The Jungle and The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

Still working on The Jungle---little Antanas has died tragically and Jurghis has taken to the road. He jumps a train and makes his way into the countryside. Some brief happiness follows but he's barely living, merely existing from day to day and suppressing his grief. What next can this man endure??

Meanwhile, I've decided to lighten things up a bit for my upstairs reading, and so have begun The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. You'll like this epistolary novel if you like historical fiction (how the islanders coped with German occupation [the Germans thought they'd use Guernsey as a staging ground for the Battle of Britain, but stuck around for the duration of the war even after giving that one up]), or if you love quirky characters. On the first face this book seems light and frothy, but as you read you'll be amazed and impressed with how the authors build a complex story. Check it out, and let me know what you think!

The Jungle

I'm in the midst of reading The Jungle, by Upton Sinclair. I'm really enjoying it, though it is so, so grim! I'd been intrigued to read the book since seeing references to it in the 8th grade SS textbook, and its significance to industrial reform in the US during Teddy Roosevelt's administration---it was an important factor in his pushing through the Pure Food and Drug Act. That is to say, TR read the book, as did many Americans, and one and all, they were appalled by the conditions of the workers in Chicago's meatpacking industry. Even more so, though, they were shocked and disgusted with the quality and condition of the meat products that were coming out of the 3 big packing companies (for a while, the Beef Trust, til it was busted by the gov't) and landing on their tables. The story focuses on the extended family of Lithuanian immigrant Jurgis Rudkus; the characters maintain their humanity throughout even as they fall prey to the brutality of the Packingtown yards. He details 1st the conditions of the packing plants and the products going out to market---which will make your toes curl---and the daily conditions of the workers (6 1/2 day workweek, often paid by the "piece," rock-bottom wages, 10-hour days with one half-hour break, and that's just the skeletal outline). I'm about midway through the book, and he has shifted to the utter, soul-crushing degradation experienced by the workers, through the experiences of Jurgis and his family. Reading this book, and reflecting on the recent criminal activities of some of our big financial institutions, I am squarely behind a government that regulates business.

Salander and Blomkvist

Upon reflection, I do have one reservation about about my new favorite book series---for the under-18 crowd: the books are sprinkled with some nasty sex and violence (can't contemporary authors drive their plots some other way?). Larsson doesn't overdo it, but it's part of the story.

Finished Stieg Larsson

ok, I finished Stieg Larsson's The Girl Who Played With Fire, and can recommend it without reserve. Definitely check this one out. Shocking conclusion, and it totally sets you up for the 3rd book in the series. Alas, that book is not due til late May. So, I shall move on in my reading---next up: Caroline Cooney's The Voice on the Radio, which I've been reading with Aurora, and Sinclair's The Jungle. The Cooney book is the third in a series, the first 2 of which we've enjoyed. The series concerns the discovery by the main character, Janie, that she had been kidnapped as a toddler and raised by the Johnson's, who innocently thought little Janie was their own daughter's child. We really liked the 1st 2 books, but have found this one a bit less gripping. The Jungle is a book I've always wanted to read, but like so many classics, haven't. Kind of seems like required reading for me, though, since I teach social studies. I've also got Thackerey's Vanity Fair going, but with only the mildest of enthusiasm. The trouble is not with the story or the writing, but with me---this is one of my bedtime-reads, and during the work week, I'm generally asleep within 10-15 minutes. Makes for a plodding pace!
What are you reading?

1st post

I'm starting this blog because I love to read, and I want to share that marvelous satisfaction with you---maybe you'll share some of your great reads with me.

It gives me joy and pleasure to read a good book, so much so that I usually have a minimum of 2 - 4 books going at any one time. I keep a book upstairs, downstairs, in my pocketbook and in my lunch bag. Usually I read these titles in their logical places according to where they're located: in bed before going to sleep, downstairs after school along with a cup of coffee and my daughter's company, also in the kitchen while cooking...yes, that's why the pasta is a little soft tonight..., out and about while in some sort of a waiting-mode (doctor's office or what-have-you), even on occasion at school when I take a rare solo lunch in my classroom. Usually I keep the books well separated, sort of categorized according to my probable alertness. Presently, however, my upstairs-read has spilled over into just about any place I can reasonably read, it's that good: Stieg Larsson's The Girl Who Played With Fire, the second in a three-part series. To sum up all the critics' blurbs, it is compulsively readable! The characters are all so refreshingly off that I love them all, even the heinous bad guys (and they're pretty bad). The plot is tight, and the action intense. Good thing I'm on vacation this week...