Challenging Elements of "The Round House"

I usually focus my blog post on plot development and character, as well as occasionally connections.  Today, however, I thought I would focus on what makes The Round House by Louise Erdrich a difficult text to engage with.  And just because it's difficult doesn't mean I dislike it.  It just means that it has taken me more time to read it, as you can't just breeze through it.  I constantly find myself going back and rereading parts because I may have missed a slight detail that turns out to be important later.  So if you read my last blog post and were intrigued by the plot, make sure to read this one too so you are aware of why I am officially labeling this a challenging text:

1. The dialogue is written without quotation marks and a lot of times without dialogue tags ('He said' or 'she shouted').  And there is a lot of dialogue.  A LOT.  There could be pages of conversation, and it is really difficult to follow along with who is saying what.  Dialogue tags really would have benefited me as a reader.  But, I also understand why the author chose not to include them.  Keeping the conversation as is allows her character''s thoughts and natural speed of conversation to play out in the story.  On a positive, the author does indent and start a new paragraph when the speakers change so that helps (although sometimes it is the same character still talking, just in a new paragraph).
2. The cultural customs of Native Americans are something I am not familiar with as a reader.  Erdrich does a nice job explaining them without losing the flow of the story.  But still, there were quite a few unfamiliar terms of Native American places and ceremonies that I had not heard of before.  (I think this is actually a good thing as a reader, as students and adults alike should read about new experiences).
3. There are a lot of characters.  Joe and his immediate family are the main characters, but this boy knows a lot of people!  He is constantly with different friends or acquaintances (and once even the man accused of raping his mother) and that makes it hard to follow who is who, who is "good", who is "bad", etc. 

Despite this book being a  more though-provoking read, I still really, really like it.  Erdrich wraps a lot of good lessons and sound advice into the story, and here are a few lines I clipped on my Kindle while reading:

"I stood there in the shadowed doorway thinking with my tears.  Yes, tears can be thoughts, why not? (Erdrich 60)" -I love the personification of thinking with tears.  And even though tears can't really think per se, they certainly are an instant reflection of our thoughts and emotions.

"I stayed with him.  They couldn't make me leave him.  I knew what happened if you let a parent get too far away" (Erdrich 244).  -This just made me connect to Joe, the narrator, even more.  It shows he loves his dad and doesn't want to lose his dad like he's lost his mom.  

"We are never so poor that we cannot bless another human, are we?  So it is that every evil, whether moral or material, results in good.  You'll see."  -I love the idea that we can bless and give to everyone, no matter how rich or poor we are in money.  Even if you don't have money to give, you can still give. Love this reminder!  

Hopefully you can see from the above what I mean when I describe this book as a challenging, yet rewarding read.  I am almost finished…about 10% to go.  And a very long waiting list of books on my Kindle...

My Reading Goals for 2014

Hi everyone!
I recently updated my 2014 reading goals and thought I would spend this post sharing this with you, as well as updating you on my current reading.

In 2013, I read and finished 42 books, two over my goal of 40.  And honestly, that was pretty amazing as I didn't even start tracking until the summertime.  I do read like a fiend though in the summer, as I am off work, am home for nap time (every mom loves nap time), and overall just have more free time.  Right now I am a little behind (I've finished one book so far).  I think that's for a few reasons.  One being I am struggling to find a book I love.  If I get into a book, I find a way to read it and usually finish it very quickly.  That hasn't happened in about a month.  I've just been pitter-pattering through books instead of devouring them.  Also, I am currently teaching Fahrenheit 451 so I am rereading that again along with my CLC/1A students so that I can have good conversations with them about their reading.  This takes away my school independent reading time.

And I am ashamed to admit, but the reviewers were right about The Woman Upstairs.  Despite the plot sounding so intriguing, I am embarrassed to admit that I had to abandon this book.  Every time I went to read, I had to go back to remember what happened because, well….it wasn't very memorable.  The writing craft was not memorable.  The plot was not memorable.  The characters were not memorable.  I never made it past 15%.  Then I tried another book I had downloaded from the library.  That wasn't a good fit either.  Next I tried The Round House by Louise Erdrich.   It was another Good Reads recommendation, and so far I really like it.

The Round House starts with a shocking scenario: An Indian family's mother is late coming home one day.  The father, Bazil, and their young son, Joe, go out to look for her and finally pass her on the road, where they catch a glimpse of her gripping the steering wheel and flying home in a panic.  It is soon discovered that she was attacked by a man.  This book (so far) covers the family's struggle to be a family again and regain normalcy as well as finding the man who attacked the mother and bringing justice to him.

So far, so good.  The character development is realistic and round.  The setting is well-described.  The American Indian customs are something I'm no familiar with, but Erdrich does a nice hob explaining these to the reader without interrupting the flow of the plot development.  I am about 30% through just in a couple of days and have no doubt I will finish this one!

Here is an interview with the author you can check out if The Round House sounds interesting to you!

The Woman Upstairs

I just started reading The Woman Upstairs by Claire Messud.  It was recommended by Good Reads as one of the nominees for best books of 2013 and the plot description sounded intriguing to me.  My mom also started reading it last week and told me she couldn't put it down.  We typically share the same taste in books so I decided I would start it after finishing The Accidental Mother.

Here is a basic plot summary from Good Reads:

"Nora Eldridge, a 37-year-old elementary school teacher in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is on the verge of disappearing. Having abandoned her desire to be an artist, she has become the "woman upstairs," a reliable friend and tidy neighbour always on the fringe of others' achievements. Then into her classroom walks a new pupil, Reza Shahid, a child who enchants as if from a fairy tale. He and his parents--dashing Skandar, a half-Muslim Professor of Ethical History born in Beirut, and Sirena, an effortlessly glamorous Italian artist--have come to America for Skandar to teach at Harvard.

But one afternoon, Reza is attacked by schoolyard bullies who punch, push and call him a "terrorist," and Nora is quickly drawn deep into the complex world of the Shahid family. Soon she finds herself falling in love with them, separately and together. Nora's happiness explodes her boundaries--until Sirena's own ambition leads to a shattering betrayal."

This description immediately drew me in for several reasons:
1) I am a teacher and it is amazing how quickly you can connect to some students and how much you feel responsbile for helping them.
2) I felt like Nora was well-described and I felt like I could empathize with her.

The plot intrigued me.  I wanted to know how Nora's influence helped Reza and his family; I also wanted to know why she was "disappearing" and if she came back from being "the woman upstairs."

So far, I really like the writing style.  Claire Messud has done a nice job of establishing Nora's voice and I really feel connected as a reader.  I am only 12% in right now though, so I have a ways to go.  The only thing that makes me a bit leery are some of the reviews on Good Reads (see link above).  Several were fairly negative, but I will continue to have an open mind as long as I'm still enjoying the book.  And so far, I am.

The Accidental Mother

It has been much harder for me to read over this break then it is when I am working.  Mostly because I have three children five and under and I am just exhausted by the end of the day, which is when I normally do the most reading.

Despite this, I still managed to finish my last book and start another called The Accidental Mother.  I also have my Kindle chock full of books I intend to read in the next month.  Most of these came from the Good Reads list of the best books of 2013 so I am pretty excited to get started on them.

The Accidental Mother is basically about a woman who is living a pretty carefree young adult life in London…until she learns that her childhood best friend has died in a car accident and left custody of her two young girls, Bella and Izzy, to her.  She has to change the way she handles her day to day life.  What starts out as a temporary solution where Sophie (the accidental mother) just tries to get by on a day to day basis turns into a longer term situation where she actually cares for and loves the girls.  Here is a line I highlighted that shows this character change in Sophie: "Not because she had to, she discovered as they waited at the bus stop, but because she wanted to.  And she wanted to not only for the children, whom she had gradually started to admire and even like, but for Carrie, whom she was slowly beginning to miss from the outside in, like a spring thaw."  I love the simile at the end, showing how Sophie is both finally starting to grieve, as well as connect to Bella and Izzy.

I think the plot twist is coming my way though, as they just found the girls' father, who abandoned them years ago and in on his way back now that he learned the fate of his ex-wife.  Here are a few questions I have:

• Is the father really going to want to be in their lives now considering he previously abandoned them?
• Will the girls want to live with their father os Sophie?
• Will Sophie put the girls ahead of her career?

Update coming soon!

Finished!

I finished Learning to Swim yesterday and all in all, it was pretty good.  The author did a fabulous job building suspense in such a way that you couldn't stop reading and also couldn't wait for the surprise you knew she had in store.  I don't want to give away the ending, but I will let you know that the dad was an honest guy and not involved in the kidnapping whatsoever.  I was very happy about that, as you want to see the best in people and he genuinely seemed thrilled when Paul was returned.  I don't want to give anything away though in case someone is interested in reading it.

So I've reached (actually exceeded) my reading goal of 42 books in 2013.  And that was starting in August when we began blogging.  Not too shabby for a mom of three little ones who works full time!  I am thinking of making my 2014 goal 75 books.  Hopefully I can make that happen.  What will your reading goal for 2014 be? Time to start thinking about it.  We will be updating our goodreads goal in January.  Happy holidays!

Learning to Swim

I am about  65% through Learning to Swim by Sara Henry.  I actually saw this title on the Cincinnati Public Library downloadables page and it sounded really intriguing.  I had never heard of the author before, but I really enjoy her style and the plot is engaging.

Summary:
Troy (a girl) is riding on a ferry near Virginia.  She sees another ferry crossing paths with hers and sees a young child being thrown overboard.  She sees his eyes specifically, pleading with hers and makes the snap decision to jump in.  She swims towards where she saw him go under and eventually rescues him.  After a long swim to shore, she discovers two somewhat strange things: no one is waiting for him (she was expecting ambulances and a worried set of parents) and there is an adult sweatshirt tied around him, binding his arms to his body so he can't move.  This was intentional.  Troy probably doesn't make the best decision here.  She fails to involve authorities and takes the boy back to her house.  She feeds and bathes him and makes sure he is comfortable and then tries to investigate who he is and who did this to him.  Paul, the boy, is Canadian and eventually reveals to Troy that he and his mother were kidnapped together.  His mother was killed and he was kept in a room for months before thrown off the ferry.  His father is still living in Canada.

Troy decides to go and see the father for herself to determine if she thinks he is innocent or was involved in the kidnapping.  After their initial visit, she feels that the father, Phillipe, is innocent and therefore reunites the boy with his dad.  Paul has really bonded with Troy though, and so Troy accompanies the boy to Canada and stays in the family house for awhile to help ease the transition.  Once there, it becomes clear that the lead investigator is suspicious of Phillipe and so Troy starts digging around in the house and on the family's home computer.

Connections:
It's kind of a mystery novel and in some ways reminds me of a couple of my favorite authors: Diane Chamberlain, Jodi Picoult, and Gillian Flynn.  Sara Henry really has me curious about Phillipe and if he was really involved in the kidnapping.  I also wonder what will happen to Paul if his dad is/was involved.

There have been several real life kidnapping cases, where children are abducted and forced to live in a small, secret space for long periods of time.  Most notably, the Ariel Castro victim's in Cleveland, Ohio.  Fortunately for Paul, he was only held in captivity for five months, but you can see through the author's details that it has really impacted him.  For example, he didn't have any access to laundry, so he could rinse out his own clothes in the sink and hang them to dry.  He started doing this at home, even though his father was very wealthy and he had a washer and dryer (and even a family maid to was his clothes for him).  He is having a hard time letting go of some of these survival tactics he developed while in captivity.

I'm glad it is winter break, as I know I will have time to finish this book soon and get started on another one.  Happy holidays!

Google Glasses

This weekend I was able to try out Google glasses.  My older brother works for Google and he just got a pair last week.  (Right now, buying them is pretty exclusive.  You have to have an invitation to buy them and they are $1500).  But, since my brother owned a pair and we had talked about them in 451, I decided I had to try them on and take a picture.  Since he had some inside scoop, I thought I would share a few things I learned about them.  First of all, Google is not planning to release them for purchase to the general public until the cost is down to around $500.  Secondly, since they are still a very new technology, its abilities are somewhat limited.  Here are my honest thoughts:

1. The screen you saw while wearing them was a true holographic computer screen, displayed above my right eye, a bit in the distance.
2. There were not actual lenses over my eyes...I thought there would be.  According to my bro, they will be available with prescription lenses as well.
3. The blye part near my right eye could be used as a motion sensor to switch between screens and see new information, kind of like how your finger swipes a smartphone. 

Will I own my own pair in the near future?  Probably not.  Pretty much everything they can do can also be done on my smartphone and I think it looks a little too Jetson-like for me at this point in time.  Regardless, I'm still excited I got to try them on! 

 

Now I know this technically is not independent reading BUT it does connect to 451, so I feel like I can share it on my reading blog.