom just sat and sobbed—harder than I had ever seen her. I couldn’t tell if she was crying because she was scared or had a broken heart. 'It’ll be okay,' I heard Connie say, doing her best to be the support system she always was to Mom. I wanted to agree with her but I couldn’t. Everything in the room was busted up or torn apart—just like our family. How could things ever be okay?"

What I'm reading next: Oh, I don't know. I thought I was going to read The Virgin Suicides but I think I'm going to read Middlemarch first.

Top 10 Books Connie's Started but Never Finished

I was so excited to do a top 10 this week of whatever I want. I have been wanting to do this list for a while, and it was nearly impossible to narrow it down to only ten. See, I have so many books I want to read that if I start reading one that I just can't stand, it doesn't bother me to stop reading it and move on to something else. But then I don't feel right about reviewing them, since I didn't read the whole thing, and that wouldn't be fair. So they just hang out in this middle space in my mind, and I just need to tell you why I quit them. So here are 10 books I gave up on.

10. The Hangman's Daughter by Oliver Potzsch-- This book was all the rage last year, but once the daughter turned into some stereotype of a girl who's obsessed with male attention, I got annoyed and quit reading, even though it's one of the few full-priced books I've bought for my Kindle.

9. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith -- For some reason or other, I just couldn't get into this book, which is in total contradiction of Ingrid's top ten last week, when she said that anyone could. Maybe it was just the timing. I'll probably try it again some day.

8. Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston -- I think I need to get an audiobook of this one. I am a fast reader, so reading in very strong dialect annoys me because it forces me to read too slowly. I think I'd like it otherwise.

7. Bossypants by Tina Fey -- I was prepared to love this book, but I gave up after a few chapters when it just became all about how it's ridiculous that gay marriage isn't legal nationwide. It was seriously like 5 of the first 6 chapters. Sure, you can write your opinion about it, but don't try to pawn it off as a comedic memoir. I still love you though, Tina Fey.

6. Moby Dick by Herman Melville, though I'm hoping to remedy that right now with our Moby Dick read-along. And let me tell you, if it weren't for this read-along, I probably would have quit again, probably when Melville all of a sudden started writing a play about random sailors.

5. A Million Little Pieces by James Frey -- I was right in the middle of this one when it came out about it all being totally made up, which was annoying, so I ditched it. The writing style was pretentious, anyway.

4. The Two Towers by JRR Tolkein -- I know, crucify me. I got weary of alllll the lengthy descriptions of nature or of a gate or whatnot, even though I loved The Hobbit and enjoyed Fellowship.

3. All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy -- I enjoyed The Road so much, I was really excited to read another McCarthy, but boy oh boy was I bored.

2. A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah -- I feel terrible admitting this. It makes me sound like a terrible person, but even though I am really interested in learning about the various revolutions in Africa and have even hosted fundraisers to help child soldiers escape, I couldn't finish this book. The premise is very appealing, but because English is not Beah's native tongue, he uses a ton of cliches to describe his experience, which made it difficult to find it very compelling. That makes me a total snob, doesn't it. For example, this is not necessarily directly from the book (though it could be), he might say something like when he and his brother got separated, he felt his heart break. Man, it feels worse admitting this than I expected, but, well, there it is. I have crazy respect for the guy and what he's gone through and what he has subsequently made of himself, but I wasn't very impressed with the book, she says sheepishly.

1. Twilight by Stephanie Meyer -- Yes, I am a proud Twilight non-reader. It only took me about two pages to realize how terrible the writing was and how dumb I was going to find the rest of the book. So why continue? Non-Twilighters, unite!

Review: Eleanor Roosevelt's Life of Soul Searching and Self Discovery by Ann Atkins

Reviewed by Connie

Published: 2011

It's about: This "Flash History" publication purports to give a condensed version of Eleanor Roosevelt's remarkable life, from childhood to First Lady to UN delegate and negotiator.

I thought: In a word -- disappointing. However, no book is wholly without its merits, so allow me to list those before enumerating my disappointments. Atkins succeeds to some degree in portraying Eleanor's insecurities, highlighting the fact that her journey to greatness was just that -- a journey -- and that she did not spring from the womb a fully-developed, confident, outspoken advocate of human rights. This is to the book's credit. Plus, Atkins resists the urge to gloss over some of Eleanor's early views that contradict her later ones, including even slightly Anti-Semitic comments from a young Eleanor's personal letter. But the book's greatest strengths lie in the occasional personal anecdote from Eleanor's life and, above all, the excerpts from Eleanor's journals and other writings. They are well-selected and often very moving. Indeed, Eleanor's skill with prose is a welcome relief from the generally low quality of writing throughout the rest of the book.

Which leads me to my disappointments. My first impression upon reading even the first few lines was, What terrible editing. Surely this book has never seen an editor's desk. Compounded with a page design that was obviously done by someone (not all too apt) in Microsoft Word, it is difficult to look beyond these basic and glaring deficiencies to judge the text of itself. Unfortunately, once I did, my disappointment was hardly abated. The quality of writing is generally sub-standard, even for a younger audience, to which this book is presumably aimed. It is also written in present tense, which reads awkwardly in a biography. Then throw in some ill-placed authorial opinions and judgments on some historical figures, and the picture of this book isn't too pretty.

Verdict: Though I appreciate the aim and research of the book, unfortunately I have to put this one in the rubbish bin.

Reading Recommendations: I will be looking for a more complete biography on this incredible woman, and I would suggest that you forego this one and look for another along with me.

Warnings: None

Favorite excerpts:
"You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, 'I have lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along.' You must do the thing you think you cannot do." (Eleanor Roosevelt)

What I'm reading next: The Literary Ladies' Guide to the Writing Life by Nava Atlas

*I received a review copy of this book in exchange for an honest review

Review: The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver

Reviewed by Meagan
Published: 1988
It's about: Marietta Greer was born and raised in rural Kentucky, but her plan is to get out as soon as she can. Unlike most of the girls her age, she avoids getting pregnant, gets herself a good job, and finally saves up enough money to buy an old VW Bug. She hits the road, changes her name to "Taylor" after one of the towns she passes through, and proceeds to drive across the country.
The car is, of course, unreliable, and through a series of breakdowns, Taylor's life is changed forever. In the Cherokee Nation in Oklahoma, she is given a young toddler girl by a woman claiming to be the child's aunt. Not knowing what else to do, Taylor takes her on the road. She discovers the girl (whom she names "Turtle" because of her penchant for grabbing at anything within her reach) has been abused and become fiercely protective of her.
The two eventually break down in Tuscon, Arizona and begin to build a life and create a family of characters including another Kentucky transplant, the female owner of the Jesus is Lord Used Tires store, and a Guatemalan couple seeking political asylum. Together this unexpected group explores themes of family, life, death, beauty, friendship, hope, and love.

Read more »

Review: God Dies by the Nile, by Nawal El Saadawi

Reviewed by Christina[This is the June selection for A Year of Feminist Classics.]

Published: In Arabic, as The Death of the Only Man on Earth, in 1974. First English edition, 1985, translated by Sherif Hetata.

It's about: The fictional village of Kafr El Teen, situated on a bank of the Nile, is ruled by a corrupt, cruel, and lustful mayor. He and his henchmen (including the chief of the village guard and the local Imam) belittle and exploit the town's peasants, especially the women. All of the peasants are so downtrodden that they don't consider fighting back; their lives are pitifully bleak.

The Mayor sets his lecherous sights on two young peasant sisters named Nefissa and Zeinab. He has no qualms with crushing the men in their family under his boot to get them out of his way. Unfortunately for The Mayor, he overlooks their Aunt Zakeya.

I thought: A draft of this post with a blank "I thought" section has been sitting on the ol' blogger dashboard for over two weeks, and I still can't seem to organize my thoughts into anything meaningful. I just didn't like this book at all, and that makes me feel like a bad feminist or something. There are important issues here, ones that often occupy the minds of bleeding-heart liberals like me. God Dies has class struggle, domestic abuse, arranged marriage, female circumcision, corruption in government and religion, and even PTSD. These huge, horrible things are as relevant now as they were when the book was written in the 1970's. So why didn't I get all excited and activisty when I read this? Here are a few thoughts.

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Review: A Dream of Red Mansions by Hsueh-chin Tsao and Ngo Kao

A Dream of Red Mansions, An Abridged Version by Hsueh-chin Tsao and Ngo Kao, translated by Hsien-yi Yang and Gladys Yang

Reviewed by Ingrid

Published: 1996

It's about: A Dream of Red Mansions is the title of this particular abridgment of a  Chinese work originally called The Story of the Stone. (It's also sometimes called Dream of the Red Chamber.) This book was written in the 18th century and is considered one of China's Four Great Classical Novels. This abridgment follows three young people - Pao-yu, a young boy from an aristocratic family who is somewhat spoiled and loves pretty clothes, his two cousins Tai-yu and Pao-chai, and the love triangle that emerges among them. This abridgment consists mostly of smaller stories about interactions between various family members in the household--there is considerable drama resulting from jealousy, misunderstanding, and general antics.

I thought: I read this book for a class I am taking this semester on Asian literature. We read excerpts from other translations and abridgments and talked quite a bit about the original Chinese and the significance of the language to this story. Unfortunately, without all the background information we received in class I know I would have been completely lost in this abridgment. It doesn't provide the reader with the significant background information that ties the story together. Without having read other versions of this story, I can tell you the ending makes NO SENSE. Pao-yu is actually a stone that has been reincarnated, and the girls he interacts he had connections to in a former life. This abridgment made no mention of that whatsoever.

The names "Pao-yu" "Tai-yu" and "Pao-chai" actually mean "Precious Jade," "Black Jade" and "Precious Hairpin," allusions which show up numerous times in the story - but this abridgment draws no connection to them.

The translation was rough. Some sentences sounded the way foreign people sometimes talk - the grammar was slightly off .... and it just didn't sound quite right.  The translators chose to use English colloquial phrases that just seemed awkward in this story (like the phrase "cramping my style.")

Overall I was very disappointed with this abridgment and would not recommend it.

Verdict: This abridged version doesn't do the work justice. Throw this one in the rubbish bin and find a different version. 

Reading Recommendations:

Warnings: Allusions to sex. Also, the word "bitch" appears numerous times.

Favorite excerpts: "One day, about the middle of the third month, carrying a copy of The Western Chamber Pao-yu strolled after breakfast across the bridge above Seeping Fragrance Lock. There he sat down on a rock to read under a blossoming peach-tree. He had just reached the line "Red petals fall in drifts" when a gust of wind blew down such a shower of petals that he and his book were covered with them and the ground near by was carpeted with red. Afraid to trample on the flowers if he shook them off, Pao-yu gathered them into the skirt of his gown and carried them to the water's edge where he shook them into the brook. They floated and circled there for a while, then drifted down the River of Seeping Fragrance."

What I'm reading next: The Tale of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu

Anthropology of an American Girl by Hilary Thayer Hamann

Reviewed by Ingrid
 
Published: 2010

It's About: This novel is an anthropological "study" of one Eveline Auerbach, a young female coming of age in New York in the early 80s. We witness her evolve intellectually and emotionally as we first see her brooding in high school classrooms, to brooding on New Jersey beaches, to brooding in fancy Manhattan apartments.

I thought: This book was a disappointment. I wanted to like it, I really did ... but this book turned out to be like a novel version of the OC or Gossip Girl trying to be literary. Hamann goes wild with the metaphors and philosophical musings, and frankly, it's exhausting. Who knew that adjusting the underwire of your bra could be so philosophical? But oh, it can: "I adjusted the underwire of my bra beneath my left breast because I did not like to feel my heart against it, the way the blurps felt so miniature, the was the organ strived but failed to be timely." I'm sorry, but that is really, really pushing it. And, not to mention the constant cliché literary moments, like fireworks outside the first time Eveline has sex, or when she nurses a random baby bird back to health symbolizing her hurt over a lost love, and on, and on.
The characters were flat and predictable. The moments that could have been the most striking were the most melodramatic. This book was overwritten and tiresome.
In his review of this book, I believe Jeff O'Neal sums it up well: "Eveline seems so bored with her friends, her life, and herself that she struggles to imbue the trivial with poetic possibility. But these all turn out to be dead ends, and try as she might to see the world differently, she still cannot be moved by it." (via blogcritics.org)

Verdict: Throw this baby in the bin. Sadly.

Middlemarch by George Eliot

Reviewed by Connie

Published: 1874

It's about: This novel is a case study of one average city (Middlemarch), just prior to the (Whig, so political) Reformation in England.  It examines, in a LOT of detail, the lives and marriages of its inhabitants, most of whom are apparently miserable.  The main characters include Dorothea, the self-sacrificing religious zealot who marries unhappily, Lydgate, the ambitious experimental doctor who marries unhappily, Rosamond, the trite but refined belle of the town who turns out to be Lydgate's unhappy wife, and Fred, who can't seem to pull himself together enough to marry the woman he loves and is therefore unhappy.

I thought: Well, if you couldn't tell from the description, this is a very happy book.  And if you believed what I just said, then you didn't read the description and need to go back and do so.  I was expecting to really enjoy this book, based on what I've heard about it and also since I loved Silas Marner.  But a thousand pages of unhappy marriages gets a little wearisome and depressing.  Eliot disappoints me in this novel; her writing skill is not up to par, even compared to her other books, and she comes across as a cynic.  After the first 300 pages, however, the stories do get captivating, but it shouldn't take 300 pages to get there.  All in all, the book was somewhat enjoyable with some story lines to interest, probably important in its day, but not worth the hours it takes to get through it.

Verdict: Sadly, our very first Rubbish Bin (though I know that even one of our reviewers on this site, Chioma, will totally disagree with me on that one -- Chioma, feel free to write a counter-review!)

Reading Recommendations: Skim?  Haha.  This puppy's long.

Warnings:  There's nothing really to beware of in this novel -- squeaky clean.