Sense and Sensibility

This summer (yes, I realize it's winter and I'm writing about the summer- I had a busy fall that included a lot of reading, but not a lot of writing...) I re-read Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility. I haven't read anything Austen straight through in probably about a decade except for Pride and Prejudice and Zombies which doesn't really count, not to mention I have tried to repress all memories of it.

Anyway, back to Sense and Sensibility which follows the lives and loves of sisters Elinor and Marianne Dashwood. Austen uses the sisters to illustrate the competing notions of reason, rationality, and rule-based judgments and passion, emotion, and desire. While these were very salient schools of thought at the time the book was written (late 18th century, during the onset of the Romantic period), the same competing principles of deliberate thought and implicit emotions are relevant today (just ask a social psychologist!!)

As I was re-reading the novel, I remembered the main points of the plot-- who ends up with who, for example-- but, I had forgotten all of the details of the two sisters' romances and perspectives  At one point, I even started second-guessing my memory of the plot because things were just not happening as quickly as I thought they would, so every page still managed to be a surprise.

19th Meeting: The Illustrated Man

I like to think that organizing a book club and writing a blog about the books I read means that I am a well-read person. But it's mostly a lie. I read every night, yes, but I don't read the books that I "should" read. You know, the books that everyone else has read? I guess you could also call them "classics". Ha! Anyway, I am mostly in denial about this because of all of the other signs that point to me being a prolific consumer of literature, but every so often, I can't escape the fact that I'm a fraud. For example, when one of the book club members selects a collection of short stories by Ray Bradbury.

everyone else in the world: "Oh, this book will be great! Fahrenheit 451 was so amazing, I bet this will  be wonderful too."
me: ... *crickets chirping*... "yeah, totally."

I mean, obviously, I've heard of Fahrenheit 451, I just haven't, you know... read it. But that doesn't mean I couldn't enjoy this month's book selection The Illustrated Man. Collections of short stories are almost always a hit at book club, because there's always enough variety that people find at least one story they connect with. This book was no exception- in fact, we unanimously liked the book!

The short stories in this book are all futuristic (though many take place in the 1980's or now-- they were all written in the 1950's) takes on technology and human nature. The stories either were about the end of the world through atomic warfare (something constantly present in the collective thoughts of the 1950's), or they were about a different life for people once space travel and "rocket men" were everywhere. While these specific events are not true of the future (at least yet) something Bradbury got right was the state of human nature. Bradbury captured the complexity of human character so perfectly-- while the potential for things like love and happiness exist in all of us, so do things like hate, fear, anger, and entitlement. Bradbury showed how consumerism and technology would be enough to corrupt us; while he was talking about rockets and not ipods, I'm not sure we are too far off his predictions of the world!

The short stories in this book were all tied together by the story of the illustrated man. This man was covered in magical tattoos that all moved and told stories, supposedly of the future. Each of the stories in the book was then supposedly one of the tattoos. I really liked this as a tool to tie the stories together. And in fact, the prologue and epilogue were some of my favorite parts of the whole collection! All in all, I thought this was a great book. After a fantastic discussion of this and Bradbury's other works, I may actually try to read Fahrenheit 451 one of these days!

*A final note. There are many editions of this book, and between the six people at our meeting, we had four different versions that didn't always include the same stories. Only one or two stories were different between the versions, but until we discovered that, our discussions were pretty bizarre (e.g., "You don't remember that story? But it was one of the best!)

How to Write a Lot

Remember my resolution for 2012? You know, the one about writing a lot? While it may not be noticeable in terms of this blog, in my "real life", I have actually-- possibly for the first time ever-- stuck to the resolution!

Since January, I have written my prospectus, two manuscripts, and statements for my job applications.  And I have this book to thank for my progress: Paul Silvia's How to Write a Lot.

This little self-help book is specifically for academic writing, and even more specifically for psychologists (as Silvia is a faculty member at the University of Kansas in Personality Psychology). Silvia manages to take concepts that I "already know" and make them so blatantly clear that I can't get around them anymore. For examples, if you want to write a lot, you have to write often.

I'm waiting for you to pick your jaw up off the floor.... I know this piece of advice doesn't seem to groundbreaking, but for me, it was. Before reading this book, I survived as what Silvia refers to as a "binge writer". I saved up all my writing for big blocks of time where I would crank out a project in one sitting. I even did this in college for my written class assignments! While it was easier as an undergraduate when my blocks of time only needed to be big enough to throw together a five page reaction paper or article critique, now it is becoming more difficult. How am I supposed to find a chunk of time that is big enough to write say, a dissertation? Instead, Silvia suggests setting aside protected "writing time" two or three (or five) times a week. The rules of writing time? Write (doesn't have to be good, just get words on paper), read, edit, do some stats, format, save, delete-- basically, do any type of work on the writing project, keep track of what you did and how long you spent, and feel good about yourself when you're done.

Anyway, I cannot thank Silvia or this wonderful little book enough for changing my life. I now successfully have writing time at least twice a week and have become a much more productive graduate student. I think I'm going to re-read this book once a year to keep the inspiration and motivation fresh.

Til then, I have some more writing to do.

Rory Gilmore's Bookshelf

Maybe it's because I'm always trying to come up with potential books to pick for book club, but when a good list of books comes up, I can't help myself but to read through it and see if anything strikes my fancy. Plus, I love a good "how many of these have I read?" challenge! The latest list I have found comes from Bust Magazine (a hip feminist mag I recently subscribed to), and happens to involve one of my most favorite TV shows, Gilmore Girls.

It seems I'm not the only one interested in this idea. Check out this blog and this blog for more!  

While Rory Gilmore honestly always bugged me-- I mean, why did everyone think she was so amazing and perfect? Was she really that great?-- but I still can't help myself but to see how I stack up against her bookshelf. Below is the list of books that appeared in the series (c/o this Tumblr). A strike-through means I've read the book, and a highlight means I own it!

 Finally tally-- I've read 28, and I own an additional three. There are some that I'm pretty embarrassed that I haven't read yet, so maybe this list will get me inspired! 

• A Month Of Sundays by Julie Mars

• The Razor’s Edge by W. Somerset Maugham         

• Small Island by Andrea Levy  

• My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult  

• A Quiet Storm by Rachel Howzell Hall  

• My Life in Orange by Tim Guest  

• Truth & Beauty by Ann Patchett  

• The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon  

• The Polysyllabic Spree by Nick Hornby  

• How to Breathe Underwater by Julie Orringer  

• The True and Outstanding Adventures of the Hunt Sisters by Elisabeth Robinson  

• Nervous System by Jan Lars Jensen  

• The Meaning of Consuelo by Judith Ortiz Cofer  

• The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini  

• How the Light Gets In by M. J. Hyland  

• Oracle Night by Paul Auster  

• Quattrocento by James McKean  

• The Opposite of Fate by Amy Tan  

• Holidays on Ice by David Sedaris  

• Sacred Time by Ursula Hegi  

• Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach  

• The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom  

• The Fortress of Solitude by Jonathan Lethem  

• Old School by Tobias Wolff  

• The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri  

• The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon  

• The Bielski Brothers by Peter Duff  

• Brick Lane by Monica Ali  

• Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books by Azar Nafisi

• The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger  

• Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood  

• The Song of Names by Norman Lebrecht  

• Property by Valerie Martin  

• Rescuing Patty Hearst by Virginia Holman  

• The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson  

• Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie  

• The Kitchen Boy by Robert Alexander  

• Just a Couple of Days by Tony Vigorito  

• Bee Season by Myla Goldberg  

• Fat Land : How Americans Became the Fattest People in the World by Greg Critser  

• Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire  

• Unless by Carol Shields  

• Autobiography of a Face by Lucy Grealy  

• When the Emperor Was Divine by Julie Otsuka  

• Songbook by Nick Hornby  

• Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides  

• Extravagance by Gary Krist  

• Empire Falls by Richard Russo  

• The Song Reader by Lisa Tucker  

• Bel Canto by Ann Patchett  

• A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole  

• The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon  

• Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris   **I'm reading this right now! That counts, right?

• Life of Pi by Yann Martel  

• The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy  

• The Red Tent by Anita Diamant  

• The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd  

• The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold  

• Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn  

• Seabiscuit: An American Legend by Laura Hillenbrand  

• The Nanny Diaries by Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus                 

• A Passage to India by E.M. Forster  

• Frankenstein by Mary Shelley  

• Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton  

• Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse  

• Speak, Memory by Vladimir Nabokov  

• The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco  

• David Copperfield by Charles Dickens  

• The Lottery: And Other Stories by Shirley Jackson  

• Little Women by Louisa May Alcott  

• One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey  

• Song of the Simple Truth: The Complete Poems of Julia De Burgos by Julia De Burgos  

• The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne  

• Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray  

• Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury  

• The Picture Of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde  

• Night by Elie Wiesel  

• The Code of the Woosters by P. G. Wodehouse  

• Hamlet by William Shakespeare  

• Complete Tales & Poems by Edgar Allan Poe  

• Beloved by Toni Morrison  

• A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith  

• A Separate Peace by John Knowles  

• Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw  

• Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes  

• The Story of My Life by Helen Keller  

• The Awakening by Kate Chopin  

• Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank  

• Time and Again by Jack Finney  

• Brave New World by Aldous Huxley  

• The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas  

• Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe  

• Sybil by Flora Schreiber  

• Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson  

• Cousin Bette by Honore De Balzac  

• Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad  

• Galapagos by Kurt Vonnegut  

• The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov  

• The Jungle by Upton Sinclair  

• Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck  

• Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen   **I'm re-reading this right now for the first time since highschool! 

• The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo  

• 1984 by George Orwell  

• The Portable Dorothy Parker by Dorothy Parker  

• The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway  

• An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser  

• Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller  

• Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky  

• Lord of the Flies by William Golding  

• The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger  

• The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald  

• Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte  

• The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath  

• The Sound and The Fury by William Faulkner  

• The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka  

• The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain  

• Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy  

• Emma by Jane Austen  

• On The Road by Jack Kerouac  

• The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand 

Farm Anatomy

Grad school is tough. It's a life with lots of work and few pleasures. And despite loving what I do (and more importantly what I will do when I actually get a job), sometimes I like to just day dream about quitting life and moving to a farm where I can just grow vegetables, cut fresh flowers, and finally get a dog.

Julia Rothman's picture book Farm Anatomy: The Curious Parts and Pieces of Country Life provides the perfect escape to country life without the complications of quitting my job or moving. Rothman beautifully illustrates everything from tomato varieties to the appropriate methods of stacking firewood.

I gobbled this book up as a source of entertainment and retreat from reality, but I know that I will keep it and refer back to it as a resource. The book offers a deceptively large amount of information among its fabulous illustrations, and would help any farmer-wannabe get started with planting a garden, canning foods, or identifying a piglet from a shoat (guess you'll just have to buy the book if you want to find that out!)

Okay, back to gazing at the pretty pictures. I can't say I plan on planting an orchard any time soon, but a girl can dream, can't she?

101 Books to Read This Summer -- A Flow Chart

I just found this amazing flow-chart of book recommendations thanks to Teach.com. I guess they are recommending that teens find a book to read on here, but I am sure they won't mind if a 29 year old uses the flow chart instead! I have already read a handful-- and our book club has even read at least two! I can't wait to find another one off the list.

Via Teach.com and USC Rossier Online

18th meeting: Stone Butch Blues

On Sunday, the 18th meeting of Eat, Drink, and Be Literary was hosted by Tana-- it also marked her last meeting since she is graduating (color me jealous) and will be moving to Boston to start a post-doc.  For her last book, Tana chose Stone Butch Blues by Leslie Feinberg.

Our meeting was small this time-- only five people-- but we had a great discussion of the novel. It is the story (seeming based loosely on Feinberg's life) of a young butch lesbian, Jess growing up in the 1950's-60's in Buffalo as she struggles with her her gender identity and finds a place in the world. It was brutally hard to read at times (emotionally, I mean), but I am so glad I got through it. This book helped me to really take the perspective of a group of people that I haven't ever before.

The struggles that Jess faced as a child and young adult were horrific, and while this story was fictionalized, I assume that it s representative of so many people's stories. The entire group mentioned how glad we were to be living in a time where women can't be arrested and beaten and raped simply for dancing with one another. While the fight for equality in this country is far from being won, I am thankful that we are closer now than we were 50 years ago.

As happy as I am that I read this, I didn't love all of it. I thought that the first hundred pages were incredibly powerful and eye-opening, but the middle of the book just dragged for me.  A huge part of the novel dealt with the formation of unions and other social movements of the 60's, and while I find this whole era incredibly important and fascinating, I almost thought that there was too much going on in certain points of the book. Too many characters, each with so many struggles I almost became desensitized to them. I guess I just think that the plot could have been streamlined somehow.

Deadlocked... no, really

The latest book in the Sookie Stackhouse series, Deadlocked, is very aptly named as I find myself in a virtual deadlock with the series. While Charlaine Harris' world of "supes" and lusty vampires enticed me for at least seven or eight novels, I'm just over it now. The last two books have lacked any sort of cohesive story line or plot, and I feel like instead I am just "checking in" with all of the characters down in Bon Temps.

So, why am I in a deadlock? I need this series to end; I'm waiting for it to tidily wrap itself up so I don't have to read it anymore. As I have explained in this blog before, I am somehow incapable of quitting a book. I will stop reading it, sure, but I won't ever admit that I'm done, and will keep the never-ender on my bedside table, taunting me every night when I get in to bed and yet again choose something else to read. Well, as it turns out, I am also incapable of quitting series.

So, Ms. Harris, please quit writing these books because I can't quit you! Oh, and p.s., please do not have Sookie end up with Sam because the Sam portrayed on True Blood has ruined his character in the books for me. Okaythankssssss. And while I am on the subject of True Blood... what the heck is going on in this season? Have we abandoned all worthwhile story lines from the books? I'm just not happy with the state of vampire affairs right now, obviously. I just want Eric to wear blue sweaters (see below) and be in love with Sookie. Is that so much to ask?

you are welcome

17th Meeting: Rabbit, Run

The 17th meeting of Eat, Drink, and Be Literary was hosted by one of our newest members, Kelsey. She made her official mark on our book club with a bang, by selecting John Updike's classic Rabbit, Run. Our whole club remarked that while knowing John Updike's name, that we had never actually read anything by him. We were very glad to have righted this obvious wrong!

This novel, the first of the Rabbit series, follows a young man nicknamed Rabbit suffering what we would now refer to as a quarter life crisis. He is 26, married to an alcoholic, has a toddler and a baby on the way, and impulsively decides to leave his home and his life. He runs away from all responsibilities, searches for an identity, and leaves a nothing but uncertainty and destruction behind. 

While I am sure this novel was groundbreaking and scandalous (hence being a banned book) when it came out in the 1960's, for most of us in the book club, it felt like a tired story. We have actually read quite a few novels lately about men suffering crises of virtue and identity, and it is really only palatable in small doses. 

Updike's prose were incredible, though, and it was apparent to all of us why he is a household name. While I didn't love the book, and I especially didn't love Rabbit, I think I might be interested in reading the later books in the series in hopes that I see some actual growth in the character. 

Because of the symbolism of Rabbit's nickname (as a creature without much foresight, and with too much fight or flight instinct), Kelsey suggested that we bring "animal" themed food. I brought radishes from my garden (that's rabbit food, right?), and we had other goodies such as puppy chow, ants on a log, and monkey bread. It was probably the cutest theme yet!

16th Meeting: Love Creeps

Never have I laughed as hard at a book as I did for the April book club book, Love Creeps by Amanda Filapacchi. (Yes, I said April, and yes, it is late June. I'm a little behind. Sue me!) I had high expectations for the book, since my friend Beth picked it, and her last book club pick was our only unanimously liked book-- Willful Creatures.  Luckily this book did not disappoint (well, me anyway-- the rest of the group was mixed, as usual). It was one of the most odd books I've ever read, and riotously funny. 

The book follows a successful New York art gallery owner, Lynn, who is suffering from a "lack of desire". Lynn tries to take a note from her stalker, a schlubby guy named Alan, and stalk someone. Lynn's thought process was that if she pretended to desire someone, the desire would eventually turn real. So, she selects the first man she sees, a tall, dark, and handsome man named Roland, and starts following him. She tries to copy everything her own stalker does, and ends up just forwarding all of Alan's notes (and even some nude photos) without even changing the signatures. While this sounds twisted and dark, it was written in such a matter-of-fact way that the silliness of the situation was the only thing that came through. 

The rest of the novel followed this bizarre love triangle-- the stalked, the stalked-stalker, and the stalker-- through a number of adventures, including an eventual reversal of the stalker chain. Some of the high points of the book for me were the passages told from the point of view of Ray, a homeless former psychologist. Apparently, Ray suffered from "excessive curiosity disorder" and while a therapist, he became so enthralled with his clients' problems that he would call them repeatedly to ask how their relationships were going. This ridiculous condition eventually lost him his job, and landed him in jail on harassment charges. So, once he was out of jail, he lived on the street, and watched the stalk-train walk past. As each of them would stop to give him change, he would whisper advice to them-- "you are being followed" or "get a hobby". It. Was. Hilarious. I clearly cannot do Filpacchi any justice by trying to describe this book, so instead I will just say read this book as soon as possible. Buy it, borrow it, or read it over someone's shoulder on the bus. Just be ready to laugh! As mentioned, the rest of the book club was a bit mixed in their reviews. While everyone agreed that it was funny, a few people didn't think that was enough, and were searching for some sort of meaning behind the silliness. There may have been a point to it, and there may not, but for me, it didn't really matter. I was entertained, and that was enough!

Mudbound

Well, I am officially two book club meetings and approximately 6 books behind in blogging. I am going to blame a combination of things including deadlines for writing manuscripts at work and beautiful sunny weather for the last several months. How is a girl to get anything done? Sheesh.

Anyway, my review of Mudbound by Hillary Jordan is a long time coming. My mom originally ordered this book for me close to a year ago after she read and loved it. After Amazon managed to send it to my college apartment (which I have not lived in for over 7 years now) not once but TWICE, a copy finally found its way to me in good old Coralville. I really hope the Loyola student who got the book in Chicago enjoyed it, that's all I can say! Maybe they gave the second copy to a friend...

I read this book at the same time as Wise Blood, and as I've previously mentioned, I managed to get confused on the names quite a bit. But, looking back at the two books, I realized they have much more in common than two syllable titles. Both novels take place in the south post WWII, both deal with soldiers struggling to understand life upon their return, and both have plenty of racial tension. 


Mudbound was a much easier read than Wise Blood, in my opinion, and perhaps more emotional. Whereas Flannery O'Connor made me think and scrutinize and look for symbolism in Wise Blood, Hillary Jordan pretty much spelled every emotion out for me in Mudbound... and I'm not sure if that is good or bad.

Mudbound is one story told from the point of view of multiple narrators, and comes across at times like a collection of short stories. I've read numerous books of this format lately  and while I really enjoy it, I'm also wondering if it is being over done. Mudbound is mostly told from the point of view of Laura, a city girl who finds herself living on a remote and rustic farm with her husband, children, despicable father-in-law, and the Jacksons a family of black sharecroppers. When Laura's brother-in-law, and the Jacksons' son return from WWII, they become unlikely friends. Throughout the book, there are chapters from every character's perspective, and Jordan really manages to bring the emotions and racial tensions of the time. I enjoyed the book a lot, and would definitely recommend it as an easy summer read.

15th Meeting: Wise Blood

The 15th meeting of Eat, Drink, and Be Literary took place on a sunny and mild Sunday afternoon in February. One our newest members, Rachel, hosted the discussion of Wise Blood by Flannery O'Connor. I was extremely excited to read this book for many reasons- mostly, I have embarrassingly never read anything by Flannery O'Connor, and I feel as though I should considering she is a literary icon. Also, she is a graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop, and happened to write at least a portion of the novel while here! It is incredible to be living in the same city and walking the same streets as so many literary geniuses, and reading the works they wrote while living and studying here is just too cool.

Unfortunately, I didn't love the book-- and barring one exception, neither did most Literary Eaters & Drinkers. We had an amazing discussion though. The novel is about a maladjusted WWII veteran, Hazel Motes, who returns to the south from the war having a crisis of faith. He starts preaching and starts the "church of Christ without Christ". The cast of characters are all misguided mis-fits and the symbolism, religious themes, and dark comedy of the book are inescapable. 

I appreciate the book much more after our discussion, but while reading it, I kept feeling like I just wasn't smart enough. I didn't see the masterpiece, I didn't get the comedy, I wasn't shocked (in a good way or bad) by the religious themes. Overall? I just didn't get it. The chapters didn't seem to flow, and I was just not that engaged. At first I chalked it up to the fact that I was incredibly preoccupied with prospectus writing and applying for fellowships, but after finishing the novel, I looked it up on Wikipedia (the source of all knowledge, right?) and found out that the book was basically a compilation of multiple originally separate short stories (one of which was O'Connor's thesis at Iowa!) After I realized that the chapters were originally distinct stories, I felt much better about the whole book. And in fact, I could see merit in individual chapters and I think I would have enjoyed them much more if they were just a short story. 

Kelsey, the loan true fan of the book, is also a huge fan of O'Connor in general. She said that once you "get" the dark comedy of her work, that the rest falls into place.  So, with that endorsement, I have decided not to give up on O'Connor's work! And maybe in time, I will come back to Wise Blood and see if I can get a clue! 

14th Meeting (and a blizzard): Caramelo

We have had the most mild winter that I can remember this year. (I realize I probably just jinxed us to have the coldest snowiest March ever, but oh well). In fact, we've only had a few days with our typical sub-zero temperatures, and only one significant snow storm. Because I am so fantastic at planning things, that one measly blizzard we had fell on the day of our January book club meeting. Because of the craptastic weather, we had a pretty small group, but a great meeting. I was the host for the meeting (which meant I didn't have to drive in the snow! yay!), and I picked the book Caramelo by Sandra Cisneros.

I picked Caramelo for several reasons. First off, despite reading a wide variety of literature over the last year and a half, our book club hasn't read very many books by female authors; and we have read exactly zero books by women that are told from a woman's point of view. Considering the fact that the club is predominantly female, this is somewhat surprising! Caramelo fit both of these criteria-- Sandra Cisneros is obviously a woman, and the book is semi-autobiographical and told from the point of view of a young Mexican American girl named Celaya. The second reason I selected this book, is that Sandra Cisneros went to Loyola University Chicago for her undergraduate education (just like me!) and to the University of Iowa for her graduate education (just like me!). The third reason is that her graduate degree was from the Writer's Workshop at Iowa and I want to support anything coming out of Iowa! And the fourth and final reason I chose this book was that I already owned it. In college, I took several hispanic or latina women's writers courses with the most amazing professor, Dr. Cavallo. My friends and I adored Dr. Cavallo, her amazing pencil skirts, and her ability to make us passionate about any piece of literature. It was in her classes that I really learned how to be a critical reader and I will never forget her impact on me! Anyway, Caramelo was on the syllabus for one of her classes-- however, we got behind thanks to a discussion about some other great book, and never got around to finishing it. I have held on to the book since (for 7 years) and figured it was time I actually read it!

After that huge amount of back story, it might be fairly obvious that I was expecting great things out of the book. Seven years of build-up do that to a girl! I don't know if it was just because of my exceedingly high expectations that this book couldn't stand a chance, but I didn't really like it all that much.

Oddly enough, everyone at book club agreed with me. I say this is odd because we have all been in agreement about our feelings towards a book exactly ONE time in the 14 meetings we've had (it was at our second meeting, back when we uniformly all loved Willful Creatures by Aimee Bender picked by Beth). I am bummed that this time our unanimous opinion wasn't so great, but we still had a great discussion.

The book reads like a memoir, but is technically a novel. It is the story of a a young Mexican-American girl named Celaya and her huge, vibrant, and dysfunctional family. What was interesting about the book club's unanimous "meh" feelings towards this book, is that we all agreed that it was pleasant to read. There were passages that we thought would have made wonderful short stories, or even novellas. Throughout the entire novel, Cisneros used creative and memorable turns of phrase, and described things so colorfully that on occasion I dog-eared pages so I could jot things down later. The novel was fairly engaging, but, none of that seemed to matter-- nobody felt especially connected to any of the characters, so as pleasant as the book was, we wouldn't have thought twice about setting the book down and never picking it back up. I guess that is actually one of the good things about book club: it forces me to finish books that would otherwise turn into "never-enders" for me.

The real hit of the meeting, for those who were brave enough to rough the blizzard conditions, was the food. Since the book was largely about life in Mexico, we decided to have a Mexican inspired feast. I made tacos-- I had a chipotle pulled pork filling and my very favorite sweet potato black bean filling for the vegetarians. We had plantain chips c/o Jillian, guacamole thanks to Rachel, and the most amazing little short bread cookies with spicy chocolate dipping sauce made by Mandy. Josh and Beth brought margarita fixings (which made me wonder why we don't celebrate the "drink" portion of this blog more often) and they also managed to find the same brand of soda that Cisneros talks about in the book at Hy Vee. We had lime, mandarin, and pineapple Jaritos. (The pineapple was my favorite.) All in all, it was one of our best meals ever, especially since it fit so perfectly with the book.

On my shelf (and other stuff)

On my shelf:

I'm currently reading two books-- Wise Blood by Flannery O'Connor (which is the next book club pick!) and Mudbound by Hillary Jordan (which was a gift from my mom). I'm enjoying both, though I have to admit I'm only a few chapters into each of them. Somehow my subconscious keeps combining them into one book. In the morning I find myself searching for "Mud Blood" before I hop on the bus. If I was a maniacal Harry Potter fan, this might be more expected, but instead it's just kind of hilarious.

Other stuff:

So many of the books I've read since starting this blog have been turned into TV shows (all of the Sookie books) or movies, (the Twilight series, The Help, The Hunger Games, and Cloud Atlas), or were based on an event that is also the topic of a great documentary (Let the Great World Spin) that I have been thinking of adding a series to the blog. My goal would not be to become a movie critic (because I am just not cool enough, skilled enough, or... well, I think "cool enough" summed it up) but would just be to compare the works in written format to the works in the film format.

For example-- take the Twilight series. Twilight still makes me get butterflies and googly eyes in the written form, (I know, it's embarrassing and anti-feminist but I JUST CANNOT HELP MYSELF. I mean, he LOVES her but he wants to EAT her. How can you not swoon?) but the movie hurts my soul. My favorite scene of the book (in the meadow-- anyone? Anyone?) is completely ruined in the movie by awkward teenage actors and windchime sound effects accompanying the worst "glittery skin" special effects I have ever seen. The second and third movies  were not much better (though, the books weren't as good either so this is hardly a surprise). However, the fourth movie (which yes, I did see in theaters.... and not in an ironic way, sadly) was staggeringly better than the outrageous and ridiculous (first half of the) fourth book.

Okay-- enough talking about tween vampire romantic thrillers. But, just get ready, readers (and by "readers", I mean "Mom", because she's the only one that reads this), because more film/book comparisons are coming your way soon!

Resolutions (and some self-indulgence)

I have always been a fan of the New Year's resolution. Making resolutions that is, not always keeping them. When I was younger I tried to do too much and would resolve to change virtually everything. This of course, would lead to failure usually by 5 pm on January 1st.

The past few years, I have tried to focus on just one or two things which was much more successful. Last year, my resolution to have a better attitude actually stuck with me all year long! 

This year, I think I'm landing somewhere in between my two resolution strategies. My overall resolution is to "be better", but this is broken down into some very specific things that I hope I can tackle. 

1. Appreciate other people more. Quit worrying about whether they appreciate me. I know that I appreciate me, and that is all that matters. 

2. Do things when I'm thinking about them (this is kind of stolen from my friend Rachel). When I procrastinate, it just leads to more procrastinating and it ends in just feeling badly about myself. Doing the dishes when they need to be done is far less gross then doing them two days later when the sink smells disgusting. Blogging (ahh, yes, finally this post makes sense as part of this blog) immediately after finishing a book or a book club meeting is so much easier than trying to blog about something I read or met about months ago. 

3.  Write. This, you might think would also be blog related, but I'm really back to talking about life outside of my blog. I need to write a prospectus, a few IRB proposals, and a dissertation to graduate, and I need to write many manuscripts to actually get a job someday (and by someday, I mean next year... ahh, panic attack). I need to write more often and with less inhibition-- it doesn't need to be perfect the first time around, I just need to get it out there!

4. Be healthy. I had a lot of really goofy health issues in 2011 and I'm not excited about repeating them. I already feel like I live a healthy lifestyle-- I eat healthy and healthful foods, I exercise (though after the holidays and a month straight of an all Christmas cookie diet, this could definitely be improved upon), I drink water, and I sleep a LOT (I literally get 8 hours every night and not even a looming dissertation is going to change that) but things I maybe haven't done in the last year are take warning signs from my body very seriously. I need to speak up more at the doctor, quit reading WebMD and panicking over their bizarro diagnoses, and maybe I will even try acupuncture. 

In an effort to hold myself accountable, I am publicly (I use that term loosely since only like two people read this thing) announcing these... and since I'm on a roll I might even get around to blogging about the last two book club books while I'm at it! Happy 2012, kids.