Merry Wanderer of the Night [Search results for history major] 

I officially declared my history major this week and so far I have received fairly negative reactions to it. I'm not surprised really, because I never thought I would become a history major until I started getting interested in history through my English classes. The reason I never though I would become a history major is because I hated history in elementary school. I remember my mom trying to help me study for tests and I just could not figure it out. I was excellent at understanding concepts, but I wasn't good a memorizing dates and I have never been good at multiple choice tests. That was pretty much what history was like all through high school. I did enjoy my history classes in high school though, I was a big fan of Government even though most people hated it.

It old my mom I declared my history major this week and she said "You didn't get that from me!" It's true, my mom is not a fan of history because it is boring. She says she doesn't care about what has happened already, but instead she's more concerned with what is going on now. I kind of wish I was more like that sometimes, because I think my interest in history is related to my obsession with reanalyzing my own past. I told a guy I work with about my history paper as well and he asked what class it was for. When I said American history he said, "Eh, I hate American history." I just laughed but... how could you hate American history! It's like the best reality tv show ever!

My favorite thing about the history classes I've taken so far is the many mediums my professors use to convey information. I've read comic books, novels, autobiographies, short stories, and textbooks and also listened to music, watched movies, and looked at propaganda posters and artwork form the time period. This has given me a greater interest in learning on my own through different mediums. I've actually purchased nonfiction books about historical movements, something I'd never considered before, and bought documentaries and movies to watch in my spare time. I mean, what is up with that?

So why do we hate history? I think it all goes back to what I said at the beginning of this post. It's a preconceived idea that history is boring, when really history is anything but. I'm not very interested in war itself, but the movements that surround wars are fascinating and usual more interesting than the war itself. So do you hate history? Or do you love it? Why do you think you feel the way you do about history?

Today I have an interview with up and coming author Alexandra Bracken. Her novel, Brightly Woven, debuts March 23. The short description of the novel from her website is, "Sydelle Mirabil is living proof that, with a single drop of rain, a life can be changed forever. Tucked away in the farthest reaches of the kingdom, her dusty village has suffered under the weight of a strangely persistent drought. That is, of course, until a wizard wanders into town and brings the rain with him." I haven't read her novel yet, though I plan to, so many of you might be wondering why I chose to interview her. Bracken is unique in that she was working on publishing her novel while she was still in college. She signed with an agent on her 21st birthday and after spending her senior year revising the novel her dream is finally coming true next week. How did she do it you might ask, and I think the work diligence pretty much sums up Bracken's story. I won't just leave it at that though, as follows you can read her answers to my questions about how she balanced school and writing and what path (or paths) she took to get there.

Where did you go to school, when did you graduate, and what did you go?
I went to the College of William and Mary, graduated last Spring, and majored in History and English

Did you start as an English major? What made you decide to become an English major?
When I was applying for schools, I focused on the Virginia area, mostly because I knew I wanted to study Early American History and I would freeze my butt off if I went to school in New England. I had always loved English, but my dad had convinced me to major in History and Government because he wanted me to be a lawyer. BIG mistake. I took one Government class and realized how stupid it was for me NOT to major in English--AKA the subject I really loved.

What were your plans for after graduation? How have those plans been fulfilled or how have they been different than you expected?
Originally, I was going the pre-law route (I'm sure you've all noticed that when you say you're an English major, most people assume that you want to be A) a lawyer or B) a teacher)... but I realized, in the middle of taking the LSAT unfortunately, that being a lawyer would make me MISERABLE, and spent all of the summer between Junior and Senior year moping around without a life plan. My next idea was to work in PR/Communications (which I definitely recommend), but I ended up getting a scholarship to attend the Columbia Publishing Institute and decided to take it. I now work as an editorial assistant in children's publishing. Looking back, it seems like a natural choice since being an author had given me a lot of insight into the business.I'm not sure if it's what I want to be doing forever, but I'm happy to be employed and doing something I enjoy!


What made you decide to take on writing a novel while in college?
I first tried my hand at writing a novel my freshman year--I always say that NaNoWriMo made me very brave, and it's true. I thought I would just give it a go, and ended up getting hooked on the process.

Were you planning to publish this all along?
No... I tried to be very realistic about it and not get my hopes up, but secretly I was hoping I'd be able to sell something before I graduated.


How did you balance school and writing?
I get asked this all the time, and I'm still not sure what the right answer is. I was very disciplined and made a lot of social sacrifices on the weekends. You really do have to find a schedule that works, though. The first three years of college were incredibly reading and writing intensive (I was once assigned 2000 pages of reading a week in my Sophomore year. Not. Fun.), but that helped me write. Knowing that I only had an hour here or two hours there meant that I used that little time for writing and writing alone. When i was working on revisions with my agent, I gave myself a deadline to finish the first round before finals that May. Starting in March, I woke up at 6 AM every day and wrote until I had class at 1 PM, and when I was done with homework at night, I'd be back to revising. I tried getting up at 5 AM and squeezing in an hour of work out time, but... uh... I quickly decided an extra hour of sleep was more important than getting my fitness on.


What advice would you give college students who want to write seriously in college? What advice would you give those who want to publish? What steps should they take?
The advice that I always give to high schoolers and college students that ask me this question is this: While you're in school, focus on being a writer before you focus on being a published author. I really miss the days I had before I was published, when I could write whatever I wanted regardless of how crappy it was and I didn't have to worry about another person's judgment. I can't reinforce this enough, being published in college is like having a full-time job, and one that isn't always fun. It's an incredible amount of stress and pressure to put on yourself, when you're already anxious about exams/papers/what-have-you. Not everyone will have a negative experience, but I would also add that a good portion of my friends thought that I had graduated a semester early because I was so deep in my revision hole that I only surfaced for food and class. School is such a unique and wonderful time, but you don't get to experience it when you're by yourself writing. There are a zillion and a half elements in Brightly Woven that I picked up from the classes I was taking at the time. Be a sponge and absorb as much as possible from your classes and friends. Make sure you're taking advantage of all that college life has to offer, and if you happen to write something that you feel is ready to be seen by the world, go for it! Revise it seriously, submit it to agents, and learn from the feedback you get. Make sure that when you're writing you are happy and excited, because the minute you start feeling stressed out or depressed, it often means that your life has become unbalanced, and you need to step away and refocus.


What advice would you give to English majors about how to make the English major work for them after school?
Okay guys, here's a secret: what matters in the job world isn't necessarily what you majored in, but the internships and work experiences that you have. My current boss didn't hire me because I was an English major (though I'm sure that helped)--she claimed it was because I talked about coordinating our Student Assembly's Thanksgiving airport shuttle rides. So don't discount any work experience you have, regardless of how small or insignificant you think it is. I would also recommend networking with alums in the career field of your choice, and seeking out speciality programs like the Columbia Publishing Course, which often feed you directly into jobs. Besides the fact that companies are always looking for good writers (seriously--critical writing does not tend to be a strength of most business majors), so be sure to always play that up. Plus, you've spent how many years analyzing and forming your own arguments, right? That's another skill you have in the bag.

Alexandra's novel, Brightly Woven, comes out March 23. You can read a longer synopsis if you follow the Brightly Woven link.

Well I've been spending a lot of time buying textbooks recently, which is always frustrating for me because textbooks suck a lot of my funds. One day my bank account is overflowing and the next it's maxed. I look in there and think, "Oh my God! Someone stole my money!" Then I remember, oh yeah, I'm a college student. I love to buy books, but it's a lot more fun to buy books when someone isn't telling you you have to buy them. I'm actually only taking ONE English class this semester, which is almost the opposite of last semester. I only took English classes last semester. You see, I'm taking more history classes now, which is nerve racking for me because I was really bad at history when I was a kid. But I'm more interested in history now. So wish me luck on that...

The English class I am taking is about sensation fiction and the authors in focus are Wilkie Collins and Mary Elizabeth Braddon. I'm reading Armadale (Collins), Wyllard's Weird (Braddon), The Woman in White (Collins), The Moonstone (Collins), and Lady Audley's Secret (Braddon), which I read last semester for a different class. For my other classes I'm taking American History since the Civil War, Art History since 1400, Civilizations of Asia, and Nonprofit Organizational Management (woohoo, betcha want to hear about the book for that class).

Honestly though, I complain about buying books but English major's have a pretty sweet deal going. My boyfriend spends twice as much as I do on books. Even though he can sell most of them back it's still a chunk of change that is gone, and if he can't sell the book back he will probably never look at it again. With me, I keep most of my books and would probably have bought them at some point anyway. So being an English major is kind of fun! Sometimes...

Oh the papers will be coming soon...

Okay I have recently received a lot of awards, and unfortunately have not been on top of award posts. This means that I have gotten a few awards that I am not quite sure where they came from. Also, since I have gotten so many awards at once I'm not going to be passing them onto 30 gagillion blogs because that would mean I would have to go out and find blogs I don't actually read, and then give them awards. Since I don't want to do that I will just pass on these awards to blogs I truly love and feel deserve them. So the list...

I received the Silver Lining Award from my good friend Jade at Chasing Empty Pavements. As I understand from her post, this award means that I always try to look at the upside of things. It's pretty amazing I got this award, because I was known as the resident debbie downer at my high school when I was about 15. But hey, what can you expect from a 15 year old? I have five more years of wisdom now! Thanks for this award!

I am now going to pass this award on to Displaced English Major, Southern City Mysteries, Helen Loves Books, and Confessions and Ramblings of a Muse in the Fog.

The next award I received was from a blog I truly respect (not that I don't respect the others), A Guy's Moleskine Notebook. This reading journal is a daily go to for me and I know I can always depend on it for honest reviews and musings that have a lot of heart.

I am going to give this award to Dyxie Land: Gay/Straight Take on Nothing, Books and Movies, and Laura's Reviews. I realize some of you have probably gotten this award before, it circulates quite a bit (this is my second time) so sorry about that. But I wanted to give you all something!

Laura at Reading and Rooibos gave me the Kreativ Blogger award. I only recently discovered her blog but it has quickly become a favorite of mine. For this award I am supposed to list seven things about myself... but more on that later. Thanks Laura!

I am giving this award to A Guy's Moleskine Notebook, The Book Whisperer, Bookmarked!, and A Bookish Way of Life.

And last but not least, I received the Sugar Doll award from Michele at Southern City Mysteries. Hers is a wonderful writer's blog that I urge you to check out. She also has a new weekly meme called Writing Prompt Wednesdays, be sure to join in on that! This award requires to me say ten things about myself...

And I am giving this award to Stuck in a Book, Boarding in My Forties and Chasing Empty Pavements.

So what I'm going to do is tell you fifteen things about myself. I think that's fair. I think I should get some kind of theme going though. So maybe I will tell you fifteen things about since college.

1. I only applied to one school, the University of Iowa. I knew I would get in, I knew it was where I wanted to go, and I didn't want to spend a lot of money on application fees when I knew I was only going to consider Iowa.
2. When I first came to Iowa I was a Journalism and English double major. At the end of first semester my freshman year I quit Journalism, even though that is what I thought I really wanted to do. My roommate and I had a very lengthy discussion the night I decided to quit Journalism. She was a Journalism major too.
3. Since quitting Journalism I have considered French, Communication Studies, Linguistics, American Studies, and History as possible second major or minors. Right now I am interested in History and Museum Studies. That seems to be where life is taking me.
4. My freshman year my boyfriend and I were attending different schools. He was at Kansas State and I was obviously at Iowa. He decided to transfer to Iowa this year and it has made a world of difference in both of our lives, but I am thankful we had that time apart because it makes us appreciate each day together even more.
5. A couple other people joined me at Iowa this year. My best friend from high school, Katharyne, and my other good friend from high school Benjamin. Having both of them with me makes school quite the trip!
6. I asked for a coffee pot my senior year so I could have coffee in my dorm room. I rarely make coffee now, just like my family told me I wouldn't. I just don't have time.
7. Last semester I took all English classes. A hint for everyone else: Never, ever do that.
8. Going on a year and a half now I have worked at the lovely Currier-Stanley Residence Halls Front Desk. I steal pens (But don't tell Barb!)
9. The first English class I took at Iowa was a class on Virginia and Leonard Woolf taught by the lovely Lara Trubowitz. It was a fascinating class and sparked my interest in Victorian literature, mostly because Virginia hated those Victorians so much.
10. In my Victorian Lit class last semester there were two males. And about thirty students. It was an interesting class, and my prof brought Christmas cookies to our final!
11. I have started four (I think?) blogs since I came to college. This is the only one that has stuck. Why that is I do not know. I think I had a different attitude with this one, and an actual purpose.
12. I had season tickets to Iowa football games my freshman year. Yeah, that was a waste of my parents' money. I rarely went to football games in high school.
13. My class was supposed to be the last class to graduate from out old high school, but they didn't get the new high school finished in time so we were the second to last class to graduate from our old high school. I will lie to my children about this because second to last sounds stupid.
14. Last year I saw Ben Folds twice. I also saw Jack's Mannequin twice. I geek out for pianos.
15. Since coming to college I have found out that I love to read literary criticism. So sue me.

Thanks everyone who gave me an award! Sorry this was such a sloppy post, it'll teach to be more on top of this in future!

Finals week for English majors is never really about exams. It's about papers. I have two ten pagers due next Wednesday and I'm aiming to finish them by the end of the weekend. The paper writing process can be excruciating, somewhat like pulling teeth or so I imagine, as I've never had a tooth pulled. While this semester as been mundane, horrible, terrible, disgusting, whatever, I am actually super excited to write both of this final papers because my paper topics are so interesting to me.

I'm writing a paper on whether or not Sarah Silverman is essayistic at all by looking at her film Jesus is Magic

and her book The Bedwetter: Stories of Courage, Redemption, and Pee

. I just started reading The Bedwetter yesterday and I must say I am so glad I can consider that homework. I haven't read any books for class this semester! Only essays. I really miss reading whole books for class. And The Bedwetter is hilarious so far, I'm a little over a 1/3 of the way through it. This paper is relaxing and stimulating. It's reminding me that paper writing can be fun.


Everyone at Iowa has to take a rhetoric class their freshman or sophomore year. I took my mine first semester my freshman year since I'm an English major and while I didn't really enjoy the class, I did write an awesome paper for it. I wrote about German rap music and how it relates to ethnicity. I listened to a ton of German rap music as music. I got an A on that paper and writing it was a trip.

Currently, I'm also writing a paper about book catalogs in the Renaissance. The class I'm writing this for, Literature and the Book, is my favorite class I've taken this semester. I've loved analyzing how they sold books during the Renaissance and book catalogs is a perfect way to do that. I get to use some really great databases to look at microfilm and some actually books from our library's special collections. This isn't as relaxed as Sarah Silverman, but book history is something I really enjoy so it seems fun to me.

I've also written some papers about actual books (go figure) and analyzed passages. These kind of papers are awesome if you have a great argument. I remember my freshman year I took Intro to the English Major and did less than desired on the first paper. When we wrote about The Tempest

I got a really good argument going about gender and the New World in my paper. I was so proud to get my first A in the English department.

I complain about writing papers a lot, but honestly I feel pretty lucky to be an English major and write papers about things that interest me all the time, instead of just taking exams about things I don't care about.

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Criteria include recognition of the sites as outstanding examples representing major stages of the world’s history or as masterpieces of human creative genius and, with that criteria in mind, the archaeological site of Philippi undoubtedly deserves a place in that list.

The candidacy of the ancient site for UNESCO’s World Heritage List was revealed by the Theocharakis Foundation in Athens on Monday. The well-known list already includes 17 Greek sites, with the last Greece-based entry being the Old Town of Corfu.

“The area of Philippi hosts a series of archaeological monuments, witnesses to a long historical path during which civilizations intersected and developed,” writes UNESCO’s official site for this amazing ancient city located in eastern Macedonia.

Philippi was established by the king of Macedon, Philip II in 356 BC. This ancient city, most important archaeological site in the eastern Macedonia region of northern Greece, had walled fortifications, a theatre, several public buildings and private houses.

The milestone battle of Philippi, which took place outside the western city walls in 42 BC, was a turning point in the area’s history. The site was conquered by Octavian and, as a Roman colony, developed into a financial, administrative, and artistic centre.

Another important event that marked the city’s history was the foundation of the first Christian Church on European soil by the Apostle Paul in 49/50 AD.

Source: Protothema [March 04, 2015]

It is always a shock reaching Bamiyan, coming face to face with the two huge cavities in the cliff face. The upright tombs stare out over the valley, a splash of vegetation surrounded by wild mountains. The town straddles the Silk Road, close to the point where it used to enter Persia, dwarfed by two massive mountain ranges, the Koh-i-Baba and Hindu Kush. The void left by the two destroyed Buddha figures is appalling, it rouses an emotion almost more powerful than their once tranquil presence did for centuries.

To understand what happened you must go back to the beginning of 2001. The Taliban-led regime was on very poor terms with the international community and increasingly tempted by radical gestures. The decision to destroy the two monumental Buddha figures at Bamiyan was just part of the drive to destroy all the country’s pre-Islamic “icons”, an act of defiance to the outside world.

Demolition work at Bamiyan started at the beginning of March 2001 and lasted several weeks, the two figures – 58 and 38 metres tall – proved remarkably solid. Anti-aircraft guns had little effect, so the engineers placed anti-tank mines between their feet, then bored holes into their heads and packed them with dynamite. The world watched this symbolic violence in impotent horror.

Now almost 14 years on, reconstruction work has yet to start as archaeologists and UNESCO policy-makers argue.

The two cavities resemble open wounds, a blemish on the long history of Afghanistan, which experienced the fervour of Buddhism long before the arrival of Islam. For 15 centuries the two mystic colossi gazed down as the trading caravans and warring armies streamed past. Monks came from China to worship here. Others meditated in nearby caves.

The two Buddhas, draped in stucco robes, are testimony to a unique case of cross-breeding, which flourished in the early years of the first century AD, drawing on Buddhist influences from India and Greek aesthetics left behind by Alexander the Great. It gave rise to the kingdom of Gandhara and made a mark so deep that even the disciples of Allah, who reached here in the ninth century, made no attempt to disturb it.

Today the site has recovered a certain serenity. Children play volleyball below the cliffs and archaeologists work unhindered. Whereas a low-intensity war is still rumbling on elsewhere in Afghanistan, the central Hazarajat region and its capital Bamiyan (population circa 60,000) has been relatively spared. Most of the inhabitants are Shia Muslims and they had little sympathy with the Sunni Taliban from the Pashtun south. In the 1990s there was fierce fighting between the two sides. In Bamiyan there is a fairly enlightened view of Islam, and few women wear burqas. They proudly explain that 40% of girls in the province are in education, the highest proportion in Afghanistan.

So the outrage perpetrated by the Taliban came as a huge shock, a blow against a tolerant community that sees itself as unusual in the country as a whole. “The statues symbolised Bamiyan,” says mullah Sayed Ahmed-Hussein Hanif. Bamiyan had adopted and integrated the statues, making them a part of local legend. They had become an allegory for unhappy love, a foreshadow of Romeo and Juliet set in the Hindu Kush. He was Salsal, prince of Bamiyan; she was Shamana, a princess from another kingdom. Their love affair was impossible so, rather than live apart, they turned into stone, beside each other for all eternity.

“Local people had completely forgotten they were figures of the Buddha,” says Hamid Jalya, head of historical monuments in Bamiyan province. The Taliban and their dynamite reminded them of the original story. Ever since, people here have been unsure what to do about them.

An incident in 2013 demonstrated the sensitivity of the subject. A decade ago UNESCO authorised archaeologists and engineers to consolidate the two niches, with props and grouting. But nothing else. Almost two years ago someone noticed that, on the site of the small Buddha, a team from the German branch of the International Council on Monuments and Sites (Icomos) was beginning to rebuild the feet. This was contrary to UNESCO policy, based on the 1964 Venice charter for the conservation and restoration of monuments and sites, which requires the use of “original material”. If work on the Bamiyan remains disregarded this rule, then the site would be struck off the World Heritage list. The Afghan authorities ordered the Icomos team to down tools, leaving the remains even less sightly than they were before.

The incident highlights the lack of a clear consensus on the future of Bamiyan both internally and among the international community. “Bamiyan seems emblematic of the way international aid has treated Afghanistan,” says Philippe Marquis, former head of the French Archaeological Delegation in Afghanistan (Dafa). There has been endless dithering, underhand rivalry, pointless discord and mistakes.

The Buddhas are a powerful symbol – of confessional tolerance, Buddhism in a Muslim country and the remains of the Silk Road – with scope for considerable political kudos, so academic quarrels have been diverted to serve strategic aims. The Afghans have watched this spectacle with growing amazement: Germany and its experience of post-war reconstruction; France and its archaeological exploits in Afghanistan; Japan and Korea, with their interest in the origins of Buddhism; UNESCO and its byzantine bureaucracy. The various parties have sometimes cooperated with one another, but more frequently waged secret wars. “All these endless discussions among experts are pitiful, yielding no positive results,” says Zamaryalai Tarzi, a Franco-Afghan archaeologist who has been in charge of the French dig at the foot of the Bamiyan cliff for many years.

Behind the squabbling there is, however, a very real controversy as to how best to honour the fallen Buddhas. How should we go about making sense of an obscurantist crime the better to vanquish it? Or, in other terms, how should we mourn the martyrs? There are two opposing schools of thought: complete reconstruction or keeping the status quo. For now, the latter camp have the upper hand. “The two niches should be left empty, like two pages in Afghan history, so that subsequent generations can see how ignorance once prevailed in our country,” Tarzi asserts. Many other sites have adopted this approach, in particular the Genbaku dome in Hiroshima and the former summer palace in Beijing.

There is also a practical side: any attempt at reconstruction would be extremely complex. The original material, as required by the Venice charter, would be a major obstacle. The 2001 demolition left a heap of scattered fragments. Barely a third of the smaller Buddha has been saved, consisting of a pile of rock behind a wire fence. Furthermore, some of what does remain is from more recent additions. Over the centuries, long before the coming of the Taliban, the two figures were damaged and defaced. In the 1970s Indian archaeologists rebuilt the feet of the smaller Buddha using new material. Given this, how can the Venice charter rules be applied?

The final objection is that it may be a mistake to focus so much attention on the two Buddhas, given that the Bamiyan valley boasts many other exceptional sites, as yet little known. The ruins of the Shahr-e-Gholghola fortress, and probably monastery, perched on a hillock across the valley from the Buddhas, and the fortified town of Shahr-i-Zohak are both at risk, worn down by weather and earthquakes. “The priority is to save all the endangered sites around Bamiyan,” says Amir Fouladi, of the Aga Khan Trust. “There is no urgency about rebuilding the Buddhas.” The economic development of Bamiyan, due to gather speed with the projected launch of the Hajigak iron ore mines, makes it all the more important to adopt an overall strategy.

Meanwhile, the advocates of reconstruction have not wasted their time. Although the current mood is hardly in their favour, the small structure resting on the remains of the small Buddha’s feet suggests that the German branch of Icomos has not given up hope. Its president, Michael Petzet, a professor at the Technical University of Munich, has made many statements in favour of at least rebuilding the smaller of the two figures. The local representative of Icomos Germany, Bert Praxenthaler, sees the controversy about the small Buddha’s feet as salutary in that it “stirred debate about what should be done with the Buddhas”. “We must be ready the day a decision is taken,” he adds. He is referring to the possibility that an ad hoc UNESCO group may give the go-ahead for “partial re-assembly of the fragments”. His organisation sees this as an opportunity to demonstrate the quality of its restoration work in combining old and new materials.

Local residents are in favour. The idea of leaving the larger niche empty but rebuilding the smaller Buddha appeals to them, particularly as they take little interest in quarrels about original material. They are more concerned about boosting tourism in a relatively isolated area in desperate need of revenue. But there is symbolic value too. “By rebuilding a Buddha we could regain possession of our history and send a message to the whole world in favour of reconciliation between religions,” says Shukrya Neda, who campaigns for a local NGO. “By leaving the other niche empty we leave a testimony to the damage done by the Taliban.” Kabul has officially approved this approach, but some in Bamiyan feel its support is rather timid, for ethnic reasons. The Hazara population of Bamiyan distrust the Pashtun leaders in Kabul. “The government doesn’t want Bamiyan to develop its identity and economy,” says Riza Ibrahim, head of the city’s tourist board. “It’s discrimination.”

UNESCO has tried to steer a cautious middle course on the issue of reconstruction. Its ad hoc expert committee has warned against rushing to make a decision. “It is neither for nor against reconstruction,” says Masanori Nagaoka, head of UNESCO’s culture unit in Kabul. The committee has ruled that before considering partial reassembly of the small Buddha, a thorough technical and scientific study would be required. All of which favours keeping the status quo. Will the reconstruction lobby finally succeed in resurrecting Shamana (the small Buddha)? Perhaps, by dint of patience, but everyone seems to have overlooked an essential detail: the legendary prince and princess wanted to stay together forever. If Shamana rises again, but without Salsal, it would break their oath.

Author: Frédéric Bobin | Source: Guardian Weekly [January 10, 2015]

It's been a big day for me! Today I was on KRUI's show Not Your Literati to talk about English Major's Junk Food. It was a great show and if you haven't heard about it before and are in the Iowa City area you should tune in next Sunday at 11 AM. They also put a post about our interview on their blog today, and you can download the interview if you care to listen to it. Just head over to Not Your Literati. They also have posts on their blog about past shows so be sure to check it out!

Last week was crazy busy for me so I didn't get quite as much reading done as I wanted but I was a lot better about getting posts done on time. This week I reviewed Harriet the Spy and Villette. My children's book this week was Old Bear. Rather than writing a review of the children's book this week I decided to do a vlog and read the book. This seemed to work out pretty well so I think I might do this more in the future. Friday I complained about the University of Iowa's Intro to the English Major and yesterday I had a picture of a weird initial letter.

This week I'm planning on finishing three of the four books I'm reading. I'd like to finish The Woman in White, The Jungle, and The Secret History of the Pink Carnation. I'm going to put Pride and Prejudice on hold until I finish those three. I've got three awards recently and I will probably post those this week, and then I'm considering doing a post on literary talk shows. I was inspired to do this by Not Your Literati. There are a few other podcasts I listen to that I'd like to highlight. It should be an exciting week!

Happy Reading!

The report analyzes six of the 12 sites that Syria has nominated as World Heritage Sites: Dura Europos, Ebla, Hama's Waterwheels, Mari, Raqqa, and Ugarit. A forthcoming report will analyze the additional six sites.

"As we continue to study the conditions at Syria's important cultural sites, we have observed significant destruction that is largely the result of conflict. However, unlike our previous analysis of Syria's World Heritage Sites, we're seeing a lot of damage that appears to be the result of widespread looting," said Susan Wolfinbarger, director of the AAAS Geospatial Technologies and Human Rights Project, which authored the report. Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania Museum's Penn Cultural Heritage Center and the Smithsonian Institution also contributed to the research.

"This report helps us understand how the extensive the actual damage is to Syria's cultural heritage. It will inform future emergency preservation efforts," said Brian Daniels, director of research and programs at the University of Pennsylvania Museum's Penn Cultural Heritage Center.

In the report, images from 2014 show numerous pits throughout three sites where ancient cities once stood. The pits generally do not appear in similar images from 2011, when the conflict in Syria began. "We interpret these pits as evidence of looting due to the distinct craters visible within the satellite images," said Jonathan Drake, a senior program associate at AAAS.

"This type of documentation really allows us to make a firm statement based on scientific observation of things that have happened at a site," said Wolfinbarger.

"Sometimes when things are reported in the news media or social media, details can be obscured or purposefully misconstrued. But this analysis is replicable. We can say definitively, 'we see this.' And when it is tied it in with other types of information, satellite imagery can give us a more complete picture in parts of the world that are difficult to access."

"These images show the destruction of ancient artifacts, architecture, and most importantly, archaeological context that is the record of humanity's past," said Katharyn Hanson, a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Pennsylvania Museum's Penn Cultural Heritage Center and a visiting scholar at AAAS. "From the origins of civilization to the first international empires, Syria's cultural heritage and these sites in particular are vitally important to our understanding of history."

The most extensive looting identified in the report was at Dura-Europos, which was founded in the 3rd century B.C. and served as a frontier city as well as the main hub for caravan routes. The site represents a blend of cultural traditions, including Greek, Mesopotamian, Aramaic, Persian, and Roman influences. There have been numerous reports of damage through social media and news reports, and the AAAS report now documents the extent of this activity.

Based on the imagery analysis, 76% of the area within the city wall had been damaged by April 2014, and the looting pits were so close together it was impossible to distinguish individual pits, the researchers report. Looting pits outside the city wall were less dense but still numerous; approximately 3,750 individual pits were observed. Images from 2 April 2014 show four vehicles among the ancient Roman ruins in close proximity to the looting, suggesting that the disturbances at the site may have been ongoing at that time, according to the report.

The second site described in the report is Ebla, the site of an important kingdom in the Early Bronze Age. The site is best known for its archive of several thousand written tablets that "revolutionized knowledge regarding the ancient history and political economy of the region," the report says. Ebla is constructed out of mud brick, so without preservation it is vulnerable to erosion.

The images in the analysis show looting pits, including 45 new holes observed between 18 August 2013 and 4 August 2014, as well as eroded walls, earthen berm fortifications, and heavy vehicle tracks. Military compounds have been constructed on the site, likely due to the fact that the site is elevated over the surrounding plain and provides a good view of the area.

Looting is also widespread at the ancient Mesopotamian city of Mari, which was founded in the early 3rd millennium B.C. and prospered as a node on the trade routes. Like Dura-Europos, Mari is located in the Deir ez-Zor province that has seen violent clashes during the conflict. The Albu Kamal region, where Mari is located, came under the control of ISIS in June 2014.

The looting appears to have ramped up during the last year. The researchers identified 165 visible pits dug between August 2011 and March 2014 (an average of 0.17 pits formed per day). Between 25 March and 11 November 2014, however, they identified 1,286 new pits, an average rate of 5.5 pits dug every day over the seven-month period.

The fourth site is Raqqa, and important city center that exemplifies the transition of a Greek/Byzantine urban center into an Islamic city by 796 A.D. Since 2013 Raqqa has been at the center of the conflict in Syria. After fighting by opposition groups, ISIS took control of the city in October 2013, and in September 2014, the United States and partner nations began an airstrike campaign against ISIS in Raqqa.

The observed damage in vicinity of the Tentative World Heritage site in Raqqa appears to be different from that of the other sites in the analysis, according to the report, with little evidence of direct military conflict. "Rather, when damage is present, it appears to be nearly total and targeted, with specific buildings disappearing while the surrounding buildings remain untouched," the report states.

This phenomenon appears too precise to have been caused by the Syrian Arab Republic Government's military forces, and while it is well known that the United States and other partner air forces have the ability to deliver munitions with high precision, the destroyed sites are all cultural sites located within the UNESCO Tentative World Heritage site boundary, according to the report. "The more plausible explanation is that the demolitions in the vicinity of the Tentative World Heritage site's boundaries are the result of actions by ISIS," the report states.

The two other areas that the researchers analyzed -- the historic waterwheels of Hama, which raised water up to aqueducts for drinking and irrigation, and the ancient site of Ugarit, a mostly stone city that connected the ancient empires of Mesopotamia with those of the Mediterranean -- do not appear to have been damaged.

Copies of the report can be downloaded at http://www.aaas.org/geotech/culturalheritage-SyrianTWHS-122014.html.

Source: American Association for the Advancement of Science [December 17, 2014]

To be a lover of nonfiction is a dangerous and confusing thing. I have become aware of a major difference in the way readers who primarily love nonfiction shop over the way readers who primarily love fiction shop. When you go to the bookstore and you look for a fiction book, there is generally one place you're searching. Maybe two if you like YA or three if you like romance or western. If you love nonfiction there are an unlimited number of places you might find your books. This can be dangerous and frustrating.

For example, after a recent trip to Half-Price Books I purchased seven books and they were each in a completely different section.

• The first place I always look is in Essays and Memoirs, which is generally only one or two shelves of a bookcase (in a normal store there might be one whole bookcase). In this section I found Coop, which is a memoir, I suppose, of Michael Perry's life as a farmer and parent.
• I moved to the Sports section where I found The Lost Art of Walking, a history and discussion of walking.
• Nearby was travel, where in the further category of Iowa travel I found Postville: A Clash of Cultures in Heartland America

  

  , a profile of a town in Iowa.

• I went to graphic novels and found the graphic memoir Blankets

  

  .

• I caught up with Jason in the Science section where I found The Compassionate Carnivore: Or, How to Keep Animals Happy, Save Old MacDonald's Farm, Reduce Your Hoofprint, and Still Eat Meat

  

  on the one shelf of sustainable agriculture books.

• From sustainable agriculture I moved towards nature writing where I picked up The Control of Nature

  

  , a book of essays by John McPhee.

• I ended by trip in the close-by section of Green Living, which had a really neat copy of Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life.

Seven books. Seven sections.

Can you see why loving nonfiction is a dangerous and frustrating process? Dangerous because, as you've just seen, it's very easy to hop around the whole store and find something you're interested in in every section. It's too easy, especially in a store like Half-Price Books, which organizes its categories down into smaller categories.

It's frustrating, however, because if you are looking for a specific book there can be at least three places it will be located. Is it in essays and memoirs? Is it in environmentalism? Is it in cookbooks? I've found Animal, Vegetable, Miracle in every place. Even from the books I purchased you can probably see some overlap. The Compassionate Carnivore, The Control of Nature, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, and Coop could have easily been found in the same section, but for some reason Half-Price Books distinguishes them. The distinguishing factor might be something as arbitrary as what type of writer wrote the book. Was it a journalist? A farmer? A scientist?

Part of this is just that the majority of the books in a bookstore are nonfiction, and bookstores do distinguish all the nonfiction by subject because that is how most people look for it. But when you're a general lover of all types of nonfiction it gets frustrating when there isn't just a single section titled Essays that contains all the books of essays. Since nonfiction is a constantly evolving genre (I'm not saying fiction is not, I'm saying literary fiction has a more established, concrete history) it's difficult for a lot of readers to make the distinction between literary nonfiction and what I would consider "How to" nonfiction. How to travel in Mexico. How to become a Buddhist. How to farm sustainably. Versus. My travels in Mexico. My experience as a Buddhist. My experience as a sustainable farmer.

Do you read nonfiction? Do you find yourself running around the store looking for a book? If you are a fiction reader, how many sections do you generally look in?

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I hope you all a great holiday week! Because of the holidays I'm a little behind on my reading, as I'm sure most of us are. Today I'm planning on finishing The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger and The Swan Thieves by Elizabeth Kostova. I've really been enjoying both books but since The Time Traveler's Wife is a little bit faster to read I've been more eager to read it. I'm actually further in the The Swan Thieves though because I keep thinking I'm further in The Time Traveler's Wife so I read it more. I know that makes no sense.

This week I posted reviews of The White Garden and The Luxe. Both were excellent books that I would recommend to anyone. Check out the reviews if you don't believe me. I also posted some photographs of the book wreath I made. And what would the holidays be without some complaining? Check out my English Major Grievances post here. You can even share some of your grievances here, I love to hear people complain.

I got a lot of books this Christmas, and I'm actually going to do a post about what books I did get most likely tomorrow. I got some book related things though so I figured I would share some of those right now. First of all I got a great calendar from my parents called The Reading Woman. I've actually been eyeing this calendar for months and I was really hoping someone would get if for me. It's just a collection of paintings of women reading. It is a beautiful calendar, the only painting I don't really care for is the last one, Micah Williams' Portrait of a Lady. There's nothing wrong with it it's just really not my taste.

I also got Jane Austen: An Illustrated Treasury

from my boyfriend. It is a beautiful collection of history and photographs/paintings from Jane Austen's past. There are envelopes throughout the book that hold items you can take out. These are copies of Austen's letters amongst other things. My favorite "treasure" is the collection of drawings from an early edition of Pride and Prejudice. There is also a very long section on the history of the gothic novel in the Nothanger Abbey section. I could not stop looking through this book for the rest of the night. The next thing isn't really book related but I got The Tudors

Seasons 1-3. I've never really watched Tudors before but I started it on Christmas Eve and I am so glad I have these!

Happy Reading!

An estimated 5.5 million tons of copper, one of the biggest deposits in the world, could provide a major export for a war-ravaged country desperately in need of jobs and cash. But the hoped-for bonanza also could endanger rare artifacts that survived the rule of the Taliban and offer a window into Afghanistan's rich pre-Islamic history.

"The copper mine and its extraction are very important. But more important is our national culture," said Abdul Qadir Timor, director of archaeology at Afghanistan's Culture Ministry. "Copper is a temporary source of income. Afghanistan might benefit for five or six years after mining begins, and then the resource comes to an end."

The government is determined to develop Afghanistan's estimated $3 trillion worth of minerals and petroleum, an untapped source of revenue that could transform the country. The withdrawal of U.S.-led combat forces at the end of 2014 and a parallel drop in foreign aid have left the government strapped for cash. It hopes to attract global firms to exploit oil, natural gas and minerals, ranging from gold and silver to the blue lapis lazuli for which the country has been known since ancient times.

Beijing's state-run China Metallurgical Group struck a $3 billion deal in 2008 to develop a mining town at Mes Aynak with power generators, road and rail links, and smelting facilities. Workers built a residential compound, but were pulled out two years ago because of security concerns. Nazifullah Salarzai, a spokesman for President Ashraf Ghani, said the government is determined to finish that project.

Archaeologists are scrambling to uncover a trove of artifacts at the site dating back nearly 2,000 years which shed light on a Buddhist civilization that stretched across India and China, reaching all the way to Japan.

"The more we look, the more we find," archaeologist Aziz Wafa said as he scanned hilltops pock-marked with bowl-shaped hollows where copper powder once was melted down and painted onto ceramics. Excavators have found silver platters, gold jewelry and a human skeleton as they have uncovered the contours of a long-lost town that once hosted elaborate homes, monasteries, workshops and smelters.

Behind Wafa is a cave in which three Buddhas are seated around a dome-shaped shrine known as a stupa. Two are headless; one was decapitated by looters who entered through a tunnel. The other head was removed by archaeologists and placed in storage along with thousands of other items.

Movable objects, including sculptures, coins and ceramics, are stored at the National Museum in Kabul. Larger objects, including stupas measuring eight meters (26 feet) across and statues of robed monks 7 meters (23 feet) tall remain at the sprawling site, which is closed off and protected by a special security force. The roads are lined with armed guards and the archaeologists have no telephone or Internet access.

Experts believe that proselytizing Buddhist monks from India settled here in the 2nd Century A.D. Like today's miners, they were enticed by the copper, which they fashioned into jewelry and other products to trade on the Silk Road linking China to Europe.

The site was discovered in 1942 and first explored in 1963, but the excavations ground to a halt for two decades during the Soviet invasion, the civil war and the brutal rule of the Taliban in the late 1990s. Osama bin Laden ran a training camp at Mes Aynak in the years leading up to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and the subsequent U.S.-led invasion.

Until the giant Buddhas of Bamiyan were dynamited by the Taliban in 2001, few knew that Afghanistan was once a wealthy, powerful Buddhist empire. It still does not feature on the local education curriculum, which ignores the country's pre-Islamic past. But at Mes Aynak the eroded remains of enormous feet testify to the colossal Buddhas that once towered over the valley.

Low world copper prices and a slowing Chinese economy have bought time for the archaeologists to uncover more artifacts, while the government seeks to find a way to unearth the copper without ruining relics.

The government has asked the U.N. cultural agency to survey mining sites and draw up plans to protect and preserve cultural heritage, said Masanori Nagaoka, UNESCO's head of cultural affairs in Afghanistan.

The request is rooted in hope for better days, when tourists might replace the tense guards scanning the valley.

The archaeological value of the site "will outlast the life cycle of the Aynak mine," an anti-corruption group called Integrity Watch Afghanistan said in a report. "The relics found could be a perpetual tourist attraction and would provide a new symbol of the historical foundation of the region and people."

Author: Lynne O'Donnell | Source: Associated Press [February 06, 2015]

Under the agreement, Pfalzner and his project team – part of the DFG-backed collaborative research center ResourceCultures – plan to expand on surveys taken over an area of 4400 square kilometers in 2013 and 2014, which were aimed at discovering ancient and historical settlements. The archaeologists used drone-mounted cameras to make 3D models of the landscape and have already located 92 relevant sites. Many of the settlements can be dated by finds such as pottery shards.

Cooperation between the archaeologists and the local authorities will enable important sites to be protected. The Bronze Age settlement of Bassetki became famous due to objects such as a bronze statue of the Akkadian god-king Naram-Sin found during excavations in the 1970s. Pfalzner’s latest survey of the area revealed an extensive lower city at the site – and the Kurdish authorities have agreed to suspend expansion there of the main road from Baghdad to Istanbul and to change part of the route to allow archaeological work to be carried out. Going ahead with the road-building would have destroyed this part of the ancient site.

Despite the explosive political situation in nearby regions, Governor Atrushi stressed that Dohuk is one of the safest provinces in Iraq. It is located between two mountain ranges and is protected by Peshmerga troops. The United Nations estimates the region now hosts more than half a million refugees from the campaigns of the IS terrorist movement. Governor Atrushi underlined that it was important to protect the region’s history despite the tremendous political and humanitarian challenges: “We must send a signal that normal life continues. That includes protecting our historical sites. And we will not approve new building applications without a green light from the Department of Antiquities.”

“This agreement gives us the opportunity to survey a region which has largely been a blank space on the archaeological map,” says Pfalzner. “Finding a lower city at Bassetki raised new questions. Until now, we didn’t know why the statue of an important ruler like Naram-Sin was found here on the periphery of his empire. We think now that this settlement may have been a major administrative center.”

In their 2013 survey, the archaeologists discovered that rock carvings at Mila Mergi showing the Assyrian king Tiglat-Pileser III had been badly damaged – probably by modern treasure hunters – and collected the fragments. A doctoral student in the ResourceCultures collaborative research center is now reconstructing and translating the tablets of cuneiform writing, which represent a valuable source of information. They describe the conquest of the land of Ulluba by the Assyrians, listing 20 captured cities. To date, it was believed the expansion of the Assyrian empire was driven by the need for raw materials; now the ResourceCultures researchers will examine whether cultural and religious resources – such as the control of holy places – could have played a role.

Source: Tubingen University [February 09, 2015]

I am so excited that my first official Fairy Tale Fortnight post is with returning author Jaclyn Dolamore! She was a part of FTF last year (go check it out, yes?!) and she pretty much rocks. She's has written Magic Under Glass, the (very) recently released Magic Under Stone and Between the Sea and Sky (all links to Goodreads). Misty has some totally rocking stuff on her blog today from the lovely Jaclyn (awesome guest post, review, and a giveaway) so make sure you check out Misty's blog today too! But first, here's the interview!

What do you make of the resurgence in popularity for fairy tales? (Once Upon a Time, Grimm, Mirror Mirror, Snow White and the Huntsmen) all within a very short time? Do you see it as a trend that will sort of peter out, or is it just getting started?

It seems to be one of those "collective unconscious" things that suddenly everyone started planning fairy tale entertainment at once. I don't have a crystal ball to know if it has legs, but I do think it's AWESOME and I won't complain if fairy tales are kind of "the next big thing." I think fairy tales tend to be hopeful, and I've never really taken to the dystopian trend because it gives you such a big swallow of strife with a tiny dose of hope, whereas fairy tales are my cup of tea, from the sweet Disney-ish kind to the dark, sexy kind. I love them served up any old way. (I don't know why I'm into this "eating stories" metaphor right now...)

Both of the Magic Under books and Between the Sea and Sky are very fairy tale-esque in the style and approach to the story, and in the stories themselves; any plans to ever “officially” tackle a fairy tale retelling?

I actually had this idea for a fairy tale/real world mashup like Once Upon a Time, Grimm, Fables, etc, but set in the early 1970s. I wrote the first chapter, but I don't have time to go any farther with it right now, so I probably shouldn't give any more details...

You’re known for doing little character sketches in your books — would you ever consider turning one into a graphic novel, or writing/illustrating a book or graphic novel?

I don't see that on the horizon, because graphic novels are just a crazy amount of work... like, in the time it would take me to draw a 22 page comic, I could write a quarter of a novel and you'd get way more story in the novel than in the comic. I think, for someone who is more a storyteller than an artist at heart, it's a painfully slow way to tell a story. I don't take enough pleasure in rendering the visual world to stick it out. The only way I think it would happen is if I just felt like I'd told enough stories in novel format and I wanted to stretch myself.

Magic Under Glass and Magic Under Stone are directly related, with Between the Sea and Sky being a companion novel, set in the same world — do you intend to continue setting your books in this world ala Discworld (every book set in the world, but independent) or do you have plans to tackle something new?

Alas, alas! Money dictates art more than I'd like sometimes... I do have more stories I could tell in that world, but I'm looking forward to my new series with Hyperion. I might self-publish some little novellas or something someday, if I have the time. I often think about what the characters are doing after the end.

I do have a story world I've been writing about since I was a kid. When I was a kid all the authors I liked best basically had this one "world" I knew them for, like Piers Anthony's Xanth, the Pini's World of Two Moons, Discworld is another good example... basically I had this idea that that was what fantasy authors DID. They came up with a world and wrote stories about it for their entire lives. It was practically their identity, in my mind, and the places were real. I'm sure a lot of people feel that way about Hogwarts too (I was a little old to get lost so deeply in it, but Hogwarts is definitely the kind of place that makes you believe it exists). So, whatever I might be paid to do at any given time, I still always write stories in this world. It is practically real to me. I am both excited and terrified for the day those books can go out into the world.

When you’re not putting your new house to rights (congrats on the move!), what are you working on?

The sequel to my 2013 novel, Dark Metropolis (which is supposed to get a title change), a dark fantasy inspired by 1920s Berlin and the silent film Metropolis. The sequel was inspired a bit by some stuff I was reading about magic in Russia, among other things. It was a struggle to get an idea for a sequel at first, because I'd only thought of it as a variation of Metropolis, which has no sequel and doesn't really suggest one either... And when I need a break I'm working on a middle-grade about witches and their familiars in a magical version of St. Augustine, Florida. (It isn't really much of a stretch to imagine magic in St. Augustine, Florida, anyway. Creepiest place I've ever been.)

What impact do you think fairy tales have on society (especially with the same tales popping up in various forms in every society)?

Fairy tales tend to have patterns: people who want things, people who take on great struggles to get the things they want, true love, scary things in the forest... It's easy to see why these stories resonate with people all throughout time and around the world. They speak to our desires and our fears. For most of human history they would have been spoken aloud, around cook fires, to children in their beds, as cautionary tales... I love imagining these tales traveling around the globe from voice to voice, from year to year, changing with distance and time. I love writing, no doubt about that, but sometimes I envy the storytellers of the past their ability to speak right to their audience and enjoy their reactions. Nowadays, though, we still share these stories and we still twist them in our own way, and I suspect this will always be true.

QUICKFIRE:
Favorite fairy tale:
The Seven Swans.

Most underrated fairy tale?
The Seven Swans? It's one of those stories that most people kind of know, but it never gets put in with the major canon.

Most overrated fairy tale?
Hmm. Hard to think of an overrated one because they can all be told well. Like, a year ago I might've told you I never liked Rumplestiltskin, but in Once Upon a Time he's my favorite character. Sure, it's kind of a mash-up of a few tales on the show, really, but I still think it's proven to me that it's all about execution.

Last year we asked everyone’s fairy tale hero/heroine name; this year, we want to know your fairy tale villain name:
I don't know if Disney names count, but I feel like you can't beat the way Maleficent rolls off the tongue.

Using that name, give us a line from your villainous fairy tale:
I must be desperate to ask this old crone for a favor, Maleficent thought, gathering more firmly about her neck the furs she'd had made for the journey north, and sniffing a bit at the very idea of a house held up by chicken legs.
(I think Baba Yaga is a great villainess too, so I can't help but imagine them teaming up.)

If a genie granted you 3 wishes, what would they be?
Seriously? Genie wishes tend to go awry a little too often. I'm not sure I want to mess with it! But I'll imagine I have a relatively kind genie like Ifra in Magic Under Stone... and if I truly had three wishes I'd probably think about them a lot longer, buuut...
1. I wish that I am always able to make a comfortable with writing and that the stories I love to write would also be the most financially sound.
2. I wish I enjoyed flying on airplanes, even through turbulence!
3. I wish to free the genie, because, I feel that's what you're supposed to do at the end. =)

Best way to read fairy tales? (ie location, snacks, etc)
In the woods, on a crisp cool night, around a bonfire, read aloud. At least, that sounds really romantic. In practice, it would be more likely to be curled up in bed with a cat and a chocolate bar.

If one of your books was being turned into a movie and you could cast 1 character, which character would you cast and who would play them?
I actually finished all the questions several days ago, except this one. I feel like I should be able to cast at least one person! But I can't seem to think of anyone. I really just want my books to be turned into anime. If it was a movie, I'd probably be mostly like, "yay, money, pomp, circumstance" but if it was an anime I would GO CRAZY WITH EXCITEMENT. (Or a good American animation as well, like Avatar: The Last Airbender.) I tend to see my characters that way anyway, and I usually prefer TV series to movies. Although my favorite movie is Marie Antoinette and I think it would be really awesome if Sofia Coppola took her lush, intimate, slice of life style and made a fantasy movie with a bunch of dreamy 80s new wave for the soundtrack. I feel like Erris could have fit right in to the Marie Antoinette world.

Thank you so much for participating with us again this year Jaclyn! I totally loved this interview, like, a lot!
Everyone else, if you have not yet read anything by Jaclyn, I suggest you go do that now! As of right now, I've still only read Magic Under Glass but I enjoyed it a lot (also reviewed last FTF) and Misty has read them all, and she is definitely a fan:)
And speaking of, don't forget to check out the awesome stuff Misty has going on today!

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Work has been continuing at Ani, which has been home to many civilizations throughout history and is today a major draw for tourists in the area, with the support of Turkey’s Culture and Tourism Ministry.

Ani is located 40 kilometers from the city of Kars, where tourists usually base themselves during trips to visit the remote site.

Local Culture and Tourism Director Hakan Doğanay said salvage excavations in Ani would be headed this year by Pamukkale University Classical Archaeology Department Professor Fahriye Bayram.

Doğanay said projects regarding the restoration of the ancient city’s walls have now been finished, with an eye to including Ani on the UNESCO’s heritage list.

“[Ani] may enter the UNESCO list during the meeting to be held in Oslo in 2016. We predict that 2015-2016 will be the years of Kars and the ancient ruins of Ani. The Culture and Tourism Ministry has provided us with great support on this issue,” he said.

“We will also bring over 21 new artifacts from various cultures, making the best use of cultural heritage in our region,” Doğanay added. “Ani is a treasure for us that should be included in the UNESCO World Heritage List.”

Ani, which occupies 78 hectares of land and is surrounded by 4,500-meter-long ramparts, was once the capital of a medieval Armenian kingdom that covered much of present-day Armenia and eastern Turkey.

Ani is protected on its eastern side by a ravine formed by the Akhurian River and on its western side by the Bostanlar or Tzaghkotzadzor Balley. The Akhurian is a branch of the Aras River and forms part of the current border between Turkey and Armenia.

Dubbed the “City of 1,001 Churches,” Ani stood on various trade routes, and its many religious buildings, palaces, and fortifications were among the most technically and artistically advanced structures in the world at the time, according to specialists.

Source: Hurriyet Daily News [March 02, 2015]

This week has been a week of changes at English Major's Junk Food. In case you haven't noticed already I have gone from http://englishmajorjunkfood.blogspot.com to http://www.englishmajorjunkfood.com. If you go to the old blogspot address you should get redirected here, but please update your bookmarks and blogrolls with the new address. It helps me out a lot! So far I haven't seen any unusual change in traffic due to the domain name change. I know a lot of people have questions about changing over and if you are one of those people please email me at englishmajorjunkfood AT yahoo DOT com.

Well the next few days are going to be insane for me so I probably won't get a whole lot of reading in. Tomorrow I have a midterm and a presentation and Tuesday I have a paper due plus I'm a discussion leader. It's probably a good thing I'll be busy this week though, because next week I have a job interview! I'm very excited about it and I hope I get it, although I think it will be awhile before I know for sure. I'm obviously stressed though, because just last night I noticed a lovely pimple forming right above my lip. Thank you very much.

This week I posted reviews of The Woman in White and The Secret History of the Pink Carnation. I posted a vlog where I showed you bunches of books for Children's Book Thursday and on Friday I let you know about some of my favorite lit podcasts. Go forth my friends, read, comment, enjoy! I also reached and surpassed 70 followers this week- less than thirty away from 100! I never thought I would have this many followers so I am thrilled to see that actually do have 70.

Happy reading!

I grew up on a farm, spent my teenage years in the suburbs, and now I live in a small city and hope to live in a larger city within in the next couple years. I've done most kinds of living in my 21 years of life, and while I remember my childhood in the country fondly I have to say that I am really into city living. I like city living for a lot of the reasons Edward Glaeser brings up in his book, Triumph of the City, specifically how I do believe it makes us smarter, greener, and healthier. It's no secret that I'm a huge proponent of environmentalism (I co-host an environmental book podcast and just started a new feature about environmental books here), and while I do love nature, I recognize that the best thing environmentalists can do for their environment is to live in an urban environment. As Glaeser points out, the common misconception is that being good to the environment means living in nature, being one with it, and all of that stuff. But as I can testify as someone who has lived in rural and suburban environments, "being one with nature" means hurting nature faster. You drive more, longer distances, and more frequently when you live further away from places you need to be. Places like the store, your job, and entertainment establishments.

Luckily, Glaeser is not too hard on the people who live in suburban environments. He even succumbed to the glory of them himself, leaving the city for burbs once he settled down with a family. Glaeser recognizes that it's not so much the people living the suburbs that are the problem, it's a lack of appropriate policies across that country keeping cities from growing. This often makes rents in cities high, forcing more people to move out of the city and into the burbs where it is cheaper for them to buy a home even if they are forced to drive to work every day. Which is one of the major problems with suburbs.

Triumph of the City is an engrossing book. I was constantly trying to find a time to read some more of this because it is so full of information. Honestly, nothing in Triumph of the City is that shocking. It's all pretty common sense, and the majority of the things he brings up I have thought of before. What makes it interesting is the way everything is presented in one place, with supporting evidence, and the argument works. For the most part anyway, there were a few things I disagree with Glaeser on (but I'm not going to nit pick with him. He's trying to encourage more people to live in cities and that is a-okay in my book). Even though I was intensely enthusiastic about this book, I could see that not everyone would love it. Glaeser is not necessarily entertaining, he lays out the facts for you in a controlled, purposeful manner. Even if you're not interested in the environmental aspects of this book, the first half offers a wonderful history of the American city and profiles the triumphs and downfalls of many cities across the country.

I am an Amazon Affiliate. If you make a purchase using one of my links I will earn a small percentage which will then go back into this blog. I received this book as part of TLC Book Tours.

The Unwritten Rule as part of Elizabeth Scott week. I had been hoping to have this review up hours ago, but my internet has been broken since last night.: (

Anyway, this is a book I was a little nervous about reading when I initially picked it up. Having read two Scott books previously, one I really liked (my review of Something, Maybe) and one I really... didn't (so sorry Living Dead Girl) I was unsure where my emotions would fall on this one. Add to that fact that I have absolutely zero respect for cheaters, and I was, understandably, I think, a little nervous.

However, my fears were unfounded and although I wasn't quite as charmed by these characters as I was by those in Something, Maybe I really enjoyed this book. Sarah is a character that doesn't start the book strong. She doesn't have a lot of substance and pretty much all of her thoughts are consumed with Ryan, the boy she has had a crush on since 8th grade. But, Ryan is her best friend, Brianna's boyfriend, which means that he's totally off limits. But, all things are not as they seem. The more we learn about the trio, the more we become aware that there are some major problems with all of the relationships in question.

Sarah has liked Ryan forever. But things are different this year. Over the summer, he went from skinny (and a little geeky) to totally hott. They meet up at a party and are talking and having a great time until Brianna, the beautiful one comes into the room and whisks Ryan away. Suddenly, they are dating and Sarah is left feeling insanely guilty because she can't stop thinking about what it would be like the be the one with Ryan. But with all those looks and tension filled long pauses between the two of them, it looks like that interest is not one-sided.

The characters in this book were very well developed. I'm amazed at the conflicting emotions each character was able to pull from me. Let's start with Brianna. She is a bitch. There is no other word to describe this girl. Seriously. She belittles Sarah constantly, always pointing out that her skin is too shiny, her hair too frizzy, her clothes strange, but always camouflaged as helpful (Here, take my brush and try to comb some of that frizziness out of your hair). She is gorgeous, and she knows it. Sarah has had bad experiences in the past, where boys who have shown interest in her are really just trying to get close to Brianna, and while Brianna does feel really bad every time it happens, she also takes it as her due, and often tells Sarah that she will eventually be able to find some boy who likes her. She's toxic. BUT, I feel bad for her. I pity her immensely. Her parents use her as a weapon against each other, when they think of her at all. Her dad has just about completely written her off, and her mom says all the same horrible things to Brianna that she then passes along onto Sarah. But you can feel her pain and her suffering and you do feel oh so very bad for her.

Sarah is also a more complex character than she first appears. It's pretty obvious that living for so long in Brianna's shadow has been bad for her, but all she can see is her glorious best friend. She ignores a lot of her flaws and makes excuses for her behavior. But even Sarah has her limits. She has a great strength of character that just takes a little while to really show itself. She also has some interests and hobbies that she focuses on, no matter how belittling Brianna is of them, like her shoe art. She buys plain white shoes and decorates them. She is also torn up about the way she feels about Ryan. She doesn't want to hurt Brianna, but she's liked Ryan forever and she just can't help it, especially now that Brianna has been asking her to come hang out with them all the time. Just the three of them.

And Ryan is also great. He has a lot more to him than the typical YA hero and he's just a pretty solid guy. He shares a lot of the same interests as Sarah and he's trying to figure out where he fits best in life. I also liked that he had his two sides — pre-hottie and post-hottie and he didn't let the fact that he had filled out over the summer change who he was as a person. He isn't one of those guys that thinks because he's now attractive, he's entitled to being an a**. And Sarah and Ryan have a history, sort of. They've circled each other for years, friends but not best friends and both not quite sure of where things will go next. And then, enter Brianna.

I thought that this book was just very well written. All the individual elements of the story were handled beautifully and combined in such a way that I just don't know how this story could have happened any different. Watching Sarah learn who she was, and how to be that person independent of Brianna was amazing. I don't think that anyone deserves to be cheated on. Ever. But, the way that Scott handled this one made me hopeful for all the characters involved. I still don't condone cheating and I don't think it's ever your best option, but these characters were just so achingly real and honest, I couldn't help but root for them.

"The perpetrators were hoping to find gold, silver, precious stones or ivory," says Senarath Dissanayake, director general of Sri Lanka's Department of Archaeology. Destructive treasure hunting is a major problem in the island country off the tip of India.

"Treasure hunting is based only on folklore about great riches. It has no scientific basis," Dissanayake says.

The culprits in Danagirigala went home empty-handed, as did the ones who damaged a stupa (Buddhist burial mound) in Danowita and in Nurwarakanda where treasure-hunters drilled into the chest, belly button and pedestal of a seated Buddha statue.

Over the past two decades, police have come across more than 4,000 cases of such vandalism. The situation was particularly bad in 2012 and 2013 with the floors of caves dug up, the houses of former chieftains torn down and monks' dwellings destroyed.

On average there was more than one such act every day.

"The trend is a consequence of the fact that people no longer have morals and ethics," Dissanayake says.

Archaeologists have little chance of stopping the would-be thieves. According to the archaeology director, the small island has more than 250,000 historic sites, "the highest density in the world" of heritage places.

Items have even been taken from the National Museum in the capital Colombo. A stolen metal sword hilt from the time of the Kingdom of Kandy (late 15th to early 19th century) was later recovered - although by then it had been cut into four pieces.

The head of the special unit tasked with preventing the destruction and theft of antiquities is Udeni Wickramasinghe.

"The problem is that many people cannot distinguish between fact-based history and mythical epics," she says. In the case of the Buddha with three holes drilled into it, this was because of a story that the Buddhist monks hid their valuables inside the statue. Wickramasinghe wrote her doctoral thesis on the excavations at the stupa in Neelagiri Maha Seya. Until 2009 this lay within an area controlled for several decades by LTTE rebels and so wasn't targeted by treasure hunters.

After the end of the civil war, Wickramasinghe and colleagues spent several years excavating around the huge, semi-circular burial mound.

"We found inscriptions, 20 pots, pearls, 150 mini-pagodas and a few semi-precious stones. Much of spiritual but nothing of great material value," she says.

Nevertheless, there are persistent urban legends about a police chief who took treasure from the jungle or a man who used a digger to excavate a stupa and bought a million-dollar car with the riches he found.

"People who are greedy forget their religion," says monk and former member of parliament Ellawala Medhananda.

To the perpetrators it doesn't matter whether a building dates from the fourth or fifth century or is particularly symbolically important, says Medhananda, author of numerous archaeological books.

"I am so sad that our rich national culture is being destroyed," he says. "Unique things are being lost."

Author: Doreen Fiedler | Source: DPA [March 10, 2015]