this is where i leave you. jonathan tropper.

my friend nina loaned me her copy of this is where i leave you handful of years ago (i should really return it), but i didn't read it.  i bought it on amazon because it was a daily deal, but still did not read it. i considered reading it when my grandma passed away, but wasn't sure if i was ready for it.  but what finally got me to read it was the fact that adam driver was in the movie version of it, along with jason bateman and tina fey.  my love for all three, especially driver, i decided to read so i could watch the film.

before i go on, i have to say based on what i read, i am sure driver was an excellent philip.  as i read, i totally driver was philip in mind (thanks to "girls" it was quite easy to do), even down to the random singing that he did.  i actually saw the movie cast as the characters in the book, because i imbd-ed the cast to see if adam was philip.  i think bateman was the perfect choice for jude.  and though i love her, i did not see tina fey as wendy.  i hate to be mean because i was a nerd in high school but i can't imagine tina fey being the girl everyone fell for in high school.  i know its so mean to say, i still love her, but really?  also, i can't imagine her having a romance with a ex-bad boy like horry.  i am happy with timothy olyphant's casting, mostly so i can drool! overall, i am looking forward to watching the movie, primarily because i think driver is going to be amazing.  i love love love loved the book and normally i don't like watching movies based on books, i love, because movies normally ruin it.  however, i think bateman and fey will be hilarious and if all else fails i'll just drool over driver. oh and of ben schwartz too!  love him as jean-ralphio on "parks and rec" and excited to watch him on the big screen too!

the novel was not at all what i expected, but in a good way.  i thought it would be some deep, meaningful, reflection on life and family since the foxmans were sitting shiva for their father.  however, it turns out that they were not practicing jews, so the novel turned out to be a lot funnier than i had anticipated.  

jude, the central character, and the perspective that we read from, in addition to dealing with his father's death is going through a rough patch right now, actually a more accurate adjective would be shitty patch.  he and his wife, jen, his college sweetheart, are currently separated because he found her in bed fucking (for lack of a better word) his boss.  this scene was shared in the story and was just as dramatizing for the reader as jude, but also extremely hilarious.  i think the reason this book is so great is that every single thought that crosses jude's mind was shared, there was no filter, the-horrible-i-could- never-share-it-but-i-definitely-thought-it-thoughts were shared.  due to this jude, became your best friend, you got frustrated with his actions, sympathized with things went wrong, and overall wanted the best for him.  and in my opinion the best would be for him to leave his wife, even though she was pregnant with his child (seriously, i swear, talk about a shitty patch, oh he found this out later, initially they thought it was his boss' child).  i understand that the lost of jude and jen's first child, had some serious repercussions and as jen explained she felt that jude had moved on and didn't provide any comfort to jen.  and i can understand that jen felt alone and depressed about this situation, however, the solution is not to have sex with your husband's boss, go to therapy, maybe try communicating to your husband but not an affair!  and from the scene that jude shared with us, it wasn't just sex, it was some serious fucking with jen making some crazy sounds.  so yeah, i didn't like jen.  i hope that jude ends up with his high school crush, penny, with whom jude has one of those pacts to marry if they aren't married by a certain age.  penny, though she was a total tease in high school, but i can see a good relationship blossoming between the two of them.  penny and jude went on a couple of dates, okay more like made out a lot and had sex, but she is a better option then jen.

in addition to all of this, jude also has to deal with his family because they are sitting shiva for their father.  and the foxmans, like every family, are screwed up but hilarious and always ready with a smartass remark (very much like my own family if i do say so).  to start, their mother, who flaunted her fake  breast was a shrink and a celebrity expert of parenting, and it will later will be revealed is bisexual and is dating their neighbor who was like a second mom to them.  paul, the eldest, was in charge of the family business, and he has his wife are trying for kids.  his wife is so desperate that she pretty much rapes jude though the term rape does not come up.  wendy and her husband barry have three kids but barry was more dedicated to his work than his family.  and wendy ended up sleeping with horry, their neighbor/best friend and son of their mom's new girlfriend.  philip, the baby and their parents had him later in life.  philip was the official fuck-up of the family, ie he showed up late to their father's service.  and though he was an asshole, the things he said were normally true and needed to be said.  but as you can see a lot of family drama, but that is a given with families.

 jude gets along with his sister wendy and littler brother philip for the most part, but his relationship with his older brother paul was a little estranged   it was later shared that paul lost his promising baseball career after a freak accident in which a dog attacked him after he and jude went to beat up this guy that kneed jude.  jude thought that paul resented him for this, but in fact it was revealed that paul resented the fact that jude never visited him or cared about his recovery, which was true.  jude turned out to be the ass.  and isn't that how it is, we go around blaming our family for all the wrongs in our life, but what we need to do take responsibility for our own actions.  we shouldn't keep a list of who did what for who, because at the end of the day, it's your family, you should have wanted to help.  whenever my little sister and i would fight, my grandma would always remind us that we might think we hate each other and can do without the another but we were family and that in the end, we were all we had.  when my grandma was ill in the hospital, right before she passed, my family came together, and there was reassurance to her that we would all take care of each other.  we haven't encountered anything (thankfully) that has required us to work as a support unit for one another, but i can see that there is some division among my mom's brothers and sisters. i don't know what the solution is for my family to have the togetherness that my grandmother wanted, i almost wish we had sat shiva, so that my aunts and uncles could have worked out all of their issues.  but i do have faith, i know they will come together, when they need to. 

back to the novel.  as i said, i was surprised by how funny the novel was, given its serious premise.  tropper is a wonderful writer and made me laugh with the most random comments throughout his work.  here are some of clever parts i enjoyed:

his description of linda callen, their neighbor and mom's closest friend turned lover, "like a wise mother rate from a disney cartoon, the sort that will sit in a tiny rocking chair and wear little rat glasses and be voiced by judi dench or hellen mirren."  

the description of wendy's son, cole, "cole is in what wendy refers to as his e.t. stage, wherein he waddles around the house like e.t., exploring and trashing everything within reach, making strange little noises as he goes."

i also loved how he described cole's two-year-old speech as "his immigrant english."   lol what a perfect metaphor for kids learning english.

talking about falling in love, "and even if you didn't fall in love in the eighties, in your mind it will all feel like the eighties, all innocent and airbrushed, with bright colors and shoulder pads and pat benatar or the cure on soundtrack."

this simile, "flashing him a look sharp enough for a circumcision."

"jen starts to silently cry, like those statues of the virgin mary that are always turning up in south american villages."  what a beautiful yet funny description of silent cry!

as you can see tropper has a way with words and the novel was very entertaining.

oh but i have to admit i did have one complaint.  there was a lot of ass looking in this book.  and i get it, guys check out girls' asses, but it seemed like every women under 40 had a perfect ass and that just seemed impossible.  i'm going to give jude the benefit of the doubt and think he just saw every ass as perfect because he was so fucked up.

but all in all, a wonderful book that i very much enjoyed.  and i can't wait for the movie!!! oh and hopefully i marry a jew but if i don't, my family will totally sit shiva.  though at my rate, i might only have one kid.

like no other. una lamarche. (225)

unfortunately, once again, i don't remember the website that recommended una lamarche's like no other but the premise, an hasidic girl falling in love with a west indian boy after a chance meeting sounded interesting.  just like i am racist reader in the sense that i like indian authors, i do the same thing with jewish characters, which is one of the reasons i decided to check out this ya novel.  i was intrigued, because i had no idea how the orthodox girl was going to make this relationship work!

the novel switches back and forth between narratives from the star-crossed lovers, devorah, a 16-year-old, goody two-shoes, hasidic girl and jax, a nerdy yet responsible, west indian boy.  they met one night when trapped in an elevator at a hospital.  devorah was at the hospital to help her older sister, rose, who was in labor.  jax was there because his friend was injured skateboarding.  however, the trouble with their relationship started right off the bat, with their chance meeting.  being trapped in an elevator with jax was a violation of devorah's religion, it was a violation of yichud.  females are not allowed to be alone with another male.  the law also restricts talking to males, so devorah tried to not talk to jax but being trapped in an elevator she decided to, to not be rude.  they actually had a great talk, devorah explained her religion and they even flirted a bit.  their meeting ended with them listening to the shirelles on jax's phone.  this was also a violation because devorah's parents did not allow her to have a phone, watch tv, or listen to music.  when the power came back on they went their separate ways not thinking anything more would happen between them.

however, they both can not stop thinking about each other.  devorah was actually the one that saw to their meeting again.  she stopped by jax's work while running an errand for her father.  this meeting was the beginning of their sneaking around to see each other.  devorah had to keep it a complete secret due to her religion.  jax lied because in order to see her he had to miss work, thus lying to his boss and mom about where he was.  it was difficult at first because they did not have any means of communication because of devorah's family's no technology rule.  however, she snuck onto facebook to message him and jax later gave her phone.  it was difficult but they managed as best they can. 

in the end, they are caught while trying to runaway for the weekend.  devorah's brother-in-law, jacob, who in my opinion was an asshole though i have to recognize that he was just following his religion so i can't hate him too much.  and this is no disrespect to hasidic judasim but his behavior seemed outrageous because i am an outsider.  i can't imagine my husband not being allowed to touch me after childbirth because my body has bleed, i get it for periods but not for childbirth.  and his racism though inexcusable was due to his culture.  however, his beating up jax and then lying about it was extremely uncalled for and i was shocked that jax's mother did not go after them.  

due to their discovery, devorah's family sent her away.  she believed that it was to rehabilitate her and make her more faithful but in fact, they had sent her to be matched for marriage.  jax then went off to try to save her.  in the end, devorah realized that though she loved jax, they could never be together due to her religions.  she could not give up her faith for him.  

i admired this ending, because it felt real.  as much as i wanted everything to work out for devorah and jax, it was impossible.  and though devorah cared for jax, she didn't want to sacrifice her religion and family for him and that is understandable.  she had to do what was best for her and she made the right decision.  i also admired how devorah and jax were very mature about their break up and left the relationship as better people.  i think that is an important lesson for young adults to learn.  not all relationships work out, but instead of being bitter and upset, one should recognize how that person helped you become a better version of you. (and if that relationship was toxic then how you are a better person for leaving it.)  

from devorah, jax gained the self-confidence to be honest about his feelings and also learned how to be a good boyfriend.  from jax, devorah learned that she was capable of more than what her religion alloted for her.  she could be more than a wife and a mother.  she could go to school and she could learn.  her education could be a goal for her instead of marriage.  i admired devorah for asking her family to allow her to continue to her studies.  and i think this ending was better than one that would have been about true love.  it's refreshing to see that the girl did not need the guy for a better life.  

like no other contains wonderful lessons not only demonstrating how we should be tolerant of other cultures and religions but that also girls do not need to be restricted by cultural and religious gender roles.  i hope that young adults pick up this novel, it's a wonderful story that will help them become more thoughtful adults. 

mr. peabody's apples. madonna. (221)

i came across madonna's mr. peabody's apples while looking for books to read with my little friends.  i think i bought a copy back in the day but never read it and its prolly in storage somewhere.  i decided to check it out and finally read it.

i want to add that it made me sad because i think i was the first person to check this book out.  it is in too nice of condition for a kids book.  i know kids don't know who madonna is but shouldn't their parents be excited and check it out for them?  so sad.  and i mean the book was marked 2011, that is  three years! poor book!

mr. peabody's apples is the story of mr. peabody, a history teacher that holds weekend baseball game for the boys in the town.  the boys are not very good at baseball but they have fun and that is all that matters.  one day after a game, one of the boys, tommy, saw mr. peabody take an apple from a market and not pay for it.  he then told the other boys that mr. peabody stole apples.  this gossip then spread to everyone and they then shunned mr. peabody.  the boys stopped going to the games and the townspeople stopped waving hello to him because they thought he was a thief.  when mr. peabody discovered the news via a boy named billy, he took billy to the market and the owner explained that mr. peabody paid for this apple every saturday when he paid for the rest of his groceries.  billy then told tommy, who apologized to mr. peabody.  tommy asked what he could do to make things right and mr. peabody told him to bring a pillow to the baseball field. mr. peabody then had tommy cut it open and shake out all the feathers and then told him to pick every single one of feathers up.  tommy said it is impossible and mr. peabody replied that each feather represented a person from town and that the damage from the thief rumor would be impossible to undo.  he then reminded tommy that "next time, don’t be so quick to judge a person. and remember the power of your words.”

as i was reading, i kept on asking myself, i wonder what the moral is going to be.  madonna was pretty direct with this one, no need to read between the lines.  i also wondered if this story was based on a jewish folktake, because i mean this was written in madonna's kabbalah era.  and i was right there too!  she addressed that the story was inspired by a story she heard via kabbalah.  well in nicer words, i am just paraphrasing poorly.

a nice story though kind of morning.  i mean if it didn't say madonna on the cover, i would have never thought the material girl wrote this.  i mean when she was spiritual she still had an edge, and there is no edge here.  i mean i never thought madge could be boring, but i guess she can.

also the illustrations were nice, very americana.

this one was my favorite:

check it out, because it is madonna, but don't expect it to be amazing.

little failure. gary schteyngart. (171)

when i read the flavorpill post recommending little failure as a must read for january, i hadn't read anything by gary shteynart, (i still haven't read anything by him other than this, my plan to read super sad true love story prior to this was spoiled because this book was due last tuesday.  yup, it cost me about $3.50 to read this book!) but with that cute cover and clever title, i decided to check it out.

even with my lack of familiarity with shteyngart's works, i was still able to enjoy his memoir.  plus it still revealed to me the not so shocking truth that shteyngart's fiction is primarily made up of his life (like all authors). since i have read a couple chapters of super sad true love story, i have to admit i did become confused between what i had read about lenny's parents and shteyngart's actual parents, which make sense because they are one and the same.  it was interesting to see that eunice was based on the korean school girls of his youth, prior to learning this i found her an odd character.  and now with this new background knowledge, i do look forward to reading the rest of shteynart's work, knowing who some of the characters are based on. 

the book was entertaining, it might be as flavorpill claimed, the best memoir i read this year but mostly because i might not read any other memoirs this year.  shteyngart is a great storyteller, very funny and witty.  for those of you that are unfamiliar with his background, shteynart is russian and jewish and immigrated to america with his family at a young age.  his memoir shares: his family history, his memories of russia, his education (from jewish grade school to a prestigious math and science academy to oberlin college), his works, how he became an writer and a family trip back to russia.  i enjoyed the stories of his youth more than i did his tales from college and breaking into the literary world.  i have to admit that he truly was horrible during his return to saturn phrase (but than again who isn't) but i can not believe how one-sided his relationship with his best friend john was, i mean to be honest, i guess i can because i have been the gary in friendships, but imagine my contributions being worth more than my demands.

but back to his childhood, i loved the story of his grandma galya motivating him to write a novel as a child, giving him a piece of cheese for every page written.  i also loved his teacher ms. s who had him read his novel to his class.  it was adorable how excited his class about his novel.  also the subject matter, sci-fi story on one level but a discussion of race relations on another, was quite advance for a child.  also it was interesting to see how his stories as an adult are not that different from his stories as a child.

i also enjoyed seeing the world filtered through his russian immigrant mindset especially pop culture.  for example wondering about "the origins of the white slave alice" on the brady bunch or "is it really possible that a country as powerful as the united states would not be able to locate two of its best citizens lost at sea" in gilligan's island.  the book is filled with gems like this not only of pop culture but american life in general.

and maybe it's because i miss my grandma so much, but i loved reading about his grandmas.  my grandma bea always encouraged me to write and draw pictures like his grandma galya.  my grandma was just like his grandma polya provided my sister and i with the best desserts and snacks.  however, her providing must have came with limits for her.  but two amazing grandmas that reminded me of my one exceptional one!

i also enjoyed reading about his family's trip back home to russia.  his father opening up to him about his time in a psychiatric ward.  in that light, i read his father's comment about his wish that shteyngart was gay instead of seeing a psychoanalyst, as him worried that his son would be mistreated as he was in russia.  also partially because his father must have partly blamed his genetics for his son needing help.  it was crazy to hear how cruel his parents were to him but it was a tough love, something they did to help him survive.  also anger was an expression of love from his parents which shteyngart learned to deal with thanks to his psychoanalysis.

oh and one last thing, that story about his ex that stabbed her ex with a hammer!! that was insane!

all in all, it was an enjoyable read. i wouldn't call it a must read but it's good book to check out, if you like his work.  it has inspired to read the all of shteygnart.  it also inspired me to read nils and the wild geese and the boy from ufo, two books he loved as a child.  i also look forward to reading chang-rae lee's book, native speaker, because he aided shteyngart in getting his book deal (also because his new book has been mentioned everywhere.) and last but not least i have been inspired to one day visit the chesme church, which was a focal point of this memoir and thus shteyngart's life.  it's a truly lovely building:

milkweed. jerry spinelli. (156)

jerry spinelli's milkweed caught my eye during a library visit at albany park when i was subbing.  the row of gold book spines looked so crisp and neat, i amazoned to see what the novel was about.  i learned that it was a story about a young gypsy or jewish thief living in nazi-occupied warsaw.  it sounded interesting but i didn't decide to check it out until after i read the diary of a young girl and night.  

this book was an unexpected delight.  i had no idea what it was about but i guess you can judge a book by its spine.

it is the tale of a holocaust-era robin hood, stopthief.  stopthief was an orphan who might have been a gypsy.  his origins are unknown, he had no recollection of his family, only memories of stealing to eat.  while stealing bread from a woman, he met uri would took stopthief under his wing and helped him survive nazi-occupied poland.  uri created a backstory for uri and renamed him misha pilsudski.  

before i continue i have to share how much i loved uri and how he selfishly cared for misha.  misha was the hero of this story but uri was definitely his guardian angel.

uri and misha stole food to survive but they had a strict moral code and only stole what was needed and shared with others.  they shared their loot with a gang of boys but also orphans living in a home.  misha also befriended a young girl, janina, and helped her family by them providing food.  food during this time was scarce and thankfully misha and uri used their talents to steal for good use.  though they were often called filthy thieves and jews, they had hearts of gold and helped without realizing they were.

the reader follows misha through a series of dark and horrific events, the nazi invasion of the warsaw, bombings by russia, life in the ghetto and deportation to the concentration camps. it's all very heavy but filtered through the innocence of misha it is easier to digest and being a young adult novel, easier for young readers to comprehend what occurred during the holocaust.

misha, like most children, i would image, during the holocaust did not completely understand the horrors of the nazis.  as demonstrated in night even adults were unaware of what was happening to the jews.  misha's innocence and naïveté was endearing and demonstrated just how preposterous and evil the nazi party was because the reality was unconceivable to misha's young mind.  for example, misha desire to be a nazi so that he could march in a parade, he had no idea of what they were doing, he just liked parades.  or how he always identified himself as gypsy when called a jew not knowing it was unfavorable to be either.  the best example was his desire to follow the trains to the ovens not knowing what was occurring at the camps.  but what made him special was not knowing that his thieving provided so much.  looking for coals was a game to him, little did he know the warmth he gave to the orphans.  as he grew older he started to understand and did his best to provide for those he loved, as demonstrated in his trying to find a pickled egg for janina when she had lost all hope.

another stark contrast to misha's innocence was the street gang boy's sarcasm.  it was sad to see the boys talk about life without the blind faith in happiness that kids have.  instead the kids talked of death so matter of fact because of what they had lived through.  but it was sweet when they talked about angels or mothers or angles , things that made them hopeful about life.   

also the title milkweed came for this idea of angels.  while in the cemetery the boys come across a headstone and discussed angels.  misha later took janina explained angels to her.  later, janina found a milkweed puff on her shirt and called it her angel.  and so milkweed became angels and gave the kids hope.

in every book, i read i am still shocked by what the jews had to endure.  i couldn't imagine resorting to eating rats or standing out in the snow and having to relief myself on myself.  or walking around with the dead bodies covered by newspapers.  it was also horrible to read how the soldiers and their girlfriends treated the jews like a freak show, taking pictures and watching them

fight over bread like birds.  though i did   appreciated how spinelli included misha's craziness that occurred from having survived and needing to share what he experienced.  how difficult to endure all that only to be expected to function as though it hadn't in a new foreign land. the stress this must have caused justified misha's craziness.  thankfully, misha ended up with a happy ending with his daughter and granddaughter.

this book was a really wonderful story about a very dark period in history.  its a story filled with hope and compassion with the world seemed to be void of it.  

i just want my pants back. david j. rosen. (88)

"i just want my pants back" has been on my to re-read list ever since MTV turned it into a series. granted the the series first aired in 2011, it took me a while to re-read it. i first read it when my friend saba lent me her copy cos she thought i would enjoy it. i then stole her copy because i really enjoyed it. the delay in the re-read was that i was hoping to find the copy i stole. i didn't so i checked it out.

and yes the MTV series was kind of a my so called hipster life. so before we go any further i want to clarify something. just like i told that 6th grader that judged me based on my frames and blazer i wore to sub: i am not a hipster. i just recently had a whole talk with my friend tiffany on my non-hipsterness. and though i will admit i do have hipster tendencies (my friend jerry and my theory on our partial hipster-ness will appear later), i may be hip but i'm not a hipster.

and let the records show that my friends and i were wearing fake moustaches back in 2007. i bought a pair of fake ones at party city as a joke cos my friend cody could not grow one and then we wore them out to beauty bar. also that same year we started carrying around a toy pony before all this unicorn and bronies shit got started. and yes i trek out to hipster mecca aka coachella every year but i've been doing that since 2003. when it was only one weekend and you could buy one day tickets and rich parents from la didn't use it as teenage daycare. and i know it's so hipster cliche to claim to have done something before it was cool but i really did!

and i'll admit, i shop at urban outfitters (but only their sales racks), drink pbr, (but i'm cheap and my alcohol palate is nothing close to sophisticated), listen to indie rock, and do some things ironically; it's not because i want to be part of the hipster subculture. it just how i am. and yes i get there is this large subculture that i am apart of but hipster imples effort and my hipness is effortless.

but back to the show and the book. i did not see the whole season but the episode that inspired me to re-read was seriously a page out of my life. i forgot all that happens in it but it ends up with the lead dude (do they have same name as the book?) ends up marching with a marching band! this actually happened to me one night in hipsterville, ca aka echo park. in 2008, tiffany, cody and i were out celebrating obama's win and while drinking next to a liquor store ran into a marching band member. i harassed him for his hat and took some pictures but this was only a taste of what was to come! cos when we got to short stop there was a full on band on the dance floor. sadly not performing or with instruments but still exciting. oddly i never found out who the band was or ever saw them again. it was magical and that episode reminded me of it. in that episode there was also a penis piñata but my guy friends (straight ones) one-uped that with their penis bong (they paper-mâchéd a penis, complete with balls, around a beer bong, they also made a big ass piñata like literally an ass after watching that "family guy" episode.)

so to start off, the lead character who lost his pants, started off as the man of my dreams. total book crush! jason was a english major from cornell (that abused cliffnotes) who used to deejay in college and loved country, folk and indie rock. he was from the mid-west, which i always find endearing. he wore thick frame, was sarcastic, funny, and referenced karen o. and jeff koons. but here's the kicker a pork eating jew! (he ordered a bacon cheeseburger.) i do dream of marrying a jew but for cultural not religious reasons and as jason said judaism for his family was "more woody allen, less abraham and esther". and let me clarify, i'm not prejudice, any religion would do, it's just that judaism has the best holidays and they celebrate all of them!

but then jason went on a downward spiral and lost his dreaminess. i was okay with his whatever job or what douglas coupland referred to as "mcjob". but when he lost his job and then proceed to do nothing, it was quite sad. and before you get all judgy on me because yes i did spend two years on unemployment and yes the lectures jason's friends gave him did remind me of the lectures my friends gave me! there was a difference. i like all the other welfare moms and anyone else getting government handouts found life more comfortable on unemployment than with a 9 to 5. even you with the worker bee gene would become depended on a life of leisure thanks to uncle sam versus slaving away for a check. plus jason spent all his time getting high and drunk. i was out getting cultured and stimulating the economy with my government issued checks. also unemployment is not bad it's just when you become a mess due to it, i mean jason wasn't showering. when i was funemployed a handful of my friends were too and we'd go to museums and have other random and free adventures around down. but back to jason, yes i was once a slob like him, i mean no one truly has life figured out but it's like do something other than get drunk and high all the time. to quote cher from "clueless": "it is one thing to spark up a doobie and get laced at parties, but it is quite another to be fried all day." and drop e in the proper settings, raves, music festivals, light installations exhibits, not just a friday night at the bar. what a waste! and again i am not contradicting myself. i may do drugs occassionally but when it's appropriate.

oh and another issue i had with jason or the book but lack of condom use. there was no mention of him using condoms in this book. i mean we are the safe sex generation, we have been told countless times to use protection. and yet this book lacked it. i am disgusted if it was because the character didn't use them. i'm even more disgusted if the author didn't include it because it would have ruined the flow of the story. sorry but i'd rather have the heat of the moment interrupted with condom talk or putting one on versus waking up with some nasty std.

also he nicknamed his penis. gross.

but i do have to give him props for taking care of his neighbor patty. that was sweet. that gave me faith that he would get his shit together that maybe in a couple of years he'll be the man he needs to be.

so the book is a look at jason's life and honestly depicts how it is to be a twentysomething, the going out, the hooking up, the lack of real employment, and the friends at different stages of life. and how at times it sucks but it can also be a lot of fun. and i have to admit i saw a lot of myself in him, even the crying at commercials when life gets alittle overwhelming. this book did speak a lot of truths not only for twentysomethings but also new yorkers (i never lived in new york but from what tv tells me).

for example, the take-out place knowing your order because you call so often. this happens to jason and his favorite place, hunan. this never happened to me bit it reminded me of the "sex and the city" episode when miranda feels like the chinese take out girl is judging her.

i was reminded of another show, "how i met your mother" (also set in new york), the episode when robin, ted, and barney go out a club while lily and marshall try to do more grown up things and have a wine tasting and play board games with their married friends. there is the exact same critique in "i just want my pants back", jason commented on how his engaged friends stacey and eric have grown up parties with wine sipping not swigging and pictionary and talk of investing and buying apartments which all turns to charlie brown grown up talk to him. it was so like the HIMYM bit that i checked to see if the author wrote for him. he didn't, it's just a part of growing up. and it's so true my college friends that coupled, have started doing their own thing together and excluded the single ones, which is really just me. though i will add the gays are so much better about including everyone. my gay friends that couple never go into nesting mode like the straights.

and last but not least, patty had a little talk with jason about age, which describes my current state to a t. patty is jason's older neighbor but forgets her age when she hangs out with jason, she feels younger going out and hanging out. one night, she reflected back on her life and thought of all the silly things she has done and realized that she still does do silly things. and granted i am only turning 30, i got what she said. she told him:  

i'm still silly about so many things. maybe it's because i never settled down or had kids, but i think my brain is in arrested development or something like that.

i worry about the same thing, i do have 

peter pan syndrome, i have never been forced to grow up. and it's not bad, i have fun in life but i need something to start me on adulthood. and it needs to happen soon cos i'm 6 months away from 30! but i am so caught up in the now, i can't plan for the future.

i know such deep thoughts for a "hipster" book.

ironically, as much as the series was called a hipster series and therefore the book was probably labelled hipster. the characters did not identify themselves as hipsters. jason and tina are out at some dive bar and jason observed,

"it was full of twentysomething downtowners in assorted stylish smocks. it was a little like looking into a mirror, but someone we believed we were far more genuine than the others. you couldn't trust the others. they looked like us and they talked us, but at night, they went home and slept in pods. we slept in beds."

this the same theory my friend jerry and i have. we realized that we look like hipsters when we go out. plus we are asian so we have that asian hipster look. but though we look like them we are not a part of them. we are more genuine! as jerry phrases it, "we are partners in our hip-non-hipster-ness". i know it all seems like a farce like the ones we are judging us back. but we really are hip and it's genuine and we are not hipsters! i swear. (going to end here before i start sounding crazy.)

the chanukkah guest. eric a. kimmel. (79)

due to the holiday season, i have added two christmas books to my reading list. however, this morning i realized that hanukkah started today and decided to check out what books the delano library had. i found two online but only found one at the library. i found "the chanukkah guest" by eric a. kimmel. (note: you can spell hanukkah with or without the c, not sure why that is. however, i prefer the non-c.)

i read "the chanukkah guest" with brother bear at sunset (when hanukkah officially starts) and taught him about the cultural hanukkah things like dridels and latkes. also informed him that jesus was a jew and also nephi from the book of mormon.

the story was adorable and of course includes a great grandmother, bubba brayna. bubba brayna made the best latkes and always hosted the first night of hanukkah. however, this time she had a surprise. old bear came out of hibernation and the first thing he smelled were latkes. following the smell, he ended up knocking on bubba brayna's door. since she didn't see or hear that well, she let the bear in, thinking he was the rabbi. they had a lovely evening, they lit the menorah (the bear "said" the prayer, so i guess growling sounds like hebrew?), they played dreidel and the bear ate all of the latkes with jam. (brother bear and i agreed we would eat our latkes with sour cream). bubba brayna even gave old bear a scarf as a gift and the bear licked her face which she mistook for a kiss.

after old bear left, everyone showed up. bubba brayna explained that the rabbi ate all the latkes but her grandchildren discovered the paw prints and that it was a bear not the rabbi! but as sweet as bubba brayna is, she just laughed and said "that was a very clever bear . . . or a foolish bubba brayna". then everyone pitched in and made latkes and a wonderful hanukkah!

it was a very cute story and had brother bear and i laughing. it also made me extremely hungry for latkes. but being in delano, not sure where i will find them. when i told my friend larry that i might just eat hash browns and applesauce, he suggested mcdonald's hash browns. i was impressed by his innovation because micky d's hash browns are very latkes-esque. so hopefully will get my fill over these next few days of hanukkah!

the rabbi and the twenty-nine witches. marilyn hirsh. (70)

while looking through the table of kids halloween books at the library, i came across this gem. since one day i plan on converting and marrying a nice jewish boy, i had to check it out. the book is based on a talmudic legend, and stands as an example of why i plan on converting.

the story is about a village that is haunted by twenty-nine witches every full moon. the only time the witches did not come out was when it rained. as a result no one in the village ever saw a full moon. one day an old grandmother went to the rabbi to share her despair at the fact she had never seen a full moon. her exact words were "i want to see the full moon before i die! is that too much to ask?" (for some odd reason i heard it in fran descher's mom on the nanny's voice.) and so the rabbi came up with a plan to get rid of the witches. i have to add that every time the rabbi was mentioned it was normally followed by the line, "after all, he is the rabbi."

so the rabbi made it rain and then had twenty-nine of the cleverest men go with him to where the witches lived. he told the witches that he was a witch too and that they should teach each other magic. so he had the witches create a wonderful feast and then his "magic" was that men appeared to dance with them, and the men went into action. and the men danced the women out of the cave and into the rain, where they melted. how very wizard of oz, i know, i'll have to google to see if it's inspired baum.

so with the witches gone and their magical feast still there, the village threw a party! for "a good feast should not go to waste." that is the real moral of the story, because the one thing that i have learned from my jewish friends is that they can throw an amazing party and have the best holidays.