Whatcha Readin'?

Reads

It's been a while since I picked up a book for fun. This chic-fluff read is about high Texas society in Austin and the paradoxes of life in general. It piqued my interest because I have a cookbook published by the Junior League of Plano and always thought it was a teen girls club. I didn't know it was for up and coming 20-30somethings. The hot guy artist in the plot makes it fun.

I am reading this right now. I haven't really thought about the history of indentured servititude of Anglos and their relationship with African slaves. These two cultures intertwined in the Carribean on sugar and tobacco plantations. I love Irish history and this fiction does a great job in painting a picture of what it's like to be oppressed by a group who looks and worships like you do but who considers you a whole other species. The author has done a lot of scholarly research on the sociology and psychology of slavery and how it defines "family" differently. Sometimes we forget slavery is ubiquitous in human history.

I am almost done. Any recommendations for a book to take with me to Fredericksburg this weekend when Cyler and I head out for an anniversary weekend?

Short, Hard, and Expensive

Lessons that is. According to this guy anyway. I'm thinking work, family/friends, volunteer positions, etc. Let's discuss:

Superstar employees will leave you no matter what you do to keep them.

The activity you reward will get done.

People motivate themselves.

Disrespect is the #1 grounds for dismissal.

Few people will take responsibility for their results until they have exhausted all opportunities to blame someone else.

Praise in public; critique in private.

Not all problems can be fixed.

Training is expensive, but stupid employees are more expensive.

Moving Midway

This man is a film historian and made a documentary: About his family house in North Carolina:

What it teaches about history, memory, film, family and the South is amazing. Netflix "Moving Midway" to see why I love this man:

Aviary Gate

Linking past and present heroines, the story follows Oxford researcher Elizabeth Staveley as she uncovers the 400-year-old story of Celia Lamprey, a sea captain's daughter engaged to merchant-turned-diplomat Paul Pindar when she's lost in a shipwreck. Celia doesn't drown, of course. She becomes a concubine-in-training in Constantinople.

Eventhough sexual politics is a cliche for historical romances, I still thought I would enjoy this book when I saw it in the Athens airport. (Sexual politics were the only kind women were allowed to play back in the day.) Just getting to it now since apparently I am supposed to have more free time now the kids are in school. Anything about Oxford intrigues me and Turkey is on my travel wish list. Come take the ride with me if you want.

Home and Other Big Fat Lies

A Summer Novel--reading with the kids in the pm.

Let's say you're a kid who's small for her age and some other kids who are way overgrown decide it would be the most hilarious thing in the world to shove the new kid in the house into the clothes dryer and slam it closed. I can tell you how to get out of that dryer by kicking and screaming bloody murder so that the foster mom with the bald spot on the top of her head rescues you in front of the entire snickering ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha house full of kids.

The Sparrow Falls

And this book has laid me out. It is adult theology with all the attendant irony and uncertainty we have to acknowledge in our present state of self-awareness. This is not a book for one who thinks God is hearts and flowers. But it is for the one who can understand how a Jew, after the Holocaust, after dignity has been stolen, after losing everyone dear, can still believe in a God albeit a God that doesn't follow the rules He sets for others. There is confession and hope of redemption at the end of this book which made it all the more heart-wrenching--and there is a sequel. I will have to put some space between me and this book for a while before I start Children of God.

This book tackles sociology, evolution, first contact between people of 'difference', intention, faith and family. But it ripped me apart--and I'm so glad I read it. I have a friend who is mad at God right now. Either that or he laughs at the farce of his life because he thought God would keep bad things from happening if he would just do 'thus and so,' this or that ritual--he and Emilio have some feelings in common.

I love what Russell (converted to Judaism from Catholicism)herself says: "The beauty of religion is the way in which it enriches your understanding of what your senses tell you. . .There's a certain serenity that comes from knowing that the ethics you draw on have been tested and re-tested by one thousand generations in every possible cultural and ethical climate, and that they have been found reliable and useful by so many people for so long. . .
The risks have to do with believing that God micromanages the world, and with seeing what may be simply coincidence as significant and indicative of divine providence. It's very easy then to go out on a limb spiritually, expect more from God than you have a right to and set yourself up for bitter disappointement in his silence and lack of action."

The Sparrow Who

I think is Emilio in the book. He is flying a long way from home to find God. His ecstatic experience of meeting the Runa (intensly social, technologically underdeveloped hybrids of humans and deer) borders on theophany--I was right there with him. And when the book jerks me back with him in front of the Jesuit committee, I can't understand how he went from saintliness to being a broken, emotionally defeated man. I still don't know why he killed the interpreter child, Askama, who was his constant companion on the other planet, or why he turned to prostitution--was it to protect Sofia somehow? Was it an economic thing? I have an idea why he chose to get his fingers biologically altered (to belong, to get into the socially higher status of the Jana'ata). Please Vicenzo (the Father General, son of a mafia boss, who also happens to sail like a pro) fix him. I would rather he have DW's theology (he thinks God is a comedian since he made DW a gay, ugly poet-pilot to be born in Waco TX). And Behr and Candotti are my models for good Christians, while Voelker (the binary, judgemental, sad excuse for a spiritual leader) can take his letter of the law and shove it. . . I digress. The scene where Emilio and Sofia and Askama are sitting in the tree shelter together--that's heaven for me.

Sparrow Suprises

This Mary Russell writes comedy so well!! The repartee between the characters at dinner are intelligent and hilarious. I want to be Anne's dinner guest. I already love Emilio the reformed Puerto Rican drug dealer who was saved by entering the priesthood. I have had a fascination with Jesuits ever since studying their inception of and involvement in the Sandinista movement in 1980's Nicaragua. Bad-Ass Holy Men! And Anne, the MD-agnostic-braniac with a mouth of a sailor and a heart of gold--what can I say--I love her too-an older woman who is still very much sentient and sensual. I love how she cooks food from the ethnic/cultural background of her guest. And Sophia, the Sephardic Jew intellectual slave (what a creatice concept),--I want so badly for her to get kissed by Emilio! She needs it desparately. I also like the way Russell shows the media frenzy/misinformation surrounding the discovery of the Singers. The whirl of rumor/skepticism, conflated with the inability of established power to act efficiently enough to form a mission that took the Jesuits relative moments to put together, was so ironic, yet believable. You gotta know the Jesuits. This book has more cussing in it than I have ever read. I am not comfortable with the amount (cuss words should be like salt and pepper-used sparingly for the best effect) and not sure why she adds so much--is it to give emphasis to the beauty of imperfect reality? Is this how people she knows really talk? What do you think so far?

Couldn't Wait till Sunday

Here is the next book for Absinthe Chatter. Ask for it for Mother's Day, drop by the library,--I got it at Barnes and Noble (buy 2 get 1 free). These lines on the back hooked me:

"If you have to send a group of people to a newly discovered planet to contact a totally unknown species, whom would you choose? How about four Jesuit priests, a young astronomer, a physician, her engineer husband, and a child prostitute turned computer expert?"

I'm in. Come with me.

Ch2 Skip a Few A Hundred

I scarfed this book down. It was so easy to read and I loved hearing her personal work situations. While I wonder if she realizes that fashion magazines generally are known to have deleterious effects on women's self-image, I am a fan of her practical advice, her initiative and her willingness to put something down on paper for others. Think of all the humans that have passed on without leaving something like this for others to talk about and learn from. Anyways, here are some nuggets from the rest of the book that I loved--you might pick out others.

Power=something you create for yourself, take your ego out of it, and If you can't join 'em, throw your own party!

Risk=The worst case scenario is rarely as bad as you think, Get used to needing change, rule-breaking is an underappreciated and underutilized skill.

People=Stir things up in a good way, trust and be a mentor, don't personalize that which is not personal ((HOW??--I want to know)), be generous with praise, manage by empathy.

Fear=Use fairy dust, and humor. Don't fear criticism and stand your ground when you have it to stand on. Don't wield fear as a weapon.

I would like to be adaptable to change, live a grudge free, 360degree life like she says is possible. I am glad she found love again and that she has children to pass her knowledge to--she is proof that a woman can have a rewarding personal and public life at the same time. Different than having it all at the same time--which she says is a phrase she hates because it implies that everyone wants the same things. Bravo for saying this, Ms. Black! And really, the things that work in one sphere, work in the other--I choose to not have borders between public and private anymore.

Black mentions taking the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator test (a personality/aptitude test). Has anyone taken it? We should take it and see what we find out.

Ch1 DRIVE

Black writes about an employee of hers that had the drive to start up CosmoGirl and I learned that drive comes from having an emotional connection to something. That emotion furnishes enough motivation to succeed at a quest. She says drive is "the act of moving forward on your own initiative." I'll list the little nugget sentences she inserts :

Make like a Boy Scout: Be Prepared

Ask someone who knows

Check and double check (your information. p17 quote: "If your mother says she loves you, check it.")

Pick up the phone

Sell yourself as though you believe in the product. (I would say sell it BECAUSE you believe.)

Go the extra mile and a half

Assume nothing

Make your boss look good (take stress off her/him, anticipate his/her needs by knowing their preferences, never "suprise" your boss.)

I like how on p 28 she says she was determined to "take over responsibilities I had to assume would be mine." That reminds me of a meeting I was in at the TWU nursing department when people were trying to figure out if taking an independant step would be ok with some superiors. One of them said, "If we are given a task, we should assume the authority to carry out that task and not wait for someone to hand it to us." So authority comes when you take the task in hand, maybe?

I remember after I had studied a bit about Branch Davidians and Lois Roden, I had burning questions. I had to know. I booked a room in Waco, called Baylor to make arrangements to see their primary source collection, and took a weekend. As I walked on the Mt. Carmel property, I knew that is where I was supposed to be that day. The makeshift museum I had expected to visit was closed up, a barking dog kept following me. I went house to house until I came to one with blood smeared across the lintel. I knew that the group celebrated traditional Old Testament holy days (like Passover) but still, the blood was a deterrent. But those questions that I had to know, my emotional connection stayed my feet. I was able to have an oral interview (thanks Charles) that not only answered my questions but gave me material for new and better ones (that became my master's thesis). My professors were impressed (albeit a bit concerned for me) that I had gotten there on my own steam. That is one of the few times I have known what it felt like to be truly driven. I carried a bit of this over to travelling with the homeschooler.

Some other stuff I wrote in the margins:

Use your contacts

p20 I thought she was flip when mentioning that her marriage was ending. I would like to know more about this--maybe later in the book?

Believe enough to put it out there

Go to the trouble to make things right

p25 I saw an obvious dig at Iacoca (I think some of this book was written to get back at people from her past?)

p26 use the phrase "seems to make the most sense" when suggesting something.

What did you pick out from the book? When have you felt "Drive." How have you made your boss look good in the past?

Basic Black--Author Intro

Cathie Black came into her own during second wave feminism and seems to be one of those that focused mostly on the type of "glass-ceiling" breaking I really support-proving that women can be administers in public space while not feeling compelled to renounce femininity. She worked for and was instrumental in establishing rags like USA Today, Ms. magazine, and O, the Oprah magazine. She remembers being physically threatened, but mostly ignored and laughed at as she tried to sell ad space for Ms.

I'm hoping she goes into how to balance work and family more than she has so far in my reading. I know Gloria Steinem (whom I respect in many ways) says that men don't ever ask that question. (Uh, yes they do. Rather, mine does. We both ask each other where the balance is all the time.) Glancing over some of the chapters, they are titled with straightforward words like DRIVE, RISK, FEAR. I like that. So different from how I would title chapters. I also am thinking she might have developed some "work-place" ethics. What I mean is that at work sometimes people do the Machiavellian dance--"The end justifies the means." So, I will filter and handpick the traits she has that I want as I do with every human I learn from.

Basic Black

I consider myself a bit "professionally" immature. Being emotive, impulsive, non-conforming is all well and good if one is an independantly wealthy-artist-fairy-hermit whose friends are eternally forgiving. I want to develop my cool, calm, collected self a bit more. So I will be summarizing/reviewing this book: Now, I'm not asking you all to read with me. You can if you like, or use Absinthe Chatter as a virtual bookclub. Make comments-tell me I'm full of it and to jump in the lake. Or tell me something that you agree with as I bring themes out of the books. I figure I'll get through 2-3 per month so sit back, relax, and let me do the reading.