What's this Action Readers thing? Part One

You've been asking, so I'll hit a few highlights today, and a few more in future quick-posts!

The BackStory
Well, if you've been reading this blog - even from time to time - you know that I've been trying out this "with every book I read, I take an action" process, and that it's been life-changing for me.  Enthusiast that I am, I figured:  Why keep this to myself when other readers could change their lives and non-readers could love reading if only they learned this simple secret? 

I wanted to share it with others, so they too could realize how profoundly such a simple, easy shift in how they read could help them improve their own lives and serve the world around them with very little effort.  AND I wanted to meet the sort of readers who would try this too, and learn from them, and help them in return.  That's basically it.

So I created a non-profit ning that anyone can join for free and visit as often as they like to get ideas and support and opportunities to change the world or enrich their lives, one book at a time.  (Talk about action!  For me, this is a biggee!)

First Q & A
The most frequently asked question is: 
           What sort of actions? 
           Won't they take a lot of time and effort?

Answers: 
          All sorts! 
          Creative, crafty, gratitude, service, inquiry, personal growth... Hop up to the Action Ideas page above to find out.  Or look at any of my book reviews - actions are in red, at the bottom of the review.

          No!  They won't take much time and effort (unless you so choose) and, for me and those who've tried it, once you simply set the intention that you'd like to take an action upon completing a book, they almost seem to create themselves.  And it's fun! 

So... More about the site's specific features in a future post, but for now, just click the badge in the upper right (or how about clicking right here!) to hop on over and see our fledgling efforts for yourself - There's no obligation, and we're not selling anything, but it might be the first step to changing your world and enhancing your life, one book at a time.

MFB,
L

Wow, would I welcome your questions and comments and encouragement, too...

And there's a challenge on ActionReaders.com this month through which you could earn a $25 gift certificate from betterworldbooks.com, so there's extra incentive, no?

p.s.  The Crazy-for-Books blog hop asks us:  Which book blogger would you most like to meet?  I simply couldn't choose because I'd like to meet so many.  In part, that's why I set up ActionReaders.com - as a place, similar to the book bloggers' ning combined with Goodreads book groups - but with our own special spin - where we have many more options to "talk", group up to discuss a book, and support each other.

Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater: What She Read Review

Get it at betterworldbooks.com or
indiebound.org!  "Look inside" to sample
Stiefvater's prose at Amazon.com.

Better than Twilight. 

- Equally remote setting: northern Minnesota small town. (Can you say Forks, Midwest?)

- A stronger, more thoroughly-formed heroine. 

- Effective use of alternating perspectives. 

- Aptly placed literary quotes to heighten the gravitas.

- Serious romantic tension not based on one character regularly dropping in to save the other's life with his supernatural powers.  In fact, plenty of alternate saving makes you think these romantic leads might just be equals.  Imagine that.

- Plus: wolves instead of vampires.  Mmmm... much better.  (OK, so there are wolves in the other one too, but not with this premise...)

Perfect?  Five star?  Nah, but let's say four.  An enthusiastic four, fo' sho'.

Typical issues: Um, where are her parents?  (Yes, there's an excuse, but it's not any more believable than the absent 'rents in any other paranormal Y.A. fiction.) How come no one else found out about the wolves for all these years?  Why don't they just move south?  Why the teen sex scene (although not explicit, I continue to wonder why these are such a requirement now)? That sort of thing...

Still, it reads swiftly throughout, and can't be put down at the end.  (expect heart pounding, nail biting, staying up until you're finished, etc.)

I hear there are two sequels out there.  Summer reading?  Would make a great beach book...

MFB,
L

Actions: I will...
- Netflix a current documentary about wolves. 
- research the current state of wolves in the U.S. and in my state to see what might be done to help preserve them.

Anything But Typical: AudioPhile

Get it your public library, or
at Indiebound.org or Betterworldbooks.com.

Anything But Typical is one of those rare instances in which the performer and the novelist synergize to produce an audio book that perhaps transcends its written counterpart.  And if you found Mark Haddon's The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time intriguing, you'll likely warm to its younger yet equally intriguing hero.

Here, we live inside the mind of Jason, a sixth grade story-writing savant who shares his day-to-day struggles and triumphs as he befriends a female fabulist at 'Storyboard.com' and subsequently gets the chance to meet her at a writers' conference.  Life's a bit complicated for Jason sometimes, as it is for any sixth grader trying to negotiate the onset of puberty in a digital age, but more so perhaps because he lives with the effects of autism.

We get a rare, unromanticised and quite believable glimpse into Jason's mind as he focuses his considerable linguistic gifts on "Storyboard.com", a website rather like "Figment" or "Teen Ink", where young writers share their craft and help each other to become more skillful.  And Jason regularly shares his ample store of sage advice for writers, advice that would make any English/Language Arts teacher smile if a student truly took it to heart, as he does.  In fact, he's the kind of student Language Arts teachers dream of, one who wakes up each morning with a wonderful word in his head, words like lexicon or fortuitous or confluence.

Having worked with quite a few students who have been diagnosed on the autistic spectrum, it seems to me that author Nora Raleigh Baskin provides a credible interior life here, one that's so well-embodied by performer Tom Parks that we feel no pity for - an emotion of condescension - but rather empathy with Jason.  Baskin offers us a glimpse into the mind and heart of a person quite aware of what is happening inside him, but powerless to stop it:  Jason's day to day life requires regular efforts to adjust his natural responses into socially acceptable behaviors:  This alone, repeated regularly, to give us a sense of how much of his life must be dedicated to honoring other people's norms, is reason enough to listen to this audio book.

Given recent attention to autism on a national level, and its growing occurrence among our youth - witness the recent week-long PBS Newshour series - if you're looking for an entry point into this realm, one that affords you a gripping read as well, I'd suggest picking up this CD set or downloading the audio for a journey you'll not soon forget.

My Actions:
1.  Inquiry:  Research other books and films helping me to understand the scope of this increasingly prominent issue. Use what I learn in my teaching and community.
2. Write to both author and performer with gratitude for their work.

MFB,
L

Emma by Jane Austen: What She Read Review

You can get it free online or buy it from
an independent bookseller at indiebound.org

So:  Emma. 

I fervently wished to enjoy as an adult what I had detested in my youth, but the bottom line is that with mainly flat characters doing little to nothing but gossip and speculate about each others' romances, the first 200 pages of Austen's novel left me wishing I were reading anything but this.  The second 200 were an improvement, but not so much so that I can imagine recommending this novel to anyone else.

Three-sentence summary:  21 year old Emma Woodhouse helps run her controlling, valetudinarian father's estate about 16 miles outside of London.  Bright, talented yet self-absorbed Emma overcomes her boredom and stasis by manipulating the love lives of lower-status women (and sometimes men) around her, while entirely misconstruing the intentions of many and ignoring the love of her life.  Guess how it's all going to turn out...?

Austen fans:  Whatever is the draw?  Even in high school I detested these books in which - whatever folks proclaim about Austen's feminism - the entire central conflict is always about the girl getting the guy and the novel resolves immediately once she definitively does so.  Treacly and dull, I found them.  And apparently, despite every effort to enjoy this time-consuming read, I still do.

As usual, however, our book group conversation redeemed an otherwise unsatisfying novel, and I'm once again convinced of the power of ActionReading.  Why? 

1.  In praise of fabulous conversations with the kind, smart, funny, and thoughtful people in my book group: 
     I wasn't surprised to find our two Austenite members enthusiastically arguing for Emma as a relatively realistic and nuanced Austen protagonist, and I did agree with them on that.  And they took genuine pleasure in Emma's eventual regret for all her ill-conceived and ill-crafted machinations; OK, I can applaud any sort of conversion from the narrowly manipulative to the open-hearted, from the blinkered to the eyes-wide-open scrutiny of oneself and one's foibles.  So Emma sets a decent example of personal growth, if we're looking for that sort of thing in a novel, and if she can be relied upon to maintain her altered clear-sightedness and compassion.
     And then we commenced a brief yet heartening discussion of the relative constrictions - both social and geographical - of a well-born, landed single woman in that time period: A happy reminder of our relative freedoms (although all of us in book group are decidedly middle income, and so more akin to Jane Fairfax or to Harriet Smith than to Emma herself).  And we discussed as well the continued use of plots in which - as in Pride and Prejudice - two soul-mates at first detest each other, even though none of us have ever seen such a love-hate relationship evolve in real life.  Compared to other Austen novels, at least Emma gives us a match that moves from good to better rather than from antagonism to nuptial bliss. 

      Our conversation on these subjects, as well as others, constitutes one action that redeemed an otherwise dull read.

Two additional actions will give me cause to applaud Emma and to remember it fondly rather than scorn it:
    2.  I'm going to get back to playing guitar, and to pulling out the instrument when I invite people over, if they're at all keen on singing together.  In Emma, the piano(forte) factors heavily in a subplot, and the games and music at social events enliven each occasion for the characters.

    3. In May, I'm going to start making occasions for that music-making at once-a-month salons in my home.  If any of you happen to live in my town, I'm hereby offering an open invite, and I'll try to figure out a regular day-of-the-month for an open house sort of an early-evening kind of a standing soiree.

MFB,
L

But, Laurie: Why, oh why, do you abhor Austen so?  Especially when some of your favorite people adore her?

Viral Books: They're Catching...

Today's Broke and Bookish Blog Hop asks us for our "Top 10 Books I'm SO Glad Someone Passed On To Me" (because I never would have picked them up otherwise...):

The Arrival by Shaun Tan and The Tree of Life by Peter Sis. Thanks to our brilliant and hilarious school librarian, John M., for guiding me to these psychologically rich and artistically stellar picture books that offer adults - and the young adults he so skillfully serves - plenty of visual food for thought.

Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison.  This one was recommended (well, required) by the nationally lauded Lance Balla when he trained a cadre of us to teach A.P. Literature.  I had read other Morrison, but somehow missed this one, which has since become my personal favorite.

What Is The What by Dave Eggers.  Don, a fellow teacher at my school, was reading it before a meeting one day and offered a description and an endorsement when the rest of us inquired about it.  I had read earlier Eggers, but again had not yet found this novel/biography of a "Lost Boy" from Southern Sudan.  Since I read it, I've recommended it in turn to hundreds of young adults and adults alike (seriously: hundreds).  And I've not yet met a single soul who didn't find it engrossing and memorable. 

Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card.  I can't even count the number of ninth grade boys who practically begged me to read this book, but I must thank them all: Again, as a Y.A. read, I found it engaging and thought-provoking with decent character development, a sympathetic protagonist, and a dash of philosophy-in-action to set it above your typical young adult sci-fi adventure.  Now I keep at least two copies in my classroom library, and one of them is almost always traveling about with a student.

Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater (review on Friday!) and A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray.  I'm always on the lookout for decent YA reads because so many of them are purely plot-driven, obvious, and derivative.  Many thanks to Anne of My Head Is Full of Books - another extraordinary school librarian - and Daria on Goodreads for offering recs. that swayed me toward the former, and to Sophia, a wonderful student from last year, for urging me to read the latter.  Now I'm always on the lookout for Libba Bray (check my book reviews page for my take on two of her titles), and can't wait to read Beauty Queens.

The Risk Pool and Empire Falls by Richard Russo.  My thanks to old pal Parsons for recommending the latter to me decades ago, and to Michelle who reminded me of Empire Falls just a few years back.

That's nine.  So, offer me one of your favorites in the comments below and I will pledge to read it within this year and review it here!

MFB,
L

p.s. Thanks as ever to the folks at The Broke and the Bookish, and do stop by there to scope out many more great book ideas from bloggers the world over!

The 17 Day Diet (blog tour edition)

Get it at Indiebound.org or Amazon.com.

Um.  Do-over?

Not the book or the premise of the diet, but me. 

In fact, I learned much from The 17 Day Diet by Dr. Mike Moreno, and will be carrying quite a few healthier habits with me into future years based on the changes I made in attempting to use this reasonably flexible, commonsense plan.  I did lose 5 pounds in the first 10 days.  And I made a book blogger/17 Day Diet friend in the bargain.  All good.  Except then I tanked.

So let's start with the good stuff:  Which healthful habits have I embraced, you ask?
* Eating a small cup of organic probiotic yogurt (thank you, Trader Joe's) every morning: tasty, and definitely beneficial to my digestion.  An easy shift for the better.
* Drinking green tea: Moroccan Mint Tea from Stash has become a delicious afternoon pick-me-up.
* Trying a new soy-based product or low fat vegetarian meal each week, and continuing to beef up my skills at Indian cooking and vegan recipes too.
* No serious carbs or high sugar fruits after 2:00p.m.  It makes so much sense, metabolism-wise, and I'm gradually adjusting to it. 
* Plan ahead for restaurant eating (most restaurants have their menus on their websites now, so I pick out my food before I go - much easier to stick to my choices!), and try to meet with friends for a walk rather than a nosh.
* Exercising FOR SURE at least 17 minutes every day.  I had been doing an hour or so every other day, but I think that consistently building in 17 minutes (which of course morphs into at least 25+ minutes) to make exercise a daily must-do has helped me.  In fact, I suspect I'll be more lose weight as a result of seriously upping my exercise than as a result of dietary restrictions.  Because that's just me.

So what's the rub?
I think it has something to do with my vegetarian tendencies and my current leaning toward more vegan meal choices.  The restrictions on grains, dairy, nuts, and fats in the first 17-day cycle of this 4-cycle plan combined with the "no red meat, poultry, eggs, or processed sugars" of my own typical daily food choices of late left me with a very small window of food opportunity.  And in the end, my body and brain got bored with the salmon-soy-n-salad routine and started screaming for more.

I held to the plan for about 10 of the first 17 days and lost 5 pounds, but then the sameness of the food (again, a perhaps unfortunate confluence of my own predilections and the diet itself) in the first 17-day cycle (Accelerate) just got to me and I blew it.

All is not lost, however, as I decided to get a jump on the second 17 day cycle, Activate, which allows for grains like quinoa, and legumes, and sweet potatoes, all of which are helping me to feel satisfied and to find healthy vegetarian and vegan recipes.

One thing I have learned about myself:  I rebel against restrictions.  And that's certainly not Dr. Mike's fault.

Anyhoo, I'm still on my own veggie version of the second cycle, and finding success.  And perhaps that's a strength of this book: There are four cycles, and they all have their merits.  One's bound to suit you, and to help you get more heatlhy too.  

MFB,
L

First Ever Poem In Your Post Blog Hop!

It's our inaugural Sunday Poem-in-Your-Post Hop.  Expect it to become a fixture of your morning (or afternoon) routine: a cuppa Joe, a little nosh, and this, a rejuvenation for the soul via gifted poets from around the world and across the ages. 

How?
It's easy: Post a poem - your own or someone else's - link below, and we'll all enjoy a leisurely Sunday stroll.  Offer gratitude and responses along the way, as you're able. Nothing more to it than a quick post to share a poem of beauty, humor, interest, or spirit.

As always, link below.



If you don't have a blog to post on, no problem: put your poem in the comments here.

Stop back any time; we'll be here every week.  And do share your favorites - or just-founds - with us.  We're longing to find them, with your help. 

***************************************************************************

The Summer Day

Who made the world?

Who made the swan, and the black bear?

Who made the grasshopper?

This grasshopper, I mean-

the one who has flung herself out of the grass,

the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,

who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down-

who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.

Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.

Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.

I don't know exactly what a prayer is.

I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down

into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,

how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,

which is what I have been doing all day.

Tell me, what else should I have done?

Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon?

Tell me, what is it you plan to do

with your one wild and precious life?

-          Mary Oliver

My hope is that one thing you'll do with Y.O.W.&P.L. is to join our (free!) community of readers supporting each other as we change the world, one book at a time at ActionReaders.com.

MFB,

L @ ActionReaders.com