Jonestown/Anne Shirley

Last week I bought a new book, One Thousand Lives by Julia Sheeres.  It's about Jim Jones and Jonestown, the cult in Guyana in the 1970s where over 900 people drank poisoned kool-aid in a mass murder/suicide.  I'd stayed up late last weekend reading about cults on various wikipedia pages, and decided to learn things in a more in-depth way.  The book is based on tons of somewhat recently released documents, including extensive notes by the government and diary entries of people who'd lived at Jonestown.

Yeah, but it was too much.  I did not get further than Jim Jones's cult's relocation from Indiana to Northern California before I gave up.  The descriptions of the ritual beatings of members to punish them for small transgressions was just too much.  I'd been reading in bed and, reaching this, I ran out into the living room where my boyfriend was on his computer.  I threw the book down, and we watched an episode of "Arrested Development" so I could clear my head.  Then we shared hummus and crackers and I read Anne of Windy Poplars until I was ready for bed.  I am really not much different than I was as a ten-year-old.

I just couldn't bear how terrible Jim Jones and his higher-level followers were.  I had imagined the book would investigate the "why"s of how it happened: why do people join cults, why do things get to that point without the government intervening, why do people do terrible things, etc.  And maybe later on it does.  But what I read was focused on the "how"s and "what"s, in detail, and I just can't handle it.

So more Lucy Maude Montgomery, more Anne Shirley.  Although Anne of Avonlea had bored me a little, I enjoyed this one.  Maybe it was the contrast to One Thousand Lives.  Anne is still a little too perfect when I think about it, but I enjoy spending time with her.  Most people get happy endings in the Anne books, and the bad characters are overly stern or unloving or short-tempered, not manipulative, deceitful speed-freak monsters like Jim Jones.

I caught a cold yesterday, and so spent most of today laying around finishing Anne of Windy Poplars and drinking hot apple cider with cinnamon.  It was a good day.

Apple Crisp

I made a vegan apple crisp tonight, out of the apples we picked at an orchard a couple weeks ago.  They've been taking up precious real estate on our kitchen counter, and their number needed to be whittled down.


I used this recipe from The Post Punk Kitchen.  

Apple Crisp

by IsaChandra

Serves 8

This apple crisp is just perfect. Sweet and crunchy and spiced just right, I like it served warm with Vanilla Bean Soy Cream.

Ingredients

For the filling
4 lbs apples (I use Roma)
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup apple juice or water
1 tablespoon arrowroot powder (cornstarch will work too)
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon allspice
1/8 teaspoon cloves
1/2 cup raisin (optional)

For the topping
1 cup quick cooking oats (not instant)
1 cup flour
1 cup light brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/3 cup canola oil
3 tablespoon soy milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 teaspoon salt

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 F

Peel, core and thinly slice apples. Dissolve the arrowroot in the apple juice or water. Set aside.

Place apples and raisins in the baking dish, add sugars and spices and combine everything well (you may need to use your hands to do this). Pour arrowroot mixture over everything.

To prepare the topping, in a medium bowl, combine all dry ingredients. Add oil, soymilk, and vanilla, mix well. Crumble topping over the apples. Bake for 45 minutes.

Remove from oven and let cool at least 15 minutes before serving.

It was very easy and very yummy.  I changed it up a bit - instead of all white flour, I used half whole wheat pastry flour.  I chopped the apples into little chunks instead of thin slices, because I started doing it that way without thinking and didn't want to change halfway through.  I also added a little bit of ground almonds and flax seed to the topping, since I had them sitting around.  And I have no idea what types of apples I used - at least five different kinds, I know that.

The Post Punk Kitchen is maintained by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero, who are the authors of my favorite cookbook ever, The Veganomicon.  The Veganomicon is incredible.  The writing is irreverent and engaging.  The recipes are creative, delicious, and easy to follow.  I often like to read it just for fun, while I'm eating breakfast or just sitting around.  In the past I've only wanted cookbooks where every recipe has a photo, but I completely got over that with The Veganomicon. Less photos means more tasty recipes! 

Countdown

I am obsessed with Beyonce's new song and video.  I love it so much!  It's catchy as hell, and the outfits! The makeup! The hair!  I keep watching it over and over.

Cinderella Ate My Daughter

How great of a book title is that? I love it.  Cinderella Ate My Daughter is by Peggy Orenstein, the author of Schoolgirls and Waiting For Daisy, both of which I love.

Cinderella Ate My Daughter is about, as the subtitle says, girlie-girl culture.  Orenstein discusses Disney Princesses, child beauty pageants, Miley Cyrus, and more.  She tries to sort out some nature-vs-nurture questions, and determine just how harmful or harmless some of these pink, glittery girl things are.  What the book ends up focusing on a lot is consumerism - how much advertisers push things on our kids, and then make the kids' desires for the products seem "natural."

It was fascinating.  It could've been more in-depth, but that isn't a criticism, really.  I think the book set out exactly what it meant to do, examining this part of our culture, and to look deeper would mean to actually read through some of the studies she's quoted.  Which I will probably do.

One problem: it was so hard to put down!  I stayed up way too late finishing it last night.

Now I'm re-reading The Man of My Dreams by Curtis Sittenfeld, another addictive author.

Anthropology of an American Girl

I just finished Anthropology of an American Girl by Hilary Thayer Hamann.  At first I really liked it, but then... Well, if you're interested in reading it, I don't know how to discuss my feelings on it without spoilers, so be warned.

It begins when Eveline is a senior in high school.  Her best friend Kate has moved in with her, as Kate's mother has died from cancer.  Eveline's boyfriend Jack has just returned from a summer away.  Eveline and Jack's relationship felt real to me.  Jack felt real.  An angry young man, a musician, intelligent, isolated in his rich suburban family.  He had insight about the world and yet was also a hypocrite in some ways, cruel at times.  I thought I could've gone to high school with him.

And then there's a new temporary drama instructor, Harrison Rourke.  Eveline falls for Rourke immediately.  I thought she was going to end up embarrassed.  All the signs that Rourke was interested seemed like they could also be interpreted as casual friendliness.  And then after graduation, at a party, she sees him.  They kiss.  They spend the summer together.  She's in love.

It didn't feel real to me.  Rourke seemed like a blank.  Why did she love him? Because he was handsome and intense?

And THEN it's fall.  She's at college at NYU, her and Rourke are over, and she's dating Rourke's rich friend Mark.  Then she's living with Mark, still mourning the end of her relationship with Rourke.  Eventually it becomes clear that she'd gotten pregnant and had a miscarriage, but her and Rourke were already over at that time.  Mark seems like a jerk, and Eveline doesn't love him.  She says she's with him because she's given up on things, because of Rourke.  Or something.

I had a hard time understanding her motives in the second half.  As a high schooler, she was so vivid, an artist in a bohemian family, trying to deal with her best friend's mom's death, with feelings for someone besides her boyfriend, with life.  And then after Rourke, she was a mystery.  WHY not contact Rourke and talk to him? WHY decide to stay with Mark?  Another thing that made it a little tough to follow was the sheer volume of characters.  It was hard to keep track of people.

Eventually their paths cross again, and misunderstandings are put right, and at the very end of the novel, she leaves Mark for Rourke.  But I feel like this book could've been so much better.

Published!

I had another short story published, in the October issue of Stirring: A Literary Collection.  Yay!  Check it out:
Stirring