It's been a crazy month, so my roundup is a little slim. I hope you'll give me some new ideas for books now that I have some time to read again!
Barefoot Season by Susan Mallery
This is a novel of old friends torn apart and forced to find their way back together. While there are definite romantic elements, the women's relationship takes center stage. I found my self rooting for both women, who are forced to reexamine their pasts and what they will take forward into the future. Both women are far from perfect, but they acknowledge their faults (eventually) and really strive to be better people.
Steadfast by Mercedes Lackey
This is the ninth installment in Mercedes Lackey's Elemental Masters series, based on the story of the Steadfast Tin Soldier. All of the books are fabulous and this one is no exception. I have really enjoyed that the later books in the series have moved away from the all powerful Masters toward the less powerful Magicians. It means less reliance on power and more on wits to win the day, which I find refreshing in a fantasy novel.
Found any great books recently? Let me know in the comments!
Monday, March 31, 2014
Friday, March 28, 2014
Baba Yaga
Every culture has a being used to scared children. In America, it's the Bogey Man. In Russia, it's Baba Yaga.
Baba Yaga is a witch common in the folklore of Eastern Europe and Russia. Baba means grandmother, but is probably better translated as old woman or wise woman, since Baba Yaga is far from grandmotherly.
Baba Yage is generally depicted as an old crone who lives in the woods. Her house stands on chicken legs, spinning shrieking constantly until the magic words are said. The house's windows are often characterized as eyes and sometimes a fence made of bones encircles the house.
Baba Yaga herself travels in a mortar, using a pestle as a rudder and sweeping away traces of her presence with a silver birch broom.
Baba Yaga is a complex figure in Eastern European and Russian Folklore. She is often the antagonist of the story, preventing the hero from reaching his goal and misdirecting people in the woods. However, she is also known to share her wisdom when approached correctly.
One of the most well known stories involving Baba Yaga is that of Vasilisa the Beautiful. Similar to the Western European Cinderella, Vasilisa finds herself at the mercy of her step-mother and two step-sisters. When all of the lights are extinguished, she is sent to Baba Yaga to get coals to relight the fires. After numerous tests, and with the help of a doll given to her by her mother, Vasilisa receives a skull full of coals from Baba Yaga. When she returns home, the skull burns up her step-mother and -sisters and Vasilisa lives happily ever after (in some versions she become Czarina of Russia).
Baba Yaga has made several appearances in popular culture, including Bartok the Magnificent, the much less well known but still adorable spin-off movie from Anastasia, where she sends Bartok to complete impossible tasks before she will help him with his own quest.
Baba Yaga is a witch common in the folklore of Eastern Europe and Russia. Baba means grandmother, but is probably better translated as old woman or wise woman, since Baba Yaga is far from grandmotherly.
Baba Yage is generally depicted as an old crone who lives in the woods. Her house stands on chicken legs, spinning shrieking constantly until the magic words are said. The house's windows are often characterized as eyes and sometimes a fence made of bones encircles the house.
Baba Yaga herself travels in a mortar, using a pestle as a rudder and sweeping away traces of her presence with a silver birch broom.
 |
| Baba Yaga traveling in her mortar and carrying her pestle and silver birch broom. Painted by Ivan Bilibin. (Wikimedia Commons) |
One of the most well known stories involving Baba Yaga is that of Vasilisa the Beautiful. Similar to the Western European Cinderella, Vasilisa finds herself at the mercy of her step-mother and two step-sisters. When all of the lights are extinguished, she is sent to Baba Yaga to get coals to relight the fires. After numerous tests, and with the help of a doll given to her by her mother, Vasilisa receives a skull full of coals from Baba Yaga. When she returns home, the skull burns up her step-mother and -sisters and Vasilisa lives happily ever after (in some versions she become Czarina of Russia).
 |
| Vasilisia leaving Baba Yaga's house with the skull full of coals. Painted by Ivan Bilibin. (Wikimedia Commons) |
Baba Yaga has made several appearances in popular culture, including Bartok the Magnificent, the much less well known but still adorable spin-off movie from Anastasia, where she sends Bartok to complete impossible tasks before she will help him with his own quest.
Tuesday, March 25, 2014
Share Spotlight: China's Foot Binding Tradition
This week's Share Spotlight comes from the podcast Stuff You Missed in History Class.
China's Food Binding Tradition
Another pretty cool podcast this week, this time from the girls at Stuff You Missed in History Class.
Foot Binding occurred in China for around a thousand years. That, as Holly and Tracey mention, is far too long to consider something a "fad."Although painful and debilitating, foot binding proved difficult to stop and there may still be women alive today with bound feet, since the process survived into the 1950s. The practice was eventually stopped largely due to the response of Christian missionaries, who found the process horrifying.
How do we as outsiders look at this and other cultural practices with an objective lens? As Holly and Tracey ask, where do we draw the line between what we find distasteful and what is actually harmful?
(Though no argument here, this was definitely a harmful practice.)
China's Food Binding Tradition
Another pretty cool podcast this week, this time from the girls at Stuff You Missed in History Class.
Foot Binding occurred in China for around a thousand years. That, as Holly and Tracey mention, is far too long to consider something a "fad."Although painful and debilitating, foot binding proved difficult to stop and there may still be women alive today with bound feet, since the process survived into the 1950s. The practice was eventually stopped largely due to the response of Christian missionaries, who found the process horrifying.
How do we as outsiders look at this and other cultural practices with an objective lens? As Holly and Tracey ask, where do we draw the line between what we find distasteful and what is actually harmful?
(Though no argument here, this was definitely a harmful practice.)
Friday, March 21, 2014
The Beginning of History
While time may stretch forever, history has a very definite starting point: the invention of writing.
Think for a moment about what you are reading. Words made of 26 little characters that allow me to convey my thoughts to you, despite our distance in time and space.
Writing makes this possible. And that is why the start of "History" is also the start of writing, anything prior to writing is Prehistory.
Before writing, clear communication beyond the person standing in front of you was impossible. Once writing took off, communications could be read hundreds or thousands of years later with only minimal loss of meaning.
Historians rely on primary sources, those that come directly from the people who said them. Without writing, historians would need a time machine to talk to each person who was involved in or experienced an event. Without writing, there would be no history.
Writing has been invented in several places around the globe and every system is a little different.
There are three main types of writing systems.
Alphabets are the most familiar to the readers of this blog, as that is what they are using to read it now. In an alphabet, each symbol stands for a sound. There are separate vowel and consonant symbols and they average between 12 and 50 letter symbols.
Syllabaries have symbols for a combination of a consonant and a vowel. So "ba" would be one symbol while "be" would be another. These systems average between 50 and 400 symbols. Ancient Mayan hieroglyphics are generally considered to be primarily a syllabary, as are the Hiragana and Katakana in the Japanese writing system and the Cherokee writing system.
Logographies use symbols to stand for words. Since each word has to have its own symbol, these systems can have hundreds or thousands of symbols. Chinese entirely uses and Japanese mainly uses a logographic writing system. Reading Chinese requires knowledge of 3 to 4 thousand characters.
Japanese uses all three of these systems, which makes it a great example.
Think for a moment about what you are reading. Words made of 26 little characters that allow me to convey my thoughts to you, despite our distance in time and space.
Writing makes this possible. And that is why the start of "History" is also the start of writing, anything prior to writing is Prehistory.
Before writing, clear communication beyond the person standing in front of you was impossible. Once writing took off, communications could be read hundreds or thousands of years later with only minimal loss of meaning.
Historians rely on primary sources, those that come directly from the people who said them. Without writing, historians would need a time machine to talk to each person who was involved in or experienced an event. Without writing, there would be no history.
Writing has been invented in several places around the globe and every system is a little different.
 |
| Wikipedia in scripts around the world. (Wikimedia Commons) |
There are three main types of writing systems.
Alphabets are the most familiar to the readers of this blog, as that is what they are using to read it now. In an alphabet, each symbol stands for a sound. There are separate vowel and consonant symbols and they average between 12 and 50 letter symbols.
Syllabaries have symbols for a combination of a consonant and a vowel. So "ba" would be one symbol while "be" would be another. These systems average between 50 and 400 symbols. Ancient Mayan hieroglyphics are generally considered to be primarily a syllabary, as are the Hiragana and Katakana in the Japanese writing system and the Cherokee writing system.
 |
| A Stop Sign written using the Cherokee syllabary. (Wikimedia Commons) |
Logographies use symbols to stand for words. Since each word has to have its own symbol, these systems can have hundreds or thousands of symbols. Chinese entirely uses and Japanese mainly uses a logographic writing system. Reading Chinese requires knowledge of 3 to 4 thousand characters.
Japanese uses all three of these systems, which makes it a great example.
In Japanese, the word for
(red)
in Romanji (alphabet):
aka
in Hiragana (syllabary):
あか
in Kanji (logography):
赤
Tuesday, March 18, 2014
Share Spotlight: The Green Show
This week's Share Spotlight comes from BackStory with the American History Guys.
The Green Show
I found BackStory Radio through one of my classes. They American History Guys trace a topic through the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries of American History.
This week, in honor of St. Patrick's Day, they did an entire show about how the color green is important in American history. They are always entertaining and the podcast is perfect to listen to on a busy commute or while preparing dinner. And better yet, you learn something in the bargain!
What do you think is the most important Green thing in American history? (Don't forget to add it to their comments as well.) What podcasts or radio shows do you enjoy listening to?
The Green Show
I found BackStory Radio through one of my classes. They American History Guys trace a topic through the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries of American History.
This week, in honor of St. Patrick's Day, they did an entire show about how the color green is important in American history. They are always entertaining and the podcast is perfect to listen to on a busy commute or while preparing dinner. And better yet, you learn something in the bargain!
What do you think is the most important Green thing in American history? (Don't forget to add it to their comments as well.) What podcasts or radio shows do you enjoy listening to?
Friday, March 14, 2014
No New Post This Week
Sorry guys, I am completely swamped this week so no new post. I'll return on Tuesday with a Share Spotlight.
If you want something cool check out the new Cosmos, narrated by Neil DeGrasse Tyson. You can find it on Hulu or Fox.com.
Tuesday, March 11, 2014
Share Spotlight: Long Neck Karen Tribe
This week's Share Spotlight comes from Living in Another Language.
Long Neck Karen Tribe
I have been a big fan of Living in Another Language for a while now. Amanda's writing sounds like a real person, someone who gets tired and upset, but also does her best to live life to the fullest and be happy in the now. Not to mention her absolutely incredible photographs.
One of my favorite parts of this post is how Amanda hits on one of the biggest problems I have with cultural tourism: treating people like zoo animals.
Not only is this a fascinating story, but I am so impressed with how she deals with this group of people who have largely been set up to be exploited. Its important to remember that no matter how someone looks or what they do for a living, they are real people, people with hopes and dreams, likes and dislikes.
So treat them like you'd want to be treated.
What do you think of cultural tourism? How do we ensure that folks don't wind up being treated like an exhibit?
Long Neck Karen Tribe
I have been a big fan of Living in Another Language for a while now. Amanda's writing sounds like a real person, someone who gets tired and upset, but also does her best to live life to the fullest and be happy in the now. Not to mention her absolutely incredible photographs.
One of my favorite parts of this post is how Amanda hits on one of the biggest problems I have with cultural tourism: treating people like zoo animals.
Not only is this a fascinating story, but I am so impressed with how she deals with this group of people who have largely been set up to be exploited. Its important to remember that no matter how someone looks or what they do for a living, they are real people, people with hopes and dreams, likes and dislikes.
So treat them like you'd want to be treated.
What do you think of cultural tourism? How do we ensure that folks don't wind up being treated like an exhibit?
Friday, March 7, 2014
The Monuments Men
The recent movie The Monuments Men is based on an epic true story about men and women who saved the soul of Europe.
Being a museum studies graduate student, of course I had to go see the new movie The Monuments Men. The movie is an interesting historical drama, though not an action movie, like the previews would have you think. While the movie is well worth the watch, they did take a number of liberties with the actual story. Here's the story of the true Monuments Men and the many people who supported them.
From the beginning of WWII, the American Council of Learned Societies and the Harvard Group called for the US military to protect and preserve the cultural heritage of Europe. Hitler was systematically looting art from the great museums and collectors of Europe in preparation to stock his own personal museum and the US army destroyed important buildings while invading Europe. However, it wasn't until 1943 that the efforts of these groups finally bore fruit.
The Monuments Men started with a group called whose official name was the American Commission for the Protection and Salvage of Artistic and Historic Monuments in War Areas, but was more commonly referred to as the Roberts Commission, after its chairman, Supreme Court Justice Owen Roberts. Proposed by Francis Henry Taylor, the director of the Museum of Modern Art, the group was created in 1943 to advise military actions in order to best protect and preserve national treasures during World War II, provided they did not interfere with military operations. They created the Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives section, for which 345 men and women volunteered, coming from the United States, Britain, France, Austria, and Belgium.
These men and women were primarily middle-aged; some were even WWI veterans. They were professors, museum curators, archivists, and librarians. Together, they saved an estimated 5 million art pieces and cultural objects.
These artworks included numerous masters, such as the Ghent Altarpiece and Michaelangelo's Madonna, both featured in the movie.
After the war, a smaller contingent of Monuments Men continued to hunt down stolen art. Many of the members of the MFAA returned or went on to prominent jobs in cultural institutions. They are responsible for the foundation of the New York City Ballet, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the National Endowment for the Arts.
Despite their incredible efforts, a number of other artworks remain missing. And, due to Hitler's "Nero Decree," stating that all evidence that could be used in a war crimes trial be destroyed, many may never be recovered.
The story of the Monuments Men was rediscovered in 1995 and in 2009, Robert Edsel wrote his book The Monuments Men and started the Monuments Men Foundation for the Preservation of Art. He and the foundation aim to acknowledge the work of these incredible men and women, continue their quest to return stolen artworks, and attempt to return the preservation of cultural heritage to the consciousness of the American military.
In 2007, the Monuments Men Foundation was awarded the National Humanities Award by President George W. Bush. You can go to their website to learn more about the Monuments Men and assist in the effort to recover and repatriate stolen goods.
Being a museum studies graduate student, of course I had to go see the new movie The Monuments Men. The movie is an interesting historical drama, though not an action movie, like the previews would have you think. While the movie is well worth the watch, they did take a number of liberties with the actual story. Here's the story of the true Monuments Men and the many people who supported them.
From the beginning of WWII, the American Council of Learned Societies and the Harvard Group called for the US military to protect and preserve the cultural heritage of Europe. Hitler was systematically looting art from the great museums and collectors of Europe in preparation to stock his own personal museum and the US army destroyed important buildings while invading Europe. However, it wasn't until 1943 that the efforts of these groups finally bore fruit.
The Monuments Men started with a group called whose official name was the American Commission for the Protection and Salvage of Artistic and Historic Monuments in War Areas, but was more commonly referred to as the Roberts Commission, after its chairman, Supreme Court Justice Owen Roberts. Proposed by Francis Henry Taylor, the director of the Museum of Modern Art, the group was created in 1943 to advise military actions in order to best protect and preserve national treasures during World War II, provided they did not interfere with military operations. They created the Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives section, for which 345 men and women volunteered, coming from the United States, Britain, France, Austria, and Belgium.
These men and women were primarily middle-aged; some were even WWI veterans. They were professors, museum curators, archivists, and librarians. Together, they saved an estimated 5 million art pieces and cultural objects.
 |
| Some of the Monuments Men at the Altuasee Salt Mine in 1945. (Wikimedia) |
These artworks included numerous masters, such as the Ghent Altarpiece and Michaelangelo's Madonna, both featured in the movie.
 |
| The Monuments Men recovering the Ghent Altarpiece at Altusee. (Wikimedia) |
After the war, a smaller contingent of Monuments Men continued to hunt down stolen art. Many of the members of the MFAA returned or went on to prominent jobs in cultural institutions. They are responsible for the foundation of the New York City Ballet, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the National Endowment for the Arts.
Despite their incredible efforts, a number of other artworks remain missing. And, due to Hitler's "Nero Decree," stating that all evidence that could be used in a war crimes trial be destroyed, many may never be recovered.
The story of the Monuments Men was rediscovered in 1995 and in 2009, Robert Edsel wrote his book The Monuments Men and started the Monuments Men Foundation for the Preservation of Art. He and the foundation aim to acknowledge the work of these incredible men and women, continue their quest to return stolen artworks, and attempt to return the preservation of cultural heritage to the consciousness of the American military.
 |
| President George W. Bush presents the 2007 National Humanities Medal for the Monuments Men Foundation for the Preservation of Art to, from left, Robert Edsel and World War II veterans Jim Reeds, Harry Ettlinger, Horace Apgar and Seymore Pomrenze. (Wikimedia) |
In 2007, the Monuments Men Foundation was awarded the National Humanities Award by President George W. Bush. You can go to their website to learn more about the Monuments Men and assist in the effort to recover and repatriate stolen goods.
Tuesday, March 4, 2014
Share Spotlight: Love What You Do
This week's Share Spotlight comes from Verily Magazine.
Love What You Do
You have to find happiness where you are. That's the theme of this Verily blog post. No matter what you do, you can find some joy in it.
While it's great if you can grow where you're planted, if you can't find joy in what you do, you have two options. 1. Find something that you can find joy in doing. 2. Change your attitude.
I've been thinking about this a lot recently. I keep noticing that there are so many people in school that seem fundamentally unhappy, but are studying to do what they love. Make sure you find joy in what you do. It makes your life so much better, and, when you are happy, you make the people around you happy.
So, what do you think? Do what you love or love what you do?
Love What You Do
You have to find happiness where you are. That's the theme of this Verily blog post. No matter what you do, you can find some joy in it.
While it's great if you can grow where you're planted, if you can't find joy in what you do, you have two options. 1. Find something that you can find joy in doing. 2. Change your attitude.
I've been thinking about this a lot recently. I keep noticing that there are so many people in school that seem fundamentally unhappy, but are studying to do what they love. Make sure you find joy in what you do. It makes your life so much better, and, when you are happy, you make the people around you happy.
So, what do you think? Do what you love or love what you do?
Saturday, March 1, 2014
February Book Roundup
As I do at the end of each month, here's a list of some of the books I've been reading.
When the Marquess Met
His Match by Laura Lee Guhrke
A wonderful take on a traditional Romance novel plot:
dedicated bachelor finds he must marry, so he finds a matchmaker to find him a
bride, he doesn’t expect to fall for the matchmaker! Still, I loved this book.
The characters felt very real, with an incredible depth. Both characters have
their flaws but you still want to root for them, especially as they start to
understand themselves and fight to change for the better. A great afternoon
read that will leave you sighing in contentment.
Paris in Love by
Eloisa James
Continuing the Romance theme, Paris in Love is the memoir of romance author Eloisa James (one of
my favorites). The memoir grew out of Facebook and Twitter posts, so the book
is mainly written in short paragraphs, interspersed with longer essays. The
posts are generally witty and made me laugh, a lot. I was reading every other
one out loud to my roommate. A great read for anyone who needs to travel by
armchair.
Divergent by Veronica
Roth
A fantastic first book! The narrator seems very real to me
and the thought processes that are so integral to making the main character
important come through loud and clear, without it feeling as though the author
is aiming to make her think differently. Yeah, that was a messy explanation,
but I have to say that this is one book that lived up to the hype.
I'm always looking for new books, so leave a recommendation! Just keep it spoiler free. ;)
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