In the Time of the Butterflies

In the Time of the Butterflies

by Julia Alvarez

Finished another RA Favorite book, In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez.  The book is a historical fiction set in the Dominican Republic during the era of the dictatorship of Trujillo, a man who ruled with an iron fist, having those people who challenged him killed.  The story follows three Mirabal sisters whose life included education and challenging Trujilo’s rules.  It eventually led to their death in a “car accident”, which didn’t seem like an accident to most.  The book is a creative recreation in that the author used notes and stories from others but also used some poetic freedom.  I enjoyed the various characters’ views on each chapter of their lives, one chapter for each character.  A sad story of injustice in the DR.  Well written, moving story.

Uprising

Uprising

by Margaret Peterson Haddix

It still amazes me how many books I read that have a connection to NYU in some way. This time, a character in the story was an NYU second-year law student attempting to assist the main character.  It reminds me how lucky I am to be working at NYU, a place that impacts so many people!  The book, Uprising, by Margaret Peterson Haddix, describes the story of three young women all brought together by the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire (located in a building I can see from my office window in Kimmel Center). The book chronicles the stories of the three main characters and how their lives lead to their employment at the factory.  All three are immigrants who face the struggles of working in sub-human conditions for menial wages under barbaric supervisors.  It is a retrospective story in that one of the small children whose father owned the factory begins trying to find a woman who lived through the fire. She happens to be one of the three woman whom we meet throughout the book.  The three fight against the factory by forming a union, which meets resistance.  The events leading to the fire, the inferno itself, and what happens to the three friends is detailed in the following chapters.  The story ends full circle noting that the sole survivor of the three women carries her two friends with her as a memory through her own children.  Amazing to imagine the cruel and inhumane ways people were treated in the US….  But have we really completely changed?  An important story to never forget.

Stand Tall, Molly Lou Melon

Stand Tall, Molly Lou Melon

by Patty Lovell

Always great to read a book that makes you smile, especially when it teaches you a lesson. This children’s book, Stand Tall, Molly Lou Melon by Patty Lovell, does just that.  In this very short picturesque book, Molly Lou is taught by her grandmother to embrace who she is: a small, bucked-toothed girl with a voice that squeals.  It is when she moves away to a new town and starts school that the kids – one in particular – pick on her, but because she believes in herself, she is not afraid to run strong, use the teeth to her advantage, and sing proudly.  Through these three actions, she wins the praise of her new classmates in the face of the biggest of bullies, Ronald Durkin.  It ends with Molly Lou sending a letter to her grandmother thanking her for the reminders!  Wow…nice message in this day and age of so many haters.

Stiff

Stiff

by Mary Roach

I finished a very strange favorite book called Stiff by Mary Roach.  The book details the history of the human cadaver.  From the history of gravediggers exhuming bodies to make a living (selling them to science) to how the human body decays to how to embalm and everything in between, this book chronicles every aspect of the body after death.  Chapters are “self-contained” and focus on all things related to the body once someone dies.  Roach explores how cadavers are used as test subjects for car crashes, transplanted parts, practice bodies in the lab for medical students, new methods for embalming, cannibalism, and whether Jesus could have suffered on a cross based on the pictures on the cross.  She finally wraps up the book with her own thoughts on whether she will donate her body to medicine after her death.  I actually learned a great deal, but I’m not so sure I wanted to know all I found out.  It is a “niche read”, one that you’ll probably either love or find disturbing….  Parts of it were hard to read after lunch to be honest.  Just shows the great diversity of interests NYU students have in terms of reading materials. 

How to Walk Away

How to Walk Away

by Katherine Center

What happens when your boyfriend takes you on his airplane without a license, asks you to marry him, you get stuck in a storm, crash and then wake up in the hospital…paralyzed?  Welcome to Margaret Jacobsen’s nightmare.  Chip, her long-time boyfriend – the calm, cool, collected, WASPy, all-American guy – loses his cool, but manages to escape the plane crash unscathed.  He is unable to look at his “deformed” newly-asked fiance.  Katherine Center’s book How to Walk Away is a clear ‘chick-lit’ novel that is rather depressing, but it leaves the reader realizing there is a glimmer of hope, if you build it for yourself.  After a lengthy rehab, Maggie finds a way to realize that one creates their own lemonade out of lemons.  She endures despite never regaining her ability to walk, losing her fiance, falling in love with her physical therapist while in the hospital and then driving him away, watching her father leave her mother when it is learned that he is not the biological father of her sister, and many more hardships.  You can’t really have more drama!  Well, all things bad can turn bright…at least for those who work at it.  Cute book, somewhat predictable, but a pretty soft read.

Circe

Circe

by Madeline Miller

I haven’t ever been a fan of Greek mythology books, but this updated version was actually quite good.  In Madeline Miller’s book Circe, we are told the story of the ‘ugly’ daughter of the God of the sun, Helios, a mighty God among the leaders of the universe.  Circe is isolated from the rest of her family and is ultimately banished by her father to a remote island for eternity. There, she discovers that she has the powers of a witch, something that her father had long described her as, but she had never discovered her power.  On the island, she builds her repertoire of abilities.  Many of the greatest mythological figures make an appearance to grapple with her, including Daedalus, Medea, and Minotaur.  Circe falls in love with a sailor, Odysseus, who ventures onto the island and finds out she is pregnant with his child after his departure.  As their son, Telegonus, grows up, he desires to be reconnected with his father, the ruler of Ithaca.  But Telegonus soon learns that fate has bad things in store for him.  His visit brings about the death of his father, an escape with his half-brother, Telemachus, and his mother, Penelope.  Circe is constantly challenged to survive family bitterness & rivalry, and the Gods rule over all mortals.  The book is readable and enjoyable.  It is a story of love lost and holding on to the one thing you want in life.  Circe is brave, courageous, and beats all of the odds.  Classic read into today’s language.  Enjoyed this one!

A Dog's Purpose

A Dog's Purpose

by W. Bruce Cameron

Every dog lover will shed a tear for W. Brice Cameron’s book A Dog’s Purpose, and every dog hater should read it to better understand the relationship between a pet and his/her owner.  The book is narrated through the dog, which is an interesting twist. It is broken into a three-phase story that begins with a dog being adopted by a family and given to a 9-year-old boy, Ethan, by his parents.  A deep and rich relationship develops, and the dog, Bailey, shares lessons learned as the mutual bond builds between the two.  Bailey helps save Ethan’s life when a fire is started by the evil next door neighbor, is by his side during his parents’ divorce, and then later in life when Ethan requires rehab from an injury and moves to the grandparents' farm. Bailey notices relationships and gains a keen sense of love, evil, obedience, and of rules.  The first part ends with Bailey’s death, being brought to the veterinarian to be put down.  Tears flow, but that’s not the end of the story.  Bailey is re-born, into another life, as Ellie, a canine rescue dog for the police.  He saves lives, learns new lessons with two very different owners.  He learns about love, gentleness, and how to smell and find victims in tragic situations.  He experiences death when searching for and finding lifeless bodies.  Again, the story ends at the vet with Ellie being put down.  More tears, but then the third part starts and Bailey/Ellie is a new dog, a lab.  This time his owners are not so nice. They eventually bring him to the outskirts of town to die, but with the lessons “Buddy” (his new name) has learned, he comes full circle.  His nose brings him to Ethan’s grandparent’s farm.  This time, Buddy has a new purpose…he finds Ethan, forty years later, as an older, lonely man and he helps Ethan to learn and love again.  I won’t ruin the ending, but yes, more tears.  I really enjoyed the book and it also made me appreciate my dog Roman so much more.  What lessons has he learned, and what is his purpose for me?  I’d add this to your list!

Bright Ideas

Bright Ideas

by Eric Coble

I never know what I will receive as a favorite book from our Tisch students, but, in this case, a play was the reading option of choice.  The play is called Bright Ideas by Eric Coble.  The story focuses on the life of Josh and Gen Bradley, parents of three-year-old Mac who will be entering daycare.  Mac’s parents are hyper-sensitive, thinking about every single thing needed for their son to be successful and prepared for the world after daycare.  Josh and Gen become neurotic after visiting one center, realizing it isn’t the best one in town.  The best in town, called Bright Ideas, has a 98% placement rate into Ivy League colleges! The couple takes the shocking step of poisoning a parent whose child goes to Bright Ideas to open a space for their son as he is next on the waiting list.  After getting Mac into Bright Ideas, the parents do whatever is necessary for their child to win the “Golden Pony” excellence award. They go so far that they almost kill Mac’s teacher by loosening the blades on her lawnmower! The book is a social commentary on the lengths parents will go to get their child to be a superstar at all costs.  Very dark humor with a gentle message: let kids be kids.  Interesting note, my MFA Directing faculty member was the Artistic Director for the show’s first production at the Cleveland Playhouse in 2002.  A total overboard on many levels of what is happening.  Fun to see staged, I’m sure.

A Course in Miracles

A Course in Miracles

by Helen Schucman

I will say this book is one of the more interesting books I have had as an RA Favorite book.  The book is called A Course in Miracles by Helen Schucman and is a thesis, practical course book, and a teaching manual for instructing young doctors on the importance of Christianity in saving and healing patients.  It is an actual teaching ‘device’ with a theoretical and practical explanation.  It is a very long book – 629 pages for the thesis alone.  The text goes into great depth on the concepts that are the foundation for the author’s beliefs on how to approach healing. The workbook piece contains over 365 lessons, one for each day (but suggested to do more than one lesson a day).  As the first page states, “this course can therefore be summed up very simply in this way:

                Nothing real can be threatened

                Nothing unreal exists

                                (Herein lies the peace of God)

Here are some of the thirty-one chapters contained in the book: The meaning of miracles; the illusions of the ego; healing and wholeness; the lessons of love; the journey back; the idols of sickness; God or ego; the Holy Spirit’s curriculum; the attainment of peace; the vision of holiness; the justice of good; the healing of the dream; the wakening; and the final vision.  I will say, it is one of the most in-depth and repetitive series of points I’ve seen in a book.  Being a Christian, many things resonated with me with respect to the teachings, but I would imagine this would be a very difficult read for a non-Christian. I wish there had been more context provided by the author as to the WHY?  I will reach out to the RA who said it was their very favorite book so I can gain more context about how and where this course could be used.  A very, very long read – been reading it over a long period of time, interspersing other books in between.  I wouldn’t recommend it unless you want an in-depth view of the process of thinking and applying the faith.  Otherwise, yeah, very helpful read on getting one’s life back to a religious and spiritual place.  

The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles

The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles

by Julie Andrews Edwards

And yet another young children’s book for this RA Favorite book called The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles, written by Julie Andrews Edwards.  This book features a fantastic journey that incorporates the power of imagination, genetics, and how the littlest kid is usually the most successful in solving a problem.  The three Potter kids (Ben, Tom and Lindy) were excited for trick-or-treating on the upcoming Halloween.  Their parents – Dad, a University professor, and Mom, a homemaker – gave great freedom to their children, especially on Halloween, allowing the kids to visit the local ‘haunted house’. But was it truly haunted?  What they learned was that a local Professor, Dr. Savant (whom their Dad knew), lived there. He had just won a Nobel Prize for his work with genetics. Dr. Savant takes the three children under his wing and tells them about his desire to see the whangdoodle, an intelligent, ungulate-like character capable of changing color to suit its emotions, from whose hind legs grow a new and different set of bedroom slippers each year, of which there is only one left in the world.  When the Potters’ parents go away, Dr. Savant brings them to the far, far away land where the whangdoodle lives to look for him.  The adventure getting there and dealing with all of the obstacles (characters and travel difficulties) make for a fun and energetic story.  A cute read for a kid – loved how they intertwined science (genetics) in to the ending. 

So B. It

So B. It

by Sarah Weeks

Another tear-jerker in this book for young adults: So B. It by Sarah Weeks. Heidi knows nothing about her heritage, except that she was born to a woman who is called So B. It. So, yes, Heidi’s last name is “It”…or so she believes.  Her neighbor, Bernadette, found her as a newborn in her mother’s arms on the floor outside of her apartment thirteen years earlier.  Heidi’s mom has some form of mental disability that doesn’t allow her to function normally, and she can only speak twenty-three words.  Bernadette lives in an “attached apartment”, which allows her to come and help raise Heidi and assist her mother with all aspects of living.  Bernadette suffers from agoraphobia, the fear of going outside, and hasn’t been out in years, so she home-schools Heidi.  As Heidi gets older, she is the one who goes out to do the shopping, taking her mother along the way.  Heidi has a strong desire to learn about her history and about her mother’s life.  We learn that Heidi has a lucky streak and is able to predict things, allowing her to win money at the local slot machines (they live in Reno, Nevada).  One day, Heidi finds a mysterious camera in the apartment with film inside and she decides to have it developed. It turns out that they are pictures which look like her mother, maybe a grandmother, and a picture of a facility called Hilltop House in Liberty, NY.  Heidi and Bernadette call the place, a home for people with mental disabilities, and the man in charge will not speak to them.  Finally, after multiple attempts, Heidi decides she is going to take a bus there.  Bernadette is beside herself but relinquishes.  Heidi uses her special powers to win money on slot machines to get there.  What she finds out will be the answers to her heritage, and of course, will introduce more dramatic twists in the plot.  I liked how the author names each chapter after the 23 words that her mother speaks.  This book has the makings of one of the “afternoon specials” which aired when I was a kid.  Well written, good book for young kids who are inquisitive about how diverse and challenging others’ lives can be.

Another Brooklyn

Another Brooklyn

by Jacqueline Woodson

A truly touching story of friendship, family, religion and growing up in Jacqueline Woodson’s book Another Brooklyn. The main character, August, looks back twenty years to her childhood the day her father is buried.  She and her brother were raised by their father after the death of their mother, who never recovered from the death of her own brother in Vietnam.  Instead of being given to protective services when her father could have abandoned the children, as the character reflects, her father stayed and raised two good children despite the poverty and lack of educational opportunities in the poor areas in the 1980s.  August meets her ‘soulmates’ – three black teens – and explores the issues they faced: boyfriends, prejudice, and being ostracized in a community that was riddled with crime.  She also explores the impact of her father’s female friend who instills the Muslim religion into their life.  Woodson’s prose is beautiful and the art of reflection after the passing of a parent adds to the depth of relationships, sadness, and moments of joy that were experienced moving from Tennessee to Brooklyn and during a trip back home to learn more about her mother’s life.  Highly recommend this book.

Killing Pablo

Killing Pablo

by Mark Bowden

The ‘behind the scenes’ search for Pablo Escobar, the number one hunted man in Columbia, for his killings and numero uno kingpin in the illegal drug cartels in Columbia is the framework of Mark Bowden’s book Killing Pablo. Bowden uses personal interviews from police, intel, US CIA agents, newspaper and other media sources to provide an in-depth look into the man, his failings, and his ability to evade a country for years as the leader of the largest drug ring ever to be known in the world.  Escobar started as a ‘young thug’ and later was hailed as the calmest criminal to exist.  Dedicated to family and his inner-circle of comrades, he was quick to eliminate those people who stopped him from what he wanted most: money, luxuries and young women.  If he wanted something, he would buy it and the would order the people around him to do his dirty deeds.  An extraordinary story of how a country fell prey to one man’s yearning to be the leader or “el jefe”.  The elusive one’s checkered life story well documented.  Worth a read.

Fire to Fire

Fire to Fire

by Mark Doty

Finished a book of poetry called Fire to Fire written by Mark Doty.  The book contains selected poems from previously released publications. Some of his work is set only blocks away from NYU, some in Houston, and some in ancient times.  His style is simplistic with understandable descriptors (i.e., not flowery language).  It is like having the guy next door share thoughts on areas such as defining beauty, hanging at the corner diner (21^st and 3^rd avenue), the burning of a gorgeous home in Jersey City, a local theatre house, and love.  I especially enjoyed his poem on being aboard a plane about to make an emergency landing (appearing to crash) and what the moments were like for him and his partner.  Doty, a gay male, offers some perspective on how vulnerable one can feel searching for love in a society not always understanding of same-sex relationships.  His poems are short and I recommend you take your time as reading such prose is, not only impressive, but a lost art today.  There are few contemporary poets who can describe visiting a gym as eloquently as he can (funny because I was reading the poem At the Gym at the gym this morning!)  He captured it perfectly.  Not a hug fan of poetry as I still remember taking a poetry class my junior year and never finding the depth I was expected to in the poems, but this is a good read.

The Crossroads of Should and Must

The Crossroads of Should and Must: Find and Follow Your Passion

by Elle Luna

This one is a life coach’s dream book!  I thoroughly enjoyed and highly recommend for any person interested in living the life you want for yourself.  Author Elle Luna lives the book by challenging herself to find her passion, live her passion, and, in turn, writes her book: The Crossroads of Should and Must: Find and Follow Your Passion. Luna describes how others influence our thinking and the importance of filtering out these external influences and discovering our own desires instead.  She begins with true life stories of others who did just the same thing – famous people like Einstein, Picasso, T.S. Eliot, etc.  She believes our “crossroads” are found where “should”, what others have us influenced to believe, and “must”, what’s in our hearts, meet. Choosing “must” is the greatest thing we can do with our lives.  The book covers the origins of “should”, “must”, and the return on living a “must” life.  She gives concrete examples of how to work towards living the “must” life by sharing how we challenge the barriers that one will face: money, worthiness, time, and other things that often hold us back.  The book is an artist’s dream: great colors, pictures, and inspiring thoughts/quotes throughout.  You can read this one in 90 minutes and every page will blow away long-held assumptions that are deeply embedded in one’s psyche.  I plan on using this as part of my speech for Torch Day this year.  Thanks JP for sharing the book.  I really loved this one!

The Scarecrow and his Servant

The Scarecrow and his Servant

by Philip Pullman

Always fun to read a young-adult book with a message.  This one, The Scarecrow and the Servant by Philip Pullman, is a quick read.  Yes, this is the same author who wrote His Dark Material, trilogy of three books which were very popular.  This book is a bit on the lighter side. It details the story of a scarecrow who has been stolen from one farmer by another, is struck by lightning and is able to speak, walk and behave like a human!  He meets a young boy who he recruits as a servant.  The two go on a journey, eventually learning that they are being chased by the evil family of the original owner who made the scarecrow.  The scarecrow loses parts of himself on the journey, including his head (an onion), which the boy is forced to eat as he was so hungry that the scarecrow offered it.  His head is replaced with a coconut that they find on the journey.  Eventually they are caught by the police and tried for treason, but they counter-sue the evil family who has made the claims against the scarecrow.  In a strange twist, they win the court case with the help of a friendly raven, who helps to show that the scarecrow can be the rightful owner of the land that the original farmer left him, even though he was rebuilt as a scarecrow.  Evil never wins!  A nice cute story!