The Future of Us by Jay Asher and Carolyn Mackler
I LOVE the premise of this novel: in 1996, two estranged best friends sign up for AOL and see their Facebook profiles – fifteen years in the future. The profiles start to change based on decisions they make in the present, some intentional and some unintentional. It wasn’t quite as awesome as I hoped, but still great. I love plots involving time travel/telling the future via current technology (see also one of my classic 80s faves, Rewind to Yesterday by Susan Beth Pfeffer).
Heaven Is Here by Stephanie Nielson
As a follower of The Nie Nie Dialogues, I was excited to read Stephanie’s memoir. For those who don’t follow her blog, Stephanie and her husband suffered severe injuries in a plane crash in August 2009, and have been bravely putting their lives back together ever since. I appreciated her honesty, and related to her struggle over being thankful and appreciative of her good life, but losing it anyway. I had a hard time putting this down even though I already knew the major details.
The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin
My friend Maria loves this memoir, and I’m sorry I waited so long to take her recommendation! Through a year of intense study and practical application, Gretchen Rubin learns what makes her happy and how to spread that happiness. In fact, she establishes that trying to increase your happiness isn’t selfish, because happy people make other people happier. I relate to her in many ways, and some of her personal happiness commandments – “Be Gretchen,” “What is fun for others may not be fun for you,” etc. – are things I want to start applying to my life now. I plan to write a whole post or maybe a series of posts about what I learned from this book, once I get my own copy and take some notes!
God Loves Broken People: And Those Who Pretend They’re Not by Sheila Walsh
I reviewed this for Booksneeze, so a full post is forthcoming.
How To Save A Life by Sara Zarr
After Jill’s dad dies, she feels adrift in the world, no longer sure who she is. When her mom decides to adopt a baby, and the teen mom, Mandy, arrives, life gets even more confusing. This novel alternates between Jill’s and Mandy’s perspectives. Sara Zarr is always great at writing strong, true voices, but it’s even more striking here because Jill and Mandy are such opposites. I’ve never been in the same position as any of these characters, but I found a LOT to relate to in this story. There was a deeply insightful line about the multi-dimensionality of grief that struck me especially hard. (Someday I’ll learn to copy down quotes before returning the book to the library.)
Books for April: 5
2012 year to date: 21
1 Comment + Posted in: book reviews, reading
If you’re not a Harry Potter nerd, or a personality test enthusiast, or are annoyed by people talking about fictional worlds as if they’re real, you’ll probably want to skip this post.
To everyone who remains: I finally joined Pottermore this week! Ever since I heard about it, I’ve looked forward to being officially Sorted. But when it finally opened to the public, I was a little nervous. I’ve always thought of myself as a Ravenclaw, but would JK Rowling agree? The anxiety!!
If you don’t know anything about Pottermore, it allows you to interact with the Harry Potter series. It’s a video game, really, but there’s a lot more to it than that. So far, only the first book is available. You walk through the story as Harry, so first you go to Diagon Alley to get your school supplies, wand (elm with unicorn hair), and pet (a black cat to represent my Gandalf, of course). Along the way, you collect various things which I guess are valuable later in the game, and unlock cool information which I haven’t gone back to read yet. Then you take the train to Hogwarts and get Sorted.
The Sorting is based on six or seven multiple choice questions, which I answered very thoughtfully (because, as JK says in the intro video, your Sorting cannot be changed). At the end, I was shocked to be GRYFFINDOR! A part of me was disappointed because I wanted Ravenclaw, plus we already know so much about Gryffindor and I was looking forward to more info about the other houses. But honestly, I felt empowered… to a slightly embarrassing degree. LOL. Although I feel more courageous than I used to, and want to be more so, I would never call bravery my defining characteristic. So I’m not sure I really ought to be in Gryffindor, but JK created this world and she can’t make mistakes in it! Besides, it just proves how Hermione-ish I really am. She expected Ravenclaw too.
My friends are a pretty bookish group, but I wasn’t the only one surprised. A few have gotten Hufflepuff and been bummed at first. There’s definitely a presupposition among fans that Hufflepuffs aren’t smart, so I think as more people are sorted, that will be disproved. The ones I know are all smarter than I am. :)
Anyway. HOUSE PRIDE YAY!
PS – Please remember to vote for me in the MORE Magazine Beauty Search – and also for my friend Myla, who wrote a song as her entry! Everyone has been so encouraging and supportive about me entering this contest, and it means so much. Thank you all!
3 Comments + Posted in: personality, reading
I’ve found another winner in my search for the best muffin recipes. This one is chock full of healthy, hearty ingredients, but bakes up amazingly light! Just be sure to refrigerate these – I don’t know why, but carrots start molding very quickly in baked goods. I’m sure a domestic scientist can enlighten me.
Strawberry Apple Muffins
Adapted from an incomplete entry on SparkRecipes. :) Makes 1 dozen. As written, these are 180 calories each, but you can bring them down to 150 by substituting Splenda for half of the sugar.
Ingredients:
1 cup apples, shredded or finely chopped
1 cup carrots, shredded
½ cup strawberries, chopped
½ cup chopped walnuts
¾ cup white flour
½ cup whole wheat flour
2/3 cup sugar
¼ cup vegetable or canola oil
1 egg, beaten
1 ½ tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground cinnamon
¼ tsp salt
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 400 and prepare a muffin pan.
2. Combine dry ingredients (flours, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt) in a medium bowl.
3. In a separate, large bowl or batter bowl (trust me, get one if you don’t have one), combine sugar, oil, and egg. Stir in the chopped apples, carrots, and strawberries.
4. Add dry ingredients to wet and stir just until combined. Fold in walnuts. Distribute into muffin cups and bake for about 20 minutes.
Note: The batter seemed a little dry to me when it was mixed, so I added a splash of 1% milk to balance things out. You might want to increase the amount of oil, or add a little milk while blending the wet ingredients. I haven’t made these a second time yet, so I can’t provide exact instructions.
Yesterday I volunteered as a book giver for World Book Night! I first heard about it in a newsletter from our local independent bookstore. WBN started overseas last year and expanded to America this year. The organizers pre-selected 30 books for people to give away to adults in their communities on the night of April 23. To be a volunteer, I had to apply online, choose a book, and explain what it meant to me and why I wanted to give it away. My choice was A Prayer For Owen Meany by John Irving. I first read this novel about five years ago and it became an instant favorite. It follows two best friends from boyhood into adulthood, but although it’s a small-focus story, it encompasses so many important themes. Owen is an unforgettable, unique, and heroic character who never apologizes for who he is, and in an age of diversity and bullying awareness, I think he’s more relevant now than ever. So this book was my immediate first choice, even though it’s much tougher to sell strangers on than The Hunger Games.
I couldn’t think of a perfect place to give away my 20 copies – you’re supposed to go to a place where readers don’t naturally congregate – so I just started where I was. I handed out five at the Comcast office when I was there on an errand. I got a lot of weird looks, but one lady in line was excited, and we had a great conversation about reading, writing, and the publishing industry. In the evening, I went to the nearest shopping center and walked around with my box. I gave my World Book Night speech and handed out books to pizza workers, gamers, manicurists, and pet groomers. Again, some people clearly thought I was crazy, but almost all of them happily accepted books! When the box was empty, I felt exhilarated about sending 20 books out into the world. I hope people read them or at least pass them on. I’d definitely sign up to do this again next year.
Before going to the shopping center, I also put a small sticker on the WBN bookmarks with my blog link. I never would have had that idea on my own, but someone on Twitter mentioned it – and after my conversation with the nice lady, I wanted to provide some small connection if I met more nice people. (Or cute guys – I’m all about baiting destiny.) That’s a part of what this kind of thing is about. So if you came here from a link on a bookmark, welcome!
3 Comments + Posted in: reading
Over the past couple of months, I’ve felt less and less optimistic about my future. In my post-divorce life, I’ve ardently believed that good things can happen – that God has big plans to redeem all that I’ve lost. In any case, I’ve held that it’s healthier for my soul to hope and be disappointed than to expect the worst. But with little evidence of progress, I’m getting weary. That’s very hard to admit when you’ve built a new identity on a strong sense of hope. Hello, I named my blog Don’t Stop Believing, and I’m running on hope fumes.
I’m still waiting for some definitive sense of purpose to make my life mean something, to make my losses bearable. Something I can look at and say “I am alone for the purpose of doing this important, fulfilling work that God made me specifically to do.” Seeing no grand objective to my suffering, or signs of a better future, does not get me excited about life. Instead it gets me reading Ecclesiastes very intently with highlighter in hand. (I’m so thankful that Ecclesiastes is in the Bible, to reassure us that even one of the wisest, most successful people who ever lived sometimes felt that life was pointless.)
But it wasn’t anything spiritual that gave me a ray of hope this weekend. Nope. It was movies.
First, You’ve Got Mail (one of my faves) was on TV. I’ve always related to Kathleen Kelly (Meg Ryan), but I was really struck this time by the scene where she locks up her beloved bookstore for the last time and walks heavy-hearted into the night, feeling “as if a part of me has died… and no one can ever make it right.” But she has no idea of the new joy that’s about to come into her life. In a matter of days, of course, because everything happens fast in a movie. But it was a little, silly reminder that good things can happen and new chapters can open at any time.
The second thing was even more ambiguous. A song in a commercial merely reminded me of the song in the climactic scene of another of my favorite movies, Fever Pitch (starring my #1 celebrity crush, Jimmy Fallon, and my favorite actress, Drew Barrymore). I’m about to slightly spoil it if you haven’t seen it, but at the end of the movie, Jimmy decides to sell the Red Sox season tickets that have been in his family for generations. He and Drew broke up because of his obsession with the team, and now the things that were most important to him have lost their meaning. But just as he’s about to sign the tickets over at the game, Drew (who’s been trying unsuccessfully to get to him) drops down onto the baseball field and runs across it to stop him. As she runs, with security guards and baseball players in her wake, a chorus plays:
When you think it’s all over, it’s not over. It’s not over.
With just a couple of chords, that whole scene flooded back to me, with that line in neon lights in my mind. I know how “That’s deep, man” this all sounds, but I felt revived, and it’s stuck. And I believe God can use anything to send a message. So… just for today, I’m going to believe again that there could still be great things on the horizon. Or if not, that it will somehow be okay anyway.
5 Comments + Posted in: hope, movies