Blogger Alice

These past few months have been heartbreaking. Jon Lacina, a student in our Graphic Design program went missing in January, and although many of us on campus held out hope that he would be found--maybe with amnesia, maybe just having wanted to disappear for awhile--his body was found a week ago in the boiler room of an old, abandoned barn on campus property.

I feel like I don't even have a right to feel so sad about this because I didn't know him or his family. But I walked around campus all winter and spring, thinking about where he could possibly be, suspecting that he was still somewhere on campus, possibly hidden someplace made inaccessible by the snow and ice we were hammered with this year. And, in fact, the building where he was found was one that I've driven or biked past many times, and just thinking about that poor kid dying out there all alone makes me want to cry.

By all accounts he was kind, funny, but introverted, and showed great promise as an artist. We don't know yet how he died, and I'm not sure it matters, although I hate thinking about the possibility that he suffered. I don't think this campus will ever feel the same to me. 

My life now seems completely frivolous, especially when I think about what I was doing on the night when he was probably dying on the cold, dirty floor of that barn. I just can't think about reading challenges or much of anything else.

Since the last time I blogged, I've finished two books: Liar by Justine Larbalestier and Can You Forgive Her? by Anthony Trollope. I didn't especially enjoy Liar, but it's difficult to explain why without explaining the whole book. Basically, I couldn't stand the main character, and it's really hard (for me, at least) to enjoy a book when you feel absolutely no sympathy toward the "protagonist" (I use quotes because she was really more of an antagonist).

I did really enjoy Can You Forgive Her?, possibly because it was a refreshing change from the binge of YA books I've been on since the beginning of the year. I enjoyed it so much, in fact, that I immediately started the next book in the Palliser series: Phineas Finn. I've discovered that the series isn't really linear, since Phineas's timeline starts before the end of CYFH. The Way We Live Now is still my favorite Trollope book so far--I've also read He Knew He Was Right and The Eustace Diamonds. I'm looking forward to reading more Trollope this year, and maybe some more Dickens and Wilkie Collins as well. And Elizabeth Gaskell. And Fanny Burney. And George Eliot. This looks like it's shaping up to be the year of YA and 19th-century literature!

I've given up on The Bastard by John Jakes. It just wasn't appealing to me and, since it's a library book, I didn't feel like forcing myself through hundreds of pages to be able to return it by its due date. Vilette is also temporarily eluding me, but at least I own that book and can put it on hold for a little while. I think some of my Bronte challenge will have to be fulfilled by movies or spinoffs, or I'm going to fall hopelessly behind.

Midwest winters

I live in a part of the country where the weather forecasts lately seem to consist of: "Setting foot outside may result in death. Don't say we didn't warn you." They've also been telling us to carry calorie-dense food with us wherever we go. Woohoo! I will use any excuse to stick some chocolate bars in my purse.

I wouldn't enjoy living somewhere with no seasons. Even the seasons in DC didn't have enough contrast for me. Without this bitterly cold winter, I don't notice and appreciate the springtime nearly as much. Last night, the husband and I were discussing all of the fun outdoors things we're going to do when it warms up. There are several state parks for us to enjoy, and we'll finally be able to get our bikes out of the garage again. Usually things start to look up right around my birthday, although it's a little hit or miss. I can definitely remember some cool, drizzy birthdays with slush still lingering on the streetsides, but I can also remember celebrating some birthdays on gorgeous, warm spring days. This year's birthday will be a milestone and I can't wait to see what it brings.

We did manage to leave the house last night to go out for sushi and pick up some movies. We watched Funny People with Adam Sandler, Seth Rogan, and Leslie Mann while I worked on my granny square afghan. The movie was entertaining, but definitely not one I'd want to watch with my parents. Or even recommend to them. We still have District 9 to watch, as well as the most recent Harry Potter from the local public library.

I'm currently reading Liar by Justine Larbalestier. It's definitely a strange book and I'm not quite sure what I think of it. I'm still not ready to dig into anything more demanding than YA, or to continue the other books I've already started.

January blahs

I think I'm experiencing the January blahs, or maybe cabin fever, after being trapped inside for over two days. I've finished two more books: The Corps of the Bare-Boned Plane by Polly Horvath (fantastic!) and Theodosia and the Serpents of Chaos by R.L. LaFevers (meh). These are #2 and #3 on my library challenge and YA challenge lists, but I just can't work up the wherewithal to write reviews of them at the moment.

I'm having trouble sticking with anything. I keep picking up a book and reading 20 or so pages, then putting it down and picking up another. I guess that means I should be cleaning instead of trying to read? The house could sure use it!

I'm not too concerned since this happens to me periodically. I'm sure I'll be back in another phase soon enough where I don't want to do anything but read.

The Vacation by Polly Horvath

It's been ages since I've read anything by Polly Horvath, and I'd forgotten how much I enjoy her books. She creates quirky (but not TOO quirky) characters who always manage to find themselves in over-the-top situations, and The Vacation is no different. This was my first read for the Young Adult Reading Challenge (I might have classified this book as middle-grade rather than YA, but it was in my library's YA section, which is how I plan to make the distinction) and the Support Your Local Library Reading Challenge. This review may contain spoilers.

12-year-old Henry's mother decides to become a Mormon missionary in Africa (despite the fact that she is not Mormon) and drags Henry's long-suffering, maxim-spouting father along for the ride. They leave Henry behind with is two aunts, Pigg and Magnolia, who are not terribly fond of children and who decide to pull Henry out of school and take him along with them on a cross-country road trip. While they are gone, they learn that Henry's mother has become lost in the jungle after chasing after monkeys and his father has contracted malaria while searching for her. For his part, Henry spends several days floating through the crocodile- and alligator-infested swamps of Florida with an autistic boy while his aunts (and even the Green Berets!) search frantically for him.

Obviously these events sound, and are, completely far-fetched, but Henry is such a realistic and endearing protagonist that what really matters is not so much the lack of realism of his and his family's adventures, but his reactions to them and his astute observations about the characters they meet. And how could you not love a kid who doesn't mind going anywhere as long as he has a big pile books? In one of my favorite scenes, Pigg and Magnolia take Henry to a bookstore in a mall to buy him some books and tell him to "buy some books that are thick and engrossing.... And cheap." Here's another passage that made me laugh out loud. The family has just stopped at a farm house in Kansas, and the farmer is telling them a story about a neighbor lady, Mrs. Grady, who wouldn't stop feeding their horse inappropriate foods, such as spaghetti and french fries:

"'So the next day we see her car pull up on the way to work, same as always, and we see her drop something from a bucket onto the ground and the horse is eating it, so we go over to have a look-see and it weren't spaghetti, were it, Jim?'

"'Well, what were, uh, was it?' asked my mother, who was getting into the story big time, I could tell.

"'It was french fries,' said Jim.

"'Now, can a horse eat those?' asked my mom.

"'No, Katherine, they sure can't,' said Bud. 'You're right on the mark about that. They sure can't. And the thing of it was, I thought Mrs. Grady could kind of extrapolate, you know. About the spaghetti. Figuring like, no spaghetti, then no french fries either.'

"'But it seemed like she could not,' said Jim.

"'So it seemed. Wasn't much for extrapolation,' said Bud."

The book's final two paragraphs also moved me, probably because I can identify so deeply with the simple pleasures of those long, warm, lazy Midwestern summer days that make the January sub-zero windchills worth it:

"Nobody said anything. We were still glowing from the unexpected baseball, from the long perfect day and all that ice cream. There was a dreamy twilight haze as the sun lowered toward the cornfields, as if the air had trapped the light and thickened with it. There was nothing making noise for miles but the peaceful buzz of crickets and the sound of our car parting the stillness. I don't know. I don't know. How can you not love it all?

"And then we drove endlessly, endlessly over the gentle crests. A sign said: Welcome to Iowa."

I could go on and on about how much I enjoyed this book. This was definitely a 5-star read for me.

First post of 2010

2010 has already started out a bit insanely. We finally returned home last night after almost two weeks traveling around the Midwest and it is so nice to be getting back into a routine. We've even managed to cook our own suppers for the last two days! (Oh, who am I kidding--my husband did the cooking. And it was delicious. And now we have leftovers in the fridge. Woo!)

I've finished one book so far: Food Rules: An Eater's Manual by Michael Pollan. I've read bits and pieces of a couple of his other books, and I think this one was basically some of the advice from The Omnivore's Dilemma and In Defense of Food distilled into a slim volume that takes less than an hour to read. I've had a difficult year with family health problems, and in an effort to decrease my chances of having those same problems, I'm working on slowly improving my eating habits.

What I like about Pollan is the practicality of his advice. For example, he doesn't expect people to completely give up meat, just to eat less of it. He says that it's perfectly fine if you have a "Big Mac moment," as long as it doesn't happen too often. He also says that his problem with high fructose corn syrup is not that it's worse for your health than sugar, but that it's not real food. He's very clear about the fact that not all organic food is good for you. For example, you can buy organic ice cream or frozen pizza, but those are still special occasion foods and not something to be consumed on a regular basis. Finally, he seems to emphasize local food over organic, which makes a lot of sense to me. Plus I kind of get a kick out of eating cottage cheese (for example) that was made less than 30 miles from my house. Anyway, this is a pretty good handbook that will definitely help me understand how I can best improve my habits and my overall health.

I supplemented Pollan's book with an essay (my first of the year) from the New Yorker: "Food Fighter: Does Whole Foods' C.E.O. know what's best for you?" by Nick Paumgarten. I thought this essay was fascinating. I had access to a Whole Foods when I lived in DC, but I never shopped there very much because I preferred the more user-friendly (in my opinion) Trader Joe's. Whole Foods' CEO, John Mackey, was in the news last year after writing an op ed piece in the Wall Street Journal in which he criticized Obama's health reform proposals. I learned all kinds of interesting facts about the politics of the food industry in this piece, such as the fact that a Whole Foods executive helped devise the USDA standards for organic food. I always thought it was odd that in the Whole Foods I used to go to from time to time, the cheeses and pastries were displayed more prominently and invitingly than the produce, and this article kind of helped me understand why that was (although I have to say, some of Mackey's statements and actions are fairly incomprehensible). I'm looking forward to reading more about the food industry this year.

I've had quite the starting binge in the last few days as well: I've started Villette for the Bronte challenge (I'm substituting it for Shirley after reading some reviews of Shirley that made me nervous and uncertain whether I'd be able to finish it); When Christ and His Saints Slept by Sharon Kay Penman for the medieval challenge and the historical fiction challenge, The Bastard by John Jakes for the library challenge and the historical fiction challenge, and The Vacation by Polly Horvath for the YA challenge and the library challenge. I need to remember this year that finishing books is at least as important as starting them! I'd like to finish all of the books I start in 2010, other than the books I abandon. So my goal for January will be to finish these books, plus the January book for the Social Justice Challenge.

So....

I've found a few other challenges to round out the year. Or make myself insane. Here they are:

A Tournament of Reading. I was planning to read a few books on the suggested list this year anyway, so I'm joining at the King level. My choices are:

1. The Time Traveler’s Guide to Medieval England by Ian Mortimer (history)
2. Queen Isabella by Alison Weir (history). I've read Weir's biography of Eleanor of Aquitaine and thought it was wonderful.
3. Gawain and the Green Knight (medieval literature). I read a modernization of this in high school and think it's about time to read the original.
4. The Canterbury Tales (medieval literature). I'm reading this one for the Classics challenge that I'm quasi-participating in too.
5. When Christ and His Saints Slept,
6. Time and Chance, and
7. Devil's Brood by Sharon Kay Penman. This is how I'll get my Eleanor of Aquitaine fix.
8. Katherine by Anya Seton. This has been on my Kindle for quite awhile.
9. Kristin Lavransdatter by Sigrid Undset. I'm reading this one for the Chunkster Challenge as well.

Historical Fiction Reading Challenge. It shouldn't come as much of a surprise that I love historical fiction. I have no doubt that I'll read at least 20 this year, so I'm participating at the Obsessed level, but will list my books as I go.

Essay Reading Challenge 2010. I actually have a goal of reading one essay per week this year, so this one will be a cinch. I've got Anne Fadiman's At Large and at Small lined up to begin with.

And finally, a non-reading challenge: the 100 Mile Fitness Challenge. Considering the amount of time I'll be spending on my rear end while I finish all the challenges I've signed up for, I just thought this would be a good idea. I'm hoping to start the Couch to 5K program again, and I also plan to walk to campus and back home a few times a week this semester. 100 miles in 90 days really shouldn't be too difficult for me, but it will be nice to have a challenge to keep me motivated.

Challenges, challenges, challenges

Two more challenges make ... 10?! Ack!

The Great Books Challenge of 2010 intrigues me because of my background in classical rhetoric. I still have several books on my shelves from my grad school days, most of which I've only read passages from (if any at all). I'm sort of unofficially participating in this challenge to catch up on some of those books, and also because I really did enjoy reading Plato, Aristotle, Cicero, Quintillian (who unfortunately is not on the list, but since I'm only unofficially participating, maybe I'll add him to my list?), etc. There are also a few authors on the list whom I haven't read but really should have, such as Chaucer (I've only read a couple of the books from Canterbury Tales) and Machiavelli. I'd like to do the Hard level, of course, but I'm not sure I can commit to that. For now, here's my list:

1. Selected Dialogues of Plato (Modern Library edition, trans. Benjamin Jowett). I've read the Phaedrus, but wouldn't mind a reread since it's been a few years.

2. Aristotle's The Art of Rhetoric (Penguin Classics edition, trans. Hugh Lawson-Tancred). Again, I've read portions of this one, but would like to read the whole thing since my master's degree is partly in rhetoric.

3. Cicero's On the Good Life (Penguin Classics edition, trans. Michael Grant). I've read very little Cicero because he didn't grab me in the same way that Quintillian did back when I was a student. I think my perspective might be a little different now, so I'd like to retry him.

4. Canterbury Tales. So many contemporary novelists model the Canterbury Tales in some way that I'd like to read the original so I recognize the tributes when I come across them.

5. Machiavelli's The Prince. I remember, as an undergrad, taking a class on Shakespeare and having the definition of "machiavellian" show up on the final exam. I couldn't remember what it was and, not having read any Machiavelli, couldn't make anything up that made sense. Obviously, having been taught to always write something, I did. I don't remember what I wrote, but I'm sure it was silly. 

6-12 (?). To be determined.

Also when I was an undergrad, there was a class on Victorian fiction at my university that I longed to take, but somehow I could never make it fit into my schedule. They read Vanity Fair, David Copperfield, and several others that I always drooled over when I walked past that course's section in the bookstore. I'm taking this opportunity to read some of the books I missed out on by participating in the Our Mutual Read: A Victorian Reading Challenge. I'm starting out ambitious with this one as well, participating at Level 3. Here's my list so far:

1. Our Mutual Friend (Dickens). I'm already reading this one for the Chunkster Challenge. I had a professor in my undergraduate days, whom I greatly admired, and who always said this was her favorite Dickens.

2. Vanity Fair (Thackeray). I've been wanting to read this one for ages. I saw the film a few years ago, but I think it's been long enough that it won't interfere with my enjoyment of the book.

Ok, I guess that's it for definite reads. I'll also select some from Trollope (I'm trying to read through his canon--The Way We Live Now is my favorite so far!) and some Elizabeth Gaskell, Thomas Hardy, George Gissing, and George Eliot. I'll likely fill out my 12 with some neo-Victorian such as Sarah Waters, and I'd also like to participate in the short-story and period film challenges (LOVE period films!)

Whew! I'm sure I'm more enthusiastic about all of these challenges than I will be a year from now, but I'm really looking forward to getting started in the new year.

More challenges

The 2010 Reading Resolutions Challenge

When we moved into the new house, I swore to myself (and the husband) that my new, Ikea-bookshelf-lined office would be enough for my book collection. I would make sure that I never owned more books than could fit onto the five Billy shelves (plus top extension shelves) in my office.

We've only lived in the house for five and a half months and I've already violated that rule. Granted, it's partly because my parents keep bringing me boxes of books from their house, but still.

My resolution for 2010 is to not buy any new books in 2010 (even on my Kindle, since the number of unread books I have on that is ridiculous). Of course there are exceptions, which are as follows:

-I can buy books on the New Year's trip we're taking, since we are visiting a city we haven't visited in ages and it is home to some awesome independent bookstores.

-I can buy books at Powell's in Portland if we get there this year.

-I can use any giftcards I get at Christmas to buy books.

-I can use credits at used bookstores (this will work fine because I never get enough credit to replace the same number of books that I trade in).

I have so many books on the shelves--and on my Kindle--that I've been wanting to read and haven't because I keep buying new ones. Also, since I'm participating in the Support Your Local Library challenge, I'm not cutting myself off from the library. I wouldn't anyway, because that would be completely unrealistic. Visiting the library and taking out a stack of new-to-me books gives me almost as much of a rush as buying books.

I'm also doing the Original TBR Challenge. However, I'm modifying the rules for myself so that I can't cross over any books from other challenges (I told you I have a massive number of unread books). Here's my list:

1. Greenlanders by Jane Smiley. Smiley taught at the university where I earned my bachelor's and master's degrees, and I've heard several people say this is one of her best books. It certainly looks engrossing and should go well with my Chunkster reading of Kristin Lavransdatter.

2. Coming Home by Rosamunde Pilcher. I think this one has been on my TBR list since high school, and it's been sitting on my shelf since at least my undergrad days. That means I've moved it at least five times without reading it. I think it's about time.

3. Blue Angel by Francine Prose. I suppose I should have a few more slender books on this list as well so I don't get too far behind right off the bat. I've had this one on the shelf since grad school. I heard Prose speak at the National Book Festival a few years back, but I've never read any of her fiction.

4. The Shuttle by Frances Hodgson Burnett. I have a non-Persephone, unabridged edition of this one. I've read most of her children's books as well as The Making of a Marchioness and can't wait to dive into this one.

5. The House at Riverton and

6. The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton. I'm pretty sure these have been on the shelf for more than six months. They both look wonderful, I just haven't had a chance to read them.

7. In This House of Brede and

8. Five for Sorrow, Ten for Joy by Rumer Godden. I got these from my in-laws for Christmas a couple years ago and I feel like I should read them already.

9. The Sunne in Splendor by Sharon Kay Penman. I've been struggling through The White Queen by Philippa Gregory. I think I'll prefer this retelling of the story of the Princes in the Tower.

10. The Ten Year Nap by Meg Wollitzer. I bought this one when we still lived in DC.

11. Party Shoes by Noel Streatfeild. I need to have at least one children's book on this list! This is a lovely Oxford Children's Classics edition that I got at a children's bookstore in Alexandria, Virginia, and I don't think this would quite qualify as a YA book for the YA reading challenge.

12. The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan. Ok, I suppose I should have a nonfiction book on the list as well. I've heard several interviews with Pollan and look forward to reading more about his philosophy.

Although I don't usually do the New Year's resolution thing, I do enjoy going into the new year with goals and these reading challenges will help me do that.

Social Justice Challenge

Here's one more challenge:

I'm really excited about this one. I hope to participate at least at the Intern level every month, but we'll see what my schedule permits.