Killing two birds with one stone
Aug. 17th, 2005 01:53 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
coffeesnob318Disturbing metaphor aside, I’ve decided that there are too many books and too much summer to catch up on in any real way, so I’ve combined them. Neither will be as expanded as it would have been had I actually been updating lj all summer, but this is the best I can offer. So now I bring you “What I did on my summer vacation” through literature. LJ-cut for your protection, of course.
1. Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistlestop Café - Fannie Flagg
2. The Whitney Chronicles - Judy Baer
3. Shopaholic Takes Manhattan - Sophie Kinsella
4. The Devil Wears Prada - Lauren Weisberger
5. Hey Nostradamus! - Douglas Coupland
6. Microserfs - Douglas Coupland )
7. The Coffee Book: Anatomy of an Industry from crop to the last drop - Gregory Dicum and Nina Luttinger
8. Mama Makes Up Her Mind and Other Dangers of Southern Living - Bailey White
9. Italian Fever by Valerie Martin
I picked up this book – ok, I stole this book – from Michelle. Lately she’ll read anything set in Italy because she wants to go. She read it and recommended it, so I took it and read it. I think she recommended it to plant a deep desire in me (or, rather, in my alternate persona who is independently wealthy enough to take two full weeks off from work and spend them basking under the Tuscan sun) to go with her when she visits.
Anyway…I spent a large part of the book disliking the main character because she was such a whiny hypocrite. She recognized this about herself by the end of the book, of course, but it was too late for me. The book had already been ruined by her constant dislike of someone (which turned out to be unfounded, which even someone reading only her point of view could see from the beginning) whom she perceived to be hidden and dishonest, while she was having an affair with a married man and putting forth a lot of effort to keep that little truth from coming out. That rubbed me the wrong way. I guess we most dislike others who seem to embody those things we dislike the most about ourselves, though.
So the book wasn’t so bad that I couldn’t finish it, but I wouldn’t recommend it, and I’m not in a big rush to read anything else she writes. *shrugs*
10. Eleanor Rigby by Douglas Coupland
Love! One of the things that I like about Coupland is that he doesn’t idealize his characters to make readers feel false security. They’re not all secretly as beautiful on the outside as they are on the inside, and they’re not all beautiful on the inside. They’re real.
Oddly enough, this book about loneliness helped bring me out of The Lingering Funk of 2005. I liked his theme of wanting peace, not certainty. Favorite quote: “Nobody is boring who is willing to tell the truth about himself…the things that make us ashamed are also the things that make us interesting.” At least I think that was from this book. It feels like I read it a long time ago.
Two thumbs up. You should read it. You should read everything he’s written. I haven’t read anything he’s written that’s bad.
11. The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks
Reading this right after Douglas Coupland, I didn’t like it at first. It was too sappy and typical, with everyone pretty and always saying or doing the perfect thing. Then he started writing about the couple when they were old. I loved it then. It made me think of my grandparents, and how my grandma visits my granddad every single day in the nursing home. They just sit and talk. I hope they can always do that until the end. I pray that they will always know each other.
12. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling
13. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling
I finally broke down. I couldn’t make it through the movies, and I assumed that the books would be dull. But there it was, sitting on Michelle’s table (again, with the stealing!), staring at me with its beady, little eyes. So I gave in. And these books are quite well-written and cute. I see the draw to them now.
What I don’t see is why many who love the Chronicles of Narnia badmouth Harry Potter. Same concept, even similar writing styles (it is a very big compliment from me, btw, to say someone has a similar writing style to C. S. Lewis). *is baffled* It’s clear that they’ve never actually read these books. There are a lot of similar themes.
I love this quote – “It was one of those rare occasions when the true story is even more strange and exciting than the wild rumors.” That’s just how I feel about being in the church life – really being in it like I’ve gotten to be this summer. It’s strange and wonderful. That probably had a lot to do with my un-funking, too. It’s about time we got this community thing down.
14. The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
Beautiful descriptions are all throughout this book. It is very aptly named. So wonderful are her descriptions and focus on small things that the bigger, uglier things that happen are overshadowed by that perspective. It made the turmoil and tragedy more shocking and more manageable at the same time. I’d say more, but I don’t want to give anything away.
I checked this book out because it was on the Blue Stockings Group’s reading list for the month of June. Blue Stockings is a group from the Women’s Studies departments at UNT and TWU that meet every month for book club at Barnes and Noble. I didn’t finish it in time to meet with them when they discussed it, but I did finish it around the time that I became interested in The Damaris Project.
The Damaris Project trains women to facilitate salons that meet seven (or eight – I forget) times to discuss issues of spirituality, women’s studies, and popular culture. I got to spend a day training, and I am really excited about facilitating my own salon. I’m going to team up with Beth and Kim, because they know people to invite, but they’re nervous about facilitating. I’m sure you’ll be hearing a lot more on this when I actually get to start one. Here’s the website, because I know you’re curious and they say it better than I do: www.damarisproject.org.
15. Girl Meets God: On the path to a spiritual life by Lauren F. Winner
This was my favorite book that I read all summer. At first, I liked it because I was drawn to the author. We have many similarities – both live in academic worlds, around the same age (I think – we have similar pop culture references), and she’s in a continual state of awe, which I didn’t really recognize in myself until I found myself jumping up and down, shouting, “Yes!” when she would describe various experiences of awe. What I really appreciate about her, though, are our differences – she came out of a background of Judaism to being Episcopalian, and that helped me, someone who is part of a church where both rules and exceptions are recognized. So many times throughout the book, she described worship practices that I have always written off as too ritualistic and stagnant to be effective with a beauty and meaning that I would have never seen by myself or from my frame of reference.
I liked the whole book, but the thing I got the most out of was her view on community. I want to understand community to the extent that she understands community. There’s not enough room (this entry is so very long already) to say it all here – you’ll just have to read the book, if you are inclined to do so. It all boils down to the importance of community, especially in the church. Even if I were to live every moment of every day to the fullest, there is still a limit to the amount of life one little person can experience. Community gives us the benefit of others’ experiences, too.
Love!
16. Big Girls Don’t Whine by Jan Silvious
This book was pretty much what it sounds like it was – a grow-up-and-quit-yer-bitchin’ book. Christian author, so if that’s not your viewpoint, it might not be that interesting to you. It was good. I can think of someone who might be getting it for a present. You know, because people usually respond favorably to “If you would just read this book and do what it says, our relationship would be so much better.” *shakes head* I don’t have much else to say about it.
*fanfare sounds* Yes. I finally finished it:
17. House of Leaves by Mark Danielewski
Wow. Great book. There’s so much that I could say. It was written like a dissertation, so as you read it, you have to follow footnotes and appendices and rabbit trails. Reminded me of grad school. And I liked it.
I am amazed at the sheer volume of work this guy put into it. It’s an analysis of a documentary that doesn’t exist, so, of course, none of the references he notes exist. But they are consistent. I admit that I was skeptical. So when he documented a “source” that he had used earlier, I threaded back to make sure that the source was consistent. It was. He not only concocted the documentary, but the vast array of commentaries that would have been written on the documentary and comments from actual people like Stephen King and Derrida about the documentary that, of course, they never made because it doesn’t exist but sound like exactly like something Stephen King and Derrida would have said about it if it did exist, plus wrote a mere 700 pages on the subject, tying it all in together. His head must be bigger than mine, to hold all the brains and concentration it took to do that. It took a lot of concentration to follow it and get the full effect.
I highly recommend it. Two tips before you start – grab a cup of coffee and close your closet door.
I’m currently in the process of reading The Chronicles of Narnia again (and, yes, I’m counting them as seven different books. Because they are. And because I’m a cheater.). So stay tuned. :)
1. Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistlestop Café - Fannie Flagg
2. The Whitney Chronicles - Judy Baer
3. Shopaholic Takes Manhattan - Sophie Kinsella
4. The Devil Wears Prada - Lauren Weisberger
5. Hey Nostradamus! - Douglas Coupland
6. Microserfs - Douglas Coupland )
7. The Coffee Book: Anatomy of an Industry from crop to the last drop - Gregory Dicum and Nina Luttinger
8. Mama Makes Up Her Mind and Other Dangers of Southern Living - Bailey White
9. Italian Fever by Valerie Martin
I picked up this book – ok, I stole this book – from Michelle. Lately she’ll read anything set in Italy because she wants to go. She read it and recommended it, so I took it and read it. I think she recommended it to plant a deep desire in me (or, rather, in my alternate persona who is independently wealthy enough to take two full weeks off from work and spend them basking under the Tuscan sun) to go with her when she visits.
Anyway…I spent a large part of the book disliking the main character because she was such a whiny hypocrite. She recognized this about herself by the end of the book, of course, but it was too late for me. The book had already been ruined by her constant dislike of someone (which turned out to be unfounded, which even someone reading only her point of view could see from the beginning) whom she perceived to be hidden and dishonest, while she was having an affair with a married man and putting forth a lot of effort to keep that little truth from coming out. That rubbed me the wrong way. I guess we most dislike others who seem to embody those things we dislike the most about ourselves, though.
So the book wasn’t so bad that I couldn’t finish it, but I wouldn’t recommend it, and I’m not in a big rush to read anything else she writes. *shrugs*
10. Eleanor Rigby by Douglas Coupland
Love! One of the things that I like about Coupland is that he doesn’t idealize his characters to make readers feel false security. They’re not all secretly as beautiful on the outside as they are on the inside, and they’re not all beautiful on the inside. They’re real.
Oddly enough, this book about loneliness helped bring me out of The Lingering Funk of 2005. I liked his theme of wanting peace, not certainty. Favorite quote: “Nobody is boring who is willing to tell the truth about himself…the things that make us ashamed are also the things that make us interesting.” At least I think that was from this book. It feels like I read it a long time ago.
Two thumbs up. You should read it. You should read everything he’s written. I haven’t read anything he’s written that’s bad.
11. The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks
Reading this right after Douglas Coupland, I didn’t like it at first. It was too sappy and typical, with everyone pretty and always saying or doing the perfect thing. Then he started writing about the couple when they were old. I loved it then. It made me think of my grandparents, and how my grandma visits my granddad every single day in the nursing home. They just sit and talk. I hope they can always do that until the end. I pray that they will always know each other.
12. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling
13. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling
I finally broke down. I couldn’t make it through the movies, and I assumed that the books would be dull. But there it was, sitting on Michelle’s table (again, with the stealing!), staring at me with its beady, little eyes. So I gave in. And these books are quite well-written and cute. I see the draw to them now.
What I don’t see is why many who love the Chronicles of Narnia badmouth Harry Potter. Same concept, even similar writing styles (it is a very big compliment from me, btw, to say someone has a similar writing style to C. S. Lewis). *is baffled* It’s clear that they’ve never actually read these books. There are a lot of similar themes.
I love this quote – “It was one of those rare occasions when the true story is even more strange and exciting than the wild rumors.” That’s just how I feel about being in the church life – really being in it like I’ve gotten to be this summer. It’s strange and wonderful. That probably had a lot to do with my un-funking, too. It’s about time we got this community thing down.
14. The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
Beautiful descriptions are all throughout this book. It is very aptly named. So wonderful are her descriptions and focus on small things that the bigger, uglier things that happen are overshadowed by that perspective. It made the turmoil and tragedy more shocking and more manageable at the same time. I’d say more, but I don’t want to give anything away.
I checked this book out because it was on the Blue Stockings Group’s reading list for the month of June. Blue Stockings is a group from the Women’s Studies departments at UNT and TWU that meet every month for book club at Barnes and Noble. I didn’t finish it in time to meet with them when they discussed it, but I did finish it around the time that I became interested in The Damaris Project.
The Damaris Project trains women to facilitate salons that meet seven (or eight – I forget) times to discuss issues of spirituality, women’s studies, and popular culture. I got to spend a day training, and I am really excited about facilitating my own salon. I’m going to team up with Beth and Kim, because they know people to invite, but they’re nervous about facilitating. I’m sure you’ll be hearing a lot more on this when I actually get to start one. Here’s the website, because I know you’re curious and they say it better than I do: www.damarisproject.org.
15. Girl Meets God: On the path to a spiritual life by Lauren F. Winner
This was my favorite book that I read all summer. At first, I liked it because I was drawn to the author. We have many similarities – both live in academic worlds, around the same age (I think – we have similar pop culture references), and she’s in a continual state of awe, which I didn’t really recognize in myself until I found myself jumping up and down, shouting, “Yes!” when she would describe various experiences of awe. What I really appreciate about her, though, are our differences – she came out of a background of Judaism to being Episcopalian, and that helped me, someone who is part of a church where both rules and exceptions are recognized. So many times throughout the book, she described worship practices that I have always written off as too ritualistic and stagnant to be effective with a beauty and meaning that I would have never seen by myself or from my frame of reference.
I liked the whole book, but the thing I got the most out of was her view on community. I want to understand community to the extent that she understands community. There’s not enough room (this entry is so very long already) to say it all here – you’ll just have to read the book, if you are inclined to do so. It all boils down to the importance of community, especially in the church. Even if I were to live every moment of every day to the fullest, there is still a limit to the amount of life one little person can experience. Community gives us the benefit of others’ experiences, too.
Love!
16. Big Girls Don’t Whine by Jan Silvious
This book was pretty much what it sounds like it was – a grow-up-and-quit-yer-bitchin’ book. Christian author, so if that’s not your viewpoint, it might not be that interesting to you. It was good. I can think of someone who might be getting it for a present. You know, because people usually respond favorably to “If you would just read this book and do what it says, our relationship would be so much better.” *shakes head* I don’t have much else to say about it.
*fanfare sounds* Yes. I finally finished it:
17. House of Leaves by Mark Danielewski
Wow. Great book. There’s so much that I could say. It was written like a dissertation, so as you read it, you have to follow footnotes and appendices and rabbit trails. Reminded me of grad school. And I liked it.
I am amazed at the sheer volume of work this guy put into it. It’s an analysis of a documentary that doesn’t exist, so, of course, none of the references he notes exist. But they are consistent. I admit that I was skeptical. So when he documented a “source” that he had used earlier, I threaded back to make sure that the source was consistent. It was. He not only concocted the documentary, but the vast array of commentaries that would have been written on the documentary and comments from actual people like Stephen King and Derrida about the documentary that, of course, they never made because it doesn’t exist but sound like exactly like something Stephen King and Derrida would have said about it if it did exist, plus wrote a mere 700 pages on the subject, tying it all in together. His head must be bigger than mine, to hold all the brains and concentration it took to do that. It took a lot of concentration to follow it and get the full effect.
I highly recommend it. Two tips before you start – grab a cup of coffee and close your closet door.
I’m currently in the process of reading The Chronicles of Narnia again (and, yes, I’m counting them as seven different books. Because they are. And because I’m a cheater.). So stay tuned. :)
