What I Read -- Things Fall Apart

I knocked out my February book for my 2021 reading challenge right on schedule.  Things Fall Apart was the debut novel of Chinua Achebe.  It was first published in 1958, so is among the older of the books I have read lately.

It's not a complicated plot.  The main character, Okonkwo, is a prominent warrior in an African clan.  We meet him as an adolescent, as he establishes himself as different from (and, as he believes, better than) his lazy father.  We catch up with him periodically throughout his life, both in his own village and elsewhere.  We meet his wives, his children, and his friends.  Through his opinions of all these people, we learn what matters to him.

I don't want to comment too much about the plot, except to say that the personal characteristics he demonstrates throughout his life are central to the choices he makes in the last third of the book.  And it is, to quote K, "heartbreaking."

What I'm Reading Now -- American Wolf

My latest postal book club pick (spoiler here, sisters), is American Wolf.  Stories about wolves seem to be making a comeback lately.  I'm not sure why.  Maybe it's the pandemic, and people wanting stories of strength and independence.  Maybe it's just chance.  Either way, several such wolf-inspired stories crossed my podcast feed, some as re-releases.  You can check out a few of them here, here, and here.

When S and I were in Durango, I popped into Maria's Bookshop.  Being a Colorado bookstore, they have a more robust nature section than many of my local shops, and I picked up American Wolf, to keep up the discussion on this fascinating topic.

What I Read -- The Best We Could Do

The Best We Could Do ticked two boxes for me.  It was my graphic novel pick for my 2021 reading challenge, and it was my postal book club assignment from K.  Love it when I can get two birds with one stone!  (So what if I picked it for my reading challenge because I knew it was my postal book club book -- no rule against that!)

As I said in my notes on this book which are being mailed back to K, one of my struggles with graphic novels is that I tend to read them too quickly.  I normally read at a snail's pace, so I think I get excited that I'm making such quick progress and just want to keep plowing through.  I forget that the pictures are part of the story and I really should spend some time looking at them.  In a good graphic novel, they add a lot.

I suffered the "joy of speed reading" fate with this book in a big way.  It's too bad, because even having done that I can see how it was a touching story of struggle and family, and I feel like I missed out on some of the poignancy of it by not spending enough time with the illustrations.  Even so, though, it managed to mostly make its points.  I probably could have done without the few opening and closing pages which are used to frame the story, and just taken it as an autobiography of a family, but I can see how that is meaningful to a certain reader.  If you've read it, and you know me, you know what I mean.

Still, if you're into this sort of story, it's worth the two days it took my turtle self to get through it.  For most people, it's probably an hour.

What I Read -- Winter World: The Ingenuity of Animal Survival

I stumbled upon Summer World and Winter World back when I was working at a bookstore.  They caught my interest then, and shortly thereafter, I discovered that my dad had (and was planning to give away) a copy of Winter World.  I snagged it, and decided that this winter is as good a time as any to read about the north woods' winter creatures.  (Little did I know that this would turn out to be some of the coldest winter in several years in the Midwest.)

I was quite nervous when I began this book, and the introduction described many different types of hibernation.  I anticipated that he would be referring to these different types of hibernation throughout, and I would be expected to know which was which.  "Wait, does that type of hibernation include lowering body temperature?"  (Turns back to introduction to try to figure it out....)  I made a glossary for myself.

Thankfully, that turned out to be unnecessary.  Once you get through the intro, the remainder of the book is readable, and quickly so.  It's a fascinating, albeit limited, survey of some of the creatures that forego winter migration in favor of adaptations which allow them to survive the frigid temperatures.  Geographically, the author focuses on critters he has personally observed near his cabin in Maine.  (He isn't just a casual observer, though -- he is a professor emeritus of biology at the University of Vermont.)  

It's clear from the book that he is a great lover of birds, which are the focus of many of the chapters.  Earlier in my life I may have been put off by this, but I have taken a bit more of an interest in birds in the last couple of years.  It's not all birds though.  There is discussion of bears, squirrels, bees, beavers, and lots of other wild things.  

In case you're curious what kind of strange stuff happens, here's an excerpt from a chapter on frogs:
"When ice crystals begin to form on or in the skin of a wood frog, it sets off an alarm reaction.  Skin receptors relay the message of freezing to the central nervous system (CNS), and the CNS activates the adrenal medulla to release adrenaline into the bloodstream.  When the adrenaline circulates to the liver, it there activates the enzymes that convert the liver’s stores of glycogen to glucose.  As a result, the frog responds with a quick rise in blood glucose.  In the wood frog, this response is massive and before the ice reaches the cells they become packed with glucose that acts as an antifreeze.  Precisely the opposite occurs outside, between the cells, where special proteins act as ice-nucleating agents to promote ice crystal formation in areas of dilute fluid.  As a result, pockets of concentrated fluid are created, and these act to osmotically withdraw water from the cells, making them even more resistant to ice formation.  In about fifteen hours, the frog is frozen solid except for the insides of its cells.  Its heart stops.  No more blood flows.  It no longer breathes.  By most definitions, it is dead.  But it is prepared to revive again at a later date."

All in all, fascinating -- frogs and otherwise.

Plus, I get to check one of the books off my 2021 reading challenge!

P.S. If you're curious to hear a little more about the book, try this NPR story.  If you want to read more about the author's personal background and development into a forest-dwelling loner and forest lover, here is a profile from Outside magazine.

Solutions and Other Problems -- Take 2

Oy.  I am way behind on blogging as a whole, and on books in particular.

I finished reading Solutions and Other Problems some time ago.  The trouble with really liking someone's first book is that it's often hard for the second to measure up.  That was, to some degree, the case here.  Overall, I thought Hyperbole and a Half was better as a whole.

Having said that, there were a couple of really wonderful stories in Solutions that I think make it worth the read, including one that really surprised me.  And, lest this be interpreted as a pan, it's not like Solutions is a bad follow-up, it's just not quite as much of a through-and-through package in my opinion. 

I did get a few good out-loud chuckles out of this one, and seeing those goofy characters again was like going back in time.  In a good way!

Goals 2021 -- February Edition

Often, when S and I are watching TV or a movie in the evening, I am also working.  This is no fun.  So this month, I will try to avoid doing that.  And I will Add a Little Fun to my life by being able to enjoy what it is that we're watching!

There may be a couple of exceptions.  Usually, when I am working at night, it is for one of three reasons:

1. I have an impending deadline;
2. I didn't do enough work during the day and need to make up for lost time; or
3. There is just so much to do that, even though I worked hard all day and there are no impending deadlines, I still have an excess of clients who need attention.

Items in the first category I can plan for.  The second category I can either avoid by being diligent all day and not skipping out on work for appointments, chores, etc., or I can accept, recognizing that some days hours are just going to be low.  The third is a little more difficult to control.  Surely there will be some exceptions to this "no working" rule; I anticipate that.  But if even half the time that I might otherwise be working in the evening I can instead devote all my attention to our chose activity, or I can couple it with some non-intensive therapeutic-type exercise, like coloring, hopefully it'll make me a more cheerful (and focused) person.

Goals 2021 -- January Recap

It's about time that I had an unqualified success with one of my goals, don't you think?  But this month I did!

It was a bit of a joint effort.  I put together a list of workout ideas to rotate through so I didn't just alternate between biking and erging.  I was lamenting my lack of inspiration to Dad, who suggested that rather than just having a list of ideas, I write out a plan.  That way, like it or not, I knew what my task was for the day, rather than just looking at my list and feeling uninspired by any of them.  I got my calendar white board out and wrote out what was left of the month after he made this suggestion.

Other than one day in which I overslept and missed my erg session, I accomplished my workout every single day.  And even on that day of extra sleep, S pitched in to help me succeed too.  He and I took a walk at a nearby park and played a little bit of catch in the yard (which, for someone who used to play softball, I am embarrassingly bad at).

And that's how January because an unqualified success, and was fun too.

2021 Reading Challenge

I have, to this point in my life, avoided reading challenges.  Why is this?  Primarily, I'm a slow reader so I am almost inevitably bound to fail at them unless the goal is ridiculously low.

[Aside: ridiculous is a word I always spell wrong the first time.  Rediculous.  But then I know that looks rediculous so I change it to ridiculous.]

Secondarily, I am not great at intermediate-term goals.  Short term goals (today, this week) I can remember and more or less stay focused on.  Long-term goals I'm not actually sure I'm very good at, but the goal seems to have changed by the time I get there anyway, so no matter.  But those intermediate-term goals (6 months, a year) ... those are tough.  Not enough time has gone by for the goal posts to have moved too far, but too much time has gone by for me to remember why I really care.

Whew, I thought we were talking about books here.  That got heavy.

K identified a 2021 reading challenge which looks pretty interesting.  It's a book a month (which is a lot for me), but since it's just the two of us we can make up our own damn rules.  I added a couple of restrictions of my own, to help me get through my backlog of books:

1. It had to be a book I already owned;
2. It had to be a book I had not read yet;
3. I can go out of order (mostly since my March and October books are already on my nightstand); and
4. I can bend whatever other rules I want later.

So, here are the lucky winners:

January: a book by a person who is famous for something other than writing
At Ease: Stories I Tell to Friends, by Dwight Eisenhower

February: an author's debut novel
Things Fall Apart, by Chinua Achebe

March: a book about an animal
Winter World, by Bernd Heinrich

April: a book about an area of science you know nothing about
Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers, by Mary Roach

May: a prizewinner
The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, by Daniel James Brown (among other things, the American Bookseller's Association's 2014 adult non-fiction Book of the Year)

June: a book in translation
Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair, by Pablo Neruda (trans. W.S. Merwin)

July: a book that's been banned
Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley (banned numerous places, including Australia, India, and Ireland)

August: a retelling of a myth or fairy tale
The Song of Achilles, by Madeline Miller

September: a classic mystery
Sherlock Holmes: Selected Stories, by Arthur Conan Doyle

October: a graphic novel
The Best We Could Do, by Thi Bui

November: a collection of letters
What I Know Now: Letters to My Younger Self, ed. Ellyn Spragins

December: a book that's set in your hometown or state
The Slide, by Kyle Beachy

The Song I'm Loving Today

Firewater (Amythyst Kiah)

I discovered this song while listening to the WNYC podcast series called Dolly Parton's America.  Near the end of the series, the producers included an episode called "Traveling Creatures," which featured two live performances.  Both of the featured songs are truly spectacular folk/Americana -- with beautiful, thoughtful, sorrowful lyrics and simple instrumentation -- and worth listening to.  Unfortunately, I can't find a good video for the other one (by a wise-beyond-her-years young banjo player from Brooklyn named Nora Brown), so you're only getting this one.  But you can certainly click the link above and listen to the podcast episode to hear them both. 

Melancholy always seemed to work for me,
Wistful and uncertain of dreams.
Stardust forms into shapes that never leave,
Strange and wary they all seem.
I'm a ghost in the hall, a haint in the room,
Everywhere I go, impending doom.

How many spirits does it take to lift the spirit?
I don't know, I don't know,
'Cause I've bought every spirit and I'm still laying here cryin' on the floor, on the floor.

So can you just leave me be?
Being drenched in firewater won't save me;
I'll forsake the path of filth.
Please, can you just leave me be?

Pensive stares are the only crowns I've ever gleaned,
So in the dark I find the answers that I need.
City lights are the only stars I ever see;
How many nights until I finally can breathe?

How many spirits does it take to lift the spirit?
I don't know, I don't know,
'Cause I've bought every spirit and I'm still laying here cryin' on the floor, on the floor.

So can you just leave me be?
Being drenched in firewater won't save me;
I'll forsake the path of filth.
Please, can you just leave, can you just leave, can you just leave me be?

Goals 2021 -- January Edition (Plus 2020 Reflections)

Remember how back at the beginning of 2020, my overarching theme for my year of goals would be to  Clearing My Mind, Simplifying My Life?  I had no idea that a pandemic was headed my (really everyone's) direction which would thrust simplification upon us in a lot of ways.

But that is what happened.

Sure, in some ways, shifting to working at home created added complications: the need to buy new or relocate lighting fixtures, worrying about Zoom backgrounds, creating new work flow strategies with team members, and the like.

I choose instead to focus on the positive aspects, and the simplicity: more time with S, time at home to garden and cook, less frenetic traveling but the traveling we did do was longer and lazier.

Now, nearly a week into 2021, I am in need of a new theme and a goal for the month.  After some recent conversations about my general lack of enthusiasm about my workouts, I have decided to choose a totally generic, predictable January goal -- work out.  How will I quantify this and get a little more excited about it?  Rather than the usual biking and erging which have taken over my routine since the weather turned cold, I will mix in some other things: weights, boxing, running (again), yoga.  At the end of the month, you will get a count of my workouts in each category.

As for a year-long theme, how about Adding a Little Fun?  After 2020, when so many people were unhappy about so many things, let's try to lighten it up a bit!