Pages

Monday, September 08, 2014

Review: A Wild Sheep Chase


A Wild Sheep Chase
A Wild Sheep Chase by Haruki Murakami

My rating: 5 of 5 stars



Every book I read by Haruki Murakami turns me into a bigger fan. There is a gentleness and pensiveness to his prose that tempers the often stark, painful directness of his characters and their situations. I have seen very few authors who so expertly and seamlessly combine modes, genres and moods within one story - and this is repeated in Wild Sheep Chase as in the other Murakami novels I've read so far. There's humor, there's passion and impulsiveness, there's long-standing devotion to a person or an idea, there's an unflinching attention to the realities of the human experience combined with whimsical yet dark fantasies of the mind that seep between the real and metaphysical.
Wild Sheep Chase, like many of his novels, is a detective story at heart - something also not-so-subtly alluded to as the character reads Sherlock Holmes. There is a mystery to be solved about a strange sheep, some secretive, sinister power-brokers, and a journey peppered with clues. However, the detective story is enveloped in reflections on the complex influences of history on individuals and communities, the tenuousness of perceived reality and the nefarious pull of the darkest reaches of the mind.



View all my reviews

Wednesday, January 02, 2013

Starting the New Year with Yums


Happy 2013 everybody! I'm leaving behind 2012 and entering the new year with a bit of trepidation, since it will be a year of much work and many changes and decisions to be made for our family. Also, this weekend The Little Man (TLM) will be officially entering the so-called "terrible twos," which he is already showing some signs of, in terms of voicing his opinions more loudly and decisively. However, in keeping with what I've been learning about staying positive, I am also seeing the challenges up ahead as an opportunity for many new adventures and achievements. Also, TLM has always been remarkably well-tempered and continues to be so the majority of the time, so I'm holding out hope that his twos will be more terrific than terrible. Most importantly, it's good to remember that in 2013 God will lead and provide, as always.

I've done my share of New Year's Resolutions, but this year I'm calling them Plans for 2013 Improvement (it seems more solid and promising). One thing we have always been mindful of in our home is healthy nutrition. We try our best to purchase food that is ethically grown and free of harmful substances. I am a Seventh-Day Adventist, and health and wellness are a big part of my church's ministry. I am grateful that this has given me a life-long background in health awareness. Lately we turned our attention to not only eating healthy things, but also going down to our preferred weights--two things that don't always happen together. Turns out if you eat too much of healthy food, you still gain weight! Anyway, I decided I was ready to be rid of my accumulated college/grad school/baby pounds once and for all, so I stopped beating around the bush and went all in. I have been on Jenny Craig since September, and I'm happy to say it is actually working really well. It involves picking up meals, but it also includes adding your own vegetables, fruits and dairy products.

Since one of my 2013 plans is to "Do It Now," or stop putting off doing things I want/need to do, I signed up for Groupon (which I had meant to do for a while) and happily found a deal for a CSA in my area (something else I had been investigating for months for never actually did). CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture, and involves paying a subscription fee to get a box of delicious fresh foods delivered to your door (or a pick-up location nearby) from a local organic farm. This fulfills both our plans to eat a larger variety of fresh produce and to support local agriculture, especially since we've gone to visit some of those local farms with TLM. If you haven't done so, I highly recommend looking up farms in your area to see if they have visitor days. Some have animals to look at and hiking trails, which are great activities for littles.

But anyway, I just finished signing up, and we'll be getting our first box next week. They even include some recipes for the items they give us. I'm so excited!
Here's what we'll be getting - any suggestions?


satsumas.jpg12cnt
Satsuma Mandarin Orange
apple_gala.jpg3cnt
Gala Apple
orange_navel.jpg3cnt
Navel Orange
lemon_meyer.jpg2cnt
Meyer Lemon
leeks_bunched.jpg1.5lb
King Richard Leeks
squash_winter_butternut.jpg1cnt
Butternut Squash, winter
beet_red.jpg1bu
Red Beets
carrot_nates.jpg1bu
Nantes Carrot
brocolli_bunched.jpg1bu
Bunched Broccoli
kale_dino.jpg1bu
Assorted Kale
fennel.jpg1cnt
Bulb Fennel

Thursday, December 13, 2012

Five Things: Christmas Albums


It's so nice to see the holiday spirit around everywhere! There is something so comforting and cheerful about listening to the Christmas radio station in the car and sitting under the light of the Christmas tree. Even better, I get to pull out my favorite Christmas albums and play them while I sip a nice hot tea or hang out with the little man. I already gave you my list of five favorite Christmas pop songs, so here are my five favorite full Christmas albums, in no particular order:


  1. Merry Christmas, Maria Carey (old school) - here's a fun fact: news is that 18 years after it was released, my favorite song from the album (listed in the previous post), "All I Want for Christmas is You" has just broken into the top 40 on Billboard's Top 100, at number 29. Apparently it doesn't matter when the single is made, just what kind of play it's getting today. For various reasons it didn't make it when it originally came out. Now people have rediscovered it and it seems to be the top streamed holiday song this season. 
  2. A Charlie Brown Christmas (The Music), Vince Guaraldi. Simply magical, melancholy but happy. One of these days I'd love to learn all the songs in the piano sheet music we found a few years ago.
  3. A Very She & Him Christmas, She & Him. Zooey Deschanel and M. Ward: nothing could be more enchanting, really. It's everything soft, nostalgic, cozy and delightful in the holidays crooned into a lovely musical package.
  4. Let it Snow Baby...Let it Reindeer, Reliant K. Rockin', festive and surprisingly touching. Christmas punk style.
  5. I'm actually a little stumped on this one. I'd love your suggestions for a new favorite! For now, though - I'm going to go with the Original Motion Picture Soundtrack to The Nightmare Before Christmas, or even Edward Scissorhands, both composed by Tim Burton-movie-standard Danny Elfman, weaver of musical magic. I don't actually own these albums, but I would love to someday.

Monday, December 10, 2012

High Standards - Overrated?


Okay, so the title of this post is kind of meant to get your attention. I am actually a fan of high standards and what having them can do to improve your life. I will likewise have high standards for my child and encourage him to have them for himself and others. However, one of those "things I've learned while getting older and more adult-like" is that high standards are - sometimes - wrong standards. Or at the very least wrong-ish. There are many things in life to which I can apply this lesson--times when I thought I was having high standards but really I was just foolishly creating a false set of expectations outside of which lay different and, more importantly, preferable options.

Many of us do this with potential life partners. Come on, this isn't a surprise, as much as we are shocked when it becomes an actual realization. We all know that we build a resume of our ideal partner--a set of standards for the person who would make us the most happy and full of feelings of achievement. A "look who I bagged, I must be pretty special!" kind of thing. We are told by all sorts of fictions from classic lit to romcoms, and our family and friends who are, like us, at least partly products of that cultural environment, that at some point we must wisely and sheepishly put away the list in our keepsake box and "settle" for a more reasonable (and available) match. This is in no way (well, maybe part-ways) an argument against the search for passion and excitement--but it is an expression of disagreement in the idea that the reasonable choice is somehow always settling for a lower standard. In my experience, IT IS NOT. Obviously the world is full of different experiences both negative and positive in the love and partnership department (understatement). But it turns out that in retrospect, the romantic standards of my younger self were mostly ridiculous and ill-advised. I'm not going to go into any gory details, but suffice it to say that it was not until I buried that stupid list and opened myself up to less-expected options that I discovered another set of (decidedly more adult) standards that were much higher and more commendable in a long-lasting partnership. And guess what? Turns out that the person who fulfilled those higher, more commendable standards also delightfully happened to fulfill many of those less important standards of the High Fidelity variety (at one point in the movie version Rob makes the fan-centric claim that [paraphrasing] it's what you like that matters, not what you are like. Turns out you shouldn't take romantic advice from Rob in High Fidelity. Why was this not always completely obvious to me? It's basically what the whole movie is about!). Also turns out that passion and excitement are still there and, more importantly, have a higher chance of being there for a long time to come. Look, I want flowers, surprise candle paths and steamy declarations as much as the next romantic, but come on. Who really wants that height of emotional engagement every day? Seriously, people--maybe it makes me boring but I'd oftentimes prefer to sit in sweatpants with a bowl of kimchi and watch Bones with my sweetie-pie than get all dressed up for a whirlwind night of romance and the pseudo-athletic stuff that's supposed to follow. Wow, I've really gotten side-tracked here. This was supposed to be a side example. Anyway, the point is that the love department is one area where sometimes supposed high standards can turn out to be wrong standards, and one must be open to going outside those previous standards to realize it.

Believe it or not, my main example is much more trivial than the side one. It starts with a dangerous confession:

I  hate Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon. I really do. I struggled through it for hours, trying to decipher its post-modern code of coolness and smartness with a concordance/guide next to the book on my laptop. It was one of the single most liberating moments in my academic career (and maybe my life) when my advisors told me that it was okay if I didn't like it and took it off of my University Oral Exam reading list. HALLELUJAH!! No book has ever made me feel more dumb--and I resent that because I know that while I'm sure I'm dumb in several ways, I'm overall not dumb at reading books. I mean, I get what he was trying to do. I see the techniques and have read the analyses and know how it's an example of what post-modernism is about, but I just found reading it to be an excruciating experience. Soul-crushing really. I'm so pleased that there are many many people that seem to really love it and find it enjoyable, even though a little part of me doesn't quite believe them. It's one of those books that you're supposed to really admire and compliment because it makes you part of a smarty-pants club. Don't get me wrong--I love the smarty-pants club (I mean look how many years I've been in school); but in this case, for me, the entrance cost was just too high. Gravity's Rainbow, maybe unjustly (maybe not) became a symbol of what grad school can sometimes do to your love of your discipline.

When reading becomes your job, your requirement, the measure of your success at life, sometimes it makes you stop reading. For fun, anyway. It is baffling to me how hard it is for me to decide on and get into a book in my leisure time these days. Somehow TV is so much less threatening (see my television addiction). I realized recently that grad school in literature had raised my standards so 'high' that it limited the list of 'acceptable' books for me to read to an impossibly narrow list. Granted, the items on the list are theoretically there because they are extremely well-written examples of artistry and exciting in their various innovations, transgressions or masteries--and on one level I'm excited to read all of them one day, but they are almost all books that I can't fully read at my leisure. They are books that I may one day have to teach or at least talk about with someone who is smart at literature, so when I read them I inevitably feel the need to have my stickies or little notebook nearby, a pencil for the margins or at least keep my brain engagement on a more analytical level. This type of loaded reading, while clearly rewarding and fulfilling to me (again, see years of education), is absolutely different from the type of reading that made me a fan of books for life. This is not how I originally devoured the Anne of Green Gables series (multiple times), Ursula K. LeGuin's fantastical tales or even Garcia Marquez's novels and short stories. I gobbled them up with relish, enjoying the dickens (yep, I see the pun) out of every page that I tore past. I read fast because I consumed books as if they were films, stories in full color unraveling before me with no room to pause. Being a scholar has made me a slower, more careful and deliberate reader--which on one hand has greatly amplified my appreciation and understanding of these works to a level I would clearly not ever want to take back, but on the other hand has made it very difficult for me to shift back to a mode of reading in which I can just enjoy the story. That slow kind of reading sometimes feels for me like I imagine a race car driver might feel hitting the brakes on a 35mph road.

In addition, I am a big-time plot addict. This is something that is a little embarrassing to say as a literary scholar, since I still have the feeling I'm supposed to value form over story. And  yes, of course I find form fascinating (duh). But man, I love a good story--and if you give me one, it's nearly impossible for me to stop until it's over (which you know if you've experienced my epic consumptions of entire television series on DVD - such as my college-vacation marathon of all of Cowboy Bebop in 27 hours, recent K-Drama sleep-robbing obsessions, and many many early mornings buried in a book). I suspect that I'm still reading/watching The Walking Dead just because I need to know what happens, even though it may never actually end. That might help you see why I hate Gravity's Rainbow (if you've read it).

Because of all of the above, I have been desperate for a way to get back my love of reading--to return to that mode of total immersion and enjoyment that made me that little nerdy bookworm back in the day (or at least capable of choosing and reading a bedstand book). Thankfully (and thankfully for you this is where the argument comes full circle), I've recently discovered a couple of things that are helping me reopen myself to that experience. It was really about--you guessed it--high standards that were, at least partially, false standards. I couldn't pick up books that I would just enjoy because there were other more 'worthy' books in line ahead of them. And I couldn't pick up those books because I was deterred by my standard for how to read them. My solution, therefore, is two-fold.

First, I've been reading and enjoying books that fall outside of those standards. I don't want to insult them as being under lower standards, because I love them, so instead I want to clarify that point about the supposed lower standard sometimes being actually a different set of qualities that are excellent in their own way. For example, I recently read and thoroughly enjoyed Tina Fey's book Bossypants, which gave me permission to buy and enjoy the book I'm currently reading, Mindy Kaling's likewise comedic memoir/list/essay collection Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns). First, can I mention how awesome those titles are? I am major title appreciator. Also, these books are hilarious and so clever! These ladies are genius at being funny and awesome at putting their own lives out there for other people to better appreciate the humor of their own. I read them just for fun and guess what? They get me to read instead of watching TV all the time, I laugh out loud frequently, and I'm learning great things like appreciating parts of my life in a different way and even becoming a better, more well-rounded writer (academic writers could probably all use a little influence from comedy writers). By the way, you may know Kaling as Kelly Kapoor from The Office. I picked up her book because we are currently really into her new show The Mindy Project. It's awesome. WATCH IT IT'S FREE. The other example is self-help books. They get a bad wrap because some of them aren't so great - big surprise. Other genres also have books that aren't so great (like sci-fi, realism, autobiography or postmodernism), but like those other areas there are some self-help books that have actually been really nice to read and had a positive impact on my daily life, like The Happiness Project, which is delightful, intellectually stimulating, hilarious, historically information and super helpful or more religiously-minded books by Max Lucado like Great Day Every Day. A few years ago I also got a big boost from What Should I Do With My Life?, which almost scared me away with its title but ended up helping out during a major career change that culminated in my wonderful life in literature and academia.

Secondly, and this part is still in progress, I want to find away to allow myself to read those books I 'should' read in the more appealing enjoyment mode while still finding a way to process them intellectually. Reading them twice isn't a great option, as it's hard enough to read them all once without doubling the commitment. Any suggestions from the audience? My first strategy is to read books that will probably have absolutely no resonance with my dissertation. Right now I'm trying it with Orhan Pamuk's The Museum of Innocence, which I'm resisting a bit for other, unrelated reasons I'll go into another time.

If there is a moral to this unexpectedly long-winded post (you should be grateful that my son is making awake sounds in the other room), it's that occasionally high standards are really limitations in stuffy outfits. And who wants to live life full of limitations, or in stuffy outfits for that matter?

Oh, and also that Mindy Kaling and Tina Fey's books are really funny and I love them. And so are The Mindy Project and 30 Rock. I should've just said that, huh?

Lemon out!



Friday, December 07, 2012

Schmidt Love


Clearly my favorite cast member on New Girl is Zooey Deschanel. I mean, really. Jess is the awesomest. But although I give her many many humor creds, I might have to say that Schmidt might be (gasp!) the funniest person on the show. Max Greenfield is just hi-LAR-ious. Laugh-out-loud, tummy-hurting, ridiculously funny. He shines out in an already awesomely funny ensemble cast in which each character provides their own brand of hilarity. But with Schmidt, it just doesn't stop. I'm so happy to see that he's been so successful and popular, so much so that he's been branching out with little video features and even a book (which anyone is welcome to gift me, people who know me. And wait - Volume One?! Hilarious). Every time Schmidt's money falls into the Douche Jar, you can just about bet that I'm giggling helplessly on my couch.

So, mad props, Max Greenfield (do people still say that?). You truly are a comedic genius. No matter what the day brings, I can always count on New Girl to bring me back to Happyland. Especially after I watch an episode of the Walking Dead from my DVR. Who expects me to sleep after that?! Anyway, here's some Schmidt to make you smile (admittedly, more hilarious if you have the context of watching him before on New Girl - but still pretty funny if you haven't. And if you haven't - GO WATCH IT, IT'S FREE):




Sunday, November 18, 2012

Five Things: Christmas Pop Music

Besides being tied for my favorite holiday for reasons previously explained, I love Thanksgiving because of the tradition of kicking off the Christmas season with the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and (**drumroll**) putting up the Christmas tree! Both of these activities, no matter how cheesy or Hallmark-y, almost inevitably bring at least a couple of tears to my eyes every year. What can I say? I'm a sucker for sentimentality, especially when connected to tradition (I just heard an explosion of that "Tradition" song from Fiddler on the Roof in my head - weird).

Maybe it's because I've read too many books and watched too many movies (creating that strange belief that life must be saturated with perfectly executed moments of drama and nostalgic-montage-worthy scenes), I have certain requirements for the carrying out of said traditions. In the case of the Christmas tree, there must be some hot festive drink, such as apple cider or hot chocolate, cheerful involvement of multiple family/friend attendees in the decorating of the tree (with the angel on last - come on people! have a sense of ceremony!) and a background soundtrack of my favorite Christmas music. In honor of Thanksgiving week and in my excitement about dusting off those CDs and albums for the occasion, today's "Five Things" (yes, I want to make this a thing) is some of my favorite Christmas pop music! I don't say "Top Five," which is the accurate reference to the origin of the five list, the ever-awesome High Fidelity, because I can't commit to five favorites. Also - sidebar - many of these (maybe all?) are on a special mix CD made from another special mix CD made by a co-worker back in my San Antonio news days, for a shockingly friendly white elephant Christmas party in the studio (I came out a winner with a three-DVD box set of old-school Adam Sandler movies). That mix is still off the hook, Rhonda!

So, without further asides -

Five Things: Christmas Pop Songs


  1. "All I Want For Christmas is You," by Maria Carey. Nothing makes me sing and dance like this song. Instant happy. And the music video! Christmas bunnies? Yes, please. Snow play? Yes, please. Who can look as good as Maria sledding around in a big red snow suit? Also featured on my beloved Love, Actually. One of the first CDs I bought, at the now-defunct Border Bookstores (take a moment of silence). My CD is no longer around, as it was eaten mercilessly by an old-school six-disc player (it was really tall and big, since the CD had to loop around on their little carousel). But it's on the mix!
  2. "Pretty Paper" by Willie Nelson. What is more rustic, warm and lovable than Willie Nelson's voice?
  3. "Blue Christmas" by Elvis Presley. I love some Elvis, especially gospel-style. Classic!
  4. "Hard Candy Christmas" by Dolly Parton. Like Willie, Dolly really brings out the "home" in me. Now that I'm thousands of miles away, anything that connects me to Texas makes me feel sentimental. And, really, how can you help loving Dolly?
  5. "Santa Baby," sung by Eartha Kitt. So naughty, so nice! Christmas magic and commercialism, all wrapped up in one and perpetually fun to sing along to.
What are some of your favorite Christmas pop songs?

Saturday, November 17, 2012

Giggles and Love, Actually

If I could be any female actress, I would be Zooey Deschanel. I have no trouble admitting that I have a giant girl-crush on her. I have repeatedly cut my hair like hers (yes, I take her picture with me to the salon). I want to dress like her and therefore swooned over her Cotton ad:


Give me your closet, Zooey! I want to ride a bike with a basket in a cute skirt and cardigan, and go antiquing and shopping for banjos and records, and compose sweet sweet songs in my pajamas (oh wait that's her iPhone ad) that I then sing to a smiling and swaying audience in a dimly-lit intimate venue full of knowledgeable music appreciators who approvingly nod at my indie style reminiscent of a young _________ (June Carter Cash/Nancy Sinatra/Linda Rondstadt/etc etc). I want to sing in an awesome duo like She and Him and make an awesome vinyl album that comes with an mp3 download that I can buy and enjoy. I like to point out that I liked her way before New Girl and watched just about all her movies, especially the small ones like Gigantic where she played a character named "Happy Lolly" or the ones where she played awesome supporting characters like in Almost Famous, and that I knew she was "adorkable" before that word existed. I was thrilled when Jess, her character in New Girl, was just about exactly how I imagined she might be in real life (personality-wise, since in life she is a successful actress and musician and not a broke unemployed teacher), and also before that when I confirmed my suspicion that she was related to another favorite actress with shockingly awesome eye color, Emily Deschanel of Bones. Hello, most awesome sisters in the world! And when Zooey made a guest appearance on Bones as Bones's quirky cousin? Best! Ever!

But, wait... wasn't this post supposed to be about giggles and Love, Actually? Or at least giggles and love - actually? It is it is! So while reading about Zooey in some magazine or web article (lady magazines - if you want me to buy every issue just keep putting her on the cover. I fork over the cash like it's my job), I discovered she had started, with some other ladies, an awesome website called Hello Giggles that I now happily subscribe to. It's pretty much the webpage manifestation of Zooey - and although the different parts are written by many different people, they are all on the lines of what Jess's blog might be like if she had one. There's a Panda Night Cam! Cartoons! Nail polish ! And "Old Lady Movie Night," which is originally what I wrote this post to share. You should read this hilarious and spot-on commentary on one of my FAVORITE movies and probably favorite holiday movie, Love, Actually (high-five, friend Kate!). Talk about "old lady movie night" - one of the shocking moments was reading that the kid who played Sam is in his 20s. What?! Sigh. If you haven't watched the movie yet, WATCH IT NOW and read the commentary after (there are spoilers) so that you can nod in agreement and laugh out loud at the right moments while you read it. Appreciate the calculated "un-calculated" writing style that's actually a speaking style and see why I like it (even if you don't). Then let's sigh, swoon and laugh together ourselves about Love, Actually over a steamy mug of cocoa or chai tea. BFF-style.