I am...Markita. 21. Nutritional Sciences Major. Amazing. Enjoy the food, quotes, fandoms, culture, posts on international and multicultural issues, images of lovely people and things, and random posts that make me laugh.
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stringsdafistmcgee:

tooraloora:

anndruyan:

This is a summary of college only using two pictures; expensive as hell.

That’s my Sociology “book”. In fact what it is is a piece of paper with codes written on it to allow me to access an electronic version of a book. I was told by my professor that I could not buy any other paperback version, or use another code, so I was left with no option other than buying a piece of paper for over $200. Best part about all this is my professor wrote the books; there’s something hilariously sadistic about that. So I pretty much doled out $200 for a current edition of an online textbook that is no different than an older, paperback edition of the same book for $5; yeah, I checked. My mistake for listening to my professor.

This is why we download. 

Never, EVER buy the newest edition of a book.

I PROMISE you there are cheaper alternatives, even if your professor says the old version is totally useless. 9 times out of 10, that’s completely false. 

Reblog for reference. I wish I had known this before I bought my books.

fandomsandfeminism:

So…Tortilla Flat.

Right now my students are benchmark testing, so I spent the whole day reading this book. I have a rather hit and miss relationship with Steinbeck. Grapes of Wrath? Long, but very enjoyable. Of Mice and Men? Short but…no thanks. Where does Tortilla Flat fall on the spectrum?

……..ugh. 

This novel, while reasonably short (207 pages in my edition), is…not….that…..good. Like, I know that it was Steinbeck’s first real success, and whatever. But, no.

So, let me just say this: There are SOME endearing qualities of the book. The juxtaposition of the allusions of King Arthur and the elevated Elizabethan english with the poverty and modesty of the actual story is interesting, and it separates our general assumptions about language and setting.

And SOME of the characters are….sympathetic. Pirate is probably the best character in the book, or at least the least obnoxious.

But for the most part? I was kinda glad I finished it.

The female characters are wholly peripheral. And ALL of them are either 1) “Slutty” and very demonized for it, 2) Manipulative, 3) Perpetually pregnant, or a combination of the above. Most are treated as amusing, if not dangerous, money suckers at best. It’s… not good. 

BUT you might say- lot’s of minority representation! That’s good right? But you’d be wrong. 

Imagine all the worst, most horrible, stereotypes about Mexicans, especially Mexican Americans. (Lazy, poor, hobos, thieves, drunks, etc.) Now imagine that Steinbeck, our resident white dude), writes an entire cast of lazy, poor, homeless, thieving drunk Mexicans, and tries to pass them off as charming and charismatic protagonists. 

Yeah. To quote Wikipedia:

Tortilla Flat was an immediate hit for Steinbeck’s publisher,Pascal Covici. The film rights were sold and eventually resold before the film version was ever made - in 1942. But Steinbeck discovered that many readers didn’t accept the paisanos with the generosity of vision that he did. They were judged by many to be bums - colourful perhaps, eccentric, but bums nonetheless. This evaluation hurt Steinbeck. In a foreword to a 1937 Modern Library Random House edition of the book, he wrote: “..it did not occur to me that paisanos were curious or quaint, dispossessed or underdoggish. They are people whom I know and like, people who merge successfully with their habitat…good people of laughter and kindness, of honest lusts and direct eyes. If I have done them harm by telling a few of their stories I am sorry. It will never happen again.” This foreword was never reprinted.

Yet criticism has remained. Philip D. Ortego, for example, wrote in 1973: “Few Mexican Americans of Monterey today see themselves inTortilla Flatany more than their predecessors saw themselves in it thirty-four years ago.” Ortego also charged that Mexican Americans do not speak as Steinbeck’s characters do, either in Spanish or English. Arthur C.Pettit (Images of the Mexican American in Fiction and Film, 1980) was equally clear: “Tortilla Flatstands as the clearest example in American literature of the Mexican as jolly savage… [T]his is the book that is most often cited as the prototypical Anglo novel about the Mexican American..the novel contains characters varying little from the most negative Mexican stereotypes.” Susan Shillingshaw quoted Steinbeck critic Louis Owens as saying that Steinbeck “doesn’t offer a great deal to multiculturalism. His treatment of color leaves a lot to be desired. He was a white, middle class male fromSalinas. He was a product of his times.”[1]In his essay,Steinbeck’s Mexican Americans, Charles Metzger largely defended the writer’s views of thepaisanosbut observed the following: “Steinbeck’s portrayal ofpaisanosin Tortilla Flat does not purport to do more than present one kind of Mexican-American, the paisano errant, in one place, Monterey, and at one time, just after World War I.”

Plus, as a side effect of the elevated and dated language, “Jew” and “Jewess” are used as insults towards stingy, greedy characters more than a few times. 

Wallflowers and other kids.

A few months ago, I heard that they were making the novel The Perks of Being a Wallflower. I had heard of the book before, but had never read it, so one day I decided to, in my college’s bookstore. I must have read it in two or three hours. And after I finished it, I was an emotional wreck. There was a heaviness in my chest that I couldn’t get rid of and tears that threatened to roll down my face and this indescribable pain. The kind of pain that you get when you read or hear something that strips away everything you’ve built up to protect yourself and leaves you raw and red.

It wasn’t the first time that something like this had happened.

I watched the movie at a screening earlier this week, no more than 100 feet or so away from where I had originally read it. And it was great. I sang along to nearly every song in the background, laughed at the witty quips on screen, and made comments. And I was fine, until about five minutes later, when I was driving down the interstate after 10pm.

Perks made me think about things that come up every once in a while. To start, why do some books affect us so deeply when others fail to make us blink? Primarily, I think it’s because in all of those stories that make us feel, there is something that we can identify with. There is a character, or a scene, or a quote that just speaks to us and it let’s you know that you’re not alone. That someone understands, even if they have not and never will encounter you. This conclusion that I came to scares me, for good reason.

For as long as I remember, the books that really spoke to me were the ones that were about ‘kids with issues’. The ones like Dirty Liar byBrian James,Define Normal by Julie Anne Peters, You Don’t Know Me by David Klass, and so on. I’d cry because to some level I felt like these fictional people, though in comparison, my life was much better. I hadn’t been sexually abused, physically abused, or had to sacrifice in the face of extreme poverty. But I had pain of my own, emotional pain that was not necessarily dealt with in the best of ways. I even had a spell of depression once, and reoccurring periods of apathy. No one knew about this, I didn’t actually care for people to know about it.

Now, whenever I read books like this it makes me think about things that have happened in the past and evaluate whether I have improved or dealt with my personal problems. It also makes me wonder how my life would have been had certain events not happened to help me change. Would I be like Charlie or Benji at the beginning of the novel?

So this has been just a very long and rambly post. Books make you feel sometimes, and when they do, it’s a good idea to reflect on why. Even when the reasons aren’t that positive. Also, I’m tired of hearing those same two quotes being thrown around. You know the two.

5 Legal Ways To Get Free Textbooks.

political-linguaphile:

howtodropoutofschool:

1. Open Culture:  Not a large a selection, but high quality texts. If you just want to skim a book to brush up on a course you took in ninth grade, download one of these. I have yet to be disappointed.

2. Book Boon: Provides free college-level textbooks in a PDF format. Probably the widest range of subjects on the web. The site is also pretty.

3. Flat World Knowledge: The worlds largest publisher of free and open college textbooks. Humanitie texts are particularly difficult to come by, this site has a great selection in all disciplines.

4. Textbook Revolution:  Some of the books are PDF files, others are viewable online as e-books, or some are simply web sites containing course or multimedia content.

5. Library Pirate: I’ve always had an addiction to torrent based pirating. When this site opened a few months ago, I went a little overboard. After dropping two hundred on a paperback spanish textbook, I downloaded the ebook version illegally. I also got a great Psyc text i’m obsessed with.  It will be interesting to see how this site grows- they already have a great selection. 

College bookstores completely rip off their students, so ALWAYS reblog free textbooks! 

Do you know of a 2013 YA book with LGBTQ main characters?

malindalo:

I’m collecting titles to feature in my upcoming 2013 YA Pride series. Please tell me about any traditionally published, upcoming 2013 LGBT YA titles here on my website. Thank you!

stfuconservatives:

ceasesilence:

fuckyeahneuroscience:

rhaithe:

typingfrantically:

Let me talk to you about books.

Specifically, one book. This book.

This book should be a best seller. This book should be required reading for graduating from high school. Before you get that diploma, you read this book.

This book deals with debunking “Neurosexism,” which is a very fancy term for all of that evolutionary psychology bullshit that people spill about those “brain differences” between boys and girls.

This book debunks such myths as:

  • Boys are better at math than girls
  • Women make crappy lawyers/business CEOs/etc, as their brains are not cut out for aggression.
  • Men make crappy counselors/primary school teachers/primary parents/etc, as their brains are not cut out for empathy.
  • MEN ARE BUILT FOR GOING OUT AND HUNTING WHILE WOMEN ARE BUILT FOR STAYING HOME AND BABYMAKING IT’S NOT SEXISM IT’S JUST BIOLOGY
  • And many other such myths.

Furthermore, this book covers topics such as: 

  • Neurosexism and gender perceptions in multiple races (as this is not a singularly white experience, just as the western world isn’t a singularly white experience)
  • Sex discrimination in the workplace, and how women are (or, more often, are not) allowed to behave
  • How science is used (badly) to support many of these claims
  • Experiences of trans* people, both through interviews and empirical studies.

AND FINALLY - It is all brilliantly researched, cited, compiled - and it’s easy to read! Cordelia Fine actually manages to be funny while writing this, which I think is important, because it makes all of this information infinitely accessible.

Delusions of Gender has reinforced what Oberlin taught me: The gender binary is stupid and arbitrary, and dangerous. And it is a self-perpetuating bias that needs to be addressed to be overcome.

So adding this to my to-read list.

I haven’t read this myself so I can’t give an educated recommendation but looks like something I’d want to have on my never-ending ‘to-read’ list.

Haven’t read it but it looks good.

Adding to my 2013 “books to read” list for sure.

Twelve Days of Fast Fiction, the ebook

neil-gaiman:

wilwheaton:

budgie:

The Twelve Days of Fast Fiction was written between 13th December and 24th December 2012, and even as the stories were being written, I was being asked whether or not the stories would be available as an ebook. 

 So, here it is, in two formats, both in ePub and Kindle (.mobi) versions, both free for download. [Click on the appropriate link.]

You guys, this is amazing. You really want to read Budgie’s book, and IT IS FREE YOU SAVAGES SO GO GET IT.

I should have said what Wil said.

girlsgetbusyzine:

Shocking Pink was a feminist zine put out by a collective of young women in London, including Katy Watson who died in 2008. As the organiser of last year’s Women’s Library described it ‘Shocking Pink, which ran from the late 1980s to early 1990s, billed itself as a “radical magazine for young women”. Part magazine with serious political coverage, part school-club magazine (if your classmates were hot-headed, deliciously witty, rebel grrrls) this magazine pre-dated riot grrrl zines with its fusion of sass, cultural appropriation and sprawling biro-made doodles all over the margins and type face’.

.pdfs of all the Shocking Pinks available here!

readabookson:

https://anonfiles.com/file/37942b7338fbb551a8dc15a07d31ef68

ethiopienne:

There Need to Be More Nonwhite Protagonists

It is often difficult for me to go into the young adult section of a book store. It should be easy. I have about 2 million books for young people in print.

But I know before I turn up the aisle what I will find — shelves of books about young people who look nothing like the ones I write about. The kids on the covers will have great adventures, solve mysteries, wrestle with bullying or save the world again. But these books do not, and cannot tell the full story of America and what all of her children are capable of accomplishing. For this to happen, we need more books about African-American youth and other kids of color.

A few years ago, standing on a high school stage in New Orleans, I was proposed to by a student. It gave us all a good chuckle. But I understood what was happening. The same thing that happens when I, and many other African-American young adult authors visit schools. African-American students, some who may not always feel comfortable discussing literature, find their voices, share their insights and questions, hug and follow us.

In a world where youth of color are often told how much they are lacking, young adult novels about them and their communities tell the rest of the story. The characters aren’t all perfect, but they aren’t all monsters either. And here’s the good news. When African-American characters speak, it gives not just black youth permission to speak and see the value of who they are, but others as well. I will never forget the Caucasian girl who wrote to me saying that a father in one of my novels was her hero. Her parents were divorced and her father absent. She believed that my character gave her the fatherly advice about boys that she was seeking.

When books about African-American youth are not on book shelves, than we all miss out. Not just African-American youth, but this girl and others like her who have come to rely on us to share a unique, universal perspective of teen life that must not be silenced.