What I'm reading right now...

My book list does nothing except for grow. Every once in awhile I'll share the literature that I've become interested in, whether I've read them yet or not.

My Top 10 List

1. Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden

2. Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search For Everything Across Italy, India, and Indonesia by Elizabeth Gilbert

3. Stiff:: The Curious Life of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach

4. My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult

5. Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom

6. Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace One School at a Time by Greg Mortenson

Stones into Schools: Promoting Peace With Books, Not Bombs, in Pakistan and Afghanistan by Greg Mortenson (Who also wrote Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace One School at a Time)

The Overacheivers: The Secret Life of Driven Kids by Alexandra Robbins (Who also wrote Pledged: The Secret Life of Sororities)

Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the American Meal by Eric Schlosser. *This book was also made into a film in 2006 if you don't want to read the book*

A Long Way Gone: Memoir of a Boy Soldier by Ismael Beah


Loose Girl: A Memoir of Promiscuity by Kerry Cohen


Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search For Everything Across Italy, India, and Indonesia by Elizabeth Gilbert. *Also being made into a film with Julia Roberts to be released in 2010*


We Wish to Inform You that Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families: Stories from Rwanda by Philip Gourevitch


Born on a Blue Day: Inside the Extraordinary Mind of an Autistic Savant by Daniel Tammet


The Bookseller of Kabul by Asne Seierstad


Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer


The Omnivore's Dilemma: The Natural History of Four Meals by Michael Pollan


Look Me in the Eye: My Life with Asperger's by John Elder Robison


As We Forgive: Stories of Reconciliation from Rwanda by Catherine Claire Larson


Kabul Beauty School: An American Woman Goes Behind the Veil by Deborah Rodriquez


Bastard Out of Carolina by Dorothy Allison


Push by Sapphire


Leave it to Me by Bharati Mukherjee


Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov


Veil of Roses by Laura Fitzgerald


I am Nujood, Age 10 and Divorced by Nujood Ali with Delphine Minoui


Driving with Dead People by Monica Holloway


Stiff: The Curious Life of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach


The Memory Keepers Daughter by Kim Edwards


My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult


Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden *Also, my favorite movie


Candy Girl: A Year in the Life of an Unlikely Stripper by Diablo Cody (This is based out of Minneapolis!)


Confessions of a Park Avenue Plastic Surgeon by Cap Lesense


The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down by Anne Fadiman


Have a Little Faith by Mitch Albom


Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom


For One More Day by Mitch Albom

Geisha, A Memoir by Mineko Iwasaki

Promise Me: How a Sister's Love Launched the Global Movement to End Breast Cancer by Nancy Brinker *This book immediately catapulted itself into my Top 5.

The New York Regional Norman Singles Halloween Dance by Elna Baker

The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind by William Kamkwamba and Bryan Mealer

Lit by Mary Karr

Cherries in Winter by Suzanne Colon

First, You Cry by Betty Rollin

Dear Karen,

From what I gather you are the dean of students at MCTC. I believe that you will be able to assist me in this little problem that I have. Come to think of it..I have a lot of problems with MCTC, but this one is really inhibiting my ability to learn. In recent weeks I have become overly violent while maneuvering my vehicle through an over packed parking ramp only to find myself being directed to shove my car into a makeshift parking space. I feel like I'm being asked to stand naked in the middle of an intersection. My car normally ends up sticking dangerously far out into the aisle. I'm waiting for ghetto fabulous to clip off a side mirror or mistake my car for a speed bump.

Today will be the third day in a row that I have missed my college algebra class. Luckily, attendance does not effect my grade, but I do feel like I'm 6,000 dollars in debt for no reason. Some people that attend MCTC may be compelled to stockpile quarters in their vehicles, but I do not know where to find the ATM that ejects such denominations. I ran out of sticky chump change early last week, and I do not fancy a parking ticket unless all fines are covered under the handbook's "we suck" clause.

I would be happy to take alternative transportation to class, but I left my broom at Hogwarts when they threw me out. My second option would be Metro Transit, but as we all know, smelly bike riders take the bus at this time of year and no one likes people who tuck their pants into their socks.

My third option would be to take a cab, but they all have a picture of my face on their scanners. I'm not allowed to ride with Suburban or Blue and White taxis because I have space issues. I don't handle boundaries very well and cabbies get nervous when I put the front seat back and lay on my stomach. What can I say? I get car sick and they don't carry barf bags.

My last legitimate option would be to get to school at 5 A.M. and try to park my car in the skyway, but that is just absurd. It is common knowledge that only Japanese brand cars know how to walk up stairs.

Other less reasonable reasons include:
-My horse has an aversion to traffic laws.
-My motor scooter was designed in the 70's. It's fueled with bong water, but marijuana is illegal and impossible to find anywhere in Minneapolis. Maybe if we lived in Pasadena.
And finally,
-My boyfriend doesn't let me ride him all over town...

In conclusion,
After all of this audacious rambling I would like to request that MCTC officials regulate the influx of parking permits, monitoring the people coming in and out. No parking permit, no entry. I, as an outstanding student, have reserved myself a parking spot whether it is on the roof or in the farthest corner of the basement. My permit is updated and fully accessible. It hangs proudly on my rearview mirror, taunting the face of law enforcement when they chide me for having objects obstruction my view of the road.

If parking continues to be a hassle for the parking attendants to control, I will be happy to take matters into my own hands. My louisville slugger and I would be honored to go around and smash the back window of every car with last years parking permit, or none at all. Double parked vehicles will also find that both side mirrors will be missing. I feel that these measures will make the parking attendants job much easier, as the smashed widow should be a clear indicator that the owner of said vehicle is abusing their parking privileges.

With love,

Inmate 00314348

-

You can be whatever you want to be when you grow up, but don't be a fool.

TWLOHA

Friday, November 13th.

To Write Love On Her Arms day.

Love is the movement, it is something that will never change even as our cultures do. We can find ways to hate eachother for the way we look or the way we act but you can NEVER hate someone for the way they love. Tears, pain, and emotions are all universal. We all bleed the same, but everyone has a different scar. The difference is the way we bare them. Are we holding our heads high or is there a reason that we drop our chin? 

That reason is why I'm writing love on my arm. I don't hurt anymore, and I'll show you those scars if it means that you'll have hope. If all it takes is one word marked on my body to reinstate faith in yourself, okay, but even if it doesn't, I want you to know that I love you for the way you feel. I love you because you don't deserve to hurt the way you do. I don't care who you are or what you do, you deserve happiness. Emotions can give you everything, and unfortunately they can take it away, too. Love can give it back :)

Race

"I do not care if the guy is yellow or black, or if he has stripes like a goddamn zebra. I'm the manager of this team, and I say he plays. What's more, I say he can make us all rich. And if any of you cannot use the money, I will see that you are all traded."

-Leo Durocher on Jackie Robinson before Robinson broke the race barrier in baseball.