The Pregnancy Project

Reading The Rainbow: Book 31
Title: The Pregnancy Project
Author: Gabby Rodriguez
Medium: Book
I wanted so much to like this book, the premise sounded very interesting. Gabby, a Hispanic-American girl from the extremely poor community of Toppenish, Washington. Growing up in a single parent home, Gabby’s mother had a total of eight children, but many were taken away and were raised by their father. Gabby’s mother, who had her first child as a very young teen had an extremely difficult life.

For her senior project, Gabby decides to do a project that involves her faking a pregnancy and taking notes on peoples reactions to her. Gabby did this knowing that all of her older sisters were teen parents who struggled. I wanted to read this book because I wanted to think that Gabby had a profound reason for wanting to fake a pregnancy, but I was extremely disappointed. Gabby manages to suffer from a big case of not getting it. Her entire attitude throughout the entire book is “I don’t deserve to be treated like this” but not because she feels as though no teenage girl who is pregnant deserves to be treated as though they have ruined their lives, it’s because she feels that it is wrong for people to assume that just because she got “pregnant” her life would be ruined.
The original project was supposed to focus on the stereotypes of people based on their backgrounds, to prove that people thought that because Gabby’s mother and sisters were all teenage mothers she was destined to become one too.The problem is that Gabby had more of an objection to how she, as a special snowflake with good grades was treated, as opposed to society’s treatment of pregnant teenagers.  The whole book involves a lot of very subtle slut shaming, while she doesn’t actually use the phrase “those girls” it’s very clearly in the subtext especially because she reiterates over and over again in the book her pro-life stance.

If the idea behind the project was more of a “this is how pregnant teenagers are stereotyped”, I think I’d be more sympathetic but it really just read as someone who hadn’t grown up enough to learn that very few people will love and support you blindly, regardless of your choices or mistakes.

Overall Rating: 2/5

I know, I know

I’ve been really terrible about blogging this year and I plan on remedying that soon, but that said, I feel compelled to post right now!
Last night, several weeks ago now, with my friend Jenny, I attended Margaret Atwood giving a lecture at Butler University. That’s right, the Margaret Atwood. Author of such works of literature as The Handmaid’s Tale, Oryx and Crake and my personal favorite The Year of The Flood. Originally scheduled in the Reilly Room at Butler, due to the amount of press the event received Butler made the very wise decision to move the event to Clowes Auditorium. A good thing, because the first level of the auditorium was almost completely full.

As the lights dimmed a hush fell over the auditorium, it was as if a collective realization that we were about to witness not just a feminist icon, but a living legend. For the first time in my going to an event all cell phones were actually turned off or muted and a reverent silence captivated the audience. Margaret Atwood didn’t get the memo that it was supposed to be a serious evening.She took the stage with her characteristic wit and charm and throughout her entire lecture had periods of time where she had the audience roaring with laughter.

The lecture was divided into three parts. The first: “What is the Future” an interesting and complex subject that Atwood tackled easily and jovially. The second part:”How do you Write About the Future” in which she discussed the history of science fiction and speculative fiction. Finally the third part: “How I Write about Science Fiction” where she discussed some of her inspirations for writing The Handmaid’s Tale. Needless to say it was an evening I’ll remember always.

And next time I promise to remember to hit publish and not save as draft. Gah!

The Great Big Catch Up Post!

11. The Help by Kathryn Stockett

Rating 1/5 and giving anyone (especially white women over 40) who say they loved this book the side eye eternally.

12. Jumped by Rita Williams-Garcia

Not bad, I mean, it’s a book where you don’t like any of the characters because they all have (kind of realistic) character flaws.

Rating 3/5

 

14. The Secret Life of Bees by Susan Monk Kidd

Not as horrible as The Help but I think that’s only because Lily gets more of a pass than Skeeter because Lily is a kid and Skeeter is a grown college educated woman.

Rating 2/5

15. Bloodchild and other Stories by Octavia E. Butler

Male Pregnancy is always a weird concept but Butler does it well in one of the short stories. It’s an interesting combination of horror, science fiction and what Margaret Atwood would call speculative fiction.

Rating 4/5

16. Finding Miracles by Julia Alvarez

I love Alvarez, at least once every few years I reread In the Time of the Butterflies and Yo!, but this book, I don’t know, Milly is pretty much the type of person that people who are against transracial adoptions want to use as the poster child. It’s well written but the fact that they never actually say which country Milly is from is pretty annoying.

Rating 3/5

17. Going Bovine by Libba Bray

I don’t care if she was going for a modern retelling of Don Quixote, the magical negro trop needs to die.

Rating 2/5

18. Twilight by Stephanie Meyer

My friend gave me $20 bucks to read it; I don’t think it was worth it. Considering that the plot doesn’t start until 3/4’s of the book it just drags and drags about those crazy kids Edward and Jacob.

Rating: No Stars Ever

19. Full Frontal Feminism by Jessica Valenti

It’s a good into guide to feminism, Valenti is a good author however her online presence and her unwillingness to delve more into the intersectionality of race and gender in the marginalization of women of color leaves much to be desired.

Rating 4/5

20. Voices From the Other Side edited by Brandon Massey

I wasn’t expecting the amount of what I would consider science fiction in this book, but that makes me glad. I’m not the biggest fan of horror, and while I didn’t find all of the stories great, it was a solid collection.

Rating 4/5

21. Cinder by Melissa Meyer

This was a bookclub book and I enjoyed it. Cinder is a modern retelling of Cinderella without the Disney happiness. Cinder has character flaws but it smart and someone I think young girls can relate with.

Rating: 4/5

22. Dead to You by Lisa McMann

What can I say about Dead To You without spoilers? If you watch enough Law and Order: SVU or Nick Stahl movies this one won’t surprise you at all.

Rating 3/5

23. Illegal by Bettina Restrepo

Nora is a hardworking teenage girl living in Mexico with her mother and grandmother. Her father left several years before for work in the United States. Suddenly one day, her father stops sending money and Nora and her mother venture to the United States in search of him. This book combines the fears and worries associated with being an illegal immigrant, the constant fear and tension, without being a woe is me narrative. Nora acknowledges their situation and continues to learn and grow.

Rating: 4/5

24. Green Angel by Alice Hoffman

Super short book about a young girl named Green. Green’s family is killed in a brutal attack on the city when she is left at home. Green and her natural ability to heal and grow things, survives but eventually must re-learn how to live.

Rating 3/5

25. Green Witch by Alice Hoffman

Super short sequel to Green Angel and it follows Green on her search for a missing friend (or two). It’s awkwardly rife with mysticism, but I mean, this is the same woman who wrote Practical Magic so I kind of expected it.

Rating 3/5

26. In Love and Trouble by Alice Walker

This collection of short fiction contains the classic Everyday Use which I had read several times before, and a few other stories that I had read before. One of the new ones, We Drink The Wine in Paris was really beautiful and unexpectedly moving.

Rating 3/5

27.Under the Never Sky by Veronica Rossi

Aria has lived her entire life in the protected city of Reverie, safe from the danger of the dangerous aether storms and the outsiders Aria knows only to be savages. It’s kind of like Pure by Julianna Baggott, but less disturbing. Everyone in Under the Never Sky is pretty, and there are absolutely no doll-heads as hands.  If the reader were looking for something dark and serious, I’d recommend Pure over Under the Never Sky, but if the reader were say, thirteen and just wanted a dystopia mixed with a romance, then Under The Never Sky is a good read.

Rating 2/5

28. Hold Still by Nina Lacour

Following the unexpected suicide of her best friend Ingrid, Caitlin tries to return to a normal life, but without Ingrid, nothing is normal. When she finds Ingrid’s journal hidden under her bed, Caitlin is forced to realize that Ingrid’s death is hard to everyone to deal with.

Rating 4/5

29. The Stoning of Soraya M. by Freidoune Sahebjam

The film version of this book was recommended to me by Netflix, after watching it I decided that 1) I need to watch more happy movies so that Netflix doesn’t give me categories like “Emotional Foreign Dramas” and “Tearjerking Political Films” and 2) that I needed to read the book. Granted it took me almost a year to get around to it, I’m glad I finally got around to it. Written in the formal of a novel, Sahebjam takes some literary license into his inferences into certain characters thoughts that he couldn’t have known, but it gives the book a more well-rounded feeling. It fills in the gaps that otherwise would be unanswerable questions, like why.

Rating: 3/5 it’s a book about a stoning, it’s tragic, gross and really happened.

30. Keesha’s House by Helen Frost

I managed to get a copy of this book from last year’s Indiana Author’s Awards, Frost was a finalist.  It’ll remind readers of Ellen Hopkins  (Identical, Crank, Tricks) with its poetry/prose mash up. Frost made me to a time warp back to my AP English Literature classes where we learned about sestinas, sonnets and about a dozen other poetic forms that Frost uses. This still manages to not take away from the actual story too much, but I do think that Frost’s book might have too many characters.

Rating: 3/5

Okay, wow, that took me a while to finish up. Here’s a summary:

Fiction Books Read: 28

Non Fiction books read: 2

Books that don’t count towards total read: 9

And for kicks, here’s what else I’ve read.

1. Remember Me2: The Return by Christopher Pike
2. Under the Dome by Stephen King
3. A Million Little Pieces by James Frey
4. Do Android Dream of Electric Sheep by Phillip K. Dick
5. The Minority Report and Other Stories by Phillip K. Dick
6. Habibi by Craig Thompson
7. Uglies: Shay’s Story by Scott Westerfield
8. Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler (read it last year)
9. Parable of the Talents by Octavia E. Butler (read it last year)

My original goal was to read 75 books, so we’ll see how it do. Wish me luck!

P.S. This post gets ALL of the tags

Something a little different

For once I’m actually ahead with reading for bookclub, it’s July 27th and I already have the August book finished. Granted, it is one I’ve read before, Parable of the Sower by the fantastic Octavia E. Butler. I read it last year in fact for my 50 Books by Authors of Color project last year.

Reading Parable of the Sower for a second time really let me get into the story and realize really how distressing the world she creates is. I actually loved reading it a second time just for the world building. Butler manages to create this beautifully tragic dichotomy, where life as people knew it is crumbling and people are one mistake away from death at all time, and yet people manage to grow, to change, to fall in love.

It amuses me, that most of the events in the book take place between 2025 and 2027, which is only 13 years away. While I’d like to think things will be “better” by then, I can’t help but wonder and worry. As an adult I look at the parallels between Lauren’s existence in Parable of the Sower and our own, it’s interesting to see that the problems that exist in her world, exist in ours.

It is hard to believe that a book published twenty years ago could ring so true today.

I miss you guys, and I suck

I know, I know, I’ve been terribly neglectful of you and this blog.I have however been reading like it is going out of style and I think I’m right on track. Sometime in the next few days expect a big catch-up post as well as a few reviews of the books, then I should be back full force.

Girls Like Us

Reading The Rainbow: Book 10
Title: Girls Like Us
Author: Rachel Lloyd
Medium: Book

Girls Like Us is a poignant look into the commercial sexual exploitation of youth in the United States. It doesn’t come across as a “woe is me, look at how difficult my life is/was” instead it presents facts intermixed with personal stories of Rachel Lloyd and other young women (really girls) who have been commercially sexually exploited.

It’s a heartbreaking book when you realize how young most of the girls that Lloyd’s non-profit GEMS deals with, how so many fall into a life of prostitution and drugs simply because they are seeking something that everyone should have, love. One of the reason this book was so effective is that Lloyd herself was in the sex industry, working as an exotic dancer and later as a prostitute, it’s not written as a sterile, clinical work that distances itself from the subjects and the subject matter. Lloyd’s book is in your face, gritty and often ugly. It makes you want to cry, to hope and to do something all at the same time.

Overall Rating: 4/5

Then They Came For Me

Reading The Rainbow: Book 9
Title: Then They Came For Me
Author: Maziar Bahari
Medium: Audiobook

Readers, I’m a terrible blogger, I did not mean to abandon you for almost three months! A lot has been going on in my life. But rest assured, I’ve actually been reading quite a bit.

When Maziar Bahari left for Iran in 2009 to cover the elections he didn’t expect to be arrested, jailed, tortured and accused of being a spy for the CIA and Newsweek. Bahari was just an Iranian born journalist trying to cover what he felt would be an important time for his country.

Honestly, I read this book way back in February and hadn’t wanted to post about it because while I feel horrible for Mr. Bahari and what he went through, this book really just didn’t do it for me. I understand that in a stressful situation you’d think a lot about your pregnant wife and your future baby and if you’ll see them or not, but the book could have been a lot shorter if he hadn’t gone on about it so much.

It gets bonus points for having a lot of good Iranian history about the Ayatollah and Western influence.

Overall Rating: 3/5