I absolutely loved The Art of Racing in the Rain. I loved every bit of it. I loved that it was from a dog’s point of view but that it wasn’t contrived or cute at all. It was so beautifully written and the metaphors were wonderfully weaved in. The story, while sad, is wonderfully told and it’s so easy to empathize with all of the characters. I don’t even care for car racing but I still really enjoyed every single moment of this special book. I had so many quotes I wanted to highlight but my stupid reader crashed and lost my bookmarks.
“To live every day as if it had been stolen from death, that is how i would like to live. To feel the joy of life, as Eve felt the joy of life. To separate oneself from the burden, the angst, the anguish that we all encounter every day. To say I am alive, I am wonderful, I am. I am. That is something to aspire to. When I am a person, that is how I will live my life.”
I cannot recommend it enough.
I grabbed The Reading Group because I really wanted something light and easy to read. I’ve been feeling tired and overwhelmed lately. I didn’t realize it was a good 800-some pages but I really did enjoy reading this book. I connected with the characters and felt close to their stories. I related to some but not others and I did wish at times that the story would move a bit faster and it did feel like things all ended a bit too happy but honestly, it was the nice, light read I was looking for without being too light and too stupid.
Maybe a nice summer read? Oh well, it did its job if you ask me.
I listened to Why We Make Mistakes on audio and found it quite interesting. We humans are a lot more flawed than we think and we make decisions on so many levels and have a lot less control over our decisions than we think, too. I feel like I need to listen to this book often just to remember all the things it mentions. The one thing that has stuck with me even now is the need to sleep and how much lack of sleep increases mistakes. Seems obvious and yet sleep is still the first thing I sacrifice.
This week I decided I wanted something quick and easy. So I picked Emily Giffin’s Something Borrowed. I knew it was chick-lit but I knew nothing else about the book. I thought it would be light and sweet like most chick-lit.
I did not like this book.
I didn’t know the book was about cheating and for some reason the overpowering sense of how wrong the whole premise was interfered with everything else about the story. I felt this way when I read The Bridges of Madison County so many years ago. But this was even worse. I know the author tried to get me to sympathize with Rachel by making her friend not so desirable (but throwing some gems to make sure she wasn’t totally 2-dimensional) but I did not feel any empathy at all. I felt like I was being told to feel empathetic and not actually feeling it. I never cared enough about her to root for her. I kept thinking the plot would twist and she would end up with someone else. (there was a twist but something completely different and in my opinion a totally inappropriate one for the characters she was building but I can’t talk about that without spoilers.)
Anyhow, I can go on and on but I’ll just say for me this wasn’t a good book. Characters were flat and uninteresting and the plot left much to be desired. If you’ve ever read her, please let me know if all her books are this way or should I give this author another chance?
When I read The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night time a few years ago, I loved the story, the unique character, the point of view. It is a magnificent book.
So when I saw Mark Haddon’s new book, A Spot of Bother, I knew I wanted to read it.
It took me a while to get into the book but I absolutely loved it. The quirky but believable characters in this book are easy to relate to and the stories intertwine in the most delightful way and the story leaves you with a feeling of delight.
Absolutely recommended.
I’ve attempted to read several Po Bronson books. He always tends to write about subjects I’m interested in. Back when I worked on Wall Street, he’d written about bonds. Then, as I was struggling about what career to move to, he wrote about exactly that. But somehow I’ve never been able to actually finish one of his books.
So when I read about NurtureShock: New Thinking About Children I thought it might be worth another try. Since my method of listening to non-fiction and reading fiction is working so well so far, I thought maybe it might do the trick.
And it did.
I listened to the whole book and enjoyed all of it. I cringed through some of it (like where it talks about teenagers and lying) but I thought all of it was very thought provoking. As with many studies, I am sure some of these have biased samples or other flaws. I am sure a bunch of others will be proven otherwise in a year or five. Etc. etc. But still, I thought everything they talked about was interesting and worth considering and thinking about.
Any book that gets me thinking, that gives me a new perspective, a new set of tools for my kids is worth reading in my opinion.
I’ve read several Nicholas Sparks novels before and I find him to be a quick and easy romantic read. Often cheesy but sometimes you need light, cheesy reading. And after going through Committed (several non-fiction books in a row, in fact.) I needed something light and easy.
Since I kept seeing the commercials and thought I might like to see the movie I decided to read Dear John.
Light it was.
Easy, it wasn’t.
In typical Sparks fashion, it was a lot of storytelling but I just didn’t get into the story this time. It felt disconnected from the beginning and it lacked his sweeping romanticism so it didn’t even leave me with a wonderfully happy feeling. I know that makes it less Hollywood and more real but still, if I wanted real, I wouldn’t have read him.
Quick read but not sure if it’s worth it. I’m curious if the movie is good or not.
ETA: I wrote this before I saw the movie and of course they changed the movie just enough to make it much less sad and I actually enjoyed the movie a lot.
I first heard of Byron Katie when I was taking Stephanie’s class. She and a guest referred to “Loving What Is” during the class and I wrote it down so I could try to see if I could find it.
As it turned out I was only able to find I Need Your Love – Is That True?: How to Stop Seeking Love, Approval, and Appreciation and Start Finding Them Instead on audio and my trend this year is to listen to audio and not read it. So I downloaded the audio and listened to the whole thing.
I was immediately inclined to give up because her (or whomever read it) voice was so cheesy to me that I couldn’t get past that. But I persevered and decided I had a lot of approval and appreciation issues so I wanted to see if it would help.
And it did.
It did so so so much. It was really worth listening to and gave me a lot of food for thought. I’m still thinking about the book and I think I might have to go get “Loving What Is” now, too.
If you want a sampler, I found some interviews Oprah did with Byron Katie: here they are.
Elizabeth Gilbert’s Eat Pray Love was one of my favorite books at the time. So when I heard she came out with another nonfiction, I knew I had to get my hands on it.
Committed is exploring marriage. I must admit that I am nothing like Elizabeth in that I am not a skeptic at all. I believe in marriage. Maybe that’s because I haven’t been through the harrowing divorce she has. Or maybe we were different people from the beginning. Who knows. All I know is that she is a good writer and I was interested in reading it.
Except that the first three chapters sucked. I found them boring and my interest wandered and wandered. I almost decided to give up on the whole book.
But, of course, that exactly when it got interesting.
Once I made it through the first several chapters, I couldn’t stop reading and underlining and thinking. There were several quite interesting sections and when I have the patience, I will even write them down. In my opinion, what makes Elizabeth special is her voice, her way of telling a story. So when she’s telling her personal story, it’s so much more interesting to read. It’s touching, personal, easy to relate to.
In the end, to me, it wasn’t as magical as Eat, Pray, Love but of course that’s nearly impossible. But it was still a beautiful read and I hope they have a long and lasting marriage together.
Kim, this one’s all your fault. I listened to an audio excerpt of Karen’s new book (Hand Wash Cold which I have on preorder.) and then I saw Kim’s thoughts on Momma Zen on her blog and decided I had to have it.
Momma Zen took me a day to read. I couldn’t put it down and there were so many excerpts I underlined that I don’t even know where to begin. Since I want to meditate more and be more self-aware this year, there were a lot of lessons here.
Here are some excerpts I liked:
In actuality, there is never any such thing as solid ground, but strapped securely inside our heads, where we live most of the time, things seem pretty predictable and safe. We think we are the captain of the ship. We are prepared to steer, to give orders, and to reach our intended destination just the way we want to. How we fear our navigational errors! How earnestly we aim! When you go into labor, you see that you are not the captain of the ship. You are the ship. There is no captain. There are only waves.
—
I am devoted to the schedule. I am devoted to the routine to maintain physical and mental health. For my daughter, yes, but above all for me. The structure lends security. The focus gives me sanity. The predictability begets, in a paradoxical way, freedom.
—
The point is not that we lose our cool, the point is how quickly we find it again.
—
You don't have to work so hard at this. You don't have to do so much. You don't have to endeavor to be natural, normal, and good. It happens by itself when you least expect it. If you're confused about what you should be doing, this this. Stop what you are doing. Take care of what is in front of you, when it is in front of you, and the confusion will pass. This is called the effort of no effort. No effort is what powers the universe.
—
Happy matters most of all. And here's the surprise ending. You don't have to wait for happiness, because there's no time but now to be happy. You don't have to go somewhere else, because there's no place but here to find it. You don't have to do something else, because there's nothing more to it. You don't have to get something else, because everything you already have is enough. You just have to be happy.
—
Amen.
The first book I’ve read by Anne Lamott was the amazing Bird by Bird back when I used to write novels. Years and years ago. I then read Operating Instructions which is about her first year with her son, Sam. I was hooked when I read the writing book but I was dedicated once I finished the motherhood one. Anne’s voice speaks directly to me. There’s something magical about her.
Even though I’d read Traveling Mercies and Plan B, I never even heard about Grace Eventually until a few weeks ago when I saw it on some blog I was reading. It took me only a few seconds to buy it (which is a big deal cause I don’t buy books anymore. Almost ever.) But I knew I’d want to own this book. I love her and I can read her stuff over and over again.
This was no exception. I felt like underlining every page, there was so much pithy stuff in it. So much of what spoke to me. I’m not even religious but it spoke to me. She has a way with words. She’s honest and raw and so easy to relate to even though our lives are as different as can be. I like her fiction, too, but her non-fiction is gold. True gold.
Here’s a short passage:
That’s me, trying to make any progress at all with family, in work, relationships, self-image: scootch, scootch, stall; scootch, stall, catastrophic reversal; bog, bog, scootch. I wish grace and healing were more abracadabra, kinds of things; also, that delicate silver bells would ring to announce grace’s arrival. But, no, it’s clog and slog and scootch, on the floor, in silence, in the dark.
If you’ve never read Anne Lamott, you’re truly missing out.
I’ve been a fan of Malcolm Gladwell for as long as I can remember. Jake and I used to read his stories in the New Yorker and I’ve devoured all of his books. My favorite is still The Tipping Point.
When I heard about What the Dog Saw I knew it would be the perfect book to listen to in the car. So for the last month or so, I’ve been listening to it on my drives back and forth from David’s school.
What the Dog Saw is a collection of Gladwell’s articles from the New Yorker. There are a wide range of stories from hair dye to crime to dogs to ketchup and in Gladwell’s typical style, they are interesting and make you think. I always find his topics, style and writing thought-provoking and this was no exception.
I am a Gladwell fan and will continue to read his books and stories for as long as he’ll continue to write them.
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projects for twenty twenty-four
projects for twenty twenty-three
projects for twenty twenty-two
projects for twenty twenty-one
projects for twenty nineteen
projects for twenty eighteen
projects from twenty seventeen
monthly projects from previous years
some of my previous projects
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