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Posts Tagged literary fiction
Posted by Amy Steele in Books on January 4, 2021
I read 87 books this year– 84 by women; three by men; 32 by BIPOC authors. The shortest book I read was Intimations by Zadie Smith. The longest book I read was Goldfinch by Donna Tartt. Here are the best books (5/5*) that were published in 2020 that I read.
Intimations by Zadie Smith
Penguin Books, July 2020. 97 pg.
A slim collection of essays–about aging, community, race, COVID 19, writing– that Zadie Smith wrote during the pandemic. There's much to consider within these pages of thoughtful, personal and universal essays. She explains: "Talking to yourself can be useful. And writing means being overheard."
Weather by Jenny Offill
Knopf, February 2020. 207 pg.
fantastic, creative and timely novel addressing the current climate crisis and the impending apocalypse. it's from the point-of-view of a middle-aged woman –so definitely relatable to me (I want to read more novels about older women). She's married and has a son. Her brother is a recovering drug addict and she's had to care for him throughout the years. Jenny Offill excels at this observational narrative. It's short, riveting, potent. It's really the perfect thing to read during this COVID-19 pandemic and quarantine we're all experiencing. Plus it's quite relatable to middle-aged spinster GenX me: "The woman has just turned fifty. She tells me about her blurriness, the way she is hardly seen. She supposes she is not so pretty anymore–fattish, hair a bit gray. What she has noticed, what gives her a little chill, she tells me, is how if she meets a man out of the context of work, he finds her to not be worth much. He looks over her shoulder as he talks or pawns her off on a woman her own age."
The Exiles by Christina Baker Kline
Custom House, August 2020. 370 pg.
I loved this amazing work of historical fiction so much and don't know why I waited so long to write about it! It covers an intriguing aspect of history that I've not read much about. Based on actual events, the novel focuses on a ship of female convicts traveling from England to Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania) in the 1850s. Although Aboriginal people have occupied Australia for thousands of years, the British government views the native people as nuisances and the land to be uninhabited and available for their use. It's amazing to think about some of the low level crimes for which many were sentenced as well as the harrowing passage. "Evangeline recalled seeing small items in the newspaper over the years about the incorrigibles– men, she thought– transported on convict ships to Australia. Murderers and other deviants exiled to the far side of the earth, ridding the British Isles of the worst of its criminals." Evangeline is a governess accused of stealing a ring which had been given to her by the family's older son with whom she'd become romantically involved. She's well-educated and her late father was a minister. The other staff members didn't like her. "She was, by temperament, much like her father: diffident, with a shyness often mistaken for aloofness, a bookishness perceived as snobbery." She's sentenced to 14 years in prison. She's pregnant and gives birth to a daughter onboard. Sadly she's thrown overboard by a crew member who she'd stabbed to protect Hazel, who he'd been sexually assaulting. Hazel is a scrappy convict whose midwife mother taught her many potions and remedies. Mathinna is a native woman who knows how to read and learns to speak French. She's taken from her tribe by Van Diemen's governor's wife on a whim. She considers her a project. It doesn't work out well. The novel's a complete page turner and I became so invested in these women I didn't want it to end.
Fresh Water for Flowers by Valerie Perrin
Europa, June 2020. 476 pg.
"My closest neighbors don't quake in their boots. They have no worries, don't fall in love, don't bite their nails, don't believe in chance, make no promises, or noise, don't have social security, don't cry, don't search for their keys, their glasses, the remote control, their children, happiness."
I walk in cemeteries fairly often. There's one in my neighborhood. When I was in grad school, I would drive to the Arlington National Cemetery to take walks through it. I liked the quiet and solitude. I sometimes wonder about the people whose names I see on gravestones. Violette Toussaint is a cemetery caretaker in the small French town Bourgogne. She lives on site. She takes notes on everyone who's buried there. She's close friends with three gravediggers, three groundskeepers and a priest. She feeds the stray cats that roam the cemetery. She reads. She bakes. It sounded fairly idyllic to me. I love the writing and this character. Violette is different, interesting, smart, thoughtful. I found myself deeply connected to her– "I don't fit into boxes. I've never fit into boxes. When I do a test in a women's magazine– "Get to know yourself," or "Know yourself better"–there's no clear result for me. I'm always a bit of everything." I don't fit in boxes either.
"I'm not after a love story. I'm too old for that. I've missed the boat. My meager love life is an old pair of socks shoved to the back of the closet."
Julian Sole, a police detective, arrives one day and tells Violette that his mother wanted her ashes spread on someone's grave who wasn't her husband. He wants to know why. Violette reflects on her own husband who had numerous affairs and left her. She recalls: "He turned our bed into a paradise, was considerate and sensual when making love, but as soon as he got up, was vertical, left our horizontal love behind, he lost a good deal of color. He had nothing to say, and was interested only in his motorbike and video games." Violette's mother abandoned her and she was pregnant at 18. Drawn to each other, Violette and Julian spend more time together as they help reconcile the past. There are more secrets of the dead and the past revealed but I can't give too much away or I'd ruin it. The novel unwinds with several twists. It's smart, funny and dark. Just what I like. It's a full reflection on life and death and everything involved.
Julian Sole, a police detective, arrives one day and tells Violette that his mother wanted her ashes spread on someone's grave who wasn't her husband. He wants to know why. Violette reflects on her own husband who had numerous affairs and left her. She recalls: "He turned our bed into a paradise, was considerate and sensual when making love, but as soon as he got up, was vertical, left our horizontal love behind, he lost a good deal of color. He had nothing to say, and was interested only in his motorbike and video games." Violette's mother abandoned her and she was pregnant at 18. There are more secrets of the dead and the past revealed but I can't give too much away or I'd ruin it. The novel unwinds with several twists. It's smart, funny and dark. Just what I like. It's a full reflection on life and death and everything involved.
My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell
William Morrow, March 2020. 373 pg.
A 42-year-old English teacher at a prep school in Maine grooms then rapes his 15-year-old student. Although it's a story that 's been told numerous times, it's a remarkably strong perspective that's completely engrossing. The story alternates between 2000 and 2017 where adult Vanessa finds herself finally recognizing the level of abuse and how it's affected her. I have a memory from high school of being in gym class and one of my classmates going up to a (very attractive) teacher and unbuttoning a button on his shirt and commenting something about the full buttoned up style. It was so bold. That was how this popular student commanded attention. I didn't even kiss a boy until college. Vanessa is incredibly naïve as a student: "It wasn't about how young I was, not for him. Above everything else, he loved my mind. He said I had genius-level emotional intelligence and that I wrote like a prodigy, that he could talk to me, confide in me. Lurking deep within me, he said, was a dark romanticism, the same kind he saw within himself. No one had ever understood that dark part of him until I came along." Vanessa writes poetry. Mr.. Strane gives her Sylvia Plath, Emily Dickinson, Edna St. Vincent Millay to read and then he gives her Lolita. As an adult, Vanessa recognizes: "I still feel different from others, dark and deeply bad, same as I did at fifteen, but I've tried to gain a better understanding of the reasons. I"ve become an expert on the age-gap trope, consuming books, films, anything featuring a romance between an adult and legal child. I search endlessly for myself but never find anything truly accurate." She's also finding it difficult to have relationships with me. She notes: "There are men who never turn into boyfriends, who peer behind the curtain and see the mess of me–literal and figurative: the apartment with a narrow path through the clothes and trash leading from bed to bathroom; the drinking, endless drinking; the blackout sex and nightmares."
Afterlife by Julia Alvarez
Algonquin, April 2020. 256 pg.
Antonia is a recently widowed, retired English teacher who lives in Vermont. One night she arrives home to find an undocumented pregnant teenager on her doorstep. Then, her sister, who suffers with Bipolar disorder, goes missing. "You're the most American of us, her sisters have commented to Antonia in an accusatory tone. Just saying, they said smugly when she asked what was wrong with being whoever she was. Admittedly, she was the worrier, the insomniac, the most anxious and disciplined of the sisters." Through gorgeous prose and astute observations, Julia Avarez examines a woman's struggles to maintain her individual identity as well as to navigate relationships with her three sisters and her immigrant community.
The Book of V by Anna Solomon
Henry Holt & Company, May 2020, 320 pg.
I gasped excitedly when I walked into the break room at my bookstore job and saw the ARC of this novel. I tore through this book in two days. Leaving Lucy Pear is one of my favorite novels and now after reading this I'll count Anna Solomon as a favorite author. This novel focuses on three Jewish women– Lily is a mother, second wife and writer in 2016. Vivian is a political wife during the Watergate-era. Esther is an independent woman in ancient Persia. They're all strong, independent-minded women. and Solomon fully explores each character's motivations, desires, needs, struggles, commonalities and connections across the centuries.
The Sweet Indifference of the World by Peter Stamm
Other Press, January 2020. 160 pg.
I only read one book by a white male author and this is it. I have a handful of favorite cis white male authors and Peter Stamm counts as one of them. I read them immediately. I appreciate his gorgeous, melancholy writing. This one is short and interesting– a writer, Christoph, meets a woman, Lena, who is the doppelganger of his former lover, Magdalena, who inspired his first novel post breakup. Lena recognizes her own relationship with a writer named Chris in the story she's told. This one blurs past and present, fiction and reality. How much does reality influence fiction and fiction influence reality? He comments: "With youthful pathos, I had believed I had to decide between her and my writing, between freedom and love. Only now did I understand that love and freedom were not mutually exclusive, but mutually entailed: the one wasn't possible without the other."
2020 books, afterlife, Anna Solomon, best of 2020, book review, books, books reviews by amy steele, bookworm, by Amy Steele, Christina Baker Kline, contemporary fiction, historical fiction, intimations, julia alvarez, literary fiction, my dark vanessa, Peter Stamm, steelereads, the book of v, the exiles, The Sweet Indifference of the World, Zadie Smith
Posted by Amy Steele in Books on November 23, 2020
Perfect Tunes by Emily Gould. Avid Reader Press| April 2020| 272 pages| $26.00| ISBN: 978-1-5011-9749-9
RATING: 3.5 /5*
Laura, an aspiring singer/songwriter from Ohio, moves to New York to share an apartment with Callie, her best friend from high school. Despite her plans to avoid dating, Laura ends up falling in love with the bass player in an up-and-coming band. Turns out she's more into him than he is with her: "Laura fought back the urge, again, to tell him that she loved him, to claim him officially somehow. The thought of him with random girls in different cities made her want to peel off her skin. She wished that they were married. She wanted everyone he met to know they were together. There was no possible way to express any of this to him." It turns out that Laura wants to be independent and successful on her own merits but also wants to be in a relationship. Which, of course, is possible. It just isn't possible with this guy. She's a people pleaser and I almost cringed at the part where she's over there cooking dinner for Dylan and his roommate/bandmate. I had a crush on a guy in a band one time and would walk his dog for him several times a week thinking that would make him more interested in me. Foolishness that I can't say I didn't repeat.
Dylan enjoys the attention and frenetic lifestyle associated with being in a band and touring. Laura and Callie form a band that opens for Dylan's band and has some potential due to Laura's songwriting prowess. Dylan's a troubled soul struggling with a mood disorder and addiction. Sadly relatable: "He was swaying and slurring as he said this. Laura understood, without wanting to, that Dylan was much more interested in getting fucked up than he was in having sex with her." The short-lived romance ends in tragedy and a life-changing pregnancy for Laura. She ultimately chooses her daughter over her career and her friend Callie ends up with a successful music career; maybe the one that Laura initially wanted.
Divided into three parts, the novel focuses on Laura's early years in New York, Laura being a young mother and then on Laura's teenage daughter Marie and her desire to learn about her biological father. As I've worked in the music business and have followed bands and dated musicians and experienced unrequited love (too often), I could completely relate to Laura's early experiences in New York. I lost a bit of interest in the motherhood part. I wanted more details and focus on Laura's songwriting. The title suggested as much and I expected more. Despite its pivot from singer/songwriter to motherhood, it's a mostly enjoyable, quick read. Although I was disappointed, I still kept reading which attests to Emily Gould's writing talents. I'll try another one of her novels.
Amy Steele, book review, book review by Amy Steele, emily gould, fiction, literary fiction, perfect tunes, steelereads
Posted by Amy Steele in Books on August 19, 2020
With or Without You by Caroline Leavitt. Algonquin| August 4, 2020| 288 pages | $26.95| ISBN: 9781616207793
The way you expect your life to be isn't often the way it ends up being. Societal pressures and outside influences affect decision-making. People change over time and sometimes love relationships don't work anymore or just don't fit. Why do some people languish in relationships that aren't particularly satisfying anymore? When do you just let go of a relationship, even if you've been in it for a substantial amount of time?
Stella and Simon, both 42, live in New York, have been together for 20 years and don't have any children. An RN, Stella wants a stability and a family. Simon, a musician, still dreams of success and fame in the music industry. Stella and Simon have different personalities and demeanors. Stella is strong, independent, organized, goal-oriented. Simon is laid back and not super responsible. He lives the musician lifestyle— he's laid back and frequently takes drugs.
"She had given up things for him before. After their first year together, she'd left her job as an RN because it was so exciting to travel with him. And then being on the road got old, or maybe just she did. But by the end of her second year touring with him, she began to feel the need to be a nurse again. It was like a physical pull. She missed having a community of doctors, nurses, and staff that she saw every day."
It had almost been out of character for Stella to fall in love with Simon— "He came over to see her the next night, and the next, and suddenly there she was, responsible Stella with both feet firmly planted, Stella who never missed a shift, who read books and adored classical music, falling heedlessly for a rocker with an impulsive lifestyle and a way with words, simply because he cared so much about her, Iike no one ever had before."
As someone who has tried to make relationships work with people who don't have the same values as me or who don't have a compatible personality or aren't going to learn and grow over the years, I found myself deeply connected with this novel. As a music journalist I've had many encounters with musicians. I understand the charisma and the draw involved. Someone you might not look at on the street becomes 10x more attractive on stage playing an instrument and/or singing. As a middle-aged woman, I completely comprehend wondering how time flew by and why aren't I more fulfilled in my life?
On the eve of the start a tour that he hopes will catapult his stagnant music career, Simon convinces Stella to take drugs with him and she falls into a coma for two months. Simon can't make it out on tour and his band mates find a replacement. He doesn't know what to do with himself now that he's no longer in a band. The coma completely transforms Stella. She's now an artist with a remarkable ability to draw portraits in which she's able to capture a person's innermost desires and feelings. While Stella was in the coma, Simon got close to Stella's best friend. Do Stella and Simon choose loyalty or independence?
At turns melancholy, amusing, relatable and infuriating, With or Without You is a thoughtful novel about choices, identity, self-worth in relationships and careers and remaining true to yourself. It's about questioning everything that makes you happy and what you should do vs. what truly fulfills you. It's a complex and unique read.
book review, book reviews, book reviews by Amy Steele, Caroline Leavitt, contemporary fiction, fiction, literary fiction, summer reading, summer reads
book review: Good Riddance
Posted by Amy Steele in Books on February 4, 2019
Good Riddance by Elinor Lipman. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt| February 5, 2019| 304 pages | $25.00| ISBN: 978-0-544-80825-6
RATING: 4.5/5*
"I used to have a husband, from a marriage that was a bad idea from the start. Now I can advise others: Never marry a man who proposes too early."
When Daphne discards her deceased mother's yearbook, a neighbor decides she's going to make a documentary about what she discovers in it. One person's trash is another's treasure, particularly an enterprising someone looking to advance her career. Daphne's mother, June, was a teacher and yearbook advisor for the Class of 1968 who attended every class reunion and kept detailed notes about the students in the yearbook. Seemingly everyone had a crush on Daphne's mother at this New Hampshire high school. June had an affair with a student after he graduated. Daphne attends a reunion as a fact-finding mission and this man, now a state representative, claims to be Daphne's biological father. Daphne introduces herself to her tablemates in this manner: "I was bamboozled into a loveless marriage because my husband wouldn't inherit his grandparents' money while he was still single." Daphne hasn't had the best of luck in relationships. She's self-deprecating and aware of her challenges and somewhat resigned. She's completely surprised when she embarks on a tryst with her cute younger neighbor, an actor. She ends up having lots of fun and confides in him. It's just the ego boost she needs. I found Daphne to be quite genuine and relatable. Her father seems like a great dad. The news that someone else might be her biological father, leads Daphne to have bouts of doubt: "My not sleeping great had to do with the ugly breaking news that my entire existence was based on a lie. Shouldn't I have been warned of inheritable diseases that might be down the road? Or told to work harder in high school because I could apply as a legacy to Dartmouth? Such were the 2 a.m. agitations of a dispossessed daughter." Will these new discoveries affect Daphne's relationship with the only father she's ever known? Between studying online to become a pastry chef, hooking up with her neighbor and helping her father navigate his recent move to New York, Daphne attempts to thwart her plans to expose her mother's personal life. Author Elinor Lipman (The Inn at Lake Divine, On Turpentine Lane) successfully contrasts the idiosyncrasies of small town New England with sprawling Manhattan. Lipman is a master of clever, amusing novels with quirky central characters. Her novels are guaranteed delightful fun reading. I love her writing and creativity so much that I received an advanced copy in October and devoured it right away. It's the ideal anti-Valentine's read.
FTC Disclosure: I received this book for review from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
book review, book review by Amy Steele, books, contemporary fiction, Elinor Lipman, fiction, literary fiction, novels
book review: My Year of Rest and Relaxation
Posted by Amy Steele in Books on August 6, 2018
My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh. Penguin Press| July 2018| 289 pages | $26.00| ISBN: 978-0-525-52211-9
RATING: *****/5*
"Oh, sleep, nothing else would ever bring me such pleasure, such freedom, the power to feel and move and think and imagine, safe from the miseries of my waking consciousness."
Before I discovered yoga and meditation I would often isolate from the world by downing a bunch of pills. After a bad break-up, I spent three weeks consuming solely Diet Coke and Klonipin. Not advisable but I wanted to shut everything out as quickly as possible and for as long as possible. It was inherently easier to sleep through the misery in hopes I'd eventually feel better. It wasn't the best coping mechanism. In case anyone's wondering, I no longer drink soda and rarely rely on Klonipin. I still have terrible agoraphobia and anxiety but numbing myself isn't going to fix that and there are much more productive uses of my time.
Everything appealed to me about the novel My Year of Rest and Relaxation, from the title to the cover—a portrait of a sullen Victorian woman—to the description to this sentence in the opening paragraph: "I'd get two large coffees with cream and six sugars each, chug the first one in the elevator on the way back up to my apartment, then sip the second one slowly while I watched movies and ate animal crackers and took trazodone and Ambien and Nembutal until I feel asleep again."
The novel focuses on a 24-year-old Columbia University graduate in the year 2000 in New York City and her intention to essentially hibernate through the year with pharmaceutical assistance. She's recently lost her art gallery job. Her parents died while she was in school. Her on-again-off-again relationship with a guy who works on Wall Street doesn't satisfy. So what's so bad that she needs to shut out the world. She explains: "I can't point to any one event that resulted in my decision to go into hibernation. Initially I just wanted some downers to drown out my thoughts and judgments, since the constant barrage made it hard not to hate everyone and everything, I thought life would be more tolerable if my brain were slower to condemn the world around me."
She lives in an inherited apartment with few financial concerns. Her friend Reva, who she met in college, stops in once a week for a wellness check. Of Reva: "I don't know what it was about Reva. I couldn't get rid of her. She worshipped me, but she also hated me. She saw my struggle with misery as a cruel parody of her own misfortunes. I had chosen my solitude and purposelessness, and Reva had, despite her hard work, simply failed to get what she wanted—no husband, no children, no fabulous career." She spends any waking hours watching movies, particularly those starring Whoopi Goldberg and Harrison Ford. She also finds questionable psychiatrist who unwittingly assists her sleep plans by prescribing an arsenal of drugs.
"I went to the bathroom and took stock of the medicine cabinet, counting all my pills on the grimy tile floor. In all, I had two Ambien but thirty more on the way, twelve Rozerem, sixteen trazodone, around ten each of Ativan, Xanax, and Valium, Nembutal, and Solfoton, plus single digit amounts of a dozen random medications that Dr. Tuttle had prescribed only once…"
One might wonder how an entire novel could revolve around this subject. Author Ottessa Moshfegh delves into the narrator's past—her previous relationships, her family, her relationship with Reva, as well as her aspirations as an artist. About her parents: "And I'd feel sorry for myself, not because I missed my parents, but because there was nothing they could have given me if they'd lived. They weren't my friends. They didn't comfort me or give me good advice. They weren't people I wanted to talk to. They barely even knew me."
Dark humor, a self-deprecating tone and astute details and brilliant writing makes this novel work so well. There are strong Sylvia Plath vibes throughout. If you've dealt with mental illness, a major loss or being an outcast then you'll likely appreciate this character. I found her to be immensely relatable. It's a complicated, challenging world and some of us find solace in darkness.
FTC Disclosure: I received this book for review from Penguin Press.
book review, book review by Amy Steele, contemporary fiction, literary fiction, my year of rest and relaxation, ottessa moshfegh
STEELE INTERVIEWS: Joanna Luloff
Posted by Amy Steele in Books, Interview on July 16, 2018
While on assignment in India, Clare, an international journalist, becomes stricken by an illness which destroys her memory. Once back in the states she's forced to rely on her husband Charlie and her best friend Rachel to reconstruct the past and her memories. Does she remember specifics of her marriage and her friendship, the things that sustain these relationships? Claire senses that something isn't right but doesn't know if it's her marriage or her friendship or a combination. Can she even trust Charlie and Rachel. The novel is effectively told in different points of view and jumps back and forth from present to past and back again.
I spoke with author Joanna Luloff by phone earlier this month.
Amy Steele: Where did you get the idea for this novel?
Joanna Luloff: My mom and I talked about her memory loss and how she had to borrow other people's memories. A lot of years later when I was actually in graduate school, we started to have this correspondence where I would send her a photograph and I'd ask her what she saw in it and she'd do the same for me. I also did an experimental project for a class that I was taking.
I became more interested in the people surrounding someone with memory loss and how it affects them. To lose the confirmation from other people. The story got shifted away from just a person with memory loss to those people surrounding that person and it started to shift away from my family into fictional characters and what it meant to gradually recover their love for each other and the secrets and all this conflict.
Amy Steele: A lot of times you want to let things go from the past and live in the present but obviously there are certain connections which affect how you're fitting in with certain people.
Joanna Luloff: The idea that memory is very subjective anyway. We frame the story as we remember it. My brother and I have very different recollections of the same event. As a fiction writer, I love to elaborate and add to the story. I know my stories are often changed through imagination.
Sometimes I think you can rewrite and event or create the situation you'd want to have or rework a situation/ investigate it.
Amy Steele: Did you prefer writing a certain character?
Joanna Luloff: I probably had the easiest time writing Rachel's character because she gets to be an observer and be on neutral ground but she also has her own secrets. She sees so much so it was fun. And Charlie might have been the hardest because he's a man from England. I lived in England for a really short time and I was really struck by the reserved politeness and stoicism. I tried to channel a bit of that restraint which British men seem to have.
Amy Steele: Do you think writing his character was the greatest challenge in the overall writing of the novel?
Joanna Luloff: I think the biggest challenge I had was not about character or voice but the structure. I needed to figure out the story's chronology. For Claire, obviously her memories were super jumbled and the characters are constantly moving from the present to the past. My first drafts of the novel were disjointed.
Amy Steele: I was skeptical of everyone involved. How do you organize? How long did it take you to write the novel?
Joanna Luloff: It didn't take me a long time to write the first draft. I was at least able to knock out the basic foundation of the book. It was a lot of revisions and layering in the mystery or base suspicion of what the truth might be.
I wrote it out longhand and it worked out well because I was able to rip out pages and lay them out on the floor and play around with what needed to go where and I think it helped to be able to see it in different forms. Once that was in place then I did some adding and subtracting where I thought there needed to be more questioning of the character. I was able to play a bit more with how much the characters were withholding from each other, why they were doing that, all the secrecies and the past injuries to layer in eventually.
Joanna Luloff received her MFA from Emerson College and her PhD from University of Missouri. She teaches at the University of Colorado.
She'll be appearing at Harvard Book Store on Monday, July 16, 2018.
Algonquin, Algonquin Books, contemporary fiction, Joanna Luloff, literary fiction
book review: Little Fires Everywhere
Posted by Amy Steele in Books on September 15, 2017
Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng. Penguin Press| September 12, 2017| 384 pages| $27.00| ISBN: 978-0-7352-2429-2
"She had, in short, done everything right and she had built a good life, the kind of life she wanted, the kind of life everyone wanted. Now here was this Mia, a completely different kind of woman leading a completely different life, who seemed to make her own rules with no apologies."
What can I say about a novel that's already garnered immense praise? Reese Witherspoon chose Little Fires Everywhere for her book club and plans to turn it into a miniseries. I adored Celeste Ng's exquisite debut novel Everything I Never Told You. An immensely talented writer, Celeste Ng addresses race, class, youth, perception, expectations and family dynamics through gorgeous, thoughtful and tender writing.
At the outset of the novel, there's a colossal fire and the why, who and how slowly unwinds throughout the novel. We start with the preppy picture-perfect Richardson family. Mr. Richardson is an attorney, Mrs. Richardson is a freelance reporter for the local newspaper. She grew up in Shaker Heights and convinced her husband to move back to the community to raise a family. The couple has four teenage children: Izzy, Moody, Lexie and Trip. Izzy's the unpredictable one, Moody [aptly named] is the sensitive and cerebral one, Lexie is pretty and smart and popular one and Trip is the athletic one. I'd not heard of the idyllic Shaker Heights community –sounds like a gated community with its rules and regulations and standards–and this novel definitely provided me with a detailed visual. Growing up, I didn't live in a neighborhood and at high school reunions always feel a bit excluded [not the only way that happens] when people connect through whatever neighborhood they resided in.
A single artist mother, Mia, and her daughter, Pearl, become tenants in a two-family home owned by the Richardsons, the disparate siblings develop connections with either mother or daughter or both. An itinerant pair, seemingly due to Mia's artistic temperament, Mia promises her daughter Pearl that they'll stay in Shaker Heights for a while. How difficult for a girl to have to constantly move about. There's a romanticism to an artistic life but it's the mother's choice and not the daughter's and understandable that she'd be attracted to the Richardson family's stability and prosperity. Ng writes: "They knew important people, the Richardsons: the mayor, the director of the Cleveland Clinic, the owner of the Indians. They had season tickets at Jacobs Field and the Gund." In comparison: "Mia and Pearl got as much as they could used—or better yet, free. In just a few weeks, they'd learned the location of every Salvation Army store, St. Vincent de Paul's, and Goodwill in the greater Cleveland area." There's a moment where Lexie lends Pearl one of her tops and Pearl seems to be stepping into Lexie's body and into the family by wearing the garment.
To supplement her inconsistent income from art sales, Mia finds part-time work at a local Chinese restaurant and with Mrs. Richardson's encouragement starts cleaning and preparing meals for the Richardson family. By then Pearl and Moody have become close and Pearl hangs out to watch television at their house after school. In the same classes, Moody and Pearl develop a close friendship while she develops a crush on Trip, a junior and a jock, and longs to be more like Lexie. A fascinated Izzy soon begins work as Mia's art assistant. Lexie confides in Mia in a way she'd never confide in her own mother. Quite understandable as these are moody teenagers striving to both fit in, express themselves and figure out who they want to be. Most everyone sacrifices something in their path to adulthood or to career success or family desires
When one of Elena Richardson's oldest friends attempts to adopt a Chinese-American baby, it drives a wedge between Elena and Mia and finds their children questioning what's fair. At that point, Pearl and Trip and Lexie and her boyfriend Brian are all sexually active. There's a pregnancy scare to align with the adoption efforts. This is a lovely description of Pearl from Trip's perspective: "Pearl was smarter than any of them and yet she seemed comfortable with everything she didn't know: she lingered comfortably in the gray spaces." Pearl possesses the wisdom of a girl who's had to adapt to varied settings and too often make her place as the new girl. She's adept at adapting. She's observant and feeling. And now she's feeling safe and comfortable. Elena starts to delve into Mia's past and doing so will dramatically change her children's lives forever.
Throughout the novel, Ng deftly takes the reader inside these family's homes and into the depths of her characters' minds and hearts. How can you separate your goals from those of others around you? What do you need to do to find yourself and to be satisfied with that? If fitting in means you have to give up your dreams will you ever be truly content? Several times as a plot twist clicked, I had to stop a moment to admire Ng's cleverness. This is a must-read– a wonderful, graceful and moving novel.
book review, book review by Amy Steele, bookclub, Celeste Ng, literary fiction, little fires everywhere
book review: Before Everything
Before Everything by Victoria Redel. Viking| June 2017| 288 pages | $26.00| ISBN: 9780735222571
In hospice for cancer, Anna's old childhood friends gather at her house. Before Everything moves from present to past to provide the reader with details about each woman's connection to Anna. Comfort, support and nostalgia connect this group of friends. Each woman has a specific relationship with Anna and with each other and then as a group. There's the group think and then the individual's thoughts. Whenever the novel veered into the precious and perfect I lost interest. Lovely crisp writing kept me reading. Author Victoria Redel powerfully chronicles Anna's battle with cancer and hospice care and dying. This aspect of the novel interested me most. On fear of dying: "That was what Helen had never asked, what over all these years of treatment and periods of health Helen and The Old Friends have trained themselves not to ask. It was a tacit agreement. The answer was too obvious; it loomed in each moment's specific worry."
Despite caring so much there's still a level of competition between the friends: "But Helen knows the answer. She's known it since she arrived two weeks ago and began her adamant petition to pull Anna from hospice. She knew it back at the pond when she agreed to help Anna if Anna asked. Helen's job all these years was to keep Anna away from fear and close to the yes. But Anna is not afraid. Again, Anna is doing something before Helen. It has always been this way. Boys. Drugs. Marriage. Children. Even the pregnancy that Anna ended. Over and over. Anna went first. Now this."
I appreciated the realistic description of outsider views of these old friends: "He was glad for her yelp. Any dose of dark humor was better than all the treacly concern he heard from her visitors." A newer friend thought: "The Old Friends. Whatever they called themselves, there was always a pecking order. Pretty pathetic considering the circumstance." When my friend's mom fought cancer, some of her friends kind of pushed my mom away when my mom wanted to help. I can't imagine still being so connected to childhood friends. At every phase of my life I've lost friends and made new friends. I maintained friendships with high school friends into college and some college friends post-college and sure I am still connected to some high school and college friends via Facebook but if I really needed someone would these friends be there for me? The novel started strong and petered out toward the end. It seemed too much, these women and their near perfect lives and near perfect friendships. At the last high school reunion I attended a friend said that it was impossible to know what other classmates had endured despite outward appearances to the contrary. I get it. Unfortunately, I lost a connection to the various characters.
FTC Disclosure: I received this book for review from Viking.
before everything, before everything book review, books review by amy steele, by Amy Steele, contemporary fiction, literary fiction, victoria redel
book review: The Nakano Thrift Shop
Posted by Amy Steele in Books on July 20, 2017
The Nakano Thrift Shop by Hiromi Kawakami. Europa Editions| June 2017| 240 pages | $16.00| ISBN: 978-160-945-399-2
"Takeo arrived, again smelling of soap. For a moment, I wondered if I ought to have taken a shower, but I quickly pushed that thought aside, since had I done so, he might have thought I was expecting something. This was what made love so difficult. Or rather, the difficult thing was first determining whether or not was what I wanted."
Such a gem of a novel. Author Hiromi Kawakami brings layers and depth to seemingly ordinary, routine lives. Lots of interesting characters plus solid descriptions to create strong setting & sense of place. I appreciated the novel as it allowed me to experience Japan –from the rainy season to love hotels–through these characters. The novel focuses on twenty-something Hitomo who works part-time at the thrift shop. Kawakami writes: "With its second-hand goods (not antiques), Mr. Nakano's shop was literally filled to overflowing. From Japanese-style dining tables to old electric fans, from air conditioners to tableware, the shop was crammed with the kind of items found in a typical household from the 1960s or later." Hitomo sort of dates her aloof co-worker Takeo and builds bonds with shop owner Mr. Nakano and his artist sister Masayo. Her relationship with Takeo reminded me of my current on-again/off-again situation. She's intrigued by Takeo and attracted to him. Does she need to know what kind of relationship she's going to have with her co-worker? Some people, most of society, feel the need to label something, to put it into a box, cross things off a list. Few people (including Takeo and this guy I was seeing) are willing to allow something to unfold organically and mindfully. You can make plans for the future and have goals but you can also enjoy the moment. Relatable: "We were so different from each other in the first place—it's not surprising that two people with nothing in common would end up like this, I thought to myself as I threw caution to the wind and continued to steal glances at Takeo's face." Also relatable: "When I thought about the idea of spending the rest of my life like this—going through my days I a fog of anxiety and fear—I felt so depressed I could have laid down on the ground and gone to sleep right then and there. But despite all that, I loved Takeo. When I scrutinized love, I still found myself in a world that felt empty." On her boss Mr. Nakano's lover: "'The Bank' was pretty. To call her a beauty might have been going too far, but she had a delicate complexion—she seemed to be wearing hardly any make-up yet her skin was flawless. Her eyes might have been narrow but her nose was straight. There was something inexplicably vibrant about her lips. At the same time, she had purity about her." Besides beautiful, thoughtful writing, I'm often attracted to the Europa book covers. Look at that cover! Book design credit goes to Emanuele Ragnisco.
FTC Disclosure: I received this book for review from Europa Editions.
book review by Amy Steele, contemporary lit, hiromi kawakami, Japan, japanese literature, literary fiction, the nakano thrift shop, the nakano thrift shop book review
book review: Exit West
Posted by Amy Steele in Books on March 5, 2017
Exit West by Mohsin Hamid. Riverhead Books| March 7, 2017| 231 pages | $26.00| ISBN: 978-0-7352-1217-6
After finishing college, Nadia questions her faith and decides, to her family's dismay and disdain, to move out on her own– "She secured a room of her own atop the house of a widow, a record player and small collection of vinyl, a circle of acquaintances among the city's free spirits, and a connection to a discreet and nonjudgmental female gynecologist." Nadia enjoys her independence as much as possible: she works at an insurance company; smokes pot and does shrooms and maintains connections through social media. She soon meets Saeed and they clandestinely date and slowly fall in love as the country and everything they know crumbles around them. They both work their different jobs during the day and meet at night at cafes and then at Nadia's apartment. She throws down a black robe for him to put on and enter the apartment without raising suspicions or backlash about a single woman entertaining a male visitor. Slowly the country becomes less safe. Nadia and Saeed lose their jobs. Then it becomes impossible to communicate. Author Mohsin Hamid writes: "But one day the signal to every mobile phone in the city simply vanished, turned off as if by flipping a switch. An announcement of the government's decision was made over television and radio, a temporary antiterrorism measure, it was said, but with no end date given. Internet connectivity was suspended as well." Nadia and Saeed decide to escape the country as refugees.
First they land at a refugee camp in Mykonos —"It was said in those days that the passage was both like dying and like being born, and indeed Nadia experienced a kind of extinguishing as she entered the blackness and a gasping struggle as she fought to exit it, and she felt cold and bruised and damp as she lay on the floor of the room at the other side, trembling and too spent at first to stand, and she thought, while she strained to fill her lungs, that this dampness must be her own sweat." They then move on to London –"It was here that Saeed and Nadia found themselves in those warmer months, in one of the worker camps, laboring away. In exchange for their labor in clearing terrain and building infrastructure and assembling dwellings from prefabricated blocks, migrants were promised forty meters and a pipe: a home on forty square meters of land and a connection to all the utilities of modernity." They finally end up in Marin, California– "Saeed made it a point to smile with Nadia, at least sometimes, and he hoped she would feel something warm and caring when he smiled, but what she felt was sorrow and the sense that they were better than this, and that together they had to find a way out."
The couple drifts apart despite their best attempts to stay together. It's an attempt to keep something familiar nearby, to keep their country in their hearts. They adapted to their new country and living situations in varied ways—Nadia relishes the personal freedom while Saeed becomes focused on religion– which makes their relationship untenable and unsustainable. A beautiful, thoughtful, intelligent novel about refugees that couldn't be timelier. Using mystical realism, Hamid tells a potent and poetic story of love and freedom in this short novel. Lovely reflections on connectivity and choice and circumstances. Hamid beautifully contemplates very human desires to achieve, to thrive, and to share oneself in order to make sense of an often nonsensical, violent and cruel world. It's absolutely essential reading.
Mohsin Hamid will be reading at Harvard Book Store on Wednesday, March 8 at 7pm.
FTC Disclosure: I received this book for review from Penguin Random House.
book review by Amy Steele, contemporary lit, exit west, exit west book review, Harvard Book Store, literary fiction, mohsin hamid, refugees, Riverhead Books


text:
Rodný dům Václava Hanky se nalézá v centru obce Hořiněves v okrese Hradec Králové nedaleko od kostela svatého Prokopa. Tento dům je chráněn jako kulturní památka ČR. Národní památkový ústav dům uvádí v katalogu památek pod rejstříkovým číslem ÚSKP 19640/6-614.

Popis
Rodný dům  obrozence Václava Hanky je přízemní venkovský roubený dům s šindelovou střechou - bývalá zájezdní hospoda vystavěná okolo roku 1720. Obdélná budova má patrovou křížovou světničku vysazenou do ulice na čtyřech profilovaných dřevěných sloupech. Budova byla v minulosti součástí čtyřstranně uzavřeného hospodářského dvora, z kterého se více nedochovalo.

V čelní straně předsunuté komory je umístěn oválný kovový reliéf s podobiznou Václava Hanky slavnostně odhalený, za přítomnosti Františka Palackého a F. L. Riegra, v roce 1862. Před domem na východní straně v zatáčce silnice stojí pomník Václava Hanky. Zhotovil jej hořický sochař Černila v roce 1890.

Uvnitř se nachází stálá expozice věnovaná životu a dílu Václava Hanky (1791 - 1861).

Galerie

Odkazy

Literatura
 Umělecké památky Čech I. - IV. Emanuel POCHE (ed.). Praha 1977, strana 416

Externí odkazy

 dům na památkovém katalogu
 dům na stránkách obce Hořiněves

Václava Hanky
Stavby v okrese Hradec Králové
Kulturní památky v okrese Hradec Králové
Hořiněves
Postaveno v Česku 1720

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


On behalf of Brian Quinn of The Law Offices of Brian E. Quinn posted in Medical Licensing on Tuesday, April 23, 2019.
A Pennsylvania doctor might undergo license suspension at some point in his or her career. When a licensing board issues such an order, the physician in question is guaranteed an opportunity to request a hearing and present a defense. A doctor in another state is suing the board who suspended his license. He claim that officials violated his rights by doing so.
On behalf of Brian Quinn of The Law Offices of Brian E. Quinn posted in Medical Licensing on Monday, March 25, 2019.
When Pennsylvania nurses are accused of unprofessional behavior, it can place their careers at risk. Eight nurses in another state are currently facing medical licensing problems related to suspected substance abuse problems on the job. In situations like this, it is always a good idea to speak with an experienced medical licensing attorney to determine what type of defense strategy may be available to help mitigate circumstances.
On behalf of Brian Quinn of The Law Offices of Brian E. Quinn posted in Medical Licensing on Monday, March 11, 2019.
Many Pennsylvania residents suffer from seasonal allergies or other conditions related to food, topical products or chemicals. One of the most logical things to do if symptoms arise is to seek medical examination from a licensed physician who specializes as an allergist. An allergy doctor in another state is currently dealing with a medical licensing problem; his license has been suspended because of allegations made by some of his patients.
On behalf of Brian Quinn of The Law Offices of Brian E. Quinn posted in Medical Licensing on Monday, February 25, 2019.
If someone accuses a Pennsylvania doctor of misconduct, he or she may immediately suffer a serious job security risk. Not every accusation of wrongdoing is accurate or true, however. It is unfortunate that false accusations can have long-term, far-reaching negative effects on a physician's career. Physician license defense is a key factor to overcoming legal problems that arise in the medical workplace, which threaten suspension or revocation of a license to practice medicine.
On behalf of Brian Quinn of The Law Offices of Brian E. Quinn posted in Medical Licensing on Wednesday, February 6, 2019.
There is stringent protocol in place in most Pennsylvania hospitals that help doctors and nurses keep patients in need of medication as safe as possible. Long ago, doctors wrote medication orders on pads of paper, and nurses carried out those orders. Nowadays, everything is computerized although digital medication orders are typically read by multiple staff members before a nurse finally dispenses and administers the medical in question. A license board in another state has stepped in and suspended a physician on suspicion that he was either negligently or purposely overdosing patients on fentanyl.
Are you facing medical licensing problems in Pennsylvania?
On behalf of Brian Quinn of The Law Offices of Brian E. Quinn posted in Medical Licensing on Thursday, January 10, 2019.
Pennsylvania doctors and nurses often encounter challenges regarding their relationships with patients, especially if a particular patient complains that he or she is not satisfied with the care being provided. From complaints regarding bedside manner to those involving clerical issues, such as having to wait a long time to get an appointment, working as a medical professional can be quite stressful. When a serious problem arises, such as a filed complaint that prompts medical licensing issues, it not only causes stress for the doctor or nurse involved, it may place his or her career on the line.
On behalf of Brian Quinn of The Law Offices of Brian E. Quinn posted in Medical Licensing on Friday, December 28, 2018.
Most Pennsylvania hospitals have neonatal intensive care units that provide specialized care to newborn infants. There are typically several nurses working in a NICU at once, working as a team to provide care and treatment for a hospital's youngest patients. Several incidents in a hospital in another state have resulted in a nurse having his medical license suspended. He is also facing criminal charges.
On behalf of Brian Quinn of The Law Offices of Brian E. Quinn posted in Medical Licensing on Tuesday, December 18, 2018.
Hundreds of Pennsylvania doctors write prescriptions every day. Prescription medication is used to treat a wide variety of ailments, including chronic pain conditions, infections or acute symptoms resulting from injury or sudden illness. If a licensing board believes it has evidence to suggest that a doctor is misusing his or her prescription-writing privileges, it could lead to a medical license suspension.


This web site is designed to introduce geology in a different way. Think about geology beyond identifying rocks and minerals. So many natural phenomena like volcanoes, earthquakes, and mountains can be explained if you know a little geology. And the neat thing is, they're all related to one another.
These are just a few of the phenomena that geologists study. As you venture through this web site, ask yourself how each event is related. Hopefully we will spark your curiosity about the world around you.
Here are some links to neat geology activities you can try.
Each of these links will open in a separate browser window.


Welcome to De Anza College! You may already be aware of the fine athletic reputation the school has. In fact, that may be a big factor in considering attending De Anza. You should also understand that De Anza's academic reputation is unparalleled.
We are the biggest feeder school for students transferring to the UC and CSU system in California. We also transfer students to many of the best private universities around, including Stanford, Santa Clara, USC, University of San Francisco, University of the Pacific, St. Mary's to name a few.
The commitment to the success of the student-athlete is paramount at De Anza College. That is why we have Matt Trosper, a full-time Athletic Academic Advisor who works only with Student-Athletes. Matt has been working with De Anza student-athletes for the past 20 years. He is very knowledgeable with eligibility requirements at every level of collegiate competition (NCAA division 1,2 or 3 and NAIA), as well as all transfer requirements to UC, CSU and private schools.
There are many demands upon a student-athlete's time. A student-athlete must maintain a full-time academic load (12 or more units) and meet the time commitments of their sport. On top of this, many student-athletes work part-time. A student-athlete also has a limited time frame in which to compete at the collegiate level. (A divsion 1 student-athlete has 5 years in which to compete in 4 years of their sport. This clock starts as soon as they are a full-time student.) You can see the need for accurate and balanced academic as a Student-Athlete. Matt is here to help you achieve your goals and keep you on track.
A smart and balanced academic load are the keys to your success as a student-athlete at De Anza College. Matt is here to help you plan, get you in touch with any college service which may help you, and to keep you on the right track.
De Anza student-athletes have access to the best facilities, coaches, and academic preparation. Once enrolled as a student-athlete, in addition to Matt's services, you will receive priority registration for your classes. You receive this benefit because you are mandated to complete a certain number of units every quarter. You also have very limited time in the day to take your classes, due to your practice and competition schedule. Priority registration also allows you to stay on track with regards to the time-line in which you need to transfer.
Any De Anza student-athlete, potential De Anza student-athlete, or any student-athlete from another college needing advice is free to contact Matt.
If you are going to be a new student-athlete to De Anza College, there are some specific steps that you have to follow.


Professor of Dermatology and Allergy, Department of Dermatology and Allergy, Allergie-Centrum-Charité at the Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Germany.
Marcus Maurer is Professor of Dermatology and Allergy at the Allergie-Centrum-Charité, Department of Dermatology and Allergy, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Germany. He is also the Director of Research at the Department of Dermatology and Allergy, Associate Director of the Allergie-Centrum-Charité, and Head of the Specialty Clinics for angioedema, hereditary angioedema, urticaria, mastocytosis, pruritus, auto-inflammatory disorders and the Dermatological Allergology Laboratory. He trained in dermatology and allergology in Berlin and Mainz, and in experimental pathology at the Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston from 1995 to 1998 and attained his board certification for dermatology in 2000 and allergology in 2003. His habilitation ("Why do we have mast cells?") was undertaken at the University of Mainz in 2003.
Professor Maurer´s research focuses on physiological and pathological functions of mast cells. He has made numerous important contributions to the understanding of the role of mast cells in the pathogenesis of chronic inflammatory disorders as well as in the protection from infections. His clinical emphasis is on urticaria, mastocytosis, angioedema, hereditary angioedema, pruritus, and auto-inflammatory syndromes.
Lately, Professor Maurer's team has also followed translational approaches using human in vivo and ex vivo models to investigate the functions of human mast cells, mostly skin mast cells. These investigations have led, among others, to the development of the concept of autoallergy in chronic urticaria, which was critical for the clinical testing and development of anti-IgE as a novel treatment option in chronic spontaneous urticaria, a treatment that was licensed for use in this disease in 2014. Professor Maurer's team, over the past years, have built national reference centres for the investigation and treatment of urticaria, mastocytosis, hereditary angioedema, angioedema and other mast cell-driven diseases, and more than 30 randomized controlled trials (phase I through IV) were performed by him and his team since 2011.
Professor Maurer is the author of more than 300 publications in peer reviewed journals including Nature and the New England Journal of Medicine (>14,000 citations, h-index: 65).


The following membership structure was approved by the 1984 Extraordinary General Assembly which adopted the initial Statutes of ICSTI. Membership applications must be made with the awareness of the purposes and principles of ICSTI as stated in the Statutes, By-Laws and Regulations.
Class A Full Members consists of organizations with principal interests in either (i) the generation or use of new scientific or technical information, or (ii) the coordination of activities of type (i) within a geographical area or within a discipline. Class A includes organizations primarily representing the interests of scientific and technical information users, such as scientific unions, learned societies, national academies.
Class B Full Members consists of organizations with principal activities in the collection, storage, organization, or dissemination of scientific or technical information. Class B includes abstracting and indexing services, data centers and services, representatives of primary publishers, online vendors, networks, libraries, information centers, and also policy making bodies, sponsors and coordinators of information activities.
Class C Associate Members consists of organizations with some interests in common with those of ICSTI. Class C includes organizations concerned with the transfer of scientific information who wish to keep abreast of, and contribute to the activities and development of ICSTI.
Class D Honorary Members consists of persons whose outstanding contribution to the work of ICSTI merits special recognition.
Full Members pay dues. Associate and Honorary Members pay no dues.
On the level of dues and on the budget, each Full Member has one, two, or three votes in accordance with the class and category in which they have been admitted.
In all other matters, each Full Member has one vote.
Associate Members and Honorary members have no vote.
These rates will apply from 1 January 2019.
In accordance with a resolution of the 2001 General Assembly, membership dues shall be paid exclusively in €.
ICSTI's Membership year is January-December.
First year membership dues will be pro-rated to reflect the month in which they join. During the first year new members have no voting rights.
Class B Full Members : Organizations admitted as Class B Members pay dues according to their annual budget expenditure. Corporate members pay dues according to their annual revenue.
For companies or institutions belonging to a common financial group, the first member to join ICSTI will pay according to the scheme above ; the second, third, etc...company will pay the B1 dues rate.
Candidates for full membership must provide sufficient information in support of the dues category they apply for.


text:
The St. Michael's Story
St. Michael's 3.0
Stories and media releases
Facts and photos
Excellence in Quality
Information, Access and Privacy
St. Michael's physicians riding for trauma survivors
Toronto, July 13, 2017
By Kelly O'Brien
(from left to right) Drs. Samuel Vaillancourt, Joel Lockwood, Rob Sargeant and Alun Ackery.
A group of physicians from St. Michael's Hospital is cycling through southern France this fall to raise money for the Trauma Survivors Network.
Emergency physicians Drs. Alun Ackery, Samuel Vaillancourt and Joel Lockwood, along with Dr. Rob Sargeant, head of the hospital's Division of Internal Medicine, will cycle from Sept. 10 to Sept. 16, covering more than 700 kilometres and climbing more than 11,000 metres.
The hope is to not only raise money, but awareness that care shouldn't end when trauma survivors leave the hospital, said Dr. Ackery, who is also a trauma team leader at St. Michael's.
"When someone has sustained traumatic injuries, the focus has always been on making sure they survive," he said. "We save their lives physically, but we now recognize there is more to it than just healing the body. There is a need for continued support for all the other ways trauma can affect someone's life."
The route crosses the French side of the Pyrenees Mountains, from the Atlantic Ocean to the Mediterranean Sea. It includes several legendary climbs of the Tour de France, which will make the ride more difficult, said Dr. Vaillancourt.
"We wanted to do something constructive to show our support for these patients and their families," he said.
"This challenge we've taken up reminds us of the courage our patients need to go through the ups and down on the road to recovery. Obviously, we're doing this by choice, but we'll face a physical test beyond what we've experienced and we'll need each other's support to get through it."
The Trauma Survivors Network was developed by the American Trauma Society to help trauma centres break the isolation many patients experience after trauma, and provide support and services to patients and their families need during their recovery from serious injury. My BeST (Beyond Surviving to Thriving), a patient support group at St. Michael's, is the first Canadian branch of the Trauma Survivors' Network.
The group was spearheaded by Margaret Harvey, a former St. Michael's patient, and Amanda McFarlan, a trauma registry manager and quality improvement specialist at St. Michael's, along with a committee including social workers, trauma surgeons, psychiatrists, physiotherapists, patient experience advisers and spiritual care providers.
In 2012, Harvey was hit by a garbage truck while cycling. The truck's tires completely shattered her pelvis. She was rushed to St. Michael's, where she underwent emergency surgery and received 38 blood transfusions.
When she returned home, she realized she couldn't go back to the way things were before the crash.
"You need to respect that when someone goes through a physical trauma, their whole life could change on a dime," said Harvey.
Harvey said she was lucky to have the resources necessary to seek out the support she needed with things including navigating the insurance system, coping with post-traumatic stress and finding a lawyer to fight a lengthy legal battle. My BeST aims to help people who don't have access to those resources on their own.
"I had a house, money, my family and people around me," she said. "But a lot of people don't have any of that, and trauma has very real impacts on peoples' mental health, so it's something that needs to be addressed." The money raised by the bike tour will go towards the support group. It will also help expand the Trauma Survivors Network efforts at St. Michael's, which will potentially include training and mentoring peer support workers for both inpatients and outpatients.
To donate, click here.
About St. Michael's Hospital
St. Michael's Hospital provides compassionate care to all who enter its doors. The hospital also provides outstanding medical education to future health care professionals in more than 29 academic disciplines. Critical care and trauma, heart disease, neurosurgery, diabetes, cancer care, care of the homeless and global health are among the Hospital's recognized areas of expertise. Through the Keenan Research Centre and the Li Ka Shing International Healthcare Education Centre, which make up the Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute, research and education at St. Michael's Hospital are recognized and make an impact around the world. Founded in 1892, the hospital is fully affiliated with the University of Toronto.
See More of Our Stories in 2017

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Some Games I would like to see be ported to Windows Phone
If you didn't know already, a Sonic the Hedgehog game was recently released for Windows Phone and is on the marketplace for your gaming pleasure. The much-anticipated Mango update Windows Phone is coming soon in the Fall, and is slated to be the best update yet to the Windows Phone operating system. Wouldn't it be great if some other games we know and love got ported to Windows Phone? With this, there are many games for other platforms that I would like to see a Windows Phone version of. Here are some of them, in no particular order of importance:
I'm sure many fans of the Halo series have wanted a mobile version of Halo for quite some time. With Halo being part of Xbox Live and Xbox Live being part of the Windows Phone operating system, there is a potential for mobile to mobile playing and mobile with Xbox playing as well, with Xbox Live integration not being a problem.
Who wouldn't want a few of the games in the Final Fantasy series being ported to Windows Phone? Final Fantasy I has already been ported to Windows Mobile, so we know it is possible, and some of the other Final Fantasy games deserve to be ported as well.
Little needs to be said for this one. Unfortuately, with the Pokémon games being in the hands of Nintendo, I don't think we have much chance of seeing any native ports. Now if someone would make an emulator that can play them and Microsoft (actually) lets it go on the marketplace, that would work as well.
This little gem from the Nintendo NES (Nintendo Entertainment System) caused people to spend endless hours playing this game. Now I know that you can't hook up a gun (if you didn't know, to play Duck Hunt on the NES, you used a "gun" controller to shoot the ducks) to your windows phone, but I can see touch input functioning as the "gun".
Orions: Legends of Wizards
This game was a Windows Mobile gem, winning many awards for gameplay. It is a mix of a card game and real-time-strategy. I'm sure that those of you that had Windows Mobile devices remember this game. Unfortunately, the Windows Mobile version never got an update so you could play it on HVGA resolution devices (in other words, devices with 800 x 480 resolution). This games deserves an update, a port to Windows Phone, and maybe some more expansion packs.
This is another game (series) that was big on Windows Mobile. This one is sort of an RPG with dungeon crawler. Anyway, besides breaking the 4th wall much of the time, this game was enjoyable and I spent many hours playing them (the first full version that I actually played was Arvale: Short Tales; I just played trials of the Arvale games before).
(Super) Mario Bros.
Again, one of those games that don't need much said about it. However, like the Pokémon games, I doubt we will be seeing a native port of this from Nintendo.
This great game is a hot seller on the iOS and Android operating systems. The only one out of the picture is Windows Phone. Many people have been asking for a port of this to Windows Phone for some time now, with me being one of them, and it is currently unknown (to me, at least) whether we will get a port of Angry Birds to Windows Phone or not.
I'm sure that I left out a couple of other games that deserve a port to Windows Phone. This is just a short list of some of them. I am curious to hear what games you think should get a Windows Phone port and if you agree (or disagree) with any of the items on my list. You can make your thoughts known via the comment box below.
Keywords: game, gaming, marketplace, Microsoft, mobile, phone, windows, xbox
please also ZENONIA !!
i know about 60 wp7 users who wants more rpg's like zenonia 1,2 and 3, inotia, shadow guardian
the wp7 market is full of bad games only a handful are good
in appstore (iphone) there are prince of persia game (warrior within), spiderman, gangstar and more.
these are games with over 500 mb size, the max size of a game in wp7 market is 150 mb! please bring out more powerful games
Steven Nowak June 28, 2011 at 11:23 PM
I can see that file size can be a problem when it comes to video games. The current policy is if a program is over 20mb file size, you either have to be connected via wi-fi or use the Zune desktop client to download the program and then it gets transferred to the device via usb (3G does not work). The only thing I can see that would work with this policy is to create a third category which says that if game's file size is really, really big, you have to use the Zune desktop client to download the game and then the game gets transferred to the device via usb (and both 3G and wi-fi would not work for this). Another idea would be for a sd card slot to get "freed up" so you could put a sd card in and the game would already be on the sd card, but I doubt this will happen with Microsoft's current Union-FS like filesystem for Windows Phone.
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Ransomware is a form of malware that takes your computer hostage. It works by restricting access to the computers it infects, and can only be removed once the user pays a ransom amount to the malware's creator.
On a related note, security researchers from TrendMicro, F-Secure and Dr. Web have reported that two new ransomware variants are currently circulating on the web.
One of the new variants is comparable to a previous release that infects the computer's the Master Boot Record (MBR). This prevents the operating system from booting up and instead restarts the PC once its executed. A ransom message requesting payment for the unlock code is then displayed on the screen.
F-Secure and Dr. Web were also able to intercept another identical ransomware variant. Upon execution, the files on the computer are encrypted by adding a .EnCiPhErEd file extension. Users are then given five attempts to enter the unlock code before the malware will delete itself and leave the files on the PC encrypted.
Attention! All your files are encrypted! You are using unlicensed programms! To restore your files and access them, send code Ukrash or Paysafecard nominal value of EUR 50 to the email koeserg@gmail.com. You have 5 attempts to enter the code. If you exceed this of all data irretrievably spoiled. Be careful when you enter teh code!
Ransomware is spread through the same channels as most computer viruses, so don't click any links or download any files that seem shady or aren't verified.


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WAHDUWAH with Emily Nam
WAHDUWAH with Emily Nam - Live From New York (04/12/2022)
WAHDUWAH with Emily Nam – Live From New York (04/12/2022)
Soho Radio • December 4, 2022
WAHDUWAH is a long-listening sound archive created by New York-based interdisciplinary artist, Emily Nam.
Each show is an audible journey recorded on the streets of New York City and beyond. Intended to challenge our experiences of time and space — WAHDUWAH offers an array of complex environments, compositions and harmonic sounds.
WAHDUWAH is world harmony.
Listen bi-weekly Sunday's 12:00 – 2:00pm EST // 5 – 7pm GMT on the NYC + Culture channel.
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


The African Development Bank (AfDB) has approved a US$ 15-million senior loan to GHL Bank PLC, which focuses on mortgage finance, to enhance its mortgage loan portfolio and help develop an effective affordable mortgage industry in Ghana.
It said in a release to the Ghana News Agency that Ghana's lower-middle and middle-income earners will now have greater access to long-term affordable mortgage finance.
GHL Bank PLC, formerly, Ghana Home Loans Limited was previously the only specialized mortgage finance institution in Ghana, helping to address the national housing shortage by providing long-term finance to lower-middle and middle-income new homebuyers.
It has disbursed over US$ 191 million in mortgage loans, benefiting more than 3,000 households, serving the majority of Ghana's urban and suburban centres.
The senior loan will have multiplier effects on housing sector industries and employment in the mortgage value chain.
It will complement the government's efforts to develop a self-sustaining long-term affordable mortgage market and encourage orderly urban development for providing basic utilities such as water, sanitation, roads and electricity.
It complements the Bank's current initiatives to support affordable housing and development of mortgage finance institutions in Africa.
The Bank supports investments that help widen and deepen financial systems in Africa, and that enable the private sector to mobilize and access long-term local currency funding from local financial and debt markets.


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Naoto dreams of being a train conductor for the Japanese National Railways. He luckily manages to snag a job as a trainee for the Railways Security Force. But when an evil group tries to seize control, it's up to him to get things back on track.
E1 | Welcome to K4!
After complaining about the lack of action involved in their line of work. A situation arises where Sakurai and Naoto must find a bomb before it goes off in the station.
Naoto runs into his old friend Sasshi, who happens to also go to Kiryu Railway High School. Later, Sasshi's friend goes missing.
Popular idol Kashima Noa will hold a special concert at the beach as part of a JNR Event. K4 is appointed to protect her during her stay.
During their suspension, Naoto receives a threatening letter in the mail, which prompts Koumi to suspect foul play.
Naoto and the rest of K4 make their way to Karuizawa for some advanced training. Sakurai uncovers the real reason Naoto is in the security force.
A mudslide has caused a delay in schedule for a train and it's passengers, one of who is carrying life saving organs. It's up to K4 to deliver the goods before time runs out.
With time running out, Naoto and K4 begin to exhaust their options for slowing their train. Dangerous tunnels and uneasy tracks remain.
E10 | Will You Keep This a Secret?
A foreign Prince with a penchant for trains is coming to town, and K4 is assigned protection detail.
Naoto and his team manages to outwit the attackers on board, but discover that the train's controls have been damaged in the aftermath.


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Associate Professor Matire Harwood – Kaupapa Māori
by ksch009 | Sep 16, 2019 | Media release, Newsletter, Our people, Peer reviewed publication | 0 comments
As a result of the Māori Think Piece submitted to the Board in 2019, a Research Theme Leader Māori has been approved. Associate Professor Dr Matire Harwood (PhD, MBChB) has been appointed to this new leadership role. Matire (Ngāpuhi) lives in Auckland, and her background is in primary health care and rangahau hauora Māori.
She is the Director for Tōmaiora, Māori Health Research, and Senior Lecturer at the Auckland Medical School; Editor for the Māori Health Research Review; Clinical Advisor at National Hauora Coalition PHO and General Practitioner at Papakura Marae Health Clinic.
Matire is an appointed member to the Waitemata DHB and was appointed the 2017 L'Oréal UNESCO For Women in Science Fellowship in recognition of her work addressing the inequities of health-related outcomes between indigenous and non-indigenous people.
Other recent roles include membership of the Board and Māori Health Committee at the Health Research Council of New Zealand, and Clinical Director at Tamaki Healthcare PHO; Deputy Chair for Te Ora (Māori Medical Practitioners Association); previous member of the Asthma and Respiratory Foundation, and Health and Disability Ethics Committees.


Set in Los Angeles in the 1990s, "Love Is--" follows a young black couple, two people from opposite worlds, as they go through the trials and tribulations of chasing their dreams and learning how to follow their hearts. Nuri is bubbly and has big dreams, but she is struggling to make a name for herself as a sitcom staff writer while juggling a string of romances. Yasir is an aspiring director/writer who has hit a snag and is on-and-off again with his ex. The program is told from the perspective of Nuri and Yasir's present-selves while they revisit the social issues and the vibrant black culture that helped shape who they are today.


Pink Leopard Software, a woman run startup based in southern California, begins operations by introducing two high performance business applications for Android devices targeting network and database professionals. IOS versions are to follow shortly.
The two apps leverage the power of the network to serve up critical operational information directly to your phone from anywhere in the world.
For network professionals and developers we have introduced Leopard Lightning, a high performance network protocol analyzer, for the Android phone. Leopard Lightning allows you to remotely capture and view network traffic at the packet level. It stores the information in an SQL Server database giving you a powerful tool to mine your network data.
Leopard Lightning also provides a near real time traffic analysis of your network. It allows you to monitor your network traffic and easily drill down to find the root cause of your problems.
The SQL Server Monitoring app allows database administrators to monitor the performance of Microsoft SQL Servers from the convenience of your phone or tablet. It also allows you to start, stop and view Microsoft Profiler compatible traces from anywhere in the world.


Do you have a eviction notice sitting on your door? Or maybe you expect to see one coming soon. Sometimes you just need help with rent?
The Salvation Army is a specific religion. Most people don't know that.
They are a very good first step when trying to get some help. The Salvation Army has the ability to help you with a one-time rent voucher.
As a result they may even have more points of contact for places that will help therefore getting you closer to financial security and housing security.
Many local churches have a fund to help those in need.
From your heating bill to food for the kids. Many churches have contacts to help those in need if they can not help you themselves. Church's are non-profit organizations, so helping the needy is part of what they do.
Every state has their own Public Housing Agency (PHA) to help those in need in their respective states.
The PHA for your state may be able to get you a housing voucher to help with your rent. They may be able to get you approved for Section 8 housing.
PREVIOUS Previous post: What Are The Grounds For Eviction?


Now you too can be like James Bond while in London – at least for a few days.
The movie icon rolled in style when he got behind the wheel, taking such vehicles as Aston Martins and Bentleys out for a spin. Hertz Corp. is now making those cars, and more, available for rent in the U.K. with the introduction of its "Dream Collection" that is already available in the U.S.
Currently featuring the Bentley Continental GT, the luxurious Bentley Flying Spur, the iconic Aston Martin DB9, and the all-new Range Rover Sport, the Hertz Dream Collection will also include the Mercedes C63 AMG, BMW X5, Mercedes SL63 AMG, Mercedes E400 AMG Coupe, Audi Q7 and Maserati Ghibli in the coming weeks.
Michel Taride, Group President, Hertz International, said in a statement: "Whether you want to whisk away your loved one for a romantic weekend getaway, have a trip of a lifetime, or simply experience a vehicle that would otherwise be unattainable, the Hertz Dream Collection is on hand to provide a convenient and affordable solution. Our new Dream Collection of modern design classics coupled with our VIP customer service will help our customers create lasting memories behind the wheel of some of the world´s finest cars."
The Dream Collection has been rolled out at Hertz's London Marble Arch and at Heathrow Airport. All Dream Collection vehicles can be booked from hertzdreamcollection.co.uk, and will be available to rent for a minimum period of one day up to a maximum of 28 days.
Be advised, however, that this is your dad's vehicle, or at least Hertz is treating it as such. Customers must be aged 30 and over and have held their driving license for a minimum period of five years, and not one but two credit cards are needed in order to qualify.


Type Of Event: There will be a on-licence tasting event held here in which up to 20 people will taste a selection of craft alcohols (25ml measures) to be consumed on site whilst being talked through the production processes, cultures, traditions and company information of the brands and bottles. This tasting will happen between 7pm and 11pm on Friday 8 march 2019. There will be a selection of the products tasted that will also be available for purchase on site by those who attended the tasting for consumption off site.


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John M. White (born May 10, 1937) is an American performance artist, sculptor, and painter. He is a significant figure in the development of California performance art in the 1960s.

Early years
Born in San Francisco, California, White entered the art scene later than most at the age of 25. His formal art education started in 1962, at the Patri School of Art Fundamentals—a small private school run by old Bauhaus follower Giacomo Patri.

The Patri School of Art Fundamentals was an intensive program that required the students to focus on one subject for the entire six-day school week, having them analyze, draw, paint, design, and sculpt the subject before moving on to another. This had a great impact on John M White's multidisciplinary approach to his work. His first performances were accompanied by complex diagram-drawings, and such drawings have hung beside his work since (Frank). White has conceived of his installations as three-dimensional drawings, both for their formal reliance on line and for the improvisatory, "quick-sketch" manner of their creation. Whereas some drawings serve as scores or documents for live performances, virtually no drawing has served as a direct study or "floor plan" for an installation. (Frank)

White attended the Otis Art Institute in Los Angeles from 1965 to 1969, where he earned both BFA and MFA by the age of 32. At Otis, he met Joan Hugo, who would later prove to be one of the influential people in his career. Hugo was the school's librarian who also acted as an information resource passing magazines and books on contemporary developments to promising students and encouraging their independent research and discussion (Danieli). At her suggestion in 1969, White took part in the dance concerts of Yvonne Rainer and Glen Lewis at the LA Conservatory of Music and Steve Paxton at Ace Gallery. While participating in Paxton's workshop, White developed what would later become one of his first public performance piece, "Paper and News", performed at University of California, San Diego in 1969. His first public performance piece was Dirt Event, held at Bronson Canyon in 1968.

1970–80
After 1970, White's work turned more autobiographical and inclusive, incorporating two- and three-dimensional works into his performance pieces. His work focused more on daily tasks and interpersonal relations. This is partially due to the fact that in 1970, White went to work at a psychiatric hospital, leading group therapy sessions. These sessions became inspiration for his series of drawings called Therapy Notations that use notational form to document the group's interactions like a flow chart. This style is used again in White's series of golf-centered works GolfCourse Notations. These drawings have references from several golf courses around the United States where White has played. They represent conceptual notations from his thought processes during the game. Conditions such as wind, ball trajectories, line of shot, estimating distance, visual distractions are all translated into abstract diagrammatic notations that can be "read." (White)

John M. White received the New Talent Award for the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in 1971 and three years later in 1974 was awarded the first of three National Endowment for the Arts grants (the other two came in 1978 and 1983). In 1974, White also started traveling as a guest lecturer in colleges and universities across the United States.

1980s–Current
In 1984, after the birth of his daughter Rachel, White stopped traveling began teaching Performance Art at University of California, Irvine. Two important pieces came out of his new-found role as parent, Rachel in the Vault (1984) and Second Stories (1986) in which he alludes to his role as harried father. John M White formally retired from performing in 1989, and gave what was to be his final performance at LACE (Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions). Three notable exceptions to his retirement were in 1991 at the Los Angeles Music Center (Annotated Lipschitz), 1999 at the Armory Center Museum in Pasadena (Circa) and in 2008 at the Sylvia White Gallery in Ventura, California (John White's Back).

White left the University of California, Irvine in 1994 to teach at a prestigious K-6 school, the Curtis School, in West Los Angeles until 2004. He moved to Ventura, California with his family in 2008 where he has a painting studio and hosts 5x5x5, a performance series for young performance artists featuring 5 artists, 5 performances for 5 minutes each. In 2011, a retrospective of his work will be on view at the Pasadena Armory Center for the Arts. Lifelines: John M. White is curated by Betty Ann Brown, Ph.D.

Collections
White is in the following 'Permanent Collections':

 Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY
 Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA
 Smithsonian Archives of American Art, Washington, D.C.
 St. Louis Museum of Contemporary Art, St. Louis, Missouri
 Total Art Museum, Seoul, Korea
 Newport Harbor Art Museum, Newport Beach, CA
 Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, Washington
 Oakland Museum of Art, Oakland, CA
 Los Angeles Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA
 Indianapolis Museum of Modern Art, Indianapolis, Indiana
 City of Santa Monica Art Bank, Santa Monica, CA
 Eli Broad Foundation, Santa Monica, CA

References

External links
 Official Website
 KCET covers John M. White 'Making a Scene'
 Focus On The Masters – With John M. White
 RAM Publications - Art
 John M. White – Retrospective – Pasadena Armory Museum – Visual and Performance Documentation
 The Ventura Museum – John M. White – Artifishial Hatch: series
 1991 L.A. Times article on John M. White : Subject – Performance Art
 Los Angeles Performance Art: Now and Then

1937 births
Living people
American male painters
American male sculptors
American performance artists
Otis College of Art and Design alumni
University of California, Irvine alumni


All Memberships include 2 representatives. Additional representatives is $50 each.
Metropolis at Metrotown is celebrating a $1 billion milestone this year as the first shopping centre in the Ivanhoé Cambridge portfolio to achieve this sales figure, and one of only a few shopping centres in Canada. This represents a rolling 12 month annual sales volume of $1 billion from all the retailers in the centre. A celebration was held for the Metropolis at Metrotown team and another will be held with retailers in the new year, once the busy Holiday season comes to a close.


FoodChain ID continues its market leadership within the non-GMO verified foods and products industry.
FoodChain ID announced that it has verified its 50,000th product for the Non-GMO Project's product verification program.
FoodChain ID (http://www.foodchainid.com) today announced that it has verified its 50,000th product for the Non-GMO Project's product verification program. Non-GMO Project Verified is one of the fastest growing markets in natural foods, with industry-wide annual sales in North America topping $16 billion.
As a technical administrator for the Non-GMO Project since 2007, FoodChain ID has worked with more than 2,500 companies, including many leading brands, to ensure their products meet the technical requirements necessary to obtain the use of the Non-GMO Project's popular Butterfly label. FoodChain ID's verification work has encompassed more than 25,000 ingredients from 14,000 suppliers in over 100 countries.
FoodChain ID is a subsidiary of The Global ID Group, which together with Genetic ID and CERT ID, provide a comprehensive suite of food testing, food certification and supply chain compliance software and service solutions.
FoodChain ID (http://www.foodchainid.com) is an expert in supply chain compliance platforms, with specialized expertise and unparalleled knowledge of non-GMO product verification, GMO testing, non-GMO certification, global GMO regulatory requirements, and the international non-GMO ingredient supply chain. As the longest serving technical administrator for the Non-GMO Project's product verification program, FoodChain ID has verified more than 50,000 products and served more than 2,500 clients in over 100 countries.
Global ID Group (http://www.global-id-group.com) is an integrated food safety and quality company serving more than 15,000 clients in over 100 countries via market leading solutions for the rapidly evolving food industry. Global ID Group companies include: Genetic ID - an ISO 17025-accredited-testing laboratory, Cert ID - an administrator of GFSI-benchmarked food safety and quality certifications, and Food Chain ID - the leading provider of technical services in non-GMO verification and ingredient supply chain, food label review, and regulatory compliance.


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The following 3 techniques are extremely powerful and work instantly. I've been developing and refining them over the years – they are based on solid proven psychological and productivity principles.
In order to beat procrastination, first of all, pick just one important task you are procrastinating on. Then use the following 3 techniques, and I personally guarantee you that you will stop procrastinating and start working on the task immediately.
Procrastination is often related to fear. We are often afraid of unknown work. After all, it might be too much work, or we might be unable to do it. The easiest way to reduce this fear is to explore, map and research the task.
Just break the task down into subtasks! This is the best way to "explore" it, unpack it and see what's really going on.
If you use Swift To-Do List, to break a task down into subtasks, simply select it, then start adding subtasks with all the steps necessary for completing the task.
Add even all the small steps. Try to order the subtasks roughly in the sequence they need to be done.
While you are adding the subtasks, pay extra attention to all the "research" actions – steps that require you to gather extra information and data in order to move forward. These "research" actions are what you want to do first, because doing them will help you to unpack the original task even further.
Once you break the task into subtasks AND start gathering all the necessary information, materials and data, and possibly discuss it with your co-workers or boss, the fear of unknown will diminish, and as a result, you will be able to start doing the task right away without procrastinating anymore.
2. Find the smallest possible next step – then do it!
When we procrastinate, we often feel that we are simply unable to do the task. However, when you identify a tiny easy action to get started on the task, you will be absolutely confident that you can do it.
Can you open MS Word and write a rough half-page outline? Of course you can! You know you can absolutely do it. You are confident. So there is no reason to procrastinate anymore. You can just do it. So you do it.
And once you do it, you can simply repeat this process – what is the next small easy step?
This technique might seem counter-intuitive at first, but it's extremely effective. It uses powerful reverse-psychology.
Another big reason for procrastination is the fear you will miss out on all the fun and pleasant things in life.
The solution is ridiculously simple: Guarantee the fun first. Then limit the time you have available for work.
Simply schedule some fun! Plan and schedule a night out. Or, schedule any of your favorite relaxation, entertainment, sport or fun activity that you just love.
Ideally, schedule this pleasant activity right after work.
Next, limit the time you have available for your work. Give yourself a hard time limit that forces you to stop working at a specific time of the day. Absolutely no overtimes allowed. This will motivate you to stop procrastinating and get to work, right now.
Tip: When scheduling the fun activity, ideally pick an activity right after work that involves other people. You will know that you HAVE to be there because of the other people, so you will know that there is a very real time limit on your work today. This will strongly motivate you.
As an extra bonus, the fun activity will help you recharge your batteries and sharpen your saw, so the next time you get to work, you are strong. Obviously, this also makes you immune to burnout.
If you want to learn more about how and why you procrastinate, you will love this.
Here's my summary of The Now Habit, which is probably the best book on procrastination ever written.
This summary will give you the most important insights from the book in just a few pages.
In the summary, you will also learn additional causes of procrastination (perfectionism, fear of judgment, fear of success, and more).
Breaking down tasks into subtasks has made a huge difference to my productivity. I used to reach a point in the afternoon where I'd think "there's no point starting something new now…" but now instead of wasting the rest of the day, I see what else I can knock off my task list!