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Entries in books (17)

Sunday
31Jan2010

When Everything Changed

16. Read 30 books I haven’t read before and blog about them. (20/30)

When Everything Changed: The Amazing Journey of American Women from 1960 to the Present
~Gail Collins

If you are a woman: RUN and go read this book.  If you know a woman: RUN and read this book.  If a woman gave birth to you: RUN . . . now . . . and read this book.

The narrative and stories in this book are amazing.  I've been tinkering around in women's studies since college and so I've read plenty about how things have progressed, but the stories in this book still made me so incredibly furious at how things were not that long ago.  The book also made me grateful for what's changed, but then increasingly angry about what hasn't changed yet.

For example, did you know we almost had universal child care in the 1970s?  The amount of time I've spent reading, thinking, and talking about daycare is incredible and I don't even have a child yet.  We were almost there but, in episodes eerily similar to what is currently happening with the health care debate, rumors were spread about what exactly "government run child care" would be like and how it would "Sovietize" our children (*cough* socialism fears *cough*) and so it was voted down.  That was a particularly depressing and upsetting passage of the book to read because it hit so close to home.

Did you know that women weren't widely allowed to get credit until 1974?  That means credit cards, car loans, mortages, et cetera.  If a woman wanted to buy a car, the dealer would ask her about her plans to have children since (the assumption was) women who had children then didn't work and would no longer make their payments.  And, of course, there was nothing illegal about this question.  The part that was extra crazy-making to me?  I was born one year later in 1975 . . . so roughly until right before I was born, my mother would not have been able to buy a car.  It's unfathomable.

Did you know there were laws on the books preventing women from doing jobs that required them to lift more than 30lbs?  A woman wanted a promotion where she worked but it required pushing something 35lbs, so she was told she couldn't do that job.  She realized the typewriter she had to lift every day weighed 40lbs, so when they told her she couldn't have the new job, she refused to lift her typewriter, which, naturally, the company fought her on and penalized her for.  She continued to fight and eventually won.  Thank goodness for women like her.

And, you know, of course women shouldn't lift more than 30lbs... because, you know, I'm sure no woman ever lifts a child who weighs more than 30lbs.  Silly womenz, thinking they can do things like what their bodies are capable of.

Women were shot and run off the road just for being in the car with black men.  Women's workstations were defiled with trash and urine when they dared work in a traditionally male, blue collar environment.  Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg was denied a clerkship when first starting out because she liked to wear pants and the judge hated women who wore pants.  Female flight attendants (back when male flight attendants weren't allowed) were required to bend over to serve drinks and light cigars on "men only" executive flights.  And, per the book, if you go back far enough (if I recall, we're talking 100 years ago), men would never be punished for rape if the woman got pregnant because the theory was a woman couldn't get pregnant if she didn't enjoy the sex.  I couldn't believe that when I read it.  My heart goes out to the women who were negatively affected by that law.

Are you angry yet?  Because I'm furious just remembering these things and the thousands of other instances in the book that made my blood boil.  So, yes, I highly recommend this book.  It's amazing how far we've come and gives me hope that we'll be able to make it to true equality one day.

Sunday
10Jan2010

Moose: A Memoir

16. Read 30 books I haven’t read before and blog about them. (19/30)

Moose: A Memoir
by Stephanie Klein

I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with Stephanie Klein.  I really adore some of the things she writes/says (sometimes she video blogs) and I get really annoyed or turned off by other things she writes/says.  Not surprisingly, my reaction to her fat camp memoir is the same.  In Moose, "Klein shares the cutting details of what it truly feels like to be an overweight child, from the stinging taunts of classmates, to the off-color remarks of her own father, to her thin mother's compulsive dissatisfaction with her own body" (Amazon).

So many of the details and events in the book resonated with me.  I went to summer camp; it wasn't a "fat camp" yet many of the details were achingly familiar (except I never made out with anyone at summer camp).  The Amazon review is right in that Klein shares a lot of remarkably familiar details of what it's like to grow up as a fat kid.

That said, most of Klein's story is different from my own and was truly fascinating to read.  She mentions several times how she was interested in sex much younger than many of her classmates and friends and I couldn't help but link that to later issues with body image and eating.  Klein, though, never explicitly makes the link which makes me wonder if we, the readers, were meant to make it or if it just really hadn't occurred to her.

My main issue with the book, the one that left me feeling unsatisfied with it, is the writing - in particular, the choices made at the end of the text.  The book is called Moose because that was a name the kids at school called Klein, but it feels like a stretch when Klein extends this into her college years at the end of the book.  The book is primarily about her summer "fat" camp experiences and the end feels like it betrays this purpose by meandering into other topics.  The story deserves a much better wrap-up than it has.  Even framing those final scenes/anecdotes/reflections as a prologue would have been an improvement.  It makes me wonder about her editor(s).

I did mostly enjoy the book, though, and will continue to read her blog.  She has a unique take on life that I haven't seen anywhere else and I am interested to see what else she has to say.

Sunday
03Jan2010

Does this pregnancy make me look fat?

16. Read 30 books I haven’t read before (in addition to the above) and blog about them. (18/30)

Does This Pregnancy Make Me Look Fat?
by Claire Mysko and Magali Amadei

I think this book definitely needed to be written.  I have seen too many off-handed comments from women I know (either well or just tangentially) about how they felt fat while pregnant and how it was gross to be that heavy.  Many times this would be said in front of me before I lost weight, which would always make me think, "Hello, do you not realize I weigh more now than you did nine months pregnant?"  I never knew how to respond beyond, "Huh."

So I think a lot of women struggle with the bodily changes that come with pregnancy, especially if they've never gained weight before (lucky them).  For me, the book was a bit "101" - meaning that it felt like taking an introductory course in something that I've already been studying for a decade.  I'm used to seeing the numbers on the scale go up/fluctuate.  I've had stretch marks for fifteen years.  I already saw my breasts drop (and had them lifted).  There wasn't much in here I hadn't already experienced and thought about at length.  If anything, I always thought that pregnancy was a time where other women got to experience a little of what it was like to live as an overweight woman.  What I've realized happens sometimes, though, is that these same women who have body issues and strongly negative ideas about fatness then translate those thoughts to pregnancy and see their pregnancy that way, which I find sad.  I think all pregnant women comment about "feeling huge," especially during the last trimester, but there's feeling huge and there's feeling like it's a bad thing (instead of just uncomfortable or inconvenient).

That's why I'm glad this book exists.  I think it could be helpful to a broad spectrum of women so they could enjoy this fascinating period of time (pregnancy) instead of feeling negative discomfort and thoughts about it.

Tuesday
22Dec2009

7 Quick Tuesday Takes - the 3.75 week edition

1. Today is Day Two of my 3.75 day workweek (I get out two hours early on Thursday) and, yes, I do have work to do.  And there are no students around, so I have my iPod plugged in.  Ah.

2. My last grad school paper of the semester was due via email yesterday.  I emailed it to my professor at 11:53pm.  It was still Monday.  To boot, at last week's class, the professor said in regards to a question about when exactly the papers were due, "Well, it's not like I'll be reading them all Tuesday morning."  He says that and my brain hears, "Extension!" but I just wanted it to be done, so it is.  Is it an "A" paper? Not by my estimation, but I guess we'll see.  I have no idea how we're being evaluated in that class.  We had a bunch of assignments, but never received any grades or details on how much weight each assignment carried.

3. I am nearly done with my holiday baking.  Tonight I'm making dog cookies for the dogs in the family; all the people cookies are done (although I think there are a few I'm going to dip in chocolate, but we'll see how that goes).

4. I actually managed to cook dinner last night for the first time in ... um .... how long was the semester?  Seriously, it was a massive accomplishment - and, to boot, it turned out super scrumptious!  (Details to follow in a separate post.)

5. Tonight is my first appointment with the high-risk pregnancy specialist at the hospital.  I'm really curious to see what he's going to say/do since everything seems to be going perfectly fine.  My sister had to see him during her last pregnancy because she had excess fluid and she warned me that he's "really perky, like, super perky."  Me + perky = not always good, so I appreciated her warning.  But I suppose if he handles high risk pregnancies, perky is good - much better than morose or dour.

6. It dawned on me this morning that I can now officially read something FOR MYSELF.  I don't have to talk to anyone about it (outside of a blog post), write a paper about it, finish it by a set date, or be prepared to defend a viewpoint on it.  That said, that's how I read everything now anyway (thanks, grad school).  What I'm reading right now: Does This Pregnancy Make Me Look Fat? by Claire Mysko.  I started it back in September but only got a few pages in before schoolwork took over.

7. Speaking of reading, my nook is due to ship this week!  I can't wait.  I already know which cover I want to get for it:

the front

the inside

How adorable is that??  Did you know that symbol is called an ampersand AND that it actually used to be a part of the alphabet?  The name comes from the phrase "and per se and" which is how it was said after "z" in the alphabet.  Tara from 25 Hour Books and TaraSG is looking to get an ampersand tattoo and I am sooooo jealous.  I want one.

Me: Look at this nook cover!  It's so cute; I want it!  And it's got my 2nd favorite, possibly tied for first, punctuation mark!

Hubby: You have favorite punctuation marks.  You're so cute.

(By the way, the ampersand is tied for first with the semicolon.  Looove me a semicolon.  By the way, there's a question mark on the back of the nook cover.  Alas, if only it were a semicolon.)

 

And one last thing: thanks for all the support yesterday.  I'm glad to know I'm not the only one who worries about these things during pregnancy even when there seems to be no evidence to support worrying.  I feel very calm and relatively worry-free today.

Monday
23Nov2009

New Moon

Yesterday I went to see New Moon, the second film in the Twilight series. 


 

I enjoyed the series and, although I think it has some serious issues, I think it's harmless fun.  Out of the four books in the series, New Moon is my least favorite so I was curious to see how the film would go, especially considering the first one was a bit of a disappointment (which I blame on the studio giving them a tiny budget and even tinier shooting schedule).

I have to say, I enjoyed the film more than I enjoyed the book.  I'm so glad they didn't recast the role of Jacob because Taylor Lautner really stepped up and did a good job.  Every now and then his acting was a bit shaky, but most of the time he was right on track.  Robert Pattinson is still overly melancholic (and, therefore, occasionally amusing) as Edward and Kristen Stewart is even more perfect as Bella.  I absolutely adore her in the role.  I know a lot of people don't like Bella, but I do.

To answer all the critics saying it was slow and depressing: try reading the book; it's even more so.  What did you want this to be, a Disney film?  Teenage girls get depressed when they get dumped - like, depressed for real, not like a Disney star who gets dumped and then wears dark pink instead of bright pink for a week.

I really like Eclipse and Breaking Dawn (the third and final books of the series), so I'm really looking forward to those films.  I think they're going to be fantastic.

Twilight is my favorite book in the series, but 2nd place is a close tie between Eclipse and Breaking Dawn.  I think Eclipse might win in the end, but Breaking Dawn has the best cover.  Chess imagery is always so powerful.

Even though today is really the start of the week (I always think of Monday that way), it feels like seeing the movie yesterday was kind of like a good start to the week.  The only day I officially have off this week is Thursday, but I took a vacation day on Wednesday so I could get some work done and do some relaxed baking instead of trying to squeeze it all in after work.  I do have to work on Friday.  (Yuck.  Anyone else?)