Blasphemy by Alexis Sherman, 2012

Blasphemy is a collection of previously published and new short stories from Sherman Alexie which depict Native American culture, struggles and experiences.

Unlike other groups that have assimilated in America (e.g. Chinese, African, Jewish), Native Americans are separated geographically on reservations and culturally given the history of the "founding" of the United States.

Included in Alexie's stories are tales about an encounter with a man who earns a living by traveling to different reservations to fight, students transitioning to college life with the added adjustment of living off their reservation, and a man dealing with his father's death.

Whether a subtle or a crucial part of the narrative, the short stories are all from a Native American point of view.  A common theme throughout each story is identity, with characters navigating life while grappling with what it means to be Native American.

Despite the lack of assimilation, many tribal traditions seem to be disappearing, leading to this struggle with identity.

Also contributing to this struggle is the poverty and poverty's children - violence, dead end situations, alcoholism - which are prevalent on reservations.  The violence especially makes for tough reading, but the depictions are honest rather than gratutitous. 

Some of the stories are captivating while others are more tedious, but since the mood and tone of the stories are a bit depressing, I decided to take a hiatus and start another book.

Miscellaneous Notes
My interest in this book was sparked by an exhibit on the Innu Nation of Canada where children were encouraged to document their life after the community had been forced to relocate.

Included in the exhibit were Facebook postings, which makes me wonder how the internet will impact a culture already facing so many challenges and struggling to define their identity.

One final note is that The New York Times released their 100 Notable Books of 2012 today, and Blasphemy made the list.

The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach, 2011

One of The New York Times's Top 10 books of 2011, The Art of Fielding is a coming of age story set in the Midwest.

The story centers around a gifted baseball player, Henry Skrimshander, whom fellow baseball player Mike Schwartz mentors, pushes and transforms.

Seemingly destined to spend his life in his small South Dakotan hometown, Skrimshander finds himself enrolled in a small Wisconsin private college where Schwartz is the baseball team captain.

The story includes three other characters whose lives are interwoven as Skrimshander reaches his peak and then falls from grace.

The title, The Art of Fielding, refers to a book that Skrimshander treats as his bible and is so convincingly described and quoted, that I believed it to be an actual book.

The characters are engaging and by the final few chapters, the tension was so high that I couldn't stop reading.  The story lines and characters were never confusing and it was easy to relate to each of the main characters.

Having attended a small college and befriended some of the athletes, the characters and observations ring true as well.

That said, the book did not meet my expectations given its distinction as one of the Top 10 and Top 5 Fiction books of 2011.

Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton, 1911

A story of despair and bleakness, Ethan Frome is typical of an Edith Wharton novel where her characters are trapped in their lives while tantalizingly close to what they crave.

The typical backdrop for Wharton's novels is opulent New York society.  To further compound her characters' despair though, Wharton sets Ethan Frome in Starkfield, a small western Massachusetts town during the winter.

The novel revolves around Frome, who is forced to return to Starkfield from his studies after his father has a farming accident.  He then enters into a loveless marriage with his sickly wife, Zeena.

He is awakened when he becomes enthralled with Mattie, Zeena's cousin who comes to stays with them. 

Typical of a Wharton novel, Frome is provided a taste of an educated man's life and a taste of happiness with Mattie, but ultimately, is prevented from having what he craves.

Wharton is one of my favorite authors and conveys human longing so well.  What is fascinating about Ethan Frome is how the Starkfield winters blends in with the bleakness of her characters' lives and becomes as memorable as any of her characters.

A Place of Yes: 10 Rules for Getting Everything You Want Out of Life by Bethenny Frankel with Eve Adamson, 2011

I rarely re-read books, but Bethenny Frankel's A Place of Yes really resonated with me so I decided to read it again.  I think part of it has to do with all the uncertainty happening in my life between tearing my ACL and interviewing (but not getting any offers) for positions that I was pretty excited about.

Reading A Place of Yes a second time around, I realized that a large part of this book is about self-promotion.

Frankel talks about her desire to have a talk show, which she has since filmed a few episodes of, and at times awkwardly proclaims how she cares about you, the reader and how her goal is to help you, the reader.

And, wouldn't a great path to helping you, the reader, be a talk show??

Disregarding my cynicism, I did flag a few quotes that I wanted to circle back and re-read to remind myself of things that I want to focus my short-term memory on remembering:

Break the Chain: "When you focus on the bad, you risk becoming the bad, or getting pulled down by the bad.  When you say yes to the good in you, then you become better and better, and you have the potential to go anywhere and do and be anything...

Take it or leave it.  Your natural talents and dreams have been there all along, so look inside to find them, not the world to fix you."

Find Your Truth: "When you know who you are and what you want, you'll be more confident, even if you don't always know exactly what the outcome of a decision will be.  When your decisions, your actions, and your words come from truth - even if it's only the truth of the moment - then you will be preaching authenticity."

"It's not always easy to act out of truth, especially when you aren't sure exactly what your truth is..."

"You are on your own journey, and more than anything else, that journey must be about finding your truth.  Not finding a husband, a boyfriend, a partner - but finding yourself.  Shine the flashlight into those dark places you haven't wanted to face before.  Face up to your qualities - all of them.  Look at your patterns.  Analyze them.

Only by looking back over your past relationships and deconstructing the nose that's led you in the wrong direction will you discover your strengths, your desires, the things you really need from a partner, and the things you really can do for yourself.

You'll find truth, and then you'll be able to take your life to the next level."

Act on It: "Making things happen for yourself is how you gain the experience that will help you continue to practice rule #2, find your truth.  The more you do, the more you act, the more you learn about your truth, refining and perfecting it."

"Find your truth, act on it.  Find more truth, act on it.  Find still more truth, act on it, and so on."

"...Make acting on it your habit, your default mode.  Just get out there and start working and learning and doing.  Start your life.

It doesn't matter if you don't have the perfect job, or even the job you deserve...  It doesn't even matter if you really don't have a plan.  Welcome to the world - what matters is that you are doing something, working for something, proving yourself, gaining experience."

Go for Yours: "I don't get it.  You can have what you want.  I don't know if people are afraid of effort or failure or are embarrassed if they say they want something and don't end up getting it."

"When you go for yours, you are in control, whereas, when you start listening to desperation noise, you lose all control.  When being driven turns into being desperate, you've got to take a step back."

"'Your opponent is yourself, your negative internal voices, your level of determination.'  ...You have to stay in your lane.  If you keep looking to the left and to the right to see what everyone else is doing, you slow down and lose your momentum...  [I]f you keep your mind on you and not on anybody else, you stay focused and efficient...  It's all about you."

Come Together: "When I was able to get out of my own head and look at what my partner was doing, suddenly I could see, with so much more clarity, how to respond to him."

"When you come together and work together in a mutual give-and-take way, rather than simply working side by side, then everything changes.  You make each other better, you are stronger..."

"If someone loves you, it's so important to love them, and make time for them, and give them what they need, and let them love you back.  Coming together is a give-and-take of equal proportion.  There will always be ebb and flow...But in a relationship of equals, of two whole people, it all evens out in the end. 

So give all your love and don't be stingy.  Don't hold any in reserve...  Let it go.  It will all come back to you, and you'll find a whole new level of meaning in your life.  The more you give, the more you have to give . . . and the more you get."

Celebrate: "Make the most of every moment.  Get excited about every little thing.  Why not?  Why not have your wonderful moment of excited anticipation?  Why not be happy now?"

'Life is precious.  Love is precious.  Celebrate the many good things you have..."

Seeing the Big Picture by Kevin Cope, 2012

I had written a post of Seeing the Big Picture: Business Acumen to Build Your Credibility, Career, and Company, and lost the post.

So sad - it was a great post.

The essence of what I had written is that Cope's book is a clear, concise summary of the five key business factors that executives across industries and countries consider to ensure success: Cash, Profit, Assets, Growth, and the underlying driver, People.

The book also provides an excellent summary of the three key Financial Statements that are used to evaluate and measure companies: Income Statement, Balance Sheet and Statement of Cash Flows. 

Seeing the Big Picture uses a case study of a Cycle Shop to simplify concepts and demonstrate how business decisions are translated into Financial Statements.

I wish I had this book in Business School as it provides simple, illustrative examples to explain definitions and equations that I had memorized, but now truly understand with the help of this book.

Although part of this understanding has to do with maturity as I now focus more on understanding versus memorizing.

My lost post included a summary of a study from Marcus Buckingham's First, Break All The Rules (1) that showed the main reason people leave their jobs is their relationship with their manager.

People want to feel valued, receive regular praise, be rewarded for their efforts, included in decision making, and feel that they are contributing to a clear vision.

Another take-away that resonates with me on a profession and personal level is:

"As you grow..., you'll need to stretch yourself, move outside your comfort zone.  It can be challenging to find the time and energy, but the rewards will be worth it.

I challenge you to move forward with a commitment to do it.

In pursuing your personal or business objectives, you must never omit the hard work of preparation.

An admiring audience member said to the virtuoso concert pianist, 'I'd give my life to play like that.'  The predictable response: 'I have.'"

(1) I have not read First, Break All The Rules, but have read Buckingham's Go Put Your Strengths to Work.

Big Book of Knitting, a book for perusing

If you want to learn to knit, or improve your knitting, I found that supplementing a book with videos helps immensely.  There are a ton of videos online so that you can watch someone doing what you want to do (e.g. casting on, switching yarn color, etc) while using a book for reference so that you learn the technique and terms.    

1. Big Book of Knitting by Katharina Buss, English Edition 1999 - a book I peruse

I've referenced this book multiple times during my on-and-off obsession with becoming a better knitter.  This book contains the basics, including advanced concepts (i.e.stitches).  Diagrams and pictures are included, but the instructions are not the clearest.

This may be because the original edition was in German and Americans need better instructions.  Or, more importantly, for someone to point out what not to do and common errors when trying a new stitch.

Below are some lessons learned from my knitting ventures:

Ribbed Stitch - The book does not tell you this, but when you switch from a purl to knit stitch, you need to make sure the yarn is behind the lead needle.  And, when you switch from a knit to a purl stitch, the yarn needs to be in front of the lead needed.

Blocking - When you knit, an item tends to curl in so Blocking an item basically means straightening or flattening an item so that it does not curl.  Make sure that the item is thoroughly wet.  I was afraid of ruining my item so would only halfheartedly dampen an item before blocking.  (Caveat - if you use expensive yarns, which I do not, thoroughly wetting an item may ruin an item, so check the label.)

My cousin Christina uses pin to pin the wet item flat and leaves it overnight until the item drives.  And voila - straightened item!  Or, so she says since this has never worked for me...

I forgo the pins - partly because I am impatient and only know how to knit scarves, so that's a lot of pinning that I need to do.  So instead, I steam block and flatten a section of my scarf, put a pillowcase over it, wet the pillowcase pretty thoroughly with a spray bottle, and then iron over the pillowcase steaming the item underneath the pillow case.

Girl Walks into a Bar..., Rachel Dratch, 2012

I could not imagine anyone not wanting to be friends with Rachel Dratch after reading her memoir Girl Walks into a Bar...: Comedy Calamities, Dating Disasters, and a Midlife Miracle.  She is funny, gracious and candid without the biting wit or dark side that many comediennes seem to have.

An odd pose..

There are many positive messages in her story, including the surprise of finding out that she is pregnant a month before her forty-forth birthday.

Incredibly honest about the situation, Dratch admits that she was not sure if the father would be involved as they were in a cross-country, non-committed relationship.

Dratch's candidness throughout her memoir makes you realize what a cool person she is and what a great outlook she has on life.

30 Rock
The memoir starts off with Dratch being recast in the television series 30 Rock as Hollywood tends to perceive her as a "woodland creature" or lesbian, versus a starlet, which the 30 Rock role required.

Despite the very public setback in her career, Dratch makes a point to defend the decision made by Tiny Fey (who also wrote a great memoir, Bossypants), the creator, star and producer of the show.

A very gracious and class act considering the barrage of negative questions that she endured as well as the lack of roles she was able to find after the incident.

Overnight Success in Ten Years!
A sub-title of one of her chapters, "Overnight Success in Ten Years!" provides a sense of the time she spent honing her craft before becoming one of the best and making it onto Saturday Night Live.

She refers to herself as Two-Time Dratch based on the number of times she never got called back on her first auditions, but would on her subsequent effort.

Her stories about Saturday Night Live, the origins of the character Debby Downer, the work week and then the celebrations afterward provide an insightful view and she even includes a handy Unofficial Guide to Being on SNL.

Part of Dratch's positive outlook on life ties into the biggnest rule of improv called "Yes And."  According to Dratch, "Basically, this means that whatever your scene partner says to you, you agree and then add to it...  "Yes And" would serve me well, not only on stage but offstage too."

Dating Crusade
With her career stalled, Dratch decides to focus on dating and provides humorous tales of the men she meets and dates, and the men she meets and thinks she's going to date before she walks into a bar and meets the man who would become her baby daddy.

Their relationship flourishes as she abides by the "Yes And" improve rule.  "[I]t was all because I had said yes...and didn't listen to some dumb rules in my head about convention and what you should do."

An (Obnoxious) Boston note: Dratch grew up in Lexington, MA, and attended Dartmouth.  Another Dartmouth alum from the Boston area and female comedienne with a recently released memoir is The Office's Mindy Kaling.

Kaling's memoir is titled Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?  (And Other Concerns) and although an enjoyable read, I thought Girl Walks into a Bar... and Tina Fey's Bossypants were more enjoyable.


* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
An excerpt from a conversation between friend and comedienne Amy Poehler and Dratch about her book: 

Rachel: I wasn’t like, “Oh, I’m going to write a book,” it was more that I wasn’t really working much and I’d be pissed if I was wasting my time. I usually only start to write after rock-bottom periods, so I was sort of forced into it. And then about a year after that, the whole pregnancy happened, with all the crazy circumstances, so then it was this is now the real wacky story.

Amy: You started writing the book before you got pregnant?

Rachel: Yeah. So all the dating stories, I had written all those before I knew where the story was going. I wrote those as a single lady writing weird stories.