Review: A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains by Isabella Bird

Isabella Bird was an inveterate traveller, naturalist, and writer. This might not be an unusual description for women today but Bird was all of these things in the mid-nineteenth century, a time when women's lives were far more constrained than they are today. She chronicled many of her travels in letters home to her sister before they were published in collections.

This particular collection of letters details Bird's long journeying through the Rocky Mountains, into the heart of the land, often unaccompanied, only choosing her routes based on her preference of the moment and always willing to deviate from the plan. She wrote beautiful descirptions of a time and place much changed today, appreciating the remote wildness she found on many of her tramps. In addition to her natural writings, she also turned her eye on the people who inhabited these lonely, majestic places as well and her character depictions are delightful. She has captured the character of the folks who chose to eke out a living homesteading in the shadows and valleys of these majestic mountains, capturing the fortitude, the sometime lawlessness, the hospitality, and the suspicions of her hosts and acquaintances.

Make no mistake that this is a modern day account. It is very much rooted in its time and it takes a little adjustment to Bird's language and writing to get into the book. But once in the story, the reader will happily accompany her on her meanderings, oftentimes in awe of her determination. The writing flowed clearly and smoothly along and I'll probably try searching out more of her straightforward and appealing travelogues. I may not have to suffer the discomforts she did in traveling but the romanticism of her journey, even when she encounters difficulties, is unbeaten.

Sunday Salon: Reviewing the week

It's been quite a week here. I have managed to permanently ensconce myself on the elementary school's most hated parent list and because ticking my son's teacher off with my opinions about the uselessness of required reading logs wasn't enough, I also sent an unhappy e-mail to the head of my daughter's dance studio to protest the fact that she hasn't even started learning her solo yet when almost every other child is finished. Not wanting to have only two of my three children blackballed, I sicced D. on the middle school, since they have conveniently ignored W.'s facility in math and are cheerfully boring him into comatose mediocrity. So the feeling around here this week has been low grade grouchiness and high frustration. Fun atmosphere, let me tell you!

In an effort to alleviate some of this grumpiness, I wandered through a street festival yesterday. I rationalized it by saying that I was looking for Christmas presents but really, I just needed to feel a little better myself. And so I indulged in two of my three major addictions: purses and books. They didn't have a stationary booth or it would have been a perfect trifecta of an afternoon for me. I found the coolest handbag and promptly bought myself a base bag and two shells. That made me happy. Then I popped over the bookstall and after puddling through the kid books choices, I settled on three books for my kids' stockings. (None for myself; shocking, I know but given the roughly 6000 unread books currently bowing the shelves at my house, this was probably a good thing.) At our house, Santa does the stocking presents but the older kids long ago figured out that even Santa couldn't possibly gift so many books and therefore it must be mom. But that's okay as long as they still believe in the spirit behind the tradition. I didn't exactly wrap up any other Christmas shopping but the walk outside in the warm, fall sunshine was helpful in and of itself in lowering my stress level. I should probably take more sunshine filled walks as the days start to close in on us and my irritability quotient rises.

I started the reading week off really well, zipping through two books and posting a scadload of reviews. But then the wheels fell off the cart and nothing seems to be motivating me at all. My reading adventures this week took me through a World War II coming of age boyhood in London and into the life of a female comic book artist who has to learn to balance friendships and love and to have confidence in her own social abilities. I am still meandering down the blue highways of the late 1970's US and dipping into critical reviews of the books I read back in the 80's as a girl. I haven't visited India under the British raj this week but I will get back to it eventually, especially since I need to start another book about the "fishing fleet" to India for my book club. Maybe they'll make good companion reads. I still have 15 books lined up for review and my challenge progress has been minimal but I have decided to let the vagaries of my moods take me where they will and not sweat the small stuff. Where have your reading journeys been taking you these days?

Saturday Shout-Out

On my travels through the blogging world, I find many books that pique my interest. I always add them to my wish list immediately but I tend to forget who deserves the blame credit for inspiring me to add them to my list (and to whom my husband would like to send the bill when I get around to actually buying them). So each Saturday I'm going to try and keep better track, link to my fellow book ferreter-outers (I know, not a word but useful nonetheless), and hopefully add to some of your wish lists too.

Building a House With My Husband by Rachel Simon was mentioned at The Debutante Ball.

Expat edited by Christina Henry de Tessan was mentioned at A Striped Armchair.

The Lady, the Chef and the Courtesan by Marisol was mentioned at A Striped Armchair.

The Book of Story Beginnings by Kristin Kladstrup was mentioned at Bloggin' 'bout Books.

Someday My Prince Will Come by Jerramy Fine was mentioned at A Life in Books.

What goodies have you added to your wish lists recently? Make your own list and leave a comment here so we can all see who has been a terrible influence inspiring you lately.

Review: To Taste Temptation by Elizabeth Hoyt

Samuel Hartley is a brash and uncivilized American, raised in the wilderness, who has come to London seemingly on business but in reality to find a traitor who cost the lives of good men during the French and Indian Wars. He has moved next door to the snobbish, uber-polite, socially-inclined Lady Emeline for reasons that become more clear as the plot unfolds. As a busy businessman, he hires Emeline to chaperone his young sister through the vagaries of London society but he finds himself so attracted to Emeline that he cannot be content to leave Rebecca in her hands and just go about his investigations and business as he should. Instead he finds himself making excuses to stay close to the lovely widow.

For her part, Emeline is still grieving her brother's death and trying to raise her young son with the help of her Tante Cristelle. She has no desire to fall in love with the uncouth and unconcerned Samuel, especially as she's quite refined and such a stickler for propriety herself. And yet she finds herself so entranced by her neighbor that she can't help but tumble into a passionate affair with this infuriating man.

Hoyt has chosen to tie her story in with a legend concerning four soldiers, of whom Samuel Hartley represents the first. There are epigraphs at the head of each chapter tying the legend to the main plot. Not a literary convention I particularly like, this would perhaps have been a bit more successful for me had I enjoyed the legend itself. As it was, I found it to be a bit of an annoyance. Also, I had hoped that the villain would be exposed without the tired convention of a kidnapping invoked and yet I was disappointed in that hope. Surely there are other ways in which to put the damsel in distress so that her shining white knight can rescue his lady love. These petty complaints detracted from the story for me although I will likely read more of Hoyt's historical romances over time. Perhaps this one was just weaker than those I have heard praised so highly. And next time, I'll probably avoid this legend series as well.

Review: Viola in Reel Life by Adriana Trigiani

Adriana Trigiani is very well known for her women's fiction. Viola in Reel Life, a YA novel, is quite a departure from that but there are still similarities in the writing and especially in the characterizations. Most adult reader fans of Trigiani's will have no trouble at all reading this and making it a cross-over title.

The story opens with Viola feeling abandoned by her filmmaker parents at an all girls' boarding school in Indiana. Viola is completely unhappy with the situation because she defines herself as a New Yorker and an aspiring filmmaker. Being dropped off in a cornfield is not her idea of fun. She is determined to be unhappy and to make certain that everyone knows it, which does not get her off on the right foot with her roommates. Her best friend back home, Andrew, sympathizes as best as he's able through IM chats and e-mail.

Viola spends a lot of time documenting her experience at Prefect Academy and eventually realizes that she can choose to make the best of her situation or she can mope and be miserable for a year. Choosing to spread her wings, she becomes close friends with her roommates, meets a boy at the brother school, and creates a short film to enter into a big competition. Along the way, she learns that not only is life what you make of it but that there's a lot more to things than just their surface appearance. And it is this experience in delving deeper that causes her to grow as a character and a filmmaker.

This is a sweet story of a girl on the brink of growing up. There are moments when the dialogue is a bit stilted and slightly unnatural sounding, especially between the roommates but that is easily passed over. Like in Trigiani's other books, there is a fun and eccentric character, here it is Viola's wacky actress grandmother. She adds not only a bit of the "good crazies" into the plot but also offers Viola a dose of serious reality when she chooses to come out of character. The average reader will spin through this light and entertaining read. Tame enough for middle grade readers, this is a nice departure from the "mean girls" cult that YA literature has enshrined lately so those older girls who are tired of reading about back stabbing and nastiness will find this a welcome relief.

Thanks to Book Club Girl and the publisher for sending me a copy of this book so I could participate in the author interview on Blog Talk Radio.

Review: An Inside Passage by Kurt Caswel

This slim book won the 2008 River Teeth Literary Nonfiction Book Prize, a prize I had never heard of before. But after reading this beautiful collection of essays, I think I will have to search out other winners. The essays are generally chronological and take place in the quiet, amazing places found in nature and inside author Caswell's very soul. His descriptions are gorgeous and his personal introspections and gentle ruminations into the human spirit are completely appealing. He has captured varied places around the world on his tramps, offering up his life, his failed marriage, and his vision quest through his communes in nature. Reading this book is like accompanying Caswell at each place in his life, journeying along as an equal privy to all the beauty and all the pain.

I am afraid that I am making this sound dreadful and cliched when it really is a lovely, introspective sort of book. It is one to savour slowly and to appreciate fully. The beauty and peacefulness of the writing was soothing and majestic. If you enjoy contemplative sorts of books, this is definitely one to pick up and to lose yourself within the pages.

Thanks to author Kurt Caswell for sending me a copy of this book to review.

Reading and math logs

Just a short rant here. Do any of you with school aged children have to suffer with these odious things? I hate, hate, hate them. And I fought the battle against them last year. It chaps my ass that I have to do it again this year (and probably every year from here on out until T. gets out of elementary school). Can anyone tell me anything good about them? In the meantime, enjoy reading my latest teacher communication and then be grateful you don't have to deal with me as a parent. Yes, I suspect my children's teachers hate me. For your reading pleasure:

Ms. T.,

I mentioned in my note on T.'s log, I have a few thoughts I want to share with you about the reading/math log.

I am abrogating the responsibility for filling this out now that the first quarter is finished. Going forward, if this is part of his homework grade, then T. can fill it out himself. I will cheerfully enforce the reading and math facts practice but it will be his responsibility to write it down, not mine. I feel this is important for several reasons. This is not my homework. I no longer do homeowrk. It is his and therefore he should be the one doing it. If the point of the log is to teach responsibility and accountability, it is better served by making the child, who is more than capable ability-wise, fill it out and learn those lessons himself. If I do not fill out the log, there is no correseponding consequence for me. There is only a consequence for him. Rather unfair, don't you think? If it is his responsibility and he doesn't fill out the log two days in a row, he will not get a sticker on his calendar chart leading to the potential of not earning a homework pass. Logical consequence given to the actual culprit. Much fairer.

He filled out his own log last year for Ms. M. and it worked out fine. She told me that it is school policy for each child to have a reading log. I disagree heartily with the policy (I'll elaborate a bit below) but hope that you are willing to allow him to do this chore himself as she was given the reality of the policy. I'm certain that my stance is unpopular and as I understand it, he was the only child in first grade to have to complete his own reading log, but I think all of the children who are capable should be doing it themselves so if he's the only second grader doing as such as well, I am fine with that.

Quite honestly, I don't understand the whole reading/math log thing in general. I know that it is designed to ensure that children are doing their requisite amount of reading and math outside of school but in practice it doesn't actually measure this in any legitimate way. For starters, this method of tracking was originally designed for at risk student populations, clearly not the school dynamic at M.R. E. S. Even in the designated situations, it hasn't been successful. Human nature being what it is, parents sign off on logs whether their child has done the intended work or not.

My conversations with friends here, in other states, and even friends who are teachers themselves, while merely anecdotal and not statistically significant, has revealed that every last one of them has filled out the forms even when their children haven't done the work. And my small sampling consists of highly educated, driven people who quite value education. Not very promising with regards to the efficacy of measuring reading and math practice via logs. Quite honestly, I signed off on T.'s on Monday night despite the fact that he came home from school and fell asleep immediately, waking briefly to take Tylenol for his migraine before going back to sleep for the night. Now, I doubled his practice and reading time last night as a result but many nights that wouldn't be an option and honestly, as an overall trend, he gets more than enough. So should I have not signed the log and let him take the fall for not doing the work? How would that solution have benefitted anyone? Obviously this is just one example of how the logs fail and one of a million reasons why parents sign the log when the work hasn't been completed but it is instructive in the failures inherent in the logging process and requirement.

Perhaps as important as the trend towards fudging, I have also never met a parent who likes having to sign off on the daily logs. I am certainly among those who find it an annoyance. And it makes me curious, given the almost universal dislike of logs and its questionable efficacy why it continues to be such a focus in elementary school here. Out of the four elementary schools my children have attended over the years, this is the only one that uses this outmoded teaching tool.

I'll stop now but as you can tell, I loathe logs and question the use of them. I am all for parental involvement in children's education but not in this pointless and ultimately non-meaningful way. I am only there to help guide my children along the road to responsibility and accountability, not to take over these aspects of their education. I am always available to help with questions on homework but I certainly don't do even a portion of it for them. In this spirit, the log is now officially T.'s so expect his handwriting on it and no initialing on my part. I will make certain his work is completed (incidentally, I think his homework from last night is in his backpack, not in his folder, if my perusal of the folder this morning is anything by which to go) but he can take over the responsibility of letting you or the mom helpers know that it was indeed completed.

Thanks,

K., the offical parental pain in the ass

OK, so I didn't sign it this way but this *is* the letter I sent. If his folder already doesn't note that "Mom is difficult" I suspect this will have cemented that opinion and made it into the official record of note to be passed along with him forever and ever until the end of time, amen. As long as this teacher doesn't try to give me a lecture on the importance of reading (just in case I wasn't aware!), I think I can now rub along fine for the rest of the year, she says hopefully.