Procrastinator

I have not posted to my blog in a while because I have not read a teen book as of yet. Whenever I thought I would check out a teen fiction book a lot of the books I had on hold came in all at once. It is either feast or famine when it comes to books that I want to read. I have been reading Marf's blog and have felt like a slacker for not writing. I thought I would at least write about a book I have read even though it is definitely not geared toward teens.







I read Home: A Memoir by Julie Andrews right after it was ready for the shelves. I had ordered it for the library and was excited to get the book. As I was reading I was often surprised about all that she went through in her family life. Julie Andrews who started her life as Julia Elizabeth Wells did not have an idyllic life as I had imagined. I did not know that her parents had divorced and then remarried other people. She did not shy away from some very personal things that happened in her family. If I wrote a biography I do not think that I could have bared as intimate of details as she did. She gives a lot of detail about her professional life and names a lot of people who helped her career. I liked the pictures that she included in the biography of her, her family, and friends. They included posed shots for her profession and candid shots of her and her family.



Although some people that have a strong interest in theater might find the extent of detail great, I did not care for it. I had a hard time keeping track of all of the people that she knew and what they were to her. Another problem that I had is how she ended the book. She alluded to several things in the book, but did not finish them or give them detail. I understand that you can only put so much in a book, but it left me disappointed.



Even though I did not like the ending I enjoyed reading about the inner workings of her family and how she felt about her profession. The general biography reader may like it, but the die hard Julie Andrews/Theater fans would probably get a lot more out of it.



**I did not give too many details because I did not want to ruin anything for someone who wants to read the book.

St. Dale

I have not been able to finish the book. I have read about 150 pages and cannot force myself to continue. It is not a bad book at all, but the subject does not interest me. There are some interesting storylines, but I can't get absorbed like I usually do in a good book. I have watched one Nacsar race with a friend and it is not very exciting for me. I will probably be disowned by certain family members who love racing if they hear about this. I will start on a YA book now, but it still bothers me that I cannot finish the book.

Tales of Uncle Remus by Julius Lester

These stories were quick and easy to read, but I did not care for the book. I get perturbed when people or rabbits get ahead by using others and being lazy themselves. I understand these are just stories and that animals don't really talk to humans (I have not lost my grip on reality yet), but I still did not want Brer Rabbit to be a moocher. When I stand back and remember that these were stories told to slaves to help them survive (as mentioned in the Southern Writers Blog-Aug 2007) I see that they would be helpful. If a slave was trying to escape and survive on the run he/she would have to do whatever they could to survive. Maybe remembering the stories would give them ideas on how to get food or other necessities.

Walking Across Egypt

I thought at first that this was going to be a simple and funny story. Then when I got into the book the quote "what a long strange trip this has been" popped into my head. This older woman that seemed to have lived a relatively quiet and routine life has now gotten involved with some real characters. I don't know if Mattie likes to stay busy or she does not want people to say she is old and lazy. When she got stuck in the chair she has the dog catcher do her dishes so that nobody else knows that she did not immediately wash her dishes. That tells me she cares a lot about what other people think about her. She herself says that she is slowing down and I think she says that is because she does not want other people to say it. If it is going to come out it will come from her. Mattie reminds me of my own Grandma because she as well has to tell you all of the things that she has done that day or how busy she will be. I think it might be that because they did not work outside of the home that they want to tell you they contribute and they can be busy as well.

The home cooking all the time I am not sure if that is because of the way she was raised or she still does it because that is a way for people to stay a while and she will not be alone. They don't get good homemade food at home so they will be more likely stay. Making all her meals from scratch also takes up more time so she can say she has a lot to do.She lives alone and she could make simpler food or pick up something already made.

I think that the church is another thing that makes Mattie feel wanted. She does a good job with the committee she heads and so the church can make good use of her talents. The church is very important to her, but not her family which upsets her a great deal. Her kids do not go to church regularly and so she worries that they won't be good people or they will be steered wrong by life. Another smaller point is that it is part of her schedule. She does things at a certain time each day and Sunday has always been church and she is prepared ahead of time for her class.

The big divide between the generations are language, dress, and manners. I think this has always been the case between the people of different ages. Mattie is driven crazy because Lamar does not take his hat off when he comes into the house. She ends up grabbing it off of his head. She also reprimands the younger men when they use swear words. This is the way with the older generations in my family as well. My Mom would be driven crazy by the slang when I was younger and I am sure that she thought my torn jeans were ugly and just ruining a good pair of pants. I may get away with more with my Grandparents than my Mom and Dad did, but I still act differently around them than I would around my friends or people closer to my age.

The ending did bother me because I thought she had all of a sudden had a medical problem. She had thought through most of the book that she would just feed Wesley and take him to church and that would be all. When she suddenly changes her mind about Wesley and the dog I thought it might already be late for her to do anything. She had good health all of her life so she may have not realized something was wrong right away and so said she would marry Wesley. She had a reason to marry him and it made sense to her.

The World Made Straight

I think what draws Leonard to Travis is that he reminds him of himself. I think Travis is a lot like Leonard and that makes him want to steer him toward the better choices. Leonard made so many bad decisions, didn't fight for the right thing, and had bad things happen to him he wanted to prevent the younger man from going down the same road. They are both intelligent and Leonard wanted the young man to think about what choices he had instead of letting things happen and stay a farmer with his over critical father. They were raised to look at school and intelligence in different ways, but they both strayed from doing the best that they could. Leonard was always supported in his accomplishments he had in school and was expected to go to college. Travis did not have the support of his parents about school. His father did not care that he dropped out of school and did not tell him he could do better because he did not see the intelligence in his son. In seeing Travis learn and better himself it made Leonard take a look at himself and get out of selling drugs. He even took the steps to get a job in a library. I think that if Leonard and Travis had not met they both would have continued their miserable lives as they had been and never realize that they could accomplish anything good for the first time or again.



When Travis goes on his rampage he is angry that people are not just happy that he got his GED. He does not want to think about what other possibilities that he can acheive. He just wanted to patted on the back and told he had done a good job. His girlfriend because of her home life wanted the best life possible for him because she cared for him. He thought it was just because she thought he wasn't good enough yet. He was not used to people wanting the best for him and so he wanted to prove that he was bad and could not do better or he didn't care what they thought. I think that when he tried to save Dena it was a sign of progress because he was not thinking about himself. He knew that he would be in serious trouble when the Toomey's found him. When he ruined their pot crop that was revenge. Even if he hadn't ruinded their plants he would have been in trouble so I think he wanted to make an extra dig at them.



This book was easier to get through than the other two because it was not written in letter form or heavy vernacular, but still I did not really like it because there was not a completion for all of the characters. Not finishing everyone's story drives me crazy. I wanted to know what eventually happened to Travis and Lori. I wanted to know that what Leonard did made a difference to Travis and he straighted out. I know real life is not all tied up in pretty bows, but I like that in a book.

Creating an Avatar was fun. Can you tell I am looking forward to Christmas?

Fair and Tender Ladies

At times I did not like Ivy very much because she could be very selfish. As I continued to read she very often acted a certain way because of other people's interest. For example seeing Franklin Ransom was in part for her sister and brother-in-law. She at first did not want to have anything to do with him, but it was because of her sister pressuring her that she did. She had her own reasons for seeing him so long, but some of it was paying her family back for letting her live with them. She did not want the owner's son to make it difficult for her brother-in-law.

I think that Ivy uses letters because it was an accepted (tolerated) form of writing in her family and it was a way to keep up with the news without a phone. She fulfilled her need to write and her family knew what was going on outside of their home. Once they had the technology she still was in the habit and needed to write. I did not realize until the very end of the book that it was a form of therapy for her. On page 314 she is writing to Joli and says she continued to write to Silvaney after her death because "It was the writing of them, that signified." She could get her thoughts and feelings out without having to admit to herself everyday that her favorite sister had died. She knew that she was dead, but still needed to write to her "other half"(p. 313) to feel better.

I hated the first 30 pages or so because it was so much detail and her writing was not very easy to read. I literally had a headache from reading the beginning pages. Through reading the book I began to care more about her and her family. I did not want them to suffer as they did at times. I would not say that it was a great book, but it was a good book. It gave a great description of the early 1900s in the mountainous remote region of Virginia.