Book Forty-Seven - The Grapes of Wrath - Part Three

Well. I finished the book but I need to think about it for a bit before I write about it. The title comes from "The Battle Hymn of the Republic," 1862, by Julia Ward Howe. Here are the first two lines, "Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord, he is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored." If you'd like to listen to a stirring version of the song, here is the Mormon Tabernacle Choir performing at West Point (it's quite goosebumpy, y'all).

Book Forty-Seven - The Grapes of Wrath - Part Two

On a family road trip, two members of the Joad family, Tom and Al, go to a car junkyard place in search of a desperately needed part. As Al scopes out the remnants of a 1925 model, the junkyard attendant complains to Tom that his disability is holding him back in life. What with one thing and another, Tom is running low on patience yet somehow offers a bit of a pep talk.

Ya full of crap. Why, I knowed a one-legged whore one time. Think she was takin' two-bits in a alley? No, by God! She's getting half a dollar extra. She says, "How many one-legged women you slep' with? None!" she says. "O.K.," she says. "You got somepin pretty special here, an it's gonna cos' ya half a buck extry." An' by God, she was gettin' 'em, too, an' the fellas comin' out thinkin' they're pretty lucky.

Isn't it commendable that one of Steinbeck's characters from a book published in 1939 is such an early champion of disability rights?  

Book Forty-Seven - The Grapes of Wrath - Part One

 I've only read a few chapters thus far but feel as if I were there. I feel the dust beneath my feet and the desolation of the land as if it were mine. Steinbeck's description of the place is more prolific than his description of Joad's thoughts. Thus far, we have only what he says to determine how he feels. 

Book Forty-Six - Katherine - Part Three

Anya Seaton

When I finished this book, I was overwhelmed with sadness. I'd previously read about daily life in the middle ages (spoiler alert: it sucked) so I wasn't surprised by the setting. I won't spoil it, but Katherine did not have an easy life. Part of this was the matter of her birth, part was the time and culture into which she was born, and part of it was her choices. Couldn't the same be said of each of us?

Okay, so  I understand a bit more about the Wars of the Roses. (There were a bunch of battles, so it's plural.) John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, (key in this book) was a rose. Well, the symbol of the House (i.e., family/heritage/direct line) of Lancaster was a red rose. John was a prince, son of King Edward III. Okay, I may be getting some of this wrong; the thing about British history is that there's so much of it. But basically, the Lancasters ruled from 1399 until they (the red roses, John's descendents) fought with John's brothers' descendents, the House of York (symbolized by a white rose) for the crown, i.e., power, control, and all the usual stuff wars are fought for. It all equals money, doesn't it? Finally, the Lancaster Henry Tudor defeated the York King Richard III* (the one whose body was found in 2012 beneath a parking lot in Leicester, England) at the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485. Then--get this--Henry, who became King Henry VII, married a York! Talk about consolidation of power. So Much Drama. Reminds me of those feuding families back in Mayberry.

House of Lancaster

Here's a link to a site detailing the familial relationship between Katherine and Queen Elizabeth II.

*If you've read or seen Shakespeare's Richard III, he's the one with the line, "A horse! A horse! My kingdom for a horse!" You may also know this line if you've ever seen The Goodbye Girl.

Book Forty-Six - Katherine - Part Two

I finally got the urge to continue reading this one and most of my free hours over the past few days have been devoted to finishing it. Now I have that empty feeling... but what happens next?! The good news is that this is a historical novel and further information is available about Katherine and her children. I've been searching for a family tree for Queen Elizabeth II which includes Katherine's name.

Stay tuned!

Book Forty-Six - Katherine - Part One

I've been reading this book for ages... well, actually only reading it when I'm not reading something else. I like it but don't love it. Yet as soon as I start reading it I'm pulled back in, so I shall continue. Queen Elizabeth II is among Katherine's descendents thanks to that whole War of the Roses thing. I don't quite understand the War of the Roses but the gist seems to involve a power struggle.

Book Forty-Five - Gone With The Wind - Part Seven

 

Margaret Mitchell

from Biography.com

Let's talk Captain Rhett Butler, shall we? My goodness, yes. Captain Butler was "not received" in decent homes. I rather like that designation. Apparently he was out with a young woman after dark and refused to marry her! So Rhett is not received into decent society. Except for the Wilkes, who invited him to the barbecue at which Scarlett met him. Captain Butler knew a thing or ten about women. At one point, Scarlett has a bit of a rant about Rhett and his friendship with a Lady of the Evening--

Bad women and all they involved were mysterious and revolting matters to her. She knew that men patronized these women for purposes which no lady should mention — or, if she did mention them, in whispers and by indirection and euphemism. She had always thought that only common vulgar men visited such women. Before this moment, it had never occurred to her that nice men — that is, men she met at nice homes and with whom she danced — could possibly do such things. It opened up an entirely new field of thought and one that was horrifying. Perhaps all men did this! It was bad enough that they forced their wives to go through such indecent performances but to actually seek out low women and pay them for such accommodation! Oh, men were so vile, and Rhett Butler was the worst of them all!

Remember that any mention of "indecent performances" was considered trashy. Apparently it gave women the vapors. One more-- 

She could hear him chuckling softly. Sometimes he was odious. In fact, most of the time he was odious. It was awful for a man to know what women really thought about and talked about. It made a girl feel positively undressed. And no man ever learned such things from good women either. She was indignant that he had read her mind. She liked to believe herself a thing of mystery to men, but she knew Rhett thought her as transparent as glass.

Scarlett saw that as a bad thing; she was taught to always keep men guessing. Mitchell was making a point about how naive women of the late 19th century were in comparison to those of the early 20th. My, how far we have come. I'm not a huge fan of Kierkegaard but I do like "Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards." Unless one has, say, a time-turner or something. (I was given one as a gift but it doesn't work properly.)

I haven't "southernized" (not a real word) Scarlett's words here, and neither did Mitchell--though she did use the dialect of the slaves/former slaves. It was distracting and a bit tedious to have to read a sentence several times to comprehend its meaning. 

Back to Captain Butler... Rhett saw much of the world, both good and bad. He loved intensely and showed a great deal of wisdom.

"All wars are sacred,” he said. “To those who have to fight them. If the people who started wars didn’t make them sacred, who would be foolish enough to fight? But, no matter what rallying cries the orators give to the idiots who fight, no matter what noble purposes they assign to wars, there is never but one reason for a war. And that is money. All wars are in reality money squabbles. But so few people ever realize it."

When I was a young college student, I heard from a military man that wars are fought for economic reasons. I disagreed, for I had bought into the propaganda. But no longer. "Wait a minute!" I hear you say. "What about WWII?" I would say that is the exception which proves the rule but I don't believe that old saying--doesn't it simply mean that those creating the rule didn't find a big enough rule? Or has it come to mean something beyond the original intent? In any case, I don't have an answer about WWII. 


Bet Rhett would know.

 

Book Forty-Five - Gone With The Wind - Part Six

It wasn't until I finished the book that I understood Scarlett. She's desperate for Ashley beyond delusion.

Scarlett decided she was in love with Ashley because of one day when she was 14 and saw him as a M.A.N. And she convinced herself that Ashley loved her in return. Oh, he may have married someone else but he really loved Scarlett. I mean, just because someone marries someone doesn't mean they're in love. (Oh wait, that's actually true.) But Scarlett even convinced herself that when Soldier Ashley wrote to Melanie, his WIFE, as long as he wasn't mushy that meant he was still secretly in love with Scarlett. (Oh yeah, Scarlett sneaked into Melanie's room and read all of Ashley's letters.) 

She reminded me of a woman I once knew who, upon hearing that the man she'd decided she was in love with slept with another woman said, "Maybe he was thinking of me." She seriously believed that. Why do women do so much rationalizing? I will admit I've fallen prey to it occasionally but some women could be in the Olympics of Denial.  

We do such a poor job of teaching young women their intrinsic worth and of teaching them to make wise choices about relationships. I've said it before but it bears repeating: as soon as a woman is through with a man and throws him back there's another woman on the opposite bank reeling him in. It must be fear of being alone. What else could it be? And why are we so afraid of being alone? In other times and even today in developing nations I can understand the need for a partner to help put food on the table. Why have our emotions and actions failed to keep up when we are certainly capable of making a living? I mean, I understand the desire to be in love--I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about the desire to have someone--just about anyone--rather than be alone. Are we so unhappy with ourselves? Or do we merely need to be constantly entertained? You know the kind of person I'm talking about, the one who, while you're sitting on the beach says, "Put down that book and talk to me!" Jane Austen included characters with the need to be constantly entertained in her novels (she wrote easy to relate to characters, that's for sure).

I'm not certain Margaret Mitchell intended for readers to be sympathetic to Scarlett. I suspect she wanted to tell a story, and I haven't even discussed the politics yet. We're meant to admire Scarlett's steely resolve yet disapprove of her character, I suspect. But then, I'm generally not a fan of examining the author's intentions. It's how the book affects us personally that matters.

Book Forty-Five - Gone With The Wind - Part Five

First post about Scarlett plus a bit of history, and, oh yeah, Ellen was Scarlett's mother.

Ellen’s life was not easy, nor was it happy, but she did not expect life to be easy, and, if it was not happy, that was woman’s lot. It was a man’s world, and she accepted it as such. The man owned the property, and the woman managed it. The man took the credit for the management, and the woman praised his cleverness. The man roared like a bull when a splinter was in his finger, and the woman muffled the moans of childbirth, lest she disturb him. Men were rough of speech and often drunk. Women ignored the lapses of speech and put the drunkards to bed without bitter words. Men were rude and outspoken, women were always kind, gracious and forgiving.

COME ON!!! Surely some women didn't buy into this. But what options did they have? Mitchell even makes a point of illustrating that, once a pregnant woman begins to show beyond what clothing can masquerade, she is confined to the house, just as Sense and Sensibility’s Charlotte Palmer was confined. A pregnant (that word was never uttered!) woman couldn’t go anywhere because someone would know she had s-e-x with her husband! OMG!!! But when she has the baby, it’s time to PARTY! Everyone is happy! Okay, but um, like, isn’t a baby also indicative of sex?

 

Also, Scarlett was not kind, gracious or forgiving. She sometimes felt badly that she didn’t measure up to her mother but sometimes resented her mother for not seeing the future and preparing Scarlett to live during a war rather than continuing her life as a belle in the Old South. Miss Scarlett could be irrational, that’s for sure.  Yet sometimes she was the most rational and practical person in the room.

When she arose at last and saw again the black ruins of Twelve Oaks, her head was raised high and something that was youth and beauty and potential tenderness had gone out of her face forever. What was past was past. Those who were dead were dead. The lazy luxury of the old days was gone, never to return. And, as Scarlett settled the heavy basket across her arm, she had settled her own mind and her own life.

There was no going back and she was going forward.

Throughout the South for fifty years there would be bitter-eyed women who looked backward, to dead times, to dead men, evoking memories that hurt and were futile, bearing poverty with bitter pride because they had those memories. But Scarlett was never to look back.

She put food on the table, picked and planted cotton, and organized everyone else at Tara. Well, bullied them, actually, but they all worked hard.

Her "I won’t think about that now" mantra is actually a survival strategy. If she stops to think about the enormity of what’s happening, she won’t be able to DO anything. Rather than fall apart and be useless, she postpones thinking about the awful things until she can stand it. There are things that can be helped and she concentrates upon those things. Excellent plan in a crisis.

Book Forty-Five - Gone With The Wind - Part Four

I miss Scarlett.

Maybe I give a damn after all. 

Book Forty-Five - Gone With The Wind - Part Three

Finished the book - I have many notes, but the bottom line is that Katie Scarlett O'Hara Hamilton  Kennedy Butler was an idiot. She had someone who loved her for who she is -- two people, in fact: Melanie and Rhett. Rhett saw who she truly was and loved her--not just in spite of it--but because of it! Imagine the worst of you, the things you don't like acknowledging even to yourself--and having someone who knows all about them and loves you anyway! But she held onto the dream of her Knight in Shining Armor and found 0ut too late that she didn't even know him--and when she finally realized who he really was, she didn't like what she saw. She spent years as an adult holding onto a teenage dream. I suppose Rhett had jumped through too many hoops and his love was worn down like a stream pouring over rock--over time, it changes the nature of the rock.

Granted, Scarlett went through some bad stuff. Still though--DENIAL! Seriously, Scarlett. Okay, so you were the strong one; you had to take care of everyone else. Didn't you realize it wasn't because the others didn't want to be strong--it was because they couldn't be. They did not have within them the strength you did. Melly even said  something like this to you once, but you were so selfish that you didn't half pay attention to people. You were only interested in listening when there was something in it for you. Foolish.

I know I shouldn't be so hard on Scarlett. Her world was truly torn apart. Yet there will probably be further lectures coming. Hopefully, I can be kinder to her at that time.

Book Forty-Five - Gone With The Wind - Part Two

This will not be a spoiler-free zone for GWTW. The book (and the film) have been out long enough that there probably isn't much to be spoiled by. This is a marvelous book and I love Mitchell's descriptions. She loved up some metaphors, that's for sure! Here's a quick post describing the second time the Yankees arrived at Tara.

Sally Fontaine @mimosasally
Scarlett!!! The Yankees Are Coming!!! #bastards

Katie Scarlett @southerndiva
Quick! Hide the animals and the food! Prissy, go under the house and get the pigs! #yankeebastards

Melanie Wilkes @melly
I'll do lots of tweeting so we can get #yankeebastards trending, shall I, Scarlett dear?

Katie Scarlett @southerndiva
Melly you mindless twit, hide the horse and the cow! #seriouslywhydidashleymarryher

Katie Scarlett @southerndiva
All of you LISTEN! Hide the animals in the SWAMP, you fools! Yankees don't like swamps 'cause of the snakes. #scaredycatbastards

Katie Scarlett @southerndiva
@mammy, put the silver in the well again! #greedybastards

Katie Scarlett @southerndiva
I shall not abandon my house to be burned by those Damned Yankees! They'll have to burn it with me standing right here. #stubborndiva

Book Forty-Five - Gone With The Wind - Part One

Sometimes, when I begin a book on this list, I hope it will get better. And it usually does. After all, many readers recommended the book or it wouldn't be on the list. Conversely, sometimes when  I begin reading a book I instantly know why it is included on this list. Y'all, Gone With The Wind is amazing! I was hooked within a few pages. The descriptions! The characters! My oh my!

Book Forty-Four - Matilda

Roald Dahl
wikia.com

Delightful.  Captivating. Clever. Recommended!

Progress (Or The Lack Thereof)

This is going much less quickly than I thought it would. I would like to promise to turn over a new leaf (seriously, who came up with that saying? My guess is a botanist). But a friend just passed her Ann Cleeves (the writer of the Shetland mysteries!) books on to me  so I'm not sure this will move more quickly at all. Perhaps it would have been more interesting simply to review everything I read, but no! I set out to read specific books on a specific list and I shall continue to do so. We may all be much, much older by the time I finish the list, but it shall be done.

Unless there's like a nuclear war and stuff, but I won't start talking politics or I shall become depressed.

Book Forty-Three - Lord Of The Flies - Part Two

William Golding
From New York Times

Though I'd never read this book before, I knew the basics. I've heard lots of references to it in popular culture, sort of like American Idol in that most people have heard of it even if they've never watched it. I suppose Game of Thrones is in the same category but with more zealous fans (perhaps that's just the people I know!). That said, I'll stick with the no-spoiler rule and talk in generalities only.

First, OMG! Even though I knew the basic plot it was so far beyond what I thought I was going to encounter. I have questions: would the majority of human beings behave in the same manner? Does age matter? Gender? Country of origin? Would anything have made a difference? I mean, the only example I can think of with any similarities is Gilligan's Island, and they sure didn't act like that.

Also, is it a desert island or a deserted island? The only sand was on the beach and trees and foliage were numerous, so it seems it should have been deserted. But deserted implies that someone was previously there and purposely left. The only thing I'm sure about is that it's entirely possible I'm overthinking this.

One last thought: the last couple of pages contain gorgeous prose. Sheer brilliance.

Book Forty-Three - Lord Of The Flies - Part One

Story about this book which has nothing to do with the book: once upon a time I worked at a place with few local options for dining out at lunch. Co-workers introduced me to a little hole-in-the-wall diner with good food, good service and dodgy electrics. I became a regular, eating alone when no one else from work was going. (Some people have a fear of this, but it's never bothered me. I always have a book.) One day, another regular whom I had seen but not spoken to walked over and asked why I frequently ate alone. I explained that I was surrounded with people eight hours a day and therefore enjoyed a bit of peace and quiet at lunch. He sat down and proceeded to talk. (?) We became friends and regularly ate lunch together. He mostly discussed his family and I mostly discussed books. He frequently talked about Lord of the Flies, the only book he had ever read cover to cover. Can you imagine having read only one book your entire life??? Yet we found other things in common and although neither of us works near that diner these days, we're still Christmas Card Friends.

The End.

Book Forty-Two - The Woman In White - Part Five

I went back to this book and easily picked up the story. After about a dozen pages I looked at the bottom of the Kindle screen and saw that I had NINE hours left in the book. Um, thanks but no. I'm not enthralled with the story so I'm letting it go. I would like to go through some of my highlighted passages, however, so there may be yet another post on this one.

Book Forty-Three - Magician

Raymond Feist
From Twitter

The Woman In White and I are still on a break and I continue to see other books. I think she's okay with it.

I'd give Magician three stars out of five. I was hooked from the excellent beginning but then it seemed to drag in several places. I also found it derivative. It's highly probable that any school of magic would have a History of Magic class, and it even mentions Harry Potter. But the other part - the clever part - reminded me so much of Narnia I couldn't stand it.

Holy eBook, Batman - I just realized I read the wrong book. I was meant to read Magician by Raymond E Feist and I read The Magicians by Lev Grossman!!!

Never mind.

Book Forty-Two - The Woman In White - Part Four

I still haven't finished this book. And the thing is, at our last book club meeting before our summer break, I recommended this book and at least two people have read it - one of whom is my sister. She keeps asking if I've finished it yet (I'm guessing there's a good twist and she wants to discuss it). I've enjoyed the book but it feels like work to get back to it. A couple of weeks ago I reread The Guernsey Literary And Potato Peel Pie Society and finished it in two days. Couldn't wait to get back to it. Why are those books so few? Why can I read Sense And Sensibility annually and continue to make discoveries each year?

But I'm not giving up on this woman who wears white but isn't really the protagonist because she's barely around yet I believe her story is crucial in the lives of the people central to the tale. (Sometimes I just like a run-on sentence.)