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lady_schrapnellThough it might have seemed awfully like it. Went to Bristol to see the new house (v. nice!) and then Charlie came here for a good long stay. We never got to Kilkenny, which I've been talking about for ages, and my sister (the latest in the string of nearest & d... to be worryingly unwell) didn't make it here to meet Charlie, but other than that it was all good.
Before and After, there was a lot of the usual getting stuff for Younger Daughter's return to school (brief pause while I complain about the fact that the schoolchild pass which enabled her to travel to and from school for €4 a week is no longer valid now that she's 16, but the student card is only for people in 3rd level education. The cost difference is significant too - €10 instead of €4. ) and lamenting the actual return to school, but I am very impressed with the prescribed texts for the English Honours Leaving Cert - on the whole, a really interesting bunch of books, films and plays. And My Oedipus Complex and Other Stories is on - yay! Other than that, they do tend to the bleak and tragic, but still good. NOT so good is the fact that a new poetry anthology is printed every bloody year, though most of the poets seem the same as when Older Daughter took it. Not cheap either. When I think of the thirty-year run of Soundings....
And then we lost all phone service (and obviously internet also) for a couple of days. Not happy!
Moving away from the local stuff, but still in life-aside-from-current-reading area - I am now officially registered for the Children's Lit MA! Another big yay. Though the excellent course convener and tutor has just gone on study leave. Sigh.
Anyway, haven't been getting through that many books lately, for some reason, though I have been doing my Reading with Intent, with great pleasure. (Charlie called it smithing, which made me laugh - and I hope isn't minded by the author!) Did read The Shape-Changer's Wife, though I think I've still not done a BC journal for it - ack (will do it, I promise!) - and was much more impressed than I'd expected, given some of the previous journal entries. (Though I should have just trusted T's opinion and not worried!) Very good. I succumbed once again to the 3 for 2 on all children's books offer in Waterstone's , and got Enna Burning (knowing that Shannon Hale had a new one coming out and that Goose Girl is now officially first of a trilogy), Laurie Halse Anderson's Prom, since I thought Speak was so excellent, and Does My Head Look Big in This, because I'd heard good things about it. Prom went to YD first and I started with Does My Head - of which I've only managed 70-some pages. I so wanted to like it and so couldn't if something major depended on it. I might manage to finish it - in short installments - just so I can say I stuck with it (and on the faint possibility it might improve - a lot), but on the other hand, life's looking shorter by the minute and why waste it reading something so ... painful? Went on to Enna Burning instead.
Seem to have said 'proper report on recent reads soon' a few times without follow-up lately, but proper report...
Before and After, there was a lot of the usual getting stuff for Younger Daughter's return to school (brief pause while I complain about the fact that the schoolchild pass which enabled her to travel to and from school for €4 a week is no longer valid now that she's 16, but the student card is only for people in 3rd level education. The cost difference is significant too - €10 instead of €4. ) and lamenting the actual return to school, but I am very impressed with the prescribed texts for the English Honours Leaving Cert - on the whole, a really interesting bunch of books, films and plays. And My Oedipus Complex and Other Stories is on - yay! Other than that, they do tend to the bleak and tragic, but still good. NOT so good is the fact that a new poetry anthology is printed every bloody year, though most of the poets seem the same as when Older Daughter took it. Not cheap either. When I think of the thirty-year run of Soundings....
And then we lost all phone service (and obviously internet also) for a couple of days. Not happy!
Moving away from the local stuff, but still in life-aside-from-current-reading area - I am now officially registered for the Children's Lit MA! Another big yay. Though the excellent course convener and tutor has just gone on study leave. Sigh.
Anyway, haven't been getting through that many books lately, for some reason, though I have been doing my Reading with Intent, with great pleasure. (Charlie called it smithing, which made me laugh - and I hope isn't minded by the author!) Did read The Shape-Changer's Wife, though I think I've still not done a BC journal for it - ack (will do it, I promise!) - and was much more impressed than I'd expected, given some of the previous journal entries. (Though I should have just trusted T's opinion and not worried!) Very good. I succumbed once again to the 3 for 2 on all children's books offer in Waterstone's , and got Enna Burning (knowing that Shannon Hale had a new one coming out and that Goose Girl is now officially first of a trilogy), Laurie Halse Anderson's Prom, since I thought Speak was so excellent, and Does My Head Look Big in This, because I'd heard good things about it. Prom went to YD first and I started with Does My Head - of which I've only managed 70-some pages. I so wanted to like it and so couldn't if something major depended on it. I might manage to finish it - in short installments - just so I can say I stuck with it (and on the faint possibility it might improve - a lot), but on the other hand, life's looking shorter by the minute and why waste it reading something so ... painful? Went on to Enna Burning instead.
Seem to have said 'proper report on recent reads soon' a few times without follow-up lately, but proper report...
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no subject
Date: 2006-09-01 08:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-09-02 09:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-09-01 11:04 pm (UTC)I'm not a big advocate for sticking with books if you don't like them. And I don't think that Does my head look big in this? changed much after the amount you've read. I liked the book, but haven't bought it as I doubt I'd re-read it (unlike a book like Looking for Alibrandi, say). I'm glad that it seems to be doing well overseas, though!
no subject
Date: 2006-09-02 09:41 pm (UTC)Nearly felt dismayed about your liking, it, but decided it wasn't worth too much dismay. I raved about Jaclyn Moriarty, after all, so it's not an anti-Australian YA writer bias or anything. ;)
It depends a lot on the book, whether I stick with it despite disliking it - I might finish this one anyway just for the educational purpose. Though I'd honestly rather read a well-written essay on the subject. But I'd be interested to know if things are really that bad in Sydney now - don't think girls wearing the hijab in Dublin get even second looks (though, admittedly, I don't know about some parts of town).
no subject
Date: 2006-09-02 10:27 pm (UTC)I don't know if things are that bad in Melbourne (think the book was set there) because probably only a woman wearing a hijab could tell you. In Brisbane there's lots of girls/women who appear to wear it without comment but I guess not being harassed walking down the street doesn't mean no harassment from bus drivers/mean teenagers/potential employers. I know from casual conversation that some of my extended family hate seeing women wear a hijab, and even otherwise intelligent people have told me how they wish they could make Muslim men stop forcing the women to wear it. And the author of the book is only in her twenties (IIRC) and says she chose not to wear it when she finished school because she felt she'd be discriminated against in getting a job.
I thought it was interesting that the character went to the local Catholic school at the start because of the similarity of values etc - we had some Muslim girls at my Catholic high school for that reason.
no subject
Date: 2006-09-03 08:51 pm (UTC)I'm far too frazzled to be anyway coherent atm, but part of my reason for wanting to read the book, once I heard about it, was the desire to hear why someone would choose to wear the hijab and their experience doing so. Because I do feel uneasy about the fact of women being forced to wear it, even though this isn't always the case, of course. Complicated!
And then it gets complicated when you think how many teen girls are going to be harrassed *anyway* - certainly by mean teens - which doesn't make it okay to give someone a hard time for expressing their religious beliefs, of course - not saying that. See - wasn't joking about lack of coherence.
But - minor quibble - she went to the Catholic school because the nearest Islamic one was too far & her parents couldn't do the travelling to take her - and then says 'plus' the values were similar. So it wasn't first choice. But it's good - I'd a friend from grad school in Ithaca who got a job teaching at a Catholic school and said many (non-Catholics) were sending their children there to avoid mixing with ethnic minorities. *That* is bad.
no subject
Date: 2006-09-02 10:45 pm (UTC)I was also thinking that it almost doesn't matter if there's direct discrimination or not if the character feels that the popular characterisation of Muslim is terrorist. And in Australia there seem to be regular announcements from our charming government saying "Muslims must integrate!", popular (right wing) radio etc comment on their unAustralianess and nearly all news services do the terrorist=madman/Muslim woman=oppressed thing. So to identify as a Muslim in that climate must be hard, especially when you're born in Australia and so feel even more unfairly rejected.
no subject
Date: 2006-09-03 09:10 pm (UTC)I totally agree on the problem of that kind of characterisation of anyone Muslim - though that's a slightly different question - I think (if what I'm doing can be called thinking just now). I haven't heard your 'charming government' saying those things, but get a lot of Tony et al saying it from next-door. As if they had nothing whatever to do with the injustices that caused people to turn to terrorism. (I gather, according to Rumsfeld, that this kind of criticism makes me like a Nazi appeaser.)
Mind you, I'd also hate them to go the French govt. way on this and ban the wearing of *all* signs of religious faith. Hardly seems the best way to inforce tolerance either!
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Date: 2006-09-03 10:14 pm (UTC)I also sympathise with the complicated feelings - I'm personally not a fan of the symbolism of a headscarf (which isn't unique to Islam of course) so like books like this that remind me that other people may have a different interpretation to me.
Yet another complicating factor I just thought of was that sometimes teenagers become more religious as they attempt to establish their own adult identity. Apparently there's a spike in hijab wearing in the mid to late teens, and then it drops again (I think this was in Europe). And I think that if you set up wearing a hijab as a disapproved-of-activitiy then it's going to appeal to more young adults wanting to rebel/demonstrate their independence.
no subject
Date: 2006-09-05 08:51 pm (UTC)And also very much agree about the teen rebellion/independence-showing aspect of all this. Which generally makes me want to cheer them on and a little bit makes me want to tell them to just do it and get over their self-dramatizing selves... Depending on how much of a cranky old lady mood I'm in.
no subject
Date: 2006-09-02 08:12 am (UTC)About the Shapechanger´s Wife, there are two books of hers I really like, this and Castle Auburn, but yes they are both very different. This seemed to be the most McKillip´ish of her books, while later she gets a bit, dunno, Anne McCaffrey? if this makes any sense!
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Date: 2006-09-02 10:43 pm (UTC)I think you're right about Shape-Changer being McKillipish, now that you mentioned it - McKillip in her more somber mood - and the forest - both as setting and more - almost as character - McK. does that sometimes, doesn't she? Interesting comparison! At least I've done the JE now, though I messed up your status-setting. Sigh... And thanks again.