Helen

says

Peter M says

Hi Helen Yeah, I had to bring my profile up on Shelfari so that I can transfer my title over to GoodReads, where I'm setting up shop.

Summer is going well--FB!

We need to have a meeting soon!

posted 1 year ago. ( send a note )

Helen Daly says

Hello from another reader/writer/scholar named Helen... Is your first name a family name, as mine was?

posted 3 years ago. ( send a note )

Regina L says

Helen,

Thanks for the recommendations. They all sound very good. I read a Toni Morrison book a very long time ago and unfortunately don't remember which one. It may have been Sula. I keep meaning to read more of her work. I will add these to my TBR.

I agree on your observation regarding slavery. Oppression of any form is distressing. It is truly the worst side of man. Leaving slavery in terms of American History....Have you read a Long Way Gone? I can't remember if it is on your shelf. It is a very good book.

We are seeing your observation regarding education in the Middle East. Have you read Three Cups of Tea or Beauty School of Kabul? They both highlight how education helps those oppressed transcend circumstance.

Good chatting with you.

posted 3 years ago. ( send a note )

Regina L says

Helen,

Thanks for the friend request. I can understand your limited time to read for pleasure. Hang in there...you'll be able to once again. What field are studying?

You are right I have read Known World. I was already interested in the subject and it was the first book I ran across. I became interested when I was in college and learned in one of my history classes that there was a black family in our area (Southeast Texas) that owned slaves.

I did enjoy A Known World and am always surprised by the mixed reviews. I think the writing style must not suit everyone. I could see how writing in the past, present, and future simultaneously could frustrate some peopel.

I look forward to getting to know you better. I, likewise, am impressed with your shelf!

posted 3 years ago. ( send a note )

Regina L says

Have you read Black Slave Owners? I am looking for a book on this subject and am looking for recommendations. Thanks

posted 3 years ago. ( send a note )

Robin636 says

Hi Songy (tra la la)
saw your note on Pixel's page...since you've learned French, you might wanna read my book, MY LIFE AS A CONCUBINE, which was recently released from www.phaze.com...here's the link, if you'd like to check it out http://www.king-cart.com/Phaze/product=My+Life+as+a+ Concubine+/exact_match=exact
it's all about my 3 years in Paris...come on over and ckout my shelves...

cheers,
robin

posted 4 years ago. ( send a note )

Heather B says

Hi, Songy:
Thanks for the invitation to friendship. I loved Ordinary Resurrections and The Shame of the Nation, and Rachel and Her Children by Jonathan Kozol, and thank you for recommending his other book, I will read that, too. Best wishes to you on your writing endeavor

posted 4 years ago. ( send a note )

Scott Dee says

Thanks for the invite! It's always nice to meet new, like-minded people.

posted 4 years ago. ( send a note )

Peter C says

Dear Songy: Best luck on your novel. I hope you have far more luck than I did. I began writing 35 years ago. I finally got word last August that I was going to get published. The publisher is Kunati Books (someone you might be interested in sending your work to). The book, HUNTING THE KING, came out in April. There is a wonderful YouTube book trailer well worth watching if you get the chance. I'd love to hear from you about your own writing. Peter

posted 4 years ago. ( send a note )

Sharon says

Hi, thanks for your advice on learning French. I'm keen to learn and will get myself organised to enrol and get learning. I agree it is harder to learn as we get older.

posted 4 years ago. ( send a note )

dyanny says

Just finished Executive Privilege by Philip Margolin a few minutes ago. Now I am starting The Whole Truth by David Baldacci. I also have an old Perry Mason mystery to finish tonight.

posted 4 years ago. ( send a note )

dyanny says

Thanks for the invite. I did like White Teeth and I have On Beauty on my list to read, but my list is so long I will get to it someday soon I hope

posted 4 years ago. ( send a note )

joemmama says

Thanks for the friend invite!

posted 4 years ago. ( send a note )

applepicker says

I had no truck with lit.theory till I was supposed to do it in my PhD course work. I was thrown overboard by its hermetic idiom and impenetrable lingo. But once I was into it, I just couldn't get myself off it. Now I'm a theory buff doing my doctorate on a feminist/ postcolonial study of certain women's autobiographies.

What fascinated me most was Structuralism, Poststructuralism, Derrida's Deconstruction, Postcolonialism and Feminism. The idea that meaning is contingent and language is unreliable got me off balance for a while. But it was wonderful seeing the death of Whorffian theory that language constitutes our idea of life and society.

The invisible text, the absences, the hidden binaries of language ----all these made me skeptical of every literary piece. The aporias triggered by Derrida, Rolan Barthes, Gayatri Spivak, Julia Kristeva, Homi K Bhabha Althusser and Edward Said, etc are simply irresistible. The world of theory is amazing. It might have contemporary relevance, but it is mostly in the air, only an academic exercise.

If you read The Raw and the Cooked by Levi Strauss, Sructuralist Poetics by Culler, The Philosophy of Modern Literary Theory by Zima, Literary Theory and After Theory by Terry Eagleton, spivak's idea of the Subaltern, Kristeva's Intertextuality, Bakhtin's Dialogism and Derrida's Deconstruction, you get to know farly well what lit.theory is all about. But don't miss Edward said's Orientalism and Cultyre and Imperialism. Otherwise you'll miss the bus.

Ania Loomba's Colonialism /Postcolonialism is a must read for a Poco nut.

Now we are living in Postmodernism times. One should read The Postmodern dabates and The Idea of the posrmodernism.

Also take a look at Eco-criticism. Thoreau's work is good for that.

posted 5 years ago. ( send a note )

oiseau_blanc says

hi!
i found you at the english major/minor group.
i see you have baldwin's another country on your shelf.did you like it?i loved it!baldwin is one of my favourite american authors.

posted 5 years ago. ( send a note )

ladyreadalot says

I lived on Kathleen Woodiwiss in the eighties, reading every book as soon as it came out. I don't think the last few were nearly as good, but boy are there some classics in her list.

posted 5 years ago. ( send a note )

iLoveGrilledCheese says

If you want to try stepping out of your comfort zone a bit with more of a light read, try "Love Creeps" by Amanda Filipacci. It's currently my favorite novel and also tries to explore and comprehand the gradient on the spectrum between "normal" and "creepy stalker guy who won't leave someone alone."

posted 5 years ago. ( send a note )

iLoveGrilledCheese says

Yes, it's amazing how close to the truth Nabokov was even back then. It just goes to show how rampant thes kinds of social issues hapen to be. Even back when Lolita was written and virtually no one was willing to talk about it, he puled the rug right off the basement door. There were things that disturbed me about Lolita as well, as a woman I think it would be hard not to be disturbed by it. But at the same time, there was real insight there. I don't think he genuinely expected readers to love his characters at all, but he was expressing just how damaging our naive assumptions can be. The fact that he wrote it might mean he's a sicko. But the fact that he published it says to me he was trying to get something through to society. I wouldn't be surprised at all if he had a history of abuse himself. They say abuse creates the abuser. Maybe this book was in fact his outlet for coming to terms with his own self-percieved monstrocity.

posted 5 years ago. ( send a note )

missrowanoak says

Have you read House Behind the Cedars? It's an interesting book. I prefer his short stories, myself.

Thanks for the note!

posted 5 years ago. ( send a note )

Author & Book Promotions says

Hi Songy,

Thanks for accepting my friend request. I am enjoying my time here so far as well, and I look forward to chatting with you more.

posted 5 years ago. ( send a note )