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I liked this book.

My book club was a bit up in the air on it. Some felt it dragged, but most enjoyed the story. It took me 2 months to read it, but I don’t feel like it was dragging… I had to put it down sometimes and go read something less depressing (like a retelling of Alice in Wonderland with sexual violence and cannibalism.) Don’t let that turn you away. This was my problem, not the book’s. It was a rough patch for me, and this book just took me deeper into that… in a literal sense.

Given Context

As usual for me… and the reason my blog is named Given Context… the book resonated with things taking place in my life. There was this deepness. There was the sense of isolation. There was some messaging around “don’t try to move out of your level.” And there was some proverbial Wool being torn away from the eyes… and a view that wasn’t very pretty. It seemed whatever happened to me today would find a way to come up in this book… and I should be used to that by now, but this time I took it personally. (Okay, let’s be honest, I always take it personally.)

Do I Dare Disturb the Universe?

But here’s the thing – I want my literature to have this kind of effect on me. I want it to make me angry. I want it to punch me in the guts. I want it to give me all the positive, happy feelings too. But I want it to “disturb my universe.” This book’s parallel with some of my own experiences caused me to see those experiences in a new light.
In the end, I liked it and recommend it.

Another example of a book that had parallels to real life was My Own Story by Emmeline Pankhurst. I read this book in November of 2016. That’s right THAT November. To have started this book about the arduous battle for women’s right to vote within days of the election was one thing. It was another thing when I was innocently watching Downton Abbey with my kids and Sylvia Pankhurst was mentioned. Previously, the reference would have gone straight over my head. Now I understood what these women did to earn the right to vote. Civil disobedience followed by hunger strikes. Her retelling of having a tube forced down her throat by those who were equally determined not to allow property owning women to vote left me scarred. Then here I am innocently watching a show to try and distract myself from the political mess, and there it is to remind me.

I was still reading the book on the anniversary of Black Friday. Not the shopping festival, but the anniversary of the day when British women were assaulted by police for six hours. Winston Churchill would not allow an inquiry into the abuse. This book changed how I felt about him as a historical character. It also changed how I felt about destruction of property. It was also a grim reminder of who has written our history books. Thank goodness that Emmeline Pankhurst wrote her own story.

Timing is Everything

The timing of when I read this was not intentional. I needed to finish a task for my 2016 reading challenge. The year was drawing to a close, so I needed something that was available in audiobook. I picked My Own Story and then the light bulbs clicked on one after another. I don’t believe in coincidence. I read this book when I did so that it could fit perfectly into the context of my life at that given moment. I didn’t decide when I would read Wool. I was the one who put it on the suggestion list for the book club, and I had read the graphic novel, but the club voted it in. Then the leader made the reading list for the year, so I read it in time for the discussion. Not intentional, but no accident.

Your Own Story

Has something like this happened to you? Do the books you read ever fall into line with other things happening in your life? Do you believe in book-fate? Or would you argue that things seem to line up because the awareness is at a different level? Is this just like when your friend gets a new car then you suddenly notice that kind of car everywhere you go? Or do books come into our lives at a time for a purpose? I can’t wait to hear your thoughts on this one!