The Great Purge of 2014: Books

Yup, I'm parting with even more books. I seriously own too damn many. I've read some articles on minimalism and decided to use some of their ideas.

More than once I asked myself, "I've had this book since college and haven't read it. Why not?" Based on that, I'm parting with:


Fiction
The Accidental Tourist by Anne Tyler
Veil of Roses by Laura Fitzgerald
The Accidental Bestseller by Wendy Wax
Been There, Done That by Carol Snow
A Vist from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan
Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
Another Roadside Attraction by Tom Robbins
The Castle in the Forest by Norman Mailer
The Secret of Lost Things by Sheridan Hay
Gardens in the Dunes by Leslie Marmon Silko
Love Medicine by Louise Erdrich
Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl
Loving Frank by Nancy Horan
The Girl She Used to Be by David Cristofano
Children of Men by P. D. James
The Art of Losing by Rebecca Connell
Fieldwork by Mischa Berlinski
Summer People by Brian Groh
School's Out by Christophe Dufosse
Bedtime Stories edited by Diana Secker Tesdell
This Is Not Chick Lit edited by Elizabeth Merrick
The Devil Wears Prada by Lauren Weisberger
Here Comes Another Lesson by Stephen O'Connor
The Scandal of Lady Eleanor by Regina Jeffers
Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut
The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Steig Larson
Room by Emma Donoghue

Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Café by Fannie Flagg

Teen
Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chobsky

The Realm of Possibility by David Levithan

What My Mother Doesn’t Know by Sones

Prom Nights from Hell edited by Meg Cabot

I Am Number Four by L. Lorre

Lost Voices by Porter


Mysteries
Heat Wave by Richard Castle
The Sunday Philosophy Club by Alexander McCall Smith
The Dark End of the Street edited by Jonathan Santlofer
The Missing Ink by Karen Olsen
Murder of a Bookstore Babe by Denise Swansom
Suite 606 by JD Robb et al
The Other Side by JD Robb et al
Three in Death by JD Robb
The Dark End of the Street edited by Jonathan Santlofer
Russian Roulette by Austin Camacho
Collateral Damage by Austin Camacho

Genre Fiction
Steampunk edited by Jeff VanderMeer
Shadow on the Sun by Richard Matheson
The Host by Stephenie Meyer
Stolen Kelley Armstrong
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke
City by Alessandro Baricco
Paul Is Undead by Alan Goldsher
Chyrstallia and the Source of Light by P. M. Glaser
Zoo City by Lauren Beukes
Beyond the Dark edited by Angela Knight
Unbound edited by Kim Harrison
Dates from Hell edited by Kim Harrison
Bite edited by Charlaine Harris
Grails: Quests of the Dawn edited by Richard Gilliam
Love Is Strange edited by Martin Greenberg
The Werewolf's Guide to Life
The New Vampire's Handbook
Mister B. Gone by Clive Barker


Nonfiction
The Mirror Effect by Dr. Drew
Stumbling on Happiness by Daniel Gilbert
It's a Wonderful Lie edited by Emily Franklin
Who Cooked the Last Supper? by Rosalind Miles
Fame Junkies by Jake Halpern
Good Time Girls of the Alaska Yukon Gold Rush by Lael Morgan
50 Facts that Should Change the World by Jessica Williams
In Search of Dracula by Raymond McNally
Such a Pretty Fat by Julie Lancaster
Reduced Shakespeare by Reed Martin
Lit Riffs edited by Matthew Miele
Letters to Juliet by Lise Friedman
Spin magazine: Greatest Hits

Reading in the Brain by Stanislas Dehaene

Second Reading by Jonathan Yardley

George Steiner at The New Yorker
See Jane Date: Writing Chick Lit
What Color Is Your Parachute? 2010
Suddenly Frugal
A Very Short Introduction to Bestsellers

Memoir/Biography
Killing Yourself to Live by Chuck Klosterman
I'm Just a Guy by Bill Engvall
Confessions of a Counterfeit Farm Girl by Susan McCorkindale
Lost in Suburbia by Tracy Beckerman
Voluntary Madness by Norah Vincent
Stories from Candyland by Candy Spelling
Adventures of a Continental Drifter by Elliott Hester
The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kit by Bill Bryson
I Shouldn't Even Be Doing This by Bob Newhart

Such a Pretty Fat by Jen Lancaster

Voluntary Madness by Norah Vincent

Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim by David Sedaris

Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris

Hell’s Angels by Hunter S. Thompson

Crossing the Heart of Africa by Smith

Confessions of a Continental Drifter by  Hester

The Whole Five Feet by Christopher Beha

Head Over Heel: Seduced by Southern Italy by Harrison

Badass by Shannen Doherty



Other
The Gospel of the Flying Spaghetti Monster
Bla Bla Sex (random sex factoids)

Forbidden Knowledge Sex

Cruel and Unusual Idiots

Stupid Science

Stupid on the Road

Planet Dog: A Dog-lopedia by Sandra Choron

If you're interested in any of these titles, you know where to find me.

The Great Purge of 2014: Bags

I'm very particular about my handbags. Despite the purchase of others, I find myself returning to the same handful of bags. I have plenty more than a handful collecting dust. Anyone want to give the following bags a new home?

I've added a mass market paperback to give some scale. And when I say leather, I do mean leather. I'm not a big fan of the fake stuff.

Pink flower Dooney and Bourke barrel purse and wristlet

Faux leather "j" wristlet, white leather Dooney and Bourke wristlet, and Vera Bradley long wallet-y thing

Vera Bradley barrel purse

Blue plastic strawberry purse and faux leather clutch with outer snap pockets in teal, both from Target

Small red velvet-y fancy bag with black beading and little witch hat with a headband, both from Target

Pink "Princess" Santa hat (worn twice) and black baseball cap from a railroad excursion in Alaska (never worn)

Blue leather purse with open front pocket and small leather purse both from Fossil

Small suede fall purse with snap closure and front snap pocket and tan leather wallet, both from Fossil. The wallet perfectly held my iPhone 4 but I don't know if it can go much bigger.

Black leather purse from a Fossil outlet with braided strap

Mesh Ron Jon laundry bag

The Thin of It

I loved this article about thin privilege. I can easily see thin or 'normal' women everywhere calling BS because society doesn't make them feel pretty which the article addresses perfectly. 

Can you eat ice cream without worrying you're being judged? During my sample of various ice cream shops in Annapolis it crossed my mind more than a few times that I was being judged. I saw a thin woman eating twice as much ice cream and I don't think she ever expected random strangers to think ugly things. My typical attitude of "fuck 'em" kicked it but that thought came from years of society pushing a thin ideal at us.

One of my friends wanted to do a matching cosplay for a con. I refused on the grounds that I didn't want to look like a before and after weight loss ad. Guys routinely ignored me for my typically pretty friends or were only nice to me on the grounds that they can't be jerks to the pretty girl's friend. Pointing this out to my friends either elicited pity or denial, neither of which is helpful.

Earlier this year I met someone who flirted with me and treated me like a desirable person, I didn't tell him about The Boy right away. It wasn't because I had bad intentions; it was because I wanted to experience what my friends experience every time they leave the damn house.

Some thin women might complain that 'real women have curves' shuts them out. Most body positive responses don't readily recognize thin as a valid body type but there is no fat or curvy privilege. People are slowly moving away from the wispy thin models and more toward fit or curvy women but it's a slow process.

I know women of all body types who are beautiful inside and out. We need to tell the media to shove it and avoid adversarial relationships with each other. Our biggest problem is that our value as people is based on whether we're the right body type.

Big men are teddy bears; big women are worthy of scorn. People can make fat jokes or say ugly things about their bodies to their face and it's fine. Men get some fit or thin privilege but it's no where near the disparity it is for women. We need to welcome body acceptance so that all women can be seen as people regardless of how we look.

Women are people and should always be treated as such. We can never forget that.

I Scream, You Scream

I've been temping in Downtown Annapolis this week. I haven't been back here in quite some time but it's a very lovely area. My proximity to Main Street has caused me to realize the remarkable number of places to get dessert around here. There are 3 homemade ice cream places within a couple of blocks of each other.

I decided to test and compare. I only focused on the shops that didn't have a big brand. The cafe with Hershey's ice cream got skipped. I ranked flavor, portion to price, and flavor variety.

Kilwins
Closer to the waterfront, Kilwins has almost any sweet confection you could crave from fudge to chocolate to caramel apples. I went for the ice cream. Their flavors are mostly traditional but one of the standouts was Peruvian chocolate which was supposed to be richer than regular chocolate. I tried my standard cookies and cream and limited edition raspberry cheesecake.

Flavor: 4 scoops
The flavors were strong and the ice cream rich.

Portion to price: 3 scoops
It was a little close to standard city prices for my liking but the portions didn't skimp.

Variety: 3 scoops
All of the flavors were fairly traditional but appealed to a variety of pallets (chocolate, fruity, caramel, etc.)


Annapolis Ice Cream Company
I noticed this place because of all the stuffed penguins in the windows. They light and fun atmosphere continued inside. Customers can decorate a spoon and have it become part of display. There were pages of spoons on a flip display like at a poster store.

Because of the large flavor selection, not all the cases are visible so there are screens on the wall displaying what isn't front and center. The portion sizes were also unusual. I'd never seen a "scoop and a half" as an option. I got two scoops not realizing that any place with half a scoop as an option is going to be heavy handed with their distribution.

Flavor: 4 scoops
I got peanut butter vanilla and strawberry Oreo. The peanut butter vanilla was perfect. Rich and with a strong peanut butter taste. It overpowered the strawberry Oreo a bit but that was more my pairing.

Portion to price: 5 scoops
I got 75% of a pint of ice cream for less than a container of Ben and Jerry's. I was very satisfied.

Variety: 4 scoops
Most of the combinations are a mash-up of traditional flavors in rarely seen pairings such as strawberry and mint Oreo, maple walnut, Nutella vanilla, coconut chocolate chip, and coffee Heath bar to name a few. Some of the rarer flavors I saw were blackberry and key lime.

Capital Cakes and Cream
The shop is a bit back from the street but the sign is what brought me in. Like Kilwins, it doesn't stop at ice cream. There was a variety of cupcakes as well. I think hedging its dessert bets, CC&C was able to skip some of the cupcake fall out. All of their ice cream comes from a farm in Cecil County so when people say you're buying local, this shop means it 100%.

Small with pink paint and nice design touches, CC&C made the most of the space. The staff was very willing to let me try several samples since I had trouble making up my mind. Some of the flavors were the standard cookies and cream, cookie dough, and moose tracks but with cutesy names. For the shop pink shop with a cupcake tower, it worked.

Flavor: 4 scoops
Independence Explosion (vanilla with raspberry and blueberry swirls) was tempting but I opted for Cookie Monters (blue vanilla with Oreo, cookie dough, and additional cookies) and Mootella (a delicious chocolate-Nutella flavor).

My only complaint was that the ice cream wasn't as rich as the other two. Without the comparison to the others, it would have been a great local kind of Ben and Jerry's (they love stuff in their ice cream). But next to the others, it was a bit weak.

Portion to price: 4 scoops
I got one scoop of each flavor. After Annapolis Ice Cream Company, I was initially a little disappointed in the portion size. Then I heard the price. My first thought was "That works for me." I found the prices very reasonable in relation to the portion size.

Variety: 5 scoops
In addition to traditional flavors, CC&C has a variety of fun and interesting combos. Most of the variety is based on additions to regular flavors but they appeal to folks who like sweet or fruity. They also had two Italian ice style options.

Conclusion
Annapolis Ice Cream Company wins for overall flavor quality but CC&C has such a diverse flavor selection that it shouldn't be forgotten. It's all a matter of preferring simple and rich flavors or liking variety and add-ons in your ice cream. I say, why choose?

One of the perks of being a grown-up is deciding if you want to have ice cream as a meal. And then eating vegetables and fish for the next 2 days so your doctor won't bitch about your cholesterol.

Current Music: Wide Sargasso Sea by Stevie Nicks

Hail Hydra: Within Temptation Concert

Last night I attended a Within Temptation concert in Baltimore. One of my favorite bands is touring the US again and are visiting locally? Yes please.

I was worried for a minute because all of my immediate go-to people for this show couldn't make it. I had to twist The Boy's arm a bit but after I played him some stuff, he was looking forward to it. Of course he got sick this weekend and I wasn't sure he'd be well enough to go. He swore he was so off to B'more to bang our heads.

I was in the merch line when the opener, Amaranthe, started and I realized two things: 1) These guys are awesome and 2) I'm too old to stand right next to a speaker. They're classified as power metal and had a great sound. I'd never heard a metal band that had a normal woman, normal man, and scream guy as vocalists. It was cool.

I was getting tired and starting to fade before Within Temptation. The second they came on the stage my energy level shot up and I was rocking out. The Boy and I had never been to a concert together before. He didn't realize I tend to enjoy them with my entire body. Who needs the gym when you can go to a concert?

Within Temptation is such a great band to watch. I love their stage presence. All of the guitar players moved around. Sharon (the lead singer) jumps and dance and twists her arm like a belly dancer during the slow numbers. The way she moves is just fantastic.

They also do a great job about connecting with their audience. You could see the different musicians and Sharon react and make eye contact with the folks in the audience. The crowd fed off their energy and they fed of the crowd's energy. There was no area they didn't perform to. They all move around the stage and acknowledged the entire audience.

Toward the end The Boy started to feel tired and achey. He told me the guitarist was making eyes at him like "Are you having a good time man?" Watching The Boy try to the rock out sign was hilarious.

I definitely felt like I connect to different members of the band more than a few times. It's one of my favorite things about Within Temptation's live shows but I think I had a few things that helped.

Ways to get the band to notice you at a metal concert:

Headbang
If you're like me and have trouble head banging, pull a Willow Smith and whip your hair around. It puts on a good show minus some dizziness.

Wear white
Everyone was wearing black including The Boy. I stood out in my white Doctor Who villain dress.

Have a better time than the people next to you
Since The Boy wasn't feeling well and I'd gotten up rather early, we opted to pay extra to get on the third level that overlooks the stage. My neighbors were there and I was rocking out like I was on the floor.

Have the time of your life
I never stopped moving. During Summertime Sadness I shimmied my hips and I maintain Sharon responded by doing so as well. She also did a reach for me during one of their slower numbers. I know one guitarist appreciated me doing my sorta head bang. They did similar stuff for one guy in the second level who was rocking out just as hard as I was.

Music: Let Us Burn by Within Temptation