Reading List

I've been a little preoccupied (as hinted at in earlier post). But just in case you were wondering, here's a list of books I've read and been meaning to review (for SAWWC or otherwise)

1. Rajdeep Paulus' debut novel, "Swimming Through Clouds"
2. Samhita Arni's, "Sita's Ramayana"
3. Samhita Arni's, "Missing Queen"
4. Saladin Ahmed's, "Throne of the Crescent Moon" (not for SAWWC, but a fantastic read anyway)
5. Kuzhali Manickavel's, "Eating Sugar Telling Lies"
6. Kuzhali Manickavel's, "Insects Are Just like You and Me except Some of Them Have Wings"

Reviews to follow, shortly.

Summer reads - Diana Wynne Jones

What have I enjoyed about this summer, did you ask?
It's the first summer in nearly two years that I have had the chance to read for reading's sake.

First, Oh My God,  Oh My God, why did I ever stop doing this? 
"What!" I hear you protesting, "But you're a humanities, grad. And one working in cultural studies and literature at that. How the fuck could you pull that off without reading?"

And so, I hasten to explain. I *do* read for school.
Thanks to coursework, more than I like, sometimes. 


Specifically, what I don't like is that I have to cram so much reading into a regular semester that I, (like several of my fellow grad students), have devised a way of reading for processing *ahem* key information. 
Thanks to the sheer amount of reading assigned, and to the horrible insecurity-generating environment of grad school, reading in / for a grad classroom, is so often transformed into some warped version of Toddlers and Tiaras. This has, of course, transformed my reading pattern for the worse.  


Summer provides the only respite - since I usually can't afford to take classes over the semester. 
But I've spent the last two summers (my only free time), working on classes and writing a thesis. This summer, however, I'm reading for reading and that's a huge relief. 


Over the last two weeks I've read (among other things), for the first time, "The Chronicles of Chrestomanci", Volumes I and II, by Diana Wynne Jones. Although the name had been on the periphery of my reading for a while then, I only picked up Diana Wynne Jones after she died last year (read Neil Gaiman's very personal post about saying bye to DWJ). Nearly everything I'm thinking about her work has been said before. 
Her craft is incredible. Farah Mendlesohn points out in this wonderfully eloquent article:

Many of these novels are intensely complex works which work with many different types of fantasy, urban, absurdist, fairy tale, often gleefully mixed in together so that, as in Hexwood, the reader has to continually adjust their expectations about what kind of book they are reading. Jones didn’t just “not talk down to children” in that old but valued cliché, she talked up to them, expecting that if they didn’t understand something they would go and find out, or if they didn’t understand it now, they would greet its source with the joy of recognition later. Her books are intensely layered with myth mixing with physics, musicology with metaphysics.

Since reading the Chrestomanci series, I'm a little bit in love with Chrestomanci - Christopher Chant, specifically (but also the post in general). But, more than that, I'm in love with Millie-The-Living-Asheth (from Charmed Life and The Lives of Christopher Chant) and with the power and fullness of her characters. And, I respect that her fantasy, while it is written *ahem* for children, is not escapist. 


I'm off to wait for the next book I've ordered from the series. But, if you had to pick just one thing to read this summer, please let it be Charmed Life. 

Reads, Recipes, Rain

It's raining. Finally. After the first day of summer. Even so, it is raining and that's a good thing.

In the time that I've been away, I've tried, with success might I add, yet another one of the Poor Baker's Recipes: Banana Walnut Pancakes. And since I am not altogether averse to breakfast, or waking up early these days, (now that I don't really have to), these were Breakfast-for-Breakfast.

**An aside as I reprise this post, nearly four hours after I've begun: Good heavens, Turns out that these days, I can't sit still at the computer for more than a few minutes at a time. And that too, only if I force myself to stay.**


The Recipe
So where were we? Ah yes, Breakfast-for-Breakfast pancakes.
I was just going to use the Poor Baker's recipe to the last word - except that I was out of wheat flour, brown sugar and baking soda. And, a quick survey of my meager pantry revealed that I had just one walnut. No, I mean that. Literally One Walnut (oh the fun of living in a house where the other person loves dry fruits and nuts). 
Oh, and one banana (this, I admit, is my fault).

Said pantry-survey, however, also threw up a couple of slices of ready-made eggless tutti frutti cake (eggless , because a part of my family is entirely vegetarian and is currently here, chez-moi) close-to-expiry.
(Just so you know, Indian Tutti Fruitti Cake, Not to be confused with the Italian Tutti Frutti, which is also yummy.)

Tutti Frutti is Candied Fruit Peel type stuff. Your Local South-Asian (Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi) grocery will likely carry this bit of artificial yumminess.


And thus, my modified ingredient list:

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1½  tsp baking powder
• Pinch of salt
• 1 overripe bananas, mashed
• 1/8 cup white sugar, packed 
• 1 cup buttermilk (which, like a good South-Indian girl, I now stock at home)
• 1 walnut and 1/3 cup chopped almonds
• 2 slices of eggless tutti frutti cake

For the process, I refer you to the Poor Baker's original post  (since I did basically the same thing and she explains it so much better).


The Reads
I've just finished Diana Wynne Jones' Charmed Life. And this is the first Wynne Jones that I've ever read. Why did nobody tell me about this when I was much, much younger?

Also, I'm just a wee bit appalled that the version of the book I have says "Mad about Harry? Try Diana."  on the front cover. 
Really, U.S. News & World Report? Really?
The article that this references dutifully calls The Chrestomanci series Harry Potter's "spiritual ancestor" - but, seriously? Such galling taking out of context bothers me. Gah!

The news is that there is no Pulitzer Winner this year.
But what I'm drawing your attention to is Ann Patchett:

Let me underscore the obvious here: Reading fiction is important. It is a vital means of imagining a life other than our own, which in turn makes us more empathetic beings. Following complex story lines stretches our brains beyond the 140 characters of sound-bite thinking, and staying within the world of a novel gives us the ability to be quiet and alone, two skills that are disappearing faster than the polar icecaps.

Another Must-Read

You should go read The Poor Baker: not only does she make the most amazing baked yummies that I've ever had, she is also among the kindest human beings that I've met.
Go, on. Go read her. NOW!

End-of-Semesterness

Aight. Long break there (for those of you that noticed).
I've been lurking, reading:
1. Stu on anonymity, accountability and the interwebs
2. The Chronicle of Higher Ed's piece on Graduate School Being Like Art School
3. Also the CHE's pieces on The Big Lie and the same author's piece on going to graduate school for the Humanities
And on a much, much more delightful note:
4. The new namesake's blog about genre, werevwolves, Orientalism etc.

In the face of change and uncertainty, #1 through 3 are things that are / have been on my mind.
Posts on at least some of these to follow.
Until then, stay safe, y'all.

A Post Adding to My Book List (Or, Make-up Post #2)

This is a bit of a cheater post (because this should go on the Book List page of my blog). In the last three days I've added more books than I possibly can get through to my list of reads - some have recently been recommended by friends, and the others are books that I've been meaning to get to for a while but haven't picked up yet.

I also have a grand ole list from my list for school, but I'm not including them here unless they're books that were already on my list anyway.

And re-reads...I'm using modifying Alexandra's logic from an older GS podcast*, if I feel like I don't remember the book enough, it goes on the list.

1. Terry Pratchett, The Last Hero
2. Terry Pratchett, Unseen Academicals
3. China Miéville, Embassytown
4. Joanna Russ, The Female Man
5. Joanna Russ, How to Suppress Women's Writing
6. Ben Peek & Stephanie Campisi, Above/Below
7. Justina Robson, Natural History
8. Ursula LeGuin, The Left Hand of Darkness
9. Paolo Bacigalupi, The Shipbreaker 
10. Paolo Bacigalupi, The Windup Girl
(Gaul - you and possibly SSK might hop on #9 and #10, from what I've heard of the books)
11. Ray Bradbury, A Sound of Thunder (Short Story)
(More to follow)

So, dear readers and fellow bloggers, what does your list look like**? What more can you add to this wonderful list that I already have?

*No, I don't know the number. This is as specific as I can get for now.
**What do you mean you don't have a list?! Make one now, I say!

On Resnais' "Night and Fog"

"As long as there is language, there is the tiniest spark of humanity; a work of the imagination, an address to another, a new meaning given to an old idea, a sign of an active intelligence, an act of compassion, a capacity to dream - all of these affirm the sacred inviolability of human life."
(Sandy Flitterman-Lewis, Terror and Memory in Alan Resnais's Night and Fog)

Day 11: Adulthood. Get-out-of-Jail-free-cards. And Time, flying.

(And this shall be another update post.)

School's been out for the second week in a row (a.b. calls this "the mother of all get-out-of-jail-free cards of adulthood"). It almost feels like the semester hasn't started. The only thing that reminds me of this terribly erroneous conclusion is the mounds of homework and grading piling up on my makeshift work-nook.
And while a.b. has used this time to work on more of her awesome crafts, I've done next to nothing.

Okay, that's not entirely true. I've been trying to chip away at work. But how is it possible that despite the hours I've put in, nothing gets done! Tch. That's going to be the puzzle I work out for now. In the meanwhile, take a look at a sample of a.b.'s awesome crafts:

This was my christmas gift:

As was this awesome robot (Originally, she came with siblings. But then, so do I.) : 

Seriously, she's smart and super-skilled. In my other life, I want to be her.

Fayetteville as in Fate

Since I've moved here, I've grown increasingly interested in how an immigrant, or people of immigrant descent, specifically anyone of non-Caucasian descent define their identity in America.

Some of these definitions make me cringe, some make me cock my head to one side and think, some are closer to my heart than others, but all of them, are interesting. And of course, this is not the most eloquent post I've ever written. But ignore me... go on and read / listen to Dr. Mohja Kahf's "Fayetteville as in Fate"

(*edit: Thank you, NH for introducing me to the poem. )