Cinderella Ate My Daughter: Dispatches from the Front Lines of the New Girlie-Girl Culture by Peggy Orenstein

Release date: 2012 (paperback) / 272 pages

Synopsis (from Amazon): Sweet and sassy or predatory and hardened, sexualized girlhood influences our daughters from infancy onward, telling them that how a girl looks matters more than who she is. Somewhere between the exhilarating rise of Girl Power in the 1990s and today, the pursuit of physical perfection has been recast as the source of female empowerment. And commercialization has spread the message faster and farther, reaching girls at ever-younger ages. But how dangerous is pink and pretty, anyway? Being a princess is just make-believe; eventually they grow out of it . . . or do they?

Review: I’ve been so curious about this book ever since it came out last year, so when TLC Tours invited me to read and review it to conincide with the paperback release, I jumped at the chance.

I do not have any children, but am blessed to have nieces, nephews, god-daughters and the many delightful children of my cousins in my life.  And, after having spent fifteen years teaching adolescents, I can’t help but be fascinated by how young people — of both genders — navigate the difficult waters of identity.

What I particularly loved about Orenstein’s study is that I had the same preconceived notions about identity creation that the author did before having her daughter.  I truly believed it would be possible — even imperative — to shield little girls from the identity-morphing behemoth that is Disney.  I thought reasonable conversation and positive role models would be enough to block soulless corporations from abusing the power granted to them in the early 80′s when children’s television became largely unregulated, i.e. thinly-veiled commercials. (For more on this, check out Childhood Under Siege).

But Orenstein taught me that the reality of raising daughters in today’s media-soaked marketing machine that is childhood in the U.S. is difficult, complex, and ultimately inescapable. Since 2000, Disney has waged war on little girls’ identity and been incredibly successful and lucrative.  Not only does Disney capitalize (literally) on little girls’ predilection for all things princess, but has insidiously “promot[ed] shopping as the path to intimacy between mothers and daughters; as an expression, even for five-year-olds, of female identity” (32).  Clearly the five-year-olds are not actually buying the merchandise — but “No one wants her child to be the sacrificial lamb to a cause.  No one wants her daughter to feel excluded by her peers, to be ostracized for having the wrong clothes, hair, or pop preferences…” (151).  And going too far the other way has it’s consequences: ” It was one thing to reject the image of girlhood being sold to her, another to reject the girls who might embrace it” (152).

As the marketers state “We just gave the girls what they wanted” (79).  Orenstein muses, “I know that if I could imbue her with a superpower, it would be the ability to withstand the pressures of the culture around her, to be her own woman despite the potential costs: I would give her the courage of her convictions, the power to be the hero of her own story without ambivalence or fear, to embrace her gifts regardless of her body’s size or shape…” (158).

So, for this reader the gift of Cinderella was of compassion.  I now have a deeper sense of just how difficult it is to resist Disney’s ability to dictate our daughters’ (and sons’) identity and what a challenging tightrope this is to walk.

Tuesday, January 31st: Sara’s Organized Chaos

Wednesday, February 1st: Book Hooked Blog

Thursday, February 2nd: Book Addiction

Friday, February 3rd: Bloggin’ ‘Bout Books

Friday, February 3rd: Family Volley

Monday, February 6th: Good Girl Gone Redneck

Tuesday, February 7th: Diary of a Stay at Home Mom

Wednesday, February 8th: Book Club Classics!

Thursday, February 9th: Books Like Breathing

Monday, February 13th: Stephany Writes

Wednesday, February 15th: There’s a Book

Thursday, February 16th: The Scarlet Letter

Monday, February 20th: Life is Short. Read Fast.

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Cinderella Ate My Daughter: Review and Free Giveaway

The Ruins of Us

Release date: 2011 / 384 pages

Synopsis (from Amazon): FBI agent Sean Reilly and his girlfriend, archaeologist Tess Chaykin, heroes of Raymond Khoury’s bestselling Templar novels, return in another edge-of-your-seat thriller that reaches from present day back to 1700s Mexico-and possibly beyond…

Review: Receiving The Devil’s Elixir was serendipitous.  Khoury’s publisher contacted me just before I was about to leave for 12 days of much needed relaxation in sunny Florida.  I had sought out The Last Templar after my mother had recommended it and had enjoyed Khoury’s subsequent works as well.

Action-adventure is not a genre I read very often — I tend to be drawn to character-driven literary fiction with complex, often ambiguous endings.  But occasionally I do love a fast-paced, plot-oriented thriller that has no connection or relevancy to any aspect of my life.  And Khoury’s latest was the perfect escape for my Florida get-away.

The characters are well-developed — especially for readers who have read his other works.  Reilly and Tess are happily present and pick up just where Khoury’s last novel left off.  But the story involves a rare drug and a two-dimensional evil killer and once begun, The Devil’s Elixir is hard to put down.

So, while I do not believe this genre is a good fit for book clubs as a rule, I definitely recommend this to any reader who needs an exciting, uncomplicated escape from reality.  Interested?  Leave me a comment and I’ll send along a copy ASAP.

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The Devil’s Elixir: Review and Free Giveaway

The Art of Fielding: A Novel

2011 / 528 pp.

Synopsis: At Westish College, a small school on the shore of Lake Michigan, baseball star Henry Skrimshander seems destined for big league stardom. But when a routine throw goes disastrously off course, the fates of five people are upended.  As the season counts down to its climactic final game, these five are forced to confront their deepest hopes, anxieties, and secrets. In the process they forge new bonds, and help one another find their true paths.

Review: After seeing Chad Harbach’s novel land atop so many “best of 2011″ lists, and especially hearing it was about a baseball team in Wisconsin, I requested it from the library and lugged all 512 pages of hardcover glory to the beach over the holidays.

I found Fielding’s writing thoroughly engaging and enjoyable.  The characters are likeable and authentic, even when not entirely believable at times.  Owen was a bit too perfect as an adolescent aesthete and Mike a bit too much of an old soul.  The resolution at the end was a bit too convenient and the last act of closure too impractical.

But a bit of a heavy hand is not rare with “baseball art” and none of these minor complaints deterred my enjoyment in the least.  I loved getting to know each member of the team and the one female character and enjoyed spending my vacation with their trials and tribulations on the beach.

So, while I’m not sure Fielding’s debut would top my personal “best of” list, I would recommend it to readers who enjoy hero journeys, baseball, college literature, or character-based fiction.

Anyone else read this yet?

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The Art of Fielding: Sunday Salon Review

photo credit: jenny downing

• The Life of a Non-reader
• Romantic fiction for men
• The books behind the Academy awards
• Kansas City Public Library is reading Women Who Dare
• Young Adult award winners
• 10 Best Put-downs in literary history

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Friday Finds: January 27

The Ruins of Us

Release date: 2012 / 352 pages

Synopsis (from Amazon): More than two decades after moving to Saudi Arabia and marrying powerful Abdullah Baylani, American-born Rosalie learns that her husband has taken a second wife. That discovery plunges their family into chaos as Rosalie grapples with leaving Saudi Arabia, her life, and her family behind. Meanwhile, Abdullah and Rosalie’s consuming personal entanglements blind them to the crisis approaching their sixteen-year-old son, Faisal, whose deepening resentment toward their lifestyle has led to his involvement with a controversial sheikh. When Faisal makes a choice that could destroy everything his embattled family holds dear, all must confront difficult truths as they fight to preserve what remains of their world.

Review: What a fortuitous start to my reading year — first I enjoyed The Art of Fielding (review coming next Sunday) about the world of boys becoming men, caring too much about the glorious but insubstantial world of baseball — and then followed that with another debut novel about another world of men, in Saudi Arabia, caring too little about what is most important: love and validation.

I was drawn to The Ruins of Us due to a friendship with a woman from Texas who spent part of her childhood on an American oil base in Saudia Arabia.  She has often spoken with deep longing about returning to this country — which I cannot fathom as an American woman who cannot unlock the mysteries of a culture who imprison others due to that which they cannot control — gender.  I have often wondered how my friend, a fiesty independent sprite who always speaks her mind and swears like a sailor, could even entertain the thought of bringing her daughter into The Kingdom.  So, when I saw that Keija Parssinen had spent 12 years of her childhood as my friend had, I was intrigued.

The Ruins of Us is luminous, terrifying, beautiful, and entertaining.  Parssinen has somehow embraced and channeled the contradictions of Saudi Arabia into a gripping tale of suspense that is impossible to put aside. The protagonist, Rosalie, is a strong-willed Texan who falls in love with Abdullah while both attend college in Texas, eventually returning to Saudi Arabia as his wife, and starting a family.  Rosalie had spent part of her childhood in Saudi Arabia and had missed it deeply after returning to the States, so marrying a Saudi Arabian felt like going home.

The events of the novel unfold many years later, when Rosalie discovers that her beloved husband secretly married a Palestinian woman two years ago, and who now lives down the street.  While this discovery propels the early events, the heart of this novel is about the universal loss of betrayed love.  Abdullah’s act, legal in The Kingdom, sets up a chain of events involving the entire family and forces them to confront what happens when a son is left without a role model in a country seething with feverish contradictions.

Each character is fully realized and sympathetic and the tempestuous backdrop of Saudi Arabia, a country that allows few options for women and only narrowly-defined ones for men, lends an urgency and sense of foreboding that is palpable.  Parssinen’s own love for this country keeps the male characters from becoming two-dimensional and her writing is lovely, too — bringing to life the harsh, relentless beauty of the desert.

I strongly recommend this novel to book clubs — so many thematic points for discussion!  I’m afraid I cannot give away my copy this time — I already did!

Tuesday, January 17th: Book Hooked Blog

Wednesday, January 18th: Take Me Away

Thursday, January 19th: Broken Teepee

Friday, January 20th: Bibliosue

Monday, January 23rd: Book Club Classics!

Tuesday, January 24th: Wandering Thoughts of a Scientific Housewife

Thursday, January 26th: Peeking Between the Pages

Tuesday, January 31st: Col Reads

Wednesday, February 1st: The House of the Seven Tails

Thursday, February 2nd: Raging Bibliomania

Monday, February 6th: Library of Clean Reads

Tuesday, February 7th: Man of La Book

Wednesday, February 8th: 2 Kids and Tired Book Reviews

Another great post from: BOOK CLUB CLASSICS! Thanks for visiting...

The Ruins of Us: Review