April 2009 - Page 2 of 3

Bless Me, Ultima

by Rudolfo Anaya

When in college, for a short time I was an English tutor for two Korean high school students. They had to read this book for a class, a classic I\’d never heard of before, and I became curious to read it myself.

The story is about a young boy, Antonio, growing up in New Mexico. When he\’s six years old an elderly woman comes to live with his family, a faith healer who uses herbs and mysticism to cure people of physical and spiritual ills. Her name is Ultima. Ultima becomes Antonio\’s mentor, guiding him through rough times and teaching him her personal belief system. Antonio has a lot of questions about faith, God, the meaning of life, etc.- but the things Ultima teaches him conflict with with the Catholic teachings his parents follow. Tony struggles to understand the differences and make a choice which he will put his own trust in. He also has to face constant friction between his family members, violence among his peers, and threats from people in the community who believe Ultima is a witch and wish her harm.

Bless Me, Ultima is a strong story of one boy\’s coming of age and search for answers. But the many interrelated characters and events become confusing and the book is full of metaphors and symbolism which felt unfamiliar to me (not their presence, just the ones that were used). Some readers are put off by the inclusion of many Spanish words and phrases, and the constant cultural references- both of Latino heritage and Catholic traditions- had few explanations and only made me feel removed from it all. I was unable to connect with the main character, or feel engaged in his search for stability and wisdom. I was surprised to find this book has been banned from some schools, apparently because of some violence and s-x – which I don\’t remember at all, so it must not have been that shocking- and how it deals with religion.

Rating: 2/5 262 pages, 1972

More opinions at:
A Striped Armchair
Colony Library Lady

Tags: 2/5- Just Okay, Past Reads, Young Adult

blog awards

Suey from It’s All About Books gave me this award which I have been watching circle the blogs- with some trepidation. I don’t know, those zombie chickens look kinda scary. But I am pleased to receive it- thank you, Suey! and happy to pass the following

The blogger who receives this award believes in the Tao of the zombie chicken – excellence, grace and persistence in all situations, even in the midst of a zombie apocalypse. These amazing bloggers regularly produce content so remarkable that their readers would brave a raving pack of zombie chickens just to be able to read their inspiring words. As a recipient of this world-renowned award, you now have the task of passing it on to at least 5 other worthy bloggers. Do not risk the wrath of the zombie chickens by choosing unwisely or not choosing at all…

on to these five other bloggers:

Nymeth of Things Mean A Lot
Chris of Stuff As Dreams Are Made On
Trish of Hey, Lady Whatcha’ Reading?
Raych of books i done read
and Caribousmom

~~~ I forgot to mention that Trish also recently gave me the Sisterhood Award. Thank you, Trish! I\’m passing this one on to:

Juli of Can I Borrow Your Book?
Shelley of Chain Reading
Jenny from Jenny’s Books
Maggie from Maggie Reads
Eva of A Striped Armchair

Ortho\’s All About Vegetables

by Barbara Pleasant and Katie Lamar Smith

Well, I know from past responses that nobody\’s much interested in my gardening books, so I\’ll keep this brief, for myself. Ortho\’s All About Vegetables is a great resource. It\’s short, sweet and to the point. Instructions on how to design a vegetable garden for the best production, how to grow seedlings, overall plant care and specifics on each of some forty different vegetables. Last year I just stuck the seeds in the ground and watered. This year, I now have (thanks to this book- a gift from my husband) a plan to give each type of veggie the individual treatment it needs to grow healthiest. Gorgeous photos and a nice layout that makes for quick, easy reference round out this book. It\’s inspired me to want to grow more plants than my family would eat! And now I want to get a copy of the Ortho herb book since I\’m growing those, too.

Rating: 4/5 96 pages, 1999

Tags: 4/5- Great Book, Current Reads, Gardening / Food

Meme: Numbers Game

from Booking Through Thursday:

Some people read one book at a time. Some people have a number of them on the go at any given time, perhaps a reading in bed book, a breakfast table book, a bathroom book, and so on, which leads me to…

Are you currently reading more than one book?
If so, how many books are you currently reading?
Is this normal for you?
Where do you keep your current reads?

Right now I\’m reading two books (see the sidebar). Usually it\’s just one at a time, occasionally two or more. (They have to be on different subjects. Currently, it\’s a large historical fiction novel, and a book on gardening). My current reads rest on the bedside table, or hang around the couch during the day. (They often go along in the car, too!)

Tags: memes

Sand

by Will James

I was surprised at being disappointed in this book. It wasn\’t nearly as good as Smoky. As Smoky tells the education of a wild horse into a cow pony, Sand tells about a spoiled rich city kid who learns to be a cowboy. Gilbert Tilden is on his way across the country to visit his father, when he accidentally gets off the train in the middle of the Great Plains, and being drunk, fails to get back on. He wanders about the wide expanse of prarie, gets scared by some cattle, and stumbles into a cowboy camp. At first the cowboys are just watching out for him until they have the chance to dump him back at the train depot, but pretty soon Tilden is interested in the doings of the camp, and wants to make something of himself. He fixes on the idea of learning how to be a \”useful hand\”, to prove something to his father. Then he falls in love with a local rancher\’s daughter, and sets himself the nearly impossible goal of catching a wild stallion in order to win her favor. Many other men have tried to catch the stallion before, so he not only has to learn the ways of wild horses, and make careful plans, but also avoid the competition.

This had all the makings of a great story, but there were some things that seriously hindered my enjoyment of it. First of all, the main thread of the narrative is relating Tilden\’s thoughts, musings, and plans- over and over. It would have been more interesting to read more details of his training and the work he had to do to catch the wild horse, which were often skipped over. Sometimes it was hard to puzzle out what was being talked about, as I\’m not really familiar with cowboy lingo (some of the words here). And the whole book is written in slang. Rather like Huckleberry Finn, which I was able to get used to. Here, I couldn\’t. It was particularly annoying that the words Tilden or the girl spoke were in near-perfect English, and the rest of the text in cowboy slang, misspellings and all. It would have been far easier to read if the narrative was proper, and slang only used when the cowboys talked. I thought this book would be a lot like Captains Courageous, which has a similiar theme- spoiled rich kid forced to work and build character- but here, I did not get much sense of Tilden\’s character growth, even though it was discussed all the time. By the end of the book it was all feeling rather dull. Even the end of the story where Tilden finally gets close to the wild horse wasn\’t nearly as interesting as I\’d hoped.

I read this book for the 9 for \’09 Challenge.

Rating: 2/5 364 pages, 1929

Anyone written a blog post about this book? Let me know and I\’ll add your link.

Tags: 2/5- Just Okay, Current Reads, Juvenile Fic, Western

wondrous words

Some of the words I have for this week are from the end of Emma, the rest are from the book I just finished, Sand. Quite a difference in subject and theme- from Victorian drawing rooms to the American West and cowboy lingo!

From Emma:

Conundrum-\”Agreed, agreed. I am making a conundrum. How will a conundrum reckon?\”
Definition: a riddle whose answer is (or involves) a pun

Acrostic– \”I had an acrostic once sent to me upon my own name which I was not at all pleased with.\”
Definition: a poem or verse where the first (or last) letter of each line forms a word or phrase

Ostler– \”… when Mr. Elton came back, he told us what John the ostler had been telling him…\”
Definition: a stableman at an inn (I remember this word now, from Black Beauty)

Extenuation– \”Let us wait, therefore, for this letter. It may bring many extenuations.\”
Definition: to excuse a fault (archaic meaning, the more common definition is to make something thin or stretched)

From Sand:

Nubbin– \”Sometimes tho, he thought, he sure would rap them hands of his and make him let go of the nubbin.\”
Definition: a short, projecting part (here the saddle horn)

Rowel– \”…and with a well placed rowel against the shortribs of that horse, lined him out from the one spot and set him going for other sods on a long crowhopping lope.\”
Definition: a sharp-toothed wheel on a spur

Senatorium– \”And another thing, this camp is no riding academy, nor senatorium.\”
Definition: a resort for the improvement of one\’s health

Whang, Marlin spike- \”There was rawhide hobbles, a marlin spike, a few strips of whang leather which, Skip had told him, was handy to mend things with.\”
M-S- a pointed metal spike used to separate rope strands while splicing
W- a thong or whip made of hide or leather

Hackamore– \”Then, amongst other odds and ends, was a hackamore, a rope full of the knots which the Kid had started teaching him to tie….\”
Definition- a halter or bridle with no bit, having a noose to tighten around the nose or a wide band that can be lowered over the horse\’s eyes, used in breaking to halter

Soogan– \” \’Well, I guess it\’s time for me to hit the soogans,\’ he says\”
Definition: a bedroll

Latigo– \”Ropes are muddy and stiff, so are the latigoes and everything else a cowboy touches.\”
Definition: a strap that tigthens the saddle girth

Queer– \”There been just a snag which come near to queering everything.\”
Definition: slang for to ruin or thwart

Visit Bermudaonion\’s Weblog to see what new words others have found this week.

Tags: wondrous words

No Man Knows My History

by Fawn M. Brodie

This is a very in-depth biography of Joseph Smith, the founder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day-Saints (also known as Mormon). It\’s an incredibly long book. I remember struggling to read it, not only because of the length, and the (often tedious to me) numerous historical facts, but because it brought a lot of questions to my mind. This book is crammed with stuff they certainly don\’t teach you in sunday school. As far as I can judge, it is very well researched, and the narrative style makes the information fairly easy to absorb, taken at a slow, methodical pace. The main quip I had with this book was that beyond presenting all the facts she could dig up about Joseph Smith\’s life, Brodie also tried to reconstruct what he might have been thinking or feeling, what motivations he had, delving into his very psyche. That felt rather presumptuous to me. How could she know what he\’d been thinking? It becomes pretty clear through reading No Man Knows My History that Brodie doesn\’t believe Smith was a prophet, but at the same time the pages resonate with her admiration and even respect for this man. Even if you doubt his claims, there is no questioning that he was a charismatic leader, full of passion and energy, able to inspire others and with a singularly curious outlook on life. That\’s all I\’m going to say about this book, as there\’s a plethora of other reviews out there, many of them long, detailed, and heated in opinion. Go ahead and see what a few others thought (links below).

Rating: 3/5 576 pages, 1945

winner!

.
The winner of my bookmarks giveaway is Nymeth! Hey, Nymeth, some tigers are coming your way!!

My Old Man and the Sea

a father and son sail around Cape Horn
by David and Daniel Hays

A man and his son went on a 17,000-mile sailing adventure around Cape Horn, in a 25-foot boat they built themselves. The dangerous route they chose had never before been completed by a boat under 3o feet. Instead of sticking to the safety of modern gadgets and technology, they used old-fashioned sailing methods. And they took along a cat (who seemed to always be either sick, or causing trouble). They visited many interesting and remote ports and faced ugly weather (including hurricanes), getting lost due to navigation errors, and the strain of keeping their relationship intact in the confines of the small boat for days on end at sea (lots of fights). The book is written in alternating voices, pulled from the Hays\’ journal entries. They\’re not always complimentary of each other, and I had to wonder sometimes what they thought, each seeing the others\’ opinion (often uncomplimentary) of himself in print. They made a lot of mistakes, and freely admitted their errors- some I didn\’t realize the gravity of, not having ever gone sailing myself- others hit me with the danger and I held my breath to see how they\’d scrape out of it alive. My Old Man and the Sea is a blast of a read- full of adventure, humor and wry observations on the father-son relationship. I felt sorry for the poor cat. He was no sailor!

Rating: 3/5 223 pages, 1995

Tags: 3/5- Good Read, Bios / Memoirs, Past Reads, Travel/Adventure

The Secret Life of the Unborn Child

by Thomas Verny

Here\’s another book I read way back when, about pregnancy. The Secret Life of the Unborn Child was written back when people were just beginning to question the routine use of technology in childbirth, and delves into ideas about how things experienced by the baby before or during birth, can affect it (positively or adversely) for life. It was really interesting to read about how the baby develops and all the things infants can sense while in the womb (light, sounds, etc). I think it\’s amazing that unborn babies can learn to recognize their parents\’ voices, or even certain melodies. I\’m not sure if that means they can actually form memories while in the womb, like Verny claims. And other of his theories about how children can be emotionally scarred by medical interventions seemed rather far-fetched. I found the book to be both very intriguing, and worth of skepticism. I\’m pretty sure many of the ideas in it have been further studied nowdays, so if you open its pages, read with a heavy dose of salt (and wonder).

Rating: 3/5 256 pages, 1982

Tags: 3/5- Good Read, Parenting / Pregnancy, Past Reads

Month: April 2009

RATINGS / SUBJECTS: