These are a few of my favorite things (Part II)

(Note: I love lists. So I guess the first thing on my list of my favorite things should be lists.)


Books:


I love books--both fiction and nonfiction. In fact, I keep lengthy lists of books to read in both categories. (This is in addition to the shelves of books in the "Read Next" category.)
Here are some of my favorite books:


Tell Me Lies, Jennifer Crusie:

This fiction book has one of the best opening lines of any book I've ever read. It's about first love, doing the right thing when you really should be doing the wrong thing, gossip, sex, small towns, and how, in the words of John Lennon, "life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans." The first Jennifer Cruise book I ever read; it came to me with the caveat "You have to read this--Maddie is you."


Circle of Friends, Maeve Binchy:

Maeve Binchy is not the most complex writer. (Read more than one of her books and you'll realize that she basically does the same plot in every novel.) However, this being the first book of hers that I read, and the one where I felt the most kinship with the characters, it's still one of my favorites. Read it if only for the moments of surprising profundity in the text:

"It was always easy to make them laugh. It was a different think altogether to get them to see you in a different light."


Lamb: the Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal, Christopher Moore:

I firmly believe you can't approach religion without a sense of humor. Plus, I've always wondered what happened in those "missing years" of Jesus' life, from 13 to 30. (That's a lot of time for nothing to happen.) At the risk of cliche, you'll laugh and you'll cry, sometimes within the same page.

"The Messiah was holding the little girl's pet bunny, hugging it to his cheek with the big back feet swinging free. He was gloriously drunk. 'Know what?' Josh said. 'I love bunnies. They toil not, nor do they bark. Henceforth and from now on, I decree that whenever something bad happens to me, there shall be bunnies around. So shall it be written. Go ahead, Biff, write it down.' He waved to me under the bunny, then turned and started back through the gate. 'Where's the friggin' wine? I got a dry bunny over here!'"


Stones from the River, Ursula Heigi:

Trudi Montag is a dwarf living during both World Wars in Germany. Having never read anything about Germany during the wars, it was a refreshing and educating change. Heigi handles the atrocities of war, genocide, physical illness, and family secrets with amazing dexterity.


Do They Hear You When You Cry?,Fauziya Kassindja:

After the sudden death of her liberal father, Kassindja is betrothed to an uncle who demands her circumcision. She escapes to Germany, then to London, and finally emigrates to the United States through a passport belonging to a friend's sister. In the US, she was arrested and confined for two years for using an illegal passport while she battled for asylum. Eventually, through the help of legal aid, she gained amnesty and became a legal resident of the US. Through her biography, female genital mutilation became a war crime and fear of FGM became a grounds for granting asylum.

Still Life with Woodpecker, Tom Robbins:

"There are essential and inessential insanities.


The latter are solar in character, the former are linked to the moon.


Inessential insanities are a brittle amalgamation of ambition, aggression, and pre-adolescent anxiety--garbage that should have been dumped long ago. Essential insanties are those impulses one instinctively senses are virtuous and correct, even though peers may regard them as coo coo.


Inessential insanities get one in trouble with oneself. Essential insanities get one in trouble with others. It's always preferable to be in trouble with others. In fact, it may be essential."



Television:

I used to watch a lot of tv. A lot. But that was when there were good tv shows on. There are very few tv shows I still enjoy--Joan of Arcadia being one. Most of the shows I still love have been cancelled or have simply gone off the air. Here are a few.


Sports Night:

Best. Show. Ever. Written by Aaron Sorkin, who later wrote and produced The West Wing, this show was funny and brilliant with an amazing cast. It also has some of my favorite quotes, like, "If you're stupid, surround yourself with smart people. If you're smart, surround yourself with smart people who disagree with you." (Isaac Jaffe), and "You are about five different kinds of crazy, you know that?" (Casey McCall). Plus, it has Josh Charles, who I'm a little big in love with. Okay, a lot. :-)


Felicity:
Okay, I'm not ashamed. I'll admit it. I loved "Felicity." It was a soap opera for college students when I was in college. Sure, not much of the stuff that happened to her happened to me--I never followed a guy that I hardly knew all the way across the country, I never fell in love with my RA, I never had sex with a random art student, and I never had a mean song written about me by a girl whose boyfriend I stole. (Well, not that I know of.) But "Felicity" was fabulous, if only for the Contemptuous Sardonic Felicity Watchers' Society, of which I was a member. (Of course.)


Sex and the City:

I didn't start watching SaTC until it was into Season 5, but I know exactly when I fell in love. Before seeing the first episode of Season 2 in reruns, I thought the show was offensive and unnecessary and had very little to do with women's real lives. The aforementioned episode (entitled "Take Me Out To the Ballgame") includes Miranda yelling the line, "When did our lives become so juvenile? All we ever talk about is men and dating. It's like junior high with checking accounts!" and imposing a break on her friends, which was exactly what I've said multiple times to several friends. While many of the things that happen have never happened to me (and I doubt they've happened to anyone save a select, adventerous few), it's still a great show with great advice. (The most important being, "If he doesn't call, it's not because of some elaborate excuse. He's just not that into you.")



Okay, enough for now. More later.