Here’s the first entry. More will be added as, or when, I actually finish another book. *fingers crossed*

The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ by Philip Pullman.

Bought myself. A great, fast read and would definitely be worth rereading if I had the time to invest in that sort of thing.

The Smartest Kids in the World and how they got that way by Amanda Ripley. (+ 16/4/14)

Christmas gift from Mutti and Mac. A quick, easy read, definitely intended for a general audience. A reasonable introduction to the subject but I would have liked something a little more substantive. Fortunately, there’s a substantial bibliography to explore.

The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood. (+ 20/5/14)

Bought myself. Brilliant novel that I would recommend be added to anyone’s must read list. Disturbing as heck but reverberates with reality, especially every time a piece of legislation regulating the use women’s bodies hits the law books. My only quibble is with the Historical Notes, the last chapter seemed incongruous with the rest of the book. There was something about the tone of that section that felt off.

Call the Midwife. A Memoir of Birth, Joy, and Hard Times (Originally published as The Midwife.) by Jennifer Worth. (+ 3/6/14)

Bought myself. A wonderful read. It really opens your eyes to the conditions people were living under back then and makes obvious just how important the founding of the NHS was to the improvement in people’s well being. (Plus it makes clear home births are entirely feasible with properly trained midwives, even in this day and age.) I would also recommend the tv show, Call The Midwife, on PBS and Netflix in the US, it really captures the emotional tone and detail of the book very well.

The Diet Myth. America’s Obsession With Weight Is Hazardous To Your Health by Paul Campos. (+ 10/6/14)

Bought myself. A depressing read. Time and again it becomes clear that facts are not necessarily a significant factor when it comes to human behaviour. Even when ‘experts’ know the truth about the lack of efficacy of dieting, they continue to push them as a solution to who knows what problem. I’d definitely recommend this book as a starting point to informing yourself on the issues related to the current obesity hysteria as seen in the media. The issues are complex and can’t be answered with simple platitudes. We need a well-informed health policy, perhaps those responsible should read more books like this.

Orange is the New Black. My Year in a Woman’s Prison. by Piper Kerman. (+ 19/7/14)

Bought myself. A glimpse inside the US federal penal system. Once again here is evidence that imprisoning women for mostly non-violent crimes is a waste of human potential and damaging to the prisoners and their families. The complete lack of educational opportunities and vocational training that might facilitate a successful reentry into society seems senseless.

The book was a good read though I got the impression that the author went a little easy on herself to make a better impression. I think this undercuts her story which would have benefitted from a little more honesty. I would also have liked to have heard more from some of the other inmates as to what they thought about their experiences.

The only people who seem to benefit from the ‘justice system’ appear to be the shareholders of the businesses who operate it. The rest of us lose.

From here on I’ll be posting reviews on Goodreads and linking to them here.

Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline

As part of this exhibit a catalog has been created of all the submissions and it is available for purchase. (You can thumb through it here on Blurb.) The variety of images/media is quite impressive. You can find the first of my images eight clicks in and the other three on the following page. Below is one of the stains I created.

This was a great opportunity to experiment with an ongoing process and benefit future artists is their development.

ETA:Current temperature: here 19F/-7C, there 3/37

I was a big fan of Shapely Prose, the fat acceptance blog begun by Kate Harding, and mostly bought this book to be supportive and see if there were further insights to be gained that were not obvious from following along at the blog when it was still active.

It quickly became clear that I am not the target audience for this book. From the word go I found the book’s style to be far to be to loosey goosey and was not impressed by the lack of depth and seriousness. I think this book is much more suited to a twenty something who’s never really given much thought to how the world works and how she’s being manipulated and mislead by the main stream media. In some respects this book is a not unreasonable introduction to the subject and a jumping off point to learn more.

For me the style was way to informal. The style of writing more suited to a blog, rather than a book I’ve paid hard earned cash for. I wanted more depth and seriousness. While studies were quoted there was no really digging down into analysing what science had to say about fat issues. I wanted to grapple up front and personal with the hard issues where this was a brief introduction and hand shake.

The book definitely has an urban bias, which makes a number of its suggestions untenable for those living in a rural environment.

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This is a very odd little book. A sort of guide to improving the church going experience from an atheist point of view. Huh? I understand that being a member of a community that shares a set of values/beliefs can be an important part in constructing a happy decent life. But if those social groups are based on a religious perspective shouldn’t a set of shared beliefs about the world be what binds you together not the experience in the pew? Shouldn’t you be examining what you believe, how it lines up with reality and whether or not it leads you to a happy decent life? At the end of the day I don’t think this book helps with that at all.

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A Christmas present from my mum, I’d wishlisted it over at Amazon and lo it did arrive.

Alan Bennett is very much of the Stephen Fry ilk, only different, and pretty much a British national treasure. He also seems to have an affection for the women characters he writes about which is apparently a remarkable trait for a man.

I loved reading this book and it has much to recommend it. It’s a slight volume so it won’t take but a moment to consume. Possessed of a rye gentle humour the book brings surprising insight into the life of a modern day monarch.

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There are a lot of very strange characters here. Mostly I found it hard to sympathise with the men because of the way they treated the women. Boy, do the women in these stories get short changed. They live hard, miserable lives and along the way are expected to have sex with any man who shows an interest. Brokeback Mountain is far and away my favourite of the stories. While entirely from a male point of view it was not difficult to sympathise with the characters’ predicament. I was surprised just how much of the story had been translated into the movie, and that made me love it all the more.

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The situations discussed in the book were valuable examinations of relationships that are important to women, but I think it would have greatly improved the case if the author had found a way to explore multiple points of view on a given example.

Well worth a read, just skim when you’ve got the point.

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We chose to make a simple accordion book because it’s a very versatile format and a project we could work through in one three hour session. We met for a full three hour session before the class so we could practice constructing the book we were going to teach. That way we would know we could do it, we would know what to say and we would say the same thing.

On the big day we had 6 students, all at different levels of ability and experience in handling materials. By the end of the day we had 7 completed books (Lori and I made one as we demonstrated each technique) and 6 pretty tired but happy students.

It was a great experience for me and I hope for all who participated. Lori and I hope to teach more classes. There are many book types that can be taught in a single session but the more intricate and interesting book challenges need multiple sessions and consequently need more of a time investment from the students and cost more.

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