Musings: A Midwife's Tale

 Laurel Thatcher Ulrich is a pretty amazing person.  I cannot describe to you just how much research she did before presenting the world with the gift that is A Midwife's Tale:  The Life of Martha Ballard, Based on her Diary 1785-1812, but I assure you that it was a RIDICULOUS amount.  Ulrich can take an entry that says, "Calld from Mrs Howard to Mr McMasters to see their son William who is very low.  Tarried there this night" into this fantastic commentary about social class, Revolutionary era medicine, town gossip and so, so much more.  It is absolutely amazing.  I feel like Martha Ballard wrote her diary just for  Laurel Thatcher Ulrich to read and find mysteries to be unlocked.

 A Midwife's Tale is about Martha Ballard's life in Hallowell, Maine in the period following the Revolutionary War.  Ballard practiced as as midwife for the town, and she was very, very good at her job.  She also kept a diary very consistently, every day, for many, many years.  Until Laurel Thatcher Ulrich came along, no one really knew what to do with the diary.  It is not exactly loaded with juicy details,as you can see from the snippet I shared above, but it is written very consistently.  Ulrich decided not to look at the diary in a vacuum.  She read it and then annotated her research with other diaries from the same town, judicial records from the region, land grant information, local history, and all sorts of other fantastic things.  The result is a rich, nuanced, and highly readable history of not just one woman or one town, but of an entire network of people who lived and worked together in a highly structured society.

Business Administration: Mastered

Today is my graduation day!!

Musings: On the Origin of Tepees

I first heard about Jonnie Hughes' On the Origin of Tepees:  The Evolution of Ideas (and Ourselves) on NPR - either on Radiolab or Science Friday, I can't remember which one.  I was so taken with the name, and then, when I looked the book up online, I was even more enamored with the cover image that the book went immediately onto my wish list.  And there it sat, unassuming, until I realized recently that I have access to a university library system and that I could check the book out and read it very easily!  So, thanks again, University of Michigan Library!

On the Origin of Tepees is a science book written by an ecologist, but I really hope you don't let that scare you away.  I know that already, some of your eyes are glazed over and that you're just going to skim the rest of this post and write something like, "Sounds interesting, but not for me" in the comments, but that is NOT what you should do.  There are some books that make you smarter in an everyday sense- ones that really make you think critically about the way the world forms and why things are the way they are, and this is one of those books.  After reading this book, you'll a) want to take a road trip to the Black Hills; b) add "construct a tepee" to your bucket list; and c) look at barns in a totally different way than ever before.

A and Z March through the Middle: Middlemarch Part III

You probably thought we gave up on this read, didn't you?  Bot no!  Zibilee and I are back with a vengeance here, discussing Book III of George Eliot's epic novel Middlemarch.  For those of you who may not know, the lovely and fabulous and eloquent Zibilee and I are reading George Eliot's Middlemarch together over the next several weeks in a fairly meandering and highly unscheduled manner.  Basically, our plan is to read one book (there are eight books that comprise the novel) and then discuss it and analyze it into submission so that our weary modern minds can understand it :-)

No, for real, this is how the novel is meant to be read!  It came out in eight separate parts originally, and who are we to disagree with George Eliot, the woman so tough she wrote as a man?  Plus, this way, we can get into great detail on each section of the book, instead of trying to converse on the whole 1,000+ pages of it all at once.

Based on the nature of our discussion, spoilers abound ahead!  But so does pure literary conversational awesomeness, so weigh your options to read or not to read and choose accordingly. 

The first half of our Part III discussion is here, and the second half is at Zibilee's blog, Raging Bibliomania.  We chat about debts (mainly those of one particularly well-meaning but bumbling young man) and social cluelessness (also in the character of a well-meaning but bumbling young man) below, and at Heather's, we talk about death (particularly of an older, unkind gentleman) and jealousy (of the May-December marriage variety).  Hope you'll check out both the entries and share your thoughts with us!

Musings: A Blunt Instrument

It is not often that I say this for a Georgette Heyer book, but A Blunt Instrument struck me (excuse the pun) as incredibly "meh."  I think it's highly unfortunate for me that one of the first Heyer mysteries I read was Footsteps in the Dark, which is one of the most hilarious novels I've ever read, and so every time I pick up another one of her books, I hope against hope that it turns into Footsteps in the Dark.  And sadly, it never does.  A Blunt Instrument, for some, may get close.  There is a very bizarre police officer who quotes cryptic, doomsday proverbs from the Bible at every turn.  There's an heir to a vast fortune who claims not to care about anything or anyone, but just wants to live his life in the generally selfish manner he chooses.  There's a mystery authoress who, for reasons I couldn't quite discern, chooses to wear a monocle.  There's a Misunderstanding Between a Couple that is in the Midst of a Great Divide.  But it just didn't work for me.

This novel centers around the murder (by a blunt instrument no one can find at the scene of the crime) of a prominent and wealthy womanizer in his own study.  It turns out the gentleman was not quite so savory, had many affairs, acted unethically in the stock market, and held other people's debts over their heads.  So really, any number of people may have wanted to kill him, though at first it seems like no one ever would.

Joint Musings: Lions of the West: Chapter 4 - David Crockett

A couple of months ago, Kari from Five Borough Books asked me to read Lions of the West:  Heroes and Villains of the Westward Expansion with her and participate in a blog discussion about the book.  I jumped at the chance, not only because I wanted to get even more in-depth on this historical era, but also because Kari is really pretty awesome. 

Lions of the West presents short biographies of eight men who were integral to the process of America expanding west across the North American continent.  Kari and I chose to discuss each man in-dept over the course of a few weeks.  We started the discussion here with the chapter on Thomas Jefferson.  Below is our discussion of the fourth chapter, on Davey Crockett.  We hope you enjoy the below discussion and that it piques your interest enough to delve more into American history and understand the complex relationships that existed, and continue to exist, between so many different cultures.

See our post on Chapter 3, Johnny Appleseed, here. 

Musings: Among Others

Jo Walton is an author I've wanted to read for quite some time.  I particularly want to read her Tooth and Claw, but Among Others was the only book by her available in the library, so I went for that one instead.  A quick search on Google tells me that there are seventy instances of this book being mentioned in my "personal network," which means that many of you have already read the book or mentioned it somewhere or other.  I must have forgotten all of those reviews, as I didn't really have any idea what to expect when going into this book.

Among Others is not an action novel.  In fact, there is very little movement at all in the book- the narrator, Morwenna, spends most of her time reading in corners of rooms and trains.  Sometimes she walks to a bus stop.  Morwenna, or Mor, as she calls herself, was injured when she was hit by a car.  Her twin sister, Morganna, was killed in the same accident.  As the story unfolds, we get small hints as to what exactly happened. Mor and her sister had to take a stand against their mother.  Morwenna came out permanently scarred, and Morganna didn't come out at all.

Now, Mor lives with her father and is sent to boarding school, where she feels so left out and lonely that her only real friends are books- science fiction books, in particular.  And we follow her there and witness her desperate attempts to keep away from her mother, her suspicions about her father's family, and her yearning desire to have a group of friends that understand her.

Musings: Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont

Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont is the first book I've ever read by the beloved-by-bloggers Elizabeth Taylor.  (No, not that Elizabeth Taylor.)  I can understand why readers adore her so much, but I think my reaction to her is similar to my reaction to Barbara Pym- I loved her for being so thoughtfully honest in her portrayal of people's everyday lives, but the portrayal itself is so painful, bringing to the front all of our tiny cruelties and unkindnesses to each other- that I cannot imagine reading books by Taylor one after the other.

Mrs. Palfrey is an elderly woman with varicose veins who "would have made a distinguished-looking man and, sometimes, wearing evening dress, looked like some famous general in drag."  She moves into the Claremont Hotel in South Kensington.  The Claremonet is open to long-term residents, with the caveat that they "are not allowed to die there."  She keeps company with an assortment of other elderly ladies (and one elderly man who enjoys telling dirty jokes) who like to talk about their extended families and all their familial accomplishments, though they rarely ever receive visitors and live very lonely lives.  Mrs. Palfrey finds herself reinventing her grandson Desmond, making him out to be a very kind and busy young man who is just too busy to visit her as often as he would like.  The real Desmond has never once even written her a letter.

One day, Mrs. Palfrey slips and falls, and a young man named Ludo makes sure she's all right.  Thus begins a rare sort of friendship, of a young man and and elderly lady finding enjoyment in each other's company.  Ludo pretends to be the larger-than-life Desmond that Mrs. Palfrey created, and in return, Mrs. Palfrey provides Ludo with some free meals and the knowledge that someone cares about him.

Joint Musings: Lions of the West, Chapter 1

A couple of years ago, I started reading and learning more about Native Americans.  I fell in love with Sherman Alexie, bought a copy of Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, started reading some articles about the Indian experience, visited the National Museum of the American Indian in DC, and realized that so much of American history happened with Indians and whites together, whereas now the two are nearly separate.

A couple of months ago, Kari from Five Borough Books asked me to read Lions of the West:  Heroes and Villains of the Westward Expansion with her and participate in a blog discussion about the book.  I jumped at the chance, not only because I wanted to get even more in-depth on this historical era, but also because Kari is really pretty awesome.

Lions of the West presents short biographies of eight men who were integral to the process of America expanding west across the North American continent.  Kari and I chose to discuss each man in-dept over the course of a few weeks.  Below is our discussion of the first chapter that centered on Thomas Jefferson.  On Thursday, Kari will post our discussion of the second chapter, on Andrew Jackson.  We hope you enjoy the below discussion and that it piques your interest enough to delve more into American history and understand the complex relationships that existed, and continue to exist, between so many different cultures.

See our discussion of Chapter 2, Andrew Jackson, on Kari's blog here.

[TSS] Which author defines your growth as a reader?

Like most of you, I've been reading for years and years, quite happily.  But I don't know that I evolved much as a reader until high school, and it's only now that I'm really willing to try many new books and stories and can tell how reading certain things has changed my mindset and my perspective on the world.

I read one of Georgette Heyer's mysteries, A Blunt Instrument, this past week, and I think my relationship with her as an author really personifies the way that I have grown and matured as a reader.  This is mainly because she's an author I've read so steadily for so long.  I read my first Georgette Heyer novel, The Nonesuch, when I was a junior in high school.  I am still making my way through her extensive catalog today.

Musings: The Water Room

I've had Christopher Fowler's Peculiar Crimes Unit mystery series on my radar for a while, and so was very, very pleased when I recently found the second book in his series, The Water Room, at a local used bookstore.  I have not read the first book in the series, Full Dark House, before, but had very little trouble following this book.  I hope to go back and read the first in the series soon, though.

The Water Room doesn't feature as unusual a detective as did The Janissary Tree, but Arthur Bryant and John May are, in my opinion, far more entertaining and fun to spend time with.  Bryant and May are octogenarians on the London police force.  They're on the Peculiar Crimes Unit, meaning they get the more long-term and unusual jobs that the Metropolitan Police don't have the time or capacity to handle.  They are facing budget cuts and bureaucratic red tape, though, and their unit could be shut down at any time.  That doesn't worry the team enough to actually follow police procedures, though.  They do things their own way, and manage to get results using a lot of internal knowledge and old-fashioned sleuthing.

That's because Bryant and May are a little old-fashioned themselves- they're both well into their 80s, meaning they not only survived the London Blitz, they also lived through the crazed 60s, Margaret Thatcher and a new wave of terrorism.  They have also seen London evolve and grow and change over time, and the knowledge they have picked up about the city (particularly Bryant) is absolutely amazing.  Meaning, the knowledge that Christophe Fowler, as the author of this book, has about London is truly overwhelming.  And putting that knowledge into the thoughts and mannerisms and emotions of two elderly men- that's really quite masterful.

Musings: The Virago Book of Fairy Tales

I first heard about the Virago Book of Fairy Tales (my copy was called The Old Wives' Fairy Tale Book) from Ana in a comment on my review of Trickster.  In that review, I said that I enjoyed Trickster, but was unhappy that so many of the stories related did not portray women in a very positive light.  Ana pointed me towards Angela Carter's more women-centric book of folk tales and fairy tales, and I quickly got the book from the library to read.

And, as Ana promised, the book is much more interesting and nuanced in its portrayal of women because, well, that was a significant motivating factor in compiling the book.  The stories also come from peoples and cultures all over the world, from Native Americans to West Africans to Eskimos to Europeans, so it was really fascinating to see the different cadences and rhythms and themes that emerged from them.