The Aeronaut's Windlass is the first in Jim Butcher's new Cinder Spires series (one writer on Goodreads reported that Butcher is sketching this out asThe Aeronaut's Windlass is the first in Jim Butcher's new Cinder Spires series (one writer on Goodreads reported that Butcher is sketching this out as 23 books!). I have never read any Butcher other this book, but he was a fun and quick read for a snowy, winter weekend when I didn't feel well.
This series seems to be set far in the future. Humans do not live on the planet, but in manufactured spires extending from the surface that keep humanity safe from the surface's dangers. Meat is raised in vats, some species are very different than ours, some humans speak Cat fluently (we already know cats understand English, even when they ignore us), and there does not seem to be motored ground transportation or electronic communication (e.g., phones, radio, email). There are, however, crystal-based technologies that are far more than what we might imagine.
Briefly, Spire Albion is attacked by Spire Aurora, and appears to have been betrayed by someone within. Therefore, the Spirearch chose a band of misfits and outsiders to save their world: an etherealist and his assistant, three teens, a cat, and a disgraced Naval captain and his crew (now privateers). Clearly, the Spirearch is an astute judge of character, as this ragtag crew faced formidable odds and, while they didn't win this first skirmish – one character concluded, "We didn't stop the attack on Landing. Our enemies escaped, after burning down a priceless collection of knowledge. Innocents died. The Landing Shipyard was destroyed." (p. 625) – they did end with a moral victory that will allow Albions to persevere.
In Windlass, right might not beat might, but it has a fighting chance – and right is much more important than vengeance. Wisdom is recognized and valued. Books – and knowledge – are power and more important than the crystals running everything. Coincidences should be suspect. If Grimm (the captain) has a hunch, put all your money on it. And, of course, play the long game – what happens now is only one piece to the larger game. Butcher's characters, particularly the three young women, begin to come into their own in this novel and both recognize this for themselves and are recognized as growing by their peers.
Finally, books can be fun reads, without being thoughtful or engaging. Windlass's writing and dialogues are interesting. Rowl, for example, concluded, Each creature had something it excelled at, he supposed. Humans could manage knots easily, and cats could do everything else (p. 497). Butcher's characters – even his cats – are ones I'd want to know. This is a series to follow.
Windlass is the last in this year's Hugo shortlist nominees that I've read. It was a good year for science fiction/fantasy. ...more
I am not generally a reader of vampire fiction, but Certain Dark Things, by Silvia Moreno-Garcia, was a good and enjoyable read. It is set in a near, I am not generally a reader of vampire fiction, but Certain Dark Things, by Silvia Moreno-Garcia, was a good and enjoyable read. It is set in a near, but parallel universe in Mexico City. Briefly, vampires "came out" in 1967 and, while the vampires in this story are wealthy and privileged (and part of the drug cartel), they also struggle with prejudice and oppression and must hide or be persecuted. Mexico City is a vampire-free zone, of course, with Sanitation making regular sweeps through the city for vampires and other undesirables.
Vampire stories offer interesting possibilities for exploring sexuality and coming out issues (cf. Charlaine Harris's books and True Blood). Because Dark Things was set in Mexico City and because vampires are not a single type, but a series of very different subspecies, this book also enables the readers to consider culture and issues of oppression and privilege within a "single" group.
The writing in Dark Things is both somewhat awkward and engaging. Still, at its heart, it's a love story between a cynical, snobbish, and privileged vampire and a naive garbage picker she picked up off the streets. Both characters shift and grow, allowing this to also consider what one will do for love, including when that love is dangerous. ...more
I read and enjoy articles from Faculty Focus's daily updates. Flipping the College Classroom: Practical Advice from Faculty, is a compilation of theseI read and enjoy articles from Faculty Focus's daily updates. Flipping the College Classroom: Practical Advice from Faculty, is a compilation of these articles written by Barbi Honeycutt and others.
These articles are useful, but it would be nice if, in this context, they included more examples (some selections do) and more figures or tables. I like visuals and need more help in translating some of the abstract ideas into practice. There is an example from a flipped calculus class (Robert Talbert), which was well-presented, but I'm sure that its fine points were lost for me and others. It would have been nice to have a second example from another field. Further, this example was tucked away in the Appendix, and might have been more usefully placed (for me) in the first chapter. Similarly, the readership survey of flipped classrooms is tucked away in the Appendix, when I would have used it – or a summary of its conclusions – to set up the problems that the book would be addressing.
I do like this volume's sound advice. I had been planning on flipping one of my classes this Spring, but Honeycutt, for example, recommends keeping it simple and flipping at select choice points rather than getting myself in a situation where I am overwhelmed. Point well taken. This and other similar advice is going to make my Spring easier and probably more successful.
I downloaded this book, as I liked one of Honeycutt's articles on Faculty Focus, but wanted to know whether I wanted to buy one of her books. This was free from Kindle Unlimited and, as she probably hoped, has convinced me to buy other books from her series on flipped classes. ...more
Everyone Brave is Forgiven, by Chris Cleave, is one of my less favorite WWII novels. (Have you noticed how many there are – and how many different takEveryone Brave is Forgiven, by Chris Cleave, is one of my less favorite WWII novels. (Have you noticed how many there are – and how many different takes on this war?) Everyone Brave is set in early WWII, largely in England. Its major characters are upper and upper middle class. Class plays a frequent role in the novel, as do race, trauma, and courage.
At the start of the war, Everyone Brave's characters are witty and charming, as in this exchange between Mary and one of her students being evacuated from London.
“Why did they take the animals away?” “Different reasons in each case,” said Mary, counting them off on her fingers. “The hippopotami because they are such frightful cowards, the wolves since one can never be entirely sure whose side they are on, and the lions because they are to be parachuted directly into Berlin Zoo to take on Herr Hitler’s big cats.” (p. 10)
Increasingly, they are traumatized, dysthymic, addicted, and disengaged. The first stance is easier to read, although the characters are frequently as isolated at the book's beginning as the end(view spoiler)[ although there are signs of hope by the end (hide spoiler)].
Cleave repeatedly talks about courage: "I was brought up to believe that everyone brave is forgiven, but in wartime courage is cheap and clemency out of season" (p. 245). While the title suggests the book is about battle courage, this quote –and others – suggests it's more about interpersonal honesty, as when one character shares a photo of her scars with a beau she's never met or another returns after running away.
I enjoy reading forewords, author notes, footnotes, etc., as they often offer a richer view of the book. While this book is not Cleave's grandparents' story, it aligns with their stories in interesting ways that must have made it rewarding to write. It also leads him to conclude, "if you will forgive the one piece of advice a writer is qualified to give: never be afraid of showing someone you love a working draft of yourself" (p. 420). The book's lesson is one Cleave learns too late for his own relationship with his grandfather.
Writing this review helped me appreciate and make sense of Everyone Brave, which is an important reason that I write and belong to Goodreads. ...more
Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis, by J. D. Vance, is a simultaneously thought-provoking and frustrating memoir. Vance is a Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis, by J. D. Vance, is a simultaneously thought-provoking and frustrating memoir. Vance is a Yale-educated attorney, but his childhood was difficult. His mother married umpteen times, moved frequently, and was addicted to prescription medications and then heroin. Her relationships were characterized by verbal and physical abuse, which Vance saw as normal. He was largely raised by his grandparents, who were often violent, made verbal and physical threats, and were poor (although wealthy in comparison to their hillbilly cousins back home, as they had a house and a car). Vance performed poorly in school when living with his mother, but well with his grandmother, who supported and encouraged him.
Vance blames hillbilly culture for its people's and culture's problems in relationships, employment, education, etc. (I have difficulty using the word "hillbilly," even though it's his word.) As Vance describes it, "this book is about ... what goes on in the lives of real people when the industrial economy goes south. It’s about reacting to bad circumstances in the worst way possible. It’s about a culture that increasingly encourages social decay instead of counteracting it" (p. 7).
These two quotes quickly point at some of Vance's observations of his culture:
"Hillbillies learn from an early age to deal with uncomfortable truths by avoiding them, or by pretending better truths exist. This tendency might make for psychological resilience, but it also makes it hard for Appalachians to look at themselves honestly." (p. 20)
"Not all of the white working class struggles. I knew even as a child that there were two separate sets of mores and social pressures. My grandparents embodied one type: old-fashioned, quietly faithful, self-reliant, hardworking. My mother and, increasingly, the entire neighborhood embodied another: consumerist, isolated, angry, distrustful." (p. 148)
Their "weaknesses" – fierce loyalty, avoidance, aggressiveness – were actually strengths in their childhoods.
Vance also points to structural problems that are outside the culture's control (e.g., home ownership can, paradoxically, worsen community problems when manufacturing jobs disappear), and concludes that issues are individual and cultural ones worsened by structural interventions. Regardless, he does not present clear solutions to the problems this group faces, perhaps because there are no clear and easy answers. In his own life, solutions are a product of his interactions with outsiders, who offer a different way of approaching the world.
Why did I read this book? In part to find an answer to the 2016 US election. Why did people vote for a candidate who seems like the opposite of what this population needs? Vance, a conservative, concluded that Obama and the Democrats felt "like an alien to many Middletonians for reasons that have nothing to do with skin color." Obama is
"brilliant, wealthy, and speaks like a constitutional law professor— which, of course, he is. Nothing about him bears any resemblance to the people I admired growing up: His accent— clean, perfect, neutral— is foreign; his credentials are so impressive that they’re frightening; he made his life in Chicago, a dense metropolis; and he conducts himself with a confidence that comes from knowing that the modern American meritocracy was built for him" (p. 191).
I was frustrated when Vance argued that Obama alienated what had been a natural Democratic base because he was smart and successful (they could see themselves in Trump). That doesn't mean that Vance isn't right.
And while Vance accuses Democrats of mis-stepping, he also accused the white working class of increasingly blaming problems on society or the government – and "instead of encouraging [personal and civic] engagement, conservatives increasingly foment the kind of detachment that has sapped the ambition of so many of my peers" (p. 194). He identified the structural barriers to change that hillbillies face, but then waved them away, minimizing the roles of oppression and privilege.
Vance does offer some solutions, ones that this president seems unlikely to hear, but that Democrats should take seriously: mentoring; integrating neighborhoods across social class; supporting families rather than tearing them apart; and offering messages about hope, control, and responsibility (rather than external blame and mistrust).
Vance is in his early 30s and admittedly still trying to figure things out. Hillbilly Elegy is a strong debut, but I expect that his thesis will become more nuanced by his next book – which is sure to come....more
A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles can be read as a sweet, almost frothy and mannered story. It can also be read as a study of survival, of making aA Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles can be read as a sweet, almost frothy and mannered story. It can also be read as a study of survival, of making a life under adverse circumstances, or as an overview of the Soviet Union's history.
That first reading of Gentleman isn't wrong, but I think it is incomplete. Gentleman tells the story of Count Alexander Ilyich Rostov, a nobleman in Russia, who was placed under house arrest for decades. Towles asks us to consider how we would live if confined to a 100 square room and, while the Count is given rein to a much larger space than Anne Frank had, like her, his life is much, much larger than those four walls or even the larger hotel would suggest. He asks the Count – and us – to consider what Montaigne, Robinson Crusoe, and Casablanca have to tell us about life and living. For the Count, it isn't just what he does, but how he does it. That how and why make all the difference.
The Count was placed under house arrest for publishing what appears (to my 21st century, US-born eyes) both beautiful and politically-innocuous. A much-abbreviated version of the poem asks,
Well, where is our purpose now? .... But this much I know: It is not lost among the autumn leaves on Peter's Square.
It is not among the ashes in the Athenaeum ash cans, It is not inside the blue pagodas of your fine Chinoiserie. It is not in Vronsky's saddlebags;
Not in Sonnet XXX, stanza one; Not on twenty-seven red...(p. 1).
This poem, then, suggests that questioning one's sense of purpose can be threatening and that we need to question and find that purpose.
Towles asks us to consider "What is it about a nation that would foster a willingness in its people to destroy their own artworks, ravage their own cities, and kill their own progeny without compunction," then later answers,
I suddenly understood that this propensity for self-destruction was not an abomination, not something to be ashamed of or abhorred; it was our greatest strength. We turn the gun on ourselves not because we are more indifferent and less cultured than the British, or the French, or the Italians. On the contrary. We are prepared to destroy that which we have created because we believe more than any of them in the power of the picture, the poem, the prayer, or the person. (p. 290).
The Soviet bloc does not lean over the Count on a daily basis and his life goes on, even under house arrest. That it goes on seems counterintuitive and very true simultaneously; yet the Soviet bloc intrudes in many ways and, as nonpolitical as he often seems, he is not simply a passive recipient of that tyranny. He doesn't only laugh his way through life – although there is much warm laughter.
During the darkness that most of us face at one point or another, these are things to remember. Life goes on. There is laughter, purpose, meaning, beauty to be had. We can live with integrity wherever. Gentleman is a good reminder of these and, in this way, starkly different than many books set during some of the darker periods of the 20th century.
And, don't skip the footnotes, which are as interesting as the text itself. ...more
Seveneves is a dystopian novel by Neal Stephenson. The moon is hit by ... something... which breaks it into pieces. Over the next two years these piecSeveneves is a dystopian novel by Neal Stephenson. The moon is hit by ... something... which breaks it into pieces. Over the next two years these pieces hit each other, further breaking apart, until they fall and destroy all life on earth. Luckily, they are able to move a small number of people off-planet to wait out the next 5,000 years before they can resettle Earth.
Seveneves is an unusual dystopian novel. There are pages and pages of descriptions of technological innovations than I like – in fact, the first two-thirds of the book are more about technology and less about the interactions among the survivors; their grief at losing their homes and everyone they know; and their strategies for solving the numerous problems they face. This is a book for science nerds who don't quite get or care about social interactions. Its characters, especially in the first parts of the book, all sound alike.
Yet, it's a book that I kept reading all 881 pages, despite these problems (from my point of view). Stephenson can make the asides on technology interesting. The Spacers' solutions to problems are creative. It runs by a series of fascinating questions about what would happen at the cusp of disaster: Who dies and who is chosen as Earth's future? How would you choose to live if you knew you had two years left to live – or if you knew your family and friends only had limited time? Stephenson only cursorily answers these questions, but at least they are raised.
The story and the discussions of the evolution of a culture when its native conditions change are what kept me going. This is from when the Spacers know that the people on Earth are doomed and they realize the power structure will change:
"We are all in trouble... with a bunch of dead people."
Tekla reacted little, but among Margie and Lina and Jun there was a collective intake of breath, a momentary halt in the proceedings.
"Margie," said a Texan voice from the ground, "this dead surgeon would like you to clamp off that arteriole before it starts bleedin' again."
"Those of us who are going to live," Dinah said, "have to start living by our own lights" (p. 108).
These cultural changes continue into the last third of the book, as the seven races and subraces that now populate the environs surrounding Earth attempt to understand and work together, use their selective advantages, and jockey for power. The long descriptions in this section are less frequently technological than cultural, so from my point of view, more interesting.
The story, however, seems to come to a screeching halt. The characters quickly identify and respond to life-changing events, so quickly that it doesn't seem credible. Perhaps one of the advantages of the long technical descriptions is that they slow down the story in a way that it should be slow: the characters must simultaneously hurry up and wait – and we feel this.
This is the fourth novel from 2016's Hugo shortlist that I've read this year. I am impressed by the breadth of the literature encompassed by this award. I'm further impressed by the central role that women, People of Color, and sexual minorities play in these four books (three of which were written by women). Clearly, the audience for fantasy and science fiction has broadened over the last fifty years. To me, that says something both about these genres and our culture. ...more
Uprooted is a magical, lyrical fairy tale by Naomi Novik: wizards and witches fighting to save the kingdom from an evil force. That's the simple and oUprooted is a magical, lyrical fairy tale by Naomi Novik: wizards and witches fighting to save the kingdom from an evil force. That's the simple and overly-facile storyline, but it's less about magic and war – although there is much of each – and more about coming of age and recognizing and growing one's own strengths; the nature evil and ultimately healing; connectedness to the land; love and intimacy; friendship; and effective collaboration. Novik weaves these themes with a deft hand, building first one then another. It is a simple but rich story.
From the first page of her book, Novik turns our world sideways. What values and goals are normal (not what we expect)? She continues to shake our simplistic views of relationships and the world, looking at issues first one way, then another.
Novik's language sounds much like a quickly-moving stream through the wood:
"Decision was settling over him like snowfall, the first thin dusting that would build and build. The rest of the witnesses would speak, but he wouldn't hear them. He'd already decided." (p. 290).
This is an apt style, as it matches the shape of the narrator's magic. Agnieszka hums and sings, often riffing fragments of story and song into and around Sarken's crisp, correct, and well-ordered magic.
This is the third novel I've read from the 2016 Hugo Award Shortlist. Each has had a strong nontraditional female character and identified unexpected solutions to problems. I've never read my way through a list – and maybe I won't this time either – but I've been impressed by the writing making it to the list. ...more
What does it mean to be wise? Thomas Gilovich and Lee Ross, in The Wisest One in the Room: How You Can Benefit From Social Psychology's Most Powerful What does it mean to be wise? Thomas Gilovich and Lee Ross, in The Wisest One in the Room: How You Can Benefit From Social Psychology's Most Powerful Insights, define wisdom as "Wisdom involves knowing when the information available is insufficient for the problem at hand. It involves the recognition that how things are right now might seem very different down the road" (p. 4).
We look at the world and believe what we see (naive realism). What I love about psychology is that it opens up the world, challenges my naive ways of seeing it, and offers more helpful ways of seeing it. The corollary is that other people may see the same things that we do and, because they have different values and experiences than our own, see them differently. A wise person recognizes these biases influence others' perspectives – and our own. A wise person "recognizes that there are two sides of every coin: A vantage point that makes some things easy to see can obscure considerations that would be obvious from another perspective" (p. 44).
It doesn't take much of a stretch of imagination to see how doing this ability to see two sides to the coin would help us in our current difficult political climate.
This is one of five strategies that Gilovich and Ross describe in The Wisest One in the Room. I'm not going to describe each of these; instead, I encourage you to read, enjoy, and increase in wisdom.
Gilovich and Ross conclude their book by considering several parts of the world that can be informed by their model: happiness, group cooperation, helping underachieving students learn, and global warming. I know more about the first domains, so was most interested in global warming, which they refer to as "an even tougher problem for the world." They identify barriers to acting individually or nationally to decreasing global warming – but then describe why they remain hopeful about the future.
Like the rest of this book, this chapter was thought-provoking. I had talked with my students about the US election earlier in the week; we had concluded that one of the papers they should work on next semester would require them to apply their knowledge of psychological research to the election (or another topic of their choice). This chapter on global warming will be an excellent model of what I want them to do.
There are many books that purport to be psychology written for the general population. Many of them are not worth the paper they are written on. This one is. Read it, study it, use it. ...more
I have argued for the last 35 years that I didn't like Ernest Hemingway, describing him as a male who accepted a simple and macho view of masculinity,I have argued for the last 35 years that I didn't like Ernest Hemingway, describing him as a male who accepted a simple and macho view of masculinity, channeling his machismo into killing animals and people. Perhaps this memory was based on my reading, although I don't remember reading a specific Hemingway story or novel. I'm now skeptical about that memory.
If I wore hats, I would eat my hat. I just finished reading A Farewell to Arms, which is inconsistent with this probably false memory. Yes, Frederic Henry spends his time drinking, warring, spatting and, erm, screwing, but I wonder whether this description is macho chest-banging or an accurate depiction of war – a place where periods of meaningless boredom are punctuated by intense action and fear, where one is tracked by crazy, random, bad luck. On Henry's first night back to the war, for example, the priest described why he was disheartened by the war. Henry said,
"Now I am depressed myself... That's why I never think about these things. I never think and yet when I begin to talk I say the things I have found in my mind without thinking." (p. 156)
I enjoyed Hemingway's dialogue, which felt much like that in a Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn movie – playful, repetitive, and witty. My husband hypothesized that that similarity was not coincidental, but that the screenwriters imitated Hemingway, whose dialogue was the thing. Interestingly, I've started watching the movie (not with Grant and Hepburn) and the dialogue doesn't have that same feel.
On the other hand, I didn't understand the larger whole of A Farewell to Arms. (view spoiler)[Basically, the story follows Frederic Henry and Catherine Barkley for a year of their lives as Henry goes to war, is wounded, deserts the army, and escapes Italy where they stay through Barkley's pregnancy. (hide spoiler)] Henry and Barkley's great passion felt only like verbal sparring and an attempt to merge to avoid grief and the war. Their sparring, rather than finding the deeper waters that he attempted to avoid with the priest, stayed in the shallows. Maybe young love has difficulty finding meaning, passion, and depth, yet in a book about love and war, I wanted more – even if it was just cynicism about this relationship.
The version of A Farewell to Arms that I read had both a lot of front matter and photos of alternate endings (he wrote at least 39). One, described here as "The Nada Ending," was summed up in Seán Hemingway's Introduction as "That is all there is to the story. Catherine died and you will die and I will die and that is all I can promise you." I was looking for a grander theme, but ultimately, that's all I found.
Please comment and convince me that there was more. I wanted more. ...more
I read Mists of Avalon, by Marion Bradley Zimmer, 30+ years ago when it first came out. Mists is set on the cusp of a changing world: Avalon vs. "modeI read Mists of Avalon, by Marion Bradley Zimmer, 30+ years ago when it first came out. Mists is set on the cusp of a changing world: Avalon vs. "modern" Britain, fighting on horseback vs. on foot, Christianity vs. the old religions, views of sex as celebratory and life-affirming or dirty, and views of women as leaders and priestesses or the source of all evil. This changing world provided rich fodder for Zimmer.
Mists was a ground-breaking book for me, as it told the Camelot story from a very different viewpoint than I'd considered previously. Here I first saw – or most clearly saw – that there were other ways of seeing the world, that a woman-centered viewpoint could be an equally valid way of perceiving the world.
This was/is a useful lesson on empathy on another level. We believe that what we see is True (naive realism), leading Gwenhwyfar and Morgaine to fairly consistently misunderstand others, especially those closest to them. Morgaine does so despite also frequently hearing their thoughts and having visions of the future. They – and we – see what they want or expect to see, both about themselves and others.
Because Mists has a different perspective on Camelot than I'd seen before, its characters were also different. Gwenhwyfar is pious and foolish – while often attempting and failing to be wise. Morgaine is human with powers that she has developed more than others have, but like other humans, she lusts, is jealous, and is compassionate and kind. Lancelet is probably gay and attracted to Arthur, although also loves Gwenhwyfar. Merlin/Taliesin is elderly and acquiesces to the new world order.
This is not a quick read, but it is a lovely one, as we join the characters trying to make sense of God's/the Goddess's actions. Zimmer looks at the world from one perspective and once we've accepted that view, she immediately turns it on its head. I like this shifting world, although not everyone will.
And to leave you with a taste of Zimmer's writing – and what seems to me a useful way of thinking about life: here Morgaine comforts a dying Arthur, who thinks his life was "all for nothing":
You did not fail, my brother, my love, my child. You held this land in peace for many years, so that the Saxons did not destroy it. You held back the darkness for a whole generation, until they were civilized men, with learning and music and faith in God, who will fight to save something of the beauty of the times that are past. If this land had fallen to the Saxons when Uther died, then would all that was beautiful or good have perished forever from Britain. (p. 867)
If we could all remember the good that we have performed, even in the midst of failure... ...more
This is part of a review written for and solicited by the online journal PsycCRITIQUES.
Kim Metz's Careers in Mental Health: Opportunities in PsychologThis is part of a review written for and solicited by the online journal PsycCRITIQUES.
Kim Metz's Careers in Mental Health: Opportunities in Psychology, Counseling, and Social Work is written for an audience of undergraduate psychology or other mental health majors. It is too narrow for a Careers course, as it solely focuses on the helping professions, but it might be a good supplementary text for an Intro to Counseling course. It might also be a good text for faculty who are advising students about graduate school and are confused by the variety of apparently similar professions out there – clinical, counseling, and school psychology, guidance counseling, social work, licensed professional counseling. I am a clinical psychologist, have worked in the field for 25 years, and advised students about these fields for most of that period and still, as a result of reading this book, better understood issues I've talked about and taught for years.
Careers in Mental Health is a bit of a hodge-podge of a book. The first half focuses on specific careers, the second on general issues (e.g., why/why not to enter one of the mental health professions, applying to graduate school, critical thinking, ethics). I would probably use the chapters out of order if I were teaching (I generally do), and would probably use several of the later chapters before the first half of the book.
Metz's response to many of the questions she raises about the mental health fields is, "It depends, it's confusing." There are real philosophical differences among fields, although these differences may be as much or more about the specific type of work or the setting within which parties work. She does a nice job outlining the philosophical ideas underlying the fields, although I kept wanting a visual map illustrating philosophical influences on fields across time.
Understanding the mental health fields is complicated by the fact that some of the data that we would like is unavailable. We know median incomes from the Occupational Outlook Handbook, but who are these employees and how long have they been working? In what parts of the country? In what settings? These things make a difference, as seen when comparing income data shared by AAMFT, which reports higher incomes earned by marriage and family therapists (MFT) than reported by the Occupational Outlook Handbook. Presumably MFTs who are members of AAMFT are not representative of the general population. Metz does a good job indicating some of these complications.
While some mental health professionals do quite well financially, I don't think one should enter the field primarily for financial reasons (see Metz's chapter on why/why not to pursue a mental health degree). Enter because it is your passion and consistent with your values, offering the kind of work environment that suits you. Under these conditions, it can be deeply satisfying and rewarding work....more
Full disclosure: I am not a Trump fan – nor are the authors of Trump Revealed, Michael Kranish and Marc Fisher; nonetheless, they do give him credit wFull disclosure: I am not a Trump fan – nor are the authors of Trump Revealed, Michael Kranish and Marc Fisher; nonetheless, they do give him credit when deserved. However, as my husband concluded, the book could be summarized as, "How Trump cheated these people this time [and this time and this]." I would add, "...and justified it."
I chose to read this book because I have liked the Washington Post's coverage of Trump and hoped to get a better understanding of who the man is. Unfortunately, the picture they paint is only somewhat less two-dimensional than that portrayed on The Apprentice. Although Kranish and Fisher attempt to paint a nuanced portrait, he is not a nuanced kind of guy.
Kranish and Fisher described many of the contradictions between Trump's real and public selves. Trump has flip-flopped between parties seven times in this century. He has been both pro- and anti-abortion. He has frequently misrepresented himself – as Swedish rather than German, as worth far more than he probably is (reports in 2005 ranged between $1.7 and $9.5 billion), and as not involved/not remembering being sued or having embarrassing conversations. He and his companies have filed more than 1,900 lawsuits and have been defendants in an additional 1,450.
Trump seems to have been competitive and frugal, aggressive and impulsive from the very beginning. His relationship with Roy Cohn, who defended him in the housing discrimination suit, fostered his approach to the law: "when attacked, counterattack with overwhelming force" (loc. 1120).
Trump followed the letter of the law in his business dealings rather than its spirit – avoiding taxes, finagling loans and tax incentives, and "cleverly us[ing]" the advantages he had to meet his own goals. His morals appear to be skin-deep and expedient: What serves Donald Trump? He often negotiated deals where he received positive outcomes with no investment and little risk ¬– others fronted the money and carried the risk. When Trump's casino and other business dealings went under, for example, he observed, "for myself these were all good deals...I wasn't representing the country. I wasn't representing the banks... I was representing Donald Trump. So for myself, they were all good deals" (loc. 3505).
Why has Trump been a phenomenon this election cycle? "Trump, like American Idol's Simon Cowell, could be simultaneously inspiring and negative – a politically incorrect truth teller" (loc. 3775). He paints a dangerous world and favors law and order (despite crime dropping since the 1990s). He attributes problems to The Other: Mexicans, illegal aliens, Muslims, Blacks, foreigners. Kranish and Fisher attribute his attractiveness to "how disaffected many voters were" (loc. 3775), that "voters are anxious and feel a loss of control" (loc. 5497). They like his strength, his stance on law and order, his aggressiveness, and his "honesty" (despite both Politifact and the Washington Post reporting that Trump has the worst record for truth-telling of all presidential candidates in this election cycle).
I wish that Trump Revealed had been less a biography and contained more analysis. It is a good list of Trump's misdeeds with a sprinkling of more positive actions (please don't ask me to name three), but I really would have liked a stronger portrait of who he is – or why the American public has willingly accepted his bad behavior. Kranish and Fisher observe that it's difficult to draw such conclusions without greater distance. I think they sell themselves short here.
P.S. I think I would have rated this book more positively if the subject had been more positive. ...more
I've generally been a good parent, but the mistakes that I most regret have come from periods where I was "too busy" and not present in the process ofI've generally been a good parent, but the mistakes that I most regret have come from periods where I was "too busy" and not present in the process of parenting.
Everyday Blessings: The Inner Work of Mindful Parenting, by Myla and Jon Kabat-Zinn, is their book on parenting, building on their work on mindfulness to handle other problems: stress, anxiety, depression, and chronic pain. The Kabat-Zinns make it sound possible to parent mindfully and compassionately, offering them age-appropriate sovereignty, and listening deeply to their children and their individual needs. The Kabat-Zinns also talk about their own work – being mindful under the stresses of parenting rather than reactive to them.
At the same time, the Kabat-Zinns clearly admitted their own struggles with parenting and their intention to keep working to parent better. That they talked about both pieces – their successes and struggles – makes it easier to listen to and work with these ideas.
My favorite parts of Everyday Blessings include the stories they tell throughout the book, both personal stories and parables, and the Seven Intentions listed at the end of the book. Their stories highlight both the things that make parenting difficult and a path through those. Their intentions provide a useful path while parenting.
Many parenting books offer specific and concrete parenting behaviors for raising healthy children. While the Kabat-Zinns do not offer such concrete directions, they offer a compassionate compass that can help parents respond to the range of situations that have no simple solutions. ...more
Disgruntled, by Asali Solomon, is a coming of age story set in the late 20th century, but also an odyssey through a series of strange and confusing coDisgruntled, by Asali Solomon, is a coming of age story set in the late 20th century, but also an odyssey through a series of strange and confusing contexts that help Kenya, the central character, set a course for her life. These strange situations seem both to be the problem she is attempting to avoid – earnest meetings of a Afrocentric group, a polygamous commune, a prep school, a goalless Party Central – and the force helping her identify a solution to that problem.
Disgruntled explores how to go through life when the larger culture is oppressive, when you don't fit in, when you don't want to fit into what's there. It explores how to handle the shame of being alive ... the shame of being black and having a mere ten minutes to untangle your hair in the locker room after swimming (p. 66). The shame of living in a culture that excludes and puts down 10% of the population.
Whites do not come off well in this book. With few exceptions, they are privileged, misguided, and superficial. They overlook Kenya's intelligence and sensitive observations, equating worth with skin color. Blacks do not come off much better, however. Most fawn over and attempt to ally with whites. They pretend to things they are not.
There are two flawed heroes in Kenya's life: her parents. Her father was a weak, but charismatic Black Nationalist. However, Kenya's mother, who also went astray in the center of the book, had known that with Johnbrown in her life, Kenya could be proud of who she was. She wouldn’t grow up thinking that white people were gods or superheroes (p. 282).
Bottom line: Kenya's parents loved her in their ways and ultimately gave her what she needed. Her father spent her childhood writing The Key, which initially proposed a vague philosophy, although later morphed into the story of the burning of Frank Lloyd Wright's Taliesin. By the end, she recognized the key to the next part of her life, the good part, was figuring out exactly what he did mean in The Key (p. 286).
Kenya gives Disgruntled a warmth despite the significant difficulties its characters face (e.g., prison, drugs, betrayals, lies, pretense). Her voice prevents the book from devolving into nonproductive anger. She observes her parents, their friends, her peers, with compassion. While she does not always make good decisions, she responds with surprising restraint and wisdom. Her presence made this a novel that I finished and then immediately returned to. I didn't want to put it down....more
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, by Junot Díaz, is the story of Oscar Wao and his family. The family's destinies intertwine over the course of seThe Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, by Junot Díaz, is the story of Oscar Wao and his family. The family's destinies intertwine over the course of several generations after being cursed, perhaps, by General Trujillo (better known as El Jefe). How do you handle a curse?
Anytime a fukú reared its many heads there was only one way to prevent disaster from coiling around you, only one surefire counterspell that would keep you and your family safe. Not surprisingly, it was a word. A simple word (followed usually by a vigorous crossing of index fingers). Zafa. (pp. 6-8)
How can we handle our fukú? How can we create zafa? Yunior says, Even now as I write these words I wonder if this book ain’t a zafa of sorts. My very own counterspell (p. 8).
This is a story of wisdom, courage, violence, and love. This is a book that asks what one does for love. It asks what it means to really live. Is it avoiding El Jefe when he commands your appearance or is it returning to the Dominican Republican to a puta, your truest love, who is married to a jealous police officer? What is wise? What is courageous? What is truly living? But if these years have taught me anything it is this: you can never run away. Not ever. The only way out is in. (p. 209).
Yunior, the narrator of two of Díaz's other books – Drown and This Is How You Lose Her – also narrates this one. (Oscar Wao stands well on its own.) Yunior is a scumbag and loses his true love, but also recognizes that he is repeatedly messing up and, ultimately, learns (mostly). He learns to see and understand Oscar Wao, to look beyond the fat, the nerdiness, the ruminative whining. This is why we forgive and love Yunior. His use of dialect and slang can misdirect us, so we often believe that he is little more than a no-nothing, yet his frequent references to sci fi and fantasy, his insights, remind us to challenge our preconceptions about intelligence and, ultimately, wisdom.
Before Oscar Wao returned to the Dominican Republic, Yunior observed that he looked like a man at peace with himself. A little distracted but at peace. I would tell Lola that night that it was because he’d finally decided to live, but the truth would turn out to be a little more complicated (p. 312).
Life is a little more complicated and Oscar Wao allows it to be.
Read Díaz's footnotes. They are somewhat more serious than the book, frequently offering scathing historical or literary contexts for Díaz's story, but they are as fresh and free-wheeling as Oscar Wao is. ...more
The Sympathizer, by Viet Thankh Nhuyen, is a confession by a Viet Cong double agent shortly after the end of US involvement in the Vietnam War. This gThe Sympathizer, by Viet Thankh Nhuyen, is a confession by a Viet Cong double agent shortly after the end of US involvement in the Vietnam War. This gives The Sympathizer an unusual place in fiction about the war, as it is from a Vietnamese perspective, rather than an American.
The (nameless) narrator is a biracial refugee (Vietnamese and French), living in the US for parts of the story, although in Vietnam and elsewhere at other points. As he says, he is of two minds, which can and should be read in all of its meanings:
I am a spy, a sleeper, a spook, a man of two faces. Perhaps not surprisingly, I am also a man of two minds. I am not some misunderstood mutant from a comic book or a horror movie, although some have treated me as such. I am simply able to see any issue from both sides. Sometimes I flatter myself that this is a talent, and although it is admittedly one of a minor nature, it is perhaps also the sole talent I possess. At other times, when I reflect on how I cannot help but observe the world in such a fashion, I wonder if what I have should even be called talent. After all, a talent is something you use, not something that uses you. The talent you cannot not use, the talent that possesses you—that is a hazard, I must confess. But in the month when this confession begins, my way of seeing the world still seemed more of a virtue than a danger, which is how some dangers first appear. (loc. 136)
The US does not come off well in this book. We Americans often seem superficial, self-serving, and unable to see other cultures from any perspective from our own. This "evidence of our barbarism, which then justified their raping, pillaging, and looting, all sanctioned in the holy name of getting our children to wear some clothes so they would not be so tempting to decent Christians whose spirit and flesh were both in question" (loc. 1284). Or later:
As a nonwhite person, the General, like myself, knew he must be patient with white people, who were easily scared by the nonwhite. Even with liberal white people, one could go only so far, and with average white people one could barely go anywhere. The General was deeply familiar with the nature, nuances, and internal differences of white people, as was every nonwhite person who had lived here a good number of years. We ate their food, we watched their movies, we observed their lives and psyche via television and in everyday contact, we learned their language, we absorbed their subtle cues, we laughed at their jokes, even when made at our expense, we humbly accepted their condescension, we eavesdropped on their conversations in supermarkets and the dentist’s office, and we protected them by not speaking our own language in their presence, which unnerved them. We were the greatest anthropologists ever of the American people, which the American people never knew because our field notes were written in our own language in letters and postcards dispatched to our countries of origin, where our relatives read our reports with hilarity, confusion, and awe. (loc. 3897)
As our narrator is of two minds here, he was equally hard on the Viet Cong (view spoiler)[, who captured, starved, and tortured our narrator – even though he, himself, was Viet Cong. A good confession was his only way to be freed – although, as the Commandant observed, someone who writes as this narrator does is suspect: "The good news is that you show glimmers of collective revolutionary consciousness. The bad news is that your language betrays you. It is not clear, not succinct, not direct, not simple. It is the language of the elite. You must write for the people!" (loc. 4796) (hide spoiler)].
The narrator's writing is witty, thoughtful, twisting, and often very punny, deserving second – or even third and fourth reads. Frequently, his sentences were both marked by what he saw and its opposite: "What am I dying for? ... I’m dying because this world I’m living in isn’t worth dying for! If something is worth dying for, then you’ve got a reason to live" (loc. 3406). As the narrator's focus ricocheted rapidly over his environment and he did not use quotation marks to signal changes in internal/external focus or even across speakers, I often felt that I needed a machete to forge a path through the undergrowth of this book. Sometimes I wondered whether The Sympathizer was going anywhere and perhaps I was only there to enjoy the view.
Hang in there. The ending of this Pulitzer Prize winner pulls together his themes of friendship, meaning, patriotism, and belonging in a brilliant and often surprising finish.
The Fifth Season, by N. K. Jemisin, is the first in the Broken Earth Trilogy, and rightly won Jemisin her first Hugo. Fifth Season is a dystopian noveThe Fifth Season, by N. K. Jemisin, is the first in the Broken Earth Trilogy, and rightly won Jemisin her first Hugo. Fifth Season is a dystopian novel, probably set on Earth although well in the future. The central characters are orogenes, who as individuals, feel the earth and manage its power. Despite – or because of their power – orogenes scare the general populace, who avoid them.
Fifth Season explores a number of interesting themes, including slavery, filicide (think Toni Morrison's Beloved), being different, denial, and environmental disasters. Jemisin created a complex and different world that is well worth exploring.
Jemisin starts Fifth Season with a dedication: For all those who have to fight for the respect that everyone else is given without question (p. ix). As her epigraph suggests, her novel explores issues of oppression, the nature of freedom, and social justice. What freedom is often remains unclear. On the one hand, freedom is uncomfortable: But this is what it means to be civilized— doing what her betters say she should, for the ostensible good of all (p. 75). Or as she later says: This is why she hates Alabaster: not because he is more powerful, not even because he is crazy, but because he refuses to allow her any of the polite fictions and unspoken truths that have kept her comfortable, and safe, for years (p. 348).
On the other hand, all characters yearn for and seek freedom.
This book is told by three narrators – a young child learning to navigate the system, an early adult on the cusp of mastering her skills, and a depressed and grieving mother who goes underground to escape a massive and incomprehensible natural disaster and the prejudice of her community. Jemisin's structure is initially confusing, but her ability to separate, then weave these stories into a single one makes me yearn for the next in this series.
This is a story about pain and trauma. Perhaps you think it wrong that I dwell so much on the horrors, the pain, but pain is what shapes us, after all. We are creatures born of heat and pressure and grinding, ceaseless movement. To be still is to be… not alive (p. 361). Of course, if we were characters in this book, we would all be Stills.
Jemisin also asks what we should do in response to an unfair and unbending ruling class. Attack back? Calm the surface? Avoid? Jemisin has no easy answers.
Perhaps Jemisin wrote to wake us up, so we come alive. More probably, she wrote so the orogenes and stone-eaters among us are given a safe place, one they deserve....more
The Redemptive Self: Stories Americans Live By won the American Psychological Association's William James Award for best general-interest book publishThe Redemptive Self: Stories Americans Live By won the American Psychological Association's William James Award for best general-interest book published in 2006. It also won the best book for Psychology and Cognitive Science from the Association of American Publishers. Well-deserved.
Redemptive Self is both readable and thought-provoking – and a good book in this genre should be both. McAdams writes about our stories, but also tells good stories – from his own life, from his research participants, about contemporary and historical figures. These engage the reader well and bring McAdams' ideas to life.
One of his last chapters analyzed George W. Bush's and Barrack Obama's very different stories. Both tell redemptive stories – briefly, they initially face danger, but were "chosen," and have done something to overcome this danger and give back to the greater community. Such stories help people live lives characterized by generativity. Both could have easily told contamination stories – bad things happened and things cannot get better. To me, Obama's is a more interesting and compelling story than Bush's (which McAdams has written another book about). Bush's story, though, is much the next chapter of the Prodigal Son, a parable that has clearly stood the test of time.
Think about the stories that Trump and Clinton tell. Trump's are easy to tell, point to a clear enemy, and easily identify how the problem will be resolved – and there is a happy ending, at least for people on the winning team. From my mind he does not clearly tell either a redemption or contamination story, as he doesn't spend much time reflecting on his life, even relative to Bush.
Clinton's stories seem to be a redemption story, although only at the Democratic Convention did she talk about her early life, her mother's early life. Because Americans love redemption stories (we love happy endings after difficult beginnings), we loved this part of her convention speech. Her stories are interesting and nuanced, but that also makes her stories more difficult to understand and recount. Her story-telling style makes it more difficult to pin her down and identify what she stands for. Does she, like Obama or Trump, provide a simple straightforward account of what has caused problems and what can be done to fix them? If she did, she might be a less capable leader, but perhaps more compelling.
Redemptive Self is nuanced in a way that most "popular" psychological books aren't. Instead this is a professional tome that is written and cited for a popular audience. You won't know you are eating your veggies. Redemptive Self should be mandatory reading for anyone writing about people (fiction, nonfiction, screenplays), both to recognize common narrative styles more clearly and to communicate in ways that will engage. ...more
Loading...
