Last year was very unpleasant. This year was maybe worse.
It was the thirtieth anniversary of the Challenger explosion, and the fifteenth anniversary of 9/11. American Idol went off the air forever. Donald Trump and Hilary Clinton were the choices for President. Grandpa died. I read a ton of depressing literature for classes. Harper Lee, Nancy Reagan, Merle Haggard, John Saunders, and Carrie Fisher all died, too.
Watched far more of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Girl Meets World than I wanted. (Buffy was for school, and it's so well-made that it's very dangerous. GMW is dangerous because it kills brain cells it's so bad.) And during the Olympics there was far too much men's diving and water polo. SGYC didn't go very well at all, though I enjoyed Ryan's sons tagging along at my heels, and it was good to visit with Alexa and Zach. Kevin Durant left for the Warriors, which hurt a lot more than expected.
Even our superheroes were fighting; Captain America: Civil War was a fantastic movie, though. Everything people said about Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice, not so much. The Full House sequel series Fuller House was far better than expected, which was a nice surprise.
Played Crick in Tales From Tent City, that was a challenging but worthwhile role. It was a pretty good show, and very thought-provoking. A classmate named Kelsey asked if I would be willing to be the subject of a short documentary she was filming for a class, so that was a strange experience, but it turned out well. Learned how to write scripts and poetry, so that was good.
The Cubs won the World Series, which sums up how unbelievable this year was. And the Penguins won the Stanley Cup over the Sharks. Peyton Manning retired after the Broncos won the fiftieth Super Bowl over the Carolina Panthers. Las Vegas got an NHL franchise, which will be called the Golden Knights (bleah).
In movies, Jerry Maguire, Mission: Impossible, Space Jam and Twister all turned 20, while Cars, Stranger Than Fiction and Talladega Nights all turned ten. .
It was a lousy year most of the time. But it's over, and maybe tomorrow will be better. (But I doubt it.)
Wednesday, December 28, 2016
Tuesday, December 27, 2016
Hi, Again
It's been a while since I've had a chance to post anything on here. (List-making doesn't count, nor do recaps.) Another dismal semester was endured and survived. Christmas went fine. Rags is having a delightful time mercilessly teasing Trevor's cat Timmy. He was the Perrys' cat, but they moved to Tulsa a couple months ago, so they gave him to us, and he adopted Trevor as His Person. Chloe DeSpain's cat Butterscotch is his sister, and they look just alike: large and orange tiger-striped. Their dad was Freckles the lazy black-and-white barn cat.
Grade-wise, I got A's in Audio Production, Children's Lit and Creative Nonfiction, a B in Seminar and a C in Early American Lit. That makes a 3.4 GPA this semester, and drops my overall GPA down to 3.77. Not that that matter all that much - they're just numbers - but I was convinced that I was going to fail Seminar (because it was so difficult) and Early American Lit (which I couldn't ever figure out what wasn't working there). In one word, this semester was "Dreadful."
I listened to just under eleven days worth of music on Spotify this year - 15, 744 minutes total. That consisted of 1,173 songs from 430 artists. My top five artists played were Brad Paisley (duh), Avril Lavigne, Owl City, Steven Curtis Chapman and Kenny Chesney.
For Christmas I got a portable speaker (which sounds awesome), small pocketknife and this upcoming year's Chick-Fil-A calendar. I got Caleb a cast-iron skillet, which he was thrilled about, and he got a new ping pong paddle from Mom and Dad, which he was really thrilled about.
Carrie Fisher died this morning, which is sad.
Updates of friends: Josh just got engaged to Sara, and Samantha and Nick from the NSU BCM are having a baby next summer. (First second-generation SWAT member, it will be.)
Grade-wise, I got A's in Audio Production, Children's Lit and Creative Nonfiction, a B in Seminar and a C in Early American Lit. That makes a 3.4 GPA this semester, and drops my overall GPA down to 3.77. Not that that matter all that much - they're just numbers - but I was convinced that I was going to fail Seminar (because it was so difficult) and Early American Lit (which I couldn't ever figure out what wasn't working there). In one word, this semester was "Dreadful."
I listened to just under eleven days worth of music on Spotify this year - 15, 744 minutes total. That consisted of 1,173 songs from 430 artists. My top five artists played were Brad Paisley (duh), Avril Lavigne, Owl City, Steven Curtis Chapman and Kenny Chesney.
For Christmas I got a portable speaker (which sounds awesome), small pocketknife and this upcoming year's Chick-Fil-A calendar. I got Caleb a cast-iron skillet, which he was thrilled about, and he got a new ping pong paddle from Mom and Dad, which he was really thrilled about.
Carrie Fisher died this morning, which is sad.
Updates of friends: Josh just got engaged to Sara, and Samantha and Nick from the NSU BCM are having a baby next summer. (First second-generation SWAT member, it will be.)
Monday, December 26, 2016
Movies Seen This Year
A listing of movies I watched this year.
JANUARY
The Princess Bride (1987)
"Mawwidge. Mawwidge is what bwings us togetha today. Dat bwessed awwangement, dat dweam wiffin a dweam...." S. Morgenstern's classic tale of true love and high adventure translated onto the big screen of Hollywood film. This is one of my all-time favorite movies ever.
Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens (2015)
I've never been a huge Star Wars fan, though I appreciate how much detail was put into creating the universe. Rey was a pretty good character, but this movie is pretty much a clone of A New Hope, and that movie is incredibly flimsy. Read my review here. Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher are still awesome, though.
Dial M for Murder (1954)
One of Hitchcock's best, starring Grace Kelly.
To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)
It's not as great as the book, but...is it ever? (Sometimes. But it's very rare.) Film storytelling is a different language than novel storytelling, and so they can't be exactly equivalent. But it's a very good movie. Gregory Peck is Atticus. (But in my imagination Scout is a gray-eyed blonde with a scraggly ponytail halfway down her back, and she always has been.)
Hope Floats (1998)
A really well-written small-town drama starring Sandra Bullock and Harry Connick Jr, dealing with how a woman comes to grips with her husband's abandonment and her daughter's struggle to understand what happened to her parents and also cope with moving from Chicago to a little town in central Texas.
The Little Mermaid (1989)
A much brighter adaptation of the Hans Christian Andersen short story. (I still think Disney borrowed heavily from Shakespeare's Tempest.) Led the charge of the great musicals during the 90's. I have a lot more sympathy for King Triton now, given Ariel's actions and attitude. She must have been really hard to deal with. It's also a very dark film...maybe there was some Poe influence, too.
The Big Green (1995)
I guess you could say this is merely The Mighty Ducks as a soccer team; but I grew up with and love this movie. It's formulaic, but it works.
Wreck-It Ralph (2012)
By far the best animated movie of 2012. Deals with the adventures of a bunch of video-game characters after the arcade closes, as Wreck-It Ralph, who's been a bad guy for thirty years(cause, ya know, it's his job) tries to become a hero.
Grease (1978)
One of the most famous musicals of all time. I was really surprised by how seventies it was. It was okay, but probably would have been better if it didn't have such a huge reputation. Olivia Newton-John has a cool accent. Even for a musical, though, that ending makes no sense.
FEBRUARY
None. Schoolwork and sicknesses kept me too busy. I did get halfway through Drive Me Crazy as research for a short story, but that's all.
MARCH
Ratatouille (2007)
This was the most awful excuse for a Pixar film ever. High culture doesn't make for interesting storytelling, especially if it's set in Paris among fancy restaurants. And then the protagonist is a rat? Nope. There isn't much in the way of great plot, either. Almost-nonexistent character development doesn't help; this was terrible. An interesting quote, though: "Anyone Can Cook? What that means is that not everyone can be a great artist. But a great artist can come from anywhere." It was on TV one night and I was sick, so that's why I watched it.
Sticks and Stones (2008)
This was a Canadian-made TV movie about the uneasy relations between the U.S. and Canada over the War in Iraq in 2003, and a symbolic hockey "friendship tournament" to mend things somewhat. Based on a true story; it was pretty interesting. And for a TV movie, well written and acted.
50 First Dates (2005)
Definitely one of the more bizarre movies I've seen in a while. On the one hand, it's a wonderful story of sacrificial love as Adam Sandler plays a philandering scumbag who settles down with a brain-damaged woman(Drew Barrymore). And as crazy and borderline creepy as that sounds, it works. But on the other hand, this is an Adam Sandler movie, so....it can be incredibly crass and disgusting.
Serenity (2005)
The sequel to Firefly; translated into movie format, the story doesn't work quite as well, but it's still worth watching to find out what happens to the crew. By itself, it would still work pretty well as a sci-fi movie.
APRIL
Cats and Dogs (2001)
During the cast party for Tales From Tent City, somebody pulled this up on Netflix. I liked it as much as my eight-year-old self knew I would. Yeah, it was terrible, but the concept is so wonderful, it almost makes it redeemable.
The Little Rascals (1994)
This is outlandish and hilarious. Not to mention eminently quotable. Plus there are cameos from Donald Trump, Mel Brooks, Whoopi Goldberg and Reba McEntire!
MAY
A League of Their Own (1992)
The story of two sisters who happen to find themselves part of the WWII-morale project that was the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. Starring Tom Hanks as the team's alcoholic manager, it's a great movie.
Captain America: Civil War (2016)
After the destruction of Sokovia, a political divide tears the Avengers in half. What follows is two hours of painful, gut-wrenching story that offers no clear answers or winners. But it's worth it. And a new superhero in Queens is going viral on YouTube....
My Girl (1991)
A coming-of-age tale set in a funeral home? That's a crazy premise, especially when there isn't even that much of a plot to hold things together. But it works well, telling the story of Vada's eleventh summer in her small town, when her mortician dad remarried and her best friend died. It would make a wonderful novel, which makes it even stranger that this was an original script. It was kind of like if To Kill a Mockinbgbird's Scout Finch and Dill Harris were living thirty-five years later, only aging a couple years each.
JUNE
The Shop Around the Corner (1940)
A nice slow romance starring Jimmy Stewart as a salesman in a Hungarian department store. Later was remade into You've Got Mail.
Oklahoma! (1955)
This was thoroughly disappointing. Even accepting the frequently-outlandish premises of musicals, the plot was terrible. And there was a weird ballet sequence that goes on for fifteen minutes in the middle of the film and makes no sense at all.
JULY
None. Not sure why not.
AUGUST
13 Going On 30 (2004)
Ben-Hur (2016)
SEPTEMBER
Space Jam (1996)
Michael Jordan and Bugs Buny must save the Looney Tunes from being enslaved by a race of tiny alien henchmen who have stolen the talent of NBA superstars for their boss, a theme park owner trying to raise customer interest.
Footloose (1984)
I didn't like this much. There wasn't enough story to make a movie. The soundtrack was cool, though. And the montage where Ren was teaching Willard how to dance was so strange you kind of had to smile. maybe the remake has better acting.
Love and Basketball (2000)
The ending was stupid-sappy, being as this is a romance, and a couple who grew up as next-door neighbors fall in love with each other, but it was an interesting idea to use basketball as connective tissue to tie everything together.
OCTOBER
Top Spin (2014)
This documentary follows four teenagers as they try to make the London 2012 Olympics in table tennis.
Beauty and the Beast (1991)
The Fast and the Furious (2001)
NOVEMBER
Speed (1994)
Clueless (1995)
It's a Wonderful Life (1947)
DECEMBER
Henry V (1989)
The Mighty Ducks (1992)
Miracle on 34th Street (1994)
D2: The Mighty Ducks (1994)
D3: The Mighty Ducks (1996)
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016)
This was fine, which is high praise for a Star Wars movie. Everyone dies at the end, and the final scene is Darth Vader slaughtering people, but it was an upbeat ending nevertheless. The story tells about the Rebel spies who stole the Death Star plans, setting up A New Hope. It still would have made a much better novel, though.
While You Were Sleeping (1995)
The Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)
Star Wars: Episode II: Attack of the Clones (2002)
'Splosions! Horrible wooden dialogue! Too much blue-screen effects and really bad CGI! And lots of standing around and talking. LOTS of standing around and talking. This wasn't the best Star Wars movie ever, but Trevor liked it.
The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift (2006)
JANUARY
The Princess Bride (1987)
"Mawwidge. Mawwidge is what bwings us togetha today. Dat bwessed awwangement, dat dweam wiffin a dweam...." S. Morgenstern's classic tale of true love and high adventure translated onto the big screen of Hollywood film. This is one of my all-time favorite movies ever.
Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens (2015)
I've never been a huge Star Wars fan, though I appreciate how much detail was put into creating the universe. Rey was a pretty good character, but this movie is pretty much a clone of A New Hope, and that movie is incredibly flimsy. Read my review here. Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher are still awesome, though.
Dial M for Murder (1954)
One of Hitchcock's best, starring Grace Kelly.
To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)
It's not as great as the book, but...is it ever? (Sometimes. But it's very rare.) Film storytelling is a different language than novel storytelling, and so they can't be exactly equivalent. But it's a very good movie. Gregory Peck is Atticus. (But in my imagination Scout is a gray-eyed blonde with a scraggly ponytail halfway down her back, and she always has been.)
Hope Floats (1998)
A really well-written small-town drama starring Sandra Bullock and Harry Connick Jr, dealing with how a woman comes to grips with her husband's abandonment and her daughter's struggle to understand what happened to her parents and also cope with moving from Chicago to a little town in central Texas.
The Little Mermaid (1989)
A much brighter adaptation of the Hans Christian Andersen short story. (I still think Disney borrowed heavily from Shakespeare's Tempest.) Led the charge of the great musicals during the 90's. I have a lot more sympathy for King Triton now, given Ariel's actions and attitude. She must have been really hard to deal with. It's also a very dark film...maybe there was some Poe influence, too.
The Big Green (1995)
I guess you could say this is merely The Mighty Ducks as a soccer team; but I grew up with and love this movie. It's formulaic, but it works.
Wreck-It Ralph (2012)
By far the best animated movie of 2012. Deals with the adventures of a bunch of video-game characters after the arcade closes, as Wreck-It Ralph, who's been a bad guy for thirty years(cause, ya know, it's his job) tries to become a hero.
Grease (1978)
One of the most famous musicals of all time. I was really surprised by how seventies it was. It was okay, but probably would have been better if it didn't have such a huge reputation. Olivia Newton-John has a cool accent. Even for a musical, though, that ending makes no sense.
FEBRUARY
None. Schoolwork and sicknesses kept me too busy. I did get halfway through Drive Me Crazy as research for a short story, but that's all.
MARCH
Ratatouille (2007)
This was the most awful excuse for a Pixar film ever. High culture doesn't make for interesting storytelling, especially if it's set in Paris among fancy restaurants. And then the protagonist is a rat? Nope. There isn't much in the way of great plot, either. Almost-nonexistent character development doesn't help; this was terrible. An interesting quote, though: "Anyone Can Cook? What that means is that not everyone can be a great artist. But a great artist can come from anywhere." It was on TV one night and I was sick, so that's why I watched it.
Sticks and Stones (2008)
This was a Canadian-made TV movie about the uneasy relations between the U.S. and Canada over the War in Iraq in 2003, and a symbolic hockey "friendship tournament" to mend things somewhat. Based on a true story; it was pretty interesting. And for a TV movie, well written and acted.
50 First Dates (2005)
Definitely one of the more bizarre movies I've seen in a while. On the one hand, it's a wonderful story of sacrificial love as Adam Sandler plays a philandering scumbag who settles down with a brain-damaged woman(Drew Barrymore). And as crazy and borderline creepy as that sounds, it works. But on the other hand, this is an Adam Sandler movie, so....it can be incredibly crass and disgusting.
Serenity (2005)
The sequel to Firefly; translated into movie format, the story doesn't work quite as well, but it's still worth watching to find out what happens to the crew. By itself, it would still work pretty well as a sci-fi movie.
APRIL
Cats and Dogs (2001)
During the cast party for Tales From Tent City, somebody pulled this up on Netflix. I liked it as much as my eight-year-old self knew I would. Yeah, it was terrible, but the concept is so wonderful, it almost makes it redeemable.
The Little Rascals (1994)
This is outlandish and hilarious. Not to mention eminently quotable. Plus there are cameos from Donald Trump, Mel Brooks, Whoopi Goldberg and Reba McEntire!
MAY
A League of Their Own (1992)
The story of two sisters who happen to find themselves part of the WWII-morale project that was the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. Starring Tom Hanks as the team's alcoholic manager, it's a great movie.
Captain America: Civil War (2016)
After the destruction of Sokovia, a political divide tears the Avengers in half. What follows is two hours of painful, gut-wrenching story that offers no clear answers or winners. But it's worth it. And a new superhero in Queens is going viral on YouTube....
My Girl (1991)
A coming-of-age tale set in a funeral home? That's a crazy premise, especially when there isn't even that much of a plot to hold things together. But it works well, telling the story of Vada's eleventh summer in her small town, when her mortician dad remarried and her best friend died. It would make a wonderful novel, which makes it even stranger that this was an original script. It was kind of like if To Kill a Mockinbgbird's Scout Finch and Dill Harris were living thirty-five years later, only aging a couple years each.
JUNE
The Shop Around the Corner (1940)
A nice slow romance starring Jimmy Stewart as a salesman in a Hungarian department store. Later was remade into You've Got Mail.
Oklahoma! (1955)
This was thoroughly disappointing. Even accepting the frequently-outlandish premises of musicals, the plot was terrible. And there was a weird ballet sequence that goes on for fifteen minutes in the middle of the film and makes no sense at all.
JULY
None. Not sure why not.
AUGUST
13 Going On 30 (2004)
Ben-Hur (2016)
SEPTEMBER
Space Jam (1996)
Michael Jordan and Bugs Buny must save the Looney Tunes from being enslaved by a race of tiny alien henchmen who have stolen the talent of NBA superstars for their boss, a theme park owner trying to raise customer interest.
Footloose (1984)
I didn't like this much. There wasn't enough story to make a movie. The soundtrack was cool, though. And the montage where Ren was teaching Willard how to dance was so strange you kind of had to smile. maybe the remake has better acting.
Love and Basketball (2000)
The ending was stupid-sappy, being as this is a romance, and a couple who grew up as next-door neighbors fall in love with each other, but it was an interesting idea to use basketball as connective tissue to tie everything together.
OCTOBER
Top Spin (2014)
This documentary follows four teenagers as they try to make the London 2012 Olympics in table tennis.
Beauty and the Beast (1991)
The Fast and the Furious (2001)
NOVEMBER
Speed (1994)
Clueless (1995)
It's a Wonderful Life (1947)
DECEMBER
Henry V (1989)
The Mighty Ducks (1992)
Miracle on 34th Street (1994)
D2: The Mighty Ducks (1994)
D3: The Mighty Ducks (1996)
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016)
This was fine, which is high praise for a Star Wars movie. Everyone dies at the end, and the final scene is Darth Vader slaughtering people, but it was an upbeat ending nevertheless. The story tells about the Rebel spies who stole the Death Star plans, setting up A New Hope. It still would have made a much better novel, though.
While You Were Sleeping (1995)
The Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)
Star Wars: Episode II: Attack of the Clones (2002)
'Splosions! Horrible wooden dialogue! Too much blue-screen effects and really bad CGI! And lots of standing around and talking. LOTS of standing around and talking. This wasn't the best Star Wars movie ever, but Trevor liked it.
The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift (2006)
Friday, December 23, 2016
Fiction Read This Year
A tracker of fiction I read this year. Parentheses after the author's name is first publication date.
JANUARY
2001: A Space Odyssey, by Arthur C. Clarke (1968)
A giant monolith develops the evolution of mankind, then disappears; only to reappear on the moon. Then an astronaut deals with a rogue computer, and then it ends with a lot of nonsense as the astronaut ceases to exist.
Cat Among the Pigeons, by Agatha Christie (1959)
One of my favorites; this was one of her better suspense-filled thrillers, set in an elite girls boarding school. And it also has Hercule Poirot.
Goldfinger, by Ian Fleming (1959)
James Bond gets tasked to deal with a scheming, weird-looking businessman who is obsessed with gold.
Encyclopedia Brown Gets His Man, by Donald J. Sobol (1967)
The fourth collection of Encyclopedia's cases.
Encyclopedia Brown Solves Them All, by Donald J. Sobol (1968)
More adventures of Encyclopedia and Sally; as they help out Chief Brown, get pals out of scrapes aand spend the rest of the time foiling Bugs Meany and Wilfred Wiggins.
The Shepherd of the Hills, by Harold Bell Wright (1907)
A love story in and to the southwest Missouri Ozarks.
The House at Pooh Corner, by A.A. Milne, with decorations by Ernest H. Shepard (1928)
The final collection of stories from the Hundred Acre Wood, for even Christopher Robins have to Grow Up at some point.
The Phantom Tollbooth, by Norton Juster, illustrations by Jules Feiffer (1961)
A quirky, zany adventure created by a super-smart guy who loved playing with words. It's a little like Alice in Wonderland, except far more clever and interesting. Started while visiting the Guenthers last summer because Leslie Knope loved this book so much, finished when we were visiting the DeSpains one day about eight months after beginning it.
The Man in the High Castle, by Philip K. Dick (1963)
An alternative history imagining that the Axis Powers won WWII. Cool concept, but a little dreary read.
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, by J.K. Rowling (2000)
Reading Harry Potter for the first time as an adult, not having traveled over them time and again growing up, could have biased my judgement, but it is a nearly-inexplainable experience of frustration. On the plus side, Harry and pals are getting older. On the negative side, this book is 734 pages. Or roughly the length of the first two Hunger Games books combined. Hermione goes on a tiresome political crusade, and in general it's just rather tiresome and dreary.
FEBRUARY
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, by J.K. Rowling (2003)
870 pages. This was the best of the series so far(number five of seven total). Lots of peril(with real stakes involved), and a lot of complaints about public education/philosophizing on the role on government overreach. The characters are teenagers now and have at least learned some magical spells to defend themselves; so the don't always escape by sheer luck. It's still formulaic and empty, but there was a glimmer of hope that the last couple books might be good.
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, by J.K. Rowling (2005)
This next-to-last book falls apart by the end, but the first half was good.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, by J.K. Rowling (2007)
The series finally ended! It was far too long, and there were far too many dangling threads tied up far too neatly, and the epilogue was slapped together a bit, but it was all right.
MARCH
Jayber Crow: The Life Story of Jayber Crow, Barber, of the Port William Membership, As Written By Himself, by Wendell Berry (2000)
A wonderful novel, narrated by seventy-two-year-old Jayber Crow, telling both of the events of his life and the collapse of the town he loved, where he had a place. If it wasn't a library book, fully half the print would be highlighted and marked up; such great descriptions fill the pages with the wisdom of the elderly, if one listens closely. Also, I love that subtitle.
Go Set a Watchman, by Harper Lee (Writ. 1957, pub. 2015)
The parent of To Kill a Mockingbird, which sort of serves as a sequel, this is nowhere near as good, but has a scruffy charm of its own.
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson (1887)
One of those creepy 19th-century Gothic novels which leave you with much to think over once finished.
Death in Kenya, by M.M. Kaye (1958)
Her sentences are amazing, though incredibly complex. The characters were so well developed that I wasn't even trying to follow the mystery (which I did solve correctly).
A Place Called Hope, by Philip Gulley (2014)
This is the beginning of a new series, after Dale Hinshaw finally succeeds in firing Sam Gardner. So Sam and Barbara move to Hope, Indiana, in the south-central part of the state. It can get a little tedious, as Sam's cynicism hasn't improved any by ten more years spent in Harmony, but maybe the series gets better as time goes on.
As Chimney Sweepers Come to Dust, by Alan Bradley (2015)
The seventh novel in the Flavia De Luce series, this time she gets sent across the Atlantc to a boarding school in Toronto. By far the best of the series.
APRIL
Tell Me a Riddle, by Tillie Olsen (1961)
This short-story collection begins with "I Stand Here Ironing," a mother's lament and recollection of how she raised her oldest daughter, and then continues with a story dealing with an alcoholic sailor and the only friends he has in the world; a little girl dealing with the taboo of fraternizing with black people in the 1950's, and ends with a story about a bitter elderly Russian-immigrant couple as the wife dies slowly from cancer. She can pack a lot of emotion and heartache into her stories.
The Memory of Old Jack, by Wendell Berry (1974)
Chronologically, this novel takes place over about three days. But because most of it is the memories of a 92-year-old man with dementia, it covers pretty much his entire life in a series of snapshots. To structure it that way was very interesting, though it took some time to get used to.
So Brave, Young and Handsome, by Leif Enger (2008)
His second novel is almost more strange than his first (and Peace Like a River was plenty weird, plotwise). In this novel, a failing writer takes a cross-country trip from southern Minnesota with an ex-outlaw to southern California so that the friend can apologize for leaving his wife twenty years earlier. There's also a fairly important section on the 101 Ranch near Ponca City. Also, our narrator gets kidnapped at one point.
MAY
Brown Sunshine of Sawdust Valley, by Marguerite Henry (1996)
Easily one of her less-than-stellar efforts; but at the same time, how many people are still working at 94 years old? A young girl named Molly raises her mule foal in central Tennessee, enduring the snide comments of her neighbor.
The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins (2008)
The first of a trilogy set in a dystopian future North America, which centers its annual celebration of itself with a fight-to-the-death gladiatorial contest among 24 teenagers. Very gruesome and not written very well, though the tension makes it a page-turner.
Catching Fire, by Suzanne Collins (2009)
The plodding sequel.
Mockingjay, by Suzanne Collins (2010)
This is by far the best of the series.
Parnassus on Wheels, by Christopher Morley (1917)
An extremely practical spinster buys a traveling bookstore so her famous author brother will quit gadding about and take care of the farm. Hilarity ensues.
The Agony Column, by Earl Derr Biggers (1916)
Part love story, part mystery, this highly entertaining tale is set in London in the opening days of World War I.
The Puppeteer's Apprentice, by D. Anne Love (2003)
This is similar in tone to The Christmas Doll, though set in medieval times. It was a great spur-of-the-moment find from the Gardner's warehouse sale in January.
Anne of Green Gables, by L.M. Montgomery (1908)
A very talkative redheaded girl with a grand imagination turns the little town of Avonlea upside down with the antics and scrapes she gets into in 1890's Prince Edward Island.
JUNE
Anne of Avonlea, by L.M. Montgomery (1909)
Anne is teaching at the Avonlea school now, while Marilla grouchily adopts distant cousins to raise. Anne meets her favorite author, gets several couples wedded together and generally improves the look of the town through a new young-people's society., among other things.
Old Yeller, by Frank Gipson (1956)
Widely considered one of the saddest endings in history, this is just a run-of-the-mill boy-on-the-frontier tales. It is very sad, yes, but not as much as people say.
State of Fear, by Michael Crichton (2004)
This seemed more like a bunch of short stories, which would have been great by themselves, patched together in scrapbook fashion to make a novel. The plot follows a gigantic lawsuit-in-progress about global warming, developing into an action/adventure/spy novel. It was pretty good, despite being rather hard to follow due to frequent time-jumping in scenes and a large cast.
Anne of the Island, by L.M. Montgomery (1915)
In this book, Anne goes to Redmond College, and eventually gets engaged to Gilbert. The lack-of-pacing is extremely evident, thus explaining why I have that trouble as well in my stories. However, there are still lots of great descriptions and good dialogue, which is to be expected in an L.M. Montgomery book.
The Giver, by Lois Lowry (1993)
In this forerunner of the modern YA-dystopian craze, a boy named Jonas becomes the bearer of the remnants of the world's memories in a society which has outlawed emotions in favor of a homogenous existence.
JULY
The Four Million, by O. Henry (1904)
One of his short story collections, containing both "The Gift of the Magi" and "The Green Door," among other great tales.
Happy To Be Here, by Garrison Keillor (1982)
A collection of short stories. Among others, it features: A con man exploiting rich donors to run a Center for the Arts inside a strip mall; explaining the typical American Tuesday; several about baseball; the founding of a radio station inside a restaurant in the 1920s, and parodies of pulp-magazine sci-fi and adventure comic books.
Lake Woebegon Days, by Garrison Keillor (1985)
A very meticulously-drawn portrait of the small town of Lake Woebegon, Minnesota. It's interesting in spots, but overall the effect is extremely tiresome. Keillor is very smart, and he writes well, but there's this undercurrent of resentment and anger that is hard to say anyone "enjoyed" it.
AUGUST
Anne of Windy Poplars, by L.M. Montgomery (1936)
Anne teaches school in a town full of unfriendly-at-first people, and makes friends of the landladies (a pair of widowed elderly sisters), their overly-sensitive housekeeper Rebecca Dew, and the little neighbor girl next door. There are far too many love-letters to and from Gilbert to be interesting. Also, Maud's messy life was getting particularly bad by the time she penned this one.
Anne's House of Dreams, by L.M. Montgomery (1917)
One of my three favorite Montgomery novels; Anne and Gilbert are just married, and everything is an adventure. Plus they have wonderful neighbors in Captain Jim, Miss Cornelia and Leslie Moore. Together, anything seems possible, including miracles.
Anne of Ingleside, by L.M. Montgomery (1939)
This was her last book, detailing the adventures of the young Blythes after they left the Four Harbors House of Dreams to move into Ingleside in Glen St. Mary. It's pretty boring.
Rainbow Valley, by L.M. Montgomery (1919)
Another of my three favorites, the Blythe kids and their neighbors the Merediths get into all kinds of scrapes, just like Anne used to when she was their age.
Rilla of Ingleside, by L.M. Montgomery (1921)
The Great War has arrived, yes, even to sleepy little communities like Glen St. Mary. And there are losses of many kinds.
SEPTEMBER
Sadly, none, due to a massive amount of homework and school stress. This probably explains why this semester has been particularly awful.
OCTOBER
Monday Night Jihad, by Jason Elam and Steve Yohn (2007)
This is a Christian thriller/football novel. It fails at all four of those categories.
NOVEMBER
Long-Arm Quarterback, by Matt Christopher (1999)
This was one of the handful of Matt Christophers that made a big impression on me in some way, and this was definitely one of the better-written stories he did. In a miniscule Texas town called Cowpen, they're trying to start up a six-man football team again.
Spike It!, by Matt Christopher (1998)
This was one of the most memorable Matt Christopher books that I had ever read, so I managed to track it down on Amazon and reread it. I'm still not sure what to think of it, but I didn't know what to make of it when I was six, either. The sport is volleyball, which is cool, and the main conflict is that Jamie's dad remarried without telling her, so she's trying to get used to the idea of having a stepsister around.
Woof, by Spencer Quinn (2015)
This middle-grade mystery was narrated by a dog. To be exact, a Louisiana rescue mutt named Bowser who now belongs to an eleven-year-old girl. It was fine, and the dogness was handled well, but it wasn't a masterpiece. Though the author is apparently a famous modern mystery author, and this was his first try at writing a children's book. I'll definitely need to look into one of his others.
DECEMBER
The Golden Road, by L.M. Montgomery (1913)
The last of my favorite three Montgomery novels; this was written in two weeks, if I remember right. It's just a chronicle of the meandering things that happen to a group of friends in early teenagerdom, written down by one of them about forty years later.
Thrice the Brindled Cat Hath Mew'd, by Alan Bradley (2016)
The quote is from Hamlet, and the titular car in question is an extremely rare male tortoiseshell. While not quite as good as the last, this eighth Flavia De Luce novel is still well worth reading. I thought this one would lend itself well to being a film.
Dog On It, by Spencer Quinn (2009)
Mix Wishbone with Hank the Cowdog, and make him the sidekick of a semi-successful private investigator with a Phil Coulson-like affinity for nostalgia, and you have Chet the dog and Bernie his owner. Also, Chet is the narrator. They work somewhere in Arizona, and while it's not the greatest mystery ever written, it's certainly worth reading.
Thereby Hangs a Tail, by Spencer Quinn (2010)
Chet and Bernie are back, and this time they're trying to protect a dog-show superstar. This case involves multiple people being murdered, and stoned hippies. The mystery is better in this one, largely because of Chet's unreliability.
The Scorch Trials, by James Dashner (2010)
The middle book of the Maze Runner trilogy is just as fantastic as the first one was. (Thanks again for talking me into finally reading it, Ashland!) There was a year-long gap between reading the first and this one, though, as I couldn't find it until now. (Thanks Okmulgee Library!) Now free from the Maze, Thomas, Teresa and the rest are trying to survive a two-week journey through the desert which used to be northern Mexico in Phase Two of the trials to cure the Flare virus. .
The Death Cure, by James Dashner (2011)
Okay, a whole YA series being wonderful was too much to hope for. The wheels fall off here, as most of the book is just trying to survive zombie hordes. It does end on a hopeful note, so that's something praiseworthy.
Micro, by Michael Crichton and Richard Preston (2011)
Crichton died of a heart attack in 2008, so his publishers selected a nonfiction author named Richard Preston to come in and finish this novel. That didn't go so well, but there are definitely good moments throughout the book. The plot concerns seven graduate students running for their lives while half an inch tall in the Hawaiian rainforest. Also - there are killer robots on the loose.
JANUARY
2001: A Space Odyssey, by Arthur C. Clarke (1968)
A giant monolith develops the evolution of mankind, then disappears; only to reappear on the moon. Then an astronaut deals with a rogue computer, and then it ends with a lot of nonsense as the astronaut ceases to exist.
Cat Among the Pigeons, by Agatha Christie (1959)
One of my favorites; this was one of her better suspense-filled thrillers, set in an elite girls boarding school. And it also has Hercule Poirot.
Goldfinger, by Ian Fleming (1959)
James Bond gets tasked to deal with a scheming, weird-looking businessman who is obsessed with gold.
Encyclopedia Brown Gets His Man, by Donald J. Sobol (1967)
The fourth collection of Encyclopedia's cases.
Encyclopedia Brown Solves Them All, by Donald J. Sobol (1968)
More adventures of Encyclopedia and Sally; as they help out Chief Brown, get pals out of scrapes aand spend the rest of the time foiling Bugs Meany and Wilfred Wiggins.
The Shepherd of the Hills, by Harold Bell Wright (1907)
A love story in and to the southwest Missouri Ozarks.
The House at Pooh Corner, by A.A. Milne, with decorations by Ernest H. Shepard (1928)
The final collection of stories from the Hundred Acre Wood, for even Christopher Robins have to Grow Up at some point.
The Phantom Tollbooth, by Norton Juster, illustrations by Jules Feiffer (1961)
A quirky, zany adventure created by a super-smart guy who loved playing with words. It's a little like Alice in Wonderland, except far more clever and interesting. Started while visiting the Guenthers last summer because Leslie Knope loved this book so much, finished when we were visiting the DeSpains one day about eight months after beginning it.
The Man in the High Castle, by Philip K. Dick (1963)
An alternative history imagining that the Axis Powers won WWII. Cool concept, but a little dreary read.
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, by J.K. Rowling (2000)
Reading Harry Potter for the first time as an adult, not having traveled over them time and again growing up, could have biased my judgement, but it is a nearly-inexplainable experience of frustration. On the plus side, Harry and pals are getting older. On the negative side, this book is 734 pages. Or roughly the length of the first two Hunger Games books combined. Hermione goes on a tiresome political crusade, and in general it's just rather tiresome and dreary.
FEBRUARY
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, by J.K. Rowling (2003)
870 pages. This was the best of the series so far(number five of seven total). Lots of peril(with real stakes involved), and a lot of complaints about public education/philosophizing on the role on government overreach. The characters are teenagers now and have at least learned some magical spells to defend themselves; so the don't always escape by sheer luck. It's still formulaic and empty, but there was a glimmer of hope that the last couple books might be good.
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, by J.K. Rowling (2005)
This next-to-last book falls apart by the end, but the first half was good.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, by J.K. Rowling (2007)
The series finally ended! It was far too long, and there were far too many dangling threads tied up far too neatly, and the epilogue was slapped together a bit, but it was all right.
MARCH
Jayber Crow: The Life Story of Jayber Crow, Barber, of the Port William Membership, As Written By Himself, by Wendell Berry (2000)
A wonderful novel, narrated by seventy-two-year-old Jayber Crow, telling both of the events of his life and the collapse of the town he loved, where he had a place. If it wasn't a library book, fully half the print would be highlighted and marked up; such great descriptions fill the pages with the wisdom of the elderly, if one listens closely. Also, I love that subtitle.
Go Set a Watchman, by Harper Lee (Writ. 1957, pub. 2015)
The parent of To Kill a Mockingbird, which sort of serves as a sequel, this is nowhere near as good, but has a scruffy charm of its own.
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson (1887)
One of those creepy 19th-century Gothic novels which leave you with much to think over once finished.
Death in Kenya, by M.M. Kaye (1958)
Her sentences are amazing, though incredibly complex. The characters were so well developed that I wasn't even trying to follow the mystery (which I did solve correctly).
A Place Called Hope, by Philip Gulley (2014)
This is the beginning of a new series, after Dale Hinshaw finally succeeds in firing Sam Gardner. So Sam and Barbara move to Hope, Indiana, in the south-central part of the state. It can get a little tedious, as Sam's cynicism hasn't improved any by ten more years spent in Harmony, but maybe the series gets better as time goes on.
As Chimney Sweepers Come to Dust, by Alan Bradley (2015)
The seventh novel in the Flavia De Luce series, this time she gets sent across the Atlantc to a boarding school in Toronto. By far the best of the series.
APRIL
Tell Me a Riddle, by Tillie Olsen (1961)
This short-story collection begins with "I Stand Here Ironing," a mother's lament and recollection of how she raised her oldest daughter, and then continues with a story dealing with an alcoholic sailor and the only friends he has in the world; a little girl dealing with the taboo of fraternizing with black people in the 1950's, and ends with a story about a bitter elderly Russian-immigrant couple as the wife dies slowly from cancer. She can pack a lot of emotion and heartache into her stories.
The Memory of Old Jack, by Wendell Berry (1974)
Chronologically, this novel takes place over about three days. But because most of it is the memories of a 92-year-old man with dementia, it covers pretty much his entire life in a series of snapshots. To structure it that way was very interesting, though it took some time to get used to.
So Brave, Young and Handsome, by Leif Enger (2008)
His second novel is almost more strange than his first (and Peace Like a River was plenty weird, plotwise). In this novel, a failing writer takes a cross-country trip from southern Minnesota with an ex-outlaw to southern California so that the friend can apologize for leaving his wife twenty years earlier. There's also a fairly important section on the 101 Ranch near Ponca City. Also, our narrator gets kidnapped at one point.
MAY
Brown Sunshine of Sawdust Valley, by Marguerite Henry (1996)
Easily one of her less-than-stellar efforts; but at the same time, how many people are still working at 94 years old? A young girl named Molly raises her mule foal in central Tennessee, enduring the snide comments of her neighbor.
The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins (2008)
The first of a trilogy set in a dystopian future North America, which centers its annual celebration of itself with a fight-to-the-death gladiatorial contest among 24 teenagers. Very gruesome and not written very well, though the tension makes it a page-turner.
Catching Fire, by Suzanne Collins (2009)
The plodding sequel.
Mockingjay, by Suzanne Collins (2010)
This is by far the best of the series.
Parnassus on Wheels, by Christopher Morley (1917)
An extremely practical spinster buys a traveling bookstore so her famous author brother will quit gadding about and take care of the farm. Hilarity ensues.
The Agony Column, by Earl Derr Biggers (1916)
Part love story, part mystery, this highly entertaining tale is set in London in the opening days of World War I.
The Puppeteer's Apprentice, by D. Anne Love (2003)
This is similar in tone to The Christmas Doll, though set in medieval times. It was a great spur-of-the-moment find from the Gardner's warehouse sale in January.
Anne of Green Gables, by L.M. Montgomery (1908)
A very talkative redheaded girl with a grand imagination turns the little town of Avonlea upside down with the antics and scrapes she gets into in 1890's Prince Edward Island.
JUNE
Anne of Avonlea, by L.M. Montgomery (1909)
Anne is teaching at the Avonlea school now, while Marilla grouchily adopts distant cousins to raise. Anne meets her favorite author, gets several couples wedded together and generally improves the look of the town through a new young-people's society., among other things.
Old Yeller, by Frank Gipson (1956)
Widely considered one of the saddest endings in history, this is just a run-of-the-mill boy-on-the-frontier tales. It is very sad, yes, but not as much as people say.
State of Fear, by Michael Crichton (2004)
This seemed more like a bunch of short stories, which would have been great by themselves, patched together in scrapbook fashion to make a novel. The plot follows a gigantic lawsuit-in-progress about global warming, developing into an action/adventure/spy novel. It was pretty good, despite being rather hard to follow due to frequent time-jumping in scenes and a large cast.
Anne of the Island, by L.M. Montgomery (1915)
In this book, Anne goes to Redmond College, and eventually gets engaged to Gilbert. The lack-of-pacing is extremely evident, thus explaining why I have that trouble as well in my stories. However, there are still lots of great descriptions and good dialogue, which is to be expected in an L.M. Montgomery book.
The Giver, by Lois Lowry (1993)
In this forerunner of the modern YA-dystopian craze, a boy named Jonas becomes the bearer of the remnants of the world's memories in a society which has outlawed emotions in favor of a homogenous existence.
The Four Million, by O. Henry (1904)
One of his short story collections, containing both "The Gift of the Magi" and "The Green Door," among other great tales.
Happy To Be Here, by Garrison Keillor (1982)
A collection of short stories. Among others, it features: A con man exploiting rich donors to run a Center for the Arts inside a strip mall; explaining the typical American Tuesday; several about baseball; the founding of a radio station inside a restaurant in the 1920s, and parodies of pulp-magazine sci-fi and adventure comic books.
Lake Woebegon Days, by Garrison Keillor (1985)
A very meticulously-drawn portrait of the small town of Lake Woebegon, Minnesota. It's interesting in spots, but overall the effect is extremely tiresome. Keillor is very smart, and he writes well, but there's this undercurrent of resentment and anger that is hard to say anyone "enjoyed" it.
AUGUST
Anne of Windy Poplars, by L.M. Montgomery (1936)
Anne teaches school in a town full of unfriendly-at-first people, and makes friends of the landladies (a pair of widowed elderly sisters), their overly-sensitive housekeeper Rebecca Dew, and the little neighbor girl next door. There are far too many love-letters to and from Gilbert to be interesting. Also, Maud's messy life was getting particularly bad by the time she penned this one.
Anne's House of Dreams, by L.M. Montgomery (1917)
One of my three favorite Montgomery novels; Anne and Gilbert are just married, and everything is an adventure. Plus they have wonderful neighbors in Captain Jim, Miss Cornelia and Leslie Moore. Together, anything seems possible, including miracles.
Anne of Ingleside, by L.M. Montgomery (1939)
This was her last book, detailing the adventures of the young Blythes after they left the Four Harbors House of Dreams to move into Ingleside in Glen St. Mary. It's pretty boring.
Rainbow Valley, by L.M. Montgomery (1919)
Another of my three favorites, the Blythe kids and their neighbors the Merediths get into all kinds of scrapes, just like Anne used to when she was their age.
Rilla of Ingleside, by L.M. Montgomery (1921)
The Great War has arrived, yes, even to sleepy little communities like Glen St. Mary. And there are losses of many kinds.
SEPTEMBER
Sadly, none, due to a massive amount of homework and school stress. This probably explains why this semester has been particularly awful.
OCTOBER
Monday Night Jihad, by Jason Elam and Steve Yohn (2007)
This is a Christian thriller/football novel. It fails at all four of those categories.
NOVEMBER
Long-Arm Quarterback, by Matt Christopher (1999)
This was one of the handful of Matt Christophers that made a big impression on me in some way, and this was definitely one of the better-written stories he did. In a miniscule Texas town called Cowpen, they're trying to start up a six-man football team again.
Spike It!, by Matt Christopher (1998)
This was one of the most memorable Matt Christopher books that I had ever read, so I managed to track it down on Amazon and reread it. I'm still not sure what to think of it, but I didn't know what to make of it when I was six, either. The sport is volleyball, which is cool, and the main conflict is that Jamie's dad remarried without telling her, so she's trying to get used to the idea of having a stepsister around.
Woof, by Spencer Quinn (2015)
This middle-grade mystery was narrated by a dog. To be exact, a Louisiana rescue mutt named Bowser who now belongs to an eleven-year-old girl. It was fine, and the dogness was handled well, but it wasn't a masterpiece. Though the author is apparently a famous modern mystery author, and this was his first try at writing a children's book. I'll definitely need to look into one of his others.
DECEMBER
The Golden Road, by L.M. Montgomery (1913)
The last of my favorite three Montgomery novels; this was written in two weeks, if I remember right. It's just a chronicle of the meandering things that happen to a group of friends in early teenagerdom, written down by one of them about forty years later.
Thrice the Brindled Cat Hath Mew'd, by Alan Bradley (2016)
The quote is from Hamlet, and the titular car in question is an extremely rare male tortoiseshell. While not quite as good as the last, this eighth Flavia De Luce novel is still well worth reading. I thought this one would lend itself well to being a film.
Dog On It, by Spencer Quinn (2009)
Mix Wishbone with Hank the Cowdog, and make him the sidekick of a semi-successful private investigator with a Phil Coulson-like affinity for nostalgia, and you have Chet the dog and Bernie his owner. Also, Chet is the narrator. They work somewhere in Arizona, and while it's not the greatest mystery ever written, it's certainly worth reading.
Thereby Hangs a Tail, by Spencer Quinn (2010)
Chet and Bernie are back, and this time they're trying to protect a dog-show superstar. This case involves multiple people being murdered, and stoned hippies. The mystery is better in this one, largely because of Chet's unreliability.
The Scorch Trials, by James Dashner (2010)
The middle book of the Maze Runner trilogy is just as fantastic as the first one was. (Thanks again for talking me into finally reading it, Ashland!) There was a year-long gap between reading the first and this one, though, as I couldn't find it until now. (Thanks Okmulgee Library!) Now free from the Maze, Thomas, Teresa and the rest are trying to survive a two-week journey through the desert which used to be northern Mexico in Phase Two of the trials to cure the Flare virus. .
The Death Cure, by James Dashner (2011)
Okay, a whole YA series being wonderful was too much to hope for. The wheels fall off here, as most of the book is just trying to survive zombie hordes. It does end on a hopeful note, so that's something praiseworthy.
Micro, by Michael Crichton and Richard Preston (2011)
Crichton died of a heart attack in 2008, so his publishers selected a nonfiction author named Richard Preston to come in and finish this novel. That didn't go so well, but there are definitely good moments throughout the book. The plot concerns seven graduate students running for their lives while half an inch tall in the Hawaiian rainforest. Also - there are killer robots on the loose.
Nonfiction Read This Year
Tracking all the nonfiction I read this year, beginning just after Christmas.
LATE DECEMBER
Do More Better: A Practical Guide to Productivity, by Tim Challies (2015)
This started out really well. If I was more interested in following his advice I would have gotten more from this.
The Child That Books Built: A Life in Reading, by Francis Spufford (2003)
Examining what being raised by books and through stories can do for a person. Very readable, if a bit peculiarly English. Mixes in personal examples with scholarly research and a journalist's attention to relevant detail.
Ten Ways to Destroy the Imagination of Your Child, by Anthony Esolen (2010)
One of the best books on education I have ever read, written in a Screwtape Letters type of way.
The Dangerous Book for Dogs, by Rex and Sparky (actually written by Joe Garden, Janet Ginsburg, Chris Pauls, Anita Serwacki and Scott Sherman) (2008)
A parody of The Dangerous Book for Boys by writers from WordGirl and The Onion; including such important details as "The Rules of Fetch", "How To Make Your Owner Look Like an Idiot" and "Things You Can Chase". Pretty funny.
The Devious Book for Cats, by Fluffy and Bonkers (actually written by Joe Garden, Janet Ginsburg, Chris Pauls, Anita Serwacki and Scott Sherman) (2008)
A parody of The Daring Book for Girls, containing important sections as "Cardboard Boxes", "Reasons You Meant To Do That", "An Illustrated Guide to Napping" and "The Pros and Cons of Being Sullen". Felines are much better suited to writing snarky instruction manuals on living than dogs are.
JANUARY
On Writing Well: The Classic Guide for Writing Nonfiction, by William Zinsser (1976)
This was one of Courtney's internship books that I swiped from her desk. (Before buying a copy of my own.) Not many books on writing deal specifically with nonfiction, so that was interesting to read, especially when he defines what a memoir is and offers suggestions on improving them.
Diary of a Player, by Brad Paisley and David Wild (2011)
As it's written here, the story of Paisley's life...with some strings attached. (Generally six.) Very, very good memoir/autobiography.
Felines of New York, by Jim Tews (2015)
Like Humans of New York, but with cats. Very entertaining; and amazing photography.
Chew On This: Everything You Don't Want to Know About Fast Food, by Eric Schlosser and Charles Wilson (2006)
Written as a "Think about what you're eating!" book aimed at kids, a rewriting of his Fast Food Nation for a younger audience. So for that reason, not as good as it could have been, and a bit preachy.
Baseball and Country Music, by Don Cusic (2003)
A PBS special-type tone is what this intertwined history of baseball and country music is written in, and despite (or maybe because of) the breeziness the information is delivered in, it made for a really good read. And it was super-quick at just 149 pages, I was finished with it in a little over an hour.
Consider the Fork: A History of How We Cook and Eat, by Bee Wilson (2012)
This was a terrific history, because it goes into detail of such taken-for-granted kitchen technology as silverware, ovens, refrigerators(for the longest time British people were suspicious of them!), the kitchen as a separate room and many other useful bits. Plus English people have such an interesting way of looking at the world.
Taming a Liger: Unexpected Spiritual Lessons from Napoleon Dynamite, by Jeff Dunn & Adam Palmer (2005)
Devotionals are generally stupid and poorly written, especially when they're written at teenagers. But this one was actually pretty good. It was shallow, but what was there was solid. If only the Scripture references weren't from the insipidly weak Message paraphrase....
What Jefferson Read, Ike Watched, and Obama Tweeted: 200 Years of Popular Culture in the White House, by Tevi Troy (2013)
This book was amazing, written by a historian, who could therefore freely just deliver the facts of the politics that come with media choices of politicians. Also, there are a lot more Presidents that sound like they should be studied(Teddy Roosevelt especially).
Improv Wisdom: Don't Prepare, Just Show Up, by Patricia Ryan Madson (2005)
A Stanford drama professor gives tips for how to improve improv skills, and life. She's a little strange, but the rules are basic: Show up on time, be kind, listen to other people.
Dave Barry's Book of Bad Songs, by Dave Barry (1997)
Thankfully, I'm too young to know most of these examples. But they were nearly all awful.
Every Cat's Survival Guide to Living With a Neurotic Owner, by Beth Adelman (2003)
"Dear Tabby" columns are useful. What would cats do without her advice? And even humans can learn some stuff.
The Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook: College, by Joshua Piven, David Borgenicht and Jennifer Worick (2004)
These are generally useful. And it was cool to read about the problems faced in the typical college experience, since I have obviously not had that. One or two of the suggestions might be worth taking.
Me, Myself, and Bob: A True Story About Dreams, God, and Talking Vegetables, by Phil Vischer (2006)
In some ways this is a memoir, in others an autobiography, and it could maybe even be classified as a business book. But it's definitely worth reading. It's hard to read about the collapse of Big Idea, but the "building up" part is so inspiring! He met Mike Nawrocki in college when they were teammates in a drama ministry, which was awesome to find out. Also, he accidentally insulted John Lasseter to his face during an animation conference in the late 80's.
Home Town Tales, by Philip Gulley (1998)
Sort of a blend of G.K. Chesterton and Andy Griffith, Gulley's writing is always entertaining, but it also makes you think. This is his second collection of essays.
FEBRUARY
Endangered Words: A Collection of Rare Gems for Book Lovers, by Simon Hertnon (2009)
A listing of 100 obscure and delightful underused words, complete with definition(s), etymology when available, and an example used in a sentence. It's amazing.
Mockingbird: A Portrait of Harper Lee, by Charles J. Shields (2006)
This was a very well-researched biography of Harper Lee, which would have been unimaginably difficult to write. As a biography, it was fine; there just isn't much material to work with when you're dealing with such an ordinary person as she was.
The Art of Cars, by Michael and Suzanne Wallis (2006)
A photo-essay book of sketches and paintings used to create Pixar's terrific movie Cars, along with reference photos and soundbite-sized recaps of the researching process. It. Was. Amazing.
Dating For Dummies, by Joy Browne (1997)
Reading a Dummies book is always a bit shameful, simply because of the title, but they are usually helpful. And it was nice to read an explanation of how everything works when it comes to dating. A lot of things have changed in the last twenty years, though.
MARCH
Disney, Pixar, and the Hidden Messages of Children's Films, by M. Keith Booker (2009)
This guy is an English professor at Arkansas, and he states right up front that he is very much a liberal. So it was interesting to see the thought processes of someone who leans so far left as he does. One of his frequent snippy attacks says that middle-class white people(basically, conservatives) lack any concept that there are people in the world who disagree with them, which might be right. And it was good to see someone take children's films so seriously. Because of his views, he tends to enjoy DreamWorks movies, since they typically focus on the power of communal activity as opposed to Disney/Pixar's emphasis on the individual's triumph. The endings of DreamWorks movies also frequently upend the social order, while Disney movies tend to keep things at the status quo. For these reasons, he especially loves the Shrek series, which I find appalling(for those same reasons). The book was a little boring, since it was so academic, but I'm glad I read it.
Thriving at College, by Alex Chediak (2011)
This would have been much more useful if I had known it existed before I started college. As a senior, it was vaguely interesting, if nothing else than because the author is a professor.
Paddle Your Own Canoe: One Man's Fundamentals for Delicious Living, by Nick Offerman (2013)
This memoir was weird. His Midwestwern background makes his growing-up and most of his ways of thinking easy to understand, but the (many) tangential rants can get old fast. Especially the extended railing against Christianity. Anyway, it was interesting to know the man behind Ron Swanson's mustache.
APRIL
Mystery and Manners, by Flannery O'Connor (1969)
She was a very unusual, but very good, writer most people have never heard of. In these essays, she talks about everything from the habits of peacocks to the Christian writer's approach to fiction, and many other things as well.
Under the Overpass: A Journey of Faith on the Streets of America, by Mike Yankoski (2005)
A college student voluntarily becomes homeless for six months in order to better understand how to minister to homeless people. It's fine, but he didn't really come to any conclusions, so that was frustrating. Also, he kinda whitewashed the whole experience, which isn't all that helpful. (Of course, at the time I was currently starring in Tales From Tent City, a play about homelessness and the effects of whitewashing it, so that was definitely on my mind more.) David Wilkerson's Cross and the Switchblade has a lot of weird Pentecostal rantings, but it does a better picture of painting what big-city street life is like.
The Autobiography of G.K. Chesterton, by G.K. Chesterton (1936)
Wonderfully Chestertony. So it rambles a bit, but for the most part it's a good rambling. And certainly worth reading.
Excelsior! The Amazing Life of Stan Lee, by Stan Lee and George Mair (2002)
This semi-autobiography is very Chestertonian in the way it skips lightly hither and yon, yet makes a great read. When it comes down to it, Stan Lee is just a wonderful storyteller. (Also interesting from a "Wow, things have changed" pop-cultural perspective, the first of Sam Raimi's Spider-Man trilogy hadn't been released yet when this book was published.)
Superman On the Couch: What Superheroes Really Tell Us about Ourselves and Our Society, by Danny Fingeroth (2004)
This book strikes a nice balance between academic and readable, pondering basic questions about what superheroes say about our society and what we value, both in morals and in storytelling.
The Pun Also Rises: How the Humble Pun Revolutionized Language, Changed History, and Made Wordplay More than Some Antics, by John Pollack (2011)
A very indepth overview of the pun, as a unit of language, from a neuroscientific perspective, and also a history of its usage through time. Really interesting book.
VO: Tales and Techniques of a Voice-over Actor, by Harlan Hogan (2002)
This is partially a memoir and partially a how-to book, written by (apparently) one of the most famous voice actors of the last forty years. Since voice acting is mostly anonymous, though, we'll have to take his word for it. (And a quick Google search confirms this.) Anyway, it was a cool read.
MAY
War of Words: Getting to the Heart of Your Communication Struggles, by Paul David Tripp (2001)
This (really convicting) book takes a look at how often our communication with other (sinful) humans can be displeasing and not-glorifying to God, as it talks of the power, both positive and negative, of our words. Bought several years ago from Grace and Truth Books with the high-school graduation gift certificate from GBC.
Late Edition: A Love Story, by Bob Greene (2009)
This really is a love story; of a teenager recalling his first job, from the summers of 1964-68 at the Columbus Citizen-Journal, he recounts with masterful detail the personalities of coworkers and the societal attitudes towards newpapering. It was an amazing book, but with a meloncholy sadness, of knowing that world is gone forever.
Homecoming: When the Soldiers Returned From Vietnam, by Bob Greene (1989)
In one of his columns, Bob Greene asked whether the rumors he heard were true, that Vietnam veterans had really been spat on when they returned home. He received over a thousand letters answering that question, and he quickly determined that there were far too many responses to deal with adequately as a series of columns. So he edited many of them into this book, after some further reporting. Not knowing anything, really, about the war, it confirmed about the only thing I did know: Everyone lost. It was hard to read at points, knowing that these words were real emotions written by real people.
Are You Smart Enough to Work at Google?: Trick Questions, Zen-like Riddles, Insanely Difficult Puzzles, and Other Devious Interviewing Techniques You Need to Know to Get a Job Anywhere in the New Economy, by William Poundstone (2012)
That subtitle pretty much sums this book up. It's aimed at technology-minded people. And the answer (for me, anyway) is: probably not.
Once Upon a Town: The Miracle of the North Platte Canteen, by Bob Greene (2002)
During WWII, a small city in southwest Nebraska devoted all its spare time to raising the morale of the troops passing through, becoming a legendary symbol of hope and home for those overseas.
Seabiscuit: An American Legend, by Laura Hillenbrand (2001)
A thrilling, EXTREMELY well researched biography of three remarkable men and the remarkable racehorse which united them and nearly divided the country during the tail end of the Great Depression.
JUNE
The Elements of Eloquence: How to Turn the Perfect English Phrase, by Mark Forsyth (2013)
An entertaining (British, of course) deconstruction of many stylistic elements of writing good sentences. Roughly a third of them I knew from Dr. Mackie's poetry classes, and a couple others I had been using without realizing it, but it was fun to explore through all these new tools to play with.
The Horologicon: A Day's Jaunt Through the Lost Words of the English Language, by Mark Forsyth (2012)
Forsyth's middle book details lots of wonderfully strange words, usually slang of some kind of another, or archaic medieval words needing a comeback. Also delightfully obscure terms for things like a hidden puddle(aka "beau's trap," because it would get the men's nice courting trousers doused.) This would inevitably happen while the woman was "putting out bait" (a very direct term for doing makeup), which included applying "pucker paint" (1940s American slang). Also, the handle of a teacup or coffee mug is a zarf. This is structured based on the average person's actions during each hour of the day; thus the title, which could be translated as "a lexicon for all hours."
The Eymologicon: A Circular Stroll Through the Hidden Connections of the English Language, by Mark Forsyth (2011)
Forsyth's first book deals mainly with etymology, in his quirky, irrelevent and memorable way. For example, we learn of the history of "magazine", which was Arabic for "storehouse" (usually military). This is also why the term applies to that place where bullets are stored in guns. Anyway, then the term was adopted by the French, and then stolen into English. And the man who set up the first magazine wanted it to be a storehouse of information.
The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio, by Terry Ryan (2001)
This memoir paints the daily lives of a large and accident-prone Ohio family held together by advertising jingles, as the mother deals with her alcoholic husband. A redneck version of Cheaper by the Dozen set forty years later, kind of. It's a FANTASTIC read.
Born to Win: Keeping Your Firstborn Edge Without Losing Your Balance, by Kevin Lehman (2008)
I like birth-order books, because they're highly structured and well-organized. Sort of like MBTI types that way.
JULY
Pistol: The Life of Pete Maravich, by Mark Kriegel (2007)
A really good biography of Pete Maravich, who was my second-most basketball hero after Michael Jordan when I was little.
When Gadgets Betray Us: The Dark Side of Our Infatuation with New Technologies, by Robert Vamosi (2011)
This book is hard to categorize, but it was really interesting. It makes me a little leery of the things that could go wrong with gadgets, but also makes me want to learn tech-stuff well enough to hack into things in a productive manner, like numerous scenes describe.
Repairing the Ruins, edited by Douglas Wilson (1996)
This is a series of essays on how to run a Christian school, which was interesting.
You've GOT to Read This Book!: 55 People Tell the Story of the Book That Changed Their Life, edited by Jack Canfield and Gay Hendricks (2006)
Isn't this a cool idea? Most of the books didn't sound very interesting, as they were selected from Southern California residents, but I'm glad I read it. And Tim Ferriss was one of those interviewed.
Dream Team: How Michael, Magic, Larry, Charles, and the Greatest Team of All Time Conquered the World and Changed the Game of Basketball Forever, by Jack McCallum (2012)
It's hard to find a really well-written sports book. But this is one of them. I learned a ton of stuff I didn't know before about the Dream Team.
The Bodacious Ozarks: True Tales of the Backhills, by Charles Morrow Wilson (1959)
A journalist looks back at the country of the Arkansas Ozarks that he grew up in during the early twentieth century, and explains the customs and ways of the people for those who were not familiar with the area. His relatives played a large role in settling most of northwest Arkansas. Well worth reading for a book-sale find.
Just Do Something: A Liberating Approach to Finding God's Will, by Kevin DeYoung (2009)
The subtitle pretty much sums this book up.
AUGUST
Outliers: The Story of Success, by Malcolm Gladwell (2008)
Borrowed from the DeSpains' shelf, this book looks at the trends and attitudes that go into being successful at many different tasks - from playing hockey to designing websites, solving math problems or rice farming. It's pretty much a must-read for any homeschooler or homeschooling parent.
The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich, by Timothy Ferriss (2007)
This was amazing and super-motivational, though for what exactly I'm not sure. But it gave a lot of good ideas for how to run a business efficiently and effectively, and also had a lot of neat travel tips.
Sports Illustrated Table Tennis, by Dick Moore (1974)
Less than a hundred pages, it talks about the basics of playing table tennis. Part of a series sponsored by Sports Illustrated, maybe as a way to increase readership in young people by showcasing a variety of sports? Found in the mysterious wilderness that are the shelves of the RSU library.
Honky Tonk Gospel: The Story of Sin and Salvation in Country Music, by Gene Edward Veith and Thomas L. Wilmeth (2002)
Two Christian English professors at a Wisconsin university teamed up to write this history/cultural analysis of the intertwining themes of sin and salvation in country music. It got a bit academic at times, but it was pretty good overall.
SEPTEMBER
Damn! Why Didn't I Write That?: How Ordinary People are Raking In $100,000 or More Writing Nonfiction Books, and How You Can Too!, by Marc McCutcheon (2001)
One of this year's Okmulgee Library book-sale finds, I loved the title, though that subtitle is pretty horrendously clunky. Straightfoward, easy to read and inspirational! Good information, too.
Three Weeks With My Brother, by Nicholas Sparks (2004)
This is both a terrific travelogue and a fantastic memoir of the Sparks family, particularly their growing up all over the western states getting into mischief. His experiences as a kid are similar to Stephen King's twenty years before on the other side of the country. And like King's On Writing, it humanizes the famous author so that we recognize that he's an ordinary person, too, who got where he was because of a ton of hard work.
Dear Readers and Riders, by Marguerite Henry (1969)
A question-and-answer book filled with notes written to Marguerite Henry and her replies. Very worth looking into, if you haven't yet.
OCTOBER
Will Rogers Says..., edited by Reba Collins (1993)
A collection of Will Rogers quotes, as chosen by members and employees of the Will Rogers Memorial Society.
The Church Awakening: An Urgent Call for Renewal, by Charles R. Swindoll (2010)
Exactly what it sounds like - Chuck Swindoll explaining what the church ought to look like, why it doesn't, and suggestions on how to fix that.
NOVEMBER
Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal, by Eric Schlosser (2001)
The author previously worked for The Atlantic, and it shows here. And that's a great thing. This critical look at all aspects of the fast-food industry is hard to read at points, but the information needs to get out there somehow. It's very well written, and meticulously well researched. Though because of that, I came away somewhat discouraged, as my Creative Nonfiction course wasn't going well, and I was convinced that I could never write anything of this quality.
DECEMBER
How the Irish Saved Civilization: The Untold Story of Ireland's Heroic Role from the Fall of Rome to the Rise of Medieval Europe, by Thomas Cahill (1995)
The first of his "Hinges of History" series, where he examines the pieces of history that fall through the cracks - like, what happened after the Roman empire fell apart, but before the Dark Ages took over? And how was the world's literature preserved, anyway? This was written very well.
Catnip for the Soul, by Woody and Friends, as told to Jane O'Boyle (1999)
This Chicken Soup parody is written by cats for cats, with entries on such enticing topics as the Cat's Bill of Rights, how to properly act during a party, good reasons for fighting, and chicken soup. Also lots of emphasis on the importance of sleep.
Strings Attached: One Tough Teacher and the Power of Great Expectations, by Joanne Lipman and Melanie Kupchynsky (2013)
Two childhood friends relive their memories of their excessively strict music teacher and what he taught them, along with chronicling life in East Brunswick, New Jersey, in the late 1970's/early 1980's.
Rhinoceros Success: The Secret to Charging Full Speed Ahead to Every Opportunity, by Scott Alexander (1980)
The favorite book of Bear Grylls, it's over-the-top and ridiculous, but in a very motivating way.
Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis, by J.D. Vance (2016)
Given the rise of Trump's campaign over the summer, this was the summer's biggest book as analysts tried to understand his popularity. In this memoir, the author recounts his experiences growing up, and the culture of hillbillies in general, which makes up a large portion of the U.S. It all felt really familiar.
Ruined by Reading: A Life in Books, by Lynne Sharon Schwartz (1996)
This is a 119-page essay on what it means to love reading and the power stories can hold over us, especially as kids. It wasn't the best work of this type that I've ever read, but there were several passages that I'll probably copy down.
Cheaper by the Dozen, by Frank Gilbreth Jr. and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey (1948)
After growing up in a family of twelve kids in the early 20th century New Jersey, two of the siblings became authors, teaming up to write this memoir. It's fantastic, and I've read it so many times I've almost memorized it, as proved by how frequently Gilbreth concepts or ideas pop into my head at random times on a daily basis.
LATE DECEMBER
Do More Better: A Practical Guide to Productivity, by Tim Challies (2015)
This started out really well. If I was more interested in following his advice I would have gotten more from this.
The Child That Books Built: A Life in Reading, by Francis Spufford (2003)
Examining what being raised by books and through stories can do for a person. Very readable, if a bit peculiarly English. Mixes in personal examples with scholarly research and a journalist's attention to relevant detail.
Ten Ways to Destroy the Imagination of Your Child, by Anthony Esolen (2010)
One of the best books on education I have ever read, written in a Screwtape Letters type of way.
The Dangerous Book for Dogs, by Rex and Sparky (actually written by Joe Garden, Janet Ginsburg, Chris Pauls, Anita Serwacki and Scott Sherman) (2008)
A parody of The Dangerous Book for Boys by writers from WordGirl and The Onion; including such important details as "The Rules of Fetch", "How To Make Your Owner Look Like an Idiot" and "Things You Can Chase". Pretty funny.
The Devious Book for Cats, by Fluffy and Bonkers (actually written by Joe Garden, Janet Ginsburg, Chris Pauls, Anita Serwacki and Scott Sherman) (2008)
A parody of The Daring Book for Girls, containing important sections as "Cardboard Boxes", "Reasons You Meant To Do That", "An Illustrated Guide to Napping" and "The Pros and Cons of Being Sullen". Felines are much better suited to writing snarky instruction manuals on living than dogs are.
JANUARY
On Writing Well: The Classic Guide for Writing Nonfiction, by William Zinsser (1976)
This was one of Courtney's internship books that I swiped from her desk. (Before buying a copy of my own.) Not many books on writing deal specifically with nonfiction, so that was interesting to read, especially when he defines what a memoir is and offers suggestions on improving them.
Diary of a Player, by Brad Paisley and David Wild (2011)
As it's written here, the story of Paisley's life...with some strings attached. (Generally six.) Very, very good memoir/autobiography.
Felines of New York, by Jim Tews (2015)
Like Humans of New York, but with cats. Very entertaining; and amazing photography.
Chew On This: Everything You Don't Want to Know About Fast Food, by Eric Schlosser and Charles Wilson (2006)
Written as a "Think about what you're eating!" book aimed at kids, a rewriting of his Fast Food Nation for a younger audience. So for that reason, not as good as it could have been, and a bit preachy.
Baseball and Country Music, by Don Cusic (2003)
A PBS special-type tone is what this intertwined history of baseball and country music is written in, and despite (or maybe because of) the breeziness the information is delivered in, it made for a really good read. And it was super-quick at just 149 pages, I was finished with it in a little over an hour.
Consider the Fork: A History of How We Cook and Eat, by Bee Wilson (2012)
This was a terrific history, because it goes into detail of such taken-for-granted kitchen technology as silverware, ovens, refrigerators(for the longest time British people were suspicious of them!), the kitchen as a separate room and many other useful bits. Plus English people have such an interesting way of looking at the world.
Taming a Liger: Unexpected Spiritual Lessons from Napoleon Dynamite, by Jeff Dunn & Adam Palmer (2005)
Devotionals are generally stupid and poorly written, especially when they're written at teenagers. But this one was actually pretty good. It was shallow, but what was there was solid. If only the Scripture references weren't from the insipidly weak Message paraphrase....
What Jefferson Read, Ike Watched, and Obama Tweeted: 200 Years of Popular Culture in the White House, by Tevi Troy (2013)
This book was amazing, written by a historian, who could therefore freely just deliver the facts of the politics that come with media choices of politicians. Also, there are a lot more Presidents that sound like they should be studied(Teddy Roosevelt especially).
Improv Wisdom: Don't Prepare, Just Show Up, by Patricia Ryan Madson (2005)
A Stanford drama professor gives tips for how to improve improv skills, and life. She's a little strange, but the rules are basic: Show up on time, be kind, listen to other people.
Dave Barry's Book of Bad Songs, by Dave Barry (1997)
Thankfully, I'm too young to know most of these examples. But they were nearly all awful.
Every Cat's Survival Guide to Living With a Neurotic Owner, by Beth Adelman (2003)
"Dear Tabby" columns are useful. What would cats do without her advice? And even humans can learn some stuff.
The Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook: College, by Joshua Piven, David Borgenicht and Jennifer Worick (2004)
These are generally useful. And it was cool to read about the problems faced in the typical college experience, since I have obviously not had that. One or two of the suggestions might be worth taking.
Me, Myself, and Bob: A True Story About Dreams, God, and Talking Vegetables, by Phil Vischer (2006)
In some ways this is a memoir, in others an autobiography, and it could maybe even be classified as a business book. But it's definitely worth reading. It's hard to read about the collapse of Big Idea, but the "building up" part is so inspiring! He met Mike Nawrocki in college when they were teammates in a drama ministry, which was awesome to find out. Also, he accidentally insulted John Lasseter to his face during an animation conference in the late 80's.
Home Town Tales, by Philip Gulley (1998)
Sort of a blend of G.K. Chesterton and Andy Griffith, Gulley's writing is always entertaining, but it also makes you think. This is his second collection of essays.
FEBRUARY
Endangered Words: A Collection of Rare Gems for Book Lovers, by Simon Hertnon (2009)
A listing of 100 obscure and delightful underused words, complete with definition(s), etymology when available, and an example used in a sentence. It's amazing.
Mockingbird: A Portrait of Harper Lee, by Charles J. Shields (2006)
This was a very well-researched biography of Harper Lee, which would have been unimaginably difficult to write. As a biography, it was fine; there just isn't much material to work with when you're dealing with such an ordinary person as she was.
The Art of Cars, by Michael and Suzanne Wallis (2006)
A photo-essay book of sketches and paintings used to create Pixar's terrific movie Cars, along with reference photos and soundbite-sized recaps of the researching process. It. Was. Amazing.
Dating For Dummies, by Joy Browne (1997)
Reading a Dummies book is always a bit shameful, simply because of the title, but they are usually helpful. And it was nice to read an explanation of how everything works when it comes to dating. A lot of things have changed in the last twenty years, though.
MARCH
Disney, Pixar, and the Hidden Messages of Children's Films, by M. Keith Booker (2009)
This guy is an English professor at Arkansas, and he states right up front that he is very much a liberal. So it was interesting to see the thought processes of someone who leans so far left as he does. One of his frequent snippy attacks says that middle-class white people(basically, conservatives) lack any concept that there are people in the world who disagree with them, which might be right. And it was good to see someone take children's films so seriously. Because of his views, he tends to enjoy DreamWorks movies, since they typically focus on the power of communal activity as opposed to Disney/Pixar's emphasis on the individual's triumph. The endings of DreamWorks movies also frequently upend the social order, while Disney movies tend to keep things at the status quo. For these reasons, he especially loves the Shrek series, which I find appalling(for those same reasons). The book was a little boring, since it was so academic, but I'm glad I read it.
Thriving at College, by Alex Chediak (2011)
This would have been much more useful if I had known it existed before I started college. As a senior, it was vaguely interesting, if nothing else than because the author is a professor.
Paddle Your Own Canoe: One Man's Fundamentals for Delicious Living, by Nick Offerman (2013)
This memoir was weird. His Midwestwern background makes his growing-up and most of his ways of thinking easy to understand, but the (many) tangential rants can get old fast. Especially the extended railing against Christianity. Anyway, it was interesting to know the man behind Ron Swanson's mustache.
APRIL
Mystery and Manners, by Flannery O'Connor (1969)
She was a very unusual, but very good, writer most people have never heard of. In these essays, she talks about everything from the habits of peacocks to the Christian writer's approach to fiction, and many other things as well.
Under the Overpass: A Journey of Faith on the Streets of America, by Mike Yankoski (2005)
A college student voluntarily becomes homeless for six months in order to better understand how to minister to homeless people. It's fine, but he didn't really come to any conclusions, so that was frustrating. Also, he kinda whitewashed the whole experience, which isn't all that helpful. (Of course, at the time I was currently starring in Tales From Tent City, a play about homelessness and the effects of whitewashing it, so that was definitely on my mind more.) David Wilkerson's Cross and the Switchblade has a lot of weird Pentecostal rantings, but it does a better picture of painting what big-city street life is like.
The Autobiography of G.K. Chesterton, by G.K. Chesterton (1936)
Wonderfully Chestertony. So it rambles a bit, but for the most part it's a good rambling. And certainly worth reading.
Excelsior! The Amazing Life of Stan Lee, by Stan Lee and George Mair (2002)
This semi-autobiography is very Chestertonian in the way it skips lightly hither and yon, yet makes a great read. When it comes down to it, Stan Lee is just a wonderful storyteller. (Also interesting from a "Wow, things have changed" pop-cultural perspective, the first of Sam Raimi's Spider-Man trilogy hadn't been released yet when this book was published.)
Superman On the Couch: What Superheroes Really Tell Us about Ourselves and Our Society, by Danny Fingeroth (2004)
This book strikes a nice balance between academic and readable, pondering basic questions about what superheroes say about our society and what we value, both in morals and in storytelling.
The Pun Also Rises: How the Humble Pun Revolutionized Language, Changed History, and Made Wordplay More than Some Antics, by John Pollack (2011)
A very indepth overview of the pun, as a unit of language, from a neuroscientific perspective, and also a history of its usage through time. Really interesting book.
VO: Tales and Techniques of a Voice-over Actor, by Harlan Hogan (2002)
This is partially a memoir and partially a how-to book, written by (apparently) one of the most famous voice actors of the last forty years. Since voice acting is mostly anonymous, though, we'll have to take his word for it. (And a quick Google search confirms this.) Anyway, it was a cool read.
MAY
War of Words: Getting to the Heart of Your Communication Struggles, by Paul David Tripp (2001)
This (really convicting) book takes a look at how often our communication with other (sinful) humans can be displeasing and not-glorifying to God, as it talks of the power, both positive and negative, of our words. Bought several years ago from Grace and Truth Books with the high-school graduation gift certificate from GBC.
Late Edition: A Love Story, by Bob Greene (2009)
This really is a love story; of a teenager recalling his first job, from the summers of 1964-68 at the Columbus Citizen-Journal, he recounts with masterful detail the personalities of coworkers and the societal attitudes towards newpapering. It was an amazing book, but with a meloncholy sadness, of knowing that world is gone forever.
Homecoming: When the Soldiers Returned From Vietnam, by Bob Greene (1989)
In one of his columns, Bob Greene asked whether the rumors he heard were true, that Vietnam veterans had really been spat on when they returned home. He received over a thousand letters answering that question, and he quickly determined that there were far too many responses to deal with adequately as a series of columns. So he edited many of them into this book, after some further reporting. Not knowing anything, really, about the war, it confirmed about the only thing I did know: Everyone lost. It was hard to read at points, knowing that these words were real emotions written by real people.
Are You Smart Enough to Work at Google?: Trick Questions, Zen-like Riddles, Insanely Difficult Puzzles, and Other Devious Interviewing Techniques You Need to Know to Get a Job Anywhere in the New Economy, by William Poundstone (2012)
That subtitle pretty much sums this book up. It's aimed at technology-minded people. And the answer (for me, anyway) is: probably not.
Once Upon a Town: The Miracle of the North Platte Canteen, by Bob Greene (2002)
During WWII, a small city in southwest Nebraska devoted all its spare time to raising the morale of the troops passing through, becoming a legendary symbol of hope and home for those overseas.
Seabiscuit: An American Legend, by Laura Hillenbrand (2001)
A thrilling, EXTREMELY well researched biography of three remarkable men and the remarkable racehorse which united them and nearly divided the country during the tail end of the Great Depression.
JUNE
The Elements of Eloquence: How to Turn the Perfect English Phrase, by Mark Forsyth (2013)
An entertaining (British, of course) deconstruction of many stylistic elements of writing good sentences. Roughly a third of them I knew from Dr. Mackie's poetry classes, and a couple others I had been using without realizing it, but it was fun to explore through all these new tools to play with.
The Horologicon: A Day's Jaunt Through the Lost Words of the English Language, by Mark Forsyth (2012)
Forsyth's middle book details lots of wonderfully strange words, usually slang of some kind of another, or archaic medieval words needing a comeback. Also delightfully obscure terms for things like a hidden puddle(aka "beau's trap," because it would get the men's nice courting trousers doused.) This would inevitably happen while the woman was "putting out bait" (a very direct term for doing makeup), which included applying "pucker paint" (1940s American slang). Also, the handle of a teacup or coffee mug is a zarf. This is structured based on the average person's actions during each hour of the day; thus the title, which could be translated as "a lexicon for all hours."
The Eymologicon: A Circular Stroll Through the Hidden Connections of the English Language, by Mark Forsyth (2011)
Forsyth's first book deals mainly with etymology, in his quirky, irrelevent and memorable way. For example, we learn of the history of "magazine", which was Arabic for "storehouse" (usually military). This is also why the term applies to that place where bullets are stored in guns. Anyway, then the term was adopted by the French, and then stolen into English. And the man who set up the first magazine wanted it to be a storehouse of information.
The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio, by Terry Ryan (2001)
This memoir paints the daily lives of a large and accident-prone Ohio family held together by advertising jingles, as the mother deals with her alcoholic husband. A redneck version of Cheaper by the Dozen set forty years later, kind of. It's a FANTASTIC read.
Born to Win: Keeping Your Firstborn Edge Without Losing Your Balance, by Kevin Lehman (2008)
I like birth-order books, because they're highly structured and well-organized. Sort of like MBTI types that way.
JULY
Pistol: The Life of Pete Maravich, by Mark Kriegel (2007)
A really good biography of Pete Maravich, who was my second-most basketball hero after Michael Jordan when I was little.
When Gadgets Betray Us: The Dark Side of Our Infatuation with New Technologies, by Robert Vamosi (2011)
This book is hard to categorize, but it was really interesting. It makes me a little leery of the things that could go wrong with gadgets, but also makes me want to learn tech-stuff well enough to hack into things in a productive manner, like numerous scenes describe.
Repairing the Ruins, edited by Douglas Wilson (1996)
This is a series of essays on how to run a Christian school, which was interesting.
You've GOT to Read This Book!: 55 People Tell the Story of the Book That Changed Their Life, edited by Jack Canfield and Gay Hendricks (2006)
Isn't this a cool idea? Most of the books didn't sound very interesting, as they were selected from Southern California residents, but I'm glad I read it. And Tim Ferriss was one of those interviewed.
Dream Team: How Michael, Magic, Larry, Charles, and the Greatest Team of All Time Conquered the World and Changed the Game of Basketball Forever, by Jack McCallum (2012)
It's hard to find a really well-written sports book. But this is one of them. I learned a ton of stuff I didn't know before about the Dream Team.
The Bodacious Ozarks: True Tales of the Backhills, by Charles Morrow Wilson (1959)
A journalist looks back at the country of the Arkansas Ozarks that he grew up in during the early twentieth century, and explains the customs and ways of the people for those who were not familiar with the area. His relatives played a large role in settling most of northwest Arkansas. Well worth reading for a book-sale find.
Just Do Something: A Liberating Approach to Finding God's Will, by Kevin DeYoung (2009)
The subtitle pretty much sums this book up.
AUGUST
Outliers: The Story of Success, by Malcolm Gladwell (2008)
Borrowed from the DeSpains' shelf, this book looks at the trends and attitudes that go into being successful at many different tasks - from playing hockey to designing websites, solving math problems or rice farming. It's pretty much a must-read for any homeschooler or homeschooling parent.
The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich, by Timothy Ferriss (2007)
This was amazing and super-motivational, though for what exactly I'm not sure. But it gave a lot of good ideas for how to run a business efficiently and effectively, and also had a lot of neat travel tips.
Sports Illustrated Table Tennis, by Dick Moore (1974)
Less than a hundred pages, it talks about the basics of playing table tennis. Part of a series sponsored by Sports Illustrated, maybe as a way to increase readership in young people by showcasing a variety of sports? Found in the mysterious wilderness that are the shelves of the RSU library.
Honky Tonk Gospel: The Story of Sin and Salvation in Country Music, by Gene Edward Veith and Thomas L. Wilmeth (2002)
Two Christian English professors at a Wisconsin university teamed up to write this history/cultural analysis of the intertwining themes of sin and salvation in country music. It got a bit academic at times, but it was pretty good overall.
SEPTEMBER
Damn! Why Didn't I Write That?: How Ordinary People are Raking In $100,000 or More Writing Nonfiction Books, and How You Can Too!, by Marc McCutcheon (2001)
One of this year's Okmulgee Library book-sale finds, I loved the title, though that subtitle is pretty horrendously clunky. Straightfoward, easy to read and inspirational! Good information, too.
Three Weeks With My Brother, by Nicholas Sparks (2004)
This is both a terrific travelogue and a fantastic memoir of the Sparks family, particularly their growing up all over the western states getting into mischief. His experiences as a kid are similar to Stephen King's twenty years before on the other side of the country. And like King's On Writing, it humanizes the famous author so that we recognize that he's an ordinary person, too, who got where he was because of a ton of hard work.
Dear Readers and Riders, by Marguerite Henry (1969)
A question-and-answer book filled with notes written to Marguerite Henry and her replies. Very worth looking into, if you haven't yet.
OCTOBER
Will Rogers Says..., edited by Reba Collins (1993)
A collection of Will Rogers quotes, as chosen by members and employees of the Will Rogers Memorial Society.
The Church Awakening: An Urgent Call for Renewal, by Charles R. Swindoll (2010)
Exactly what it sounds like - Chuck Swindoll explaining what the church ought to look like, why it doesn't, and suggestions on how to fix that.
NOVEMBER
Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal, by Eric Schlosser (2001)
The author previously worked for The Atlantic, and it shows here. And that's a great thing. This critical look at all aspects of the fast-food industry is hard to read at points, but the information needs to get out there somehow. It's very well written, and meticulously well researched. Though because of that, I came away somewhat discouraged, as my Creative Nonfiction course wasn't going well, and I was convinced that I could never write anything of this quality.
DECEMBER
How the Irish Saved Civilization: The Untold Story of Ireland's Heroic Role from the Fall of Rome to the Rise of Medieval Europe, by Thomas Cahill (1995)
The first of his "Hinges of History" series, where he examines the pieces of history that fall through the cracks - like, what happened after the Roman empire fell apart, but before the Dark Ages took over? And how was the world's literature preserved, anyway? This was written very well.
Catnip for the Soul, by Woody and Friends, as told to Jane O'Boyle (1999)
This Chicken Soup parody is written by cats for cats, with entries on such enticing topics as the Cat's Bill of Rights, how to properly act during a party, good reasons for fighting, and chicken soup. Also lots of emphasis on the importance of sleep.
Strings Attached: One Tough Teacher and the Power of Great Expectations, by Joanne Lipman and Melanie Kupchynsky (2013)
Two childhood friends relive their memories of their excessively strict music teacher and what he taught them, along with chronicling life in East Brunswick, New Jersey, in the late 1970's/early 1980's.
Rhinoceros Success: The Secret to Charging Full Speed Ahead to Every Opportunity, by Scott Alexander (1980)
The favorite book of Bear Grylls, it's over-the-top and ridiculous, but in a very motivating way.
Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis, by J.D. Vance (2016)
Given the rise of Trump's campaign over the summer, this was the summer's biggest book as analysts tried to understand his popularity. In this memoir, the author recounts his experiences growing up, and the culture of hillbillies in general, which makes up a large portion of the U.S. It all felt really familiar.
Ruined by Reading: A Life in Books, by Lynne Sharon Schwartz (1996)
This is a 119-page essay on what it means to love reading and the power stories can hold over us, especially as kids. It wasn't the best work of this type that I've ever read, but there were several passages that I'll probably copy down.
Cheaper by the Dozen, by Frank Gilbreth Jr. and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey (1948)
After growing up in a family of twelve kids in the early 20th century New Jersey, two of the siblings became authors, teaming up to write this memoir. It's fantastic, and I've read it so many times I've almost memorized it, as proved by how frequently Gilbreth concepts or ideas pop into my head at random times on a daily basis.
Tuesday, December 20, 2016
The Best of 2016
Recap post of the year's events, similar to the ones I've done in years past.
Best Blog -
Tim Chalies. Though Grammar Girl is also really good.
Best Country Song of the Year -
No question, it's this super-medley to honor the fiftieth anniversary of the CMA Awards. When it comes to actual songs released this year, there wasn't much good to pick from. But Jake Owen's less-than-creatively-titled "American Country Love Song" and Keith Urban's "Wasted Time" were both pretty good.
Best YouTube Channel -
Studio C wins, though Screen Junkies, makers of "Honest Trailers," is another good candidate.
Best Movie Seen in Theaters -
Captain America: Civil War, hands down. Ben-Hur was fine, as were Rogue One and The Force Awakens.
Best Netflix Documentary -
The Price of Gold, about the Tonya Harding/Nancy Kerrigan fiasco, was a really good one, and I Know That Voice! is my favorite documentary of all time, but both of those were pulled from Netflix this year. Grr. But Top Spin, following a quartet of teenagers trying to make the U.S. London 2012 Olympic table tennis team, was a great one.
Weirdest Skill Learned -
How to apply theater makeup, during prep week right before Tent City opened. I was able to do my own after one explanation from our makeup artist. Also, how to tie a ponytail correctly was another odd trick learned.
Best Blog -
Tim Chalies. Though Grammar Girl is also really good.
Best Country Song of the Year -
No question, it's this super-medley to honor the fiftieth anniversary of the CMA Awards. When it comes to actual songs released this year, there wasn't much good to pick from. But Jake Owen's less-than-creatively-titled "American Country Love Song" and Keith Urban's "Wasted Time" were both pretty good.
Best YouTube Channel -
Studio C wins, though Screen Junkies, makers of "Honest Trailers," is another good candidate.
Best Movie Seen in Theaters -
Captain America: Civil War, hands down. Ben-Hur was fine, as were Rogue One and The Force Awakens.
Best Netflix Documentary -
The Price of Gold, about the Tonya Harding/Nancy Kerrigan fiasco, was a really good one, and I Know That Voice! is my favorite documentary of all time, but both of those were pulled from Netflix this year. Grr. But Top Spin, following a quartet of teenagers trying to make the U.S. London 2012 Olympic table tennis team, was a great one.
Weirdest Skill Learned -
How to apply theater makeup, during prep week right before Tent City opened. I was able to do my own after one explanation from our makeup artist. Also, how to tie a ponytail correctly was another odd trick learned.
Thursday, December 15, 2016
Overheard in the Classroom Fall 2016
The third in the series of "Overheard in the Classroom" posts. From the Fall 2016 semester at Rogers State University. To see the 2015 edition and Spring 2016, click on the links.
8-15, Literature for Children and Young Adults -
"Chasing the ball is his goal in life," Dr. Dial-Driver says about her dog Max. There were lots of amusing soundbites and interesting discussions from this course, partly because of the material, and partly because five of the eight of us knew each other.
8-17, Children's Lit -
Things we as a class agreed should NOT be pickled, ever - eggs, pig's feet, watermelon. This came about because I mentioned John Tobias's wonderful poem "Reflections on the Gift of a Watermelon Pickle Received from a Friend Called Felicity."
Dr. Dial-Driver's grandpa said swearing was "pasture talk," and that there were different rules for cussing depending on whether you were outside or inside. In the pasture, that was fine. Anywhere else? Probably not... His favorite adjective was "goddamnsonofabitch," all one continuous word. He also had a palomino named Honey who would help with cattle drives and make small Emily look good whenever she would "help out" with moving the cattle someplace. Honey the palomino LOVED Grandpa, and stole his hat whenever she could. She also liked to snack on peanut butter sandwiches.
Lewis Carroll coined the word "portmanteau," in his novel Through the Looking-Glass.
An "ichneumon" is a type of wasp. None of us had ever heard the term before coming across it in a poem by Alice and Martin Provensen. (Yep, the Maple Hill Farm people.)
8-17, Creative Nonfiction -
A story-scrap to remember based on one of Erin's rambling tales - as adults, strangers find out they're half-siblings.
8-18, Audio Production -
Apparently the Snow Patrol song "Chasing Cars" signals an impending death in Grey's Anatomy.
8-24, Children's Lit -
Children's lit is reckoned as beginning in 1744 with John Newbery's primer A Pretty Little Pocket Book. And Mary Wallstonecraft, mother of Mary Shelley, is considered the first feminist.
Jack Taylor is a British mystery TV series about a drunk detective. It sounds worth looking into.
Dr. Dial-Driver is telling stories about her grown son that half of us had heard a couple times at least. "My son went to Thailand and got a girlfriend. I don't know if those two things are connected..." "Your son sounds like the greatest person in the whole world," Trevor says. (He hadn't heard any of these stories.)
Dr. Dial-Driver also read a picture book out loud to us, Jon Sciezka's The True Story of the Three Little Pigs, by A. Wolf.
8-25, Humanities Seminar -
Dr. Oberrieder, talking about my proposed capstone project of examining country music as a form of literature: "It's definitely the most unorthodox project this year..."
8-29, Children's Lit -
Today's random topics under discussion: Bewitched, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, versions of Little Red Riding Hood (the actual topic of the day), J.R.R. Tolkien's essay on fairy tales, Tom Clancy and submarines, Buddhism and the ethical quandary of trying to help homeless people.
8-31, Children's Lit -
Emily Arnold McCully wrote a picture book called Marvelous Mattie about the inventor of the paper bag.
8-31, Creative Nonfic -
Eric led a rabbit trail about the awfulness of monkeys raping and murdering each other, and Alex elaborately wondered why everyone hates the French military. Cole told a hilarious story about staying awake all night to kill a mouse in his bedroom. "Maybe it was a French mouse," Dr. Mackie comments.
9-7, Early American Lit -
Dr. Mackie kept cussing her violent case of hiccups. It was funny.
9-12, Children's Lit -
"Remember all those Stop, Drop and Roll safety drills they taught in school? When you're an adult, nobody catches on fire as often as you'd think," - Trevor.
Today's topics of general interest were the Interest as a new Wild West, "Shut up and go to sleep!" lullabies, and sobriety tests (one of which is saying the alphabet backwards, which we then had to try - and failed at.).
9-14, Children's Lit -
The play version of J.M. Barrie's Peter Pan, short stories from L. Frank Baum, Rudyard Kipling, E. Nesbit and one of Jon Sciezka's Time Warp Trio books. In miscellaneous topics, Lewis Carroll had good advice on writing letters well, and Japanese suicide forests.
9-14, Early American Lit -
"Dory," I say to a cheerleader named Taylor after she forgets something. She shrugs and grins, "It's true..." After a bit of silence, Dr. Mackie turns to me: "Did you just call her 'Dory'?" Loud snickering from classmates.
There was also a debate over what the word "propaganda" means.
9-19, Early American Lit -
Dr. Mackie is drinking her hot tea out of a Frozen mug. When I point out how oxymoronic this is, she chuckles. "Yeah, I totally hadn't connected that, but it really is...."
9-21, Early American Lit -
Class was canceled today because one of Dr. Mackie's cats died. It was a sad and somber day in the English Department.
9-21, Creative Nonfic -
"I never thought I'd say this, but I agree with Eric!" - Dr. Mackie.
9-26, Children's Lit -
"My son is visiting Angkor Wat. He said it's very more expected than impressive. And very ruined," - Dr. Dial-Driver.
9-26, Creative Nonfic -
About Eric's essay, "The word count was 666. That seemed appropriate..." Cole said. (It WAS dark.)
"I don't really have critiques for this. More like....questions," Alex commented on Brandon's essay. (The rest of us grin and explain that it was a Brandon project - everyone feels that way after reading his stuff.)
9-28, Children's Lit -
"The trouble with moving is that you always take yourself with you," - Dr. Dial-Driver.
"At this one school I went to, there were twelve and a half white kids. I was the half," - Trevor.
Dr. Dial-Driver's family was too poor to afford stainless steel, so they used Mother's sterling silverware as their common eating utensils.
"My cats have this game they like to play called 'Gravity Works.' They just like to check every once in a while," - Dr. Dial-Driver.
9-29, Seminar -
Nancy kept mispronouncing Hotspur, from Henry IV, Part One, as "Hotstuff."
10-3, Creative Nonfic -
We all had a much harder time in this course that we expected. Critiques, especially, were awful, because we were all feeling so uncomfortable. That led to lots of awkward discussion during feedback sessions. After one particularly incomprehensible Sage essay, I wrote down in my notebook, "So much metaphor and abstractions! Swirly Riley Matthews." (Riley is Cory and Topanga's daughter, star of the sequel series Girl Meets World)
10-8, Children's Lit -
Today's random topics were bullying, domain/copyright issues, and first-aid horror stories.
10-10, Creative Nonfic -
"Your grandpa's my daddy's age," Debra says to Alex. "Oh. Well....that's interesting, I wasn't expecting to hear that..." was his flustered response.
10-12, Children's Lit -
We're studying Frances Hodgson Burnett's A Little Princess this week. "This little girl is SO DAMN ALTRUISTIC!" - Trevor, about Sara Crewe. We all liked Melchisidec the rat.
"I tried to kiss my mom goodbye, and her ugly dog Ginger tried to eat me through the car window!" - Dr. Dial-Driver.
Also under discussion: the merits of QuikTrip food.
10-12, Creative Nonfic -
I got some of the most scathing feedback I've ever received from my profile essay about Jessica's nursing-school experiences, which was too journalistic in tone and not "creative nonfictiony" enough. A sort of highlight is that what pissed everybody off so much was that I became invisible, and they wanted to see me telling them this story.
10-18, Audio -
"Music isn't divided into just rock and Mozart..." - Tyler.
Someone mentions the role of celebrities who do voiceovers for commercials, wonders what they think of them once they record their lines. "I think they're not sitting in a room analyzing production elements of the spot...." - Tip.
10-19, Children's Lit -
DD on Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus: "Medea meets Hannibal Lecter."
Today's rabbit trails were about prescription drug abuse and cereal.
After Johanna gives recap of Twilight, a general discussion of other dreadful books is sparked. "There are very few books that I've started but never finished. Fifty Shades was one of them." - Dr. Dial-Driver.
10-19, Creative Nonfic -
"From Claremore to St. Louis, the Mulan soundtrack can play exactly 37 times," - Dr. Mackie.
10-24, Children's Lit -
This was a bad day for everyone. The book under discussion was Andre de Saint-Exupery's The Little Prince, which defies explanation, in a bad way. Rabbit trails were George Washington Carver, the Donner Party, cannibalism, a debate over the difference between "forest" vs "jungle" in a translation, and the cat parasite toxiplasmosis.
10-26, Children's Lit -
"Poets never grow up," - Dr. Gary Moeller, an art professor at RSU.
10-26, Early American Lit -
"I HATE MOST FORMS OF PRECIPITATION!" - Kelly yells.
10-26, Creative Nonfic -
In school orchestras, saxophones are substituted for violins.
10-28, Audio -
Classwide conversation while waiting on Tip to show up, we came to a general consensus that Next Generation is by far the best Star Trek TV show.
10-31, Creative Nonfic -
"I have an idea for a research paper, but it's starting to bore even me...." Debra frowns.
11-1, Audio -
"You'll need a lot of time at remotes," Tip pauses. "But I don't mean the herb."
11-2, Children's Lit -
Random Girl in Hallway to her friend - "Yeah, you smell like, um, barn mice."
Dr. Dial-Driver's little sister was once attacked by a bantam rooster.
The merits of wearing clothes repeatedly, the difficulty of wringing out denim by hand, a deep love of Wendell Berry-style farming were what was talked about today. Also, I led discussion of Charlotte's Web. And we agreed that pigs are weird and buffalo are scary.
11-7, Children's Lit -
The book this week was R.J. Palacio's Wonder, and rabbit trails were transgenderism, stories about Vinita's mentally-handicapped population and embarrassing things we said in public as kids.
11-7, Creative Nonfic -
Sparked by Cole's essay about a Dinseyland attraction called "The Haunted Mansion," we speculate what a version of Walt Disney in the 1700's would have looked like. Also lots of unsuccessful debate over the difference between creative nonfiction and historical fiction, because we didn't quite figure out an answer.
"I learn something new about about Hitler every day in this class!" - Sage.
11-9, Creative Nonfic -
"The first thing I did today was post a picture of a kitty on Facebook." - Debra. Considering that it was the day after the presidential election, the world needed all the cat pictures to calm down.
"I melted a hamburger on the grill last summer," Eric mentions.
We all love Bob Ross the spacey painter, but agree that as wonderful as Mr. Rogers was, his puppets from the Land of Make-Believe segments were terrifying.
11-10, Seminar -
"Ducks are rapists!" - Jeff. This started a surprisingly long and detailed rabbit trail about duck genitalia, with six or seven people (out of fifteen) participating. I think this conversation says more about how much we all hated this course (and the instructor) than anything else, but it certainly stood out.
11-14, Children's Lit -
We all wished to kill Sutter Keely, protagonist/narrator of The Spectacular Now, by Tim Tharp. Once we finished complaining about how much we disliked this book (while at the same time recognizing that it was important to read), the discussion turned into an exploration of what makes a good marriage.
"Everyone's connected with technology - at arm's length" - Anonymous.
"They always remember, children do. They're like elephants." - Dr. Dial-Driver.
11-14, Creative Nonfic -
Baylee wrote about sharks, so naturally most of us wished Lauren were part of this class so she could critique it thoroughly and excitedly. (She LOVES sharks.) Mainly, this essay needed to be more persuasive, so somebody suggested the following theme to build around: "Don't Fuck Around With Sharks!" That is persuasive.
No one understood what Sage's essay on minimalism in interior design was trying to say, because of her natural ethereal writing style and the unusual structure she used here. We all hated it. "I AM NOT A CLEANING LADY!" Eric screams. "What the heck did I just read?" Alex wonders. Cole thought it might work sort of like Inside Out.
11-16, Children's Lit -
Today we listened to heartbreaking stories about Dr. Dial-Driver's time as a social worker. "If you don't know you have a choice, then you don't have a choice."
We also love The Breakfast Club.
11-16, Creative Nonfic -
Debra apologizes for her "train wreck"' of an essay. "If this is a train wreck, then it's the most organized train wreck I've ever seen," Sage replies.
11-17, Audio -
"Today's lesson: Facebook stalking media professionals..." Tip mutters to himself. We were supposed to have a guest speaker come in and lecture, but the guest speaker had forgotten he'd agreed to talk, and so he never showed up. Pre-class movie conversations dealt with the Pirates of the Caribbean and Planet of the Apes franchises.
11-22, Audio -
"Oh, he's early! It's 1:02!" Tyler says about Archer (who was usually fifteen minutes late every day).
11-30, Children's Lit -
"Y'all can at least write your way out of a paper bag with a sharp pencil. My other class can't." - Dr. Dial-Driver.
I can't remember if this was supposed to have really happened or if it was just a story-scrap idea, but a high-school aged guy starts dating a nurse who is taking care of a girl in a coma, who was kicked in the head by a horse.
8-15, Literature for Children and Young Adults -
"Chasing the ball is his goal in life," Dr. Dial-Driver says about her dog Max. There were lots of amusing soundbites and interesting discussions from this course, partly because of the material, and partly because five of the eight of us knew each other.
8-17, Children's Lit -
Things we as a class agreed should NOT be pickled, ever - eggs, pig's feet, watermelon. This came about because I mentioned John Tobias's wonderful poem "Reflections on the Gift of a Watermelon Pickle Received from a Friend Called Felicity."
Dr. Dial-Driver's grandpa said swearing was "pasture talk," and that there were different rules for cussing depending on whether you were outside or inside. In the pasture, that was fine. Anywhere else? Probably not... His favorite adjective was "goddamnsonofabitch," all one continuous word. He also had a palomino named Honey who would help with cattle drives and make small Emily look good whenever she would "help out" with moving the cattle someplace. Honey the palomino LOVED Grandpa, and stole his hat whenever she could. She also liked to snack on peanut butter sandwiches.
Lewis Carroll coined the word "portmanteau," in his novel Through the Looking-Glass.
An "ichneumon" is a type of wasp. None of us had ever heard the term before coming across it in a poem by Alice and Martin Provensen. (Yep, the Maple Hill Farm people.)
8-17, Creative Nonfiction -
A story-scrap to remember based on one of Erin's rambling tales - as adults, strangers find out they're half-siblings.
8-18, Audio Production -
Apparently the Snow Patrol song "Chasing Cars" signals an impending death in Grey's Anatomy.
8-24, Children's Lit -
Children's lit is reckoned as beginning in 1744 with John Newbery's primer A Pretty Little Pocket Book. And Mary Wallstonecraft, mother of Mary Shelley, is considered the first feminist.
Jack Taylor is a British mystery TV series about a drunk detective. It sounds worth looking into.
Dr. Dial-Driver is telling stories about her grown son that half of us had heard a couple times at least. "My son went to Thailand and got a girlfriend. I don't know if those two things are connected..." "Your son sounds like the greatest person in the whole world," Trevor says. (He hadn't heard any of these stories.)
Dr. Dial-Driver also read a picture book out loud to us, Jon Sciezka's The True Story of the Three Little Pigs, by A. Wolf.
8-25, Humanities Seminar -
Dr. Oberrieder, talking about my proposed capstone project of examining country music as a form of literature: "It's definitely the most unorthodox project this year..."
8-29, Children's Lit -
Today's random topics under discussion: Bewitched, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, versions of Little Red Riding Hood (the actual topic of the day), J.R.R. Tolkien's essay on fairy tales, Tom Clancy and submarines, Buddhism and the ethical quandary of trying to help homeless people.
8-31, Children's Lit -
Emily Arnold McCully wrote a picture book called Marvelous Mattie about the inventor of the paper bag.
8-31, Creative Nonfic -
Eric led a rabbit trail about the awfulness of monkeys raping and murdering each other, and Alex elaborately wondered why everyone hates the French military. Cole told a hilarious story about staying awake all night to kill a mouse in his bedroom. "Maybe it was a French mouse," Dr. Mackie comments.
9-7, Early American Lit -
Dr. Mackie kept cussing her violent case of hiccups. It was funny.
9-12, Children's Lit -
"Remember all those Stop, Drop and Roll safety drills they taught in school? When you're an adult, nobody catches on fire as often as you'd think," - Trevor.
Today's topics of general interest were the Interest as a new Wild West, "Shut up and go to sleep!" lullabies, and sobriety tests (one of which is saying the alphabet backwards, which we then had to try - and failed at.).
9-14, Children's Lit -
The play version of J.M. Barrie's Peter Pan, short stories from L. Frank Baum, Rudyard Kipling, E. Nesbit and one of Jon Sciezka's Time Warp Trio books. In miscellaneous topics, Lewis Carroll had good advice on writing letters well, and Japanese suicide forests.
9-14, Early American Lit -
"Dory," I say to a cheerleader named Taylor after she forgets something. She shrugs and grins, "It's true..." After a bit of silence, Dr. Mackie turns to me: "Did you just call her 'Dory'?" Loud snickering from classmates.
There was also a debate over what the word "propaganda" means.
9-19, Early American Lit -
Dr. Mackie is drinking her hot tea out of a Frozen mug. When I point out how oxymoronic this is, she chuckles. "Yeah, I totally hadn't connected that, but it really is...."
9-21, Early American Lit -
Class was canceled today because one of Dr. Mackie's cats died. It was a sad and somber day in the English Department.
9-21, Creative Nonfic -
"I never thought I'd say this, but I agree with Eric!" - Dr. Mackie.
9-26, Children's Lit -
"My son is visiting Angkor Wat. He said it's very more expected than impressive. And very ruined," - Dr. Dial-Driver.
9-26, Creative Nonfic -
About Eric's essay, "The word count was 666. That seemed appropriate..." Cole said. (It WAS dark.)
"I don't really have critiques for this. More like....questions," Alex commented on Brandon's essay. (The rest of us grin and explain that it was a Brandon project - everyone feels that way after reading his stuff.)
9-28, Children's Lit -
"The trouble with moving is that you always take yourself with you," - Dr. Dial-Driver.
"At this one school I went to, there were twelve and a half white kids. I was the half," - Trevor.
Dr. Dial-Driver's family was too poor to afford stainless steel, so they used Mother's sterling silverware as their common eating utensils.
"My cats have this game they like to play called 'Gravity Works.' They just like to check every once in a while," - Dr. Dial-Driver.
9-29, Seminar -
Nancy kept mispronouncing Hotspur, from Henry IV, Part One, as "Hotstuff."
10-3, Creative Nonfic -
We all had a much harder time in this course that we expected. Critiques, especially, were awful, because we were all feeling so uncomfortable. That led to lots of awkward discussion during feedback sessions. After one particularly incomprehensible Sage essay, I wrote down in my notebook, "So much metaphor and abstractions! Swirly Riley Matthews." (Riley is Cory and Topanga's daughter, star of the sequel series Girl Meets World)
10-8, Children's Lit -
Today's random topics were bullying, domain/copyright issues, and first-aid horror stories.
10-10, Creative Nonfic -
"Your grandpa's my daddy's age," Debra says to Alex. "Oh. Well....that's interesting, I wasn't expecting to hear that..." was his flustered response.
10-12, Children's Lit -
We're studying Frances Hodgson Burnett's A Little Princess this week. "This little girl is SO DAMN ALTRUISTIC!" - Trevor, about Sara Crewe. We all liked Melchisidec the rat.
"I tried to kiss my mom goodbye, and her ugly dog Ginger tried to eat me through the car window!" - Dr. Dial-Driver.
Also under discussion: the merits of QuikTrip food.
10-12, Creative Nonfic -
I got some of the most scathing feedback I've ever received from my profile essay about Jessica's nursing-school experiences, which was too journalistic in tone and not "creative nonfictiony" enough. A sort of highlight is that what pissed everybody off so much was that I became invisible, and they wanted to see me telling them this story.
10-18, Audio -
"Music isn't divided into just rock and Mozart..." - Tyler.
Someone mentions the role of celebrities who do voiceovers for commercials, wonders what they think of them once they record their lines. "I think they're not sitting in a room analyzing production elements of the spot...." - Tip.
10-19, Children's Lit -
DD on Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus: "Medea meets Hannibal Lecter."
Today's rabbit trails were about prescription drug abuse and cereal.
After Johanna gives recap of Twilight, a general discussion of other dreadful books is sparked. "There are very few books that I've started but never finished. Fifty Shades was one of them." - Dr. Dial-Driver.
10-19, Creative Nonfic -
"From Claremore to St. Louis, the Mulan soundtrack can play exactly 37 times," - Dr. Mackie.
10-24, Children's Lit -
This was a bad day for everyone. The book under discussion was Andre de Saint-Exupery's The Little Prince, which defies explanation, in a bad way. Rabbit trails were George Washington Carver, the Donner Party, cannibalism, a debate over the difference between "forest" vs "jungle" in a translation, and the cat parasite toxiplasmosis.
10-26, Children's Lit -
"Poets never grow up," - Dr. Gary Moeller, an art professor at RSU.
10-26, Early American Lit -
"I HATE MOST FORMS OF PRECIPITATION!" - Kelly yells.
10-26, Creative Nonfic -
In school orchestras, saxophones are substituted for violins.
10-28, Audio -
Classwide conversation while waiting on Tip to show up, we came to a general consensus that Next Generation is by far the best Star Trek TV show.
10-31, Creative Nonfic -
"I have an idea for a research paper, but it's starting to bore even me...." Debra frowns.
11-1, Audio -
"You'll need a lot of time at remotes," Tip pauses. "But I don't mean the herb."
11-2, Children's Lit -
Random Girl in Hallway to her friend - "Yeah, you smell like, um, barn mice."
Dr. Dial-Driver's little sister was once attacked by a bantam rooster.
The merits of wearing clothes repeatedly, the difficulty of wringing out denim by hand, a deep love of Wendell Berry-style farming were what was talked about today. Also, I led discussion of Charlotte's Web. And we agreed that pigs are weird and buffalo are scary.
11-7, Children's Lit -
The book this week was R.J. Palacio's Wonder, and rabbit trails were transgenderism, stories about Vinita's mentally-handicapped population and embarrassing things we said in public as kids.
11-7, Creative Nonfic -
Sparked by Cole's essay about a Dinseyland attraction called "The Haunted Mansion," we speculate what a version of Walt Disney in the 1700's would have looked like. Also lots of unsuccessful debate over the difference between creative nonfiction and historical fiction, because we didn't quite figure out an answer.
"I learn something new about about Hitler every day in this class!" - Sage.
11-9, Creative Nonfic -
"The first thing I did today was post a picture of a kitty on Facebook." - Debra. Considering that it was the day after the presidential election, the world needed all the cat pictures to calm down.
"I melted a hamburger on the grill last summer," Eric mentions.
We all love Bob Ross the spacey painter, but agree that as wonderful as Mr. Rogers was, his puppets from the Land of Make-Believe segments were terrifying.
11-10, Seminar -
"Ducks are rapists!" - Jeff. This started a surprisingly long and detailed rabbit trail about duck genitalia, with six or seven people (out of fifteen) participating. I think this conversation says more about how much we all hated this course (and the instructor) than anything else, but it certainly stood out.
11-14, Children's Lit -
We all wished to kill Sutter Keely, protagonist/narrator of The Spectacular Now, by Tim Tharp. Once we finished complaining about how much we disliked this book (while at the same time recognizing that it was important to read), the discussion turned into an exploration of what makes a good marriage.
"Everyone's connected with technology - at arm's length" - Anonymous.
"They always remember, children do. They're like elephants." - Dr. Dial-Driver.
11-14, Creative Nonfic -
Baylee wrote about sharks, so naturally most of us wished Lauren were part of this class so she could critique it thoroughly and excitedly. (She LOVES sharks.) Mainly, this essay needed to be more persuasive, so somebody suggested the following theme to build around: "Don't Fuck Around With Sharks!" That is persuasive.
No one understood what Sage's essay on minimalism in interior design was trying to say, because of her natural ethereal writing style and the unusual structure she used here. We all hated it. "I AM NOT A CLEANING LADY!" Eric screams. "What the heck did I just read?" Alex wonders. Cole thought it might work sort of like Inside Out.
11-16, Children's Lit -
Today we listened to heartbreaking stories about Dr. Dial-Driver's time as a social worker. "If you don't know you have a choice, then you don't have a choice."
We also love The Breakfast Club.
11-16, Creative Nonfic -
Debra apologizes for her "train wreck"' of an essay. "If this is a train wreck, then it's the most organized train wreck I've ever seen," Sage replies.
11-17, Audio -
"Today's lesson: Facebook stalking media professionals..." Tip mutters to himself. We were supposed to have a guest speaker come in and lecture, but the guest speaker had forgotten he'd agreed to talk, and so he never showed up. Pre-class movie conversations dealt with the Pirates of the Caribbean and Planet of the Apes franchises.
11-22, Audio -
"Oh, he's early! It's 1:02!" Tyler says about Archer (who was usually fifteen minutes late every day).
11-30, Children's Lit -
"Y'all can at least write your way out of a paper bag with a sharp pencil. My other class can't." - Dr. Dial-Driver.
I can't remember if this was supposed to have really happened or if it was just a story-scrap idea, but a high-school aged guy starts dating a nurse who is taking care of a girl in a coma, who was kicked in the head by a horse.
Tuesday, December 13, 2016
School-Related Reading of Fall Semester
As an English major, there are a lot of books you have to read. Sometimes that's good. Sometimes it isn't. This is a listing of all the schoolbooks I read cover-to-cover, not counting the ones I skimmed through or essays/articles read. Point is there was a lot more informational reading than just what's listed here.
Travels with Charley: In Search of America, by John Steinbeck (1962)
Travels with Charley: In Search of America, by John Steinbeck (1962)
Steinbeck just travels around the country for three months with his elderly poodle, recording his observations of what he found along the way. It's really good, thus adding another listing to my "novelists I dislike, but love their nonfiction work" along with Stephen King, Anne LaMotte and others. For Creative Nonfiction.
Summer Reading Is Killing Me!, by Jon Sciezka (1998)
One of his series of Time Warp Trio books, in this one he sends his characters into a world populated entirely by book characters. Things go haywire, which is what happens when you have sentences like "I saw Dracula putting Winnie-the-Pooh in a headlock." I wanted to like this, but I just couldn't quite do it. For Children's Lit.
Alcibiades I, by Plato (390s BC)
Socrates is trying to instruct a younger man named Alcibiades. For our Humanities Seminar pre-capstone course.
The Symposium, by Plato (385-370 BC)
Basically a bunch of drunk Greeks are celebrating their friend the Dionysian-winning playwright, by debating all night in long-winded speeches on the topic of what love is....and we hear this third- or fourth-hand. For Seminar.
The Hundred Dresses, by Eleanor Estes (1944)
A young immigrant girl is bullied by her classmates, and this leads to her family moving away. Only then do her schoolmates realize the talent Wanda had for drawing. For Children's Lit.
Henry IV, Part One, by William Shakespeare (1597)
Probably his most famous history. It would make for a good modern adaptation. For Seminar.
Edgar Huntly: or, Memoirs of a Sleep-walker, by Charles Brockden Brown (1799)
This might have been the first American novel. Mostly, a bored gentleman stumbles around in the forest after sleepwalking. There is also a random and exceedingly vicious turn into Indian slaying, which is somehow the best part of the novel by far. For Early American Lit.
A Little Princess, by Frances Hodgeson Burnett (1905)
I really enjoyed this way more than I expected. A little girl acts very good, despite a string of terrible living conditions. For Children's Lit.
Charlotte's Web, by E.B. White (1952)
The classic tale of how a spider saves a young pig's life. It says a ton bout writing, about life, about friendship. It's a masterpiece. Which is part of the reason I wrote an essay on it this semester. For Children's Lit.
Eating Animals, by Jonathan Safran Foer (2009)
A vegan explores all the processing that goes into the meat consumed in the country from raising to slaughtering. Very well researched, but the organization is cluttered, which weakens his arguments a good deal. For Creative Nonfiction.
The Little Prince, by Antoine de Saint-Exupery (1943)
I don't understand French literature, but this seemed like a primer on nihilism. And it's the most popular French work ever. For Children's Lit.
Invincible Louisa: The Story of the Author of Little Women, by Cornelia Meigs (1933)
While this was a Newbery Award winner, as a biography it's horrible. But I'm giving it the benefit of the doubt by saying that the excessively-cheerful and preachy tone was due to being written in the Great Depression. For research on an Early American Lit essay.
Billy Budd, Sailor, by Herman Melville (1924)
First off, it's a ship novel. We don't understand maritime life, living in landlocked Oklahoma. Secondly, it was written by Melville, who can make Dickens's prose look appealing. An unbearably naive sailor gets on the bad side of an officer, finally punches and accidentally murders him, and thus he is hanged. The narrator has heard this story through several other people, and the facts happened roughly seventy years ago. And it felt like everyone in this novel was gay, which didn't help. For Early American Lit.
Wonder, by R.J. Palacio (2012)
This was a vaguely-yet-deeply-offensive novel about a boy with special needs. I can't figure out what I hated so much about it, but there is some core issue that was warped somehow into a disturbing final product. There was too much multiple narration, for one thing, although I loved the sister's voice. For Children's Lit.
The Spectacular Now, by Tim Tharp (2008)
This takes place in the Oklahoma City area, probably Moore, somewhere between 2006-08. Our narrator is an appallingly irritating alcoholic loser coasting through senioritis by taking on the project of transforming a geeky, hard-working papergirl into a wild child. And he succeeds. They're going to move to St. Louis and start their lives over there. And then he indirectly breaks her arm, and he vanishes from her life while wallowing in self-pity. It's dreadful.
The author never gives clear concrete details about basic facts, either. The dialogue doesn't feel realistic, and everything is far too urban for me to relate to. There is an extremely subtle shoutout to RSU, which I thought was kind of funny, as the author is a professor at some community college around OKC. For Children's Lit.
Emma, by Jane Austen (1813)
Long-winded rich people in England gossip about other folks in their small town. All the other normal Austen things happen - misunderstandings, sicknesses, mawwiage - but except for Emma herself, and possibly Mr. Knightley, I hated every single other character. And I don't think we're even supposed to like Emma Woodhouse; she's selfish and manipulative, and never thinks of anyone else's feelings, but somehow I still liked her. This is not one of Jane Austen's best books, so I was very disappointed. Still, it was better than a lot of other things I plowed through this semester. For Seminar.
Just watch Clueless instead. You'll get the most important parts of the story, lots of 90's slang and Bobby Newport.
The One and Only Ivan, by Katherine Applegate (2012)
This won the Newbery Award, and it deserved it. Through his paintings, a lonesome 27-year-old gorilla named Ivan masterminds the closure of a circus and moves himself and the baby elephant he takes care of to a zoo. It would make an amazing audiobook; my favorite character was Bob the snarky stray dog, who is Ivan's best friend. It's for the dreamers who understand Garth's song "The River," but more generally, it's about hope and the importance of storytelling. For Children's Lit.
Summer Reading Is Killing Me!, by Jon Sciezka (1998)
One of his series of Time Warp Trio books, in this one he sends his characters into a world populated entirely by book characters. Things go haywire, which is what happens when you have sentences like "I saw Dracula putting Winnie-the-Pooh in a headlock." I wanted to like this, but I just couldn't quite do it. For Children's Lit.
Alcibiades I, by Plato (390s BC)
Socrates is trying to instruct a younger man named Alcibiades. For our Humanities Seminar pre-capstone course.
The Symposium, by Plato (385-370 BC)
Basically a bunch of drunk Greeks are celebrating their friend the Dionysian-winning playwright, by debating all night in long-winded speeches on the topic of what love is....and we hear this third- or fourth-hand. For Seminar.
The Hundred Dresses, by Eleanor Estes (1944)
A young immigrant girl is bullied by her classmates, and this leads to her family moving away. Only then do her schoolmates realize the talent Wanda had for drawing. For Children's Lit.
Henry IV, Part One, by William Shakespeare (1597)
Probably his most famous history. It would make for a good modern adaptation. For Seminar.
Edgar Huntly: or, Memoirs of a Sleep-walker, by Charles Brockden Brown (1799)
This might have been the first American novel. Mostly, a bored gentleman stumbles around in the forest after sleepwalking. There is also a random and exceedingly vicious turn into Indian slaying, which is somehow the best part of the novel by far. For Early American Lit.
A Little Princess, by Frances Hodgeson Burnett (1905)
I really enjoyed this way more than I expected. A little girl acts very good, despite a string of terrible living conditions. For Children's Lit.
Charlotte's Web, by E.B. White (1952)
The classic tale of how a spider saves a young pig's life. It says a ton bout writing, about life, about friendship. It's a masterpiece. Which is part of the reason I wrote an essay on it this semester. For Children's Lit.
Eating Animals, by Jonathan Safran Foer (2009)
A vegan explores all the processing that goes into the meat consumed in the country from raising to slaughtering. Very well researched, but the organization is cluttered, which weakens his arguments a good deal. For Creative Nonfiction.
The Little Prince, by Antoine de Saint-Exupery (1943)
I don't understand French literature, but this seemed like a primer on nihilism. And it's the most popular French work ever. For Children's Lit.
Invincible Louisa: The Story of the Author of Little Women, by Cornelia Meigs (1933)
While this was a Newbery Award winner, as a biography it's horrible. But I'm giving it the benefit of the doubt by saying that the excessively-cheerful and preachy tone was due to being written in the Great Depression. For research on an Early American Lit essay.
Billy Budd, Sailor, by Herman Melville (1924)
First off, it's a ship novel. We don't understand maritime life, living in landlocked Oklahoma. Secondly, it was written by Melville, who can make Dickens's prose look appealing. An unbearably naive sailor gets on the bad side of an officer, finally punches and accidentally murders him, and thus he is hanged. The narrator has heard this story through several other people, and the facts happened roughly seventy years ago. And it felt like everyone in this novel was gay, which didn't help. For Early American Lit.
Wonder, by R.J. Palacio (2012)
This was a vaguely-yet-deeply-offensive novel about a boy with special needs. I can't figure out what I hated so much about it, but there is some core issue that was warped somehow into a disturbing final product. There was too much multiple narration, for one thing, although I loved the sister's voice. For Children's Lit.
The Spectacular Now, by Tim Tharp (2008)
This takes place in the Oklahoma City area, probably Moore, somewhere between 2006-08. Our narrator is an appallingly irritating alcoholic loser coasting through senioritis by taking on the project of transforming a geeky, hard-working papergirl into a wild child. And he succeeds. They're going to move to St. Louis and start their lives over there. And then he indirectly breaks her arm, and he vanishes from her life while wallowing in self-pity. It's dreadful.
The author never gives clear concrete details about basic facts, either. The dialogue doesn't feel realistic, and everything is far too urban for me to relate to. There is an extremely subtle shoutout to RSU, which I thought was kind of funny, as the author is a professor at some community college around OKC. For Children's Lit.
Emma, by Jane Austen (1813)
Long-winded rich people in England gossip about other folks in their small town. All the other normal Austen things happen - misunderstandings, sicknesses, mawwiage - but except for Emma herself, and possibly Mr. Knightley, I hated every single other character. And I don't think we're even supposed to like Emma Woodhouse; she's selfish and manipulative, and never thinks of anyone else's feelings, but somehow I still liked her. This is not one of Jane Austen's best books, so I was very disappointed. Still, it was better than a lot of other things I plowed through this semester. For Seminar.
Just watch Clueless instead. You'll get the most important parts of the story, lots of 90's slang and Bobby Newport.
The One and Only Ivan, by Katherine Applegate (2012)
This won the Newbery Award, and it deserved it. Through his paintings, a lonesome 27-year-old gorilla named Ivan masterminds the closure of a circus and moves himself and the baby elephant he takes care of to a zoo. It would make an amazing audiobook; my favorite character was Bob the snarky stray dog, who is Ivan's best friend. It's for the dreamers who understand Garth's song "The River," but more generally, it's about hope and the importance of storytelling. For Children's Lit.
Wednesday, November 2, 2016
2016 CMA Awards
To begin with, this was the fiftieth edition of the Country Music Association Awards. So there was a massive music video medley paying WONDERFUL tribute to hits of the past:
That opening, once the show finally started, was terrific.
Brad and Carrie's "News of the Year" was hilarious. Especially the Political Medley.
The Final Five looked uncomfortable presenting the Single of the Year. Well, Madison Kocian always looks nervous anywhere. Not a huge fan of Thomas Rhett or his song "Die A Happy Man," but it's okay.
Not much a fan of Kelsea Ballerini or her song "Lost Boy."
Didn't know that Olivia Newton-John got her start in country music, or that she was the 1974 Female Vocalist of the Year. "Humble and Kind" wins Song of the Year (which goes to the songwriters.)
Brooks and Dunn reuniting to do their "Brand New Man" with Jason Aldean was AWESOME.
I either love or hate most of Dierks Bentley's music, and while "Different for Girls" isn't awful, it's not great, either. And hate that girl Elle King's voice that he sings it with. Cool that she plays banjo, though.
Don't like Maren Morris's song "My Church," but she has a good voice. That guitar is extremely white, though....and really large.
Jennifer Garner makes a very good presenter at something like this. Maren Morris wins the Horizon Award (New Artist of the Year).
GARTH AND TRISHA!!!!!! They did a medley duet of famous songs throughout history, including Conway Twitty and Loretta Lynn's "Louisiana Woman, Mississippi Man." It was great.
Not sure what Carrie's costume was supposed to be during "Dirty Laundry," but it was a cool set.
Album of the Year is Eric Church's "Mr. Misunderstood."
Little Big Town's "Better Man" is a good song. And it's awesome that it was written by Taylor Swift.
Miranda did well with her performance of "Vice."
Tim did a great job with "Humble and Kind."
Brad and his pals the Oak Ridge Boys jamming "Elvira" together, haha...
Alan Jackson and "Remember When"! And George Strait with "Troubadour."
Never heard of the Brothers Osborne, but I guess that's some Disney synergy in getting ESPN people Kirk Herbstreit and Samantha Ponder to announce the Vocal Duo of the Year.
Keith is awesome, but "Blue Ain't Your Color" is extremely boring.
Little Big Town beats out Rascal Flatts, Lady Antebellum and the Zac Brown Band, plus a new group called Old Dominion, for Vocal Group of the Year.
Uh....what is Beyonce doing here?
Kenny Chesney becomes only the third person to win the Pinnacle Award, after Garth Brooks and Taylor Swift.
Thomas Rhett is using the same guitar as Maren Morris. Also, "Die a Happy Man" is better than the song he did last year.
Chris Stapleton and Dwight Yoakam doing a Ray Charles cover was cool.
Luke Bryan wasn't awful, but that was an odd scheduling choice.
Lee Greenwood sighting!
The short-haired Florida Georgia Line guy is also playing the white oversize guitar. This song "May We All" is good for them, though. And Tim McGraw helping out doesn't hurt, either.
Carrie wins Female Artist of the Year! "And I....I....I've just suddenly become so stupid right now....Thank you all so much!" Miranda would've been a good choice, too. Kacey Musgraves, Maren Morris and Kelsea Ballerini were the other nominees. Vince Gill is cool and all, but why didn't a woman like Dolly or Reba announce this category?
Dann Huff wins Musician of the Year.
Not my favorite-ever Eric Church performance, but it was good. Just forgettable, is all.
Jennifer Nettles and Pentatonix with "Jolene", Reba with "9 To 5," Kacey Musgraves with "Here You Come Again," and then Carrie and Martina "I Will Always Love You" Reba - "Gosh dang it, Dolly, we love your better than Christmas." Dolly - "I had a big speech prepared, but they won't let me give it! They're tellin' me to hurry up, but how can you hurry up a lifetime? So thank y'all so very much."
Chris Stapleton wins Male Vocalist of the Year over Keith Urban, Eric Church, Tim McGraw and Dierks Bentley.
Taylor is the presenter of the Entertainer of the Year! And Carrie, Keith and Garth are all nominees, along with Chris Stapleton and Luke Bryan. And.....GARTH WINS!!!!!
Brad and Carrie's "News of the Year" was hilarious. Especially the Political Medley.
The Final Five looked uncomfortable presenting the Single of the Year. Well, Madison Kocian always looks nervous anywhere. Not a huge fan of Thomas Rhett or his song "Die A Happy Man," but it's okay.
Not much a fan of Kelsea Ballerini or her song "Lost Boy."
Didn't know that Olivia Newton-John got her start in country music, or that she was the 1974 Female Vocalist of the Year. "Humble and Kind" wins Song of the Year (which goes to the songwriters.)
Brooks and Dunn reuniting to do their "Brand New Man" with Jason Aldean was AWESOME.
I either love or hate most of Dierks Bentley's music, and while "Different for Girls" isn't awful, it's not great, either. And hate that girl Elle King's voice that he sings it with. Cool that she plays banjo, though.
Don't like Maren Morris's song "My Church," but she has a good voice. That guitar is extremely white, though....and really large.
Jennifer Garner makes a very good presenter at something like this. Maren Morris wins the Horizon Award (New Artist of the Year).
GARTH AND TRISHA!!!!!! They did a medley duet of famous songs throughout history, including Conway Twitty and Loretta Lynn's "Louisiana Woman, Mississippi Man." It was great.
Not sure what Carrie's costume was supposed to be during "Dirty Laundry," but it was a cool set.
Album of the Year is Eric Church's "Mr. Misunderstood."
Little Big Town's "Better Man" is a good song. And it's awesome that it was written by Taylor Swift.
Miranda did well with her performance of "Vice."
Tim did a great job with "Humble and Kind."
Brad and his pals the Oak Ridge Boys jamming "Elvira" together, haha...
Alan Jackson and "Remember When"! And George Strait with "Troubadour."
Never heard of the Brothers Osborne, but I guess that's some Disney synergy in getting ESPN people Kirk Herbstreit and Samantha Ponder to announce the Vocal Duo of the Year.
Keith is awesome, but "Blue Ain't Your Color" is extremely boring.
Little Big Town beats out Rascal Flatts, Lady Antebellum and the Zac Brown Band, plus a new group called Old Dominion, for Vocal Group of the Year.
Uh....what is Beyonce doing here?
Kenny Chesney becomes only the third person to win the Pinnacle Award, after Garth Brooks and Taylor Swift.
Thomas Rhett is using the same guitar as Maren Morris. Also, "Die a Happy Man" is better than the song he did last year.
Chris Stapleton and Dwight Yoakam doing a Ray Charles cover was cool.
Luke Bryan wasn't awful, but that was an odd scheduling choice.
Lee Greenwood sighting!
The short-haired Florida Georgia Line guy is also playing the white oversize guitar. This song "May We All" is good for them, though. And Tim McGraw helping out doesn't hurt, either.
Carrie wins Female Artist of the Year! "And I....I....I've just suddenly become so stupid right now....Thank you all so much!" Miranda would've been a good choice, too. Kacey Musgraves, Maren Morris and Kelsea Ballerini were the other nominees. Vince Gill is cool and all, but why didn't a woman like Dolly or Reba announce this category?
Dann Huff wins Musician of the Year.
Not my favorite-ever Eric Church performance, but it was good. Just forgettable, is all.
Jennifer Nettles and Pentatonix with "Jolene", Reba with "9 To 5," Kacey Musgraves with "Here You Come Again," and then Carrie and Martina "I Will Always Love You" Reba - "Gosh dang it, Dolly, we love your better than Christmas." Dolly - "I had a big speech prepared, but they won't let me give it! They're tellin' me to hurry up, but how can you hurry up a lifetime? So thank y'all so very much."
Chris Stapleton wins Male Vocalist of the Year over Keith Urban, Eric Church, Tim McGraw and Dierks Bentley.
Taylor is the presenter of the Entertainer of the Year! And Carrie, Keith and Garth are all nominees, along with Chris Stapleton and Luke Bryan. And.....GARTH WINS!!!!!
Sunday, October 23, 2016
Fall Break
Fall break was this week, which was kind of nice. It was Courtney's birthday on Friday, so we went hiking at Turkey Mountain with Mom and Caleb. That was fun, and it was a beautiful day. Even the Arkansas River looked pretty, somehow.
Homework for this week will be lighter than usual, I think. The last couple weeks have been incredibly hectic. I'll be presenting my capstone proposal Friday morning, which sounds a little daunting, but it hopefully won't be too bad. If it gets accepted, I'll be trying to prove the literary merit of country music lyrics, and why it ought to be considered a form of literature.
The post-Durant era of Thunder basketball begins Wednesday night, so it'll be another season full of intense roller-coastery emotions. The World Series also starts Tuesday, and it'll make history, however it ends up. The Cubs haven't won the Series since 1908, and the Indians haven't won it since 1948. They were last here in 1997, losing to the Florida Marlins in Game 7. (I remember watching this game; I was four. Bob Costas is still who I want to be when I grow up.) The last time the Cubs were in the World Series, it was 1945, and the Japanese had finally surrendered.
While it would have been cooler if it had happened last year (since the Cubs won the 2015 Series over Miami, according to Back To The Future Part II), one year off isn't bad. And the Indians were in serious jeopardy of moving to Miami in Major League, so that connection almost holds up. As a Cardinals fan, I just can't quite bring myself to cheer for the Cubs, so I'll be pulling for the Indians to win. (Besides, if Elizabeth and I ever agreed on a sports-related topic outside of the Thunder, the world might explode.)
The BCM state volleyball tournament is this weekend, either at UCO in Edmond or in Shawnee at OBU. Hoping the NSU teams will do well.
There was a country-themed dance held on campus Tuesday, and I dropped by that for a bit. It was kind of fun - I sort of picked up how to line dance, finally. It's not the same as a square dance, obviously, but it was still enjoyable.
November is coming up soon, and that means time (officially) to begin working on a new NaNoWriMo project. I think I'll try again this year.
Homework for this week will be lighter than usual, I think. The last couple weeks have been incredibly hectic. I'll be presenting my capstone proposal Friday morning, which sounds a little daunting, but it hopefully won't be too bad. If it gets accepted, I'll be trying to prove the literary merit of country music lyrics, and why it ought to be considered a form of literature.
The post-Durant era of Thunder basketball begins Wednesday night, so it'll be another season full of intense roller-coastery emotions. The World Series also starts Tuesday, and it'll make history, however it ends up. The Cubs haven't won the Series since 1908, and the Indians haven't won it since 1948. They were last here in 1997, losing to the Florida Marlins in Game 7. (I remember watching this game; I was four. Bob Costas is still who I want to be when I grow up.) The last time the Cubs were in the World Series, it was 1945, and the Japanese had finally surrendered.
While it would have been cooler if it had happened last year (since the Cubs won the 2015 Series over Miami, according to Back To The Future Part II), one year off isn't bad. And the Indians were in serious jeopardy of moving to Miami in Major League, so that connection almost holds up. As a Cardinals fan, I just can't quite bring myself to cheer for the Cubs, so I'll be pulling for the Indians to win. (Besides, if Elizabeth and I ever agreed on a sports-related topic outside of the Thunder, the world might explode.)
The BCM state volleyball tournament is this weekend, either at UCO in Edmond or in Shawnee at OBU. Hoping the NSU teams will do well.
There was a country-themed dance held on campus Tuesday, and I dropped by that for a bit. It was kind of fun - I sort of picked up how to line dance, finally. It's not the same as a square dance, obviously, but it was still enjoyable.
November is coming up soon, and that means time (officially) to begin working on a new NaNoWriMo project. I think I'll try again this year.
Friday, October 14, 2016
Welcome, Fall
It's a Friday night, which means I'm exhausted and cold and trying unsuccessfully to do homework, with hockey on TV for background noise. Chicago is playing at Nashville, Predators winning 3-2.
Trying to polish up my capstone proposal that's due Monday morning, that's been exceptionally nerve-wracking. But on the other hand, apparently arguing why country music ought to be considered literature seems to be a great choice for a project, if it's accepted, based on reactions from everyone who's asked(including several professors). Trying not to panic about that not getting accepted.
Dr. Dial-Driver was feeling merciful in letting our Children's Lit essay midterm be a takehome exam after none of us finished it in time on Monday, but that was kind of humiliating, too. My essay on E.B. White and Charlotte's Web got a decent grade, though I was kind of disappointed in it. Got an Early American Lit essay back Wednesday with the confirmation that it was absolutely crap, which I knew, but that was discouraging. And then that afternoon a profile essay for workshopping in Creative Nonfiction was appraised as "something from a Comp class." That was also discouraging.
It was mildly interesting, though, how much everyone hated that I managed to erase myself entirely from the narrative, because that's what you do in journalism: "Always be in the news, but never be in the news." There were lots of variations of "Who wrote this? I wanted to read something Wesleyish, and he was nowhere to be found. I WANT A REFUND OF MY TIME!" in the critiques. I guess that's good, since people have a certain enjoyable tone that they associate with my writing. I don't know.
Except for Audio Production, where I have a low A, I have no idea how I'm doing gradewise this semester, because no one can figure out how the new campus-wide computer system works. That not-knowing adds some more stress.
The college group from First Baptist-Claremore, Fusion, was holding a meeting on campus last night, so I filled my socialization quota for the week/month by going to that. It was fine, and I think maybe they're the kind of people I would fit in well with. Reminded me of the NSU BCM, which is a good thing.
Fire alarm went off earlier tonight, contributing to the lack of productivity. I was finishing a book by Chuck Swindoll, called The Church Awakening: An Urgent Call for Renewal, on what's wrong with the American church in general and his suggestions for how to (maybe) fix it. So I stood under a streetlight and kept reading outside. Some guy saw the title and asked whether it was for a class or just for fun, which I thought was humorous. How do you answer a question like that? "No, I just think reading about how sinful humanity is and feeling sorrowful because of that is good entertainment. And of course a state school would assign a book like this as course reading." So I just said, "For fun. It's a good book."
The weather finally turned coldish, dropping to 40something degrees fairly often. I've kind of liked that and kind of haven't, since it's one of those frequent bipolar weather weeks that happen so often - it's supposed to be 80something this weekend again. If it would just stick with one general temperature, that would be great.
Trying to polish up my capstone proposal that's due Monday morning, that's been exceptionally nerve-wracking. But on the other hand, apparently arguing why country music ought to be considered literature seems to be a great choice for a project, if it's accepted, based on reactions from everyone who's asked(including several professors). Trying not to panic about that not getting accepted.
Dr. Dial-Driver was feeling merciful in letting our Children's Lit essay midterm be a takehome exam after none of us finished it in time on Monday, but that was kind of humiliating, too. My essay on E.B. White and Charlotte's Web got a decent grade, though I was kind of disappointed in it. Got an Early American Lit essay back Wednesday with the confirmation that it was absolutely crap, which I knew, but that was discouraging. And then that afternoon a profile essay for workshopping in Creative Nonfiction was appraised as "something from a Comp class." That was also discouraging.
It was mildly interesting, though, how much everyone hated that I managed to erase myself entirely from the narrative, because that's what you do in journalism: "Always be in the news, but never be in the news." There were lots of variations of "Who wrote this? I wanted to read something Wesleyish, and he was nowhere to be found. I WANT A REFUND OF MY TIME!" in the critiques. I guess that's good, since people have a certain enjoyable tone that they associate with my writing. I don't know.
Except for Audio Production, where I have a low A, I have no idea how I'm doing gradewise this semester, because no one can figure out how the new campus-wide computer system works. That not-knowing adds some more stress.
The college group from First Baptist-Claremore, Fusion, was holding a meeting on campus last night, so I filled my socialization quota for the week/month by going to that. It was fine, and I think maybe they're the kind of people I would fit in well with. Reminded me of the NSU BCM, which is a good thing.
Fire alarm went off earlier tonight, contributing to the lack of productivity. I was finishing a book by Chuck Swindoll, called The Church Awakening: An Urgent Call for Renewal, on what's wrong with the American church in general and his suggestions for how to (maybe) fix it. So I stood under a streetlight and kept reading outside. Some guy saw the title and asked whether it was for a class or just for fun, which I thought was humorous. How do you answer a question like that? "No, I just think reading about how sinful humanity is and feeling sorrowful because of that is good entertainment. And of course a state school would assign a book like this as course reading." So I just said, "For fun. It's a good book."
The weather finally turned coldish, dropping to 40something degrees fairly often. I've kind of liked that and kind of haven't, since it's one of those frequent bipolar weather weeks that happen so often - it's supposed to be 80something this weekend again. If it would just stick with one general temperature, that would be great.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)