March Goals Recap

Goal: Join the library + read 10 library books

Outcome: Complete failure

I do not know why this goal is so hard for me. It has been on my list of things to do for 4 years now. Yes, you read that right: FOUR YEARS. At this point I can't help but think I have a mental block or something. Am I secretly sabotaging myself? Maybe. Kindle has been offering some good books lately for 1.99 so I am just buying them rather than getting my self together and joining a library. What does this say about me? Very unflattering things. 

This is where accountability comes in. I am telling y'all that I am joining the library this Monday, April 11th, come hell or high water. It is going to be the first thing I do so that I do not get busy doing other things. I have literally put it on my calendar.  

It is always so embarrassing to admit that I am not a member of a library. This has got to stop. Knowing that y'all know what I am supposed to be doing on Monday is exactly what I need to push past myself. Feel free to text me encouraging or taunting things to make sure I am doing what I said I would do. It is time. 

Happy Easter!

"'O death, where is your victory?
O death, where is your sting?'

The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain."

1 Corinthians 15:55-58

Jenny and I are praying you have a Happy Easter, and that you may know the victory we have in Christ Jesus today! 

February Goals Recap

Well, March came in like a lion this year for me. The month started off awesome with a trip to Boston that I will blog about later (I am in the middle of a serious love affair with Boston). I ended the awesome trip with the flu. Can I just tell you that the flu officially sucks as an adult? I feel like a 90 year old smoker who just ran a marathon. It has taken me a week just to recover from having the flu, not to mention the week that it ravaged me like a plague. The good news is I am (almost) back to 100%.

More good news: I accomplished my February Reading Goal! I reviewed 5 books on the blog, which is actually harder than it sounds. Well, harder is not quite the word, maybe more like time-consuming. Believe it or not, I do not just sit down and write whatever comes off the top of my head. And y’all should be thankful for that. I do not think any of you want to read a review that comes from the comparative literature part of my training. Well, maybe a few of you would, but for the majority it would be too much like school and I want you to try the books I recommend, not run screaming because you are suffering from PTSD due to high school English.

Anyways, I tried to review books that did not fall into the same genre. It is nice to read things outside of your comfort zone. It makes you a better thinker, better reader, and a better person (most times). I have a bit of a reputation of being really smart; the reality is I am really well-read. That in and of itself covers a multitude of shortcomings. Try it sometime. Start a sentence with, “I heard on NPR…” and see if people’s perception of you doesn’t change. I chose to review one nonfiction book, one classic retold, a YA fantasy, a book of short stories, and then the best book I have read in a long, long time. If you have time to read only one book this year please, please, please read Gilead by Marilynne Robinson. I am posting the link to the reviews (though I am sure all of you already read them) below so you can check them out. I hope it encourages you to read a book that you would never have picked up, whether it be one of these 5 or one that has been recommended to you or one that has an interesting cover.

Next month’s goal has been one of my reading goals for the past 3 years. Will I finally manage to accomplish it? Stay tuned to find out :)

Books Reviewed

• Uprooted by Naomi Novik
• Gilead by Marilynne Robinson
• Modern Romance by Aziz Ansari
• Jane Slayre by Charlotte Brontë and Sherri Browning Erwin
• Trigger Warning by Neil Gaiman

Jenny Reviews: Trigger Warning

 The Vitals

 Trigger Warning: Short Fictions and Disturbances by Neil Gaiman
 Release Date: 3 February 2015
 Page Count: 310
 Genre: Fantasy/Horror/Poetry
 Target Audience: Adult
 Series: No
 Source and Format: Purchased :: eBook
 Amazon | Goodreads

Summary (From Goodreads) 
In this new anthology, Neil Gaiman pierces the veil of reality to reveal the enigmatic, shadowy world that lies beneath. Trigger Warning includes previously published pieces of short fiction—stories, verse, and a very special Doctor Who story that was written for the fiftieth anniversary of the beloved series in 2013—as well “Black Dog,” a new tale that revisits the world of American Gods, exclusive to this collection.

Trigger Warning explores the masks we all wear and the people we are beneath them to reveal our vulnerabilities and our truest selves. Here is a rich cornucopia of horror and ghosts stories, science fiction and fairy tales, fabulism and poetry that explore the realm of experience and emotion. In Adventure Story—a thematic companion to The Ocean at the End of the Lane—Gaiman ponders death and the way people take their stories with them when they die. His social media experience A Calendar of Tales are short takes inspired by replies to fan tweets about the months of the year—stories of pirates and the March winds, an igloo made of books, and a Mother’s Day card that portends disturbances in the universe. Gaiman offers his own ingenious spin on Sherlock Holmes in his award-nominated mystery tale The Case of Death and Honey. And Click-Clack the Rattlebag explains the creaks and clatter we hear when we’re all alone in the darkness.

Notes on Trigger Warning

Let me start off by saying that short stories are not my favorites. I am a drawn to completeness and to characters, both of which are hard to manage well in short stories. More often than not a short story has a comprehensive, cohesive narrative or it has well-devolved characters; it is very difficult to accomplish both. Neil Gaiman is an author who has worked long and hard on his craft, constantly pushing himself (and his readers!) by exploring all sorts of storytelling formats so I knew that if there were short stories for me I would more than likely find them here. Are all the stories and poems wonderful? No, but that is okay. There is much good here to be read.

Overall, I enjoyed this book even more than I thought I would. There are a lot of stories and poems that make it worth the price and time. Not everything has the same format or the same genre, though the majority would be classified under fantasy. The introduction alone is worth the price of the book (yes, I read introductions and yes, you should too). It would be nice if he developed it further into a talk or paper. It has the potential, in my opinion, of being very influential in literary and academic circles. Plus, it is something that needs to be said and he says it very well and very kindly, which goes a long way in getting people to listen. If you get the chance to read this, whether borrowed or bought, I highly encourage you to do so. 

Some of my favorites:

• "The Truth Is a Cave in the Black Mountains..." - I am not sure why I like this one as much as I do. I think because the narrator is so compelling. Plus, the twist at the end is awesome. 
• October Tale from "A Calendar of Tales" - A sweet story about love, obligation, and contentment. This one is very profound for being so tiny. 
• "The Case of Death and Honey" - A Sherlock Holmes story that is, in my opinion, flawless. It would fit seamlessly into the Conan Doyle canon.
• "The Sleeper and the Spindle" - This has been turned into a book with wonderful illustrations. Probably my favorite, it is a retelling of Snow White and Sleeping Beauty (y'all know how I love retellings!) and I am going to buy it on its own so I, too, can have the illustrations.
• "Feminine Endings" - This one was not one of my favorites but the title is, hands down, one of the most perfect titles I have ever come across. It actually enhanced the story for me, which I do not think has ever happened.

I fully admit that this book will not appeal to everyone, but if you are looking for something out of your comfort zone or just something different, then you should give it a try. 

Memorable Quotes:

"What we read as adults should be read, I think, with no warnings or alerts beyond, perhaps: enter at your own risk. We need to find out what fiction is, what it means, to us, an experience that is going to be unlike anyone else’s experience of the story."

“Better to have flamed in the darkness, to have inspired others, to have lived, than to have sat in the darkness, cursing the people who borrowed, but did not return, your candle.”

“In my family ‘adventure’ tends to be used to mean ‘any minor disaster we survived’ or even ‘any break from routine’. Except by my mother, who still uses it to mean ‘what she did that morning’. Going to the wrong part of a supermarket car park and, while looking for her car, getting into a conversation with someone whose sister, it turns out, she knew in the 1970s would qualify, for my mother, as a full-blown adventure.”

Jenny Reviews: Jane Slayre

 The Vitals

 Jane Slayre by Charlotte Bronte and Sherri Browning Erwin
 Release Date: 13 April 2010
 Page Count: 391
 Genre: Fantasy/Classic
 Target Audience: Adult
 Series: No
 Source and Format: Purchased :: Paperback
 Amazon | Goodreads

Summary (From Goodreads)
Jane Slayre, our plucky demon-slaying heroine, a courageous orphan who spurns the detestable vampyre kin who raised her, sets out on the advice of her ghostly uncle to hone her skills as the fearless slayer she’s meant to be. When she takes a job as a governess at a country estate, she falls head-over-heels for her new master, Mr. Rochester, only to discover he’s hiding a violent werewolf in the attic—in the form of his first wife. Can a menagerie of bloodthirsty, flesh-eating, savage creatures-of-the-night keep a swashbuckling nineteenth-century lady from the gentleman she intends to marry? Vampyres, zombies, and werewolves transform Charlotte Brontë’s unforgettable masterpiece into an eerie paranormal adventure that will delight and terrify.

Notes on Jane Slayre

In order to enjoy this book you must have a sense of humor. Actually, you must be able to appreciate cleverness. It also helps if you already enjoy the story Jane Eyre, though that is not necessary. I have read 2 other books in this literary mashup genre, both by Seth Grahame-Smith, and enjoyed them far more than I thought I would. The first, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter was really good. I picked it up on a whim at 2nd & Charles and devoured it in 2 days. I then read his Pride and Prejudice and Zombies which I did not enjoy as much but I enjoyed more than the original (Matt and I saw the movie a couple weekends ago and it is pretty good - definitely worth a rental). 

I expected to like Jane Slayre more than the previous two books because I really like Jane Eyre. It is my favorite novel from that period and I knew I already liked this horror/fantasy/classic genre, so I was pretty confident going into it. I will say I enjoyed it. It started off pretty well. Jane is being raised by a vampire aunt who does not allow her children to eat those of common blood, only the nobility, thus preventing Jane from becoming one. When she gets to Lowood she discovers they are creating zombie servants that are fine unless they eat meat. This, too, is fairly well done and fits well into the original story. When Jane moves to Thornfield Hall, however, things get less cohesive. 

Throughout the novel Jane is slowly realizing she has a talent for sensing and dispatching the supernatural. It isn't until she hooks up with St. John and his sisters that she is able o get answers and to fully explore her Slayre heritage. While it makes sense that this is where she gets answers, the problem is it comes late in the narrative (not Erwin's fault, she is following Bronte). She is randomly dispatching vampires during her time at Thornfield Hall with Mr. Rochester and he seems completely oblivious, which is rather disappointing. He notices everything except that one tidbit? Unlikely and unbelievable. The supernatural is inserted rather haphazardly during this portion of the novel, which makes up quite an important part. Aside from the werewolf, no one at Thornfield Hall seems to even be aware of the supernatural creatures that cohabit their world. It is all very odd.

All in all it was an enjoyable read. Will I read it again? No, definitely not. I wanted it to be the same caliber of narrative as the Grahame-Smith novels and it was not. Had I not read them first I might have enjoyed it more. The cover, however, is fabulous. If you do not have high expectations you will be pleasantly surprised, I think.

Memorable Quotes

“Sighing, he paused a moment as if to take in my essence or to gather his wits. As he had no wits to gather, it must have been my essence giving him pause.”

“Nothing like a little zombie beheading to take the edge off staking one’s aunt.”

Jenny Reviews: Modern Romance by Aziz Ansari

 The Vitals

 Modern Romance by Aziz Ansari
 Release Date: 16 June 2015
 Page Count: 277
 Genre: Non-fiction
 Target Audience: Adult
 Series: No
 Source and Format: Borrowed :: Hardcover
 Goodreads | Amazon

Summary (From Goodreads)
At some point, every one of us embarks on a journey to find love. We meet people, date, get into and out of relationships, all with the hope of finding someone with whom we share a deep connection. This seems standard now, but it’s wildly different from what people did even just decades ago. Single people today have more romantic options than at any point in human history. With technology, our abilities to connect with and sort through these options are staggering. So why are so many people frustrated?

Some of our problems are unique to our time. “Why did this guy just text me an emoji of a pizza?” “Should I go out with this girl even though she listed Combos as one of her favorite snack foods? Combos?!” “My girlfriend just got a message from some dude named Nathan. Who’s Nathan? Did he just send her a photo of his penis? Should I check just to be sure?”

But the transformation of our romantic lives can’t be explained by technology alone. In a short period of time, the whole culture of finding love has changed dramatically. A few decades ago, people would find a decent person who lived in their neighborhood. Their families would meet and, after deciding neither party seemed like a murderer, they would get married and soon have a kid, all by the time they were twenty-four. Today, people marry later than ever and spend years of their lives on a quest to find the perfect person, a soul mate.

For years, Aziz Ansari has been aiming his comic insight at modern romance, but for Modern Romance, the book, he decided he needed to take things to another level. He teamed up with NYU sociologist Eric Klinenberg and designed a massive research project, including hundreds of interviews and focus groups conducted everywhere from Tokyo to Buenos Aires to Wichita. They analyzed behavioral data and surveys and created their own online research forum on Reddit, which drew thousands of messages. They enlisted the world’s leading social scientists, including Andrew Cherlin, Eli Finkel, Helen Fisher, Sheena Iyengar, Barry Schwartz, Sherry Turkle, and Robb Willer. The result is unlike any social science or humor book we’ve seen before.

In Modern Romance, Ansari combines his irreverent humor with cutting-edge social science to give us an unforgettable tour of our new romantic world.

Notes on Modern Romance

Before I begin, I hope y'all were able to make it through the summary. That is seriously the longest summary I think I have ever seen. 

Okay, the book. I really enjoyed this book. It is not a memoir or even Ansari's views on love. This is a research book, written with a sociologist and has actual notes in the back of the book. My kind of book :) It is a study of love in the modern age — What do we think love is? How do we show love? When do we feel loved? How do we find love? It is a fascinating look into the modern human psyche and it definitely stings at times. He talks to a wide range of people about love, from senior citizens to college kids, people who live in big cities and people who live in small towns. The most fascinating chapter, to me, was the chapter on love in foreign countries. The world does not see or approach love the same way. My other favorite part was the role of technology in the search for love. He had some very interesting things to say about that, some things I was saying, YES! to and others I was like, Huh, never would have thought that. This is an easy read that will make you laugh and make you think, but not too deeply. (If you are a Parks and Rec fan then you will definitely hear Tom Haverford in some of the writing)

Memorable Quotes

“Why do we all say we prefer honesty but rarely give that courtesy to others?”

“When I've really been in love with someone, it's not because they looked a certain way or liked a certain TV show or a certain cuisine. It's more because when I watched a certain TV show or ate a certain cuisine with them, it was the most fun thing ever.”

“For me the takeaway of these stories is that, no matter how many options we seem to have on our screens, we should be careful not to lose track of the human beings behind them. We’re better off spending quality time getting to know actual people than spending hours with our devices, seeing who else is out there.”

Happy Birthday, Coach Medlin

Today is my (Jenny) husband's 35th birthday so I thought it appropriate to embarrass him on the blog. This has nothing to do with literature (other than the great quote above) so if you do not want to keep reading I understand. You will only miss out on how awesome my husband is.

I was subbing for an English teacher the other day and the class was discussing dating. I mentioned that I am more classically "male" brained, while my husband, Matt, is more classically "female" brained. One student said that seemed to be the case for most marriages where the wife's default mode is logic instead of emotion. Of course this made me reflect on Matt's personality; what parts of our personality mesh well? Which parts are more sharp and prone to hurt?

After mulling over this for a couple of days I have come to this conclusion: I love him more now, today, than I did the day we got married. His emotion-driven personality was such a mystery to me when we were dating and even into the first couple years of marriage (and still is at times). He saw things so differently than I did it was hard to reconcile with the way I understand things. I am just now, 9+ years into being together, getting a handle on his thought patterns and what drives him. Does this mean that I understand him completely and we never argue? Heck no. It does mean that living life with him is softening and molding me in ways I never thought possible or desirable. We are much more different than I initially thought we when we started dating and I am so thankful for that fact. He is constantly challenging me; most times he does not even realize he is doing so.

Matt Medlin does not do anything half-way; he is either all in or all out. He wanted to start an early morning P.E. club like he had in elementary school; it now has so many kids that the fourth and fifth grade have to do it on different days because there are so many kids that want to be a part. He started deejaying the father/daughter dance at his school and enjoyed it so much he bought some nicer equipment and now does all type of events. This all or nothing also carries into his personality. I do not know anyone as stubborn as him. Up until last year he insisted he did not like Moe's. Every time I went and offered to bring him back something he would not want anything. I eventually stopped asking and, lo and behold, he has suddenly started like it and wants to go there every. single. day. Stubborn. He is also the most loyal person I know; if you are one of his people he will never give up on you. This is both wonderful and hurtful. It is hard to watch him value people that do not value him. He is generous in ways that most people never know unless you are on the receiving end. He understands people and what motivates them almost from the moment he meets them. He is super competitive and can turn anything into a game. (On a recent trip he somehow turned a game of skipping rocks into a competitive rock-golf game)  If he is excited about something then everyone else around him is excited, too, because his joy is infectious. The world is lucky that he has always wanted to be a P.E. teacher and not a lawyer - he could convince an eskimo to buy snow.

I will stop here, but suffice to say my husband is a complicated, wily, funny, sensitive guy and I am the better for it.