Ever since I was a teenager, I've loved movies from the Golden Age of Hollywood - Bogart and the Hepburns in black and white, the snappy dialog and society women in gorgeous dresses. I still love those movies, in spite of their dated morality and social backwardness. In the last few years, I've been watching them more frequenty. Naturally, with Wikipedia and IMDB at my fingertips, it was only a matter of time before I discovered The Code.

It actually started with The Thin Man. It was racy! Full of innuendo! Nora (Myrna Loy) drank-- a lot! And she wasn't a bad woman! What was going on? Other films - 42nd Street, Morning Glory, Night Nurse - had similar conventions.  As it turned out, these movies weren't an anomaly, with their raciness and their unrepentantly strong women. Watching old films, it's easy to imagine that the stuffiness and social conservatism simply reflected the actual social mores of their time. The next thirty years of American film -- the so-called "Golden Age" of Hollywood-- were the anomaly.

From the time the talkies really took off in 1929 until the enforcement of the Motion Picture Production Code in July, 1934, American films were an entirely different experience. Reflecting the increasing social liberalness of the time, movies depicted strong, independent, and sexually liberated women. These women fell in love (sometimes with other women), had abortions and children out of wedlock, were the executives of automobile firms, got divorces when their husbands cheated on them, and shot those husbands when they beat them. Sure, women did many of these things in post-Code Hollywood, but in the pre-Code films, bad things didn't happen to women when they did.

Hollywood had a reputation as "Sin City" in the early 20's, following a series of drug-related deaths and murders  (including director William Desmond Taylor and the subsequent revelation of his bisexuality). State and city censorship boards were putting pressure on Hollywood to clean up its act, resulting the formation of a Motion Picture Production Code in 1930, headed by former Postmaster General William H. Hays. This early code had little to no power of enforcement, largely due to the fact that studios responded to the economic stresses of the Depression by making films the public actually wanted to see, and the racier and more shocking-- the more fundamentally modern-- the better.

Enter Joseph Breen, the real mastermind behind the code. A lay Catholic, Breen, an anti-Semite, was horrified by the rampant immorality that the corrupt and greedy "kike Jews" in Hollywood were inflicting on the public. Director Irving Thalburg tried to convince Breen that the movies were merely reflecting the real world - they weren't constructing reality. Ultimately, Breen won the argument, by organizing a Catholic boycott of any offending Hollywood picture (basically all of them), on pain of sin. With an overnight 20% drop in revenue, Hollywood had no choice but to take notice. And Breen sat at the head of the Code's office of enforcement: all future films were now subject to his approval, with no board of appeals.

According to the Code, immoral behavior could not be glorified or go unpunished. Premarital sex? Out. Shooting an abusive husband?  Fine, as long as the women was duly punished by the law. Marriage was upheld as a sacred institution, and so post-Code, career women quit their jobs for love at the end. Strong, independent women apologized for their "pride,"  and settled down to be devoted wives. Depictions of homosexuality, interracial relationships, single motherhood, and substance use disappeared literally overnight. Movies were not allowed to titillate or excite in any way. Audience sympathies must never go with the sinner, and the law (or religion) must never be made mock of.

Many have depicted the Code as a general crack-down on Hollywood morality - no nudity, no swearing, etc. In his book Complicated Women: Sex and Power in Pre-Code Hollywood, Mick LaSalle argues that the code was more damaging to film in general and women in particular than a simple set of standards. The Code wasn't about lengthening hemlines or taking out "bitch" and "damn," it fundamentally changed plots and altered characters. 

Pre-Code movies (and the interest of audiences) weren't just about sex and violence. The late twenties and early thirties had seen the emergence of the "new woman," and audiences couldn't get enough. Armed with contraception and the vote, these women were discovering their sexuality and their independence in ways that were shaking up the nation. Pre-Code Hollywood was the only time that movies were being written about women that everyone - men and women - were watching (this holds true even today). These movies took a good, square look at what the "new woman" was doing in the world, including the institution of marriage itself. LaSalle's Complicated Women is a wonderful piece of advocacy, both for these films and for the women they depicted (and the actresses, particularly Norma Shearer and Greta Garbo, that played them) . The women themselves really deserve a lot of credit for pushing the boundaries-- the age of directors was still a good twenty years away, and actors really had a lot of influence on the roles and how they were played.

As an object lesson, try watching Norma Shearer back-to-back in The Divorcee and The Women. In the former, when Shearer's character finds out that her husband has cheated on her (but it doesn't mean anything), she retaliates by sleeping with his best friend to prove the point. When he finds out and decides to leave her, she gives him this whallop:

And I thought your heart was breaking like mine. But instead you tell me your man's pride can't stand the gaffe. I don't want to listen. I'm glad I discovered there's more than one man in the world, while I'm young enough and they want me. Believe me, I'm not missing uot on anything from now on. Loose women - great, but not in the home, eh, Ted? Why, the looser they are, the more they get. The best in the world! No responsibility! Well, my dear, I'm going to find out how they do it...From now on, you're the only man in the wolrd my door is closed to!

And this was 1930! Shearer goes on to unrepentantly explore her sexual freedom, in no way coming across as ruined or tainted. She stands her ground, challenging the double-standard of infidelity head-on.

Then watch Shearer in The Women, filmed five years after the enforcement of the Code in 1939. Shearer's husband cheats, and at first she bears up at the suggestion of her mother, for the sake of their daughter. At the urging of her friends, depicted as a bunch of catty, superficial, appearance-obsessed gossips, Shearer confronts the "other woman" in a dressing room. She goes through with the divorce, only to end up miserable (the ex-husband marries the other woman) and alone but "with her pride." Eventually, she uses her womanly wiles to trap the hussy by employing the very gossip she'd eschewed earlier, and the husband takes her back. She no longer needs her pride, she says! She has love!

This film is striking and terribly painful for several reasons. Pre-Code films depict women's friendships as strong and powerful; in The Women, the friends are superficial, selfish, and insincere. It's not wonder The Women was one of Shearer's last roles - she wasn't made for post-Code Hollywood (many other pre-Code actresses didn't make the transition, either). Shearer's performance is so hard to swallow in part because it's obvious that Shearer herself doesn't believe in it - she's at her strongest when she's asserting her independence, not when she's apologizing for her pride. By the time she repents, it feels hollow. The film really feels like a heavy-handed  response to The Divorcee, with the wise, old-fashioned morals of the mother, the tearful young daughter, the cruel stepmother, the lonely and unhappy divorcees. This was all a taste of things to come.

No wonder they stopped making movies about women.

Pre-Code movies are still out there, waiting to be discovered. Many are available on DVD, or as part of the Turner Collection on TCM. Some, like Mata Hari, have been permanently edited by the censors. Others are lost completely, destroyed by the censor boards. One can't help but wonder what movies would have been made if the Code hadn't ruled Hollywood until 1968, when it was replaced by the MPAA. Post-Code Hollywood was a significant step backwards for women, for gays, and for social freedoms in general. As LaSalle says, "to discover these films today is more heartening than just uncovering a trove of amazing movies. It's like finding out you had a host of long-lost aunts and grandmothers, free and fascinating ladies about whom, for reasons of their own, your parents never told you." 

I love the premise of NPR's new Guilty Pleasures series in part because I supoprt anything that may help to break down genre-guilt, but I found the recent piece by Brad Meltzer to be very problematic. Unnecessary gender-gauntlet-throwing aside, Metlzer proclaims his love for the Twilight series without actually saying why he does like the books. Fine: however, by doing so, he completely glosses over every reason to legitimatley dislike the books, which have absolutely nothing to do with their being young adult, or gothic fantasy, or any other reasons that often cause the Literati to defend their reading choices ("but it really transcends genre!"). 

Metlzer calls on women to give the Twilight books to their teenaged sons, nephews and husbands, to tell them the books are cool, that they'll like them. ( The thing is, I wouldn't even want my daughters (or nieces, or sisters) to read them, let alone the men... )

Sorry, Mr. Meltzer, but I won't be foisting Stephanie Meyer's anti-feminist, raceist pop-fluff on the guys in my life. Instead, I gave Ethan Suzanne Collins' The Hunger Games, which features an empowered-but-refreshingly-unspunky heroine, realistic relationship dynamics, and multidimensional characters. I'm sure he'll still grow up to be a Real Man.

26/50 Books = 52% of the Challenge completed. I read less than last year (I blame crafting and Battlestar Galactica), which is a bit of a disappointment.

( The list... )

50% Male, 50 % Female
27% Nonfiction, 73% Fiction
21 American, 3 British, 2 French
Oldest book: Les Liaisons Dangereuses (1782)
Newest book: Run (2007)

Best Books of 2008:

Les Liaisons Dangereuses, Pierre Choderlos de Laclos - Surprisingly racy for 1782 and very well written, and the epistolary style is qutite fun. Definitely the sleeper hit of the year for me.

Liveship Traders Trilogy, Robin Hobb - I loved this! Creative, feminist, emotionally engaging, earthy, and suspenseful. Hobb writes realistic characters who act (and change) in a refreshingly organic way. Her plot is really a joy to unravel.

White Teeth, Zadie Smith- Funny, smart, and actually lived up to the hype.

A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens - I loved this. Clever, funny, and surprisingly emotional.

Crimes Against Nature: Squatters, Poachers, Thieves, and the Hidden History of American Conservation, Karl Jacoby - My favorite of the books read this year for my environmental history course with Bill Cronon.

The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath - As I said in my review, "Why was I reading Holden Caulfield when I should have been reading Esther Greenwood?!"

Honorable Mention: Kushiel's Avatar, Jacqueline Carey - A very satisfying conclusion to a wonderfully fun, well-written, and fascinating sort-of-fantasy. It's so refreshing to read about a sex-positive society, too.

Best Graphic Novel: Y: The Last Man [10]: Whys and Wherefores, Brian K. Vaughan

Worst of 2008

The Good Thief, Hannah Tinti - Another book I actually got around to reviewing. I was so disappointed in this, and am somewhat shocked to see it on so many year-end Best lists (including the New York Times). It felt patchwork and forced (and at times downright confused), and the given the huge publicity campaign I'm guessing it's an orchestrated "hit." 

One might think that a novel about a young college woman's experience with madness in the mid-20th century would come across as dated or even quaint. On the contrary, as I read I found myself nodding emphatically, and even calling up friends to tell them about passages I'd read that were particularly familiar. This reaction emphasizes The Bell Jar's staying power after half a century; any ambitious young woman who has struggled with anxiety about their future, or felt like a square peg in society's round hole, will find themselves identifying with this novel.

The story is heavy with the weight of the author's suicide; in fact, the novel is so close to Plath's own experiences that it wasn't published in the United States until after her death, as she was afraid of hurting the real-life people who were thinly veiled as characters in the novel. While the Bell Jar is an important novel in its own right, it will also give readers a more nuanced perspective on Plath's poetry.

The Bell Jar sheds light on psychiatric care in the 1950's, under the stifling expectations of a woman's role in post-war America. The novel explores themes of feminism and mental health without being didactic; Esther's insights feel relevant and real today, while revealing much about the society in which Plath herself came of age. Some find heroine Esther Greenwood's descent into mental illness to be depressing, but I found her story to be ultimately life-affirming; Plath avoids nihilism by not merely focusing on Esther's breakdown, but also her recovery.

You needn't have spent time under "the bell jar" (Plath's metaphor for the extreme anxiety and depression felt by the young protagonist) to appreciate this novel; Plath makes the workings of Esther's mind accessible and real. Plath's matter-of-fact style makes neurotic thoughts and suicide fantasies feel almost ordinary; Esther's struggles seem like a perfectly natural response to a world full of date hypocrites and phonies. Some readers may empathize more than others (a friend told me "it's like we all become our own version of Esther Greenwood while we're reading the book"), but it's difficult to be unaffected by what has become one of the most iconic novels about mental illness, feminism, and the youth experience.

I was initially intrigued by the premise of The Good Thief; an orphan with a missing hand, a mysterious past, and an historical New England setting seemed like the perfect combination. At first, I thought this was a surprisingly solid first novel, and one that had a lot to offer the over-crowded young adult fiction section.

But The Good Thief isn't a young adult novel - or is it? I waffled back and forth between the evidence: a simplistic, almost fable-like writing style, a young child protagonist, and a bit of adventure and even mysticism thrown in suggested that this book would be best enjoyed by the YA crowd. Suggestive content and a lack of character development (strong characters are often the strength of YA novels) and a convoluted plot suggest otherwise. Frankly, it's as though Tinti simply couldn't make up her mind as to what kind of novel she wanted to write, and her editors did her a serious disservice by not guiding her onto one path or the other. This would have been a perfectly delightful YA book, but some of Tinti's choices make it seem like she was deliberately avoiding that path, and the story really suffers for it.

Perhaps most perplexing is the plot; at times bordering on random, readers may sense Tinti's desire to branch into magical realism, but she's never brave enough to fully make the plunge. She makes a few historical errors (e.g., twins weren't killed in 1800's New England, and tarring and feathering was fatal), and her setting never feels quite believable. One gets the sense that the fault is not so much with the novelist, but with the editor; some guidance here and there would have made this a much tighter novel, and eliminated distracting errors.

Tinti is not only working with rich material ("resurrection men" and orphans are just plain fun to read about), but she also delves into more heady subjects, like what it means to be good. If you suspend your disbelief and power through when the plot starts to feel a bit over the top, there's enough talent and ability here to make for a fun read.

From brdgt:

1. One book that changed your life.
The Eternal Frontier by Tim Flannery. The chapter on the North American megafauna, read just before I transferred to College of the Atlantic, changed my academic trajectory. Horses are native to North America, and antelope outrun the ghosts of now-extinct predators; how cool is that? This book introduced me to a more "deep time" sense of ecological change, and here I am, five years later, studying North American megafauna.

2. One book that you've read more than once.
Just one? A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Bette Smith. This has been a comfort read for me ever since I first read it when I was about the age Francie is when the book begins.

3. One book you'd want on a desert island.
The Lord of the Rings, by J. R. R. Tolkien. Another comfort read, and one that I never tire of reading. I typically pick it up around once a year; often, I read it like a bible, picking particular chapters to revisit.

4. One book that made you laugh.
Absurdistan by Gary Shteyngart. Nothing is sacred in this satirical novel about the obese Misha Vainberg, 1,238th-richest man in Russia and son of an assassinated Russian mafioso, and his thwarted attempts to emigrate to the Bronx.

5. One book that made you cry.
The Road, by Cormac McCarthy. So as not to copy brdgt by listing this as the scariest book I've ever read, I'll place this here. Interestingly, the ending didn't make me cry nearly as hard as the afterward (the trout).

6. One book that you wish had been written.
Serious answer: the remaining  novels of Suite Francaise by  Irene Nemirovsky. Humorous answer: A Dance with Dragons by George R. R. Martin.

7. One book that you wish had never been written.
Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. I've never read it; chosen not because it's long, or tedious, or poorly written, but because I whole-heartedly despise Objectivism and its influence on conservative American politics.

8. One book you're currently reading.
Ship of Magic by Robin Hobb. sasha_feather's recommendation. Low fantasy with pirates and ships with talking figureheads and strong female characters...I can't remember the last time I enjoyed a book so much...oh, wait - it was the last book that she (and cali_nic!) recommended  to me (Kushiel's Dart by Jacqueline Carey)!

9. One book you've been meaning to read.
House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski.

Bonus question: What book scared you the most?
Cormac McCarthy's The Road was terrifying, and Oryx & Crake by Margaret Atwood gave me nightmares, but the most frightened I've ever been reading any book was The Tommyknockers by Stephen King. I read it one night when I was thirteen, all alone in a house at the end of a dirt road in rural Vermont, miles from the nearest town. I got so scared I had to stop reading, and never did finish it! 

In spite of the weather being in the 20's yesterday morning, I brought my newly-tuned bike out for the first ride to school of the new year. I was expecting it to be rather grueling, given that I haven't been very active this winter (with the exception of a few trips to the gym and to yoga) but I was pleasantly surprised. Whatever muscle I developed last summer and fall has stuck around, which is satisfying. I love the feeling of mobility I get from having my bicycle out again! Trips to the grocery store will now take ten minutes, instead of half an hour or more! The wonder of the wheel, of gears and chains!

And, I was rewarded with a view of the first robin of spring on my ride to school! On the bus ride home (I met up with Jeremy), I saw a lawn full of red-breasted studs strutting around for some unseen female. The ducks and geese are arriving (to frozen ponds and snowbanks) daily. I love urban waterfowl! Now, if the rest of Spring would just take the hint and start warming and greening up, that would be lovely.

Rather inconveniently, now that school is back in session I am faced with a stack of tasks that would have been much more manageable if I'd been given them two weeks ago. Even my hobbies have deadlines (I have a kitchen craft swap to send out by Monday); leave it to me to figure out a way to incorporate stress into something I enjoy! I have the next few days painstakingly planned, and should be able to finish the stack of quizzes and sew an apron and work on my mid-term and still be able to spend the evening eating banana cupcakes and playing board games with brdgt and sasha_feather. At least, the pitcher of iced tea I've started guzzling certainly thinks so.

Reading:

 

Crafting:  For an amigurumi swap (the kitty has an apron, which I designed and added to an existing pattern):

Reading:

 

Planning:

Lots of crocheting for my swap, seeing the Best Bad Movie Ever, working in the lab, and bringing the bike out of its hibernation cave. Oh, and hosting dimensionwitch for the weekend, as she is up visiting from the Field Museum - this means that good food is somewhere in the weekend equation.

Celebrating: Pi Day! And Einstein's Birthday! And the imminent arrival of spring (it's 49 degrees outside right now!). Oh, and Spring Break...though for me, that means "Good Time For Getting Work Done."

This Week's Revelation: I love heist films! Ocean's Eleven and etc., The Italian Job, The Thomas Crowne Affair...they're not quite action/adventure, not quite comedy, but usually involve elements of both. They're typically much more clever in a way that's really entertaining, in spite of their formulaic nature - the setup, the unexpected element, the twist ending. They also manage to support a large (typically excellent) cast without seeming crowded or confused.

It is now about forty degrees colder than when I left the house this morning. The day started practically balmy, after weeks of arctic chill. I went to my eleven o'clock class in a hoodie, and it was sleeting by the time I got out. Half an hour later, the blizzard had started - frigid blasts of wind laced with ice crystals, which later mellowed to a light snow and even colder temperatures (the windchill is projected to be back down to the -30's by midnight).

The strange winter we've been having inspired me to pick up The Children's Blizzard, by David Laskin. It's about the blizzard of 1888, which hit the prairie unexpectedly and killed hundreds of people, many of them children on the way home from school. Like our January weather, their winter had been terribly cold and snowy, until one morning when everyone awoke to sun and surprising warmth. Everyone rejoiced at the January thaw; children went to school for the first time in weeks, parents went to town for supplies - and few people wore coats or warm winter clothing, enjoying the springlike air.

The blizzard hit while school was in session, and hundreds of children froze to death as they tried to make it home. Fathers and husbands died searching for wives and children on the empty expanse of prairie. The event changed the attitude on the frontier forever; new immigrants from Eastern and Central Europe, already taxed by plagues of grasshoppers and drought, realized that this new land was not one of limitless bounty and hope. The prairie had taken their children, and they'd burned all the bridges back to  the Ukraine, Norway, and Germany.

On my way home, I saw dozens of people walking in the cold in shirt-sleeves, flip-flops, hooded sweatshirts. I thought of all the college students who got up today and dressed for the morning's weather, and not tonight's...and how they'll get rides home, or call cabs, or shiver on the corner until their bus comes. Some will even brave the walk back to their dorms. And then they'll curl up with a cup of cocoa and their physics homework, crank the thermostat, and complain about the crazy Wisconsin weather.

This is a continually-updated list of the books I read in 2008. Links will be added to reviews when available. Graphic novels are cataloged separately from the 50 book challenge totals. For lists of books read in 2007 and 2006, click the "50 Book Challenge Master List" tag.

Jeremy's Selections
My Selections
Book Club
Academic

January

1. Run, Ann Patchett (****)
2. Slaughterhouse Five, Kurt Vonnegut (***)
3. Les Liaisons Dangereuses, Pierre Choderlos de Laclos (*****)
4. The Children's Blizzard, Dave Fromkin (****)

February

5. Brave New World, Aldous Huxley  (****)
6. Fear of Flying, Erica Jong (****)

March

7. The Gunslinger, Stephen King (****)
8. Henry & June, Anais Nin (****)

April

9. Kushiel's Avatar, Jacqueline Carey (*****)
10. In Defense of Food, Micheal Pollan (****)

May

11.  Ship of Magic, Robin Hobb (*****)

June

12. White Teeth, Zadie Smith (*****)

July

13. Mad Ship, Robin Hobb (**** 1/2)
14. A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens (*****) - Audio

August

15. The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath (*****) - Read my review!
16. The Good Thief, Hannah Tinti (***) - Read my review!

September

17. Down to Earth, Ted Steinberg (****)
18.  Little House in the Big Woods, Laura Ingalls Wilder (****)
19. Ship of Destiny, Robin Hobb (*****)
20. A Sand County Almanac, Aldo Leopold (*****)

October

21. The Book of Lost Things, John Connolly (****)
22. Flight Maps: Adventures with Nature in Modern America, Jennifer Price (****)
23. Crimes Against Nature: The Hidden History of the American Conservation Movement, Karl Jacoby (*****)
24. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Betty Smith (*****)

November

25. The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals, Michael Pollan (****)

December

26. Jitterbug Perfume, Tom Robbins (****)


Graphic Novels

1. Fables [9]: Sons of Empire, Bill Willingham (****)
2. Promethea [1], Alan Moore (*** 1/2)
3. Ex Machina [1]: The First 100 Days, Brian K. Vaughan (****)
4. The Walking Dead [2]: Miles Behind Us, Robert Kirkman (*****)
5. The Walking Dead [3]: Safe Behind Bars, Robert Kirkman (****)
6. Fables: 1001 Nights of Snowall, Bill Willingham (****)
7. Ex Machina [2]: Tag, Brian K. Vaughan (****)
8. Y: The Last Man [10]: Whys and Wherefores, Brian K. Vaughan (*****)
9. Cairo, G. Willow Wilson (****)
10. Fables [10]: The Good Prince, Bill Willingham (reading)

Lifted from brdgt:

Reading:  I just finished Ann Patchett's Run, which I really enjoyed (but I like character sketches where "nothing really happens," as some reviewers have complained).

Just started Slaughterhouse Five, Kurt Vonnegut - Jeremy and I have a little game going on this year - we're selecting every other book for one another. This mostly came about because I'm always foisting books on him, but rarely reading his suggestions for me (I'm very picky and mood-driven). This was his first choice for me. I'll probably be crucified for this, but: 1) I've never read this before, and 2) I'm starting to think that I'm not really a Vonnegut fan. He uses a lot of conventions that I find a bit annoying - short paragraphs, repetition, first person narrators that aren't supposed to be the author but are...I respect that he's an incredibly important and influential author, and he's one of Jeremy's favorites, but...so far, not mine. I'm going to give him a few more chances to grow on me (I've only read Galapagos). I can't help but think that if I'd read him when I was in my early teens, it would have been a much better experience.

Watching: House, M.D. season 3 (just finished the episode with the vindictive cop), Lost season 3, a couple of really bad films (Little Children and For Your Consideration), one pretty decent one (The Good Shepherd), and gearing up for a weekend viewing of Dr. Zhivago.

Listening: Neko Case, Camera Obscura, Caribou, New Order, and the original cast recording of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

Crafting: Finishing up Leo the Lion so I can get started on the Buckle Cloche - I've been running around without a winter hat! I also signed up for my first craft swap on Craftster - the love/hate Valentine's Day swap. Not the most exciting idea, but since it was mine and someone picked up on it, I thought I should join. I have to make three things, and I'm thinking of crocheting this octopus and making little felt valentines for each of its arms, making a bag of some kind with an embroidered winged heart and key, and some version of an earring holder made out of an old record (my swap-mate loves "hearts with keys, music, and octopi").

Planning: Finishing my thesis edits, working on the soils paper I took an extension on, lots of crochet, a massage from blackdreams (Jeremy and I got certificates for hour massages from my mom for Christmas!) and book club on Sunday (discussing Ann Patchett's Bel Canto).

After the build-up, the anticipation, the preparations....the holiday season is done. We survived our first Christmas at home, in part because of a holiday miracle (Jeremy's financial aid check came the Saturday before Christmas). My birthday was lovely, in spite of the terrible head cold I sported during the last week of classes. I took an extension on my soils final paper, but got A's in my other two classes (Forest Ecology and the independent study I took for my Biogeography prelim readings).

I'm satisfied, and ready for the new year. The last week has been a major departure from all that had come in the months before - eating out, shopping, going to the movies (three times!), sleeping late  (eight thirty! nine!), reading, lots of crocheting, and very little work done. Today is a day of transition, and tomorrow begins the New Year in earnest.

Jeremy had to work early on Christmas Day, and so we decided to open our gifts on Christmas Eve. Jeremy woke early to do some last-minute shopping, and then we all went to breakfast (Denny's, since it was lunchtime by this point). We came home, changed back into our pajamas, and opened gifts:

This may be the last day of the Gregorian calendar year, but more importantly, it's the last day of the 50 Book Challenge. Once again, I didn't hit my goal of fifty, but I did research, write, and defend a thesis, so I feel that I did relatively well. If you include audiobooks, the total is up to 39, and if you include graphic novels, it skyrockets to  60!

Stats (don't include comics or audios)

Books read: 32/50 (as opposed to last year's 35/50)
Book club reads: 8  (25%)

Fiction: 29 (90%)
Nonfiction: 3 (10%)

Female authors: 19 (60%)      
Male authors: 13 (40%)

Americans: 19 (60%)
Canadians: 1 (3%)
British: 9 (28%)
French/Russians: 1 (3%)
American/Russians: 2 (6%)

Re-reads: 1 (3%) (The Hobbit)
Sci-fi/fantasy: 6 (18%)
Mystery: 2 (6%)
Young Adult: 3 (9%)
2007 releases: 5 (15%)

Best of 2007:

Suite Francaise, Irene Nemirovsky - This was such a surprise; I wasn't expecting such a brilliant, wise, nuanced, and masterfully written novel to come out of the circumstances it did. Didn't feel at all incomplete, and I can't help but think of how Nemirovsky would have changed the course of literature if she'd lived.

The Road, Cormac McCarthy - The simple journey of a father and son through a wasted landscape without hope is one of the greatest love stories ever written. The last paragraph (about trout) sent me into hysterics.

EDIT: Howard's End, EM Forster - A wonderful (at times hilarious) and thoughtful rumination on England at the crossroads of the last century, pondering the questions of class and cultural inheritance. I loved this, and am looking forward to reading more Forster.

The Persian Boy, Mary Renault - The last of a trilogy about Alexander the Great (each a standalone novel), this is told from the perspective of Alexander's Persian slave/friend/lover/servant/eunuch, Bagoas. Beautiful and sweet. Renault masterfully captures the cultural differences between the Persians and the Greeks, and treats Alexander's homosexuality with a light but realistic brush.

No Country for Old Men - Cormac McCarthy - Suspenseful, harsh, and gritty, with elements of the violence of Blood Meridian, but with the philosophical musings of The Border Trilogy. The source of this year's best film.

Lolita, Vladimir Nabokov - Wonderfully obsessive, fascinating, and even hilarious at times. Humbert's frantic internal dialog and introspection makes a fascinating cultural mirror, and this unconventional love story is a brilliant character sketch.

Honorable Mentions: Kushiel's Dart & Kushiel's Chosen, Jacqueline Carey (fun, thrilling, sexy, fascinating, and well-told), Possession, A.S. Byatt (I loved this, even though I skimmed the poems and some of the letters), The Sunne in Splendour, Sharon Kay Penman (readers of A Song of Ice and Fire will enjoy the historical treatment of the War of the Roses, this historical inspiration behind the events of Martin's books), Absudistan, Gary Shteyngart (irreverent and hilarious - this would have been a top read if it didn't falter under the weight of its own cleverness at times, without a strong enough plot to support it, like Everything is Illuminated).

Worst of 2007

The Penelopiad, Margaret Atwood - I never thought I'd be disappointed with anything Atwood produced, but this felt forced, rushed, incomplete, and utterly un-Atwood.

Napoleon's Pyramids, William Dietrich - It started off well enough, and promised to be a rollicking good time of a read. Sadly, the quality and entertainment slipped early and never really recovered - not even enough to make a good airplane read.

Thirteen Moons, Charles Frazier - I loved Cold Mountain, but this was just rambling, self-important prose with little to believe in and less in the way of actual plot. Stretched, forced, and tedious.

Most Overrated: Water for Elephants, Sara Gruen (the author found a cool setting - depression-era circuses -  and wrote a mediocre book about it), The World Without Us, Alan Weisman (factual errors and misrepresentations, poor organization, and a pithy journalistic style got tedious after a while), The Madonnas of Leningrad, Debra Dean (underdeveloped, simplistic, and awkward).


Best Audio

World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie Wars, Max Brooks - Excellent! This fascinating imagination of the political, social, and personal consequences of a real zombie event is a mature and thoughtful "read." Each segment is read by a different actor, emphasizing the novel's multicultural approach.

Cloud Atlas, David Mitchell - One of my favorite novels is also an excellent audio book. Each segment is read by a different actor, and the choices were excellent (though I thought Frobisher's reader was too old).

A Game of Thrones, George R.R. Martin - One reader does a different voice for each character. They may not always match your imagination, but this guy is fabulous none-the-less, and really brings this novel to life.

Best Graphic Novels

Y: The Last Man, Brian K. Vaughan - Yorick wakes up one day to find that he and his pet helper monkey are the only males left - every other male animal has died of some terrible virus, leaving the world a very different (and violent, and chaotic) place. I read every book except the last (unpublished) in this ten-volume series. It's incredibly well-written, and Vaughan thoroughly imagines the world his story takes place in. Suspenseful and well-thought-out.

Fables, Bill Willingham - This is pure fun. Fairy tale characters in exile from the Homelands (fleeing The Adversary) have set up residence in New York City, among the "mundy" population. Intrigue, adventure, tragedy, and hilarity ensue.

( The full list... )

Reading: After my lackluster response to the first few chapters of (the luckily short) Madonnas of Leningrad for bookclub (I know I won't like any book that has a sex scene in the first twenty pages - do we just skip character development, or do you really expect me to care?), I was inspired to pick up The Last Tsar instead. I love this period of Russian history, and have always been fascinated by the last royal family.



Watching: The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. Jeremy Brett will always be the definitive Holmes for me, and though I like the Watson from some of the later episodes in this series better, this is a good place to start if you'd like to be introduced to the World's Greatest Detective on film. Fie on the Basil Rathbone fans!




Coveting: This lovely peacoat from JC Penny's, and these Dansko boots (though if I can find a different color in the boots I'd like to):



Enjoying: A Saturday Hatha yoga class with brdgt! I'm so glad she finally convinced me to go. It's really humbling, as far as showing me how out of place I feel in my own body, but I'm getting a lot out of it. I like that over time, I'll see a definite improvement in my practice. It helps that the instructor is so supportive, and really emphasizes the different levels of a pose you can do (it's a mixed-level class). The Couch-to-5k isn't practical here in the winter, with darkness falling at 4:30 and no sidewalks or streetlights in my neighborhood, so I'm putting that off until spring.



Excited about:




Yes, the eleven-year vegetarian is going to be making her first turkey this year. We bought the necessities (a roasting pan, a baster, and a thermometer) at Target yesterday (and I was only minimally distracted by the onslaught of Christmas), and our free-range, hormone & antibiotic free, all-natural vegetarian turkey has been reserved at the local co-op.

Books

16. Howards End, E.M. Forster (*****) - I absolutely loved this. It's a razor-sharp commentary on pre-war British society, and the relationship(s) between the pragmatic, materialistic Wilcoxes and the romantic, idealistic Schlegels at the end of an era. Deservedly on the Modern Library's Top 100.

17. Dragonquest, Anne McCaffrey (****) - A worthwhile sequel to Dragonflight, developing the world and characters more thoroughly, with a satisfying helping of intrigue and discovery. My one complaint is that Lessa and F'lar, the main characters of the first book, share the stage with others, and it's a much more action than character-driven novel.

18. No Country for Old Men, Cormac McCarthy (*****) - Minimalist (even for McCarthy), suspenseful, and unflinchingly raw. McCarthy once again writes about violence deeply rooted in a sense of place, but there's a new world order here. Contrasts interestingly with the events in Blood Meridian, while standing as its own reflection of the laws of a new generation in the eyes of the old.

19. Aftermath: The Remnants of War, Donovan Foster (***) - Starts of stronger, and ends up weaker (hence the three stars instead of four), and the magazine writing style grates a bit in a book. Still, this was an informative read on what gets left behind in the places where battles are fought. The first chapter on the unexploded ordnance from WWI that still makes much of France uninhabitable was shocking, as was the second chapter on the hundreds of thousands of unburied Germans whose bones still litter the steppes outside what was formerly Stalingrad, after the siege in WWII.

Audio

3. A Wind in the Door, Madeleine L'Engle (Book ****, Audio ***) - L'Engle reads the second in the Time Quartet. I enjoyed it, and thought it had a thought-provoking and fascinating premise (the battle in heaven rages even in our mitochondria), but I found Meg to be really annoying and whiny the second time around. L'Engle's reading is mediocre.

4. Cloud Atlas, David Mitchell (Book *****, Audio ****) - This is an excellent audio production of one of my favorite books, and I really got a lot out of it in listening. Most of the characters are excellent, though Frobisher's reader is too old, and Louisa Ray's actress is very slow at first to the point of annoyance (after the quickly-clipping Brit before her). Timothy Cavendish and Son-mi are particularly excellent.

Comics

16. Y: The Last Man [9]: Motherland, Brian K. Vaughan - I can't believe this series is wrapping up in one more book. This latest was possibly the most suspenseful, and much is revealed.

For August: I just started Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh, and am strongly considering picking up some Dickens (maybe A Tale of Two Cities). I'll be reading the new Harry Potter on the bus and plane on Saturday, and really need to get into Twilight of the Mammoths so I can write the book review for Quaternary Science Reviews. I'm also bringing The Yiddish Policeman's Union to ESA with me next week. We haven't picked our August book club book yet, but I have a suspicion it will be Chris Bohjalian's Before You Know Kindness.

Reading: Dragonquest, by Anne McCaffrey (Dragonriders of Pern #2) - the series is still holding strong. I love how McCaffrey incorporates forgotten science and technology; the Pernese are a far-future colony of Earth, millennia from now. Also reading Aftermath: The Remnants of War by Donovan Webster. It reads a bit like a magazine article (pretty quick and easy), but each chapter is about what gets left behind on the landscape after war: millions of unexploded ordnance from WWI in France, hundreds of thousands of unburied Nazi German bodies on the steppes outside of Volgograd after the seige of Stalingrad...it's really mind-blowing. I'm also listening to A Wind in the Door, by Madeleine L'Engle. I'm finding Meg to be a bit more dense and whiny this time around, but the book is really taking me back, and inspiring nostalgia for New England autumns. L'Engle is definitely an author who shouldn't be reading her own books out loud, though.

(+) I rode my bike to school yesterday! Alone! In the road! And home again! I'm not sure why I decided to (I didn't know I'd do it when I woke up yesterday), but Sunday seemed like a good time to start. There was much less traffic. I'm curious as to how it will go today, on a Monday. I'm also wondering if there's a way around the Gradual Yet Continuous Hill of Death.

(-) Jeremy, and just about everyone else in the universe, has been consumed with Harry Potter over the weekend. He'll let out a "gasp!" or slam the book shut involuntarily, as though holding the contents at bay every now and then. It was interesting to read through my friends' list over the weekend, watching everyone wink out as though they were disappearing behind the sun and all communication was cut off, until they made it around to the other side. "OMG Houston, I finished the book!" I just need to hold off for twelve more days.

(-) Twelve more days?!

(-) Twelve more days to generate a lot of data, before I head off to ESA in San Jose.

(+) ESA in San Jose!

When I woke up with a sore throat on Wednesday morning (which still feels like Monday, since it was the beginning of my week), I should have realized something was up. When I didn't get out of my pajamas until 2pm, I think I knew. I can't say for sure, but I suspect that I mostly hung out on the couch and surfed the internet, for about seven hours. This may seem like ordinary behavior for many people, but it's not something I do. Ever. Then, yesterday morning, as I flopped onto the bed to give Eris her morning cuddle, I fell asleep until nine o'clock. I officially signed myself off as a card-carrying Sick Person. Diagnosis: Bad head cold. Of course, I thought about the skin rash I'd gotten, which had me worrying about strange lake diseases. Or mono. Having a cold in the summertime always feels incongruous enough to warrant a little hypochondria.

I eventually made my way downtown to run a bunch of errands in the soul-squashing heat and humidity - library, bank, post office, the usual, and birthday shopping for Jeremy. The latter was especially fun, as it involved me going to all of my favorite stores on State Street, though I felt a bit woozy. I got him a Jane Jenni mug (Funky Monkey), a karma checkbook, a Threadless gift certificate, and a lomography camera (it takes photos like this). After stopping by the lab (and deciding it wasn't going to happen), I went home again and read, before mustering up the resolve to make a dark chocolate banana cake with crunchy peanut butter frosting. The bananas were an accident - I started the cake before I realized I had no eggs, and threw those in instead (it worked). When Jeremy came home, we watched Eddie Izzard ("I am an evil giraffe!"), ate some chicken and wild rice soup from a can, ate cake, and went to bed. Low-key, belated, and sans alcohol, but Jeremy seemed to enjoy himself.

It's 8:23 and I'm still in my pajamas, again. A wonderful cold front has plopped down from the Arctic, cooling the air and turning the sky a vivid blue. I've got to get my head back into Lab Land; I have a lot of pollen to count and writing to do before I go to San Jose, CA for the Ecological Society of America Meetings in two weeks ("ecology" the science, not "ecology" the green ideology). Tonight's the midnight release of Harry Potter, and I have no idea how I'm going to fit that into the equation. I may have to wait until my trip to California to read the book - I'll be on a bus to Chicago, and a plane to San Jose, and then have the evening in a dorm room to myself. What better way to spend it? The major considerations are : 1) I may cry, and therefore get a tomato face, in public. 2) I may not finish in time to finish it before my day-long seminar on Bayesian statistics on Sunday - imagine trying to sit through such a thing under those circumstances! 3) Not only will I have to wait two more weeks, with the book in the house, but I'll have to wait two more weeks before Jeremy can talk to me about it, and also with the increased danger of spoilers.

The life of a graduate student is fraught with such spiritual dilemmas.

Dear Spoilers of the World,

Those of you who feel the need to "spoil" your own Harry Potter VII experience can stay the hell away from me. You're like kids at Christmas time, poking through closets because you can't stand the uncertainty of what could be under the tree. You know what? Most of us did that - once. We decided pretty quickly that we hated the feeling of ruining our genuine experience of the evntual Big Day, and that it sucked all the verve and magic out of something that would otherwise have been special if left untainted.

Those of you who continue to do so even into adulthood simply need to grow up. Your stunted maturity should not come in the way of my enjoying the living, breathing experience of this event as it unfolds for me, personally, in all its child-like wonder. You should certainly not spoil it for the millions of children for whom this experience has been ten years in the making. We live in a world that is all-too-often fractured, joyless, and without hope, and if you insist on taking a source of happiness and authentic experience away from them (and me), then shame on you.

For those of you who wonder what could possibly be taken away from the experience of reading the books just because some small detail (such as the death of a character) has been leaked to the public: I don't know what to say in the face of such blatant disrespect. You can choose not to read the books, or you can choose to watch the films alone, but do not presume to understand my reading experience. Just by making such statements, you reveal yourself to be ignorant of something I cannot even begin to explain to you. Suffice to say that yes, these spoilers do indeed have an impact on my reading experience, just as much as knowing the outcome of the World Series would change how someone watching a game in June would feel about the plays. How dare you presume otherwise?

I am happy to leave you alone to whatever joy you find in your cynical, self-centered lives. So please do me and the millions of Harry Potter fans the courtesy of leaving us to ours. Go be a bloody Muggle on your own time.

Love,

Jacquelyn

See the rest of the list here...

Books

13. Garlic & Sapphires: The Life and Times of a Critic in Disguise, by Ruth Reichl (****) - A surprisingly fun memoir about Reichl's stint as a New York Times food critic and finding that she has to go incognito to have an authentic experience. Fascinating, funny, and pointed, her exploits in disguise would make a nice nonfiction break, and would make good airplane or beach reading as well.

14. Dragonflight, Anne McCaffrey (*****) - This was my first experience with the Pern series, and I'm kicking myself for not reading this when I was twelve or fourteen. Pern is a fascinating world with a complex ecology and social history, and this is smart science fiction with a compelling page-turner storyline. Look for a review soon.

15. Suite Francaise, Irene Nemirovsky (*****) - This was the book club pick for June (both I and another book club member brought it as a suggestion), and I can't wait until Sunday for the discussion. Easily one of the best books I've read this year, it's hard to believe that this coherent, brilliant novel (written as the invasion and occupation of France by the Germans was taking place) came out of a manuscript in progress that was never edited or completed. Originally intended to be five interconnected novellas, only two were written before Nemirovsky was killed in Auschwitz. Look for a review soon.

Graphic Novels

13. Y: The Last Man [7]: Paper Dolls, Brian K. Vaughan - Do yourself a favor and check this out if you haven't already. It's been so much fun to read, and I'm dreading the tenth (and last) edition even as I can't wait to find out how the story ends. To me, this series is everything that can be great about comic books.

14. Y: The Last Man [8]: Kimono Dragons, Brian K. Vaughan - Every issue becomes my "favorite!"

15. Fables [7]: Arabian Nights (and Days), Bill Willingham - I feel like this series is struggling a bit, not the least because some of my favorite characters are incognito. Not as good as the last one, but the artwork is picking up again.

Next up for July...

Howard's End, E.M. Forster (and it's a Modern Library Top 100 book!)...I'm already in love.
Twilight of the Mammoths, Paul S. Martin
Dragonquest, Anne McCaffrey (it'll be good for the 10-hour drive to Ohio)

And the July book club pick? I'm hoping for Murakami or Cormac McCarthy's No Country for Old Men.