Reading Lolita in Tehran - recap

Well we FINALLY had our meeting for Reading Lolita in Tehran, by Azar Nafisi. Due to crises in their families, three members could not attend ... our thoughts and prayers are with them. The meeting was moved to my house at the last minute and 5 of us attended. Welcome to our newest members, Jessica and Kelli!

Our discussion of the book wasn't bad, considering that we had the three missing members on our minds. I loved the book, Annette loved it (she was home with the flu), Amber thought it was pretty good, Nicole HATED it, and I think Kelli didn't like it much either. Jess only read a chapter or so and it put her to sleep. :) I'll post the official ratings once I receive them.

To recap, here are some of the main points we discussed:

• the theme of each of the books/authors Nafisi mentioned, and how she related them to her life in Iran
• censorship in general, with discussion of modern day examples including The Satanic Verses, Harry Potter, and The Da Vinci Code
• the concept of home - is it portable or connected to a specific piece of land?

I spoke to mom (Annette) on the phone later. She listened to the audio version of the book and really enjoyed it. She said:

Listening to her describe how the women came into her house and took off their veils ... I could see it right in front of my eyes. I could see the girls coming into my kitchen and sitting down around the table ... it was amazing!

Now THAT is what makes audio books so great! I know there is great controversy in the book world about the use of audio books but this, for me, is why I love them. For more opinions on this, check out this blog.

There were lots of things that we did NOT discuss, including the criticism Nafisi received for writing this book. I had an Washington Post article to hand out, but forgot to give it to everyone at the meeting. Read it here when you get a chance. It talks about how some Iranian-Americans feel she portrayed their country incorrectly and tried to please her Western audience by saying what they wanted to hear. It's a very interesting article.

I heard an interview with Nafisi in which she talked about modern day Iran. Here's a brief excerpt:

Nafisi: Of course, now Iran, because of the young people’s rebellion, is much more open than when I left it in `97. But, I have to cover my hair. Nowadays, they’re much more relaxed because they couldn’t control it. But the way these girls are on the cover of my book, that even is not really proper. You should cover the hair properly. But nobody does that in Iran today.

Question: Do they still have morality patrols running around the city?

Nafisi: I don’t think they have anymore. When I was in Iran in `97 they still had them. But I’m talking with my friends and students and they said that there is so much unrest that they don’t want to add to people’s dissatisfaction by having the morality police around. But they still have raid parties and raid houses, and every once in a while they raid the streets.

Ok, that's about all I have for now. Please post any comments you may have as I'd love to hear them! We're still planning the date of our next meeting, and I'll post that as soon as I can. Happy reading to all!

Oh, here are the ratings for this book. There were 7 who read it and they gave it: 6x3, 6.5, 7, 8, and 10, with an average of 7.1.

Celebrate Banned Books Week

The American Library Association sponsors "Banned Books Week" every year. This year it ran from Sept. 29-Oct. 6. Seeing as we had our meeting for Life of Pi during that time, I brought a list of the top 100 banned/challenged books for each member. We talked a bit about our freedom to read in this country, but we didn't spend a lot of time on it.

Here are a few of the more famous books that have been banned in some part of the world:

• Animal Farm
• Black Beauty
• The Age of Reason
• The Call of the Wild
• For Whom the Bell Tolls
• The Manchurian Candidate
• Ninteen Eighty-Four
• Uncle Tom's Cabin

And these books have been challenged but not banned:

• A Wrinkle in Time
• Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret
• Bridge to Terabithia
• Of Mice and Men
• Native Son
• I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
• James and the Giant Peach
• Huckleberry Finn & Tom Sawyer
• The Catcher in the Rye
• The Color Purple
• To Kill a Mockingbird

Our current book, Reading Lolita in Tehran, is an excellent example of what can happen in countries where people are not free to read what they choose. So please remember how lucky we are to live in a nation that gives us such freedom, and take advantage of your freedom to read.

For more info on the ALA's Banned Books Week, visit their website.

2006: The Da Vinci Code

No one seems to remember who chose this book to read. Or maybe no one wants to admit it in retrospect! I don't recall much of our discussion, but I do remember a few things:

• many of the girls were not familiar with the history of the Catholic Church, so they didn't know what to believe about certain parts of the story
• many believed much of the book was fact
• some absolutely hated it

As you know, I always have an opinion, so here's what I thought: It was poorly written, inaccurate and irritating. Why, you ask?

• If you read Dan Brown's intro to the book, he states that it is a work of fiction, but that all descriptions of artwork, etc. etc. are accurate ... but if that's true, then the premise of his book must also be true, and what he's really saying is that his characters are fictitious but everything else is really true.
• Even the things he claims are accurate - like the # of windows in the Louve - are wrong. Why didn't he do some basic fact checking before publishing?
• I enjoy a good mystery. A good mystery is one that keeps you guessing, making you turn every page hoping for a clue, rushing to get to the end of the book to find out the answer, but at the same time wishing it would go on forever because it's such a joy to read. This book certainly made me want to turn the page to find the solution, but with the feeling of "Oh please, can you get to the point? Oh no, not ANOTHER interruption! When will this ever end?!" It seemed like every time he was about to reveal the "truth", someone busted in to the room, or the main characters had to run out of the room, or something equally as irritating.

I think this would have been a much better book if Brown left out his introduction, and dropped a few of the interruptions. Our ratings were all over the place for this book: 1, 4, 6.5, 7, 8x2, 9 and 10x2. There were 9 voters, which means that the official rating was: 7.1.

2006: What Our Mother's Didn't Tell Us

This book is a look at the modern woman and the feminist movement's effect on her. The premise is that feminism misled women in some ways and that the modern woman is less happy and fulfilled than she would be without the influences of feminism. To quote from the book, these are the results of the feminist movement:

We receive more respect at the office but less respect as mothers. We lead more emancipated sex lives, but we have sacrificed male deference and commitment. We have more control over our professional lives but much less satisfaction in our personal lives. [page 174]

Kara chose this book, and boy was it a divisive one! It raised some interesting points and made for excellent discussion. In general, I find that the more passionate the feelings that are created by a book, the better the conversation. And like I said, the girls were very passionate on both sides about this topic!

Although I found the book to be a bit preachy, I thought it did raise some valuable points, such as:

• women formerly understood - and cared - that their actions have impact on other women ... but most women today appear unconcerned with this, focusing only on themselves [pages 41-43]
• feminism is all about choice (whatever you want is ok, as long as it is your choice) but what about the women who have no choice, the one whose husband left after years of marriage, or who is infertile because she focused on her career before starting a family, etc.? [page 174]
• what used to be called morality is known derisively as "old fashioned values" [page 183]
• many people today want to deny that there are ethical truths [page 191]
• for the modern woman to be any more like a man, she would have to actually BE a man [page 177]

There were 9 of us taking part in this discussion and our votes were: 4x2, 5x2, 6x3 and 7x2, with an official rating of 5.6.