Monday, January 29, 2007
Female Author Choice
Okay, since we can't seem to get this going on our own, we're going to devote part of our meeting to discussing via the blog. Let's try to get everyone to post a comment about their choice of book for our female author selection. Identify the book and its author, then say a little something about it. After all are posted, let's each try to comment on at least one other person's post. Here we go.....
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8 comments:
Well, I read two of Amy Tan's novels -- The Bonesetter's Daughter and Saving Fish From Drowning. I have read several others, most notably The Joy Luck Club which I found to be a very fine example of structure and form relating to symbolism and storytelling. I enjoyed The Bonesetter's Daughter, which is a story about a mother in the early stages of alzheimers and her daughter, an author with "issues" -- while it focused on the Chinese-American and mother/daughter conflicts that Tan is known for, it also delves into some quirky history that is semi-autobiographical (the picture on the cover is Tan's grandmother). Saving Fish From Drowning has a very different focus -- the narrator is a dead (maybe murdered) figure in the art world who is "accompanying" a group of friends on a tour of China and Burma (now Myanmar) which she had planned on hosting before her sudden demise. The story is based on the disappearance of a tour group in the mountains of Burma, and we are privy to a wide range of points of view as Bibi, now a spirit, can sense the thoughts and motivations of the humans. It's anything but routine!
I read The Lady and The Unicorn by Tracy Chevalier, who also wrote Girl With a Pearl Earring. I was actually really disappointed by this novel. It's about an artist in the Middle Ages who is commissioned to create a tapestry for a noble family. It was originally supposed to be a battle scene, but the wife convinces her husband to make it the story of the seduction of a unicorn. Basically, the painter who designs it incorporates the lives of the noble family and the family of the weaver he works with into the tapestry and tries to seduce the daughter of the noble family, Claude, along the way. There's a little bit of romance and some of stuff about women's rights is interesting, but there really wasn't much to it. The characters are pretty shallow and even the plot is superficial. The events that happen don't seem very significant. All in all, I wouldn't suggest this book for anything more than light weekend reading.
I read Sun Signs by Shelley Hrdlitschka. This book is about a girl who is battling cancer and takes her classes by correspondence (online). She finds other kids that take their classes online and makes friends with them. When her science teacher, assigns her a project, she decides to do it on astrology. She needs help from her "cyber friends" and they agree to help her. While doing her project, she finds out the REAL identities of her "friends". I think this book really shows the advancement of technology in this generation because it is all in email or instant message format which I thought was very interesting to read and kept me wanting to find out more. It also shows a view on how the internet can sort of in a way, disguise a person. I think this book is good for anyone because anyone can relate to it in our generation.
I read the book Velvet Rope Diaries by Daniella Brodsky. I read it before Christmas vacation, so my memory of it is a little faint. I guess that it is basically diaries entries given from the perspective of a woman, Anna, who has several issues going on with her life. With the death of her father (which she believes is her fault and happened when she was ten) and her career, Anna tries to deal with the changes in her life that bring the best and the worst. I thought that the book was interesting, at the most. It had a lot of humorous and downright funny moments (with an obsession with oreos and plastic surgery), but other than that, it seemed to be one big soap opera. While this genre, similar to a chick-flick, is usually not my type, the book has potential and was good for a quick read.
It looks as if many of you took a break from the "oh so depressing" choices that we have been reading, which is probably a good thing. What can you say about the light stuff other than it makes a good diversion with minimal investment on the part of the reader.
I've always been interested in Amy Tan's writing, but I've never really gotten around to it. I love to read about how different generations and cultures interact with each other, particularly Eastern and Western cultures. The onset of Alzheimer's is definitely an interesting impetus for conflict; I imagine the mother is reverting back to some of her Chinese ways, and Eastern cultures tend to focus a lot more on respect of elders, so it must be difficult for the narrator as an independent American woman. Saving Fish From Drowning also sounds really interesting to me. It's really neat to see how different cultures can be, and yet how similarly all humans react in certain situations. I'd really like to read some of Amy Tan's work in the near future.
I think the book Velvet Rope diaries by Daniella Brodsky would be very dull because a good amount of books have a girl or boy with a lot of problems and weird obsessions. I also think that maybe since this subject has been approached a lot of times before, I would only want to read it if I was relaxing on the weekend. I wouldn't choose it as one that I would want to analyze further.
I do have to admit, The Lady and The Unicorn, kind of looses my interest once the phrase the "seduction of a unicorn" comes up. That in itself is a little strange. Although it probably means something else, I can't help but wonder why a unicorn. Anyway, since this book supposedly does not have a interesting and detailed plot, it probably would not catch my interest either. However, Sun Signs does sound appealing to me, especially with the online messaging that is used in the book.
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