*pokepoke*

Ok guys. It is December. I know for a fact that Debbie has started the next book. I vote we discuss. Debs, can both Mommy & Judy post, or just comment? I think when Debbie is done with her papers & exams (boo, papers & exams) we should have a bit of a bookwrap. My last stuff is due tuesday, and I even requested books at our local library. I will be a winter reading machine! Or knitting. Can anyone read & knit? Hm, a skill set worth pursuing... we've got snow.. ooh, its easing up a big, so now I can go stomp around in it. Have a lovely weekend, anyone who is reading. Love to you all.
And just to kick it off.
I really enjoyed this book. I wasn't convinced at the start, but I found the slow rhythm sucked me in (which is unusual, as I often don't have the patience). I think I also have been identifying a little bit with her feeling of ambiguity and powerlessness, mixed in with a healthy dose of "Get over it." (thanks, mom :> ). That's what kept me hooked. Too often books draw giant caricatures of people - and they're entertaining, but ghastly in their proportions. Her main character felt person sized. And I know that the background of her daughter on the corner sort of freaked Mommy out... but I also was at ease with her. I guess I completely remember being at that age, the sort of jumping off the cliff into adulthood... and it really does feel like its so easy to get lost. Sometimes withdrawl feels like the only sensible survival instinct to follow... Ok. Discuss ;)

Arg

Just a sunday (morning?) cry for help. I'm not usually a fan of Maureen Dowd, feeling that she's quite high on the drama and sniping, and quite low on the content. However, this is an unfortunately accurate snapshot:

Feminism or Bust?

My cynical side though, knows there are some people getting the short shrift in coverage here. Because what is always missing from this conversation, humourously enough, are the men. And maybe this was the failing of the 1970s feminism: we can't, in fact, do it alone. Which does't make it not worth doing. But its not about making things different just for women, its about making things different. Women can't have husbands, and childrens, and world changing careers - unless they have partners, not just "husbands" (the quotes making it a pejorative term). We don't win on childcare in the workplace or taking a sick day for our babies until *gasp* the men, who ALL HAVE CHILDREN, do the same. Its that kind of equality that we are missing, that we are striving for. And it comes as no surprise (or it shouldn't) that maybe the kind of man that requires one to simper, supress, and surrender is not the sort of man who is going to step up to the plate for women with children to be the same as men with children - still human beings. The big lie about the "big choice" (work or family, work or family..) is that its only our choice.

And here I take a minute and say - thanks Mark. Because every rant like this requires acknowledgement of the fact that there are plenty of good men who are completely on board with not just marrying their secretaries.

Happy Sunday.

I've got to stop ranting

I'll do my best. I think now word verification is on, which means that (hopefully) crazy comment spammers can't bother us. Knock on wood.

Also? Welcome to Mom & Judy. You guys are awesome. Read faster ;)
Of course, I should probably start the next book, because during real life I never have time to pick up books which require too much of my soul. As an example, I'm reading one of Mark's Terry Pratchett books to fill my pre-sleeping time.

Since I have not yet developed the style of an offical book-clubber, I'll just be me, and then work on copying Judy's style later.
This book was shockingly resonant with my now, which seems a little presumptuous, since I neither have grown up children, a writing career, or live in canada. I know most people haven't gotten to the end, so I won't reference it yet. But this, to me, was an exquisite demonstration of the occasional need to scream. And the recognition of both the necessity and the futility. Which is what makes it "women's fiction", I think. That recognizing the futility doesn't remove it. This is life. And we don't get crippled by the contradiction. And the way Norah responds is the way many of us wish we could respond, or respond in our heads, or respond as children, before we take a deep breath and move forward. We employ a wide variety of coping mechanisms (which I expect to be added in by Debbie Tuttle, queen of all things psychology) and move forward.
Consider this an initial exercise in serious precision. I'm working on it.

Our First Book

Unless
by Carol Shields

An article that illustrates the point

The truth about advertising?

I finished it...

I stole a little extra time (which turns out to not be stolen, as I'm one of four people sitting in an unheated room in mammoth) and finished my book this evening.
More later, once there is gelling, once I don't worry about spoiling, but it was madly resonant with where my head is (where my life is)... its funny, because when Judy picked up the book I thought she noted the author with a tinge of scorn - maybe when she joins us, she'll let me know if that was my own personal madness. I enjoyed that it was light and heavy, all at the same time. Back to coffee, and working, and all thats inbetween.

Who likes reading? We do

We are tuttles,and sisters, and as graduate students in vastly different subjects and living three thousand miles apart we decided that the most appropriate thing to do would be to add another thing to our to do list... we welcome others to benefit from our incredible intelligence and good book choosing skills... if you're good we might even let you comment ;) without further ado... let the reading begin...