Rabbit Hole #41: May Reading Update

As of today, I'm at 42/85 books for the three reading challenges I'm doing. Considering the reading slump I was in the past couple of months, I'm really happy with that. I'm also pretty sure I'm not going to finish anything else in the next two days, so here's what I read in May:


Pop Sugar Reading Challenge (Current Completion: 23/41)

A murder mystery: The Thin Man by Dashiell Hammett (3 stars)

A satirical book: The Serpent of Venice by Christopher Moore (4 stars)

A book and its prequel: Yellow Brick War (4 stars) and Dorothy Must Die Stories, Vol. 1 by Danielle Paige (3 stars)

A classic from the 20th century: The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka (3 stars)


Bustle Women/POC Reading Challenge (Current Completion: 7/20)

First book in a new series: Alice by Christina Henry (4 stars)


Read Harder Challenge 2016 (Current Completion: 12/24)

A nonfiction book about science: The Sixth Extinction by Elizabeth Kolbert (4 stars)

A collection of essays: Small Wonder by Barbara Kingsolver (4 stars)

A nonfiction book about feminism or dealing with feminist themes: The Secret Life of Wonder Woman by Jill Lepore (3 stars)

A book under 100 pages: for colored girls who've considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf  by Ntozake Shange (5 stars)

A play: The Piano Lesson by August Wilson (4 stars)

A book over 500 pages: The Book of Life by Deborah Harkness (4 stars)



Non-challenge books finished: The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin (4 stars), The Time Machine by H. G. Wells (3 stars), and Barrio Boy by Ernesto Galarza (3 stars)



And because it's the end of May...

Rabbit Hole #40: January-April 2016 Reading Reflection

I started this year with a pretty ambitious goal: to complete three reading challenges for a total of 84 books. Given how many books I was able to read last year, I thought, and still think, this is an achievable goal, but I do wish I had focused on one challenge at a time. Looking at all the challenges and bouncing between them tends to get overwhelming; I never really feel as though I'm accomplishing anything.

To date, I've read books for 31 of the challenge tasks. Here are some of the high--and low--points:

1. Nonfiction for the win! I've read some amazing nonfiction titles in the last four months: Redefining Realness by Janet Mock, My Life on the Road by Gloria Steinem, The Notorious RBG: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsberg by Irin Camon and Shana Khizhnik, Slave by Mende Nazar, Year of Yes by Shonda Rimes, and As You Wish by Cary Elwes. They covered very disparate topics, but I thoroughly enjoyed all of them. I was rather disappointed by The Secret History of Wonder Woman by Jill Lepore, though. I really thought it would focus more on the actual comic; however, it turned out to be more of a biography on the creator. (And the writing bothered me. The sentence structure was one I would scold my students about using.)  I never thought I'd be one for reading much nonfiction, but these past few years have been proving me wrong--there are so many authors writing in such an accessible way that they take nonfiction from mundane facts and statistics to well-written, engaging reads.

2. At this point, traditional sci-fi and I don't get along. I was really excited about finally reading some Ursula K. LeGuin, but I just struggled to make any connections with the characters in The Dispossessed. I do have her Left Hand of Darkness for another task, and Joanna Russ's The Female Man so I'm hoping something may click. I loved Octavia Butler, but otherwise, most sci-fi just seems cold and clinical to me.

3. Why is it so many series suffer from the sophomore slump? I just finished Deborah Harkness' All Souls Trilogy, and while I loved the first and third books, the second just was...meh. I've noticed that with a lot of other series as well. Anyone have any ideas?

4. I really do love magical realism. I got hooked many years ago reading Isabel Allende's The House of Spirits, and this year, Tiphanie Yanique's Land of Love and Drowning and Karen Russell's Vampires in the Lemon Grove are two of the best books I've read so far.

I'm starting off the second quarter with a lot of fantasy/retellings/paranormal reads. I think I just need to ease my way out of the school year with "lighter" reads, and save the heavier reads for this summer (which may seem counter-intuitive, I know). I also look forward to my reading picking up again; March and April really felt as if I were slogging through everything, and I was in a bit of a slump.

To the next four months!

Rabbit Hole #39: The Classics Book Tag

THE CLASSICS BOOK TAG: (I couldn't find the originator of this tag; if you know, please tell me!)

1. An over-hyped classic you really didn't like: Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
I went in to this thinking it was going to be solely about Anna and Vronsky and the love triangle; I should have known that being a Russian novel, it was going to have a much wider scope than that. I felt bogged down in the agricultural discussions and found myself not really caring about any of the characters. 

2. Favorite time period to read about: 1920s

American and British Modernism and the Harlem Renaissance are my favorite areas to read and study (my master's thesis was on Virginia Woolf). Even though the 1920s had a lot of faults, there is something about that era of change and decadence that appeals to me. 

3. Favorite fairy-tale: Little Red Riding Hood
There is so much more to this tale than simply warning children to not talk to "wolves." It has layers of rape culture, feminism, sexual politics and much more. It also proves that fairy tales are often not for children.

4. What is the classic you're most embarrassed about having not read
I'm not really embarrassed about books I haven't read yet. I've read a lot of classics, and it's impossible to read them all (unless that's all you're reading, and there's just too much good stuff out there!)

5. Top 5 classics you would like to read (soon): Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin, Passing by Nella Larsen, Lady Susan by Jane Austen, The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde, and Middlemarch by George Eliot

6. Favorite modern book/series based on a classic: Wicked by Gregory Maguire

I love backstories to well-known characters, especially villains. No one is ever completely good or evil, and our circumstances can put us into situations that require drastic measures. And sometimes the villain is actually less evil than the hero. 

7. Favorite movie version/tv-series based on a classic: Sleepy Hollow is my current favorite. 
I love the mix of the original tale with amped up paranormal events, connections to history, and a diverse cast. I also love Once Upon a Time for its twists and connections of all types of classic stories. 

8. Worst classic to movie adaptation: Beowulf (with Ray Winstone and Angelina Jolie)
This strayed so far from the original, creating a romance between Hrothgar and Grendel's mother and then between Beowulf and Grendel's mother. I'm all for leaving details out, but when you create scenes and conflicts that weren't in the original, that bothers me. (Especially since Neil Gaiman, whom I love, wrote the screenplay.)

9. Favorite edition(s) you'd like to collect more classics from:I don't really collect editions, although I'm seeing some really beautiful ones that might tempt me to change my mind!

10. An underhyped classic you'd recommend to everyone: The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte

Anne is by far the most underrated of the Bronte sisters--some people don't even know she exists--and probably the most radical. Tenant is a decidedly feminist book, and it was so far ahead of its time that even Charlotte didn't approve of its themes and "coarseness."

Rabbit Hole #38: April Reading Update

April was bit better for reading. Even though we've had lots of visitors and events going on, I ended up reading seven books (well, sort of--I read most of the Steinbeck in March, but finished it the first few days of April), a couple of which were over 500 pages. I'm planning on doing a review of the first quarter of the year in a couple of weeks, so be on the look out for that as well.

PopSugar 2016 Reading Challenge (Current Completion: 18/41 challenges)

A book about a road trip: Travels with Charley by John Steinbeck (3 stars)

A book you can finish in a day: Krishna--The Journey Within by Abhishek Singh (4 stars)

A book longer than 600 pages: Winter by Marissa Meyer (3 stars)

A book with a protagonist with your profession (teacher): On Beauty by Zadie Smith (4 stars)

A book guaranteed to bring you joy: Shadow of Night by Deborah Harkness (4 stars)



Bustle Women/POC Reading Challenge (Current Completion: 6/20 challenges)

A book in translation: The Scattered Papers of Penelope--New and Selected Poems by Katerina Anghelaki-Rooke (Greek) (4 stars)

A memoir from someone who identifies LGBTQIA: Redefining Realness by Janet Mock (4 stars)



Book Riot's Read Harder 2016 Challenge (Current Completion: 6/24 challenges)

Nothing finished for the Book Riot Challenge this month.

Rabbit Hole #37: The New York Times by the Book Tag

I stumbled across another fun book tag the other day on BookTube (I know; I'm addicted.) This one was created by Marie Berg, and you can watch her original video here: NY-Times By the Book Tag

The tag consists of ten questions, taken from a book of collected "By the Book" columns from The New York Times Book Review: 

1. What is currently on your nightstand? I currently have two books going: On Beauty by Zadie Smith and The Secret History of Wonder Woman by Jill Lepore. I never used to be a serial book reader, but I've found it is a lot of fun, and actually increases the number of books I read. I usually save fiction for bedtime, and the nonfiction for after work/evening reading.

2. What was the last truly great book you read? I just finished Gloria Steinem's My Life on the Road, and I haven't been able to stop thinking about it. I am so in awe at everything she has accomplished in her lifetime, both for herself and women.

3. If you could meet any writer, dead or alive, who would it be? And what would you want to know?
Alive: There's a tie between Alice Walker and Toni Morrison. I am in love with their words and wisdom. I wouldn't even necessarily need to ask them anything, just being in their presence would be enough. Dead: Maya Angelou and Langston Hughes, for the same reasons. I would also love to sit down with Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald and hear their stories from the 1920s.

4. What books might we be surprised to find on your shelves? People who know me know I read just about everything, so I don't really know if anything would be a surprise.

5. How do you organize your personal library? On my main bookcase I have a section for poetry, then autobiography/memoir, biography, and general nonfiction. I also have the bulk of my fiction books followed by fantasy series (LOTR, HP, and Narnia) and YA. I have a small bookshelf that holds my short story collections and New Orleans books; another bookshelf with my plays, ancient/medieval texts, graphic novels, comic collections, literary and feminist theory, and writing guidebooks. I also have a couple of shelves with environmental and self-improvement books.
I may have a problem...

6. What book have you always meant to read and haven't gotten around to yet? Anything you feel embarrassed to have never read? There's a lot of Margaret Atwood's backlist that I still want to read, but other things keep getting in the way (I've read The Handmaid's Tale and the Maddaddam trilogy, of course). Embarrassed? As an English teacher, I always feel there are gaps that I should feel ashamed of--I've never read Dostoevsky or Dumas or or several of Shakespeare's plays--but I feel I'm widely enough read to make up for it.

7. Disappointing, overrated, or just not good--what book did you feel you were supposed to like but just didn't? Do you remember the last book you put down without finishing? The Magicians by Lev Grossman should have been the perfect book for me, but I just could not get into it. I didn't like the world building, the characters, or the writing style. The last book I put down without finishing is one I will come back to: The Crack-Up by F. Scott Fitzgerald. I love Fitzgerald, but this is an odd compilation of essays, 200 pages of his notes, letters, etc. It's just not something you can really sit down and read a large chunk of. It's nice to dip in and out of, though.

8. What kind of stories are you drawn to? Any you steer clear of? I really like fairy tale retellings or reworkings, fantasy, paranormal, and books dealing with political and social themes. I tend to stay away from traditional science fiction, mystery/thriller, and romance; although I will try anything if a person I trust recommends it!

9. If you could require the President to read one book, what would it be? Since President Obama already reads a lot, and widely, I'm going to recommend our next President, whomever he or she may be, to read Citizen by Claudia Rankine and The Men We Reaped by Jesmyn Ward.

10. What do you plan to read next? I have a reread of Native Son by Richard Wright for my book club, Barbara Kingsolver's collection of essays, Small Wonder, and the final book in the Lunar Chronicles series, Winter, by Marissa Meyer.


There you have it--my By the Book Tag. Let me know what your answers would be!

Rabbit Hole #36: March Reading Update

This month...ugh. Reading was a struggle, and I have no idea why. I just could not motivate myself to sit down and read for any length of time.  I did manage to finish 5 books; 3 of which were relatively short, but...tomorrow's a new month!

PopSugar Challenge 2016 (Currently Completed: 13/41 challenges)

A book under 150 pages: One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexsandr Solzhenitsyn; 139 pgs (3 stars)

A book written by a celebrity: As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales from the Making of the Princess Bride by Cary Elwes (4 stars)

A book translated to English: The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho; Portuguese (3 stars)

A political memoir: My Life on the Road by Gloria Steinem (5 stars)



Bustle Reading Challenge 2016 (Currently Completed: 4/20 challenges)

A contemporary collection of poetry: Bellocq's Ophelia by Natasha Trethewey (5 stars)




Book Riot Read Harder Challenge 2016  (Currently Completed: 6/24 challenges)

I didn't complete any of the challenges on this list this month.

I may be a little overwhelmed by the challenges I set for myself . . . not giving up yet!!

Mardi Gras Mambo

Ok, so it's been just over a month since Mardi Gras Day, but it's taken a while to wrap my brain around this wonderful, crazy, unique marathon known as Carnival season here in New Orleans.

I've been trying to figure out a way to describe what actually happens during Carnival, but honestly, until you've actually experienced it, I don't think words are adequate. (I CAN say, however, that what you see on COPS and shows like that isn't really the Mardi Gras experience, unless you're a tourist who hasn't done their homework. You never have to do anything scandalous to get beads! And NEVER pick them up off the ground in the Quarter, especially on Bourbon Street. *shudder*) 

That being said, here are a few of my observations. (To my New Orleans family, please feel free to add or correct anything I've said--remember, this was our first Carnival season--and I'm sure I've made some mistakes!) 

1. King cakes: so much sugary goodness, it's probably a good thing they're limited to Carnival season.

2. Beads, beads, and more beads: I did keep a fair amount of beads from all of the parades. I have my favorites out, and we'll use the rest to decorate with next year, but I STILL donated a huge bag to charity (several schools/charities, particularly for special needs individuals, repackage and recycle the beads every year for use in other parades and purposes). 

3.  Not all beads/throws are created equal. You will invariably go home with a pile of generic beads after every parade, and those can be recycled/repurposed without any hesitation. Each krewe, however, usually has something signature that it throws, and those are so coveted that sometimes people go a bit crazy trying to get them (I'm looking at you, Nyx purse thieves!). The two all-female super krewes, Muses and Nyx, spend weeks decorating their signature throws (shoes and purses, respectively). Zulu, the traditionally African-American krewe started in response to segregation in the parades, throws (well, gently tosses) decorated coconuts. Rex, the oldest krewe, has a different signature bead for each of its floats, and some try to catch one from every float each year to have a complete set. Then there are the beautiful glass beads that are making a comeback, the doubloons, the stuffed animals, frisbees...well, you get the picture. (I didn't manage to catch a purse or shoe this year, but we did get two coconuts, so I was happy.)

4. Beads can hurt. Especially if you take a string to the eye when you're looking the other way. Carnival should be labeled a full-contact sport.

5. We actually marched in two parades with the 501st Legion, a Star Wars group that my husband is a part of. It was a lot of fun (even if your feet felt like they were going to fall off after walking seven miles!) and a completely different way to experience Mardi Gras. 

6. It is impossible to go to every parade. They're not just limited to New Orleans, either. There are parades all over the Greater New Orleans area, and Louisiana for that matter. I'm hoping next year, since there's a little longer Carnival season, we'll be able to go to a few more. With Lent starting so early this year, though, everything was squeezed into a few short weeks. And the last week...whew. I haven't been that tired in a long time. (It was all worth it, though!)

7. Mardi Gras Day is only one small piece of Carnival season. The smallest part, actually. It's the last day, and after the two morning parades, all you really want to do is go home and sleep!

8. Sadly, it's not all fun and games. Some people use this time to try to settle old disputes, fight over territory, and cause harm to those just wanting to have a good time. There are also remnants of segregation lingering over the fun, even now. Although technically the krewes are desegregated, and have been for years, there's still a sharp distinction between the old krewes and the newer ones in their rider make-up. Like a lot of things in this country, it's gotten better, but there's still so far to go.

9. At the end of the day, though, it's all about friends. To all of our friends who invited us to come watch parades with you, offered your hospitality (and bathrooms!), gave tips and parade watching advice, danced, laughed, and made this first Carnival season amazing: thank you, thank you, thank you. I've said it before, but it cannot be stressed enough, we are so lucky to have found all of you! Here's to many more!

I think the most common misconception about Mardi Gras is that once Lent starts, everything becomes very serious around here. Not. A. Chance. We just had the St. Patrick's Day parade here yesterday, St. Joseph's Day and Super Sunday are next weekend, and the spring festival season starts in earnest the first week in April! As we've said many times--if you're bored in New Orleans, it's your own fault!


**I'm hoping to upload my own pictures from Mardi Gras at some point, but we're having computer issues right now, and I'm lucky to get this posted!