Musings: Mistress of the Elgin Marbles

Mistress of the Elgin Marbles:  A Biography of Mary Nisbet, Countess of Elgin is one of the many books I've purchased over the years based solely on the criteria that it is non-fiction about the Georgian and Regency eras in Great Britain.

Looking at the portrait on the cover here, I thought Mary was an elegant, proper and snobbish member of the British upper crust (the very highest crust, really, as she was the greatest heiress in the country).  But I suppose most portraits make the sitters look like that, and it always makes me think that they are probably very misleading.

This book is about Mary Nisbet, who probably was elegant and proper and snobbish, but was also much more.  She was witty and charismatic and loved to play practical jokes on people with her father.  She traveled all over Europe and parts of Asia, making a positive impression on everyone she met, becoming the first woman to ever see many "men only" sights in Turkey and visit the Topkapi Palace.  She also pioneered the use of the smallpox vaccine, paying for people to obtain it out of her own pocket.  She and her husband, Lord Elgin, were political prisoners of Napoleon, but Mary somehow got onto good terms with that wily minister, Talleyrand.  Her marriage soon fell apart and her husband, seeking her immense fortune to help cover his enormous debts, sued for a very public and scandalous divorce.  He obtained the divorce, but Mary fought hard for control of her own money and miraculously managed to win it.  She went on to remarry and she and her second husband, Robert Ferguson, became champions of several social causes, including voting rights.  They were also big supporters of the arts.

Musings: Fist Stick Knife Gun

"When I first found out that Superman wasn't real, I was about eight.  I was talking to my mother who declared, 'No, no, no.  There's no Superman.'  I started crying because I really thought Superman was coming to rescue us from the chaos, the violence, the danger.  No hero was coming."

If you have seen the film Waiting for Superman, about the disturbing state of America's public school system, then you have seen Geoffrey Canada, president of Harlem Children's Zone.  Canada also wrote an autobiography about growing up in the South Bronx during the 1960s, and here it has been adapted to the comic format by Jamar Nicholas.  The title remains Fist Stick Knife Gun as a representation of the way violence in the inner city has escalated.  What used to be dangerous, but not necessarily deadly, has become far worse with prolific access to guns.

Canada starts his story when he's four.  His older brother's jacket is stolen at the park, and when the brother explains to their mom that it was stolen, instead of consoling her son, she sends him to the park to get his jacket back.  She would not tolerate her boys becoming victims.  Soon, though, Geoff's education is tackled by boys who live on the same block as him.  It's not so much to incite violence, but to keep safe, to give the block credibility so that no one will mess with people from there.  He learns how to fist fight, how to gauge an opponent.  He gets a knife.  He gets a gun.

The Real Detroit

This weekend, I attended the Revitalization & Business:  Focus Detroit Conference.  It took place both in the city of Detroit and here in Ann Arbor, at the business school.  It was an excellent conference on many levels, and so I am going to use this space to tell you about it.

Detroit gets a bad rap.  I used to spend at least a week every year in Michigan, and now I live here.  And I can count the number of times I have been into the city on one hand.  People are terrified of Detroit.  They think it's unsafe.  That no one would ever choose to live there.  It is a city in the Rust Belt, home to the embattled American auto industry, suffering from massive emigration from its once-vibrant center to the sprawling suburbs and other areas of America.  It is full of abandoned buildings, crime and corrupt politicians.  More than any other place in the country, Detroit has come to symbolize America in this recession- an economy past its prime and going into decline while faster, smarter, cooler cities hurry to replace it.

But that's not the Detroit residents see.

Musings: Cry, the Beloved Country [TSS]

I was struggling to choose a book to read to start the year off and saw this one on the shelf at my parents' house.  I picked it up mostly because nothing else on the shelf appealed to me, and as soon as I started reading it, I couldn't put it down.  Cry, the Beloved Country has a very different and sometimes difficult to follow writing style, but it is so, so well-written and so achingly good that I couldn't put it down, unless it was to pick up a tissue and wipe away my tears.

Stephen Kumalo is a Zulu pastor in rural South Africa.  He receives a letter one day urging him to Johannesburg as his sister is very ill.  Kumalo also has a brother, a nephew and a son in Johannesburg.  He hasn't heard from any of them since they left, and he and his wife worry about the fates of all of them.  Kumalo leaves almost immediately for the city, and while it bewilders him, he also comes across great kindness.  He finds his sister, and his brother, and his son, and also forms a true and lasting bond with a white man who lives nearby.  Through Kumalo and the white man, Mr. Jarvis, we see South Africa in a period of drastic change, just before Apartheid becomes law.

Heather's Musings: The Hakawati

I was lucky enough to do another buddy read with Heather from Raging Bibliomania to close out 2010, and it was a great way to end the year!  This time, we chose to read The Hakawati, a modern-day story wrapped up in a fabulous re-telling of the Arabian Nights.  We both really enjoyed the story, particularly being able to discuss it with each other!  But this time, rather than sharing with you our conversation about the book, we thought we'd just swap reviews.  So below are Heather's very eloquent thoughts on The Hakawati.  My thoughts are much the same, but if you want to read them in my less-beautiful writing style, feel free to hop on over to Heather's blog to see them.

Heather, I'm so glad to have read this with you!

Random side note:  I think every cover of this book is GORGEOUS, so I'm sharing them all in this post :-)

Musings: Indiscretion

I discovered Jude Morgan about seven years ago when I read his novel The King's Touch while studying abroad in London.  Since then, every time I see a book by him on sale, I buy it.  But, until now, I had never actually read another one of his novels.  I picked up Indiscretion as my last full read of 2010 because it was a treat for me.  It was my 100th book of the year (exciting!), a feat I am unlikely to match ever again, and it is a gentle romantic romp set in Regency England in the mode of Jane Austen and Georgette Heyer, so I knew I'd be happy with it.

Indiscretion is about Miss Caroline Fortune (yes... her name is Miss Fortune), a young woman who takes care of her unreliable father while the two are pursued by creditors.  But now her father is completely out of money and his new scheme is for Caroline to become a companion to a wealthy old woman, Mrs. Catling, known for treating both her family and her servants badly.  Caroline takes the role and is off to Brighton with Mrs. Catling, where she meets the rich widow's niece and nephew, both hoping for a place in her will, and several other characters.  It seems wherever Caroline goes, trouble follows, though, and before long she is caught up in a complicated mess that involves not only her, but some of her best friends, too.