The book I chose is, “Poems Of An Artsy Smartsy 10-Year-Old”. This book has changed my life in phases. As a child there were a few challenges that impacted my life. When difficulties would hit I would just bury the problem deep into my mind. I never wanted to see my mom stressed or sad, and no body needed extra problems to deal with. I would come out untouched. No matter how dark the sky seemed then, I could always find a spot the sun came through. My mother was a poet, who took me everywhere she preformed. So as a child I began to write. 'Poems of an Artsy Smartsy 10-Year-Old', is a book of fun poems I wrote as a child. Writing changed my life. Learning the art of creating in this form saved my life. A weird kid who was really quite and always smiling, learned to express themselves through poetry. Now 18 yrs later, I reread the poems that a 10 year old wrote, and I smile. What does a ten yr old know about giving too much of yourself to someone else? What does a child know about mending a heart? The poem 'Colors', here you have something so simple (light) that is made up by so many other things (colors). Something so simple and something complex are exactly the same thing, it's beautiful. As adults, sometimes we can't allow ourselves to step back far enough to see that. That 1 thing must be that one thing, no way can there be several definitions or combinations of something to create this one thing, and have both parts be equally beautiful and equally significant. In the past 18 yrs there were moments where I believed 'this is it'. That the best times of my life were going to be what was expected of me. By publishing this book, and choosing to return and finish down a path I detoured from for a moment, brought me back to life. Inspiring children to create and learn how to express, is saving my life. Seeing and hearing about children getting excited about a book that I put together, makes me so happy. Every time a child of color sees this book, and sees a face that looks like them on the cover, makes me happy. I want this book to build the self esteem of all children, who can't see their own beauty and self.
"A People's History..: Caveat: By no means was I an avid reader in high school; that came at a later juncture. I was a rando closet reader in elementary and high school. I would pick-up a book here-and-there outside of required reading, yet nothing too off-cuff. My junior year of high-school, I picked up a copy of HZ's 'A People's History...'. As each chapter unfolded, I found myself consistently submerged in these accounts of history that I was never destined to be taught. The read: It was heartbreaking and inspiring in one-fell swoop; the feeling is almost impossible to describe. That being said, I would like to lovingly introduce Howard Zinn's 'A People's History of The United States...' into your repertoire. Enjoy, my friends. <3"
I picked up In Defense of Food because I had heard a lot about Michael Pollan, the book’s author, and his book The Omnivore’s Dilemma. I think what sucked me in about the book was that it’s not just about the problems we face with food production and nutrition in the United States, but it’s about the process of how we got to where we are today, and a look at where we came from in the past. He provides a background of how industrialization and politics have shaped what we produce and consume, but he also talks about what can be learned from anthropological studies of people all over the world from all types of consumption models and even dental studies that demonstrate how food impacts our health. As a former anthropology student, I absolutely loved that open, cross-cultural perspective. I never felt like the book was about proving some particular point or pushing people towards a particular decision about the way they eat or consume in general, but about awareness of where we are and where we came from. In Defense of Food changed the way that I see food. Today, I don’t always make wise decisions about my own eating and consumption, but in general I definitely think more about the impact to my body, my health, my abilities, in terms of what I put in it. I read this book at a time when I was trying to figure out if life was just what I saw happening around me. Not to sound dramatic, but I think reading and considering this book was for me a beginning step in reframing the way I saw my life, what are options in the society I live in, and how I could take control of what I will or will not be a part of. Reframing how I saw food, which was sort of big for me as someone who has always loved eating and cooking, and shifting my diet accordingly, taught me that change was possible. That taking care of yourself and pursuing the type of life you want is possible. In learning to eat healthier and seeing and feeling changes that resulted, I felt more motivated to push myself in my physical endeavors. Seeing successes there helped me feel better physically and feel mentally tougher — strong enough to take other steps to push for more control of my personal/social life, my career, my happiness. So for me, it was life changing. It’s not a self-help book, and it doesn’t read like one. But like most good books, it has the potential to help you see things a little differently. And sometimes that’s all it takes.
