Moranifesto: Oh my god, a change is coming - can you feel it?

Did you know Caitlin Moran is pretty great? If not, maybe get on fixing that. And Moranifesto is quality Moran. Much like Moranthology (exactly like Moranthology?) it's a collection of her columns from The Times of London.

Sometimes I'm on the fence about collections of things published elsewhere. Except now that I've written that, not really. I mean, I guess I'm kind of on the fence about it in theory, but in actually, I will totally buy a collection of essays (or blog posts, what's up Freakonomics: When to Rob a Bank) even if I could have gotten them elsewhere, and I love having them in a single book. Plus I don't have a subscription to The Times so this is pretty much the only way I'm going to read them. So Moran, please keep putting these books out.

Anyway, Moranifesto. As I mentioned in a previous post, I bought this cos, well it's Moran, we have established that love. But ALSO it's a signed copy. Plus I read it right around the election, and this turned out to be the perfect mix of serious and irreverent, something I was looking for in what continue to be trying times.

The book is split into three sections:
The Twenty-First Century, Where We Live (essays include "I Am Hungover Again", "The Rich Are Blithe" and "BACON!");
Feminisms (essays include "Let Us Find Another Word For Rape", "FGM - It Takes Just One Person to End a Custom" and "Why Can't Life Be More Like A Musical?");
and The Future ("The Refugees Are Saving Us All", "The Frumious Cumberbatch", and "To Teenage Girls on the Edge").

She starts the collection with a quick introduction about how she started writing, focusing on pop-culture and being funny and staying away from all things political. Because politics was for Grownups and people who know absolutely EVERY LITTLE THING about a topic* and not just people with opinions. Once How to Be a Woman came out and people started considering her a Feminist Writer. And she realized that you can write about serious things. And fluffy things. Write about ALL THE THINGS and screw what people might say. As she says:

I am going to write about politics now. Firstly, because I think I should; and secondly, because I'm old enough now not to care if people think I can't. I love getting older. You might lose skin elasticity, but you also lose the amount of fucks you give. It's awesome.

And so she does. And the book is a mix of odes to David Bowie and interviews with Benedict Cumberbatch and writing about how she doesn't wear heels anymore, and it's also about rape and abortions and refugees and services for the poor. There's stuff that's in between, such as the internet dismissing people who aren't perfect. The columns are funny and touching and there's a feeling of hope, even when she's tackling dark topics.

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*I believe there have been studies done around this. Where typically women won't apply for a job unless they are 100% qualified. Meanwhile dudes will apply for a job if they're like 60% qualified cos whatever, they'll figure the rest of it out. So while knowing every little thing is great and experts are a good thing, that doesn't mean that you can't have and express your opinions on things. Accept and be upfront about what you know and don't know, but don't stay silent just because you don't know absolutely everything.

Title quote from page 3

Moran, Caitlin. Moranifesto. Harper Perennial, 2016.

February Reading Wrap-Up

Another month of 2017 has come to an end (10 and 35). Even though February is a short month, they all feel long these days, don't they?

I was pretty successful with my citizening through the month, if I do say so myself, and even managed to keep up with the weekly updates (I feel these things are related). I didn't do as much reading as I did in January but on the other hand, I read way more than I usually do last month, so it makes sense. That and the fact that so much of my reading last month came from listening to HP and while I'm still doing that, Order is roughly 200,000 pages, so I'm still making my way through this.

Ok so stats:

Total books read
4
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling
Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly
All Our Wrong Todays by Elan Mastai
The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl by Issa Rae

Total pages read
1,695

Fiction
50%

Female authors
75%

POC authors
50%

US authors
50%

Book formats
audiobooks: 25%
ebooks: 50%
paperback: 25%

Where'd I get the book
Gift: 25%
Indie bookstore: 25%
Kindle/Audible: 25%
Netgalley: 25%

Rereads
25%

Bookclub/readalong
25%

Review book
25%

Books by decade
2000s: 25%
2010s: 75%

Books by genre
history: 25%
memoir: 25%
sci fi: 25%
YA fantasy: 25%

Resolution books
100%

Whaaaa? And none of them are the technically-resolution-book-but-only-cos-published-before-2000-which-is-a-pretty-low-bar so OH MAN, good job, me.
Hidden Figures and The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl are both by people of color.
All Our Wrong Todays and Order of the Phoenix are both by non-US authors (Canada and UK)

So there you go. Pretty successful. Let's see how next month goes

What'd Red Do This Week

At some point, I'm going to quit being impressed with myself by actually getting this posted. Not yet, so GOOD JOB, ME!

So let's see what I got up to this week:

Citizening

• Reached out to local reps and Sessions to support Title IX and help protect transgender students
• Reached out to local rep to thank him for actually showing up to a Town Hall (which I couldn't make), for saying he would stand up and push for independent investigation into Russian connections, support the free press, and stand up against the crazy spending from the Pres, while also sort of reminding that we would be watching to make sure he actually does these things.
• Watched the next Town Hall (because there were so many people they had to have two). There was lots of yelling from the audience, some good stuff from the Congressman, some less good.
• Booker signed a letter along with other senators about an investigation into the Russian connections, but since Menendez didn't, I contact him again about supporting these efforts.
• Reached out to local reps to push back against the White House's press ban and general rhetoric about fake news

Reading

Just finished up The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl, still listening to Order of the Phoenix (I seriously may re-listen and then do my own readalong about it, because OMG I want to discuss the stupidest smallest details as well as bigger things such as Ron being swell), and going to start Between the World and Me that a co-worker is lending me.

Watching

Work is hosting a private screening of Hidden Figures along with a panel discussion about the importance of STEM, and I am PRETTY EXCITED about that. Otherwise, it's the usual stuff. I have sort of soured on The League in its last season(s). I've learned that where I have trouble DNF-ing books, I am 100% cool with dropping a TV show the second it no longer interests me. So while I'm cool stopping right now, we're still finishing it cos Tom is a completionist. I also watched the first episode of The Santa Clarita Diet and I am undecided if I'll watch anymore. I didn't hate it, and I am a FAN of most of the cast, but eh.

Listening

I essentially keep going back and forth between My Favorite Murder and the Moana soundtrack, which makes for strange bedfellows, but there you go.

Audiobooks, what makes a good one?

Over the past year I have gotten into podcasts and audiobooks. Previously I had trouble getting into them. I mean, there were exceptions to that rule (and I will recommend the World War Z audiobook again and again and again, and I had listened to Welcome to Night Vale but even that was few and far between) but in general I couldn't get into just listening to something.

But now? Now I'm almost constantly listening to something. It started in our new house that the kitchen is separated from the living room. In our old place I couldn't see the TV from the kitchen, but I could hear and frankly I didn't so much care what was on, I just wanted some background. But in our current place, unless I BLASTED the volume, I couldn't hear the TV and at that point I realized podcasts are the perfect solution.

And so I began, listening whenever I'm cooking or cleaning in the kitchen. Then it expanded to when I was cleaning anywhere.*

me but instead of music, it's about murder

Eventually I started listening while in the shower (not with headphones, DON'T WORRY). Now I'll start ones and basically as long as I'm doing something else fairly mindless, I'm listening to something. First it was just sticking my phone in a measuring glass (which totally works to amplify things, BTW) but it was sort of a pain when I actually needed the measuring glass so eventually I got a blue tooth speaker, though the glass is still used as backup when I inevitably run the battery down. #responsible

I started with Freakonomics and Stuff You Missed in History Class. Then I started Oh Witch Please and How Did This Get Made and Stuff Mom Never Told You. I'm currently on My Favorite Murder (which I have on right now [as I'm writing this**, not by the time this gets posted. Or maybe. I can't tell the future.])

It's not just podcasts. I've also listened to Trevor Noah's Born a Crime, and Joe Hill's Locke & Key. I'm relistening to the Harry Potter books. And there's always World War Z.

[Surprisingly, there are no valentines about WWZ. I mean, surprising cos I expect to find everything on the internet instantly. I'm too lazy to make one, so just imagine your own here.]

But I'm still a bit hesitant when it comes to audiobooks. I've had more positive experiences than I have negative ones, and yet. I listened to Drop Dead Healthy and while it was FINE, it was not my fav listening experience. It was hard to get past the way Jacobs narrated. I listened to the opening of Lamb and was NOT into what I heard. So what's the deal?

I'm not entirely sure. I mean, WWZ and Locke & Key are sort of different than a straight audiobook. It's a bunch of different actors so we don't have a single narrator telling the story. Maybe that's my thing? And Born a Crime is a memoir, so maybe because there aren't really a bunch of characters, that helped. Or maybe I just love Noah's accent (yes, this is true). Harry Potter is Harry Potter so, I mean. Plus Jim Dale (the version I have) is just now the voice of the HP books for me.

So I guess, this isn't really a post about what makes an audiobook good so much as it's me talking about how I started to listen to stuff and asking you, what the hell makes a good audiobook?

I don't feel like I've listened enough to really say for sure what that magic sauce is. Is it just the narrator? How much is it the story and some that just work as audiobooks vs. some you need to read? TELL ME because I want more audiobooks.

Even if you can't say what makes a good audiobook, if you wanted to recommend some great audiobooks, YES PLEASE TELL ME. Or podcasts. Either. Both.

*This is a stupid side point, but I got wireless headphones recently and they make this whole cleaning while listening to stuff thing so much easier. So just saying, I recommend. Though I won't actually call our brands.
**Apparently blogging counts as a mindless activity? Except, not really. Or rather this does take brain power so if this post makes no sense, assume something CRAZY happened in a podcast and I got distracted. Or that I got frustrated cos I kept having to rewind the podcast cos I was missing stuff. Anyway.

Something New: It's hard to explain how little and much things have changed

I had an evening in NYC to myself so naturally I found myself at the Strand. The idea was to JUST BROWSE and not get anything cos I mean, I don't really need anything and also I'm staying in the city and only have a backpack which is already filled with work stuff and clothes and I can't even fit anything else in there, so really, I won't actually get anything.

Of course, I ended up buying two books.

First was a copy of Caitlin Moran's latest book Moranifesto and it was a SIGNED COPY. Obviously I can't leave that behind. Then as I continued my just-browsing-not-buying-anything-except-this-one-book I ended up by the graphic novels which I always want to get into but have a hard time with. I remembered the book Relish looked like something I might be able to get behind and thought I'd flip through it. Instead I found a different book of hers, Something New. One of the copies was priced at $18. The other identical copy was priced at $10. Both had the correct label for the correct book. So I mean, I couldn't turn down this deal. The fates were MAKING me buy books.

One thing I have learned about myself (other than I have no willpower) is that I am down for memoir-type graphic novels because I was totally for Something New, a book about the author getting engaged and planning her wedding. She has a lot of questions from the more superficial (What sort of cat cake topper perfectly encapsulates us as a couple?) to more important (What's marriage actually mean for a feminist and is this something I really need to do and what do I want in my future?). Both sides of the question are great.

Even if this hadn't been a graphic novel, I would have been all about reading this story. But the graphic parts work as well. There are chapters that tell the story (in a somewhat non-linear fashion) and then sections in between like Weird Wedding Facts or Crafts done for the wedding.

The book is so fun and sweet and her drawing style is the type of thing I can get behind (vs. some of the more elaborate styles that are SO PRETTY but can be overwhelming for me when I'm trying to read the story). It was a book I didn't want to put down so I sped through it. And it's definitely a book that I want to give to friends going through the whole wedding process. And I definitely want to read her other stuff.

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Title quote from page 277

Knisley, Lucy. Something New: Tales From a Makeshift Bride. First Second, 2016.

What Red Did This Week

Look at this, three weeks in a row. Oh man, that's pretty impressive, me.

This time it's even on the right day. (Right date = the day I planned on posting this).

Citizening

• Reached out to White House (per ACLU reco) about the leaked Executive Order that would allow people to discriminate basically against anyone not white, Christian and straight
• Reached out to local reps about concerns about the ongoing news of the Administration's ties to Russia because OMG YOU GUYS
• Reached out to my local rep about the amount of money Drumpf is costing taxpayers, because the terrible things coming out of the administration spans all topics, and since my local rep is a Republican, I figure this is something that will appeal to that side. Also WTF STOOOOOP
• It's the middle of Feb, so I made my monthly donation, this time to the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Reading

I finished up Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly and am just about done with All Our Wrong Todays by Elan Mastai and deciding what to start next (Do I read The Misadventures of an Awkward Black Girl by Issa Rae? Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward? Invasive by Chuck Wendig? Something else entirely?) I'm also still listening to Order of the Phoenix but for some reason chapters 11-14 are not loading properly, which is a PAIN.

Podcasting

Still more of the same (My Fav Murder, How Did This Get Made?, Oh Witch Please). I haven't started it yet, but I did subscribe to the podcast Can He Do That? which is from the Washington Post about Tr*mp. I haven't listened yet because for the most part podcasts are my lighthearted escape (yes, even when I listen to Stuff You Missed in History or Freakonomics or Serial) and this just seems like it will be a stress causer. BUT it also seems like something I should know about.

Also, I was listening to My Fav Murder at work when someone snuck up on me and asked what I was listening to. Since he caught me off guard I didn't think to make up something else and just sheepishly said "Oh, um, well, it's My Favorite Murder. So. Yeah." Luckily he was fairly cool with this and we talked about some other podcasts and I didn't get an email for HR or something. 

Listening

As I predicted last week, I'd probably spend the week listening to the Book of Mormon soundtrack and yup, that's what I did. Current fav song from the show, "You and Me (But Mostly Me)" because I heart songs by pompous people (What's up, "Popular" from Wicked.)