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| "GOOGY EYES!" |
I last caught up the book list just before vacation. We have been back over two weeks, and I am still recovering from that whole exhausting, wonderful experience. I slowed down while on vacation, but am regaining my reading pace.
So here's where I am since last time:
156. Happiness by Thich Nhat Hanh (this is one of two books I took with me on vacation; it is a small, beautiful treatise on meditation and (what else?) happiness)
157. Ten Little Dinosaurs by Pattie Schnetzler (Ramona's little cousin Lyrick adopted us as another set of grandparents and we adopted him as another grandchild while we were on vacation; this book was one that I read easily 30 times while I was there, often with Lyrick waving it and saying loudly and insistently "Read Googy Eyes, ganmaw! GOOGY EYES!" I figure any book I read that much, even a board book, gets listed; I read it enough times that if someone else read it and did not pronounce the dinosaur names [the scientific names] the way I did, Lyrick would shake his head and tell them so)
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| Lyrick, Ganmaw Apul and Googy Eyes |
159. Steal Like an Artist: 10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative by August Kleon (a quirky, impulse vacation buy while we stood in a FedEx storefront having sheet music printed; I may reread it in a few months and see what I think)
160. Lost Connections: Uncovering the Real Causes of Depression—and the Unexpected Solutions by Johann Hari (this is a fascinating exploration of the author's own struggles with depression and his research into what some doctors feel causes depression: loss of connections in the community, in the workplace, in the home, in the greater world; it is a good jumping off place for some thoughtful discussion but read it with caution)
161. Jell-O Girls: A Family History by Allie Rowbottom (a feminist history, a family history, a story of love and loss and trauma by an heir to the Jell-O fortune)
162. The Good Neighbor: The Life and Work of Fred Rogers by Maxwell King (back in the summer, we saw the documentary "Won't You Be My Neighbor?" about the life and work of Fred Rogers; this biography, not a film-related work, adds to the fuller picture of an absolutely amazing man)
163. The Garden Party by Grace Dane Mazur (this novel is what Anne Morrow Lindbergh's novella The Wedding Party could have been if she had been a stronger fiction writer; this takes place at the rehearsal dinner prior to the wedding of a couple from very different backgrounds)
164. My Abandonment by Peter Rock (I saw the trailer for a movie "Leave No Trace" earlier this summer and was intrigued enough by it to track down the underlying novel; this is a grim, dark work and I have to believe the film made it more palatable)
165. Clock Dance by Anne Tyler (thank you, Anne Tyler, for writing, and for setting Willa free at the very end to go to where she was loved and needed)
166. Squeezed: Why Our Families Can't Afford America by Alissa Quart (this book is about families and socio-economic challenges in today's America, as well as about broader issues of income equity, unstable job markets, living wages, and how we as a nation pay lip service to the notion that stable, healthy families are important)
167. Meg, Jo, Beth, Amy: The Story of Little Women and Why It Still Matters by Anne Boyd Rioux (this year is the 150th anniversary of the first blockbuster novel in the history of the world and Rioux explores the Alcott family, the writing of the book, its amazing publishing success, and why this is an important block in the wall of American literature, even though it is often overlooked as a "girls' book." As someone who has read Little Woman probably over 300 or more times, I get it)
My son Ben and I talked about Kindles when we were out there. He reads almost exclusively on Kindle, explaining how much he can carry around with him (true that). "I can get you one if you want, Mom," he said.
Not there yet.
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