Gretchen Rubin with Anna Quindlen

Loved every word.

My books - Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937) by Zora Neale Hurston

This is the second selection in my quest to read a couple Black History books this month.

Zora Neale Hurston was an African American writer.

Wiki wrote:
The novel narrates main character Janie Crawford's "ripening from a vibrant, but voiceless, teenage girl into a woman with her finger on the trigger of her own destiny". Set in central and southern Florida in the early 20th century, the novel was initially poorly received for its rejection of racial uplift literary prescriptions. Today, it has come to be regarded as a seminal work in both African-American literature and women's literature. Time included the novel in its 2005 list of the 100 best English-language novels published since 1923.

Here is the context section from Sparknotes on Their Eyes Were Watching God. Even if you have no interest in the book, you might consider reading this section as it is very unusual and interesting.

I also listened to a The Big Read discussion at the National Endowment for the Arts. I am always thrilled when one of the books I am reading pops up on their list. These commentaries are most excellent. (This was also available in CD form from my library.)

Here is a list of the contributors to this Big Read discussion. You will see some familiar names including Azar Nafisi who wrote Reading Lolita in Tehran.

These sources helped me to better appreciate Hurston's book. I am not saying the book was difficult. It was not. It was easy to understand. Those context resources just helped me to understand the history/placement of the book.

I read as if I am taking a literature class (most of the time).  It stimulates my intellect to read this way. I no longer read for avoidance. I no longer link reading and eating. This (intellectual viewpoint in reading) helps me to handle anything (upsetting) in the book. I can tell where the boundaries are between the story and me/mine. There was nothing upsetting in this (Their Eyes Were Watching God) book. I am just talking about reading in general. Yes, I still skip some books. I skipped Sophie's Choice in 2012. I had read that book long ago and it was the source of nightmares for me for many years (that and the Trail of Tears).  The latest (skip) was Unbroken. It came up on one of my lists. My husband saw me start to download CD's in the computer. He said - I don't think you want to read that. I asked my therapist (she had read it and her grandson was reading it right when I asked) and she said to skip it also. 

Here are things I thought about as I read Their Eyes Were Watching God:

A while back, I watched a sociological documentary talking about the fact that about 20% of African American men live with and/or take care of their families. I had seen that percentage (80% who do not) in other studies. Hopefully that number is improving. The documentary was done from the point of view of the 20%. One of the participants described (themselves) as the silent 20% who are quietly living their lives, taking care of their families and staying out of the news.

I have read (and blogged) about Anna Quindlen and her marrying a boy friend or marrying a husband concept.

I also, after having been around a fair number of women from different cultures, I have the (personal) viewpoint that women will continue to raise their sons in the same cultural/historical way, even though they (these same women) do not like how the adult men of their same culture act. This is how I summarize my  (personal) thinking - you can take the boy out of X, but you can't take X out of the boy,  even if the boy was born and raised in totally different, more advanced country.  I would put my own grandmother in that category. As much as she loved her girls, she would have sold the whole lot of us if she thought it would advance her only son. And she really had no respect for him, or for her husband, but considered them more important than her daughters or granddaughters. She would argue to hear me say that. And during her life her daughters would have argued with me also, saying I did not understand. But after her death and my grandfathers death, they would agree.

Someone might read all that and think I can be racist and sexist in the same three paragraphs, but it is sociology to me. It is cultural. And that is (part of) what I thought as I read.

 Their Eyes Were Watching God was short. It was 6 CD's and 7.25 audible hours.

The dialectic and stories were extremely well done. The version I listened to was narrated by Michele-Denise Woods. She even sang in it. Truly great reading. There is also an audio version by Ruby Dee.

Somewhere I read an article comparing Their Eyes Were watching God to Huckleberry Finn. In my opinion that is fair if you take the ridiculous Tom Sawyer (who I cannot stand) out of it. I mention the idea because it gives a very general comparison. Part of what brings that to mind is that they are both southern books. And the story telling and dialect in each. However, Their Eyes Were watching God was a richer book with more depth, in my opinion.

If there is anyone out there who has read this book, Their Eyes Were watching God, I have a question about the ending for you. Did anyone ever get her the shot series? Did I miss it? Is it an oversight? Or a statement about what happens at the end of the book?

My books - The Awakening (72/56 foot debacle)

Wikipedia writes:

"The Awakening is a novel by Kate Chopin, first published in 1899. Set in New Orleans and the Southern Louisiana coast at the end of the nineteenth century, the plot centers around Edna Pontellier and her struggle to reconcile her increasingly unorthodox views on femininity and motherhood with the prevailing social attitudes of the turn-of-the-century South. It is one of the earliest American novels that focuses on women's issues without condescension. It is also widely seen as a landmark work of early feminism.

"The novel's blend of realistic narrative, incisive social commentary, and psychological complexity makes The Awakening a precursor of American modernism; it prefigures the works of American novelists such as William Faulkner and Ernest Hemingway and echoes the works of contemporaries such as Edith Wharton and Henry James. It can also be considered among the first Southern works in a tradition that would culminate with the modern masterpieces of Faulkner, Flannery O'Connor, Eudora Welty, Katherine Anne Porter, and Tennessee Williams."

This book was 5 audio hours, so a very quick read.

This is a book which might have bothered me a few years ago, but didn't bother the current me.

I realized where the story was going about 3/4 of the way through the book. So the ending did not come as a huge surprise, I was ready for it.