"Notes From a New Orleans Daughter" - Sheryl St. Germain

I found this piece pretty interesting and was curious to see what it would be like for this white woman to grow up in New Orleans. With her family being so racist its hard to imagine how difficult it must have been. The other voice and style took a different style than what we typically see, she did a lot of telling rather than showing us how she felt. Honestly I didn't think there was that much of a diversified population in Iowa for there to be that much racism, but I did find it interesting when she shared those experiences. 

"Household Words" - Barbara Kingsolver

Kingsolver did a great job with this piece and made great point that our society is very cruel when it comes to the way we treat "homeless" people. More people in the world, especially the United States, could benefit from reading this piece. Kingsolver allowed the audience a little perspective of life as a homeless person. The piece let me reflect on my own actions and actually made me feel like a jerk. Countless times have turned a homeless person away when all they asked for was me to spare some change. Even worse, I can admit to even being afraid of homeless people, always seeing them in such a negative light. Kingsolver made point that I feel most people never think of, how could such poverty exist in one of the richest nations in the world. This piece was very thought provoking and reflective for the audience to not only think of our actions but also to consider while we have all these notions attached to being homeless their is no true definition of what a home is. 

"Notes From a Parallel Universe"

Khan seems to maintain a neutral position through out the essay. She talks about the differences between "real scientists" and "cranks". Reading this through made me laugh a little because my step dad is always talking about "cranks" and how they aren't real scientist and what not. Anyway, thought Khan tries not to make the essay seem as though it is talking about religion (only even mentioning God casually) it feels as thought the underlaying message has to deal with religion and science. Its funny because most people don't favor "cranks" (or at least you think they would) but it seems that even though Kahn tries to stay neutral she favors cranks and you can see this with her ending how she shows and example where a crank was actually right about something. 

The Dead Of Winter

At the start of the story I did not care for the main character that much. Her attitude about her actions were just to calm for my liking. I just felt like she wasn't grasping how serious an abortion is. Though her little boyfriend was no better. But the story developed I started to enjoy the piece. This memoir's illustrations effectively filled in the gaps the writing left behind. I actually felt sad for the teenage girl. The part that hit me the most was seeing the image of a winged baby floating. The piece put a new twist on a topic that has been done so many times before that it often gives the reader the same view point. 

"Uncle Tony's Goat"

I love stories that talk about people's childhood. Whenever I heard/or read about an incident that may have happened to someone when they were younger my mind can't help but wander and allow to me reminisce about my own childhood experiences. Its funny the way she describes the goat, a pretty harmless animal, with such terror. I personally don't care for goats either so I understand; they were probably my least favorite animal at the petting zoo growing up. The story shows that childlike innocence that even though the goat attacked her she worries about what will happen to him. This was a nice piece to read, and Silko did a great job at expressing a variety of feelings children normally feel.

"A Sea Worry"

The title of this piece is really creative and a nice play on words. I love that the parents actually took the time to observed a hobby their son seemed so passionate about, and to wake up so early at that, was incredible. In most children's life parents don't take a big desire or care to see a passion their child has from a first hand account/perspective. Growing up near the beach my entire life I had a lot of guy friends that surfed and her description hit the nail on the head. However, I don't think that not being able to describe something you are passionate about is limited to just surfing. Its often times hard to assign words to feels when deal with something passionate because those words might be able to describe some of the emotions but not all; and you want to make you can describe the feeling to fullest. 

"A Girl Among Trombonists"

Starting the piece with a picture is a great way to get the audience to think about/attract the audience into the piece. The caption below it that states "I was a pioneer: first girl trombonists in my high school." allows the reader to formulate opinions on what they might think the passage is going to be about. Maybe because I'm not a "band geek" nor do I know how to play any instrument but I never really knew that being a female trombonist was such a big deal. However, the characters juvenile approach to feminism shows that at the time she probably wasn't truly a feminist, rather just what she though a feminist was. The scene where she describes being felt up by male members of the band but her not seeing the big deal in it, rather they were just practicing because their girlfriends weren't letting them seems to lack some logic to me. Overall it was a nicely written piece and provided some insight on a topic I had no prior knowledge about.