Have I been reading lately?

I think I have.

In fact, I remember finishing Fontanka 16, another entry on my age-old books to read list. It's a history - pretty readable for an academic work - about the secret police in tsarist Russia. There are lots of biographies and sideplots to keep the thing moving. But I think I expected it to provide more insight into the Cheka, NKVD, OGPU, KGB (etc) than it did.

Right now I am trying to read Robert Putnam's Bowling Alone, another long-time curiosity. It seemed especially relevant to read about the decline in civic participation since my job is all about improving civic education. But it is sloooow. It just started to pick up a little bit though. Fun fact: there is a high correlation of religious participation and civic participation. If you are active in a church, synagogue, mosque, etc., you are more likely to volunteer and join committees, vote, and what not. Even if you take out the church-specific involvement, you're still more likely to be civically engaged. I had had my suspicions about this growing up, when I envied my religiously active friends the community and social capital they were developing. However, and this is the part I find fascinating, it doesn't hold true for evangelical congregations. Members of these groups are likely to be highly active within their religious community, but there isn't crossover into other outlets of civic participation.

Anyway, I think I need to take a break from non-fiction sometime soon and switch to some fun books. (On the other hand, current fiction reading, book club selection Dangling Man by Saul Bellow, is no more engaging than the above selections.)

Periodicals

Newspapers and magazines get in the way of reading books. I spent my weekend primarily reading. But only managed about 20 pages of an actual book. The rest was the LA Times and the New Yorker. I'm not really complaining, but have noticed that this trend is going to get seriously in the way of regular blogging. (Work is also a problem, since there's 30 hours of non-reading time too, but that's unavoidable.)

The Winter Zoo (and more on The Bean Trees)

The Winter Zoo, by John Beckman: do not bother reading this book. Back in the day (i.e. second half 2002) there was a minor spate of books on Eastern Europe right after the fall of communism. The best of these books were Everything is Illuminated, Prague, and The Russian Debutante's Handbook. In some or another review of this trend, Beckman's book came up, and it was the one I never managed to get around to. And I kind of wish I hadn't.

There's a pretty serious amount of deviant sex in the book: cousinly love, statutory rape, pornographic photography, lots of girl-on-girl action, and a free for all orgy. And it seems at first like the sex belongs - that there's a reason for it. But there's not, most of it is just for titillation, as far as I can tell.

I feel mean being this negative, so I'll stop here. The other books I mention are all great and I highly recommend them. But stop before you get to Poland and The Winter Zoo.

[UPDATE: Rahul makes a good point in his comment below. My problem with the sex is not that it was "deviant", or that it crossed lines, but that Beckman seemed to just be looking for ways to try to shock the reader. It didn't work, it just got old. Also, hi Rahul!!! It's nice - and a little scary - to think that someone is actually reading this...]

As for The Bean Trees, we finished just in time for tonight's book club. I have no idea what I'm going to say. I liked the rendering of the toddler's baby talk? If the aforementioned novel had too much sex, maybe this one had too much sexless romance? The book is nice, and sweet, but didn't really provoke much of a reaction from me.

The Bean Trees

We've been reading Barbara Kingsolver's The Bean Trees before our book club meeting next week. Like the great big nerds we are, Michael and I have decided to read our club books together - aloud. And since I can do a pretty ridiculous Southern accent on accident (and also b/c this book is so a chick book) I have been doing the reading.

Anyway, I want to save most of my witty thoughts for the meeting, but I'll offer this: even though Barbara Kingsolver was huge on BART a few years ago (Poisonwood Bible mostly), I never really considered reading her. I'm not overwhelmed, but not disappointed either. It's genial, you might say.

Favorite character: Turtle, the toddler
Biggest disappointment: I think I'm wrong on the lesbian prediction I had around page 35. I could still be right though... but I doubt it.