Knit Two

Last summer, when I came home from grad school for a few weeks, my mom had placed a stack of books on the night-stand by my bed upstairs.  They were all books she thought I'd enjoy, since I had the time for pleasure reading without my regular school load.  One of them was The Friday Night Knitting Club by Kate Jacobs.  I devoured it in just a couple of days.  Although I've had an interest in knitting for a while, I've never successfully picked it up, but this story masterfully wove some more technical aspects of knitting into a compelling story about and odd group of friends.  I was surprised by the ending, but overall, it was an excellent read.  

She came out with a sequel some months later, but I was unable to read it before I finished school.  I picked it up a few weeks ago and, again, consumed the novel in about 60 hours.  At first it was a bit slow as it started with reminders and rehashings for the first book.  It picked up, however, and was another captivating read.  The sequel takes place five or six years later, and I loved seeing what had become of the characters in that time.  the members of the Friday Night club were still close and central to the story, but they did not meet as regularly as in the first book, and, to me, it felt like something was missing.  However, I was much more satisfied with the ending to the second book.  The first book left me at something of a loss, but the second assured me that the characters were all going to be okay.  

If you are looking for some summer reads that are fast and engaging--check out the Friday Night Knitting Club novels.  Now if I could just learn how to knit...

For Tibet, With Love (Sunday Spiritual Series)

I studied in London for a semester in college.  It was amazing.  In addition to all the fabulous sites there, there were endless book stores to visit.  There was a Waterstones (basically the British version of Borders or Barnes and Noble) just down the road from where we attended classes.   I went there most days before or after class.  One book caught my eye there, but I had already bought way too many books on the trip.  My suitcases were going to be seriously overweight, so I just visited my precious volume from time to time.  

This book was For Tibet, With Love by Isabel Losada.  Finally, in my last week there, I bought the book for our post-finals trip to Italy.  On the plane from London to Rome, the train from Pompeii to Venice, the hostel in Florence, and everywhere in between, I read the book from cover to cover, then opened it again and read it through a second time.  By the time we were flying back from Pisa to London, I think I was reading Henry James.  

Anyway, about the book.  It's about a British woman who begins to learn more about the struggles of the Tibetan people and their oppression by the Chinese.  The book chronicles her journey to Tibet and also a later trip to India to meet with the Dalai Lama himself.  She also writes a great deal about the history of the Tibetan people and about the Buddhist faith.  I was completely captivated and inspired.  The subtitle of the book (and the American version's title if you want to buy it in the States) is A Beginner's Guide to Changing the World.  And it truly is.

The book is structured around the Serenity Prayer which is :

God, grant me the serenity 

To accept the things I cannot change;

Courage to change the things I can;

And the wisdom to know the difference.

She works with this prayer throughout the book and addresses each line of the prayer in a different section of the book.  

The prayer is usually attributed to Reinhold Niebuhr, but the origins are somewhat hazy and sometimes disputed.  It's also the prayer that is used by AA in some form.  

As I was reading the Wikipedia article about it to learn a bit more about it for this post, I saw this Mother Goose nursery rhyme from 1695 that is cited there.  Some suggest that Niebuhr may have unconsciously received inspiration for his prayer from it:

For every ailment under the sun

There is a remedy, or there is none;

If there be one, try to find it; 

If there be none, never mind it.

I love that rhyme!  It certainly does have some similarities to the prayer!

I hope that I can start my week with more serenity.  Remembering this prayer again has inspired me.  

For Tibet, With Love is a fantastic book-it is similar to Eat, Pray, Love in some ways, if you enjoyed that one.  Isabel Losada has written a few other books, including the Battersea Park Road to Enlightenment.  I haven't read it, but I hope to soon.  In this book (which preceded For Tibet) Losada tries out numerous spiritual and secular methods that are supposed to lead to enlightenment.  Another book to add to my list!  

Real Simple tips and a fun link

Real Simple is a favorite of mine, and I love following their "Simply Stated" blogs.  As my thoroughly overwhelmed book cases can demonstrate, I find it hard to part with my old books but here are some excellent ideas for passing them along if you ever have the need/desire.  

Also, I found this blog from a tweet by @SweetEventide who has her own fun blog: 

Hilarious!  And so true!

Fancy Nancy

I've been horribly neglectful of this blog.  Life has been crazier than I anticipated between looking for jobs, helping my mom get the house ready to sell, and visiting family and friends.  Right now I'm watching my niece and nephew for the weekend.  Last weekend, I was visiting my sister and her family.  Both family's include three-year-old girls, and they both enjoy Fancy Nancy.  I love these books as well.  The illustrations are incredibly detailed, and so clever and creative.  I read the same book to my niece, Katherine, over and over again, but each time I discovered something new in the pictures.  Like the title of the book she's holding on the cover page, or the fact that she used a broom and a mop to make her bed into a canopy (I still can't figure out how she rigged up that one).  They are fun to read, delightful to look and and wonderfully girly.   It's one of those books I wish they had when I was little!!  

Also, check out this fun conversation with the author and illustrator!  

Happy Memorial Day!

The Four Agreements

For this week's Sunday feature of books about religion and spirituality, I want to share The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz.  I read this book both in high school and then again recently.  It is centered on four very basic statements.  On the surface, these statements, or agreements, are quite simple, but trying to live by even one of them has proven to be difficult.  The four agreements are:

Be impeccable with your word.

Don't take anything personally. 

Don't make assumptions.

Always do your best.  

I could never explain the full meaning and importance of the agreements like Ruiz does, so I'm not going to try to explain them.  This book is profound in its simplicity and its deep truth.  Based on ancient Toltec wisdom, the agreements are so basic, it's hard to understand why we don't live by them already.  

I think I need to read it again already.  Each time I read it, I think I come a little bit closer to grasping the truths it speaks.  There is also a companion book that I have yet to read.  Hopefully, it will help some of the concepts from the first to cement for me as well.  I could definitely use more peace and wisdom in my life.  

I hope everyone had a relaxing and replenishing Sunday.  I spend a few hours in bed this afternoon reading upstairs while it was pouring rain outside.  I've just started a new novel.  More about that soon...

Reading to Get a Job

As I am home now, looking for a job post-graduation, I again find myself turning to books.  Several books have been very helpful.  I'll discuss them over the course of a few posts, so I'll start here with two:  Career Quizzes and What Color is Your Parachute.  I started reading these a few months ago to help me with the discernment process.  I learned a lot about myself and the kinds of jobs that would be fulfilling.  What Color is a classic, and is updated every year. I have the 2004 version, which I found at my favorite used book store in Atlanta, but there is a 2009 version now.  I'm not sure how different they are.  Although I am now in the process of actually applying for jobs, I'm still using these books to guide me along the way.  

Did you read any particularly useful books when you were searching for your first job or a new career?  

You've Got Mail

You've Got Mail is one of my very favorite movies. Although Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks are positively delightful and I loved the original (The Shop Around the Corner), I believe the plethora of books and book stores are probably its most endearing feature for me.  It also includes some fantastic quotations about books and reading (my favorites are all from Meg Ryan's character, Kathleen).  

" Once I read a story about a butterfly in the subway, and today I saw one. I couldn't believe it. It got on at 42nd -- and got off at 59th, where I assume it was going to Bloomindale's to buy a hat that will turn out to be a mistake. As almost all hats are."

"So much of what I see reminds me of something I read in a book, when shouldn't it be the other way around?"

"When you read a book as a child, it becomes a part of your identity in a way that no other reading in your whole life does."

The last one is particularly powerful for me.  I read so much as a child and many of those books are still a part of who I am.  I love making lists, and I love having a special place for my lists to live.  I never really thought anything of it until my junior year of college.  I was in the basement of the library looking for books to read for my children's literature class and I found Anastasia Krupnik by Lois Lowry.  I read this book many times as a child.  And right there, in the first few pages, Anastasia opens up a notebook and begins to make lists.  They are printed, in her handwriting, throughout the book.  I really think that's where my affinity for a notebook of lists came from.  

Last Christmas, I gave a copy of the novel my then 8-year-old niece.  I love reading my old favorites to my nieces and nephews and to the little kids I baby-sit for.  I hope they can become a positive part of who they are to become.  I know my childhood books did.  

What books were your favorites as a child.  I have so many, I'll probably make a whole other post, but were there ones that still have an impact on you today?  Do events in your real life ever remind you of happenings you read about in a book?  Do tell.