Monthly Archives: September 2011

BAND: Nonfiction Audio

Posted on September 29, 2011 | 8 Comments

Blogger’s Alliance of Nonfiction Devotees is a group of book bloggers who share a love of nonfiction. Anyone can answer the question on their blog–we would love to hear your responses! If you can’t get enough of BAND check out our tumblr page.

This month Cass from Bonjour Cass! started a discussion about nonfiction audiobooks–something I used to listen to a lot. When I worked at the library I listened to audiobooks very often and finished about one every couple of weeks. I find essay collections on audio are my absolute favorites. They are often read by the author and since most essayists read their work in public regularly they are great readers. This is one of the reasons I tend to pick up nonfiction rather than fiction audiobooks.

A few of my favorites are:

  1. Manhood for Amateurs by Michael Chabon. This book is all about being a son and father–two things I know nothing about but the essays in this book struck a chord with me because I’m so interested in family stories. Chabon is a great reader too, and I often found myself chuckling at his stories.
  2. Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim by David Sedaris, or really any audio by David Sedaris. The man really can’t be beat. While listening to his audio I would laugh so hysterically everyone at work thought I’d gone insane. I actually don’t enjoy reading his essays but listening to them is different. He has such great inflection in his voice and it adds so much to the story. I’d definitely recommend any of his audiobooks to a beginning listener of nonfiction audio.
  3. The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid by Bill Bryson was the first audiobook I ever listened to, and the one that got me hooked. I listened to it two summers ago when I was walking a lot for exercise. It got to the point where I would add extra walks to my work-out or go a little further just because I loved Bill Bryson’s book so much. It helped that he story was about growing up in Des Moines in the 1950′s, which interests me because I’m from the Des Moines area, but he is truly a great reader.
The links will take you to my reviews of these books if you’re more interested. I love essays and travelogues on audio because they’re easy to dip in and out of. You can listen to one twenty-minute essay while you’re making dinner every night for a couple of weeks, and before you know it you’ve finished a book! 
What kind of nonfiction audio is your favorite? Any recommendations for me?

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Posted in audiobooks, bloggers' alliance of nonfiction devotees, nonfiction

I GRE-ed

Posted on September 27, 2011 | 11 Comments

I’ve been fairly absent this past week and there is a reason. Anyone following me on Twitter knows the reason. I took the GRE yesterday. After two months of painful math review I finally sat down at that computer and took the four hour exam. Then I came home for dinner.

Oh I wish that was the end of my day yesterday, but it was not. Oh, it was not my friends. Then I came back to campus to take an exam in my public relations class. And then I came home and wrote a paper. It was quite possibly the longest day of my college career. Hopefully it will be the worst day of my semester. Now I want nothing more than to take a vacation. I’m thinking my bed would be a good place to start. With a cup of hot cocoa… and The Marriage Plot.

Oh wait… I don’t have The Marriage Plot yet. I guess I’ll have to wait a week for that to happen.

So this is where I’ve been. And now that the GRE is over I can resume my normal life.

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Posted in Uncategorized

Awesome Essays: The Question Robin Hemley Hates

Posted on September 21, 2011 | Leave a comment

So this isn’t really an essay because Creative Nonfiction doesn’t put their essays online and I like to give you guys things you can check out online. So this is actually an essay on memoir Robin Hemley wrote about another essay called “Confessions of a Navel-Gazer” for this issue of Creative Nonfiction. This also probably a good place to mention that Robin Hemley was my professor a couple of years ago, so I guess I might be biased towards him or something. But I still think he’s a hilariously good writer and this short piece about memoir put a big grin on my face.

In The Question Robin Hemley Hates Hemley wonders why people ask him this question over and over again, “After writing X memoir, are you healed?” This is the way a lot of people seem to approach memoir. The author wrote a book about his or her experience with X and after writing that book he or she is healed. From my experience I can say that writing nonfiction is sometimes healing, but it can also force you to open parts of yourself you’d rather leave shut off, and sometimes making yourself more aware of an experience only makes it more present in your day-to-day life. In a nutshell, it’s not that simple.

“The question makes me want to question the questioner: Must I be healed? Is that a requirement? If I haven’t been healed, does that mean I’ve failed to write a good book? I’m afraid that some people (readers, writers, editors, talk show hosts, film makers, soft ball players) might answer, We expect redemption. We expect results! We expect that after you share your awful secrets, you will, at the very least, begin the healing process.”

He then compares the process of reading memoir to reading literature and asks why we have these expectations of memoir and not literature. Except he does it in this really great way that I can’t explain, so you’ll have to read the essay for that.

Do you expect memoir writers to be healed after writing their memoir? Would be disappointed if you read the memoir of a recovering alcoholic only to find they continuously fall back on alcohol years later? 

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Posted in awesome essays

Not So Junk Food: Pears

Posted on September 17, 2011 | 7 Comments

This past week I went a little crazy with the pears, but they’re just so yummy! I use apples a lot on sandwiches and salads, but pears have a little different texture and flavor. It was nice to mix things up a little and I really liked my pear flavored meals.

I made pear tacos, which you might think is weird but you’re wrong. I used spinach, Monterey jack, slices pears, chicken, honey mustard, and whole wheat tortillas. They were really yummy and filling, but next time I think I’d add grilled onions for a little more flavor. I also might try grilling the pears to make them more flavorful.

For this I put deli turkey on a pita, topped with sliced peas and Monterey jack cheese. I think this was better than the taco but that was probably because of the melted cheese. Melty cheese makes everything better. I had this for lunch instead of my normal turkey and cheese sandwich and it was a welcome change.

Do you like fruit in unexpected ways? What are you favorite fruits to use?

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Posted in not so junk food

BBAW: How has book blogging changed your life?

Posted on September 15, 2011 | 2 Comments

This week is Book Blogger Appreciation Week and today’s topic is:

Book bloggers blog because we love reading. Has book blogging changed the way you read? Have you discovered books you never would have apart from book blogging? How has book blogging affected your book acquisition habits? Have you made new connections with other readers because of book blogging? Choose any one of these topics and share your thoughts today!

I know the whole point of this is to celebrate book bloggers and the book blogging community, but the best way for me to answer this questions doesn’t necessarily have a lot to do with the book blogging community itself.

Has book blogging changed my life?

Yes, it definitely has. When I started book blogging I just wanted to read more. I didn’t know that something called “book blogging” even existed, I was just blogging and then all these book people found me. And I’m grateful for that, because book blogging has taught me more than school ever could. I’m doing social media and marketing for a nonprofit now, I work on fundraising for student organizations and for my job, I write blog posts for a variety of student organizations. I honestly don’t think I could have done all these things without my experience blogging. Or maybe I could have done them, but I wouldn’t be so “in demand” for them. They wouldn’t be things people would immediately jump to and say, “Oh yeah, Ash would be really good at that.”

For any college student considering starting a blog I say do it. Seriously. The skills you learn from blogging are skills you can’t necessarily get any other place. But you can’t just do it, you have to do it well. Keep up with it, get yourself out there, network. It’s not just book blogging, it’s any blog. Just make sure it’s something you can do every day (even you’re not writing posts you’ll have to work on it every day) and something you’ll be continually interested in for a long time. I mean, if nothing else you’ll try it and find out it’s not for you.

So, sorry to go off topic, but this is the best way blogging has changed my life. It’s given me the skills I thought I could never have. And so much of it is thanks to book bloggers like you guys! People who have been patient with me, shown me how to make gravatar and favicons, blog layouts, use Google reader, understand Twitter–it’s all because of bloggers like you guys that I’ve found these skills. Book blogging is the best school I could have chosen.

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Posted in blogging, book blogger appreciation week