sarahmichigan (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
sarahmichigan) wrote2018-08-04 11:35 am
sarahmichigan) wrote2018-08-04 11:35 am
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What I've been reading: Books No. 39 & 40
Book No. 39 was "Wonder" by RJ Palacio as an audiobook. Oh boy, do I have mixed feelings about this one. The book centers on August (Auggie) Pullman, a boy with a set of genetic conditions that have left him with a deformed face, even after dozens of surgeries. He's always been home-schooled, but his mother decides it might be time for him to go to public school starting in 5th grade. It is told from several viewpoints, including Auggie's, a few kids at school, Auggie's sister Olivia (who is going through her own high school growing pains), and a few other folks. So, let's start with things I *did* like. I like Auggie as a character - he's very sympathetic, though other reviews I've read of the book point out that he's somewhat passive - things happen TO him, rather than him doing much of anything except surviving 5th grade. I sympathized with his sister Via's desire to both be a good sister but also to fit in at school. I also think that some parental reactions, like not wanting Auggie's face in school photos, feels really authentic to how real people react. I also like that there is a lot of humor in the book.
But this book had problems. One is that Auggie comes off as immature compared to his schoolmates, but I think that's mostly because the other 5th graders are WAY too mature. I have volunteered with fifth graders before, and the kids in these books are much more like 9th graders for the most part in the way they gossip and talk about who is boyfriend/girlfriend. Another thing that was so bad it made me cringe as I saw it coming a mile away is that (spoiler alert!) Auggie wins an award at the 5th grade ceremony basically for surviving 5th grade as "the deformed kid." This book is a great example of why I read books on disability that are BY disabled people themselves, not by well-meaning able-bodied people. Even family members don't have the same perspective on things that disabled folks have on themselves.
On the flip side, a little boy with similar facial differences, highlighted in this video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mw1wwInsQ1I), uses the book "Wonder" to break the ice when he comes into a new school so that kids know what to expect and how to react to him. If it does good things for that kid, I'm glad it exists. I really wish RJ Palacio had done a bit more research on cranio-facial abnormalities and had made Auggie a more dynamic character, however.
Book No. 40 was "The Diary of Vaslav Nijinsky, Unexpurgated," edited and with introduction by Joan Acocella and translated by Kyril Fitzlyon. Nijinsky was a famed Russian ballet dancer in the early 1900s and went on to be a famous but controversial choreographer, with one of his ballets ending in a riot, and another censured in the press as "obscene." In his late 20s, he began to succumb to schizophrenia, and kept a diary over 6 weeks that shows his deterioration. His wife previous published a highly bowdlerized version that removed references to bodily functions and anything that made her look bad, and this is the first unexpurgated version in English.
The introduction is really the most interesting thing about the book. Acocella is both a dance critic and the co-author of a book on abnormal psychology, so she was the perfect person to give a brief bio of Nijinsky and introduce the book. The diary itself is a bit of hard go. You do get some factual recollections of Nijinsky's life, but his writing is extremely stream-of-consciousness and very repetitive. Occasionally there will be a nice turn of phrase, as when he says his mother-in-law "kisses me and my wife and Kyra (daughter) for show. I kiss her for show, because I want her to think I love her. She kisses me so that I will think she loves me. I know she has no soul. I know that pieces of glass burst in her heart when she says she loves me." But then, later on, you get verse that reads like this:
I want to say that to sleep
I want to say that to shit
I shit and you shit
I shit I shit
You shit you I shit
I shit and you are in I shit
I'm sure that was part of what his wife expurgated from the version she published. Overall, I'm glad I read it, but if you don't want to read 200 pages of word salad, you might just want to read the wikipedia article about his life. Fascinating character!
1. The Two Towers [fiction]- JRR Tolkien (unabridged audiobook)
2. The Argonautika [epic poetry/fiction]- Apollonios Rhodios, transl. Peter Green
3. To the End of June: The Intimate Life of American Foster Care [nonfiction]- Cris Beam
4. The Jazz [fiction]- Melissa Scott
5. Live from Golgotha [fiction]- Gore Vidal
6. Stones for Ibarra [fiction]- Harriet Doerr
7. Don't Worry, He Won't Get Far on Foot [nonfiction/memoir]- John Callahan
8. The Tresspasser [fiction]- Tana French (unabridged audiobook)
9. The Decameron [fiction]- Giovanni Boccaccio
10. March: Book 2 [graphic nonfiction]- John Lewis & Andrew Aydin, ill. Nate Powell
11. Ordinary Light [nonfiction/memoir]- Tracy K. Smith
12. The Short Bus: A Journey Beyond Normal [nonfiction]- Jonathan Mooney
13. March: Book 3 [graphic nonfiction]- John Lewis & Andrew Aydin, ill. Nate Powell
14. The Vegetarian [fiction]- Han Kang
15. First three volumes of the "Bitch Planet" comic series [graphic fiction]- Kelly Sue DeConnick, ill. Valentine DeLandro
16. Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal [nonfiction]- Mary Roach (unabridged audiobook)
17. Bad Monkeys [fiction]- Matt Ruff
18. The Book of Negroes [fiction]- Lawrence Hill
19. The Rules of Attraction [fiction]- Bret Easton Ellis
20. How to Grow Up [nonfiction/memoir]- Michelle Tea
21. The Book of Genesis [fiction/mythology]- ill. R. Crumb
22. The Terranauts [fiction]- T.C. Boyle (unabridged audiobook)
23. The Galaxy Game [fiction]- Karen Lord
24. The Chapel of Ease - a Tufa novel [fiction]- Alex Bledsoe
25. Aha! Gotcha: Paradoxes to Puzzle and Delight [nonfiction]- by Martin Gardner
26. Born on the Fourth of July [nonfiction/memoir]- Ron Kovic
27. My Friend Dahmer [graphic nonfiction]- Derf Backderf
28. The Return of the King [fiction]- JRR Tolkien (unabridged audiobook)
29. The Bishop's Daughter [nonfiction/memoir]- Honor Moore
30. The Red Parts [nonfiction/memoir]- Maggie Nelson
31. Bury Your Dead [fiction]- Louise Penny
32. Octavia's Brood: Science Fiction Stories from Social Justice Movements [fiction & essays]- ed. Walidah Imarisha & adrienne maree brown
33. On the Move: A Life [nonfiction/memoir]- Oliver Sacks (unabridged audiobook)
34. What Happened to You? Writing by Disabled Women [nonfiction/fiction/poetry]- ed. Lois Keith
35. The Astrologer's Daughter [fiction]- Rebecca Lim
36. Trans/Portraits: Voices from Transgender Communities [nonfiction]- Jackson Wright Shultz
37. The Dew Breaker [fiction]- Edwidge Danticat
38. Blameless in Abaddon [fiction]- James Morrow
But this book had problems. One is that Auggie comes off as immature compared to his schoolmates, but I think that's mostly because the other 5th graders are WAY too mature. I have volunteered with fifth graders before, and the kids in these books are much more like 9th graders for the most part in the way they gossip and talk about who is boyfriend/girlfriend. Another thing that was so bad it made me cringe as I saw it coming a mile away is that (spoiler alert!) Auggie wins an award at the 5th grade ceremony basically for surviving 5th grade as "the deformed kid." This book is a great example of why I read books on disability that are BY disabled people themselves, not by well-meaning able-bodied people. Even family members don't have the same perspective on things that disabled folks have on themselves.
On the flip side, a little boy with similar facial differences, highlighted in this video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mw1wwInsQ1I), uses the book "Wonder" to break the ice when he comes into a new school so that kids know what to expect and how to react to him. If it does good things for that kid, I'm glad it exists. I really wish RJ Palacio had done a bit more research on cranio-facial abnormalities and had made Auggie a more dynamic character, however.
Book No. 40 was "The Diary of Vaslav Nijinsky, Unexpurgated," edited and with introduction by Joan Acocella and translated by Kyril Fitzlyon. Nijinsky was a famed Russian ballet dancer in the early 1900s and went on to be a famous but controversial choreographer, with one of his ballets ending in a riot, and another censured in the press as "obscene." In his late 20s, he began to succumb to schizophrenia, and kept a diary over 6 weeks that shows his deterioration. His wife previous published a highly bowdlerized version that removed references to bodily functions and anything that made her look bad, and this is the first unexpurgated version in English.
The introduction is really the most interesting thing about the book. Acocella is both a dance critic and the co-author of a book on abnormal psychology, so she was the perfect person to give a brief bio of Nijinsky and introduce the book. The diary itself is a bit of hard go. You do get some factual recollections of Nijinsky's life, but his writing is extremely stream-of-consciousness and very repetitive. Occasionally there will be a nice turn of phrase, as when he says his mother-in-law "kisses me and my wife and Kyra (daughter) for show. I kiss her for show, because I want her to think I love her. She kisses me so that I will think she loves me. I know she has no soul. I know that pieces of glass burst in her heart when she says she loves me." But then, later on, you get verse that reads like this:
I want to say that to sleep
I want to say that to shit
I shit and you shit
I shit I shit
You shit you I shit
I shit and you are in I shit
I'm sure that was part of what his wife expurgated from the version she published. Overall, I'm glad I read it, but if you don't want to read 200 pages of word salad, you might just want to read the wikipedia article about his life. Fascinating character!
1. The Two Towers [fiction]- JRR Tolkien (unabridged audiobook)
2. The Argonautika [epic poetry/fiction]- Apollonios Rhodios, transl. Peter Green
3. To the End of June: The Intimate Life of American Foster Care [nonfiction]- Cris Beam
4. The Jazz [fiction]- Melissa Scott
5. Live from Golgotha [fiction]- Gore Vidal
6. Stones for Ibarra [fiction]- Harriet Doerr
7. Don't Worry, He Won't Get Far on Foot [nonfiction/memoir]- John Callahan
8. The Tresspasser [fiction]- Tana French (unabridged audiobook)
9. The Decameron [fiction]- Giovanni Boccaccio
10. March: Book 2 [graphic nonfiction]- John Lewis & Andrew Aydin, ill. Nate Powell
11. Ordinary Light [nonfiction/memoir]- Tracy K. Smith
12. The Short Bus: A Journey Beyond Normal [nonfiction]- Jonathan Mooney
13. March: Book 3 [graphic nonfiction]- John Lewis & Andrew Aydin, ill. Nate Powell
14. The Vegetarian [fiction]- Han Kang
15. First three volumes of the "Bitch Planet" comic series [graphic fiction]- Kelly Sue DeConnick, ill. Valentine DeLandro
16. Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal [nonfiction]- Mary Roach (unabridged audiobook)
17. Bad Monkeys [fiction]- Matt Ruff
18. The Book of Negroes [fiction]- Lawrence Hill
19. The Rules of Attraction [fiction]- Bret Easton Ellis
20. How to Grow Up [nonfiction/memoir]- Michelle Tea
21. The Book of Genesis [fiction/mythology]- ill. R. Crumb
22. The Terranauts [fiction]- T.C. Boyle (unabridged audiobook)
23. The Galaxy Game [fiction]- Karen Lord
24. The Chapel of Ease - a Tufa novel [fiction]- Alex Bledsoe
25. Aha! Gotcha: Paradoxes to Puzzle and Delight [nonfiction]- by Martin Gardner
26. Born on the Fourth of July [nonfiction/memoir]- Ron Kovic
27. My Friend Dahmer [graphic nonfiction]- Derf Backderf
28. The Return of the King [fiction]- JRR Tolkien (unabridged audiobook)
29. The Bishop's Daughter [nonfiction/memoir]- Honor Moore
30. The Red Parts [nonfiction/memoir]- Maggie Nelson
31. Bury Your Dead [fiction]- Louise Penny
32. Octavia's Brood: Science Fiction Stories from Social Justice Movements [fiction & essays]- ed. Walidah Imarisha & adrienne maree brown
33. On the Move: A Life [nonfiction/memoir]- Oliver Sacks (unabridged audiobook)
34. What Happened to You? Writing by Disabled Women [nonfiction/fiction/poetry]- ed. Lois Keith
35. The Astrologer's Daughter [fiction]- Rebecca Lim
36. Trans/Portraits: Voices from Transgender Communities [nonfiction]- Jackson Wright Shultz
37. The Dew Breaker [fiction]- Edwidge Danticat
38. Blameless in Abaddon [fiction]- James Morrow