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.

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?

"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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.