Book Review: A Million Little Pieces by James Frey

Confession: I'm not really into memoirs. As far as genres go, they rank below everything except for crimesploitation, bodice rippers, sexy supernatural creatures (exception: Buffy the Vampire Slayer), and anything involving dragons (this includes tattoos) or spaceships, tying roughly with chick lit. I have a variety of reasons for that, but that's mostly because autobiographers tend to be navel-gazing, self-important liars. Or, more kindly, truth-stretchers. When I read an autobiography, I assume that a good part of it is at least exaggerated, and it has served me well over the years.

Apparently, James Frey embodies all of those negative aspects of autobiographers and is gigantic, plagiarizing jackass to boot. This is good, because it means I don't have to feel bad about thinking that A Million Little Pieces was freaking terrible and that he's a godawful writer. I kept finding myself wanting to take a red pen to the text and leave snarky notes like, "Dear James Frey, You are not e. e. cummings. Knock it off with the Quirky Capitalization; it highlights your Mediocre Writing and makes you sound like A Pretentious Jackass."

I also had a running monologue that was in the key of, "Oh my god, people actually believed that this guy was for real? Are you KIDDING me?" Like, seriously. People are so gullible.

2 out of 5 stars, because it's not as bad as Twilight and is mercifully shorter than The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. 

Book Review: The Beauty Myth by Naomi Wolf

This was part of last year's Feminist Classics Challenge. I didn't get a chance to read it because I was totally overwhelmed by graduate school that month. I finally got around to finishing it a couple of weeks ago, and wound up being pretty underwhelmed by it. A lot of that was probably hype; The Beauty Myth is one of those Big Feminist Books That Everybody Reads and Thinks Is Really Important, and the only author in that category who has ever lived up to the hype, in my opinion, is Susan Faludi. I've also had my view of Naomi Wolf pretty well poisoned by Fire With Fire, which is unbelievably victim-blame-y (so much so that I could only make it through a few chapters before tossing it aside in disgust), and her conduct during the Julian Assange rape fracas of a few years ago.

Reading The Beauty Myth confirmed what I've come to think of her: an embodiment of everything that annoys me about white, affluent, "empowered" American feminists. Incapable of seeing past her own good fortune, Wolf's analysis of the role that the beauty industry plays in the lives of women is shallow and completely lacking in nuance. Much of the book is songs in the key of "Duh!"-- totally obvious. Like, eating disorders are a form of social control? Really? Women lose a lot of time and productivity to looking good? No way! There's a double standard between the ways aging men and aging women are perceived? Say it ain't so! The cosmetics and plastic surgery industry exploit women's collective low self-esteem for profit? Whoa! That had never occurred to me before.

Admittedly, The Beauty Myth was first published in 1991, but I have a hard time believing that this issue hadn't been addressed in previous feminist works by other authors. Perhaps in a less comprehensive form? I don't know. Either way, it's relative strengths as a cohesive narrative of the way that beauty culture screws women over is totally undermined by the fact that it's really quite racist. In all of her talk of makeup and cosmetic surgeries and eating disorders, Wolf discusses racial issues once. In a single paragraph. No analysis of whiteness as the overarching standard of beauty, no discussion of the psychological damage that ideal inflicts on women of color, and no referencing the further extremes that they must go to in order to appear White-beautiful. That's a huge weakness, in my mind, as is the fact that she doesn't discuss the realities facing poor women of all races who are often stuck in the service industry, which is incredibly biased against women who are less attractive and/or are aging visibly.

The fact that the issues of race and class are totally off Wolf's radar is something I take a pretty strong issue with. Not only is it really myopic, it undermines the credibility of The Beauty Myth as a feminist work. I'd say it's worth reading for the theory behind it and its and the fact that I mostly agree with her overarching thesis, but it's so dated (how ironic that a book about beauty culture didn't age well!) that I don't think it's really worth it. 2 out of 5 stars.

Book Review: The Devil's Milk: A Social History of Rubber by John Tully

I came across this book while visiting the UNCA library and walking past the new book section. We all know the drill: I am fascinated by concise histories of random, interesting things. Enter rubber.

Rubber, much like plastic, is ubiquitous, and most people go through life not realizing just how dependent their everyday lives are on it-- or the social, environmental, and human costs that have been (and continue to be) associated with its production.

Tully begins with an easy-to-understand description of rubber's physical and chemical properties, an brief overview of a few types of rubber production, and a quick but exhaustive list of things that the modern world wouldn't have if humans hadn't figured out how to harvest and process it. From there, he launches into a history of rubber that takes the reader from plantations in South America and Southeast Asia to the fledgling union movement in the American Midwest to World War II in Europe-- and beyond.

All told, this book is not only very interesting and enlightening, it is cogent, entertaining, and easy for a layperson to understand. Tully does an excellent job juggling narratives in multiple times and places, weaving them into a cohesive whole. A must-read for anyone who enjoys social histories, is interested in industrialization/globalization and their discontents, or simply wants to learn more about where rubber comes from. 5 out of 5 stars.

Book Review: Feminism is for Everybody by bell hooks

Feminism is for Everybody is the February selection over at the 2012 Classic Feminist Literature Challenge.

I am a big fan of bell hooks, and have read Feminism is for Everybody a number of times over the last several years. It's one of those books that gets assigned a lot in undergraduate women's studies classes, which is why I've read it three times (at least). It's easy to see why it's so popular: it is clear, succinct, and no-nonsense. It lacks the fuzzy-wuzzy woo woo aspect of what I refer to as Cosmopolitan Feminism as well as the dense, twenty-five-cent-word-laden academic prose you find in Intentionally Obtuse, Missing-the-Point Feminism-- both of which, I'll argue, is what makes feminism unattractive (if not unreachable) to poor women, women of color, and a lot of men.

There's a lot to like about Feminism is for Everybody:

1. bell hooks' definition of feminism: "A movement to end sexist oppression," is by far my favorite. I actually don't care for the dictionary definition of feminism, which merely requires people to theoretically support social, political, and economic equity with no expectation of action on their part. I'm not a fan of passive acceptance of an idea; I think that if you really believe in something, you should be out there doing something about it. 
2. In a similar vein, I think it is important that bell hooks focuses on justice rather than equality on paper (which is, in my opinion, the downfall of liberal feminism and why I don't identify as one). It plays into the schism between ideology and action: just because we say or think things are equal, or have laws to that effect, doesn't mean they are. In many cases, equality on paper furthers oppression and discrimination (to wit: laws that treat pregnancy and childbirth as a medical disability. Little good has come of that).
3. Flowing from that argument is the concept of intersectionality: that social oppressions do not exist in a vacuum and therefore cannot be disentangled from one another. Sexism feeds into racism, which feeds back into sexism, which feeds into classism and so on and so forth. Therefore, in order to really end sexism, we also have to end racism, classism, and homophobia. 
4. Lastly, bell hooks takes a number of feminists to task over the previous item, pointing out that the movement has historically only served the interests of women who are affluent and white, often to the detriment of lesbians, poor women, and women of color. The notion that individuals are accountable for the effect their choices and priorities have on others is a bitter pill for a lot of those who subscribe to liberal feminism (or the Yay sisterhood! Feminism is about choice!  types) to swallow, but I still think it's important. Making a movement unaccountable to its followers and the behavior of its supporters above reproof doesn't lead to anything good. 

I maintain everyone should read this. It's short, easy-to-read, and a great introduction to why I hate men so damn much am a feminist. 5 out of 5 stars.

BAND: January Prompt & An Exciting Announcement!

Learn more about BAND here.


Joy of Joy's Book Blog asks:


What book or books have you used or are you using to support a goal, resolution, or project?


I am hereby pleased to announce that I will be hosting August in the 2012 Year of Feminist Classics. We'll be reading The Bluest Eye, and I'm pretty excited about hosting the discussion. After all, I did write my undergraduate thesis on Toni Morrison. 


Other than that (and the other books for the challenge along with the ones from last year I didn't get to), I don't have any specific books that I plan to read this year. There are some new releases I'm looking forward to (the sequel to Delirium, for example, and I think Jasper Fforde has a new book or two slated to come out this year as well), though. I'm trying to keep my standards low in case grad school eats my life again.

Book Review: How I Killed Pluto and Why it Had it Coming by Mike Brown

I am often asked why I read so many science books. The answer is simple: I ended my formal science education in high school, and books, news articles, and magazines are my only means of keeping my knowledge current. I read the Health, Science, and Medicine sections of the New York Times religiously, have a few science magazine apps on my tablet, and always peruse the "popular science" shelf in the New Books section at the library. I ran across How I Killed Pluto (and Why It Had It Coming) by Mike Brown that way.

Mike Brown is an astronomer whose life's goal was to find new planets. He devoted much of his career to scanning the outer reaches of the solar system, eventually stumbling across three planet-like objects that were even further away from the sun than Pluto (two were smaller, one was larger). Rather than hailing himself the discoverer of three planets, he concluded that none of them were truly planets and that Pluto wasn't one, either. How I Killed Pluto documents Brown's research, the development of his thoughts on the subject, and the inevitable drama within the scientific community and the media circus that followed it.

I really liked this book. Brown is an engaging writer who is skilled at distilling complex ideas (and procedures!) into language the reader can understand. Though I wasn't nearly as upset at Pluto's loss of status as some of my contemporaries, it's good to know that it happened for several very good reasons.

4 out of 5 stars.

The Other Books I Read This Year

...That I didn't have time to post individual reviews for. Hold on, folks, this is gonna be a long one.

First up is Sharon Hays' Flat Broke with Children, which I read for a research paper on the 1996 PRWORA legislation, commonly known as "welfare reform" in the US (yes, all of my papers were on similarly cheerful subjects). Overall, I really enjoyed it-- as much as you can enjoy a book about poor single mothers getting screwed over by judgmental, affluent male politicians and their supporters. Hays combines reviews of scholarly literature and her own long-term observations of a cohort of TANF clients in a few cities in her illuminating account of the true motives of the legislation and the effects it has had on AFDC/TANF participants.

Now, whenever I recommend books on poverty in America, I always mention this one along with Barbara Ehrenreich's Nickel and Dimed: On not Getting By in America. Together, I think they paint a fairly accurate picture of why upward mobility in the US is so difficult.

5 out of 5 stars.

More reviews behind the jump: War is Boring by David Axe, The Card-Turner by Louis Sachar, Shine by Lauren Myracle, Bumped by Megan McCafferty, When You are Engulfed in Flames by David Sedaris, and The Psychopath Test by Jon Ronson.

Book Review: At Home [audio] by Bill Bryson

I've been meaning to post a review of this book for the last, uh, two weeks, because I finished it a while ago. I'd heard excerpts from it on NPR a few times back when it was first released, and decided to check it out of the library so I'd have something to listen to while I was washing walls at Matt's house (this may or may not have something to do with why I took so long to review it). It was fairly long, over sixteen hours, so I wouldn't recommend getting the audiobook unless you spend a lot of time commuting or are one of those people who likes to sit around and listen to audiobooks.

That said, At Home was very enjoyable. Bill Bryson has a very nice reading voice, and the chapters were split up into smaller, more manageable tracks on the CDs. The content, of course, was good, too. After purchasing a former parsonage and doing some cursory research on its original proprietor, Bryson decided to do a historical survey of the evolution of different parts of the house. He not only examined the was in which the names, purposes, and placement of rooms came about, but discussed the important moments in history that led to them. He also goes on at length about interior design and the ongoing evolution of furniture, wallpaper, and paint. None of these are subjects I usually find interesting, but Bryson brings them to life with in an informative and humorous way.

Excellent, and I look forward to reading/listening to more of Bryson's work. 5 out of 5 stars.

BAND: August Prompt

I'm participating in BAND: Blogger's Alliance of Non-Fiction Devotees, and it's time for the August prompt.

Over at Amy Reads, Amy asks: 

Last month Kim of Sophisticated Dorkiness hosted the first discussion, asking What’s your favorite type of nonfiction? I had a lot of fun reading the answers that everyone submitted and they helped lead me to my topic for this month. One of my favorite things about reading is how one book leads to another which leads to another and so on. For a lot of us, nonfiction wasn’t something we always read and it was a specific topic or book that drew us in. And then once we started, we just couldn’t stop.

So this month I’d like to know:
How did you get into reading nonfiction? Do you remember your first nonfiction book or subject? If so, do you still read those subjects?

While I read a fair amount of non-fiction as a kid (probably considerably more than average), I didn't get into non-fiction as a genre until I was in college. When I was in elementary school, I was the kid who liked to read reference books (dictionaries, thesauruses, and encyclopedias) for fun. Whenever I ran across a topic I was especially interested in, I'd visit the school or public library and check out books on the subject. My family didn't have a lot of money growing up, so the library was an invaluable resource for me. I didn't read non-fiction for pleasure, though. I only read about subjects I was interested in, and then, it was more for the acquisition of knowledge than anything else.

That changed when I started college and took classes that used shorter works of non-fiction instead of textbooks. The first semester of my freshman year really changed the way I looked at non-fiction, particularly my introduction to writing course. Rather than offering a generic "how to write papers" class, Scripps had several topics within the Writing 100 label to choose from. Since I was among the last to register, I was assigned to the section whose focus was on genocides, to be taught by a professor whose (Jewish) family fled the Nazi regime. Cheerful! I wound up really enjoying the class, despite the incredibly depressing subject matter, because the books we were assigned were so good. We Wish to Inform You that Tomorrow We Will be Killed with Our Families by Philip Gourevitch, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee by Dee Brown, and A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide by Samantha Power are still high on my list of non-fiction works I recommend to others.

I wasn't quite hooked yet, though. That happened after taking a number of women's studies and sociology courses over the ensuing four years. They, too, primarily relied upon shorter works of non-fiction rather than full-length textbooks, and I found myself seeking out additional works by the likes of Susan Faludi, bell hooks, Barbara Ehrenreich, and many, many others. I found myself branching out to related fields by exploring the whole of the 300s section in the library, and using Amazon.com's recommendation algorithm to find new subjects to read about. I felt the same way that many do when they discover fiction: a whole world had opened up for me, only it was the real world instead of the world of make-believe.

These days, despite having majored in literature, I find myself reading more non-fiction than fiction, at about a two to one ratio. I think I may still have fiction fatigue from undergrad!

Book Review: Working in the Shadows by Gabriel Thompson

I guess it's worth mentioning from the front end of this review that I don't have a lot of patience for people who kvetch about those who immigrate illegally to the United States. There are a number of reasons for this, but they mostly boil down to my practiced disdain for hypocritical racists (lest we all forget that white colonists and, later, the US government, stole the land from people who are pretty ethnically close, if not identical, to those trying to move here now) and my experiences working and interacting with many undocumented workers.

I've worked in restaurants off and on since I was sixteen years old, and many of those years were spent in places whose kitchen staff was either largely or entirely composed of people from Central and South America of questionable immigration status. My experience with these people flies in the face of the conventionally held notion that all undocumented immigrants are lazy, inveterate criminals who want to milk the American government for all the services they possibly can, preferably while having eight children apiece, selling drugs, stealing jobs from hard-working American citizens, and, of course, forcing us all to suffer the indignities of a bilingual culture by expecting us to learn Spanish. I spent three summers working in such a restaurant in Knoxville, and then another four years working in similar places in Nashville, and I have yet to encounter an individual as described above.

The vast majority of immigrants I encountered, legal and otherwise, were simply hard workers from impoverished backgrounds who were desperately trying to make a better life for themselves and their families. They were some of the most dedicated people I've ever met, and their work ethics put mine (and just about every other white person I know's) to shame. Most of them worked two full-time jobs. Some added a third part-time job, if they could squeeze it into their overloaded schedule. None of them, that I was aware of, were involved in illegal activities. If anything, they were scrupulously law-abiding because they knew that any run-ins with the law could lead to deportation at best, lengthy and expensive criminal trials at the worst. That same paranoid fear also kept them from seeking public services; they were often afraid they'd get turned into the INS if they tried to use them. Beyond that, they were pretty keen to learn English, and would often talk to the waitstaff as practice, asking questions about words and what they meant.

My experiences, of course, are limited. Undocumented workers do all kinds of unpleasant work, and restaurant jobs are, sadly, the cushiest ones available to them (if you've ever worked in food service, you know how truly crappy that is). I've never been in a position to interact with those who have had to work harder jobs in manufacturing, food processing, agriculture, or construction. As a result, I was pretty intrigued when I saw Working in the Shadows on the shelf at the library. Finally, an account of what happens to undocumented immigrants who wind up working the really awful jobs.

Thompson takes on a series of jobs over the course of two years. He picks lettuce in Arizona, works a chicken factory in Alabama, and heads home to New York City to test the waters in the underground economy. All along the way, he interviews his coworkers about their lives and experiences in their lines of work, and their responses are both predictable and somewhat surprising. Thompson does an excellent job portraying the realities of the immigrant experience as well as contextualizing in the broader landscape of American employment (he has a great deal to say about white workers in low-income work, too). All in all, Working in the Shadows is very well-written, exhaustively researched, and highly informative. I definitely recommend it.

4 out of 5 stars.

Book Review: Searching for Whitopia by Rich Benjamin

I stumbled across Searching for Whitopia while browsing the 300s section of the library a few weeks ago (yes, I seriously do this, and will continue to until the library's database starts using Amazon.com's recommendation algorithm). I thought it would be a really interesting companion to Loewen's Sundown Towns, which I read a few months ago and reviewed here. While Loewen focused on the history and development of sundown towns and their evolution into monoethnic enclaves, Benjamin decided to live in these enclaves (along with visiting several others) and write about his experiences and treatments. Benjamin, you see, is black, and a big part of his project involved gauging the reactions of the denizens of these towns to his presence in their lives.

While living in Whitopias, Benjamin experiences a number of rituals associated with all-white, small town living, including numerous games of golf along with the attendance of occasional xenophobic city council meetings (in which locals decry the presence of Mexicans anywhere north of the border) and a memorable visit to the local white supremacist compound (seriously). Interspersing his narrative of his experiences in Whitopias with research he's conducted on them, Benjamin deftly explores the dimensions of modern racism intrinsic to housing and educational segregation. Ultimately, he makes a compelling argument that all-white towns and exurbs are not a good idea, agreeing with Loewen on a number of points (which I discussed in the other review). Unlike Loewen, though, who tends to be a tad over simplistic, Benjamin successfully captures the nuances of modern race relations-- apparently, white supremacists are nice. Who knew?

An excellent, thought-provoking read. 5 out of 5 stars.

Book Review: Odd Girl Out by Rachel Simmons

I initially debated reading this book. Having been on both the receiving and giving end of mean girl behavior in middle and high school (respectively), I wasn't sure that it could offer any insight past, "Wow, it really sucked that the girls I'd been friends with since kindergarten decided that being smart was un-cool in fifth grade and were so mean to me in sixth grade that I had to change schools," and "God, I was such a bitch in high school-- but at least no one messed with me." Most books about mean girls are long on wallowing and hand-wringing but short on cogent, logical explanations of why that behavior happens as well as how it can be mitigated or prevented in the future.

Needless to say, I was very pleasantly surprised by Odd Girl Out. Simmons not only discusses what it's like to be on the receiving end of female aggression, but also discusses what makes girls behave aggressively, portraying bullies in a fair but sympathetic light. Over and over, Simmons points out that it's possible to be both a victim and an aggressor, explaining the complicated dynamics that rule friendships between young girls. Her nuanced take on the issues involved is quite enlightening, as are the pages and pages of material she pulled from hundreds of hours of interviews with young girls and their families. In a particularly illuminating chapter ("She's All That"), she details an instance of aggression in which the "bully" member of a clique becomes shunned and tormented by her "victims," ultimately suffering a psychological and social breakdown.

Ultimately, Simmons makes a compelling argument that childhood female aggression, manifested in passive-aggressive behaviors like passing notes, mean looks, pointed exclusions, and rumor-spreading are the direct results of girls not being taught to express their anger productively. When "being nice" at all costs is hammered into someone's head over and over and over throughout their childhood, they become unable to articulate and cope with anger they may feel at a friend or acquaintance. Rather than setting a dispute immediately, girls allow their anger to fester, and seek out ways to hurt those who wronged them that won't interfere with their "nice girl" identity. The solution is therefore simple: abandon the ethics of niceness and teach girls to handle conflict productively. Easier said than done, no doubt, but Simmons makes a number of excellent, concrete recommendations to this end that have the potential to be quite successful.

Definitely worth reading. 4 out of 5 stars.

Book Review: Moby Duck by Donovan Hohn

Moby Duck was yet another new books section impulse pick-- I liked the idea of reading about bath toys bobbing their way across the ocean. That, apparently, was Hohn's motivation to begin his journey (a student of his wrote a short essay on a shipment of bath toys that had plunged into the Pacific Ocean during a storm. The toys wound up scattered across the North American continent). His search for the rubber ducky, beaver, frog, and turtle ultimately took him across several bodies of water and a number of countries over the course of several years. I'm not generally a fan of stunt memoirs, but I do enjoy ones like this that intelligently discuss pressing issues. While Hohn's search for the Floatee toys was the reason behind his search, much of the narrative was devoted to discussing the scientific ramifications of his journey: water currents, ocean pollution, sea storms' power to topple supersized cargo ships, and the melting of the polar ice caps. Through Hohn's eyes, the reader learns a great deal about all of these things, and more.

Funny, well-written, and thought-provoking. 4 out of 5 stars.

Book Review: The Two-Income Trap by Elizabeth Warren and Amelia Warren Tyagi

I've had a number of people recommend The Two-Income Trap to me over the past few years. Even though it's technically a little bit dated (it was published in 2003), I nevertheless found it quite relevant. The authors' thesis is simple: that families relying upon two incomes to meet fixed expenses are at a much higher risk of financial collapse than those that rely on only one. It makes perfect sense: if I have a job making, say, $50,000 a year while Matt parents the kitties and then lose said job, Matt would theoretically be able to get a job and help out with expenses until I get a comparable job (or, worst-case scenario, we both have to work crappy jobs but would still be able to pay the bills). However, if he and I are both employed and are spending all of our combined income on fixed expenses and one of us loses our jobs, we'd be boned pretty quickly. And that's exactly what's happening to a number of families.

It's something of a novel concept, and the authors devote quite a bit of time to explaining how they came by the evidence that led to their conclusions. They also spend a few chapters debunking myths about overspending, credit card debt, and other forms of financial irresponsibility that too many believe are the cause of families' financial ruin. Ironically, families who live off one income and fritter away the other are more financially stable than those who spend both incomes "responsibly" (provided that the two incomes are roughly equivalent, of course), because if the person making the "living" income loses their job, the one making the "fritter away" income could start paying the bills, as opposed to bills going unpaid. What really leads to families getting in over their heads, as it turns out, is America's screwed up way of funding public schools.

No, seriously.

The better a school district is, as a general rule, the more expensive housing in said district will be. This phenomenon also exists within school districts, as parents jockey for houses that are zoned for more desirable schools, driving the prices of said houses higher and higher. This, in turn, funnels more money into the school/school district in question, making it even more attractive, which, again, drives up housing prices in the area. It's a huge vicious cycle. High prices combined with unethical and predatory lending practices (I find it so crazy this book was published before the bubble burst; it's eerily prescient on the subject) can have devastating effects on families when they fall on hard times. Warren and Tayagi go into great detail in their discussion of the role that unethical corporate practices play in families falling into financial ruin.

Thought-provoking. 4 out of 5 stars.

BAND: July Prompt

Over at Sophisticated Dorkiness, Kim asks:

Like fiction, nonfiction isn’t a monolithic term. Just like there are sub-genres or types of fiction (literary, women’s, mystery, thriller, horror, the list goes on), nonfiction has many varieties too. There’s creative nonfiction, essay, travelogue, self-help, biography, memoir, and more. With so many types of nonfiction (as well as topics covered), there are nonfiction options for everyone. With that in mind, this month’s question is a simple one:

What is one of your favorite types of nonfiction to read? OR What is one of your favorite nonfiction topics to read about?

I read a pretty wide variety of non-fiction. When I visit the library or bookstore (and I'm not after a specific title), I always start by skimming the new arrivals in non-fiction to see if there's anything that looks interesting. After that, I make my way to the social science section in the bookstore, or the 300s shelves at the library (300 = social sciences in the Dewey Decimal system). I know that saying "My favorite type of non-fiction is in the 300s section in the library" is a little overly broad, but there it is. 

I'm a sociologist at heart, despite my BA in English literature and my soon-to-be Master's in Social Work. This means I like my non-fiction to come with a side of critical thinking, socio-cultural analysis and critique, and, most importantly, address some pressing issue. This is why most of the non-fiction books I find myself enjoying are of a feminist or anti-racist bent (or both). I like for my reading to be at least semi-productive some of the time, and I think that learning about those things will ultimately make me a more positive contributor to society. 

When I'm looking to read something a little less serious, though, I either go for stunt memoirs (like Kim described in her entry) or random, quirky histories of everyday things. These satisfy my desire to learn about other people and eventually make millions on Jeopardy!, respectively, and I don't feel like I'm wasting time when I read them because I've learned something new.

Something I'm excited about:

BAND, or the Blogger's Alliance of Non-Fiction Devotees, has launched. I'm really looking forward to participating in the project. As you've all probably noticed, I read a lot of non-fiction (current split is about 60-40 in favor of it), and have occasionally wondered at the lack of a unified presence of non-fiction readers in the reading blogosphere. It seems that most interaction points (Top 10 lists, blog hops, and other memes) are geared towards fiction readers, and I've always found that sort of unfortunate. Here's to that changing!

Book Review: Poplorica by Martin J. Smith and Patrick J. Kiger

I admit it: I'm a random history junkie. I'm obsessed with books like Poplorica that detail random, strange aspects of history and their relationship to modern life. This, of course, is how I intend on winning big on Jeopardy (well, that and memorizing atlases). Poprlorica is American-centric, analyzing the evolution of random bits of American pop culture and detailing their histories and long-range effects. Everything from super absorbent diapers to TV dinners to pro wrestling is covered in a detailed and highly informative yet easy to understand manner. Also, it was funny.

5 out of 5 stars, but it's hard to say if any of the rest of you would like it.

Book Review: Making Our Democracy Work by Stephen Breyer

As a member of several groups whose civil rights live and die by the Supreme Court, I often find myself paying more attention to it than the average person, so it makes sense that I snagged Making Our Democracy Work when I saw it on the new books shelf at the library. While Breyer isn't my favorite Justice (that honor goes to Justice Ginsburg*), I've nevertheless been a fan of a number of his decisions and rulings, and thought that his book would be an interesting read.

For the most part, it was, though I personally didn't find it particularly enlightening. That's not because Breyer is a bad writer or Making Our Democracy Work was uninformative; it was simply because I had already covered the material before in my high school and university coursework. I imagine, though, that it would be very compelling to someone who was unfamiliar with the evolution of the Supreme Court and the different judicial philosophies of its Justices who also wanted to learn a bit about its history and the specifics of some modern decisions. As such, I'd recommend it to anyone who didn't study American public policy, political science, history, or law who has an interest in the subject. Breyer writes very clearly, using language that most can comprehend (though his prose is often a bit on the dry side, but I guess that's to be expected). Breyer does an excellent job discussing the evolving role of the Court in American political life as well as detailing the reasoning behind the decisions he's been a part of.

Overall, I give it 4 out of 5 stars, even though I didn't have much use for it.


*I am sure you're all very surprised to learn that.

Book Review: Ah-Choo! The Uncommon Life of the Common Cold by Jennifer Ackerman

I picked up a copy of Ah-Choo! at the library, a last-minute beach pick (you can see how far my book review backlog is; I've been back for over a month now). File it under: I really like to read books about diseases.

The title is pretty self-explanatory: this book is about colds: what they are, how they spread, and how they're treated. Ackerman deftly explains scientific concepts in layman's terms, offering easy-to-understand synopses of the latest research on the subject and dispelling a number of popular myths. I already knew that antibiotics, herbal supplements and remedies, and over-the-counter cold medications don't work, along with the fact that being outside in the cold won't make you sick, but it's good to have solid proof backing that up.

I did find the information concerning the spread of colds to be pretty enlightening, though, and the methodologies scientists use to determine that are fascinating. Also of use is the appendix, which contains an alphabetized list of cold treatments and up-to-date information on their relative efficacy. Also included are drink and chicken soup recipes, which would be great if I didn't dislike both hot alcoholic beverages and chicken with a passion. All in all, an informative, worthwhile read.

4 out of 5 stars.

Book Review: The Purity Myth by Jessica Valenti

I'd heard good things about The Purity Myth online, and decided to check it out when I came across it at the library a few weeks ago. I'm very glad that I did; Valenti's takedown of abstinence-only advocates is not only comprehensive, well-researched, and informative, it's hilarious. Valenti's sense of humor shines through even the most disturbing parts of the book (purity balls, anyone?) and carries the reader through some pretty depressing material. I would know. I've lived it.

In some ways, I'm lucky. I came of age just as the True Love Waits and abstinence-only sex education movements were taking off, so while I have definitely had a number of negative life experiences as a result of them, I managed to avoid their more recent excesses like purity balls. Purity balls, for the uninitiated, are parties in which fathers and daughters go as a couple, and the father presents his daughter with a ring, symbolizing her promise to him to not have sex until she's married. My teenage self would have preferred drinking bleach to attending such an event, and I'm consequently thankful that it was never an issue.

I also lucked out in the sense that I didn't have my entire childhood inundated with that foolishness, that I managed to catch the last gasping breath of the sex-positivity of the early and mid nineties. The first time I ever heard of True Love Waits was when I was about thirteen. I was in the Youth Room of my church at the time,* and there was a giant stack of paperback bibles whose covers read, "THE TRUE LOVE WAITS BIBLE," in glossy, colorful bubble letters with shiny foil accents. I didn't take one since I already had at least three bibles at home,** but I was confused as to what that phrase meant (waits for what, exactly?), and why it required a whole special bible. I found out a week or two later, when the youth pastor gathered us all together and exhorted us to sign a pledge saying that we wouldn't have sex until we were married.

I didn't sign.

I'd like to say that I was motivated by a sense of moral outrage at a balding thirty-year-old's interest in my (as-yet nonexistent) sex life, that I was galled at the onus of everyone staying pure being entirely placed on young women, or that I was casting off the oppressive shackles of fundamentalist christianity once and for all, but none of that was true at the time-- I didn't have those realizations until two or three years later. At that point, I didn't want to make a promise to god that I wouldn't be able to keep. I figured that even if premarital sex was a sin (having read the bible cover to cover by then, I knew that it was open to interpretation rather than a set-in-stone commandment)***, I was better off only committing the one sin (having premarital sex) than two (having sex and breaking a solemn promise to god). There was also a pretty big part of me that thought I was too young to be thinking about that stuff, anyway. I was largely uninterested in boys until I was about fifteen.

In the years following that moment, I was subjected to a number of speeches on the subject, all of which included a heavy dose of guilt and the usual hard sell to sign a pledge card of some kind. Time and again, I refused. With each successive lecture I heard, the more disillusioned I became. I grew increasingly resentful of adult intrusion into my (still-nonexistent) sex life, and all of the peer pressure that came with it. Every time the pledge cards got passed around and I refused to sign them, the teens around me who did sign them would give me weird looks. Every time we were encouraged to give verbal confirmations of our pledges and I remained silent, everyone else would stare at me. Every time the "Stand up if you're saving yourself for marriage!" ritual happened and I remained seated, other people would whisper and point at me. Shunning and well-meaning but patronizing and irritating lectures inevitably followed. I've always been a fairly reserved person, so to say I was displeased at the way True Love Waits (et. al.) had given everyone and their mother license to pry into my private life (nonexistent or not) is the understatement of the year.

I guess it goes without saying that the Yay Abstinence! crap I was exposed to as a teenager eventually offended my nascent delicate feminist sensibilities.**** It didn't take me long to notice that the majority of the purity rhetoric was targeted at the girls, not the boys. The guys got off easy; while they were expected to sign the cards like everyone else, they were never subjected to exercises in "you're totally worthless and dirty if you have premarital sex," in which the youth pastor/facilitator/lecturer would do things like pass unwrapped candies around the room, having everyone touch them, and then asking a boy (it was always a boy) if he wanted to eat it, then pouncing upon the inevitable grossed-out reaction with the usual slut-shamey platitudes. I also don't ever recall seeing a guy wearing a purity ring, nor hearing of a guy being told to change the way he looked or dressed because he was leading the young ladies of the congregation into perdition (yes, that did happen to me. I wore a shorter skirt the following week).

Why yes, my adolescence did strongly resemble the movie Saved!

Fortunately, I was lucky enough to avoid abstinence-only sex education more or less altogether. I did get to experience a snippet of it during my last year of attending public school (sixth grade), where I learned that since condoms don't work, there's no point in using them, birth control pills give you cancer, and oral sex can get you pregnant. That there were eighth graders with children at that school (South-Doyle Middle: yes, I'm calling you out) should come as a surprise to absolutely no one. Once I transferred to private school the following year, such talk all but ceased. I dimly recall a few episodes of the original Degrassi in seventh grade and a three-hour-long "Sex Seminar" in eighth grade (which, while featuring the unfortunate "sharing fluids" game,***** was mostly medically accurate and didn't involve calling sexually active women dirty, untouchable whores), but beyond that, it wasn't discussed. It was a two-edged sword: on the one hand, I wasn't exposed to any more inaccurate information that could have gotten me knocked up or infected with some variety of crotch rot. On the other, I didn't get nearly as much information as I should have, putting me at risk for getting knocked up or some variety of crotch rot.

I would like to take this moment to thank the librarians at that school for maintaining subscriptions to magazines like Glamour or Cosmopolitan. That's where 90% of my sex education came from; in those days, both magazines frequently published articles about safe sex, comparisons of different contraceptives, and, most importantly, critiques of abstinence-only sex education. I don't think they do that anymore (from what I can gather scanning the covers in the checkout line at the grocery store, anyway), which is really a shame. Nevertheless, it's a pretty sorry state of affairs when teenagers have to resort to fashion magazines to get medically accurate, non-judgmental information about sex.

You don't have to take my word for it. The Purity Myth backs up pretty much everything I've written here: that a myopic focus on virginity harms young women, that abstinence-only sex education is totally ineffective, that purity balls are gross and creepy and, most importantly, that the push for female chastity feeds into the backlash against the feminist movement that's been plaguing us since the eighties. Throughout the book, she discusses the multitudes of potential negative consequences that abstinence advocates and their ilk have on women and society as a whole. It's quite compelling, and I'm of the opinion that everyone (but especially parents, educators, and teenage girls) should read it. 5 out of 5 stars.

*Brief backstory: I was raised Southern Baptist, and want to church three times a week more or less every week until I was around seventeen, when my mother finally caved and stopped forcing me to go. If I'd been given any choice in the matter, I would have stopped going at around fourteen.
**Seriously.
***No lie. The literalists take a lot of liberties and do some serious word-stretching to make the case that premarital sex is prohibited--unless you're willing to also make the argument that it's okay to stone a woman if she's found to not be a virgin after she's been married (Deuteronomy 22:13-21), there's little basis for it in the original text.
****I didn't start identifying as a feminist until I was 15, a few years after my initial exposure to True Love Waits.
*****Ten students are given a half-full Dixie cup of water, one of which contains a small amount of sodium hydroxide. Everyone "exchanges fluids" with three (or whatever arbitrary number) people by pouring some of their water into the other person's cup, then allowing the other person to pour some water into theirs. Once they're done, the facilitator places phenolphthalein into the glasses, turning "infected" liquid pink and educating everyone about why condoms are important (if the facilitator doesn't suck) or that ALL SEX IS BAD AND WILL MAKE YOU DISEASED FOREVER (if the facilitator does suck, which seems to be more likely than not).