Category Archives: Bookish Talk

Bookish Talk

Moby Dick Monday: January 18, 2010 (Week 10)

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Welcome to Moby Dick Monday! This is where we read four pages a day and then post about what we’ve read. Consider it an adventure of sorts!

My Story Re-Cap:

A lot took place in this week’s reading but it’s hard to summarize. Melville takes it upon himself to educate us a bit. We learn all about a “Gam” which is basically:

A social visit or friendly interchange, especially between whalers or seafarers.

The description of such a visit, confirms to me that whalers are a peculiar sort. Melville talks a bit about how it’s done, how the Captains sort of hang back and allow the crew to mingle a bit, yet that they each stay loyal and firmly rooted to their own ship. The mention of this, leads me to believe that although whalers can be social creatures, they tend to be a cautious group when it comes to strangers. Probably a good thing.

The next chapter (54) happens to be the longest chapter I’ve read so far. It was the longest, and the most tedious to read. Chapter 54 discusses in great length the Town Ho’ story. The Town Ho was a homeward-bound Nantucket whale ship. Radney, the mate, ordered a fellow by the name of Steelkilt to swab the deck. This proved to be a great insult to Steelkilt as a pig had run loose and he felt it beneath him to be ordered to do such a menial task. Steelkilt, feeling bold, refused to do it and Radney hauled off and hit him with a hammer! A fight ensued.

Steelkilt rallies some of the other men and takes over the deck. Refusing the Captain’s orders to get to work he expects a flogging, so he and the other men lock themselves down below. His plans change when a couple of the men tie him up and turn him over to the Captain. He gets his flogging from Radney, of all people so he decides to murder Radney. This is a secret that he keeps to himself, but in the end he is distracted by the appearance of Moby Dick himself and in a moment of fierceness, Moby Dick grabs Radney and takes him to his death.

The last chapter (55) discusses the monstrous depictions of whales. Although interesting, it would have been much more so had the chapter included photos.

My Rambling Thoughts:

The story of the Town-Ho was very entertaining, but so, so long! I had a really hard time getting through it. It required all of my attention and with the kids running about, I found it impossible to concentrate so I resorted to an audio re-telling, to get it firmly planted in my brain. I find with this book, that you use all manners of tools to get you through it. Be it audio, or visual.

For the others reading along with me, do you have a hard time following along with the story? Have you had to resort to other formats to help you through the reading?

Reading Along With Me:

Jill of RhapsodyinBooks
Dar of Peeking Between the Pages
Eva of A Striped Armchair
Wisteria from Bookworm’s Dinner
Gavin from Page247
Claire from kiss a cloud
Sandra from Fresh Ink Books

For those that are participating, share your post links in comments. What do you think so far? Oh, and if anyone wants to join us just leave me a message below.

Bookish Talk

Friday Finds: Impatient with Desire

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Impatient with Desire by Gabrielle Burton
(March 2010)

Friday Finds is hosted by Should Be Reading.

Here’s the blurb from the publisher:

In the spring of 1846, Tamsen Donner, her husband, George, their five daughters, and eighty other pioneers headed to California on the California-Oregon Trail in eager anticipation of new lives out West. Everything that could go wrong did, and an American legend was born.

The Donner Party. We think we know their story—pioneers trapped in the mountains performing an unspeakable act to survive—but we know only that one harrowing part of it. Impatient with Desire brings us answers to the unanswerable question: What really happened in the four months the Donners were trapped in the mountains? And it brings to stunning life a woman—and a love story—behind the myth.

Tamsen Eustis Donner, born in 1801, taught school, wrote poetry, painted, botanized, and was fluent in French. At twenty-three, she sailed alone from Massachusetts to North Carolina when respectable women didn’t travel alone. Years after losing her first husband, Tully, she married again for love, this time to George Donner, a prosperous farmer, and in 1846, they set out for California with their five youngest children. Unlike many women who embarked reluctantly on the Oregon Trail, Tamsen was eager to go. Later, trapped in the mountains by early snows, she had plenty of time to contemplate the wisdom of her decision and the cost of her wanderlust.

Historians have long known that Tamsen kept a journal, though it was never found. In Impatient with Desire, Burton draws on years of historical research to vividly imagine this lost journal—and paints a picture of a remarkable heroine in an extraordinary situation. Tamsen’s unforgettable journey takes us from the cornfields of Illinois to the dusty Oregon Trail to the freezing Sierra Nevada Mountains, where she was forced to confront an impossible choice.

Impatient with Desire is a passionate, heart-wrenching story of courage, hope, and love in hardship, all told at a breathless pace. Intimate in tone and epic in scope, Impatient with Desire is absolutely hypnotic.

I am so excited about this one!! I received it from Library Thing which is thrilling because I was offered a book by them months ago, it never came, and even though I told them this, and they promised not to blacklist me, I think they did. This means that I am no longer questionable. I think.

Anyway, doesn’t this look good? And you can’t really see it here but this cover is soooo lovely. That leaf pattern is sort of like a watermark. So subtle, yet so beautiful.