books I have read during my Peace Corps service:
SEPTEMBER 2010
- Reaching Out – Henri Nouwen
- Einstein’s God – Krista Tippett
OCTOBER 2010
- The Essential 55 – Ron Clark (twice)
- Gone with the Wind (for like the seventh time) – Margaret Mitchell
She was clutched by a bewildered apathy, an unhappiness that she could not understand, an unhappiness that went deeper than anything she had ever known. She was lonely and she could never remember being so lonely before. Perhaps she had never had the time to be very lonely until now. –Gone with the Wind, chapter LX
- The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (reread) – C.S. Lewis
- The Prodigal Women – Nancy Hale
Absolutely not worth it.
NOVEMBER 2010
- One Day – David Nicholls – not your typical romance!
- Born to Run – Christopher McDougall – couldn’t put it down – great suspenseful nonfiction
DECEMBER 2010
- Teacher Man – Frank McCourt
There is an activity called “pulling yourself together.” I tried, but what was there to pull together? —Teacher Man, p. 177
Dreaming, wishing planning: it’s all writing, but the difference between you and the man on the street is that you are looking at it, friends, getting it set in your head, realizing the significance of the insignificant, getting it on paper. You might be in the throes of love or grief but you are ruthless in observation. You are your material. You are writers and one thing is certain: no matter what happens on Saturday night, or any other night, you’ll never be bored again. Never. Nothing human is alien to you. –Teacher Man, p. 246
JANUARY 2011
- Middlesex – Jeffrey Eugenides
Wow. What a story. Kept my attention throughout three generations of a family’s saga. Surprised me, entertained me, fooled me. Made me laugh a lot. Eugenides understands the entire human race, whether people were born in Greece or in the American Midwest. He gets it. So much of what he said resonates with me as being the utter truth. What an amazing narrator Calliope was. Omniscient like I’ve never seen before—more omniscient than God, it seemed.
Took me less than two weeks to read this 529-page epic. It was disturbing/uncomfortable at some parts, sure. But not enough to make me throw in the towel. Cal was too compelling of a voice. And I couldn’t abandon him. Or her.
I was always surprised when Cal cried in the story. Because he seemed so detached as he narrated the events. It’s also interesting that sometimes he referred to himself/herself in the third person—but only at select times.
- Resurrection – Leo Tolstoy
p. 252: People are not like that. We may say of a man that he is more often kind than cruel, more often wise than stupid, more often energetic than apathetic or vice versa; but it would never be true to say of one man that he is kind of wise, and of another that he is wicked or stupid. Yet we are always classifying mankind in this way. And it is wrong. Human beings are like rivers: the water is one and the same in all of them but every river is narrow in some places, flows swifter in others; here it is broad, there still, or clear, or cold, or muddy or warm. It is the same with men.
p. 296: Everything was simple now because he was not thinking of what would be the result for himself—he was not even interested in that—but only of what he ought to do.
p. 322: a society where the suffering borne by millions of people in their efforts to ensure the convenience and comfort of a small minority was so carefully concealed that those who benefited neither saw nor could see this suffering and the consequent cruelty and wickedness of their own lives.
p. 324: “Aline is in charge of a wonderful home for fallen Magdalenes. I went there once. They are quite revolting. Afterwards I did nothing but wash and wash.”
p. 326: “You are a Christian, you believe in the Gospel, and yet you have no mercy.” “That has nothing to do with it. The Gospel is one thing, and what is disgusting remains disgusting.”
- City of Thieves – David Benioff
- The First Days of School – Harry & Rosemary Wong
A total lifesaver in preparing me for my first full term of teaching, with my own classroom and my new responsibilities as the English teacher for grades 8 & 9. I never got a teaching certificate or majored in education, so I felt so afraid at the thought of teaching. This book eased my fears by giving me a plan. It’s all about how to structure every detail, every routine, every procedure in your classroom. Kids appreciate the predictable nature of school, and behave. I’m a believer!
MAY 2011 – (Gee, why don’t I have any other titles in the last few months?)
- Girl Meets God – Lauren Winner (for the second time)
p. 7: I gave in to Jesus, admitted I’d been fighting with him all these years the way you fight with someone you love
p. 26: I hope I remember, when I’m bored with Him, and antsy, and sick of brushing my teeth next to the same god every morning, I hope I remember not to leave Him.
p. 35: [about Christmas] Perhaps the problem is that we don’t know what the meaning of this holiday, of Jesus’ pushing into the world, is. If we did, we wouldn’t have to worry about consumerism; if we knew what the Incarnation meant, we’d be so preoccupied with awe that we wouldn’t notice all the shopping.
p. 144: I wish [prayer] felt inspired and on fire and like a real, love-conversation all the time, or even just more of the time. But what I am learning the more I sit with liturgy is that what I feel happening bears little relation to what is actually happening. It is a great gift when God gives me a stirring, a feeling, a something-at-all in prayer. But work is being done whether I feel it or not.
p. 181: He is calling me to a place where He is truer than everything else, truer even than how I feel.
- review of The First Days of the School, by Harry & Rosemary Wong
JUNE 2011
- This I Believe: The Personal Philosophies of Remarkable Men and Women – edited by Jay Allison and Dan Gediman
AUGUST 2011
- Women Food and God – Geneen Roth
- Vanishing Acts – Jodi Picoult
SEPTEMBER 2011
- By the River Piedra I Saw Down and Wept – Paulo Coelho
I don’t get all the hype about Coelho. Nonetheless, there were some great quotations from that book:
p. 24: We have to listen to the child we once were, the child who still exists inside us. That child understands magic moments.
The child we once were is still there. Blessed are the children, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
If we are not reborn—if we cannot learn to look at life with the innocence and the enthusiasm of childhood—it makes no sense to go on living.
We have to pay attention to what the child in our heart tells us. We should not be embarrassed by this child.
We must allow the child to take the reins of our lives. The child knows that each day is different from every other day.
We have to allow it to feel loved again. We must please this child—even if this means that we act in ways we are not used to, in ways that may seem foolish to others.
Remember that human wisdom is madness in the eyes of God. But if we listen to the child who lives in our soul, our eyes will grow bright. If we do not lose contact with that child, we will not lose contact with life.
- The Art of Racing in the Rain – Garth Stein
Amazing narrator, great story. I was incredibly impressed by this author. And, I cried. I plan to recommend this book to a multitude of people.
- Bird By Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life – Anne Lamott
Inspired me to keep at this crazy write-for-fun idea. Gave practical tips for the day-to-day drudgery of it as well as big-picture reminders. Plenty of good quotations, but here’s just one I want to highlight because it is SO TRUE TO MY EXPERIENCE and because it really made me laugh:
[from the chapter called “Publication”] p. 212:
The first time you read through your galleys is heaven. The second time through, all you see are the typos no one caught. It looks like the typesetter typed it with frostbitten feet, drunk. And the typos are important ones. They make you look ignorant; they make you look like an ignorant racist.
OCTOBER 2011
- The Places That Scare You – Pema Chödrön
- In the Name of Jesus – Henri Nouwen
- The Brothers Karamazov – Fyodor Dostoevsky
NOVEMBER 2011
- An Alchemy of Mind – Diane Ackerman
- The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency – Alexander McCall Smith
p. 18: [E]very man has a map in his heart of his own country and…the heart will never allow you to forget this map.
p. 26: [T]here are many sadnesses in the hearts of men who are far away from their countries.
p. 162: She would buy a house, or build one perhaps, and ask some of her cousins to live with her. They would grow melons on the lands and might even buy a small shop in the village; and every morning she could sit in front of her house and sniff at the wood-smoke and look forward to spending the day talking with her friends. How sorry she felt for white people, who couldn’t do any of this, and who were always dashing around and worrying themselves over things that were going to happen anyway. What use was it having all that money if you could never sit still or just watch your cattle eating grass? None, in her view; none at all, and yet they did not know it. Every so often you met a white person who understood, who realised how things really were; but these people were few and far between and the other white people often treated them with suspicion.
- Jayber Crow – Wendell Berry
A slow-paced book, but in the most peaceful of ways. I was thoroughly impressed with this author. The narrator was a quiet observer of the characters around him, all of whom struck me as authentic and real. I found myself underlining so many phrases or passages in this book. I recommend it if you will have the patience to step out of time and sit still for awhile. It was a perfect read for my slightly more serene life abroad.
DECEMBER 2011
- The Hobbit – J.R.R. Tolkien
This book seemed primarily plot-driven. I don’t care for that. The preceding book I read, Jayber Crow, was primarily character-driven, and that really appealed to me. My favorite book of all time, Gone with the Wind, has both plenty of plot and plenty of character development. That’s why it’s perfect. Anyway, I’ll try my luck with TLOTR trilogy and see if it gets more into character development.
Roads go ever ever on
Under cloud and under star,
Yet feet that wandering have gone
Turn at last to home afar.
- History of a Suicide: My Sister’s Unfinished Life — Jill Bialosky
very difficult to put down; kept my attention throughout all four flights from Alaska to Ohio
JANUARY 2012
- The Four Agreements – Don Miguel Ruiz
I did not like this fruity spiritual book. I appreciate being given it as a gift, but it was not up my alley.
- Sing You Home – Jodi Picoult
Not my favorite book she has written. Sometimes I feel like a certain phrase or sentence is inserted into the text just because it’s clever, not because it fits. Also, an antagonist who is 100% evil is not believable. Characters are more complex than that.
And people fell in love too quickly. And got divorced too readily.
FEBRUARY 2012
- I Married You for Happiness – Lily Tuck
This book was very disjointed—just short passage after short passage. I wasn’t sure the point of it all. Not that a book needs to have a point or a moral lesson…but still. It was a collection of random memories and then an abrupt ending. I felt disappointed.
MARCH 2012
- A Sunlit Absence: Silence, Awareness, and Contemplation – Martin Laird
Great book on contemplative prayer in the Christian tradition. Echoed a lot of what I’ve been investigating in Buddhism. It made me feel “normal” for starting to feel restless with typical intercessory, discursive prayer. Sitting in silence instead sounds challenging, but it’s about time to try it. If anyone else has attempted meditation sessions or times of silence, this would be a good book to invite them to go deeper.
- An Unquenchable Thirst: Following Mother Teresa in Search of Love, Service, and an Authentic Life – Mary Johnson
First heard of this book via an excerpt in the Oprah magazine. Written by a woman who served as a Missionary of Charity (the nuns who worked with Mother Teresa) for 20 years. I found her very unreliable as a narrator—like everyone was out to get her and she was the victim all the time. She resented authority (which is understandable, given how much of the culture of their order was about obedience and respect for superiors)…but in a hypocritical way. I guess I wouldn’t recommend it.
APRIL 2012
- Secrets of the Secret Place – Bob Sorge
This book is designed to reignite your devotional life, or to get you started on carving out time for God every morning. It challenged me in a few ways—sometimes in a good way, to try a new method—but mostly in how I disagreed with it. It seemed to buy into the idea that you can earn your way to a closer spot to God—or that God will bless you in proportion to your level of obedience. There are people who are “ahead” of you in the race because they are “closer” to God’s heart—or something like that. It has not been my experience that God blesses me more when I’m more committed to God. It has been my experience that God blesses me in spite of my drifting away or “falling behind.” That is the crazy thing about God. (God doesn’t make much sense!) I guess this book could be helpful to some people, but for where I am in my walk, it didn’t speak to me as much as the contemplation book did (see March 2012).
- Buddhism Without Beliefs – Stephen Batchelor
Not to keep complaining…but this author used way too many big words. It made his ideas less accessible than, say, Pema Chödrön’s books. Still, I underlined plenty of passages. An example:
Awareness is a process of deepening self-acceptance. It is neither a cold, surgical examination of life nor a means of becoming perfect. Whatever it observes, it embraces. There is nothing unworthy of acceptance. The light of awareness will doubtless illuminate things we would prefer not to see. And this may entail a descent into what is forbidden, repressed, denied. We might uncover disquieting memories, irrational childhood terrors. We might have to accept not only a potential sage hidden within but also a potential murderer, rapist, or thief. –p. 59
And this phrase is just perfect to describe what I wish didn’t define my life in most moments: “swept along again on the tides of unreflective self-absorption” (88).
