ye olde 2010 books

Well, I didn't even make it close to my goal to read 52 books for this past year. But hey, I'm okay with that. I'm still happy that I had the time to read 31 books this past year, especially considering that I got a full-time job. Anyhow, I read some really interesting books and had a lot of fun. I realize that my book list is more for myself than anyone else, but here are the books that I read during 2010:

1) Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi
2) The Private Lives of the Impressionists by Sue Roe
3) The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery
4) The Help by Kathryn Stockett
5) Austenland by Shannon Hale
6) Thornspell by Helen Lowe
7) The Scarlett Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy
8) Themes of Contemporary Art: Visual Art after 1980 by Jean Robertson
9) The $12 Million Stuffed Shark: The Curious Economics of Contemporary Art by Don Thompson
10) The Message by Lance Richardson
11) The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
12) The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim
13) Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch von Albom
14) Lemon Tart by Josie S. Kilpack
15) The Genius in the Design: Bernini, Borromini, and the Rivalry That Transformed Rome by Jake Morrissey
16) Pope Joan by Donna Woolfolk Cross
17) Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli
18) The Alchemist by Paolo Coelho
19) The Bronze Bow by Elizabeth George Speare
20) Art History (Portable Book 1: Ancient Art) by Marilyn Stokstad
21) The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
22) A Rather Lovely Inheritance by C. A. Belmond
23) The Chymical Wedding by Lindsay Clarke
24) The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley
25) Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
26) Unboxing of Henry Brown by Jeffrey Ruggles
27) Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson
28) Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins
29) Priceless: How I Went Undercover to Rescue the World's Stolen Treasures by Robert K. Wittman
30) East of Eden by John Steinbeck
31) More Stories from the Twilight Zone by Carol Serling

The books that are listed as hyperlinks are some of my favorites from the past year; these are the books which inspired me to write a post about them.

As for the upcoming year, I've already accumulated a large stack of books to read (a lot of them I received for Christmas). I'm excited to delve into them. I started A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens yesterday. I have to admit, it hasn't grabbed my attention wholeheartedly. Could it be that the opening line "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times" is so popular because no one seems to get much further in the dense text? I'm curious to see how well I like this book. I have already read that there isn't much Dickensian humor in this novel, which makes me worry that I won't enjoy this book very much.

Perhaps I'll have to break up my Dickens reading with something more humorous and light - my aunt recently sent me a copy of The New York Regional Singles Mormon Singles Halloween Dance by Elna Baker, which looks like it's pretty fun. I'm anxious to start reading it.

What about you? Did you do a lot of good reading during 2010? Any book recommendations for me?

feminist christmas

In some ways, my Christmas was a little feminist-centric. One of my main presents was Brunelleschi's Egg, a brand new Renaissance book written by one of the founding mothers of art history, Mary D. Garrard. I'm really excited to read this book, and I hope to use it for an upcoming course on Renaissance art.

In addition to my present, one really special Christmas present was given to my dad. Right before Christmas, my sisters came across my mom's carbon paper letters (which were bound in a book of carbon paper). When I was younger, my mom wrote all of her letters with carbon paper, so that she could keep a copy of anything she mailed. My sisters wrapped up this book of letters and gave it to my dad. It was really sweet.

It was fun to go through the letters and see what my mom had written. On Christmas morning, soon after receiving Brunelleschi's Egg as a gift, I happened to come across this excerpt from one of my mom's letters to her friend Trudy:

"[M] has already had a darling boy write her love notes and send her presents. They went to each others' baptisms. He was not in our ward but we took him to piano lessons every week and he practiced on our piano until they got one. She is a feminist and has not been excited to be in an all boy Primary class. (Maybe already having attention from one boy will help her be less boy crazy later on.) Always has been a feminist" (dated March 21, 1991; my emphasis).

It was fun to read that quote on Christmas day, and think about how things came full circle with the gift of my feminist art history book. I guess my mother figured out that I was a feminist even before I even knew the meaning of the word. For me, reading that letter was a gift: it was a nice little testament to my mother's perceptive nature. I think she was more perceptive than I sometimes gave her credit. It was nice to feel a connection with her on Christmas day.

whirlwind vacation

We just got back from a whirlwind vacation in Utah. Before we left, I wondered if we would have a lot of downtime during the first week of our trip, since my dad/siblings/friends would be working or in school. We managed to keep ourselves really busy, though - to the point that we didn't get to visit with everyone that we wanted to see. All in all, though, we had a lot of fun. Our trip was really eclectic, and we did a lot of diverse things. Here's a smattering of our adventures and activities (in no particular order):

• Trip to the Museum of Ancient Life (i.e. the "Dinosaur Museum") with L and Sam
• Carpet shopping/ordering for the S family's basement
• Children's Choir concert at the Cathedral of the Madeline (this was one of the best choral concerts that I have attended in a long, long time)
• Dinner with Heather
• Scrubbing the kitchen floor and bathroom (Me)
• Seeing the burned ruins of the Provo Tabernacle
• Visiting the BYU Museum of Art
• Watching "A Christmas Carol" (1951) and "White Christmas" with Grandma
• Lingerie shopping for a bride-to-be (Me and Ixoj)
• Disco skating at a bachelorette party (Me, Ixoj and V). This was really fun, but I was a little disappointed that I wasn't as smooth on skates as I used to be
• Seeing "Tron" in 3-D (J and his guy friends - I had no desire to go along)
• Watching Phin walk down the aisle (beauty and grace!)
• Helping with wedding setup/takedown/celebrations
• Cooking three batches of my grandpa's "Perfect Chili" for 30-40 people
• Watching my dad and C (the younger) do the "Thriller" dance on Christmas morning (they were playing the Wii game "Michael Jackson: The Experience." And even more awesome: my dad was wearing his Christmas robe at the time. We got some pretty priceless video footage.)
• Meeting with gutter men to get bids for the S family's new gutter
• Listening to Andrew play his bagpipes in the S family's living room
• Watching Sam play "Hungry, Hungry Hippos" on Christmas morning for several hours

Here are some pictures:

The burned Provo Tabernacle
(An interesting art history post compares these ruins to an 19th century painting by Friedrich)

Disco skating + Victoria's Secret = a bride to be

At Phin's wedding

Dinosaur!

Digging for dinosaur bones

Interior of the Cathedral of the Madeline

With Zillah and Ixoj after the choir concert

"Hungry, Hungry Hippos" on Christmas morning

"Thriller" awesomeness

mom and amusement rides

Today was the one year mark of my mom's passing. I've thought about her a lot lately.

Over the past year, I've thought a lot about the things that my mom taught me (or tried to teach me - I wasn't her most receptive pupil at times). My mom had strong opinions on topics that ranged from health food to Fabian Socialism to salicylates to immigration to SIDS to spirituality. But over the past few weeks, I've continually thought about one specific experience where my mom taught me something very unusual (especially unusual for her, that is).

My mom wasn't really into theme parks or roller coasters. She didn't really enjoy thrill-seeking rides or understand their appeal. And, as a consequence, my family didn't visit a lot of amusement parks when I was young. About eleven years ago, though, my family went to visit a little fairy tale park called Enchanted Forest. My dad ended up buying tickets for the Big Timber Log Ride, which includes a really steep drop at one point (similar to Splash Mountain at Disneyland).

I've always been a little nervous about going on thrilling amusement rides, mostly because I don't have a lot of experience on them. I could tell that my mom was reluctant to go on the ride as well, but we had to go since Dad had already bought tickets. So, Mom and I hesitantly sat down in our log car together. As we started the steep ascent before the final drop, my mom said, "When we go down, stomp your feet against the bottom of the car and scream as loud as you can. That will make your stomach feel less queasy."

So...that's what we did! We stomped and screamed like madwomen! Ha ha! You have to understand, that this was very uncharacteristic of my mother. She didn't like to draw attention to herself, so screaming at the top of her lungs wasn't something that she did. And to be stomping her feet while screaming at the same time? Ha! It was too funny. You might be able to tell that we are laughing in the picture above. I think we were partly laughing out of relief that the ride was over, but I also thought it was hilarious that my mom acted that way on the ride. I never saw her do anything like that since.

I feel kind of privileged to have that experience with my mom; I don't think any of my siblings got instructed on how one should act on a thrill ride. (Though I suppose I could be wrong - she did try to give us fair and equal instruction on most topics). Thanks for the tip, Mom. I'll be sure to pass that information along to my son, if we end up on an amusement ride together.

I love you, Mom.

sam's christmas playlist

Sam has latched onto three Christmas songs this season: "Jingle Bells" (the Bing Crosby/Andrews Sisters version), "Santa Baby" (the original version with Eartha Kitt), and "'Zat You, Santa Claus?" (with Louis Armstrong).

There are particular things that Sam likes with each song. He likes how Bing and the Andrew Sisters have a few pauses during the last verse of their song (they sing, "Jingle [long pause] all the way..."). He thinks the male singers for "Santa Baby" are hilarious (the ones that sing, "Boom, boom" at the beginning of the song). And he really likes the drum (which sounds like rapping on the door) at the beginning of the Louis Armstrong song.

Sam's memorized the track numbers for each of these songs, and he can select the each one on the stereo without my help. He usually decides to turn on music while I'm cleaning in the kitchen. Since each song calls for a mandatory dance party, I get nice little breaks during dish duty. Here's a clip from one "Jingle Bells" party:

reading goals: quantity vs. quality?

Yikes! I have read only 29 books this year (so far). I knew that my initial goal to read 52 books this year was unrealistic (especially when I started a full-time job), but I hoped that I would at least match last year's accomplishment of 35 books.

Can I read six books in the next few weeks? I hope so. I just wish that I wanted to read shorter books than the ones sitting on my nightstand. I'm antsy to delve into Andrew Graham-Dixon's Caravaggio: A Life Sacred and Profane, but it consists of 500+ pages that are filled with 17th century history. What should I do? Start the longer book now, or barrel through a handful of insignificant and easy reads so that I can reach my silly goal?

I wonder which I would find more rewarding: the accomplishment of reading a few dense/historical/intellectual books, or the accomplishment of reading dozens of smaller, easier reads. To be honest, I don't know which I prefer. I obviously like the intellectual stimulation of the former, but my pride relishes accomplishments in terms of quantity. Hmm. Do I value quantity or quality when making reading goals? I can't say. Perhaps I like a mixture of both?

What about you? Do you need to hurry up and finish some goals for this year? Or have you already given up?

a few more pictures of leavenworth

Besides our frustrating hike, we had a fun time visiting Leavenworth. We tried on silly hats, bought gingerbread cookies, and wandered around the various shops. Here are a couple more pictures from our short trip:

We embraced the faux-Bavarian lifestyle