Book Beginnings on Friday is a meme hosted by Becky at Page Turners. Anyone can participate; just share the opening sentence of your current read, making sure that you include the title and author so others know what you’re reading. If you like, share with everyone why you do, or do not, like the sentence. (Thanks to Rose City Reader for inspiring this meme)
ALEX’s BOOK:
Money, Color and Sex are excellent lenses through which to examine Hawai’i politics. They refer to class, race or ethnicity and gender and sexual orientation—in other words, the fundamental characteristics of all people. These characteristics greatly influence beliefs and behaviors that extend over generations. Their relation to political participation is critical, for it is in the political arena that a society’s ability to uphold democratic principles can best be judged.
—Money, Color & Sex in Hawai’i Politics by Chad Blair
I think the initial sentence and book title itself is a strong marketing angle into what really is an interesting breakdown of analysis for Hawaii politics. It’s somewhat flashy language to draw in readers, though Blair wastes no time jumping into the meat of his arguments once it begins. Under these lenses, I would tend to think socioeconomics and ethnic issues would be the most prominent in Hawai’i. In his introduction, however, Blair makes sure to include gender and sexual orientation, which is notable because this was written in 1998 and 12 years later civil unions are still a hot-button issue, especially the last couple of months in both Hawai’i and California. I clipped a few more sentences in the initial paragraph because I didn’t want it to get too lengthy, but Blair does a great job encapsulating the gist of his multi-layered book in just a couple quick sentences. Does the book title or first paragraph draw you in, especially if you’re not one to read political non-fiction?
MISTY’s BOOK:
Sailors, lepers, opium, spies—with such a family history, how could we be anyt’ing but sluts?
— Shark Dialogues by Kiana Davenport
Wow. You can tell this book is going to be heavy, and not just from its near 500 page count. I’ve heard a lot of praise for Shark Dialogues and have decided to buckle down and read it. It’s always intimidated me a little, truth be told (am I the only one who sometimes feels initimidated by certain books?) Has anyone read it? What are your thoughts?
