12 of 12! December Book Pick - Our Last Book of the Year!

I honestly cannot believe the year is coming to an end and we are about to start our final book in our year-long reading challenge! The group started as a random idea I had with a friend because we are both avid readers who loved to discuss books but never aligned our readings so we could discuss the same book at the same time. Initially, we decided to read one book a month together just for the sake of discussion. Then we figured a few more of our friends would like to join in. After a lot of excitement from our group of friends and more and more people expressing interest, I decided to make it an open Facebook group where people could join in as they pleased. I never imagined that I would make it through a whole year of running the club but I am so happy I have. Even if no one else is reading along with me (although I really hope you are!) I have come to appreciate the self-placed responsibility I have to finish books, post discussion questions and keep the challenge alive. I hope you have enjoyed being a part of the group! I definitely want to continue the book club into 2014 but maybe incorporate some twists, like theme months, rotating discussion leaders, etc. I will post about this in our Facebook group in the coming weeks so we can come up with a new challenge for the new year! 

For now, discussion for I Am Malala is now open and I look forward to hearing your thoughts! Our December book has also been chosen:

This Is How You Lose Her by Junot Diaz is our final book pick for 2013. Diaz is an amazing author who writes complex and interesting characters. I am definitely excited to read his latest gem! Here is the summary from Amazon:

"Pulitzer Prize-winner Junot Díaz’s first book, Drown, established him as a major new writer with “the dispassionate eye of a journalist and the tongue of a poet” (Newsweek). His first novel, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, was named #1 Fiction Book of the Year” byTime magazine and spent more than 100 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list, establishing itself – with more than a million copies in print – as a modern classic. In addition to the Pulitzer, Díaz has won a host of major awards and prizes, including the National Book Critic’s Circle Award, the PEN/Malamud Award, the PEN/O. Henry Prize, the Dayton Literary Peace Prize, and the Anisfield-Wolf Award.

 Now Díaz turns his remarkable talent to the haunting, impossible power of love – obsessive love, illicit love, fading love, maternal love. On a beach in the Dominican Republic, a doomed relationship flounders. In the heat of a hospital laundry room in New Jersey, a woman does her lover’s washing and thinks about his wife. In Boston, a man buys his love child, his only son, a first baseball bat and glove. At the heart of these stories is the irrepressible, irresistible Yunior, a young hardhead whose longing for love is equaled only by his recklessness--and by the extraordinary women he loves and loses: artistic Alma; the aging Miss Lora; Magdalena, who thinks all Dominican men are cheaters; and the love of his life, whose heartbreak ultimately becomes his own. In prose that is endlessly energetic, inventive, tender, and funny, the stories in the New York Times-Bestselling This Is How You Lose Her lay bare the infinite longing and inevitable weakness of the human heart. They remind us that passion always triumphs over experience, and that “the half-life of love is forever.”

December book pick: This Is How You Lose Her by Junot Diaz

Discussion opens: December 24th 

Happy Thanksgiving! 

HBIC on the run!

As I mentioned a few weeks ago, I like to set annual goals for myself at the beginning of each year. The first goal I wrote about was to read more, and since creating a plan on how to accomplish that, the HBIC Book Club was born (and so far is a huge success, if you have been meaning to join then please do! All the info is available in our Facebook group). My second, and much more daunting, goal of 2013 is to run a full marathon. I actually did this in 2012 but I split it between 2 half-marathons about 6 months apart. This time I plan to run the full 26.2 miles all on the same day! It is going to be a huge challenge, physically and mentally, but I am looking forward to it and hope it will prove to be as transformative as my first race was.

One of the things I love about races is that somehow history has linked running and philanthropy. Running this marathon gives me a great excuse to raise money for an important cause and provides my friends and family a concrete reason, albeit somewhat detached from rationale, to give my cause money. You can call it guilt, you can call it support, you can call it a tax-deducation. Now it may seem selfish that I ask you to donate money to my cause just because I have made the personal choice to accomplish a specific task in my life but I ask you to consider how many gifts you have given to other women for accomplishing other milestones in life (marriage, baby, etc.) At least running a marathon is not steeped in centuries old patriarchal tradition that celebrates ownership and subjugation of women. Plus, I am not registering for 30 different types of salad bowls or a Tiffany & Co. cake knife. But let's not get distracted from the matter at hand. 

I have run for a variety of other causes in races past but none have been as close to my heart as this, this year I am running and raising for the Alliance for Lupus Research. One of my best friends from college, Julia, has lupus, and I want to honor the person she is, the struggle she has had, and the many lessons she has taught me. I know that I am a better person because Julia is in my life and if anything can give me the strength to run 26.2 freakin' miles (besides the quest for a rock hard ass) is the value I place on my friendships. When I say that being friends with Julia has taught me to be a better person, I actually mean that and it is not just some sappy remark to make this post more interesting. When I first met her I hated her. I knew nothing about her except that she had killer style, all my friends loved her and she was just as big of a bitch as me. This was back when I flew my "I am a mean and judgmental bitch" flag high and proud, but only did so to cover up my own insecurities. After constant urging from our mutual friends and a bonding over Harry Potter I finally let my guard down and quickly learned that this girl was someone who shared my interests and tribulations, my confidence and my uncertainties. This realization taught me that by trying to "protect" myself by holding everyone at arm's length I was really missing out on amazing experiences and relationships. Over the years we have been able to understand each other in a way that our other best friends are simply not able to. We are more similar than either of us ever knew (and maybe that is why I perceived her as such a threat) but I take great comfort in knowing that when I am hurt or confused about something and I don't know how to explain my own feelings, it doesn't matter because my best friend knows exactly how I feel. We have shared countless conversations where I just knew she knew what I was talking about, even though I could barely put my thoughts together in my own head. She was and continues to be a mastermind behind the HBIC Movement and her genius inspires me everyday. Plus she is super hot and still has killer style.

While I don't feel it is appropriate to divulge all the details of her disease I want to share some brief information, mainly since many of us probably have little knowledge about lupus. Following other health problems in high school, Julia was diagnosed with lupus, an autoimmune disease that can attack any organ in the body, at age 21. Her symptoms included extreme fatigue, inability to concentrate and arthritic symptoms. Following treatment with injectable chemotherapeutic agents, she went into remission. This fall, at the age of 26, Julia developed severe arthritic symptoms with inflammation. In addition to attacking her joints, Julia's body was now attacking her kidneys, causing inflammation and threatening permanent damage to the kidneys. A kidney biopsy confirmed a diagnoses of lupus nephritis. She is presently on a variety of harsh, fucked-up medications, all of which can cause various fucked-up side effects. She is the healthiest person I know and does all that she can to help her body (another inspiring part about being her friend). Watching her go through another flare-up was scary but her strength and perseverance were truly inspirational. So today on her 27th birthday, I kick off my marathon training and my fundraising campaign for the Alliance for Lupus Research and for my friend. If you are so inclined (and after an emotional outpouring like this who wouldn't be??) then please donate to my campaign. My goal is to raise $1000 by my race on May 18th. More info on ALR can be found here including lots of details about lupus, their research and their finances.



I will continue to update you on my marathon training progress, as there are sure to be hilarious missteps on my part.


And to my best friend, Happy Birthday and thank you for everything you are.   

Is Susan G. Komen Confused?

I love nonprofit organizations. I believe in their existence and purpose within our greater capitalist society. I whole-heartedly support nonprofits because they are above the bottom line. They do not exist to make profit, at the expense of others. They are created and fueled by passion and compassion for other humans, living creatures and the environment. So when nonprofits choose to team up with the (evil) for-profit sector, even to promote and support their cause, I am always worried. I do believe that nonprofit/for-profit partnerships can be positive. Often times they raise much needed funds for the nonprofit organization and also give the heartless corporate sector a little taste of philanthropy and humanity, which is severely needed. BUT, sometimes it just does not make sense. Case in point, The Susan G. Komen for a Cure Foundation has recently teamed up with KFC in a new promotional campaign called "Buckets for the Cure". Is the absurdity of this partnership obvious to anyone else?! One would think that the intelligent folks over at Komen would understand the connections between healthy eating, obesity, and breast cancer. But, apparently not. Now Americans can completely ignore the toxic bucket of chicken they are feeding their families, because they are supporting the cure. It is like trading guilt for that warm fuzzy feeling you get when you donate to charities.
The Komen foundation is not new to partnerships with large corporations that do not exactly support healthy, cancer-preventing lifestyles (Campbell's Soups, Coca-Cola, etc.) but KFC has to be the worse yet. I am all for the support of cancer research but cannot support this campaign (and do not plan on ever eating at KFC). The "Buckets for the Cure" is a contradiction in itself and is embarrassing for the Susan G. Komen for a Cure Foundation.

Check out a recent Weighty Matters blog posting for a more in depth analysis of the campaign and it's irony.