A bunch of short reviews
Aug. 8th, 2009 06:01 pm![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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50books_poc18-20. The Birchbark House; The Game of Silence; The Porcupine Year, all by Louise Erdrich
I loved these. They're in some ways an answer to the Little House on the Prairie series, and are a lot better in a lot of ways. They are rich in detail about Anishinabe culture and ring very psychologically true (when I contrast the introspection in these books with what passes for it in Laura Ingalls Wilder's work, the latter comes up so short...)
Highly recommended.
21. Half + Half: Writers on Growing Up Biracial + Bicultural, edited by Claudine Chiawei O'Hearn
The wide range of experience portrayed in this anthology shows just how messy racial and cultural identity really is, and how inaccurate the standard model of there being a bunch of discrete boxes of which everyone fits into one and only one is. The essays are well written, though I found the content started to feel a little repetitive after a while (others may disagree).
22. Nothing But the Truth (And a Few White Lies), by Justina Chen Headley
I expected this to be a nerdy story about math camp, but I was disappointed in that the author didn't seem to know much math, the protagonist wasn't actually that nerdy, and the book was, once again, way too girly for my taste. (Note to self: the pinkness of the cover should be a clue.) There was some insightful content about being mixed race, though.
23. Towelhead, by Alicia Erian
I'm not sure what to say about this book. It drew me in so well that it was hard for me to put it down - I even surreptitiously read a couple of chapters at work - but I disliked the flat style and the protagonist's lack of (self-)awareness (I do realize that most 13-year-olds don't have a lot of self-awareness, but I thought the author's attempt at making the protagonist understand less than her came off as rather false).
The protagonist's father reminded me of my father. But somehow, I didn't find it that triggery (this may have to do with the aforementioned falseness).
24. Complications: A Surgeon's Notes on an Imperfect Science, by Atul Gawande
This was fascinating. It gave a lot of insight into how doctors think and what life in the medical profession is like (I'm always one for learning about occupational cultures and other bodies of performative knowledge).
25. Better: A Surgeon's Notes on Performance, by Atul Gawande
I enjoyed Complications more than this, though it was still quite interesting. It seemed to have a wider focus, dealing with how insights taken from the surgical profession can be applied more generally.
One point that may be of interest to people in this community is that solutions coming from people who are actually in a situation work better than solutions imposed from outside. The author illustrates this with a story about improving hygiene on hospital wards: authority figures reprimanding doctors and nurses and putting up signs reminding them to wash their hands was ineffective, but holding a meeting with the doctors and nurses and asking them what solutions they thought would work was effective (both because they were intimately familiar with their own work routine and knew what solutions would fit into it and because they would get behind solutions that were theirs). This can be applied to the phenomenon of white people/people in rich countries trying to "help" or impose solutions on people of color/people in poorer countries.
26. The American Muslim Teenager's Handbook, by Dilara Hafiz, Imran Hafiz, and Yasmine Hafiz
This was written by two (older) teens (Imran and Yasmine) and their mother (Dilara), in response to the fact that there were plenty of guidebooks for Christian teens and some for Jewish teens, but none to be found for Muslim teens. (The cover says "For Muslims and Non-Muslims Alike," and it's been used by youth group leaders of other religions and by secular groups as well as by Muslims.)
The authors surveyed Muslim teens from all over the US to find out their attitudes on things like prayer, interfaith issues, and the hijab, and used the answers to inform their writing and quoted some of them throughout the book to show the great diversity of opinions represented.
The book is written in a similar style to a lot of other teenagers' handbooks, with lots of quizzes, lists of things to try, step-by-step guides (including a guide to Islamic prayer), etc. I was intrigued by both the similarities and the differences between this and Christian or secular books for teens: it seemed on a higher level to be much the same, with emphasis on following one's own conscience and doing what one knows to be right, but to be different on the level of specific content.
One thing I liked about this book (which is rather incidental): it acknowledges the genocide of Native Americans and Aboriginal Australians, unlike so many other books.
I loved these. They're in some ways an answer to the Little House on the Prairie series, and are a lot better in a lot of ways. They are rich in detail about Anishinabe culture and ring very psychologically true (when I contrast the introspection in these books with what passes for it in Laura Ingalls Wilder's work, the latter comes up so short...)
Highly recommended.
21. Half + Half: Writers on Growing Up Biracial + Bicultural, edited by Claudine Chiawei O'Hearn
The wide range of experience portrayed in this anthology shows just how messy racial and cultural identity really is, and how inaccurate the standard model of there being a bunch of discrete boxes of which everyone fits into one and only one is. The essays are well written, though I found the content started to feel a little repetitive after a while (others may disagree).
22. Nothing But the Truth (And a Few White Lies), by Justina Chen Headley
I expected this to be a nerdy story about math camp, but I was disappointed in that the author didn't seem to know much math, the protagonist wasn't actually that nerdy, and the book was, once again, way too girly for my taste. (Note to self: the pinkness of the cover should be a clue.) There was some insightful content about being mixed race, though.
23. Towelhead, by Alicia Erian
I'm not sure what to say about this book. It drew me in so well that it was hard for me to put it down - I even surreptitiously read a couple of chapters at work - but I disliked the flat style and the protagonist's lack of (self-)awareness (I do realize that most 13-year-olds don't have a lot of self-awareness, but I thought the author's attempt at making the protagonist understand less than her came off as rather false).
The protagonist's father reminded me of my father. But somehow, I didn't find it that triggery (this may have to do with the aforementioned falseness).
24. Complications: A Surgeon's Notes on an Imperfect Science, by Atul Gawande
This was fascinating. It gave a lot of insight into how doctors think and what life in the medical profession is like (I'm always one for learning about occupational cultures and other bodies of performative knowledge).
25. Better: A Surgeon's Notes on Performance, by Atul Gawande
I enjoyed Complications more than this, though it was still quite interesting. It seemed to have a wider focus, dealing with how insights taken from the surgical profession can be applied more generally.
One point that may be of interest to people in this community is that solutions coming from people who are actually in a situation work better than solutions imposed from outside. The author illustrates this with a story about improving hygiene on hospital wards: authority figures reprimanding doctors and nurses and putting up signs reminding them to wash their hands was ineffective, but holding a meeting with the doctors and nurses and asking them what solutions they thought would work was effective (both because they were intimately familiar with their own work routine and knew what solutions would fit into it and because they would get behind solutions that were theirs). This can be applied to the phenomenon of white people/people in rich countries trying to "help" or impose solutions on people of color/people in poorer countries.
26. The American Muslim Teenager's Handbook, by Dilara Hafiz, Imran Hafiz, and Yasmine Hafiz
This was written by two (older) teens (Imran and Yasmine) and their mother (Dilara), in response to the fact that there were plenty of guidebooks for Christian teens and some for Jewish teens, but none to be found for Muslim teens. (The cover says "For Muslims and Non-Muslims Alike," and it's been used by youth group leaders of other religions and by secular groups as well as by Muslims.)
The authors surveyed Muslim teens from all over the US to find out their attitudes on things like prayer, interfaith issues, and the hijab, and used the answers to inform their writing and quoted some of them throughout the book to show the great diversity of opinions represented.
The book is written in a similar style to a lot of other teenagers' handbooks, with lots of quizzes, lists of things to try, step-by-step guides (including a guide to Islamic prayer), etc. I was intrigued by both the similarities and the differences between this and Christian or secular books for teens: it seemed on a higher level to be much the same, with emphasis on following one's own conscience and doing what one knows to be right, but to be different on the level of specific content.
One thing I liked about this book (which is rather incidental): it acknowledges the genocide of Native Americans and Aboriginal Australians, unlike so many other books.
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no subject
Date: 2009-08-09 12:17 am (UTC)I had the same thing happen with Towelhead -- I positively inhaled it, sneaking time away from other things and staying up late to finish it, and then wasn't sure what I could, or should, say about it. I'm still not sure I have a grip on it.
Muslim Teenager's Handbook -- "all over the country" is the U.S.? In what context does it acknowledge hte genocide of Native Americans and Aboriginal Australians?
no subject
Date: 2009-08-09 01:50 am (UTC)Yes. I thought about making that explicit, but I thought the title of the book made it clear.
In what context does it acknowledge hte genocide of Native Americans and Aboriginal Australians?
To be honest, I don't remember (and Amazon only lets you search inside an earlier edition which doesn't contain that chapter). I think it was something like a list of injustices in the world.
And yes, it did use the word "genocide."
no subject
Date: 2009-08-09 02:34 am (UTC)The American Muslim Teenager's Handbook
Date: 2009-08-16 05:58 pm (UTC)Re: The American Muslim Teenager's Handbook
Date: 2009-08-16 06:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-08-09 04:46 am (UTC)