2014 book party: ending the year on a more organized note

I am finally organizing my nonfiction.  This is much more intense than organizing fiction because I can't just put it all in alphabetical order by author.  I have to group things and then try to guess how my future self will search for them.  Where should the research books on pain go?  Next to the comedy books, of course.   

Philosophy - science - history - literature - aesthetics OR aesthetics-philosophy - science - history - literature?  (Actually aesthetics - philosophy - literature - history - science, in case you're curious.)   

Unread theology/philosophy next to general unread nonfiction?  Or should the read theology / philosophy go next to that?  Organized by last name?  Can't remember author names of some books.  Do those by title and mix in with authors I know.   

Separate narrative from essays / general nonfiction?   

All the poetry and books on writing go to the closet bookshelf in the library; they're hanging out with all the graphic novels and anime, so they're obviously having a good time.   

Why do I have two copies of Basic Theology?  

 Why on earth do I still have two racquetball books, and should they be moved to be with the comedy books at this point?   

And there is only one row tall enough for the big art books, so that throws everything off unless I remember what SIZE the book is.   

It's a really fun way to end a year, for sure: rediscovering the books I have yet to read and the ones I read and liked enough to keep.  And trying desperately to exert enough self control to finish organizing before settling down to drool over the Pre-Raphaelite art book or a beloved new Christmas book that is whispering my name . . .

Happy New Year a bit early.  I'll likely be asleep when the main event happens. : )

Born Into Brothels: you have probably never seen the cycle of povery this clearly

This is a hard documentary to watch for a lot of reasons.  Sure, the subtitles are not always there, rendering much of the experience of watching difficult and the experience of comprehending impossible, but one of the hardest reasons is because it forces you to face the fact that some parents do not, in fact, want what is good for their children: they do not want their children's fortunes to improve, for their children to have better lives than they have had.  Some parents want their children to have the same lives they have had.  Some parents want their children to suffer as they have; some parents don't see a reason why their kids should have better lives than they have had to endure.  This is a very hard truth to be faced with. 

Maybe, to be fair, the truth is more that some parents think that what's good for their children is to have the same lives they've had, no matter how awful and crappy said lives are.  Maybe the truth is that the tradition, the repetition of the historical pattern is what they value, and that they think anything that seeks to change that is, in fact, bad.  Maybe, even though the caste system was abolished last century, its hold and its basic idea that people are born into their station and to desire anything else is wrong still grip the people hard.  Maybe this is one of those painful cultural differences not explained very well because it's not part of the story the creators are trying to tell. 

But after watching this documentary about a small group of kids born in brothels and how the intervention of a journalist with cameras changes (and doesn't change) their lives, I'm angry and more likely to be fired up by the former than the latter.  This is violent, brutal, tragic, powerful stuff well worth a watch if you haven't come from the kind of crushing, cyclical poverty it brings to life.  Do yourself a favor: slap yourself in the face by watching this; realize how hard life is for folks who live very different lives from yours, and then find some ways you can help make things better somehow.  (I recommend child sponsorship because it helps the whole community and usually doesn't involve sending kids away from their families.) 

Just keep a lot of tissues on hand if your compassion runs to the weepy variety (and if the subtitles work).

The ad copy talks about how inspiring and uplifting it is.  I can't say that's not true at all.  There is much to rejoice at: the way that kids can live terrible lives and still have an eye for beauty, still have curiosity, still have hope. There are even some who triumph and escape (at least temporarily).  But I was left haunted by the way many of these kids are trapped and prevented by their parents from finding freedom and better lives. 

Some folks got angry because they saw the film narrative as "westerner comes and tries to save the backwards non-westerners by taking their children away," but, frankly, I don't know how anyone could live in that environment and not get pulled under by it because of their love for their family.  Sometimes letting someone go is the only way for them to get the training they need to become a doctor or an engineer or a scientist or a photojournalist or a writer or some other career that requires a lot of concentrated work and in the end might allow a family to not have to resort to prostitution to keep itself afloat.  (I think here of folks like John Scalzi, who had to get a scholarship to a boarding school that let him get away from his crushing childhood poverty in order to help himself HAVE a future outside of it.)  Poverty exerts its own gravity,no matter what culture you live in, and sometimes extreme measures are the only way to escape it and do good in the end.

Basically, I don't recommend watching without your critical faculties engaged, because documentaries are carefully crafted pieces of creative nonfiction.  Some of the one and two star reviews on Amazon bring up some good points and make me want to go get some other perspectives, but what I managed to pull out of my viewing of this film stirred me to action, and I think that's not a bad thing.

If you've seen the film, what was your stronger reaction?

Hungry Monkey: Making Me Wish I Had a Cook

b Hungry Monkey: A Food-Loving Father's Quest to Raise an Adventurous Eater by Matthew Amster-Burton:  This was a fun little book about this dad who wanted his child to be a foodie from birth, not a picky eater like all those other kids.  Reality is a bit different, but it doesn't stop him from trying.  Each chapter deals with food in a different context (eating out, farmer's markets, preschool snacks, etc.), and each chapter (except the first) contains recipes, some of which I really want to try eating sometime.  Mmmmm, food.

The week before the layoff: Tuesday

I wonder if this is the last Tuesday I will take this route to work past the half-dead, half-alive tree and the marsh.  Will this be the last Tuesday I do work at this desk surrounded by this three-sided view of clouds watching this plant shiver as heavy machinery moves the floor?  Will this be the last Tuesday I go to this store and then that store and get gas at this gas station and then go home? 

I pray it will be the last Tuesday I ever have to do research on hip surgery (while contemplating potential job and insurance loss). 

Will tomorrow be the day that everything falls apart for me like it did for my cube-neighbor today?  He was one of our managers, an irreplaceable expert.  But they did tell us that this lay-off had nothing to do with how good we are.  It is a thing of cold, hard numbers, HR and finance, not our bosses or those who work with us and give us performance bonuses. 

Now I wish again that I had maintained my goal of only achieving expectations.  Who knew that exceeding them would have the consequence of making me more attractive to a cut based on numbers?

What I've been reading lately

The Off Season by Catherine Gilbert Murdock: In this volume, DJ sort of dates this guy, and that ends badly.  Mostly she keeps dealing with her screwed up, silent family, as they deal with a real crisis or two.  I love this narrator's voice and the way she comes to realize things about herself and the people around her and starts to act on them in small but powerful ways.

Book Girl and the Wayfarer's Lamentation: So what does a book series do after it resolves what you thought was going to be its main conflict?  Well, I'll have to find out in the next volume because this was the volume where some big showdowns happened, and it gets pretty brutal.  There are a lot of reversals in this book as characters and motivations are twisted and shown to be not exactly what you were led to believe.  Lots of emotional tension and some great book-related information, as per usual.

Newton's Cannon by J. Gregory Keyes: Ben Franklin + Alchemy = pretty entertaining. Unless you're London.  At least he's really sorry.

Margaux with an X, Now Playing: Stoner and Spaz II, and Deadvilleby Ron Koertge: The endings are never cheaply happy.  Each protagonist is so unique.  All the books are united by their common excellence.  Not perfect, mind you, but great.  I am impressed by his ability to make convincing characters who so easily move the plot along while narrating in first person.  I need to study this; if done right, the books just seem to hum along even if there's not really much action.  I am also impressed by his ability to create realistic adult characters, use interesting family groups/dynamics, and seamlessly include characters with various kinds of disabilities.  Well done!

Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis: This book is always an interesting read (especially if you're me and forget everything between readings).  Ponder once again these clear examples, this lack of theological buzzwords, the thought-provoking ideas grounded firmly in a time past.

Let's Pretend This Never Happened by Jenny Lawson: If you are easily offended, this one is not for you; the language is frequently R-rated, as is the content (sometimes more "R" for ralph-inducing).  As the Bloggess, Jenny Lawson tells stories about her screwed up life.  And it is screwed up. 

People who think they grew up with quirky parents will be put in their places by this book.  There are baby racoons in jams, lessons in couch etiquette, more than you really wanted to think about cow artificial insemination, dead babies, saint-worthy husbands, feeling stabby, and more neuroses than you can shake a roadkill puppet at.  You will find that you really love your job (unless you work in HR).  You will be grossed out and offended for sure.  You might also laugh hard enough to have an asthma attack.  More than once.

Best served in small doses, this one nonetheless adds up surprisingly well into something akin to a memoir.  However, you really need to know what you're getting into when you read this, or you will be disappointed.  It's not Shakespeare, and it's not trying to be.  If you read it like a blog (a little bit every so often), you'll probably end up with a better opinion of it than if you try to read it like a normal memoir or novel.  If it starts getting tedious, stop reading and come back to it later when you need a really weird pick me up.

Living rocking chair stories

I am told that to live an interesting story, you must want something interesting and overcome opposition to achieve it.  So what do I want?  Here are some excerpts from my current list.

• a big, comfy rocking recliner
• at least 8 solid hours of sleep a night (and no micronapping or spacing out during the day)
• to take on the federal Office of Workers' Compensation Programs and make it a more efficient, injured-worker-focused organization acting in good faith and using best practices to help injured workers, (corollaries: to get them to admit they wronged me and to have them apologize and then pay for all the debt I accrued due to this stupid injury and their ham-handedness handling it I am such a silly dreamer)
• to be out of debt (so I can spend more of that money giving to charities I want to help)
• to find a church body I can serve in, probably one that has mentorship opportunities in the community
• to not be in pain
• to figure out a way to do what I am best at (note to self: figure out what I'm best at) and then find a way to do it
• a big, comfy rocking recliner

Some of these wants seem epic enough for a story, but I don't think I have the willpower, guts, and energy to make them happen.  Others of them are really lame.

Q. Are you seriously not going to get a chair until you're out of debt?  Are you seriously going to wait ten years to buy a chair?
A. Yes, as long as they cost $400 when they're on sale (not that I drool over advertisements or go sit on chairs [only after checking their prices] in those rare instances when I am near a place of shopping).  

Some of these wants might make nice stories, I suppose, but mostly they'd just be boring.  I've never been good at writing short stories, so I suppose it's not that startling that I'm not good at living good ones either.

What are you in pursuit of that is making your life story an interesting one right now?  And/or what's your rocking recliner?  :)

Teaching yourself things you don't know

Wow, have I been reading a lot of nonfiction lately.

• 101 Smart Questions to Ask on Your Interview: This is a really excellent book if you didn't know what you were supposed to do in a job interview when they ask if you have any questions. There are so very many great questions to ask (and many not to ask). I can't wait to ask some of them (the ones you're supposed to ask, not the ones you're not), so I want to get another interview soon.  Preferably before I forget or finish this notebook.
• XML: My head hurts. I learned HTML coding the old school, HTML-editors-are-for-wusses way. In some ways, XML using an editor with pre-formatted tags should be easier, right? Now if I could just figure out what they mean when they say XML doesn't do anything, but it carries data. Carrying data is doing something, right? Wrong, apparently. I think I need to see it in action because the descriptions just don't make sense. (None of the eight I've looked at so far . . .)
• JavaScript: Same thing with JavaScript; I think I need to actually play with coding it myself, so I can understand it. I keep reminding myself that Flash was a total enigma, too, until I took a class and did it myself. It was very ugly at first, but I learned.  Eventually.

Any nonfiction you're slogging through to learn something from right now?

The Stainless Steel Rat and the Job Interview Adventure

So, I was really early for my interview.  At least, I would have been if the information the interviewer gave me had been correct.  Just pick up a parking sticker at the guardhouse on the way in, she said.  It's on my way; the streets are one way.  An extra 20 minutes should be more than sufficient, even if I have to park in the lot furthest from the building I need to get to.

At the guard shack, I see a note that tells me to go to the safety office to get my pass.  Where is the safety office?  I don't know.  I have no idea.  I am sure it isn't anywhere close to where I need to go because Murphy is a close friend of mine. 

Sure enough, it is not close.  I eventually find the building.  There are no parking spaces for visitors or anyone else.  I park illegally.  I can't find my hazard flashers.  I do not have time for this.

I enter the building and see that the security office is on the lower level.  There is a stairway right next to the sign.  I hoof down it to discover that I am in some sort of Twilight Zone cul-de-sac that has nothing to do with security.  I run back up the stairs.  I look vainly for any indication of how to get where I'm going.  I see nothing.

I enter the nearest office and look for a sign.  I find one.  Security Office this way.  I go this way.  There is no security office.  There are no stairs.  There is no elevator.  I pant.

I turn around and see another sign pointing in the opposite direction of the first.  This one, too, claims to be the security office.  I am doubtful, but I am also in a tearing hurry, so I try it.  Eventually, many signs and a scary stairway later, I arrive.

Security is very . . . relaxed.  They are not in a hurry at all.  They have no easy access to an exit.  I would not feel particularly trusting if I had to call them in case of an emergency.  Eventually, they are suspicious about why I need a parking pass, but even more eventually they believe me and fill one out.  At a some-might-say leisurely pace.  Slowly. 

I retrace my steps at a dead run.  It is still 80 degrees with 150% humidity.  I am wearing a black suit.  I am perspiring.  I am not sure I will be able to get back over to my building around all the one way streets and construction, so I park at the first space I find and limp/run, taking every shortcut I can, trying not to get hit by cars since the sidewalks are blocked off by construction.  I am carrying a ridiculously heavy attache with my portfolio and other professional looking stuff.  Students laugh at me as I pass.  I sweat at them.

I am two minutes late.  I am seriously sweating, and I can't take off my suit jacket because they will be able to see the sweat on my shirt, and this will not make them think I am professional.  Everything I've ever read has said that being late to an interview dooms your chances completely.  I am panting and convincing myself I am not asthmatic because my inhaler is in the car in my coat pocket probably melting in the heat.  I am most likely slightly wild-eyed at this point.  I find a stairway (lovely vaulting) and head up.

Sweat is dripping down my face, and I have no hand to wipe it with.  My hair is wild.  I see that I am on the far side of the building from where I need to be.  A very long, plushly carpeted hallway stretches out before me for a very long time.  Joy.  Then I see two people I recognize from my research into my interviewers, and my desperation is enough of a cue for them to identify me.

They ask, was the construction a problem?   I tell them, Honestly it was the running around trying to get a parking pass that was a problem.  They look at me blankly, and I explain.  They shake their heads, That's not what they told us, sorry for the confusion.  We head to a conference room.  It is closed.  When they get the key, we head in, and the room is not air-conditioned.  Alas.  Spring in the midwest. 

I am a sweaty, frazzled mess, and the interview hasn't even started. I am trying to be graceful as I push hair away from my face and try to wipe away beads of sweat as they fall.  I do not look professional.  I probably do not smell professional.  I am late.  I am doomed.


I remember this great scene in one of Harry Harrison's hilarious Stainless Steel Rat books (maybe Gets Drafted?) where the cheerfully anarchistic SSR explains how to beat a lie detector test: you work yourself up to a state of paranoia and doom before they start, and you let yourself calm down as they conduct the test.

Apparently, this works in job interviews, too because as the sweat dries and my body cools down into focused, serious discussion mode (wherein my limbs usually become freezing cold), things go fairly smoothly.  By the end of the interview, we are having a good time, and I look somewhat competent. 

One of the interviewers even gives me a ride to where my car is parked, and we talk a little more.  Apparently, she calls the next person I am interviewing with and recommends me favorably.

So that's why you should read science fiction.

:)

Nonfiction at its most entertaining: The Unlikely Disciple by Kevin Roose

Kevin Roose was a student at an Ivy League university working for a famous journalist when he met some young people from Liberty University and proceeded to have an awkward, embarrassing conversation with them.  A sort-of Quaker, he realized he didn't actually know any evangelical Christians and found out that most people don't either.  He wondered if this fact was related to the way evangelicals were portrayed in the media and demonized by the culture.  He started to wonder what it would be like to study their world from the inside, to humanize his image of them.  And so, he decided to study abroad for a semester as an undercover journalist.

This outstanding book is the result.  Clear-eyed (he's very up-front about his biases from the start) and passionately observant, he chronicles his semester at Liberty with all its ups and downs and the always quietly-humming tension of not wanting to get caught and wondering if he'll end up brainwashed.  The book even ends well (as in, he didn't fumble in the end).


Because he is an outsider, Roose has a unique perspective to bring to the Christian table, a fresh and curious way of looking at things and trying to find out why and then acknowledging their absurdity while still taking them seriously enough to examine them closely.

One thing that impressed me was Roose's desire to seek out the why behind the action and his sensitivity to understand some things most Christians I know probably don't.  For example, he realizes that the moral problem with masturbation isn't the act itself but the lustful thoughts and desires associated with it.  He realizes that if one wants to control one's lust, there are certain things one shouldn't look at or think about, and then he just avoids those things (all for the sake of journalism).

He doesn't understand some things most Christians I know probably also don't.  Why do evangelical Christians lean so hard on the Bible as the basis for their morality when it puts them into conflict with everyone else? he wonders.  Why do they pick on gay people so much?  He doesn't seem to understand that if both sides don't have the same moral code, they can't really have a successful debate about a moral issue. 

Both sides will have to agree to disagree on homosexuality because, if one side won't accept that "the Bible is against it" is a debate-ender, then we really shouldn't start the debate.  It only leads to name calling and hurt.  Which brings me to the second question: why so much verbal gay-bashing? 

It seems to me that when Christians pick on gay people, it's because they don't know the Bible and how it teaches us the difference between how we are to view each other within the church and outside of it.  Inside the church, we are called to love and judgment.  Outside, we are called to love.  The "unsaved" are going to sin because they are not working with the same foundation we are (and they don't have the Holy Spirit to guide and help), so there is no point in judging them (and persecuting them) for behaving like they are unsaved. 

I just wish someone could have explained that to him in the book. 

Why gay people at all?  Why not adulterers and fornicators, too?  Some would say because homosexuality is more obvious, more flamboyant, and that's why it takes so much heat (aim at an "easy" target).  But I know Christians living together and having sex before marriage who think their behavior is not a sin.  "At least we're not gay . . ."

Does there always have to be a target?  Is that part of human nature?  (You'll enjoy the section where the Liberty students are slamming the even more conservative colleges like Pensacola.  Just don't be drinking or eating anything when you read that bit or the additional research Roose did into the topic.)

There are plenty of other highlights, some shocking (not shocking to be shocking, just honest observations that might make you feel quite ashamed due to guilt by association if you are a Christian), some sad, some cute, and a lot hilarious.  I felt very convicted and informed and moved to rethink many things.  I also laughed out loud frequently.  He manages to capture the fish-out-of-water vibe so well . . .

Anyway, if you are an evangelical Christian or you know one, or you've only heard of them, you should read this book.  It will open your eyes and engage your mind and make you want to talk about it and entertain you all at the same time.  Not bad for a book.

Reading Tokyo Vice

And now for something completely different.  Tokyo Vice: An American Reporter on the Police Beat in Japan

I'm reading Tokyo Vice by Jake Adelstein.  If you're interested in Japan or investigative journalism or organized crime or those who fight it, you might want to check this one out.  Adelstein is an American journalist who spent years in Japan reporting on crime.  Needless to say, in an insular place like Japan, this opportunity is kind of rare. 

The prelude section starts out with the yakuza threatening the author's life.  I'm particularly proud of the fact that I realized this particular organization is the one based out of the capital city of the prefecture my sister taught English in while she was living in Japan.  She didn't recommend visiting that area when we went to see her.  (She didn't want us to become statistics, and there were plenty of other wonderful places to visit that weren't infested with yakuza.)

Knowing that the author survives gives the book its own kind of tension.  Does he pursue this story mentioned in the prelude?  How does he not get killed?  What led him there?  What led him to later combat human trafficking? 

I've been interested in the topic of the justice system and the Japanese underworld pretty much since I read my first manga touching on it maybe six years ago.  I am intrigued by the lens Adelstein provides the opportunity to look through, and I'm looking forward to the insights into culture, justice systems, and humanity I gain through the book.  I just hope it doesn't get too gritty . . .


Do you know of any good nonfiction books about aspects of Japanese culture?  Do recommend.