Showing posts with label From the Library. Show all posts

Thursday, October 24, 2019

What I am Reading This Fall

The temperatures are falling, the daylight hours shrinking. Time to gather reading material for fall.

The Secret Diary of Hendrik Green, 83 1/4 Years Old

A resident of a nursing home chronicles daily life in Amsterdam. The author, Peter De Smet, was not credited on the book adding to the sense this is truly Hendrik's diary. Characters are presented with humor and sympathy that evokes compassion in the reader.

Packing My Library

An Elegy and Ten Digressions

This is one of the books sent as part of the Year of Reading program at Shakespeare and Company bookstore in Paris. Alberto Manguel wrote this book as he reflected on the process of packing up and whittling down his 35,000 volume library while preparing to move to a new continent.

Being Mortal

Medicine and What Matters in the End

My friend, a doctor, has just come through a year of loss. She recommended this book to me after finding it personally moving.

A Walk Through Paris

A Radical Exploration

I picked up this book at the wonderful Commonplace Books the last time I was in Oklahoma City. A mix of history and geography of Paris, the chapters are dotted with vintage photographs and hand-drawn maps.

Exit West

Another selection sent through the Year of Reading program, this book has been labeled "an instant classic". It was released in 2017, and Barack Obama featured it on his books of the year list.

Maid

Hard Work, Low Pay, and a Mother's Will to Survive

My younger daughter loaned me this book. She mentioned it every time we talked while she was reading it. The book takes an honest look at the working poor in America.

My next six books.

Saturday, December 29, 2018

TToT: Thankful for Reading

Another year is coming to an end, and I have much to be thankful for. One of the things that brings joy to my life is my abitilty to read.

I am thankful for my parents who personally modeled reading regularly, for my mom who read to me all the time, for my teachers who helped me crack the code so that I could read the written word for myself.

I am thankful for Goodreads where I can track the books I read each year, interact with other people who love an author or book as much as I do, and discover books I would never know about otherwise.

I am thankful for authors who can captivate me with their stories or even just the way they turn a single phrase. I am thankful they transport me to other places and times where I am encouraged to dream or blessed to escape the daily news.

I am thankful for the Topeka Shawnee County Public Library which is absolutely top shelf...pun intended.

My Ten Favorite Books This Year

Martian

The Bell Jar

The Nightingale

Fareinheit 451

The Girl Before

Eleanor Oliphant is Perfectly Fine

I'd Rather Be Reading

Fed Up

Allegedly

The Woman Next Door

Ten Things of Thankful

Friday, March 30, 2018

Love vs Hate: TToT

The world becomes much easier to understand and much less terrifying if you divide everything and everyone into friends and enemies, we and they, good and evil. The easiest way to unite a group isn't through love, because love is hard. It makes demands. Hate is simple.
Fredrik Backman Bear Town

The world is filled with so much hate these days. Battle lines are drawn, sides taken on so many issues each and every day. We have a tendency to approach the world with our heart set on war. A heart at war sees others not as people, but as objects to either overcome or to use. My own heart has been veering more towards hate than I want it to of late. So, I spent the week looking for signs of love. Love is hard, but it is very much worthwhile.

Ten Signs of Love/Things of Thankful

As the week began my husband and I were wrapping up a road trip from NC to KS. I enjoyed every minute of our time together.

We added an unexpected detour and stopped at my sister-in-law's for a wonderful bonus visit.

When I spent a day in bed feeling puny, my son brought me a chocolate shake and TLC.

No cost dental care was provided several of our students at school this week.

Our pastor sent us into the week with the challenge to recognize a heart of love vs a heart of hate and to foster the heart of love.

The presentation of Bibles from my church to the 3rd Grade Sunday School class.

A spontaneous family movie and dinner night that brought me joy.

Friends who selflessly cared for their beloved family dog and ultimately recognized when the time came to let her go.

The peaceful demonstrations and calls for change led by young Americans last weekend.
Good Friday

Ten Things of Thankful

Wednesday, March 28, 2018

Fredrik Backman's Britt-Marie Was Here

"You have to understand that when I was small my family and I went to the seaside. My sister always found the highest rocks to jump off into the water, and when she dived and came up to the surface, I was always still there at the top of the rock, and she would call out to me, 'Jump, Britt! Just jump!' You have to understand that when one is just standing there looking, then just for a second one is ready to jump. If one does it, one dares to do it. But if one waits, it'll never happen."
"Did you jump?"
"I'm not the sort who jumps."

I have fallen love with Fredrik Backman over the course of the last year. I devour anything I come across that bears his name. It is his perspective of human nature that draws me in. He possesses deep insight into what motivates and inhibits people. His words paint his characters strengths and weaknesses as though by candlelight--in the gentlest of ways--making them appear lovely even though flawed.
In Brit-Marie Was Here we see the uptight, regimented main character slowly let down her armor so that others can finally come close to her. With each tentative step out of her comfort zone she begins to conquer the fear that has isolated her. In loving others and allowing them to love her Brit-Marie finally dares to jump.

Book Review

Thursday, March 1, 2018

Oh, To Write Like Beatrix Potter

Brought to you by the friendly sparrows.

One of my earliest memories involves snuggling with my mom and younger brother in mom's bed in the middle of the day while she read to us my favorite book, Beatrix Potter's The Tale of Peter Rabbit.

I was captivated by this book. The illustrations fascinated me with charming detail. The smallness of the book itself felt special. The characters enchanted me. Mr. Mc Gregor's shadowy presence always looming nearby suggesting danger. Peter possessed a willingness to be naughty in a way I couldn't have imagined doing myself. But it was the words that took hold of my imagination and would not let go.

Peter gave himself up for lost, and shed big tears; but his sobs were overheard by some friendly sparrows, who flew to him in great excitement, and implored him to exert himself.

I remember this line tripping across mom's tongue as she read. It was absolutely lyrical and I begged her to read it again and again. I didn't understand what the individual words meant exactly, but from context I knew Peter was stuck and the birds were urging him towards freedom. I knew that if anyone in great excitement ever implored me to exert myself, I would do it!

I also knew that I wanted to experience the delightful sensation I felt when those words were rhythmically presented many times in my life. At first I was content to hear words and phrases other people had put together. Sometime around junior high I began to experiment with my own words.

The written word has brought me great joy. It has allowed me to connect with others. I may never be a great American author, but I will always feel the urge to write. As I go about other tasks throughout the day phrases and stories swirl through my imagination. I look forward to the quiet time as the day ends when I feverishly commit word to paper responding to the friendly sparrows in my mind.

Tuesday, February 6, 2018

Filling an Empty Nest

Thinking of Shakespeare and Company, I decided to share this piece from 2015 once more.

Prompt: If you could have given yourself a snapshot five years ago of what your life is like now, what would the picture be of and how do you think you would have felt about it?

Five years ago, I had adjusted well to my oldest child being a college student three states away. My other two kids were in high school though the end was in sight. I so enjoy having the three of them around that I was not looking forward to the emptying of my nest.

My wise friend June was in the same stage of life. She told me that we had to figure out what made us personally happy and pursue it. What she understood was that our nests wouldn’t feel so empty if they were filled with what we loved other than our children.

And so I rekindled love: the love and friendship that my husband and I shared as newlyweds; my love of creating art or something like it; and my love of reading. While all my rekindled loves bring me joy, it is my reading that has surprised me with its voraciousness. Each night as I lay in bed it is not the stillness that has replaced footfalls on the stairs that I hear, but the adventures re-experienced with characters I’ve known forever or new escapades with those I have just discovered. I feel no loneliness in the wee hours as my husband sleeps peacefully by my side because I am kept company by historical figures and fictional friends page after page.

The greatest accomplishment of my life is motherhood. The times that my children are nestled under my roof are still my favorite times of all. But the other times–the quiet times of solitude and contented partnership have a magic of their own. Like all great stories, as life unfolds I am surprised and entranced by the plot twists, especially those which I could have not predicted such as an empty nest where a sense of emptiness is completely foreign to me.

Snapshots taken at an English bookstore, Shakespeare and Company, in Paris, France.

TToT: Shakespeare and Company

It is not my usual habit to include material items in my count of things I feel thankful for, but the parcel that arrived via Deutsche Post today represents much more than the material.

In November I saw an Instagram post from Shakespeare and Company, an English bookstore in Paris. The post explained The Year of Reading program offered by the bookstore. Shakespeare & Co employees would package their recommended reads for the lucky participant to discover in their mailbox throughout 2018. Immediately I sent the post on to my daughters who received it politely, but with far less enthusiasm than I would have anticipated. So, I thought maybe it was just me who found the concept intriguing. I mulled it over for days finally deciding that I was not comfortable spending the amount being charged on a gift for myself.

What I didn't realize until Christmas was that one daughter had seen the same post minutes before I did. She had already shared it with her sister, and they were discussing what a perfect gift it would make for me as they received my forwarded post. They were getting in touch with their brother and father and didn't need me complicating their plans.

The first of three installments arrived today. It did not disappoint. The attention to detail in the packaging made my heart race just opening the box. Literary quotes cover the wrappings.

The bags are sealed with the company logo, and it is also stamped inside each book. Each of the books is wrapped with a note from the staff person who chose it explaining why they picked this particular book for the package.

Tucked inside each book is a bookmark featuring a different photographic image from the bookstore. On a sheet of stationery a poem has been typed on an old typewriter in the store. A poem is tucked into each book. One of the books is even signed by the author.

Everything about this package was meant to make a literary nerd's heart swoon...and it succeeded.

Which brings me to my list of Ten Things of Thankful this week:

For books and for words that have the power to move me.
For talented writers.

For Paris and memories of browsing at Shakespeare and Company. For grown children who are intrepid world travelers and have encouraged me to be as well.

For the four incredible and generous people I am lucky enough to claim as my family. They are the very best gifts of all.

TToT

I am cheating a bit. The Last Nice Thing Someone Did for You was one of the prompts for the Writer's Workshop this week. I saw the prompts right after posting this piece, and knew it works for that prompt as well.

Friday, February 2, 2018

A Manuscript at Last

Book Review of Sorts

http://www.mamakatslosinit.com

Dreams spring forth from the hopeful heart, and the hopeful heart is a happy heart. Dreams can only mature to reality once they've seen the light of day. If I name my dream--type it here on the screen, there is no turning back; I will be committed to seeing it through. At the very least, I will have to make a wholehearted attempt whether I fail or succeed. My whole life I have avoided risks for fear of failing and looking foolish in other's eyes. Yet, real failure comes not in trying and falling short, but in never trying at all. Today I am screwing up my courage and naming the dream I am ready to pursue. I will write a daily devotional book featuring reflections I have written and shared at church as well as additional essays I have never shared publicly before. In naming my dream I've moved outside my comfort zone into the place where growth can happen.

With those words I made a New Year's resolution in 2013. Five years later I am proud to say that I have completed a manuscript. I have written 365 daily devotions which I hope people will find inspiring and useful in moving towards deeper spirituality.

It feels so weighty as I hold it in my hands. Partly, because it is three hundred ninety-three pages, partly because it represents nearly a decade of my life, it is a big deal to me. This book has been a labor of love. Because I see God in the everyday, the book is filled with stories about the people and places I love and the ways that God's presence influences all my experiences and relationships.

I have begun the process of editing and clean-up. I have names of a couple of people to speak to for guidance about publishing; friends of friends, they will be hearing from me soon. I am hopeful they will be willing to point me in the right direction to begin a process I know absolutely nothing about and find daunting. But for today I will celebrate. A dream I have had for long before I made it known to others, is coming true. Whatever, else happens I did what I set out to do. I wrote a book.