Saturday, January 27, 2018

Bipolar #1

Bipolar #1 by Tomar Hanuka, Asaf Hanuka, Etgar Keret
2000
Weight: 5 oz
Method of Disposal: Donating


Three very short comics.  They were interesting and sad.  This is the second book I have re-read today that somehow included Kurt Cobain, quite by coincidence.  I would be interested in experiencing books 2, 3, and 4.

Thursday, January 25, 2018

The Story of Jane

The Story of Jane: The Legendary Underground Feminist Abortion Service by Laura Kaplan
1996
Weight: 1.4 lbs
Method of Disposal: Lending Library


This was a great book.  I want everyone to read it.  This group was started in 1969, and the brave and passionate women who organized and ran it are true heroines.  I remember reading this as a teenager and feeling tremendously inspired.  I took it with me to college, and I have told the story of Jane to many many people since.  I thought about them at every March For Women's Lives, every time we stood outside the abortion clinic trying to block the pro-life protesters from harassing the women walking in, every time I turned on the news and heard some new twist or turn in the great abortion debate.

They set up an underground abortion referral group without the internet or computers.  News of Jane was spread by word of mouth, and it was in the phone book under Jane.  They performed over 11, 000 abortions in the 4 years they operated until Roe V. Wade.  They provided counseling and would do the abortions for around $100, though they would work with women who could not afford the fee.  They attempted to check in on the women after they returned home and the women's mental and physical health were of utmost importance.  No patient was ever arrested, but 7 of the women working within the organization were.

This book is written by one of the members in the group and offers a lot of insight into the illegal activities of a very important and life-changing organization that saved the lives of countless women in Illinois.  Did I mention it is amazing?   It is not only the story, though that would be enough.  The writing keeps you turning pages too.

Wednesday, January 24, 2018

Pet Food Nation

Pet Food Nation: The Smart, Easy, and Healthy Way to Feed Your Pet Now by Joan Weiskopf
2007
Weight: 8 oz
Method of Disposal: Donating


This is an accessible, easy-to-read book exposing the truth about the pet food industry, and there is a lot to be ashamed of.  It is not the Bible of animal health, but it will get someone started thinking about what their pets are eating.  It is written so that you do not have to be a dog enthusiast to read it, though it would be a challenge to get someone else to pick it up.  The author sure tries, and I appreciate that.  I have seen other reviewers state that some of the information is inaccurate but, overall, I think it is a useful and good book to have a look through.

Tuesday, January 23, 2018

The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything

The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything by Linda Williams
1986
Weight: 6 oz
Method of Disposal: Lending Library


I remember reading this book as a child with my then best friend.  We would read it over and over during Halloween, and we enjoyed it.  It seems a little scary to me now as an adult thinking about a child, but I clearly handled it well as an actual child and isn't that what the book is really all about?  Taking your fear and transforming it?

The Camera My Mother Gave Me

The Camera My Mother Gave Me by Susanna Kaysen
2001
Weight: 12 oz
Method of Disposal: Donating


I was a big Angelina Jolie fan when I was a teenager, and I had been battling my fair share of depression, so when Girl, Interrupted came out as a movie I was excited.  I also loved Winona Ryder.  From the movie, I went to the book and read it.  I was reading a lot of Sylvia Plath, Anne Sexton, and Elizabeth Wurtzel then.  I was also reading The Vagina Monologues, The Clitoral Truth, Clit Notes, The V Book,  and Cunt.  From there, I stumbled upon this book which seemed to be about Susanna Kaysen and Vaginas! I purchased it, and I read it, but I did not like it as a teenager.  

I was going to pass it on without reading it again, but I vaguely remembered being introduced to some kind of new disease or disorder.  I decided to give it another go, and I thought it was much better this time around, though I can see why I was frustrated back then.  I did not think it was genius even now.  It echoed Girl, Interrupted in its self-obsessed way, though how do you write a book like this without sounding that way?  I guess I am not sure.  

It seems like people who have vulvadynia are the biggest fans.  I have many a review thanking Susanna for making them feel less alone and that, alone, makes it a worthwhile book for reading.  I thought it was good for medical professionals to see what it might feel like to be a patient in that situations.  Though, it seems like the woman who was kindest to her and might have had something to offer at the biofeedback center was one of the "hated" medical professionals.  I thought she seemed great, but Susanna did not.  Of course, after all the sexual assault offered up by her boyfriend over the year she was trying to figure out her vagina, the resemblance of the building to the mental institution she spent 2 years of her life in, and the pain she experienced daily, I suppose she was allowed to be a little cranky.  

The boyfriend.  I hope he read this and wept.  He was terrible and all the times he pressured her into having sex, did not go to the doctor with her, tried to force her to use things like the Novocaine that she kept telling him hurt her worse than if she had sex without it made me so angry.  Susanna still seemed to be grappling with why it felt like rape, though she was scared to label it anything like that.  She likely knew what all women know--that the public would tear her to shreds.  I won't label anything for her, but what he did to her was wrong and it was painful.  He needs to know that.  Any man or woman in a similar position needs to know that.  If it not consent if she does not want to say yes.


Monday, January 22, 2018

, said the shotgun to the head.

, said the shotgun to the head. by Saul Williams
2003
Weight: 8.5 oz
Method of Disposal: Donating


The look and design of this book is great.  I love that the poem has become an art form in looks and in words.  I loved this book for a long time, wooed by its good lucks.

Re-reading it now, I am less impressed.  In so many words, the book is about God being a woman and about a man being intimate with God.  I bet it makes a lot of Christians angry, which is no skin off my neck.  I just find it to be so particularly man-centric despite all the talk about SHE.  One reveiwer calls it feminsit babble.  I cannot imagine anything further from it.  As there always has been and seemingly always will be, woman is something to be ejaculated on and in even as a deity.  The penis is a gun, a weapon, a spreader of destruction.



Only a man would think of so many ways to fuck, fill up, and wallow around in God if there were one.  At once God is a woman and then later he is fucking God's wife.  I get it.  You have a powerful penis, an obsessive personality, a tendency to dream and ramble, and you feel important and disappointing all at once.  Women are better than you and pissing on them is the only way you feel like you can get close to their holiness. 

All in all, I still think it is a good poem, and the books design is great.  His subject matter is not my cup of tea, but it may be yours.  

Madonna Nudes 1979

Madonna Nudes 1979 by Martin Hugo Maximilian Screiber
1990
Weight: 1 lb
Method of Disposal: Giving Away


Another adult book!  What do I do with them all?  It is easier to love them and keep them, but I am committed to this, and I know there must be other folks out there that would love these books.  There are also people out there who would see these pictures and likely not make the connection to the fact that they are off Madonna.  The world is a-changing.

I want to make a lending library for adult books with a combination lock so the little kids cannot get in.  How would I go about this I wonder?  People will likely get mad if they find out about it and don't love it.


The Clitoral Truth

The Clitoral Truth: The Secret World at Your Fingertips by Rebecca Chalker
2000
Weight: 1.2 lbs
Method of Disposal: Giving Away


It was the time of vagina books and clitoral love, and it was wonderful.  I was a sex-obsessed teenager, which seems gross now, but was SO awesome then.  I soaked it all up, and I think that it is because of books like these, lesbianism, and good parenting on my mother's part that I grew up with a healthy, adventurous, and fairly safe outlook about sex.

This book taught me that, not only does female ejaculation exist, but it is fun and exciting.  Nothing to worry about and many people really relish the possibilities.  I learned that men and women were not born all that different, and later it was not at all challenging to understand that not just gender but sex could be fluid.


I found out about On Our Backs and was able to enjoy it for several years before it stopped being made.  I learned about how important the clitoris is.  I was having sex before I got my hands on all these vagina books, but I truly believe the sex must have improved dramatically with the more I learned. 

It is hard to know what to do with these wonderful books.  I want them to go to good use, but I am not always sure how to get them into the right hands.

What Puppies Do

What Puppies Do by Sharon Beals
1998
Weight: 7.2 oz
Method of Disposal: Lending Library


This book contains adorable photos of dogs being dogs.  Of course, it does not resemble the Home for Wayward Dogs (aka My Home).  They would have to be shouting, screaming, licking, sleeping, searching, chewing, glaring, snuggling, begging, etc.  Once they are feeling better they leave to other homes except for those that are permanently institutionalized.  They get better and better, but they are always off kilter.  

Sunday, January 21, 2018

Social Psychology

Social Psychology by Ellis Freeman
1936
Weight: 1 lb
Method of Disposal: Donating

 

Another 18 years and this book will be 100 years old.  Will it make it that long?  Will I?  There's a lot to love about old books.  Their smell, the printing, the yellowing pages, the information stated with such confidence that in retrospect often seems silly, the basic truths that always seem to hold true.  Some of them are better and more interesting than others, but I love to read social commentary of the times and think about how far we have or have not come.  Sometimes I am sad to realize how much the mistakes of the past have effected our present, and I am scared to think about what the mistakes of now will cause as the damage ripples.

The End of Alice

The End of Alice by A.M. Homes
1997
Weight: 10.4 oz
Method of Disposal: Donating


This was my favorite book and favorite author in college.  I remember that, when I read this book for the first time, I was eating broccoli and cheddar soup and that I could not even stomach seeing, imagining, or smelling that type of soup for several years afterwards.  This book is beautifully disgusting and haunting.  Not many people want to get inside the head of a pedophile--I know because I tried to convince countless people to buy it when I worked at the bookstore.  Not only would they say no, but they would begin to treat me as if I were a creep that maybe should not be trusted.

A.M. Homes is a dark wizard/genius.  I would never give this book up if I did not have another copy.  The young woman eating a young boy's scabs weighs heavily in my memory.  I think of the pedophile turning on the reader after a prison rape scene and accusing the reader of being titillated, of only describing the scene because the reader wants it.  This book is striking, different from anything you have ever read, and it hits deep.  If you are brave, read it. 

The Penelopiad

The Penelopiad: The Myth of Penelope and Odysseus
2005
Weight: 11.2 oz
Method of Disposal: Donating


I love Margaret Atwood, feminism, women's points of view, and new looks at old classics.  I wasn't as in love with this book as I had hoped and dreamed to be, but I still love that it exists and that there is this series of books by amazing women author's rethinking mythology that each stand on their own.  Jeanette Winterson's Weight and Karen Armstrong's A Short History of Myth.

The Ice Dragon

The Ice Dragon by George R.R. Martin
2006
Weight:7.2 oz
Method of Disposal: Donating


I think this book would have been better if it was longer.  As is, I was disappointed, and I am a huge fan of children's literature so that was not the problem.  The story was just rushed.  It does not stand well on its own.  It is hard to fathom why the Ice Dragon will bend to the 7 year old's will even if she is cold-bodied and the chill may have killed her mother.  It is even more hard to fathom why when the dragon dies to save her life she never looks back or shows any remorse.  Not even gratitude.  I guess the easy cop out is that she is seven years old, but I would argue she is only seven when it is convenient. Disappointing, but it has potential for sure.

Friday, January 19, 2018

On the Occasion of My Last Afternoon

On the Occasion of My Last Afternoon by Kaye Gibbons
1999
Weight: 8.6 oz
Method of Disposal: Donating


I thought this book was alright, but it did not move me and their were characters I struggled to believe in.  Looking at others reviews, I feel totally alone.  A lot of people complain that it was hard to follow because it did not stay set in one time the and would occasionally float from the present to the past and back.  I felt like it was never confusing.  Even a little.

Others think the writing is stunning.  I thought it was good, but a lot of the conversations and commentary seemed overly flowery and elaborate at odd times, like when the main character's husband speaks to her.  Too each their own though.  It seems to be a matter of preference.

The character development is where I struggled.  Her husband, Quincy, seemed all good and had no bad qualities other than that he would work himself to death trying to save his patients as a doctor.  He could not let them go.  Even for his family.  Her dad was all bad to the bitter end when the good guy, Quincy, killed him quietly and with aplomb.  It was really hard to believe his character would do that despite the degree he loved his wife.  The dad never seemed to crack.  He was vicious through and through.  We are shown that the servant, Clarice, can control him because of something she witnessed but, despite her hold over him, he will absolutely never show her any respect at all.  She is an amazingly strong, smart, and resilient woman who maintains loyalty to the main character's family to the bitter end.  She maintains a sense of self and freedom, but it is hard to believe a woman so strong-willed would have done all the things she did in this book. I feel like they all needed more complexity and more consistency where it matters.  I can see where the author tried.  The main character believed that black people should be free, but she did not let several of her own servants know they were free during the war.  She tried to make this okay by paying them off.  The husband DID kill the dad, but he died trying to save everyone else's lives.  The sister was such a beautiful and perfect homemaker, but she never gets married because of her dad.  Her dad was pure evil, but it was partly because his dad was pure evil.

I don't know.  I am left really unsure about how I feel about it all.  I am glad the main character was wealthy.  She would have had to be very, very wealthy to lead this life and to be so moral and correct.  

Monday, January 15, 2018

Every Good Boy Deserves Favor

Every Good Boy Deserves Favor and Professional Foul by Tom Stoppard
1978
Weight: 12 oz
Method of Disposal: Donating


I love Tom Stoppard's work.  He is a genius.  "...a girl removing her nail-varnish smells of starvation."  Genius.


Read his plays and enjoy them.  You will not regret it!

Tiny Books

Women Who Dared by Evelyn Beilenson and Lois Kaufman 2009
Reel Art: Great Posters From the Golden Age of the Silver Screen by Stephen Rebello and Richard Allen 1998
Weight: 12 oz
Method of Disposal: Donating


The book about women was given to me probably 7-8 years ago from "PAWS," but I believe my manager gave it to me.  I think, but cannot be sure, the Reel Art book came from my aunt.  Both gifts were very thoughtful and sweet.  They both are about interests of mine, but they are tiny after all, and I was able to look through them quickly and enjoy them while I had them.  I do not feel like I need to keep them for always.

Sunday, January 14, 2018

Sushi

Sushi by Ryuichi Yoshii
1999
Weight: 1 lb
Method of Disposal: Donating


This has lived in the land of misguided Christmas presents for years.  My partner likely doesn't want to hurt my feelings, and yet the book has never been used.  Today, she admitted if she made sushi she would likely never want to eat it again.  We cannot have that so it is off to Goodwill!

Chicken Soup for the Couple's Soul

Chicken Soup for the Couple's Soul: Inspirational Stories about Love and Relationships Edited by Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen, Mark and Chrissy Donnelly, and Barbara De Angelis, Ph. D.
1999
Weight: 1 lb
Method of Disposal: Donating


Do you remember when Chicken Soup for the Soul books were all the rage, and you couldn't go through a life milestone without getting one?  I remember being the depressed, lonely, lesbian kid in school.  An old friend and her friend took pity on me, despite being in a lower grade than me, and gave me a Chicken Soup workbook along with a really sweet letter that basically expressed their concerns that I might kill myself, and that they hoped I wouldn't, though we never really talked anymore.  It was a kind gesture, and it did mean something to me despite the fact that a Chicken Workbook could not have helped me on its own. 

There are a  million books in this series!  Okay, they say over 250.  They even make dog food!  It is a little bit re-dunk-u-lous.  The books are full of trite happy and oh-so-sad stories like you might find in a reader's digest or forwarded in a chain e-mail from your grandmother.  Some of them may make you cry despite your cold, dead, jaded heart, but it all feels very formulaic.  It also feels very white, hetronormative.  Don't worry!  They are Christian even when they aren't speaking about Christ, and you won't find a lesbian (or worse) in the  safe place that is in their pages.  At least not back then.  So much has changed since the 90's.  If we are fully included in Chicken Soup books will we have officially "made it????"  A quick Google search does find me one story about a girl who refused to disown her lesbian cousin causing a large rift between her and her Catholic family. She is very upset and nervous about an upcoming Thanksgiving dinner, and a teacher at her school warns her not to drive when upset.  She finds this bizarre.  Dinner does not go well.  She doesn't drive.  She assures the reader she is not a lesbian.  She survives.  The lesbian has an argument and dies in a car accident.  Thank goodness for that teacher!  I guess that is progress.

This particular book is inscribed to friends of mine who have recently gone through a divorce.  It looks like a wedding gift from 2002.  15 years.  I don't think their story would ever show up in a Chicken Soup book.  If it did it would need some SERIOUS editing.

Waiting for Godot

Waiting for Godot: A Tragicomedy in Two Arts  Samuel Beckett
19821
Weight: 8.8 oz
Method of Disposal: Donating


Growing up, I would sometimes hear my mom chuckle and say, "It is like we are waiting for Godot."  Wanting to understand what that meant drew me to this book for the first time, and I have come back to it several times since.  Often, when I myself feel like I am waiting for Godot, and I am getting restless and frustrated.  This is a wonderful, repetitive play open to many more interpretations than the author likely could have imagined when he wrote it.  I would love love love to see it performed in person one day.

Friday, January 12, 2018

Closer

Closer by Patrick Marber
1999
Weight: 5.6 lbs
Method of Disposal: Donating

In college, I loved this play and this movie.  It just reaffirmed my belief that most people were polyamorous and trying to fit themselves into monogamous boxes.  I watched with a girlfriend (a monogamous one), and it just straight up pissed her off.  Ironically, she would be the one to cheat on me with her ex-boyfriend and eventually leave me for another woman.  I guess that should reaffirm my college beliefs on polyamory!

I reread it last week before giving it up, and I had a totally different experience of it this time.  I would be really interested to see the movie again and see what I think.  I, honestly, think I own it.  This time it irritated me to no end, and I could not stand Dan or Larrry but mostly Dan.  I found all the havoc and heartache and drama that was self-inflicted by all the characters to be ridiculous and disrespectful.  I no longer could even imagine being in their position.  I use to empathize, but I felt so disconnected from it this time.

That being said, the play and the writing are good.  It is a testament to the author that he can make people feel different things and so strongly.

Almanac of the Dead

Almanac of the Dead by Leslie Marmon Silko
1992
Weight: 1.4 lbs
Method of Disposal: Donating

Seeing this book still gives me the slightest twinge of shame in my gut.  I read it in college, along with many other Silko books.  We had a white male professor who was wonderful and always trying to break out of his academic box without actually leaving it.  He would encourage us not to do grad school right away if ever.  He wanted us to read books by people who were not "old white men like himself."  He had a great smile and a little twinkle in his eyes.  The books he recommended were almost always great, and his expectations for us were high.

I did not do as well as I wanted to in his classes, but I would say I was pretty average.  After reading so much Silko, we were actually able to meet her one day.  She gave a talk and signed books.  She seemed so full of anger up at that podium and then frustrated with where she was at when signing books.  I don't know if she was or if it was me or if it was all of us, but I had this overwhelming desire to "fix it" and, of course, could not.  I would imagine coming to a school of predominantly privileged white women to discuss Native American life past and present wasn't a dream come true.  We were probably so disappointing and that is putting it mildly.

I remember enjoying this book and writing a paper on it.  Potentially hyped up on something that would keep me awake for days.  I flip through it now and see a few quotes underlined:

"Only a woman fantasizes bullets striking a man's back at orgasm; a man's fantasy at orgasm was firing bullets into the wife's husband" (p 362).

"Yaquis also understood that a person might need a number of names in order to conduct all of his or her earthly business" (p 227).

"The white men on the street were genetically defective.  Mosca was certain of it" (p 211).

"Each time a Palestinian child was shot by Israeli soldiers, Hitler smiled" (p 212)

I guess you get the gist.  Sadness and anger.  Frustration and violence.

Still More George W. Bushisms

Still More George W. Bushisms: "Neither in French nor in English nor in Mexican" edited by Jacob Weisberg
2003
Weight:3.4 lbs
Method of Disposal: Donating

These books use to be so funny and so sad.  We thought we were watching our government and way of life fall apart, and I guess we were.  We were just getting set up for something so. much. worse.  Trump could fill a book this size in one day.  We are almost use to the bullsh** he spouts after a year of this, and it is hard not to block it out and stop resisting, but we can never stop resisting until we find a way out of this muck.

These will seem like small potatoes now, but here are some of my favorites:

"I'm the master of low expectations." pg 2  There is a new master now, Georgie!

"I know something about being a government. And you've got a good one!" pg 3 Bring on the dictatorships!

"We don't believe in planners and deciders making the decisions on behalf of Americans." pg 77 And to that I say F*ck.  Neither does Trumpy.

"I think war is a dangerous place" pg 7 Yes, I agree.  It must be...

Now that quotes like these are common place and expected--only much much worse--please someone or something, save us.

The X Factor

The X Factor: The Unauthorized Biography of X-Files Superstar David Duchovny
1996
Weight: 3.2 oz
Method of Disposal: Donating

I am so excited that the X-Files is back on.  I haven't been at all excited or giddy about television since the 90's but now I find myself rushing home from work on Wednesdays and cursing the universe when anything gets in my way.  Living the shelter life, everything will get in your way.

I love Mulder, but I am most excited about Dana Scully, as always.  As a youngin', I bought everything with an X on it and anything with even a thumbnail image of Gillian.  I found myself making an irresponsible purchase just the other day when I bought TV Guide in the grocery store checkout.  I guess some things never  change.

The one thing that has is that I would not purchase anything unauthorized now and maybe another thing is that, as much as I like Mulder, I would not feel the need to read a biography of David Duchovny when there are so many other wonderful books out there! Gillian on the other hand...

Organizations and the Psychological Contract

Organizations and the Psychological Contract by Peter Makin, Cary Cooper, and Charles Cox
1996
Weight: 1.5 lbs
Method of Disposal: Donating

I am so ready to move out and start fresh somewhere else, but I am dreading this last month and the leaving.  My landlord/friend has been in a bad place and can be a little overwhelming at times.  We are meeting with the realtor Monday, met with a pond repairman today, and have been obsessively packing and cleaning all month.  I know we are getting somewhere, but it is hard to feel like we are.  It all makes me feel physically ill.

The Shakespeare Book of Lists

The Shakespeare Book of Lists: The Ultimate Guide to the Bard, His Plays, and How They've Been Interpreted (and Misinterpreted) Through the Ages  by Michael Lominco
2008
Weight: 1 lb
Method of Disposal: Donating

I am not really a fan of Shakespeare.  Not since high school.  I know that is sacrilege.  More so because his house is not far from my wive's English home town and, if we wanted to, we could likely tour and experience all sorts of things Shakespeare that I may otherwise have never had access to.  Poor Harry already has endured those things before and is likely relieved I am not gunning to do them.

I just do not feel the need to keep plucking away at Shakespeare all this years later.  I've read so much of it over and over again.  This book is fun though, and it is packed with unique and strange information in a very readable format.  I think I student would like it best.

Thursday, January 11, 2018

Michelangelo

Michelangelo: The Last Judgement 24 Slides
Weight: 4 oz
Method of Disposal: Donating

Does anyone still have a slide projector?  I am not even sure my grandparents still have theirs, though I bet you they are the ones that gave me these.  I do see you can still buy them online so I will donate in hopes it will not go to waste. 

I remember being a child, sitting in my grandparent's living room, and watching them project hundreds of pictures from their travels for the family to watch.

The European World Since 1815

The European World Since 1815: Triumph and Transition Second Edition
1970
Weight: 1.7 lbs
Method of Disposal: Donating

It is fun and strange to read political and social views of other times, even history books.  They are not as timeless as fiction.  That being said, I do not remember this book at all.  I am clearly desperately trying to unload as much weight as possible before the move at the end of the month.  If I read the book once it is at risk of going even if I love it.  If I did not have feelings one way or another then all the better.

International Workcamp Directory

International Workcamp Directory 1982-2004
Method of Disposal: Recycle

I really struggle to know, understand, and internalize that 2003-2008 is not the present.  There is absolutely no way I can believe this book is 14 years old.  And yet it is.  It seems unlikely this will be useful to anyone anymore, but it was really great at the tine!  Given, it spanned 22 years so maybe I am wrong.

A People's History of the United States

A People's History of the United States: 1492-Present  Howard Zinn
1995
Weight: 1 lb
Method of Disposal: Donating

I was recommended this book by one of my high school teachers--which is lucky.  He was not the kind of teacher you would have expected to make that suggestion.  I think it was a very important segue from the way I had been taught.  Much less surprising, I was handed it again in college.  Howard Zinn became a larger than life figure.  Someone that showed so many people to look further into the histories they had been taught and to not just accept without thinking, digging but, more importantly, listening to people not in the positions of power.

I now have an electronic copy of this book, but I have also read it twice so it is off to a new home.

Everything You Know About Sex is Wrong

Everything You Know About Sex is Wrong: The Disinformation Guide to the Extremes of Human Sexuality (and everything in between) Edited by Russ Kick
2005
Weight: 2 lbs
Method of Disposal: Throwing Away


There was a leak in this house when we moved in but, when the plumbers came out, no one could find it.  Harriet and I felt like we were going crazy.  No one believed us until the leak started in the living room too.  Then, they realized it was the fire place.  We got it all cleaned up but, it would appear, that we have lost quite a bit to mold.  Harriet's horse supplies, many of my books, a mattress and box spring set.  So depressing.  The hardest thing is getting rid of all this stuff.  It is hard enough to let it go but then also to find a place for it.  Books can be thrown in the garbage can but not mattress', and I have no idea when we will have the money to buy another.  I am sick of being broke.

Du Pont

Du Pont: One Hundred and Forty Years  William S. Dutton
1942
Weight: 1.5 lbs
Method of Disposal: Donating




DuPont. The story of a company. DuPont was a donor to my elementary school. They made a big production of it when I was in first grade. Their was a giant photo of a DuPont building in the front of our yearbook, and the principal came to tell us how wonderful DuPont was. I remember my mother rolling her eyes and telling me they weren’t all that great.  I was confused, and she likely didn’t want to tell a child everything, but she did tell me some reasons. Only, I can’t remember them completely. I believe it was how they treated their employees. That stark contrast between my mother’s emotions and my school’s celebratory manner stuck with me. I kept an eye on DuPont.

It has been many years now, but you still see them in the news. I would think more now than back then, but I wasn’t reading the news then. A quick Google search will come up with these snippets:

http://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/DuPont-workers-had-been-exposed-to-potentially-6010262.php

https://www.osha.gov/news/newsreleases/region6/07092015

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/10/magazine/the-lawyer-who-became-duponts-worst-nightmare.html

https://www.corp-research.org/dupont

I guess I should know by now that my mama is usually right! Du Pont has been around almost as long as this country has been known as the United States of America. It was started when a refugee from Francebegan manufacturing gun powder in Delaware.  If you’d like to learn more about the history of the company then try this book, though it is quite dated.




Monday, January 8, 2018

Children's Books

Asia and Kiara's Magic Rock Oletha Broussard 1998
Curious George: Goes to a Costume Party Margaret and H.A. Rey's 2001
Curious George: Goes to School Margaret and H.A. Rey's 1989
Peanuts: It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown Charles M. Schulz 2001

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I love children's books.  I obviously do not need them, but I do love them.  My dear friend Sarah use to read me Curious George when we worked at Waldenbooks together, and I loved every second of it.  And who can resist a beagle and a giant pumpkin, Charlie Brown?  My wife.  That's who.  The sole person who does not like Peanuts.  Anyway, maybe these will make their way to a kid so they can be read 35 times instead of 2-3 times like they have been here.

The Sexual Politics of Meat

The Sexual Politics of Meat: A Feminist-Vegetarian Critical Theory  Carol J. Adams
1990
Weight: 1.2 lbs
Method of Disposal: Donating


What a deliciously Agnes Scott type book.  The merging of feminism and vegetarianism.  I ate it up and still love it to this day.  I know I will not read it again.  I have read it several times.  I often think about parts of it when talking to people about animals, "meat," the power of words.  Sometimes I keep it to myself and sometimes I don't.  I know people don't always respond as positively or enthusiastically as I do.  I wish you could get someone who was not a vegetarian or feminist to read it, but that will not usually end in success.

The Woman Who Walked Into Doors

The Woman Who Walked Into Doors  Roddy Doyle
1997
Weight: 5.6 oz
Method of Disposal: Donating


My first instinct when I started reading this book was that it did not sound like a woman's voice to me.  I quickly got over that.  I soon believed every word of it, and I could not put it down.  It was tragic and heartbreaking and violent, but there were scenes that just felt so real.  The cruel moment when he asks her where she got a black eye, and she has to frantically think of what the correct answer is.  The answer that will ensure she is not beat again.  The zinger that her abusive husband didn't realize toast was made from bread.  The way she believed that another woman had hit herself hard with a door, despite the fact that she desperately wanted someone else to see through her lies at the hospital.  The description of a beautiful wedding day followed up by her all alone, waiting on her drunken husband in bed.  He finally comes home late and falls asleep, snoring.  She throws away her bouquet in the trash the next day despite the fact that she had wanted to throw it.  His name.  Charlo. It is all in the little details.

Doyle writes, " If he's been a bit different he would have been great at something--he'd have made a different name for himself.  A business man or a politician, or even an actor.  He'd have been a star.  If he's had the education.  If he's had other work when all the building around Dublin stopped and there was nothing left for him to do.  He would have put his anger to use.  He wouldn't have been wasted.  He'd have been a leader.  I can see him.  Managing a football team.  Putting the fear of God into them at half-time.  Standing up and speaking in the Dail, tearing strips off the Minister of Social Welfare.  Jumping out of a moving car--doing his own stunts.  Teaching problem kids.  They'd have loved him.  Vote for Charlo Spencer.  Co-Starring Charlo Spencer.  Written and directed by Charlo Spencer.  Scored by Charlo Spencer.  But he wasn't unemployed the first time he hit me.  Beaten by Charlo Spencer.  That's a fact that I can't mess around with.  Robbed by Charlo Spencer.  Murdered by Charlo Spencer. Charlo Spencer lost his job and started beating his wife.  It's not as simple as that.  He started robbing.  He shot a woman and killed her" (191-192).

You can see the love an admiration she has for him even as she expresses her disappointment in him and the shock that he turned out the person he did.  That name.  A waste.  He was a waste, and he wasted her.  The children.  The narrator says the hardest part is that she cannot promise her children anything better.

I think I liked how the author wrote from the perspective of a poor, uneducated, alcoholic, mother and did not slip into the mistake that so many authors make and portray her as stupid or undeserving of peace and love.  She absolutely was not stupid.  It was fucking sad.  It was good.

Yearbooks 1997-2006

Assorted Yearbooks
Weight: 20.2 lbs
Method of Disposal: recycling

I am not lugging these yearbooks around again.  I have looked through them again briefly as a 32 year old, and I have learned some things.  Here they are:


  • My first grade yearbook is adorable.  We hardly knew how to write and so it wasn't quite the popularity contest it became later.  My teachers loved me.
  • My middle school yearbook is sad.  I clearly hated myself and everyone else.  I was constantly battling off bullies and couldn't see who my real friends were and, while I was nice to them most of the time. I would sometimes blow them off and frequently slam them in my yearbook for being almost as unpopular as me.

  • In high school everyone thought I was weird and a lot of people hated it, but it turns out a lot more people admired that I had come out and was so open than I realized.  At the end of the years I may not have had 600 signatures, but I had letters in my yearbook and it was a good feeling to know that I was more true to myself and less of an asshole than I was in middle school. Most of my teachers liked me again and the ones that didn't must have been assholes...kidding kidding.
  • More people than I realized knew I was having a terrible time in school and was really struggling.  I think a lot of them tried to fix it in ways that should have been obvious to me, but they really weren't.  I would like to thank them.  They may have saved my life.
  • A lot of my most important friends and people did not go to school with me.  I met many of them at work.
  • People took college yearbooks far less seriously than middle and high school ones.  People like myself would not even show up for the photograph and therefore have almost erased themselves from the school's history and do not have to be ashamed anymore. 

  • I apparently went to school with Ron Weasley.

Saturday, January 6, 2018

Tai Chi: The Supreme Ultimate

Tai Chi: The Supreme Ultimate Lawrence Galante
1983
Weight: 1 lb
Method of Disposal: Donating


In an effort to avoid a sport I would detest in college I took Self-Defense that was taught by a man skilled in martial arts and in general self-defense.  I can no longer remember his credentials, but I remember his class, and I loved it.  Way more than I thought I would.  Part of the training was developing some sort of muscle memory so you would go right into defense mode when needed, and I think I would have the first 5 years out of college.  Now, I can hardly remember my name and I couldn't kick someone or throw them over my shoulder to save my life.  However, I will never forget how amazing it felt to use my bare hands to chop through wood and cement blocks.  Thank you for that, Sensei.

Classics

The Age of Innocence Edith Wharton
The House of Mirth Edith Wharton
All Quiet on the Western Front Erich Maria Remarque
A Room With a View E.M. Forster
Brave New World Aldous Huxley
The Canterbury Tales Chaucer
The Dead  James Joyce
Death Be Not Proud: A Memoir John Gunther
Great Expectations Charles Dickens
Hamlet edited by A. R. Braunmuller
Lord Jim Joseph Conrad
Madame Bovary  Gustav Flaubert
The Picture of Dorian Gray Oscar Wilde
Pride and Prejudice Jane Austen
Pygmalion George Bernard Shaw
Pudd'nhead Wilson by Mark Twain
Selected Poems and Letters of Emily Dickinson
The Sea Wolf Jack London
Three Sisters Anton Chekov
The Swiss Family Robinson Johann David Wyss
The Turn of the Screw and The Aspern Papers  Henry James
The Unbearable Lightness of Being Milan Kundera
Uncle Tom's Cabin Harriet Beecher Stowe
Weight: 14 lbs
Method of Disposal: Donating



It is always hard to let the classics go, but I am fairly certain that I have multiple copies of all of them, and I need to cut it out.  I also feel comfortable buying them for next to nothing or getting them for free on kindle seeing as I have bought them so many times and the authors are no longer around.  So, I am going to suck it up and let go of most of my classics as I find them and replace them with Kindle editions in the interest or reclaiming space in my home.  Let's hope the government or Amazon does not decide we shouldn't read anymore and erases all the books instead of burning them.  Trump likely would if he found a way to.

Also, I am counting The Unbearable Lightness of Being as a classic and an actual true life Prepaid Phone Card for calls within the U.S. fell out of the Emily Dickinson collection.  Thank goodness for cellphones and Skype for that reason at least!

Marilyn Monroe and the Camera

Marilyn Monroe and the Camera
2000
Weight: 3 lbs
Method of Disposal: Donating



Marilyn Monroe reminds me of my first love as a teenager.  Marilyn's movies were also one of the first things that my stepmother and I bonded over in the early years of her relationship with my dad--to my mother's dismay.  I can now see why your daughter beginning to idolize Marilyn Monroe after you took such care to teach her about Boudica, Joan of Arc, and Anne Frank might be a little worrisome.

Mostly it was Heather M.'s fault.  She wanted to be Marilyn despite always coloring her hair a copper red color and keeping it super short in a way that was not yet popular at our school.  Her grandmother said she looked like a "polished penny."  When I think of Marilyn I think of diamonds, flirting, Jane Russell, ridiculous men, Jane and Marilyn singing about coming from the wrong side of the tracks, Harry Winston, medication, Kennedy, insecurity, youth, beauty, Heather, and my step mother.  When I think of Heather I think of how amazing and horrendous first love is, eating disorders, doc martins, red hair, a light purple room in a trailer, a bizarre and unhealthy family, lots of sex, letters upon letters, the viciousness of teenagers, the cruelty of teachers and guidance counselors, flirting, coming from the wrong side of the tracks, ridiculous men, insecurity, youth, and beauty.  It is weird how much I cannot and do not remember now, but how I have such vivid images of the ages 13-16 years.

So, sometimes, when I look at Marilyn I just think about excitement and happiness.  I do not necessarily go into the intricate details.  I just smile and don't really know why or think about it much--like I am now.  And so, though many would argue she is my antithesis, I still really like Marilyn Monroe.  I am still really sad for her and all the insecure girls and women desperately seeking out attention even when it ends in their own demise.  So much like Heather at 13 and like first love.

Wednesday, January 3, 2018

Huggly's Thanksgiving Parade

Huggly's Thanksgiving Parade by Tedd Arnold
2002
Weight: 2.2 oz
Method of Disposal: Donating


I guess you might be able to tell we are collecting donations for Goodwill considering my short and continuous posting.  We found a new place to live (!) and have less than a month to figure out...everything (the opposite of !).  We are moving again!andoppositeof!

Best Friends: The True Story of the World's Most Beloved Animal Sanctuary

Best Friends: The True Story of the World's Most Beloved Animal Sanctuary
2001
Weight: 1 lb
Method of Disposal: Donating


I bought this book soon after starting work at the animal shelter, but I did not read it right away.  This is a little surprising because in my ten years of working in rescue I have read, watched, researched, and soaked up all the information I could get.  I guess it just slipped through the cracks, but then last year a volunteer from the shelter visited Best Friends and when she came back she lent me her copy.  I was not sure where mine was. 

It was an unbelievable story!  I had no idea how Best Friends had started in the beginning.  I only knew about what they had become.  They have now come to Atlanta and have become even more important than before in the rescue community.  I imagine soon many people who are not in "the know" will be curious about who Best Friends is, and I am sure one of those people will stumble upon this book.

Pussy, King of the Pirates

Pussy, King of the Pirates  by Kathy Acker
1996
Weight: 9.6 oz
Method of Disposal: Attempting to Donate


I should have loved this.  It screams me in so many ways, but I just could not get into it and, I am ashamed of it, but I don't think I really got it.  I read it 17 years ago, but I did not give it up because I always wanted to try to read it again and to listen to the musical companion.  I thought that would really enhance it.  Like so many other things, I put it off indefinitely and when I would pick up the book to try again I would not make it very far and my mind would start to wander.  It just could not hold my interest for a second time.




Atlanta: Then and Now

Atlanta: Then and Now by Michael Rose
2002
Weight: 1.6 lbs
Method of Disposal: Donating


I gave this book as a gift to my grandparents--probably in 2002.  They regifted it to me--probably in 2016.  I really enjoyed it.  I think it is fun to see the city grow.

Language Books

Your First 100 Words in Russian: Beginner's Quick and Easy Guide to Demystifying Russian Script 1999
The Oxford German Dictionary 1997
DK Italian Phrase Book and CD: Travel Pack 2003
Teach Me More...Russian: A Musical Journey Through the Year 1997
Russian in 10 Minutes a Day 2006
Weight: 2.4 lbs
Method of Disposal: Donating



Harriet found more language books while helping me pack up my still terribly large library.  Only, these are the ones I really am sad to let go.  I hate admitting to myself that I will never learn Russian.  I had such high hopes just out of college.  I wish I could hunker down and throw myself into it, but those days are long gone.  Work takes up 80% of life, sleep takes up 5%, the remaining goes towards the wife and pups.  ;) The days are long.

Monday, January 1, 2018

Keeping My Name

Keeping My Name: Poems by Catherine Tufariello
2004
Weight: 9. 6 oz
Method of Disposal: Donating


This was a good one and a powerful one.  The author is clever, talented, and has the perfect balance of despair and quiet amusement.  Someone will be very lucky to stumble across this one.  That might be the most appropriate way for it go.  I believe I found it in a stack of books someone was giving away in college.  It was a very lucky find.

Space Sticker Book and Hamsters

Space Sticker Book: Barnes and Noble 2005(throwing away)
Hamsters by Percy Parslow 1992 (donating)
Weight: 1 lb 10 oz


I cannot believe I kept that Space sticker book for 13 years.  Even if I did not buy it the year it was published, I had to of had it for at least a decade.  I love space but damn.  I am 32 years old.  So, from 19-32 years old I felt like a child's view of space was THAT important or, one can hope, I just didn't realize I was carrying it around with me...through 7 moves.  Oh my God.

Anyway,  I am also purging myself of this dated but fun hamster book.  It was given to me as a gift from one of my coworkers at the shelter.  I always had rescued hamsters back then, and she was always thrifting.  She thought I would find it fun and funny.  And I did. :)



Belle Prater's Boy

Belle Prater's Boy by Ruth White
1998
Weight: 11.2 oz
Method of Disposal: Donating


SPOILER ALERT

This was a surprisingly good young adult novel that was centered on two kids turning into teenagers, Gypsy and Woodrow.  They are both reeling with the loss of a parent.  Gypsy lost her father to suicide and Woodrow's mom disappeared.   Both characters are so earnest and so lovable.  You just want to make everything right for them.  They have such loving personalities despite their struggles and when Woodrow weaves an elaborate tale of magic and two worlds throughout the book you find yourself desperately believing that his mom will come back for him and that she is just stuck somewhere.  It is not until the very end of the book that you too have to feel a disappointment similar to Woodrow's when he admits that his mom left him behind and that she is not coming back.  I wanted to be enraged, but then Gypsy reminds you that, "Aunt Belle had left Woodrow on purpose just like my daddy left me.  Not because they didn't love us.  They did.  But their pain was bigger than their love" (195).  

I Am My Own Wife

I Am My Own Wife A Play by Doug Wright
2004
Weight: 5.4 oz
Method of Disposal: Donating


The subject this play was based on was ridiculously interesting--so interesting that I would argue that Wright could not totally fail unless he were to totally attack and demean her.  That is something it sounds like he would never do.  He clearly found her enchanting.  Not that the language used is super transpositive, but he exuded respect and fascination. 

The subject is Charlotte von Mahlsdorf, a transwoman who managed to survive Nazi Germany and the Stasi.  Not only did she survive it, but she was able to maintain her identity and took some incredible risks to preserve history, to collect, and to do what she enjoyed most.  She owned and ran the Gründerzeit Museum.  In 1997 she moved to Sweden stating that Berlin was too dangerous, but she went back for a visit in 2002 and died of a heart attack in the city she called home for so long.

Now, tell me that in itself is not a story you want to know more about.  I am not sure I was as keen on the play as I was her, but I do imagine it was a hard one to write and to boil down to such few pages.