A Review of 'Ms. Marvel: Vol. 1' by G. Willow Wilson

Please note: this is a book I read in 2017.  Due to starting a new job, I kept up in reading but fell behind in blogging.  Reviews for 2018 reads will begin after the remaining 2017 reviews are posted.  Thank you for your patience!

"Marvel Comics presents the new Ms. Marvel, the groundbreaking heroine that has become an international sensation!

Kamala Khan is an ordinary girl from Jersey City-- until she's suddenly empowered with extraordinary gifts.  But who truly is the new Ms. Marvel?  Teenager?  Muslim?  Inhuman?  Find out as she takes the Marvel Universe by storm!  When Kamala discovers the dangers of her newfound powers, she unlocks a secret behind them as well.  Is Kamala ready to wield these immense new gifts?  Or will the weight of the legacy before her be too much to bear?  Kamala has no idea, either.  But she's comin' for you, Jersey!

It's history in the making from acclaimed writer G. Willow Wilson (Air, Cairo) and beloved artist Adrian Alphona (RUNAWAYS)!"

I remember seeing the cover to this a long time ago and wanted to get it for my student teaching classroom, but I don't think it ever arrived.  I don't think I expected this book to be a graphic novel (which in hindsight seems silly...).

I'll be short: I LOVE this book.  I love that we're not continuing with the white male savior complex that just litters the superhero comic book world.  Now we have a young woman of color who is coming to turn this entire world on its head.  Kamala is a young woman with passions of her own (especially comic books!) and family obligations and traditions that she pushes against as she struggles to find her identity (even before she acquired these special gifts).  There are so many elements that she has to think about that other super heroes who came before her just don't seem to need to think about.

This is a story that draws you in right away and keeps you.  I so can't wait to read Volume 2 and see what happens next!

I give 'Ms. Marvel: Vol. 1':

Thanks for Reading!

--Jude

The Evolution Of My Bullet Journal: After 1 Year

About a year ago, I took up this little thing called Bullet Journaling.  I am a big list-maker in my life.  When I got planners in the past, I made sure that there were big boxes so I would have a lot of space to create to-do lists.  And I would put everything in those lists from things I needed to do to school, for work, for wherever I was living... the number of things that could be on that list was endless.

Then one of my favorite YouTubers created a video where she was setting up her first bullet journal.  It was artistic, it was organized, there was an order and a system... I liked it a lot.  And the best part was that it was a planner system that was completely customizable to the user.  There were a lot of factors that got me interested.  One year later and I'm on my third bullet journal!  With this post, I want to go through how my personal bullet journaling style has changed and also talk about why I love this system for organization.

If I had used the bullet journals like the ones to the right in the picture above, I would have been finishing up my second journal, at the rate I'm going.  The reason why I have three bullet journals right now is because my first one, the teal one on the left, was my experiment.  Really, you can bullet journal with any notebook you have.  The popular choice is the Leuchtterm 1917 (yellow and orange notebooks) with a dot grid inside, but I'll just be upfront... they're not exactly cheap notebooks.  I didn't want to start bullet journaling after buying this rather spendy notebook and then hate it or not have it work for me.  So I just bought a really cheap notebook at Target to start.  When I started out, my journal looked a little something like this:

I borrowed pretty heavily from a blogger called Boho Berry on YouTube.  When I started, she had a monthly plan, a weekly plan, and then dailies.  She only created a day and a week at a time.  She included decoration like the weather and temperature of where she lived (or wherever she was if she was traveling), some kind of a decorative date covering, and then listed her to-dos for the day.  She also had a time tracker, which isn't pictured here but it was something that I tried.

At the time, this was an effective spread for me to use.  The Notebook was big enough, it was easy to write in and easy to carry with me wherever I went, I loved the look of the book inside and out... What didn't work for me about this notebook was that the more I used this notebook, the more it fell apart.  Whereas with my current journals, I can fit 5-6 months worth of to-dos and lists and even some journaling, in this cheap notebook, I was only able to get through two months before too many pages were falling out and had to be taped back into the book.  The binding was terrible.  It couldn't hold up against the way I wanted to use this journal.  So I decided to take the plunge and get a more expensive notebook.  

I chose the Leuchtturm 1917 for a few reasons.  

1. The binding was strong.  No matter how often I transported it and how much I stuffed into that journal, it didn't fall apart.  The book was stretchd and it got wider when I added stickers and pictures and things like that, but no pages fell out unless I tore them out on purpose.  This was major for me.
2. It was slightly bigger than my first notebook.  Hey, more space is always a plus, right?
3. The dot grid.  I didn't realize just how distracted having solid lines running across the page was, so when I had a dot grid, suddenly my bullet journal felt cleaner.  And that was nice.

So I moved onto my second bullet journal.  After two months of experimenting, my style of bullet journaling was already changing.

It was in this bullet journal that I feel like I truly fell in love with bullet journaling.  My style changed even within this notebook.  This was generally the layout that dominated my weekly and daily spreads.  The time log is now pictured above, just without color and there is tracking for taking my medication and for how much water I was drinking.  My bullet journaling became much more personalized.  This particular spread is from the summer when I didn't have too much going on.  It was fine for me to put down one day at a time and then create the next day after the present day was finished.  I liked that I could easily see what my entire week would look like in advance and then I could get more specific in my dailies.  This is something that has remained similar.

In this bullet journal, something that went away that was in my first experimental bullet journaling was the presence of actual journaling.  I didn't stop and use my bullet journal like a diary like I had been doing prior to this notebook.  Instead, I kept notes in here from events I went to and I did more journaling when I went on trips.

In this second notebook, I also experimented a lot creatively.  I added pictures, drew more pictures.  Got creative with my writing.  Suddenly my notebook had personality.  I loved that.  My notebook was changing with me.

The summer went by and my second bullet journal filled up soon after and so suddenly, it was time to start my third bullet journal, which is the orange journal pictured above (and it's also the one I'm using at the time I'm writing this).  And still, my bullet journal changed some more because my needs changed.  In June, I was hired to my first teaching position and in August I started training and my students arrived.  After stumbling through my first few weeks in my job, trying to continue my bullet journal, something needed to change.  My lists were getting ridiculously long because I was putting work, personal, and other responsibilities altogether in one big list... it got confusing.  That resulted in a spread that looked like this (and it's a spread I continue to use to this day):

I separated the things I needed to get done at school and things I needed to finish at home that was more personal or related to my chores.  I kept the weekly spread with the boxes at the beginning of the week (in the picture above, it's on the page before).  As the weeks went on, I realized I needed a little more separation in my weekend.  I would make one big list to be accomplished over the weekend, but that was leaving way too many things left undone (nevermind if they were critical to complete or not).  So I separate my Saturday and Sunday and then created a short list of things that I absolutely needed to do (my Must Dos) and things that I wanted to do (my May Dos) that I thought I could also get done that day, but it wasn't a big deal if they didn't happen or if I did them the next day.  That way I was able to prioritize the things that needed to get done.  I think that I became more productive with this new system.  I like it a lot and right now, I don't see this spread changing for quite a while.

Another change to this notebook was that I was looking for ways to add more color and more artwork.

This mandala started out as a mood tracker, but when I failed to actually keep up on that tracker, it turned into an art piece that added color to my book.  I did this a couple different times and I love the balance between personal pieces, art pieces, and the utilitarian features.  

The other thing that I did with this piece was I used it to plan for a project.  I did National Novel Writing Month this past November and I did all of my planning in my Bullet Journal as well as my tracking.

This was another way to add color (I colored in a square for every milestone I met) and it was a good way to have all of my planning and notes in one place and in a place that I carried with me every day and everywhere I went.  This system worked out better than I could have hoped.  I loved having easy access to research that I had done on topics related to my story and easy access to the character descriptions and family trees I had created for the characters of my novel.

The most important way I've been using my bullet journal is to keep track of my goals for the year.  I don't think I would have done nearly as well at accomplishing my goals with my bullet journal.  A lot of it comes down to being able to turn to my goals whenever I want to, since I carry my bullet journal with me everywhere I go.  This next year, I'm trying something a little different where I have a focus word.  All of the goals I have planned for 2018 are related in some way to finding balance in my life between my personal goals and my professional life.

Spreads like this one are creative, but it's also a good reminder that this is my mantra this year.  I am seeking balance and that is something I have to strive for in every area of my life.  Bullet Journals are good for keeping your goals at the forefront of your mind at all times.  It's also a good way to track things that are important to you (and things that aren't specifically important to your well-being but are nevertheless interesting to know).

Even in just a short year, my bullet journal has changed so much and it's changed because I've been changing.  I've needed different things at different points in the year.  I love that flexibility that a regular planner I can buy at Target just can't afford me.  

There are so many great reasons to keep a bullet journal.  I can see myself using the bullet journal system for many years to come since I can keep it so personal to me.  

If you have any questions about bullet journaling, please don't hesitate to ask!  This is very much an overview.  In the future, I might go into how I use this system for my job and even more specifically about keeping track of my goals.  

Thanks for Reading!

--Jude

A Review of 'We Should All Be Feminists' by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Please note: this is a book I read in 2017.  Due to starting a new job, I kept up in reading but fell behind in blogging.  Reviews for 2018 reads will begin after the remaining 2017 reviews are posted.  Thank you for your patience!

"What does 'feminism' mean today?  That is the question at the heart of We Should All Be Feminists, a personal, eloquently-argued essay-- adapted from her much-viewed TEDx talk of the same name-- by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, the award-winning author of Americanah and Half of a Yellow Sun.

With humor and levity, here Adichie offers readers a unique definition of feminism for the twenty-first century-- one rooted in inclusion and awareness.  She shines a light not only on blatant discrimination, but also the more insidious, institutional behaviors that marginalize women around the world, in order to help readers of all walks of life better understand the often masked realities of sexual politics.  Throughout, she draws extensively on her own experiences-- in the U.S., in her native Nigeria, and abroad-- offering an artfully nuanced explanation of why the gender divide is harmful for women and men, alike.

Argued in the same observant, witty and clever prose that has made Adichie a bestselling novelist, here is one remarkable author's exploration of what it means to be a woman today-- and an of-the-moment rallying cry for why we should all be feminists."

Please see the video below if you would like to hear this book.  This entire book is based on this TED talk.  This talk is, I think, worth a listen annually, if not more often.

Those are so many important messages to this talk/read.  But here are a couple take-aways I have at this point in my life:

Feminism is not saying that women are better than men or conversely that men are all terrible.  Feminism is saying that women are just as capable as men and they can be just as successful.  Feminism is saying that we expect all genders to show respect for one another and hold them to the same standards.  We can reward women for pursuing their professional goals and not have the expectation that she will marry and have children (because she can do that if she chooses, but it's not necessary for her to have a fulfilling life).

Everyone benefits when we take a feminist attitude.  Yes, it's likely that if everyone agreed with feminism, women would earn the same amount of money as a man for performing the same job.  But it also means that we can show men and boys that they can be sensitive and show emotion.  We can show them that it's not weak to show pieces of themselves that makes them so human... so alive... We can take each other seriously and see each other in a more complicated light.

Being feminist is not a bad or toxic thing as long as we are celebrating everyone and helping to raise everyone up.

There are so many important messages and I swear, each time I read this book or listen to this talk, I take out something new based on where I am in thinking about feminism in my life.

This is a book/talk for everyone.  I think because there are such concrete examples, anti-feminist treatment that this can be easily understood by someone who is new to this information and point of view.  When you get towards the end of the video, I think it's a good way to start thinking about intersectional feminism, because feminism is more than just gender politics.  It's turned into a little bit of everything, supporting everyone despite race, gender, ability, creed, etc.  It's a great conversation starter and I hope that it continues this very important conversation.   I give 'We Should All Be Feminist':

Thanks for Reading! --Jude

A Review of 'Readicide: How Schools Are Killing Reading and What You Can Do About It' by Kelly Gallagher

Please note: this is a book I read in 2017.  Due to starting a new job, I kept up in reading but fell behind in blogging.  Reviews for 2018 reads will begin after the remaining 2017 reviews are posted.  Thank you for your patience!

"Read-i-cide (n): The systematic killing of the love of reading, often exacerbated by the inane, mind-numbing practices found in schools.

Reading is dying in our schools.  Educators are familiar with many of the factors that have contributed to the decline-- poverty, second-language issues, and the ever-expanding choices of electronic entertainment.  In this provocative new book, Kelly Gallagher suggests, however, that is it time to recognize a new and significant contributor to the death of reading: our schools.

In Readicide, Kelly argues that American schools are actively (though unwittingly) furthering the decline of reading.  Specifically, he contends that the standard instructional practices used in most schools are killing reading by: 

--valuing the development of test-takers over the development of lifelong readers
--mandating breadth over depth in instruction
--requiring students to read difficult texts without proper instructional support
--insisting that students focus solely on academic texts
--drowning great books with sticky notes, double-entry journals, and marginalia
--ignoring the importance of developing recreational reading and...
--losing sight of authentic instruction in the shadow of political pressures.

Kelly doesn't settle for only identifying the problems.  Readicide provides teachers, literacy coaches, and administrators with specific steps to reverse the downward spiral in reading-- steps that will help prevent the loss of another generation of readers."

This was a book that my cooperating teacher (and other English teachers) read while I was student teaching.  Once I found out that I was going to teach a class of my own, I felt this sense of urgency to finish reading this book.  This entire book is all about attempting to keep a love of reading alive in students or rekindle that love where it has died or failed to thrive in other students.

Growing up, my parents read to me a lot and once I was able to read on my own, I devoured book after book.  I wasn't much of a trouble-maker, but one clear memory I have of getting trouble was when the newest Harry Potter came out (I think it was Order of the Phoenix, if I remember correctly) and I got in trouble for staying up way too late reading it.  I loved reading and being a quick reader was something that I took great pride in and to a certain degree, continue to take pride in.  I can't imagine my life without my love of reading.  So that's why I want to help my students find their spark and realize that reading is not just something that their teachers make them do.  I want them to realize that reading is something they can do for themselves.

This book is filled with ideas for how to help students find their love of reading.  In my classroom, we do SSR (Sustained Silent Reading) and reading projects, for example.  We do Article of the Week, which my students hate because of the responses that I have them write, but it gets them reading a variety of different things.  So they're getting fiction and nonfiction.  I would like to speak to my experience implementing some of these practices after I've finished a full year with my 9th graders.  I will say that the practices I am implementing are the practices that I continue to feel really good about having my students do and that I will continue to do in future classrooms.  This is a powerful book that I think every teacher should read.  Not just English teachers like me, but every teacher in every subject.  Literacy is not just something you get in English class, but your math class, social studies, science... everywhere.

I appreciate that this book isn't just griping about how this is a problem, but it offers solutions that Mr. Gallagher has put into practice himself and that has worked for his students.  It's evidence like that that motivates me to want to try different practices like this.

Overall, I recommend this for any teacher who is looking to build literacy skills in their classroom.  I give 'Readicide':

Thanks for Reading!

--Jude

New Years Resolutions: 2018

Happy New Year!  I hope that you all had good holidays and enjoyed good amounts of family time and personal time.  As I've been on winter break, I've been trying to find that balance and fulfill those needs that, with school, have been really difficult to meet.

But this isn't a post about finding balance, nor is it a post about talking about my progress on the goals I set for myself in 2017.  Those will be separate posts.  Since it is January 1, I want to set my goals for 2018.  I wrote them a couple of weeks ago, so I think these are goals that I can commit to and make steps towards reaching over the next 12 months.  In the past, I have split up my goals by blogging goals and life goals, but because I have a full-time job now and therefore a whole other aspect of my life I have goals for, I've just decided to make one big list that covers each of these areas.  And I have ways of tracking each of these things that I will talk about in my post on bullet journaling, coming up shortly.  So without further ado, here are my goals for 2018:

1. Read More Nonfiction About Race In America.
I realized partway through last year that while I had read some books on race in the U.S. (a mix of nonfiction reads and some fiction), that this would be a lifelong process.  And so even though I had a similar goal last year, that's why I'm essentially giving myself the same goal for this year.  I think one way that would be effective for me is if I find reads related to race and education since, if I am to make a difference, that would likely be the area where I can make the greatest impact.  And because I work mainly with students of color, I think this would be a worthy goal for me to have.

2. Watch 100 Movies.  
I watch so many movies.  I marathon them, I like to put them on when I'm supposed to be doing other work.  But I want to encourage myself to branch out more.  I realized when I made this goal that I tend to re-watch the same several movies, so this would be a good way to watch new and different movies.  I can still re-watch my favorites, but once I exhaust those, I will need to find new ones to watch.  I'd like to focus on award winners and ones with actors of color.  I also want to avoid problematic movies.  So for example, I wanted to see Stonewall, based on the Stonewall riots in New York.  But it was a problematic movie because several of the key people were people of color and yet were played by white actors.  So this will encourage me to not just choose movies and watch them for the sake of reaching 100 movies, but to do my research and seek out that buzz that always follows movies... especially controversial ones.

3. Read 60 Books.
Last year, I set a goal to read 40 books, because I knew that I wanted to find my first full-time teaching position and I didn't want overwhelm myself with such a lofty goal as my usual 50 books when I knew that I would be busy, assuming I was able to meet that goal.  Well, here I stand at the beginning of 2018 and last year I read well over 50 books (and by the way, not all of the reviews are written.  2017 reviews will still be coming out for a lot of this month).  So my thought is, if I can read that many books during a year where there was a lot of change and where I was traveling more than I have in previous years... perhaps 60 books isn't so crazy.  I'm going to give it a try.  There will still be a mix of longer reads, graphic novels, and poetry.  Wish me luck.

4. Read 20 Books Already On My Shelves.
As long as I avoid buying too many books, this will not be a problem.  I already have two giant piles of books that were already sitting on my shelf that I want to read.  Theoretically, I could meet my entire year's goal just reading books that were already on my shelf.  My hidden agenda with this is that I want to pare down the number of things that I have, and that means keeping the reads that I absolutely love and want to keep forever and/or I will read again.  I want to keep my books that have a lasting impact and find a new home for those that I enjoyed but want to pass on and especially those that I didn't like.

5. Participate In And Win NaNoWriMo.
For the first time last year, I won National Novel Writing Month.  I wrote a 50,000+ word novel in the span of 30 days.  Actually a little less than that.  I want to do that again.  I think I might have cracked the code to being successful at completing this outrageous challenge.

6. Write And Edit A Full Story That Could Potentially Be Published.
This is something I want to get serious about.  I know that someday I would like to have my writing published by a legitimate publisher.  I will not be so ambitious as to say that I will have a book deal, however big or small, by the end of 2018.  But by the end of the year, I want to have a product that I feel good about that I would want to share with the world in a formally published way.  This might still be too lofty, but we'll see.

7. Exercise At Least 3 Days A Week.
I had times where I was good about going to the gym and times where I completely fell off the wagon.  I want to make my gym goals more specific.  I want to consistently be going to the gym 3 times a week by the end of the year.  I think that's a good compromise for me.  I hate going to the gym.  I don't like being there and being surrounded by people who are much more fit than me and who also smell funny.  But I know that it's good for me when I do go.  I feel a bit better about myself.  So this is my personal compromise.  We'll see how this goes.

8. Go Full Vegetarian.
This is something that I have attempted before and have been able to do for about a month at a time before falling off and slipping back into my old ways.  I tend to crave meat when I don't have it for a while.  That doesn't make sense to me because I don't tend to like meat very much anyway, but that's how it's happened.  This year is going to be about cutting out meat and finding a way to move past these cravings when I know that I'm craving food that isn't even my favorite.  Wish me luck.

9. Finish Europe Study Abroad Scrapbook.
I studied abroad in 2014 and while I have started this book and gotten a good amount of work done, it's time to be finished with the scrapbook.  I have two more big trips to scrapbook now (California and Arizona), so I should get this part of my life documented and archived before I can move on to those more recent trips.

10. Attend 2 Professional Development Opportunities.
As a young teacher, I want to get better at my job.  With a Bachelor's degree, I am only scratching the surface of education and the art of teaching.  I want to get better and find opportunities that will help me get better.  Especially since I'm not ready to head off to grad school yet, I want to find other ways to keep learning and growing professionally.

11. Cut Down On Sugar Intake.
This has been a real problem lately... and I'm not even talking specifically about the holidays... I'm trying to be honest with myself and recognizing that the sheer amount of sweet things I've been consuming in the last maybe 3 months is no longer acceptable to me.  I want to work on finding alternatives and just generally reworking how I eat.  I want to work on respecting my body and eating in a more healthful way is one way I can do that.

12. Make Self-Care Part Of My Regular Routine.
My theme this year is "balance."  For so long, I have been, frankly, obsessed with work.  Even now, when I have my full-time job, I am still tutoring and babysitting and occasionally pet-sitting.  While I'm not sure how much I am willing to do about all of these extra jobs just yet, there are a number of things I can do to ensure that I'm doing something as part of my self-care every day.  It'll help me bring balance to my work life and to my everyday life.  And right now, that's much-needed.

13. Finish 1 Dutch and 1 French Book.
When I studied abroad, I brought home a set of Harry Potter in Dutch and the remaining copies I still needed in French (and I got a few other Dutch books too).  I got them because I wanted to collect them, but I think it's now time for me to try reading them.  I want to find a way to keep up and recall what I know about both of these languages.  So I will be attempting to read one book in each language.

14. Travel 5 Times This Year.
My husband and I are FINALLY going on our honeymoon this year (when we travel, we'll be married for almost two years... crazy how time flies).  But I also want to make sure I continue to feed my insatiable appetite for exploring.  For the sake of clarity, I will say that travel doesn't mean I have to fly somewhere across the country or to another country, but I suppose "travel" to me means going to a place that is different from home and spending at least one night away from home.  So for example, camping trips would count.  Visiting family several hours away would count.  I just want to make sure I'm not stagnant and that I'm getting away from home every once in a while.

15. Write Something Every Day.
I realized during NaNoWriMo this year that even at the most stressful times when I was struggling to get anything of quality written out on the screen, I was at a really high point, mood-wise.  I want to make sure that I'm writing something every day.  That something could be a diary entry that is personal.  It could be part of a story or a poem.  It could be a blog post like this one.  I will say that that writing CANNOT be something related to school.  That's something I would have to do anyway, so I consider that cheating.

2017 was overall a very good year for me.  I can't wait to see what happens in 2018.  I hope that the goals I have laid out above will help me get a little closer to living a more balanced life.

Thanks for Reading!

--Jude

A Review of 'From Somalia, With Love' by Na'ima B. Robert

"My name is Safia Dirie.  My family has always been my mum, Hoyo, and my two older brothers, Ahmed and Abdullahi.  I don't really remember Somalia-- I'm an East London girl, through and through.  But now Abo, my father, is coming from Somalia to live with us, after 12 long years.   How am I going to cope?  Safia knows that there will be changes ahead but nothing has prepared her for the reality of dealing with Abo's cultural expectations, her favorite brother Ahmed's wild ways, and the temptation of her cousin Firdous's party-girl lifestyle.  Safia must come to terms with who she is-- as a Muslim, as a teenager, as a poet, as a friend, but most of all as a daughter to a father she has never known.  Safia must find her own place in the world, so both father and daughter can start to build the relationship they both long for.  From Somalia, With Love is one girl's quest to discover who she is-- a story that, while rooted in Somali and Muslim life, strikes a chord with young people everywhere."

When I was in the middle of student teaching, this book was one that sat on the book shelf.  I made eye contact with it a few times, but I never picked up this book at the time.  When I learned that my mentor teacher was leaving that school to pursue her Ph.D. and she was going through her things and giving things away, I went back to get this book, but it was already gone.  So I found this book a different way and read it on my Kindle.

I think I started reading this book after I was offered a job at the school where I currently work and I was looking for books I could use for a unit on identity.  I think I will use this book for literature circles rather than teaching this book on its own.

Growing up in the schools that I went to and where I student taught, I knew a lot of Somalian people, but I really didn't know a thing about their culture.  This book was helpful in that it started me on that path to learning more about Somalia and Somalian people (although of course everyone is different, no matter what country you come from).  And besides that, it helped me understand a bit more about what it's like when you arrive from your home country in a new one... what adjustments need to be made and more importantly, the changes that one typically goes through when you move somewhere entirely different.  You can't be one person in one place and be that same person when you move permanently to another place.  That's what I've experienced in the short time I lived abroad and what I have been learning the more I read about experiences like this.  While I didn't know it at the time, this has really started my reading journey about immigration.

This book is, I would say, good for younger readers-- between 6th and 8th grade, I would say.  But it would also work for high school students.  I would like to use this book in my classroom, so I'll have to let you know how this book goes over with them.

Overall, I give 'From Somalia, With Love':

Thanks for Reading!

--Jude

A Review of 'Hunger Makes Me A Modern Girl: A Memoir' by Carrie Brownstein

"From a leader of feminist punk music at the dawn of the riot-grrrl era, a candid and deeply personal look at life in rock and roll.

Before Carrie Brownstein co-developed and starred in the wildly popular TV comedy Portlandia, she was already an icon to young women for her role as a musician in the feminist punk band Sleater-Kinney.  The band was a key part of the early riot-grrrl and indie rock scenes in the Pacific Northwest, known for their prodigious guitar shredding and their leftist lyrics against war, traditionalism, and gender roles.

Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl is the deeply personal and revealing narrative of Brownstein's life in music, from ardent fan to pioneering female guitarist to comedic performer and luminary in the independent rock world.  Though Brownstein struggled against the music industry's sexist double standards, by 2006 she was the only woman to earn a spot on Rolling Stone readers' list of the '23 Most Underrated Guitarists of All-Time.'  This book intimately captures what it feels like to be a young woman in a rock-and-roll band, from her days at the dawn of the underground feminist punk-rock movement that would define music and pop culture in the 1990s through today."

This book was not what I expected it was going to be.  The first time I saw Carrie Brownstein at work was when the show Portlandia was just starting to pick up.  I was not even remotely aware of Carrie's past in the music industry.  It was fascinating to read about, especially because I don't have experience in creating a band and rising to any amount of success.

One big takeaway I have from this book is how life can be so different for women who create rock music over the men who create it.  I feel like I should have known this, but rock music is very male-centered.  I didn't realize that Carrie Brownstein and the rest of Sleater-Kinney and other all-female rock bands really had to carve their place in the world.  I guess I'm in a position where I can take this for granted because I can benefit from their music now and dabble.  So I appreciated Carrie's honesty in the real struggles that she went to to make this dream happen for herself.

I think one more important take-away was talked about closer to the end of her memoir.  After Carrie had been part of Sleater-Kinney for a while, she had more and more health complications come up and that made it hard for her to continue with Sleater-Kinney.  As hard as this was to read that something so important to her was coming to an end (largely by necessity), it was still a hopeful ending because she was able to find her next sort of life project, or professional project.  It's nice to know that when your big goal is accomplished or when it's no longer possible to continue with that dream, there can be something else that comes after.  Life is not over.

I think this is a read meant for those who are really into this feminist rock scene (I was very much an outsider while reading this), but nevertheless, I feel like I got a few gold nuggets out of this read.

I give 'Hunger Makes Me A Modern Girl':

1/2

Thanks for Reading!

--Jude

A Review of 'Life On Mars' by Tracy K. Smith

"You lie there kicking like a baby, waiting for God himself
To lift you past the rungs of your crib.  What
Would your life say if it could talk?

--from "No Fly Zone"

With allusions to David Bowie and interplanetary travel, Life on Mars imagines a soundtrack for the universe to accompany the discoveries, failures, and oddities of human existence.  In these new poems, Tracy K. Smith envisions a sci-fi future sucked clean of any real dangers, contemplates the dark matter that keeps people both close and distant, and revisits the kitschy concepts like 'love' and 'illness' now relegated to the Museum of Obsolescence.  These poems reveal the realities of life lived here, on the ground, where a daughter is imprisoned in the basement by her own father, where celebrities and pop stars walk among us, and where the poet herself loses her father, one of the engineers who worked on the Hubble Space Telescope."

Okay, I'll admit, I read this book partially because I wanted to increase the number of books that I had read this year... poetry is a really good way to do this.  But my husband also read this book the first year of his undergrad and I think this book of poetry surprised him.  So I wanted to read something that he seemed to like.

But... I just couldn't get into it.  I didn't catch on from the beginning so by the time I reached the end, I hadn't bought in and I hadn't gotten what I wanted to out of this book of poetry.  Too many references I didn't understand, maybe.  

I'll leave this review disappointing and short, I suppose.  I don't think this book was meant for me to read.  And sometimes that's okay.  I recognize that.  I won't denounce this book as a bad read or anything like that, just simply 'not for me.'

I give 'Life On Mars':

Thanks for Reading.

--Jude

A Review of 'Exit West' by Mohsin Hamid

"In a country teetering on the brink of civil war, two young people meet-- sensual, fiercely independent Nadia and gentle, restrained Saeed.  They embark on a furtive love affair and are soon cloistered in a premature intimacy by the unrest roiling their city.  When it explodes, turning familiar streets into a patchwork of checkpoints and bomb blasts, they begin to hear whispers about doors-- doors that can whisk people far away, if perilously and for a price.  As the violence escalates, Nadia and Saeed decide that they no longer have a choice.  Leaving their homeland and their old lives behind, they find a door and step through.

Exit West follows these characters as they emerge into an alien and uncertain future, struggling to hold on to each other, to their past, to the very sense of who they are.  Profoundly intimate and powerfully inventive, it tells an unforgettable story of love, loyalty, and courage that is both completely of our time and for all time."

When I was in a book club, this was one of the books we read together.  We had heard really good things about this book, and so we were really excited to read it an dig in.

What we found was that we were left wanting more... and not in a positive way either.  We thought that since Nadia had such a strong start as a character... she had this fierce independence and was feisty from the beginning and then... I don't know what happened.  We were hoping that she would continue this trend because Nadia was such a great character to start.  But it turns out a lot of the attention was focused on Saeed.  I wonder if it would be better if each character had their own chapters, each written from their perspective.  I think that would have given each character, especially Nadia, more agency as characters.

It was an interesting concept of having people escape from their home countries through a series of magical doors.  I wonder if, from the perspective of someone who has needed to escape their home country, this is a wish that they have.  That they could just arrive at their final destination.  To just start settling and figuring out what their new normal is going to be.  I'd be interesting in hearing others' thoughts on this.

Overall, this was not as engaging of a book as I hoped it would be... I likely won't be rereading this.

I give 'Exit West':

Thanks for Reading!

--Jude

A Review of 'Educating Esme: Diary of a Teacher's First Year' by Esme Raji Codell

"A must-read for parents, new teachers, and classroom veterans, Educating Esme is the exuberant diary of Esme Raji Codell's first year teaching in a Chicago public school.  Fresh-mouthed and free-spirited, the irrepressible Madame Esme-- as she prefers to be called-- does the cha-cha during multiplication tables, roller-skates down the hallways, and puts on rousing performances with at-risk students in the library.  Her diary opens a window into a real-life classroom from a teacher's perspective.  While battling bureaucrats, gang members, abusive parents, and her own insecurities, this gifted young woman reveals what it takes to be an exceptional teacher.

Heroine to thousands of parents and educators, Esme now shares more of her ingenious and yet down-to-earth approaches to the classroom in a supplementary guide to help new teachers hit the ground running.  As relevant and iconoclastic as when it was first published, Educating Esme is a classic, as is Madame Esme herself."

When I got my job teaching in East St. Paul, my 9th grade English teacher was so excited and brought all of her old things that she used to teach us (lots of Romeo and Juliet materials, but lots of other things too).  One of the things that she kindly gave me was this book.  On a weekend right before I was to receive my first ever set of students, I blazed through this book.

It was a really nice reminder why I wanted to be a teacher.  It was very affirming.  She came into her classroom and assumed the best of her students.  She believed in her students so fiercely that there was very little chance they wouldn't do well.  I truly believe that believing in students and supporting them until they have no choice but to succeed is an important piece to making sure that the people we're meant to be preparing for the future are ready to take on this challenge.  Especially because they've had success with other challenging things in their lives.

This book it partially responsible for pumping me up and making me remember why I wanted to be a teacher and more importantly, thinking about the kind of teacher I wanted to become.

I recommend this book for any new teacher, even if you're not teaching elementary school like Madame Esme is.  I will be interested in reading this again down the line after I have more experience under my belt.

I give 'Educating Esme':

Thanks for Reading!

--Jude

A Review of 'All That She Can See' by Carrie Hope Fletcher

"Feelings are part of life-- feelings are life.  If you take away what people feel, you take away anything meaningful.  Wanting to diminish the evil in this world is a good cause, one I have fought for the majority of my life, but not like this...

Cherry has a hidden talent.  She can see things other people can't and she decided a long time ago to use this skill to help others.  As far as the rest of the town is concerned she's simply the kind-hearted young woman who runs the local bakery, but in private she uses her gift to add something special to her cakes so that after just one mouthful the townspeople start to feel better about their lives.  They don't know why they're drawn to Cherry's bakery-- they just know that they're safe there and that's how Cherry likes it.  She can help them in secret and no one will ever need to know the truth behind her gift.

And then Chase arrives in town and threatens to undo all the good Cherry has done.  Because it turns out she's not the only one who can see what she sees...

A story of love, food, and a little bit of magic All That She Can See is an enchanting and beautiful novel that's guaranteed to be the most magical story you'll read all year."

I follow Carrie on YouTube, so when she announced that she was releasing her second fiction book, I was excited.  It's not that I loved her last book On the Other Side, but I saw potential in it, so I preordered this one.

This is another book that had mixed reviews.  I thought that this book showed improvement over her last novel.  The name combinations kind of drive me nuts, but I thought overall this story had an interesting concept behind it.  Cherry is a talented baker and she uses this odd bit of magic to infuse different foods with positive feelings in order to help people feel better.  Not to make everyone happy all the time, but cheer people up, balance their emotions.  So she spends a few months to a few years in different towns depending on how downtrodden to residents of the new place she's living in feel.  The more downtrodden, the longer she stays because there's a lot more work to do.  I thought this was a lovely thought.

Knowing the conditions that Carrie was writing this book in-- between rehearsals and performances, as she's an actress and has lately been in a few touring shows that keep her away from home-- several parts of this book felt rushed or incomplete.  And Carrie's books have a tendency to become kind of preachy... like, her characters feel so artificial at times.  They say things and it doesn't feel like they're delivering a genuine message like when she says something similar in her videos.

One part that I thought had potential but was missing something was the part about the Guild.  There is an organization that keeps tabs on people that can see emotions and especially if those people are messing with emotions using their abilities.  Cherry is caught by this group.  I feel like this group would have been better to read about if we were given some kind of clue earlier in the story, or if they showed up a bit more often.  Right now, it felt like it was tacked on at the end, like she needed a good way to end her story.

Overall, there is a definite improvement to this story over her last story and I did get some enjoyment out of it.  Carrie has another book coming out in... I believe July.  It's called When The Curtain Falls and I have preordered it, so I'm looking forward to reading it.  I'm a little worried that there will be similar issues that Carrie is being pulled in too many different directions to really pay this book the attention it deserves to make it a really great read.

I give 'All That She Can See':

Thanks for Reading!

--Jude

A Review of 'Lumberjanes: Friendship to the Max' by Noelle Stevenson

"What a mystery!

Jo, April, Mal, Molly, and Ripley are not your average campers and Miss Qiunzella Thiskwin Penniquiqul Thistle Crumpet's Camp for Hardcore Lady-Types is not your average summer camp.  Between the river monsters, magic, and the art of friendship bracelets, this summer is only just beginning.  Join the Lumberjanes as they take on raptors and a sibling rivalry that only myths are made of.

This New York Times bestseller and Eisner Award-nominated series is written by awesome all-star Noelle Stevenson and brilliant newcomer Grace Ellis, and illustrated by the tremendously talented Brooke Allen."

Once I finished the first installment of Lumberjanes, I was so excited to keep reading this series!  The fun continues in this whirlwind of a graphic novel.

I'll keep things short here, because I really do believe that these books need to be enjoyed with as few spoilers as possible from start to finish.  I enjoyed how funny it is and how fearlessly themselves all of the characters are.  I love this about the entire series (or at least what I've had the privilege to read so far).  The other piece that I thought was absolutely fascinating was the inclusion of a mythology piece.  It was unexpected, but it worked, so it was very believable with the rest of the story.  And since these are stories that I had heard of before, even just in passing, it sort of lent credibility to help the rest of the story along.

I can't say enough positive things about this series.  I think they're best enjoyed in volumes so that you can settle in with this story, so if you can get ahold of a full volume, definitely do!

Overall, I give 'Lumberjanes: Friendship to the Max':

Thanks for Reading!

--Judes

A Review of 'Harry Potter and the Cursed Child' by J.K. Rowling, John Tiffany, and Jack Thorne

 "Based on an original new story by J.K. Rowling, Jack Thorne, and John Tiffany, a new play by Jack Thorne, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is the eighth story in the Harry Potter series and the first official Harry Potter story to be presented on stage.  The play will receive its world premiere in London's West End on July 30, 2016.

It was always difficult being Harry Potter and it isn't much easier now that he is an overworked employee of the Ministry of Magic, a husband and father of three school-aged children.

While Harry Potter grapples with a past that refuses to stay where it belongs, his youngest son Albus must struggle with the weight of a family legacy he never wanted.  As past and present fuse ominously, both father and son learn the uncomfortable truth: sometimes, darkness comes from unexpected places."

I bought this almost as soon as I heard about it and since that point, it's just been sitting on my shelf staring at me.  I don't know why it took me so long to read this.

This book comes with mixed reviews.  From what I could tell, people either really, really liked it or had extreme beef with it.  I'm... somewhere in the middle, but leaning towards having beef with it.

Overall, I thought the story was engaging.  Time travel is definitely overused and it's misunderstood enough where you can bend the logic behind it.  I thought that this play assumed too much about time travel, both that extreme things can happen if you change even one small detail from the past and that you can change things back to how they were "meant" to happen.  I think that when you include time travel in your story, you're demanding a lot of buy-in from your audience, just because time travel tends to work differently across different stories that we have access to.

As I was reading and watching reviews prior to reading this play, one major complaint was about how Harry was portrayed.  At one point as things have gotten more complicated between Harry and his son Albus, he essentially says that he wishes he [his son] had never been born.  He admits that he said this in a moment of weakness, but because of his past and because of his experience of family (a very fragile experience to say the least), it's very unlikely that he would have actually said and even momentarily meant to say something like this to his son, of all people.  Not after experiencing abuse his whole life from a variety of adults in his life.

A lot of the dialogue was just awkward... like, I would read some of the lines and I couldn't even imagine what they would sound like as part of an actual show.

One thing I did appreciate was the friendship between Scorpius and Albus.  It was nice to see the products of good and evil, so to speak, come together.  Something I'm still wondering though is... why does Gryffindor and Slytherin continue to be mortal enemies of each other?  Obviously Voldemort is dead and there has been several years of healing... you'd think there would be more of an opening for inter-house friendships... I guess it just felt like so much hadn't changed even though the cast of characters passing through Hogwarts was very different from when Harry went to school.  Hogwarts should be a totally different place.  That's been my experience of schools whenever students come through.

Overall, I'm glad I read this, but I won't be reading it again.  It was nice to be brought back into Harry's world in a way that I won't be able to ever again with the original series.  I'll never be able to read the books for the first time again.  But it felt like the writers of this play only had a passing knowledge of Harry's world, so I likely won't be making a return trip.

I give 'Harry Potter and the Cursed Child':

Thanks for Reading!

--Jude