IN WHICH The Girl Beach Reads

Sadly, I'm not actually going to a beach, unless you count the lake shore beach here in Chicago. But whenever I think of summer reading, I think of beach books. Top Ten Tuesday is a meme created by The Broke and the Bookish in which they provide a weekly top ten list topic. This is my first go at the list. This week's topic is Top Ten Books on My Summer TBR List.

I'm always making a plan for what to read, but I get off track very quickly. Maybe making my list public will actually push me to read the books I intended to this summer. Since I know I will probably read 20 young adult fantasy novels, I'm mainly focusing on my other reading goals on this list. Here are ten books I hope to get through before September. 

1. Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

I have been meaning to read this for a while now as it has excellent reviews. This will be my first novel by Adichie, though I am a big fan of her TED Talk "We Should All Be Feminists." Plus, I finally got it from the library, so I can start reading this one shortly.

2. The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins

Beyond being at the top of the bestseller list right now, this just seems like the perfect summer mystery. I haven't read a good mystery in awhile, so I'm looking forward to deciphering clues.

3. A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole

I need to lighten the mood after a thriller with some comedy. I recently borrowed this book from a friend, so I suppose I ought to read it soon. It's also set in New Orleans, which I just visited for the first time. 

4. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick

Since I plan to use this for a class in the fall, I need to actually read the book. You would think we teachers planned a little more ahead than that, but no. We are going to compare the book to its movie version, Blade Runner. As I've been so interested in science fiction lately, it will be good to read one of the genre's classics.

5. A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab

Magic! Parallel universes! London! Need I say more? 

6. The Paying Guests by Sarah Waters

I don't actually know much about this one other than the incredibly positive reviews it keeps getting from people whose book interests are similar to mine. I also like the black and white of the cover. Yeah yeah they say never judge a book by its cover, but you know we all do.

7. Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail by Cheryl Strayed

Adding one non-fiction for diversity. I rarely read non-fiction, and I need to start making up for the deprivation. Plus, once I read this particular book, I can watch the movie.

8. On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King

I lied. Here's one more non-fiction book. I try to sneak in books actually related to my job every once in awhile. I hit up my grammar requirement earlier this year with Eats, Shoots, and Leaves. Stephen King's background and prolific career should make for an entertaining read.

9. The Magicians by Lev Grossman

Often called the Harry Potter for adults, I'd like to see what this series is about. Also, Syfy plans to produce a television series based on the books next year.

10. Far from the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy

Let's add one classic. I loved the trailer for the recent movie version but am trying to hold off on seeing the movie until I read the book. Never hurts to knock one off the bucket list of classics as well.

Extra Extra 

Queen of Shadows by Sarah J. Maas 

This book doesn't technically get released until September 1st, so I'm not sure I count that as a summer read. However, I'm dying to read this continuation of the Throne of Glass series. I would trade all the other books to get this one sooner.

I need to get reading folks! Happy summer!

IN WHICH The Girl Wants Waffles

Random question of the day: do people actually meet up for breakfast on a weekday? While watching Friends the other day, I noticed how often the characters eat breakfast together. In fact, this group waffle time is quite common on television. Now this might just be my abhorrence of all things morning speaking, but really? These people take the time to move to another location and hang out together before heading to work at a normal time? I don't buy it. However, maybe real people do this regularly, and I just missed the invite. 

Let's address this one point at a time. First point of contention with television portrayals of breakfast: the characters actually eat a full breakfast at a designated place - i.e. not on the go. Yes, yes, I do know that people do this; I've just rarely really seen them. When I was very young, my mom got out the cereal and all that, but from my teenage years on we were each responsible for our own breakfasts. Therefore, mine usually consisted of a yogurt consumed standing while waiting for another family member to grab his coat or in the car on the way to school. These habits followed me into adulthood. As I mentioned, I hate mornings. I'm a night owl at heart and give myself the least amount of time physically needed to get ready in the morning. As a result, I always eat breakfast at work instead of at home. I've noted this habit in a good deal of the people I've lived and worked with as well. So, while possible, I find it unlikely that most people - real or fictional - give themselves enough time to eat a nice sit-down breakfast before work.

The young women of Gossip Girl at least eat fairly realistic breakfast items on the go, such as yogurt and muffins. However, they actually got up in enough time before school to meet before classes started. I remember a couple special occasions where my friends and I went to breakfast before the bell rang in high school, but there was no way I was dragging my butt out of bed early every day, even for social brownie points. Hmm, maybe that was the reason I wasn't part of the in-crowd. 

Point number two: these shows imply that people often get together for breakfast. I see this the most in sitcoms, such as Friends. Granted, I understand that all of the characters on this show live near each other except for Phoebe. It's not like they have to travel across the city. However, this still seems unlikely. I've lived in a Friends situation before where I lived with one friend, another lived on the floor below me, and another lived right across the street. We were pretty cool if I say so myself! Nevertheless, we never once got together for breakfast on a weekday. I don't think it was ever even suggested. On that matter, I've never eaten a weekday breakfast at home with a roommate. Everyone is in a hurry and on a different schedule in the mornings. Now, weekends are a different matter. I do love to brunch.

Last point: if the characters aren't cooks themselves, they venture out to get a full breakfast instead of grabbing something ready-made like yogurt. The women of Gilmore Girls go to Luke's diner almost every morning before school/work. For one, this takes even more time than eating at home due to transport, even if it's just a couple blocks away. Plus, you have to be completely ready before you leave.  It also cannot be good for you to eat all the yummy breakfast foods - eggs, bacon, waffles, pancakes - on a daily basis. I know I'm getting old when I really worry about the food a television mom gives her daughter. Almost all the meals Lorelai and Rory eat are bad for you. Lastly, isn't this an expensive habit?

If you are rich enough, however, you can get a cook to make you a nice fancy breakfast at home. Oh the beautiful lives of the Upper East Side. I must be craving a Gossip Girl binge. 

I know not every television show provides such idyllic morning gatherings, and some people probably do have a similar daily ritual to the Friends clan. But how common is the breakfast meet up? You tell me.

IN WHICH The Girl Buys a Pronoun

"How may I pronoun you?"

Apparently, I'm fixated on gender recently. I read Rachel Hartman's Shadow Scale, the sequel to Seraphina, last week. While I enjoyed the story overall, the one part I can't out of my head is the treatment of gender pronouns by one of the book's nations. Who wouldn't obsess over an interesting grammatical innovation?

Gender identity has gotten a lot of attention lately as people start to talk more openly about what gender actually means. Many people today accept gender as something defined by society and tradition rather than sex. Our ideas about gender roles have changed, at least slightly, over time, and are likely to continue changing. As we come to see gender as malleable, we can also see why people may identify themselves as a gender different from their biological sex or somewhere on the spectrum between sexes.

This understanding and acknowledgement of varying gender identities is starting to be seen in colleges. It is not out of the ordinary for a student to request a different name and/or pronoun from what is on the roster sheet at the beginning of a semester. Many schools are introducing gender-neutral bathrooms, and campus groups have made more effort to bring awareness to the faculty and students. In the orientation at the beginning of this semester, one such group came and talked to the faculty about gender identity. One suggestion they provided was to ask each student what name and pronoun he or she would like to go by on that first day. This is why I was so struck by a country whose customs require you to ask each person you meet which pronoun he or she prefers:

"You use cosmic neuter for a stranger, Abdo insisted. And he's a stranger until you've asked, 'How may I pronoun you?'"

However, the issue in America is not just a lack of understanding and acceptance of different gender identities, but a lack of pronouns. The English language doesn't accommodate unknown or indeterminate gender. We have he for males and she for females, but no gender neutral pronoun for people. No cosmic neuter like in Porphyrian. We often deal with this in two ways; we use it, which is inappropriate - and insulting - for humans, or we use they, which refers to more than one person. We can use he or she, like I did earlier, but that is just bulky. Our language encourages gender to fit into distinctly masculine or feminine boxes and excludes everything else.

The Porphyrian language in Shadow Scale addresses this issue by having a variety of gender options:

"Sounthlanders can't speak it, said Abdo sleepily. Too hard for your flimsy foreign minds. There are six genders and seven cases. . . naive masculine, naive feminine, emergent masculine, emergent feminine, cosmic neuter, point neuter."

Vocabulary adapts to the modern world constantly. For example, words like hot mess and selfie have been added to the dictionary. Nevertheless, it is very hard to change the more basic structures of the English language, such as pronouns. I feel like if people can accept that literally often means that something is not actually true, they can eventually adapt to a new pronoun or two. It will be interesting to see how English does or does not adapt in respect to gender over the next decade or so.

In Shadow Scale, we also get to see a character who has changed her gender identity and, therefore, her pronoun choice as well. Seraphina, the main character, encounters Camba for the second time without recognizing her because she had appeared masculine earlier:

"I racked my brains for the Porphyrian verb Abdo had taught me, a polite inquiry that didn't even exist in the Southlands. 'How may I pronoun you?' I hazarded. Camba smiled warmly and inclinded her stately head. 'I pronoun myself emergent feminine,' she said in Porphyrian, then added in my native tongue, 'Or I do now, at last. On my Day of Determination, I declared myself naive masculine. I was already ityasaari; it embarrassed me to be even more complicated than that.'"

Interestingly enough, Hartman also implies that this culture allows people to pick their gender on a celebration day, Day of Determination. However, we can see that in any culture it is difficult to be different from the expected.

The pronoun question is just one intriguing and progressive aspect of Hartman's Seraphina series. Plus, it's about dragons. Go read it!

IN WHICH The Girl Totes a Book

For those looking to buy me a birthday present (in three months), I have a suggestion: a tote bag with the text of an entire book on it! It will warm my nerdy heart.

As I was wandering about online today, I saw an ad for Litographs with the line "Best Gift for Booklovers" underneath it, and clearly had to click on the link. Look, spam does work. The products are pretty cute, and clearly cater to the teachers and librarians of the world, i.e. me.

Most everything they sell has the text of a classic novel on it arranged into a nice pattern. I particularly like the tote bags. There are my obvious favorites, like Pride and Prejudice and The Great Gatsby, but there are lots of other cool ones as well. How does one even choose? So again... gifts... hint hint.

Etsy always has a plethora of kitschy items like these as well. I can get lost on there for hours. Luckily, I'm usually too poor to buy anything. I do try to control the crazy cat-lady side of myself as often as possibly (plus I hate cats).

IN WHICH The Girl Needs a Man

You mean women can work, drive, and even open tough bottle caps??? Who knew? Apparently, not the 1950s. Not that this is surprising. It is, however, entertaining to see ads from the 50s and 60s.

So I was looking for a new paper topic for my class, one they might find semi-interesting - a treat for getting through my enforced discussion of free speech in response to terrorism. Granted, my idea of interesting is usually very different from a college student's. I was looking for an article about the abundance of phrases like "man up" or "be a man" in commercials. Oddly enough, I couldn't find a good news article about this topic. You'd think there would be tons. Get on that, The New York Times. In the search, I came across this article, "26 Sexist Ads of the 'Mad Men' Era That Companies Wish We'd Forget." I was tickled by all the ads. So we are going to write about whether gender stereotypes have actually evolved or not in the last fifty years. Yay! At least they might laugh at a few ads.

Now, I just need some ads from today that display current gender stereotypes for comparing and contrasting purposes. Don't worry; I have some ideas. I'm always up for suggestions though.

Coincidentally, while writing this post, I was watching the Parks and Recreation "Pie-Mary" episode, which just happened to revolve around gender stereotypes during elections. Hilarious! 

“Where are the Male Men? You’re ridiculous. And men’s rights is nothing.”

"There is no bigger defender of gender equality than Leslie Knope. And my husband Ben is a progressive champion of women’s rights." ---- "Babe, the oven’s ready. Chop, chop. Time to get baking. Daddy want pie!"

IN WHICH The Girl Spells L-O-V-E

On this day dedicated to love, Winnie-the-Pooh really is the master. Here are some of the best quotes from A.A. Milne about friendship and love:

If you live to be a hundred, I want to live to be a hundred minus one day so I never have to live without you.

 

"Pooh?" he whispered. "Yes, Piglet?" "Nothing," said Piglet, taking Pooh's hand. "I just wanted to be sure of you."

 "We'll be Friends Forever, won't we, Pooh?" asked Piglet. "Even longer," Pooh answered.

Some people care too much. I think it's called love.

 I think we dream so we don't have to be apart for so long. If we're in each other's dreams, we can be together all the time.

"I wonder what Piglet is doing," thought Pooh. "I wish I were there doing it, too."

It's so much more friendly with two.

"Oh, Bear!" said Christopher Robin. "How I do love you!" "So do I," said Pooh.

 There is something you must always remember. You are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think. But the most important thing is, even if we're apart... I'll always be with you.

 "Sometimes," said Pooh, "the smallest things take up the most room in your heart."

"How do you spell 'love'?" "You don't spell it... you feel it."

IN WHICH The Girl Dreams of Santa Fe

Watching RENT over the weekend, I noticed something similar to another New York-based musical, Newsies: in both shows, the characters sing about escaping to Santa Fe. While I've certainly heard both "Santa Fe" songs before, I only noticed the coincidence now, probably because I saw the Newsies musical on tour about a month ago, so it's fresh in my mind (side note: I have a serious Newsies obsession that stems from childhood). So why Santa Fe? This strikes me as a random choice of idyllic living spot. Do all New Yorkers dream of Santa Fe?

The cast of RENT wants to open up a restaurant in Santa Fe:



Young Christian Bale - oops I mean Jack Kelly - dreams of enjoying all the space in Santa Fe:



Now, it doesn't surprise me that city dwellers, particularly the poor ones populating these musicals, daydream about smaller, quieter locales. But why do both land on Santa Fe? Maybe it fits into the traditional American dream, where people seem to have an inherent need to venture westward. Santa Fe definitely symbolizes the west, which is notably seen in the Newsies video where Jack Kelley rides horses in a cowboy hat during the song (all of these western items seem to suddenly appear out of nowhere). Granted, Newsies takes place at the turn of the 20th century, so these western goals seem more natural. RENT is set a century later when the instinct to travel west isn't as prevalent.

I'm not knocking Santa Fe. I traveled there once with my family and it was quite a pleasant little city. It's also very artsy, which would appeal to the creative New Yorkers in RENT. However, there are certainly many other small American cities. Maybe Santa Fe just rhymes well for songwriting. Any guesses?

Despite all these dreams, the characters always end up back in New York. I suppose Santa Fe isn't for everyone.

Now, I think I need to watch a few more musical numbers. Gots to seize the day!