Clever Maids: The Secret History of the Grimm Fairy Tales
Author: Valerie Paradiz
Date Finished: 4/11/06
This is one of the few non-fiction books I've had the staying power to finish in my reading career. As I mentioned before, I have just awful taste in non-fiction. I choose books that seem promising but cause me to fall asleep within fifteen words or hokey self-improvement books that change my life for about fifteen seconds. This time, neither was the case and I thought Clever Maids was interesting and well written.
The premise of the book is that Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm's travels through the countryside collecting folk tales for their collection is completely made up. Instead, their sources for the tales were their sister's friends and other women of their acquaintance. For the most part, the women were educated (they could read and write at least) but were still captured in the societal expectations of the time...to serve family and throw in their economic lot with a kind husband if they were lucky.
Ms. Paradiz does a nice job of telling a few of the stories the women collected and connecting the tales to the women's role in families and society at the time. Another influence on the Grimm brothers was Napolean's occupation of Germany during the time they were working on the collection. Paradiz shows the subtext (is there a subtext to oral stories? sub-voice? sub-telling? I don't know) of many of the tales related to current political events as well as the traditional roles of men and women and the not-quite-bourgeois German people in the early 19th century.
I liked this book a lot and because of it I will probably put the Grimm collection on my list of to-be-read. And perhaps a toned down version (not so many hands hacked off or eyes gouged out) to read to the kids. Although we modern women have learned that we aren't living in a fairy tale and we can't count on Prince Charming whisking us away, the appeal of "happily ever after" remains strong, even if we have to create the ever after of our dreams on our own.
Tuesday, April 11, 2006
Sunday, April 09, 2006
The Ice Cream Maker: an inspiring tale about making quality the key ingredient in everything you do
Author: Subir Chowdhury
Date Finished: 4/8/06
Having broken through my reading slump, I'm showing my complete lack of taste when it comes to reading non-fiction. I'm a sucker for any kind of rah-rah business motivational or personal philosophy, i.e. Seven Habits or my new obsession, Getting Things Done (which I have read at least three times while soaking in the bathtub, an irony that is not lost on me). Ice Cream Maker is the worst kind of that genre, a cute little tale about an ice cream factory faced with financial failure and an executive who turns things around by modeling the leadership strategies of his mentor.
What rings completely hollow (other than the general putting-off-the-real-world-nature of reading motivational books in the first place) is that the narrative is in the first person, told through the eyes of the CEO of the company, "Pete". Ummm, is "Pete" the new nickname for Subir? Just wondering.
On the other hand, the book does bring up a good point, albeit not the ultimate solution to all problems of all organizations, everywhere. That is, thinking about the quality of your activities can bring about some pretty amazing results. Thinking about my own life (because it's my blog and it's all about me), I struggle with this question all the time. What is the quality of my decision not to work in order to be home with our kids? On the days they watch television from dawn to dusk while I pitch a fit about all the cleaning I'm doing....not so good. On the days we walk around the neighborhood for no particular reason, go to the park after school just because it's a brilliant spring day or read ten books at bedtime instead of our customary three....it's better.
Here's a link from a home-schooling mom and freelance writer that ties into these thoughts a little: It All Begins With Me. Mrs. M-mv talks about her need to set a quality example in order for her family's homeschooling enterprise to succeed. I highly suggest following up with some of the thoughts on education and parenting at the bottom of this entry; this family's approach to learning is fascinating and inspiring. In short, you could skip the hokey fable of The Ice Cream Maker and find much of its message in the family M-mv's true story.
Author: Subir Chowdhury
Date Finished: 4/8/06
Having broken through my reading slump, I'm showing my complete lack of taste when it comes to reading non-fiction. I'm a sucker for any kind of rah-rah business motivational or personal philosophy, i.e. Seven Habits or my new obsession, Getting Things Done (which I have read at least three times while soaking in the bathtub, an irony that is not lost on me). Ice Cream Maker is the worst kind of that genre, a cute little tale about an ice cream factory faced with financial failure and an executive who turns things around by modeling the leadership strategies of his mentor.
What rings completely hollow (other than the general putting-off-the-real-world-nature of reading motivational books in the first place) is that the narrative is in the first person, told through the eyes of the CEO of the company, "Pete". Ummm, is "Pete" the new nickname for Subir? Just wondering.
On the other hand, the book does bring up a good point, albeit not the ultimate solution to all problems of all organizations, everywhere. That is, thinking about the quality of your activities can bring about some pretty amazing results. Thinking about my own life (because it's my blog and it's all about me), I struggle with this question all the time. What is the quality of my decision not to work in order to be home with our kids? On the days they watch television from dawn to dusk while I pitch a fit about all the cleaning I'm doing....not so good. On the days we walk around the neighborhood for no particular reason, go to the park after school just because it's a brilliant spring day or read ten books at bedtime instead of our customary three....it's better.
Here's a link from a home-schooling mom and freelance writer that ties into these thoughts a little: It All Begins With Me. Mrs. M-mv talks about her need to set a quality example in order for her family's homeschooling enterprise to succeed. I highly suggest following up with some of the thoughts on education and parenting at the bottom of this entry; this family's approach to learning is fascinating and inspiring. In short, you could skip the hokey fable of The Ice Cream Maker and find much of its message in the family M-mv's true story.
Thursday, April 06, 2006
Life of Pi
Author: Yann Martel
Date Finished: April 5, 2006
I finished a book! It's been a long month since the last time I could say that. I've started many books, but this past month nothing much held my interest long enough to ignore everything else I needed to do and keep on reading.
I'm late to the table for Life of Pi; it won the Man Booker prize in 2002 and many people on and off the Internet were talking about it at that time. I thought it started out slowly but then became completely fascinating in that can't-put-it-down sort of way that is such a satisfying read.
The premise is that a young boy named Pi is alone on a lifeboat after the ship carrying him, his parents and animals from the zoo his parents operated in India, sank in the Pacific Ocean. Complicating his survival at sea is the fact that a tiger named Richard Parker also made his way to the lifeboat, giving Pi an additional obstacle to surviving, but also a reason to persevere as Pi promises Richard Parker that he won't let him die. The story is part documentary about the art and science of zookeeping and part magical realism, but overall is an amazing description of the mechanisms, physical, mental and emotional, a human being can devise in order to survive in a hopeless situation.
My sense of hope has never been seriously challenged. Sure, I have the normal thirty-something feeling that maybe some of the more interesting opportunities are closing for me, but in general I feel completely optimistic that if I think about it enough and work hard enough, I can get pretty much whatever I want out of this life of mine. It's all about balancing what I'm willing to do in order to achieve what I want. While reading this book, I couldn't help but wonder how I would respond in a similar situation. No matter how clever or determined Pi remained during his ordeal, it didn't help him get closer to land or rescue, other than that he remained alive long enough for his boat to drift to Mexico. Would I have the inner grit to keep fishing, keep making fresh water out of sea water, keep myself the boss of the tiger on board?
I've read that this book is being circulated among the YA crowd, and I really like to think that middle school kids would open themselves up to this kind of reading experience. Like the mirage in front of you while driving down the highway on a hot summer's day, the meeting of fantasy and reality shimmers more vibrantly than either alone. Books like this give me hope that reading will never become something that I just can't find the time for; like a hungry tiger, I swallowed this story and with my belly still full, begin to look around for more.
Author: Yann Martel
Date Finished: April 5, 2006
I finished a book! It's been a long month since the last time I could say that. I've started many books, but this past month nothing much held my interest long enough to ignore everything else I needed to do and keep on reading.
I'm late to the table for Life of Pi; it won the Man Booker prize in 2002 and many people on and off the Internet were talking about it at that time. I thought it started out slowly but then became completely fascinating in that can't-put-it-down sort of way that is such a satisfying read.
The premise is that a young boy named Pi is alone on a lifeboat after the ship carrying him, his parents and animals from the zoo his parents operated in India, sank in the Pacific Ocean. Complicating his survival at sea is the fact that a tiger named Richard Parker also made his way to the lifeboat, giving Pi an additional obstacle to surviving, but also a reason to persevere as Pi promises Richard Parker that he won't let him die. The story is part documentary about the art and science of zookeeping and part magical realism, but overall is an amazing description of the mechanisms, physical, mental and emotional, a human being can devise in order to survive in a hopeless situation.
My sense of hope has never been seriously challenged. Sure, I have the normal thirty-something feeling that maybe some of the more interesting opportunities are closing for me, but in general I feel completely optimistic that if I think about it enough and work hard enough, I can get pretty much whatever I want out of this life of mine. It's all about balancing what I'm willing to do in order to achieve what I want. While reading this book, I couldn't help but wonder how I would respond in a similar situation. No matter how clever or determined Pi remained during his ordeal, it didn't help him get closer to land or rescue, other than that he remained alive long enough for his boat to drift to Mexico. Would I have the inner grit to keep fishing, keep making fresh water out of sea water, keep myself the boss of the tiger on board?
I've read that this book is being circulated among the YA crowd, and I really like to think that middle school kids would open themselves up to this kind of reading experience. Like the mirage in front of you while driving down the highway on a hot summer's day, the meeting of fantasy and reality shimmers more vibrantly than either alone. Books like this give me hope that reading will never become something that I just can't find the time for; like a hungry tiger, I swallowed this story and with my belly still full, begin to look around for more.
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