The Tipping Point

I saw Malcolm Gladwell on Oprah publicizing his new book Blink. He was saying some pretty interesting things, especially about the Implicit Association Test developed by researchers at Harvard and a few other universities. I took the test, and turns out, I'm prejudiced. But Mr. Gladwell's point is that most people are. Anyway, I tried to borrow this book from the library, but they were booked up for weeks, so I decided to borrow his other book, The Tipping Point which book mom had brought to read the week she stayed with me right after Lillian was born. It's a definite conversation piece, as I'm sure my husband is tired of hearing about things like transactive memory and why Sesame Street is successful at teaching children how to read.

If you liked Freakonomics, you would like this book.

As a completely unrelated side note: Tyler is reading the Percy Jackson books. He's on the second one and we were both reading quietly before bed when he says, "I'm not sure I can read this book anymore... Look, (he reads) 'We were traveling at 25 knots per hour'! Knots per hour?! That's as bad as saying 'We have been traveling for 10 lightyears.'"

Just in case there was any confusion, my husband is a nerd.

Jack

Is Jack going on a trip? I'm glad he has his lightsaber!!

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Who's reading it? We bought our copy on Amazon, so it came to our house on Saturday. I suggested that we could read it together, separately... It's how we've read a number of other books. You sit side by side on the couch, and both hold the book open to the page you're on, with the intervening pages straight up. The only downside is that you get a crick in your neck. Anyway, Tyler didn't want to do that with this one because he knew I'd read the whole thing while he was at work, so he insisted we read it out loud to each other. It's a little slow going, although I just looked and we're on page 235. Not bad for only two days.

Oh, when it came in the mail, Tyler looked at Lillian and said, "Ok baby, you can't cry for at least a week."

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

My sister-in-law recommended this book. It's about a man who grew up in Afghanistan and immigrated to California but is asked to return to Afghanistan years later to help a friend. I'm only about half-way through, but really like it. Not only is it written well, but it gives the reader an insight into the way Afghanistan used to be: before Russia, before the terrorists.

Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides

This book won the Pulitzer a few years ago and is Oprah's current book club selection, so I thought I'd give it a try. It's about a person named Calliope/Cal who was born a hermaphrodite and his time growing up trying to figure out why he's a girl on the outside but a man on the inside. The premise was OK, but the book was a little... juicy... if you know what I mean. Nothing gratuitous really, just a little much for my taste. I stopped reading maybe 60 pages in.

3 for Tea

I've been invited to join a "smart" book club. Hmmmm. Our first book is "3 for Tea." Not sure how to underline yet. It's a fascinating, true story of a regular guy who gets lost while climbing K2, and the next thing you know, he's promised this village he will help build a school. He has no idea how to even begin. It's sometimes humorous how he blunders along. But in the last 10 years he's built 55 schools in the most remote locations, mostly for girls. He's fighting the Talaban with education. An excellent book!!

Anne of Green Gables

When I was younger, I wanted so badly to be Anne Shirley and live in Green Gables in Avonlea. I wanted to have a 'kindred spirit' for a friend and live by an orchard. Like most phases, especially for a Calder girl, it only lasted a little while, but for that week, I think, I wore a dress every day, and insisted that mom braid my hair.

I had never read any of the other books in the series. I've just now finished Anne of the Island the third book. I think I may read one more, just to see Anne and Gilbert be married, but I think I'll stop there. Who has the stamina to read all eight?

As a humorous side note, for those of you who've read the books, you know Anne is all caught up on being romantic, so this morning, when I woke up, Tyler asks, "Who is Ms. Bennett?" I replied, "The only Ms. Bennett I know is Elizabeth Bennett from Pride and Prejudice." He then says, "Oh, because last night in your sleep you said, "Ms. Bennett can't marry him, it wouldn't be romantic."

To A Mouse, by Robert Burns

I love this poem, even if it is a little depressing. I found a place online where you can listen to a woman reading it. I found it makes a lot more sense if you have a proper Scottish accent.

On turning her up in her nest, with the plough,
November, 1785

Wee, sleekit, cow'rin', tim'rous beastie,
O what a panic's in thy breastie!
Thou need na start awa sae (so) hasty,
Wi' bickering brattle!
I wad be laith (loath) to rin an' chase thee
Wi' murd'ring pattle!

I'm truly sorry man's dominion
Has broken Nature's social union,
An' justifies that ill opinion
Which makes thee startle
At me, thy poor earth-born companion,
An' fellow-mortal!

I doubt na, whiles, but thou may thieve;
What then? poor beastie, thou maun (must) live!
A daimen-icker in a thrave (an occasional ear of corn out of 24 sheaves)
'Sa sma' request:
I'll get a blessin' wi' the lave (remainder),
And never miss't!

Thy wee bit housie, too, in ruin!
Its silly wa's the win's are strewin:
And naething, now, to big (build) a new ane,
O' foggage (moss) green!
An' bleak December's winds ensuin'
Baith (both) snell (severe) and keen!

Thou saw the fields laid bare an' waste
An' weary winter comin' fast,
An' cozie here, beneath the blast,
Thou thought to dwell
Till, crash! the cruel coulter (iron piece in front of plough) past
Out thro' thy cell.

That wee bit heap o' leaves an' stibble
Has cost the mony (many) a weary nibble!
Now thou's turn'd out, for a' thy trouble,
But house or hald,
To thole (endure) the winter's sleety dribble
An' cranreuch (hoarfrost) cold!

But, Mouse, thou art no thy lane (not alone)
In proving foresight may be vain:
The best laid schemes o' mice an' men
Gang aft a-gley, (often go awry)
An' lea'e us nought but grief an' pain,
For promised joy.

Still thou art blest, compared wi' me!
The present only toucheth thee:
But, Och! I backward cast my e'e
On prospects drear!
An' forward, tho' I canna see,
I guess an' fear!

Percy Jackson

The new Percy Jackson book is out. It was exciting and I read it in about a day and a half. But, I was disappointed, and a little excited, that it wasn't over over. The plot had some conclusion, but I get the feeling there's going to be at least 2 or 3 more books in the series. Something to look forward to, I guess.

How Green Was My Valley

Yes, it's beautiful. Beautifully written. Beautiful scenery. Beautiful people. But, I had no idea what was going on most of the time. You can't do much about the Welsh names: Huw, Angharad, and Mr. Gruffydd. However, from what I understand, it's written like how Welsh people talk. One man says to another man, "now, my little one, ah y fi, don't cry, is it?" What?

But, that's not that big of a deal. You get the point. My major, big, huge, gigantic complaint with the book is that he finds out he fathers an child out of wedlock and does nothing. The whole book is about honor, right? His father is always belting his brothers and him for even looking at other girls or the like. His brothers beat up another man because he talked to their sister without asking their father's permission. And yet, Huw fathers a child, which everyone knows about, and one sentence, "I felt shamed" then nothing. Poor Ceridwen, simply brushed aside. I couldn't enjoy the rest of the book because I kept waiting for his father to call him in and tell him what's what. Or for him to try and go find her and marry her. I fell right out of love with him and considered him a jerk for the remainder of the book, which I read only on the off chance he was going to turn around and do the honorable thing. I have to admit, every time I turned a page, (of which there are 500, so I did it a few times) I would scan for Ceridwen's name, not find it, and be irritated all over again.

Maybe the movie is different. I hear it won all sorts of awards.

Slice of Life Piece

I have a friend who is frustrated with all the magazines out there. She decided she was going to publish something that wasn't about pleasing her man or losing weight. She asked me to write a one page 'slice of life' piece. This is what I came up with:

I have the distinct feeling that I’m getting less and less interesting as I grow up, ‘grow up’ used loosely, of course, as I’m only 23. Or 24. No, 23; I can never remember. I may be romanticizing a bit, but I have memories of holding my audiences in rapt attention, laughing, crying, eating out of the palm of my hand. I could make even the most mundane subjects dazzle. Now, I’ve got nothing.

‘What happened?’ you may ask. The most wonderful and awful thing in the world: I had a baby. ‘How can you call that awful?’ you may ask. It’s more wonderful than awful, if that’s any consolation. Mostly, the awful had to do with the actual having of the child, which I won’t discuss here, because no one wants to hear about it. I don’t even want to hear about it. But, the thing is, no one wants to hear about any of it. Sure, everyone wants to look at the baby. They coo and tickle and say things like, “wow, she’s got a mohawk” (which is not something a mother needs pointed out). But all subjects which have bearing on the actual raising process are, lets face it, either extremely unpleasant or downright boring. Like the ‘having process’ I won’t discuss the ‘extremely unpleasant’. You can imagine. ‘How can it be boring?’ you may ask. Well, somehow, I can’t make the fact that my daughter loves watching the turntable spin in the microwave funny. You can say it. Someone says, “So, how are you?” And you say, “My daughter loves watching the turntable spin in the microwave.” But then what? You get a cursory, “that’s cute” and then your audience moves on to the conversation next to you where they’re discussing backpacking in Peru. I can’t compete with that.

To get me back in the conversational saddle, I tried making a list of talking points which would aid me in making friends and impressing audiences through my unparalleled humor and mental prowess. This was when I knew my life had really taken a turn for the worst as ‘crossword puzzles’ was near the top. It was awful. If the turntable in the microwave was difficult to make interesting, try out the fact that on March 15^th, there were no ‘i’s in the puzzle (as in, beware the Ides of March). I thought it was pretty funny, but perhaps the man who created the puzzle and I were the only ones. Also high on my list of talking points was my recent discovery of sweet potatoes. The man on the television in the produce section of the supermarket told me they were to most nutritious vegetable. The sad realization hit me like a ton of bricks. It was no longer a matter of suspecting that I was boring. I was boring.

At this point, the baby woke up and I went in to get her out of her crib. As soon as she saw me with her gorgeous big blue eyes, a gigantic grin spread across her little cherubic face and she let out a little squeal of joy. I thought, with an exclamation point, “She likes me!” Waves of happiness coursed through my body as she snuggled up close and I read the caterpillar book for the millionth time.

It doesn’t matter that I’m no longer good at conversing; my baby likes me, and will like me forever. Or, at least until she turns 13.

A good book

I am reading Gravitation, by Misner, Thorne, and Wheeler. It's a pretty good read, but it's very heavy at 1200 pages. I'll let you know how it goes. By the way Wheeler was one of the principal scientists involved in building the atomic bomb during WWII. His other book: Geons, Black Holes, and Quantum Foam: A Life in Physics, was partly about his experience in WWII building the bomb. It was especially intersting as he had a brother in Europe who died before they finished building the bomb. It is written to be read by a general audience.

Levi's Will by W. Dale Cramer

I really loved this book. I chose it as I walked past and the binding looked interesting. It's the story of a man who leaves the Old Order Amish community. It follows his whole life. I know, it sounds boring, but it's not. It treats the Amish faith and community really respectfully. I read it in a day and a half. It's not my usual fare, but I feel changed a bit from it. It's really about love and forgiveness.

Oprah's new book club book

It's called The Measure of a Man by Sidney Poitier. The whole book is about measuring yourself to a higher standard. I only read half of it because it would be rated R, for language. Most of the language is when he is talking about the racism he faced when he first immigrated to the US from the Bahamas. It's a tough subject, but he treated it with the language to match. Not for me.

Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson

I had this book for a class that I ended up dropping; I'm not sure why I kept it, but it's been sitting on my shelf for a few years, so I finally pulled it out. It's a novel and a pretty quick read. I can't say that I loved it or that it changed my life, though. It was rather strange. Kind of eery and haunting in an undisturbing kind of way. That probably doesn't make any sense at all. On the positive side, there was nothing R-rated whatsoever, and the writing was really beautiful. Every word intentional. It's kind of a silent book. There's hardly any dialogue in it. It's about two sisters who grow up with various relatives after their mother drives her car off a cliff. Read at your own risk.

I've never read Hamlet

I read this book called Dead Fathers Club by Matt Haig. In the review that I read, it gave it 4 stars and said it was a cross-over juvenile fiction book based loosely on Hamlet. When I got the book at the library, the reviews on it said that it was humorous and witty. I've never read Hamlet, but I wasn't sure how one could make the story humorous or witty, so I thought I'd read it. My number-one problem was the seriously PG-13 language. I thought it was supposed to be juvenile fiction. My number-two problem was the extreme lack of wittiness and humor. The Hamlet character is an 11-year-old boy, and the story is told from his point of view, so some parts are at best awkward, like life is when you're 11.

I did like it, however. Aside from the language, it was a very compelling story, and it was just different enough from the play that I wasn't quite sure what was going to happen.

In short, it was OK.

(Lillian's been taking two two-hour naps every day, and that's why I have so much time on my hands to read what my husband characterizes as "a million books a week." I'm waiting on Book 2 in the Percy Jackson series, so I think I'll read something serious, maybe On Liberty by John Stuart Mill. I had to buy it for a class, but we only read the beginning bit. Hooray for naptime!)

Percy

I just finished the first book of Percy Jackson and the Olympians. Thanks Allison for recommending it, it was fun. I kept telling Tyler it was like Harry Potter, but with Greek mythology instead of witches.

This book stole three days of my life

My sister-in-law sent me this book: Twilight by Stephanie Meyer. She called to tell me it was her new favorite. The back reads: "About three things I was absolutely positive. First Edward was a vampire. Second, there was a part of him - and I don't know how dominant that part might be - that thirsted for my blood. And third, I was unconditionally and irrevocably in love with him." My eyes rolled. I started reading. Bella moved to Forks, Washington to let her mom breathe and to be close to her dad. Oh yeah, she's a junior in high school. While living in this podunk town, she notices a family of outsiders; two girls and three boys. They sit by themselves, are extremely graceful, very pale, and amazingly beautiful. Oh yeah, they're vampires. While trying to find her place, Bella falls in love with one, Edward, and she's so "unconditionally and irrevocably in love" that she doesn't care that he's a vampire. Oh yeah, they've only spoken maybe four times. There was much eye rolling and head shaking, and I was rapidly losing respect for my sister-in-law's literary tastes.

Then it sucked me right in. I won't tell you what happened, but suddenly, all I wanted to do was read. I read before bed, right when I woke up, while cooking, during Lillian's naps, while she was awake. I had to know.

It's written for teenagers, I think, so don't expect too much. But, after all the eye rolling, it wasn't half bad.

John Adams by David McCullough

By odd coincidence, Mom and I ended up reading John Adams at the same time. I've been nibbling at it since Thanksgiving, mostly reading it in between other books. After just finishing it, I am astonished at how much he gave for our country, all to be repaid in scandal and rumor. He said that if he had to do it all over again, he would have been a shoemaker. I didn't know that he and Jefferson were so close, and that after Jefferson used ever device possible to undercut Adams, they could still be the closest of friends; they even died on the same day, July 4th, on the fiftieth anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. He tried always to improve the world, never once writing, or encouraging to be written, a disparaging remark about any of his opponents, and was, well, loquacious, which makes for a good biography. People just don't write letters like they used to.

All in all, it put a face on all of these scraps of history that I had floating around in my brain, left over from Mr. Sink's AP American History my junior year of high school. For example, I remembered there was such a thing called the XYZ Affair, but who can remember exactly what it was all about? (Tyler's recollection limited it to 'what you say when someone's fly is down.)

It is long, however, and for most of it, it isn't exactly riveting. It is more of a ponderous thing than any sort of quick read. But it can be used rather successfully as a conversation piece, which device I have seen and you have probably heard Mom employ, and you sound very smart and well read. Not that that's why I read books.

John Adams makes me feel not only like I should be doing more, but that I can do more. Said he, "Admire and adore the Author of the telescopic universe, and and esteem the work, do all in your power to lessen ill, and increase good, but never assume to comprehend."

Percy Jackson and the Olympians

I really liked this book. I found it in the Juvenile section of the library. It's a little Harry Potter-esque. It was a fun, quick read. I liked it so much that I went out and got book two, The Sea Monster. I can't wait for book three to come out this summer.

Chantel, you guys should read the Magic Tree House books to Owen. There are a million of them and we read through them in one or two nights. Tristan never seems to tire of them. I, myself, can only take a couple before I have to have a change. They are high interest, lower-level reading. High interest, i.e. sabertooth tigers, knights, dinosaurs, ninjas, etc. I'll have to try reading Harry Potter to Tristan. We tried Junie B. Jones, and although I thought they were funny, Tristan didn't get the jokes.