1. There are a lot of bad people in “the world” and there are good people too.

There are good things about some of the things the church teaches. (Don’t get upset let me finish!) Integrity and honesty are worthwhile, and there are many in the world who uphold it and many others who are snakes in the grass. A big reason I left is because as someone who was raised to believe lying was a sin, I couldn’t reconcile all the lies I had been told by the church as a faithful attending Sister.

The church can be a veritable Mother Gothel, instilling a deep fear in its members of the “world” and what leaving the church (Rapunzel’s Tower) could do. I literally cried watching Tangled in the movie theater with my family because it resonated during the time I was leaving

2. Not all exmormons are your community.

It can feel overwhelming to lose a community that has been there for you when leaving the church. I understand (truly) why it might feel like a necessary thing to connect with other exmos who get it. But don’t let the exmo connection be the only thing that brings you together, and sometimes it’s worth being around those who can help you move on past your Mormon identity instead of wallow in regret over it.

That doesn’t mean exmormon meetups and groups aren’t helpful. Grieving with community is a great way to move past everything. Just don’t get caught up in the identity to the point you are maintaining connections simply due to the fact that you share religious trauma.

3. Polyamory may not be the solution to your FOMO about a virginal marriage.

You saved yourself for marriage. You married your “eternal companion.” That was that. There was no other way to be. Then you deconstruct. Sometimes together. And you leave the church.

Some people will resent what they didn’t get to experience before getting married when it comes to clubbing and living that single life. But here’s the thing, if that’s the reason you are going to experiment with polyamory, things might not hold together.

Polyamory isn’t a one-stop solution to your relationship issues. And if your marriage isn’t bringing you happiness with church out of the equation, it might be a good time to seek counseling and consider options.

4. It’s not evil to call it quits.

It can be hard to realize that you became someone’s spouse under circumstances that were out of your control. It’s ok to outgrow a marriage.

It’s ok to love from a distance. It’s ok to honor what was had and move on.

5. You don’t need to explain yourself.

So you grew up or spent a sizeable portion of your life in a church that you “knew was true.” You got up in testimony meeting. Told everyone in your congregation what you “knew” was true. You even invited friends or neighbors over when you were feeding the missionaries (*cringe*) in hopes that a seed might be planted and they would become (gasp) “investigators!”

It can feel like you must explain yourself. In fact, some people will expect it. Others in my experience are fearful of any explanation (which I believe says a lot about what they might already know). Truth is, it’s not anyone’s business to know why you left.

“But what if they think I did it because I just wanted to sin!” So? That’s a reflection of the values and beliefs that you just shed not long ago. The thing you discovered or realized about the church is nothing new. Sorry, but when it comes to apostasy, you aren’t the first. You won’t be the last. When you’re still in the matrix you’ll still explain why people leave with the rules and reasons that the matrix provides. Leaving is a self motivated and internal journey, no one in the church will validate your reasons for leaving.

You also don’t have to prove you are happier. It can be heartbreaking to leave. Leaving can cause years of pain and sorrow and delayed grieving for loved ones lost. But the authenticity of being is worth it. At least it has been for me. And eventually, healing can come.

6. Alcohol isn’t everything.

It can feel exhilarating to realize that as an adult, you are now allowed to do adult things after leaving the LDS Church. Drinking is one of those things that so often thoroughly entices freshly ex-members.

There is nothing wrong in experimenting with such things with safety in mind. What becomes problematic is when forced deprivation swings into unbridled excess. As Clarissa Pinkola Estes discusses in Women who Run with the Wolves, highly domesticated means the feral is also highly suppressed.

What can happen is people may fall into vice in the spirit of excess and initiate their own undoing. Lives can be upended, especially if alcohol or other drugs becomes a means to numb the pain and grief from leaving.

7. It’s ok if you are less happy now than when you were in church.

It’s in talks. It’s in the curriculum. It may as well be carved in the scratchy walls: Wickedness was never happiness. And according to the church, “breaking your covenants” and leaving the church is one of the most wicked things you can do. To the point some in the church debate whether or not those who have “had the knowledge” end up in outer darkness.

Not only does that sort of programming go deep, but it can also become self-fulfilling prophecy. Family members weep like you died or write guilt laden letters. You may endure heartbreaking phone calls. Cries for you to walk away from “the devil.” It’s not easy to navigate a world where your moral compass was enmeshed with unrelenting tribalistic dogmatism.

It’s difficult to lose friends and family. It’s emotionally taxing to figure out what your values actually look like. It’s not uncommon to become reactive and sabotage even the best of relationships.

Sometimes ex-mormons think they can try to save face with people still in who would judge them for leaving. They try to prove they are fine. But what this does is it keeps us from actually seeking the real help we may need to midwife ourselves into a new life. And people still in will judge you regardless of what you say or how happy it is you are projecting yourself to be.

8. You get to define yourself.

Too many folks leaving fundamentalist religion are convinced they need to fit a certain mold after leaving organized religion, because the religious society and environment does a phenomenal job of doing that to its members, inactives, non member etc.

I’m not sure how many times I heard people talk about how they didn’t want or wanted to be “exmormon,” “postmormon,” “fomo,” etc.

Just remember that everyone processes differently. Unpacking Mormonism is one thing. But going on to unpack patriarchy, American exceptionalism, and more might take some time and that’s ok.

Be wary of folks who try to make you feel bad for processing differently or for different lengths of time. I myself have been guilty of pointing a finger at those who I viewed as “angry apostates” and then found myself later dealing with my own unprocessed rage and grief. In a way, being that type of judgmental is just another manifestation and permutation of the self-righteousness that plagues so many within a fundamentalist religious worldview. It also could have been unconscious Mormon programming still lingering in my psyche that made me feel that way. “They can leave the church but they never leave it alone.” In a way that sort of turn of phrase members go around parroting was still embedded in my thought processes around grief. It’s really just a silencing tactic so you don’t hurt their PR. Grieve loudly if you want to and shed the old parts of you that you’d like to release when you are ready.

9. Set boundaries with family in a firm but healthy way.

Regulate yourself. I honestly can’t remember where I heard this, but I heard before that healthy boundaries are not akin to someone having an electric fence around them at all times, but an aura of confidence and self assuredness that lets people know how you’d like to be treated, or something like that.

Boundaries are not rules we impose on others, but how and what we choose to let into our lives.

If a family member blows up your phone, you can just mute the conversation and check and respond when you need to. Criticizing them for having an emotional albeit unhealthy reaction to your news won’t help them and may antagonize them further.

Of course abuse is never ok, and it’s important to work it out with one’s self and possibly one’s therapist regarding what we will allow into our lives.

10. It’s ok to remain a spiritual person.

It’s a beautiful thing to not be dogmatic against spirituality. It’s a beautiful thing to fall into the depths of the underworld and emerge with scars and lessons. It’s ok to continue to create meaning in your life.

I’d like to end this by sharing a poem that helped me a lot as I left:

Cherish Your Doubts

Cherish your doubts, for doubt is the attendant of truth.
Doubt is the key to the door of knowledge; it is the servant of discovery.
A belief which may not be questioned binds us to error, for there is incompleteness and imperfection in every belief.
Doubt is the touchstone of truth; it is an acid which eats away the false.
Let no one fear the truth, that doubt may consume it; for doubt is a testing of belief.
The truth stands boldly and unafraid; it is not shaken by the testing:
For truth, if it be truth, arises from each testing stronger, more secure.
Those that would silence doubt are filled with fear; their houses are built on shifting sands.
But those who fear not doubt, and know its use, are founded on rock.
They shall walk in the light of growing knowledge; the work of their hands shall endure.
Therefore let us not fear doubt, but let us rejoice in its help:
It is to be the wise as a staff to the blind; doubt is the attendant of truth.

By Robert T Weston

(Source: https://www.uua.org/worship/words/reading/cherish-your-doubts)

Thank you for taking the time to read this. Please let me know if you found it helpful or if there is anything else you would add? Be safe and well.

Can I find that soft magic in a place I don’t expect? The book itself a veritable call to “go touch grass” as a cure to many modern melancholies and ailments. I am looking for the key to my garden and it remains lost.

I have put so many things behind me that I wish I hadn’t. I have regrets about leaving my work in libraries and now I only wish to return to them. I will write and seek out my cloistered existence in some archives meriting my attention and care.

I’m not sure where that may end up being but I hope that soon I’ll be able to. I have a post I am working on that is taking me some time. I think it will be a pivotal piece for me because it will mark the end of a long chapter of my life, overcoming difficulties with leaving the high demand religion of my birth.

I’d like to immerse myself in my newfound spirituality. My religion will be the values of librarianship and the love of knowledge and information. Those are such valuable things in these times of false stories, false images, false information, etc.

I’m finding that peace of mind now, lucky to have a library of my own, but willing to journey on to find a place that will let me develop my skill as a keeper of knowledge.

The sun has been a salve to my depression. Winter was long and dark and quiet, the quiet was nice but the dark was difficult for me this year. The trees have started blooming and people were so friendly and happy yesterday at the farmer’s market. I was able to bring my rabbit, Olive, and seeing so many light up at her smallness and rabbity-ness made me feel warm like the sun’s rays that were so kind to our little town’s market.

I’ll wait for the right moment, embrace the flow of the journey, like floating down a lazy river. Every moment in the present being as enjoyable as in the future when I make my way down a fork in the river which will lead me to my purpose.

I’m grateful for everything I have. I am sorrowful for the times in the past I acted out of wounding. I know I have forgiven myself and I have grown much accustomed to my own company. I enjoy the time I spend with myself, reading, playing, discovering, and the time I spend with my spouse and children as well.

Tho I know I will have to take some time to myself to get back into the career I left behind, I know they are at a place which will be able to support me in my endeavor. Everything feels more connected than it used to be. I will be close even in my distance.

I’m not sure where I was going with this but it feels right to end it here. I have to embrace the doing in the waiting. Not wait to do.

This was something I wrote during a writing session some time ago. I felt inspired to share it here after reading Takwa Gordon’s essay on Internal Family Systems.

Flying through the cosmos, stars surround me. Swirling voids suck in gas and air from the behemoth lights. Spreading my wings, I hold on to the bits of air that lift my wings underneath. Air or something else in the void that holds me. Maybe it’s the breezy winds of Dark Matter.

I hold tightly to the feeling in my heart that everything is ok. The void lovingly surrounds me. Even though I cannot see it with my eyes, it fills my heart with a cold I cannot contain. It is a cold mother who teaches me to be free from who I believe I need to be.

There is pressure rising from beneath my belly. A deep sunken ship at the base of my bosom that pulls me beneath the sounds of sirens and foamy crests of waves. I look toward the horizon of the heavens and see the ends of the cosmos extending exponentially into the vastness of reality. My home. My journey. Grateful for the peace in my heart.

No longer do I hold concern for the worries of the living and the games they play with each other; I used to fear I truly was a villain, or evil incarnate, because so many have told me that is what I am. It took a while to realize they are telling themselves the stories that bring them to a place of comfort when witnessing me. They try to come up with reasons why my flight triggers a shame within them I cannot tend to, a wound they cannot heal and one that my presence exacerbates.

When I realize that the ones I have hated are also aspects of myself, I’m reminded that nothing is evil or good, it is one. And I continue to live in this world by doing what I can to tell the stories that bring hope to the beings around me.

I’m in a perpetual state of waiting, always seeking the purpose of my own heart and mind. Maybe, I’ll find it soon. Maybe it will not be too long before I am able to find the ones who will join me in the eternal birdsong.

A chill down my neck and I can feel the shift in the season and the air. I’m so incredibly glad to have friends that enjoy spending quiet moments of reflection with me. Finding the time to purge these thoughts can be exponentially healing and beneficial to the mind.

How is it that I can more be of service to my own mind. I know I wish to smoke less and to find the way forward. I want to search for that meaning in my heart and in the faces of the people around me.

Life is ever evolving and I’ve been able to forgive so much and bring myself to a place of understanding, forgiving myself and my shadow for the hurt and the pain and the wretchedness of being, trying to not shy away from the icky parts of my mind.

Sometimes I dream of her, as if she were a clone. And I wonder where her corpse has gone. Wonder if the small fingers that curled around her father’s neck have gone rigid. The dark recesses of the mind that contain all the maggots and fetid flesh of the girl I once was. Maybe she died a long time ago. Maybe I’m possessed by some unloved demon. Maybe I carry a splinter of my mother’s soul.

Will I never be free from wondering what might have been if the people in my life hadn’t harmed me? The resilience they gave me is simply a gift wrapped in regret and wrongdoing.

I look forward to the time when all things become clear. When I’ll be able to sit on the shores of time and hold the sand in my hand, with light reflecting and glittering on the speckled, coarse and luminous earth. Digging my toes and heels into that liminal place and coming to root my soul into the earth and find if there are ways laugh at the absurdity of it all. The way we continue moving through the motions even when the depression feels so heavy and lost. I look forward to the time when it all comes together, and I can hold something other than the void close.

I will cease to weep for her, the child in my heart. She was a sacrifice to the goddess within me. And she will nourish the rage inside of me, and with her energy and power, I’ll light the world on fire.

Personally, I have been staying up to date of current affairs with independent reporters like Chris Hedges, Marc Lamont Hill, Motaz Azaiza, Bisan Owda, and enriched by commentary/community discussion by inspiring women of color, including Amanda Seales, Gabes Torres, and Nikki Blak.

I’ve also attended teach ins and protests in support of Palestine here in Vermont, and was especially troubled with the recent news in my state of the shooting of Tahseen Ahmad, Kinnan Abdalhamid and Hisham Awartani, Palestinian college students who were walking down the sidewalk in Burlington, speaking Arabic and English and sporting traditional keffiyehs when they were shot in an apparent hate crime.

During this time, throw in the strange mix of holiday season ads that come off as more and more separate and disconnected from the cultural zeitgeist, because to acknowledge the truth of what we are feeling and experiencing would kill any urge to do some shameless consumerism.

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking lately. There was a time where it was part of the daily routine to wonder what was the point of anything if I couldn’t do the thing I worked and studied so hard to do. I felt so useless all the time. I made my profession, title, academic achievements, my source of value.

Now I do this thing that some people really like, others scoff at or ignore, and that my family finds amusing. But I have to regularly ask myself, am I still doing what I want to do? And… what’s the point?

But I have received such nice feedback from people. And I consider regularly how being a buttonsmith and a bruxa makes me feel a little special, like how I am sending sigils and intentions out into the world, and people, members of my community are passing them along.

But there are times I fall down a memory hole, and times I miss being a librarian.

Web librarians, ebranch librarians, cybrarians and other similar terms are proliferating the literature of the library world. What exactly do these terms mean and when will librarians stay ahead of the curve and finally be able to provide the finished product of the best library website ever? There's the rub. They can't. What is relevant now will be obsolete before you know it. Technology changes a lot in just a few years, and sure, there are ways for librarians to create websites that can stay relevant longer (especially when taking UX and accessibility standards into consideration). But if websites aren't quick to adapt to what users want and when they want it, they will fail to provide a friendly user-centered experience. We have to start thinking about library web services as always evolving.

Websites aren't buildings.

When we think of a library's website in terms of a digital branch, we might think of the old brick and mortar concept of a library branch building. There is a planning stage, a building stage, and a final end point where the doors are open the furnishings are well placed and the building is done. At least for a long time. The web doesn't work like that. Websites are NEVER "done." This doesn't mean that libraries and web librarians can't meet the needs of users online, or that they can't launch a redesign project to update the website. This just means that we need to change the way we think about library websites. They aren't like physical branch locations. They aren't like a project with a starting point and an end point. Perpetual beta can and should be a philosophy applied to library websites. The library website is never finished, because the needs of online users never stop changing. Web trends happen quickly and technology changes fast, so we need to allow our websites to evolve as needed, guiding the content our users want through the changing web landscape via the latest web conventions.

Library websites are for users.

Since the goal of the librarian is to connect the user with the best information, similarly, the goal of the web librarian is to connect the online user with the best information by cultivating a user-centered online environment that is intuitive and friendly to the user. Many library websites are still bogged down by librarian-centered content. And you can't really blame librarians for doing this. We LOVE information. But we have to remember that library users AREN'T librarians. We need to understand what users are looking for when they visit the website, and we need to help them find what they are looking for. Something I remember, when I was part of a library website redesign team, was how much prime web real estate was given to links that we, the library staff, wanted to promote. Analytics and usability testing proved that we were just cluttering up the visual real estate on the site, making it harder for patrons to actually find what they needed. Meanwhile, non-essential information and links (the stuff library staff wanted users to want) continued to get very few clicks. Web usability testing continues to be an important part of library website design. Frequently testing, evaluating, and applying changes to address any problems with design can help ensure a website will stay relevant to users. Ultimately, I'm starting to discover that what a web librarian, cybrarian, ebranch librarian really means, is a librarian or information professional with a UX design bent to them. I found the following definition by Paige Alfonzo to be helpful:

"The user experience (UX) librarian bridges the gap between the back-end with the front end…the way computers organize data and the ways humans attempt to search for that data. User experience involves studying how users interact with a system and then creating that system to accommodate those users. A UX designer is one who executes these actions. User experience is not a new concept. Most major companies employ user experience designers who attempt to harness the wild wild web and synthesize that data into an intuitive system that users want to use." (source)

Web librarians can never stop learning.

And how do we keep up with the latest web conventions? We need to constantly be in a state of learning. Always learning is how web designers stay in business. Web standards change, and to stay relevant, you need to know about it. David Stuart, a web analyst and researcher at the University of Wolverhampton, makes the case that it is imperative for librarians to obtain programming skills:

"Such skills will enable librarians to provide access to the increasingly large amounts of data, combine the data in new and innovative ways and enable access to it in the places that customers want. Equally importantly, librarians will then have a recognisable set of skills that can differentiate them in the minds of the users." (source)

A common theme I've come across as I've watched instructional videos on UX design, be it on YouTube or Lynda, is that web developers are always in a state of learning. The information is out there, and it's possible to learn so much for free. Embracing the fact that it is impossible to know everything is a good place to begin. Figuring out the scope of what one needs to learn is the next step. That's where I am; I'm embracing the chaos while I set my trajectory. I'll be happy to see where it takes me.

(Originally published on February 20, 2016 on That Radical Librarian’s blog.)

Featured Image Source
University of Salford Press Office. ScreenLab 0x02 - the Octave. 2012. Flickr. https://www.flickr.com/photos/salforduniversity/8241390800/

Works Cited
Alfonzo, Paige. "Is a User Experience Librarian in Your Future?" Librarian Enumerations. March 15, 2013.Web. 19 Feb. 2016.
Stuart, David. "Programming skills could transform librarians' roles." Research Information. December 2009/ January 2010. Web. 19 Feb. 2016.

ResourcesKrug, Steve. Don't Make Me Think!: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability. Berkeley, Calif: New Riders Pub., 2014. Print.Schmidt, Aaron and Scott Young. "Library UX: Creating Usable and Useful Websites | Lead the Change." Library Journal. September 25, 2014. Web. 19 Feb. 2016.

Illustration from Scary Stories To Tell in the Dark Trilogy

I asked my friends on Twitter, G+, and Facebook what books they considered to be their "scariest read." I got some answers and compiled them in a Prezi presentation.

It was fun to see all of these displayed so nicely in a digital "book display" format. I liked playing with Prezi.

Have any more suggestions? Leave a comment!

Also, the presentation is best viewed in "full screen" mode (button at lower right hand corner after starting presentation) and by using the right and left arrows at the center bottom.

Also, you can zoom in and out as needed. Have fun!


"Scariest" Reads on Prezi

Click to view on Amazon

Chi's Sweet Home

by Konami Kanata

I'm not a manga person (not counting my brief, enthusiastic teen affair with Magic Knight Rayearth and Sailor Moon), but when I picked up Chi's Sweet Home for the first time a week back, I could not put it down.

Chi is a lost kitten who meets a young boy named "Youhei" of the Yamada family. They decide to take the abandoned kitten home, even though pets are strictly NOT ALLOWED at their apartment complex.

There are a lot of cute, quirky things about the kitten that make her endearing. Chi acquires her name when she answers to the Japanese word for urine. She also speaks in "meows" to the humans, but the translations of what he is saying are adorable, since she speaks in a cute-toddlerish-speech-impediment kind of way.

As someone who owns a cat, I enjoyed the kitty antics immensely, as they reflect real things kitties do! I'm pretty sure if I didn't own a cat of my own, I wouldn't be so invested in the book, however, the book holds its own, even for those who may be (gasp) dog people.

Chi is the cutest cat out of Japan since Hello Kitty. Image Source
This book appeals to readers of all ages. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and my four year pried it out of my hands. Also, just because it is filed away as "children's lit" at libraries and bookstores, doesn't mean that it isn't a quality work; it is. It builds and develops an amusing dynamic between this sweet family and this adorable kitten, though they don't grow a relationship without a set of unique trials (like when dad takes Chi to the vet!).

Click to view on Amazon

My Friend Dahmer

by Derf Backderf

This is a horrible story. It really is.

But My Friend Dahmer is a graphic novel written and drawn extremely well. The author/artist recounts his interactions with Jeffrey Dahmer in high school. Dahmer typically goes unnoticed by his teachers and peers. Sure, he is weird. He has this knack for acting like he has cerebral palsy and yelling in the library just to get the librarian riled up. (Note: I did not particularly enjoy the author's portrayal of the librarian, but I digress.)

Dahmer likes to collect dead animals he finds, and strip them to the bone, just to see what's inside. But he also enjoys the company of friends at school. The bizarre interactions between him and his friends further illustrates just how strange Dahmer is, even though he is beneath everyone's radar.

The story follows his family problems, dark fantasies, and his alcoholism in high school. He tries to numb the darkness within by inebriating himself constantly, and no one intervenes. His parents are too busy with their own tumultuous marriage and divorce. His teachers don't notice.

No one does.

One poignant thing, I took away from this book, is how just about any unassuming suburbanite could have the dark fantasies that Dahmer had. Dahmer was a person. He was a person with dark thoughts, and he was a person who ultimately did horrific and unforgivable deeds.

He was a person, who let his dark fantasies enslave him.

The illustrations supply a wonderful tension between Dahmer trying to fit in and trying to appease his darker desires. The drawings are not in the style that I immediately enjoy, they resemble more of the underground comic style, but they grew on me. I enjoyed learning that this is not the first version of this work. Derf originally published My Friend Dahmer as a much thinner, less researched comic that had an underground following. In the book, he explains how the original fell short of what he wanted it to be, and how this newer version better captures the vision he had in illustrating Dahmer as a high school student.

Dahmer pretended to have cerebral palsy, on a regular basis, at school.What finally made Dahmer snap? We may never know. But Derf does a spectacular job in making the case that perhaps, adults in Dahmer's life could have been more present, more aware of his situation.

I will point out that while the book itself is dark, and has some graphic scenes, most of the it takes place in a boring suburb. I think that is one of the most chilling things about this whole event, is that such a horrible darkness could be lurking beneath such a boring and mundane surface.

From beginning to end, My Friend Dahmer keeps the reader interested. It pulls you into Dahmer's whitebread, suburban hell, like an unforgiving imp, and doesn't let go.

It's macabre.

It's brilliant.

It's dark.

Now go read it. Halloween approacheth after all...

Click to view on Amazon

Leaving Fishers
by Margaret Peterson Haddix

Dorry has just left her small town, the only home she's ever known, and moved to the big city because her father was laid off at his factory. She is completely alone. No one seems to acknowledge her existence at her new high school, and she is readily ignored and even insulted when she tries to approach other teens.

No one bothers to get to know her, except for a tight knit group of kids who call themselves "Fishers." They invite her to sit with them at lunch, and then proceed to invite her to their church activities. They shower her in love and acceptance and call her "friend." Dorry is so happy to have some friends, so she doesn't mind that they are a little odd. She tries to not feel uncomfortable when they pray over their food at school, and how they constantly talk about religion and God.

Eventually Dorry finds herself at a Fishers retreat, where, she is unwittingly "willingly" baptized. Being a Fisher, she suddenly has to accomplish a number of tasks, follow rules, and she feels guilty if she can't live up to the Fishers' expectations.

She starts to alienate her family, her grades flounder, and she has to consider the cost of what pleasing the Fishers and God really means.

My Thoughts

This book does an excellent job at portraying an insecure teenager's probable reaction to acceptance, and in this instance, an acceptance of a cult. I've studied a little about cult psychology, and I could see it in this group, portrayed by Haddix, quite well.

The groupthink, the guilt, the love bombing are all there. It hit a little close to home with me. Especially the part where Dorry goes to the Fishers retreat. Some of the scenes remind me of my own personal experiences attending religious camps as a youth. Particularly the hyper emotional campfire testimonies and discussions and the guilt associated with saying "yes" and "no" to certain religious questions and activities.

There is also a part where her love interest basically tells her that he will only date fellow Fishers (a very manipulative scene after Dorry leaves), and I know so many that join a religion just to be able to date or be with someone who won't accept them for who they are.

Overall, I'd recommend it to those interested in cult acceptance and recruitment and groupthink. I wish the book touched a little more on moving on after leaving Fishers, as I think that the process of leaving can be rather difficult, and I feel like that part of the book was a little rushed.

Leo Geo and His Miraculous Journey Through the Center of the Earth by Jon Chad (2012)

"Intrepid explorer Leo Geo is heading off on a mission into the unknown. With science as his sidekick, he intends to tunnel his way to the center of the earth. Of course, things never turn out quite the way you expect when you're burrowing your way through the earth's layers. Before long, Leo is forced to leave his tunneling machine behind, and he climbs, crawls, and falls to his destination while dodging giant centipedes, man-eating quadclops, and an evil army of subterranean malvisors bent on invading the surface. Kids will be drawn in by the unusual format of this inventive comic, following Leo as he climbs deeper and deeper into a very long and skinny book—and they may just learn a few things about geology as they go."

Appeals/Genres: Comic, Graphic Novel, Adventure, Youth

Feynman by Jim Ottaviani and Leland Myrick (2011)

"Richard Feynman: physicist . . . Nobel winner . . . bestselling author . . . safe-cracker. In this substantial graphic novel biography, First Second presents the larger-than-life exploits of Nobel-winning quantum physicist, adventurer, musician, world-class raconteur, and one of the greatest minds of the twentieth century: Richard Feynman. Written by nonfiction comics mainstay Jim Ottaviani and brilliantly illustrated by First Second author Leland Myrick, Feynman tells the story of the great man’s life from his childhood in Long Island to his work on the Manhattan Project and the Challenger disaster. . . "


Appeals/Genres: Biography, Graphic Novel

The Disappearing Spoon: And Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements by Sam Kean (2010)

"The Periodic Table is one of man's crowning scientific achievements. But it's also a treasure trove of stories of passion, adventure, betrayal, and obsession. The infectious tales and astounding details in THE DISAPPEARING SPOON follow carbon, neon, silicon, and gold as they play out their parts in human history, finance, mythology, war, the arts, poison, and the lives of the (frequently) mad scientists who discovered them. . . "


Appeals/Genres: Character Focused, Witty, Humor, Historical

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot (2010)

"Her name was Henrietta Lacks, but scientists know her as HeLa. She was a poor Southern tobacco farmer who worked the same land as her slave ancestors, yet her cells—taken without her knowledge—became one of the most important tools in medicine. The first “immortal” human cells grown in culture, they are still alive today, though she has been dead for more than sixty years. If you could pile all HeLa cells ever grown onto a scale, they’d weigh more than 50 million metric tons—as much as a hundred Empire State Buildings. HeLa cells were vital for developing the polio vaccine; uncovered secrets of cancer, viruses, and the atom bomb’s effects; helped lead to important advances like in vitro fertilization, cloning, and gene mapping; and have been bought and sold by the billions.Yet Henrietta Lacks remains virtually unknown, buried in an unmarked grave. . ."

Appeals/Genres: Biography, Thought Provoking, Character/People Focused, Historical

The Poisoner's Handbook: Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York by Deborah Blum (2010)

"Deborah Blum, writing with the high style and skill for suspense that is characteristic of the very best mystery fiction, shares the untold story of how poison rocked Jazz Age New York City. In The Poisoner's Handbook Blum draws from highly original research to track the fascinating, perilous days when a pair of forensic scientists began their trailblazing chemical detective work, fighting to end an era when untraceable poisons offered an easy path to the perfect crime. . ."

Appeals/Genres: Mystery, Crime, Detective Story, Suspense, Forensics, Historical

The Age of Wonder: How the Romantic Generation Discovered the Beauty and Terror of Science by Richard Holmes (2009)

"When young Joseph Banks stepped onto a Tahitian beach in 1769, he hoped to discover Paradise. Inspired by the scientific ferment sweeping through Britain, the botanist had sailed with Captain Cook on his first "Endeavour "voyage in search of new worlds. Other voyages of discovery--astronomical, chemical, poetical, philosophical--swiftly follow in Richard Holmes's original evocation of what truly emerges as an Age of Wonder.
Brilliantly conceived as a relay of scientific stories, "The Age of Wonder" investigates the earliest ideas of deep time and space, and the explorers of "dynamic science," of an infinite, mysterious Nature waiting to be discovered. . . "

Appeals/Genres: Romanticism, Historical, Character Focused

Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex by Mary Roach (2008)

"The study of sexual physiology - what happens, and why, and how to make it happen better - has been a paying career or a diverting sideline for scientists as far-ranging as Leonardo da Vinci and James Watson. The research has taken place behind the closed doors of laboratories, brothels, MRI centers, pig farms, sex-toy R&D labs, and Alfred Kinsey's attic. . ."

Appeals/Genres: Romance/Sex, Humor, Witty

Death from the Skies!: These Are the Ways the World Will End... by Philip C. Plait (2008)

"According to astronomer Philip Plait, the universe is an apocalypse waiting to happen But how much do we really need to fear from things like black holes, gamma-ray bursts, and supernovae? And if we should be scared, is there anything we can do to save ourselves? With humor and wit, Plait details the myriad doomsday events that the cosmos could send our way to destroy our planet and life as we know it. This authoritative yet accessible study is the ultimate astronomy lesson."

Appeals/Genres: Dark Humor, Witty

Death By Black Hole: And Other Cosmic Quandaries by Neil deGrasse Tyson (2007)

A vibrant collection of essays on the cosmos is delivered by the nation's best-known astrophysicist, who is popular for his monthly "Universe" essays in "Natural History" magazine."

Appeals/Genres: Accessible, Engaging

A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson (2003)

"In Bryson's biggest book, he confronts his greatest challenge: to understand -- and, if possible, answer -- the oldest, biggest questions we have posed about the universe and ourselves. Taking as territory everything from the Big Bang to the rise of civilization, Bryson seeks to understand how we got from there being nothing at all to there being us. . ."

Appeals/Genres: Humor, Witty

Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach (2003)

"Oddly compelling and often hilarious, Roach visits the good deeds of cadavers over the centuries and tells the engrossing story of our bodies when we are no longer with them."

Appeals/Genres: Dark Humor, Witty, Crime, Engaging, Historical

Laika by Nick Abadzis

This one stuck with me. Yes. It's one of those sad, dog books. But it's so much more. I became fascinated with this doomed little animal that was to be the earth's first biological organism to survive, albeit briefly, in space.

It blows my mind that they put together the Sputnik II mission in less than a month, to ride off the positive publicity of Sputnik the First. The narrative was well done, and the visuals of the first and the last panels were satisfying.

Smile by Raina Telgemeier

I guess I'm a sucker for biographical graphic novels. Especially ones like Smile that deal with an issue, or similar issue, I've dealt with in my own life. Raina is a sixth grader who is facing braces. This wouldn't be so bad of an issue, if she didn't bust out her two front teeth after a girl scouts activity one night.

I suppose I connected with the angst that a young teenage girl would deal with in this situation. The author/artist captures the feelings perfectly, and I had flashbacks to my own tween and teen years when I lost my left front tooth. The root canals, the pain, the self image issues, all of it, is humorously documented in Smile.

The Last Unicorn a graphic novel based on the novel by Peter S. Beagle

Beautiful. Books like this are going to stay in print when paper backs wither away. There's nothing like the visual beauty of a well done graphic novel. And honestly, while I didn't follow the story in this one too closely, I still got a lot out of the illustrations themselves. They portrayed a mood and tone that I think exemplifies the character of the melancholy unicorn.

At the Mountains of Madness a graphic novel based on the novel by H.P. Lovecraft

One reviewer on goodreads pointed out that if you are unfamiliar with Lovecraft, and would like to casually check him out, this would be the place to start. This graphic novel contains all the elements of a Lovecraftian story (as it follows the original source closely), but without the epic sentences and verbose language that Lovecraft employs in his work. Worth checking out, but I didn't find it nearly as eerie as the original work.

So check those out if you haven't.

In other book related news, I'm also listening to Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson on Audible, and am enjoying it quite a bit. It's been difficult to read "real books" lately, so I'm getting by with audio books and a heaping portion of graphic novels.

And if you haven't listened to the Gilbert Gottfried reading of the BDSM erotic bestseller Fifty Shades of Grey, I am embedding the video here because DEAR GOD it is hilarious. (It also contains Gilbert Gottfried reading word for word from an erotic text, so, obviously, there is going to be language in this.)

Image: Naypong / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Some have pontificated that the future of all education will be free. Others have said this future is "already here." I think we're still in transition, since so many are still not bought on the idea, even though resources may be available.

The Problem

Education is expensive.

With rising tuition costs and the fact that student debt is at over a trillion dollars in the US, the idea of going to college for free sounds too good to be true. But what if it is a feasible reality for more than the average Joe in the future?

And what if "this problem" exists or is aggravated with our perceptions of what education is or what it should be?

The Potential Solution

I don't even want to attempt to compile a list of free educational resources and courses after seeing this amazingly awesome post at Mark and Angel Hack Life. (Seriously, if you get a few moments check out this fabulous resource.)

I will recommend, however, that the reader check out Open Courseware (OCW) Consortium, as it indexes free online courses from many higher education institutions. Go here for their free course search.

However, many balk at the idea that online education is even real education. I've even had my MLS questioned when I've told people that the majority of my program took place online. And when you throw in the word "free," traditionalists run out the door screaming.

"Traditional" Education is Overrated

Self learning is a great if not the greatest form of learning. Free online course modules makes it so easy for those who can't afford to get an education in a traditional classroom setting. Many people are surprised when I tell them I did a self-learning home-school program during what would have been my sophomore and junior year of high school. I didn't even graduate from high school, but got my GED at 17.

Now I have a masters of science in library and information science, my work experience includes the medical, retail, and web industries. I have worked for four different public library systems in numerous positions and capacities. A so-called "traditional path" of education is not a precursor for success or job options.

Not for Cogs (aka people who need to be told what to learn, not how to learn)

With an education system obsessed with standardized tests and rote memorization of facts, those who succeed in a free and egalitarian education system, won't be those who need to be told what to think, but those who know how to think and have the motivation and passion to teach themselves.

True philosophers or lovers of knowledge will thrive in this new future where education is or will be accessible to all. I think there will still be mentors in the future. We still need to learn HOW to reason, and HOW to critically think.

Teach a man to reason and he'll think for a lifetime. -Phil Plaitt

Public Libraries OF THE FUTUUUURRREEE! ::echoes into infinity::

Can libraries of the future look like this? Pretty please? (Image Source)

The role of libraries will greatly change over the next few decades. This is an opportunity for libraries to turn into a physical place where people can attend their virtual campuses. It is so important that small and large library systems realize the importance of filling this kind of role, which ultimately lives up to the spirit of what libraries have done for centuries: connect people to information.

Many people in rural communities, like the one where I currently work, do not have access to the internet or a good computer at home and only get it at the library. The library is also a community resource where people can go to help their community, participate in programs and classes, etc. However, the more people need to be connected to new methods of information gathering, the more libraries will need to evolve to be places that give people access to the technology (software, hardware, and cloudware) resources they need to succeed in their business, education, whatever.

Questions I Ask (Myself) You

Should we be so concerned about degrees? Especially in fields like the arts or humanities?

What do you think the implications would be of free college education for all? Is this good or bad? Should education be something that should be reserved for those willing to pay the big bucks, or should it be free for everyone?

Click to view on Amazon

Genre: Science Fiction - YA (Going towards the 2012 Genre Fiction Challenge!)

The question, "What would you do if everyone was no longer safe on the planet earth?" is answered by a scientist who concludes that the only hope for humanity is to send a bunch of teenagers into space.

That is essentially the premise of The Comet's Curse (Galahad Series Bk. 1). The earth is casually orbiting the sun, when a comet, like a proverbial black cat crosses its path, showering the earth and a cloud of comet dust. Many find the phenomenon to be beautiful, but it turns out to be deadly, as the dust somehow contaminates the atmosphere and introduces a wholly foreign virus to the human race.

The virus only seems to infect those who are 18 or older, and civilizations crumbles as people realize their days are numbered. When a scientist proposes the plan to send young colonists into space with a mission to colonize a potentially habitable planet, many support him and others fight against him.

Triana is the young captain of the Galahad ship, and the story reveals a love triangle between her and two of her crew. A mystery develops when another member of the crew is taken to the infirmary after having a nervous breakdown, shortly after the departure of the Galahad.

I found the most engaging character to be the ship itself. Or rather, the computer "brain" of the ship called "Roc." It was witty and engaging, and gave the reader some comic relief. Gap, the second in command of the Galahad crew, came in a close second.

The pacing felt sluggish in the middle of the book, and while many praise the characters of this book, I found Triana, who is the leader and at the center of the politics of Galahad, to be lacking in interesting qualities.

Overall, the book had an interesting premise, and an engaging overall goal. I'm not sure when I'll be able to pick up the other books of the series, but I'm hoping that they get better as they progress, as they were picked up by Tor Publishing a few books into the series.

Rating: 3/5

Click to view on Amazon

The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume I: The Pox Party
by M.T. Anderson

Genre: Historical Fiction - YA (Going towards the 2012 Genre Fiction Challenge!)

I listened to this book on my new commute to my new job as a librarian with a large library system in Western Washington.

(Yes, I've moved to a new state and started a new job, and yes, that is why I haven't been updating recently.)

Anyways, this book pulled me in a few different directions.

I'll admit that I knew very little about it going in, so at first, I thought I was listening to some kind of dystopian, speculative fiction novel. We have this boy, Octavian, who is raised in this household called the Novanglian College of Lucidity.

He is told that he is a prince and his mother is a princess, and he is surrounded by men who teach him latin, music, and the classics and who dress him in all sorts of finery. Also, except for he and his mother, everyone is addressed as a number, not a name.

Anyways, turns out this "College" isn't any such thing but some kind of social experiment to see if Octavian's "race" was capable of learning all the things white people could learn. Yes. That's right. Octavian is actually an African American slave being experimented on around the time of the Revolutionary War.

It's quite shocking and listening to the book added to the mood of the novel. My favorite part of the book was the Prince's first person narrative in the first half to two thirds of the way through the novel. There is a point where he runs away and the book changes narrative styles by going to epistles between third parties, and I have to say, it lost my attention there.

And while this book isn't based on any particular real historical person, it is inspired by the fact that such experimentation actually did occur in this era, as the author points out in the end of the book.

Fabulously written to reflect the language of the time period (which may be a drawback for some), this book offers an alternative perspective of an African American slave living at a time when people were proclaiming and fighting for "liberty" and "inalienable rights" in the streets.


Rating

5/5

'...O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!' He chortled in his joy.

Click to view on Amazon

A Great and Terrible Beauty
By Libba Bray
Release Date: December 9, 2003 (U.S.)
Publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers
Pages: 403
ISBN-13: 978-0385730280 (hardcover); 978-0385732314 (paperback)

Genre: Romantic Suspense - YA (Going towards the 2012 Genre Fiction Challenge!)

Interested in something with magic, adventure, secret sisterhoods, love, betrayal, sinister forces, and more? A Great and Terrible Beauty a young adult novel which has all of these, and it is an interesting blend of different elements of genre fiction. It is the first of a three part series.

The novel is set in Victorian England, and it follows the story of Gemma Doyle. It begins in India, where Gemma lives with her parents. It is her 16th birthday, and she is in the market with her mother. They have a fight after Gemma becomes angry that her mother does not want to return and take the family back to England. Gemma becomes lost in the market after running off, and is suddenly overcome by a terrible vision of her mother’s death involving sinister dark forces. She awakens to find that the horrible vision has come to pass.

Shortly after the tragedy, Gemma is sent to Spence Academy in England: a finishing school for girls where she is to learn to become a proper lady. She deals with the guilt brought on by her mother’s death, along with this new power she doesn’t understand and can’t control. She is haunted by visions and by a mysterious beast that appears to be hunting her. An enigmatic man named Kartik, warns her that she is to not have any more visions and that she needs to suppress them.

Gemma soon discovers a diary of a girl, who used to be a student at Spence Academy, named Mary Dowd. Gemma learns that Mary and her friend, Sarah Rees-Toomes, had participated in a tradition of powerful women associated with Spence Academy known as The Order.

As Gemma seeks approval from her new school mates, she begins to share her powers with them, and they begin a new Order. Gemma finds out that she holds the key to powerful magic which can transport her and her new friends to an alternate dream world known as The Realms.

The characters in this book evolve in interesting ways, as each of Gemma’s friends has something that makes them broken in their own eyes. In the magic of the Realms, they are free to be whoever they want to be, much unlike the proper English society they are made to be a part of and engage in at Spence.

The book is well written and well paced, and the reader can’t help but be intrigued by the Realms and by Gemma’s powers. Suspense is built as the reader sees what price the girls are willing to pay to use such powerful magic. The book is an inviting blend of paranormal, romance, and historical fiction. Readers will look forward to reading the sequel.

I quite enjoyed the book. The scenery is vivid and rich and the character development is pretty good. It made me want to wear Victorian corsets, go on dastardly adventures and find magical jewelry in antique shops.

I also found this book trailer and thought it was well done.


Rating

5/5

'...O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!' He chortled in his joy.

Further News: While many fans of the Gemma Doyle series were looking forward to a movie adaptation, the author has now stated on her blog that, unfortunately, A Great and Terrible Beauty will no longer be hitting the big screen in the near future. :(

So how well do you know your genre fiction? Would you like to have a better comprehensive knowledge of the different genres of fiction? Are you an avid bookworm? Do you find yourself only reading one or two genres and would perhaps like to refine and expand your literary palate?

Well, in keeping with the tradition of creating resolutions and goals on the new year, I'm going to try a brand-spankin' new reading challenge I have never tried before, and I'd like to invite you to try it with me!

To win this challenge, one must read five novels of every genre of genre fiction in 2012. You can also win "Genre Apprentice" status by reading one book from each genre in 2012. The books can be targeted for young adults or adults and the genres are as follows*:

Adrenaline Genres

• Adventure: This genre is action-packed and has a hero on a mission. Pacing is brisk and there is an obvious hero protagonist. There is a sense of danger and physical obstacles for the protagonist to overcome. Exotic locales are common. Suggested authors: Steve Berry, Bernard Cornwell, Arturo Perez-Reverte, Matthew Reilly, James Rollins

• Romantic Suspense: This genre is romance with a sense of danger. Stories are told from a threatened albeit resourceful and independent heroine's point of view. Witty dialogue and exotic settings. Suggested authors: Suzanne Brockmann, Dee Henderson, Lisa Jackson, Iris Johansen, Nora Roberts/J.D. Robb

• Suspense: Tension and uneasiness upstage any other genre elements like romance or mystery. Usually takes place within a narrow time frame with a dark menacing atmosphere. An unknown danger has interrupted the protagonist's daily life. Suggested authors: Lee Child, Mary Higgins Clark, Harlan Coben, Jeffery Deaver, Lisa Gardner

• Thrillers: Focuses on a particular profession (medicine, law or law enforcement, espionage, etc.), and then tells an action-packed story that involves the details of any said profession. Fast paced with details and technical language or jargon of the profession of the protagonist. Suggested authors: David Baldacci, Barry Eisler, Linda A. Fairstein, Alan Furst, Lisa Scottoline

Emotions Genres

• Gentle Reads: Old fashioned stories with traditional values. Story-lines are about relationships instead of suspense or controversy. Feel good and "clean." Suggested authors: Jennifer Chiaverini, Debbie Macomber, Alexander McCall Smith, Sharon Owens, Adriana Trigiani,

• Horror: Monsters and haunted protagonists are keystones of this genre. Vampires, werewolves and other nightmarish creatures may take part. Expect scary surprises. Suggested authors: Ramsey Campbell, Joe Hill, Stephen King, Sarah Langan, Peter Straub

• Romance: Generally with female protagonists and rugged male types... Suggested authors: Katie Fforde, Sherrilyn Kenyon, Linda Lael Miller, Susan Elizabeth Phillips, Julia Quinn

Intellect Genres

• Literary Fiction: Critically acclaimed and character oriented. Literary style is important. Can be thought provoking or experimental. Suggested authors: Michael Chabon, Ian McEwan, Toni Morrison, Haruki Murakami, Joyce Carol Oates

• Mysteries: The answering of a question (whodunnit?) drives the plot. Focuses on the investigator and investigation. Suggested authors: Michael Connelly, Diane Mott Davidson, Donna Leon, Henning Mankell, Jacqueline Winspear

• Psychological Suspense: Disturbing moods and mental nightmares pervade the genre. Madness and the inner workings of the mind frame these stories. More descriptions than dialogue. Suggested authors: Keith R. Ablow, Peter Abrahams, Carol Goodman, Jeffry P. Lindsay, Ruth Rendell/Barbara Vine

• Science Fiction: Generally takes place in the future, or outside our solar system. Scientific details are important, and the story examines moral and ethical questions against a new and speculative setting. Emphasizes ideas vs. relationships. Suggested authors: C. J. Cherryh, Kathleen Ann Goonan, Kim Stanley Robinson, Neal Stephenson, Harry Turtledove

Landscape Genres

• Fantasy: Dragons, knights, princesses and quests. Magic is real and wizards and elves abound. Emphasizes relationships rather than ideas (though generally has both). Suggested authors: Jim Butcher, Jasper Fforde, Neal Gaiman, George R. R. Martin, Naomi Novik

• Historical Fiction: Accurate historical detail in story. Story lines focus on particular historical event or time period. Characters may be real or fictional, but they must fit the time of the setting. Suggested authors: Phillipa Gregory, John Jakes, Edward Rutherfurd, Jeff Shaara, Susan Vreeland

• Westerns: Generally takes place in the Western U.S. during the time between the Civil War and 1900. Traditional heroes are loners who right wrongs before "moving on." Suggested authors: Don Coldsmith, Ivan Doig, Loren D. Estleman, Stephen Overholser, Richard S. Wheeler

The Levels of Genre-ology

The winners of this challenge can award themselves the following titles depending on how many books they read of each genre (I will make little thumbnails for these soon):

1. Genre Apprentice: Read 1 book from each of the genres depicted above in 2012. At least 14 books for the year.

2. Genre Journeyman: Read 3 books from each of the genres depicted above in 2012. At least 42 books for the year.

3. Genre Master: Read 5 books from each of the genres depicted above in 2012. At least 70 books for the year.

You can award yourself each title throughout the year, as you progress to Genre Master, but once the year is over, the challenge is over and whatever level you have achieved when it hits midnight on the night of December 31st of 2012 will be your title for the year.

Share this challenge on your blog, and add your blog to the link list below if you are participating. Feel free to add a button I have provided here and link back to this post if you are participating so more can join in the genre fiction sampling challenge!

210 x 189

230 x 208

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*Note: The descriptions, list and suggested authors of the genres are from The Readers' Advisory Guide to Genre Fiction.

UPDATE: OK, so apparently that dumb little linky list "expires." WTH?! Anyways, rather than fudge with it, I'll just ask you to comment below if you plan on participating in the challenge. Thanks!

Habibi
by Craig Thompson
Release Date: September 20th, 2011
Publisher: Pantheon
Pages: 672
ISBN13: 9780375424144

Craig Thompson doesn't fail to impress with yet another beautifully crafted graphic novel.

Habibi is the story of Dodola, who at the age of 9 is sold as a child bride into a marriage with a scribe. While the tragic circumstances that came with this marriage were difficult for the reader to come to terms with, Dodola is able to learn how to read and write from her husband.

At the age of 12, her husband is murdered and she is taken captive into a slave ring. This is where she meets Zam, whom she calls "habibi." He is three years old when they meet, and she is able to escape with him and they live in a boat in the desert.

This story doesn't take place in any one era, and the settings vary between medieval and modern eras.

As Dodola and Zam face a harsh world, the magic of stories and cultural mythologies is what keeps them together, and gives them hope, even when they become physically separated.

Also, as someone who is rather familiar with the Judeo-Christian version of biblical accounts of Abraham and Noah, it was enlightening and endlessly fascinating for me to learn about these scriptural events from an Islamic point of view.

What is most overwhelming and pleasing about this work is the book as a physical and visual piece. The art is breathtaking, and the imagery that pulls the whole thing together help the reader step out of the everyday and enjoy this rich mythology illuminating universal human truths about love.

Beautiful Arabic calligraphy is delicately interwoven throughout. The central theme of love in this book is related to that of Blankets. Although, while ultimately about love, this story is more grand in scale than that of Blankets.

While the immense sexualization of the women in this middle eastern setting did little to alter certain stereotypes, I think that Thompson put forth a genuine effort to share something beautiful and unique from Arabic culture (the caligraphy, numerology, design, and mythology) that westerners don't have many opportunities to see.

It is a beautiful book. The illustrations are exquisite. Holding it in one's hands, and reading it for the first time, is quite the experience.

Here is the book's official website.

Rating
5/5

'...O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!' He chortled in his joy.

The part of the speech I want to highlight, is the part where Chaplin depicts the general sentiments that I'm trying to illustrate regarding technological advancements vs. the isolation and brutality of humanity in the first half of the 20th century:

"We have developed speed, but we have shut ourselves in. Machinery that gives abundance has left us in want. Our knowledge has made us cynical; our cleverness, hard and unkind. We think too much and feel too little. More than machinery, we need humanity. More than cleverness, we need kindness and gentleness. Without these qualities, life will be violent and all will be lost. The airplane and the radio have brought us closer together. The very nature of these inventions cries out for the goodness in men . . .

Soldiers! Don't give yourselves to brutes, men who despise you, enslave you; who regiment your lives, tell you what to do, what to think and what to feel! Who drill you, diet you, treat you like cattle, use you as cannon fodder. Don't give yourselves to these unnatural men - machine men with machine minds and machine hearts! You are not machines, you are not cattle, you are men!"

The Individual Oppressed

Oppressive governments and the repression of the individual for the good of the society were also common themes. As such, there was an emergence of dystopian literature in the first half and middle of the 20th century.

Books like Brave New World, 1984, and those that followed depict societies where individuals who don't conform are antagonized and repressed. The struggle of the individual within society is a huge catalyst for the storytelling of dystopian literature.

I can't help but think those themes are recurring again today. The explosion of technology, especially with regards to hand held phones, the internet, the immediacy of information, people are more "connected" but because of this connection to the rest of the world, the individual struggles to be an individual in the midst of all the noise and information that is cascading in on us.

(By the way, it absolutely drives me bonkers when people use the term "Brave New World" as something positive, because it demonstrates that they have absolutely no idea what the book was actually about. Huxley's "Brave New World" wasn't a good thing!)

Authenticity

This is a little long, but in it the professor offers up a fabulous lecture on authenticity in the era of youtube. This starts at 17:30 because it is where he discusses the idea of a loss of community and "human connections" in the age of commercialization and networking:

I connect a lot with what he said in his lecture, and have even written about authenticity in my blog. I almost wonder if I would have ever looked inward if I didn't have my blog to function as a sort of journal or mirror to my identity. Who knows? All I know is this fascinating stuff. If you have the chance, definitely watch the whole lecture.

Resurgence of Dystopian Literature

So with all this talk of authenticity, of isolation despite being connected with the world, is it any wonder that dystopian literature is having a sort of major renaissance? By definition, a dystopian novel is about an individual struggling against a society, and this recent search for authenticity in the new web age has caused a lot of people to consider what it means to be an individual within a larger context. It seems as though every other book getting published these days is a dystopian novel. (And yes I am being hyperbolic.)

I made two graphs to depict the number of commonly accepted dystopian novels published by major publishers in the last century.

(source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_dystopian_literature)

What is most telling about the first graph which depicts the number published each decade, is the sheer number in the last ten years alone. It seems to peak in the 20th century in the 60s, but just explodes in publications after the year 2000. Also, it is only 2011, so I'm sure the number for the current decade in the graph is going to be as large as, if not surpass, the 2000s.

Existentialism, Part II?

Anyways, I started to think that all this dystopian literature is a sign that people in technologically advanced nations are going through an existential crisis again. It's as if we are entering a retro-modern era. The "civil-disobedience" we see with movements like Occupy Wall Street is an expression of the right to an individual to speak freely, in spite of corporatism and the state. People are seeing themselves as cogs in a system, a highly bureaucratic and complicated system that attacks individualism for the sake of the whole. And they aren't liking it.

But the whole what? The corporation? State? What is that? And in law, a corporation is actually legal fiction for a "person". And when you dig deeper, you learn that the etymology of the word "person" comes from the Latin "persona" meaning mask. And when you consider our legal system is really just a bunch of words. . .

"You're nothing but a pack of cards!"A Game

All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players:
They have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts
- William Shakespeare
The more and more I think about everything, the more I realize the following:


It's all a big game.

Yes, dystopian literature is fun. But have we stopped to ask ourselves why so many are connecting with it right now? Is it mindless escapism? Or is the mind trying to find meaning in the chaos of a society that oppresses individuality? What is happening in our culture? And where will we end up after all is said and done?

Why do you think dystopian literature is so prevalent today?

NaNo Zombie

So I'm one of those crazy people who decided it would be a good idea to write a novel in November. Well, at least 50,000 words, and they may not all be necessarily good words, but nothing like a crash course in hurried novel writing to get the creative flow going!

At the end of Day 6, I totaled 9,881 words. Just shy of where I need to be to finish on time if I keep going at a steady rate.

If you are interested, here is my posted synopsis for my story. It's still pretty accurate, but may change:

Twenty-three year old Melvina Finnson embraces fantasy and escapism to ignore the fact that she works a low wage job at one of the few remaining SuperRents in Small Town, USA. She is more than satisfied with a life filled with movies and video games she gets for free from work, and she's jaded about opportunities for her in the "real" world. As she begins to accept the fact that she is a college dropout and content with a life of perpetual distraction, she discovers something strange about herself, something she has always known, but never consciously acknowledged or felt comfortable discussing with her supportive but equally distracted father.



She has felt a power within her, intermittently throughout her life, but lately, it's growing stronger. Perhaps it has something to do with that enigmatic, yet slightly creepy, blonde woman, who has started stalking Melvina. Maybe, it has something to do with that rabbit, which has been living in her shadow for the last decade after she brought it back from the dead. All she knows is that this power has kept her alive when she should've been dead, and that it's distracting her from perfectly good gaming time.


I've also come across some great resources which have helped me so far. I mentioned before that I was trying out Scrivener, since they are doing a free trial version during the month of the NaNo. But recently I was lucky enough to encounter this wonderful bit of software called FocusWriter. It's absolutely free and it is a GREAT thing to use while I'm trying to do some word sprints.

I'm considering purchasing Write or Die, but I am too cheap and poor to make that 10 dollar leap as of this moment.

Also, there are a TON of other resources on reddit.com/r/nanowrimo.

My Favorite Writing and Some Non-Writing G+ Shares This Week:

10 Words You Need to Stop Misspelling
No Whitespace Cheat Sheets (privately shared)
Emotion is not plot.
USB Pet Rock
My Daughter and the Mehsgusting Bug
How does NaNoWriMo compare to real writing? (privately shared)
Stephen Fry On Writing
Liquid Goooooooooold
Who Left a Tree, Then a Coffin In the Library?

The most important thing about all of this is the absolute FUN I'm having. This also gives me the opportunity to put all sorts of delicious things in my mouth as an excuse for writing fuel.

And! Today I got an email from Brett Talley saying I won a copy of his Lovecraftian inspired book!

Woot.