It’s fall and I have already reached my goal for the Goodreads 2021 Reading Challenge. I started the year with hopes to read and or listen to 57 books since I will be turning 57 years old in a few weeks.
For October, I decided to continue checking some books off of my TBR list which has 900+ titles on it and the PopSugar 2021 Reading Challenge. October is the month in which we celebrate Indigenous Americans and with the encouragement of PopSugar’s Reading Challenge of selecting a book by an indigenous author, I decided to dive into The Journey of Crazy Horse: A Lakota History by Joseph M, Marshall III. I decided on listening to Frankenstein since it’s October and I once gave a Halloween party where I was the Bride of Frankenstein. My physical book read for the month was a selection from my Literati book club which continues to introduce me to some wonderful books and authors with a platform for discussion. The Art of Raining in the Rain was another book that had been sitting on my TBR list for way too long and now that I have checked that off, I’m dumbfounded I waited so long. I decided to close the month out with Dracula which unfortunately fell short of my expectations.
The Journey of Crazy Horse: A Lakota History by Joseph M. Marshall III
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
There are many sides to every story. This is an interesting book which shed light on the part of history, told from the side of the Lakotas, the tribe of Crazy Horse and his people. Crazy Horse was a man that we have heard all sorts of stories about – whether it be from Hollywood, or other books about the Battle of the Greasy Grass a.k.a. The battle of Little Bighorn, Custard’ Last Stand.
You can hear the passion in the telling of The Journey of Crazy Horse from narrator and author Joseph M. Marshall III, historian, writer, public speaker who was born and raised in a traditional Lakota household on the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota. He recounts in the book many of the oral stories that were passed down to him through his grandparents and the other elders which is part of the Lakota tradition.
Crazy Horse was a man of great depth and this book shares some of the oral stories about him and his family. I found this to be a fascinating book and highly recommend it.
Now that I have read this, I am curious to read more by other indigenous authors to continue learning about the people, their traditions and the land that was once theirs.
Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Let The Great World Spin is a complex book about a complicated city. As someone who was born and raised in New York City and was there in 1974 when the tightrope walked walked the wire across the newly built Twin Towers, I can say with certainty that Colum McCann captured the essence of New York. I read this book as part of my Literati book club selection for September. It took me a while to get through the book since each chapter is written from the perspective of a different character in the book and McCann’s writing style changes as well. The genius in this book is how well McCann pulls all the threads of all the stories into one cohesive story.
I highly recommend reading this book – it’s a masterful portrait of New York City and if you like reading about the city, you will love this book!
Frankenstein by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Wow, wow, wow – How did I not read this in high-school? or college?!
EVERYBODY should read this book – required life reading. Forget the Hollywood version of this book and the “Monster”. So deep, Mary Shelley is amazing and the themes that she dives deep into – family, isolation, society, ambition, revenge, prejudice…nevermind that this was first published in 1818, EVERYTHING still holds up in the 21st century.
The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I jut finished listening to this book and I can barely see through my tears and my nose is running and I’m a mess. I’m a sucker for a good dog story and this is a great one! Garth Stein wrote an incredible character in Enzo – what a great dog, so deep, just what I see when I look at some of my dogs – but not all of them.
Dog person or not – it’s a great story about a family – told by the dog. LOVED IT.
The one criticism I have about the audiobook version I listened to had so dramatic music every so often which I found to be weird and out of place with this production. But the narrator, Christopher Evan Welch was really good.
The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Jeanette Walls’ The Glass Castle is a story about family – the good, the bad and the ugly of family and unfortunately in her case there was a lot of bad and ugly. It’s obvious though how much Jeanette Walls loves her family, her parents, in spite of themselves.
I came upon listening to the story this month after looking at a list of Banned Books for Banned Book Month which is observed in October. I wanted to see if any of my TBLs – To Be Listened to books were in my audio library and found The Glass Castle. After finishing the book, I was confused as to why anyone would consider this book something that should be banned and had to do an internet search.According to the website mvorgazing.org the book is banned from “many schools and some libraries due to its strong sexual scenes and situations dealing with alcoholism and abuse.” Really??!!! I’m dumbfounded that this is the reason. Alcoholism and abuse unfortunately happen and this is one woman’s experience growing up with it. I didn’t think that the way she addressed it was overly graphic unnecessarily. It’s her story and its a story of great courage and resilience – it’s a human story that many people could probably relate to on some levels- whether it be the family struggles or frustrations of being in situations that are beyond your control. I can’t imagine why anyone wouldn’t want high school students and others to be able to read this amazing story. There are so many good lessons learned from her story , discussed and talked about.
I highly recommend this book. 4.5 stars
Dracula by Bram Stoker
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
So I decided to listen to this because I didn’t read it in high school or college, as I never had the chance. After listening to it now – thank god it wasn’t assigned in high school. BORING! Hollywood has taken the Dracula character and made him interesting. He’s barely in the book and is basically an elusive creature – much like a vampire would be. He’s certainly not scary. Nothing is scary in this book. The various points of view that the narrator pops around to made my head spin.
There are plenty of themes that could be discussed in a book group or classroom setting – the dangers of modernity, female sexuality in the Victorian era, fear of outsiders, christian salvation…I wanted to like this classic, but I found it to be just okay.
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