Joy for Beginners by Erica Bauermeister

"You know," Marion said, "I met a woman once when I was a teenager. I knew she had gone through a lot, but she was so strong, so compassionate. I asked her how she could be the way she was, and you know what she told me?"

Hadley shook her head

"She said, you can be broken, or broken open. That choice is yours."

- Page 146

For many this would be classified as chick-lit because it involves a story focused primarily on the friendship between a group of women that make a promise to one of the other characters to meet certain tasks that she places before them, due to deciding to go white water rafting after she beats cancer. For me this wasn't chick-lit, but human-lit. It weaved stories of hopes, dreams, loves, and loss all within its mere 260-some pages.

Bauermeister alternates the chapters by being the complete story of one of the women in the group of friends. We are told somewhere within the chapter their task that was presented to them and we discover throughout why this task was such a burden to accomplish for them to that particular date and why Kate, the cancer survivor, has chosen it for them. In some cases it seems rather mundane the tasks given, but when you understand that in life the simple things are sometimes the hardest for us to accomplish it rings so much truer than if they were being told to do bigger tasks. Sometimes with the stories bigger tasks are revealed to the character and it changes their lives. That is why I call this human-lit because it is about how we must take these small moments/small steps sometimes to see what our full potential is. If you never take that first step you never know what you are capable of and sometimes you will falter, but most of the time it results in learning that would never have occurred otherwise.

Bauermeister isn't the next Hemingway by any means, but who needs every single story they read to be a classic, sometimes a lighter story is more desirable. Sometimes a simpler read can touch you in more ways than a classic can ever do. "Joy for Beginners" is that, a simpler read, that will teach you a lesson about life, if you allow it to and do not get caught up on other things, like macho pride for you male readers out there. So nothing technically blows up in this story and there is little to no violence within its pages, but this book is about humanity and the lives that are touched by one singular event. How friendships grow organically and how people can do big things if they just try. Oh we may not be the best all the time, but we humans can do such beautiful and wonderful things! This book reminded me of that!

Until next time... Stay Optimistic!!!

Life: Rereading "Oedipus the King" or "How I learned to loathe English as a major"

I am finishing up a 9-month English course I have been taking online. While the class has been pure torture I have to say that I feel like I have learned a little more about myself and what I love and dislike about the English field overall. I am not a grammar Nazi by any means. If you can't tell I do not edit most of my postings because I like to go with my original thoughts and processes, but in my homework I do edit because it is a grade and what a teacher expects from me. I also have discovered that I uncomfortable critiquing the way that most English majors need to be able to do. I feel more comfortable stating what I liked or disliked about something I read, even if I am so off base that someone scuffs at me. The beauty of reading is we each form our individual opinions on what we read and if it is something you got from the reading then it had to be something in it that drew that out of you. Most teachers do not appreciate that because they believe in a singular answer or believe certain things must be addressed in the English field. It simply is not for me. I am glad that I took the course, however, because I would never have discovered this.

My point of this though is to say that I have noticed recently that my understanding of reading has changed as I have read more and more this last year. This became the most apparent to me while reading "Oedipus the King". I read this my first semester at my university, but did not understand most of what was going on in it. I finished it again for this class a few days ago and understood it completely. This is not because I read it previously, but because I could place characters easier. I could also understand the language in a way that I was not previously able to do. Has anyone else had this experience with anything that they have read? Feel free to comment about your experience if you have.

I also am working on getting regular content back up and running. The hope is to start on the first. I have already posted four reviews in the Graphic Novel category, so I know that at least one new review will come a week in that particular field. The desire though is to get at least three a week done before October 1. I am not going to stick to any one particular field at this current time, but I will be posting more regularly if I keep it down to just three times a week. This will give me a chance to also get future weeks done in advance as well. I am finding the right schedule for me instead of trying to fit into what I think other readers may want. It feels nice to be a little more concerned with my own reading habits.