Elegant Vs. Ugly Sweaters

Yes, I have to do it, for knitters/crocheters & crafters everywhere! When people think of homemade sweaters they cringe and think of those hideous things grandma used to make. Well let me tell you people, there is such thing as a beautiful homemade sweater, and in fact many of us can make some beautiful, wearable (in public) sweaters. However, let's take a moment to make sure that everyone (even the crafters who think they make beautiful sweaters, but sadly do not) understands the difference between something that can be worn beautifully in public, and something best hidden in the deep depths of the closet - or saved for an ugly sweater party, where you can purposefully spill wine on it.

Example 1:

 Example 2:

Example 3:

Example 4:

I hope that after that we are all clear, especially those pigs? Really? What is wrong with people sweaters should be an expression of art, not Orson Welles' Animal Farm. Any questions?

Multicultural Life Experience Novel: Book List

So, some people know that this Fall I was taking two independent studies, one of which was an independent study by the name of the title of this blog. I proposed the topic, and them we dove in. I read roughly a novel a week all semester. The main idea of this independent study was to read novels about people from different places, in order to learn more about their culture. The novels were selected based on the author's "author-ity" to write about said culture. In short, I didn't want to read a book about Costa Rica by a person who visited Costa Rica once for a week. I wanted to read about real people from real places. That being said, keep in mind that one must never assume that one personal life experience from one place, will be the same for another individual in the same place. People growing up in the same area may tell very different stories based on their lives, circumstances, and means.

I highly recommend all of the books on this list, I learned a lot.

Book List:

White Teeth by Zadie Smith
In Cuba I Was A German Shepard by Ana Menendez
Green Grass Running Water by Thomas King
The Human Stain by Philip Roth
Native Speaker by Chang-Rae Lee
Corregidora by Gayl Jones
Property by Valerie Martin
The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts by Maxine Hong Kingston (Coming this Spring to the Writer's Conference at UND)
The Death of Jim Loney by James Welch
Tropic of Orange by Karen Tei Yamashita

Books on the list that we didn't get to but I would still recommend:

The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight In Heaven by Sherman Alexie
Caramelo by Sandra Cisneros
Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight by Alexandra Fuller
Geographies of Home by Loida Maritza Perez (also coming to the Spring Writer's conference)
Persian Girls: A Memoir by Nahid Rachlin