Mary Wollstonecraft

The New York Times devoted the cover of today's Book Review to a new biography of early feminist Mary Wollstonecraft. Romantic Era aficionados and feminists will remember her not only as an intrepid freethinker, but also as the mother of Mary Shelley, author of Frankenstein.
It's sounds like a fascinating book, and the review is keen.
Here's a bit from the review that summarizes Wollstonecraft's masterwork, "The Vindication of the Rights of Women." I like how the reviewer punches up the sentence's end with a modern reference.

''The minds of women are enfeebled by false refinement,'' [Wollstonecraft] wrote, continuing: ''Dismissing then those pretty feminine phrases, which the men condescendingly use to soften our slavish dependence, and despising that weak elegancy of mind . . . and sweet docility of manners, supposed to be the sexual characteristics of the weaker vessel, I wish to show . . . that the first object of laudable ambition is to obtain a character as a human being.'' So begins her uncompromising polemic, a document as necessary an admonition today as in her own in its plea to the owners of wombs to invest in that invisible fortification called character before fluffing their petticoats or tattooing their bellies.

A Memory of Summer Reading

Memorial Day weekend is the beginning of summer, as far as I'm concerned. And summer reading is just the best; I love it when the newspapers and magazines come out with their reading lists.
During the year between my junior and senior years of high school, I read more great books in a single summer than anyone has a right to. I was dreading an excruciatingly boring summer in rural Louisiana, away from all my overachieving, boarding school friends. (To give you an idea, our unofficial class motto was, "We're not arrogant! We're just superior!")
I believe it was my mother, smart woman that she is, who suggested I go to my favorite English teacher and ask for a list of books to while away the summer.
Now this particular teacher remains my most favorite teacher ever in my life. He was quiet and stoic, and he talked very slowly. But in his own way, he was very passionate about the subject matter. Once, some smart-ass suggested that John Donne's A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning ("'Twere profanation of our joys/To tell the laity our love.") was about vampires. My teacher's response was to storm out of the classroom in a rage. We were all freaked out by that, but also very impressed.
So he gave me a list of great books to read over the break. And of course I decided my new goal in life would be to read the whole list.
I don't remember if I actually finished the list. I know I must have gotten pretty darn close, because I read and read and read some more. It was a good summer. I wish so badly I had kept that list, I can still see it written in his cramped handwriting.
Well, here's a partial list, strictly from memory, of some of the books I read that long ago, sweet summer.
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemmingway
The Color Purple by Alice Walker
Meridian by Alice Walker
My Antonia by Willa Cather
The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy

Dale Carnegie and I ... Try to Take Over the World!

I recently read Dale Carnegie's How to Win Friends & Influence People for a library science class, of all things. I got such a kick out this book. It's a motivational, quasi-self-help book about, you guessed it, how to win friends and influence people. (See my previous post on self-help books here.)
A lot of it is pretty obvious -- get people talking about themselves, ask people about their passions, etc. But it's presented in such a charming manner. Carnegie was writing in the 1930s, so a lot of the writing has this yesteryear lilt to it. It's almost Hemmingway-esque.
Sample passage:

Remember that other people may be totally wrong. But they don't think so. Don't condemn them. Any fool can do that. Try to understand them. Only wise, tolerant, exceptional people even try to do that.

So I've been using my Carnegie method on friends and co-workers. It makes me feel sneaky, but also kinda smart. And definitely goofy. If you've ever seen Pinky and the Brain, the cartoon about the two mice who wake up everyday and launch a new plan to try and take over the world ... It's like that. Check out the Pinky and the Brain World Domination Page here.

Talking about books

I went to a journalism conference this weekend where I had some truly superior conversations about books with my fellow attendees. During a couple of rare lulls in conversation, I asked people what are their favorite books. They seemed to really like the question, and I suppose that shouldn't be too surprising. Doesn't our taste in books say something important about ourselves? Certainly people who love books like to think so.
Naturally, I seized the opportunity to advance the cause of Spoon River Anthology. (See my earlier post on "Why Spoonreader?" here.) Others mentioned the books A Farewell to Arms and The Grapes of Wrath as their favorites. Those are both fine, fine books, too.

Re-reading books

I often read the same book again and again. Some people I've met think that's pretty weird. Others do the same thing.
Here's a highly unscientific list of books I've read again and again. None of these books are what I would call difficult. And mostly I'm reading them again and again because I find it very relaxing to so. I'm reading them to escape and think about something else for a while

To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee
Number of times I've read it: About 20
I always get something new out of reading this, some nuance or sharp point. The book is written from the point of view of a child who observes adults, so some of the clues about what's actually going on are very subtle. (For instance, the scene where the country men confront Atticus at the jail.)

Presumed Innocent, by Scott Turow
Number of times I've read it: About 20
This is probably the best legal thriller I've ever read. If you know of a better one, please email me! My favorite scenes are when Judge Larren Lyttle dresses down the prosecutors.

Summer Switch, by Mary Rodgers
Number of times I've read it: About 15
This is a kids book, but it's so sophisticated I can't help reading it again and again. Ben "Ape Face" Andrews magically switches bodies with his father Bill, a Hollywood mogul. Ben-as-dad goes to Hollywood to take on the sharks, Dad-as-son goes off to summer camp. Hijinks ensue. I love how sarcastic and vitriolic the father is about being shipped off to camp. Then he decides to take the place over.