Christmas Out Of Season
Picture books
Joey cat and I are staunch believers in keeping the joy and
spirit of Christmas all year round. Our studio boasts an artificial
tree with mini lights, three mini trees, and ornaments galore.
Needless to say, when a good Christmas book falls into my hands I
review it.
Liz Rosenberg's On Christmas Eve perfectly captures the
enchantment and magic associated with Santa. A boy, his parents, his
cynical older brother, and his bubble blowing sister are travelling
the night before Christmas. A light snow morphs into a blizzard.
Driving becomes hazardous. The family stops at a motel that has seen
better days.
Our child hero is concerned. There's no chimney. His mom
reassures him that Santa will find them. His brother grumbles that
only babies believe in Santa.
Our hero sets out peanut butter crackers and his last piece of
bubble gum and begins a faithful vigil...
...one that is amply rewarded.
Christmas' patron saint appears in quite a different form in Jan
Brett's delightful The Animals' Santa. It's Little Snow's first
Christmas. He's skeptical when his brother, Big Snowshoe tells him
the animals' Santa will come that night. Even after a number of other
forest creatures describe gifts they've received Little Snow is still
in a Bah, Humbug funk.
Wouldn't someone have seen tracks?
Big Snowshoe desperately wants his little brother to believe.
Luckily he has an idea.
Islandport Press publishes some of the most vivid picture book
gems. Jane Freeberg's The Scallop Christmas is a perfect example.
It's a true story told by a friend that "rattled around" in Freeberg's
mind thirty-five years.
Times are tough in narrator Marcie's long ago fishing community.
"Although we didn't have much money, we were happy. Still,
every summer, I looked longingly at the kids from away riding their
beautiful, shiny bicycles. The summer kids just always seemed to have
everything they wanted. I would close my eyes and imagine myself
perched on the seat, handlebar streamers flapping in the breeze..."
The autumn she's ten, Marcie's father, the teacher at the local
one room schoolhouse, is approached by a friend with an offer he can't
refuse: temporarily shutting the school to help the community.
Scallops that have appeared mysteriously are ready to harvest. This
could be a real boon for cash strapped families. A person could sell
a bushel per day for each person on board his/her boat. So bringing
the kids to work would really help.
At first a week off from school seems like a great adventure.
Only Marcie finds that sitting in a boat with her family gets boring
pretty fast. By Wednesday she finds herself missing school. She's
more than ready to quit.
"After three days of scalloping, I had three shiny quarters--the
most money I'd ever had in my life--with the promise of three more to
come. But I wondered why Poppa needed the money so badly. Why did he
continue to work so hard even though he was hurting so much?"
I bet you've guessed.
Astrid Sheckels' warm watercolors beautifully complement the
text. My visually favorite character is the faithful family dog, a
brindled brown mastiff with a white chest blaze.
The first Christmas Eugene and I celebrated in our own apartment
we had very few ornaments with which to adorn the tree he'd harvested
in his wood lot. I used some of my knitting yarn to transform sea
shells and small stuffed animals into decorations. I saved them
carefully. Every year they go up beside more acquisitions and are
among the ones I most cherish.
On a personal note, yesterday was a RED LETTER DAY in my life. It was
the day I received my FIRST PAYCHECK from my campus food service job.
Other than the stipends I received for being on school committee it
was the first one since before I became a parent. I don't have the
words to describe how proud I felt as I received it and then deposited
it in my savings account toward tuition. It was a symbol that rather
than give up I am making something of my life. Feel free to celebrate
any way you wish (as long as it's legal).
A great big shout out goes out to Anna McDormand who took the chance
of hiring a woman with a work history gap big enough to drive a limo
through. I needed the job to afford the masters program I was accepted
into. But it has become much more than a means to an end. I love the
work and the new clan I'm a part of. I also feel a great deal of
pride in belonging and contributing.
Be grateful to the people in your life who give you breaks when you
really need them. And if you are in a position to give someone a
chance, please do. You never know. It might be the start of
something beautiful. Every day when I go to work and give 100% effort
and look for ways to improve I am silently saying thank you to Anna.
jules hathaway
Sent from my iPod
Saturday, June 30, 2018
Thursday, June 28, 2018
Animal Stories For Our Children
Animal Stories For Our Children
Picture books
You know what they say about good intentions. After a trilogy
of cat and dog books I'd planned to move on. Then three hours of
shelving at the Orono Public Library netted me a fine stack of picture
books. Nearly half had a certain common denominator.
"Mama Bear wades the swift river.
Baby Bear follows.
Suddenly a fish leaps.
'Mama! Who splashed me?'
asks Baby Bear.
'That is the trout, Mama says.
Baby Bear sees brown."
In Ashley Wolff's Baby Bear Sees Blue a bear and her new cub
venture out of their den. Baby Bear frolicks joyfully in a brand new
world of color. Mama Bear patiently answers all of his questions.
Eventually a thunderstorm drives them back to their home where they
cuddle up to sleep.
Author/illustrator Wolff was inspired by the loving mother bear
and baby bear relationship in Robert McClosky's Blueberries For Sal.
One day she saw a photograph of a bear in the midst of colorful autumn
leaves. Fortunately for readers, she knew what to do.
A bear of another shade, I think rather polarish, is the star of
Tracey Corderoy and Sophie Allsopp's Flower in the Snow. Bear lives
in an icy kingdom with his chum, a girl named Luna. They do
everything together from skating on a frozen lake to nursing colds.
One day bear finds a dancing yellow flower growing through the snow.
At first Luna is delighted. But when the flower wilts she does too.
Bear knows what he has to do. He sets off on a quest that takes
him pretty much around the world. He must return home empty pawed.
Only Luna is delighted to see him. And she has a surprise of
her own.
If you're in need of an utterly adorable counting book, Sandra
Markle's How Many Baby Pandas? is a perfect acquisition. It's a book
a child can grow with. Little ones practice numbers skills with
pictures of juvenile pandas doing things like climbing, wrestling, and
chewing bamboo. Older kids can learn how pandas grow from birth on.
Did you know a newborn giant panda is 6" long and weighs 4 ounces?
Holy Hannah!
There is a strong conservationist slant to the book. Readers
learn why pandas' numbers are dwindling dangerously and what people
are doing to reverse this trend. A listing of books and web sites
provides a source of more information.
Devin Scillian's Memoirs of a Parrot will amuse both child and
parent. Brock is a bird with attitude. He and Tik Tok are the only
parrots in the pet store. They share species membership but have very
different temperments.
"What is it with these people?
They keep asking, 'Polly want a cracker?'
This is terrible grammar, by the way.
Tik Tok says I should just try to enjoy the attention.
Please. I'd rather gargle a pine cone."
One day a guy starts coming in and pestering Brock. Tik Tok
says the guy might buy Brock. Brock would rather eat a pile of stink
berries. But he has no choice in the matter.
His new home lives down to Brock's expectations. It's a tiny
house near a freeway. His new person gives him crackers and (worse
yet) is learning to play the ukelele. Brock would rather kiss a
rattlesnake than stay...
...until an unexpected crisis changes his perspective.
Even the most hesitant read alouder will thrive with Courtney
Dicma's Harold Finds A Voice and an attentive child listener or
two...or twenty.
Harold the Parision Parrot has an unusual talent. He can make
all the sounds he hears in his apartment from the bweeeee of a blender
to the flussshh of a toilet. He wants to learn some new noises.
One day Harold sees a chance to escape and goes for it. The
outside world is full of amazing sounds both large and small. But in
the middle of this aural plethora a little but insistant question pops
into his head: what would his own voice sound like?
Like Harold Finds A Voice, Stephan Shaskan's Toad on the Road:
A Cautionary Tale will be a book young listeners will want to hear
again and again.
A clueless toad in the middle of a road is intent on catching a
fly, oblivious to all around him. Several critters in various
vehicles wipe out trying to avoid him. There's a lot of Skid!
Screech! Bam! action. Each encounter ends in a lilting rhyme that,
when memorized, will give a child "I can read that pride and
satisfaction."
Imagine that you're in the bathroom brushing your teeth.
Suddenly from out of nowhere a rather large woodland creature
materializes beside you. I don't know about you, but I'd be kinda
freaked out. Maybe put in a call to animal control?
Fortunately the red haired protagonist of Ed Shankman's I Met A
Moose in Maine One Day is a bit more creative. When his new guest is
a tad large and klutzy to be an indoor companion, they go to town,
dazzling and sometimes terrifying neighbors and shop keepers, doing
everything from dancing to shooting pool.
But that's just the beginning of their sky high adventures.
On a personal note, I'm working the food service shifts I can get. I
volunteered at library and community garden after work Tuesday. It's
misting today.
A great big shout out goes out to the incoming freshpeople who are on
campus for orientation.
jules hathaway
Sent from my iPod
Picture books
You know what they say about good intentions. After a trilogy
of cat and dog books I'd planned to move on. Then three hours of
shelving at the Orono Public Library netted me a fine stack of picture
books. Nearly half had a certain common denominator.
"Mama Bear wades the swift river.
Baby Bear follows.
Suddenly a fish leaps.
'Mama! Who splashed me?'
asks Baby Bear.
'That is the trout, Mama says.
Baby Bear sees brown."
In Ashley Wolff's Baby Bear Sees Blue a bear and her new cub
venture out of their den. Baby Bear frolicks joyfully in a brand new
world of color. Mama Bear patiently answers all of his questions.
Eventually a thunderstorm drives them back to their home where they
cuddle up to sleep.
Author/illustrator Wolff was inspired by the loving mother bear
and baby bear relationship in Robert McClosky's Blueberries For Sal.
One day she saw a photograph of a bear in the midst of colorful autumn
leaves. Fortunately for readers, she knew what to do.
A bear of another shade, I think rather polarish, is the star of
Tracey Corderoy and Sophie Allsopp's Flower in the Snow. Bear lives
in an icy kingdom with his chum, a girl named Luna. They do
everything together from skating on a frozen lake to nursing colds.
One day bear finds a dancing yellow flower growing through the snow.
At first Luna is delighted. But when the flower wilts she does too.
Bear knows what he has to do. He sets off on a quest that takes
him pretty much around the world. He must return home empty pawed.
Only Luna is delighted to see him. And she has a surprise of
her own.
If you're in need of an utterly adorable counting book, Sandra
Markle's How Many Baby Pandas? is a perfect acquisition. It's a book
a child can grow with. Little ones practice numbers skills with
pictures of juvenile pandas doing things like climbing, wrestling, and
chewing bamboo. Older kids can learn how pandas grow from birth on.
Did you know a newborn giant panda is 6" long and weighs 4 ounces?
Holy Hannah!
There is a strong conservationist slant to the book. Readers
learn why pandas' numbers are dwindling dangerously and what people
are doing to reverse this trend. A listing of books and web sites
provides a source of more information.
Devin Scillian's Memoirs of a Parrot will amuse both child and
parent. Brock is a bird with attitude. He and Tik Tok are the only
parrots in the pet store. They share species membership but have very
different temperments.
"What is it with these people?
They keep asking, 'Polly want a cracker?'
This is terrible grammar, by the way.
Tik Tok says I should just try to enjoy the attention.
Please. I'd rather gargle a pine cone."
One day a guy starts coming in and pestering Brock. Tik Tok
says the guy might buy Brock. Brock would rather eat a pile of stink
berries. But he has no choice in the matter.
His new home lives down to Brock's expectations. It's a tiny
house near a freeway. His new person gives him crackers and (worse
yet) is learning to play the ukelele. Brock would rather kiss a
rattlesnake than stay...
...until an unexpected crisis changes his perspective.
Even the most hesitant read alouder will thrive with Courtney
Dicma's Harold Finds A Voice and an attentive child listener or
two...or twenty.
Harold the Parision Parrot has an unusual talent. He can make
all the sounds he hears in his apartment from the bweeeee of a blender
to the flussshh of a toilet. He wants to learn some new noises.
One day Harold sees a chance to escape and goes for it. The
outside world is full of amazing sounds both large and small. But in
the middle of this aural plethora a little but insistant question pops
into his head: what would his own voice sound like?
Like Harold Finds A Voice, Stephan Shaskan's Toad on the Road:
A Cautionary Tale will be a book young listeners will want to hear
again and again.
A clueless toad in the middle of a road is intent on catching a
fly, oblivious to all around him. Several critters in various
vehicles wipe out trying to avoid him. There's a lot of Skid!
Screech! Bam! action. Each encounter ends in a lilting rhyme that,
when memorized, will give a child "I can read that pride and
satisfaction."
Imagine that you're in the bathroom brushing your teeth.
Suddenly from out of nowhere a rather large woodland creature
materializes beside you. I don't know about you, but I'd be kinda
freaked out. Maybe put in a call to animal control?
Fortunately the red haired protagonist of Ed Shankman's I Met A
Moose in Maine One Day is a bit more creative. When his new guest is
a tad large and klutzy to be an indoor companion, they go to town,
dazzling and sometimes terrifying neighbors and shop keepers, doing
everything from dancing to shooting pool.
But that's just the beginning of their sky high adventures.
On a personal note, I'm working the food service shifts I can get. I
volunteered at library and community garden after work Tuesday. It's
misting today.
A great big shout out goes out to the incoming freshpeople who are on
campus for orientation.
jules hathaway
Sent from my iPod
Tuesday, June 26, 2018
All Dogs Go To Kevin
All Dogs Go To Kevin
Adult nonfiction
"Only the first two [career] options held any appeal. As I
lacked the aggression required to be a lawyer, doctor was the most
palatable option. A neurosurgeon or an orthopedic surgeon,
preferably; the idea of actually having to converse with a patient was
rather terrifying, so choosing the specialty where the patient would
be unconscious for the majority of the interaction had a certain appeal.
'Perhaps,' my mother suggested, you shouldn't put that on your
college applications.'"
Welcme to the third part of our animal lovers' trilogy. The
very fine book I chose to cap it off is Dr. Jessica Vogelsang's All
Dogs Go To Kevin: Everything Three Dogs Taught Me That I Didn't Learn
in Vetinary School. It skillfully twists two strands together to
create an impossible to put down narrative.
Jessica ended up in a branch of medicine where patients, even
fully conscious ones, had quite limited grasps of English and the
inability to put thoughts and feelings into human words. [Their
people companions were a whole nother story]. Readers get to shadow
her through vetinary school and into the profession where she realizes
her education has poorly prepared her for certain aspects of her
vocation such as easing people through the loss of a beloved animal
companion. Her life becomes a personal and professional juggling act
with children: both two and four-legged.
Her delightful dogs constitute the second thread of the
narrative: the cranky Lhasa Apso who was her companion through her
never quite fitting in child and teen years; the golden retriever who
she rescued from being put down by an owner who couldn't afford his
care; the rescue lab suffering from quite serious separation
anxiety...They will alternately amuse you and touch your heart.
If you're a dog lover, I encourage you to read the book. If
you're a vetinarian or vet tech, I very much encourage you to read the
book. If you're perplexed by the title, the only way you'll learn the
story behind it is by reading the book already.
On a personal note, this week I'm getting good hours at work. I have
9 meals spread out over 5 days. Like today I worked breakfast and
will work lunch. Last night the food was to die for: roast beef au
jus, a cheesecake that would make the angels sing. We are required to
eat every shift we work. I could really get used to this.
A great big shout out goes out to my work family.
jules hathaway
Sent from my iPod
Adult nonfiction
"Only the first two [career] options held any appeal. As I
lacked the aggression required to be a lawyer, doctor was the most
palatable option. A neurosurgeon or an orthopedic surgeon,
preferably; the idea of actually having to converse with a patient was
rather terrifying, so choosing the specialty where the patient would
be unconscious for the majority of the interaction had a certain appeal.
'Perhaps,' my mother suggested, you shouldn't put that on your
college applications.'"
Welcme to the third part of our animal lovers' trilogy. The
very fine book I chose to cap it off is Dr. Jessica Vogelsang's All
Dogs Go To Kevin: Everything Three Dogs Taught Me That I Didn't Learn
in Vetinary School. It skillfully twists two strands together to
create an impossible to put down narrative.
Jessica ended up in a branch of medicine where patients, even
fully conscious ones, had quite limited grasps of English and the
inability to put thoughts and feelings into human words. [Their
people companions were a whole nother story]. Readers get to shadow
her through vetinary school and into the profession where she realizes
her education has poorly prepared her for certain aspects of her
vocation such as easing people through the loss of a beloved animal
companion. Her life becomes a personal and professional juggling act
with children: both two and four-legged.
Her delightful dogs constitute the second thread of the
narrative: the cranky Lhasa Apso who was her companion through her
never quite fitting in child and teen years; the golden retriever who
she rescued from being put down by an owner who couldn't afford his
care; the rescue lab suffering from quite serious separation
anxiety...They will alternately amuse you and touch your heart.
If you're a dog lover, I encourage you to read the book. If
you're a vetinarian or vet tech, I very much encourage you to read the
book. If you're perplexed by the title, the only way you'll learn the
story behind it is by reading the book already.
On a personal note, this week I'm getting good hours at work. I have
9 meals spread out over 5 days. Like today I worked breakfast and
will work lunch. Last night the food was to die for: roast beef au
jus, a cheesecake that would make the angels sing. We are required to
eat every shift we work. I could really get used to this.
A great big shout out goes out to my work family.
jules hathaway
Sent from my iPod
Sunday, June 24, 2018
Off The Leash
Off The Leash
Adult nonfiction
"Control was no longer feeling like the goal of this dog
endeavor for me. The training, the commands, the work, the Cesar
Milan protocol--they were all demoted to a much lower tier of
priority. They were becoming the context, the architecture of dog
ownership. Play was the real target, to watch Toby swagger inside of
the lines like a furry acrobat. Ad-libbing, letting it happen, that
was what I was now enjoying, and I would cringe when watching uptight
owners pull their dogs away from happy play because they wrongly
feared it was too much. I was shedding the drive to make Toby a
strictly behaved dog, Tom's and my picture-perfect yellow goose, a
poster boy for 'The Dog Whisperer'."
Do you love dogs? Do you enjoy reading about dogs? Do you find
the foibles of your fellow human beings interesting and amusing? If
so, you will find Matthew Gilbert's Off The Leash: A Year At The Dog
Park to be a must read.
Gilbert was an unlikely dog owner. The son of what he called a
"side walk worrier," he learned his mother's canine phobia at a very
early age. He also had been strongly affected by losing his father
early in life.
"The thought of getting a dog, once I'd warmed up to dogs, was
checked by my tendency toward anticipatory grief. Why would anyone
let themselves love a dog? I'd think. Why would anyone invest their
tenderness and devotion and need in a creature that stays for only a
dozen or so years--thirteen maybe, if you're lucky, fourteen if you're
supremely blessed...With a dog you're on a fast track to heartache."
When Gilbert married a dog lover, Toby, a lab, became their
adopted child. While his husband worked outside the home, he was
able, as a newspaper TV critic, to pursue his career while being a
stay at home parent. He was never much of a people person.
Television and electronics satisfied his definition of a full life.
When he started taking Toby regularly to an off the leash dog park to
let him socialize with his own species he was pushed way out of his
comfort zone. The loveable pooches were accompanied by an eclectic
group of humans who had created their own little community--one which
they wanted him to join. In a poignant epiphany he realizes that Toby
isn't the only one getting more freedom.
"...The idea of a daily intermission from the virtual, a spot of
sun through the clouds, appealed. Like the rest of civilization, I
was leashed to my devices, as well as to my Facebook friends and my
twenty-four-hour news scroll. It was the last frontier in self
protection and emotional distance, to be somewhere and yet still
psychically somewhere else..."
If you ever find yourself yearning for a space to go off leash
from the non stop demands of the virtual world this is a very good
book to read.
I've recently realized that I acquire dog like cats--the in your
face ones rather than quietly sedate ones. Joey has been called a
doggie cat more than once. He loves to play actively with me. When
he's awake, he's constantly seeking physical attention. When I'm
reading he finds my lap the purrrfect place to be.
On a purrrsonal note, I had the greatest time at Pride Day in Bangor.
I worked and then got there just in time to carry my end of the
Equality Maine sign in the parade. It was so wonderful to have
hundreds of spectators with their children and dogs cheering us on.
Then during the festival I tabled for Equality Maine, visited at other
tables, saw old friends and made new ones, and danced in the street
when bands played songs I really liked. That was one fun day.
This week I have really good work hours. I learned that even though I
tend toward flamboyant clothes I'm flamboyant even in a uniform.
Maybe it's my personality or my style or how if there's music I can
sneak in dance moves wiping down tables. I just know I am getting
paid to do something I love to do.
A great big shout out goes out to all who made Pride Day truly awesome!
jules hathaway
Sent from my iPod
Adult nonfiction
"Control was no longer feeling like the goal of this dog
endeavor for me. The training, the commands, the work, the Cesar
Milan protocol--they were all demoted to a much lower tier of
priority. They were becoming the context, the architecture of dog
ownership. Play was the real target, to watch Toby swagger inside of
the lines like a furry acrobat. Ad-libbing, letting it happen, that
was what I was now enjoying, and I would cringe when watching uptight
owners pull their dogs away from happy play because they wrongly
feared it was too much. I was shedding the drive to make Toby a
strictly behaved dog, Tom's and my picture-perfect yellow goose, a
poster boy for 'The Dog Whisperer'."
Do you love dogs? Do you enjoy reading about dogs? Do you find
the foibles of your fellow human beings interesting and amusing? If
so, you will find Matthew Gilbert's Off The Leash: A Year At The Dog
Park to be a must read.
Gilbert was an unlikely dog owner. The son of what he called a
"side walk worrier," he learned his mother's canine phobia at a very
early age. He also had been strongly affected by losing his father
early in life.
"The thought of getting a dog, once I'd warmed up to dogs, was
checked by my tendency toward anticipatory grief. Why would anyone
let themselves love a dog? I'd think. Why would anyone invest their
tenderness and devotion and need in a creature that stays for only a
dozen or so years--thirteen maybe, if you're lucky, fourteen if you're
supremely blessed...With a dog you're on a fast track to heartache."
When Gilbert married a dog lover, Toby, a lab, became their
adopted child. While his husband worked outside the home, he was
able, as a newspaper TV critic, to pursue his career while being a
stay at home parent. He was never much of a people person.
Television and electronics satisfied his definition of a full life.
When he started taking Toby regularly to an off the leash dog park to
let him socialize with his own species he was pushed way out of his
comfort zone. The loveable pooches were accompanied by an eclectic
group of humans who had created their own little community--one which
they wanted him to join. In a poignant epiphany he realizes that Toby
isn't the only one getting more freedom.
"...The idea of a daily intermission from the virtual, a spot of
sun through the clouds, appealed. Like the rest of civilization, I
was leashed to my devices, as well as to my Facebook friends and my
twenty-four-hour news scroll. It was the last frontier in self
protection and emotional distance, to be somewhere and yet still
psychically somewhere else..."
If you ever find yourself yearning for a space to go off leash
from the non stop demands of the virtual world this is a very good
book to read.
I've recently realized that I acquire dog like cats--the in your
face ones rather than quietly sedate ones. Joey has been called a
doggie cat more than once. He loves to play actively with me. When
he's awake, he's constantly seeking physical attention. When I'm
reading he finds my lap the purrrfect place to be.
On a purrrsonal note, I had the greatest time at Pride Day in Bangor.
I worked and then got there just in time to carry my end of the
Equality Maine sign in the parade. It was so wonderful to have
hundreds of spectators with their children and dogs cheering us on.
Then during the festival I tabled for Equality Maine, visited at other
tables, saw old friends and made new ones, and danced in the street
when bands played songs I really liked. That was one fun day.
This week I have really good work hours. I learned that even though I
tend toward flamboyant clothes I'm flamboyant even in a uniform.
Maybe it's my personality or my style or how if there's music I can
sneak in dance moves wiping down tables. I just know I am getting
paid to do something I love to do.
A great big shout out goes out to all who made Pride Day truly awesome!
jules hathaway
Sent from my iPod
Friday, June 22, 2018
The True Tails of Baker And Taylor
The True Tails of Baker And Taylor
Adult nonfiction
"He sounded like a good fit. Since we first made our decision,
Yvonne and I had drawn up a list of characteristics for our ideal
library cat: in adition to having a superb talent at mousing, he had
to be mellow in the face of squealing, sticky-fingered toddlers at
story time, and gregarious enough to deal with teenagers and adults
who loved cats so much they might pursue him around the library to get
in a few pats and ear scratches."
If you love libraries and you love cats and you feel that the
combination of the two is a bit of Heaven on Earth, you'll love Jan
Louch's The True Tails of Baker And Taylor. It's the story of how two
adorable Scottish fold cats not only transformed a small library, but
won the love of people around the world.
In 1982 Louch was the assistant librarian of a county library in
Nevada. It had been open a few weeks when, on a break, she headed to
the reading room and looked out the window to the patio. She saw
mice. Mice love the taste of the glue with which library books are
bound. In other words, rodents can wreak havoc.
Louch and her boss decided that two cats (to keep each other
company when the library was closed) would be a good investment. But
they didn't want to divert money from the library's tight and
politically precarious funds. So they began to save their pennies.
They had their hearts set on Scottish fold cats, a breed known for
their distinctive ears. Pedigreed cats don't come cheap.
A fortuitous name choice speeded up the acquisition process.
There were already cats named Dewey and Decimal. Page and Turner or
Cover didn't seem right. Nothing clicked until Louch was unpacking
new books shipped by Baker & Taylor, a library wholesaler. After
Baker arrived she decided to let the company know about their furry
namesake. That was a very smart move. The company offered to pay for
the second cat if they could take pictures of the duo to create
posters to make their corporate image a little less stodgy. No one
had a clue how popular the felines would become...
...and you're going to have to read the book to find out.
Quite fittingly, my good buddy Joey cat was all cuddled up with
me while I read the book. A lot of the time he was curled up on my
lap sleeping soundly. Sometimes he'd wake up, stretch, yawn, and
climb up behind me to circle my neck like a furry scarf and purr
loudly in my ear.
Often when I look at Joey I remember Kaspar, a very special book
store cat. For years Kaspar ruled Lippincotts. He was a handsome
tuxedo cat with a white half mustache. He had very decided opinions
concerning regulars. He would glimpse some folks and take off for a
safe spot as fast as his paws would carry him. He always greeted me
with his most cordial rubbing, head butting, and kitty kisses, all
accompanied by a throaty purr. He was my little furry confidante. No
matter what happened I could tell him as I patted him and scratched
behind the ears.
In January 2003 Sapphire, my little Siamese, died unexpectedly.
I was heartbroken. Kaspar was very talented about comforting me. I
began to pray for a cat who would be a lot like my faithful feline
friend.
September 3, 2003 was the first day of school for my kids who
then ranged from first to eighth grade. After school my kids and
their friends gathered in the living room. My sister-in-law was
bringing me am early birthday gift--one of her cat Cindy's kittens
born June 8...
...a kitten who was the spitting image of Kaspar down to the
white half mustache. The only noticable difference was Joey's stub
tail. And he has Kaspar's sweet disposition.
One of Joey's favorite cat toys is a multicolored ball that
Kaspar, in his time on Earth, loved chasing around Lippincotts.
On a purrrrsonal note, after another whole day cleaning I hadn't found
my purse. Eugene got home late. It was all I could do to give him
time to eat supper before I asked him if he'd seen it. He found it in
ten seconds. I kid you not. Since it was found I consider myself
lucky. I got a huge chunk of the house reorganizing done. It usually
brings out the little procrastinator in me. But now I am going to
focus on it until it's done. Especially if I'm disciplined about
putting my pocketbook away every time I come in and putting the
laundry up instead of letting it pile up, each bit of progress I make
will save me so much time in the future...time for reading and
homework. Also I found the 3 cat shirts I misplaced recently, my 2
favorite leggings I hadn't seen in months, and my black sequinned high
tops that got buried years ago that will really bedazzle my friends
this fall semester. All's well that ends well.
A great big shout out goes to Jennifer Iwerks. A lot of people at
UMaine will really miss her, especially those of us in the LGBTQ
crowd. She was a very important presence for us and did a great job
with events like the drag show. I know she'll do an awesome job in
her next school and community. But I wish her the best of luck.
jules hathaway
Sent from my iPod
Adult nonfiction
"He sounded like a good fit. Since we first made our decision,
Yvonne and I had drawn up a list of characteristics for our ideal
library cat: in adition to having a superb talent at mousing, he had
to be mellow in the face of squealing, sticky-fingered toddlers at
story time, and gregarious enough to deal with teenagers and adults
who loved cats so much they might pursue him around the library to get
in a few pats and ear scratches."
If you love libraries and you love cats and you feel that the
combination of the two is a bit of Heaven on Earth, you'll love Jan
Louch's The True Tails of Baker And Taylor. It's the story of how two
adorable Scottish fold cats not only transformed a small library, but
won the love of people around the world.
In 1982 Louch was the assistant librarian of a county library in
Nevada. It had been open a few weeks when, on a break, she headed to
the reading room and looked out the window to the patio. She saw
mice. Mice love the taste of the glue with which library books are
bound. In other words, rodents can wreak havoc.
Louch and her boss decided that two cats (to keep each other
company when the library was closed) would be a good investment. But
they didn't want to divert money from the library's tight and
politically precarious funds. So they began to save their pennies.
They had their hearts set on Scottish fold cats, a breed known for
their distinctive ears. Pedigreed cats don't come cheap.
A fortuitous name choice speeded up the acquisition process.
There were already cats named Dewey and Decimal. Page and Turner or
Cover didn't seem right. Nothing clicked until Louch was unpacking
new books shipped by Baker & Taylor, a library wholesaler. After
Baker arrived she decided to let the company know about their furry
namesake. That was a very smart move. The company offered to pay for
the second cat if they could take pictures of the duo to create
posters to make their corporate image a little less stodgy. No one
had a clue how popular the felines would become...
...and you're going to have to read the book to find out.
Quite fittingly, my good buddy Joey cat was all cuddled up with
me while I read the book. A lot of the time he was curled up on my
lap sleeping soundly. Sometimes he'd wake up, stretch, yawn, and
climb up behind me to circle my neck like a furry scarf and purr
loudly in my ear.
Often when I look at Joey I remember Kaspar, a very special book
store cat. For years Kaspar ruled Lippincotts. He was a handsome
tuxedo cat with a white half mustache. He had very decided opinions
concerning regulars. He would glimpse some folks and take off for a
safe spot as fast as his paws would carry him. He always greeted me
with his most cordial rubbing, head butting, and kitty kisses, all
accompanied by a throaty purr. He was my little furry confidante. No
matter what happened I could tell him as I patted him and scratched
behind the ears.
In January 2003 Sapphire, my little Siamese, died unexpectedly.
I was heartbroken. Kaspar was very talented about comforting me. I
began to pray for a cat who would be a lot like my faithful feline
friend.
September 3, 2003 was the first day of school for my kids who
then ranged from first to eighth grade. After school my kids and
their friends gathered in the living room. My sister-in-law was
bringing me am early birthday gift--one of her cat Cindy's kittens
born June 8...
...a kitten who was the spitting image of Kaspar down to the
white half mustache. The only noticable difference was Joey's stub
tail. And he has Kaspar's sweet disposition.
One of Joey's favorite cat toys is a multicolored ball that
Kaspar, in his time on Earth, loved chasing around Lippincotts.
On a purrrrsonal note, after another whole day cleaning I hadn't found
my purse. Eugene got home late. It was all I could do to give him
time to eat supper before I asked him if he'd seen it. He found it in
ten seconds. I kid you not. Since it was found I consider myself
lucky. I got a huge chunk of the house reorganizing done. It usually
brings out the little procrastinator in me. But now I am going to
focus on it until it's done. Especially if I'm disciplined about
putting my pocketbook away every time I come in and putting the
laundry up instead of letting it pile up, each bit of progress I make
will save me so much time in the future...time for reading and
homework. Also I found the 3 cat shirts I misplaced recently, my 2
favorite leggings I hadn't seen in months, and my black sequinned high
tops that got buried years ago that will really bedazzle my friends
this fall semester. All's well that ends well.
A great big shout out goes to Jennifer Iwerks. A lot of people at
UMaine will really miss her, especially those of us in the LGBTQ
crowd. She was a very important presence for us and did a great job
with events like the drag show. I know she'll do an awesome job in
her next school and community. But I wish her the best of luck.
jules hathaway
Sent from my iPod
Wednesday, June 20, 2018
Nineteen Minutes
Nineteen Minutes
YA/adult fiction
"By the time you read this I hope to be dead.
You can't undo something that's happened; you can't take back a
word that's been said out loud. You'll think of me and wish you had
been able to talk me out of this. You'll try to figure out what would
have been the right thing to say, to do. I guess I should tell you,
Don't blame yourself; this isn't your fault, but that would be a lie.
We both know that I didn't get here by myself.
You'll cry at my funeral. You'll say it didn't have to be this
way. You will act like everyone expects you to. But will you miss me?
More important--will I miss you?
Does either of us really want to know the answer to that
question?"
Holy Hannah! I can't imagine anyone putting down Jodi Picault's
Nineteen Minutes after reading those first paragraphs.
March 6 seems like an ordinairy day in Sterling, New Hampshire.
Judge Alex is running late but makes breakfast for her daughter,
Josie. Josie dumps the eggs when her mother is out of the house. Her
boyfriend, Matt, tries to talk her into cutting school. Detective
Patrick sets off to drive evidence to the state lab. Midwife Lucy
delivers a baby.
Their lives and those of many other Sterling residents are about
to change in the worst possible way. All Hell breaks loose in the
high school. Lucy's son, Peter, is on a shooting rampage. He's also
set off a bomb. Matt lies dead, Josie beside him. Patrick rushes
through the school desperately trying to find and disarm the shooter.
When it's over bleeding bodies are scattered through the
school. Ten victims are dead. Other students are horribly injured,
including one boy who will probably never walk again. Crime scene
investigators go about their grim work. Peter is in the police station.
In a small town nothing will ever be the same.
As she did in The Pact, which we just looked at, Picoult puts
the reader in the investigator's seat. In the present you follow the
main characters from the immediate aftermath of the shooting through
the trial. Flashbacks present the story of a boy who was bullied from
his very first day in school and a school system that did a good job
of not seeing what was going on.
Picoult was motivated to tackle the tough topic of school
shootings by witnessing her children's experiences of being bullied
and fitting in. She was aided in developing the story by the epiphany
that there's a connection between school bullying and adult judgement
of others considered deviantly different. How can the students act
better when those running the school exhibit prejudice? In her
acknowledgements she writes, "To the thousands of kids out there who
are a little bit different, a little bit scared, and a little bit
unpopular: this one's for you."
In the question and answer section of the book she elaborates on
this:
"If I could say one thing to the legions of teens out there who
wake up every morning and wish they didn't have to go to school, it
would be this--and I'm saying it as both a mom and a writer: stay the
course. You will find someone like you; you will fit in one day. And
know that even the cool kids, the popular kids, worry that someone
will find out their secret: that they worry about fitting in, just
like you do."
On a personal note, I sure could use a visit from Nancy Drew and her
chums. Yesterday I was about to go to campus when I couldn't find my
pocketbook which has my wallet, money, and Mainecard (student ID). So
except for working in Community Garden a couple of hours I was
cleaning any part of the house it could be in. I know it's in the
house because Eugene needed something from it Sunday afternoon and I
didn't go anywhere rainy Monday. Today I got up at 5:00 to renew the
search. So far no luck. I really want to find it before tomorrow
because I use it to punch in at work.
A great big shout out goes out to Jodi Picault who is in my best
mystery writer trinity.
jules hathaway
Sent from my iPod
YA/adult fiction
"By the time you read this I hope to be dead.
You can't undo something that's happened; you can't take back a
word that's been said out loud. You'll think of me and wish you had
been able to talk me out of this. You'll try to figure out what would
have been the right thing to say, to do. I guess I should tell you,
Don't blame yourself; this isn't your fault, but that would be a lie.
We both know that I didn't get here by myself.
You'll cry at my funeral. You'll say it didn't have to be this
way. You will act like everyone expects you to. But will you miss me?
More important--will I miss you?
Does either of us really want to know the answer to that
question?"
Holy Hannah! I can't imagine anyone putting down Jodi Picault's
Nineteen Minutes after reading those first paragraphs.
March 6 seems like an ordinairy day in Sterling, New Hampshire.
Judge Alex is running late but makes breakfast for her daughter,
Josie. Josie dumps the eggs when her mother is out of the house. Her
boyfriend, Matt, tries to talk her into cutting school. Detective
Patrick sets off to drive evidence to the state lab. Midwife Lucy
delivers a baby.
Their lives and those of many other Sterling residents are about
to change in the worst possible way. All Hell breaks loose in the
high school. Lucy's son, Peter, is on a shooting rampage. He's also
set off a bomb. Matt lies dead, Josie beside him. Patrick rushes
through the school desperately trying to find and disarm the shooter.
When it's over bleeding bodies are scattered through the
school. Ten victims are dead. Other students are horribly injured,
including one boy who will probably never walk again. Crime scene
investigators go about their grim work. Peter is in the police station.
In a small town nothing will ever be the same.
As she did in The Pact, which we just looked at, Picoult puts
the reader in the investigator's seat. In the present you follow the
main characters from the immediate aftermath of the shooting through
the trial. Flashbacks present the story of a boy who was bullied from
his very first day in school and a school system that did a good job
of not seeing what was going on.
Picoult was motivated to tackle the tough topic of school
shootings by witnessing her children's experiences of being bullied
and fitting in. She was aided in developing the story by the epiphany
that there's a connection between school bullying and adult judgement
of others considered deviantly different. How can the students act
better when those running the school exhibit prejudice? In her
acknowledgements she writes, "To the thousands of kids out there who
are a little bit different, a little bit scared, and a little bit
unpopular: this one's for you."
In the question and answer section of the book she elaborates on
this:
"If I could say one thing to the legions of teens out there who
wake up every morning and wish they didn't have to go to school, it
would be this--and I'm saying it as both a mom and a writer: stay the
course. You will find someone like you; you will fit in one day. And
know that even the cool kids, the popular kids, worry that someone
will find out their secret: that they worry about fitting in, just
like you do."
On a personal note, I sure could use a visit from Nancy Drew and her
chums. Yesterday I was about to go to campus when I couldn't find my
pocketbook which has my wallet, money, and Mainecard (student ID). So
except for working in Community Garden a couple of hours I was
cleaning any part of the house it could be in. I know it's in the
house because Eugene needed something from it Sunday afternoon and I
didn't go anywhere rainy Monday. Today I got up at 5:00 to renew the
search. So far no luck. I really want to find it before tomorrow
because I use it to punch in at work.
A great big shout out goes out to Jodi Picault who is in my best
mystery writer trinity.
jules hathaway
Sent from my iPod
Monday, June 18, 2018
The Pact
The Pact
YA/adult fiction
"He tried to imagine Emily. Where she was now. At some funeral
home? In the morgue? Where was the morgue anyway...It was never
listed on the elevator stops. He shifted uncomfortably, wincing at
the thunder in his head, trying to remember the last thing Emily said
to him.
His head hurt, but not nearly as much as his heart."
I think we can all agree that a parent's worst nightmare is
being called to a morgue to identify the body of a beloved child.
Having a son or daughter arrested for committing a horrific crime
probably comes in a close second. Now imagine that the families
caught up in this tragedy are long time neighbors and close friends.
That's the premise on which Jodi Picoult's The Pact is based.
Chris and Emily have been best friends literally since infancy.
Spending as much time in each other's houses as in their own and
confiding in one another, they're in ways like sister and brother.
When they begin dating, it's no surprise to their families who had
been hoping for them to do exactly that.
Their relationship, however, couldn't have been that perfect.
One night in the late autumn of their senior year in high school a
police officer discovers Emily and Chris at a carousel. Emily is
nearly dead. Chris is bleeding from a head wound that will require 70
stitches. No third party is located. The gun that fired the fatal
shot has Chris' fingerprints on it.
Was it murder or a murder/suicide pact that was interrupted?
Why would teens who seemingly had everything they needed even
contemplate either?
You read The Pact in the active role of detective. Picoult
skillfully segues between present and past. In the present you're
privy to the thoughts and actions of the remaining major players:
Chris adjusting to life in prison, both sets of grieving parents
coping with their losses, and the opposing lawyers. In the
sequentially ordered flashbacks you get intimate snapshots of the two
teens and the world they inhabited.
Picoult's inspiration for writing The Pact was a suicidal eighth
grade girl she taught and then lost track of. "I wanted to write the
anti-Romeo and Juliet story: the families that were too close instead
of being enemies--and that still wind up hurting their star-crossed
children as a result..." Interestingly, she originally was going to
have the girl be the one to live and experience survivors' guilt. A
conversation with a chief of police changed her mind. He explained
that if the guy was the survivor they'd book him for murder.
"I just stared at him. What if, I wondered, Chris was the one
who was alive at the start of the book, instead of Emily? What if he
lied to you at the beginning of the book...so that you didn't really
know whether he was telling you the truth about anything that had
happened that night? Suddenly I no longer had a character study on my
hands...I had a page turner."
That's the dictionary definition of understatement. If you want
an impossible-to-put-down suspense story for your summer reading, The
Pact is a perfect fit. If you want to get insight into the cause of
death of far too many of our sons and daughters it's also your go-to
book.
On a personal note, Artsapalooza was wonderful. There were so many
acts to choose from. The atmosphere was quite festive. The weather
was perfect. I had lots of fun reading my poetry to a very
appreciative audience. Not surprisingly, my Joey cat poems were the
most popular ones.
Then yesterday I sat down in my studio to write my August opinion
piece. I'm really excited that Maine will be the first New England
state to let people choose X instead of M or F on licenses and state
IDs. I decided to write about my own experience of being two spirit
to show what a good idea it is. I'd worked out a bunch of it in my
head as I went around my regular life like when I was grocery shopping
with Eugene. So when I sat down to write I was inspired. I was on
fire! The piece just flowed. When I was finished I had a cohesive,
persuasive piece no one else could have penned. I was just so
confident and proud. I celebrated my achievement with a dark beer and
caramel M&Ms--a winning combination.
jules hathaway
Sent from my iPod
YA/adult fiction
"He tried to imagine Emily. Where she was now. At some funeral
home? In the morgue? Where was the morgue anyway...It was never
listed on the elevator stops. He shifted uncomfortably, wincing at
the thunder in his head, trying to remember the last thing Emily said
to him.
His head hurt, but not nearly as much as his heart."
I think we can all agree that a parent's worst nightmare is
being called to a morgue to identify the body of a beloved child.
Having a son or daughter arrested for committing a horrific crime
probably comes in a close second. Now imagine that the families
caught up in this tragedy are long time neighbors and close friends.
That's the premise on which Jodi Picoult's The Pact is based.
Chris and Emily have been best friends literally since infancy.
Spending as much time in each other's houses as in their own and
confiding in one another, they're in ways like sister and brother.
When they begin dating, it's no surprise to their families who had
been hoping for them to do exactly that.
Their relationship, however, couldn't have been that perfect.
One night in the late autumn of their senior year in high school a
police officer discovers Emily and Chris at a carousel. Emily is
nearly dead. Chris is bleeding from a head wound that will require 70
stitches. No third party is located. The gun that fired the fatal
shot has Chris' fingerprints on it.
Was it murder or a murder/suicide pact that was interrupted?
Why would teens who seemingly had everything they needed even
contemplate either?
You read The Pact in the active role of detective. Picoult
skillfully segues between present and past. In the present you're
privy to the thoughts and actions of the remaining major players:
Chris adjusting to life in prison, both sets of grieving parents
coping with their losses, and the opposing lawyers. In the
sequentially ordered flashbacks you get intimate snapshots of the two
teens and the world they inhabited.
Picoult's inspiration for writing The Pact was a suicidal eighth
grade girl she taught and then lost track of. "I wanted to write the
anti-Romeo and Juliet story: the families that were too close instead
of being enemies--and that still wind up hurting their star-crossed
children as a result..." Interestingly, she originally was going to
have the girl be the one to live and experience survivors' guilt. A
conversation with a chief of police changed her mind. He explained
that if the guy was the survivor they'd book him for murder.
"I just stared at him. What if, I wondered, Chris was the one
who was alive at the start of the book, instead of Emily? What if he
lied to you at the beginning of the book...so that you didn't really
know whether he was telling you the truth about anything that had
happened that night? Suddenly I no longer had a character study on my
hands...I had a page turner."
That's the dictionary definition of understatement. If you want
an impossible-to-put-down suspense story for your summer reading, The
Pact is a perfect fit. If you want to get insight into the cause of
death of far too many of our sons and daughters it's also your go-to
book.
On a personal note, Artsapalooza was wonderful. There were so many
acts to choose from. The atmosphere was quite festive. The weather
was perfect. I had lots of fun reading my poetry to a very
appreciative audience. Not surprisingly, my Joey cat poems were the
most popular ones.
Then yesterday I sat down in my studio to write my August opinion
piece. I'm really excited that Maine will be the first New England
state to let people choose X instead of M or F on licenses and state
IDs. I decided to write about my own experience of being two spirit
to show what a good idea it is. I'd worked out a bunch of it in my
head as I went around my regular life like when I was grocery shopping
with Eugene. So when I sat down to write I was inspired. I was on
fire! The piece just flowed. When I was finished I had a cohesive,
persuasive piece no one else could have penned. I was just so
confident and proud. I celebrated my achievement with a dark beer and
caramel M&Ms--a winning combination.
jules hathaway
Sent from my iPod
Saturday, June 16, 2018
Teenie
Teenie
YA fiction
"He pulls my arm so that I'm forced to lean forward. He's going
to make me do it, whether I want to or not. I look up at him, hoping
that the fear in my eyes will convince him to change his mind. I can
see that if I don't do it he might hurt me. It seems like my fear
makes him more excited, because his smile gets bigger the more scared
I am."
Martine, protagonist of Christopher Brown's Teenie, is worried
about her best friend. Cherise is accepting all kinds of expensive
gifts from someone she only knows online. She believes his claim that
he's a nice guy college student. Martine is afraid that their
eventual meetup will seriously endanger Cherise.
But Cherise may not be the only one in peril. The school
football star who is showing a sudden interest in Martine may not have
her best interests at heart.
Teenie is an insightful story about an all too relevant topic.
On a personal note, tonight is a very big night for me. I'll be
reading 40 minutes of my poetry at Artsapalooza. Too Cool Jules (my
performing name) is gonna own my venue.
Otherwise I'm working any hours I can get, looking for child and
animal sitting and odd jobs, and collecting returnables. I've cut my
"discretionary" spending to $1 for church collection plate most
weeks, maybe a few quarters at the thrift shop. Especially with Joey
cat's medical expenses (and you know I'm not gonna neglect my best
little buddy) I'll probs have no idea if I'll be able to make tuition
in September until September. If I start part time I'll be fine
because I'll have guaranteed hours during the school semester. No
pressure there, huh?
A great big shout out goes out to everyone who will participate in
Artsapalooza tonight. We need more of these events where people share
creativity and celebrate together instead of being seperate and
tethered to devices.
jules hathaway
Sent from my iPod
YA fiction
"He pulls my arm so that I'm forced to lean forward. He's going
to make me do it, whether I want to or not. I look up at him, hoping
that the fear in my eyes will convince him to change his mind. I can
see that if I don't do it he might hurt me. It seems like my fear
makes him more excited, because his smile gets bigger the more scared
I am."
Martine, protagonist of Christopher Brown's Teenie, is worried
about her best friend. Cherise is accepting all kinds of expensive
gifts from someone she only knows online. She believes his claim that
he's a nice guy college student. Martine is afraid that their
eventual meetup will seriously endanger Cherise.
But Cherise may not be the only one in peril. The school
football star who is showing a sudden interest in Martine may not have
her best interests at heart.
Teenie is an insightful story about an all too relevant topic.
On a personal note, tonight is a very big night for me. I'll be
reading 40 minutes of my poetry at Artsapalooza. Too Cool Jules (my
performing name) is gonna own my venue.
Otherwise I'm working any hours I can get, looking for child and
animal sitting and odd jobs, and collecting returnables. I've cut my
"discretionary" spending to $1 for church collection plate most
weeks, maybe a few quarters at the thrift shop. Especially with Joey
cat's medical expenses (and you know I'm not gonna neglect my best
little buddy) I'll probs have no idea if I'll be able to make tuition
in September until September. If I start part time I'll be fine
because I'll have guaranteed hours during the school semester. No
pressure there, huh?
A great big shout out goes out to everyone who will participate in
Artsapalooza tonight. We need more of these events where people share
creativity and celebrate together instead of being seperate and
tethered to devices.
jules hathaway
Sent from my iPod
Thursday, June 14, 2018
Rotten
Rotten
YA fiction
"'Bad news,' says Greg. "The judge will decide what to do with
the dog.'
'What do you mean, "what to do"?' I say, but that's not really a
question, either. He means whether to have him put to sleep, and I
know this is my fault. It's my fault because Mars is my friend. Or
he was."
When Jimmer Dobbs, protagonist of Michael Northrup's Rotten,
returns home from a summer in juvie, his mother has a surprise for
him: a rescue dog (rotweiller) that will belong to both of them.
Although the dog looks intimidating, he is terrified of adult males
and retreats when faced with a strange one. He'll only snap if
cornered.
One day Jimmer awakes to a bark, a shout, and the beginning of a
real life nightmare. Mars, an impulsive friend he's tried to keep
away from the dog until it becomes less high strung, is just outside
his yard. His hand is bitten and bleeding. Mars' parents take him to
the hospital. There's talk of permanent nerve damage. A law suit is
filed. Jimmer and his mother could lose their home and the canine
companion they've really come to care about.
I highly recommend this tale of courage and love practically
ripped from today's newspaper headlines.
On a personal note, I've had two lovely days with Joey cat getting
ready for Artsapalooza and making major progress organizing my house
for when I'm in grad school and time is tight. I'm an ambivert (yes,
this is a real word) which means I have traits of extroversion and
introversion. While I am really social and love people, I also
treasure my creative time. I call it the best of both worlds. I have
decided on a travel plan that will require spending very little
money. I am going to visit every library in Maine. Call it
Bibliotourism.
A great big shout out goes out to my faithful companion, Joey cat, and
all the faithful felines and caring canines who add so much to
people's lives.
jules hathaway
Sent from my iPod
YA fiction
"'Bad news,' says Greg. "The judge will decide what to do with
the dog.'
'What do you mean, "what to do"?' I say, but that's not really a
question, either. He means whether to have him put to sleep, and I
know this is my fault. It's my fault because Mars is my friend. Or
he was."
When Jimmer Dobbs, protagonist of Michael Northrup's Rotten,
returns home from a summer in juvie, his mother has a surprise for
him: a rescue dog (rotweiller) that will belong to both of them.
Although the dog looks intimidating, he is terrified of adult males
and retreats when faced with a strange one. He'll only snap if
cornered.
One day Jimmer awakes to a bark, a shout, and the beginning of a
real life nightmare. Mars, an impulsive friend he's tried to keep
away from the dog until it becomes less high strung, is just outside
his yard. His hand is bitten and bleeding. Mars' parents take him to
the hospital. There's talk of permanent nerve damage. A law suit is
filed. Jimmer and his mother could lose their home and the canine
companion they've really come to care about.
I highly recommend this tale of courage and love practically
ripped from today's newspaper headlines.
On a personal note, I've had two lovely days with Joey cat getting
ready for Artsapalooza and making major progress organizing my house
for when I'm in grad school and time is tight. I'm an ambivert (yes,
this is a real word) which means I have traits of extroversion and
introversion. While I am really social and love people, I also
treasure my creative time. I call it the best of both worlds. I have
decided on a travel plan that will require spending very little
money. I am going to visit every library in Maine. Call it
Bibliotourism.
A great big shout out goes out to my faithful companion, Joey cat, and
all the faithful felines and caring canines who add so much to
people's lives.
jules hathaway
Sent from my iPod
Tuesday, June 12, 2018
Fwd: Shift available at Bear's Den Friday 6/16 2-5pm
Sent from my iPod
Begin forwarded message:
From: Anna McDormand <anna.mcdormand@maine.edu>
Date: June 12, 2018 9:44:18 AM EDT
To: Alexandria Chamberland <alexandria.chamberland@maine.edu>, Asher Mason <ajm8913@gmail.com>, Betelhem Abay <bethelhem.abay@maine.edu>, Christian Johnson <christian.johnson@maine.edu>, Clarence Theriault <c.clarence_43@hotmail.com>, Davis MacDonald <davis.macdonald@maine.edu>, Edward Angelo <edward.angelo@maine.edu>, Eleanor Brain Busby <eleanorbrain644@gmail.com>, Ethan Carroll <ethan.carroll@maine.edu>, Glenn Taylor <gtaylor@maine.edu>, Gordon Woodin <gordon.woodin@maine.edu>, Guanyu Jiang <guanyu.jiang@maine.edu>, Harry Feero <hfeero@maine.edu>, Jakob Adams <jakobadams2019@rsu26.org>, Jimmy Presutti <james.presutti@maine.edu>, Jodi Munster <jodi.munster@maine.edu>, Julia Hathaway <beaniebabylover@gmail.com>, Kati Morneault <katherine.morneault1@maine.edu>, Keenan Lee <Doublehelix1213@gmail.com>, Keenan Lee <keenan.lee@maine.edu>, Kerry Chasteen <Kerry.Chasteen@maine.edu>, Khoa Kieu <khoa.kieu@maine.edu>, Kimberly Murray <kimberly.murray@maine.edu>, Lakshmi Sai Ram Thubati <lakshmi.thubati@maine.edu>, Levi Ntengu <levi.ntengu@maine.edu>, Matthew Stepp <matthew.stepp@maine.edu>, Michele Landry <michele.l.landry@maine.edu>, Mikayla Mason <mikayla.mason@maine.edu>, Minte Alemar <mintesenot.jakamo@maine.edu>, Nathaniel Hernandez <nathanhernandez1223@gmail.com>, Nibeni Dana <nibeni.dana@gmail.com>, Nick G <nickgillert@gmail.com>, Nickalas Kenny <nickalas.kenny@maine.edu>, Norbert Henkel <norbert.henkel@maine.edu>, Olivia Westura <owestura@gmail.com>, Pamela Johnson <pamela.johnson@maine.edu>, Salissa Lachance <salissa.lachance@maine.edu>, Santiago Rave <santiago.rave@maine.edu>, Saphire Robinson <saphire.robinson@maine.edu>, Sophie Guarino <sophie.guarino@maine.edu>, Steven Ge <xiyao.ge@maine.edu>, Steven Soctomah-Holmes <steven.soctomahholmes@maine.edu>, Tristan Bryant <tristan.bryant@maine.edu>, Victoria Hummel <victoria.hummel@maine.edu>, Yannick Gadimi Essoulou <yannick.gadimi@maine.edu>, Zhi Jiang <zhi.jiang@maine.edu>
Subject: Shift available at Bear's Den Friday 6/16 2-5pm
Hellowe are seeking a student to work this Friday at the Bear's Den assisting with the shut down. Please call Bear's Den @ 944-9382 for more details or if you would like to sign up for this shift!thanksAnna
--Anna McDormandUniversity of MaineAuxiliary ServicesAssistant Dining Services Manager Wells207-581-4935 office
On College Life
On College Life
YA nonfiction
No one saw this coming. I ran out of library books.
Fortunately I was prepared with a stash of books I'd picked up at yard
sales and thrift shops for exactly this kind of emergency. What's
pretty neat is I had two books on college life: one a serious guide
and the other a spoof of serious guides. Who better to evaluate them
than a future student services professional?
Things have changed a lot since many parents of high school
students attended college. When I attended Gordon College we didn't
have the hook up culture as a "relationship" norm. OK, I went to a
seriously Christian school. But in the early eighties I don't think
it had penetrated (bad pun intended) the Ivies. Even more important,
those ubiquitous electronic devices hadn't made an appearance. While
computer science classes were attracting the technology inclined,
electric typewriters (gasp!) were state of the art for most of us.
At least many of the basics such as getting financial aid and
selecting classes are essentially the same. For first gen(eration)
students, however, the transition from high school to college can be a
formidable, scary one. There are so many seemingly arcane details to
handle. Many perfectly qualified students can feel like they don't
really belong.
Harlan Cohen's The Naked Roommate And 107 Other Issues You Might
Run Into in College is the book I wished I'd had when my children
started college. I would have given each a copy. Cohen has
interviewed students on hundreds of college campuses all over
America. Each of his 108 tips is centered around a nugget of wisdom
from a current student or recent grad and contains the story behind
the epiphany.
Tip #1, for example, Expect the Unexpected, is expanded to
"Don't create too many expectations. You might think you know what
will happen in college, but really you don't."
The narrator, a Northwestern University freshperson, found that
earning good grades and making friends proved a lot more challenging
than she'd expected. A long distance relationship she expected to
last forever was impossible to maintain.
Cohen doesn't tiptoe around the tougher topics: sex, drugs,
alcohol, STDs... For instance, in the chapter about fraternities and
sororities he includes:
"And now, this is where the chapter gets ugly. Sometimes people
get carried away and 'tradition' overrides rational, intelligent
behavior. That's when members end up forcing pledges and other
members to do stupid things. And if you're someone who wants to
belong, you might do things you never wanted or expected to do,
because not doing these things can mean not being part of the group.
But please, never put up with hazing. In fact hazing is a crime."
If you have a family member headed for college, this book makes
a thoughtful gift.
If you're more in the mood for satire, you might enjoy Michael
Powell's Forbidden Knowledge College: 101 Things Not Every Student
Should Know How to Do. Its 101 tips cover topics such as:
*choosing a party school,
*sleeping with your professors,
*blowing off your parents,
*finding a campus booty call,
*cheating your way through exams,
and *kidnapping the dean.
If you're in the mood for a good laugh this book and a cold beer
(providing you're over 21) should do the trick.
On a personal note, I'm getting ready for Artsapalooza which is the
evening of the 16th. It's a celebration where all the venues in
downtown Orono turn into venues for music and the spoken word:
everything from the library through the restaurants to the churches.
It's a total festival! I'm back by popular demand. In fact this will
be my 4th year!!! I'm so looking forward to it! I'll be reading
poetry at Harvest Moon (which is, BTW, an awesome venue) from 7:00 to
7:40. Artsapalooza is such a blessing for writers and singers and the
kind of noncommercial community building event we need much more of.
I'm also really excited because Maine is one of the first states to
have a nonbinary gender option on drivers' licenses and state ID.
When we have them renewed we will have X instead of M or F. In the
meantime I can get a free sticker. I'm gonna so do that. You know
I'm proud to be two spirit (gender nonconforming). That's why I
prefer Jules to Julia. It feels more like who I really am.
A great big shout out goes out to the others who are getting ready to
perform and working out last minute logistics and the people who made
nonbinary licenses and IDs a reality.
jules hathaway
Sent from my iPod
YA nonfiction
No one saw this coming. I ran out of library books.
Fortunately I was prepared with a stash of books I'd picked up at yard
sales and thrift shops for exactly this kind of emergency. What's
pretty neat is I had two books on college life: one a serious guide
and the other a spoof of serious guides. Who better to evaluate them
than a future student services professional?
Things have changed a lot since many parents of high school
students attended college. When I attended Gordon College we didn't
have the hook up culture as a "relationship" norm. OK, I went to a
seriously Christian school. But in the early eighties I don't think
it had penetrated (bad pun intended) the Ivies. Even more important,
those ubiquitous electronic devices hadn't made an appearance. While
computer science classes were attracting the technology inclined,
electric typewriters (gasp!) were state of the art for most of us.
At least many of the basics such as getting financial aid and
selecting classes are essentially the same. For first gen(eration)
students, however, the transition from high school to college can be a
formidable, scary one. There are so many seemingly arcane details to
handle. Many perfectly qualified students can feel like they don't
really belong.
Harlan Cohen's The Naked Roommate And 107 Other Issues You Might
Run Into in College is the book I wished I'd had when my children
started college. I would have given each a copy. Cohen has
interviewed students on hundreds of college campuses all over
America. Each of his 108 tips is centered around a nugget of wisdom
from a current student or recent grad and contains the story behind
the epiphany.
Tip #1, for example, Expect the Unexpected, is expanded to
"Don't create too many expectations. You might think you know what
will happen in college, but really you don't."
The narrator, a Northwestern University freshperson, found that
earning good grades and making friends proved a lot more challenging
than she'd expected. A long distance relationship she expected to
last forever was impossible to maintain.
Cohen doesn't tiptoe around the tougher topics: sex, drugs,
alcohol, STDs... For instance, in the chapter about fraternities and
sororities he includes:
"And now, this is where the chapter gets ugly. Sometimes people
get carried away and 'tradition' overrides rational, intelligent
behavior. That's when members end up forcing pledges and other
members to do stupid things. And if you're someone who wants to
belong, you might do things you never wanted or expected to do,
because not doing these things can mean not being part of the group.
But please, never put up with hazing. In fact hazing is a crime."
If you have a family member headed for college, this book makes
a thoughtful gift.
If you're more in the mood for satire, you might enjoy Michael
Powell's Forbidden Knowledge College: 101 Things Not Every Student
Should Know How to Do. Its 101 tips cover topics such as:
*choosing a party school,
*sleeping with your professors,
*blowing off your parents,
*finding a campus booty call,
*cheating your way through exams,
and *kidnapping the dean.
If you're in the mood for a good laugh this book and a cold beer
(providing you're over 21) should do the trick.
On a personal note, I'm getting ready for Artsapalooza which is the
evening of the 16th. It's a celebration where all the venues in
downtown Orono turn into venues for music and the spoken word:
everything from the library through the restaurants to the churches.
It's a total festival! I'm back by popular demand. In fact this will
be my 4th year!!! I'm so looking forward to it! I'll be reading
poetry at Harvest Moon (which is, BTW, an awesome venue) from 7:00 to
7:40. Artsapalooza is such a blessing for writers and singers and the
kind of noncommercial community building event we need much more of.
I'm also really excited because Maine is one of the first states to
have a nonbinary gender option on drivers' licenses and state ID.
When we have them renewed we will have X instead of M or F. In the
meantime I can get a free sticker. I'm gonna so do that. You know
I'm proud to be two spirit (gender nonconforming). That's why I
prefer Jules to Julia. It feels more like who I really am.
A great big shout out goes out to the others who are getting ready to
perform and working out last minute logistics and the people who made
nonbinary licenses and IDs a reality.
jules hathaway
Sent from my iPod
Sunday, June 10, 2018
A Better Life
A Better Life
DVD
I just watched A Better Life. It put tears in my eyes and fire
in my heart. I want you to watch it. I want you to get mad as Hell.
Those of us who are parents want the opportunity for our
children to have good lives. We do what it takes to make that
happen. My husband and I didn't want our children to succomb to the
learned helplessness that is so pervasive in our neighborhood. I
didn't want our daughters to become teenage mothers. He wanted better
than construction work for our son.
The one thing that differentiates us from Carlos, protagonist of
A Better Life, is the good luck of being born on the more fortunate
side of the border. Carlos works dangerous, taxing, under the table
jobs. His 14-year-old son is the light of his life. He is very
vigilent in making his son stay in school and out of gangs.
A boss who is going back to Mexico offers to sell Carlos his
truck. At first Carlos is reluctant, sure that to stay in the States
he must remain as invisible as possible and stay off the ICE radar.
But he begins to dream. Maybe with more money he can move to a better
neighborhood with the promise of better schools for his only child.
In what has to be one of the most heartbreaking scenes in all
filmdom, Carlos and his son sit helplessly in the truck with red and
blue lights flashing and a police officer asking for license and
registration.
I'm confused. Don't we have this iconic statue, a friendship
gift from France, inviting the world to send us its tempest tossed?
If Lady Liberty could get off her pedestal (paid for by school
children's pennies), she'd get herself a lawyer and sue this country
for breach of promise.
What would you do if the only way to get a safe, decent life for
your children was to break the law?
On a personal note, I worked this weekend. UMaine hosted the Special
Olympics. So they needed food service people. I couldn't imagine
serving a more gracious, polite group. I think much of the
neurotypical world could really learn from them. One of the meals was
a cookout on the mall. That was especially fun. It was a perfect day
for a cookout--sunny and breezy. I love my job. The people I get to
work with are kind, thoughtful, and welcoming. The things I do are
things I've done as a volunteer so often. At least once a shift I
think, "They're paying me for this!!!" And the pay will enable me to
be in the academic program of my dreams. I gotta be one of the
luckiest two spirits in Penobscot County!!!
A great big shout out goes out to my new work family, especially Anna
gave me this wonderful opportunity.
jules hathaway
Sent from my iPod
DVD
I just watched A Better Life. It put tears in my eyes and fire
in my heart. I want you to watch it. I want you to get mad as Hell.
Those of us who are parents want the opportunity for our
children to have good lives. We do what it takes to make that
happen. My husband and I didn't want our children to succomb to the
learned helplessness that is so pervasive in our neighborhood. I
didn't want our daughters to become teenage mothers. He wanted better
than construction work for our son.
The one thing that differentiates us from Carlos, protagonist of
A Better Life, is the good luck of being born on the more fortunate
side of the border. Carlos works dangerous, taxing, under the table
jobs. His 14-year-old son is the light of his life. He is very
vigilent in making his son stay in school and out of gangs.
A boss who is going back to Mexico offers to sell Carlos his
truck. At first Carlos is reluctant, sure that to stay in the States
he must remain as invisible as possible and stay off the ICE radar.
But he begins to dream. Maybe with more money he can move to a better
neighborhood with the promise of better schools for his only child.
In what has to be one of the most heartbreaking scenes in all
filmdom, Carlos and his son sit helplessly in the truck with red and
blue lights flashing and a police officer asking for license and
registration.
I'm confused. Don't we have this iconic statue, a friendship
gift from France, inviting the world to send us its tempest tossed?
If Lady Liberty could get off her pedestal (paid for by school
children's pennies), she'd get herself a lawyer and sue this country
for breach of promise.
What would you do if the only way to get a safe, decent life for
your children was to break the law?
On a personal note, I worked this weekend. UMaine hosted the Special
Olympics. So they needed food service people. I couldn't imagine
serving a more gracious, polite group. I think much of the
neurotypical world could really learn from them. One of the meals was
a cookout on the mall. That was especially fun. It was a perfect day
for a cookout--sunny and breezy. I love my job. The people I get to
work with are kind, thoughtful, and welcoming. The things I do are
things I've done as a volunteer so often. At least once a shift I
think, "They're paying me for this!!!" And the pay will enable me to
be in the academic program of my dreams. I gotta be one of the
luckiest two spirits in Penobscot County!!!
A great big shout out goes out to my new work family, especially Anna
gave me this wonderful opportunity.
jules hathaway
Sent from my iPod
Friday, June 8, 2018
Beautiful Trouble
Beautiful Trouble
Adult nonfiction
"'Human salvation,' Dr. Martin Luther King argued, 'lies in the
hands of the creatively maladjusted,' and recent [2012] events are
proving him as prescient as ever. As the recent wave of global revolt
has swept through Iceland, Bahrain, Spain, Greece, Chile, the United
States, and elsewhere, the tools at activists' disposal, the terrain
of struggle, and the victories that suddenly seem possible are quickly
evolving. The realization is rippling through the ranks that, if
deployed thoughtfully, our pranks, stunts, flash mobs, and encampments
can bring about real shifts in the balance of power. In short, large
numbers of people have seen that creative action gets the goods--and
have begun to act accordingly. Art, it turns out, really does enrich
activism, making it more compelling and sustainable."
Things sure have gone downhill since the optimistic introduction
(quoted above) to Andrew Boyd's Beautiful Trouble: A Toolbox For
Revolution. The one percent are living large at the expense of all
the rest of us. Encouraged by the current White House resident, the
hate groups are coming out of the woodwork. The questioning of
science is imperilling every species on this planet.
That is why we need this amazing book more than ever!
Being an activist in 2018 can feel very discouraging. We rush
from one crisis to the next. Distractions such as presidential tweets
divert people's focus from evils to ephimera. We seem to be preaching
to the choir. And there are never enough live bodies to get the work
done. Never mind money...
Sound familiar?
Reading Beautiful Trouble is like drinking ice cold water after
a slog through the desert. It encourages us to really look at what
we're doing, question assumptions, and try new and exciting projects.
We can be inspired by the achievements of over eighty organizations
and other entities. Whether you skim, search for specifics, or read
the book cover to cover, if you're anything like me, you'll be
invigorated and ready to take on the world...or at least a little part
of it. The book is divided into four sections.
Tactics are strategies and ways to make them work and avoid
potential pitfalls. Creative petition delivery, for example, can wed
online and offline activism. If done creatively enough, it can
capture press attention. When Avaaz petitioned the World Health
Organization to investigate and regulate factory farms they were able
to set up 200 cardboard pigs, each representing 1,000 signatures, in
front of their headquarters.
Principles are the insights gleaned through work in the field.
My favorite is, "Take leadership from the most impacted." The people
who have the most at stake know the problem and possible solutions
most intimately. We must go into a situation as listening allies, not
arrogant saviors.
Theories are the big picture ideas that provide insight into the
world and how to change it. The concept of environmental justice
looks at how industry wastes are usually dumped on poor and minority
communities.
"What is at work here is not only racism, but a widespread and
devastating ethic that witholds compassion from the environment and
denies the humanity of ninety-nine percent of the world's people,
treating them as resources to be exploited at best, or as entirely
external to the economic calculations at worst."
Read the book and act on it.
"Millions around the world have awoken not just to the need to
take action to reverse deepening inequality and ecological
devastation, but to our own creative power to do so. You have in your
hands a distillation of ideas gained from those on the front lines of
creative activism. But these ideas are nothing until they are acted
upon. We look forward to seeing what you do with them."
On a personal note, this is one of the most special days of the year
for me: Joey cat's 15th birthday. As I write this I hear him playing
with kittenish energy. You'd never guess he's a seriously older cat.
It's a bit of a miracle that he's still here, in the game, healthy and
happy, because of medical problems he was born with. Twice he's had
to have very serious surgeries. Every day my little friend is with me
is doubly precious for his being there.
A great big shout out goes out to my birthday cat, the gang at Veazie
Vet, my husband who buys the cat food and litter and paid for the
surgeries and plays with Joey, my children who grew up with him, and
my friends who are his friends.
jules hathaway
Sent from my iPod
Adult nonfiction
"'Human salvation,' Dr. Martin Luther King argued, 'lies in the
hands of the creatively maladjusted,' and recent [2012] events are
proving him as prescient as ever. As the recent wave of global revolt
has swept through Iceland, Bahrain, Spain, Greece, Chile, the United
States, and elsewhere, the tools at activists' disposal, the terrain
of struggle, and the victories that suddenly seem possible are quickly
evolving. The realization is rippling through the ranks that, if
deployed thoughtfully, our pranks, stunts, flash mobs, and encampments
can bring about real shifts in the balance of power. In short, large
numbers of people have seen that creative action gets the goods--and
have begun to act accordingly. Art, it turns out, really does enrich
activism, making it more compelling and sustainable."
Things sure have gone downhill since the optimistic introduction
(quoted above) to Andrew Boyd's Beautiful Trouble: A Toolbox For
Revolution. The one percent are living large at the expense of all
the rest of us. Encouraged by the current White House resident, the
hate groups are coming out of the woodwork. The questioning of
science is imperilling every species on this planet.
That is why we need this amazing book more than ever!
Being an activist in 2018 can feel very discouraging. We rush
from one crisis to the next. Distractions such as presidential tweets
divert people's focus from evils to ephimera. We seem to be preaching
to the choir. And there are never enough live bodies to get the work
done. Never mind money...
Sound familiar?
Reading Beautiful Trouble is like drinking ice cold water after
a slog through the desert. It encourages us to really look at what
we're doing, question assumptions, and try new and exciting projects.
We can be inspired by the achievements of over eighty organizations
and other entities. Whether you skim, search for specifics, or read
the book cover to cover, if you're anything like me, you'll be
invigorated and ready to take on the world...or at least a little part
of it. The book is divided into four sections.
Tactics are strategies and ways to make them work and avoid
potential pitfalls. Creative petition delivery, for example, can wed
online and offline activism. If done creatively enough, it can
capture press attention. When Avaaz petitioned the World Health
Organization to investigate and regulate factory farms they were able
to set up 200 cardboard pigs, each representing 1,000 signatures, in
front of their headquarters.
Principles are the insights gleaned through work in the field.
My favorite is, "Take leadership from the most impacted." The people
who have the most at stake know the problem and possible solutions
most intimately. We must go into a situation as listening allies, not
arrogant saviors.
Theories are the big picture ideas that provide insight into the
world and how to change it. The concept of environmental justice
looks at how industry wastes are usually dumped on poor and minority
communities.
"What is at work here is not only racism, but a widespread and
devastating ethic that witholds compassion from the environment and
denies the humanity of ninety-nine percent of the world's people,
treating them as resources to be exploited at best, or as entirely
external to the economic calculations at worst."
Read the book and act on it.
"Millions around the world have awoken not just to the need to
take action to reverse deepening inequality and ecological
devastation, but to our own creative power to do so. You have in your
hands a distillation of ideas gained from those on the front lines of
creative activism. But these ideas are nothing until they are acted
upon. We look forward to seeing what you do with them."
On a personal note, this is one of the most special days of the year
for me: Joey cat's 15th birthday. As I write this I hear him playing
with kittenish energy. You'd never guess he's a seriously older cat.
It's a bit of a miracle that he's still here, in the game, healthy and
happy, because of medical problems he was born with. Twice he's had
to have very serious surgeries. Every day my little friend is with me
is doubly precious for his being there.
A great big shout out goes out to my birthday cat, the gang at Veazie
Vet, my husband who buys the cat food and litter and paid for the
surgeries and plays with Joey, my children who grew up with him, and
my friends who are his friends.
jules hathaway
Sent from my iPod
Wednesday, June 6, 2018
Boy Erased
Boy Erased
Adult memoir
"I was here by my own choice, despite my growing skepticism,
despite my secret wish to run away from the shame I'd felt since my
parents found out I was gay. I had too much invested in my current
life to leave it behind: in my family and in the increasingly blurry
God I'd known since I was a toddler.
God, I prayed, leaving the office and making my way down the
narrow hallway to the main room, the fleurescents ticking in their
metal grids, I don't know who You are anymore, but please give me the
wisdom to survive this."
The "this" Garrard Conley, hoped to have the wisdom to "survive"
was Love In Action, a program designed to save gays and other sexual
"deviants" from "unnatural" lifestyles, lifestyles that would
allegedly alienate them from God and stand in the way of salvation.
He was in a two-week assessment day program which would determine how
much in-patient treatment he would "need"--anything from three months
to years. In his no-holds-barred Boy Erased, he shares this
experience and the events that led up to it.
Conley grew up in the South in the very fundamentalist
Missionary Baptists, the denomination both his parents were raised
in. They were Biblical literalists, taking every word of the Bible as
literally dictated by God. Concepts like evolution that questioned
God's creating the world in six days were considered heresy. The
Rapture was always just around the corner. If it caught someone in a
less than pure state of thought, word, or deed he or she would be
doomed to eternal damnation.
Needless to say, when a classmate outed Conley to his parents in
his first year of college, it did not go well. His father, a car
salesman who aspired to save a thousand souls before he died, was en
route to becoming an ordained minister. He gave his son an
ultimatum: if he ever acted on his feelings he'd forfeit being able
to set foot in his home or have his education paid for. Not
surprisingly, in despair, Conley decided to agree to whatever his
parents had in mind.
[Reviewer's note: a number of transgender college students
receive a similar ultimatum: if they transition they'll lose family
membership and financial support. Can you imagine having to choose
between being accepted and supported and being comfortable in your
skin at any phase in life, never mind such a vulnerable one? Isn't
this supposed to be the Twenty-First Century?]
The whatever turns out to be the ironically named Love In
Action, a twelve step program loosely based on Alcoholics Anonymous
with detailed rules for every facet of life. Conley is told to forgo
reading anything but his Bible and LIA handbook. He's stripped of all
his personal belongings and told that all the stored pictures and
messages on his electronic devices will be scrutinized.
"We want to encourage each client, male and female, by affirming
your gender identity. We also want each client to pursue integrity in
all his/her actions and appearances. Therefore, any belongings,
appearances, clothing, actions, or humor that might connect you to an
inappropriate past are excluded from the program. These hindrances
are called False Images (FI)."
In Boy Erased, Conley masterfully segues between his childhood
and teen memories and his LIA experiences. It's a must read for
anyone wishing to understand how such programs work, particularly
those of us who love our LGBTQ friends for who they really are.
On a personal note, we've just had ourselves two cold misty days.
Community Garden was cancelled. For night reading I wore Hello Kitty
footed pajamas and fluffy bathrobe. Joey was happy to cuddle on my
lap. I wrapped a corner of my blanket around him and he looked like a
kitty burito. A purrrito?My latest opinion piece has come out in the
Bangor Daily News. I'm getting really good feedback on it.
A great big shout out goes out to the BDN readers who are appreciating
my piece.
jules hathaway
Sent from my iPod
Adult memoir
"I was here by my own choice, despite my growing skepticism,
despite my secret wish to run away from the shame I'd felt since my
parents found out I was gay. I had too much invested in my current
life to leave it behind: in my family and in the increasingly blurry
God I'd known since I was a toddler.
God, I prayed, leaving the office and making my way down the
narrow hallway to the main room, the fleurescents ticking in their
metal grids, I don't know who You are anymore, but please give me the
wisdom to survive this."
The "this" Garrard Conley, hoped to have the wisdom to "survive"
was Love In Action, a program designed to save gays and other sexual
"deviants" from "unnatural" lifestyles, lifestyles that would
allegedly alienate them from God and stand in the way of salvation.
He was in a two-week assessment day program which would determine how
much in-patient treatment he would "need"--anything from three months
to years. In his no-holds-barred Boy Erased, he shares this
experience and the events that led up to it.
Conley grew up in the South in the very fundamentalist
Missionary Baptists, the denomination both his parents were raised
in. They were Biblical literalists, taking every word of the Bible as
literally dictated by God. Concepts like evolution that questioned
God's creating the world in six days were considered heresy. The
Rapture was always just around the corner. If it caught someone in a
less than pure state of thought, word, or deed he or she would be
doomed to eternal damnation.
Needless to say, when a classmate outed Conley to his parents in
his first year of college, it did not go well. His father, a car
salesman who aspired to save a thousand souls before he died, was en
route to becoming an ordained minister. He gave his son an
ultimatum: if he ever acted on his feelings he'd forfeit being able
to set foot in his home or have his education paid for. Not
surprisingly, in despair, Conley decided to agree to whatever his
parents had in mind.
[Reviewer's note: a number of transgender college students
receive a similar ultimatum: if they transition they'll lose family
membership and financial support. Can you imagine having to choose
between being accepted and supported and being comfortable in your
skin at any phase in life, never mind such a vulnerable one? Isn't
this supposed to be the Twenty-First Century?]
The whatever turns out to be the ironically named Love In
Action, a twelve step program loosely based on Alcoholics Anonymous
with detailed rules for every facet of life. Conley is told to forgo
reading anything but his Bible and LIA handbook. He's stripped of all
his personal belongings and told that all the stored pictures and
messages on his electronic devices will be scrutinized.
"We want to encourage each client, male and female, by affirming
your gender identity. We also want each client to pursue integrity in
all his/her actions and appearances. Therefore, any belongings,
appearances, clothing, actions, or humor that might connect you to an
inappropriate past are excluded from the program. These hindrances
are called False Images (FI)."
In Boy Erased, Conley masterfully segues between his childhood
and teen memories and his LIA experiences. It's a must read for
anyone wishing to understand how such programs work, particularly
those of us who love our LGBTQ friends for who they really are.
On a personal note, we've just had ourselves two cold misty days.
Community Garden was cancelled. For night reading I wore Hello Kitty
footed pajamas and fluffy bathrobe. Joey was happy to cuddle on my
lap. I wrapped a corner of my blanket around him and he looked like a
kitty burito. A purrrito?My latest opinion piece has come out in the
Bangor Daily News. I'm getting really good feedback on it.
A great big shout out goes out to the BDN readers who are appreciating
my piece.
jules hathaway
Sent from my iPod
Monday, June 4, 2018
Impounded
Impounded
Adult nonfiction
"Dorothea Lange challenged the political culture that
categorized people of Japanese ancestry as disloyal, perfidous, and
potentially traiterous, that stripped them of their citizenship and
made them un-American. She would have liked to stop the internment
and, although she could not do that, she surely hoped it would not be
repeated. She was as eager to defeat the Axis powers as any other
supporter of democracy, and worked on other photographic projects to
honor those who contributed to the war effort--for example, in studies
of defense industry workers. She too thought World War II was a "good
war," honorable and necessary. If her photographs of a major American
act of injustice had nuanced this verdict just a bit, that fact would
hardly have undermined the national commitment. And the added nuance
might well have contributed to developing among Americans a capacity
for more complex critical thinking about ensuing U.S. race and foreign
policy."
I was elated when I learned that Linda Gordon, who clued us in
on the second coming of the KKK, had written other books that were
available by ILL. Impounded: Dorothea Lange and the Censored Images of
Japanese American Internment by Linda Gordon and Gary Y. Okihiro
looked especially intriguing. How often do you get a world class
historian, a trail blazing photographer, and pictures censored by the
United States gubmint all in one volume?
Lange had worked for the government, documenting Depression era
rural poverty, creating the photographs for which she is well known.
At a time when nationalism and racism were rampant she didn't buy in.
She took a lot of pictures of people of color. Not surprisingly, the
gubmint overlooked them, using only her pictures of overwhelmingly
white Okies. Wouldn't want to threaten those Southern good old boy
politicians.
Lange received a Guggenheim fellowship and then had to put it on
hold. Pearl Harbor happened, plunging the United States into World
War II. President Roosevelt ordered all Japanese Americans to be
interned in concentration camps and created the War Relocation
Authority to achieve this. The WRA hired Lange to document their
work. Unlike Ansel Adams, who took cheerful portraits, she took
pictures to show the abuse and degradation heaped upon innocent
civilians. I'm sure you can guess whose work the gubmint used.
Gordon's excellent narrative constitutes the first part of the
book. In the second part Okihiro exposes more lies we were taught in
high school. Pearl Harbor did not come out of the blue in any other
sense than that planes dropped the bombs. Fear of Japan has a long,
inglorious history in this nation. In the not so good old 1920s, for
example, (when the KKK was experiencing a revival and the Supreme
Court was making forced sterilization of undesirables the law of the
land) the organization that would become the FBI warned that Japanese
would swamp the "superior" white race. Preparations for internment
camps were started in 1936 by President Roosevelt. That's five years
before we were attacked.
The third part of the book is the best. It's the photographs
along with Lange's captions. They speak for themselves.
Those who don't learn from the past are doomed to repeat its
mistakes and evils. Impounded contains a lot of wisdom we need to be
learning. I highly recommend the book.
On a personal note, we had a lovely gardening day in Orono Saturday.
Sunday my church had our annual picnic with perfect weather. Today I
had my latest opinion piece published in the Bangor Daily News in the
center of the op ed page with the day's cartoon. As always I felt very
proud. I'm getting good feedback.
A great big shout out goes out to my editor and the BDN readers who
will read my piece.
jules hathaway
Sent from my iPod
Adult nonfiction
"Dorothea Lange challenged the political culture that
categorized people of Japanese ancestry as disloyal, perfidous, and
potentially traiterous, that stripped them of their citizenship and
made them un-American. She would have liked to stop the internment
and, although she could not do that, she surely hoped it would not be
repeated. She was as eager to defeat the Axis powers as any other
supporter of democracy, and worked on other photographic projects to
honor those who contributed to the war effort--for example, in studies
of defense industry workers. She too thought World War II was a "good
war," honorable and necessary. If her photographs of a major American
act of injustice had nuanced this verdict just a bit, that fact would
hardly have undermined the national commitment. And the added nuance
might well have contributed to developing among Americans a capacity
for more complex critical thinking about ensuing U.S. race and foreign
policy."
I was elated when I learned that Linda Gordon, who clued us in
on the second coming of the KKK, had written other books that were
available by ILL. Impounded: Dorothea Lange and the Censored Images of
Japanese American Internment by Linda Gordon and Gary Y. Okihiro
looked especially intriguing. How often do you get a world class
historian, a trail blazing photographer, and pictures censored by the
United States gubmint all in one volume?
Lange had worked for the government, documenting Depression era
rural poverty, creating the photographs for which she is well known.
At a time when nationalism and racism were rampant she didn't buy in.
She took a lot of pictures of people of color. Not surprisingly, the
gubmint overlooked them, using only her pictures of overwhelmingly
white Okies. Wouldn't want to threaten those Southern good old boy
politicians.
Lange received a Guggenheim fellowship and then had to put it on
hold. Pearl Harbor happened, plunging the United States into World
War II. President Roosevelt ordered all Japanese Americans to be
interned in concentration camps and created the War Relocation
Authority to achieve this. The WRA hired Lange to document their
work. Unlike Ansel Adams, who took cheerful portraits, she took
pictures to show the abuse and degradation heaped upon innocent
civilians. I'm sure you can guess whose work the gubmint used.
Gordon's excellent narrative constitutes the first part of the
book. In the second part Okihiro exposes more lies we were taught in
high school. Pearl Harbor did not come out of the blue in any other
sense than that planes dropped the bombs. Fear of Japan has a long,
inglorious history in this nation. In the not so good old 1920s, for
example, (when the KKK was experiencing a revival and the Supreme
Court was making forced sterilization of undesirables the law of the
land) the organization that would become the FBI warned that Japanese
would swamp the "superior" white race. Preparations for internment
camps were started in 1936 by President Roosevelt. That's five years
before we were attacked.
The third part of the book is the best. It's the photographs
along with Lange's captions. They speak for themselves.
Those who don't learn from the past are doomed to repeat its
mistakes and evils. Impounded contains a lot of wisdom we need to be
learning. I highly recommend the book.
On a personal note, we had a lovely gardening day in Orono Saturday.
Sunday my church had our annual picnic with perfect weather. Today I
had my latest opinion piece published in the Bangor Daily News in the
center of the op ed page with the day's cartoon. As always I felt very
proud. I'm getting good feedback.
A great big shout out goes out to my editor and the BDN readers who
will read my piece.
jules hathaway
Sent from my iPod
Saturday, June 2, 2018
Very Good Lives
Very Good Lives
YA/adult nonfiction
"Delivering a commencement address is a great responsibility, or
so I thought until I cast my mind back to my own graduation. The
commencement speaker that day was the distinguished British
philosopher Baroness Mary Warnock. Reflecting on her speech has
helped me enormously in writing this one, because it turns out that I
can't remember a single word she said. This liberating discovery
enables me to proceed without any fear that I might inadvertantly
influence you to abandon promising careers in business, the law, or
politics for the giddy delights of becoming a gay wizard."
If you guess that the author of the above quote is J. K.
Rowling, congratulate yourself. This writer, best known for her Harry
Potter series, delivered a Harvard commencement speech. She
concentrated on two topics that are very close to her heart: failure
and imagination. Luckily those of us who weren't present can read her
narration, beautifully illustrated, in Very Good Lives.
Rowling wanted the newly minted grads to know that failure is
not the end of the world. It had figured prominently in her life.
Seven years after her own graduation she was a very poor, jobless
single parent. She found poverty very challenging. But she found
that she could survive failure.
"The knowledge that you have emerged wiser and stronger from
setbacks means that you are, ever after, secure in your ability to
survive. You will never truly know yourself, or the strength of your
relationships, until both have been tested by adversity. Such
knowledge is a true gift, for all that it is painfully won, and it has
been worth more than any qualification I've ever earned."
I can second that idea. I've failed twice big time. In
undergrad college I was headed toward vet school when I flunked
organic chemistry. No problem. I could get my PhD and become a
college professor. I did just fine in grad school until I got one
grade too low on a required statistics class. I survived both times.
Thirty-one years after that grad school fiasco I am starting the
masters program of my dreams and believing that this time I will
prevail. Oh, yeah, the dark cloud had a shiny silver lining for me.
I met and married the love of my life and had three amazing children
who never would have been born if I'd "succeeded."
When Rowling discusses the importance of imagination she is not
just alluding to the ability to create enchanted kingdoms. She means
it more in the sense of empathy: "...the power that enables us to
empathize with humans whose experiences we have never shared." One of
Rowling's first day jobs was with Amnesty International's London
headquarters. She learned about the depths of evil people are capable
of. She also learned how a committed organization can harness
people's empathy to fight that evil. One of her last paragraphs sums
up the concept beautifully.
"If you choose to use your status and influence to raise your
voice on behalf of those who have no voice; if you choose to identify
not only with the powerful but with the powerless; if you retain the
ability to imagine yourself into the lives of those who do not have
your advantages, then it will not only be your proud families who
celebrate your existence but thousands and millions of people whose
reality you have helped change. We do not need magic to transform our
world; we carry all the power we need inside ourselves already: we
have the power to imagine better."
Amen to that!
On a personal note, this summer is all about getting ready for my
fall grad school adventure on three fronts. The first is financial.
I have a part time cafeteria job on campus. I'm looking for side gigs
like animal companion and child sitting and odd jobs to supplement.
I'm even crocheting scarves (from yard sale/thrift shop/repurposed
yarn) to sell while I sit in church or meetings. All I earn goes for
tuition and books because I'm only using bottle and can recycle money
for personal expenses. Second is getting ready for the time demands.
I'm quitting Peace & Justice Steering Committee. I'm writing my
opinion pieces for the paper and my reviews ahead of time. (See,
readers, I'm thinking of you.). And I'm cleaning the house and shed to
make them easy to maintain. Third is getting ready for the course
work by reading and reflecting.
A great big shout out goes out to you, my readers, who won't have to
do without my reviews at least fall semester.
jules hathaway
Sent from my iPod
YA/adult nonfiction
"Delivering a commencement address is a great responsibility, or
so I thought until I cast my mind back to my own graduation. The
commencement speaker that day was the distinguished British
philosopher Baroness Mary Warnock. Reflecting on her speech has
helped me enormously in writing this one, because it turns out that I
can't remember a single word she said. This liberating discovery
enables me to proceed without any fear that I might inadvertantly
influence you to abandon promising careers in business, the law, or
politics for the giddy delights of becoming a gay wizard."
If you guess that the author of the above quote is J. K.
Rowling, congratulate yourself. This writer, best known for her Harry
Potter series, delivered a Harvard commencement speech. She
concentrated on two topics that are very close to her heart: failure
and imagination. Luckily those of us who weren't present can read her
narration, beautifully illustrated, in Very Good Lives.
Rowling wanted the newly minted grads to know that failure is
not the end of the world. It had figured prominently in her life.
Seven years after her own graduation she was a very poor, jobless
single parent. She found poverty very challenging. But she found
that she could survive failure.
"The knowledge that you have emerged wiser and stronger from
setbacks means that you are, ever after, secure in your ability to
survive. You will never truly know yourself, or the strength of your
relationships, until both have been tested by adversity. Such
knowledge is a true gift, for all that it is painfully won, and it has
been worth more than any qualification I've ever earned."
I can second that idea. I've failed twice big time. In
undergrad college I was headed toward vet school when I flunked
organic chemistry. No problem. I could get my PhD and become a
college professor. I did just fine in grad school until I got one
grade too low on a required statistics class. I survived both times.
Thirty-one years after that grad school fiasco I am starting the
masters program of my dreams and believing that this time I will
prevail. Oh, yeah, the dark cloud had a shiny silver lining for me.
I met and married the love of my life and had three amazing children
who never would have been born if I'd "succeeded."
When Rowling discusses the importance of imagination she is not
just alluding to the ability to create enchanted kingdoms. She means
it more in the sense of empathy: "...the power that enables us to
empathize with humans whose experiences we have never shared." One of
Rowling's first day jobs was with Amnesty International's London
headquarters. She learned about the depths of evil people are capable
of. She also learned how a committed organization can harness
people's empathy to fight that evil. One of her last paragraphs sums
up the concept beautifully.
"If you choose to use your status and influence to raise your
voice on behalf of those who have no voice; if you choose to identify
not only with the powerful but with the powerless; if you retain the
ability to imagine yourself into the lives of those who do not have
your advantages, then it will not only be your proud families who
celebrate your existence but thousands and millions of people whose
reality you have helped change. We do not need magic to transform our
world; we carry all the power we need inside ourselves already: we
have the power to imagine better."
Amen to that!
On a personal note, this summer is all about getting ready for my
fall grad school adventure on three fronts. The first is financial.
I have a part time cafeteria job on campus. I'm looking for side gigs
like animal companion and child sitting and odd jobs to supplement.
I'm even crocheting scarves (from yard sale/thrift shop/repurposed
yarn) to sell while I sit in church or meetings. All I earn goes for
tuition and books because I'm only using bottle and can recycle money
for personal expenses. Second is getting ready for the time demands.
I'm quitting Peace & Justice Steering Committee. I'm writing my
opinion pieces for the paper and my reviews ahead of time. (See,
readers, I'm thinking of you.). And I'm cleaning the house and shed to
make them easy to maintain. Third is getting ready for the course
work by reading and reflecting.
A great big shout out goes out to you, my readers, who won't have to
do without my reviews at least fall semester.
jules hathaway
Sent from my iPod
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