I did it. I have completed my summer’s Pop Culture Homework Assignment and still have a couple more weeks before the kids go back to school. (Kids in NYC go back ridiculously late.) I’ve read four books. Wild by Cheryl Strayed, Traveling Mercies by Anne Lamott, 13 Blue Little Envelopes and Last Little Blue Envelope (extra credit) by Maureen Johnson and A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson. I feel very good about all of this. I’ve read three non-fiction books, which is three more than I read all of last year. I read about two brave women and how they overcame their struggles and came out stronger. I got a feel for what it’s like to hike and camp and it still has no appeal to me but I can see how it might appeal to others. I also got to read a new book form an author I really like. I would say it was a productive summer.
So A Walk in the Woods was enjoyable. I can definitely see why Kate loves it so much. Bill and his friend Stephen Katz are two people who probably shouldn’t be hiking but they did and they made it. Ok, maybe Bill but definitely not Katz. Bill moves to New Hampshire and finds out it’s right by the Appalachian Trail and decides, he’s going to hike it because why not. Out of no where, his long lost friend Katz decides to do it with him. Like Cheryl in Wild, they have no idea of what they are getting themselves into. Sure, they’ve done some hiking before but nothing like this. Reading their misadventures was a delight. From their struggles with their packs, the people they meet and their run-ins with animals that were real or imaginary was amusing. The best part of the book is when they are together. In the middle, Katz has to go back to Des Moines for a job and Bill continues on his own. It’s not that I don’t like Bill, it’s I liked him more when he had Katz to play off. If they were a comedic duo, Bill would be Desi to Katz’s Lucy. The book read faster and I was more interested. When it was just Bill, I felt like he spent more talking about history and other tangents and while interesting, it slowed the pace down. Maybe he spent so much time talking about other things because he was by himself he obviously didn’t have any witty dialogue to include. The Appalachian Trail is older then the Pacific Crest Trail that Cheryl hiked and so it had a lot more places to stop. Also, it’s surrounded by more towns and people, so Bill and Katz had more chances of interacting with people on and off the trail. It was interesting to see how they were treated when they left the trail. In some cases like Gods and others indifference. All and all it was an enjoyable read. I’m glad I read it.
Warning: Spoilers will happen
Reawakened is a fun adventure but for anyone who has read Colleen Houck’s other series, 
I remember years ago, Madonna was quoted as saying that she wasn’t a religious person but a spiritual one. For the life of me I can’t find the actual quote. Internet, you have failed me! This seemed strange to me at the time because Madonna was very much in her Kabbalah phase and it seemed like everything in her life was influenced by it. Just listen to albums Ray of Light through Confessions on a Dance Floor for more evidence. She has since have moved on from Kabbalah. I’m not sure if she is still practicing or not but the presence is not as prevalent in her music as it used to be. Does one have to actively practice a religion to be that religion? The one thing that stuck with me from my Introduction to Islam class I took in college (taught by New York Times Bestseller, Reza Aslan. Yep, I’m totally name dropping!) was that in Islam, if you don’t practice you really can’t be really considered Muslim. Now, I took that class *gulp* over 10 years ago, so I apologize if that is not entirely accurate but I do remember that Islam is a very practical religion as well. As Mr. Aslan explained, if you couldn’t pray five times a day at the right time that’s ok, as long as you get those prayers in sometime during the day. If you can’t fast during Ramadan because of work, illness or other circumstances, that’s fine, too, as long as you make time to fast later to make up for it. That last point was illustrated to me when a former co-worker had to skip a week of fasting during the month of Ramadan because she was having stomach pain. As soon as she was feeling better, she completed that week of fasting. This makes sense to me. If you think about it, you really don’t have to go to church or read the bible to call yourself a Christian.
In another retelling of a fairy tale, Mechanica takes on Cinderella. Nicolette is forced to be a servant in her own home and is called Mechanica by her evil stepsisters. Nicolette is an inventor and thanks to her mother’s secret workroom, she starts to invent inventions that could one day buy her way out of her servitude. Along the way she meets the Prince and his best friend and they help her sell her wares. It’s a good idea for a novel. I like many changes from the story. Nicolette isn’t at home waiting for the Prince to come rescue her. She uses her own brain to create inventions that will help her win her freedom and there is a surprising twist at the end that has to do with her and the Prince. I won’t spoil it but it really took me by surprise. Either then that though, there isn’t really anything else to make this stand out. I kept waiting for the something more to happen. I like the message of the novel, though. That girls don’t need a boy to rescue her. They can do that themselves by using their own skills and smarts and that alone might be worth the read.
I’m going to be brief because I don’t want to be spoilery and also want to wait until Kate finishes it to talk in more detail. I will say it was a truly powerful novel. A dystopian novel set on the African continent. 
There was a recent discussion on Twitter about whether or not you avoid reading popular books. Is the fact that the book is popular and “You just got to read it” a turn on or turn off. Whether a book is popular is not really a selling point for me but I’m not going to avoid reading it if it is. Unless it’s an Oprah book. Now bear with me. Oprah’s Book Club has done so much to get people to read and for that I applaud her. It has also been a boom for the publishing industry, it has promoted authors that probably would never get exposure or that level of exposure but as a former bookseller, it made my life difficult. I know, it sounds weird but ask any bookseller. For years, Oprah wouldn’t announce her new pick until she did it on her show. People would immediately come into stores asking for the new Oprah book and we wouldn’t have a clue what they were talking about since we were working and not watching Oprah. And rarely would people who watched the show know the title of the book they must read and would come in with no information. Now, it’s a little easier. Oprah works more with publishers to make sure her picks are ready to go with her sticker already on the book when she makes her announcements. Also, now with the internet, if customers come in for her books and we were left unaware, they could look it up more easily but yeah Oprah. Also I found that a lot of her picks were the same. Different authors but all carried the same theme and that didn’t appeal to me.
2 Women, So Many Books 