Big Little Lies

This is a really good mystery. Last Wednesday, I listened to the book until at least 2 am in order to finish it. The characters are flawed but likable. There are lots of great twists and an ending I never could have predicted.

Everyone will enjoy the suspense of Big Little Lies but today's parents will recognize themselves and their lives in the story line. We meet three different moms, each with a child starting kindergarten. Each mom is quite different .. socio-economically, age, educational background.. but in ways they are the same -- vulnerable, survivors, each gave up something for their children. The superficial dramas presented within the new kindergarten community are very familiar: parents who want advanced learners, parents who hover, parents whose identities are tangled with their children's.. all the parents seem a little crazy .. like today's parents.

HBO made a show of the book. After watching the first episode, I lost interest. The characters on the show are not nuanced in the way they were in the book. They are caricatures of the people in the book.. 2 dimensional.. less interesting.. not likable. It's such a great story though that I might return to it.   

The Trouble with Diversity

I often pick up books at my local library that are recommended by the librarians. They display interesting and popular books that have landed there from other branches.

This book was great because it challenged MANY of my ideas about why I am a good person regarding race and class. I don't discriminate, right? We are all the same.

He explained race isn't actually a thing. There is nothing in a person's DNA that will tell you their race. Essentially, a person's race is whatever they say it is.  I remember meeting a white skinned girl 13 year old girl who identified as African american. Her mom was white, her skin was white, but she did have some vaguely African features so she said she was black.

The author claims we have become obsessed with diversity as a marker to prove our institutions and ourselves are not racist or that they have no bias .. look! there are brown people here. That obsession with diversity allows to ignore a deep moral problem in our country: poverty and the growing income gap.

He also claimed that one culture or one language can never be superior to another. There is nothing about one that is better than another other than the fact that one is mine and the other is yours. Current debate between the left and the right on issues of culture and identity are really two sides of the same coin... and both allow us to continue to ignore the suffering of many Americans due to the structure of capitalism here. We could change what we value but we don't. So only superficial changes are made.

The Ocean at the End of the Lane

Neil Gaiman wrote this book. I had never heard of him but he is a very prolific writer -- comic books, science fiction, novels, kids books.. he does it all.

I wish I could talk to him because I have no idea what this book was about.. He says he is very proud of this story. When I read it, I felt like I was reading a very accurate description of someone's dream.. maybe on a night they took cold medicine. A woman in my book club recommended it after finding it on a list of "good feminist books." Other than the presence of a family of three generations of women who have mystical power, I am not sure why it is considered a feminist book.

I just don't know.

That said, I enjoyed reading it.

Whistler!

! because Whistler is one of my favorite places. I love snow because of the silence. The mountains that make the resort are unlike anything in Washington state.  It's a beautiful place with phenomenal skiing. After purchasing an edge pass, skiing there is cheaper than it is locally. All good things.