Rebecca Reads

The Words We Live By: Your Annotated Guide to the Constitution by Linda Monk is simply brilliant. Monk takes the Constitution of the United States, including its amendments, and dissects it line by line, explaining the historical significance and the modern significance of the wording. She does so in layman’s terms, with amusing quotes in the margin, case studies in shaded boxes, and photos and illustrations. It is easy to read, and easily accessible.

Beyond the appealing format of this book, however, is the content. Reading the constitution with Monk’s gloss helped me to comprehend just why the U.S. Constitution has withstood more than 200 years and a Civil War: the constitution is a document that adapts to the changing times, both through the process of amendment and through the significant process of judicial interpretation of legislation.

Certainly, The Words We Live By is not comprehensive. But what it lacks in expanse it makes up in readability and interest, at least to me. I seriously enjoyed this book and would recommend it to anyone interested in understanding U.S. rights and government. Read the rest of this entry »

In June, I started a new feature on my blog: Reading Journal. I have always wanted to do a weekly update, like Sunday Salon, but I don’t have time on the weekends. So I started a midweek one for myself.

I have enjoyed reflecting on my bookish thoughts, especially since I didn’t have many reviews to post. At the same time, it made my month very full of non-review posts. (In total, I had 10 non-review posts versus 10 review posts, although two of the reviews were for the same book and one was a summary of a few children’s books.) I have a goal of having more review posts than non-reviews, so I don’t want that overabundance of book talk to become a habit!

Do you mind non-review book talk? Do you have any content goals for your own site? Although I try to remind myself that my books blog is for my personal development, I do often consider the readers and the book blogging community. And I fear I am boring the readers I do have.

It may be a moot point. I’m hoping July is full of “lighter” reads, and so I’ll have more reviews than I did in June. I’m going to take things easy (other than finishing The Arabian Nights). I’m looking forward to this new adventure in reading.

As always, thanks for reading along with me. Read the rest of this entry »

This is officially my first summer since I started book blogging: last June, July and August I was still in Australia, where it was winter. I didn’t think weather would make a difference on what I want to read, but it certainly does. I’m craving light books! I’m ready for some fluff!

Does warm weather change your reading plans? Can you recommend any fun “fluff reads? (Dare I ask?)

I joined my library’s summer program (Library Program A), which is to read 6 books. Then, a few weeks late, I also joined the summer program at the library I volunteer at (Library Program B). That program is to read 7 books in six categories: audiobook, poetry, mystery, historical fiction, fantasy, biography, and your choice. I technically am not required to read one in each category; I can choose any books I want. But I like the idea of finding some fun, light summer books to read in each category.

I’m joining some new challenges for the second half of the year (more on those later), and when I look at my list of “challenges” I see that I’m overextending myself yet again. My approach to joining challenges this time is different, however. At the beginning of the year, I joined the Dewey Decimal Challenge, for example, fully intending to read all 10 books. Now, however, I’m joining the “Take a Chance” Challenge, for example, only intending to do a little bit of it. I probably won’t finish all of my challenges, and I now feel remarkably okay about that. It’s fun to make lists and be a part of a little personal challenge, even if it’s unrealistic. Do you join challenges you don’t think you’ll finish? Read the rest of this entry »

I don’t usually write up a post for each new challenge I join; I just put my pool of books on my current challenges page. But, as I’m running the Spice of Life Challenge, I hope my list of hopefully delectable books will tempt you to join.

There are three levels of participation: “A Taste” (read just two books in any category); “A Sampler” (read four books, one in each category”); and “A Feast” (read six books from at least three categories).  To sign up, get some more information here.

Below, then, is my personal pool of books from which I will chose between six and eight for this challenge. These are just the ones I’m most likely to pick up in the next six months; there are dozens more I’d love to get to, of course. I posted a few much longer lists on the challenge site (link to by clicking the picture). Read the rest of this entry »

In The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order, Samuel P. Huntington attempts to define the post-Cold War world. His conclusion is that, instead of an “us” and “them” approach to world politics, we must view the world as that of many civilizations, including mainly the West (generally Christian), Sinic (Chinese), Islamic, Hindu (Indian), and Japanese civilizations. Observing the world and predicting future encounters, therefore, revolves around the dynamic political relationships among these civilizations.

While this was an incredibly challenging book for me to get through*, I am incredibly glad I persevered. While I of course was familiar with the Cold War relations between USSR and the USA, I hadn’t seriously considered the state of the world after the Cold War. Huntington’s book is quite interesting, although it is dated. Because it was written in 1995, I found myself wondering many times how 9/11 changed the face of the world in terms of his philosophies. Read the rest of this entry »

It’s time to sign up for the third quarter 2009 Martel-Harper Challenge. This challenge is to read two books during the quarter from the list that Yann Martel sends Stephen Harper.

Because Martel sends Harper a book every two weeks, this list is always growing! If you haven’t looked at it for a long time, you should glance through it, because there may be a few books you want to read. The list has fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and children’s books on it, not to mention classics old and new. He even has recently sent a movie and piano music too. All the works are intended to help produce “stillness” in our lives.

To join for third quarter 2009, commit to read and review two books from the Martel-Harper challenge list between July 1, 2009 and September 30, 2009 by letting us know in the comments. You can choose the books now (in a pool of a few possible choices or two specific books) or you can choose the two books as you go this quarter. Because the list is growing every two weeks, you are free to change your choices at a later point in the quarter if you want.

A hub page for this challenge can be found here on Rebecca Reads; I will keep that updated with links to the current quarter’s challenge posts. Feel free to use one of the buttons above to promote the challenge.

When you have read a work and written a review, leave a link below in the comments on this post. (Note: I previously had a separate post for reviews, but I think it would work just on this post.)

I’m going to be hosting a new challenge for the last six months of 2009. It’s all about food. Go check it out.

I have a list of books to share with you to tempt you in to this, but putting up that site took a lot longer than I thought. List will come another day.

I’m hoping other people want to join me in the feast of good “foodie” books, but if not, I’ll be reading by myself. I’m trying to bridge my hobbies of reading and cooking. (I’m a wannabe cook.)

I’ve got to go eat. All this talk of food made me very hungry…

I realized last week that I’m not a very good reader.

For example, I am still struggling with The Arabian Nights, and many people find it a breezy read. In fact, it’s taken me so long thus far, I had to return it to the library this week. It has to be returned to its home library and then it will come back to me again. So I have a few days without it. I did have about an hour the other day before I returned it where I was able to sit and work my way through a full story cycle (about 45 pages) and I found myself laughing out loud. There are funny parts amid the rubble of frustrating prose.

But that’s not all I struggle to read. I’ve also been struggling with The Clash of Civilizations, a nonfiction book examining post-Cold War U.S. foreign relations. I told my husband, who was an economics and political science undergraduate and who read this book when it was first published in 1995, that it is poorly written.

He responded, “Maybe you’re just not used to academic writing.”

I realized he was probably right. It’s been so long since I’ve had to read that type of writing, I have to reacquaint myself with the style. The author is not trying to be “pretty.” He’s trying to share political and historical facts. Nonetheless, I’m going slowly with that as well.

The frustration with my “poor” reading ability reminds me of one of my goals when I started my blog and, more specifically, when I started my HTR&W project a year ago. I realize now, of course, that Harold Bloom’s book isn’t going to help me solve any problems, but I would hope that reading a variety of books and reading more carefully (as I’ve tried to do in the past year), would lessen the time I spend struggling to read.

I guess it goes back to Bloom’s phrase “difficult pleasure”: reading well doesn’t always mean “reading easily.” Bloom also isn’t talking about academic reading or archaic really old classics reading. So maybe I can give myself a break.

What do you think? How does one train to be a better reader? That may be a rhetorical question with no answers. Read the rest of this entry »

So, it turns out my 1 a.m. Friday night goals are lot more ambitious than my Saturday-morning-and-it’s-sunny ability to finish them. Read the rest of this entry »

While I still enjoyed In Chancery and To Let, the second two novels of The Forsyte Saga by John Galsworthy felt less developed, less powerful, and less important. In essence, to me they felt like merely sequels to a powerful novel. My thoughts on the first novel of the trilogy were complimentary; these thoughts are a bit more mixed.

Galsworthy’s writing was just as beautiful and the stories were just as interesting in terms of the social history they tell, but I failed to relate to or enjoy the characters as much as I enjoyed The Man of Property. In a sense, the first novel was powerful because of the strong emotions the main characters faced. As the characters became less likable (first Soames, and then his daughter Fleur), I also felt like I could not relate to their emotions as much. In fact, in the third novel (To Let) I only felt a strong emotional draw in the very last scene as Soames reflects on his life. Read the rest of this entry »