The Testaments

I liked this sequel to The Handmaiden.  I had forgotten that The Handmaiden was not a new book....but one discovered for the big screen recently.  Again as with the Handmaiden, I liked the fact that the author ended the book with remarks from the far future in which there is a symposium discussing the particular time in history in which this story took place.  There is no doubt that I agree that life does seem to go on even when governments cease to govern.  And that we are all but a speck in the over all story of mankind.

Convenience Store Woman

I would not say that this was my favorite book ever.  It actually did not entice me as some of the others have.  But I did finish it.  And at the end, I thought that it absolutely said something about society.  I liked the fact that the main character found that she was entirely OK with who she was.  There was a part of me that wanted someone to "find her" and promote her to some sort of job overseeing other convenience stores.  She would have been perfect for that!

But it was Ok that she would just look for a job in some convenience store.  She would get back to living once she found that job.  She would be content to be exactly that person.

Here is the review from Amazon:


Winner of Japan’s prestigious Akutagawa Prize, Convenience Store Woman is the incomparable story of Keiko Furukura, a thirty-six-year-old Tokyo resident who has been working at the Hiiromachi “Smile Mart” for the past eighteen years. Keiko has never fit in, neither in her family, nor in school, but in her convenience store, she is able to find peace and purpose with rules clearly delineated clearly by the store’s manual, and copying her colleagues’ dress, mannerisms, and speech. She plays the part of a “normal person” excellently―more or less. Keiko is very happy, but those close to her pressure her to find a husband and a proper career, prompting her to take desperate action.

Where the Crawdads Sing

I think it was Mitzi who suggested this book for me.  Oh, my gosh.  It is crazy good.  The first night I reached the part where the brother who was closest to Kya's age told her he was leaving.  He couldn't stay.  Everyone had run off except for Pa.  And her brother told Kya (who was six) that he had to leave.  And his advice was to hide from everyone when they came around.  And that she might need to hide from Pa, too.

I couldn't read more.   I called Mitzi to ask what to expect so that I could turn it back on.  And Mitzi reassured me.  This child breaks my heart.  But with Mitzi's reassurance I am continuing to read.






I finished the book last night.  In one way I am disappointed that the author made what was such an amazing book into a murder mystery.  On the other hand the way that Delia made the details unravel was extremely inventive and absolutely ingenious.  I do recommend this book.  It is a very good read.

Educated

I resisted reading this book.  First I resisted buying the audio version ...or any version for that matter.  Then I resisted starting the book.  And then I found myself unable to turn it on.  And even quit reading at all for a while as I didn't seem to want to start another book nor did I want to listen to this one.

But then all of a sudden I found myself listening for hours.  One could never make up all of the craziness in this book...I guess one could only live it.  The bipolar father who let his children take terrible risks in the scrap yard and on his construction sites....the mother who is damaged but becomes strong.....the family  that stays on Bucks Mountain as "over the top" Mormons.

I will finish the book.  I do find it to be an exceptional book.

So I finished the book today.  It is hard to imagine that Tara is only 28 years old when her memoir is finished.  WOW!  I say prayers for Tara and her family.

The Handmaid's Tale

I found this book by Margaret Atwood to be very entertaining.  Mary and another buddy both told me that they put the book down.....but I was not as "turned off" by the religious fanaticism as Mary would be and I like science fiction kinds of books more than my other buddy.....My very favorite part of this book was the end.  Somehow it would have been a bit of a let down to have had any other ending.  If you are planning on reading the book, please quit reading.....don't let this spoil the end for you.  But it fit my life interests so well at the end....there is a meeting at which the speaker is talking about the fact that "society" has found some sort of "diary" that belonged to the main character of the story.....and they are trying to make some sense out of the Gillian era of history with help from the diary.....and they are piecing it together much as we would do now if we were looking at the middle ages and reading what someone had written....

The entire first part of the book could be thought of as either an imaginative interpretation of what they have found....or one can think of what they have found as clues to what we have just read as the handmaiden's actual tale.  But either way I think it is a bit of a comment on how nothing in history lasts.....and that it is impossible to interpret what actually happened....we can only guess.  And exactly what the Handmaid hoped would happen did happen....the terrible regime in which she lived did not last forever.

Joy Luck Club

I read this book by Amy Tan many years ago when I was not much older than the young women in the book.  I loved it then.  When the Book Club decided to read it for October's selection, I almost did not reread it.  But then I decided that I would listen to it on audible.  I think that I loved it even more now that I am the age of the older women in the book.  I didn't get to go to book club after all in the month of October.  I was sorry as I would have liked to hear what other women had to say.  I had a bit of trouble keeping the stories straight and figuring out to which of the characters each story connected.  I thought that it was because I was listening to the book rather than reading it.  But Mitzi said she found the same thing to be true even though she read a printed copy.  The truth was that it didn't make any difference which part of the mosaic one attributed which story to.....it was the interweaving of all of the stories which made the whole so wonderful.

Funny in Farsi

I read this book for the book club that I like to attend with Mitzi.  I haven't been in so long that I will probably be introduced as a newcomer.  I would never have read the book without Mitzi's encouragement that it was short and an entertaining read.  I read it via audible.  And finished binding off my wonderful purple/blue/violet Drachenfels shawl.  All of this in September which is porch sitting time of the year.

Firoozeh Dumas, the author, was born in in 1965 in Abadan, Iran.  She did most of her growing up years in California.  Firoozeh read the book herself for audible.  Her American accent is excellent.  It is always embarrassing to me how little I know about the middle east.  So I did quite a lot of googling when I finished the book.  Firoozeh is quite attractive and the area in which she was born is very interesting so I will add the information below.

Because my next door neighbor's family was from Iran/Persia, I first googled the names Iran, Persia, Persian, and Farsi.  Iran was called Persia by the western world until 1935.  At that time Persia became Iran on the maps.  The people who lived in this country NEVER called it Persia.  This was an English word for the country that they called Iran.  In addition the people who lived in Iran never called their language Persian....it was always called Farsi.  Below are maps showing Iran and the town in which Firoozeh was born:





You will see Abadan at the very top of the Persian Gulf.  Abadan according to Wikipedia was a port.  Accumulation of silt over the centuries caused the town itself to be back from the coast as the years went by.  In the first half of the 20th century it was the largest oil area in the world.  The area has a great deal of oil and the Western World had worked with natives to develop quite large refineries.  After the nationalization of the oil industry in Iran, the oil was piped to Tehran for use within the country itself.

Firoozeh married a French man, Francois Dumas.  This accounts for her very un-Iranian last name.  The book is written with each chapter having one incident that Firoozeh explains.  Some chapters are about family life of food or relationships.  The book is very entertaining.

My favorite two chapters are close to the end of the book. One is the story of antique limoges china that is in her husband's family.  Again a quick google tells me that Limoges is an area of France.  So that there are many companies that have produced china in that area over the years including Haviland.  As I remember the story, Firoozeh's husband asked his mother for a set of Limoges china that was boxed up in their garage and had not been used by his family in his memory.  When an earthquake hit in the area in which Firoozeh and Francois were living, Firoozeh imagined that her mother-in-law would suddenly realize how much she cared about the young couple and make up with Firoozeh.  Instead, when Firoozeh called to let her mother-in-law know that they were safe, her mother-in-law was most interested in if the china was broken.  You honestly have to read the chapter for yourself.  There is much of interest in the story of how the china influenced the young couple and ended up donating the set of china to a charity because Firoozeh felt that the china now had bad Karma.

The other favorite chapter was about noses.  Again one needs to read it for oneself.  But the chapter dealt with a librarian who Firooza called the Toucan because of her nose.  And the crazy coincidence that the non-TV-Watching Firooza watched TV by chance one evening and found the story of the Toucan's self confidence in spite of her nose.  It is a great story.  And it was particularly fun to read in light of the fact that this year I was reminded of my reduced status in my deceased husband's family at his death.  Something came up and I was laughing with my daughter about it and she said:  "Mom, you just don't have the nose!".  Funny stuff.