book talk: mongolian feminism

So, I am almost finished with this book, which I picked up at the library partially for it's cool cover image, and partially for its intriguing title. I am always interested in powerful women, and this book seemed to promise an encouraging tale of women in power, doing great things, rescuing an empire.

Of course, history is never as neat and tidy as we'd like to imagine, and this book offered less "women-as-heroes" moments than I'd expected. Also, it really highlights the deeply engrained patriarchal tendencies of men, even in a society established to be so egalitarian as Genghis Khan's empire seemed to be. (Genghis Khan: Mongolia's first feminist? Pretty cool.)

The overarching story is less about one generation of women (as the title might imply) and more about important women rising to power, holding power, staging revolutions and just being general bad-asses over the course of several generations. That kind of consistency has a lasting effect, and this book is ultimately encouraging in a wholly un-glamorous, un-hollywood, but totally real way.

book talk: flowery intrigue

So, I'm about halfway through this book:

And I have to say that so far, I'm undecided in my opinion. The moment Jake saw the cover in the stack I'd brought home from the library, he sort of snorted and said, "oh, a book for girls."

That is pretty much what it is, in a nutshell. 

I'd be pre-disposed to turn my nose up at it, if I hadn't been sucked in by the premise that the Pink Carnation is actually a famous English spy in the 18th century, along the lines of one of my favorite English spies of all time...The Scarlet Pimpernel.

It is, to this day, one of my very favorite books. Maybe because it is written from Marguerite's perspective, or maybe I just have a thing for swashbucklers...either way, it's the association that grabbed me. And now, the plot (though sprinkled with some groan-worthy "romantic" scenes that are trying just a bit too hard to sound Pride-and-Prejudice-esque) has sucked me in and I'll have to see what happens. Likely, it'll be a bit of a let down, but so far, I've decided I'm gonna roll with it. 

What about you? Have you ever picked up, or stuck with a book simply because it referenced or reminded you of another book you really liked? Or is it just me??

the digital public library of america

bodlien library, oxford

So...there is now in existence a Digital Public Library of America. I can't decide if I think it's the coolest thing ever, or the most depressing thing ever. As huge fan of real-life libraries, I'm torn. What do you think?

book talk: climate change

On my way to school today, I caught the second half of the Diane Rehm show on our NPR station. She had several guests on to talk about climate change, what it means for culture, and just how radically it will likely force us to change our lifestyles. One of the guests said it just meant that we would, out of necessity, change from a consumer culture, to one where our life's purpose is not "how many things we have." I don't think I'd mind that.

It's a subject that Elise Morin and Clemence Eliard took on with their installation, Wastelandscape, in Paris. The mounds of CDs, which are made of petroleum, are meant to evoke an urban oil slick. I thought, how interesting: everyone has a different way of relating to climate change, and expressing our thoughts and feelings about it.  It is a subject that could be incredibly depressing, yet, it is something I believe that we must learn to talk about. 

So, what is the best way to express environmentally conscious ideas or stories? For me, I think images are powerful, particularly images of the sea--like this stunning photo I found while surfing the net this afternoon. 

The first, and deepest, impression made on me regarding the environment came through a coffee table book my father had--still has, on the bookshelf somewhere. Nothing like Jacques Cousteau to fill my young child-mind with wonder that the beauty of the ocean, and raise my consciousness to its fragility. 

As an adult, I'd say that Michael Pollan's classic about the various options we have for feeding ourselves made a thoughtful impression on me, and continues to guide my choices when it comes to food for our family--not just for the nutritional value, but for the impact such choices can make on our environment as well. 

What about you? What books (or movies, images or documentaries) have made the biggest impressions on you regarding the environment? 

book talk: forgetting and remembering

I was just about to start teaching yesterday, and was pawing through my bag for the adaptor cord that links my laptop to the projector in my classroom. Paw, paw, paw. Rats.

I'd completely forgotten to throw it in my bag! The consequences weren't completely dire; my class that day just suddenly "got real." We were live and un-plugged. No powerpoint to help guide the mini-lesson on rhetorical appeals, no visual examples to practice with, no visual journal prompt. The students completely tuned in, though, to our discussion and participated with sharp insights and good questions. It might have been the best class of the semester...

It got me thinking about the meaning of forgetting, the consequences of it, the value of memory.

I've been connecting dots; the other day on NPR, I heard a review of this book:

A murder mystery where the main character, and primary suspect, is a 64 year-old woman with dementia. Now, I'm not usually one for murder mysteries, but the concept of forgetting and the tension and confusion it causes...this intrigues me. 

It is not a large leap from ideas of memory and forgetting to ideas of smell. I am currently nibbling my way through Diane Ackerman's Natural History of the Senses, and her connections between smell and memory are so rich.

Within the first pages, Ackerman hooks you with evocative, intuitive sentences to link smell and memory:

"Nothing is more memorable than smell. One scent can be unexpected, momentary, fleeting, yet conjure up a childhood summer beside a lake in the Poconos, when wild blueberry bushes teemed with succulent fruit and the opposite sex was as mysterious as space travel...Smells detonate softly in our memory like poignant land mines, hidden under the weedy mass of many years and experiences. Hit a tripwire of smell, and memories explode all at once."

All this has me thinking about memory, how important it is, and how bittersweet. Our senses are attuned to collecting memories. They document them and then hide them away for us, ready to be unearthed at the specifically triggered moment. Or, not. I wonder--is it better to remember, or to forget? Or, is it the subtle homeostasis of washing between the two that keeps us sane? 

Book Talk

I started the day talking about books. What a satisfying way to start the day! My friend, Becky, and I met up for breakfast and book-talking before I had to leave to teach my class. We are reading Writing About Writing together, using the buddy system to keep each other accountable, but also to help each other process this "College Reader," to see if and how it could fit into our writing classes.

One of the things Elizabeth Wardle and Doug Downs stress on the first page of the book is that, "writing is something we know about, not just something we do." And this is a fact that undergirds my professional field. We can write about writing, think through and develop writing theories, and research the processes that surround writing just as we can write and think and develop and research in any discipline. I am really excited to keep going through this book! I'll keep you posted as I uncover cool stuff:)

book talk: full nerd confession

Hey friends! Today I'm going to talk about a book I'm reading. A book that, to be honest with you, I've become rather obsessed with. I understand that talking about this book will reveal the depths of my nerdiness, and how deep are those depths!

The hubs and I are in the middle of this book:

We started it last summer, actually, and Jake has already read it (and the rest of the series that is out) once. Oh man, it is so good, though! The premise is based in fantasy, but the characters are quite complex and very real. The story is so dense, and the book itself so thick, that when the hustle-and-bustle of the fall semester set in, we gradually had to abandon it. Not that it wasn't engrossing! It was, actually, so engrossing that we had to stop staying up so late to read! 

This summer, I was prompted to pick it up again when I read that HBO was making it into a series. It has gotten some good reviews and a few of my friends are already all the way through season 1.


I'm so in.

But, because of my extra-nerdy commitment to only watch movies or series after I read the corresponding book, I need to get to reading! What about you? Do you wait to watch something until you read the book first? Why or why not?

book talk: educated by jane austen

image source

My friend, Jenni, is going on vacation next weekend. We were discussing what books she'd take to read on the trains she'll be riding around Spain. She said, "I will definitely bring my pocket Pride and Prejudice, because it's always good to read." I emphatically nodded my approval. 

So, as a Jane Austen fan, and as a teacher, I was doubly excited to read this book review in the New York Times. It led me to this book: 

Apparently, William Deresiewicz has taken the novels of Ms. Austen and learned all sorts of cool life lessons from them, and written it all down in A Jane Austen Education. I love it. 

Even more intriguing is his connection between Austen's literary style and teaching practice. In his article for The Chronicle, Deresiewicz describes how reading Northanger Abbey, and specifically interactions between Catherine Morland and Henry Tilney, revealed "lessons to explore for a lifetime, but the first place I applied them was the classroom.":

"Instead of training Catherine to follow the conventions of life in her society, Henry was trying to wake her up to them by showing her how absurd they were. But he didn't do it by being didactic; he did it by provoking her, taking her by surprise, making her laugh, throwing her off balance, forcing her to figure out what was going on and what it meant—getting her to think, not telling her how."

I see in Deresiewicz's quote the glimmer of what I consider the true teacher's heart. This is a book that I need to read, for my love of Austen, certainly. But also for my love of teaching. 

What about you? What author has taught you your most significant life-lessons? 

book talk: living in balance

For this Book Talk Tuesday, let's talk about living in balance.

So, I'm on Day 3 of my 10-Day Reboot. Made an awesome salad for dinner last night, and learned a thing or too about basic cooking moves in the process (but more on that later).

Every morning for the past three days, I've been practicing these flow workouts, and so far, so good.

But, I'll give you a hint about which flow is hardest for me: it's the one with the least amount of hands/feet on the floor. As much as I love yoga (and I do! It's a totally non-competative workout with a nap at the end--what's not to love?), I suck at balance poses. I've been having an awful time of it during my magical days of detox, and so I thought what any college instructor in writing and research would think, "I wonder if there is a book I can read to help with this?"

And while I didn't find a book about yoga poses per se, I did find and interesting list of books and articles to help with living a balanced life in general.

ProfHacker suggests creating a Whole-Life Grid to maintain a balanced professional academic life:

And then, there's this funny article about balancing swear words with professional words.

This is the book I'm reading with the hubs. The title sounds super self-helpy, I know. But so far, we've found it to be a pretty practical book about spiritual balance. 

There's always this aptly named novel which was recently added to Oprah's famous list, and which looks pretty darn luscious, if you ask me. 

If all else fails, I will turn to Kung Fu Panda: The Art of Balance. Apparently, in this illustrated print episode of the tale, Po is trying to balance his job at his dad's noodle shop and his new life as a Dragon Warrior. I totally relate. I'm sure that I have much to learn from this animated, endangered dude. (p.s. I haven't seen either of the movies yet, but sort of want to--to indulge my inner 12-yr-old, of course--anyone seen 'em? What did you think?)

book talk: audiophiles

Today, I'd like to talk about a particular kind of book that I've been falling harder for lately: audiobooks.


Yesterday, we started listening to March, the Geraldine Brooks novel that won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. I got the audiobook from our library, and we are about two chapters in.

Already, I can see why the book is so lauded. The prose is dense and luscious, yet unflinching in it's handling of unsettling content like war, physical pain, racism and slavery. Plus, the narrator of our copy has the best, gravely voice! 

I've had conversations with some people who say things like, "bah! Audiobooks are not real books..."and I'm never sure how to respond. I think they're just fine. In fact, I've had some fantastic audiobook experiences! It is how I gleaned tips from Stephen King's On Writing, and when we went to the icy coast of Lake Michigan last Christmas, it is how we finished up the Harry Potter series. In both cases, I had such fun reading, er, listening to those stories. Just because I'm not "looking" at the words doesn't mean I'm not ingesting them, absorbing their meaning and being potentially moved by them. Right? 

Then, I heard a great segment on Talk of the Nation last Thursday about this very thing. What do you think? Are audiobooks a boon to reading enthusiasts or destroying the fabric of reading culture? Somewhere in between? Let's talk. 

book talk: on chesterton, cheese and francophilia

By jove, if it isn't another Book Talk Tuesday!

On my dream (read: would-love-to-but-already-have-too-many-other-commitments-and-so-don't-have-enough-time-for-these-additions-to-the-list) summer reading list, there are the following books:

The G.K. Chesterton Biography. I mean, who wouldn't want to know more about the man who gave us such witty literary gems as:

"Fairy tales are more than true; not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten." 

— G.K. Chesterton

and

"Without education, we are in a horrible and deadly danger of taking educated people seriously." 

— G.K. Chesterton

and

"The word "good" has many meanings. For example, if a man were to shoot his grandmother at a range of five hundred yards, I should call him a good shot, but not necessarily a good man." 

— G.K. Chesterton

right?!?

I want to read pretty much every book on Madame Fromage's Cheese-Reading List. She sure knows the way to my cheese-and-book-loving heart!

This book has been mentioned on a couple of other blogs, but it wasn't until I read Jamie's review on Charmingly Ordinary, that I decided I for sure wanted to read it. 

Looking back over today's list, I realize that there isn't any fiction (except for the Bulgakov on Mme. Fromage's list). What do you think--fiction: for or against? (or ambivilant?) I know what our friend Chesterton would say:

"Literature is a luxury; fiction is a necessity." 
— G.K. Chesterton

 Do you agree?

book talk

Hey friends! Sorry that I'm a little late on this---but it finally is time again for Book Talk Tuesday.

I have so much that I want to talk about today, but I'll try to keep it brief ;)

First off, I have to confess something: I'm re-reading. I do this every now-and-then. My dad just shakes his head at me--he'd rather spend his precious book-reading-time covering new territory. But then, he does re-watch his favorite films...so I may have him there.

I am re-reading one of my favorite books on the writing process:

Heather Sellers is just a gem of a writer--the kind of lady I want to take me out for a cup of tea and tell me all of her funny and heartwrenching and warmly human stories. This book is a way to pretend; it has frank advice, humor and honesty about the writing process that is really (in my opinion) hard to find in these types of books. Plus, it has really, really fun writing exercises. 

I'm also re-starting this book of short stories, edited by Alison Swan. I've skipped around in it before, circling around the poignant story "Lake Huron's Tide" by my friend, Rachael Perry. This time, I'm starting at the beginning, and reading through. I already love it. "HOMES: Living with Lake Michigan," by Judith Minty, sucked me right in with its grade-school reference and at turns wistful, harrowing and wise tale. 

This will be, I think, the perfect book to take up north this weekend.

Today, though, a couple of new books caught my eye. There's this one:

The newest from Geraldine Brooks is set in Puritan New England and told from the point of view of a young female narrator, built around a "slender factual scaffold"--much like People of the Book. It was while reading the New York Times review that I made the connection: Brooks also wrote Year of Wonders, about the plague that my sister-in-law was recommending to me at Christmas. Hmmm, Geraldine Brooks, I am intrigued. And I can't wait to read more...

Last but not least, I heard the news that Pete Townshend is writing a memoir. Awesome. 

book talk

hello, friends!

Today I'd like to talk books, poetry and all things literacy. What do you say? I'm thinking of making Tuesday "Book Talk Tuesday." It has a nice ring, yes? The only thing is, I might be too flighty to make it *every* Tuesday...but I'm gonna try. We can get together on a Tuesday and talk books--what we're reading, interested in reading, recommending others to read.

Y'know, book talk.

So, here goes:

photo sourced here

How much would you love to go to a poetry reading at the White House? Billy Collins will be one of the poets to read. Here is one of my favorite Billy Collins poems--

Also, here is an article by Christopher Hitchens, beautifully written and sharply bittersweet, reflecting on potentially losing his speaking voice and how that relates to his writing voice. Hitchens quotes a few lines from one of my favorite poems, "The Lovesong of J. Alfred Prufrock," by T.S. Eliot. While Hitchens and I do not share the same views about faith practice, he had me at Eliot. Well, he had me at himself, actually. Though we do not agree on theology, I have to appreciate his intellect--sharp, sharp, sharp!  I find his version of the Ten Commandments to be so thought provoking...

...as well as his debates with Douglas Wilson over the question, "Is Christianity Good for the World?" Collision, the film that documents their debate tour, is equally fascinating, no matter what "side" you come down on, or how you answer the question.

So then, Saturday, on my way to hang out with a friend at a bookstore, I heard Demetri Martin on Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me. 

He was talking about his new book so cleverly (I've enjoyed his humor since his Flight of the Conchords days!) that when I got to the bookstore, I thumbed through it--and chuckled to myself for several minutes. I also saw that he will be performing a reading at this Barnes and Noble this Sunday. Do I want to go? 

Oh yeah. 

But, it's probably lucky that I stumbled upon this hilarious blog post first. I didn't know who Emily St. John Mandel was before reading her tips on what *not* to ask at a reading...but she seems like the kind of chick who'd be awesome to be friends with. Doesn't she?

I'm gonna have to check out her latest. 

Add it to the summer reading list! Speaking of, what are you planning on/hoping to read this summer?