Category Archives: books

Tired of Intolerance? How Giving a Book Can Help:

A book is the most effective weapon against intolerance and ignorance.”

– Lyndon Baines Johnson

Some of my favorite things: laughing with good friends; a thought-provoking book; travelling with my family; a cold glass of dark beer; the sound of waves crashing on the shore; peace, quiet, and a fireplace; a glass of red wine; rain at the beach; raucous laughter; a guy with a guitar; body surfing all day; a challenging morning of yoga.

As I thought about two of my perennial favorites, travel and reading, I wondered this: isn’t reading a form of travel, in its own way?

Think about it.

When we open one of those books that invite us in, that still make us think long after we turn the last page, we look outward. Our self-centered focus falls away as we immerse ourselves in the lives of the characters. The same thing happens when we wander the alleys of a new place or explore ancient ruins—all at once we come face to face with our very small place in this very big world.

How about Jeanette Walls’ The Glass Castle? Or Pearl S. Buck’s The Good Earth? Have you read them? (If not, what are you waiting for?!) Powerful books like these transport us to places we’ve never been; they connect us to people whose life experiences are fundamentally different from ours. When we read them, a schism forms between our pre-conceptions and reality. What we thought we knew to be true begins to shake. And shift.

Whether we’re transported by pages or vehicles we forget, for awhile, the problems and issues that loom large in our everyday lives. Our minds are free to see things anew.

Do you have a book you’d recommend that opened your eyes or changed your mind?

(Image from FreeDigitalPhotos.net)

Lighten Up

photo by Calgary Reviews

Thank you, Gretchen.
Why, you wonder?  Why am I thanking a woman I’ve never met?
I could thank her for writing a book that’s reached millions and isn’t drivel.  For writing a book that’s so well researched it made me want to run to the library and read Tolstoy and Virginia Woolf and Ann Patchett. All at once.
I could thank her for being a kindred spirit, a fellow list keeper and seeker of gold stars.  For writing a book that made me feel like I had climbed inside and was speaking from its very pages. For her age-old but still sage advice to Be Yourself.
But this isn’t a book review post.  And that’s not why I’m thanking her. 
This morning, I’m thanking her for helping me keep in check that irascible pest who lurks around the corner of my bleary-eyed mornings: my temper.  Her words were fresh in my mind as I held my tongue and tone.  They came back to me as I resisted the urge to allow a massive frown to overtake my forehead. I’d risen early to get ready before the older boys (for anyone who knows me, this tidbit—rising early—is a flaming red flag), then my youngest son and I left home twenty minutes early so I could take him for a treat of hot chocolate before school.  Before long, the aforementioned hot chocolate was all over his jeans and winter jacket.  Seven minutes before school started.
But he felt bad enough. He was worried about his jeans. Heaping my frustration on top of his feelings wasn’t necessary, wouldn’t help, could only hurt.
In her book The Happiness Project, Gretchen Rubin’s dedicates an entire chapter, and month of her life, to a topic it would do me good to emulate: Lighten Up.
And so this morning I tried.  I really tried. Who could imagine that a little hot chocolate could be so frustrating?  Although I must admit, in my experience anything can be frustrating that early in the morning!
So my son’s off to start his day. His jeans are a bit damp but his spirit seemed fine.
Thanks, Gretchen.

Beach Reads

I’m not much of a Chick Lit reader, but hello?  It’s summertime.  Yes, I am also reading Laura Bush’s biography, and Condy’s is on my nightside table, so I’m not a total loss.  But my summer author of choice?  Hands down, it’s Jane Green.
Do you know her?  Her books, I mean?
I stumbled onto them a few summers ago, because the pretty book spines caught my eye at the library.  There they were, three in a row, in their pretty hues of yellow, green and blue.  (Dune Road, The Beach House, and Second Chance.)  I think I read Second Chance first, which is unfortunate, because it’s my least favorite of the three.  But Dune Road?  Loved it.  The Beach House?  Perfectly charming.
At the beginning of this summer, I asked my one of my bestest BFFs if she’d ever read Jane Green.  Because she is awesome, she promptly handed me Babyville.  Of course she’d read her!  I proceeded to visit a different, bigger library and got my hands on copies of To Have and To Hold, and The Other Woman. Verdict?  Like, and, Like!
Dear Jane,
You are so very good at this writing-fiction-that-connects-with-women thing!   Naturally, they’ve been bestsellers, so you already know this.  But. For. Real.  I’ve tried other Chick Lit authors, best selling ones, even, and it’s just not the same.  You so get it, and if I weren’t happily married and raising children in the Midwest, I might move to Connecticut just to be your friend.
Love,
Your New Fan