Book a Week in 2014 - BW50

[Stacia]

OT...

 

Re: a previous discussion on sentience/souls/spirit/etc.... Just thought some of you might enjoy this very cute Buzzfeed list of 22 Times Animals Proved They Have Souls. (Buzzfeed posted this list because of the Pope's statement, ""One day, we will see our animals again in the eternity of Christ. Paradise is open to all of God's creatures.")

[Jane in NC]

OT...

 

Re: a previous discussion on sentience/souls/spirit/etc.... Just thought some of you might enjoy this very cute Buzzfeed list of 22 Times Animals Proved They Have Souls. (Buzzfeed posted this list because of the Pope's statement, ""One day, we will see our animals again in the eternity of Christ. Paradise is open to all of God's creatures.")

 

 

I have tears still trickling down my cheeks.

 

Thank you, sweetie.

 

With Eliana's comment in mind, I clicked on the link--even if it was from Buzzfeed.

 

Cute.

 

But is that really a rat?  Sure looks like a hamster to me!  (I use to put my son's hamster in my robe pocket in the mornings.  He kept me company as I made coffee.)

[Jane in NC]

 

 

Nan, you asked (I can't find the quote just now), how I read painful things, especially given that I read with fewer filters than most.

 

There are things I can't read, or that leave me hurting for a long time afterwards, but the key for tolerability is the 'voice' of the book.  Some books have a thread of light that carries me through the darkest moments, some have a voice of such spunk or grace or humor or insight that I can endure the hard parts, and some pull me into a 'witnessing' space, where I am being a repository of a story that needs to be heard, of suffering that must be remembered... or that I know I need to hear because only by hearing it can I respond, or carry forward a message of change.

 

Eliana,

 

A book that you and I read (and one that Nan should never, ever, read is Purge.  It continues to haunt me yet this is a book that I needed to read, introducing me to two people that I needed to meet.  I finished the book with a greater understanding of the post-Soviet experience in Estonia--and a flicker of hope.

 

[mumto2]

Shukriyya, Glad to know you are fine before turning the lights out. I haven't been following the storm but my mother, the fox news watcher certainly has. While talking to her a couple of hours ago, my concern for my friends here increased greatly. I hope everyone else is safe also.

 

Books as Christmas gifts.....I don't give them to my family as much as I used to. I think it is in reaction to how stuffed our book shelves are. If I give the kids books I am making work for me. Both are happy with their kindles. So I have some puzzle type books but that is it.

 

One book that I am giving in the next few days is https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/718473.White_Stallion_of_Lipizza#other_reviewsHenry's book on Lippizzons. I thought a mention of this was appropriate because of Shukriyya reading Airs Above Ground. One of dd friends is doing a research projectf for school regarding horses in media. She has never read any of Henry's horse books but encountered references to them in her research. Long story made short I ordered a copy of the White Stallions for her because it's my favorite. Also plan to have her watch our copy of the Disney movie about lippizzans over the holiday, tired and can't think of the name.

[Stacia]

Mmm.. yes, some of the things I read I do so in with a sense of... duty isn't quite the right word... of bearing witness. ... a feeling that there is value in hearing that story, in carrying those memories.

 

...and also because some of these stories are central to understanding a people or a country or a culture.

 

African American slave narratives, Aztec poetry about the Conquest, Eastern European writings from the Soviet Union era, and so many others are stories that reverberate through their peoples today and without experiencing some of them, I can't really understand their experience of the world.

 

 

Nan, you asked (I can't find the quote just now), how I read painful things, especially given that I read with fewer filters than most.

 

There are things I can't read, or that leave me hurting for a long time afterwards, but the key for tolerability is the 'voice' of the book. Some books have a thread of light that carries me through the darkest moments, some have a voice of such spunk or grace or humor or insight that I can endure the hard parts, and some pull me into a 'witnessing' space, where I am being a repository of a story that needs to be heard, of suffering that must be remembered... or that I know I need to hear because only by hearing it can I respond, or carry forward a message of change.

Yes.

 

I love every single word of your post, Eliana.

[shage]

my sister:

• The Psychopath Test
• God's Gift (studs book, lol)

I would like to be on your gift list.

 

That is all.

 

 

ETA We sometimes assess for psychopathy as part of my professional job but never use the Hare. (Reliability issues, dislike his conceptualization, and a few other things.) At any rate, I enjoyed the Psychopath Test. Fun book. I wish he had made a more compelling case for the problems with assessment, but that is tough to do as a journalist versus someone with a more technical orientation.

[Stacia]

I would like to be on your gift list.

 

That is all.

Rofl.

 

I got my sister this book a year or two ago..,

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0810994526/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?qid=1418435042&sr=8-1

[Kareni]

I know we've touched on this before, but I figure it would be fun to revisit the topic -- if you're giving books/reading material this month, what books are you giving?

 

My sister is getting

 

 

... a copy of the very rude Thug Kitchen cookbook.  (Don't look this one up if easily offended by bad language.)

 

 

 

along with some Janet Evanovich books that she is missing from her shelves.  We're also renewing her subscription to BookMarks magazine.

 

My brother-in-law is getting

 

 

The Martian - By Andy Weir

 

(My husband and I listened to this together on a long drive; I'd already read it in book form and had shared many snippets with him.  He enjoyed it, too, and described it as porn for engineers!)

 

My brother-in-law is also getting a copy of a book with a lot of civil war art and maps.  I'll have to look up the title later.

 

 

My husband is getting the second Games of Thrones book and a Calculus book by Silvanus.

 

My daughter is getting several books, too.  She'll be receiving Jo Walton's Tooth and Claw from us as a Happy New Year gift. 

 

I know that I have books in my future since I put several titles on a wishlist for the holidays ....

 

Regards,

Kareni

 

[Stacia]

ETA We sometimes assess for psychopathy as part of my professional job but never use the Hare. (Reliability issues, dislike his conceptualization, and a few other things.) At any rate, I enjoyed the Psychopath Test. Fun book. I wish he had made a more compelling case for the problems with assessment, but that is tough to do as a journalist versus someone with a more technical orientation.

Thanks for the comment -- I will pass it on to my sister when she opens the gift. She loves books like that. Her undergraduate degree was psychology & this type of thing is fun hobby reading for her.

[Nan in Mass]

OT...

 

Re: a previous discussion on sentience/souls/spirit/etc.... Just thought some of you might enjoy this very cute Buzzfeed list of 22 Times Animals Proved They Have Souls. (Buzzfeed posted this list because of the Pope's statement, ""One day, we will see our animals again in the eternity of Christ. Paradise is open to all of God's creatures.")

 

Go, Pope!  (And Stacia - thank you!)  I'm inclined to say, "Go, Mother-of-the-Pope!" since I suspect that she, like many a parent faced with a child devastated by the death of a furry brother, told him that yes, of course furry will go to heaven. : )

 

Nan

[MicheleinMN]

 

 

Broken Harbor - Tana French - how in the world did I not know about Tana French before now?! Excellent plot and narration in this detective novel. I know where my audible credits will be going for the next few months.

 

 

I love Tana French!  And I think all her audible books are excellent!  Enjoy!

[Mom-ninja.]

Finished Habits of the House which was very fun. I found out at the end that it is the first in a series. Yea! Remember, this was the book said to be for "smart, literate readers who are fans of Downton Abby" 

[Vida Winter]

 

 

I've been meaning to read Kindred for a long time - I think I've held off because I've worried it would be traumatic.  How rough a ride is it?

 

Kindred was an odd book. It reads like a YA book, or even younger, but there are violent parts. The author must have written it to be used as a way to teach what it was like to be a slave. I can see how it would be useful for teaching a unit on slavery, but to be honest it didn't work for me all that well. I wouldn't call it traumatic.

[Vida Winter]

Oh and I almost forgot - I read an actual book made of paper. A re-read of one of my all-time favorite time travel books, The Mirror by Marlys Millhiser. I ordered a used paperback and actually scored an autographed copy - how cool is that? Set in Boulder, Colorado, the time travel element occurs when an antique mirror causes a young woman to switch bodies with her own grandmother (and vice versa). If you know Boulder, you will recognize landmarks.

[Nan in Mass]

 

...It is one of the delights here - there are so many strands, and some might make more sense to me than others, but the atmosphere of interchange and riffing off each other's thoughts and readings is glorious...

 

[i hadn't gotten that Journey was a band until you posted this, btw ]

 

I did have a riff of bookish associations - a melange of literary and genre and poetic... nothing I could really have articulated well, but if I'd encountered the word in a poem or book, some of those associations would be pulled out more and other things layered in with them.

 

My older son and I were talking about the weather the other day and wandered off onto literary weather... and our impressions about the 'feel' of other places, ones we've never been to but have strong impressions of... and the feeling of coming to a place we've read about...

 

I am enjoying the many strands, too.  Thank you for the welcome, everyone!  I am very touched!  This is a space I need right now.

 

Lagging behind as usual... still stuck on the journey question... Do you all use the word journey to refer to journeys that you and your family make?  We do, and I am wondering if this is why I didn't have the wealth of associations many of the rest of you have.  If you had asked about the word cigar, or claret, for instance, it would call up literary associations for me because those are words that my family doesn't use, or at least not very often.  Journey is a more ordinary word.  That doesn't sound right lol.  Journey is a far less ordinary word than cigar.  But you probably know what I mean.

 

Weather... my family is obsessed with weather.  A good bit of our conversation revolves around the weather, what is doing now, what it might be going to do tomorrow, the effects of what it did yesterday, how all those are going to impact our plans, impact our lives, ...  I think half to a quarter of every email with my mother involves weather or astronomical phenomena.  Just about every conversation with my children, my husband, my sisters starts with a reference to the weather.  I'm glad you guys are all ok.  I will continue to read, hoping Amy chimes in.

 

Stacia asked what books we are giving for Christmas.  Here's my list, heavily influenced by these threads, as you will see:

Nephew 1 (aspiring writer) - Steven Kíng's writing book

Nephew 2 (4) - not a book, a sopranino recorder, since we are working on learning to play one and he's been borrowing youngest's old one

Nephew 3 (8) - Make a World (a drawing book) and a handmade sketchbook (by me)

Niece 1 (19) and Buddhist-brother-in-law 1 (these two aren't related) - Door into Ocean and a handmade sketchbook

Niece 2 (sketchbook) and Nephew 4(15) - Unseen Academicals

Niece 3 - Zentanges

Niece 4 - This is Not a Book (a journal with prompts)

Non-Buddhist brother-in-law 1 - 7 Wonders (a game, not a book)

Sisters 1 and 2 - My mother and I made notepads with random travel photos interleaved to make them smile

Son 1 - The Aquarium Encyclopaedia (or something like that) and an aquarium fish and plant identification guide

Extra 1 - Gardening by the Square Yard

Son 2 - Zentangles (he's going to love this)

Son 3 (who provided me with a list) - The Slow Regard of Silent Things, The Wise Man's Fear, The Name of the Wind, The Broken Eye, The Blinding Knife, The Way of Kings, one I can't remember, and so he'll have something that he hasn't requested, that book mentioned here about hypothetical questions 

Non-Buddhist-brother-in-law 2 - that hypothetical question book

Buddhist-brother-in-law 2 - ??? no idea what he likes to read and he seems to be in another one of the getting-rid-of-things phases so don't dare guess

Husband - The Sweetpipes Alto Recorder Book For Adult and Older Beginners (with hope) and that sailing book

Mother-in-Law - a Georgette Heyer

Mother - A New York Time crossword puzzle book, the something-or-other soprano (mystery mentioned by Jane), and The Little World of Dom Camillo (also mentioned here)

Sister's-mother-in-law and sister-in-law (also part of our clan) - bowls of forced bulbs (unless I find books they'd like)

And I gave my mother Daughter of Elisium (didn't spell that right I am sure) to give to me when she asked what I'd like : )

Think that's everyone?  We are also making some presents.

 

You did ask, Stacia lol...  Now you probably wish you hadn't...

 

 

Nan

[Nan in Mass]

Eliana and Jane, I know what you mean about the witnessing.  And I guess I know what you mean about the light, Eliana.  My mother has a good way of putting it.  She also is fairly good at identifying the books which are told in the more remote narrative voice that I find managable.  There are days when I have to grit my teeth in order to drive the car down the road because of the thought of the baby squirrels waiting in their nests for their poor runover mama to come feed them.  If I took on Eastern Europe (well, more than trying to deal with my deported Ukrainian extra-kid) I would be too much of a mess to take care of the people who look to me to take care of them.  I wish I were stronger.

 

Nan

[Stacia]

You did ask, Stacia lol...  Now you probably wish you hadn't...

 

Oh, I totally love seeing lists! They're great inspiration, plus I'm nosy like that. :D

 

Buddhist-brother-in-law 2 - ??? no idea what he likes to read and he seems to be in another one of the getting-rid-of-things phases so don't dare guess

 

A suggestion for him: Zero Waste Home (maybe in an e-book edition if he has a reader).

[Rosie_0801]

Oh and I almost forgot - I read an actual book made of paper. A re-read of one of my all-time favorite time travel books, The Mirror by Marlys Millhiser. I ordered a used paperback and actually scored an autographed copy - how cool is that? Set in Boulder, Colorado, the time travel element occurs when an antique mirror causes a young woman to switch bodies with her own grandmother (and vice versa). If you know Boulder, you will recognize landmarks.

 

If you or someone else here lives in Boulder, that sounds like a fun postcard challenge.

 

Hint, hint. ;)

[Nan in Mass]

Stacia - What a great suggestion!  Problem solved.  : )

 

I remembered that I have a C S Forester - The Good Shepherd, for one of my sons, as well, probably the Zentangles one, since he only has one book.

 

Nan

[Robin M]

Brain picking time....Working on themes and ideas for 2015.  We already have April - National Poetry Month, September - Banned Books Month and October is spooktacular reading month.    What are some themes you'd like to see covered this coming new year.  Just throw some ideas out there, the first thing to comes to mind and we'll see what sticks.   Kind of leaning toward Judicious June and Machiavellian May  just to give you an idea of whats in my head at the moment. They don't all have to be alliterative.    Any specific books that have been discussed but not read for which we could do a readalong?      

[Rosie_0801]

Are we going to do Susan's Medieval book? If so, I'll have to order it pronto.

[Robin M]

What I found today in my meanderings around the internet:

 

Brainpickings The slippery question of what makes a great book  which will lead you on lots of rabbit trails so be prepared to spend some time.

 

Japan Times  Crafting words with Osamu Dazai's Translator

 

English Pen's Yule love these books in translation

 

Have fun!

[Stacia]

A few ideas for themes/mini-challenges...

 

Pick a book by its cover (one of my faves)

Something published by indie publisher

Book w/ spin-offs (could be an original fairy tale + a modern retelling, something like Poe's Pym novel w/ its various spawn by other authors, etc...)

Flufferton February, lol

[Robin M]

Are we going to do Susan's Medieval book? If so, I'll have to order it pronto.

We could if enough people are interested. 

 

 

A few ideas for themes/mini-challenges...

 

Pick a book by its cover (one of my faves)

Something published by indie publisher

Book w/ spin-offs (could be an original fairy tale + a modern retelling, something like Poe's Pym novel w/ its various spawn by other authors, etc...)

Flufferton February, lol

 

Great ideas. We can't go wrong with a  Flufferton February since valentines falls within that month. 

I like the indie publisher idea, would just need to put together a list.  Are the small press publishers and Independent publishers the same or entirely different?

[Stacia]

 Are the small press publishers and Independent publishers the same or entirely different?

 

Quite frankly, I'm not entirely sure. I would think most/all of the small presses are indies, but there are some indies that are big/larger presses too.

 

And, that brings up a side question -- is a university press an indie or not? That's something else we could add as an idea -- to read something published by a university press....

[shukriyya]

So many posts I'd like to respond to but can't find the time...

 

How about a translation month, read something that's been translated from another language into English?

Short stories month?

Sybarite month--books that focus on indulgent holidays soaking up the Mediterranean sun, eating wonderful food and drinking good wine while musing on the nature of self and other :lol:

 

I'd be up for trying SWB's Medieval World book as I failed miserably with the Ancients.

 

Who's giving the Shakespeare Starwars Trilogy? Ds will receive that, too.

 

And Nan, ds and I have been having lots of fun playing duets on the recorder. We've got just enough ability to make it fun but not enough for it to become too serious :smilielol5:

 

ETA Ds suggests C.S. Lewis month for a challenge.

[hornblower]

So, just after I brought it up last week, my Sam Harris Waking Up (complete with its spirituality subtitle LOL) hold finally came up & it's now sitting on my shelf. This is really not the greatest 3 weeks for me to look at it & the hold list behind me is huge so I won't be able to renew it so ... we'll see.

I've also got Abundance - the future is better than you think  & still making my way through Mindset & Manage Your Day to Day

but what I'm actually reading the most these last 2 days is a YA manga. I've never read manga before. I'm a bit confused (though I did know about the back to front thing & anyway, the publisher kindly put instructions inside). I can't figure out what most of the pictures are actually of LOL   It's going to take some time for the eye to adjust. Oh, it's volume 1 of xxxholic - which I didn't realize was the title until I got it home. Still unsure what the triple x thing means.... :lol:

 

[hornblower]

Adventurous April? Stories of adventure, real or fiction....

[Rosie_0801]

I do love a bit of alliteration...

[Jane in NC]

Regarding Christmas books for myself:  I have ordered two that my husband will be giving me.  Both are knitting books which I why I ordered them.  One is the Ann Budd pattern book that LostSurprise mentioned.  The other is Woodland Knits because I think the projects look ridiculously fun.

 

[JennW in SoCal]

Oh my goodness, time to pull out the woolies -- the temperature dropped below 50 last night!   I'm sure the college boy, fresh from the Ohio winter, will scoff at me sitting here in front of the fire this morning, but it is rather cozy.  He got in just fine yesterday, and I had a few hours to chat and serve up some chili and cornbread before heading off to rehearsal.  

 

My Christmas book-giving this year is a bit sparse:

 

The Martian, autographed by the author at Comic-Con, is going to my brother-in-law.  College boy and I are both recommending my dh listen to it over Christmas. 

 

What If: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions is going to the college boy.  I usually give him more books, but he has quite a stack still from this last year.  

 

Homemade Decadence by Joy Wilson (from joythebaker.com) is going to my sister-in-law.

 

As for the 2015 book challenges, well, I never do them, but I am enjoying all the suggestions and alliterative titles!  

[shukriyya]

Jane, you will need to post pics of the FOs in Woodland Knits ;) How is your mouth doing btw?

 

Mumto2, thanks for your kind concern.  It's quite something to be the recipient of such well wishes from folks I've not met. No rain today though it's quite muddy as you can imagine. Ds has an outdoor event that will see a lot of muddy, sloppy, wet activity. I'm prepared with a change of clothes and towels as per the organizer's suggestion.

 

Jenn, love the image of you cozy by the fire this morning with your beloved boy tucked up close by to you for a while.

 

I finished A.S. Byatt's 'The Matisse Stories'  this morning. It was very good, the kind of book that one will continue to ponder and appreciate. I do so enjoy her uniquely female voice because it carries the tension of...patriarchal awareness...built into it which makes for fascinating, economical and sober insight. This marks the completion of all but one of my 5/5 challenges. I'm onto book #52 now which will be the gift ds gave me and is so keen for me to read, 'Urchin of the Riding Stars. I hope to follow that with Graves's 'Homer's Daughter' the completion of which will also mark the completion of my 5/5. And if 'Homer's Daughter' doesn't appeal then I've got I am Livia waiting in the wings.

 

Please consider all your posts 'liked' I've been lax this week with my like spending and now I don't have the time to go back and like everyone's posts from day 1.

[mumto2]

Regarding Christmas books for myself: I have ordered two that my husband will be giving me. Both are knitting books which I why I ordered them. One is the Ann Budd pattern book that LostSurprise mentioned. The other is Woodland Knits because I think the projects look ridiculously fun.

 

Woodland knits is being given here also. Probably to me. .lol. I just put in on a list and know its been ordered.

 

Book challenge wise......obviously I really enjoyed Spooky October. I was also really surprised with how much I enjoyed our travels through the centuries this year. I also like the geographical ones.

 

For the weekly ones I tend to enjoy (do) the ones with a word in the title. I also really liked the one where we had people pick letters and numbers to locate a random library book. I admit I ended up with a really good book which probably led to my liking that challenge. ;)

 

I just started a historical cozy mystery by Alanna Knight called the Balmoral Incident. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23631708-the-balmoral-incident So far it is really good. She is apparently a prolific mystery writer with 60 books to her credit. No problems with this one not being the first in the series and we all know I would be the first to complain!

[LostSurprise]

I know we've touched on this before, but I figure it would be fun to revisit the topic -- if you're giving books/reading material this month, what books are you giving? 

 

I'm giving more books this year, then I've ever attempted before. 

 

DH: The Innovators & a Terry Pratchett

DS15: Kenobi (I'll get a bunch of The Wheel of Time series for his bday if he doesn't get them from grandparents)

DS14: Gates of Fire: and epic novel of the Battle of Thermopylae

DS11: a few Moomintroll books (and Jo Nesbo's Dr. Proctor fart powder series for his bday after)

DS10: Meet Mr. and Mrs. Green

 

Niece12: Howl's Moving Castle 

Niece7: Where the Sidewalk Ends (w/CD of Shel Silverstein reading)

 

 

I've been meaning to read Kindred for a long time - I think I've held off because I've worried it would be traumatic.  How rough a ride is it?

 

It has a rape...and other things you'd associate with slavery. In my opinion it was as rough as it needed to be for a realistic exploration of how a modern woman of color would deal with slavery without being really graphic. Butler is interested in difficult moral choices and the human condition, especially our survival instinct. I have a problem with rape in books, if it's too graphic or exploitive, but I've never felt in any of Butler's novels that she goes further than the emotions and moral problems she's trying to explore. 

 

Not something I would read for fun if I was down, but an interesting journey which allows slave owners to be complex people with good and bad aspects to their character. 

 

Regarding Christmas books for myself:  I have ordered two that my husband will be giving me.  Both are knitting books which I why I ordered them.  One is the Ann Budd pattern book that LostSurprise mentioned.  The other is Woodland Knits because I think the projects look ridiculously fun.

 

 

That does look fun, doesn't it? I'd be interested in your thoughts when you've perused it. 

 

 

My reading is in a glacial stage, but Christmas is coming and I'm finishing a lot of knitting. I am enjoying The Angel of Losses (slowly, slowly) more than I thought I would. The author has a good grasp of the language of Jewish fables and I love the little turns of phrase. The book follows a PhD candidate's study of her grandfather's bedtime stories, stories of the White Rebbe, and his connection to her study topic the Wandering Jew. Meanwhile, she's dealing with her sister's conversion to Orthodox Judaism and the birth of her first nephew. There is something heartbreaking about her reaction to her sister's defection to God and her husband (as she sees it), but I really enjoy the interspersed stories and the connection between them the most. 

 

Maybe I'll pull out Bashevis Singer's In My Father's Court afterward and finish that up. 

[LostSurprise]

 

What If: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions is going to the college boy.  I usually give him more books, but he has quite a stack still from this last year.  

 

 

Forgot, giving this to my brother. 

[Jane in NC]

Jane, you will need to post pics of the FOs in Woodland Knits ;) How is your mouth doing btw?

 

 

I took a photo with a tablet of the felt food project but I cannot attach the file.  Grrr...  Photos of future projects need to be done by other methods, I guess.

 

Mouth is on the mend.  I had a root canal on a back molar after Thanksgiving. This week the tooth was prepped for a crown.  Due to the situation there has been some soreness and careful chewing on my part.

 

Folks, I am just grateful for dental insurance and good finances in general.  I really don't know how people without these things can afford dentistry!

 

Now everyone go and floss your teeth!

[hornblower]

gifts:

ds

Study In Scarlet
Isaac Asimov: The Complete Stories
Original Illustrated Sherlock Holmes
Captain Marvel vol 1

dd
Wicked Intentions, Elizabeth Hoyt
Shades of Milk & Honey, Mary Robinette Kowal
The Kraken King, Meljean Brook
Ms Marvel vol 1

I want to get What If for ds & one more for dd but haven't decided what yet... Maybe Barrayar because she read Miles in Love recently but none of the other Vorkosigan Saga books...

 

[shukriyya]

My reading is in a glacial stage, but Christmas is coming and I'm finishing a lot of knitting. I am enjoying The Angel of Losses (slowly, slowly) more than I thought I would. The author has a good grasp of the language of Jewish fables and I love the little turns of phrase. The book follows a PhD candidate's study of her grandfather's bedtime stories, stories of the White Rebbe, and his connection to her study topic the Wandering Jew. Meanwhile, she's dealing with her sister's conversion to Orthodox Judaism and the birth of her first nephew. There is something heartbreaking about her reaction to her sister's defection to God and her husband (as she sees it), but I really enjoy the interspersed stories and the connection between them the most.

 

Maybe I'll pull out Bashevis Singer's In My Father's Court afterward and finish that up.

I followed your link and read the sample on my phone as I sit here in the warmish car with the pup while ds is at his event. The sample was good enough for me to want to follow up and see if I can get it from the library. I, too, enjoy IBS and your comment has put me in mind of 'Shosha' which was a favorite.

[Mom-ninja.]

Regarding Christmas books for myself:  I have ordered two that my husband will be giving me.  Both are knitting books which I why I ordered them.  One is the Ann Budd pattern book that LostSurprise mentioned.  The other is Woodland Knits because I think the projects look ridiculously fun.

 

 

Have you ever watched her videos? She is funny. I don't knit, but I'll sit and watch her videos just because they entertain me. 

 

 

 

 

Mouth is on the mend.  I had a root canal on a back molar after Thanksgiving. This week the tooth was prepped for a crown.  Due to the situation there has been some soreness and careful chewing on my part.

 

Folks, I am just grateful for dental insurance and good finances in general.  I really don't know how people without these things can afford dentistry!

 

Now everyone go and floss your teeth!

It's called payment plan. Thank goodness medical payment plans are interest free. 

[Jane in NC]

Have you ever watched her videos? She is funny. I don't knit, but I'll sit and watch her videos just because they entertain me. 

 

 

It's called payment plan. Thank goodness medical payment plans are interest free. 

 

I had no idea that the woman behind Tiny Owl patterns did videos!

 

My recent dental episode left me with great sympathy for those who live with teeth pain due to lack of funds.  My dentist is a gem who would help any of his patients, but one first has to establish the relationship. And that may be hard for some to do.  Sigh.

[Mom-ninja.]

Oh, forgot to list books as gifts. 

 

DS1: Mini Weapons of Mass Destruction book 4

DS2: Calvin and Hobbes book

DS3: Basher Dinosaur book (for my budding paleontologist)

 

MIL: another James Herriot book and The Idiot's Guide to Fermenting Foods

 

My dad: The Explorer

[Kareni]

 

 

 

I'd been thinking that this book cover picture reminded me of something.  I finally realized what.

 

Sweet Tooth

 

Regards,

Kareni

[Pam in CT]

Kareni - wait.  You're getting your husband a calculus book as a gift??!   :lol:  I thought we were dorks.  OK, you win.

 

Nan - re: "journeys" v. other words like, forex, "trip" - For me, a journey connotes lingering along the way, going overland rather than by plane, with frequent stops along the way to see and do stuff, rather than focusing wholly and efficiently on the destination.  Last month we flew to Barcelona, stayed for five days, and flew home: that's a trip.  Last spring we drove to St Simon GA, stopping many times along the way at state parks, staying in cities we hadn't been to, eating in offbeat places... that's a journey.

 

 

 

 

I hate this book.

 

It is Shabbos in a minute - I've been sick today which is how I've been here - so I'll just share Aish's review.

 

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas
by Rabbi Benjamin Blech
This well-meaning book ends up distorting the Holocaust.
 

Soon there will be no more eyewitnesses. The Holocaust is inexorably moving from personal testimony to textual narrative.

Survivors, those who clung to life no matter how unbearable so that they could confirm the unimaginable and attest to the unbelievable, are harder to find after more than half a century. It is the written word that will have to substitute for the heart-rending tales of woe shared by those who endured hell on earth. That is, after all, all that will remain of six million victims.

Holocaust authors have a daunting responsibility. They must speak for those who cannot, but whose suffering demands to be remembered and whose deaths cry out for posthumous meaning. Their task transcends the mere recording of history. It is nothing less than a sacred mission. Holocaust literature, like the biblical admonition to remember the crimes of Amalek, deservedly rises to the level of the holy.

For that reason I admire anyone who is courageous enough to attempt to deal with the subject. No, there will never be too many books about this dreadful period we would rather forget. No, we have no right to ignore the past because it is unpleasant or refuse to let reality intrude on our preference for fun and for laughter. And John Boyne is to be commended for tackling a frightening story that needs to be told to teenagers today in The Boy in the Striped Pajamas -- a fictional account of the Nazi era that uses the powerful device of a tale told from the perspective of its nine year old hero.

I came to this book fully prepared to love it. Although the publisher insists that all reviewers not reveal its story, the back cover promises "As memorable an introduction to the subject as The Diary of Anne Frank." And indeed the writing is gripping. The style, sharing with Anne Frank the distinctive voice of youth, is extremely effective. One can readily understand why the book has had such a strong impact on countless readers, become required reading in high school Holocaust courses round the country, and is about to be released as a major motion picture.

And yet…

How should one react to a book that ostensibly seeks to inform while it so blatantly distorts? If it is meant as a way of understanding what actually happened -- and indeed for many students it will be the definitive and perhaps only Holocaust account to which they will be exposed -- how will its inaccuracies affect the way in which readers will remain oblivious to the most important moral message we are to discover in the holocaust's aftermath?

Without giving away the plot, it is enough to tell you that Bruno, the nine-year-old son of the Nazi Commandant at Auschwitz (never identified by that name, but rather as "Out-With" -- a lame pun I think out of place in context) lives within yards of the concentration camp his father oversees and actually believes that its inhabitants who wear striped pajamas -- oh, how lucky, he thinks, to be able to be so comfortably dressed --spend their time on vacation drinking in cafes on the premises while their children are happily playing games all day long even as he envies them their carefree lives and friendships! And, oh yes, this son of a Nazi in the mid 1940's does not know what a Jew is, and whether he is one too! And after a year of surreptitious meetings with a same-aged nine-year-old Jewish boy who somehow manages every day to find time to meet him at an unobserved fence (!) (Note to the reader: There were no nine-year-old Jewish boys in Auschwitz -- the Nazis immediately gassed those not old enough to work) Bruno still doesn't have a clue about what is going on inside this hell -- this after supposedly sharing an intimate friendship with someone surrounded by torture and death every waking moment!

Do you see the most egregious part of this picture? As Elie Wiesel put it, the cruelest lesson of the Holocaust was not man's capacity for inhumanity -- but the far more prevalent and dangerous capacity for indifference. There were millions who knew and did nothing. There were "good people" who watched -- as if passivity in the face of evil was sinless. If there is to be a moral we must exact from the Holocaust it is the "never again" that must henceforth be applied to our cowardice to intervene, our failure to react when evildoers rush in to fill the ethical vacuum.

Yet if we were to believe the premise of The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, it was possible to live in the immediate proximity of Auschwitz and simply not know -- the very defense of all those Germans after the war who chose to deny their complicity.

True, Bruno in the story was but a boy. But I have spoken to Auschwitz survivors. They tell me how the stench of burning human flesh and the ashes of corpses from the crematoria filled the air for miles around. The trains traveling with human cargo stacked like cordwood screaming for water as they died standing in their natural wastes without even room to fall to the ground were witnessed throughout every countryside. Nobody, not even little German children who were weaned on hatred of the Jews as subhuman vermin could have been unaware of "The Final Solution." And to suggest that Bruno simply had no idea what was happening in the camp his father directed yards from his home is to allow the myth that those who were not directly involved can claim innocence.

But it's only a fable, a story, and stories don't have to be factually accurate. It's just a naive little boy who makes mistaken assumptions. However that misses the point. This is a story that is supposed to convey truths about one of the most horrendous eras of history. It is meant to lead us to judgments about these events that will determine what lessons we ultimately learn from them.

So what will the students studying this as required reading take away from it? The camps certainly weren't that bad if youngsters like Shmuley, Bruno's friend, were able to walk about freely, have clandestine meetings at a fence (non-electrified, it appears) which even allows for crawling underneath it, never reveals the constant presence of death, and survives without being forced into full-time labor. And as for those people in the striped pajamas -- why if you only saw them from a distance you would never know these weren't happy masqueraders!

My Auschwitz friend read the book at my urging. He wept, and begged me tell everyone that this book is not just a lie and not just a fairytale, but a profanation. No one may dare alter the truths of the Holocaust, no matter how noble his motives.

The Holocaust is simply too grim a subject for Grimm fairytales.

This article can also be read at: http://www.aish.com/j/as/48965671.html

 

Gracious. :huh:

 

I agree with you re: witnessing.  I've never put it to myself in those words, but that is, indeed, why I read certain genres that are difficult for me.  Doesn't sound like Pajamas is likely to do the trick.

[Rosie_0801]

"Walkabout" is a better word than "journey."

[Kareni]

Kareni - wait.  You're getting your husband a calculus book as a gift??!   :lol:  I thought we were dorks.  OK, you win.

 

 

I win, I win!  It's only a small calculus books though; does that mean I still get to keep my title?

 

Calculus Made Easy by Silvanus P. Thompson

 

Regards,

Kareni

[Pam in CT]

And, Nan...

 

... I've been musing for several days about "spiritual."  Two more constructs came to my mind, that I freely offer up herein to yours in the event that they might be helpful alternatives to the S-word...  :laugh:

 

My eldest daughter spent most of her grammar years in a tiny Quaker school, originally a cooperative homeschool.  They spent a lot of time working with the kids on values... and the language they used was "holding ____ in the light" -- the idea is that every person has a spark of the divine within... and we each can hold one another, or an idea or hope or trouble, in one another's light to lighten one another's darker moments.... so we can hold a neighbor struggling with illness, or Tamir Rice's family, or hopes for peace... in the light... I personally find this language more accessible than "I will pray for ____" since it is rooted in an interior source of hope and good will...

 

... and then, my younger daughter attends a truly marvelous summer camp, secular but very rooted in values in a way that reminds me of the Quakers... and they use language of Working Towards Our "Best Selves..." encouraging the kids to reflect on how little decisions bring us a little closer to, or little farther from, the selves we aspire to become...  and that too is very accessible to me...

[shukriyya]

I realized I never answered my own question re the word 'journey'. I experience it as a sinuous, fluid pathway snaking and meandering its way ever upwards through my central channel carried along on the boat of my breath. Perhaps it's the round softness of the sound, the syllables flowing outwards as well as inwards. It has a delicious sense of expansiveness about it, as though there is a sky beneath my feet or even deep within me. I agree walkabout is a good word but how different an effect it has on this body with its sharp, edgy consonants. Journey is one of my favorite words.

[Nan in Mass]

And, Nan...

 

... I've been musing for several days about "spiritual."  Two more constructs came to my mind, that I freely offer up herein to yours in the event that they might be helpful alternatives to the S-word...  :laugh:

 

My eldest daughter spent most of her grammar years in a tiny Quaker school, originally a cooperative homeschool.  They spent a lot of time working with the kids on values... and the language they used was "holding ____ in the light" -- the idea is that every person has a spark of the divine within... and we each can hold one another, or an idea or hope or trouble, in one another's light to lighten one another's darker moments.... so we can hold a neighbor struggling with illness, or Tamir Rice's family, or hopes for peace... in the light... I personally find this language more accessible than "I will pray for ____" since it is rooted in an interior source of hope and good will...

 

... and then, my younger daughter attends a truly marvelous summer camp, secular but very rooted in values in a way that reminds me of the Quakers... and they use language of Working Towards Our "Best Selves..." encouraging the kids to reflect on how little decisions bring us a little closer to, or little farther from, the selves we aspire to become...  and that too is very accessible to me...

 

If there had been a Quaker school near us, I would not have homeschooled.  Or at least I wouldn't have homeschooled the first one.  I enjoyed exploring your link, especially as my sister just took a job in a very tiny 2-room private school.

 

I choke over the phrase "I will pray for blank".  It seems presumptuous when applied to someone else, and ... I don't know... selfish maybe?... when applied to something I want.  I do it, but I prefer to tell someone that I will think about them or just think about them without telling them anything at all.  I love your holding in the light phrase, though.  What a lovely image.  Praying, proper praying, doesn't seem to match what I do, but surely I can hold someone or something in the light of hope and well-wishing.  The light idea would easily translate over to the idea that there is a light in each of us, and you don't want to do anything to diminish that light.  I like the "best selves" phrase, too.  When you ask a monk what Na Mu Myo Ren Gai Kyo means, he (or she) will say that it is untranslatable, but I heard one say once that you can think of it as meaning, "I bow to the perfect Buddha in you."  (This was in the context of bowing and saying the phrase in greeting, which the monks do every time they see you.)  I don't know about the Buddha part, but the idea that we all have a perfect person inside us is something I believe.  The word soul doesn't really seem to convey that idea, at least to me, but our Best Selves does it very well.  You'd think as old as my children are now, I wouldn't need to discuss such things any more, but apparently, that is not how things work, at least in my family.  The older the child, the more opportunity they have to do major damage to themselves and others.  Watching them get on with their lives, all I can think is thank goodness I nailed their morals down as hard as I did.  I'm sure I could have done even better, but at least I did a good enough job that they pretty much know when they are straying off course.  I would be in such trouble now if I hadn't...  Discussions now often involve non-family members, girlfriends or friends who happen to be with us, so a way to avoid the s-word would be very nice as it would keep the friends from wondering what planet I am from lol.  I suppose I could avoid the issue when there are friends present, but the friends often seem to have parents who have unhelpfully stopped parenting them, now that they are older.  They often seem to be planning out some rather crucial bits of their lives in the back seat of my car.  Or discussing the choices their parents have made.  Maybe it's because they are often there because they are avoiding a holiday with their family, or just going to one, or just returning from one?  Anyway, thank you very much!

 

Book-wise, I'm not reading much.  Too much math and too much Christmas.  Extra one had her math final and got a 95!  Much rejoicing here and a huge bunch of flowers in thankyou!  I'm still trying to catch up on my sleep.  Son and I are only a few chapters from the end of the Dolciani Algebra 2 book and think we'll be done by Christmas, which would be so nice.  I did finish Death of an Outsider, another Hamish Macbeth mystery.

 

Nan

[Nan in Mass]

"Walkabout" is a better word than "journey."

 

What does walkabout mean?  I'm guessing it means some sort of journey, but what implications go along with the word?

[Rosie_0801]

What does walkabout mean?  I'm guessing it means some sort of journey, but what implications go along with the word?

 

Mmm. Connotations? 

 

In non-Aboriginal terms, it mostly it means someone or something is not here and didn't care to tell you where they've gone or when they'll be back.

 

If my mother told me my brother had gone walkabout, he might have gone to the service station to buy ginger beer, he might have gone to the city to visit his bestie, or he might have gone to Alice Springs and would be back when he felt like it.