10 Books That "Stayed" with Me
lokifan tagged me on this challenge. CHALLENGE ACCEPTED. I don't know about tagging people. If anyone is interested in doing this, consider yourself tagged- I'd love to hear about the books that stayed with you.
Rules: In a text post, list ten books that have stayed with you in some way. Don’t take but a few minutes, and don’t think too hard - they don’t have to be the “right” or “great” works, just the ones that have touched you. Tag ten friends, including me, so I’ll see your list. Make sure you let your friends know you’ve tagged them!
1. Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed by Jared Diamond: This book is a brilliant analysis of how civilizations fail because of its people's environmental and trading choices. The most brilliant rhetorical question that Diamond proposes as a theme- how did the last few survivors on Easter Island feel as they cut down their island's *last* tree? Did they think they were making the right choices or re-evaluating their history of deforestation.
Collapse surveys a number of civilizations whose societies collapsed (Easter Island, the Norse, the Mayans), current civilizations who appear to be fine but are on environmental precipices (Montana, Australia, China), modern civilizations who struggled through devastation and near collapse (Haiti, Rwanda).
2. Because I copy lokifan even in my list, A Little Princess. Darling, darling book of my childhood. Anyone, no matter how rich or good, can lose everything from like, two incidents of bad luck. After Sarah Crewe lost her father, her role in society, her education, etc., the rest of the book is a challenge on how she doesn't lose *herself*. I think my favorite part is Sarah Crewe that there's a distinct possiblity that if she stays a scullery maid and can't finish her education, she just might start dropping her 'hs and forget that Henry the VIII had six wives and *then* who'd she be.
3. 100 Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez- It's a little like the fictional version of Collapse, but it pins the rise and fall of a civilization on human resources more than natural resources. The Buendia family is one of the most underrated fictional families, even more complex and epic than the Hatfields or McCoys or Ewings in their fuzzy parochial sentimental combined with rapacious ambitious that can oppress or turn inward. I'm reading Game of Thrones now and it's excellent, even better than the TV show. 100 Years of Solitude has Game of Thrones's awesomeness- make political realities starker and clearer by seeing through the lens of powerful but oh so human *families*. George RR Martin obviously takes a lot of medieval stories- but something tells me that he's a Gabriel Garcia Marquez fan.
4. Marjorie Morningstar: I discussed why Marjorie/Noel mean so much to here when I talked favorite ships. I think Marjorie/Noel actually inaugurated a life-long shipping pattern for me- my favorite ships are stories of a break-up. Even putting aside the romance at the center of the novel, Marjorie Morningstar is a rich and detailed description of wealthy/upper middle class Jews in New York right before WWII. Herman Wouk absolutely nails the ambiguities- comfortable but most took an income cut since the Roaring Twenties, safe but paranoid as Jews about the horror stories already coming out of Europe after the developing Holocaust but complacent as Americans about actually doing something about it. The '20s and '30s started an expectation for urban, educated women to work and not be prudes about pre-marital sex but it also further enforced strict expectations that young ladies should use promises of sex and the glitz of modern freedom to land themselves a bread winning husband. Bachelors ruthlessly took advantage of this split to figure out how to get pre-marital sex without making any commitments to the woman by acting like they *could* commit to reel her in but then shame the woman for acting like she was owed a commitment to keep her close to him as long as he wanted to use her.
The book is also hilarious!
5. Harry Potter series: I know! It *is* influential and one of my favorites.
6. Last Train to Paradise: Henry Flagler and the Spectacular Rise and Fall of the Railroad that Crossed an Ocean by Les Standiford: It really makes you think of the twists and turns of fictional cliches influencing historical reads v. realities. Everyone says that Henry Flagler was failed like Icarus by building a railroad from Florida's mainland to Key West and the Allmighty came and destroyed it with the Labor Day Hurricane of 1935. The book goes on through that exciting yarn of an early twentieth century major construction project and a natural disaster smiting the project down. It concludes that the hurricane was a blip; the railroad was actually abandoned because of the development of automobiles which made railroads passe which is why there's currently a *highway* between the mainland and the Florida Keys. Suck it, anti-progress people who use tired myths to sound smart in an anti-progress argument.
7. An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser: This should be required reading in high school. It's genius in how it starts off as a "poor abused boy made good" story from the point of view of said boy (Clyde). It evolves to how Clyde became a supervisor and slept with his poor working girl employee. Then, Clyde murdered her and his unborn child when the working girl got pregnant so he could keep his romantic shot with the wealthy boss's daughter. The story follows Clyde through the criminal investigation, trial, and finally his execution. The book stays in the hero turned murderer's point of view the entire time. If high school teachers want to mold their students' character to discourage teen pregnancy, up kids' streets and social smarts on who they trust, and nip seemingly benign entitlement and maniuplativeness that can curdle into evil in the bud, this starkly horrifying book is the way to do it.
8. The Revenge of Gaia: Why the Earth is Fighting Bad- And Why We Can Still Save Humanity by James Lovelock: I don't know whether I agree with Lovelock as an environmental scientist. He's enamored with nuclear power. He pitched utter devastation with NO WAY OUT in Revenge of Gaia and I thought was OTT. Then, he went back on his position and started bashing other environmentalists for alarmism in a 2012 interview. However, his writing is epic poetry. He writes about Earth like a righteously angry ill-treated woman in such a way that I want to take back every eye-roll I've ever made at the Mother Nature term.
9. Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal by Eric Schlosser- Contrary to popular misconception, this is just about "fast food is fattening" like The Jungle (which narrowly made my list on its own) was just about "Meatpacking plants are filthy". Just because individuals just get hepped up about what they're putting in their tummies and what it means for ME, ME, ME IT'S ALL ABOUT ME (Cordelia voice), doesn't mean that is the book's sole agenda. Fast Food Nation takes just a business- the fast food industry- and writes an epic sweep of how it sinks into every facet of American life.
10. To finish some levity (and maybe less pretentiousness), The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster. I don't even want to confess how many of my creative writing pieces from second grade to fifth grade were attempts to copy The Phantom Tollbooth and Roald Dahl books. The Lethargians in the Doldroms are GPOYS. Paraphrased, "We do stuff! From 8 to 9, we loiter. From 9 to 10, we dilly-dally. From 10 to 12 pm to we take our mid-morning nap". LOLOLOL. It's one of the best "character development through Hero's Journey" books. Milo's entire adventure is struggling with verbal and mathematical concepts and how it relates to a philosophy of learning. Milo was not thoughtful enough as a silly, spoiled boy. His adventures through Dictionopolis, Digitopolis, etc weren't just a standard "slay the dragon to become better". Wrestling with the concepts and in short, doing the homework, *was* the adventure. Should be required reading for elementary schools.
Rules: In a text post, list ten books that have stayed with you in some way. Don’t take but a few minutes, and don’t think too hard - they don’t have to be the “right” or “great” works, just the ones that have touched you. Tag ten friends, including me, so I’ll see your list. Make sure you let your friends know you’ve tagged them!
1. Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed by Jared Diamond: This book is a brilliant analysis of how civilizations fail because of its people's environmental and trading choices. The most brilliant rhetorical question that Diamond proposes as a theme- how did the last few survivors on Easter Island feel as they cut down their island's *last* tree? Did they think they were making the right choices or re-evaluating their history of deforestation.
Collapse surveys a number of civilizations whose societies collapsed (Easter Island, the Norse, the Mayans), current civilizations who appear to be fine but are on environmental precipices (Montana, Australia, China), modern civilizations who struggled through devastation and near collapse (Haiti, Rwanda).
2. Because I copy lokifan even in my list, A Little Princess. Darling, darling book of my childhood. Anyone, no matter how rich or good, can lose everything from like, two incidents of bad luck. After Sarah Crewe lost her father, her role in society, her education, etc., the rest of the book is a challenge on how she doesn't lose *herself*. I think my favorite part is Sarah Crewe that there's a distinct possiblity that if she stays a scullery maid and can't finish her education, she just might start dropping her 'hs and forget that Henry the VIII had six wives and *then* who'd she be.
3. 100 Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez- It's a little like the fictional version of Collapse, but it pins the rise and fall of a civilization on human resources more than natural resources. The Buendia family is one of the most underrated fictional families, even more complex and epic than the Hatfields or McCoys or Ewings in their fuzzy parochial sentimental combined with rapacious ambitious that can oppress or turn inward. I'm reading Game of Thrones now and it's excellent, even better than the TV show. 100 Years of Solitude has Game of Thrones's awesomeness- make political realities starker and clearer by seeing through the lens of powerful but oh so human *families*. George RR Martin obviously takes a lot of medieval stories- but something tells me that he's a Gabriel Garcia Marquez fan.
4. Marjorie Morningstar: I discussed why Marjorie/Noel mean so much to here when I talked favorite ships. I think Marjorie/Noel actually inaugurated a life-long shipping pattern for me- my favorite ships are stories of a break-up. Even putting aside the romance at the center of the novel, Marjorie Morningstar is a rich and detailed description of wealthy/upper middle class Jews in New York right before WWII. Herman Wouk absolutely nails the ambiguities- comfortable but most took an income cut since the Roaring Twenties, safe but paranoid as Jews about the horror stories already coming out of Europe after the developing Holocaust but complacent as Americans about actually doing something about it. The '20s and '30s started an expectation for urban, educated women to work and not be prudes about pre-marital sex but it also further enforced strict expectations that young ladies should use promises of sex and the glitz of modern freedom to land themselves a bread winning husband. Bachelors ruthlessly took advantage of this split to figure out how to get pre-marital sex without making any commitments to the woman by acting like they *could* commit to reel her in but then shame the woman for acting like she was owed a commitment to keep her close to him as long as he wanted to use her.
The book is also hilarious!
5. Harry Potter series: I know! It *is* influential and one of my favorites.
6. Last Train to Paradise: Henry Flagler and the Spectacular Rise and Fall of the Railroad that Crossed an Ocean by Les Standiford: It really makes you think of the twists and turns of fictional cliches influencing historical reads v. realities. Everyone says that Henry Flagler was failed like Icarus by building a railroad from Florida's mainland to Key West and the Allmighty came and destroyed it with the Labor Day Hurricane of 1935. The book goes on through that exciting yarn of an early twentieth century major construction project and a natural disaster smiting the project down. It concludes that the hurricane was a blip; the railroad was actually abandoned because of the development of automobiles which made railroads passe which is why there's currently a *highway* between the mainland and the Florida Keys. Suck it, anti-progress people who use tired myths to sound smart in an anti-progress argument.
7. An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser: This should be required reading in high school. It's genius in how it starts off as a "poor abused boy made good" story from the point of view of said boy (Clyde). It evolves to how Clyde became a supervisor and slept with his poor working girl employee. Then, Clyde murdered her and his unborn child when the working girl got pregnant so he could keep his romantic shot with the wealthy boss's daughter. The story follows Clyde through the criminal investigation, trial, and finally his execution. The book stays in the hero turned murderer's point of view the entire time. If high school teachers want to mold their students' character to discourage teen pregnancy, up kids' streets and social smarts on who they trust, and nip seemingly benign entitlement and maniuplativeness that can curdle into evil in the bud, this starkly horrifying book is the way to do it.
8. The Revenge of Gaia: Why the Earth is Fighting Bad- And Why We Can Still Save Humanity by James Lovelock: I don't know whether I agree with Lovelock as an environmental scientist. He's enamored with nuclear power. He pitched utter devastation with NO WAY OUT in Revenge of Gaia and I thought was OTT. Then, he went back on his position and started bashing other environmentalists for alarmism in a 2012 interview. However, his writing is epic poetry. He writes about Earth like a righteously angry ill-treated woman in such a way that I want to take back every eye-roll I've ever made at the Mother Nature term.
9. Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal by Eric Schlosser- Contrary to popular misconception, this is just about "fast food is fattening" like The Jungle (which narrowly made my list on its own) was just about "Meatpacking plants are filthy". Just because individuals just get hepped up about what they're putting in their tummies and what it means for ME, ME, ME IT'S ALL ABOUT ME (Cordelia voice), doesn't mean that is the book's sole agenda. Fast Food Nation takes just a business- the fast food industry- and writes an epic sweep of how it sinks into every facet of American life.
10. To finish some levity (and maybe less pretentiousness), The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster. I don't even want to confess how many of my creative writing pieces from second grade to fifth grade were attempts to copy The Phantom Tollbooth and Roald Dahl books. The Lethargians in the Doldroms are GPOYS. Paraphrased, "We do stuff! From 8 to 9, we loiter. From 9 to 10, we dilly-dally. From 10 to 12 pm to we take our mid-morning nap". LOLOLOL. It's one of the best "character development through Hero's Journey" books. Milo's entire adventure is struggling with verbal and mathematical concepts and how it relates to a philosophy of learning. Milo was not thoughtful enough as a silly, spoiled boy. His adventures through Dictionopolis, Digitopolis, etc weren't just a standard "slay the dragon to become better". Wrestling with the concepts and in short, doing the homework, *was* the adventure. Should be required reading for elementary schools.