Go Ask Alice
Annoymous
So Andrew gave me this book. He picked it up for some reason, and when he was done he passed it on. Last night I was looking for something easy and distracting while I was cleaning my room (which for me is neither easy nor distracting) and I picked this up off my bookshelf. I know that some people will veiw it as some sort of blasphmey that even as a coompulsive reader in my tween and early teen years I'd never read it... but I hadn't. What are you going to do? Now I have.
Anyway. The point of this book is pretty clear. She's a pretty normal teenage girl who gets into drugs, has a hard time leaving them behind, finds herself in a number of regrettable situations, and ends up dead. Drugs are bad. I think that we can all understand this.
The thing is, I'm not sure that this girl is a particularly great example of the whole "drugs are bad" motif. Her story has a lot of things in it that are not quite typical of your teenage drug addict, and the message would be anything but encouraging for a kid who had tried drugs but was trying to stop.
First of all, she doesn't make a consious choice to take drugs the first time. Instead, she is given a coke laced with LSD at a party and that starts her down the path to destruction. Somehow, I'm not sure that the warning "don't take coke's from kids you only kind of know" is not the same kind of warning as "don't take drugs." And while I suppose that the message might be something along the lines of "just trying drugs can set you off in the wrong direction." And clearly she makes a number of (VERY) bad choices in the period that follows this first experience, that little bit of trickery made me feel bad for her.
Second, her descriptions of the experience of drug use are enough to make even a psychopharmacology nerd a little curious. Even though she clearly states about a million times toward the end of her diary that the experience isn't worth it, I'm not sure the descriptions of complete and utter bliss and drug induced euphoria would be particularly helpful in the hands of especially curious preteens. I suppose here the message that trying it once can mess you up is justified... since she makes being high sound pretty damn great. Too bad that one LSD trip leads inexorably to scratching your own face off and premature death.
Finally, at the end of the diary she seems to be well on the path to recovery. She's made new friends that aren't into drugs. She's got herself a responsible college boyfriend who is not into drugs and who has a relationship with her parents as well as with her. All of the last journal entries are those of a hopeful young woman who has left a dangerous and destructive past behind her.
And then in the epilogue, she's dead.
What happened? I mean really. I don't think that this is the message that you want to give to young people. "You'll be on the right track, you'll make new friends and make every effort to start a new life, but really there's no hope. Just when it seems that you are on the path to a full recovery and a useful life, your parents will find you dead when they get home from the movies!"
This is not helpful. Especially not helpful for any child that had tried drugs, as in "Well, now that I've tried drugs, I might as well not waste the effort to get off them, I'm screwed anyway, so I might as well enjoy myself!"
But I suppose the anti-drug message lives on. The way things turn out for her while she's on drugs is clearly not the life that people would wish for, her later resistance of some extraordinarily intense peer pressure is admirable, and her description of her "bad trip" and it's aftereffects are enough to scare the living daylights out of some of those previously discribed especially curious preteens. I suppose.
I think that the real problem with this book is that it seems too forced. Too constructed.
Young girl starts diary about how hard it is not to be accepted, and 20 pages in, she's a drug addict rolling her way straight towards death. Repeated use triggered by neatly spaced traumatic life events. Tries to clean up, fails, faces increadible peer pressure and has a bad trip, but parents always love her. Nice boy that she meets accepts her and even *kisses* her! Doesn't care that she's a former addict, or when she goes crazy, or when she's institutionalized. People that don't use drugs are good and loving. Drugs are bad.
It reads like not terribly well created propoganda. (Which according to the reviews on Amazon it just might be.) I even looked back at some of my journalling from around the same age that this girl is supposed to be. They read more like the journals of a 10 year old than a 16 year old. (And no, I am not just hyper-mature, I assure you.) To me that reeks of adult that has no recollection of what it was like to be 15 or 16. Maybe.
I suppose if I had read it in middle school it would be different. The reviews on Amazon are clearly clustered into jeers from jaded adults and raves from teen readers to whom it seemed honest and dramatic and real. Perhaps if I had read this in maddle school this would be one of those essays about returning to a childhood favorite and finding it lacking.
But I don't think that I would give this to my 13 year old to read, because it is a single minded message about destruction with the utter absence of hope, and if you believe, as I do, that addiction is an illness, than what we need is stories imbued with some element of hope.
***************************************************
Four other notes about reading, books and Barnes and Noble:
1.) On a re-reading childhood favorites note: Madeline L'Engle died this past weekend. I certainly hope that I don't have to write the "returning to a childhood favorite and finding it lacking" essay about any of those books, since I am certainly going to have to return to them once I finish my little ten book run... or maybe during the ten book run. Kids books make a great little distraction sometimes, and the library will have those. I do own them all, even if they are up in an attic somewhere, so I have no reason to visit Barnes and Noble for this rereading project.
2.) This book doesn't count towards the 10 that I have to read before I return to my wanton bookbuying ways. a.) Because it's not on the list that I made when I made the resolution and b.) because I read it so fast and it was so little that counting it would feel like cheating.
3.) Barnes and Nobel sent me an e-mail on Friday in which they explained that they are going to send me a book for *free.* Apparently, they have this book club thing, and because I signed up for one in the past they have me pegged as a reader type. They are clearly trying to create some buzz around a new author by sending out a bunch of advance reading copies of her book and getting us to talk about them. While this does mean that there is a new book on its way to me in the mail... it does not count as a trip to Barnes and Noble because I neither visited the store or gave them money in exchange for it.
and 4.) We stopped at a Barnes and Noble for coffee last week (since it was the nearest coffee selling place to where we were), and I didn't buy ANYTHING. (Well, execpt coffee, but that doesn't count.) GO ME!
Thursday, September 13, 2007
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
The Great Mortality
The Great Mortality
by John Kelly
I believe that this is the "free" book from the "Buy Two Get One Free" trap that sucked me in during that last fateful Barnes and Noble trip. What can you do? I blame it all on Andrew.
Anyway, this is a book about the Black Death. Not the most cheerful topic, but an interesting one. In case anyone hasn't noticed, I am literally and totally obsessed with medicine. It's a problem. It will hopefully be less of a problem when I get my happy self into medical school. Fingers crossed.
Anyway. The man that wrote this book has made his living writing about science and medicine, but it seems from his bio at the end of the book that he also has something of a history obsession. The combination makes for a pretty good book on a topic that falls somewhere along the intersection of medicine and history. He seems to understand more than enough about the science to talk about it (as much as anyone can, since the science of a epidemic so long ago is fuzzy at best anyway) but clearly the history is what excited him. More specifically, the detailed and horrific personal accounts written during the plague.
He says that he started this book "for a very modern reason. In an age of the avian flu, Ebola and AIDS, I wanted to take an anticipatory glance backward at the greatest pandemic in human history." In looking back, he has focused on the human story of the plague. He seems determined in the face of the destruction to see the strength of human character, and in that, I think that he's right. It truly is amazing that people kept writing wills, that they managed to bury bodies, that people got out of bed in the morning as the population was cut in half by something that they simply did not understand.
The destruction that the Black Death brought really is well outside the realm of comprehension. We're talking about a time in which, in most of Europe, one out of every two people died horribly. That's hard to wrap your head around. Even though Kelly makes every effort to keep the humanity of these residents of the Middle Ages intact by quoting their own words or focusing on the story of a single family or village to represent one area, I think that at some point, one has to become desensitized, at least I felt like I did. You can only read a sentence like "And in such and such a place in 1348 the Black Death claimed 40-50% of the city." so many times before it just starts to feel like "yep. That's what happens. Oh well." I know that sounds callus, but that's the way it is. Especially since as shocking as the level of devastation is, even with Kelly's great and admirable effort to keep the victims human, these are still people that died 800 years ago, and that helps to keep a certain distance.
Anyway, I do have to say that this is decidedly a book more for the history buff than the science buff, since the science is a little ambiguous. Kelly's writing is focused on the routes the plague travelled and how the character was slightly different in different places. (The English managed to bury everyone facing the same way in neat little rows, some other places failed to manage burials at all really.) He devotes a chapter to the anti-Semitic reactions as well as to the Flagellants, but the majority of the story is just following the plague from place to place.
At times it gets a little repetitive. The story may be slightly different in France than in England, but not too too much, and sometimes it seems as if the same little vignettes are repeated. Maybe that's meant to say something about how we're all really the same, but I could have done with a little less of it.
Of course, the history leaves the scientist in me staring at closed doors, because while Kelly is very clear on the PATH that the plague travelled around Europe, the actual METHOD of that travel is a little more ambiguous. The virulence and movement patterns of the plague of the great mortality are very different and much more frightening than those of the third pandemic of plague, which was in the late 1890s and studied with the technology of that day. Of course for me the question is "what is the difference?!" They have extracted plague DNA from these Black Death burial pits, but understandably I would assume that it's not enough to do an in depth analysis of virulence factors. Of course that is the stuff that I would be more interested in.
But what can you do when you're reading about something that happened about 800 years ago?
I'm not sure how much learning about the Black Death can inform us about the way that our world today would look in the face of a deadly pandemic. At least in today's world (or the part of today's world that anyone reading either this blog or this book lives in) people understand that disease is caused by microbes. This one belief I believe dramatically changes the way that we would experience illness even on a massive level. While there are certainly some ignorant bigots that will blame AIDS on gay people or other such foolishness, I like to believe that we are past the point of burning Jews because they must have poisoned the wells. I think that in the face of understanding what we are fighting, as we certainly would at least in part in the face of a pandemic would give people something to hold on to and something to hope for (a cure, a vaccine, etc.).
That's what's really amazing about the fact that the society in many places continued to function in the face of this pandemic. In their world there was no reason for it, there was no microbe to fight or protect against, no real way to treat symptoms or limit transmission. There was nothing to do but wait for death, and the fact that people held it together to the extent that they did in the face of something like that gives us a lot to hope for on down the road.
Three down, seven to go.
by John Kelly
I believe that this is the "free" book from the "Buy Two Get One Free" trap that sucked me in during that last fateful Barnes and Noble trip. What can you do? I blame it all on Andrew.
Anyway, this is a book about the Black Death. Not the most cheerful topic, but an interesting one. In case anyone hasn't noticed, I am literally and totally obsessed with medicine. It's a problem. It will hopefully be less of a problem when I get my happy self into medical school. Fingers crossed.
Anyway. The man that wrote this book has made his living writing about science and medicine, but it seems from his bio at the end of the book that he also has something of a history obsession. The combination makes for a pretty good book on a topic that falls somewhere along the intersection of medicine and history. He seems to understand more than enough about the science to talk about it (as much as anyone can, since the science of a epidemic so long ago is fuzzy at best anyway) but clearly the history is what excited him. More specifically, the detailed and horrific personal accounts written during the plague.
He says that he started this book "for a very modern reason. In an age of the avian flu, Ebola and AIDS, I wanted to take an anticipatory glance backward at the greatest pandemic in human history." In looking back, he has focused on the human story of the plague. He seems determined in the face of the destruction to see the strength of human character, and in that, I think that he's right. It truly is amazing that people kept writing wills, that they managed to bury bodies, that people got out of bed in the morning as the population was cut in half by something that they simply did not understand.
The destruction that the Black Death brought really is well outside the realm of comprehension. We're talking about a time in which, in most of Europe, one out of every two people died horribly. That's hard to wrap your head around. Even though Kelly makes every effort to keep the humanity of these residents of the Middle Ages intact by quoting their own words or focusing on the story of a single family or village to represent one area, I think that at some point, one has to become desensitized, at least I felt like I did. You can only read a sentence like "And in such and such a place in 1348 the Black Death claimed 40-50% of the city." so many times before it just starts to feel like "yep. That's what happens. Oh well." I know that sounds callus, but that's the way it is. Especially since as shocking as the level of devastation is, even with Kelly's great and admirable effort to keep the victims human, these are still people that died 800 years ago, and that helps to keep a certain distance.
Anyway, I do have to say that this is decidedly a book more for the history buff than the science buff, since the science is a little ambiguous. Kelly's writing is focused on the routes the plague travelled and how the character was slightly different in different places. (The English managed to bury everyone facing the same way in neat little rows, some other places failed to manage burials at all really.) He devotes a chapter to the anti-Semitic reactions as well as to the Flagellants, but the majority of the story is just following the plague from place to place.
At times it gets a little repetitive. The story may be slightly different in France than in England, but not too too much, and sometimes it seems as if the same little vignettes are repeated. Maybe that's meant to say something about how we're all really the same, but I could have done with a little less of it.
Of course, the history leaves the scientist in me staring at closed doors, because while Kelly is very clear on the PATH that the plague travelled around Europe, the actual METHOD of that travel is a little more ambiguous. The virulence and movement patterns of the plague of the great mortality are very different and much more frightening than those of the third pandemic of plague, which was in the late 1890s and studied with the technology of that day. Of course for me the question is "what is the difference?!" They have extracted plague DNA from these Black Death burial pits, but understandably I would assume that it's not enough to do an in depth analysis of virulence factors. Of course that is the stuff that I would be more interested in.
But what can you do when you're reading about something that happened about 800 years ago?
I'm not sure how much learning about the Black Death can inform us about the way that our world today would look in the face of a deadly pandemic. At least in today's world (or the part of today's world that anyone reading either this blog or this book lives in) people understand that disease is caused by microbes. This one belief I believe dramatically changes the way that we would experience illness even on a massive level. While there are certainly some ignorant bigots that will blame AIDS on gay people or other such foolishness, I like to believe that we are past the point of burning Jews because they must have poisoned the wells. I think that in the face of understanding what we are fighting, as we certainly would at least in part in the face of a pandemic would give people something to hold on to and something to hope for (a cure, a vaccine, etc.).
That's what's really amazing about the fact that the society in many places continued to function in the face of this pandemic. In their world there was no reason for it, there was no microbe to fight or protect against, no real way to treat symptoms or limit transmission. There was nothing to do but wait for death, and the fact that people held it together to the extent that they did in the face of something like that gives us a lot to hope for on down the road.
Three down, seven to go.
Tuesday, September 04, 2007
The Female Brain
The Female Brain
By Louann Birzendine, M.D
Two down. Eight to go.
So Andrew picked this up and suggested it to me during the last Barnes and Noble trip. I've been sort of eyeing it for a while, unable to decide if I wanted to read it or not. These psychology books have the potential to make me frustrated and angry or happy and interested, and sometimes, it is very hard to predict which will happen before you open it up. I was skeptical of this one because of the cover image, which is one of those white curly phone cords made into the shape of a brain. This suggested to me that there might be a little too much perpetuation of female stereotypes going on. But ultimately, I decided to let the degrees of the author persuade me that she might be legit (Yale Medical School tends to put out some smart people) and give it a shot.
I enjoyed it for the most part, it was fairly interesting, and I think that the author did a very good job presenting sometimes very complicated information in a way that will be approachable to the average person, which is certainly something that I aspire to someday. In each of the chapters, (which were all titled for stages in a woman's life, things like "The Mommy Brain") she introduced a patient, and fit the neurochemical and hormonal changes she was talking about into the story of what was happening in that person's life. (I am guessing since there was no little note about how names were changed or patients agreed, they might have all been composites, making it easier to fit them to her points more exactly, but that's allowed, I suppose.)
I do feel like there were a couple of glaring problems. First of all, some things were made to seem like secrets that really are not. For example, in the very beginning she had a list of "Hormones your doctor might not know about." This list included oxytocin. Now I admit that might be a hormone that the average American isn't super-familiar with (i.e. any hormone other than estrogen and testosterone), but I am very skeptical of the assertion that anyone could make it through medical school anywhere without knowing all about it. It's silly (and maybe dangerous) to make people think that just because you are doing some interesting information synthesis you have some special knowledge that their doctors might not know about, especially when it's related to things you are about to assign importance to. Sure a specialist might know more, but there isn't an OB/GYN in practice (or there shouldn't be) that can't tell you at least a little bit about oxytocin.
There's a fine line between making things approachable to the average person and oversimplification. I think that she may have stepped on the wrong side of that line a couple of times. My real pet peeve I suppose is the way that she talked about MRI research. As if, we put people in the scanner when they're in love and see what they are feeling instantly, when really it's not quite that simple (or at all easily applied to real world situations.) The stuff we have people do in the scanner is carefully structured and in reality a little more artificial than "imaging love." But she makes it seem sometimes like the MRI scanners can be used to see emotions. (Ummmm. Not quite.) I am also put off by the language that she (and many other people) used taking about results of MRI scans. "We do this or ask the person to think about this and such and such part of the brain lights up."
I know that I have been guilty of describing it that way too, but I have tried to stop ever since a kid asked me if we would be able to see the lights through his skull. People tend to take doctors literally, and sometimes it's best to tell them literally what is happening. There are no little lights in your skull people, when they say "such and such part of the cortex lights up" what they mean is "more blood flows to such and such a part of the cortex."
If we told people that way, not only would it be more true and more helpful, but also perhaps the work that we're doing might seem less mystical and a little more like science. We're measuring the flow of blood in your brain, not the intensity of mystical in head chirstmas lights. I don't think that the other way of taking about it is helpful at all.
Sorry for that little vent.
Anyway, despite the oversimplifications. I did enjoy the book. I think that I am a little bit too close to the field to fit in as a member of her target audience, but that's not really her fault. She clearly didn't set out to write a book for the academic circle. I do think that I know a member of her real target audience thought, so I left the book with my mother. She'll enjoy it more than I did.
Woot. Eight more books until my next Barnes and Noble Trip.
By Louann Birzendine, M.D
Two down. Eight to go.
So Andrew picked this up and suggested it to me during the last Barnes and Noble trip. I've been sort of eyeing it for a while, unable to decide if I wanted to read it or not. These psychology books have the potential to make me frustrated and angry or happy and interested, and sometimes, it is very hard to predict which will happen before you open it up. I was skeptical of this one because of the cover image, which is one of those white curly phone cords made into the shape of a brain. This suggested to me that there might be a little too much perpetuation of female stereotypes going on. But ultimately, I decided to let the degrees of the author persuade me that she might be legit (Yale Medical School tends to put out some smart people) and give it a shot.
I enjoyed it for the most part, it was fairly interesting, and I think that the author did a very good job presenting sometimes very complicated information in a way that will be approachable to the average person, which is certainly something that I aspire to someday. In each of the chapters, (which were all titled for stages in a woman's life, things like "The Mommy Brain") she introduced a patient, and fit the neurochemical and hormonal changes she was talking about into the story of what was happening in that person's life. (I am guessing since there was no little note about how names were changed or patients agreed, they might have all been composites, making it easier to fit them to her points more exactly, but that's allowed, I suppose.)
I do feel like there were a couple of glaring problems. First of all, some things were made to seem like secrets that really are not. For example, in the very beginning she had a list of "Hormones your doctor might not know about." This list included oxytocin. Now I admit that might be a hormone that the average American isn't super-familiar with (i.e. any hormone other than estrogen and testosterone), but I am very skeptical of the assertion that anyone could make it through medical school anywhere without knowing all about it. It's silly (and maybe dangerous) to make people think that just because you are doing some interesting information synthesis you have some special knowledge that their doctors might not know about, especially when it's related to things you are about to assign importance to. Sure a specialist might know more, but there isn't an OB/GYN in practice (or there shouldn't be) that can't tell you at least a little bit about oxytocin.
There's a fine line between making things approachable to the average person and oversimplification. I think that she may have stepped on the wrong side of that line a couple of times. My real pet peeve I suppose is the way that she talked about MRI research. As if, we put people in the scanner when they're in love and see what they are feeling instantly, when really it's not quite that simple (or at all easily applied to real world situations.) The stuff we have people do in the scanner is carefully structured and in reality a little more artificial than "imaging love." But she makes it seem sometimes like the MRI scanners can be used to see emotions. (Ummmm. Not quite.) I am also put off by the language that she (and many other people) used taking about results of MRI scans. "We do this or ask the person to think about this and such and such part of the brain lights up."
I know that I have been guilty of describing it that way too, but I have tried to stop ever since a kid asked me if we would be able to see the lights through his skull. People tend to take doctors literally, and sometimes it's best to tell them literally what is happening. There are no little lights in your skull people, when they say "such and such part of the cortex lights up" what they mean is "more blood flows to such and such a part of the cortex."
If we told people that way, not only would it be more true and more helpful, but also perhaps the work that we're doing might seem less mystical and a little more like science. We're measuring the flow of blood in your brain, not the intensity of mystical in head chirstmas lights. I don't think that the other way of taking about it is helpful at all.
Sorry for that little vent.
Anyway, despite the oversimplifications. I did enjoy the book. I think that I am a little bit too close to the field to fit in as a member of her target audience, but that's not really her fault. She clearly didn't set out to write a book for the academic circle. I do think that I know a member of her real target audience thought, so I left the book with my mother. She'll enjoy it more than I did.
Woot. Eight more books until my next Barnes and Noble Trip.
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
The Queen's Fool
The Queen's Fool
By Philippa Gregory
If you want Maggie to remember history. Just put it all into a nice story with some memorable characters and she'll have it all wrapped up.
For example. By reading The Queen's Fool, I am now clear on the succession of English royalty following Henry VIII (a character himself in The Other Boleyn Girl the book that made that little period of history clearer) all the way through to Elizabeth I.
This story starts after Henry is dead and his son Edward VI is on the throne (in name only, he's a child, so the country is being ruled by a regency council.) The narrator of the novel is Hannah Verde, a Jewish girl, who with her father has fled Spain to hide (and fake Christianity) in England after her mother was burned at the stake in the Spanish Inquisition. Hannah also happens to be able to occasionally see the future, a useful skill at a time like this.
She meets Robert Dudley (central character of The Virgin's Lover the other Gregory novel that taught Maggie history) and he takes Hannah to court to be a holy fool to the king, who is young and clearly ill. After a short while, she is sent, basically as a spy for the Dudleys, to the Princess Mary. Hannah spends the rest of the novel as friend and confidant to Mary both as princess and as Queen and later also to Princess Elizabeth.
What's great about this book is not only the history. (Edward VI to Jane Grey (8 days) to Mary I (aka Bloody Mary) to Elizabeth I... better than I knew it for AP European History.) But the complexity of the characters. Hannah is a brilliantly created, and genuine seeming person. A young woman who is forced to reconcile herself with conflicting feelings and web of complicated loyalties. The story takes her from a young girl who questions the value of her Jewish faith in the face of what it has already cost her, to a grown woman who agrees wholeheartedly to commit to a life as "One of the Children is Israel." She is loyal to Robert Dudley from the beginning, and for a time also in love with him. But she also has a deep and undying love for Mary, even in the face of the religious persecution that she inflicts upon England in a quest to return it to the Catholic Church. Hannah even shows affection, loyalty, a sense of duty and a deep admiration for the Princess Elizabeth, even as she plots to overthrow the Queen that she so loves.
But that fits. It's a complicated character for a complicated time. A character faced with a deep religious challenge at a time when nobody in England really knew what they were allowed to believe, or if they were safe in their practice. A character faced with conflicting loyalties in a time of political turmoil. It works. I loved it.
Gregory paints all the characters, even the royalty, as human, flawed but likable. Perhaps none more so than Mary. It's an interesting choice for a Queen who is known for executing large numbers of her own people. Yet, in this novel at least, Mary is sincere. She wishes nothing but happiness for England, and her devotion to the Church and returning England to her faith comes from a devout belief that her view of God is the true one. She is a woman tortured by the complications of court from her youngest days, when Henry VIII tossed her mother aside for Anne Boleyn. The story makes it clear how she has progressed from a girl forced to swear the oath calling herself a bastard to a woman who can rally the troops to her cause as Queen not once, but twice. But the novel also shows how her strength is tested, and how she is changed from someone so loved by her people that she can easily put down a rebellion to a queen that was so feared. How she moves from someone so merciful that she initially refused to execute Jane Grey, who was put on the throne before her, to someone who would so willingly bring down a brutal inquisition on her own people. The strength that she shows when she is ready to fight for her throne is contrasted sharply to the broken sobbing woman that we see before she dies. It's a compelling portrait.
The side plot to all the royal activity is the love story between Hannah and the young Jewish man that she is betrothed to. It's a nice story, and while it certainly serves to help us see how Hannah grows, to me it did not ring with the same intensity as her times at court. Still charming though.
In short, I liked this as much as the other two Gregory novels, both books that I could not put down. Reading this makes me want to go through and read all the books in this unofficial series in order, to see how the continuity flows. It seems now that Gregory has made the English royalty into complicated and beautiful characters spanning from young Catherine of Aragon to Elizabeth in what's now five books. We'll see when I get around to that, I'm certainly not allowed to buy the ones that I haven't read yet right now. ;-)
One book down, nine more to go before I can make my triumphant return to Barnes and Noble.
P.S. I'm going to try this label thing and see if it works. We'll sort by genre I think.
By Philippa Gregory
If you want Maggie to remember history. Just put it all into a nice story with some memorable characters and she'll have it all wrapped up.
For example. By reading The Queen's Fool, I am now clear on the succession of English royalty following Henry VIII (a character himself in The Other Boleyn Girl the book that made that little period of history clearer) all the way through to Elizabeth I.
This story starts after Henry is dead and his son Edward VI is on the throne (in name only, he's a child, so the country is being ruled by a regency council.) The narrator of the novel is Hannah Verde, a Jewish girl, who with her father has fled Spain to hide (and fake Christianity) in England after her mother was burned at the stake in the Spanish Inquisition. Hannah also happens to be able to occasionally see the future, a useful skill at a time like this.
She meets Robert Dudley (central character of The Virgin's Lover the other Gregory novel that taught Maggie history) and he takes Hannah to court to be a holy fool to the king, who is young and clearly ill. After a short while, she is sent, basically as a spy for the Dudleys, to the Princess Mary. Hannah spends the rest of the novel as friend and confidant to Mary both as princess and as Queen and later also to Princess Elizabeth.
What's great about this book is not only the history. (Edward VI to Jane Grey (8 days) to Mary I (aka Bloody Mary) to Elizabeth I... better than I knew it for AP European History.) But the complexity of the characters. Hannah is a brilliantly created, and genuine seeming person. A young woman who is forced to reconcile herself with conflicting feelings and web of complicated loyalties. The story takes her from a young girl who questions the value of her Jewish faith in the face of what it has already cost her, to a grown woman who agrees wholeheartedly to commit to a life as "One of the Children is Israel." She is loyal to Robert Dudley from the beginning, and for a time also in love with him. But she also has a deep and undying love for Mary, even in the face of the religious persecution that she inflicts upon England in a quest to return it to the Catholic Church. Hannah even shows affection, loyalty, a sense of duty and a deep admiration for the Princess Elizabeth, even as she plots to overthrow the Queen that she so loves.
But that fits. It's a complicated character for a complicated time. A character faced with a deep religious challenge at a time when nobody in England really knew what they were allowed to believe, or if they were safe in their practice. A character faced with conflicting loyalties in a time of political turmoil. It works. I loved it.
Gregory paints all the characters, even the royalty, as human, flawed but likable. Perhaps none more so than Mary. It's an interesting choice for a Queen who is known for executing large numbers of her own people. Yet, in this novel at least, Mary is sincere. She wishes nothing but happiness for England, and her devotion to the Church and returning England to her faith comes from a devout belief that her view of God is the true one. She is a woman tortured by the complications of court from her youngest days, when Henry VIII tossed her mother aside for Anne Boleyn. The story makes it clear how she has progressed from a girl forced to swear the oath calling herself a bastard to a woman who can rally the troops to her cause as Queen not once, but twice. But the novel also shows how her strength is tested, and how she is changed from someone so loved by her people that she can easily put down a rebellion to a queen that was so feared. How she moves from someone so merciful that she initially refused to execute Jane Grey, who was put on the throne before her, to someone who would so willingly bring down a brutal inquisition on her own people. The strength that she shows when she is ready to fight for her throne is contrasted sharply to the broken sobbing woman that we see before she dies. It's a compelling portrait.
The side plot to all the royal activity is the love story between Hannah and the young Jewish man that she is betrothed to. It's a nice story, and while it certainly serves to help us see how Hannah grows, to me it did not ring with the same intensity as her times at court. Still charming though.
In short, I liked this as much as the other two Gregory novels, both books that I could not put down. Reading this makes me want to go through and read all the books in this unofficial series in order, to see how the continuity flows. It seems now that Gregory has made the English royalty into complicated and beautiful characters spanning from young Catherine of Aragon to Elizabeth in what's now five books. We'll see when I get around to that, I'm certainly not allowed to buy the ones that I haven't read yet right now. ;-)
One book down, nine more to go before I can make my triumphant return to Barnes and Noble.
P.S. I'm going to try this label thing and see if it works. We'll sort by genre I think.
Monday, August 27, 2007
The First Step...
They say that the first step is admitting that you have a problem.
I have a book problem. Really. I spend money that I really shouldn't on books, and I LOVE every single minute of it. Really.
I also love Andrew, but he is a bad influence on me. On Sunday, at the Barnes and Noble in Nashville, I bought SIX books (admittedly, one was free, but the plan had been not to buy ANY books, and instead, I bought SIX).
So now, no more, I have made a solemn oath to myself and my wallet, with Andrew and all my blog readers (all three of you) as my witness, that
I WILL NOT BUY ANOTHER BOOK UNTIL I HAVE READ AND BLOGGED TEN BOOKS.
I have even selected the ten, and they are (in no special order)
The Queen's Fool
By Philippa Gregory
500 pages
The Female Brian
By Louann Birzendine, M.D.
187 pages (excluding notes and references)
Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found
By Suketu Mehta
542 pages
The Great Mortality: An Intimate History of the Black Death
By John Kelly
303 pages (excluding notes and references)
The Third Chimpanzee
By Jared Diamond
368 pages (excluding notes and references)
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
By Robert A. Heinlein
382 pages
The Princes of Ireland
By Edward Rutherfurd
770 pages
The Rebels of Ireland
By Edward Rutherfurd
863 pages
Saving Fish From Drowning
By Amy Tan
474 pages
Quicksilver
By Neal Stephenson
916 pages
That's ten books. 5,305 pages. Ten complete blog entries before I am allowed to visit Barnes and Noble again. I swear to it. (Although, I do have to admit that I am almost done with The Queen's Fool, but I still have to blog it, and updating the blog is something that I have been rather bad at... so that's a start.)
Right.
I really really really love to read.
I have a book problem. Really. I spend money that I really shouldn't on books, and I LOVE every single minute of it. Really.
I also love Andrew, but he is a bad influence on me. On Sunday, at the Barnes and Noble in Nashville, I bought SIX books (admittedly, one was free, but the plan had been not to buy ANY books, and instead, I bought SIX).
So now, no more, I have made a solemn oath to myself and my wallet, with Andrew and all my blog readers (all three of you) as my witness, that
I WILL NOT BUY ANOTHER BOOK UNTIL I HAVE READ AND BLOGGED TEN BOOKS.
I have even selected the ten, and they are (in no special order)
The Queen's Fool
By Philippa Gregory
500 pages
The Female Brian
By Louann Birzendine, M.D.
187 pages (excluding notes and references)
Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found
By Suketu Mehta
542 pages
The Great Mortality: An Intimate History of the Black Death
By John Kelly
303 pages (excluding notes and references)
The Third Chimpanzee
By Jared Diamond
368 pages (excluding notes and references)
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
By Robert A. Heinlein
382 pages
The Princes of Ireland
By Edward Rutherfurd
770 pages
The Rebels of Ireland
By Edward Rutherfurd
863 pages
Saving Fish From Drowning
By Amy Tan
474 pages
Quicksilver
By Neal Stephenson
916 pages
That's ten books. 5,305 pages. Ten complete blog entries before I am allowed to visit Barnes and Noble again. I swear to it. (Although, I do have to admit that I am almost done with The Queen's Fool, but I still have to blog it, and updating the blog is something that I have been rather bad at... so that's a start.)
Right.
I really really really love to read.
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul
The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul
By Douglas Adams
Another book whose story starts with something related to the great and wonderful Andrew Gustav Schneider. He gave this to me during our hours of sitting in JFK airport waiting for our flight to London to take off. A reading from my favorite British author for our trip to Britain.
Of course, I didn't get to read it in Britain because I picked up Edward Ruthorfurd's epic novel London at St. Paul's the second day we were there, and spent the rest of the time buried in that 1300 page wonder. (It's amazing, but not for the faint of heart.) So instead I had a book by my favorite British author to recover from my trip to Britain. Just as good really, maybe better.
Note: Anyone that has not yet read all four books in The Hitchhiker's Trilogy, stop reading this now and rush to your local library, you are missing out on great and wonderful things.
Now, when I first looked at the book, I was fairly sure that I hadn't read it. Then, at some point on the vacation, while Andrew was making fun of the lovely (10 feet of visibility) view that we'd enjoyed from the top of Mt. Snowdon in Wales, he made some joke about the clouds wanting to be close to me. He said that he remembered reading about a character like that, he thought in a Douglas Adams book, and all of a sudden I decided that I in fact HAD read this book and that it was the mystery about the Norse Gods... and that little antidote about the clouds wanting to be close to someone was in this book, something about the rain God...
I was about half right. I did read this at some point in the past, although long enough ago that I had pretty much forgotten it all. It is the mystery about the Norse Gods, but the thing with the guy who the clouds want to be near wasn't in here. Maybe it is somewhere in Hitchhikers. If you know where it is, it would be nice of you to share.
Anyway, this book does live up to the amusement that I expect from Adams on some levels. There is no shortage of one liners or cruel little observations about all the irony in the world to keep you amused. It doesn't have the same glory as Hitchhikers, but really, that would be quite a challenge.
If you are an Adams fan, you've probably already read this, and if not, I suppose you should. If not, I wouldn't start here, instead, read other things first, become an Adams fan, and then read this.
Sad to admit, but one of the coolest things was the fact that things kept happening in places where Andrew and I had been on our vacation (the main character's flat appears to be located on the same street as the car rental place, which was a longer than anticipated walk uphill from King's Cross, leaving me with a feel for the neighborhood.)
Well those places and Asgard, home of the wise and wonderful Gods of Norse mythology.
I do love the idea of Thor walking around frustrated that people don't believe in him anymore... I bet Zeus is pissed too...
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
Lipstick Jungle
Lipstick Jungle
by Candace Bushnell
May 21- 22, 2007
This weekend, when I arrived at Andrew's place, he had a book for me. It was Candace Bushnell's Four Blonds. He had gotten it off one of those ever-present and super addictive bargain tables somewhere for me, mostly because he is wonderful. (At some point he and I had talked about me letting myself read more silly girly books, since I do find them rather relaxing. He always remembers these things and does something about them. It's really rather amazing to me.)
Anyway, I finished the entire thing this weekend, either in the car on our way to and from the Tennessee Renaissance Fair (more fun than you would imagine) or just hanging out around the apartment (more cozy than you would imagine). I liked it, but I couldn't really tell you why. I may or may not get to writing a whole entry about it, we'll see.
Anyway, when I was in the airport trying to kill some time before going through security so that I could finish my juice, I saw this book. It was one of those cheap, small paperbacks, and somehow, I justified the purchase. (Something along the lines of, "It's only eight dollars, and it's pretty late, so I'll be happy to have something mindless to read on the plane. Besides, I am sure that I can paperbackswap it away and get something good once I'm done.")
I swear, I am going to read 10 more books before I buy another one. TEN!
Anyway, from the moment I opened it waiting to board the plane, I couldn't put the damn thing down. It's over 500 pages long and I only started reading it last night at like 7:30... clearly today was not as productive as one might have hoped.
This book is the story of three women in their 40s in New York: a fashion designer, a movie producer, and a publishing exec. They all have tons of money and despite their already fabulous jobs, are headed for even bigger and better things. Sure, there's drama: corporate backstabbing, a failed business deal, a divorce even. But they live in a world where things turn out fabulous. That is what makes this relaxing girly fiction.
Yet I cared about them, in a way that I did not expect to. Perhaps that is why Bushnell has been so successful. I thought that perhaps they were going to piss me off (all four of the blonds certainly did that) but for some reason, I found myself rooting for these girls (women?), in sort of the same way that I liked the women on Sex in the City (and no, I haven't read that yet, but I think that I'll take a break from Bushnell.) Throughout the whole book, I was on their side. I wanted them to kick butt, to show all those silly men that were trying to get in their way who's boss.
This was, for sure, one of those female empowerment books where women show the men who's in charge. These characters have stay-at-home husbands or no husband at all. They take jobs away from men. They repeatedly say that nobody could understand their careers or talk about money like their girlfriends. It's almost overwhelming, all the empowerment. If they weren't somehow still likable characters, I think I would have put the book down. A girl only needs to be reminded so many times that she can do anything at all, (and without the help of men!). After reading something like this, I feel sure that I am supposed to believe that all a lady needs is some close female friends, some money, and a whole lot of power. We can do it gals!
I suppose that's a good thing... but it gets old.
It did make me think about something again though. The characters in this book start out pretty close to the top, end up pretty much actually at the top, and most of the book is about that striving: climbing the corporate ladder, making it in the fashion or movie industry. All making millions to start, and all ending up with more at the end.
And what does that mean? Is $250,000 a year not successful enough anymore? What about a million? As I plunge into the application process all over again, I have to wonder a little bit what it means that I was concerned that these women would "fail" and end up dead ended as the editor-and-chief or something of the sort. That wouldn't have been enough. I mean sure, that's not bad, but who can settle for not bad when they want to be the best, the top.
And we want that too. "We" being myself and many of my friends. As Charlene said while she was doing all her apps, "I wonder what would it be like to just want to be normal?"
But I don't know the answer to that question, because I, like the women in this book, want very much to be exceptional. There is something in me that has been trained, by a combination of personality, culture and education, to believe that nothing less than extraordinary will do. I want to pull this same sort of thing, to be at the top of my field, to work very hard and see very great rewards. And like these characters, despite all my doubts and fears, I believe that I will be able to do that. (And maybe even be able to have a family too.) Sure, I don't know how, but how much does that really matter at this point? As we learn in books like this one, the hows work themselves out.
And that's interesting to me, because reading this book, at first I felt like these women were extreme, with almost crazy hopes and goals, that people don't need that much money, that much power. And maybe I don't want to be the president of a movie studio or CEO of a magazine division. But really, when I think about it. I want to be successful like that, I want to be outstanding. And usually, I believe that I can be outstanding.
I guess all that empowerment worked after all.
by Candace Bushnell
May 21- 22, 2007
This weekend, when I arrived at Andrew's place, he had a book for me. It was Candace Bushnell's Four Blonds. He had gotten it off one of those ever-present and super addictive bargain tables somewhere for me, mostly because he is wonderful. (At some point he and I had talked about me letting myself read more silly girly books, since I do find them rather relaxing. He always remembers these things and does something about them. It's really rather amazing to me.)
Anyway, I finished the entire thing this weekend, either in the car on our way to and from the Tennessee Renaissance Fair (more fun than you would imagine) or just hanging out around the apartment (more cozy than you would imagine). I liked it, but I couldn't really tell you why. I may or may not get to writing a whole entry about it, we'll see.
Anyway, when I was in the airport trying to kill some time before going through security so that I could finish my juice, I saw this book. It was one of those cheap, small paperbacks, and somehow, I justified the purchase. (Something along the lines of, "It's only eight dollars, and it's pretty late, so I'll be happy to have something mindless to read on the plane. Besides, I am sure that I can paperbackswap it away and get something good once I'm done.")
I swear, I am going to read 10 more books before I buy another one. TEN!
Anyway, from the moment I opened it waiting to board the plane, I couldn't put the damn thing down. It's over 500 pages long and I only started reading it last night at like 7:30... clearly today was not as productive as one might have hoped.
This book is the story of three women in their 40s in New York: a fashion designer, a movie producer, and a publishing exec. They all have tons of money and despite their already fabulous jobs, are headed for even bigger and better things. Sure, there's drama: corporate backstabbing, a failed business deal, a divorce even. But they live in a world where things turn out fabulous. That is what makes this relaxing girly fiction.
Yet I cared about them, in a way that I did not expect to. Perhaps that is why Bushnell has been so successful. I thought that perhaps they were going to piss me off (all four of the blonds certainly did that) but for some reason, I found myself rooting for these girls (women?), in sort of the same way that I liked the women on Sex in the City (and no, I haven't read that yet, but I think that I'll take a break from Bushnell.) Throughout the whole book, I was on their side. I wanted them to kick butt, to show all those silly men that were trying to get in their way who's boss.
This was, for sure, one of those female empowerment books where women show the men who's in charge. These characters have stay-at-home husbands or no husband at all. They take jobs away from men. They repeatedly say that nobody could understand their careers or talk about money like their girlfriends. It's almost overwhelming, all the empowerment. If they weren't somehow still likable characters, I think I would have put the book down. A girl only needs to be reminded so many times that she can do anything at all, (and without the help of men!). After reading something like this, I feel sure that I am supposed to believe that all a lady needs is some close female friends, some money, and a whole lot of power. We can do it gals!
I suppose that's a good thing... but it gets old.
It did make me think about something again though. The characters in this book start out pretty close to the top, end up pretty much actually at the top, and most of the book is about that striving: climbing the corporate ladder, making it in the fashion or movie industry. All making millions to start, and all ending up with more at the end.
And what does that mean? Is $250,000 a year not successful enough anymore? What about a million? As I plunge into the application process all over again, I have to wonder a little bit what it means that I was concerned that these women would "fail" and end up dead ended as the editor-and-chief or something of the sort. That wouldn't have been enough. I mean sure, that's not bad, but who can settle for not bad when they want to be the best, the top.
And we want that too. "We" being myself and many of my friends. As Charlene said while she was doing all her apps, "I wonder what would it be like to just want to be normal?"
But I don't know the answer to that question, because I, like the women in this book, want very much to be exceptional. There is something in me that has been trained, by a combination of personality, culture and education, to believe that nothing less than extraordinary will do. I want to pull this same sort of thing, to be at the top of my field, to work very hard and see very great rewards. And like these characters, despite all my doubts and fears, I believe that I will be able to do that. (And maybe even be able to have a family too.) Sure, I don't know how, but how much does that really matter at this point? As we learn in books like this one, the hows work themselves out.
And that's interesting to me, because reading this book, at first I felt like these women were extreme, with almost crazy hopes and goals, that people don't need that much money, that much power. And maybe I don't want to be the president of a movie studio or CEO of a magazine division. But really, when I think about it. I want to be successful like that, I want to be outstanding. And usually, I believe that I can be outstanding.
I guess all that empowerment worked after all.
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
March 10-12, 2007
Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince
by J.K. Rowling
Sometimes you read a book just to escape the real world, and I must say, that for that purpose, the Harry Potter series has always been very effective for me. The stories are fast paced and interesting enough, complete with little doses of childlike wonder and "WOW, I wish I could do that!" moments. Especially when I am a little overwhelmed with other things, they tend to make me feel a little better about the world (and a little better at procrastination.) This book managed to pull me into and through 600 some odd pages in three days over a weekend where I worked Saturday and Sunday.
I put this on my paperbackswap.com wishlist when I first joined, because while I am a Potter fan, I'm not really the obsessive type that has already preordered the last book (although after reading this one, I am thinking about it.) And it turned up, as these things tend to do in my world, at just the right time.
I do think sometimes that the books rely a little bit too much on me having remembered little details from the past books, which I haven't read for years, so the details are fuzzy at best, but I suppose that the rehashing that would be necessary to bring those less-than-true fans like me up to speed might be really tedious for those who can keep track of all the members of the Order of the Phoenix.
SPOILER ALERT!!!!!
I was really convinced that Harry was wrong about Snape, I really just didn't think that he was going to end up as the bad guy. I don't know why, but I thought that in the way of children and teachers, they were wrong about him, and that while unlikeable certainly, he was really on the good side. I'm, not sure why I believed that, or why I wanted to believe that, but I did, and so, while I knew that Dumbledore died at the end thanks to the help of some other spoilers, I was totally shocked that Snape killed him. I am very interested to see how she wraps that one up in the end...
Cause the end is coming... and I'm not sure that I buy into Sean's prediction "He's going to die you know..." I suppose that it's possible, but at the same time, that idea seems a little too dark for the world of Hogwarts. I hope that he doesn't. I really like the idea of Harry Potter surviving. Of course, there is always the question: What does one do for a living after defeating the worst kind of evil at age 17? It kind of makes insurance sales seem a little anticlimactic ;-)
I suppose that I had forgotten how much I enjoyed these books in the time since I read the last one. When I think back, they have been very useful procrastination tools for me in the past. I do think that I will preorder the final book, (Barnes and Noble will sell it to me, a member with the credit card, for not so much at all). At this point, what I'm debating is reading the others again before the new one comes out, so that my memory is fresh, so that the whole story can come together as one complete tale, which I think is fitting. Probably not the most effective use of my time, but fitting the compulsive side of me, and I know that I will be able to get Jannine to do it with me, which might be fun. Plus, the book is coming out over the summer, so no classes, just work, disc, and God willing, some looming medical school secondaries. Sounds like a wonderful time for some quality escapism.
Want to know what else I've been reading lately? Check out The 2007 Booklist
Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince
by J.K. Rowling
Sometimes you read a book just to escape the real world, and I must say, that for that purpose, the Harry Potter series has always been very effective for me. The stories are fast paced and interesting enough, complete with little doses of childlike wonder and "WOW, I wish I could do that!" moments. Especially when I am a little overwhelmed with other things, they tend to make me feel a little better about the world (and a little better at procrastination.) This book managed to pull me into and through 600 some odd pages in three days over a weekend where I worked Saturday and Sunday.
I put this on my paperbackswap.com wishlist when I first joined, because while I am a Potter fan, I'm not really the obsessive type that has already preordered the last book (although after reading this one, I am thinking about it.) And it turned up, as these things tend to do in my world, at just the right time.
I do think sometimes that the books rely a little bit too much on me having remembered little details from the past books, which I haven't read for years, so the details are fuzzy at best, but I suppose that the rehashing that would be necessary to bring those less-than-true fans like me up to speed might be really tedious for those who can keep track of all the members of the Order of the Phoenix.
SPOILER ALERT!!!!!
I was really convinced that Harry was wrong about Snape, I really just didn't think that he was going to end up as the bad guy. I don't know why, but I thought that in the way of children and teachers, they were wrong about him, and that while unlikeable certainly, he was really on the good side. I'm, not sure why I believed that, or why I wanted to believe that, but I did, and so, while I knew that Dumbledore died at the end thanks to the help of some other spoilers, I was totally shocked that Snape killed him. I am very interested to see how she wraps that one up in the end...
Cause the end is coming... and I'm not sure that I buy into Sean's prediction "He's going to die you know..." I suppose that it's possible, but at the same time, that idea seems a little too dark for the world of Hogwarts. I hope that he doesn't. I really like the idea of Harry Potter surviving. Of course, there is always the question: What does one do for a living after defeating the worst kind of evil at age 17? It kind of makes insurance sales seem a little anticlimactic ;-)
I suppose that I had forgotten how much I enjoyed these books in the time since I read the last one. When I think back, they have been very useful procrastination tools for me in the past. I do think that I will preorder the final book, (Barnes and Noble will sell it to me, a member with the credit card, for not so much at all). At this point, what I'm debating is reading the others again before the new one comes out, so that my memory is fresh, so that the whole story can come together as one complete tale, which I think is fitting. Probably not the most effective use of my time, but fitting the compulsive side of me, and I know that I will be able to get Jannine to do it with me, which might be fun. Plus, the book is coming out over the summer, so no classes, just work, disc, and God willing, some looming medical school secondaries. Sounds like a wonderful time for some quality escapism.
Want to know what else I've been reading lately? Check out The 2007 Booklist
Thursday, March 15, 2007
A Perfect Mess
March 12-14, 2007
A Perfect Mess
by Eric Abrahamson and David H. Freedman
My mother gave me this book for Christmas. I think in hope of communicating to me that she loves me in spite of my messy messy ways. I know she does, but it was still a nice gesture.
The premise of this book is that we, as a culture, have gone too far in our quest for organization, and that we now seek to be more organized simply for the sake of organization, rather than because we have a good idea of what the actual benefit of this organization might be. Basically, being organized has a cost in time and resources and such, but frequently people don't consider that, and instead just quest to keep everything NEAT without thinking if that time could have been used more productively for other things. (Anyone that has seen my bedroom or the back seat of my car knows that I suffer from no such illusion, and think that my time can be better used for just about anything rather than just making things neat.)
The authors are not advocating anarchy or complete and total sloppiness, but they argue that in each situation there is an optimal level of messiness that will result in a maximization of productivity/creativity etc. and that we should quest for that. They split the existence of messiness up into many levels and different types of messiness, and talk about how a slight mess can be an advantage in everything from our desks to our thinking.
The argument is a pretty common sense one once you think about it, but I did still find parts of the book enlightening, especially as I am one of those people constantly in a quest to go from chaos to totally perfect organization. I have, since reading this book tried to introduce a little of the productive kind of messiness into some areas of my life. (For example, my MCAT studying now includes more passages unrelated to the things that I have recently reviewed.) I'm pretty sure that I haven't yet found the optimal level of messiness (Read: agenda still compulsively color coded, floor of my bedroom, less easy to find.) But I hope that this thinking might help me get there.
It is a little redundant, and if you can accept the idea that neater is not ALWAYS better, than you can probably get by with only the first couple chapters, or reading the reviews, but if mess and organization is something that you struggle with (like me) than this might be a good one to get you to calm yourself down.
Maybe I should have bought it for my mother...
Want to know what else I've been reading lately? Check out The 2007 Booklist
A Perfect Mess
by Eric Abrahamson and David H. Freedman
My mother gave me this book for Christmas. I think in hope of communicating to me that she loves me in spite of my messy messy ways. I know she does, but it was still a nice gesture.
The premise of this book is that we, as a culture, have gone too far in our quest for organization, and that we now seek to be more organized simply for the sake of organization, rather than because we have a good idea of what the actual benefit of this organization might be. Basically, being organized has a cost in time and resources and such, but frequently people don't consider that, and instead just quest to keep everything NEAT without thinking if that time could have been used more productively for other things. (Anyone that has seen my bedroom or the back seat of my car knows that I suffer from no such illusion, and think that my time can be better used for just about anything rather than just making things neat.)
The authors are not advocating anarchy or complete and total sloppiness, but they argue that in each situation there is an optimal level of messiness that will result in a maximization of productivity/creativity etc. and that we should quest for that. They split the existence of messiness up into many levels and different types of messiness, and talk about how a slight mess can be an advantage in everything from our desks to our thinking.
The argument is a pretty common sense one once you think about it, but I did still find parts of the book enlightening, especially as I am one of those people constantly in a quest to go from chaos to totally perfect organization. I have, since reading this book tried to introduce a little of the productive kind of messiness into some areas of my life. (For example, my MCAT studying now includes more passages unrelated to the things that I have recently reviewed.) I'm pretty sure that I haven't yet found the optimal level of messiness (Read: agenda still compulsively color coded, floor of my bedroom, less easy to find.) But I hope that this thinking might help me get there.
It is a little redundant, and if you can accept the idea that neater is not ALWAYS better, than you can probably get by with only the first couple chapters, or reading the reviews, but if mess and organization is something that you struggle with (like me) than this might be a good one to get you to calm yourself down.
Maybe I should have bought it for my mother...
Want to know what else I've been reading lately? Check out The 2007 Booklist
Monday, March 05, 2007
A Little Catching Up to Do
So, I haven't done so well with the updating thing, and only slightly better consistently writing in my pretty journal, but I figured an update might get me back on track. Here's (at least a partial) list of the books that I have read in the last two months or so, along with some thoughts on each. I have no idea of the dates for most, so I am not going to even attempt, but here goes...
Under the Banner of Heaven
This book really pulled me in, had me thinking quite a bit. For those of you who haven't heard of it/ don't know what it's about: it tells the story of some Mormon Fundamentalist brothers who (very brutally) murder their sister in law and her infant daughter because they believe that "God told them to do it." It frames this story with a lot of other details about the history of Mormonism in general and Mormon Fundamentalism in particular. The book is by Jon Krakauer, who you may know for his other books, Into Thin Air and Into the Wild.
Now the book is good, and certainly very interesting, but I did feel from the beginning that Krakauer might not have been the best person to write it. Not only is he not a Mormon, but he is clearly not religious, and much of what he says about Mormonism, or religious faith in general is loaded with not at all veiled disdain for the faithful. He claims to have respect for Mormons, but also calls says that religious violence is the result of "those murky sectors of the heart and the head that prompt most of us to believe in God - and compel the impassioned few, predictably to carry out that irrational belief to its logical end." I'm not sure that murder is the logical end to faith in Christ...
The book does really make you think, where is the line between faith and delusion? That question is legally part of the trail for these brothers. Were they insane? They thought that they were listening to the voice of God, following the will of God. But if they are insane, than are all people who attempt to live their lives according the to will of the God that they worship insane. Clearly that's taking it too far, but where's the line? It was interesting reading the thoughts of these murderers on the Islamic terrorists. One of the brothers says something about the motivations of Osama Bin Ladin that basically parallels my belief, and says that the 9/11 hijackers were following a false prophet... and its all just a belief in something that we can't prove. I mean clearly, I think that my view of God (really against murder, all murder, all the time) is much nicer than there's, and not just nicer, I believe that I am right, or at least, closer to right than they are. But I can't really prove that's what God wants either, although I can say it gives me a more plesant way to live. It just kind of scared me that if you stuck me and this guy in a room we would agree that the terrorists are wrong, but he would think of me as just as wrong as I think of him... creepy.
Anyway, I do recommend it, because there is a lot of information, and because the book really challenges you to deal with your thinking about God and faith with the challenge of these men's seemly sincere, but also evil, belief. It also has a lot of information about polygamy and Mormon education that I found frightening and challenging, so it's good for that too. If someone reads it, I would really love to talk about it. Yeah.
A Walk in the Woods
I thought that this book was really going to make me want to walk the whole Appalachian Trail, but really, it did not do that. It made me want to go out to the Blue Ridge Mountains for about a week, and then come home to my nice warm bed. I think that the history of the trail was interesting, and I obviously people thinking about doing the trail should read this one, and Bryson's commentary is quite amusing, but the book didn't really stick with me, so it wasn't a life changer or anything.
Magical Thinking
In reading this book, I found myself, for at least the first set of stories, seriously getting Burroughs and David Sedaris mixed up. Same story: gay man tells amusing stories about his childhood and young adulthood. But the later stories are much more powerful, unique and moving, in particular those about his life with his lover, Dennis, who he clearly cares for very deeply. In fact, some of the passages about Dennis rank among the sweetest things that I have ever read.
"What's painful and wonderful about somebody is loving their small things, like the way he is able to smile when he sips his wine, the way his hands fall down at his sides... The truth is Dennis has no bad qualities and no faults. When he's working late and I'm alone, or sometimes when we're in bed together, the lights off, I try to make even a small list of his faults: Things I Put Up With Out of Love. But I haven't been able to think of a single thing that I am not able to first overlook and then come to cherish." (page 222)
It probably didn't help that Andrew had driven all the way up here for the weekend, and was sleeping in the next room being generally wonderful and totally lacking in Things That I Put Up With Out of Love, because I am a lucky girl, and apparently still a hopeless romantic.
Dry
More Augusten Burroughs. This is his memoir about his alcoholism and recovery. I think that it is his most powerful book overall. While it still has the element of the absurd that was almost overwhelming in Running with Scissors it also has the honesty that so moved me in the passage that I quoted above, and throughout the whole book I felt involved. I wanted him to make it. I was rooting for him... it's good. Better than A Million Little Pieces and quite possibly more true, too.
The Orchid Thief
While I don't think that this was either the best or the most interesting book that I have ever read, it certainly got me interested in orchids, and that might be worth it, since they are pretty amazing flowers. I now look for them in places where there are flowers (some pretty ones in the Opryland Hotel) and notice them when they're around. I can sort of understand how people become obsessed, although perhaps not as obsessed as the people in this book are. Still good stuff. Jannine and I went to the Natural History Museum's annual orchid show right as I was starting this book, and now I really feel like I need to go back and look again with all the background. The book will make you appreciate a particularly interesting and complicated family of flowers. It also might make you want to see Adaptation (or see it again in my case.) I might have something to say about that when I get to it.
Attention. Deficit. Disorder.
I was hoping to really like this book, and while I do have to admit that I burned through it very quickly, I was not overly impressed. About halfway though I told Andrew that it reminded me of what would have happened if a lesser man tried to write You Shall Know Our Velocity! and while the end was better than the beginning, still, it was nothing overly special. However, I was intrigued by the trip to the Burning Man Festival, which sounds insane by certainly very interesting. Anyone want to go?
The City Of Falling Angels
This is the same man who wrote Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, and he has a powerful gift for making the location a character in the story. Although I'm sure that it helps that he chooses events in famously unique places. (MinGoGaE takes place in Savannah, GA and this is a story of Venice.) While it is supposed to be directly about the burning of a famous opera house, it is really a portrait of the city, its complexities and the people that choose to live there, and it is in that exploration that the book comes to life. I am ready to pack my bags and head to Venice to explore whenever someone wants to buy me a plane ticket. It's that kind of book. I recommend it most highly. Great Stuff.
OK. I know I am forgetting several things but I don't have the books in front of me, (including The Tao of Pooh which I read at Andrew's) but I am tried, so I think that I am going to leave it at that and go on from here. Cause I love books. Sweet.
Under the Banner of Heaven
This book really pulled me in, had me thinking quite a bit. For those of you who haven't heard of it/ don't know what it's about: it tells the story of some Mormon Fundamentalist brothers who (very brutally) murder their sister in law and her infant daughter because they believe that "God told them to do it." It frames this story with a lot of other details about the history of Mormonism in general and Mormon Fundamentalism in particular. The book is by Jon Krakauer, who you may know for his other books, Into Thin Air and Into the Wild.
Now the book is good, and certainly very interesting, but I did feel from the beginning that Krakauer might not have been the best person to write it. Not only is he not a Mormon, but he is clearly not religious, and much of what he says about Mormonism, or religious faith in general is loaded with not at all veiled disdain for the faithful. He claims to have respect for Mormons, but also calls says that religious violence is the result of "those murky sectors of the heart and the head that prompt most of us to believe in God - and compel the impassioned few, predictably to carry out that irrational belief to its logical end." I'm not sure that murder is the logical end to faith in Christ...
The book does really make you think, where is the line between faith and delusion? That question is legally part of the trail for these brothers. Were they insane? They thought that they were listening to the voice of God, following the will of God. But if they are insane, than are all people who attempt to live their lives according the to will of the God that they worship insane. Clearly that's taking it too far, but where's the line? It was interesting reading the thoughts of these murderers on the Islamic terrorists. One of the brothers says something about the motivations of Osama Bin Ladin that basically parallels my belief, and says that the 9/11 hijackers were following a false prophet... and its all just a belief in something that we can't prove. I mean clearly, I think that my view of God (really against murder, all murder, all the time) is much nicer than there's, and not just nicer, I believe that I am right, or at least, closer to right than they are. But I can't really prove that's what God wants either, although I can say it gives me a more plesant way to live. It just kind of scared me that if you stuck me and this guy in a room we would agree that the terrorists are wrong, but he would think of me as just as wrong as I think of him... creepy.
Anyway, I do recommend it, because there is a lot of information, and because the book really challenges you to deal with your thinking about God and faith with the challenge of these men's seemly sincere, but also evil, belief. It also has a lot of information about polygamy and Mormon education that I found frightening and challenging, so it's good for that too. If someone reads it, I would really love to talk about it. Yeah.
A Walk in the Woods
I thought that this book was really going to make me want to walk the whole Appalachian Trail, but really, it did not do that. It made me want to go out to the Blue Ridge Mountains for about a week, and then come home to my nice warm bed. I think that the history of the trail was interesting, and I obviously people thinking about doing the trail should read this one, and Bryson's commentary is quite amusing, but the book didn't really stick with me, so it wasn't a life changer or anything.
Magical Thinking
In reading this book, I found myself, for at least the first set of stories, seriously getting Burroughs and David Sedaris mixed up. Same story: gay man tells amusing stories about his childhood and young adulthood. But the later stories are much more powerful, unique and moving, in particular those about his life with his lover, Dennis, who he clearly cares for very deeply. In fact, some of the passages about Dennis rank among the sweetest things that I have ever read.
"What's painful and wonderful about somebody is loving their small things, like the way he is able to smile when he sips his wine, the way his hands fall down at his sides... The truth is Dennis has no bad qualities and no faults. When he's working late and I'm alone, or sometimes when we're in bed together, the lights off, I try to make even a small list of his faults: Things I Put Up With Out of Love. But I haven't been able to think of a single thing that I am not able to first overlook and then come to cherish." (page 222)
It probably didn't help that Andrew had driven all the way up here for the weekend, and was sleeping in the next room being generally wonderful and totally lacking in Things That I Put Up With Out of Love, because I am a lucky girl, and apparently still a hopeless romantic.
Dry
More Augusten Burroughs. This is his memoir about his alcoholism and recovery. I think that it is his most powerful book overall. While it still has the element of the absurd that was almost overwhelming in Running with Scissors it also has the honesty that so moved me in the passage that I quoted above, and throughout the whole book I felt involved. I wanted him to make it. I was rooting for him... it's good. Better than A Million Little Pieces and quite possibly more true, too.
The Orchid Thief
While I don't think that this was either the best or the most interesting book that I have ever read, it certainly got me interested in orchids, and that might be worth it, since they are pretty amazing flowers. I now look for them in places where there are flowers (some pretty ones in the Opryland Hotel) and notice them when they're around. I can sort of understand how people become obsessed, although perhaps not as obsessed as the people in this book are. Still good stuff. Jannine and I went to the Natural History Museum's annual orchid show right as I was starting this book, and now I really feel like I need to go back and look again with all the background. The book will make you appreciate a particularly interesting and complicated family of flowers. It also might make you want to see Adaptation (or see it again in my case.) I might have something to say about that when I get to it.
Attention. Deficit. Disorder.
I was hoping to really like this book, and while I do have to admit that I burned through it very quickly, I was not overly impressed. About halfway though I told Andrew that it reminded me of what would have happened if a lesser man tried to write You Shall Know Our Velocity! and while the end was better than the beginning, still, it was nothing overly special. However, I was intrigued by the trip to the Burning Man Festival, which sounds insane by certainly very interesting. Anyone want to go?
The City Of Falling Angels
This is the same man who wrote Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, and he has a powerful gift for making the location a character in the story. Although I'm sure that it helps that he chooses events in famously unique places. (MinGoGaE takes place in Savannah, GA and this is a story of Venice.) While it is supposed to be directly about the burning of a famous opera house, it is really a portrait of the city, its complexities and the people that choose to live there, and it is in that exploration that the book comes to life. I am ready to pack my bags and head to Venice to explore whenever someone wants to buy me a plane ticket. It's that kind of book. I recommend it most highly. Great Stuff.
OK. I know I am forgetting several things but I don't have the books in front of me, (including The Tao of Pooh which I read at Andrew's) but I am tried, so I think that I am going to leave it at that and go on from here. Cause I love books. Sweet.
Friday, January 05, 2007
In Praise of Slowness
December 26, 2006-January 2, 2007
In Praise of Slowness: Challenging the Cult of Speed
by Carl Honore
This book got read at the perfect time for me. I have owned this copy for well over a year, and had started reading it more than once in the past, but this time it stuck because the timing was right. It is a wonderful after vacation book, because the idea of the appeal of moving slower through life is clear when you have been doing just that, and it is a good New Years book because the idea of taking control of the way that you live your life is at the heart of pretty much all New Year's resolutions.
The basic idea of the book is that the human race has managed, with the help of technology, competition, and our own inner drives, to speed up our lives to pathological levels, and that we could all benefit from a bit of a slow down. Honore asserts in the introduction several times that he is not a Luddite, or really opposed to speed in all cases, but rather that he believes that unmitigated haste is not the right tempo for all of life's activities. That point is supported by some pretty sobering data and antidotes from modern living. The book then goes on to talk about ways that people are adding a little slowness to their lives in a number of different areas, from food and sex to exercise and the office. Honore is clearly attached to the idea that the desire to slow down, and the ways in which people do so, amounts to a global movement, and while I think that is perhaps taking it a bit too far, he makes a compelling case for moving through life a little more slowly and with a little more thought.
Now this is not the most well-written book that I have ever encountered. Honore is frequently repetitive, and relies far too heavily on the testimony of people converted in one way or another to the Slow (and yes, he uses the capital) way of living. After the general idea is introduced, we hear from people who started eating slower and now say their whole lives are better, then from people who started living in communities that allow for more walking and how their whole lives are better, then from people that exercise slowly and how their whole lives are better... and so on.
But for me, someone who recognizes, at least a little bit, the insanity of the frenzy that has crept into the way that I approach my life, the ideas, if not always the way that they were presented, were quite compelling. I saw so much of myself in the following quote from one of the introductory chapters that I was willing to hear some suggestions from the other end of the speed spectrum.
"In our hyped-up, faster-is-better culture, a turbocharged life is still the ultimate trophy on the mantelpiece. When people moan, 'Oh, I'm so busy, I'm run off my feet, my life is a blur, I haven't got time for anything,' what they often mean is, 'Look at me: I am hugely important, exciting and energetic.'"
Because I was coming off that cruise, and thinking about my upcoming New Year's resolutions, seeing so much of myself in that sentence was a little bit frightening, because I don't really believe that it is healthy for me to be that way. And when I really think about it, I know that I am not more energetic when I am pushed to the limits, and I am certainly not more exciting when my schedule is so rigid and packed that I don't have time for anything new or spontaneous.
So I was ready for some other ideas, and with that kind of open mind, it seemed as if many of the people that Honore meets with to write this book have the right idea. I do eat too fast, and it keeps me from getting the most enjoyment out of the food (while encouraging me to get the most calories.) I do drive in ways that are probably dangerous. I know from experience that a flexible work schedule can make life a thousand times more livable, and so on. This really allowed me to think about a bunch of areas that might provide room for a more regulated tempo in my life, and made me realize that I have, in some ways, managed to take even some of the things that he advocates as Slow leisure activities (knitting and pleasure reading) and turned them into a race.
And while I don't think that all of this is cultural, or that I can trace my stress directly back to the invention of the sundial, I am convinced, quite thoroughly, that pacing is something that I need to pay more attention to, and that there are areas where I want to make changes.
This book is not for everyone. Some people might find it a little bit too much. But if you're feeling like life is a little (or a lot) more frantic than it probably should be, you might want to look into it. It provides a bunch of suggestions and a pretty comprehensive study of some of the details of where we are as a culture, how we've gotten this far, and some options for taking that back. Some of the ideas are appealing and can be tried out right away (walking more, yoga, simply taking a time out when you need it) while other sections of the text discuss larger scale, and I think very flawed efforts. (The entirety of France being limited to a state mandated 35-hour work week is insanity). Different areas may work for different people. For example the chapter on city development spoke to my interests less personally than the one on slow medicine, which had me thinking for quite a while about the way that I want to practice someday, but I can think of people for whom the exact opposite would be true. If you want to slow your life down, or just find more balance in your pacing, this book may help you find a way to do just that.
Of course it may also force you, as it forced me, to face some cruel realities about the way that speed has crept into your life, and the level of the challenge that you face in getting rid of it. For example, the chapter on raising children is largely devoted to the structure of education and the idea that a less hurried one is better. That's all well and good if less parental pressure would really leave a legion of carefree kiddies, or if less emphasis on testing would produce a world in which all children could learn in a pressure free environment. But I'm not convinced that's true. Thinking back on my education, I think that the source of the pressure that pushed me into the speed that still dominates some areas of my life was a little closer to home, and Honore doesn't seem to have too many ideas for dealing with those of us that are intrinsically driven by something in the personality that pushes to more more more without the need for crazy teachers and overbearing parents. (I had neither.)
But this is not a self-help book either, so that's not Honore's job. I suppose that I would classify it as a work of social observation and commentary, and it can serve that purpose without trying to conquer all of my speeding demons. Besides, the belief that Honore puts at the core of his movement is not that everything should be done slowly, but rather that everything should be done at an appropriate pace for the action, something that he describes with the musical term tempo giusto.
"The secret is balance: instead of doing everything faster, do everything at the right speed. Sometimes fast. Sometimes slow. Sometimes somewhere in between. Being Slow means never rushing, never striving to save time just for the sake of it. I means remaining calm and unflustered even when circumstances force us to speed up."
I think, at the most basic levels, that this message is a good one, and one that a lot of us can really stand to hear.
Want to know what else I've been reading lately? Check out the 2007 Booklist
Want to read a little more about the process of this blog? Check out Bookworming in 2007
In Praise of Slowness: Challenging the Cult of Speed
by Carl Honore
This book got read at the perfect time for me. I have owned this copy for well over a year, and had started reading it more than once in the past, but this time it stuck because the timing was right. It is a wonderful after vacation book, because the idea of the appeal of moving slower through life is clear when you have been doing just that, and it is a good New Years book because the idea of taking control of the way that you live your life is at the heart of pretty much all New Year's resolutions.
The basic idea of the book is that the human race has managed, with the help of technology, competition, and our own inner drives, to speed up our lives to pathological levels, and that we could all benefit from a bit of a slow down. Honore asserts in the introduction several times that he is not a Luddite, or really opposed to speed in all cases, but rather that he believes that unmitigated haste is not the right tempo for all of life's activities. That point is supported by some pretty sobering data and antidotes from modern living. The book then goes on to talk about ways that people are adding a little slowness to their lives in a number of different areas, from food and sex to exercise and the office. Honore is clearly attached to the idea that the desire to slow down, and the ways in which people do so, amounts to a global movement, and while I think that is perhaps taking it a bit too far, he makes a compelling case for moving through life a little more slowly and with a little more thought.
Now this is not the most well-written book that I have ever encountered. Honore is frequently repetitive, and relies far too heavily on the testimony of people converted in one way or another to the Slow (and yes, he uses the capital) way of living. After the general idea is introduced, we hear from people who started eating slower and now say their whole lives are better, then from people who started living in communities that allow for more walking and how their whole lives are better, then from people that exercise slowly and how their whole lives are better... and so on.
But for me, someone who recognizes, at least a little bit, the insanity of the frenzy that has crept into the way that I approach my life, the ideas, if not always the way that they were presented, were quite compelling. I saw so much of myself in the following quote from one of the introductory chapters that I was willing to hear some suggestions from the other end of the speed spectrum.
"In our hyped-up, faster-is-better culture, a turbocharged life is still the ultimate trophy on the mantelpiece. When people moan, 'Oh, I'm so busy, I'm run off my feet, my life is a blur, I haven't got time for anything,' what they often mean is, 'Look at me: I am hugely important, exciting and energetic.'"
Because I was coming off that cruise, and thinking about my upcoming New Year's resolutions, seeing so much of myself in that sentence was a little bit frightening, because I don't really believe that it is healthy for me to be that way. And when I really think about it, I know that I am not more energetic when I am pushed to the limits, and I am certainly not more exciting when my schedule is so rigid and packed that I don't have time for anything new or spontaneous.
So I was ready for some other ideas, and with that kind of open mind, it seemed as if many of the people that Honore meets with to write this book have the right idea. I do eat too fast, and it keeps me from getting the most enjoyment out of the food (while encouraging me to get the most calories.) I do drive in ways that are probably dangerous. I know from experience that a flexible work schedule can make life a thousand times more livable, and so on. This really allowed me to think about a bunch of areas that might provide room for a more regulated tempo in my life, and made me realize that I have, in some ways, managed to take even some of the things that he advocates as Slow leisure activities (knitting and pleasure reading) and turned them into a race.
And while I don't think that all of this is cultural, or that I can trace my stress directly back to the invention of the sundial, I am convinced, quite thoroughly, that pacing is something that I need to pay more attention to, and that there are areas where I want to make changes.
This book is not for everyone. Some people might find it a little bit too much. But if you're feeling like life is a little (or a lot) more frantic than it probably should be, you might want to look into it. It provides a bunch of suggestions and a pretty comprehensive study of some of the details of where we are as a culture, how we've gotten this far, and some options for taking that back. Some of the ideas are appealing and can be tried out right away (walking more, yoga, simply taking a time out when you need it) while other sections of the text discuss larger scale, and I think very flawed efforts. (The entirety of France being limited to a state mandated 35-hour work week is insanity). Different areas may work for different people. For example the chapter on city development spoke to my interests less personally than the one on slow medicine, which had me thinking for quite a while about the way that I want to practice someday, but I can think of people for whom the exact opposite would be true. If you want to slow your life down, or just find more balance in your pacing, this book may help you find a way to do just that.
Of course it may also force you, as it forced me, to face some cruel realities about the way that speed has crept into your life, and the level of the challenge that you face in getting rid of it. For example, the chapter on raising children is largely devoted to the structure of education and the idea that a less hurried one is better. That's all well and good if less parental pressure would really leave a legion of carefree kiddies, or if less emphasis on testing would produce a world in which all children could learn in a pressure free environment. But I'm not convinced that's true. Thinking back on my education, I think that the source of the pressure that pushed me into the speed that still dominates some areas of my life was a little closer to home, and Honore doesn't seem to have too many ideas for dealing with those of us that are intrinsically driven by something in the personality that pushes to more more more without the need for crazy teachers and overbearing parents. (I had neither.)
But this is not a self-help book either, so that's not Honore's job. I suppose that I would classify it as a work of social observation and commentary, and it can serve that purpose without trying to conquer all of my speeding demons. Besides, the belief that Honore puts at the core of his movement is not that everything should be done slowly, but rather that everything should be done at an appropriate pace for the action, something that he describes with the musical term tempo giusto.
"The secret is balance: instead of doing everything faster, do everything at the right speed. Sometimes fast. Sometimes slow. Sometimes somewhere in between. Being Slow means never rushing, never striving to save time just for the sake of it. I means remaining calm and unflustered even when circumstances force us to speed up."
I think, at the most basic levels, that this message is a good one, and one that a lot of us can really stand to hear.
Want to know what else I've been reading lately? Check out the 2007 Booklist
Want to read a little more about the process of this blog? Check out Bookworming in 2007
The 2007 Booklist
December 26, 2006 - January 2, 2007
In Praise of Slowness:
Challenging the Cult of Speed
by Carl Honore
c. 2004
321 pages
January 3, 2007-
Under the Banner of Heaven:
A Story of Violent Faith
by Jon Krakauer
c. 2003
399 pages
Dates unknown in January and February and March
A Walk in the Woods
by Bill Bryson
c. 1997
350 pages
Magical Thinking:
True Stories
by Augusten Burroughs
c. 2004
268 pages
Dry: A Memoir
by Augusten Burroughs
c. 2003
309 pages
The Orchid Thief
by Susan Orlean
c. 1998
282 pages
Attention. Deficit. Disorder.
by Brad Listi
c. 2006
356 pages
The City Of Falling Angels
by John Berendt
c. 2005
398 pages
March 10-12, 2007
Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince
by J.K. Rowling
c. 2005
652 pages
March 12-13, 2007
A Perfect Mess:
The Hidden Benefits of Disorder
by Eric Abrahamson and David H. Freedman
c. 2006
316 pages
March 14-15, 2007
Rosemary's Baby
by Ira Levin
c. 1967
308 pages
March 16-19, 2007
The World According to Garp
by John Irving
c. 1976
437 pages
March 19
How We Are Hungry
by Dave Eggers
c. 2004
218 pages
Dates Unknown in March, April and May
i, Robot
by Isaac Asimov
c. 1950
272 pages
Star
by Pamela Anderson
c. 2004
294 pages
No Touch Monkey!
And Other Travel Lessons Learned Too Late
by Ayun Halliday
c. 2003
273 pages
My Friend Leonard
by James Frey
c. 2005
357 pages
The Historian
by Elizabeth Kostova
c. 2005
642 pages
Rant: An Oral Biography of Buster Casey
by Chuck Palahniuk
c. 2007
320 pages
Complications:
A Surgeon's Notes on an Imperfect Science
by Atul Gawande
c. 2002
252 pages
Four Blondes
by Candace Bushnell
c. 2000
245 pages
For Us, The Living
by Robert Heinlein
(lent to Andrew before I put it in here)
Lipstick Jungle
by Candace Bushnell
c. 2005
532 pages
Right Now:
The Poisonwood Bible
by Barbara Kingsolver
c. 1998
543 pages
In Praise of Slowness:
Challenging the Cult of Speed
by Carl Honore
c. 2004
321 pages
January 3, 2007-
Under the Banner of Heaven:
A Story of Violent Faith
by Jon Krakauer
c. 2003
399 pages
Dates unknown in January and February and March
A Walk in the Woods
by Bill Bryson
c. 1997
350 pages
Magical Thinking:
True Stories
by Augusten Burroughs
c. 2004
268 pages
Dry: A Memoir
by Augusten Burroughs
c. 2003
309 pages
The Orchid Thief
by Susan Orlean
c. 1998
282 pages
Attention. Deficit. Disorder.
by Brad Listi
c. 2006
356 pages
The City Of Falling Angels
by John Berendt
c. 2005
398 pages
March 10-12, 2007
Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince
by J.K. Rowling
c. 2005
652 pages
March 12-13, 2007
A Perfect Mess:
The Hidden Benefits of Disorder
by Eric Abrahamson and David H. Freedman
c. 2006
316 pages
March 14-15, 2007
Rosemary's Baby
by Ira Levin
c. 1967
308 pages
March 16-19, 2007
The World According to Garp
by John Irving
c. 1976
437 pages
March 19
How We Are Hungry
by Dave Eggers
c. 2004
218 pages
Dates Unknown in March, April and May
i, Robot
by Isaac Asimov
c. 1950
272 pages
Star
by Pamela Anderson
c. 2004
294 pages
No Touch Monkey!
And Other Travel Lessons Learned Too Late
by Ayun Halliday
c. 2003
273 pages
My Friend Leonard
by James Frey
c. 2005
357 pages
The Historian
by Elizabeth Kostova
c. 2005
642 pages
Rant: An Oral Biography of Buster Casey
by Chuck Palahniuk
c. 2007
320 pages
Complications:
A Surgeon's Notes on an Imperfect Science
by Atul Gawande
c. 2002
252 pages
Four Blondes
by Candace Bushnell
c. 2000
245 pages
For Us, The Living
by Robert Heinlein
(lent to Andrew before I put it in here)
Lipstick Jungle
by Candace Bushnell
c. 2005
532 pages
Right Now:
The Poisonwood Bible
by Barbara Kingsolver
c. 1998
543 pages
Bookworming in 2007
Thoughts on reading in 2007.
I have started 2007 with two things that are going to change at least a little bit the way that this blog works. The first is a beautiful journal that Andrew gave to me sometime in November and the second is the book that I just read that allowed me to start writing in that journal.
For all you non-Andrew readers, this journal is a thick volume bound in wonderfully soft leather. I adore it. It's the kind of journal that the journal-loving part of me has lusted after for years but wouldn't allow myself to buy. It's beautiful and it has nice paper and it smells nice and feels nice in your hands. It ties shut with soft leather laces, has a soft leather page marker sewn into the binding, and has beautiful script in what I think is Italian printed on the covers. It's awesome.
Andrew got me this journal to encourage me to write more about what I read. The hope is that this will force me to THINK more about what I read, and maybe allow me to see how my thinking changes. Besides, I suppose that you never know when you are going to come up with something good, or at least something that might be useful in later reading or writing, so this journal is a way to organize those thoughts.
And for about a month, I was afraid of it.
The perfectionist in me didn't want to write in the journal until I had something particularly coherent and perfect to say. I mean, this collection of blank paper is beautiful so it seemed important somehow that the things that I put in there be polished and beautiful too, which of course was the exact opposite of the point, but sometimes I have a very very hard time squashing that perfectionist in me... she's persistent.
However, after a loverly and relaxing cruise with Andrew, I was reading during the trip home, and I wanted to write something. Part of this, of course was the annual New Year's bravery that comes over all of us, (Next year, I can do ANYTHING!) but another part was that the book that I was reading, In Praise of Slowness, left me thinking about things that I wanted to say, or at least, thinking about things that I wanted to think about on paper.
So I said them and thought about them, and over the next week and a half of reading that book and writing about it as I went, I have kicked off the use of that journal with no less than 27 pages of my thoughts about In Praise of Slowness and thoughts about my life in general that were brought on by the ideas in the book.
And all this writing felt good, although sometimes I have had trouble making myself slow down the reading enough to actually do it. Still, I feel that I really learned something from the whole thing, both the writing, and the act of writing about this particular book (which actually has a section, which I read after starting the journal, that suggests reading more slowly and deliberately and writing about what you read as a way to slow down and lead a calmer life.)
I think that I enjoyed the reading more because I did it less frantically, and I certainly got more out of it because I allowed the writing to open my mind and let me make some connections to my own life that maybe weren't obvious from the beginning or needed some time to flesh out in my head.
So for 2007, I am going to keep this beautiful leather journal with me, and I am going to use it, and the first 27 pages of writing that it contains to remind me that my reading is not a race. I'll be writing in it as I read, and reading and thinking more slowly than in the past. (For an example of the past, see the start of this blog, when I was reading so fast that the idea of writing even a page about the books became overwhelming and the blog trailed off as quickly as it started.)
Here I am going to write something like a review or a summary of those thoughts and the way that they developed after I have finished the books and taken the time to look back over and think about what I have written. Not just a rehashing, but a closing of my conversation with the book that I just read.
Its going to be a lot more work, and take a lot more time on my part, but I think that the action of taking more time is going to allow me to go deeper into the books, and will allow the books to have more of an effect on me, and for that alone, I think that it will be worth it. We'll see as it comes...
Welcome to 2007.
I have started 2007 with two things that are going to change at least a little bit the way that this blog works. The first is a beautiful journal that Andrew gave to me sometime in November and the second is the book that I just read that allowed me to start writing in that journal.
For all you non-Andrew readers, this journal is a thick volume bound in wonderfully soft leather. I adore it. It's the kind of journal that the journal-loving part of me has lusted after for years but wouldn't allow myself to buy. It's beautiful and it has nice paper and it smells nice and feels nice in your hands. It ties shut with soft leather laces, has a soft leather page marker sewn into the binding, and has beautiful script in what I think is Italian printed on the covers. It's awesome.
Andrew got me this journal to encourage me to write more about what I read. The hope is that this will force me to THINK more about what I read, and maybe allow me to see how my thinking changes. Besides, I suppose that you never know when you are going to come up with something good, or at least something that might be useful in later reading or writing, so this journal is a way to organize those thoughts.
And for about a month, I was afraid of it.
The perfectionist in me didn't want to write in the journal until I had something particularly coherent and perfect to say. I mean, this collection of blank paper is beautiful so it seemed important somehow that the things that I put in there be polished and beautiful too, which of course was the exact opposite of the point, but sometimes I have a very very hard time squashing that perfectionist in me... she's persistent.
However, after a loverly and relaxing cruise with Andrew, I was reading during the trip home, and I wanted to write something. Part of this, of course was the annual New Year's bravery that comes over all of us, (Next year, I can do ANYTHING!) but another part was that the book that I was reading, In Praise of Slowness, left me thinking about things that I wanted to say, or at least, thinking about things that I wanted to think about on paper.
So I said them and thought about them, and over the next week and a half of reading that book and writing about it as I went, I have kicked off the use of that journal with no less than 27 pages of my thoughts about In Praise of Slowness and thoughts about my life in general that were brought on by the ideas in the book.
And all this writing felt good, although sometimes I have had trouble making myself slow down the reading enough to actually do it. Still, I feel that I really learned something from the whole thing, both the writing, and the act of writing about this particular book (which actually has a section, which I read after starting the journal, that suggests reading more slowly and deliberately and writing about what you read as a way to slow down and lead a calmer life.)
I think that I enjoyed the reading more because I did it less frantically, and I certainly got more out of it because I allowed the writing to open my mind and let me make some connections to my own life that maybe weren't obvious from the beginning or needed some time to flesh out in my head.
So for 2007, I am going to keep this beautiful leather journal with me, and I am going to use it, and the first 27 pages of writing that it contains to remind me that my reading is not a race. I'll be writing in it as I read, and reading and thinking more slowly than in the past. (For an example of the past, see the start of this blog, when I was reading so fast that the idea of writing even a page about the books became overwhelming and the blog trailed off as quickly as it started.)
Here I am going to write something like a review or a summary of those thoughts and the way that they developed after I have finished the books and taken the time to look back over and think about what I have written. Not just a rehashing, but a closing of my conversation with the book that I just read.
Its going to be a lot more work, and take a lot more time on my part, but I think that the action of taking more time is going to allow me to go deeper into the books, and will allow the books to have more of an effect on me, and for that alone, I think that it will be worth it. We'll see as it comes...
Welcome to 2007.
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