Devon Trevarrow Flaherty's Blog, page 32

Book Review: Born a Crime

Image from Amazon.com

Born a Crime by Trevor Noah is one of the several books I am reading before deciding on a final curriculum for my English 9 co-op class this year. It is one of three that were recommended to me by a couple of rising juniors (my daughter and her friend) when I asked their favorite, school-assigned books of high school, so far. I don’t think this is going into the mix, except on the list of the books they can choose from for their final assignment of the year. I have my reasons, mostly regarding the length of the book and what it can (or can’t) teach about actual literature. It has more to offer a history class, really.

I first encountered Trevor Noah hosting the Pandemic Grammys. I don’t usually watch the Grammys, but I was curious about how the world was handling the Covid Pandemic and also had a fairly cleared schedule during Quarantine. (Didn’t we all?) The host began his thing and I was like, “Who is this guy? I have absolutely no idea. No idea at all.” I assumed he was a musician. My daughter informed me he is a comedian. A few days later I was looking at books on the shelf and did a double-take. Trevor Noah? The host of the Grammys? He wrote that book that I kept hearing about? What did all this mean? Surely it couldn’t be the same Trevor Noah. None of it fit (but then again I had finally put the pieces together and realized the guy from Cupcake Wars had his own magic show. It’s just a diversified time for famous people. Singer/actors writing middle grades series, business moguls entering the space race…). So here was the comedian who had hosted the Grammys who also had this very popular memoir about Apartheid. Several months later I get the recommend and dive in.

Born a Crime is probably not exactly what you expect. For one, maybe because Noah is a comedian, the humor gets overplayed in the reviews. It’s kinda’ funny, like how many other non-humor books are funny. Most great books will give you a laugh now and again, like a good conversationalist, but it is not a comedy at heart. Not at all. It’s not like any of those modern famous people memoirs, either. It is lighter, which may be why its often recommended for teens, but it is just as appropriate for adults. In fact, I know way more about South African Apartheid, have a much deeper understanding, so for that reason I would recommend it for a wider spectrum. And I know I just called it “lighter” because there is an airiness, an openness, a freshness, and an accessibility to it. But it is also dead serious in the story that he has to tell. It never presses on you (though it may squeeze out a tear or two and definitely creates some Aha! moments), but Born a Crime is the story of an impoverished child, an abused young man, and a person who was “born a crime” (mixed race) and therefore alone and ostracized and struggling at every turn, even in a country where over half the population was already considered untouchable, barely human.

I agree with many of the comments, as well, that this story is definitely a memoir but simultaneously the story of Noah’s mother, a tribute to her. It’s tender and thoughtful. It’s interesting and easy to read and understand. It also includes some interesting structure choices. It includes one of those shocking giveaways near the beginning, but while those can often be obnoxious, this one still manages to surprise you along the way. Also, the story is not told chronologically, which was an interesting choice. It jumps all over the place while the narration still has this sense of moving forward toward something. This does require a lot of “I hadn’t yet moved here,” or “Abel was not around yet,” but I think it was necessary. It worked. But it did get confusing, too. Even now, I couldn’t quite put Noah’s life on a timeline for you, and the history of post-Apartheid (not to mention geography) gets a little lost in this back-and-forth.

Noah has a lot to say, and if you look at the quotes below you can tell that. What you can’t see in the quotes is that the bulk of this book is still stories. A story, and lots of vignettes. Noah uses what might be called introductions to each chapter to sort of fill us in on history and his opinion about it, though I never fully understood these asides because the whole book is a mash-up of story, history, and musing on lessons learned. I thought the book-ending of the overarching story was especially effective. The book is touching. Very touching.

I really enjoyed this book. It’s a great read. It’s engaging and certainly educational while not feeling at all that way. I can see why this book has taken off and I would expect it to stick around as a classic akin to The Diary of a Young Girl, just with a lot more cussing.

QUOTES

“Race-mixing proves that races can mix—and in a lot of cases, want to mix. Because a mixed person embodies that rebuke to the logic of the system, race-mixing becomes a crime worse than treason” (p21).

“A shared language says, ‘We’re the same,’ A language barrier says ‘We’re different’” (p49).

“So many black families spend all of their time trying to fix the problems of the past. That is the curse of being black and poor, and it is a curse that follows you from generation to generation. My mother calls it ‘the black tax.’ Because the generations who came before you have been pillaged, rather than being free to use your skills and education to move forward, you lost evetything just trying to bring everyone behind you back up to zero” (p66).

“We tell people to follow their dreams, but you can only dream of what you can imagine, and, depending on where you come from, your imagination can be quite limited” (p73).

“Racism is not logical” (p75).

“You do not own the thing that you love” (p100).

“Being chosen is the greatest gift you can give to another human being” (p110).

“People are willing to accept you if they see you as an outsider trying to assimilate into their world. But when they see you as a fellow tribe member attempting to disavow the tribe, that is something they will never forgive” (p118).

“Their children are taught the history of the Empire with a kind of disclaimer hanging over the whole thing. ‘Well, that was shameful, now wasn’t it?’ …. In America, the history of racism is taught like this: ‘There was slavery and then there was Jim Crow and then there was Martin Luther King Jr. and now it’s done.’ …. It was as if the teachers, many of whom were white, had been given a mandate. ‘Whatever you do, don’t make the kids angry’” (p187).

“The richer you are, the more choices you have. That is the freedom of money” (p188).

“But with what raw materials are the poor to make something of themselves? / People love to say, ‘Give a man a fish, and he’ll eat for a day. Teach a man to fish, and he’ll eat for a lifetime.’ What they don’t say is, ‘And it would be nice if you gave him a fishing rod.’ …you need someone from the privileged world to come to you and say, ‘Okay, here’s what you need, and here’s how it works’” (p190).

“Holocaust victims count because Hitler counted them” (p195).

“He has been given an awareness of the world that is out there, but he has not been given the means to reach it” (p208).

“But the hood taught me that everyone has different notions of right and wrong, different definitions of what constitutes a crime, and what level of crime they’re willing to participate in” (p213).

“If I’d put all that energy into studying I’d have earned an MBA” (p217).

“If we could see one another’s pain and empathize with one another, it would never be worth it to us to commit the crimes in the first place” (p222).

“Nelson Mandela once said, ‘If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart’” (p236).

“The world has been taught to be scared of him, but the reality is that he is scared of the world because he has none of the tools necessary to cope with it” (p237).

“’Everything I’ve ever done I’ve done from a place of love. If I don’t punish you, the world will punish you even worse. The world doesn’t love you’” (p243).

“I saw that not all families are violent. I saw the futility of violence, the cycle that just repeats itself, the damage that’s inflicted on people that they in turn inflict on others …. / Love is a creative act. When you love someone you create a new world for them” (p262).

“’Pray for Abel,’ she’d say. ‘Because be doesn’t hate us. He hates himself’” (p266).

“Growing up in a home of abuse, you struggle with the notion that you can love a person you hate, or hate a person you love. It’s a strange feeling, You want to live in a world where someone is good or bad, where you either hate them or love them, but that’s not how people are” (p267).

“I don’t know that a child knows that kind of selfless love. A mother, yes. A mother will clutch her children and jump from a moving car to keep them from harm. She will do it without thinking. But I don’t think a child knows how to do that, not instinctively. It’s something the child has to learn” (p279).

Book Review: Of Mice and Men

Image from Amazon.com

Can anyone actually enjoy reading this book? I mean, appreciate it, dissect it, talk about it, parse it, give it a good rating, praise it, but enjoy it? The thing is, most books that I read while a teenager or even young adult, when I reread them I find waiting for me a completely different experience. I read Of Mice and Men in high school and I found it unbearably depressing. I just re-read it, an over-40-year-old woman and I will not read it again. It’s just too freakin’ sad. And every positive thing that gets said or dreamt about? You see it all coming like a slo-mo train wreck through the whole thing. In ashes by the end. In-ci-ner-a-ted. Like my sense of well-being.

It’s a well-written book. Short, descriptive paragraphs to set mood and paint a picture. Characters that leap off the page with just a few strokes of the pen. Metaphors and symbolism as common as page numbers. A look into a time and a place and a people that is unique and interesting. And all in such a small space—officially Of Mice and Men is a novella and will set you back only a few hours. The writing itself is sparse and beautiful in its sparseness. There aren’t any plot holes here or rushed editing. It’s a classic. It goes on the record about a piece of American history. It’s not a flattering story, yet it is acknowledged as universal in its portrayal of human nature, of humanity. (Also not flattering, but also the only way in which you can find redemption in this book.) We can talk about foreshadowing, bracketing, inevitable endings, whatever.

Been under a rock for two centuries? Of Mice and Men is by John Steinbeck, also famous for a much longer book, The Grapes of Wrath. It’s about George and Lennie, two migrant/itinerant/nomadic farm hands during the Great Depression in the western United States. The book opens on a small time in their lives when they come to what they hope will be their last farm gig before they can get their own piece of land. They have just fled one disaster and it’s clear that’s the kind of life they live: two unlikely partners—one small and smart and the other very large and strong and with the mind of a child (Lennie has an undefined disability)—in a time and place where men weren’t able to form lasting relationships or settle down. Lennie’s brute strength and mental disability further complicate their bleak, poor, powerless existence, but—like thousands of others like them—they have a dream. The reader can smell tragedy in this first page and the sense of foreboding only worsens with each turn until you feel like your emotions are on the rack. Other characters enter. A few things happen. Disaster looms ever closer.

It is said that Steinbeck wrote his novella to be honest about a time and a people. This is often said because there are some morality and PC issues here. Depression-era, migrant farm workers lived quite the sketchy life. Filled with all the conventional vices—cussing, gambling, sex addiction, violence, soliciting prostitutes, drunkenness, etc.—there is hardly a page without a heavy load of all of the above. Then you have race relations, which some have called racism. Then you have women and their portrayal. While I am okay with portraying the vices of the time in the measure it was meted, I don’t think I can take this book to a high school class. (I know many do. I don’t think my particular parents would appreciate weeks of me explaining a “cat house” or why a man might want to keep one of his hands smooth for his wife.) The thing is, this book does really come across as a portrait and not as a valuation. It doesn’t read political or even ideological. It’s barely philosophical. It is mostly anthropological with a dash of psychological. So while the portrayals of the workers, their boss, the one Black man, and the women are disturbing all around, they feel accurate and not in any way convincing that any of this is right. It’s like journalism, not propaganda. Except for maybe with the women. The women fall into the three basic categories: the saint, the princess/damsel, and the whore. Most of the women in the book fall into the last category. Whereas Steinbeck is shading his main characters to give us a more nuanced experience, his female characters suck. They’re just what you would expect them to be, written by a man in the 1930s. Angels or villains and only complicated in the trite ways. Let’s just say this is a book about men. (And maybe all of his villains are a little flat. The era of the villain wouldn’t arrive until our time.) Maybe just keep in mind that this book has been banned more than once for all of the reasons I have listed here.

There’s another thing, but while the literary devices, history, and controversy of Of Mice and Men are all frequently talked about, I don’t see anyone talking about this: it’s really a play, right? I mean, not literally, not on the page, and not in a few of the details. But really, this book reads so much like a play to me that I found it distracting. The scene-setting, monologues, slightly stilted dialogue, physical description and movement through the scenes. And mostly that each chapter is a new room and we don’t move from that room. It’s as if a light has come on over the next place and we watch the characters come and go and say important things aloud and there are never any scenes with more than a handful of people, never anything wide or magical enough to make a simple play out of reach. I don’t know that you care, but it really felt like it should have been a play, to me.

So…

I rarely discourage reading a classic. I don’t discourage it, now. Of Mice and Men is a quick read and there are many things to learn from it and admire about it. Don’t read it when you are depressed or especially anxious. Read it for a literature class or read it for history or read it to appreciate it. Just know you might get emotionally walloped and have a lot of self-explaining to do. I’m sure someone must enjoy reading this novel, somewhere, but me? I cringed through the entire thing, wishing I could call “Uncle!”

Image from Rotten Tomatoes

MOVIES

Image from Rotten Tomatoes

I was at home “cleaning” when I finished Of Mice and Men so I found the time to watch both of the movies that were readily available. The first one was the black and white 1939 version. Welp, I don’t appreciate movies that old, hardly ever. I can’t get over the whole we-haven’t-figure-out-cinema-isn’t-the-theater-yet thing. The acting is so goofy, the framing, the lighting, everything like we’re still looking at a stage and everything’s transient and distant. It does stick pretty close to the book (except for some anachronisms, perhaps in dress and accent the most). It gets the point across. It gets pretty good reviews. Being from a certain time and place it attempted to white-wash much of Steinbeck’s “realism,” but not all of it. Not really my cup of tea. I would rather watch the 1992 version, which was directed by and starring Gary Sinise who was upstaged by his casting of John Malkovich as Lennie. I was nervous for the actors in this updated, color portrayal of an old—and always terribly sad—story, but they really did an excellent job. I saw some complaints that the movie was too beautiful and had too much happiness in it, but it was the only one out of the three that made me sob at the end. Yes, after I had just seen the same dang, awful scene two other times. I think there’s something about movies as opposed to books: well, don’t be mad at me because I will take a great book over a great movie any day but sometimes books put a certain distance between reality and the character and then movies come in and it all looks so real and believable and that distance between the characters and reality melts away. That happened for me in the 1992 Of Mice and Men. It’s like the novella and the other movie had been a tragic study in human nature and history and then seeing Malkovich and Sinise on the screen with the farm and other characters in color and movement brought the whole thing alive for me. When the horrible ending came, it was more affecting. Obviously, I would recommend that you watch a movie after reading the book (if you can take it), and that version would be the 1992 one. In fact, it’s a good movie (minus a couple, small missteps) all it’s own, but so. sad. So…

Book Review: Notes on a Nervous Planet

It is July. Notes on a Nervous Planet by Matt Haig is the seventh book I have read for my Pandemic Survival Book Club, which concentrates on mental health with a dash of spiritual health. This is by far my favorite of the year and I doubt that it will be unseated. It’s really a delightful book.

Let me just say that I didn’t realize until the last few pages that I was reading a book by the Matt Haig: the author in the LIMELIGHT, on every bookshelf, in every book club, on every top-seller list right now. I have not actually read The Midnight Library yet, but I have been told in ten different ways over the last couple months that I must do it. If it didn’t have such a great title I might rebel for rebellion’s sake (which I also did with Harry Potter and that only delayed my fanaticism). I don’t plan on that, though, I just have so many other titles currently vying for my time. I will read The Midnight Library and queue up with all the other millions who have something to say about it—probably praise in some form. Anyhow, did not make that connection. Had no idea that Midnight Library has an element of Tuesdays with Morrie or (sorry for the comparison, Haig) The Shack to it, nor that Haig had written a few nonfiction books about his own struggles with mental health and his deep and wise thoughts about the modern world and life as a human.

BOOKS (SO FAR) BY MATT HAIG:

(* denotes award-winners/bestsellers.)

Father Christmas and Me (children’s novel, Christmas) *The Last Family in England (novel based on Henry IV)Dead Fathers Club (novel based on Hamlet)The Possession of Mr. Cave (novel)Shadow Forest/Samuel Blink and the Forbidden Forest (children’s novel) *The Radleys (vampire novel)The Humans (alien novel)How to Stop Time (time travel novel) *Reasons to Stay Alive (nonfiction) *Notes on a Nervous Planet (nonfiction)The Midnight Library (novel) *The Comfort Book (nonfiction)And other children’s books and nonfiction.

Goodness sakes, he writes the most interesting-sounding books. I believe I’ll have to read more. And even when they don’t sound that interesting, like this one… so good. And we’re back to Notes on a Nervous Planet, which came my way when I was researching books that might help ground a book club mid-Pandemic. Really didn’t think much about it. Began reading it on a mini-getaway with my husband to the hills of the Smokies and the town that inspired Mayberry and The Andy Griffith Show. At first, I was like, what in the world is going on? The book is divided unconventionally into one- to a-few-page chapters. Sometimes a chapter is just a list. The chapters are not really connected to one another in the normal way. There is no plot. There is no decided tone or topic even, really, except that eventually there emerges patterns and a definite strain. The world is on the verge of a nervous breakdown and so are we. Haig, who struggles with anxiety and panic attacks, has some wisdom to bestow about managing yourself in this world, about avoiding the nervous breakdown. He’s not your guru, he’s more like a friend, a partner. He’s down to earth. Funny. Witty. Well-read. Intelligent. Introspective. Outrospective. Observant and enlightened. Has a way of seeing around culture to the heart of the matter. Who wouldn’t want to put their hand in his and walk through all the thoughts of this book?

While Stephen Fry advises us on the cover to “take… twice daily, with or without food,” I couldn’t put it down. I was so much enjoying Haig’s humor and his down-to-earth-yet-transcendent insight, even his little stories, that two a day wasn’t enough for me. I marked this book all up, and will for sure be reading it again. Especially dealing with social media and technology, this is one to talk you off a ledge and help you create a future that is much different than the one you might be currently walking toward blind. On the other hand, you could really read this book slowly, just one micro-chapter at a time, leaving it on your bedstand or in your bathroom or whatever. I found myself wincing, laughing out loud, making people listen as I read parts aloud, referencing it through the day, making notes in the margins, sighing, etc. etc. If you are in need of a reframe—and a pleasant one at that—then I really recommend this book.

Note: Despite all this praise, Haig and I have different worldviews. There were just a few times I had to roll my eyes because we just weren’t in agreement on some major point or another. Most the time, however, this is generic wisdom which is no less poignant or critical for being generic. In fact, it’s perhaps the most relevant doling out of generic wisdom I’ve seen in a long time. There were also so many times I was like “Yes! I know!” because I hadn’t heard anyone else say it. And also “What?!” because he loves to throw in facts and anecdotes that get you thinking in new directions, too.

Recommend. It’s going on my favorites list. Definitely a great Pandemic read if you do nonfiction, self-help, small bites, British humor, whatever.

QUOTES:

“But while choice is infinite, our lives have time spans” (p18).

“The guilt doesn’t always have a cause, though. Sometimes it is just a feeling” (p27).

“The whole of consumerism is based on us wanting the next thing rather than the present thing we already have. This is an almost perfect recipe for unhappiness” (p44).

“’It’s such a weird thing for young people to look at distorted images of things they should be’” (p49, Daisy Ridley).

“Clarins and Clinique have produced a ton of anti-aging creams and yet the people who use them are still going to age. They are just—thanks in part to the billion dollar marketing campaigns aimed at making us ashamed of wrinkles and lines and aging—a bit more worried about it” (p53).

“…having access to information gives you one kind of freedom at the expense of another” (p66).

“We are too aware of numerical time and not aware enough of natural time” (p67).

“We often find ourselves wishing for more hours in the day; but that wouldn’t help anything. The problem, clearly, isn’t that we have a shortage of time. It’s more that we have an overload of everything else” (p70).

“To enjoy life, we might have to stop thinking about what we will never be able to read and watch and say and do, and start to think of how to enjoy the world within our boundaries. To live on a human scale. To focus…” (p76).

“A completely connected world has the potential to go mad, all at once” (p91).

“A billion unseen wonders of everyday life” (p124).

“The trouble is that we simply aren’t made to live our lives in artificial light. We aren’t made for waking to alarm clocks and falling asleep bathed in the blue light of our smartphone. We live in 24-hour societies but not 24-hour bodies. / Something has to give” (p132).

“[Neuroscientist Danial Levitin writes,] ‘Even though we think we’re getting a lot done, ironically, multitasking makes us demonstrably less efficient’” (p148).

“…the mere presence of your smartphone can reduce ‘cognitive capacity’” (p157).

“I believe it’s possible to be a happy mess” (p162).

“The problem is not that the world is a mess, but that we expect it to be otherwise. We are given the idea that we have control” (p162).

“I felt guilty about symptoms I didn’t really see as symptoms of an illness. I saw them as symptoms of me-ness” (p172).

“It helps to know I am just a caveman in a world that has arrived faster than our minds and bodies expect” (p201).

“Being unhappy about your looks is not about your looks” (p206).

“Life isn’t a play. Don’t rehearse yourself” (p210).

“Do something somewhere in the day that isn’t work or duty or the internet” (p210).

“So we have to be careful of our wants and watch that they don’t cause too many holes inside us, otherwise happiness will drip through us like water through a leaky bucket” (p212).

“…it is hard to see the things we may have problems with if everyone has the same problems …. If the whole planet is having a kind of collective breakdown, then unhealthy behavior fits right in …. Normality becomes madness” (p219).

“Money is also luck” (p227).

“…the way we work makes us feel continually behind? Like life is a race that we are losing?” (p227).

“Aim not to get more stuff done. Aim to have less stuff to do” (p228).

“…progress might mean doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road” (p235).

“We might have to unplug ourselves, to find a kind of stripped-back acoustic version of us” (p237).

“…fictional worlds are essential. They can be an escape from reality, yes, but not an escape from truth” (p238).

“To have a chance of lasting happiness, you have to calm down. You have to just be it as well as just do it” (p239).

“We might sometimes do better to replace life as something to be grabbed at, or reached for, with something we already have” (p240).

“Imagine if we could always think of our loved ones the way we think of them when they are in critical condition” (p245).

“The writer might start a story but they need a reader for it to come alive, and it never comes alive the same way twice” (p259).

“Never worry what the cool people think. Head for the warm people” (p265).

“Planning for the future is just planning for another present in which you will be planning for the future” (p268).

“If you have someone or something to love, do it this instant. Love fearlessly” (p268).

“Don’t beat yourself up for being a mess …. Galaxies are drifting all over the place. You’re just in tune with the cosmos” (p270).

“We come complete. Give us some food and drink and shelter, sing us a song, tell us a story, give us people to talk to and care for and fall in love with and there you go. A life” (p271).

“It isn’t addictive because it makes us happy. It is addictive because it doesn’t make us happy” (p271).

“You can’t use all the apps. You can’t be at all the parties. You can’t do the work of 20 people. You can’t be up to speed on all the news. You can’t wear all eleven of your coats at once. You can’t watch every must-see show. You can’t live in two places at once. You can buy more, you can acquire more, you can work more, you can earn more, you can strive more, you can tweet more, you can watch more, you can want more, but as each new buzz diminishes there comes a point where you have to ask yourself: what is all this for? …. Wouldn’t I be happier learning to appreciate what I already have?” (p274).

“You have no understudy” (p275).

“Everything special about humans—our capacity for love and art and friendship and stories and all the rest—is not a product of modern life, it is a product of being a human” (p281).

“’The best thing one can do when it is raining is to let it rain’” (p284, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow).

Book Review: The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

What do we always say first? I have been meaning to read this book for years and years. (I am middle aged. I am coming more to terms with the fact that I will not get to read ALL the books.) When the title popped up on some of the lists that I was looking at to teach ninth grade home school co-op English this year, I dropped it into the pile of books-to-consider. Ordered a bunch. Pulled a boxful from my own shelves. And after a graphic novel (American Born Chinese), this is the first book I have finished and decided about. We will be covering it this year. For one, I think the kids might actually enjoy it. For two, it’s good writing, it’s a classic, but it is also genre (and by exposure to the genres I would like the kids to learn to take them seriously and also go down paths to life-long reading). And for three, there’s plenty to teach from, here. (Oh, and for four, it’s short. We’re staying short so I can teach more books and also so that the kids aren’t overwhelmed. Or their parents.)

So I must have liked Douglas Adams’ The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy in order to decide to teach it this year, right? Well yes, I did. The first book in a trilogy that spans five books (??), it is definitely Adams’ most popular work. Adams was also a screenwriter, and Hitchhiker began as a radio series on the BBC in the 1970s. In the book form it has been both a sci-fi and a popular fiction favorite for decades. Douglas also wrote the Dirk Gently series (three books, I think) and some other things (like an episode of Dr. Who and a Monty Python sketch). Fans find it easy to read their way through all his available work and then read it all again. I don’t know if I would want to follow his “radical atheism” that far, but I could get on board with the British humor.

The humor, it seems, is the thing that most naysayers naysay about Hitchhiker. It is, very clearly, British humor of the ilk of Monty Python. For sure. But while some people find it laid on so thick that they can’t get past the first couple chapters, there were other things about Adams’ writing that stood out to me. Satire, for one, in a more general sense. Social criticism. Predictions about the future (which are really fun to see. He was right-on about e-readers, Siri, and virtual reality, to name a few, and has lots to say about robots and, basically, the Singularity). I also couldn’t help but notice that he explained a lot of the silliness or goofiness of the book. Things might seem random, but by golly he has a scientific explanation for why those things happen in Hitchhikers. There is a subtle brilliance about Adams’ writing, for sure.

Here’s the skinny: When Arthur Dent wakes up on a regular day in the 1970s in England, he doesn’t expect bulldozers to be parked outside his house waiting to demolish it for the construction of a freeway. Nor does he suspect the Vogons will be soon arriving to demolish Earth for the construction of an inter-galactic freeway. And without the interference of a friend who just happens to not only be secretly alien but also a top-notch space hitchhiker working on the penultimate guide, Dent would have been vaporized on that otherwise perfectly normal day. Or was it certain to happen, thanks to the rogue President of the Galaxy and the Improbability Drive? Or the destiny given him by the hyperintelligent pan dimensional beings that have been secretly the humans’ puppeteers for ten million years? Guess you’ll have to read it to see.

There are plenty of story twists, here. I was constantly getting interrupted by life, otherwise I would have kept turning the pages. Not a deep book in terms of character development or world-building (though there is a fun world there), it is deep in thought. In the end, you wind up with plenty to consider, some laughs, some shocks, some head-shakes, and a number of quotables that’ll get you in to a Douglas Adams club (like “Stick your thumb to the stars” or “Don’t panic,” “42,” and “So long, and thanks for all the fish”). Not the first to do so, I would highly recommend this book and perhaps someday I’ll read the rest of the “trilogy” and some other Douglas Adams.

OTHER BOOKS

The Restaurant at the End of the Universe (#2)Life, The Universe and Everything (#3)So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish (#4)Mostly Harmless (#5)Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency (Dirk Gently #1)The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul (Dirk Gently #2)The Salmon of Doubt (Dirk Gently #3)

QUOTES

“Science has achieved some wonderful things, of course, but I’d far rather be happy than right any day” (p193).

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MOVIE

There was a movie made in 2004. It is considered to be an okay movie, not nearly as beloved as the book(s). Based on more than just the first book but following the basic plot of the Guide, I found it worth watching when I watched it years ago. I did not review it then, so I’ll have to do that when I watch it this year, after we address it in class. I don’t want to get the two mixed up in my head when I’m teaching it, you see.

Best of Self- and Indie-Published

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It has occurred to me that as a blog that has spoken to self- and indie-publishing over the years and written largely about its pros, its bright side, I do not read very many self- and indie-published books. Years ago, I did that on purpose because I didn’t want to read and get stuck giving honest reviews to fellow self-publishers—even people who had invited me on their blogs and such. It sounded very unappealing. I read a few. I never breathed a word about it. (I remember specifically Winnemucca by Laura A. H. Elliott and Flat-Out Love by Jessica Park). Now that I am far removed from that world (largely by time and also partly because I am seeking traditional publication), I don’t mind reading and reviewing (though I might be nicer to these authors because, let’s face it, one review matters a whole lot more to them than it does for someone who has tens of thousands to balance things out).

Image from Amazon.com

I pulled the second half of the following list almost completely from Book Riot. The different recommendation lists that I found (and there weren’t many) each had a different idea behind them. Self-published or indie-published or even small press published. Books you’ve heard of versus completely new and exciting finds. A history of self-publishing versus modern, boutique books. So you have all of that here (including an extra heavy dose of books that tend to be under-published, like poetry, short story compilations, essays, and even minority and world literature). I’m sure the list is clumpy though—besides those titles that we will all recognize (and go What!? Incroyable! That was self published?!)—I have not heard of most of these titles and so was unable to edit the list in any helpful way. There is a part of me that thinks, I’ll never get to these. I have so many titles to read already. And what if they’re terrible and a waste of time? And then another part of me says, Shame on you, First Part! There could be some of the best reads of your life on here! You know how difficult it is to get something decent published and READ. Give indies a chance. And then I get a little excited, because finding some excellent books on these lists would be like finding hidden treasure. And then I could share that hidden treasure with you.

Image from Amazon.comThe Tale of Peter Rabbit, Beatrix PotterThe Martian, Andy WeirFifty Shades of Grey, E. L JamesStill Alice, Lisa GenovaLegally Blonde, Amanda BrownThe Celestine Prophecies, James RenfieldEragon, Christopher PaoliniThe Joy of Cooking, Irma RombauerRich Dad, Poor Dad, Robert KiyosakiThe One You Love, Paul PilkingtonBeautiful Disaster, Jamie McGuireTheft of Swords, Michael J. SullivanWool, Hugh HoweyWhiskey Sour, J. A. KonrathWorm, WildbowNo Thanks, E. E. CummingsSwann’s Way, Marcel ProustThe Shack, Wm. Paul YoungMy Blood Approves, Amanda HockingThe Brass Check, Upton SinclairA Christmas Carol, Charles DickensGallic Wars, Julius CaesarParadise Lost¸ John MiltonMetamorphosis Insectorum Surinamensium, Maria Sybilla MerianThe Asylum for Wayward Victorian Girls, Emilie AutumnNikolas and Company, Kevin McGillRenegade, Joel ShepherdWe Ride the Storm, Devin MadsonBeyond the Starport Adventure, Richard FairbairnDogs with Bagels, Maria Elena SondoviciSwitched, Amanda HockingA Naked Singularity, Sergio de la PavaThe Wake, Paul KingsnorthDouble Persephone, Margaret AtwoodThe Rozabul Line, Ashwin SanghiYour Erraneous Zones¸ Dr. Wayne W. DyerWhat Color Is Your Parachute?¸ Richard Nelson BollesThe Crown Tower, Michael J. SullivanMilk and Honey, Rapi KapurThe Extended Summer of Anna and Jeremy, Jennifer Ann ShoreThe Long Goodbye, Anthony de MoignanBetween Two Minds¸ D. C. WrighthammerArtist, Soldier, Lover, Muse¸ Arthur D. HittnerThe Unfortunate Expirations of Mr. David S. Sparks¸Willian F. AicherWhite Dancing Elephants, Chaya BuhveneswarCoyote Songs, Gabino IglesuasAgainst Memoir, Michelle TeaEightball, Elizabeth GoegheaganVolcanoes, Palm Trees and Priviledge, Liz PratoSooner or Later Everything Falls Into the Sea, Sarah PinskerWhere We Go When All We Are Is Gone, Sequoia NagamatsuHow to Sit, Tyrese ColemanMostly Dead Things, Kristen ArnettThe Body Myth, Rheea MukherjeeWater & Power, Stephen DunnGreat American Desert, Terese SvobodaInukshuk, Gregory SpatzGirl Gone Missing, Marcie R. RendonShelf Life of Happiness, Virginia PyeThe King of Lighting Fixtures, Daniel A. OlivasThe Deeper the Water the Uglier the Fish, Katya ApekinaThe Perpetual Motion Machine, Brittany AckermanMouths Don’t Speak, Katia D. UlysseThe Private Lives of Trees, Alejandro ZambraFifteen Dogs, Andre AlexisOnly the Strong, Jibari AsimWe Show What We Have Learned and Other Stories¸ Clare BeamThe Hottest Dishes of the Tartar Cuisine¸ Alina BronksyChronicle of the Murdered House, Lucio CardosoThe Last Horror Novel In the History of the World, Brian Allan CarrI’ll Tell You In Person, Chloe CardwellThe Complete Stories of Leonora Carrington, Leonora CarringtonFlorence in Ecstasy, Jessi ChaffeeHome, Leila S. ChudoriAlice + Freda Forever, Alexis CoeThe Complete Lockpick Pornography, Joey ComeauWhy Was Changed and Who Was Dead, Barbara ComynsThe Redemption of Galen Pike, Carys DaviesGrace, Natashia DeonEven Out of Her Ruins, Ananda DeviA Spare Life, Lidija DimkovskaThis Must Be the Place, Sean H. DoyleThe Folly of Loving Life, Monica DrakeMargaret the First, Danielle DuttonBlack Cloud, Julia EscoriaWindeye, Brian EvensonThe Days of Abandonment, Elena FerranteThe Gloaming, Melanie FlynnCottonmouths, Kelly J. FordPatricide, D. FoyOld Filth, Jane GardamFat City, Leonard GardnerThe Gilda Stories, Jewelle L. GomezKalpa Imperial, Angelica GorodischerWe Are All Completely Fine, Daryll GregoryGuapa, Saleem HadadThe Widow Nash, Jamie HarrisonElegy on Kinderklavier, Arna Bontemps HemenwayAll Blacks Were Turned, Marek HlaskoWhat Narcissism Meant to Me, Tony HoaglandTurtle Diary, Russell HobanFalling in Love with Hominids, Nalo HopkinsonEscape from Baghdad!, Saad HossainA High Wind in Jamaica, Richard HughesEscape Velocity, Jay JenningsSkullcrack City, Jeremy Robert JohnsonPrelude to Bruise, Saaed JonesVow of Celibacy, Erin JudgeAlmost Crimson, Dasha KellyStamped from the Beginning, Ibram X. KendiGate of the Sun, Elias KhouryThe Man Who Spoke Snakish, Andrus KivirahkThe Alligators of Abraham, Robert KlossArchivist Wasp, Nicole Kornher-StaceThe Last Wolf & Herman, Laszlo KrasznahorkaiVengeance Is Mine, All Others Pay Cash, Eka KurnaiwanThe Home Place, J. Drew LanhamHow to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others, Kiese LaymonNot Your Sidekick, C. B. LeePreparations for the Next Life, Atticus LishThe Complete Stories, Clarice LispectorSidewalks, Valeria LuiselliBrown Girl, Brownstones, Paule MarshallThe Sarah Book, Scott McClanahanThe Book of Harlan, Bernice McFaddenMcGlue, Ottesa MoshfeghHere Come the Dogs, Omar MusaKintu, Jennifer Nansabuga MukambiLions, Bonnie NadzamSins of Our Fathers, Shawn Lawrence OttoBruja, Wendy C. OrtizLet Me Clear My Throat, Elena PassarelloRed or Dead, David PierceQuicksand, Malin Persson GiolitoFreeman, Leonard Pitts Jr.Grief Is the Things with Feathers, Max PorterBlack Sheep Boy, Martin PoussonCitizen, Claudia RankinThe Free-Lance Pallbearers, Ishmael ReedThe Peculiar Memories of Thomas Penman, Bruce RobinsonOreo, Fran RossMadness, Rack, and Honey, Mary RuefleThrown Into Nature, Milen RuskovA Stranger In Olondria, Sofia SamatarProblems, Jade SharmaA Jello Horse, Matthew SimmonsA Questionable Shape, Bennett SimsGlaciers, Alexis M. SmithInvisible Man, Got the Whole World Watching, Mychal Denzel SmithLife on Mars, Tracy K. SmithThe End, Fernanda TorresThe Clay Girl, Heather TuckerZazen, Vanessa VeselkaBirth of a Dream Weaver, Ngugi wa Thiong’oLolly Willowes, Sylvia Townsend WarnerWhere Women Are Kings, Christie WatsonThe Border of Paradise, Esme Weijun WangA Twenty Minute Silence Followed by Applause, Shawn WenThe Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even, Chris F. WestburyStoner, John WilliamsNinety-Nine Stories of God, Joy WilliamsDamnificados, JJ Amawaro WilsonA Planet for Rent, YossThe Private Life of Trees, Alejandro Zambra

Book Review: American Born Chinese

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Now it begins. Besides reading the couple books that I am reading for book club this summer, I am going to spend the next few weeks (at least) reading for the co-op classes I’m teaching this year. I have to be ready by August, and I already am supposed to have decided on most of my curriculum. As it stands, I will be teaching middle school/high school art (2D paper art is where I’m landing) and—drum roll—ninth grade-ish language arts, or “English.” Honestly, though I know I don’t exactly have time for it, it has to be done since I’m part of the co-op and I am unreasonably excited about teaching this particular class. I always thought I could teach college English, and high school is getting pretty close.

Therefore, I ordered a number of books over the past couple weeks. The first one that I picked up to read (partly because it would not take long to read) was the graphic novel American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang. I want to introduce my kids to the medium of graphic novel (if they aren’t already fans) and present it as legitimate literature, but I don’t think it needs to fall into the regular novel reading schedule. Pretty sure that I’ll stick this one at the end of the mythology unit, which you’ll understand in just a second. (I may use Persepolis between short stories and poetry).

I hadn’t seen American Born Chinese around, but I found it on recommendation lists for about ninth grade. It is a pretty short graphic novel, at 233 pages. Okay, 233 doesn’t scream “short,” but since the drawings only take up a little more than half of each page, it does come across as brief. I read between things and finished it in two days. (Admittedly, I am not a good barometer for time it takes to read things, and I need to keep this in mind when writing the curriculum this year. You are welcome to remind me that I read about nineteen times faster than the average ninth grader.) The title—American Born Chinese—says quite a bit, but there are some elements that make it special. On the surface, it’s the story of Jin Wang, an American-born Chinese (go figure) boy who has just moved from a diverse city to a much less diverse area. The story starts with his parent’s immigration story and moves through elementary school, middle school, and eventually into adulthood. The main draw for this story is not really the one story, however. You quickly discover that this graphic novel is three stories, flipping between them as distinct chapters. The second story is a version of the Chinese story of the Monkey King. The third story is about a white boy named Danny whose inexplicably Chinese cousin comes to visit him once every year, causing turmoil with his obvert Chinese-ness and his unapologetic embracing of stereotypes. (There’s more to say about that, but give me a paragraph to get to it.) The reader experiences these three stories as completely distinct though conceptually connected until the very end of the book. Most people like the way they eventually weave together so much that that’s the first thing mentioned on most reviews.

There are plenty of other things to be said for this book besides the interesting form. (And I do love it when a book takes different threads and weaves them together.) Let’s start simple: the illustrations. I agree with some others that the illustrations aren’t breath-taking but neither are they distracting. They’re solid and simple and they let the story come to the front. Yeah, I would like some visual acrobatics, but as someone with ADHD, this was the easiest graphic novel for me to read. Ever. Many people also like that the novel is completely in color, not black and white illustrations.

American really reminded me of New Kid. Perhaps meant for a kid a year or two older than New Kid, American has a lot of other obvious similarities. Theme, mostly. While New Kid is about what it’s like to be a new, Black kid in an elite school of mostly white kids, American is mainly about what it’s like to be Asian (and specifically Chinese) in a town of mostly white kids. The two main characters, Jin and Jordan, experience a whole lot of the same thing and either one of them would basically “teach” the same lessons in a class setting. They both experience bullying and make friends, they both are surrounded by a few other marginalized characters who go through similar things. They get stereotyped, have their names mispronounced, their culture made fun of, are undervalued or misunderstood by well-intentioned characters, etc. They have the same things to say about being a minority in America in the twenty-first century. It’s not especially flattering, America.

There are differences, though. Obviously, both would be worth a read simply because they are nuanced around the particular experience they represent: Black versus Chinese. African-American versus second-generation immigrant. American has more subtlety, I thought, but then uses the different stories to really one-two sucker punch the reader, occasionally. Let’s talk about this. Obviously, both books are about racism, systemic racism, and well-intentioned racism, as well as the inequalities and inconveniences of not being white in the USA. American sometimes gets in trouble because it really shoves the racism right in the face of the reader. You can’t read the book and not confront your own interactions with and thoughts about East Asians and immigrants from East Asia. I mean, the story line about Danny and his Chinese cousin is actually shockingly racist but is intentionally so in order to show us how Jin and others experience the world and also to just come out in the open about dangerous stereotypes in American history. Danny’s cousin’s make is Chin-Kee (say out aloud), he speaks in a ludicrous accent akin to old cinematic accents, he knows everything academic, eats cats, and even—sorry to ruin it for you—goes “pee-pee in [someone’s] Coke.” (Look it up if you don’t know the allusion to pop-culture kid chants from as late as the nineties. Hopefully, not still now. Maybe still now.) Some readers walk away disgusted, but most readers get it. Let me say, I was uncomfortable with it, even though Luen Yang is of Chinese descent. I was absolutely supposed to be uncomfortable. Does that make it okay? I think so, as long as it gets us to talk about it and to question ourselves and our society.

And there is another really interesting aspect of this book, one that I don’t see most reviewers talking about: religion. You think it’s all Chinese gods and goddesses and spirits for awhile, but there is a fascinating undercurrent of a Supreme Being, a One God, and also an allusion to Jesus and references to the Jewish or Christian Scriptures. I don’t know if this is Luen Yang’s beliefs emerging or not, but it is another conversation about immigrants, colonialism, etc., this time in the light of religion. It would also just make an interesting conversation about religion.

Does it sound like I loved this graphic novel? Well, I agree with many that they wrap-up was sudden, brief, and even confusing. (I had to re-read part of it.) I liked it and I found it thought-provoking. It was shocking, sometimes, both in “racist” content and in plot or form. I don’t think it would be valuable to hand to a kid without a discussion or ten, as it is possible it could engender the type of racism it is meant to expose. On the other hand, on a great day, it would expose and discourage systemic or undercurrent racism, especially relevant in a Covid Pandemic America. It’s worth a read and I’m pretty sure I’ll use it in the classroom this year.

Lumbago Book and Cookbook Reviews

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Being transparent here, when I received a triple-diagnosis on a random, summer day, I stuck my head in the sand for a few days. It seemed like a lot. I’ve had back problems my entire adult life, but when the doc said he didn’t expect to see much on the x-ray, I was blind-sided by a file that night with some pretty disturbing x-rays and the words “degenerative disc disease,” “arthritis,” and “scoliosis.” I was concerned that if I googled it, I was going to end up crying on the floor, convinced my life as I know it is over. (I’m a pretty active and very adventurous person.) I’d been in constant and worsening pain for more than six months, however, so eventually I put my head up and looked around me. (What actually happened is a couple concerned friends convinced me I needed to calm down and look at all the bright sides.) What do I do when I need to move forward? Always, get a book.

This time I ordered two books, lickety-split, on the internet, and they arrived not long before my first physical therapy session (of my forties, anyhow). I read through the thin, informational book before squeezing the other book into my crowded calendar (and the meal plan calendar). And I also admit that by the time the book got here, I had done some internet research, carefully and composedly. It was not nearly as alarming as I feared. The whole thing is not nearly as alarming as I feared.

Which you will know if you read Degenerative Disc Disease Explained by Frederick Earlstein. I honestly don’t know what sort of authority Earlstein really has for having published this book (and by the look of it, it’s self-published). I can tell you that what he says seems consistent with whatever else I have found or been told (by the internet, by docs and a chiropractor, etc.). The formatting, layout, and grainy photos suck (as well as some grammatical and spelling errors). However, I would still recommend this book for patients with a new triple-d diagnosis. (Let’s keep in mind that I am also no authority on d-d-d, except that I have it.) It is a very slim read written in plain English, and most people leaving the doctor’s office would find it comforting and empowering. There’s lots of basic information and there are many care options laid out. It also breaks things down by the section of the spine affected, so the reader can skip sections that don’t apply to them. (I noticed that it doesn’t address traction or supports, both of which I use on a regular basis.)

This book made me feel better (mentally) about my diagnosis and gave me plenty of things to do from here. I have now started PT and have also gone on an anti-inflammatory diet, which we’ll chat about momentarily. I also consulted with my long-time chiropractor and we decided to add heat and massage. I may do some more things as time goes on and I see what seems to work and what doesn’t. For now, I don’t feel like my life is in pieces, so that’s good.

Image from Amazon.com

One of the recommendations out there for triple-d is an anti-inflammatory diet. There are several anti-inflammatory diet cookbooks available at this point in time. I went where the ratings were and got lucky. The Complete Anti-Inflammatory Diet for Beginners by Dorothy Calameris has things going for it that I can really appreciate. Now, I love making graphs and lists and charts and whatnot, but there are two weeks of meal plans built into this book including grocery lists, and with all the busyness around here, I totally needed them. Here are some other real big plusses: the meals are easy and often quick. Simple. It uses leftovers. (Never seen this, actually.) Gives you a flexible prep plan. Doesn’t demand too much of breakfasts. Common pitfalls it falls into: demands too much of lunch prep and does not include (many or accessible) snacks. (I made a small list of anti-inflammatory snack ideas, added the items to the grocery list, and posted the list in the kitchen.) More neutral: there are perhaps a few more weeks’ worth of recipes listed in a more conventional style. With a little work, then, you would have at least a month of anti-inflammatory recipes, or just your favorites to work into your usual schedule. So it has a lot going for it, though it could be bigger.

I found all the copy at the beginning to be basic enough that I really didn’t need to read it. I understand nutritional health already. If you don’t, maybe it would be useful. I did love the lists of anti-inflammatory foods and inflammatory foods as well as the chart for the meal plan. (If I am, say, out of town and miss a couple of the meals, I just snag the next thing I haven’t made for that mealtime (though you can totally stick to the days of the week if that works out for you.)) The book looks nice. It’s easy to use. The recipes are well-written, clear, accessible. As for the food, I have been happy with at least half of the recipes. Now, I am a total food snob, but I find that I need to adjust about half the recipes to make them flavorful. (Why on earth do all health cookbooks lack flavor? There’s no reason they can’t find ways to get around the lack of fat, salt, and chemicals.) I would say that the average adult would be fine with these recipes, though to accommodate kids, it needs adjusting. Or just a separate meal option. Wouldn’t it be cool if diet books included an addendum for each recipe that made half of it kid- (or ornery spouse-) friendly? For many of these recipes, the addition of a grain—even a healthy grain—would make dinner a lot more satiating (which the anti-inflammatory eater will also need). So with a little modification, I’ll continue to use this cookbook when my back (or some other thing) is acting up. I might buy Calaermis’s Anti-Inflammatory Diet and Action Plans, or Anti-Inflammatory Diet Meal Prep by Ginger Hultin so that I have a few more options. I don’t know how much I’ll use the diet—that will depend on how much it helps and if I can keep myself pain-free for months without it—but I imagine I will be coming back to it occasionally, like how I come back to the Ultra-Mind diet for “detox” after trips and holidays or the Alton Brown diet for weight loss.

My favorite recipes so far: Roast Chicken with Lemon and White Beans, and Basic Baked Salmon. Looking forward to Vibrant Salmon Salad, Lulu’s Iced Coffee, Zucchini and Red Onion Salad with Olives, Turkey Taco Soup, Chicken and Broccoli Stir-Fry, Green Smoothie Bowl, Miso Baked Salmon, Grilled Shrimp with Mango-Cucumber Salsa, Sesame Miso Chicken, Mushroom Turkey Thighs, Chocolate Chili, and Mango Coconut Lassi. (I would be looking forward to all the avocado recipes, but I can’t really eat it because it’s a migraine trigger.)

So, in conclusion, these two books might not be the absolute best ones, but they came to me with more than four stars from other people and they are serving me well.

Book Review: Zen in the Art of Writing

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My goal this year (among many other goals) is to read a writing book once every two months. So, six total. Not doing terribly when I finished the third, Ray Bradbury’s Zen in the Art of Writing in June. (Actually, that’s completely on track. I am completely not on track with most of my other reading goals.) I started this one while at the writing conference in May and then dragged it out a little bit, though the main drag-out was in the reviewing. For some reason, I have been super slow with reviews this summer.

As I mentioned, this is the third writing book I’ve read this year, and also the third “writing classic.” After Stephen King’s On Writing and Ann Lamott’s Bird By Bird, I don’t know what I was expecting. It seems to me that one of the things the writing classics have in common is their uniqueness. I’m sure you can find lots of writing books that are the same ol’, but King’s, Lamott’s, and Bradbury’s all have such fresh voices and different approaches to the art of writing, to the teaching of it, and to the writing about it. Bradbury’s Zen is not really a cohesive book, so much as a group of previously-published essays composed over the many years in the nineteenth century that he was prolific. Bradbury is very, very excited about writing, and his approach is much more emotional than technical, more dealing with the heart and fire of the author than her grammar or even technique.

While he wrote a lot and in various genres and forms, Bradbury is known for his science fiction that has crossed over into the classics genre. You may recognize these titles: Fahrenheit 451, Dandelion Wine, The Martian Chronicles, and The Illustrated Man (and others), not to mention short stories like “The Veldt” and “There Will Come Soft Rains,” any of which you might have had to read in high school. Overall, he wrote more than 600 short stories and a number of essays, and he had a lot to say about his world and the world of the possible futures. His strong opinions extended to writing and Zen not only reveals those opinions, but also some interesting insight into his writing process and what happened behind the scenes to inspire and produce his famous works.

I haven’t read that much Bradbury, but I am a fan of The Martian Chronicles and “The Veldt” has stuck with me my whole life. Not that you have to be a fan to enjoy and/or learn from this book. And don’t even think about sticking your nose up in the air about it (or about Stephen King’s writing book) just because he’s written speculative fiction. The point is 1) he’s written well and 2) he’s been there. A lot. I found Zen to be a good read, worth it for a writer at any point in their career (though it would be good to know these things early on). It is, at times, uneven, which makes sense because it is a compilation of essays written over decades. There is even an instance or two where he contradicts his own advice, but it’s forgivable because we have all done that and people (and their opinions) change. I felt I could have done without the poetry at the end. The point is that writers should write like they mean it, should enjoy it, should seize the day and live to the fullest and embrace the present. He’s one of those writers (they are legion) who believe that stories write themselves, if only the author will get out of the way of the characters. At least he has an explanation: the subconscious built on the memories of your youth.

So dive in, one essay at a time, and absorb Bradbury’s enthusiasm. If you’re a writer, you’ll probably enjoy his rather poetic language, his zeal, his wisdom, his glimpses into the life of one of the century’s most famous writers. I know that I did.

QUOTES:

“The list [of distractions] is endless and crushing if we do not creatively oppose it” (pxiv).

“These are the children of the gods. They knew fun in their work” (p3).

“This afternoon, burn down the house. Tomorrow, pour cold critical water upon the simmering coals. Time enough to think and cut and rewrite tomorrow. But today—explode—fly apart—disintegrate!” (p7).

“I was learning that my characters would do my work for me, if I let them alone…” (p19).

“What the Subconscious [is] to every other man, in its creative aspects becomes, for writers, The Muse” (p33).

“You say you don’t understand Dylan Thomas? Yes, but your ganglion does, and your secret wits, and all your unborn children. Read him, as you can read a horse with your eyes, set free and charging over an endless green meadow on a windy day” (p37).

“Trains and boxcars and the smell of coal and fire are not ugly to children. Ugliness is a concept that we happen on later and become self-conscious about” (p82).

“I ask for no happy endings. I ask only for proper endings based on proper assessments of energy contained and given detonation” (p118).

“We never sit anything out. / We are cups, constantly and quietly being filled. / The trick is, knowing how to tip ourselves over and let the beautiful stuff out” (p120).

“Quantity gives experience. From experience alone can quality come” (p145).

“Plot is no more than footprints left in the snow after your characters have run by on their way to incredible destinations” (p152).

Book Review: Gone Girl

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Let’s all say it together before I get a chance to tell you again: this book is not what I expected. On America’s radar for the past ten years, this is one of those confusing all the books (or movies) with the same hot word in the title. Let’s see: Gone Girl, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Girl with a Pearl Earring, Girl, Interrupted… of course there are older ones. Goodreads lists almost 2000 books with “Girl” in the title, but I’m talking about a wave of popular books, like when “bee” graced a bunch of new titles, or “lies” or “bones” or “zoo” Whatever. I lumped them together and moved them to a compartment in my brain of books I might read but I’m not dying to.

And once again I found myself in a small town in a local bookstore. You’d think I look for these things. (I do.) The store in question—while an amazing bookstore for so many other reasons—did not have a tremendous amount of used books, but I happened to find both Gone Girl and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo used and thought, well wouldn’t that be a fun theme for beach reads. Girls. And Books that I don’t really know what the heck they’re about nor how they differ. (Okay, I had some idea.) Since they’re both on the TBR (and more pop fiction-y), let’s go!

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn is a crime/mystery/thriller, popular fiction with some literary bent (though I would not call it literary fiction, at all). It was a New York Times bestseller. It also made it onto lists of best books in the 2000s and thus landed on my TBR. Still rated well with readers, the movie was also a success, but we’ll talk about that in a moment.

Here’s the thing. Like We Were Liars, you can’t talk too much about the book without ruining it. The twists are the thing, or at least most of the thing. It is also written pretty darn well and has a unique form which serves it well. (I don’t always condone epistolary form—and it’s only partly epistolary—but here it is a must.) And here’s the other thing: if you think you know the twist because you’ve heard too much about it over the years, it is entirely possible that you know the “main” twist, which is revealed halfway through. There are still surprises to come. (If, on the other hand, you have seen the movie, well, not much to see here, folks. The plots are very, very similar.) True, I am a bibliophile, but if I were you, I would read the book first and then see the movie.

The initial plot is pretty usual: Nick comes home on his fifth anniversary and his wife is missing. There are signs of struggle and a number of clues, but no one knows where Amy has gone. The number one suspect, as always: the husband. We find out that Nick is a Mississippi river, Midwestern boy who returned “home” after his life in New York came crashing down around his ears and his mother became terminally ill. He drags his New York wife with him, the famous Amazing Amy of the ridiculously popular book series. The rest of the novel uses both Nick’s and Amy’s perspectives (through a diary, mostly), hopping around in time (primarily over the days after the disappearance). We’re asking if Amy is alive. We’re asking if Nick did it. We’re asking if a husband has done bad things does that make him guilty of murder. And we’re asking if the real trial for murders is in the public arena. With several interesting characters and a solid style that draws you from page to page late into the night, Gone Girl looks to remain a popular book for first-timers and especially those who like thrillers or mysteries.

My favorite things about the book were the playful form and how that interacted with the story itself, how it helped to reveal both the characters and the plot in slow and purposeful ways that keep the reader guessing, and also the questioning of the whole system of post-disappearance. It really makes you think about how public opinion is fickle, driven by the media, shallow, and important. It can determine fates. Plus, I love the point (I think it was made more clear in the movie) that an innocent man who just lost his wife is totally going to act like a weirdo. And just because someone does some bad things it in no way makes them a murderer. Most people really like the twists, and I enjoyed them as much as the next guy. My main beef was at the end. The ending. I guess people are pretty split on it. I was surprised when we got to the end of the movie and both my daughter and husband were like, “Yeah, totally.” ‘Cuz I had been like, “Wait, what? That sucks!” though the more I dwell on it the more it seems like the only real ending that works. You’ll have to see and decide for yourself.

Want a vacation read? Something easy and entertaining? Don’t mind the f-bomb or plenty of sex? Then this is a good one for you.

Image from IMDB.com

MOVIE

I know I just told you to read the book first and then see the 2014 movie, but the truth is that if you have read the book, the movie might bore you a li’l bit. I thought it was so slow, but then I realized the people I was watching it with—who hadn’t read the book—were really engaged. It very closely resembles the book (as much as a movie can, I reckon). It is solidly made. It also has a whole lotta f-bombs and graphic sex (four scenes, I believe—we skipped them, as we were watching with our teen and that would be awkward as butt. Actually, I don’t really do graphic sex scenes anyhow). The movie also was well-liked by people and critics alike (and was written by the author). It’s a solid movie-night movie for an older audience.

Book Review: Celebration of Discipline

Image from Amazon.com

Celebration of Discipline by Richard J. Foster is an American protestant Christian classic. Maybe even for Catholics too, I don’t know. Published in 1978, it’s the type of book that one might receive as a graduation gift or one might acquire for a small group or something. My husband’s name is on the nameplate of our copy, with a date one year into our marriage. I can guess that his parents gave it to him. Foster is a Quaker theologian whose books have earned respect over a wide range of Christians. His most notable book is Celebration of Discipline, which has been listed as one of the most important of the last century and remains popular, but some other notable titles include Freedom of Simplicity and Prayer: Finding the Heart’s True Home.

Celebration of Discipline: The Path the Spiritual Growth is about the central disciplines of Christianity. These disciplines lead not to a boring life of restriction and missing out, but to a life of balance, freedom, abundance, and celebration of Christ. A better life. Life to the fullest, as it was meant to be lived. Foster breaks it down into a chapter for each discipline, defining the discipline, sometimes re-defining it, connecting it to Scripture, giving application, and talking about the finer points. The disciplines are meditation, prayer, fasting, study, simplicity, solitude, submission, service, confession, worship, guidance, and celebration.

Sound a little unappealing? The book might be a little dense (as many studies are), but it’s well-written and engaging enough for taking it one chapter at a time (which gives time for processing and applying, anyway). This is an important book and worth the read. At times it’s a touch outdated, and yet many of Foster’s observations about the America and world and Christian church he was concerned about at his writing are still accurate. In some ways, in fact, the issues have only deepened. But not with everything. Not that that matters. The point is to deal with you and your practice of the spiritual disciplines. The whole thing could be likened to other religions and even non-religions and their disciplines or tenants or practices, etc., but that Christianity requires a grounding in the Bible and in Jesus Himself. What I mean is, this is wisdom. It’s old wisdom, made accessible for the modern Christian, and if modern people are scared of it or turn their noses up at it, it’s to their detriment.

I don’t have a lot more to add. Adequately written with lots of quotes, some stories, and understandable writing, Celebration of Discipline is a classic that deserves a read by any Christian wanting to take their faith seriously, slowly, ponderously, and in the end, with great reward.

QUOTES:

“Joy is a keynote of all the Disciplines. The purpose of the Disciplines is liberation from the stifling slaver to self-interest and fear” (p2).

“The Spiritual Disciplines are an inward and spiritual reality, and the inner attitude of the heart is far more crucial than the mechanics for coming into the reality of the spiritual life” (p3).

“The needed change within us is God’s work, not ours” (p6).

“God has ordained the Disciplines of the spiritual life as the means by which we place ourselves where He can bless us” (p7).

“God has given us the Disciplines of the spiritual life as a means of receiving His grace” (p7).

“In contemporary society our Adversary majors in three things” noise, hurry, and crowds” (p16).

“We are sinking down into the light and life of Christ and becoming comfortable in that posture” (p19).

“…meditation is the one things that can sufficiently redirect our lives so that we can deal with human life successfully” (p22).

“It is wonderful when a particular meditation leads to ecstasy, but it is far more common to be given guidance in dealing with ordinary human problems” (p22).

“Anyone who imagines he can simply begin mediation without praying for the desire and the grace to do so, will soon give up” (p25).

“Contemplative prayer is a way of life” (p27).

“…we must pursue ‘holy leisure’ with a determination that is ruthless to our datebooks” (p27).

“…the meditation upon Scripture is the central reference point by which all other forms of meditation are kept in proper perspective” (p29).

“…Till your whole New Testament is all over autobiographic of you” (p30, Alexander Whyte).

“However, meditation is not a single act, nor can it be completed the way one completes the building of a char. It is a way of life. You will be constantly learning and growing as you plumb the inner depths” (p32).

“Of all the Spiritual Disciplines prayer is the most central because it ushers us into perpetual communion with the Father” (p33).

“To ask ‘rightly’ involves transformed passions” (p33).

“We are working with God to determine the future!” (p35).

“We begin prayer for others by first quieting our fleshly activity and listening to the silent thunder of the Lord of hosts …. prayer is listening” (p39).

“Your own children can and should be changed through your prayers” (p44).

“And whenever there is a form devoid of spiritual power, law will take over because law always carries with it a sense of security and manipulative power” (p47).

“Fasting must forever center on God. It mist be God-initiated and God-ordained” (p54).

“Physical benefits, success in prayer, the enduring with power, spiritual insights—these must never replace God as the center of our fasting” (p55).

“We are told not to act miserable when fasting because, in point of fact, we are not miserable” (p56).

“This is not excessive asceticism; it is discipline and discipline brings freedom” (p56).

“You will be engaging in spiritual warfare that will necessitate using all the weapons of Ephesians 6” (p60).

“Fasting can bring breakthroughs in the spiritual realm that will never happen in any other way” (p60).

“Jesus, as you remember, reminds us that it is not just the truth but the knowledge of the truth that sets us free” (p66).

“To read successfully we need the extrinsic aids of experience, other books, and live discussion” (p68).

“The first and most important book we are to study is the Bible” (p68).

“I have discovered that the most difficult problem is not finding time but convincing myself that this is important enough to set aside the time” (p70).

“God desires various ‘tarrying’ placed for us where He can teach us in special ways” (p70).

“Remember the key to the Discipline of study is not reading many books, but experiencing what we do read” (p72).

“Then… stretch out by a distinct act of loving will towards one of the myriad manifestations of life that surround you” (p73, Andre Gide).

“Of this much we can be sure: if we love the creation, we will learn from it” (p74).

“We have no unity or focus around which our lives are oriented” (p80).

“Courageously, we need to articulate new, more human ways to live” (p81).

“He lists greed alongside adultery and thievery” (p84).

“Descriptions of the abundant material provision God gives His people abound in Scripture” (p85).

“The central point for the discipline of simplicity is to seek the kingdom of God and the righteousness of His kingdom first and then everything necessary will come in its proper order” (p86).

“Seeking first God’s kingdom and the righteousness, both personal and social, of that kingdom is the only thing that can be central in the Spiritual Discipline of simplicity” (p87).

…STILL ADDING QUOTES…