Want vs. Need

[rachelmanija]

What would I like to do today? Curl up with any one of the delicious-looking books which have just arrived in my home!

Code Name Verity, by Elizabeth Wein. WWII girl pilots and spies, female friendship, and did I mention that they're WWII girl pilots and spies? This is by one of my favorite authors, and people are saying it's amazing. Please do not spoil. I am sure it has many twists.

Everybody Sees the Ants, by A. S. King. I have no idea what this is other than Sherwood highly recommends it, it was nominated for the Andre Norton Award, and she said that it is very psychological and the less you know before reading, the better. Please do not spoil!

Shadow Ops: Control Point, by Myke Cole. Contemporary military fantasy by an author who did three tours in Iraq. I expect the military details are all very accurate. This looks very enjoyable. Bonus: black protagonist is actually on the cover.

Hiding the Elephant: How Magicians Invented the Impossible and Learned to Disappear. Fun-looking nonfiction.

Unstrange Minds: Remapping the World of Autism. Written by a man with an autistic daughter, it promises to pull in personal accounts, science, history, and culture to explore the increase in or increased awareness of autism.


What do I actually need to do?

Complete an online course in Trauma-Focused CBT. By the way, the course seems very comprehensive, as far as comparatively brief online courses go, and it is free if you register. If you complete it, you get a certificate. It's intended for children who have gone through a traumatic event, but could be adjusted to work with adults. I have to complete the course, produce the certificate, and demo a section in front of the class.

ETA: Also, the therapist and the child can play a game where different names of emotions are written on individual pieces of paper. The therapist and the client take turns picking out one of the pieces of paper out of a box (without showing the other) acting out the emotion and having the other person try to guess the feeling.

My emotions upon imagining myself doing this exercise: horror, embarrassment, anxiety, panic, hysteria, inappropriate laughter, denial, disbelief, doom. Well... I know which section I WON'T be demonstrating to the class!

Please taunt me by discussing the books I have mentioned. No spoilers, please. I will select one to reward myself with when I'm done.

Comments

[terajk]

I haven't read Grinker's book yet, but I've heard very good things about it. /vague as hell

[vass]

acting out the emotion and having the other person try to guess the feeling.

Oh, like this?

[rachelmanija]

HEEEE! Maybe I could just hold up appropriate Eric shots instead.

[kore]

VERITYVERITYVERITY....ahem. Perhaps -- Verity?

[rydra_wong]

My emotions upon imagining myself doing this exercise: horror, embarrassment, anxiety, panic, hysteria, inappropriate laughter, denial, disbelief, doom. Well... I know which section I WON'T be demonstrating to the class!

Speaking as someone with a profound fear of roleplay:

1) This is a lot like some of the techniques used for teaching autistic spectrum kids to recognize facial expressions of emotions.

2) It occurs to me that it could be really, really useful for identifying ways in which a kid's perception of emotions is skewed as a result of trauma -- for example, tending to misread other people's expressions as being angry or threatening.

3) I would still hate to have to do it.

[mme_hardy]

I adored Hiding The Elephant. If you like that sort of thing, you will probably also like his book about Chung Ling Soo, The Glorious Deception: The Double Life of William Robinson, aka Chung Ling Soo, the Marvelous Chinese Conjurer.

"In the boisterous heyday of the vaudeville music hall—an era that featured renowned magicians like Herrmann the Great and Harry Houdini—the mysterious and exotic Chung Ling Soo was considered among the greatest. Thus, his shooting death on a London stage in front of a packed house in 1918 was cause for scandal and rumor. In this affectionate and informed biography, Steinmeyer (Hiding the Elephant) tantalizingly picks along the trail of the magician's life back to his birth—not in China but New York. As a stunned public would discover, Soo was really William Ellsworth Robinson."

[nextian]

I just finished Hiding the Elephant (which was indeed great) and the guy who caught my eye was not Chung Ling Soo but the actual Chinese dude he was imitating--is there much information about him in the book? Or anything about Chinese magic in general?

[mme_hardy]

I read it awhile back, and as I recall the author does talk about Ching Ling Foo, because he has to explain who Chung Ling Soo was basing himself on (and eventually claimed to be the real magician, with CLF the impostor!)

Unless I'm mixing them up (it was a while back) CLF's big trick was producing a large crystal bowl with fish swimming in it. The pistol-ball trick was specific to CLS.

[marzipan-pig.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the tip on the online training - I am intending to check it out!

[ookpik.livejournal.com]

Yes, me too. Rachelmanija: other than that exercise, are you finding the course material useful/interesting ?

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

Yes, actually.

[tool-of-satan.livejournal.com]

I haven't read any of your new books, so I cannot taunt you with discussion of them, alas. I might be able to taunt you by mentioning that I am reading N. K. Jemisin's new book.

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

Killer ninja priests! How is it?

[tool-of-satan.livejournal.com]

It's good so far (I'm about halfway through). It has a much more... mortal scope than the Inheritance Trilogy - not even one god has shown up yet, although there's still time. There is a lot of focus on the killer ninja priests. And the second (and final) book comes out in a few weeks.

[movingfinger.livejournal.com]

Wow, that sounds super good. Summer reading! Yay!!!

[naomikritzer]

I've already told you that you need to read Code Name Verity so let me add to that that "Unstrange Minds" is also excellent. It's really interesting, both from the perspective of things that helped his daughter (French classes!) and the discussion of how autism is seen in other parts of the world (in South Korea, apparently, they're still blaming the mothers).

[telophase.livejournal.com]

Haven't read them yet, but am looking forward to you reviewing Shadow Ops: Control Point, as I read the Kindle sample and while it intrigued me, it wasn't quite enough to tip me over into buying it yet.

[affreca.livejournal.com]

I read Shadow Ops: Control Point a couple of months ago, and moderately enjoyed it. There's several female characters, but they keep to the stereotypical roles of villainess, love interest/healer and innocent teenager. I was interested how military fantasy has moved past the Vietnam era issues of Haldeman and Drake, into War on Terror issues.

[strigine.livejournal.com]

I bought Shadow Ops: Control Point but haven't read it yet. However, I'm surprised I haven't heard much about the fact that his future setting includes "the European Caliphate", i.e. Islam took over Europe. As this is exactly the kind of thing European right-wing groups are agitating about, I find the inclusion of it somewhat off-putting.

[estara.livejournal.com]

Heh. I shall entice you to pick Code Name Verity by telling you two things about it without spoiling anything.

When you read the author's note at the end, you will know my real life name.
If you are a reader who experiences emotions together with the characters, you might want to have a box of tissues on hand.