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Sunday Post #amreading #amjoy

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted  @ Caffeinated Book Reviewer. It’s a chance to share news~ A post to recap the past week on your blog and showcase books and things  received. Share news about what is coming up on our blog for the week ahead. See rules here: Sunday Post Meme

Stacking The Shelves is hosted by Tynga’s Reviews

           LOOKING FORWARD TO march

So anyone who knows me, knows that I love comedy.  I started listening to this audio book by Retta called So Close to Being the Sh*t, Y'all Don't Even Know. Retta is an actress/comedian.  And boy is it funny!!

via GIPHY

At one one point Retta said something along the lines,

 “I wasn’t intimidated to work with the Queen B, Beyonce. At that time she hadn’t come out of her shell yet, she just finished the Austin Powers -film and Goldberg-although Goldberg wasn’t much, and she had just became Beyonce, after starting her career solo, and leaving Destiny’s Child."

I was like damn Daniel! This woman is confident. I had to look her up and saw that she performed in Good Boys and Where's the Money. She also said, she likes to Google herself, so I hope she comes across this post one day.

Readers are there any comedians that you just Love, Love, love?

CURRENTLY

Reading: Practice Makes Perfect by Julie James, Managed by Kristen Calihan, Dirty Filthy Rich Men by Laurelin Paige,

Listening: So Close to Being the Sh*t, Y'all Don't Even Know by Retta,

and David Letterman's biography

ON THE BLOG

Current: The Sunday Post, Stacking the Books

Up Coming:

Readers if you want to comment, please do so below.

"Ellen Degeneres:Seriously...I'm Kidding" By Ellen Degeneres

 

"Ellen Degeneres:Seriously...I'm Kidding"  (A memoir) By Ellen Degeneres.  This is a great humorous read, I can't even summarize the book because there are just so many levels of funny. It is so funny, that when I was listening to it, (on my way to work), a man in the car next to me, must have been enjoying my laughter, because he was grinning at me.

 Degeneres talks about what all humans are in search of: happiness.

 Am I happy writing this blog?  I would have to say "yes", I love siting down at the computer listening to Jay-Z's "Forever Young" and writing reviews on books that I've come to listen to, throughout the week.  

 Am I living day-to-day? asks Degeneres?

 Yes, with each new book review, I'm adding creative ideas to my life, while simultaneously living vicariously through the authors for which I read.  

"Into Thin Air" by Jon Krakauer

"Into Thin Air" by Jon Krakauer

    I read this book while working alongside Tibetans (in a hospital) whose knowledg of K2 made me appreciate the mountain more than ever. In this memoir, one man's goal in climbing K2 becomes an obsession and a dream, but there is much more to climbing the mountain than just the right gear.  According to Krakauer, one must have knowledge of the climate, one must know what time of year to climb, and lastly, one must know which Sherpas you can count on to help you track the mountain.
You may also need a plan, to determine how you'll climb, and the stamina you'll exert throughout your journey.  (assuming that weather prevails).  The writer talks throughout the trip; giving insights into whose climbed K2: bringing in to the limelight the real mountaineers, along with the multi-millionaires whose only agenda in climbing is to check off one more item from their bucket lists.
John's interaction with Sherpas on this adventure turns Tibetan mountain guides into Heros. The Global Dig

Bossy Pants (A Memoir) by Tina Fey

   "Bossy Pants (A Memoir) by Tina Fey". Writing with as much confidence as the best of them, it's of no surprise that Tina Fey can come up with the best Sarah Palin impersonation ever thought possible.    

But its hard being a female comedian, Tina makes this clear, in her memoir when talks about photo shoots and just what women are trying to eliminate when it comes to their looks and photo shopping.  These are just some of the funniest women body parts she mentions: lunch lady arms, crotch biscuits, spider veins, bad nail beds, too thin lashes, saddle bags, breasts too big, breasts too small, one big breast bigger than the other, one breast smaller than the other  (how these two are different she doesn't know) nasal labia folds, calves too big, no calves, kankles, .  

When she is discussing improvisation and acting, Fey says "don't be afraid to contribute, its your responsibility, make sure your contributing something to the discussion, your interests are worthwhile."  

I'm reminded of my own improvisation classes, in high school, and I showed up to these stage practices with the other nerdy theatre kids, and how I watched a kid named Sanders try to turn a hulla-hoop into something hilarious, and it was so funny watching him stumble with this task.  (this kid is now teaching as an assistant professor at Alabama University- go figure)

I enjoyed when Tina talks about the first time she was called a CU^T by a coworker and she yells back, "Nope, I have two parents who love me, and I was not born into an alcoholic home, so you don't have a right to call me that."  This is just one of Fey's principles that helps her cope with adversity.(the Global Dig)

"Rosa Lee:A Mother and Her Family in Urban America" by Leon Dash

   

 Rosa's Lee's story reads much like a biography going from bad to worse.  Not in the sense that it is written badly, but in the sense it's hard to imagine how humanly, bad a person could have it.  Lee's life as a mother of eight children doesn't go smooth sailing into retirement, in fact, her golden years are down right bumpy.  Lee will support her childrens' drug habit by faking illness in order to get narcotics, she will donate blood for money, sell food stamps (which I recently found out is called trafficking food stamps, a popular crime that can lead to incarceration).  Lee will work on the corner; selling drugs for local drug enthusiasts, who buy at will. 
Lee's  resolve in understanding that what she is doing is downright wrong came when Leon Dash, the writer asked her if she thought it was right to ask her granddaughter to steal clothing from a thrift store.  This had a powerful effect on Lee, for which she realizes that she is teaching her own grandkid to steal. 

Fortunately, Ms. Lee does have success at raising two of her sons who escape a life of drug abuse. The writer, himself, is stunned at the amount of information, Rosa Lee releases, she tells him about her involvement in various crimes.  He even questions whether he should hand over Lee for her various criminal acts, and he stops his interview periodically, reminding Lee that she is leaving her declarations open for public scrutiny.

  

Paris, My Sweet: A Year in the City of Light (and Dark Chocolate) by Amy Thomas

   

 "Paris, My Sweet: A Year in the City of Light (and Dark Chocolate)" by Amy Thomas.  This is a great Paris memoir for those food lovers out there. Thomas, the author, is initially indecisive about whether she should take an opportunity to live in Paris and work at Louie Vuitton, a fashion corporation, or if she should stay in New York. When she takes the plunge and moves to France, Thomas will ponder which city is better, New York or Paris? 
She spends her time in Paris; looking at houses and eating at all the dessert shops.  She rides her bike to work, in hopes of keeping her Butt the same size as it was before.
Thomas is filled with smart quips about French culture, and she'll throw them in where she sees fit.  One that caught my attention, is when Thomas was observing a French woman who was quite attractive.  When the woman glances back at Thomas, she says that she rolled her eyes, Thomas notes that "the French don't smile at strangers, if they do, their retarded."

 I like how the author describes her indulgance in American sweets as a kid.  She said that she ate anything from Ho-Ho's to Kit Kat's to Twix to strawberry whips, to gummies, to licorice, etc.  But these treats, she says have nothing on the french desserts, she tasted. 

When she goes into a French bakery, she criss-crosses the menus in french,(with descriptions she can barely read) with what she saw in the showcases.  

 You'd think Americans were indecisive when they walked into a foreign Starbucks, just topple that with a chocolate shop containing many more options.  

 I liked when the writer describes the real sign of her becoming a Parisian, Whens someone stopped me in the street to ask for directions, (She responds in French), "I look like a Parisian?

I, myself, (the writer of the blog) had the same experience, when I went to France, and I felt overjoyed when someone mistakened me as a Frenchy.
Throughout Thomas' stay, she'll contemplate renewing her contract in France and at one point she makes a list of her favorite things in both US vs France, which include:

 America/France

Manolo's/Rapettos

oversize sunglasses/oversize scarfs

diner/cafe

downtown/left bank

Carie Bradshaw/Charlotte Gainsbourg

NY/Paris

 Thomas has a brief scare with a cyst attached to her ovary and she questions her direction in life, and whether she is wasting her time, and aging instead of raising a family, before she's too old.  When she sees a French specialist, she is surprised by the woman's dispositions and her matter of fact attitude, Thomas says "I should have known better, I had been living there, the french and their all business demeanor, their eye rolling, shoulder shrugging, their mmm attitudes".

 Here are just some of the Dessert shops that she says exists in NY and what their famous for:

 vanilla Carmel Venice Coffee cupcake at "Spot" bakery

butterscotch pudding with bread surbee at "Grammar C Tavern"

crack pie at "Mama Fukoo" bakery

Peanut butter cookies at "City Bakeries"

Chocolate Blackout donut at "Donut Planet"a restaurant

banana creme cheese cake at "Billies" restaurant 

 Thomas dines at a resturant in France, where Hemingway, Picasso, and Fitzgerald had dined, she says, "I was thinking that Hemingway or Picasso had been in the very seat where I was;just left of the bar."

Banker to the Poor:Microlending and the battle against world Poverty by Muhammad Yunus

 

Banker to the Poor:Micro lending and the battle against world Poverty by Muhammad Yunus

    When Mohamed Yunus, founder of Grameen bank has an epiphany: he follows his instincts by going into poor villages in Bangladesh, to help the locals get out of poverty. The program requires a group of five to operate. As required by Grameen, an interested borrower must first pass an exam and also enlist others by explaining the program to them. Once they form a group, a chairman and secretary are elected. Then, two of its members requests a loan, typically for $25 each. Grameen encourages these groups to deposit 5% of each loan in a group-fund that can later be loaned out to members interest-free. After six weeks of successful repayment two more members may request a loan.( Justin Belkin )
 Yunus' bank comprises of 95% of women lenders, as its Yunus' belief that he can some how make a difference to the women who otherwise have no chance to work, and have no chance to support their children with husbands who cannot support them, because they are either dead or have a habit that consumes a lot of their money.  

The most memorable part of the memoir had to been when a young woman makes bread baskets so that she can trade them in the market, and have enough money to buy a small bowl of rice for her children.  When Yunus is told the cost of how much money she uses to buy the supplies to make the baskets, he realizes that she will never be able to make a profit and therefore she will never have enough money to buy more than a measley cup of rice for her family.  This same women would eventually join Grameen bank against her husband's wishes and later be able to support her family on more than a cup of rice a day.    

Shark's Fin and Sichuan Pepper: A Sweet-Sour Memoir of Eating in China by Fuchsia Dunlop

Shark's Fin and Sichuan Pepper: A Sweet-Sour Memoir of Eating in China by Fuchsia Dunlop.
 This cooking memoir was memorable because readers are introduced to a European chef who packs her bags and moves to China. While there she will research the cooking styles of many chefs, but specifically the style of the sichuan.
Dunlop goes into many Chinese kitchens, inviting herself to the counter tops and tables of many restaurant to learn Chinese cooking and so that she'll have somewhere else to go besides her lonely apartment.  Why not?  she's in in a country with few friends and without a strong Chinese background.
I liked the books exotic foods like turtle soup and bird dishes.  Dunlop pays a Chinese one month's worth of salary for her delicious dinners and hire illegal bird hunters, so she can examine their methods of retrieving these birds and cooking them.  She'll expose the rich Chinese man's food fetishes and their extraordinary enjoyment for unique Chinese cuisine.
You'll bicycle yourself through the Chinese districts where even a European traveller can take notice to the drastic change of climate and architecture that exists in China, combined with how once desolate restaurants districts are changed into cities of multi growing high rise complexes which will later suit China's growing needs to house their population.
You'll laugh along with Dunlop, as she discusses that after a month in china, she is in need for a a friend,  and how her confidence grows after making a few Chinese welcoming friends who invite her to eat and and discuss food and calligraphy. 

"On Writing:A Memoir of the Craft" by Stephen King

    "On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft" by Stephen King.  The  most memorable part of this memoir is when King describes his early beginnings as a writer.  King says that he began writing short stories about his teachers, at a young age, and these stories became popular in his school, and even got him into some trouble .  Later on he'd write for the school's newspaper.  (the global Dig)

 When King got his first break as a writer with  his novel "Carrie"  I was awestruck by his happiness , he drops the phone and is amazed at how writing this book would change his life.   King had been writing for a long time and it was hard work.  He wrote in between teaching jobs,  he wrote while making his family larger:getting married and having his first child. 

 He had written hundreds of query letters to publishers, with proof of those letters returning to him through rejection letters.  He posted  those rejections on his bedroom wall and counted them. 

 I liked the way King, epitomizes each rejection letter, and he counts each one as a small success.  The success comes in that he put effort in writing the letter in the first place.  

Finally, King talked about his drug addiction and how drugs put him toward the dark side:helping him to write characters like, the kidnapper character in Misery, the mind-possessing monsters in The Tommyknockers.

 The dark side would eventually eat away at King's lifestyle and his marriage, when a devastating accident happened to him on the road, King is forced to come clean from his drug habit and enjoy everyday events that change because they do not overlap with drug abuse.

"Dancing with Cuba" by Alma Guillermoprieto

    

"Dancing with Cuba" by Alma Guillermoprieto. Alma's story is extraordinary. 

Alma left New York to take a teaching job at Cuba’s National School of Dance. For months, she'd work in a run down studio with students who had very little interest in dance, much less Cuban dance.

She would spend her time there eating rice and beans with government issued rations.   She's stand in line with hundreds of people to be served.  She'd plea with the government; insisting that her dancers needed to eat more due to their extreme work out schedule and insisted that eating food with corn syrup was just not healthy.

 She'd get sent to pick sugar cane along with other Cubans in an involuntary draft for Cuba's Ten Million Ton Sugar Harvest . That year, Cuba conceived a plan late in 1963 that aspired to break all historic sugar production records.http://faculty.mdc.edu/tpedraza/MMF-Ten%20Million%20Ton%20Harvest.htm.

Throughout her teaching debut in Cuba Alma would come across many challenges.  One of them being, learning the specific dance moves that she'd be forced to teach.  She would write out all of her dance moves on flash cards and organize those cards on the floor repeating the moves until she got them.