Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Banned Books: The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

For banned books week I dove into a young adult novel that has been hailed by as many as who have banned it.

THIS IS A FABULOUS BOOK! I read it in about two hours on the bus. I laughed out loud, I got teary eyed, most of all I appreciated the genuine-ness of this book. Quite a fun read.

This book tells the story of a teenage boy who, somewhat randomly, decides to attend high school off the reservation. This is a big deal, no one has done this before and causes him problems with many of his friends and members of his community who feel he is betraying the reservation. On his new campus he is the only person of color and feels the heat there too for being poor, for being Indian, for being different.

He is also faced with a series of tragedies. The author does a really wonderful job of portraying these tragedies realistically, for many Native Americans, these kinds of things really do happen regularly. Yet, and REALLY IMPORTANTLY I think, this book is not a sob story. The protagonist triumphs in his own way and handles tragedies as best he can. Furthermore, he is not the only one of his community to "press on", he is not the only Indian who finds a way to deal, who finds some measure of "success".

Recommendation: READ IT! IT'S WONDERFUL!

Government: "Shooting Victoria"

Government! Could have been a snore of a theme but rather was one greatly enjoyed.

Shooting Victoria chronicles the history of the eight assassination attempts on Queen Victoria's life. What makes this so interesting is the analysis of the socio-economic forces that influenced the attackers and how Victoria's reactions strengthened the monarchy.

This book was quite a tome - over 500 pages. There were some spaces where the author could have been more concise but I didn't find the length or writing style to be a problem.

Recommendation: Have a go at it.

Sunday, August 25, 2013

GOVERNMENT: Gang Leader for a Day

Sudhir Venkatesh is a first-year Sociology graduate student who hopes to impress his professors by interviewing the residents of the Robert Taylor housing projects, one of the largest and most poverty-stricken projects in Chicago. What he finds is a mini-society of drug dealers, prostitutes, government workers, and families just trying to survive. JT, the leader of the gang that runs Robert Taylor, takes a strange liking to Venkatesh and, over about a decade, gives him an unprecedented look into the workings of his gang and the influence they have on the projects they "protect."

I really enjoyed finding more about this aspect of society, but the way it was presented wasn't the best. At times, I felt like Venkatesh wanted to be writing a nonfiction book, and at times I felt like he wanted to write a fiction book. It went back and forth from telling, not showing to showing, not telling. I feel like I would have liked it more if it was all anecdotes or all exposition on what he learned and how things worked, but it went back and forth. In addition, I felt like for how long he spent with these people, he was not able to convey them in a way that made me care about them at all.

GOVERNMENT: I chose this book for government because I was very interested in learning about the inner workings of a gang. It is fascinating to me how such an unrespected life requires such intelligence. If you look at a lot of the people who run these things, they have amazing business and political skills. It was very interesting to get  a look into the inner structure and life of the gang. They had a whole hierarchy with a pay grade system, rules and laws, a trial system, and a multitude of roles for the various jobs the members need to fulfill.

Goodreads rating: 3 stars
Recommended: Yes, if you're interested in learning about an aspect of society that is totally foreign to most people, but don't expect an exceptionally well-written or compelling read.

Sunday, August 18, 2013

BOOK INTO MOVIE: The Da Vinci Code

I think everyone knows the story of The Da Vinci Code, but I will give a quick refresher. Robert Langdon is a Harvard symbologist who has been called upon to help uncover the truth behind the death of the elderly curator of the Lourve. What he uncovers, though, is the shocking truth of Jesus, Mary Magdalene, and the secret the Christian Church has been hiding for centuries.

I thought this book was amazing. What this book, and Angels and Demons before it, does really well is teaching you something while you read a fun, action-packed story. Though the characters aren't particularly interesting or complicated, I don't think that matters much. In my personal opinion, a good writer excels at two out of three points: story, characters, and writing style. Dan Brown excels and story and writing style, so that's all I need (not to say his writing is particularly brilliant, but for the type of story he writes it is perfectly suited).

I really loved learning about the idea of Mary Magdalene as Jesus' wife and the massive amount of evidence to support it. I also enjoyed reading about the conscious decision to devalue the role of women in the church and it's history. And, as always, the hidden meaning behind symbols and their history. I LOVE LEARNING! Lol, sorry Raeann--had to channel you! :) And I really loved how this novel tied itself up, all fitting together perfectly.

THE MOVIE As with the book, this was a fun, light watch. Though it followed the book very closely, I was pretty disappointed (though not surprised) by the fact they didn't go into nearly as much as the cover-up of the church, their reasoning behind it, and the evidence (real or imagined, it was pretty cool and convincing). Although I realize it's probably due to time constraints, as with most cutting when translating from book to movie, it's probably more to do with the controversial subject (The Golden Compass, anyone?). Though all in all it followed the book very well in major plot points and it was entertaining. And I've seen this movie before I read the book awhile ago, and I remember not having any issues following it when I hadn't read the book--so props for that.

All in all, it was a good translation. Looking forward to Inferno (which I haven't read yet, but I will before the movie comes out..)!

Goodreads rating: 5 stars
Recommendation: Highly! Fun read, don't expect something literary, because you won't get it, but you will get an entertaining read!

Books into Movies: Not into "Out of Africa"

I should preface this by saying I was unable to finish the book OR the movie.

The book: This book did have some interesting tales. It was written as a series of mini-stories within the larger tale of "how I owned a giant coffee farm in Kenya". The colonialist nonsense I was able to deal with it and roll with the "ok, uncool but that was the context at the time" but my main issue was I just didn't find it very interesting! I think this book had potential, great material to work with, it just didn't come together for me. That may be due to the time this was written and that it is adapted from her journal. Anyway, I bailed about halfway through. There are just too many cool books out there!

The movie: The movie was VERY loosely based on the book. I made it about twenty minutes in. The movie also has some interesting material to work with but it's totally NOT from the book, at least the first twenty minutes. I mean this was MERYL FRIGGING STREEP and I couldn't keep my attention. Meryl even had an accent going. And Robert Redford is dead sexy. The colonialism crap was a bit thicker in the movie, harder to ignore/keep in context. This would be a good movie to watch to illustrate the ideas and problems of colonial depictions actually. But I was just not interested.

Recommendation: Don't read/watch.

Friday, July 5, 2013

Secrets: Gone Girl

For secrets I read "Gone Girl" by Gillian Flynn. Everyone loves this book. I apparently, am not part of everyone.

Now that I have had some distance from it I am not as perturbed with it as I was when I first finished the book. My pacing in the first half of the book was normal and then zoomed into obsessed mode quickly in the latter half. I NEEDED TO KNOW WHY AMY WAS GONE. Because this book is a thriller I will not give away too many details.

***minor spoiler****

I think I didn't enjoy this book as much because I found the ending unjust/disgusting. As someone who advocates for the welfare of others I found the ending really disturbing - there is no way that is going to turn out ok and that is the WORST way to.......can't think of how to not give that piece away. Those of you who have read this will understand what put me over the edge.

The theme of this book is pretty obvious, Amy disappears and we don't know why. Everyone involved turns out to have lots of secrets. Ba-da-bing.

Up next: Books into Movies!!!!

SECRETS: Miseduction of Cameron Post

The first thing that Cameron Post feels when she finds out her parents have died is relief--relief that they will never know that hours earlier, she was kissing a girl. Before anything, The Miseducation of Cameron Post is a story about finding yourself during the most difficult and confusing time of your life--the teenage years. It's about navigating through first relationships, it's about staying true to yourself, and it's about understanding the way the world works. It follows Cameron as she realizes she is attracted to girls, it follows her as she falls in love for the first time, and it follows her as all of that comes crashing down and she is sent off to be "fixed" at a de-gaying camp.

This book was phenomenal. It made me nostalgic for a childhood I didn't even have--the small town, lazy hot summers of swimming in the lake and exploring the countryside. The writing was phenomenal. To give you just a small example:
It was one of those August afternoons that Montana does just right, with heavy gray thunderheads crowding out the movie-blue sky and the feeling of a guaranteed downpour just beginning to change the touch of the air, the color of the sunlight. We were right in the middle of the maybe twenty minutes before the storm would hit, when it was only just promised, and every single thing in it's path--from the strings of multicolor turn flags over the pool to the sheen of the oily puddles in the parking lot to the smell of fried foods wafting over from the Burger Box on the corner--was somehow alive with that promise.

Though this book has a very heavy message, it is subtle and delicate and REAL. Most of the "message" books out there are so heavy handed they forget entirely about the plot, it becomes secondary to the grand message of the author. But in the Miseducation of Cameron Post, her being gay is so integrated into the story that you often forget that it's supposed to be different--because in this book, Cameron isn't different, she's just herself. I only wish, for one character, there would have been justice. They did something that made me SO angry that I was fuming when I realized there would be no revelation for this character--no "wow, I really screwed up, and I should apologize." But, unfortunately, real life doesn't work that way and neither should the book--it is so infuriating because it's so real.

SECRET: Cameron never denies her true self, and just like every other teenager (even though her sexuality means she has many more roadblocks and bumps in the road) she has to grapple with the reality that she is who she is and nothing can ever change that. She is able to keep her biggest secret throughout most of the book, but eventually she is forced to face it. Even though she is surrounded by people who do not accept or understand who she is, she understands that they are doing what they feel is right, just like she is:
I'm just saying that sometimes you can end up really messing somebody up because the way you're trying to supposedly help them is really messed up.
Goodreads rating: 5
Recommendation: Yes, yes, yes. Beautiful, real, intense.

Just a note, this book does contain graphic scenes with sex and drug use.

Wednesday, June 19, 2013

WILDERNESS: Oryx and Crake

Oryx and Crake
I realize I'm fairly late to write this entry, and I confess I've been dreading writing it. This is one of those books that has been in my TBR pile for ages now, and I was really looking forward to finally having an excuse to read it.. which is why I think it disappointed me so much.

Oryx and Crake follows the story of Snowman, or Jimmy before mankind fell victim to their own plague, who might be the last Human on Earth. His world is filled with the vestiges of life before--genetically engineered animals and humans. Through his own memories, we slowly learn about his life with Oryx, the love of his life, and Crake, his best friend who created the "perfect Human,"and their part of the demise of Humans.

Though the concept was interesting, with these types of books I am much more interested in the human condition and what a person goes through in order to overcome their situation and come out having triumphed (or failed). Though I felt the details of the fall of Mankind were flushed out, I felt the characters fell incredibly flat and I wished I could have seen Snowman grow or change. The responses to his environment and the events of his story (in the present day) were frustratingly apathetic.

WILDERNESS: In search of supplies, Snowman embarks on a journey across the ruins of his old life and world. Outside of the interactions with the Children of Crake (the genetically engineered "perfect humans") and his memories, Snowman is alone with his thoughts and relying on himself. Because there was so much focus on his memories of what had happened, I felt that the act of survival as (supposedly) the only Human left played a significantly less important role than it should have. I realize this may  have been intentional, but it just did not work for me.

Goodreads rating: 3
Recommendation: I concede I am the minority in this, but I do not recommend this book, and I do not think I will be reading the rest of them. I really should have given it a 2, but I can't get over how everyone else loves this book, so I must have been missing something.

Sunday, May 26, 2013

May's theme: "The Wildnerness"

May's theme is "The Wilderness", I interpreted this broadly and chose to read "The Poisonwood Bible" by Barbara Kingsolver.

I LOVED THIS BOOK!

There are many reasons I loved this book. It has subversive feminism, critiques of colonialism, and the struggle for survival.Without giving too many spoilers here is my mini-summary:

The main characters in this book are a Baptist family. This book takes place starting in 1960, and this family in many ways represents stereotypical white families of the South; in this family, Dad is IN CHARGE. He is a Baptist preacher and decides that the whole family, four daughters included, needs to move to The Congo to "save souls". He takes this quite literally from the evangelical perspective, everyone in The Congo that has not accepted Jesus as their personal savior is going straight to hell, thus, he views their mission as imperative and they are doing all the Congolese a favor.

In this book the jungle of The Congo is almost a character in itself because the jungle frequently thwarts the efforts of the people who live there and try to control it and exerts a powerful influence psychologically on everyone there. The forest shapes their behavior and seems to have a will of it's own.

The main events of the book unfold as the family tries to continue their mission even has civil war descends into their village. Everyone in the family copes with this a different way - in contrast to how they started all on the same page.

I very much enjoyed how this book tells the story from each female character's point of view. LOVED THAT.

Now that I have written about this book, I AM READY TO READ IT AGAIN! It was great! I have heard from other friends who didn't care for it as much and there were times I was frustrated with it because I thought the dad was being such a tool it was difficult to read. The colonial issues can be difficult to read as well but I found myself often reflecting on how colonialism promotes the values of the domineering culture but too, how even when reacting to colonialism (our reactions to it) even often promotes the domineering culture's values. For example, you SHOULD be pissed off reading about how Western cultures have taken advantage of many, many, African cultures, YET we DO NOT know what is best for those cultures now. We didn't know then, we don't know now. We can't tell people how to fix the problems - even if we started them - because that is promoting our own values again, not theirs.

Also loved the subversive feminism of this book. I don't think any of these characters would call themselves that but certainly they were. But, don't want to give you any spoilers :)

Summary: READ IT, FIVE out of FIVE STARS!!!!!

Tuesday, May 7, 2013

Far From the Tree: The Final Entry

It is with pleasure that I have wrapped up this book. Often when I end a book this excellent it is bittersweet, but this book has given me so much to chew on I am sure I will be revisiting it time and time again. Especially as I go on to be a parent myself.

This post covers the remaining three chapters: Criminality, Transgender &0; Father.

Criminality:
I found this chapter to be an especially interesting one in terms of the philosophical meeting the practical. Here is an example of how this dynamic comes together: Juvenile delinquents have a recidivism rate of 93%, adding mandated family therapy drops this to 60% (so quoted in the book). YET, in most states family therapy is not part of the package. Even though it saves tons of money and heartache in both the short and long run. BUT because we want "punishment" we don't want to give people therapy, that seems too much like a positive, a possible reward. I find myself caught in this conflict at times as well. As much as I truly despise how much we incarcerate people in this country and the damage it does to them psychologically, I am really unsure as to what the alternatives are. In the case of juveniles I think the answer is more clear, adolescents and children are much more malleable to change and we should be throwing as many resources at them as we can. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. That is not to say that adults aren't worth rehabilitating as well, I think it is just less clear what works in that case.

There were several really interesting stories in this chapter, including a family where the son had molested his own niece but had been rehabilitated, a chronic offender gang banger, and parents of one of the Columbine killers. The Klebolds, parents of Dylan Klebold one of the teens who killed his classmates at Columbine, were exceptionally brave and insightful in sharing their story. A theme of this chapter, and especially for the Klebolds is how much opprobrium (author's word) parents of juvenile delinquents face.

Transgender:
My knowledge of this is from two main perspectives: Oprah and Child Psychology. In child psychology I was really struck by learning how intersex children and the really terrible ways medical science (and our culture) has dealt with their gender variance. Until reading this chapter I largely thought of transgender issues in terms of adults and adolescents wanting to transition but this chapter shared the tales of many very YOUNG children who were transgender. I find this really fascinating, having watched my own brother become very into being "a BOY" at quite a young age, it does make sense that a feeling of mismatch with your gender begins so young but it is startling how well these children can articulate that.

Father:
Similar to the chapter son, this chapter focuses on the authors own experiences and related to that, was one of my least favorite chapters. I did like this more than the chapter "son" because it did wrap things up.

THE END!!!

EVERYONE GO READ THIS AMAZING BOOK!

It is quite a tome but WELL WORTH IT!

Monday, April 29, 2013

Far From the Tree: continued

This post is dedicated to but one chapter. One heavy, heavy, chapter.

"More than any other parents coping with exceptional children, women with rape-conceived children are trying to quell the darkness within themselves in order to give their progeny light." These stories offer a perspective on humanity few other tales of life can in exhibiting both the light and the dark in equal intensity.

"The children described in the rest of this book sustain injuries; these children, through no fault of their own, are injuries."

As most of you know, I am a scholar of psychology. Particularly, I am interested in rape and other forms of sexual assault. My research is aimed at preventing these acts, my clinical work towards treating women (and sometimes men) who have suffered, and my teaching is about a mix of the above with a few other things thrown in. So, I talk about rape a lot. Sometimes the tone I use offends people because, let's face it, I get habituated. It's not that I don't care it's that it doesn't hold the taboo for me anymore and I perhaps speak with less hesitation than the normal person and this comes off as callous. But I do care, most deeply. For me this is the perfect little intersection of issues I care about: clinical psychology and women's rights.

Given this background I was very intellectually excited to read the chapter on Rape in Far From the Tree. Rarely do popular non-fiction books cover this topic in a depth that appeals to me. And I don't know as much about women who have had children because of rape, this is a topic on which there is very little information. Little did I know how difficult it would be to read this chapter!

In many ways, I had to force myself to read this chapter. It stabbed little holes in my skin emotionally while I read it. This surprised me a bit, I thought since I am so familiar with this topic it wouldn't get to me much. I was wrong I think, for two main reasons. One reason is I underestimated how much I do care about psychotherapy treatment ( I do more research than treatment generally) from a justice perspective. One thing that really tore me up reading this was reading about all the crappy therapists these poor women had been too. OH MY LORD. I cannot fully describe my anger while reading these passages. Because I DO know how to treat posttraumatic stress disorder. Most people with posttraumatic stress disorder deal with it untreated for an average of TWELVE YEARS before seeking help. And then, these poor women fell onto these bozo therapists? Perhaps they were somewhat helpful but it statistically very unlikely they "cured" them or alleviated their symptoms as significantly as they could have if they followed empirically supported treatment protocols. LIKE I WOULD. So this really got to me, knowing how many women (people) are out there who are not getting the treatment they deserve.

It was also just overwhelmingly sad to read these stories of many of these women, for whom having a child because of rape was just another injustice. We tend to think of having a child because of rape as "an exception" and something so horrible as to cause us to grant exceptions to our norms (e.g., abortion laws). Yet, for many of the women described in this chapter it was just another awful thing. For some though, it was the final injustice that propelled them towards a different way of living, living with love for their child. It's truly amazing the way different mothers dealt with this circumstance, though it seems a little silly to call a child a circumstance. I found the mothers in the US just as moving as the mothers in Rwanda, though their horrors seemed slightly different, when things are that horrible is there a point to making gradations in the horror? Seems unnecessary to me.

Still a great book. A great chapter too, though I don't think I will assign it in my Abnormal Psychology class like I planned, too much. As much as reading about trauma may make one wonder about the status of the world it actually usually makes me a bit hopeful. If we can live through all that we can do about anything. But we need to work out the details.


Sunday, April 28, 2013

FAMILY: A Monster Calls

At seven past midnight, a monster calls. But this isn't the monster that Conor has been expecting, this monster isn't the one from his nightmares, so what does it want?
A Monster Calls is the heart-wrenching story of a boy who is trying to deal with the reality of his mother's sickness. Every night he wakes up from a nightmare to a monster knocking on his window. The reader follows Conor as he navigates school, where he has become an outcast due to his "special circumstance;" his family, a sick mother and an insufferable grandmother; and his nightmares, which force Conor to confront his deepest fears--the truth.
Told alongside stunning illustrations, the story unfolds before the reader page by page, where the monster outside Conor's window shows him not everything is black and white, and where finally the reader confronts Conor's nightmare alongside him. 
Family: With his mother dying, Conor is (rightfully) resistant to anyone--even family--coming into his life as his new caretaker. It's heartbreaking to see his grandmother and absent father try to explain to him what's happening with his mother and see him shut down. The reader understands, as well as he does, he knows exactly what's going on--he just doesn't want to admit it. Family is at the core of this story, even though truth, love, and grief all play an important part.

Goodreads rating: 4 Stars
Recommendation: Read it! The only reason why I didnt give it 5 Stars because it didn't make me cry nearly as much as other books by Patrick Ness..

Friday, April 26, 2013

"Family": Far From the Tree continued

Autism, Schizophrenia, Disability, Prodigies

I continue to be pretty obsessed with this very long book. I have already brainstormed how to assign chapters from this book in future Psychology classes I might teach. Note: I don't teach them yet, that's just how badly I would like to teach anything where I can assign chapters from this book. It's that good guys.

Autism:
Of the identities covered thus far in this book autism presented some of the most complex conundrums. Many with severe autism are totally without language - at least language that we can understand. There is some evidence that many with autism do have the capacity for language but is is near impossible to express. This leads me to a meta-science question, how would we know if someone with severe autism has the capacity for language? How would we know? Previous chapters in this book have stressed how much social and verbal communication is vital to humans as a species, as established with deaf children, if not allowed to develop communication skills their intellectual development is delayed. Certainly a similar process likely occurs for those with severe autism but, then again, maybe their abilities are SO different that we would be unable to ascertain this. It's almost like if we tried to communicate with an alien species, how would we know what their capacity for language is? How would we know how to communicate? It is a bit of a stretch to compare kids with autism to aliens but the depth of the social disconnect for some individuals is very intense.

This chapter also illustrated I think how vastly difficult it is to parent children with autism. That's pretty obvious yes, but autistic children often do not express affection while simultaneously demanding huge amounts of resources. I cannot imagine the pain of these parents who quit jobs, spend their life savings, to see improvements to facilitate basic skills for their children like feeding themselves and then their kids can't show their love or appreciation. May not even treat their parent much differently from a stranger or a foreign object in extreme cases. Wow.

Schizophrenia.
Another "meta" question ran throughout this chapter for me regarding forcing psychiatric patients to take their medication. Clearly, many of these individuals suffer psychotic symptoms at a level that incapacitates them. But how do we know? How do we know when someone's mind is so plagued that they cannot make an informed decision about their treatment? We uphold individual rights (or say we do) at a high level in our culture, yet is it an unfair burden for those with schizophrenia? One parent quoted in this book, whose son was severely affected and homeless, describing allowing his son to go off and stay off his medication as slow suicide. And the connection between the closing of psychiatric institutions and rise in homeless populations is pretty well documented. So functionally, is being homeless better than being forced to take medication? Is the ideal principal one we can really uphold? I don't know.

Disability
This chapter was very similar in some ways to the autism chapter in that often the goal of these parents is not to obtain "normal" functioning - they don't ever expect their kids to be average - but basic self care and comfort. One of the controversies in this chapter was about whether to artificially stop puberty for severely disabled children (especially girls). I think this is a very intriguing and intense debate and one that I really can't take a side on. I find the idea repulsive at the idea level; however, I when I think practically about these families and how providing basic physical comfort can be such a challenge then I think that I can't have much of an opinion. The challenges these families based are so idiosyncratic, unique to the family, good lord there is no way I could say what they should do. I thought of a family I know who did take this option, because knowing that their daughter had the intellectual abilities of a much younger girl and had no verbal abilities, how would she feel when she began to bleed and have cramps? They presumed, I think correctly, she would be freaked out, uncomfortable, and unable to understand the experience. But at the same time, considering she could be a 20 year old with the body of a 12 year old seems repugnant, yet, the lifespan of these children is so short, is that really an important issue? I don't know.

Prodigies
A prodigy, for this book, was any child who could perform an ability at the level of an adult. This chapter focused on musical prodigies particularly. What was particularly interesting to me about prodigies is how much being a 'prodigy' requires facilitation from their adults in their lives. You can't be a piano prodigy if your parents never had one in the house and weren't ok with you practicing (at a minimum) five hours a day. And oftentimes, the children were acting out the fantasies of their parents, "living vicariously" seemed a common occurrence. I think that is likely because in very few cases were the parents themselves prodigies so they would have no understanding of the experience. Secondly, children reflect the wants and expectations of their parents. And there is really no way to separate that out once the kid has picked up on it - so again, how could we know what those kids really want? And just because they want it doesn't mean it is good for them. Kids want to eat candy all the time but we sure don't let them. It is a little facetious to compare to the two but there is lots of evidence that prodigies are often lacking in lots of skills, especially skills, because of the service to their talent. The complete focus or obsession on their talent is inevitably to the detriment of something else. So what things are worth sacrificing? I'm not sure the talents are inevitably worth it as parents often assume.

I have some personal perspective on this. I read at the college level when I was in the fifth grade and was in gifted education throughout most of grade school and on. Yet my education was still quite lacking, I can count on one hand the number of times I had homework in high school. And certainly in some ways I have regretted not having more educational experiences pre-college, mostly because I think I could have gotten a lot more of college paid for. However, I have still been very successful academically and often find I am more well rounded in my interests, in my social and personal life generally, than many of my PhD program peers. And for that I am very grateful as I do regularly though not often feel socially isolated because of my talents, I can't imagine how much more that would be had I been able to "exploit" them earlier and with abandon.

Sunday, March 31, 2013

Family: "Far From the Tree: Parents, Children & the Search for Identity"

Family

Let me begin by saying I am already pretty obsessed with this book. So obsessed, I am writing about it at 12:45 on a Sunday night when I have appointments from 9-630 for myself tomorrow including conducting cognitive testing with an 8 year old boy who may have ADHD (hold on to your hats people). But this book just stays on my mind! It brings up some interesting and emotional ideas. It is also really long - so I am going to split this book up over several posts.

I am reading this book for the theme family and have been wanting to read this book since I listened to the author on NPR's Fresh Air with Terry Gross. I once read in a newspaper for academics that to be a researcher you have to really love your research because it's likely that no one cares about it and above all, Terry Gross will never want to interview you, or something like that. I found it very hilarious and true at the same time. But, point being, this guy WAS interviewed by Terry Gross and I was pretty instantly hooked to his idea. I recall telling several people about it that day. But I didn't pick up the book until months later, and though it was on my list, it was pretty random that I did pick up the book when I did. So glad that I did now.

Chapters: Son, Deaf & Dwarves

The first chapter of this book, Son, sets out the premise of the book. The author outlines this with his idea of "vertical" and "horizontal" identities. Vertical identities are those we inherit and share with our parents, often these are also plainly visible. For example, race is a vertical identity. In contrast, horizontal identities may or may not be heritable but are likely NOT shared with your parents. For example, being gay or congenitally deaf. These conditions may have some heritability or genetic basis but it is pretty uncommon. There is also a lot in the first chapter about the author's own life and his context for writing this book. I could have lived without a lot of that stuff. Given that I had heard about this book on NPR I often found myself thinking, "let's get to the good stuff" while reading this chapter.

The second chapter is about being Deaf. This chapter very sensitively explores the Deaf identity and culture. I found the history of Deaf education quite remarkable and alarming. Not-so-fun-fact, not teaching Sign language early on in favor of an "oralist" only education can actually be a form of preventable mental retardation (intellectual disability is the preferred term now but the book used mental retardation specifically in that passage). I found this fact as well as some of the other ideas in this chapter quite profound in illustrating how much being social is part and parcel of our species. So much so that not being able to communicate could cause an intellectual disability.  This really fits with a lot of recent research on human evolution, that is our ability to form groups and care for one another that allowed us to increase our cognitive capacity so rapidly. It also made me think of my dear cousin who has a severe developmental disability that has made her unable to ever talk (or Sign), I had always thought of how she is trapped within her own mind and though it had crossed my mind before that her inability to communicate slowed her down I never really painted out in those stark letters that it was part of WHY she is intellectually disabled.

This idea - of cognitive impairment because of inability to communicate - also really struck home the social isolation that being Deaf and isolated from language also would entail. A continuing theme of this book and one very present in the Deaf chapter is how pre-natal screening could "eliminate" this culture and way of being and is that for the better or for the worse. In the case of the Deaf community this is very interesting because this culture is SO developed. They have invented their own language for goodness sakes! Yet one cannot argue that being without hearing is not a significant obstacle, even if one that contributes to positive growth. It made me think about cultural evolution/revolution in general. How many cultures over time have been lost? Thousands I am sure (anthropologists please weigh in). Many of those were lost unfairly, such as many Native American cultures in the US purposefully eradicated. Yet some were lost through "normal" passage of time, the author gives the example of Eastern European Jewish, Yiddish-speaking immigrants of his father's generation in New York. It also made me think about the assumption that all cultures are valuable. I am not questioning the value of Deaf culture, especially given the history of Deaf culture's role in advocating for the education of Deaf people. But there are certainly some cultures that could do to evolve, for example our own culture very much tolerates violence against women (and lots of others), would we really miss that? But what else would change if that did? Surely that tendency doesn't exist in a vacuum.

The third chapter, the chapter I completed this evening, was about Dwarfism. I am still digesting this one a bit and dwarfism is striking in how much public "comment" it unwittingly invites upon those who are dwarves because of it's visual nature. The name itself is interesting - dwarf is in this case a medical condition and used in literature as a name for a small, magical person. Many people who would have this medical condition prefer the term Little Person and that is what is mostly used in this chapter. Little People face a different conundrum as their "disability", a somewhat contended issue, is almost purely physical. They think the same, share the same emotions, etc and in some ways this almost makes the physical conditions worse because they can be felt that much more acutely. There is also the tension of the "disabledness" of being a Little Person, most of the problem of daily living is environmental and thus can be adapted to/with so is it a true disability? However, one cannot dismiss the true LIMITATIONS of small stature and often associated orthopedic, respiratory, and neurological difficulties. Especially in this chapter the personal growth achieved by the parents of Little People was striking - so many of these parents faced up to the challenge and felt they were better for having done it. Which I think is quite profound, part of the human condition AND probably true of any parent in some way.

Monday, March 25, 2013

WAR: Iron Council

Before I get into my book for WAR, I would like to give a shout-out to another book that fits this theme perfectly that I read before we started on this little journey.


Code Name Verity
Code Name Verity is an incredible story about two friends who are torn apart when their plane crashes in Nazi-occupied France n the middle of a spy mission for Britain during World War II. "Verity" is captured by the Gestapo and forced to reveal her mission to them. Weaved into her confession is a brilliant tale about the role of women in World War II (both main characters were part of the Women's Auxiliary Air Force), an amazing and heartbreaking friendship, and of courage and determination.

I really cannot say much about the plot, in fear of ruining it for anyone who might pick it up, because really.. reading it is an experience, and it's one of those books that part of reading it is taking the journey yourself without any preconceived notions. 

Rating: 5 stars

Recommendation: READ IT

And now on to my actual book for this month..


Iron CouncilIron Council is the third book in Miéville's Bas-Lag series set in the fantastic city of New Crobuzon, which is under siege from inside and out. The elusive threat of war from the region Tesh is always looming above the city, putting fear in every citizen. However, it quickly becomes clear the real threat is coming from within. There is unrest among the citizens of New Crobuzon, and there are rumors that the legendary Iron Council is returning.

Twenty years ago, New Crobuzon was building a rail system that would connect itself to many other regions. In it's greed and power, it mowed down many outlying settlements of defenseless creatures and attracted many prostitutes for the workers, and Remade (horrific bodily reconstructions from animal and machine parts that permanently brand criminals as outcasts and slaves). The prostitutes were not getting paid, and the Remade were being forced into labor. In the wilderness far away from the city, they revolted and took over the train, turning it into the Iron Council--the perpetual train, a symbol for freedom and equality.

The book follows a cast of characters that set this citizen's revolution into motion--Judah, the golemancy scholar who saw the birth of the Iron Council and has spread the legend of the Iron Council throughout New Crobuzon; Cutter who is fatally flawed in that he'll follow Judah to the death; Ann-Hari, the woman that led the revolt against the militia to claim the Iron Council; and Ori, who is a discontent revolutionist that is tired of the talk of revolution--he wants action.

WAR: At first, it seems like the war between New Crobuzon and Tesh should be at the forefront of everyone's mind, but never becomes more than a shadowy threat on the horizon. In fact, the war starts and ends on the sidelines, the reader only hears about it through whisperings and rumors via the secondary characters. The real war lies within the city of New Crobuzon and the inception and return of the Iron Council.

There are many lessons folded into the story of the Iron Council--those that support strength in rightfulness, but also a deep sense of history and timeliness. Although the Iron Council is built on the idea of free citizens, equality, and an Utopian society, when it returns to New Crobuzon it is not certain that the city is ready to accept it. There are also warnings against being so passionate about something you will do anything to make it happen even if it blinds you to the truth. Sometimes, that passion is good.. but more often than not your logic must be grounded. And running through all this is one of Miéville's central themes: life isn't fair and doesn't always work out the way you want it to--but hope can and will live on. 

Overall, I love Miéville in this book for everything I've always loved him for--his inventiveness, his social messages, his ability to weave incredible and intricate worlds that are beautiful and flawed. His characters fall a bit flat, but they are just vessels for the messages he's trying to convey. I can overlook that for the sheer genius that is his worldbuilding.

Rating: 4 stars

Recommendation: If you've never read Miéville, I would suggest starting out with something a bit less dense. The City & The City is BRILLIANT, and perhaps my favorite book of his. In terms of Bas-Lag, The Scar (Bas-Lag #2) still has my heart.

Sunday, March 24, 2013

WAR: Forgotten Country

For the theme "WAR" I read the book Forgotten Country by Catherine Chung. First of all, GOOD JOB MS. CHUNG! This book received many awards and came to my attention via Oprah magazine, it was a great book. And yes, I read Oprah magazine. THIS BOOK VALIDATES THAT CHOICE.

Synopsis (************SOME MINOR SPOILERS AHEAD*******************): This book recounts the family history of Janie & Hannah aka Jeehyun and Haejin through Janie/Jeehyun's perspective as the family faces serious difficulties. The first difficulty is the voluntary disappearance of her sister and how the family copes with that. From reading book synposes I expected the book to really center around this event and though that is the beginning the book quickly transitions to the family's difficulties moving to the US from Korea and the father's illness. Yet, I was not bothered by this transition (but surprised), I got sucked in at the beginning and then 100 pages later was like, "whoa how did we get here?" This book really got to my heart with some of the challenges the family faced with being in another country, far away from their known culture and family members, racism that the young girls dealt with, and loss that any family would be challenged by. Oh my, the resiliency of this family.

This book made me think a lot of about the idea of "generational trauma". Here I go getting all psychology-y again. But this book is very illustrative of how events that DID NOT HAPPEN TO YOU but were highly traumatic and influential for another, like your parent, really do shape who you are. And how much they affect you is hugely related to how the parent's cope.

For Janie and Hannah their parent's experiences of the Korean war and ongoing conflict (inasmuch as though there is no outright war anymore but North Korea is cut off from South Korea and many families had loved ones across the border they cannot communicate with) was a huge part of who they are even though they didn't experience it. They did not experience all their father's loved ones being killed and having to live as servants in a relative's house, yet, because of the way this shaped their father, such as how he loved and honored his sister because she was his only living relative, totally affected them in huge ways. This sister's children were awful and abusive and to Janie and Hannah and this may have not been tolerated if they had been the children of another family member. Or maybe not, a huge theme of this book is family and what that means. I feel like I learned a lot about traditional Korea culture reading this book. Interestingly, though Janie and Hannah are "very Asian" but "American" (classic bi-cultural kids and all the rifts that can bring) they way they dealt with the traumas they experienced was so classic to me (in the sense of common), they dealt with those just like any other young women. And perhaps that shows just how human it is to experience these kinds of things, awful as they are, and deal with them best you can.

War: The Korean war was the backdrop for this story and though it was explicitly talked about for a relatively short amount of the book it was lurking in many scenes. More prominent was the "war" within the family between Hannah and the rest of them, vs. Janie at times, vs. Janie + her parents at other times. It is interesting to think of the traditional "war" between nations and how similar that can be to the mini-wars we play out against each other in families. Purposefully hurting each other to gain something, lashing out in retaliation, etc. We under-estimate how much we can really harm each other.
Map of Korea with close-up on the demilitarized zone (DMZ) 

In sum, this book ended in a totally different place than I expected but I gladly followed to where it led me. This is an easy book intellectually, a tough book emotionally. This book is an excellent look at how some things affect all families but also the unique challenges of a family immigrating to the US.

Rating: 3.75 stars (first half: 4.5, second half: 3.0)

Recommendation: Go read it!

Love continued: Marmee & Louisa

I finally finished this book a few weeks ago. Once I got over the initial hump I read it much faster.

Overall thoughts: It was very hard to drop my "modern eye" at times reading this. For example, the state of Abigail and Bronson's marriage was SO AGGRAVATING and it was so frustrating to see how trapped she was in the situation because of the times. However, this kind of thing STILL happens to women all over the world today. It is so tragic! Not just because of the personal suffering when a marriage is dysfunctional but because relationships can be wonderful, powerful, fulfilling things and it is a tragedy when they don't fill their potential and instead are life-sucking. Also, their relationship is a really good example of how sexism hurts everyone. Neither of them fit into the "role" they were supposed to and it made them both unhappy though in very different ways. If Abigail had been free to make a living for the family and Bronson had been free to work on his ideas they would have both been much happier. Of course, Abigail would have been even happier if she could be taken more seriously for HER ideas....

This book was really a biography of Louisa May Alcott and her mother Abigail but I found the transition to focusing on Louisa a bit lacking. We didn't get to know her life and personality the same way we did her mothers even though she was so much more famous and well known. Side note: I totally did not realize how famous Louisa was in her day, it is really amazing how many books she sold.

I find it really interesting that Louisa and her mother both journaled extensively their whole lives. In our lab we do research on expressive writing for anger. Clearly they were doing this at times! I wonder how much writing has played a role in emotion regulation in history. I also wonder how journaling affects intellectual development more generally.

As for the theme love, Louisa and her mother did truly care for each other. I find it interesting that they were very much self-sacrificing for each other in a way that was different from their other relationships. Abigail especially was very self sacrificing in general though it was really expected of her in many ways. We expect mothers (and parents more generally) to sacrifice for their children and it seems like she really took this to another level due to their family's unique situation. Yet, when it came to Louisa it seemed more a matter of choice than in some of the other situations. I really wonder how the rest of the family viewed their relationship - were they envious? appreciative? I would guess a mixture of both.

Rating: 3 stars.

Recommendation: If you want to learn more about what it was like living during this time, read on sister. If you want to know what Louisa May Alcott was like as a person or how her writing influenced the world, read something else as you will just get a taste of those topics.

Wednesday, February 27, 2013

LOVE: The Shadow on the Crown

Shadow on the Crown
The book follows the lives of multiple people as they move about England (and some of Norway): Emma, the Norse princess who is given to the English King, Aethelred, the English King who is haunted by his brother’s ghost, Athelstan, the eldest son of the King--and rightful heir to the throne (unless Emma bears the King a son), and Elvirga, an ambitious woman who will do anything for the crown on Emma’s head. The book follows Emma from when she is told her life has been negotiated for peace with the King of England through loss, trials, and growth in her young years.

She begins a strong, albeit naive, girl, but she quickly learns the way of court. And as her unwilling husband draws further and further away from her, she finds joy and love in other areas of her life--namely, the King’s son--who she falls deeply in love with. Throughout the course of the book, she grows immensely.. learning how to survive her husbands wrath, learning from the miscarriage of her first pregnancy, learning how to make friends from people who mistrust you, and learning how to be a Queen.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book. It was an extremely light read--which I was not expecting. Honestly I think I’ve read too much George RR Martin recently.. the setup was incredibly similar (multiple points of view, court intrigue, wars, backstabbing, feasts, kings, and passion) and I kept unwillingly comparing it to GRRM, which is completely unfair.

Anyway, the inner struggle of her duty as a wife and queen vs. her own desires was very intriguing to me. I wish it had been explored a bit more, but I think it was still done really well. I admire her character for making mistakes, realizing her mistakes, and recovering from them. Most of all, I admire her for living up to her situation and making the best out of it. I am amazed at how strong she must have been to endure her husband--which, I imagine, is the case for most arranged marriages.

Insofar as love is concerned, this book had an interesting angle--Emma was able to find love in all of the places except the one she should have been able to--in her husband’s arms. And she learned an important lesson about love: love can triumph over the largest hurdles and it can make you the strongest person you’ll ever be.

I didn't know this when I started, but this book is the first in a trilogy. I am looking forward to reading the rest of them.

 Rating on Goodreads: 3

Monday, February 18, 2013

Love: Marmee & Louisa

Rather than focusing on romantic love for this theme, I opted for familial love. Coincidentally, this is also how I love to celebrate Valentine's Day - it's about EVERYONE I love, not just my man-mate (though I was less successful at that this year, sorry for the e-card Mom!).

Any-who, I have only just started this book, Marmee & Louisa by Eve LaPlante, about the strong, loving relationship between Louisa May Alcott and her mother. The title is from how this relationship was immortalized in the book Little Women, which I love. Though I was rather miffed about the ending at first - that's a point for another day. I am not so well versed in the Alcotts but even I have gathered that Louisa's father, Bronson Alcott, gets much more press than her mother did. This book is about correcting some of that historical oversight, that Louisa valued her relationship with and was influenced by her mother just as much, if not more, than by her father.

I am only about 40 pages in but this book already had me in tears. Perhaps I was a bit hormonal that day but works from this time period tend to get me.

*************SPOILERS*********************

It's the child mortality folks, gets me EVERY TIME. This book is very much a historical, biographical account and thus starts with her mother's family. Abigail May's parents lost more than one of their children early on, but it was the death of one of their sons in middle childhood that greatly influenced her upbringing, by bringing her close to her brother Sam Jo. This small child's death really hit me, I just can't imagine losing a child and it was so commonplace at that time. Samuel Joseph May provides Abigail with many opportunities she would normally not have gotten, purposefully bringing his little sister into many of his educational experiences. Her father wasn't really down with this and Abigail caused some drama by refusing to many a suitor or really even be on the market for suitors. She was really captivated early in her life by education and very much aware of the many opportunities denied to her by her gender. I like that this book very firmly places her life in it's historical context but maintains a modern eye; let's be real we are all thinking about the contrast so I appreciate it when authors work with it. So, so far so good. I hope this post motivates me to get moving a bit faster on this book. American's Best Science and Nature Writing 2012 edited by Dan Arielly has been distracting me. Love that stuff.


We're Back! Now with more Pages!




A little re-introduction if you will, as allison k. and I decided to get back into the swing of blogging about out books. I feel reinspired - I have still been reading a ton, but writing about what I am reading does bring it to another level - and reading old posts was quite fun. Guess it's the narcissist in mean but damn, we are hilarious at times.

So this time it is just allison k. and I. And perhaps I will finish out the penguin year alphabet that inspired this little blogging adventure in the first place, but for now that is on hold. This time around we are freestylin' a bit more about what we read, but are trying to try it together with some themes, interpreted quite broadly. The themes we brainstormed encompass quite a range to accommodate our interests and our tendencies to read very different works.

The first theme, in honor of Valentine's Day, is Love. Yes, Love with a capital "L". Cue Sinatra. Get ready!