Bright Hour: Book Riot Task #1 A book published posthumously

I've joined the Book Riot Read GoodRead group and have been enjoying browsing people's ideas for their reading tasks.  I've never really had a plan for my reading, though I know both Lucy Calkins and Donalyn Miller encourage teachers to help their students' develop plans for reading. Or, as one I've the teachers I've worked with would say, "What's on deck?" (Baseball metaphor).  I'm enjoying the mild structure of a task without the rigidity of a list.

Someone suggested the book Bright Hour by Nina Riggs.  I've hesitated to read things like The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch or When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi, even though they are highly recommended, because my parents' deaths are still too fresh for me.  But, when I read the Nina Riggs was related to Emerson, I was intrigued.

When my father was taken off of chemo and put on hospice, he was told it could be weeks or days.  After almost 7 years of chemo, there was nothing else that they could try for his colon cancer that metastasized to the liver.  It was mid-March, and when the Jung Garden catalog came, he still planned for a garden.  The week after Mother's Day (the unofficial start of planting season), Dad and I were in the front of the house planting flowers.  It struck me that there was a good chance that he would not eat any of the produce of the garden, but he had ... not hope... but acceptance that life would continue and things would continue to grow without him and we could enjoy it. He died July 1st. After that, Mom and I had fresh tomatoes, fried zucchini, and wilted lettuce (see recipe), mid-summer.  Although I know we are all mortal and death can come at any time, I wondered,  how does one feel when the countdown begins - the inevitable becomes now.

Nina Riggs articulated a lot of what I imagine my parents thought, felt, and said to each other. Dad did not want to leave, he fought as long as he could, and he was concerned about what would happen to his family after he was gone. But in the midst of that, he also lived - like Nina.  He got up each morning and lived - watched movies, read the paper, had coffee and muffins with his sister, and prayed.

I know this post isn't so much about the book, but more about me - yet isn't that one of the reasons we read? To make sense of our experiences and get perspective on them?   It was a good book, I enjoyed the deftness of Nina Riggs in her use of language and connecting her story with the stories and authors before her.  Her story was filled with the ordinariness of life alongside the profound reckoning of death, but without self-pity. 

Right after I finished reading, this story was posted about her surviving spouse: Two dying memoirists wrote bestsellers about their final days. Then their spouses fell in love. For me, that was like seeing Dad's garden after his death - it was sad, but also nourishing.   It also reminded me that all things are transient. "This too, shall pass. When things are bad, remember: It won't always be this way. Take one day at a time. When things are good, remember: It won't always be this way. Enjoy every great moment."

Putting Imagination First

Title: Imagination First: Unlocking the Power of Possibility

Author:  Eric Liu and Scott Noppe-Brandon

Publisher: Jossey-Bass

ISBN: 978-1118013687

Pages: 272

I was at the university library looking for books about mindfulness and turned into the aisle where this book was shelved and I was immediately struck by the front cover.  The fire engine red zig-zag of paint in the middle of the cover grabbed my attention and insisted that I at least look at the book.   I flipped over the book and looked at the list of people who recommended the book – Daniel H. Pink, among them.  That was enough for me to check-out the book.  It got slipped into my backpack for my trip to New York City.  It was a great read for the subway each of the short chapters each could stand alone, and to read a book with constant interruption is difficult.  Plus, since I didn’t read the whole book in one sitting, I was able to contemplate the ideas, which is almost required to get anything out of the book.

The basic hypothesis of the authors is that, as a country, we have stopped imagining.  We either make due with what we have, or tinker with it a little, but we have lost “the capacity to conceive of what is not – something that, as far as we know, does not exist; or something that may exist by we simply cannot perceive” (p. 19).  The goal of the book is to image what it would look like to put imagination first in the ICI Continuum. 

 

Imagination → Creativity (imagination applied) →  Innovation (novel creativity)

The book is set up in three parts: the premise, the practices, and the purpose. The Premise explains the basic ICI Continuum framework – that imagination needs to happen first, before someone can be creative to innovative. Part two explains 28 different practices that someone can do each day to jump start their imagination.  Some are as simple sounding as “Leave the Campfire” – to recognize that staying with the group may be comforting, but it limits our ability to take risks.  To leave the campfire means we need to identify and face the fear of doing something different, but if Steve Jobs and Twyla Tharp could do it, so can we all.

Other practices are harder to identify and incorporate.  They force us to reflect own ourselves and intentional change.  For example, citing George Lakoff’s work with metaphors, “Mix Your Metaphors” encourages people to recognize what metaphors are shaping the way they frame reality and chose to use different metaphors to re-frame their reality.  Similarly, the authors encourage an examination of the stories, or narratives people tell themselves and examine how the narrative influences their choices.  Citing Carol Dweck’s work on fixed versus dynamic mindsets, and encourages people t adopt a dynamic mindset that anything is possible. 

The final part of the book illustrates what can happen when imagination is put first.  It leads to building What If Capacities, creating networks with other imaginations, and the capability to do good in a fairly dark world. 

The book was very easy to read – with large text and short chapters – but there was a lot of powerful practices packed into it.  Since it was a library book, I did not underline or mark anything, but I will be on the look-out for a used copy so that I can re-read, re-think, and make the practices my own.

A Book about Stealing Tea!

Title: For All the Tea in China: How England Stole the World's Favorite Drink and Changed History

Author:  Sarah Rose

Date: 2011

Publisher: Penguin Books

ISBN:  0143118749

Tea and books - there is no better combination. Not even chocolate and peanut butter!  And this is a book about how tea got to be a British monopoly and the drink of choice for the British Empire.

Up until the first Opium War, the secrets of growing and processing tea was closely guarded by the Chinese Dynasties. But with the conquering of China in the war, many new trade cities were opened to the East India Company and paved the way for Scotsman Robert Fortune to engage in some industrial espionage and smuggle the tea plants and seeds of China into the fully conquered country of India and try to reproduce the conditions for tea growing and processing.  Not only did Fortune sneak into the interior of China twice to abscond with tea, he also had to figure a method of transporting thousands of plants and seeds across water and time without detriment.  Once in India, other gardeners took over the planting and tending the precious cargo and within a few decades, India became the main source of British tea.  This brief summary highlights none of the details included by the author that shows her in-depth research of Fortune’s journey and subterfuge.  

Much of the quotes from Fortune's time make me cringe with overt racism and discrimination against the conquered Chinese people.  Like most of the other conveniences of cheap modern life (such as sugar, cotton etc), the tea trade has been built on the subjugation of people and corporate greed.  However, the author highlights the enormity of the impact of Fortune’s theft and made me re-consider the origin of the drink I truly love.  Through out the book, I constantly remarked, like I do when watching How Its Made, “Hmmm… I never thought about how people came up with that idea.”  Modern tea plantations look idyllic and inviting, but the history is very complicated.

Power of One Formidable, but Together, Better

Title: The Necklace: Thirteen Women and The Experiment That Transformed Their Lives

Author: Cheryl Jarvis

Date: 2008

Pages: 222

Publisher: Ballantine Books

ISBN: 978-0345500724

As a teacher of literature, I've often had my students read Guy de Maupassant short story, “The Necklace.” In the story, Madame Loisel, unsatisfied with her life, almost refuses to attend a society gather, but relents when her friend loans a spectacular diamond necklace. With the necklace, Madame Loisel feels like she is the star of the party, but loses the necklace on the way home. She is too embarrassed to tell her friend, and goes into deep debt to purchase a new necklace to replace the lost one. To pay off the debt, Madame Loisel works harder and longer and become a bitter, tired old woman. When she meets her friend years later, Madame Loisel is unrecognizable and she blames her friend for her misfortunes. If her friend had not loaned her the diamond necklace, she would not have lost it and gone into debt. When she admits her deception to her friend, she is confronted with a chilling response, “"Oh, my poor Mathilde! But mine was imitation. It was worth at the very most five hundred francs! . . . "

Usually high schoolers are incredulous that Madame Loisel would hid the loss of the necklace and not just admit it. Often though, adult readers understand the prideful ego that led Madame Loisel to conceal her carelessness. Madame Loisel was concerned primarily about how the world perceived her, she longed to portray herself as wealthy and influential. Adults also understand how life often works as ironically as the ending – that what we think is real often is false, and we pay for this disillusionment.

Why do I mention Guy de Maupassant's story? Although Cheryl Jarvis's reporting of the true story of a diamond necklace the belonged to thirteen women in California in 2004 does not have the dark ending of de Maupassant's it exposes the facades many women present to themselves and the world, and how a necklace exposes these masks.

Each chapter is dedicated to one of the women involved in the time-share necklace, but the idea originates with Jonell. As a real estate agent, she frequently rewarded herself with something special after a good sale. When she sees a $37,000 tennis-style diamond necklace, she wonders why ordinary people can't experience extraordinary luxury. If she could convince several other women to buy a share of the necklace, and share the wearing of it, then everyone could feel the luxury. After phone calls and emails, she convinces a small group to time-share the necklace, and with the gracious pricing of the jewelry store owned who significantly reduced the price to $15,000, the women had a necklace to wear for 28 days around their birth date.

The group met for the first time to set some ground rules – the name of the necklace became Jewelia and at the end of the time-share, the woman with the necklace would host the next meeting. Each woman came to the group with different reasons for buying into the necklace, different seasons in life, and different expectations of the group. Without the necklace, many of the women would have never met each other. However, the necklace inspired each woman to examine herself and her desires from life. They discarded the masks they wore and began to embrace their potential.  Additionally, collectively, the group began to take up local causes, fund-raise, and become involved in their local community. In the group, the women found themselves to be both accepted and challenged. Over time, their experiment in time-sharing a luxury item become fodder to local and national news.

Each chapter is a short profile of each of the woman and are not fully realized, even though the author spent several weeks with each of the woman. But, as the necklace and group symbolized potential for the women, the book symbolizes potential for any woman to envision a life that fulfills her true possibilities. This theme is clearly evident with the opening quote:

“Here we are, women who have been the beneficiaries of education, resources, reproductive choices, travel opportunities, the Internet, and a longer life expectancy than women have ever had in history.

What can and will we do?” ― Jean Shinoda Bolen

For current information about the Jewelia group, their webpage is The Women of Jewelia. 

Hiding Secrets of the Heart

Title: Annie's Ghosts: A Journey into a Family Secret

Author: Steve Luxenberg
Date: 2010

Pages: 432

Publisher: Hyperion

ISBN: 978-1401310196

Family secrets have a way of surfacing, whether the secret keeper wishes it or not. For Steve Luxenberg, finding out that his ailing mother was not an only child began a quest to find out who the unmentioned Annie really was in life, and why her presence was hidden from family history by his mother, Beth. This true story follows Luxenberg's quest to uncover the secrets of Annie after the death of his mother. In the process, Luxenberg becomes the keeper of other family secrets and uncovering unexplored family tensions and stories.

As with many quests, Luxenberg's journey happens in bursts of activity with long months of inactivity. Researching the life history of someone unmentioned and deliberately hidden requires perseverance and patience, which is portrayed in detail throughout the book. However, when Luxenberg finally pieces together the story, he (and the reader) is still unclear who Annie really was and what Beth's motivation was to deny her existence.

Beth, born Bertha, was born into a work-class family in New York. Her sister, Annie, was born a few years later with an unformed foot and cognitive delays. When caring for Annie became nearly impossible, she was sent to a mental asylum in her teenage years in the 1940s. She spent her entire life in various facilities, at first being visited by her mother and aunt. However, Beth reinvented herself and her family story to deny the existence of Annie in order to present a marriageable facade. The only contact that Beth had with Annie was to bury her middle-aged sister in the 1970s. With only one slip to a hospital psychiatrist, Beth took her secret to the grave.

While investigating this family secret, Luxenburg interviews extended family members and people from Beth's old neighborhood. Each person provides a small snippets of the secret – some knowing nothing about Annie, and others sharing images and impressions of the family. However, Anna Oliwek, a Holocaust survivor and cousin to the family, had direct experience with Annie and Beth's inability to except her blight, which caused a family rifted that lasted until Beth's death. While interviewing Anna, Luxenberg learns Anna's secrets and how she survived Hilter's onslaught.

At the beginning of the book, all the plot points are revealed. Beth dies, Annie is a secret, and Luxenberg investigates. But, his journey leads through a century of major social and political change and an evolving understand of mental illness. Although he never finds a picture of Annie, nor does he get a real sense of who she was, Luxenburg's family provides a gravestone for Annie's final resting place, where in death she will not be unnamed.  It was a book that I regretted putting down and couldn't wait to get back to at the end of the day.

I still find each day too short for ... all the books I want to read

Title:Eighty Days: Nellie Bly and Elizabeth Bisland's History-Making Race Around the World

Author: Matthew Goodman

Pages: 480

Publisher: Ballantine Books

ISBN: 978-0345527264

When I was in elementary school, I read a biography of Nellie Bly. It was one of those short, simplistic children's biographies from the school library. If I remember right, I filled out a book report form which looked like a train car that snaked around the classroom with the slogan, “Reading Keeps You on Track” or something similar. I was in a phase where I read a lot of biographies of women who struggled against gender discrimination of their times – Elizabeth Blackwell, Clara Barton, Florence Nightingale, and Susan B. Anthony. When it can time to make some decisions in my life, I returned to these heroes and role models to guide me. That's the power of good biographies.

Ken Eikenberry wrote a piece entitled “5 Reasons to Read More Biographies”. He believes that biographies allow you to:

1. stand on the shoulders of giants
2. remind you that history repeats itself
3. promote self discovery
4. see the world in new ways
5. have mentors at a distance

I think Eikenberry is correct.  Reading biographies can show a lot more than just the person's life.  When really engaged with the story, biographies make me think deeper about history, how people respond and react to their situations, and makes me think about how I might react.  It is well known that many of our presidents and CEOs have been readers of biographies.

As I read Eighty Days, I not only learned more about Nellie Bly and was introduced to Elizabth Bisland, but I was also struck by the enormity of the things I did not know and the ability of time to bury sensational stories. It made me wonder how much of what I find in current events to be unforgettable will actually even be remembered in 10, 20 or 100 years. But, let me go back to the beginning.

Eighty Days alternates between telling the story of Nellie Bly (born Elizabeth Jane Cochrane) and Elizabeth Bisland. Nellie was from a working class background who gained a following as a reported at the Pittsburgh Dispatch and later the New York World. Her early stories focused on the plight of poor and working women and was best known for her insider expose on a poorly run mental hospital. At one point, Nellie tried to convince her editor that she should try to beat Jules Verne's fictional trip around the world in eighty days. Being young and a woman, the editor initially denied her request, but a year later, he sent her off. Being practical, Nellie traveled with one major outfit and a small carry bag, to hasten her ability to change modes of transportation. In her travels, she was able to meet Jules Verne and finished the trip in just over seventy-two days. Throughout her journey, she reported back to the paper, and became a major celebrity wherever she visited.

Not to be outdone, The New York newspaper Cosmopolitan sent its own reporter around the world in the opposite direction. Elizabeth Bisland had a background very different from Nellie's. She was born and raised in the south – well-read and even conducted salons in New York that attracted up and coming writers and artists. She was refined and said to be beautiful and captivating. When the Cosmopolitan heard about Bly's trip, they gave Elizabeth two days to be ready. Unfortunately, her journey in the opposite direct brought her into some very difficult weather, and she arrived in New York days after Nellie Bly.

It was well into the journey that Bly learned she had a rival. What both women didn't realize was the sensationalism of their travels back home. Newspapers across the country reported (quite often falsely) tales of their trip. A contest was conducted with a prediction of when Bly would arrive in New York. Board games were created. Nellie Bly's image was used in multiple advertisements. These were the conversations of the proverbial watercooler.

This was the first realization I had. If the author is correct, and I have no doubt he is, for almost three

months, Nellie Bly and Elizabeth Bisland were on the lips and minds of most people across the country – like the Kardashians in all the tabloids and magazines today. Yet, within a year, both women struggled to continue their work as reporters and Nellie Bly couldn't make it as a lecturer on the circuit. Although many people today might recognize the name Nellie Bly, few would recall Elizabeth Bisland. Even with the biographies I read as a child, I was not introduced to this rival of Bly. This was one of those books that literally many my mind shift – it had to re-construct what I thought I knew.

Which led me to the next epiphany – there is a whole lot in the world that I don't know! As John Burroughs said, “I still find each day too short for all the thoughts I want to think, all the walks I want to take, all the books I want to read, and all the friends I want to see.”

Names and Naming in YA Lit - Nice tidbits

Title: Names and Naming in Young Adult Literature

Authors: Alleen Pace Nilsen and Don L.F. Nilsen

Publisher:Scarecrow Press

ISBN: 0-8108-5808-0

Pages: 165

 

This is one off my shelf. I bought it awhile ago but haven't gotten to it. I've often had students ask me about the intentionality of authors when they name characters. When I've attended readings by authors, that question is often asked also. Some authors don't name their characters until well into the writing and as the personality develops. Other authors state that the character just existed, and the author just wrote down the story. I was finally prompted to pick up this book because of finishing The Hunger Games and I was impressed with the author's ability to use names to foreshadow and extend the depth of characterization. Katniss – an edible water plant that is known for arrow shaped leaves. Rhue – or rue, to regret or be sorrowful. Peeta – close to pita bread, which reminds the reader of his origin. And, although Haymitch doesn't seem to have an origin, I kept thinking “hayseed” which is slang for a bumpkin or a yokel, which in the beginning, he certainly seems to be. There is a nice summary of names in Hunger Games here: Name Meanings.

The Nilsens had the honor of interviewing Robert Cormier many years ago about his use of names in novel such as The Chocolate War, I Am the Cheese, and After the First Death. This interview turned into an article, which turned into a book. Although the book isn't hefty, there's a lot of interesting tidbits, which are even more interesting for anyone who as read the authors the Nilsens highlight such as: M.E. Kerr, Gary Paulsen, Louis Sachar, Francesca Lia Block, Karen Cushman, Gary Soto, Nancy Farmer, Orson Scott Card, and Ursula K. LeGuin. In many cases, the Nilsens have communicated with the authors directly, plus they link historical naming trends and facts to how the authors selected names.

There is a preview of the book here: Names and Naming in Young Adult Literature 

Although a bit old, here is Alleen Nilsen's YA BookPage