The Story of a Friendship: Lindsay and Tricia

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10945026_769601127822_5220227948616371466_nBecause I move often, it can be hard to keep close friendships for a long period of time.  This is why Lindsay means so much to me–we have been friends for 27 years and counting.  Because our mothers were friends, Lindsay age 2 and Tricia age 0 were destined for friendship.  However, a two year age gap is a lot more meaningful when you’re tiny, so it wasn’t until adolescence that our friendship truly took off.

When I was in 8th grade, Lindsay was amongst the high school girls who kidnapped me during the Sunday School hour.  She and Sarah took me to see the first Spiderman movie, at which Lindsay screamed “Toby!” at the screen during a pivotal moment.  I loved riding in her car (whether in the seat or in the trunk), because her driving skills made every ride feel like a roller coaster.  Continue reading →

Close Kin by Clare B. Dunkle

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Okay, I’m sad to say I didn’t like Close Kin nearly as much as I liked The Hollow Kingdom.  Although it was so much fun to return to a world where Victorian humans interact with goblins, elves, and dwarves, there was not nearly enough Kate and Marak to satisfy me. Of course, this was not their love story.  It was…Emily and Seylins’?  Which is weird, because they spend very little of the book together.  Even when they are finally reunited, we hardly get to see them.  Other couples, like Sable and Tinsel, dominate the last fourth of the book.  Which is okay, I guess, because the goblin/elf relationship was oddly sweet.  But it was disorienting to root for one couple the whole time, only to be left with an anticlimactic reunion.

The best part, for me, was getting to see the cultural differences between goblins and elves.  I loved Dunkle’s subversion of the norm, so that her goblins are loyal, respectful, and kind, while her elves are cruel, vain, and dirty.  The ugly creatures are beautiful inside, and the beautiful creatures are ugly inside.  Fun!  Semi-relatedly, I also really love how the goblins see their deformities as based in strength.  There was one especially sweet scene when a goblin heals someone’s scars, but not fully.  He’s happy about this, because the scars are reminders of her courage, and he wants her to be able to keep some part of that.

I still love the world Dunkle has created, but it was definitely the Beauty & the Beast storyline of Kate and Marak that so completely enthralled me in The Hollow Kingdom.  Guess I’ll just have to reread it!

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“Goblins are just a tale to frighten children.”

Emily might have believed this once, but she knows better now.  For years she has been living happily in the underground goblin kingdom.  Now Emily is old enough to marry, but when her childhood friend Seylin proposes, she doesn’t take him seriously.

Devastated, Seylin leaves the kingdom, intent on finding his own people:  the elves.  Too late, Emily realizes what Seylin means to her and sets out in search of him.  But as Emily and Seylin come closer to their goals, they bring two worlds onto a collision course, awakening hatreds and prejudices that have slumbered for hundreds of years.

In this sequel to The Hollow Kingdom, Clare Dunkle draws readers deeper into the magical world that Lloyd Alexander, winner of the Newbery Medal, calls “as persuasive as it is remarkable.”

Release Date:  2004

Want another opinion?  Check out reviews by The Thunder Child and Scribd.

A Greek Husband

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Before I left for Athens, my grandparents called to say goodbye.  “Just don’t marry a Greek man!” my grandma said.

“But that’s my plan!” I answered.

“Tricia can marry whoever she wants,” my grandpa said.

I knew what my grandma was worried about.  “If I do marry a Greek man,” I assured her.  “I’ll make sure he is okay with frequent trips to Peoria so we can see you often.”

“Okay,” she said.  “Just make sure he’s a Christian.”  Continue reading →

Name Meme Generator

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Bored?  Have I got a solution for you (that will last at least, like, three minutes).  Just type “[Your Name] Meme” into Google.  Enjoy the bounty that follows.

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First one to appear.  I’m ecstatic, both by the compliment and that the Internet knows Zoolander is my spirit animal.  Continue reading →

The Vacationers by Emma Straub

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What a disarmingly enchanting book.  It takes real skill to introduce a cast of characters, all of which are varying levels of gross.  The Posts and their friends are fully-formed people, which means they have hidden secrets that made me think, “Ugh, people are the worst.”  By the end, these secrets are not explained away, nor are they really atoned for, and yet…and yet by the end I loved this dysfunctional family.  Maybe that’s the real beauty of the story, that we can hugely screw things up and still find solace in the people we love.  Continue reading →

The Joy of Being Known

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At my birthday dinner, Lindsay passed me gift bag.  I gleefully tore away the crinkly paper to pull out a red t-shirt.  I gasped.  “Gryffindor Quidditch?  Team Captain!?”  Lindsay nodded proudly.  She had just returned from a vacation in Harry Potter World.

IMG_3959“How did you know she was Gryffindor?” another of my birthday guests asked.

“I wrestled with it a lot, actually,” Lindsay explained.  “I think you’re 50% Gryffindor, 50% Ravenclaw.”

“That’s exactly how I describe myself!” I agreed.

“So I couldn’t decide which shirt to buy, but eventually my mom told me to choose whichever house you would most want to be in.  And I thought, Tricia is both smart and brave, but I think she wants to be more brave, so she would choose Gryffindor.”  Continue reading →

Greek Time

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I’m pretty sure my body was made for Greece.  Once I got over jet lag, the pace of a typical Greek day (at least, according to the school at which I was staying) was exactly what I would choose if I could schedule the world.  Everything is two hours later than usual, and I LOVE IT.  My typical day at the Bible College went something like this:

8:30    Wake up, eat breakfast, slowly get ready for the day.
10:00  Work and/or classes start.
11:30  Snack and socializing break.
12:00  Back to work.
2:00    Lunch time!
3:00    Back to work.6:00    Finish work and hang out for a while.
8:00    Eat dinner!
9:00    Socialize, finish projects, whatever.
12:00  Bedtime.

Three other North Americans were visiting at the same time as me (two Canadians and one USian).  Several times they expressed surprise (and dismay) at the schedule or slyly over-mentioned how weird it was to eat lunch at 2:00.  Not me!  I fully embrace the Greek lifestyle, and I plan to subtly complain about the weird American system for now on.

If you could force the world to adapt to your personalized schedule, what would it look like?

Selfie Culture: I’m a Fan

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It seems to be a cool thing to denigrate Generation Y as being self-absorbed and entitled.  A lot of this has to do with my generation’s love of social media and the rise of the selfie art form.  And sure, there are some problematic tendencies with my peers’ culture.  Are we sometimes self-absorbed and entitled?  Sure.  But I don’t think selfie culture is all bad.

Ezra Koenig, lead singer of the awesome band Vampire Weekend, once said something that completely solidified my positive opinion of selfies.

“I’m definitely pro-selfie.  I think that anybody who’s anti-selfie is really just a hater. Because, truthfully, why shouldn’t people take pictures of themselves? When I’m on Instagram and I see that somebody took a picture of themselves, I’m like, ‘Thank you.’ I don’t need to see a picture of the sky, the trees, plants. There’s only one you.  I could Google image search ‘the sky’ and I would probably see beautiful images to knock my socks off. But I can’t Google, you know, ‘What does my friend look like today?’ For you to be able to take a picture of yourself that you feel good enough about to share with the world – I think that’s a great thing.”

Continue reading →

Sisters by Raina Telgemeier

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I’ve loved Telgemeier’s previous cartoon reminiscences of adolescence, Smile and Drama.  She captures the confusion, dreams, and crankiness of being a teenager through perfect pictures and timely dialogue.  This time we shift away from school to her home life, especially her relationship with her sister during a three week vacation one summer.

I loved the way Telgemeier portrays family as annoying people you have to put up with but will cling to desperately when things get rough.  No one has the power to lift you up or tear you down quite like your siblings.  And these relationship changes take place in the smallest gestures, like taking off headphones in the car.  The book is a quick sweet look at the ups and downs of family life from the perspective of a 14-year-old girl.  More, please!

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Raina can’t wait to be a big sister.  But once Amara is born, things aren’t quite how she expected them to be.  Amara is cute, but she’s also a cranky, grouchy baby, and mostly prefers to play by herself.  Their relationship doesn’t improve much over the years.  But when a baby brother enters the picture, and later, when something doesn’t seem right between their parents, they realize they must figure out how to get along.  They are sisters, after all.

Raina Telgemeier uses her signature humor and charm to tell the story of her relationship with her little sister, which unfolds during the course of a road trip from their home in San Francisco to a family reunion in Colorado.

Release Date:  August 2014

Want another opinion?  Try reviews by Stacked and Alice Marvels.

God is Kind to Self-Absorbed Crybabies (Like Me)

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One of my favorite passages of Scripture is 1 Kings 19.  In general, I love when the Bible surprises me, especially when it reveals someone I’ve been taught to think of as a hero of faith (in this case, the prophet Elijah) as a self-absorbed crybaby.  Even better, 1 Kings 19 reveals that God responds to Elijah’s whining with compassion and kindness.  This is exactly the sort of message I so often need to hear.

Now Ahab told Jezebel everything Elijah had done and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword.  So Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah to say, “May the gods deal with me, be it ever so severely, if by this time tomorrow I do not make your life like that of one of them.” (1 Kings 19:1-2)

This story takes place right after the showdown on Mount Carmel.  You might remember the Sunday School story where Elijah goes toe to toe with the prophets of Baal to see whose God is stronger.  The prophets of Baal shout, dance, and cut themselves in an attempt to get Baal to burn the sacrifice they offer.  But Elijah, in an awesome display of confidence, dowses his sacrifice in water, mocks Baal, and watches God send fire from heaven to claim an easy victory.  Solid moment for Elijah.  You would think he would be riding high on faith after such a display of God’s power.  Continue reading →