Archive for the ‘ Reviews ’ Category

The Big Red Robin in the Sky

Author: Erika

Dec 21

Wes and I had the very great pleasure of celebrating our 5th anniversary on Friday.  In honor of the occasion, Wes consented to watching one of my very favorite sappy girl movies of all time: Titanic.

In truth, I haven’t watched it since it was out in the theaters.  Watching the movie 13 years later was an interesting experience.  Time and perspective have a way of changing your ability to empathize with characters.

When I was 12, I thought Rose was the most courageous and terrific person.  I thought she had every right to try to escape her nefarious fiance (who seemed really mean to me) and that her choosing to stay on the ship with Jack was wonderfully brave.

Now, I can’t help but view her decisions from the perspective of someone slightly older than her.  When she left her fiance for Jack, I couldn’t help but want to caution her that that might not be the smartest decision ever.  She had no way of knowing that this carefree drifter wouldn’t just dump her after their one-night stand!

How’d she know he wouldn’t just say to her while they were getting dressed, “Yeah, I’ll call you,” and then she’d have ruined an engagement and possibly contracted VD!  There’s nothing romantic about VD.

Also, I would love to know how she would’ve done with being a poor girl.  Living in the upper crust of society may seem like a chore, but I wonder whether she would’ve found working 20 hour days as a laundress more fulfilling?  Also, would she have stayed so entranced with Jack’s carefree drifter lifestyle if she was constantly working to support them while he smoked and drew people in parks?

These considerations nonetheless, I still thoroughly enjoyed the movie.  Time has not diminished the skillful telling of that tale, and I continue to be impressed by the attention to detail and devotion to the subject matter.

I did have a giggly moment at the end of the movie though.  You know how at the end, Rose is all old and she dies in her bed and then returns to the Titanic in the afterlife?  Everyone she knew is there and applauding her, and then she comes up the staircase to meet Jack and they kiss and it’s all so very romantic.

Well, I was wondering what that would translate to in the narrative of my life and realized that in all likelihood I’d probably meet Wes at the Red Robin where we met.  I’d walk in the big brass and glass doors, and everyone would be clapping.  Wes would be standing at the host stand with his back to me, and then he’d turn around and kiss me and the Red Robin bird would flap his wings and we’d all go have clucks and fries or something.

Actually, that sounds pretty awesome.

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Book Review: Baby Catcher

Author: Erika

Aug 3

Baby CatcherOf all the books I’ve read in my life that inspired me, Baby Catcher: Chronicles of a Modern Midwife is among the foremost.  I read this when I was newly pregnant, suffering from morning sickness and burrowed into my couch.  I was interested in natural childbirth, and had broached the topic with my OB-GYN, but wasn’t sold on the idea that I could do it.

I found this book by reading through the pamphlets and magazines my OB-GYN’s office sent me home with after my 8 week appointment.  This book was on their recommended list of reads, so I grabbed it from the library and promptly fell in love.

It’s the memoir of a pioneer in modern midwifery.  Peggy Vincent, the author, started out as an obstetrical nurse who jumped ship to midwifery because she disliked the medical profession’s widespread opinion that a normal birth is a posthumous diagnosis.

She believed, and still does, that all is normal until it’s not, and the fewer interventions the better (barring obvious complications, emergencies, breech babies, etc.).

She describes details about many of the births she was a part of, and reading all these stories about normal, everyday women who were able to bring their babies into the world naturally inspired the heck out of me.  These women were just like me, many of them first-time moms, and they were all able to do it.  This, of course, meant that I would be able to do it too.

The single-most encouraging thing I ever heard when I was pregnant, and I clung to this idea like a baby spider monkey, was something Peggy said.  I can’t convey it word-for-word, because I don’t have the book with me, but I’ll paraphrase.  She mused in her book,

“Of all the thousands of births I’ve been a part of, I’ve never had to take a mom to the hospital because of unmanageable pain.”

As a first-time mom with no idea what to expect from labor, this was immensely encouraging to me.  It gave me confidence that I could do natural childbirth, and truly confidence is half of that particular battle.  Knowing, in the midst of contractions, that you can do it, that your body is functioning perfectly, well, that’s the difference between being in labor and suffering.  But that’s just my opinion.

I can’t recommend this book highly enough.  Even if you don’t plan a natural childbirth, it’s just a lot of fun to read all these incredible birth stories and learn a little about the history of modern midwifery in the U.S.

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Inception of a Busy Week

Author: Erika

Jul 26

I wish I could re-live yesterday.  Just for the sheer relaxation of it.  Wes’ parents loaded Aidan up into their car and took him home with them after church on Sunday, thereby liberating Wes and I to spend the whole day together.

We ate brunch outside at the Cheesecake Factory and we spent a whole solid hour and a half doing so.  We languished.  We luxuriated.  We ate with both hands.

After that, we strolled around in the sunshine.  We stumbled across a local arts festival, and spent an hour perusing the booths.  Some people are seriously talented, you guys.  One of our favorite artists combined different kinds of wood in alternating patterns to make large multi-hued sculptures that made it look like the two trees had chosen to twine together to form shapes like 16th notes, treble clefs, and others.

We also found an artist who painted brilliantly-colored abstract paintings accessorized by tiny little stick figures dashed off in black.  The effect was enchanting, and I found myself wishing I had a few extra thousand dollars lying around with which to purchase armloads of his paintings.

I would’ve taken pictures to share, but they all had pretty stringent NO PICTURES ALLOWED policies and I was loathe to get on the wrong side of a well-aimed painter’s pallet.

After the arts festival, we took in a showing of Inception.  We’d heard from numerous friends that the movie was mind-blowing, and thought it sounded like fun.  After all, it kind of seems like Leonardo DiCaprio can do no wrong lately.

I wasn’t disappointed.  I tried not to go into the theatre expecting sheer brilliance, because that’s a one-way ticket to failure, but I was expecting something pretty good.  And it was.

I thought the acting was deft, the visual effects mesmerizing, and the pacing suitable.  My only quibble with the movie is with the storyline, because I feel like the storyline is almost too insignificant to carry the heft of the intellectual implications and spectacular visuals.  But really, that’s a very small quibble indeed, because it never got in the way of my ability to enjoy the movie.

So there you have it.  I’m refreshed, relaxed, and as ready as I’m going to be for this week, which culminates in a gigantic party I’m throwing for Wes’ 30th birthday.  There will be fresh mini donuts (I found a local vendor who’s going to come out and make fresh mini donuts), a pinata (which Wes will hit with a samurai sword), and tons of BBQ food.

If posting is a bit light this week, that’s why.  Rest assured, though, I’ll be back next week with pictures!

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Didja Know?

Author: Erika

Jul 23

Aidan and Grandma Ro 15 weeks oldI’m not sure if any of you know this, but my mom is a writer too!  So is her mom!  It’s genetic!

She recently published a book (this is not her first book by a long shot, but the other ones are out of print or else technical manuals most people wouldn’t want to read {no offense mom, but technical manuals are not for public consumption}) and I just thought I’d share the book with all y’all.

It’s called The Protected and you can read more about it here.  I finished the book a couple weeks ago and it’s a lot of fun.  It cracked the top ten bestsellers at her publisher’s last month, which is a big deal.  I think book 2 is also due to come out soon, so keep an eye out for that!

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My Dan Brown Manifesto

Author: Erika

Jul 13

I love Dan Brown novels.  Dan Brown novels make me want to tear my hair out.  I enjoy learning academic esoterica from Dan Brown’s novels.  If Dan Brown gets any more blatant with the subtext in his novels, he may as well skip the story part and just keep trying to convince everyone to agree with him.

Such is my love/hate relationship with Dan Brown.  The author of The Da Vinci Code, Angels and Demons, and a few others.

I’ve been reading Dan Brown’s novels since I was in high school.  I own three of his books, actually.  His earlier work had a fun way of interspersing interesting facts with the story, so I always felt like I walked away from the book having learned something (I also felt this way when I was on my Tom Clancy kick awhile back).

I finished his new book, The Lost Symbol, this weekend and I have to say…I’m disappointed.  The story was a ton of fun, and I learned a lot about Washington D.C. and the Freemasons, but he should have stopped writing that book about 30 pages before he did.

The story wraps up, and then he goes on for another 30 pages with his personal religious views and how the established religious authorities have got it all wrong.  He quotes the Bible numerous times, but only ridiculously out of context, and the whole thing ends up just being really obnoxious.

I know a lot of Christians rose up in outrage over the things Dan Brown wrote about in The Da Vinci Code and Angels and Demons.  To be honest, I was never one of them because I didn’t really know enough at the time to know whether or not I should be outraged.  I just enjoyed the stories.

Either I know more now, or he’s getting increasingly ham-handed with his attempts to stir controversy, but the ending of The Lost Symbol just annoyed me.  It’s fine if he doesn’t agree with Christianity, or want to be a Christian.  I’m not about to brow-beat anyone for disagreeing with me.

But, he takes it too far when he quotes the Bible out of context so egregiously that I wonder if he even understands what he’s doing.  For him to try to put Jesus on a par with Buddha or Mohammad is laughable because Jesus left no room for Himself to be anything other than the Son of God.  He’s either the Messiah or He’s a lunatic, but there’s no way He was just some wise dude who left us a good example like so many other wise dudes.

Dan Brown is just so silly when he says the religious establishment has gotten the teachings of the Bible all wrong by asserting that their way is the only way to get to Heaven.  When Jesus says in John 14:6, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.  No one comes to the father except through me” He isn’t being coy.  He’s laying it out on the table, and there’s really no way to misunderstand that.

So this may be the end of the line for me.  If Dan Brown wants to write stories, I will read them.  If he’s going to keep getting up on increasingly larger soap boxes in an attempt to convince me that we are all gods, well, no thank you very much.  This mere human isn’t buying what he’s selling.

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