Terrapin Station

Books, etc.

Back at the beginning of 2008 when everyone and her sister was challenging themselves to read at least 50 books during the year, I decided to keep track, too.  I knew I'd exceed that - I'm an insanely fast and compulsive reader - but thought it would be fun to keep track.

So:  As of today, I've logged my 100th book.  (That I'm willing to count, that is.)  It's over there in the list, Eve's Bible: A Woman's Guide to the Old Testament by Sarah S. Forth.  A very readable book and very helpful for demystifying a lot of the OT, especially for those of us without benefit of seminary. 

The ACTUAL one hundredth book was Dave Barry's History of the Millenium (So Far) ("I am not making this up") which I actually scanned more than read. 

Not that there's anything wrong with Dave Barry...or that I have to only read serious books.  Otherwise half what's on that list wouldn't be there!  I mostly checked it out because the cover photo made me giggle.  And it still does.  But that doesn't mean it makes it to my list, necessarily. 

I got all these books, or almost all, from my local library.  Have I told you lately how much I adore my library?  I do!  They are once again having their Summer Reading Club, for kids AND adults...one of my favorite childhood memories was the Summer Reading Club! 

Browsing the New Books shelf at the library:  I always wonder what it is that attracts me about a book jacket, title, design?  I often pick up books and realize I've already read them (reading this fast, I don't remember so well, which makes good books eminently recyclable)...so those clearly have something that works for me.  Then there are the books that have no "spine appeal" whatever.  But what am I missing?  Sometimes I want to just go live in the library....

Speaking of what am I missing...

I mentioned at dinner the other night to Ken and Brandon that I'd read 100 books.  Brandon said, "Wow, I've probably never read 100 books in my LIFE."  Which makes me sad...he was not a reader when I got him and despite my best efforts (reading to him, reading with him, taking him to library) he will never be one.  But neither of his bio-parents are readers, either. 

I told Bran I felt sad for him because I thought he had missed a lot  He said, "Well, I feel sad for you because of what you missed while you were reading!"  Touché, right?  But I wouldn't trade Pokemon, skateboarding, 8 zillion hours of video games.  That's why I'm me. 

The Cracker Barrel Book update

I checked out These High Green Hills from the Mitford series for my Austin trip.  Have not read that one for a very long time.  I'm enjoying it. 

Just was cleaning out my purse & looked at the Cracker Barrel receipt...the readout there shows as "These High Green Heels."  Hee hee.  That's as close as I want to get to any high heels, thanks.

Meetings went really well.  Stopped at The Czech Stop in West, TX for kolaches on the way back.  Glad to be home.

Books

As Nature Made Him: The Boy Who Was Raised as a Girl by John Colapinto -

I'm so grateful to my public library's "New Books" shelves, where I find an amazing assortment of reading like this book.  From the Amazon summary:  "In 1967, after a twin baby boy suffered a botched circumcision, his family agreed to a radical treatment that would alter his gender. The case would become one of the most famous in modern medicine—and a total failure. As Nature Made Him tells the extraordinary story of David Reimer, who, when finally informed of his medical history, made the decision to live as a male. A macabre tale of medical arrogance, it is first and foremost a human drama of one man's—and one family's—amazing survival in the face of terrible odds." 

One of the most horrifying subplots in this true story is of the doctor who treated David Reimer (growing up as "Brenda") and brother Brian.  They were required to see the man annually for appointments that were abusive and invasive.  It's a miracle to me that either of them survived. 

Raises excellent points about gender identity and its innate qualities. 

Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser -

I must be the last person around to read this.  I am newly horrified at how little we eat is really food...and how it is made into the semblance of food.  I'm not sure I 'm eating anything for a while...that ought to help the diet...

Hat tip to Bruce for urging me to this book. 

Take this Bread: A Radical Conversion by Sara Miles

Take this Bread:  A Radical Conversion by Sara Miles.

This is a book that made me say "WOW!"  For many reasons. 

This woman was a lifelong atheist who came to faith through happening into an Episcopal Church that practiced open communion.  In the sense of the phrase that ANYONE was welcome to take it, baptized or not.  And the first time she ate it...she was transformed. 

And then we gathered around that table.  And there was more singing and standing, and someone was putting a piece of fresh, crumbly bread in my hands, saying, "the body of Christ," and handing me the goblet of sweet wine, saying, "The blood of Christ," and then something outrageous and terrifying happened to me.  Jesus happened to me.  p. 58

Sara Miles found through that church and fellowship her call to feed others as Christ had fed her, and her passion created over a dozen food pantries in San Francisco. 

This is a must read, y'all.  (And since it's on the RG list, read it now...beat the rush!)

Book Report

Look Me in the Eye:  My Life with Asperger's by John Elder Robison.  A fascinating book.  Robison is the older brother of Augusten Burroughs, author of Running with Scissors.  Burroughs' book was so troubling to me that I offered to give it away to the first taker.  It has come back despite that, so perhaps I need to re-read it.  Robison would have had Asperger's Syndrome no matter the level of dysfunction in his family, but their implosion certainly didn't help. 

I have a nephew with Asperger's so am very interested in reading about it, especially first person accounts from people with the syndrome.  I also recommend anything by Temple Grandin and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (Mark Haddon), which is fiction but wonderful. 

The Women Who Raised Me:  A Memoir by Victoria Rowell.  Interesting book by a young woman raised as a foster child by several different women and the State of Maine.  Despite many hardships and setbacks, she is a ballerina and an actor (though I have not seen her work on "Diagnosis Murder" and "The Young and the Restless").  Great story of strong women and how they love and support one another to make the impossible possible. 

Both from the liberry! 

Book Report: Everything Must Change

I'm in the middle of Everything Must Change:  Jesus, Global Crises, and a Revolution of Hope by Brian D. McLaren. 

Oh, wow.  Do you know the stereo commercial where the guy sits in his chair and his hair blows back?  That's a bit how I feel.  I keep thinking, "duh...why doesn't anyone else realize this!?" 

I'll be attending the Everything Must Change tour in Dallas in February, and am reading this in prep for that.  You can link to the book on Amazon on my sidebar...

Bulletins as they occur. 

Book Reviews

This Is Not the Life I Ordered: 50 Ways to Keep Your Head Above Water When Life Keeps Dragging You Down by Deborah Collins Stephens , Michealene Cristini Risley, Jackie Speier, Jan Yanehiro.

This is a wonderful book with lots of stories from women who have prevailed through some insanely hard times.  It has many tips and suggestions for action steps in planning to get through the good and bad changes that life brings.  I could think of several people I would like to give it to...but don't you hate it when people give you self help books?  See if your library has this one! 

Book Reviews

Family Baggage by Monica McInerney

An Australian family runs a popular travel agency.  Various family members work in the agency, with the issues you might expect and others you wouldn't! 

A perfectly wonderful read!  Well drawn characters, plot develops smoothly, great reveal. 

Books

The Friday Night Knitting Club by Kate Jacobs  A good read, with better developed characters and backstories than many of the "knitting club" books I've read in the last few years.  Longer, too.  I like a nice long book.  :) 

One Drop: My Father's Hidden Life--A Story of Race and Family Secrets by Bliss Broward  A fantastic read!  Broward's father Anatole Broyard was a well known writer and critic for the New York Times, and she grew up in a privileged and typically white existance in Connecticut.  As her father was dying, Broward learned from her mother the secret her father had kept from his children - he was part black.  Broward goes on an extensive journey to try to determine how black her father really was; what that means for her personally, and ultimately tries to understand her father through the choice he made to "pass" for white.  What is race?  What is identity? 

Book Reviews

Aha...so I am supposed to tell you what I THINK of the books I read, is that it?  Not just list them in the sidebar? 

Okeydokey.  Here goes for the ones I have up now.  All except for Harry Potter (which I own) came from my local library.  I loves my library!

Anita Shreve's Bodysurfing:  A Novel.  Anita Shreve is a master of the ZING!  There is always something that completely catches me off guard.  These are good airplane books (except for The Pilot's Wife, which I actually did read in an airport, waiting for a plane!!)

Ken Follett's The Pillars of the Earth.   I started this on my trip, but the bulk of it was read in 2008.  I have never read any other Ken Follett, so had no expectations of it in particular.  It was a good book and an interesting piece of historical fiction about the era. 

JK Rowling's Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Book IV).  A re-read.  This isn't my favorite of the HP's.  I started it when I was out of library books (horrors!).  I think the idea of a year-long tournament at Hogwarts with the students from other schools in residence was a little wacky.  A YEAR off school for a tournament?  Or did the Durmstrang and Beauxbatons students take their classes at Hogwarts, and if so, how?  Who taught them?  I know...willing suspension of disbelief...it's a book about wizards after all!

Harry Bernstein's The Invisible Wall:  A Love Story that Broke Barriers.  A beautiful, true story!  Written by the author at the age of 96.  He grew up in a dreadfully poor Lancashire mill town where the Christians lived on one side of the street and the Jews on the other.  The divide was very great in those days before WWI. 

Sabine Kuegler's Child of the Jungle: The True Story of a Girl Caught Between Two Worlds.  Fascinating true story of a family living in the jungle of New Guinea while the linguist/missionary father learned the language of the Stone Age tribe.  The author and her siblings grew up as children of the jungle, and leaving for boarding school in Switzerland (speaking no French...!) at age 17 was quite traumatic.  An interesting treatment of cultural difference and reverse culture shock.