Boppy's Journal

I have been achieving unprecedented positivity and productivity in my RL recently, which has inversely meant very little time online... However, it's Australia Day today, and I thought I'd take a break to update my reading log.

The Harp In The South, Ruth Park
I've been working my way through the Popular Penguins (published here in $10 editions) that I haven't read, and so finally got round to this Australian classic. ( brief thoughts )

Graceling, Kristin Cashore
My token young adult book of the month. :) ( actually this was a good one )

Nine Lives, William Dalrymple
Every so often I have a pancheon for travel writing, and when I do, William Dalrymple often delivers. I first read him yeeeeears ago (maybe 'In Xanadu'?). So his latest offering was a bit of a nostalgia trip. ( not much to say )

The Elegance of the Hedgehog, Muriel Barbery
This is a book-club book of the moment... ( it pretty much delivered on my expectations, but I had a couple of reactions to it that I hadn't anticipated (spoilery) )

Recovering from my cold, I find myself keen to catch up on things I've been meaning to do--I've been poaching fruit, reorganising my music collection, doing mending ... let's hope this productivity lasts!

LJ-wise, my recent acquisition of 75 or so new books (*gloats*) means I'm finally updating my neglected books filter, so apologies in advance to those of you on it--there may be quite a bit of spam on there from me over the weekend--I'll keep the entries cut-tagged so they don't take up too much space on your f'list. ;-)

Meanwhile, I also have new communities to pimp:
- readingniccolo is my own creation--set up to encourage discussion (and squee!) about Dorothy Dunnett's House of Niccolo series, which I've hooked c_mantix on. Not much there yet, other than us giggling over ostriches and alum in the first book, Niccolo Rising. However, I can't recommend the series highly enough and anyone interested in joining in is welcome any time. I just ask you to be considerate about spoilers because a) it's me! and b) there are so many plot twists over the eight-book series which first-time readers really don't want to know about in advance.
- lana_is_ok should be self-explanatory. That's right--there is now a community that is pro-Lana (don't fall off your chairs in shock!). I'm the first to admit that I'm a latecomer to the Lana fanclub, but she's totally charmed me in season 6 and she damn well deserves more respect from the Smallville fandom than she currently gets.

While I'm pimping unpopular communities, ;-), I should mention a community that I believe is under-utilised (which I take full responsibility for as co-maintainer!): loislane_sv is a community for fans of Smallville's Lois Lane--meta, art, fanfic, news, vids and anything else are welcome.

ETA: Thank you to the kind souls who said lovely things on stir_of_echoes's fandom love meme.

Finally! She may not have won the Booker (*growls*), but Zadie Smith has finally won a major literary prize. Apparently, she was 'stunned' at the announcement that On Beauty had won the Orange Prize, and she was very gracious in her acceptance speech after the event.

The Daily Mail article focuses on Zadie's reaction to the news, while The Times focuses on the panel's dissent.

While I am delighted that's she's getting the accolade she deserves for this brilliant work, there is part of me that is still very irked that it's the Orange Prize, a prize for the best novel in English by a woman author. Zadie beat out some brilliant novelists, including Nicole Krauss, but I'm still waiting for the day when the literary establishment will acknowledge her as not just a great female novelist, but a great novelist full stop. On Beauty is an amazing work--a tour de force of characterisation, an intricately plotted masterpiece with so much to say on issues as diverse as race, sexual politics, aestheticism, academic politics and female identity. Clearly we still *need* the Orange Prize if this work can't win other prizes. Why don't they just formalise the Booker as the 'boys club' prize and be done with it? Why isn't the Orange as prestigious? Argh!

*throws rotten tomatoes at the Booker judging panel*

Well done, Zadie! You are amazingly serene and gracious in a world that doesn't give you the credit you deserve. I hope you enjoy your win.

Author: Salman Rushdie
Published: 2005
By: Jonathan Cape (Random House)

Another Christmas book, this one destined to remain part of my collection. I have a lovely hardback copy of it. *pets*

Summary: The story is told from four perspectives--a former US ambassador to India, his daughter, her Indian mother and Shalimar the Clown, her mother's husband. It's a circular story in a sense, in that it begins in the 90s, with India (the ambassador's daughter) and then flashes back to explore the events and people that have made her who she is. In typical Rushdie style, everything connects to something else and the flow of cause-and-effect is circuitous, fatalistic and almost mythical in nature. He embues the story with a feeling of destiny, of inescapable fate.

India is the most sympathetic of the characters to me--the most memorable of Rushdie's female characters to date for me. The restless nature that in her mother led to over-indulgence, is present as a strength in India. She's a boxer, an archer, an obsessive control freak and a distant lover, and she is locked in her own world of prophetic or symbolic visions, but she's also grounded in the world of today, the world of Los Angeles, in a believable sense. I enjoyed other aspects of the book and I always enjoy Rushdie's writing, but she's what made it special for me.

Overall, the plot of this book was more intimate than Midnight's Children or The Satanic Verses. It didn't have the connection to greater themes that those two works had, even though I think Rushdie was striving for that. The story is very much framed as being about Kashmir, a region of India where Hindus and Muslims lived in relative harmony until the Indian, Pakistani and US governements and religious fanatics fragment and disrupt the population with devastating consequences. It also explores some post-9/11 anxieties about terrorists and the blurred boundaries between the personal and political. I responded strongly to the personal-political theme and I liked that Rushdie was choosing to explore this. But the other 9/11 links didn't work so well for me. Similarly the inclusion of the Los Angeles race riots was a bit lost on me... but it would be interesting to see what reviewers made of this. (I don't usually read in-depth reviews until I've read the work myself.) For me, this book is a return to form for Rushdie, but it's not his best work. It falls into the 'good solid read' category for me.

Verdict:It will definitely remain part of my collection and I'd be interested in reviews/discussion with anyone else who's read it. (Reminder to self: book club are interested in reading it at some stage.)