I never thought a shelf could make me so happy.

Since moving back to Jackson, where we live in a house and not a tiny shoebox, I have gotten really into decorating our home. I loved researching and dreaming and doing what little I could in Boston, but having walls that I can actually nail into and more than one bookshelf to squeeze our book collection onto ... it's great. And since we moved rental homes over the summer, we have even more room than at our previous house. We also have two bookshelves in the big main room. The first thing I really decorated in this house is one of these bookshelves.

I love this bookshelf. I lurve it. I flurve it.

Which is a good thing, because it directly faces our main sofa, it is next to our TV stand and it's the first thing most people see when they come through our front door. So it's a pretty visible shelf.

Everything on it makes me happy, but I picked a few things to point out.

1. I'm trying to tone down my obsession with having frames photos all over the place—Brian prefers a more toned-down look, so I'm trying to be more thoughtful about which photos I display and how. We only have two photos from our wedding up in the house, and this is one of them. It's of Brian's fraternity lifting him up and chanting at the reception. It's a perfect shot.

2. I'm working on a collection of globes for our house. This one, the first of three, has been in my family for at long as I can remember—it still says Soviet Union instead of Russia and things like that. My mom brought it all the way from Salt Lake City the last time she visited.

3. Another theme in our house: ampersands. I am veritably obsessed. This one is a bit hard to see in the photo. You can see it fine in real life. The yarn-wrapped bottles behind it are DIY table decorations from my wedding.

4. This shelf is mostly open. We stick laptops, Brian's med school books, phones, etc. on it. If I've learned one thing about myself, its that I need space to just put things sometimes. It looks (a little) less cluttered if I leave a specific space for that. The floral tray next to the laptop is a place to drop mail.

5. Seven matching baskets to hold DVDs might seem excessive, and it is. But damn do they look nice.

6. ZOMG YOU GUYS LET'S TALK ABOUT THESE BOOKS. I have wanted to make a book spectrum (a reading rainbow if you will? kudos to one of Brian's fraternity brothers for that one) for a while, and this shelf gave me the perfect opportunity. It's big enough but not crazy huge. I pull out boxes and boxes of books and picked the ones with nearly solid-colored spines, then just tweaked until I loved it. All the credit in the world to my husband for watching me painstakingly put this up without saying a word.

I'd like to share more of our home in the coming weeks, but I should probably clean a wee bit first. Maybe wash some dishes. Maybe.

The Help, and thoughts on Mississippi

It's hard to categorize a book like The Help. Part fiction, part history, part ethnography, part biography, part autobiography, part coming-of-age story... Kathryn Stockett has put all these genres into a blender, added a liberal helping of sweet tea and pressed blend.

It took a while to get the steam rolling, as with so many books, but by the time the three protagonists – nerdy white girl - slash - (fellow!) journalist Skeeter and the two black maids, hotheaded Minny and motherly Abileen – were secretly meeting to write their book, I was hooked. I finished the entire second half in one sitting.

Stockett writes about the south as only one who is intimately familiar with it can, and (even though I'm not technically from the south) so much of this book hit home with me – from the brief snippets of southern sorority life ("A Chi Omega never walks with a cigarette.") to the distinct drawl to the sometimes old-fashioned, sometimes elitist attitudes.

One thing I was particularly impressed with is that while there are clearly characters you are meant to cheer for and those you are meant to root against, no character is painted black or white (play on words unintended, but appreciated). Even the most loathsome female character, Junior League President and resident mean girl Hilly Holbrook, has redeeming qualities – at least she truly loves and appreciates her children, which is more than can be said for the generally more sympathetic Elizabeth Leefolt. All the characters have flaws as well as worthy traits. They all have secrets and shames that they share or hide.

In the same way, Mississippi of the 60's isn't necessarily portrayed in a glowing light, but nor is it the uncouth, dangerous, uneducated place it can be known as. It is fleshed out, the good and the bad. It's real.

Anyone who is remotely interested in southern culture, race relations in the U.S., the civil rights movement or good storytelling should read this book. We think we've come so far from separate bathrooms, but this book reminds us that, despite our progress, we are still much the same as we were in the 1960’s – for better or worse. In this way, The Help manages to feel both historical and somehow modern.

Beyond the universality of the larger themes, though, I think this book is especially wonderful to read as a Jacksonian or a Mississippian. New York, Boston and L.A. have their books and movies in spades. But to read Corinth, Mississippi and Ole Miss and Millsaps College in a New York Times bestseller is pretty cool.

In the back of the book, Stockett wrote a short essay explaining why she wrote The Help. In it, she puts into words the complicated relationship I think many of us have with our state (I lived there for eight years, I'm totally claiming it). The whole essay can be found on her website, but this is the excerpt I relate to the most:

The rash of negative accounts about Mississippi, in the movies, in the papers, on television, have made us natives a wary, defensive bunch. We are full of pride and shame, but mostly pride.

Still, I got out of there. I moved to New York City when I was twenty-four. I learned that the first question anyone asked anybody, in a town so transient, was “Where are you from?” And I’d say, “Mississippi.” And then I’d wait.

To people who smiled and said, “I’ve heard it’s beautiful down there,” I’d say, “My hometown is number three in the nation for gang-related murders.” To people who said, “God you must be glad to be out of that place,” I’d bristle and say, “What do you know? It’s beautiful down there.”

Once, at a roof party, a drunk man from a rich white Metro North-train type of town asked me where I was from and I told him Mississippi. He sneered and said, “I am so sorry.”

I nailed his foot down with the stiletto portion of my shoe and spent the next ten minutes quietly educating him on the where-from-abouts of William Faulkner, Eudora Welty, Tennessee Williams, Elvis Presley, B. B. King, Oprah Winfrey, Jim Henson, Faith Hill, James Earl Jones, and Craig Clairborne, the food editor and critic for The New York Times. I informed him that Mississippi hosted the first lung transplant and the first heart transplant and that the basis of the United States legal system was developed at the University of Mississippi.

I was homesick and I’d been waiting for somebody like him.

I wasn’t very genteel or ladylike, and the poor guy squirmed away and looked nervous for the rest of the party. But I couldn’t help it.

Mississippi is like my mother. I am allowed to complain about her all I want, but God help the person who raises an ill word about her around me, unless she is their mother too. 

I love this. It can't be said much better.

Although I seriously doubt the movie will top the book (no offense any of the filmmakers, I simply believe the book is better than the movie in 98% of all cases), I am really looking forward to the film version. Not only because it stars my current girlcrush Emma Stone, but also because I can't wait to see Jackson and Stockett's characters brought to life on the big screen.

I read that the filmmaker directing the upcoming movie version is a friend of Stockett's from way back and also grew up in Jackson, MS. She insisted that the movie be filmed in their home state and told Entertainment Weekly, "We dumped, like, 17 million bucks into a very poor county in Mississippi.”

I'm proud of that too. Because Mississippi is my mother too.

Summer Reading List

With all this newfound free time the summer has provided me, I have big plans to catch up on the reading I have had to forsake in the name of "school."

I was originally going to take an Arts Criticism class during the second summer term, but I got a summer internship at a regional magazine called Art New England - yay! - which I'm going to do instead. But the internet is basically as good a teacher as real professors, right?? (No.) And everyone wants to read my opinions on everything, right??? (Unlikely.) So I will be practicing my reviewin' skillz here on the blog.

Here is my summer reading list:

Just kidding, that's our whole beautiful bursting bookshelf. Here is my real list:

1. The Help, which I actually just finished yesterday. I had to read it before the movie came out and I'm so glad I did. This will probably be my first review...

2. Catch Me if You Can. I am about halfway through this. I wanted to finish it before going to see the new musical of the same name in NYC with my mom and Tait, but I wasn't able to. Still, it's already interesting what is different and what is the same among the book, movie and musical.

3. Bossypants. I read this in about two days last week. Great read, particularly because Brian and I are currently making our way through every episode of 30 Rock in order. (We're through the fourth season, now just waiting for the fifth to come out on DVD/Netflix.)

4. The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters, Vol II. I read Volume I sometime last year, before grad school started and consumed my life. I started Vol. II but had to pause while we moved to Boston and a year later, I'm going to finally finish the dang thing.

5. Black Mass. This book was co-written by one of my professors from the fall semester. It is the true story of an infamous Irish mobster in Boston – the movie The Departed drew a lot of inspiration from this book (although they don't credit it). 

6. A Writer's Life. One of the books I got signed at the narrative nonfiction conference, by a journalist who has been doing it forever.

7. The Bullfighter Checks Her Makeup: My Encounters with Extraordinary People. The other book I got signed at the conference (see my love letter to the author here), a collection of shorter pieces.

8. My Booky Wook. I started this one over Christmas, but again kept having to put it down when the spring semester started up and never finished. I promise this isn't a thing with me, I typically finish every book I read (as long as it's good of course), but this past year has been rough on the ole' book list. 

9. American Nerd: the Story of My People. Judging from the title, I might as well have written this book myself.

10. Lost in Shangri-La. This is a new release (another narrative nonfiction) that one of my professors from the spring semester wrote. It got some seriously huge buzz, top of all kinds of lists like Amazon's Best Books of the Month, etc.  

And, because I'm insane, here is my B list in case I finish all the first ones quickly:

1. The Eight. I have a few books that I can read over and over again, and this is one of them. As evidenced by the wear, it has been read many many times, by both of my parents as well as myself.

2-4. The Hunger Games trilogy. Even though I just read all of these last summer right before school started (when Mockingjay, the third book, arrived I opened it and didn't move until I finished it many hours later), I'm ready to read them again. They are a near-perfect balance of fun/easy and thought-provoking/emotional, bested in the so-called "young adult" category only by His Dark Materials and Harry Potter. 

5. The Secret History. I've been told this book is reminiscent of Millsaps (it's set at Bennington College in Vermont, a small liberal arts college). Plus, another Mississippi writer!

6. The Search for God and Guinness. This is one of those books I picked up on a whim but has sat on my shelf ever since, unread. I got it in a fit of home-away-from-homesickness shortly after I got back from my semester in Ireland. Since I've been feeling that same homesickness for a place that was only my home a short while, this seems like a great time to finally get around to reading about the genius of Arthur Guinness.

7. The Book of Lost Things. One of my favorite genres is actually fantasy/adventure, and this is supposed to be a "vivid journey through the loss of innocence into adulthood and beyond" about a 12-year-old who loves to read during WWII. Sounds right up my alley. 

 8. Catch-22. A book I've started several times since high school but failed to finish. I know it's a classic and blah blah blah but I just could never get into it. Maybe its time has come? We will see.

Not pictured: Harry Potters one through seven.

Yes, I really want to read all 4,100 pages* again before the final movie installment comes out except that SOMEONE** refused to let me bring our hardcover copies to Boston*** and I haven't yet dropped the $100+ on a new set.

And because I am ridiculous, here is the C list, comprised of books I don't own yet, but will buy if I finish both the A and B lists:

1. The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ. Philip Pullman is one of my favorite authors, and one of the most versatile writers I know. This is his latest and I've been wanting to read it since it came out.

2. Eating Animals. Although I don't think I'll ever be able to give up meat completely, I think it's good to know more about our food and the culture around it, and this book should fit the bill nicely.

3. Gunn's Golden Rules: Life's Little Rules for Making it Work. This is actually more of an etiquette-based book rather than a fashion manual, but it also has lots of stories from Gunn's life. Which I plan to read entirely using the accent he has when he says, "Designers! Time to go to the runway!"

4. The Warmth of Other Suns. At the nonfiction narrative conference I attended, this book was basically the poster child of the genre and the author is on staff at BU, so I probably should read it.

5. Spoiled. Young adult ain't just for kids! The women behind one of my favorite blogs, gofugyourself.com, are also the authors of this book. Fun beach read? Check.

6. The Psychopath Test. This book was featured on a re-run of The Daily Show I caught last week. It's all about the ways in which power and psychopathy (psychopathness?) intersect. It looks super interesting, but also... I just want to know if I'm a psychopath, y'all.

So! This is what y'all can look forward to learning about in the coming months as I inch my way through glorious prose. 

* Yes, I looked it up, and that is the total number of pages in the US editions. Nice round number, don't you think?
** My mother.
*** I did, however, sneak all the DVDs up to Massachusetts before she noticed.  

on books

Hi. I, Kathleen Morrison, am a bibliophile. And I harbor a (semi) secret love for books typically considered sci-fi/fantasy, young adult, or young adult sci-fi/fantasy. I used to try to keep this love on the down low, but my nerdiness can’t be denied, so what the hell. Plus, I feel less alone after discovering this:

http://www.foreveryoungadult.com/2010/08/18/the-long-awaited-hunger-games-drinking-game/

Yesterday the final book in my newest favorite trilogy (The Hunger Games) arrived in the mail. I sat down, opened it up, and didn’t put it back down until it was over.

If you haven’t heard about these books, you can read this non-spoilery review/summary:

http://thehappyfreelancer.com/2010/09/08/book-review-the-hunger-games-trilogy-no-spoilers/

But what you SHOULD do is run to the nearest bookstore, buy all three and then call in sick to work so you can read them RIGHT NOW.

What makes a good book? For me, it is simple. I want to read it again. Bonus points for making me cry, but it is not essential. Books are like old friends, to be visited over and over again.

It’s not (necessarily) about having an original story. There’s nothing original about wizards or vampires, or love triangles (TEAM PEETA!), or even the idea of real people being forced to fight for their lives for public entertainment.

What it is about is writing a story that your audience can’t help but become attached to, and to write it with intelligence, style, finesse and heart.

Twilight is popular because it achieves the first but not the second. Here’s why: 95% of pre-teen and teenage girls aren’t born with oodles of confidence. They feel awkward and weird and desperately want someone to tell them they are beautiful, special. My personal theory is that Stephenie Meyer was unpopular growing up, and Twilight is her way to live vicariously through Bella, who, despite being CONSTANTLY described as ordinary, clumsy, and awkward, somehow gets the perfect, god-like, most-gorgeous-creature-alive-or-undead Edward to fall for her. But you know what? Who wouldn’t want that? The very core of the story is what every teenage girl who has ever felt bad about themselves dreams of. Too bad that story is papered over with layers of self-dislike, sexual abuse, and the ideas that stalkers are romantic and that a woman literally should not want to live without a man to make her existence worthwhile. Vomit.

And then there’s the writing. I’m not going to get into the (third-grade level) writing.

Thank god that for every few Stephenie Meyers, there is a Philip Pullman, a Katherine Neville, a J.K. Rowling and now, a Suzanne Collins.

Great writers like this write with an intellect that challenges the reader to grow, yet also with an effortlessness that keeps the pages turning, one after another.

Most importantly, they aren’t afraid to write something that’s hard.

Every single character that the reader cares about in Twilight gets a happy ending. The entire Cullen family survives multiple battles with nary a scratch, allowing Bella and Edward to sparkle and scamper around in their woodland home; Bella turns out to be a naturally perfect veg vampire, Jacob (creepily) falls in love with Bella’s infant daughter – therefore getting to stay friends without continuing to endanger the Bella/Edward perfect perfection, even Bella’s dad gets a lady friend AND gets to stick around to hang out with his vamp daughter. This is the mark of a bad writer.

Not so with the other writers mentioned. Characters die (RIP Dumbledore/Hedwig/Fred/etc RIP wayyyy too many to name in the Hunger Games). True love doesn’t always conquer all (I still cry every time I finish His Dark Materials). War is scary and it forces impossible, terrible decisions (Hunger Games). These things are hard. They are hard to write and even harder to read. But they are moving and satisfying and beautiful.

I’ve read His Dark Materials once a year since the sixth grade. I’ve read each one of the seven Harry Potter books between two and eight times. The Eight, three times. And I can’t wait to re-read the Hunger Games sometime in the future. PEOPLE: PUT DOWN TWILIGHT AND READ THESE BOOKS.