I have a confession. I have been holding out on you guys. I've completed 4 books since August 2011! They are all audiobooks, but I say they count and props to me for using my unpacking/ cleaning/ home-creating/ commuting productively. I may or may not have finished a
real book, but I can't remember so it doesn't count. I have been working on
An Omnivore's Dilemma for awhile so it's unlikely.
Anyway, I present #s 4, 5, 6 and 7. Too bad bar review books won't count toward my 30 books. . .
Great Expectations
I feel like I
should have read this book, like, 10+ years ago when I was still in high school, but, alas, I did not. I enjoyed the twist towards the end about Pip's benefactor (spoiler alert). I thoroughly enjoyed being whisked back to Victorian England, and it made me want to reread A Tale of Two Cities again. That being said, I don't remember much about the story itself, mostly because it's been awhile and just ask Erik: I never remember books I read. Sigh. Should save me money when I get older at least.
Also, makes me wonder whether I did, in fact, read this 10+ years ago. No matter. New to me this time.
Around the World in 80 Days
Again, this was a book I thoroughly enjoyed but my stupid Audible app deleted all my insightful and witty comments that I bookmarked while listening to it! I added those comments so I could share my insights with you guys... Sigh. Anyway, it was a nice adventure that transported me away from my boxes. It also was an interesting illustration of what you could do if money was no object.
The Feminine Mystique
The most striking thing about this book is that it could have been written in 2011 not 1963. I feel like the same family dynamics keep re-occurring. The one big difference is that in Betty Friedan's time, there was immense societal pressure to stay at home and excel at homemaking -- even if that wasn't where your true passion was. I have several friends that went to college and have made the choice to stay in the home. That's the key part though. They
chose to become stay at home moms. I, personally, don't think I could do it. I think I would end up alphabetizing our pantry or some other such nonsense. I also don't think I could be at home with kids all day. But who knows, right? Anyway, back to the book. Another really interesting thing that I hadn't thought about before was the influence of advertising on women in the home. The guilt that women would feel about not doing enough for the family. A new washing machine/dryer? It did not necessarily ease the burden on the wife/mother because now it meant that bed linens could be changed once a week or sometimes even more frequently.
One part of the book I found particularly offensive was Ms. Friedan comparing women in the home to holocaust victims in concentration camps. Yes, she went there. So offensive! At any rate, it got a bit much at times and she seemed very preoccupied with sex in several of the chapters, but all in all, I felt like I learned something and it made me think about the choice that I might make and the choices that my friends have made. It also made me feel like I could be more efficient with my housework.
A History of the World in 6 Glasses
This may be my favorite book of the 4 mentioned in this post. From Amazon.com:
A History of the World in 6 Glasses tells the story of humanity from the Stone Age to the 21st century through the lens of beer, wine, spirits, coffee, tea, and cola. Beer was first made in the Fertile Crescent and by 3000 B.C.E. was so important to Mesopotamia and Egypt that it was used to pay wages. In ancient Greece wine became the main export of her vast seaborne trade, helping spread Greek culture abroad. Spirits such as brandy and rum fueled the Age of Exploration, fortifying seamen on long voyages and oiling the pernicious slave trade. Although coffee originated in the Arab world, it stoked revolutionary thought in Europe during the Age of Reason, when coffeehouses became centers of intellectual exchange. And hundreds of years after the Chinese began drinking tea, it became especially popular in Britain, with far-reaching effects on British foreign policy. Finally, though carbonated drinks were invented in 18th-century Europe they became a 20th-century phenomenon, and Coca-Cola in particular is the leading symbol of globalization.
It was a very cool 7 hours and 38 minutes. I would sit in my garage and wait to hear just a little bit more. A few tidbits (because the Audible app didn't crash this one). Tom Standage talks about how shared glasses equal community because you can share a beverage in a way that you can't share food. There are ways to share a cut of anything that's not entirely equitable and gives someone an undesirable portion. I suppose the very last sips of the shared beverage would be yucky but you catch my drift. Another thing I did not know was that originally coffee was considered a type of liquor. He also described coffeehouses as the internet in the age of reason. Also, back when Coca-Cola was originally invented people would combine soda (even the coca-cola flavored variety) with wine on a regular basis (starting in France).
So that's all the books for now. I'm going to finish the Omnivore's Dilemma soon -- it's a tough read. I feel like if you read that book and read all the articles about how terrible the food at the grocery store is for you, you would be a recluse farmer and have your garden in a biosphere so that acid rain didn't get to it (but then you would have water table concerns... oh heck, we're all screwed). I've also recently listened to a short story by Ann Patchett, "This Is the Story of a Happy Marriage." It was poignant and gave me some much needed prospective on divorce. I mean that in terms of I know several people who have been through divorces in the last few years and I wish I had encountered this book sooner so I could have been a better friend to them. Anyway, also on the agenda: In the Plex by Steven Levy, The King's Speech by Mark Logue and Billy Budd, Sailor by Herman Melville (my dad's favorite book by good ol' Herman).
