The Handmaid's Tale Readalong

This is the third week of our The Handmaid's Tale read along, hosted by Trish at Classic Reads Book Club.  I am finding it harder and harder to put this one down once I've read the assigned chapters for the week!  We've reached the point where it's becoming hard to tell you anything about the book without spoilers and, because I really hope that you'll pick this one up yourself, I don't want to do that.

The Commander and Offred are spending more and more time with each other and Offred is gradually realizing how to use the power that this affords her (such as asking for hand lotion) but is also acutely aware of the risk involved.  The Commander's Wives are in charge of all the women in their households so if she is caught, the Commander will have no say in what happens to her.  During their time together, the Commander has allowed Offred to read some of his secret stash of magazines--such racy titles as Vogue.

"What's dangerous in the hands of the multitudes, he said, with what may or may not have been irony, is safe enough for those whose motives are...

Beyond reproach, I said.

He nodded gravely.  Impossible to tell whether or not he meant it.

But why show it to me?  I said, and then felt stupid.  What could he possibly say?  That he was amusing himself, at my expense?  For he must have known how painful it was to me, to be reminded of the former time."

Offred discovers that there are others, like her, that are not firm believers in the new ways.  Just knowing this makes her nervous but hopeful. 

In these chapters, we learn more about how the world as it was became the world that it now is.  I'm almost certain at this point that Margaret Atwood, when she wrote this book, had a crystal ball and was looking into the future.  I can't tell you why; you'll just have to trust me that my jaw dropped when I read Chapter 28!

"I guess that's how they were able to do it, in the way they did, all at once, without anyone knowing beforehand.  If there had still been portable money, it would have been more difficult."

Aren't we already headed to a currency free society, what with the almost prevalent use of credit and debit cards?  What happened in this this book almost makes me happy that our most recent economic problems have pushed people back into using more paper money.

Sunday Salon - September 5

I can't believe it's September already!  Where did the summer go?  Or the rest of the year for that matter.  It doesn't seem like that long ago that I was making grand reading plans for the year.  Now I'm looking at those plans thinking it's going to take some crazy amounts of reading to get it all in before the end of the year.  I've been accepting fewer and fewer books for review but, for some reason, my pile of books I need to read for review doesn't seem to be dwindling.

I had every intention to start with the "Bleak House" Readalong, hosted by Zen Leaf, that started on August 25th.  But I just didn't get started on the book until this week.  I am going to try to catch up in the next couple of weeks.  I'm glad I've already seen the BBC adaptation of this book; it's greatly helping me to appreciate the book.

I've had another article published (finally--I was quite a slacker on submitting over the summer).  This time I've got some recommendations for the readers of Omaha.net.  None of them will come as any surprise to those of you who read this blog regularly.  I do wonder if you can figure out which book it was that ruined my summer vacation reading!

 At OnlineUniversities.com, I found this list of 11 literary holidays that every book lover should know.  The list includes Bloom Day on June 16th, which featured so prominently in "South of Broad" by Pat Conroy which I read and reviewed earlier this year, as well as Winnie the Pooh Day (January 18th) and Limerick Day (May 12th).

And from The Guardian comes this article about the bookcase you want to live in.  It's called The Ark, has a spiral staircase and is lined with 6,000 books.  Think you might like one in your house?  You'll need a soaring ceiling--it's five stories tall!

Fall Catch-Up Read-A-thon

Michelle of The True Book Addict is hosting a Fall Catch-Up Read-A-Thon beginning at 8 a.m. on September 20th and ending at 8 p.m. on September 26th.  Michelle has chosen to make the read-a-thon an entire week so that everyone who wants to participate can, not matter their real life schedule.

I'm going to be using the read-a-thon truly as a catch up week.  I have a ridiculous number of books that I have started but have yet to finish and my goal this week will be to get through all of them.  This will set me up perfectly for the Dewey 24-Hour Read-A-Thon scheduled for October 9th.  I like to have all new books to work on for the day (as well as a stash of yummy snacks, of course!).

Are you looking for an excuse to spend all of your waking, non-working hours, reading?  Head on over to sign up to join us!

The Crying Tree--A Giveaway

Many of you expressed on interest in this book and now you're in luck!  The publicist for Naseem Rakha's "The Crying Tree" has generously offered to give a copy of the book to one of my lucky readers.  This is one you won't want to miss--and don't just take my word for it.

"Oregon author and winner of the 2010 Pacific Northwest Booksellers Award, Naseem Rakha's best-selling debut novel, The Crying Tree, has just been chosen as the only American title of eight “page turners” featured by the Richard and Judy Book Club based in London. Just returning from hiatus, the Richard and Judy Book Club is back as the biggest book club in the UK and perhaps the most influential force in British publishing. It is the equivalent to Oprah's book club here in the U.S.

Streaming interviews with Rakha will be featured in a dedicated area of the Richard and Judy Show website (www.richardandjudy.co.uk), along with reviews and reader feedback. The Crying Tree has been given a new cover especially for this occasion, sharing the spotlight with a pool of bestselling international authors, and one other debut novelist."

To enter the drawing for this giveaway, just leave a comment with a way to contact you.  I'll post the winner next Friday, September 10th.

The Crying Tree by Naseem Rakha

The Crying Tree by Naseem Rakha
368 pages
Published July 2009 by Crown Publishing Group
Source: the publisher and Terra Communication

Nate Stanley has uprooted his family from the only home they have ever known in Illinois and moved them to central Oregon.  A terrific job opportunity, he tells his wife, Irene, and that it will be good for their son, Shep.  A year and a half later, Shep is shot to death in their home, held in his father's arms as he takes his last breath.  The nineteen-year-old who pulled the trigger is arrested, tried and sentenced to death.

"At the grave she reached for her daughter, but the girl broke free and took off for the tree.  It was a scraggly-looking thing, with a thick trunk and wizened branches holding fanlike tassels of green.  A few minutes later, Bliss was back with a small handful of yellow, sap-filled pearls. "They look like tears," she said, showing them to her aunt Carol and then her mother.  "Like the tree's crying." Irene ran her hand down her child's arm, then looked away.  There are certain things you should never have to see in life.  A crying tree standing beside your son's grave was one."

Nate, Irene and their daughter, Bliss, all deal with Shep's death in their own way.  Irene is so filled with hate that she becomes all but incapable of dealing with life.

"Each day since they moved back in, Irene had hauled herself from her living room chair and gone into this room, allowing herself to touch one thing: a book, a blanket, a rock, a piece of paper, the horn.  Then, with that item in hand, she would close her eyes and conjure her boy, calling him, talking, praying, crying. "

Until one day her daughter's boyfriend suggests that he and Bliss will marry as soon as she gets out of high school.  Not wanting Bliss to follow in her own footsteps, Irene pulls herself up enough to make sure that Bliss, instead of getting married, goes to college and begins to live her own life.  But still Irene is living with so much despair that on the day Shep would have turned 25, Irene takes an overdose of pills.  It's only then that she realizes that she doesn't want to die and that she can no longer spend her life wishing for Daniel Robbin's death.  She makes the radical decision to write to him and tell him that she forgives him.  To her surprise, Robbins writes back and the two begin a correspondence that lasts for the next nine years until the day that Irene receives notice that Robbin's execution date has been set.  Irene knows then that she must see Robbins and that doing that will mean that she will finally have to tell Nate and Bliss what she has been doing for all of these years.

 This book started off slowly for me, which was surprising considering how soon into the book Shep's death occurs.  I fully expected to be devastated by the emotions the family was going through.  But Rakha pulled me in as I watched a mother deal with the grief of losing a child in such a horrible way and get dragged down by her inability to focus on anything other than hatred for her son's murderer.  Knowing, going in, that she was going to be able to forgive Robbin, I was compelled to read on to find out how Irene came to that point.  I have always found it inconceivable that a person could forgive someone who did something so heinous to a loved one.  Rakha takes the reader on Irene's journey through all of the emotions and thoughts it takes her to reach that point and I think that she has made me finally understand how that could happen.

The story moves back and forth in time and between various points of view.  Occasionally the changes in time were confusing as I had to try to recall what had happened when last we were in a particular time period, but it did help explain what was going on now by looking back. One of the points of view Rahka uses is that of the superintendent of the prison in which Robbins is confined.  It helps to take the reader into that part of the story but, in order to make him an appealing character and to explain later actions, we get a look into his history that I wasn't entirely sure was necessary.

As the story progressed, I couldn't imagine where Rahka was taking me or how the story would pan out.  Along the way, she throws in some surprises, some tension, and ultimately, some grace and peace.

This would make a terrific book club selection.  There is so much to discuss.  You just know that you're in for an interesting read when it's recommended by Sister Helen Prejean, author of "Dead Man Walking."