Random Books from My Personal Library: G-I

It is Midsummer Day here in Finland and Helsinki is very quiet. Everything is closed and many locals have travelled to their summer cottages and left the city for tourists. :) I'm here, though. I'm so not a summer cottage person! Yesterday, Midsummer Day's Eve, which is a public holiday, was also the first day of my summer holidays and I and a friend played tourists and took a little cruise in the evening to see the traditional bonfires on some of the islands just in front of Helsinki. The weather was nice, we met a nice American lady onboard and had interesting conversations with her, and the bonfires and the sunset looked beautiful. It was a very nice evening!

Now I have four weeks of freedom to look forward to! :)

Here are three more books from my shelves to continue with my Random Books series. It's titles starting with G, H and I this time, one of non-fiction, poetry and science-fiction each.

Golden Cables of Sympathy: The Transatlantic Sources of Nineteenth-Century Feminism by Margaret H. McFadden
This is a book I read with great interest as soon as it was published back in 1999. As some of you might remember I have an MA in History and the themes discussed in this book are spot on what I'm most interested in when it comes to women's history: the networks and connections and friendships that formed between women's rights activists across borders during the first wave of "feminism". I write "feminism" because the word became common usage only later. Anyway, I'm not going to go to that discussion here. :)
For me Golden Cables is one of the fundamental works about the 19th century women's movements. What makes it extra interesting is that McFadden used Finnish Alexandra Gripenberg as one of the examples about women well-connedted in the international women's movement. And the title of the books comes from the words of another Finn, Alli Trygg-Helenius, spoken at the 1888 meeting of the International Council of Women in Washington, D.C.

If Not, Winter: Fragments of Sappho, translated by Anne Carson
I first read about this edition of Sappho's poetry in Amanda's post on her blog The Zen Leaf and immediately wanted to buy myself a copy. This book includes not only the smallest fragments of a few words, but in addition to Carson's translations the original Greek versions are included. Because so few of Sappho's poems have survived, only one in its entirity, If Not, Winter makes intriguing reading. One cannot help but wonder what has been there between those bits and pieces that have survived the centuries. I love this book and it will surely be one that I will return to regularly in years to come.

The Holy Machine by Chris Beckett
Illyria, is a city state founded as a refuge from the religious fundamentalism that swept away the nations of the 21st century. It is a place of logic and reason, but maybe Illyria is just as judgemental and close-minded in its belief in rationalism than the faith-based societies surrounding it... Illyria uses humanlike machines, syntecs, for various lower ranked jobs and there are also syntects built for sex. George Simling's problems start when he falls in love with Lucy, a syntec sex worker. When Lucy shows signs of primitive conciousness, a malfuncion from the point of view of the Illyrian authorities, her silicon mind should be erased and reset, but for George that would be murder. He choses to flee Illyria with Lucy and together they enter the religious Outlands where Lucy has to pass as human as robots are there seen as demonic abominations. I really enjoyed this book. Beckett's alternative Europe was inventive and intriguing and the questions raised in the story about the boundaries of humanity made one think.