Double Take: A Memoir

A riveting book that I begrudgingly had to put down to do laundry, walk the dogs, and sleep. It's about a young man, Kevin Connolly who was born without legs and who travels the world on a longboard skateboard. During his travels, he takes photos of everyone who does a "double take" when they notice him. These photos are now The Rolling Exhibition. In addition to being a great photographer and my new hero, he's also a very talented writer (oh yeah it's a pretty short read too).

So many books, so little time.

Lately, it has been so hot and humid here in Austin. The type of heat that instantly drains you as soon as you walk into it. So, I'm filling my days with reading, laundry, and writing. The pile of books on my nightstand is growing by the day. I'm interested in all five and just can't read one all the way through without being curious about the others.

Always Looking Up by Michael J. Fox (I need a little optimism);
Terri: the truth by Michael Schiavo (great reminder that planning is key);
The Nine by Jeffrey Toobin (I'm in love with the Supreme Court justices);
French Women for All Seasons by Mireille Guiliano (I adore French style and food);
Salt: A World History by Mark Kurlansky (I'm just plain curious).

Now Reading

Right now I'm reading Elizabeth Gilbert's new book Committed: A Skeptic Makes Peace with Marriage. I know. It's not about cycling but it is about a journey. The timing couldn't be more perfect considering my recent nuptials and my developing practice addressing legal issues that unmarried couples face. Is marriage really that scary? From my own experience, the engagement was fun, the wedding was magical, and so far, our post-nuptials have really been exciting. Since getting married, I feel closer to my husband and sincerely feel that we're beginning a fresh, new chapter in our relationship. I was single for such a long time and skeptical of marriage, relationships, and especially considering the sheer number of divorces and custody issues that I deal with on a daily basis. So you can imagine my surprise that it's been such an empowering process. Everything does change - but for the better. I have a feeling that Elizabeth Gilbert explores and concludes the very same thing.

From Blog to Book

For all you bloggers out there who have your own blog, good news. I just converted MTB Law Girl into a e-book and downloaded it for $6.95. Wanna do the same? Go to SharedBook! You can easily create a book in matter of minutes with table of contents, photos, comments, range of dates, cover. You have the option of a soft cover book, hard cover book, or e-Book. I chose to do an e-Book because I have like 266 pages and it was going to cost about $100 to print. I may opt to do so later but it's not in the budget right now. Still, what a treat to be able to read my blog/journal cover to cover without searching through archives, etc. It's come a long way since June 2005 and so have I!

A Must Read: Animal, Vegetable, Miracle

I am currently reading and enjoying Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver. It's a nonfiction narrative written by renowned Author and Biologist, Barbara Kingsolver, detailing the year that she and her family moved to their family's farm and committed to eating only produce that they grew themselves or that was grown in their community. Of course, each family member had a luxury item, such as coffee, to ease them into the process. But what they discovered is that they can actually survive! Many of you may recognize the author's name. She has written several novels including The Poisonwood Bible, The Bean Trees, Prodigal Summer and others. She has degrees in Biology and Evolutionary Biology which is evident in her storytelling.

In Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, she discusses the environmental impact of buying food items out of season such as strawberries in December. Such food choices have a detrimental impact on the environment because most of the items we purchase travel more than 1500 miles from farm to plate which benefits guess who, the oil companies. She also makes an excellent point that we in the USA have lost our food culture. In other countries, they make food choices differently. They use what is grown locally and what's in season. In America, we want whatever we want when we want it. We don't want to wait for tomato season. We want it now and we're willing to settle for the tasteless version.

This book is really a must read for everyone but especially if you are concerned about the environment and making a more positive impact or rather, offsetting your own negative impact. It is one of the best gifts you will give yourself and I guarantee that you will become more impassioned about food and buying locally. I'll admit that there are a lot of veggies that I know nothing about preparing such as kale, acorn squash, leeks, etc. but this book has inspired me to experiment with them and to purchase a wonderful cookbook, Vegetable Love by Barbara Kafka. This cookbook itemizes all the different vegetables and gives you a history of the veggie, the different ways to prepare them (steam, microwave, bake) as well as recipes. I use it daily as a reference.

Excerpt Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life

Called Home
As the U.S. population made a statistical mad dash for the Sun Belt, one carload of us jumped off that ship and headed for the promised land, where water falls from the sky and green stuff grows all around. Our family was about to begin the adventure of realigning our lives with our food chain.

Naturally, our first stop was to buy junk food and fossil fuel.

In a cinderblock convenience mart we foraged the aisles for road food. Our family’s natural-foods teenager scooped up a pile of energy bars big enough to pass as a retirement plan for a hamster. As long as we were going crazy here, we threw in some 99-cent bottles of what comes for free out of drinking fountains in Perrier, France. In our present location 99 cents was a bargain. Arizona was suffering the worst drought in its history – one inch of rainfall in the last seven months. Living in Arizona on borrowed water had begun to make me nervous. So did importing all our food from elsewhere; the average food item on a U.S. grocery shelf has traveled farther than most families go on their annual vacations. Because of modern industrial farming methods and the jet-traveled foods we buy, Americans put approximately as much gasoline into our diets as into our cars.

As we gathered our loot on the counter, the sky suddenly darkened. After 200 consecutive cloudless days, you forget what it looks like when a cloud crosses the sun. We all blinked. The cashier frowned toward the plate glass window.

"Dang," she said, "if it isn’t going to rain."

"I hope so," Steven said.

She turned her scowl from the window to Steven. This bleached-blonde guardian of gas pumps and snack food was not amused. "It better not, is all I can say."

"But we need it," I pointed out. I am not one to argue with cashiers, but this was my very last minute as a Tucsonan. I hated to jinx it with bad precipitation-karma.

"I know that’s what they’re saying, but I don’t care," she avowed. "Tomorrow’s my first day off in two weeks, and I want to wash my car."

For three hundred miles we drove that day through desperately parched Sonoran badlands, chewing our salty cashews with a peculiar guilt. We had all shared this wish, in some way or another: that it wouldn’t rain on our day off. Thunderheads dissolved ahead of us, as if honoring our compatriot’s desire to wash her car as the final benediction on a dying land. In our desert, we would not see rain again.

At the end of our first full day in our new home, we headed into town for supper. Ten hours of unpacking had left us too tired to cook. We opted for a little diner of the southern type that puts grits on your plate until noon, and biscuits after, whether you ask for them or not. Our waitress was young and chatty, a student at the junior college nearby studying to be a nurse or else, if she doesn’t pass the chemistry, a television broadcaster. She said she was looking forward to the weekend, but smiled broadly nevertheless at the clouds gathering over the hills outside. The pastures of southwestern Virginia looked remarkably green to our desert-scorched eyes, but the forests and fields were suffering here too. Drought had plagued most of the southern U.S. that spring.

A crack of thunder boomed, and the rain let loose just as the waitress came back to clear our plates. "Listen at that," she clucked. "Don’t we need it. Let’s hope it’s a good long one."

For our family, something turned over that evening in the diner: a gas-pump cashier’s curse of drought was lifted by a waitress’s simple, agricultural craving for rain. I thought to myself: there is hope for us.

A Great Read

I am currently reading and enjoying Freewheelin': A Solo Journey Across America by Richard A. Lovett. It's a story about a man who rides his bicycle solo from Sacramento, California to Bar Harbor, Maine. He rides anywhere from 40-100+ miles a day and camps wherever he can find a space - campgrounds, national parks, roadside parks, and occasionally in someone's yard (with permission). He has such a way with words and did a remarkable job recounting his routes and the beautiful scenery. I definitely have an itch to see the world from behind a set of handlebars thanks to his prose. He had some lovely experiences and also some scary ones. Most notably are some of the locals who hate cyclists - one even threw a rock at him as he pedaled by, lucky for him they missed. The book is such an inspiration. I long for the courage to have such an adventure on my own and also having the physical fitness to do so not to mention the bike, money and time off! Pick it up at your local library or at amazon.com. He also wrote another book about the basics of bicycle touring, The Essential Touring Cyclist: A Complete Guide for the Bicycle Traveler. If you have read any memoirs or stories about mountain biking, cycling, touring, please comment with recommendations!
*Photo courtesy of amazon.com

Books I want to read

So for the last few days I have been compiling a list of books that I would like to read this year. I am hopeful that each will be thought provoking, compelling and enjoyable. I am interested in each of the subjects and many are by authors and humanitarians that I admire.

1. Long Walk to Freedom by Nelson Mandela. An amazing man. I would also like to read the autobiographies of Desmond Tutu, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Gandhi.
2. A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah. I have heard wonderful things about this book from several of my classmates. I have put off reading it because I know that it will be an emotionally difficult read.
3. The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court by Jeffrey Toobin. I am really excited about this one. I am in awe of the Justices - each and every one of them but especially Justice Ginsburg. I also would like to read a biography about former Justices Hugo Black, Thurgood Marshall, and Sandra Day O'Connor.
4. Audrey Hepburn by Barry Paris. She is one of all time favorite actresses. I love all of her films - especially the campy ones like Breakfast at Tiffany's, Roman Holiday, etc. I think she is fascinating because of her background and how she used her celebrity to help others.
5. World Without End by Ken Follett. A sequel to Pillars of the Earth which was a masterpiece. I'm very excited about reading this one.

Of course, this is not an exhaustive list and I may add a fluffy piece or two. Classes are starting on Monday and depending on how the semester goes not to mention studying for the Bar, it may actually take me a year to read all of them. If you have picks you think I might enjoy, email them to me please.

On my nightstand - Pillars of the Earth

I just begun reading Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett on Thanksgiving night and I have not been able to put the book down. It's wonderfully entertaining. I first found out about the book from Oprah. Yes. Oprah. I usually scoff at Oprah's picks but in discussing books with Seth's parents. They both told me about Pillars. They read it several years ago and loved it. So, I asked to borrow and began reading it that very night hoping that it would be mildly entertaining and would help with my insomnia. It has had the opposite effect - I've been reading every night after finishing my studies and in lieu of watching TV. It's a real page turner and it's difficult to guess what comes next. Thanks to law school, I now read everything critically so it's hard to pull the wool over my eyes for very long. Ken Follet is masterful at doing this. Masterful! The book is about the building of a cathedral in medieval times. I know. I thought the same thing. BOR-ing. It's not. It's full of action, plotting, and yes, even love. Hopefully, I can finish it quickly or put it down until after finals because I need to dedicate all my free time to preparing for finals and finishing memos that I need to turn in before classes end next week!

On My Nightstand - And Justice For Some

One of my professors and mentors, Wendy Murphy, has just released her book, And Justice for Some. I have had the privilege of working with Wendy on several projects during my law school career and had the further privilege of introducing her at her book release party. Her career has been so inspiring to me personally because she has an unstoppable passion for victims' rights. She is truly a voice for them which she has never compromised or shied away from. That is an accomplishment in and of itself because oftentimes it is not welcome in the legal community and usually recognized with a guffaw or a roll of the eyes. If you are interested in how the legal system really works, read this book. I'm halfway through and I am impressed by her writing style and also her courage in calling judges and defense attorneys to the mat on their decisions and trial tactics.

Here's a description of the book from Amazon.com.

"When Wendy Murphy was a young prosecutor, she learned that the deck is stacked in favor of criminal defendants. Between their arrest and (potential) conviction, murderers, rapists, and drug dealers get more than a fair shake—they get an unfair advantage, often at the expense of their victims. In many states, for instance, defendants can subpoena a victim’s private medical and counseling files, without any justification. They can threaten victims with brutal cross-examinations if they dare to testify. They can put on "dog and pony show" defenses that have nothing to do with the truth—and even lie under oath with virtually no risk of being prosecuted for perjury. These kinds of injustices make Murphy fighting mad. She’s made it her mission to help the victims who get the least protection from our twisted legal system. And in her first book, she guides readers through one horror story after another about judges and lawyers who bend over backward to let the worst offenders go free. You’ll meet judges who unapologetically declare that they care more about their liberal ideology than about the pain and suffering of abuse victims. Judges who let child molesters walk free because they’re "too frail" to go to prison. Defense attorneys who take big money from wealthy child molesters, then twist the Bill of Rights beyond recognition. And even a few prosecutors who go easy on criminals for their own selfish reasons. Murphy’s true stories will shock you, but they will also inspire you to join the fight for a more rational system. This is an important book that is sure to infuriate America’s legal establishment."

You can purchase the book online at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, ebooks, etc.

On my Nightstand - The Dharma Bums

For the last month or so, I've been trying to get through Jack Kerouac's "The Dharma Bums" a semi-fictional novel that was published in 1958. The main character is based on Kerouac's life along with Gary Snyder, a poet and Buddhist and the novel is set in California. Both characters are essentially hippie Buddhists and the tales they spin are wild as they explore Buddhism, city life and mountaineering. It's a "far out" but interesting novel especially when considering it was written in the 50s, a time when these so called "Dharma bums" would not have been embraced or remotely "understood". Snyder's character made an poignant observation on our culture in that we work to produce so that we can consume then start all over again. The characters resisted this cycle and embraced living modestly or really living on nothing at all but the essentials - good books, meditation, food to survive, and hiking or mountaineering. I suppose this observation and their ensuing lifestyle encompasses the Buddhist philosophy. This observation really resonated with me as I often struggle with my conscience and my desire to look pretty or be fashionable. However, it doesn't take long to bring myself back to reality when considering a purchase because I often ask myself - how many hours will I have to work to pay for it? Am I willing to work that hard and that long for a Burberry scarf or Jimmy Choos? Often, the answer is no. But I wonder what that answer would be if I was making or had a lot of money...

Getting older

You know you're getting older when one of your dear friends tells you she just had her first injection of Botox at the ripe old age of 33. No, I can't tell you who. Most of you probably don't know her. She a beautiful girl, always has been and perhaps that's why she panicked when she began living with a "crease" on her forehead. I was shocked but at the same time, I can empathize. I too miss the plumpness of my twenty-something skin. Surprisingly at ripe old age of 34, I don't have wrinkles or creases although I have noticed some "changes" in my body. But those changes come with a tradeoff I guess. I appreciate character, intelligence and wit much more than a hard body and rugged good looks. And I look for those who value the same. I went shopping the day after sharing drinks with my newly Botoxed old friend and realized how clueless I am when it comes to fashion and how conscious I have become when dressing this new body. I no longer look for those tops that draw attention to my growing waistline. I prefer to draw the eye upward to my throat. I recently read the book "I Don't Like My Neck" to which the author cleverly discusses the fears and angst of growing older. She quipped that she really wished she hadn't covered her neck at all when she was younger. She had a beautiful neck and now that she's in her 60s, she hates how the neck belies those face lifts, botox injections and other crafty plastic surgeon tricks. The neck always tells the truth and there's nothing you can do about it. I found that strangely liberating and a little scary too. May I grow old gracefully and even if I don't I want to have the courage to always dance on the beach in a bikini like no one's watching.

On my Nightstand - Bird by Bird

While scavenging through the "sale" section at Borders, I happened upon a book by Anne Lamott called Bird by Bird. The book is an author's guide to writing and life. Since I have some free time and have always loved writing, I decided to purchase it. I wasn't disappointed at all and have been avidly turning the pages. She has some very interesting insights and is very encouraging to readers and wannabe authors. It's always been a fantasy of mine to write a book as I have been an avid reader since before I think I could even read. When I was very little, I used to look in a book and focus on the page so hard that I thought that I would magically learn to read. Kindergarten was a magical time too because I was learning my alphabet. yes. Back in those days, you waited until kindergarten to learn to read. Small town Texas. Once I learned to read, I was hooked and constantly at the library every chance I could get. My grandmother would even give me bags and bags of her trashy romance novels when I was like 10! I didn't care though, I would have read anything. I could be anyone, go anywhere. The places I went!

I've always admired authors and their ability to put words together that evoke such emotion and spark imagination. I used to write poems and songs when I was younger and I journaled all the time. I still journal but not to the degree that I did back then. Now there's blogging and I've slowly gotten back to writing although I don't really use it as a forum to express myself. It's more like documenting certain events and happenings. I'm not really one to bare my soul to the world. But after reading this book, I'm entertaining the thought of writing or rather documenting my life. Writing about all of my memories as she suggests in as much detail as I can. So that perhaps my children and their children will have some idea who their mom and grandma was. I often wonder about mine own and am curious about their dreams, passions, struggles, memories. I don't ask often enough and my grandmother is gone. I don't want to write in the of becoming published but rather for mine own sake.

On my nightstand: Fight Back and Win

On my nightstand is a copy of Gloria Allred's book Fight Back and Win and The Mind Map Book by Tony Buzan. I've really enjoyed reading them both. Gloria Allred's book has really helped in continuing to inspire and empower me on those days when I question why in the hell I'm doing what I'm doing. That is, quitting my successful job, selling everything I own, moving to another city thousands of miles away, and incurring an insurmountable amount of debt just to go through such a hellish and rigorous academic program. She is relentless in her pursuit to ensure that those victimized by the media AND the justice system are heard and protected. She's represented Nicole Simpson's Family and Amber Frey's (Scott Peterson) interests in high profile media scandals. She's fought against the good ole boy clubs to ensure that women are respected in the workplace and has legitimitized the sexual harassment movement. She's very brave and has overcome much to accomplish what she's accomplished in her high profile legal career. I have laughed out loud on several occasions when reading about some of her antics and things that she has said as she has cleverly manipulated the media to further her client's and sometimes her own pursuit in justice.

The Mind Map is also very insightful on how the right and left brain works and I'm hoping that I can use some of the teachings to take better notes. My memory recall could use definite improvement as I'm one of those persons who need to visualize what's going on. Drawings, pictures, graphs, color, anything other than pages and pages and pages of text. I haven't read much of the book so I can't really recommend it as of yet - we'll see if I can put it into action before the school year is over.