My Thoughts: Creole Folktales by Patrick Chamoiseau

I love folktales so when this was offerred as a bookring on bookcrossing I jumped at the chance to read it. The folk tales are from Chamoiseau's home island Martinique.

I started off loving this book and each tale, by the end I was enjoying the folktales less I'm not sure if this was the tales themselves which didn't grip me as much or if I had just overdosed in too short a space of time. I'm not going to talk about them all, I've just picked out a couple of those I loved.

'The Rainmaker' is the story of a village often suffering drought, one of the villagers brings a small boy to the village. The boy shows the villagers that with a needle he can draw the rainclouds closer and closer and make them shed their rain. He can even determine how much rain they drop. A village elder wishes for a shower not knowing that this is the only type of rain the village will now get.


'Madame Kelman' This short story reminded me very much of Hansel and Gretel and of several African folktales. A young unwanted daughter is sent into the forest each night with an impossible task to fill, the mother is hoping she will come to harm without the mother having a direct hand in her death. One day she sends the girl out with another errand and the girl searches and searched for the item which doesn't exist and ends up getting lost in the forest. She comes across a house with a witch inside, disgiused as an old lady. The witch promises her she can eat any of the lovely food on display if she brings the witch some water from the river. After drinking gallons of water and not fulfilling her promise the witch says she will feed the starving girl if the girl can find out the witches name. The girl ventures back out into the forest again and eventually discovers the witches name, when this is evealed to the witch the witch has to fulfill her promise. In a rage the witch rips off the horn of a bull, the leg of a donkey and the graceful neck of a crab leaving them all as we see them today.

This book is worth picking out, I think I'll get my own copy as it would be lovely to dip into this every now and again.

For the A-Z challenge

Do you have any particular countries folktales that you love?

Women Unbound Meme

1. What does feminism mean to you? Does it have to do with the work sphere? The social sphere? How you dress? How you act?

Feminism means to me the right for women to be equal to men in every sphere of life, to have the same rights and opportunities. It's not about how you dress or act, but the freedom to chose to dress and act how you want.

2. Do you consider yourself a feminist? Why or why not?

Yes and no. I have always felt it was important to go out and get what I want in life whether that is a job or to purchase something. I treat the girls in my class in exactly the same way as the boys, and teach them that they can do anything that the boys can do. When I have a family I will ensure that the boys and girls (if I get a mix) are treated the same.
However, I like boys to pay for the first date, I would never ask a guy out on a first date and think a girl is really brave if she can do this. I also still rely on men to come and do those things for me which I'm not strong enough to do - like changing a wheel. And I desperately want to be able to stay home when I have kids till they are in full time education. I still freak out if girls in my class burp or fart in public and can often b heard saying 'thats not very lady-like' when they are messing around with the boys. (Mainly because they are 14 and jumping around in teensy skirts).
I think I'm one of those women who want the best bits of both worlds.

3. What do you consider the biggest obstacle women face in the world today? Has that obstacle changed over time, or does it basically remain the same?

Women are now expected to be able to have it all, the family, the perfect home, a great job, to go to the gym and attend social functions. Its great that they have a much wider sphere to play in I just wonder if I'd ever be able to fit it all in with a full time job. At school we often see kids whose parents both work full time and aren't there when the kids get home from school. You sometimes get the feeling that they are trying to provide their child with everything, but what the kid really needs is a parent who is home more. That said these children are often the confident kids and often in top sets so it obviously isn't harming them too much. I think it depends on the way both the husband and wife work as a team.

See what everyone else said here

A Challenge: Woman Unbound (Nov 2009 - Nov 2010)

This is going to be one of the 6 challenges that I'm going to join for 2010, in fact this is the first one!

Women Unbound is a challenge to read books about women's studies, the books can be fiction or non fiction. Pop over to the challenge blog or to Eva's blog to get the full details and to see examples of the books which could be read for this challenge.
I've decided to participate at the higest level as a Suffragette: read at least eight books, including at least three nonfiction ones.

I'm not picking a reading list at the moment as I always end up changing it. But as I had a thing about feminist takes on literature during my degree (and ended up being banned from writing anymore essays analysing books from a feminist angle) I may be picking up some books linked to that, I'd also like to read books about women who have gained power against the odds or in male dominated areas, and some which are set in other cultures. I'm not sure which fiction I'll read at all but I'm sure I'll fine plenty of suggestions from other people's reviews.

I'll be starting with Indira: The Life of Indira Nehru Gandhi by Katherine Frank as soon as I have finished my current Non-Fiction read.

Books read:
The Virago Book of Wicked Verse, ed. Jill Dawson
Afghanistan, Where God Only Comes to Weep, Siba Shakib
The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas by Gertrude Stein

The Sunday Salon

The read-a-thon ended for me at lunchtime, I took a good long walk into town (a 3 mile all round trip) picked up some holds from the library, have lazed around a bit and have made 2 handmade bookmarks. Was thinkig I was going on a crafting binge, then got a phone call from my ex, saying he was back in the country after 6 months away. It was very unexpected as he's not due back for a month and I would have like to have been prepared, we're friends but in that uncertain way with exes. So now I'm in a funny ole mood.

Anyway, back to books. I'm going to do a very quick round up of the books I read during the read-a-thon.
Starting with my least favourite The 13 Clocks by James Thurber, I was expecting great things from this, mainly because I had heard that Neil Gaiman (one of my favs) had written the introduction for the new edition and he said it was one of his greatest reads. I was blocking out the fact that I hadn't liked The Wonderful O either. From what I can remember (i was reading it during my mega tired hour, and I was struggling with everything) this is a fairytale type story. The beautiful princess is promised to a man as a child, he sets a challenge for another man to win her hand. There was stuff about jewels and tears and some pictures which I hope were painted in the 1970s. Oh well its another one knocked off the 1001 list. One star.

Ok the rest of this post isn't going to be that whiney.
I also read The Earth Hums in B Flat by Mari Strachen. From the synopsis on the back of this I thought it was going to be the aventures of a girl who flies around the town as a detective. Wrong I was. Gwenni has a vivid imagination, she complains that she could fly as a small child but now can only fly in her sleep and she thinks the jugs on the shelf are watching her. She is also a very sensitive child, living in poverty she is fed cheep meat each night, her thoughts about the meat have put me off eatting mince for the rest of my life. She grows queasy at the sight of blood and feels sick if upset.
Her mother is scared the neighbours will think she is mad so she is constantly shouting at the child, and picking on her. Gwenni goes to visit a neighbour on the day of a disappearance, she becomes convinced that this man should be found and sent back to his wife. From this day on her mum becomes 'sensitive' and becomes more and more aggressive towards Gwenni.
It was an average book, clearly a first novel but a fairly easy read-a-thon read. 3 stars

The Farming of Bones by Edwidge Danticat this was a fab read for the read-a-thon, the chapters were short, and it was a good story. Set in Haiti in the time of the problems between the Haitians and those from Dominica. We followed a young girl who had been orphaned as a child. She was rescued by a wealthy man and went to live in his household and trained up as a maid. Her boyfriend is underpaid and treated badly in his job as a cane worker.
When her boss kills one of his friends in a car accident the feelings of oppression which have always bubbles under the surface break and evryone is suddenly pulled into the middle of a civil war. She escapes across the border hoping her boyfriend and friends will manage to make it over and avoid the bullets.
The story was good, but has that feelig of familiarity to it. 4 stars.

My Children! My Friend! by Athol Fugard. I added this play to the pile at the last minute as it was so tiny and looked like something which would be good for those hard hours. I ended up reading this as my final book (I'd had a nap so I wasn't tired when I got to this). The South African play involves only 3 characters, an 18yr old black boy, an 18 white girl and his teacher. It quicks off in the middle of a debate over whether women should have an equal role in their society. The boys arguing along the tradition route while the girl is saying Africa needs to catch up with the rest of the world. Both very intelligent their comments are well formed and a friendship develops.
Despite living very different lifes, not just in terms of culture but also in terms of wealth they are brought together again by their teacher for a literature quiz in which he mentors them. The teachers role is vital to the play, he asks her if she would like to participate while he just tells the boy, he justifies this by saying a teacher in a black school in Africa must demand respect and obediance.
Under the surface we are aware that a rebellion is going on and just waiting for a moment to break out.
If you haven't read this go borrow it from the library and read it. Its only 68 pages and you'll be so glad that you did. 5 stars

read-a-thon hour 24

Books read: 4
Books Finished:The Earth Hums in B Flat, The 13 Clocks, The Farming of Bones, My Children! My Africa!
Current Book:
Running total of pages read since you started: 927

I just finished reading my final book, the play My Children! My Africa! and what a fantastic way to finish. I didn't read as much as I would have hoped, but I felt ill for the most part of it - I feel fine now. I loved the atmosphere of the read-a-thon, how you are somewhere alone but still feel like you are surrounded by people. I'm going to spend the next half an hour cheering on those who are still reading.


1. Which hour was most daunting for you? Hour 13 when I was feeling poorly and sorry for myself.
2. Could you list a few high-interest books that you think could keep a Reader engaged for next year? The play My Children! My Africa! by Athol Fugard was a fantastic read and easy to follow as it only had 3 characters speaking. The ideas and story will keep you gripped and at just 68 pages its a quick read.
3. Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Read-a-thon next year? No, it was great.
4. What do you think worked really well in this year’s Read-a-thon? As a cheerleader I knew exactly where to go and having the readers seperated into groups made it less daunting.
5. How many books did you read? 4
6. What were the names of the books you read? I finished: The Earth Hums in B Flat, The 13 Clocks, The Farming of Bones, My Children! My Africa! I also read a section of Nights at the Circus and a few short stories from The Virago Book of Witches
7. Which book did you enjoy most? My Children! My Africa!
8. Which did you enjoy least? I struggled with Nights at the Circus - mainly because of the print but also because of the high amount of speech, so I set it aside to read later in the week.
9. If you were a Cheerleader, do you have any advice for next year’s Cheerleaders? Be realistic in your targets, I thought I'd get around a lot more people than I did.
10. How likely are you to participate in the Read-a-thon again? What role would you be likely to take next time? Very likely, would like to read and cheer again. I think next time I would assign myself a group of readers - 50ish, to visit a number of times during the 24 hours rather than going to lots of blogs. I had problems opening blogs I'd never been to which for some reason made my page open 50odd tabs and then close down. I also found blogs where I couldn't comment because I didn't belong to there blogging system. Don't get me wrong I visited some great blogs and will certainly go back to many of them again. I'm also planning to blog hop this evening to see how people got on.


Thanks to those running the read-a-thon, you were fantastic!!!

Read-a-thon: The final stretch

Books read: 3
Books Finished:The Earth Hums in B Flat, The 13 Clocks, The Farming of Bones
Current Book: Up next will be a play My Children! My Africa!
Running total of pages read since you started: 859

I just finished The Farming of Bones by Edwidge Danticat, the best read by me so far. Will be posting about this one later in the day. I'm off to cheerlead for a little while then starting a play (it's tiny).

Read-a-thon Hour?

I think we're in hour 20 or 21? lol.
Books read: 2
Books Finished:The Earth Hums in B Flat, The 13 Clocks
Current Book: Up next will be The Farming of Bones
Running total of pages read since you started: 728

Managed to read 170 pages since I've woken up, plus blog hop and comment. I've also had a bath - I was getting irritated that I felt grubby, I have to wash my hair every morning to feel human again! Now I'm slathered in the Body Shop's Brazil Nut Body Butter and fresh pjs. I've eaten and watered the house plants.

The picture above was taken from my bedroom window a few hours ago when the sun came up, looks like it'll be a gorgeous day so will certainly be getting myself out of the house when this read-a-thon is over.