A Room of One's Own

Mariner

A Room of One's Own
Virginia Woolf
1929

The Summary
"In A Room of One's Own, Virginia Woolf imagines that Shakespeare had a sister.  A sister equal to Shakespeare in talent, and equal in genius, but whose legacy is radically different.  This imaginary woman never writes a word and dies by her own hand, her genius unexpressed.  If only she had found the means to create, argues Woolf, she would have reached the same heights as her immortal sibling.  In this classic essay, Virginia Woolf takes on the establishment, using her gift of language to dissect the world around her and give voice to those who are without.  Her message is a simple one:  women must have some money and a room of their own in order to have the freedom to create."

The Good
After completely reading A Room of One's Own, I can see why it is essential reading for many literature courses.  Woolf's work is insightful, thoughtful and, more importantly, it makes a very good point about the history of women in the arts.  It's a call to action, a call for equality when women were not expected to be seen or heard or expected to do anything other than marry, bear children, and keep house.

It's inflammatory, grounded in examples from history and insight into the female mind.  It's beautiful, but sharp, filled with words that are meant to make a difference--that are meant to bring blood, to make a point.  And yet it is ultimately uplifting.

I think that perhaps my favorite lines come from the very end of Woolf's essay, when she tells her readers that women can become writers and poets and artists and creators.  It's possible, it's a promise:

"[Then] the opportunity will come and the dead poet who was Shakespeare's sister will put on the body which she has so often laid down.  Drawing her life from the lives of the unknown who were her forerunners, as her brother did before her, she will be born.  As for her coming without that preparation, without that effort on our part, without that determination that when she is born again she shall find it possible to live and write her poetry, that we cannot expect, for that would be impossible.  But I maintain that she would come if we worked for her, and that so to work, even in poverty and obscurity, is worth while."

I love that line.

The Bad
Personally, I struggled with A Room of One's Own.  This isn't an essay to be read in a day; rather, it's to be savored and consumed in small pieces, reread and examined with highlighter or pen in hand.  It's a wonderful book for discussion and, I found, better understood when examined with more than one mind.

The Ugly
Although Woolf fabricates the incident with Shakespeare's sister (he did have sisters, but as far as I have heard, none of them were artistically inclined), her example isn't very far off the mark.  Women who have wanted to create, who wanted to be authors or poets or playwrights or artists, have suffered or were condemned for their genius.

As Virginia Woolf points out, "The indifference of the world which Keats and Flaubert and other me of genius have found so hard to bear was in her case not indifference but hostility.  The world did not say to her as it said to them, Write if you choose; it makes no difference to me.  The world said with a guffaw, Write?  What's the good of your writing?"

Dinner Made Simple

Oxmoor House

Dinner Made Simple
Real Simple
2016

The Summary
"Think you'll never win at weeknight cooking?  Think again.

"Organized from apples to zucchini, Dinner Made Simple is filled with 350 easy inventive dishes--many ready in 30 minutes or less--to help you get out of your recipe rut.  With 10 ideas for every ingredient, you'll never look at a box of spaghetti, a bunch of carrots, or a ball of pizza dough the same way again."

The Good
Okay, so I know you can't really "read" a cook book in the traditional sense; however, I can say with confidence that I looked at every single page in this book and I examined all the recipes and checked it from cover to cover and even tested out some of the recipes, and it has been "read."

And I loved it.

Now, let me tell you why:

One, I loved the pictures.  They were bright and really very lovely when you're looking at how a dish should have looked.  Granted, reality is never going to be as pretty as the picture (and I never get the portions right), but I think the book does a fine job of showing you what it will look like--and then helping you achieve those results.

Two, I adored the fact that the book has an index; in fact, it has two.  One is similar to a table of contents, which shows you the main ingredient of each recipe in alphabetical order, followed by an easy to read table that show you what's vegetarian, what's vegan, what's family friendly (read:  kid friendly), what's gluten free, and more.  Moreover, it goes on to tell you all the nutritional information and it helps you make healthy choices.

Three, I liked that it has good food that's easy to make within an hour or less.  Most of the recipes only take 30 minutes, and that's including prep time and baking, which I absolutely loved.  As the subtitle promises it has "easy recipes" that are loaded with simple, but wholesome ingredients, and easy-to-read recipes that make cooking so much less of a chore.

For instance, I liked that I could reach into my cupboard and cobble together a delicious meal in just an hour after work.  I tried the Shepherd's Pie (which was delicious), the garlic rolls (equally delicious, but I added some mozzarella cheese and I think it could have used some more butter and parsley), and the sausage and broccoli calzones (or, more accurately, I took the recipe and made it my own with Italian sausage, spinach, pepperoni, mozzarella cheese, and a little bit of Parmesan cheese).

All these recipes turned out delicious, and they were seriously some of the easiest meals I made throughout my week.  After working until 5 or 6 in the evening, I liked coming home, throwing together a Shepherd's Pie with the leftover hamburger in my refrigerator and pouring on a heaping helping of instant mashed potatoes and cheese.  It was pretty delicious, but I will probably be more careful about following the directions to the letter next time.

The Bad
No complaints.  I found the recipes I loved, and then if I didn't like the recipe I simply didn't make it.  There are more than 350 different recipes that range from gluten-free to Vegan with a spattering of other healthy choices in between decadent recipes like Salted Caramel Cupcakes and Hot Chocolate Cupcakes with Marshmallow Frosting, so there's bound to be something for everyone.

I'm still drooling over the marshmallow frosting.

The Ugly
There's really not anything here to complain about.  I mean, unless you just don't like food, in which case you wouldn't even pick it up in the first place, it's a nice little cook book that's good to give you an idea on busy weeknights.

Built

Harper Collins

Built
Jay Crownover
2016

The Summary
"Sayer Cole and Zeb Fuller couldn't be more different.  She's country club and fine-dining, he's cell-block and sawdust.  Sayer spends her days in litigation, while Zeb spends his working with his hands.  But none of that has stopped Zeb from wanting the stunning blonde since the moment he laid eyes on her--even if the reserved lawyer seems determinedly oblivious to his interest.

"Sayer is certain the rough, hard, hot-as-hell Zeb could never want someone as closed off and restrained as she is, which is a shame because something tells her he might be the guy to finally melt her icy exterior.  When he shows up at Sayer's door needing her professional help, she's both disappointed and relieved that she won't get the chance to find out just how good he could be.

"But as they team up to right a wrong and save a family, the steam created when fire and ice collide cannot be ignored."

The Good
It's time for some honesty:  I picked this book solely for the cover.  I'm not even going to lie, because I simply couldn't help myself.  Admittedly, it probably helped when I read the cover synopsis and discovered Zeb was a "hot-as-hell" construction worker covered with tattoos.  Why that seemed so scintillating and swoon-worthy, I cannot say, but it was and it's the whole reason I decided to start on the Saints of Denver series.

Granted, I'm not sure if I'll continue with the series, but I will say I did enjoy it.  This book was a guilty pleasure.  I picked it purely for the cover, and I was mostly pleased with it.  I mean, Zeb and Sayer are forced to confront some pretty significant emotional conflicts and, personally, I think they do a fair job developing as characters as they surmount each challenge.

It isn't an immediate classic, but that's okay.  It's light, fun reading.  Of course, if you don't like steamy, explicit romance, I certainly wouldn't recommend it; however, if you aren't bothered by it, it's not a bad novel to read within a day or two for some down time.  Plus, it has the added bonus of the lovely fellow on the cover.

The Bad
Like I said, Built isn't a bad novel, but it's not absolutely, world-rocking fantastic.  I wasn't always captivated by having to switch between characters.  I've realized that I only like first-person point of view when I'm reading through one character's perspective; otherwise, I only like a limited third-person point of view if I'm dealing with multiple characters.  That's a personal choice, than any wrongdoing on the part of the book.

However, I will note I was a little disappointed with the language.  That is, I wasn't always enchanted with the flow of the story, the tone of the characters, the overall feeling of the novel.  It wasn't like the author butchered the language or anything, it just didn't feel spectacular.  It was easy to understand, a definite plus, but it was lacking some critical element that would keep me riveted.

It just wasn't quite right.

The Ugly
I said earlier that I really liked the cover and, as a character, I really liked Zeb.  He's a reliable fellow trying to make a living and trying to make a difference in the world.  He's big, he's strong, he's handsome, and he's always good to women; however, he does not deal well with rejection.  Not that Sayer's any better, considering she breaks his heart because, despite him proving that he's a good man time and again, she can't get over her own insecurities.

I know it's presumptuous for me to pass judgement on another couple's relationship--I mean, who am I to cast stones, right?--but I was just bothered by the way they could hurt each other.  Admittedly, it was really only one moment in the entire book that bothered me:  the moment when Sayer breaks things off with Zeb, because she doesn't know how to handle a relationship--and then things get ugly.

Zeb is not violent with her, let me say that first and foremost; however, this event changes the whole tenor of the intimacy between them.  It's painful, because, in some way, Zeb wants to hurt her like she has hurt him and Sayer believes that she should be hurt for her complicity in breaking his heart.  They have this strange, harmful--toxic, maybe?--dynamic going on and it's all just so....ugly.

It's pretty much the only scene in the entire book that really bothered me.  I mean, their relationship is really not that bad otherwise.  Granted, Sayer is coming to terms with her father's emotional abuse and she's grappling with her own inability to always express emotion, so I know they are struggling.

For the most part, Zeb is understanding.  He's willing to let her work things out; heck, even after things fall apart, he's still willing to let her work things out on her own and figure out her own worth.  They work well together, they seem to have a genuine affection for one another (and uninhibited lust, of course), but this one moment between them just makes me wince.  It's difficult to witness, and I was just really, really bothered by it.

Read Harder Challenge 2017: Part 3

I finally finished the next part of my Read Harder Challenge.  I finished:

• Read a book about books.
• Read a book that is set within 100 miles of your location.
• Read a collection of stories by a woman.

Simon & Schuster

Starting out, I finished reading The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu by Joshua Hammer, which details events beginning in 2012 when more than 350,000 manuscripts--many of which had been painstakingly collected by Abdel Kader Haidara--were endangered by Al Qaeda militants seizing control of Mali.  In his book, Hammer details how Haidara and other manuscript collectors managed to find, preserve, and rescue hundreds of thousands of manuscripts, before smuggling them out of the country under the noses of Al Qaeda.

As the summary attests, it's indeed a "brazen heist worth of Ocean's Eleven."  Personally, I found it fascinating to learn how Haidara became involved in the manuscript preservation business and how he and other librarians managed to steal away more than 350,000 manuscripts from Timbuktu.  I mean, the number is simply mind boggling.

Moreover, I was consistently fascinated by the history and culture of Timbuktu and Mali as a whole.  Hammer offers a rich variety of details, discussing the medical, cultural, historical, scholastic and artistic impact of Timbuktu.  Although his work can grow a little dry, every chapter offers fascinating insight into the history of Timbuktu and, more importantly, provides readers with an eye-opening portrait of the conditions faced by Mali's residents when Al Qaeda invaded.

Cipher-Naught

Next, I checked out Beauty and the Mustache by Penny Reid.  Set in Tennessee, Beauty and the Mustache is a short, sweet little romance--which kicks off the Winston Brothers series and continues the Knitting in the City series, both by Penny Reid--that brings together Ashley Winston and Drew Runous.  After spending more than 8 years away from home, Ashley is forced to return to Tennessee to help take care of her ailing mother.  Expecting the same rough treatment from her brothers as from years before, she's surprised to learn they've changed.  She's even more surprised to meet their friend Drew, especially when she realizes he's exactly her type.

Overall, I really enjoyed reading Beauty and the Mustache.  Like I noted above, it's a short, sweet little romance and it's absolutely adorable.  It's sometimes bittersweet, sometimes tragic, but I immensely enjoyed reading Penny Reid's novel.  I found I connected to Ashley, our main character and narrator, on a personal level and I admired her sharp, sarcastic sense of humor, her intelligence, and her ability to go toe-to-toe with Drew's philosophical meanderings.

However, I will note I was bothered by one thing:  I did not like the setting.  I love the Smoky Mountains, don't get me wrong; however, I simply didn't like the narrator's inability to describe her surroundings.  I was incredibly disappointed by the setting descriptions, which were seriously lacking.  I wanted to hear more about the winding roads, the multitude of trees, the softly sloping mountains in the distance, or the way the hills fade against the horizon, deepening to a slate blue before disappearing altogether.

I wanted to hear about places I've known or seen, but, sadly, I didn't get that chance.  It was slightly disappointing.

Anchor

Last, I read Moral Disorder by Margaret Atwood.  I think I might have fudged the challenge parameters with this one, since it's really just a single novel; however, as it's labeled with "Other Stories," I assumed it would do the trick.  It centers around one woman--Nell--but it's a compilation of many short stories from different points in her life.

It begins with "Bad News," toward the tail end of Nell's life, but it jumps through time with each story and catapults Nell into the past, showing readers glimpses of her childhood and her adolescence and, finally, her transition into adulthood.

Truthfully, I didn't enjoy reading Moral Disorder that much.  Atwood is a fantastic writer and her prose packs a punch when she wants it, but, personally, I found I couldn't always connect with the stories in Moral Disorder, I couldn't always connect to Tig and Nell.  Granted, when I did connect with one of these stories, it moved me deeply and I worried for Nell, like I'd worry for a friend; however, I found it was a rather unremarkable journey for me overall.

The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu: And Their Race to Save the World's Most Precious Manuscripts

Simon & Schuster

The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu:  And Their Race to Save the World's Most Precious Manuscripts
Joshua Hammer
2016

The Summary
"To save precious centuries-old Arabic texts from Al Qaeda, a band of librarians in Timbuktu pulls off a brazen heist worthy of Ocean's Eleven.

"In the 1980s, a young adventurer and collector for a government library, Abdel Kader Haidara, journeyed across the Sahara and along the Niger River, tracking down and salvaging tens of thousands of ancient Islamic and secular manuscripts that were crumbling in the trunks of desert farmers.  His goal was to preserve this crucial part of the world's patrimony in a gorgeous library.  But then Al Qaeda showed up at the door.

"The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu tells the incredible story of how Haidara, a mild mannered activist and historian from the legendary city of Timbuktu, became one of the world's greatest and most brazen smugglers by saving the texts from destruction.  With bravery and patience, he organized a dangerous operation to sneak all 350,000 volumes out of the city to the safety of southern Mali.  This real-life thriller is a reminder that ordinary citizens often do the most to protect the beauty and imagination of their culture.  It is also the story of a man who, through extreme circumstances, discovered his higher calling and was changed forever by it."

The Good
I enjoyed reading The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu.  First and foremost, I had the chance to learn about some amazing librarians who did extraordinary things (I always like learning about librarians); second, I learned so much about Timbuktu and Mali, which I enjoyed.  I love learning about different regions and locales, and I was positively enchanted by Mali and the beautiful manuscripts Abdel Kader Haidara uncovers.

I love books.  I especially love old books.  They're beautiful and precious, and I was enthralled by the simple history and content of the hundreds of manuscripts that Haidara saved.  Joshua Hammer had a way of describing the manuscripts that made me want to reach out and hold them, to run my fingers over the pages and see the full-colored details painstakingly drawn upon their pages.

I was dying to view one for myself and feel the weight of history in my hands.

It's a consistent feeling throughout the book.  Hammer gives these manuscripts--and the men and women who saved them--a great significance.  They feel important, crucial to the preservation of history and culture and memory.

You get the feeling that Hammer is passionate about this story.  He wants to tell readers about the incredible librarians who preserved history against all odds, about the city and country that suffered under Al Qaeda, about the small community that banded together to survive unspeakable tragedy.  Truly, it's awe-inspiring to read.

The Bad
No complaints.

It's a bit slow on the build up, but it's a fascinating and thoughtful inspection on a region of the world with which I'm unfamiliar.  I was excited to learn more about Mali's wonderful and colorful history, to hear more about Haidara's unprecedented rescue mission of more than 350,000 books and manuscripts.

The Ugly
The violence this region endured is staggering.

Mali, particularly Timbuktu, was a thriving haven for artists, musicians, tourists, religious leaders, educators, and historians.  Regular festivals were held in honor of local music and musicians, and museums sprang up to celebrate the social, scholarly, medical, and cultural history of Mali.  And yet almost over night everything changed with the arrival of Al Qaeda.

Strict religious and social laws, appalling punishments, brutal behavior, cruelty, and that's just the tip of the iceberg.  They killed and maimed those they believed broke their laws; they restricted local businesses and workers, imposing harsh strictures, and all but killed Mali's economy; they defaced monuments and burned books, art, and more, destroying anything they saw as challenging their leadership.  They effectively tried to erase Mali's history and impose their own.

It's horrifying to witness these things.  I mean, I found it heartbreaking to see Timbuktu have its entire culture and history reworked through a lens of bigotry and hate, to witness innocent people lose their homes, their businesses, their limbs and their very lives for a philosophy of violence.  It's painful, and it's what makes The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu such a hard book to read and discuss.