Our 2019 Reading Challenge certainly offers some flexibility - especially February's theme of "Fact and Fiction."
The aim of the game is to read as many books as you can in a month which fit the theme, and we think you could probably have a harder time working out what doesn't find February's theme, rather than what does. It's a good thing, then, that the challenge makes things at least a little bit challenging by insisting you tick a few boxes every month:
A Book by an Australian Author; A Book by an Author You Haven't Read Before; A Fiction Book; A Non-Fiction Book.
We have two memoirs for you today. The intrepid Theresa Petray has once again taken us up on our request for reviews from our library patrons, and she's brought us a book from a woman who spent time in the White House. Sharon also read a memoir by a woman who lived in a house, but under decidedly different circumstances.
Theresa Petray read Becoming, by Michelle Obama.
Becoming is Michelle Obama’s memoir, and she uses it to tell the facts about her life, addressing some of the fictions that spread about someone when they enter politics - especially if they don’t look like most people in politics look. Obama explains her childhood, her career, falling in love with Barack, dealing with his entry into political life, and living in the White House. She even speaks with some honesty about the attacks on her husband, including those by Trump. She maintains some grace in those discussions, and throughout her memoir.
Becoming feels honest. It’s written candidly, accessible but without glossing over important issues like race, inequality, gun violence, life chances, privilege, hard work, and good luck. Of course, all memoirs are stories - they are deliberately constructed to portray a certain kind of factuality, and I expect hardcore Obama detractors will read a lot of this memoir as Fake News. But as Obama says, she sees “the value in our story, in my story, in the larger story of our country. Even when it’s not pretty or perfect. Even when it’s more real than you want it to be. Your story is what you have, what you will always have. It is something to own” (p.xi).
Non-fiction, new-to-me author, check your local library.
The aim of the game is to read as many books as you can in a month which fit the theme, and we think you could probably have a harder time working out what doesn't find February's theme, rather than what does. It's a good thing, then, that the challenge makes things at least a little bit challenging by insisting you tick a few boxes every month:
A Book by an Australian Author; A Book by an Author You Haven't Read Before; A Fiction Book; A Non-Fiction Book.
We have two memoirs for you today. The intrepid Theresa Petray has once again taken us up on our request for reviews from our library patrons, and she's brought us a book from a woman who spent time in the White House. Sharon also read a memoir by a woman who lived in a house, but under decidedly different circumstances.
Sharon Bryan read Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic, by Alison Bechdel.
I'm calling this a book by an author I haven't read before, even though technically I read this author's work last year. It was an extract from this book in an anthology of creative non-fiction. When I saw the complete book pop up on our New Books list a couple of weeks ago, I snaffled it for this month's challenge.
This book is one of those glorious things that usually get called a "graphic novel", but is actually a "graphic memoir". Alison Bechdel (whose comic strip Dykes to Watch Out For introduced the Bechdel test) takes us on a visual journey through her childhood and early adulthood using a one-colour palate. Her distinctive style of line drawings coloured with blue wash manages to draw you in (pardon the pun) in a way that text alone or even full-colour images would be hard-pressed to manage.
The book has an interesting approach to story-telling and memoir. Each chapter essentially covers the same period of time, retelling the same core story over and over again, but different details are revealed and different aspects are brought into focus. In doing so, things become more detailed, but less clear. By the end of the first chapter, you are certain that Alison's childhood was unhappy and her relationship with her father was estranged when he died. By the end of the last chapter, you aren't so sure. Her relationship with her father was certainly strained, and she never seems to be sure how she feels about him (or her mother, for that matter), but everything is far more nuanced.
It's a story that encompasses literature, drama, funeral homes, closeted (and open) homosexuality and house restoration. It touches on subjects like getting one's first period, masturbation, lesbian relationships, gender roles and gay activism. It's the kind of "comic book" you wouldn't leave around for your kids to read unless you were ready to have some very grown up conversations with them. And it's the story of a girl who really just wished her father would say he loved her and was proud of her. It's hard to pin down - and that's partly why it's hard to put down.
Non-fiction/memoir, author I haven't read before, 741.5973 BEC
Theresa Petray read Becoming, by Michelle Obama.
Becoming feels honest. It’s written candidly, accessible but without glossing over important issues like race, inequality, gun violence, life chances, privilege, hard work, and good luck. Of course, all memoirs are stories - they are deliberately constructed to portray a certain kind of factuality, and I expect hardcore Obama detractors will read a lot of this memoir as Fake News. But as Obama says, she sees “the value in our story, in my story, in the larger story of our country. Even when it’s not pretty or perfect. Even when it’s more real than you want it to be. Your story is what you have, what you will always have. It is something to own” (p.xi).
Non-fiction, new-to-me author, check your local library.
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