Weekly Geeks 2009-42: Podcasts Anyone?

This week, Suey wants to know what podcasts we listen to, "preferably book related, but not necessarily so."

Well, the first book-related podcast that comes to mind is Books on the Nightstand. Ann Kingman and Michael Kindness link to their weekly podcast in their blog by the same name. Each week they discuss books they love, books they can't wait to read, books by genre, and whatever else they think their listeners might be interested in. I always enjoy listening to their podcasts, but I can't listen to them in the car because I always end up needing to write down the titles to at least two or three books, and I don't want to try to do that while I'm driving! I find this to be a good end-of-day podcast-you can sit in the dark and listen to a couple of friends talk about books, add a couple of titles to your ever-growing TBR list, and then go to bed.

My other favorite podcast has nothing to do with books at all. It's Car Talk, and it's hosted by Click and Clack, the Tappet brothers, a.k.a. Ray and Tom Magliozzi, a couple of MIT-educated auto mechanics who take calls about people's cars. I know this doesn't sound very exciting but it's hilarious! Click around on their web site a little bit and you get a feel for the self-deprecating wackiness that Tom and Ray exude on every show. It's impossible to listen to them and not be in a good mood by the end of it. They clearly have a great time doing what they're doing, and it comes across in every podcast. You don't have to be a car enthusiast to enjoy this show, heck, you don't even have to own a car! This one is good for listening to in the car though!

Weekly Geeks 2009-39: Recommendations

This week, Becky wants to know where we get our book recommendations. Well, more and more, I am getting them from fellow book bloggers. I read a review, think, Hey, that sounds interesting! and then I add it to my Amazon.com Wish List. I don't usually buy anything off my Wish List, but I use it to keep track of all the books I want to read. I will also usually add a comment saying which blogger recommended the book so that I know who to thank (or blame!) later. I will also browse Amazon's personalized recommendations from time to time, which are based on ratings I've given other books or books that I've recently added to my Wish List.

One thing I've noticed is that a lot of the bloggers that I follow tend to be mostly fiction readers, and I really enjoy fiction, but I also really enjoy non-fiction. So, my question to my readers this week is:

What's the most fascinating non-fiction book(s) you can recommend? I'm not great with history-I can't retain names and dates and battles, but if you can interest me in a story, then you can sneak some history in, so please keep that in mind with your recommendations.

Here are a few that I've read in the past that I've particularly enjoyed. If I've reviewed them on my blog, I'll link to the review.

Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America by Erik Larson-There are two story-lines here, one about a serial killer operating in Chicago during the 1893 World's Fair and the other about the men responsible for putting the fair together. The serial killer part was interesting, but I thought the parts about how the World's Fair came together were fascinating. It was a stunning achievement and something about which I had no previous knowledge. (I read Thunderstruck by Erik Larson and didn't care for it as much...so don't recommend that one, 'kay?).

Honor Killing: How the Infamous "Massie Affair" Transformed Hawai'i by David E. Stannard-This is one of those books that makes you embarrassed to be white. In 1931 Honolulu, Navy wife Thalia Massie claimed that she was raped by a group of local boys. Despite the total lack of evidence of their guilt which should have led to an acquittal, the case resulted in a hung jury. This was still good enough to get the boys released; but Thalia's mother, outraged by this injustice, arranged for the abduction of one of the boys. His abduction ended in his murder for which Thalia's mother was charged. The outpouring of support for poor Thalia and her mother from wealthy white folks all over the country was overwhelming. People were outraged that she was being put through the trauma and embarrassment of a trial. She had done what any honorable person would have done in her position. You see where this is getting embarrassing, right? I thought Stannard did a wonderful job of integrating the courtroom drama with the history of Hawai'i and its different cultures in order to explain the political climate that led to this circus. If you've ever heard people say, "Oh, there's a lot of racism in Hawai'i," and wondered what that was all about, this gives you a good place to start with Hawai'i's business/political/military/cultural history.

Death's Acre: Inside the Legendary Forensic Lab the Body Farm Where the Dead Do Tell Tales by William Bass-Did you ever wonder how forensic investigators can see a maggot crawling on a dead body and tell you with absolute certainty how long the body has been lying there? Or how a body that's been lying in an icy stream would decompose differently from, say, a body that's been left in the trunk of a car in the middle of summer? Oh. You were in the middle of breakfast? Sorry. This isn't exactly meal-time reading, but it is interesting and, actually, kind of funny at times. Bass tells about his research at the Body Farm and how it has been used to solve cases. Interesting stuff. Gross, but interesting.

The Cruelest Miles: The Heroic Story of Dogs And Men in a Race Against an Epidemic by Gay Salisbury and Laney Salisbury-In 1925, Nome, Alaska, diphtheria broke out. It went something like this:

Hey, doc, do you think we need any more diphtheria serum for the coming winter?

Naaah. We should be fine.

Hey, doc, I don't feel too well.

Hey, doc, me neither.

Hey, doc, why do all our kids keep dying?

Craaaaaap.

Mushers were called on to bring their best dogs forward for the 674-mile dogsled journey that was going to be needed to get the serum to the town, and this is the amazing story of the men and the dogs that did it. (Note: I could be making the doctor out to be more of a bad guy than he really was. I don't remember for sure-it's been a while since I read this).

**edited 1/30/10 to add:  Heather J. just reviewed this book, and cleared up the fact that the doctor was not, in fact, as negligent as I remembered him.  Sorry doc!

Backyard Giants: The Passionate, Heartbreaking, and Glorious Quest to Grow the Biggest Pumpkin Ever by Susan Warren-Lest you think all my favorite books are about death (note to self: reassess reading lists), I thought I would throw this one out there. I thought this was a fun and interesting read, and I reviewed it here.

Gang Leader for a Day: A Rogue Sociologist Takes to the Streets by Sudhir Venkatesh-I was intrigued by this look at life within a large inner-city gang in Chicago. It's not as easy to rid a city of a gang as you might think.

The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl by Timothy Egan-I don't necessarily think this was the most well-written book, but it opened my eyes to a part of history about which I was pretty ignorant.

So, there you have it. That's the stuff I like to read. What do you think I might like? What book shocked you? Amazed you? Fascinated you? Moved you to tears? Educated you? Enlightened you? Please share!

What I'm Reading Now-The Heretic's Daughter

Cover of The Heretic's Daughter: A Novel

The Heretic's Daughter by Kathleen Kent is another in a long line of belated book reviews. (Does Hallmark have a card for that yet?) Unfortunately, I don't remember much about it, and I didn't like it much, but I'll do my best to answer the questions that people asked me.

Guatami Tripathy said, "I loved The Heretic's Daughter. Why did you pick it up? Which portion of it you liked most? And which was painful to read?" Well, first of all, I'm sorry I didn't like the book as much as you did. I know it can be hard when someone doesn't like a book that you do. I guess I picked it up because I had been hearing a lot of good buzz about it, and, generally speaking, I am interested in the whole Salem witch trial thing. The portion I liked the most was the last part of the book that talked about what it was like in the prisons. I found this to be more interesting than the rest of the book. It's harder to define a portion that was painful to read. I guess it depends on your definition of painful. For me, the first half of the book was painful in an I-don't-know-if-I'll-ever-get-through-this kind of way, but emotionally, I think the parts about the trials themselves were the most painful simply because they were so clearly a big, giant, steaming pile of you know what! Those were extremely frustrating to read about. It's so hard to believe that people actually believed the things that they did and were willing to kill someone simply because she had a wart or could swim or, *gasp* had a wart AND could swim!

Softdrink said, "I loved The Heretic's Daughter, but had to put it down for awhile. How does this compare to other historical fiction novels you've read in evoking a sense of time and place?" Again, sorry for not liking this book. I don't read a lot of historical fiction, but I think it did pretty well in evoking time and place, but the language kept getting in the way for me. I felt like the author was trying too hard to be all ye olde time-y. Otherwise, I think I was able to envision everything pretty easily. I mean, during the courtrooms, I was imagining what I think a Salem witch trial would look like and not something from Ally McBeal, so I guess that's good, right?

The main reason I didn't like this book was because I felt like the author spent too much time giving us background info on our supposed witch, and I just didn't care; it didn't seem relevant to me. I didn't feel like there was any build up of story, it just sort of seemed like all these examples of why people didn't like her, and even then it wasn't anything worthy of note in my mind. And maybe that was the point-this woman was just a woman, not unlike many others, she wasn't popular for various reasons, and that's really all it took for her downfall. So, while I can appreciate this book for its historical significance, I was still bored until everyone got thrown into prison. Sorry. =(

Other reviews:

Guatami Tripathy at Everything Distils into Reading

Softdrink at Fizzy Thoughts

Have you reviewed this book? Let me know, and I'll add a link to your review.

Weekly Geeks 2009-27: Best Movie Adaptations

Back in March, Weekly Geeks discussed the worst book-to-movie adaptations. This week, we're talking about the best.

The movie that immediately popped into my head is also one of my all-time favorite movies, Stand by Me, based on the novella The Body by Stephen King. The movie stayed pretty true to the book except for one scene in the book that wasn't in the movie, but, quite frankly, I thought that was a good decision. It wasn't central to the plot at all, and it wasn't anything that I cared for.

I loved this movie when it came out in 1986, and I still love it today. Wil Wheaton, River Phoenix, Corey Feldman, Jerry O'Connell and Keifer Sutherland were all young and relatively unknown at the time, and I think they all did an amazing job. Richard Dreyfuss is perfect as the narrator of this story, and, of course, Ben E. King's "Stand by Me" (listen to a clip below) leads the soundtrack perfectly. Having Rob Reiner at the helm as director probably didn't hurt either. Here's a YouTube clip of the first few minutes of the movie. I wouldn't listen to it at work or in front of the kids, but that's just me. Of course, you never know how long these things will be available, so here's a link to the trailer at IMDB.com as well.

Another movie that I actually liked better than the book is The Hours. I thought the book, by Michael Cunningham, was OK, but the movie really got to me for some reason. It was one of those that you just want to sit and digest for a while after you watch it-no talking, no going out for dessert and coffee or shopping with friends afterward, but in a kind of depressing, I-think-I-just-want-to-sit-here-and-cry-cathartically-for-a-while kind of way. (I'm really selling it, aren't I?) Again, a stellar cast leads this film which was nominated for 9 Academy Awards (and numerous other awards). Nicole Kidman won for Best Actress in a Leading Role, and Julianne Moore and Meryl Streep turned in wonderful performances as the other female leads as well. Ed Harris (love him!), John C. Reilly, and Jeff Daniels make their appearances as well. You can watch the trailer here, and as long as it's available you can watch this clip which, I think, is a pretty good explanation of why Nicole Kidman walked away with the Oscar.

Incidentally, our local theater just reopened. It's just a small, two-screen theater, but it closed down about a year-and-a-half ago due to financial constraints. A local couple bought the theater, renovated it and reopened it this weekend as the Laie Palms Cinemas, just in time for the release of the latest Harry Potter movie. We didn't make it out for the premier, but hopefully, they were able to draw a big crowd and they will be successful. This theater is about 10 minutes from our house, and is the only place that I know of that uses actual butter on their popcorn, not oily-flavored crap "butter flavoring." The next closest theater is about 30 minutes away, so I am looking forward to having a theater nearby again!

What I'm Reading Now-Gang Leader for a Day: A Rogue Sociologist Takes to the Streets

This is another overdue review that I am now up-to-date on thanks to all the Weekly Geeks who asked me questions about it. I'm glad they did too because a lot of the questions that people asked are probably not the questions I would have thought to address otherwise.

Cover via Amazon

Gang Leader for a Day: A Rogue Sociologist Takes to the Streets by Sudhir Venkatesh-I thought this book was fascinating. This was another airport find, and it was a good one. Many weekly geeks had similar questions. Eva from A Striped Armchair asked, "Was Gang Leader for a Day intellectual? Or did the author make lots of questionable assumptions/conclusions? (I wasn't a fan of Freakonomics, so if you've read that, do you think I'd enjoy this one?)" I didn't read Freakonomics, so I can't really compare the two, but I felt like the information that was being presented was pretty sound. Mostly it was the author's real-life experiences, but he also presented some background information about the area that he was researching to bring together a bigger picture of how a decision on the city level, to tear down a housing project for example, affected not only the residents of that community on an individual level but also the gang structure within that community and other neighboring communities as well.

Kim of Sophisticated Dorkiness wanted to know if I thought "the author was able to keep his objectivity when writing about his experience? And how well did he balance storytelling with facts and figures to give some context about what his experience meant?" and Jennie at Biblio File wondered, "Is Gang Leader for a Day an overly academic book, or is it written for a more general audience?"

First of all, I don't think this is an overly academic book at all, and it is totally accessible to a general audience. If you're pushing this one aside because it sounds too much like school work, you're missing out. It's not all facts and figures and statistics at all, in fact, I think that was sort of the point of the book. He set out to find people to fill out surveys, to gather the data, to get the facts and figures; what he found out was that that information is useless if you don't understand why. Why are these people poor? Why don't they have jobs? Why don't they just move to a better neighborhood? Why do they put up with gang activity where they live? Why do women sell their bodies? Why don't they just apply for government aid?

...which brings me around to Kim's question. I don't know if the author was able to remain entirely objective; he did a good job of trying to stay neutral and objective, but he was writing largely about his experience hanging out IN A GANG. He was not a gang member; he was a nice boy from California who was in grad school, trying to gather some good information on poverty to impress his professors. Some subjectivity is going to creep in. He did try to assess things objectively, but in order to actually gain any valuable information, he had to get personally involved, not only with the gang leader, JT, but with the tenants of the building that JT's gang lived in, JT's family, the leader of the local Boys & Girls Club. As he found out, walking into the midst of a gang with a questionnaire full of questions like, How does it feel to be black and poor? wasn't really an effective way to gain useful information about people living in poverty. After the author spent an angsty night being held captive in a stairwell by the members of JT's gang, the Black Kings, JT's advice was:

"Go back to where you came from," he told me, "and be more careful when you walk around the city." Then, as I began gathering up my bag and clipboard, he talked to me about the proper way to study people. "You shouldn't go around asking them silly-ass questions," he said. "With people like us, you should hang out, get to know what they do, how they do it. No one is going to answer questions like that. You need to understand how young people live on the streets."

And that's what he did. For about 10 years, Sudhir hung out with JT, getting to know the members of the Black Kings, finding out why people would join a gang, put up with a gang selling drugs in their building, why police officers often showed up to mediate gang disputes rather than throwing as many gang members in jail as they could.

This isn't a book about how many youth are dropping out of high school and joining gangs each year and what percentage get arrested and how that percentage correlates to average yearly income, etc. If you've ever wondered why you can't just take a gang off the street and get them out of a neighborhood read this book. They are so insidiously woven into the neighborhoods that they are involved in, at least big organizations like the Black Kings were. The gangs sell drugs in the lobby of the apartment building, but in return they give money to the building president so that she can buy supplies for the children in the building. They cook crack in the vacant apartments, but they provide protection from abusive boyfriends to the women who live in the building. JT requires all of his gang members to receive a high school diploma or GED, and they are not allowed to use drugs. So, he keeps them in school and off drugs for the privilege of selling drugs, earning money, and rising up the ranks within the gang. Crime is kept to a minimum because if the cops come around, the drug business gets interrupted and people lose money, and people don't want to lose money...

which brings us around to what Trisha at Eclectic/Eccentric wanted to know, "...what did you think of Gang Leader for a Day? Was it an honest look at life in a gang or was it more of a kitchy book - was the author just interested in sensationalism?" I thought that this was a pretty honest look at things. It wasn't overdone with gang shootings and people shooting up on drugs or anything like that. Those elements were present, but they weren't as prominent as you might think, and they were presented as a realistic part of the everyday life, not just as the next sensational thing the author witnessed. The title comes from a day when the author is giving JT a hard time about his role as gang leader. He essentially says, "How hard can it be? You go around, you talk to people, you make arrangements for things; I could do that," and JT gives him the reigns to be in charge for a day, to handle all the things that he has to handle every day, and Sudhir realizes that there's more to being a gang leader than just being a thug. You can watch a clip of the author talking a little more about this here.

I don't want to say that this book glamorizes gang life, but it does present the human side of it, makes you see that just because someone is in a gang doesn't mean they are a bad person. It explores the reality of living in poverty, living in a gang, surrounded by a gang, protected by a gang, threatened by a gang. Also, if you're someone who can't stomach hearing (or reading) the N-word, this book is not for you. It is used with abandon because that's how it is used on the street. It's not pretty but neither is real life sometimes.

Thanks to everyone who asked me questions about this book. I hope I answered all of them. If not, feel free to ask me more. It's been a couple months now since I read it, so I didn't have a lot of quotes or examples top-of-mind, but my overall impression was that this is a book I would definitely recommend.

Traveling to Thailand

**Edited 7/17 to add: I've listed this as my Weekly Geeks post for Weekly Geeks 2009-26:Where in the World Have You Been? I wanted to get another post up with more information about my actual trip, but so far, this is all I've managed to post, and it DOES fit in with this week's theme. :) If you want to hear more about my Thailand travels please come back during the week to check for updates.**

Wow, where to begin?? I didn't mean to mysteriously disappear, but I'm always weirded out about announcing, "Hey, world, I'm going to be out of the country, away from my house, for the next 10 days!" It's not like I've got my address posted here or anything, but you know. I also didn't mean to cause anyone anxiety about wishing me a good time. Nanny Goats in Panties wished me a fun time and then worried that maybe I was going in for heart surgery or something, which would have been awk-waaaaaard. But no worries! I did not go away for surgery (even though I did go to Thailand and I hear you can get all kinds of things done there for a lot cheaper than you can here), and I did have a good time in some unexpected ways.

The main reason for our trip was to attend my bother-in-law's wedding. Since we were going to be all the way in Thailand, we figured we might as well make a vacation of it too. Now, I love living in Hawaii, but travel to virtually anywhere is a bitch. Thailand involves an 8-hour plane ride to Tokyo, then the inevitable 4-hour layover, then another 6 hours from Tokyo to Bangkok. Upon arrival in Bangkok, we waited for my husband's two other brothers to arrive from the U.S. mainland (so, okay, granted, they had a lot more traveling to do than we did) then had a 2-hour drive to Pattaya where my brother-in-law who was getting married lives.

Ah, but this brings us to our first photo Q &A from the other day.

Q: Where can I get me a beer machine like that??

A: Well, I don't know if you can get yourself a beer machine like this, but you can go visit one in any of the airport lounges in Narita International Airport (NRT), assuming, of course, that you can get into the airport lounges. My husband travels enough that he can. There is a cooler of chilled glasses next to the machine, and as you can see, you put the glass on the machine, press a button, and it pours you a perfect glass of beer. This is one of the ways in which the 4-hour layover is made more tolerable in Japan. Ah, wouldn't you know it, someone has posted a YouTube video of the beer machine in action.

Another way to kill time while wandering around Narita is to check out the Nippon Origami Museum that is located in Terminal 1. They have examples of all kinds of origami figurines, but my favorite was the basset hound.

Also, the hippos were pretty cute.

But, really, they have all sorts of things to look at; there are entire dioramas showing things like village life and dinosaurs if I remember correctly, which I may not because, really, I just wanted a picture of the basset hound, and no matter which way you cut it, I was on at least 6 hours of travel by the time I reached Narita. Either way, the displays were way more impressive than any of the shoe-box and chicken bone dioramas I made as a kid. What? You never made dinosaurs out of chicken bones as a kid? Huh. I guess my elementary school was just cooler than yours. And probably in a much drier climate as well.

Um...anyway, our flight from Tokyo to Bangkok was fairly uneventful, except that I didn't realize it was going to be a 6-hour flight. For some reason, I had it in my head that it was like 2 or 3 hours, maaaybe 4. So, I was almost in tears when, at the 4-hour mark, I realized that we still had about 2 hours to go. Luckily, we at least had a pretty view for part of the flight. The sun was setting as we were heading to Bangkok, and this was the view from our window.

I've never really been above the clouds for sunset, and,I have to say, that's one of the coolest sunsets I've ever seen.

What I'm Reading Now-Fables Vol.1: Legends in Exile

My next Weekly Geeks catch-up review is:


Fables Vol. 1: Legends in Exile by Bill Willingham-This is the first graphic novel that I have ever read, and I had been hearing so many great things about it, I figured it would be a good place to start. Briefly, all the characters that you know and love from your childhood stories like Snow White, the Big Bad Wolf, Blue Beard, Prince Charming, etc. have been run out of their homelands by an evil adversary and are now living in Fabletown among us normal folk. They have all agreed to set aside their differences, asylum has been granted for past deeds (like giant killing, home destruction, and granny consumption), and they are preparing to celebrate Remembrance Day when the murder of Rose Red sends Fabletown's sheriff, Bigby (The Big Bad Wolf), on a search for the killer.

Quite a few of you had questions about this, so let's get started!

Nymeth of Things Mean a Lot asks Are you planning to continue with the series? I'm not sure that I necessarily "plan" to continue with the series; let's just say, I wouldn't be averse to it. I did enjoy it, but I'm not going crazy wondering what happens next. Although...somebody call me if Snow and Bigby ever get together cuz I'm pretty sure that would be hot! Who was your favourtie character? Why? Speaking of Bigby, I think he might be my favorite character. He's great as the reformed-bad-guy-turned-sheriff, he can still wolf-out in the name of the law, and he looks hot in a towel (and it doesn't look like I'm the only one who thinks so!). I also kind of like Prince Charming though. Well, actually, I found him despicable, but that's exactly what I liked about him. In all the fairy tales he's the hero, the one true love, the savior, and here we see the other side of that. He's a mooch, and a playboy and totally full of himself. No wonder Snow White divorced him! Do you think the concept behind the series was well executed in this book? I do think the concept was well executed. I like some of the ideas that Willingham came up with to make the story workable. For instance, Jack (famous for growing beanstalks and killing giants), is a prime suspect in Rose Red's killing, but all of that giant killer stuff is inadmissible since that happened before the general amnesty. I also liked the little side stories we got like Beauty and the Beast having marital difficulties-she gets mad, he starts turning back into a beast, and it's hard to keep a low profile when you're walking around all half-beasty and all. Pinocchio is pissed because he's over 300 years old and still hasn't gone through puberty. Little things like that make for a fun departure from the main story.

Bart, over at Bart's Bookshelf said, I've heard so many good things about the series, if you had to pick one thing to convince me to go out and find a copy what would it be? Honestly, the fact that it's so short is a big sell for me. My tastes might not be your tastes, what I liked you might not like, I've never read anything else in this genre, so I don't really have anything to compare it to, etc.; but you can always give it a try, and if you don't like it, you haven't wasted days reading it, and if you do, then bonus!

Eva from A Striped Armchair wanted to know-Did you enjoy Fables? What did you think of the illustrations? I did enjoy it, and I liked the illustrations OK. They didn't particularly stand out for me in any way, but, again, I don't really have a lot to compare them to. What I did like was that at the beginning of each issue appears the original series covers by James Jean and Alex Maleev, which are quite different from the artwork within each issue.

Thank you, everyone, for your questions! I enjoyed my foray into the graphic novel set, and I will certainly let you know if I come back for more.

Other reviews:

Eva at A Striped Armchair

Chris at Stuff as Dreams are Made On...

Joanne at The Book Zombie

Fyrefly at Fyrefly's Book Blog

Kim L. at Bold. Blue. Adventure

Sally at Books and Musings from Down Under

Have you read this book? If so, what did you think? Will you be reading the rest of the series? How do you like it compared to other graphic novels? If you've reviewed this book let me know, and I will add a link to your review (Nymeth, did I miss yours?)

What I'm Reading Now-Buddhism Plain and Simple

Well, What I Was Reading Several Months Ago might be more appropriate here. I've been a bit behind on some of my reviews lately, but, luckily, this week's Weekly Geeks theme had to do with catching up on reviews. Weekly Geeks participants who were behind in their reviews were asked to solicit questions about their unreviewed books from other participants. Answers to those questions could count for the whole review or as a jumping off place for a review. So, thanks to all the Weekly Geeks who stopped by to ask me questions!

Buddhism Plain and Simple by Steve Hagen

My first question came from Guatami at Everything Distils into Reading. She asks: Why did you pick the Buddhism book? This was a book club pick. Our book club gets together about once a month and each month a different member will present three books that they would like to read for the next meeting, and we all vote to decide which one we will read. Buddhism plain and Simple was the winner for our March meeting. The other books that were up for selection that month were The Impact of Awakening by Adyashanti and Mental

Resilience: The Power of Clarity: How to Develop the Focus of a Warrior and the Peace of a Monk by Kamal Sarma. We have a rather small group, but everybody's reading tastes are pretty different, so we get a fairly good mix of reading materials.

Next, Trisha at Eclectic/Eccentric said: I would love to know if you think Buddhism Plain and Simple is too plain and simple or if it is a decent introduction to the spirituality. I'm glad you said "spirituality;" that reminds me that I wanted to point out that one of the things that the author tries to make clear is that "Real Buddhism is not really an 'ism.' It's a process, an awareness, an openness, a spirit of inquiry-not a belief system, or even (as we normally understand it) a religion. It is more accurate to call it 'the teaching of the awakened,' or the buddha-dharma." (p.9)

Back to the rest of your question: I thought this was a good introduction. It makes Buddhism feel very approachable and not at all intimidating. I think a lot of people think that Buddhism requires you to worship Buddha (but which one??), which is not the case, or to be a zen master going into it, someone who can sit and meditate for hours, someone who can see the beauty of the universe in a single lotus blossom, that sort of thing. What Steve Hagen does is basically say, hey, you've got to start somewhere, and here's how to do that.

Near the beginning of the book, the author provides you with an optical illusion-one of those pictures that sort of looks like an ink blot

until you finally look at it just the right way and then all of a sudden you see that it's actually a picture of something-and if you don't ever see the picture, I think a lot of his book might be lost on you. He relies heavily on the mental shift that occurs when you go from searching for the picture to seeing the picture. If you can't see the picture yourself, there is a section in the back of the book that tells you what it is, but even then a few in our book group weren't able to see it until one of us actually pointed it out to them. So, I would recommend making sure you can see the picture (even if you have to find someone else to show it to you) before you read the rest of the book. For me, that example worked really well throughout the rest of the book. I think this would be a good place to start for anyone who is curious about Buddhism (it's only 176 pages) or even for anyone who is just feeling unsettled in their life right now.

If you have any more questions about this book, please feel free to ask. Also if you have read this book, I'd like to hear your thoughts; and if you have reviewed this book, let me know and I'll post a link to your review.

Weekly Geeks 2009-22: Catching Up on Reviews

This week's Weekly Geeks comes at a perfect time for me! Our assignment this week aims to help us all get caught up on our book reviews by asking readers to ask us questions about the books that we've read but not yet reviewed.

Here are the books that I've read in the last couple of months that I have not yet reviewed. Please let me know if you have any questions about any of these books that you would like to see answered, and I will do my best to provide you with a non-lame answer.

Buddhism Plain and Simple by Steve Hagen (Review posted here).

Fables Vol. 1: Legends in Exile by Bill Willingham (Review posted here).

Grace (Eventually): Thoughts on Faith by Anne Lamott

The Help by Kathryn Stockett (review posted here)

The Gun Slinger (The Dark Tower-Book 1) by Stephen King

The Heretic's Daughter by Kathleen Kent

Gang Leader for a Day: A Rogue Sociologist Takes to the Streets by Sudhir Venkatesh (Review posted here)

Weekly Geeks 2009-19: Memorial Day/Start of Summer

With Memorial Day right around the corner, this week's Weekly Geeks gave us a few choices to play with, Memorial Day as a tribute to those who have served and Memorial Day as the unofficial start of summer, and I am going to take advantage of both.  Question #1 asked if we have a favorite book or movie about war.  I don't.  (Well, I love Braveheart, but I don't think that really counts.)  I did read something that spoke volumes to me though, and I blogged about it last year after my return from Washington D.C.  This note was left at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, and I think it says as much in a few short lines as any author could put into a book.


In case you can't read it, it says, "Dear Heroes,

I sincerely hope I am soldiering with the same courage & bravery you all did."  

I'm not sure of the signature, but I think it is SFC E. Orque.  Thank you to SFC Orque and all the other military personnel who are out there serving our country, to all those who have served in the past, and especially to those who gave their life doing so.

On a lighter note, WG also asked, among other things, about our travel guide preferences and vacation habits.  I haven't really read enough travel guides to say that I have a favorite author or publisher, but I think what I like is books that are written by people who live in the area.  I'm not necessarily a touristy kind of gal.  Sure, if I go to Paris, I'm going to want to see the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre.  In London I visited Westminster Abbey (What?  Westminster Abbey is on Twitter??) and Kew Gardens (What? Kew has a Treetop Walkway?  Kewl!  Sorry, couldn't help it.  Ah, the things you learn building links!), and in Sydney, I at least saw the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge, even if I didn't spend any quality time with either of them; but I generally just want to know what sights are actually worth seeing, what's a rip-off, and where the really good restaurants are, not just the ones that are paying to be in a guide book.  That said, I realize that this is a bit of a double-edged sword.  For those of us visiting, this is great info to have.  Tell us all about the local gems that the tourists don't normally visit.  For the locals, this can bring in additional tourist dollars, or it can just despoil all the local places that the tourists normally don't visit.  What do you think about "insider" books that give away local secrets?  

I recently purchased Adventure Guide to Thailand by Christopher & Lindsey Evans who, according to the About the Authors section, currently split their time between southern Spain and Thailand.  Huh.  According to Amazon.com, this book has no ratings at all.  I wonder if I should be concerned about this.  

I also bought the National Geographic Traveler: Thailand, 3rd Edition because it's National Geographic, and they seem like they wouldn't lie to me, and I liked the pictures.  What can I say?  A travel book has to have at least some pictures.  I want to see the places you're recommending to me.  And maps.  I need good maps.  Not because I'm a good navigator, but because I like to have a sense of where I am and where I need to go.  Even if I can't get myself to where I want to be, I CAN point at a spot on a map and look confused and helpless long enough for someone to take pity on me.  I call this the slow loris method of getting what I want.   

Both of these books seem to have a fair measure of all the things that I like-local knowledge, good pictures, maps, and attractive covers-so I have high hopes.  Oh, did I mention I'm going to Thailand this summer?  I didn't just buy the books at random.  We have a 10-day trip planned, with the main focus being a wedding in Pattaya, but otherwise, we are free to roam.  I know I want to visit the painting elephants, but other than that, I have no real plans.  I've never been before, and I don't really know much about Thailand at all. 

So, has anyone been to Thailand?  Can you recommend any good travel books?  Have you read the ones I have, and are they any good?  Travel books aside, what are some things that I should definitely see?  What are some things that I should definitely NOT see?  Any other recommendations? 

Great job to all you Read-a-thon participants!

I was going to try to write a limerick for Hour 22 challenge of the 24-hour Dewey's Read-A-Thon, but my brain seems to be turning to mush, even though I haven't been reading for 20+ hours like some of you have.

I've been trying to figure out ways to put together rhymes for readers and leaders or book and hook or Dewey and hui (hui is a Hawaiian term meaning club or group and is the only thing I could think of that rhymes with Dewey) but I just can't put it all together into one cohesive thought. So, instead, I'll just say this:

Great job, everyone who participated in this read-a-thon. I couldn't quite get myself into the right frame of mind to commit to it, but I'm really proud of everyone else who did. Sorry I didn't make it around to be a better cheerleader. You all did great, and if you are still going, you are almost done!!  

Thanks so much to Nymeth, Trish, and Hannah for putting this together. What a great tribute to Dewey and the community that she played such a crucial role in building.

Weekly Geeks 2009-14: What's Cookin'?

This is a picture of my cookbook collection.  Impressive, right?  See that little recipe box?  It's filled up with recipe cards...with actual recipes on them.  I probably use about 4 of them on a regular basis.  You're not as impressed anymore, are you?  I knew it.  The reason I wrote them all down in the first place is because in high school cooking class, we had to put together a recipe collection, and we had to have X number of recipes in order to pass.  So, I checked out a couple of books from the library and wrote down a bunch of recipes that I thought sounded good.  I'll probably never try most of them.

Here's a shot of what's behind the recipe box.

I have probably made a total of 20 recipes out of this entire collection.  Even less impressed now?  Yeah, I don't blame you.  Perhaps I'll have some new books available to give away on Boockmooch soon.

The Top Secret Recipes books (you can't really tell, but there are three) are books of brand-name knock-off recipes so you can make things like your own Arby's® sauce, Wendy's® Chili , Baily's Original Irish Cream®, or Oreo® cookies.  I've only tried the Arby's sauce one, and it's not bad-I like it with tater tots.  

The 1,000 Lowfat Recipes book came free with the How To Cook Everything book, and I don't think I've ever used it.  If anyone wants it, let me know.  You can have it.  My copy is a soft cover, and I think I might have gotten it free because the ISBN that is printed on the back cover appears to be wrong, just in case anybody cares.

The Family Circle Cookbook: New Tastes for New Times was the first cookbook that I actually bought once I considered myself grown up enough to need a cookbook.  I've tried a few recipes in it, and I think they've all been fine, but I don't like the format-it's a hard back binder, and the binder rings have gotten all off kilter, so you can't just easily flip through the pages; they just snag on that one snaggle-tooth binder piece or they fall off the rings.  Sitting down to flip through it for some menu ideas just sounds like a struggle instead of an enjoyable task.

On the flip side is InterCourses: an aphrodisiac cookbook.  This is a beautiful hard back book that is so much fun to sit down and flip through, not a struggle at all!  Apparently, there is now an updated version.  Both links offer the "Look Inside!" feature which gives you an idea of what's inside, but I thought I'd share these as well.  Ladies, what do you think?  (Sorry, gay men, you can chime in too.  I didn't mean to be exclusive.)

And who knew pine nuts were sexy?

This book is full of images like these, all tasteful, along with brief histories for each of the different foods featured (chocolate, chiles, grapes, honey, oysters, edible flowers are just a few) as well as artistically laid-out quotes from test-subject couples.  I think this would actually make a fine coffee table book as well.  Oh, have I ever used it?  Um...I don't remember, but I would still totally recommend it! 

The Good Housekeeping Cookbook belonged to my mom, and there is only one recipe in there that I ever make-Streamlined Lasagna.  I love it, it's easy, and it's totally a heart attack in a pan. This book is a gem, and even though I only use one recipe out of the 4,000 or so that appear to be in here, it is a keeper because A) it belonged to my mom and is a part of my childhood, B) it contains recipes for things like the Roast-Beef Hearty Party Salad which should look like this when properly prepared:

In case you can't tell, that is a giant bowl lined with roast beef which has been gracefully draped over the edges.  Awesome.  

and C) it contains advice like this under the Family Weight-Watching section:

"Don't give up in despair over teen-age food habits--those of the fashion-conscious young ladies who starve themselves, or those of either gender who eat the wrong foods in between and at meals, with gay abandon.  Be firm with youngsters in the first group; remind them they're preparing for marriage and motherhood.  A girl who enjoys being a girl, who looks like a girl and not like a clothes pole, stands the best chance of having a whirl." (p. 77) 

Ah, the '60s!

Finally, the book that actually does get used from time to time, Rachael Ray 30-Minute Meals 2.  Rachael Ray has kind of been my go-to girl for the past few years.  I see her make things on TV, and I think, Well, that looks pretty good; I think I could handle that.  So I go on line, find the recipe, and it actually turns out to be pretty good.  Inspired by this, I bought one of her books.  One of the things that I like about this book is that in the ingredients list, all of the actual ingredients (not their measurements or preparations) are highlighted in a different color, so it's easy to skim the recipe and see what you need.  I'll do it in the recipe below so you can see what I'm talking about.  It's kind of a little thing, but I like it.  One of the recipes from her book that is super easy and that I really like is You-Won't-Be-Single-For-Long Vodka Cream Pasta...

Huh.  I'm sensing a theme here-aphrodisiac foods, advice about how to get your daughter married off, recipes sure to hook a mate...

Anyway...here's the recipe:

You-Won't-Be-Single-For-Long Vodka Cream Pasta (p. 186)

Makes 4 Servings

1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil (once around the pan)

1 tablespoon butter

2 garlic cloves, minced

2 shallots, minced

1 cup vodka

1 cup chicken stock

1 can (28 ounces) crushed tomatoes

Coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

1/2 cup heavy cream

12 ounces pasta, such as penne rigate 

20 leaves fresh basil, shredded or torn

Crusty bread

Put large pot of salted water on to boil.

Heat a large skillet over moderate heat.  Add oil, butter, garlic, and shallots.  Gently sauté garlic and shallots, 3 to 5 minutes to develop their sweetness.  Add vodka, 3 turns around the pan in a steady stream will equal about a cut.  Reduce vodka by half, 2 or 3 minutes.  Add chicken stock and tomatoes.  Bring sauce to a bubble, then reduce heat to simmer.  Season with salt and pepper.

While sauce simmers, cook pasta in salted boiling water  until al dente, a bit firm to the bite.  While pasta cooks, prepare your salad or other side dishes.

Stir cream into the vodka sauce.  When sauce returns to a bubble, remove from heat.  Drain pasta.  Toss hot pasta with sauce and basil leaves.  Serve immediately, along with crusty bread.

And, finally, what's a good meal without some good dessert to go with it?  Another book that I do actually use is my Cheesecake Extraordinaire:  More than 100 Sumptuous Recipes for the Ultimate Dessert.  I think a lot of people are intimidated by cheesecake, but it's really pretty easy to make, and this book has a great section at the beginning with lots of tips including how to avoid pitfalls like a cracked cake and how to modify your measurements for smaller or larger cakes.  I've used a few of these recipes, and they've all been good, but I think my favorite is the Super New York-Style Cheesecake with some Lemon Sauce on the side.  Yum! 

The book also contains what I believe is a very common-sense forward by Rusty Foltz, R.D., Cardiopulmonary Dietitian.  

In part, Rusty says:

You see, I firmly believe that there is no such thing as a 'fattening' food.  No food is solely responsible for anyone being overweight.  Obesity is a complex problem involving total caloric intake as well as total caloric output through activities and exercise.  You can maintain a desirable weight through the proper combination of both of these; this combination can include cheesecake. (p.ix)

I think this advice provides a solid platform from which to attack a dessert, especially when combined with some more advice from The Good Housekeeping Cookbook's Family Weight Watching section, which reads, "Don't hesitate to cut the pie, or dish out the dessert, into 10 or 12 portions instead of the customary bigger servings.  Use smaller plates, put a little bunch of grapes beside the slimmer-than-usual portion--and if the table talk is going along happily, most likely no one will even notice the difference." (p.77)  Good advice indeed!  Not only does that help keep one's waistline in check, but it helps make the food go further, which we all know is important. 

What I'm Reading Now-The Garden of Last Days

The Garden of Last Days: A Novel by Andre Dubus III-I have been having a hard time trying to decide how to review this book. I didn't love it, but I think the author's ability to make you see all sides of a situation is amazing. This is the same author of House of Sand and Fog, which I never read; but I did see the movie, and it was brutal for exactly this reason. Good is not good and evil is not evil and both have the ability to be the other, and it's uncomfortable to not be able to take a definitive side.

That said, I think I am going to take a cue from our recent Weekly Geeks and attempt a review in haiku. So, here goes.

strip club, missing child--

terrorists plot revenge for

such sins...nine eleven

good guys are weak

sympathy for the devil--

Lines blurred all around

drunk violent fraud

tried saving sweet baby girl

too human to judge

One final note: A large part of this story takes place in a strip club, and if there are things that you imagine go on in a strip club that you don't want to read about, then you probably shouldn't read this book. It's not nearly as raunchy as it could be, but it's not rainbows and puppies either. (LOL-I just typed "rainblows." Freudian slip?) Also, there are a couple of rape scenes-nothing too drawn out, but they are there none the less. I know the "strip club, missing child" part may be a bit worrisome for some, but nothing horrible happens to the child, so you don't have to not read it for that part.

Some other reviews:

Stephen King at EW.com loved it!

Jill at Breaking the Spine not so much.

Have you read The Garden of Last Days? What did you think? Can we come up with a tie-breaker? If you've reviewed this book, let me know, and I'll add a link to your review.

Weekly Geeks 2009-13: Favorite children's books

In honor of National Poetry Month and International Children's Book Day, this week's Weekly Geeks challenged us to "Be a kid!" or "Be a poet!" Since I'm not too good with the poetry, I am going to take this opportunity to talk about a couple of children's books, which, in my opinion, happen to fit in nicely with the upcoming Easter holiday.

The Country Bunny and the Little Gold Shoes by Du Bose Heyward

Opening lines:

We hear of the Easter Bunny who comes each Easter Day before sunrise to bring eggs for boys and girls, so we think there is only one. But this is not so. There are really five Easter Bunnies, and they must be the five kindest, and swiftest, and wisest bunnies in the whole wide world, because between sunset on Easter Eve and dawn on Easter Morning they do more work than most rabbits do in a whole year.

This is one of the books that has remained a favorite of mine from childhood, so much so that I bought myself a copy a few years ago. Originally published in 1939, this is the story of a little brown country girl bunny who aspires to be one of the five Easter Bunnies. Upon hearing about her high aspirations, "...all of the big white bunnies who lived in fine houses, and the Jack Rabbits with long legs who can run so fast, laughed at the little Cottontail and told her to go back to the country and eat a carrot. But she said, 'Wait and see!'"

Well! That's some chutzpah! (Bonus! In this discussion of "The Symbolism of Rabbits and Hares" you can see a picture of our heroine standing up to the big Jack Rabbits. Double Bonus! There's a children's poem at the end of the post!) The little country bunny grew up, got married and had 21 (!) children and sort of forgot her dream of becoming an Easter Bunny until one day word came down that one of the five Easter Bunnies had grown old and slow and Old Grandfather was going to need a new bunny to take his place. Mother Cottontail gathers her 21 (!) children and they go to the Palace of Easter Eggs to watch the competition. Old Grandfather watches all the jack rabbits speeding across the lawn, all very impressive, but the little mother cottontail with her 21 (!) well-behaved children in tow catches his eye. OMG! Do I smell a life-long dream about to come true?? I think so! You'll have to read the book to find out!

I'm not really sure why I liked this book so much as a child. The cottontail mother teaches all of her children to help around the house, doing dishes, sweeping the floors, making the beds, etc., so maybe I felt kind of proud because I could do those things and be a good helper. It could be that I grew up in the country and thought I had a chance of growing up to be the Easter Bunny...Yeah, I know; there are a few problems with that. But the little country bunny was no big male jack rabbit, and she had 21 (!) kids to look after, and she made it! (Oh...um, sorry. That's ok, I didn't really give away anything that isn't on the back of the book.) Then again, I think it might have been the Palace of Easter Eggs that sealed the deal-a whole palace filled with Easter Eggs! I also love the illustrations by Marjorie Hack. If you click here you can check out the cover art and the first page.

If you are looking for a (new-to-them) book to read with your kids for Easter, I think this is a good one. It subtly encourages children to be well-behaved and helpful and to follow their dreams even if everyone else laughs and says they'll never make it. Besides, it's intriguing; I mean, five Easter Bunnies? Seriously? There are five??? Who knew?

Beatrice's Goat by Page McBrier-I actually read this a few weeks ago for the Weekly Geeks 2009-08: Rewind - Political & Social Issues challenge, but never got around to writing a post or a review of the book, so I think now is a good time to follow-up on that. Beatrice Biira was a girl in Uganda whose family received a goat through Heifer International, an organization whose mission is "To work with communities to end hunger and poverty and to care for the earth." Heifer gifts usually come in the form of livestock, like Beatrice's goat, and the recipients are required to pass on the gift by sharing offspring, knowledge, resources and skills with others in their community. Beatrice wanted to go to school, but her family could not afford to send her. Eventually, the money she made from the sale of her goat's milk helped her achieve this goal. The book tells Beatrice's story and shows how Heifer can help a community pull itself up out of poverty.

Part of the reason that I didn't get around to doing this review before is because I wasn't thrilled with the book, quite honestly. It was just little things; for example, Beatrice's goat is named Mugisa, which means luck. Throughout the book, the goat is referred to as Mugisa. Later other animals come into the picture; I can't remember what they were or where they came from-perhaps they were Mugisa's offspring, or perhaps they were other Heifer gifts-but their names and their English translations were also given, but then the author continued to refer to them by their English names (like Prosperity and Fortune). This was a little thing, but it bugged me.

Also, I was hoping that the book would be more of an introduction to Heifer International, but I don't think it ever actually mentioned the organization by name except in the afterward, written by Hillary Clinton. I guess the idea was to tell Beatrice's story, not to be propaganda for Heifer, but...in a situation like this, isn't the point of telling Beatrice's story to get the word out about Heifer? I suppose it is a fine line between piquing readers' interests enough that they will seek out additional information on their own and forcing an agenda on your readers. Either way a portion of the proceeds from the sale of the book go to support Heifer.

Despite the fact that I wasn't blown away by this book, I still think it's a good way to introduce a child to the idea of charity and show him how he can make a difference in another child's life. I think Heifer in particular is a charity that would appeal to children because of their gift catalog which consists almost entirely of animals. What better way to celebrate Easter than by giving a rabbit or some chicks to a family in order to help them provide a food source and/or money for things like school, clothing, or medicine? For as little as $10, you could contribute toward the gift of a sheep, a goat, a trio of rabbits, a pig, or even some trees.

So, now that I've covered the kid lit part of the challenge, perhaps I will attempt some poetry after all. Let's see...

There once was a child who read

She loved to stand on her head

Although upside down

She still loved the sound

Of books being read right out loud.

Well, Whitman it ain't, but you get what you pay for! Hope you all came up with some better stuff than that!