General knowledge

Things I think I should know more about. If you know of a book, let me know!

• History of and analysis of unions in the U.S. Either with a neutral author or one who fairly represents the pros and cons.
• Germany! Being there with someone who knows a lot of history gave me a new perspective on war and history. The U.S. is young and we do not have much evidence in our own land of modern wars, save places like Pearl Harbor. There, you see an old church with half of it gone and you know it was damaged by a bomb in WWII. (The destroyed part is to the right of where the photo ends.)So probably a book with a quick summary of pre-1700/1800 and more detailed of modern history would be good.
• What the heck I should be doing with my finances. I found this and it looks pretty good. I am mostly able to keep up with life, but what with the price of airplane tickets, a foreign BF's family to visit and being a LONG drive or a plane trip from my family and any weddings I have or will need to travel to, I still am way past the age when I should be building my savings.This article also reminded me that I need to have a plan and savings. It is actually a good article for anyone to read, as it brings up important issues such as salaries freezing and possibly decreasing thanks to our wonderful economy and what people have had to accept as job prospects after being laid off and out of work for a long time. Plus I know the reporter personally, so that is cool. :-)

I figured it out!

I have been reading Animals in Translation by Temple Grandin. CF talks about her a lot because she has had a positive impact on the animal agricultural industry - specifically she has changed how animals are handled and treated to minimize fear and pain. It is a really interesting "read" (I admit, I am listening to it in the car). If you have not heard of Temple Grandin before, she is a woman with a PhD in Animal Science and autism. She relates her experiences with autism to animals and their perceptions and reactions to the world. This particular book seems like a great commentary on science for a general audience. I would highly recommend it to people who themselves have autism or whose family members do. It is amazing what this woman has accomplished.

She also explained why my cat does things like stare at the wall in the morning. After I get ready for work and are getting ready to head out, the cat is frequently sitting in my bedroom door staring at the wall. I wondered if there were bugs or animals she could hear in there. Temple Grandin writes about how animals' visual system makes them drawn to contrasts in color and/or light. So one morning I discovered that the sun comes up and shines right in the window and the window screen makes a moving pattern in the light. I realized the cat expects this bright strip on the wall every morning. She must sit and wait for it because it is so fascinating to her!

Apparently there is also a recent movie about her that was well received. I will probably end up seeing it at some point.

Saving the best part

When I started packing to move, I decided to reread some of the books that I find so important to keep. In general I do NOT like rereading books I like. I am afraid I will not like them the second time around. This happened with Ahab's Wife: or, the Star-Gazer by by Sena Jeter Naslund. The first time around, I loved that there were so many words I learned. The second time around, I thought it was really slow. Maybe third time is a charm?

Anyway, that is not the book I started reading. I am SOOOOO close to finishing Persuasion by Jane Austen. And really, can you read a Jane Austen novel too many times? I would argue you could not.

Even though the following line is not about the heroine, it is right at the beginning and made me glad I had started reading it when I did, because really it is about me.

It sometimes happens that a woman is handsomer at twenty-nine than she was ten years before.

I am in the middle of the penultimate chapter. (I just wanted to use a big word after thinking about Ahab's Wife.) It is against my reading habits to stop in the middle of a chapter unless there is a break in paragraphs, and there is not where I stopped last night. Every night when I go to read more, I do not want to finish it because I know the ending is good and I want to save it.

This is not the case with a book I have never read that has my attention. I have definitely stayed up "just a little longer" to read more and then looked at the clock at 3:30 a.m. when I finished the book.

I might finish Persuasion tonight and hope that I can keep that happy-ending feeling for a couple of days. (Taken out of context, that statement is highly inappropriate, but you know what I mean.)