Reading 1001 discussion

November is National Native American Heritage Month, which celebrates the history and contributions of Native Americans. We will call this Indigenous People month. The Native Americans/Indigenou people groups are poorly represented in 1001 books. Our selections this month are:

1. Love Medicine by Louise Erdrich, Her father is German American and mother is half Ojibwe and half French American. She is an enrolled member of the Anishinaabe nation (also known as Chippewa). She is widely acclaimed as one of the most significant Native writers of the second wave of what critic Kenneth Lincoln has called the Native American Renaissance. She is from Minnesota.

2. The Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper brave woodsman Hawkeye (Natty Bumppo) and his loyal Mohican friends Chingachgook and Uncas become embroiled in the bloody battles of the French and Indian War.

3. Grimus by Salman Rushdie. After drinking an elixir that bestows immortality upon him, a young Indian named Flapping Eagle spends the next seven hundred years sailing the seas

4. The Conquest of New Spain by Bernal Díaz del Castillo author Bernal Diaz del Castillo was a Spanish soldier who served under Hernando Cortes, conqueror of the Aztec empire based then in Mexico. The events narrated here happened between 1519 to 1521 when the author was in his mid-20s.

5. Smilla's Sense of Snow by Peter Høeg. transplanted Greenlander, Smilla Jaspersen, who investigates the mysterious death of a small Inuit boy who lived in her housing complex in Copenhagen. Suspecting wrongdoing, Smilla uncovers a trail of clues leading towards a secretive corporation that has made several mysterious expeditions to Greenland.

6. Remembering Babylon, Cloud Atlas, The Colour feature Maori and Aborigines of Australia and New Zealand. Fill free to read one of these if you would like.

Here's the book, I will start a discussion thread soon.

So, we can read any of these 5 for November?

Gail wrote: "So, we can read any of these 5 for November?"

Yes, same rules as usual.

I’m going to try for Last of the Mohicans.

I might also although I would like to read something more contemporary also. However, none of them are short. Maybe Smilia's Sense of Snow or Love Medicine. I will check and see library availability

Gail wrote: "I might also although I would like to read something more contemporary also. However, none of them are short. Maybe Smilia's Sense of Snow or Love Medicine. I will check and see library availability"I’ve read both and liked them. Love Medicine is good and she is a great author if you haven’t read her yet. I think that might be the faster read of the two.

Louise Erdrich is wonderful! I liked Smilia, too, though.

Love Medicine is available at my library so I will try to get that one.

Okay, will aim for Love Medicine also

Based on library availability it would be Smilla for me. Loved The Last of the Mohicans - but that was ages ago...

I will read Love Medicine on Kindle.

I don't know if I will get to read one of these in November. I loved Smilla's Sense of Snow and hated Grimus.

I felt the same, Diane - loved Smilla hated Grimus.

I really want to read Love Medicine, but I am stuck in the library queue, which might mean 3 weeks and then it's Thanksgiving and I may not be here to pick it up. I also requested Smilla's Sense of Snow and The Conquest of New Spain (which I cannot believe I didn't read in college!! I am sure I read excerpts). I'll read what I get when it sounds good when I get to it LOL.

I will definitely read The Last of the Mohicans and maybe The Conquest of New Spain/

I read Smilla years ago when it was new, and Grimus when it was a BotM (?) a few years back, and didn't like either. I'm going to try to reread Smilla and see if I like it better this time.

I actually rather enjoyed The Last if the Mohicans (and The Deerslayer), but it has been a long time! I liked them much more than I expected to.

Dree wrote: "I actually rather enjoyed The Last if the Mohicans (and The Deerslayer), but it has been a long time! I liked them much more than I expected to."
Me, too. I reread them a year or two ago and enjoyed them still.

I read Smila when it came out and I recall liking it. And I read Love Medicine years ago and thought it was just okay. I can get Grimus and TLotM as library ebooks and I put the audio for the latter on hold, which is likely my best hope of making it through one.

Though - it turns out that my reading slump may be innpart because I had shingles! I got it into my head that the illness that took me down and the (I thought) weird bug bites that truened into a long lasting rash were unrelated - turns out, nope, they were both just shingles. I only have the mildest of rashes left and I am mostly feeling better and my reading has been ramping up. So! Maybe this is the month I get back on track with some more serious books.

Chinook wrote: "I read Smila when it came out and I recall liking it. And I read Love Medicine years ago and thought it was just okay. I can get Grimus and TLotM as library ebooks and I put the audio for the latte..."

Commiserations, I understand that it is a very painful condition..

Chinook wrote: "I read Smila when it came out and I recall liking it. And I read Love Medicine years ago and thought it was just okay. I can get Grimus and TLotM as library ebooks and I put the audio for the latte..."

Shingles are very painful. Best wishes for a continued recovery in both health and reading.

Chinook wrote: "I read Smila when it came out and I recall liking it. And I read Love Medicine years ago and thought it was just okay. I can get Grimus and TLotM as library ebooks and I put the audio for the latte..."

Oh Chinook so sorry to hear. I hope you are feeling better. I am glad I just got vaccinated against the Shingles.

In retrospect, it was quite painful and I don’t know why I wasn’t more driven to go see a doctor. I worried initially that I’d had spider bites or something else that might be serious and drew circles around them to make sure they weren’t spreading. But once they weren’t and just became a lingering rash, I just stopped being concerned and waited. It wasn’t until I casually said something to a nurse friend and sent her pictures of the three stages of the rash that she identified it as shingles and sure enough, I had all those flu-like symptoms at the very beginning too.

It sounds like a recurrence is possible but not that likely, so I’ll ask if I can have the vaccine younger than usual but I guess otherwise I will just be glad that it wasn’t too terrible!

Chinook wrote: "In retrospect, it was quite painful and I don’t know why I wasn’t more driven to go see a doctor. I worried initially that I’d had spider bites or something else that might be serious and drew circ..."

My understanding is once you have had shingles you always are carrying the virus and you can have reoccurrences. The reoccurrence can just be pain along the nerve or small outbreak, etc. I wonder if you can even get the vaccine if you’ve had shingles. I am not sure about that. Stress is a factor. Have you been under a lot of stress?

We are moving, so I suppose I’ve been more stressed than normal.

Yeah, everyone who has chicken pox has the potential to get shingles, since it’s the reactivated chicken pox virus. It seems that having a recurrence is no more likely than getting shingles in the first place and you can get the vaccine after, which lowers your chances a bit and can decrease the length and severity. So, I’ll try and get it but I’m not in a huge rush, I guess.

It sounds like if you get it younger, you are more likely to have a less serious case than getting it in old age.

It’s nice to know that my children won’t ever get this since they’ve been vaccinated against chicken pox. Because it does seem that you’re more likely to develop shingles if family members also did and my grandmother did.

Chinook wrote: "It’s nice to know that my children won’t ever get this since they’ve been vaccinated against chicken pox. Because it does seem that you’re more likely to develop shingles if family members also did..."
I got the first shot but the clinic has been unable to get the second shot so I am on a waiting list. I had chicken pox as a child.

Also, if you have shingles you shed chicken pox virus. So your kids may end up with chicken pox!

I am the adult weirdo who had the chicken pox vaccine at 32, because I never had it as a kid. Not by a lack of effort on my mom’s part, I was exposed many times.

Oh, they’ve both been vaccinated, thankfully. All my overseas travel has given me a strong appreciation for vaccines and the miracles of health they are. I’ve never met a vaccine I didn’t like (though I got the pre-rabies series once and it is the most painful I’ve had yet and I got the middle shot and then went for a run - big mistake!)

Togo was particularly eye-opening. Every single person I met there spoke of having just had malaria themselves or a close relative who presently had it. I had extra malaria pills and donated them to one person to help with treatment, hopefully. But it was incredibly sad and one of those moments where a lot of things sort of click into understanding. I have since found myself incredibly angry that a malaria vaccine doesn’t get more research money and attention because in countries where its endemic it is such a drain on resources and productivity and health. So frustrating that it’s ignored because it’s largely a disease of poor countries.

I taught with a guy who caught chicken pox from our students. It’s a really horrible disease when an adult catches it. He was completely wiped out by it for a good two weeks. Not staying at home in case he was contagious, just completely ill and non-functional.

They must give the vaccine younger now than they did when my kids were little—I would guess your younger had had maybe 1 dose. Mine were 2 or 3 when they got dose 1.

They got it at a year and then I think there’s a booster around 5 or so.

Chinook wrote: "They got it at a year and then I think there’s a booster around 5 or so."

I think my 19-year-old got the booster "late", because they added it. I forget about kid 2, because that's what happens lol.

I’m coming back to a comment made elsewhere about our diversity challenge having a rather American perspective, as this month is a good example to illustrate the point. Maori, Ainu, Sami, Aborigines, Roma are just a few examples of ethic minorities that have a similar place in their respective societies than Native Americans.

Sushicat wrote: "I’m coming back to a comment made elsewhere about our diversity challenge having a rather American perspective, as this month is a good example to illustrate the point. Maori, Ainu, Sami, Aborigine..."
Agree, but is there books to represent these? I did a search in hopes of finding but did not though I know that The Colour might. It is the reason that Smilla was added (Intuit, Greenland). I think you made this comment over on LT about the diversity challenge.

Jen, I believe is using an international calendar for diversity months. Perhaps this calendar. https://www.diversitybestpractices.co.... We moderators have been making every effort to make this “diversity” what it is. We happen to be using a limited library of books (1001 Books) and therefore it may be a bit harsh to make this comment in another site that isn’t limited by a certain list of books.

Sorry if this came across as criticism. That is not what I intended. I just thought this a good example to illustrate the point. I remember you being taken aback by the statement at the time.

Sushicat wrote: "Sorry if this came across as criticism. That is not what I intended. I just thought this a good example to illustrate the point. I remember you being taken aback by the statement at the time."

I live in the US and perhaps that does affect what is available on the internet to me, if people have a better tool to use for Diversity options other than what is available to me, that would be helpful though the year is nearly over and it is too late. I know that Jen tried very hard to make the Diversity challenge global. So when it is called US centric, it does seem like a criticism and it was a criticism. As you can see, the suggestion of a diversity CAT was never followed up on and was not a voting option. If Switzerland has a better option for addressing diversity or maybe diversity isn't even an issue in places like Switzerland or Germany. I don't know. Maybe it is only an issue in the US.

I would not call it taken aback, I was floored. I had no clue that people were feeling that way. Since then, and with this months perspective, I went out of my way to make it more global. I changed it from North American to Indigenous. I used LT to do a tag mash of 1001 and Indigenous and I gave all examples that were found with the tag mash. Still there is the criticism (or observation) that this month is US centric. And I tried so very hard to make it not so. So I guess it does make me unhappy.

Diversity is a challenge for everybody. Naturally, coming from a small country, with a strong emphasis on minority representation, I have a different perspective. Still I fall into the trap of thinking that some concepts or values are universally accepted, only to find it is not true. Which is why I really love books that challenge my blind spots.

Reading your intro to this month’s theme again, I see the term indigenous people. The choices proposed turned it to a Native American focus. I don’t know if there are books on the list that include other such people or not. I feel the list is not strong on diversity. But maybe the people in the group might have unearthed some.

The themes you proposed during the year were entirely open to diversity. But more often than not I was disappointed by the book selections, which I thought fell short of the potential. I guess I like to test boundaries and explore a different take on a theme...

Sushicat wrote: "Diversity is a challenge for everybody. Naturally, coming from a small country, with a strong emphasis on minority representation, I have a different perspective. Still I fall into the trap of thin..."

Yes, I agree that book selections may not have been good representations. I will have to look back to see which ones I chose of those that the 3 admins did. I don’t remember exactly what I chose. I really did try to find more global choices this month but I think that this group is not very well represented in the books on the list. Black groups/African groups were not included but I agree that it would have been nice to have some Maori groups. Aborigines, etc. Let me try another tag mash and see if there are any.

According to tag mash, Maori and 1001; Cloud Atlas and The Colour could have been included.
Using Aborigine and 1001 brings up Remembering Babylon and Voss, On the Black Hill, I’ve read Remembering Babylon and On the Black Hill and don’t specifically recall aborigines. I have not read Voss.
I guess I am guilty of not trying hard enough. I did do this at the very last minute as I wanted to give people a chance to find books. My apologies to those you are offended with the lack of choices that aren’t UScentric.

Spanish author writing about South America and Danish author writing about Greenland are not part of the United States or about North America.

If anyone wants to read one of these other books instead of the ones I hastily chose. Please feel free to do so.

When it comes to diversity, the 1001 list is generally pretty disappointing. I certainly wouldn’t think I was reading diversely if I stuck to the list.

On thing I’ve liked about the monthly reading lists, though since the end of the summer I’ve struggled to read anything from the list, was that they inspired me to read some of the more obscure (for me? in general?) books on the list. Before joining this group, I’d largely been focusing on the better known books on the list and especially the more recent ones. This group generally and the diversity picks in particular have pushed me into some more challenging choices - overall for the better of my reading, I think.

Interestingly, I was just contemplating that though the 1001 list isn’t all that diverse, the new 1000 list that just came out seems even less so. What diversity it has is still generally in a European-American range and he seldom looks outside that.

Kristel wrote: "Using Aborigine and 1001 brings up Remembering Babylon and Voss, On the Black Hill, I’ve read Remembering Babylon and On the Black Hill and don’t specifically recall aborigines. I have not read Voss..."

Voss is the name of the main character -- a white German man that led a group of white male explorers into the outback. Aboriginals are only minor, somewhat stereotyped, characters.

Remembering Babylon’s main character is a white boy raised by aboriginal people in Australia and its theme is about living on the edge. I think it would be a good one for this month if people have not already chosen their read and want to take Kristel’s offer to read wider than the original books listed.

Gail wrote: "Remembering Babylon’s main character is a white boy raised by aboriginal people in Australia and its theme is about living on the edge. I think it would be a good one for this month if people have ..."
Thanks Gail, I’ve read it and that reminds me a bit about it. It was very good and if I remember, it wasn’t overly long.

Chinook wrote: "When it comes to diversity, the 1001 list is generally pretty disappointing. I certainly wouldn’t think I was reading diversely if I stuck to the list.

On thing I’ve liked about the monthly readi..."

I checked out the 1000 book, too. I agree- it was even more SWCM (straight white Christian male) than the 1001. I was really disappointed.

Remembering Babylon sounds very promising - I’ve ordered it. Thanks, Kristel, for adding to the choices.

I really enjoyed this discussion. Please don't feel like you are being criticized Kristel. This group is awesome and it is certain that all three of you put a TON of work into moderating. You are all very creative. Truthfully it is very difficult for a US born person to remember and know how to think that far outside the box. All people see the world colored a certain way based on what they know. Being open to expanding your view -- the way you just did -- is the best anyone can do. Thanks for trying so hard!