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Some Book Thoughts
Jul. 19th, 2010 02:13 pmLast night, I read Dogsbody by Diana Wynne Jones' and loved it. I think I need to reread it a little slower before I return it to the library. It did what I love best about her work, there was a great magical way of looking at one part of the universe, stars, planets etc combined with the story of a real, complicated family. The fact that it was all seen through the point of view of a star who's in a dog's body and so experiences everything as a dog was very well done. I enjoy when author's can pull off that mixture of not knowing a lot and only knowing a little as suits your form.
Another book I finished recently that I've been trying to write about but having a hard time is Chinese Cinderella: The Story of an Unwanted Daughter by Adeline Yen Mah. This book left me quite conflicted, because its a well written memoir of her early years in China in the 1940s and does a good job of capturing how a ten to fourteen year old perceives and slightly skews things.
That skewing is what leaves me unsure, because to my reading, calling herself a Cinderella just felt off. The main character is from a fairly well to do family and her mother died when she was born and then her father remarried and had two other children. Those children are the darlings of the family and she is the least liked of any of the family yet her Aunt dotes on her so she's never truly neglected. There are points in the story where she's sent away or treated slightly worse than her other siblings, but even then its not as bad as it could be. She's sent away to boarding school at various points and her intelligence is what ends up rescuing her. Part of this is probably my own bias, because I love reading variations on the Cinderella story and its usually told where Cinderella is neglected quite badly.
I think I'm going to try and find the next book in this author's memoir Falling Leaves about her time as a student in England. Perhaps in that book, she'll examine more deeply the various cultures that are swirling around her, because I never knew that in some parts of China, French culture permeated so much. I kind of wish that she'd explained why she was sent to Catholic private schools more and just the mixture of cultures at the time. Its made me curious and I'm going to try and read more non-fiction and books about China. There's a group of short stories that I know the library has that I think is going onto my list. As a follow up to this, the other book I'm currently reading is Dragonwings by Laurence Yep and its fantastic.
Also in the random way books can be helpful, I read Dogsbody in one sitting and so stayed up later than I probably should have. Yet I slept better than I have in about a week and woke up at a decent time. Not as early as I wanted, but still I woke up and felt rested. I think the fact that it rained last night and so cooled things down also helped a lot.
In terms of odd things happening in my life. I finally bought the tickets to see the Punch Brothers at the Ark. I want to write down this rather strange story, because I never expected buying tickets to be quite so crazy. Now the Ark is in downtown Ann Arbor and walking distance from my place, its sort of on my way to campus. Well, their box office is only open before they have shows which tends to be around 7 or 8. I'm not in town at that time so first problem, but you can buy tickets online, yet there's a 6 dollar service charge for buying online, that wasn't going to work. Money is tight this month, so other options, tickets are also sold at a music store and in the Michigan Union. Yesterday on my way to work, I stopped into the music store, they had tickets, they had three left but only took cash or check. So I ran up a block to the ATM and got out enough money and finally have the tickets. I have a feeling if I check online, there will still be tickets available. I think this music place probably only had access to sell a certain number of tickets. So overall this was a much greater adventure than I expected but soon there will be visitors, Art Fair and music.
Another book I finished recently that I've been trying to write about but having a hard time is Chinese Cinderella: The Story of an Unwanted Daughter by Adeline Yen Mah. This book left me quite conflicted, because its a well written memoir of her early years in China in the 1940s and does a good job of capturing how a ten to fourteen year old perceives and slightly skews things.
That skewing is what leaves me unsure, because to my reading, calling herself a Cinderella just felt off. The main character is from a fairly well to do family and her mother died when she was born and then her father remarried and had two other children. Those children are the darlings of the family and she is the least liked of any of the family yet her Aunt dotes on her so she's never truly neglected. There are points in the story where she's sent away or treated slightly worse than her other siblings, but even then its not as bad as it could be. She's sent away to boarding school at various points and her intelligence is what ends up rescuing her. Part of this is probably my own bias, because I love reading variations on the Cinderella story and its usually told where Cinderella is neglected quite badly.
I think I'm going to try and find the next book in this author's memoir Falling Leaves about her time as a student in England. Perhaps in that book, she'll examine more deeply the various cultures that are swirling around her, because I never knew that in some parts of China, French culture permeated so much. I kind of wish that she'd explained why she was sent to Catholic private schools more and just the mixture of cultures at the time. Its made me curious and I'm going to try and read more non-fiction and books about China. There's a group of short stories that I know the library has that I think is going onto my list. As a follow up to this, the other book I'm currently reading is Dragonwings by Laurence Yep and its fantastic.
Also in the random way books can be helpful, I read Dogsbody in one sitting and so stayed up later than I probably should have. Yet I slept better than I have in about a week and woke up at a decent time. Not as early as I wanted, but still I woke up and felt rested. I think the fact that it rained last night and so cooled things down also helped a lot.
In terms of odd things happening in my life. I finally bought the tickets to see the Punch Brothers at the Ark. I want to write down this rather strange story, because I never expected buying tickets to be quite so crazy. Now the Ark is in downtown Ann Arbor and walking distance from my place, its sort of on my way to campus. Well, their box office is only open before they have shows which tends to be around 7 or 8. I'm not in town at that time so first problem, but you can buy tickets online, yet there's a 6 dollar service charge for buying online, that wasn't going to work. Money is tight this month, so other options, tickets are also sold at a music store and in the Michigan Union. Yesterday on my way to work, I stopped into the music store, they had tickets, they had three left but only took cash or check. So I ran up a block to the ATM and got out enough money and finally have the tickets. I have a feeling if I check online, there will still be tickets available. I think this music place probably only had access to sell a certain number of tickets. So overall this was a much greater adventure than I expected but soon there will be visitors, Art Fair and music.
