Good and Cheap (Books)! Day 24

Little Liz swinging at the pinata.
Duck and cover!

So this evening I received a text from Gianna saying that she's lame and punking out on her blog post for the day. I was fulfilling my obligatory, "must be social once a quarter," group human interaction, this time in the form of a birthday dinner for a six year-old. Luckily most of the people in attendance already knew me and had low expectations, and I confess a slightly more tolerant attitude toward the kid...even if her parents didn't name her "Little Liz" as I suggested. I ask for so very little from my friends. I don't understand their resistance to brilliance in children's names. Anyway, my pick today is inspired by my frame of mind around the time that the Twinkle Toes shoes appeared.

Escape by Carolyn Jessop is one of those memoirs that you'll never forget. Jessop grew up within the FLDS, the extreme sect offshoot of the Mormon Church in which polygamy is sanctioned. Children growing up in this environment never know anything different than the restrictive communities governed by the church; they are taught to fear the rest of the world. When Carolyn turned eighteen, she married Merril Jessop, a man thirty-two years her senior and already wed to three women. They all lived in a large compound/house, and husbands in this world have absolute power. Merril Jessop was a close associate of the church's president, Warren Jeffs, who was later sent to prison for child sex abuse when he married teenage girls. In his own home, Merril was an emotional abuser who controlled Carolyn's every move, and in the course of her marriage they had eight children.

Carolyn is in the top left. Those are
her sister-wives and husband.

By 2003, Carolyn knew she wanted out. Leaving the FLDS was extremely difficult, though, and no woman had managed to leave the FLDS and keep her children with her. Carolyn refused to leave her kids behind. Escape is gripping reading. Carolyn is tough, resilient, desperate, and she comes across as genuine. The FLDS is creepy, terrifying, and dangerous. Carolyn Jessop's story electrifying, and all the more frightening because it isn't fiction.

(For another great book about the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, check out Jon Krakauer's Under the Banner of Heaven. Great read.)

30 More Days Book Challenge: Day 28

We are so close to the end.  What are we going to do with our time after the extra-special extended book challenge is over?  Gianna probably will go back to, uh, working the streets.  I will spend an unseemly amount of time pondering Zorro's thoughts and whims.  Any suggestions for our little blog?  I mean, other than more pictures of my cat?

Day 28: Places We're Inspired to Visit Because of Books We've Read

Gianna:

I don’t think my answer to this question will come as a surprise to anyone who knows me or reads our blog on a regular basis.  For me the town that just danced, that absolutely came alive on the page, that to this day I have fantasies about moving there...my choice is gorgeous Eldorado, Texas which some refer to as the “Vienna of Texas."  I recently drove out West and passed this hidden gem – just 20 miles from Sonora, Texas (Sonora seems like a futuristic city compared to Eldorado by the way), but alas I didn’t have time to stop. Had I been lucky enough to build in an extra day or two into my travel plans and stopped by picturesque Eldorado, I am sure I would have found the hot bed of polygamy that Jon Krakauer describes in Under the Banner of Heaven. I just can’t imagine another town where I would be accepted for exactly who I am!

My second choice is Prague.  About a year ago I was shopping in a bookstore in Florida and I happened upon a book of essays by Ivan Klima called The Spirit of Prague and Other Essays. I don’t know why, but I have always been fascinated by and wanted to visit the Czech Republic; it's always been on my top five destinations list (before Alaska and after Eldorado). The highlights of the book are the opening essays about Klima’s childhood in a Nazi concentration camp and then an interview with Phillip Roth (he expresses his feelings about Vaclav Havel and Milan Kundera). There is a interesting essay about 1989’s Velvet Revolution. This is a really good primer for the Czech Republic, though I do think too much is packed into a few pages ( I mean, a non-violent overthrow of Communism…you really do want more). [Like some violence?]  If you want to be inspired, read about the Velvet Revolution.

So there it is, Prague and with any luck I hope to be there this year. 

Liz:

I have a long list of destinations for travel, but for the sake of this blog post I'm going to rule out places I wanted to visit before reading about them.  My fascination with Russia is related to St. Basil's Cathedral pictures and an ongoing obsession with totalitarian regimes (Hello Mr. Stalin).  I love Canada in part because of artist Emily Carr's paintings.  Alaska?  The bears.  And the birds.  And the snow.  And Levi Johnston.  

As for book-inspired travel spots, I never really considered going to Niagara Falls until I read Joyce Carol Oates's The Falls.  A groom throws himself over the falls while on his honeymoon within the first few pages of the book?  I'm there.  It's no secret that I love Joyce Carol Oates, and one of the reasons for my super-fan worship is that her writing is so vivid that it makes me interested in topics.  The history of Niagara Falls (and for that matter, scenic Love Canal) is woven throughout the story of the bride whose hubby jumped moments after consummating their marriage.  It may be the ultimate tourist trap, and I doubt Gianna will take me or my sister wives there on our honeymoon, but dammit I want to go there.

My second choice is Beirut.  Really.  Read The Hakawati and ponder those pigeon wars and fantastic tales.