30 Books Before I'm 30: The Dante Club

The Dante Club by Matthew Pearl

"Do not ask what brings Dante to man but what brings man to Dante-- to personally enter his sphere, though it is forever severe and unforgiving."

I couldn't quite pinpoint, at first, what it was that made this book so difficult for me to finish. I mean, one would think (as I did when I bought it) that this type of thing would be like manna for me-- mystery and literature references!? How could I not be in heaven? But this book was a slow-starter and it took me no less than five tries to get through it all. And toward the end, I plowed through only because I had a pile of library books I needed to read before their return date.

The Dante Club is a story about a series of fictional murders that took place using Dante's Inferno as a blueprint. The main characters (Longfellow, Lowell, O.W. Holmes, etc.) were all real people, and the story centers around Longfellow's translation of Dante to English, but none of the action really took place. I don't know if I found that more confusing or annoying, but I had a really hard time at first keeping people straight and trying to determine how much about everyone I needed to know beforehand (nothing, as it turned out). The ending was interesting and not necessarily more or less predictable than other murder mysteries. I'm not sure that I would recommend this book to anyone.

What I Liked: The action of this book takes place in Boston around the end of the Civil War, and I really liked the depiction of these soldiers coming home and not really knowing what to do with themselves or where to go for help. This was several decades before PTSD was even described as "shell-shock," and I thought that it was an interesting glimpse into the lives of Civil War soldiers without actually reading a book (or watching Ken Burns's fabulous documentary). 

What I Didn't Like: There was a lot I didn't like. There were too many characters introduced too quickly, and I didn't know whether I was supposed to remember them all or whether the action in the first 20 or so pages was of utmost importance (it wasn't). Also, the author clearly did a lot of research (and tells you so in the "Historical Note," but that might have caused him to include unimportant details just to show off his knowledge. I felt like the book dragged in (lots of) places. 

I Would Recommend this Book to: No one. Not even Dante fans. Sorry.

Up Next: The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood because I checked it out of the library and  I've already started it. Holy cow, it's thick.

Side-note: I'm starting to get worried I might not finish my list since it is already 5 months past my 29th birthday and I haven't even read a third of what I had planned. Can I blame it on grad school and just have another 29th birthday next year? We'll see.

30 Books Before I'm 30: Anne of Green Gables

Anne of Green Gables by Lucy M. Montgomery

"There's such a lot of different Annes in me. I sometimes think that is why I'm such a troublesome person. If I were just the one Anne it would be ever so much more comfortable, but then it wouldn't be half so interesting."

I loved this story about an orphan who is mistakenly sent to an elderly brother and sister who wanted a boy to help with the farm. Of course from seeing the movie I loved it for the romantic aspects (Gilbert Blythe! Swoon!), but reading the book made me appreciate this beautiful world Montgomery created where the worst thing that can happen is that a girl can get accidentally drunk on what she thought was raspberry cordial. 

What I Liked: Of course I loved that the main character is a dreamer who wins over the hearts of the surly people in her town. I actually really like that she has a major flaw (red hair and a red-hot anger when people make fun of her for it) and that she is beautiful in her own way. I love that she's smart and that people love her for who she is. 

I like that, though there is a hint of romance between Anne and Gilbert, the first book isn't really about that. Instead, it's about Anne's relationships with other people and their relationships with her. It's about stubbornness and compromise, friendship and redefining family.

No wonder this book is such a comforting read! It transported me back to an earlier time in my development where I didn't worry about things the way I do now. 

What I Didn't Like: I have to admit that I cried. And it was in public, which was embarrassing. If you know the story then you'll know when during the story it was, but I'm not going to spoil anything. I even knew it was coming and I still cried. So, beware.

Gems of Wisdom: Kindle books highlight things for you sometimes, and this particular book had a lot of highlights. So I thought I'd share some of these gems of wisdom.

"Isn't is splendid to think of all the things there are to find out about? It just makes me feel glad to be alive-- it's such an interesting world. It wouldn't be half so interesting if we know all about everything would it? THere's be no scope for imagination then, would there?"

"Kindred spirits are not so scarce as I used to think. It's splendid to find out there ae so many of them in the world."

"Isn't it nice to think that tomorrow is a new day with no mistakes in it yet?"

"I get tired od other girls-- there is such a provoking and eternal sameness about them. Anne has as any shades as a rainbow and every shade is the prettiest while it lasts. I don't know that she is as amusing as she was when she was a child, but she makes me love her, and I like people who make me love them. It saves me so much more trouble in making myself love them."

"Next to trying and winning, the best thing is trying and failing."

"We resent the thought that anything can please us when someone we love is no longer here to share the pleasure with us, and we almost feel as if we were unfaithful to our sorrow when we find our interest in life returning to us."

This Book Would be Best if Read: Before bed. The chapters are short and they usually leave a good feeling in the gut. I read this book almost entirely on my plane ride from Portland to Austin. It's really short and really easy to read.

I Would Recommend This Book To: Pre-pubescent girls (younger than 13 because my niece is 13 and would probably think this book was way corny).

If You Like This Book, You Might Also Like: The films, of course, Anne of Avonlea (which I immediately began after finishing the first one) and other books in the series, Road to Avonlea (the television series)

Up Next: I've given up on Women of Covenant for the time being, so next (after finishing Anne of Avonlea) I'll be moving on to either The Dante Club, The House of the Spirits, or The Poisonwood Bible. Just keeping my options open.

30 Books Before I'm 30: Balancing Act

Balancing Act: The Authorized Biography of Angela Lansbury by Martin Gottfried

"As to her self-editing and reserved nature, it does not qualify the genuineness of her warmth. Angela Lansbury is as concerned, as sensitive, and as sympathetic as anyone might want in a friend. It is just that while she can offer compassion, she cannot readily give of herself. 'I don't have a best friend,' she says. 'I never did,' and she adds, genuinely puzzled, 'Why would I?'"

All right, so I know I said I was reading this next, but it was really dry. So I started reading Balancing Act instead (concurrently, really, though I pretty much stopped reading the other one for awhile).

This book was written by a good friend of Lansbury's (a stage critic, apparently, who never wrote her a bad review), so of course the book is (mostly) complimentary. It's a general biography, and unless you're interested in her, this book probably won't be your cup of tea. Also, because this is an "authorized" biography, there are zero juicy details (and considering I've become addicted to this, it was kind of a let-down).

What I Liked: I like Angela Lansbury, so all of this book was interesting since I knew practically zero about her private life. I liked that there were details about her theater career that I wouldn't otherwise know (since I've only seen her on Broadway once and wasn't around for the Mame-era Lansbury).

What I Didn't Like: The problem with this author is that he is a friend of Lansbury's so he only wrote what she allowed him to write (not that she was standing over him at the computer, but I wouldn't write nasty things about my friends either). He was also a theater critic, so he wrote predominantly about her theater life. He wrote off Bedknobs and Broomsticks as a piece of fluff (which made me sad, since that movie was such a positive part of my childhood-- I mean, how can you be sad when people are dancing around with clothing and cartoon fish?) He also devoted less than 30 pages on Murder, She Wrote, and most of that was about how Lansbury resented being compared to Jessica Fletcher (though, in fairness to her, she took that comparison seriously and made sure to choose future projects that would be in keeping with her Jessica Fletcher persona). 


I'm glad I read this book, but I think sometimes the less you know about a person, the better. The Angela Lansbury that exists in my head is much more comforting than the one that exists in real life. And I know the two aren't comparable, I'm not an idiot, but I wish I didn't read in print that Lansbury resents people for idealizing her. 

This Book Would be Best if Read: During a long weekend, while cuddling with cats and listening to the original Broadway cast recording of Sweeney Todd.

I Would Recommend This Book To: Someone who knows who Angela Lansbury is. I mean, that's helpful.

If You Like This Book, You May Also Like: The Manchurian Candidate (1962), Bedknobs and Broomsticks (1971), Sweeney Todd

Up Next: Anne of Green Gables (I kind of need a comfort read).

Thanksgiving 2010

This year Josh and I spent Thanksgiving with my family (unlike last year). Josh really wanted to run in the Turkey Stuffer 5K, since we had done it a few times previously and Josh wanted to prove to himself that he could do better than his past time.

I did a lot of waffling about whether I was going to join him. I go to the gym, but I don't run, and I really wanted to not embarrass myself. The other people who run in this 5K are generally high school kids on the track team, though there are some families and younger kids too. Have you even been passed by a ten year old who isn't even breaking a sweat? Embarrassing.

But then my parents said they were going to join us. In the past, the Turkey Stuffer has been something fun for my family (when we're in town) to do together before the eating. So I promised Josh I'd come too.

Here we are before the race:

I'll spare you the after picture because it is not flattering, but here are my parents after they finished walking:

The moment I hate most about being slow in a 5K is that by the time I was nearing the second mile point, people were already heading back to their cars or running the race from the end to find their family members. Pretty discouraging. 

I did meet some of my goals (to finish before my parents, who were walking, to finish before the end of my 41 1/2 minute ipod playlist) but didn't quite meet my other goals (to run the entire time, to finish at a time I wouldn't be embarrassed to tell people). I did run/jog for the first two miles, and I did pass a lot of people who had to walk because they weren't pacing themselves well. When people passed me, I just told myself "I'll pass them later when they get too tired to keep running." It was just sad to remember past Turkey Stuffers where I did run the entire time and realize how terrible I am now by comparison.

Ultimately, Josh beat me by about 9 minutes, but I beat my parents by about 15 minutes. At least I didn't come in last!

Later that day, for the Thanksgiving meal, my nephew Brad made place cards for us:

If you're having trouble reading it, is says "Best Person Ever"

Apparently I don't make this a secret.

He also made Josh a place card:

Josh says Brad should just call him Captain N

The next day, we went to the Ducks vs. Arizona game, where we premiered our yarn beards:

I don't understand

I got a new laptop a few weeks ago. A Mac. It's been 20 years since I've had a Mac, but I started using one at Lewis and Clark and I liked it. I wanted something that I could carry around in my purse.

And I like it. I like the "Dashboard" thing. I like the toolbar at the bottom of the screen.

But now my blog looks weird. And some of the pictures don't show up. And other peoples' blogs look strange, too, and hard to read. Maybe that's good because I spend less time on my computer.

But shouldn't a new computer make you want to spend more time on the computer?

Oh well. The ability to carry my laptop around without destroying my back is worth it (though my chiropractor will see me less often). And I might actually get some reading done.

But it made me wonder whether my two readers have a hard time seeing my pictures, and if so then I apologize. I love pictures, so one of my biggest peeves is when they don't show up on websites.

Halloween House Party

We had a Halloween party at our house back in October. As per usual, Heather Noakes planned the whole thing and we just made sure our house was presentable (free of cat hair) and unlocked. Heather did all of the decorations, though Mark can be credited with putting most of them up (and apparently making the pomegranate juice).

Because neither Josh nor I thought to get the camera out, all of these shots can be credited to Mark Noakes (except the one in which he appears, I suppose). So this was our party:

Heather had these really cute tea light holders in the shapes of jack-o-lanterns, but it rained so much they flooded! Fun fact: when I cleaned up these gravestones, they were covered in slugs. Apparently slugs love wet Styrofoam.

Our spooky front door. I've been cultivating the spiderwebs for the purposes of this party, I swear!

Thankfully our bookcases were messy enough to already look like they belong in a haunted house 

No Halloween party is complete without a picture of the real Haunted Mansion

All of the food was Halloween-themed, like:

Eyeballs!

Worms!

And food from the devil himself!

 

Heather set up a specimen lab in the dining room

Heather has such an eye for detail, she even thought to put mice running along the baseboards!

My phrenology bust made a surprise appearance

Unfortunately, I don't have pictures of all the costumes, but here are some of them:

 Sean and Kim Janeway as Jack and Jill

 Dave and Michelle Christianson as Darth Vader and Queen Amidala

 Me and Josh as Fidel Castro and Che Guevara. Remember these costumes? There were a couple people who couldn't figure out who we were supposed to be (though I thought the guess of Josh as Sayid from LOST was a good one).

Matt and Tonya Gold as '70s Disco Dominators

Christine and Kevin Morton as a witch and Spiderman (he had a mask too!)

And Mark and Heather Noakes as a wizard and a witch

This is my favorite picture of the night because 1. Josh looks so happy, and 2. Even though we were having a Halloween party, we couldn't bear to take down our Ducks' season poster:

Mostly we spent our time eating and talking, though we did try to do some spooky things like watch The Twilight Zone. I don't know what Josh and I are going to do when Heather and Mark move this summer, but I can guarantee we're going to be a lot less popular! 

30 Books Before I'm 30: Jane Eyre

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

"Ill or well, she would always be plain. The grace and harmony of beauty are quite wanting in those features."

I am surprised that I never previously read Jane Eyre because it, at first, seems like a book I would love; the main character is a plain-looking (and, yes, it is mentioned quite often how unremarkable Jane is), loves reading, and eschews marrying young (she held out until the ripe-old-age of 20). Jane is brought up in unfortunate circumstances-- an orphan, adopted by her evil aunt, forced to live with her equally evil cousins, and sent off to a boarding school where the girls are starved until they die from a tuberculosis epidemic. Then Jane, using a healthy helping of spit and gumption, makes her place in the world by hiring on as a governess for the ward (illegitimate daughter) of a (surprise, surprise) dashingly unhandsome (but disgustingly rich and noble) middle-aged gentleman who (spoiler alert) immediately falls in love with her, despite that she is 18, ugly, and his employee.

This review is going to be big on spoilers because, quite frankly, I don't think you should bother reading this book. Also, I have to complain about the ending. So stop reading this now if you want to be shocked and awed when you read Jane Eyre on your own

What I Liked: This book was easy to read, though the Kindle still makes me antsy. It took me about two weeks to finish, but I didn't read every day or for very long. I liked that Jane was (somewhat) realistic. I would have loved this book in middle school or high school, back when I thought novels about love at first sight weren't irresponsible. I liked that Bronte referred to her audience as "dear reader." At first it bothered me, but then it kind of made me feel like a confidant. I liked that Bronte was able to define her characters, set up the love story, then separate the lovers. I liked that the bad guys (and gals) were bad and the good guys were good. I never felt bad, for instance, about Mr. Rochester's wife (though Bronte had to go to huge lengths to make him sympathetic after he tried to commit bigamy) or St. John the Jerk. 

What I Didn't Like: It bothered me how much of an emphasis there was put on Jane's plainness, though it was nice that Mr. Rochester was described as similarly ugly. I got the impression that Jane wasn't expected to do any better than Mr. Rochester. It bothered me that Mr. Rochester was such a cad and yet was supposed to be this excellent catch. He had a child out of wedlock that he claimed wasn't his, he locked up his wife in the attic rather than seek proper mental health care (did they have sanitariums in those days?), tried to marry Jane even though he was already married (to a woman living UNDER THE SAME ROOF!), and refused to pay Jane a proper wage when she was going to travel see her dying aunt (yes, I know that this was supposed to be "romantic" because he was trying to ensure she came back, but I also found it creepy). Bronte had to redeem him by: having his current wife be a homicidal maniac who later commits suicide by jumping from the roof of the house as it burns from a fire she set, having him lose sight in both eyes after they were destroyed/infected during the same fire, having him lose his hand, and describing him as near-suicidal with depression following Jane's departure.

So, after she was treated so poorly by Mr. Rochester, Jane comes back to find him crippled and depressed, so she gets to BE HIS CONSTANT NURSEMAID! She gets to take such good care of him, in fact, that she doesn't even have time to take care of Adele, his illegitimate child (so she gets sent to boarding school at age 8-- though not to the crummy place Mr. Rochester originally sent her to where they starved her and were generally mean).

I know, I know. Different time, different place. How dare I impose by 21st century values on a book published 163 years ago, etc. I get it.  There was a time I would have swooned over this book, but it definitely isn't now.

Words I Learned From Reading this Book: (One of the best features of the Kindle is that it has a built-in dictionary, so I have made note of the words I had to look up)  captious (fault-finding, difficult to please), opprobrium (the disgrace or reproach incurred by conduct considered shameful), vassalage (dependence, subjection, or servitude), resurgam (Latin for "I shall rise again"), inditing (to compose or write, as with a poem), genii (plural of genius), contumacy (stubborn perverseness or rebelliousness), contumelious (humiliatingly insulting), girandoles (an ornate bracket for a candelabra, sometimes with a reflecting mirror at the back of the shelf), diablerie (reckless mischief, devilry), deglutition (to swallow down), philter (a magic potion for any purpose, most commonly a love potion), pertinaciously (holding firmly to an opinion or course of action), seraglio (the woman's apartments in a harem), suttee (a Hindu practice whereby a widow throws herself on the funeral pyre of her husband, now abolished by law), dudgeon (the feeling of offense or anger), and, my favorite, spoony (foolishly or sentimentally amorous). 

How many of those words did you know? Because even the spell-check recognized only about half of those as actual words.

This Book Would be Best if Read: In 1847. 

I Would Recommend this Book to: Overly sentimental grandmas and teenage girls who like to read rather than date. Also, perhaps, young, Mormon housewives with some time on their hands.

If you Like this Book, you May also Enjoy: Anything by Jane Austen, possibly Wuthering Heights (though I have yet to read it).

Up Next: Women of Covenant: The Story of Relief Society by Janath Russell Canon, Jill Mulvay Derr, and Maureen Ursenback Beecher.

6 Down, 24 to go!

P.S. I did most of my reading of this book while Josh was playing "Red Dead Redemption." I thought his look of determination in the above picture was funny.

My Favorite Things: TV Shows

These are the shows I make sure to watch within 24 hours of DVRing:

1. The Mentalist  This is my absolute favorite show, which is interesting since I only discovered it this summer. I look forward to it all week. (Which, now that I'm admitting it, is kind of depressing).


2. The Amazing Race  Josh and I watch this together on Sunday nights. It makes me happy. I never saw this show at all until we started dating, and in our first year of marriage we watched a bunch of re-runs. I began referring to this show all the time and it would make people laugh.

3. The Good Guys  Best. Intro. Ever. Most of the time I watch it on Saturday mornings while Josh is still asleep. I think more people should watch this show, but right now it's my all-by-myself tv show.

4. Community  Are you watching this? Well, you should be (because I am and I'm cool).


5. Mad Men  Only #5 because the season ended. Otherwise, it's also always and Josh and Emily Sunday Night Extravaganza show. (Maybe some day I'll sing my Mad Men song for you).


6. Psych  I love this show and I think it got even better last season. It just started again this past week. I also like to watch this show because we get the east coast feed of USA, so I can watch it when I get back from the counseling center while Josh is at Mutual.

7. Bones  This may be my last year for Bones, but I love it. I love David Boreanaz, I love Emily Deschanel (and not just because her parents named her so well), and I always look forward to watching it Friday mornings when I'm awake and Josh is still asleep (which is, obviously, when I do my most tv watching).

8. How I Met Your Mother  I started in on this show late and really didn't start watching it regularly until last season. It's starting to drag a little, but I watch it right before going to the gym on Monday nights.

Other shows I watch during the week when I have some time (mostly while I'm falling asleep-- I know you're not supposed to watch tv in bed, but Josh snores so loudly I have to have something on or else it's possible I will smother him with my pillow): Law & Order: SVU, Law & Order: LA, 30 Rock, The Office, Medium, CSI, and 90210 (it filled the hole left behind when I became too disgusted with Gossip Girl). Every once in awhile I'll watch Law & Order: UK, Lie to Me, and CSI: NY, but more often than not I've deleted them to make room for other things.

I don't know what prompted me to make this list. I think I watch more tv than most people, but I also: 1. Don't have kids, 2. Multi-task like crazy, and 3. Like watching tv.

30 Books Before I'm 30: Blonde

Blonde by Joyce Carol Oates

"Impossible to know the simplest of truths. Except that death is no solution to the riddle of life."

This book is a fictionalized version of Marilyn Monroe's life, but the problem is that Oates did (presumably) a lot of research, so I was a little unclear about which parts were legitimate fiction. But maybe that's the point? That no one can ever truly know the whole of a person, even if that person is wildly famous. I liked that at the end of the book I still didn't know whether Norma Jean/Marilyn was a smart woman who knew how to please people (mostly men, though Oates points out that Miller's parents like her-- a detail that falls into the "I don't know if this is actually true but I wish it was" category) or a dumb woman that was popular because she capitalized on her sexuality. I know I am super clichéd by commenting that it's possible no one knew her, and even that she had no idea who she was or what she had to offer to people. (Yuck. By making that observation, I feel like I'm back in Intro to Literature my freshman year of undergrad).

Before reading this book, I knew practically nothing about Monroe, except that her real name was Norma Jean Baker and that she was married to Joe DiMaggio and Arthur Miller (who was apparently really tall, which surprised me because I always imagined him as a teeny man with coke-bottle glasses) and that she probably slept with JFK. I do, however, know that Oates often writes about women who are victimized or brutalized by men, so I guessed what the tone of this book would be. And it was. The stupid psychologist in me kept imagining what it would be like to have Norma Jean/Marilyn as a client, and I kept thinking of how her outcome made perfect sense if even half of Oates' fictionalized history was true. 

Things I Liked: I think this book is a page-turner. Although it dragged on at times, I was at times amazed to look at the page number and find myself 20 pages from where I started (which is a gigantic difference from The Madness of Mary Lincoln which was nearly 1/7th shorter but took me four times the time to finish). 

I liked that sometimes I liked Norma Jean/Marilyn and felt like she was sympathetic, and at other times I hated her and thought she was a self-centered monster. I always find it to be a sign of a good book when I have an emotional reaction to it (an emotion other than boredom, that is). 

Things I Didn't Like: The book is 738 pages long, and Oates is, I feel, unnecessarily verbose. She uses the same metaphors, similes, and adjective multiple times (though I didn't think to make note of it to use as an example). It made me wonder about Oates' editor and what the novel looked like before it was edited. How much more could there have been?

The book is also sometimes nonlinear and disjointed. Oates incorporates conversations that I wasn't quite sure were real (by "real" I mean, non-fiction in the sense that the people could have had them rather than being dead or nonexistent). She also used odd nicknames for people, such as the first initial of their last name. My guess is that she did it so the reader wouldn't be taken out of the story thinking, "Tony Curtis really hated Marilyn Monroe!" (despite his real-life assertion that he fathered a baby that she then aborted). It was just annoying because I kept having to look things up on Wikipedia. 

This Book Would be Good to Read: Before bed (the chapters are short), though if you don't read much at a time this book will take awhile.

I Would Recommend This Book to: Anyone interested in film or Hollywood during the 1950s (spoiler alert: there was much use of the "casting couch").

If This Book Sounds Interesting, You Might Also Like: The movies Niagara (1953), Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953), or The Misfits (1961). The latter was written for Monroe by her then-husband Arthur Miller. The former is a shockingly good performance (for me this means minimal breathy baby voicedness) and is on Netflix streaming right now. If you're not sure you want to put in the time for this book but are intrigued by Oates as a writer, I recommend the short story "Where are you going, where have you been?" 

P.S. I carted my paperback of Blonde with me for six moves and before two weeks ago it was in book-store-returnable condition (the spine wasn't even broken!) but ONE DAY of carting the book around with me at Disneyland (hence the picture) the book got wet on Pirates of the Caribbean and half of it expanded to twice its original size. Despite spending half an hour in the bathroom blow drying it, it took almost a week for it to actually dry off. True story.

Up Next: Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte-- another Kindle book. Is it shocking that I don't know anything about the plot? I've never even seen a film version (not even from the BBC)!

The Dirty Dozenth

Josh and I have been applying to Ain't it Cool News' Butt-Numb-a-Thon (BNAT) every year since we've been married (so... to make it easy for you... this will be our fourth year). BNAT is a 24-hour film festival that takes place in Austin, TX. The films are always a mix of vintage and not-yet-released and there are usually a few actors or directors that do Q and As afterward.

Each year we have had to submit themed pictures. Last year's theme was THX 1138 so we submitted pictures of ourselves bald. This year's theme is The Dirty Dozenth BNAT and we had to submit pictures of ourselves doing things that should be punishable by death (not things that actually are punishable by death)-- like pet peeves. Due to The Dirty Dozen theme, wearing fatigues was a bonus.

Here is what we came up with:

Josh as Che Guevara taking DVDs out of their cases and not putting them back

Me as Fidel Castro playing on the power pad without first taking off my shoes

We also had to make a video of ourselves singing the jingle from a Japanese commercial featuring Charles Bronson for a product called Mandom.

It only took one take.



After we finished and it was edited, I realized it might have been a good idea for me to brush my hair or something. I'm always forgetting the details.

We find out in a few days whether we've been accepted. Fingers crossed!

UPDATE: We were accepted for the fourth year in a row!! So cool!!

30 Books Before I'm 30: The Madness of Mary Lincoln

The Madness of Mary Lincoln by James Emerson

"Mary Lincoln was a woman who knew how to hold a grudge, or, as one historian aptly characterized her, she was always a 'good hater.'"

It's possible that I'm the only person on this planet who didn't realize that Mary Lincoln was nuts-o (that's a technical term), but she was declared insane by a jury of her peers following the assassination of her husband and death of her youngest child Tad.* Past biographers have theorized that Mary's oldest child Robert had her committed because she was too much of a burden and he wanted control of her money. There is certainly evidence of that, but Emerson found a series of letters to ML's friend (and the woman credited with getting ML released from Bellevue) Myra Bradwell. These letters are referred to as the "lost insanity letters" because, well, they were lost letters chronicling the years during and following her commitment. 

A few things appear to be true: Mary Lincoln had a lot of trauma in her life. Her mother died unexpectedly when she was seven, one son (Eddie) died in childhood, another son (Willie) died while they lived in the White House, and her last son (Tad) died following a ship ride from England to America-- not to mention the obvious fact that her husband was assassinated while she was sitting right next to him. If I had her as a client, I would be glad she was even getting out of bed in the morning. But it also seems clear that ML displayed Bipolar Disorder symptomology throughout her life. She was a hoarder, compulsive shopper, and easily angered. At one point she was traveling around (because she didn't stay too long in one place) with nearly 70 trunks of clothes she never wore, tons of curtain fabric she never used, and apparently a bunch of footstools (?). She was so angry at Robert, she demanded he return everything she ever gave him, including gifts and things he inherited with the death of his father. 

Things I Liked: The narrative was easy to follow and definitely interesting. After visiting DC last year and being in Ford's Theater and the Peterson house, the Lincoln history feels more real to me than before. Not being a Presidential Scholar, I didn't know anything about anything in the book aside from ML's obsession with spirituality and her sadness following the deaths of nearly her entire family. The research that went into this book appears exhaustive and apparently finding the lost insanity letters was a coup. 

Things I Didn't Like: It took me forever to read, which doesn't make sense because it's only 155 pages (not including appendices). I think it was because the pages are so big and the print is small. It's definitely not a page turner. 

This Book Would Be Good to Read: When you have a lot of time on your hands or if you don't mind reading the same book for awhile.

I Would Recommend this Book to: Someone interested in American history or real-life examples of mental health diagnoses.

I Would Also Recommend: National Geographic's documentary Inside the White House.


4 down, 26 to go!

*As an anecdotal story, Tad Lincoln is credited with starting the tradition of pardoning the Thanksgiving turkeys at the White House. Supposedly he made friends with one of the turkeys and was inconsolably upset at the idea that this turkey would soon be eaten for dinner. To placate him, Lincoln decided to pardon the turkey and the tradition was born. 

At the Ballet

Josh and I went on a date to the ballet last night. I've been subtly suggesting that we go since we moved to the Portland area over three years ago, but he didn't get the hint. So I finally said, "I want to go to the ballet. You need to buy tickets" (it helped that we got a coupon for it in the mail). I love, love, LOVE ballet because it's something so ridiculously difficult, yet beautiful and graceful and looks like it takes no effort at all.

I sat next to a little girl who wore her little opera cloak and whose mom was clearly excited about being there with her because she was telling her about the orchestra and the dancers and what to expect. It was cute. Plus, the girl got a soft pretzel during intermission and I kind of wanted to steal it when she fell asleep during the third act.

I love attending the ballet because it's a different crowd than I see at performances of musicals or music groups. I love the grey hairs, the cloaks, the jewelry, and the little kids that are on their best behaviors. And, of course, I love anywhere that I can wear my pearls and heels. 

I highly recommend Oregon Ballet Theatre's production of "Sleeping Beauty." It runs tonight and tomorrow night as well. 

(In anticipation of the ballet, I got the song "At the Ballet" from A Chorus Line stuck in my head for a week, which just describes my love for ballet so well).

Master of the House

I picked up my diploma today. Josh said I should share the news.

School has been going well lately. I've started my dissertation (and hope it will go better than the thesis) and already have over 30 client contact hours at my practicum site (which means nearly 300 overall). That's okay since I didn't do practicum last year and am not applying for internship this year. 

Brains

In the past couple months, I have become obsessed with the game "Plants vs. Zombies." The premise is that zombies are invading your backyard (and, later, your pool and roof) in order to get in your back door and eat your brains. It is your job to plant zombie-killing plants (like the pea-shooter or watermelon catapult) in order to keep your brains safe. I first started playing this game at my parents' house because it's loaded on my mom's computer for the grandkids. 

I don't exactly know why it's so fun, but it's appropriate for all ages (unless your kid is super afraid of zombies, but my friend's three-year-old boy plays it too and loves it) and it's not so difficult that it's no longer fun once you get to the higher levels. 

This might (definitely) be why I haven't gotten very far on my 30 books before I'm 30 list. You can read more about the game here.

30 Books Before I'm 30: Les Miserables

Les Miserables by Victor Hugo
"azure in the sky does not prevent rags on man"

This book marks my first foray into Kindledom. I absolutely love my kindle because it's lightweight and easy to travel with, but I hate it because I can't read with it in the pool or the bath and it has "location" numbers rather than page numbers, which means that I could only see what percentage I had read rather than how many pages I had left. It's probably not as frustrating with shorter books, but it really drove me crazy with this book (though once I figured out how to make the font smaller it went by faster). Consequently, it took me four months to finish. I didn't even have it read in time for book club. Shameful.

I was simultaneously drawn in and repelled by this book. Drawn in by the characters and their endless moral quandaries, and repelled by the endless philosophizing and expatiation on the part of Hugo. I was told to read the full version rather than the abridged version and I do not recommend it! Read the abridged version! Unless you have a bewildering interest in the history of 1830 French politics, you do not have the need to read the didactic rantings of a man long since dead.

Briefly, this book is the account of a convict, Jean Valjean, who is on an endless route of escape; escape from jail, escape from his police pursuer Javert, escape from his own conscience and God's judgment. Through a series of wacky events, he ends up the primary caregiver for an abused girl (Cosette) who falls in love with a lawyer and revolutionary (Marius). Spoiler alert: Jean Valjean is pretty miserable and a lot of people die.

Things I liked: The characters are wonderfully painted, and I got a real sense of their internal struggles (except for Cosette, who was pretty one-dimensional the entire time; Hugo does not write women well). If I had been reading this book for a class, there were endless things that would have fostered great discussions (e.g. the relationship between morality and forgiveness, the question of whether people can change their true nature juxtaposing Valjean and Thenardier, or, my favorite standy-by, comparing and contrasting the female characters-- especially Cosette vs. Eponine and Fantine vs. Mrs. Thenardier).

I also liked that I was exposed to a whole slew of words I had never seen before (and the Kindle has a built-in dictionary, so all you have to do is move the cursor to the word), such as: inexorable (unyeilding or not to be pursuaded), brigand (a bandit or lightly-armed foot soldier), mousquetaire (musketeer), valetudinarian (invalid or person who believes himself to be chronically sick [hypochondriacal]), assiduity (constant or close application of effort), tergiversation (to change one's attitude repeatedly), and, my favorite, canaille (riff-raff).

Things I didn't like: Aside from my complaints about Hugo's rambling political dogma, I had a hard time with this book because I have seen the musical so many times. I knew that the first 20% of the book really didn't have a ton of importance in the overall plot (aside from setting the moral tone), and I knew that I didn't need to remember the students' names, and I had "Master of the House" stuck in my head for weeks.

Hugo used freakishly long chapter headings, such as "Chapter VIII-- Many Interrogation Points With Regard to a Certain Le Cabuc Whose Name May Not Have Been Le Cabuc."

This quote, about Cosette: "A little girl without a doll is almost as unhappy, and quite as impossible, as a woman without children." Also, "One of woman's magnanimities is to yield." Hm. I have a million responses to that, none of which are Blog Appropriate.

This book would be good to read: while you're also reading other books. It is relatively episodic, which made it easy to pick up and put down, and it's really too long to hold one's attention for too long.

I would recommend this book to: anyone who likes French history, depressing storylines, and hates women. Okay, maybe not the hating women part (and I'm sorry if I've offended my audience of three), but this is definitely not a book for feminists.

I would also recommend: Les Miserables: The Musical! Just don't watch it first, because then the whole story will be ruined and you'll spend your whole time humming "Castle on a Cloud." Though, if you liked the political part of this book, you may also like Stendhal's The Red and the Black.


Coming up next: The Madness of Mary Lincoln. Lunatic or victim of the patriarchy? We'll find out!

Recent Obsessions

and, of course....

(it was on sale)



(can't you tell I've started my dissertation... and the stress eating?)

We did this too

I forgot to mention that we made the Westons walk to the south side of Autzen stadium on our campus tour. It was raining a lot, which is why it looks like I just stepped out of the shower (hot, I know). Neither Josh nor Chris look very happy to be there (though they were, I swear), and of course Haylie looks cute even though it was pouring and she was wearing flip flops. 

Weekend with the Westons

Remember when Josh and I went to Reno and then to Medford? And that the reason we went to Medford was to visit our friends the Westons? And that even though we had fun in Medford we didn't take any pictures that had the Westons in them?

Well, we tried to remedy that this past weekend when we met up with Haylie and Chris for a couple days in Eugene. Neither of them had ever been to Eugene, so we tried to give them The Grand Tour, starting with BJs for pizza:

We discovered way too late that Chris and Haylie like BJs (and that there is a location in Portland), because I am obsessed with pizzookies and I try to eat there whenever we're in Eugene.

On Saturday we made them walk around to places like...

Hayward Field

Matt Court

The Jaqua Center

Where they have these bike racks:

And tons of other places of which Josh didn't take pictures.

Then we took them to lunch at the Glenwood, which we figured was a perfect place for the campus experience.

Oh, and there was one other thing:

We also got to see the Ducks trounce the Portland State Vikings (69-0!)

Because Josh and I have season tickets, we couldn't sit next to Haylie and Chris, but they weren't too far away.

We had a great weekend showing off our old stomping grounds, and we discovered that we should have spent more time with them before they moved to Medford because they hadn't heard any of our usual stories!  (or maybe that means they spent the perfect time with us previously because they hadn't had to hear any of our usual stories....) We look forward to their visiting us again (soon maybe?) and visiting them when (if) they move back to Utah!