One Half Buddhist, One Half Christian, One Half Pagan

Body: Meh. Nothing specific seems wrong, but I don't feel right.

Stress Level: 4. I'm not sure why, but things that shouldn't bother me at all have been bothering me a lot the last few days. Hopefully this and the body meh-ness are both hormonal and will go away on a few days.

Book Review: I finished Life on the Mississippi by Mark Twain the other day. It's Mark Twain, so you know that every page was both interesting and entertaining. Rating: 8 out of 10, and the only reason it loses those 2 points is because I prefer either straight memoirs or straight general histories, not mixes of the two.

Reading: I know I started something last night, but I don't remember what. At work I'm reading Luminosity. In the author's own words - "The history and character of the Twilight world are intact in Luminosity up to the point where the story begins, with one exception: Bella's a rational self-awareness-junkie with a penchant for writing down everything that crosses her mind in a notebook. She maintains many of the traits and dispositions of canon - and Luminosity is a Bella/Edward story - but she's a distinctly different character." I'm a couple chapters in, and it's pretty interesting so far. I may actually have to read the Twilight series at some point so that I can make comparisons.

Hearing: My usual random mix of music.

Etsy Find: Pretty, hand-dyed silk ribbons. For necklaces or crafty uses.

Tonight's Project: Dinner with the gang, maybe crafting of some sort. Maybe I'll do some cordialling. I haven't done that in a while.

Randomness: All sorts of random biggish projects bouncing around my head, but none of them are things I'm really in the mood to do. Some of them are things that need to happen anyway.


Get your own valentinr

Body: I actually feel pretty good today.

Stress Level: 1

Book Review: I finished Swordspoint by Ellen Kushner last night. Very good book! Picture a collaberation between Jane Austen and Alexandre Dumas, with a very modern attitude towards relationships and sexuality, and you sort of have this story. Sword fights, romance, and politics in a comedy of manners. The only thing I didn't really care for was that sometimes the "manners" part made the rest of it feel a little cold-blooded. Rating: 8 out of 10. Not yet loanable through the Kindle.

Reading: I started The Crazy Years by Spider Robinson last night. I finished the free sample chapters last night, bought the entire book once I got to work, and will download it to my Kindle tonight.

Hearing: Music - at this moment, Howlin' Wolf's original recording of "Spoonful." I do not have anywhere near enough of his work.

Etsy Find: I can't pick just one of her products -Latherati Soap makes literary themed bath and body products.

Project Follow-up: The dentist said my teeth look fine, except for some chipping on the seal on an old filling. It's not super high priority, so I'll have it fixed at my next regular appointment 6 months from now.

Tonight's Project: I need to drop my car off to have repairs done. I'm not sure how much of an evening I'll have left after doing that.

Randomness: I'm so tired of snow. Can somebody teleport me to someplace warm?

Body: My digestive system is... less than perfect today, but nothing hurts so I'm calling it a good day.

Book Review: I finished A Kiss of Shadows (Meredith Gentry, Book 1) last night. If you're looking for good literature, this falls far short. However, if what you want is reasonably well written, fun brain candy, with pretty people having exciting dangerous sexy times, this is almost perfect. 8 out of 10 by that criteria.

Reading: I started A Caress of Twilight (Meredith Gentry, Book 2)

Hearing: More from the BBC World Services Documentaries series

Etsy find: Happiness necklace

Tonight's Project: Tom & I are actually going out to a movie tonight. Probably Alice, but we might change our minds at the last minute.

Randomness: Have my links and reviews actually affected anybody out there? Have you subscribed to a podcast, read a book, or bought something off of Etsy that I linked to?

Born to Rebel: Birth Order, Family Dynamics, and Creative Lives
by Frank J. Sulloway
Copyright 1996
ISBN: 0-679-44232-4

In this book Sulloway proposes that birth rank is the major determining factor in an individual's openness to new ideas, theories, and experiences. To test this theory he used statistical methods to analyze biographical data from 3890 people who had recorded opinions on controversial social or scientific issues in the last 500 years. Among the issues he looked at were the Protestant Reformation, the French Revolution, and Darwin's Theory of Evolution.

In general, Sulloway's theory is that the earlier a person's birth rank is, the more likely they are to be conservative; while the later their birth rank, the more likely they are to rebel against the status quo. He also points out that this conservative versus rebellious isn't necessarily against the standards of society but rather the standards within the family. A first born will attempt to support (or even exaggerate) the theories and values that they were taught as a child/young adult, where a later born will be more likely to support new ideas. Sulloway also looks at how factors like sibling spacing, gender, personal temperament, and amount of conflict with parents interact with birth order to affect the basic inclinations.

I found this book and theory to be absolutely fascinating, and will be doing another post later this evening about how it seems to explain parts of my own life. Overall it was easy to follow the theories, although the statistics got a little dense from time to time.

Rating: 8 out of 10.

I didn't add much to my To Read List, as most of Sulloway's resources seem to have been journals & magazines.

Drawing Down The Moon: Witches, Druids, Goddess-Worshippers, and Other Pagans in America Today Revised and Expanded Edition
by Margot Adler
Copyright 1986
ISBN: 0-8070-3253-0

A factual and sympathetic look at contemporary paganism in America. This edition looks at the history of the modern pagan faith, as well as how different sub-groups within the larger movement are shaping the path it takes.

This book got me thinking somewhat about my own beliefs. While I've always thought a great deal about the history of religion, when it come to my own beliefs I've always felt more than thought. I'm starting to want a more coherent faith than that has brought me to. Aspects of paganism have appealed to me for a long time, but I've never really followed up on any of it and I'm not sure if in the long run it will turn out to be the path for me. I'll be doing some more reading and recording my thoughts here.

I'm only giving this book 8 out of 10, mostly because it's a 20-year-old book about a very fluid and rapidly changing subject. If I were to read a more recent edition I'm sure I would end up rating it higher.

I added quite a few books out of Drawing Down The Moon's bibliography to my To Read List.

Tom and I just got back from seeing Brokeback Mountain with a friend. It definitely deserves all of the good things that have been said about it. The setting is beautiful, the casting & acting were wonderful, the script was great, and the story itself was very moving.

That said, this movie was a concrete lesson in the importance of the right amount of communication within a relationship. Ennis (played by Heath Ledger) hurt everyone around him through his unwillingness/inability to tell people what he was thinking and feeling. On the other hand, Jack (played by Jake Gyllenhaal) was a little too willing to be open about who he was, and this led to him losing a job opportunity and eventually (it's implied) his death.

One thing I didn't like about Brokeback Mountain was the fact that I never quite felt like I connected with the characters. I'm not sure what was missing that made that the case.

Rating: 8 out of 10.

Brave Dames and Wimpettes
by Susan Isaacs
Copyright 1999
ISBN: 0-345-42281-3

In this look at the way female characters are portrayed on screen and in books Isaacs points out how just because a woman appears to be in a position of power does not automatically make her a powerful woman.

She explores the differences between characters who live by the Brave Dame Philosophy and those who live by the Wimpette Philosophy.

After the author explains the differences between her two categories of women she goes on to give examples of characters in different roles of life and points out where on the spectrum they fall. She has chapters on women characters as wives, mothers, workers and friends.

Overall this was an interesting book that made some important points about the way that women are still portrayed in the entertainment industry. I would have liked it more, I think, if it had been longer. At 145 pages of text, Isaacs didn't really have enough room to go into the sort of detail I would have liked.

Rating: 8 out of 10.

( Brave Dame Philosophy )

( Wimpette Philosophy )

And, I updated my To Read List.

Odd Gods: New Religions & the Cult Controversy
edited by James R. Lewis
Copyright 2001
ISBN: 1-57392-842-9

A separate section of the book is devoted to groups in each of the worlds major religious traditions. Many examples of new religions are described, with a summery of each groups history and philosophy.

Lewis and his contributers talk about how the "cult" status of a new religion is purely a matter of perspective. If there is a religious group that is different from the mainstream in some significant way, and someone decides that they dislike that group, it will be labeled as a cult, regardless of how it had been perceived before.

One bit of information that I found interesting was that even though which religious groups are targeted changes over time, the charges and fears don't seem to. For example, in the 1830's and 40's American Protestants in the cities of the east coast worried about the "state of mental bondage" to the Pope that they thought Catholics labored under and thought that convent schools were set up to subvert young girls into this strange faith. At roughly the same time, in the Mid-west, people described being mesmerized by the mere presence of Mormon leaders. This fear of "brainwashing" and mind control is still a major part of the controversy surrounding new religions.

An interesting book, that I recommend as a good starting point for anyone interested in new religions.

Rating: 8 out of 10.

A Little House Reader
By Laura Ingalls Wilder, edited by William Anderson
Copyright 1998
ISBN: 0-06-026358-X

A collection of Laura Ingalls Wilder's writings, most from the years before she published the well-known Little House books.

This collection starts with a selection of writings by Laura's family, and continues with a cross-section of her writings covering her entire life. The first section of her work consists of essays and poems that she wrote as a child and young woman living in the Dakota Territory. This is followed by a much larger selection of articles and poetry that were written for publication in The Missouri Ruralist and similar newspapers. In the next section the editor placed two articles that Laura's daughter, Rose Wilder Lane, wrote about her mother; and an letter that Laura wrote to her readers after she decided that she would not be publishing any additional Little House books. The last section of the book consists of poems and short essays that Laura wrote expressing her faith and personal values.

This book was interesting, but patchy. The early selections were obviously written by a novice writer, but it was interesting to compare them to the later ones. It's definitely a children's book (aimed at the same age that reads the Little House books), but if you loved Laura Ingalls Wilder's novels as a child, you will probably appreciate this.

Rating: 8 out of 10 for kids; 6 out of 10 for adults.

Bedlam's Edge
edited by Mercedes Lackey and Rosemary Edghill
copyright 2005
ISBN: 1-4165-0893-7

A collection of all new short stories, set in the universe of Lackey & Edghill's Bedlam's Bard series.

Since this is a collection of stories by different authors, it's a bit of a challenge to write a good review. One of my favorites was "Unleaving" by India Edghill, a story about a pair of young elves who are enchanted by the very human magic of the movies in the early days of Hollywood. Another that I enjoyed was "Old Order" by Michael Longcor, about an Amish man during his years of freedom falls in with a bad crowd and is rescued by his father and the elf who's grove is on the family farm. My overall favorite was "The World's More Full of Weeping" by Rosemary Edghill, about a warrior elf who has been tracking a serial killer who preys on teenagers in malls and how she finally catches and deals with him.

Rating: 8 out of 10.