Memoirs of a Geisha

So I was just looking at my list of posts and I realized that I never finished writing and publishing this one. Which is a tragedy because it is an amazing book and definitely one that I want to recommend to you all to read.

I've mean wanting to read this book since I saw the first of half of the movie. Both the movie and the book are such an amazing slice of a culture completely different from mine. I was constantly amazed by the poetry of the language used by the narrator. She spoke with such majesty and grace about her life. I could not believe that a man from Western culture was the one writing this.

My biggest question throughout the whole novel was, "Where on earth are these men's wives?" Why are they out with these geisha's every night instead of being at home? As much as I felt for the geisha's and the hard work they must put in to move up the ladder of their profession, I felt even more for the silent characters in the book... the wives of these men. They were barely mentioned, but I had to wonder how they dealt with the situation. I guess they just turned a blind eye to their husband's activities since they couldn't do much else. But did they feel betrayed that their husband was off with these other women? I know I would.

The whole book got me thinking about women's rights. Should it be an inherent right that every person can demand fidelity from their significant other? If one party is expected by societal norms to be faithful, shouldn't both parties be held to the same standard? Especially where children are involved. Shouldn't a married woman with children be able to expect her children to grow up knowing that their father loves their mother and respects her? Maybe that's just my 21st century, Western thinking, but it seems reasonable to me.

The Time Traveler's Wife

This book fascinated me! The author did such an amazing job of turning what could've been a cheesy science-fiction book into beautiful, heart-breaking romance. I felt torn between loyalty to Clare and loyalty to Henry. Luckily they never got in a fight, so I didn't have to pick sides.

The story was told from Clare's chronological perspective, which is nice, since she is the one who remains in one time. I loved how even though it was from her chronological perspective we were able to see points of the story from his perspective. Like any true story, there isn't only one side, and one person can't remember all the significant events.

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life

This book was AMAZING!! There are no other words to describe it, but it changed my life. I grew up in a house with a garden and where we cook at home a lot rather than go out to eat, but we've never taken it to this extreme. It opened my eyes to a lot of things though... especially the fact that maybe it would be worth it to pay slightly more to go to a farmer's market and buy food that would have more flavor and more nutrients.

Unfortunately, a lot of it I can't really take to heart while I'm in college. I don't have the land space to grow a garden, and I don't have the freezer space to buy a bunch of food from the farmer's market and freeze it. Let me tell you though, this book got me started thinking about the garden I want when I do have the space for it. I want a big garden with lots of fruit and vegetables in it so that I can freeze and can a bunch of food. I want to have my kids spend their summer mornings outside weeding and really learn the value of hard work and food. I want them to reach for the healthy stuff when they want to snack. Growing up I would always grab an apple or make up an all fruit smoothie if I wanted something to eat in the afternoon... I wouldn't grab chips or cookies (mostly because we didn't have a lot of that stuff in the house).

It made me grateful to grow up in a house where we did grow our own stuff and make our own food a lot of the time. It's something I hope to start doing more, cooking my own food.

The Blind Assassin

I told you I had been reading. This book is the last of my books by Margaret Atwood that I'm going to read for awhile. I need a break from her style of writing. She's an amazing authoress, but her books are rather depressing. I was talking to one of my high school English teachers about this briefly and I came to the conclusion that Margaret Atwood either suffers from age-related depression herself or she is very close to someone who does. It seems like a lot of her novels talk about the degeneration of society as we age. Her protagonists all have a secret that plagues them... usually something of a sexual nature.

After I finished this book yesterday it made me think about what my secret plague is going to be as I age. Will it be something that's already happened in my life? Will it be something that happens between now and when I get married? What is this secret plague going to be? Or will even have one. I'm sure every adult has mistake that they feel has changed their life a lot, but as a Christian and a strong believer in the power of repentance will I feel the same despair as the people in Atwood's novels? None of them seem to be particularly religious, so that might be a big difference between me and them.

The Secret Life of Bees

I promise I've been reading this whole time since I last blogged. I just needed a break from blogging to collect my thoughts and figure out what exactly I thought about The Secret Life of Bees. Mostly I just don't like what I've done thus far in my blog... which is to give little more than a book summary. What I want this blog to be is a collection of short personal essays about how a book makes me feel. Sure I might include some thoughts about different things that I liked or disliked stylistically (mostly so I can use them for papers later on), but really I want this to be a journal of what I learn and how I grow while I'm reading. It probably won't include as much personal detail as my journal does because I don't know who--if anyone--reads this. (Sidenote: if there is anyone out there in cyberland who reads this, PLEASE comment! Let me know you're out there!) So on to the book.

I loved this book. It took me a little while to figure out why but I finally did. This book is a gorgeous book about looking outside yourself for answers. They may not be the most pleasant answers, and the trip to find them may not be the funnest, but this book taught me the importance of having the truth. The main character in the book goes through an intense emotional and spiritual journey as she learns the truth about her mother who had died when she was four years old. She confronts racial barriers without becoming bitter about society or consumed with the problem.

One thing I'm still trying to figure out is the connection between the quotations at the beginning of each chapter and the content of each chapter. Sometimes I wish that the author would repeat the quotation at the end of the chapter so that you can read the quote at the beginning so that as you read you can think about it and then read it again at the end and have your "aha" moment.