Upgrade Your Life is a techie how-to book absolutely stuffed with more solutions to organizing our modern lifestyle than one person actually has room to fit into our modern lifestyle.

The fun of the book for me was to register, consider and sift all of author Gina Trapani’s little hacks to find the ones that could potentially revolutionize my life. There was a lot of sifting, but it definitely worked.

Before going further, I should justify why I feel this book fits the criteria of the Women’s Unbound Reading Challenge.

(This blog post is SO late. I finished the challenge and wrote this months ago, but it sat lonely in my drafts file, only rediscovered yesterday. Hurray for broken stuff that helps me find unpublished posts! lol)

Participants are encouraged to read nonfiction and fiction books related to the rather broad idea of ‘women’s studies.’  The definition according to Merriam-Webster: the multidisciplinary study of the social status and societal contributions of women and the relationship between power and gender.

This book transcends them all. It’s not about women’s issues, but placing this book in a woman’s hands is giving her the tools to solve many problems.

Women are underrepresented in the enormous field of technology and computer science that is changing the fundamental shape of society. I don’t think women can afford a hands-off “that’s the guys” territory approach to computers and how we use them in daily life. Now, don’t let me lead you the wrong way. This book will not teach how to hack into your local school and change your grades. But it will teach confidence. How? Because it will help you feel like you have a more active hand in your life. It will help you realize that you have good ideas and provide you ways to bring those ideas to fruition. And a little independence will go a long way.

Upgrade Your Life is written by a woman, about a topic and a field that is heavily male-oriented for the moment and provides the tools for any woman in any field to feel empowered to make her own choices and not just pay for the brake work because the mechanic says so, so to speak. I believe it’s an excellent candidate for this reading challenge.

So, back to the book…

I heard about it because I listen to Gina every week on a podcast called TWIG, This Week in Google. Never miss an episode, it’s one of the little highlights of my week. Along with tech guru Leo LaPorte and journalism professor Jeff Jarvis, the three discuss all that is going on in the world of Google. The good, the bad and the ugly. They chew over tech news, what’s happening or about to happen,, cell phones, cell phones and more cell phones and eventually get to this extraordinarily interesting conversation about where we are as a society and where we’re headed. Not unlike a really cool sociology professor I had once.

Gina is the “Tip of the Week” contributor and I mention that not because it’s the biggest part she plays in the trio, but rather because of how indicative it is of who she is. Having founded Lifehacker “tips and downloads for getting things done” years ago – if you’ve never been there, click the link now, it’s a must read – she offers little keystrokes, shortcuts and an ocean of creative problem solving to make using Google products even easier.

Long time readers of my blog know by now that I’ve been a Google convert, using their web services for years now. The move from using Outlook to Gmail for email alone totally flipped my life on a head. I railed at what I did not understand, but once the epiphany came, I can’t get enough. Total fan-girl here.

My interest in technology spins off of my partial obsession with organization and how I can use it for my own better ends. When you’re the kind of girl who takes whole weekends as a teenager to move furniture and reorganize, you’re also the kind of girl that gets a kick out of the fact that Google is just so darn good at integrating their many amazing services and making your life handy dandy. See, it’s not just me anymore to keep track of. Now it’s my job and a husband’s home business and kids and swimming lessons and all of the social activity that comes from our growing family.

And I don’t just want to scrape by. If I had a motto in life or something that people remembered me for, it would be that I lived and loved well and with grace. Believe me, I don’t always meet that bar, but anything that can help me be less anxious, more settled and confident and bring enjoyment into my life… well, those things are always welcome. And so many of Gina’s little and not so little hacks have done that for me.

Not to mention that I find her an eternally positive person. Her enthusiasm for what she does and sincerity in offering it to us absolutely oozes out of everything. A successful woman known for her smile rather than her rants. That’s a woman living gracefully, living well.

As a sample, I’ll offer one of my favourite hacks, number 90:

I’ve been using Mozilla Firefox as my web browser for years and never knew that this was possible. (Though since the writing of this post, I’ve switched to using Google Chrome as my browser, but that’s another post and this is still a GREAT Tip.) Check it out…

You can create bookmark “groups.” Say you check the same four webpages every morning or as soon as you get home from work. Instead of painstakingly opening each one, you can with one click open them all at once. Brilliant!

Here’s how – open all the tabs you want to group together, go to Bookmarks, click Bookmark All Tabs. A window will pop up that allows you to name them as a set, do so and you are done! I used this hack to make three groups of pages that I use in conjunction quite alot. They’ve been so handy-dandy.

1. Social Butterfly: my Gmail, Google Reader, Twitter, Facebook
2. Photo Sharing: my Flickr, Picasa, Picnik, befunky
3. Recipe Search: Epi, BBC, Foodnetwork, Food Blog Search, All recipes, Big Oven

Other hacks taught me the importance of tagging my flickr photos, the magic button key command that is Alt+Enter, how very much I needed an To-Do organizer though I did not in the end using her main example (Simplenote rules!), how to freshen up our filing cupboard so I can find stuff, what a wonderful thing keeping my inbox clean is, how to search my gmail for anything under the sun, and how to get slightly lower priority email like goodreads and freecycle mail to skip my inbox and go to its own folder saving me a mountain of time.

Turns out that there was quite a bit that I was already doing well. Confidence booster to be sure! I save my bookmarks in Delicious and can access them anywhere, I use Gmail, as a family we share our Google calendars so no one is left in the dark, I’ve sorted and named and dated each individual one of our digital photos for years, and I’ve consolidated all my email accounts into gmail for so long that I forget that I’ve ever used anything else.

Wanna-be hacker that’s me!

p.s. Gina was named among Fast Company magazine Top Women in Tech for 2010. Go see what she and other women are doing online, in tech and games.

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If I am ever to catch up in reviewing what I read, I must learn to write shorter less time consuming, soul divulging reviews. I will, I will, I will… stay-on-topic.

You may have also noticed that I only give glowing reviews. Well, that’s because I end up only taking time to review the books that really make me glow.

Towards correcting both issues, I give you “quickie” reviews!

The Awakening
by Kate Chopin

Always heard this one was “the” women’s lib book to read. And it’s written by a southern author who turns out isn’t southern. Chopin married into a New Orleans family and later used the Creole culture in which she’d been immersed as setting and personality for her writing. I wanted to like this so much, but found the writing style boring and dry, a similiar problem to Wilkie Collin’s The Woman in White. A short, but ultimately sad story, The Awakening had me waiting for the epiphany that would prove universal to the lives of women and especially the relationship between men and women. It never came. Between that disappointment and the main character’s demise, I was left boggled by how this book could ever be lifted up in support of a feminist movement. Yes, Chopin was certainly brave in telling the tale and bringing the topic of adultery to paper, but if this book speaks of anything, doesn’t it warn against the dangers of women following their true hearts?

Kindred
by Octavia Butler

I was a captive audience of one. Science fiction that I love, a female author so rare, setting close to my heart. It started off great, sort of like a really awesome Star Trek: The Next Generation time travel episode. I mean, man, what a premise! Modern black woman goes back in time to rescue an ancestor and slave owner from a death that would lead to her having never being born. And I was totally absorbed in it, until the realization that the highly charged, emotional and traumatic beginning had a lame ending. She dropped the ball. How I could go from caring to apathy for what happened to her characters is beyond me. I like to care! Oh well.

The Vagina Monologues
by Eve Ensler

You probably couldn’t have paid me to read this book once upon a time. I was once quite the prude. And yet ten years later, I read it willingly and adored the entire thing. This one succeeded whether the first two books (see above) failed. The emotions carry throughout the whole book, building to a crescendo that makes you want to cheer out loud as you flip the last page and then promptly march out and sign yourself up for the revolution! (I almost did the cheering bit, but was reading on night shift and thought it better that my patients continue sleeping.) This book reminded me of Anita Diamant’s novel The Red Tent for it’s frank honesty in speaking about sex, anatomy and the discrimination, violence and abuse that women face in some parts of the world. Highly recommended for every woman and especially to those of who may, like I once did, have hidden feelings of shame about your body. What beauty there is in hidden places.

The Lost City of Z
by David Grann

<gasp!> NON-fiction. Take a trip to the Amazon and Victorian Britain to hear the tale of a real life Indiana Jones by the name of Colonel Percy Harrison Fawcett. This book was endlessly fascinating for the perspective it gave on history, archaeology, geography, biology, social mores of long ago, the changing of the seasons at the birth of the 20th century and the impact of British colonialism throughout the world. I was entertained, educated and deliciously lost in wilderness in this fast summer read. So glad I picked it up!

Grave Secrets
by Kathy Reichs

Yes, I took the plunge. My love for the Bones television show gave me no choice. I had to try one of Kathy Reichs’ Tempe Brennan novels. The fact that it qualified for the library’s summer reading program twas only a thin veil to disguise my already piqued interest. I was to find that the characters between the show and the books are not one and the same. However, I was really just looking for the same thrill ride, and personality differences are allowed. Only her writing style truly irked me. One review on the back called it “witty,” and it certainly is that. Funny at times as well, but overall jarring. I felt yanked out of the story by my surprise, the flow of the tale interrupted. And the story itself mediocre at best. Perhaps it’s a good thing that Reichs hasn’t become my newest obsession for there is so much fine literature waiting on my nightstand.

Here I go…

ps. The first three were choices I read for the Women Unbound Reading Challenge, the later two for my local library’s Destination Jungle summer reading program.

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While contemplating how majorly behind I am in posting on my Women’s Unbound Challenge reading, I realized that it no longer matters because…

I did it!
/flexes my bicep for Rosie
hehe

I am finished, both meeting and surpassing my goal, reading nine books in total.

Phew. Look at that. My first reading challenge. And I’m finished 6 months early. It was easy. Finding nonfiction to know and love was no issue, contrary to what I thought starting out. Five of my nine books were nonfiction, and I enjoyed them the most.

I am immensely proud to call myself a Sister Suffragette!

So, yes, I am done reading but definitely not done discussing my nine books. In fact, most of them have been neglected as far as blog posts go. In this too, I shall be faithful. I’m writing my thoughts in advance so that I can leak them out to you while I’m deciding which cupboard to put my pots in and where the extra toilet paper goes at our new house.

Look out for future posts on these books and happy reading to you!

• Louisa May Alcott, the Woman behind Little Women
• The Curse of the Good Girl
• Upgrade your Life
• The Awakening
• TheVagina Monologues
• Kindred
• What It Is

p.s. Wouldn’t Rosie the Riveter would make a G-R-E-A-T Halloween costume!

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Agatha Christie.

This book was an addition to my Women Unbound Book Challenge because I found it for $1 at Value Village and my curiosity about the author has been peeked, having never read any of her books, ever since I watched the Doctor Who episode where she is featured. Yes, that’s my second Doctor Who reference in as many posts. Sorry, big fan here!

Murder on the Orient Express is a departure for me in another way. Mysteries haven’t been a favourite genre of mine since I finished every single Nancy Drew my hometown library had in stock. Perhaps there was some burnout involved. Hard to say.

Nevertheless, Christie surprised me with a quick deft read that kept the adrenaline coursing in my veins and the eyes open over night shifts. Not an easy task.

Indeed it was a fun little book. Old style mystery writing too. Find the clues. Piece it together. No CSI computers, lasers or digital recreations here. Just a knack for observation and experience with human psychology.

Hercule Poirot is the featured detective. I hadn’t previously realized that she had her own Sherlock Holmes consistent throughout her books. He had my brain running in loops. Every time I thought I’d figured something out, I had not. Oh well, the end was sufficiently stunning that I didn’t mind being less astute than he.

However enjoyable this little jaunt, I feel no further urge to read more of Christie’s work. I get just enough murder and mayhem in my diet when we try to solve one of the stories in this book over the dinner table.

As an aside, I know I’m really really late but…

I am so proud that in 2009

I read 22 books total, not counting short stories or graphic novels
was a member of Goodreads for my first full year
met some amazing women among the Chicks on Lit group there
found more books than I can read in five years for my to-read shelf
and finally – finally! – found a book podcast i can call favourite, Books on the Nightstand.

The best of the best book selections from the year would have to be Eat Pray Love in nonfiction and Ender’s Game in fiction, though there are very close runner-ups in both categories.

Here’s to the journey of 2010!

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My first book for the Women Unbound Book Challenge is done!

Confession: I finished it before Christmas, but my life is bonkers from then until now and I’m finally ready to write again. You don’t mind, right?

Especially because my reaction and appreciation of Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale hasn’t dimmed one bit. My reaction was very British… Brilliant.

(Anyone else notice how much the islanders say that word? Or is it just those interviewed for their work in the tv series Doctor Who?)

I feel like Atwood’s self categorized piece of “speculative fiction” was a perfect choice for the first book in the Women Unbound Reading Challenge. It deals with a future society in which women have been stripped of their rights and society as a whole organized into a caste system for the good of all mankind. Those who have — eek, perhaps this is time for a SPOILER ALERT!!! — proven fertile and able to bear children are put into service as surrogate mothers for the upper class wives who are unable to bear children. This is the theme I found most enthralling. For society had not simply removed women’s right to external entities like having money or holding a job or marrying whom she pleases. No, they went so far as to physically disassociate their sexuality from her occupation as a child-bearer or as a wife. No one was having fun in bed. No woman felt like a woman. Which is just enough of a step further in the line of discrimination against women than we are accustomed and what made this book so thought provoking.

In the story, women among the privileged elite participated in their husband’s adultery with a handmaiden, lying still and silent underneath the girl, watching the amputation – and subsequent death of herself – claim another. The handmaiden herself faired little better as an object, an womb surrounded by an invisible person hood. It was all rather appalling to picture and Atwood’s story is a slow unfolding of the details of how this society works as a whole with small tidbits and references to a political uprising that brought them to this place. The story is told from the point of view of one particular handmaiden and her struggle to understand her new place in the world, whether she likes it, whether she can live with herself and participate and believe the brainwashing or choose her own path.

I found it reprehensible that anyone might suggest that any society, particularly thinking of our own that has fought over so many years to secure legal rights and break social mores surrounding what women are and are not allowed to do, could degenerate into what is alive and well in Atwood’s world. And yet I felt like I must consider the possibilities. For to not be on watch, to not put forth my own genuine femininity and guard and treasure it, would be to open the door for repression masquerading as revolution.

The Handmaiden has to make hard choices and constantly be on watch. She has to decide whether to be a rebel and if so, what kind of rebel? She taught me to duly watch and, more importantly, be thankful, both for my own self and for, in an odd way, the men around me who have been unafraid to let my femininity become what it will.

I am really looking forward to reading more of Margaret’s work in the future. For now, I have my pile of further Women Unbound reading but I am tickled to know that Atwood is worthy of the immense persona she carries as a Canadian literary giant who just happens to be a woman.

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