Winter reading challenge

I saw a winter reading challenge over at GoMomYouRock, and I thought that maybe this would be a good way to clean off the books that I currently have piled on my nightstand:

	I first read Nicholas and Alexandra when I was in eighth grade. I still remember fantasizing that I was related to the Romanovs, some long lost heiress perhaps, and my dad saying something to the extent of, "Just wait till you get to the end!" I credit that book with sparking my interest in Russia, which eventually led me to getting my BA in Russian Studies. I hadn't read it in years though, so I asked for it for Christmas (I read my parents' copy to death ages ago). I'm about a quarter of the way through it and am really savoring every page.
	When Fred and I went to Charlottesville last fall, we got to hear a professor from West Point talk to us about Islam. In fact, I heard him twice, as he addressed the spouses' program first, and I found him to be so fascinating that I went back when he talked to the SJA's. He had a list of books for people who wanted to learn more, and I asked which he would recommend to be read first, and this was the one he suggested. I picked it up as well as a Spark's Chart about Islam to help me keep names and places straight.
	I started reading Unhooked sometime last year, but I didn't get very far in it. I found it frustrating that the book focuses on the girls in these "hookups" to the exclusion of the boys. Does it not still take 2 to tango?! If it's true that middle school and high school are nothing more than the orgy picture painted by Stepp, that can't be any better for the boys involved than the girls. I think there has to be more to it though than what I was getting from it, and I would like to get back to it, so maybe this challenge will motivate me.
	This was another selection from my Christmas list this year. Basically each story is printed with the Russian on the left and the English on the right. I read the English and look at how pretty the Russian is and kick myself for how crappy my Russian is these days (20-plus years after I last studied the language).
	I really wanted to read Pollan's previous book, The Omnivore's Dilemma but just didn't think I could handle it, especially the part about the processing of meat. Pollan speaks of orthorexics, "people with an unhealthy obsession with healthy eating." I think I tend towards that myself. It's easy for me to feel like we're all a mouthful away from certain peril, so I don't need anything to push me further in this direction. This book, however, feels empowering: "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." I can do this.
	Stupid and Contagious is by Caprice Crane. That's all I know about it, but I laughed a lot when I read her book Forget About It, so I'm hoping this one is equally enjoyable. I think I need some lightness in this book list!

So! Those are the books that I currently have that are waiting to be read. If I get through them, here are a few others that intrigue me:



What's on your "to read" list? You can join the challenge too!

Support Medusa's Daughter!

My dad just found out the other day that his novel, Medusa's Daughter, is a semi-finalist in the Amazon Breakthrough Novel contest. At this stage of the competition, Amazon is asking customers to download, read, and review excerpts of the semi-finalists. Based in part on these reviews, Amazon will then select 10 finalists, who will be announced on March 3.

I have already posted my review. Anybody who is interested in helping a deserving work get the credit it deserves is welcome to join me! Just go here to do your part.

Poster child

Long after I stopped being a "young adult," I have continued to enjoy reading YA literature. Give me a good Lois Duncan or the latest volume of Princess Diaries, and I am quite happy.

One YA author whose work I have enjoyed over the years is Chris Crutcher. His books involve teenagers who are dealing with big problems, and there is usually a strong element of athletics interwoven in the plot.

Mike is currently working really hard on his 100-yard breaststroke and is hoping to take it to the state competition in February. He goes to practice with the team but also puts in a fair bit of his own time, whether by lifting weights in the basement or running with his dad. I'm really impressed at how dedicated he is, and I thought he might enjoy reading Crutcher's book STOTAN!, so I tucked a copy in his Christmas stocking.

Here's what Publisher's Weekly said about STOTAN!:

To be a Stotan (a cross between a Stoic and a Spartan) is to push one's physical and emotional capabilities beyond the limit, as four high school swimmers find out when they accept the challenge of a week-long endurance test devised by their coach. Though it is swim team captain Walker Dupree who narrates, this is every bit as much an ensemble novel as it is four individual stories. Each young man pursues a personal goal, but together the team pursues demons outside the group, ranging from an "anonymous" neo-Nazi association distributing offensive newspapers to the abusive father of one of the boys, who drives his son to suicide. But a demon bigger than any individual or group effort comes along when illness strikes one of these Stotan young men. Then the team finds out that you can't always make sense of everything, you can only go after it with your best shot. Crutcher has written an involving, realistic novel; though it deals with tough, unsolvable issues it is often leavened with humor.

Fast forward from Christmas to the swim meet last Thursday in Bowling Green . . .

I looked over and saw Mike, wet from his last event, listening to his tunes, and reading his book. I couldn't resist snapping a picture without him noticing:



I sent the picture to Chris Crutcher along with an email explaining how happy I was to be able to share my enjoyment of his writing with my son. I got back a nice note and a request for permission to post the picture on his website. I said sure, so now Mike is featured prominently at the top of the page. You should go over there now and check it out!

Picture this

I'm so sorry. I promised a recipe, didn't I? I just couldn't get it together for today though. I sent in my indexing project late last night, and I spent today working on our Christmas card photo, going to the commissary, and going to Walmart (twice--as part of working on our photo). I need to finish shopping for Thanksgiving and get this filthy house clean before Fred's parents arrive on Wednesday, plus I've still got a few weeks of school left this semester, and I really should get cranking on that last paper.

As I've been editing our holiday photo, I've been thinking a lot about a book I'm reading called The Paradox of Choice: Why More is Less by Barry Schwartz. Booklist says:

Who woulda thunk it? Here we are, in the early years of the twenty-first century, being driven bonkers by the staggering array of consumer goods from which we must choose. Choosing something as (seemingly) simple as shampoo can force us to wade through dozens, even hundreds, of brands. We are, the author suggests, overwhelmed by choice, and that's not such a good thing. Schwartz tells us that constantly being asked to make choices, even about the simplest things, forces us to "invest time, energy, and no small amount of self-doubt, and dread." There comes a point, he contends, at which choice becomes debilitating rather than liberating. Did I make the right choice? Can I ever make the right choice? It would be easy to write off this book as merely an extended riff on that well-worn phrase "too much of a good thing," but that would be a mistake. Despite a tendency toward highfalutin language ("the counterfactuals we construct can be tilted upward"), Schwartz has plenty of insightful things to say here about the perils of everyday life.

I'm in the middle of a section about 2 types of people: maximizers and satisficers. The quick and dirty is that maximizers agonize over making the best possible choice every time, while satisficers aim for the "good enough." Can you guess which group is happier overall with their choices? It's not the maximizers, and I'm afraid that's me, especially when it comes to my photos.

When I started planning this picture, I was determined to be a satisficer this time. This was not going to be a repeat of the time that I had a friend bury us to our necks on the North Shore of Oahu, stick Santa hats on our heads, and take our picture, only to not use the picture because it just wasn't as good as what I had in mind.



Instead, I wound up sewing a dress for Annabelle and a shirt for Mike, both out of the same Hawaiian print, and dragging them back up to the North Shore. I don't remember which of the photos on the 2 rolls of film that I shot made it as The Picture, but here is a representative sampling:







They look pretty happy considering they each cried at least once that day. Of course, they were probably scared of me. I vaguely recall throwing a hissy fit of my own and saying something about "If YOU don't care if your grandparents have a nice picture to look at on Christmas morning . . . " but it's all fuzzy after that. So I wasn't going to do that! I was gonna be a satisficer if it killed us all.

I started off so well. On the way home from Saturday's swim meet, I told the kids to shower and change into reasonably coordinating clothes when we got home so we could go take the picture and I could get an early start on the cards this year. I already had a location scouted out, just down the street at the credit union, in front of a pretty bush. We tossed a couple barstools in the van and took off for our photoshoot. Not even an hour later, we were back at home with some 50-odd photos to choose from.

And that is where I began the long, lonely slide from satisficer to maximizer. First I had to decide which picture (or pictures, because now some card formats allow for more than one shot) had the best chance of making the grade. I solicited opinions from some friends and family members who are privvy to a sneak preview and wound up even more confused than I had been, as there was no clear winner. Since then, I've spent quite a few hours performing light cosmetic surgery on images of my children, blurring backgrounds, messing with colors and lighting levels, consulting with my aunt the Photoshop goddess, etc., etc., etc. And then, because what you see on the monitor isn't necessarily what is going to come out of that nice, big printer at the store, I've made a total of 3 trips to Walmart (and I loathe going to Walmart!) to pick up trial prints.

I think I have finally narrowed it down to just a couple of pictures and expect to make the final decision any day now. Then I just have to choose the best card format from the bazillion-and-one formats that are available. My inner satisficer is quietly weeping in the darkest corner of my soul, but the maximizer in me is hoping to have these cards out by Easter.