Listening Is an Act of Love

You know when you read a really great book and want to stop people on the street to tell them about it? This is that book.

Listening Is an Act of Love: A Celebration of American Life from the Storycorps Project is a phenomenal collection of stories gathered by the ingenius people at Storycorps. Storycorps sets up booths around the country and people make appointments to interview friends and loved ones about important moments in their lives. At the end of the interview, two cds are made. One goes to the participants, the other goes in the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress.

David Isay, the creator (and editor of this book), takes the philosophy that history should be told from the bottom up (the lives of everyday people) instead of the top down (celebrities, politicians, etc.). I completely agree and it makes for amazing reading. It's like what it would be like if you could actually talk to all the people Howard Zinn references in A People's History of the United States.

Sometimes I feel like there's a lot to be down about in America these days. Want a few examples?
1. parking lots
2. housing developments with identical houses 3 feet apart from each other
3. million dollar condos blocking free views
4. consumption
5. library cutbacks

And I get really frustrated in general with people because if we could all decide to make small changes, we could change the world. I get frustrated with the apathy (I'm guilty too, I know!).

Reading the stories in Listening is An Act of Love reminded me of Anne Frank's profound quote, "Despite everything, I believe that people are really good at heart." And that's a wonderful piece of positive thinking.

I was especially moved by the stories in the last section of the book, "Fire and Water," about September 11th and Hurricane Katrina. I sat in a Starbucks (where you can buy the cd I believe) and cried through the last several pages. When I got back to work I quickly read the afterward and got that funny feeling in my stomach that I only get from holding back emotion.

And if a book can do all that...!

Recommendation: If you cry easily, grab a tissue. This book is full of touching stories to make you consider the elements of our everyday lives.

PS. Subscribe to the podcast!

Peter Pan

I can't say I'm a huge fan of Peter Pan. I mean, as a kid I enjoyed the story and watching various productions. But somehow, looking at it through adult feminist eyes... I don't see much appeal in a boy refusing to grow up and take responsibility while at the same time convincing a girl to take care of him and his friends. Like, what?

However, I am a huge fan of this cover.

Speaking with the Angel

I came across Speaking with the Angel edited by Nick Hornby while I was trying to find some light books for holiday reading. It proved to be a good find.

The book is a collection of short stories by several prominent writers in today's (well, late 90's early 2000) scene. Each writer contributed a story to make a collection that benefits Treehouse, a school for children with autism. Hornby's own son has autism and attends the school. In the introduction Hornby describes children who have autism and the amazing ways Treehouse is able to reach them. Worthy cause, right?

On top of appreciating the purpose of the collection, the stories were really great as well. The writers include Helen Fielding, Irvine Welsh, Dave Eggers, Colin Firth (yes, Mr. Darcy!), and Hornby himself.

Here's a recap of a few of my favorites:
Last Requests by Giles Smith is the story of a prison cook who prepares the inmates' last supper. It took me a few pages to catch on... and then the premise coupled with the cook's attitude struck me as so absurd and delightfully funny.

PMQ by Robert Harris is the hilarious explanation by the Prime Minister as to why his "mental breakdown" was not a mental breakdown at all... simply a series of coincidences and unfortunate events.

Catholic Guilt (You Know You Love It) by Irvine Welsh begins as a somewhat disturbing look into a young homophobic man's life. However, by the end, you'll be chuckling at his "Catholic" punishment and the scheme that he's laid out.

Recommendation: If you like the British literati and are impressed by unique points of view, you'll enjoy this book.

Frindle

All over school libraries I kept seeing books by Andrew Clements with the blurb, "By the author of FRINDLE" ... really now. It was getting annoying. What was this Frindle all about? I had to know.

So I bought it, I read it, I love it.

Frindle by Andrew Clements is a very lovable little book for middle readers.

Nick is now in 5th grade and his teacher is tough. She's in love with words and in love with the dictionary. When she makes a point to Nick, "dog means dog because you say it does" (ok, I'm paraphrasing there)... Nick decides to explore how far he can push the limits of language. When the whole 5th grade, then the school, then students at other schools, join in... can it ever be stopped?

It's been especially fun to be in classrooms and meet students who are reading the book.

Books of 2007

I tend to be someone who actually keeps New Year's resolutions. Maybe I just don't set the bar too high? The past few years my resolution as been the same: Read more books than the previous year.

To succeed for 2007 I needed to read 48 books (I think). I did. I read 57 actually. Here they are:

Books of 2007
1. Is There No Place On Earth for Me? by Susan Sheehan
2. Global Woman: Nannies, Maids and Sex Workers in the New Economy edited by Barbara Ehrenreich and Arlie Russell Hochschild
3. Inside Organized Racism: Women in the Hate Movement by Kathleen M. Blee
4. Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
5. Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith by John Krakauer
6. Living Among Meat Eaters: The Vegetarian's Survival Handbook by Carol J. Adams
7. Flat Stanley by Jeff Brown
8. My Father's Dragon by Ruth Stiles Gannett
9. Marie Antoinette: The Journey by Antonia Fraser
10. I Thought My Father Was God and Other Tales from NPR's National Story Project
11. Pipi Longstocking by Astrid Lindgren
12. Righteous: Dispatches from the Evangelical Youth Movement by Lauren Sandler
13. A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn
14. A Girl Named Zippy: Growing Up Small In Mooreland, Indiana by Haven Kimmel
15. Vegetarianism: A History by Jon Gregerson
16. Assassination Vacation by Sarah Vowell
17. She Got Up Off the Couch and Other Heroic Acts from Mooreland, Indiana by Haven Kimmel
18. The Wal-Mart Effect: How the World's Most Powerful Company Really Works- and How It's Transforming the American Economy by Charles Fishman
19. Love Is a Mix-Tape: Life and Loss, One Song At a Time by Rob Sheffield
20. The Lost Daughters of China by Karin Evans
21. Life of Pi by Yann Martel
22. 101 Reasons Why I'm a Vegetarian by Pamela Rice
23. Making Kind Choices by Ingrid Newkirk
24. The Wives of Henry VIII by Antonia Fraser
25. What Is the What by Dave Eggers
26. Children Playing Before a Statue of Hercules edited by David Sedaris
27. Night by Elie Weisel
28. Leave Me Alone, I'm Reading by Maureen Corrigan
29. Thunderstruck by Erik Larson
30. The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton
31. Have You Heard of Wes Anderson? by Joshua Young
32. The Kiss: A Memoir by Kathryn Harrison
33. Hatchet by Gary Paulsen
34. Bad Blood: A Memoir by Lorna Sage
35. The Sex Lives of Cannibals: Adrift in the Equatorial Pacific by J. Maarten Troost
36. The Littlest Hitler: Stories by Ryan Boudinot
37. Am I Thin Enough Yet? The Cult of Thinness and the Commercialization of Identity by Sharlene Hesse-Biber
38. The Sheltering Sky by Paul Bowles
39. The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan
40. Notes from a Small Island by Bill Bryson
41. High Fidelity by Nick Hornby
42. The Night in Question by Tobias Wolff
43. Gossamer by Lois Lowry
44. Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe
45. Ida B by Katherine Hannigan
46. Full Frontal Feminism by Jessica Valenti
47. The View from Saturday by E.L. Konigsburg
48. Al Capone Does My Shirts by Gennifer Choldenko
49. In the Wake of the Plague: The Black Death and the World It Made by Norman Frank Cantor
50. The True History of Chocolate by Sophie D. Coe and Michael D. Coe
51. The Book of General Ignorace by John Mitchinson and John Lloyd
52. St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves: Stories by Karen Russell
53. Take the Cannoli: Stories from the New World by Sarah Vowell
54. Listening for Lions by Gloria Whelan
55. The American Way of Death Revisited by Jessica Mitford
56. Wigfield: The Little Can-Do Town that Just May Not by Amy Sedaris, Paul Dinello, & Stephen Colbert
57. A Long Way Down by Nick Hornby

The Numbers Challenge

I've also joined the Numbers Challenge, hosted by Callista. I'm pretty excited to get started. The goal is to read 5 books with a number in the title by June. I can do it!

The List:
1. Six of One by Rita Mae Brown
2. The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom
3. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
4. Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
5. One Hundred Years of Solitute by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

I think I'm going to start Six of One as soon as I finish Frindle and a few library books I had waiting for me after the holidays.