The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander

July/August Social Justice Book Club

In light of the civil unrest and my ignorance of black history and being black in America, I have embarked on a journey to change from being non-racist to anti-racist. A large part of that journey is listening to and learning about the black experience. A local, black-owned, independent bookstore is hosting a virtual social justice book club which I joined.

The New Jim Crow was written in 2010 and a 10-year anniversary edition was published this year with a new preface. I read the 2010 edition in print, but I listened to the audio of the newest edition.

This was an eye opener to the systemic racism that has plagued and continues on in our justice system. The War on Drugs, which led to much of the mass incarceration and decline of legal rights such as due process, 4th amendment, etc. was and is played out very differently than what I recall growing up in the 80's in my all-white community.

At times I felt great despair because the changes that need to occur for there to be true equality in America seem insurmountable.  Yet, I have hope - this book as well as other anti-racism books have been on the best-seller list either again or for the first time. There seems to be a louder call for equality and justice - certainly louder than I've heard in my lifetime. We cannot allow the voices to be silenced again or for those of us who were silent before, we cannot return to silence. This is a fight we all must partake in, it's a fight for humanity.

 Troilus and Cressida by William Shakespeare

Shakespeare Project 2020

T&C is classified as a "problem play" (1 of 3), meaning it has a complex and ambiguous tone which shifts between a dark psychological drama and a comedy.

I struggled with this one only because I was unfamiliar with the subject matter: the 10 year Trojan war between the Greeks and Trojans as well Shakespeare's sources: The Illiad by Homer and Troilus and Criseyde by Chaucer. Otherwise I enjoyed the play, especially the quips and the entertaining coward, Thersites.

There appeared to be many critics of the play, even in my own reading group, but it seems Shakespeare was ready for them.

Prologue: "Beginning in the middle; starting thence away

To what may be digest in a play.

Like or find fault; do as your pleasures are:

Now good or bad, 'tis but the chance of war."

Troilus and Cressida claim to be in love, but don't trust one another:

III.2 Cressida: "Blind fear, that seeing reason leads, finds safer footing than blind reason stumbling without fear. To fear the worst oft cures the worse."

"They say all lovers swear more performance than they are able, and yet reserve an ability that they never perform..."

IV.4 Troilus: "...And sometimes we are devils to ourselves,

When we will tempt the frailty of our powers,

Presuming on their changeful potency."

Ulysses is busy manipulating everyone:

I.3 Ulysses: "When that the General is not like the hive,

To whom the foragers shall all repair,

What honey is expected?"

"Let us like merchants, show our foulest wares

And think perchance they'll sell; if not, the lustre

Of the better yet to show shall show the better,

By showing the worst first."

Meanwhile Thersites is offending everyone and cowardly escaping battle and death:

II.1 Ajax: "...I will beat thee into handsomeness."

Thersites: "I shall sooner rail thee into wit and holiness; but

I think thy horse will sooner con an oration than thou

Learn a prayer without book..."

V.1 Achilles:"How now, thou core of envy!

Thou crusty batch of nature, what's the news?"

Thersites: "Why, thou picture of what thou seemest, and 

idol of idiot worshippers,...Why, thou full dish of fool."

Patroclus: "Why, thou damnable box of envy, thou, what

meanest thou to curse thus?"

Thersites:"Do I curse thee?"

Patroclus: "Why, no, you ruinous butt; you whoreson

indistinguishable cur, no."

Thersites. "No! Why art thou, then, exasperate, thou idle

immaterial skein of slied silk, thou green sarcenet flap for

a sore eye, thou tassel of a prodigal's purse, thou? Ah,

how the poor world is pest'red with such water-flies

diminutives of nature."

Patroclus: "Out gall!

Thersites. "Finch egg!"

V.7 Thersites:"What art thou?"

Margarelon: "A bastard son of Priam's"

Thersites: "I am a bastard too; I love bastards. I am a bastard

begot, bastard instructed, bastard in mind, bastard in

valour, in everything illegitimate. One bear will not bite

another, and wherefore should one bastard? Take heed,

the quarrel's most ominous to us: if the son of a whore

fight for a whore, he tempts judgment. Farewell, bastard."

 Macbeth by William Shakespeare

Shakespeare Project 2020

Witches, ghosts, murder and madness...I loved it! This was my first time reading Macbeth and I will definitely return to it again!

Full of famous quotes:

IV.1 All[witches]: "Double, double toil and trouble;

Fire burn, and cauldron bubble."

V.1 Lady Macbeth: "Out, damned spot! out, I say!"

And famous phrases coined by the Bard:

I.5 Lady Macbeth:..."Yet do I fear thy nature;

It is too full o' th' milk of human kindness..."

IV.1 Second Witch: "By the pricking of my thumbs,

Something wicked this way comes."

Though it is the complex character of Macbeth that keeps one riveted. He is manipulated by his wife and the 3 witches and he struggles with his thoughts and actions:

1.3 Macbeth: "Present fears are less than horrible imaginings."

I.7. Macbeth: "False face must hide what the false heart doth know."

V.3 Macbeth: "Canst thou not minister to a mind diseas'd,

Pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow,

Raze out the written troubles of the brain,

And with some sweet oblivious antidote

Cleanse the stuff'd bosom of that perilous stuff

Which weighs upon the heart?"

And he laments on life and death:

V.5 Macbeth: "...Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player,

That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,

And then is heard no more; it is a tale

Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,

Signifying nothing."

Lady Macbeth is actually more of a villain than Macbeth:

II.2 Lady Macbeth: "Give me the daggers. The sleeping and the dead

Are but as pictures...;

III.2 Lady Macbeth: "...'Tis safer to be that which we destroy,

Than by destruction dwell in doubtful joy."

One of my favorite parts was the Porter being awakened after a night of drinking to open the gate:

III.3 MacDuff: "What three things does drink especially provoke?"

Porter: "...nose-painting, sleep and urine. Lechery,

...it provokes and unprovokes: it provokes the desire,

but it takes away the performance...

it makes him, and it mars him; it sets him on, and it takes him off;

it persuades him, and disheartens him; makes him stand to,

and not stand to..."

 The Magdalen Girls -  V. S. AlexXander                                                                               X Author

This is the second book by this author that I have read and  enjoyed . The first one was "The Taster" "wayward" girls were sent to repent and be cured of their evil ways.  Some of the girls were just not wanted by their families or were too pretty or talked back or maybe just too much trouble.

Life at the laundries was very hard and getting released was even harder.

Goodreads:

Dublin, 1962. Within the gated grounds of the convent of The Sisters of the Holy Redemption lies one of the city’s Magdalen Laundries. Once places of refuge, the laundries have evolved into grim workhouses. Some inmates are “fallen” women—unwed mothers, prostitutes, or petty criminals. Most are ordinary girls whose only sin lies in being too pretty, too independent, or tempting the wrong man. Among them is sixteen-year-old Teagan Tiernan, sent by her family when her beauty provokes a lustful revelation from a young priest.

Told with candor, compassion, and vivid historical detail, The Magdalen Girls is a masterfully written novel of life within the era’s notorious institutions—and an inspiring story of friendship, hope, and unyielding courage

 Northern Borders by Howard Frank Mosher

2020 Key Word Challenge - August (Kiss, Flower, When, Happy, North, Right)
Oldest Book on TBR

Okay, so its not THE oldest book on my TBR, but its darn close!

We picked this book up on the recommendation of our favorite book seller from Sanibel Island, FL. Sadly Joan has passed (the new bookstore wasn't the same after she was gone) and we no longer take annual trips to Sanibel, so I started this book already feeling nostalgic.

Summary from Goodreads: Northern Borders is Mosher’s nostalgic novel of life in northern Vermont’s Kingdom County, as told by a man remembering his boyhood. In 1948 six-year-old Austen Kittredge III leaves his widowed father to live with his paternal grandparents on their farm in the township of Lost Nation. Escapades at the county fair, doings at the annual family reunion and Shakespeare performance, and conflicts at the one-room schoolhouse are all recounted lovingly in this enchanting coming-of-age story filled with luminous memories and the deepest of childhood secrets, as a boy is molded into a man.

My nostalgia continued as I read about this young boy growing up on his grandparent's farm in northern Vermont. Okay, okay I was a young gal who spent some weekends on her grandparent's farm in northern Ohio, but there were still some relatable moments as I read about Austin's experiences.

Such as "Haying was maddeningly hot work. Chaff got down my shirt collar and up under my pants cuffs and in my mouth and nose, causing my eyes to run steadily. The days were as long as they were hot..." Oh yeah, I suffered this same thing every summer for many of my growing up years!

And I loved Shakespeare being represented with Rose's annual productions on the farm (with her taking the lead of course): "Here Rose is again, now raging as Lear, now boasting as Falstaff, now agonizing over the bitter ironies of human existence as Hamlet. And once again I see her as Prospero..."

I felt the melancholy of grandpa "'The farms are all gone, The big woods are gone. The best of the hunting and fishing is gone. The kids,...have gown up and gone away and not come back.'", as our own family farm is not what it used to be and the next generation most likely will not be coming back to take it over so it will only live on in my memories.

Other Quotes: "I came upon crate after crate of books:...a pirated edition of Poe's tales with which, at about the age of nine, I would begin scaring the living daylights out of myself..."

""...being brave has nothing to do with being unafraid.'"

 As You Like It by William Shakespeare

Shakespeare Project 2020

This is been a favorite of mine I think mainly because it has my favorite soliloquy:

II.7

Jacques: "All the world's a stage,

And all the men and women merely players;

They have their exits and their entrances;

And one man in his time plays many parts,

His acts being seven ages. At first the infant,...

Then the whining school-boy...

And then the lover,...

Then a soldier,...

And then the justice,...

The sixth age shifts

Into the lean and slipper'd pantaloon,

With spectacles on nose and pouch on side,

His youthful hose, well sav'd, a world too wide

For his shrunk shank; and his big manly voice,

Turning again toward childish treble, pipes

And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all,

That ends this strange eventful history,

Is second childishness and mere oblivion;

Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.

Jacques generally is my favorite character in this play. He is melancholy and prefers to be so!

II.5

Jacques: "I can suck melancholy out of a song as a weasel sucks eggs."

In contrast to Jacques melancholy nature, the banished Duke Senior finds the positive of hiding out in the Forest of Arden:

II.1

Duke Senior:"...Sweet are the uses of adversity,

Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous,

Wears yet a precious jewel in his head;

And this our life, exempt from public haunt,

Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks,

Sermons in stones, and good in everything.

I would not change it."

And then the shepherd, Corin's philosophy:

III.2

Corin:"...that he that wants money, means, 

and content, is without three good friends;..."

Of course, it wouldn't be Shakespeare without some good barbs:

III.2

Jaques: "By my troth, I was seeking for a fool when I found you."

Orlando: "He is drown'd in the brook; look but in, and you shall see him."

III.5 (Rosalind to Phebe who is turning down Silvius' declarations of love)

Rosalind:"...Sell when you can; you are not for all markets."

IV.1 (Rosalind to Orlando when he claims he will die without her love)

Rosalind:"...men have died from time to time, and worms have eaten them, but not for love."

 The Daisy Children - Sofia Grant  

#monthlykeyword-aug-flower

Just because an historical event in mentioned, does that really make it an historical fiction novel??   It does not for me.

The event is the 1937 New London, Tx school explosion where over 200 children were killed. The author said she wrote this book to remember all of those lost souls, but does she?  

The main characters are mean, manipulative and selfish. The chapters alternated between Margaret's life 1937 and into her future and Katie, Margaret's granddaughter.  But they did not flow and I was constantly getting confused on who was who.   

 The Reluctant Fortune Teller - Keziah Frost                                                                            New Author

Norbert is a lonely man who feels he is unseen by everyone. Until 3 older ladies take him under their wings and teach him how to tell fortunes by reading cards.

Cute and quirky characters in this fun , light read.

You can even try reading cards yourself at the end of the book.

                  

                

Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare

Shakespeare Project 2020

Maybe its the heaviness of the world and with it my heart, but I didn't enjoy this one as much as I thought I would as it was a revisit and one I recall enjoying tremendously.

In reading ALL of Shakespeare at one time I find myself getting highly annoyed with the female characters not being believed over the deceptive male characters time and time again.

But, this was a comedy so let's find the funny!

The banter between Beatrice and Benedick makes the entire play. And of course they are after my own heart - Benedick vows to remain a fun-loving bachelor and never fall in love:

I.1. Benedick: "Prove that ever I lose more blood with

love than I will get again with drinking, pick out mine

eyes with a ballad-maker's pen, and hang me up at the door

of a brothel-house for the sign of blind Cupid."

and Beatrice, well...

I.1 Beatrice: "I had rather hear my dog bark at a crow than a man swear he loves me."

When Beatrice enters the hall where Benedick is, he pleads to be sent on any mission, any mission:

II.1 Benedick: "Will your Grace command me any service to the

world's end? I will go on the slightest errand now to the

Antipodes that you can devise to send me on; I will fetch

you a toothpicker now from the furthest inch of Asia;

bring you the length of Prester John's foot; fetch you a

hair off the great Cham's beard; do you any embassage

to the Pigmies - rather than hold three words' conference with

this harpy."

Benedick does worry he may succumb to the charms of love:

II.3 Benedick: I do much wonder

that one man, seeing how much another man is a fool

when he dedicates his behaviors to love, will, after he

hath laugh'd at such shallow follies in others, become the

argument of his own scorn by falling in love;...May I be so converted, and see

with these eyes? I cannot tell; I think not. I will not be

sworn but love may transform me to an oyster; but I'll

take my oath on it, till he have made an oyster of me he

shall never make me such a fool."

And is Beatrice susceptible as well?

II.3 Don Pedro: "...I would have thought her spirit had been invincible against all

assaults of affection."

Oh but their banter:

V.2 Beatrice: "...what hath pass'd between you and Claudio."
Benedick: "Only foul words; and thereupon I will kiss thee."

Beatrice: "Foul words is but foul wind, and foul wind is but

foul breath, and foul breath is noisome; therefore I will

depart unkiss'd."

Some other gems I enjoyed in Much Ado:

I.1. Leonato: "A kind overflow of kindness. There are no faces

truer than those that are so wash'd. How much better is it

to weep at joy than to joy at weeping?"

III.3 Borachio: "Thou shouldst rather ask if it were possible any

villainy should be so rich; for when rich villains have need

of poor ones, poor ones may make what price they will."

IV.1. Friar: "...That what we have we prize not to the worth 

Whiles we enjoy it, but being lack'd and lost,

Why, then we rack the value, then we find

The virtue that possession would not show us

Whiles it was ours."

V.4. Don Pedro: "Why, what's the matter

That you have such a February face,

So full of frost, of storm and cloudiness?"

  The Stranger Diaries - Elly Griffiths

                 Guilty Pleasure

I enjoyed the progression of this modern Gothic ghost story even though I was able to figure out the who in this mystery.

Clare teaches a creative writing class. She uses an old Gothic ghost story as one of her teaching aids. Then the events in the story start to happen to her.

Writing that is not hers appears in her private journal.  "Hello Clare, you don't know me".  

Goodreads  :

Clare Cassidy is no stranger to murder. A high school English teacher specializing in the Gothic writer R. M. Holland, she teaches a course on it every year. But when one of Clare’s colleagues and closest friends is found dead, with a line from R. M. Holland’s most famous story, “The Stranger,” left by her body, Clare is horrified to see her life collide with the storylines of her favourite literature.

To make matters worse, the police suspect the killer is someone Clare knows. Unsure whom to trust, she turns to her closest confidant, her diary, the only outlet she has for her darkest suspicions and fears about the case. Then one day she notices something odd. Writing that isn't hers, left on the page of an old diary: "Hallo, Clare. You don’t know me."