Truth, Goodness and Beauty....
 

I am currently reading "Kyudo---the Essence and Practice of Japanese Archery."
by Onuma and De Prospero

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Kyudo-the Way of the Bow-is the oldest of Japan's traditional martial arts and the one most closely associated with bushido, the Way of the Warrior. Kyudo at a granular level is the search for Truth, Goodness and Beauty and to find those concepts within the self. I will admit I am currently taking classes in kyudo so there was a method to my madness in starting in on this book. I at first found it challenging and the stillness and centering difficult for my very Western spirit to embrace. As time has passed I find I enjoy this new way of thinking and am leaning into the challenge.

Usually its a cookbook, but I've started Empire of the Summer Moon by S.C. GWYNNE

A romance..
 

Haha, see, I'm reading the same books as 9 year old, that's what I was worried about! Oh well, your 9 year old has good taste.

Just finished the Doomsday Prepper's Pocket Guide, which was unsuprisingly weird and poorly written. Don't laugh! There's a civil emergency going on outside my window right now! The roads are closed, the government buildings. About half of the commercial buildings are closed, too. Second or third time this winter, and my friends are still speeding their cars into telephone poles on their way to the grocery store like a bunch of dummies, because they don't even have 24 hours worth of ramen noodles in their apartments. The whole world shuts down here, regularly, and I'm always just fine.

And I just started This is How by Augusten Burroughs.

Don't feel bad - she is in third grade reading at a seventh grade level.. and thinks anything aimed towards kids is stupid [and has told me so numerous times!].

The Summer We Got Free
-- Mia McKenzie

(Oakland, CA: Black Girl Dangerous Press)


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I just ordered it online today @ Amazon.
I'm looking forward to reading McKenzie's book
(it's an early birthday present for myself).

Got my recent order this afternoon.

"8 Steps to a Pain-Free Back" by Esther Gokhale, L.Ac.

Comes highly recommended, since I know so many peeps with bad backs thought I might learn something to help them. Am also hoping to prevent the same in myself.

Having back pain can make your life sooo freaking miserable.

What Did We Use Before Toilet Paper?: 200 Curious Questions and Intriguing Answers.

I went out and got this to educate myself for those never ending questions my 7 yr old grandson stumps me on from time to time. lol

Could of used this one 20 yrs ago. ha ha

I finished one book by Mary Roach (Gulp), and started another by her- for some odd reason, both books were published the same week. This one is called My Planet: Finding Humor in the Oddest Places, and is a collection of articles previously published in Reader's Digest. The book is cute, quirky and quick- nothing that sticks with me, but entertaining. Mary Roach cracks me up even when she's writing for a magazine that is usually found in my parents' bathroom. Recommended.

Oh yeah...
 

And thanks to the barrage of promos and teasers for the upcoming HBO movie Behind the Candelabra, I went looking for the book of the same name. The book is about Liberace's turbulent relationship with Scott Thorson, his lover and chauffeur (the movie is about the same, but with Michael Douglas as Liberace, and Matt Damon as Thorson. I admit I'm intrigued.)

The book won't come out until May, though I found an out-of-print copy on Amazon- I guess it's being reprinted, thanks to the HBO movie. It was originally published in 1988, a year after Liberace's death from AIDS, and marketed as a tell-all memoir by Thorson the Chauffeur himself. The puzzling part is that the book is labeled "an autobiographical novel." Whaaa? Wait, why isn't it nonfiction?? I might pass on the book now, but I'm still all atwitter over the movie's debut. Damn you, HBO.

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Reading book again..
 

I'm currently reading "Of Drag Kings and the Wheel of Fate" by Susan Smith. I first read this book years ago, and every so often I read it again. After I'm finished, I'll be re-reading the sequel to this book, "Burning Dreams". :) Susan Smith is an amazing author.

The Broken Window, by Jeffrey Deaver

Not becoming my mother : and other things she taught me along the way / Ruth Reichl

Bestselling author Ruth Reichl embarks on a clear-eyed and openhearted investigation of her mother's life, piecing together the journey of a woman she comes to realize she never really knew. Looking to her mother's letters and diaries, Reichl confronts the painful transition her mother made from a hopeful young woman to an increasingly unhappy older one and realizes the tremendous sacrifices she made to make sure her daughter's life would not be as disappointing as her own.

[ame="http://www.amazon.com/Life-After-A-Novel/dp/0316176486/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1366312599&sr=8-1&keywords=kate+atkinson"]Life After Life by Kate Atkinson[/ame]

from the book description:

"What if you could live again and again, until you got it right?

On a cold and snowy night in 1910, Ursula Todd is born to an English banker and his wife. She dies before she can draw her first breath. On that same cold and snowy night, Ursula Todd is born, lets out a lusty wail, and embarks upon a life that will be, to say the least, unusual. For as she grows, she also dies, repeatedly, in a variety of ways, while the young century marches on towards its second cataclysmic world war.

Does Ursula's apparently infinite number of lives give her the power to save the world from its inevitable destiny? And if she can -- will she?

Darkly comic, startlingly poignant, and utterly original -- this is Kate Atkinson at her absolute best."

It is very readable, as are all her books. And it's a great concept. I'll let you know what I think when it's done.

Minimalist Parenting: Enjoying Modern Family Life More by Doing Less
by Asha Dornfest and Christine Koh

Ok, so I was thinking this book was going to tell me to get rid of my stuff, but not so. Here's a partial review from Moxie, which I think is spot-on:
"This book is probably going to overwhelm you if you have a first baby under three months. If you have kids older than that, though, this book will give you a nice framework for thinking about all the areas of family life so you can assess what you can control and streamline things so you can process the chaos as it happens and spend more time enjoying life and less time feeling like it's dragging you around."