November 21 2013
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Here's the latest issue of our BookBrowse
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some of the new books and authors featured at
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Featured
Review
Pink
Sari Revolution: A Tale of Women and Power in
India
by Amana
Fontanella-Khan
Hardcover
(Aug 2013), 304 pages.
Publisher:
W.W. Norton & Company
ISBN
9780393062977
BookBrowse
Rating:
Critics'
Consensus:
Review:
In
Pink Sari Revolution, journalist Amana
Fontanella-Khan describes the creation of India's Gulabi
("Pink") Gang, a group of pink-sari-wearing women in the
northern state of Uttar Pradesh who band together to
fight injustice in the state; and their charismatic
founder and leader, Sampat Pal Devi. The book expands on
the author's 2010 article in Slate
magazine to paint a more complete picture of
conditions in this part of India and the challenges
faced by the women of the region.
Much
of the book covers the life of the incredible Sampat Pal
Devi, an assertive woman in her late 40s capable of
inciting a crowd to action with her extraordinary
rhetorical skills. It's remarkable that she rose to such
fame, as the environment in which she was raised should
have perpetuated the cycle of poverty and acceptance of
discrimination she now fights against. Kairi, Sampat
Pal's hometown is described as:
...a
place where injustice against women, the lower castes
and the poor was an accepted part of life. The cries of
a woman being beaten by a drunk husband in the middle of
the night; a Dalit denied participation in village
celebrations for fear that he and his family, considered
'untouchable', would 'pollute' the community metal
thaali plates heaped with biryani; girls married off to
widowed, older men who would use them like maids: these
occurrences were, for the most part, accepted as being
'how things were.' Parents, grandparents and cousins -
everyone - had stoically born life's injustices without
so much as a wince. If you could not, there was little
hope for survival.
Sampat
always had an outgoing and rebellious nature, however,
and could be counted on to stand up for the underdog
from an early age. In one of her childhood adventures
she took revenge against a girl from a wealthy family -
who had slapped a shepherd boy for using the landlord's
field as a toilet - by leading a group of neighborhood
children to defecate
en
masse on the family's land. After her marriage (at
age 12) she continued to be obstreperous, eventually
angering her mother-in-law over a deliberate and
unapologetic violation of the caste system to the point
that she tried to have Sampat killed. Sampat's crime was
to have accepted a glass of water from a lower caste
woman.
The start of the Gulabi
gang as a unit can be traced to 2006, when Sampat
organized about two dozen women to protest the lack of
progress in getting a local road repaired. Realizing how
effective a group of people banded together could be,
Sampat concluded that the women needed greater
visibility and a uniform of sorts to give them more
cohesion and recognition, and so decided the group's
members would wear pink saris (pink, because it was a
color that didn't represent an existing group). The
press subsequently gave them the name "Gulabi Gang." Now
over 20,000 members strong, the group's influence has
spread across much of north India.
It's
not surprising that a grassroots organization such as
the Gulabi Gang arose in Uttar Pradesh, India's most
populous state with just under 200 million inhabitants.
According to the author, corruption is rampant; more
than a quarter of the state's 403 elected
representatives in the Legislative Assembly had been
charged with criminal offenses at the time the book was
written, with nineteen percent of them charged with
serious crimes including attempted murder, rape,
extortion and kidnapping. Police salaries are very low
(sometimes less than what a street sweeper would earn)
and it's widely accepted that their only means of really
making a living is through bribery and extortion. The
area is home to some of the "country's most notorious
bandits, who often take the law into their own hands
after not receiving justice. Many murder their enemies
and then spend a lifetime looting villages to provide
for themselves while on the run." As a result,
Fontanella-Khan continues, "Vast swathes of Uttar
Pradesh are widely considered, even by the government,
to be 'lawless.'"
The
women of the state are generally penniless, and
consequently have little legal recourse. If they are
raped or beaten, often the male involved merely pays a
bribe to have the case dismissed. Sampat and her group
of women look for cases such as these and seek redress,
often using unconventional methods. Sheer force of
numbers is often enough to intimidate law enforcement
into doing the right thing. The women might mob a police
station for example, singing loudly and demanding
justice. The sea of pink always attracts crowds of
citizens and journalists, and the subsequent publicity
frequently encourages a closer look into the facts of a
case. In other instances, they may threaten an abusive
husband with the pink-painted bamboo lathis (see ' Beyond the Book') they
carry, letting him know they will beat him up if he
doesn't change his ways (they've been known to follow
through with the threat).
Fontanella-Khan's
admiration for Sampat Pal Devi and the Gulabi Gang is
obvious throughout this well-written and entertaining
book. While one might question whether the vigilante
justice employed by this group is a valid means of
addressing discrimination and corruption in Uttar
Pradesh, it is clear that many feel it is doing vital
work.
Pink
Sari Revolution is a must-read for anyone seeking to
know more about women's lives in north India or for
those who are curious about Sampat Pal Devi and the
Gulabi Gang.
Reviewed by Kim
Kovacs
|
Beyond the
Book
At BookBrowse, we go
'beyond the book' to explore interesting aspects
relating to each book we feature.
Here is a recent "Beyond the Book" feature
for Someone by Alice
McDermott.
Your Brain on
Literature
Reading quiet,
literary fiction, like Someone, nudges us towards
contemplation and self-examination. But according to a
recent study conducted at the New
School for Social Research in New York, it may do even
more. This much-publicized study, "Reading Literary
Fiction Improves Theory of Mind," concludes that reading
literary fiction can better the ability to "read" the
thoughts and feelings of others. The researchers, Ph.D
candidate David Comer Kidd; and professor of psychology,
Emanuele Castano; suggest that this is achieved by an
increase in empathy and the ability to recognize and
share the feelings of others. But first, perhaps,
we should try to define the somewhat ambiguous line
between literary and popular fiction. Castano outlines
the difference this way: Popular fiction tends to focus
on plot, and characters tend to be more
stereotypical-the hero and the antagonist are clear-cut
from the beginning, while "literary fiction focuses on
the psychology and inner life of the characters." In
literary fiction, the characters are both more complex
and less filled in, leaving room for the reader to
interpret their thoughts, feelings, and
motivations. David Comer Kidd says the difference
can also be thought of in terms of the distinction
between "writerly" and "readerly" writing. With writerly
writing, the reader participates more by filling in the
gaps, whereas the readerly writing of genre fiction like
adventure, romance and thrillers more thoroughly
prescribes the reader's experience. With readerly
fiction, we are taken on an exhilarating ride that is a
similar experience for everyone. Literary or writerly
fiction requires more participation by the reader.
Characters are more complex, less explained and there
are fewer instructions on what the reader should think
or feel. This process is similar to our own
social interactions. There's nobody standing to the side
telling us exactly what the other person is thinking or
feeling, nor can we depend on them telling us directly.
In fact, a lot of human actions are meant to hide deep
feelings and private thoughts, leaving us to use
gestures, tone, action, body language and a myriad of
other clues to try and figure them out. Part of
the Theory of Mind study was conducted by dividing
participants into groups. One set read ten to fifteen
pages of a literary work, one did not read, another read
non-fiction and the last group read popular thrillers.
Those assigned the more literary fiction did better on a
test called "Reading the Mind in the Eyes" that asked
test-takers to guess which emotion is best expressed by
various actors in a series of black and white
photographs. The researchers say that the study
wasn't meant to devalue the experience of reading other
kinds of material. Kidd told The Guardian:
"These are aesthetic and stylistic concerns which as
psychologists we can't and don't want to make judgments
about. Neither do we argue that people should only read
literary fiction; it's just that only literary fiction
seems to improve Theory of Mind in the short-term. There
are likely benefits of reading popular fiction -
certainly entertainment. We just did not measure
them." In fact, a separate study conducted in 2006 by
Keith Oatley Ph.D. director of the Cognitive Science
Program at the University of Toronto, along with several
colleagues, found that people who read any kind of
fiction tend to be more empathetic and socially
intelligent. This study used ninety-four participants
who read either predominantly fiction or non-fiction,
and were then tested to see if there was any difference
in social abilities. One was the same "Mind in the Eyes"
test where participants looked at photos of only
people's eyes and guessed what they're feeling. The
other was the Interpersonal Perception Test where
participants watched video clips of people interacting
and then answered a question about the relationship
between the two. Results showed that the participants
who read predominantly fiction did better on these two
social ability tests. But then the research team
wondered if perhaps those who are more socially
intelligent might be more inclined to read fiction than
non-fiction in the first place. To answer that question
they conducted another study using two articles from
The New Yorker; one fiction and one non-fiction
and assigned them randomly. After reading, participants
were given one test derived from the LSAT exams and
another social reasoning test that asked about the
emotions, beliefs and intentions of characters in social
settings. The result showed that both readers did
equally well in the arena of analytical thinking but
that the fiction readers had a stronger understanding of
social interactions. Keith Oatley explained the results
in this way: "My colleagues and I think it's a matter of
expertise. Fiction is principally about the difficulties
of selves navigating the social world. Non-fiction is
about, well, whatever it is about: selfish genes, or how
to make Mediterranean food, or whether climate changes
will harm our planet. So with fiction we tend to become
more expert at empathizing and socializing. By contrast,
readers of non-fiction are likely to become more expert
at genetics, or cookery, or environmental studies, or
whatever they spend their time reading and thinking
about." It still could be argued that it has to
do as much with the content as with the process. Taking
it one step further, Oatley and some colleagues
conducted another study where they randomly assigned one
hundred and sixty-six people to read either Anton
Chekhov's "The Lady with the Little Dog" or a version of
the same story rewritten in a non-fiction format. They
wanted to find out if there was a difference in how
people changed after reading the original or the altered
version. Each participant was given a standard
personality test before and after reading their assigned
piece. "The Lady with the Little Dog" is the
story of Dmitri Gomov and Anna Sergueyevna, who meet at
a seaside resort, have an affair, fall in love and end
up divorcing their spouses to be together. The
non-fiction account was written as a divorce proceeding
in a courtroom report and was the same length and
reading difficulty and contained the same characters and
events, and even some of the text of Chekhov's story.
The participants who read the non-fictional version said
that they found it just as interesting, though less
artistic, as Chekhov's story. Test results showed
that the personality traits of readers of Chekhov's
story changed in small but measurable ways more so than
those of the readers of the courtroom account. Oatley
and his team concluded that "as people read Chekhov's
story, they experienced empathy with the protagonists
and identified with them so that each reader, in his or
her own way, became a bit more like them, or decided not
to think in the same ways as the characters. When we
read 'The Lady with the Little Dog,' we can be both
ourselves and Gomov or Anna. Through stories, selfhood
can expand. My colleagues and I also believe that
readers of Chekhov's story were taken out of their usual
ways of being so that they could connect with something
larger than themselves, beyond themselves. This is an
effect that goes beyond fiction. All art aspires to help
us transcend ourselves." With debates about the
value of the arts and the humanities, the worth of a
liberal arts education, and the funding of public
libraries, these kinds of studies bear witness to the
necessary human skills derived from reading and studying
literature. Take the "Reading the Mind in the
Eyes" quiz and see how well you score.
By Sharry Wright Above is
BookBrowse's backstory for Someone. Read the review and
excerpt
|
Win
Before I Met
You
by Lisa
Jewell
Publication
Date: Oct 2013
Enter the Giveaway
Buy at Amazon Past Winners
From
the Jacket
After her
grandmother Arlette's death, Betty is finally ready to
begin her life. She had forfeited university, parties,
boyfriends, summer jobs-all the usual preoccupations of
a woman her age-in order to care for Arlette in their
dilapidated, albeit charming home on the English island
of Guernsey. Her will included a beneficiary unknown to
Betty and her family, a woman named Clara Pickle who
presumably could be found at a London address. Now,
having landed on a rather shabby street corner in '90s
Soho, Betty is determined to find the mysterious Clara.
She's ready for whatever life has to throw her way. Or
so she thinks...
In 1920s bohemian London,
Arlette De La Mare is starting her new life in a time of
postwar change. Beautiful and charismatic, she is soon
drawn into the hedonistic world of the Bright Young
People. But two years after her arrival in London,
tragedy strikes and she flees back to her childhood home
and remains there for the rest of her life.
As
Betty navigates the ups and downs of city life and
begins working as a nanny for a rock star tabloid
magnet, her search for Clara leads her to a man-a
stranger to Betty, but someone who meant the world to
her grandmother. Will the secrets of Arlette's past help
Betty find her own way to happiness in the present?
A rich detective story and a captivating look at
London then and now, Before I Met You is an
unforgettable novel about two very different women,
separated by seventy years, but united by big hearts and
even bigger dreams.
Reviews
"Told in
chapters that alternate between 1919-21 and 1995, Jewell
unfolds each detail of Arlette's secret past with
impeccable timing." - Publishers Weekly
"Family
dynamics, the search for love and personal meaning, and
the simple yet evocative daily motions of each woman
keep the pages turning. Sure to be a popular title." -
Booklist
"Beautiful, moving, and unputdownable."
- Jojo Moyes, author of Me Before You and
Windfallen
"What a delightful novel! I
was truly absorbed by Betty and Arlette. A
wonderful perspective on the curiosity, confidences and
deep affection that can exist between the generations.
The story is ingeniously and seamlessly balanced within
two different time frames, and the care Lisa Jewell
devotes to the sense of place and the detailed fabric of
each age gives her book a richness that both
charms and moves." - Juliet Nicolson, author of
Abdication and The Great Silence: Britain From
the Shadow of the First World War to the Dawn of the
Jazz Age
"Jewell's many fans should eagerly
embrace this story about two different women living in
two different times whose lives converge in the most
unexpected way... Family
"Lisa Jewell's latest
escapist love story is heartbreakingly good." - Marie
Claire (UK)
"GH favourite Lisa Jewell leaves
the chick-lit tag firmly behind with Before I Met
You, a poignant story about a young woman uncovering
her grandmother's bohemian life in 1920s London - and
finding her own place in the world in the process." -
Good Housekeeping (UK))
"This is another
emotional clever read from Jewell, beautifully written
and populated with carefully constructed characters
you'll be rooting for as you race through it... I
couldn't put it down." - Sara Lawrence, Daily
Mail (London)
5
people will each win a paperback copy of Before I Met
You.
This
giveaway is open to residents of the USA only, unless
you are a BookBrowse member, in which case you are
eligible to win wherever you might live.
Enter the
giveaway
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We
have no new discussions opening until January on
the assumption that people tend to be rather busy
at this time of year; but we have 4 already
open discussions - so please do join us to discuss
any and all!
Next Discussion
Our next new discussion will open on
January 7 Happier at Home Kiss
More, Jump More, Abandon Self-Control, and My
Other Experiments in Everyday Life by
Gretchen Rubin
Summary & Reviews
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Featured Reading List: India
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Author
Interviews
Sahar
Delijani talks about her first book, Children of
the Jacaranda Tree, set in post-Revolutionary
Iran that gives voice to the men, women, and
children who won a war only to find their
lives-and those of their descendants-imperiled
by its aftermath. Read the
Q&A
Jennifer
duBois discusses Cartwheel - a
suspenseful and haunting novel of an American
foreign exchange student arrested for murder,
and a father trying to hold his family
together. Read the
Q&A |
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Wordplay
Solve this clue
"K High T A G"
and be entered
to win the book of your choice
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Answer
to Last Wordplay
A W A N P M J A
Dull B
All work and no play makes Jack
a dull boy
Meaning:
A balanced education is needed to produce
creative people.
Background:
This expression appears in its modern form
in James Howell's 1659 Proverbs in English,
Italian, French and Spanish, but appears to
have been in use some time before that.
It
has appeared in writing countless times since. For
example, in 1853 Charles Dickens wrote the
following to author and scholar Peter Cunningham:
"...No one can more highly estimate your
devotion to the best interests of Britain than I.
But I wish to see it tempered with a wise
consideration for your own amusement, recreation,
and pastime. All work and no play may make Peter a
dull boy as well as Jack...
Dickens (1853).
Letters.
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News
Nov
20 2013: After falling for three
consecutive months, US bookstore sales rose 6.3%
in September, to $1.30 billion, according to
preliminary estimates released Wednesday morning
by the Census...(more)
Nov 19 2013: William
Weaver, who has died aged 90, was the greatest of
all Italian translators. Before him, the
professional translator was considered little
better than a superior sort of typist. Weaver
helped to bring the art of translation out of
obscurity and give it a literary credence and
recognition....(more)
Nov 18 2013: Barbara
Park, author of the Junie B Jones series, died
Friday after a long battle with ovarian
cancer...(more)
Nov 17 2013: British
author Doris Lessing died today, aged 94...(more)
Nov 15
2013: More than 700 authors have signed up
to handsell their favorite titles at over 400
independent bookstores during Indies First on
Small Business Saturday, November 30...(more)
Nov 14
2013: Google has defeated a legal action
mounted to stop it scanning and uploading millions
of books....(more)
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