Monday, September 21, 2009

Favorite Line Ever

I just finished reading John Steinbeck's The Winter of Our Discontent. This may be my favorite line from a book ever: "On Monday perfidious spring dodged back toward winter with cold rain and raw gusty wind that shredded the tender leaves of too trusting trees." Can't you just feel it?



100. Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll
99. The Cat Who Covered the World by Christopher S. Wren
98. The Turn of the Screw by Henry James
97. Emily the Strange by Anonymous
96. Anathem by Neal Stephenson
95. The Higher Power of Lucky by Susan Patron, illustrated by Matt Phelan
94. A Thief in the House of Memory by Tim Wynne-Jones
93. Last Child in the Woods by Richard Louv
92. An Abundance of Katherines by John Green
91. Beauty by Robin McKinley
90. The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle
89. The Unicorn Sonata by Peter S. Beagle
88. Revenge by Stephen Fry
87. Summerland by Michael Chabon
86. Becoming Myself: Reflections on Growing up Female by Willa Shalit
85. The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester
84. The Crimes of Charlotte Bronte by James Tully
83. Alphabet Juice by Roy Blount Jr.
82. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
81. A Death in White Bear Lake: The True Chronicle of an All-American Town by Barry Siegel
80. The Girls Who Went Away: The Hidden History of Women Who Surrendered Children for Adoption in the Decades Before Roe v. Wade by Ann Fessler
79. Captain Alatriste by Arturo Perez Reverte
78. Purity of Blood by Arturo Perez Reverte
77. The Sun Over Breda by Arturo Perez Reverte
76. The King’s Gold by Arturo Perez Reverte
75. Mosaic by Amy Grant
74. Blink by Malcolm Gladwell
73. Aquarium Care of Bettas by David E. Boruchowitz
72. Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert
71. The Miserable Mill (Book 4 in a Series of Unfortunate Events) by Lemony Snicket
70. A Drowned Maiden’s Hair by Laura Amy Schlitz
69. Pilgrims by Elizabeth Gilbert
68. Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 8: Volume 2: No Future for You
67. Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 8: Volume 3: Wolves at the Gate
66. McSweeney’s Enchanted Chamber of Astonishing Stories edited by Michael Chabon
65. Spike: After the Fall by Joss Whedon
64. Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage by Alice Munro
63. Smoke and Mirrors by Neil Gaiman
62. Moral Disorder and other stories by Margaret Atwood
61. Stern Men by Elizabeth Gilbert
60. The Hour I First Believed by Wally Lamb
59. Hood by Stephen Lawhead
58. Scarlet by Stephen Lawhead
57. The Ruby in the Smoke by Philip Pullman
56. Tithe: A Modern Faerie Tale by Holly Black
55. Hercule Poirot’s Chistmas by Agatha Christie
54. The Austere Academy (Book 5 in a Series of Unfortunate Events) by Lemony Snicket
53. The Ersatz Elevator (Book 6 in a Series of Unfortunate Events) by Lemony Snicket
52. The Vile Village (Book 7 in a Series of Unfortunate Events) by Lemony Snicket
51. Shadow in the North by Philip Pullman
50. The Tiger in the Well by Philip Pullman
49. Peril at End House by Agatha Christie
48. Ironside by Holly Black
47. Mirror Mirror by Gregory Maguire
46. Getting the Girl by Markus Zusak
45. Looking for Alaska by John Green
44. The Last Child by John Hart
43. Brave Story by Miyuki Miyabe
42. The Tipping Point by Malcom Gladwell
41. It’s Not About the Bike by Lance Armstrong
40. The Hostile Hospital (Book 8 in a Series of Unfortunate Events) by Lemony Snicket
39. The Carnivorous Carnival (Book 9 in a Series of Unfortunate Events) by Lemony Snicket
38. The Slippery Slope (Book 10 in a Series of Unfortunate Events) by Lemony Snicket
37. The Painter of Battles by Arturo Perez-Reverte
36. The Tin Princess by Philip Pullman
35. The Grim Grotto (Book 11 in a Series of Unfortunate Events) by Lemony Snicket
34. The Penultimate Peril (Book 12 in a Series of Unfortunate Events) by Lemony Snicket
33. The End (Book 13 in a Series of Unfortunate Events) by Lemony Snicket
32. Sleeping Murder by Agatha Christie
31. Evil Under the Sun by Agatha Christie
30. Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Time of Your Life by Joss Whedon
29. Every Second Counts by Lance Armstrong
28. The Yiddish Policemen’s Union by Michael Chabon
27. Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse
26. Paper Towns by John Green
25. The Glass Bead Game by Hermann Hesse
24. The Winter of Our Discontent by John Steinbeck

Sunday, September 20, 2009

Talk about timing!

My post on prescription errors seems prescient. In today's Atlanta Journal Constitution, the Spotlight column, which focuses on consumer protection issues, was titled "The harm in pharmacy misfills." Unbeknownst to me, there is a process for reporting these errors to the Georgia Board of Pharmacy so the errors can be tracked and pharmacies can be disciplined, when appropriate. If you have experienced a pharmacy error, I encourage you to report it. If you are in another state, check to see if your state has a similar Board. Here's the information for Georgia:

tinyurl.com/soscomplaint

or

Georgia Board of Pharmacy
237 Coliseum Drive
Macon, GA 31217

As noted in the Spotlight column, "Make sure to include your name and contact information."

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Doublecheck Your Rx

Late last week, DD had an unfortunate run-in with a previously nonthreatening cat up in grandma’s neighborhood. The few puncture wounds on her face didn’t look so bad initially, and most had healed by yesterday. But this one spot, had gotten redder and more inflamed looking in spite of regular cleanings and treatments with ointment.

I asked a pediatrician friend to take a quick look at the place – better safe than sorry and good to know if we need to go to the doctor's office, I thought. Turns out, DD needs a heavy-duty antibiotic to knock-out the infection, so I was glad I asked.

But getting our prescription filled was an experience, and I learned a few lessons from it that I wanted to share.

1. Understand what the doctor is prescribing. I don’t mean just getting that the doctor wants you or your child to take an antibiotic. What antibiotic? Why that one? How many doses? For how long? Does the generic version have other names? In our case, the pediatrician was clear that DD needed Augmentin, a tough, knock-em-all-out antibiotic. She explained how often DD needed the medication daily and that she needed to take the entire 10-days’ worth of the medication.

2. Make sure you communicate that information to whomever is picking up the prescription. I had the conversation with the pediatrician; my husband picked up the Rx. I should’ve better communicated to him what he should be getting from the pharmacist. I didn’t.

3. Doublecheck your Rx. Look at the bottle, preferably when you get the prescription filled. Does it have the same name of the medication on it that the doctor prescribed? When I got home from work, I took a look at the medication my husband had picked up earlier in the day. The bottle read Amoxicillin, not Augmentin.

4. If the names don’t match, ask! Ask the pharmacist, “The doctor said she was calling in Augmentin. This says Amoxicillin, not Augmentin. Is this the same thing?” If you are already at home, call the pharmacist or the doctor and confirm if you have ANY doubt at all. Don’t trust the pharmacist to get it correct. Not that pharmacists are untrustworthy, but they fill hundreds of prescriptions each day. Mistakes happen. Clearly. Our pediatrician spoke personally to the pharmacist, she didn’t leave a message on their system, and she clearly prescribed Augmentin. When I called the pharmacy after talking with the pediatrician, the pharmacist double-checked the call-in, and confirmed that Augmentin had, indeed, been prescribed and that they’d made a mistake.

5. Don’t trust yourself to know. In our case, I just happened to have special knowledge about Amoxicillin because I take it every time I go to the dentist thanks to a diagnosis with a heart murmur as a small child. I just happened to know that Amoxicillin is NOT a tough, knock-em-all-out antibiotic and NOT the same as Augmentin. But even had I not known, I should have made that call to the pediatrician and then to the pharmacy.

In our situation, the consequences of a prescription error would have been negative, but thankfully probably not dire. DD, given an ineffective antibiotic, probably would have ended up in the hospital for an intravenous antibiotic to knock out the infection. She could have ended up with scarring on her face from the cellulitis caused by the infection.

The consequences may not always be so relatively minimal. Doublecheck your Rx. I know we will.

Monday, September 7, 2009

Personality

It really is interesting how early distinct personality traits come out in children. It seems some kids are just born gregarious or shy, athletic or bookish, talkative or reticent. As a parent, I find myself walking a line between embracing my child’s natural tendencies and encouraging her not to be limited by them.

DD has never been one for large group activities. Don’t get me wrong. She loves to play with friends. One-on-one play-dates work well. Having three little girls over for a special birthday play-date was the perfect fit.

But, while some other children jump right into the fray at large birthday parties, for example, DD hangs back and watches from a “safe” distance. Though we’ve encouraged her to participate (she is still, after all, at the age where parents hang around for parties), we’ve never pushed her to get involved. Oh, she’ll eat the cake and maybe play with a toy, but if the party gets really going, she’s ready to go too – home!

We saw another example of this tendency this week. A group of parents and children in our neighborhood gets together weekly for toddler soccer. We skipped the activity last season, but this time, when the announcement came out, I asked my husband if it were something he’d like to do with DD. He asked her whether she’d like to play soccer with the other kids and got an excited, receptive “yes.” For several days, we heard a lot about “playing soccer with the other boys and girls in the park.”

But when we arrived at the park, it was clear that our child’s loner tendencies are still quite strong. DD took one skeptical look at the ten or so other children and their various parents and other caregivers and hung back. After a few minutes of holding onto her soccer ball and watching the others enthusiastically run around kicking pint-sized balls, she told my husband, “I’m ready to go home and play with my toys now.” No amount of encouragement would convince her to put the ball down and give it a good kick with the other children. She ended up contentedly swinging and playing on the jungle gym – by herself – for about thirty minutes before we headed home.

So how do we walk the line between her reticence and our desire for her to function in a group? For now, there’s no soccer in DD’s immediate future. Maybe we’ll look for other ways to encourage athleticism and fitness that fit more closely with her personality – tennis or golf, perhaps. We’ll keep her in the art class she loves, which has her in a group setting of about eight children but with individual-focused activities like painting, drawing, and sculpture and with two teachers to oversee the interactions. And we’ll arrange lots of play-dates!

Friday, August 28, 2009

Some books are just good...

Some books are good; some books are really good; and some books are “Oh my god I just sat down and read 305 pages in one sitting” good. That’s John Green’s Paper Towns. Man, is it good. I got turned on to John Green through his and his brother’s Brotherhood 2.0 Project a few years ago when my husband discovered a very engaging video blog entry on the internet and we both began following them. All three of his novels (which are “young adult” but don’t necessarily follow any standard formula for that genre) are great. Really great. Read them. Take a day. Read all three in one sitting. I dare you not to find them engaging.

I have to admit, though, that every time I read a great book by a fresh author, I am unwillingly transported back to the memory of the only book I’ve ever read that was just beyond awful.

Don’t get me wrong. I’ve read a number of books I didn’t particularly care for. The Good Earth? Meh. Moby Dick? I don’t quite get the continued emphasis on this book as a classic; the outdated whale talk drove me bonkers. And I’ve read some books that were bad. The book by Dan Brown I read after The DaVinci Code? Hey – good for you, Dan Brown: you can write A book and then clone it, over and over and over and... And don’t lots of readers have a V.C. Andrews phase in their barely post-pubescent past?? But even when I’ve not particularly cared for the book or I’ve known that the book most definitely did NOT qualify as great literature, I’ve been able to point to something to justify why the book was published or is considered “literature.”

But this one book…

To avoid identifying the author, let’s just say that the book was written by the husband of an acquaintance. (But, yes, my friend in Colorado, you will know IMMEDIATELY the book I’m talking about.) We (the acquaintance and I) were in the same book club for a short period of time. She suggested that we all read her husband’s new book, that he come to our meeting after we read it and let us give him feedback. We, being a good-natured group, agreed.

Boy do I wish we hadn’t. It was a struggle to read that book. As much as I was compelled through the pages of John Green’s Paper Towns, I slogged through the pages of this awful book. I fought the constant urge to stop reading it and, finally, after much effort, managed to finish it. I felt OBLIGED to finish.

I sat down and tried really, really, REALLY hard to come up with one positive thing to say about the book. But I couldn’t. The characters were flat. The setting, which was purportedly known to me and the other readers in the book club, was less recognizable than a place I’d never been. The plot was contrived. There was this allegorical theme, this device, that jumped. Out. And. Beat. You. Over. The. Head. Every. Time. It. Appeared. Even the editing was terrible.

I felt horrible. I mean, I KNEW this guy’s wife. I WANTED to like his book. I’d read some of his professional journalistic-style writing – it was (and still is) quite good. I even looked FORWARD to getting these folks’ annual holiday letter because he made it really, really fun! But I couldn’t go to book club and face this author. I just couldn’t. So I didn’t.

But I still think about that book.

If you have a “worst book” story, I’d love to hear it!

100. Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll
99. The Cat Who Covered the World by Christopher S. Wren
98. The Turn of the Screw by Henry James
97. Emily the Strange by Anonymous
96. Anathem by Neal Stephenson
95. The Higher Power of Lucky by Susan Patron, illustrated by Matt Phelan
94. A Thief in the House of Memory by Tim Wynne-Jones
93. Last Child in the Woods by Richard Louv
92. An Abundance of Katherines by John Green
91. Beauty by Robin McKinley
90. The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle
89. The Unicorn Sonata by Peter S. Beagle
88. Revenge by Stephen Fry
87. Summerland by Michael Chabon
86. Becoming Myself: Reflections on Growing up Female by Willa Shalit
85. The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester
84. The Crimes of Charlotte Bronte by James Tully
83. Alphabet Juice by Roy Blount Jr.
82. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
81. A Death in White Bear Lake: The True Chronicle of an All-American Town by Barry Siegel
80. The Girls Who Went Away: The Hidden History of Women Who Surrendered Children for Adoption in the Decades Before Roe v. Wade by Ann Fessler
79. Captain Alatriste by Arturo Perez Reverte
78. Purity of Blood by Arturo Perez Reverte
77. The Sun Over Breda by Arturo Perez Reverte
76. The King’s Gold by Arturo Perez Reverte
75. Mosaic by Amy Grant
74. Blink by Malcolm Gladwell
73. Aquarium Care of Bettas by David E. Boruchowitz
72. Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert
71. The Miserable Mill (Book 4 in a Series of Unfortunate Events) by Lemony Snicket
70. A Drowned Maiden’s Hair by Laura Amy Schlitz
69. Pilgrims by Elizabeth Gilbert
68. Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 8: Volume 2: No Future for You
67. Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 8: Volume 3: Wolves at the Gate
66. McSweeney’s Enchanted Chamber of Astonishing Stories edited by Michael Chabon
65. Spike: After the Fall by Joss Whedon
64. Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage by Alice Munro
63. Smoke and Mirrors by Neil Gaiman
62. Moral Disorder and other stories by Margaret Atwood
61. Stern Men by Elizabeth Gilbert
60. The Hour I First Believed by Wally Lamb
59. Hood by Stephen Lawhead
58. Scarlet by Stephen Lawhead
57. The Ruby in the Smoke by Philip Pullman
56. Tithe: A Modern Faerie Tale by Holly Black
55. Hercule Poirot’s Chistmas by Agatha Christie
54. The Austere Academy (Book 5 in a Series of Unfortunate Events) by Lemony Snicket
53. The Ersatz Elevator (Book 6 in a Series of Unfortunate Events) by Lemony Snicket
52. The Vile Village (Book 7 in a Series of Unfortunate Events) by Lemony Snicket
51. Shadow in the North by Philip Pullman
50. The Tiger in the Well by Philip Pullman
49. Peril at End House by Agatha Christie
48. Ironside by Holly Black
47. Mirror Mirror by Gregory Maguire
46. Getting the Girl by Markus Zusak
45. Looking for Alaska by John Green
44. The Last Child by John Hart
43. Brave Story by Miyuki Miyabe
42. The Tipping Point by Malcom Gladwell
41. It’s Not About the Bike by Lance Armstrong
40. The Hostile Hospital (Book 8 in a Series of Unfortunate Events) by Lemony Snicket
39. The Carnivorous Carnival (Book 9 in a Series of Unfortunate Events) by Lemony Snicket
38. The Slippery Slope (Book 10 in a Series of Unfortunate Events) by Lemony Snicket
37. The Painter of Battles by Arturo Perez-Reverte
36. The Tin Princess by Philip Pullman
35. The Grim Grotto (Book 11 in a Series of Unfortunate Events) by Lemony Snicket
34. The Penultimate Peril (Book 12 in a Series of Unfortunate Events) by Lemony Snicket
33. The End (Book 13 in a Series of Unfortunate Events) by Lemony Snicket
32. Sleeping Murder by Agatha Christie
31. Evil Under the Sun by Agatha Christie
30. Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Time of Your Life by Joss Whedon
29. Every Second Counts by Lance Armstrong
28. The Yiddish Policemen’s Union by Michael Chabon
27. Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse
26. Paper Towns by John Green

Monday, July 13, 2009

How are you feeling?

“How are you feeling?”

Since announcing the upcoming arrival of baby #2 (a boy!) in November, this question has largely replaced the standard “How are you?” when folks greet me. It drives me nuts.

Why, you might ask, does such a simple, and presumably well-meaning, question drive me up the wall??

I don’t know. Not really. But I have some rough thoughts about it.

“How are you feeling?” seems to insinuate some degree of familiarity. The question doesn’t bother me so much when it comes from my spouse or my mother or my mother-in-law. They genuinely want to know how I am feeling.

But from others, question seems to go, well, beyond what’s seemly to ask someone who’s not closely related to you or with whom you are not long, long time friends or intimately acquainted. Think about it: how often do YOU ask someone how they feel? If you’re not ill or pregnant or in mourning, when does anyone ever ask you “How are you feeling?” Unless you happen to be sitting on the proverbial couch with your shrink of choice, visiting your physician, or sitting at a loved one’s funeral, people don’t generally probe into your feelings (physical or mental).

“How are you feeling?” also seems to imply some degree of solicitousness, which, I propose, is only affected and not genuine. People want to seem like they care about your pregnancy so that ask how you feel. I fail to believe that some random acquaintance, business colleague, neighbor, or even most of my friends really want to know that I am feeling gassy, bloated, rather stricken with heartburn, exceptionally tired, and a little surprised to be having a boy but otherwise FANTASTIC, thank you very much.

Let’s face it, the standard “how are you?” or “how’s it going?” doesn’t mean anything. People don’t want to know how you are. They want a “fine. How are you?” in response and then for everyone to get on with their day. No one really cares about your bad day or your promotion that has you on top of the world or your irritation with your spouse because he forgot to pick up the clothes you needed from the cleaners in spite of four reminders. Why should things be any different just because there’s a baby in my uterus??

Finally, “how are you feeling?” seems to imply that I shouldn’t be feeling well. And, as noted above, other than feeling gassy, bloated, rather stricken with heartburn, exceptionally tired, and a little surprised to be having a boy, I feel FANTASTIC! With my first pregnancy, a dear friend persistently asked me “how are you feeling?” with a furrowed brow and look of deep concern on her face. After about 10 times, I couldn’t take it anymore and finally had to say, “I feel FINE. I’m not TERMINALLY ILL. I’m PREGNANT.”

I know, I know, some women have terrible pregnancies with lots of awful side effects and they do not feel FINE. But, you know, they probably don’t want you implying that they should feel like crap. And they probably don’t want folks’ faux solicitousness or unjustifiably insinuated familiarity, either.

Or it could all just be that I have raging hormones and anything anyone says to me is likely to be taken completely out of context.

So, next time you see me, do yourself a favor. Feel free to say hello, but unless you REALLY want to know how I’m feeling stick to “how’s it goin’?” and just steer clear of the crazy pregnant lady’s pet peeves.

It's been a long time...

I've been absent. I'm sorry. I've been pregnant. I've got other things to think about. But, I have been reading, and I do have some random thoughts to share. First, the reading update:

100. Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll
99. The Cat Who Covered the World by Christopher S. Wren
98. The Turn of the Screw by Henry James
97. Emily the Strange by Anonymous
96. Anathem by Neal Stephenson
95. The Higher Power of Lucky by Susan Patron, illustrated by Matt Phelan
94. A Thief in the House of Memory by Tim Wynne-Jones
93. Last Child in the Woods by Richard Louv
92. An Abundance of Katherines by John Green
91. Beauty by Robin McKinley
90. The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle
89. The Unicorn Sonata by Peter S. Beagle
88. Revenge by Stephen Fry
87. Summerland by Michael Chabon
86. Becoming Myself: Reflections on Growing up Female by Willa Shalit
85. The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester
84. The Crimes of Charlotte Bronte by James Tully
83. Alphabet Juice by Roy Blount Jr.
82. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
81. A Death in White Bear Lake: The True Chronicle of an All-American Town by Barry Siegel
80. The Girls Who Went Away: The Hidden History of Women Who Surrendered Children for Adoption in the Decades Before Roe v. Wade by Ann Fessler
79. Captain Alatriste by Arturo Perez Reverte
78. Purity of Blood by Arturo Perez Reverte
77. The Sun Over Breda by Arturo Perez Reverte
76. The King’s Gold by Arturo Perez Reverte
75. Mosaic by Amy Grant
74. Blink by Malcolm Gladwell
73. Aquarium Care of Bettas by David E. Boruchowitz
72. Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert
71. The Miserable Mill (Book 4 in a Series of Unfortunate Events) by Lemony Snicket
70. A Drowned Maiden’s Hair by Laura Amy Schlitz
69. Pilgrims by Elizabeth Gilbert
68. Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 8: Volume 2: No Future for You
67. Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 8: Volume 3: Wolves at the Gate
66. McSweeney’s Enchanted Chamber of Astonishing Stories edited by Michael Chabon
65. Spike: After the Fall by Joss Whedon
64. Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage by Alice Munro
63. Smoke and Mirrors by Neil Gaiman
62. Moral Disorder and other stories by Margaret Atwood
61. Stern Men by Elizabeth Gilbert
60. The Hour I First Believed by Wally Lamb
59. Hood by Stephen Lawhead
58. Scarlet by Stephen Lawhead
57. The Ruby in the Smoke by Philip Pullman
56. Tithe: A Modern Faerie Tale by Holly Black
55. Hercule Poirot’s Chistmas by Agatha Christie
54. The Austere Academy (Book 5 in a Series of Unfortunate Events) by Lemony Snicket
53. The Ersatz Elevator (Book 6 in a Series of Unfortunate Events) by Lemony Snicket
52. The Vile Village (Book 7 in a Series of Unfortunate Events) by Lemony Snicket
51. Shadow in the North by Philip Pullman
50. The Tiger in the Well by Philip Pullman
49. Peril at End House by Agatha Christie
48. Ironside by Holly Black
47. Mirror Mirror by Gregory Maguire
46. Getting the Girl by Markus Zusak
45. Looking for Alaska by John Green
44. The Last Child by John Hart

Now read on (or above) for my random thoughts!

Sunday, May 3, 2009

A Tale of Two Memoirs

I don’t often delve into the genre of memoir. I’m not much of a voyeur; I don’t feel the need for Oprah-like inspiration from the amazing progress of others in overcoming their terrible lives; and I usually don’t care enough about what celebrities do when they’re not on camera or historical figures did when they weren’t politicking, saving the world, or whatever to read a whole book about it. That said, I do occasionally go there, and I’ve had two books passed on to me by my mother sitting on my “to-read” shelf for some time, Amy Grant’s Mosaic and Elizabeth Gilbert’s Eat Pray Love. The two books are a lesson in how (or how not) to write a memoir.

Both women have struggled with depression throughout their lives. Both went through not particularly pleasant divorces. Both sought meaning in their lives through spiritual growth. And that’s pretty much where the similarities end between the two memoirs. Let me say that when I do bother to read a memoir, I want to come away feeling like I’ve learned something, like I know the person better or can take away something about their experience that is, if not helpful, at least interesting. In this regard, Mosaic left me dry; Eat Pray Love left me thirsting for more.

Grant tells you she’s dealt with depression. She tells you she’s struggled. She tells you she’s cried. Gilbert shows you what depression looks like. She takes you there (without dragging you down into it). Having dealt with depression myself, both personally and with friends and family, I came away from portions of Eat Pray Love thinking, “yeah, that is exactly what it’s like.” I loved her story of sobbing on the floor and feeling so tired of feeling lost and sad:

Is there anything about this scene you can change, Liz?’ And all I could think
to do was stand up, while still sobbing, and try to balance on one foot in the
middle of my living room. Just to prove that – while I couldn’t stop the
tears or change my dismal interior dialogue – I was not yet totally out of
control: at least I could cry hysterically while balanced on one foot.
Hey, it was a start.
Yeah, she was depressed, but she made me laugh because that is such a real story.

Similarly, Grant tells you that she’s divorced and hints that it wasn’t particularly pleasant but she withholds any information that could allow you to relate to her experience, anything that would allow you to understand how that experience affected her. (Oh, she tells you it affected her, but you don’t see it.) I’m certain she’s trying to protect her children and her ex-husband by not revealing any dirty details, but she doesn’t HAVE to reveal anything to make the experience relatable. Gilbert tells the reader only:
But I don’t think it’s appropriate for me to discuss his issues in my
book. Nor would I ask anyone to believe that I am capable of reporting an
unbiased version of our story, and therefore the chronicle of our marriage’s
failure will remain untold her. I also will not discuss here all the
reasons why I did still want to be his wife, or all his wonderfulness, or why I
loved him and why I had married him and why I was unable to imagine life without
him.
And yet, I walked away from Eat Pray Love with a complete sense of the divorce and its aftermath.

Similarly, the two writers’ treatment of their spiritual journeys is worlds apart. Going into Mosaic, I knew that Amy Grant has been a pop Christian artist since her teenage years and that her faith is integral to her music. Coming out of Mosaic, I knew that Amy Grant has been a pop Christian artist since her teenage years and that her faith is integral to her music. She told me so. While she shared some anecdotes and stories of her youth, I have absolutely no sense of Grant’s spiritual journey, of why she believes as she does, of what makes her faith so important to her. Gilbert takes us along on the journey. Ultimately, her entire book is about that journey. And even if the reader doesn’t believe everything she does, her story is real and it has substance and I understand it.

So, if I see another Amy Grant memoir any time soon, I’ll be passing by the opportunity for her to tell me more about her life. But when Elizabeth Gilbert’s next effort comes out, hopefully later this year, you can bet I’ll be picking up a copy so she can paint me some more lovely word pictures about her life.


A few words about some other recent reads. I love Arturo Perez Reverte. He's one of my favorite writers. I've read all his books. And reading them in English translation makes me want to read them in the original Spanish. I can't recommend them enough.

And yes, I read a book about Bettas. The newest addition to our family is Fishy Gink, which DD desperately wanted for her third birthday. In true Type A, control-freak, anal-retentive fashion, I had to read the book on how to care for the little guy.

And here's the update:

100. Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll
99. The Cat Who Covered the World by Christopher S. Wren
98. The Turn of the Screw by Henry James
97. Emily the Strange by Anonymous
96. Anathem by Neal Stephenson
95. The Higher Power of Lucky by Susan Patron, illustrated by Matt Phelan
94. A Thief in the House of Memory by Tim Wynne-Jones
93. Last Child in the Woods by Richard Louv
92. An Abundance of Katherines by John Green
91. Beauty by Robin McKinley
90. The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle
89. The Unicorn Sonata by Peter S. Beagle
88. Revenge by Stephen Fry
87. Summerland by Michael Chabon
86. Becoming Myself: Reflections on Growing up Female by Willa Shalit
85. The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester
84. The Crimes of Charlotte Bronte by James Tully
83. Alphabet Juice by Roy Blount Jr.
82. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
81. A Death in White Bear Lake: The True Chronicle of an All-American Town by Barry Siegel
80. The Girls Who Went Away: The Hidden History of Women Who Surrendered Children for Adoption in the Decades Before Roe v. Wade by Ann Fessler
79. Captain Alatriste by Arturo Perez Reverte
78. Purity of Blood by Arturo Perez Reverte
77. The Sun Over Breda by Arturo Perez Reverte
76. The King’s Gold by Arturo Perez Reverte
75. Mosaic by Amy Grant
74. Blink by Malcolm Gladwell
73. Aquarium Care of Bettas by David E. Boruchowitz
72. Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert

Friday, March 27, 2009

Woefully Absent

I have been woefully, but not unjustifiably, absent from my blog recent. Life has gotten in the way. Work, a cold, fun times with DD, watching NCAA basketball, sleeping -- all have conspired to keep me from my keyboard. But, I HAVE been reading. Here's an update:

100. Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll
99. The Cat Who Covered the World by Christopher S. Wren
98. The Turn of the Screw by Henry James
97. Emily the Strange by Anonymous
96. Anathem by Neal Stephenson
95. The Higher Power of Lucky by Susan Patron, illustrated by Matt Phelan
94. A Thief in the House of Memory by Tim Wynne-Jones
93. Last Child in the Woods by Richard Louv
92. An Abundance of Katherines by John Green
91. Beauty by Robin McKinley
90. The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle
89. The Unicorn Sonata by Peter S. Beagle
88. Revenge by Stephen Fry
87. Summerland by Michael Chabon
86. Becoming Myself: Reflections on Growing up Female by Willa Shalit
85. The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester
84. The Crimes of Charlotte Bronte by James Tully

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

More books...

Ooooo, I love a good suspense novel, and Stephen Fry's book Revenge hit the spot. A retelling of The Count of Monte Cristo, the novel is an excellent update to that fine story. The book follows the travails of Ned, the victim of a prank that goes very, very wrong and lands him in a mental asylum for years. The pacing was great, and even though I pretty much knew how things would end (having read TCoMC), I couldn't wait to get there with Ned. Fry's more known for his comic novels (and for being part of a comic duo with House's Hugh Laurie). Given my enjoyment of Revenge, you can expect to see at least one of those comic efforts further down this list.

100. Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll
99. The Cat Who Covered the World by Christopher S. Wren
98. The Turn of the Screw by Henry James
97. Emily the Strange by Anonymous
96. Anathem by Neal Stephenson
95. The Higher Power of Lucky by Susan Patron, illustrated by Matt Phelan
94. A Thief in the House of Memory by Tim Wynne-Jones
93. Last Child in the Woods by Richard Louv
92. An Abundance of Katherines by John Green
91. Beauty by Robin McKinley
90. The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle
89. The Unicorn Sonata by Peter S. Beagle
88. Revenge by Stephen Fry

Friday, February 6, 2009

100 Books Update

Just a quick update today! I finished the laugh-out-loud funny An Abundance of Katherines by John Green a few days ago. My husband discovered this author through his (the author’s not my husband’s) daily video blogging as part of the Brotherhood Project 2.0. If you need a good laugh, check out the book and check out John and his brother Hank’s year-long web “correspondence” on YouTube. I’ve not laughed this hard in a loooooong time.

Beauty is a retelling of the Beauty and the Beast story. This was Robin McKinley’s first work, and I’ve read and enjoyed several of her later books, so it was hard to pass this up when I saw it on the library’s new acquisitions shelf. While the story isn’t new, the telling is good, and I enjoyed it!

P.S. I did finish Last Child in the Woods, but I think I've said all I'm going to say about kids today not getting the outdoor free time that I had as a child. Read the book if you wish. It's good but not earth-shaking.



100. Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll
99. The Cat Who Covered the World by Christopher S. Wren
98. The Turn of the Screw by Henry James
97. Emily the Strange by Anonymous
96. Anathem by Neal Stephenson
95. The Higher Power of Lucky by Susan Patron, illustrated by Matt Phelan
94. A Thief in the House of Memory by Tim Wynne-Jones
93. Last Child in the Woods by Richard Louv
92. An Abundance of Katherines by John Green
91. Beauty by Robin McKinley

Sunday, February 1, 2009

Next Books

As I referenced in my entry below, I just finished some books on children without mothers. I admit that I have a real weakness for juvenile fiction and young adult fiction. Whenever I visit a bookstore or the library, I always check out the latest in juvie lit and YA. So when I found myself dragging a bit in reading Last Child in the Woods, a nonfiction discussion of the need of children for nature, I hit the library for a few good, short reads to get me through.

The Higher Power of Lucky by Susan Patron was a book I stumbled on at Borders or Barnes & Noble over the summer. Because I'm making a conscientious effort not to buy books but to check them out from the library, I noted the title and added it to my library to-read list. A Newberry Award winner, the book is a tender and sensitive look at the efforts of ten-year-old Lucky to cope with the loss of her mother, the absence of her father, and her fears about her French caregiver Brigitte leaving her, too.

The book is infused with humor, and Ms. Patron clearly has a finger on the pulse of what makes young children tick. I loved the childish intelligence and insight of Lucky and her friend Lincoln. Lincoln, worried that people will assume that the children in their town of 43 souls are stupid, amends the traffic sign to read "Slow: Children At Play." (It's something I wanted to do as a child!) Lucky, eavesdropping on local twelve-step meetings, has a beautiful, child-like understanding of the "higher power" credited by the recovering addicts as their salvation, and she seeks her own "higher power" in an effort to attain the stability she senses she's lost with the death of her mother.

It's a sweet and funny book, one I would like to read with my daughter one day.

Touching on similar themes of loss, A Thief in the House of Memory by Tim Wynne-Jones, has the feel of a thriller or ghost story as sixteen-year-old Declan Steeple comes to terms with the departure of his mother six years before. Through dreams and memory, Dec has, in a sense, a vision quest that leads him to accept truths about his mother as well as about his father and even himself ... truths that he has hidden from himself in an effort to cope with his mother's departure. While not as sweet or tender as Lucky, this book was also worth the read. I came away feeling that I knew Dec and his friends. Even though some characters appear briefly, they are so well "drawn" by Wynne-Jones, that you feel you know them, and they certainly reminded me of people I know.

So, here's the latest run-down, including Last Child in the Woods, which I'll finish today but blog about later. :)

100. Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll
99. The Cat Who Covered the World by Christopher S. Wren
98. The Turn of the Screw by Henry James
97. Emily the Strange by Anonymous
96. Anathem by Neal Stephenson
95. The Higher Power of Lucky by Susan Patron, illustrated by Matt Phelan
94. A Thief in the House of Memory by Tim Wynne-Jones
93. Last Child in the Woods by Richard Louv

Princesses Without Parents (or Why Does Disney Kill Off Parents?)

My recent reading has been about young characters with absent mothers (and, in one case, an absent father as well), which made me revisit an old topic of thought: Disney animated movies and what they seem to have against mothers. As I thought about it, though, I realized that not only do most Disney characters lack mothers, but they also lack fathers.

Think about the Disney “princesses.” Cinderella and Snow White’s mothers are dead, their fathers also presumably, and they’re left with “evil stepmothers.” Briar Rose (of Sleeping Beauty fame) has parents, but they’ve sent her off to live with fairies for protection and then fallen into a long, deep sleep under the influence of a spell. Little mermaid Ariel doesn’t appear to have a mother, and her father, what with having a fishy kingdom to run and all those other mer-children and young adults to look after, has, not surprisingly, little time to focus on leg-longing Ariel. Belle – who rescues the Beast – also appears to have uninterested parents at best … I don’t recall ever seeing them in the film.

The other three “princesses,” each have a father, but it’s a father that they must save in some way, switching the traditional parent-child dynamic. Jasmine has an ineffectual Sultan father at risk of losing his kingdom to the evil Jafar. Mulan has a father who is unable to answer the call to arms from his emperor due to physical disability so Mulan does it for him. Pocahontas must rebel against her father, Chief Powhatan, to save the British settlers.

Beyond the princesses, the Peter Pan children presumably have parents… parents who leave them in the constant care of a dog Nana. Mowgli is off roaming the jungle, having been stolen from his parents.

The animal heroes don’t fare much better: Bambi’s mother is killed by a hunter early in the film. Dumbo’s mother is locked up as deranged similarly early. As for Simba, his father is murdered by his uncle, and who knows where his mother has gotten of to. (Hamlet anyone?) For each character, these are pivotal events in the plots of their lives.

(Hey – even Miss Bianca and Bernard of The Rescuers, who are ostensibly the heroes, go to rescue a little girl they who is, you guessed it, an orphan!)

At best, in each of these movies, the protagonist’s parents are background characters, people who have little role in their children’s lives. Occasionally, the fathers (but not the mothers) are sources of danger or conflict, the cause of the characters’ adventures. At worst, the parents are traumatically dead.

So what is it about the absence of parents that is so powerful that it appears over and over and over as a theme in the movie fare we show our children? Perhaps the absence of parents frees the characters in some way. Lacking parents, these characters have the freedom to have adventures, to be heroines and heroes. Often, the loss or inability of a parent actually spurs the adventure. And, let’s face it, some of these films are scary, particularly because the characters are doing it, by and large, alone. Oh, maybe they have a few loyal sidekicks, but they don’t have the support of their parents, and that makes life frighteningly challenging for the protagonist and makes the movie interesting for us viewers. And while a life without parents is scary and certainly lacks the firm stabilizing influence parents provide for children, such a life also has, dare I say it, excitement. That’s a powerful message for our children.

And I’m not so sure about that message, though it does appear to be a strongly American one. After all, it is the clearly stated goal of most American parents (most Western parents even) for their children to “leave the nest” and start “lives of their own.” Perhaps these movies just tap into our culturally-imbued sense that our primary role as parents is to prepare our children to go off on their own adventures then for us to bow gracefully off stage into the wings of our children’s lives.

Regardless of the roots of the message, it is one to which I pay attention, and I encourage other parents to notice it as well. While I have no intention of banning Disney films in our house, I do plan to introduce the ones with more traumatic scenes (like Bambi – I still remember sobbing when Bambi’s mother dies…) later and cautiously. I plan to talk with my daughter about the messages these films send. (Hey, I haven’t even touched on the “every girl must have her prince” message. That’s for another blog.) And I plan to reassure her that absent parents in movies do not translate to absent parents in her life.

Monday, January 26, 2009

Frack and Frell Go to …

I was listening to NPR a little earlier today, and I heard a piece on a young man in Pasadena who has started a “No Cussing Club.” McKay Hatch’s parents, apparently, have written the book on raising a G-rated child. (Literally. It’s Raising a G-Rated Family in an X-Rated World by Brent and Phelecia Hatch.) Young McKay has followed in his parents’ G-rated footsteps and encourages all young people to foreswear swearing.

Maybe I’m a bad, bad mama because I’ve just gotta admit that swearing is waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay down on the list of things I worry about with my kid. (And I think that seeing the world as generally X-rated is pretty cynical and perhaps even a little paranoid.)

In fact, profanity just doesn’t bother me at all, and I’ll be the first to admit: Mama’s got a potty-mouth. Mama does do a good job of reining in her wayward tongue when DD is in earshot, but no one has ever accused me of being prim (or proper, for that matter). I don’t go out of my way to expose DD to profanity, mind you, but I don’t shield her ears when we’re in public either.

McKay suggests that we all say “pickles” and “shoot” and such euphemisms for the “dirty words” we really mean. I don’t really see the point. For one thing, there’s a real satisfaction from letting a choice word fly when you slam your fingers in the door or drop your perfectly scooped $10 ice cream cone on the not-so-pristine ice cream parlor floor. A satisfaction that just doesn’t materialize with an “oh pickles.” Admit it, illicit words are just more FUN! Even DD gets the humor and sneaky little satisfaction from saying “oh POOP” – high profanity for a two-year-old – when something moderately annoying, yet simultaneously funny happens to her And really, in a sense, what’s the difference in saying “pickles” or a four-letter-word when you mean the same thing when you say them???

So, while I hope DD doesn’t start letting the f-bomb fly anytime soon – there is, after all, a time and place for all behavior – when she inevitably does, I doubt she’ll get in trouble. (Maybe a brief conversation about not cussing in front of your great-grandmother – even your mama knows better than that!)

Because I’m pretty okay with raising a PG-rated child. Maybe even PG-13. Hell (whoops!), when she’s old enough, she can even be R-rated, if she wants. Now if we ever get to that X-rated point, THEN I’ll draw that firm line!


**P.S. For those of you who aren’t SciFi geeks like me, “frack” and “frell” are the creative, censor-evading words used by characters in, respectively, Battlestar Galatica and Farscape. :)

Saturday, January 17, 2009

Philosophic reading

Before I met my husband, I was not a reader of Science Fiction. He not-so-gently introduced me to the genre with Orson Scott Card’s Ender’s Game and William Gibson’s Neuromancer. I haven’t looked back.

While my husband has done most of the introductions of scifi writers into our reading lives, I like to take credit for bringing one great author onto our “must read” list: Neal Stephenson. I don’t recall whether a friend recommended the book or I heard a review on NPR or I just picked up the book at a bookstore, but Stephenson’s Snow Crash was a roller coaster ride of a book that grabbed me from the get-go. I wanted more and soon read Zodiac then later Cryptonomicon.

Stephenson’s work has gotten longer, deeper, and more philosophical while retaining the action. Snow Crash and Zodiac, earlier works, are heavily on the scifi action end - not exactly fluff and certainly not cheesy but driven more by the action than by the characters' thoughts. They're relatively short, fast reads. Cryptonomicon trended more thoughtful, relied less on constant action to drive the reader on, and was a more difficult read for me as a result. Stephenson's latest work, Anathem, is no exception to the trend.

At about 953 pages, the book was a smooth, engaging read (far more so than the comparably sized Moby Dick, which I finished over Christmas. Bleh). Like Stephenson’s Cryptonomicon, I initially was unable to get into the book fully, but the effort was worth it. Anathem takes place in a world similar to our own but with its own vocabulary. For about the first 100 pages, I felt I was constantly referring to the glossary Stephenson kindly included at the back, which was mildly irritating. Once I inevitably got caught up in the storyline, in the worldview of the characters, especially of the protagonist Erasmus, and in the characters’ adventures, the weird words all suddenly didn't matter. They didn't always make instant sense, but I couldn't tear myself away from the page to flip to the glossary!

The book isn’t all adventure, though. While Stephenson has honed his ability to keep readers on the edge of their seats, this book is as much about philosophy as it is about typical scifi action. As a philosophy minor in college, I found the book refreshed my recollection of ideas I hadn’t (at least consciously and actively) thought about in some time. For anyone familiar with basic concepts of Philosophy – from the classic Platonic ideals to modern theories of consciousness and knowledge – this book will ring those same bells.

It was so enjoyable that I may have to hit some more Stephenson. I’ve been putting off reading his Baroque Cycle (which dear hubby greatly enjoyed) for some time. It’s three times as long as Anathem and, apparently, just as philosophical, but I think it’s time!


100. Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll
99. The Cat Who Covered the World by Christopher S. Wren
98. The Turn of the Screw by Henry James
97. Emily the Strange by Anonymous
96. Anathem by Neal Stephenson

Saturday, January 10, 2009

Books 99-97

It's been a busy few days, book-wise! On Thursday, I finished the pleasant and engaging The Cat Who Covered the World by Christopher Wren. The story of Henrietta, the cat who travelled around the world with foreign correspondent Wren and his family, it was worth picking up off the "take me" pile at my yoga studio. One little note: the frontispiece of the book quoted a passage from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, a neat little segue from my previous read.

For book 98, I returned to a classic that I read years ago, The Turn of the Screw by Henry James. While I enjoyed it again, the book was not as scary as I recalled, and I had completely forgotten the rather abrupt ending. I found myself contemplating the mental state of the narrator far more than soaking up the eeriness of the book. Nonetheless, I'm glad I read it again.

Book 97 was pretty much a throw-away: a brief graphic novel, Emily the Strange (no author attribution). I've bought my own sister Emily a number of Emily the Strange paraphernalia over the years. Unfortunately, her snarky, spooky non sequiturs, wisecracks, and obiter dicta did not translate well into book format. Buy the cute tees, notepads, magnets, and more, but avoid the book...

So, here's the summary:

100. Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll
99. The Cat Who Covered the World by Christopher S. Wren
98. The Turn of the Screw by Henry James
97. Emily the Strange by Anonymous

Not sure what I'll read next, but I'll be sure to report!

Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Book 100

Last night, I finished book 100 Through the Looking Glass, the "Annotated Alice" version. I read Alice in Wonderland last year. Thoroughly enjoyed both -- took me back to childhood when dreams seemed like a real place I could go. I can't wait to read these to DD when she gets a little older.

Monday, January 5, 2009

The Year of 100 Books

Happy New Year! I’ve been blog-absent for some time now, but I promise it was for a good reason – holiday celebrations!

As the new year starts, I’ve got a new project, in spite of the adverse counsel of my trepidatious hubby. This, my friends, shall be henceforth known as “The Year of 100 Books.” Yes, I’ve set a goal of reading 100 books in 2009. For those of you who are trying to tally that up in your head, that would be approximately one book every three days.

I do promise that not every book will be one with lots of pictures and little text that I’ve read to my daughter! I’ll keep you bloggishly up-to-date on my readings (as well as talk about the usual sorts of topics that cross my mind). If you have any suggestions for not-to-be-missed reads, feel free to comment!

Just to make things interesting (for me anyway), I’ve decided to count DOWN to number one. Maybe that’ll give me more incentive to finish so that all those smaller numbers aren’t staring blankly at me at the end of the year. So… I better go read!