Honest death.

Christopher Hitches was an equally popular/unpopular British columnist for Vanity Fair who was well known and well respected for his literary skill and honest reporting. He was a polarizing figure for his out spoken views on religion (he was an atheist) and politics. He was a regular guest and friend of Bill Maher, appeared on many different types of talk shows, and was a contributing columnist/editor for multiple highly circulated publications. In late 2010 he was diagnosed with cancer. December of 2011 he passed away.

Mortality is Hitchens' reflections on life, death, and anything in between. This book is very short and a very quick read but it is brutally honest and a true look at what it means for an individual to die.You close this one and just sit and think on a lot of aspects within your own life that you've avoided giving the proper attention and effort to.

I enjoyed this book because I often contemplate life and purpose, not necessarily in a morbid way but yes, death is a fascinating life event, or rather end of life event. I live everyday thinking how I can make the time I have matter and what it all really adds up to in the end. Sometimes I get nowhere with these trains of thought, sometimes I feel like I am close to grasping "it". Hitchens doesn't pull any punches, he is after all the one dying, he can say whatever he wants. The most haunting piece of this book is that at the end it just cuts off...Chris never got to finish his book about death before his own occured. His widow included an epilogue of the pieces and notes that he left behind that he intended to make a part of the book. Somehow even reading it two years after his death, when I got to the point in it where it cuts off it was like in that instant he passed.

There is something tragic about a life unfinished. In a way everyone's ends that way but to see it in print is a bit unnerving. If you want one to make you think deeply, lose yourself in Christopher Hitchens last words while letting them influence your next move.

In this moment we were infinite

I just got through Perks of Being a Wallflower. An incredibly powerful moving story from the voice of a freshman outsider named Charlie. I'm not sure if this book resonated so much because I can relate to Charlie on so many levels and because I am younger, but even if you are older, especially if you have kids, I urge you to read this book because it eloquently puts into words the true and deep emotions of teenagers that often get discounted and lumped in mass to the term "adolescence".

Charlie is the youngest of three children heading into high school with no friends and a sensibility that doesn't put him in line to make many. He is a brilliant, interesting boy with a flare for the bizarre and fringe. He thinks differently, he feels everything to the core of his being and has the sweetest most pure soul.

He meets two people who will become the cornerstone and teaching tools for his young life, brother and sister Patrick and Sam. They welcome him in with open arms, understand his unique world disposition and help him to jump into life experiences that would otherwise have alluded him. Through the course of Charlie's correspondence with an anonymous reader who he his writing letters about his life to, we learn all about his first year of high school and get to see the his evolution emotionally and personally. Charlie has seen many dark things and we come to learn has experienced them as well which plays a huge part in shaping the person he is today.

I think this book is really important for adults to read because often teenagers and young peoples emotions get discounted and ignored as over reactions or irrational. That's just it though, emotions are never rationale and life experience or age doesn't make them any more credible. Young people feel things deeply and truly. It doesn't matter that as an adult you know they will pass, for the kid now it is their sole reality and should be given value. There is nothing more frustrating than trying to express yourself and getting written off as ridiculous. Charlie has the definition of an old soul, he has had to deal with things far too great for his years and frankly has done just fine with them. He has issues, he has eccentricities and trouble adapting to environments but he is doing the best he can with what he knows and the tools he has.

I have not seen this movie but as easy to read as the book was I suggest you read it. Young kids will like the familiarity they find in Charlie, Sam and Patrick and adults will stand to learn a thing or to. This is one well written, deeply thought out book and will leave something with you long after you've finished.

Wild in more ways than one.

Two in a row, another book I was not super crazy about. I think overall people will enjoy it more than I did so I will recommend it, but I think it was a bit lost on me.

Wild is a biography by Cheryl Strayed that tells the story of her life as she embarks on a long wilderness trek of the Pacific Crest Trail, the hiking trail that runs from Mexico to Canada. Cheryl was an average girl with a bit south of average upbringing but nothing that stands out as tragic or negligent. When her mother contracts cancer and dies in rapid succession, her life begins an epic downward spiral that leaves her with track marks, an appointment at the abortion clinic and wondering who she is and whether it's possible she can regain herself. 

 

She viewed the multiple month long trek across the PCT as an escape and her way to find the parts of herself that were so obviously missing. Her quest to the trail began when she saw a guide book next to a check out counter at REI. This trail is known for being ruthless at times and unforgiving always. She decides to go for it, buying all the equipment and making arrangements for re-supply check points along the way. She puts everything she has into the trip and leaves everything she knows behind. The trail not only tests Cheryl's physical will but her mental strength to continue hiking through 6 lost toe nails, blisters the size of golf balls, and several close encounters with bears, rattlers, and foxes. She hikes double digit miles almost everyday, showers every couple weeks at best, and is in a state of perpetual hunger. Her knowledge of survival and hiking is not up the par, she makes mistakes that bring her frighteningly close to several devastating follies that it would have made me nervous had I not obviously known she survived the to write about them.

 

I have been in less modest conditions than most people on my two trips to Central America but what Cheryl describes is inconceivable to me and I could not have done it. The level of discomfort and pain that she endured is enough to prove her inherent strength of will and it truly honorable.

At the end of her three month journey she covered over 1,100 miles of unrelenting wild and has forever changed not only her body but her mind and spirit as well. Hers is a life altered by a deep rooted desire to prove things to herself and to the world that she felt abandoned by. It was to her a necessary test to show herself that she was capable of even the most difficult of tasks and that she could come out on the other side with a new perspective, a new vision, a new purpose.    

 Overall, this book for me was just okay but there were several moments that had me in tears. I could feel her anger, her frustration and her pain so profoundly I took it as my own. The whole book may have connected that way for me if I had any experience with hiking or could relate to her stories on other levels but I was outside my general field of experiences. She described what it was like to be in the wilderness and enduring the elements but I could not place them in a meaningful way alongside my own life experiences.

Others will possibly take away more from this book than I did so I will recommend it. There is a lesson to be learned for everyone somewhere within the pages of another life. Through the course of my readings I think I am starting to understand that I do not have to make all the mistakes or have all the glory myself, I can learn from others through their ups and downs and make myself a better person along the way. The story of Cheryl Strayed had moments for me where I could release some pressure and realize I don't have to live in the wilderness for three motnhs to come to terms with things in my life, I only need to listen, learn and accept the teachable moments as they come.  

3 1/2 out of 5 stars.

"Fair is kind of an imprecise concept"

Admission is one of those books that I don't think you appreciate until you finish it. It is very dense and does not make for quick reading. It is interesting but you do find yourself looking at how far you still have to go. When you go back and think about the complex personal story of the main character you realize it was a well thought out and fully fleshed character profile which is a difficult task to accomplish so Korelitz gets an A+ for that.

Admission tells the story of a Princeton admissions counselor Portia Nathan. Portia takes us through the admission season for the premiere Ivy league school with the eyes of someone who has ultimate power in making dreams come true. In her quest to review her areas applicants she makes a visit to an new experimental high school and comes into contact with an old acquaintance from her own college years and a young student who she cannot get out of her head. She reviews thousands of applicants every season but this Jeremiah...there is something about him. His grades are atrocious and he had no motivation within the academic arena but he is a genius on levels beyond even the highly polished, typical Princeton applicants. Portia feels something in her gut about this kid and makes a potentially career altering decision on his behalf. She continues to deal with all of the stress that the admission season brings while her partner and colleague Mark of sixteen years reveals to her that his mistress is pregnant and he is leaving her.

Portia is a complicated woman who mirrors so many of the kind who live around us everyday. She is routine oriented and on the verge of a mental collapse under the stress of her job and life. Toward the latter part of the story it is revealed to us readers a long hidden secret that starts to shed lights on some of the motivations behind Portia's decisions.

Overall it is an okay read. I'm not sure it will be worth it to most of you who read this blog to get through the whole thing but lucky for you, if you are on the fence I just found out this will actually be coming to movie theaters later this year as a comedy. The book is not at all funny but I suppose with a little Hollywood magic it could be twisted that way. It is staring Paul Rudd and Tina Fey so it has  great cast going for it. I truly had no idea it was being made a movie and oddly enough I was researching some books for the library and came across the release date. From what I can tell of the synopsis of the movie it is actually nothing like the book. They seem to play it out in reverse but hey, I guess they can do whatever they want with it. This one is tough to recommend but it wasn't horrible. If you're like me and have a reading list that in 100 lifetimes you could never finish, I'd skip this one and see the movie. 

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I finally started my journey.

        If you ever ask me I would say I am not a fan of fantasy or science fiction type things, but the more I think about it, I love Doctor Who and Harry Potter so I guess I am a liar. Then as this realization hit me I started to question why I was always adverse to the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Well, I started on that journey with The Hobbit and was not disappointed.

       The story is one of dwarves, hobbits, elves, dragons and just about anything else you can think of for a magical creature. It is a journey of epic proportion by the most literal of definitions. The Hobbit is the story of Bilbo Baggins,  the contented, quiet, unambitious hobbit who lives in his hobbit hole and has no intentions of being anything other than the mindful and unremarkable steward of the earth that he is. Then one day the great wizard Gandalf comes to his door and enlists him into a mission that will test his resolve, skill, intellect and honor. Bilbo is accompanied by thirteen dwarves on the journey to recover the lost treasure from the dragon Smaug. On their journey they find all kinds of trouble and pit falls each requiring a combination of creative solutions and not a fair amount of luck to save them. They journey far and wide in their quest until they finally encounter the fire breathing Smaug and commence in battle for their treasures.

      The genius of this Tolkien tale is that it is so fantastical you feel as if you are a small child again being read a story aloud. It really has a nostalgic quality that is hard to find in other narratives. What I also love about The Hobbit is that within the blazing action and fantastic imagery is a very real tale of courage. Bilbo doesn't think he can achieve the things Gandalf says he can. He doesn't think he is anything special and certainly cannot be the right hobbit for the job. But along the way we see him transform into a hero of the tale and find within himself an adventurous spirit that would otherwise have been suppressed in the banality of complacency. Within us all is a person we don't exactly recognize but we know is there and who can only come to fruition when we step outside our comfort zone and take a chance on something. Gandalf helps Bilbo in that regard but maybe you are sitting there, like I am, with the nagging suspicion in the back of your mind that you were made for something more, capable of being great, with an unfulfilled destiny in your blind spot. This tale in its parabolic ways can encourage you on that road. You don't need a magical wizard to show up at your door to spur you on, you need only believe it is possible and that you have or can acquire the skills needed to make your story epic.

     Whether you're hunting down lost treasure, taking a chance on love, jumping out of planes, making plans for a move, or just dreaming of a life that could be, always remember that there is nothing wrong with being your own hobbit comfy in your hobbit hole with your routine hobbit life, unless you have that fire burning that proves you want something more. If that is case I encourage you friends to become your own Gandalf and believe in yourself whole heartedly and make it happen. You may only have this chance and no treasure was ever found by just thinking on it.

Good luck on your journey. Pray you make it epic.

 

Hi, I'm Taylor and I think I have a problem.

Working at the library for the book-a-holic like me sounds like a dream right? It certainly can be but I have found myself becoming a book hoarder. I currently have 19, yes 19, books checked out on my account right now. I have no self control once I see a book I want to read I need it right then. I will read all of them within the time frame of a couple renewals but it is a bit insane. I guess I could have a lot worse problems though.

Currently I am reading three different ones, all good but pretty dense so I'm not getting through them as quickly as I'd like. The reviews for them will be up soon.

I would like to take this time though to say that if you haven't visited your public library in a while you should. There are great things happening in them and we have started to catch up with the time. We have amazing on line resources and can check out books to your e-readers. It really is a great place where you can access a ton of information and get your hands on some great stuff.

Happy Tuesday everyone. Check back soon I have some great stuff coming up. Happy reading.