Brigid of Kildare

Another one bites the dust.

9) A book recommended by another person or organization (like your library!) - in my case a Goodreads list

Brigid of Kildare by Heather Terrell

This book started out being a bit confusing. Normally I really enjoy books that are told from multiple points of view, but it took me a couple chapters to finally grasp that the stories were being told at different paces, starting at different points in time, especially that of the Roman monk Decius and Gaelic Brigid. The Decius POV chapters take place over the span of roughly a year and a half, from 470 A.D. to 471 A.D. The "Brigid: A Life" POV chapters start 456 A.D. and go to 472 A.D. And the Alexandra Patterson POV chapters take place over the course of roughly 1-2 weeks in the "present day."

The basic frame of the story is that appraiser, Alexandra "Alex" Patterson is asked to come to Kildare to appraise several artifacts thought to date back to the time of Brigid of Kildare and the nun who is the current "keeper" of these artifacts wants to sell them so they can use the money to spread the word about the "true" Brigid and the "true" Mary, Mother of God. In so doing, she discovers a hidden book, that she thinks might predate the Book of Kells and would therefore contain the earliest known iconography of the Virgin Mary with the baby Jesus that doesn't involve a general nativity scene. She also discovers two books in the abbey archives that date to the same time period, one a book of letters, and one a history of the abbey and Brigid.

The Decius POV chapters are all in the form of letters to his brother and you can surmise, that these letters those found in one of the two books that Alex finds in the archives. It starts with Decius being sent from his post as a papal scribe in Rome to Gael (Ireland) in order to ascertain just how much heresy is being carried out at the Abbey of Kildare under the female abbess/bishop Brigid. This is the time when the Italian portion of the Roman Empire is in serious decline and all but ruled by barbarian tribes and the Church is trying to figure out how to survive without the might of the Roman army.

The Brigid POV chapters start out with her life pre-abbey as she is being trained as a warrior, scholar, and general future co-ruler of a kingdom, as she is the daughter of a king. In that time period, the women of Ireland were incredibly strong, allowed to become judges, priestesses, etc., which is at odds with the views of the Catholic church at the time of women as vessels and chattel. Brigid's mother, the queen Broicsech is instructing her and her foster brother in the gospels (both approved and those decried as heresy by the church). This is also the time of Bishop Patrick, who comes to visit and eventually passes his title of bishop of Ireland to Brigid after she has taken her vows, started converting the Irish, and founded her abbey.

Although confusing at first, I really enjoyed the character development off all three of the main characters and was endlessly fascinated by the Gaelic culture of the time. I've always thought it was ingenious that the Catholic church would subvert local traditions to bring people into the fold (you can see this in the book with the celebration of Imbolc and other pagan holidays that Brigid turns into Christian celebrations), but from this book I learned that that wasn't the original intent of the Church and such practices were considered heresy by Rome.

St. Brigid of Ireland attributed to St.Joseph Catholic
Church in Macon, Georgia (Wikipedia Commons)

It also reminded me of the fact that there are other gospels out there, not just the "official" four that you find in the Bible. The book continues to discuss the Gospel of Mary the Mother, which would be a fascinating read if it actually exists and would certainly update the view of women held by the Catholic Church for a modern audience. The book made me do some additional research, as it is historical fiction and not a biography, and I found out that Brigid really did exist, she's one of three patron saints of Ireland (only one, Patrick, that I've even heard about and I spent a semester in Ireland and saw the Book of Kells in Dublin).

Overall, I would highly recommend this to anyone who is interested in knowing more about Ireland during the transition to Christianity, Rome during its fall, and modern day art appraisal. If you're not interested in any of that, it's still a fun historical fiction book that is definitely worth a read.

Kira-Kira

I finished another book on the list.


9) A book that can be enjoyed by readers of all ages, children to adults


Kira-Kira by Cynthia Kadohata


The book is told from the point of view of Katie, a little Japanese-American girl born in 1951. The story spans from when she is about five years old to when she is about twelve. It details her daily life with her older sister, Lynn and younger brother, Sam, including a move from Iowa to Georgia and the struggle her family goes through when her sister gets lymphoma.


It was really interesting to read about post-World War II Japanese-Americans living in the deep South where Jim Crow was still in effect and no one, including Katie, was sure where Japanese-Americans fell in terms of "colored" or not. You also see the conditions in a hatchery and chicken processing plant and the drive to unionize to better working conditions for the workers (workers had to wear pads because they were not allowed to go to the bathroom outside of scheduled breaks, had to stand 12+ hours a day plus repetitive motion, and only had one 30 minute lunch break). It also struck me that some of the things the parents do to be able to continue working when they have no one to watch their kids would get them jailed or their kids taken away in this day and age. From letting their 11-year-old daughter, Lynn, watch their 5-year-old daughter, Katie, all day, to leaving Katie and her brother in a car all day while the mother is working in the chicken processing plant, these are just not things that parents can get away with anymore.


I think a kid would like this, since the protagonist is a spunky little girl who adores her siblings and has various adventures. As an adult, I enjoyed the book because it gave me insights into a time period and a culture I know little about and had some interesting insights about living life that are worth being reminded about. It is also a Newbery Medal winner and extremely well written.

I Am Nujood

So I finished my very first book.


8) A memoir, biography, or autobiography of someone who is still alive:

I am Nujood, Age 10 and Divorced - Nujood Ali

This story is told from the point of view of Nujood, but the book was actually written by Delphine Minoui and the story was told through a translator. While the subject matter is interesting, a child bride in Yemen who has the courage to seek a divorce from her abusive older husband, and although Ms. Minoui clearly did her best to keep the perspective as childlike as possible, the book does not read like a child could have written it and that makes it a little disorienting.


On the whole I did learn some things about Yemeni culture. The juxtaposition of rural versus urban culture was very interesting and also horrifying from a Western perspective. The feminist in me was definitely horrified at the idea that women have almost no rights in Yemeni culture, everything has to go through a male relative. Fathers negotiate marriage contracts and the daughters have no say in the matter. Women are forced to marry their rapists to avoid dishonor to the family and adultery is punishable by death (for both parties at least).


The book on the whole is also depressing in the fact that although Yemen finally passed a law in 2009 making the minimum marriage age 17, it was overturned because it was contrary to Islamic law (the Prophet Mohammed apparently married a 9-year-old, which is often cited in the book as the path to a happy life). In 2014 a proposal for a new constitution was made, making the minimum marriage age 18 for both genders, but I can find no evidence that this constitution has been put into place or this provision enforced.


On the whole, I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to read more about what child brides go through, wants to learn about Yemeni culture, or otherwise wants to be severely depressed at the modern world. Unless you are willing to read it with your child and explain sex, rape, and various other "advanced" topics to your child, I would not recommend it as a book for children.

I'm Participating

To step away from my usual routine of posting about my quilting exploits (or recent lack thereof), we bring you:

For more information or to participate yourself in this Montgomery County Public Libraries initiative, you can go here: http://montgomerycountypubliclibraries.blogspot.com/2016/01/2016-mcpl-reading-challenge.html

For a quick side-note: According to Goodreads (which I've been trying to keep updated over the past year) I read 51 books in 2015 (of which about 7 were books I read to my son, though I've read way more than that to him over the course of the last 10 months, and 2 of which were compilations of 3 or 4 books, so it kind of evens out). For my full list, you can go here:
https://www.goodreads.com/user/year_in_books/2015/16018309

So because I read that many books in 2015, I didn't think reading 12 books over 12 months, even if there are very specific categories associated with these 12 books (plus one bonus if you happen to dislike one of the categories or just can't find anything), I wanted to challenge myself a little further.

So my goal is to read only books by female authors with some sort of female focus (heroine, protagonist). 

I've made a tentative list of possibilities for each category here and my goal is to do a minor review of each book once I finish it:

1) A book by a local author or set in the DC/MD/VA area (if you're from somewhere else, just insert your own state here - I chose to limit myself to books set in MD, since that's where I live): 

• Kindred - Octavia Butler (this kept popping up as an option for many of the categories)
• Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant - Anne Tyler
• Divine Fall - Kathryn Knight
• Blindsided - Priscilla Cummings (not 100% sure this is set in MD, so it's at the bottom of the list)

 2) A book from a genre you don't typically read (any one of the non-fiction or memoirs books could go here as well for me):

• Lee Miller: A Woman's War - Hilary Roberts (WWII, non-fiction, photography)
• Stoned: Jewelry, Obsession, and How Desire Shapes the World - Aja Raden (non-fiction)

3) An Audiobook (any format):

• Any one of the other books, or really any book that strikes my fancy, or I'll sub this out for the bonus book, since I'm only really a fan of audiobooks on car trips

4) A graphic novel or comic book:

• Persepolis - Marjane Satrapi (this has been on my to-read list for some time, it's a memoir by a woman in graphic novel format)

5) A book by an author whose race, religion, or ethnicity is different from your own:

• Infidel - Ayaan Hirsi Ali (African, Muslim, Somali)
• Desert Flower: The Extraordinary Journey of a Desert Nomad- Waris Dirie (African, Somali)
• Lakota Woman - Mary Crow Dog (Native American, I may have already read this one or have picked it up multiple times meaning to)
• Wench - Dolen Perkins-Valdez (African American, the only non-memoir on the list, about pre-Civil War slavery)

6) A book published this year (this seems too easy since most of my favorite fantasy authors have books with strong female characters):

• Night Study - Maria V. Snyder (coming out Jan 26, 2016)

7) A non-fiction book: 

• 4000 Years of Uppity Women - Vicki Leon (part of why I wanted to focus on female authors and female subjects was because I want to learn more about women who made contributions to history, so this is at the top of my list)
• Women in the Field: America's Pioneering Women Naturalists- Marcia Bonta (female scientists, reading through the summary I don't recognize any of these women except Rachel Carson)
• The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks - Rebecca Skloot (cells taken from this woman without her consent are still bought and sold today and have contributed to many medical advances)

8) A memoir, biography, or autobiography of someone who is still alive:

• I am Nujood, Age 10 and Divorced - Nujood Ali (child brides are a topic I feel passionate about - in an "why is this still happening" sort of way, but have never actually read anything about them)
• I am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban - Malala Yousafzai (the title really says it all, she also recently won the Nobel Peace Prize)

9) A book that can be enjoyed by readers of all ages, children to adults:

• Kira-Kira - Cynthia Kadohata (Newbery Medal winner)
• Walk Two Moons - Sharon Creech (Newbery Medal winner, this has been on my to-read list for a very long time as well)

10)  A book that has been made into a movie (many options here, but I've already read Hunger Games and Vampire Academy):

• Eat, Pray, Love - Elizabeth Gilbert (haven't seen the movie yet)
• Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail - Cheryl Strayed (haven't seen the movie yet)
• Girl, Interrupted - Susanna Kaysen (saw the movie a while ago, mental illness scares me way more than physical disabilities so it might be good to get some additional insight this way)

11) A book recommended by another person or organization (like your library!) (I cheated a little here and just used Goodreads as the organization and chose some books from the Awesome Women of the Ancient World list that looked interesting):

• Brigid of Kildare - Heather Terrell (historical fiction set in Ireland about a female priest and bishop)
• The Secret History: A Novel of Empress Theodora - Stephanie Thornton (I know quite a bit about Rome, but almost nothing about Byzantium - i.e. Eastern Rome)

12) An award winner (it was actually surprisingly hard to find something that matched my criteria of female subject, female author, and adult book):

• Dreamsnake - Vonda McIntyre (SciFi, Hugo Award, Nebula Award, Locus Award, )
• The Snow Queen - Joan Vinge (SciFi, Hugo Award, Locus Award)

Bonus: A book that takes place in the future:

• The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood (dystopian, I was supposed to read this in high school but never actually read it - one of two assigned books I skipped, the other was The Old Man and the Sea and I have absolutely no desire to revisit that one)