Islam By Ruqaiyyah Waris Maqsood

As you can tell from the title, Islam By Ruqaiyyah Waris Maqsood is about the religion of Islam. I said this once before, I'm a compulsive buyer. The book was interesting. It was really intense, not that I didn't expect that. It would have to be, like Christianity. To be able to talk about something and form an opinion, you need to know what your talking about. I'm agnostic. I have no religion but I want to be able to correct people who blatantly insult something they have no right to. Did you know that Muslims believe in Jesus? He is regarded as one of the greatest of all prophets, the miracle worker. They also believe in his virgin birth (sound REALLY familiar?). They do not, however believe that he was the Divine Son of God. This book is facinating, I haven't finished it. It covers many things in it like; worship, traditions, festivals and specail days, mosques, diet, sex, drugs, alcohol, friendship, birth, marriage, divorce, crimes, punishment, modernism and modern Islam. Pretty much everything that, I feel I as a westerner should know. Maybe if others knew it to we wouldn't have the conflict we see today in the middle east. If I could suggest anything to the military generals leading our armed forces today, it would be; educate your soldiers. Respect can resolve almost any problem. The leading cause of casualties, I believe are related to respect that was not properly given of this beautiful religion and culture.

A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson

My last post was spent whining about Bill Bryson. Sorry! He frustrates me. To make up for that I'm going to write about why Bryson is such an impressive writer. First off, I think he might be the most knowledgeable man in the world. He seems like a genius, or man who strives to understand the world. I hold him in the utmost respect on account of that. Because he has the drive to find things out, understand them and write it down. People with such a work ethic are rare. Even rarer are the one who can take the knowledge they have and put it in a fashion that could be understood by the Joe-Six-Pack-Next-Door. That's what teachers do. Most of them, some teachers are a mystery... maybe they just like to socialize. Anyways, he really has a skill, in taking information and connecting it to a million other things he's so good he can pick a topic and create a novel. For example he spent about 500 pages talking about Australia. Nothing ever happens in Australia, he says so himself.. as he writes a bajillion pages on a country that doesn't have a life. He gives Australia a life. Not a surfer bum one but a history. He makes Australia seem real. He gives earth a history in 544 pages. Just 544. He crammed it in. That, my friends is skill.

Australia By Bill Bryson, A Short History of Nearly Everything also by Bill Bryson

Bill Bryson, has received two chances; Australia published in May 2001, and A Short History of Nearly Everything published September 2004. I enjoyed the material but felt so overwhelmed... it was terrible. I am, a bit of a reading freak. I don't get overwhelmed at least, not until Bill Bryson Came along.. He crams so much information onto a page that I CAN'T TAKE IT ALL IN. I re-read countless pages trying to understand a few paragraphs. It wasn't extremely complicated, there was just too much! It took me weeks to finish both the books, that's shameful. I finished Kite Runner in one school day, it was amazing, by the way. However I cannot get through Anything by Bill Byrson. Maybe its nonfiction in general? Look at these sentences, "The first attempt at measurement that could be remotely scientific was made by the Frenchmen Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon, in the 1770's. It had been long known that the Earth radiated appreciable amounts of heat-that was apparent to anyone who went down a coalmine-but there wasn't any way of estimating the rate of dissipation. Bryson includes so many dates and names it is almost impossible to keep track. You're doing well if you remember a first name at the end of the chapter. It possible he writes about so many that you can pick and choose you're favorites to remember. Maybe he intends for you to not remember them all? Does he? It would be hell to be his editor. Imagine checking all those facts.

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Caroll

I love Alice's Adventure's in Wonderland. Now all I need to do is see the movie. Movies never seem to do the books they take after justice. How ever it is interesting to see a director or company to portray the images you read. I feel Tim Burtons portrayal of Alice in Adventures in Wonderland will be very vivid and trippy unlike Disney's which I imagine will be family friendly and pastel colored. However Lewis Carroll's has written a story with so much creative imagery, and situation that taking on the task of recreating Alice's Adventure's in Wonderland seems very daunting. Millions have read the book and each pictures Alice, the Cheshire cat, and The Queen of Hearts in a different way. The crochet scene alone; Mission Impossible 6. Alice says it's confusing herself. It has so many little crawly creepy objects running around; hedgehogs, headless cards, cats, flamingos, soldiers. I read the croquet episode three times so I could take it in. Rather like a AP Lang multiple choice passage :) Oh goodness.
One thing I want to touch on before I end this post, did Lewis Carroll have an alternative motive in writing this? Was he trying to send philosophical messages to society? It feels like he was. "we're all mad here. I'm mad. You're mad." How do you know I'm mad?" said Alice. "you must be, said the cat, " or you wouldn't have come here." It seems like he has so much to say that I don't understand. Mostly because I was born in the wrong time period and have nothing to base my understand off of. Who was he again? He seems to be a disturbed yet, talented man.

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Caroll

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll AKA Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, published in 1865 (Until I wikipediaed the book, I had no idea that Lewis Carroll was a pseudonym. That's kind of life changing.) I , had to read a classic so I raided my little sisters bedroom book shelf, and found Alice's Adventures in wonderland. Since I never read it or have seen any of the movies I figured it was something I had to do before I left high school. It was. Carrol or excuse me, Dodgson, was a word and literary genius. I never realized how often he was quoted from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. For example "I can't explain myself, I'm afraid, Sir, because I'm not myself you see." (personal favorite), "We're all mad here.", "Off with his head!" Now those are the famous ones but there were so many others that were as good, "She took down a jar from one of the shelves as she passed: it was labeled "ORANGE MARMALADE," but to her great disappointment it was empty: she did not like to drop the jar for fear of killing somebody underneath, so she managed to put it into one of the cupboards as she fell past it." Isn't that strange? How does one think up something so peculiar. It reminds me of when in Latin, Mr. Pendrick gives us latin half sentences we have to translate and complete. Everyone fills in the most ridiculous thing they can think of. Today my favorite was, "Because the seas had boiled, the child exploded softly." Now that sounds violent but can't you see a grumpy child flash into a puff of smoke? The situations he thinks of are so unearthly and he came up with this during the 1850's. It seems so science fiction like. Maybe Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy or something but not... English industrialism like.

The Women Who Raised Me by Victoria Lowell

How did the first passage of the book lead you to anticipate the ending of the book? I just finished The Women Who Raised Me by Victoria Lowell and according to the first passage of the book, "For anyone who has spent any portion of their childhood as a ward of the state, the notion of emancipation has multiple meanings. Though I was legally and financially emancipated at the requisite age of eighteen and had always been fiercely independent, it wasn't until I was forty-three years old and a working mother of two that I finally set myself free." This passage tells the whole story, pretty much. It tells none of the details but, it led me to the conclusion that it would be about survival and life lessons. It was. She survived no, she thrived. Taking everything that was offered for her. Now she's almost 50? and I, the reader feel proud of her, for making it through the "system." Orphans or children in the foster care system have very difficult lives, they die earlier, are permanently emotionally scarred, go into a life of crime much more often than someone raised in a caring two parent family. Without the support we can not expect them to win so those who do, are...stars. In my mind she is a hero. She is an actress, a major supporter and fundraiser, leading bills and laws to improve the lives of children like her who are in the foster care system. Raising money so they can take acting lessons, dance lessons, and improved living conditions.

The Women Who Raised Me by Victoria Rowell #2

In The Women Who Raised Me by Victoria Rowell, my favorite part of the book was Mrs. Rowell's descriptions. This one in particular was great. "Can we take your picture of you with your mother?" The Collinses asked in a matter-of-fact manner as though Dorothy [her mother] was still alive. I realized this would be the only photograph of me and my mother together, so I obliged with the stipulation that they send me copies. And they did. I stood in front of Dorothy's casket and looked defiantly into the Collinses' collective lens. Flash went the cameras." Rowell clearly has a gift for explaining things. This was during her mothers funeral, which she had learned of almost accidentally and decided to attend although she was unwelcome by her mothers' biological sisters. It was such an unusual and powerful situation to read about. To do that took guts. She felt it was her duty to attend the funeral so she did. Her recollection of the event for me, the reader was great. I could clearly see the character acting through this and felt the awkward wonder Rowell meant to give the reader.

The Women Who Raised Me by Victoria Rowell

This blog is about The Women Who Raised Me, a book by Victoria Rowell, published in 2008. A women who traveled through Massachusetts state foster system and yet still, managed to achieve many things in her life. In fact, she is still achieving those many things because, she's alive and well working as an actress and dancer. Thanks, she says to, all the women who raised her, like the title says, during her childhood she went through several families all of whom influenced her, and gave her what she needed to succeed. The book was interesting. I have rather liked what I've read so far. My mother did not like it. She was given the copy by friends, and started it over winter break. She never finished it though... She said it was a story she had heard a million times before. She prefers happy ending fiction. Why Mama even started it is a mystery. I disagree, no two stories are exactly the same. All stories have flashes of hope, failure, change and chance. That's why we read. To see the love and obstacles people go through for it. They a flashes into other possible live for us, the reader. Which is why I read, to look in another world. Victoria Rowell has such an honest voice, that the story compels me to continue. She tells everything, so it seems. As the reader I really felt for the little girl who was given up by her mentally unstable mother, and taken away by the state. The book in my eyes was very well done.

Bird By Bird by Anne Lamott AND The Women Who Raised Me by Victoria Rowell

I finished Bird By Bird by Anne Lamott (1994) It was good. Enjoyable, the writing advice was okay... I suppose. It was just so similar to Stephen King's On Writing. Once you've read one book on writing, you've read them all. At least that's how it feel after reading these books. Another similarity, the best part of the books was the stories of how writing influenced their lives. That was much more interesting them advice on how to write. The information on how to write was correct and well thought out, and writing is a skill you need to succeed in life. I don't care. I don't want to write, in fact I want to pass and be adequate in the future but, I never ever want to be a writer. It's too personal, and the lives, and situations writers go through seem horrible and discouraging. Both King and Lamott say pretty much no one makes it. Writing is a natural talent. You cannot just "improve" and be the next Tom Clancy or Nora Roberts. Lamott, as did King softened the blow with their own horror stories, attempts and failures. Gradually telling their lives stories as well, this way I, the reader, stayed interested. Thank goodness they were such eccentric weirdos, with fascinating backgrounds.

The Brain That Changes Itself post #3

The Brain That Changes Itself was easy to read because the author writing it loved the subject so much. He was plainly writing it for interest in the subject rather than money. In each chapter he uses sources he went see, famous scientists, chemists, inventors and victims of brain malfunctions. When he describes them, he goes into intimate details, like their height, how big the family is, what led them to the field of research they are in, just quirky little details that lets you know he's paying attention to these people and he really has an interest in them and what they have to say. Here's an example about Pual Bach-y-Rita who he says is "one of the great pioneers in understanding brain plasticity." he says, Bach-y-Rita is a completely unassuming man. He is partial to five-dollar suits and wear salvation army clothes whenever his wife let's him get away with it. He drives a rusty twelve-year-old car, his wife a new Passat. He has a full head of thick wavy grey hair, speaks softly and rapidly, has the darkish skin of a Mediterranean man of Spanish and Jewish ancestry, and appears a lot younger than his sixty-nine years." Doesn't he seem friendly and wonderful? Doidge does this to ALL of the people he talks about, he really seems to care about them. Especially the patients he visited during his research, when they become better he is ecstatic! It's touching and a joy to read when the author cares about his work and the people touched by the subject.

The Brain That Changes Itself post #2

Mr. Norman Doidge, is a talented writer. He captured my interest from the first page. Not the preface though, that was boring but the legit first page. The opening paragraph said "Cheryl Schiltz feels like she's perpetually falling. And because she feels like she's falling, she falls." Then went on to describe how Cheryl came to feel like she was perpetually falling and what the human brain had to do with it. It was all very interesting, who knew a person could feel like the were forever falling? That's astounding and terrifying. However due to new studies in brain plasticity problem with the Vestibular Apparatus can be fix. The vestibular Apparatus is the sensory organ for the human balance system. Apparently balance is one of the human senses like sight, smell, hearing, touch, and taste.
Doidge held my interest with such stories. Most made me want to cry, people go through very strange and terrible things that exist without our knowing. For example the symptoms of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder or Autism alone vary immensely. Though therapy and practice can lessen affects felt those with the disorders. The human brain, unknown till this century has the ability to reorganize itself and can repair massive defects and damage. And Doidge explains this quite well, with lots a medical lingo. No harm done though, he uses the lingo in a way a layman can sort of get it. It's brilliantly done and I applaud him. Non-fiction is hard to read, especially non fiction you feel smart while reading unlike Bill Bryson's nonfiction works. That when I read, I feel like I want to be smart and am not. Ew.

The Brain That Changes Itself by Norman Doidge

Question: Why this book was picked? How did the book impact me?

(Are we supposed to write our questions were answering as given by the Independent reading helpful hints page? It says "design your own question and answer it"..?)

The book is non-fiction, legit non-fiction. So legit, that I had to look up medical jargon about every page. It was a pain in the behind, but when I choose the book, I understood that I would have to. I bought The Brain That Changes Itself because I was intrigued by the subject and decided I NEEDED it. I wanted to understand how the human memory worked, because during the month of January, I felt like I was forgetting things, and I didn't have the mental capacity I used to. That may sound stupid but it was freaking me out. So, as I browsed the Barnes and Noble bookshelves for interesting non-fiction books, it captured my eye and highlighted concerns with a quick scan of the pages and chapter titles. Yes, I know, I have a "buy on a whim" problem, but so what? The "buy on a whim method" has given me some of my favorite books. For example; Ella Enchanted, The Uglies, The Charlie Bone series, all Beverly Cleary books starting with the "on a whim purchase” of Mouse on a Motorcycle. That woman is amazing! I do miss my childhood books.

ANYWAYS, I picked The Brain That Changes Itself because I'm a nut! How ever, it was a great pick, though a difficult read. I found it hard to get through, because of the advance science/medical language made it impossible for me to zoom through as usual. The book forced me to think, visualize and predict. The true stories in The Brain That Changes Itself, found while Norman Doidge during his research were inspirational and mind-blowing. The Brain can recover from more damage than I'd ever imagined, naturally, with a bit a resolve, and practice the human brain can re-wire and heal itself to almost normal functions. Needless to say this book slowly blew my mind. By the end I forgot my own brain "anxieties" and began to wonder how this could advance society and what people I knew who could use this help. Isn't it ironic/funny that I "forgot" the fact I was forgetting things? Because it's almost midnight and tomorrow is opening night of Hamlet, I'm very amused!