favorites (when I was a kid)
BOOKS: Alan Mendelsohn, The Boy from Mars by Daniel Pinkwater; Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt; Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH by Robert C. O’Brien; Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White; Are You There, God? It’s me, Margaret by Judy Blume; the Little House series by Laura Ingalls Wilder; The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle; The Jabberwocky (poem) by Lewis Carroll; the Encyclopedia Brown series by Donald J. Sobol.
ACTIVITIES: BMX racing, plays and musicals in the backyard, dance, gymnastics, reading, roller skating, piano, writing, exploring the creek in our backyard, swimming, detective agency, neighborhood capture the flag, Snoopy anything.
MOVIES & TV: Star Wars (episodes IV-VI), The Secret of NIMH, Grease, Return of the Pink Panther (or any Pink Panther with Peter Sellers), The Sound of Music, Girls Just Want to Have Fun, Ghostbusters, Footloose. Little House on the Prairie, The Cosby Show, Family Ties, The Muppet Show, Battle of the Planets.
MUSIC: Olivia Newton John's Greatest Hits; Grease movie soundtrack; Thriller, Michael Jackson; Purple Rain, Prince; Annie Broadway Musical soundtrack.
PLACES: treehouse; attic of my barn; top of God Mountain in Alum Springs park, Fredericksburg, VA; Guernsey Library.
ACTIVITIES: BMX racing, plays and musicals in the backyard, dance, gymnastics, reading, roller skating, piano, writing, exploring the creek in our backyard, swimming, detective agency, neighborhood capture the flag, Snoopy anything.
MOVIES & TV: Star Wars (episodes IV-VI), The Secret of NIMH, Grease, Return of the Pink Panther (or any Pink Panther with Peter Sellers), The Sound of Music, Girls Just Want to Have Fun, Ghostbusters, Footloose. Little House on the Prairie, The Cosby Show, Family Ties, The Muppet Show, Battle of the Planets.
MUSIC: Olivia Newton John's Greatest Hits; Grease movie soundtrack; Thriller, Michael Jackson; Purple Rain, Prince; Annie Broadway Musical soundtrack.
PLACES: treehouse; attic of my barn; top of God Mountain in Alum Springs park, Fredericksburg, VA; Guernsey Library.
teenage favorites
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BOOKS: Illusions: Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah by Richard Bach; Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes; Waiting for Godot (play) by Samuel Beckett; Forever by Judy Blume; I Never Promised You a Rose Garden by Joanne Greenberg; The Tao of Physics by Fritjof Capra; A Ring of Endless Light by Madeleine L'Engle.
ACTIVITIES: dance, fashion, sewing, driving my 1982 Honda Civic, parties, fine art, drama, writing, bike riding, ice skating, downhill skiing, aerobics, Snoopy anything. MUSIC: Sign O’ the Times, Prince; The Queen is Dead, The Smiths; Violent Femmes, Violent Femmes; Greatest Hits, James Taylor; True Stories, The Talking Heads; Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me, The Cure; Let it Roll, Little Feat; Cosmic Thing, The B-52s; Green, R.E.M.; Legend, Bob Marley & the Wailers. MOVIES & TV: Better Off Dead, Sixteen Candles, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, The Breakfast Club, Alien, Aliens, Dirty Dancing, Back to the Future, Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark. Cheers, Fame, Degrassi, MTV (back when it played music videos). PLACES: the stone quarry, my backyard, the stage, Roger's Conservation Center, bike rides, Guernsey Library. |
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college favorites
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BOOKS: Girl, Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen, Black Elk Speaks: Being a Life Story of a Holy Man of the Oglala Sioux by John G. Neihardt; Storming Heaven by Jay Stevens, Sisterhood is Powerful by Robin Morgan (ed), Home Girls: A Black Feminist Anthology by Barbara Smith (ed), The Natural Mind by Andrew Weil, Circles on the Water by Marge Piercy; Bandit: Dossier of a Dangerous Dog by Vicki Hearne; Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center by bell hooks.
ACTIVITIES: modern dance, grassroots activism, parties, love, journalism, movies, ice skating, downhill skiing, reading, bike riding, hiking, activist meetings and organizations. MUSIC: Puddle Dive and Out of Range, Ani Difranco; Under the Pink, Tori Amos; Nomad, Australian Music International; Snapshot, Judy Small; Greatest Hits, Cat Stevens; Groove Collective, Groove Collective; Friendly Fascism, Consolidated. MOVIES & TV: Pulp Fiction, In the Name of the Father, The Fisher King, The Last of the Mohicans, Dazed and Confused, Fried Green Tomatoes, Reality Bites, Wayne's World, 12 Monkeys. The X-Files, Friends, Beavis & Butthead. PLACES: SUNY-B Nature Preserve, SUNY-B Womyn's Center, the apple orchard, my parents' backyard, the waterfall room, the reserved reading room. |
in my twenties
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BOOKS: Ahab’s Wife by Sara Jeter Naslund; The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver; Prodigal Summer
by Barbara Kingsolver; To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper
Lee; In A Different Voice by Carol Gilligan; Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton; Solar Storms by Linda Hogan; She's Come Undone by Wally Lamb; Annie on my Mind by Nancy Garden.
ACTIVITIES: laughing, travel, ice skating, biking, hiking, good novels, painting, yoga, crafts, alpine skiing, walking my dog, gardening, photography, art, drama, writing. MOVIES & TV: Romeo + Juliet, Good Will Hunting, The Matrix, Clueless, This is Spinal Tap, Party Girl, Babe, My Dinner with Andre, Tank Girl, Annie Hall, Smoke Signals. Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The X-Files. MUSIC: Ani Difranco, Tom Petty, James Brown, Prince, 80s Michael Jackson, Paul Simon, Alanis Morisette, Stevie Wonder, the Diggable Planets, the Fugees, Lauryn Hill. Lots of mix tapes and CDs from friends. PLACES: Rome, San Francisco, almost any mountain, Nova Scotia, Lick Brook near Ithaca, Eno River in Durham, Acadia National Park, Montreal, and my parents' back yard -- where I was married. |
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in my thirties (which I'm still in, thank you very much)
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BOOKS: Maybe Tomorrow by Boori Monty Pryor; all seven books in The Tomorrow series by John Marsden; The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri;
Life of Pi by Yann Martel; The Ashbury/Brookfield series by Jaclyn
Moriarty; The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollen; A Pattern Language
by Christopher Alexander, et. al.; The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini; If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable
Things by Jon McGregor; The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins; Wisdom for a Livable Planet by Carl McDaniel; The Cloudspotter's Guide by Gavin Pretor-Pinney.
ACTIVITIES: laughing, travel, rock climbing, adventure, ice skating, hosting dinner parties, nutrition, mountain biking, hiking, good novels, birdwatching, painting, yoga, style and design. MOVIES & TV: The Fox and the Child, Zoolander, Wedding Crashers, Once. The New Adventures of Old Christine, The Daily Show, Friday Night Lights, Mad Men, Glee, Skins (the U.K. version), 30 Rock, Parks & Rec. MUSICIANS: Ani Difranco, Tom Petty, James Brown, Prince, Nina Simone, Mumford and Sons, The Swell Season, Johnny Cash, 80s Michael Jackson, Paul Simon, Dusty Springfield, Florence and the Machine ... and lots more. PLACES: Australian outback, Rome, Tasmania, San Francisco, almost any mountain, Kangaroo Island, Lick Brook, Eno River, Panthertown Valley National Forest, Adelaide, the woods in the middle of my block, my own back yard. |