Children's books

Julia Alvarez really  nice children's books. We have checked out two of her books. I don't know if she has more, but I really enjoyed them, and I am going to assume that Joe did too. Check them out.

totally unrelated

I know we only read books by and about women here, and you are all probably ahead of me and read this one already, but I am reading (listening to, but after years of internal struggle, I've decided that's the same thing) Little Children, and I just had to share with you how drawn by it I am. It's eerily making sense. I don't relate to any one character all of the time, but it feels like such a perfect book for people with little kids. Have you seen the movie? I haven't, but I am sure I will after I am done with the book. 

Eat, Pray, Love Discussion

The meeting was at Bridget's house on Saturday morning. Erin, Analisa, Rachel, Kelly, Ksenija, and Bridget were present. Here are some of our thoughts:

-Many people had different favorite and least favorite sections of the book. Kelly enjoyed India, Bridget stuggled through it. Others disliked Italy, but loved Bali and so on. We wondered if we were liking/disliking the stage she was at emotionally, the actual place, or how she traveled though each place and what she was doing.

-We discussed her decision to not have kids. We all agreed that it is a bad decision for people who do not want kids to go ahead and have them anyways. How about the decision to have kids? Is it the ultimate selfish act or selfless? We do know that a lot of the pieces that follow after having the kid are not selfish, i.e. changing diapers, up in the night, etc. Some felt that you become less selfish from having a kid.

-We all agreed that she is pretty self-absorbed....understatement of the year! While this did get tedious at times, that is also sort of the point of the book. She made these choices to have this certain life and now has a best seller. Good for her for making that happen. What is her original ex-husband thinking at this point?

-Her and Felipe: What is going to happen now? Will it last? Many of us want to read her next book just to know how it all unfolds. She sure had her life work out well for her. She went on this trip and fell in love with someone who gives her a sex injury? C'mon!

-Felipe's perspective on Wayan and the house: Some knew Wayan would try something sneaky all along. Others were naive up until the point where Felipe explains it to us. We thought his perspective was pretty insightful.

Overall, while we thought this book got a little preachy and self indulging at times, most were happy that we read it.

Suggestion for next book

I don't know if anyone has their heart set on something but I thought I'd toss an idea in the hopper for the next book...

On Beauty by Zadie Smith

1st section thoughts...

Sorry I haven’t weighed in sooner, I just stared the book last weekend because I HAD to finish the other book I was reading (Geographer’s Library, a really fun read by the way if you like DaVinci Code type books) My first impression of this book was that I was not going to like the author (aka main character) at all. She seemed very immature and selfish to me and not just a little bit shallow. (Sometimes it is great to be reading a book for a book group because it forces you to give the book more of a chance) I am glad I stuck with it though because as you move through the book you gain more of an understanding of her. I must admit I still don’t like her all that much, mostly because she is someone I really can’t relate to, but I do have a better appreciation for her situation and where she is coming from.

Quite frankly it is good to read the honest perspective of someone who really doesn’t want children in their 30s because I count myself among those that she refers to who just dove into parenthood without too much consideration for it. It just seemed like an awesome thing to do; an experience that I couldn’t imagine not having. I found her story about the artist new mother particularly striking. I think I had a similar night to this woman early on after Evie was born. What the author is missing, however, is that women who have children don’t necessarily know immediately how to best adapt their lives around their kids and can easily overdo it in those first few months (goodness knows I did). As a result their lives can look like misery in a snapshot when the truth is they are filled with joy AND constant adaptation trying to move back toward a new normal that includes many pre-kid activities but done in a different and oftentimes better way. So the author witnesses the scene but doesn’t have the right perspective on it in my opinion.

Her stories about Italy definitely make me want to travel again. (I was lamenting the other night that it has been more than two years… oh boo-hoo for me I know… since we have left the country for someplace other than Mexico) But I am not jealous per se, because I see the circumstances that have freed her to travel like she is and would not take that in a million years in exchange for a year of travel.

So on to India…

about the next book

So, I am listening to Eat, Pray, Love on CDs, which means that I can't use Post-it notes to mark the things I will want to discuss later. I am also too lazy to write things on a piece of paper. Therefore, I want to bring up a few things I'd like to discuss when we meet. I am still on the first part. We are still in Italy.

I wasn't initially too impressed with the book. The literary snob in me kept nagging about the writing. The word that kept coming up, though, was "self-indulgent." Do we really care, thought I, about another well-educated woman who is depressed because her life is not going who she planned? How hypocritical of me. I too had a few years of self-proclaimed hell, anti-depressants, the drama that enveloped me so completely, that it was the only thing that existed. So why then is it so hard for me to just relax and read about smart, pretty, successful women, instead of reading about starvation and serial rape? I don't know. What do you think?

I think she finally won me over when she quoted the country song that goes "I've been screwed, sued, and tattooed, but I am still standing here in front of you." So now I am mostly enjoying the ride. As a consequence of reading/listening to it, I am thinking that I need to rethink my relationship with pleasure (although I am not American, I think I have fully bought into the mentality she so well describes, which doesn't allow doing nothing), and especially with food. Maybe I can stop eating cereal for dinner out of plastic containers.

But, to shorten this long rant, my main question is this: how do you all feel about reading this book, knowing that, most likely, you will not be able to do anything similar to what she did, probably in the next 15 years? Are you envious? Am I envious? It's a whole different world that she talks about. And I can't even have lunch without Joe pulling on my legs to pick him up. Am I envious? I don't think so. But it sure is nice to fantasize about escaping to Rome for a few days.

And pictures, too