2011 (Prison) Reading List

Last year I compiled the list of books I sent to my incarcerated younger brother. 

I liked Pelzer's healing attitude and his inspiring ability to move forward.

Having not spent a lot of time with him as an adult (he went in at 21 while I was living on the West Coast), it's great watching his literary tastes develop. 

All Ned Vizzini's books should be required reading for young men who've ever identified with Pearl Jam songs.

I send him several a month, or as many as I can afford. He's become quite the voracious reader. 

I tutored a high school freshman for a couple of months and delved into YA fiction for the first time in my own life. So many beautiful books, my whole world opened up, too.

When I started sporadically sending my brother books a few years ago, I had yet to become an avid reader/savvy county library employee.

I sent only a handful of do-gooder books & mags I was familiar with: To Kill A Mockingbird, Utne Reader and Yes! Magazine. 

This pick was inspired by a story I did for WMNF on USF's children's mental health research conference

Sadly my bro told me early on that he preferred Cosmo & Country Weekly, and was bored by anything journalism related. 

Sorry Mr. French, I tried.

Take another little piece of my heart now darling. 

The only book I've been able to find on the topic of reentry.With millions of imprisoned Americans, you'd think the free market would be teeming with this stuff. 

It reminded me of us as kids, when we'd play school. I'd lock him in my room until he finished the homework I assigned. (Yes, I feel very guilty about being one of the reasons he's locked away now.) 

And its sequel The Sea of Monsters

I'm happy to report that my pedagogic skills have dramatically improved since I was 8.  

And its sequel. He ate them up! Finally I succeeded in my effort to make him like journalism, or at least know its struggles.

Now I want to be sure he's engaged and entertained by what I send. He needs an escape as well as an education. 

And as always, many thanks to Inkwood Books for accommodating my need to do something in a situation where I otherwise have no power. 

Few other stores are willing to ship books out for me, as required by the FL department of corrections.

He La was my pick of the year, yet I can't believe he liked it! My bro said he paced himself to stop from reading too quickly because he enjoyed it so much.

I'd like to give him & Rebecca Skloot a big ole hug now. After nine long years away, 2012 will be the last (prison) reading list I'll have to compose. Let's hope & pray for no encore.

Cook's Kitchen

Sally Nichols (née Cook) & husband have owned Cook's Kitchen in South Tampa for the past 18 months. 

Originally from the UK, Sally previously cooked for Prince Andrew and Fergie. 

 I won't make any Weight Watchers jokes, other than mentioning I ate half my weight in brie and cream and sticky toffee pudding. 

The sun never sets on sticky toffee pudding.

It's nice to enjoy the best part of travel (i.e. food) without leaving the comfort of a Florida winter.

Happy Fish

There's plenty of Florida I haven't yet seen, like Mote Marine Lab & Aquarium. 



Fish make me happy. Watching them, learning about them, even eating them.

(Yeah yeah, I know, fish are friends not food...but dolphins do it, and they're much smarter than us.) 

She enjoys being a fish.



 

Unburied beach untreasure.

Between Mote's main building & its rehab hospital, there's a bird sanctuary, Save Our Seabirds, Inc.



Yet another reason dolphins should rule the world.  



Ugly scavengers need lovin' too.



I want a bird mitzvah.

A very Life of Pi experience: lots of animals, lots of religions.

#FridayReads: Committed

As an impoverished writer, I'm the last person I buy books for (though they're my favorite presents to give).

But on my recent vacation I spent more on books, for myself and others, than on food. Don't let my waistline fool ya, I'm kind of a pig.

Because my travels were as much about break-up recovery as reconnecting with old friends, one of the books I bought for myself & devoured in flight was Elizabeth Gilbert's Committed.

To quell her own marriage fears, the author researched the history of marriage, and explored its place in Western society as well as other cultures, like the Vietnamese Hmong.

Liz asked and answered her own questions about the multi-millennial-old institution: Why do we humans have it, why do we still need and want it? Did the Christian Right invent it?

Most people I know do not have good relationship role models from their youths or in their lives now. How else are we to learn the right way to be happily married?

I think Committed is a great guide for those of us who may be scared but haven't given up, and want a manual for next time.

I found both flying solo & bad marriages to be lonely, so this sequel to Eat, Pray, Love helped with my journey(s).

Committed is a fine map for getting back on the horse. Even if you never had a horse, or had one a long time ago but forgot where you parked it.

A Healthy Public

To keep my brain moving at a happy pace (it gets sad when bored & unchallenged), last semester I overloaded it with two classes as a non degree seeking graduate student in USF's College of Public Health.

I'm still unsure of which flavor MPH I'd like to earn. There's the policy track, which could turn me into the C-SPAN nerd of my dreams while giving me the tools to help improve health care & access to care for all Americans.


Then there's the behavioral track, which I'm drawn towards more each day I drive through the city and see panhandlers, disabled vets and other homeless folks, not to mention people with obvious mental & drug issues.


We wouldn't allow someone with a bleeding stump to sit on the sidewalk and bleed to death (I'm assuming, but refer to my aforementioned access to care comment).

So why has our society turned their collective noses up at mental issues, especially drug and alcohol addiction, for so long?

Dear Next Boyfriend: Please Be Ryan Gosling

Image kindly shared by Danielle at

Feminist Ryan Gosling

When I worked at the public library, the assistants &  librarians alike were all pretty choosy about the books and other media we consumed.
 
Me: Do you like Nicholas Sparks?
Former County Librarian: No! Well, I don't know. Never read any of his books. But I'll watch The Notebook.

There's just too much good stuff to be distracted by the less than pristine.

Conversely, my BFF, a book/movie critic, once tutted me when I railed on about crappy entertainment & light-hearted fare. She pointed out that fluff has a purpose too.

I push myself because I'd like to be more informed than I am. I want to read every book on the Iraq invasion so that I can explain to my (thus far unconceived) children what we did wrong so they can attempt to make it right.

We live in an increasingly superficial culture where strangers can bond in the grocery store line as they bash quickie celebrity marriages, but they fail to hold their politicians & business leaders accountable for bad decisions that affect us all.

That makes me want to work harder to pick up the slack. But by necessity, I have come around to see my BFF's point. As a wise woman once sang:

I can't carry it all/I got a lotta troubles of my own

When the weight of life gets heavy, I'd rather just float around in the shallow end of the pool.

My First Book(store) Tour

Who needs to publish a book in order to embark on a four city book(store) tour? Not me!

I didn't get to stop into all of my favorites, but I sure did fit a bunch into one week. And I even had a fan to greet me.