So, yesterday was the official kick-off of the Keep Portland Weird festival here in Paris, which meant that I had a reading/screening in the...
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New York Times reporter Patricia Cohen explains how Americans, who once didn't think about middle age at all, later thought of it as a time of heightened power, freedom and allure, came to see it as a harbinger of decline and something to be feared and disguised, especially for women. It's not ground-breaking to reveal that life stages are a social construct, but this 40-year-old feminist still found it an excellent reminder that marketing is designed to heighten your insecurities to sell you the solution. The book also shares the sociological research of middle-age and older adults that reveals that how you frame your life's meaning is the best way of being happy. It's full of great tidbits, like the fact that before 1955, just 7 percent of women older than 40 dyed their hair, and now nearly 75 percent do.
I don't usually love short stories -- not enough time for the characters to feel real, I suppose -- but this book is bursting with people as real as those on the bus next to you.
Danielle Evans is very young, and so are nearly all her characters. Because teen and young 20s years are so full of confusion and self-discovery, that makes for interesting plots, even when the story only covers a summer, a semester, or just one night.
All the main characters in the stories are African American (or in one case, biracial), and while racial politics aren't relevant in every one, the ones where race take central stage are stunningly good. But so is the one about two kids in college whose family became dysfunctional after a car accident that killed children in the other car -- and the characters' blackness is not so central there.
Rosalinda, the narrator of this book, is a self-centered Soviet mother who's emotionally abusive to her grown daughter, manipulative of her granddaughter, and disdainful of her husband, her son-in-law, her neighbor... her two modes are haughtiness and grudging respect.
As dark as this sounds, it's not. It's actually lively, funny and sweet, in its own twisted way.
You may have never thought of 'Tartar' beyond tartar sauce, but after this novel, you'll think differently.
Gary Rivlin is not the first to write a book about check cashing, rent-to-own, payday loans, subprime lending and all the other ways the poor pay a big price for living on the edge (and it must be said, for having poor self-regulation when it comes to wants vs. needs.) But the interviews with Poverty Inc. moguls and mogul-wannabes, and the crusaders against predatory lending make the topic seem fresh and newly outrageous.
This book is a page-turner, even though we all know how it turns out.
I lived in Mansfield, Ohio and Dayton, Ohio for 10 years, two of the places where a lot of the action in this book happens, and during many of the years he's writing about. He gets a detail or two wrong -- Wright-Patt mostly has professional, good paying jobs -- but for those of you who have never seen the Rust Belt up close, this could tell you a lot about what happens when manufacturing is hollowed out.
I had been meaning to read this book ever since I read a review of it in The Washington Post, but only finally got around to it last week.
It's a magnificent achievement, you feel that the antebellum world of rural Virginia is utterly authentic. And even though many characters behave so very differently from anyone 150 years later, they are so recognizable in their motivations, frailties and desires.
I bought a copy as a gift for my mother.
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Mara Lee has commented on (6) products.
In Our Prime: The Invention of Middle Age by Patricia Cohen
Mara Lee, April 8, 2012
New York Times reporter Patricia Cohen explains how Americans, who once didn't think about middle age at all, later thought of it as a time of heightened power, freedom and allure, came to see it as a harbinger of decline and something to be feared and disguised, especially for women. It's not ground-breaking to reveal that life stages are a social construct, but this 40-year-old feminist still found it an excellent reminder that marketing is designed to heighten your insecurities to sell you the solution. The book also shares the sociological research of middle-age and older adults that reveals that how you frame your life's meaning is the best way of being happy. It's full of great tidbits, like the fact that before 1955, just 7 percent of women older than 40 dyed their hair, and now nearly 75 percent do.Before You Suffocate Your Own Fool Self by Danielle Evans
Mara Lee, September 4, 2011
I don't usually love short stories -- not enough time for the characters to feel real, I suppose -- but this book is bursting with people as real as those on the bus next to you.Danielle Evans is very young, and so are nearly all her characters. Because teen and young 20s years are so full of confusion and self-discovery, that makes for interesting plots, even when the story only covers a summer, a semester, or just one night.
All the main characters in the stories are African American (or in one case, biracial), and while racial politics aren't relevant in every one, the ones where race take central stage are stunningly good. But so is the one about two kids in college whose family became dysfunctional after a car accident that killed children in the other car -- and the characters' blackness is not so central there.
I'm looking forward to her first novel.
The Hottest Dishes of the Tartar Cuisine by Alina Bronsky
Mara Lee, August 4, 2011
Rosalinda, the narrator of this book, is a self-centered Soviet mother who's emotionally abusive to her grown daughter, manipulative of her granddaughter, and disdainful of her husband, her son-in-law, her neighbor... her two modes are haughtiness and grudging respect.As dark as this sounds, it's not. It's actually lively, funny and sweet, in its own twisted way.
You may have never thought of 'Tartar' beyond tartar sauce, but after this novel, you'll think differently.
Broke, USA: From Pawnshops to Poverty, Inc. -- How the Working Poor Became Big Business by Gary Rivlin
Mara Lee, February 7, 2011
Gary Rivlin is not the first to write a book about check cashing, rent-to-own, payday loans, subprime lending and all the other ways the poor pay a big price for living on the edge (and it must be said, for having poor self-regulation when it comes to wants vs. needs.) But the interviews with Poverty Inc. moguls and mogul-wannabes, and the crusaders against predatory lending make the topic seem fresh and newly outrageous.This book is a page-turner, even though we all know how it turns out.
I lived in Mansfield, Ohio and Dayton, Ohio for 10 years, two of the places where a lot of the action in this book happens, and during many of the years he's writing about. He gets a detail or two wrong -- Wright-Patt mostly has professional, good paying jobs -- but for those of you who have never seen the Rust Belt up close, this could tell you a lot about what happens when manufacturing is hollowed out.
The Known World by Edward P. Jones
Mara Lee, November 22, 2010
I had been meaning to read this book ever since I read a review of it in The Washington Post, but only finally got around to it last week.It's a magnificent achievement, you feel that the antebellum world of rural Virginia is utterly authentic. And even though many characters behave so very differently from anyone 150 years later, they are so recognizable in their motivations, frailties and desires.
I bought a copy as a gift for my mother.
(2 of 4 readers found this comment helpful)
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