Turn It Up To Eleven.
Fine. You caught me. I broke the rules again.
May came and went so quickly. And June is a busy month for me, with a wedding and visits from relatives across the globe. I know I won't be getting in much reading, so I figured I should overcompensate this month.
So what did I do? I read for the fun of it.
Ooh, rebel without a cause. Not quite what James Dean intended, surely, but I'll take it.
This month I read X vs. Y: A Culture War, a Love Story . And it fits no prompt in the PopSugar reading challenge. Trust me. I scoured that list. Nothing. Nada. Zip. It was a quickie, in my defense, a comparative look at pop culture through the eyes of sisters with a fourteen-year age gap. Generation X is Eve Epstein who waxes on about Wham, bulky acrylic legwarmers, Saturday-morning cartoons, and auteur David Lynch and his Twin Peaks in her personal essays, while her sister Leonora Epstein who represents Generation Y was more my speed, rattling on about the profundity of Aqua, Tom Green, dating via text message and IM, and, one of my favourites, the book The Perks of Being a Wallflower . I especially appreciated the line of similarity she cuts through Rugrats , Buffy , and New Girl . It certainly captures the attention, even if only for a fleeting 190 pages.
I finished a writing style guide, too, The Sense of Style: The Thinking Person's Guide to Writing in the 21st Century , but I don't think that qualifies as cheating since I had read eighty percent of it before jumping into this crazy challenge. Tying up loose ends cannot possibly rate the same as diving into something new. It just can't.
Shortly after, I got out my good-girl pants and swore up and down to devote myself wholly to this challenge. In short, no more dicking around.
In total, I devoured eleven books, a whopping nine of which were challenge-applicable books. I hope that'll be enough to keep me on track. Crossing off any less than three books a month seems like a guaranteed derailment.
This month also offered a bounty of opportunities for perusal of other books that might fit the challenge. I skimmed both the novel Atonement and the non-fiction skewering of the Koch brothers in Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right . I'm not sure how whether or not I will use them to fulfill this reading challenge, but they seem like interesting reads nonetheless. If they don't fit a prompt, I will definitely go back to them, perhaps when I've shown this challenge who's boss.
(Me. I'm boss.)
So, here we are.
Book #13: A YA Bestseller
Last month, I read The DUFF: Designated Ugly Fat Friend , a book that arguably has one of the worst film adaptations, in which the only thing retained from its source material are the names of a handful of characters. Sincerely, the two are strangers, book isolated from and unfamiliar to the film it bred.
My sister is a fan of author John Green and I've been a fan of some of the webseries he's taken part in. (And he and his brother share, like, a whole Youtube channel together.) He's very charismatic, for sure. So, it was no surprise that she recommended I read The Fault in Our Stars . A massive international hit, the young adult juggernaut also sparked a film, which again, I have seen. Granted, I haven't seen the film in a little while, consuming it when it was released, but if memory serves me, The Fault in Our Stars was adapted very honestly, sticking to each word and outright copying whole sections of dialogue. It's a very faithful adaptation. There are little bits and pieces in the book that I don't recall from the film, passages that paint a slightly darker tone than the bittersweet love story told onscreen, but again, the gist is the same.
Unfortunately, that sours my experience a touch.
I already know every beat along this path. I know the destination and the journey. Alas, I was underwhelmed. I obviously don't blame the book. It was my choice to watch the film first.
I was just left with very little as a result.
Still, I understand the book's overwhelming popularity. It seems to be written honestly, too, spoken from a place of knowledge about cancer survival and all the details that that experience entails. The mumbo-jumbo doctors say and the reality of living it. Not to mention the vast differences between those suffering from it. The blind, the amputated, the deoxygenated. Those fighting to be well again and others fighting the incurable. I knew someone with cancer who was much older when I was too young to understand. Then, I knew someone else with cancer when I was much older and they were too young to understand. To be fair, I wasn't particularly close to either of them, but I knew them all the same, well enough to be let in on what was going on with them. Both thankfully went into remission.
I've never suffered the harsher realities of cancer or the devastating loss it produces. So, I can only imagine that what John Green wrote is accurate. I'd be willing to say it's right on the money. Why else has the world clasped hands in a circle around him?
I'm going to break away from John Green for a brief while, but I will return to him to fulfill another reading prompt. In fact, I'll be reading what my sister describes as her "least favourite John Green." Swell.
But speaking of men named John ...
Book #14: A book written by a celebrity
I mentioned last month jumping from actress Anjelica Huston's early Irish childhood tales of whim and woe, to the more slick and hopefully funny adventures in Hollywood of actor Jon Cryer. His book, So That Happened: A Memoir , is full of great anecdotes, both funny and tender little stories from different stages of his life.
I decided to do a little reading time between me and the husband-to-be. We've had quite a few laughs reading So That Happened. More importantly, though, it's not just salacious gossip about Hollywood denizens (although you do learn a few juicy factoids) or retellings of events from his vantage point. Rather it's a fun and enlightened recap of his life, from toddler to today, and it's written so honestly, conveying the emotions he experienced, that you feel closer to Jon. I really find it superbly written, especially considering Jon is not a writer by profession. It walks that tightrope between laugh riot and sincere feelings.
I'm glad I switched over. Sorry, Anjelica.
Book #15: A book that's set on an island
Cuba is an island. So, I read a classic novel about Cuban fisherman, a short one with a lot of promise. Ernest Hemingway published his novella The Old Man and the Sea in 1952, but it still reads well today, owing to that terse style. I'm not a big fan of fishing and that kind of lifestyle. Many do love that kind of thing, but I just don't fall into that category. So, reading this one was a bit of a trudge. Now, that being said, I think the writing style is great and I'm sure that, while I'm not one of them, people who love fishing are totally on board. Yes, yes, pardon the pun. However, the book was short, so I'd be damned if I wasn't going to see it through.
Which is funny because that obstinate brand of stick-to-it-ness is kind of the point of The Old Man and the Sea.
Thematically and symbolically, the book is a goldmine. Let's deal with the idea of endurance first. We all know a person's self-image can be degraded by the labels plastered to us by those who surround us. You have confidence in yourself, but that pride is melted away by the corrosive words of others. If you don't catch a fish for months, the other fisherman deem you too old to be in the game any longer. But the human spirit can defy these declarations. He is not just the "old man," but rather the great fisherman and arm-wrestling champion Santiago, and he aims to conquer the age discrimination against him by capturing a truly great fish in the sea. A marlin of epic proportions. The real thing. And I'm sure you can attach all sorts of meaning to that fish. For some, the fish represents Jesus. For others, the fish is symbolic of the meaning of life. Some argue it's the need for friendship and companionship; others look at it as a metaphor for pride and legacy. And I'm sure someone somewhere thinks the fish is Tupac. It's whatever you want really. Affix your end-all-be-all here. It's the big kahuna, whatever the kahuna is to you.
The Old Man and The Sea also describes the loneliness endured in this quest for survival, not just physical survival but the survival of one's dignity in the face of these judgments. Above all, though, perseverance is king, and Hemingway expertly demonstrates that, if at first you don't succeed, try again. You are never too old to do so.
Book #16: A book that's becoming a movie this year
As I read The Taliban Shuffle: Strange Days in Afghanistan and Pakistan for this prompt, all I could think was, "Holy shit, people. How much can you drop the ball?" Frankly, I thought I was going to read something more humourous, the more comedic side of war replete with shenanigans, especially considering the trailers I'd seen for Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, the film they made this year from the book. I mean, it's Tina Fey. You expect laughs. Yet The Taliban Shuffle is playing it straight and is more heartbreaking than sidesplitting.
Journalist Kim Barker was definitely in a weird place. She volunteered and became quickly and thoroughly addicted to the miserable existence of life as an embed in the U.S. troops in the wartorn Middle East. While most find India chaotic, Kim wrote how boring and normal it was, how desperate she was to get back in the action in Kabul.
Then, the government truly screwed up. Not like the minor mistakes she'd witnessed prior, she truly felt affected after a friend of hers dies and a person she'd never meant but knew a bit about is sent back out into Afghanistan way past their prime. With that, Kim decides to leave Afghanistan to investigate the other side of the mountain: Pakistan, or as she describes it, Whack-a-Stan.
In Pakistan, Kim encounters a new set of problems. For one, the men won't stop grabbing her ass. Secondly, she is being chased by the Pakistani intelligence agency ISI. Third, her foolish friend and fellow journalist decides to meet a high-profile insurgent in the tribal lands of Pakistan, a virtual no-man's-land where Westerners are kidnapped, held for ransom, and often killed. Then, her allergies and sinus problems to the polluted air send her back to the States for nasal surgery to remove polyps and, she hopes, fix the problem for good. Alas, while still in the States, she faces a new set of problems, both professional and personal, as the landscape of her workplace changes and she becomes a victim of identity fraud.
Full disclosure: I still have a couple chapters left, but I will still finish the book before the end of the month. Although it's not funny, it is very informative, and I feel I've learned quite a bit about life in the Middle East during the Bush administration. As someone who hates war films, war books, and, of course, the event that inspired it all, war, I had every reason not to like this book. And yet, I really did. So, even if you're just like me with an utter disdain for grenades and camo, The Taliban Shuffle still offers something worthwhile.
Book #17: A satirical book
It's great when a classic isn't overrated. Animal Farm , that famous satire of Russian communism, is really clever. It's short and sweet, like The Old Man and the Sea, but I enjoyed Animal Farm far more.
The animals represent the people longing for equality, as the capitalist-minded farmer, Mr. Jones, drunkenly uses, abuses, and ignores them. One day, after Mr. Jones forgets to feed them, the animals fight back and kick the Jones family out of Manor Farm. Thus begins Animal Farm. Their rebellion starts off as an honest effort to benefit all, but slowly the pigs use their superior intelligence to oppress those around them. Soon infighting begins. I won't go into too much detail because, if you haven't read this classic yet, it's about time. In fact, now more than ever is the timeliest of times to read it.
To write something so political from the perspective of animals is genius. It really is. And above all, he did it so damn good. At no point did I feel like George Orwell was trying to force the analogy. It all just happened naturally, proving how easily power corrupts. In this era of television shows like Breaking Bad and House of Cards and films like The Hunger Games: Mockingjay , this poignant novella strikes a chord. When given the reins, the hero can swiftly become the villain.
Animal Farm broke my heart. Needless to say, this novella is a moving page-turner that's not easily forgotten. I highly recommend it.
Book #18: A graphic novel
Written by Gerard Way (yes, from My Chemical Romance) and illustrated by Gabriel Bá, The Umbrella Academy, Vol.1: The Apocalypse Suite let me escape into a fascinating world of super-powered children born seemingly from an alien force and raised by an eccentric aristocrat who believes in scientific experimentation over love, all in the name of saving the world. The Umbrella Academy is a very human tale in spite of its sci-fi leanings. It's dark and moody and yet light-hearted and fun. Sure, it's the end of the world, but sibling rivalry seems more important. It's equal parts sweet, sadistic, and superheroic. I'm glad I gave it a chance.
Book #19: A classic from the 20th century
I chose Of Mice and Men . Again, I'm a little behind, but will be finished it in less than a day, so I figured I know enough about it now to share my thoughts.
Of Mice and Men centers on an unlikely pair of friends. They're an odd couple for sure, George Milton and Lennie Small. George is the smart but small one, trying his darnedest to stay out of trouble and earn enough money as a ranch hand to make something of himself. However, he's forced to rove because of his connection to his friend Lennie. Lennie is a gigantic, lumbering man whose size makes him a great farmworker, but unfortunately, he is a bit dim-witted and cannot stay out of trouble. He's a gentle giant, never meaning to cause harm, but people don't seem to understand him, forcing him and by proxy George to flee town after town in the middle of the night in hopes of work elsewhere.
George and Lennie find themselves at a new ranch where the son of the owner, a guy named Curley, seems to want to fight everyone just to prove his manliness. He has a new wife who also seems to have an eye for every man but her husband, which worries George. He repeatedly warns Lennie to stay out of trouble and keep quiet. It's an interesting picture painting of working on someone else's farm, the spectrum of people one encounters and the hard truths you just come to expect. I sense trouble brewing, though.
And their relationship is a very interesting one. Author John Steinbeck tirelessly worked on this unconventional male-male bond to figure out why George would stand by a guy like Lennie. Their relationship and George's general uneasiness about women give me the impression that perhaps George is gay. But there is no evidence, either way.
Regardless, it is a beautiful relationship mired in trouble. And since I haven't been living under a rock, I'm pretty sure I know what's going to become of one of them. However, I don't yet know why this fate will come to be, and the journey is worth more than the destination. I can't wait to find out.
Book #20: A book based on a fairytale
I was going to read Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister , by Gregory Maguire, who kind of has a claim to this whole retold fairy tale business. But the library was ordering a copy and wouldn't have it in circulation for quite some time. And when things are out of stock, you have to improvise. So, I found out that Gregory, of course, has written a whole book of short stories, Leaping Beauty: And Other Animal Fairy Tales , all of which are retellings of fairy tales re-imagined with animals. I'm fairly sure this book was meant for children. I even found it in the juvenile section. But then again, I found The Little Prince there, too, and that didn't stop me. So, I leaped into Leaping Beauty.
Leaping Beauty offers eight short stories: "Leaping Beauty," "Goldiefox and the Three Chickens," "Hamster and Gerbil," "So What and the Seven Giraffes," "Little Red Robin Hood," "The Three Little Penguins and the Big Bad Walrus," "Cinder-Elephant," and "Rumplesnakeskin."
Each have their own spin, and true, the moral messages imbued in the originals are a little tainted in Maguire's retellings, but they still make for great reads. I liked the idea of a hamster and a gerbil vowing revenge on an evil skunk who, as their stepmother, sends them away, and all the problems that a skunk brings to a rodent family. I like "Leaping Beauty," in which the curse brought to the frog princess backfires wildly on the very person who put the curse upon her. I like the chimp named So What whose personality is shaped by the name he is given and how that conundrum is resolved. I like the idea of little penguins who live in an igloo and keep forgetting to shut off the oven and keep the door closed.
It's all tremendously silly and that's what I like the most about it. As an adult, I appreciate the whimsy, and I'm sure any kid would get a kick out of it.
Book #21: A book that's guaranteed to bring you joy
This prompt is so open to interpretation, it was rather hard to determine what does and doesn't qualify here. I was going to take a sarcastic, literal route and read cover to cover either The Joy of Cooking or The Joy of Sex . (The former I do own and highly recommend.)
Then, I came across a book called How to Be an Explorer of the World: Portable Life Museum , by Canadian Keri Smith. It literally intends to inspire you by your surroundings with promises to open you up to happiness through exploration. I figured this is a book that actually does promise to bring you joy in one form or another, so this was as close as I was going to get to a so-called joy guarantee.
I quickly learned that How To Be An Explorer Of The World was more like a workbook than I'd first assumed, but the principles within could have been found in a more typical book meant for pure reading. The words are posed in a way meant to inspire creativity. Each idea intended to trigger thought is called an exploration. I didn't want to rush through them because I enjoyed looking at the world from the random angles it proposes. As a writer, these exercises are, quite frankly, fun. (You might even say joyful.)
How To Be An Explorer Of The World is filled with quotations and factoids. The first exploration asks you to list ten rapid-fire things you didn't notice before about right where you are sitting, which is where I found a great quotation from philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein that author Keri Smith uses to illustrate the point of the exercise: "The aspects of things that are more important for us are hidden because of their simplicity and familiarity. One is unable to notice something -- because it is always before one's eyes."
A few words near Exploration #8 were pretty inspiring, too, claiming that, "when you begin to pay attention to something you've never really looked at before you will begin to see it everywhere. You eventually begin to feel as if the thing is out to find you, instead of the other way around."
That being said, not all of these explorations are prizewinners. Some are actually a recipe for hoarding or kleptomania, asking you to collect objects on the way to work. Needless to say, I skipped a few that didn't seem worth the effort. It's okay, though; the book asks me to do so, picking and choosing what makes me feel joyful and curious.
One exploration made me laugh because I was already in the process of doing it before reading it albeit not for creativity's sake. Exploration #7 requested that the reader collect paint chips from a hardware store to find colours that respond to you in the world, essentially documenting the colours around you. Well, I was trying to find an exact match to my red wedding dress for my make-up artist, which is hard to describe because of its pink undertones, so I gathered me some paint chips and found that ... sigh, none of them matched. I got close, but no cigar. Even if I didn't succeed in matching them, some of the ridiculously descriptive names on the paint chips brought me joy, such as "racing stripe" and "sugar poppy" or, the paint chip that turned out to be the best match for my dress, "100 MPH." My wedding dress is saying, "Vroom, vroom," clearly.
Speaking of guaranteed joy, I would be remiss to ignore that June has come, which means, to me, that as of next month, I will have already pranced off into the metaphorical sunset to get married. (It'll actually be closer to noon than sunset, but them's the breaks.)
So, as aforementioned, my reading may be slightly interrupted, but I will try to stick to it.
Happy reading!
May came and went so quickly. And June is a busy month for me, with a wedding and visits from relatives across the globe. I know I won't be getting in much reading, so I figured I should overcompensate this month.
So what did I do? I read for the fun of it.
Ooh, rebel without a cause. Not quite what James Dean intended, surely, but I'll take it.
This month I read X vs. Y: A Culture War, a Love Story . And it fits no prompt in the PopSugar reading challenge. Trust me. I scoured that list. Nothing. Nada. Zip. It was a quickie, in my defense, a comparative look at pop culture through the eyes of sisters with a fourteen-year age gap. Generation X is Eve Epstein who waxes on about Wham, bulky acrylic legwarmers, Saturday-morning cartoons, and auteur David Lynch and his Twin Peaks in her personal essays, while her sister Leonora Epstein who represents Generation Y was more my speed, rattling on about the profundity of Aqua, Tom Green, dating via text message and IM, and, one of my favourites, the book The Perks of Being a Wallflower . I especially appreciated the line of similarity she cuts through Rugrats , Buffy , and New Girl . It certainly captures the attention, even if only for a fleeting 190 pages.
I finished a writing style guide, too, The Sense of Style: The Thinking Person's Guide to Writing in the 21st Century , but I don't think that qualifies as cheating since I had read eighty percent of it before jumping into this crazy challenge. Tying up loose ends cannot possibly rate the same as diving into something new. It just can't.
Shortly after, I got out my good-girl pants and swore up and down to devote myself wholly to this challenge. In short, no more dicking around.
In total, I devoured eleven books, a whopping nine of which were challenge-applicable books. I hope that'll be enough to keep me on track. Crossing off any less than three books a month seems like a guaranteed derailment.
This month also offered a bounty of opportunities for perusal of other books that might fit the challenge. I skimmed both the novel Atonement and the non-fiction skewering of the Koch brothers in Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right . I'm not sure how whether or not I will use them to fulfill this reading challenge, but they seem like interesting reads nonetheless. If they don't fit a prompt, I will definitely go back to them, perhaps when I've shown this challenge who's boss.
(Me. I'm boss.)
So, here we are.
Book #13: A YA Bestseller
Last month, I read The DUFF: Designated Ugly Fat Friend , a book that arguably has one of the worst film adaptations, in which the only thing retained from its source material are the names of a handful of characters. Sincerely, the two are strangers, book isolated from and unfamiliar to the film it bred.
My sister is a fan of author John Green and I've been a fan of some of the webseries he's taken part in. (And he and his brother share, like, a whole Youtube channel together.) He's very charismatic, for sure. So, it was no surprise that she recommended I read The Fault in Our Stars . A massive international hit, the young adult juggernaut also sparked a film, which again, I have seen. Granted, I haven't seen the film in a little while, consuming it when it was released, but if memory serves me, The Fault in Our Stars was adapted very honestly, sticking to each word and outright copying whole sections of dialogue. It's a very faithful adaptation. There are little bits and pieces in the book that I don't recall from the film, passages that paint a slightly darker tone than the bittersweet love story told onscreen, but again, the gist is the same.
Unfortunately, that sours my experience a touch.
I already know every beat along this path. I know the destination and the journey. Alas, I was underwhelmed. I obviously don't blame the book. It was my choice to watch the film first.
I was just left with very little as a result.
Still, I understand the book's overwhelming popularity. It seems to be written honestly, too, spoken from a place of knowledge about cancer survival and all the details that that experience entails. The mumbo-jumbo doctors say and the reality of living it. Not to mention the vast differences between those suffering from it. The blind, the amputated, the deoxygenated. Those fighting to be well again and others fighting the incurable. I knew someone with cancer who was much older when I was too young to understand. Then, I knew someone else with cancer when I was much older and they were too young to understand. To be fair, I wasn't particularly close to either of them, but I knew them all the same, well enough to be let in on what was going on with them. Both thankfully went into remission.
I've never suffered the harsher realities of cancer or the devastating loss it produces. So, I can only imagine that what John Green wrote is accurate. I'd be willing to say it's right on the money. Why else has the world clasped hands in a circle around him?
I'm going to break away from John Green for a brief while, but I will return to him to fulfill another reading prompt. In fact, I'll be reading what my sister describes as her "least favourite John Green." Swell.
But speaking of men named John ...
Book #14: A book written by a celebrity
I mentioned last month jumping from actress Anjelica Huston's early Irish childhood tales of whim and woe, to the more slick and hopefully funny adventures in Hollywood of actor Jon Cryer. His book, So That Happened: A Memoir , is full of great anecdotes, both funny and tender little stories from different stages of his life.
I decided to do a little reading time between me and the husband-to-be. We've had quite a few laughs reading So That Happened. More importantly, though, it's not just salacious gossip about Hollywood denizens (although you do learn a few juicy factoids) or retellings of events from his vantage point. Rather it's a fun and enlightened recap of his life, from toddler to today, and it's written so honestly, conveying the emotions he experienced, that you feel closer to Jon. I really find it superbly written, especially considering Jon is not a writer by profession. It walks that tightrope between laugh riot and sincere feelings.
I'm glad I switched over. Sorry, Anjelica.
Book #15: A book that's set on an island
Cuba is an island. So, I read a classic novel about Cuban fisherman, a short one with a lot of promise. Ernest Hemingway published his novella The Old Man and the Sea in 1952, but it still reads well today, owing to that terse style. I'm not a big fan of fishing and that kind of lifestyle. Many do love that kind of thing, but I just don't fall into that category. So, reading this one was a bit of a trudge. Now, that being said, I think the writing style is great and I'm sure that, while I'm not one of them, people who love fishing are totally on board. Yes, yes, pardon the pun. However, the book was short, so I'd be damned if I wasn't going to see it through.
Which is funny because that obstinate brand of stick-to-it-ness is kind of the point of The Old Man and the Sea.
Thematically and symbolically, the book is a goldmine. Let's deal with the idea of endurance first. We all know a person's self-image can be degraded by the labels plastered to us by those who surround us. You have confidence in yourself, but that pride is melted away by the corrosive words of others. If you don't catch a fish for months, the other fisherman deem you too old to be in the game any longer. But the human spirit can defy these declarations. He is not just the "old man," but rather the great fisherman and arm-wrestling champion Santiago, and he aims to conquer the age discrimination against him by capturing a truly great fish in the sea. A marlin of epic proportions. The real thing. And I'm sure you can attach all sorts of meaning to that fish. For some, the fish represents Jesus. For others, the fish is symbolic of the meaning of life. Some argue it's the need for friendship and companionship; others look at it as a metaphor for pride and legacy. And I'm sure someone somewhere thinks the fish is Tupac. It's whatever you want really. Affix your end-all-be-all here. It's the big kahuna, whatever the kahuna is to you.
The Old Man and The Sea also describes the loneliness endured in this quest for survival, not just physical survival but the survival of one's dignity in the face of these judgments. Above all, though, perseverance is king, and Hemingway expertly demonstrates that, if at first you don't succeed, try again. You are never too old to do so.
Book #16: A book that's becoming a movie this year
As I read The Taliban Shuffle: Strange Days in Afghanistan and Pakistan for this prompt, all I could think was, "Holy shit, people. How much can you drop the ball?" Frankly, I thought I was going to read something more humourous, the more comedic side of war replete with shenanigans, especially considering the trailers I'd seen for Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, the film they made this year from the book. I mean, it's Tina Fey. You expect laughs. Yet The Taliban Shuffle is playing it straight and is more heartbreaking than sidesplitting.
Journalist Kim Barker was definitely in a weird place. She volunteered and became quickly and thoroughly addicted to the miserable existence of life as an embed in the U.S. troops in the wartorn Middle East. While most find India chaotic, Kim wrote how boring and normal it was, how desperate she was to get back in the action in Kabul.
Then, the government truly screwed up. Not like the minor mistakes she'd witnessed prior, she truly felt affected after a friend of hers dies and a person she'd never meant but knew a bit about is sent back out into Afghanistan way past their prime. With that, Kim decides to leave Afghanistan to investigate the other side of the mountain: Pakistan, or as she describes it, Whack-a-Stan.
In Pakistan, Kim encounters a new set of problems. For one, the men won't stop grabbing her ass. Secondly, she is being chased by the Pakistani intelligence agency ISI. Third, her foolish friend and fellow journalist decides to meet a high-profile insurgent in the tribal lands of Pakistan, a virtual no-man's-land where Westerners are kidnapped, held for ransom, and often killed. Then, her allergies and sinus problems to the polluted air send her back to the States for nasal surgery to remove polyps and, she hopes, fix the problem for good. Alas, while still in the States, she faces a new set of problems, both professional and personal, as the landscape of her workplace changes and she becomes a victim of identity fraud.
Full disclosure: I still have a couple chapters left, but I will still finish the book before the end of the month. Although it's not funny, it is very informative, and I feel I've learned quite a bit about life in the Middle East during the Bush administration. As someone who hates war films, war books, and, of course, the event that inspired it all, war, I had every reason not to like this book. And yet, I really did. So, even if you're just like me with an utter disdain for grenades and camo, The Taliban Shuffle still offers something worthwhile.
Book #17: A satirical book
It's great when a classic isn't overrated. Animal Farm , that famous satire of Russian communism, is really clever. It's short and sweet, like The Old Man and the Sea, but I enjoyed Animal Farm far more.
The animals represent the people longing for equality, as the capitalist-minded farmer, Mr. Jones, drunkenly uses, abuses, and ignores them. One day, after Mr. Jones forgets to feed them, the animals fight back and kick the Jones family out of Manor Farm. Thus begins Animal Farm. Their rebellion starts off as an honest effort to benefit all, but slowly the pigs use their superior intelligence to oppress those around them. Soon infighting begins. I won't go into too much detail because, if you haven't read this classic yet, it's about time. In fact, now more than ever is the timeliest of times to read it.
To write something so political from the perspective of animals is genius. It really is. And above all, he did it so damn good. At no point did I feel like George Orwell was trying to force the analogy. It all just happened naturally, proving how easily power corrupts. In this era of television shows like Breaking Bad and House of Cards and films like The Hunger Games: Mockingjay , this poignant novella strikes a chord. When given the reins, the hero can swiftly become the villain.
Animal Farm broke my heart. Needless to say, this novella is a moving page-turner that's not easily forgotten. I highly recommend it.
Book #18: A graphic novel
Written by Gerard Way (yes, from My Chemical Romance) and illustrated by Gabriel Bá, The Umbrella Academy, Vol.1: The Apocalypse Suite let me escape into a fascinating world of super-powered children born seemingly from an alien force and raised by an eccentric aristocrat who believes in scientific experimentation over love, all in the name of saving the world. The Umbrella Academy is a very human tale in spite of its sci-fi leanings. It's dark and moody and yet light-hearted and fun. Sure, it's the end of the world, but sibling rivalry seems more important. It's equal parts sweet, sadistic, and superheroic. I'm glad I gave it a chance.
Book #19: A classic from the 20th century
I chose Of Mice and Men . Again, I'm a little behind, but will be finished it in less than a day, so I figured I know enough about it now to share my thoughts.
Of Mice and Men centers on an unlikely pair of friends. They're an odd couple for sure, George Milton and Lennie Small. George is the smart but small one, trying his darnedest to stay out of trouble and earn enough money as a ranch hand to make something of himself. However, he's forced to rove because of his connection to his friend Lennie. Lennie is a gigantic, lumbering man whose size makes him a great farmworker, but unfortunately, he is a bit dim-witted and cannot stay out of trouble. He's a gentle giant, never meaning to cause harm, but people don't seem to understand him, forcing him and by proxy George to flee town after town in the middle of the night in hopes of work elsewhere.
George and Lennie find themselves at a new ranch where the son of the owner, a guy named Curley, seems to want to fight everyone just to prove his manliness. He has a new wife who also seems to have an eye for every man but her husband, which worries George. He repeatedly warns Lennie to stay out of trouble and keep quiet. It's an interesting picture painting of working on someone else's farm, the spectrum of people one encounters and the hard truths you just come to expect. I sense trouble brewing, though.
And their relationship is a very interesting one. Author John Steinbeck tirelessly worked on this unconventional male-male bond to figure out why George would stand by a guy like Lennie. Their relationship and George's general uneasiness about women give me the impression that perhaps George is gay. But there is no evidence, either way.
Regardless, it is a beautiful relationship mired in trouble. And since I haven't been living under a rock, I'm pretty sure I know what's going to become of one of them. However, I don't yet know why this fate will come to be, and the journey is worth more than the destination. I can't wait to find out.
Book #20: A book based on a fairytale
I was going to read Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister , by Gregory Maguire, who kind of has a claim to this whole retold fairy tale business. But the library was ordering a copy and wouldn't have it in circulation for quite some time. And when things are out of stock, you have to improvise. So, I found out that Gregory, of course, has written a whole book of short stories, Leaping Beauty: And Other Animal Fairy Tales , all of which are retellings of fairy tales re-imagined with animals. I'm fairly sure this book was meant for children. I even found it in the juvenile section. But then again, I found The Little Prince there, too, and that didn't stop me. So, I leaped into Leaping Beauty.
Leaping Beauty offers eight short stories: "Leaping Beauty," "Goldiefox and the Three Chickens," "Hamster and Gerbil," "So What and the Seven Giraffes," "Little Red Robin Hood," "The Three Little Penguins and the Big Bad Walrus," "Cinder-Elephant," and "Rumplesnakeskin."
Each have their own spin, and true, the moral messages imbued in the originals are a little tainted in Maguire's retellings, but they still make for great reads. I liked the idea of a hamster and a gerbil vowing revenge on an evil skunk who, as their stepmother, sends them away, and all the problems that a skunk brings to a rodent family. I like "Leaping Beauty," in which the curse brought to the frog princess backfires wildly on the very person who put the curse upon her. I like the chimp named So What whose personality is shaped by the name he is given and how that conundrum is resolved. I like the idea of little penguins who live in an igloo and keep forgetting to shut off the oven and keep the door closed.
It's all tremendously silly and that's what I like the most about it. As an adult, I appreciate the whimsy, and I'm sure any kid would get a kick out of it.
Book #21: A book that's guaranteed to bring you joy
This prompt is so open to interpretation, it was rather hard to determine what does and doesn't qualify here. I was going to take a sarcastic, literal route and read cover to cover either The Joy of Cooking or The Joy of Sex . (The former I do own and highly recommend.)
Then, I came across a book called How to Be an Explorer of the World: Portable Life Museum , by Canadian Keri Smith. It literally intends to inspire you by your surroundings with promises to open you up to happiness through exploration. I figured this is a book that actually does promise to bring you joy in one form or another, so this was as close as I was going to get to a so-called joy guarantee.
I quickly learned that How To Be An Explorer Of The World was more like a workbook than I'd first assumed, but the principles within could have been found in a more typical book meant for pure reading. The words are posed in a way meant to inspire creativity. Each idea intended to trigger thought is called an exploration. I didn't want to rush through them because I enjoyed looking at the world from the random angles it proposes. As a writer, these exercises are, quite frankly, fun. (You might even say joyful.)
How To Be An Explorer Of The World is filled with quotations and factoids. The first exploration asks you to list ten rapid-fire things you didn't notice before about right where you are sitting, which is where I found a great quotation from philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein that author Keri Smith uses to illustrate the point of the exercise: "The aspects of things that are more important for us are hidden because of their simplicity and familiarity. One is unable to notice something -- because it is always before one's eyes."
A few words near Exploration #8 were pretty inspiring, too, claiming that, "when you begin to pay attention to something you've never really looked at before you will begin to see it everywhere. You eventually begin to feel as if the thing is out to find you, instead of the other way around."
That being said, not all of these explorations are prizewinners. Some are actually a recipe for hoarding or kleptomania, asking you to collect objects on the way to work. Needless to say, I skipped a few that didn't seem worth the effort. It's okay, though; the book asks me to do so, picking and choosing what makes me feel joyful and curious.
One exploration made me laugh because I was already in the process of doing it before reading it albeit not for creativity's sake. Exploration #7 requested that the reader collect paint chips from a hardware store to find colours that respond to you in the world, essentially documenting the colours around you. Well, I was trying to find an exact match to my red wedding dress for my make-up artist, which is hard to describe because of its pink undertones, so I gathered me some paint chips and found that ... sigh, none of them matched. I got close, but no cigar. Even if I didn't succeed in matching them, some of the ridiculously descriptive names on the paint chips brought me joy, such as "racing stripe" and "sugar poppy" or, the paint chip that turned out to be the best match for my dress, "100 MPH." My wedding dress is saying, "Vroom, vroom," clearly.
Speaking of guaranteed joy, I would be remiss to ignore that June has come, which means, to me, that as of next month, I will have already pranced off into the metaphorical sunset to get married. (It'll actually be closer to noon than sunset, but them's the breaks.)
So, as aforementioned, my reading may be slightly interrupted, but I will try to stick to it.
Happy reading!
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