Mary' s blog

Book Review

2010-07-09T10:42:00.000-07:00

Spector, Robert. The Mom & Pop Store: How the Unsung Heroes of the American Economy Are Surviving and Thriving. New York: Walker & Company, 2009.

When I lived in Richmond Virginia, I had the fortune of living near a street which was filled with unique sole proprietor stores. I especially remember with fondness a bookstore, where every time I went into it, I could be guaranteed to find exactly the book I wanted to read next. I now live in northern Indiana in a city where mom and pop store do not seem so be as prevalent and I miss the unique character of the one or two person shop. Certainly Borders does not have the intimate nature of Carytown Books, and certainly it employees have no where near the love or appreciation of books that one would find at a good independent bookstore.

Robert Spector is the son of a butcher, Fred Spector, who owned his own butcher shop in Perth Amboy New Jersey. Robert has fond memories of his fathers store in new Jersey. Spector recounts how his grandfather and father came from Europe to the new world, and he reminisces about how his father worked to build his store into a successful business. He also remembers how members of the community felt at home at his father's store and demonstrates the special personal touches that his father was able to provide because he grew to know his customers wants and needs so well. Spector recounts that although he was not always the best employee at his Dad's store, he learned enough lessons in customer service to become a specialist in customer service when he grew up.

Spector also travels around the country to visit various “mom and pop” stores in an effort to find out what makes a mom and pop store a success. He visits bookstores in Washington State and Washington D.C. , a soda pop specialty store in California, a cheese shop and pharmacy in Manhattan and many more. He discovers that what makes a mom and pop store last is knowledge of the product, a personal touch and the ability to diversify.

I liked this book very much and found it easy to read. I had thought it would be more of a business book, but instead it was a collection of charming essays on the history of successful family businesses which in the end gives a clear picture of the ingredients Spector feels need to go into a successful Mom and Pop Store. Also he writes a powerful case for patronizing Mom and Pop stores and staying away from the “Category killers.”

Book Review

2010-06-22T10:43:00.000-07:00

Balali, Mehrdad. Houri. Sag Harbor, NY: Permanent Press, 2009.

Shahed, the main character in this book, grew up in Tehran but now lives in California where he is unhappily employed as a gas station attendant. After the death of an on and off girlfriend in California, he returns to Tehran to confront the ghosts of his past, most particularly those concerning his father who died three years earlier.

Shahed's father was a gadfly who squandered any money that the family acquired on “friends” who conveniently appeared to enjoy his largesse and on his many girlfriends, leaving his family impoverished and leaving his wife to have to provide for the family with what little she could successfully keep from him. Houri is the object of Shahed's childish affections, a friend of his mothers who eventually becomes yet another one of his father's conquests. Eventually Shahed is able to realize his dream of leaving his father behind and moving to the United States. This is in the late 1960's when Iran is still a secular nation.

When Shahed returns to Tehran in the early 1980's, he returns to a much different city, one ruled by Islamic fundamentalists. The contrast from the Tehran of his youth to the Tehran under fundamentalist rule actually causes him to be sentimental for the father who tortured him so in his youth.

I found this book to be very well written. The account of being an immigrant to the United States of Iranian descent in the late sixties and early eighties is much grittier and more realistic than other similar books, from the unsatisfying choice of employment to the overt racism which Shahed encounters. In contrast, Shahed's former life in Iran is by no means idealized. From the poverty of his background, to the the account of his father's selfishness, to his encounters with cruel headmasters and his Opium addicted uncle E, this is a much earthier depiction of pre-revolution Iran than one usually encounters. Highly recommended.

Book Review

2010-06-22T10:35:00.000-07:00

Adrian, Chris. A Better Angel: Stories.
New York: Picador, 2009.

This collection of nine stories is written by a fellow in pediatric oncology who is also a student at Harvard Divinity School. All nine stories deal on some level with themes of grief, sickness and dying, and very often the protagonists are bereaved or ill children.

In Stab a young twin bereaved by the loss of his brother befriends a homicidal girl and joins her in a killing spree of animals in the neighborhood in hopes that she can bring him closer to her brother. In The Sum of our Parts a woman who has recently attempted suicide haunts the halls of the hospital where she lays dying and divines the innermost thoughts of the staff members. In A Child's Book of Sickness and Death, a teenaged sufferer of short gut syndrome becomes a hospital regular and writes about animals suffering from unique and horrible diseases. In Why Antichrist, a bereaved teenager is befriended by a popular classmate whose father died in the 9/11 attacks who becomes obsessed with the idea that he is the Antichrist.

Adrian's stories are beautifully written and engaging and very very dark. The strangeness of his stories as well as the religious undertones present throughout are reminiscent of the short stories of Flannery O'Connor. I enjoyed reading them and would be interested in reading his previous books.

Book Review

2010-06-22T10:28:00.000-07:00

Jones, Sherry. The Sword of Medina: A Novel.New York: Beaufort Books,2009.

This book is set in the eighth century in Saudi Arabia right after the death of Muhammed. Before Muhammed died he left his jewelled sword, al-Ma'thur, to his favorite wife Aisha, telling her to use it in the jihad to come. Aisha's father Abu Bakr takes over as Kalifa but quickly succumbs to the same illness which took Muhammed's life, creating yet more turmoil over the who will be the next Kalifa. The turmoil created fissions in the Islamic religion which still continue to this day. Another candidate for the position of Kalifa is Ali, a relative of Muhammed, who is Aisha's sworn enemy due to unkind comments he made years ago. Aisha does all she can to prevent this from happening.

This book of historical fiction is told alternately between the point of views of Ali and Aisha both of whom express increasing dismay at the changes developing in the Islamic religion since Muhammed's death. Eventually Aisha and Ali come to respect each other and Aisha come to see that Ali is the best choice for Kalifa but Ali is murdered before he has a chance to serve.

I very much enjoyed this book. I found Jones' writing style to be engaging from the very beginning despite not being sure what to expect from this book. I have read books before that are set in the contemporary middle east but nothing from around the time of the beginning of Islam so I did not know most of the history. I like the fact that although Aisha and Ali are initially enemies that time and wisdom erases their differences and they begin to see how alike they really are. I would like to read the prequel The Jewel of Medina.

Book Review

2010-06-22T10:18:00.000-07:00

Soctomah, Donald. Remember Me: Tomah Joseph's Gift to Franklin Roosevelt. Gardiner, ME: Tilbury House Publisher, 2009.

Remember me is set in Campobello Island New Brunswick where Franklin D. Roosevelt's family had a summer home. Remember me is a fictionalized account of the story of Roosevelt's friendship with Tomah Joseph starting at age 10. Tomah Joseph is a member of the Passamaquoddy tribe who was hired by Roosevelt's father to teach him how to paddle a canoe.

Along the way, Tomah Joseph teaches Roosevelt a lot about the history of the Passamaquoddy Indians and their traditions. There is also a lot of information about Franklin D.Roosevelt's early life.

This is a sensitively written story about a friendship which lasts until Joseph's death when Roosevelt is a young man and tells about how Roosevelt came to acquire his canoe (a gift from Joseph) which is still on display at the Roosevelt's family home. This book would most likely be interesting for children around grade 3 to 5.

Book Review

2009-08-04T15:33:00.000-07:00

Wall Carolyn, Sweeping up Glass. New York : Random House, 2009.

Olivia Harker Cross lives in the mountains of Kentucky during the time of the great depression with her elderly and insane mother and her young grandson, abandoned by a mother with dreams of “making it” in California. Olivia has not had an easy life. She lost her beloved Pap at an early age and has been left with her mother Ida who is crazy and abusive. Furthermore her life has been marred by extreme poverty especially since the impoverished residents of her community have not been able to pay for items from the store she runs nor for the “doctoring services” provided by her Pap to local animals. Olivia also has dangerous enemies who are making life treacherous for her and now her enemies are killing her beloved wolves.

Carolyn Wall writes Olivia's story in a fast paced and engaging way which is tinged with mystery. Her style is reminiscent of other Southern writers such as Harper Lee and Dorothy Allison. This book was an engaging read and I would highly recommend it.

Book Review

2009-08-04T15:31:00.000-07:00

Hopgood, Mei Ling. Lucky Girl: a Memoir. Chapel Hill, Algonquin Books, 2009.

In 1974 Mei Ling Hopgood was adopted from Taiwan by Rollie and Chris Hopgood in what was to be one of the first international adoptions. After about seven months of bureaucratic red tape, Mei Ling was finally able to join her American family. Growing up in Taylor Michigan ( a suburb of Detroit) with parents whom she loved and who loved her dearly and with two younger brothers who were adopted from Korea, Mei Ling lived an all American girlhood and barely gave a though to the family who gave her up. But her birth family showed up out of the blue wanting to meet her and would not take no for an answer.

Her birth family turned out to be a middle class family of Chinese ancestry living in Taipei, defying Mei Lings expectations of a poor peasant family living in the country. Along the way she also met her sister Irene Hoffmann, also given up at birth by their birth parents to a couple from Switzerland.

Mei Lings memoir deals sensitively with the conflicting emotions she has felt about meeting a family who is so different culturally from her in ways she can't ignore. She also deals with how she felt growing up in the seventies near Detroit as one of the few people of Asian descent and facing barely disguised anti Asian discrimination while at the same time considering herself to be fully American.

This was a wonderful book which was hard to put down. I would highly recommend it.

Book Review

2009-08-04T15:27:00.000-07:00

Mintle, Linda Dr. Press Pause Before You Eat. Howard Books : New York, 2009.

I will begin by saying that Dr. Mintle is a well known author of Christian self help books. I did not know this before reading the book and mention it only because this book will not speak as well to a non-Christian audience. Indeed many Librarything reviewers were suspicious of this book because it was Christian.

That being said, the topic of this book (mindless eating) is a timely one which affects so many of us. Her book is very conversational and includes many anecdotes from her personal life and from the lives of her friends and the patients she encountered in her years as an eating disorders specialist. Dr. Mintle is very knowledgeable and her suggestions are very sound. Her book was very easy to read because of her conversational tone. I have struggled a lot myself with mindless and emotional eating and I definitely recognized myself in many of her stories. I also learned some tricks that might help me in my own struggles with weight. I also found her use of scripture to be very insightful and inspiring and not at all heavy handed.

I would recommend this book to anyone who wants a Christian perspective on overcoming struggles with emotional and mindless overeating.

Book Review Levine, James A. The Blue Notebook. New York : Spiegel & Grau, 2009

2009-07-28T16:59:00.000-07:00

I have two small children. Needless to say it has been a very long time since I have sat down with a book and obsessively read it until I was finished. The Blue Notebook is the book that ended a seven year streak. I started reading at 6:30 and did not (as much as possible) put it down until I was done somewhat after midnight.

The Blue Notebook is the fictional diary of the precocious and imaginative 15 year old Batuk Rasmadeen who was sold into sexual slavery by her father at the age of nine. Although Dr. Levine is a middle aged British doctor living in Minnesota, he is able to convincingly portray the interior mind of a young female prostitute living and working at Mumbai's notorious “street of cages”.

His portrayal is of a young girl who is secretly horrified by the circumstances she finds herself in, yet learns to internalize this, because she quickly learns that working is the only way to survive in the life in which she finds herself. Literate in a society where many are not, she knows that she is capable of much more than her narrow circumstances allow, but she is she is treated as a pariah by her “betters” in Mumbais's constrained society. Due to her imagination and ability to write she is able to have an escape of sorts but there are to be no happy endings for Batuk.

I would recommend this book wholeheartedly. It is beautifully written and shines much needed light on a persistent global crisis.

Book Review - Ready, Steady, Spaghetti

2009-04-25T14:33:00.001-07:00

I will start my review by saying that my daughter (6 1/2) loves to cook and loves to browse for recipes. She collects cookbooks and sometimes even steals my cookbooks and cooking magazines. Needless so say, I was excited to receive yet another cookbook to add to her collection, and I was very interested to see what she thought of it.

My daughter is a huge fan of the Annabel Karmel cookbooks and already has a couple of those, so I was on some level comparing this recipe book to the ones that she has. We flipped through the cookbook together. A small number of the recipes were definite must tries, a few were definite never tries (chicken noodle omelet?) and there were a few old standbys the appear in just about every cookbook imaginable. (scrambled eggs, anyone?) Not that I have anything against recipes for scrambled eggs in a children's cookbook. However I haven't noticed scrambled eggs necessarily being a real hit in my household and I liked the idea in one of our other cookbooks of making a "sun" out of pieces of toast surrounding the scrambled eggs and calling them "sunny eggs", which turned plain old scrambled eggs and whole wheat toast into a feast for the eyes, so to speak.

An issue I had with the book is that safety was not emphasized enough. I understand that 6 is not the age group that this book is aimed at, but even for eight and nine year old's, it would still be a good idea to emphasize the need for adult supervision.

In short the book had beautiful pictures which to my mind had more of a visual appeal to adults than to children, some interesting recipes (the coconut ice was delicious and easy). What it lacked for children was more visual appeal geared towards a child's taste and more frequent warnings about food safety, and what it lacked from an adult perspective was more recipes designed to make healthy foods more appealing to the fussy eaters in their lives. (And please no recipes for hummus, you will not gets beans into either my daughter or her 4 year old brother so don't even try.)

In conclusion, I would say that even though I initially wondered whether my daughter would ever give this book back to me so I could actually look at it, but in the end she lost interest in it pretty quickly. (By contrast I'm still waiting for my "Taste of Home" Halloween special and would really like it back please.....)

Book Review - The Best Mariachi

2008-12-07T15:30:00.000-08:00

Book Review Smith, J.D.The Best Mariachi. McHenry. IL : Raven Tree Press, 2008

Gustavo wants to be a Mariachi. Gustavo wants to be the best Mariachi. He wants to wear a sombrero and a charro and play the guitar, or the trumpet or the violin. He wants everyone to clap when he plays. Unfortunately for Gustavo he can't play the violin or the guitar. He can't play anything. He is not the best mariachi in the world, he is the worst mariachi in the world! He would never get to wear a charro or a sombrero and nobody would every clap for him. One day he gets up early to sing. He can't stop singing, and he is good at singing! Everyone claps for him and he is no longer the worst mariachi in the world, he is the best mariachi in the world!

I tried reading this book to my children since they would be the best judges of whether this was a good book for their age group. I found that the book was a good read aloud book, with nice illustrations and a good moral about not giving up and trying to find your best role in life. Gustavo was an appealing character who you really wish the best for and are happy to find can do something really well. My kids let me know that the story is sticky and that there are parts that small children will remember for a long time. Weeks after reading this book my son (four) remembered that the book was called the “Best Mariachi. This book also introduces children to Mexican culture and teaches them a few Spanish words. To be honest my daughter did not like this book as much as my son did, who kind of “adopted” the book and carries it around with him. But it really seems to be easier to find books that appeal to girls than books that appeal to boys.

I would recommend this book to any children from around 4 to 7, especially little boys.

Book Review - Any Given Doomsday

2008-12-07T15:27:00.001-08:00

Book Review: Handeland, Lori Any Given Doomsday. New York: St. Martins Press, 2008.

Word of caution here: I am not a fan of genre fiction, especially thriller fiction,and I was very surprised to hear that I was receiving this book. That being said I was pleasantly surprised to enjoy this book - at first. Liz Phoeniz is an ex-cop turned bartender who is also a psychic. She has a “sense” that her former caregiver , Ruthie needs her help. When she gets to Ruthie's house, she finds that Ruthie has been brutally murdered. Even worse, her former lover Jimmy Sanducci is the prime suspect. She soon finds out that Ruthie had special powers that Liz inherits and that she is about to be in the front lines of a battle of good versus evil, loosely based on the biblical book of revelations. Jimmy and others are also involved in this battle.

As I said I enjoyed this book at first. However the more supernatural forces that entered the picture the less I found myself enjoying this book and the more I found my belief suspended. I also found none of the characters likeable, especially not Liz and Jimmy. As I often find with genre fiction, the plot and the characters were somewhat formulaic. (Bitter ex-cops who are products of the foster care system anyone?) but I recognize for many readers that this is an appealing aspect of genre fiction. However what really lost me was the amount of gratutitous violence and later the amount of gratuitous sex. The amount of sex in the book was especially of putting . Was this a paranormal thriller or a romance novel? There was far too much genre mixing for my taste.

Readers who enjoy paranormal thrillers might enjoy this book, but as someone who does not usually read thrillers, this book seemed to be a not particularly well written representative of the genre

Book Review - Sweetsmoke

2008-12-07T12:38:00.000-08:00

Book Review: Fuller, David. Sweetsmoke. New York : Hyperion, 2008

Sweetsmoke follows the story of the slave Cassius Howard living on his masters plantation in Virginia during the civil war. When his friend and mentor Emoline Justice is found murdered, Cassius sets out to find her murderer, hardly an easy task for a slave in Civil War Virginia. His ability as a carpenter has kept him in the favor of his Master Hoke Howard, but when he investigates his friends murder he finds out things about his master that strain their relationship.

This was a very difficult review to write as I wasn't sure what to say. I was excited to hear about this book being available. I read a lot of fiction about slaves living in the pre-antibellum south. However, when I read this book I just never connected with it. There is no doubt that this book is very well researched and the story is compelling. Nonetheless I wasn't drawn into any of the characters and I felt that sometimes the narrative jumped around quite a bit. By contrast, the next book I read was Somebody Knows my Name by Lawrence Hill, a book with a lot of similarities in subject matter butt I loved it. I think that Sweetsmoke is very well written and would recommend it to the many readers who enjoy well researched historical fiction and will really enjoy it.

Book Review Mired in the Health Care Morass

2008-04-25T17:44:00.000-07:00

Davis, Neil. Mired in the Health Care Morass: An Alaskan Takes on America's Dysfunctional Medical System for his Uninsured Daughter. Ester Republic Press, 2008. (Book Review)

In 1994 Patricia Davis faced an increasingly common dilemma. Symptoms indicated that she should seek medical care immediately. Having just started a new job, with health insurance that didn't kick in for six more months, she was trying to put off seeing a doctor until then. Three months into this job the need to seek medical attention had become inescapable. Her diagnosis was lung cancer. She did not have insurance yet and her cancer was now a “pre-existing condition”. Now she was faced with tens of thousands of dollars in potential medical bills that she could not afford to pay. Enter her father, Neil Davis, who offered to pay her bills to the best of his ability.

It didn't take Davis long to notice huge discrepancies in the billing. Thus began his education on medical billing practices in the United States. He discovered that uninsured patients are billed fees that are astronomically higher than the fees the paid by insurance companies on behalf of insured patients and by Medicaid on behalf of Medicaid recipients. This is to cover expenses that have not been paid either by indigent patients or by ordinary middle class patients who cannot cover their uninsured expenses. The many charts and statistics he uses to illustrate his findings can be hard to understand at times, but believe it or not they accurately illustrate his point that the complexity of the American system creates expense. He skewers some fondly held myths about the U.S. Health care system and shines light on the health care systems in other nations. He also gives his prescription for how the U.S. Health care system can be changed.

Neil Davis has experiences in being a consumer of health care that most of us never hope to have, but which will become increasingly commonplace as the health care becomes increasingly broken. His answers to the health care crises (universal, uniform payments, distributed to patients regardless of ability to pay, regulation of drug companies) are well thought out and do not come from a place of a particular political ideology but instead from his own experiences and research. His book is well researched and a convincing call to radically overhaul the American health care system from someone who has experienced the worst that the American health care system has to offer.

Book Review "The Translator" by Daoud Hari

2008-03-06T17:10:00.000-08:00

Book Review
Hari, Daoud. The Translator New York: Random House Publishing Group, 2008.

“I bring the stories to you because I know that most people want others to have good lives, and, when they understand the situation, they will do what they can to steer the world back to kindness” writes Daoud Hari at the beginning of his new memoir The Translator. Most of us in North America have only a vague idea about the troubles in the western Sudanese region known as Dafur, and even those of us who are reasonably knowledgeable about the situation there cannot even begin to imagine the levels of the atrocities there. This allows Americans to be complacent about the situation in Dafur and fail to respond with the help that is so clearly needed.

The deterioration of the climate in Sudan and subsequent famines during the eighties and nineties led to a worsening of relations between Arabs and the indigenous Fur and Zaghawa. In April of 2003, thirty three rebel land cruisers attacked a government military base. In retaliation President Bashir began a program of systemic genocide by the Arab government forces against the Zaghawa majority. Daoud Hari watched the harrowing destruction of his own village. Heartbroken at the deaths of friends and family members and armed with high school English and some key telephone numbers, Hari offered his services to western journalists so that they would have no reason not to come and get the story out about what is happening in Dafur. In the process he put his life on the line over and over again so that western journalists could get a realistic picture of how the people of Dafur have suffered. In the end he was imprisoned and tortured along with American journalist Paul Salopek, with his life being spared only through the intervention of Americans who were helped by him in the past.

Hari's description of the violence is harrowing and heartbreaking. This makes it impossible for the reader to look away and ignore what they have read. His courage and determination that one person can make a difference should be and inspiration to everyone. This is an important book that should be read and talked about as much as possible. I will definitely recommend this book to my friends.

Book Review - The Story of Forgetting by Stefan Merrill Block

2008-01-13T09:05:00.000-08:00

Book Review Block, Stefan Merrill. The Story of Forgetting. New York: Random House, 2008

“Once, I fell in love with everything” writes Stefan Merrill Block at the beginning of his first novel The Story of Forgetting. With this one sentence I was hooked. This book tells the stories of Abel Haggard, a elderly hermit who is stuck in the past and Seth Waller, a lonely and precocious 15 year old whose mother is afflicted with a rare and inherited form of early onset Alzheimer's disease. As the stories of Abel Haggard become more inextricably linked, it seems at first as if the only thing these two characters have in common is a memory of stories of a fantastical land called Isidora, which are interwoven throughout the book.

Seth Waller is an intelligent and sensitive teenager living in suburban Austin, who is rejected by his peers. It does not help at all that his mother is becoming increasingly forgetful and absentminded. After his mother is diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease he conducts an “empirical investigation” to determine the source of his mothers affliction as his mothers background is shrouded in mystery. Abel Haggard is a hermit who is becoming increasingly mired in the past, especially the past with his brother and his brothers wife with whom he is in love and their daughter whom he claims as his own. He lives on his broken down family farm on the outskirts of ever encroaching suburban sprawl on the outskirts of Dallas.

Blocks prose is very lyrical and at times almost reads like poetry. The narrative flows along very smoothly and Block does an excellent job of blending all the disparate elements (Abel's story, Seth's story, Seth's “empirical investigation” and the Isidora story) and I though the themes of the Isidora story mirrored perfectly the state of mind in the main narrative at the time. I also felt the Block dealt sensitively with the motivations and feelings of his characters, whether dealing with the emotional baggage of having a familial form of a debilitating disease such as the type of Alzheimer's disease which afflicts Seth's mother which affects half of all descendants of its carriers in the prime of life or dealing with saving the family home in the face of increasing suburban sprawl. I have not read a book which dealt so well with the issue of trying to live while literally living under the threat of what must feel like a genetic time bomb, which may or may not cut short the prime of one's own life or that of one's own children.

In short, I felt that the Story of Forgetting was an excellent debut and I would be very interested in reading more from this young author.

Note: This review is based on the Advanced Reader's Edition.

Hedge Hunters: Hedge Fund Masters on the Rewards, The Risk and the Reckoning : Book Review

2007-12-05T07:25:00.000-08:00

Burton, Katherine Hedge Hunters: Hedge Fund Masters on the Rewards, the Risk, and the Reckoning (Hardcover). New York: Bloomberg Press, 2007.

Burton, a journalist for Bloomberg news, writes eighteen short profiles of some of the most important hedge fund investors working today including profiles of 13 up and comers picked by the master hedge fund investors themselves. I found the book somewhat informative as someone who is not very familiar with the world of Hedge Funds.

On the down side, many of the profiles were on the superficial side often dealing with the personal style and background of the investors. From the tile I expected that the book would provide more critical analysis but the profiles were short, not particularly pithy and some of her insights were not particularly revelatory. For example that Good Hedge Fund Investors are smart, independent, ambitious and have lots of connections is not exactly news.

In short, this book would appeal to business people who would like an inspiring and not too long read. Unfortunately the title might imply a larger readership.

Donde Esta Rosetta Stone

2007-10-19T08:08:00.000-07:00

Perhaps you've been wondering where I've been. For the last few months I've been trying to learn Spanish using our public libraries remote subscription to Rosetta Stone. For the last few weeks I've been trying to "Spanish up" before Rosetta Stone pulls the plug for good on allowing libraries to serve Rosetta Stone to their registered users over the Internet. In our library access ends on October 31st. I suspect they want all those poachers who use Rosetta Stone from their library to pay for the product themselves. I'm not sure how their thinking is going. Do they think that all of a sudden thousands of library users will magically have another $500 to pay for their own copy? I guess they hoped libraries would provide free advertising for them so that more customers will buy their overpriced and over hyped product. Me, I'm hoping that some nice person will buy me Auralog's Tell Me More Spanish Intelligent solution software for Christmas or even better that our library will subscribe to the Tell Me More service.

Steven Colbert Has His Finger On The Pulse Of The Nation

2007-09-26T11:02:00.000-07:00

Last week Colbert was "congratulating" students at the University of Florida for standing by and doing nothing while a fellow student was Tasered while attempting to ask John Kerry questions during a speech and predicted that the brave students would fight back by blogging about it. Predictably he reported the next day that some students protested his comments on their blog. And here I am writing about it in my blog. Makes me ashamed to have a blog. Remember action on the streets?(or in the administrators office?) Colbert is right. Now whenever any one feels that rights are being violated they add to the general decline of the national discourse by blogging about it.

Why do I have a blog? Because some in my profession feel that "social softwares" are the greatest doggone thing since sliced bread, so I feel the need to "become familiar" with blogs despite real misgivings about the amateurisation of North American culture. I also have a facebook account although it seems to me that facebook society attempts to mimic all aspects of american adolescent culture except possibly the warmth of human contact. Take Top Friends for example. Why do I want to rate my friends and post their ratings on my page? I already went to junior high, years ago, and I really don't want to go back. Or do I really need to know that according to Facebook, I am considered a social outcast? (ouch!) Also as a Christian I am sometimes put off by some of the *ahem* cruder aspects of Facebook (and anti social aspects as well, to be frank)

This is not to say that libraries should not be interested in social technologies, just that sometimes we get all excited and happy about the cool (and fun!) new technologies and very rarely ever spend the time considering the social consequences that new technologies leave in their wake.

Ballerina Culture

2007-09-21T09:25:00.000-07:00

My daughter started ballet lessons last night and she absolutely loved it. Like most of her almost five year old friends she is going through a fairy princess ballerina stage. Barbie actually capitalizes on this trend the best by making movies in which the main characters literally are fairy princess ballerinas. Of course she needed a tutu and all the fixings. The class really was more like pre-ballet but most of the little girls had tutus and slippers. Now I'm not going to be the one to burst her bubble (unless of course she is seventeen and STILL considering ballerina as a career choice) but I don't see my daughter as a ballerina. For one thing she most likely will be far too tall and for another thing, as thin as she is now the tutu made her look like a fullback for the Fighting Irish or at the very least a soccer player for the little miss USA soccer team. In fact whenever she ran "daintily" around the room she really looked like she was barreling across the soccer field. Of course I don't want to hurt her feelings but I also don't want her to get totally involved in ballet and have someone else hurt her feelings down the line. Maybe I'm over thinking this. Hopefully she'll enjoy this for a few years, get sick of it and go onto the next project. I just wonder why it seems that nowadays all little girls get on the "princess" bandwagon and why being a tomboy just is not as acceptable a choice nowadays, especially for little girls little my daughter who are, shall we say, more "athletically built" than dainty.

Donde Esta Mary? (And Exactly How do You Get Accents on an English Keyboard if You Don't Mind my Asking)

2007-09-20T12:01:00.000-07:00

Lately it has come to my attention that in order to find a library job I need to participate in some kind of Continuing Education program in order to demonstrate that while I've been out of the work force I have been doing something. (As if watching a hyperactive three year old and his equally active five year old sister isn't doing something) One thing I've been doing in my "spare time" is trying to learn Spanish as many public library systems here in Northern Indiana need Spanish speakers. Lately I've been working on my Spanish not just strictly in my spare time leaving not so very much time for other things like writing my blog. Right now my daughter is in school but my son is looking at me forlornly holding an open bottle of water. It looks like its time for some continuing education in toddler developmental psychology. Buenas Dias!

Get the Mosquitos Outta Here!

2007-09-12T09:01:00.000-07:00

As if just having far to many mosquitoes wasn't bad enough, the Indiana Board of Health in Indianapolis has warned residents of of St. Joseph (our county), Elkhart, LaPorte and LaGrange counties in Indiana of a possible outbreak of mosquito borne Eastern Equine Encephalitis. It's the plague I tell you! Note to self, definitely remember to give daughters preschool permission to spray her with bug poison, er repellent.

Unattended Children in the Library

2007-09-12T07:45:00.000-07:00

I just finished reading a compilation post on PUBYAC about policies regarding unattended children while their parents are on the Internet. It brought me back to my days as a librarian in an under served area of Brooklyn. Every so often Branch Administration would institute parental supervision policies for the branches to follow. How we would laugh! The idea! Parents bringing their children to the library and watching them! When we got the Internet we did have one or two mothers who would come in for hours with their very small children and leave the children functionally unattended. I'm not sure it ever occurred to us to insist to strongly that the mothers watch the children themselves. After all they came in during the middle of the day when the computers (and we) were most available so really what else did we have to do but read their children some stories. We were just happy that the mothers weren't completely being left on the off ramp of the information superhighway. What were they going to do about finding care for their children anyways, hire a babysitter?(With what?), get dad to chip in? (Where is dad anyhow?), buy their own computer to surf at home? (Be realistic!) . Seriously, when I read this post, and statistics bear this out by the way, it immediately occurred to me that those who rely on computers at the library are generally at high risk of being of being on the wrong side of the Digital Divide. So I'm with the woman who encourages libraries to be proactive to the needs of mothers who are on the Internet at the library. Don't get me wrong. I'm sympathetic to what can happen when children are left unattended for too long, and I can imagine that not all patrons who use library computers and abandon their children while they surf are in the situation that my former patrons were. I have two little kids and they can get into incredible mischief when I turn my back for even two seconds. Once when I was at the library, I was putting our books into our stroller, when my then three year old daughter stuck her arm into the door jamb. Not something I ever anticipated happening. I guess you really do have to be three to think sticking your arm in the door jamb is a good idea. Fortunately I saw her do it and grabbed the door before it closed. Otherwise the story wouldn't be even in the least bit funny. (You have to admit it's kind of funny). If I was on the computers at the library, even for five or ten minutes I know exactly what they would do. They would walk right out of the library onto the busy street smack into the path of a car. That why I don't use the computer at the public library, I use it a home when the kids are distracted by a snack, Dad or best of all bedtime. But that's the advantage of being white and middle class. You get to have little luxuries like a husband that fully supports your family and sometimes gives you free time to "enrich" yourself, as well as your own computer with Internet access. That's why libraries that serve minority patrons should be open and creative in finding ways to serve both their patrons need to use library computers and their children's need for constant supervision.

Progressive AND Catholic???

2007-09-12T07:41:00.001-07:00

The other day I received this article through my RSS feed to Catholic Online U.S. News. It was a good week because I also happened to pick up at the library A Dynamic God : living an unconventional Catholic faith by Nancy Mairs. I thought “Holy Cow or, I guess. Holy Jesus, Mary and Joseph I actually do exist. Because until now I thought Catholics were supposed to vote REPUBLICAN! Actually by getting on the Christian right bandwagon Christians of all denominations are doing themselves a real disservice. Have you ever noticed that in intellectual/progressive circles Christianity has developed a bad name? With so many Christians allying themselves with the Christian Right, Christianity has become synonymous in some peoples mind with right wing politics. Funny thing though, Jesus never actually had anything to do with either the Republican or the Democratic parties, despite what the Republican Party may claim. And I can’t believe that a God who believed in feeding the hungry, caring for the sick and helping the needy would support politicians who support greed. I know that the story is that the Republican Party has the upper hand in moral issues. I don’t buy it. To believe that you would have to reduce morality to issues of sexual plumbing. Even then these issues are much more complex than the pundits would have you believe. I am not saying that either party has a moral upper hand. Both parties are heavily indebted to lobbyists and at times it seems as if voters don’t even exist. The problem with a two party system is that neither choice is particularly wonderful. But I do support a progressive agenda and believe of the two parties that the Democratic Party is closest to progressiveness. A least hopefully they’ll get the troops out of Iraq, maybe institute universal health care, institute fair immigration policies, abolish the death penalty….Well a girl can always dream can’t she?

PJ and the Binky

2007-09-10T06:58:00.000-07:00

PJ lately has a new love, other than the little girl at church.

We are a fellowship parish!

2007-09-10T06:45:00.000-07:00

I am on the current womens team for Christ Renews his Parish at our parish in South Bend. Some of our talk has been around increasing fellowship in our parish. Happily 3 year old PJ is getting into the spirit. Yesterday at mass we asked him to turn around and face the front but he very loudly announced "NO, I'm talking to these guys". Later on I was surprised to see him scratching his head on the hand of the gentleman in the pew behind us, who blessedly didn't seem to mind. Later he grabbed the hand of the three year old girl also in the pew behind us and gazed fondly in her eyes and WOULD NOT LET GO. At the end of the mass Christina genuflected deeply before the host. Not PJ. He was out like a flash towards the parking lot, giving Mommy a chance just to give a nod as if to say "see you later Jesus". He stopped just long enough to take the obligatory slurp of the holy water.

Christina Ballerina

2007-09-10T06:39:00.000-07:00

Four year old Christina is starting ballet in two weeks and she is totally psyched. For now she is "practicing" with Angelina!

A Trip to The Zoo

2007-09-08T17:34:00.000-07:00

"I'm on my way to the zoo, the zoo, the zoo, the zoo, the zoo
The monkey cage is nearly full but I think there's still room for you!"
Robertson Davies
A Leaven of Malice

It was one of those ideas that seemed like a good idea at the time. Go to the Zoo member picnic, have supper with thousands of other Zoo supporters, see some animals, do some fun activities, ride the Zoo train and go home in time for bed, having had dinner. And the kids were so excited they are literally jumping up and down for joy. The first sign that it might go wrong appeared when we were walking to the zoo. It did seem as if there were a lot of cars parked along the street, by the way. Christina mentioned that the sun was going down. "No sweetie", I said, "its just cloudy outside". Did I remember the weather report mentioning rain???? No, I distinctly remember the weather report NOT mentioning rain. We turn into the parking lot. The line up seemed rather long. No as I look closer, the line up looks very very long. Christina and PJ attempt to bud in front of .....everyone. We wait in line for fifteen minutes, short considering the size. As we wait in line I am reminded again and again that the mosquito population in South Bend is the worst apparently in 18 years. We get to the front of the line and feel the first drops of rain. We decide to go into the reptiles and small mammals building and let the rain pass. It doesn't pass. We decide to take a trip on the zoo train and either go home and get pizza or get our zoo lunch. We get on the train and are told that the train is shutting down. We get off and go get our lunch. The kids are not happy to not be taking a trip on the zoo train. We stand in line for food. Now it is really pouring. Some children are running up and down the slippery hill and PJ and Christina join them. Darn it, where is Christina when I'm holding a bag, her doll, three lunches and three cups. There is an accident .....and....there goes supper. Pizza for dinner it is. All the way home Christina complains that she never wanted to go to the zoo......As I write this, its a quarter after nine and I'm still not sure when I'm geting the kids to bed.

A World of Temptation

2007-09-08T17:07:00.000-07:00

Taking a preschooler and a toddler grocery shopping can be harrowing at times. It is me or is marketing junk food to kids becoming even more aggressive. Do "fruit" snacks really need to be shaped into every possible preschool marketing success story to make them more attractive to children? Isn't it enough that they are fruity flavored and loaded with sugar? Here is a partial list of the food that Christina tried with various levels of success to sneak into my grocery bask this morning:

1. Two boxes of sugar cookies
2. Muffins
3. A half watermelon cut in an interesting way
4. "jelly beans"
5. Post Honeycomb cereal
6. Fruit Loops
7. Nibs
8. Strawberry whoppers
9. Two packages of mini donuts, chocolate and crumb
10. Dora AND Blues Clues yogurt
11. Ice Cream
12. Ice Cream Treats
13. Ding Dongs
14. Pizza
and oh yes 15. Candy from the checkout strategically placed in prime "I want it territory"

Book Review - Tipperary by Frank Delaney

2007-09-07T07:11:00.000-07:00

I was delighted to receive the Advance Reading Edition of Tipperary by Frank Delaney though LibraryThings Early Reviewers program, and I was surprised at how much I enjoyed it. Historical fiction is not a genre I usually gravitate towards, but I found the book beautifully written and was drawn in from the start. Charles O’Brien, the main character and an itinerant healer, issues a warning to “be careful of him” which was intriguing. O’Brien proved to be a likeable and fascinating main character. In fact it was hard to see why his love interest, April Burke, spurned him so!

What a life Charles O’Brien claims to have had! He inadvertently brought down Irish political hero Charles Parnell, is a healer at Oscar Wilde’s death bead, (this is where he meets Miss Burke and first hears the story of her claim on Tipperary castle) gives writing advice to the young James Joyce and become acquainted with George Bernard Shaw and William Butler Yeats. Finally he becomes involved in the Irish civil war and assists member of the Irish Republican Army.

Upon meeting April, O’Brien falls in love not only with her but with Tipperary Castle and tries to involve himself wherever he can in the upkeep and the restoration of this building that both he and April love so much. The descriptions of the Castle and of the Irish countryside are beautifully detailed.

A secondary narrator at first seemed intrusive, especially since I would have like to find out what was happening next, but as he gradually became more ingrained in the story and less dispassionate his insight became more and more important. This is especially true after the fourth chapter where he introduces himself and starts to give the reader some insight into his very personal interest into the story of Charles O’Brien and April Burke. Other narrators including Charles’ mother Amelia and Charles’ dear friend Joseph Harney add interesting perspectives on events as they unfold.

Delaney demonstrates in this book a great love of the Irish land and people and a tremendous grasp of Irish history. I found this book to be a very entertaining read and had no problem with the ambitious scope of this book. Even better the book held surprises right until the very end. I would definitely be interested in reading more by Frank Delaney.

Virginia Counties Targeting Illegal Immigrants?

2007-09-06T19:32:00.000-07:00

I just got my issue of American Libraries and learned that in the wake of Congress' failure to pass a Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act in June, Loudoun and Prince William Counties in Virginia are passing resolutions to limit illegal immigrants' access to public services. I say shame on Loudoun and Prince William County and all the other counties and states who are passing laws and resolutions to limit freedoms to illegal immigrants.

What Americans need to realize is that 1. the system of immigration in this country is broken and 2. someone is benefiting from illegal immigration and contrary to popular belief it is *not* the illegal immigrants. Think about this. There are 12 million illegal immigrants in the United States. Some one must really want illegal immigrants here. Everyone who hires domestic help illegally and pays them under the table benefits, every corporation who "unknowingly" contracts illegal immigrants to work for less than minimum wage benefits. Corporations who can keep wages for all their employees low benefit. Illegal immigrants do not benefit from current immigration law. They end up on a dangerous journey to a country that doesn't want them, to work in a job which puts them in a situation where they are easily exploited.

All immigrants would benefit much more from having an easier legal path to immigration. Employers would have to pay a living wage and benefits, and when the children of illegal immigrants grew up they would not be barred from an education or employment because they too, quite innocently, are also illegal immigrants. I know what the path to immigration is like in the United States because I too am an immigrant. I started the immigration process legally over ten years ago and am not appreciably closer to achieving permanent residency status, never mind having citizenship than I was then . I also know the casual insults that immigrants endure everyday, like having to send my immigration documents to the State Capitol every time I renew my driver license so they make sure that I'm in the country legally, or being tested for Std's just to get my green card, like being an immigrant makes it more likely that I'll engage in risky behavior.

Christians are often admonished to consider, ironically enough, "What Would Jesus Do"? Well, I know what he would not do. He would not throw good people in jail for helping God's people in need, He would not make strangers feel unwelcome in his home and he certainly would not turn people in need away from his door.

The Maternal Wall in Libraries?

2007-09-06T19:09:00.000-07:00

Once again I find myself pounding the pavement as it were looking for a new position as a librarian. This time however I find myself having even less success than the last time I looked for a job despite a new gung ho attitude and a positive new spin on marketing myself and ironically three more years of experience. Every time my phone calls are not returned yet again I start to get suspicions why.

You see, since I last worked as a librarian, I have gained five years of more than full time experience in another highly demanding field. You could say that I have experience working with children in a particularly intimate way. Yes, I am a stay at home mother to a five year old girl and a three year old boy. Naively I thought I would stay home with the little ones until they were ready to go back to school and then carry on where I left off. That was before I heard about the Maternal Wall.

Not that I know for sure that this is the issue in my case, just that I know anecdotally from other stay at home mom librarians that it can be hard to get back in the field once you've been out and I also know that discrimination against mothers is widespread in business and the professions. With the wage gap between non mothers and men being narrowed, discrimination against mothers is in large part to blame for there still being a wage gap at all. I also have experienced particularly in academic libraries that the value placed on the so called ideal worker, ei one without outside obligations is huge.

So, where does this leave me? So far I'm learning Spanish and taking a multitude of continuing education courses in my "spare time". It has also left me wondering if some of the continuing education I take should not possibly be in the direction of a new career.

My little Fairy

2007-09-04T13:10:00.000-07:00

My son has always been one to develop a clothing fascination. Last week he wanted to wear his Miss Spider rain boots with everything. This week he is wearing a fairy Tutu I made for his sister for Halloween two years ago. So cute. It reminds me of a story a friend told me that she heard on Bill O'Reilly. Bill claimed that some parents of a young boy who liked to dress up in girls clothing decided that their son was a transvestite and convince the school to treat him like one. Typical Bill story. Take one case, which may or may not be true, blow it way out of proportion and use it as an example of the decline of family values in our civilization. Really, I think what happens much more often is that parents blow these innocent little phases out of proportion in the other direction. Right now, I think a T-shirt with a tutu with the all important addition of Thomas the Tank engine sneakers is a good look for my son, just like underpants and rain boots were during the "rain boot phase".

Steve Almond “Not that you Asked” Special Excerpt Booklet (Book Review)

2007-08-30T08:12:00.000-07:00

From reading other reviews of this book on LibraryThing and from briefly skimming through the book I did not expect to enjoy it as much as it did. After all the first two essays are about a young adolescent boys early forays into sexual experimentation so I expected mostly prurient humor. I certainly did not expect to laugh out loud several times (as I did). It turned out that the first two essays dealt with a more universal adolescent experience, that of feeling self conscious and in the spotlight. I felt that Almond dealt with these two admittedly mortifying adolescent experiences with intelligence and wit.

I found the third essay “How to write a sex scene to be relatively weak but his essay “Why I crush on Vonnegut which made up bulk of his booklet was his strongest essay out of the five that made up the booklet. It turns out to be a criticism of conventional literary critique and Almond opinions of why Vonnegut remains relevant to readers even though he is not universally loved by critics.

Of course I looked forward to reading the imaginatively titled “Ham for Chanukah” which turned out to be about the effect that the Almond Family’s rather lukewarm and dysfunction holiday celebrations had on the author growing up and why now he is now practicing his Jewish faith with his family with more faithfulness than he experienced growing up.

This is how most of the essays turned out to be. Underlying most of his essays was a commentary of what is was like growing up in the suburbs of California as a member of generation X, which as a generation Xer myself spoke volumes to me. I will definitely read the rest of the book when it is released.

Boundaries? We Don't Need No Stinkin Boundaries!

2007-08-26T11:04:00.000-07:00

Sometimes since having kids I feel like I've lost all my privacy. Take two days ago. I get up and get my children out of bed and I'm still in my pajamas. My not-quite-five year old Stacy London in Training grabs my breast and say "Mommy! You have to put on your booby holder so your boobies don't fall down!" What to do, what to do about fondling four year olds.......

My Day So Far

2007-08-24T11:12:00.000-07:00

Definitely there are good days and bad days when you are a stay at home mom with two pre-school aged children. Let me illustrate by giving a glimpse of my day:

8:30 My daughter wakes me up. I'm recovering from cold that is threatening to get worse and am worse for the wear.

8:35 I go to get my son. My daughter protests about this.

8:45 I start to make breakfast. My daughter asks for "eggy-loos".

9:00 I serve breakfast. My daughter informs me that eggs are "yucky".

9:30 I check my email.

10:00 *Still* checking email. Because I'm looking for a job as a librarian and apparently won't even be considered if I don't keep up with the profession, I subscribe to several professional blogs and listservs. Where do people find the time to post this stuff!!!!!!!!

10:30 I gather up my daughters supplies to take to preschool open house this afternoon.

10:45 Take out meet for dinner. All that is available is large packages of chicken and ground beef.

11:00 Have bath so I don't frighten daughter's teachers.

11:30 Try to get children into bath. Unfortunately "Maggie and the Ferocious Beast" has just come on so daughter does not comply.

11:50 "Maggie and Ferocious Beast" finished so daughter comes up for bath.

12:10 Kids won't come out of bath.

12:20 Kids finally come out.

12:30 Kids fight for snuggles.

12:40 Go downstairs to make lunch. Daughter requests macaroni and cheese "long on the side"Try to hurry so I can take kids to Target and library depending on when Schwan's man. comes.

12:45 Discover that son has painted dining room floor with lemonade and salt.

12:50 Mop dining room floor. Dining room floor needs vacuuming. Vacuum dining room and living room. Find that daughter has taken out every single Lincoln log.

1:05 Serve lunch. Am told that I used "wrong" macaroni.

1:30 Chicken still frozen solid. Consider buying dinner kit from Schwan's man when he comes.

2:30 Still waiting for Schwan's man. Consider buying nothing from him this month to spite him much to dismay of my children who would like me to buy 1,000 gallons of "Summers Dream" ice cream.

3:00 Schwan's man still not here. Partially thawed chicken for supper it is.....

9:00 P.M. Boys oh boys, here's the Schwan's man!

2007-08-24T07:49:00.001-07:00

Here is my a picture of my kids camping in Minnesota. Although it wasn't really a vacation, I can't say our trip wasn't memorable, what with the stomach flu, car troubles, rain, heat waves, and wasp stings.

Not Posting?

2007-07-21T13:18:00.000-07:00

I just noticed that I has been a long time since I posted. My only excuse is that it can be surprisingly hard to find time to post when your are a stay at home mom of small children, especially in the summer. Unless you have a laptop and wireless access. And are really good at multitasking,

My Cute Kids

2007-07-21T13:08:00.000-07:00

PJ on th left and Christina on the right

My little chefs

2007-06-27T15:33:00.000-07:00

There is not much scarier than turning your back for a minute and finding that the water you put on to boil for spaghetti has macaroni from a box of kraft macaroni and cheese in it and your *three* year old son is holding a package of cheese sauce. I have to admire his cooking skills though. I'm not sure I could make kraft macaroni and cheese by myself when I was three. My other little chef helped me make chocolate chip cookies and actually left some of the cookie dough behind. Then she said I'm a good cook, aren't I mommy! So cute.....

The Feminine Mistake

2007-06-27T09:41:00.000-07:00

I finished reading this book by Leslie Bennetts last week. This book has I know been highly controversial. I though it was extremely well written and touched on a very uncomfortable truth. This truth of course is that taking time off from work to care for your children can leave you in a very vulnerable position should the dream you have not work out. She also talked a lot about how difficult it is to get back into the workforce after being away for a while. From my own experience I am definately finding that to be true. Of course it is always difficult to know if the reason you didn't get that job is because another candidate was more qualified or if you didn't get the job because you stepped off your career path to care for children. One criticism I've heard of this book is that it concentrates like so many other books on middle and upper middle class mothers who opt or don't opt out of the workplace. I believe that this is not a fair criticism since in reality you need a relatively high income to make that choice of whether to stay home or not. Poor mothers really have no choices unfortunately, and often are pushed into unfortunate situations to provide for their families, a reality which sadly could make it's very own book.

Pray For My Son

2007-06-27T09:40:00.000-07:00

The poor little guy has conjunctivitis.....

How to Tell if a Catholic is Driving Too Fast

2007-06-21T15:45:00.001-07:00

Interview

2007-06-20T10:38:00.000-07:00

I'm interviewing on Friday at the St. Joseph County Public Library here in South Bend Indiana. My children and I have gone to this library since moving to South Bend and they've always enjoyed the creative and stimulating children's spaces and I've enjoyed the many services for adults. (Rosetta Stone online from the library anyone?) At any rate I have been reading Tame the Web blog to learn new developments in libraries and technology since the author Michael Stephens was for a long time the special projects librarian at SJCPL.

Down and Out for a While

2007-06-20T10:29:00.000-07:00

We've all had colds and ear infections here for a while. I am still at my worst unfortunately. Earlier last week I was also writing job applications and interviewing at Davenport University. Add also traveling to Canada for my 40th birthday and we had an eventful week.

Excited!

2007-06-08T12:01:00.001-07:00

I just found out that my local public library that I just love is hiring for a new adult reference librarian. I've been looking for work after being a stay at home mom for 4 years and let me tell you its a jungle out there. I love when new jobs pop up just when you've found out that you haven't gotten other jobs you've applied for.

Freedom Writers

2007-06-08T11:44:00.000-07:00

I just watched this movie last night. I was expecting the usual overly sentimental story of an idealistic young teacher saving kids from the inner city in Los Angeles, but I found the movie to be refreshingly honest as to the difficulties that a teacher who really cares might find teaching in an inner city school in the United States where the students are all but forgotten. It really struck me how she had to work two extra jobs so that she could buy her kids books to read. I'm also reading Educating Esme by Esme Raji Codell, also an idealistic young teacher in an inner city school, this time in Chicago, and was amazed to find that she had to do the SAME THING. Obviously educating young people in public schools has stopped being a priority somewhere along the line......

A contradiction?

2007-06-05T06:55:00.000-07:00

Is it just me or is there something ridiculous about riding around town in a huge Hummer covered with flags and bumper stickers that say "We support our troops"? I wonder what they're supporting our troops about. Job security maybe?

Haircuts

2007-06-04T13:32:00.000-07:00

Today I took my kids to get their haircut. Christina says she looks like a princess now! She is so easy to please. I'll post pictures when I can. They look so cute.