cooking pans and books
anyone out there a big user of cast iron cookware? we are thinking of throwing out all our teflon (finally)... have been "thinking" about it a while, but i like eggs and omelettes a lot. once i tried to cook tofu in a stainless steel pan and it all got stuck.
so, on books. i never did write about updike's "terrorist". but it went on pretty much as it began. unless he meant it as a satire of depictions of muslim-americans, which is not the impression i got, the book's main character, the 18-year-old egyptian-irish, american-born-and-raised ahmad, is just completely unbelievable. i read some amazon.com reviews while i was reading the book, and some of what other readers said i agree with - that ahmad's speech is more like a middle-aged immigrant arab than an american teenager of any religious persuasion (but i guess all militant muslims talk like that? like, "'I of course do not hate all Americans. But the American way is the way of infidels. It is headed for a terrible doom.'" and that is when he is talking to a guidance counselor at his high school). and then there is the weirdo sheikh (who is the only other muslim this kid seems to have any exposure to? in new york?) - Shaikh Rashid, who has probably the most unbelievable line in the whole book - when he is tutoring ahmad on surah al-fil, with the first ayah, in describing the pronunciation of "as-haabil fil", he sais, "'S, h: two distinct sounds, not "sh." Pronounce them as in, oh, "asshole." Forgive me, that is the sole word in the devils' language that comes to mind."
first of all, is he learning to read it from "roman" arabic, that there would be some possibility of pronouncing saad and ha together as "sh"? and second of all - asshole??? yeah, i can see ANY shaikh, even the craziest, saying something like that in a lesson.
*sigh* - i haven't read any other updike books, but i can see in this book why he is seen as a great american novelist - he has a way of writing, of description of certain scenes and individuals, that paints a sort of larger picture in your mind of the culture and society the people stem from, the land and nation in which those places figure. in much of this book you can SEE new york, the high school, a few of the characters... but in his attempt at portraying even one shy, solitary, misled muslim american kid, he is just so way off it kills the book. it just doesn't work. i don't believe that this kid turned into a "radical muslim" the way this book claims, i don't believe that radical muslims in america act like this, i don't believe that ahmad would go and carry out a terrorist attack based on what his beliefs in the book are (that if he dies and goes to heaven, God will nobt be so terribly alone anymore???).
maybe i'm just missing the whole point? i dunno. but this is my reaction.
so, after "terrorist" i started reading poul anderson's harvest of stars, which i got because a blurb at the back of ender's game said it was a book of incredible vision or something like that. i thought the "vision" illuminated something grand about humanity, but the "vision" is more about envisioning an amazingly complex spacefaring future for our race. it's also a very political book. but... i'm not done with it yet. i don't think i can finish it. it's just going on and on and on.... it's well written - the characters are memorable, and i even found myself lingering over some descriptive passages. but, either hardcore sci-fi is just not for me - this is one of the only ones i have ever read - or this book just doesn't do it for me...
i stopped at about 2/3 of the way through to read the last book i checked out, lost boys also by orson scott card, because i have enjoyed other books of his. i finished it in one night, and over the next day went back to reread the ending twice more. it's such a simple story, almost cliche - a young, struggling Mormon family moves to a small town in NC in the early 80s where young boys have been disappearing. but it's not so much a story about the crime, or the supernatural elements that creep into this family - it's about the family themselves - the father's struggle to make ends meet with a job he detests, the mother's struggle to keep house with three kids, a fourth on the way, and find meaning in her church work, the oldest child's struggle with loneliness in a hostile new school environment (in a sense, maybe this is more about jihad than "terrorist was?)... it's about good versus evil among very orinary people, but card has a way of drawing you into their lives so well that the end is heartwrenching to read - especially as a parent. and though i'm far from mormon myself, it's just nice to read something about people with strong faith, where the story is not about them losing faith or getting it back or anything like that. it's just a part of them, it helps them over all the hurdles they face...
any other recommendations for good escapist reading? i am starting to panic with nothing else new to read... minus all the books i have that i haven't read yet... hehheh...
so, on books. i never did write about updike's "terrorist". but it went on pretty much as it began. unless he meant it as a satire of depictions of muslim-americans, which is not the impression i got, the book's main character, the 18-year-old egyptian-irish, american-born-and-raised ahmad, is just completely unbelievable. i read some amazon.com reviews while i was reading the book, and some of what other readers said i agree with - that ahmad's speech is more like a middle-aged immigrant arab than an american teenager of any religious persuasion (but i guess all militant muslims talk like that? like, "'I of course do not hate all Americans. But the American way is the way of infidels. It is headed for a terrible doom.'" and that is when he is talking to a guidance counselor at his high school). and then there is the weirdo sheikh (who is the only other muslim this kid seems to have any exposure to? in new york?) - Shaikh Rashid, who has probably the most unbelievable line in the whole book - when he is tutoring ahmad on surah al-fil, with the first ayah, in describing the pronunciation of "as-haabil fil", he sais, "'S, h: two distinct sounds, not "sh." Pronounce them as in, oh, "asshole." Forgive me, that is the sole word in the devils' language that comes to mind."
first of all, is he learning to read it from "roman" arabic, that there would be some possibility of pronouncing saad and ha together as "sh"? and second of all - asshole??? yeah, i can see ANY shaikh, even the craziest, saying something like that in a lesson.
*sigh* - i haven't read any other updike books, but i can see in this book why he is seen as a great american novelist - he has a way of writing, of description of certain scenes and individuals, that paints a sort of larger picture in your mind of the culture and society the people stem from, the land and nation in which those places figure. in much of this book you can SEE new york, the high school, a few of the characters... but in his attempt at portraying even one shy, solitary, misled muslim american kid, he is just so way off it kills the book. it just doesn't work. i don't believe that this kid turned into a "radical muslim" the way this book claims, i don't believe that radical muslims in america act like this, i don't believe that ahmad would go and carry out a terrorist attack based on what his beliefs in the book are (that if he dies and goes to heaven, God will nobt be so terribly alone anymore???).
maybe i'm just missing the whole point? i dunno. but this is my reaction.
so, after "terrorist" i started reading poul anderson's harvest of stars, which i got because a blurb at the back of ender's game said it was a book of incredible vision or something like that. i thought the "vision" illuminated something grand about humanity, but the "vision" is more about envisioning an amazingly complex spacefaring future for our race. it's also a very political book. but... i'm not done with it yet. i don't think i can finish it. it's just going on and on and on.... it's well written - the characters are memorable, and i even found myself lingering over some descriptive passages. but, either hardcore sci-fi is just not for me - this is one of the only ones i have ever read - or this book just doesn't do it for me...
i stopped at about 2/3 of the way through to read the last book i checked out, lost boys also by orson scott card, because i have enjoyed other books of his. i finished it in one night, and over the next day went back to reread the ending twice more. it's such a simple story, almost cliche - a young, struggling Mormon family moves to a small town in NC in the early 80s where young boys have been disappearing. but it's not so much a story about the crime, or the supernatural elements that creep into this family - it's about the family themselves - the father's struggle to make ends meet with a job he detests, the mother's struggle to keep house with three kids, a fourth on the way, and find meaning in her church work, the oldest child's struggle with loneliness in a hostile new school environment (in a sense, maybe this is more about jihad than "terrorist was?)... it's about good versus evil among very orinary people, but card has a way of drawing you into their lives so well that the end is heartwrenching to read - especially as a parent. and though i'm far from mormon myself, it's just nice to read something about people with strong faith, where the story is not about them losing faith or getting it back or anything like that. it's just a part of them, it helps them over all the hurdles they face...
any other recommendations for good escapist reading? i am starting to panic with nothing else new to read... minus all the books i have that i haven't read yet... hehheh...
posted by Ayesha | 1:08 PM
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