Book Challenge for 2017

This is my book challenge for the year. I know reading this amount is no problem but I tend to stick to what I know, so this might broaden my horizons a bit.

• 1. Read a book originally published in a language you do not know
• 2. Read a book by an author born in the same country as you
• 3. Read a book from the Horror genre
• 4. Read a Romance and/or Erotica book
• 5. Read a book written before 1950
• 6. Read a book written by a man
• 7. Read a book written by a woman
• 8. Read a book in the Science Fiction genre
• 9. Read a book in the Fantasy genre
• 10. Read a book labelled as Young Adult
• 11. Read a nonfiction book
• 12. Read a book with a contemporary setting
• 13. Read a book written after 1949
• 14. Read a book published this year
• 15. Read a popular book, with at least 1 million ratings on any one website
• 16. Read an unknown book, with no more than 100 ratings on any one website
• 17. Read a book that was turned into a movie
• 18. Finish a series
• 19. Read a History book, fiction or nonfiction
• 20. Read a short story, one with less than 5,000 words
• 21. Read a short book, one between 5,000 and 100,000 words
• 22. Read a long book, one between 100,000 and 250,000 words
• 23. Read an epic book, one with over 250,000 words
• 24. Read a self-published book
• 25. Read an indie book, where the publisher is a small or niche house and not one of the top 6 publishers
• 26. Read a book published under one of the Big 6 publishing houses
• 27. Read a Biography, whether normal, Auto, or Memoir.
• 28. Read a book labelled as a Best-Seller from this year
• 29. Read a book about Politics and/or Religion
• 30. Listen to an Audiobook
• 31. Read a book on paper
• 32. Read a book that was, or currently is, banned by a government
• 33. Read a book in the Thriller or Suspense genre
• 34. Read a Mystery book
• 35. Read a book labelled as Dystopian
• 36. Read a debut book from this year
• 37. Read a book by or featuring a character that is LGBT
• 38. Read a book in the Paranormal genre
• 39. Read a book with pictures in it
• 40. Read a book for the second time
• 41. Read a book that’s been on your to read-list for more than a year
• 42. Read a book that features animals
• 43. Read a book where the main character goes on a journey
• 44. Read a book where a stranger comes to town
• 45. Read a book labelled as a Satire or Allegory
• 46. Read a book from the Self-Help, Health, Travel, or Guide category
• 47. Read a collection of poetry
• 48. Read the first book in a series
• 49. Read a book that won a literary award
• 50. Read a book set in your country
• 51. Read a book not set in your country, but exists today
• 52. Combining all the letters of all the titles of all the books you’ve read this year, complete the alphabet

Via Reddit.

'Blindsided By Your Friends' -- A Different Take On Cole Swindell's 'Middle Of A Memory' (Creepiest Song In A Long Time)

If you haven't heard 'Middle of a Memory' by Cole Swindell, I'm sorry to subject you to it, but you need to hear it to get this. Basically, it's one of the creepiest songs I've ever heard. It's this guy singing about how he was interacting with a woman and her friends showed up and pulled her away too soon. But to me, it sounds like a guy who has no idea how creepy he was being, and a girl getting rescued.

Every time I hear it, I feel sick to my stomach and think how glad I am that this girl got out of the situation. I mean, minutes into meeting her, this guy has robbed her of every autonomy -- one look at you, changed my one drink order to two (did you even think to ask what she was drinking?), I was about to lean on in (nothing about her actions, did she give you any signs she wanted you to kiss her?), why'd you have to go then (like she couldn't have given you a number or name or kissed you or gotten a ride later if she had wanted -- she wasn't forced to go, she chose to walk away from you because you are being creepy), and so on.

Everything is his action -- nothing from her. It would be a different story if he'd talked about, say, 'as soon as you sat by me' and 'you led me onto the floor.' Something that gave her some autonomy, some choices, some existence of her own. But in this song, she's purely an object for him to hang a story on.

The other day it occurred to me that maybe they weren't even her friends. Maybe they saw this going on and decided to help, because it looked as creepy to them as it does to me. So I wrote the story from the POV of the women who intervened.

In case it's in any way unclear, this is a fictional story, and I don't own the lyrics or the song that inspired it. 

'Blindsided By Your Friends'

by Steph Bazzle

Inspired by the lyrics of 'Middle of a Memory' by Cole Swindell

The woman sitting alone wasn’t at the next table from Janet and her friends. She was in a booth, with one table between. Janet, who liked to refer to herself as ‘a little bit bi,’ noticed her though. She was the kind of woman she couldn’t help but notice.

The woman was pretty in a way that looked accidental. If she was wearing makeup, Janet couldn’t tell from this distance, especially with the young lady’s head bent over the book and legal pad. Her hair was pulled back in a loose ponytail, and her t-shirt and jeans completed an appearance of a casual meal, rather than a quest for companionship.

As far as Jan could tell, Lydia and Kassidy didn’t notice the woman. They were in the quietest corner of the bar, and Janet gave a fraction of a second to worrying that the noise the three could be expected to make as they unwound from the day might bother their nearest table neighbor, but Kass was saying something about margaritas and steak, and Lydia was laughing and the music changed to a louder more rambunctious number, and the general whirl of activity pulled Jan away from any thoughts of the quieter corner of the WhoopTee Bar and Grill.

Lydia was irritated about a man in the accounting department, who had a long-standing habit of pretending he hadn’t received Thursday afternoon and Friday morning receipts, so he could be out by three on Friday.

“He knows the cut-off is Friday noon, and he just doesn’t want to do the work. But if he puts it off until Monday, that’s money that isn’t available for projects until a week later, and it looks to the customer like we haven’t done the work. I’ve started cc’ing Annika on the emails, so she’s aware, but that doesn’t change how it looks to the clients.”

This wasn’t news to Janet or Kass, and they knew it wasn’t new to Annika, who managed the accounting department, either.

“I don’t know why she doesn’t fire him, or at least say something to him on Fridays and not let him get away with it,” Kass agreed, before the conversation was cut off by a waiter delivering drinks and menus. He had a fourth glass in his hand, which he placed on the table where the lone woman continued to pore over her book. Janet couldn’t hear the conversation between them, but the woman looked surprised and the waiter pointed toward the bar – enough to figure out that the drink was sent from someone across the room.

The lady shook her head lightly, brown curls bouncing, but the waiter hadn’t stuck around for her response, and was already gone.

The perusing of menus and ordering could have been a replay of the same moment from any of a dozen visits to the WhoopTee in the past year. Janet ordered a medium-rare steak. Kass agonized over the entire menu before picking a sampler platter that saved her having to settle for a single entrée. Lydia had already chosen her dish before entering the building, and didn’t even open her menu.

A man was pressing past the table, and he brushed Janet’s shoulder as he went by.

“Um, BOUNDARIES!” Lydia said loudly.

“Oh my God,” Kassidy agreed, “There is so much room between these tables, he did not have to touch you.”

The man approached the lone woman at her table, leaning over her and closing her book. The woman pulled the book closer to her, and Janet watched the man gesture at the drink, untouched, that the waiter had delivered earlier. Placing his own drink on the table, he slid into the booth – next to, rather than across from, the young lady.

Janet thought, “They’re sure right about his lack of boundaries, anyway. I hope she’s okay.” She made a mental note to keep an eye on the pair, but as it turned out, she wouldn’t watch long.

As the waiter returned for their orders, Jan saw the man stand, and had a moment of relief. Good. The lady had been able to get him to leave her alone. But after confirming her drink order and asking for sour cream for her baked potato, she noticed the imposing man was still standing against the booth, blocking the young woman’s path.

She glanced up, thinking perhaps the waiter could notify management that a customer was being harassed, but he was already gone.

She addressed her friends instead. “You guys know those memes on Facebook, where the girl pretends to know somebody to get out of a creepy situation?”

“Oh yeah,” Kass chimed in, “But they aren’t really memes, they’re like, screenshots of Tumblr posts. And it’s always like, ‘Every woman should do this, if you’re creeped out you should be able to go up to any woman and pretend to be her friend.”

Mimicking the images in question, Lydia added, in a mock dramatic tone, “I will NEVER not reblog this!”

“Okay, yeah, those. Well I think we just landed in one.”

The man now had the girl by the hand, and was tugging her out of the booth. She looked reluctant, but was moving under her own power. He led her to the dance floor. Jan thought she could see the young lady looking around for help, but her gaze passed right over the three friends’ table, and Janet was unable to catch her eye.

She gave Lydia and Kassidy a quick rundown of the situation, and they caught on quickly. By the time all three were on the same page, it wasn’t even like making decisions anymore – it was just a single group motion. They were out of their seats and moving toward the floor, where the man had a firm grip on the young woman’s waist. Her hands, by contrast, appeared to be placed on his shoulders in an attempt to keep him at a distance. Janet recognized the tune as an older country song, and the pair was moving too slowly for it, in their awkward dance.

They were almost completely alone on the floor, but either no one else had noticed anything amiss, or no one else was willing to do anything about it. Janet reminded herself that it could just be her own intuition misreading the situation, but she didn’t think so.

“Omiiiigaaaaawd!” Lydia’s screech was another mimicry of an extreme stereotype of a giggly girl.

“We finally found you!” Kassidy was pretending to be too drunk to notice that the girl wasn’t alone. She shoved her body – the body of a hard worker who filled her weekends with sport, a strong solid body – between the two. Unable to stop the motion of his head, which had been ducking toward his captive’s mouth, the man bumped his chin against her head. “Um, excuuuuuuuse me!” Kass laughed at him. “We are TALKING here!”

“Geeez, is he really so clueless? What kind of guy are you picking up here?” Janet asked the young woman.

“Hey, come on, are you ready to go?” Lydia asked.

“Yeah, we’re gonna get them to box our food up, did you order anything?” Janet was crowding next to Kassidy, putting another body between the aggressor and the young woman.

Kassidy reached for the girl’s hand. “You’re coming with us, right? Nothing here worth staying for.” She turned a hard glare on the man, who was rubbing his chin and looking dumbfounded.

The woman looked at the three, and then at the man behind them.

“Yeah.” She answered. “Yeah, I’m coming with you guys. Just let me get my stuff.”

As it turned out, she didn’t have to collect her things. Kassidy and Lydia walked her out, stopping at the door for a chat with a bouncer, who turned and gave the man, still standing alone in the middle of the room, an appraising look before walking the women out. Janet, meanwhile, asked for their food to be boxed up, and collected the book, legal pad, pen, and purse from the nearby booth.

By the time she reached the car, the others were able to introduce her to their new friend, Abby. Abby had stepped in to get out of the weather and study until the next bus came through, and would absolutely accept a ride back to campus. She confirmed everything Janet had thought – she was scared out of her mind at this man, who had only introduced himself as ‘the man you’ll be hanging out with again tomorrow night.’

“He kept saying we were going to dance until they closed the bar, and telling me that everyone who could see us thought we’d been together for years. ‘We look like we belong together,’ he says. He said, ‘They’d never guess we haven’t even hooked up yet.’ Ugh. He used the words ‘hooked up’ like it was just this sure thing and like everybody around us was imagining us having sex. What a creep. I didn’t know what I was going to do.”

As Kassidy opened a styrofoam container and handed their passenger a fork to share her sampler platter, the memory of their own conversation came back to Janet in a rush. It had only been minutes before but it felt like a week ago.

A Tumblr post. Well, better a Tumblr post than a crime report.

[photo credit: Thomas Hawk Legs via photopin (license)]

Homeschool days 3 and 4

I didn't write up day 4 on Friday. All kids were asked to continue math review and devote time to reading. 8th grader began writing/social studies project, writing to elected representatives to share his opinion about homeschool access to school sports.

Day 5
5th grader: Spend an hour reading. Math chapter review. Read first chapter of North Carolina textbook. For writing, blog 1-2 paragraphs about our state.

8th grader:
Math -- practice solving equations. Continue writing/social studies project. Download copy of periodic table and begin exploring contents. Reading as normal.

9th grader:
Math chapter 7 prep. Review first section in America: History of Us. Reading as normal.

School Day 2

9th grader: continue math review as discussed yesterday. Reading assignments as previously discussed. Social studies: can you name 3 symbols of North Carolina? If not, look them up. Can you sketch the state's flag from memory?

8th grader: Chapter Review for Chapter 7 in Pre-Algebra text. If you don't know it, don't guess. Instead, mark for review. Social studies: look up 3 symbols of our state. Draw a sketch of the state flag. Continue reading as assigned yesterday.

5th grader: Math (the one with the rubber-band ball on the cover) page 226-227.  Social studies: Portrait of America North Carolina book, read pages 7 and 46. Writing: name your favorite symbols of NC. Why do you think those were picked? Why do you like them? Don't forget a half hour of reading!

School Log: Boring Day One

Official first day of school for us. Very very laid-back plans: find all the textbooks, start the process of reviewing last year's math books to see what we have forgotten, kids need to refresh themselves on accessing their blogs, and start their assigned books: Wonder by R.J. Palazio for my 5th grader, Hate List by Jennifer Brown for the 8th grader and 9th grader.

Sub Notes

The following are notes for the kids for schoolwork while I'm gone.

Guys, I'm including work for up to five days. I don't expect to be gone that long, but I want to be prepared just in case. Read this thoroughly, because you don't want to end up doing extra work because you've failed to do *the correct* work.

In some assignments, you may see suggested 'extra' work. Feel free to do this just because, but it's also so Stuart or Grandma Teresa or anyone else here with you has some options if you need to be kept busy.

Harmony, your assignments will be below, because (I think) you don't have access to Google Docs on your kindle. Boys, some of yours will be below, others here. I assume I don't have to tell any of you to read every day.

Skylar: Continue math as usual. Your assignment for writing/history is here. Four days of cool science video lessons are here. Consider Khan Academy backup this week -- something to do if you run out of these, need more on any particular day, or just really want to continue what you've been doing there.

Cayman: For math, I want you to do extra practice on two-step equations and percents. You can do even numbers on pages where you've already done odd, if for some reason by the time I go this isn't updated with specific page numbers.
Your assignment for writing/grammar is here.
Here are social studies and science lessons. If you need extra work in this area, you can check out the lessons on Harmony and Skylar's lists, or other videos on the same sites as your assignment. You can also do Khan Academy if you need something more to do.

Harmony:

For math, you have these five sections in the Saxon book (the purple one). They are all things you have done but can use some practice with.
For writing, you're going to have some vocabulary. I thought since you finished <em>A Wrinkle In Time</em> it might be fun to do words from that. Click here for the words from the first three chapters.
Day 1: Copy the words and definitions.
Day 2: Spelling practice: write each word 5 times. As you write, remember the definitions.
Day 3: Practice using the words. Write sentences using at least 10 of the words correctly.
Day 4 and 5: If I'm gone this long, on these days you can write a short story using at least 7-10 vocabulary words.
For science:
Day 1. Check out why cats meow here. What about landing on their feet when they fall? Click here.
Write a short (a few sentences) explanation of what you learned.
Day 2. Instead of a science lesson, try this. Plain white paper is in the kitchen cabinet, and you can decorate it with your glitter crayons.
Day 3. Let's check out rodents! These are adorable and fun videos, that are also educational. First, click here for adorable hamsters -- and x-rays. Second, the capybara is the largest rodent alive. They can grow to around 2 feet tall, and 4 feet long. Here is a cute video of some taking a bath. Last, check out these jerboas. They are cute little bouncy rodents.
Day 4. How do hot air balloons work? You can try the experiment if you'd like, but only if the adult here is okay with it. You can use a large grocery bag. Click here for the video.
Day 5. So, how smart are animals? Click here to learn about animal intelligence.

What Must Be Endured

A major theme woven throughout Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series is accepting fate. In interviews, he has explained that he thought about how these fantasy epics, tend to all follow a certain chain of events: some farm boy is told, hey, guess what, prophecy says you're the hero of ages, and the fellow pretty much says, oh, okay then, and goes on.

The authors says he doesn't think it would go that way -- in his mind, this guy is more likely to say, Oh really? Let me buy you a drink and you can tell me some more -- then slip out the back while the stranger is occupied.

Still, time after time, throughout the series, the same sentiment crops up: What must be endured, can be endured.

Now, obviously, we in the real world have a handful of phrases and sayings that are similar: God won't give you more than you can handle, what doesn't kill me makes me stronger, and the Serenity Prayer, with its bit about 'accepting what cannot be changed' to name a few.

And it goes without saying that, like any little piece of enduring wisdom, they don't encompass the full complexity of reality. People are given more than they can handle, and they die of it. What doesn't kill you sometimes leaves you too weak to handle what does. And even when one has the wisdom to know what one cannot change, sometimes trying to change it anyway is important.

Still, like any sound bite, they are't intended to tell the whole story of life. They're meant to encourage through a hard piece.

As that goes, I really love that all these characters, from their diverse backgrounds, all have such a similar saying for the same thing, and it's something I need right now. I've got some stuff coming up that I'm scared of, and I need the reassurance that getting through it is a thing that will happen. I've been reading and re-reading scenes where Egwene goes through the ter'angreal and must repeatedly have the strength to walk through the arch again, and where Elayne faces trials as the Daughter Heir and Egwene finds the backbone to tell the Wise Ones she lied and then to stand up to the Aes Sedai and refuse to be a puppet -- all this strength. All this enduring. Egwene's strength showing both when she stands up straight before the Aes Sedai, and when she lies on the floor, gripping the ankles of a Wise One, crying and meeting her toh. Strong in both positions.

And I decided to compile a list of the times a character speaks or think some variation on 'What must be endured, can be endured.' It won't be a complete list because I'm actually using the word 'endure' in my Kindle's search function, and I know there are incidences of the phrase using, instead, the word 'borne,' and probably other variations as well.

Even just with the word 'endured' though, there are an amazing number. Here they go. Material in block quotes is all credited to Robert Jordan. The books Brandon Sanderson completed do not seem to hold the phrase, though they do carry the sentiment, so no quotes from those are below.

1. New Spring, Lan.
Lan is laughing (yes, for real) about a guard falling asleep on a boring watch.

He seldom laughed, and it was a fool thing to laugh over, but laughter was better than worrying about what he could not change, such as weary men drowsing on guard. As well worry about death. What could not be changed must be endured.

Comparing worry over trivial things to worrying about death is particularly poignant from a man whose motto says that death is lighter than a feather and duty heavier than a mountain.

2. New Spring, Siuan Sanche

Siuan is telling Moiraine to chill, basically.

"You worry too much," Suian said gently. "My father used to say, 'Change what you can if it needs changing, but learn to live with what you can't change.' You'll only get a sick stomach, otherwise. That was me, not my father."

There aren't exactly a lot of sayings from Suian that don't involve fishing or boats, yet even in her world, we see that this is an enduring attitude. In fact, that brings us to

3. New Spring, White Tower

Moiraine nodded. The Tower taught it's students to live with what they could not change, too. But some things were important enough to try even if you were sure to fail.

Whoa! Isn't that what I said back up there a ways? That's another kind of strength. You may have to endure what you can't change, but you don't have to endure it without a fight.

With that firm foundation, the saying doesn't crop up again so directly until book 6. You can still see the theme in a number of situations, but the next actual occurrence is a while off.

4. Lord of Chaos, Elayne

Elayne is in Salidar. It's hot, and pretty miserable all around. She and the others have gotten used to independence on their travels, and suddenly they're back to being treated like children again, obeying orders instead of giving them. The furniture is broken, and the rooms are certainly nothing like the luxury in which Elayne grew up. An old saying from her childhood nurse firms her resolve to keep marching forward.

No complaining, she told herself firmly. Aes Sedai lived a little better, novices and servants a little worse, and Gareth Bryne's soldiers slept on the ground most often. What can't be changed must b endured. Lini used to say that all the time.

Lini has a lot of great sayings, and a lot of them amount to 'woman up and deal with it.' I might like to compile those later (though I'm sure that's been done somewhere) and talk about them, but for now, she's said the same thing as so many others, in the same words.

5. Lord of Chaos, Rand

Lews Therin is there, in Rand's head. He can't be shaken loose. Not that Rand isn't still trying, sometimes, to silence him, but at other times, he's starting to accept that this voice is something he has to deal with, for now.

Lews Therin laughed maniacally. It did not bother Rand as much as it once had. Not quite as much. What had to be endured, could be.

Again, important, because Rand's struggle with Lews Therin Telemon is not over, but he still accepts that for now, it's a thing to deal with, not to give up over, or to struggle aimlessly against.

6. A Crown of Swords, Perrin

Being treated as a lord is one of the biggest struggles for Perrin. Really. He can crawl in a wolf skin and run around, cleave trollocs in two with his axe, and face a battle he expects to be certain death, but when it comes to being called Lord Perrin, he wants to snap. Sometimes he does. Other times, though, he has a more important goal, and he doesn't waste energy fighting the inevitable. Like now -- he's trying to hold together an army of people who don't like each other very much, and he's just thinking how he'd rather be somewhere that nobody calls him 'lord' when a young man brings him his horse, and calls him "Lord Perrin." Perrin's angry glare causes the man to take a step back.

Perrin made a soothing gesture Not Kenly's fault. What could not be mended had to be endured.

7. Winter's Heart, Faile

This whole story line is especially apt -- it's Faile being careful not to seem like a flight risk, which kind of means, faking meek and sweet, until her opportunity comes for escape from the Shaido. At this particular moment, she's considering a full-fledged attack, but knows the timing is wrong. Instead, she endures being spanked and slapped for speaking to the other captives.

The man had her knives tucked behind his belt. If she could lay hands on just one....! No. What must be endured, could be endured. She intended to escape, not make useless gestures.

8. Winter's Heart, Cadsuane

This is about where I am right now in my current read-through.

Cadsuane is annoyed at Nynaeve for shortcomings including a lack of self control.

And she had not been put through the lessons that what must be endured, could be endured. In truth, Cadsuane sympathized with her. Somewhat. It was a lesson not everyone could learn in the tower

 9. Knife of Dreams, Romanda Cassin

Romanda is irritated at her tentmates, and remembering the selection of Aes Sedai for Sitter of the Hall in Salidar. She's remembering the events, including the necessity of actually more or less campaigning for a seat herself -- when she had been a sitter back in the White Tower. That lack of power, the crowding in her tent, her tentmates' mess -- they're all adding up to an annoyance.

Well, it was done, and that was that. What could not be cured must be endured.

The Gathering Storm has no actual incidences of the saying itself, though there are some excellent scenes that bear out the sentiment. Egwene is back in the Tower, and being beaten regularly to make her break, but she refuses to say she's just an Accepted. She takes everything they dish out, and stands after as though she's bestowing a favor upon her punisher. She refuses to break -- and it's clear that taking the beatings isn't breaking, submitting, or giving in.

The last two books do have scenes where the characters pull through difficult things, but no more that I think belong in this list. (Subject to change as I continue my current read-through.)

So, in 15 books, we have the phrase 9 times, counting only those that use the word 'endure. We get it from the uncrowned king of the Malkieri and a powerful warrior. We see it from a girl who grew up on fishing boats. It's an important lesson in the White Tower, a place that holds some of the greatest power in the world. A lesson taught to the Daughter Heir of Andor at the knee of her nurse. A lesson without which the man who will break and save the world might not survive to fulfill prophecy. A rule a strong man must implement in human interaction. A saying to still the hand of a captive warrior until the timing is right. Something even the Wisdom has to learn. Important in politics.

And not just the phrase -- the sentiment is woven into ji'e'toh, the driving force of a society that raises the fiercest warriors known to man. They say it a little differently -- one does what must be done, and accepts the consequences.

It's woven into every life, from warriors to peasants to queens: What must be endured, can be endured.

And if Egwene can bare herself for a beating to meet her toh, and Faile can stand naked in the snow while she waits to reach her dagger, and Rand can live with another man trying to control his body, and Aviendha can lay down her spears, and Perrin can accept that other people see you the way they see you no matter what.....well, hell, I can get through this little old bitty thing. What must be endured, can be endured. Which isn't to say I should go meekly -- I can still stand up for myself and how I want this all to go. But however it does go, I can get through it.