Things I Read 'N' Things I Thought 2011: Part 1

I think it's time for Part 1 of my 2011 Things I Read 'N' Things I Thought post.  See 2009 here, 2010 Part 1 here, and  Part 2 here.  Does this make it a tradition?  I'm going to pretend.  It does.  Hooray for me - I'm traditional!

1. The Amaranth Enchantment by Julie Berry -  Do you ever read a book and then, shortly thereafter, forget completely what it was about?  Boom.
2. Beasts of Burden (Vol. 1) by Evan Dorkin - Dogs (and cat) fight the supernatural.  Good illustrations. Entertaining but not mind-blowing. 
3. Black Beauty by Anna Sewell - Be nice to horses.
4. Bloodroot by Amy Greene - Appalachia. Very lovely.  Very sad.
5. Bumped by Megan McCafferty - Teens "pregging" for profit in a no-one-over-18-is-fertile future.  Kinda irritating at first, but all the lingo kinda grew on me.  Not un-likeable.
6. Cinderella Ate My Daughter by Peggy Orenstein - Fairy tales aren't evil, but turning "princess" into a merchandizing behemoth that adds another layer to a world of warped cultural messages aimed at girls just might be.
7. Clara and Mr. Tiffany by Susana Vreeland - Stained glass is totally bitchin'.  Women are awesome.
8. Daughter of the Forest by Juliet Marillier - Retelling (reimagining?) of The Six Swans.  First half of the novel: awesome. 2nd half: okay.  Summary claimed she was kidnapped by enemies, turns out she just sort of fell in with them.  Slightly less dramatic that way.
9. Divergent by Veronica Roth - In future-Chicago you can supposedly only be one thing and must live with people exactly like you: brave (Dauntless), honest (Candor), happy (Amity), selfless (Abnegation) or smart (Erudite). I'm all over Amity - they play banjos.
10. Duma Key by Stephen King - Art is going to kill your loved ones.  Dolls are scary.
11. The Eagle of the Ninth by Rosemary Sutcliff - I liked it SO MUCH. I wanna go off and have super sweet bro adventures in ancient-y times!
12. The False Princess by Eilis O'Neal - Inoffensive. Princesses. Some stuff. 
13. The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan - Zombies own the world.  There is one compound of humans left All is not as it seems.  Things go horribly wrong.  As usual, an obnoxious love triangle...damn you, YA fiction.
14. The Foretelling by Alice Hoffman - Amazon warriors are kind of badass.
15. The Help by Kathryn Stockett - Extremely engaging.  Read it in 2 sittings.  They're making a movie.  We'll see what that's like.
16. The High King's Tomb; Blackveil (Green Rider Books 3 & 4) by Kristen Britain - I wish I rode a super smart horse and had magical powers.
17. Invincible (Vols. 3-5) by Robert Kirkman - Still rad.
18. Locke & Key (Vol. 3) by Joe Hill - Also still rad.
19. The Lost Saint (Dark Divine #2) by Bree Despain - Even more boring than the first one.  EXCEPT someone gets stuck in wolf form and can't change back.  That kinda made me smile (but I'm pretty sure it's supposed to be a bad thing in the book...).
20. Mermaid: A Twist on the Classic Tale by Carolyn Turgeon - Admit it, it's obnoxious how the Little Mermaid gives up everything for a boy she's seen once.  Carolyn Turgeon expands on why the mermaid loves him and the human world and it almost makes sense! Beautiful descriptions of the undersea world.  Damnit, why am I not a mermaid?  
21. My Life In France by Julia Child - I will travel back in time and move to France and be Julia's best friend.  We will be tall and loud and eat together.
22. Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman - My GOD, but does Gaiman's use of language make me wish I were British.
23. The Passage by Justin Cronin - A pretty darn entertaining post-vampire-apocalypse story.  Can't help but wonder just how long canned goods and clothing really remain usable.
24. Plague (Gone Series, Book 4) by Michael Grant - My gosh, WHY is it so fun to read about horrible things happening to children and teenagers?  Also, the plague had very little to do with this story - disappointment.
25. The Raging Quiet by Sherryl Jordan - Sign language is NOT of the devil, I swear. Also, people are horrible.
26. Red Garden by Alice Hoffman - As usual, very well written.  A quick, pleasant read.
27. Rose Daughter by Robin McKinley - Beauty and the Beast retelling.  Meh.
28. Secondhand Charm by Julie Berry - Inexplicable, essentially useless "I'm magically bonded to a sea serpent!" story line tacked onto your basic small-town-girl-is-more-powerful-than-you-think-and-saves-the-kingdom plot. It could have lifted right out with no trouble - I felt like I was reading two books at once and just getting them confused with each other.  While trying to develop a mythology around the "Serpentinas" (pardon my eye-roll), she forgot to develop the kingdom in peril plot into anything even remotely tense or weighty.  Aren't coups sort of important? Maybe she should haveOH LOOK!  A SPECIAL GIRL WITH A SPECIAL SEA SERPENT FRIEND! SQUEEEE!
29. Small Acts of Amazing Courage by Gloria Whelan - Young British girl in colonial India learns that people shouldn't be stomped all over no matter what your dashing military father or terrifyingly stingy aunt might say.
30. Swamplandia! by Karen Russell - SpecTACular word-smithing! Relatively interesting but strangely detached characters!  The regular world is a fascinating but horrible place full of off-putting people!  Sudden child molestation! 
31. Touch by Alexi Zentner - An amazing Canadian-family-ghost-history-monster-small-town-fiction story about loss, connection and the presence and power of the past in our lives.
32. The Uncertain Places by Lisa Goldstein - Fairy tales are real and can make you both lucky AND unhappy!  Also, hippies.
33. The Weird Sisters by Eleanor Brown - I want to live in a small town with my family and read and bake bread all day.  But I will skip the cancer, embezzlement, extramarital affairs, unplanned pregnancy and self-imposed guilt.
34. War Horse by Michael Morpurgo - For the love of God, BE NICE TO HORSES!  Like Black Beauty but with war. Read it in an afternoon, loved it, went online and instantly became a little obsessed when I found it's already a play with the most BITCHIN' puppets (I want to see it so badly!  I own the amazing soundtrack! It won the Tony for best play!), and has been made into a movie! I'll probably cry like a baby when I see it.
35. What the Night Knows by Dean Koontz - Serial killer ghosts.  God dislikes horrible murders, fights them with time travel.

My goodness, I'm so proud of myself! As of now I've read 92% new stuff.  That's unheard of for me, a lifelong re-reader of books.  

19% General fiction

17% YA fiction

25% Sci fi/fantasy/horror

25% YA sci fi/fantasy/horror

6% Non-fiction

8% comic books

Things Happen

• My pea vines sprouted their first flowers!
• Garlic greens are crazy delicious!
• Mahler's Symphony No. 2 is ridiculously dramatic and entertaining and it's super fun to belt out the last two pages.
• NOT super fun is sitting through the FIRST FOUR MOVEMENTS because the choir doesn't sing until movement 5 but we're on stage the whole time (probably a solid hour).
• I'm intrigued by dreams that seem horrible and frustrating and nerve-wracking while you're dreaming them, but when you wake up, you realize they're ridiculous.  Last night's example: I was late for school and couldn't put my clothes on.  I kept trying and trying but my bra hooks kept unhooking and my shirt and pants kept twisting so I couldn't get them on.  Finally I was dressed and at a choir performance, but I was from an alternate universe and had somehow replaced my double in her vocal jazz quartet.  The guy in the quartet was so attractive I didn't want to tell him I was just a doppelganger, but when it came time to perform I was so terrified by the fact that I didn't know my part that I decided I'd say that I was sick and couldn't go on, and at this point the dream transformed to me camping with my family while vomiting continuously through the entire trip.
• It sort of feels like spring today, which is nice considering summer starts tomorrow. 
• Too much coffee, not enough food.
• Super 8 was an awesome movie.  "Drugs are so bad!!!"
• One of the group of kids from said Super 8 was in a short film about a child genius inventing a time machine and thwarting Nazis.  Watch Ollie Klublershturf vs. the Nazis.  I love him.

Will My Fictional Knowledge Save Me?

It's a gorgeous day outside, so what better than to think about civilization-destroying apocalypses? (Apolcalypsi?)  Netflix Instant Watch is a wonderful thing and recently I've seen a bit of the BBC show Survivors.  It has nothing to do with reality TV, I promise.  It's more like The Stand only British and probably doesn't have much to do with God or The Walkin' Dude.  

First, it made me think which type of apocalypse I'd like to be involved in.  Nuclear holocaust is right out - The Road's desolate, hungry wasteland is NOT appealing.  Zombie scourge is pretty bad ass, but let's be honest, when it comes to hand to hand combat with the undead or otherwise, I probably wouldn't make it very far.  Worldwide pandemic seems the way to go in terms of resources left over afterwards, especially as you don't have to count locations or resources out due to being surrounded by hordes of the walking dead.  Granted, survival is really a bit of a lottery, but I'll take my chances.  I wonder if, among the millions of useless online personality tests out there, they have a "Which Apocalypse Best Suits You?" quiz? 

Second, it made me think what I'd contribute to reemerging society.  Mostly entertainment, probably. I remember a lot of songs!  I'm not sure if knitting comes in handy.  I could probably use my domestic wiles to make canned food marginally tasty.  My fledgling gardening skills might be useful once the immediate crisis was over and we were able to settle down and start to rebuild society. 

Or maybe it would just be my vast pool of apocalyptic horror novel/movie experience - we could take fictional characters and apply those scenarios to real-life situations.  There's probably some valuable lessons in there!  The Stand (sure, you survived the plague, that doesn't mean you can't still break your leg and die in horrific solitude - be cautious!); the Gone series (seriously guys, resources do NOT last forever!); The Walking Dead; The Zombie Survival Guide; World War Z; Dawn of the Dead; etc, etc.  And now Survivors. Come to me, your encyclopedia of almost-useful-stories.

Organize, Minimize, Jazzercize

I DID organize, and I DID minimize today, but sadly, there was no actual jazzercize.  I think I failed on that one.  

Attempting to simply is kinda fun.  I'm trying to think of it as becoming organized.  You might not know it, but I love to organize, I'm just usually too lazy.  This is a big problem for all the life goals I have ("I'm going to be tidier!" "I'm going to eat better!" "I'm going to exercise more!")  So I may as well start small and work my way up.  Pile up the little victories and maybe I'll start tacking on some bigger things.

Got my e-mail inbox down to 18 today.  Deleted a lot, sorted most others into handy files, and now I just have one file of a few "go through, pull out the useful info, then delete" e-mails to take care of in the next week (I gave myself a limit).

Go me.

Lemme At 'Er!

The idea of simplifying (heck, even the idea of starting  to try simplifying) can get pretty inspirational.  I was reading some blogs during my lunch hour when I thought about my previous post and how I talk about having clothes I don't wear but don't get rid of.  I looked at the clock and saw I had 5 minutes before I had to head back for work and I realized that a fast, time-limited purge would FORCE me to make snap decisions.  Usually that's a bad thing, but my problem in this case is that I usually waaaaay overthink the purge process to where I become paralyzed with indecision and "what if"s and don't do anything.  I look at that closet every single day, I know what I've been dilly-dallying over, I know it, I just need to DO IT.  

I sprang out of my chair, rushed into my room and started flicking through the hangers one by one, pulling things out and muttering to myself, "This doesn't go with anything - GET RID OF IT!  You hate the sleeves on this even though you love the color so you never wear it - GET RID OF IT!  You don't even REMEMBER the last time you wore this - GET RID OF IT!  This always makes your legs look puny and your ass look huge - GET RID OF IT!!!!!!"

By the end of the 5 minutes I had a big pile of at least 15 things on my bed that I can donate.  And I haven't even gone through my shoes or my jewelry or my makeup!  I'm kinda stoked.

Spilling Hope: Do it do it DO IT!!

So, for Spilling Hope this year (check it out, it's awesome) I'm limiting my spending on food.  I did a quick review of my April expenditures and let me tell you, I was a little revolted with myself.  I spent a ridiculous amount and not just eating out, but on regular groceries, too.  Now, I love food, I love making food and trying new food and just plain ol' stuffing my face, but I could do a lot better.  I don't plan ahead, so I buy whatever I feel like at the store, then forget what's in my fridge/cupboards/freezer and food goes to waste or I think I've got nothing so I eat out or go shopping when I could actually combine things already there to make something spectacular.

I WILL BE A BETTER STEWARD OF MY FOOD MONEY!!!  It should help me get creative, which will be fun, and maybe even help push me towards a better diet in general.  Can't argue with that!

Liz and I signed up for one of those programs where you regularly receive a box of organic produce.  We're getting one every other week and even though we started with the small box, it's pretty chock full o' stuff in great variety, so I'm looking forward to seeing what I can build around that.  I'm also having fun reading a blog my sister turned me on to for inspiration, Poor Girl Eats Well.  She's got some crazy awesome recipes, a semi-regular feature called the $25 Shopping Cart, and just a pleasant writing voice that makes it fun to read.  Can't wait to try some of her recipes.

Making An Effort Sounds Good, But...

How does God always know what you need to hear when you need to hear it?  Darn him.  The sermon yesterday was about conspicuous consumption and our idea of comfort being tied up in a skewed concept of "enough", which is something that's been coming up in my thoughts more and more lately.  There were a lot of interesting points including how materialism is a big blind spot in the contemporary church and how it rises from three basic categories: greed, worry, and context/comparison.  I hope I'm not greedy, but I do worry ("What will I do without my stuff!?  what if something bad happens and I'm not filthy rich!?") and with my AMAZING levels of self esteem [sarcasm detected!] context/comparison is big in my mind ("But if I don't wear nice clothes people will think I look stupid!  Why is my stuff so OLD!?") even if it doesn't necessarily make me rush out and buy each new generation of iPhone.

My grandmother passed away right after Christmas and my mother has a living room full of her things that still need to be sorted through.  Mom's always been anti-clutter, but she told me on the phone the other day that she really wanted to start de-stuff-ing because she didn't want us to have to deal with too many things when she dies. I have no plans to die any time soon (I'm so in control of that) but maybe it's wise to think like that now anyway.  The less you accumulate, the less you have to de-stuff.  Fancy that.

I'm not exactly swimming in stuff (by American standards, anyway).  I don't have to rent out a storage unit or anything, but sometimes I find something I didn't even remember I owned - obviously not using it.  I regularly notice clothing I don't wear, but I don't want to get rid of it because what if I need it SOMEDAY?  And yet I know that I'm only going to wear it as a last resort and I'm not going to be happy about it, so why even give myself that option and in the mean time have a cluttered closet of unused stuff that someone else COULD be using?  

While I may not be completely overwhelmed with possessions, as an extension, I think my major fault is just not thinking about where my money goes.  I feel like I don't make a lot of money and (man, I suck) I find myself complaining about it.  But you know what?  I make PLENTY of money, I just "lose" it - no idea where it goes and no plan to keep it from going there. I spend way too much on eating out and on regular groceries (a lot of which I forget I have or it goes bad before I eat it); I buy books & magazines I don't need, etc.  It almost seems worse to me because when I spend my money on things like eating out, magazines I'll toss, going to movies, etc, I don't have a physical reminder sitting in my house saying "YOU DON'T NEED ME!"  I forget as soon as I'm done and it doesn't figure into my view of my own habits.

My big challenge is going to be planning.  Going with the flow is getting me nowhere, so I need to plan things like what to tithe, save, buy, donate, eat, etc.   I'm TERRIBLE at planning.  I'm really good at going with the flow and really, really bad at forethought.  You know why?  Forethought is boring and hard and I'm lazy.  I should probably try to work on that.  

Of course, this is something I've been SAYING I should do for a while - I get hyped then I fizzle out.  I need to figure out a way to actually get started and continually work on it.  I'm not assuming my life will change overnight or I'll instantly be awesome or never buy things I don't need, etc, etc, but can I at least try to start being mindful?  Can I at least try to be more generous with what I don't end up frittering away?  Bah.  Making an effort sounds good, but it kinda sucks to actually do it.