May, 2008 Booklist!

I know, the month's not quite over yet. I'm currently deep in two biographies though (one of Jefferson and one on Martin Luther) and between working at the library and having quite a bit of company, I really don't see a way I can finish either of those by tomorrow evening. So this list will have to suffice.

1) My Grandfather's Son: A Memoir by Clarence Thomas - After taking a Constitutional History class this semester and studying about dozens of Supreme Court cases, it was interesting to read the autobiography of a justice. The fact that it was Thomas made it even more enjoyable since many of my classmates took frequent potshots at him throughout the semester.
This is an interesting book. Thomas doesn't delve much into his judicial philosophy - he really focuses on simply telling his life story. It's a fascinating one, and shows both the darkness of America's racism and the promise of American liberty. He is not someone you have picked out as a child and said, "There is a future Supreme Court justice."
Clarence has made some huge mistakes in his life and he's very open and honest about them, which was good to read. Sometimes public figures have an annoying habit of rationalizing their bad choices (actually, it's not just public figures, is it? Their rationalizations are just more visible than mine ;-).

2) Girls Gone Mild: Young Women Reclaim Self-Respect and Find It's Not Bad to Be Goodby Wendy Shalit
- Excellent book. I wish I could hand out copies to all the girls on my university campus. The brashness and promiscuity promoted so strongly by women's movements is *not* true liberation for women, and the girls who think it is deserve to know better. So many organizations guide women by telling them that the only way to be liberated is to be open about...well, everything. This really hurts a woman's esteem, though, and causes men to objectify her instead of seeing her as a whole person. The woman with true confidence is the one who doesn't feel the need to compete for physical attention.
Also, as Shalit points out, being modest does not make one a prude. I loved the bit where she points out the fallacy involved when people accuse her of being just like the Taliban when she objects to some of today's very loose modesty standards. When they do this, they bring up a false dichotomy: Our only two options of dress are a) to dress like Britney Spears or b) to dress like the Taliban suggests. This is ludicrous and ignores the fact that there is middle ground.
I'm not doing the book as much justice as it deserves. I read a library copy, but I'll be purchasing my own so that I can highlight bits and make a more serious study of it.
N.B. Because Shalit details many scenarios that I've come into contact with only through my time at school, I wouldn't really recommend it for younger readers.
(Side note - it was interesting to read this when the FLDS case came up. So many of the charges flung about in that case dealt with the sexualization of adolescent girls. That is disgusting, but it's something our mainstream culture has been doing for years. Bratz dolls are marked to pre-adolescent girls and are hyper-sexualized. The GossipGirl novels, extremely popular with young teenaged girls at my library, are just gross. I just finished reading the first chapter of one on the website and I think I'm in need of a shower. Apart from the blatant promotion of brand products, reading about girls who are considered deficient in the physical-parts department and boys in speedos who have "semi-pornographic dreams" have no business being in books for young readers.)

3) Heidi's Alp: One Family's Search for Storybook Europe by Christine Hardyment - Not as good as How the Heather Looks, but still a sweet book about a family traveling in literary places. In this case, it's a British family in Andersen's Denmark, the Grimm's Germany, Heidi's Switzerland, Pinnocchio's Italy, and so many other places. Sometimes Hardyment sinks to 1980s vague, odd psychological babble, but mostly this is just an entertaining book about a small family adventure.
A particularly interesting bit for me was when the Hardyment family ventured into Eastern Germany. The children were surprised at how very little there was and asked "if the people don't like it here, why don't they leave?" Ah, good questions, little ones...

4) Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell - Sweet, quiet novel (like all of Gaskell's!) about the joys, tragedies, and burlesques of a small Victorian village. Gaskell writes with a deep love for characters and place and this love shines through in a completely contagious fashion. *Love* her books.

5) Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallowsby J. K. Rowling - a re-read, because I definitely just gulped it when it came out last summer. This is the best of the series, I think... it was so exciting to see the way she connected her story with her entire world's history and legend. Things like that make me very happy.

6) Prince Caspian by C. S. Lewis - A re-read. Read in preparation for this year's new film (and besides, a year is rather wasted if you don't read *at least* one Narnia book in it). The film, although Grand In Scope, missed the sweetness and chivalry of the book. I will admit that PC has never been my favorite of the books (that honor goes to its sequel, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader) but it is several times better than anything Andrew Adamson can conjure. So there. (am still slightly peeved by what they did to Peter, can you tell?)

7) Loving God with All Your Mind by Elizabeth George - Wonderful Bible study book for women. Using several key verses, George in this book is helping me center my my thoughts around what is real in life, thus I cannot trip up over the "What ifs," - the not real things; on why I can't bog down in the past or strive too worriedly over the future; and on how God's love reaches down to every detail of my life.
She includes a study guide and questions in the back. Normally I skip these because so many of them involve simple fill in the blank questions (which annoy me). Hers is different though. I've been doing them this last week as a review of the book and they are proving to be quite challenging. My toes are very bruised. ;-)