The Year 2015

I typically don’t wish away time but I won’t miss 2015.

I think I may have covered too many life bases this year: The tragic deaths of two good friends, unexpected hospitalizations, life threatening illnesses and unavoidable misunderstandings.

These events were tempered, fortunately, by a marriage, an upcoming birth, random celebrations, unforgettable beauty, laughter, and the grace and wisdom of friends.

Life, I guess. Just life. Still, feeling a need for some down time. I’m looking forward to Beach Time with family. This is always a time of great joy, a coming together, reconnecting, recovery and healing. I am so fortunate.

Here’s to less of the former and more of the latter. Here’s to now.

Happy, Happy, Happy Holidays.

Image Credit: Pablo McCloud

Always a journey, yes?

DECEMBER 2015 BOOK SELECTION- A TALE FOR THE TIME BEING

I’ve discovered another wonderful new author: Ruth Ozeki.

This month’s reading choice comes from a Book on Tape I loved so much, I had to buy in book form.

The narrator switches from Nao, a Japanese-American teenage girl living in Tokyo to Ruth, an older woman, also of Japanese extraction living on a remote island in the Pacific Northwest. Ruth, by chance, finds Nao’s diary washed up on the beach near her home.

We join Ruth in her reading of the diary and follow Nao’s heartbreaking struggle to navigate her life. The novel gracefully and seamlessly covers themes of coming of age, bullying, suicide, marriage, quantum physics and unanswered questions of mystical connection.

I didn’t want this book to end and can’t wait to read another by Ozeki. I’ve been so lucky in my book selections this year. 

Highly recommend.

Amazed

How can a person ever be bored? Truly. Maybe if someone was in solitary confinement or a hospital waiting room with no reading material (there is always people watching) or in a hospital bed unable to move or too sick to do anything. But these are very special circumstances. I am amazed and/or thrilled by something I learn every day. How can I be bored?

I recently watched a Nova program and was surprised to learn about supercontinents that formed North America before Pangaea. I knew the supercontinent Pangaea existed around 300 million years ago, but  Nuna, Rodinia, and Laurentia…. were all supercontinents that pre-dated Pangaea. The land masses on earth are constantly moving and will eventually form a supercontinent again. I’m not a geologist and I know it’s nerdy, but this is fascinating to me. To say I love learning is a serious understatement.  Just when you think you know something….

Some other random things that either thrill and/or amaze me:

Neil deGrasse Tyson talking about the universe. Wow. Talk about what we don’t know.

Watching Gregory Hines dance on film. What incredible talent.

When that guy in the film, Chariots of Fire throws back his head with the joy of running? Don’t you feel it, too?

The beauty of the films of Louis Schwartzberg. 

Even the thought of all the unread books I have yet to enjoy.

People that make their living with music. How incredibly hard. Any art form really. Extraordinary.

The strength and grace of trees. The tiny jewel of a flower that grows out of a crack in the sidewalk.

I could go on and on. I guess all I’m saying is being bored is a cop out. Allow yourself to be thrilled and amazed. It’s wonderful.

Pretty much…. and relationships, of course.

NOVEMBER 2015 BOOK SELECTION- A SPOOL OF BLUE THREAD

This is my first novel by Anne Tyler. I know. Where have I been? I had seen it advertised and randomly picked it up at the library. What a delight, from beginning to end. I knew she was a well-known and respected master storyteller. She has won numerous book awards, including the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1989 for Breathing Lessons (next on my listJ). Also a film was made based on her novel, The Accidental Tourist.

This is a story of three generations of an ordinary, flawed, endlessly fascinating family. There is so much about them that is alien yet so much that is familiar. It has been a long time since I didn’t want a book to end.

There are no explosions, no terror attacks, no spies or witches. It is about life and all of its beauty, heartbreak, happiness, confusion, misunderstanding and sadness. The characters are so beautifully drawn you want to shake them, argue with them, then long to know what happens to them after you read the last page. The house where these characters at various times live, move through, and leave is as exceptionally created as any other character. It became as real as the one next door. 

Finally, There is just enough of a sense of things unknown and unseen in everyday life. A question of the mystery of it all. A reminder that no one has all the answers.   

Highly recommend. 

Simple Things

I have written several times in this blog about simplicity in some form. I’m doing it again and there is a good reason for it. Part of it may be a reminder to myself that it’s a great philosophy on so many levels. But there is something else to say.

Life is not always simple. I know that. Often it’s complicated.

Relationships are complicated: Friends, family, colleagues, all loved ones.

I’ve discovered that “keep it simple” is a good motto. Expect good but don’t worry so much if people disappoint you. Everyone has their own thing going on. Be generous with your assessment. Give them a wide berth and time to come around. If they don’t, move on. It’s that simple.

I’ve also discovered that the times in my life that I have been the happiest have been very simple ones. Don’t get me wrong, there have been amazing memories of Broadway shows, trips abroad, accolades for work well done, lovely gifts and more. Still, what I hold most dear are the everyday things that wouldn’t make it into a blockbuster novel.

Let me give you an example. One of my soul memories is sitting on steps leading down to the beach and watching the ocean, a morning cup of coffee warming my hands.

Another one. Watching my children’s faces when they had their first ride on a merry-go-round.

Another. A black velvet summer night sitting outside when the moon seemed to fill the whole sky.

That ancient tree across from my childhood home.

Okay. Still watching my children’s faces. No matter what they are doing.

So many moments. Small ones.

So my discovery is that it isn’t the BIG things that fill you up. Oh, they are nice all right. But they are temporary. It’s the everyday, you’d hardly notice things. It’s simple, really. Simple things. But not, if you know what I mean. Look for them.

OCTOBER 2015 BOOK SELECTION- SHINE SHINE SHINE

This month’s book selection: Shine Shine Shine features one of the most distinctive voices in fiction I have ever encountered. Lydia Netzer has created characters and a story so quirky and unique I was intrigued from beginning to end.

While browsing at a table full of books at a conference, I came across this author’s work by chance. I had never heard of her or the book. It speaks well of browsing book stores and/or the library (one of the great pleasures of my life) and not just shopping for what Amazon or some other site is attempting to sell you. I love Amazon, too, but nothing quite beats the tactile experience of perusing a book. But, I digress.

This is not quite a love story, but it is. It’s not quite a character study but each character literally emerges off the page fully realized. It’s not quite an adventure story but it’s full of adventure and risk taking. For example, one character tells us his story as he rockets to the moon.

By the time you finish this novel you will wish you knew these characters and almost feel as if you do. Highly recommend. 

Gathering

They say it takes a village to raise a child but… I think it takes a village for all of us to thrive. Certainly we can live and breathe and function without real connection…. And no one enjoys and needs alone time more than I. But to really live… a gathering creates space for joy.

Gatherings for celebrations, rituals, life events, plain old good news and yes, survival, can be traced in every ancient culture from the beginning of time. From the Druids at Stonehenge, the West African Gullah culture on the sea islands of North Carolina and south, the first settlers, the American Indians…. every culture on every continent seeks to gather. After all, when you have good news, what is your first instinct? Sure, you can jump up and down by yourself. But, what then? You want to share it, I think.

Never was this more evident to me than when my whole family gathered recently for a wedding, two birthdays and the surprise of an upcoming birth. Every single member of my immediate family was present, with one exception, which in itself was nothing short of a minor miracle. We span across three thousand miles and six states. What I remember is the joy. Sure, there was a bit of drama. What good gathering doesn’t have that? But mostly pure joy. The faces of people I love. That’s what I remember. That’s what I take with me till the next gathering.

In the meantime, I gather with friends whom I love, for our celebrations and well, just because. I never take it for granted.

SEPTEMBER 2015 BOOK SELECTION: MINNOW

Every two years The Hub City Press in Spartanburg, SC hosts and publishes a South Carolina First Novel Competition. In 2014 the winner was Minnow by James E. McTeer, II.

The press’s website states it best: “Hub City Press is a non-profit independent press in Spartanburg, SC that publishes well-crafted, high-quality works by new and established Southern authors. We are committed to high-caliber novels, short stories, poetry, memoir, and works emphasizing regional culture and history. We are particularly interested in books with a strong sense of place."

Minnow certainly lives up to Hub City’s reputation for producing fine literature. The story disarms by introducing the reader to Minnow, whom you believe to be an average young boy. You learn very early on that his father is dreadfully ill and may not live without a certain medicine. Minnow is given the task of getting the medicine at the pharmacy by his mother. Would it were so easy. This is only the beginning.

As the story progresses, McTeer continually raises the stakes and the challenges to Minnow and you watch as he faces each one. It becomes a story of courage, devotion and fortitude. Warning: Some of the hurdles are so devastating, it was difficult to read.

The story takes place in Charleston and in the outer sea-islands off the coast of South Carolina. The places were so richly drawn that not only did you feel you accompanied Minnow on his journey, but the locations actually became another character. It was beautifully done. Recommend.

In the Blood

Is it true that where you grow up is in your blood? If so, the dark, rich soil of Kentucky and its iconic bluegrass pulse to a rhythm in mine. Archeologists can tell by examining minute traces of DNA and bone fragments where a person born centuries, even eons before, lived, breathed, ate, traveled. Astonishing, really. Therefore it literally is in your blood. Is that why whenever I go home and I travel the country roads around Lexington, my very heart feels full to bursting with the beauty of it? Although I know it can’t be literally true, I think at the time it’s the most beautiful place on earth. This is a thing separate from memory, I think. It is sensory. Deeper even. Something organic. Arising from within. Something in my bones.

So, I’ve lived many places and traveled many others. Are all of these places resting in my blood? My bones? The vivid season changes of Pennsylvania, the sweet heavy air, magnolia trees, camellia bushes, live oaks, Spanish moss of South Carolina? The rugged, wild beauty of the Pacific Ocean, the worn marble steps of Rome, the ancient fountains, the reverberation of voices in the theatre of Ephesus, the unseeing eyes of the caryatids on the Acropolis all live in me.

Whatever gives me life, whatever lives in me, whether soul or my imagining of it, sings in my blood. How lovely to think that this singing might also be leftover for someone to find buried in the organic me. There to find in all of us.

Porch of the Caryatids on the Acropolis

AUGUST 2015 BOOK SELECTION & BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR

This month I unintentionally immersed myself in historical fiction. Two books, different subject matter, different time periods but alike in style.

The first is The Winter Sea by Susanna Kearsley. Set both in present day and in early 17^th Century Scotland, the first person narrative shifts between two characters connected by ancestry and a mystical “genetic memory.” The 17^th Century character finds herself in the middle of James Vlll’s quest for the throne of England and Scotland. The present day character is an author writing about the same time period and a descendant of the 17^th century one. Confused yet? Actually this author has been compared to Daphne du Maurier and sorts this confusion rather well. It’s clear that her research is impeccable and very interesting if you are a history nerd. Guilty. My only problem was with the constantly shifting narrative voice. I found myself caring more about the outcome for one character than the other. Still, if you like the Outlander series (which is set a bit later), you’ll like this.

The second is The Dream Lover: a Novel by Elizabeth Berg. Based on the life of Aurore Dupin, aka George Sand, the French novelist and memoirist who lived in the 19^th Century, Berg, like Kearsley has done superb research. Paris in the 1800’s comes alive on the page as does Sand. Her incredibly scandalous, bohemian, in-your-face lifestyle was shocking for the times and fascinating now. She dressed as a man for the comfort and quality of life it brought her during a restrictive and oppressive time for women. You can’t help but cheer her incredible spirit. Again the author chooses to move back and forth in time, this time between the childhood of the girl Aurore and the adult authoress Sand. I found this somewhat confusing, but overall, Berg, a favorite, does not disappoint.

It was a year ago, this month, that I first decided to do Book Selections. I think it fitting to choose my Best of the Year Award. Without question, this goes to Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese. Nothing else comes close. 

The First Time

It is the dead of summer in the deep South. Always warm, now the days scorch us with blistering sun and drench us with humidity. Wet underwear is the gift (Ha!) of even an early morning walk.

As the heat lessens somewhat and the shelter of shadows lengthen, the late afternoons become a good time to run errands, dog-walk and water drooping flowers. Yesterday, I stepped outside to grab that last bag of groceries. It was late for shopping, even in this heat. I was stopped by cicada’s song. It was overwhelmingly beautiful. It reverberated around me in a cocoon of sound. Loud. Reverent. A symphony.

Suddenly, I was transported back to my childhood. Playing tag with my brothers just before dark, letting fireflies light on my fingers, the velvet dark a secret place. Golden lit windows were beacons of all that waited inside…dinner, parents, cool sheets. But outside. Outside. Fragrant, sharp smell of cut grass, honeysuckle sweet on the lips, tomatoes bursting with tangy juice running down my chin. All that and more, rushing back to me in that moment.

This morning, though still hot, I felt (sensed, smelled?) the first tingle of fall on an unexpected, errant wind.

They say if you really live in every moment, experience what you observe and feel as if for the first time, every time, it is grace.

Wow. Those cicadas.

magical dragonfly

The Soul should always stand ajar
That if the Heaven inquire
He will not be obliged to wait
                                -Emily Dickinson (1055, 1896)

JULY 2015 BOOK SELECTIONS: STILL LIFE WITH BREAD CRUMBS & DELICIOUS!

Actually I have read or listened to four-plus books this month but that would have been way too long of a title. I don't believe in bashing other authors in print (karma and all that), so I have only included my favorites.

First, on the recommendation of a friend, I read Unwritten by Charles Martin. I felt the beginning of the book did not show the promise of the full text. Initially disappointed, I later particularly enjoyed the descriptions of France. It was an insider’s view and worth a look, if for nothing else, for that alone. Very cinematic.

Next was the novel, Still Life With Bread Crumbs by Anna Quindlen. Quindlen, a Pulitzer Prize winning columnist, never disappoints. Still Life examines the life of a once well-known photographer and her journey, born of necessity, into a totally new way of living. The theme seems to be a recognition that life can continue to surprise, overwhelm, challenge and evolve. I absolutely loved it.

 

I can’t leave this author without mentioning another favorite: A Short Guide to a Happy Life. I am not usually a fan of this type of book but this one is a big exception. It should be required reading. The title says it all.

It was a true pleasure reading Delicious! by Ruth Reichl. If you are a foodie, so much the better. But, that is by no means a disclaimer. Whether you are a “foodie” or not, this book delights.  It engages with its lightness at the beginning but becomes an intriguing mystery as the story progresses. Reichl is the former Editor in Chief of Gourmet Magazine. Although a published author, this is her first work of fiction. Recommend.

The Power of Storytelling

Every time we open a book, a newspaper, a reading device... or turn on television, a computer or phone, we are exposed to stories. Whether it’s news or literature, fiction, non-fiction, sit-com or reality show, Facebook or Instagram or any other configuration, we are constantly processing information. We are bombarded, really.

Somehow, often we receive information even though we don’t consciously read or pursue it. It just filters in. I’m thinking recently about the young boy who helped his brother bomb the Boston Marathon. I “know” without reading or actively pursuing the story, that he has been sentenced to death and that he apologized for his actions…. That he was sorry. How do I know this? I honestly have no idea. I just have the information.

I say this because I realize how vulnerable we are to this information influx. It’s wonderful when you want it…. But when you don’t? Scientists say that the human brain is constantly seeking information… and I have to say I think this is true when observing everyone with their heads constantly buried in their hand-held devices.

What also seems evident to me is the need to set up some parameters for oneself. I really DON’T EVEN WANT TO KNOW who the Kardashians are, or the housewives of NYC, LA, Atlanta, etc. but I do! How do I? I don’t know, and that is disturbing on so many levels. LOL! So how do you set up your own filter?

I came across the idea of Stillness from an interview with Pico Iyer I intentionally watched. I think the idea is to set aside all the accoutrement of our lives, if even for a few minutes a day. Shut it out. Be still. Be. Recognize your separateness. I guess it’s as simple as being responsible for the storytelling you do and for the storytelling you allow in. 

Every grain of sand is separate.

.

JUNE 2015 BOOK SELECTION- the precious one

Okay, it didn’t exactly make my heart sing but I really liked it. I read the precious one (no caps intended) by Marisa de los Santos. I have read this author’s work in the past, and enjoyed it and this new one did not disappoint. 

Ms. de los Santos has a real gift for language and unique storytelling. The characters are well-drawn, well- rounded and singular. There were no two-dimensional stereotypes thrown in to fill gaps in the storyline.

The story focuses on events occurring during a family gathering shown through the eyes of two different characters. The two are estranged sisters and we see their perspective through their thoughts and interactions.

Although the main action is in the present, revelations occur as the characters explore the past. Two sisters with the same father and different mothers experienced growing up as disparate as if they were on separate continents.

Recommend.

The Beauty of What We Don't Know

As I have written here before, I enjoy reading nearly all genres of literature. I have always particularly enjoyed those stories that have a bit of fantasy or mysticism. Not the heavy-handed, supernatural, mind you…Although, that has its place. The real world, if we observe closely, has magic in it everywhere we look. In every culture since the beginning of time, men have cited incidents of the unexplained. Even in our super-sonic, technology-driven, scientific civilization, we come upon things we can’t explain away. There will always be those that claim “coincidence” or “random occurrence,” but I think it belittles the magnificence and mystery of what we don’t know.

Last week I ran across a video a friend posted on Facebook of all things. I usually scroll quickly because of the time-suck factor of FB, but something made me stop and actually watch this five minute film. I’m so glad I did. I’m including the link for you if you are so inclined, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gvwHHMEDdT0 , but if you don’t trust links, you can find it on youtube.com under: anna breytenbach animal communicator. It’s the story of an animal sanctuary and a black leopard who had been mistreated and found a home there.

I found the story incredibly moving, not just that the animal found a home, but that it opened up the idea of actual inter-species communication. Even if you don’t believe in it, it is fascinating to watch. I think it spoke to me so profoundly because my first book was written about this very topic. Maybe it’s a skill we once had and have forgotten. What a lovely idea.

                                   Spirit

MAY 2015 BOOK SELECTION - AT THE WATER'S EDGE

My book selection this month is At the Water’s Edge by Sara Gruen. You may recognize this writer from the novel, Water for Elephants which was made into a film. I don’t usually read brand new releases because I have such a backlog to read. However, this time, I ordered it from the public library…. I was about thirtieth in line… and thought I would not get it before Christmas. Lo and behold, it was available right away so I grabbed it. An easy read and an interesting story, I gobbled it down.

About halfway through the novel I made the mistake of reading a few reviews on Amazon. Big mistake. Here I was, enjoying the read and some reviewer dissed it. I found that it began to inform my enjoyment of the novel. In a perfect world, it shouldn’t have, and I don’t usually listen to reviews about movies or anything else. I try to form my own opinion. But it niggled at the back of my mind.

It was an epiphany for me.

So here’s the thing. I’m a writer, and because of that, I know the blood and sweat that goes into creating, shaping, editing, editing, editing, coddling and producing any work of fiction or non-fiction. I’ve been guilty of doing the very thing that I find so annoying… passing judgement on other people’s work… and in print no less. We all make book selections based on our tastes and interests. Who am I to tell you what’s NOT worth reading? So I won’t anymore. I will only print a Book Selection if I truly love a book. So the next time (after this month) I make a selection, it will be because it makes my heart soar.

So back to this, my final selection, until that time. I truly enjoyed At the Water’s Edge. It takes place during WWII in New York and moves to the Scottish Highlands. It was about human relationships, connections, humanity and what could happen when there is a lack of any of the three. There was a magical element to the story which added dimension and depth. Recommend.  

LOOK UP

Listen, I love technology as much as the next person. I even had a minor stint as a “gamer” on Facebook and learned soon how very quickly you can be sucked into those alternate worlds. I think it is a form of decompressing for people, a kind of meditation. But, time–suck doesn’t begin to cover it. Time-thief is more accurate. I finally, finally, finally moved on. No criticism, there are just so many other things I would rather be doing.

Like all of us, I see people of all ages continually bent over their mobile phones, attached to them at all times, walking, talking, eating, almost sleeping (Most certainly at the bedside). They are truly amazing and wonderful devices that give us instant gratification, immediate answers to any question, instant connection via call, email or text anywhere, anytime, to anyone. And if that’s not fast enough, some of us have Siri to tell us everything we need to know and where to go. Hey, and I’m not even talking apps.

The whole world is in our hand. But the trouble is it’s not. It’s not. It’s not. It’s a hand held device. It’s not real life. As much as I admire it, and truthfully love the applications, my phone is not my life.

It’s disturbing. My girlfriends go out to dinner and there is not a single time the phones don’t come out at some point. I’ve tried to instigate the, you look at your phone during dinner, you pay scenario, without success. Look around the next time you are in a restaurant and you will see what I mean.

All I’m saying, and to not belabor the point, what if the internet failed? In this age of super-hackers, it’s entirely possible. So Again, all I’m saying is look up. Even if just occasionally. What we have of life is right now. Look up. Look at the sky. Not a picture of it. Neil degrasse Tyson, an astrophysicist who is the new Carl Sagan, says every single time he goes outside, he looks at the sky. What a superb habit. It’s constantly changing. A wonder. Don’t miss your life. Look up.

APRIL 2015 BOOK SELECTION- SEQUELS

This month was for Book Two sequels of two well-known Young Adult (YA) trilogies. The first read was Insurgent which is the follow-up to blockbuster, made-into a-movie Divergent by Veronica Roth. 

I think it’s difficult to write a follow-up novel, especially if your first one is so well received. I would imagine it’s a lot of pressure for the author. The most enjoyable part of Insurgent was being able to continue to follow characters I was familiar with from the first book. I wanted them to succeed against the Dystopian “big brother.” Truthfully, I found the sequel a bit meandering and vague. This was probably due to what I perceived as strange phrasing and sentence structure. Still, it held my attention to the end. The film sequel was released at the same time with all the digital-other-worldly enhancements that offers. Not an amazing read but I will probably read the third book of the trilogy to find out how the characters end up. That’s saying something.

The second read was Crossed, book two of the trilogy beginning with Matched by Ally Condie. 

Such a well-written book. I enjoyed the first and was equally impressed with Crossed. It is not only well-written, but has quite beautiful language and adventure that does not disappoint. It examines human nature without proselytizing. It is timely in that it examines the philosophy of revolution without being heavy-handed. I couldn’t put this one down. This is YA Dystopian at its best in my opinion. I’m looking forward to Reached, the third book in the series. Not just for young adults. If you only choose one trilogy, this is it.

Seeking

I guess I would call myself a seeker. I am always looking for Answers, for Understanding, for Clarity. I want to know if there is a design and if so, a purpose in that design. I look up into the nighttime sky and think it would be ridiculous to think otherwise. There is definitely something.

I seek by listening to wise people or those considered spiritually enlightened. I seek by reading, reading, reading, not only fiction but reading for the truths that lie somewhere in most every author’s work. I am curious about their truth.

I work at not being judgmental. I work at not being around judgmental or negative people. Those that my mother would call a “vexation to the spirit.” She would advise me to nod at the good in them and move on. That was excellent advice.

I try to remember beauty by surrounding myself with it. This doesn’t mean I stick my head in the sand. It just means I try to sidestep violence if I can. There is enough difficulty around us every day without using it for entertainment. I try to remember beauty by watching that which elevates thought and by reading that which does the same. I remember beauty by being still.

I know all of this sounds rather esoteric. So be it. It has become my philosophy. Let me be the first to say I’m not entirely successful in any of this. Hardly. I guess it will always be a journey.

If I am indeed made of “star stuff,” I want to honor it.