Books 2010: Jonathan Strange and Mr Norell – Susanna Clarke

I love this story. It’s probably the third time I have read it all the way through and its quite a hefty tome – but don’t let that put you off. Jonathan Strange and Mr Norell are the English Magicians who ‘bring magic back’ to England in the early nineteenth century. Practical magic, real magic - not the tricks street sorcerers do for a penny and not the theoretical study of magic that was a ‘noble’ occupation.

Susanna Clarke cleverly weaves this tale with lots of background and careful use of funny and useful foonotes to help with context! She introduces characters slowly, building them up that you feel you really know them – and throughout there is a constant thread of political and military history.

This extract from a letter that Jonathan Strange wrote when he heard the book was to be published sums up how I feel about novel reading (although I can only wish that I had a servant to bring me tea!).....

I for one am proud to declare myself a novel-reader. It is of all pleasures and pursuits the most delightful to me. One may sit quietly by the fireside and be transported around the world. One may pass through the most terrifying dangers; be entertained by all the diversity of which humankind is capable; be saddened, amused, uplifted - all within the space of a page or two. The next moment one hears the sounds of one’s servant bringing in the tea-tray, and one is instantly oneself again, drinking tea and eating toast in the most tranquil fashion imaginable. I only hope that this book (I mean the novel about English Magic) will not be too solemn. I detest books that have no jokes.

I actually only picked this book up because I had a friend who I often saw reading this at the train station a few years ago, and as we had similar taste in many books I decided to give it a go. My copy is now quite battered and I am already looking forward to reading it again. I love love love it.

Books 2010- Dickens, David Copperfield

A novel I have re-read after many years, this is a brilliant classic. It took me a while to get into it but once I was in I was hooked. I have never studied this book, and the experience of reading a ‘classic’ for yourself is vastly different to reading novels as a set text – you miss out on the analysis and discussion, and also so many nuances pass you by. But, on the positive side, reading and exploring a classic alone means you can interpret for yourself, make assumptions and perhaps just enjoy it a bit more as you can just let loads of things you don’t understand just wash over you as you enjoy the narrative and story. also, as ever when a novel references places you know and love its always a bit thrilling and a lot this book is based in London and Kent.

It’s hardly surprising that David Copperfield is such a great novel, it’s funny with lots of twists and turns and great characters - I especially love the Micawbers and truly detest the villainous Uriah Heep and that ‘murdering sister’.

Books 2010 - Pratchett

I genuinely haven’t been reading that many books over the last couple of months, just enjoying reading newspapers and magazines (particularly at the weekend), catching up with blogs and also watching lots of rubbish telly. But the other day a book arrived that I’ve been keen to get for a while: Nanny Ogg’s Cookbook - A Useful and Improving Almanack of Information including Astonishing Recipes

Nanny Ogg is a discworld witch – and who is basically a bawdy, pervy, smart and hilarious woman. This book is a discworld spin off, and has some recipes and etiquette guide, and as its 'written' by Nanny Ogg its basically just a load of innuendo, quasi-phallic, nudge-nudge-wink-wink type stuff, with strong feminist and anti monarchist undertones, and can really make you laugh out loud. I haven’t tried any of the recipes out but I plan to, and I think I’ll start with the chocolate delight with special secret sauce, and also maybe the sticky toffee rat onna stick….

Whilst it does stand alone, I recommend that you read this book after you have enjoyed a couple of the witches discworld novels so you get the in jokes and shout outs. It’s quite easy to dip into every now and then, or read in one sitting, as I did.

"The Pill is born"

Today I learned that The Pill is celebrating it's 50th anniversary, in the USA. The introduction of this straightforward to use, efficient and relatively safe form of birth control, heralded the dawn of a new age for many women. Women were finally able control their own fertility. Allowing women to control our destinies and our bodies as we had never been able to do before. A freedom and control many of us now take for granted. This powerful freedom is unfortunately not available to all women. Even in countries where we may have thought access to birth control is well established, many women are unable to access The Pill or even information about The Pill or other forms of birth control. This needs to change, 50 years on and we still need to ensure all women can take for granted the power and freedom that comes with being able to control our fertility.

I learned about this significant anniversary via Daily Candy. I joined Daily Candy for updates about events, entertainment etc in my area, never imagining that I would learn about such an important anniversary through their website

Image Courtesy of: Cosmos Magazine

2009 Dallas AFI International Film Festival and 2010 Dallas International Film Festival

When we first arrived in Dallas way back in March 2007 we were so excited about the Dallas AFI International Film Festival and as regular movie watchers, we have committed to the festival every year since then, you can read about our 2008 festival attendances here

For the sake of completeness; I was involved in the 2009 Dallas AFI International Film Festival. My only excuse is that maybe due to, "general busyness" I failed to blog about it. My fellow committed volunteer and friend and I, joined the Festival Committee Members and so we became involved with various fun events. We loved the bringing together of artists, film buffs, various communites in the Dallas Fort Worth area and beyond. We also attended a few movie screenings and loved the after show discussions. We saw Food Inc. at the 2009 Dallas AFI International Film Festival. This challenging and graphic film encouraged my interest in food production, distribution and consumption. I have recently read the inspiring "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" by Barbara Kingsolver. Ms Kingsolver inspired me to add to my Amazon wish list "Home Cheese Making" by Ricki Carroll. My aunt and fellow local food enthusiast fulfilled that particular wish. I am currently working on finding the time and courage to make cheese. I also intend to read Michael Pollan's "Omnivores Dilemma" it is on the book group list of books for this year. For another book group we just finished "Salt: A World History" by Mark Kurlansky. This very interesting historical read is not specifically about this subject but it does discuss the changes in food preservation, distribution and consumption as it relates to Salt. We just discussed this book with my group and we all agreed it is a great book for amazing historical anecdotes, which your friends and family will be really impressed with

I digress, but isn't that what is great about inspiring movies they can challenge and encourage you to take an interest and find out more. But going back to the film festival, for various reasons, scheduling and other commitments, sadly, we were unable to volunteer with the film festival this year, which has been re-branded as the "Dallas International Film Festival". This was also so that we could make the time to actually see more movies. Our favourites were:

1. My Tehran for Sale: An atmospheric and moving film, actually filmed undercover in Tehran. The soundtrack is brilliant as are the actors, a real insight into how people live in a part of the world many of us will probably never visit.

2. Documentary Shorts:

6: Two six-man football teams from some of the smallest towns in Texas are in Lubbock to compete for the state title.
A.45 at 50th: Actor and Activist James Cromwell relives his experience with Elbert 'Big Man' Howard, a key member of the Black Panther Party, during 1968.
Dig Deep: Artist Frank Campagna laments the destruction of an artistic landmark in Dallas' historic Deep Ellum neighborhood
Quadrangle: In the early ‘70s, two couples swap partners and live in a group marriage, hoping to pioneer an alternative to divorce.
The Shutdown: Alan Bissett recalls growing up next to one of Europe's largest petrochemical plants and the explosion that deformed his father.

I loved the documentary shorts selection this year, they were all brilliant in their own right. It was great to see a local short, "Dig Deep" about the mural artist, Frank Campagna The documentary inspired us to commit to attending both the Deep Ellum Arts and music festival which was a gorgeous sunny day, great art and music and introducing friends to the usefulness of the, Dallas Area Rapid Transit Service, DART. Here is the link to our photos. We also attended the Deep Ellum Art Walk, despite the rainy evening. Inspiring urban and contemporary art, including, an artist who produces great art on reclaimed billboards. Here is the link to our photos.

Photo courtesy of http://www.istockphoto.com/index.php

Are we still fighting the same tired old fights?

There have been a number of frustrating incidents in the last few weeks that have really made me wonder if we are regressing in relation to the progress made by women over the last few decades. Yes they are few, and there hasn’t exactly been a move to take the vote away from women, but it does feel as though we are revisiting issues and going back over too much old ground – why is this happening? And is this indicative of a wider cultural shift?

These are the issues that have particularly annoyed me......

Women on radio4 (and newsreaders in general)
Ceri Thomas, editor of the Today programme on radio 4 made comments about the need for a ‘thick skin’ to present Today, and that it was ‘too tough an environment for novices’. Thomas attempts to defend his position, but really, I don’t think it is something he can defend. He shouldn’t have said it. Zoe Williams writing in the guardian draws a striking comparison with Channel 4 news presenters, an excellent daily news programme, the editors of which seem utterly (and brilliantly) blind to the gender or ethnicity of their presenters. I’m a huge fan of the BBC – but it needs to wise up on this issue. Quickly.

Women and the election
What has happened to all the women MPs? The women who are actually quite senior in this government? The women who ought to be senior and prominent in the next government – whatever shade it is?? Jackie Ashley sums it up in this short article.

Leaders wives – we really don’t place the same emphasis on the partner of the Prime Minister in the UK as people in the US do on the ‘first lady’ and I personally think that’s a good thing, because who wants to be defined by what their partner does and the choices that he (or she) makes? Dennis Thatcher was generally left to play golf and drink. Cherie Blair had a hate/hate relationship with the media. None of the same can’t be said of Sarah Brown, who has brilliantly managed to navigate the pitfalls of being married to the PM, and has carved out a strong, independent role for herself – supportive yet separate. However, despite my admiration for @SarahBrown10, there has been way way too much boring and unnecessary coverage and media infatuation with the leaders wives in the build up to this election. No, Samantha Cameron’s pregnancy really shouldn’t (and I hope won’t) impact on the way people vote, Miriam Gonzales should be applauded for staying away from the election trail, continuing her career and life and protecting her children. And I don’t give a figgin about what any of them are wearing either. The media need to stop hyping this non issue.

Feminism vs womanism?
Yes young women don’t identify with ‘feminism’. It’s up to all of us to try and change that by actively talking about what it means to be a feminist. Agreed. Feminism doesn’t mean you hate men. Nor is it the case that if you are a feminist you are white (brilliant feminist blog the f word features posts from people of all sorts backgrounds, interests, ethnicity, disability etc) .

But apparently for some ‘womanism’ is apparently more accessible to non-white women then feminism. Seriously?? Really? What happened to solidarity?? *weeps* I have never done gender studies or any real academic exposure to feminism - and frankly the more academics of all hues insist on discussing feminism in such a theoretical way the more feminists and potential feminists are put off.


And finally, depressingly – abortion and the 24 week rule
Thanks David Cameron. Why why why??? Wasn’t it bad enough this was debated a couple of years ago? Unnecessarily pandering and posturing on exactly the wrong issue. This country does not need it, and it should not become a party political issue.

GE2010 coverage
I don’t think that we’ll be dedicating that much blog space to the UK general election campaigns of the main parties, and we certainly won’t get into specific ‘party’ political comment, sticking mostly to debating issues we are passionate about. But for interesting and varied electoral coverage do go and visit our friends over at Arbitrary Constant (also Chris Addisons blog is pretty good fun too)

May 6, 2010 – it’s a date

The date is finally set, he met the Queen. I really do wonder what was said? But far more importantly than that, we have renewed our postal vote so hopefully we will receive our ballots, I will be on the lookout. It is a little difficult to get excited from across the pond. Particularly in light of the recent historic election here, the political leaders at home just don’t seem to inspire in the same way. But maybe that is a good thing, it is vital to focus on the policies and not the personalities. The scary trend in politics does seem to be that the cult of personality becomes so great that many may know who they are voting for but not what they are voting for. This is great website to help focus the mind on the policies: http://voteforpolicies.org.uk/.

If we don't at the very least vote we don’t get a say so. Vote. It’s about all of us, our NHS, our schools, our environment, our involvement in the world, our taxes, our economy, our jobs, our homes, all our lives. I say “ours” as we plan to return, under which Government remains an open question, at least until May 6, 2010.