On the Edge

Since I'm nearing the end of my pregnancy, I feel more desperate to get some good reading in. This past week I have read two books that left my heart in knots and my soul reeling.

1) Push by Sapphire: This is the story of Precious, an illiterate, obese African-American teenager who is pregnant for the second time with her father's child. Obviously Precious has not had an easy life, being raped continuously by her father and abused constantly by her mother. Her story could be the same as any other hopeless teen's growing up under such awful circumstances - but an alternative school is what ends up being Precious's call to a normal life. This book hurt so much to read, because it's told in Precious's voice (and if you've ever read Flowers for Algernon, then you'll know exactly what I'm talking about) - and that voice is a powerful, wounded, and heartbreaking one. I highly recommend this book, although it is quite graphic (so much so that at times I felt nauseated while reading it).

2) Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson: Lia, the teenaged main character, is anorexic. Her estranged best friend Cassie has just turned up dead. This book chronicles Lia's descent into terrifying darkness as she struggles to keep control over her weight - and her sanity. Anderson is an absolutely amazing writer; reading her novels is like reading dark poetry on a quiet, blistering cold night. This is another book that I cannot recommend enough - all I can say is damn, I am so glad that I am not a teenager anymore.

I have a bunch of books that I would love to read before Burt Reynolds is born. I'm supposed to be a good natural birther and should be reading my stack of birth books that have been waiting for me, but oh, these novels and books of poetry are so tempting. I'm trying to balance it all out - some fun reading here, some birth reading there.

I am a little nervous that once Burt Reynolds is born, I will never be able to read again. Or do anything else, for that matter. I'm trying to remind myself that I had the exact same fear when I was pregnant with Charlie, and look at me! Still reading, and miraculously, I still have a life. I suppose it will take time to figure out how to fit in all in, but I know it's possible. In the meantime, I'm going to enjoy my (relative) freedom.

Books Read in February

This month I read five books (along with countless other parts of books). Instead of lumping the list in with my big ol' summary of the month post, like I did last month, I figure I'd post my book list separately.

Here's what I read this month, along with a short review:

1) Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson - Wow, what a way to start off the month. This is a story of a high school girl who has become an outcast. It's obvious that she's been through something traumatic, and because of that, she spends much of the story refusing to speak. There were many similarities to Some Girls Are, which I read last month, but overall, I liked this one better. It's a phenomenal book, and Anderson is a fantastic writer.

2) Tales from Outer Suburbia by Shaun Tan - If you like pictures with your books, then you simply must read something by Shaun Tan. This book contains a series of vignettes which are always accompanied by Tan's amazing illustrations. There are meditations on what happens to unread poetry, stories about stick figures, and journeys to the edge of maps. I love Tan's surrealist tendencies. His book The Arrival is wonderful as well.

3) Please Stop Laughing at Me... by Jodee Blanco - This is a memoir of the author's firsthand experience of being bullied from elementary school through high school. Because of what she went through, Blanco automatically becomes a sympathetic character. Even so, this book didn't illuminate much for me. And that is probably because I was very put off by Blanco's quite ordinary and sometimes boring writing style. I felt that she was telling me everything but I never really was shown anything. I never really understood why she was bullied so badly. And honestly, sometimes I found her annoying. (This is coming from someone who was bullied, although not nearly as badly as Blanco was.) Her story is just so subjective, and Blanco spends a lot of time in the book just moralizing. A quick read, but not really a compelling one.

4) Madapple by Christina Meldrum - Okay, this book is weird. It's supposedly YA, but it contained so much heavy subject matter that I can't help but feel a little weird about teenagers reading it. On the other hand, maybe it's a good thing for teens to have access to such a strange story. Anyway, I really enjoyed this book. It's very well written and researched. The story is pretty compelling. I felt at times that the author, like Dan Brown in The DaVinci Code, was really trying to show off how much research she'd done for the book. Some of the religious exposition was annoying because it was so obviously exposition. Again, I'm one for showing, not telling. Overall, I'd recommend this book.

5) Leaflets by Adrienne Rich - Adrienne Rich is one of my most favorite poets. Even so, I haven't read anything by her in years, which is a crime. In my overly emo state, I decided that reading some poetry was just what I needed. So I picked up this book, which I read about 10 years ago and loved. I sailed through it in less than a day. And wow. It's still an amazing collection of poetry, still as relevant to me today as it was when I read it back during my Great Depression.

So far I'm right on track with my reading goals for the year. 10 down, 50 to go!

Reading, Watching, Listening

A current list of what I'm ingesting through my eyes, ears, and mind...

Reading:

Your Best Birth - Yep, at five and a half months post-partum I am already thinking about what I want out of my next birth experience. No, I'm not pregnant. But I'm being led down a path that I never thought I'd venture down before... And it's quite interesting. I love how life surprises me.

Montessori from the Start - I know next to nothing about Montessori, but one thing I do know is that this philosophy is worth investigating.


Watching:

Sunshine Cleaning - Loved it.

The L Word (final season) - You know, I like this show, as unrealistic as it is. It annoys me sometimes, but still I'm kinda hooked. I love me some drama.

Dexter (season three) - This show never disappoints.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer (sixth season) - One of my very favorite shows.


Listening:

Putumayo Digital Sampler - Click here to download for free. Yes, free!

Anything here that strikes my fancy, because hello! It's free.

Daytrotter - a great site that offers free music downloads for emerging artists

(I've mentioned Daytrotter before, but seriously check it out! It's so awesome.)

Thanks for all the blogging ideas; I'll try to get to some of them soon. In the meantime, tell me what you're watching, reading, listening.

Baby and Books (+ Giveaway!)

My neighborhood is having a giant yard sale this weekend. I only just found out about it yesterday when one of my neighbors offered me first pick of all her vintage children's books. Of course, I jumped on it, and thirty minutes later, this is what I had:



I love children's books, and I tend to believe that they just don't make 'em like they used to. Here's a small sampling of the treasures that Charlie will hopefully love when he gets a little older:






And I love all the illustrations!





So, being as it's a new month, Charlie's due to turn four months old next week. In honor of the cutest baby ever, I'm hosting another book giveaway. Leave a comment on this post telling me who your absolute favorite fictional character is, and you'll be entered to win a book of your choice from our Amazon book store. I will pick a winner at noon on Thursday, October 8.

Good luck, everyone!

30 Days of Happiness, Day 15: I Am the Messenger

I love it when I read a book that I find completely satisfying.

I am such a book/lit snob that it's pretty rare that I find a book that makes me go "mmmm, now that was good." But I Am the Messenger does that for me.



The author, Markus Zusak, is an incredible writer. That's not a compliment I pay very often. But he is. I love how he always managed to surprise me with his choice of words in this book.

And I love the story. I love the characters and how they are sketched out just perfectly. We are given just enough information about them to make them come alive.

I was sad when the book ended. I was sad each time I had to put it down. I can't wait to read more of his books.

You should definitely check it out.

Oh, and check out my new book light!



I had a normal one that broke and needed a quick replacement. Roy to the rescue with this head contraption thingie! I like it though. It's perfect for reading under the covers. (Yes, I still read under the covers. I have to, since Charlie is still sleeping in our room.)

And while we're on the subject of books, don't forget to enter my book giveaway! If you don't like our current selection, enter anyway - I still have plenty of merchandise to put up for sale.

Happy 9/9/09, everyone!

30 Days of Happiness, Day 14: Operation Purge

After yesterday's re-realizations, Roy and I decided to spend our Labor Day working.

We cleaned out the garage, wrote out a meal plan for the coming week, and went through our books for the eleventy-billionth time. We now have a nice big stack of books to post for sale in our Amazon book store.



I put all the books that I want to read on a separate bookshelf and was shocked to see that they filled the entire bookshelf. At the rate I'm going, I'll be working on reading these for the rest of my life.



It feels great to get rid of things. We tend to do a giant purge at least once a year. It's amazing how much junk you can accumulate in just a year. What's also amazing is how perspective concerning a certain thing (book, knicknack, etc) can radically change in a year's time. What was once hard to get rid of is now easier to leave behind.

I've decided that I'm going to do a monthly book giveaway here on my blog. On the 8th of every month, I'll host a book giveaway for all my readers to participate in. It'll be a great way to celebrate another month of Charlie's life as well as spread my love of reading (and get rid of some more books). The winner will pick his/her book of choice from our Amazon bookstore. I'll do this for as long as there's interest in the books we're getting rid of.

It just so happens that Charlie is turning three months old tomorrow, so watch for my giveaway post!

Loving What Is

This book made me want to hit my head against the wall. Repeatedly. And hard. And to think I only got about 50 pages in before I gave up on it, listed it for sale on Amazon, and sent it off to the next unsuspecting person.

I don't know why I haven't learned my lesson about self-help books. Most of them suck balls. I've only read one that I've found remotely helpful. The others have just been a waste of my time.

This time, I was lured into thinking that this book would be good because a blogger that I like read it and loved it. Also, the author of the book is married to Stephen Mitchell, who is responsible for the best translation of the Tao Te Ching ever. (Seriously, his translation is so awesome that I keep a small copy of the book in my purse!) I thought, "Hey! Anyone who's married to Stephen Mitchell can't be bad!"

Well, I was wrong. I don't know if I think Byron Katie (author of Loving What Is) is a bad person, but I do think that her book really does oversimplify things in a way that could end up having extremely negative effects for a lot of people.

I do agree with Katie's basic premise: that we need to take responsibility for our part in things and that we need to learn to accept reality instead of thinking about how things "should" or "should not" be. I think accepting a situation or person as it/he/she is instead of projecting our ideals onto them is a wonderful and ambitious way of looking at the world.

However.

I do not agree with Katie's assertion that learning to "love what is" is going to equal sunshine and puppy dogs. I think it is extremely irresponsible for someone to claim that by doing "The Work" (which is what Katie calls her self-help plan), one can live in perfect happiness.

We live in a world that is full of pain and imperfection. Perfect happiness does not exist. To deny this is ridiculous. And to say that people need to let go of their pain denies them the rights to feel that pain and to ultimately be human. Yes, I'm sure we could all learn a little about letting go of negative feelings. However, who decided that feelings like anger, sadness, shame, and humiliation were negative?

We did.

And honestly, feelings are feelings. They just are. Bottom line, I think people should be allowed to have their feelings no matter what they are - if they can have them, the easier it might be to let them go when/if they feel the need to.

Like I mentioned earlier, this book also talks about accountability, which I believe is a quality that a lot of people in this world lack. Everything is someone else's fault, etc. Lack of accountability is a quality in others that I find extremely annoying, so it was nice to read what Katie had to say about it.

However.

Again, she went overboard with simplifying the need to take accountability for one's actions. Because the implication is that you have to take accountability for everything that happens to you. And this is not something I agree with. Yes, life is probably 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it, but it is so much more complicated than that.

I know that Katie's overall message is that peace and contentment are ideals that can be reached. But I don't think it's fair to put too much of the blame on ourselves. And I certainly don't think it's right to dangle "perfect happiness" in front of our faces as something that can be achieved if we do The Work.

Granted, I didn't finish the book. For one, it wasn't very engaging. For another, when I was engaged, I argued with it the whole time I read it. It just didn't resonate with me. But I did read the beginning part that explains The Work and a few transcripts that show Katie and The Work in action. Meh. So not impressed.

Here's a positive review of the book (from Amazon):

You know how as you get older you start talking and acting like your parents in certain ways? You don't get up one day and decide you're going to be like your mother or father. It's a process that seems to happen on its own. Reading Byron Katie's Loving What Is, is like that.You easily pick-up on it and find yourself naturally, imperceptibly, using her methods.

This book takes the stuff of life -- family, marriage, children, money, addictions, friends, lovers, judgments of self and life, fear, pain, anger, worry, and the thoughts the mind is constantly generating -- and it shows you how to free yourself from the stresses they impose. It shows you how to take things that bother you and make them not bother you. It frees you from that.

The Work, as Katie's method is called, is easy to do. Nothing beyond the book is required.

In The Work, you start with the worksheet. The purpose of the worksheet is to bring your mind to paper. You start by judging people. Later you judge thoughts, issues, self-judgments. You start with a person. You write down what angers, saddens, disappoints you about that person. How do you want them to change? What do they need to give you? What do you think of this person? What don't you want to experience with this person again? These are only a few of the questions on the worksheet.

Next you investigate each statement in the worksheet by exposing it to four questions. For each statement you ask, (1) Is it true? (2) Can you absolutely know that it's true? (3) How do you react when you think that thought? (4) Who would you be without that thought?

The four questions allow one to look at the source of pain and stress.

Finally you turn around each statement so that instead of judging another person, you are judging yourself. "Bill angers me," can be turned around to, "I anger me," or "I anger Bill," or "Bill doesn't anger me." With the turnaround comes the key to healing because it is a look into reality.

The worksheet presents the situation of stress and pain. The four questions reveal the source of stress and pain. The turnaround shows what the reality is, and with this comes healing.

The book features in-depth examples of The Work in action. The most stressful and difficult human situations are handled. Loving What Is is also available in audio edition, which is an effective way of absorbing The Work.

The most important quality of The Work is that it feels natural. Katie says over and over again that she is a "lover of reality." The Work comes out of reality and takes the user to reality.

And a negative one (also from Amazon):

You know the serenity prayer, "God grant me the grace to accept what I cannot change, to change what I cannot accept, and the wisdom to tell the difference"? This book is a thousand times longer, and only gets a through a tiny part of the prayer. It could really be boiled down to one word: "Accept!". I certainly agree that acceptance is a useful tool for finding inner peace, but the author is holding a hammer and nailing down everything in sight.

I have a basic philosophical problem with her premise. I believe that vulnerability to others and suffering are a fundamental, and sometimes valuable, part of human existence. My fiance was murdered, and I grieve tremendously for him. I don't want to suffer for the sake of it, but my guess is that Rophie would tell me that I don't need to be sad at all. In my opinion, this is not only ridiculous, it's unhealthy. It's human nature to object to loss, and to pretend otherwise ultimately impedes healing. Rophie claims that you shouldn't need anything from other people, that you can give it all to yourself. I say bollocks! We are biologically designed to need each other. Babies who aren't held and loved can't thrive, and it's not because they're telling themselves sad stories.

Like other reviewers, I found her claims of "open inquiry" disingenuous. It was clear in every transcript that she was steering her client to an answer she'd decided upon herself. The author also implies that there's no possibility of healthy disagreement with her perspective. Either you see things her way, or you're unready for "The Work."

I've edited my review because on reflection, this is the biggest problem I have with the book. When you're writing a spiritual book, particularly a book about personal reality, you really ought to make room for the possibility that there might be other approaches that work as well or better for different people. Stating that your book is the end-all, be-all and implying that anyone who isn't helped just isn't doing it right doesn't jibe with that darned "open inquiry" thing. I find it a little amusing that this attitude is reflected by a lot of her fans too. Many positive reviews here openly say that if you don't love this book, there's something wrong with you. How's that for enlightenment? The only thing that really helped me get through the death of my love was group therapy. Some people in the group left it because they didn't find it helpful. One friend of mine cured his depression by becoming a devoted student of Tai Chi. Different things work for different people. THAT'S what an open mind is, not insisting that what worked for you works for the rest of the world.

As for the person who criticized another reviewer for not reading every line in the book: my hat's off to those of you who could. The parts that weren't offensively smug were horrifically dull. She says her book ENDS suffering? I've had more fun reading tax forms.

I will say that several people I respect say this book changed their lives, so it may have value for the new reader. Just make sure you give it a good once over in the bookstore before you fork over your cash.

It's safe to say that 1) I agree with the second review I shared here, and 2) I won't be recommending this book to anyone. Because anyone who can brainwash a rape victim into taking full responsibility for her feelings regarding her rape experience (not to mention the experience itself) really sucks, in my opinion. That's exactly what the author did in this book. And if that's part of the reality that Byron Katie wants me to experience, you can count me out.

For the Love of Reading

Yesterday some of my co-workers and I went to go read to/with a kindergarden class at a local school. We did this last year, and it was a ton of fun - not to mention illuminating. Kids these days have amazing reading skills; it makes me so happy.

I loved this picture on the wall of the classroom.



After I sat with about five different kids individually and listened to then read to me, I read for the class as a whole. I read this book.

All this got me thinking about kids' books. I had a lot of favorites growing up, but this one was always a frontrunner. The illustrations are amazing, even after all these years.



What were your favorite books as a child? Let me know - I may just order them for Charlie.

School Days, Booklust

So on Monday I started school again. Well, kind of. I'm taking an online French class and will be doing some work (hopefully, a lot) on my thesis. I don't have to actually attend classes on campus, which is awesome, because going up to campus totally kicked my ass last quarter.

Actually, the whole quarter kicked my ass, which makes me wonder if I'm just a bit crazy for continuing on with this school thing while being pregnant. But if I could graduate with my MA before Bunlet is born, that would be awesome!

I'm not going to kill myself trying, but it's something that I would like to see happen. So wish me luck. And while you're doing that, have a gander at my gangly toenails that desperately need a pedicure:



Now that you're done staring in awe at my toes, hop on over to our Amazon store to check out some of our wares. We're not even close to done with putting all the books up for sale. It is such a huge project and will take awhile to get each title listed. I'm happy to say, though, that we've had about twenty orders since getting started last week.

We are so not in this for the money. We just want to get rid of these books. So feel free to buy one or seven if you've got the urge. I will personally call you up and sing, "I Will Always Love You" (Whitney Houston style) if you do so.

Still

I joined the Photo Trade this month. Basically, it's just as it sounds - trading photos with a partner each month. The photos are all based on a theme. The theme for September is "Still."

Here are the two photos I'm going to send out. I hope my partner likes them!




You can see other people's photos here.

In other news:

1) Roy and I worked out again tonight. I cussed at the TV quite a bit.

2) My computer is still being kind of a douchebag.

3) Last night I actually wrote a couple of poems that didn't suck sweaty balls.

4) I am reading a really good book.

5) I actually haven't been hating my job these days.

The end, for tonight.

Things That Make Me Go "Wow"

1) Web Without Sense is a collection of complaints about websites. Needless to say, it's hilarious. Here's a good one:



2) And in keeping the Grammar Nazi spirit alive, Brandy made my day when she sent the picture below to me.



3) This video totally brings on the awesome.



4) And this one is so sweet.



5) The Book of Leviathan by Peter Blegvad is a visual treat for anyone who likes to think. This is a collection of comic strips featuring Leviathan, a faceless and overly philosophical baby, his stuffed rabbit, and the family cat. The gang go on many adventures, including a long trip to Hell, in this dark comedy of a story.



6) Love, love, LOVE this video. It's the funniest thing I've seen in awhile.



7) I also love this penis iceberg. Article here.



8) Lastly, I got my computer back! I've spent the last couple of days trying to get it the way it was before I took it in to be fixed (minus the spyware, of course). I'm still trying to import all my email, as well as figuring out how to convert my external hard drive to a more stable format. It's a work in progress, that's for sure. But hopefully I will have some new photos to share soon and will be able to be a better blog commenter.

A Very Literary Meme

This meme has been making the blogosphere rounds, so I thought I'd do it too. I'm such a follower.

Anyway, here are the rules:

1) Look at the list and bold those you have read.
2) Italicize those you intend to read.
3) Underline (or mark in a different color) the books you LOVE.


1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee

6 The Bible
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens

11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier

16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot

21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams

26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame

31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34 Emma - Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen

36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne

41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meany - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins

46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan

51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth

56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas

66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville

71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce

76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - AS Byatt

81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert

86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte’s Web - EB White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection

91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole

96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

Looks like I've read almost half of these - not bad.

Thanks to Amy, who told me how to change the color of the font in this post.

Rampant Consumerism! Voracious Reading! Free-Flowing Alcohol!: Day Four of Our Anniversary Trip

Roy and I were left to our own devices for most of the fourth day of our trip, as Wade had to work that day. We decided to go to the famed Mall of America. Wade was nice enough to write out explicit instructions for catching the correct bus to get to the mall, since we are (correction: were) bus-tarded.

But before we left, I took this picture of Wade's apartment. I like it. I think it captures the energy of his bachelor pad well.



I expected a lot more from the Mall of America than it turned out to be. Basically it's this massive four-story mall with a theme park in the middle of it. Sure, the theme park was cool, but we weren't prepared to ride any rides. (I had my obnoxiously bulky camera with me, and plus I get awful vertigo.) We decided to walk around, but soon I got bored. Bored! At a four-story mall. Imagine that.

















I also decided I really wanted shrimp, so we went to Bubba Gump. I was kind of disappointed in our food, but at least my drink was good.





Overall, there wasn't much for us at the mall. Despite all its bells and whistles, it was still just a mall. I found this hilarious, though, considering the horrific nature of the shoes.



And this was cool.



We caught the bus like a couple of old pros and went back to Wade's place. We settled down to watch Borat, and soon Wade came home from work. That evening he decided to take us (fellow nerds) out to some of Minneapolis' independent bookstores.



I found a half-off copy of this book, which I have been drooling over for years now but could never justify spending $30 on. So I bought it and was happy.

Afterwards, Wade took us to a local dive bar called CC Club, where we had cheese curds (awesome) and copious amounts of alcohol (well, for me, anyway). We sat in a booth for two or three hours and just laughed and talked.





Another Minneapolis night came to an end as we found our way back to Wade's place and fell asleep on the sofa bed.

General Monday Randomness

-I normally can't stand summer, but this year in particular I am very grateful for it. The evenings are long and peaceful instead of rushed like they were during the school year.

-Day 1 of the cleanse is done and went well. The hardest time was lunchtime and the afternoon. I got tempted quite a few times, but I managed to avoid most of it. I did have a bit of peanut butter with my celery when I got home, but I'm not going to beat myself up over it. At least I didn't eat the pan dulce in the break room at work.

-This is my new favorite song. It is amazing. I listen to it over and over. The whole album is worth checking out.

-I started reading this book. I'm not one for self-help, but this one called to me last week.

-I meditated tonight. Actually, I have no idea if I did it right. It felt a lot like I took a short nap. Is there a wrong way to meditate?

-I got my grade in my fairy tales class: A-. The perfectionist in me is not happy with this grade, especially because of what happened before. This is my third A- in grad school. I got two last year, but I earned them rightfully. I really should have gotten an A in this class. I busted my ass. Apparently I didn't deliver. I emailed her and inquired. We'll see what she says.

-At least I got an A in my internship.

-Roy and I went for a walk tonight. I haven't really been inspired to take any photos recently, because I've been in kind of a funk. But I decided to bring my camera along on our walk, and here are a few things we came across.







Yes, that's a headstone for a person with Shrimp as his last name. Talk about random.

The Road

I love books that are unflinchingly honest. I love it when a writer stares at the disturbing (albeit subjective) truth and doesn't back down. Such is the case in Cormac McCarthy's The Road. I have read several books by McCarthy, and he never disappoints me. His writing is phenomenal, his vision compelling.

This particular book is a postapocalyptic glimpse into the lives of a man and his son traveling by foot (along a road, obviously) towards the ocean. Their story is a quiet one, but it's also fraught with conflict and tension. In a world where almost everyone else is dead, these two continue to push on. While reading it, I asked myself lots of existential questions, one of them being "Why go on when the rest of the world has died? What, really, is the point?"

The Road really emphasizes the survival instinct that we all possess - and our desire to be just a little bit heroic. In typical McCarthy fashion, it offers no morals or rationalization. It just drops you into this dying world and leaves you to decide whether or not you would follow the road or abandon it.

On Love, Of Time

Two of the books I've read this month are definitely blog-worthy, because of their original storylines and beautiful writing. Surprisingly (to me at least), they are also bestsellers. Call me a lit snob (I'll gladly own up to it), but most bestsellers aren't that great. The craft of writing is often neglected for the plot (prime example: The Da Vinci Code): it's a constant battle between form and content, with content often winning the war. I love a good story as much as the next person, but when the writing sucks, that's a definite dealbreaker for me.

Anyway, I'm getting off my literary soapbox now and am moving on to The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold. This book begins with the murder of young Susie Salmon at the hands of her highly disturbed neighbor, George Harvey. Sebold manages to pull off this grisly event with graceful prose, and the rest of the story unfolds just as beautifully. Susie remains the narrator, watching over her family, her friends, her town (and yes, even her murderer) from her heaven. (I love how Sebold gives Susie her own heaven instead of imposing the "normal" Christian ideal upon the story.) The story spans many years, and the audience sees Susie's siblings grow up, the eventual death of George Harvey, and the impact Susie's murder has on her town.

So, it was a great story, and the writing wasn't too shabby either. All in all, I really enjoyed the book. But sadly, it really fell apart in the end. I think it could've ended much sooner. And Sebold had Susie do something (that I won't spoil for you) that just didn't make any damn sense. I was disappointed at how it all kind of unravelled and trailed off into this nonsensical interlude. However, I would still recommend this book - with the warning that the ending leaves much to be desired. It's a great meditation on love, time, family, and death.

Right after finishing The Lovely Bones, I started reading The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger. This book is enormously popular, and I was so glad to see that it actually lived up to the hype. In short, this is an amazing book. I can't think of a thing that I would change about it (and coming from me, that means a lot). The writing is just gorgeous, so incredibly poignant. The story is bittersweet, heartbreaking, and refreshingly unique.

But let me back up. The Time Traveler's Wife is a story about Henry, a man who travels through time, and his wife, Clare. The story jumps back and forth in time and through the eyes of both Henry and Clare. I almost immediately began to believe in the love that existed between Henry and Clare from the start of the book - it was just that real to me. It really delivered the message that love is timeless, that it can exist and remain strong even past death. By the end, I was a sobbing mess, but I was so touched by the story of Henry and Clare. You must read it. You won't be sorry.

And now I'm revisiting an old favorite: I Know This Much Is True by Wally Lamb. I first read this book when I was 21 and depressed. I could relate to it so much that it was more than just a little heartbreaking - the story pretty much devastated me (in a good way). I'm not sure what to expect now that I'm rereading it as a much more emotionally stable person, but hopefully it will still hold up as a great read.

My name is not Veslie, and other random thoughts on a Friday morning.

1) Everytime I get correspondence from DSW, it's addressed to Veslie. Hello, people! Have you ever met anyone named Veslie? The one thing that makes this okay is that said correspondence usually contains a coupon for $10 or $20 off a pair of shoes.

2) I'm wearing all black today. I don't think I've worn all black since high school.

3) I brought my camera to work with me. I spend all the light hours of the day in the office, so I figure I can at least try to take some pictures during my lunch hour.

4) This has been the most enjoyable work week I've had in quite some time. I've been productive and have felt useful and utilized. I've still had quite a bit of downtime (obviously, since I'm writing this at work), but overall, I feel like I can keep hanging in there if this keeps up.

5) My classes are going great. I have enjoyed this quarter immensely so far. I hope to have a completed thesis proposal by the end of the quarter.

6) I have no big plans for the weekend, and I am perfectly fine with that. My weekend will be ruled by studying, writing for class, hopefully taking tons of pictures, cleaning, doing laundry, and going grocery shopping. It's not glamorous, but I'm still looking forward to it.

7) I am currently reading So Yesterday by Scott Westerfeld. Even though it's a young adult book, I have found very enjoyable so far.

8) As I mentioned previously, the third season of Veronica Mars is a total letdown, so much so that Roy and I didn't realize that the final episode was the series finale at first. That's how anticlimactic it was. I am hugely disappointed, especially because the first 2 seasons were so good.

9) I really want a cheeseburger for lunch.

I think I'm done.

Reading chick lit novels, that is. I read Confessions of a Shopaholic and Shopaholic Takes Manhattan last year. I enjoyed both, but by the time I got to the latter, the formulaic tendencies of the author (Sophie Kinsella) had already become very clear to me, and thus, I ended up getting annoyed with it.

I started reading Can You Keep a Secret? (by the same author) last night. I'm already over halfway through, and it's entertaining. But I can't help myself; I want more. I get tired of the same ditzy heroines, the men who love them, and the mistakes they make. I grow weary of entirely plot-driven books where character development takes a backseat. Oh, the curses of having an English degree - I overanalyze everything and tend to be a bit of a literature snob.

But I don't exactly feel like reading War and Peace either. A balance must be found.

But still - no more chick lit for me. Sophie Kinsella has ruined the genre for me.

Memory Month: The Best Books of 2007

At the start of 2007, I told myself that I would read 10 books each month. Believe it or not, this used to be an easy accomplishment for me, as I read extremely fast. However, 2007 was an entirely different animal than years past, so reading took a back seat to everything else. I have managed, though, to read 75 books as of this posting and am hoping to finish off a couple more before the end of the year, as I have quite a few in progress right now. One thing I did this year was reread quite a few books, so I won't be including the books that I reread on my list of best books of the year.

Without further ado, here is the list of books that I enjoyed most this year (in the order I read them), along with the reasons why. I didn't force myself to pick 10 books; it just happened that way.

1) What No One Tells the Bride by Marg Stark
One thing every bride needs is a good book that helps her understand her many conflicting feelings that she encounters as she plans her wedding. This is one of those books that I'm so glad I read before getting married. I was one of those moody brides who had very happy highs and really depressing lows. I felt a lot of confusion about all my different emotions, and reading this book (as well as The Conscious Bride) really helped make sense of it all. I ended up embracing all these feelings (even the negative ones), and even though they were hard to handle sometimes, I count myself a better person for having gone through planning a wedding. Books like What No One Tells the Bride really helped me keep a firm grip on my sanity in dealing with family, friends, vendors, Roy, and even myself and my own expectations.

2) No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy
Cormac McCarthy is an amazing writer, and this is an amazing book. The story is compelling (and violent), the writing is top-notch, and I couldn't put this one down. It was suspenseful and interesting. I would love to see the movie, but I'm afraid it just won't live up to the book. However, I could just see the book unfolding in my mind as I read it, so maybe it'll make a good movie after all.


3) The Mermaid Chair by Sue Monk Kidd
Sue Monk Kidd is a delicious writer, particularly in this book. Her writing style makes me want to engage in all things sensual. Her descriptions are incredibly vivid, so much so that her writing sometimes contains echoes of the Latino/a tradition. The story is one that every person can relate to, where the protagonist goes searching for something she can't quite put her finger on and ends up with a better understanding of herself and her life. The myths and legends within the story really gave it its punch and depth. The ending was surprising, which is always welcomed.

4) Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling
This was probably the most anticipated book of the year, and I am so happy that it lived up to the hype. It answered all my questions and tied up all the loose ends. It also brought up some relevant issues, giving this fantasy story a strong basis in reality. It was a definite page-turner. I laughed, I cried, I got angry. Despite the epilogue (which I thought was unnecessary) and very weak concluding sentence, I was completely satisfied with this book - and also happy to see how the series matured and found its real theme and subject.

5) Was by Geoff Ryman
This was an excellent book. It's The Hours meets The Wizard of Oz, with an obvious twist of Wicked. The story was powerful, complicated, and challenging. The writing was great. All in all, Was is a very brave book that seeks to reexamine stories and characters we've all grown to know and love.



6) One Hundred Demons by Lynda Barry
I highly enjoyed this graphic novel. I could relate to it very much. Each of the stories/chapters contained within struck a nerve with me, because they showcased the demons that latch onto us and follow us around all our lives. In a sense, this book reminded me very much of PostSecret, in that its very personal revelations felt like they were about me personally, not about some woman (the author) I've never met. The writing was good, and so were the accompanying graphics/pictures/illustrations. I highly recommend this book for everyone. Remember - graphic novels aren't just for nerds!

7) Skinny Bitch by Rory Freedman and Kim Barnouin
I thought this book was pretty amazing, and I've actually already talked about it in another blog entry. It actually forced me to reexamine my eating habits by telling it how it is. This book explores the horrific happenings in slaughterhouses, how different foods affects our body, and what we can do to make ourselves healthy. Essentially, the book is all about diet and exercise, but there's no feel-good spin to it. It's very matter-of-fact. Some would even call it bitchy. But I liked the attitude - it helped drive home the main points the authors were trying to make.

8) Taking Charge of Your Fertility by Toni Weschler
Every woman should read this book. It taught me so much about my body and really made me realize how lacking my health/sex ed classes really were. It is amazing how ignorant most women are about the processes of their bodies - well, this book demystifies it all. It also explains a natural method of birth control, which sounded far-fetched to me at first. But it really works if you know how to do it correctly. I would recommend this book to any and every woman out there. Even though it was first published 10+ years ago, it is still groundbreaking.

9) The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
This book was an easy, fast, and gripping read. For the most part, it lives up to its critical acclaim. It is a great book. But it's not the best book I've ever read, and it won't be going on my "best books of all time" list. It's pretty easy to guess the ending, and I wouldn't say the writing is absolutely phenomenal. What I would say, though, is that this book is extremely relevant. It offers a look into Afghanistan through the eyes of its natives and reveals a timeless story of love, friendship, and family.

10) The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick
This is a hefty young adult book. At 500+ pages, it's quite daunting. However, I read this book in the space of a day or 2, mainly because much of the story is told through pictures. These pictures are pretty amazing works, and they are composed entirely of pencil. The story would be nothing without the drawings. It's not just a book with illustrations added in for fluff - the drawings simply make the book. Although there's a strong story behind the drawings, both story and drawings would be incomplete without each other. This is a really fascinating read.

*****

As much as I enjoyed these books, I doubt any of them are going to make my Favorite Books of All Time list. If I had to choose any, though, I would probably choose No Country for Old Men and/or Was.

I am not really going to make any reading goals for 2008. I would really like to make a dent in my unread books though, but the only way I'm going to be able to do that is if I stop buying books (yeah, right) or get rid of the ones that have been on my to-be-read pile for years (which I do quite often, actually). So, who knows what 2008 will bring?