Top Ten Books That Make Me Think (About The World, People, Life, etc.)

I'm jumping on the bandwagon this morning and participating in Top Ten Tuesday, a weekly meme created at The Broke and the Bookish blog with a different top ten, book related list theme every Tuesday (see the full list here).

This week's theme: Top Ten Books that made me THINK. Here they are, in no particular order...

1. Of Mice and Men - I can remember reading this book... I was in middle school. I cried. If I tell you why, though, it'll give away the ending. John Steinbeck really made me think about innocence (and the loss of...) and  responsibility. Haunting.

2. Everything is Illuminated - Profoundly beautiful and devastating, all at once. Jonathan Safran Foer... I am humbled to think that he is the same age as me... his writing, his storytelling, blows me away. The second World War features large in this book, as does the theme of forgiveness.

3. The Wicked Day - This is the 4th book in Mary Stewart's Arthurian series... and she once again worked her magic. Mordred, a classic villain, became a sympathetic character to me. So much so that I had to ask myself questions about fate, unavoidable destiny, and evil.

4. The Longings of Women - I know what you're thinking, but it's not like that. Marge Piercy (my absolute favorite poet) has written a zillion novels too... and this one's affecting characters will make you reconsider the assumptions you make about strangers and near strangers (like the girl who works at the coffee shop, or your housekeeper...).

5. My Year of Meats - I wrote a post about this a couple of years ago here. This book, by Ruth Ozeki, isn't designed to convert people to vegetarianism... but that's just what it did for me. A thought provoking look at American culture (as marketed to the rest of the world), the media culture (as part of that marketing machine), the meat industry (doing the marketing), and marketing (as a vehicle for telling the story you want, whether it's true, or applicable, or none of the above)... all wrapped up in an ironic novel full of sarcasm and humor.

6. Wicked - Another book that made me reconsider a classic villain... and how the face of evil, and the face of beauty, sometimes changes with knowledge and perspective. Gregory Maguire... you really know how to mess with the establishment. Thank you.

7. The Other End of the Leash - This is a non-fiction entry by Patricial McConnell. Yes, I'm one of those people that spends an inordinate amount of time staring at my dog wondering if he's content, what he's thinking, how to make him understand what I am thinking... and this book really lays it out in detail. It's a beautiful way to open the door of understanding between you and your canine companion.

8. Of Wolves and Men - Another non-fiction entry by Barry Lopez. This comprehensive look at wolves (biological, historical, mythological, political) really shed some light on the world of wolves... the people who demonize them and the people who romanticize them.

9. More Ready Than You Realize - Back in 2003, this book by Brian Mclaren pushed me outside of my comfortable little conservative Christian bubble... my life has not been the same since. Non-fiction entry.

10. Little House in the Big Woods - yeah, sure, we all read Little House by Laura Ingalls Wilder when we were kids... and we joke about the "purity" and the "simplicity" of it now... but you want a picture of how daily life went for the pioneers? You want to take the time to really think about how harsh that simple life really was? Read it again as an adult... and think about how few generations removed we are from that reality. I tell you, it boggles the mind.

So that's all from this kid for today. I hope you'll share some of your own significant reads with me, too. I'm eager to read books that make me THINK.

7x7 award

Thanks to Nick Wilford over at Scattergun Scribblings for bestowing on me the 7x7 award!

I don't really participate in these kinda things anymore (because there are way too many to keep up with!) but this one had some interesting aspects that I wanted to follow through with anyhow. Kind of a blogging retrospective, introspectively... the following links are all to posts from my own blog that I think fit these categories.

Most Beautiful: I'm biased, but Big Island Dolphin Swimming, while not perhaps the most articulately written post, and not even the most well produced video, was the most beautiful experience for me...

Most Helpful & Most Popular: This post was incredibly helpful to me in terms of feedback I got toward my main character Lilith... and it comes in second for number of views on my blog.

Most Controversial: I don't know that I've posted anything "Controversial" yet... but this post with a flash fiction piece I wrote stirred up a lot of speculation...

Most Surprisingly Successful: Possessing the Secret of Joy. Without a doubt, this is the most surprising post. Not because of content, either, I expect. It's an emotional reaction to the novel by Alice Walker. But it has the most views on my blog of all of my posts... even still today.

Most Underrated: This post about my internship with the literary agency was a LOT of fun to write and full of information, but it didn't receive quite the response I was expecting/hoping.

Most Pride Worthy: My Name is Elisabeth and I am a Vegetarian There are some things that just need to be said, and this post says it.

You can feel free to visit or not visit them :) You may already have, if you've been following me for any amount of time.

If you want this award and haven't received it yet, I'm awarding it to you now!

Have a lovely week, all.

Kony 2012 **UPDATED**

(**Updated at the end of this post)
Ok guys. I have to talk to you about something close to my heart. They said we should tell all our friends, and... since I moved from California to Connecticut I don't have too many friends... but I have YOU! So I'm telling you.

I hope that all of you have already heard of Invisible Children. If you have, you can skip this next bit and watch the video below. If you haven't, let me tell you a quick story.

Almost 30 years ago a war began in Uganda. For the full history of the war, go here. The leader, Joseph Kony, formed the LRA (Lord's Resistance Army) and began attacking towns and villages, raping, pillaging and murdering wherever he went. Unable to gain regional support for his movement, he began stealing food and abducting children to fill the ranks of his army. The horrific violence that he has perpetrated against the people of Uganda has gone unchecked for the last 30 years. You can watch Invisible Children: Rough Cut here and hear the story for yourself.

Invisible Children takes its name from the children of the villages of Uganda who, too terrified to sleep in their own beds in their homes for fear of being abducted and forced to become child soldiers, would walk many miles to the nearest large town to sleep on the streets every night. What Invisible Children seeks to do is make these children, and this horrible war, visible... to bring the war to an end and to bring Joseph Kony, #1 Wanted Criminal on the International Criminal Court's most wanted list, to justice. They have been working tirelessly over the past 9 years to raise awareness about the LRA, to bring hope and help to the people of Uganda, and to end this horrible war. Frankly, they make my life look pretty shabby. But they also make me want to get up and DO something.

Over the years I have participated in a few of the IC events. The Global Night Commute was my favorite. I have hosted viewings of the IC: Rough Cut in my home and passed out copies of the video to my family and friends because I believe we can all make a difference. Knowledge is power. But not if we keep it to ourselves.

I hope that you will take a little time to learn about the Invisible Children... and that once you know about them... once you know about Joseph Kony... you will share what you know with others. Together we can bring change in the lives of people who desperately need our help.

This is the latest video from the IC campaign to make Joseph Kony the most known man on the planet so that there is nowhere for him to hide. It's 30 minutes long, but worth the time. Please take it. Share it with others. And thanks for listening.


KONY 2012 from INVISIBLE CHILDREN on Vimeo.

**UPDATE**There have been many critics of Invisible Children in the past 24 hours or so raising some valid questions. Here is IC's response to the criticism. I support their position wholeheartedly.

Maurice Sendak is AWESOME!!!

So, my YA post for the week is a cheat, really... it's more about children's literature... and actually, I'm going to let Maurice Sendak and Steven Colbert say it. (Maurice Sendak, by the way... is AWESOME!!!)

Best line of this interview "I don't write for children... I write... and somebody says 'That's for children'"

I think that kind of writing produces the best books. It's one thing to market and hit a target demographic... but in the end you just gotta write your story.

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Grim Colberty Tales with Maurice Sendak Pt. 1
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor & Satire Blog Video Archive

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Grim Colberty Tales with Maurice Sendak Pt. 2
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor & Satire Blog Video Archive

Remember when...

Ok, I admit two things. One, I'm 34, and so using the phrase "Remember when..." sort of rings a little hollow. I've done a lot of looking back recently, and talking about former times. I still feel too young to be waxing nostalgic.

Second admission... Just now when I typed the title "Remember when..." for this post the song "Crocodile Rock" by Elton John popped into my head and it's stuck there. Please tell me you know the song... No? Yes? Well, for better or worse, here it is:

And piggy-backing on that second admission, here's a third... I LOVE THAT SONG :) It makes me get all wiggly and smile a lot. Ha!

Ok, back to the point... I'm borrowing from the lovely and talented Margo Berendsen, who last week wrote about teenage love. I partook in a lively discussion about whether it was appropriate to portray teenage love that seems like it will last forever, that has such intense "I'd-die-for-you" qualities as a lot of the books out there right now do (i.e. Twilight, The Forest of Hands and Teeth, come on you name 'em). There was some argument that the kind of love in those books wasn't "realistic" enough.

To which I laugh... firstly because realism is hardly what I look for or expect when I pick up a Young Adult novel. But the question, I guess, pertains to my expectation as well. Should I expect the love stories contained in Young Adult fiction to be more 'realistic'?

My argument in the whole thing was that, apart from the "happily ever after" bit, the way love is portrayed in a book like Twilight (even Romeo and Juliet) is completely realistic in an overly dramatic, "I'd rather die than live without you" kind of way. I know, I know... it sounds like a paradox. How can you be realistic and overly dramatic at the same time? Try being a teenager.

It was a while ago for me, but not so long that I haven't forgotten how it felt to be in love as a teenager. Of course, the love I felt was hardly requited (ah the life of the awkward youth)... but that even added an edge of proving just how deeply smitten I was in the hopes that my love would be recognized as THE love. Still not relating? Really, you must have the emotions of an automaton then.

So in my auto-biographical example, "he" wasn't the most popular kid in school, although he was well liked by many people. I thought he was the most handsome boy minus one... he had the most beautiful singing voice... and he was prone to his own fits of melodrama that made him desperately tragic. Plus, he was one of my best friends (read that as, he was way too nice to tell me I was a loser)... and I spent a lot of time hanging out with him. Not that he would ever read this blog, but if any of you knew me in high school you know who he is, too.

It's not like I kept my feelings a secret. My heart was LITERALLY on my sleeve... well, ok, not Literally... but you get the idea. If you had asked me to, I would have jumped (off of what?) for him, I'm fairly certain. No he never returned my feelings... but that just meant I needed to prove how desolate my life was without him!

So, now... all these years later... I'm so over that phase of my life... I moved to California and now to the East Coast again... I met a wonderful, amazing man whom I have been married to for 9 years... and I know that love is more than the wibbly-wobbly feelings in my stomach... that it's so much richer when it's requited (ha... a given, that...)... and that it takes effort, tenacity, open-mindedness, vulnerability... that the flash in the pan is not the staying power of a lasting marriage. That doesn't invalidate the experience I had when I was young, though.

And THAT is why those books are so popular... it's because we all recognize the echo of our own teenage loves that we wish had lasted for an eternity in the story of Bella and Edward. I am in NO WAY defending Twilight as a good book... as I said on Margo's blog, Bella's character makes me want to choke on my own bile. But that's partly because I have grown up, grown out of that stage of helpless mush. But the echo, the resonance with our past, that's what gives these stories their popularity... it's precisely because they ARE realistic... realistically unrealistic.

Thoughts? There's an underlying question here of whether you think literature should exist to edify or entertain... should books portray more "realistic" love for teens to learn what that looks like? Hmmm... I'd love to hear what people have to say about this.

This post fits with the meme Young Adult Teen Tuesday started by Shari Larsen over at Writers Ally in that it is almost Tuesday and the post is about teens in love and grew out of Margo's post along the same meme from last week. So I guess I'll "join" in the conversation.

NaNo day 21 - Moving along

It's day 21. I made excellent headway at the end of last week and wrote the usual quota of words on Saturday, too, so only writing 600 yesterday didn't really hurt me. I didn't get ahead that much, though, by only writing 600 words. So today's goal is to write to 40,000 words (a little over a 2,500 word count for the day). It's completely do-able since I wrote 5,000 the other day... in 2 and a half hours... This new app is fantastic for making my writing time manageable and productive. I love it.

This image is taken from

 http://a-faerietale-of-inspiration.blogspot.com/

In other news, the recent events at UC Davis have shocked and saddened me more than I can say. Especially when you expect that the police should be there to protect people and uphold their rights... which I do. Maybe everyone does not expect that. I know there is a lot of contention surrounding the purpose of the protesting going on across the country at this time... nevertheless, people have the right to make their thoughts and concerns known through peaceful assembly... and this kind of display of force in direct opposition to those rights chills me.

I never really considered my position of non-violence until now. I think I always assumed that I knew my own mind. And I have a hard time wrapping my brain around exactly how my ideals, my beliefs would work in an ideal world, especially given that this world is less than ideal... but I'm going to put it out there... to wish... to imagine what my world would be like... so bear with me, and converse with me. I hope you will...

In my perfect world, the police would use force only when absolutely necessary... because their lives or the lives of others are in imminent danger.

In my perfect world, people would have safe, open forums to talk about their wants and needs, their hopes and dreams, and to find support and fulfillment from others who have and are willing to share.

In my perfect world, disagreeing with someone would not be a cause for hate or war or violence, but a time for learning, if nothing else, how to respect a different viewpoint and allow that person to be and believe differently from you.

In my perfect world...

There are so many other ways to end that thought that I think I'm going to have to start a series, just to tease this idea out, to dream

I hope that you will play along with me. What do things look like in YOUR perfect world?
I reserve the right to delete any comments that are combative or out of sync with the spirit of this "perfect world".

Procrastination part 2

My awesome friend Aya (sister to my awesome friend Emi) just shared this video on procrastination with me and I had to post it to share with YOU!

Thoughts on museums and imperialism

I went to the American Museum of Natural History (MNH) in NYC a couple of Fridays ago with my friend Lori and her friend Brian who was up visiting the blustery and slushy city of New York. Like all the museums I have visited in NYC so far, it's right off the Park, so we had a nice walk getting there in the almost 60 degree heat wave that washed over February that week. I saw flowers blooming! (Of course it snowed again a couple days later, but who's counting that, right? SPRING IS COMING!!!)

I didn't really know what to expect from the MNH when I told Lori that I would go with her. I remembered liking the Smithsonian's version of the MNH when my grandparents took me as a child... I remember that it was my favorite museum of all the Smithsonian museums we visited. This makes perfect sense, since I am an animal lover to the extreme and fascinated by all things zoological. But... an MNH is not a zoo...

Lori was looking forward to seeing the dinosaur bones, and truth be told, there were some spectacular skeletons/fossils of dinos there. Like this one in the atrium.

Or these...

Doesn't Lori look terrified as she runs away from the ferocious T-rex?

There were young people all over the museum sketching fossils/skeletons/taxidermied animals. I liked this kid's hat. I asked if I could photo him and his sketching. He seemed to like that.

The thing is, I grew up with National Geographic and the Smithsonian Institution and the belief that museums were/are super concentrated centers of learning, providing profound experiences of nature, of culture, of history for the masses. It's how I've always understood museums. So why was I so uncomfortable viewing the dioramas of African mammals and the taxidermied birds, butterflies, and aquaculture pinned to the walls of the MNH? Not to mention the portions of the museum dedicated to a historic understanding of indigenous peoples of the Americas and Africa... which I didn't even stop to contemplate for fear the frustration would be too great to bear.

A year ago I was taking my first formal foray into the world of Gender and Global studies... an area of study that I was warned would seriously rock my world, and it did. I am a big fan of getting the bigger picture, of seeing the world through another's perspective where I can. The courses I took last year stretched me to the maximum potential, and I was pleased to find myself flexible, to learn, to absorb, to open my mind and incorporate others' perspectives as well as prune my own understanding of the world.

One thing I have learned is that history is bloated by the perspective it is told from... that science is as objective as the motivation for learning behind it... and that the white man's colonization of and extermination of the inhabitants of the "New World" runs deeper than I had previously been taught to imagine.

How does this relate to museums? Museums came about around the "Age of Discovery," during a time when the largely white "Western" world was asserting its dominance over the globe. The explorers claimed discovery of and then named in their own language a myriad of lands, animals, plants, and peoples. Never mind the fact that the people that the explorers (MY ancestors) named already had names for themselves, for their lands, and for the animals and plants that inhabited them.

The best way to display how much of the world these explorers and the nations they represented had discovered and claimed was to collect specimens in museums... animals, plants, insects, rock formations, and people and their possessions were taken from their original context and displayed to others who, not understanding anything about the original context of these specimens, came to be amazed by the strangeness, the foreignness of the savages and their savage world.

As I viewed the animals in their displays, all I could think about was the fact that these were once alive, some of them well preserved from an era when exploitation of peoples and over-hunting of populations, which we now have laws to prevent, were common practices. Ill gotten gains and a sad way to gain knowledge. How much can you actually learn about a gemsbok from a diorama anyhow?

My sadness and discomfort were set in the context of the history of colonization and exploitation of populations, but there were also reminders that we continue to over-hunt/fish/mine/deforest the world, sucking it dry of its resources, taking advantage of the people who live in areas where those resources (including the right to create representations of their culture in whatever way we see fit to benefit us) are which we will have at all costs and sell for an exorbitant value.

I fully recognize that museums do a lot of good for public knowledge and awareness and, on the whole I am not against them... I just felt hyper aware that my innocent perspective from my youth of museums as these pinnacles of knowledge and culture was no longer how I view them anymore... and began wondering where the current dialog on the ability of museums to metamorphose into more perceptive and accurate portrayals of their subjects takes place. I know I have one friend who will hopefully comment to shed some light on this topic. I hope that there are others that will dialog with me as well.

My name is Elisabeth and I am a vegetarian

¹veg·e·tar·i·an Pronunciation: \ˌve-jə-ˈter-ē-ən\

Function: noun

Etymology: ²vegetable + -arian

Date: 1839

1 : one who believes in or practices vegetarianism
2 : Herbivore
(taken from: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/vegetarian)

If you know me at all you know a couple things about me:
1. My husband was raised vegetarian and maintains that lifestyle still.
2. I am from the South where all food is fried in, boiled with, sauteed in, etc., pork fat.

Growing up it was "One size fits all" and you cleaned your well-balanced plate of meat, bread, and a token vegetable. This is how the majority of middle America lives, eats, and understands the order of the universe courtesy of the USDA food pyramid. Although... have you looked at that thing lately? http://www.mypyramid.gov/ It's become remarkably more customizable.

When I met Noah (who is a fab cook, by the way), switching off the part of my brain that set off an alarm if meat WASN'T included in the meal was... challenging. So we started slowly.

After 7 years of marriage and gradually reducing my meat intake, the leap to vegetarianism wasn't so dramatic, at least not habitually. But I didn't stop eating meat altogether (minus fish now and again) just because it was an easy, gradual switch.

In 2007, Noah and I moved to Davis, California, so that he could continue pursuing his bachelor's degree in sustainable agriculture (he officially graduated this past June. Yay Noah!), an interest he had developed over the years. There are so many different facets to the world of sustainable ag; most exciting and compelling for me (though I was not the one studying it :)) are the impacts on social and environmental justice.

While living in the Davis/Sacramento area, we drove down I-5 to LA a number of times. You only have to do it once to know about Harris Ranch. Long before you can see the ranch, you can smell it. The odor is potent, toxic, and accompanied by a brown cloud that hangs ominously in the air for miles around. Drive by this place and it'll make you think twice about eating beef. Except that, most people forget that this is where their beef comes from!It's not cellophane wrapped, conveniently dyed and sterilized from start to finish. It comes from a once live cow that, unless you are extremely conscientious in which beef you purchase (and let's face it... consumers aren't offered too many choices in the matter), probably lived out its days standing in its own filth, fed all sorts of inorganic matter (not its natural diet) and hopped up on hormones and growth supplements. Talk about bad for the environment!

But... driving past Harris Ranch more than once was not what caused me to quit eating meat.

I had already begun researching sustainability and meat, and trying to buy my beef from places like the Davis Co-op, where I as a consumer actually had an option to purchase meat more ethically raised. But it's not enough.

I'm appalled at how little we actually know about what we eat... and about the practices of the companies that market our food to us. But I'll save all that tirade for another blog... after I do some more research.

In Winter Quarter of 2010 I took a class on Asian American literature. I've not extensively read any Asian American authors... this class offered a broad overview of female authors from different cultural and ethnic backgrounds within the Asian American experience. I learned a LOT... and I read this book:

That's My Year of Meats by Ruth Ozeki for those of us without super vision.

Ozeki didn't set out to make us all vegetarians with this book. But her ironic insights into the marketing of the American lifestyle had a profound impact on me. Add to that the poignant scenes describing slaughter, not to mention the consequences of mass producing livestock... and I lost the stomach for it.

I decided in February that I would not eat meat anymore. In the beginning I was bolstered by my idealism. As time wore on, it began to get harder. At one point I decided I would be a vegetarian on most days... maybe not on Fridays... and so the other day I ordered a hamburger... and couldn't swallow a bite of it. I was surprised by this change. Until that moment I had thought I was masquerading as a vegetarian and would likely someday revert to old habits. Perhaps not.

I'm able and willing to eat fish now (which is new, I NEVER used to eat fish)... and the Little Pub down the street has some killer fish 'n' chips. But I don't think I'll ever go back to cow, chicken, or pork.

My name is Elisabeth and, whether you agree with my decision making process or not, I am a vegetarian.