Two More Books

Two more books toward my 2012 reading goal.

Late in the week I started reading a book I've had in my library for a few years; The Measure of Man, the memoirs of Sidney Poitier.

Mr. Poitier was never one of my favourite actors but I do recall enjoying his movie, Lilies of the Field.  I saw the movie as a child and remember enjoying it immensely.  Mr. Poitier won an Oscar  for his role as handyman Homer Smith, a man who helps refugee nuns build a chapel out in the desert somewhere. I think I was fascinated by the movie because where I grew up I'd never seen a black grown up,  only two boys about my age who I didn't know personally.  I was curious about these people because they were rarities in my world and we had no opportunities for association.   I'd also seen two other Mr. Poitier films, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner and To Sir With Love. I liked the latter movie more than the former,  but didn't really pay much attention to either of them.

In the last year or so, I happened upon another of Mr. Poitier's movies which I did not see as a child.  It is called A Patch of Blue.  This movie appealed to me even more than Lilies of the Field. In the movie, the character, Selina D'Arcy is a blind, white girl who meets a black man, Gordon Ralfe, played by Sidney Poitier and falls in love with him. Although his brother strongly advises Gordon to tell Selina that he is black, Gordon refuses to do so. Problems arise when Selina's mother, played by Shelley Winters, learns about Gordon and Selina's relationship and forbids her daughter from being with Gordon because he is black. Gordon doesn't reciprocate Selina's love but views her as a friend and he is dedicated to helping her. The movie ends in an interesting way.

Anyway, back to the memoirs.  I've long wondered about the details of Mr. Poitier's life and his acting career which developed at a time in American history when it could not have been easy, an understatement to say the least, to have been a black man or a black actor.  This was the reason I picked up The Measure of a Man.  I wanted to know where Mr. Poitier came from, how he got into acting, and how he managed to retain his grace and dignity during times of racial turbulence and how he managed to thrive as an actor despite the lack of opportunities for black people.

I'm learning how he grew up on Cat Island in the Bahamas and made it to New York via Nassau and Miami, where he started his acting career on the stage, before moving to Hollywood to continue a career in motion pictures.  It is fascinating to have insight into the times from the eyes of this veteran actor and to learn how easily his life could have ended up so much differently.

I'm still reading the book and while I haven't formulated all my conclusions, one thing jumps out at me, and that is is how  seemingly "accidental" it was that Mr. Poitier became an actor at all.  Another thing I've learned is how his childhood, and way of life on Cat Island, really shaped him for the better and influenced how he conducted his life and made decisions through his life time.  On Cat Island you see, he was not a racial minority. Everyone was more or less like him and his family, and that had a lot to do with how he continued to view the world and his place in it when he got to America.   Mr. Poitier is a man of wisdom and strength and one thing he says in his book which I think is a good lesson for us all is:

I've learned that I must find positive outlets for anger or it will destroy me. I have to try to find a way to channel that anger to the positive, and the highest positive is forgiveness. (p. 128)

So far, it's a fascinating read.

My friend, Caroline at Lonicera's World, sent me a book entitled, Jennie by Paul Gallico. It arrived from England in the post on Friday and I immediately began to read it. It is a delightful little book about a boy named Peter who desperately wants to own a cat but is not allowed to because his nanny suffers from allergies. Peter has a terrible accident and when he awakes he finds himself transformed into a cat. His nanny immediately throws him out of the apartment and he is confronted by the mean spiritedness of human beings on the outside, as well as other animals. He runs hither and thither until exhausted, he collapses ,and is rescued by a feline named, Jennie, who takes him under her paws and teaches him how to become a cat.

This delightful little book is written by Paul Gallico, who I've read, owned 23 cats of his own.  Mr. Gallico has really been able to capture the behaviors of cats and describes them in a way that is completely understandable even to those that are unfamiliar with cats. When Jennie describes the rules about washing for example, I could not help but think about my former cat and how she used to wash herself and in what circumstances she would wash.  The Jennie in the book says, "When in doubt, wash!".

With these two books almost completed, I will soon be able to add a few more books to my reading goal for the year.

How about you dear reader? 

Have you set reading goals for 2012 and if yes, how are you progressing on them?

The Rush Toward the Reading Challenge

One of my goals for 2011 is to read 24 books and I track my books on Goodreads along with others who participate in self-defined goals for the reading year.  While this may not seem like a lot of books to read, one can quickly fall behind in the goal unless plans are made and time is set aside to read throughout the week.  I've actually done a fair bit of reading since the Fall but some of them were rather lengthy.  A few of them were about 1000 pages (Pillars of the Earth and Anna Karenina) each and that also impacted on my goal of reading two books per month.

I've decided I must make real progress on the number of books read before the summer is out.  The sooner I do that, the sooner I can also give my books to someone else to enjoy.  That will help me in another goal for 2011; to fully declutter the condo.

This week, I'd like to share some of my recently read books with you. I don't go in for writing extensive reviews of the content of books and highlighting especially interesting or meaningful passages. I prefer to enjoy reading my books and give short summaries or impressions of what I've read. 

French Fried
Written by an American in Paris. It is charmingly written with anecdotes about the author's life in Paris and her forays into learning how to cook as well as learning the art and beauty of the French approach to eating and living. I've always been fascinated by France and French living. I enjoyed the book because of insights into the culture as contrasted with American culture.

Teacher Man
Written by Irish American author Frank McCourt of Angele's Ashes fame. I found this book very interesting because I too have a background in teaching.  I enjoyed Mr. McCourt's recounting of his early teaching days and what he had to say about his fears, hopes and experiences during his teaching career in New York.

Joshua's Bible
Written by  Shelly Leanne this thrift store find turned out to be a very pleasant and interesting read. Set in the mid-1930s, it is a book about a Black American preacher sent to South Africa by his "white" missions group to "civilize and christianize" the Africans. Movingly written it takes us through the joys and sorrows of the young preacher, Reverend Clay, and his experiences with the tribal peoples of South Africa. Over his period of two years he opens his eyes to the truth of the African experience and history and their hopes for emancipation and equality.  Despite what sounds like a heavy book, I found this to be a pleasant read with a nice rhythm to it.

Leaning Into God, When Life is Pushing You Away
I won this book through a giveaway and I will need to write a proper review of it as my "payment" for receiving the book for free.  Written by Reverend Robert Anthony Schuller, this book explores the various ways in which individuals lose or experience interference with their connection to God.  The author explains how emotions such as shame, regret, fear, and disappointment can stand in the way of our intimacy with God.  Reverend Schuller leads the reader through ways to reconnect with God and after each chapter asks incisive questions for us to consider and to help draw out our understanding of what causes our disconnect/connections with God.

Autism's Hidden Blessings: Discovering god's Promises for autistic Children & Their Families
This is another book I received in a giveaway and for which I need to draft a proper review. The book was written by Kelly Langston, a mother of an autistic son. This book was somewhat different than I anticipated. I had thought it would be more of memoir of a mother dealing with an autistic son. Instead it turned out to be a good bible study on turning to God as a source of help in dealing with an autistic child.  The book is also sprinkled with good discussion points, summary points and anecdotes about the Langston family experiences in raising an autistic child.  I was highly interested in reading this book because my family raised an autistic child in the days before there was little available as helps for families and next to nothing known about autism.

I'm currently reading, The Shackled Continent:  African's Past, Present and Future by Robert Guest and Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte.

I purchased this book at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi. It's a great read so far in terms of helping my understanding of Africa.

After this week, I will still be 3 books shy of my goal of 14 books for the first 7 months of this year. But  I am feeling well on my way to reaching my goal if I can keep up the momentum.

What about you? Are you reading a lot this year? Do you have any reading goals for yourself or any great books to recommend?

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