NonFiction – Page 17 – …on the B.L.

Women Who Run With The Wolves

April 23, 2017 RaeAnna

Read Yes
Length 608
Quick Review This is an incredible psychoanalysis of women and the wild woman through storytelling. It’s an incredibly diverse and rich feminist text.

Clarissa Pinkola Estés is known for a lot of things. She has her PhD and is a well known Jungian analyst with storytelling experience reaching to her cultural roots as a Latina. She combines all expertise into Women Who Run With The Wolves a groundbreaking feminist work, which has remained popular since it was published over twenty years ago in 1992.

Women Who Run With The Wolves is a search for woman’s most inner woman, feelings, and history. Throughout history women have been molded and suppressed. Estés argues it is important to look at women throughout history and story to find their most quintessential essence. She believes it is important for women to be in touch with their inner wild woman, or they will go crazy in their suppressed role.

The book is a collection of fourteen stories from a variety of cultural backgrounds. Estés tells the story as traditionally as possible at the beginning of each chapter. After each recounting, she analyses every aspect of the story through a psychoanalytical and feminist lense. Each story offers an important learning opportunity for women to be in touch with themselves.

There is a reoccurring theme of life-death-life mother across many cultures. In today’s society, we often are confronted with the idea of life and death. Estés reiterates the idea of life-death-life as missing from most accounts of the evolution of life in Euro-centric culture. I think the missing reoccurrence of life is an equivalent to the pieces of ourselves as women we have lost of the years and generations of being molded into cultural ideals.

Women Who Run With The Wolves is not necessarily an easy read, but it is an important.

P.S. There would have been far more quotes, but I would have ended up infringing on copyright laws because I would have quoted the entire book.

Memorable Quotes
“This Self must have freedom to move, to speak, to be angry, and to create.”
“This early training to “be nice” causes women to override their intuitions.”
“So many women themselves are afraid of women’s power.”

Title: Women Who Run With The Wolves
Author: Clarissa Pinkola Estés, Ph.D.
Publisher: Rider
Copyright: 1992
ISBN: 9781846041099

Books

Gracious

April 11, 2017 RaeAnna

Read Yes
Length 256
Quick Review A comprehensive overview on how to be gracious… Or, as I would phrase it, being gracious is easy but takes a little bit of thought, and if you have a hard time being a good person, this will help you get there. It’s also incredibly funny in an honest kind of way.

Full of unwaivering grace, humor, and optimism, Kelly Williams Brown forgoes asterisks for pineapples. This is just the beginning of all the wonderful tidbits, side notes, anecdotes, interviews, opinions, and solicited (because you’re reading it sans force, hopefully) advice. I had high hopes after her debut best selling book Adulting, and she exceeded my expectations: Brilliant!

Gracious is an important book on how to be a decent, if not good, person in this world full of hardships and less than pleasant cohabitants. Brown spent, what I imagine to be, a good amount of time talking to the gracious people surrounding her; from those she’s looked up to since childhood to those she encountered through her career. Giving credit where credit is due, she mentions so many beautifully souled people I wish I knew.

She writes exceptionally well. Maybe it’s because I connect so thoroughly to her topics (shameless plug: I wrote a thing about living through kindness before I read her book, but KWB did it so much better. You can read it if you want at: Living Out of Kindness). Basically, I think we could be best friends because reading her book is like having a one way conversation with your close friend over cake and adult beverages on a comfy couch. She has a remarkable sense of candid humor. Fearlessly Gracious tackles awkward situations such as how to be gracious when a lover (teehee) spends the night. Let’s be honest, there is no guide book on how to make that not awkward, so tips on grace are always welcome.

Gracious is a straightforward easy read with an incredible amount of depth and brevity. Vacation season is just around the corner, so if you have a beach or pool in your future, this will be the perfect companion.

I will recommend Kelly Williams Brown to anyone and everyone. Go buy it; link is below! Or it is available at Target, in case, you are out of toilet paper and going on a late night run today. I’ve never been there…

Side note about the publisher. I love that Rodale is eco friendly; meaning Gracious was printed on acid-free recycled paper. So buying this book is good for the environment! She’s even gracious in publishing.

Memorable Quotes
“It’s a word that is both feminine and divine, unlike most ancient feminine words, which often seem to be something along the lines of root vegetable/soil/something to put a penis into, etc.”
“The 1800’s, ladies and gentlemen! Definitely not as long ago as we’d like.”
“Our lives are filled with beeps that don’t stop, and each time we hear that sound, we hear that someone needs us, which means we exist.”

Title: Gracious; A Practical Primer on Charm, Tact, and Unsinkable Strength
Author: Kelly Williams Brown
Publisher: Rodale, Inc.
Copyright: 2017
ISBN: 9781623367978

Books

The Vikings

March 21, 2017 RaeAnna

Read Meh
Length 324
Quick Review This is a comprehensive look into the geography, culture, trade, and all things Viking. It’s a great peek into what I think is an often overlooked region of European history.

Roesdahl writes a very detailed look into Scandinavian heritage by documenting all things so far discovered about the Vikings and the era in which they lived. Though, she admits, there are still many unknowns, Roesdahl covered a great many topics.

Roesdahl’s prose is quite dry; mostly conveying facts to the reader in the most direct way possible. Although, it’s hard to tell what her prose is like because this is a translation from her original. She gives as much information as possible, while admitting there is still much to learn.

Through archaeology, research, translation, and other ways there have been many advances in our knowledge about the Vikings in comparison to what was known just a few decades ago. It was believed the Vikings had been a primitive culture many equated as barbaric. However, it is now known they were a complex people, who achieved great accomplishments in trade, exploration, religion, traditions, language, etc. I learned quite a bit. I suggest it to anyone who has an interest in the Vikings.

Title: The Vikings; Revised Edition
Author: Else Roesdahl
Translators: Susan M. Margeson and Kirsten Williams
Publisher: Penguin Books
Copyright: 1987, 1998
ISBN: 9780140252828

Books

What I Was Doing While You Were Breeding

March 9, 2017 RaeAnna

Read Yes
Length 291
Quick Review I am in love with this book. It is the perfect story all wanderers will lust after whether single or coupled.

I am completely in love with What I Was Doing While You Were Breeding. The best way I can describe it is: If there were ever a book that could be a mirror of my soul’s desire, this would be it. (There are only two differences between Kristin Newman and I: 1) She saw herself getting married and having children, and I don’t. 2) She had a career at 26… Yeah, nope.)

Newman is hilarious. I don’t laugh out loud often while reading, but I did. She is able to give words to feelings I have had for a very long time. The biggest theme throughout this book is when things get rough, she takes a trip. Which, now that I think about it, sounds like running from her problems. Anyways, it did end up working out for her, and I am jealous.

The book follows her through a decade or so worth of trips around the world both solo and with girlfriends. Through telling her travel stories, she lets the reader into her life. Allowing the world to see her deepest fears, her desires, her heartbreaks, her aspirations, and her inadequacies. With an almost too honest narration, she shows the world it’s ok to be alone and be both happy and sad about it.

It is the narration of a woman who won’t settle for less than awesome. When awesome comes along, it’s ok to be sad when trading awesome for awesome. Her unique brand of feminism screams “This is who I am, and I’m not that ashamed of where I’ve been.”

Memorable Quotes
“I didn’t think being in a relationship with someone I didn’t want to marry was a problem, mostly because, as I’ve said before, I had never really wanted to get married, period.”
“…as tempted as I would be by the completeness of his love in the face of a new world surrounded by men who seemed to see me as some sort of little brother, something deep within me was screaming that I wasn’t ready to be half of a whole.”
“I realized they didn’t look at travel the way I looked at it, like medicine, like my chance to right all the wrongs that might exist in my life.”
“ I think that, generally, most of us have a total of about twenty thoughts. And we scroll through those thoughts, over and over again, in varying order, all day every day.”

Title: What I Was Doing While You Were Breeding; A Memoir
Author: Kristin Newman
Publisher: Three Rivers Press
Copyright: 2014
ISBN: 9780804137607

Books

The Trump Survival Guide

February 3, 2017 RaeAnna

Read Yes
Length 208
Quick Review If you have any questions about how you can get involved in post-election America, this is a great place to start.

On November 8, 2016, Donald Trump was elected to the highest elected office in the nation. On January 10, 2017, Gene Stone’s The Trump Survival Guide was published. In two months and two days, Stone put together a comprehensive speculation on the many things that could possibly go wrong in the following four years.

My biggest issue with the book is how quickly it was sent to press. It is evident the book was written and published in haste because it is riddled with minor grammatical errors. However, the facts in the book do not have the same fault. It is well researched.

The book is tackles twelve issues separately. Each issue is started with an apropos Trump quote or tweet. Followed by a brief overview of the issues history in the US, what Obama did in regards while in office, what Trump could do, followed by a What You Can Do section, and a list of important books to read. Though it does not cover every issue imaginable it touches on the hot button issues from economics to women’s issues and health care to LGBTQ.

It is nowhere near unbiased; incredibly left leaning. But what did you expect with a title like The Trump Survival Guide Everything You Need to Know About Living Through What You Hoped Would Never Happen. I loved it. It was short and sweet. I finished it in a few hours. It dealt honestly with really difficult subjects. There was an underlying sense of humor about the entire thing, though. Trying to bring a smile to the reader’s face even in the darkest of times because for those of us who did not vote for this president, that is exactly what these are: dark times.

Memorable Quotes
“From the late nineteenth century to the mid-twentieth century, white terrorism against non-white communities spiked…”

Title: The Trump Survival Guide
Author: Gene Stone
Publisher: Dey St.
Copyright: 2017
ISBN: 9780062686480

Books

Adulting

January 22, 2017 RaeAnna

Read Yes
Length 273
Quick Review Easy, breezy, beautiful, might as well be Covergirl. It’s a hilarious step by step introduction into the wonders and horrors of standing on your own two feet.

Kelly Williams Brown is not afraid to be funny, young, energetic, readable, or covers literally any topic in Adulting: How to Become a Grown Up In 468 Easy(ish) Steps. It’s a great read if you want to laugh and have a learn a few things. I like to think of myself as a fairly self-sufficient adult with quite a bit of experience under my belt, but I still learned a few things. It’s like having a discussion with a friend. She shares her adulting tips in a non-pushy, non-judgemental, hey this worked for me kind of way.

One of the more poignant moments that reverberated deeply in my soul is the commentary on how nothing whacks you into the reality of adulthood quite like the comprehension of having to repeatedly buying toilet paper. Many years ago, when I realized I was truly an adult was the moment I was sitting on the toilet with no toilet paper because for some reason it no longer magically appeared. Since then, I tell every newly branded adult to buy two packs of toilet paper in order to delay this instance. This touching moment occurs within the first twenty pages of the book. It was the moment I knew Kelly and I could be best friends, and I committed to finishing the book.

She’s full of the kind of advice your mom won’t necessarily hand out like: don’t hook-up with people in your office or HPV is a thing or friends with benefits isn’t always bad or sometimes you have to kiss ass. Then again she’s full of advice your mom (or someone) did tell you but you didn’t listen to because they’re old like: clean your cuts don’t suck them or know how much money you have coming in or RSVP it’s polite or send thank you notes.

In my opinion, she’s a successful adult. She has a job, a place to live, a cat, a bestselling novel, and another on the way all by the age of 27. I wish I were that good at adulting, but a girl can dream.

Memorable Quotes
“Oh love. It’s great, except when it’s awful.”
“Nothing is beneath you, right now, except doling out handjobs by the water-cooler. That is beneath you.”

Title: Adulting; How to Become a Grown-Up in 468 Easy(ish) Steps
Author: Kelly Williams Brown
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Copyright: 2013
ISBN: 9781455516902