I Read (Sort of) Books
Oct. 27th, 2013 02:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bedsitter23A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snckett
Book 1: A Bad Beginning
Book 2: The Reptile Room
I read the first book in the much-loved Snickett series and listened to the audiobook of book 2 as read by Tim Curry.
I figured I would really either love or hate these books and it's the former. The book features characters with the names of Baudelaire and Poe, and like punk bands who namecheck these same, it usually means you're getting something cool or something pretentious.
That said, even though they are children (5th grade-ish) books, they are pretty awesome. They are written at a kid's level, but as the main characters are kids, it works perfectly (It seems like I have heard the same about Ender's game).
As the name implies, the book is about how life isn't as bad as we make it out to be, it's actually much, much worse. Snickett does some moonlighting as Stephin Merritt's accordionist, and the comparison to Merritt couldn't be anymore apt (appropriately, Merritt does the music for the audiobooks). It's the wry humor of Merritt that soaks through the Snickett books.
I am told the books get even better as the series go along (and the second book does show that progression), but the second book seems to open up the formula for the series. It works well as gothic fiction, absurdist fiction, and a straight-up kid's book. The characters are memorable, and although the formula is simplistic, it never seems predictable.
Comparisons to Gaiman seem inevitable (and the two are friends), and these present simpler stories than say Coraline, but are incredibly well done. The audiobooks are read by Tim Curry which works well in so many ways.
If I was a middle school kid, i would eat these up. As it is, these are really good quick stories and work at so many levels for the adult reader (how many children books have Virgina Woolf jokes?), that they really are like Merritt's musical works. if you get the humor of calling a book a series of unfortunate events, and the insistence of each book to end without a happy ending, then it is for you. I will get to them all before long I am certain.
For those who read my reviews, who might enjoy (and might get a feel for the writing of) Lemony Snickett's take on the Occupy movement.
Sundown Towns-: A Hidden Dimension of American Racism- by James Loewen- Changing gears quite a bit. This has been on my radar for awhile and finally got around to reading it. Loewen is fairly well-known for his Lies my Teacher Taught Me and similar series of books.
This book talks about a side of racism that isn't talked about. The book features a lot of Central and Southern Illinois books which is why I was especially interested in it. These were town that had signs that said "(Black pejorative), Don't let the sun go down on you in our town."
Indeed, my hometown is featured as a town where there was an unwritten rule that blacks could not live. Indeed, I remember a conversation in a barber shop in the 90s where discussion was made of a black family who were walking through the town square. Indeed, only one or two black families lived in my town that I ever remember in the 80s or 90s.
So, why books are often written about the racist south and how blacks got the worst jobs and worst treatment; in sundown towns, blacks weren't even offered the worst jobs. Whites only could be butlers or shoe-shiners.
It truly is a subject that often goes untalked about. There were 100 years where blacks were run out of certain towns or were afraid to stop for gas on interstate trips. I know that the subject is true. The book explains the history- that things did actually get better for blacks after the Civil War- but starting around 1890s and reaching a high water mark in the 1920s- the rise of racist, anti-immigrant and anti-Catholic thought, the reemergence of the Ku Klux Klan, and lynchings that went unpunished by the law- the nadir of Race Relations.
These thoughts and actions were still heavy until the 1980s and even the 1990s. Finally, does it seem like even sundown towns are finally moving towards some degree of integration (My town, as Loewen points out happened in many cases, was much more welcoming to Asians and Mexicans, before opening to African Americans). Even then, it seems integration has come as a result of (and in some cases, not even this) of an opinion that sundown towns are backwater towns.
Indeed, Loewen mentions that the lousy economy of many of these towns can be directly attributable to the fact that companies do not want to open facilities in cities tat are so hostile to minorities. It seems obvious, but I hadn't really thought about it. In some cases still, these towns have many residents who would rather be poor than have black neighbors.
The book also touches on realtor collusion to block blacks and Jews out of certain community, and the late 20th Century emergence of 'safe' neighborhoods that are discreetly racist. Loewen takes on these towns and suburbs like Washington Park in Chicago which used land covenants and other discriminatory measures to keep blacks out. Often the residents of these towns believe that these communities are better for their children citing books like the popular 90s tome The Bell Curve. Loewen points out that these people have money and access to tutors and institutions that create the unfair advantage, and argues for some of the benefits of living in an integrated area.
It's a fascinating book and a topic that really hasn't got the treatment this book gives. It does feel a bit like it was written for an academic audience, which means it gets repetitive and is probably 200 pages more than most people have patience before. That said I certainly recommend it for a topic and a book that really gripped my interest.
Book 1: A Bad Beginning
Book 2: The Reptile Room
I read the first book in the much-loved Snickett series and listened to the audiobook of book 2 as read by Tim Curry.
I figured I would really either love or hate these books and it's the former. The book features characters with the names of Baudelaire and Poe, and like punk bands who namecheck these same, it usually means you're getting something cool or something pretentious.
That said, even though they are children (5th grade-ish) books, they are pretty awesome. They are written at a kid's level, but as the main characters are kids, it works perfectly (It seems like I have heard the same about Ender's game).
As the name implies, the book is about how life isn't as bad as we make it out to be, it's actually much, much worse. Snickett does some moonlighting as Stephin Merritt's accordionist, and the comparison to Merritt couldn't be anymore apt (appropriately, Merritt does the music for the audiobooks). It's the wry humor of Merritt that soaks through the Snickett books.
I am told the books get even better as the series go along (and the second book does show that progression), but the second book seems to open up the formula for the series. It works well as gothic fiction, absurdist fiction, and a straight-up kid's book. The characters are memorable, and although the formula is simplistic, it never seems predictable.
Comparisons to Gaiman seem inevitable (and the two are friends), and these present simpler stories than say Coraline, but are incredibly well done. The audiobooks are read by Tim Curry which works well in so many ways.
If I was a middle school kid, i would eat these up. As it is, these are really good quick stories and work at so many levels for the adult reader (how many children books have Virgina Woolf jokes?), that they really are like Merritt's musical works. if you get the humor of calling a book a series of unfortunate events, and the insistence of each book to end without a happy ending, then it is for you. I will get to them all before long I am certain.
For those who read my reviews, who might enjoy (and might get a feel for the writing of) Lemony Snickett's take on the Occupy movement.
Sundown Towns-: A Hidden Dimension of American Racism- by James Loewen- Changing gears quite a bit. This has been on my radar for awhile and finally got around to reading it. Loewen is fairly well-known for his Lies my Teacher Taught Me and similar series of books.
This book talks about a side of racism that isn't talked about. The book features a lot of Central and Southern Illinois books which is why I was especially interested in it. These were town that had signs that said "(Black pejorative), Don't let the sun go down on you in our town."
Indeed, my hometown is featured as a town where there was an unwritten rule that blacks could not live. Indeed, I remember a conversation in a barber shop in the 90s where discussion was made of a black family who were walking through the town square. Indeed, only one or two black families lived in my town that I ever remember in the 80s or 90s.
So, why books are often written about the racist south and how blacks got the worst jobs and worst treatment; in sundown towns, blacks weren't even offered the worst jobs. Whites only could be butlers or shoe-shiners.
It truly is a subject that often goes untalked about. There were 100 years where blacks were run out of certain towns or were afraid to stop for gas on interstate trips. I know that the subject is true. The book explains the history- that things did actually get better for blacks after the Civil War- but starting around 1890s and reaching a high water mark in the 1920s- the rise of racist, anti-immigrant and anti-Catholic thought, the reemergence of the Ku Klux Klan, and lynchings that went unpunished by the law- the nadir of Race Relations.
These thoughts and actions were still heavy until the 1980s and even the 1990s. Finally, does it seem like even sundown towns are finally moving towards some degree of integration (My town, as Loewen points out happened in many cases, was much more welcoming to Asians and Mexicans, before opening to African Americans). Even then, it seems integration has come as a result of (and in some cases, not even this) of an opinion that sundown towns are backwater towns.
Indeed, Loewen mentions that the lousy economy of many of these towns can be directly attributable to the fact that companies do not want to open facilities in cities tat are so hostile to minorities. It seems obvious, but I hadn't really thought about it. In some cases still, these towns have many residents who would rather be poor than have black neighbors.
The book also touches on realtor collusion to block blacks and Jews out of certain community, and the late 20th Century emergence of 'safe' neighborhoods that are discreetly racist. Loewen takes on these towns and suburbs like Washington Park in Chicago which used land covenants and other discriminatory measures to keep blacks out. Often the residents of these towns believe that these communities are better for their children citing books like the popular 90s tome The Bell Curve. Loewen points out that these people have money and access to tutors and institutions that create the unfair advantage, and argues for some of the benefits of living in an integrated area.
It's a fascinating book and a topic that really hasn't got the treatment this book gives. It does feel a bit like it was written for an academic audience, which means it gets repetitive and is probably 200 pages more than most people have patience before. That said I certainly recommend it for a topic and a book that really gripped my interest.
