Social Justice Challenge - WATER

This month's topic for the Social Justice Challenge is Water. Several questions were presented to us related to the topic --

1. What is the first thought that comes to your mind when you think of water as a social justice issue?

I think of women in Africa that must walk for miles every day just to get water for their families. I think of men, women and children living in Bangladesh who drown because of inadequate infrastructure to deal with monsoon floods. I think of those dependent on water sources contaminated with chemicals, sewage, etc. I think the people who suffer from water issues, whether it be too little or too much, are those with the least economic resources.

2. What exposure, if any, have you personally had to a water shortage?

I live in the community surrounding Lake Lanier, a WPA project of the 1930s designed to dam the Chattahoochee River to create a hydroelectric power plant, a steady water supply for Atlanta and North Georgia and a recreational lake.

The summer of 2007 brought a severe drought to the Southern US and Georgia was particularly hard hit. Lake Lanier, already low from years of sub-average rainfall and the over release of water through the dam, became dangerously low -- at one point, holding only a 30 supply of water with no rain in sight. We had been on water restrictions before, but now they became more strict and more important than ever before. In a community built on revenue from the recreational activities of the lake, the economic impact was severe as well. Our restaurant was hit hard - we depended on people picking up food to take to the lake every weekend. That business virtually stopped as did my husband's paycheck. With lower water levels, came lower power levels as well. We experienced more that afew "brown outs" and were advised to stagger high electricity usage throughout the day. Water was being pulled from the very bottom of the lake and the water coming into our home was nasty - full of Georgia red clay, we had to boil it at one point. The clothes I washed were tinged red. We installed a filter system where the water comes into the house and had to change the filter weekly. We truly began to appreciate clean and reliable water.

This in no way compares with the water issues other countries face, but it is my story and it really made me look at water in a different way.

3. What potential action steps can you think of that relate to this month's theme of WATER?

Since the drought we have taken many steps to conserve water. I NEVER run the dishwasher or washing machine unless there is a full load. We bought a rain barrel last summer to use to water potted flowers and the vegetable garden. We will probably buy another one this summer. I only water the garden at night so more water will be absorbed and not evaporated. I am looking for more suggestions to help conserve more water.

Another Challenge - Social Justice Challenge

I had promised myself only to join as many challenges as I thought I could complete this year. I decided on 3 that really touched on my reading interests and also stretched my normal genres. Well, my blog friend Stephanie at Laughing Stars reviewed Nine Parts of Desire by Geraldine Brooks this week for the Social Justice Challenge. I had seen this challenge floating around the blogosphere but I had my 3 challenges and just could not do anymore. After reading Stephanie's review, I checked out the Social Justice Challenge Blog and this is soooooo the challenge for me. The themes for each month are topics I read about and teach about all the time.

But, I was already behind. It was January 30th and I hadn't read a book for January. That was when I realized the theme for January was Religious Freedom and I had read Sarah's Key, a Holocaust novel this month. That sealed the deal for me. I am now committed to completing this challenge in 2010 as well.

February's topic is WATER. I can't wait to find a great book on this one. I live on Lake Lanier, just north of Atlanta. The lake provides water for the city of Atlanta, metro Atlanta and many communities in Alabama and Florida as well. It has been well below full for several years and we have had water restictions for as long as I can remember. There is even a lawsuit over the water in Lake Lanier and the Chattahooche River headed toward the US Supreme Court. On a world scale, water is the most scarce resource. I believe this resource to be even more pressing than oil on the global scale. I am looking forward to discussing this other challenge participants.

Sarah's Key

by Tatiana de Rosnay

I love stumbling upon a World War II/Holocaust novel that tells the story in a new way. Skeletons at the Feast, The Book Thief and The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society are such books, so is Sarah's Key. Told in 2 voices in 2 different time periods it is amesmerizing tragedy that sums up all that was horrible about this period in history.

Like many others, I had never heard of the great Velodrome d'Hiver roundup which took place in Paris on July 16, 1942. The French police rounded up Jewish families and sent them to the Velodrome, where they were held for several days with out basic necessities. The descriptions from the novel were reminiscent of the horror stories from the Superdome in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. From the Velodrome, they were sent to temporary camps and then on to concentration camps in Germany where almost none of them survived.

Sarah Starzynski's family is one of those rounded up. Trying to protect her younger brother, Sarah locks him in their secret hiding place and promises to return to get him, when it is safe. She doesn't. This begins Sarah's heartbreaking story to save her brother and redeem herself.

Julia Jarmond stumbles across Sarah's story while researching the Velodrome d'Hiver roundup 60 years later. While she expects to find sad, heart wrenching stories, nothing prepares her for just how close one of those stories be tied to her own family and change them forever.

The author does a brilliant job of telling the story from 1942 and 2002. Sarah's story is told via a third person narrator, which creates a detached, almost unbelievable quality to the telling of the story. I loved how it portrayed Sarah's shock at all that had happened to her and her family is just a few short days. Julia narrates her own story and her voice is so strong as she fights to discover Sarah's story as well how to resurrect her own life.

Be prepared to cry while reading this book. The central storyline itself is very moving and it will outrage you. However, the subplot lines involving Julia and her husband as well as her relationships with her husband's family will bring tears to your eyes as well. Both stories are so personal and the characters just tug at your heart, leaving you just a bit emotionally exhausted by the end.

I am using this book as my selection for the Social Justice Challenge. The topic for January was Religious Freedom. As always when I read a book about the Holocaust I can't help but question. Why the Jews? Why did the German people not help? Did the Allies really not know what was going on? Would I have done the same thing -- choose my own survival of those of my friends and neighbors? I know the historical answers to these questions - the blame placed on Jews for the loss of World War I and the resulting financial crisis in Germany, Hitler's propaganda and talent of persuavive speaking, but it is the moral issues I have a hard time with.

I have had the privilege to hear two Holocaust survivors speak as well as visit the Simon Weisenthal Museum in Los Angeles. There are not words to describe either experience. Horror, pity, guilt, amazement, disbelief -- none of these can adequately explain. Amazement comes closest. Amazement at the resilience of the human spirit, how such horrors can be overcome and that people who have suffered the unimaginable can still have faith in God and in each other.

Also read and reviewed for the Historical Fiction Challenge.

Rating - A+

The Secret Life of Josephine

by Carolly Erickson

The Secret Life of Josephine was a delightful read. Carolly Erickson takes the life of Josephine Bonaparte and enlivens it with some very colorful characters and situations to make a wonderful story. This is not a biography, it is a very fictionalized view of Josephine's life. Erickson herself calls this an historical entertainment, not historical fiction. But, do not let that distract you from the fact that is it well written and a interesting story.

Josephine was born on the French colonial island of Martinque. She makes her way to France to marry her first husband, an aristocrat, who had no desire to marry, but must in order to receive his inheritance from his father. He basically ignores Josephine, except to impregnate her with two children who Josephine adores and their father basically ignores. Josephine eventually is legally separated from her husband and here her adventure begins.

To earn money, Josephine tells fortunes for money at several of the best salons in Paris. She takes many lovers and becomes involved with several men of promenience in France, several of whom end up supporting her and her children. At the time of the Revolution she even spends time in prison because she is an aristocrat. She is jailed with her ex-husband who eventually is put to death by guillotine. Josephine is saved by a kind doctor and finally released from prison.

The portion of the book portraying her relationship with Napoleon shows an unstable man infatuated both with Josephine and his own rising power. I did find Erickson's portrayal of Napoleon to be historically accurate based on many biographies I have read of him. He was truly heartbroken about putting Josephine aside to marry an Austrian princess. If Josephine had been of royal birth or have been able to give him a son, I believe he would have stayed married to her. On his exile island of St. Helena at his death, it was Josephine, long dead, that he called out for.

Probably the most captivating story lines in the book take place on Martinique. Although there is little historical background for it, Erickson has Josephine return to the island several times where she is involved in a slave rebellion and meets Donovan, a mysterious man who plays a long lasting role in Josephine's fictional life. In an historical study of the French Revolution, the French colonies are often overlooked with their all important trade and entrenched system of slavery.

I enjoyed this novel as much as I did Erickson's The Hidden Diary of Marie Antoinette several years ago. It was a quick read and fun.

I read this book as part of the Historical Fiction Challenge.

Rating - B

The Sunday Salon - January 31, 2010

It has been a long itme since I have participated in the Sunday Salon. My Sundays are less about reading and more about getting ready for the week ahead. I decided this year to at least write a Salon post on the last Sunday of the month as a way of recapping my reading and reviewing.

January Review Edition

Books I Read This Month (linked to reviews)-
Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay
Pope Joan by Donna Woolfolk Cross
The Secret Life of Josephine by Carolly Erickson
Abundance: A Novel of Marie Antoinette by Sena Jeter Neslund
The Friday Night Knitting Club by Kate Jacobs
Knit Two by Kate Jacobs
Cleopatra's Daughter by Michelle Moran

Our book club meets today to pick books for the next 6 months. I am suggesting the following -
19th Wife by David Ebershoff
People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks
The Hotel at the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford

We shall see what we pick! This is always one of my favorite meetings, everyone brings great books to share and even if we don't choose them to read for Book Club, I always add 2 or 3 to my personal TBR stack.

Abundance: A Novel of Marie Antoinette

by Sena Jeter Naslund

I picked this bookup from the bargain table at Barnes and Noble at least 2 years ago. As my AP European History class began studying the French Revolution, I picked it up, looking for some insight into the woman that some historians believe launched the French Revolution.

The book begins with Marie's birth as a Frenchwoman, where on an island in the Rhine River between France and Austria, she sheds everthing she owns that is Austrian, even her name, and becomes French. Marie embraces her new country and awaits with great anticipation her first meeting with King Louis XV and his grandson Louis Auguste, the man destined to become her husband.

Over and over again throughout her life, Marie is confronted by disappointments -- lack of a sexual relationship with her husband, inability to conceive an heir to the throne, coldness from the women at court, the deaths of two of her children, the criticism of her mother, the negative propaganda surrounding her court activities and finally the loss of the only life she understood. The novel goes far in explaining the woman behind the famous Queen. It takes fact and fiction and creates a Marie Antoinette that falls somewhere in between. The author is sympathetic to Marie, but offers no excuses for her behavior.

As poor harvests, harsh weather, huge debts and poverty oppress the French people, they turn on thier most favored Queen and blame Marie, the Austrian Whore, for their problems. While Marie did not create these problems, she did nothing to prevent or attempt to solve them. She didn't even acknowledge the suffering existed, and in reality an arguement can be made that Marie herself did not know of the troubles of the people until it was too late.

What we find in the novel is a very humanized Marie Antoinette. She struggles with her marriage, especially when Louis chooses his favorite hobby, hunting over her and an attempt to produce an heir. She faces the same struggles of all mothers when it comes to her children. She is heartbroken when she is not allowed to care for her first son, the Dauphin, herself and she is devastated by the deaths of Louis Phillipe and her daughter Sophie. She even feels inadequate under the criticism of her mother via long letters from Austria, fed by court spies. It is this very vulnerable portrayal of Marie in the novel that makes you almost feel sorry for her.....almost.

I did like Marie Antoinette more after reading this very well researched and well written novel. The history is impeccable and being told from Marie's point of view it has a very authentic tone, and their are no excuses for the behavior of either Marie or Louis -- just a matter of fact, this is how it is view of the most life of one ofthe most famous women in European History.

This book was part of the Historical Fiction Challenge.

Rating - A

The Time Is Snowed on Puerto Rico

by Sarah McCoy

The Time it Snowed in Puerto Rico is a coming of age novel and I am not a big fan of this type of book. I think too many years of teaching them in middle school has just made me very jaded in regards to this genre. That being said, I rather enjoyed this one. Not only is Verdita, a young Puerto Rican girl struggleing with growing up, Puerto Rico itself is also experiencing growing pains. Taking place during the early 1060s, the Puerto Rican independence movement is just finding its voice.

At times enamoured by all things American, yet still tied so strongly to her Puerto Rican heritage, Verdita is not sure where she fits in. She convinces herself that if she just changes her hair she will be beautiful, like the American women she sees in magazines. She convinces her aunt to cut her beautiful black hair and dye it blonde, so she can be more American -- it is a disaster -- kind of like the summer before 9th grade when I used bottle after bottle of Sun-In trying to be Barbie blonde and ended up with Lucille Ball orange hair!

Having been to Puerto Rico many times, I felt myself immersed in local culture while reading. From the sights and sounds of San Juan to the foliage and quiet forests of the forests, you could hear the coqui frogs and see the crowds of the city. I was given this book by the publisher at the National Council for Social Studies Convention. Their goal being that I would choose to use this book in my class. While it does not meet the needs of my advanced students, were I still teaching middle school, I would certainly consider it as it has more cultural meat to it than most other coming of age novels.

Rating - B