A book a week

Now that February has arrived, I feel like I'm ready to start the new year.  Finally feel like I'm catching up . . . writing 2013 on checks and able to start that resolution, or rather challenge (thank you, TB) to read a book a week.  If I'm going to collect so many, I better get reading. The subzero temps are a gift to readers.
Finished my January read, Jan Karon's In The Company of Others. I like the cozy, comfortable nature of her books, though each one has some nugget of wisdom to carry with me.  'Love is an endless act of forgiveness' is this book's gem.
On to Les Mis, which I will read with a small group for accountability. And for the challenge to finish a book a week, I'm off to pick something short off the bookshelf!

Weddings and Marriage

Invited to two weddings this weekend, we were able to attend both. While it was a bit much for one weekend, it was both fun and felt like something married folks should do more often. It is good to revisit the promises made, in our case, almost 23 years ago. It is perhaps more meaningful for the congregation to hear the pastor advise, "You are committing to a lifetime, not promising to feel a certain way, but rather promising to love . . .", than for the young bride and groom who can hardly envision all that life may bring their way. How wonderful to hear, in the joy of celebrating two young people so well-suited to one another, these words from 1 Peter: Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins. Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling. Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God's grace in its various forms. If anyone speaks, he should do it as one speaking the very words of God. If anyone serves, he should do it with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen.

I'm still reading Olive Kitteridge. (When you only read at bedtime, and you rarely make it through more than a few pages, a small book can last a really, really long time.) In the short story Winter Concert, a 70+ year old wife muses, "They had fun together these days, they really did. It was as if marriage had been a long, complicated meal, and now there was this lovely dessert."

Cheers to both couples.  May they love their way to that lovely dessert.

Nailing It

In a renewed effort to fit more reading into my days, which shouldn't be that difficult with two of the three teenagers/young adults not currently here (i.e., their rooms stay as is, no laundry is generated, and everything from grocery shopping to cooking to dishes is less. Less applies to the life in the house as well, but that's another post.). So I read a chapter, which is really a short story, in Olive Kitteridge this morning. Given time to curl up with a good book, I could immerse myself in Olive's world and see why Strout is a Pulitzer Prize-winning writer.

Olive's private view is that life depends on what she thinks of as 'big bursts' and 'little bursts.' Big bursts are things like marriage or children, intimacies that keep you afloat, but these big bursts hold dangerous, unseen currents. Which is why you need the little bursts as well: a friendly clerk at Bradlee's, let's say, or the waitress at Dunkin' Donuts who knows how you like your coffee. Tricky business, really.

To say so much in a short paragraph . . . true art.

fresh canvas

I'm not a painter, but today has a fresh canvas feel to it. Little on the calendar, and though the to-do lists are long, most of it is not terribly urgent. This morning's Pioneer Press has a book review of The Coffins of Little Hope, which is already waiting on my nook. Might have to move it to the top of the virtual pile. But first, I've started Ann Patchett's State of Wonder, and simply because I loved Bel Canto, I'm eager to get deeper into her new novel.  (And wondering if I should check out SparkNotes on Heart of Darkness - I think some reviews referenced that, but I don't recall enjoying that college reading experience, so never mind.) From the reviews I've read, I expect both books mentioned here to believably combine memorable characters with unexpected events in Nebraska, Eden Prairie, and the Amazon.  When odd blends like that work, I love 'em!

dog books

Today would be a good day to start my next book group novel, The Art of Racing in the Rain. Aside from the fact that I'll be trying to lose a pound an hour before my college reunion this weekend, I'm just not that excited by a book with a dog on the cover.  I like dogs. Really. We once had the best dog ever and I still wish for another. But dog books, or dog-narrated books do nothing for me.  (Have I ever read one?  Probably not.) I'll keep you posted.

Unreliable

Book reviews, and recommendations, are such personal things. I just read one of the books that has been languishing on our shelves (and it has the word languishing in it. a lot.). A Reliable Wife had received lots of great reviews and the back cover quotes hooked me. I think it had been recommended by a friend or two as well. While I am not about to sing its praises, I am happy to pass this one on if anyone wants to read it.  And you can keep it. Yes, it was a compelling story, and the author's descriptive writing and creation of worlds was quite good. I got tired of some one-note characters and the endless money supply, and trying to buy people's allegiance, grew old too. This would be a good book group read and I would enjoy talking about the depression of an endless winter or the relationship of money and happiness or the nature of enduring relationships . . . but I just kept thinking the writer needs to work something out in his own relationships. The incessant thoughts of sex - positive or negative - just made me wonder what the author was working through. I know that others don't always love the books I do . . . and if you are interested in this one, may you enjoy it more than I did. When I race to the end not to find out what happens, but just to finish the thing, I know it's not a keeper.

Imaginery Shortcuts

My office at church is graced with a wall of windows. While a bit distracting, I see anyone driving into the parking lot when I sit at my desk. It can be a nice preview of who is stopping by for a project or gathering. I can also peg the shortcutters instantly. Resurrection is at the intersection of two busy thoroughfares and especially over the dinner hour, impatient drivers regularly try to avoid the wait at the stop sign by driving into our parking lot. They imagine a shortcut where there is none. Once they get there, they see there is no outlet and not only do they have to sit through the long wait at the intersection, but now they'll be further back in line. Irritation seems to rise off their car like steam as they speed back to the line they tried to skip. The pattern is a funny glimpse into human nature - and makes me think of the many ways I try to take shortcuts in life. A good reminder that with most of life . . . parenting, earning a living, building a ministry, relationships, EXERCISE . . . you've just got to go through the intersection. I laugh while the shortcutters fume.  Wonder who's laughing when I'm fuming. Good to see yourself in life's mirror once in awhile.