Booking It--Recent Fluff

What’s the lightest, most “fluff” kind of book you’ve read recently?

I've read a lot of Jodi Picoult lately. However, as readable and enjoyable as her books are, I'd never call them "fluff." Hands down, my most recent fluff reading would have the be the Twilight series that I read this past summer. And my regular readers know what I thought of it--I wrote a whole series of posts about the novels. If you're interested, just type "Twilight" in the "Search Blog" space above. Happy reading!

Sesame Street Revisited

Remember that old Sesame Street song: "One of these things is not like the other . . . One of these things is not quite the same . . ."

(This picture first appeared on Elrod's blog. Due credit has now been given.)

Accepted!

I received some good news yesterday. The paper that I'm presenting at the Jane Austen conference in Philadelphia this October has been accepted for publication in this year's edition of Persuasions: The Jane Austen Journal.

The paper is a version of one of my dissertation chapters. It's nice to get a little extra mileage out of all that hard work.

What's Up? If I'm not careful, it's gonna be my weight

This place is gonna get me in trouble. We had cake during orientation. There are soft peppermints on the secretary's desk. Yesterday morning there were donuts, and by lunch slices of homemade carrot cake appeared in the breakroom. It's easy saying "no" when all you have in the fridge are fruits, veggies, and whole grains. It's a lot harder when you're surrounded by the enemy.

Michael Vick's Not That Important

The other day, I tuned into NPR and found myself right in the middle of another discussion about Michael Vick. I started to change the station--first of all, because Michael Vick's just not that important to me; secondly, because I've heard enough about him lately; and thirdly, hearing about some of the things he did to animals makes me physically ill. I didn't feel like subjecting myself to it again. But before I could push the button, I actually got hooked by the conversation:

First guy: People will forget about it. People don't care. They didn't care very long about the guys who got caught using steroids.

Second guy: Wait a minute, wait a minute. This is different. Some things are a crime of the soul. Steroids you do to yourself, but harming women, children, or animals? That's a crime of the soul. And especially if you're a believer. I mean, God gave you dominion, and you do that?

I love NPR.

Women's Equality Day, 2009

THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary
___________________________________________________________________________
For Immediate Release August 26, 2009

WOMEN'S EQUALITY DAY, 2009
- - - - - - -
BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

A PROCLAMATION

Today, our country renews its commitment to freedom and justice for all our citizens. As we prepare to celebrate this women's day of equality, we reflect on the sacrifices once made to allow women and girls the basic rights and choices we freely exercise today. The future we leave to our daughters and granddaughters will be determined by our willingness to build on the achievements of our past and move forward as one people and one Nation. The fight for women's equality is not a woman's agenda, but an American agenda.

We honor the resilience, accomplishments, and history of all women in the United States. We celebrate the courageous women who fought to uphold a fundamental principle within our Constitution the right to vote and in so doing, protected the cornerstone of our vibrant democracy. These visionaries of the Seneca Falls Convention of 1848 sought to ensure that our country lived up to its founding ideals. Although only one, Charlotte Woodward, at the age of 81, had the opportunity to exercise her newfound right, the struggle reminds us that no righteous cause is a lost one. We also commemorate women like Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, a poet and lecturer who formed the National Association of Colored Women; Antonia Pantoja, a tireless advocate of education equality within the Latino community; Sarah Winnemucca, a voice for peace within the Native American community; and Patsy Mink, author of Title IX and the first woman of color and Asian American woman elected to the United States Congress. These women's talents, and the contributions of countless others, built upon the framework of 1848 and forged paths for future generations.

Our Nation has come a long way since that ground-breaking convention in New York. Women have occupied some of the most significant positions in government. They have delivered justice from the bench of our highest court, fought for our country in foreign lands, discovered cures to diseases, and joined the ranks of the greatest business leaders of our time. Female college graduates now outnumber their male counterparts. Women have sought equality through government, demonstrated by the signing of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009, and the establishment of the White House Council on Women and Girls. They have sought equality through advocacy, exemplified by the efforts of thousands of women's organizations. America has made significant progress toward becoming the fair and just society the suffragists once envisioned.

Yet, today, our work remains unfinished. Far too many adult women remain mired in poverty. Women are still subject to pervasive discrimination at school and harassing conduct in the workplace. Women make, on average, only 78 cents for every dollar paid to men. Underrepresented in many facets of our economic and public life, from government to boardrooms to the sciences, women have yet to eradicate all barriers to professional development.

We stand at a moment of unparalleled change and a time for reflection and hope. We cannot allow the vibrant energy and passionate commitment of our trailblazing women to fade, and we can never forget the responsibility we bear to the ideals of liberty and equality for all. Each generation of successful women serves as a catalyst to empower, enlighten, and educate the next generation of girls and boys, and we must devote ourselves to promoting this catalyst for change now and in the future.

On this Women's Equality Day, we resolve to continue the important work of our Nation's foremothers and their successors, and turn their vision of a more equal America into our reality.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim August 26, 2009, as Women's Equality Day. I call upon the people of the United States to celebrate the achievements of women and recommit themselves to the goal of true gender equality in this country.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this twenty-fifth day of August, in the year of our Lord two thousand nine, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-fourth.

BARACK OBAMA

Presidential Reading

President Obama's headed to Martha's Vineyard, but he stopped at a bookstore first. Here's what he bought (according to the Los Angeles Times):

George Pelacanos' The Way Home

Kent Haruf's Plainsong

Richard Price's Lush Life

David McCullough's John Adams

Thomas L. Friedman's Hot, Flat and Crowded

Nice choices. Wish I had time to lie on the beach and read. Life at HU's rough.

I Love My Family

Look what was delivered to my office yesterday:

Isn't being part of a family that loves you one of life's greatest blessings?

Booking It--Best Recent

What’s the best book you’ve read recently? (Tell me you didn’t see this one coming?)

Hands down, it's got to be Marilynne Robinson's Gilead. And this novel would not only be my best recent read, it would go on my best-all-time list.

Gilead is set in Gilead, Iowa in 1956 with the minister, John Ames, facing death from heart disease. He has a young wife and son whom he loves deeply and decides to leave his son a family history. He tells of his grandfather, also named John Ames, a fire and brimstone preacher from back east who went to Kansas to fight for abolition and then went to fight in the Union Army during the Civil War. John Ames, his father, reacted strongly to his father's violence and became a pacifist preacher. The Ames household when all three generations lived together was one of an uneasy truce. As Ames realizes his time on earth is limited, a friend from earlier in his life who left in disgrace returns to visit. Ames' life had been a solitary one before the blessing of his cherished wife came late to him in life. As he watches his friend and wife begin to bond, he must decide whether to tell his wife of his friend's past. Marilynne Robinson (author of Housekeeping) has written a novel about fathers and sons, loneliness and love, faith and family and Gilead has received high praise. The Washington Post says Gilead is "so serenely beautiful, and written in a prose so gravely measured and thoughtful, that one feels touched with grace just to read it."

Next on my list of recent favorites would have to be Jodi Picoult's My Sister's Keeper.

Sunday Funnies