Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder by Salman Rushdie 🔖🔖🔖

First published April 16, 2024

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On the morning of August 12, 2022, Salman Rushdie was standing onstage at the Chautauqua Institution, preparing to give a lecture on the importance of keeping writers safe from harm, when a man in black—black clothes, black mask—rushed down the aisle toward him, wielding a knife. His first thought: So it’s you. Here you are.

What followed was a horrific act of violence that shook the literary world and beyond. Now, for the first time, and in unforgettable detail, Rushdie relives the traumatic events of that day and its aftermath, as well as his journey toward physical recovery and the healing that was made possible by the love and support of his wife, Eliza, his family, his army of doctors and physical therapists, and his community of readers worldwide. (Source: goodreads)

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This was really interesting to me and I appreciated how the author explained every detail as he experienced this horrific event. I was expecting more of a deep, life changing mind shift explanation. Surely this was a life changing event, yet I wanted more about how it modified some basic tenet of his life or something. Still good, just not as much as I was expecting. 

There were only three things that were a put off for me. One was his constant gushing over how much he and his wife love each other. I mean, that's great, yet does it have to be rehashed over and over again? Another was the imaginary conversation with the perpetrator as a whole chapter? It felt forced and egotistical. Lastly was the constant inserts to take up space which were likely, in large part, results of internet searches. 

I don't need to own this one and lovingly passed my copy on to a friend. 

Rememberings by Sinead O'Connor 🔖🔖🔖🔖

First published June 1, 2021

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Sinéad O'Connor's voice and trademark shaved head made her famous by the age of twenty-one. Her recording of Prince's Nothing Compares 2 U made her a global icon. She outraged millions when she tore up a photograph of Pope John Paul II on American television.

O'Connor was unapologetic and impossible to ignore, calling out hypocrisy wherever she saw it.
She has remained that way for three decades.

Now, in Rememberings, O'Connor tells her story - the heartache of growing up in a family falling apart; her early forays into the Dublin music scene; her adventures and misadventures in the world of sex, drugs and rock'n'roll; the fulfilment of being a mother; her ongoing spiritual quest - and through it all, her abiding passion for music.

Rememberings is intimate, replete with candid anecdotes and full of hard-won insights. It is a unique and remarkable chronicle by a unique and remarkable artist. (Source: goodreads)

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I am not generally a fan of autobiographies, though I am not against reading them. This one is one of the best I've read so far. So real, genuine, and also with love, grace, and healing for abusive people, including her physically abusive mother. I love Sinead and I am feeling loss over her death. I loved her passion, activism, and fearlessness. 

Rabbit, Run by John Updike 🔖

First published January 1, 1960 

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Literary awards: National Book Award Finalist for Fiction 1961 

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Harry “Rabbit” Angstrom, a onetime high-school basketball star who on an impulse deserts his wife and son. He is twenty-six years old, a man-child caught in a struggle between instinct and thought, self and society, sexual gratification and family duty—even, in a sense, human hard-heartedness and divine Grace. Though his flight from home traces a zigzag of evasion, he holds to the faith that he is on the right path, an invisible line toward his own salvation as straight as a ruler’s edge  (source: goodreads) 

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I could not finish this book. The sexual scenes were gritty and gratuitous. The treatment of women was terrible, mostly overlooked in the book and/or shown as "dumb", bothersome, and used for one main thing. Rabbit, hailed as the book's "hero" is one of the worst humans I've endured reading about. 

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Why was this banned?

Sexual content, escaping "domestic confines"

My take -- 

Sexual content - heavy on the sexual content and not in a way that is necessary or pleasant. 

Escaping domestic confines - the whole premise is Rabbit leaving his boring and loveless marriage to his pregnant wife and 2 year old child. Even his "return" is short lived. 

I would not be thrilled if my kid were required to read this book. I'd not ban it, might request another book be required, yet would turn it into a discussion opportunity for my child. I think the potential for negative connotations for sex, marriage, and women is far too large to recommend this. 

Winter in the Blood by James Welch 🔖🔖🔖

First published January 1, 1974

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Literary Awards: None, though Louise Erdrich has stated this needs to be given a Pulitzer Prize. " ... since no Pulitzer Prize was awarded in 1974, the year Winter in the Blood was published, I think it should be posthumously awarded to James Welch for that book." (source)

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The narrator of this beautiful, often disquieting novel is a young Native American man living on the Fort Belknap Reservation in Montana. Sensitive and self-destructive, he searches for something that will bind him to the lands of his ancestors but is haunted by personal tragedy, the dissolution of his once proud heritage, and Montana's vast emptiness. (source: goodreads)

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This is a beautiful telling of the listlessness created by society and racism, contrasted so clearly with still-living ancestors who had to fight to survive white man and starvation and being removed from ancestral lands. 

I was looking for more meaning in the narrator's searching, more about whether or not he became bound to the land or his ancestors. 

If this were popular today, it would be highly challenged due to violence, sexual behaviors, discussion of body parts, and some crude words describing such parts. Also because it's about Indigenous people, but that's another soap box. 

Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman 🔖🔖🔖

 First published July 4, 1855

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Literary awards: Premi Critica Serra d'Or de Traduccio 2015

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Collection of poetry by Walt Whitman 

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I struggled with this one my first attempt to read. I really don't love poetry and seldom find a connection to it. My second attempt was a bit better and I found several of the poems I enjoyed and a few resonated with me. The majority, however, were hard for me to appreciate. 

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou 🔖🔖🔖🔖

First published January 1, 1969 

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Literary awards: Coretta Scott King Book Award for Author Honor (1971)

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Here is a book as joyous and painful, as mysterious and memorable, as childhood itself. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings captures the longing of lonely children, the brute insult of bigotry, and the wonder of words that can make the world right. Maya Angelou’s debut memoir is a modern American classic beloved worldwide.

Sent by their mother to live with their devout, self-sufficient grandmother in a small Southern town, Maya and her brother, Bailey, endure the ache of abandonment and the prejudice of the local “powhitetrash.” At eight years old and back at her mother’s side in St. Louis, Maya is attacked by a man many times her age—and has to live with the consequences for a lifetime. Years later, in San Francisco, Maya learns that love for herself, the kindness of others, her own strong spirit, and the ideas of great authors (“I met and fell in love with William Shakespeare”) will allow her to be free instead of imprisoned.

Poetic and powerful, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings will touch hearts and change minds for as long as people read. (Source: goodreads)

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I have always known of this book as I have been aware of Maya Angelou and her lauded work in our world. It was my own admiration for her as a person and the fact that this is a highly banned book that got me to keep it on my To Read shelf until I could get to it. I finally got to it! 

This was really a good book, though there were parts which were a bit slow. Her life and how she tells the story are so "real" and helps me understand, even a little tiny bit, what it was like for her growing up. The way she presented information so clearly helped me get a glimpse without barriers, which I think was masterful. 

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This book was banned for so many reasons: 

Rape of a child --- Maya at 8 years old is raped by her mother's boyfriend. Quite graphic and disturbing, keeping me awake a few nights. It was not done in any gratuitous way, however, and I think us knowing the bare facts and truth is not a bad thing. 

Violence -- a man is beaten to death, yet we don't hear about the beating itself. Just that he was found. Someone gets shot twice and lives. 

Profanity -- The N word is most often used, almost every instance is repeating what someone else has said. The next curse word is the B word, used about 6 times, twice in one sitting. 

Sexual activity -- a teen boy "plays house" with neighborhood girls. This leads to actual sexual activity with one of the girls. At the very end of the book, a teenage girl has a random sexual encounter which leads to pregnancy. 

Racism -- why would we ban a book from a black woman that includes racism?? Do we want to keep pretending it doesn't happen? Seriously. Same with a similar reason for banning: controversial racial and historical commentary -- controversial for whom? Maybe one needs to ask themselves why that's so controversial? 

Alternative sexualities -- because a character briefly wondered if she was a lesbian? Oh, the horror.

Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein 🔖🔖🔖🔖

First published February 6, 2012

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Literary awards: Agatha Award Nominee for Best Children's/Young Adult Novel (2012), Edgar Award for Best Young Adult (2013), Michael L. Printz Award Nominee (2016), Rhode Island Teen Book Award Nominee (2014), Milwaukee County Teen Book Award Nominee (2013), Boston Globe-Horn Book Award Nominee for Fiction (2012), The Inky Awards Nominee for Silver Inky (2013), Lincoln Award Nominee (2015), Scottish Children's Book Award Nominee for Older Readers (2012), North East Teenage Book Award Nominee (2012), Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Young Adult Fiction (2012), Carnegie Medal Nominee (2013), The Inky Awards Shortlist for Silver Inky (2013)

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Code Name Verity is a young adult historical fiction novel by Elizabeth Wein published in 2012. It focuses on the friendship between two young British women in World War II: a spy captured by Nazis in German-occupied France and the pilot who took her there. (source: wikipedia) 

Plot-twisting, heart-wrenching, unforgettable WWII story. (source: common sense media)

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I have had this on my shelf for years and it has never been a first pick to read. I randomly landed on this to read on a road trip and I am glad I finally took the chance. This was really quite good. I enjoyed watching the friendship in the story grow and to see character development. I loved that I missed so many clues to the true nature of one of the characters and what she was saying when she wasn't saying it. You'll know what I mean when you read this, cuz I do recommend it. Be warned it talks about torture, war, and death, most of which tears your heart out.

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Activity Guide from TeachingBooks