Book Review: Catch-22 by Joseph Heller

You guys, I was visited by The Suck Fairy the last few weeks. I first read Joseph Heller's Catch-22 in middle school after a classmate had gone on and on about how good it was. At the time, I thought it was hilarious and enjoyed it immensely. I decided to pick it up again at the library last week for a bit of light reading. The fact that I remember Catch-22 as a light-hearted wartime frolic rather than an extremely pessimistic, black-humored gape into the void speaks quite well as to how incredibly naive and immature I was in middle school. The fact that I considered it among my favorite books speaks to how unaware of racism and sexism I was at that point, as well.

So, while I can see why it's considered a classic piece of social criticism and war commentary, I can't enjoy it anymore. Sadtimes.

(No plot summary because everyone has read this, seriously.)

3 out of 5 stars. :(

An assortment of plans for reading, knitting, and blogging this year.

My main goal for the blog this year is to update it regularly even when I'm in school. I have decided to accomplish that by post-dating entries. Rather than posting content as I generate it, I'm going to spread it out more evenly. Take book reviews, for example. This year, they'll be posted on Tuesdays. Once I have read 52 books and posted a review for each Thursday of the year, I'll go back and start adding more in between. The same goes for knitting WiP and FO posts.

I'd like to update four times a week: Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays, and one other randomly-selected day.

As far as books go, my ideal is to average one non-school-related book per week. Given that I'll have a little more free time this semester and I'm not planning on taking summer courses, this should be relatively easy to accomplish. I'm also planning on making good use of audiobooks, as I'll be driving down to Western twice a week again this semester. Hopefully, I'll be able to carpool again.

I mentioned my knitting plans in a previous post. In an effort to put a dent in my stash, I have assigned myself projects for each month: one hat, a scarf or a shawl, a pair of socks, and one glove/mitten/wristwarmer (or pair, depending on the size/intricacy of the project in question). I think it's manageable, particularly since I knit in class a lot because it helps me focus (that reminds me; I should probably e-mail my professors about that). I've never been formally diagnosed, but all available evidence strongly indicates that I have inattentive-type ADHD. I've never gotten tested because I don't need medication to manage it and have never required special accommodations in school other than professors allowing me to knit in class.

I'm fairly confident that all of these goals are manageable. Now, to stop writing and start reading/knitting/exercising!

New Year's Resolutions: 2012 Edition

It's that time of the year again! Here's what I'm hoping to do next year.

1. Continue to rock the grad school thing.
2. Learn more Spanish.
3. Not allow grad school to interfere with the timely updating of this blog.
4. Keep up the good work on the running/exercising front. 
5. Read at least one book a week, and participate in a few challenges (more on that tomorrow).
6. Listen to more audiobooks, since it's looking like I'll continue to log a fair amount of time driving to Cullowhee and back.
7. KNIT EVERYTHING. Seriously. My stash needs an intervention, and I am Not Allowed to buy any more yarn until I put a sizable dent in it. To that end, I have organized most of it into monthly tote bags that have assigned knitting projects. Each month, I will (attempt to) knit a hat, a scarf or shawl, a pair of socks, and a mitten/glove/wristwarmer. 
8. Make better choices where interpersonal relationships are concerned. 

If last night is indicative of anything, 2012 is going to be awesome. I went to a party at LAB with my best friend from elementary school and her little sister. We talked, we drank, we danced, and at midnight, I crossed an item off of my bucket list: I kissed a stranger on New Year's Eve. Two, actually. 

You know it was a fun night when your shoes are crusted in dried beer and champagne the following morning. 

2011 Year In Review

Overall, 2011 was a successful, but very challenging, year. I feel like I've accomplished a lot, but pretty much all of my successes have been hard-won and/or involved a fair amount of personal sacrifice or struggle on my part. It wasn't a coincidence that I left Matt right before school started, and the fallout from that made an already difficult semester that much more so. In a way, school completely eating my life helped me escape the suckitude of my day-to-day existence, but it also rendered me less able to do things that I enjoy (also, social work coursework can be pretty soul-sucking if you don't take care of yourself). Volunteering with foster kids has been every bit as awesome as I thought it would be, but it has also entailed a lot of hard decisions in situations where there aren't any right answers. Dealing with everything was pretty tough, and even though I am pleased with the outcomes of my choices thus far, only time will tell if the risks I've taken this past year will prove worthwhile.

Things I accomplished in 2012:

• Getting into and attending graduate school, along with earning a 4.0 for my first semester.
• Learning (some) Spanish.
• Finally signing up for my volunteering gig with foster kids that I don't get to blog about. 
• Reading (and mostly reviewing) eighty books (even though I didn't finish any of my book challenges because grad school ate my life). 
• Learning a number of new recipes (which has sadly stopped since I moved back in with my dad, who does all the cooking).
• Knitting (and crocheting) a bunch of cool stuff. 
• Getting back into running. 

Overall, I managed to fulfill most of my New Year's Resolutions from last year. The only ones that fell completely by the wayside are the ones that were Matt-related (swimming and cooking), so I feel pretty good about the way they turned out. I'll post 2012's tomorrow; I haven't finished them yet. 

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.