Sundays, A Book Recommendation

Sundays seem to be the worst day of the week for me. They are a stark reminder of my solitude, and sometimes an entire Sunday will pass without me speaking a single word. Today was no exception - I woke up early because Melissa and I were going to run a 5K, but she got really sick and her bf's grandma just died, so we had to postpone our run. Therefore, I went back to bed, laid around until 11, got up, ate cereal, went back to bed because Audrey was being irritating, and woke up around 3:30. I did four loads of laundry, put on my flannel sheets (which are unfortunately Christmas themed), made spaghetti, ate alone, watched tv. My mom called. Ed returned my iRiver. My older brother sent me some cool old pictures of us he scanned. That was it.

I'm thinking about the holidays - probably because they are approaching and because of the stupid flannel sheets. The past few Halloween's Jake and I would get together with Juan and Patricia and binge on Halloween cupcakes and other junk food together. Another ritual that I no longer have. I'm thinking about Thanksgiving - I'll be in San Francisco again, but not for a Thanksgiving meal, and Jake wasn't invited to my family's outing that Saturday. I'm thinking about Christmas, and how I don't want to see my family, can't afford to do the New Orleans trip (at least I'm not sure I can yet), but I don't want to be alone in Chicago. Maybe a friend will adopt me and take me on their Christmas trip. Last year Jake and I made a gingerbread house, had our first christmas tree, got Audrey presents, and it was really nice. This year I'll feel pathetic getting my own Christmas tree. Not so little known fact - I LOVE Christmas. I love the irritating shoppers, the xmas lights everywhere, the stress, the cookies, everything. Love it. This is probably why its so hard for me to be alone on it. But that's almost three months away, I'm getting ahead of myself here.

Anyway, my original point of this post was not to carry on with my depressing blog, but to recommend a book that I've read a few times. I think Alycia would really like it, and I'm amazed I haven't reread it since moving here. Woman at War, by Dacia Maraini, is a book I had to read for my 20th Century Italian Resistance Lit class in undergrad. I loved it, and I've read it a few times since then. The back cover reads

Woman at War is the diary of a woman's growing self-awareness. Beginning as a passively absent narrator, Vannina encounters a fascinating array of characters during the holiday she takes on an island in the bay of Naples with her husband, Giacinto. When he returns to work in a garage in Rome, Vannina travels to Naples with Suna, a friend she has made on vacation. This startling character opens Vannina to the possibility of finding love through other women, and helps her reject the role of serving coffee to the men who would change the world through violence. Back in Rome, Vannina rejects her former life and moves toward a complete, if difficult, independence.[...] Dacia Maraini is one of Italy's best-known women writers. She insists that women's voices need to be heard beyond the clamor of political slogans. Here women grow in strength; the feminist values of understanding, intuition and compassion effect real change that transcends the wearisome struggle between the chauvinisms of political left and right.

The book deals really well with a female surrounded by "revolutionary" men (Communists in this case) who still see woman as their slaves, her struggle to free herself from her husband, her unsatisfactory sex life, her female friendships, and her growing independence. So duh, I'm kicking myself for not reading it since I've lived in Chicago.