Going organic! Wait....not the right thread!
 

New book by Sheri Reynolds! I love her stuff!!

Boethius' The Consolation of Philosophy

The Curious Human Phenomenon by Peter Masters in book form
and
Scent of Triumph Jan Moran on Kindle app for my laptop

Late at night and into the wee hours of the morning,
I've been reading from new books I bought recently.

I bought 3 books: Two, authored by Rachel Carson (Under the Sea-wind & The Edge of the Sea); and one other book, authored by Susan Steingraber (Living Downstream: An Ecologist's Personal Investigation of Cancer and the Environment).


I'm saving, what I think are the best books to be read last: Rachel Carson's books about the sea, the shoreline, and the environmental impact she observed during her lifetime as a marine biologist. I was given two of her books (Silent Spring & The Sense of Wonder) by my grandmother, when I was a young girl. I will be reading them later this week.

Sunday morning, I opened up Steingraber's book, then laid it down to read later after I accomplished all the items on my Sunday chore list. I am only half way through her book, but she presents a strong case for why synthetic food sources and genetically altered seed for meeting food needs are strongly linked to cancerous conditions found in the human body.

If you are attracted to sciences (scientific studies), I highly recommend both authors. Particularly Rachel Carson. Her writings have strongly influenced me and have stayed with me throughout my lifetime.

http://www.rachelcarson.org/BooksBy.aspx

[ame="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0306818698/rachelcarsono-20#reader_0306818698"]Living Downstream: An Ecologist's Personal Investigation of Cancer and the Environment: Sandra Steingraber: 9780306818691: Amazon.com: Books[/ame]

http://www.livingdownstream.com/imag...okcover_72.jpg

Everything is Illuminated
 

I've finally finished reading this after putting it down several times. No particular reason for putting it down and now that I've finished reading I feel bereft. What a powerful first novel. I feel like I should say something profound about it but can't think of what I could possibly write. It's beautiful, sad, funny, wet-your-pants funny (I especially enjoyed the English as a foreign language parts), and powerfully sad.

Read it.

The Fight for Home: How (Parts of) New Orleans Came Back
- Daniel Wolff




.

Just finished, was awesome

http://img2.imagesbn.com/images/165490000/165496475.JPG

Now reading:
I Found This Funny: My Favorite Pieces of Humor and Some that May Not Be Funny at ALL, edited by Judd Apatow. It's a fantastic collection of short stories and essays by people known for their humor (David Sedaris, Nora Ephron, Steve Martin, Lorrie Moore) and people who....usually aren't (F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Carson McCullers, Flannery O'Connor). As a collected work, it's easy to see why Apatow is the king of "cringe humor." :)

Recently read:
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer. I saw the movie on HBO about a month ago, then read the book. I wasn't going to do either, because the topic (a boy who loses his dad in the tower collapse on 9/11) sounded depressing and uninspiring. But it actually *is* inspiring- a powerful story of grief and healing filled with memorable characters. The book's narrative is always told from first person, but it's not always the same narrator so the style changes quite a bit. It also includes photographs and drawings that sometime seem completely random while somehow enhancing the story. The narrative style is perhaps on the more experimental side, but it works. Oh, and I finished the book at the BFP Reunion, so if anyone there saw me sitting in the hotel bar with my face in an iPad looking a bit teary-eyed, that's why. I swear.

The Mortal Instruments series. I'm currently on the book City Of Glass. It's really amazing so far.

The Dangerous Summer by Ernest Hemingway..his last book.

"Agorafabulous! Dispatches from my bedroom" by Sara Benincasa

[ame="http://www.amazon.com/Agorafabulous-Dispatches-Bedroom-Sara-Benincasa/dp/0062024418/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1349531526&sr=8-1&keywords=agorafabulous"]Agorafabulous!: Dispatches from My Bedroom: Sara Benincasa: 9780062024411: Amazon.com: Books[/ame]


I loved this memoir! It was laugh out loud funny and also quite interesting and relatable for any of us who struggle with varying degrees of anxiety, depression, or quirkiness! I wouldn't read it 10,000 times (Yes, some books I do read 10,000 times.), but it was definitely agorafabulous, and I strongly recommend it :)


"If I Am Missing or Dead" by Janine Latus

[ame="http://www.amazon.com/If-Am-Missing-Dead-Liberation/dp/B0046LUM98/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1349532574&sr=8-1&keywords=if+i+am+missing+or+dead"]If I Am Missing or Dead: A Sister's Story of Love,Murder,and Liberation: Janine Latus: Amazon.com: Books[/ame]


This is an incredibly powerful memoir about coming from a dysfunctional family and how that carried over to this woman's relationship's as well as her sister's relationships. The writing is exquisite (The author is a writer.), and the story is so powerful. I related to it deeply. Here's a quote that I loved:

"When I was at home as a teenager, I could tell that something was always roiling under the surface. It was like walking on smoked glass over something awful, like rushing water or lava or snakes. You're on it and it's fine, but it's glass and it could crack, and you'd drop into that something awful and be sucked down. And even if it doesn't crack, you can feel those snakes, that danger, vibrating under the surface of things."

I highly recommend this book.

The road to grace: the third journal of the walk series / by Richard Paul Evans.

I sometimes take books off the shelf without knowing what it is when I'm at the library. This was one of those.

It's actually pretty good.

Im reading Walt Whitman's biography....one of many I'm sure..interesting fellow...to say the least

The Tao of Pooh by Benjamin Hoff
 

Just finished *Secret Daughter* by shilpi somoya gowda... it was a good quick read.

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-td2QiTYJZ9...t+daughter.jpg

Oooh, I didn't know she had a new book out! Love her too. First met her with Rapture of Canaan.

Exciting...

I'm binge-reading several things by Karen X. Tulchinsky. I'd read several of her short stories in anthologies of erotica, but wanted to check out her books. I read Love Ruins Everything on my weekend trip, and had so much fun reading it that I jumped right into its sequel, Love and Other Ruins, when I got home tonight (a butch and her new femme love are central to the stories). I am also about 1/3 of the way through the much more serious and very well written The Five Books of Moses Lapinsky, which won a couple of book awards in Canada. And In Her Nature also arrived, which I may keep on my bedside just for the cover photo.

Related question: Does anyone else like to do what I call "binge-read"? I enjoy reading a number of different books by an author in a row, or reading a bunch of books in a series, or several books on particular topic or theme, or even several books in a certain format (graphic novels or books written as if they were a personal journal, for example). I enjoy the chance to compare and contrast things within the book I've read, while they're all fresh in my memory.

Last week I finished a book called Re-enchantment: Tibetan Buddhism Comes to the West by Jeffrey Paine.

He can write entertaining journalistic prose, which I appreciate. But he leaves a lot of stuff out (How can he not mention Pema Chodron?) and gets some things wrong (A google search will reveal that Zina Rachevsky is not a member of the Russian nobility). He has no bibliography, and I can see why. It would have revealed his failure to do enough research.

Still, it is totally worth reading. It is a series of profiles of people who were significant in bringing Tibetan Buddhism to the west. There's not much about the organizations they founded or the obstacles faced or anything other than personality.

I hated reading the sections on the lamas who tried but screwed up badly (IMO) -- Chogyam Trungpa (slept with a lot of followers) and Jetsunma (completely crazy -- sorry, if you are a follower). I was surprised at how difficult those chapters were for me to read even though I knew about these people. I also cringed through the entire chapter on Hollywood Buddhists.

On to the good stuff. I had already read a book about Tenzin Palmo's life. She is a British woman who spent 12 years in a Himalayan cave meditating. But I still enjoyed his chapter on her, probably just because it was better written than the book I read -- Cave in the Snow. It's an amazing story.

I also loved reading about Lama Yeshe, who died in 1984. It made him come alive. And Jan Willis, one of the first western followers of Tibetan Buddhism, now a Professor of Religion at Wesleyan. Here's a picture of them.

http://www.existentialbuddhist.com/w...xnHTaHMeNn.jpg

The section on Harold Talbott, a person from a privileged background, who very early on went to India and studied with now storied Lamas, was wonderful. He is the person who introduced Thomas Merton to the Dalai Lama. What is cool about him is that, while he has accomplished some things -- edited books, translated, run Buddhist centers -- basically he has spent his life practicing. He always felt like a failure in some ways. He's from a very accomplished family, and by our standards, he kind of wandered through life. But his equanimity is so well described. It makes you see the difference between one of us and someone -- a relatively ordinary someone (no great lama or teacher) -- who has spent his entire life in practice. And there are real differences.

The chapter on the Dalai Lama is full of the magical stories you read elsewhere, but it is still lovely. In fact the book is written by a believer in the magical side of Tibetan Buddhism, so it can be alienating if you are put off by that. I am listening to a book on Audible right now called The Naked Buddhist by Adrienne Howley, an Australian nun. I do not enjoy how she teaches Buddhism (too simple and preachy), but I appreciate that she teaches from the position of an absolute atheist. She does not believe in any of the magic or superstition. I believe in some of it. But I think that an emphasis on the magic -- and certainly on lama worship -- obfuscates the dharma.

Anyway, the book was a pleasure to read and filled in a lot of the gaps I have re lamas and others who are often mentioned in this tradition (Western Tibetan Buddhism).

I am now reading one of the Jason Bourne books written by Eric Van Lustbader. Cliched but good. I hate it when someone comes and interrupts a conversation JUST when our hero is about to learn a key piece of information. Grrr.

I do that :) mostly because when I'm in the library, I grab all the books from an author (all the Tolstoy, for example.) I also enjoy reading books set in the same time period, but by vastly different authors, for a new point of view.

As for what I'm reading:

Cousin Bette, Honore' de Balzac.

Remember the movie Indecent Proposal, in which a man offers to pay off a couple's debts in return for one night with the wife? This is the same story-except the dude wants ten years with the wife, and in return will put up a dowry for her daughter's wedding. Meanwhile, Cousin Bette (cousin of the aforementioned wife) would today be a prime candidate for serious therapy, and I suspect is going to get even in spectacular fashion. Everyone except Bette (so far) is so supremely annoying that I find myself rooting for her.

Ethics, Aristotle

Essentially (so far), what we think is newfangled pop psychology stemmed from 350 years BC with Aristotle. To be happy, change your thoughts, root out negativity, and change your actions. Practice moderation in all things. I wish I'd read this before tons of self-help books and certainly before watching Dr. Phil.

The Way Of All Flesh, Samuel Butler

This is maybe the hardest book to get into, so far. It seems to be several generations of one family, as recounted by the narrator, and their attempts to stick to the "right" values and the "right" appearances. It's not bad, just waiting for the plot to pick up steam.

There's a film adaptation of Cousin Bette as well. It's flipping CRAZY!

Chronically. Love it. Hate when I get to the last book. I get all wiggly and don't know what to do with myself.

Now reading: The Elements, A visual Exploration of Every Known Atom in the Universe. It is an awesome book going through the periodic table with beautiful photographs and stories of the use of individual elements through time in technology, farming, health, etc.
Favorite quote so far, in relation to Arsenic. " Generally speaking, when an idea sounds as stupid as intentionally feeding arsenic to chickens, it probably is"

Nerd alert: Just spent an hour on the couch with my daughter reading out loud from this and had a blast.

(but maybe this is why I'm single)

just downloaded from my library
 

[ame="http://www.amazon.com/Looking-Salvation-Dairy-Queen-ebook/dp/B000UZNR32/ref=dp_kinlend_rdm_t?ie=UTF8&m=A38SEFUGZMJU8S"]Looking for Salvation at the Dairy Queen: A Novel: Susan Gregg Gilmore: Amazon.com: Kindle Store[/ame]

[ame="http://www.amazon.com/I-Remember-Nothing-Vintage-ebook/dp/B003WUYOUM/ref=dp_kinlend_rdm_t?ie=UTF8&m=A38SEFUGZMJU8S"]I Remember Nothing (Vintage): Nora Ephron: Amazon.com: Kindle Store[/ame]

I do that all the time. :)





.

Two-thirds of the way through Naamah's Curse by Jacqueline Carey and I'm of two minds about it. I love the writing and the characters, as usual. But this book's story is starting to piss me off. If we make one more u-turn.... RAWR!!! ... Other than that, still love Moirin and her simple free-love, hippy chick ways (I *so* relate to this character and her interaction with the world around her.) ... Also, a part of me definitely wishes she'd just dump the little stick fighter boy and go back to Ch'in to hook up with the princess... but I suppose if she did that the story would be over. LOL.

LSM
 

"Ceremony"

by Leslie Marmon Silko

Greco

I just started [ame="http://www.amazon.com/The-Twelve-Book-Passage-Trilogy/dp/0345504984"]The Twelve[/ame] by Justin Cronin, which is the sequel to his bestselling book The Passage.

Sarah's Key~Tatiana de Rosnay

The Best Exocit Marigold Hotel~Deborah Moggach

I've seen both movies based on these books as well, and I have to say that the movie of the The Best Exocit Marigold Hotel was a bit more uplifting and enjoyable than the book!

A sweet note left on the bathroom mirror ...

I traded some books in at my favorite bookstore (Powell's) and have yet to find a book that I want to read, so I'm saving my gift card to use another day. But I have been reading from the Breitenbush Fall Quarterly (a list of events and free times) and have been thinking about planning for a winter getaway or a springtime getaway. I found that Breitenbush has open availability times in December and there's a Women Only Quiet Midweek that occurs in early March. I love going up there: it's so beautiful, no matter the time of year. :stillheart: