ARDIRI

Please tell me they're kidding!

I have a blog for the meetup book club I run and this is what I literally get when I sign in:

Sorry for the inconvenience, we are performing some unexpected maintenance. Your dashboard is going to be unavailable for 730 days.

Yep!  You read that right--my dashboard where I go to make posts will be unavailable for 730 days--basically 2 YEARS!

I really, really hope they are kidding! 

I'm a...

Click here to check out
The San Francisco Book and Brunch Club!

The Sunburn of Obstinate Books (Or Perhaps an Obstinate Brain?)

For me, not having a book to read is like having a sunburn for which you can find no balm to soothe your skin.  I am surrounded by books I know I should read and actually indeed do want to read, but none have entangled me in their butterfly nets. 

I pick up Italo Calvino's  If on a Winter's Night a Traveler and find myself unable to relax into the predictable vacillation between the narration of the tale and the meta-narration of the narration of the tale.  Yet, I know this is something I should read.  Edification, folks, edification.  Oh, and I do like metafiction, so that should indeed be sufficient impetus to read beyond the first chapter and two pages further.   But, alas, I am stuck.

I could again try to further the prolific progress I have made (repeatedly, but yet have never finished!) in Angela Carter's The Infernal Desire Machines of Doctor Hoffman, but that may interfere, may create a deep and disturbing miasma  that would potentially derail the trajectory  my brain is finally taking towards the creation of my masters thesis on Carter's The Passion of New Eve.

Then there is Gunter Grass' The Tin Drum which I've been meaning to read for six years now and finally ran into it by chance at the library, but my brain can't focus on it for whatever reason (and there is probably a million tiny reasons in my mind like midges flying around a cacao tree in a trance of fateful fecundity).

And finally, there is the The Brother's Karamazov--a gorgeous and heavy book that I've made it more than halfway through, but have yet to finish because finishing it means I'd have to start all over at the beginning just to make sure I have the story straight in my head.

Nevertheless, I should just be finishing up The Passion of New Eve and then heading into Virginia Woolfe's Orlando.  AND THEN WRITING A DAMN CHAPTER FOR MY THESIS.  Upon completion of this first chapter, I have decided I shall throw myself a party.  Wahoo!

Nevertheless, late at night I want a book to read, one that doesn't require a pencil in hand, my smartphone nearby to look up unknown words (thank you Ms. Angela Carter, you veritable dictionary/encyclopedia of words, mythology, philosophy, etc. and everything!)...just a book to make me think a bit and lull me to sleep.

Tomorrow a journey to the library is in order.

Must Read!

Although I had heard about this book many times on NPR, I avoided it because I really didn't want to read a book in which a third of a its title is dedicated to the word "PRAY" (as in Eat, Pray, Love)! .  However, it is a beautiful book that brought me to tears (and laughter) on multiple occasions.  Honestly, I haven't felt this much grief upon finishing a book in a long while.  Perhaps it is simply because the book speaks to me in a certain voice just when I am in a certain place (or maybe one might say an uncertain place) in my life.  Just read it.  I'd love to know what you all think about it. 

Reviewed

• The Pesthouse by Jim Crace--this is a quite enjoyable read.  A vision of an apocalyptic (in the non-religious sense) America whose inhabitants are eager leave the barren, gang-riven land for the shores of Europe where the pigs are eager to be food and allow one to strip meat for food from their sides as they (the pigs) walk along.  Machinery and its metal workings are a story of a distant past, of one's great-great-great-great-to-the-nth-degree grandparents, and are considered the work of the devil by a new religious group, the Finger Baptists.  Beautiful tale, not the best dystopic story ever, but a good read.

• Marathon Woman by Kathrine Switzer--I loved this book and the honesty with which Kathrine tells her life story.  Although she wasn't the first actual woman to run the Boston Marathon (that title belongs to Roberta Gibb), she was the first woman to register to run it and was nearly kicked physically out of the race.  Marathon Woman really opened my eyes to the issues and barriers woman had to face in the sports arena prior to Title IX, as well as the issues faced less openly after its passing.  I guess when it comes to feminism, I wasn't all that interested in sports issues, rather I was more intrigued/infuriated by things such as the non-passage of the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) and the fact that a woman could not get a credit card on her own prior to 1975.  Also interesting was to read about the lack of amenities--water or porta-potties--during marathons and other races till the mid-to-early 1980's.

• Knitting Rules by the Yarn Harlot--This one was in the shelves at my library and I was kind of hesitant to pick it up because I didn't enjoy her book At Knit's End: Meditations for Women Who Knit to Much as it seemed to dwell too much and too gleefully on overtly-excessive yarn consumption which I am trying to avoid (see The Overspent American: Why We Want What We Don't Need by Juliet B. Schor).  Nevertheless,  I enjoyed reading this book and think it would make a good book for a knitting gift for someone who is in the beginning to intermediate stages of learning to knit and could use some great tips and tricks, as well as overall reference.

• Notes on a Scandal--with Judi Dench and Cate Blanchett.  This is marvelously strange movie; a bit off-setting and disturbing, but wonderfully acted.

• Frontline's The Meth Epidemic--Whoah! Scary shit!  I had only read about what meth did to its addicts and actually seeing the visual destruction of addicts and their families was horrifying.  I used to complain about having to buy psuedophedrine from pharmacists (for my massive, chronic sinus problems) but--after seeing this program--I am committed to never complaining again!

• The Good Shepherd--hmmm...I'd have to honestly classify this one as boring and way too long for its own good.  Too bad, because I love me a good spy, thriller, CIA-type of movie.

• Mocean Worker, song "Tickle It"--this sounds like good subway music to me, perfect for watching the madness of the 5 o'clock commute and knitting away like a madwoman.  I am thinking of getting the entire album.

• Destash--Sell your yarn stash for cash.  Wondermous!  I bought some sock yarn--Trekking XXL colors #185 & #186 (pics below)--off of the site for $13 a skein including shipping.  Wa-hoo!  I do believe I have finally caught the sock bug and am currently infected with a feverish addiction to sock knitting.

 

Currently Reading (&LOVING): Ahab's Wife

Ahab's Wife, or, The Star-Gazer is an absolutely fabulous, dripping-with-beauty sort of book.
I highly, highly recommend your reading it.  I am taking my time, reading it slowly, so I can allow the poetics of author's, Sena Jeter Nasuland, words to seep into my mind. 

Just a few beautiful excerpts:
1. "Beware the treachery of words, Mrs. Sparrow.  They mean one thing to one person and the opposite to another.  They are like all conventional, land-born habits.  Words seem to be well-woven baskets ready to hold your meaning, but they betray you with rotted corners and splintered stays." (297)

2. Lace must fall from our fingers--a blunt shuttle, no sharp needle, thread not piercing fiber, not binding cloth to cloth, but purest thread knotting on itself.  Thread mixed with air, the lace of snowflakes.  My lap rising with purity and lightness of new-fallen snow. (231)

3. Take some thread of yourself--say it is your abilitiy to love--put your finger on it and trace it back in time.  Not far, and your finger finds a lump, a bump, a tangle, a ganglion.  Here the thread loops back on itself, encircles and chokes itself, convolutes till you know: it is a knot.
     Now you can begin to pull, and you learn (say you are six now) how the limpsy string becomes a nubbin,  a recalcitrant, tiny, in-laced rock, and with each impatient tug you convert energy into a minute hardness.  You cannot make a knot unloose itself with this external force; no, you can make it smaller, but you cannot make it disappear.  Perhaps all matter is really made of knots!  Perhaps fire, like love, can unloose a knot of coal into a free and dancing heat.  (231-32)

A Look at Rodriguez's Hunger of Memory

In Hunger of  Memory: The Education of Richard Rodriguez,Rodriguez relates his life story--from being a child entering a private Catholic school with the knowledge of only 50 English words to becoming a Stanford scholarship student and finally a Ph.d student of Literature at UC Berkeley concluding his studies with a year abroad in the UK studying at the British Museum's Reading Room.  As he tells his story, Rodriguez illustrates the pain and empowerment of assimilation into public culture, the culture and society outside of his familial home.

Rodriguez makes a cogent argument against both bilingual education and affirmative action and shares how he faces scorn and anger from the Chicano movement and others who support bilingual education and affirmative action.  Near the beginning of the book, I was a bit torn up by his anti-affirmative action argument, but found that he gave credible reasons near the end of his story.  Rodriguez contends that oppression not only effects all races, as well as women and homosexuals, but that what America is clearly not seeing is the effect that class has on the individual’s opportunity to succeed in American society. Of course, the American class system is not as visible as that which still exists in Britain or the caste system in India, but it is nevertheless there and I see it as being delineated by one’s levels of affluence vs. poverty and the education concomitant with that affluence or poverty. Those who are impoverished economically tend to be also educationally impoverished by virtue of attending an anemic school system, while those who are more affluent have the ability to purchase a home in a high-performing school district or to send their children to an excellent private school.  Rodriguez identifies those who are economically and educationally impoverished--of all races, sexes, and sexual identities--as "cultural minorities".

Rather than calling for affirmative action at the college or university level, Rodriguez avers that a fundamental change needs to occur at the elementary, middle, and secondary levels wherein a new, and invigorated emphasis is put on excellent early schooling.  However, Rodriguez does not ignore the fact that the schools cannot make this change alone; rather he sees it as a change that needs to occur across all levels of society--from the individual, to the family/home, community, and via the  governmental institutions.

In explaining his call for the elimination of bilingual education, Rodriguez points out that:

[...] bilingual educators say that children lose a degree of  'individuality' by becoming assimilated into public society...But the bilingualists simplistically scorn the value and and necessity of assimilation.  They do not seem to realize that there are two ways a person is individualized.  So they do not realize that while one suffers a diminished sense of private individuality by becoming assimilated into public society, such assimilation makes it possible the achievement of public individuality.

The bilingualists insist that a student should be reminded of his difference from others in mass society, his heritage.  But they equate mere separateness with individuality.  The fact is that only in private--with intimates--is separateness from the crowd a prerequisite for individuality  (An intimate draws me apart, tells me that I am unique, unlike all others.)  In public, by contrast, full individuality is is achieved, paradoxically, by those who are able to consider themselves members of the crowd.  Thus it happened for me: Only when I was able to think of myself as an American, no longer an alien in gringo society, could I seek the rights and opportunities necessary for full public individuality. (26-7)

Not being a minority in society (as women are no longer a numerical minority, although we still slam up against many a glass ceiling!), I am not sure how an ethnic minority might feel about such ideas as Rodriguez espouses.  However, his entire book solidly backs the above statement and his argument for the elimination of both affirmative action and bilingual education.  I suppose the one thing I full-heartedly support is the Equal Rights Amendment which has fallen out of the sights of most politicians and citizens today.  As for bilingual education, I can see the possibility of it being a necessity for a year of education to help students learn English.  Additionally, I think all students should be learning at least a second language, if not a third or fourth at an early age like other countries such as Korea, Germany, etc.  I would like to see the elimination of affirmative action through strong and invigorating elementary and secondary schooling opportunities for all!

The Start of Summer Reading

Read

• J.D. Robb's Witness in Death--I tend to ease my way into post-semester reading by choosing a "junk-foodish-type" of novel and this time was no different.  I chose J.D. Robb's Witness in Death from the library's bookshelf based on the worn appearance of its spine, figuring it must be worn out for a good reason.  I actually quite enjoyed this mystery novel and loved its future-based setting.  The one thing that I didn't like was the cheesy love scenes that were littered throughout the pages.  In trying to figure out who wrote this novel--as there was no author page or picture--I discovered that the author was Nora Roberts writing under a pseudonym.  Ahah!  Nora Roberts is the author of over a hundred and fifty romance novels (according to Wikipedia).  That explains the amour-cheese factor!  Oh well, it was still a good mystery and I skimmed over the romance scenes.

• M.T. Anderson's The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing: Vol. I The Pox Party--I really don't want to give too much away about this book because I feel that approaching it with a "blank slate" of a mind really adds to the mysterious unraveling of the story (and therefore, I warn against reading too much--or any--of the Powell's summary).  This is categorized as a "young person's" novel (grades 9+), but it has so much to offer to adults.  It is written in the speech patterns of colonial America and has an epistolary section that is, at moments, a tidbit of work to decipher as it retains the original spellings of 18th century English.  There are moments of Empirical Philosophy humor wherein one of the characters is determined to prove that his room and its contents cease to exist when he is not there and so he is constantly running up to his room to fling the door open in hopes of catching it in its non-existence.  There are also moments of intense sadness and grief; such as those that occur when the Octavian (the main character) and his mother are flogged and locked in an icehouse or when Octavian loses a dear loved one.  This book is amazing--more amazing than I can give words to--and it amazes on a myriad of levels.

Did Not Read

• I really wanted to like Charles Seife's Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea , but my disenchantment with math obstinately got in the way.  Pooh.  If you like math (and reading), you'll love this book.
• Bernard Bailyn's To Begin the World Anew: The Genius and Ambiguities of the American Founders--just didn't do it for me.  Way too much ambiguity and not enough of a straightforward telling of the founder's ideas and genius.  Too much parsing of paintings and not enough telling me about the folks behind the founding of America.
• Haggai Carmon's The Red Syndrome (A Dan Gordon Intelligence Thriller)--just not thrilling enough for me to waste my time reading a thriller that I plucked off the new books bookshelf.  I'd rather spend my time being challenged by a capital "L" Literature book like The Brother's Karamazov which I said I'd restart and finish this summer.

Books and More Books

Reading

• Cane River--Lalita Tademy: My awesome Sockret Pal Hope of Procrastiknitter sent this book to me in my final Sockret Pal Package.  Finally got it started today and am loving the tale it tells.  Thanks, Hope!
  

• The N Word: Who Can Say, Who Shouldn't and Why--Jabiri Asim:  Heard about it on NPR and saw it on the new book shelf at the library.  So far I am reading selected parts--mainly parts that may work as reading selections for a freshman (college) English Composition class on identity that I may someday teach.  I am especially interested in the chapter titled "N***er vs. N***a" which looks at the "difference" between the two words and how and perhaps why young African Americans might address each other with this word.  Personally, I am bothered when I hear kids call each other the N word, but that's just my opinion.  I am also bothered when girls or woman call each other bitch.  However, I do read Bitch Magazine--but I think that the women who call each other bitch usually aren't doing it in a word-reclaiming, feminista sort of way; rather it's just seems to be slang or a form of  insult for them.

• The Nothing that Is: A Natural History of Zero--Robert & Ellen Kaplan--Reading bits of this book briefly here and there.  Skipping the math that utilizes Sumerian toolmarkings to indicate numbers.  This is definitely not the book that I was looking for.  I was actually trying to find Charles Seife's Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Number, which I have wanted to read for three or so years, but I couldn't remember what it was called and it wasn't available at the school library.  Actually, now that I sit down and write about The Nothing that Is, I realize that I am through with reading it.  Too little time to waste reading books that you really don't want to or have to read.

Read

• The Extra Mile: One Woman's Personal Journey to Ultra-Running Greatness--Pam Reed: Reed has a blog-ish style of writing which was a little distracting for a book, but nevertheless it was inspiring to read about such an awesome athlete (who happens to be a woman).  She has twice won the Badwater race--"the 135-mile race from California’s Death Valley to Mount Whitney that is considered the world’s toughest running event"--and is the only person male or female known to have run 300 miles non-stop (sans sleep).  She is also a mother of five (of which two are stepchildren) and runs the Tucson Marathon.

• Ultramarathon Man: Confessions of an All-Night Runner--Dean Karnazes: Easily-devoured, compelling, and quick reading.  Makes me want to run more than a marathon.  Karnazes is currently running cross-country (literally!) from New York to his home in the SF Bay Area; all those miles so soon after finishing the 50 marathons in 50 states in 50 days blitz.   BTW-Oh, Karnazes, YOU are SO HOT!

• Cancer Vixen: A True Story--Marisa Acocella Marchetto:  I usually don't do the graphic books thing, yet I picked this book off the new book shelf at the library.  I highly recommend reading this book if you have breast cancer (or any other cancer) or know someone who has cancer as it is exceptionally informative about the whole process/experience.  Despite being a story about surviving breast cancer, it still manages to be entertaining as she shares the story of how she met her husband and what it's like to be a woman cartoonist in a mainly male-cartooning world.  There's a whole lot more to it, but you'll just have to read it for yourself
  

• The Namesake--Jhumpa Lahiri--There were some utterly beautiful sections in this book, but there were many moments when it felt as if she should have concluded it, yet didn't.  Nevertheless, there was some sort of thread pulling my through this book, forcing me to finish it.   Warning to readers: This is quite a melancholy story so don't go reading it if you are as blue as robin's egg. 
  

Yummy quote:  "For being a foreigner, Ashima is beginning to realize, is a sort of lifelong pregnancy--a perpetual wait, a constant burden, a continuous feeling out of sorts.  It is an ongoing responsibility, a parenthesis in what had once been an ordinary life, only to discover that the previous life has vanished, replaced by something more complicated and demanding.  Like pregnancy, being a foreigner, Ashima believes, is something that elicits the same curiosity from strangers, the same combination of pity and respect" (pp. 49-50).***

***Although, I "thump-thump" (like a bible) the MLA guidelines in my academic writing, when it comes to blog writing, I seem to vacillate wildly between all guidelines (APA, MLA, HollyLA, etc.)--mishing and mashing them together like chunky smashed potatoes.  All apologies to the MLA-ers and APA-ers out there who cringe in pain each time I write and cite.

Want to Read (or Re-start Reading):

• Language, Counter-Memory, Practice: Selected Essays and Interviews--Michel Foucualt--Started to read this as extra work for class, but realized I don't have the time or the mind (right now) to do extra work for class.

• The Third Policeman--Flann O'Brien: Started reading this when I was really, really sick back in March.  I am determined to start again as it seemed quite off the wall.  Plus, it is supposed to give some sort of insight into the TV show Lost (which I now have a drug-like addiction to).

• Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Number--Charles Seife (see above)

• Marathon Woman: Running the Race to Revolutionize Women's Sports--Kathrine Switzer.  This woman also has ovaries (like Ms. Pam Reed)!  She was the first woman to run the Boston Marathon in 1967 and was nearly kicked out of the race by the race officials.  (Did you know that the first Olympic Marathon for woman was ran in 1984!  Hello, world, get a grip, woman should have been allowed to have an Olympic Marathon event prior to that!)

• If on a Winter's Night a Traveler--Italo Calvino: This has been on my bookshelf for a while and I do believe I am going to finally read it this summer.

Door Closes, Window Opens

An interesting change of plans has occurred for my summer...

I'll be moving home; as in:

To My Parent's House! 

Holy cannoli, I have not lived at home since a few weeks after my graduation from high school and it is so weird that I'll be staying with my parents from May 18th to August 1st.  It will have been approximately 13 years since I've last lived with my parents.

"Why?" You might ask.  Forget that, of course, you'd ask "WTF? Why?"

Well, my housing plans for the summer fell through and I've no friends who can take in one woman WITH TWO CATS! 

So, it's off to the woods I go!  Look out Big Creek, California, with your population of 258 humans and at least one black bear, your elevation of 4,920 feet, your one post office, your one general store, and your pool at the K-8th School (And, by golly, a Wikipedia entry! Who woulda thunk it?!).

The Pros and the Cons:

The Pros:

1. I'll be able to visit with my parents (my mum and my real dad, not the bio-dad) as well as with my brother, Ronnie, who's in his late 30's.  (He has his own place.)
2. My cats and I have a place to live rent-free for the summer.
3. High-altitude training for my marathon running!
4. No job!  Except for well-paid yard labor and house labor for the 'rents.  Maybe even some local babysitting if the price is right!
5. Time to work on my thesis prospectus and one last paper.
6. Beautiful trees and sky.  Lots o' wildlife.  Hiking in my backyard.
7. Knit, knit, knit!
8. Read, read, read!
9. Watch cable t.v. like a slothful teenager.
10. At the end of summer, I'll be moving to the city by the bay, San Francisco, Bay-bee!  And will finally be living with the love-dove again!

The Cons:

1. My cats will have a better living situation than I will, as I will be camping out in the backyard (with the bear!) for the summer to avoid the cigarette smoke.  (It must be noted, that my parents have significantly decreased and are on their way to quitting smoking.)  The cats will be living it up in the lap of luxury being spoiled--I'm sure--by their grandparents whom believe it just fine to make hamburgers for their pets!  And have been know to hit the local Der Weinerschnitzel to pick up hot dogs for their dog.   (Note to self: Must weigh cats on weekly basis or even bi-weekly basis to make sure they aren't gaining too much weight!)
2. No Love-Dove, Johnny.  He'll be staying in Concord.  We do plan on actually getting some good backpacking trips in this summer, especially after last summer's lame attempts to at least go camping.
3. Uh, yeah, nothing to do.  No friends nearby.  Only a teeny-tiny library that's open twice a week.  Nearest yarn store at least an hour and a half drive away.

Right now, I am basically tripping out about moving home.  Bear with me (and hopefully there will not be a bear with me when I am sleeping outside!) while I just go: "Whoah!  Mind-frack!"