I appreciate Nora Ephron’s sense of humor. Although my exposure to it has been limited, until now, to the movies she writes, such as When Harry Met Sally or Sleepless in Seattle, she has a sensibility that I find charming.
In her book, she comments on what aging has been like for her and I think she brings to mind what all women go through to some extent or another.
While I disagree with her politics and her views on marriage, her observations on aging were wryly amusing. My sisters-in-law and I discussed this as our book club book in September. Everyone enjoyed reading it, and we had a great time chatting about it.
They laughed at me because I had employed my sticky note method. Do you know this one? You get the skinny strips of Post Its, which come in lots of fun colors, and you tab the pages and write your comments on them. For this book, I picked a sunny yellow color to match the book’s cover. Geeky? Sure. But fun? You bet!
Invaluable for book club chats—it sure beats spending what precious time you have to talk about a book thumbing through the book, mumbling, “I really like the part where she says something funny about something…wait, I’ll find it.” Only you can never find it when you want to, by the time you do, the conversation has moved on. I think my book tabs keep the conversation going, and we’ve been able to get more in depth with our chats because we can talk about specifics.
This tab method works especially well with a book that is essentially a chat between the writer and the reader. It’s like I’m contributing to her conversation. Ephron mentions how, early in her married life (her first marriage), she became imaginary friends with all of the great chefs of the day as she tackled one cooking endeavor after another. I could relate as I have been known to daydream about chatting with chefs who tell me that my touch of tarragon really did improve their recipe. I read a quote by her that reveals all you need to know on this topic, “Whenever I get married, I start buying Gourmet magazine.”
Ephron observed trends that I have spoken about at length to girlfriends—one in particular, the sprouting of nail salons in every strip shopping center in America, seemingly overnight. This usually comes up in conversation as we are sitting in one such salon getting our mani/pedis. A few short years ago they didn’t exist, and now we can’t seem to do without them. I’m not sure if that is a good thing or not, but I do love how my French pedicure looks with sandals! Chris has blogged about this herself. We all seem to be conflicted by something that is purely unnecessary in our daily lives, yet so wonderful we don’t want to be without it.
In the book, Ephron also waxes philosophic about waxing and many other beauty regimen essentials. Should you have plastic surgery? What kind? Do you get injections? What kind? From her first assertion that the neck starts to go at 43 (uh oh!), I was fascinated. It’s like reading the exploits of someone who has traveled to a destination you are contemplating. I figure—Ephron has negotiated a few twists and turns on the aging road that I haven’t encountered yet, so if she can provide me a bit of a roadmap, it would be folly for me not to study it a bit.
A quick read of an afternoon, maybe longer if you take the time to use sticky notes, I Feel Bad About My Neck offers some humorous as well as touching insights into what aging is like for women today. It would be a great gift for a girlfriend turning a significant birthday, much better than a gag gift of prunes and Geritol. (Does any woman find that funny, ever? Seriously?)
10/6/07
Banned Book Week: September 29 - October 6
As a child, I was a voracious reader. I left the children's section of the library at a very young age (and am making up for it now by reading youth and juvenile fiction — let that be a lesson to you, young reader!).
My parents never really told me what I could read, although my dad thought I was a little young at age 7 to understand "pregnant lips" in Sonnets from the Portuguese (though I suspect it's because my questions embarrassed him). I always showed my library books to my mom, who, when I was 11, did tell me she thought I should wait until I was older to read Helter Skelter.
Because of that freedom, I cannot imagine someone else telling me what I should be allowed to read.
Public libraries are the great equalizer, giving people access to many books, periodicals — and, through them, ideas. It's not up to the library to police its readers, but up to the readers (or, in the case of young readers, their parents) to determine what they themselves will read.
In short: if you don't like it, don't read it — and don't tell me what I can read. And by banning books from the public library, "concerned citizens" are doing just that.
Intellectual freedom is not something only the wealthy may attain because they can afford to buy the books banned from the libraries. And despite arguments to the contrary, most rational people can tell the difference between Heather Has Two Mommies and Hustler magazine.
The argument that public funds should not be used to purchase "objectionable material" is ludicrous. I've read government budgets. Talk about obscene! Pork barrel projects alone are more objectionable than And Tango Makes Three. A close look at the content of your local government budget or capital improvements program report can shock you more than Are you There, God? It's Me, Margaret.
I'm not even keen on computer filters that prevent people from accessing Web sites. Sensitive filters prevent access to important and perfectly tame materials, kind of like the e-mail filter that "junked" my e-mail to Carole because I used the word "love." (Really.) Library computers should be in a very public place in plain sight of librarians and other library patrons — who, if someone goes somewhere inappropriate and starts watching live, er, "things you wouldn't watch in front of your grandmother," will object and the offender will be stopped.
If you think your fellow patrons will be silent, just remember: these are the same people who have tried to ban Go Ask Alice and everything Harry Potter.
The week of September 29 through October 6 is Banned Book Week, and the American Library Association Office of Intellectual Freedom suggests people all read one or more of the books on the Top 10 Banned Books list.
I read The Chocolate War when I was a young adult, and I was amazed at its power. I also read three books that were bumped from this year's list: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Of Mice and Men and The Catcher in the Rye.
I plan to visit my library tomorrow to check out one of the books on this year's list — or on the list of the 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books 1990-2000. Hopefully I'll have to put the book on hold because it's been checked out already.
My parents never really told me what I could read, although my dad thought I was a little young at age 7 to understand "pregnant lips" in Sonnets from the Portuguese (though I suspect it's because my questions embarrassed him). I always showed my library books to my mom, who, when I was 11, did tell me she thought I should wait until I was older to read Helter Skelter.
Because of that freedom, I cannot imagine someone else telling me what I should be allowed to read.
Public libraries are the great equalizer, giving people access to many books, periodicals — and, through them, ideas. It's not up to the library to police its readers, but up to the readers (or, in the case of young readers, their parents) to determine what they themselves will read.
In short: if you don't like it, don't read it — and don't tell me what I can read. And by banning books from the public library, "concerned citizens" are doing just that.
Intellectual freedom is not something only the wealthy may attain because they can afford to buy the books banned from the libraries. And despite arguments to the contrary, most rational people can tell the difference between Heather Has Two Mommies and Hustler magazine.
The argument that public funds should not be used to purchase "objectionable material" is ludicrous. I've read government budgets. Talk about obscene! Pork barrel projects alone are more objectionable than And Tango Makes Three. A close look at the content of your local government budget or capital improvements program report can shock you more than Are you There, God? It's Me, Margaret.
I'm not even keen on computer filters that prevent people from accessing Web sites. Sensitive filters prevent access to important and perfectly tame materials, kind of like the e-mail filter that "junked" my e-mail to Carole because I used the word "love." (Really.) Library computers should be in a very public place in plain sight of librarians and other library patrons — who, if someone goes somewhere inappropriate and starts watching live, er, "things you wouldn't watch in front of your grandmother," will object and the offender will be stopped.
If you think your fellow patrons will be silent, just remember: these are the same people who have tried to ban Go Ask Alice and everything Harry Potter.
The week of September 29 through October 6 is Banned Book Week, and the American Library Association Office of Intellectual Freedom suggests people all read one or more of the books on the Top 10 Banned Books list.
I read The Chocolate War when I was a young adult, and I was amazed at its power. I also read three books that were bumped from this year's list: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Of Mice and Men and The Catcher in the Rye.
I plan to visit my library tomorrow to check out one of the books on this year's list — or on the list of the 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books 1990-2000. Hopefully I'll have to put the book on hold because it's been checked out already.
10/2/07
Fall for the Book: His Excellency: George Washington
Americans tend to overlook one of the most important leaders in American history: George Washington. As biographer Joseph J. Ellis states boldly during his Fall for the Book discussion, Washington has become “too white and too male” for modern American history.
It has not always been this way. There once was a time when people knew more than the myth of wooden teeth and Weems’ cherry tree legend. But not any more. (By the way, Ellis thinks a movie will go a long way to bringing the Father of Our Country back into the hearts and minds of Americans. Steven Spielberg, take note!)
“One of my goals as a biographer is to bring them back alive,” Ellis said. In His Excellency: George Washington, he does just that. In the book chosen as the the 2007 All Fairfax Reads book, readers learn about the man as a surveyor, a new military leader, an experienced general, the first free president of any former European colony and, finally, as an elder statesman. His discussion brought his book — and Washington — to life as only a true enthusiast could.
Ellis stated at the outset of his discussion, “I am a biographer of imperfection.” He has written biographies of some of the American Revolution’s biggest names — Jefferson, Adams, Franklin, Madison, to name but a few — and he said “their greatness, their flawed greatness,” was what made them worth studying.
However, as Emily Dickinson advised, “Tell the truth but tell it slant.” Ellis confirmed, “You don’t want to know about the read person. You want a myth. You need a myth.”
Washington helped build that myth as president, Ellis said, as the leader rode into towns in the newly formed states on his trusty steed and with his greyhound Cornwalis. “Washington was the only symbol of national unity,” Ellis noted, adding he looked much like John Wayne in the 1939 movie “Stagecoach:” tall, regal, handsome and graceful (and quite the accomplished dancer, if truth be told).
In His Excellency and in his discussion, Ellis offered the story of a life of mythological proportion. The general, which is how he was referred to for the rest of his life, was myth both during his life and after. Many of his peers considered him the greatest mind of his age.
Not that Washington revealed much. “What are the great words on the Washington Monument?” Ellis asked. Aside from “the graffiti in the stairwell,” the author noted, “there are none.” Lincoln, Jefferson, Roosevelt all have their great words on their memorials in the District of Columbia. Washington, instead, had his wife Martha burn all of his letters at his death. In death, as in life, he was not forthcoming with what was on his mind. Instead, as Ellis noted, “You have to tease it out of him.”
Teasing it out of him is what Ellis did best. Not that Ellis necessarily liked Washington as a person — in a Fairfax County Public Library podcast, Ellis noted the general was not one of his favorite individuals. He was aloof and distant, the author said — but an admirable person. The general’s greatness, his brilliance and his love of country could not be denied — and made him a man to be respected and revered.
When eulogized, Henry Lee said Washington was “first in war, first in peace, first in the hearts of his countrymen.”
Reading His Excellency, one grows to admire Washington, as Ellis did — and by listening to the charming and exceptionally knowledgeable author speak about this man he admired, the charm of the book and the general grew even more.
It has not always been this way. There once was a time when people knew more than the myth of wooden teeth and Weems’ cherry tree legend. But not any more. (By the way, Ellis thinks a movie will go a long way to bringing the Father of Our Country back into the hearts and minds of Americans. Steven Spielberg, take note!)
“One of my goals as a biographer is to bring them back alive,” Ellis said. In His Excellency: George Washington, he does just that. In the book chosen as the the 2007 All Fairfax Reads book, readers learn about the man as a surveyor, a new military leader, an experienced general, the first free president of any former European colony and, finally, as an elder statesman. His discussion brought his book — and Washington — to life as only a true enthusiast could.
Ellis stated at the outset of his discussion, “I am a biographer of imperfection.” He has written biographies of some of the American Revolution’s biggest names — Jefferson, Adams, Franklin, Madison, to name but a few — and he said “their greatness, their flawed greatness,” was what made them worth studying.
However, as Emily Dickinson advised, “Tell the truth but tell it slant.” Ellis confirmed, “You don’t want to know about the read person. You want a myth. You need a myth.”
Washington helped build that myth as president, Ellis said, as the leader rode into towns in the newly formed states on his trusty steed and with his greyhound Cornwalis. “Washington was the only symbol of national unity,” Ellis noted, adding he looked much like John Wayne in the 1939 movie “Stagecoach:” tall, regal, handsome and graceful (and quite the accomplished dancer, if truth be told).
In His Excellency and in his discussion, Ellis offered the story of a life of mythological proportion. The general, which is how he was referred to for the rest of his life, was myth both during his life and after. Many of his peers considered him the greatest mind of his age.
Not that Washington revealed much. “What are the great words on the Washington Monument?” Ellis asked. Aside from “the graffiti in the stairwell,” the author noted, “there are none.” Lincoln, Jefferson, Roosevelt all have their great words on their memorials in the District of Columbia. Washington, instead, had his wife Martha burn all of his letters at his death. In death, as in life, he was not forthcoming with what was on his mind. Instead, as Ellis noted, “You have to tease it out of him.”
Teasing it out of him is what Ellis did best. Not that Ellis necessarily liked Washington as a person — in a Fairfax County Public Library podcast, Ellis noted the general was not one of his favorite individuals. He was aloof and distant, the author said — but an admirable person. The general’s greatness, his brilliance and his love of country could not be denied — and made him a man to be respected and revered.
When eulogized, Henry Lee said Washington was “first in war, first in peace, first in the hearts of his countrymen.”
- First in war: during the eight years of the Revolutionary War, Washington stayed in the camps with his troops through thick and thin.
- First in peace: he handed over his military power after the war was won and refused offers of a monarchy, prompting King George III to remark, “If he did, he is the best man in the world.”
- First in the hearts of his countrymen: he traveled the nation to unify it, bringing together 13 disparate colonies, and worked with other national leaders to make the new republic work.
Reading His Excellency, one grows to admire Washington, as Ellis did — and by listening to the charming and exceptionally knowledgeable author speak about this man he admired, the charm of the book and the general grew even more.
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