I that Vasilly had done a post on what books she had to read this semester at her blog 1330v. I thought this was such a great idea I had to steal the idea to use here! I'm taking seven classes this semester but two of them are business classes and therefor not really that interesting, so I'll just skip those books (the classes are Nonprofit Organizational Effectiveness I and Foundations of Entrepreneurship in case you were wondering).

I'm taking a class called Film and Literature that is all about visual essays. For this class we're going to watch a film essay every week and have other essays that we read. I was really excited when I saw the book list for this class because it included some books I've wanted to buy for awhile. This includes The Art of the Personal Essay: An Anthology from the Classical Era to the Present

and The Lost Origins of the Essay

. These are both humongous essay collections that will take me forever to get through, so I'm really excited I'll be required to read from them this semester. We're also reading Let Us Now Praise Famous Men: The American Classic, in Words and Photographs, of Three Tenant Families in the Deep South

. I'm not really sure what this one is about other than it deals with sharecroppers from the South. The final book for this class is The Pleasure of the Text

by Roland Barthes. This one appears to be about why people read, it's a very small book, only 80 pages so I'm interested to see what it's about.

The second English class I'm taking is Literature and the Book: Renaissance Texts as Technology. There are no books for this class but we will do a lot of readings online. I'm planning on using my nook to take the pdf's with me to class so I'll be sure to let everyone know how that goes. Even though we don't have books I know we're going to read Shakespeare, Donne, and Spenser, as well as texts about how reading formats have changed. I looked at the syllabus for this class yesterday and we're taking seven field trips!

The final English class I'm taking is Advanced Nonfiction Writing: Nature Writing. An opening just came up in this class yesterday and I was thrilled because I waited all summer for it to happen. I love nature writing and I'm excited to do some of my own. I'm also excited because while this class meets twice a week, only one meeting is actually in a classroom. The other meeting every week is at an outdoor location. For this class we're reading Nature Writing: The Tradition in English

, which appears to be an anthology of nature writing. A quick glance at some of the writers has me excited because they include Thoreau and Annie Dillard who I know I enjoy.

I'm taking an anthropology class that we're using the textbook Introduction to Physical Anthropology

for. I don't have much to say about that one. I'm also taking piano lessons but as far as I know there isn't a book for that yet.

I'd also just like to mention where I purchased the majority of my books. I rent expensive textbooks but for my book for English classes I just Better World Books. I'm mentioning this simply because I support this company. They offer free shipping in the United States and they use the money they get from the books to support global literacy organizations. If you have to buy textbooks anyway you might as well support a great organization as well.

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.

The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank is a book I never wanted to admit I'd never read. I felt like it was something everyone read when they were much younger than me, thirteen or fourteen I figured. It's been on my TBR for a long time even though I've never owned a copy. Even though I'd never read the book, Anne Frank Huis was one of my must sees while in Amsterdam. Just because I didn't read the book didn't mean I didn't know the story. Unlike my experience with Dachau and The Book Thief, I was immediately overcome with emotion upon entering Anne Frank Huis. It's a totally different experience, and for me, a much more powerful one.

Anne Frank Huis does not have any furniture, but the walls are done like they were when the Franks hid there. In the center of the rooms are glass cases with artifacts from their time. What really got to me though, were the pictures of Anne Frank at the very beginning of the museum. She looks so happy.

Throughout the house there are quotes from her diary printed on the walls. It was as if she was telling her story to you, which I guess she was. The experience was also powerful for me because I had so many things in common with her. A love of reading and writing, nature, bicycles, and as a teenager I fought with my mother constantly and was extremely close with my father. When reading her diary I found it difficult to read the parts about her mother because I knew she would never get to experience the close relationship with her mother that I've had with mine.

I can't really review her diary, that seems unfair. It is slow in spots but overall a worthwhile read.

"The best remedy for those who are frightened, lonely or unhappy is to go outside, somewhere they can be alone, alone with the sky, nature and God. For then and only then can you feel that everything is as it should be and that God wants people to be happy amid nature's beauty and simplicity.

As long as this exists, and that should be for ever, I know that there will be solace for every sorrow, whatever the circumstances. I firmly believe that nature can bring comfort to all who suffer."

I purchased my copy of the diary at Anne Frank Huis and also purchased The Anne Frank House Authorized Graphic Biography

as a companion. It is an absolutely wonderful companion because it tells the before and after of the story and gives insight into what other characters' experiences were like.

The artwork is more traditional than I thought it would be, but there are some seriously disturbing images of Anne and her sister after they were found and sent to a concentration camp. I think I got a little more emotional looking at those images than I did reading her diary. The experiences are extremely different. While reading the diary I thought about how normal Anne's thoughts were for a girl her age: boy, friends, ambitions. That was what made it difficult, she represents the every girl, which makes you realize something like this could have happened to you. Reading the graphic biography gave me a lot more insight and history into her family, the experience of being in hiding, and what happened to the family after.

If you've never read The Diary of a Young Girl, I would highly recommend it and I would recommend reading the graphic biography after. It seemed to be a more fulfilling experience. If you've read the diary, you might want to try the graphic biography-- it might answer some of your unanswered questions.

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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.

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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A very warm welcome now to Ammy Belle who has a great post for us today about How to Find Pixies in New Jersey. Not sure what them means? Then read on!!

And, don't forget to check out Ammy's first guest post over at The Book Rat about Tender Morsels!

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I suppose in some way, everyone thinks of the princess in the castle or the knight in shining armour when they think of fairy tales: your mind becomes awash in the grandeur of the Disney fairy tale – the white walls of a palace, the beautiful silhouettes of the old dresses, the magic of a time that caught somewhere in the fold of history we have yet to discover.

But the real magic of fairy tales is that they can adapt – and adapt well – to pretty much anything. The reason for this, is the plain fact that fairy tales are just moral tales – they are stories you tell people to warn them about life (especially the original ones, the ones I like to call dark fairy tales). Essentially, these modern fairy tales take the original magnetism of the stories from the olden days and attempt to fit them into some modern city or town.

Lately there has been a little bit of a trend on adapting fairy tales: one such series is the Tithe series by Holly Black. In this series (I have only read the first book, but my understanding is that the first is the best example of modern times and fairy tale) we are dropped into a fairy war, where dark fairy tales meet the New Jersey shoreline. It ‘s through the realm of faerie that Black creates, the use of iron as the boundaries between human and faerie, and the manipulation of the changeling narrative from old stories, that makes Tithe a modern faerie tale.

Kaye is our heroine. She’s a blonde haired, green eyed girl with almond shaped eyes and is pretty small for her age. She lives a nomadic lifestyle with her Mom, who sings for a series of bands. Her father isn’t in the picture, but when her mother’s boyfriend attempts to stab her, they pick up and move back to their home in New Jersey – to live with Kaye’s older, stricter grandmother, in her home near the seashore and the woods, where Kaye had imaginary friends growing up. The imaginary friends, are of course, faeries of different types, and they “play” along a little creek near her house. Little does Kaye know, they have been fighting a strange war for her whole life.

Tithe is a real faerie story – in the sense that, it has faeries. Like Tir Na Nog. In fact, very much like that: in the original faerie stories, faeries were not like Tinker Bell – they were actually untrustworthy. They guarded their own possessions jealously, and killed anyone who came at them from any which way. Faeries are manipulative and care very little for humans – and sometimes they are beautiful, but often they are gnarled and misshapen creatures that have a very scary sense of humour.

Black doesn’t hold back – she makes her story gritty and realistic, with a caffeine-addicted, chain smoking, strong willed protagonist, and her dismal nomadic background. Her friends are few and far between, and filled with jealousies. Her life is dangerous, but she doesn’t realize it, and coming back to New Jersey makes it that much worse: there in the industrial dotted river side, there lives a kelpie – a sea horse that collects young drowned girls. Black entwines the old with the new – mixing the harsh and lonely world of the kelpie, with the paint chipped world of the New Jersey boardwalk. It’s an amazing comparison, and the best example of it is when the kelpie and Kaye strike a bargain: for his boon, he requests the dilapidated old carousel horse to keep him company in the deep. This juxtaposition of old and new, on top of the contrasted faerie and human world, creates a blanket of intrigue that almost shows a compassionate side of Kaye’s world.

Such is the case with iron in Tithe: the faeries are cruel and out for themselves, their desires – whether they are actually good or bad – come before anything else – but they are nature, they represent a basic form of nature, that can be cruel and yet very vulnerable. This tension works within the New Jersey city limits – or at least, the New Jersey that Black paints for us – this urban wasteland where the shoreline is wasting away, and nature seems on the verge of making a comeback, as the water and grasses start taking over the boardwalk. Iron represents this hardline though, the thing that faeries cannot survive – they can be wild and dangerous – but put them in a car, and they’re toast.

I think that iron is an interesting choice for this. In an age where we see digital media and electricity and such as such big themes (see Steampunk), I think a return to iron is both interesting... and it makes sense – I mean, what do we have that isn’t made of iron? The whole human world seems to be a death trap for faeries, and in turn, the faeries are harsh and cruel – and they have weapons. Instead of guns, they have swords, but it works in the totality – the adaptation to the New Jersey shoreline works with the iron, the totality of the dangers for each world is balanced so well, it is almost as if New Jersey itself is a magical place.

Finally, there is the changeling aspect of the story: the changeling narrative is an old faerie tale, where faeries will steal into a nursery and switch a newborn baby with an old, dying – but veiled – faerie. There actually is no real reason, I think... or at least I have never found a common theme for all of it – though each story has its own unique spin. Tithe gives its faeries a reason for the changeling, but it changes the rules – the changeling doesn’t die, instead, the changeling becomes the story. The main viewpoint is through the lens of someone who does not quite belong and at the same time, is pivotal to everything that happens. The reason this works for the modern fairy tale, is the fact that it basically reminds us all of our awkward teenage years when we were confused about how the world fit together, but deep down inside, we knew we were special.

In the end, this is what why the modern fairy tale works – it pulls out the comparisons between the old and the new, and draws a line between these worlds... and then allows the characters to hop scotch between the lines, in order to draw the reader in. It works because we want the magic, and we recognize the setting – much like a dystopian, where the parameters of what we understand become hazy and fluxuate so that we can imagine ourselves in different situations.

Tithe was a great read, and I cannot wait for the next two instalments – not only because of weird way New Jersey becomes more magical, but also because the main love interest, Roiben – he’s awe-inspiring.

Anyways, that is my take on modern fairy tales and Tithe – go check it out, and keep reading those fairy tales – they can adapt to pretty much anything – can’t wait to see a cyberpunk fairy tale set in the future...

One of the major perks of living in Iowa City is that it's a huge hotspot for writers. This past week was the NonfictioNow Conference which occurs every two years. I'm all over this conference because I love Nonfiction. Only about a third of the events were open to the public and I went to three events. The first and biggest event I went to was the Alison Bechdel reading. I was really excited about this because I loved her book Fun Home. The reading was unlike any reading I've ever been to. Since she is a graphic artist she can't really do a normal reading, so instead she creates a powerpoint with one panel on each slide and then reads the text that goes with the panel. I really enjoyed this and found that it was a lot easier to pay attention to than a normal reading.

After she was done I got my copy of Fun Home signed and got a picture taken. They were also selling broadsides of a comic she did that were printed at the University of Iowa Center for the Book. I got one of this and can't wait to find a frame for it!

Friday night was the Rebecca Solnit reading. I've never read anything by her, but I ran into my nature writing professor who gave the introduction for her and he enjoys her work. She is a probably most well known as a nature writer. I enjoyed this reading, although there were some technical difficulties with the microphone. She took it in stride though. She talked a bit about being political and being a writer, and how being an artist doesn't make you exempt from caring about politics. She talked quite a bit about Bill McKibben too, who has obviously taken the political writer status to a whole new level.

Saturday evening was a reading of more local people who write narrative nonfiction. Andre Perry gave a great introduction to this topic, mentioning how when he was school he would turn in essays and his teacher told him they were fiction because they were narrative. This is a pretty common idea, actually, but I find that some of the best nonfiction is narrative. Ryan Van Meter was the person I was most interested in hearing because I talked about his essay First as an awesome essay. He read an absolutely beautiful essay about hunting and animals. It had this spinning quality to it, where he started in one place, went to another, then returned to that original place. I wish I could have it in front of me to really parse out.

Overall what I saw of the conference was really great. This week I spent most of my time talking about comic books. I reviewed The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay (which I loved!) as well as four comic books: Fables, The Walking Dead, Coward, and Suburban Glamour. Be sure to check out those reviews!

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This past spring I took a fitness walking course with my best friend from high school and we had to read a portion of A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail

by Bill Bryson. I was immediately taken by the part we read because he spends a lot of time discussing how difficult it is to get around America without a car. How our country is not built for bikes or walking. This is something I'm passionate about and really noticed when I moved from Iowa City back to the Des Moines area the summer after my freshman year. That is all the book is about, in fact the majority of the book is a travelogue of Bryson (who is also from Des Moines I might add!) and his old friend Katz attempting to hike all 2,100 miles of the Appalachian Trail. Quite the feat, and you can guess right from the beginning that they won't be able to do it.

It doesn't really matter though. Bryson makes so many interesting observations about America along the way that I could have cared less about him actually hiking the trail. They stop in several small towns for breaks from the wilderness and they rediscover the wonders of a hot shower and warm meal. While there, Bryson talks about the loss of small town America and the loss of the sidewalk. He talks about hitchhiking and bonding out in the woods. He talks about real nature versus cultivated nature. And he does all of this very sarcastically, very wittily. The first three fourths of this book are really a joy; full of information but still interesting to read, the way all nonfiction should be. This example about the roads built by the Forest Service is a great example of this.

"The reason the Forest Service builds these roads, quite apart from the deep pleasure of doing noisy things in the woods with big yellow machines, is to allow private timber companies to get to previously inaccessible stands of trees. Of the Forest Service's 150 million acres of loggable land, about two-thirds is held in store for the future. The remaining one-third--49 million acres, or an area roughly twice the size of Ohio--is available for logging. It allows huge swathes of land to be clear-cut, including (to take one recent but heartbreaking example) 209 acres of thousand-year-old redwoods in Oregon's Umpqua National Forest."

I'm glad I read this book, but I found the last fourth of the book rather difficult to get through. Bryson decides to leave the trail for awhile, and when he returns he decides to drive portions of the trail, get out and hike, and then drive a little further. This is extremely boring and difficult to read about. It felt like Bryson ran out of steam towards the end both physically and mentally, and the writing just gets crappy. Long gone are there great sarcastic paragraphs chock full of information about the Forest Service, and we are introduce to a crabby, sleepy Bryson who just doesn't give a damn.

I give this book a B.

Also, I recently started a podcast called Green Reads with my boyfriend and this is the first book were going to talk about. We're in the process of submitting our podcast to iTunes but in the meantime you can check out our blog, listen to our introduction podcast, and follow us so you know when our regular podcasts are going up!

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The Montaigne Readalong is a year long project in which I try to read over 1,000 pages of Montaigne's essays. Every Monday I write about the essays I read for the week. You can share your thoughts or join the readalong if you'd like, just check the Montaigne Readalong schedule. You can read several of these essays for free on Google Books or subscribe to Montaigne's essays on Daily Lit.

Note: I'm posting this on Thursday rather than Monday because I was participating in a giveaway hop on Monday.

Essays Read this Week:
1. That the taste of good and evil things depends in large part on the opinion we have of them
2. One is punished for stubbornly defending a fort without good reason
3. On punishing cowardice
4. The doings of certain ambassadors

Favorite Quotations:
"... that it is with pain as with precious stones which take on brighter or duller hues depending on the foil in which they are set: pain only occupies as much space as we make for her" (The taste of good and evil things depends on our opinion).

"The man who is happy is not he who is believed to be so but he who believes he is so: in that way alone does belief endow itself with true reality" (The taste of good and evil things depends on our opinion).

General Thoughts:
The longest essay I read was That the taste of good and evil things depends in large part on the opinion we have of them, which is probably why I have the most to say about it. Montaigne spends quite a bit of this essay talking about pain and death, which was attractive to me this week because I have thumb injury causing quite a bit of pain. He says the most painful part of death is not death itself, but the time we spend thinking about it. Death, he says, is actually the release from pain. This basic principle can be moved to other parts of life though. For example, I spend a lot of time thinking about writing my papers, but once I finish the paper I find it's actual quite painless and relieving. If I would just quit thinking about the paper and write it I could save myself a lot of pain and misery.

I really liked the second quotation I posted from this essay though. It seems like the more negative energy you put out, the more you find yourself in a negative state of being. If you believe you are happy and put out positive energy, good things will come to you. This isn't always true, but I think there is something to be said for it. I've recently been dwelling in negatives so it seems like a lot of negative things have happened to me. In reality as many positive things have happened as negative, it's just easier to focus on the negative for some reason.

I did tsk tsk about halfway through this essay when Montaigne talks about how crazy women are for putting themselves through the pains of corsets and other crazier things (flaying themselves alive to have a fresh color in their skin?) just to become beautiful. Clearly Montaigne lived during a different time, but he doesn't acknowledge why women were driven to do these things, probably because no one thought about it much. But that is a story for another day...

Over the course of One is punished for stubbornly defending a fort without a good reason and On punishing cowardice I felt like Montaigne was relying on Nature to explain new human values. He talks about how humans are going against Nature because of new technology and broken traditions, and what this means for humans. Just funny that this argument continues to go on today.

From The doings of certain ambassadors I came away loving the first idea of the essay. He says when he meets other people he tries to bring the conversation back to the subject each person knows best. I thought this was a great idea and one I should observe more frequently.


Questions:
1. Do you believe that having a negative/positive attitude changes the way you feel about yourself or your life? Do you think you can apply "positive spin" to your own reality?
2. What subject are you an expert on? What would others want you to talk about?

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The interconnected domes

VIA «National Ecological Institute in South Korea»

The Death of the Moth is a short essay by Virginia Woolf, which I recently read for my nature writing class. It seems to be rather popular though, because I saw that it is also in Phillip Lopate's The Art of the Personal Essay. The essay is a rumination on life and death, but we see it through a moth. In the beginning, the moth flies quickly, encompassing all the energy in the world to do his fancy acrobatics. But that energy can only go for so long, and eventually the moth must face death. Virginia watches, wanting to help him, but knows that it is inevitable. Death is much too strong. In the end she says, "Just as life had been strange a few minutes before, so death was now as strange."

In nature, I feel like many of us have had this experience. We have seen an animal or insect die and we wish we could do something, but it is inevitable. Where I grew up there were several deer who were frequently hit by cars. You wish you could do something to make it stop, but there just anything you can do. And this is often how we see death of our friends and family. It's painful to watch it happen and it is a great reminder that we all must meet our ends. Do we want to help them live for them, or do we want to help them live so we can convince ourselves that we are stronger than death?

You can download a PDF of The Death of the Moth at the link, and I would really encourage you to read it because it is very short. It should only take you about five minutes to read it. If you do take the time to read it please come back with your thoughts. Some things to think about as you read the essay might be: What does the moth represent? How does Woolf's view of life and death change over the course of the essay, if it does? How does the essay make you feel about life and death?

I'd love to hear your responses! Also, I'm hosting a readalong of The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, so check that out and if you enjoy this weekly post you might want to check out this week's children's book Thursday vlog about the Curious Garden.

At first, di Lernia and many of his colleagues were optimistic about the future of archaeology in Libya after years of neglect under dictator Moammar Gadhafi. But today, di Lernia has trouble imagining what fieldwork will look like in the war-torn country.

Years after the conflict began, Libya is still unstable. The United Nations was holding talks in Geneva this week to attempt to unify the two rival governments in control of Libya since Gadhafi's dramatic downfall. Meanwhile, ISIS extremists have taken power in parts of the country, such as Derna, a city in the east, where the group Human Rights Watch has documented violent forms of abuse, including executions and floggings.

Alongside reports of human atrocities, there has been a steady stream of reports detailing the threats to Libya's cultural resources, from ideological destruction to unchecked development. In 2013, for example, there was construction equipment sitting at the Hellenic city of Cyrene, one of five UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Libya, ready to clear the way for houses. Another World Heritage Site, Ghadamès — a city sometimes called "the pearl of the desert" that was once home to the Romans and the Berbers — suffered rocket attacks in 2012. The same year, ultraconservative Islamists reportedly destroyed Sufi shrines and graves in Tripoli that don't conform to their beliefs. In 2011, robbers pulled off one of the biggest archaeological heists, stealing a hoard of nearly 8,000 ancient coins from a bank vault in Benghazi.

"I'm afraid if nothing happens, this will be a disaster for generations of Libyan archaeologists — and for universal heritage," di Lernia told Live Science. Today (Jan. 28), he published a commentary in the journal Nature to try to raise awareness about the situation within the scientific community. "It's very difficult to keep the light on Libya in this moment," di Lernia said.

Over the last four years, di Lernia, who is a professor at the Sapienza University of Rome, and his colleagues have been able to publish new research based on the wealth of material they collected in past field seasons. They've shown that dairy farms existed in a once-green Sahara. They have also analyzed Stone Age burials in the desert region.

Though access to the southeastern part of Libya has been restricted since 2011, di Lernia used to be able to travel to Tripoli. But as the fighting between Libya's two governments worsened over the past year, di Lernia wasn't able to get to Libya at all. From afar, it's difficult for international observers to assess the damages in the country.

"From time to time, I succeed in talking to my friends there, and they say that all sites are in danger, all sites are at risk," di Lernia said. "We don't know what's going on in many places. We don't know what's going on in the museums."

In other conflict zones, such as Syria, archaeologists have turned to satellite imagery to assess damage to cultural heritage sites. Those images show that places like Apamea, a Roman city and once-thriving tourist attraction for Syria, has been turned into a moonscape because of the holes gouged out by looters. But the same approach might not work in Libya, di Lernia said, as satellites can't detect more subtle damages, such as graffiti that's been reportedly painted over rock art in the Tadrart Acacus mountains, near the Messak plateau.

Di Lernia used to spend months at a time at the Messak plateau, but he can’t imagine long archaeological field seasons resuming in Libya anytime soon. In Nature, he put forth a host of recommendations to rekindle research, calling for more support for museum, university and lab-based research. Di Lernia said he'd like to see more museum collections go online, and a Web-based library for rock art sites. He also wants to see international universities provide support and funding for Libyan students and scientists to train and work overseas.

"The only way to keep Libyan archaeology alive is to do lab research, desk research, working on the Internet and working on the digitization of cultural heritage in Libya," di Lernia said. "The situation in Libya is a part of a wider picture, I'm afraid. Probably we have to rethink our capacity to do research within this political framework."

Author: Megan Gannon | Source: LiveScience ]January 28, 2015]

Tuesdays at the Castle reaffirms why I simply love Jessica Day George. Like, seriously folks. This book was just so much the cuteness and I want to hug it. (Don't worry Misty from The Book Rat... I refrained from displays of affection with your book, but only just.)

Castle Glower likes to change. When it gets bored, it adds rooms, removes them, moves things around or just plain messes with your head. It's pretty clear about who it likes and who it doesn't, and the Castle chooses its own King.

Celie is 11 and she loves the Castle. She's decided to do what no one has previously done, and draw an atlas of it. She spends hours and hours exploring, making sure to note any changes, not matter how small and she treats the Castle like a person. Which, ends up being a really awesome benefit when her parents are missing, presumed dead (in an ambush) and nefarious things start happening, led by the people in the Castle. The three royal children at home — Celie, the youngest, Rolf, the 2nd son and heir to the throne (so decrees the Castle) and Lilah, the elder sister — are left to try and protect the Castle, preserve their family and save the kingdom. It's an awful lot to put on the shoulders of children, but they are extraordinary and rise to the challenge.

One of things that I loved about this book was the characters. All of them. They are just so, realistic. Celie is 11, but because of their situation, she has to do a lot of things that are much more grown up. But guess what guys — She still acts like a kid! She is as strong and mature as is possible for her to be, but she still wants to stick her tongue out at the bad guys, stomp her feet and say really witty and cutting stuff like — You are a poopoo face. And she also does stuff like stay up late setting up pranks on the bad folks and then being beyond exhausted and falling asleep pretty much mid-sentence.

Rolf has the most pressure of any of the other characters placed on him. As heir to the throne, when the King goes missing, the running of the country is left to him. But he is only 14, and as you can imagine — the aforementioned nefariots try to use this to their advantage and force him to do their bidding. He's a strong enough person, even at 14, that he recognizes this and does all he can to put a stop to it, but there really is only so much a 14 year old can do against a large group of adults, especially when you aren't completely certain they aren't going to try and kill you. Lilah is also under a lot of pressure, because she feels responsible for the well-being of her siblings, especially young Celie. There is a lot going on and Lilah knows she can't really protect her siblings, but she wants to and she does all she can to help them.

But, perhaps the best and most complex character in all the novel is the Castle itself. (Notice how I keep capitalizing Castle? Ya... That's intentional. I don't want it turn my room into a pigsty or something... : P) The Castle is able to know and to sense things. It knows who will make a great King, who wishes the King, Castle or country ill, and who is an ally. And it makes it obvious. If it likes you, the Castle will give you beautiful and comfortable rooms, but if it doesn't, you are lucky if your bed is big enough to hold your body. You might find it impossible to find your way through corridors, or suddenly in a room without a door. Or, the Castle finds good favor with you, things that you need might suddenly appear, or you find a new corridor that makes it quick and easy to get to the other side of the Castle. I loved watching Celie learn about the Castle and explore. And I loved that when the kids suddenly needed a lot of help, but didn't know who they could turn to, the Castle was there, totally prepared and ready to offer assistance to the children.

The only complaint that I had with this story is that the ending felt super rushed. I'm not horribly disappointed in it, because this seems to be the nature of a lot of MG books (and a lot of YA too) where the story is in the set up and the journey there and once you actually get there, it's just a real quick resolution to finish things off. But honestly, this resolution was so fast as to almost be a — You blink and you've missed it — type thing. In a 232 page book, the resolution to the main problem should take more than 8 pages and a few paragraphs of explanation.

Regardless, this is one of those books that will be read and absolutely loved by kids. What kid doesn't love the idea of being able to completely outsmart all the grown ups?! I know that 10 year old Ashley would have fervently believed in this book. And what better magical element could you possibly wish for than a Castle that is never the same twice, especially when you happen to be the Castle's especial favorite. But the book isn't only for kids, and I have a hard time believing that there will be anyone who isn't just swept away by the delightful cuteness of this book. I mean, seriously.

Green sculpture in Sydney

VIA «In the supermarket centre there was a green emptiness»

The restoration was funded by the Special Superintendency for the Archaeological Heritage of Naples and Pompeii (SANP) and was conducted in lots so that parts of the Villa were still open to the public throughout the restoration process.

The Villa was first discovered in excavations in 1909 and was exceptionally well-preserved despite the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 A.D., which covered it in a layer of over 30 feet of volcanic ash.

The recent restoration work, which involved 70 rooms of the Villa, corrected some of the damage inflicted by previous restoration techniques that were found to be harmful to the Villa's frescoes over the years.

In work done during the 1930s, wax was applied to preserve the frescoes, but ultimately faded the colors, something that was corrected using techniques to first identify the nature of the chromatic alterations and other damage over time and then perform restorations.

In addition to work done to restore the Villa's frescoes, the most famous of which is the Dionysiac frieze​ portraying the mysteries of the Cult of Dionysus from which the Villa takes its name, work was also done to clean the intricate mosaic floor decorations.

Source: ANSA [March 13, 2015]

VIA Photos of Miss Philippines Earth 2011 activities

A couple of week ago Ron stopped by to talk to us about what makes a good graphic novel. It seems like a lot of you out there agreed with Ron's thoughts and some of you were looking for a good place to start with graphic novels. Ron compiled a great list of some of his all time favorites. I've read about half of these and I can vouch to their greatness!

Boiling the medium down to just a few recommendations is…impossible, but I’ll do my best to provide an interesting and diverse list. Even so, superhero comics will comprise a healthy portion of the list because they are so integral to the medium. I’ll also try to mix ongoing series with singular, one-shot works. Away we go—

Watchmen/The Dark Knight Returns

These two works are closely linked despite being vastly different when it comes to content. Watchmen is the arch-comic, the comic of comics, not only because of its brilliance, but it’s also a comic about comics. This is something the movie didn’t adequately capture. Writer Alan Moore spins a “Golden Age” story out of control, warping it into a self-reflexive mirror to the superhero genre, and artist Dave Gibbons subverts classical style, yet doesn’t seem like a carbon copy of it. This is a perfect comic.

In The Dark Knight Returns, Writer/Artist Frank Miller redeems a laughable Batman by infusing him with eighties pop-culture sensibility. The story sees Bruce Wayne as an old man, forced to once again become Batman in order to stop a brutal crime wave in Gotham City. The work, while whitewashed in eighties action movie veneer (Miller’s Wayne owes more to Clint Eastwood than Adam West), also explores the enduring nature of the character and his relationship to other heroes in the DC universe. It’s a rip-roaring read, but it’s also Miller at his cleverest—there’s a density to the work that he rarely has been able to recapture.

(Further reading: [Moore] The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen I & II; From Hell; [Miller] Batman: Year One; Daredevil: Visionaries Volume 2; Sin City.)

Criminal

Ed Brubaker is one of my favorite writers, and this is the reason why. Criminal pulls on the pulp origins of early comics as well as film noir and blends it into one outstanding package: contemporary but timeless stories about the criminal underworld. The tropes may feel familiar, but a good story, especially a crime story, isn’t “predictable” so much as it is inevitable. If there’s one thing this series has in spades it’s that sinking feeling.

(Further reading: Captain America; Sleeper; The Immortal Iron Fist; Gotham Central.)

Asterios Polyp

This is one of the most formally experimental pieces that I’ve ever read. Writer/Artist David Mazzuchielli uses everything at his disposal to construct a fascinating character study of a dead-beat architect named Asterios. It’s a vibrant book, story-and-art-wise, with each character constructed in interesting colors and character-specific fonts. It’s simply a pleasure to behold.

(Further reading: City of Glass.)

Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic
This is an amazing work, something you’d lend to non-comics to get them hooked on the medium. It plays simply at first, but unfolds beautifully, each chapter adding a layer of complexity to the story. The art is outstanding, too, and lends to the credibility of the story itself, about a death in the family and so much more. The story will resonate with any reader, and that’s the highest praise I can give it.
(Further reading: Dykes to Watch Out For.)

Daredevil Volume 2 #16-19, 26-50, 56-81

This run of issues comprises Brian Michael Bendis and Alex Maleev’s run on the book, a run that is simply outstanding. The most common phrase associated with the series is that, “Daredevil spends as much time out of his costume as he does in it,” which is a simple way of saying that the run is unusual within the genre. It’s more than that, though. Bendis’ characters speak in dialogue closer to David Mamet’s theater aesthetic than “word balloon banter,” and he fractures the timeline brilliantly to deal with heavy thematic concerns about the real power that a hero holds. Maleev’s art is also outstanding. He brings gritty realism to the book, and employs specifically cinematic techniques to convey the story. It’s a terrifically exciting body of work.

(Further reading: Powers; New Avengers; Ultimate Spider-Man.)

Scalped

This book is similar to Criminal (I could see them shelved together, yes), but offers a unique slant on the crime genre. Instead of portraying the underbelly of a city, Scalped digs into an Indian reservation in the Dakotas in which a sleazy FBI agent tries desperately to bring down the corrupt man who runs the rez, Lincoln Red Crow. The best part of the series is that it doesn’t pull any punches, everything writer Jason Aaron throws at the reader means something, and either pushes the plot forward dramatically or tells the reader something important about a character. The stakes in this book are incredibly high.

(Further reading: The Other Side; Wolverine: Weapon X.)

As I said, great list! Be sure to check out Ron's previous post and his blog Entertainment Etc.

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.

The items were seized by Australian Federal Police (AFP) officers and Federal Arts Department representatives from an auction house and private home in Sydney under laws designed to protect cultural objects.

Local authorities were tipped off by Interpol about the historic items including a Coptic textile fragment and large saucer lamp.

Macquarie University's Ancient Cultures Research Centre director Naguib Kanawati was one of several examiners who was asked to assess the cultural significance of the artefacts.

"While the provenance is unknown, the objects are all funerary in nature and would have been found in a cemetery or multiple cemeteries," he said.

They include a wooden hand belonging to an anthropoid coffin, small statuettes of a man and woman to serve the deceased in the afterlife, as well as a number of amulets.

A preliminary examination by Australian Egyptologists suggested the items date from the New Kingdom to Coptic periods and that some pieces may be over 3,000-years-old.

"As sites were used for burials by successive generations at different stratigraphic levels it is not unusual to find objects belonging to different periods at the same site," Professor Kanawati said.

Federal Arts Minister George Brandis handed the artefacts back at a formal ceremony at the Egyptian Embassy in Yarralumla.

"This is a splendid and significant occasion because it is not often that one government has the opportunity to return to another government, artefacts that are precious not only to Egypt but significant to the history of civilisation itself," he said.

Egypt's ambassador Dr Hassan El-Laithy welcomed the return of the significant items.

"One of the pieces that the Honourable Minister handed back over was a piece that witnessed the Coptic history and Christianity in Egypt... something we are very proud of," he said.

"Egypt was not only privileged by having its old civilisation of the Pharaohs, but also having prophets Moses and Jesus living in Egypt."

Last year Prime Minister Tony Abbott returned a 900-year-old bronze statue of the god Shiva to India that was found to have been looted from a temple in Tamil Nadu.

The statue had been purchased by the National Gallery of Australia in 2008 from a New York art dealer who became embroiled in a stolen art trafficking scandal.

Author: Liz Foschia | Source: ABC News Website [April 08, 2015]

The Queen Bee of Bridgeton by Leslie DuBois is the story of 15 year old Sonya who wants nothing more out of life than to be able to dance. She understands that homework is important, but it would always take a back seat to her dancing, if her older sister didn't push her so hard to make something better for herself. She attends the prestigious Bridgeton Academy and for years she been anonymous. But she attracts the attention of Will, one of the most popular and notorious boys on campus and suddenly, everything starts to change. People start noticing her, and not all of the attention she starts getting is good. She somehow attracts the attention of the schools group of 'mean girls' and she's shown a side to people she's never seen before.

Sonya doesn't really understand cruelty. She doesn't understand why people do things deliberately with the intention to hurt or harm. It's not in her nature. So when the mean girls in school start popping up, Sonya doesn't really understand what's going on, or why people could be like this, but she definitely wants to help those who have been harmed by this group of mean girls. But, the mean girls have a system worked out, a system where they rule the school and they really don't like this girl getting in their way.

I really liked Sonya's character. She was just a genuinely nice person who looked for the good in everyone. She is both observant and blind, seeing a lot that most people overlook, but missing out on a lot of details that are right in front of her. She's fairly innocent without being completely naive and I found her to be completely believable. That's about the way I'd expect a 15 year old with a good heart who only cares about dancing to react. But, Sonya was the only character I completely believed in. Most of the other characters in the novel were well written, well rounded and well developed, but they were somehow missing that solid ring of authenticity I got from Sonya.

I liked Will. Mostly. I found the game he played with his jock buddies to be absolutely and completely reprehensible, which gave me a bad taste for this kid from the beginning. I don't know if high school kids really play games where they get points for sexual acts. Some probably do. I don't want to think about it. (Not in a, let me stay naive-stick my head in the sand way, but in a — if I spend to much time thinking about this I might hit something-way). It disgusts me. Completely and totally. So, I knew I'd struggle with Will when the only thing Sonya knows about him is that she thinks he has sad eyes and that every time she sees him, he's leaving some dark and semi-public place with a half naked, very disheveled girl. So, when he approaches her (wait, me?! Are you talking to me?!) she's a little confused, somewhat concerned, and a lot not interested. And I loved that. I loved that Sonya told him no the first time he asked her out, and that Sonya wasn't afraid to be true to herself.

I will admit that while I didn't guess every single plot detail, I did see a lot of the big stuff coming. Which is okay. Every book doesn't have to be a complete and total surprise, but a lot of the stuff I'm assuming was supposed to be shocking, wasn't. Sometimes this bothers me, but it didn't this time. Which is, of course, a very good thing.

I thought that the book was very well written and it had a great pace. The character development was wonderful, both individually and in relationships and interactions and I loved the speed at which DuBois had Will and Sonya's relationship progress. And, while I was initially very put off by Will, he really wanted to do right by Sonya and he tried, hard. You could see that. It was clear that he was unsure of himself for the first time around a girl and I found that very endearing and very believable. When you are completely confident in your ability to make a conquest and have never tried to have a relationship, it's going to be hard and it's going to get awkward sometimes.

I was explaining this book to someone, mentioning what the book was about and things and they mentioned that it sounded like a cross between Mean Girls and Step Up. And, ya... I'd have to agree with them. The school itself isn't an artistic school, and Sonya is the only one who dances or anything in the story but elements from both movies are present in the book, and I can easily see how you would enjoy this book if either (or both) of those movies are ones that you enjoy watching.

The book also offers a sneak peek at the beginning of book two in the series. While I genuinely liked this one and thought it was well written with well developed characters, I don't really feel like it needs to be a series. I felt like the characters stories were finished. Obviously, there is the possibility for more to tell, because people continue to live, but I thought this book was perfectly complete. So, I don't know if I'm going to pick up the sequel(s) to this one yet. I haven't decided. I might be happy to just let these characters rest in my mind, leave them with their (mostly) happy endings.

*Disclaimer — I received a copy of this book from the author as part of a Teen Book Scene Tour.

Family day: The pair made the most of the sunshine as they played with Hayes's son Blakely. Hayes has said she wants to book a holiday for the three of them
Hayes and Tweed looked like a regular young family as they treated themselves to an ice-cream and had fun on the arcade games.
Earlier in the day, Hayes had tweeted fans: 'Family day out :-) xxxxx.'
Hayes looked summery in a yellow T-shirt and skinny Topshop jeans, while 10-month-old Blakely looked smart in a shirt and chinos.
The couple are thought to have started dating again in March after previously splitting in November.
Treats all round: Hayes, Tweed and even Blakely cool down with an ice-cream
She said: 'Jack’s still trying to get back with me at the moment, actually. But seeing as he’s trying to get into every other girl’s knickers at the moment, too, I’m not really that bothered.
'We’ve been on then off again too many times to mention - more than 100, anyway.'
Hayes caused controversy yesterday when she revealed that she wanted to have a gastric band fitted to drop from a size eight to a size six.
Happy together: Hayes and Tweed share a laugh as they mess around with the arcade games in Southend
In the driving seat: Hayes treats her son Blakely to a ride on an automatic fire engine
Speaking to Closer magazine, she said: ‘I’m nine stone now and a size eight, but I want to lose another stone at least and drop down to a size six.’
‘I’d have a gastric band if doctors would let me. I’ve already asked – I begged!’
It appears that the serious nature of the operation, nor the fact that at nine stone she is clearly not a suitable candidate for the dangerous procedure, is lost on Hayes.
She added: ‘There’s something called a hypno-band where they hypnotise you into thinking you’ve got a band, and I’d like to have a go at that.’
Sweet! Chanelle and Hayes are thought to have started dating again in March
You're a natural: Tweed looked every inch the doting father as he pushed Blakely along in his buggy
source:dailymail

VIA Chanelle Hayes and Jack Tweed make their rekindled romance official with romantic beachside display

"Tragedies are caused by differences and by a lack of tolerance. Glory be to Him who creates greatness out of difference and lets peace and reconciliation reign," they teach us.