"shopping" list for the library

[groovyjew]

Until this afternoon, I hadn't been to the library in ages. I mean, absolutely ages. I was fresh out of new books to read, and it was very sad. So when today I had about 45 minuts free during the time when the library was open, I grabbed them! But I knew I wanted more, and more varied, books than a normal library trip could yeild in that limited

Comments

[skyblue_dreamer]

Ooh! I want to make croissants too (and I have a recipe for croissants in my new cookbook, Tartine Bread)! Can we do that together?

[rivka_m]

so many delicious sounding books.

I'm currently trying to limit my library books so I actually finish them. It helps to live near a library with late night and weekend hours.

Right now I'm reading Deerslayer, first of the Leatherstocking Tales. James Fenimore Cooper may be (is) sexist, classist, and racist, but he writes about wilderness like no one's business. Also, cultural relativism early 19th century style is fascinating. The way people talk I'd thought that was a product of the '60's.

I also have a sweater knitting pattern book out, but that's using, not reading.

[arctic_alpine]

i think cooper confused himself with regard to many of these "isms". Hawk-eye brags about his pure blood until you want to vomit, and Cora probably would have reciprocated Uncas' love if that hadnt been to too scandalous for Cooper. But then there is the whole thing with Cora's father being angry when he thinks Duncan is prejudiced against Cora because of her mixed ancestry. Magua is considered bad because he is deceitful, but by the part I'm up to, everyone has either been either decietful, or trusting to the point of idiocy.
I very much agree about the classism, racism, and sexism being strong elements of the book, but it is in such a tangled way that I can't figure half of it out.

[rivka_m]

Agreed re: Cooper being tangled up. Hawkeye is a hero; he's proud of racial purity. But the awesome Cora is biracial so it's not so clear what Cooper thinks. Granted, she dies, but she's not exactly a "tragic mulatto." I think some of Hawkeye is, well, not quite comic relief, but "quirky local color" and he's defensive about his white identity because of his affinity for Lenape life. And in some ways Hawkeye is less racist than other characters in that he sees native laws and customs as legit for native Americans.

I think Cooper killed Cora and Uncas (other than for plot continuity with a book set later that he write first) is because it was the only way to bring them together, in the Delaware afterlife.

[rivka_m]

Oh wait, you're not done yet and that was full of spoilers. Sorry.

I really enjoyed the moment when Duncan denies feeling racial prejudice yet realizing (but not admitting) that he's lying. So very modern.

[arctic_alpine]

oo awesome i miss having time to read (not strictly true, I do have time to read, I just use too much of it reading trash on the internet). but I will finish lLst of the Mohicans and Mrs Dalloway. I may give up on Great Expectations, just because its a classic doesnt mean I think it is actually good.

[rivka_m]

I tried to reread Great Expectations, enjoyed the beginning, then got bored.

[msschein]

Great Expectations wasn't as good as you hoped?

Really, that pun is the best part about the book.

[rivka_m]

:)