Hypocrite in a pouffy white dress - by Susan Jane Gilman

This is one I fall back on a lot, it always puts me in a good mood and I recommend it whenever I can.

"Based on the belief that there's more to women's lives than just getting a date, Gilman's stories tell of struggling to get a life and a clue - and engaging in some spectacularly demented behaviour along the way. Gilman's memoir is so engaging it reads like the very best fiction. At turns heartbreaking, insightful, and screamingly funny, it uniquely chronicles a generation - and heralds a talented writer of note."

Gilman's writing style is fantastic, her stories are hilarious, and I think it's impossible not to identify a little bit with her awkward stories of trying to fit in.

Erich Fromm

As part of my ongoing interest in the social sciences I have turned towards studying the individual - namely psychology. Erich Fromm was what you'd call a second generation psychologist, that being he came after Freud and Jung and built upon their ideas while taking things in a different direction. Most of his works are best described as social psychology dealing with the relationship between the individual and society. I'm currently reading "Escape From Freedom." Here's the synopsis from the back cover :

If a man cannot live with freedom, he will probably turn fascist.
This concise statement reflects the essential idea in ESCAPE FROM FREEDOM, Erich Fromm's most famous and very likely his most important book. Using the fundamentals of psychoanalysis as probing agents, Dr. Fromm reveals the illness of contemporary civilization as seen by its willingness to submit to totalitarian rule. While the rise of democracy set certain men free in a political sense, it has simultaneously given birth to a society in which the individual feels isolated, dehumanized and alienated.
This situation has frequently resulted in blind devotion to a Leader, abject submission to an all-powerful State and barbarous policies of aggression and mass murder.

If you are interested in this sort of thing he has written quite a few books which have some very powerful messages. Of note:
"To have or To Be?"
"The Art of Loving"
"The Sane Society"
"Escape From Freedom"

an introduction

Hello all,

I meant to put up a welcome post to introduce you all to the new blog but before I could get to it we'd already had our first book posting up! It seems a good sign and a strong start. I thought about starting this blog back when we started the cook blog, but I wasn't sure if it would be overkill to start up two new blogs at once, so I thought we'd see how the cook blog fared. But I've found that some of the most reliable reads are those that come from the suggestions of friends and I wanted a place where we could collect all those great book suggestions so that hopefully none of us will be left aimless when looking for a good read.

Please feel free to post any and every kind of book, and add your comments to any existing book posts to help us all to determine what we'll be reading next! If you'd like to invite other friends to join, you can go to the blog settings and click on the 'admissions' tab. Then just enter the email addresses and they will be sent an invite.

The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini

I'm sure this is a well-read book, especially with the movie coming out (already out?), but I thought I'd post it anyway, feel free to give your own thoughts!

The story of two Afghan boys of different backgrounds growing up as best friends in the same household. Amir's father is a respected and wealthy businessman and Hassan's father is his servant. Growing up under his father's shadow, Amir's confusion and hurt from his father's ambivalence towards him is acted out through his sometimes less-than-fair treatment of his fiercely loyal friend, Hassan, and ultimately leads to the demise of their relationship. Years later, Amir is compelled to return to his homeland to make amends with his past and to at last redeem himself and his loyalty to Hassan. Backdropped by the events in Afghanistan over the past 30 years which transformed the country to a place of turmoil and violence, the novel offers a vivid portrayal of what has become the way of life in Afghanistan. However the political and historical events are not discussed in great detail, leaving the reader compelled to learn more. Although the book's pace may be somewhat slow at first, the reader is rewarded with a twisting plot and a tale that is ultimately dramatic, emotional, tragic, and beautiful.

Border Passage: From Cairo to America- One Woman's Journey - Leila Ahmed

I read this book awhile ago but really enjoyed it so I thought I'd post it. It was really interesting to get insight on a culture and country that I know so little about- those being the Arab culture and Egypt. The memoir of the author, and Egyptian-American feminist and Women's Studies professor, is truly an opus of insight on discrimination by race, gender, religion, politics, and class and how our experiences and familial, cultural, religious, and educational environment shape our reality and our attitudes. This non-western, female perspective on colonialism, politics, religion, the rise of the Arab identity, and the attitudes of westerners towards non-western cultures is both shocking and humbling in its acuity and depth. It was truly wonderful to read such intelligent and well-thought out views on such a broad range of topics- a dense read that is at the same time so very engaging and readable.

Obasan - Joy Kogawa

I picked this book up from the used book store, the guy working there thought I was buying for school because it is a popular book used in Canadian schools so it's easily already been read. It's a short novel and an easy read. The story is about a Japanese Canadian family and their experiences in Canada during the second world war. The story is told from the point of view of the daughter and weaves through present and past experiences to explore the story of the family I believe it is historically accurate as well. One thing I really liked about this book was the style of writing, in so many ways it feels like poetry. The way she describes things is beautiful, this is a sentence that I loved as soon as I read it:

"The laughter in my arms is quiet as the moon, quiet as snow falling, quiet as the white light from the from the stars." (p 170)

Anyways, the book is a nice read. If you are interested let me know and I'll mail it to you.