books

Made of Books: The Magical Worlds of Dr.Seuss

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Image of Dr.Seuss books

Made of Books is a monthly column (partly inspired by hero Roxane Gay) where Christina discusses writing that has been meaningful to her, in one way or another. 

There’s a photo of me when I was three or four reading to my sister, who was a couple years younger than me. This was the only time I wanted to be around her— when I could read to her. Of course I’m not actually reading. I’m too young to know how. But I knew the story of The Cat in the Hat so well I could recite it from memory. I even turned the pages at the right time.

It’s been years since I’ve picked up any Dr. Seuss book, and I was sad to realize there isn’t one anywhere in the four six-foot tall bookshelves in my apartment. I think my sister surreptitiously wrangled them— Cat in the Hat, Fox in Socks, Green Eggs in Ham, Hop on Pop, The Sneetches— out of my parents’s house before I could.

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Made of Books: Growing Out of Ayn Rand’s The Fountainhead

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Image of Gary Cooper and Patricia Neal from The Fountainhead

 

Made of Books is a monthly column (partly inspired by hero Roxane Gay) where Christina discusses writing that has been meaningful to her, in one way or another.

I was 15 when I stumbled across mention of Ayn Rand’s The Fountainhead in the local paper. I hadn’t heard of the philosophical and romantic tale of Individualism before, but something, I don’t remember what, in that article piqued my interest. I found a tattered copy printed in the 1960s at a used bookstore. It had a romance novel-y image in the lower right: a naked man’s arm is wrapped around the waist of a similarly naked woman, her hand is on his neck, and her face is tilted up, eyes are closed in an expression of pleasure. I bought it for $1.

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Meryl and Christina Discuss Roxane Gay’s Bad Feminist

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Image of Beyonce with 'Bad Feminist' written behind her

Meryl and I hung out, ate some soup and drank some wine while talking about Roxane Gay’s kickass essay collection, Bad Feminist. While discussing this book, we fell into many tangents about past relationships and dogs and humor. That’s the awesomeness of the book— it opens up doors and gets you talking.

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Made of Books: On Mary Karr’s Lit

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Image of Marry Karr and her memoir, Lit

Made of Books is a monthly column (partly inspired by hero Roxane Gay) where Christina discusses writing that has been meaningful to her, in one way or another. 

I don’t know what compelled me to purchase Lit, Mary Karr’s third memoir, back in 2010. This seriously disappoints me because this book has so profoundly shaped how I think about reading and writing I feel that Lit and me should have some kind of origin story. Instead, I remember curling up on my parents’s sofa, Mary Karr’s sharp humor and gorgeous prose drowning out How I Met Your Mother or the sports my father was watching.

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Mapping Awesome With John Green

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Ever the history nerd, I was all too willing when my boyfriend suggested we watch ten-minute, “crash course” youtube videos on World History. The host was not the stereotypical, boring teacher from middle school who fixated on dates and the reigns of King X and Queen Y. No, John Green was a dude who was passionate about history.

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Our Month in Pop Culture – June 2014

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Sometimes we at The Addison Recorder just need to talk about whatever pop culture ephemera occupies our time. So we are starting a monthly column for just that. It will be a bit shorter — just a paragraph or two from whichever Recorder voice wants to join in — and will hopefully provide a spark for comments from any readers who connect with whatever we are reading/watching/listening to/playing.

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An Open Heart: Reading The Empathy Exams

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The Empathy Exams came into my life at the right time. I’d been experiencing a flare up of anxiety, which, on certain days, manifested in panic attacks. Though at the time, I didn’t know the skipping heartbeat and unnerving, misdirected surge of adrenaline was panic.

I read an article about the book and its author, Leslie Jamison, online, though I don’t remember where.This book is a collection of essays — which I love — but the title was what really caught me: empathy. I needed empathy. I was reluctant to talk about my health concerns for fear of seeming melodramatic. I wanted to understand why I was having these issues now and maybe in learning there would be some healing, some piece of mind. A book seemed like a perfect helper for a bookish person. I picked it up at a Barnes and Noble the day I read the article. There is a drawing of a heart on the cover.

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