Revamping this blog to become a book-centered one, since that is now my chief hobby! Getting things started with my Top Ten List from 2011:
It was hard enough to just pick ten books, so I didn't rank them beyond that. Here they are, in alphabetical order by the author's last name!
Convicting the Innocent: Where Criminal Prosecutions Go Wrong by Brandon L. Garrett – This book is a great exploration of how innocent people end up being convicted of crimes, something that happens with much greater frequency than I think most people realize. I honestly didn’t learn a lot from it, since I’ve been interested in this topic for a while, but I recognize it as a great book to recommend to people who are new to the topic and am really glad that there’s now a well-written book to point people to!
Elizabeth I by Margaret George – I love historical fiction set in the Tudor era but often get frustrated because so much of it focuses on the love lives of the key players instead of taking a broader view of the political and cultural events of the time. Margaret George came to the rescue in 2011 with this amazing novel about the later years of Elizabeth’s reign. Yes, there’s some obligatory romantic angst about Robert Dudley and the Earl of Essex, but also a wealth of detail about politics and trade and the social life of the court…bliss!
A History of Reading by Alberto Manguel – Hardly shocking that I liked this one! Manguel traces the practice of reading from its earliest days onwards, covering topics like reading aloud, illustrations, reading as a public vs. private activity, etc., etc. Well-written with a perfect balance between information and humor.
1491 and 1493 by Charles Mann – Yep, I’m cheating and listing two books as one here. I can do what I want, it’s my list! 1491 describes what the ‘New’ World was really like before Columbus arrived, while 1493 describes the legacy of the Colombian Exchange and the trade routes that sprang up between Europe and the Americas. Both are amazing books that taught me a lot and made me realize how little I really knew about that era of history and the impact it had on how our world looks today.
Warm Bodies by Isaac Marion –I’m not normally into zombie books but this one won me over with its sweet love story between ‘R.’, a zombie who wants more than his drab undead existence currently offers him, and Julie, a living girl R. tries to protect from the other zombies after eating her boyfriend’s brain and absorbing some of his memories. First sentence: “I am dead, but it’s not so bad.”
Reality is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World by Jane McGonigal -- McGonigal argues that there’s a reason why video games are so appealing and makes a strong case for the transformative power of finding ways to create real-world ‘games’ that incorporate video games' appealing qualities by giving a wide range of examples of people doing exactly that. Great book that I found myself thinking about quite a bit after having read it!
This Burns My Heart by Samuel Park – The story of a Korean girl who chooses not to marry for love and spends the rest of her life wondering if she made the wrong decision. About as cheerful as that plot description makes it sound, but the writing is beautiful and it contains one of the most romantic proposal scenes I’ve ever read. Memorable and haunting.
Bel Canto by Ann Patchett—This was the Year of Ann Patchett for me in some ways, as I read State of Wonder over the summer and went on to read most of her other books over the course of the rest of the year. Bel Canto is her best known book for a reason…its eloquent description of the shifting relationships between a group of people taken as hostages after a rich businessman’s birthday party is raided by a South American terrorist organization is not to be missed.
Doc by Mary Doria Russell – One of the things I love about this novel is that people are often reluctant to pick it up even after having been told how great it is (“A historical fiction novel about Doc Holliday? Hmmm, okay.”) but almost always end up falling in love with it once they do try it. It’s a Western, but it’s a western with absolutely gorgeous writing, a large cast of vividly drawn characters, and numerous literary references. (Including to The Aeneid!) First sentence: “He began to die when he was twenty-one, but tuberculosis is slow and sly and subtle.”
The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson – This amazing work of non-fiction traces the story of three African-Americans who took part in the Great Migration and sought better opportunities for themselves and their families outside of the South. Wilkerson masterfully balances their individual stories with enough background detail about the historical context to allow you to fully appreciate their courage and perseverance. I learned a lot from this book and know that the stories of Ida, Robert, and George will stay with me for a long time…
Runners Up:
Madame Tussaud by Michelle Moran
Empire of the Summer Moon by S.C. Gwynne
The Invisible Bridge by Julie Orringer
Sovereign by C.J. Sansom
1776 by David McCullough
The Five Worst Books I Read This Year:
The Secret History of Elizabeth Tudor, Vampire Slayer by Lucy Weston (Because it wasn’t even fun. I thought it would at least be fun.)
When She Woke by Hillary Jordan (Because of horrible character names and a heavy-handed plot completely lacking in subtlety.)
The Metropolis Case by Matthew Gallaway (because of all the incest and a really sad scene where the main character has to put his cat to sleep…but mostly the incest.)
The Confession of Katherine Howard by Suzannah Dunn (because she made the Tudors talk like 21st century teenagers and that is Not Okay.)
Cradle and All by James Patterson (Because of everything. Everything!!!)
Saturday, December 31, 2011
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Thoughts on "The Crying Tree" by Naseem Rakha
When I first heard about "The Crying Tree" it sounded like a book written just for me--in fact, the writer part of me felt a bit threatened that someone seemed to have taken a plot I myself had been considering writing about and to have done such a good job with it! The Crying Tree has received excellent reviews from a wide variety of sources, including Sister Helen Prejean herself--it was hard for me to imagine being critical of anything that had received Sister Helen's personal stamp of approval. Unfortunately, I was to find The Crying Tree to be a disappointment in multiple ways.
The plot of The Crying Tree focuses on the mother of a murdered teenage boy as she grapples with her feelings as his accused killer's execution date approaches. Since I've already given away that Sister Helen approves of this book, it will be no surprise that the journey here is one of forgiveness and reconciliation.
The rather unpleasant surprise for me was that the journey does not end with the mother (Irene) forgiving Daniel, the man accused of shooting her teenage son as part of a robbery attempt, and with her ensuing feelings of pain during the rest of the process of execution. No. There are plot twists!
More on the plot twists in a moment, but first it has to be said that even if the book HAD gone the way I expected it to, it was already disappointing from a literary standpoint. Instead of creating sophisticated, complex characters who could offer true insights into the many ambiguities and grey areas that are part of any one person's experience of the capital punishment process, Rakha creates two-dimensional characters who are almost laughable in their simplicity. This is especially true of anyone who does not agree with Irene, and Rakha's attempts to include "opposing viewpoints" come across as merely patronizing, as when Irene meets the mother of a soldier serving in Iraq and the author makes sure to spell Iraq as "Ee-rak" whenever the woman pronounces it. (Though perhaps Rakha is just obsessed with place name pronounications, there's also more discussion of how to pronounce "Oregon" and "Illinois" than seems strictly necessary.)
The plot twists, however, are where the book lost whatever power it might have had for me. Irene is surprised when she begins corresponding with Daniel that he does not seem to be monstrous but quite human in his responses. I approved of this as an anti-death penalty activist, since resisting the dehumanization that is a crucial part of the death penalty process is a major part of our strategy. However, then come the plot twists--Daniel didn't kill Irene's son after all! He was in fact her son's gay lover and was framed by someone who did not approve of the boys' relationship! GASP!
I see what Rakha is trying to do here--appearances can be deceiving, love may actually have been present where you saw only hatred and violence, etc., etc., so don't be so quick to judge people, because forgiveness prepares you to learn the truth. But the twist renders the book completely useless in challenging how people actually think about guilty people on Death Row. Sure, Daniel was not a monster after all...because he was innocent. Irene never seeks to forgive or reconcile with the person who actually murdered her son, she just seems relieved that hey, Daniel was okay after all.
"Hey, try to be more forgiving of people who have committed capital crimes, because they might actually have been framed," is not really a helpful or revolutionary message. Perhaps my readers are saying here, "Well, maybe Rakha was not intending to write a book that would be 'helpful' to your cause," and you may be right. Rakha has said in interviews that her focus was meant to be on forgiveness rather than the death penalty itself--but the message of forgiveness is also undermined by her cowardly plot twists towards the end of the novel. In a way Irene is proven "right" because she discovers that Daniel is innocent. How much richer this novel would be if instead the FINAL conclusion was that forgiveness is right even if the person *is* guilty. Not a weak sort of forgiveness that erases their crime or ignores its consequences, but the kind of forgiveness that sees the crime in all its horror and still says, "I will be strong enough to respond to this horror with love instead of allowing my heart to be consumed by a need for vengeance. I will be strong enough to do that even if it means I stand alone."
Now that's a book I would read. And just maybe, one of these days, it will be the book *I* write.
The plot of The Crying Tree focuses on the mother of a murdered teenage boy as she grapples with her feelings as his accused killer's execution date approaches. Since I've already given away that Sister Helen approves of this book, it will be no surprise that the journey here is one of forgiveness and reconciliation.
The rather unpleasant surprise for me was that the journey does not end with the mother (Irene) forgiving Daniel, the man accused of shooting her teenage son as part of a robbery attempt, and with her ensuing feelings of pain during the rest of the process of execution. No. There are plot twists!
More on the plot twists in a moment, but first it has to be said that even if the book HAD gone the way I expected it to, it was already disappointing from a literary standpoint. Instead of creating sophisticated, complex characters who could offer true insights into the many ambiguities and grey areas that are part of any one person's experience of the capital punishment process, Rakha creates two-dimensional characters who are almost laughable in their simplicity. This is especially true of anyone who does not agree with Irene, and Rakha's attempts to include "opposing viewpoints" come across as merely patronizing, as when Irene meets the mother of a soldier serving in Iraq and the author makes sure to spell Iraq as "Ee-rak" whenever the woman pronounces it. (Though perhaps Rakha is just obsessed with place name pronounications, there's also more discussion of how to pronounce "Oregon" and "Illinois" than seems strictly necessary.)
The plot twists, however, are where the book lost whatever power it might have had for me. Irene is surprised when she begins corresponding with Daniel that he does not seem to be monstrous but quite human in his responses. I approved of this as an anti-death penalty activist, since resisting the dehumanization that is a crucial part of the death penalty process is a major part of our strategy. However, then come the plot twists--Daniel didn't kill Irene's son after all! He was in fact her son's gay lover and was framed by someone who did not approve of the boys' relationship! GASP!
I see what Rakha is trying to do here--appearances can be deceiving, love may actually have been present where you saw only hatred and violence, etc., etc., so don't be so quick to judge people, because forgiveness prepares you to learn the truth. But the twist renders the book completely useless in challenging how people actually think about guilty people on Death Row. Sure, Daniel was not a monster after all...because he was innocent. Irene never seeks to forgive or reconcile with the person who actually murdered her son, she just seems relieved that hey, Daniel was okay after all.
"Hey, try to be more forgiving of people who have committed capital crimes, because they might actually have been framed," is not really a helpful or revolutionary message. Perhaps my readers are saying here, "Well, maybe Rakha was not intending to write a book that would be 'helpful' to your cause," and you may be right. Rakha has said in interviews that her focus was meant to be on forgiveness rather than the death penalty itself--but the message of forgiveness is also undermined by her cowardly plot twists towards the end of the novel. In a way Irene is proven "right" because she discovers that Daniel is innocent. How much richer this novel would be if instead the FINAL conclusion was that forgiveness is right even if the person *is* guilty. Not a weak sort of forgiveness that erases their crime or ignores its consequences, but the kind of forgiveness that sees the crime in all its horror and still says, "I will be strong enough to respond to this horror with love instead of allowing my heart to be consumed by a need for vengeance. I will be strong enough to do that even if it means I stand alone."
Now that's a book I would read. And just maybe, one of these days, it will be the book *I* write.
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Reviving the blog with happier content
I think my mistake when I started this was only blogging on serious stuff, thinking that that was the best way to make sure this was a focused blog...but, it also made blogging a bit of a chore, since I am not always in the mood to record my deep thoughts on dark subjects. So, here is an e.e. cummings Christmas poem to accompany my new resolution to blog on a wider range of subjects!
LITTLE tree
little silent Christmas tree
you are so little
you are more like a flower
who found you in the green forest
and were you very sorry to come away?
see i will comfort you
because you smell so sweetly
i will kiss your cool bark
and hug you safe and tight
just as your mother would,
only don't be afraid
look the spangles
that sleep all the year in a dark box
dreaming of being taken out and allowed to shine,
the balls the chains red and gold the fluffy threads,
put up your little arms
and i'll give them all to you to hold
every finger shall have its ring
and there won't be a single place dark or unhappy
then when you're quite dressed
you'll stand in the window for everyone to see
and how they'll stare!
oh but you'll be very proud
and my little sister and i will take hands
and looking up at our beautiful tree
we'll dance and sing
"Noel Noel"
LITTLE tree
little silent Christmas tree
you are so little
you are more like a flower
who found you in the green forest
and were you very sorry to come away?
see i will comfort you
because you smell so sweetly
i will kiss your cool bark
and hug you safe and tight
just as your mother would,
only don't be afraid
look the spangles
that sleep all the year in a dark box
dreaming of being taken out and allowed to shine,
the balls the chains red and gold the fluffy threads,
put up your little arms
and i'll give them all to you to hold
every finger shall have its ring
and there won't be a single place dark or unhappy
then when you're quite dressed
you'll stand in the window for everyone to see
and how they'll stare!
oh but you'll be very proud
and my little sister and i will take hands
and looking up at our beautiful tree
we'll dance and sing
"Noel Noel"
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
The Death Penalty and Mental Illness
NAMI has just released a report in which family members of murder victims and familes of those with mental illness come together to denounce the use of capital punishment on mentally handicapped offenders:
This reminds me of an anecdote told to me by a prison chaplain about a prisoner who had requested pie for his final meal, but left it uneaten in his cell, because he thought he would be coming back to finish it later. If the person lacks even the understanding to know, after years of preparation, that what is about to happen to them is final, how could they possibly be expected to realize prior to committing a crime that they might be executed for it?
At this point sometimes unfortunate arguments begin to appear about how "putting down" people who lack moral understanding is good for society whether they understand what's happening or not--but it is ridiculous to pretend that we lack the ability to keep these people under adequate medical care to prevent them from committing further crimes, and once you begin justifying killing people just because they are inconvenient, you've started down a slippery slope indeed.
The report is a great read, finally listing among its conclusions that:
The argument for exempting persons with severe mental
illness from the death penalty is that the death penalty –
the harshest of punishments – does not deter, serves no retributive
function for, and is a disproportionate punishment
for individuals who are less culpable for their crime than the
average person.
This reminds me of an anecdote told to me by a prison chaplain about a prisoner who had requested pie for his final meal, but left it uneaten in his cell, because he thought he would be coming back to finish it later. If the person lacks even the understanding to know, after years of preparation, that what is about to happen to them is final, how could they possibly be expected to realize prior to committing a crime that they might be executed for it?
At this point sometimes unfortunate arguments begin to appear about how "putting down" people who lack moral understanding is good for society whether they understand what's happening or not--but it is ridiculous to pretend that we lack the ability to keep these people under adequate medical care to prevent them from committing further crimes, and once you begin justifying killing people just because they are inconvenient, you've started down a slippery slope indeed.
The report is a great read, finally listing among its conclusions that:
Everything possible should be done to reform and improve
the mental health system so that individuals with severe
mental illnesses can receive affordable and appropriate treatment
they need, thus preventing, or at least minimizing to a
far greater degree than we now do, the risk of violence committed
by some individuals who experience acute psychotic
symptoms of mental illness.
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Obama Refusing to Release Abu Ghraib Sexual Abuse Photos
From the Telegraph:
One thing that I have learned in the course of doing my death penalty research is that in American culture, "if there aren't pictures, the violence isn't real." This is why crime scene photographs are fetishized while executions are untelevised, why Bush wanted to keep images of soldiers' coffins returning home off the airwaves, and why Americans often seem more emotionally affected by violent scenes in movies or on TV than they are by what's happening in Rwanda or Darfur. (It's not that no pictures are available, of course, but it requires special effort to find them...effort most will not go to.)
That's why I'm greatly disturbed by Obama's choice to give the public absolutely no access to photographs of Iraqi prisoners being sexually abused by American soldiers. There is obviously some concern that those in the pictures not be further victimized by having these photographs used casually or without respect for the great emotional and physical pain which is captured in each one. Any decision by individuals to publish them would have to be given a lot of careful thought and consideration. Yet to give the public no access at all to the photographs ensures that for many Americans the violence done here in their names will never seem quite "real" to them. And Obama and General Taguba do not justify the decision with any reference to those being abused--instead they say that releasing them would "put our troops in greater danger." This is not a question of respect for the victims but fear of reprisals.
Abu Ghraib is already a story associated with photographs, and we have already seen horrific scenes from the prison splashed across magazine covers and television screens. Why release further photos? Because sexual abuse does cross a further line in both our culture and most world cultures--thanks to our understanding of sexuality as being an essential part of the self, it goes beyond mere abuse of the body or mind and attacks a person's core sense of being. Recognizing the full horror of what occurred in Abu Ghraib is painful but necessary for Americans to understand how fully they, a supposedly Christian nation, have denied the humanity of Iraqis, whom they believed to have been created in God's own image. We cannot hope to atone for our sins until we have seen them in their full horror, and accepted our own culpability.
At least one picture shows an American soldier apparently raping a female prisoner while another is said to show a male translator raping a male detainee.
Further photographs are said to depict sexual assaults on prisoners with objects including a truncheon, wire and a phosphorescent tube...
The graphic nature of some of the images may explain the US President’s attempts to block the release of an estimated 2,000 photographs from prisons in Iraq and Afghanistan despite an earlier promise to allow them to be published.
Maj Gen Taguba, who retired in January 2007, said he supported the President’s decision, adding: “These pictures show torture, abuse, rape and every indecency.
“I am not sure what purpose their release would serve other than a legal one and the consequence would be to imperil our troops, the only protectors of our foreign policy, when we most need them, and British troops who are trying to build security in Afghanistan.
“The mere description of these pictures is horrendous enough, take my word for it.”
One thing that I have learned in the course of doing my death penalty research is that in American culture, "if there aren't pictures, the violence isn't real." This is why crime scene photographs are fetishized while executions are untelevised, why Bush wanted to keep images of soldiers' coffins returning home off the airwaves, and why Americans often seem more emotionally affected by violent scenes in movies or on TV than they are by what's happening in Rwanda or Darfur. (It's not that no pictures are available, of course, but it requires special effort to find them...effort most will not go to.)
That's why I'm greatly disturbed by Obama's choice to give the public absolutely no access to photographs of Iraqi prisoners being sexually abused by American soldiers. There is obviously some concern that those in the pictures not be further victimized by having these photographs used casually or without respect for the great emotional and physical pain which is captured in each one. Any decision by individuals to publish them would have to be given a lot of careful thought and consideration. Yet to give the public no access at all to the photographs ensures that for many Americans the violence done here in their names will never seem quite "real" to them. And Obama and General Taguba do not justify the decision with any reference to those being abused--instead they say that releasing them would "put our troops in greater danger." This is not a question of respect for the victims but fear of reprisals.
Abu Ghraib is already a story associated with photographs, and we have already seen horrific scenes from the prison splashed across magazine covers and television screens. Why release further photos? Because sexual abuse does cross a further line in both our culture and most world cultures--thanks to our understanding of sexuality as being an essential part of the self, it goes beyond mere abuse of the body or mind and attacks a person's core sense of being. Recognizing the full horror of what occurred in Abu Ghraib is painful but necessary for Americans to understand how fully they, a supposedly Christian nation, have denied the humanity of Iraqis, whom they believed to have been created in God's own image. We cannot hope to atone for our sins until we have seen them in their full horror, and accepted our own culpability.
Good(ish) News from Japan
From Death Penalty News:
The jury can play a really key part in death penalty cases exactly because of the attitudes brought to light by the poll--even if you support capital punishment in principle, actually feeling responsible for it being carried out can make people question the workings of the system they're a part of...That's why there are so many ex-prison officials and judges who now oppose the death penalty.
I think this could also draw more attention to the death penalty in Japan, which depends on a veil of secrecy to an even greater extent than it does in the United States--the condemned is only told on the morning of their execution that it's about to happen, and their family and loved ones aren't told until after the person is already dead. It's hard to even begin to imagine the psychological torture inherent in that, not only for the condemned person but also for everyone who cares about him or her...
Japan reintroduced popular juries in penal trials after a break of 66 years. This aligned Japan with the other G8 countries and created an opportunity for debate on capital punishment...
According to a poll by the Yomiuri newspaper, despite more than 80% of the population favouring the death penalty, 79% said they did not want to take part in popular juries ‘so as not to have to decide on giving the death penalty.’
The jury can play a really key part in death penalty cases exactly because of the attitudes brought to light by the poll--even if you support capital punishment in principle, actually feeling responsible for it being carried out can make people question the workings of the system they're a part of...That's why there are so many ex-prison officials and judges who now oppose the death penalty.
I think this could also draw more attention to the death penalty in Japan, which depends on a veil of secrecy to an even greater extent than it does in the United States--the condemned is only told on the morning of their execution that it's about to happen, and their family and loved ones aren't told until after the person is already dead. It's hard to even begin to imagine the psychological torture inherent in that, not only for the condemned person but also for everyone who cares about him or her...
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Sotomeyer and Capital Punishment?
Still trying to figure out what Sotomeyer's stance is on capital punishment, but this is a good overview of her career from SCOTUSBlog...
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