Ultramarathon Man by Dean Karnazes

Dean Karnazes has a wife, a daughter. He has friends and a good job. He ran when he was in highschool, but that was fifteen years ago. Then one night he gets up and runs from San Francisco to Half Moon Bay- thirty miles, with no training and no forethought. After that, Karnazes is hooked. Soon he's running marathons before breakfast, running in his lunch breaks, and again after work. He signs up for the Western States Endurance Run (100 miles), for Badwater (135 through Death Valley), and for a marathon at the South Pole. Through his running, his family comes closer together and find common ground in supporting him. His is a tale of the heart: courage, love, and determination to push on when everyone else has stopped.

Wow. My dad read this first, and gushed about it to everyone else. One by one my mom, brother, and uncle, all runners, read it, and joined in the praise. I was more skeptical. Not being a runner, the idea of someone running 100 miles was cool, but eh. But I read it, and I too was sucked in. It's not really so much about running as it's about getting over tragedy, loving family, and astounding perseverance. It made me try to work harder at school, swimming, and music, along with everything else. You should read this, even if you're not a runner.

Outsiders: the Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell

Usually success stories begin with the poor, down-on-luck person who, though faced with daunting obstacles, rise above the common man and become the elite. They pull themselves up by their bootstraps and eventually make it. But Gladwell digs deeper: he looks at the similarities between Bill Gates, Bill Joy, and the Beatles; why Korean Air suffered so many crashes and then turned itself around; and what successful New York lawyers have in common. He sees why the world's smartest man never finished college. He sees that peoples' environments, culture, and, more importantly, what they do with these things, are what make true outliers.

I didn't really get the point of this book until I talked with Dad, who had already read it. I thought that the message was that these successful people were given unexpected advantages, and that's what made them. That's true, but it's not all: Bill Gates was given the advantage of a world-class computer lab in middle school, and he took it. He spent every spare moment in that lab, and as a result had the know-how to created Microsoft.
It hits home. In almost everything, I am either good enough to get by or do just enough work to make it. I rarely 'work hard'. Even if I had the highest IQ on the planet, if I keep it up I might be just like Chris Langan, who could have had a Ph.D at seventeen but didn't persevere.
There is hope, though. After all, Korean Air, after nearly closing down, is now a respected airline. It was terrible, but the crews and pilots took the time to figure out their problems and work really hard at fixing them. I'm trying to keep this mindset, and hopefully it will lead to a better, more God-centered, more 'successful' me.

Tanglewreck by Jeannette Winterson

Silver is kept locked up in her house, Tanglewood, by her cruel guardian Mrs. Rokebye. Her parents and sister have disappeared, she doesn't get enough to eat, and she is always watched by Mrs. Rokebye's rabbit, Bigamist. The only thing that keeps her going is the house, Tanglewreck, which sometimes talks to her.
Suddenly the world goes wrong. Time isn't what it used to be- or perhaps it will not be what it is, or it isn't what it will be. People are disappearing, flung across time and space, and the only thing that can set things right is the Timekeeper, which Silver is supposed to have. Only two other unscrupulous persons want it very badly, and they are prepared to do anything to get it, sending Silver into a wild journey to save Time... and the world itself.

Good. Time is a confusing thing to write, and writing it suddenly opens the story up to countless possibilities. I read of Queen Elizabeth, the Prime Minister, Jamaica, black holes, wormholes, both Vaticans, and London, all of which happened in the space of a few days. Winterson managed it very well; I was completely caught up in the story.

Merry Christmas!! Yay for presents from Barnes and Noble!

Shakespeare by Bill Bryson

William Shakespeare, author of a considerable portion of Elizabethan and Jacobean drama, is largely an enigma. He was born to John Shakespeare, married, had a few children, wrote lots of plays, and died. Follow Bill Bryson as he tries to sort fact from fiction, truth from legend, and uncover the Bard of Avon.

Interesting. It seems odd that we have most of Shakespeare's work yet next to nothing on him. We have Macbeth and Twelfth Night and the sonnets, but we don't even know what the man looked like. If he was such a favorite of the Crown why did he never have a portrait done? Consequently, hundreds of people have dedicated their lives to attempt to uncover such mundane things as where he spent half of his life, where he learned a lot of his background information, what happened to some of his plays, what order the plays were written, and if they were even written by Shakespeare. As Bryson says, the lack of information is what makes his book so small.

Inkdeath by Cornelia Funke (sequel to Inkheart and Inkspell)

Angered by the book Mo has bound for the Adderhead that has made the Adderhead immortal, Death gives Mo a bargain: if he destroys the book and kills the Adderhead before spring, he will be allowed to live and his friend Dustfinger will return. If he fails, he, his daughter Meggie, and Dustfinger will all die. It seems easy to slip into the Adderhead's chambers and destroy him and the book, but Mo is the famed robber Bluejay, with a price on his head. The Adderhead will do anything to kill him, his family, and all whom he holds dear. Can he and Meggie read the right words, as they did before in Inkheart and Inkspell, and end the fear and threat?

Good. It was like the fifth and sixth Harry Potters, though: a good read, one I would read again and recommend, but mostly tying up loose ends- and creating more- that were left by the first two books. Sure Meggie's choice between Farid and Doria is interesting, but is it important? Sure the Magpie's revenge is scary, but is it necessary? If Funke doesn't set a limit and an overarching problem for the books, it will become a large, rather boring series.
Not to mention the whole Death thing. Interesting- is it possible to cheat Death? Can people die twice and still be alive?- but perhaps it's something best left alone. Nobody knows what it's like- too bad Lazarus didn't write things down- and it would be awfully easy to convey the wrong idea.

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National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) is in the twentieth hour of its third day, with 5649 words!

Library Book-es

Runaway by Wendelin Van Draanen
Abused by several foster families, Holly decides to run away. Her journal tells of jumping trains, sleeping in boxes, and eating trash, and she pours out her anger as poems. She trusts no one, not even the kindly woman who hands out food or the girl who tries to help. But Holly is lonely, and people offer her their home. Can she forget her anger and learn to trust them?

I can't imagine having to find my food and clothes and shelter. I've never experienced anything like that, and at the very least I would become bitter and disillusioned. My family is supposed to help me, but they're gone. The state handed me to other families who were supposed to help by they starved me and locked me up. It's a salvation story: you've hit rock bottom, and someone inexplicably helps you up and carries you on.

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The Crown of Dalemark by Diana Wynne Jones
Mitt, accused of murder in the South, has fled North, only to find himself ordered to assassinate the heir to the throne. If he refuses, the lives of his friends are in danger. He joins Moril the musician, Maewen, who has been kidnapped from the future to replace the heir apparent, in their quest to bring peace to Dalemark. But the evil of Kankredin is gathering, and it seems that none of them, or Dalemark, can escape.

Time travel is always hard to sort out, and if the person in question must also play the part of another person, it can quickly become chaotic. This is Jones's style. Her other books seem similarly scattered, but once the ending has been read twice the general feeling is of liking. Jones's descriptions are very powerful.

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National Novel Writing Month starts in thirteen days!

Same Kind of Different As Me by Ron Hall, Denver Moore, and Vincent Lynn

Denver grew up in a rural Louisiana shack, working for the Man to pay off his ancestor's 'debts'. Then, one day he jumped a train to Fort Worth and lived on the streets until he found himself at a dingy mission.
Ron Hall was an international art dealer used to high-line clothes, cars, and checks. But his wife, Debbie, felt called to help the unfortunate, and she signed them up to volunteer at a homeless mission on Tuesdays, despite Ron's protests. Debbie soon endeared herself to everyone at the mission, and Ron reluctantly found himself drawing closer to Denver. Their friendship and faith, however, would soon be tested by heartbreaking tragedy.

If you don't know anything- if you can't read, write, and are in the middle of nowhere- how do you know you are in slavery? There's something of a double meaning in this book: Ron was trapped by his false sense of superiority, and unable to embrace his friends until he lost everything. The old paradox Die to Live. In the same way, Denver was trapped by decades of racism, and we're trapped in sin. But, as a Longfellow poem we read recently in Lit says, there's light behind the clouds, even if we can't see it. Denver and Ron worked through their differences and became as close as brothers, and we can do the same.


Mom and Dad are out of town; we're being watched by Anna The Intern, who is being called Ellen. She brought the Sword and the Stone for us to watch. As The Once and Future King is one of my favorite books, it's exciting. There is also cookie baking happening.

At Last! or, Dragon Slippers by Jessica Day George

Sorry about the delay. Our desktop is down and I couldn't post on the laptops until now. It would have been cool if I could say At last! One year later..., but I'll have to settle with Has it really been twenty-eight days?

Dragon Slippers by Jessica Day George
In fairy tales, the maiden is always saved from a dragon by a knight in shining armor. But it is Creel who saves herself with her own quick thinking, and gets a gift from the dragon's hoard in the bargain: a pair of magic slippers. Creel goes to the city to get a job at a dress-makers, and her slippers constantly attract attention- from a co-worker all the way up to the crown-prince's spoiled fiancee, Amalia. When the slippers are stolen and a war looms, Creel must use her skills and brains to save her country.

A good story. In Andrew Lang's fairy tales, the maiden is helpless, dependent on the dueling abilities of a prince. Dragon Slippers was a happy medium between that and the modern stories where the princess cuts off the dragon's head herself. That's one side of the feminist movement that I don't appreciate: empowering women are ones who are beautiful and buff; Creel is plain but smart, and she is the one who saves the day.

Travel/ Summer Reading Part I

What a summer! It's been way too long since May 27th, and there are a lot of books to report.

First up is Les Miserables by Victor Hugo. I only took a couple books on the forty-ish round-trip up to Michigan, in the hope that it would keep me a long time. This expectation was fulfilled. It was great.

Imprisoned for stealing bread, Jean Valjean escapes bitter and despairing. An attempted robbery leads to his means of salvation: a little girl, Cossette. The two are thrust into a battle of good and evil. They are tracked by the idealist Javert and the swindler Thenardier and Cossette's suitor Marius, the tensions coming to the breaking point in the uprising of 1832.

The making of a two-sided hero is Hugo's genius. Jean is the beloved philanthropist, yet he cannot bear to let Cossette go. He lives in a paradox: he must have a happy Cossette near, yet being kept by his side makes her unhappy. Jean is the villain and the saint.
Such men seem to appear often in Hugo's world. Marius is great, yet he deliberately tyrannizes his grandfather. Javert has a conscience, so he ruthlessly pursues Jean. I wonder if Hugo saw men as they really are: we all have contrary, hypocritical desires, though we all lean toward the bad. Without divine intervention, we all end up like Thenardier. Perhaps this was why Hugo was a revolutionist: the utopia promised by Napoleon seemed like it would make everyone more like the bishop who saved Jean.

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To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Scout Finch lives in a quiet Alabama town. She goes to school and hates it; wrestles with her brother Jem; and creeps around the local haunted house with her friend Dill. But one summer the town is divided by a seemingly simple legal matter: a black man has been accused by a white man. Unexpectedly, things weren't as simple as they seemed. Family and friends are suddenly more important than they seemed.

A classic. To me, things like that seem obvious: Tom Robinson is a good man, and the Ellers are notoriously bad. Robinson wins the case. I guess it should have been obvious to them as well, but no one thought that way. To try and make a change through all that prejudice and bad feeling would have been mind-boggling. I hope I can do something as needed and life-changing as Mr. Atticus Finch pleading for Tom Robinson.

The Man Who Was Thursday by G.K. Chesterton

Gabriel Syme, recently made a philosopher-policeman, finds himself at a meeting for a group of anarchists headed by the enigmatic Sunday. He is unexpectedly made Thursday, and is involved in a plot to bomb the Czar and the President of the French Republic. However, before he was taken to the meeting, he was made to swear that he would not reveal the group to the police, and when he attempts to frustrate the plot himself the story grows increasingly fantastic.

Chesterton said, "You've got that eternal idiotic idea that if anarchy came if would come from the poor. Why should it? The poor have been rebels, but they have never been anarchists; they have more interest than anyone else in there being some decent government. The poor have sometimes objected to being governed badly; the rich object have always objected to being governed at all."
In this story the opposition comes from the seemingly innocent and stupid; and the friends are those who seem to be anarchists. Syme's world is continually turned upside down.