Well, Uh, I Don't Know

Not About Books.

2012-01-02T19:39:00.000-08:00

I read this, today, on one of my favorite blogs. Jenny Lawson, a broad with whom I would like to drink gin, shared a beautiful, heart wrenching, bare to the bones post about her fight against depression and anxiety disorder. I have nothing to add to it except this: me too.

Here it is. Thanks Bloggess. Read the entire post here:

If you follow me on twitter you already know that I’ve been battling off one of the most severe bouts of depression I’ve ever had. Yesterday it started to pass, and for the first time in weeks I cried with relief instead of with hopelessness. Depression can be crippling, and deadly. I’m lucky that it’s a rare thing for me, and that I have a support system to lean on. I’m lucky that I’ve learned that depression lies to you, and that you should never listen to it, in spite of how persuasive it is at the time.

When cancer sufferers fight, recover, and go into remission we laud their bravery. We call them survivors. Because they are.

When depression sufferers fight, recover and go into remission we seldom even know, simply because so many suffer in the dark…ashamed to admit something they see as a personal weakness…afraid that people will worry, and more afraid that they won’t. We find ourselves unable to do anything but cling to the couch and force ourselves to breathe.

When you come out of the grips of a depression there is an incredible relief, but not one you feel allowed to celebrate. Instead, the feeling of victory is replaced with anxiety that it will happen again, and with shame and vulnerability when you see how your illness affected your family, your work, everything left untouched while you struggled to survive. We come back to life thinner, paler, weaker…but as survivors. Survivors who don’t get pats on the back from coworkers who congratulate them on making it. Survivors who wake to more work than before because their friends and family are exhausted from helping them fight a battle they may not even understand.

Regardless, today I feel proud. I survived. And I celebrate every one of you reading this. I celebrate the fact that you’ve fought your battle and continue to win. I celebrate the fact that you may not understand the battle, but you pick up the baton dropped by someone you love until they can carry it again. I celebrate the fact that each time we go through this, we get a little stronger. We learn new tricks on the battlefield. We learn them in terrible ways, but we use them. We don’t struggle in vain.

We win.

We are alive.

Note: Again, as much as I would love to write this movingly, this is not my work and was originally posted on www.thebloggess.com. She's amazing. And funny. Read her blog.

Broads with whom I would drink gin.

2011-12-09T08:46:00.001-08:00

I think Kristin Chenoweth and I should be BFF's.

In fact, if I could have a cocktail party with some famous women, she would top the list.

She and Bette Midler.

And Dolly Parton. Shoot, Olympia Dukakis could come too, if she wasn't busy.

For that matter, most anyone in the cast of "Steel Magnolias" would be welcome. Daryl Hannah might have to bring some gin. I always seem to run out.

And as long as we are completely ignoring all sense of reality, I would love for Eleanor Roosevelt to stop by. She'd be a hoot. We'd definitely need more gin. Bring two bottles, Daryl.

While we're at it, let's just send an invite to Rita Moreno, Julia Child and Jenny Lawson, too. If you haven't read Jenny's blog, The Bloggess, you need to. I really mean it. I hope she wears her wolf suit to the party. That would rock like a hurricane.

Added to the list, just recently, is Ree Drummond. She is more widely known at the Pioneer Woman and her blog often leaves me with tears running down my cheeks from laughing and drool dribbling off of my chin from her delicious recipes. I read her adorable memior, "Black Heels and Tractor Wheels", on my 20th anniversary weekend with my fabulous husband. He doesn't like to talk while he drives. I get more than a little antsy if there is more than 5 minutes of unoccupied silence. I have to read in order to stay married and not dropped on the side of the road somewhere. It's for my own good.

"Black Heels and Tractor Wheels" is a sweet, sweet story of how she and her husband met, fell in love and married. Sweet, sweet, sweet. My poor husband had to listen to me oohing and ahhing the entire drive. Poor guy.

Relationship Advice from Winston Churchill

2011-12-07T18:37:00.001-08:00

It's been a long while since I've visited WUIDK (Dude, I think I just created a catchphrase! Nevermind. Scratch that. There's no such thing as a "dk" dipthong.) Awesome catchphrases aside, just because I haven't been posting, does not mean that I haven't been reading. The "Owen" project is going slowly but steadily. Right now I am SLOGGING through a book written in 1899 by Winston Churchill (but not THAT Winston Churchill) about pre-Revolutionary War America. It's fiction. Richard Carvel is the title. Apparently, this Winston Churchill attended the Naval Academy, worked for Cosmopolitan Magazine (yes, THAT Cosmopolitan Magazine) and wrote historical fiction.

Wouldn't it be awesome, though, if the non-historical fiction writing Winston Churchill worked for Cosmo? Couldn't you just SEE the teasers? "Never, never, never give up . . . pleasing your man!" Or "Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference . . . in bed!" Or what about "Continuous effort - not strength or intelligence - is the key to unlocking our potential. Your man will thank us for this!".

My mind reels.

In any case, I've got a couple of books on my nightstand right now. I'll try to post when I can.

Note: I have been reading a great many blogs these days (Damn you, Pinterest!) and I feel I must apologize that I do not have any of those fancy picture making skills that so many of my favorite bloggers have. I just have words. Maybe if you pulled out a box of crayons every time you read my tiny offerings, that would suffice? Let me know how that works out.

2011-07-31T20:32:00.000-07:00

When I was a young girl, I read every book in my house. My mother was a reader and loved books. So was I. I still am. During the summers I would go to the library and pick up the "Recommended Reading" pamphlets and make a goal to start at the top of the list and read every book. Needless to say, I'm not super motivated by goals, and my literary mission would soon fall by the wayside and I fell back to re-reading the stacks in my own little collection. Story of my life.

A book that was ALWAYS included in those reading lists was "A Tree Grows In Brooklyn"

by Betty Smith. How could I have missed out on this book, especially since the title starts with "A"? Was I that lazy that I quit so shortly after starting? How is it that I survived my navel gazing, woe is me teen years without reading the WONDERFUL story of Francie Nolan? Born in 1901, the story follows Francie throughout her childhood in turn of the century Brooklyn, living in the poverty that was pervasive for immigrant families. Unflinching and honest, yet respectful and never vulgar, this book tackles subjects I'm sure were uncomfortable to its contemporary audience: sex, alcoholism, poverty and prejudice. The voices are plain and real and compelling. I honestly looked forward to picking it up every evening and was sad when the last page turned. Beautiful, amazing, lovely.

2011-07-25T14:02:00.000-07:00

In my last post I mentioned that I was going to read a book called "Image of Josephine" by Booth Tarkington. I was excited because who wouldn't want to read something by an author with such a FABULOUS name? I mean, really, Booth Tarkington? That sounds so old Hollywood, so morning talk show host that no matter how crap the book ended up, one just has to check it out. So I did.

The plot is of a young soldier, sent home from the front to recuperate as, get this, an assistant curator in an art museum. Apparently, his doctor thought it to be a place where he would experience quiet and stable work and, thus, be healed from whatever awful experience he had in battle. He shows up to the museum and gets to work. He meets the staff, including his supervisor, a lovely and intelligent woman named Helena Jyre. He also meets a royal beeatch, Josephine Oaklin, the granddaughter of the museum's founder. Oaklin is en fuego most of the time because she feels that no one on the museum staff is qualified to do anything because, while they are educated in the subject, they do not understand ART. And she does. Better than anyone. Ever. Nyah, nyah, nyah. She rages and taunts and makes intentional efforts to thwart anyone's work that does not align perfectly with her vision. She is manipulative and nasty and just plain mean. The soldier finds out that she is distantly related to the queen bee and ends up in her plot to get her own way, no matter what.

Basically, this book read like the plot of a movie, complete with a twist ending and well placed soliloquies about the nature of ART. Perfect for a book by a guy named Booth Tarkington. I should probably start working on the screenplay. Cameron Diaz should play Josephine Oaklin. She could pull off the self-righteous shrew role pretty darn well. Wait, oh crap, she has already done this role in "Bad Teacher". Would hate to typecast the girl.

2011-07-05T12:07:00.000-07:00

During World War II, the British Fourteenth Army and the 1st Air Commando Group of the United States Air Force joined to fight the Japanese Army in what was called the Burma Campaign. This unit was established in response to President Franklin D. Roosevelt's 1943 introduction to Brigadier Orde Wingate's vision of what could be done in Burma with proper air support. The U.S. Air Force created the 5318th Air Unit and in March 1944, they were designated the 1st Air Commando Group. Colonels John Alison and Philip Cochran were chosen as co-commanders of the unit. This unit was only in existence for one year as it was disbanded in 1945. The book, Road To Mandalay by Lowell Thomas is the story of that British and American collaboration. Reading this book felt like it took longer than the entire campaign. It would be an excellent read for military history buffs and fans of the gameRisk.

I am grateful that I read this as the whole point of the "Owen Reading Project" is to get to know my grandfather better through the books he had on his shelves. Really, though, when I saw the title, I was hoping for more of story like the old Bob Hope/Bing Crosby "On the Road" movies. Now those were fun.

Next on the nightstand: Image of Josephine by Booth Tarkington. I'm excited simply because the author's name is Booth Tarkington. How could you go wrong with a name like that?

2011-01-11T19:18:00.000-08:00

The Next Great Lifetime Movie

This novel, Long Week End by Harlow Estes made its debut in 1941, long before the advent of what I like to call the Lifetime Movie genre of story. These are stories filled with tearful drama, unimaginable tragedy and, usually, a pretty tidy ending. Often they star Valerie Bertinelli or Nancy McKeon. There are women done wrong, women misunderstood and women in love with the wrong man. There is usually some kind of romance. Or murder. Or suicide. Or appletini's. Sometimes there are all of the above. This is that kind of story.

This book started out promisingly enough with a description of the protagonist, Livvy. On the train ride to visit her gentleman friend Ames Chelsea, and his family, for a long weekend, she self-reflects that "she had experimented wth subtlety a few times; she wouldn't again, ever; the results had been frightful." Loved that description. Definitely, it would be my new life motto had I ever been subtle. It was my favorite part.

It was on page three.

There were 310 pages.

Sigh.

2011-01-05T15:40:00.000-08:00

They Had Trashy Novels Way Back When?

Next in the pile was Tides of Mont St. Michel by Roger Vercel. Here's the summary that was printed on the inside of the front and back covers:

This is the Abbey of Mont S. Michel -- crowning glory of mediaeval architecture. Not only a shrine, it is also a fortress set boldly on a great rock in the Atlantic Ocean. At low tide the causeway to the French mainland ios passable; at high tide the water submerges it, and the Abbey becomes an island.

This modern novel tells of a drama enacted within the stone walls of the incredible structure that man and nature have created here -- a drama of a man and a woman, of strong opposing forces and of lofty aspiration

The one thought I had upon finishing this book: I had no idea they used the word "slut" so liberally in 1938.

2010-12-12T22:42:00.000-08:00

Opening Lines Are Tough

Now that I've gotten myself into this mess, I suppose I should get started. I've begun working my way through Owen's Library. I was hoping for some surprises and I've already gotten a few! None of the books were empty shells hiding large sums of cash between the covers. That would have been a great surprise, no? I have, however, come across a book or two that have been pretty darn great and enjoyable reads to boot. Surprise! Way better surprises than those times when I catch myself in the mirror and think "Who is that old woman in my house?" and then realize that it's me. Now there's a shocking moment. I often need to sit down when that happens to catch my breath.

While we're on the subject of sitting down (Sally Segue, that's me!), I have had the chance to sit down with banker's box #1 and am ready to share what's inside. Here goes:

1. My Name is Asher Lev by Chaim Potok

Asher Lev is a young boy, an Orthodox Jew, living with his mother and father, both of whom work for the influential rabbi of their community. Asher is a gifted artist, seeing his world through a lens that puts him in direct opposition to his community and to his family. As he grows to adulthood, the tension between his gift and his familiar world becomes tighter and tighter until he must make a choice between the two.
Did I like this book? It was interesting. I am glad I read it. Is it one that I would read again? Probably not. There were scenes that I might go back to, but I don't think I would re-read the whole book. Am I interested in keeping this in my library? Not so much. Would I recommend it? If you read Potok's more famous works The Chosen or The Promise and enjoyed those works, then you very well might enjoy this one as well. Incidentally, I was reading about Chaim Potok and saw that he had written a sequel to Asher Lev called The Gift of Asher Lev. I think I might put that one on the library list. I'm interested to see where Asher Lev ends up.

2010-12-06T20:44:00.000-08:00

Owen’s Library

My grandfather, Owen, was a great collector of many things. Paintings, tools (functional and not), costume jewelry, anything that might attract large amounts of dust, people who loved him, more dusty things and books. Granted, that is only a partial and inconclusive list, I must assume that the picture has been painted. After his death, my amazing aunts and uncles, along with numerous cousins and my pretty great brother, began the mountainous task of cleaning out his houses. It is taking a long time and much work, plenty of tears and even more laughter. One of the big questions is “what to do with ALL those books?”.

I have decided to take on that task. I don’t know what will eventually happen to the boxes and boxes (and boxes) of books. Will I be able to find a buyer; who buys old books these the days of Kindles and E-readers? Will I donate them? If that is indeed the case, who would want 30 plus bankers boxes of pre-1970 books? I can guarantee that none of these are from Oprah’s bookclub or have sparkly vampires as protagonists. What I can say, without hesitation, is that I am going to read as many of them as I am able. This is how I am going to honor my wonderful granddad, I am going to spend time lovingly paying attention to something he collected and valued.

Thus I am turning my blog over, for the time being, to cataloging those books I encounter on my journey. I expect some to be dry and dull, my grandfather was a military man and I have a relatively short attention span for minute detail. I hope there are some that surprise me. But most of all, I hope that I am able to spend even a little bit of every day remembering an extraordinary man by doing what I love more than most anything: reading.

2010-11-04T07:53:00.000-07:00

Bittersweet: Thoughts on Change, Grace, and Learning the Hard Way by Shauna Niequist

I found this book to be a whole lot more sweet than it was bitter. The trials that this young woman so honestly and genuinely shares are most certainly real and are most certainly painful for the author. The lessons she derives from each of those times are insightful and innocently wise. I found myself smiling, often, at her youth as she shared her life stories. Being 25 and full of life to share, advice to give and stories to tell is indeed a sweet thing.

2010-04-27T17:27:00.001-07:00

You Suck: A Love Story by Christopher Moore
It didn't. Strange. Funny. Vampire-y. Christopher Moore is an acquired taste, however. Kind of like vegemite. Or gin.

Here's what the author has to say about the current vampire trend. I like his style. There will be more from him later. Not necessarily about vampires though, just random awesomeness.

"Stephenie Meyer: Her vampires are sparkly, which I think we can all agree is wrong."
— Christopher Moore

2010-03-31T20:39:00.000-07:00

I'll own it.

I was way obnoxious at Costco yesterday.

Here's what happened:

It started out as an innocent shopping trip with my friend Karen. We were being efficient shoppers, staying to our lists and zipping down those aisles as fast as the extraordinarily heavy carts would let us. Seriously, those carts are HEAVY! They're heavy even before you put anything in them. Add 144 jars of peanut butter and a case of water and, shoot, you've got one heck of a job as pusher. Olympic bobsled teams should train at Costco.

Then we got to the book aisle.

It's like the La Brea Tar Pits and just like a mastadon bogged down in the tar, I get stuck in the pit of inexpensive and Oprah recommended books. I can't just walk on by. Oh no, I have to stop and be more than a little obnoxious. Hard to believe, I know, because normally I'm the picture of gentility and grace.

You might want to clean the vomit off the floor before you leave the room. Someone might slip and fall. I don't want to be held accountable for any injury.

Meanwhile, back at Costco, I start playing the"Read That, Didn't Read That, Won't Read That, You Should Really Read That" game. I also like to play that game at BevMo, but substituting the word "Drink" for "Read". It's charming.

Apparently I have a voice that carries because after one round of the game, I accrue an audience. No, really, several people come over to our side of the gigantic table and watch which books I point too. Then they ask my opinion.

Silly people. They have no idea the Pandora's Box they have just opened. The only difference are my Furies are either hard bound or paperback. That and they don't destroy things unless you throw them but that is an entirely different post for much later.

I gladly hold court on the aisle of cheap paperbacks for a few moments while my wonderful, long suffering friend waits patiently with our basket of bread, bagels and economy sized cereal boxes. I don't know why she puts up with me.

Clearly I need to find place to work my book suggesting magic. Anyone want to pay me? I'll work for cheap. I do love those Costco hot dogs. They're cheap.

2010-03-30T15:06:00.000-07:00

3 Things I Realized When I Finished Reading Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell

1. It's a very good thing that I did not major in business or any other business type concentration. Or law. Or medicine. Or computer science.

2. When it comes to success, some people are just luckier than others. The rest of us get to buy books about the lucky ones. Lucky us.

3. I might feel really horrible about how unlucky I am if I had the same definition of success as the author of this book. Good thing I don't.

2010-03-29T17:47:00.000-07:00

I'm still working my way through Cutting for Stone (Vintage) by Abraham Verghese. It's a very long book. Did you know that Ethiopia has a strong Italian influence, especially in the years following World War II? I didn't. I learn so much from reading.

2010-03-25T20:30:00.000-07:00

I sometimes think that God might be a librarian.

For some time now I've been thinking a lot about heaven; what happens after our bodies are done working. If heaven exists, what is it like? Is it the "pearly gates, streets of gold" thing that I was taught about in Sunday School? Is it a specific place? Will I get bored? How long is eternity anyway? Will Ben & Jerry's be served? I hope so, I love that Cherry Garcia. There is a new flavor called Maple Blondie that is pretty darn awesome too. That would be so cool to eat Maple Blondie ice cream in heaven. I wonder if Jesus will want a bowl? He might have to get his own pint. I don't know if I'll want to share, even in my heavenly state of wonderfulness. Ice cream is a pretty personal thing.

Wait, where was I? Heaven and librarians. In any case, I've been thinking about heaven for a while now. I have spoken at a women's retreat about longing for heaven. I find myself wishing and wondering about the whole thing more often than I think might be normal. Given my recent streams of thought, I thought it interesting when I opened my most recent read, Cutting for Stone (Vintage) and the epigraph (A poem that the author chooses to use to lead the reader into his book. Thanks Lita, you are a wonder woman of all things literary! What color shall I make your cape or would you prefer a tiara?) is a wonderful poem by Rabindranath Tagore that reads:

And because I love this life

I know I shall love death as well.

The child cries out when

From the right breast the mother

Takes it away, in the very next moment

To find in the left one

Its consolation.

Funny that I should be thinking about life after death and the very first thing I read in a randomly chosen novel is this poem.

The other book I picked up that very same trip, just because I love the author, not because I was looking for books on the subject: Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church by N.T. Wright. Is is way too geeky to have a favorite theologian?

God is many, many things. Creator, protector, redeemer . . . librarian.

2010-03-24T22:13:00.000-07:00

Just breathing.

Thanks Eddie Vedder for the reminder.

Love that song.

Watch a great version here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eo-UKCxCglg

Eddie? Would it be weird if I told you that I have a mad crush on you? I loved you in Singles. You, Matt Dillon and Campbell Scott all in the same movie at the same time? Oh, and that guy who played the cute professor on Thirtysomething. Bridget Fonda is pretty cute too. But you're my favorite. Glad we're growing old together.

On second thought, it would be weird. Never mind.

2010-03-17T19:53:00.000-07:00

Last night I attended a Taize service at a local church. We entered the church, which was completely dark, lit only by candles at the front and the back of the sanctuary. We were given an order of worship, copies of the songs to be sung and a tiny flashlight so we could read both. I love flashlights. It was all I could do to keep myself from switching it on and off the entire service. I exercised incredible self-control. Praise God for small miracles.

The service was beautiful. There were large periods of silence interspersed with short chants led by a woman with a clear and beautiful voice. There were times to pray silently, to pray aloud and to light candles as an expression of worship. As my singing voice is sketchy at best and Latin isn't a language I jump easily into, I spent most of the time in silent contemplation. I found myself praying that God would remove all the worry and burden and sadness that seems to be holding me back from being the woman I know deep in my heart that I am supposed to be. There's a whole lot of all that stuff. God might need a forklift to haul it all away. It will probably take several trips. Lots of worry. Lots of sadness. Heavy burdens.

As much as I would like to say that there was some supernatural lifting of my spirit and I left empowered and changed, I left pretty much the same girl as I was when I walked in. I wasn't disappointed. I just wasn't transformed in a dramatic way. No big deal.

I woke up today, went for a run, stopped off at the market, baked a cake and then sat down for lunch. Tuna salad. Yum. I do like to read while I eat if I'm home alone and today was a day to start a new book. Cutting for Stone (Vintage) by Abraham Verghese is my latest read. I'm on page 13. It's amazing. I'm sure there will be many entries about this book. I more than kind of think I was supposed to start this book today, especially after my Taize experience last night. Here's why.

Marion is an orphaned boy in Addis Ababa, Ethiopa. He goes to Matron, "Missing Hospital's wise and sensible leader" (Verghese, 3) for guidance. She advises him to do the hardest thing he could possibly do as his life's work. When he questions her advice she tells him, and this is the part that stopped my tuna salad laden fork in awe of timing and providence, "Because, Marion, you are an instrument of God. Don't leave the instrument sitting in its case, my son. Play! Leave no part of your instrument unexplored. Why settle for 'Three Blind Mice' when you can play the 'Gloria'?" (page 6)

Marion takes her literally, protesting that he can't play any musical instrument, so how could he possibly play Bach's beautiful "Gloria".

Hold on.

Here comes the part I love.

The Matron tells him "'No Marion,' she said, her gaze soft, reaching for me, her gnarled hands rough on my cheeks. 'No, not Bach's Gloria. Yours! Your Gloria lives within you. The greatest sin is not finding it, ignoring what God made possible in you.'" (page 6)

Not Bach's "Gloria" but mine.

I have to think about this more.

I think I use too many words to be a blogger.

2010-03-16T18:10:00.000-07:00

Still working on Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell. Now not only do you need to be supernaturally lucky in order to be "successful", but you need to be in the upper middle class with highly educated, overly involved parents. Hmmm. Oh, and you need to have been born in very specific years, depending upon your area of specialty. Yikes. I'm more than kind of screwed.

In other news, just finished a sweet little novel called Austenland: A Novel by Shannon Hale, about a young woman who spends three weeks at a Jane Austen themed camp like thing. I would call it an Austen-immersion program maybe? Very sweet. A quick read. Made me want to go on a three week vacation to anywhere. I wonder what literary vacation I would choose to be immersed in. Most likely not Beowolf. Hmmm. What would you choose?

2010-03-12T19:36:00.000-08:00

In my last post I asked, rhetorically of course, about the nature of success. As it would happen, I was listening to "Morning Edition" on NPR this morning and the Rabbi Harold Kushner was being interviewed and he mentioned a book he had written in 2007 called Overcoming Life's Disappointments. He talked for a bit about how our culture has linked power with success and what happens to us when our lives do not turn out the way we had planned them. I will be reading this book. I wonder if it is on Itunes as an audio book. I may have to listen to it tonight. Amazing how God works.

2010-03-10T20:51:00.000-08:00

Upon suggestion from two friends, I've started reading a book called Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell. Granted I've only read the first few chapters, but what I can surmise so far is that his premise is that success lies mainly in the hands of luck. Some people get those extraordinary opportunities and some don't. Yes, what one does with said opportunities plays a huge factor in the person's success, but the mitigating factor is the lucky chance that just happens to land in one's lap. As a spectacularly unlucky person, I am guessing that Mr. Gladwell's response to my apparent lack of success would be a big ol' "sucks to be you." Huh.

I am interested to read the rest of this book in hopes that it doesn't turn out that way. What it has made me think of, however, is how I define success. What does successful look like? Can it be whittled down to strokes of luck? Can an "unlucky" person who never gets that big break be considered successful?

2010-03-04T20:49:00.000-08:00

"Life forms illogical patterns. It is haphazard and full of beauties which I try to catch as they fly by, for who knows whether any of them will ever return?"
~Margot Fonteyn

Patterns are cool. If you pay close enough attention, you can find all sorts of patterns in pretty much every arena of life. I have a tendency to seek out patterns in my world as a way of trying to figure out the "why's" of my life. Sometimes the patterns I find are significant, sometimes trivial and if I wait long enough, each one of them has a reason.

I have recently read two books that are similar thematically enough for me to consider the start of a pattern: Still Alice and Deaf Sentence: A Novel. Both are stories of people, experts in their fields, who find themselves afflicted by whatever it is they are experts in. In Deaf Sentence: A Novel, the protagonist is a linguist who is losing his hearing, becoming unable to hear those sounds he has for so long studied and taught. Still Alice, tells the story of Alice, a professor of cognitive psychology who develops early onset Alzheimer's Disease, going from one who studies thinking to one who cannot think clearly enough to put a sentence together.

So here's the pattern I noticed in the books I have been led to read: it seems as though the crosses we bear are inextricably linked with how we are gifted. A linguist, a lover of language, loses his ability to hear. A psychologist loses her ability to think. I think about Beethoven, brilliant musician and composer becomes deaf. Accomplished athletes lose limbs to disease. A singer is robbed of her voice. Those in the most need of community are continually left alone.

2010-03-02T08:23:00.003-08:00

While watching "The Bachelor" finale last night (Vienna? Really?), I finished Deaf Sentence by David Lodge. I often read while the television is on. I read with music playing. Shoot, I could probably read sitting in the front row of a rock concert. At least if it were an older band there would be enough light for reading from all the lighters. Do you still raise lighters at concerts? Crud, I'm getting old. In any case, I suppose you could say that I more than kind of like reading.

Deaf Sentence is an interesting book, the story of a retired linguistics professor who has developed high frequency deafness, which allows him to hear and comprehend most consonants but very few vowel sounds. It follows him through several everyday seasons of life: the birth of a grandchild, the death of a parent, the challenges of marriage, all seen through the lens of his increasing deafness. The plot line itself is not extraordinary. What would prod me to recommend this book, however, is the intelligent, gentle, vulnerable and real voice of the protagonist, Desmond. I bet Desmond could read at a rock concert. He's deaf. He wouldn't be distracted by the noise.

2010-03-01T16:21:00.001-08:00

I am working on a book right now called Deaf Sentence by David Lodge. I'll have something to say about it when I'm finished. More important that WHAT I'm reading right now, is WHERE I'm reading.

I had some time before D's hockey game this Sunday in Escondido, CA. I wandered about and ended up at the California Center for the Arts. The museum didn't open until 1 o'clock so I had some time to crack open a book.

The sky was a perfect blue and the temperature 68 degrees. I found a great bench and did what I do best, I read.

Yet another reminder why one should ALWAYS have a book handy. You never know when you will find the perfect spot.

2010-02-24T07:35:00.000-08:00

Working on two books by Rob Bell: Drops Like Stars and Sex God. So far, pretty interesting stuff.

2010-01-28T13:56:00.000-08:00

The Wordy Shipmates by Sarah Vowell

Suggestion, nay an exhortation, get this book as an audio book! Listening to Sarah Vowell read her work on the early American Puritans is a wonderful experience. Yes, there is a LOT of information, but I found that listening allowed me to absorb a great deal more of the material than I think I would have had I read the print version. Vowell uses guest readers to voice direct quotations, making this armchair history fun to listen to. Part history, part social commentary, all quirky and as delicious as that first thanksgiving dinner. Thanks Wampanoag people. The venison was great. You'll have to share the recipe.

2010-01-27T07:42:00.000-08:00

Still Alice by Lisa Genova

There are so many adjectives I want to use to describe this novel: beautiful, heart-wrenching, indicting, comforting. Lisa Genova's story of a Harvard professor of Cognitive Psychology's journey down Alzheimer's wandering path is all of those things. Told from the professor's point of view, the story gives the reader a glimpse into what it might be like to lose and gain who you are, all at the same time. I think the thing I found most striking about Still Alice was the use of perspective in the telling of this sad, sad story. Beautifully crafted. I highly recommend this book.

2010-01-20T21:51:00.000-08:00

Scars and Stilettos by Harmony Dust

Harmony's story of perseverance through an extraordinarily difficult early childhood and adolescence was not easy. Her story telling style was comfortable and practiced, as if she had told her story a million times. Stylistically, this wasn't a difficult book to read. What made it so difficult, for me, was the reality that her story was not an isolated one; that for every one of Harmony, there are hundreds, if not thousands, of women trapped in the adult entertainment industry. Her transformation and desire to help other women was inspiring. Her story, eye-opening. I would certainly recommend this book to anyone interested in social justice in the darkest corners of our own culture.

2010-01-13T13:47:00.000-08:00

Home Safe: A Novel by Elizabeth Berg
Elizabeth Berg's books tend to be those I refer to as "brain resting" books. Not to say that the characters aren't real or developed nicely, or even that I do not enjoy reading them, it's just that reading them is a whole lot like wearing that pair of pajama pants that are definitely not for public viewing. Her books are comfortable and cozy and not at all surprising in any way. Sometimes a girl needs a book like that. In Home Safe: A Novel , I felt so often that Berg is becoming more and more autobiographical in her character development. There was a time in this book where the main character is asked during a question/answer session to give the audience a bit of knowledge that perhaps they wouldn't already know about her. She answers saying that if they have read her work, they already know all about her because who she is a part of every book she writes. Somehow I felt as if Berg was making that statement herself. It made me wonder how much of the character creating process is a self-examination of sorts. Do authors of fiction use this to discover themselves or to explore sides of their own personalities that may not be fit for their everyday lives?

2010-01-01T19:24:00.000-08:00

Firefly Lane by Kristin Hannah

I'm sure if this author had a profile on Facebook, Beaches would be her all time favorite movie, since the plot of this novel was pretty much just lifted from that movie. Only the excessive details are different. Firefly Lane is the kind of book you would want with you on a beach with a blended drink . . . lots of blended drinks.

2009-10-21T13:45:00.000-07:00

Heat: An Amateur's Adventures as Kitchen Slave, Line Cook, Pasta-Maker, and Apprentice to a Dante-Quoting Butcher in Tuscany by Bill Buford

When I first began reading this book, I thought that it was going to be yet another account of the life and workings of a restaurant kitchen. While I thoroughly enjoy those types of books, Kitchen Confidential is a favorite, this book was so much more. Buford deconstructs Mario Batali's success, taking the reader from Batali's kitchen to England and, finally, to Italy where the journey switches course and becomes Buford's own. Especially interesting was the time the author spends in Italy learning the art of butchery. As one who gets more than a little queasy taking the neck and giblets out of the Thanksgiving turkey, I was suprised that I enjoyed those sections so much.

One of my friends found this book easier to listen to than to read, as Buford does a fine job of telling his own tale. I have to admit, he is a fan of minutia, so if you are prone to becoming bogged down in such stuff, think about listening to the audio book version.

2009-09-03T16:29:00.000-07:00

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

It isn't very often that I enjoy a work of fiction as much as I enjoyed Stockett's The Help. From the moment I met each of the three protagonists, Aibeleen, Minnie and Ms. Skeeter, I felt inexplicably drawn into their lives and I don't think I could read quickly enough, I wanted so much to know what happened next.

2009-08-06T12:38:00.000-07:00

The Writing Class by Jincy Willett

There are a great many things I want to say about this book, but can't seem to put the words in any coherent order. First, thanks to Lita for suggesting it! Second, even though I have never been drawn to mysteries, The Writing Class was so engaging that I read the whole thing in two days. Granted, part of those two days were spent on a long drive home on a less than scenic highway, giving me uninterrupted read time. I would unabashedly recommend this book to pretty much anyone.

The cast of characters are a novelist who hasn't written, much less published in a very long time and currently teaches writing in a university extension program, and her students, each stereotypical and surprising at the same time. One of the students starts stalking the teacher, in increasingly creepy, but not horrific, ways: anonymous phone calls, harassing notes and reading responses to other students, unkind e-mails, unnerving use of Halloween masks. The teacher ignores the behaviors until one of her students dies in the search for the stalker's identity. It is then, that this self-avowed loner, has to rely on a community that she unintentionally built and of which she has no desire to be a part.

2009-07-28T15:27:00.000-07:00

Bacchus and Me: Adventures in the Wine Cellar by Jay McInerney

I might have enjoyed this book more had I known even a little, tiny, eensy-weensy bit about French wine. Reading it, I felt like the foreign exchange student who wants to get the jokes, and laughs along when everyone else laughs, just so she won't appear like she's not understanding a darn thing that's happening and why in hell everyone else is laughing. In reality, though, nothing makes sense and she just feels awkward, a little bored and ready for the evening to be over so she can just go home and watch dvd's in her native language.

2009-07-21T09:28:00.001-07:00

Water Witches by Chris Bohjalian
Surprise, surprise, another Bohjalian novel set in Vermont with a trial and a lawyer with a conflict between his job and his conscience, a strong group of women with unusual occupations and an adorable, highly gifted daughter. Hmmm. Why do I keep reading his books? I suppose because he's a really good story teller and in these days of facts and figures and "reality", we all need a good story just for it's own sake.

2009-07-18T09:09:00.000-07:00

B Is for Beer by Tom Robbins

B is for Beer is a fairy tale about beer; two things I have great fondness for. I love the idea of fairies and magic and happily ever afters. I also love beer. That said, this book was a win-win for this reader. Yes, the humor is a forced clever in a Lake Wobegon, NPR sort of way, but that shouldn't be an issue if you are choosing to read a book called B is for Beer, whose main characters are a 6 year old girl, her philosopher uncle and the Beer Fairy.

2009-07-13T00:22:00.000-07:00

Too Much Tuscan Sun: Confessions of a Chianti Tour Guide by Dario Castagno

What a fun book! I would love to go to Tuscany, simply to eat the meals Castagno describes, but might hesitate booking him as a tour guide for fear of ending up in his next book. I think I just want to be his friend.

For better or worse, this book reminds me of a joke my kids used to tell:

What do you call a person who speaks three languages? Trilingual
What do you call a person who speaks two languages? Bilingual
What do you call a person who speaks one language? American

2009-07-09T17:12:00.000-07:00

Plum Wine by Angela Davis-Gardner

Even though this book was written in 2006, it had such an old-fashioned feel to it that I had to keep checking the publishing info to make sure I had read it correctly.

The story of an American professor at a Women's College in Tokyo during the Vietnam War who inherits chest from her recently deceased close friend and colleague. From the contents of the chest and the man who helps her unlock the secrets, she learns of a Japan she had no idea existed.

The only think keeping me from really liking this book was the characterization of the main characters. They seemed so flat, as if the author sacrificed depth in hopes of maintaining the ultra-polite tenor of the time and place.

2009-07-06T17:38:00.000-07:00

Back from vacation with three new books!

Fool: A Novel by Christopher Moore

A little more convoluted than I needed this summer. But man, oh, man can Moore turn a phrase!!! Some funny stuff. Knowing the story of King Lear is more than a little helpful though. I should have paid more attention in college.

Candyfreak: A Journey through the Chocolate Underbelly of America by Steve Almond

One word: SWEET! I especially liked the chapter on one of my favorite candies of all time, Twin Bings. I may never look at the candy aisle of my local 7-11 the same way again.

Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen

I don't normally like circuses. I've never even taken my kids to one, I wonder if I should just add money to the therapy fund right now? But this book? This book I liked. I still don't like circuses. Clowns freak me out. It turns out that the early shows treated the people just as badly as they treated the animals. A great story though. Oh, and elephants are way smarter than they let on.

2009-06-15T22:09:00.000-07:00

The Know-It-All: One Man's Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World by A.J. Jacobs

That's what history seems like to me now. There are hundreds of threads connecting everybody in all sorts of ways, both expected and unexpected. It's like a spiderweb (which, by the way, spiders sometimes eat when they're done with them).

 A.J. Jacobs, The Know-It-All; One Man's Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World

A wonderful, funny, interesting book about a man who decided to read the entire Encyclopeadia Britannica from a-ak to zyweic. Tucked into all the random and trivial knowledge is a study on the interconnectedness of humanity and the universe we share. Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful!!!

2009-06-08T10:39:00.000-07:00

Farewell, My Subaru: An Epic Adventure in Local Living by Doug Fine

After reading this book, I have a strange urge to buy a few goats.

While I loved Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle and found it to be an inspiring book, Kingsolver's world was a little more orderly than my world will EVER be. Farewell, My Subaru: An Epic Adventure in Local Living seemed to be a little more my speed. Experiments, well-intentioned and well planned, don't always work out the way they are intended. Coyotes and hawks feast on flocks of chickens, vegetable oil powered engines don't always start on the first 10 tries and rattlesnakes find shelter in solar powered water pumps. Fine's memoir is funny. You'll learn some stuff. You might be inspired to make a difference in your own carbon footprint. You'll definitely laugh. You even might want to buy a goat.

2009-06-04T12:00:00.000-07:00

Two books this time. I'm on one of those reading binges where I feel like Augustus Gloop in Willy Wonka's factory. Fat kid on a cupcake as my boys would say, but they're not very nice sometimes. Lots of books in the hopper. Keep an eye out. I'll try to have the boys come up with nicer illustrations. Not promising anything. That said, here goes:

Saved by Jack Falla

It's a novel about professional hockey. Is there such a genre for men like "chick-lit" is for women? Testosterature? Guy-lit? Nevertheless, if there is such a genre, this book fits the bill.

Escape by Carolyn Jessop

Devastatingly sad. If even one third of this is an accurate portrayal of this group (FLDS -- Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints), then I'm horrified that more hasn't been done to stop the cycles of abuse.

2009-05-29T13:36:00.000-07:00

The 19th Wife: A Novel by David Ebershoff

Fascinating venn diagram of the history of the Mormon faith, a gay love story and a crime thriller. I must admit that I skimmed through some of the slower parts, written in the voices of Ann Eliza Webb and of Brigham Young.

2009-05-26T12:54:00.001-07:00

The Mighty Queens of Freeville: A Mother, a Daughter, and the People Who Raised Them by Amy Dickinson

All I can say at this point, having just finished this lovely, lovely book, is that I do not want to return it to the library. I may steal it. I really won't steal it. I may just keep renewing it over and over again just so I can visit Freeville for a little while longer.

2009-05-18T19:42:00.000-07:00

Eve: A Novel of the First Woman by Elissa Elliott

Biblical bodice ripper? Hmmmm . . .

2009-05-18T19:40:00.001-07:00

The Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible As Literally As Possible by A.J. Jacobs

so far . . . . funny!!! all that and a biblical mandate to drink more alcohol!! who could ask for anything more?

2009-04-22T11:38:00.000-07:00

Epitaph for a Peach: Four Seasons on My Family Farm by David M. Masumoto

Brilliant.

2009-03-05T16:01:00.000-08:00

So much comes down to choosing this path or that, and the selection we make disturbs or gratifies people whose decisions are already made because they would have us tamp down the dirt behind them, because they don't want to be swallowed up.
~~Prescription for a Superior Existence by Josh Emmons

Prescription for a Superior Existence is a sci-fi type novel about a gluttonous, addictive, power hungry man named Jack Smith who gets abducted by and sucked into a cult like group named PASE, or Prescription for A Superior Existence. I don't have much to say about the book, but the above quote, found on the last page of the novel, gave me much to think about. Why is it that the choices the people in our lives make, even the ones that do not effect us in the slightest, have such weight on our psyches? Really, why should it matter what school my neighbor chooses for her child or if my friend from the gym chooses Mac or PC? Do we care because we want our own decisions to be validated or are we that self-involved to think that we should have influence over the decisions made by those around us?

2009-02-19T10:06:00.000-08:00

From bookmobiles on camels to bookmobiles at Buckingham Palace, it's amazing the places books can take you. My latest suggestion is a lovely little book called An Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett. This novella is the story of what happens when a British queen (never identified) stumbles upon a bookmobile on the grounds of her palace whilst walking her corgi dogs. She happens inside, meets a kitchen page who is an avid reader of novels by gay authors and has her entire world turned upside down. Really, this is a delightful book about the transformative power of the written word, both as it is read and as it is written. Funny, in a BBC drama sort of way, I highly recommend this book.

2009-02-14T13:06:00.001-08:00

Funny how everything is connected, isn't it? I posted yesterday about Anne Rice and her vampire novels and, more recently, her historical fiction works about the life of Jesus the Christ. In the USA TODAY magazine that comes with my sunday paper, there was a little blurb about Rice in the "Who's News" section. It was posed as a sort of "Where are they now?" piece. Rice's vampire novels were discussed briefly, then her conversion to Christianity was mentioned and here is what Rice had to say about her conversion from atheist to Christ follower and it's impact on her literary work: "My present focus has to be on my novels about the life of Jesus Christ, and I do not want to revisit the realm of my earlier books". I just thought it was funny to blog about something a bit out of the current trend and then to have the same subject show up in mainstream media the next day. Fun!

2009-02-13T21:26:00.000-08:00

When I was in high school, I loved Anne Rice's novels. All the gothic vampires and thinly veiled erotica was so much out of my everyday existence that I felt so dangerous, so exotic reading her words. I read as many of the books as I could find in the Cambrian branch of the San Jose Public Library and then forgot about them. Fast forward twenty-ish years and I find new Anne Rice novels on the shelves of the library, this time the Willow Glen branch (I moved). Imagine my surprise when I started reading the first one, Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt, and found that Rice had chosen to follow Jesus and was now dedicating this stage of her writing career to researching and writing historical fiction about Jesus the Christ. Huh. I read "Out of Egypt" which followed Jesus as a young child, leaving his Egyptian refuge and moving back to Nazareth. Not a bad piece of fiction, engaging and made me think for a bit about the humanness of Jesus of Nazareth. I'm pretty comfortable with the whole fully God thing, but the fully man part is something we don't cover so much in the Bible. I've always wondered what Jesus was like as a person. Who the funniest disciple was and if Mary every lost her temper with him when he reached that sassy 5 year old stage. The second book, Christ the Lord: Road to Cana, finds Jesus as an adult man who is under immense pressure from his family and village to get married. It's unseemly for a man his age to remain single. The narrative follows Jesus to the Jordan River, where he is baptized by his cousin John, into the wilderness for an amazing take on what the times of temptation could have looked like and finally, onto Cana where he performs his first miracle and thus begins his public ministry. Again, I say this is an interesting piece of fiction and is worth the read, no matter your stand on Jesus as Son of God, because Rice makes Jesus the main character, pretty darn interesting.

2009-02-10T10:08:00.000-08:00

I've done it. I've found the missing link, the holy grail, area 51. I have found a book by Chris Bohjolian that has a male protagonist! Over and over in book club and in conversations with reading friends, we marvel over how Bohjolian writes so seamlessly in the female voice and how, very rarely, uses characters masculine as his protagonists. Enter The Law of Similars and it's main voice, Leland. Granted, Leland is a single dad, a prosecutor for the state attorney's office in Vermont (suprise! another novel set in Vermont!) who wears suspenders that button onto his slacks, but still it's a male voice!

This book is another alternative medicine vs. western medicine story that Bohjolian seems to be drawn to, this time focusing on homeopathy. There are accidents and questionable behaviors. There are secrets and sex. There are copious descriptions of small town Vermont. It's not a bad read. I would certainly recommend it.

2009-02-07T21:57:00.000-08:00

The Girl With No Shadow by Joanne Harris is the sequel to her novel, Chocolat, which was a lovely tale of fear, love, identity and chocolate. The movie version also starred the delicious Johnny Depp. Chocolate and Johnny Depp, a lovely combination. The sequel was a good story too. Harris continues on with the theme of identity, delving into the world of identity theft, while weaving in still more love and more chocolate. Unlike the first novel, in which the magic is largely divined through chocolate, in this story it is much more out in the open with spells cast and secret symbols drawn. Harris introduces Aztec and Mayan mythology, both of which have strong ties to chocolate, to her domestic magic. Clever. Worth a read if you enjoyed the first novel.

2009-02-04T16:15:00.000-08:00

My favorite dialogue from The Camel Bookmobile by Masha Hamilton is this speech by Mr. Abasi, a Kenyan librarian who is charged with helping an American librarian, Fi Sweeny, administrate the camel bookmobile project. This is Abasi's response to the project:

"The facts you have in front of you --- the number of patrons reached, the titles of the most popular books, the cost per patron--- do very little to reflect the human costs of bringing a library on the backs of camels to people like this. These people live hard lives by ancient values, and they're proud of htat. They've developed a philosophy to deal with drought and death. When we arrive from the outside and insist that they learn to read --- books that, as it turns out, are mostly about very different places and concerns --- we confuse them. Possibly even undermine them. I think Miss Sweeny will tell you that their young are as sharp as any. And their elders may be wiser. Compared with them, after all, we of the settled, literate society have a kind of inflexibility. So your project raises question. Do they want to be part of what you call the 'larger world'? And whom should be teaching whom?" (Hamilton, 294-95)

I've been thinking a lot about arrogance these days. I wonder if we've become so arrrogant that we've lost the ability to honor and learn from other cultures, even those we perceive as backward or behind, for fear of falling behind ourselves. Whom should be teaching whom? I suppose the answer is everyone.

2009-02-01T20:45:00.000-08:00

This week's speed read selection is Moose: A Memoir of Fat Camp by Stephanie Klein. In this effort, Klein chronicles her experience as an overweight child and teenager. Klein is brutally frank about the way her family, friends and peers treat her. It was a heartbreaking book to read and made me think twice about how quick I am to judge those whose appearance is counter to what I consider healthy or beautiful or appropriate. This book is a quick read that will not be quick to leave your memory.

2009-01-29T16:09:00.000-08:00

I have always enjoyed lace. The Gunne Sax dresses that were popular when I was in jr. high always had more lace trim than was probably tasteful around the cuffs and necklines and bodices and that made me love them all the more. My dream wedding gowns, whose pictures I cut out of bridal magazines and pasted into "When I Get Married" scrapbooks inevitably had full skirts made entirely of lace. I loved ballet costumes and christening gowns, purely on lace value alone. The only major problem I have with lace is that I am a complete klutz and no matter how careful I am, I will step on a hem or put my finger through some trim and put a hole right through the most fragile part of the fabric. Drats. Then what usually happens is that the lace slowly starts to fray. First, the threads are slow in loosening and coming out of their carefully constructed patterns, but they pick up speed and soon I am left with a partial design surrounded by jagged edges and loose threads. What started out as something beautiful or interesting becomes a big old mess.

That is sort of how I felt about the book The Lace Reader by Brunonia Barry. It's the story of Towner Whitney and her family of Salem women who can read the future in the patterns in lace. This story is filled with twists and turns as complicated as the lace that serves as its motif. It has family secrets, romance, violence, witchcraft, religious zealots, mental illness and a garden. The whole time reading it I kept thinking "Oh, I'm sure this event will lead to something. I should remember it." By the end of the novel, I had all these threads I was hanging onto, trying to weave them all into a picture or pattern. The problem I found was that many of the threads had no place in the finished product and left me with a tangley mess. It was a nice effort and I could see where Barry wanted to go with it, but I think that maybe, like the Gunne Sax dresses of my youth, she put on a little too much trim.

2009-01-17T13:26:00.000-08:00

It seems as if I have hit a dry spell, folks. I wander up and down the aisles of the library and nothing jumps off the shelf at me, begging to be read. I found out this week that one of my favorite independent bookstores is closing in June. The idea of spending money at a big box bookstore makes me feel more than a little sad. What's going on? How can I not have anything to read?

2008-12-14T14:56:00.000-08:00

My Latest Checkout List from the Library

No real thoughts on any of these. None of them were amazing and none of the stunk. I may change my mind later, after letting them sit for a while. If that changes, I'll be sure to let you know. Any one of these books is worth reading:

1. The James Boys: A Novel Account of Four Desperate Brothers by Richard Liebmann-Smith
2. Rosewater and Soda Bread: A Novel by Marsha Mehran
3. Lord, Save Us From Your Followers: Why is the Gospel of Love Dividing America? by Dan Merchant
4. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrow

If I had to choose one to suggest, I would say that The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society would have to be my pick. It's a novel in the form of letters set in Post World War II England. A sweet novel for certain. This book made me a bit wistful for the days of real written correspondence. I am not so sure I dig the whole e-mail, texting, Facebook status thing, even though I am an active participant. A nicely worded note still holds a lot of weight with me. Back to the library tomorrow. I am seriously jonesing for some good reads.

2008-10-27T13:31:00.000-07:00

Lita gets the thanks for this one and a hearty, vodka soaked thanks at that! On the decidedly utilitarian, often unshaded playground of our elementary school, Lita handed me "Mother On Fire: A True Motherf%#$@ Story About Parenting" and am I ever glad she did. Sandra Tsing Loh, author and performance artist (as well as NPR commentator) wrote this book as a shout against the insanity of her own search for a school for the elder of her two daughters. She calls this "the year I exploded into flames." This book is hysterical and convicting without being preachy or elitist. I was worried about reading this book, as every time I read a book about parenting, I inevitably feel guilty that I am not doing enough or have done something wrong or just don't care enough. Parenting books usually suck if you have a low self-esteem to start with. I'm sure there are some of you who love them. If you are that person, we probably should not hang out. Sandra Tsing Loh, however, is invited.

I often have guilt,especially in the circles I tend to unintentionally end up in, because my children attend public school. The guilt is self-induced I am sure, but the "pity eyebrows" (oh you know the ones, where the well meaning parochial school mother raises her eyebrows and wrinkles her nose in an "Oh dear, it's so nice that your son goes to the local high school. Do they give him his own 'will work for food' sign with his diploma?") certainly don't help. It gets on my nerves from time to time. I love my public schools. No, they aren't as shiny as some of the private schools. No, our football field isn't maintained by an army of NFL retirees who just want to give back. No, we don't have field trips to the Great Wall of China or Science Camp on the Space Station. But what I do have is a great school filled with great people and great teachers who love children. I have a school where my kids can be a part of their local community and of their world, learning that making a difference doesn't mean having the most money to throw at what ever needs fixing. I have a community of parents who love their children, just like I do, and want what every caring parent wants: for their children, and for everyone else's, to grow up healthy, safe and happy. All kids deserve that.

2008-10-22T16:25:00.000-07:00

I really like kaleidoscopes. I love the "oh" moment when I am looking through the viewer and the combination of color and light and pattern are just right and my heart is filled with a tiny jump of joy. Then, inevitably, my hand shakes and then colors are mixed up again and I know that I will never have that same moment ever again. Sometimes I pick up a cheaply made kaleidoscope and take a peak through the viewer and find that the colors are muddy. Whether this is because the colored pebbles are too dark, not enough light is able to enter the chamber or the quality of the mirrors inside are poor, it doesn't really matter. What matters is that what I see isn't that great to look at. Every once in a while, though, even with the poorest of kaleidoscopes, I get an "oh" moment.

That's how I felt while reading "The Maytree's" by Annie Dillard. I felt as though there were so many words, so densely packed onto each page, that no light could shine through. The plot and character development felt thick and muddy. It was like looking through a poorly made kaleidoscope. That is not to say that I felt that "The Maytrees" was poorly crafted, quite the opposite in fact. It is obvious that Dillard spent a great deal of time and effort choosing each word she used in this novel. It is extraordinarily crafted. And every once in a while, I would catch a combination of words so lovely, so beautifully chosen, that I would have that "oh" moment that I do so love.

2008-09-12T16:13:00.000-07:00

I have spent most of the day at Kaiser with my dad, going from appointment to appointment. As ever, I had a book with me, "The Maytrees" by Annie Dillard. Halfway through, this is what I think:

SO . . . MANY . . . WORDS . . .

Sounds a lot like yours truly. I'll let you know soon what I think of the book. It's not looking good folks.

2008-09-11T22:28:00.000-07:00

Let’s just get it out of the way: I eat meat. I eat chicken, fish, pork, shellfish, buffalo, ostrich and even (gasp) red meat. I do not eat veal, but that’s neither here nor there. My family has strong vegetarian leanings going back many generations. My brother is an “omnivore who chooses not to eat meat” and I am married to a man who was raised on a dairy farm. I am not amused (and am often annoyed) by people who use their food consumption choices as a way of bullying others who may not make the same choices they do. Smug “we don’t eat (insert food choice)" comments make me want to eat whatever it is they don’t. Seriously, I have had enough of this self righteous food snobbery that grass fed, organic, free range, locally grown, soy based goop might spurt out of my eyes if I have one more raised eyebrow pointed in the direction of my grocery cart. Don’t get me wrong, I read labels and avoid high fructose corn syrup as much as possible. I buy the bulk of my produce from local farmers. I love food, but I don’t hold it up as an idol to be worshipped or as a weapon to be wielded.

All this leads up to a book I just finished: “My Year of Meats” by Ruth L. Ozeki. It was a summer reading option for my book club and I have to say that I really enjoyed it. It is the story of Jane, a Japanese-American documentarian who lands a job producing a Japanese television show for an American beef exporting business. During her year producing “My American Wife!”, she learns about the unpleasant side of the commercial beef industry. She also learns about life, love and understanding. A parallel story of an abused Japanese wife searching for self and safety weaves in and out of the main narrative, as do poems from Sei Shonagon’s “The Pillow Book”. Reading this book felt like I was watching an expertly edited film or gazing upon a piece of collage.

Yes, it’s pretty disturbing in parts. I skipped a whole scene toward the end. But all in all, it is a darn funny book. I loved it in the way I loved the movie “Lost in Translation”. It wasn’t completely Japanese in sensibility, but it wasn’t entirely American either. It was like a wonderfully tasty dish, something that is both American and Japanese at the same time. Like drinking a Coke and eating sushi at the same meal, “My Year of Meats” was two worlds meeting on the same dinner plate.

2008-09-04T22:42:00.000-07:00

At our last book club meeting (Note: I dislike calling our times together "meetings", they are so much more than that, but at this writing, I have lack of a better word!) we decided that there would be four books on our summer reading list and that we should read as many or as few of them that we could and our first time back together would be spent talking about what we read. One of the books, The Master Butcher's Singing Club by Louise Erdrich, I had already read and the other two (My Year of Meats by Ruth Ozeki and The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein) were nowhere to be found in my quest for free or nearly free books. The only book I managed to get my hands on and read was The Distant Land of My Father by Bo Caldwell. Hooray for Bookmooch.com! I like to think that there was some divine providence involved with my acquisition of this book because it was exactly the book I needed to read at this moment in my life's journey.

To the young Anna Schoene, our narrator, life in Shanghai is indeed magical. There are servants, a luxurious villa, a beautiful mother and a young, handsome father. Unfortunately, her father is also a smuggler and speculator who loves his freewheeling life more than anything (or anyone) else. Despite warnings, Schoene's father refuses to leave Shanghai even after the Japanese invade, and his wife and child retreat to Los Angeles. Anna's dreams and ideals of her father fall with Shanghai and she leaves China forever, learning to live in a land different from her his.

As the adult daughter of an father who is growing older between blinks, this book grabbed my heart and poked it in tender places. I don't always know what to do or who to be with my dad anymore, especially since my mom died three years ago. Most days I feel like the roles have been exchanged and then there are days when I feel like I am still 10 years old, searching for his approval. It gets to be confusing and frustrating and maddening and sad, all at the same time. The worst part is that I know it only gets tougher from here on out.

The Distant Land of My Father wasn't so much about cultural identity, as I thought it would be, but more of an exploration of what it means to be a daughter. But that's just my take on it. I'd love to know what you thought.

2008-07-03T08:52:00.000-07:00

My book club friends are going to laugh, if not heartily at least under their collective breath, but the book I picked up at Emily’s Used Books in Nisswa, Minnesota was “Trans-Sister Radio” by Chris Bohjolian. Our group enjoyed Bohjolian’s “The Double Bind” so much that we chose to read “Midwives”, making our discussion back to back Bohjolian. Then I was at the library and checked out his latest book “Skeletons at the Feast” which I wasn’t super fond of and thought that, perhaps, I was just Bohjo-ed out. But then, in the far reaches of northern Minnesota, I found a Bohjo book that I hadn’t yet read. I did what any traveling obsessive reader would do, I pulled it off the shelf and took it on the road with me.

“Trans-Sister Radio” is the story of Allison and Dana. Allison is a divorced elementary school teacher living in a small Vermont town with her daughter Carly, who is getting ready for her first year of college. Dana is a professor at the local university. Allison is a student in his class on literature and film. Allison and Dana become friends and eventually begin a romantic relationship, both falling in love more deeply than either of them had ever fallen before. What Allison doesn’t know is that Dana is in the final stages of gender re-assignment, preparing for the surgery that will change him from a genetic male into a physiological woman. Allison has to decide what to do with this new relationship, whether to stay with the person she has fallen in love with or to end it and avoid the controversy that inevitably will come with it.

Each chapter is told from the perspective of either Allison, Dana, Carly or Will, Allison’s ex-husband, allowing the reader to see this supremely complex issue, if the soul or spirit of a person has a specific gender, from multiple perspectives. Thanks again for reading with me. Next time, we’re going old school, really old school

2008-07-02T07:45:00.000-07:00

I’m a glutton, pure and simple. I have this habit, which I am altogether sure I am not the only one who does, when I enjoy a book, I feel compelled to read as many books by the same author as I can stomach. Often it’s intentional and I actively seek out additional titles. Other times it is like the universe hands me the books, like tiny existential presents.

On our Great Northern America Road Trip (that’s what I am calling it these days), I have had instances of both. Since I was not able to pack a whole lot of books for the long drives across the Northern States, my plan was to stop in thrift stores and used bookstores along the way, in order to trade in the finished books and to pick up new ones. I started in Seattle with a book of short stories by Jane Smiley called "The Age of Grief". Smiley is the author of several books I have loved, "A Thousand Acres" and "Moo". If I believed in past lives and reincarnation, I would propose that Jane Smiley was a weaver or rug maker. Her narratives are beautifully rich and complicated, with many, many different characters and plot lines woven together to create a larger story, not unlike a rich tapestry. Her short stories are quite the opposite. The stories in "The Age of Grief" are clean and direct, yet beautifully crafted. There is not an extra word or detail in any of the stories, but they never feel spare or minimal. Each is exactly right. On an interesting note, the 2002 movie "The Secret Lives of Dentists" was based on the title story. I haven’t seen the film yet, but it is certainly going on my Netflix queue.

By the time I got to Montana, I was done reading "The Age of Grief" and was on the lookout for my next fix. In Miles City, while visiting my brother-in-law and his family, we found a thrift store run by the St. Vincent de Paul society. I stopped in and headed straight for the book section. The first book I picked up was "Horse Heaven" by (wait for it, wait for it) Jane Smiley. "Horse Heaven" is a novel about the world of Thoroughbred horse racing. As "The Age of Grief" was minimal, "Horse Heaven" is ornate. As much as I was engaged in the stories of horse trainers, breeders, jockeys, owners and those who simply love thoroughbred horses, I sometimes felt like I needed to be taking notes and keeping a log of who belonged to whom. Nevertheless, I enjoyed this book immensely and am looking forward to a day trip to Golden Gate Fields to place a little bet on the ponies. Thanks for reading with me.

Next time, what I picked up in Nisswa, Minnesota.

2008-06-29T15:19:00.000-07:00

I'm on a long road trip at the moment. I didn't have a large margin of packing space, thus the amount of books I could bring along was hugely limited. The one book I did bring along was Born Standing Up by Steve Martin, an autobiography of sorts. He describes the book as the story of "why I did stand-up and why I walked away".

Martin is one of those performers that I have a secret crush on. I find him intelligent, hysterical, thoughtful and classically handsome. I loved the movies "The Jerk" and "LA Story", still laugh aloud at the "King Tut" skit from SNL and find his works of fiction to be brilliant. He writes this piece carefully and thoughfully, revealing his studies of philosophy and logic, yet maintaining his amazing sense of humor, making this an engaging read.

As I did not have any room to pack books, I am stopping at thrift stores and used bookshops along the way. I have two Jane Smiley books on deck: The Age of Grief and Horse Heaven. I'll let you know what I think as soon as I finish.

2008-05-03T21:14:00.000-07:00

It's been a long, long time and I have done something that I swore I would never do . . . I joined a book club! In lieu of my longish rambles on the books I am reading or have read, in honor of my "never say never" moment, these are the books we have read in my time as a book club woman:

1. Pope Joan by Donna Cross

2. Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen

3. Monique and the Mango Rains: Two Years with a Midwife in Mali by Kris Holloway

4. Loving Frank: A Novel by Nancy Horan

5. The Double Bind by Chris Bohjalian

6. Midwives by Chris Bohjalian (We liked The Double Bind THAT much, we had to read something else by the same author!)

I believe there was another one in there, but for the life of me I cannot remember what it was. If I had to choose one of these books to recommend to you, I would choose "The Double Bind" by Chris Bohjalian. Amazing. Seriously. Truly amazing.

As ever, if you have a chance to read any of these, let me know what you thought!

2007-09-25T20:19:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the long lag folks:

I have just finished "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" by Barbara Kingsolver. One word . . . AMAZING! It's a non-fiction piece chronicling Kingsolver's family's move from Tuscon to the Appalachian foothills in order to live more closely to the earth and to eat locally for a year. Kingsolver's language is beautiful and funny and real. Her eldest daughter Camille contributes recipes and commentary. Her husband, Steven Kopp, adds the socio-political, global perspective. Her youngest daughter, Lilly, raises chicken and runs a thriving egg business.

Needless to say, I was so very inspired by the end of the first chapter of this book, I have started planning my winter garden, acquired a bread machine (and have started baking my own bread) and am quizzing every food vendor where their food was grown. I may have gone off the deep end. The bread is good though. I'll let you all know about the gardening.

2007-07-06T16:02:00.000-07:00

I'm Back!!!!

Reading friends, I'm back and I have a stack of books to share with you, some very good, some not so much. No matter my opinion, I always love to hear what you think, so be sure to comment if you have read any of the same books.

The first book on my list is one I just finished by the pool today. I started it last night. It's a short book. It's titled The Handmaid and the Carpenter by Elizabeth Berg, the author of such books as The Year of Pleasures and Open House, both of which I enjoyed. This book is a retelling of the Christmas narrative, focusing on the engagement period and early marriage of Joseph and Mary, Jesus' parents. It's a sweet love story, but it left me strangely unsatisfied. There was just something missing. Of course, the book is really, really short, how much depth can you put into 153 pages?

My friend Tammy gave me a couple to read as did my reading enabler Dianne. I also left the library with four books yesterday, the aforementioned love story in the stack. Check back with me in the next few days and I'll share my favorites! There are two that are must reads!

2007-04-09T14:01:00.000-07:00

Back from Buffalo and back in school which only can mean one thing . . . no more fun reading for a while. So, my fellow book loving cyberfolk, please accept the last three reviews until June (unless I can sneak something great in between paper writing and other scholastic-type endeavors).

Today's theme: the known and the unknown. I picked up three books at the library before I left for Buffalo: two by authors I have read before and really, really liked and one by an author I had never heard of before, but the title was intriguing and I liked the picture on the book jacket. (Note: that's how I choose my wine and my football picks too! Never underestimate the power of excellent pictures!) The two known quantity authors were Tracy Chevalier, who wrote the very good Girl with a Pearl Earring and Jane Smiley, author of A Thousand Acres and MOO, both excellent books. Chevalier did not disappoint me with her book The Virgin Blue, a story of midwifery, marriage and the mystical union of past and present. I was fascinated with Ella Turner and Isabelle du Moulin, the two protagonists of the story. Not always pleased with them, but fascinated nonetheless. This book is definitely worth a shot. Smiley, however, disappointed me so very, very much with her story of the whiny, wealthy, navel-gazers of Los Angeles in Ten Days in the Hills. Besides the tediousness of the dialogue, the excessively graphic sex scenes were unnecessarily abundant. I mean really, do I really need that clinical of a description of genitalia in all states of being? Yikes. I was really ready for this novel to be over and yet I obsessively had to finish it.

The new author for me is Chris Bohjalian and the book is Before You Know Kindness. This book is the story of a New Hampshire family, the Seton's, and about the repercussions of a single cartridge left in a hunting rifle one July night. Fantastic characters, fluid plot and realistic dialogue. Also, one of the characters works for a PETA like organization and the description of organization and their motivations were really, really interesting. I would highly recommend this one as a book club read. If you read it, let me know what you think. Also, I am starting my summer reading list, so if you have any suggestions, please oh please leave them in the comment section. I will post the list for everyone to see and use.

2007-03-28T16:32:00.000-07:00

Elif Shafak was arrested and charged for crimes against Turkey for writing her novel The Bastard of Istanbul. Apparently, the government felt that Shafak's story of two young women, one Turkish and one Armenian-American, was anti-Turkish in nature and defamatory to the Turkish culture. Huh. Yes, all the characters in this novel were inherently flawed, but so are all those who claim humanity. Except Donald Trump, of course. He claims to have no flaws whatsoever. Again, huh. In any case, I found this novel to be interesting. The characters wove together as beautifully and as complex as the design in a Turkish rug. Are there such things? Maybe I'm thinking of a different rug. Nevertheless, a look into a culture so obviously not interested in being looked into.

2007-03-16T18:36:00.000-07:00

Admittedly, I'm not much a fan of the mystery novel. I'm not averse to them, I'm simply not drawn to them either. Thus, it was a mystery to me when I picked up The Virgin of Small Plains by Nancy Pickard. A mystery that revolves around the dynamics of a small town and the relationships therein and what happens to all of those when a naked teen-aged girl is found frozen to death in the snow. No one claims to know who this girl is and she is buried in the town cemetery with a simple headstone that reads "Peace Be Unto You". Not long thereafter, people start attributing small miracles to this young girl whom they have started referring to as "the Virgin". Her grave becomes a pilgrimage of sorts and the circumstances surrounding her death seem to fade as far away as her true identity. It is a good book, but not one that I would walk around the library trying to push upon people. If you like this sort of thing, give it a shot.

2007-03-14T16:25:00.000-07:00

A long time ago I read the book The Red Tent by Anita Diamante and loved it. Just recently I read another of her books The Last Days of Dogtown (blog posting 2/21/07) and liked that one too. So, because I was having a hard time thinking of anything to look for at the library (hint, hint, I need suggestions!) I decided to head to the "D" section and find anything else by Ms. Diamante. I picked up her book Good Harbor. It's the story of two Jewish women who live in the seaside town of Gloucester, one full time and one for holidays. The women become friends and walk through life together, high and low points. The characters are sometimes lovely women, and mostly believable. The dialogue is real and nothing is too saccharine. Still, it is less rich than the other two novels, but a sweet read nonetheless. Perhaps a book to take on vacation with you? I can imagine reading this in a cabin or a beach house. Definitely by water and with a tasty beverage.

Also found while wandering through the San Jose Public Library, a series of books from Canongate Publishers (as if that means anything to anyone, except of course to the lovely folks at Canongate . . . sorry if I offended!) that are retelling of world myths by modern storytellers. One word for you friends . . . CAPTIVATING. The first two I have read are Dream Angus by Alexander McCall Smith (The #1 Ladies Detective Agency Series) and The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood (The Handmaid's Tale). Both are amazing tales. The first is from a Celtic myth of Angus, the son of a god and a naiad, who brings dreams to mortal creatures. Wow. Smith has an amazing gift of weaving language in a way that is dreamlike and wonderful and makes you long to be sitting in front of a fireplace listening to him tell the tale of the boy who brings dreams. The second is a much darker story in which we get an account of what Penelope was doing in all the time Odysseus was away rescuing Helen from Paris of Troy, from Penelope's point of view. Atwood has a much heavier hand than Smith does, when retelling a story, but no less effective. The Penelopiad is presented as a Greek tragedy, complete with a chorus made up of Penelope's twelve maids who were hanged by Odysseus upon his return. Wonderful. I had a tough time putting either of these down.

2007-03-09T21:33:00.000-08:00

The last two books from Dianne:

Avoiding Prison and Other Noble Vacation Goals by Wendy Dale -- Essays/Memoir by a young woman with a genetic tendency to wanderlust about her time in Central America with a boyfriend in prison and their quest to clear his name. Funny and smart, it was a quick read.
Hypocrite in a Pouffy White Dress by Susan Jane Gilman -- You might want to cross your legs while reading this one. I laughed so hard as Gilman describes her childhood as the daughter of progressive, Jewish hippies living in a predominantly Puerto Rican neighborhood in New York City during the 70's who really only wear her tutu and grow up to be something that ends in "-ess" (stewardESS, princESS). So, so funny. Seriously, I think you'll laugh.

2007-03-07T16:27:00.000-08:00

Does anyone else listen to "Wait, Wait Don't Tell Me?" on NPR? It's a witty news quiz program that airs on Saturday mornings at 11:00 a.m. on our local NPR station. (http://www.npr.org -- for an air time near you). In any case, one of the regular panelists on the show is Paula Poundstone, a comedian who, a few years back, got arrested for child endangerment when she was caught driving drunk with her three children in the car. They were going out for ice cream. Probably rum raisin. I think she is hysterical, sober or drunk, although I don't know her well enough to tell the difference. Nevertheless, she has written a book entitled There's Nothing in This Book That I Meant to Say. It is FUNNY! What she did is she wrote short biographies about famous people like Joan of Arc and Abraham Lincoln and interjected her own thoughts and connections to her own life as a part of each piece. This makes for somewhat disjointed thoughts and connections that really stretch, but once you get the hang of her stream of consciousness, you will find yourself laughing aloud as you read. At least I did. Maybe it's because I like rum raisin ice cream. Maybe you like rocky road. You still might think it's funny. If you like vanilla, maybe not so much. Whatever, if you read it, let me know what you think!

2007-02-27T15:25:00.000-08:00

First things first, the La Fouace aux Noix was wonderful. I have to tinker with it next time I bake, but it was a loaf of walnutty, yeasty goodness!

Now for more books from Dianne:

Prep by Curtis Sittenfeld -- Chick lit goes to boarding school. A beach read.
Hotel Babylon by Anonymous and Imogen Edwards-Jones -- Any book by anonymous leaves me suspect. This was supposed to be an "insider's look" at the operations of a luxury hotel in England. Fascinating, but went nowhere fast. I have to admit, though, the next time I checked into a hotel after reading this book, I had novel flashbacks. Another beach read.
Random Family by Adrian Nicole LeBlanc -- A journalism student follows a family from the Bronx for eleven years. She chronicles the drugs, sex, love, death and poverty that encompasses this tangled web of a family. Do not read looking for a feel good ending, or a feel good middle or even a feel good beginning. This is an intense piece of work. Do not be afraid of it either. It is a book that will come back to you over and over, in the most unexpected of places. Let me know if you read this one. I really, really, really would love to hear what you think.

2007-02-26T17:43:00.000-08:00

I love bread! I love the way bread smells, the way it tastes, the way it feels when I touch it. I love to bake bread. Fruit breads, whole wheat, sourdough, squishy wonderbread . . . I love it all. Bread rocks and if it weren't for all those nasty carbohydrates, this woman would live on bread alone. That said, I just finished a book about bread baking called The Baker's Apprentice by Judith Ryan Hendricks. Apparently, it is a sequel to a book called Bread Alone, but I haven't read that one. This book is good, not great. A nice diversion. What I did like about it is the main character is a bread baker and there are lovely descriptions of her product and a few recipes interspersed in the text. I have the La Fouace aux Noix or hearth bread with walnuts in the oven baking right now. I will let you all know how it turns out. The dough didn't rise very well, so it could be a brick in the aforementioned hearth. We'll have to see.

The next book I have for you is also a nice diversionary read, albeit pretty predictable. Elizabeth Berg's The Year of Pleasures is the story of Betta, a retired children's book author, whose husband passes away and leaves her the instruction to sell their home and go find a place to start over that is off the beaten path. She does and this book is about the year that follows his death. She ends up in a small town with it's usual cast of characters: the fellow widow, the quirky radio show host, the single mom and her adorable son. Berg is a lovely author, I truly enjoyed her book Open House, and this book is just as enjoyable. Some accurate descriptions of grief, albeit a tad melodramatic and the whole thing wraps up a bit too neatly. A good book for it's niche.

As ever, let me know what you think of these books if you have read them and if you have any suggestions. . . please share!!

2007-02-21T19:30:00.000-08:00

Back from Quebec and have four FABULOUS books for you to check out:

The Last Days of Dogtown by Anita Diamant -- The latest book by the author of The Red Tent is about the demise of a cold New England hamlet (I have always wanted to use the word "hamlet" in a sentence.) and the rebirth of it's people through the town's death. Spellbinding.
London is the Best City in America by Laura Dave -- I picked this one up from the library on the merit of the title alone. What an interesting look at relationship that is so not the usual relationship book. Highly recommended.
The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri -- Magical. It gave me a new perspective on the immigrant experience without descending into the victim perspective so common in that genre of novel lately. So beautifully written, so wistful and melancholy. This is for sure on a must read list for anyone who is looking for an excellent book. I think this would also lend itself well for a book club.
The Master Butcher's Singing Club by Louise Erdrich -- Wow. This is one of those novels that I wait for, without knowing that I am waiting for it. Mystical but not wierd. Beautiful and sad and heartwrenching. Thank you Kelly Schoenberg for lending this one to me. I will be thinking about this book for a very long time after closing the cover. Read this book.

2007-01-20T13:51:00.000-08:00

I have decided to take the winter quarter off of school and you know what that means . . . UNLIMITED READING OF NON-SCHOOL BOOKS! My most excellent friend Dianne gave me a Safeway bag full of books that she liked and I devoured them all. Thus, my next few posts will be sharing with you all those wonderful reads.

The first book I recommend to you is The Kitchen Boy: A Novel of the Last Tsar by Robert Alexander. This book details the last days of Tsar Nikolas and Tsarita Aleksandra from the perspective of their 14 year old kitchen boy, Leonka. Besides being enthralled with this period of history, this book interested me in that the entire time I was reading it, I was sure that what I was reading really wasn't what what happening. There was a sense of anticipation of something unidentified yet to come. Whether that ever came to be or not, you'll have to read for yourself. I really, really enjoyed this book.

2006-11-04T18:24:00.000-08:00

If you ever, ever, ever write anything, please start listening to the "Grammar Girl" web site at www.qdnow.com. I listen to the podcast version on itunes. Amazingly easy tips to tighten up your writing, whether you are writing things that other people might read or not. Go to this site and subscribe to the podcast. Listen. Rethink how you use the word "of" and be happy.

2006-09-15T15:58:00.000-07:00

I must say, Annette Pizzo so totally rocks! Why? Because she sent me a little e-note about BOOKMOOCH!

BookMooch (www.bookmooch.com) is a site where you can list all the books you currently own and are looking to give away. The more you list, the more points you can earn. With your points you may "mooch" books off of other people, thus getting free books, essentially! Yes, those with critical spirits may choose to point out that you are paying to mail books to others, so the books you receive are not REALLY free, but let's not be that way. Yippee! Free books!

2006-09-14T11:09:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Eileen Elrod for this one. The book is Gilead by Marilynne Robinson and it is marvelous. Gilead is the story of the reverend John Ames, an aged preacher in an aged church in an aging town in Iowa. Ames sets out to write a letter to his young son and this book is the text of that endeavor. The pace of the book is slow, but not in a tedious, boring way. Robinson does a wonderful job of using the pacing of the book to develop the voice of the protagonist. Ames is old and is slowing down, his best friend is in his last days, his young son is in the magical days of childhood, everything in his life moves at a slower pace. Take the time to join reverend Ames in his slower, more reflective pace and you will not regret it.

One of the many emotions this book stirred in me was a wistfulness of the childhood my children are not able to have. Ames reminisces about times where he and his best friend would lay on the roof of the chicken coop and watch clouds and talk about all sorts of things magical and real. I started thinking about if my children ever have time to have unmonitored by adult conversations about anything. It seems as though we are raising a generation of children who are never out of sight or earshot of adults and thus, are losing the chance to talk to and wonder with their friends about the things of life. That made me sad.

The last blessing Ames writes to his son is one I wish for all boys, especially my own, and I will close with that: "I'll pray that you grow up a brave man in a brave country. I will pray you find a way to be useful." Amen.

2006-08-24T21:31:00.000-07:00

This book is SO overdue from the library!!

My latest read The Mighty and the Almighty: Reflections on America, God, and World Affairs by former Secretary of State Madeline Albright was well worth the overdue fees I am going to have to pay on it. This book took me a very long time to read because I had to stop every few pages to reflect on some idea she proposed, to write down a thought for later consideration, and mainly to simply digest what I had just read. It was a wonderful, albeit long, experience.

The Mighty and the Almighty is not pro-America propoganda, nor is it anti-Bush rhetoric, but is a thoughtful and thorough discussion of the rightful role of faith and religion in foriegn policy, but also in the quest for peace.

If you choose to read this book, and I do hope you do, make sure you give yourself enough time and remember to renew it when it's due.

2006-08-01T22:21:00.000-07:00

I WILL BE BUYING THIS BOOK!

As much as reading and books consume such a large part of my person, in actuality, I very rarely purchase books. For the most part, the books on my shelves fall into three distinct categories: 1. books that have struck me at such a deep place in my soul, that have made me cry, laugh and think (In the case of Anne Lamott, all at the same time) and those that I want to read over and over again, 2. books from the collections of people I love that were given to me as tokens of rememberance and affection, and 3. books that I bought when I was much less responsible with my finances and bought books as some buy groceries.

My latest book, which must go back to the library tomorrow, falls wholly into the first category. I have just finished "Searching For God Knows What" by Donald Miller. I first read Don Miller at the beginning of the summer when I devoured "Blue Like Jazz", which I will be purchasing also. Maybe there will be a buy-one-get-one sale at Amazon. His view of what it means to be one who follows Christ is both revolutionary and at the same time, it is the very core of what Jesus taught; a lesson that He himself never changed. Every chapter challenged me to consider "Am I a Christian in name only? Or do I truly desire to follow Him?" Big questions. Great Book. Very funny too.

If you want to borrow either one of these books, just ask, I will have them on my shelf at home.

2006-07-31T22:29:00.000-07:00

"It's not that I don't like people. It's just that when I'm in the company of others -- even my nearest and dearest -- there always comes a moment when I'd rather be reading a book."xiii
This is the most excellent opening line of my latest read. The title ranks right up there too. It's called Leave Me Alone, I'm Reading by Maureen Corrigan, the book critic for NPR's Fresh Air. Part memoir and part literary criticism, Corrigan takes her reader on a bookish journey through a bookish life. Not that being bookish is a bad thing. I myself relish the adjective. In fact, when I read Doug the opening line, he laughed in the way one does when reminded of something familiar. A very good book. Not a quick read, but one filled with lots of "oh, I remember that book!" Especially if you majored in English.

Coming up next: Two of my favorite books this summer.

Corrigan, Maureen. Leave Me Alone, I'm Reading. Random House Publishing: New York. 2005.

2006-07-16T21:22:00.000-07:00

The concept of community has been pervasive in every area of my life these days: my spiritual life, my literary choices, my civic involvement and even at the hockey rink. Community, or the lack thereof, is something that has been weighing heavily on my head and on my heart these days. I truly believe that human beings are designed to live in community with others and I am being given glimpses of what happens when we choose to deny that aspect of our being and live individual, self focused lives. It is no suprise to me, then, that the next book that showed up on my stack of books was If You Lived Here, I'd Know Your Name by Heather Lende. Lende lives with her family in Haines, Alaska, a small town 90 miles north of Juneau. Her book is a series of snapshots of life and community in Haines. It is, quite simply, a lovely, lovely book. When you read it, let me know what you think. Oh, and the chapter on marriage is absolutely beautiful.

2006-07-15T21:20:00.000-07:00

Back from Whistler, by far one of the best places ever. Dylan is ready to pull up roots and move to Canada tomorrow. He even has their national anthem memorized. Oh wait, maybe that's because he has been to a gazillion hockey games. It is easier to sing than the Star Spangled Banner, but that is for another day. The book that occupied most of my down time (and there was a lot because it rained every day!) was a book by Edward P. Jones called The Known World, a work of fiction set in the pre-Civil War South. What makes this book different than any other civil war fiction I have read is that it is from the black perspective, both free and slave. It deals with the freed blacks who have purchased their own freedom and then that of their wives and children. Some, then, choose to purchase slaves of their own. Tough subject matter but an excellent book. I may jinx myself, but so far I have not read one book this summer that I wouldn't recommend. Woo Hoo!

2006-07-09T13:52:00.000-07:00

Heading to Canada this week with a youth hockey team and a stack of books. I hear that we will have a whole week of rain and "it looks like rain" so I might have a chance to get all of them in. I just finished Little Chapel on the River: A Pub, A Town and the Search for What Matters by Gwendolyn Bounds. Non-Fiction. Made me think a lot about the idea of community and the role of the small business owner in the care and nurture of said community. Wal-Mart and Target are certainly not community builders in the true sense of the word. Starbucks could be in a watered down way in that people do gather there, but it is still supporting a large corporation headed by people whom we will never meet and will never be a part of our lives. They serve a purpose, but do not fulfill a need. In any case, a good book. Let me know what you think should you read it.

2006-07-05T11:53:00.000-07:00

Got your nose in a book again? This was the recurrent question of my brother-in-law Bart on our trip to my husband's family reunion last week. We spent four days at the Palmer Gulch KOA at the base of Mount Rushmore http://www.palmergulch.com which I would highly recommend if you are planning to visit Mount Rushmore and you don't mind obscenely large recreational vehicles filled with white people who like to "rough it". In any case, as is my nature, I spent a great deal of the time reading. Here are some of the books I read this week. I highly recommend all of them: 1. Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert 2. Fluke by Christopher Moore (Another fabulous, albeit highly inappropriate, book by this guy is Lamb, The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal, pee your pants funny) 3. The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion.