Both Sides

On the Horizon is a beautiful book.  One that brought me to tears.  Lois Lowry really makes magic with her words.  She recalls her childhood in Hawaii and her time in Japan and recounts the stories of lives lost at Pearl Harbor and Hiroshima. 
War.
What is it good for?
They even wrote a song asking that question.
The song's answer is "Absolutely nothing."
I pray one day we will learn from that answer.
Will there be a time, this side of heaven when we look at one another as children of God?  Only then will it happen. 

What a book...

What a beautiful meditation.  What a gift Jesmyn Ward is to the world.  Navigate Your Stars is a must-read for any graduate or soon to be graduate or someone who is breathing.  This book is inspirational for everyone.  EVERYONE.
I felt especially blessed to have listened to it because she reads it.  Just read or listen to this book right now.  It is the commencement speech that Ward gave to the students at Tulane and I bet they never will forget it.  I know I won't. 

An Interesting Time

in which to read Notes from the Apocalypse:  A Journey to the End of the World and Back.  For a while it looked like COVID19 was the beginning of the end.  It still might be.  A lot is still unknown.  Most things are unknown.  Except that the end is coming, for each of us.  Death is the only certain thing.  Well, earthly death.  Because the only other certain thing is that we were created by Love, shown how to love in Jesus and we will return to Love when our earthly lives are over.  I have said this before and I will say it always, I am a Trinitarian Universalist.    I don't worry about dying.  

I can understand Mark O'Connell's obsession with the end of the world.  Growing up the 80s I remember the fear of nuclear war, and I have written about that, too.

This book was good.  It was honest and heart-felt and smart.  I was scared to read about the preppers.  Not surprised, but it is always jarring to see or read about racist hate.  

Funny, thoughtful...really good.  

"I'm a doctor! So what the heck am I talking to you for, p*!s off!"

Anyone remember that movie?  What a movie!  What a scene!  I have the entire thing memorize.  LOVE it!  Even though I have lost the great respect I once had for one of the co-stars, Dolly Parton.
Regardless!  Adam Kay WAS a doctor.  He is in the entertainment business now.  From reading This is Going to Hurt: Secret Diaries of a Junior Doctor, I think he was an amazing, caring, compassionate doctor.  And shame on the UK for the way in which they treat their doctors.  Quite funny!  Quite moving.  Laughter and tears here.

Not a Fan of Wintergirls....

so that is why I was so late in reading this one even though I had heard really good things, but I am glad I did and I really did like Shout.  I like poetry and the message here is really important.  It is raw and honest and I did cry.  And I think that all young women and young men and old women and old men should read it.  And I am glad that Anderson has raised her voice.  There is just something about her writing that doesn't "5 Star" for me...and that is probably me, yes, I am sure it is.  But I will recommend this for sure. 

Yeah...

In 2020 I have already read 1.5 David Levithan books.  He didn't show his disdain for we who are not in great physical shape in either!  Turning over a new leaf?  Or did you put some weight on, Mr. L.?  19 Love Songs is a collection of short stories and it was uneven.  Levithan appeals to me a lot more when he didn't clearly telling his own story.  The story about the love between his mom and dad and the one about a protest he attended after the 2016 election are exceptions.  The mom-dad was decent.  The protest one was excellent.  It made me remember our church's response to the election.  Offering prayer/support time for those who felt particularly threatened by the horrible, horrible person who took office.  It was such an awful time.  Here at work, too.  We were just devastated.  And what is worse, his time in office has turned out to be even more damaging and hate-filled than expected.  And we are in for many more years to come.
I will say it here, and I think I said it before, he will win this year and in 2024 he will win again.  People say, "that can't happen" but think of all of the things about which we have already said just that.  Yet his evil persists.  Not just his hate, but the hate his supporters show as well. 
The snow day story and the story about Infinite Darlene were really, really good.
The rest were okay but the ones about Levithan himself, I mean, I know even his fiction has parts of himself in it, but the ones that were clearly Levithan telling a personal story, I could barely get through them.   

A Beautiful Book to Read to Start the Year

or end it, or at any point in the 12 month period.  That's true of any book by Anne Lamott.  Traveling Mercies:  some thoughts on faith is no exception. I do have one regret, I wish I would have read her chapter Mom before my mother died.  I urge you, if you still have your momma, read at least this chapter now. 

A Must-Read

Maid:  Hard Work, Low Pay and a Mother's Will to Survive is a must-read for everyone.  Especially for those who don't really understand Luke 6:17-49.  This book has nothing to do with God, faith or religion on the surface.  I don't think it even mentions God's name even a curse word!  BUT if one has ever sneered at someone who has purchased "extra" things with an EBT card, or turned away when one saw someone asking for change on the street, it is a must-read and is trying to follow a life that follows Jesus, one should REALLY read this book.  I finished reading it just after I had finished writing my sermon and so I mention it a little in my sermon. 
When my father lost his job when my brother and I were little my mom put an ad in the paper to clean houses.  Even though he found a new job in a few weeks, my mom kept cleaning for twenty years.  And it is HARD HARD work.  I remember going with her on some jobs in the summer.  I remember my mom being able to beat my brother's athletic friends in arm-wrestling because she had built such strength during hours of house work.  I remember her knees and how she had to give up her favorite hobby of gardening because they wore out after years of scrubbing floors.  I remember some of her clients who would hide change to make sure she was honest.  She would always put the found money on the kitchen table, and add some her own when that happened.  And I remember, fortunately, more kind clients who treated her with the dignity that everyone deserves.
This woman's story is not unusual, as there are so many who are working hard for hardly any pay.  She tells an incredible story here and one that we all need to take to heart. 

Powerful

Black is the Body:  Stories from My Grandmother's Time, My Mother's Time and Mine was many things.  At times humorous, at times eye-opening, at times horrific.  At ALL times it was powerful and important and a must-read. 

I don't watch much tv

and again, I HATE it when people say that!  But I really don't, just because I work so much and listen to books so much and play Cookie Jam so much!  So tv vs. Cookie Jam?  Cookie Jam wins.  It's not that I am an anti-tv intellectual, here!
So when my mom started getting into reruns of The Office, she really fell in love with Jenna Fischer.  And when we found this book by her, The Actor's Life:  a Survival Guide I got it on audible so that we could listen to it in the car.  It was a very good listen and I do think Jenna Fischer is a funny and smart woman.  It was great to hear her tips for people going in to acting.  And I so wish I had done it!  Even though I have no talent for it, but I have a giant ego!  I loved the recipe for aspiring actor's pizza.
At the end of the book she does some interviews with actors.  And man, there is just one who is really nasty.  I can't remember her name...but you will know the nasty one when you listen!  Ha!

The Only Downside

to Operating Instructions:  a Journal of My Son's First Year by the incredible Anne Lamott was that it was not read by the author.  I almost stopped listening after hearing that she was not the narrator.  But Rebecca Lowman did an excellent job.  And the book was so good.  Even for someone who has never been a mother.  After reading this one, I wanted to learn more about Sam Lamott and I knew that even though I hadn't been a mom, I would still love it, since I loved that one and will never be a grandma!

Best of All Worlds

Little Soldiers:  An American Boy, a Chinese School and the Global Race to Achieve was a super interesting and insightful.  Lenora Chu and her husband have decided to live in China and send their son to a Chinese school.  She has a lot of special insight because she is the daughter of parents who came from China and raised her in the US and now she is raising an American-born son in China.  He husband is from the US.  So there are all kinds of different POVs that figure in here. 
The conclusion that their family comes to is that hybrid of the US and Chinese school systems might be best.  And it just made me think about how good the grey is.  And how much better we all would be if we were willing to blend and mix and combine the best of certain things with the best of other things.  Great book.  It is super readable and so well done!

Plans C, D, E and so on!

Listening to an Anne Lamott book will be my whole Alphabet Plan for the new year and always.  Plan B:  Further Thoughts on Faith was another excellent listen.  My mother has been listening along and she really is inspired by Lamott who seems to be the first person to really ask the questions and share the concerns that my mother has.  Great, great stuff. 

Morning with Gayle

I had heard about Gayle King because she is Oprah's best friend, but I knew she was more than just Oprah's best friend, but I never really knew how awesome she was until I started watching CBS This Morning.  For that reason I was so happy to read Notes to Self:  Inspiring Figures Write to the Young People They Once Were.   I had thought that it was a book written by Ms. King about her own life, so at first I was a little bummed that I wouldn't learn more about King from it, but wow, she really picked the heavy hitters here!  Maya Angelou, Joe Biden for example.  And there's also Jane Fonda!  Along with some people I didn't know, but each one had really inspiring stories and wonderful things to say.  It was great listening to the book because each person read their own story! 

Inspiration

I am embarrassed to say that I was unfamiliar with Jackie Speier, author of Undaunted:  surviving Jonestown, summoning courage and fighting back.  What makes this especially embarrassing is that she is a US Representative, a woman of faith and has a very accomplished past, present and future.  This was such a great book and I can thank my dear friend for telling me about it and I guess I can also credit an incident that pretty much scarred me for life. 
Sometime after December 4 in 1978 I saw this at my grandparent's house and read the article.  TV news wasn't like it was today and I didn't know about Jonestown, before or after the mass killing on November 18 of that year.  Plus I was 7. 
It was my memory of this article and this horrific event that made me want to read the book and the book is not just about Jonestown, not at all, and I am so glad because I really, really am glad to have read this book.  Rep. Speier is a true role model and I listened to the book and she read it which was even more inspiring.  It is another hopeful book for dark times.
While the book is so much more than the title, which to me, made it seem like it would be mostly about Jonestown, I think it was a good idea to have Jonestown in the title because it may draw some readers that way and it is so worth it. 

Even though

I will never be a mother or a grandmother, and even though I was hesitant to read Some Assembly Required:  A Journal of My Son's First Son, I soon realized that one doesn't have to be a mother or grandmother or son, first or otherwise, or father to appreciate this beautiful and honest and heart-breaking book. 
If I had already fallen in love with Sam Lamott just from what his mother has written about him in her other books, I would have fallen in love after reading this. 

Prejudice

I had to acknowledge my bias before I read The Diary of a Hounslow Girl.  As I have stated many times, I am NOT a fan of off-putting Briticisms or what I perceive to be arrogance on the part of the British in general.  But this was worth reading despite of all of that, so I am glad that I gave it a chance.  I am so glad that I did.  Ambreen Razia has written a one-woman drama and wow, this is really, really good.  Very insightful and eye-opening and compelling.  No matter where it is set!  Haha!  I mean, I know it's setting is important, it's just that I was able to learn from it and enjoy it even though I am NOT a fan of the UK!  But I am working on it.

I still can't spell

Hallelujah.  Which is too bad because as a pastor it's a word that I might use more than some.  I also can't spell bulletin, which again, given my vocation, makes it tough!  Hallelujah Anyway:  Reflections on Mercy by Anne Lamott was wonderful.  Yes, I am reading everything I can by her.  In this one she mentions a tweet that she wrote about "the only transgender person she can't stand" and it was easy for me to google that whole debacle.  I was so touched and impressed by her honesty and admission of wrong in this incident.  And her openness regarding the impact that her son had on her dealing with the situation. 
What google couldn't do was tell me which author she is talking about when she writes about an author who said nasty things about her and humiliated her.  Doesn't she know that I need to know so I can hate this author?!?  Doesn't she know that I need to know who did this to her so that I can hope that this author will get bad reviews forever?!?
Oh wait, maybe I am supposed to be merciful.
Live and learn.
And grow.  Excellent book.

Do You Remember

when the United States had a real president?  The United States used to have presidents.  Since the first one, George Washington.  The last US President was President Obama.  Those were the days!  Now we have this.  Actually, we probably would be better off with President Camacho.  At least he is a president.  Now we have a dictator, a despot. 
Becoming is written by the last First Lady.  This is not a comment on the dictator's wife, it's just that he is not a president, so she can't be a First Lady! 
Becoming is an incredible book.  It is so full of hope.  I am not hopeful for the United States any more.  But this book at least makes me want to be hopeful again, someday, maybe. 

Still Don't Really Understand Darning

But that doesn't mean that Stitches:  a Handbook on Meaning, Hope and Repair is excellent.  It seems that every Anne Lamott book review says, "Her most profound book yet.," and well, I have to agree.  I mean, I am not reading them in the order in which they were published, but every time I read a new one, I am blown away.
Oh, and here is how to darn!