Saturday, September 20, 2008

Current reading list

I have a stack of slightly overdue books that I need to return to the library, so I thought I'd make a list of what I've been reading recently. I checked out several dissertation-related books, some to re-read for citation checks, others that were new to me.
A few for enjoyment that caught my eye:
And some pleasure reading: Twilight by Stephenie Meyer. I read the whole 500-page book in one day. I haven't read a lot of vampire lit, other than Sunshine (which has some mouthwatering food scenes and some butt-kicking vampire slaying). The writing in Twilight was okay, but the story was riveting. Now to get my hands on the other 3 books in the series...

9 comments:

  1. I really enjoyed vaginal politics, and Our babies, ourselves.

    Lying in was good too.

    I'll have to check out mainstreaming midwives, sounds interesting.

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  2. Do you know about www.goodreads.com ? I found it at the beginning of summer and love being able to track the books I have read, am reading and want to read. It also allows you to be connected with your friends and see what they are reading, etc.

    Your great reading list made me think of it! If you join, let me know and I will make you a "friend"

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  3. oh man, twilight was awsome!!! I'm on the third book right now (eclips). I'll worn you, you have to stick with new moon (the second book). You may not want to, but it is worth it! I can't wait for twilight (the movie) to come out (nov/dec).
    I'm new to your site but I love reading your posts! Keep up the good work. And congraduations!!! :)
    Kara

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  4. I'm really interested in what kind of wacky stuff you read in "Born in Zion" - care to share?

    Hmmm, good luck on "New Moon". I read that book fast because it was so awful - wanted to just slap Bella and say "Get a life, girl!" My daughter says it's because I'm not a teenager anymore...she was perfectly able to suspend her disbelief. =D

    Ok, that baby pictured on your blog with the Canadian diaper cover is just about the cutest thing ever.

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  5. I am totally interested in that Zion book. Zion birthing is so extreme - and interesting to me.

    Good list!

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  6. Sheridna--I'm on Goodreads, I think under my first name. I should add these; I haven't updated it for a while.

    Mainstreaming midwives is a collection of academic essays on various aspects of midwifery professionalization/legalization/identity formation in the US. It doesn't read as a book in that sense. I enjoyed a few of the essays, but it's more useful as a reference text for various aspects of midwifery identity and professionalization, and specifics on a few states' midwifery laws.

    Keely: that's my daughter in the Canadian diaper--flattered that you think she's cute! If you want to learn how to make the diaper (or just a cover) yourself, I wrote a tutorial a month or two ago that you can search the blog for.

    Born in Zion--I originally wanted to read it because I had seen it mentioned in context of unassisted birth once or twice. So finally I found a way to get a copy. It's actually not really about unassisted birth at all, as we know it. It was written by a L&D nurse in Florida who was an Evangelical (I think that's the right word?) born-again Christian. She argued that the only proper way to give birth, according to the Bible, is at home. It's very much an either/or situation: either you birth at home and follow God, or you birth in a hospital and follow Satan. She started a "baby ministry" and would attend births as a midwife, except her role as such was quite different than most midwives. Her role was to pray, read the Bible, and do minor household tasks. If there were any major complications, it was the husband's duty to pray and to command God to make them go away.

    They often invited a large group of the congregation to births to witness God's miracles in action, so there might be 20+ people in the house while the mom was in labor. She also saw Satan everywhere. If there were carved objects from Africa in the house, if there were rock & roll records, if there were statues of Caesar--all those kinds of things would cause "spiritual warfare" and make the birth complicated.

    It felt like reading about an entirely different culture, especially with her highly fundamentalist (if that's the right language) language.

    I was glad to finally obtain a copy of her book, though, because I learned that her ideas really doesn't have much at all to do with the modern unassisted birth movement.

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  7. Ah, so they're VAMPIRE books, are they?? I've heard so much buzz about the Twilight series but had no idea what they were about. Hmmm. Maybe I'll have to pick one up...I love vampire fiction!

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  8. Thank you! Will certainly search for the tutorial.

    Oh my. That Zion book sounds bizarrely fascinating.

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  9. Okay, I have now heard 'Twilight' raved about from several different people. Maybe it's time to pick them up.

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