Black History Month Review: Twelve Years A Slave

Twelve Years A Slave: Full Book and Comprehensive Reading Companion by Solomon Northup
Publisher of this edition: CreateSpace
This book was first published in 1853 and is public domain
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Because of the Academy Award nominated movie based on this book, I think most everyone is acquainted with the story of 12 Years a Slave. It’s the memoir written by Solomon Northup, a free black man who lived in New York state with his wife and three children. He was kidnapped and sold into slavery in 1841 and was a slave for twelve years before he was rescued.

As one can imagine, Solomon’s time as a slave was utterly horrible. Because of the media coverage of the movie, I expected the worst in terms of what Solomon and the other slaves went through and the truth of it was even worse than I could have ever imagined. Not every scene is intense and graphic – I don’t want to discourage anyone from reading this book. It’s an important book and should be read by everyone. There are some scenes that are to read though, I won’t lie about that.

I was surprised by how accessible the language Solomon used was. I’ve read other books from the 19th century that were really hard to follow and understand (Dickens, anyone?) This book was very beautifully and descriptively written but I still was always able to follow what was happening. I bought this version of the book because I anticipated struggling with it but I would have been just fine with the regular book.

I haven’t seen the movie yet so I can’t draw any comparisons between the two but I still highly recommend this book to everyone.

Weekend Ramblings – Stitch Fix Edition

I know this isn’t a fashion blog but I have to share with you my latest obsession – Stitch Fix. It’s an online personal shopping service. When you sign up, you feel out a detailed questionnaire with your sizes and style preferences. It even asks you which areas of your body you’d like to accent and which you don’t.

Then you schedule when you’d like your Stitch Fix box to arrive. You can either have it sent to you automatically every month or just schedule them come whenever you’d like. I’m doing mine quarterly for now but I love it so much I might have them come more often. I love it because I love clothes but I’m not a good shopper and with three kids, I don’t make the time to shop very often. I love that these items come right to my door. Most of the time, the items are things that I would have walked past in the store but end up looking great on me. Like I said, I’m not a good shopper! I’d like to share with you what I received in my February Stitch Fix box.

Valencia V-Neck 3/4 Sleeve Blouse and Sophia Skinny Jeans

The blouse is navy even though it looks black in the pictures. I liked this top but I felt like it was a bit too short for me. The jeans are great. They are a bit snug but since they are stretchy, I think they would loosen up as the day went on.

The back view of the Sophia Skinny Jeans

I think the back view of jeans is much more important than the front view and I like the back view of these jeans. These jeans are an example of how great Stitch Fix is at listening to feedback. In the Fix I got before this one, there was a pair of jeans that had big back pockets and looked like mom jeans to me. (I didn’t keep them.) I noted that on the online feedback form and got these jeans with small flattering pockets this time.

Colibri Solid Tab Sleeve Blouse

I love the color of this top. As a red head, I love to wear just about any shade of green. I don’t think the fit is for me though; I prefer a more fitted top.

Huebert Space Dye Open Cardigan

This cardigan is super comfy and has a bohemian feel which I like.

Alisa Open Heart Post Earrings

These earrings are silver, small and sparkly – all the things I like my jewelry to be.

There is a $20 styling fee for each Stitch Fix box but if you buy something, you get a $20 credit. If you choose to keep all five items in your Fix, then you get 25% off of your total order.

For this Fix, I decided to keep the cardigan and the jeans. I wanted to keep the earrings also but they were priced more than I usually spend on jewelry. Stitch Fix provides a postage paid envelope to send back the items that you don’t want – so convenient!

If you’d like to sign up for Stitch Fix, please use my referral link – I’ll get a credit if you do. And then when you are a member, you can refer your friends and get credit for it. Let me know if you have any questions about this great service!

Book Review: See Now Then

See Now Then: A Novel by Jamaica Kincaid
Publisher: Macmillan Audio
Release Date: February 5, 2013
Length: 5 hours and 46 minutes
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Publisher’s Description:

In See Now Then, the brilliant and evocative new novel from Jamaica Kincaid—her first in ten years—a marriage is revealed in all its joys and agonies. This piercing examination of the manifold ways in which the passing of time operates on the human consciousness unfolds gracefully, and Kincaid inhabits each of her characters—a mother, a father, and their two children, living in a small village in New England—as they move, in their own minds, between the present, the past, and the future: for, as she writes, “the present will be now then and the past is now then and the future will be a now then.” Her characters, constrained by the world, despair in their domestic situations. But their minds wander, trying to make linear sense of what is, in fact, nonlinear. See Now Then is Kincaid’s attempt to make clear what is unclear, and to make unclear what we assumed was clear: that is, the beginning, the middle, and the end.

It’s hard for me to describe See Now Then. It’s the non-linear study of the relationship between Mr. and Mrs. Sweet. The prose is wonderfully crafted and poetic. I listened to this book on audio and after reading other reviews from people who read the book in print, I think audio is the way to go. Print readers complained of Ms. Kincaid’s massively long run-on sentences and the lack of paragraph breaks of which I was completely unaware. Ms. Kincaid narrates the book herself and does a fantastic job. She was born in St. John’s Antigua and her accent made the book sound even more beautiful. It’s not a happy book – Mr. and Mrs. Sweet don’t like each other much at all – but I still found it almost relaxing to listen too because Ms. Kincaid’s voice is so lyrical. It was almost like listening to a very long poem.

This book is definitely unique – it’s written in a style that I have never read before. Because of this, it’s probably not for everyone. If you are a practical reader who wants a straightforward plot, then this is not the book for you. But if you’re open to reading outside your comfort zone or you place a high value on prose, then give this book a try.

(I received this audio book courtesy of the Solid Gold reviewers program at Audio Jukebox.)

Kids Say ) And Do) the Darndest Things

Neve: “Mommy, just tell me when you see a zombie and I will shoot it. And I don’t care about baby zombies, only big zombies.”

*****

Cash: “Daddy’s farts sound like quacks because there’s a duck living in his butt.”

*****

Me: West, if you don’t wear you coat to school today, they are going to call me and tell me I’m a bad mom.
West: If they do that, just say, “No, I’m not. You are!”

*****

Cash: Mommy, if you don’t loan me money to buy this Skylanders, then when I grow up I’ll never be able to get a loan from a bank because I’ll never have experienced it.

*****

Cash, if you run into Mrs. York today, ask her for that form.
Mommy, I’m going to see her before I run into her

*****

Neve saw a dad at the West’s school in his camo Army uniform and said (super loud, of course), “Why is that guy in his pajamas?”

Author Event: Ransom Riggs

Last week, my local independent book store, Rainy Day Books, brought in Ransom Riggs, author of Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children to speak. He’s on tour promoting the second book in the Miss Peregrine series, Hollow City. His talk was a Q&A session with the audience. The first lady to ask a question had already read Hollow City and basically said that Hollow City wasn’t as good as the first book and seemed forced. Her “question” was if this book was harder for him to write and was that why it wasn’t as good? RUDE!! He answered very graciously that this new book did take him about twice as long to write as the first book. He did not come down from the stage and punch her in the throat.

Which brings me to my next point. He is CUTE! The photo on his books’ jackets does not do him justice. And I like his preppy fashion sense too:

Some highlights of his talk:

• · He attended Kenyon College and while there was in a family friendly sketch comedy group with John Green (author of The Fault in our Stars)

• · After that, he went to film school at USC ; he had a few meetings about screenplays he’d written but nothing ever came of them

• · His work writing at mentalfloss.com got him a job at Quirk Books. His first book for them was a non-fiction book called The Sherlock Holmes Handbook

• · He has collected old photographs for a long time and the head of Quirk Books suggested he write a novel using them

• · His photos are organized by subject and sometimes he looks through his files for the perfect photo to use in his story and other times he has a photo he wants to use and finds a way to incorporate it. He said the process is one of push and pull

• · The first draft of Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children was an epistolary novel with Jacob writing letters to a dead girl but the reader didn’t find out that the girl was dead until the end of the book

• · He didn’t know that Miss Peregrine was a young adult novel – Barnes and Noble shelved it in that section and that was that

• · He makes short films and puts them up on youtube

I am beyond bummed that I didn’t have the friend who accompanied me take a photo with me standing next to him, with both of us looking at the camera. This is me telling him that Rosemary’s Baby is going to be a mini-series. (He mentioned that he liked the book in his talk.) He told me that he only recently read it for the first time. I told him it is one of my favorite books and that Ira Levin is one of my favorite authors. I suggested that he read A Kiss Before Dying by Levin if he hasn’t already. At this point, he was probably thinking, “I’m a professional writer. I don’t need a random woman from the audience recommending books to me.” But he was so nice and gracious, even as the Rainy Day Books lady was dragging, I mean escorting, me off the stage. Which is why I didn’t get a decent picture with him – too much fangirl rambling. Ugh. Anyway, I can’t wait to read my autographed copy of Hollow City!

Kids Say (And Do) The Darndest Things

West, earlier this morning: “Please, please tell me if you got Cash a keytar for his birthday.”
Me: “If I tell you, and you ruin the surprise for Cash, you will be in the worst trouble you’ve ever been in in your life.”
West: “Okay, I don’t want to know.”

*****

Me, to Cash: You know what I mean?
Cash: You didn’t say jelly bean. Are you losing your motherlyness?

*****

Cash: In West’s imaginary pirate ship of life, he is going against the flow.

*****

Cash: Mommy, I’m going to call your chest privates BIBs for built in bottles.

*****

“The jig is up Neve.”
“No, Mommy, the jig is CLOSED.”

*****

Cash: “No one raps with an original piano, only keytars. Original pianos are for sad songs and Western saloons.”

*****

Cash hands me the first fundraiser of the school year. “Ugh, I hate fundraisers.”
“Mommy, you are a member of the PTA, you are supposed to LOVE fundraisers.”

*****

“Cash, here’s a napkin.” Cash takes napkin, wipes mouth on shirt while holding napkin.

Book Review: I, Rhoda

I, Rhoda by Valerie Harper
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
Release Date: January 15, 2013
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I love celebrity biographies and autobiographies because I love getting the inside scoop and dirt of what really goes on in the entertainment world. Although I have ,of course, seen Valerie Harper on The Mary Tyler Moore Show and Rhoda, I chose this book because I primarily wanted the details of when she was fired from her sitcom Valerie (that show is more of my time than MTM.) I was disappointed that this period of her life was glossed over and not much detail was given at all. That was actually a running theme with this book. Valerie told her story as mostly a timeline of her life, without going into too much detail on any event. She did drop plenty of names, which is GREAT with me, but she didn’t really have much to say about any of those names except that they were great, amazing, beautiful, etc.

That was another thing that bothered me. She talks about her work with the feminist movement and the ERA but at the same time she is very focused on her own appearance and the appearance of other women. Usually positive in the case of other women and negative about herself. That seemed contradictory to me.

One last criticism. Valerie narrated the audio book herself and I thought she spoke too slowly and overemphasized too many of the words. I did enjoy the various accents that she used when imitating people though.

Even though I had some issues with this book, I still enjoyed it for the most part and I’m glad I read it. I had no idea that Valerie started as a dancer or that she had an active career after Valerie that included being nominated for a Tony Award. There is no mention of her recent brain cancer diagnosis but I was surprised that she survived a bout with lung cancer a few years ago. Valerie Harper seems like a positive person and I wish her all the best in her remaining days, weeks or hopefully, years.

(I received this audiobook courtesy of the Solid Gold Reviewer program at Audiobook Jukebox.)

Book Review: The Gods of Gotham

The Gods of Gotham by Lyndsay Faye
Publisher: Amy Einhorn/Putnam
Release Date: March 15, 2012
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Publisher’s Description:

1845. New York City forms its first police force. The great potato famine hits Ireland. These two seemingly disparate events will change New York City. Forever.

Timothy Wilde tends bar near the Exchange, saving every dollar and shilling in hopes of winning the girl of his dreams. But when his dreams literally incinerate in a fire devastating downtown Manhattan, he finds himself disfigured, unemployed, and homeless. His older brother obtains Timothy a job in the newly minted NYPD, but he is highly skeptical of this untested “police force.” And he is less than thrilled that his new beat is the notoriously down-and-out Sixth Ward-at the border of Five Points, the world’s most notorious slum.

One night while returning from his rounds, heartsick and defeated, Timothy runs into a little slip of a girl—a girl not more than ten years old—dashing through the dark in her nightshift . . . covered head to toe in blood.

Timothy knows he should take the girl to the House of Refuge, yet he can’t bring himself to abandon her. Instead, he takes her home, where she spins wild stories, claiming that dozens of bodies are buried in the forest north of 23rd Street. Timothy isn’t sure whether to believe her or not, but, as the truth unfolds, the reluctant copper star finds himself engaged in a battle for justice that nearly costs him his brother, his romantic obsession, and his own life.

The mystery in this story took plenty of twists and turns, some of them believable and some of them not. Overall, I didn’t find it suspenseful enough to hold my interest intently. I wanted to know how it ended, but at the same time, I was able to put it down while I read other books and then picked it back up again.

I was impressed with the dialogue the author used for the characters. They speak using slang called flash and it seemed quite complicated to me. There was a flash dictionary in the front of the book and if a word wasn’t in the dictionary, the author made sure it was explained in the narrative of the story.

The book is the first in a series of Timothy Wilde mysteries. I have the second one, Seven for a Secret and I’m hoping that Timothy’s brother, Valentine, has a bigger role in that book as he was one of my favorite characters in this one.

Martin Luther King, Jr. Day Book Review: If You Lived at the Time of Martin Luther King

If You Lived at the Time of Martin Luther King by Ellen Levine
Publisher: Scholastic
Release Date: 1994
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Even though If You Lived At the Time of Martin Luther King is a picture book, it doesn’t pull any punches. It discusses lynching and what it is, the KKK, and the multiple killings, bombings, and other violence related to the civil rights movement. It doesn’t go into graphic detail but it still may be too much if you have a sensitive child. It’s too much for my seven and nine year old boys at this point, but I’m hoping I can read it with them in the next couple of years. This book is 79 pages long so if you read it with your child, I would plan on it taking two or three sessions to get through. Fortunately it’s divided into sections so there are pre-made stopping points.

I loved that this book didn’t sugar coat the fact that even though the civil rights movements is over there is still more work to be done and inequality still exists in America. This book was published in 1994 so there is no mention of Clinton or Obama. It would wonderful if an updated version was released.

I think this book is appropriate up through middle school. Even though it’s a picture book, it’s not babyish in any way. I highly recommend this book if you are wanting your children to have a good overview of the history of black people and civil rights in this country from the end of slavery up until current day.

Another book I’ve reviewed about Martin Luther King, Jr.:

A Picture Book of Martin Luther King, Jr.

Kids Say (And Do) the Darndest Things

Neve grabbed the side of my face, looked deep into my eyes, and said, “Can I pick your nose?”

*****

Cash: Do I HAVE to go to West’s basketball game?
Me: You GET to go to West’s basketball game.
Cash: If I GET to go, does that mean I have a choice?
Me: No.

*****

Cash: I wish I was an animal so I could go to the bathroom wherever I wanted. Humans are just too smart.

*****

When Travis tucked Neve in, she asked for a drink of water and he said no. She replied: “That’s okay, when you leave, I’ll cry and then Mommy will bring me a drink of water.”

*****

West was upset with Travis about who knows what so when I asked Travis if he wanted anything from Starbucks, West said, “Can you get me a Daddy remover?”

*****

The world according to Cash: “People who think they’re cool wear their hats backwards at sports games and drink a lot of beer and wine. They also eat a lot of hamburgers and hot dogs and have barbeque parties for no reason.”

*****

I told Neve to stop rifling through my makeup while I’m getting ready. She got her guitar and told me she was going to play me a song so I wouldn’t be so mean.