Park Lane

Park Lane by Frances Osborne
2/5 stars
Vintage Books, 2012
320 pages
Historical Fiction

Source: Received an e-ARC from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

I was very excited about this book since the publisher blurb compared it to Downton Abbey, a beloved TV series for me. However that excitement was dampened when I glanced at the goodreads reviews beforehand and saw that they were decidedly negative.

First this book was very difficult to get into. It begins in 1914 and goes to 1923 for an epilogue, alternating between Grace, a maid, and Bea, the young lady of the house. Grace is just settling in to her new position and the writing style, instead of smooth and inviting, was ragged and rough. There were a lot of passages where I was kind of confused about what was happening or what the relationship between the characters was. I don't want everything to be spelled out for me but I would have appreciated more smoothness and clarity.

Second it presumes a certain level of familiarity with British history with the battle for women's suffrage playing a huge role in the early chapters. One of the main characters Bea has a mother and an aunt (her father's sister) on opposing sides of the battle. But not because one opposes giving women the vote. In fact, both are in favor but the aunt prefers more radical actions while the mother is more conservative, trying to patiently push it through her Parliament connections. This was *so* confusingly presented and not explained until the Historical Note at the end.

And third this book was overall very depressing. Grace is in service as her dreams of being a secretary were dashed and lowered her earning potential. Then Bea was jilted by her love and seems on the brink of spinsterhood. Add in more ruined relationships and the tragedy of WWI and this is just not a happy book. I can handle sad books of course but I guess I was hoping for more of the happiness that balances out Downton Abbey. It is not present here and quite frankly I only finished this book through pure doggedness.

Cover: I find the cover misleading-if the insides were as cool as the cover, this book would have been more my taste.

Half the Sky

Half the Sky by Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn

Vintage Books, 2009

254 pages

Non-fiction; Feminism
5/5 stars

Source: Bought (with my first paycheck from my summer job!) because I'd heard good things about it

Summary: Short chapters talk about some of the oppression currently experienced by women such as sex trafficking and maternal mortality and are interspersed with chapters sharing how it's being fought.

Thoughts: My readings of Larsson's books are actually connected as they featured sexual abuse of women and sex traffickers. That was purely accidental on my part but I like that they connect.  Saying that, this was a tough reading week because of the horrible stories shared.

Nearly every page has an example of women being abused and undervalued, which would be almost unbearable if it had not been accompanied by some of the most uplifting stories.  These stories share failures and how they learned from those failures.  Any effort by Westerners to sweep in and radically remake the culture usually failed but talking and listening helped.  Most successful was giving funds directly to determined individuals to help them help themselves.

Something Kristof and WuDunn highlighted was encouraging Western (especially American) students to travel abroad as a volunteer in order to remind them of their own privileges and make them in to activists who can change the world.  I think this is an exciting time for that (rather my) generation.  We have a big problem to confront and if we put our considerable abilities and advantages to it, we could make a big change.

This book made me angry because so-called women's issues are consistently shunted aside as not mattering although it's pretty obvious that getting women involved leads to a stronger economy  and a more successful country; it saves lives and improves the quality of life.  It also inspired me to get involved. 

I want to leave you with the links to some of the websites highlighted in this book and encourage you to check them out.  I've spent some time on them and I'm currently evaluating my finances to see where I can be most helpful (they're all linked so just click through):

Global Giving
Kiva (Possibly familiar to long-time users of hulu)
Givology
Women's eNews
World Pulse
CARE

and not mentioned in the book but my friend shared a petition against sex trafficking which I invite you to sign. Its focus seems to be US but other countries are represented.  I signed it and I've been sharing it with others.

Cover/Title: I love the title, coming from the Chinese proverb "Women hold up half the sky" and I like the mix of faces on the cover although my paperback only has one row with different faces.