One Thousand White Women: the Journals of May Dodd

One Thousand White Women by Jim Fergus

Ahhhh, what to say about this book. What to say. It's been on my radar for awhile, just because I always see it when I'm browsing the best-sellers at Target. Also, my local mommy book club read it awhile back (I never actually started attending the club, when the first three books they chose were The Help, the Hunger Games, and The Book Thief) not that I had a problem with the books themselves, I just wanted to read something that I hadn't read forever ago, and had already flushed out talking about with just about everyone. I didn't realize that in 2012 there were people who still hadn't read those books! I'm sure all of you three people who still check this blog out read them long ago! 

Ok, sorry, I'm trying to put off reviewing this silly, silly book. Let me just start by saying, I love historical fiction. Or historical novels in general. This book was sooooo ridiculous! It was so historically inaccurate, and so obviously written by a man, it was laughable. There were so many cringe-worthy moments, it made me so happy I wasn't at that book group discussion! 

I know the title makes it seem like a story about the Romney recruitment process (just kidding people! GO MITT!) The premise is actually about a girl named May, who is locked away in the loony-bin by her blue-blood family for living with guy and having two kids with him. She signs up for a super-secret government program to marry Native American Indians, to get out of the asylum. 

I found the book very racist in his depiction of Native Americans. It was like it was written by someone living in that time, suffering from the prejudices of the era. I really can't  believe someone in this day-and-age would paint them in such a fashion. It was just as offensive how he wrote his main character, May Dodd. She really was the worst character EVER. She finds herself headed West, into an unknown world, and she's just looking to hook up with the soldiers at the fort, en route? Her words are written in letter and journal form, and it was just so stupid to read her mocking letters to her sister, putting her down, and laughing about her own sexual exploits, but then tossing in a little 'I miss my kids' at the end of each letter to make it seem like she has substance. Then the journal entries, where she comes across like one of the 'mean girls' in high school. And wants to dedicate time to discussing penis size....really? Ahhhh, it makes me think women who actually lived on the plains, or with Indians, would be rolling in their graves. 

Ok, I will give you an example (albeit, a graphic one) of what a racist perv. the author is...So he goes into detail about the women finally consummating their marriages with the Indians, and he can't get enough of talking about the Native Americans favorite sexual position, since that's the only way they know how to do it, cause their only example is by watching animals....ummmmm, I was like, did he really just write that? And then all the women run to each other the next day to discuss  how they liked the kinky Indian sex. Oh my. Ok, I'm not going to waste anymore time writing about this asinine book (no pun). 

So you know the foodie books, Eat THIS Not THAT? I'm going to do a little favor for you and make it a 

Read THIS, Not THAT:

Here are some AMAZING books, some are autobiographical, they put Mr. Fergus' book to complete shame, and in juxtaposition show it for the trash it is. 

Letters of a Woman Homesteader by Elinore Pruitt Stewart 

This book shows the true capability of women. Actual letters of experiences of the author, it will amaze you what she does! Getting stuck in a snowstorm, making camp, and hunting for a meal, all with her three year old daughter in tow! And she acts like it's all in a day's work, and it was. 

My Antonia by Willa Cather

Oh Willa Cather! Read everything by her. You must. One of the greatest American authors. My Antonia is my favorite, there is a woman with A VOICE. 

Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder

Probably the books that made me love reading about the time period so much. And that they were HER stories, I just loved that! They also made me want to live in a sod house. All of the series must be read. Is is weird I didn't like the TV show?

These is my Words by Nancy E. Turner

It's not an autobiography, but it feels like one. I was thrilled when I found out there were more books in this series, none were as good as the first, but it was still fun to see the story continue. 

 Cold Sassy Tree by Olive Ann Burns

The most darling this about this book, is that it is told from the perspective of a 14 year old boy, about his Grandfather and his relationship with a much younger woman.

Peace out folks! I have some reading to do! 

Is it a spoiler to tell you I'm working on J.K. Rowleys new grown-up book the Casual Vacancy, and also Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close?

OR 

Is it a spoiler to tell you I'm going to review The Perks of Being a Wallflower next???

hmmmm?

The American Heiress

The American Heiress by Daisy Goodwin

As some books sadly are, this was a complete waste of time. Usually I avoid novels that look like sappy romances, historical or otherwise. But the reviews on this one kept saying "if you love Downton Abbey, you'll love this book". And we all know how soapy Downton Abbey is, and I love it all the same. And I needed something to get me through the next three months...so what the hey, I checked it out.

It was a little humourous how silly the book was. Pretty much the same thing would happen in each chapter, until the end of the novel. First: Cora Cash (the richest heiress in America, whose mother hunted for a title by marriage for her daughter over in England) does something to show her spunk, then something to show her naivety and insecurity (and if you don't catch it, the author then spells it out for you, haha), then her husband does something to show he loves her, but then something to show his involvement with a mystery woman (and I use the word 'mystery' loosely, because the author leaves nothing up to chance when it comes to you predicting the outcome of her book), then Bertha, Cora's beloved maid, does something so the reader questions her loyalty (because if she's loyal, the whole novel ends in the first chapter, instead of 300 some odd pages later). Ugh, this cycle just stays on repeat forever.

It had a smidge of the upstairs downstairs quality I was looking for, AND was set in England, similarities with Downton end there.  Some things I did find mildly entertaining were that fact that there were book chat questions at the end of the novel. I read them for a giggle. Also, on the back jacket flap about the author she name drops everyone in her family with a high-profile job (if I remember correctly it was everyone from parents, to uncle, to brother, to husband...I'm pretty sure, but I already returned it to the library so I can't check), and I just thought, all those important/brilliant people in your life, and no one pointed out to you how predictable your story was?

Ok, so that was harsh. But it makes me mad when I waste time on such a book, when there are oh so many others out there to read! And that's why I reviewed it for you, so now you don't have to!

Baby Catcher: Chronicles of a Modern Midwife

Baby Catcher:  Chronicles of a Modern Midwife by Peggy Vincent

I absolutely loved this book! If you are interested at all in babies, birthing, home births, or just what the human body is capable of....or if you just want some mind-blowing stories, this is a must-read!  Seriously, the things this woman has seen and done are fascinating. You'd almost think it was fiction, but I don't think anyone could make this stuff up! Peggy Vincent really has run the gamut, and I found her quite an inspiration.  

This is one of my more favorite non-fiction bookies, and I'm going to put it up there with my fav. Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver.  So if you are in the mood for some non-fiction, some of which verges on hippy, grab these two books and get comfy! 

The Cellist of Sarajevo

The Cellist of Sarajevo 

by 

Steven Galloway

LOVED this book.  I had never heard of it until last week when I was at the library and they had it advertised as the Maryland One Book for 2012 (a program put on by the humanities council, encouraging everyone to read the same book). I reserved the book, and went to pick it up Saturday, and by Sunday it was finished. It was that good, a literal 'can't put it down' moment. It reminded me of why I am passionate about reading. To be transported, to open my mind and heart to other experiences and emotions. 

I remembered between the ages of 10 and 13 I read every book I could get my hands on about the holocaust. I read Number the Stars, The Devil's Arithmetic, The Diary of Anne Frank, and my very favorite, The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom.  Why was I obsessed? Because I had discovered the power of books. What they could do to a person's soul. How they could change me. Books like The Secret Garden and The Lord of the Rings, unlocked magic and beauty....but my holocaust books allowed me to glimpse sorrow and despair and courage that I am not sure, as yet, that I will ever encounter in person in my lifetime. 

Ironically, as I was reading their stories, the city of Sarajevo was under siege. From May April 5th, 1992 until February 29th, 1996 mortars were launched into the city one after the other, snipers hid in the skeletal remains of apartment buildings and picked people off in the street, one by one, as they fearfully made their way through the city in search of food and water for their families. An estimated 15,000 people were killed (1,500 were children), and 56,000 wounded (15,000 were children). 

Maybe somewhere along the meandering route of my formal education I picked up a sound byte or read a paragraph about this city's suffering. But I did not know what happened. What was happening as I laid, stomach down, in the grass of my backyard, turning the pages of my holocaust books wondering how something like it could've ever have happened in the world. 

The Cellist of Sarajevo centers around the true event of a professional cellist who plays at the site of a mortar blast that killed 22 of his neighbors as they waited in line to buy bread. He plays in the open air for 22 days, one day for every person killed. Intertwined are the fictional, but based on fact, stories of several other individuals surviving in the war-torn city. I don't feel as if I can go into too much detail, without making their plights seem trite. I will just say that this book is a must-read, five stars, etc..etc...

Also, if you read this, and can still handle a little more insight into the mentality of war, I would recommend The Things They Carried by Tim O'brien. It's like crawling inside the heads of soldiers of the Vietnam War.

     

The Chaperone

The Chaperone  by  Laura Moriarty

The Chaperone was one of those books that you hope will have hidden depths as you delve in, but midway through you kind of give up on it.  From about the halfway mark, I decided to just enjoy the book as a ‘cute story’ and stop hoping the author would give me more when it came to the main character.  The story line gave her so much potential, but unfortunately she fell flat.  I think the author was trying to reflect the time period, with its sense of propriety and decorum. But because we as readers are privy to the innermost thoughts of the characters, couldn’t we see the hidden passion behind her?

The book follows the life of a woman, Cora, and begins with her chaperoning a young dancer, real-life 20’s actress Louise Brooks, as she attends a dance school in New York City. Some of the critiques of the book I read were disappointed that it wasn’t more about Louise Brooks. But given that the title is called The Chaperone, I wasn’t surprised or disappointed that was whom the majority of the story focused on. Another criticism was how the author was slow at some points, whilst whizzing through others. Yes, she did do that. But it wasn’t too distracting. I didn’t mind the book trailing on and on and not ending till Cora ended. I always am left wondering what happened to my characters after the novel ends, and this book saw them all till death, so I liked that, haha.

The novel tackles some huge topics, like child molestation, homosexuality (and how it was perceived in the 1900’s), adoption, abandonment, racism, and issues that were bigger topics during the time period, like birth control and prohibition. Yet the author manages to throw all that in, and still come out with a fairly shallow novel with shallow characters. I’m not sure how she did it. But she did.

I give this book 2.5 maybe 3 stars, if I’m reaching. It’s not a must-read for me, but if you’re bored and it’s right in front of you, it’s a pleasant distraction.