A doctor learns he is dying, and he and his son take to the road to take the census. The two travel through an alphabetical list of towns, referred toA doctor learns he is dying, and he and his son take to the road to take the census. The two travel through an alphabetical list of towns, referred to as A all the way to Z, and meet all sorts of people, from the kind to the cruel.
The son has a disability that not defined except in the responses of the people they meet to him. The census is also loosely depicted, but it seems clear that it is somewhat more than a simple enumeration of people in an area.
The story has lots of my favorite elements---being on the road, talking to everyday people, ruminating on meaning and purpose.
Thank you, Ti of Book Chatter, for pointing me toward this new favorite....more
I have been looking forward to reading this book ever since I first heard about it, way back in May. It did not disappoint me, or, if it did, it was nI have been looking forward to reading this book ever since I first heard about it, way back in May. It did not disappoint me, or, if it did, it was not by much.
Here's the plot: Phoebe has booked a room at a hotel. She is going to kill herself. When she arrives at the hotel, she discovers the entire hotel has been booked for a six-day wedding celebration.
Odd, right?
What I liked about this book was that the author is very, very smart, and she is quite knowledgable about classic books, and all of her smartness and book-knowledge permeates the story in a good way. I also like that the plot is slyly humorous....more
Ferris and her sister, Pinky, live with their parents and Grandmother Charisse. Uncle Ted has moved into the basement and Aunt Shirley has not. CharisFerris and her sister, Pinky, live with their parents and Grandmother Charisse. Uncle Ted has moved into the basement and Aunt Shirley has not. Charisse has seen a ghost and she is convinced the ghost wants her to accomplish a difficult task. Pinky is on a rampage and her parents can't figure out what to do with her.
Oliver Twist is orphaned at birth, and he is sent to live in a workhouse as a child where he is starved, both for food and for love. The boys in the wOliver Twist is orphaned at birth, and he is sent to live in a workhouse as a child where he is starved, both for food and for love. The boys in the workhouse draw lots to protest, and it is Oliver who famously dares to stand up to those who run the workhouse and ask for more. Deemed a troublemaker, the result is that Oliver is farmed out, for money, to an apprenticeship where, once again, the boy is starved and is put to work doing dangerous things grown men refuse to do. Oliver can think of nothing to do but escape to live on the streets where he is recruited for a gang of pickpockets. It is only after Oliver is falsely accused of pickpocketing that his life takes a serendipitous and sharp turn toward healing.
Oliver Twist was my spin choice in February for The Classics Club. If I had to sum up the book in a few words, I would say that it is almost unremittingly grim. Reading this book explains, for me, why people can become filled with hatred and cruelty, and that's what I would have expected of Oliver Twist. Somehow, though, the boy kept his kind and generous nature through his exceptionally miserable childhood ordeals....more
I've just finished this book that I started reading, really reading---lost in the story, lost in the wondering about what was going to happen next, loI've just finished this book that I started reading, really reading---lost in the story, lost in the wondering about what was going to happen next, lost in what this story makes me want to do now that I'm finished---this morning, and I'd like to start taking those actions provoked by reading this story---hugging everyone I know and love and telling them all that I love them and don't squander it all and then hugging them again...
I didn't think I was going to like this book; I was afraid it was going to leave me feeling depressed. Instead, I feel completed elated, in love with the world and all that's in it.
I knew the story was about a boy, the sole survivor of a plane crash, a crash that took the lives of his brother and his parents. We readers get to know the boy, of course, but we also are let into the eyes of the boy's parents and his brother and many of the people on the plane. They are a mix of people---some happy, some sad; some rich, some poor; some about to move forward, others retreating; some delighted with the way their lives have gone, others with regrets.
The book alternates beautifully between the story of the boy, who was Eddie and is now Edward, and the ways he deals with life after the crash, and the stories of the people on the plane before the crash.
It's not a perfect story; it's heavily weighted with optimism. I rounded up when I rated this book, maybe to encourage more people to read it so that it can spark more hugging and life-reflection....more
Patrick Bringley leaves a cush job at The New Yorker after the death of his beloved older brother and he becomes a guard at the Metropolitan Museum ofPatrick Bringley leaves a cush job at The New Yorker after the death of his beloved older brother and he becomes a guard at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The work offers time for reflection and over the course of five or so years, Bringley heals. He and his wife have two children, and he continues to work at the Met for five more years. Bringley develops close friendships there and thinks about art and life and death and meaning.
A lovely, thoughtful book. I enjoyed Bringley's reflections on life as well as the anecdotes he shares. My favorite part was the last day he spent at the Met.
He decides his favorite piece of art is a Crucifixion by Fra Angelico. "My fondness for it owes something to my biases...I like old Christian art and its luminous sadness. I like that the picture makes me think of Tom, however painful that may be. Christ's body looks like it's been nailed to the mast of some storm-tossed ship. It's the center around which the rest of the world seems to rock and wheel. A graceful, broken body, it reminds us again of the obvious: that we're mortal, that we suffer, that bravery in suffering is beautiful, that loss inspires love and lamentation."
He takes away much from his experiences in the museum. "Artists create records of transitory moments, appearing to stop their clocks. They help us believe that some things aren't transitory at all but rather remain beautiful, true, majestic, sad, or joyful over many lifetimes---and here is the proof, painted in oils, carved in marble, stitched into quilts."
And more: "But when I took up my post ten years ago there were things I didn't understand. Sometimes, life can be about simplicity and stillness, in the vein of a watchful guard amid shimmering works of art. But it is also about the head-down work of living and struggling and growing and creating."...more
Can you overload on Kafka? I am here to say that you can.
When I was sixteen, I read my first Kafka, The Metamorphosis. I thought it was brilliant, a pCan you overload on Kafka? I am here to say that you can.
When I was sixteen, I read my first Kafka, The Metamorphosis. I thought it was brilliant, a perfect depiction of the strangeness and incomprehensibility of life. And, at sixteen, life can be strange and incomprehensible.
But after reading every story Kafka wrote (well, at least all the ones that weren't burnt after he died, at his request), I might say that I'm exhausted, that I am tired of reading Kafka, that I am tired of reading stories where people do things for a very long time and never know why they are doing things, that I am tired of reading stories where people change but can never figure out why or how they changed.
Yes, life can be strange and incomprehensible, but it also can be beautiful and satisfying and meaningful.
It will be a while before I read Kafka again, I think....more
The Comfort of Crows is a collection of fifty-two short essays that follow the life in the author's backyard during the course of a single year. The aThe Comfort of Crows is a collection of fifty-two short essays that follow the life in the author's backyard during the course of a single year. The author, Margaret Renkl, ties the happenings in her yard to the happenings in her family and larger community, and, in doing so, draws thoughtful observations about meaning and existence in the world....more
Saving some of my favorite aphorisms from this book here:
Don’t measure your life with someone else’s ruler.
Kelly, Kevin. Excellent Advice for Living (Saving some of my favorite aphorisms from this book here:
Don’t measure your life with someone else’s ruler.
Kelly, Kevin. Excellent Advice for Living (p. 8). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
A great way to understand yourself is to seriously reflect on everything you find irritating in others.
Kelly, Kevin. Excellent Advice for Living (p. 14). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
Separate the processes of creating from improving. You can’t write and edit or sculpt and polish or make and analyze at the same time. If you do, the editor stops the creator. While you invent, don’t select. While you sketch, don’t inspect. While you write the first draft, don’t reflect. At the start, the creator mind must be unleashed from judgment.
Kelly, Kevin. Excellent Advice for Living (p. 32). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
...a playful “yes—and” example instead of a deflating “no—but..."
Kelly, Kevin. Excellent Advice for Living (p. 70). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
You can reduce the annoyance of someone’s stupid belief by increasing your understanding of why they believe it.
Kelly, Kevin. Excellent Advice for Living (p. 83). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
You can eat any dessert you want if you take only three bites.
Kelly, Kevin. Excellent Advice for Living (p. 85). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
We are not a body that carries a soul. We are a soul that is assigned a body not of our choosing, but in our care.
Kelly, Kevin. Excellent Advice for Living (p. 88). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
When you feel like quitting just do five more: 5 more minutes, 5 more pages 5 more steps. Then repeat. Sometimes you can break through and keep going but even if you can’t, you ended five ahead.
Kelly, Kevin. Excellent Advice for Living (p. 119). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
You’ll get 10 times better results by elevating good behavior rather than punishing bad behavior especially in children and animals.
Kelly, Kevin. Excellent Advice for Living (p. 123). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
Don’t wait for the storm to pass; dance in the rain.
Kelly, Kevin. Excellent Advice for Living (p. 125). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
Denying or deflecting a compliment is rude. Accept it with thanks even if you believe it is not deserved.
Kelly, Kevin. Excellent Advice for Living (p. 126). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
It’s thrilling to be extremely polite to rude strangers.
Kelly, Kevin. Excellent Advice for Living (p. 138). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
Most articles and stories are improved significantly if you delete the first page of the manuscript. Start with the action.
Kelly, Kevin. Excellent Advice for Living (p. 138). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
When introduced to someone make eye contact and count to four or say to yourself, “I see you.” You’ll both remember each other.
Kelly, Kevin. Excellent Advice for Living (p. 143). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
You will thrive more —and so will others— when you promote what you love rather than bash what you hate. Life is short; focus on the good stuff.
Kelly, Kevin. Excellent Advice for Living (p. 166). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
Unhappiness comes from wanting what others have. Happiness comes from wanting what you already have.
Kelly, Kevin. Excellent Advice for Living (p. 168). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
Assume no one remembers names. As a courtesy reintroduce yourself by name even to those you have previously met: "Hi, I'm Kevin."
Kelly, Kevin. Excellent Advice for Living (p. 169). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
To meditate, sit and pay attention to your breathing. Your mind will wander to thoughts. Then you bring your attention back to your breathing where it can’t think. Wander. Retreat. Keep returning to breath no thoughts. That is all.
Kelly, Kevin. Excellent Advice for Living (p. 172). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
You can’t change your past but you can change your story about it. What is important is not what happened to you but what you did about what happened to you.
Kelly, Kevin. Excellent Advice for Living (p. 174). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
Let your children choose their punishments. They’ll be tougher than you will.
Kelly, Kevin. Excellent Advice for Living (p. 174). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
Make one to throw away. The only way to write a great book is to first write an awful book. Ditto for a movie, song, piece of furniture or anything.
Kelly, Kevin. Excellent Advice for Living (p. 176). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
Anger is not the proper response to anger. When you see someone angry you are seeing their pain.
Kelly, Kevin. Excellent Advice for Living (p. 177). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
When you find something you really enjoy do it slowly.
Kelly, Kevin. Excellent Advice for Living (p. 178). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
The big dirty secret is that everyone especially the famous are just making it up as they go along.
Kelly, Kevin. Excellent Advice for Living (p. 185). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
The chief prevention against getting old is to remain astonished.
Kelly, Kevin. Excellent Advice for Living (p. 209). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
I like to be right. And if I can't be right, then I can at least be loud. And long-winded.
This can be toxic in our world today. Many people who disagrI like to be right. And if I can't be right, then I can at least be loud. And long-winded.
This can be toxic in our world today. Many people who disagree with my views carry guns.
I need this book. I learned tons of things from this book. I need to write down notes from this book and try them out. (Perhaps on Saturday when my family gathers for lunch? I don't think anyone in my family would draw a gun on me.) I might even read this book again.
Notes:
*David Smith, in his lecture, "Civil Conversation in an Angry Age," suggests we ask two questions that allow us to look at our opinions a second time. One is, "Are you willing to believe that you could be wrong about something?" The other one is, "Which do you value more, the truth or your own beliefs?"
*People can't know what they have never experienced.
*Elizabeth G. Saunders says that when you feel like you win online, you have rarely changed anyone's mind. "Instead," she says, "you stand as the triumphant king of a lonely land smoldering with the ashes of people you have decimated with your words, who are less likely than ever to listen to your side again."
*To question our conclusions across perspectives, we have to get curious. We direct our curiosity at the mystery of who we are, the gaps between what we know and what we wish we knew, keeping people at the center of our conversations, rather than their opinions or our assumptions. Once we are there, we look for paths people walked to get to their perspectives, the different conclusions they draw about the world."
*Here's another great statement to make: "Let me think out loud for a bit."
*The experience of being listened to is extremely rare in life. The key is to stay with one crucial question: "What do you mean?"
*It's important to acknowledge and be honest about the attachments that influence you.
*A simple invitation to speak for someone who is holding back: "Any thoughts on this one?"
*"Are you stuck with someone who is talking too much? At the next pause...ask if you can offer your experience with the topic."
*"Every tough issue that divides us...puts some fundamentally good values into tension with one another."
*"What good solutions might we find if current constraints weren't an issue?"
*How do you approach opinions flexibly enough to boost your creativity? Share current thinking on an issue. Change the question. Listen longer. Acknowledge agreement. Untie thought knots. Hit reset. Acknowledge good points. Offer, "I don't know."
*Three moments of positivity for every moment of negativity.
*"How did you come to believe X?"
*Explain yourself with story.
*Instead of commenting on someone else's opinion, pose a question.
*Great question: "What's your most generous interpretation of why they disagree with you?"
*In the middle of a discussion, switch from the dance floor to the balcony....more
The Osage of Oklahoma unexpectedly became wildly rich when the land to which the tribe had been relocated was discovered to contain a huge and valuablThe Osage of Oklahoma unexpectedly became wildly rich when the land to which the tribe had been relocated was discovered to contain a huge and valuable oilfield.
The headright each tribe member owned could not be sold. It could only be inherited. And this, along with greed and the lack of respect held for Native Americans in early twentieth-century white culture, led to a series of murders in the Osage community.
The murders themselves were horrific, but the way the murders were ignored, covered up, and minimized was just as horrific.
This is yet another story from history that I was never told in school. It's a horrific story, and it's a story that reminds us of the horrific things minority cultures in America have had to endure....more
A Night to Remember is the true story of the sinking of the Titanic. It was first published in 1955, and Walter Lord notes that all the dialogue and aA Night to Remember is the true story of the sinking of the Titanic. It was first published in 1955, and Walter Lord notes that all the dialogue and all of the details from the story were taken from various accounts of the sinking of the Titanic. The story has the feeling of being an eyewitness account, with a narrator that sees-all, hears-all. I first read this book after I was wowed watching the movie Titanic, and someone told me that this book was a brilliant nonfiction story of that event. I have to agree. A Night to Remember is one of my all-time favorite reads. I hope to read the sequel this year, too....more
The big question is...What do I think of Agatha Christie? Well, I was surprMy first Agatha Christie!
We listened to this mystery on a recent car trip.
The big question is...What do I think of Agatha Christie? Well, I was surprised. Christie offered a lot of suspects, and I didn't even suspect who-done-it. The characters were all rich and well-fleshed-out. The story provided a lot of subtle humor.
"This book is about the melancholic direction, which I call 'bittersweet': a tendency to states of longing, poignanA review in quotes from the book...
"This book is about the melancholic direction, which I call 'bittersweet': a tendency to states of longing, poignancy, and sorrow; an acute awareness of passing time; and a curiously piercing joy and the beauty of the world. The bittersweet is also about the recognition that light and dark, birth and death---bitter and sweet---are forever paired...Yet to fully inhabit these dualities---the dark as well as the light---is, paradoxically, the only way to transcend them. And transcending them is the ultimate point. The bittersweet is about the desire for communion, the wish to go home." (p. xxiii)
"Most of all, bittersweetness shows us how to respond to pain: by acknowledging it, and attempting to turn it into art, the way musicians do, or healing, or innovation, or anything else that nourishes the soul. If we don't transform our sorrows and longings, we can end up inflicting them on others via abuse, domination, neglect. But if we realize that all humans know---or will know---loss and suffering, we can turn toward each other. This idea---of transforming pain into creativity, transcendence, and love---is the heart of this book." (p. xxv)
"...creativity has the power to look pain in the eye, and to decide to turn it into something better." (p. 61)
"We're taught to think of our psychic and physical wounds as the irregularities of our lives, deviations from what should have been; sometimes, as sources of stigma. But our stories of loss and separation are also the baseline state, right alongside our stories of landing our dream job, falling in love, giving birth to our miraculous children. And the very highest states---of awe and joy, wonder and love, meaning and creativity---emerge from this bittersweet nature of reality. We experience them not because life is perfect---but because it's not." (pp. 92-93)
Okay, I think that's enough to give you the flavor (if you will) of this lovely, lovely book....more
A little girl and an elderly woman delight in working together to plant seeds and harvest the crops in a community garden. And then the old woman is gA little girl and an elderly woman delight in working together to plant seeds and harvest the crops in a community garden. And then the old woman is gone, and the little girl is left with memories.
A sweet, sweet story that leaves me with a glorious bittersweet feeling....more
Fox sees something lying still, completely still, in a forest clearing. It is a bird. The bird does not move. The bird does not make any sounds. Fox dFox sees something lying still, completely still, in a forest clearing. It is a bird. The bird does not move. The bird does not make any sounds. Fox does not understand.
It is Moth who helps explain to Fox what has happened. The bird is dead.
Very few picture books take on such complex subjects as death, and very few picture books attempt to help children understand death; The Circles in the Sky does this, and does this beautifully....more
Patrick Radden Keefe is a long-form journalist, an old-time investigative reporter, who digs deep into a story, and the stories he chooses to investigPatrick Radden Keefe is a long-form journalist, an old-time investigative reporter, who digs deep into a story, and the stories he chooses to investigate thoroughly are stories of bad guys. Rogues is a collection of twelve of Keefe's most fascinating stories of those who kill and steal and cheat others. My favorites were the story of a man who, mysteriously, was able to find and sell rare fine wines; the world's most notorious drug lord, El Chapo; the man who revived the image of Donald Trump through a tv reality show; the woman who feels compelled to defend "the worst of the worst;" and a woman who became a mass shooter.
Deb (Readerbuzz)
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