Literary Ladies Club, Est. 2007

I am Alive!

2009-03-17T10:19:00.001-07:00

In case anyone is still working on our blog, I thought I'd let you know I'm still alive, with bionic knees (matching, in pure titanium) and I have read so much the past year I'll have to go into regression hypnosis to remember them all.

The Tucson Festival of Books was an inspiration to us all! The writers who made presentations gave great insights into their work and I'm inspired with a whole new list of wonderful books to read in addition to the desire to write a mystery series myself.

Hugs, ladies!

Michaele

Friendship, Religion, Family

2009-01-23T08:05:00.000-08:00

I read 2 books while we were camping over the New Year Holiday. What fun to be able to just lay around and read all day. I don't think I've done that for about 20 years (hmm coincides with birth of first son).
Several months ago my neighbors were cleaning their garage and I was being neighborly and chatting to keep them from their work. I spied boxes of books and who can resist? Karen said, "Take any you want. Please!" (and probably thought, and then go back in your house so we can get this done) I picked a few and deposited them on the night table where i eventually get back to them.
The first I read was The Myth of You and Me by Leah Stewart. The story follows 2 girls who become fast friends at the age of fourteen, that friendship that you are sure will last forever, that no one can put asunder. But we find that people, time and events can change anything and the friendship falls apart, mostly due to a man. But the characters are so finely drawn with a real complexity to the story that, like in real life, we realize the man is not the only reason. We all carry around ideas about who we are, who we want to be, truth, love, friendship and when those are challenged or found lacking, we must redefine our thoughts and sometimes ourselves.
This book has stayed with me-the questions about what is love? what is friendship? what is family? I'd like to read another by this author.

The Rapture of Canaan by Sheri Reynolds was an Oprah Book pick way back in 1997! This book was very pertinent to the discussions we've been having about religion. I've linked to the wikipedia description of the book which sounds a bit goofy but it's actually much better presented in the book. It does give insight into the cult factor of religious fanatics of any ilk. My view remains, it all depends on one's level of fear of the afterlife and who is interpreting doctrine.
This was not nearly as complex as the Stewart book but was a good read, I zipped through it in about 8 hours. The high point of the story for me was the central characters journey to becoming an artist and how her art was literally a part of her.

Today I'm suffering the beginning of a lousy cold but that gives me the excuse to lay around and read more. I'm reading the new David Sedaris book, When You Are Engulfed in Flames, and I'm still on the search for The Green Mile.

Twofer

2008-12-26T18:05:00.000-08:00

I’ve just finished two books.

The first is called The Airmen and the Headhunters by Judith Heimann. She’s a career diplomat who picked up on the true story of how several downed WWII airmen (navy and air force)survived when their planes went down over the inner island jungles of Borneo. The good news was that the interior wasn't as thick with Japanese troops as the edges of Borneo. The bad news was that the interior was known to be inhabited by fearsome indigenous peoples. The jacket cover says, “Would the tribesmen turn the starving airmen over to the hostile Japanese occupiers? Or would the Dayaks risk vicious reprisals to get the airmen safely home? The tribal leaders’ unprecedented decision led to a desperate game of hide-and-seek and, ultimately, to the return of a long-renounced ritual: the triumphant and bloody taking of heads.”

I found it a fascinating examination and fastidiously researched by a woman who spent many years in that part of Asia. By the time she picked up on the story many of the involved had died…but it’s a wonderfully detailed description of the many months the Americans spent there, the grace and bravery of their hosts, and a bygone era in terms of American and Bornean (?) cultures.

The second story is Mary Tillman’s “tribute” to her son Pat in Boots on the Ground by Dusk. This was on the hurry-up-and-read shelf at the library, so I imagine it’s just come out. She is incredibly angry, and there is a lot to be angry about. I was aware of the basics: Pat Tillman football star (and ASU alum) leaves the NFL to enlist (ay yi yi!) in the Army, was shot and killed in a fratricide incident in Afghanistan. The book switches gracefully from the story of how she investigates her son’s death and flashbacks to his childhood. The beginning is full of wonderful memories of his baby days and growing up. I didn’t remember that he and his brother enlisted together, and I don’t think I was aware that they served in the same unit, even the same platoon! Anyway, Pat certainly was a remarkable young man and his death is shameful.

The family wasn’t told for many weeks that his death was due to fratricide, and then as they learned more details they had more questions. At this point I guess the family has forced two congressional hearings in addition to two formal “big” Army investigations (CID & another) (which were in addition to the local unit’s own investigations) and Mary is still furious that she hasn’t gotten answers/the truth/justice/I’m not sure what? She includes a great deal of detail and studies of documents—she certainly has become an expert on the event as much as anybody could. There are glaring errors in judgment and operation –things like his platoon getting separated causing a disruption in communications that meant one element didn’t realize the rest of the platoon was just beyond and so they were shooting at their brothers, and his body and uniform weren’t processed properly for autopsy or investigation. The idea that the Army was trying to formally investigate and discover details before letting the news go to the family seems reasonable to me, especially given that Pat’s brother was actually present at the scene. Still I would opt for much more transparency in this age of immediate information transfer. I sure hope the Army has at least learned that lesson. Apparently the family didn’t like President Bush or this war well before Pat enlisted, and she rails against this administration and thinks there is responsibility for covering up details about Pat’s death all the way up to General Abizaid and the White House. One of the documents describes an involved officer objecting to the general performing the fourth or fifth investigation saying, “look, it’s awful. How many times are we gonna have to drag our troops through this process?” and I have to sympathize. I don’t think soldiers “get over” having killed their own buddy—and it’s hard for a mother to recognize the intensity of the love in a brotherhood like that. I also don’t think it’s surprising that over three years and several repeated investigations there were many discrepancies and changes in details. The congressional hearings turned into a partisan debacle---ugh. She also left an omission in the tale—Bush has personally written every single family of the 4000 plus lost Americans and called and met many of them. She does talk about her conversations with some people--Schwarzenegger and McCain attended and spoke at Pat’s memorial service-- yet she never mentions contact from the White House.

In the end I feel for her, and think what she’s done to push for truth is amazing, but I also think she’s mired in the anger phase of grief. Pat should not have died in that manner, but what else besides more transparency can a mother or the American public demand?

So this book has hit a nerve with me, and been quite thought-provoking. Do I have the right to say somebody’s stuck in the grief stage? How would this compare to a sentinel event at the hospital? Why do I think that her stance on politics has made it harder for her? (never mind religion, that comes up in a painful manner) The contrast between the two stories also resonates with me---why do I think Americans are more likely to demand answers and make a scene in today’s generation than in WWII, and where do I rank that phenomenon on a good-to-bad scale? Why am I having such a hard time separating the political stereotypes from what I’m reading? It disturbs me that the stereotypical conservative supposedly doesn’t value an indigenous culture like the Dayaks, for example, and Mary Tillman’s Bush-hating stance colors my perspective of her perspective—at some point I felt my heart hardening toward her bitterness and I think it’s because I don’t have the moral objection to the war that she does.

This is heavy stuff, I would love to discuss this sometime…

Olga

Wildfire by Nelson DeMille

2008-12-18T08:21:00.000-08:00

Shayne loved it. Me, not so much. Man, am I picky or what?

Very witty and funny, but could've been about 300 pages shorter. Too much cat-and-mouse, to the point of being more implausible than the story itself.

Story line is based on an assumed standing government order for nuclear attack response, and a powerful, rich man taking on himself to launch a nuclear attack inside the United States in order to trigger the United States' automatic response - made without Presidential approval - which spells out large scale bombing of the Muslim World and a reset of world order. Story is told from the perspective of the NYPD detective who cracks the mystery and averts disaster...

The overall possibility is thought provoking and the hilarous banter between the detective and his FBI wife hits close to home...

Walkabout - Still on for January 3rd?

2008-12-18T08:19:00.000-08:00

Are we still on for January 3rd? I can do the 4th, too, if eeryone else can & we need to move it. Lemme know! ~ Robinowitz

I Forgot a Good One

2008-11-29T08:51:00.000-08:00

Olga, I love your most varied list! I would hate it my friends only read one genre.

The one I forgot-A Long Way Down by Nick Hornby. On New Years Eve four strangers meet at the top of a London building known as a suicide spot. They all have their reasons for being there. The book follows their travels and travails as they look for meaning outside themselves. Hornby is an author who can put a humorous twist on even the darkest subjects and he always makes me think.

I heard the rerun of a show with the author of The Story of Edgar Sawtelle on Diane Rehm yesterday. I also heard the him on Whad'Ya Know a while back and he sounds interesting. Has anyone read the book? We won't hold the fact that it's an Oprah pick against it. Hey, here's an idea. Why not make this our first group read and we can discuss it when Robin picks the day for our WalkTalkCoffee?

ED. to add-great minds think alike-Robin and I simultaneously posting!

~Judy

Walkabout - Reid Park - January 3rd

2008-11-29T08:50:00.000-08:00

I'll be parked behind Einstein Bros. on Broadway & Alvernon at 0730 on Saturday, January 3rd. Bring your walking shoes and a couple of unmarked bills for coffee & bagels...the passcode is "Feliz Nuevo Ano."

Shall we begin our "asynchronous group reading exercise culminating in synchronous discussion" (note I didn 't say Book Club, either!) in February or March, but come with ideas for which book to choose on January 3rd?

Oh...bring three copies of a tried-and-true wintertime recipe you would like to share.

~ Robin

In the spirit of

2008-11-28T13:19:00.000-08:00

confession in a safe environment, knowing that you all will fall off your chairs laughing, but that's ok; the inhabitants of my bookstand are:

Empire of Lies by Andrew Klavan (also a modern set thriller--somehow recommended by my mother through my husband, making it even weirder)--so far my opinion is "ick. Is it even worth finishing?"

You: Being Beautiful by Drs Roizen & Oz (got it for the section on skin; I do think they cite relatively current evidence and have a fairly balanced traditional med vs alternative ideas in their books)

Have a New Kid by Friday by Dr Lehman (if Robin has a penchant for work-related books, I have one for family/relationship/self-help ones)

Heidi (reading it to the girls at bedtime)

The Language of Love by Smalley & Trent with
The Two Sides of Love by Smalley & Trent

House of Daughters by Sarah-Kate Lynch (haven't read it, but think I saw previews for a movie of it that looked interesting?)

The Sex-Starved Wife by Davis ( no idea, the hubby wanted it)

and Real Change by Newt Gingrich. (haven't started it yet).

I also have been reading voraciously--most recently having finished the Twilight series, which I thoroughly enjoyed. I guess I'm reading lots--but not anything that requires intense concentration.

Olga

On My Nightstand

2008-11-28T08:39:00.000-08:00

I've enjoyed the Nelson Demille books I've read-let us know about Wildfire.

I haven't been reading a lot of hardcopy lately. I do have a big, thick magazine thing I found at Bookman's called Artful Blogging which has been very inspiring. My folder marked Art Design Creative Blogs has grown and grown in the time I've been off and I allow that part of me to grow and expand. Some eyecandy for you all: A Fanciful Twist and joyouslybecoming I've started 2 new blogs, Straw Cottage and Tucson Snowbird and have one incubating. which will follow the redecorating of the Airstream. This finding my voice and connecting with others in the same pursuit has been a wonderful adventure.

I am reading the Myth of You & Me by Leah Stewart which grabbed me in the first 90 pages but I'm not very far into it yet. It's the story of a friendship between two women and the end of that friendship.

An idea for the walk, talk, coffee-perhaps we could all read the same book and have a little discussion (notice I'm not calling it a book club-too rulebound).

Hope you all enjoyed Thanksgiving-we do have so much to be thankful for.

~Judy

Time to read is a good time, indeed!

2008-11-27T09:17:00.000-08:00

The fact that you are now reading voraciously, Judy, does not escape me! Brava!

What's on my bedside table?

Just finished...Footprints of God, by Greg Iles. Current state thriller with futuristic implications.

Just getting started with...Hardwiring Excellence, by Quint Studer. Finally, a book that lays all the accountability for patient, family, staff and physician satisfaction on the (senior) leader's shoulders and provides the tools for a leader to get comfortable accepting that accountability and nurturing it into something truly great. You all are just going to have to forgive me for my penchant for enjoying work-related books!

Soon to begin...Wildfire, by Nelson DeMille. Shayne abosolutely loved this one.

Anyone want to set a calendar for getting together this year...monthly or every other month, maybe? I'm thinking something like meeting on the first Saturday morning of the month or every odd month (whatever) to walk around Reid Park and then have coffee & a bagel at Einstein Bros. across the street afterward? Your thoughts?????

~ Robin

Catching Up

2008-11-11T05:38:00.000-08:00

As mentioned in an earlier post, I was reading The Secret Life of Bees. Disappointing and 50-75 pages too long. If you haven't read it, it's the story of a young white girl of 13 or so and her black nanny/housekeeper. The setting is the south just after the passage of the Civil Rights Act as they take off on an odyssey to escape the girl's abusive father. This of course after the girl breaks the nanny out of the hospital where she is being held in lieu of jail after being beaten by white men while trying to vote. Then they miraculously find the nanny of the girl's mother who was shot and killed (the mother, not the nanny) when the girl (I can't even remember her name, that's how forgettable it was) was 4 and she has always been told that it was her fault. There was just way too much going on or I've become a cynic.

I also re-read Siddhartha. Having originally read it at 16, it was a very different book at 51 and I'm glad I re-read it. There is a passage when Siddhartha wants to leave the path chosen for him by his father. His father of course disagrees but Siddhartha stands for days awaiting his father's blessing. Finally the father sees: " Then his father realized that even now Siddhartha no longer dwelt with him in his home, that he had already left him" and Siddhartha leaves on his epic journey to enlightenment. In the midst of raising young men, this scene resonated with me. Letting go is hard.

Next it was Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver. Another journey (notice the theme here?) as she and her family move back to her husband's family home in North Carolina to live a more self-sustainable life. For about a week I was ready to move back to Ohio (actually I get those urges about twice a year) and live in a little farmhouse and grow tomatoes. But then I would often be thinking: "I don't believe you just said that!" as someone made a comment about a black or a Mexican or a rape victim or a Catholic. An example of those "pockets of the Real America" big, hairy warts and all. About the book, I admire her writing, as usual, it but it was a bit depressing as it once again reminded me that we do live in the middle of a big, dry desert which is not meant to sustain life for long.

I've also discovered a new (to me) poet, Mary Oliver, and in keeping with my journey theme here's a favorite:

The Journey

One day you finally knew
what you had to do, and began,
though the voices around you
kept shouting
their bad advice--
though the whole house
began to tremble
and you felt the old tug
at your ankles.
"Mend my life!"
each voice cried.
But you didn't stop.
You knew what you had to do,
though the wind pried
with its stiff fingers
at the very foundations,
though their melancholy
was terrible.
It was already late
enough, and a wild night,
and the road full of fallen
branches and stones.
But little by little,
as you left their voices behind,
the stars began to burn
through the sheets of clouds,
and there was a new voice
which you slowly
recognized as your own,
that kept you company
as you strode deeper and deeper
into the world,
determined to do
the only thing you could do--
determined to save
the only life you could save. ~Mary Oliver

You can read others here: http://www.allspirit.co.uk/maryoliver.html#journey And of course she has several books.

Much better than policies and such!

What books are on your bedside table?

~Judy

One flash of lightning by Stephanie JT Russell

2008-11-08T14:28:00.000-08:00

One flash of lightning: A Samurai path for living in the moment

From page 7: "Integrity, candor and depth are human signatures that bridge the Samurai Way across centuries to a timeliess truth of self-excavation and spiritual awakening. May the visceral poetry of the Samurai Code ignite in you an appetite for the heat of inner change. May one flash of lightning fix your gaze on the hard-won prize of a heaven unchained."

...a heaven unchained... I am veritably transfixed by this idea.

Have been in touch with my "seeking" side (not half as much as the Ohioan among us) and this tiny tome (94 page pocket book) is both a gift and a sign for me.

Namaste!

Foux de Fa Fa

2008-09-20T19:22:00.000-07:00

(if you haven't seen Flight of the Conchords do Foux de Fa Fa, do)

Babel Fish didn't do justice to the French but I think I get your drift. I was just lamenting today with Michelle about the fact that I can't make it through a book. I am however about 1/3 through The Secret Life of Bees which is a major accomplishment. There is hope.

But I can make it through blog posts if they're not too long. Here's a great one for all my rule-breaking friends! Toast Rule Busting

Judy

So Long, Farewell, Auf Wiedersehen, Good Night...

2008-09-20T17:40:00.000-07:00

J'ai termine'... J'usque' nous lisons plus livres!

A pink poodle named Spike

2008-09-14T12:05:00.001-07:00

Thanks to Olga's daughter for proving a couple of weeks ago that it's a powerful thing to have a pink poodle named Spike.

I catch myself thinking of that sweet vignette often as I consider who I am and what I am doing here. Perhaps it's not about being or doing anything else, but owning - expressing and accepting ownership - for what we have and where we are right now, and loving what we are doing. I'm not saying giving up on doing different things, only spending a little more time loving or learning to love what we are doing, being, seeing...whatever that is.

I raise a glass to all things figurative or literal that embody the act of embracing our own personal pink poodle named Spike.

Love to each of you,
Robin

The Camel Club by David Baldacci

2008-09-14T11:50:00.000-07:00

Conspiracy theorists unite - this is a stupid book about Washington and a rag-tag bunch of conspiracy theorists. Why are all conspiracy theorists portrayed as psychotic, near homeless, idiot savants, and socially inept geeks and they are tossed in with a few former CIA operatives who "disappeared" off the databases and thus have the moxy and know-how to lead the idiot tribe to solving high crimes? It's like the saying that all good men are either married or gay.

Anyhow, another 400 pages that you get so far into that it seems too much to bear to give up and quit at page 380 because you are in the thick of something you know will resolve in the net 20 pages or so and you've already taken this much time to commit and...you don't want to be a quitter...and damn it, if he can save it in these last few pages then you'll think that the book was worth it. However, it sucks at the end as it much as does at page 380.

Well, at least this guy's consistent - this tasted a lot like Absolute Power, but with a dry finish. I am done with David Baldacci, and have given the books to my 15 year old son, who will think they're plausible and cool all at the same time.

~Robin

The Friday Night Knitting Club

2008-08-17T14:17:00.000-07:00

Look...I forgot who this is by, and I am not going to take the time to tromp upstairs to find out for you. I thought this would be an interesting read and instead it is one of the most predictable, meandering, makes sense in some parallel universe-type-of-book on the planet. It's her first novel, and was a New York Times bestseller. Proof that we should be writers, ladies, and save the world from this drivel!

Woman on her own, single and with a mulatto daughter, becomes an up & comer through her knitting shop in New York City. Daughter convinces customers to come in on Friday to begin a knitting club and daughter begins to bake for the club each week. Attractive jet setting black father of daughter comes back into her life, and we get little vignettes about everyone in the club's life, too. She and a friend agreed back in college that they wouldn't go anywhere unless they could go together. She turns down a spot at Dartmouth, and lo and behold her friend "got" that spot. Like there was only one person in the world that was wait-listed at Dartmouth that year and it just HAPPENED to be her best friend. Right.

Said best friend comes back into her life and is a NYC socialite who commissions her to make a dress that she will wear to some big party and serve her trust fund husband divorce papers. Poor woman on her own has to pick her up and put her back together, too.

Poor woman on her own displays symptoms that you would equate with pregnancy, and then...here's the big switcheroo...it's ovarian cancer. At this point, everyone in her life gets their shit together, starts taking care of poor woman on her own (PWOHO), and then PWOHO promptly DIES.

Well isn't that tidy?

I Feel Bad About My Neck by Nora Ephron

2008-08-17T14:08:00.000-07:00

Judy, your mantra that usually anything with pink on the cover is to be taken lightly or put back is put to rest with this wee tome.

I have not laughed as openly and with such abandon in a LOOoooonnnng time as I have with this book - it's simply hilarious. - about just growing up & growing older and growing into who we might not have always wanted to be but with who we are pretty darned happy to be. When I grow up, I want to write like Nora Ephron and Heather Armstrong all rolled into one.

Again, I have to lend and would heartily recommend taking me up on this one.

We should bring all our recent reads to a group dinner sometime to trade!

~ Robin

Absolute Power by David Baldacci

2008-07-22T19:06:00.000-07:00

Scandalous, murderous, preposterous enough to come true. 542 pages of Washington, DC mayhem involving the rich man's dead wife, the American President, Secret Service agents, a felon you gotta love, his daughter, the rich man, the firm's controlling partner, a lawyer I'd like to see naked, I'm sure; and some other interesting cast members.

Be ready to pick this up and put it down a lot, it's just so darn long. Doesn't really get going till about 2/3 way through, but kept me hanging on, nonetheless. Edifies my irrational anxiety about conspiracy theory! Very thoughtful book, twists and turns well explained when I needed them to be as I am not up on my "murder-ese."

I have it to pass along for free if anyone's interested.

~ Robin

More Books

2008-07-01T17:03:00.000-07:00

While online today renewing my library books (no I haven't finished them but I am enjoying The Creative Habit by Twyla Tharp and Grace (Eventually) by Anne Lamott) I discovered book lists! You can sign up for either an email newsletter or add lists to your RSS feed. Nancy Pearl's list is there-you know Nancy, she's often on NPR with reading suggestions.

So I signed up for a couple-just what I need more book suggestions!

The library has a new web address: Pima County Public Library
Book Lists

Judy

Must Read After My Death

2008-06-23T18:55:00.000-07:00

Once again, this is not a book review but it is somewhat literary. And I have 3 books going right now-I may finish one.

In the past, Robin and I have discussed journaling. Not the "I arose to a beautiful cloudless blue sky, had dates and walnuts with tea for breakfast and went for a walk along the shore. The birds sang as the sharp salt air tickled my nose and sand encrusted the hem of my white linen shift much like a sequin trim" but the "my job sucks, my husband is an idiot and my children must have been switched at birth because there is no way they came from my body" kind of journaling. Our discussion usually revolves around what to do with those pages, keep them, hide them away for years or burn them. After reading Danny Miller's blog today-I'm thinking the purge by fire is the way to go. Danny often writes about his family and wonders who might be offended by the stories much as I do when writing even if it will only be seen by me. I soften the edges because I don't want to hurt anyone's feelings, not even in my own head.

Danny always includes great pictures in his posts and those of us born in the 50's-60's have similar pictures stuffed into shoeboxes in the top of some closet somewhere. Even though he was a Jewish boy growing up in Chicago and I was an excommunicated Catholic+Baptist=Methodist girl in a tiny town on the edge of Appalachia, I find his photos could be my pictures or a neighbors' and that's the fascinating thing for me-the picture only tells a part of the story. I grew up with 2 brothers, eight and 10 years older and one a few years younger. We were close-both parents in the home, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins within walking distance. Sunday dinner at MawMaw's every week, everyone together for holidays. A Mayberry kind of existence. We were happy-i have pictures to prove it.

We all left home as soon as we could, settled in geographically diverse areas, never visit and communicate only intermittently; the younger one speaks to none of us. We all look so happy in those shiny, B&W scalloped edge Christmas morning photos. The picture only tells a part of the story.

Must Read After My Death tells the other part of a story, not just the static version of old photos. I watched Capturing the Friedmans earlier this year and was so taken by the story I had to then watch the extended version with all the commentary and interviews. It is a fascinating film given the subject matter because it shows a "normal" family going through a shattering experience, much of it" captured" on film. I was fascinated by the fact that despite the lies, pain, anger, imprisonment, they were still able to find some love for each other.

I don't know the part of my family story that is missing but I may reconsider that purge by fire. Maybe what we can't say aloud should be left behind.

Judy

The Last Boleyn by Karen Harper

2008-06-10T21:01:00.000-07:00

Six hundred pages in two-and-one quarter days. Oh, so this is what *not* being in school feels like! On one hand, this is quite a long tome, but we seem to be a gang that likes that in a book. On the other hand, it is written in such a manner that allows one to think (perchance to dream) that maybe one day they could write a book, too.

While you may be thinking, "My, aren't the Boleyns quite popular this year!" Ms. Harper released this book under a different title in 1983. This story of the Bullen (later Boleyn under Anne's direction) family is full of twists and turns one would not even dream of in modernity, but are amazingly believeable in medieval times. The attention to detail provides a wonderful literary screenplay, and the characters and plot are very well developed. The book does come screaming to the end, but the end really needn't be any more embellished to be striking.

I have been inspired to write a book of my own...perhaps...of the same time period, and perhaps with many of the same characters. Since this is an open blog, I won't post the concept here as I would intend to copyright it. I have been researching the topic & timeperiod and have not found a book of the same subject matter. I think it would fly, and will share with those that are interested via email.

I would recommend this read, a decadent page-turner of the Tudor period. Perfect with multiple cups of coffee or Turkish tea over a restful weekend!

~ Robin

"A Pigeon And A Boy" by Meir Shalev

2008-06-01T23:44:00.000-07:00

At last I've fulfilled a post-graduate-worth-read. I choose most of my books by their covers, wandering about the library--and finally I got a good one! This is not one of my cheap entertaining stories, and took a little (though willing) effort on my part to get into. I did not know, until after I'd finished, that this book is translated from the original in Hebrew. That makes it all the more striking, because the way this guy writes is poetry in a way I like to read.

The book goes back and forth between two stories---a romance set in wartime Israel (when wasn't it that) and the narrator's own life story. It has an astonishing climax and an even more shocking event toward the very last pages. I rather wish we could do this in a book club because it's got SO much to talk about and so many wonderful phrases to chew over. I think I'll try to find his "Four Meals" to work on while you-all catch up on this one!

Olga

IN DEFENSE OF FOOD by Michael Pollan

2008-04-19T08:54:00.000-07:00

I'm back! Long story...laptop died, switched to a Mac, forgot to transfer all my bookmarks & passwords...but computers are making our lives easier, right?

I love food. I love to eat it, I love to read about it, I love to look at pictures of it. Some people have porn. I have food. So I tried to read Michael Pollan's earlier two books, THE OMNIVORE'S DILEMMA and THE BOTANY OF DESIRE but just couldn't ever work my way into them, despite the provocative title of the latter work. IN DEFENSE OF FOOD is his latest so I gave it one more shot.

He almost lost me on the first page. His premise is this: "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." Who doesn't know this already? It's going to be another slog, I thought. I'm happy to report, however, that I was wrong. (Okay, I'm never happy about being wrong, but no one actually knew about it until now, so I didn't feel diminished by the experience.)

Pollan begins by pointing out how we have ceased to look at food in any kind of wholistic way. Rather, we think about what we eat in terms of nutritional components. Like, this food has a lot of fat. That one is good for me because it's low-carb/sugar/sodium. This focus on the pieces instead of the whole has created a perfect set-up for food manufacturers to generate boatloads of profit by manipulating their products to contain the nutrient du jour. Wonder Bread leaps to mind. Kids won't eat fiber? No problem! We'll just put some in the Wonder Bread, and now everybody's happy. Kids still get squishy bread, parents feel like they've made a healthier food choice, and the Wonder Bread people? They're the happiest of all.

I like it when someone turns a paradigm on its side and asks me to look at it. Pollan goes on to discuss the diseases of Western civilization and the way our diet has contributed to their proliferation. Again, this doesn't sound like news, but he presents supporting data that I hadn't read before in a way that was fun and accessible. In the final section of the book, he outlines some strategies for eating -- NOT a diet, just some thoughtful suggestions, including the possibility that if you're checking the nutrition label, the thing you're eating probably isn't food. This is my favorite book of the year so far.

~Michelle

Long Term Relationship!

2008-03-16T13:34:00.000-07:00

Do you realize we've been doing this since August? In most books, that makes this a "long term relationship" and I'd say a pretty successful one at that.

Just wanted to take a minute to thank all of you for participating. I've really enjoy what we do here, and I look forward to seeing you all in person again very soon!!! Only 7 weeks until Olga & I are done with school, and the move into the new Pavilion will be over, too!

April 5th from 10AM - 2PM is the public open house of the new Women's Care Pavilion. Hope you all that are non-Carondeletians will consider stopping by!

Fond regards,
Robin

Born Standing Up by Steve Martin

2008-03-08T13:27:00.000-08:00

Very interesting memoir of Steve Martin's life just to the end of his early 80's success. I love anything he does (L.A. Story is a favorite) but honestly, for all its acclaim, this book is somewhat FLAT. I hate to say it, because I don't want to believe it, but his is a life frought with lucky breaks...as are many of those who are successful in Hollywood. I mean, his first writing gig at 22 was for the Smothers Brothers Show, along with Rob Reiner and that guy...whats-his-face... that became the dorky comedian Super Dave? Wow!

I enjoyed his acknowledgement that even though he was successful, he always had anxiety, overthought every act, and was in fact, very lonely at the end of the day. I had hoped to hear more about his life after that success, because at the end of the book he just begins to discuss getting to know himself, loosening up, and really enjoying his craft.

~ Robin

But we-all knew this already

2008-03-07T09:33:00.000-08:00

Bookworms have "cognitive reserve": http://www.realage.com/ct/tips/5190

Olga

Anyone for a Field Trip?

2008-03-03T18:07:00.000-08:00

Dancing at Lughnasa

Live Theatre Workshop
Thru 3/30

from the website: http://www.livetheatreworkshop.org/main.html
Winner of the 1992 Tony Award for Best Play, the Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Broadway Play, and the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Play. Chosen by Time magazine as one of the ten best plays for 1991, saying it is "The most elegant and rueful memory play since The Glass Menagerie." Widely regarded as Brian Friel's masterpiece, this extraordinary play is the story of five unmarried sisters, one with a young son, eking out their lives in a small village in Ireland in 1936. It is the time of the festival of Lughnasa, which celebrates the pagan god of the harvest with drunken revelry and dancing. Their spare existence is interrupted by brief, colorful bursts of music from the radio, their only link to the romance and hope of the world at large. When the sisters finally dance to a wild, pagan Irish tune, they embody the core of the human spirit that cannot be vanquished by time or loss, or fully expressed in language.

I haven't checked on ticket availability, wanted to see if anyone was interested.

Surely someone else wants to dance to a wild, pagan Irish tune!
~Judy

Yaaaay, Amy!

2008-03-03T16:53:00.000-08:00

Amy posted a comment! She's left the ranks of those who have nothing to say!



Cartoon by Dave Walker. Find more cartoons you can freely re-use on your blog at We Blog Cartoons.


~Judy

The Daring Book for Girls

2008-02-29T22:30:00.000-08:00

The Daring Book for Girls, by Andrea Buchanan & Miriam Peskowitz

I know this book is truly for little girls, but I didn't have the "lemonade stand, butterfly catching, tea party, tree house," type of childhood I think would be really fun. Not that any of us really did, and not that it really matters now, but anyhow...any book that teaches you how to properly short-sheet a bed is my kind of book. Oh, and I enjoyed learning about female pirate legends...death to Victorian pursuits!

I am not even done with this one yet, but I had to post just how much fun this book really is, and I will definitely be saving this book for the future little girl in my life...granddaughter or sweet little next door neighbor girl if I am blessed with grandsons...

If this book is good enough to make it on the Canadian Girl Scouts' website, you know you're in for some adventure!

Have a super weekend!
Robin

THE ASSAULT ON REASON by Al Gore

2008-02-07T11:48:00.000-08:00

I just realized that I format my reviews a lot the same as I used to write book reports in grade school. At least I don't conclude with "The End" anymore. I'll take my progress wherever I find it.

Oh, ladies, the first 50 pages of this book had me so psyched, I couldn't wait to tell you about it. Gore asserts, in a way I'd not understood before, how crucial a well-educated and informed citizenry is to to health of a democracy. "Free and open debate" isn't just a handy political catch phrase, but the means by which the Founding Guys meant for this newly-invented system of government to operate. They expected the citizens to read about, discuss and debate the issues of the day. There would be disagreements, naturally, but they assumed that by applying reason, it was always possible to find common ground.

Fast-forward a couple of centuries, and most of us wouldn't know a free and open debate if it fell on us, complete with moderators. Our news comes to us, not in a format that encourages an exchange of ideas, but through the one-way input of TV and radio. The news outlets are owned by corporations and, particularly post 9/11, their content is, um, somewhat constrained by the dictates of those who count the advertising dollars. We sit in our cars or on our couches and glean whatever information we can from what is fed to us without any opportunity to respond or ask questions. This topic is so important, I wish I could tell you that the whole book is about how we can become a more engaged democracy. But then you, like I, would be disappointed.

Instead, the bulk of the book focuses on the ways that the American people have been manipulated and deceived by the future former administration. Gore is thorough in his research, supporting each of his assertions with documentation, but the more I read, the sloggier it became. First of all, how much more infuriated do I need to be about the past 7 years? The sheer volume of evidence that we have been screwed over and over (and not in that fun way) is more than I could take. I got it, I got it already! The other problem is that Gore writes the book the way I learned to write a 5-paragraph essay: topic sentence, followed by several paragraphs supporting the premise, and ending with a conclusion that reiterates what you've just read. It's dense, it's factual, it's a written reminder of Gore's "wooden" affect during the ill-fated presidential run.

That said, it's still worth reading if you go at it in small chunks or have a little something on hand to help you cope with the outrage that is bound to result.

~Michelle

Basic Black - Cathie Black

2008-01-28T20:46:00.000-08:00

This book is on my shelf of "How To" books for achieving world domination.

Basically, this is simply a witty manual by one who says what needs to be said, takes accountability for saying what she says, and can hand out advice that she has learned...well-seasoned from the taste of her shoe having been in her mouth, and having been so more than once. It's like getting 20-20 hindsight without the pain. Kept me laughing, too.

As the highest ranking exec at Hearst Publishing, Black doles out advice on risk, life balance, passion, leadership, work ethic, organization skills, etc. She's like senior mentors I've never had for my current position, with advice I can take with me throughout my career. Black & I seem to view work life similarly; not that it validates me or how I do things, but it does make me feel less alien for enjoying my work as much as I do. When my ability is openly doubted based upon my years of age rather than breadth of experiences, I will think of Cathie Black's young ascension as a rare female in corporate publishing and I will think of pretty much the whole young crew who created and run Google before I rise from my chair in the Board Room, yell "Stick it, you sacred cows!" and apply for my next job.

Upon receiving a promotion, a friend asked the boss, "Do you think I'm ready?" "Of course not," he said. "If you fail, I'll just fire you; if you succeed, I'll promote you." Yes, work could be just that easy.

Probably not on most of our group's "Must Reads," it is something I recently read and enjoyed immensely.

~ Robin

This is cheating

2008-01-26T08:28:00.000-08:00

because I have not read any of these books, but trust Johann's judgment. Here is his list:

Vikram Seth's "A Suitable Boy" : all right, it's 1,350 pages but that won't scare you: the only regret you'll have is that the book ends at all. It is a family chronicle set in post-Independence India, and deals with matters social, cultural, religious, and political close to ordinary Indian people's hearts. A must-read. Seth is a poet who lives in London, and the novel contains some poetry, very enjoyable. I have another book by him, "An Equal Music", which I didn't enjoy nearly as much.

Gita Mehta's "Raj" : a novel about a woman coming of age at a princely court in pre-Independence India. It's a work of historical fiction, very well written, in a fluent style, describing fictional characters against a factual background. It offers a fascinating view of the many, unexpected dilemmas facing India (which was never fully under the "Raj": throughout the British period, independent kingdoms remained in existence).

Amitav Ghosh's "The Glass Palace" : a three-generation family chronicle novel set in Mandalay, in present-day Burma. From a literary viewpoint less impressive than Seth's "A Suitable Boy", but equally enjoyable.

Arundhati Roy's "The God of Small Things" : this book won the 1997 Booker Prize, not that I am guided by such, but it IS extremely well written : a devastating story that deals mercilessly with the absurdities of India's caste system and the injustices of its institutions. The novel is largely told from the viewpoint of two siblings who remember incidents in their youth which pursue them into adulthood, and the characters - some of them as eccentric as they get - are truly masterfully portrayed. I have read the book twice over, with a short time span in between, and envy anyone who will read it for the first time.
While Ms. Roy keeps her convictions largely out of this, her first novel, she is rabidly anti-American, a fact I discovered later when I read a second book of hers, a political tract about the World Bank's funding of large dams in the Third World - a subject more deserving of cool (if negative) analysis than the pamphleteering tract she wrote on it. I threw both the second book and the author (metaphorically speaking) out of the window, but I hold on to The God of Small Things, which deals exclusively with India. Disregard the author's iniquities and read it - you won't regret it.

Indra Sinha's "The Death of Mr. Love" : a novel set in postwar and modern Britain and India, cleverly commenting on both while pursuing a detective/mystery theme. This novel is worth reading, but it left less of an impression on me.

Kiran Desai's "The Inheritance of Loss" : much-acclaimed winner of the 2006 Booker Prize. I read raving reviews of it (not necessarily a guarantee of a good book, in my experience, but there you are) and bought it... at a larrrg storrrr called Barrrderrrrs in Phoenix. I will let you know what it's like (I am now finishing "Manhunt" by James L. Swanson). Kiran Desai is the daughter of the acclaimed author Anita Desai - I have a collection of her short stories under the title "Diamond Dust". Her favorite theme is "Eastern versus Western culture" and she explores it well.

Anita Rau Badami's "The Hero's Walk" is another favorite of mine, a very moving story of a grumpy old couple in a dusty, lonely seaside town who unexpectedly get their granddaughter thrust in their lap, after the death of their estranged daughter who lived in Canada. The novel deals with pain, loss, regret, bitterness but also reconciliation and hope - it is one of the very best novels, Indian or otherwise, I have ever read, and I would never part with it. Its subject is universal, not confined to India, but its setting in an alien (to me and you) culture makes it all the more compelling. If you want to read only one book by an Indian author, let it be this one.

Hari Kunzru's "The Impressionist" is the one we found in Tucson. This book, too, deals with the absurdities of the British Raj, in its tumultuous final years, but this time the theme is explored through a tragicomic lens. Fun and riveting to read.

Jhumpa Lahiri's "The Namesake" : a well-written novel by this Bengali author, about one man's search for his identity, between his roots in India and his life in America. Not a book that leaves a lasting impression (like "The Hero's Walk") but again a universal theme set against a fascinating background. A good read.

The above is my little library of (just 10) Indian authors and (just 11) books, more impressive in quality than in quantity, but then that is my philosophy. I am fully conscious of the limitations of the above mini-reviews, because taste in books is as individual - perhaps more so - than taste in wines. I find it nearly impossible to buy books for other people - my choice on the Battle of the Bulge for John was a stroke of luck really - and other people have difficulty buying books for me. To be honest, I get it wrong myself occasionally...

Johann is a banker-type in Belgium and delightfully funny and chatty. My mother just finished "A Suitable Boy" and liked it tremendously..and she reads for the writing more than I do (I still read for the story mostly).

Olga

Just checking for a pulse...

2008-01-25T20:51:00.001-08:00

Much as I love to read my own reviews (WHAT narcissism?), I'm really more interested to know what everyone else is reading. Surely somebody's finished SOMETHING she loved or loathed lately. Please write about it! Don't make me rely on dumb luck at the library.

Looking forward to your reviews!
~Michelle

A THOUSAND SPLENDID SUNS by Khaled Hosseini

2008-01-02T10:16:00.000-08:00

You may have noticed that I read. A lot. Books, blogs, newspapers, email, misspelled billboards, all of it. And most passes through my consciousness and back out again without leaving much of a footprint. But I just turned the last page of A Thousand Splendid Suns and now have the peculiar sensation of having been changed by this story, so I ran to my laptop to tell you about it.

A Thousand Splendid Suns is set in Afghanistan from the mid-1970s to the present and tells the intertwined stories of Mariam and Laila, whose paths intersect as a result of the destruction and upheaval generated by years of war. One sign of Hosseini's talent is that he has skillfully portrayed a woman's interior life and outer experience in two different female characters. Woven into the plot is 30 years of Afghanistan's history, culture, and political strife, explained more clearly than I have ever understood it before but without the didactic tone that usually ruins a historically-based novel. The story is about survival under oppression but even more, it's about the ways these women find sustenance and meaning that transcend their circumstances. It causes me to marvel at the strength of people who live through difficulties that I can't even imagine without a writer like Hosseini to help. It makes me think deeply about my limited understanding of what I do and don't need in order to live a meaningful life.

I'm still so wowed that I can't really do justice to this book in my description, so you'll just have to read it. It's at the library but I've decided (contrary to my policy about not buying fiction because I'll never read it twice) that I must own it. This is one book I can hardly wait to start reading again.

~Michelle

REWIND, REPLAY, REPEAT by Jeff Bell

2007-12-30T08:10:00.000-08:00

My reading has had a very narrow focus of late. Zoloft, risperdal, OCD, SSRIs, anxiety, CBT, high schools, AIMS tests-I am a veritable wealth of information. In my research I came across a very good book about OCD and what it does to the mind. Written by Jeff Bell, a regular guy with an MBA and a successful career in radio, he tells the story of his experience with the disorder. While the TV show Monk and people like Howie Mandel have raised awareness of OCD, it's too often seen as a joke or "So what? So he can't shake hands-what's the big deal?" This book does a good job of portraying the dark side of being OC.

The writing is good and kept me interested but I already had a compelling reason to be interested. I do think it was about 50 pages too long but that may be part of his OCD-he had to make sure the story was told and told and told. That being said, I think it's a book that would be of interest to anyone.

~Judy

A TWO-FER

2007-12-28T07:34:00.000-08:00

Having nearly drowned in a tsunami of out-of-town guests during the past week -- such a flood that we had to house the overflow at a friend's -- I come to you sleep-deprived, on the edge of a cold and with a neck spasm that does not permit head-turning to the left. And you wonder why I feel this way about Christmas...Nonetheless, I am all excited about the last two books I've read.

One is The Almost Moon by Alice Sebold, author of The Lovely Bones (and if you haven't read that one, HURRY UP!). The story begins with the narrator killing her aged mother and the events that unfold afterward, and also shows us pieces of her earlier life with her mother that give some clues about why she did it. It's a vicarious exploration of what it's like to do something really terrible that you can't take back. I wasn't completely satisfied with the ending, but Sebold isn't one for a nice, neat conclusion. If you can tolerate the plotline, I think you'll enjoy the writing.

And then Ann Patchett's got a new one out titled, simply, Run. Patchett writes these characters with such skill that by book's end, I felt like I knew what it was like to be the adopted black son of a wealthy white politician -- and she explores each of her characters with that same kind of depth. The book takes a look at what makes a family: is it blood or devotion or presence? Can you still be family if those elements aren't there? Can you make a family from fragments of those elements? I was so wowed by the writing, I want everyone to read it.

I'm off to the airport to pick up guest #7, then to the chiropractor. Happy New Year, everybody!

Michelle

2007-12-28T06:32:00.000-08:00

The Business of Being Born

At the end of this trailer there is a a mom saying "Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god!" with that orgasmic rise in her voice as she gives birth. As long as I live, I hope I never forget that awesome, joyous, overwhelming feeling. I hope others continue to have the opportunity.

This film is being shown at Duval Aud (UMC) on January 19 at 2pm-lunch and a movie anyone?

Click here

~Judy

So it ain't Agatha Christie...

2007-12-23T15:03:00.000-08:00

I honestly have been reading in absentia, but all I can get into are magazines and books like this one...my new favorite. I was embarrassed to post any review of what I had been reading, but damn all convention! My instant favorite book, Brunch by Louise Pickford. Reading and comfort food in one, quick read, tasty portaits, the mystery of which one tastes best. Fantastic reading!

Cinnamon soaked granola, pannetone french toast with coconut milk, baby custard tarts with cardamom coffee...

These are sure a far cry from the dry milquetoast world of organizational management readings that are required of Olga & me.

Merry Christmas to All,
Fondly,
Robin

Passing it on

2007-12-19T15:31:00.000-08:00

Going Back To Bisbee by Richard Shelton, comes highly recommended by my Uncle Bill (Aunt Gail concurs) who says he rarely re-reads books but decided to last night for lack of anything else on hand. He says Shelton, a poet, writes wonderfully and the trip goes thru Sonoita, Mustang Corners, Tombstone and to Bisbee. All of that is familiar territory to us, but since the story includes geology, geography, history and all manner of -ologies written beautifully, so much the better!

Another one added to my long list of "after grad school is done" books.

Olga

2007-12-15T16:42:00.000-08:00

For those who can't get enough David Sedaris:

Journey Into Night

~Judy

BAD GIRLS: 26 WRITERS MISBEHAVE edited by Ellen Sussman

2007-11-17T14:31:00.000-08:00

How could I possibly resist a title like this? This book is not so much a confessional as a collection of bold statements about things these women know run against the grain of niceness. There are the expected essays about too much to drink and one-nighters, but also we hear from women who lie or speed every chance they get or cheated on their husbands. Some essays are better than others. I'm sorry to report that Daphne Merkin managed against mind-boggling odds to bore me with a, um, lengthy discussion about penises. Still, this collection was fascinating for the voyeur in me who really wants to know other people's secrets, preferably in as much embarrassing detail as possible.

One of the more thought-provoking essays by Erica Jong (remember FEAR OF FLYING?) questions the very premise of "goodness" as it applies to women's behavior. What does being bad really mean for women? Jong suggests that badness happens when we don't fit the mold, when we act in ways that used to be reserved for men. Hm-mmm...I plan to devote a chunk of time to pondering this issue -- after I walk the dog, call my mother, write some thank-you notes and floss my teeth.

~Michelle

DEAD WRONG J.A. Jance

2007-11-13T06:17:00.000-08:00

Reporting from Southern Ohio:

It's a So. Ohio kind of day-gray skies, drizzling rain-perfect weather to curl up with a good book.

On the flight here I read Dead Wrong a title in the Sheriff Joanna Brady series. I so want to find a good suspense writer who challenges the mind; J.A. is not it. I had the ending of this pretty much figured out by page 100. The hook for those of us in southern AZ is Joanna is the sheriff of Cochise County and the books are set in familiar places: Bisbee, San Simon, Sierra Vista.

In this story, Joanna is 38-39 weeks pregnant running around Hell's half acre with a kevlar vest, a semi-automatic rifle, dropping to the ground on her tummy and shooting bad guys in the ankle--taking aim under a car, of course. And there were kidnapped children in the car! I'm not saying this is an impossible feat, but highly implausible. The blurb on the back cover says it best:

...neither her pregnancy nor family concerns will keep her from doing her duty, no matter how perilous...enforcing the law has become more than what Joanna Brady does-it's what she is.

Rest assured that all is well in Cochise County. Joanna's water breaks just as all the bad guys are taken care off. And I think I can write this whole trip off as a business expense because of this book. Here's an interesting tidbit to add to my Nurse Case Manager storehouse of fun facts:

...Joanna tried nursing Dennis, It wasn't entirely successful, but Joanna remembered how it had been with Jenny. There had been a learning curve for both Joanna and the baby, and she was sure this was more of the same thing.

Not a Lactation Consultant in sight!

I have Suite Francaise in my bag for the return trip. Hope that will help occupy me on the long trip home.

~Judy

THE YEAR OF MAGICAL THINKING by Joan Didion

2007-11-12T12:42:00.000-08:00

You know how sometimes you have a bad week that runs into a year or more where you just can't quite find your equilibrium? Okay, fine, you don't -- but Joan Didion knows what I'm talking about. In 2003, while their adult daughter was hospitalized and critically ill, her husband suffered a fatal heart attack. THE YEAR OF MAGICAL THINKING is a memoir about the months that followed, and the ways she (coped or didn't) with the profundity of this loss and her daughter's recovery.

I know about that magical thinking. When my father died and we sold his green Chevy pickup, I would see another truck like it and check to see if he was driving. I went to the place where he had had his heart attack, thinking I might understand something more by standing in that parking lot one more time. Substitute "crazy" for "magical," and I had a year a lot like Joan's. If you've ever experienced the loss of someone you love, this book will touch some facets of grief you might have had trouble explaining, even to yourself.

~Michelle

PORTRAIT IN SEPIA by Isabel Allende

2007-11-12T12:24:00.000-08:00

Take heart, all you who harbor a secret love for the historical novel. I picked this book up expecting something more mystical, like Allende's HOUSE OF SPIRITS, but found instead a first-person narrative that manages to tell the stories of all the important characters in an omniscient way. Think of the narration in THE LOVELY BONES, minus the rape and murder.

Essentially, this is the story of a young 19th-century Chilean woman trying to uncover her past through the stories she gleans from her family. She is raised by her grandmother, but there were other parents, other grandparents she doesn't remember, and recurring nightmares she can't comprehend. The story is in the untangling of the pieces of her history.

If you've never read Allende, this book might be a good one to start with. If you have and couldn't get into the more ephemeral stuff, this story is grounded in reality from start to finish -- no dead relatives come back to chat, and there are no ghosts except the ones in Aurora's mind.

~Michelle

Letting Go of the Person You Used to Be

2007-10-25T22:14:00.000-07:00

I am a sucker for Buddhist DIY. I've got plenty of stuff to "get over" and what feels like very little time to do it, even though I plan to live to be at least 100. Girls, I gotta lotta karma to burn! Lama Surya Das, formerly Jeffrey Miller the Jew, is a Westerner who is a Dzogchen Tibetan Buddhism lineage holder. He quips his mother calls him the "Deli Lama."

Surya's writing style is akin to your most honest and kindest friend reassuring you that it really is as bad as you think, and that it really will be okay anyway. Surya has written other books that are equally enjoyable...and none of them require you to be anything other than you are. You can be Christian and a Buddhist, you can be asleep and be Buddhist, you can be atheist and be Buddhist, you can be lactose intolerant and be Buddhist. You don't even have to be Buddhist. You do not worship in Buddhism..."Buddha never promised he would save you; you have to save yourself."

All I might encourage you to be is curious, and I'd be glad to lend the book if you are hesitant to purchase or even check it out at the library.

Good night and sweet dreams!
Robin

Again with the childhood favorites

2007-10-23T21:13:00.001-07:00

My little girls are letting me read Laura Ingall's series to them, and it's been such fun. We're in the "House on the Prairie" book now, but they've brought me the "Golden Years" several times asking me to read it because it has some interesting pictures (like Laura pulling the knife out of the pinned braid of her student in her first school).

A lot of stuff is sticking out now that I don't remember--like she was just fifteen when she taught that first school, and three of the students were older than she!---but a lot of it is familiar and loved.

I picked up These Happy Golden Years last night and read it full through by myself. And I cried, a lot, inexplicably. I remember my mother crying over it and being unable to finish reading it aloud to me, but I didn't understand why. I did not cry when I read it on my own at whatever young age I was. But why is it so evocative for me as an adult? Is it just my weird genetic inheritance or does it affect lots of people that way?

Olga

Thank You, Amy!

2007-10-19T18:18:00.000-07:00

Thanks for recommending Take Big Bites by Linda Ellerbee. I've always enjoyed her work, including NBC News Overnight (back in my pre-cable nightshift era) and her first book And So It Goes. Now I want to read Move On. She's as smart, witty and down to earth as ever. Can make you laugh and cry, all in the same sentence. Last year as I was turning 50, I went to Canelo, AZ by myself, camped in a tent and played in the mud all day. It was a transformative experience. Linda has given me ideas for other ways to mark the anniversary of my birth in the years to come. I can't wait!

To quote: I am as young as I ever will be. I am never going to be any younger than I am this minute. This second. Judy

PS: also great recipes

PUSHED

2007-10-11T19:32:00.000-07:00

Not really a book review, but a reading review.

Michelle and I went to the reading by Jennifer Block, author of PUSHED: The Painful Truth About Childbirth and Modern Maternity Care (read excerpts). The author is young, attractive and very trendy-urban-hip, unlike the proponents of physiologic birth of the 60s and 70s with their flowing cotton dresses, unshaven legs, trailing the scent of patchouli. What she read of the book was factual and told from a journalistic point of view devoid of the stridency of the previous era. She has obviously done her research and I noticed none of the awkwardness that sometimes comes in describing hospital birth. She could "talk the talk". I didn't walk out with a copy of the book for the same reason I haven't seen Sicko-I live it everyday. Just today I shared with a patient that if I were having a baby today, it would be born at the Birth and Women's Health Center. Not that what we do is bad, it's just not the best way, not the family-centered way and it's not what everyone wants or needs.

Real cheese smells ("like the feet of angels" as I've heard some described), can be strong, earthy, nutty, and is not always pretty. But when you bite into it, it touches every taste bud and the sensory neurons light up; you know you have something real, the flavor lingers you realize that food can be an experience. Much like birth.

Compare to Kraft cheese food: ingredients processed beyond recognition, squeezed out in uniform slices and packaged in nice shiny paper. That's what we do, the Kraft cheese food version-there's a market for it and I just try to make sure those purchasing our "product" get the safest and best cellophane wrapped "delivery" out there.

Give me a good Gorgonzola, pungent, crumbly with streaks of green mold! Now that's cheese.

As we looked around the room, Michelle whispered to me: "Looks like she's preaching to the choir." And she was right, those attending were already believers, there were no altar calls or converts that night. But it was an enjoyable evening rubbing elbows with some ghosts from the past

Just for fun, check out this site: Belly Tales

SUITE FRANCAISE (Parte Deux)

2007-10-10T11:43:00.000-07:00

Here's a quick follow-up to Michaele's August review of SUITE FRANCAISE. I can't think of the last time I felt such ambivalence about a book. Absolutely nobody in this story is happy, but why would they be? Their country has been occupied by the enemy, their husbands and sons have been killed or captured, and those who are getting by are portrayed in all their human frailty, much of it not very flattering. Yet I CANNOT STOP READING because this book contains the kind of truth and excellent writing that makes a classic. Wonderful.

~Michelle

Myrecipes.com

2007-09-29T17:18:00.000-07:00

I am in cooking heaven. Come to cooking heaven with me!

All recipes from Sunset, Cooking Light, Health, Coastal Living, Cottage Living, & Southern Living can be found at MyRecipes.com! To know just how important this is, I was looking for a particular Baja Fried Fish Tacos / Sunset Magazine, January 2006. No other fish taco recipe will do, THAT'S how good they are. (Judy do you remember them?)

Fall is my favorite time of year. Anyone up for a simple Soup & Christmas Wrapping party in NOVEMBER? That's right, I said it...NOVEMBER! Let's get the shopping and wrapping out of the way early, shall we?

~Robin

October 27th, 10AM, Blue Willow

2007-09-23T20:04:00.000-07:00

Let's meet around 10AM, I'll book a table for 6...Preview the menu at www.bluewillowtucson.com. I'm already looking forward to it!

Have a great week, everyone!
~Robin

October 27th-A new anniversary date?

2007-09-22T21:18:00.001-07:00

Breakfast on October 27th at the Blue Willow, it is...but what time?

Alcohol optional and not even encouraged (but don't discourage me, okay?) Just kidding.

Well, Judy, our anniversary is October 12th, and speaking of big plans...I just finished making them. We're escaping all the way to...CHANDLER!

Judy and I discussed the importance of retreats, and given our incredibly consistent anniversary tribulations with the men we undoubtedly love (and who could both sue *us* for spousal support anyhow), we wondered what you all would think of holding an all girl's "Anniversary" retreat each year (date TBD) in honor of all the anniversaries in which we ladies did all the predicting, planning, paying, packing, prettying up and putting out.

Your thoughts?
~Robin

MONKEEWRENCH by P.J. Tracy

2007-09-17T19:55:00.000-07:00

Call it a rebound romance, but as soon as I turned my back on MIDDLESEX, I fell in love with MONKEEWRENCH. It was a brief encounter -- nothing too deep or demanding -- but God, I loved every minute of it. I'm already thinking about going back for seconds.

The basic plotline of this thriller is that a small software company has created a new video game, and a serial killer is mimicking the deaths in the game. Two different law enforcement agencies are involved in the investigation, so we have lots of characters and their dynamics to amuse us while we wait for the killer either to strike again or be revealed.

The dialog is fresh, realistic, surprising and funny -- sometimes simultaneously. There's really something for everyone in this book: a little murder and mayhem, a little romance, a few deep dark secrets...it's good stuff. And (always a bonus, I think) it's available at the library. Enjoy!

~Michelle

2007-09-15T18:44:00.000-07:00

September 15th, Marco Polo's birthday....MARCO?

The Long-Awaited Panning of MIDDLESEX

2007-09-14T14:41:00.000-07:00

When I was a kid, one of my mother's friends divorced her husband after 35 years of marriage. This seemed to me, even at that young age, a powerful testament to just how bad it had been, that she would invest so much time and heart in a relationship and finally decide that she just couldn't take any more. This, ladies, is a perfect metaphor for why I gave up on MIDDLESEX a mere 200 pages from the end. Sometimes you just know things aren't ever going to get better.

This was my second attempt at this book, spurred by Oprah's enthusiasm (yes, I KNOW I need to get a job) and allowing for the possibility that my reading tastes had shifted since I first put the book aside. Jeffrey Eugenides is a Pulitzer prize winner, for pete's sake! Surely there was a reason for the hoopla.

Not really. The plot moves through the lives of a Greek immigrant family over several generations, but all the events are filtered through the narrator, Callie. Never do we see things from anyone else's perspective, and she's prone to pages of internal monologue and exposition which I find unbearably boring. Give me more dialog, or at least a few different narrators obsessing about how they see things. I never got a sense of Callie caring deeply about the people in her family, and as a result, they didn't matter to me, either.

Sometimes when things aren't working, it's better just to walk away.

~Michelle

Love, Loss and What I Wore

2007-09-13T18:25:00.000-07:00

While googling something else I was reminded of this little illustrated book. It's a touching, funny, heartfelt look at a woman's life and even though it sounds superficial it isn't because we all remember certain things: 1. What we wore. 2. Giving birth.

And it has PINK on the cover!

Pink On The Cover

2007-09-12T20:16:00.000-07:00

Ain't that the damn truth? Sometimes, you just gotta judge a book by its cover! I loved all your comments...avoiding pink in the cover, as real as CSI getting the DNA results by the 2nd commerical break, and admitting to a brain candy addiction. Now that kind of stuff - your comments - is good readin'!

Breakfast sounds fab. We can welcome Judy to the Land of the Working Weenies! How about Blue Willow, 8 or 9 AM, Saturday Oct. 20th or Saturday Oct. 27th? They do take reservations and are pretty centrally located for all of us. Plus, who doesn't love their gift shop?

Michelle, if we keep it to Saturday instead of Sunday, we can order alcohol, thus having a Happy Hour Breakfast. There has to be a book we can write outlining what dark beer goes best with pancakes. Or do we drink red or white with granola? A mimosa would sure be fun!

I'm too Neanderthal to post a poll about it, so RSVP under comments. Feel free to suggest other locations, dates and times!

~Robin

Day Off

2007-09-07T12:48:00.001-07:00

BTW, (raise one eyebrow) today was a preplanned mental health day at home for me, in case some of you suspected I was posting at this time of day during working hours! I'm on a personal pathway to put more fun in my life, and sadly, I do have to put it on my calendar to do so...

Anyone up for joining me at a Happy Hour or Group Breakfast in late October (time enough so we can synchronize our schedules?)

Fondly, Robin

Interruption of Everything

2007-09-07T12:24:00.000-07:00

Interruption of Everything by Terry McMillan. What an interruption of my free time! No wonder my mom found this in the $5.98 bin at Borders.

Thought I was off on a grand adventure given Ms. McMillan wrote How Stella Got Her Groove Back. BZZZZTTTTT. Thanks for playing. The poignancy of the thing ran out in the middle; would have been suitable to end the book (or put it down) there. But alas, I thought, "Surely something better is waiting around this corner!" Not so much. While not outright awful, the book really petered out in the end, with the husband basically forgiven for having a Y chromosome, and the narrator forgiving herself for waiting for 'her time' to come. I would have loved at least one hot scene with a nude Gordon described for me in shockingly delicious detail!

Ladies, perhaps this is why I love non-fiction, because I am pretty tired of reading about women who are trying to remake themselves and their entire lives because they are just plain pretty tired of everything in their lives. We're probably all in the middle of this sentiment right now, each of us, no matter what we are doing or not doing, having or not having in our lives.

As a believer of pearls coming from irritation in the oyster, that happiness is a choice (in the absence of physical or emotional illness, abuse or tragedy), that openness to 'what is' is not optional, and that life sucks and sucks often and our real job is having fun despite this realization; I am definitely tiring of the "I am woman, and I'm not going to take this domesticity anymore" genre of books.

Unite, women of the page and plume!

With school back in session, reading anything other than texts will involve veritable moments...onward, through the fog!

Have a great weekend,
Robin

Crank the Pit!!

2007-09-06T17:05:00.000-07:00

I was just looking at the Antigone site upcoming events because Nancy Turner author of These Is My Words will be there tomorrow. However, I can't tell if it's a reading. There are some other interesting things coming up, including a visit by Jennifer Block author of a book called Pushed: The Painful Truth about Childbirth and Modern Maternity Care
Wow, we should pack the house, ladies!

Judy

Antigone Upcoming Events

And here's a favorite of mine on the politics of birth
The American Way of Birth
by Jessica Mitford. If you've never heard of Jessica Mitford, you should! Here's a great piece at Salon.com about Jessica, one of The Mitford Girls (another great read). She's my Muckraking hero!

MIDDLESEX Question

2007-09-04T15:28:00.000-07:00

I'm about 200 pages from the end of MIDDLESEX by Jeffrey Eugenides and need some help from one of you who has already ready the book. (Not a spoiler question, don't worry.) Can somebody tell me why Calli's brother is named Chapter Eleven? All the other characters have normal names except this one, and it's not explained at all -- or I missed it. Thoughts?

~Michelle

From Michaele

2007-08-30T16:38:00.000-07:00

This is a great idea, sharing ideas (and reports) on what we have read.

The ones I tried to add today were: Suite Française, by Irène Némirovsky. A French Jew she wrote this quasi-bio-memoir while hiding out, then later died in a concentation camp before she could be rescued. Judy V. first recommended it to me and it is so beautifully written (I think) that I couldn't believe it. It is translated from the French. So, the last time I was in Paris, I bought it in French (it's great that way too).

The other one I added is a bit dated. We all know of Pat Conroy's stuff--His long South Carolina novels and his one about the Citadel (I can't remember its name but that's one I'd like to "pan"). The one I recommended is his first book, about teaching, as a brand new teacher fresh out of college, in a poor South Carolina school and his challenges with administration and his multiple frustrations trying to do what was right. As a former teacher I "could feel his pain". (ed to add title: The Water is Wide)

And there's another one coming out by a relatively unknown author, Lockhart I think is the name, due out next spring.

Tea and turkish cigars. . .cigars and turkish tea. . .? I really am out of the loop!

Hugs,

Michaele

HEALTHY AT 100 by John Robbins (but I'd settle for 80-ish)

2007-08-30T14:32:00.000-07:00

So now it's happened: I've officially entered middle age because I'm reading books with titles like this one. Most of us don't aspire to living a full century, but seeing what certain diet and lifestyle choices have wrought on the health of my parents' generation, I'm definitely interested in improving the odds for staying well and lucid (please the gods) while I AM here.

Some of you may be familiar with John Robbins, the presumed heir to the Baskin-Robbins empire who gave up his keys to the kingdom when he concluded that all that fat and sugar might not really be enhancing people's lives in the long run. Me, I'm all for a little fat and sugar and I like to eat the occasional animal, too, but this book still had plenty to offer me.

Robbins begins with several chapters about cultures where healthy longevity has been the rule, rather than the exception, and tries to identify what they have in common in terms of diet, activity and social connections. The rest of the book attempts to translate those elements into some workable suggestions that we might incorporate into modern American life. I greatly appreciated his refusal to romanticize these cultures. Instead, he uses their stories to illustrate the point that old age doesn't necessarily have to be what we've come to expect of it.

Obviously, there is no guarantee implicit in this book. But somewhere between the common belief that decrepitude is part of aging (so just accept it) and the equally irrational hope that we can defeat the aging process with the right "recipe," there is a truth. It is that we can educate ourselves about how to best care for our bodies and our minds and then know that, whatever comes, we have lived our lives as well as we could for as long as we could. I think I'd like to start that right now.

~Michelle

Cherry Ames, continued

2007-08-29T16:26:00.000-07:00

I was more of a Donna Parker gal and loved Donna Parker in Hollywood! But I did read Cherry Ames, Student Nurse. Cherry Ames always reminds me of my Mom, Norma Jean who was a Cadet Nurse. That's the Cadet Nurse insignia on the sleeve of her "whites".

From the Cadet Nurse website: Many parents worried that the training in nursing schools and nurse duties might expose their daughters to infectious diseases, unsafe conditions, and unsupervised proximity to men.
Pondering that must be why these two look so serious.
That's Mom (front) sitting on the steps of the "Nurses' Home" with her best friend. They must have been 19 or 20 at the time.

The war ended before she finished her training (she's a "Mercy Grad" Portsmouth OH) so she never served in the Army but she went on to work for many years as an RN, retiring in 1979.
You make me proud, Mom!
Judy

Just for fun

2007-08-29T09:58:00.000-07:00

This isn't exactly literary, but since so many of us are nurses I thought I'd introduce Cherry Ames (Robin & Judy at least have heard me talk about her, not sure about Amy or the others).

Cherry Ames is the chief character in a girls' mystery series that is much like Nancy Drew. The first book follows her beginnings in a diploma program at her hometown hospital, the second and third follow her as she finishes nursing school and enters the Army in World War II. Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cherry_Ames ) says the series was written to "encourage girls to enter the nursing profession" at that time, and boy did it work on me even 40 some years later!

I discovered her as a kid at the Sierra Vista library--but very few nurses I've worked with have ever heard of her. (exceptions-- Lisa Kiser and Alex on St. Joe's night shift[she of the tiniest script ever--somebody tell her I say hello], and an older nurse I worked with in Germany). My very favorite was always "Cherry Ames, Flight Nurse" --which is the fourth book. Here's an excerpt:

(contemplating her unknown future--she's in the Army Air Corps awaiting assignment)

"'To wherever our wounded soldiers need me,' Cherry thought soberly. 'To wherever I can keep a man from dying.'

Wherever people needed a girl with love in her heart and healing in her hands, that was where Cherry belonged. She wanted to serve, she had trained to serve. Sympathy or vague good intentions---these were not enough for her. Only a nurse, Cherry knew, could bring so much help and hope to others, who sorely needed her. Only a nurse could experience such broad human adventure, such profound inner reward. "

When I first read that I must've been about 11 or 12 yrs old. In high school I forgot all about nursing, but when the Air Force offered to pay for college to study nursing I abandoned my metallurgical engineering ideas and signed up. My mother warned me that sometimes our best beloved childhood books don't stand the test of time, but I still have love for these characters and their stories. Somehow Cherry's spirit of nursing, although it seems quaint, has never left me. I still wish I'd gotten to train in a diploma program!!

Olga

2007-08-26T06:03:00.000-07:00

Excellent idea and thanks for creating it! We can possibly keep the running book list as a page element. Just an idea.

Having nothing to do with books but everything to do with getting together, I'm thinking of having an activity day at my house. Date would be in October when the temps have fallen out of the insane range. Activity? Either making hypertufa planting pots or something with paper. Let me know what you might like to do.

Judy

Basically No - Selah's Bed

2007-08-25T14:10:00.000-07:00

Selah's Bed by Jenoyne Adams is a gutteral, slow, and disturbing book. Her writing style is interesting, if you can get past the disturbing story line. "Sex was a way to stop the crying, the powerlessness of not feeling beautiful..."

The book reads in a choppy, every other chapter way, meaning that one chapter tells of her life now and the next revisits her childhood. Two threads twist together by the end to help you know Selah in all her complexities, but it's far too troubling by the end of the book to even care!

Abandoned by her mother, and raised by a pill-popping grandmother, Selah consistently cheats on her minister-husband, somehow finding comfort or power in wielding sex. Childhood chapters reveal she charged boys a quarter to feel her up (and charged more to do other things) when she was just in grade school. Selah also writes letters to a child one would think she lost in late pregnancy or as an infant, however, we find out in the end, she has been referring to a fetus she electively aborted when she was a teenager (her now minister husband was the father). The ending is just WAY too trite...

~Robin