Book Reviews for October

After my dreary review of the television schedule yesterday I thought I would cheer up my readers with some great book reviews.

Amazon offered up on Kindle for Thanksgiving the book “The Boston Girl” by Anita Diamant (author of “The Red Tent”) for a mere $2.99.  Since I loved The Red Tent I thought “why not” and I did not regret it.  The Boston Girl is a wonderful story about a young Jewish girl at the turn of the last century.  Addie Baum tells her life story to her granddaughter with humour even over the rough spots of her life.  The story is not particularly original but the character is strong, realistic and principled; just my kind of heroine.  She writes about poverty without being sordid (although there is certainly sordidness in the story), or perhaps I should say without being sensational about the poverty.  Sometimes writers get so carried away that they describes things to such an extent one is almost forced to throw up.  I highly recommend The Boston Girl as a quick, light read.

Costco had “The Underground Railway” on sale at a decent price so although I normally do not go for an Oprah recommended book because it is bound to be depressing I decided to give this one a go and I am really glad I did.  Colson Whitehead has written the book as a straightforward story of one woman’s escape from slavery in Georgia and although his visualization of creating a literal underground railway takes some getting used to it is a powerful story.  It’s well written and I can recommend this book as a good read.

Many of you may be surprised at my next recommendation which is “Christy” by Catherine Marshall.  This book first came out in 1967 and had another surge of popularity in the early 90’s when the movie and TV show aired.  For some odd reason I never bothered to read it despite the book being literally everywhere I went.  I recently came across it in the discarded bin in our library and decided it was time to read it.  I thought it would be overloaded with religion but either I am more in tune with “religious messages” or it simply is told in such a way you hardly notice “religion”.  It’s a lovely story about a sensitive young girl who is inspired to teach in the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee.  The characters are interesting, particularly the various children, and the author’s handling of language is amazing.  It’s a wholesome, uplifting read and I am only embarrassed that I didn’t read it many years ago.

It’s always rewarding when you discover books that make you feel “wow, that was a good one” and to find 3 in a row is like winning the lottery.  It’s been a good month!

 

What's Wrong With This World

The person who can come up with the one true answer could perhaps win the Noble Peace Prize.  There’s a lot wrong with this world and on the top of the list I would say Greed.  Somewhere along the list I would write “bad television” and here’s why.

This season’s offerings has got to be one of the worst of have yet seen.  Let’s start off with the comedies “Superstore”, “Speechless”, “Kevin Can Wait” and “The Good Place” all of which have one thing in common, they are filled with horrifically stupid people.  This is supposed to be funny?  I love America Ferrara and I just have to wonder how she got herself into a show like Superstore.  Awful.  Minnie Driver is a terrific actress but why is she in a show that is anything but edifying.  Again, Kristen Bell is wonderful but this show is the pits.  Kevin James is a funny guy but this show is not.  I’ve watched several episodes of each show but had to give up as they were just too noxious for words.

On to the dramas, “Notorious” is notoriously filled with horrible people.  ABC has put it between Grey’s Anatomy and How to Get Away with Murder so you can be filled with sleaze all Thursday night, if that’s your taste.  “Secrets & Lies” is back and I am watching this one only because Juliette Lewis is so good at being awful but the other characters are always less lovely than they look.  “This is Us” I hold in reserve as the people aren’t completely awful and it seems to be going in a nice direction.  “Designated Survivor” is slow to get moving but I always love a survivor style setting and this looks like it could have some good storylines but of course being politicians there is going to be sleaze.  So out of 8 new shows I am watching 3 but will likely drop 2 of them if they don’t go first.

 In our house we try to limit our television to after 5 p.m. and to less than 3 hours per night.  Since 90 minutes go to our 2 soaps that doesn’t leave a lot of time for viewing but with the offerings we have seen we feel that we aren’t missing much.  It’s so much nicer to pick up a good book.

Give Me That Old Time Religion

The title is deceiving because anyone that knows me will know that is about as far from my wish as I can get!  So why am I starting off with a title like that? 

As my readers know I have been studying not only the Old Testament but religion in general since last winter and I have discovered some really lovely writers and philosophers living and long gone.  The various ideas and themes have allowed me to take religion and turn it inside out and upside down, exploring various ways of accepting a god or a spiritual life.  One writer I particularly enjoyed reading was Marcus Borg and his book “The Heart of Christianity” which explores the ways that being Christian today can be relevant despite doubts about the existence of a supreme being.  What a concept and yet as he outlined his own spiritual journey it made a lot of sense. 

Understanding the true source of spiritual writings also helps one to come to grips with what is real, what is relevant, what we can throw away and what is valuable.  Even though one may not believe that the Bible is inspired by God it doesn’t mean that many of the teachings are not important and worth our while to consider and perhaps even live by.  What could be wrong with loving one’s neighbor or doing unto others as you’d have them do unto you?  What is wrong with respecting one’s parents or other people’s possessions?  Good stuff, all.

However a lot of “old time religion” is so out of step with what is psychologically good for the soul that it should be thrown out the window.  Dwelling on the gloomy side of life and all the evil in the world doesn’t really do anyone good as a day to day practice.  It’s so much better to look at what is good in the world and making efforts to do “one good deed” every day, as the Girl Guide’s motto invoked.  As I reflect on the state of the world today I wonder where all the good has gone.  I know that there are millions of good people on earth but they and their deeds seem to be constantly swallowed up in the onslaught of what is sensational and even downright wicked.

Let me talk about that tomorrow – but for today – think about what is good in your life and then smile and be happy.

Great Ideas

I’ve had a few lazy weeks and have been taking myself to task over this laziness.  I reflected on what I had read (and learned, one hopes) about jumpstarting my thinking.  Where were my ideas or even my thoughts taking me?  Was I even having any or was I simply numbing my brain by playing too much solitaire?  I realized that I had been distracted by some physical ailments and some personal worries but that it was time to set these excuses aside and continuing as I mean to go on.  In other words “get over yourself, Sanne”.

My way of pushing myself forward is always to start by cleaning the bathroom, sorting out some drawers and acquiring that sense of accomplishment that a clean room can give one.  So there I was, sorting through my hair ornaments and determining that all those mini elastics needed to go in a Ziploc bag.  That led me to thinking what a great invention Ziploc bags were which then led me to thinking “Ziploc bags and post-it-notes are probably two underappreciated inventions of the late 20^th century”.  Ah the profoundness of it all.  The truth is rather sad or annoying depending on how you want to look at it but the fact is that the things that make a woman’s life easier are usually the last on anyone’s list of great ideas.  Sure a car is nice and so are power tools but what really is wonderful is an electric or gas stove, a refrigerator and maybe best of all the washing machine and dryer.  Sliced bread, check.  Eggs in cartons, check.  You get the idea.

So why do I think post-it-notes are so wonderful?  They eliminate the need for an assistant to explain to the numbskull boss for the 100^th time that he needs to sign on the line “here”.  And don’t forget to call your wife at lunch and pick up the kids after work.  Okay, I’m kidding.  Post-it-notes adhere to documents so much better than a note with a paperclip.  I had a boss who actually didn’t trust post-it or paperclips and literally stapled everything he worked with because one time his father had a “situation”.  I thought that was maybe a little excessive but we all have our foibles.

Yes, life is wonderful when great ideas see the light of day.  Here’s hoping that one of mine may first see the lightbulb inside my head now that it is turned back on.

Moving On

The Henriettas are achieving the goals I have set them, producing lovely eggs on a regular basis while keeping the yard free of bugs and debris.  Well, almost.  Every day I find myself grinning, even laughing out loud, at their performances.  They will be grazing away at the ground when suddenly one of them will do a graceful little hop in the air and catch something flying past her.  Or one will let out an amazing squawk that brings all the other girls streaming towards her in curiosity or anxiety, I never can tell which.

The stray cat Kitsy faithfully follows me to the hen house every morning on my numerous trips to feed, water and collect the eggs.  There are days when I think she believes herself to be a dog since she is unusually attentive to the chores, so unlike a cat.  If I ask her if she wants to walk with me she looks up at me just like old Bob and then paces after me as I take my morning stroll around the grounds.  At the end of the red paving stones she will look up at me again and then make a dash for the pergola to inspect under the table.  Once assured that it is mouse free she will watch me as I putter around the fish pond and wait until I move back towards the chicken coop.  She likes to keep her feet dry so she walks along the deck while I walk on the dewy grass which is very cat-like.  As I get to the steps she will jump up on one of the benches and wait expectantly for me to allow her to jump up on my shoulders so she can continue with me in comfort.  Then she jumps off onto the bench that is positioned nicely by the entrance to the coop and off she dashes for her first taste of the hens’ water.  I don’t know why it tastes better to her than the water in her own dish but she certainly does seem to prefer it.  Or perhaps she just likes to taunt the hens since they don’t go near the tub while she is there.

The hens are tolerant of the cats and will not run away when they come strolling into their yard but they run into the corners when they see or hear the dogs approach.  I suspect their noise frightens them more than their size but what do I know?  I just know that when they see me they optimistically run to me for the expected treat or at the very least the opening of the gate that will allow them to frolic and fresh green.

And I do not disappoint.

Second Anniversary - Celebration

The actual day has come and gone but indeed I am celebrating my second anniversary in retirement.  Regrets?  Not at all.  Learnings?  Experiences?  There have been many but the highlight for me has been self realization.  I am more aware of the expectations that I put on myself and in some ways I have to thank those agonizing semi-annual “People at Work” performance assessments for making me so self aware and goal oriented.  At the time all the evaluations did was make me feel as though I could go nowhere and I felt less than inspired while working through them and then sitting through the meeting with my boss.  But now I put those same skills to use as I assess my daily, monthly and annual “performance”.

Why, you may ask?  When I took the retirement seminar one of the statements that the coach made resonated with me in a very meaningful and powerful way.  He said “When you look back on your year you should be able to say ‘what a ride’ instead of ‘time flew by’ and the difference struck me immediately.  As I have said in other blogs my first year did fly by but I could look back and pay myself on the back for literally being able to see what I had done that first year in the way of good building projects.  The first 4 or 5 months of year 2 began with me floundering a little bit until I worked through a few seminars on my own and now I can say that year 2 has also been a great success although the achievements are visible only to myself.  It’s like the difference between building the pyramids and writing the Declaration of Independence.  One is visible to all while the other works into the heart of the people.

Now what shall I do with year 3?  Whatever it may be I am sure I am up to the challenge!