"The Coldest Winter Ever" by Sister Souljah

 

 

 

   "The Coldest Winter Ever" by Sister Souljah.  This is a coming of age, teenage novel that stays with you forever.  Its either a novel that shocks and stuns you, or its filled with scenes that you can connect with:Scenes of growing up: Scenes of the inner city:Scenes of love, drugs and money. 

 When 17-year-old, Winter Santiaga, (the main character) dreams of money and looking good, she'll stop at nothing to advance, she'll help her gangster boyfriend on the streets of New york selling drugs. 

 When her father, Ricky Santiago is thrown into prison for being a top drug lord, her family is torn apart, their family will be split up. Winter's sisters three sisters: Mercedes, Lexus, and Porsche, become wards of the state.  Winter's father's close friend  adopts the twins girls, claiming that his drug days are over, and he tells Winter  that he only sold drugs as a stepping stone to get to financial stability. 

 This doesn't stop Winter from selling, in fact she only sells harder, believing herself to be a top drug seller herself.  Many of Winter's friends will turn against her.  The story will climax at a scene when cops find Winter's car filled with guns and she'll be thrown into a prison herself, only to have her sister (outside of prison) follow in her footsteps, as a drug dealer.

 I enjoyed the character of Winter and her pursuit in getting what she wanted, although I do believe there are ways to get what you wanted without resorting to drugs.  The goals of this young teen are real. In fact I would dare to say that many young, female teens in New York can connect with pursuing this life of selling, believing that it would get them to the top.  The top of what? Is the primal question. 

The way Sister Souljah tells the story of this girl's extreme  lifestyle and its underlying effects tells readers what happens to teens when they don't have a chance being child.  And what happens to families when they collapse. 

"Gone Girl" by Gillian Flynn

    "Gone Girl" by Gillian Flynn, I read this after a friend of mine asked me if I read it and she began to prattle off books she read, including "Fifty Shades of Gray" making it seem as if I didn't read this I must of been out of touch with the newest books. 

 "You read a lot!, " my friend said.  "Every time you come over to my house you read and you haven't read this?"

 In "Gone Girl" there's a marriage gone sour.   Amy, the wife goes missing and the book documents the story of both the husband Nick and Amy, the wife. 

 I enjoyed the exchanges between the wife's version of the marriage and the husband's, as their versions are tossed around between the chapters.  

 Amy begins the start of an anniversary game at one point in the novel.  She has her husband go to all of their previous date locations and  ask random people questions, as he is supposed to be in search of his current anniversary present. (A scavenger hunt sort of game)

 This anniversary game struck me as sort of romantic, but have you ever created a scavenger hunt? 

 Its actually quite exhausting, and even if you personally think it will be easy for the other person, its actually quite hard, because the other person can't get inside your head.  No wander that the character of  Nick has a hard time finding the gift, and he is not psychic, in that he doesn't know that Amy actually created the game for the two of them to become closer.

Flynn does a great job at keeping readers interested, her creative reading abilities are fantastic in that she is able to write with flair and and at the same time write an unlikely mystery.

"The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" by Stieg Larsson

"The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo", by Steig Larsson.  I was introduced to this book at the YMCA, eavesdropping on two strangers, one was on the elliptical machine holding the yellow paper back, and the other, was a passer-by who began talking about the book and how great it was. 

 "Just wait till you get past the first chapters, then it will pick up" he said, after the one on the elliptical said that it was "slow".

The mystery unfolds: Stolkholm, Sweeden.  Salanderand Mikael Blomkvist , a financial journalist and chief-editor of the magazine Millennium come together in hopes of finding the truth of  Harriet Vanger murder.

In the book version, the character of Salander, is someone I can relate to:a young, thin, twenty-eight year old, computer hacker, who survives on two things, her labtop and her addiction to coffee. 

 Lisbeth Salander has the ability to hack into  the budget plans of any multi-million dollar company and exploit them.  She makes smoking a cigarette while driving a motorcycle look good. 

Although, I would have enjoyed the overall characteristics of the story more if the movie version spent more time going into Mikael Blomkvist real character, instead of just portraying Blomkivist as a new, up-and- coming James Bond character.   

"The Paris Wife" by Paula McLain

 "The Paris Wife" by Paula McLain".  The first  wife married to Ernest Hemingway is portrayed as gullible. and a little too easy going. 

 When we first meet Hadley Richardson, the wife, I got this Scott Fitzgerald feel from "The Great Gatsby". Here's a couple whose got money, class and a husband who puts his own needs first.  Like the scene from Gatsby where Daisy Miller is invited to parties by Nick, likewise Hadley is invited to to gatherings with Hemingway's friends.  She is ushered into a world of what seems like fun, filled with friends and talk that extends late into the night. This is a couple who can take trips to Cape Cod  drink and lolly-gag. 

 Too bad for Hemingway, he wanted to get out from under his parents thumb and his parent's old money.  He takes an opportunity to write in Paris as a foreign corespondent , working on his work of  the "The Sun Also Rises".  He takes his first wife Hadley along for the adventures.  She can support him, she receives money from her own family.  Hemingway spends most of his time in his private studio, or spends his time philandering with other women.  Getting into the social scene with other writers like Robert F. Burgess.  

 Hadley doesn't fit in well in Paris. Unlike Julia Child, she fails to find a hobby like cooking to entertain herself.  Although she does make friends, she doesn't realize these friendly women, are after her own love: Hemingway.

I liked that  McLain talked about the scenic attractions in Paris. The way she describes Paris and the cafes Hemingway frequents.  The social interaction between Hemingway and the French.  Hemingway is unafraid.  Its my belief that Mclain lacked the ability to show the wife's good characteristics and instead Hadley is shown as doughty, self-absorbed and bending to the will of Hemingway.  

"State of Wander" by Ann Patchett

 

 

 

    "State of Wander" by Ann Patchett.  I read this novel after seeing it displayed in the three day rental shelf at the library.  When two scientists receive news that a fellow colleagues is dead, in the rain forest. 

Pharmaceutical researcher, Dr. Marina Singh chooses to go out and find the reason for the death, and whether their big science project is thrown into the flames (sort-of speak), by the  nutty professor, Dr. Anneck Swenson, a renowned gynecologist who refuses to come home from the rain forest.

 

Dr. Anneck Swenson believes that the reproductive habits of a local tribe  where women can conceive well into their middle ages could reveal a secret of breeding that could help Americans.

 

If you don't walk away from Patchett's novel learning about the rain forest, you truly didn't read the novel.The forest is hot, it has mosquitoes and bugs which can kill you.  It seems tremendous and mystical, if your unfamiliar with it.  

"Turtle Feet" by Nikolai Grozni

 

 

 

    "Turtle Feet" by Nikolai Gronzni.  When a young European boy decides to travel to  India to become a Buddhist monk, little does he know the amount of sacrifice he is to embark upon.

 

His descent into learning  about how to be a monk was admirable.  He learns the dichotomy of the Tibetan language through his memorization of the Buddhist books, and during his conversation with the locals.  One can tell that his dedication from the time being was real. 

 He'd come to sleep on flee infested mattresses in leaky apartments with rats and mice, where neighbors would shake their rugs and dust and dirt would infiltrate into his own apartment.  He'd share his bread with the mice, and when their were a few hours in the day without hours of extreme heat, he'd visit nuns and monks alike learning the traditions of monk hood.  

"Yes Chef" by Marcus Samuelsson.

  "Yes Chef" a memoir:by Marcus Samuelsson. One boy and his sister were born in Ethiopia's capital city of Addis Adaba. When their mother dies of  tuberculosis, the girl and boy are sent to live in Sweden with a new family.  From there, the boy:Marcus would make a life for himself as a chef in all parts of the world:including New York.  He begins by studying at the Culinary Institute in Gothenburg, Sweden. 

  I enjoyed when the narrator talks about the first time he: felt gushing water from the faucet as a child in Sweden, or when he first ate a piece of fruit, and spit it out after the first initial bite, or when he thinks of his mother. 

 "When I think of mother....", he says, "She is berbere.  For that is what all Ethiopian women are.  Its woven into the genes, and all Ethiopian women know how to make berbere." (Berbere is a hot-tasting Ethiopian paste made from garlic, cayenne pepper, coriander, and other spices, often used in stews)   

Samuelson goes on to say that most Ethiopian women go their entire life without their picture taken.

He can picture his new adopted mother in Sweden, and how (Global Dig)she cooked with frozen food: canned corn and canned pineapple. 

 But on the weekends,  he'd visit his grandmother Helga.  This was the woman who taught him how to cook.  His grandmother lived in poverty as a young adult.  She was a house servant, and she did what she knew how:cook.  And she cooked all her meals from scratch.

I enjoyed how the author describes the way to eat shrimp, take the shrimp and dump out the insides of its head into your mouth.  

I thoroughly enjoyed Samuelson's journey to Switzerland, by train and how he met people of all backgrounds, and the closer he got to Munich, the more diverse it became. As he was on the train, traveling to his new cook's job,  he says that he encountered Greeks who would share their olives and breads, and spreads that were similar to humus and how each culture shared their food, but the French didn't share with him at all, even as they caught his eye on the train. 

You could see this very brave journey made by a man who was only nineteen-years-old at the time, and how he talks about how going to college wasn't what he wanted to do.  He knew he wanted to be a chef, so he would have to take an unpaid internship as a cook, for the time being, until he could became the chef he wanted to be.  

 One of Samuelson's dreams was to cook in a french restaurant. He sent many letters and requests for positions in France.  Then finally, he received a reply that their may be an opening for a chef.  When he takes an hour long train ride to France he is turned away three times by a worker who says that the chef is not available.  When he finally is met by the chef, he is turned away because of the color of his skin.  And he is not even offered shelter for the night in exchange for one days' labor.   

 I liked when Samuelsson knew he was successful in the restaurant business, when his restaurant "Aquavit" in New York, received three stars.  You know when your restaurant is good, he says, when your reservations are all filled up, when your getting flowers and food from supporters.  Getting three or more stars is like the the Academy Awards.  You know when your successful, he continues, when Swedish chefs are asking to work at your restaurant.

 It wasn't all sunshine and roses for Samuelson's, when Samuelsson opens a restaurant in Minneapolis (the author of this blogs hometown!!).  The restaurant, Aquavit is forced to close. 

"How the hell does a Swedish American restaurant fail in a Swedish American Heartland, we would move on, that was the one thing I knew how to do" Samuelsson says.(Global Dig)

"Three Cups of Tea" by Greg Mortenson

"Three Cups of Tea" (Nonfiction) by Greg Mortenson. I enjoyed this book of nonfiction and intricate details of how the author, Greg Mortenson, describes his transition from working the night shift in a burn unit hospital to wanting to make a career change, and a change in his overall perspective of life. 


This man's need to help people led him to sleep in his car to save on rent so he could later use that money for supplies in the construction of school across the world in Pakistan.  This American man would make trips to Pakistan in the course of his career.  But his initial visit brought him to terms with the fact that he was privileged in his life in America.  That unlike many of the people he came in contact with his new job, back home, he did have safety and security.   


 After he spent many months in Pakistan he realized that he had the most interest in the actual construction of buildings and he narrowed his outlet to the building of schools for girls.  The amount of school for girls is strikingly low considering that girls are not encouraged to pursue an education, and instead encouraged to work in the home.

 Mortenson learns first that the completion of the schools wasn't a piece of cake even with an exorbitant amount of money, because of the fact that there were just too few roads that led into the mountainous regions of Pakistan.  He also realized that he'd have to build a bridge, first and foremost to get supplies over.  Once the first bridge was up and the first school, Mortenson would have to convince many Americans to help fund the making of even more schools, and he is still working his dream till this day.

"The Boy Who Would Be Shakespeare: A Tale of Forgery and Folly"by Doug Stewart

"The Boy Who Would be Shakespeare" by  Doug Stewart.When a young boy wishes to be twinkle in his father's eye, he'll do anything to get noticed.  When his job as law clerk in his father's business fails to get notice, he cuts straight to the source of his father's read pride and enjoyment: Shakespeare.  This  boy's new friend just happens too have a secret treasure chest full to the brim, with Shakespeare's original poetry, Or is it really Shakespeare's authentic work?

I enjoyed the character of William Henry (the son) and how he was so determined to recreate works of Shakespeare, even if was forging the individual poetry.  The prospects took weeks to months at a time, with calligraphy and writing that turned out quite beautiful.  The ignorance of the father and his nature towards his son was unbelievable.

As for the boy, you'd think someone who had so much talent for forgery could become change his career altogether, but age of Shakespeare led to many limited career possibilities.

"The Year of Pleasures" by Elizabeth Berg

   

"The Year of Pleasures" by Elizabeth Berg

 I distinctly remember reading the "The Year of Pleasures", by Elizabeth Berg when I was traveling from a large city to a very small town. 

In this novel Betta Nolan is left a widow after her husband's long battle with liver cancer, she is forced to rediscover herself as an individual, although for two decades she has shared interested with her now deceased husband, and she must rediscover all new interests.  

How does one recreate a new life, when they hammered out a life of routines with someone in the existence of marriage?  The writer, Berg, shows readers the year of pleasures by displaying an arrangement of pleasures that anyone can relate to so as readers can commemorate on their own pleasures and what makes them individual.

The character of  Betta Nolan begins her new life with the start of a cup of coffee everyday.  This transitions into a friendly greeting with her neighbors and then the upkeep of her new home.  She enlists the help of the neighbors as contractors and painters. She ends her days with the invitation of guests to a homely-made dinner.  

I am a romantic, in that ,I loved how the husband (before he died) created a treasure trove of small discoveries for his wife to find even after his death: a small array of trinkets she had collected from garage sales they had previously visited together.  Attached to these trinkets are small messages for the wife to open and discover one after another so that she would never feel completely alone after his death, making the mourning process slightly easier.    

"The Pact" by Jodi Picoult

   

 

 

 

I read "The Pact" by Jodi Picoult after it was recommended by a coworker who proclaimed "this is one of Picoult's Greatest Books."

 

I particularly loved how the narrator descibes the character of Gus.  Gus is to the point.   She is fast in her speech, and a regular on-the-go mother.  Gus' character is the first in many of Piccoult's novels to be a woman who sounds less like the feminine, nurturing, sensitive type and more of the funny, almost manly type. 

 

 I like how Picoult introduces the parents of Chis and Emily as spirited couples who seem like the oldest of friends; getting together for dinner. 

 

The character of Gus disappears just as fast as she arrives to the dinner.  And in her frenzy of work, and no play attitude, Gus, the a"Waiter", is not the traditional waiter in the sense of we think of waiters, but in fact, her job description is actually to "wait".  Wait in line for tickets, or wait as a stand-in for a client who has in detention.  This highly stressful position fits Gus' personality. 

 

With the introduction of Chris going to trial, there were many similarites between Picoult's other novel's describing prison scenes;including "House Rules" and "Perfect Match" with the description of the jail cells, the uniforms worn in prison, and the demeanor of the guards  and/or detectives in regards to their job and obvious dislike of the suspect.  Listening to how a prisoner made a home-made tatoo instrument out of contraband needle and screwdrewer was absolutely horrifying. 

 

The overall prison setting was horrific: from poop-smeared walls in "the hole" to the descriptive way one uses his own prison garments in substitution of writing pads for doodling creative designs, in times of boredom.     

"Eat Cake" by Jeanne Ray

   

 "Eat Cake"  by Jeanne Ray. When a family begins to struggle because the husband gets laid off from his job at the hospital.  Ruth, a Minneapolis wife and mother must step up her role as a housewife, and come up with a plan to save the family from financial disaster.  The wife has a scheme to create tiny, individual cakes in perfect ,little boxes that she makes from her own kitchen to sell (Don't try this at home).

 Ruth is a tremendous baker who has  been baking for years, and she has her own kitchen filled to the brim with necessary baking materials.  The business seems successful, if not for the misery of  the long last father, the pianist, who comes to live with them, after he has broken both his hands.

 Maybe its the cake that makes the book so memorable.  But Ray does an excellent job of showing a struggling family.  A family with a rebellious teenager unwilling to help a family in crisis.  She does an excellent job in showing a father whose pride is destroyed at the sudden loss of his job, and loss of even more pride when his leading-lady must come up with a business plan that he initially believes will fail. 

Lastly, Ray does an excellent job showing a grandmother's bitterness when her husband returns, and an overall coming together of a family to help one another.

This may be a food critics best choice awards with its mouth watering descriptions of its cakes.  Note-to-self:  Barrow the book again to retrieve the fantastic recipes located in the back pages of the book.  

"Killing Lincoln" By Bill O'Reilly and Martin Dugard

 








I read "Killing Lincoln" by Bill O'Reilly and Martin Dugard.  Historical narrative is a new genre of choice for me, but I thought I'd have a go at it; for which I'm glad.

The in depth way for which O'Reilly portrays Lincoln is amazing.  Lincoln is 35 pounds under weight during presidency.  Barely do we understand (as people not in office) the extremes of the political world and the tole for which one partakes in presidency or otherwise. Fun fact that I found out is that most presidents go through carpal-tunnel- like symptoms after shaking the multitudes of hands during campaigning. 

I found that the narrative goes in depth into the actual battle scenes, whether its factual or not is something to be questioned.  But a funny suggestion is to listen to the audio version of the narrative and the way O'Reilly pronounces the word "Cavalry",  which he pronounces as "Calvary" like Mount Calvary.

Thinking back to the days in history class, little does history suggest Booth's background and his premeditation into Lincoln's death.  Book makes plans to kill Lincoln in a theatre, this we know.  But do we know about the confederate secret service's involvement in this plot, or Secretary of War-Stanton's involvement?  Stanton who opposed Lincoln could manipulate the process of election after Lincoln and the Vice President died, leaving Stanton as an option for presidency.  Also some small facts associated with the white house include that it wasn't heavily guarded during Lincoln's presidency.  In fact, there was no gate or fence guarding the white house, and even lobbyists were allowed to sleep on the first floor of the white house.

  

"The Poe Shadow" by Matthew Pearl

"The Poe Shadow" by Matthew Pearl.  I thought this novel would read much the same as Matthew Pearl's, "The Last Dickens".  Unfortunately, I think it lacked much of the action that too place in "The Last Dickens."  Although we do see the action the sought out aid of the real-life model for Poe's genius-sleuth, detective C. Auguste Dupin who comes to America in the search of the real killer of Poe.  I would have appreciated a little less of the discrete details of this detective, and appreciate more of a glimpse inside Edgar Allan Poe's career and details leading up to his death.

Pearl writes too much about Dupin, who cares if the detective was rude to his house servants and unfriendly.  Who cares that he disregarded a person when they talked. He was a detective after all, a man of observation not a man of social etiquette. I didn't expect to be reading Sherlocke Holmes, but with this novel I may as well have read the whole Sherlocke series with the depth of detective characteristics shown. 

The way that the french detective explains his perception of Americans once he arrives in America does not surprise me.  He says that Americans are rude, that they are too direct and spit their tobacco juice on the streets: unawares of any passer-by.

"Too Much Happiness" by Alice Munro

 

"Too Much Happiness" by Alice Munro

I listen to this this multi-storied novel novel as an audio book.  I was astounded by the dramatic opening of the book where readers are introduced to the couple Lloyd and Dori.  When Dori, the wife leaves one day to take a break from her husband, she comes home to find all three of her children killed by Lloyd.  Dori visits him in prison to try and figure out what led him to this madness, but he avoids all topics and Dori is left to talk with him about what's on TV in the prison.  

The story of  Sophia Kovalevsky, who was a late-nineteenth-century Russian émigré and mathematician stands out in my mind.  Here is woman who follows her lover to Paris, Germany, and, Denmark.  Her lover Maksim Maksimovich Kovalevsky sees this girls misfortune and pities her, and that is why he took it upon himself to send this girl oversees and pay for her college.

  This story had a "Lolita" feel to it: Old guy  pays for a young girl's desires, Old guy wants something in return. 

The girl apparently loves all the gifts in the beginning, she loves her chiffon sweaters and wears them to her College, just so that can "feel" what its like to go to a private college.  She has all these initial ideas of what its like to go to college and eat fine dining, but in fact she has no interest in the education whatsoever.  This ignorant girl plays into the Sugar Daddy's hands quite  nicely.  I felt that this guy always wanted something in return from the girl.  And of course control over her.  And it doesn't surprise me when he has someone follow her, just to make sure she's not seeing someone else, and not partying over at the college.  The girl things she wins when she found out she had a female stalker who trailed her in her car, and when she leads this woman off a beaten course, but who really wins with this sort of control?

 

"Snow Flower and the Secret Fan" by Lisa Lee

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

    "Snow Flower and the Secret Fan" Lisa Lee. During 19th Century China, two young Chinese girls are best friend's at a young age, as their families unite and their mother's are adamant at keeping their young girls in good health and high statues. 

 

 

 Their mothers will do anything to procure their families status and they agree to bind their daughters feet.  The literal meaning of foot binding is to keep one's feet in tight bandages to ensure one's feet will no longer grow to their average lengths and keep them small and dainty.  This was Chinese tradition.

 

  It was thought that their tiny feed would attract a male suitor who likewise respects Chinese traditions and values, and the so-called strength of a woman's character in keeping up with the feed binding.  A Chinese husband would ensure a daughter's well-being and by being married, it would take up the amount of dept incurred upon a household for having a Chinese daughter in the first place.  

 

Some of us may shirk at the though of foot binding and societal lengths at keeping a woman beautiful, but how is this any different than the lengths we go to, even in America to progress the heights of our daughters status?

 

Take the reality show "Dance Mom's".  The instructor is supposed to bring these young girls into limelight and make them tough, but instead she belittles and humiliates these girls. 

"Mao's Last Dancer" by Li Cunxin

   

I enjoyed "Mao's Last Dancer" by Li Cunxin, tremendously.  The character of Li Cunxin is chosen to be a dancer at a young age.  He is just one of the many chosen during the Chinese revolution of the 1960's.  This is at a  time when stakes are high, and the chance of starvation for the Chinese people is even higher. 

One boy makes up his mind that he'll do all he can to practice dancing and pirouetting until he can't anymore. This is the difference between his family being able to eat or not at the end of the day.  Li Cunxin is thrown into taking one opportunity after another in the dance world.  He takes auditions as readily as he can, proving himself to be a confident young boy, even though he has no deep passion for dancing in itself, but knowing that dancing could feed his family.  

A reader can easily empathize with the struggles Li Cunxin is up against.  During  his training, he is taken away to an all boy's dance academy where he'd stay for months, even years at a time, without his family. 

This reminds me of modern day Chinese Olympic gymnasts who are taken away from their homes when they were as young as five years so they can be trained Olympians. And only when they achieved Olympic status would they be granted the opportunity by the government to see their family.  This only would be the highest award for these gymnasts (not even the gold medal itself).

The fact that the boy was deemed as flexible in the beginning was one of the main reason's he was chosen to be a dancer.  It was not his appearance or his families names, but the fact that he could bend to unbelievable proportions.  The boy took this fact and made it his dancing trait. 

How many of us have, had the chance to be the first at trying something new?  How many of us dared to contine to be the first even though we question our own interest in the pursuit?

"Lake of Dead Languages" by Carol Goodman

"Lake of Dead Languages" by Carol Goodman.  Jane is a teacher of Latin at a school she attended as a child.  This novel in fascinating as it describes the Heart Lake School for girls, and a mystery that lays beneath the lake waiting to be revealed.

I loved the novel's rich description of the lake's ice and snow and the and the childhood connections with the lake, from skating to peering out at its dangers. The book has a "Parent Trap", the movie feel to it when it describes crossing the lake in order to meet friends who are otherwise not allowed to cross the lake.

 I, too, have spent childhood summers at a lake, for summer camp, and the way character of Jane describes this experience is very soothing.  Jane's role as a teacher leaves her admired by many of her students.  When she tells her students to keep a journal of their feelings, she is able to find secrets about her students that remind her of cult like instincts and secret pacts that she, too, kept with her own friends as a child.  

"House Rules" by Jodi Piccoult

   

"House Rules" by Jodi Piccoult.  Listening to this audio book, I enjoyed hearing the calm soothing voice of the reader who read for the voice of Jacob (one of the main characters). Jacob has asperger's syndrome, and along with it many obsession compulsive things that he does in his routine schedule. When Jacob is thrown between a quarrel between his tutor and their boyfriend, he find that he can use this situation to his advantage.  

You see, one aspect of Jacob's obsessions is that he loves crimes shows, criminology, the study of crimes, and when Jacob's tutor turns up missing he decides to recreate the crime scene, unfortunately this turns Jacob into a likely suspect.

I enjoyed the description of Jacob's OCD' s.  Jacob has to eat food according to the color, easily enough, but when you compound this with eating one specific color, to eating it on a specific day, it can be more challenging.

  For instance on" all-white-food-Friday" :he'll eat a meal of mashed potatoes, rice, and Bread.  This created a challenge for his Mother who cooks his meals, not to mention that minimizing the amount of gluten intake can be helpful for people with Asperger's: this means his mother will also have  to find gluten-free food options for the meal preparations as well.

More on Jacobs obsessive compulsions, when he goes to the grocery stores, he expects to see the "sample lady" serve her routine samples on a specific day, if he doesn't he may have an episode of thrashing about until he needs to be put in a hold by his mother.  Jacob also avoids the color yellow, all of his clothes need to be organized according to color, and he must have his money his wallet organized according to the dollar amount, facing the upright position.  

Reading about Jacob's asberger's helped me understand when at the world of asberger's looks like, and to see how the writer depicts the way his mother copes with her son's disability is amazing.  I enjoyed the character of Jacob describing his own symptoms of what its like to have asberger's and how he explains how many of his actions are just plain unavoidable.

"A Man of the People" by Chinua Achebe

While driving back from Texas, I was reading Chinua Achebe's novel, "A Man of the People." This spark of interest in Achebe's writing came from remembering "Things Fall Apart" for which I read earlier as a teenager.  The main character, Odili Samalu, a teacher began to believe that his former teacher Chief Nanga (corrupt member of the cabinet) no longer cared for him or his people  for which he was governing over. 

Odili decided to do something about it, and revenge is what he took over Chief Nanga. Odili enters politics and campaigns against Nanga. Odili believed that Nanga was a leader that took whatever he wanted and cherished the moment of being a leader, and not necessarily leadership itself, and Odili proves how much sacrifice and hard work it takes to be a real leader.

          At the gym, I am reminded time, and time again, of this idea of taking responsibility for one's own actions and it comes to me in the weirdest types of ways. It reminds me of the preserverance I had to take in pursuing the Lazy Man's Triathlon at the YMCA gym.  And it reminds me of how many times I didn't want to go to an event, but showed up anyway for the experience and for the Hope that by showing up, I am taking an opportunity that will give me leadership skills.