The Bluebird and the Sparrow by Janette Oke

Oke’s books are often set in a little town that is located in the vague “Old West,” time and place being unimportant compared to her plot and characters. This idiosyncrasy only makes her novels more memorable and endearing, since her characters are the ones that truly stick in your memory and their struggles touch your heart. This book focuses on two sisters, Berta and Glenna, who are as different as sisters can be. Berta, the older, quickly resented the fact that her younger sister, Glenna, was showered with compliments and praise just because she was a beautiful child, who soon grew up to be a beautiful young woman. Berta knew she could never be as beautiful and kind-hearted as Glenna, so she was determined to excel in her schoolwork and other areas. As they grew up, their mother took to calling Berta her “dependable one” and Glenna her “beautiful one.” This unspoken rivalry continued as the girls grew into adulthood, while Glenna married the most handsome man in town and Berta became a librarian. It wasn’t until a series of hardships, the death of Glenna’s oldest child, the death of their grandmother, their mother’s sudden illness, and the destruction of the town library, that Berta was able to admit her vehemence towards life itself and have a spiritual awakening. By the end of the novel, Berta has accepted her role in life, and has even made room for a beau. This is another wonderful example of Christian fiction, showing not only a lovely story with interesting characters without using profane language, sex, or violence, but also having Christianity be a large part of the central characters’ lives. Both Berta and Glenna are two-dimensional characters who stick in your memory long after you put the book down. Oke’s books “just make you feel good,” in the words of one satisfied library patron.

If you enjoyed this book, please consider reading :
Fiction Recommendation #1 : Roses for Mama by Janette Oke. This quiet novel by Oke focuses on Angela’s small family. She and her older brother are left to raise their young siblings after the death of their parents. Readers who enjoyed Berta’s character and its development in The Bluebird and the Sparrow should also enjoy this book and its central female character.

Fiction Recommendation #2 : The Postcard by Beverly Lewis. Again set in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, this novel tells the story of a young Amish woman, Rachel, whose husband and children are killed in a horrible traffic accident. Stricken blind, she convalesces at her parents’ B&B, where a kind man, an “Englisher,” takes notice of her.

Nonfiction Recommendation #1 : Janette Oke: A Heart for the Prairie : The Untold Story of One of the Most Beloved Novelists of Our Time by Laurel Oke Logan. This biography on Oke tells her story as one of the first Christian Fiction authors ever, and how her books became “bestsellers,” and eventually “best loved.”

The Preacher's Daughter by Beverly Lewis

I have enjoyed all of Lewis’ books, and this one was no exception. Lewis’ style of writing pulls the reader completely into whatever setting is currently on the page. Although Lewis often sets her books in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, a fair amount of this book’s action is also set in Colorado. The book, the first in a trilogy entitled “Annie’s People,” focuses on two young women, Louise and Annie, who are trying to find their path in life. Annie is part of an Old Order Amish family, and her secret desires to be an artist have been forbidden by church doctrine. Louise has just ended her engagement and fled her over-bearing parents to stay with Annie and her “simple life.” The climax of the story pulls together not only the two girls’ desires and their future, but also their faiths and beliefs, which once again establishes this as a Christian fiction book. I thought this was a wonderful book, but my opinion could be biased because I identified strongly with both major characters. Not to sound very gushy or over-dramatic, but at times the characters in this book were saying and doing things that I have said and done in my own past. While this could be considered “chick lit,” I think it has appeal to all ages and both genders. Both characters are entirely complete and believable, and I am anxious to read the rest of the trilogy, which has already been published.

If you enjoyed this book, please consider one of the following :
Fiction Recommendation : The Englisher by Beverly Lewis. This is the sequel to Lewis’ The Preacher’s Daughter, and continues the story of everyone in Paradise, Lancaster County.

Nonfiction Recommendation : Amish Women: Lives & Stories by Louise Stoltzfus. This is a lovely book written by an Amish woman, explaining her life and values, and those of 10 other women of her community. A wonderful nonfiction resource to those readers who wish to learn more about the Amish Community.

Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi

“Living in the Islamic Republic is like having sex with a man you loathe . . . if you’re forced into having sex with someone you dislike, you make your mind blank - you pretend to be somewhere else. You tend to forget your body; you hate your body. That’s what we do over here [in Iran]. We are constantly pretending to be somewhere else.”

This vivid description is one of hundreds given by Dr. Azar Nafisi, professor of literature. Born in Persia/Iran, she was educated in Europe and America, and returned to Iran in time to see the rise of the Taliban and the systematic quelling of both women’s rights and Western culture permeating Iran. As a professor, she meets some very intelligent, very gifted young women who all gravitate together because of the literature they read in her classes. Eventually, when Dr. Nafisi quits her job rather than being forced to wear the Veil, she starts her own class in her home. There, she invites seven of these certain young women, who have become her friends over the years, to join her. Together they read and discuss forbidden Western literature - Lolita, of course, but also Pride and Prejudice, Daisy Miller, and The Great Gatsby. What they do is illegal, and more than one woman is punished and beaten because of her interest in Western culture and higher education. Even though these women, including Dr. Nafisi, come from very different backgrounds and go on to lead different lives once the time period of this book ends, when they do come together, they loose themselves in their beloved novels for a time, and then trudge back into the world that both despises and controls them. This regular Thursday morning class continues for two years.

For most of this book, I was rather depressed, reading about Dr. Nafisi’s experiences and reminding myself it wasn’t a novel, but a memoir. This happened, and is still happening today. However, I was encouraged by the end of the book, when Dr. Nafisi and her family find the courage to emigrate to America, and many of her beloved students leave Iran as well.

If you enjoyed this book, please consider one of the following :
Fiction Recommendation : The Jane Austen Book Club by Karen Joy Fowler. Five women and one man meet periodically to discuss the work of (arguably) the greatest novelist in English. Six people, one for each Jane Austen title. It is California, a hot summer in the Central Valley early in the 21st century, and these are ordinary people, neither happy nor unhappy, but each of them hurting in different ways, all of them mixed up about love.
Fiction Recommendation : Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov. There is a reason why this novel about a pedophile rapist who lusts after a bratty ‘tween’ is not only in the title of Nafisi’s memoir, but also still considered great literature.
Note : Jeremy Irons reads an unabridged recording of the audiobook of Lolita. He is wonderful, and I highly recommend it!
Nonfiction Recommendation : Kabul Beauty School: An American Woman Goes Behind the Veil by Deborah Rodriquez. Rodriguez's account tells the story of one Michigan woman's quest to help women in Afghanistan after the fall of the Taliban the best way she knows how: by opening a beauty school. After spending a couple of years in her adopted city, she realizes that she is giving women the power to earn both money and autonomy, and fights fiercely to keep the school open.
Nonfiction Recommendation : Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood by Marjane Satrapi. This memoir in graphic novel form goes into great detail of Satrapi’s childhood in Iran during the Iran-Iraq war. The stark black-and-white drawings only add to the bleakness of her immediate future and barrenness of the landscape.

Acting like a Librarian

Ok, so the last few weeks have been very busy for me. I would like to share with you how I have been acting like a librarian lately.

First off, I read a really interesting article, brought to my attention by my Prof, regarding disappearing reference desks. The fact that reference services seem to be disappearing in the past decade didn't make me sad, since what's really happening is that Library Services, and therefore Librarians, are evolving. I know that I will have to be prepared to be easily adaptable if I plan to have a career in Academic Librarianship.

Secondly, I have found some wonderfully hilarious videos about Librarians on YouTube. Here is one comparing librarians to penguins, here is one telling the story of what Librarians do to patrons who don't follow the rules. "I want to be a librarian." Mwaa haa haa haa haa!

I have to go act like a Secretary now.

Will in the World : How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare by Stephen Greenblatt

While I read this book, and it's pretty darn good by the way, I was constantly thinking about the imagination Greenblatt must have. The author perks up the bare facts of Shakespeare's life with some speculation about his parents' lives, his "lost years," his marriage. True, the hypotheses he presents to the reader about what might have happened in Shakespeare’s life leading up to and during the time he wrote his plays are all based on evidence he has uncovered, but the evidence is weak and full of holes, which if you know anything about Shakespeare (or “William ‘Billy Bob’ Shakespeare” as my high school class called him), you know this is inevitable. I suppose Charles Mee said it best, “A brilliant book written by a virtual eyewitness who understands how a playwright takes the stuff of his life and makes it into theatre.” (From the flyleaf).

Because this book makes reference to all of Shakespeare's plays, some of which I haven't read, I'm strangely inclined to read all 37 ("Thirty-seven?!" you say? Why yes, indeed-y) of his plays. I own two complete works, the Riverside Shakespeare and a facsimile Chris gave me a few years ago, and lots of individual volumes of some plays, including four translated into Italian (which makes the plays actually set in Italy all that more interesting). I like his work. He's good people.

If you enjoyed this book, please consider one of the following :
Fiction Recommendation : My Father Had a Daughter by Grace Tiffany. An ordinary girl seeks revenge on her celebrated father in this, a fictionalized "memoir" by the Bard's youngest daughter, Judith. When her twin brother Hamnet accidentally drowns, she is grief-stricken; when she finds her grief used as material for Twelfth Night, she blames her absentee father.
Fiction Recommendation : The Book of Air and Shadows by Michael Gruber. In this ingenious literary thriller, the lives of two men (Jake Mishkin and Albert Crosetti) are changed forever by William Shakespeare and the letters of Richard Bracegirdle, a 16th-century English spy and soldier. Together, Mishkin and Crosetti travel to England in search of a previously unknown Shakespeare manuscript mentioned by Bracegirdle.
Nonfiction Recommendation : A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare by James Shapiro. The year 1599 was crucial in the Bard's artistic evolution as well as in the historical upheavals he lived through. That year's output—Henry V, Julius Caesar, As You Like It and (debatably) Hamlet—not only spans a shift in artistic direction and theatrical taste, but also echoes the intrigues of Queen Elizabeth's court and the downfall of her favorite, the Earl of Essex.
Nonfiction Recommendation : Christopher Marlow: Poet and Spy by Park Honan. Marlow is yet another Elizabethan playwright who attracts intrigue (perhaps even more than Shakespeare) even up to the current year.

Moments of Levity

I would like to apologize for the lack of posts the past two weeks. I promise (if anyone really cares) to put more up soon.



In the meantime, I have included a wonderful Monty Python sketch, redone for a benefit for Amnesty International. I was reminded of this sketch Monday evening at class when my Prof. (Hi NC!) used that sketch to compare bibliographers studying texts from different centuries. Honestly!

And for even more laughs, below is one of the best bits Eddie Izzard has ever written and performed (in my humble opinion). Enjoy!

The Memoirs of Elizabeth Frankenstein by Theodore Roszak

Near the end of this book, Roszak writes, “Horror . . . has little to do with haunted castles and graveyards. True horror is compounded of human intentions; it arises from a soul depraved.” In brief, this book, a retelling of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley’s Frankenstein from Elizabeth Lavenza’s point of view, did not live up to even the author’s standards, according to his own description. This book had plenty of dark, mysterious rooms and towers in the Frankenstein château, as well as dark, mysterious forests and churchyards with the ever-present ‘spirits’ that come from Mother Earth, according to Elizabeth and the women who become her tutors. What this book did not have, were clear motivations for many of the characters. They seemed to be arriving to point B from point A only because Roszak had to fit his story into the outline already made by Shelley’s immortal tale. Roszak rambled on and on about Elizabeth’s education, and how her adoptive mother (Lady Caroline Frankenstein) had destined for she (Elizabeth) and Victor to marry as intellectual equals. This concept/desire is juxtaposed against Baron Frankenstein’s wish that Victor be a product of the Enlightenment, and learn all about the new-fangled electricity and medical advances, while Elizabeth should content herself with painting and gardening. (And I’d like to add that I find it extremely strange that Lady Caroline’s second and youngest son, Ernest is completely forgotten and not mentioned again before the book is even halfway through. No mention of his death - indeed a preface indicates that the character lived long after the rest of his family died. Odd.). I kept hoping for true elements of horror all the way up to the end of the book, at which point I finally gave up. Nothing in this book made me scared, or even worried for the future of mankind, save for the fact that such a disappointing and (yes) crappy book could be accepted and even published by Random House.

If you enjoyed this book, please consider the following suggestions :

Fiction Recommendation : Frankenstein or A Post-Modern Prometheus By Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley. As mentioned before, Roszak’s book is but another version of Shelley’s immortal tale.

Fiction Recommendation : Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë. Roszak’s book is similar in style and pacing as Brontë’s, but the tone and plot are much different. And that’s a good thing.

Nonfiction Recommendation : Frankenstein : Penetrating the secrets of Nature edited by Susan E. Lederer. As science penetrates the secrets of nature, with each discovery generating new questions, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein will sound its note of warning. Many scientific developments have provoked references to Frankenstein, a story that, for nearly two centuries, has gripped our imaginations and haunted our nightmares. How can society balance the benefits of medical discoveries against the ethical or spiritual questions posed?

Movie Recommendation : Mary Shelley's Frankenstein directed by Kenneth Branagh. This movie, like the book I reviewed, does not envoke any horror. It is, however, a bloody mess (in both artistry and gore-level).