100 Reads: The Tao of Pooh and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

I would maybe consider myself someone who is pretty open-minded, particularly culturally and spiritually, to ideas that are different than my own and different than those promoted in American culture but after reading the Tao of Pooh, I can say for sure that I will probably never be a taoist.  The central ideas of taoism that the offer put forward were difficult for me to understand or relate to.  Much of it was about being very calm, and that I can support. I like the idea of creating time in your day/week to have some calm time to do simple things like enjoy coffee and the crossword or cryptoquip.  But the book also placed an emphasis on just leaving things alone, not creating change, and not having a drive for knowledge and to learn more.  I simply can't get behind those things.  I am always making changes and always wanting to know more.  And finally, I am not sure the book is really that well-written.  Many of the comparisons seemed to be a stretch and it seemed as if the author was trying to find a creative way to introduce a somewhat boring philosophy (things are the way they are, deal with it) to the reader.

Happily, I followed up with The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time and this was a fantastic read.  Written from the perspective of a 15 year old boy with an autism spectrum disorder, I recognized many of the behaviors and flighty thoughts from my days working with autistic and cognitively impaired children when I worked at a YMCA camp.  The things that are most lovely about this book are the things that I cherished about each of my autistic campers: their creativity, their fascination on a single topic, their frankness.  I am not sure it is an easy book to describe because it is a bit flighty and there are sections that seem entirely unrelated to the story (a murder mystery involving the neighbor's dog), but it is an exciting read and I easily finished it in the span of one week, including over 100 pages on a flight. 

Currently reading "off the list" Mennonite in a Little Black Dress (A Memoir of Going Home).  Very great book (so far) about a woman's return to her Mennonite family in her 40s after her husband left her from a man he met on gay.com.  The author, Rhoda Janzen, manages to describe her family with great humor without ever making the reader doubt that she loves them very much and would never trade her Mennonite upbringing for anything, despite not maintaining that lifestyle.  I have purchased myself a copy of the big, bad Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand, so I think that will be next when I go back "on the list."

100 Reads: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time

I made a lovely Sunday visit to Half-Priced Books yesterday and picked up this Mark Haddon novel for $6.  The story is written in the first person perspective of Christopher Boone, a British teenager experiencing life within the autism spectrum.  Although autism is not explicitly stated in the text itself, the story describes experiences and preferences that are undoubtedly characteristics of autism spectrum disorders, such as having all of the prime numbers from 1 to 7,057 memorized, an unexplained and severe disgust for the color yellow, an extremely negative reaction to being touched or hugged, and an inability to recognize and relate to complex human emotion. 

I am so far 42 pages in to this novel and found it hard not to fall in love with young Christopher as he so bluntly points out some of the nuances of language and human interaction that most of us take for granted.  The story has started with the discovery that a neighborhood dog has died from a garden fork wound and Christopher has decided to take up investigation of the dog's murder. 

As a mostly non-fiction reader, I am happy to have found a novel that is holding my attention so well.  I think this is going to be a fabulous plane ride/poolside book for my extended weekend vacation coming up in less than 72 hours! 

100 Reads: Three Cups of Tea

I recently finished Three Cups of Tea, that tells the story of Minnesota native Greg Mortenson and how his failure to climb K2 is changing the world.  Mortenson starting working to build schools in Pakistan, and particularly schools that will educate girls, when he had hardly any money and was sleeping in his car.   He earned the respect of many people worldwide, and most importantly in the Muslim communities of Pakistan.  While some did not trust the big American, many welcomed him and did as much as they could to convince Mortenson to build one of his famous schools in their village.  

Mortenson's story is an inspiring lesson in many ways: with nothing but passion and a reason to act, one can achieve many things; you cannot (and do not have to) do things by yourself; you can make big change with few traditional resources; despite cultural and religious differences, all people want a better life for their children; and it is so important to educate girls.

I haven't yet decided what book from the list to read next, but with 70 to go, I don't think lack of options is my problem!

Happy page-turning!

The 100 Reads Project In Full Swing

I finished reading Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez.  I first fell in love with Marquez and his fiction when I read Chronicles of a Death Foretold in my World Literature class in high school.  His books are richly painted glimpses into the Caribbean at the turn of the century, incorporating values and traditions of the indigenous, Spanish, and African cultures.  Love in the Time of Cholera was an interesting page turner because the middle of the book felt slow at times, but I still was so intrigued at the way he introduced the story that after every chapter I thought "Well, now we will find out what happens."  But you don't really find out what happens until the last 50 pages.  Meanwhile, it is easy to enjoy the rich storytelling and depth of character development in the middle 250 pages.  By the end of the book, I certainly found myself not-so-secretly hoping for the love story to come true at last for the two protagonists.  I am excited that my list of 100 Reads includes another book by him.

I am starting the project with the book Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace. . . One School at a Time by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin.  Three Cups of Tea features the story of a mountaineer (Mortenson) who found himself in Pakistani village after a failed attempt to climb K2.  He was so moved by the inhabitants' kindness, that he promised to return and build a school.  And he kept his promise to the villagers, plus building 54 additional schools, particularly focusing on the goal of educating girls in a part of the world still plagued by severe gender discrimination and oppression.  This book is of particular interest to me because of the promotion of educating girls, as a lot of health and economic research has shown that educated girls become educated mothers and women who work better jobs (often starting their own small businesses) and lead healthier lives, starting a cycle of good health generations in their family.

Let's Get Literary

I made an update, but forgot to update you about the update. 

Stop chasing that sentence like a tail-chasing pup and come back to me, here. 

You know why you didn't know it was an update?  Because it wasn't an actual post, like this update on the update is.  You're asking how that is possible and I am answering.

I added a... page! (Gasps can be heard spreading through the reading crowd like wildfire*)

So, for the first time (and possibly the last) in the history of Misadventures of a Modern Mugwump, I am going to allow you to let your eyes wander over to the right side of the page and find the new toolbar labeled "Pages."  And under that you will see a link to Home (that's where you are now; welcome to my e-Home!) and to a new addition: 100 Reads.  I won't describe it here, because it is described there, so click on over and enjoy!

* First Mom gasped on the couch, and then Dad in the easy chair.  And the dog "harumphed" and it was counted as a gasp because this blogger will take all she can get.