Vodkafan's 2012 Reading List and Genre Challenge

[vodkafan]

Great review James

 

The last sentence just reminded me of Big Trouble in Little China:

 

"Are you ready?"

"I was born ready."

 

 

Good movie. Haven't seen that in a while. Kim Cattrell in a Chinese dress. Who can forget?

[Janet]

 

"Are you ready?"

"I was born ready."

 

I thought that was Robbie Williams and Tom Jones!

[vodkafan]

Struggling through The Autobiography of Malcom X. Hope to finish it today.

[Kylie]

Oh, so it's not a good read, then? I was really looking forward to reading this.

[vodkafan]

Oh, so it's not a good read, then? I was really looking forward to reading this.

 

It is a good read but I have to break it into little bits there is only so much race hate I can take in at one time.

[Alexi]

I found that book tough going too.

 

I read it for an American history class, and we read it just after reading a lot about Martin Luther King, who I guess aligns more closely with my views on racism/racial hate. Maybe it was that, maybe it was the too much race hate at once, but I did find it tough.

[vodkafan]

Autobiography of Malcom X

 

( Warning contains spoilers!!)

 

This is quite a difficult book to review so I am just going to bash on and get started and amend it as I go on till I feel I have got it right.

I am glad that I read the book. I don’t think it is a book that you can “enjoy” as such.

My personal opinion of Malcom X changed as I worked through his story. (I never saw the film and knew nothing about him, what little I had heard was negative)

Also very helpful is that there is a foreword by a white journalist (who Malcom himself respected) and a long afterword (20% of the book) by Alex Haley who helped him write it and became his friend.

These help put Malcom X’s own words and actions into perspective.

The first part of the book is not what I expected at all, it rips along at a good pace detailing his early life and how he gradually got sucked into a life of crime. Obviously this was not very nice for him , but it is great fun to read .

One bit made me laugh out loud, Malcom credits himself with turning his first girlfriend aged 16 into a lesbian because she was so upset when he jilted her for a white woman. What an ego!!

This first phase of his life ends when he gets sent to prison for a long time. There , ashamed at his own lack of education and barely able to write he educates himself by reading, sometimes all night in bad light, which ruins his eyesight. (See our parents were right about that after all !)

Malcom always sees everything through a prism of black and white. He is never able to see any good in white people. This is understandable given what his own family went through , and the situation of American blacks at the time.

He was always angry, but now he becomes incandescent with a cold rage.

One of his brothers comes to visit him who recently converted to Nation Of Islam, a religion exclusively “for blacks”.

This version of Islam teaches him that white people are not even human beings, but a race of white demons that were artificially created 6000 years ago by an evil scientist.

Well, this is right up Malcom’s street and he becomes the movements most enthusiastic convert after he gets out of prison.

This bit was the most difficult for me to read because you can only ingest so much race hate at one time. He hated white people. He did not agree with mixed marriages . Any blacks who co-operated with whites were race traitors and “Uncle Toms”. Black Christians he despised , because he reasoned that Christianity was only a tool of white oppression.

However there is no doubt that a lot of the things he said at this time against white society were completely true. Things needed to change.

Although he was misguided he had integrity. He spoke his mind. That is what kept me reading. I had to know if he kept those ideas to the end.

The third phase of Malcom’s life began when he began to see that the leader of the Nation Of Islam was a con man. Also others were jealous of his charismatic appeal to poor blacks. The organisation sidelined him and things began to look ominous. Nation of Islam assassins were appointed to kill him. But these same assassins tipped him off.

A turning point came when he travelled to Mecca on a pilgrimage . There he came into contact with all sorts of people of all colours worshipping “true” Islam.

He realised that white people were human beings after all. He wrote and spoke of his change of heart. But he was still just as forthright about speaking out against injustices in American society, which he considered to be sick with racism.

I like some of the speeches he made in this part of the book. He also came to have a respect for Martin Luthor King.

Anyway, eventually the assassins got him. Nation of Islam of course denied responsibility.

 

I think I would like to read more about Malcom X .

[julie]

Very detailed review VF .

I have never read in detail about Malcolm X . You're right about the negative image some people have of him. I've always thought the same,only because I have only heard bad things about his beliefs and how biased he was against whites.

I'm glad to know that towards the end of his life, he was able to see a different side of things . It sounds like it was interesting ,but I can understand you saying it wasn't what you'd call an enjoyable read. I wouldn't think so either . I guess once in awhile we need to toss in a book or two that are nonfiction type books . Teaches us a lot more about life I think .

Thanks for the interesting review .

Edited February 11, 2012 by julie

[poppyshake]

What do you mean I missed out?? Sagittarii RULE!!

This reminds me of a Billy Connolly joke but I won't tell it for fear it might upset my little frankie If you are an example of Sagittarians frankie .. then they must indeed rule

 

Great review of the Autobiography of Macolm X VF .. sounds like a very absorbing read. I'm reading one of Maya Angelou's memoirs at the moment and it's weird to hear her talking about white people as if they are some sort of alien race (and for the most part hateful.) It's totally understandable because she is writing about a time when segregation was law and black oppression in America was at it's worst but, all the same, it's uncomfortable. She does love Shakespeare though and the Brontes ... but she has to keep this from her grandmother who would never permit her to read books written by whites.

[Weave]

Great review of Autobiography of Malcolm X', very in depth

[vodkafan]

And Then There Were None

Agatha Christie

 

This was my choice for the Crime Fiction/Mystery category. It was only my second Agatha Christie book. It is difficult to write a review without giving the plot away so I will talk more about the writing. I cannot get over how well crafted the story feels . It is simply a joy to read. I also liked very much the Englishness of it all, that bygone England where a woman gets slapped if she is hysterical then says "thank you" to the slapper; where even though a murderer is afoot everything must stop for tea and if you get whacked by the murderer it is "jolly beastly luck".

There is also a flip side to that bygone world though, Christie was born in a time it was acceptable to use the terms "nigger" and "jewboy" ; even though it is only a couple of times it shocked me a bit.

I did not guess the identity of the murderer , I didn't have a clue.

 

Reading a Mary Roach book Spook at the moment, which is very funny but informative as well.

Edited February 18, 2012 by vodkafan

[Inver]

Great photo VF, you have such a cheery smile!

[vodkafan]

 

Ha thanks Diane (and Paula)

[vodkafan]

Just finished Spook by Mary Roach. It was a quick fun read but I was a little bit disapointed because I expected something much more in depth. The subject matter is life after death, the author is on a hunt for some convincing scientific evidence. It was never less than entertaining and often laugh out loud funny. But she spent too much of the book discussing Victorian mediums and ignored lots of other aspects.

This won't stop me reading all her other books though.

Now reading Pied Piper.

[Sofia]

Just finished Spook by Mary Roach. It was a quick fun read but I was a little bit disapointed because I expected something much more in depth. The subject matter is life after death, the author is on a hunt for some convincing scientific evidence. It was never less than entertaining and often laugh out loud funny. But she spent too much of the book discussing Victorian mediums and ignored lots of other aspects.

This won't stop me reading all her other books though.

Now reading Pied Piper.

 

I love Mary Roach, I have Spook also, but haven't read it yet.....I also have Bonk & Packing for Mars. The best by far is Stiff....have you read it?

[vodkafan]

I love Mary Roach, I have Spook also, but haven't read it yet.....I also have Bonk & Packing for Mars. The best by far is Stiff....have you read it?

 

Nah that was my first Mary Roach. I want to read all of them to check them out for Big Son, who is a (budding ) popular science writer himself.

[Sofia]

 

 

Nah that was my first Mary Roach. I want to read all of them to check them out for Big Son, who is a (budding ) popular science writer himself.

 

Get Stiff next...

[bobblybear]

I'll second that - Stiff is a great read! Hilarious and very, very interesting.

[vodkafan]

I'll second that - Stiff is a great read! Hilarious and very, very interesting.

 

Used up my budget for february but I will get Stiff next month. I have Packing For Mars on my kindle already. I am enjoying reading Pied Piper at the moment.

[bobblybear]

I read Packing for Mars last year. An interesting insight, especially into the psychological testing done in Japan.

[vodkafan]

Just finished Pied Piper. I must admit it got me quite emotional at times.

[frankie]

This reminds me of a Billy Connolly joke but I won't tell it for fear it might upset my little frankie If you are an example of Sagittarians frankie .. then they must indeed rule

 

You can tell the joke, I googled Billy Connolly, and I don't think I know him, so if his joke upsets me, I can just go thinking Billy Connolly sucks ass and knows nothing, and that's that

 

I love Mary Roach, I have Spook also, but haven't read it yet.....I also have Bonk & Packing for Mars. The best by far is Stiff....have you read it?

 

Stiff is awesome!! Never have I ever read such a hilarious, laugh-out-loud non-fiction book as this.

[Ooshie]

Just finished Pied Piper. I must admit it got me quite emotional at times.

 

I finished it a couple of days ago too; it also made me feel quite emotional as Mr Howard makes me think very much of how my Dad doesn't think of himself at all but puts his wife and children (and often other people) first all the time. I can imagine that for you, thinking as a Dad, it could affect you quite a bit.

[Kylie]

You can tell the joke, I googled Billy Connolly, and I don't think I know him, so if his joke upsets me, I can just go thinking Billy Connolly sucks ass and knows nothing, and that's that

 

I think you'd like Billy Connolly, Frankie. His sense of humour is totally naughty and irreverent. He's done some great travel docos as well.

 

Stiff is awesome!! Never have I ever read such a hilarious, laugh-out-loud non-fiction book as this.

 

Aww, I remember you sitting in my lounge room reading it and laughing *misses Frankie *

[frankie]

I think you'd like Billy Connolly, Frankie. His sense of humour is totally naughty and irreverent. He's done some great travel docos as well.

 

I can't affort to start liking him if he despises Sagittarii

 

Aww, I remember you sitting in my lounge room reading it and laughing *misses Frankie *

 

I remember it too, I remember being very concerned about laughing out loud when I was reading the book, and knowing that you might think 'okay, frankie is laughing while reading a book about cadavers... should I be concerned?'.

Edited February 22, 2012 by frankie