Book Review - The Midnight Library

I think most of us at one time or another wonder what our life would have been like if we had made a different choice...

What would have happened if I had taken that job?

Where would I be if I had said yes instead of no or no instead of yes?

Who would I have married if I had not gone to that party?

The midnight library is about how different choices, even small ones lead to different lives. It is a bit of A Wonderful Life meets Sliding Doors. (If you haven't seen the 1998 movie Sliding Doors staring Gwyneth Paltrow, I highly recommend it.)

The first eight very short chapters cover the losses in Nora Seed's life, which is pretty much in shambles. Her cat dies. She loses her job. She's broke and behind in her rent. She's lost contact with her best friend and her brother. She is lonely, seriously depressed and decides to end her life.

It's kind of a downer beginning of a book. but hang in there. In chapter 9 everything turns. "The misty vapors cleared, like spirits wanting to be unwatched, and a shape appears." She's not in heaven. She's not in hell. She's in a library.

The library is an in-between place. It is the container of parallel universes. Every book on the infinite number of shelves represents a different life Nora might have had. There to help Nora is her high school librarian Mrs. Elm. Nora gets to try on different lives before making the final decision to permanently end her life.

What I loved most about this book is how I thought about it for days. I kept thinking about the choices I have made, both big and small and how those decisions changed the trajectory of my life. Nora Seed's other lives were not all happiness and good times. Sometimes she was rich. Sometimes she was poor. Once she was an Olympian swimmer. Another time a rock star. In some lives she had a family. In other lives she was single. There was loss and sadness in each of them, but the tragedies are balanced by the unlimited possibilities.

The author, Matt Haig suffered severe depression as a young adult. He is known for his memoir "Reasons to Stay Alive." In many ways this novel is a guide for moving from depression and anxiety to a celebration of life. 

Cynthia

What I am Reading to Raise My Spirit

 

When Bad Things Happen to Good People by Harold S. Kushner

I feel like bad things are happening to a lot of good people. The racists and bullies feel empowered. There have been many times I have asked myself, if there is a God why is he/she/it so absent? How can children be thrown into cages, dragged from their parents arms? How can so many black men and women be killed and their killers go free?

Rabbi Kushner takes a long look at this question. He does not believe that there is a god that can control what humans do. Nor can that higher power control hurricanes and earthquakes. 

Mayor Pete really is one of the most brilliant politicians in the U.S. these days. He has a huge future ahead of him. I feel that even more after reading his book "Trust."

Favorite Quote: "The act of God is the courage of people to rebuild their lives after the earthquake, and the rush of others to help them in whatever way they can."

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Trust by Pete Buttigieg

I thought Pete Buttigieg was one of the most brilliant politicians in the U.S. before I read "Trust." My opinion of him grew even more after reading his book.  In this short book Buttigieg discusses why trust in our government and each other is so important. He then examines how it has disappeared in the U.S. and how Russia is stoking the fires to destroy Americans trust in each other and democracy. He then looks at  how we can rebuild it.

Mayor Pete has a great political future ahead of him. We just might see him some day be president.

Favorite Quote: "For all the peril of this moment, for all the political division and racial anguish and institutional erosion, this moment is filled with possibility."

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My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry 

by Fredrik Backman

I was in desperate need of an uplifting piece of fiction. I had tried three times to read Resistance Women by Jennifer Chiaverini but never could get past Chapter Nine. The descriptions of what was happening in Germany during the early rise of Hitler felt way to similar to what has been happening in the U.S. under Trump.

Several friends mentioned Fredrik Backan's book My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry. I love the characters and fairytale lessons for being brave. I am savoring it and look forward to finishing it tonight with my dogs snuggled in close and a glass of wine.

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Book Review - Notorious RBG

 

When John Lewis died I wanted to read more about his life's work. I felt the same about Ruth Bader Ginsburg. I thought I knew a lot about RBG. 

This book gave me a lot more information about her legal fights, so many of which took place when I was a young woman in the 1970s. 

 Her court cases brought back so many memories of what women were not able to do before Judge Ginsburg. We couldn't have a credit card in our own names. We were denied jobs because we were pregnant or just of pregnant age. I remember being asked my the mortgage loan officer what kind of bird control I used, when my husband and I were buying our first home. 

 So much was at stake then and is at stake once again. 

Authors Irin Carmon and Shan Knizhnik describe their book... "If you want to understand how an underestimated woman changed the world and is still out there doing the work, we got you. If you picked up this book only to learn how to get buff like an octogenarian who can do twenty push-ups, there's a chapter for you too. We even were lucky enough to wrangle some of the most brilliant legal minds out there to help us annotate key passages from RBG's legal writing.

RBG has been extraordinary all her life, but she never wanted to be a solo performer. She is committed to bringing up other women and underrepresented people, and to working together with her colleagues even when it seems impossible. We are frankly in awe of what we've learned about her, and we're pretty excited to share it with you."

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Active Hope - Book Review

 

When we usually think of hope, we think of it as something passive, like wishing. I was searching for a different vision of hope and when I googled "active hope," I discovered Joanna Macy and Chris Johnstone's book.

Although written in 2012, this book is meant for this time. The authors say... "Active hope is a practice. Like tai chi or gardening, it is something we do rather than something we have."

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Book Review of Across That Bridge by John Lewis

I have defined myself as a nonviolent person since reading Gandhi in college. That view of who I am has been challenged many times in my life, but never as much as since trump took up residence in the white house.

I struggle daily, asking myself... what am I capable of to protect my family, friends, strangers and the U.S. from fascism. My thoughts and words have often not been very comforting nor nonviolent.

I picked up John Lewis' book Across That Bridge after he died. I knew he was a great congressman from Georgia, had marched with Martin Luther King and had received the medal of honor from President Obama.

I wish I had paid closer attention while he was alive. I did not know the depth of his spirituality, strength and commitment to nonviolence.

Lewis describes  struggle as "the act of making things right," both personally and in society. He goes on to say...

"And it is an expression of the inner dissonance a person experiences within his or her own mind and heart,  a continuing disturbance that will not cease until the circumstances have been corrected."

My copy of Across That Bridge bleeds with yellow highlighter. His chapters are broken down into...

Faith

Patience

Study

Truth

Act

Peace

Love

Reconciliation

My favorite quote from his chapter on Peace is "Sometimes you have to be willing to turn things upside down to make them right side up."

I needed this book. I needed it now. It inspired me, it challenged me to be better, it encouraged me to study.

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2020 Summer Fiction Reading List

It's that time of year again. Time for my Summer Fiction Reading List. And boy are there some great novels recently released. 

Here are my Top Ten

A Book To Save You From Despair

This book saved me from despair. If I listed the books that have made a difference in my life, A Trump Diary would be in my top 5. 

I cried on election night 2016. I thought "Oh boy are we in for a bumpy ride." What I thought then would be hitting bottom was not even close. These past few years Glasscock's book kept me from going to bed and pulling the covers over my head.

Tim has a way of taking something truly disgusting that Trump has done, and asks "What is there to learn in this for me?" 

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Color and Travel

Do you love color? Do you love to travel?

I bought the book The Rainbow Atlas: a Guide to the World's 500 Most Colorful Places, in the hopeful belief that someday we will be able to leave our homes and once again travel. 

Since moving to Mexico I have a whole new relationship with color. I love having it all around me. The Rainbow Atlas feeds that craving. It does not disappoint. Seven bloggers contribute stories of their most colorful travel experiences.

"The entries in this book are arranged by longitude, starting in Alaska and traveling around the globe to New Zealand." Each entry includes a colorful photograph and recommends the best time of the year to visit for the best weather and the most color. The bloggers cover what's most colorful in the world in nature, urban art, festivals, built environments, leisure and culture and places of worship.

The entries are brief, (there are 500 after all) but contain just enough information to pique your interest and inspire you to once again want to get on an airplane.

So what's on my wishlist from this book? There's a lot, but here are my top ten.

#8 BLOOM, The Abbotsford Tulip Festival in Abbotsford Canada, where you can meander through 2.5 million tulips.

#10 Chihuly Garden and Glass in Seattle Washington, U.S. This has been on my travel list for awhile now. This is the 1 ½ acre  indoor/outdoor exhibition of glass-artist Dale Chihuly.

#35 Guanajuato, Mexico where colorful homes cover the hills.

#36 Balloon Fiesta in Albuquerque New Mexico, U.S. This is the largest hot air balloon festival in the world.

#40 Trajineras, Xochimilco, Mexico CIty, Mexico. Xochimilco is a borough south of Mexico City with an extensive canal system. The trajineras are colorful flat bottom boats that travel the canals.

#61 Isla Mujeres, Quintana Roo Mexico. This is a 4.3 mile, quiet island filled with colorful homes and shops.

#62 Northern Lights, Nunavut Canada. Seeing the northern lights has been on my wish list for a long time.

#172 Kelburn Castle, Glasgow Scotland. An old castle nestled in the Scottish woods painted by four Brazilian graffiti artists.

#173 Hidden Lane, Glasgow Scotland. A "charming little lane painted in every color of the rainbow" and home to artists, designers and musicians' studios.

#178 Victoria Street, Edinburgh, Scotland - the inspiration for the Harry Potter novels.

The Rainbow Atlas is a wonderful gift for yourself, for your mom for Mothers Day, for a recent graduate or just for a friend that is sheltering at home and is missing being out and about in the world.

Available on iBooks $14.99

Available in hardcover on Amazon $30

Available for Amazon Kindle $9.99

Two Old Women

If you are a woman over 50 you are going to love this book... more