Masturbation is a primary form of sexual expression. It’s not just for kids or for those in-between lovers or for old people who end up alone. Masturbation is the ongoing love affair that each of us has with ourselves throughout our lifetime.

I chose to read Sex for One: The Joy of Selfloving by Betty Dodson specifically for the Women Unbound reading challenge. I hadn’t actually heard of the book before, so when I saw that Susan over at Black-Eyed Susan’s said it should be required reading in Women’s Studies classes, I had to check it out. Since, you know, it was certainly never mentioned in any of the Women’s Studies classes I took throughout college or graduate school.

Betty Dodson is a sexologist (her Ph.D. is in sexology). She also has a very current website (Warning: Not Safe for Work) to answer questions about sex, masturbation, and orgasm.

I think the book is very important. Dodson completely demystifies masturbation and celebrates it as a way to build self-esteem, encourage body knowledge, and improve partner sex. She is pro-masturbation as a way to combat sexual repression, especially for women. What power women would have if they understood their own genitals and their own orgasms. How great for our teenage girls and young women to know they can have sexual release without the fear of pregnancy or STDs–that they are their own greatest lovers. That it’s okay to please themselves sexually and that it’s not just about the boys and their pleasure. (Think about girls who feel pressured to perform oral sex on boys while getting nothing in return–except damaged reputations.)

If girls and women know their own bodies and know how to please themselves, then they are empowered.

That doesn’t mean Dodson ignores men in her book because she doesn’t. Masturbation without shame is just as important for men as women in the battle against repression.

Dodson does all of this while also offering this book up as a memoir of sorts. It operates as a chronicle of her journey to being more sex positive and pro-masturbation. From her childhood to her first awesome lover to the opening up of her relationship with her mother to her development of her art to her bodysex groups, she details how all of these things came about and their impact on her thinking about gender, sex, and sexuality. And masturbation plays a part in all of these events.

While the book does contain erotic art and detailed descriptions, I didn’t find it to be pornographic at all. The point is to educate, not titillate. And I walked away from the book feeling way more knowledgeable than before.

I wish I would’ve read this book sooner.

Thanks to Susan for suggesting it as a must-read for the Women Unbound Challenge. I would encourage others to read it as well.

Women Unbound: 7/8

See larger image Sex for One: The Joy of Selfloving (Paperback) By (author) Betty Dodson List Price: $14.00 USD New From: $7.97 In Stock Used from: $1.55 In Stock Release date March 12, 1996.

“No, Meg. Don’t hope it was a dream. I don’t understand it any more than you do, but one thing I’ve learned is that you don’t have to understand things for them to be.”

I never read A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle while growing up. I wasn’t big into fantasy so it completely slipped by me. I don’t think I ever properly heard of until I was an adult.

My point is that I am kind of sad I didn’t read it as a child because I kind of love it a lot. A LOT.

The basic story is that Meg, her brother Charles Wallace, and a classmate named Calvin go on a search through time and space to bring Meg and Charles Wallace’s missing father home.

But it is so much more than that. So much more.

It’s hard to talk about what happens in the book because I don’t want to give anything away for anyone who hasn’t read it yet. Plus, I think it can be read in several different and unique ways depending on individual experience, so I’ll just say I loved the focus on strengths and faults of the characters, the use of mystical/alien beings, the way the story seems to be resolved when it isn’t yet the real resolution is heartbreaking and positively optimistic all at once. And that love conquers all, the end.

I was surprised by how overtly Christian the book is, especially because it still manages to be such an effective allegory.

I also love that the book is pro-individuality, Christian positive, and anti-censorship all at once. It manages to be realistic fiction, science fiction, fantasy, dystopic fiction. L’Engle just does so much and does it all so well. It’s kind of amazing.

This, THIS is the kind of book that makes me want to be a writer.

Two things I didn’t like:  I hate that the one brother’s name is Dennys, which is another spelling of Dennis, because I kept pronouncing it Denny’s in my head. Also, the main baddie is named IT (it), but because it’s 2010, I kept reading it as I.T. as in IT support.

But, really, those are nothing in the grand scheme of things.  Awesome book.  Absolutely awesome.

YA Reading Challenge: 22/75

See larger image A Wrinkle in Time (Paperback) By (author) Madeleine L'Engle List Price: $6.99 USD New From: $3.43 In Stock Used from: $1.37 In Stock Release date May 1, 2007.

The note said:  SOMEONE IN THIS CLASS IS A WITCH.

The librarian recommended the audiobook version of Witch Week by Diana Wynne Jones (narrated by Gerard Doyle) to my daughter several months ago.  The book is part of DWJ’s Chrestomanci series, which we didn’t know until after we finished the book.  In Witch Week, witchcraft is a burnable offense, so when someone in Class 6B is declared a witch, it causes lots of complications for the class as well as the school.

What I Liked

- Gerard Doyle is an AWESOME narrator.  Oh my goodness.  His line readings are amazing.  AMAZING.

- Fantastic characters.  What I really like is that one of the protagonists actually becomes unlikeable near the end of the book.  It was an unexpected turn, but works really well and makes perfect sense.

- That is because the storytelling is so neato.  Her descriptions are so vivid, the setting is believable, and, though there are a lot of characters, it’s easy to keep track of them all because their voices and characteristics are so unique.

- Not only is the book about magic and witchcraft, it is also thoroughly about the injustices of adolescence.  Getting picked on mercilessly, not being able to do anything right, the desire to escape.  But also, finding unexpected friends and allies.

- I love the humor in the book.

- “It hurts to be burned.”

What I Didn’t Like

- As mentioned above, we didn’t know the book was part of a series, so when Chrestomanci shows up, it didn’t quite make sense to us because, though he is explained, there is the idea that we should know something about who he is and where he’s from.  Also, he affects the narrative in a big way, so knowing a little about him would have helped.

That said, it’s perfectly clear in the narrative what’s going on, and his appearance didn’t detract from the narrative aside from a small discussion we had after the book was over.

In conclusion:  This book was a lot of fun, and it is an AWESOME audiobook.  Did I mention that Gerard Doyle is amazing?  I kind of want to listen to other books he’s narrated now.  My daughter and I are also interested in more Diana Wynne Jones.  It seems weird to mention the author second since she provided the source material, but Doyle is really that good.

See larger image Witch Week (Chrestomanci Books) (Mass Market Paperback) By (author) Diana Wynne Jones List Price: $6.99 USD New From: $0.75 In Stock Used from: $0.01 In Stock Release date September 22, 1997.

I guess I might’ve spent my whole life in that villa never learning the truth if not for that darn wall. Deep in my gut, I believed if I could just look over it, just see what was there, my dreams would make sense.  Everything would make sense.

Rapunzel’s Revenge written by Shannon & Dean Hale and illustrated by Nathan Hale (no relation) is a retelling of the Rapunzel story in which Rapunzel saves herself, teams up with a stranger named Jack, and sets out to free her birth mother and fellow countrymen from adoptive mother Gothel.

What I Liked

- Rapunzel is an awesome character.  She’s driven and determined, and she refuses to let her circumstances overwhelm her.

- There’s a lot of humor in the book–from making fun of Rapunzel’s ugly, ugly clothes to the banter between her and Jack.  There are lots of great moments and a couple of laugh out loud funny ones.

- I love that Rapunzel and Jack are more partners than anything.  Sometimes it seems as though he’s her sidekick and sometimes she’s his, but that’s because they both have different strengths and any given situation could favor one or neither.

- There’s some mystery around Jack.  I figured it out right away, but my daughter really enjoyed the twist when it was revealed.

- Mother Gothel’s motivation for locking Rapunzel up really surprised me–in a good way.

- I love the artwork.  Clear and crisp with great facial expressions.  It was as much fun to look at the pictures as read the text–as it should be with a graphic novel.

- Rapunzel uses her hair as a weapon.  I like that instead of it being the tool of her imprisonment, it becomes empowering.

What I Didn’t Like

- I would’ve liked to know just a little more about Gothel besides her being evil.  You know, just a smidge.

In conclusion: The book is a lot of fun and a great read.  It’s also great for the tween set or anybody who really enjoys adventurous stories.  My daughter read it, immediately reread it, and then bought it when she saw it a the book store (I checked it out from the library).  I think she really appreciated that Rapunzel is such a badass female character.

YA Reading Challenge:  17/75

See larger image Rapunzel's Revenge (Paperback) By (author) Shannon Hale, Dean Hale List Price: $15.99 USD New From: $2.87 In Stock Used from: $2.75 In Stock Release date August 5, 2008.

The one thing he longed for more than anything else was…CHOCOLATE.

We went to see a high school production of Willy Wonka, which was such great fun and so much better than I remembered either of the movies being.  Then, when we got home, we watched Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory–the first movie adaptation–and I still didn’t like it that much.  So I went online to see what the differences between the book, the movies, and the play are and found out (via Wikipedia, of course) that Roald Dahl (allegedly) hated the burping scene in the first movie, so I immediately put Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl on hold at the library so I could investigate the differences for myself.

I LOVE THIS BOOK.

It is so much fun. I love Dahl’s storytelling style.  It’s so much like listening to someone tell you a story that they’re making up as they go along.  So conversational and fun.  I’m sure this would make an excellent audiobook.

I was surprised to learn that the Oompa Loompas really do sing throughout the book.

Also?  I totally understand why Dahl allegedly hated the burping scene.  The whole point of the book is that Charlie is not like the other kids and his parents are not like the other parents.  Even though he’s poor and hungry, he doesn’t break the rules.  What’s really hateful about the scene in the movie (original flavor–I can’t remember how it happens in the Johnny Depp version) is that Charlie’s grandpa says, “Let’s try it while no one’s looking.”  Which is a dick move and again disrupts the integrity of both of the characters.  I think there’s a way to show Charlie was tempted if that’s what the movie people wanted without having him drink it or his grandfather be the one to encourage it.  Not to mention, it makes the ending (of the movie) ring false because none of the other children get a chance to apologize.

ANYWAY.

The book is so amazingly fun.  Read it.  Screw the movies.

See larger image Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (Paperback) By (author) Roald Dahl List Price: $6.99 USD New From: $3.27 In Stock Used from: $2.97 In Stock

My mouth dropped open, and suddenly, I knew.  Unfortunately for Sarah, everything now made sense.

I checked out My Life as a Rhombus by Varian Johnson two other times from the library before actually reading it this go around. Third time is the charm? I don’t know why I held off on reading it for so long; it’s about teen pregnancy, one of my favorite topics to read about, second only to female friendship.  Bonus!  This book has both of those things.

What I Liked

- As mentioned, I am supremely interested in portrayals of teen pregnancy and parenthood, and this book delivered by presenting more than one point of view on the subject.

- I love the main character, Rhonda.  I also enjoyed her friendship with Sarah.  It felt very genuine and logical that these two would become friends.

- The tension between Rhonda and her father is also very well-handled.  I could imagine the distance between them. Rhonda’s loneliness at home is portrayed nicely.

- Rhonda’s fear of dating also worked. She closes herself off pretty effectively and chooses to surround herself with people equally closed off (Gail) or awkward (Xavier).

- The characters are all imperfect, which is nice.  Even the love interest, David.  He’s kind of cheesy, but his personality flaws are evident and on the surface.  At first he plays a little too good to be true, but it’s quickly remedied.

- It’s always nice to have a female character who enjoys math.

- The book is super engaging.  I read it in two days because I had to see how everything would shake out.

- This is on the book jacket, but I really do appreciate that the book is not preachy and doesn’t really advocate or condemn teen parenthood.  It’s just a story about some girls who have gotten pregnant and how they feel about/handle it.

What I Didn’t Like

- One of the most important resolutions (between Rhonda and her father) happens offscreen.  I felt completely cheated by this.  Yeah, the romance aspect is nice, but since the biggest issue is really her connection to her father, it would’ve been nice to see that resolved ON THE PAGE, not just hinted at.

- Sarah and David are very affectionate for siblings so close in age.  It didn’t ring true to me.  Of course, I’m an only child so your mileage may very.  Relatedly, Rhonda kisses Sarah on the forehead once, which I have never, ever done with my very best friends that I have known since childhood.  A hug, yes.  An arm around the shoulder, okay.  But a kiss on the forehead to comfort?  Uh, never.  It does tie into Rhonda’s relationship with her father, but…no.

- Oh, the melodrama.  I am a big fan of melodrama!  When I watch One Tree Hill, for example.  And melodrama happens in real life, but all of the melodrama here felt very over the top.  Probably because of…

- A lack of character development.  I know Christopher is Rhonda’s ex, but surely she must have liked SOMETHING about him besides the fact that he paid attention to her.  I mean, yes, that’s reason enough when you’re fifteen (or twenty or thirty or…), but there must have been something else about him besides his hot bod that she liked.  He trusted her enough to talk about his father with her, so there must have been something there.

- Which also leads me to the bad sex portion of the book.  She didn’t like having sex with him AT ALL?  Not once?  REALLY?  Not even making out with him?  Okay.

I do recognize that this may have been a specific narrative choice because Rhonda’s break up experience is so bad that she has rewritten the whole relationship as Not Good, but come on.

- This is probably weird to say about a book on teenage pregnancy, but:  NEEDS MORE SEXY FUN TIMES.  Hot boys and girls populate the book, and there is a serious deficit of making out and sexy fun times!  How did these kids get pregnant?  Hand holding?  I mean, it makes sense for the narrative, but at the end, I was just like, “Man, they could’ve made out A LOT MORE.”

Women Unbound?

This book is chock full of discussions of choice when it comes to pregnancy.

In conclusion:  The theme of the book seems to be:  TUTORING = PREGNANCY.  Which, hey, One Tree Hill taught me the same thing!  So it must be true.

I know it seems like I was hard on the book, but I really did enjoy it.  The girls were great, the conversations about pregnancy were ace, the female friendship was A+, and I was completely into the story.  There were just some sticking points is all.  I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it.

POC Challenge:  7/15; YA Reading Challenge:  11/75

Since then, this old and great civilization has been discussed mostly in connection with fundamentalism, fanaticism, and terrorism.  As an Iranian who has lived more than half of my life in Iran, I know that this image is far from the truth.  This is why writing Persepolis was so important to me.  I believe that an entire nation should not be judged by the wrongdoings of a few extremists.  I also don’t want those Iranians who lost their lives in prisons defending freedom, who died in the war against Iraq, who suffered under various repressive regimes, or who were forced to leave their families and flee their homeland to be forgotten.

That’s from the introduction of The Complete Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi, a graphic novel that chronicles her coming of age as a young woman in Iran, Europe, and Iran again.

- I have to say, the graphic novel format really suits this work.  It’s in black and white, and the graphics are relatively simple (or maybe deceptively simple), which makes the people and their attitudes the real stars of the story.

- I love, love adolescent Marji.  She’s just such a kid, trying to understand the world the best way she knows how.  She wants to be a prophet, she plays martyr and torture, and she isn’t afraid to stand up for herself.  She is just adorable.

- I also love young adult Marji, but in a different way.  She, too, is trying to find her place in the world, but that story is more heartbreaking because she has to leave home to be safe and then she’s a stranger in a strange land once she gets to Austria, and then she’s a stranger in her homeland when she goes back to Iran after being in Austria.

- I also love her parents and her grandma (love her grandma!) and just…all of the characters/people are very fully drawn, and their motivations are clear.  It’s just wonderful characterization all around.

I just really enjoys books like this and Anne Frank because, honestly, it just shows how similar all of our experiences are, even when they’re vastly different.  War torn countries aside, both stories are about girls becoming young women and so much of that experience is universal.

Sometimes it is hard to really like a book because there is nothing to say except “I like it!  It’s awesome!  Read it!”  But, you know, I like it.  It’s awesome.  Read it!

Women Unbound:  4/8; POC Challenge 3/15

Luscious, I thought.  That’s what I’ll be.  Not perfect.  Not flawless.  Luscious.

Tangled by Carolyn Mackler is the story of four teens and what happens after they take a trip to the Paradise resort in the Caribbean.

What I Liked

- The form.  The story takes place over four months, starting in April, and each month is narrated by a different character.  I certainly wasn’t expecting that, and after the first switch in narrator, it was fine.  Because such a huge chunk of the time is devoted to each character, there’s no real adjustment period aside from that first, “Oh, okay, so we’re with Dakota now.  Got it.”  It’s a very interesting choice, and it works so well because even though we leave a character, we still find out what’s going on with the other characters, so it’s not like they’re being left in the dust.  Part of the fun of the novel was seeing how/where/why they would show up again and how we’d get those nuggets of information about them.

- The characters.  They’re not all likable, but Mackler does this thing where they are all understandable!  And then they all transform in really believable and organic ways.  And I love the way she shows that the way they see themselves is not the way that other people see them or that the way other people see them is not the way they see themselves.  But sometimes it is!  For example, there’s this awesome disconnect between how Jena sees herself [chubby, too talkative] and how Skye sees Jena [cute, bubbly, effortlessly friendly].  Just proof that we are our own worst critics.

If I had to pick a favorite, it’d probably be Jena because she says in her narrative, unironically:

I’m obsessed with quotes.  You name the person–Albert Einstein (smart), Toni Morrison (very smart), Nicholas Sparks (pure genius)–and I’ve got one of their sayings.

Nicholas Sparks = pure genius.  Which, if you’re a sixteen-year-old romantic, he would be.  So I thought she rang very true, and I loved her attitude about life.  (She’s the one who has the breakout quote up there about being luscious.)

- The plot.  This is more of a character study, but there is a plot underneath it all.  So if you take the form and the characters together you get this plot about transformation and being true to yourself and being your best self.  It’s pretty subtle, but kind of amazing.

What I Didn’t Like

I didn’t dislike anything!  If anything, I just wish it could’ve been longer and we could’ve spent more time with each character, but I think it does what it needs to do without more than that.  I just enjoyed reading about the characters.

In conclusion:  Immensely readable (I read it in one sitting) and a great character study.  This should have been my light read following the WWII stuff (even though there is some heavy stuff in here) because it was such an easy read.  I really enjoy Mackler because she is rarely, if ever, predictable, and this book is no exception.  I honestly had no idea where the story was going, even with the one thing I did figure out early in the story.

YA Reading Challenge:  7/75

“It’s truly extraordinary,” he said.  “Who would believe it?  ‘Jewish girl risks all for German solider.’  Tell me, Patty Bergen–” his voice became soft, but with a trace of hoarseness–”why are you doing this for me?”

I picked up Summer of My German Soldier by Bette Greene at the library book sale over a year ago, and finally got around to reading it this past week.  I don’t know what I was expecting, exactly, but I’m glad I read this story about a Jewish girl in America during WWII and her decision to help a German POW escape.

What I Liked

- THIS BOOK.  I liked this entire book from top to bottom.  Honestly, I kind of loved everything about it.

- The characters.  Patty and her housekeeper Ruth are the standouts here, but there’s also Charlene Madlee and her grandmother.  And while Patty’s parents are villainous, they are both pretty fully drawn and not flat at all.  Horrible, yes.  Understandable…not exactly.  But I understand their relationship to and with Patty and never felt like they were too anything, if that makes sense.

- Patty lives in an abusive household but the book isn’t really about that.  It’s not a problem novel at all is what I mean.  It’s part of the make up of her character, it’s part of the make up of her life, and it serves to explain, in part, her decision to help Anton (the POW).  I was a little nervous at first about what message the book would send to kids who live in abusive homes because there’s a focus in the beginning on Patty showing her parents her sweetness so they can be sweet to her, but it’s really well addressed at the end that, really, there’s nothing she can do about her parents because they just suck.  It’s done in such a great way, too.

- All of the relationships in this book were so well-handled and fully drawn.

- The overall themes about the importance of kindness and friendship and pride and love.

- Okay, everything.  I just liked everything.

What I Didn’t Like

- Just a warning that there is a lot of casual racism in this book that totally fits the time period, but it took a minute for my 2010 mind to adjust.  For example, Ruth is referred to as a Nigra, and the women in the novel see having “a Nigra” as a status symbol.  The black people live in “Nigger Bottoms,” and a “chink” is run out of town.  That said, the racism doesn’t go unchecked.  Patty, early on, says that Ruth is not uppity, just proud.  She knows that Mr. Lee’s family is Chinese and not Japanese, etc.  I think Greene does a fantastic job of setting the scene without reveling in racist language.

Pride.  Maybe that’s it, what Ruth has.  What makes her different.  Keeps her from looking down at her shoes when talking with white people.  Then it is all a lie what they say about her.  Ruth isn’t one bit uppity.  Merely prideful.

Women Unbound?

I think this book definitely takes a thoughtful look at the place of women in society, from Ruth to Patty to the spoiled mother to Charlene.  Not to mention, Patty’s decision to basically betray her country and family definitely qualifies her as girl/woman unbound.

In conclusion:  This book started as a bathroom read for me, but I would find myself reading huge chunks of it at a time.  By the end, I was so completely engrossed and swept up in the narrative.  I LOVED READING THIS BOOK.  I think this is my first unequivocal recommendation of the year.  It’s a book I want other people to read or have read so I can talk about it with them.

YA Challenge:  4/75

“Superman’s not brave. [...] He’s indestructible. You can’t be brave when you’re indestructible. It’s guys like you and me that are brave, Angus. Guys who are different and can be crushed–and know it–but go out there anyway.”

Athletic Shorts:  Six Short Stories by Chris Crutcher is…a book of six short stories.  All of the stories except one feature characters from his books Stotan!, Running Loose, and The Crazy Horse Electric Game.  Of those books, I have read exactly none–not that it matters.  The stories are accessible and stand up well on their own.  They are also slightly spoilery for the other books–not that that matters either.  If anything, they made me more interested in the stories and worlds featured.

What I Liked

- My favorite story is probably the first one, “A Brief Moment in the Life of Angus Bethune.”  Mine and Hollywood’s since it was turned into a movie.  At any rate, Angus’s parents are awesome, his voice is awesome, and the story is a lot of fun.  It’s one of the two more light-hearted of the six stories, so that’s also a plus.

- Even though these are short stories, they are clasic Chris Crutcher, dealing with issues of death, racism, abuse, guilt, homophobia, and bullying.  You know, the usual.

- “The Telephone Man” is the story about racism and it is uncomfortable to read because it’s from the POV of a racist, but I liked its honesty.  Before each story is a small explanation for it, and this is what Crutcher says about Telephone Man:

Racism speaks volumes about those who hide behind it, says exactly nothing of those at whom is it directed.

I think the story does a great job of exposing the kid who hides behind racism and also where he gets his ideas.  (Hint:  It’s his daddy!)

- I loved the story about homophobia.  It was very affecting.  Great characters.

What I Didn’t Like

- I think there was maybe one story I’d count as a weak link.

In conclusion:  One weak link makes for a very solid short story collection.  It’s  a great introduction to the themes that dominate Chris Crutcher’s works as well as to his storytelling style.  I liked it a lot.

YA Challenge:  3/75