Read Along with Me...

There is only one thing I enjoy as much as reading books, and that is talking about them. Nursing my baby girl, usually puts her to sleep- leaving me 2 hours to read every single day. That means a lot of books. 

Here's the list of my recent- reads, since she was born, I'd love some literary company!

• Still Life with WoodPecker by Tom Robbins
• Anna Karenina By Leo Tolstoy
• The Perks of being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
• The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
• Portrait's in Sepia by Isabel Allende
• Moby Dick by Herman Melville
• Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
• Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
• The Help by Kathryn Stockett
• The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
• A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
• The Awakening by Kate Chopin
• As I lay Dying by William Faulkner
• Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
• The Portable Dorothy Parker Edited by Marion Meade
• To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
• Slaughterhouse five by Kurt Vonnegut
• Hyperbole and a half by Allie Brosh 
• The Story Sisters by Alice Hoffman

Any suggestions? 

The Awakening by Kate Chopin: in review

This was a reread for me and I loved it just as much the second time around. The first time I read "The Awakening" I was in high school. I connected with many of the narrator's emotional movements, woman-to-woman, but had limited life experience and immaturity stunting my reading experience. This time, as a 28 year old married woman, reading about a 28 year old married woman, I only had the difference of cultural setting and time period challenging my imagination.

Kate Chopin is an artist of words. She paints rich pictures by layering plot movement, meticulous description, and complex emotion into the same sentence. Her novel was controversial when it was released for its feminist ideas and "indecent" plot line for its audience in the early 1900s. Interestingly enough, the plot line is void of dramatic action (no explosions, murder, or mystery within these pages), yet its gripping content propels the reader to read and read. What happens in the novel? A privileged woman goes to her beach house in grand isle with her husband and kids, she learns to swim, she hangs out with a friend, gets a crush on the friend, picks up painting, moves back to be city home, frustrates her husband, gets an apartment, stirs up a bit of scandal, her friend has a baby, and then, finally, a dramatic- tragic- end. K. An affair. Nothing new in classic literature- just ask Emma Bovary or Anna Karenina. So, what makes this novel different? Character development, emotional growth, and honest, effective, description of what lies within many people's hearts. Chopin's writing style, the point of view, makes the reader become Edna. The reader feels the angst, the butterflies, the disappointment,  the excitement. Chopin makes the reader understand how it feels to live in a time where the  traditions of the culture could be oppressive even when they appeared pleasant. Her take home message translated into a present day slogan could read, "Live Free or Die Trying".

4.5/5-- .5 subtracted because I wish she could have figured out a way to allow our protagonist to have a more victorious ending without sacrificing the symbolism of the ending. (I will end with cryptically, as my goal is to lessen my spoilers.)

The Help By Kathryn Stockett: In Review

How pretenious, I thought to myself while reading the first few chapters of The Help by Kathryn Stockett. This author, an affluent white woman has the gall to write from the first person perspective of an African American woman serving as a maid in Mississippi in the early 1960s. How could she possibly pretend to know what that experience feels like? How could she create a believable-even just a  passable-narrative of the thoughts inside the minds of these characters, that are so different from herself? But, there I was, riveted by Aibileen's tenderness towards the little white baby she was charged with caring for, laughing at Minny's sass, crying over the purity of the goodness prevailing over the disgusting injustices. Stockett was doing it. And she was doing it incredibly well. Of course, how she was doing it became clearer as she introduced the character Skeeter- the white writer, who takes it upon herself to collect stories and observe the world around her carefully, critically: seeking truth. I assume this is Mrs. Stockett's closest self representation with her novel.

 Now to get the grit of it, the review. How was her writing? Efficient, smooth, colorful, descriptive. I felt as if I was both watching a movie in my mind, and chatting with a friend, as I read through the pages. How are the characters? Love-able, relate-able, realistic, and sometimes despicable (I'm looking at you, Hilly). How is the plot? entertaining, suspenseful, and sometimes realistically mundane as it follows everyday lives. Would I recommend it? Yes. Not only did her style of writing inspire me to try a more conversational approach to my own writing, but the story itself celebrates women's strength, highlights the importance of doing what is right, and forces the reader to remember both how dark and how beautiful life can be.

I just loved it.

5/5 Stars.

God Grant Me The Serenity

It happened again. I saw another flippant Facebook post from a so-called friend of my loved one, making light of and laughing about how it was only a matter of time before he 'fell off the wagon' and joined "his people" again. We are dealing with heroin here. We are referencing someone who has overdosed twice, and is struggling to stay alive, battling his addiction. His response? "LOL".

I usually write in my blog with the intention to inspire my readers, but this entry is self-motivated. I need to vent. I need to get this recurring thought out of my head, and into a space where it can be potentially shared before I throw up.  I am tired of feeling sick to my stomach from biting my tongue as I watch a disturbing trend-of-thought encompass too many of my friends and family.

This trend is the "glory story"- specifically the "glory story" attached to being "bad ass" or "legendary" when referencing the party life. I'm talking about the world of the binge drinkers, fight starters, and drug users. The circumstance that I keep finding myself in.  Where, I'm listening in horrified disgust to people compete with each other to claim the title of, what I can only guess is, Most '2nd Chances' Rewarded to Reckless Idiocy. Usually, everyone is laughing. The story teller is grinning. Their audience is laughing, and urging them on.

 I have been the story teller. I have been the gleeful audience member. But, as I got older...I have been the person calling the rehab for my loved ones. I have been the person who had to say goodbye too soon.

I'm in a position where I am affronted by this situation and its aftermath more than some people, as I am a drug & alcohol counselor by trade, ex-alcohol abuser, and family member to several active & recovering addicts.

 There is no glory in surviving your self inflicted destructive behavior. Pretending its funny helps it happen again. It enables the hazy addictive cycle to perpetuate. It leads you closer to relapse. Telling yourself you're strong for surviving a powerful drug or close-call situation is a sickness. I want to scream STOP IT! When I see this happening. But, I also know that I can not and should not control anyone but myself...even if I love them.

Just know, when you're laughing it off, someone who loves you may cry.

As I Lay dying: In review

"As I Lay Dying" by William Faulkner was a quick read, except for my continual need to reread the dialect to comprehend it. Interpreting the dialect and following the subtle (and sometimes not so subtle) changes between each character's narrative style was challenging.

Quick Plot Summary with Spoilers:

The Bundrens' mother Addie has passed away. Anse Bundren, the father, has decided that Addie must be buried in Jefferson, despite many obstacles, including a storm that has made the trek to Jefferson very perilous. His children, Darl, Cash, Jewel, Dewey Dell, and Vardaman are dragged along for the ride. Despite appearing callous and irresponsible, Anse gets help from many neighbors along the way and ultimately comes out on top- considering his  goals seem to be to get a new set of teeth and a new wife in Jefferson, both events he succeeds in. His children and original team of mules are not so lucky. Cash, the carpenter, breaks a leg and has it sealed in cement by Anse. Darl, the most thoughtful & articulate of the bunch, loses his mind, sets fire to a barn, and ends in asylum. Jewel loses his horse in a trade made by Anse and gets identified as a bastard son. Dewey Dell is mistreated while in pursuit of getting an abortion for her unwanted pregnancy. Vardaman, relatively unscathed compared to his siblings, becomes preoccupied with the idea that his mother is a fish. And the team of mules are drowned trying to cross a flooded river. The point of all this hardship seems to be for Faulkner to highlight what it means to be human. The philosophy of what it means to "be" is repeatedly visited.

Rating: 3/5- Lacking a true hero figure and concluding with injustice prevailing , this read, although thought provoking and stylistically interesting, was kind of a downer.

Brave New World: In Review

As compared to reading Melville's Moby Dick, Brave New World by Aldous Huxley went by in a flash. It took a concentrated 3 weeks to read through its 18 chapters, written in refreshingly plain English. This book is Vladamir Lenin's dream of Dystopian future, i.e. extreme socialism and human conditioning concentrating on economic productivity. The reader follows a pathetic man, Bernard Marx, through a completely government controlled society that aims to keep people medicated, sexually exploratory and content. Through a visitation to an uncivilized reservation, Marx encounters a "savage" who's previously "civilized" mother had become stranded at the reservation. Marx gets permission to bring John, the savage, and his mother Linda back to civilized society. The savage symbolizes the individual- demonstrating a desire to practice religion, admonish all sexuality aside from passionate love, and  experience a full range of emotions including suffering. He violently collides with this new society and ultimately isolates himself in a tower, until taking his own life when isolation proves to be impossible.

Rating: 4/5 stars.
It's both comical and impressive to hear Huxley's predictions for a future. As this novel was published in 1931, his future  is my present. His predictions (although exaggerated) are not completely inaccurate. He describes people conditioned by commercialized slogans to become the ultimate consumers, shallow and unthinking, the masses devour material possessions as quickly as they ingest the "soma" mood elevating medications. Living in the present, surrounded by wasteful materialism and a Valium popping middle class America- I experienced an eerie feeling of familiarity when reading the passages.

Movie Night

MOVIE NIGHT!

When you become a parent, movie night becomes both a regular thing and a fleeting thing. Yes, you are hermit-ted into your home by the inconvenience of having to transport your new bundle of joy and all of her accessories. But, No, of course you do not have the energy to stay up and watch a movie, and don't be ridiculous, the baby isn't going to remain calm and quiet for 2 consecutive hours. So, on the rare occasion, when the stars align, and you find yourself able to sit down and watch a movie as a parent, the stakes are higher. No time for  cliches and duds. Parents need cinematic genius at their finger tips. So, I've complied a list for my own reference & to help spread great movies!

Did we miss any?

Horror Films:
Se7en
Saw
The sixth sense
Psycho
Silence of the Lambs
The Shining
The Others
Beetlejuice (comedy)
Cabin in the Woods
Evil Dead & Evil Dead 2
Pet Cemetery
It
Halloween
Predator
Rosemary's Baby
Nightmare on Elm Street
DeadSilence

Comedies:
Mean Girls
Tucker & Dale vs. Evil
Dumb & Dumber
Clueless
Wedding Crashers
Hitched
Old School
HotRod
Scary Movie
Hott Fuzz
Shaun of the Dead
Naked Gun
Anchorman
Young Frankenstein
Blazing Saddles
Team America
Superbad
HangOver
40 year old Virgin
Stepbrothers
South Park
Super Troopers
Ferris Beuller's Day Off
Robinhood Men in Tights
Role Models
Forgetting Sarah Marshall
Clue
There's Something about Mary
Airplane

Dramas:
Now & Then
Pulp Fiction
Forrest Gump
Schindler's List
All About Eve
Gone with the Wind
Gladiator
A Beautiful Mind
The Shawshank Redemption
Dallas Buyer's Club
Requiem for a Dream
The Pianist
The Prestige
The Godfather
One flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Dead Poet's Society
Beautiful Mind
Breakfast Club
Edward Scissorhands
Life of Pi
Avatar
The Intouchables
Big Fish
Dances with Wolves
Memoirs of a Gesha
Vertigo
Citizen Kane
Cruel Intentions
American Beauty
Goodwill Hunting
Catch me if you Can
Donny Darko
Goodfellas

Action:
Star Wars (All)
Fight Club
Indiana Jones (All)
Saving Private Ryan
Boondock Saints
Inglorious Bastards
The Matrix
Inception
The Dark Knight
Batman Begins
Batman Forever
SkyFall
The Terminator
Pirates of the Caribeann
Lord of the Rings
Now You See Me
Kill Bill (All)
Independence Day
Top Gun
ConAir
Jurassic Park

Romance:
Titanic
Casablanca
Singing in the Rain
The Notebook
Sweet Home Alabama
Flipped
West Side Story
It Happened One Night
Amelie
Ghost
The Holiday
Pretty Woman
Dirty Dancing
Crazy Stupid Love
Shakespeare in Love
Romeo and Juliet (Leo, duh)
Across the Universe
Moulin Rouge
The Philadelphia Story
Ever After
Breakfast at Tiffany's
Roman Holiday
Love Actually

Children's Films:
Milo & Otis
Hook
Casper
Jumanji
Mrs Doubtfire
Homeward Bound
Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory
Wizard of Oz
The Secret Garden
NeverEnding Story
Princess Bride
Hocus Pocus
Harry Potter
The Sandlot
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
All Disney Animated films