Sarah’s face can light up often, but never so readily as when she’s talking about books. Many would agree she even looks like the lovely Princess Belle from Beauty and the Beast, whose love of literature is one of her many fine qualities. Sarah tells stories of reading under her blankets by flashlight, reading outside in the summertime, reading everywhere and anywhere. Of course, reading is not a contest but the term ‘voracious reader’ comes from somewhere (see Sarah B.)! She’s been sharing the titles via Instagram as she documents her extraordinary pace of reading since the start of 2020. Have your read any of these? What’s your average reading pace?
1. Save Me the Plums – Ruth Reichl
2. The Dutch House – Ann Patchett
3. Bridget Jones, Edge of Reason – Helen Fielding
4. The Peacock Emporium – Jolo Moyes
5. Elevation – Steven King
6. The Need – Helen Fielding
7. Normal People – Sally Rooney
8. The Secret History – Donna Tartt
9. Women Talking – Miriam Toews
10. The 71/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle – Stuart Turton
I can’t imagine life without music. My brother is the musician, I like to think I can occasionally “put on a harmony” ala Joni M. The women who are Mamuse found me on a dark day of despair and never fail to “let myself be lifted”. Sing, hum or tap along!
Here’s proof that I needed to start eprlife! FOUR years of books and I haven’t shared the titles, much less a review of any kind. That said, many of you read way more than this, and I’m in awe! What are your reading now? Next time, we’ll be checking in with Sarah B. who will put all but the most avid book-nut to shame!
2016 – 2017
All The Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy. The first in The Border Trilogy and my favorite.
Island of Lost Maps by Miles Harvey. What map geek wouldn’t read this true tale of thievery, obsession and a heist that took place at Northwestern University?
Soul of a New Machine by Tracy Kidder. How Kidder got me caring about the geeks who sweated their brains out for the first PC is a testament to his talent!
The Orchardist by Amanda Coplan. I live on an ‘old orchard’, but don’t want this stuff happening here!
November – December 2018
Map of Salt and Stars by Jennifer Zeynab Joukhadar. Really captivating story of a family. A war. A refugee’s existence.
Stardust by Neil Gaiman. I’d read Good Omens and found I like a good biblical-based fantasy so I picked up this lovely little fairy tale and ‘Poof!’ my wish was granted!
2019
Mary Astor’s Purple Diary: The Great American Sex Scandal of 1936 by Edward Sorel. Kind of a ‘hoot’ and the illustrations are classic, but actually very sad and appropriate as ‘Me Too’ is not at all new!
French Milk, by Lucy Knisley. I like reading about France and Lucy Knisley is a talented of an ‘indie-cartoonist’. Is it really a ‘graphic novel’? Barely. But its FRANCE!
Southpole Station by Ashley Shelby. Being a little obsessed with Antarctica and it’s fragile/hostile environment, I took a chance on a novel about an artist in residence in the scientific, quirky world that is truly down under. It did not disappoint, and left me wanting to read more on the subject.
Reading now…American Gods by Neil Gaiman. Stay tuned THE battle is nigh!
Musings on this Ash Wednesday. Why would anyone willingly deny themselves something they enjoy when there a plenty of things they want and don’t have?
I’m not going to proselytize or preach. I only know that after finding out that Lent can be more than Ash Wednesday and fish on Fridays, (which, by the way, the entire State of Wisconsin lives in perpetual Lenten observance), I get it. I give up – a little or a lot. Doesn’t matter. True, some things are harder than others. I’ll keep you posted. Please share your thoughts, support and insight.
Ever since I retired people ask the same question in various ways.
“How do you like retirement?” Generally equivalent to “How are you?”
“Are you bored?” These folks can’t imagine not working.
“What do you do all day?” The direct challenge approach.
“Are you happy?” Here’s the one that gave me pause.
I don’t recall people asking “Are you happy?” directly at other times in my life. It must be something about the transition from work to retirement that prompts this question and I didn’t know how to answer it right away. Then the word ‘content’ started popping into my head.
Is there a difference between happiness and contentment? Of course there is. I’m sure you can be found in the dictionary. But what do the two states of being FEEL like? What do you think? I welcome your thoughts on this.
Giving it my best shot, I’d say contentment is truly a state of being. It is not necessarily dependent on someone or something. Happiness, while it can be considered a state, and not to be knocked, is more a reaction and that said, has the characteristic of being wonderfully fleeting. It’s the difference between ‘Cheers!’ & ‘Namaste’. I’m going for both in equal measure.
Happy Birthday Abraham Lincoln. Born 211 years ago today and still revered in our collective national memory as truly wise, witty and brave. Also, quite fitting that his image is on not one, but two U.S. currencies: the penny and the five dollar bill. It’s just good to have this guy around!
Whether spiritual, self-effacing, political or poignant, his words are timeless and I am amazed by the number of insightful and delightful quotations which sprang from Mr. Lincoln’s fine mind. Sharing a few gems here.
“When I do good, I feel good. When I do bad, I feel bad, and that’s my religion.” – Abraham Lincoln
“We the people are the rightful masters of both Congress and the courts, not to overthrow the Constitution but to overthrow the men who pervert the Constitution.” – Abraham Lincoln
“If I were two-faced, would I be wearing this one?” – Abraham Lincoln
“Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt.” – Abraham Lincoln
And on Lincoln’s Birthday years ago, the late, great Johnny Carson told a joke about Abe Lincoln that referenced his assassination. The joke bombed badly, and without missing a beat, Carson quipped, “Too soon?” Yes, Johnny, it will always be too soon.
“To those children all over the world who have no access to education, to those teachers who bravely continue teaching, and to anyone who has fought for their basic human rights and education.”
Malala Yousafzai
Pakistani school girl Malala Yousafzai’s story of her refusal to abide by the Taliban’s orders forbidding girls to attend school and her bravery in speaking out for the right to do so. This Young Reader’s Edition* was co-authored with Patricia McCormick and is based on the New York Times Bestseller.
Part One: Before the Taliban describes Malala’s desires to attend the school her father founded, to excel in her studies, socialize with her friends, quarrel with her brothers, and be a good daughter in a loving, modern Pakistani family. Malala was raised in Mingora, the largest city in the famously beautiful Swat Valley. Malala’s father, Ziauddin and mother Toor Pekai valued literacy for their children as a sacred right. Her father founded a school three years before Malala was born and by the time she was eight years old the school had over 800 students and three campuses.
In Part Two: A Shadow over Our Valley the insidious presence of Radio Mullah and the escalation of Taliban rule unfolds into daily life until Malala and the people of her region learn ‘What Terrorism Feels Like‘.
After an earthquake in 2005 devastated the region, conservative religious groups stepped in before the government could respond and many volunteers were from organizations with ties to militant groups. Their leaders began to preach that God would punish the people if they did not change their ways and adopt Sharia, Islamic law. Sharia outlaws music, dancing, smoking, and watching television. These, and other forbidden things are known as ‘haram’. Within two years of the earthquake, Radio Mullah proclaimed that schools for girls were haram.
Part Three: Finding My Voice recounts how her family’s belief that education is a universal human right which propels the Yousafzai household into brighter and brighter political and media spotlights.
Malala started working with the BBC and wrote a diary about life under the Taliban, using a pseudonym, Gul Makai. She began giving interviews and appearing on television and she did not hide her face. “Fazlullah’s men wear masks, because they are criminals. But I have nothing to hide and have done nothing wrong.” She began gaining international notoriety and won humanitarian peace prizes.
The Taliban directly threatened Malala’s father and the school itself. Malala, her father and some of her fellow students began speaking out against the Taliban. Schools were being targeted and bombed regularly. In December 2008, Radio Mullah decreed that “After the fifteenth of January, no girl, whether big or little shall go to school. Otherwise, you know what we can do.”
Part Four: Targeted brings the reader right up to the moment most know from the beginning will come. Death threats began in early 2012. On October 9, 2012 a gunman climbed into the back of fifteen year old Malala’s school bus and shouted, “Who is Malala?” before shooting her point blank along with two classmates.
Part Five: A New Life, Far From Home: After the shooting, Malala ultimately received medical treatment in Birmingham, England. Her classmates both survived the attack as well. On her sixteenth birthday she was invited to address the United Nations and in 2014, at age seventeen was the youngest recipient of the Noble Prize for Peace.
The spirituality in her story comes through time and time again. Malala is a person of faith and she writes of her prayers as conversations with God. She gives praise joyfully and freely, from the heart of a grateful child.
How great God is! He has given us eyes to see the beauty of the world, hands to touch it, a nose to experience all its fragrance, and a heart to appreciate it all. But we don’t realize how miraculous our senses are until we lose one. The return of my hearing was just one miracle. A Talib had fired three shots at point-blank range at three girls in a school bus—and none of us were killed. One person had tried to silence me. And millions spoke out. Those were miracles, too.
Malala Yousafzai
The story is enriched by a Glossary and Time Line of Important Events as well as ‘A Note on the Malala Fund’. and my personal favorite, a map of Swat and insert showing Mingora and Malala’s ancestral home in Shangla.
To all the girls who have faced injustice and been silenced. Together we will be heard.
Malala Yousafzai
*oops! Did not notice I had checked out the Young Readers Edition – the “Regular” edition will undoubtedly go into more political and personal detail.
Musings on this Ash Wednesday. Why would anyone willingly deny themselves something they enjoy when there a plenty of things they want and don’t have?
