The Dimly Seen

Ten Years Ago

2012-01-24T10:00:00.000-05:00

I know! I know! I just wrote about how I wouldn't write to my teenaged self. And really there's not a lot I'd change. BUT I have been thinking about my 30th birthday and the decade that's past since I left my teens.

Ten years ago, I was an angsty child. I still have angst. But ten years ago, I had a t-shirt that said "I have issues" and I wore it with pride. I had little sense of where life would take. (And had I known it would go to Cincinnati, I would have laughed.)

Ten years ago, I was starting Hebrew III. I loved Hebrew. I loved hanging out with my study buddy, Leah. I started to love (being around) Speech and Debate. I was hanging out in the Communication prof's office. I was reading interesting books. I was fully embracing feminism (which is not a dirty word fyi). I learned about grilled cheese and tomato sandwiches. Yum...

Ten years ago, right about this time, I was talking to my Hebrew prof about taking Hebrew farther. He recommended that I apply to this fellowship program in Biocultural Anthropology sponsored by Notre Dame and the National Science Foundation. (Technically it was to get to Israel, but that was becoming politically unstable due to the eventual declaration of war on Iraq.) It would expose me to related fields of study alongside Israel.

But I was angsty and doubtful and unsure. I was pretty sure I wasn't good enough. But in sharing these insecurities with the Communication prof, she told me to stop doubting. The Hebrew prof thought I was good enough, the least I could do was apply.

And so I did.

And I got in.

And I went to Notre Dame that summer. I had the most eye-opening summer of my life. Scholarship as a vocation (heck an avocation) became the goal. It was hard. I live with some of the criticism ringing in my ears. (I'm still an angsty adult sometimes.) But it was good.

I learned about interdisciplinary studies. I learned about Byzantists (Note to my adult self: relearn Greek and become a Byzantist, you'd love it.) I learned about college life outside Concordia. I learned about JEPD. I saw machines that split DNA. I sifted through dirt on a dig.

And it all started only cold winter afternoon, ten years ago.

Past Script

2012-01-16T10:00:00.000-05:00

This fortnight's topic for Via Scribendi is "A Letter to my Teenaged Self"--which is great, truly. I'm very much looking forward to seeing what the women I write with have to say if they could "turn back time." Many of them work with teens and pre-teens every day, and, I'm sure, have often reflected on what they would have done differently and what they'd like to tell today's teens from the long-term perspective.

I, however, have little to say to teenage me. She was academic, a late bloomer, and sometimes painfully annoying, but no more so than most teenagers. There was typical teenage angst, most centering around a cross-state move right before my senior year. More than anything, I wish I had handled that move with more maturity and grace, but you can't develop maturity and grace without painful moments like that year provided.

I'd tell myself to be more outgoing, but I'd rather appreciate the introvert that dug deeply into the topics which interested her--personality theory, neurology, biology. I remember and appreciate the friends I had through high school, and I don't especially miss the friendship opportunities I passed over.

I'd tell myself to take French I my freshman year, but it's just so I could discover my love of learning languages a year earlier. My college didn't offer French, and I'm awfully glad I went there so I didn't miss out on much. Hebrew, Greek, Akkadian, and Ugaritic didn't suffer from a lack of French grammar and vocabulary. (Actually, fluency might be helpful for the last two because the earliest grammars are written in French, but I'm still pretty sure one more year of high school French wouldn't have helped.)

I might tell myself to try out for cheerleading freshman year. I'm still not sure I would have been athletic enough to do all four years, but I would have had a better shot. And it sounds much cooler to have cheered in high school than to have cheered in grade school. But I wouldn't have played Field Hockey and that sounds pretty cool too. (I was horrible, but...)

I'm glad I didn't date. I have regrets from my first two boyfriends (which did occur in my teenage years--the college part of it), but I didn't screw myself up too badly, and I deeply adore my husband--a relationship product of my 20s. I wish I had been a little bit less concerned about dating, more interested in figuring out teenage boys as people. But that too is a maturity thing that I just can't ask my teenaged self to achieve.

I'd tell myself to whine less. But then my teenaged self would say "Pot, meet kettle!" And I'd say, "Oh, snap!"

The overall impression I get from my teenage years is anticipation--the gathering of experiences and growing up that would find fruition in college. I choose to remember my high school years as those of a late bloomer. The work that was being done under the surface--foundations for lifelong friendships, learning about my parents as people, life skills that I never seem to acquire enough of--all happened quietly with little intervention on my part whether of high school age or retrospective.

And while I can't claim that high school was the best time of my life, I can tell my (future) children that the teenage years happen and whether they are great or not, they're worthwhile.

The Year of the Books

2012-01-05T16:51:00.000-05:00

I will remember 2011 as the year of the books. First and foremost because I rang out the old year by finishing my 200th book of the year (Lutheranism 101 for those keeping track). But there are other reasons too. I started reading ebooks seriously. I reclaimed my serious love of adolescent literature. I kicked butt at Summer Reading. And I set a reading plan and (almost) finished it.

Last January, my library science class of choice was "Library Materials and Literature for Young Adults." Part of the course structure was to read and discussion 25 YA books. That's a lot in general, but then I'd learn about new books that didn't fit into my reading plan for class and squeeze those books in. Or I'd get tired of YA and need to read something else. By the end of the class in May, I had read 20 more books than I had at that time in 2010. I discovered some great books: The Book Thief, Hold Me Closer, Necromancer, Feed to name a few.

Then there was my reading plan. It was my way of rebelling against being told what to read for 4 months. (Even though I liked many of the YA books, but I'm a fantasy/historical/sci-fi/dystopian/fairy-tale-retelling girl. Keep those realistic and non-fiction books to yourself.) I didn't really know what I was getting into when I decided to read everything Madeleine L'Engle ever published, but I knew I'd need James Bond and Harry Potter to balance it out--which turned out to be a good call. That it landed at the same time as the Summer Reading program was a bonus. I realized I didn't agree with everything L'Engle said, but that was okay. And I appreciated reading the series that produced so many tropes of secret agent fiction and enjoyed (rather than seethe at) the rampant chauvinism, racism, and colonialism. I really enjoyed Moonraker and cried at the end of On Her Majesty's Secret Service (the movie is nothing like the book). It was a great summer that ended with a Nook!

After such a dedicated burst of reading (in the midst of Library Science classes and working full-time), I was burned out. I caught up on magazines, read fluff, and tried not to be obsessed with reaching 200 books. But when you've reached your previous year total in July, it's hard not to think that just a little bit more could push you over. I returned to my Top 100 lists for some inspiration (BBC Reads, Times, Great Reads, and YA Books for the Feminist Reader).

And so I squeezed reading into every nook and cranny of my time. I rarely left the house without the book I was currently reading. Read before bed, during my dinner break at work, in the car when I was early to places. It was a year immersed in the written word. And now I'm going to be happy and done.

One of my library blogs noted the trend of the reading recap and proudly proclaimed she did not keep track of her books because she didn't want the pressure of competition. I get that. My type-A personality does pay attention to the numbers. But I like the record too much to stop making my lists. I'd like to do something radical like commit to only reading 12 books this year, but that wouldn't be fun. And reading should be fun. (Plus I already have 11 books on my library holds list--what a bummer if I couldn't read them.) However, I'd like to be content with not hitting a number. With reading as I can and what I enjoy. The Book of Concord is on my list this year. A couple YA series are in the works. My "To Be Read" shelf is near capacity. So those are my half-goals. Anything else is bonus.

This post is part of a writing adventure. See it at Via Scribendi.

The Reading Report: November 2011

2011-12-07T09:00:00.000-05:00

Life Would be Perfect if I Lived in that House by Meghan Daum
Once upon a time, I took a creative writing class. I don't know if I was good. I know that I've always wanted to write, but I procrastinate and I don't think like a fiction writer. Not bad. Not impossible. Just not right now. I'm at peace with my blog where I spew and some people read. One day, all this typing might shape me into a paid writer, but I'm not honing my craft. ANYWAY, in that class we read My Misspent Youth by Meghan Daum who was dating the ex-husband of the professor. They were friends. I fell in love. I could write like that. The prof is now on Facebook; she linked to Meghan's LA Times column; I follow and read occasionally; and I found out her book was coming out. And I had to read it. Result: it's a personal look at Meghan's own experience with the Real Estate bubble, growing, growing, then bursting. She's self-depricating, humorous and understandable. I wouldn't make the choices she did (cause I'm frugal doncha know). But I feel her desire.

The Changing Academic Library
CLASS BOOK. Not my fav, but I did read all of it even though the class didn't require it. (It left off half a chapter!?!) I'm totally an academic librarian.

Heat Rises by "Richard Castle"
I love Castle. I love Nathan Fillion. And while neither Castle nor Nathan Fillion wrote this book, I still love the meta-ness of reading a book by a fictional author. AND the ghostwriter keeps putting in Firefly easter eggs. Expect little, love much.*

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children
I didn't like this book to start. The pictures were creepy and the story was scary. I would read it before bed and then read something else before I actually needed to sleep. But then it got all fantasy and awesome and the pictures made sense and it was really cool. So I say read it, keep reading it, and if you don't root for Jacob at the end, you can hate me. But you should also know John Green wrote the blurb. Squee! I didn't til I had finished the book and realized I should have never doubted.

Then I was sad and read Romance novels.** (They helped. I like happy endings. I really like happy endings that I know are going to be happy. I also like books that I can count in hours not days.)

Contesting the Sacred
And in the middle, I finished one of my pilgrimage/liminality books.*** It was actually pretty cool. One of the chapters was about the people who live and work in pilgrimage sites. They're either really devout or really cynical.

Estrella's Quinceanera
I decided to start working through my Top ____ Books. I recently added the Top 100 YA Books for Feminist Readers, and this was on it. I wish I knew about this book last Spring when I was putting together my Latino book talk. It's such a great look at how we try to escape our cultural identity, but we don't have to deny it to become our real selves. I think that's going to be my favorite Top ____ Books list.

The Handmaid's Tale
This was on the BBC Reads list and seemed familiar. Published in 1986, it's a dystopic novel about a totalitarian society where feminine roles are divided into classes of women: Marthas--the housekeepers, Wives--the hostesses, and Handmaids--the child-bearers. The Handmaids take the name of the man to whom they are assigned; for example, the narrator is Offred. It's a really interesting critique of the backlash against the feminist movement of the 1970s. As someone who gladly claims an identity as a feminist even as I choose to take on some very traditional gender roles, I also found the book unsettling. I'm glad I read it; I'm glad it's over.

Wicked
Mike and I listened to this novel in preparation for seeing the musical after Thanksgiving. I have read the book, but it was years ago and I didn't really like it. Given developed appreciation for books that I don't necessarily like**** (see above), I thought it was worth a new look. And I did like it better. I feel for Elphaba even though she's very hard to like. The love story between her and Fiyero was beautiful. When Mike was driving, I read along with the audiobook on my ipad to help me pay attention and stay awake. (I listen to mildly interesting talk to help me fall asleep--and this fits that category.) I think I'll actually check out the other 3 books in this series.

Book vs. Musical--I like the music of the musical, but I think it changes the point of the book. The musical really seeks to retell The Wizard of Oz so that all Dorothy's characters become Elphaba's characters; the book on the other hand points out that there's a different perspective going on. It doesn't have to all make sense and line up neatly, but recognize your point of view is not the only valid one. I like stories that remind me it's not about me. Or better, I need to hear stories like that. :-)

At Large and at Small by Anne Fadiman
Once upon a time, this magical little book called Ex Libris came into my life. I don't remember how or why, but I read it and it was the first time I almost followed through with writing an author. (I have distinct memories of Mike and I trying to find her email address via this new thing called "Google".) I fan-girled hard. While I was doing some research for a class I'm developing, I found out Anne Fadiman wrote a non-fiction book in my field. And that was the end of my research; it went on my syllabus. (I'm still trying to decide--it's huge and the class is only 8 weeks long.) And I once again started googling Anne Fadiman... and discovered she had another book of essays. And this was it. While it wasn't the rush of undying devotion I had with Ex Libris (which was all about booklovers), I still really enjoyed her writing style and discovering the genre of the familiar essay. It's personal yet scholarly and nerdy. I could totally get behind a genre like that. So I definitely recommend Ex Libris and if you fall hard like I did, read At Large and at Small to continue to get your fix. She also edited a book Rereading: Seventeen Authors Revisit the Books they Love. That's going on my list, even though I don't know any of the authors.

And we made it to the end of November. At this writing, I'm slogging through The Adventures of Augie March because I love the name Augie. However, I'm thinking I'll give it to page 100 and then decide if I want to put it down. It's a Top ____ Book (Times Top 111 Books of the English Language), but why read it if I don't like it.

Also for those who care, I'm within 10 books of breaking 200 books read this year. W00T!

*I was going through old drafts and I found this post where I thought I had become a high-brow reader. HA! Double HA! HA! I'm glad I never posted that pretentious thing.

**Told ya.

***Yay! I can read hard things.

****It is worth noting that I did probably start that old post in the sense that I could enjoy reading the non-fairy-tale-ending novels considered classics even though they didn't make me happy.

To tree or not to tree

2011-12-05T09:00:00.000-05:00

I may not have a Christmas tree.

Christmas Tree Clipart

The Christmas tree was a big part of my family Christmas celebrations. Early in my parent's marriage, they had saved the trunk from one of their trees and drilled holes in it to make a giant Advent log to light a candle every day from the first day of Advent until Christmas. We ALWAYS cut our own tree, scouring the tree farm for the perfect tree with the straightest trunk, no bare spots, a good height, the right needles. We used white lights, not colored ones--much to my dismay as a child, fortunately Grandma decorated with colored lights. We had handmade ornaments, beautiful ornaments my mom received from her students, and others that we collected over the years, until we had so many that my brother and I used mini-trees for our ornaments.

But then one day-after-Christmas, Mom bought a fake tree just in case. Twenty years of Christmas tree success was bound to run out. And the next year it did. We cut a tree, but somehow missed how crooked its trunk was. It wouldn't stand up straight for all our efforts and we pulled out the fake tree. We might have tried a live tree again, but my brother and I were away at college and beyond, Mom was doing grad school, and things were just easier with a tree that has three pieces and just needs fluffing.

Fast forward to Christmas in my own apartment, creating new traditions with my husband. We're coming upon our fifth Christmas together. The first year, I actually borrowed a tree from my best friend, because I wanted one so badly. The second year, I was taking three classes and was so stressed out I couldn't handle a tree. The third year we put up our own tree decked in blue and silver, and I dreamed up the idea of creating Chrismons for the next year. The fourth year, the Chrismons fell through a bit and we ended up with a red and gold tree which was lovely. And now...

Should I let the practicalities drown out the sentiment? I work full-time, I'm finishing up classes, we won't be around for the two weeks around Christmas. Do I let the tree function as a form of procrastination? You know my list isn't long enough. What does a tree mean in the scope of my Advent preparations? This year, I'm much more excited about the devotion practice I've been cultivating (guilt-free!) over the past year.

I'm conflicted and giving too much thought to my musings. (Ah! Another form of procrastination!) Last night I pulled down my early Christmas box and decorated in about 5 minutes; okay 10 because I kept losing a nail. Maybe over the weekend, I'll find a similar gap of time and just go for it. Christmas will come regardless. We'll celebrate the birth of Jesus, anticipate his return regardless.

This post is part of the blogging adventure Via Scribendi. Check out the blog to read more Christmas Memories.

The Reading Report: October 2011

2011-12-02T09:00:00.000-05:00

Oh reading reviews! I've gotten woefully behind. This little gem was started 3 weeks ago and it was behind then. So rather than bombard you, I'll divide and conquer. Here are the books I read in October (mostly):

Heaven by Randy Alcorn

This non-fiction book is like a reference book for all your questions about heaven. I don't agree with Alcorn's theology; we come from very different backgrounds. However, I appreciated his emphasis on the physicality of Heaven, on the centrality of Christ, and on how much Heaven won't be about me. It provided much to think about.

Entwined by Heather Dixon

An FYA recommendation. When the king institutes a ban against dancing to honor the mourning of their mother (who taught them all a love of dancing), the 12 sisters find a secret passage to an enchanted gazebo. The dance master promises them that they can dance there whenever they want, if they find a way to release him from his enchanted prison. But should they? This retelling of the fairytale, the 12 dancing sisters, was funny and enchanting yet dark. This was my first exposure to the fairytale so more than anything, I want to find more versions to read.

The Help

Read purely so I could go see the movie, which I haven't seen yet. It's an interesting story, at turns funny and sad and mildly inspiring. However, I read articles about a claim from the real life Abileen, so the story ultimately left me conflicted. It became more about a white woman escaping the segregated South than about African-American women making a bid for equal rights. Worth reading to be culturally literate. PS: I read this on my nook! Super fun!

The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan

Love! Percy Jackson was great, but some many of my friends who love YA are Romanists. (Why yes, that is a really weird sentence to 99% of the world.) So I am so happy to be able to recommend this new series to them. It's a little disorienting since it's Percy Jackson's world without Percy Jackson, but I love the new characters and he's just as engaging of a writer as ever. If you like the Classics, please check out this series.

The Swiftly Tilting Worlds of Madeleine L'Engle

I found a couple books on my Madeleine L'Engle permalist on the public library website that are about L'Engle, but not written by her (thus not part of my summer reading). So I caught up. This was a festschrift written for L'Engle's 80th birthday celebrating themes in her writing. My favorite part was reading how the authors first encountered L'Engle's writings. Many were introduced by their children (daughters).

History of Libraries in the Western World by Michael Harris

Yes, this is one of my textbooks, but I read it all so it counts. You would not believe how prevalent libraries are in western history. They're all over. And they're affected by all major events in history (poor, poor libraries bombed in WWI and WWII). It was interesting and bland, but as far as class reading goes, not bad.

The Son of Neptune by Rick Riordan

Yay! Percy Jackson's back, but no he's at the wrong camp. Again great for the Romanist in your life. And if you don't use terms like Romanist in every day conversation, still read this book. You'll still like it.

Why Read Moby Dick? by Nathaniel Philbrick

In my American Literature class, we read Moby Dick. My professor, in pedagogical brilliance, offered 3 pts extra credit for every week we read 3 chapters and wrote up a brief summary. So I actually read Moby Dick. I answer the question posed in 10 Things I Hate about You: "I know you can be overwhelmed and underwhelmed, but can you ever just be whelmed?" The answer is NOT "I think you can in Europe", not the answer is "You can when you're on the high seas!" Vocabulary! That's why you read Moby Dick. Actually Philbrick talks about several themes in the novel that really make it worthwhile to read right after or alongside if you can't discuss the novel with an expert. It's also little so it's not as intimidating as Moby Dick is.

Dahl's History of the Book
Yay! Another class book. This one was devoted to the book in general so we talk about script and illustration, changes in binding over the years, and libraries to a small extent. This was a nerdy book. I would have totally read on my own. And there were some really great Luther quotes. Also these books were written in the '90s so they had some awesome things to say about the Internet. The amazing thing is that they were pretty much on the mark. Much closer than this guy.

The Hangman's Daughter
I thought this would make a good October read because it has to do with a witch hunt. Turns out that it was a Spring book. Oh well. It was still a really engaging mystery that raced against the clock to save the local midwife. It does have The Time Traveler's Wife problem wherein the story is not really about the woman as much as it is about the men in her life. But it's 17th century Germany so one can't complain much. :-)

Suncatcher by Carole Chase
And here's my last last Madeleine L'Engle book. Chase wrote a thematic biography of L'Engle's life that really highlights the loveliness she put in the world. While it's not David McCullough or anything. It's a good summary of her life.

October you passed so quickly. I finished class reading. I read for fun. I read for catch up. I didn't read as much as I'd hoped, but all in all a worthwhile journey. Stay tuned for my review of November reading later this month. Maybe if we're lucky I'll catch up and be ready to start fresh in 2012.

Check out Joyfully Thriving!

2011-11-30T10:14:00.004-05:00

I'm featured over at Joyfully Thriving in Kristen's "Meet a Frugal Lutheran" series!

While you're over there, check out her coupon posts and her CVS deals and get inspiration from her shopping posts. These are the stories Mike and I listened to over our monthly meals that inspired the blog.

If saving money isn't really your thing (for the fabulously wealthy among my readers), Kristen also provides some inspirational posts through Sunday's Scripture and a Snapshot (her own pics) and her participation in Multitudes on Mondays.

Thanks for sharing your space, Kristen!

On Fasting

2011-11-29T08:42:00.004-05:00

As far as spiritual disciplines go, fasting is not really on my radar. I've had friends who are Catholic restrict their meat intake during Lent. Every year, my "Theology" blogs fill with what to give up for Lent. College friends fasted for 72 hours and youth groups did fundraising (and awareness-raising) through the 30-hour famine. But for me, the most I've ever given up for Lent is Diet Coke and that was hard. As one who is primarily motivated guilt and feels guilty about that, I structure my spiritual disciplines around the things that don't inspire guilt. And giving up stuff only to fail doesn't fit the paradigm.

So A Women's Guide to Fasting shows up in the mail. I must have chosen it, but the lag times lead to forgetfulness. And I'm intrigued. And I was pleasantly surprised.

The author, Lisa Nelson, is a just a regular Christian, definitely not Lutheran, former Army JAG officer. She lays out the types of fasts one can do, the reasons for fasting, and what you need to know to be successful in your fast. But she does all this with the constant reminder that failing isn't failing God and one is not required to fast to be a Christian. It's remarkably guilt free. She even includes her own struggles with fasting. Perfection is not required.

There's still an air of the mystical that brings out my skeptical nature. And I'm not sure I'll be starting a fast anytime soon. (Besides this is the time for feasting which can be detrimental to any fast.) But I'm willing to be more open to the possibility.

However, the one thing I'll take from the book regardless of spiritual discipline is the following line:

"walk by faith and not by guilt"

I can get behind a life like that.

Disclaimer: Bethany House send me this book for review, but my opinions are my own.

Tiny Thanks

2011-11-14T21:02:00.006-05:00

It's been a tough November. After the overwhelming gratefulness I felt for the generous people in my life in September (and October evidently...), I have found it hard to reach that depth of emotion again. It's there. I recognize that I have been blessed. It's just that my expression feels trite and fake.

So rather than stress myself out by feeling guilty about not being able to express my gratefulness, I finding the little things. Here's what I'm grateful for even when I'm having trouble finding big swathes of thanksgiving:

A Starbucks on campus even though it tempts me to spend more than I should.
Pretty little tech toys. (I'm looking at you shiny iPad.)
Fuzzy blankets.
Tech ops in the CIA.
Days with sunshine.
Chick-fil-A.
Fiction that's only redeeming quality is that I LOVE it.
Little flash drives that hold lots of stuff.
Free washing machines.
Purple nail polish.
Mornings free for movie.
Harry Potter!
Diet Coke.
The rediscovery of tapioca pudding.

They aren't much, but they're bright spots in my day.

I've crossposted at Via Scribendi. Read much better thoughts about gratitude and thankfulness from my fellow bloggers.

Altered Perception

2011-11-08T10:00:00.001-05:00

My grandpa died when I was 10. I had lost family members before and I have lost more since then, mostly due to the all too common problem of old age. But Grandpa Arno's death was a shock. A few weeks before, we had moved to St. Louis, my mom's hometown, and Grandma and Grandpa and Uncle Dave and other relatives helped us get our lemon yellow ranch house into shape. It was a traumatic move, but I loved the idea that we'd be near one of my baby cousins.

Then Grandma and Grandpa went on a trip to Ohio. And one morning, I heard Mom crying on the telephone. "Who died?" I thought in a mildly sarcastic way. (My mom is known for her emotions. I've inherited this trait.) And it turned out I was right. And I cried. A lot. A lot, a lot.

But we moved on as is the way of life. We had the funeral. We talked about how my cousins, the oldest of whom was 1 1/2, would never really remember Grandpa Arno. 5 years later, Grandma met a wonderful man who became part of our family. And now 19 years ago seems like an eternity.

Last week, I visited my great-uncle and great-aunt up in northern Ohio. While one of my dear second cousins is their grandchild, I'd never visited, but time and circumstance made this trip just right. My great-uncle walked me up to the guest room showing me the Children's Hideaway and down the hallway. Suddenly it hit me. This is where my grandpa died. I don't know for sure. I definitely didn't ask though the general topic came up during the evening I spent with them. But I sat in bed, texting Mike, and gently probing my feelings.

When I heard the story of my grandpa's death, I had pictured it in their house in St. Louis. The only setting I really had for them. But there's more. My parents are in the process of moving back to St. Louis, staying with my grandma in a section of the house that didn't exist in 1992. And while I am generally considered an adult, I find this transition distinctly unsettling. My parents aren't in the spot where I expect them to be. And seeing my great-uncle and -aunt's house, I realize things often aren't what I expect them to be.

I don't know what will come out of this, but part of my history has changed.

Appreciation

2011-10-20T20:10:00.003-04:00

Is it weird to be appreciative?

This week especially, I've been in awe of how much my life is better because of the people around.

I have a boss who lets me take time off of work to do another job. She encourages me to pursue professional service opportunities. She seriously looks out for my best interest. In one of my library classes, we've been talking about how you alone are responsible for your career advancements. And in the end, that's true. You succeed and fail on your own merits. You do the job, write the articles, serve on committees by yourself. But to have a boss who supports those tasks, whose leadership enables rather than inhibits those projects--that's priceless.

So while I'm thinking about my future career, while I'm realizing in my class that my life can be much harder, you bet I'm going to end my daily chat with my boss by saying, "Thank you. I'm glad you're my boss, and I'm grateful for all your support."

I have a mentor who thinks I'm great. Sometimes, I don't feel so great. I haven't achieved what I've hoped to achieve. I feel like I've made the best with what I have. And it's kind of ordinary, but that's fine. However, my mentor, she's finding more opportunities. She sees potential in me that I don't even know existed. It's the real life example of this post (which I thought was kind of dumb when I first read it, but okay I get it now).

So I find out today that she's been in this position where I encountered her as my mentor for 20 years. That's 20 years of people she's taught, touched, and mentored. I know I'm not unique. I know other people appreciate her. So I send a thank you email. I email a few others about the milestone. It's what you do for people who mean so much to you.

I work in a law library. Law students are exceptionally busy and usually stressed out. So today I've let a student know he's okay for staying in a study room, tracked another student down to give him his flash drive, given a law review student access to the copier to reproduce way too many pages, used my four years (FOUR YEARS!!) of knowledge of this library in countless ways. And people have been unusually grateful. They've said thank you, been surprised, gotten those big smiles that are real. (Did you know that when you mimic a smile to tell if it's genuine or not? It's true!)

It's felt weird. Good. But weird. So it leads me to wonder, do I notice the appreciation because I am appreciative? Do we always appreciate each other but we just don't notice? Do I just need to take more time to express my appreciation? Because there are people in my life who just make life easier. And God knows how much I appreciate them, and I guess they should too.

The Enduring Impact of Childhood Reading

2011-10-17T10:00:00.003-04:00

My favorite memory (or collection of memories) was bedtime reading with my dad. We'd sit in his recliner. (The one we replaced just last year for his birthday.) And he'd read a chapter from The Chronicles of Narnia and Mr. Twig's Big Mistake. Were there more? I don't remember though there must have been. How long did it go on? Not past 4th grade (we moved that year), but it endures in my memory.

Later in my childhood, I loved The Babysitters' Club books. (I hope FYA brings back their reviews!) The stacks of them that I checked out are one of my first real library memories. I read quite of a bit of Nancy Drew and borrowed some of those books from an aunt. My mom introduced to be Mrs. Polifax. I still look for Mrs. Polifax books and really need to add them to our collection. I wonder if they're in e-book format. I most recently read The Unexpected Mrs. Polifax one night at my grandma's when the power went out and I had quite effectively freaked myself out.

When I started college, I freaked out on syllabus day and plunged into the Chronicles of Narnia for the next three days. When I emerged on the other side of The Last Battle, life was better. It then became my habit to reread Narnia every fall at the beginning of school.

The morning after we moved to Cincinnati, Mike went out with his family and I found Target and bought Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

The books of my childhood helped me figure out how to cope with my adult life. It's scary out there, but if the characters of my childhood can make it to the end of their books successfully, I can make it too.

I've crossposted at Via Scribendi.

Just Google It

2011-10-03T11:00:00.002-04:00

My husband taught me how to google. When we were dating, I'd ask him random questions and he'd come back with the correct answers. Either he was a genius or he had a trick. Now, Mike's really smart, but in this case, the trick was Google. I learned that if I wanted to be (or to appear) as smart as he was, I should start googling.

Since then Google and I have been involved in a serious love affair. Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Reader, Google Docs, Blogger. I use and love them all.

There's a problem though. See, I'm getting my masters degree in Library and Information Science, and somewhere deep within the Librarian's Code of Honor, there must be something about hating Google. It teaches people bad search practices. It makes people think that's all there is to the Internet (which is always capitalized by the way). Even worse, it makes people think libraries are unnecessary. :-( Poor, poor libraries.

That said, I'm not giving up Google. I have drunk too much of the koolaid. (FYI I just googled "participles drink have" to figure out that grammar.) But I feel bound by my maybe future profession to provide some helpful links.

First A-Google-A-Day. Each day, Google presents a research question and you have to figure out the best way to get the answer. It's a really interesting lesson in how much you put your own knowledge into analyzing Google results. And logic puzzle!!! Awesome.
Second, Google for Educator Lesson Plans. Ever feel like you could use google better if someone just taught you how? Google felt that way too so they came up with some lesson plans. They're specifically designed for the classroom, but hey everyone likes to learn right? (I just realized how small my world is when my first inclination to answer that is a sincere yes.)

Now on to the fun stuff. I've had my current Google account for 3 1/2 years. And when I'm logged in Google tracks my search stats. Awesome, I know. So over those 1000+ days, what have I googled most often?

TV listings tonight. An obvious sign of my lack of cable and its lovely guide feature.

Sigh. So highbrow. I also commonly pulled out my laptop to look up actors on IMDB. It's actually really hard for me to make it through a show without using my laptop. But it's so interesting!

Also randomly on my top ten are two addresses that I have no clue about. So there might be a flaw in the rankings. :-)

However, in the wee hours of the morning, I'm most likely to google WebMD. Ah the joys of self diagnosis.

And finally most impressive of all. I've googled 6,532 times (when I was logged into my account) since March 1, 2008.

It's been good times, Google. One day, I really should delete all that history. :-)

My google adventures are crossposted at the writing adventure Via Scribendi.

A Most Unsuitable Match

2011-09-30T10:00:00.002-04:00

It's 1869 in St. Charles, Missouri. Fannie Rousseau is emerging from her grief over her mother's illness and death to dire circumstances. She sees signs that her family finances are not in good shape, and her house is in such a state of disrepair that a burglar tries rob it thinking it has been abandoned. While going through her mother's dresser, she discovers letters from her aunt, her mother's twin sister whose existence has been hidden from Fannie. When she asks her financial manager about her aunt, something about his response is off-putting enough that she is determined to go searching for her. She convinces Hannah, the faithful family servant, to accompany her on a steamboat up the Missouri River to Fort Benton, Montana, where the last year was sent from over a year ago. On the steamboat, she meets a young man, named Samuel Beck, who bought his passage by working as a freighter whose is searching for his own missing family member. But sailing up the Missouri is never easy and the land beyond is even rougher.

So it goes the Christian historical romance, A Most Unsuitable Match, by Stephanie Grace Whitson. And as far as that genre goes, it's a worthwhile read. It's entertaining, wholesome, a little sappy, but generally heart-warming. The twists are somewhat predictable, but the characters are loveable enough to make you care about what happens to them. My favorite character is Patrick, a little blind boy who is alarmingly perceptive and calls people on their bluffs. And it had settings that I love--give me a good river story and I'm happy. A fictitious version of Concordia Seminary even makes a cameo appearance. (No, I don't think Whitson is Lutheran.)

I received a copy of A Most Unsuitable Match from the Bethany House Book Reviewers program. The opinions on my own. :-)

Generous Proportions

2011-09-28T11:00:00.004-04:00

Rarely do I think of myself when I think of generosity. I wish I was more generous, but I always find fault. However, I have received much generosity. Wherever I end up I find myself among extremely generous people. And it's those people I wish to highlight today:

Thanks, Messiah, Clio. Six years ago, you kept my fiance/husband fed and social (both difficult things) during his long year of a vicarage. Then, you welcomed me with open arms each time I visited. Most recently, you welcomed us back for your 50th anniversary celebration. And once more you blessed us with your hospitality, warmth, and generosity.

Thanks, Zion, Cincinnati--the little church with the big heart. Your friendliness gave us a church home as we began our marriage. You provided Mike with a call (a big blessing that anyone who is synodically trained without one will understand). You constantly ask how you can support our ministry, together and separately.

Thanks, Lori, Sue and all the women of the Monday morning bible study. It was hard to start going. You all had your lives together and I was a newlywed hoping for plans that didn't work out. I didn't know where I'd fit and you welcomed me anyway. On top of that, you sent me home with lots of goodies and opened up your homes even more to weekly laundry visits. But it's not really the laundry; it's the friendship that spans decades which really shows your generous hearts.

Thanks to my law library. What started off as a part-time, most likely temporary position, has evolved to a full-time job going on its 5th year. You bless me with health insurance, income that helps Mike and I feel less like poor graduate students and more like real adults, tuition benefits for my LIS masters. While life in the library is not perfect, you support me in my current career and give me opportunity to find job satisfaction. It's not the vocation I would have chosen, but God blesses me with it every day.

Thanks to my Seward profs. I think of the think I spent in Jesse top taking up my profs time trying to figure out my life, and I'm grateful. Their generosity went above and beyond the duty of profs, and while I know it was freely given, I still stand it awe. They are the people who make me want to teach at the college level.

Thanks, Mom and Dad. You were and continue to be generous even from a distance. I worry that I was spoiled as a child--and as a college student, but their financial support gave me the opportunity to focus on my education (to have time to spend on Jesse top talking to profs). I remember falling into my first full-time job and calling up my dad to cancel my monthly allowance. They gave me the car which they had graciously let me borrow for 7 years as a wedding gift. I know I'm lucky, and I'm thankful that they supported me so Mike and I can be living a decent life now without the weight of credit card debt I would have accumulated without their help.

And I thank my husband, who probably doesn't think he's a generous person because he's always trying to get me to not spend money. :-) However, busy grad student that he is, he always finds time to respond to a gchat or talk to me when I come home. He generously does the dishes which I will always procrastinate on and responds kindly when I nitpick. He even finds space in our little budget for things like a MacBook when my battery case begins popping out of the bottom of my old one.

God has richly blessed me through all these generous people. It's because of them that I strive to be more generous not only with my money, but with my words and actions as well.

Crossposted at Via Scribendi.

The Last Dregs of Summer

2011-09-26T20:53:00.000-04:00

Fall has arrived! So let's wrap up my summer reading:

The Ordering of Love
This was the last compilation of L'Engle's poetry. All of her poems from the previous three collections plus two dozen recent and not-so-recent poems were gathered together. So if you love Madeleine L'Engle's poetry (and to be honest it's pretty awesome), this is the book to get.

Savor the Moment
The third in the Nora Robert's bride quartet. It's my least favorite. However, I love the quartet in general so it's not all bad. :-) Laurel, the cake baker of Vows weddings, falls for Del, whose always been an older brother to the quartet.

The Joys of Love
The LAST Madeleine L'Engle book. It was published posthumously by L'Engle's granddaughters. L'Engle had given it to them as a special book all their own which they wished to share with her fans. It was a nice sentiment, and the book was nice, but I understand why L'Engle didn't push to publish it. Elizabeth is participating in summer stock, sure that some tips from her favorite actress will help launch her acting career. She has fallen for the director whose perfection blinds her to the honest love Ben, a fellow troupe member has for her. When her aunt pulls her funding, Elizabeth only has a couple days to figure out all the decisions waiting for an answer this summer.

Happy Ever After
The last of the Bride quartet. Even workaholic Parker find love. Aw. What I really want to know is how Parker figures out how to provide 24/7 service to her brides (which Vows is known for) now that she has other demands on her time. Also, I want to see their weddings. It's really sad we only get to see Mac's.

Image and Pilgrimage in Christian Culture
This was the hardest book I've read in a really long time. Victor Turner is the expert in his field, but that was much more academic writing than I've encountered in a long time. (The Nora Roberts probably isn't challenging my reading skills.) Nonetheless, I finished it and it was really intriguing. While everything is from an anthropological view which is a little less satisfying for this theologically minded person, the patterns developed around pilgrimages are fascinating. The more I read, the more I think I need to take a very intentional view of travel whether it is to spiritual sites or not.

Flash and Bones
A Kathy Reichs novel. Yay for a very different Temperance Brennan than is on fox. Still her no nonsense attitude shines through as she tries to unravel various missing person cases to find the murderer who dumped a body near the North Carolina raceway. BTW have you seen that commercial where a driver sabotages another driver by pumping Amy Grant into his headset? It makes me very upset. Amy Grant is awesome. Don't diss her.

A Long Way from Chicago
Our church secretary heard about my love for YA and sent me this and the next book. Joey and Mary Alice are sent down to their grandma's house in small-town Illinois for a week every summer during the Great Depression. Grandma is pretty wacky and prickly, but she's also a hoot and a half. Those kids get into more trouble with her than without her. For instance, they would never borrow the sheriff's fishing boat to gather catfish from illegal traps to feed the hobos being kicked out of town. But they discover, summer after summer, that under that gruff exterior is a heart of gold.

A Year Down Yonder
Joey is off in the civilian corps and the parents are forced to move to a smaller apartment, so Mary Alice spends a whole year with Grandma. While Joey may have been won over by her, Mary Alice is definitely skeptical. But living with Grandma day in and day out makes Mary Alice wise to her pride, her eccentricities and her deep compassion for those she loves. You should definitely read both books together.

Hunger Games, Catching Fire, Mockingjay
Though there are certainly other books demanding my attention, I downloaded the Hunger Games trilogy to my nook. Maybe the nook is not the best thing for obsessive series readers, because holy cow, it's really easy to move from one book to the next. You don't even have to get up and find the next book on your shelf; it's just there. So I was able to follow Katniss from her selfless volunteerism in the 74th Hunger Games, through her charade of feelings (or is it real?) with Peeta in the 75th Hunger Games, right through to the attack on the Capital mirroring the 76th Hunger Games. I still don't agree with all her decisions, but man, I cannot wait for that movie. And I totally get the end now. Ugh, it sucks to be you, Katniss.

Beauty Queens
After the drama of The Hunger Games Trilogy, the absurdity of 12 beauty queens stranded on a seemingly deserted island was delicious fluff. And you have to go into it with the intent to allow it to just be silly, otherwise you're going to go crazy. One beauty queen fights her way out of a giant snake. It's just the type of book that is. However, it is a great way to spend a Saturday afternoon or you know any time you want to procrastinate your library science homework.

Spoiled
The YA book by the Fug Girls! I didn't expect a whole lot out of this book, but it was pretty fantastic. Brooke is on her way to being Paris Hilton when she finds out she has a half-sister, Molly, who is coming to live with her now that Molly's mom has died. Brooke's never really had her dad's attention, due to all the demands being an action star/movie producer he has, but now she has to compete with a sister who is not even ugly. The sibling rivalry is pushed just past cliche to heartbreaking. You know these girls are trying to make the best choices, but they're teenagers so they don't quite grasp what those could be. My only gripe is that Stan, who supervises the girls while Dad is off on set, could have been way more instrumental. Sadly, he would have provided too much reason and killed the teenage drama. Also, I'm not sure whether there will be a sequel. The book itself could have been pulled out Princess Diaries style, but they wrapped up every storyline except one so I don't know...

So here's the thing about my summer reading. It was really nice to know what I was reading next. While at times, it was a little obsessive like my book list was demanding to be read, it really helped me focus on my next books. For most of September I've felt a little lost. And now that I'm thinking about it, during the Winter/Spring I had my YA class demanding books be read, so lost makes sense.

Faith Milestones: Baptism

2011-09-01T10:00:00.007-04:00

A milestone shows the distance one has traveled or may be how far one has to go.

My mom leads children's ministry at her churchusing faith milestones to celebrate, support, and encourage how far children have traveled in their spiritual development within families. She organizes events to celebrate baptism, learning the Lord's Prayer, getting your first Bible, and moving from the Children's Ministry program to the Jr. High and Confirmation program. As I've listened to her talk about the events and theory behind it, I've fallen in love with the concept. So much of one's spiritual development is personal, but having the church recognize signification milestones, especially in children's faith development is awesome.

But inevitably, I turn to myself. I'm 29, a life-long Christian. I hold an MA in Exegetical Theology. Theoretically, I have a lot of milestones with which I could count my spiritual development. But lately, I've only been focusing on one:

Baptism

I was baptized shortly after I was a month old. My parents and my sponsors made the pledges of faith for me and promised to bring me up in the Christian faith. I don't think it's pride to say they've succeeded, indeed my pride is in the example and instruction they provided me regardless of how well I've lived it out.

My family celebrated my brother's and my baptism birthdays in small ways, with songs, lighting the candle as a child--less so as a teen. There's a banner that I hung in our apartment, that previous was hung in my bedroom. My mom wrote about my baptism story in a publication called Happy Times, that I still have tucked away. The artist portrayed her with a mullet--sigh the 80s.

As I moved into adulthood, I remembered my baptism. Haphazardly maybe. Not with the regularity I read about from Luther or in my other theological texts. But I've learned to rest in my baptism in an effort to stave off perfectionism. (It kind of works.) My baptism is a fact. It means that I know Christ died for my sins, that he has washed them away, that I can have a relationship with God.

But that gets lost in the highway ephemera--the day-to-day drudge of living a life that doesn't have daily chapel, religion classes or even theology classes (which may or may not be a spiritual exercise depending on how you look at it). While I go to church every Sunday, even when I don't want to, and attend bible studies, my faith and my baptism are not daily on my mind.

On one hand, it's okay. Just like I don't have to keep the 10 commandments, pray continually, always be kind and loving to everyone, or on the whole be perfect to be assured of my salvation; neither do I have to remember my baptism. But I want to remember that that I don't have to, that my baptism is the reason I don't have, that the grace given to me from that moment makes the donthaveto's into wantto's.

And so I've return to childhood. Well, the childhood of my mom's Children's Ministry kids. In February, after hearing for years about the baptism tub clings the kids would make during the Splash Event, I asked for one. And Mom sent it with my birthday gift. 5 minutes with some colored sharpies and I have my own baptism cling. (I put Mike's baptism on there too.) And it's been hanging in my shower for the past 6 months.

It's been a remarkably successful way to remind my baptism at least once a day. Often I'll sing "God's Own Child, I Gladly Say It" even though I only know a half verse. Last week, I finally looked up the words and wrote down the first two verses to waterproof and put in the shower as well. Though I might take them out again, I like the freedom of remembering my baptism without having to memorize more words.

So for now, my milestone is my baptism. Certainly, I've developed in the faith given to me at baptism and there are plenty of milestones I can look back on to see how far I've come (and how far I have to go). But baptism is. And I don't want to be far away from that milestone.

This post is part of an online writing adventure at Via Scribendi.

Another Dozen

2011-08-24T20:08:00.003-04:00

The three colleges I am affiliated with started this week so in at least one way summer is over, but the summer reading list continues on. I'm so so close! So here we go:

Penguins and Golden Calves: Icons and Idols
Troubling a Star was written from L'Engle's real life trip to Antarctica. This book was inspired by her meditations on that voyage. From the life and theology lessons she learned from the penguins she looked at other images, things, oddities that she has encountered in life that teach her a deeper truth. In this way, she more deeply delves into this idea of story as the primary vehicle for truth. Good read, but again some questionable theology.

Wintersong
From here on in the L'Engle oeuvre, we get a lot of compilations and collaborative projects. It's understandable, the woman is 78. But it's also repetitious. L'Engle often meditates on Christmas time so this work complies some of those excerpts, some new stuff, and the same sort of writing from her friend and editor, Luci Shaw. It was very well done and of her Christmas works, this is that one I want.

Bright Evening Star
Probably the best I can say for this book is that I am obviously suffering from L'Engle memoir burnout. It was okay, but not her best collection of non-fiction prose. And since it dealt so much with the incarnation, I'd read a lot of it in Wintersong.

Friends for the Journey
Another collaborative project with Luci Shaw. I think she's another author I need to check out. They transcribe some of their discussions on friendship, share stories and poems and recipes. It's all very sweet. It's the retirement I want to have.

Mothers and Daughters
A collaborative project with her daughter Maria Rooney. This is her second project with Maria. In Anytime Prayers, L'Engle supplied the text and Maria found the pictures so in this project they reversed. Madeleine wrote text for pictures Maria provided. Very sweet.

Miracle on 10th Street
Another Christmas compilation. This time it was all L'Engle. And it was fine. It had some new work, but I preferred Wintersong.

A Full House
A children's Christmas story (or maybe better a family read-aloud-story) which was featured in Wintersong and Miracle on 10th Street. I read it quickly, but I liked it. It's an Austin chronicle and their family is awfully amazing. Madeleine often says she's Vicky out of the Austins, but I think particularly in this story she is Mrs. Austin. Mrs. Austin is the narrator and reacts to the challenges of a busy chaotic Christmas evening much in the same way L'Engle would. Not to disagree with an author; she was speaking to a situation that was not this one.

Mothers and Sons
See Mothers and Daughters.

A Prayerbook for Spiritual Friends
A collaboration with Luci Shaw. Again very well put together. I'm not sure their original intent--that friends use this book to prayer together--really works. They are obviously Luci and Madeleine and have a different dynamic than I have with my friends. But it is a shining example of the love and support friends can give each other each in friendships that have Christ running through them.

Bed of Roses
A Nora Roberts novel snuck in. I can't help it. I love the Bride Quartet. They describe weddings and it's lovely. I picked up the audiobook for the first installment on a day of driving, but it was abridged (and took out things about all the weddings!!!) so I didn't count it. :-) Also first book I read on my nook! It was lovely. Big fan. I need all my books on my nook.

The Other Dog
A L'Engle children's book. Actually my favorite L'Engle children's book. It's about her dog Touche when she brought baby Jo home from the hospital. It's endearing and funny and totally in L'Engle's voice. Also, another first, I checked this book out, sat down, read it in the library, and returned it. Quickest turn around ever!

Madeleine L'Engle Herself
A compilation of her thoughts on writing gathered from her books and her lectures at Wheaton. Since I had read all her books, I read the parts that were from the lectures. (There was a handy index!) It was really good. Once I get some more distance from her writing, I'll probably go back and soak in it more.

And here we are all caught up. Two L'Engle books left. Still five liminality books to go. But goodness, I stalled out hard on the liminality books. I actually put down a book in the middle of the chapter. Ouch! I love the topic; my brain just isn't used to the academic work out. Still I'll go back. It's just going to be a Fall project. Still--94 out of the 99 books I wanted to read this summer is not bad.

My total so far for books read this year: 151!

Light at the End of the Tunnel

2011-08-17T09:00:00.000-04:00

I'm getting close to the end! Only 13 more L'Engle books and 5 more books on liminality. I think because several of the L'Engle books are short I could finish by Sept. 1 (on the assumption some of the L'Engle books get here--they're in the mail). That's well ahead of my labor day goal.

The Rock That Is Higher
This is another one of L'Engle's religious-type books. While her Genesis triology was not my favorite, this one was okay. Maybe Madeleine and I have made peace with our differing concepts of religion. This book focuses on how story can been a more effective means for conveying truth than facts. I happen to agree with that premise so it's easier to like. :-)

Anytime Prayers
Another little prayer book written by L'Engle for children. This one featured the photography of her adopted daughter Marie. I like that her prayer books use mostly familiar language, but she's not afraid to bust out a big word if she thinks it is necessary. I like the quintessential 70s artwork of her other prayer books, but this one was fun to see real kids being kids.

Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
I borrowed this book from a friend and immediately lent it to another friend when I was finished. It hit the "obscure book request" sphere several months ago (that book about pot pies and gurneys), but I hadn't read it (okay listened to it) until now. It was really endearing. It's a book of letters between an author in Post-WWII England and her publisher, friends, and a series of people from the Channel island of Guernsey. She comes to love these people through their letters and stories. And by golly I love them too. Bonus factor of the audiobook: everything I read while listening to the cds, I heard in a British accent. Swoon!

Troubling a Star
Madeleine L'Engle's last YA fiction book. :-( This is when it hit home, folks. I'm getting to the end of L'Engle's oeuvre. I actually remember when this book came out (8th grade year). I was so excited to read more about Vicky and Adam! And so mad when he started signing his letters "all my best". Antarctica is beautiful, and I also want to watch Scamper the Penguin (though that's about the Arctic Circle).

Camilla
I read Camilla Dickinson long ago in May (70! books ago), not knowing that L'Engle reprinted the book under the name Camilla (a book I actually owned) so when I came to the reprint, I started to read it, but it was too soon. The blurb on the back describes it as Catcher in the Rye with a strong, emotionally healthy main character, and that totally works, but I didn't like Catcher so I'm not a huge fan of the book. However, the next book features Camilla as a near-retirement professor so I wanted to remember her teenage story before I went on AND it helped me finish the list as I set out to read it. Anyway, it's definitely a coming-of-age story where Camilla has to cope with several hard facts of life--among other things her mother attempts suicide. Camilla also experiences first love which is ultimately squashed when both she and Frank move out of New York City.

A Live Coal in the Sea
Camilla, the naive girl in love with the stars, is now a respected astronomer who has lived a life full of love and hardship. When her granddaughter Raffi asks Camilla whether she is really her grandmother, Camilla must relive some of the best and worst moments of her life to answer Raffi's question. But even Camilla doesn't know the whole story. While I find L'Engle's fiction for adults rough to read (and this was no exception), I found the ending a bit more satisfying in its conclusion. It is truly a life-affirming story that shows its never too late for second chances.

Octopussy and The Living Daylights
The last two short stories about Bond written by Ian Fleming. Unfortunately they aren't really a whole lot to write home about. More character studies investigating the criminal mind. The Man with the Golden Gun is really the last Bond book. However, I discovered that there are more so I may return to Bond later.

Also on the list is Glimpses of Grace which is a daily excerpt from L'Engle's work for meditation. Since I've read everything L'Engle has published up until this book's publication, I've essentially read the book. There were a couple of articles which I found and read their excerpts, but otherwise I'm using it as a daily meditative reading until it needs to go back to the library.

So that's 48 L'Engle books. I've requested all the rest of the L'Engle books I need to finish up. (What will the library do without me?) I've planned in time for my books on liminality. And yes, summer is nearly over--classes start next week. It's been fun, but a little obsessive.

In the Beginning

2011-08-15T10:00:00.001-04:00

During my one semester of Speech and Debate, I put together a piece for a Christian invitational tournament using the English and Hebrew of Genesis 1:

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

‏בְּרֵאשִׁית בָּרָא אֱלֹהִים אֵת הַשָּׁמַיִם וְאֵת הָאָרֶץ

Bereshith bara elohim et hashamiam v'et ha'aretz.

I never read my evaluations so I don't know how other people felt about the piece, but I don't think it was one of my successful endeavors. However, it's now the Hebrew I spout off when people, on finding out that I studied Hebrew, invariably asked me to say something.

This summer we've been reading through Genesis 1 in church, and my mind is pulled back to that piece--what I thought when splicing the Hebrew and English together, where the poetry of Genesis 1 really comes out, (how often we miss that poetry when the reading is split over 7 weeks), and how everything was "tov, tov meod."

As I'm reading through Madeleine L'Engle, she spends a lot of time in Genesis, at the beginning of the world, retelling the stories that are oh-so-familiar in new and unfamiliar ways. In Many Waters, Sandy and Dennys find themselves in Noah's story, not sure how it will all play out, how they fit into the pattern. In And it was Good, L'Engle tells the story of the first birth. Pregnancy is weird now; how much more foreign it must have been for Eve and Adam who had nothing to inform their experience.

Genesis is THE beginning, but it was a beginning experienced by humans just like me. Unsure of the future, unable to avoid the pitfalls and consequences of a fallen world, stumbling, getting dirty, complaining, worrying...

Eden holds an allure of perfection and unity that I'll never experience here on earth. But every day I make a new beginning. Every term I can make a new beginning with my classes increasing degree by degree to become a better instructor, a better student. Every work week, I make a new beginning to spend more time accomplishing my tasks and less time on pinterest. Every post, I make a new beginning to be faithful in my blog updating (there is much grace and forgiveness needed for that). Every day, I make a new beginning to live in the grace given to me through my baptism. Because of the salvation I have in Christ, I know God looks over all my "new beginnings"--even the failed ones--and sees that it is very good.

Crossposted at Via Scribendi.

In which I quickly update you on books I've read... again

2011-08-10T09:21:00.001-04:00

July was a busy month. Housesitting, dogsitting, classes, assignments, work, summer reading program. Mostly it was pure joy. We've loved our adorable dogs and the meow-y cat isn't too bad either. And I've enjoyed every minute of my summer reading--so much so that I haven't post and am now a good 25 books behind. It's really too much for even short summaries so instead I'll just tell you where I'm at and provide a list.

Of my four categories of summer reading, I have finished the Harry Potter list. Of course, that was necessary before we saw the movie the morning it came out. (Not midnight, I'm not a night owl.) However, we last parted I only had one book left so whoop-die-do you say.

Well how about this. Since my last update, I have gotten within a book of finishing the James Bond series. Ian Fleming does some funny self-referential things in books like The Spy Who Loved Me and You Only Live Twice, but there is true and utter heartbreak in On Her Majesty's Secret Service. Oh just crushing, and contrasted with Bond's devil-may-care, jaunty attitude, it's just crazy. I'm a little worried to watch the movies whenever I do, because I'm coming to love these stories so much, the movie Bond might be too superficial. (As evidenced by The World is Not Enough which is "loosely" "based" on On Her Majesty's Secret Service--the overlaps contain one hot girl racing Bond in the beginning and the phrase "The World is Not Enough".) Enough on movie adaptations, they really just shouldn't be compared. But the books are great. Read them and ignore all the sexism and racism--it was before the Civil Rights Movement. (The Amazon covers however--skeezy. In this case, library binding is much preferable.)

Also of great success is my L'Engle list. I'm almost 3/4 through the list (43 out of 61). We've now entered the 90s publishing era. It's really been a treat to watch her writing change and grow, to see her little pattern of children's book, adult book, non-fiction work spiral on. Her memoirs are fantastic insights into her life. I especially love Two-Part Invention where she recounts her courtship and nearly 40 years of marriage to Hugh Franklin. Their relationship was not conventional with all the travel for his acting and her speaking, but it was true and beautiful. I have almost finished all her Young Adult books--only Troubling a Star is left and it's one of my favorites--intrigued combined with young love. My only dull spot in the L'Engle ouvre is her religious meditations. I love her dearly and admire how she continues to wrestle with the tough questions on faith, but Madeleine and I come from very different theological positions. In books that are so conversational, I want to respond aloud and see if we can reach any point of agreement.

Finally, a couple non-reading lists books snuck in. Janet Evanovich continues to entertain. I almost took the "I heart Ranger" sticker from the back of my library book, but I refrained. John Adams was our "car book" for our trips that started in June and I finished it driving back and forth to work. I'm full of Adams trivia now and utterly sympathetic to the cries for an Adams memorial on the Mall in D.C. And Divergent was AMAZING!!!! Best dystopian fantasy I've read in a really long time (i.e. in 3 months). Tris is amazing and while I saw a lot of the plot twists coming, the ultimate reveal was still crazy. Definitely looking for the next in the series.

So that's that y'all. The full list (in reverse chronology as I've read them--recent books first) is below:

The Man with the Golden Gun by Iam Fleming;
Certain Women by Madeleine L'Engle;
The Glorious Impossible by Madeleine L'Engle;
Sold into Egypt by Madeleine L'Engle;
You Only Live Twice by Ian Fleming;
Two-Part Invention by Madeleine L'Engle;
Smokin' Seventeen by Janet Evanovich;
House like a Lotus by Madeleine L'Engle;
The Spy who Loved Me by Ian Fleming;
Journey with Jonah by Madeleine L'Engle;
Trailing Clouds of Glory by Madeleine L'Engle;
Many Waters by Madeleine L'Engle;
Everyday Prayers by Madeleine L'Engle;
Prayers for Sunday by Madeleine L'Engle;
The Risk of Birth (anthology);
On Her Majesty's Secret Service by Ian Fleming;

A Stone for a Pillow by Madeleine L'Engle;

A Cry like a Bell by Madeleine L'Engle;
Divergent by Veronica Roth;
And It Was Good by Madeleine L’Engle;
The Sphinx at Dawn by Madeleine L’Engle;
A Severed Wasp by Madeleine L’Engle;
The Anti-Muffins by Madeleine L’Engle
Walking on Water: Reflections on Art by Madeleine L’Engle;
Eat this Book by Eugene Peterson;
A Ring of Endless Light by Madeleine L’Engle;
Thunderball by Ian Fleming;
A Million Miles in a Thousand Years by Donald Miller;
For Your Eyes Only by Ian Fleming;
John Adams by David McCullough;
Ladder of Angels by Madeleine L’Engle;
Weather of the Heart by Madeleine L’Engle;
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by JK Rowling;
A Swiftly Tilting Planet by Madeleine L'Engle;
The Irrational Season by Madeleine L’Engle;

LIS 636 Reflection Paper

2011-08-03T18:07:00.004-04:00

I was just going to send my Foundations of Information Technology professor the following essay in the form of a document, but taking the encouragement to stretch a little bit and knowing how unfaithful a blogger I've been, I respectfully submit the following:

Photo credit: dbking

At the end of each term of my online course work (this makes five times), I feel incredible technological burnout. The demands of being “tied to” technology—checking email (cue rant about Microsoft Outlook Exchange), making sure assignments are submitted correctly and on time, the constant obsession of following the discussion boards—weigh heavy. I can’t wait to get a break—to read my favorite blogs, catch up with shows on Hulu, and troll Facebook for the latest goings-on with my friends. The internet, my primary interaction with technology, is just as much a medium for relaxation or hard work as going to physical places.

In this class, I found my understanding of technology reaffirmed and nuanced. The group collaborative project was full of the same group dynamics and pitfalls that an “in-class” group project might entail. People work at different speeds and with different priorities. Leaders emerge; others fade away. The difference is that there are very rarely any meetings which create artificial deadlines before the assignment is submitted. Accountability is established in that you can check the revision history to see who has been working on the document and who has not. There’s no final receiving of the grade or presentation that gives an opportunity to say “Good job team! It was a pleasure working with you.” One must go out of the way to show appreciation.

While much of the content was familiar (I’m pretty sure it’s a SLIS requirement to talk about ARPANET at least once in every class), there were bits and pieces (bits and bytes?) that filled out my knowledge. I have known that I should know how to code a website, but until this class made me put one together I stuck to using the templates Blogger or Google Sites provided. I have been using Google docs for 5 years, but I’ve never embedded my document into a website for display or used it to make a finished document. I have known the basics of shopping for a computer, but mostly relied on a tech-savvy husband who will make sure I don’t sacrifice processing speed for hard drive space. However, most importantly I have learned that while you can basically get around the technology world with a working knowledge, it does not take much more effort to learn those underpinnings that will benefit your understanding.

All the components of the class reinforced my comfort with technology. In college, I was a very timid technology user. I did not want to inadvertently kill my computer because I did not know what I was doing. Since then I’ve discovered the wealth of information available to those who google their technology problems—mostly because I was tired of my husband being the know-it-all because he googled the question faster than I did. Through looking for answers and finding a couple of technology blogs that break down tech-speak into English, I’ve really gained a lot of confidence in exploring my computer and periphery. As I worked through the class, I saw things I had a basic working knowledge of explained in proper terms. While at times, this seemed repetitive and boring, resisting the urge to skim showed me the parts I really did know and filled in the gaps of things most blatantly did not know.

Since my experiences in this class have worked so well with what I already know, I feel more confident to explore new technology. I have not delved into Skype and other video communication much. I have a webcam built into my computer, but I don’t use it. However, my experience with building a website from scratch suggests that if I do a little bit of research and play around with this new (and completely different) technology, it should be easily mastered.

In the same way, there is great value in reexamining technology I already use. The in-depth look at Google Docs really showed me how much I underestimated the program. What other technology do I use every day without mining its potential? I have a blog that I randomly post to, but I do not use its features to the fullest. I could expend a little bit more effort to publish more polished posts. It seems like depending on how to allocate your resources, a little bit of effort can yield some very high-level results. (Now, in other cases, this might not happen; hand-coding my own webpage, while helpful in theory, will not be a good use of my time give the variety of blogging systems out there.)

I feel comfortable with the role technology plays in my life. I am mostly agreeable to the increasing role it may play in the future. However, as I spend so much time with these online classes, I am learning more and more how to control my exposure to technology so that I control it and not the other way around. When I’m 70, I want to be someone who embraces the newest technology instead of yearning for the good old days (unlike Grampa Kitteh). The more I understand technology and its role in my life, the more I believe I can achieve that goal.

Photo credit: zebedee.zebedee

7 in the 7th Month

2011-07-06T16:06:00.004-04:00

My 4th of July weekend was spent in the best way possible--reading a ton of books. After traveling to Niagara and my family reunion the past two weekends, it was exactly what I wanted to do. Working fulltime has really made me appreciate the big blocks of free time. I have to squeeze so much out of my mornings and evenings that it's nice to just have the day.

Other things certainly happened. Mike was on deck for leading worship July 3rd. We visited a couple families afterward. We're housesitting/dogsitting for a family while they go down to Destin next week so we went to learn where dog food was and the like. Then we visited with the family I normally do laundry with--though not so much now that my weekdays have been squished to reconnect with them.

Anyway on to the books.

Sisterhood Everlasting
I love the Traveling Pants books, really deeply truly. They were my reentrance into the YA world. And I thought because of that, I'd really like this book. However, I forgot how much those books made me cry. And this one was about 10 times normal. I cried through the entire book. Lesson learned: do not divert yourself from your reading list. (That's a lie; I'm always up for a good diversion.)

A Circle of Quiet
This is the first in Madeleine L'Engle autobiography series. And it was really fascinating to glimpse inside her world. Since I had my list, I knew A Wind in the Door was next so I could see the themes of maturity as freedom and naming that are so prevalent in the novel clearly on her mind in this first journal. Also, I kind of want to live her life (which is totally not the point--the point is to live my life within the structure God has given me). Sigh.

A Wind in the Door
We return to Meg and Charles Wallace in their big drafty house which I now know is very much based on Crosswicks, her New England home. This time Charles Wallace is sick, and Mrs. Murray believes it has to do with his mitochondria. Meg and Calvin are helped by a teacher Blejany and a cherubim, Progonoskis, to help the farandalea in Charles Wallace's mitochondria deepen and mature. It means giving up the freedom of movement for conversations (kything) with the stars. However, they are hindered by the Echthroi who wish to annihilate, well, everything, but they're happy to start with Charles Wallace. Meg must use naming and the love behind naming to combat them. It sounds ridiculous, but I forget how much this book typifies what I love about L'Engle. The plot's okay, the themes are fantastic.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
This fifth book of Harry Potter takes the series deep into the darkness. I remember being surprised at how Harry hard took Cedric's death, but I get it now. But it's still an awfully hard book for me to read. Harry gets so much piled on him that it doesn't seem fair and I don't understand how the other characters don't get that--and least until I realize exactly how inward focused I am and would probably react the same way. This is a book I just like to get done.

The Summer of the Great-Grandmother
This is the second in the Crosswicks Journal series. In it, L'Engle recounts one specific summer at Crosswicks where her mother spent her last days with the people who loved her most. It's a touching memoir where L'Engle wrestles with the mother she knows, the old woman she sees before her and the young woman who existed before Madeleine was in the world. It becomes a family history and I learned that most of L'Engle's fantastic storylines came from her ancestry. And here I thought she had to work to attain the Southern Gothic tones in her novels.

Dragons in the Waters
And right on the heels is a story which uses some of her family history. An adult Calvin O'Keefe with his oldest children, Poly and Charles, take a freight ship to Venezuela. Also on the boat is an adolescent boy, Simon Bolivar Quentin Phair Renier. Simon is traveling with his recently discovered Cousin to give their last family treasure, a painting of the South American revolutionist Simon Bolivar, to the Venezuelan government. However, most people on the boat are not whom they appear to be. And intrigue abounds. Also, check out the Amazon link!!! They're re-releasing the book with a new shiny cover.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Gah! This book causes so much angst. I love the Dumbledore/Harry relationship. I wish it had been that way the entire series. But mostly I like this as a prequel to the last book as so much of what goes on in this book finds it fulfillment at the end of the series. And as I mentioned in the Chamber of Secrets review I love the Voldemort history.

So 7 books since the start of July. Not too shabby, eh? AND I'm almost done with Harry Potter and I'm officially 1/3 done with L'Engle's complete works. (I did skip 3 books I'm waiting for via ILL--just to be on the up and up.)

The End of June--Mostly Harry Potter

2011-07-01T17:09:00.003-04:00

We're halfway through the Cincinnati Public Library's Summer Reading Program. While working fulltime, taking two classes, and teaching a class has cut into my book-a-day reading habit, I ended June with a total of 23 books. Not shabby as my husband would like to remind me when I pout about having to do class reading. :-)

On to the reviews:

First up Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. Is there a book better than this one? Actually, yes, there is. I like the later books better, but there's just something about that first glimpse into the JK Rowling's magical world. Harry's so young and small and really doesn't have a clue what he's getting into, but he displays that integrity, determination, and goodness which will persevere through the next six books. Love.

Lines Scribbled on an Envelope and Other Poems.
Madeleine L'Engle's first book of poetry. People, I was not excited. I can barely force myself to read through all the poetry she puts into her novels. I had that really horrible experience with Tricks. There just wasn't much hope. But despite my prejudice, I liked the book. I even copied out a couple poems I wanted to remember. She has this one that's based on the story of Eutychus from Acts that has this really gritty New York in the 60s/70s vibe. The summer I worked at AMC, I saw The Summer of Sam for free (I wouldn't have gone to it otherwise), and that movie just left the deepest impression of hot, muggy, irritable, about to explode city pressure tinted with nostalgia. The nostalgia's from a bit of Spike v. Disco-Slayer and Austin Powers/Studio 54. :-) Still gritty, not my place, but very interesting, evocative.

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
For so long this was not my favorite HP by a long shot. Now I appreciate it in reading with Book 6 and all it's Voldemort history. And I really love Fawkes and Kenneth Branagh as Gilderoy Lockhart. The movies are inextricably intertwined with the books for better or worse.

Goldfinger
This book got me halfway through James Bond. This one seemed to me like the most classic Bond book. There are about 5 impossible scenes that Bond manages to escape from in various dashing ways in some of the most unlikely settings (the golf course??). There's the "you think we've reached the end... think again" ending. And yeah, lots of womanizing--so offensive you've got to laugh womanizing. Odd, Moonraker is still my fav, but I'm looking forward to this movie.

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
Until Books 6&7, this was my favorite Harry Potter. I love Lupin and Sirius--the connections they bring to Harry's parents even when it causes pain. It's the last non-uber-dark ending. It's the last book that doesn't end in someone's death. There's a lot of reasons to like this book if you're an optimist who loves Harry Potter. :-)

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
While I still maintain this book would benefit from editing, I've moved from it and CoS tying for last place. They still aren't my favorites, but they hold their place in the Harry Potter canon well. Plus I really like the wizard who wears a woman's nightgown because he "likes a healthy breeze about his privates". :-) The Priori Incantatem chapter is just heart-breaking.

And here we are. Halfway through the Summer Reading Program. Halfway through James Bond. Halfway through Harry Potter. Still not a third of the way through Madeleine L'Engle. However, it's a three day weekend and we aren't traveling so I plan to spend much of it reading--until I convince myself to do homework and grade. Stupid real world commitments.

Library Summer Reading

2011-06-21T19:28:00.003-04:00

June started and I started kicking through books. I don't really know how the amount of books I read in a summer compares to the amount of books other Clifton Branch adult library users read, but I always like a little bit of academic competition. So nevermind that I'm now working full-time OR that I started taking two Library Science classes OR that I'm teaching OR that I do like to do other things besides reading. I had a fanciful goal of reading an average of a book a day. Ha! Easy peasy, well until this weekend. I just have to say thank goodness Madeleine L'Engle wrote some kids books too. It's saved me.

Thus far it is June 21st and I have read 18 books. They are...

Meet the Austins (L'Engle) The beginning book in the Chronos series. We meet John, Suzy, Rob and most importantly Vicky, who will compete and pretty much always win for most beloved L'Engle character.

A Wrinkle in Time (L'Engle) The classic L'Engle book. If you've read anything, you've read this. We meet Meg, Calvin, Charles Wallace (LOVE). It's the beginning of the Time Quartet or the Kairos series. I love this book more and more each time I read it, but interesting tidbit--it totally went over my head when I read it in 5th grade. L'Engle has this propensity to have very slow rising action and very quick falling action. So you hit the climax with like 15, 10, 2 pages and then you're done. It's disorienting. And A Wrinkle in Time is the quintessential example.

Blood + Water A graphic novel. (Also a lovely way to quickly amass books read.) This guy's vampire friends turn him into a vampire because he's dying from Hepatitis (like all of them--it's weird), but they didn't realize that their vampire instincts that told them not to turn him when he was healthy were to prevent hell demons from being raised up. Super crazy. Super vampire fun. Though NSFW or young children.

Moonraker (James Bond). <3 I think this is the book that will make me love the series. You see James Bond in the office going about life and he does a favor for M and chaos ensues. It's really cool to see these classic pieces of spy thrillers get used for the first time.

The Moon by Night (L'Engle) The second in the Chronos series, but not really my favorite. I love the cross country road trip, but I'm not really a big Zachary Grey fan and I don't like who Vicky becomes when she's around him.

The Twenty-Four Days before Christmas (L'Engle) It's a vignette of the time around Rob's birth. (Interesting tidbit: Rob's name changes from Robert to Robin. It's really weird.) Mostly I like it because it reminds me of my favorite Christmas story The Perfect Christmas Tree.

The Arm of the Starfish (L'Engle) This is one of my favorite L'Engle books. I love the political intrigue. I love my first introduction to Canon Tallis (who has been described as M L'E's version of James Bond). I love Poly before she changes her name to Polly. I really love Adam and the dolphins.

Diamonds are Forever (Bond) While it was no Moonraker, this was a lovely James Bond. He's back in America--New York, Vegas--a girl he might actually stay with. And the theme song to the movie is catchy.

Bossypants (Tina Fey) I love Tina Fey, but this might have been a book better in audiobook--if she's the one who reads it. The Sarah Palin part was the best. In all other respects, I liked Tim Gunn's and Kristen Chenoweth's autobio's better.

From Russia with Love (Bond) I vaguely remembered reading this one when I first decided to read James Bond four years ago. And that familiarity helped. I liked the Russian element. It reminded me of Alias. Also the same doorstops-under-the-train-compartment-doors trick was just recommended in a travel blog. Still works.

Mountains of the Pharoahs Mike got free tickets to see Zahi Hawass the, like, head archaeologist in Egypt. So I looked up some of his publications and this is what was available. It's hard when most of my Egyptology comes from The Ten Commandments (which is really wrong evidently), so I learned a lot, but I'm not sure how much I've retained. However, I felt pretty secure in knowing what he was talking about during his lecture. I should devote another blog post to my reactions to him.

The Love Letters (L'Engle) This was a new one for me. A woman fleeing from her husband goes to his mother-in-law's villa in Portugal (it makes more sense than you think). There she comes upon the letters of a Portuguese nun from the 18th century who has fallen in love with a French soldier--sadly he's a rogue. The story blends from "modern" time to past as the woman comes to terms with her own love and hardships that come with it.

Dr. No (Bond) Ah the original Dr. Evil. Yay! He's deliciously bad. Secret liars. Quarrel. Honeychild. Lots of good classic Bond.

The Young Unicorns (L'Engle) The third in the Chronos series, Vicky and the rest of the family are in New York. It's been a hard adjustment, but there's an underground plot that threatens to destabilize the whole city. Here one of L'Engle's recurring themes became clear to me--how evil masquerades as good and the difficulty in determining which is which.

Dance in the Desert (L'Engle) Another little vignette, this time of Mary, Joseph and toddler Jesus crossing the desert to Egypt. While gathered another the evening fires, the toddle Jesus is approached by the various (dangerous) wildlife of the desert who submit to him and dance with him. It's L'Engle's first blatantly Christian work. More of the desert creatures will be seen in Many Waters.

Imagining Niagara In light of The Art of Pilgrimage, I found a book on the history of Niagara Falls as seen through four distinct themes--The Distant, Death, Nature and the Future. Last week, we took a mini-break to visit the Falls and Canada and I wanted to absorb some of the history that makes it famous. Of note, it's actually a pilgrimage site as declared by the Vatican, so it really did fit. While Niagara wasn't an incredibly spiritual experience for me personally, I did appreciate reading about it to help filter through some of the commercialism that plagues the cities on either side of the river.

The Other Side of the Sun (L'Engle) We're plunged back into the South, with some pretty tricky timing issues. I think the framer story with an ancient Stella is 1960s. When Stella first visits Illyria is 1910s, maybe 1900s (must be before the Great War because they don't talk about it at all). And the history she learns about is 1860s/1870s right around and after the Civil War. It's hard with no set dates and a very bad grasp of fin de siecle history. However, again we have a woman, possibly pregnant, separated from her husband, forced into a battle of right and wrong, good and evil. L'Engle I am learning likes this transitory period perhaps because it forces the character into a timeless period of waiting, danger, and the begin of life. It's in The Love Letters; it will be there in A Swiftly Tilting Planet. So I'm interested to see where else it turns up.

And there we go. We've caught up on 3 weeks of book reading. Up next, I'm turning to Harry Potter. The final movie comes out July 15th and I will be prepared. Some L'Engle and probably one more Bond will show up. That would put me halfway through Bond, and I'm roughly a 1/4 of the way through L'Engle's work. It's shocking to think I may actually complete my decidedly ambitious reading goals.

The Art of Pilgrimage

2011-05-31T18:49:00.004-04:00

The Art of Pilgrimage by Phil Cousineau

Pilgrimage is a well-documented phenomenon that crosses religious and cultural boundaries. While I most associate pilgrimage with the medieval trips to the Holy Land, pilgrimage makes up one of the pillars of Islam and Hinduism and Buddhism also have shrines to which pilgrims travel. Then there are the literary and historical sites which draw loyal followers every year.

In many ways, any trip can be a pilgrimage though not all trips are pilgrimages. A pilgrimage is infused with meaning and purpose, a searching for something that will change you. Cousineau talks of the planning and preparation that help build the foundation for a meaningful pilgrimage to occur and then of how you must let go of your plan to allow...hmm... he'd probably invoke the fates here to shape your pilgrimage. Pass by that which you do not love is a common refrain taken from traditional pilgrim guides.

I picked up this book as part of my investigation into liminal spaces--transitions, transitory periods, journeys. It's in the liminal spaces Almost Christian suggests that the mature Christian grows and develops. Pilgrimage is the essence of liminality as you physical journey to a place and back and yearn for a transcendent spiritual experience you can bring back with you.

However, this is thoroughly a secular or at least non-Christian book. For many people, this wouldn't bother them, but the lack of particular religious focus left me a bit empty. For instance, Cousineau describes The Hill of Crosses in Lithuania and how it has become a symbol of freedom for the Lithuanian people. However, as a Christian, the symbol of the cross, while certainly standing for freedom, represents more than freedom from an oppressive government; it's freedom from Sin, Death and the power of Devil. It's nice that it has historical and ongoing political signifance, but I'm sadden by the fact that most people who make the pilgrim's journey to this hill do not have the hope that I have in the symbol of the cross.

In another section, he describes the preparation of a tour guide who travels to South America. To prepare for the journey, this otherwise atheistic person prays to an ancient Mayan god to bless his travels. I see the yearning for spiritual connection, but there's an ongoing disconnect between this person's travel and his life at home. For me, that would describe an ultimately unsuccessful pilgrimage experience, but he seems fine with it.

So as someone looking for pilgrimage as a way to increase and develop faith, I ultimately felt this book missed the point. Despite that, I think The Art of Pilgrimage provides a good method for preparing for a trip that will impact your life, that will bring you back as a better person (though I'd hope for more than just being a better person). Cousineau's applications are easy to implement. They require more intention (which will take time) than any fancy supplies.

I'd recommend it to anyone looking to get more out of their travels--religious or not. And I'm looking for ways to infuse a bit of pilgrimage spirit into our upcoming trip to Niagara Falls.

One of a Winter's Thursdays is Missing Love

2011-05-29T10:43:00.000-04:00

Say what?!?

That's the book I read, One of a Winter's Thursdays is Missing Love. Oh I'm sorry. That's two books I just finished A Winter's Love and One of Our Thursdays is Missing. Two of my favorite authors who couldn't be more different from each other. Shall we start?

One of Our Thursdays is Missing by Jasper Fforde
More than Maureen Johnson or John Greene or maybe even JK Rowling, Jasper Fforde may be my favorite living author. His Thursday Next series is the reason I thought I could read serious, classic fiction and like it. Not that HIS work is serious, classic fiction--but he plays with the English classics so well that they become one again the living, breathing works that they are remembered for. The more I dive into Bookworld the more seriously I take my job as a reader--to pay attention to each word the author has painstakingly agonized over and to appreciate and participate in this creative work. That all sounds stodgy, like a literary criticism textbook, but acted out in this speculative fiction where the written Thursday Next might be the real Thursday Next and even she isn't sure who is who, it's the joyride reading should be. Fforde is disorienting, but don't put down the book because of that--the characters are counting on you to keep up their read counts! (Seriously, start with The Eyre Affair continue through six books until you finished One of Our Thursdays is Missing you won't be disappointed. Then go read all the works he references and read the novels again, you'll feel so smart!)

A Winter's Love by Madeleine L'Engle
I nearly put down this book. Despite having just read Fforde and knowing the importance of readers, I nearly put down this book. I love Madeleine L'Engle, but her adult fiction is just so gloomy. I wasn't sure I could handle another book set in Winter in the Swiss (or maybe French?) alps, with affairs, broken marriages, and semi-alcoholic rages. But I'm glad I did stick with it. A Winter's Love occupies this fringe territory of the L'Engle corpus where yes, it does pull a lot of set pieces from other works, but it does something totally different. I haven't paid too much attention to perspective in my previous readings, but in this one, as I was getting sick of Emily's "Am I evil enough to have an affair?" whining, she switches to her husband Courtney's introspection about his withdrawal from Emily and their marriage. And when you start to wonder how anyone could hang out with Gertrude when she's drinking, you get a bombshell from her past (and this could be literally since it's just after WWII). It is gloomy and it is NOT A Wrinkle in Time (that's two more L'Engle books away), but it is worth it. You see L'Engle's range as a writer along with her on-going use of conventions.

Next up, I'm taking on one of my Liminality/Pilgrimage books, The Art of Pilgrimage. Hopefully, that will be finished by June 1st when the Summer Reading Program starts!!!!

In Other News 5/27

2011-05-27T19:40:00.003-04:00

In my return to blogging, I promised to give more life updates. So here we go.

At the beginning of May, my library switched to summer schedule. Therefore, I work an almost normal work week--Monday through Friday in any case. However, I start at noon and leave work around 8:30. This severely cuts into my morning time. I'm working on getting my "projects" done before work so that when I get home, I can read and loaf to my heart's content. It's almost working. I'm almost used to it. It's still frustrating.

Mike will most likely be defending his dissertation next week (God willing). It seems like a such a simple thing to write one dissertation, but there is still so much to do. Over Mother's Day weekend, Mike perform his first wedding/renewal of vows for a cousin in Minnesota. It was a quick trip, but we got to see his family and enjoy some beautiful weather for the outdoor ceremony. Our niece, Emily, sported a couple Aunt Bethany french braids, and we took some time to talk to her about her baptism birthday that was coming up the following week.

All in all, it feels like a lot has changed, while a lot stays the same. I'm working on being content within the moment--a hard thing for a future planner like me. But I'm grateful for the opportunities and blessings God has put in our life right now.

Review Fail

2011-05-25T18:57:00.001-04:00

I don't even know where I left off. :-( With the class reviews and everything, it complicated so here are the books I've read since Deus Ex Machina, which I'm sure I reviewed. Oh look that makes about 30 books I have not reviewed. So how about a happy face or a sad face depending my recommendation

:-\| Live and Let Die (James Bond)	5/23	Fiction
:-( Camilla Dickinson (L’Engle) (This was re-released under the title Camilla later so we'll see how it compares.)	5/21	Fiction

:-) And Both Were Young (L’Engle)	5/19	Fiction
:-) The Elephant in the Boardroom (for Church work types)	5/17	Non-fiction (Church)
:-( Ilsa (L’Engle)--but it's really rare; the lib book I had is about $245. Very Southern Gothic which one doesn't associate with L'Engle.	5/15	Fiction
:-) Casino Royale (James Bond)	5/13	Fiction
:-\| Lies My Teachers Told Me--the kid from Deadline recommended it--yes I took a book rec from a fictional character	5/12	Non-fiction History
:-\| First Light (Thoene AD Chronicles) It's Christian historical fiction. A bit cheesy and hmm... convenient	5/10	Fiction
:-) Jane (Jane Eyre retelling)--Mr Rochester is a rockstar!	5/4	Fiction
:-) The Small Rain (L’Engle)	4/30	Fiction
:-) Absolutely Positively by Heather Webber <3 Cincy author	4/26	Mystery
:-) Plain Kate by Erin Bow	4/24	YA-fantasy

:-) Demonglass (Next book out March 2012)	4/24	YA
:-) Twelfth Grade Kills (Chronicles of Vladimir Tod)	4/23	YA
:-) Eleventh Grade Burns (Chronicles of Vladimir Tod)	4/21	YA
:-\| The Brave Escape of Edith Wharton	4/19	YA (Non-fiction)
:-) The Adoration of Jenna Fox	4/18	YA (LIS614)
:-( The Battle of Jericho--Draper	4/17	YA
:-( The Rise and Fall of Senator Joe McCarthy	4/15	YA (LIS614 Non-fiction)
:-\| Young Adult Literature: From Romance to Realism--meh textbook for YA class	4/13	Non-fiction
:-( Every Bone Tells a Story	4/13	YA (LIS614 Non-fiction)
:-) Toads and Diamonds	4/11	YA (LIS614)

:-) Deeply, Desperately (Lucy Valentine)	4/9	Mystery/Romance
:-( Fun Home	4/9	YA (LIS614 Graphic Novel)
:-) Curse as Dark as Gold	4/8	YA (LIS614)
:-) Matched (!!!!) Helps my Hunger Games TEABS	4/3	YA
:-) Prudent Advice: Lesson for my Baby Daughter	3/30	Non-fiction
:-) Tenth Grade Bleeds (Chronicles of Vladimir Tod)	3/30	YA
:-) Delirium	3/29	YA (Oliver)

So I have discovered I have a definite preference for the sci-fi and fantasy genres. YA non-fiction is not my bag, though I like it well enough at the adult level, but only if it's well-written. For instance, I liked what Lies my Teacher Told Me had to say and learned a lot, but after awhile the author taught me so well that I could read his own bias in his book and got fed up with his self-righteous attitude.

Also you will see that I had begun my summer reading list before I posted it to the blog. Sorry I couldn't wait.

Summer Reading Plan

2011-05-23T20:03:00.000-04:00

My class reading is done. My library account is officially down to a handful of books. I finally may have some control over my "To Be Read" list.

But why would I want to leave it that way?

Therefore I present my summer reading plan:

James Bond--I've had some James Bond books that I borrowed from my dad...oh for four years. I was reading them out of order though so that really didn't work well. So this summer I will read the 14 books by Ian Fleming, starting with Casino Royale. Maybe for fun, I'll try to track down the movies too. (Though I said I was going to do this with the Bourne movies and never did...)
Harry Potter--I haven't read the series in a while. The last movie is coming out. Enough said!
Madeleine L'Engle--Another favorite author I have not spent enough time with recently. However, she has 60 publications to her name. This is what makes my reading plan ambitious.
Piligrimage and Liminal Spaces--In light of Almost Christian, I'm looking into this idea of transitions within the Christian life. I've borrowed 7ish books on pilgrimage and liminal spaces. This is the heavy reading of my summer.

Like last year I'm participating in my public library's summer reading program. For every 3 books I read, I get FABULOUS prizes. And they are actually FABULOUS prizes. The child, teen, and adult who read the most at each branch of the library win a Nook Color!!!

Speed Reviews: The Class Edition

2011-04-23T17:05:00.002-04:00

Now nearly 17 books behind in my review, things have gotten so far out of control I must categorize my speed reviews. This week I finished the last of the reading for my YA Literature class. 1 book review, 1 defense paper, 1 discussion and I'm done with school (until I prep for my summer class that I'm teaching and start my LIS summer classes. . . and finish grading the class I'm teaching. It's a good thing I like school.) So to finish up here are the books that I read for class and my thoughts about them:

A Curse as Dark as Gold
The assigned reading for retold fairy tales week. Loved it. The tale of Rumpelstiltskin in expanded and detailed form. Rumpelstiltskin is one of those semi-overlooked fairy tales. Everyone kind of knows it but it's not been made into a Disney classic or anything so it's still really fresh. This version sticks the story in old world not quite industrialized Europe, but could be America, and then spins it out of control with curses and forces beyond our understanding. Sometimes crazy stuff just happens and science and reason can't explain it. This story deals with that. It's good.

Fun Home
Not my cup of tea. Don't read in public. (It has a couple of explicit pages.) I think in general the graphic novel/memoir genre is geared toward the dark comedy. There are mildly humorous parts but a lot of it is depressing and this one in particular just didn't suit.

Toads and Diamonds
Another retold fairy tale for discussion this time. The fairy tale about one sister who speaks jewels and flowers and another who speaks various forms of reptiles is not one who is widely known. It was vaguely familiar to me, but I didn't know much of the story. But this was an interesting variation nonetheless. Setting in an India-like country, the gifts are bestowed by the goddess, Naghali, and can be good. The native culture honors snakes for their ability to keep away rodents while the invading culture of a different religion despises them. It really brings a post-modern, girl power light to general traditional fairy tales.

Every Bone Tells a Story
I totally don't get YA non-fiction. It has some value in the classroom, but I think in general high school students don't need non-fiction at "their level." Books that are particularly aimed at YA interests also make some sense. But I think a general introduction to anthropology would be just as good. As it stands, this book is fine--a nice introduction to four of the skeletons used to understand early hominins.

Young Adult Literature: From Romance to Realism
This was our YA Lit text. While I think the author refers to his own work a little too much, I suppose he really does have some clout to do so it must be excusable. This covers much of the history of YA lit from SE Hinton to present day favs and special topics within the field. It's a good overview, but pricey...

The Rise and Fall of Senator Joe McCarthy
Sigh. Joe McCarthy wasn't a good person. I understand him better from this book, but still...
Also, the guy cites Wikipedia as his sources. He uses lots of other good resources too, but still Wikipedia and a print encyclopedia? Explained the right way, it makes some sense, but he doesn't do that. And if this is for YA in an educational setting, I wouldn't encourage youth to use it for a source.

The Adoration of Jenna Fox
Jenna wakes up from an 18 month coma and tries to make sense of her life. She has no memory of her life before, but her parents have given her all the videos of her life up until the accident. As Jenna tries to piece her life together she discovers all sorts of secrets about her parents, her neighbors, her friends, and herself. While Feed was science-scary, this is science-thought provoking. Pearson allows the reader to come to their own conclusions about the science in the novel. That was a very refreshing take on the sci-fi novel.

And thus ends the 24 books I read over this semester. Looking for Alaska and The Hunger Games were also assigned but since I has such vivid memories of those novels, I wrote the reviews from memory. And I still have 9 reviews to do... :-)

And in Other News...4/17

2011-04-17T14:28:00.001-04:00

In a nod to friends and family who while they love my book reviews would like to know more about life in general, here's what's new in bullets:

Am now full-time. After four years of part-time bliss, I have returned to the land of the fully employed. It's bittersweet, but it allows me to stay in my Library Science program and take more classes at a time. (More work AND more school? Awesome.) I'm still working Mon-Thur evenings; I just come in earlier and I have a Sunday shift.
Mike's working on his dissertation proposal that will be submitted by the end of the quarter, but probably sooner. This means the verb "to dissertate" will soon be ever present in our vocabulary. Sadly spell-check refuses to acknowledge the existence of such a word.
I've learned APA citations require you to only capitalize the first word and proper nouns in titles. This goes against everything I've learned about capitalizing words in titles. I feel a need to return to 3rd/4th grammar. (This is why grammars important, kids! You must be able to rage against the citation style machine!)
I continue to read much YA literature. (Despite my speed review, I'm still at least 11 books behind.) But liminal spaces and pilgrimages are also vying for attention. Soon I can immerse myself in theology books!
Once I turn in my most recently finished library books, I will be under 10 checkouts for the first time since I started my YA class. I love my library, but I'm really excited about not having to manage several different due dates.
I am running. While the treadmill shows I can run for a good 30 minutes, that is not true in real life. Hills and actual body propelling are hard. I'm not sure I'm one who actually *enjoys* running, but it feels good to do something I thought I hated because I couldn't do it.
I continue to miss Lenten services due to my work schedule. I miss the opportunity to immerse myself in this season for remembrance and repentance. Fortunately, working in this evenings is only for a season of life as well.
In place of community worship for Lent, I've picked up (or worked at picking up a devotion habit). I'm working through a guide from A Little Book of Joy that was made available last Lent. I'm doing this in conjunction with a plan to Maximize My Mornings from inspiredtoaction.com. It made my running plan work out a bit more smoothly, and next week I'll implement the planning stage. When I do it, I'm much more productive. When I don't... well I'm still in my pjs. :-) Anyway, the daily devotion habit is pretty awesome. It's been something that I've intended to do for awhile, but to see it actually happen is great.

So that's the story from Lake Woebegon... or the banks of the Ohio rather. Man, I still love the river.

Speed Book Reviews

2011-04-15T14:01:00.003-04:00

I’ve reached the point once again where the books I’ve read vastly outnumber the ones I have reviewed. Since I’m still blitzing through them (6 weeks until the end of the semester!), it’s time for speed reviewing. Here we go:

Hex Hall
Cutey, cute. It’s what happens when you take Bella Swan and give her magical powers and send her to Hogwarts Reform School for no good reason. Except Bella has a spine and picks good friends, and while yes, she falls in love with someone who wants to kill her, he’s not a morose stalker so... Go Sophie! It’s good clean fun and worth the afternoon. The sequel, Demonglass, is sitting on my "To Be Read" shelf.

Almost Christian
It’s not YA, but it is about young adults and their spiritual development. While it is using the results of the National Study of Youth and Religion to suggest ways to more effectively pass on a meaningful faith to youth, I found it a personally challenging book. Since by far the most significant indicator of a youth’s religious commitment was that of their parents, even before I become a parent I am working to build up my own faith so my children will realize that the salvation I have through Jesus Christ is something important that I want them to also have and grow in. I don’t want them to only think Christianity is a way to be nice to people and God isn’t significant enough to make a priority in their lives. While faith only comes through the Holy Spirit working in a person’s life, I don’t want to provide any roadblocks to that process. I recommend it to anyone who may have any impact on children.

Feed
Feed was required reading for my YA Lit class. It’s science fiction set in the future where everyone has direct access to the internet via a neurological implant called the feed. When Titus meets Violet, he learns not everyone has had the feed running since birth, and that while the feed seems incredibly necessary for any attempt at engaging in the world, it has a dark side as well. More than any dystopian novel I’ve read Feed made me want to flee from technology. I’m glad I read it. It’s very thought provoking. But it hits a little too close to home for me to remember it comfortably. Read it, but prepare to be disturbed.

The House of the Scorpion
Matteo Alacran is the 9th of his kind, but he doesn’t know it. El Patron, dictator of the land between Mexico (now Atzlan) and the United States, has been raising clones of himself so he could live to his present age of 140. We follow Matt as he encounters a world that doesn’t accept him and struggles to find his place in it. It’s another really thought-provoking book. However, the second half of the book when Matt escapes the Farm kind of fell apart for me. The tight interesting story just spiraled out of control and the author had to do some pretty extreme literary gymnastics to bring the story back together again. I still think it’s a story worth reading, just be prepared for the ending to go wacky.

Organized Simplicity
I’m on a Spring Cleaning, organize my life kick. Probably because life is kicking up a notch coming out of Winter and just going to keep going and Uncle Uno’s house (which I helped clean out) made me want to disavow all worldly possessions. Organized Simplicity just provides a nice little outline to get your home in order. I’m not sure it could be done in 10 days like she suggests, but the steps are pretty easy to break into several days. I want to buy this book for her resources in the back, including homemade cleaning supplies.

Persepolis and Persepolis 2
I was going to use these books are my memoir/graphic novel for my YA class, but I think they hit a little older. Marjane Satrapi came of age during the time of the Iranian Revolution in the 70s. She remembers not wearing the veil, and then wearing it, and all the changes in climate that the veil symbolized. Her parents decided to send her off to Austria to escape some of the harsher changes, but her status as an outsider merely drives her to dangerous behaviors and people. Styled in the slightly humorous, but mostly dark interpretation as other historical graphic novels like Maus, Persepolis is an inside look into Iran and into the heart of a person desperately looking for a place to belong.

The 100 Thing Challenge
In the “organize my life kick”, I read this book hoping for motivation (while realizing I would never own just 100 things). Bruno is an all-right narrator, an interesting Christian voice on a generally secular subject, and he works at Point Loma so I’m uber-jealous. It didn’t change my life, but with Organized Simplicity, I have cleaned out my closet and dresser. :-)

Deus Ex Machina
In the place between The Hunger Games and Survivor, you find this book. It’s the brutality of the dystopian fantasy, but it has the reality of... well... the reality tv show. The Deserted is a reality tv show that has pushed the limits. In HG fashion, the producer has created an island that responds to his every whim in an attempt to get an authentic reaction from his characters/contenders. However, as the show has progress the producer feels authenticity gives way to sensationalism. Despite some really crude scenes (almost thrown in to make it "more adult" though I'm sure the author would tell you it's just a physical manifestation of the vulgarity the show produces), it was an interesting read.

Pride and Prejudice Continued

2011-03-13T22:21:00.000-04:00

Jane Austen has long been a favorite of readers and as readers become writers their fandom expresses itself in new fiction about favorite characters. And thus we have Darcy and Fitzwilliam. I was walking through the library on my way to pick up Looking for Alaska, when I spotted this book and I couldn't NOT pick it up. In high school I read a lot of Austen fanfic (here actually), and therefore love the idea of Colonel Fitzwilliam getting more spotlight.

In this novel, we picked up after Darcy and Elizabeth's wedding. They are in typical newlywed bliss. Enter Fitzwilliam who tries to get Darcy to reconcile with Lady Catherine De Bourgh to no avail, at least yet. Fitzwilliam sees Darcy and Elizabeth in such bliss that he wonders if he too should settle down, but maybe he should take care of some of that PTSD first.

Meanwhile Elizabeth becomes pregnant. And Darcy begins to flip out because of course he lost his mother when Georgiana was born. Add to that some more conniving of Caroline Bingley. And you have their plot. All in all very satisfying even though I don't know why Elizabeth and Jane are so distance, especially when Bingley and Darcy were such good friends.

Fitzwilliam's story is a little more dramatic with an American widow who is in jeopardy of losing her son to her mother-in-law, and Fitzwilliam being very dense about why that would bother her. Ugh. It was annoying that Fitzwilliam could be so insightful in the Darcy/Lady Catherine problem but so oblivious in his own life. I suppose it's normally that way.

Regardless, it's another cute story--not destined to become a classic, but worth an afternoon. Fans will love the fiery Elizabeth scenes and be very glad Lydia only gets briefly mentioned. And it has a very lovely epilogue with Darcy and Fitzwilliam as old men. Fans will not be disappointed.

Rapunzel's Wild West

2011-03-11T21:56:00.000-05:00

Shannon Hale of The Goose Girl and Princess Academy fame teams up with her husband, Dean, and a completely unrelated Nathan Hale to creating a retelling of Rapunzel in the Wild West. Rapunzel's Revenge is less cowboy than it is desert so those who don't like Western should not be alarmed. You'll probably think it's cute anyway.

And overall it's cute. It's a rather massive graphic novel, clocking about 140 pages so there are parts that get a little drawn out. But there's lots of action, a Jack and the Beanstalk crossover, and awesome hair as lasso action. After the dystopia of Ship Breaker, I was probably a little fizzed out on people slaving in harsh conditions while others relax in luxury. You can only take so much. But it's worth checking out, especially if you want to check out this "graphic novel" thing without getting too weird. ;-)

Ship Shape

2011-03-09T21:39:00.000-05:00

The ice caps have melted. There are category 6 hurricanes called "city wreckers". And we've run out of oil. It's a brave new world, folks. Welcome to the world of Ship Breaker.

In the land of "have-nots", we meet Nailer/Lucky Boy. He works light crew on marooned oil tankers stripping out copper, aluminum, and other precious metal we can no longer mine. It's hot, dark, dangerous work. And when a duct gives away, Nailer finds himself swimming in an old oil pocket. In most cases, this would be considered a lucky strike. A pocket of oil, if he can keep it a secret from boss man, could set him up for life. But he has to get out first. It's a fight for life he wins, but he loses the oil. Still his high sliding father (a crystal meth addict) decides to keep him around a little longer.

In the land of "haves", we meet Pima/Lucky Girl. She earns her nickname by surviving a city wrecker in her posh boat (while the crew all dies). But she'll need more than luck to keep away from her uncle who wishes to use her as a pawn to force her corporate big-wig dad to hand over his company.

When her uncle's goons enlist Nailer's dad to help, they both flee to find someone still loyal to Pima's father. Pima has to learn quickly to survive in a non-gilded world. Nailer wrestles with loyalty and wonders if he's destined to be the lethal killer like his father. Can good actually triumph in a world that has fallen into such evil?

If dystopian novels like The Hunger Games leave you begging for more, check out Paolo Bacigalupi first novel. It's crazy intense. And frighteningly plausible--okay probably not. I hope not? Ugh. Anyway, this afternoon I was watching a train pass and briefly wondered if I could hop trains like Pima and Nailer do. If that's possible, what else? ;-)

Good book. A little unsettling end. (No nice bow, but it's in the way of happy.) And it will make you think.

Dystopia

2011-03-09T10:52:00.003-05:00

This week in my YA lit class, we're discussing dystopian fiction--stories like The Hunger Games, Chaos Walking, Uglies which image a world utterly broken and chaotic until the main character shakes up the system, the world view, etc. to discover that there's a better way to live. I suppose there's many reasons to like dystopian fiction--it has the possibility to non-stop action, it's so much worse than the world right now that you're kind of glad when it's over, it has fun times with high-tech gadgets and imagines things like iPads as passe and quaint (le sigh). But I'd like to suggest an alternative reason to read dystopian fiction.

I'm also reading Almost Christian: What the Faith of Our Teenagers is Telling the American Church. It's based on the National Study of Youth and Religion which conducted several thousand surveys to find out what teens think about religion and Christianity in particular. The findings were that Christianity is okay and even viewed pleasantly, but it doesn't matter much. So this book is all about how youth leaders and other concerned adults (that's me) could work to change that impression. One of the concepts discussed is how faith develops through events of detachment--unfamiliar and unsettling settings help create an environment where change and learning can occur.

So meshing the two ideas, I posit that dystopian fiction creates that unfamiliar and unsettling situation that has some familiar elements to secure the reader, but otherwise it creates this concept of detachment virtually, by getting the reader involved in the story, so that they can learn about concepts such as the horrors of pursuing beauty at the expense of thinking (Uglies) or how we are entertaining ourselves to death (Hunger Games). By showing these extremes and making the reader uncomfortable in that environment, we can then pull back and talk about our own addictions to the pursuit of endless physical youth and relentless entertainment.

I'm not certain enough to share these thoughts with my class just yet, but I think there's something to the idea. Or maybe I'm just looking for more excuses to indulge in my favorite genre...

Because I Could Not Stop for Death

2011-03-07T21:08:00.000-05:00

Honestly, I'm not a big poetry fan, but The Book Thief kept bringing "Because I could not stop for Death" by Emily Dickinson to mind. In it, the narrator, Death, tells a story which he picked up while gathering souls. It's the story of a young girl, who steals books in Nazi Germany. At first it's something to connect her with her brother whose death first brought the book thief to Death's attention. Then as her foster father teaches her to read, it becomes life, an escape, a statement. Liesel, the book thief, lives through the horrors of World War II and survives literally because of her books. It's a powerful, complicated story about the good and evil present in the daily lives of Germans. So

1) Read it for the interesting perspective of German life. While there's a Jewish persecution subplot (and the book is honored for its portrayal), more poignant are Liesel and Rudy's views on Hitler's Youth, Hans's stand against joining the Nazi party, the rationing and bomb sirens as the war escalates. Rarely do we hear of this side of the war, that there were innocents who died in Germany too.

2) Read it for the characterization of Death. Death is a great narrator. Alternately sympathetic and gruesome, we get glimpses of Death's life(?) as he ferries souls to eternity. He remembers the separate times he encounters the book thief outside of the story she wrote. He remembers when he has encountered the ones she loved. He adds his own color--oh the color--to Liesel's story until it becomes so much more than a diary of a little book stealer.

3) Read it for the words. Zusak personifies words in such a fabulous way. They tumble out of Liesel's mouth and roll to a stop at Rosa's feet. They fly, they sneak, they grow larger and looming. As words take on a stronger meaning in Liesel's life they do so much more in the story. Indeed, Hitler's use of words swayed a country. (I got that from the King's Speech.) So too Liesel discovers that she can harness the power of words. I totally want to go back and write a college paper on this book.

Anyway read it. It will probably make you cry, but in a good way.

Twilight in Comics

2011-03-05T15:57:00.000-05:00

You've read the books; you've seen the movies. What's next for the Twi-hard?

The Graphic Novel of course!

Illustrator Young Kim has taken Stephenie Meyer ever-popular series and created a beautiful graphic novel. If you aren't a fan of Twilight or of graphic novels, you might want to skip this one. However, if you appreciate either, you'll enjoy wiling away a couple hours with this book. It stays pretty tight to the story line, and puts pictures of someone other than Robert Pattinson in your book imagination. (Gratefully appreciated in my case.)

Volume 1 takes the reader up through the meadow scene of the first book, so we get to see Kim's vision of how vampires sparkle. Seriously disappointed in the movies. Pretty okay in the graphic novel. Still a fan of Buffy where vamps spontaneously combust in the sun.

Meyer approves so that's something. And some of the pages are truly beautiful. My only complaint is that the characters are so stylized that I had some trouble telling them apart. Full-color might have helped, but I realize that's pretty expensive to do.

Also for fans, it's not a word-for-word retelling. There are some scenes where the illustrator chose to let the frames tell the story. To veteran graphic novel readers, this may be no big. But for me, I miss some of the exposition.

Check it out if you're so inclined!

Poor Octavian

2011-02-27T15:17:00.002-05:00

When we last saw Octavian, he was fleeing from the College of Novangelium... something or other*, with his mentor Prof. Trefusis to Boston. So we start The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing: Traitor to the Nation; Part II: The Kingdom on the Waves with Octavian securing lodging at a widow's house and returning to his beloved violin to earn money for their board. Through his band mates, he learns that Lord Dunmore, governor of Virginia, is offering freedom to all blacks who join his forces. The promise of freedom is too much for Octavian to resist so he joins up meeting again with Pro Bono, a fellow slave at the college, and meets for the first time people from his homeland of Oyo. Octavian must wrestle with his identity as a rather privileged slave versus those who have suffered greatly at the hands of plantation masters, and his misunderstood identity as a prince of Oyo.

No lie. This is a really hard book to read. It's challenging just in its word choice and style. It's difficult to watch Octavian who is so well-educated in someways be so naive in others. It's hard to know eventually they are going to lose and to watch the treatment of Blacks at the hands of Lord Dunmore. Heart-braking.

It's ultimately worth it though. You see the love Prof. Trefusis has for Octavian despite continued misunderstanding of their class differences. You see Octavian grow and struggle and ultimately master his own life and find a way to connect with something in this world. So yes, Octavian is a traitor to the nation, but his reasons are his own. And you can hardly blame his choice for some freedom when regardless of which nation he chooses to support he will ultimately be trampled by it.

*Sorry, I've returned the book already.

Riot

2011-02-25T14:47:00.000-05:00

Most Civil War novels, focus on the battle front, where the action is bloody, or on the South whose whole way of life is dramatically changing, Walter Dean Myer's Riot takes a snapshot of New York City during the 4 days of the Draft Riot. President Lincoln has just called for more troops after Gettysburg and Irish immigrants focus their anger at free blacks in the city. 15 year-old Claire finds herself directly in the middle as the daughter of an African-American restaurant manager and his Irish wife. Claire, who has never given much thought to her skin tone (which is light enough to pass for white if needed), now finds herself lost in a sea of changing identity.

The novel itself is fine. It's written as a screenplay which allows for quick scene changes and lots of action. And it plays out in the 2-ish hours a movie would allow. And it's a new look at the Civil War which effected all parts of America, not just where there was fighting. (It's hard to imagine that with our modern wars.) Claire is a well-spoken teenager who wishes for more than she'll get, but you see the seeds of the Civil Rights movement in her feisty spirit.

However, I felt rushed. This is due to two factors: 1) I was listening to it on a playaway which is about the size of an mp3 player, but it holds exactly one book. That book cannot be downloaded or changed, but it also can't really be corrupted or scratched like other audiobooks. You provide your headphones and a AAA battery. I love them. BUT that gave me absolutely no clue on how long it might be. There was a 2 1/2 hour thing written in tiny print, but easily overlooked. I checked to see how many tracks there were and I was surprised at how quickly I got through them. 2) The playaway had a variable playback function so I sped it up (because I thought it was a normal audiobook and would take forever).

So while I wouldn't NOT recommend this book, I can't really recommend it either. Walter Dean Myers is a god about YA authors so, you know, he's worth reading. But maybe his best known work Monster would be a better place to start.

However, I highly recommend the playaway. It solves the portability problem of books on cd (which are limited mostly to my car and sometimes the computer), and it's pretty easy to use. They are a pretty new thing. Wikipedia says they're only at 10 library systems which have them so request your library to get them!

I Need a Hero

2011-02-23T14:14:00.003-05:00

The last book in Sharon M. Draper's Jericho trilogy is called Just Another Hero. It really changed how I perceived November Blues, to the extent that I remember liking it much more than I know I did. In Just Another Hero, Kofi, who has until this point been a secondary character, is trying to find a way to pay for college--MIT to be specific--despite his parents who are either still hitting the party scene or looking for luck at the Argosy Casino while trying to avoid and then beat an addiction to pain killers. The other narrator, Arielle, is currently lonely having pushed away November and her other friends and her boyfriend Jericho. She seems to have the perfect spoiled life with a step-father who gives her $100 a week in allowance and buys her things like an iPhone, but he's very particular to distinguish that it's HIS money that pays for everything and Arielle and her mother should live according to HIS rules. Can she let money buy happiness or will she realize there are more important things?

Figuring out those storylines would have probably been sufficient in this novel, but in addition there's a person who is about to bring a gun into school. Is it a) Eddie, the juvenile delinquent who just got out of juvy for the Warriors of Distinct stunt pulled last year, b) Ozrick, the incredible smart but horribly picked on computer genius, or c) Crazy Jack with his loud cymbals and a desire to splash the world with a noise of color?

Also there's some petty theft going around. Draper does not pull any punches when it comes to getting every storyline imaginable in this novel. But it works.

Probably my favorite part of the novel was how Draper uses Mrs. Witherspoon's Beowulf unit to talk about what really makes a hero. The classroom discussions really stick with Kofi as he tries to figure how what kind of man he's going to be. And the person who turns out to be the hero during the gun incident is totally unexpected. Heroes come in all shapes and sizes, and this one is particularly satisfying.

The adults in this novel are really good. Some are dangerously flawed like Arielle's step-dad. Several others are just trying to make the best decisions they know how like Arielle's mom--eventually. The teachers are obviously engaged in the classroom and committed to getting the best out of and for their students. It came as little surprise when I learned Draper used to teach English at Walnut Hills, one of the better high schools in the Cincinnati system. (It even has it's own wikipedia article.) The adults aren't dopes and they don't take away from high schoolers*, but they're well-developed characters nonetheless.

It's just a good book. Uber-dramatic, but not in the way that usually makes me roll my eyes. While I knew most of the story line was unrealistic, it still felt authentic. So something was there that overcame the drama. (It's probably the same something that wasn't there in November Blues.) And that makes me want to go back and read the first book of the trilogy. The Battle of Jericho is on my To Be Read shelf right now.

*You know how in teen dramas like the OC and others the parents would get into their own stupid problems and they'd spend half the episode focusing on them? It's not like that. You might want to know more, but not enough to distract from the matter at hand.

Hold me Closer, Necromancer

2011-02-19T21:44:00.000-05:00

This is so easy. Go read Hold me Closer, Necromancer right now. Just go. Come back and read my blog later. You won't be sorry...

Seriously, you're still here. Okay check out the book trailer:

(Seriously, people love it so much they make movies about it. Just read it!)

...

Okay. You still want a review. I love this book. Seriously, I'd marry it. If only for the fact that it makes you belt out Elton John every 5 minutes. (I really need to learn more words to that song.) I'm not even a big fan of "Tiny Dancer", but every time I sing "Hold me closer, necromaaaanser," I smile. A big goofy, everyone-is-looking-at-you-weird smile.

But the book is so much better than that. Sam and his buddies from the fast food restaurant, Ramone, Frank and Brooke, find out there is much more to Seattle than coffee shops and rain. For one there's this big evil dude Douglas Montgomery who wants Sam... well sometimes he wants Sam dead, sometimes he wants Sam to join him. He just keeps changing his mind and expects people to follow along--which they generally do because otherwise he'll kill you.

But why would Douglas Montgomery want Sam dead? Well it has to do with necromancy and secrets and binding spells. And Sam figures out why he's been a slacker all his life. I love it when people find out they're worth so much more than they thought.

So you've got suspense sponsored by a creepy, creepy, big, bad dude. You've got heartwarming finding your place in this world. But you've ALSO got super cool and hilarious sidekicks. There's Ramone as you heard in the book trailer. There's Brooke, who I would tell you much more about, but it's such a good reveal I don't want to spoil it. There's Brid who is like the coolest werewolf ever. She could kick Jacob Black's butt any day. And Ashley who runs errands in the netherworld in exchange for waffles and other favors, but gives you plenty of snark for free. :-)

But here's the highest compliment I can paid this book. Lish McBride does for necromancy what Joss Whedon did for vampires. Seriously awesome.

So please go read this book. Sing a couple rounds of "Hold me closer, necromancer" when no one's in earshot. And sigh in relief when you hear there's supposed to be a sequel in 2012. I love these characters too much to give them up after one book.

For those keeping score, this is one of my 2 self-chosen fantasy books. It's a 2011 Michael Printz honor book.

Singing the Blues

2011-02-17T21:45:00.000-05:00

FYI I'm currently 5 books behind in reviews. Sigh.

I picked up November Blues as part of our multicultural unit. I thought I was picking up the first book of a two-parter, but it turned out to be the middle book of a trilogy. FAIL. So this book picks up after Josh has died leaving his girlfriend, November, pregnant and his best-friend/cousin, Jericho, in so much grief that he can't play his trumpet. Okay the parallel kind of fails a bit.

Jericho copes with his grief by putting down his trumpet and trying out for the football team, which of course he's a natural at. At the same time he develops a relationship with Olivia, an otherwise-ignored tuba and sousaphone player, after he is dumped by Arielle. He also provides support to November and his yet-to-be-born cousin.

Obviously, this is November's story. Jericho's grief is great, I'm sure, but November will have a day-in, day-out reminder of Josh. Fortunately, she loved Josh, but she's not mourning him as her one, true love. She just has to deal with whether she should give up the baby to Josh's parents, how she is going to college now that she can't go to Cornell, a mom who is extremely disappointed in her, and worries that her baby will have the same genetic defects as her brother.

Couple that with a dramatic medi-vac flight to Good Sam (aka the hospital you can see my apartment from). And it's a good story. I had a couple issues with Draper's writing style. The dialect fell flat at times. And while I love me some Cincinnati shout-outs, it was almost too much. However, I think that was just the newness talking, because I had no such problems in the book that followed... So I'm pretty much willing to chalk it up to second-in-the-series sag (think Empire Strikes Back, New Moon, etc.*).

So check out The Jericho Trilogy and check back for reviews of Just Another Hero and The Battle of Jericho.

*Wait a second. Did she just put Star Wars and Twilight in the same category?!? Why yes I did. :-)

Polly Misses Alex

2011-02-14T21:22:00.000-05:00

How does anyone find time to read anything else when their class assigns 25 books in a semester? I don't know. I blame it on the fact I don't have kids or a full-time job. Don't hate because I get to read so much.

But every year at this time the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County sponsors a book for it's "On the Same Page Cincinnati" program. The idea is that libraries across the county host reading groups and events surrounding this one book so everyone can have this shared experience. Last year, it was The Hunger Games. I had wanted to read the book anyway so I participated in my introvert way (meaning I read the book from the library and gazed longingly at the archery contests for teenagers). This year, it was a book called Alex and Me: How a Scientist and a Parrot Discover the Hidden World of Animal Intelligence and Formed a Deep Bond in the Process by Irene Pepperberg. I was less than enthused, but I like Science Friday so I thought I'd give it a shot.

Oh my goodness, this book is amazing. Well technically Alex is amazing. Over the course of his 30 years, Alex learned how to label objects, colors and shapes, he could tell the difference between objects (and tell you what was different), and he even created his own word for "apple". That bird was smart! You'll love Alex even if you don't really like animals, because he's just too endearing.

I also really liked how Pepperberg wrote the book. It's understandable and friendly, but I didn't see a whole lot of evidence of bad science. She doesn't overstate her research with Alex and the other African greys. She talks about getting significant samples. All very good things.

But here's the lasting impact of the book for me:
1) Alex called almonds "cork nuts". This week my mom sent some unshelled nuts in the mail and those almonds do look an awful lot like corks. I think I'm going to adopt the term.
2) Pepperberg worked for a while at Media Lab at MIT and this place is amazing. I was listening to an old Science Friday episode from like October and they were celebrating Media Lab's 25th birthday--these are the people who gave us e-ink for Kindles and guitar hero. The fact that Pepperberg and Alex are associated with these guys makes them SO much cooler in my book.
3) In April, Rio a movie about... oh sad it's a rare blue macaw not a parrot... boo. Well, if you want some facts to go with your animation, Alex and Me will provide some balance. We'll go see it because it takes places in Rio.

These are obviously not the important parts of the book. And you'll undoubtedly fine much more significance than I have. But I still love it, and I'll encourage everyone to participate in On the Same Page Cincinnati even if you don't live here.

But if you do, come see Irene Pepperberg on March 5th at 2pm at the main library. I think I might actually participate!

Afterwards...

2011-02-12T21:02:00.000-05:00

Gearing up for the multicultural unit of my YA class, I chose the book After Tupac and D Foster, a book mentioned several times in our YA textbook. It was a Newbery Honor book. (FYI: Across book awards it goes like this--every year one book gets an award and a few others get honors.) It seemed interesting.

I was vaguely aware of Tupac Shakur. We first got cable when I was in 8th grade and in came MTV so I was much more aware of rap culture than just a year earlier. But it was never really my thing. However for these girls (D Foster, Neeka, and an unnamed narrator), he was them. He spoke to their situations. He was fine. (Go ahead; google him. He had lovely puppy dog eyes.) He was the kid from the streets who made good.

The book runs from the time D Foster shows up on their street and Tupac gets shot the first time to the time D leave and Tupac is killed in a gun fight. Generally this book doesn't have much in the way of plot. Neeka is always fascinated by how D's foster mom lets her "roam" about the city so one day D takes the girls off the block to her favorite play with an amphitheater. Neeka's oldest brother gets out of jail. The other older brother gets into Georgetown on a basketball scholarship. But nothing really happens to the girls.

So you have to like character-driven novels. And this one did it fairly well. The girls are likable, very different from each other. I liked the unnamed narrator the best because she was bookish. But it's hard to say a lot about the book. It's just kind of ephemeral.

So if you're looking for something a little different or if you happened to LOVE Tupac, I'd recommend this book. It won't change your life, but your afternoon will be well spent.

Dear Diary

2011-02-10T21:00:00.000-05:00

After the emotional heft of Speak, Tricks, and Deadline, I needed something fun so I pulled out Bridget Jones's Diary. I love this book in no small part because of its willingness to not be lazy and put the full possessive 's in the title.

For those who don't know BJD is about a women in her thirties who starts a new diary with a host of New Year's resolutions. Throughout the year, she gets in an out of a relationship with her boyfriend/boss of her publishing company, drinks a whole lot, quits her job, does embarrassing thing on tv, counsels her parents through a separation and divorce, and deals with the on again, off again presents of Mark Darcy, a top human rights barrister who is recently divorced. It's most popular because the movie adaptation starring Renee Zellwegger, Hugh Grant, and Colin Firth.

And if you've only seen the movie (which is wonderful), READ THE BOOK!! Oh my goodness, there is some mad-cap mayhem in it. I'm pretty kind to movie adaptations.* And BJD is wonderful with Colin Firth in his Darcy-ness. And Hugh Grant being the lovable scoundrel. But the book is pretty amazing. It has lots of the scenes you love from the movie, and a lot more scenes that are just great. Also lovely in my recollection is Bridget Jones: Edge of Reason, but you can skip the movie in that one.

I've been feeling a little too much in the category of "Smug Married". (Really my husband is great. And more great than frustrating. I love telling people about it, even to the point of wanting to get one of these t-shirts. Amazing, right?) And I adore my single friends and really don't want our relationship statuses to get in the way of our friendship. So living with Bridget for a while helped me regain some perspective.**

Also while there is a TON of drinking, it is not under-age. No one gets addicted to narcotics. No one ends up pregnant by willing or unwilling means. And no one dies. All wins especially after the books I've been reading.

*Except for A Ring of Endless Light,*** which took an immensely moving book about death and life and made it about saving dolphins.... AND Ella Enchanted, which took a smart, self-sacrificing heroine and made her dumb.

**Though I should also say that I flipped to the back cover and realized I bought this book on my honeymoon on a Greek island. Aw... :-)

***NPR had a story today called Why Do Girls Love Horses, Unicorns, and Dolphins? I'm not sure how insightful it was. I didn't stay until the end. But it reminded me of Madeleine L'Engle.

Meet the Deadline

2011-02-05T14:49:00.000-05:00

My last realistic fiction novel is Deadline by Chris Crutcher. Ben Wolf goes in for his senior year cross country physical and finds out he has leukemia--a lethal form that will kill him within the year and treatment might give him a few months more. Being the persuasive geek he is, he convinces his doctor not to tell his parents (he's 18), and he's determined to live out his senior year as full of life as he can. This includes trying out for football (no need to fear brain injury), asking out Dallas Suzuki (rejection won't kill him), and terrorizing the government teacher who refuses to look at the other side of any issue (he doesn't need that diploma anyway).

Ben's no nonsense attitude to his last year is courageous and dumb. It's totally the move of an 18 year old who just found out he doesn't have the rest of his life ahead of him. If he was in my class, I'd find him terribly annoying, but in his brain you can't help but love him.

(Image from Fantastic fiction)

There's a lot going on in this book. His mom is bipolar and as the major peacemaker of the family he struggles with what will happen to his family once he's gone. He befriends the town drunk discovering a history of a Catholic priest scandal and a really good guy who just doesn't know how to do the right thing. He unites with his brother (the quarterback) to make an unstoppable team. He discovers hidden depths about Dallas Suzuki and helps her heal from her own history of abuse. But in all these things, he messes up like a normal teenager. He does ultimately realize he should tell everyone what's going on, but the revelation causes its own turmoil.

My favorite parts of this book had to be Ben's dream conversations with Hey-soos (you know the Spanish pronunciation of Jesus). They are irreverent as can be and verge on heresy, but Hey-soos provides the sounding board Ben needs when he can't talk to anyone else. He guides and directs and calls Ben on his bluffs. While I'm not in favor of reducing God to a Jiminy Cricket, let your conscience be your guide character, the scenes were just endearing.

Ben also gave some awesome book recommendations that I'm putting on my list. I can't help but love him.

So all in all Deadline is a pretty awesome book. It has the standard warnings of language and sexuality. (One of Ben's goals is to get laid before he dies.) But I think the whole tone of the book rises above that. There is a lot of football in it. Chris Crutcher is famous in the sports genre of YA and this one is about half sports, half YA drama. The teenage me would have been totally lost during the games. But if you can make it through that, it's worth reading.

This is the last in my realistic fiction. (Yes!) Except that multicultural fiction is up next and it's realistic fiction, in a different cultural setting. Sigh.

Tricks not treats.

2011-02-03T12:37:00.002-05:00

Tricks by Ellen Hopkins is a book of poetry written from the viewpoint of 5 teens who end up in various ways selling their bodies. Eden is sent away to a reform camp by her religious parents for a forbidden relationship and escapes by offering sexual favors. Seth is thrown out by his father for being gay and end ups the boy toy of a powerful man named Carl. Whitney turns to a guy she met at the mall one day when her first love dumps her for not being a good lay and ends up being pimped out until she overdoses on heroin and black tar. Ginger runs away from home with her girlfriend, Alex, after being sold by her mother for sex. Alex and Ginger then make a living stripping, but drift apart as Alex gets into more dangerous tricks. And Cody turns to prostitution when his attempts at gambling (fueled by alcohol and some minor and major drug use) don't pull his family out of crushing debt, but it nearly costs him his life.

(Image from Amazon)

Hopkins writes these types of books--the poetry, the drug and sexual violence story lines. And she's gotten some pretty good reviews for it. A previous novel, Crank, was inspired by her own daughter's story of drug use. And these are certainly important stories that need to be told. But I don't think I need to be the one reading them. There are several things that bothered me about the story.

On one hand the poetry angle is kind of cool. Each time she changes voice, there's a poem written by the character which reveals an overall theme statement of the character at that time. But the rest of the poetry just seems like a way to provide a lot of white space (good for reluctant readers) and cover up some blah prose. I'm not a free verse person in general, but it was weird.

The story lines in general are a little too predictable. They felt like the PSAs you'd see in health or driver's ed classes. Of course, Seth's history of coming out would have a catholic priest. Of course, Eden's dogmatic preacher father would go all law on her and send her off to reform camp (which would just be worse for her). It felt like there was a list of over-used sexual violence plot devices and Hopkins used them all. It kept me from being really truly moved by their stories to just be revolted. It makes me feel callous, and I know that's not what Hopkins was going for.

So ultimately, while I respect what Hopkins is trying to do, I don't like this book. There might be situations where I could recommend it, but I'd always be a little skeptical. ("I didn't really care for it, but you might like it. It will only take four hours of your life.")

Speak up now

2011-01-27T20:15:00.004-05:00

In Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, Melinda starts her freshman year of high school completely ostracized by her school, even her closest friends from 8th grade because she called the cops on an End-of-Summer party. Her only friend, Hannah a recent transfer, tries desperately to fit in, but Melinda just retreats farther and farther into herself. It's a shame too, because Melinda has something she needs to say to the world. No one should have to face IT again.

(Image from: coverbrowser.com)

This book is classic YA realistic fiction. There's angst. There's the kind art teacher. There's the parents you don't talk to. There's cliques. There's the cutey smart kid who sees there's more to you than meets the eye. And Melinda's narration is pure dry wit, snark to the max. Ugh. I just want to give her a hug. There's a slow reveal of THE BIG DRAMA which I'll save for those who don't like spoilers, but it's done rather masterfully. It's not a book for the faint-hearted*, but watching Melinda grow is worth it.

Realistic fiction is not my favorite kind of YA, but Speak was good. I'd read it to find out if there's anything worthwhile in YA literature. Melinda's story is definitely worth hearing.

*Seriously the climax, I pushed the book away and didn't want to find out what happened, but then I had to pick it up again because I couldn't leave Melinda hanging.

*Well unless it involves Manhattan's Upper East Side or fabulous exotic locales, and some would argue that's NOT realistic. I like glam in my realistic fiction.

The Absolutely True Review

2011-01-26T18:53:00.002-05:00

When it comes to YA, my preferences are nearly set in stone--girly book with quirk or dystopian fantasy, sometimes sci-fi depending on the hook. I generally don't do boy books, though I will if they are highly recommended, or anything too gritty. (Chaos Walking--though dystopian was nearly too gritty, so was Octavian Nothing.)

However, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie is both a boy book and gritty and I loved it. Arnold is absolutely charming, a smart kid with a quirky sense of humor who is actually pretty aware of himself (though there is growing to do--he's only a freshman) and can express it. While most of the story is written, Arnold best expresses himself through comic panels a la Diary of a Wimpy Kid. They're great, some of them are beautiful, and he displays real honesty.

Despite all this happiness, Arnold is growing up on a reservation. Abuse, alcoholism, and hopelessness are rampant. You cheer for Arnold as he strives to hope for more, even if that means turning his back on his heritage and taking the subsequent flack for it. Arnold has to reconcile his status as a "part-time Indian" and like any high schooler (or anyone in general) he messes up, but he learns and grows and tries to do his best.

All in all, I heartily recommend this book. Arnold is adorable and frank and funny. You'll love him.But not everyone agrees. It was banned in Stockton, MO last fall for "adolescent boy sexuality". (It's a euphemism. Google the story; you'll find out.) It didn't bother me, but you might be different.

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie is one of the 10 books assigned for my YA literature class.

YA Reading Preview

2011-01-20T14:14:00.002-05:00

My library science class this semester is all about Young Adult literature and reading interests. It has a ton of projects to get one into the YA librarian mindset starting with a topical bibliography and ending with a defense of a YA book that often gets banned. In the middle, we'll be reading 25 YA novels. 10 are assigned; the other 15 are reader's choice within certain perimeters:

2 Realistic Fiction
2 Multicultural Fiction
2 Historical Fiction
1 Dystopian Fiction
2 Fantasy
2 Science Fiction
1 Memoirs
1 Retold Fairy Tales
2 Non-fiction

These will be read to match discussion groups thorough out the semester. However within those 15, there are more requirements:

Authors Chris Crutcher, Walter Dean Myers, Ellen Hopkins, Sharon Draper, Jacqueline Woodson must be included.
2 of the 25 must be the audio version
2 of the 25 must be graphic novels
2 of the 15 must be Printz or Morris Award winners or honor books (one must be from 2011)
5 of the 15 must be from 2009 or later

So with that in mind, here are the previews for my next 10 YA novels.

Deadline (Realistic Fiction) Meets the Chris Crutcher and 2009 or later criteria
Tricks (Realistic Fiction) Meets the Ellen Hopkins and 2009 or later criteria
Just Another Hero (Multicultural Fiction) Meets the Sharon Draper, 2009 or later, and audio version criteria
After Tupac & D Foster (Multicultural Fiction) Meets the Jacqueline Woodson criteria
Riot (Historical Fiction) Meets the Walter Dean Myers and audio version criteria
Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing Vol 2* (Historical Fiction)
Ship Breaker** (Dystopian Fiction) Meets the Printz (it's the Printz award winner this year) and 2009 or later criteria
Hold Me Closer Necromancer*** (Fantasy) Meets the Morris (it's an honor book this year) and 2009 or later criteria
House of the Scorpion (Sci-Fi)
Rapunzel's Revenge (Retold Fairytale) Meets the graphic novel and later than 2009 criteria
Twilight (1 of the 10) in graphic novel format

So I think with that I've met all the requirements (and picked out two books that just seem awesome). I still need another fantasy, another sci-fi, a memoir, and two non-fiction. Any suggestions???

*It doesn't meet any of the criteria, but I get to finish the series and that makes me happy.
**This book looks awesome! What will happen when all the oil runs out!!!
***This book won me over with its title. I've been singing for the past 3 days. And it looks awesome--snarky and quirky.

Restart: Book Reviews

2011-01-19T19:54:00.003-05:00

I miss blogging, but it's gone on the back burner with a whole bunch of other things. So give my blog a little restart and provide me some motivation to keep up, for now we're doing book reviews. It's my favorite thing to talk about (when I'm not actively crafting or indulging in other favorite pursuits), and I'm taking a YA literature class which requires the reading of 25 YA novels over the next four months. Another hopeful bonus is that the embarrassment of blog yet another romance novel or Gossip Girl book will keep me picking good thoughtful reads.

Ready? Okay I've read 6 books already this year:

Ministering Cross-Culturally by Marvin Mayers, based on theory by Sherwood Lingenfelter. I read this book as prep for a class I'm leading in Intercultural Communications. Fun times: stories about the Yapese and a personality test (personal values test in Mayer's lingo, but I'm a sucker for any personality test). Otherwise it's a book about being more sensitive to other cultures with a religious kick. Great for a Concordia communications class, not the lightest of reading.

Girl at Sea by Maureen Johnson. I love Maureen's twitter feed and blog. She's silly and entertaining. And so are her books. Girl at Sea follows Clio Ford on a 2 week voyage into underwater archaeology off the coast of Italy with her free-spirited, but often absent father. Clio tells us not to be jealous, but we still are. Still when she ends up as the ships cook and the other teenager (buxom blonde, Elsa) only has to study for her OWLs orNEWTs or whatever British teenagers ACTUALLY study when they don't go to Hogwarts,* you feel righteously indignant for her. Sometimes I wished Clio used her words more than internalizing, but all in all she was a spunky character who grew a lot through the novel. Though I could never fully understand her tattoo...

The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing: Traitor to the Nation Vol 1 The Pox Party by M.T. Anderson. This book tops John Green's list of "books I wish I had written". While it's totally not my genre (historical fiction, meets boy book, meets African American slave story, meets steampunk?--okay not steampunk but trendy pseudoscience that reminds me of steampunk), it's an amazing story. Set right at the cusp of the American revolution, Octavian realizes that the life he has been living is pretty much a farce, an elaborate experience in race-based "science"--at first for good, then for evil when the money source change--and has to cope with a new reality. It's weird and angsty, but I have the second volume on hold for me at the library right now. :-)

Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver (aka YA novel 3). Seriously my favorite book so far of 2011. Before I Fall starts off as Mean Girls and twists into Groundhog Day and leaves you in the Time Traveler's Wife (not the plot so much as the crying the plot makes you do). Samantha dies in a car crash on the way home from a party, but then wakes up to relive her day again. You follow her as she tries to change events, screws up and figures out a better way each morning. And in the process she becomes a better person. I just hope the people who remember her will realize that too. I don't normally like books that make me bawl, but this one was so worth it.

This Book is Overdue: How Librarians and Cybrarians Can Save us All by Marilyn Johnson. This book has been on my To Read shelf for way too long. It's a summary of the weird wild and crazy in librarianship--all the youtube videos, blogs, and other librarian-related cyberspace that I love to post and pass along to others. You might not enjoy if you aren't interested in librarianship, but if you've ever wanted to catalog your own books, you'll love it.

Fairies and the Quest for Never Land by Gail Carson Levine. Gail Carson Levine wrote one of my favorite YA books EVER, Ella Enchanted. (Read the book; don't see the movie.) And really nothing else I've read has ever matched up. However, this Peter Pan-inspired novel (for tweens) follows Gwendolyn, the great-great-great-granddaughter of Wendy Darling, as she discovers Never Land for the first time and benefits the normally very prickly fairies (including Tinkerbell). It's cute, it's lovely, the audiobook took 4 hours. Better than Disney princesses, but Gwen is no Ella.

So there you go. My first 6 books of 2011. I'm in the middle of Anna Karenina, but The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian will probably be finished first. (Or one of my realistic fiction novels for class.) Tolstoy's a marathon; YAs are 5ks.

*Seriously, Harry Potter has messed up my zeitgeist. Yesterday, I was reading Sturm und Drang and totally read Drumstrang.

Chaos Walking

2010-10-09T12:17:00.003-04:00

Sure, go ahead, you say. Blog whenever you want. Nothing better to do...

Ah, blog readers. I certainly haven't treated you well. But the intent is always to do better. And intent is what makes my next book recommendation amazing. In the afterglow (or aftermath) of the Hunger Games trilogy, John Granger of Hogwartsprofessor.com recommended Monsters of Men for the first installation in the Hogwarts Professor Book Club. However MoM (eek Harry Potter clash!), like Mockingjay, is also the third in a trilogy called Chaos Walking so in order to appreciate it, one must first start with The Knife of Never Letting Go and move through The Ask and the Answer.

Never one to refuse a book challenge, I dug in.

However, to be honest, it was hard. The Chaos Walking trilogy (I think I know why Patrick Ness names it that, but it doesn't really come from any of the books) is a dystopic sci-fi fantasy novel, set in a world that mimics but is so different from America. The Hunger Games aura abounds. And the aura nearly got me. There is not a lot of happiness in these books. And that wears on a reader. (Looking for fluffy prose next...)

But, if you stick with it the books are seriously amazing. It starts with a planet that's been colonized for just over 20 years. Chaos has reigned (evidently there was an intelligent indigenous population that didn't like settlers taking over there land--and look war!), but things have kind of settled. Oh and there's this germ that makes all the men's (and boy's) thoughts be heard--the Noise--and kills the women. Or so we hear. Todd, the last boy in Prentisstown, is our narrator. He's the last, because there are no more women to give birth to children and he's a month away from turning 13 and becoming a man. However, he finds something, more importantly someone, Viola, a new settler from a convoy that will be landing with the next year. And this throws the tenuous peace into ruin. Viola and Todd are on a race to beat Mayor Prentiss to the other settlements. And that's the outline of the first book.

To summarize the other two would give away too many spoilers, but the themes are all introduced. Throughout the series, we wonder if Noise is good or bad, if managing or using the Noise is good or bad. We wonder about the indigenous population, called the Spackle, and draw tentative parallels to America's own native people. There's a slight, though obvious, religious theme since as Viola AND Todd AND the Mayor all comment in Book 3 that bad things seem to happen to Viola and Todd in church. There's the gender question as we see different parts of the settlers try to resolve the problem of Noise in their own way. And there's the constant struggle between good and evil and even recognizing evil when it looks good and good when it looks evil. These are all good things to muse about, and so I recommend the trilogy, but maybe inter-spliced with much lighter reads (PS Sue Grafton does not count, from my experience).

Also if you'd like to read some thought-provoking, though spoiler filled discussion of Chaos Walking check out this thread of posts from hogwartsprofessor.com.

Gale Old Spice Parody

2010-08-20T19:20:00.002-04:00

In honor of Mockingjay's imminent release, Gale Spice-style:

Hello, ladies. Look at your Peeta – now back to me – now back at your Peeta – now back to me. Sadly, he isn’t me, but if he stopped painting fruity little cupcakes and switched to hunting and providing for his family, he could smell like he’s me (coal dust, spice, and everything nice). Look down. Back up, where are you? You’re in the woods with the man your man could hunt like. What’s in your hand? Back at me. I have it! It’s a silver parachute with that lamb and plum stew you love. Look again, the stew is now that sexy, smoldering look I keep giving you while you mess around with Peeta. Anything is possible when your man is a lithe, hot hunter and not decorating pastries like a lady. I’m on a horse.

H/T foreveryoungadult.com (Edited for language)

Ode to Seymour

2010-08-03T18:44:00.002-04:00

There's this one old wooden bridge that I love spotting on my drives to Seymour. It makes up one of my countdown landmarks.* I always mean to stop there and just absorb it. I finally did one time maybe a year and a half ago. And it's just lovely--rickety and weathered. And me without my camera. So this past trip, I finally had my camera, the time and the consciousness to stop. Here are the results:
The bridge in it's glory.
The Queen Anne's lace.
The picture right before the guys in the truck looked at me like I was crazy.

*Hold over from childhood where the landmarks to Grandma's were Noah's Ark Hotel, Bridge over the Missouri River (again), Highway loop and then a 5 street countdown to Grandma's house!

Easy Peasy Skirt

2010-08-01T18:31:00.003-04:00

I've been doing much altering for a friend recently. One of her requests was to shorten a two-layer maxi dress to just above the ruffle. Easy enough. But once it was done, I had this lovely, soft cotton lawn fabric that was begging to be used. So following One Pearl Button's tutorial to make a 20 minute skirt, I created this beauty.
It took a little longer than 20 minutes due to the need to sew in that upper layer. And then the gathering didn't work so well so I fell back to my traditional "pin in quarters and pull the elastic to match the fabric" method. (Which is probably harder on my machine and the thread and the elastic, so I don't recommend it except for the fact that it is SOOO easy.)

Then there was part 2 where we realized there was a reason that green fabric was the under-layer and preference for a tighter waist cinched the deal. So seam-ripping and a lining were inserted. Then I wished I was a little more proficient at gathering. Maybe waxed thread would help. But nonetheless a very cute skirt for the cost of the elastic (roughly $1).

Good day.

Joyfully Thriving

2010-07-07T13:51:00.003-04:00

It's wonderful to be surrounded by talented friends and family. My cousin, Kristen, has started a blog devoted to frugality and good stewardship called Joyfully Thriving. She highlights free samples, rewards programs, and other staples of thrifty living. Kristen and my husband often regaled each other with savings at the grocery store. Favorite stories include the weeks when Kristen would buy all her groceries with a $20. She is truly a thrifty role model.

Check her out. It will be worthwhile.

Wedding Present

2010-06-25T20:45:00.000-04:00

Wow so this blog post is overdue, but now at least I know I'm not spoiling any surprises.

Mike's roommate from college and Sem, Nate, got married over Memorial Day weekend. Mike was in the wedding. It "required" a trip down to Florida. I was sad. (No, not at all.) However, it did require a present. A good present. Now I'm all about the registry. I like getting people things they want and will use. But I like to make gift packets out the registry. All sorts of things for baking or whatnot. Anyway scrolling through scrolling through. And not finding gift packets that will fit in carry-on suitcases. (To which my incredibly practical husband says, "We can just ship it." But then we can't wrap it. I love wrapping gifts. LOVE wrapping gifts.) Finally I land on these napkin rings. In our price range, but no napkins. Napkins and napkin rings would make a lovely LITTLE gift packet.

Suddenly I'm struck with the idea that I could make napkins. Easy peasy. A beginning sewing project... So what that it's 10 days before the wedding and that we leave in 8. (And that I'm taking a class, and working and blah blah blah.) So I go thrifting. AND I find the sweetest embroidered curtains. (I think they were originally from Kmart so no points for vintage or anything, but...) They were exactly what I wanted.

So I go home. Cut. Miraculously end up with twelve napkins (a couple were a little small, but that's what I needed). And started sewing. I sewed at home. I sewed while I dog-sit Mary and Pippin (oh yeah dachshunds named for hobbits). I ironed. And I ironed. Seriously 12 napkins. That's a lot of edges. (Fortunately Martha Stewart had one edge sewn for me.)

Then they were done. And they were pretty, but they weren't finished. So I took the two prettiest ones, and I monogrammed them. First time I figured out a monogram and it worked. See!
So yay! Fun, crafty, from the registry, wedding gifts! Congratulations Nate and Jacqui!

Heat Wave: The Review

2010-06-23T21:04:00.000-04:00

Just a quick review of Heat Wave, the real-life murder mystery novel by the fictional Richard Castle.

It was like an episode of Castle, except without the two-seasons long "Will they? Won't they?" of Castle and Beckett. Must read for any devoted fan, but it took a surprisingly long time to read for a book that's less then 200 pages.

The mystery that really keeps me going is "Who's the ghost writer?" News on the Net thinks that it's Tom Straw of the "Nom DePlume Society's prestigious Tom Straw Award for Mystery Literature". Richard thanks his sherpas Tom and Andrew in the author's note. (He also thanks Nathan... so meta.) The paradox really just has me all lit-geeked out.

Naked Heat, the second in the planned trilogy comes out September 28th. I bet it's the week Castle premieres for the fall. Yes, I'll be reading... and watching.

Amish Friendship Fail

2010-06-21T19:58:00.000-04:00

A friend passed along one of her loaves of Amish Friendship Bread and Mike loved it. So I asked for a starter. Listen. Don't ask for a starter, just don't. It's not an easy way to get into baking. It's... well here's the story.

I asked, I received. I mush the bag. While mushing the bag, I realize Day 10 when I'm supposed to bake this bread, I'm out of town. Like way out of town, on a plane. No baking of starter will happen. Panicked email. 'It's okay just mush it and bake it when you can.' Sigh.

Return from trip. Mush bag. I'll bake on Tuesday. Nope! Wednesday. Nope! (In all fairness that way our anniversary.) Thursday. Nope! Friday... uh no? Saturday? I'm still mushing... So today I bite the bullet. This thing must get baked. I start following the directions. My friend leaves written instructions that she usually makes a double batch. Now a double batch is four loaves. I have no earthly clue how we'd eat four loaves in 10 days, but I follow the recipe. I don't like causing trouble. However, I take a half cup of start and put it in a quart bag, along with a cup of starter in case it doesn't really work like that, and I pitch the excess. (I may be a glutton for repetitive punishment, but that doesn't mean I share.)

Continuing on, I realize that while I might have batter for four loaves. I only have one loaf pan. The bread takes an hour to cook. I resign myself to "making a double batch" and pitching half. Sigh. Continue through the recipe. Run out of white flour and sub the last cup with whole wheat flour. Sigh.

Bake bread.

Take bread out of the oven and it amazingly looks like Amish Friendship Bread. Yay! Let cool. Dump. Lose half the loaf due to non-greased pan incident.

Sigh. Start filling the second batch. Realize the next batch was the last batch. I used double starter, single recipe. Fail. Decide to test the first loaf. Blech!
Threw everything out. Declared it an epic fail. Will try again in 10 days. Hope springs eternal.

My Dad, the Editor

2010-06-20T20:27:00.003-04:00

I should have blogged this earlier. (I.e. I didn't really intend for this to be a Father's Day post, but here it goes.)

My dad has been an editor for 18 years. Dinner time discussions sometimes revolved around the proper use of words. And often ended up with an encyclopedia at the table (though that was my mom, really). For years, I've stopped myself from saying "hypothetically" then making a statement, either choosing to switch to "theoretically". It makes me a nerd, but it makes me my dad's daughter.

Recently, I gave my dad some of my writing. It was general, factual essay stuff. Nothing too special. But he warned me that some of his writers get nerved out with all the "red ink" (well green actually is his preferred color) spilled on their projects. I laughed, but I was nervous--just like I normally am.* But I got the file back and flashbacked to high school. I remembered the various times my dad read through my term papers and edited them for me. There was a lot of "red/green ink" there too. But it was always framed around getting the good ideas that were there out. And I carried that into college. I nearly always found that my papers actually grew during the editing process to express my ideas more clearly and explicitly. (I'm not too wordy. Shock to my blog readers.)

And the same thing happened this time. Lots of grammar corrections, word choice, etc. But he still said it was great. Clear development. Good job structure. Nice bones. (Those are all my words. He put it in his words, but that's how I remember it.) Being a words of affirmation person, I cling to words, good and bad. There are echos of disappointments that still bang around in my head. But with that project, I found some good echos. I found some fatherly pride in sharing the "family business". It was a pretty cool father/daughter moment, and it happened 500 miles apart. I love technology.

But more importantly: I love you, Dad! Happy Father's Day!

*Just like most people are about their writing according to Anne Lamott. I was reading Anne Lamott around that time so I was amused by my reaction.

Heat Wave! A Nikki Heat Novel

2010-06-18T12:51:00.003-04:00

I'm pretty sure this post puts me firmly into the kitschy gauche stack of novel readers, but I was super excited to discover that Heat Wave, a completely fictional novel (i.e. it shouldn't exist because the author who wrote it is a fictional character in and of himself), is a real life novel. It comes out of the ABC show Castle which is about a murder mystery writer, Richard Castle, who tags along with a homicide detective to research for his new series. In the middle of the second season, Heat Wave is released (Oct. 19, 2009 according to Wikipedia) and evidently in November 2009, ABC released a hard copy version for fans. As Mike and I were perusing a bookstore for our anniversary (yeah, that's how we role), I discovered it. And yes, while it is a cheap ploy by ABC to milk fans for money, it's also that amazing paradox of fiction creating reality that fascinates me in Jasper Fforde novel. While I can't justify the actual purchase of this novel,* I can justify getting in from my local public library. So that will be part of my weekend reading. Also on tap, finishing M is for Malice (restarting my run through the Kinsey Millhone series) and Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan.

*It's only 198 pages; maybe Mary Higgins Clark can write that succinctly, but I can't imagine an author who doesn't even get a real by-line doing this well.

48Hr Book Challenge Log Day II

2010-06-06T08:22:00.000-04:00

I'm fronting my grand total for easier reference:

23 Hours and 13 Minutes

Day I Log found here. First day reading total: 10 hrs. 15 min.

7:30 AM Put on glasses, get a Diet Coke, begin reading. (Who doesn't enjoy days like this?) (+1:00=11:15)

8:30 AM Watership Down finished. Reviewing... (+:25=11:40)

8:55 AM Break

9:00 AM Kinfolks by Gurney Norman (+1:05=12:45)

10:05 AM Review (+:15=13:00)

10:20 AM Break for farmville and probably taking my LIS quiz...

11:10 AM After scoring 9 out of 10 on my quiz (Darn Dewey!) I return to begin Divine Right's Trip by Gurney Norman. (+2:00=15:00!)

1:10 PM Lunch Break... internet break...

1:40 PM Internet dies... must go back to reading (+:50=15:50)

2:30 PM Email break... used the gender roles in Watership Down as an example in my email response--Score!

2:45 PM Gotta get back to Uncle Emmit (+:45=16:35)

3:30 PM Reviewing Divine Right's Trip (+:30=17:05)

4:00 PM Next up Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (+:40=17:45)

4:40 PM Whoops! Farmville time... seriously should have planted 2 day crops for this

5:05 PM All right. 2 day plants planted (to allow me time to get my life in shape for the next week after the 48 hr book challenge ends) returning to Harry Potter. (+2:30-:20=19:55)

7:35 PM Finished Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Seriously those first three books go so fast... Although I should dock myself several minutes for the time spent trying to read while my husband was finding out about the Library of Congress lending and collection policies. Yes, that is how we roll on a Saturday night.) Starting the book review now. (+:23=20:18)

7:58 PM Book review finished. Breaking as I determine which book to read next. And the verdict is....

8:05 PM Anna Karenina. Yep, my most challenging book is going to be my last book of the challenge. Will I finish 800 pages in the next 12 hours? That would actually be kind of awesome. (+2:35=22:53)

10:40 PM Yeah staying up all night to read Russian literature is so not going to happen. Finished Part I (a little over 100 pages). A few more might get into this book challenge before 8:30 AM, but for now I'm calling it a night.

8:00 AM-8:20 AM A little bit more Anna. Well I've started Part II, but we have to leave the house by 8:30 so that will have to be it. (+:20=23 hours 13 minutes)

HP and the Chamber of Secrets

2010-06-05T19:39:00.005-04:00

No one should question my love for Harry Potter, but HP2 isn't my favorite book. (Though other people LOOOVE it. There's a theory--probably read it in Granger's book--that extroverts tend to love the even books and introverts the odd.) Anyway, it probably ties with Goblet of Fire for my least favorite HP book. However a couple insights:

Everyone knows the influence of classical literature (of the Greek and Latin mythology sort) on Rowling's writing. However having just read PJ5, I can now properly mesh the drakon Clarisse fights in the 5th book of the Percy Jackson series with the basilisk of HP2. Both are serpent-like, gigantic, and have eyes that kill. Does that mean we can also include the drakon from Pirates of the Caribbean??? Similar name, but no killing eyes.
I absolutely love Kenneth Branagh. I have since I watched Hamlet my senior year of high school. (I also love the David Tennant version of Hamlet. I'd have to watch them side by side to decide.) Anyway his portrayal of Gilderoy Lockhart remains one of the most indelible moments of Harry Potter movie/book history. I wish he could have been a better character, but I'm not sure who I would have cast him as... Rufus Scrimgeour? but even that's not better.
I also love Hermione in this book. The rather significant change in her demeanor from Book 1 to Book 2 is amazing and a testament to her friendship with Ron and Harry. And there's the beginning of Ron/Hermione shaping in this book.
I appreciate Book 2 for its parallels with Book 6 (another of my favorites--3,5-7 kind of tie followed by 1, and 2,4 for third--it's a tight pack). What we learn about Lord Voldemort is astonishing. And the hints at the Vanishing cabinet are glaring with Book 6 in your consciousness.
And because of Wizard Rock and Bridget Jones's Diary I hold a special place in my heart for Moaning Myrtle.

So unconventional book review, but you've read it already right?

Divine Right's Trip

2010-06-05T15:31:00.002-04:00

This was NOT a book I'd finish on my own, but I am so glad I did.

First off, Gurney Norman was (maybe still is) friends with Stewart Brand. If you don't know who Stewart Brand is, well there's a fairly good change that 50% of my audience will dismiss him as an aging liberal hippie and the other half really should check him out. I learned about him through SALT (Seminars about Long-term Thinking) podcasts. He runs the Long Now Foundation, and really just wants people to think about the big picture--what our actions do to effect the world 5 years from now, 50 years, 500 years, 5,000 years. And I think he's totally awesome for it. Evidently he's been quite controversial--as hippies in the 60s tended to be. I wish I had talked to Mr. Norman after his keynote instead of being shy and introverted.

Now Divine Right's Trip. So it opens with a lot of reckless behavior--hitch-hiking, drug taking (hint" "trip" is a double entendre), driving late at night, sneaking into camp sites. Lots of stuff my parents would (still) kill me for doing. Divine Right (aka D.R. or David Ray) is driving cross country with his girlfriend Estelle to go some money from a guy in St. Louis, but that guy dies so they have to go Cincinnati. That's the first part of the book, actually that the first 3 parts of the book. I'm reading this; it has some interesting parts; mostly I'm just allowing this to prep me for Jack Kerouac.

Then D.R. heads home to the hills of Kentucky. And the story changes from this physical journeying to spiritual journeying and D.R. finds some purpose and peace and it just becomes kind of amazing. Seriously, it blossoms. And it's really gorgeous to see something that I'd generally turn away from become so pleasant and satisfying. And again like with his short stories it's authentic. The way D.R. finds his center is just so patently D.R. that it makes sense and you really feel like things are going to go somewhere.

Bonus: the prologue from the POV of the VW Microbus they tool around in is hilarious! I wish the bus got an epilogue too.

Kinfolks

2010-06-05T10:05:00.002-04:00

A couple weeks ago I went to Library Staff Conference which featured the Kentucky author and KY Poet Laureate for 2009-2010, Gurney Norman. He read a chapter from his collection of short stories, Kinfolks. This guy was fascinating in the way old men--quick with a joke and full of wisdom if peppered with some questionable content. I decided then and there to make some of his work part of my book challenge, starting with Kinfolks.

Kinfolks is a collection of stories concerning the family life of Wilgus Collier set in Eastern Kentucky (I'd say it's rural, but really there isn't an "urban" part of Eastern Kentucky). Wilgus's male kinfolk have ties with coal mining, and a strong Appalachian vibe runs through the book. If this book had been written by outsiders it would be mocking, but instead it just rings true. It feels small town life. You barely bat an eye at 13 year old Wilgus driving his passed-out uncle home in the middle of the night after 4 beers and a shot of whiskey. It's horrific to put it all together like that, but on the page it's just what needed to be done. But as Miss Marple and countless others have shown rural and small-town experience tends to distill the complexities of life. Arguments over what should be done with an aging parent in the '50s ring true to modern ears as it would have with the '70s audience as does the family argument over whether Chevys are better than Fords that devolves into paying back old debts to maintain the upper hand that ultimately ends with giving the money to Wilgus so he and his writer friends can toast "To the Clan!"

And that kind of sums up the collection: head-shaking turns to quiet smiles at the truth of life. What are you going to do but toast "To the Clan!"?

48Hr Book Challenge Log Day I

2010-06-04T21:09:00.002-04:00

8:00 AM Posted Starting Blog

8:03 AM Linked to MotherReader's Starting Blog

8:05 AM Started to finish Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. (Left over from the Florida vacation weekend. I packed my well-used paperback copy to get sand and surf on while leaving my hardcover collector's edition at home.) (25 min.)

8:30 AM Finished HP1. Blog review. (+20 min.=45 min.)

8:50 AM Begin to finish Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Last Olympian. (+1:40= 2:25)

10:30 AM Finished PJ5. Blog review. (+25 min.=2:45)

10:55 AM Farmville break!

11:15 AM Begin Watership Down. (+1:00=3:45)

12:15 PM Lunch... and phone calls I've been putting off. Oh but the DreamDinners' Outlaw Chicken Sliders--GOOOD!!

1:00 PM Back into the action. (+1:00=4:45)

2:oo PM Break...

2:15 PM Back at it... the scary utopian warren (+:55= 5:40)

3:05 PM Break...

3:30 PM Back to bunnies. (+1:05=6:45)

4:35 PM Farmville break! Though I'm not sure I'm able to harvest bunnies anymore after Holly and Bluebell's story.

4:40 PM Liar, liar, pants on fire. Ghost Chili isn't ripe for another half hour at least. READ! (+:25=7:10)

5:05 PM Farmville and email reading... Okay so Watership Down... lovely, but not as engrossing as Percy Jackson.

5:40 PM Back into the deep. Will Hazel's hubris get the best of him? There's still 200 pages left so I guess there has to be some conflict. (+:45=7:55)

6:25 PM Stop reading to implement impromptu plans. Shower the quickest ever. Plans canceled. Well at least I got dressed today :-)

6:35 PM Finished Part 2. Yay!!! Halfway. Hazel leading a mission to Efrafa. Sidenote: having a very hard time seeing "does" and not reading it as a verb. Evidently we could sing "Doe, a rabbit, a female rabbit." (+:35=8:30)

7:10 PM Blog reading break (not 48hbc'ers so I can't count it--but I hate having a full google reader)

7:25 PM More Watership Down... attempting to finish Part 3 tonight (+1:30-:15 talking to my hubby=9 hrs. 45 min.)

9:05 PM Finished Part 3 into Part 4 (because authors always stop at tense spots). But I think I'm done for the night. Will update for bedtime reading...

10:45 PM Bedtime reading (+:30=10:15)

Watership Down

2010-06-04T11:23:00.004-04:00

Watership Down is one of the books on the BBC reads list that I've been working through for the past year in an effort to improve my Classics knowledge (literary classics, not Greek and Roman classics). However, I went through the list and marked about 75% of the list as books I actually wanted to read and started with those. Watership Down was not on the list. However, a dear, dear friend recommended it, and thus I begin my adventure. Since I'm a little worried about maintaining my pace (it's a 400 page book), I'm doing simul-blogging as I read.

Ch 1: You know a book will be great when it quotes some of the most depressing lines from a greek tragedy ("The stench is like a breath from the tomb" Aeschylus Agamemnon)

Ch 4: Four chapters in and I'm still getting used to it. Basically we've enter the world of Rabbits at a time when their warren is about to be developed into housing plots. (And I know how much homeowners hate rabbits--ask Grandma!) So a small band is leaving...

Ch. 8: I love that Pipkin the rabbit won't remember how Blackberry saved him because he was scared out of his mind. It's so like rabbits. This human-rabbit anthropomorphic thing is killing!

I think I shall call all motored things hrududu like the rabbits do. "My hrududu is parked over there..."

The End:
Obviously the book became more engrossing than would allow my chapter by chapter comments. Okay so it's not Harry Potter, and it's about rabbits. And I probably wouldn't have finished it so fast if not for the book challenge. But it's a classic for good reason. The struggle for a community to make out a life is always entertaining.

For some reason, I associate the American Revolution and Pioneer spirit with much of my childhood (probably b/c of lots of Little House on the Prairie and American Girl books) so I keep trying to figure out when this book would be appropriate to read to child. It has to be a great read-a-long book--short chapters, easy to pick up where you leave off, lots of fun dialect (not the annoying kind--just enough to make you appreciate that he didn't write the whole thing in Lapine language). Some of those fight scenes though were scary. I had no clue rabbits could be so fierce. I guess it is a book that is assigned to Jr High/High schoolers. Though I'm sure that in my 8th grade year I would have dismissed it as a "boy book" (that was our Lord of the Flies, Captain's Courageous year).

...Hmm. So yes, it's a good book, a satisfying book, a book worthy of reading.

Oh and The Thief by Megan Whaelan Turner totally borrows the epic journey action with spurts of historical story-telling plot scheme from Watership Down. I love seeing author legacies like that.

The Last Olympian--PJ5

2010-06-04T10:28:00.004-04:00

I discovered Percy Jackson and the Olympians through Bookshelves of Doom last fall. It really seemed like a great series. First, despite the on-going rereadings of Harry Potter, there is still a void. While PJ doesn't have the fan-base or cult-following of HP, it's good clean mythological fun.

Quick Summary: Percy Jackson finds out he's a demigod, a son of Poseidon, except Poseidon isn't supposed to have any more sons because one of the children of the Big 3 (Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades) will have to decide whether to save or destroy Olympus on his (or her) 16th birthday. The ramp-up to this event basically makes up the story arc of the 5 book series. The Last Olympian is the last book in the series, though the blurb at the end makes it sound like there could be more--maybe in the form of a spin-off of some other demigod. (That'd be cool, but I'd worry he'd sound too much like Percy.)

The series is written in first person from the POV of Percy so you get a lot of sarcastic, teenage-y language. Nothing bad, but if you don't like the way "kids these days" talk, you might get annoyed. I personally find it amusing. I find high schoolers endlessly amusing anyway.

Let's see. I'm not usually a big worrier about spoilers, but it's the last book of a series and that's a whole lot of spoiling. I guess, I really appreciated the family ties, stick together theme that runs particularly strong through this book. So much of fantasy has this strong protagonist with superpowers who runs the show and I love it when authors bring in the little people--and make them big people. It happens with Neville in HP7, it happens here as well. "We do it with cooperation" (Psalty the Singing Songbook).

Why read PJ? Well if you like Greek myths, you like the series. It's fun to see how Rick Riordan modernizes the mythology and makes connections. I learned quite a bit, but like most books that concern things I'm interested in, it compels me to check out the real myths. (Sadly I don't know that I have a book about that. It would be great for the book challenge.) However, when my husband, the classicist (though he is not a big mythology person--he likes the non-fiction), misspoke about Artemis, I was able to correct him because I had just read about Percy joining up with the Hunters of Artemis. Fiction strikes again! So it's good. People could probably be offended by its neo-pagan focus, but it's a modernization of Greek mythology which was a religion, some of that is just necessary to remain true to canon. Otherwise, the other common HP arguments--defying authority and stuff--doesn't occur here. Percy is a good guy who tries to be honest and do the right thing. Also, this is a great book for ADD/ADHD kids. One of the premises is that Percy doesn't do well in school because his demigod brain makes him easily distracted (quick battle reflexes) and makes him dyslexic (the better to read Ancient Greek). Kind of cool.

Final note... Rick Riordan's written some adult fiction. I read one of the books from his Tres Nevarre series. It was okay, but not as compelling. Classic thriller/mystery novel (when I was burned out on Classic thriller/mystery novels).

Harry Potter 1 Thoughts

2010-06-04T08:35:00.003-04:00

I don't know if other people do this, but I really just refer to the Potter books as HP1 and so on. I know the fan community has SS and PoA for short cuts, but really. It always takes me a minute to decipher the acronym. I never have trouble remember the order. :-)

Anyway Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. This book is truly not new to me. I've read it at least ten times starting from January of my freshman year of college (2001 for future biographers). I was hesitant to start reading the series, but my roommate convinced me and we've shared a love ever since. And I've probably read the series at least once a year since then. I always read in order, except for with movie 6 came out I just read that book because I started too late to do the series. :-) Then I went back and filled in. But what that means is that I've read HP1 like 10 times, but I've only read HP7 3. So there's a different level of familiarity with each text.

However, I always enjoy diving into Rowling's first work. I do like see her writing a little rough. (Come on! You know it is. Every writer is allowed to improve.) I like seeing the framework she's laid for the series and the little hints she's left. John Granger, of HogwartsProfessor.com, suggests that we look at the books as matched sets going into the middle (1&7, 2&6, 3&5, 4 as the crossover point). So I appreciate testing that theory out as I read through the series.

One final thought on HP1, I can't help but comparing movie and book plotlines. I will almost always think the book was better. (The Time Traveler's Wife might be the only exception, and those two come in at a tie.) But my favorite thing about the movies was how they gave greater detail to the picture in my head. I can imagine what the line of poisons looked liked more clearly, even though they cut that scene, because of the dramatic chess scene and the fight with Quirrell before and after that missing part. I do wish they'd release a true-to-the-book version of the movies, but I'm grateful for what we have.

48Hr Book Challenge Begins Now

2010-06-04T08:00:00.003-04:00

All right. All right.

I'm now beginning the 48Hr Book Challenge, sponsored by MotherReader. First up: finish Harry Potter 1 and Percy Jackson 5. Will blog reviews when done.

Grabbing Diet Coke and popcorn. Sigh. Love days devoted to reading.

Must Learn to KNIT

2010-05-04T21:01:00.003-04:00

I came across some lovely geeky goodness that will probably force my hand over to the world of knitting. You'll have to click through because my library science class has made me feel very guilty about copyright. BUT once you get there you'll see Doctor Who scarves!!!

I started watching Doctor Who on youtube (gosh how's that for copyright violations--Sorry BBC!) about two years ago and I'm hooked. I loved David Tennant as the Tenth Doctor (and as Hamlet--swoon! BBC put Doctor Who on PBS like you did with Hamlet) two years ago, and I'm pretty in love with Matt Smith as the Eleventh Doctor. However, those are the recent doctors and while I think there's some rumor that Matt Smith is going to do scarves, Tom Baker (aka the Fourth Doctor) is really THE doctor associated with scarves--massively long scarves. And that's what's recreated at Witty Little Knitter.

So yes, buy needles. Use spare yarn to learn to knit. Buy yarn. (I'll probably start with the Vanna yarn because it will be cheaper--while I'm fanatically, I'm not rich.) Knit the Season 14 scarf (which is probably the only that has a chance of being worn).

PS Today was a really cute skirt outfit day, but I didn't get a chance to photograph it. (It was also a really lousy allergy day.) But it must be documented for the blog soon. SO glad I did SADA. I definitely know how to work my skirts into my rotations more.

Flowy White Skirt Day

2010-04-29T22:21:00.002-04:00

Finally, I found a way to wear the flowy white skirt. It's a little cowgirl, but really fun. We had a conference today so it wasn't a "real" workday even though it required me to be up much earlier. I'm not sure this would be workday outfit, but it works for this situation.

2010-04-28T15:27:00.004-04:00

In honor of the last few days of April and the last candidate interview that requires me to be in the library during the day, I busted out my dressy black skirt. Wow, so today I got comments (compliments) about my dress more than other day. Heels, cardigan, surplice top completes the outfit. It was fun. I wouldn't wear this on any normal day, but given a more formal work place, I could totally rock this.
I did recreate the Monday outfit. Nothing too special, but this is my long day filled with laundry and other less than glamorous task so a normal outfit it pretty nice. Better though would have been this:
Black espadrille wedges would have tied the khaki skirt and black tank together more. Plus they're just darn cute and I don't think they've made the blog yet. :-)
Finally, I wore this to an afternoon symphony concert on the dreary, rainy Sunday. Again it's been recreated for documentary purposes (and hastily at that).

The End is Near

2010-04-27T22:29:00.003-04:00

The countdown has begun. Four days until May arrives. While I haven't worn skirts every day, I certainly have worn more skirts this month than the rest of 2010. :-) So with the end in sight, I have redoubled my efforts to wear skirts with vigor. Yesterday, I'll recreate when I can. Today you get this:
I haven't really gotten to wear my favorite flannel skirt for April, and now it's cold and I miss my comfort clothes. So flannel shirt, corduroy skirt, to provide some warmth magenta tights, and orange flats to work the 2/3 triad color scheme. It's outside my box, but I think it works. I just wish I had put on a belt.
I added a blazer when I went to work. I think the velvet, corduroy and flannel might be too much texture. However, I'm very happy to have found a way to wear my flannel!

Let's Call it a Quarterly Review

2010-04-21T13:30:00.003-04:00

April hasn't been all about the skirts. Otherwise, there'd probably be more blogging. Taking pictures of yourself everyday is hard! I have a post in the queue, but I need to, you know, finish writing it.

Earlier this month had a stack of books about 2 ft high all waiting to be read. (Any good library Science major will tell you that the average book is an inch thick. You do the math.) Normally this is no big deal, I have a lot of books I want to read and I usually get through them all eventually. But this stack was populated with a lot of library books. Not just any old library books that have due dates and can normally be renewed; several of these books where ones I had been waiting for on holds lists for months. Not reading them in the time allotted was not an option. I might never see them again. Anyway, now that stack is down to two. Whew! All that worry for nothing. Except that the three books I just checked out from the library aren't in that stack...

However, the decimation of the stack has prompted me to review my book list. As of today, April 21st, I have read 26 books in 2010. Last year on April 22nd, I hit 30 books. Not too bad. Especially considering one of those books is Vanity Fair (no not the magazine), the classic 699-page English novel by William Makepeace Thakeray (I really just like his middle name) subtitled "Novel without a Hero". I've been working on this my first classic novel of the year since January 15th. However, it is the only classic work I've read even though my resolutions should have me at at least 5.

Also no Theology books have been read. Lots of contemporary Christian non-fiction, that could almost count by letter of the law, but not really in spirit. I've read 8 non-fiction books so far, 5 of those of a spiritual persuasion. Favorites: Looking for God in Harry Potter to give to all those people who think Harry Potter should be banned due to its satanic influence, The Happiness Project one of the books I've been waiting for since November, and Real Sex, a cohesive argument for abstinence in a Christian context that doesn't seek to vilify sex when you're single and then expect you to flip a switch once you've gotten married.

The rest of the list is populated with YA and Crime/Thriller novels. I'm still a die-hard advocate for Percy Jackson and the Olympians series. It's been so helpful in keeping my Greek myths straight. And I also just read Scarlett Fever by one of my favorite twitterers Maureen Johnson. On the Crime/Thriller side, I attempted an adult novel by Rick Riordan (who wrote Percy Jackson)--not so good. And I need to get back into the Kinsey Millhone books since I stopped at L in January.

Favorite author, Jasper Fforde, released Shades of Grey at the end of 2009. And I finally got my hands on it in March. While this book took me forever to get through, it was an exercise in trusting the author to pull it all together because 2/3 of the way through things just caught and went and I couldn't put it down until the last page. So glad this is going to be a series. Even though Thursday Next holds a much tighter hold on my heart. Such a brilliantly creative author.

So not a review of all 26 books, but those are the ones I'm most glad to have read. I have at least one more book that should be finished today even (class text--totally counts because over 16 weeks I did read all of it). And then there are more due dates approaching. :-)

Librarian Image

2010-04-13T12:18:00.003-04:00

Oh the fun of post-dating blog posts. The skirt project has been happening (mostly) just without pictures (mostly). Results of a bad photoshoot coupled with cooler temps sparked two days of jeans rebellion. And you know it's my skirt month I can make up those rules. :-) Sunday, I wore a skirt to church and then changed and did go out in jeans in the evening. Monday, I returned to my skirt-wearing ways, but sans picture because Mondays start early and end late.

Tuesday, I finally got my act together:
This outfit is nothing spectacular really, except that it's exactly how I see myself as a librarian. Lots of classic elements: the cardigan, the skirt, the flats, the tucked-in shirt!!!* But the shirt is irreverent (Unshelved classic: Frequently Asked Questions), the skirt is jean, and the cardigan is fun-colored. I feel pulled together, but not dowdy and not likely I'm pretending to fulfill some sort of prescribed image. While it's not completely on trend, it's me.

More importantly as someone who really never thought she'd be a librarian and yet finds herself enrolled in a Library Science program, I've been navigating through how I see myself as a professional in a library-environment. I'm not the shusher. I'm not the children's librarian. I'm not the hipster who knows all the great local music (as the library becomes a sub-genre of the coffee shop--oh that's a horrible thought). I am an academic who delights in finding places for the really big words I've read in everyday life--not to prove that I know what they mean and others don't, but to show some harmony in this mental life and, you know, the real world. And actually that's where I'm going to stop--this outfit does the same thing for me.

*I NEVER tuck in shirts--it makes me feel short-waisted. But I've found my more structured skirts really benefit from using my natural proportions as opposed to faking a longer torso with dropped waists.

Work Wear

2010-04-07T10:33:00.003-04:00

I work evenings at a law school library. This statement has some profound implications on my life. For instances, this my alarm went off at 7:30, but I didn't get out of bed until 9. For an hour and a half I read The Happiness Project* (a seriously good recommendation--excellent reading for someone in the midst of a month-long resolution). It is an indulgence, but more like the indulgence of people who read for an hour before going to bed.

The other implication for better or for worse is that I can get away with wearing jeans to work. "Get away with" is probably the best phrasing for while I have excellent justifications for doing so (reducing wardrobe changes during the day, more casual atmosphere during the evening), I'd seriously up my credibility by dressing business casual like my day-time counterparts do. However, my other justification is that they give me t-shirts to wear to work, and these t-shirts go best with jeans. So today you're getting an example of probably my least dress-y work wear:
A light-weight cardigan will probably be added to the ensemble, but I couldn't make myself put it on outside without air conditioning. Also, especially in the work context, I very rarely wear the t-shirts without some sort of blazer or sweater to smarten them up. Also note to self: stop smirking for the camera.

For those keeping score, last evening I traded my tank top for a banana yellow work polo and sneaks for orange flats. Probably about as dressy as I'll get. Though I wonder what the yellow polo with my black dressy skirt and wedges would look like... There will be a couple times this month that I'm going into work during the day so maybe I'll try it out.

Finally, I'm kind of in love with this background. Very urban chic and it's all right under my feet.
It's true. Anything can look beautiful when properly cropped. However, climbing that slope--not easy, especially in a skirt.

*FYI that link is to Rubin's website, but I was reading the book.

Do Shoes Make the Skirt?

2010-04-06T09:14:00.004-04:00

It's a simple day today. Not much going on, but I do have to walk up to the university campus around noon. I love walking in our neighborhood It's a nice little urban community, and it counts as exercise. But Cincinnati finds affinity with the seven hills of Rome and we live in one of the valleys, so walking from our apartment usually means climbing one of three massive hills. While yesterday I walked the littlest hill in my red shoes, today I need to walk the biggest hill. Tennis shoes are necessary. So I face another one of my skirt issues: what to do when you need sensible shoes?
So I tried a bit sportier look. The cord skirt is about shorts length. The tank top would certainly be in any normal wardrobe choice for today. So I'm hoping the cute matching overcomes any tennis shoes/skirt conflicts.

Also, I tried the white flouncy skirt again today with no dice. I'm thinking it might actually not make it through skirt month. :-)

Opening Day

2010-04-05T10:28:00.003-04:00

As many of my friends' facebook statuses proclaim, it's opening day for baseball. While I consider myself an extremely "fairweather" fan--i.e. I like going to games for the several hours one can spend in the nice warm sunshine and cheer for whoever does a good thing or needs cheering or, you know, whatever. However, I did realize late last week that the Cincinnati Reds were playing my beloved St. Louis Cardinals for their opening series, and I was mildly devastated to realize that any chance of me seeing that game was out of the question. So while I won't be downtown for the parade or anything else baseball related, I can pull out my Reds *ahem* Cardinal red in solidarity for those celebrating.

On deck (literally) is my favorite red t-shirt (which says "Lutheran Superstar" on the back, but it was hard enough to get these self-timer shots), my khaki skirt, my Dorothy shoes and a cream cardigan. Originally paired with my white flouncy skirt, I found the shirt and flounce too much at odds. The khaki transitions nicely between the very cas tshirt and the polish brought by the cardi and shoes. Overall I'm pretty happy with my opening day outfit. However, I think I'll be even happier when I define my waist with a belt. :-)

Jeans Day

2010-04-03T20:25:00.003-04:00

Alright so we hit the 3rd of April, and I'm ready to put on jeans. It's Saturday. I have errands to run. Es ist windig. (Hey, it's the German I know.) It's not the time to be flouncing around with skirts. So out comes the jean skirt.

It did get me through my errands and the other parts of my day. Though I claimed pajama time early. It's all good tomorrow there's a sunrise service so it pays to be ready for bed early.

PS I understand why bloggers become interested in photography. Bad pictures suck. I was so frustrated I just decided to go blurry and blame the wind (indoors).

In other news, the blue-print charmeuse skirt was the Good Friday skirt of choice. Paired with a black-knit tee and grey wedges, it worked perfectly for the somber service. Another overexposed shot here: