I Want Sea Change

I read a book that changed my life last year. Not only did I learn from this book, but I was immensely inspired by its author.

Sylvia Earle’s Sea Change A Message of the Oceans is a beautifully written book about the ocean adventures of Earle. She paints crafty visuals of her dives with humpback whales and dolphins. She illustrates her challenges and frustrations in co-founding a deep ocean exploration company and working for the federal government. She expresses her concerns and hopes for the health, safety, and future of our oceans through stories, facts, and solutions.

This book is a great read for anyone, whether you live by the ocean or not, whether you like fiction or nonfiction. Earle has a great skill for storytelling that will pull any reader into her amazing life.

I have learned a lot from her book, but I will tell you one of the many things that hit me hard with realization. Earle explains how our history of fishing has always looked at the endeavor with narrow vision. Focus is always on a single species or a single stock. Therefore, management of these fisheries also create policy and regulation with narrow vision. These fish stocks need to be managed well to ensure that people can keep their jobs, that communities can have food, and that ecosystems are able to maintain balance. The balance of an ecosystem however, is not easy to manage if we look only at Chinook salmon or only at Chilean sea bass. These  and all other fish, no matter how tasty, are integral to their community of marine plants and animals. They help keep balance of smaller fish and of growing algae. They make sure that nutrients are being added to their environment and that those nutrients are being moved up for other organisms to use. Earle illustrates the value of fish we take out of the ocean. Not their value at market, but their value as living organisms in their community. Therefore, if humans want to manage fishing and fish stocks to ensure they are still around for our grandchildren, we need to take up a holistic point of view. How many fish can be removed and still make sure that the algae doesn’t over grow? How many fish can we remove and still make sure that sea lions have enough to eat? Holistic management is what we need to keep our oceans and our lives rich in fish diversity and abundance.

This is only a small piece of a larger story that Earle tells about our oceans. She engages the reader with her honest retelling of events and logical, referenced revelations about the fate of our oceans. I cannot recommend it enough to anyone who wants to read a good book, who wants to go on an adventure, who wants to know how they can make a difference.

 

The Family by Mario Puzo

It’s a great feeling when you pick up a thick book that has small font and finish the thing quicker than you ever expected. That usually happens due to the combination of two characteristics of the book itself, and maybe not your ability to breeze through books or willpower to finish. A good story that twists and turns, going places you might not have seen coming, but makes complete sense regardless, and with each page gets thicker and juicier, so much so that you cannot put the book down. It calls to you, and you don’t even bother to resist because so and so character is gaining momentum or conspiring or spiraling. A good book is woven from the most intentional sentences. Of course this is subject to an author’s style and objective, but they know that they need every sentence they place in their book so that they can successfully relay their story to their liking.

The Family by Mario Puzo, author of The Godfather, is one of those large slabs of pages that I was able to get through quickly. His characters were solid and human, full of flaws and love. Each character played their role perfectly down to their last breath. Puzo wasn’t afraid to kill for the sake of his story, and he wasn’t afraid to make things grim for the sake of his characters’ development. The whirlwind that Puzo creates in his book is a treat to read and I recommend it.

In the Garden of Beasts by Erik Larson

I first heard of Erik Larson one day in Costco when I picked up a copy of his book Devil in the White City. I never finished that book, but the few chapters I did get a chance to read got me hooked onto his writing. So when I heard about In the Garden of Beasts about prewar Nazi Germany I was jumping with anticipation of owning and reading it.

A beloved friend gifted me a copy for my twentieth birthday and here I am two years later finally able to finish reading it.

It is very easy for me to say that I absolutely loved reading this book. It is a work of nonfiction that I was able to read like a novel. The book follows William Dodd during his time as the American Ambassador to Germany in the early 1930’s in which he transported his family and entire life to Berlin to take on the position. This book allowed me an insight into the Germany my history classes never dug into very thoroughly. I got to learn about not just the actions and positions of Hitler and his surrounding officials but about their personalities, their flaws, and the impressions they made on others. It was a window cut into the world that I never bothered to worry about because World War II always took center stage.

Terror and anxiety grew exponentially as I went through the pages. At first people were sure that Hitler and the National Socialist Party wouldn’t last in the government. They recognized Hitler as a minor problem, like a kid who likes to burn ants with a magnifying glass. The American government at that time was more interested in Germany paying back American investors the money they owed and pushed Ambassador Dodd to focus on that issue. However Hitler knew exactly what the German people wanted to hear. After being humiliated from the conclusion of World War I, Germans were very low in moral and nationalism was not at the top of anyone’s list. Hitler came along and changed that with carefully structured speeches that presented Germany as a victim. He was very effective.

After reading about the changes that Hitler and his administration made among German society I began to wonder why in the world no one was willing to stand up and stop him. It wouldn’t have been terribly difficult at that moment in time when he was still just Chancellor and Germany’s President Hindenburg was still alive. Larson answered this question directly.

Larson went through many facets of Ambassador Dodd’s life, as well as the life of his daughter, Martha Dodd. He did so masterfully and kept me enthralled the entire time. I am in awe of this book, and especially of the many many hours of research this book’s creation no doubt called for.

Hell yeah I recommend it.

Books>Make Up

My mom is like a magpie. She finds things and takes them home with her (usually to pass on to me so that I am labled the family hoarder, not her). Well once she brought back this gorgeous bobby brown lipcolor. I fell in absouliute love and it is evident in the frequency of use (which is only for special X2 occasions).
Any who I told my mom how much I loved this color and she she told me to buy one and I blanched when I saw the hefty price of $29.99. Now that might not seem like much but for one measly tube of lipstick, I am not interested.
On another note today I was walking by the street market that my school hosts during every midterm season and walked straight into the mountains of books at one of the booths. I found three gorgeous and antique looking books (I was not only attracted to their asthetically pleasing bodies, but the content was all classical and new material -for me at least). So I bought three, one of which I intend to gift to a friend. Anyways i spent like $29.09. Walking away from the proprieter, who has come to know my face in the two days he’s set up shop, I was shaking my head at my impuslive buys, but then I thought about that lipstick again and come to the conclusion that it is never a bad thing that I am happily willing to spend $30 on three books than on one stick of lipcolor (no matter how lucious it is!!! -yes, I’m pining, but that’s besides the point). 

I Read a Terrible Sequel

I don’t know if I disliked this book because I didn’t particularly like the first one and that mild disdain carried over to the second part of the series, but that is the final call I have made; I did not enjoy Insurgent. 

This book is the sequel to the quickly emerging (since it’s now becoming a major motion picture and all) novel Divergent. It picks up right where the last one left off and in a nutshell it’s five hundred pages of PTSD and nomadic protagonists. These two reoccurring aspects of the novel were what made me almost strain my optical nerves from all the eye rolling. An audience can take only so much self-doubt and self-loathing and dramatic one-sentence paragraphs before they cast off  a book as a joke. Roth was lucky I’m a patient person by nature, unfortunately I don’t matter because I’m sure she has sucked millions of teenage girls into her pages of sub-par writing. You know what they say, “Everyone’s a critic”, well that definitely does not exclude me, so here it goes.

Let’s start with Tris, our main character returned for her big encore…one that I was not asking for to be honest. She has so many conflicting feelings about everything happening around her. I felt extremely unsure for the majority of the book about what her long-term and short-term motives or goals were. Roth tried to make it apparent that Tris was having a very difficult time dealing with the death of her parents and the fact that she shot Will. The road to recovery definitely takes the entire novel, but the point of acceptance is unsatisfying (for me at least). Getting over killing Will was almost summed up with one sentence. As for her parents’ death Roth tied the ends together as best as she could but with so much going on and with all the unnecessary words fitted in everywhere the final product was obscured so much that the impact was drowned out. In other words I didn’t fully understand and at that point didn’t care to even try putting pieces together.
As for her relationship with Four…or more often referred to in this novel as Tobias, it has angst written all over it in angry red letters. I cannot decipher whether their rocky relationship throughout the novel irritated me more because I was tired of hearing the same old fight or because I cared about them as a couple and wanted them to make up already (though I lean very heavily towards the former). It was annoying to be frank. Tris was being dumb and reckless because she was unconsciously confused about her place in the world because all the PTSD was disorienting her from “who she is”, and Tobias couldn’t understand that (I’m surprised I could…who knows maybe I’m totally wrong). He just thought she was being a martyr for dumb reasons and she didn’t love him enough to live for him. (Now that I think about it, maybe it was the content of the fights that made me sick of their relationship drama). 
Okay, so conclusion, Tris was a pain in the ass during this book, which is the worst thing that could happen to reader and author alike since she narrated the whole damn thing.

Was the plot at least worth the read? No. Like I said earlier there was a lot of moving around. It is understandable that would happen after a whole community is torn apart. I also allow Roth this bit of reprieve: she led me all around Tris’s world in order to plant plot bombs. Each stop was like a corner in the intricate web of a plot she wanted for this book. Maybe it was just me but I got tired of it fast. Too much was going on. And don’t try to tell me that I’m being unfair, that it was done in order to create a full story. There was no subtlety and therefore I felt no sense of a flow while reading this book. (for examples of good “flow” read any of the seven Harry Potter novels). Choppy and widespread and dull all make for a bad book. 
I know I know, maybe some of the real fans wanted to learn more about the other factions. I wouldn’t mind if that knowledge actually had anything to do with the story line. I stored bits of information from Amity till the very end only to learn that it was a waste. I didn’t need to know about the irrigation system that Amity used in their greenhouses and therefore I didn’t want to know. (Seriously, who edited this book!)
Four things truly stick out for me. (Though don’t think that any of them warrant reading the entire book!)
1. The first page of chapter 30, this particular bit reminded me that in between all the extra words Roth can’t help herself from she can forge a few gems. “There is no real reason for tear glands to overproduce tears at the behest of emotion. I think we cry to release the animal parts of us without losing our humanity”. This was kind of beautiful. It was insightful and thoughtful and gave me as a reader a better picture of Tris than most of the rest of Roth’s attempt at characterization.
2. My favorite character, Christina, has returned and she is just as awesome as before. She is a fighter, she is funny, she is strong and willful. She is understanding and she is ridiculous in such a human way that it’s refreshing. Damn, that’s it, Christina is a breath of fresh air amid all the moaning and sighing and screaming that Tris makes us endure.
3. The moment that Tris and Tobias have their relationship testing moment. Seriously the crap going on between them throughout the book was meant only to make sure that this scene could exist (and trust me I wish I could say the drama wasn’t worth it, but this speech was pretty well written). It’s good enough that I shall quote it for you. ” ‘[T]he first second that belief in my perceptiveness, that trust, that love is put to the test, it all falls apart. – So you must have lied when you told me all those things… you must have, because I can’t believe your love is really that feeble.’ “. I liked that Tris finally yelled at Tobias, and I welcomed the moments he yelled at her for acting like an idiot…though it never stuck because she always did it anyway; and I didn’t bother to quote it, so that must say something about it too.
4. I guess I appreciated the consistency that Roth provided in Tris not being able to hold/shoot a gun because of her killing Will. What really made me care was the consistency. It just felt like the honest reaction a human being would have after having killed a good friend. However (did you see that coming?), I did not like how she resolved the issue. It was kind of dumb and an overly worked out metaphor that I (again) didn’t understand completely and therefore didn’t bother with.

There are a lot of twists and turns, mostly pertaining to new and old characters that seem important at first but turn out to be made into non-issues as a product of Tris’s narration.
Do yourself a favor and don’t read this book. It’s a waste of time. Go ahead an enjoy the first one and don’t fall for the in-your-face cliffhanger. I recommend going with one of those classics you keep saying you’ll read but don’t because pieces of shit like this get in the way.
I regret reading this one. 

The Art of Racing in the Rain

Let me just start by saying: “Wow”.
This book was beautiful. Often people become condesending and pompous about the books they read. They like to show off that they are intellectuals who read nothing but the most coveted books on philosophy and such that apparently have no place in the world of fiction.
Well it is my immense pleasure to shove this book down their throat to stop them short. This piece of fiction narrated by a dog no less is inspiring.

To narrate an entire novel from a dog’s point of view is a challenge. It is easy to fall into a routine if the author can’t think like a dog, an interesting one at least. The entire time I was reading I knew that this would have needed a lot of thought. Creating this character,  Enzo required the perfect balance of dog, story teller, and motive all rolled into each other flawlessly. Garth Stein had done this.
Enzo the dog is ready for death. He has lived a wonderful life alongside his master and friend and hero Denny Swift. He is a racing dog, he knows the tricks of the trade and the little secrets of being a champion. He relays all this, which he’s learned from Denny, to us. At first I took these things he told me very lightly, as if they are things that will become important later on as the story progressed. It was near the end when I really was able to see how true his words were. Especially these, the one stitch of words that held together a lot of this story: “the car goes where the eyes go” and “that which we manifest is before us”.
We’ve heard it in different forms before, what you see is what you get, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, your happiness depends on your outlook on life, etc. (Okay, those aren’t exactly the same, but you get what I mean).
“That which we manifest is before us; we are the creators of our own destiny. Be it through intention or ignorance, our successes and our failures have been brought on by none other than ourselves.”
If you see success, if you see a happy ending, or that family, or that crush, or anything you focus enough of your energy on you can bring yourself closer to it until you have it in the palm of your hand. The thing that makes this real and not just another fairytale plot is that that bad weather, that sickness, that failure that you focus your energy on stressing over will also follow this rule.
Let’s talk about Denny for a second. He is extremely lovable. I love him. I am a living breathing person and I have fallen in love with this man Denny Swift who exists only on paper. It was easy, Enzo loved Denny so I loved him. But then again it was much more than that. Denny is a character who is the perfect representation of the imperfect human who’s as close to perfection as God would allow. I know, I know, ridiculous, but I stand by it. At least I acknowledge that he can’t ever exist in a real person. This man is full of determination, love, poetry, craft, potential, charisma, focus, and strength. It doesn’t really matter that he is all these things, but how we learn all this about him is what makes me fall in love with him.
The story is great. It is a pretty simple plot, but the story-telling style keeps you pulled in. It is also unique that because we are in Enzo’s head we never know what the humans are thinking, and we have to wait for them to explicitly tell Enzo. This forces us as readers to witness much more physical and emotional description to understand each scene.
I can’t praise this book enough. All I can say is I loved it. I know there are so many books out there that will make me feel the same way, but I am glad I had the chance to read this one. My life would’ve been just a little emptier if I hadn’t read this one, even if I didn’t know it. I laughed, I squealed, I cried (a lot), I got angry, I smiled warmly into the pages, people around me be damned.
Now I run down the streets, up the hills, and to the biggest rock teetering on a precipice to let everyone know that I recommend the heck out of this book.
Garth Stein is a master of his art. He has me stunned.

So over Summer Session 2013 I finished reading a good amount of books, including Divergent.
Okay so lets talk about this one, it was little more than I had expected. The cover, the hype, the summary all followed the typical road that young adult books have taken lately.
First person, a female lead who grows to learn her own strength, she is slightly an outcast but it works in her favor eventually, dystopian, rebel/hot/mysterious love interest. I guess teenage girls eat this shit up, I mean I know I did while I was reading the book.
An interesting twist this novel held for me was the different factions and how each one gave insight into human behavior, but made it slightly more interesting by taking honesty, knowledge seeking, kindness, etc to their very extremes.
The main character Tris bored me. Her narration was very predictable, her arch was also predictable. At first I only read because I was curious about the Dauntless initiation, then I continued because I wanted to know what the Eruidite were scheming. Tris gave me nothing to look forward to except that I could only see this world through her eyes. Four on the other hand was slightly more interesting. I guess that’s why at least one “mysterious” character is needed. He was not overwhelmingly broody or smoldering (thank goodness), just slightly intimidating I guess. But eventually even his dark past became mundane.
In terms of discussion there was one small detail in the story that I found worthy of mentioning. The main character goes throughout the book reminding herself and therefore the reader that she does not find herself particularly “pretty” or beautiful.
Now this definitely counteracts my strong belief that every person is beautiful or has the potential to clean themselves up enough to achieve “beautiful”. Instead of “pretty” Tris opts for “Noticeable”, I guess implying that her features aren’t cookie cutter gorgeous, but different, unique, and “striking”. Later on she continues to demean her features when she admits her self-consciousness to Four. He of course throws aside her comments as any boy in love would do.
Point? Well, I’m a strong advocate for a person to gain self-esteem through self-love and acceptance, feeling beautiful is definitely one of the many things we should love about ourselves. Tris, by admitting such feelings about her appearance on more than one occasion throughout the book, is displayed as a fairly realistic character. Every girl goes through a lapse in self-confidence, and I guess that by reading a strong female lead feel the same way is reassuring that such thoughts are common. My inner feminist does rear her head though when it takes a man’s opinion (Four) to ease Tris’ mind about the topic. I would have liked her to discover her beauty on her own, but hey, can’t have everything.
I’m on the fence about this little bit of characterization, but overall, when I remember that it’s just a book, a story, I think I like the way a distinction was made between beautiful and unique. Whereas when we think of Twilight’s Bella who is “ordinary”, as if trying too hard to be relatable, I prefer Tris.
One of my favorite plot twists in this book was Tris’ mother. Her original faction, her strength, her sacrifice, her intelligence, and her independence (even though she lived in a life overruled by an invisible oppression, but only someone who was completely secure of themselves could fit in so well with the Abnegation). She was definitely my favorite character. Others include Christina and Will whose spark of love intrigued me until its bloody and extremely saddening end. It was brave of Roth to kill off Will, I guess when I can feel heartbreak because of a book it is a good sign that writing whatever caused it was a good choice on the author’s part.
I’d recommend Divergent. It was a quick read and slightly refreshing among all the dystopian novels being pumped out lately. I don’t think I’ll watch the movie though. The writing was alright, more to tell a story than to ignite deeper evaluation.

So I finished reading Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card. I wasn’t really sure what to expect when I started, but by the end I truly was surprised and invested. There was one aspect of the book that really impressed me. Card does an amazing job of upholding his promises. At the beginning of each chapter there is a conversation between two people discussing essentially what would happen in the particular chapter. It would be a glance along the surface of what Ender would be put through.
They said they would isolate him, and they did, then they said he needed to figure out a way of not being isolated completely from his launch group, and he did. The point was to recognize these things actually happening during the chapter. It was very entertaining, and if I wasn’t reading very consciously I would miss it. I wouldn’t notice it happening, it would just be the story.
I really admire the author for giving me something to look for and then delivering it in a fairly discreet and intricate way. (Maybe it’s just me being an inexperienced writer and this technique is actually easy or something….I doubt it though. Writing a book will always be challenging).

I fell in love with the minor characters. I even liked Peter. It hurt me to see Ender leave Battle School just when he and his army had an established connection. Shows the ruthlessness of war and adulthood I guess. The way my heart swelled when I found out his partners at the Commander Base were friends from school: Petra, Bean, Shen, Alai, Dink, Hot Soup, Crazy Tom, and more. I guess my love for these characters was only possible because of the way Ender interacted with them. He loved them and so I in turn loved them too.

Let’s talk about Ender. He is easy to love. Everyone loves an underdog. Even as he excels in everything he does throughout the book, I viewed him as the underdog because he was always treated as one (but that was only a tactic used to bring out the best in him -it worked). His moments of doubt, empathy, fear, determination, and resignation created a bubble of “good feeling” around him for me as a reader. I knew he was good at heart. That is what mattered. I don’t know how many people who would enjoy reading a novel where the main character was cold-hearted.
This really makes me think about my characters and how I want them to be. I guess if Heather starts off as a stuck up bitch I can use an arch and have her learn a lesson, but….I think that is too predictable. A book needs to have chili powder in it, something to give the readers a kick.

Valentine was a character that I really liked as well. She dealt with the same self-doubt that Ender went through, but she came out of it unscathed. Her role as Demosthenes, as someone who used writing and persuading skills to change the world was very inspiring. I don’t think this is corny at all. Sure if we all decided to be “productive” all the time we would loose our childhood (something I believe is soo important), but I mean now as a twenty year old, what am I doing wasting my time with stupid shows and websites? I should devote some of that time to writing and analyzing things happening in the world. I’m sure that’s not the point on Valentine doing this, but it’s what I took from it personally.
Peter who was cruel and hungry for control gave me shivers. I do like a guy who can take control and who has the ambition to do big things. Peter’s ability to manipulate worked on everyone except the two people who were as smart as him. In the end Valentine assured the reader that they were allowed to dislike Peter after all. However even after that Ender comes in and reminds the reader that even a person like Peter can be shown compassion and kindness as he writes for Peter as his Speaker of the Dead.
It was fitting for the end to include such an idea as the “Speaker of the Dead”, and for Ender to start such a tradition because it was death that caused Ender the most pain. The most that can be done for someone dead is to remember their life as honestly and openmindedly.

There were definitely a lot of motifs throughout the book, but to talk about all of them would turn this into an essay that I don’t have time for. Overall, I’m really glad I read this book. It was enjoyable. I fell in love with the characters (which is my favorite part), and I know there is a sequel, but I’m not sure if I’ll ever get around to reading it.

A quote that I liked, that made me wonder: “The world is always a democracy in times of flux.” Ender’s Game 131

Finished another Summer read…though Shhh, don’t tell but I started both of these during the year.

The Dragon’s Village by Yuan-tsung Chen
I happened upon this paperback in the Playroom at Sixth College. My interest was sparked initially by the title. Any one that knows me knows that dragons are my favorite (that’s what happens when you grow up loving dinosaurs and fantasy books). Anyway I always knew that Chinese culture regarded the dragon with ever mounted praise and I became curious. The back cover was more of a formality when I read it. Certain words popped out at me and the others I completely disregarded leading to reading an entirely different book than I had expected. I have no regrets.
Ling-ling, the main character was written well, she was very believable and held all the blundering qualities that a real human carries (let’s also give credit that this was an autobiography and if Ling-ling were anything less, the author would’ve been doing something wrong).
The history at first between Mao and Kai-Shek confused me, but I slowly absorbed the general ideas, but honestly I should have at least wiki-ed them so that my understanding of the content’s background were more concrete.
I was expecting some love -the back cover promised me some, but any traces of it were very fleeting and fragile. I grew to learn that not only is that a mirroring of reality, but also in such a conservative era in China “love” was not an open affair; protocol had to be met, and a series of decisions had to be made before any affectionate relationship could ensue (if it could ensue at all).
Village life as portrayed in this book was eye-opening. Chen did well not to over exaggerate, she wrote it as it was. Some of the conversations between characters were so full of underlying meaning created through societal norms, expectations, and courtesy. More than once Ling-ling would say something in a polite and calm manner with content that was very mild and it would illicit an unexpected response from the person she was speaking with. Without a bit of narration tacked along to these conversations I would not have understood what the purpose of it was in the first place. But that is the beauty of this book. It showed me the incredible difference and the power of words in a time where raising your voice was taboo. One had to be skillful, wise, and cunning to get through the village.
Throughout the book I was introduced to a number of characters of whom I thought little of when first meeting them. Maybe I was being stereotypical that this happened most often when a poor villager was introduced to me. But each of them played a part to the whole story, something that many fiction books are unable to do (with such a large number of characters at least). Yet another example of reality being mirrored in this book. Everyone around us is still a person whether they play a large part in your immediate life or not. Each of them have the potential to influence and affect you if they are allowed into your life. I appreciated that each character had their motives, history, and quirks.
Over all it was a good book that gave a deeper and more hands on look at China’s Land Reform period. The characters are rich and drive the entire book home. With such a lively and fresh narrator to keep me in the loop of the village, to show me the difficulties of making monumental decisions, I was led through a few months of her life coming out a satisfied reader.

It’s not a hard read, maybe some sections drag, but stick through it. I recommend it to anyone interested in history, a strong female protagonist, or a twisted and unexpected storyline.

So I was reading The Dragon’s Village and

So I was reading The Dragon’s Village and there was a scene where a meeting of esteemed writers were gathered in discussion. One of them said: ” ‘You young writers face the challenge of creating a literature that will truly reflect reality and by its truth invigorate the struggle for the new.’ ” (43). That really moved me and made me think about my story and how it reflected life today. Initially I wanted to start a whole new project on a whim that was reflective of ordinary life, but then I thought, “let’s face it, no one wants to read that. People want to read the fantastical and adventerous, even if it’s happening in suburbia. It’s a very exclusive line between fantastical and mundane realism, but that’s exactly what a good author can do, all while telling a story.” Okay so then I reverted back to my SF story and thought the biggest realistic aspect I have put into it so far is the obvious class separation. Maybe I can expand on that, but there isn’t much else I can infuse into the story without going in and learning some first hand stuff. I’ll try to keep it in mind, but like Keith said, I just gotta let the first draft write itself. I can edit and tone it later.