books wot I have been reading

mofic started up a bookclub for members of the parenting group to which we both belong, and I decided to join. Once I got over the feeling that a bookclub is something "soccer moms" do ;) it seemed ideal -- we get a whole month to read the book (and busy though I am, if I can't read even ONE book in a month, something is REALLY wrong) and then the discussion is all online, which is a lot less "pressure" than having in-person meetings.

So we started off with this book called The Namesake, which unbeknownst to me because I'm totally out of touch with such things ;) is the basis for a movie currently playing in theaters. I went into the book knowing absolutely nothing about it except that the author is Indian and there's a picture of a man on the cover and that it takes place at least partly in this area (Boston/Cambridge).

Well, I liked the book okay. I didn't love it, but partly I think it's just not my genre of preference. I'm not big on this "chronicling the life of a person/family" type of book. I like books to have more of a, for lack of a better word, "point" to the plot. This is probably why I mostly read science fiction and mysteries, rather than just "straight" fiction: I like books where Stuff Happens. Not just books about people living their lives. (Granted The Namesake does have some overarching themes, like about the main character's struggles with the thing to which the title refers, and about the whole Indians-in-America thing. But that's not really what I mean by Stuff Happening.)

Anyway, as I was thinking about the book, I realized that there are a few big ways in which it doesn't hold up to my consciously feminist "style" of reading, and that largely explains my dissatisfaction with it.

( More on this, with potential spoilers. )

So, to sum up, I'm glad that I read it, even though it wasn't really my cup of tea and I had a fair number of issues with it. It was still good to check out something so different from what I usually read, and it certainly gave me some food for thought and I'm definitely looking forward to the discussion. And now I'm debating whether I want to see the movie. I can see several parts in the book that a moviemaker might choose to emphasize, which would make it even more obnoxious to me (but more palatable to American moviegoers' tastes). heh.

And now I'm back into my comfort zone, reading Lois Bujold's The Hallowed Hunt, about halfway through it now and enjoying it well enough although some parts of it really sound all too familiar (i.e., recycled -- with deepest apologies to the beloved author). But then, Lois's recycled is still better than 90% of the other sci-fi on the market today, so no worries! ;)

Have I mentioned lately how nice it is that my new commute gives me a few minutes each day to actually relax and read?? OMG.

lol...never one again

My ticker tells me that today Ruthie is 1 year, 1 month, 1 week and 1 day old. :)