Books I Read in 2012

• I don't rate books in these posts by quality, really, but just as me recommending things to people, so keep that in mind.
• 
  
• *** = GO READ THIS RIGHT NOW
• **  = I would hand this book to you
• *   = I would not tell you to put this book down
•     = Don't bother
• 
  
•    172 Hours on the Moon
•  **A Long Way Down, by Nick Hornby
•  **A Monster Calls, by Patrick Ness
•    All The King's Men
•  **All The Right Stuff, by Walter Dean Meyers
•   *Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe
•  **As You Like It, by William Shakespeare
•   *Assassin King, The (I loved the first 3 books in this series a lot, this one less so)
•    Bewitching
•  **Birth Order Book, The, by Kevin Leman (NF)
•   *Book of Blood and Shadow, The
•   *Children and the Wolves, The (This is not a pleasant book to read by any stretch of the imagination, but that doesn't mean it's bad)
•  **Chopsticks,  by Jessica Anthony
•  **Cinder, by Marissa Meyer
•  **Deadly Pink, by Viviane Vande Velde
•   *Dreamsleeves
•   *Fame, Glory, and Other Things on My To-Do List
•   *Fault in Our Stars, The
•   *Glimmer
• ***God is Not One, by Stephen Prothero (NF)
•  **Great Gatsby, The, by F. Scott Fitzgerald
•  **Hacking Harvard, by Robin Wasserman
•   *Keeping The Castle
• ***Letter Q, The, edited by Sarah Moon (NF)
•    Lexapros and Cons
• ***Lies of Locke Lamora, The, by Scott Lynch
•  **List, The, by Siobhan Vivian
•  **Marly's Ghost, by David Levithan
•  **Miseducation of Cameron Post, The, by Emily M. Danforth
•  **My Name is Mina, by David Almond
•  **Nevermore, a novel by my boyfriend which I love a lot even though he hates it
•   *Of Mice and Men
•   *Old Man and the Sea, The
•  **Pirate Cinema, by Cory Doctorow
•    Pure
• ***Ready Player One, by Ernest Cline
•  **Romeo and Juliet, by William Shakespeare
•  **SchoolGirls, by Peggy Orenstein (NF)
•  **Universe in a Single Atom, The, by The Dalai Lama (NF)
•   *Unwind
•   *What Boys Really Want
•  **Wonderstruck, by Brian Selznick
•   *Zeitoun, by Dave Eggers

GOD IS NOT ONE:

If you're at all interested in religion, read this. A lot of books now try to emphasize the similarities between religions in order to try and create harmony between them--the "different paths up the same mountain" approach. This book looks at religions as completely separate mountains, with totally different goals--of course Christianity is the only pathway to salvation, because other religions don't care about salvation. I love it a lot.

THE LETTER Q:

This is a book of letters by LGBT authors to their younger selves. And it is amazing whether you're LGBT or not. I haven't cried this much while reading a book since Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, and this was for much more meaningful reasons than the death of a fictional redhead. IT'S JUST SO FRIGGING HOPEFUL.

THE LIES OF LOCKE LAMORA:

From Amazon: "In this stunning debut, author Scott Lynch delivers the wonderfully thrilling tale of an audacious criminal and his band of confidence tricksters. Set in a fantastic city pulsing with the lives of decadent nobles and daring thieves, here is a story of adventure, loyalty, and survival that is one part Robin Hood, one part Ocean’s Eleven, and entirely enthralling.…

An orphan’s life is harsh–and often short–in the island city of Camorr, built on the ruins of a mysterious alien race. But born with a quick wit and a gift for thieving, Locke Lamora has dodged both death and slavery, only to fall into the hands of an eyeless priest known as Chains–a man who is neither blind nor a priest. A con artist of extraordinary talent, Chains passes his skills on to his carefully selected “family” of orphans–a group known as the Gentlemen Bastards. Under his tutelage, Locke grows to lead the Bastards, delightedly pulling off one outrageous confidence game after another. Soon he is infamous as the Thorn of Camorr, and no wealthy noble is safe from his sting."

DEAR GOD I ADORED THIS BOOK SO MUCH. IT IS EVERYTHING I LOVE.

Basically it just fits the criteria of "I will pull this off the shelf and follow you around, jabbering incessantly, until you agree to read it." The Gentlemen Bastards are amazing.

READY PLAYER ONE:

In which you get to live out all of your nerdy pop culture fantasies while accompanying Wade on his quest to win $200 billion through the world's biggest and greatest MMORPG ever. And when I say "all of your nerdy pop culture fantasies," I really do mean basically all of them.

After finishing this book I went home and spent a full hour relating the entire plot to my dad I was just that excited.

In Which I Write A Post

"Love is when a girl puts on perfume and a boy puts on shaving cologne and they go out and smell each other." - a five year old named Karl

God, I haven't posted in months. Sorry about that. A combination of school, Tumblr, and life got in the way.

Things going on with me:

• Full schedule of AP classes
• Applied to college
• Got accepted/am officially going to UNCG
• Working on a production of As You Like It
• Turned seventeen
• Found myself the most excellent of boyfriends
• Am generally happy

So yay.

Sixteen was pretty great, and so far seventeen is better.

Unfortunately, I'm kind of fresh out of the type of stuff that used to go on this blog. (I tend to avoid looking over the archives, but from what I remember I think that's probably kind of a good thing.) I have one post idea right now, there will undoubtedly be some NaNoWriMo things going on over here, and of course there will be my usual "oh hey the year is over let me process things and write about my life" stuff come December/January, but for the most part you will--officially, this time--be seeing a lot less of me.

Part of this is due to the fact that my whole focus on getting published has shifted dramatically to just writing things I feel like writing and sharing them with my friends, so there really isn't any big exciting news going on. Although I did do another workshop type thing about NaNoWriMo at a library.

You guys are just like my blogging family, and I've left for blogging college (in the form of Tumblr--if anyone cares enough to come hang out over there leave a comment and I'll give you my url) or something--I'll still come back to visit. :)

Thoughts on Neil Armstrong

"Education is a progressive discovery of our own ignorance." - Will Durant

Alternate Title: In Which You Realize Just How Massively Nerdy My Childhood Was

I do not remember a time before I knew Neil Armstrong's name. My dad's first memory is watching the moon landing with his siblings, and many of my early ones are him teaching me things about outer space--important events, the order of the planets, classifications of stars, etc.

Some kids idolize sports stars (my nine year old neighbor loves Tom Brady), some historical figures, and some actors. For a long time, however, the name that was always spoken with a whisper of awe was that of an astronaut. An example of someone who did something great/brave/courageous? Neil Armstrong. The answer in our own personal variation of 20 Questions? Neil Armstrong. Occasionally, even bedtime stories were replaced by Neil Armstrong (instead of the usual fare of Doctor Who/Lord of the Rings/let's-teach-the-girls-about-natural-selection-via-dragons-and-bunny-rabbits. Yeah, I had an interesting childhood).

I realized today, though, that I never actually knew all that much about the man himself. And he knew that would happen--that all people would ever remember would be his one giant leap for mankind--and I'm sure he was, for the most part, fine with it.

I mean, I'd be okay with it if all I was known for was doing something that freaking cool.

But I feel a little bit guilty, and then I feel even more guilty for not caring at all up until this point--what is it about the death of a complete stranger that makes us suddenly care about all of the little details you never bothered to know beforehand?

Even though I haven't ended up wanting to work for NASA or anything (although it's been my dream more than once over the years), the man has had a very subtle but very profound impact on my life. Where would my dad be, had he not been so inspired by a fuzzy image on his black and white TV in the tiny little town of Tonowanda, NY? Would he have wanted to be an engineer? Would I have even been born? Would he have ever bothered teaching me all of those little facts about space before I even hit kindergarten? I don't know.

It's so weird, how random people can have the biggest effects on your life without them ever knowing.

I'm sure there are plenty of people who went on to work in aeronautics because of Neil Armstrong. I am not one of those people, nor do I expect I will be, but that doesn't mean his existence and his life hasn't shaped my life, too.

RIP

What I've Been Doing With My Time

"Every person takes the limits of their own field of vision for the limits of the world." - Arthur Schopenhauer

Back in May, I was asked to be on the board for the independent theatre company two of my friends were starting. The first show would be Romeo and Juliet, and they wanted me to stage manage. I said yes. There was a little bit of a rocky start, but we got things rolling and everything was fine.

Back in July, I was asked to take up a part in Romeo and Juliet. Someone had dropped out, and they needed me. I said yes. There was that day it was pouring down rain and the only cast member present, the director, and I paced around on top of tables shouting monologues at each other. There was that week when I threw up on two days, and felt sick for all five.

There was that week when I was out of town and the rest of the cast had the police called on them due to a prop gun someone thought was real.
There was that night when I was rehearsing in full costume in front of my house very late in the evening and had the police called on me.

There was that week of panic when we unexpectedly didn't know if we even had a performance space.

There was that week when everything came together and we put on a freaking fantastic show.

And now the best three months of my life so far are over--I start school in a week, and I won't get to hang out in 100+ degree heat for 3-4 hours every day anymore (tragic, isn't it?). As our director said right before I walked on stage, tonight was the last night we'll ever do Romeo and Juliet together. I'm going to miss it.

And then, after a couple weeks' break, we'll be throwing ourselves right back into the fray of our next production, and I'll start wondering why I thought it would be a good idea to pile on yet another activity.

I'm so excited.

(Oh, hi college applications...I didn't see you there. No, I haven't been ignoring you. What? No, not at all...)

The Birth Order Book, by Kevin Leman

"I don't read self-help books. On any given day my self seems to need so much help that 200 pages of cheerful advice and end-of-chapter exercises miss the core of my dilemma. The real question keeping me up at night is this: What the hell is a self anyway? How did I get one and why is it so damn desperate for help?" - Adam Frank


Naturally, that is how I start a post about the self-help book I just finished.


Leman claims that birth order has a significant impact on how you turn out as a person--to the point that he gets scared if he's on a plane and the pilot isn't a functional firstborn or only child. This book outlines the typical characteristics of each birth order, how to deal with it yourself, how to deal with it in others, and how to take it into account when parenting.


With the exception of one of my sisters, his predictions fit my entire family almost perfectly. It's kind of freaky (in that halfway through the chapter on firstborns I was shouting "THESE ARE MY PEOPLE." And that's only a little bit of an exaggeration).


All of the psychology and analysis is interspersed with stories about his clients, and his own family. He's a likable enough person, and it's always amusing to be reading along and find something that describes someone you know to the letter.


The whole book is fascinating (to anyone who has siblings, anyway), and I'd recommend it to anyone who has an interest in that sort of thing. My mom picked it up a couple days ago and decided that all five of us were going to read it, so we'll see what happens after I'm not the only one in the house with this Deep and Perceptive Knowledge about the Mysterious Secrets of Birth Order.

Crazy Thoughts From the Beach

"Be careful about reading health books. You may die of a misprint." - Mark Twain


Late last night I was standing on the picnic table on the back porch of the beach house my family's renting for the week, looking out over the ocean. And I thought about just how freaking amazing the world is.


The universe is enormous. There are stars 13 billion light years away. We live here. We live on a tiny little insignificant planet somewhere in the middle of it all and nothing we do really matters in the grand scheme of things but doesn't that make it so much better?


If I'm eating a really delicious bagel, no one else cares. It matters so little, but I'm sure as heck enjoying that bagel a lot. So who cares if it doesn't matter? I and thousands of other people are eating bagels that are good and getting pleasure from that. The simple fact that you can eat a bagel and it can make you happy is awesome.


I don't understand why it bothers people to think about how all of our emotions are just biochemical processes, because doesn't that make it that much more amazing? A few chemicals floating around in your brain can make you feel so wonderful or so miserable and how does that even work? How can chemicals make you feel so strongly? I don't know. I don't know, but I love it.


And there's so many people. I looked to my left and saw another island all lit up, and there was a couple walking along the beach with flashlights and they all have thoughts and lives and people they know and people they like and I have no idea what all of it is because we don't know each other at all and have entirely separate experiences of life except maybe they saw me standing on a table and laughing at the sky and thought I was crazy. 


Which, you know, would be a fair assumption.


I have a friend who says the only reason to believe in God is if that belief makes you happy.
This is why I don't.

Hazel

"I haven't the slightest idea how to change people, but I still keep a long list of prospective candidates just in case I should ever figure it out." - David Sedaris


I just got back from a week of intense philosophy-learning at debate camp in Oklahoma (hate Kant, love Rousseau), and that was very interesting and full of adventures, but I really want to talk to you guys about one of the people I met there for completely unrelated reasons.


In fact, I met him because I was sitting on a table in a laundry room attempting to play Oblivion with a track pad.


His name is Hazel (but all of the college students call him Pops), and he's the head of security (or something like that) at the university I stayed at. He's also a retired pilot who fought in Vietnam, and has been all over the world. He wasn't busy doing much of anything so he decided to hang around and tell us stories about his life, local history, and dumb college students he's had to help.


One of them honestly didn't know what an elevator was, or how one would go about getting to the third floor of a building. I ask you.


My one friend's been joking with me a lot this week saying "oh my god, your life is a YA novel." This part actually sort of was. He's a super old, knowledgeable guy who's seen practically the whole world and looks a little like Morgan Freeman and was totally willing to just hang out and tell us stories and is basically just fantastic. It was so cool.


And then we saw him again this morning as we were once again sitting around in the laundry room waiting for our ride to the airport and he came in to do his morning ritual of putting ten bucks into the vending machine to get back dollar coins to put into his Savings Tin Can.


I now have five dollar coins in my wallet.


He also taught us how to identify drag queens by looking at their hands (biological males' middle fingers are apparently proportionally longer?), and is the only politically correct Oklahoman I met on the whole trip. Or at least, the only one who cares about being PC.

The Universe in a Single Atom, by HH The Dalai Lama

"The most important point is to ensure that science never becomes divorced from the basic human feeling of empathy with our fellow beings. Just as one's fingers can function only in relation to the palm, so scientists must remain aware of their connection to society at large. Science is vitally important, but it is only one finger of the hand of humanity...What matters above all is the motivation that governs the use of science and technology, in which ideally heart and mind are united." - The Dalai Lama

Welcome to the 2012 installment of "Olivia Reads Nonfiction Over the Summer and then Blogs About It." Unlike last year when it was all neuroscience, yesterday at the library I found The Universe in a Single Atom.

It's not about reconciling religion with science. The Dalai Lama does not find that terribly interesting. Instead, he operates under the assumption that they can be, and then gets on with his book. Instead of looking at Buddhism through a scientific lens, he looks at science through a Buddhist lens--how does science relate to things that Buddhism and those that practice it care about?

His tutors didn't bother with science when he was growing up, but in his teens he went on an Epic Quest (my words, not his) to learn, using his station to visit some of the greatest minds in their respective fields who were willing to spend a few days talking him through important concepts.

This book is kind of fantastic. It's well-written to the point that the mere act of reading is enjoyable, and contains all of the excitement and wonder that actual scientists got over a long time before they got published. His Holiness is incredibly humble--always stopping to praise his teachers and friends-- and even more genuine in his thoughts and curiosity. It makes me smile.

The religion vs. science rivalry is something I got over a long time ago, but it's still a dichotomy that I find interesting, so it's nice to look at both of them at an entirely different angle. It's not about science's place in Buddhism, or any other religion. It's about science's place in life, and in humanity-- why we should care about it, as well as why it can't and shouldn't be the center of everything.

I'm only about 30 pages in, but I love it to pieces. You should read it.

This is a Post About Love

"A mind needs books like a sword needs a whetstone." - Game of Thrones

(Title in reference to this song)


Last week my friend was telling us a story in which a man told a bunch of teenagers he knew for certain that they'd never been in love. Now, I'm inclined to believe that he's probably right, but it still made me think.

When we're young, we can't be trusted to know when we are or are not in love. Heck, when I was (much) younger I had this whole thing about "Wait, how am I supposed to tell if I have a crush on someone?" Is it love? Is it infatuation? Is it just strong "like" ? So other people determine it for us-- you are not in love.

But then when you hit a certain age you're suddenly trusted to know these things, without anyone looking at you and saying "Yes, now you are in love. Real love."

So really, how can you trust any given adult to know what being in love is like any better than a teenager? Sure, it's more likely, since most people grow wiser with age (and if you observe them in a loving relationship, then they presumably have experience with these things), but it's not guaranteed. Just like there's 16 year olds who are more than able to vote intelligently and 30 year olds who really aren't.

I really, really like the passage that I quote in this post, since it actually lays out some criteria for it. My English teacher this past year hands it out to her freshmen when they read Romeo and Juliet and her juniors just because. And I'm very glad to have it.

A Comment

"Personally, I'm largely in favor of knowing things, but I think what sucks about being forced to learn a whole bunch of things you aren't directly interested in and don't see any inherent value in and don't need to know is that it makes learning things sort of terrible. Like, I don't think there are very many people who _really_ only care about either mathy things or languagey things. I think everyone has a very unique and eclectic range of interests, and they are interested in things to varying degrees, and I think the good kind of knowing things is having the ability to explore and understand and use those interests in a way that makes you excited about life and knowing even more things and gaining new interests and learning about them." - Ladylechuga, in a comment