beauty and the beast
not really, but you remember that scene in the disney movie where the beast takes belle into the library and uncovers her eyes, and the "camera" pans over this fantastic, towering room lined on every wall with thousands of books, up to the ceiling, and these gorgeous full-wall windows just pouring sunlight onto everything?
okay, so the howard county public library system isn't quite like that. but it feels that way, prowling through the stacks and knowing i can pick up any book i like, as many as i like... it's treasure, gold, delicious, anticipation!
i went yesterday, and last night finished the first of the books: kim edwards' the memory keeper's daughter. read the first few chapters very closely, as it had to do with labor and delivery, moments still very close in my own memory, and i read or listen to anyone's experience this way: remembering my own, comparing. and the rest of the book opened further into experiences i cannot yet compare: the children as they grow, up and away and apart, and it all made me think (between lines, between pages) of what i may have already done to cement musa's memories of his childhood in a certain light, or what i may do unwittingly in the future, for him to look back and reflect and say, man, i wish things had been different... but that was my childhood and this is my life and this is who i am now...
one thing (of many things) edwards does so beautifully is to paint so clear a picture of the wall that rises in her characters' family, the secret that they grow up around without even knowing it, like trees twisting around a stone, she writes somewhere. ... it's very satisfying to read a novel that carries you through decades of the characters' lives, so you see how things begin and how things end, but i wonder how it is written... i wonder how difficult it is to write about someone in their 40s, 50s, 60s, without having been there oneself?
anyway. very excited about the rest of the books in my bag:
Snow by Orhan Pamuk
The Shipping News by Annie Proulx (one of my favorite movies, never read the book)
Maps for Lost Lovers by Nadeem Aslam
1916 by Morgan Llywellyn
The Optimists by Andrew Miller
Banker to the Poor: Micro-Lending Against Poverty by Muhammad Yunus
Winning the Race: Beyond the Crisis in Black America by John McWhorter
lots to keep me busy and away from the TV!!
laptop battery is dying, so i must go...
okay, so the howard county public library system isn't quite like that. but it feels that way, prowling through the stacks and knowing i can pick up any book i like, as many as i like... it's treasure, gold, delicious, anticipation!
i went yesterday, and last night finished the first of the books: kim edwards' the memory keeper's daughter. read the first few chapters very closely, as it had to do with labor and delivery, moments still very close in my own memory, and i read or listen to anyone's experience this way: remembering my own, comparing. and the rest of the book opened further into experiences i cannot yet compare: the children as they grow, up and away and apart, and it all made me think (between lines, between pages) of what i may have already done to cement musa's memories of his childhood in a certain light, or what i may do unwittingly in the future, for him to look back and reflect and say, man, i wish things had been different... but that was my childhood and this is my life and this is who i am now...
one thing (of many things) edwards does so beautifully is to paint so clear a picture of the wall that rises in her characters' family, the secret that they grow up around without even knowing it, like trees twisting around a stone, she writes somewhere. ... it's very satisfying to read a novel that carries you through decades of the characters' lives, so you see how things begin and how things end, but i wonder how it is written... i wonder how difficult it is to write about someone in their 40s, 50s, 60s, without having been there oneself?
anyway. very excited about the rest of the books in my bag:
Snow by Orhan Pamuk
The Shipping News by Annie Proulx (one of my favorite movies, never read the book)
Maps for Lost Lovers by Nadeem Aslam
1916 by Morgan Llywellyn
The Optimists by Andrew Miller
Banker to the Poor: Micro-Lending Against Poverty by Muhammad Yunus
Winning the Race: Beyond the Crisis in Black America by John McWhorter
lots to keep me busy and away from the TV!!
laptop battery is dying, so i must go...
posted by Ayesha | 12:30 PM
3 Comments:
I also enjoyed the memory keeper's daughter quite a bit. But I'll tell you what I thought of it in our bookclub discussion. I'm so excited you started one.
ahh. I have been reading only my writing genre. I need to branch out so much! IA sometime!
you're such a nerd
Post a Comment
<< Home