Recent Read: Life List

Keeping with my wildlife and animal theme of reading lately, I just finished Life List: A Woman’s Quest for the World’s Most Amazing Birds by Olivia Gentile (Bloomsbury, 2009). This is a fantastic book that examines the life of Phoebe Snetsinger, a competitive top-listing birder who tragically passed away in 1999 at the age of 68, after enduring cancer years before.

Olivia gives a thorough picture of Phoebe’s life in birding. I actually found myself living-through-reading the more traumatic and thrilling moments of Phoebe’s experiences, thanks to Olivia’s keen details. Olivia’s journalistic style also presents the facts as she discovered and learned them, but Olivia also gives her readers a sense of the emotions and psychology behind the decisions of Phoebe and in her world birding trips. Phoebe had to enjoy the thrill from the travel she did to remote places and must have had a great sense of accomplishment with just the physical efforts she went through to see fantastic birds in the rough and rugged areas she went.

A couple of notes: First, you have to visit Olivia Gentile’s website for a visual treat! Second, you need to at least look through this book for its beautiful illustrations throughout, by Rebecca Layton. Third, Phoebe Snetsinger wrote her autobiography, Birding on Borrowed Time, published by the American Birding Association in 2003. Fourth, I found a new book I will be studying, Brushed by Feathers: A Year of Birdwatching in the West by Frances L. Wood (Fulcrum Publishing, 2004), given that I spend so much time in the west, in the outdoors, and have been informally birding for several years now. Fifth, I don’t have my own life list yet, but will be working on that. Sixth, this book made me feel okay about OCD tendencies and I plan to keep several types of life lists (birds as mentioned above, hikes & trails, peaks, books, maybe others). Seventh, because I hear birds better than I see them, I need to learn bird calls. and plan to do so thanks to the All About Birds site from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Eighth, birds are fascinating and I want to know more. I heard a bird today that I have never heard before. It’s a major thrill to finally learn to know what you’re hearing and/or seeing.  Birding is a bit like genealogy – you have a generally point of reference and then you sometimes have to work backwards or forwards to find the accurate answer. It’s great for researchers who delight in this form of private investigation. Ninth, reading Life List has been beneficial to read to better understand more about the past, present and future generations, and even comparing Phoebe’s life path to her children’s and their opportunities. This made me think also about the opportunities in education that I’ve had compared to what my grandparents had. Phoebe was a brilliant woman whose mind was somewhat suppressed and it was a like a dam bursting forth when she had the opportunity to seize birding and her passion for the rest of her life. She was a passionate woman and just needed to find the right passion. Tenth, seize the moment, learn something new everyday, and live within balance of your pursuits and passions.

Happy Reading, Birding, and Nature Watching!

Recent Reads on elephants and parrots

I can never resist a good animal story, especially birds, and I recently finished reading Alex and Me by Dr. Irene Pepperberg. This was a story I couldn’t put down, nor could I keep from laughing out-loud (while my husband is giving me strange looks because I almost never laugh out-loud while reading a book!) or from being moved to tears. Alex was an amazing African Grey Parrot who had both a high IQ and a high EQ. My favorite parts of this book were seeing Alex’s growth in cognition and his connection to Dr. Pepperberg. I was amazed to hear that Alex said “I love you” and meant it. I also loved reading about Alex’s mirth and jollity and sometimes his bad behavior. He made me laugh out loud. I loved how he would say what he wanted (“I want nut, I want corn, I want kiwi” and so on) before doing an assigned task. He was very much like a small child in both actions and verbal patterns. You can stay connected to Dr. Pepperberg’s work through The Alex Foundation. I aspect of this book is that it reads well for all ages. Parents could read this book aloud to their children and would make for great discussions about science, research, and going beyond that. This book would also make for a very good ‘one book one community’ book program in a library or school.

I followed up Alex and Me with a wonderful new book by Kate DiCamillo, The Magician’s Elephant. Kate DiCamillo is one of my favorite children’s authors and she is also a Newberry winner for her endearing story, Tale of Despereaux. I also loved Because of Winn-Dixie, the heartwarming story of a girl and her dog. You can read about her books and excerpts on her website. My favorite news site, NPR just released a story on The Magician’s Elephant and you can even read an excerpt from the book. (I am an NPR junkie and both my IE and Mozilla home pages are set to NPR. I can’t miss a day of news from NPR it seems.) The Magician’s Elephant is a lovely story about an orphan, who has a dream to be fulfilled and it involves an elephant. The story is ultimately about love and caring for family. It even has a “storybook ending” which hopeless romantics like me just love.  The book also is filled with the beautiful illustrations by Yoko Tanaka. I love Kate DiCamillo’s themes with animals and children and making something good out of something bad. Kudos to Kate, she’s done it again!

I am currently reading Life List: A Woman’s Quest for the World’s Most Amazing Birds by Olivia Gentile. This is another bird-related book about a birder named Phoebe Snetsinger and her passion for creating her life list of bird sightings. The story is billed as “the true story of a woman who has one year to live and is determined to see every bird in the world.” Fantastic! Olivia sets the story with a biography of Phoebe Snetsinger and her family and what drove her obsession for the extreme birding quest.

Have a favorite animal-related book or story? Tell me your favorites and leave a comment for this posting. Happy Reading!

Life List: A Woman’s Quest for the World’s Most Amazing Birds

Recent Reads including The Last Lecture

I had a backlog of books and articles to write about, hence my last couple of postings are all done today, a cold and snowy October 10. So many good books …. I once had the thought of reading a book a day (something like the Julie and Julia project only that was with recipes!) and blogging about that. I nearly do that, but I don’t think I could read a book a day right now, although I’m sure there are people who could do this!

I went outside my usual genre recently and read The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch as well as 90 Minutes in Heaven by Don Piper. These books went well together and are both ,memoirs on dealing with dying as viewed by the authors themselves. By now, both books have been on the bestseller lists for quite a while and Randy Pausch’s Last Lecture has circulated the internet and email inboxes to wrench tears from us all. Both books demonstrate strong people who are understanding life and death from different viewpoints and give readers a new perspective on living life to the fullest each and every day. Because life and death are so individual for each of us, I won’t go into the memoirs, other than to say if you have a sense of wonder about life and death, you need to read these. They help prepare our hearts and minds for what will eventually happen to all of us, born and not-yet-born. My heart goes out to the Pausch family and I’m filled with respect for the memories and legacies Randy Pausch has left behind for his family, his students, all his readers, and the world. Both memoirs are inspirational and motivational reads filled with pointers and suggestions for daily life and how to make the most of every day.

And, while 90 Minutes in Heaven is a different genre than what I usually read on weekly basis, I decided to give this a try since it’s been on the bestseller list and seemed to continuously check-out at my local library. While Christianity-based, filled with scripture, miracle and the power of prayer, there were also gems of wisdom that anyone would appreciate, like the man who went blind and lamented about all the things he could no longer do; when turning the question around, what can you still do? and coming up with a list of thousands of things the man could still do and the decision to do those things every day of his life.

Also, to make every situation, good or bad, into a learning lesson and teaching tool, to impart wisdom, share the lessons with others, and help others in pain or grief or in their happiness. That life is short on time. “Got to get on with your life.” Ultimately, we all feel the time crunch, but you have to make the decision to make good use of time and maximize it or in Piper’s words, “magnify it to the max.” Also, learning to live with a ‘new reality’ and adapting to changes. Just because we once lived our lives a certain way, doesn’t mean we’ll always be able to live that way (especially in the case with Piper or other accident victims) and you have to set a new normal. What used to be normal, won’t be normal after any major change, either mental or physical. So you can either adapt to the new normal or get stuck in the past, feeling depressed and tormented about what was. We have to move on, move forward. Don’t get stuck in the mud or worse yet, perpetual quick sand! Sometimes, the simple act of reading an inspiring book can help get you out of the mud or quick sand. That and a good support system of friends and family.

If you liked these books, you would also like The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom and The Shack by William P. Young and also Obit by Jim Sheeler.

Take care, love one another, and be well with yourself and in the world!

//

Recent Reads on Afghanistan

Have you read Khaled Hosseini’s books yet? Start with The Kite Runner and follow up with A Thousand Splendid Suns and you will have experienced the true art of storytelling along with gaining an education of the dynamics of Afghanistan and its people. These books have been out for a few years now, and The Kite Runner was made into a movie (2007). I don’t want to review the books here, because there are so many other reviews out there. What I do want to say is that you need to experience these books for yourself. Khaled Hosseini is a masterful storyteller, and develops both rich characters, storylines and plots. His are stories that leave you thinking and remembering for a long time. He has the keen ability to impart a deeper sense of understanding of Afghanistan and the Afghan people. Both were books I simply couldn’t put down until the end. I recommend the audiobook version of The Kite Runner as the author himself is the reader, which lends greater emotion and depth to the story, including accurate pronunciation of Afghan names and words. This was invaluable to me as I yearned to absorb the characters and their lives. Through reading books like these, we can collectively develop a sense of empathy and compassion for a country that has long been war-torn.

The author was born in Kabul, Afghanistan, the son of a diplomat whose family received political asylum in the United States in 1980 and continues to live in the US. The author is a US envoy to UNHCR, the United Nations Refugee Agency. For more on his projects, including the newly formed Khaled Hosseini Foundation, visit the authors blog. I just visited the Foundation site for the first time and was greeted with the following inspiring quote by George Eliot: What do we live for, if it is not to make life less difficult for each other? Ours is a world of many hues, experiences, lives, cultures, ethnicities, backgrounds and histories, but we all share humanity and the ability to feel compassion, love and care for one another…. And one way to be drawn closer to fellow humankind is through reading and learning about cultures that differ from our own and find the comparisons and similarities that make us all human.

To deepen the learning and understanding process, I also recommend reading The Storyteller’s Daughter, a memoir by Saira Shah, a journalist and documentary film maker. For a fascinating interview with Shah and about her film Beneath the Veil, visit the CNN site. The book is filled with quotes, Afghan stories and legends, Shah’s family history and personal reflections as well as capturing the experience of filming Beneath the Veil. Readers will gain a sense of life before the Taliban and during the Russian occupation up to 9/11 and after. Shah had the unique experience of being a female journalist and experience relative freedom upon her first trips to Afghanistan to fearing her life for being both a woman and a journalist. A review of the book states:

When she made her first trip in 1986, a harrowing journey from Peshawar through the Hindu Kush to the front lines in the war with the Soviet Union, she was “chasing a myth.” But by the time the Taliban took over in 1996, the disintegration of the myth was almost complete. Beneath the Veil shows the suffering, in particular, of three young sisters, and Shah’s trip to do a follow-up report after U.S. air strikes began was also a personal mission to rescue the girls–efforts defeated as much by domestic exigency and centuries-old habits of mind as by larger forces: “Afghanistan had confounded me, just as it has always confounded the West.” In this very personal inside-outside account, Shah is our eye on a culture and set of conditions that are much more complex than what we see on the nightly news. By Mary Ellen Quinn from Booklist.

With the current news and elevating situation in Afghanistan, it is imperative to learn more about the Afghan people and their country.

Small is Beautiful

I recently received the October 2009 issue of The Sun, which is probably my favorite magazine. It’s hard to call it a magazine though, because there are no ads and the essays, poetry, photography and short stories are all so rich and compelling. The publication is really a literary feast. I devour it within days after it arrives in my mailbox. At the end of each month, I anxiously check my mail to see whether the latest issue has arrived. Okay, maybe I’m a bit quirky, but I know other Sun readers agree with me.

This last issue was filled with topics that are very near to me and to all of us – economics, consumerism, what really matters in life, and the suburban empire, not necessarily in that order. The theme of this issue is “Small is Beautiful” which is featured in the eponymous “Dog-Eared Page” with the essay “Small is Beautiful: Economics as if People Mattered” by E. F. Schumacher. The title alone is enough to mull upon and muse over, but the essay is like an arrow straight to my heart. You have to read the essay to get it and then read it again and again to get it some more! It’s that good. The principle of the matter is that ‘small really is beautiful‘ and that the more we want, the bigger it gets, and the more it harms the earth and humans. What is ‘it’? Well, ‘it’ is everything humans (namely Americans, and yes, I am an American, but I’m constantly trying to end my ceaseless and needless wants and trying to determine what’s really important in life) want – bigger cars, bigger houses, more clothes, more electronics, more stuff to fill the bigger houses, essentially more junk for the landfills. And, more stuff to block out the important things, like quieting the mind, ceasing the non-stop chatter in our heads, finding what you really love, resolving anxieties and fears, and giving loving-kindness towards all, including the earth and fellow human-kind. Material stuff does that – the more we want, the more we get, the more we continue to want, and the worse we feel. It’s a terrible vicious cycle that has to end. I think the time is now, the opportunity is here…. and we just need a grassroots – internal and external – effort to make it happen and to end our compliance on materialism and consumerism. How do we do it? It starts from within, small steps here and there, and on a very individual basis, filled with much reflection and introspection. Then start talking about it, the changes you’re making, what you saved by not buying something, or what you saved by recycling, or better yet reusing and reducing.It’s not just that though…. there’s so much more, like ending dependence on things that are harmful to us and to the earth – diamonds, gold, ores, petroleum, gases, etc. This green movement shouldn’t be about whether you can afford $40,000 for the latest electric or hybrid car. It should be about a revolution of how to change what we want and understanding what we need. Stand yourself in the shoes of the early pioneers of this country, or any country, for that matter, and start acting locally to change the global picture.

This brings me to the interview in the current issue of The Sun, “The Decline and Fall of the Suburban Empire: James Howard Kunstler on Reshaping the American Landscape,” by Leslee Goodman. You can read part of the interview online and get a sense of the ‘converging crisis’ we all share and face. I actually was not familiar with James Howard Kunstler until this interview. And now, I want to read every one of his books. Follow his website and his blog for more shockingly compelling reasons to start changing now (read his forecast for more). Now, I’m not typically a doom and gloom kind of person, so I really have to balance this stuff out with positive things (like reading animal memoirs such as Alex and Me, or writing poetry, or playing music, repeating positive mantras and intentions, and doing everything I can locally). But the key parts of this interview for me are acting and living locally, creating strong local economies, speaking out for improving rail and train infrastructure in the US, changing how we think about money, mortgages and the suburbs and bringing support mechanisms back to our country, such as agriculture and farming. For me, the US food system is downright scary. Every packaged good you look at comes from another country, other than our own! If those other countries’ infrastructure or production fails, we are out of luck, starving, and causing awful health conditions that we cause ourselves! Okay, yes, I’m ranting here. But I strongly believe in and support local economies. Can you make a mission for yourself to buy only locally grown food, or only to come from within your state? I have and do this with the following foods: veggies from local CSA, eggs and milk from local raw milk dairy (make my own yogurt) and buffalo meat from within my state (and that’s only about once a month, the rest of the time I’m a vegetarian). I also buy local or statewide fruit as much as I can. As for everything else, I aim to buy organic and as local as possible. I still need a good source for local cheese and am working on that. I also aim to have a productive garden and fruit trees very soon, along with solar and/or wind, gray-water collection, and composting. I also buy in bulk and recycle every single thing from every paper, plastic, glass, cardboard, etc. Recycling does take time and some storage space, especially if you don’t have curbside recycling, but I encourage you to do it, even if it means starting small. (Starting small is good, and it means you’re doing something and can only grow from there). I also reuse as much as I can, support my local food coop, shop at the resale shops, make my own jewelry, hats and scarves, and use cloth bags for shopping and transporting. I also do not buy bottled pop, water, or juices anymore. They simply take too many resources, aren’t good for you, are filled with either sugar or chemicals, or both, and are another money-making industry that doesn’t return good to the earth or to people. We need to become more of a DIY society, with an economy and support system that allows DIYers to thrive and succeed. If you have a local community of DIYers (one fixes shoes, one repairs computers, one bakes bread, one makes cheese, one creates soap, one who sews and repairs clothing, a supplier of fruits and veggies and meats, one who tends goats, buffalo, cows, and chickens, and beyond!) you could have everything you need to live comfortably within your own community. We need more community gardens, community orchards, and community chickens and cows or whatever. What we need is to be reminded, mindful of, and respect the pioneer days and have a return to homesteading, with a balance of this millennium. Also, talk to your community leaders to encourage discussions and action on improving transportation within our communities, our states, and across our nation. What would you do if you didn’t have a car? Could you carpool, walk, bike or take mass transit? If you couldn’t, why not? Could that be changed?

Wow, what a rant today! This isn’t my usual blog-posting style, but these topics are so important to me. Go find yourself a copy of The Sun and get inspired to make changes in your own life, today! Feel like posting what’s important to you or ways that you are taking care of yourself, the earth, and fellow human-kind? Leave a comment here – I’d like to hear what others are doing.  Take Care!

Recent Read: Strength in What Remains

I just finished reading Tracy Kidder’s new book Strength in What Remains and it’s one of the best non-fiction books I’ve read this year. It reads like Mountains Beyond Mountains and the story is just flooring – shocking, horrifying, and reaching the depths of empathy. The story of Deo is real, but almost unimaginable to an average American who has never been to Africa. I really didn’t know much about the African nation of Burundi and now I see a glimpse into the lives of the ethnic groups, the Hutus and Tutsis, divided groups that have caused conflicts in Burundi and Rwanda. Kidder patiently and clearly explains the basics of the bloodletting conflicts in both Rwanda and Burundi, giving examples of the similarities and major differences between the countries and their internal conflicts. Burundi is one of the poorest countries in the world, with atrocious health and living conditions. The people have all but given up through seeing and living through atrocities that many of us have never experienced and could almost not imagine. Partners in Health (PIH) is now involved in both Burundi and Rwanda and through health, perhaps the lives of these people may be improving. Awareness of these countries is key here. Some facts and statistics on Burundi from the WHO are as follows:

Statistics:

• Total population (in 2008): 8,173,000
• Gross national income per capita (PPP international $):  320
• Life expectancy at birth m/f (years): 48/50
• Healthy life expectancy at birth m/f (years, 2003): 33/37
• Probability of dying under five (per 1 000 live births): 181
• Probability of dying between 15 and 60 years m/f (per 1 000 population): 461/412
• Total expenditure on health per capita (Intl $, 2006): 15
• Total expenditure on health as % of GDP (2006): 3.0

Additional Statistics:

• Population (millions) in the year 2005: 3.7 (males) 3.9 (females) 7.5 total
• Life expectancy (years) in the year 2004: 45
• Under-5 mortality (per 1,000 live births) in the year 2004: 190
• Adult mortality (per 1,000) in the year 2004: 593 (males) 457 (females)
• Maternal mortality (per 100,000 live births) in the year 2000: 1000
• Source: World Health Statistics 2006, Mortality Country Fact Sheet-Burundi

MORTALITY AND BURDEN OF DISEASE:

• Mortality profile
• HIV/AIDS treatment
• Tuberculosis
• TB prevalence and incidence
• HIV prevalence

The people are dealing with:

• Chronic diseases
• Anemia
• Child malnutrition
• Undernutrition and overweight
• Access to water, sanitation
• Alcohol, tobacco consumption

This book would make an excellent choice for your book group. The PIH has a special program to promote the book and the understanding of the Burundi plight. Here is the PIH book group information: http://act.pih.org/page/s/bookclubsignup
Also, here is a summary of the book from the PIH website:

Tracy Kidder’s newest book tells the riveting true story of a young man and how his strong friendships and extraordinary determination help him both survive and create an organization to help those less fortunate.

Deo grew up in the mountains of Burundi, and survived a civil war and genocide before seeking a new life in America. In New York City he lived homeless in Central Park before finding his way to Columbia University. But Deo’s story really begins with his will to turn his life into something truly remarkable; he returns to his native country to help people there, as well as people in the United States.

In many ways Strength in What Remains is a natural companion for Mountains Beyond Mountains, and several of the same characters appear in both books, including PIH co-founders Paul Farmer and Ophelia Dahl.

Order Strength in What Remains from Amazon.com
(a portion of the sales generated by clicking this link will be donated to PIH)

As with Mountain Beyond Mountains, reading this book instills a drive for action, whether through supporting PIH or finding other ways to help.  If you are lucky enough to live in the cities where Tracy Kidder is speaking next, I would strongly encourage hearing him talk about the book. Kidder’s writing is outstanding, as always. His style can be appreciated by all and it’s no wonder that he has won the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, the Robert F. Kennedy Award, and many other literary prizes. His list of books and summaries are  available through his website at www.tracykidder.com.

A poem for fall…

A Colorado Rockies Fall

A Walk down a path
A Deepening chill around me
The Wind has a sharper edge
The Sun a dimmer angle with vibrantly faded edges
The Rustle of leaves, about to fall from their limbs
Pines in their green year-round glory provide the background
Golden aspens framing a grand hallway on both sides
The Leaves falling to the ground just as rose petals fall at a wedding ceremony
I am marrying Nature. I am married to Nature.
The Sun glints diamonds for my ring from the cold pond
Where the fish jump with glee catching the last of the season’s insects
Before the fish bury themselves in the deep dark mud to bear down through the winter
A chitter chatter of birds, squirrels and chipmunks as they ready themselves
For the coming of winter….

By Sarah E. Myers
September 21, 2009

Recent Read: Waiting for Snow in Havana

My stack of books is growing larger almost day by day! I’m getting ready for the fall and cold winter we’re supposed to have, according to the Farmer’s Almanac. Send me your book suggestions, recent reads and favorite books and we’ll keep the list going and the book pile growing! I love hearing what people are reading, whether classics, nonfiction, or new releases and bestsellers. Also, NPR just realeased their Fall Book Buzz with some great titles, including the highly anticipated release of Dan Brown’s newest novel, The Lost Symbol.

I recently finished a fantastic memoir, Waiting for Snow in Havana by Carlos M. N. Eire (Free Press, 2003). This is one of the best-written and most enjoyable memoirs that I’ve read in a while, affording the opportunity to laugh, cry, and learn. Eager to learn more about Cuba and pre- and post- Castro, this book was an unplanned read, one that was found while delightfully browsing the shelves at my library. Earlier this summer, I had considered reading Fidel Castro: My Life by Ignacio Ramonet and Fidel Castro, but have not gotten around to reading it yet. (It’s on my wish list of books to read, waiting to join my giant book towers!) So, when Waiting for Snow in Havana came across my book browse, I thought this would be a perfect introduction to learning about life in Cuba. The author Carlos Eire,  is a highly respected religious scholar and professor at Yale University and Waiting for Snow in Havana won the National Book Award in Nonfiction in 2003. His acceptance speech of the award demonstrates his wit and wisdom, to quote: ” The sweetest and deepest irony is that this book is the result of my night job, because up till now I’ve only written scholarly books.” For more on the author, read his biography and an excerpt from his book. There’s no turning back….

Carlos Eire was one of 14,000 children who were sent to the U.S. from 1960-1962 during Operation Pedro Pan:

“Over four decades ago, Cuban parents fearing indoctrination and that the Cuban government would take away their parental authority exercised one of the most fundamental human rights: the right to choose how their children would be educated.

From December 1960 to October 1962, more than fourteen thousand Cuban youths arrived alone in the United States. What is now known as Operation Pedro Pan was the largest recorded exodus of Unaccompanied minors in the Western Hemisphere. The exodus of the Cuban children was virtually unknown for over 30 years.”  From http://www.pedropan.org/

The book is creatively mastered and portrays Eire’s duality of growing up as a privileged youth in Cuba, son of a judge and not lacking for comforts along with his exit of Cuba, and his entry into the United States without his parents and placed into foster homes and orphanages for several years, during a formative period in his life. He was eventually reunited with his mother in Chicago and worked full-time in several jobs before graduating from college and graduate school. Eire’s memories of his childhood details paint a clear picture of the colorful life he led and the stories he lived to tell. Daring childhood feats (playing with fire, bricks, explosives, fighting, etc) could have resulted poorly and yet, he had a higher purpose, one to masterfully tell the story of the exodus of thousands of Cuban children and still, to live that tale.

Perhaps the parts I like best in the book include the author’s colorful writing style, his bold sharing of memories, his descriptions of Havana and his family, the conditions of being plucked from his comfortable life in Cuba to essentially growing up on his own in the United States along with the harsh conditions he faced in Chicago, and the prejudices he had to endure. As a reader, I am always intrigued and awed by how people survive adversity, mental and physical anguish, and the lessons they learn and consequently share as authors and writers. When someone faced with a difficult challenge or position is asked “How do you do it? How do you get through the day? How do you go on living?” the response is more or less “You just do it. You live day by day. You develop goals, dreams and ways to go on. You learn, gain strength and hopefully become wiser.” While this sounds easy and perhaps even too trite, we all have had challenges in our lives that we learn to live with or to overcome. The beauty of these life lessons is that they are teaching, learning, growing, and strengthening opportunities. Friedrich Nietzche’s quote comes to mind here: “That which does not kill me makes me stronger.” While we could all come up with lists of things we wished had not happened in our lives, we can also come up with lists of the virtues and lessons learned from those particularly difficult events, actions, and deeds.

In Waiting for Snow in Havana, readers will appreciate Eire’s honesty, his life story, his lessons learned, his reflections, his passion and emotions, and his longing for a sense of home. His ability to pick up the pieces and move forward with his life in a constructive, positive and useful way, is particularly inspiring and motivating. While not a self-help book, this reader has come away with a sense of peace and an instillation of positive motion to move forward in life, no matter what the challenges or adversities one must face.

Waiting for Snow in Havana is highly recommended. Be prepared to laugh out-loud, be awed, and become inspired. Happy Reading!

ps. I am currently reading The Storyteller’s Daughter by Saira Shah and also have just 2 hours left of the audio version (unabridged) of Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy with the translation by Constance Garnett. Stay tuned for future postings on GreyCatBlog. Thanks for visiting my site.

Julie and Julia – Movie Tie In

I just watched the new movie Julie and Julia and thoroughly enjoyed it! The food looked mouth-watering, the romances were sweet, the story of Julia Child fascinating, and the project of Julie Powell was fun to put into place. I enjoyed the audio book version of Julie and Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen by Julie Powell (Little, Brown and Company, September 2005) over a year ago. I started listening to the audio book and was enjoying it so much (the dry, wry humor, the temper flying, the taste tests, the relationships, the patience, the hardwork), that I stopped listening to it, only to start again with my husband, convincing him that he really would enjoy the book! It really wasn’t just chic lit, there was substance to it, and it was about Julia Child and her infamous cookbook Mastering the Art of French Cooking. We really enjoyed the audio book version, read by the author, full NY grit and style. And I have to say, I believe it was shortly after finishing this book that I wanted to begin this book blog. How sweet and inspiring! (Thank you Julie Powell for the source of inspiration!)

The movie version was an interesting tie-in of Julie and Julia by Julie Powell and My Life in France by Julia Child. The food shots were very good and I feel compelled to learn more about Julia Child now. I plan to read My Life in France (now on my wish list)  as I’ve found recently that I enjoy reading biographies and memoirs now more than ever. (A sign that I’m maturing in my reading tastes perhaps?)  Also, I now have a destination the next time I’m in D.C. (ALA Conference, June 2010) to visit Julia Child’s Kitchen at the Smithsonian! And, of course, who could ever forget the Saturday Night Live version of Julia Child played by Dan Aykroyd (you can find that on YouTube, or just watch the movie of Julie and Julia!). Doesn’t it feel good to laugh out loud about such funny comedy?

Another highlight of the movie was seeing actress Linda Emond who played Simone Beck, Julia Child’s co-author of Mastering the Art of French Cooking. I admire Linda’s work (visit her website for a list of her films and plays) especially her audiobook readings. Linda is one of the best audiobook readers I’ve had the pleasure of listening to. Some of my favorites with Linda reading are The Devil and Miss Prym and Brida both by Paolo Coelho, as well as What the Dead Know by Laura Lippman. Here’s a list of Linda’s readings from Audio Editions and another list from Audible.com.

This was a movie where you just felt like beaming after the movie was over, awash in happiness, dreaming about good food that one can create using Mastering the Art of French Cooking.

I love books about food, mostly because I love good food! Around the same time that I originally read Julie and Julia, I was also reading books like French Women Don’t Get Fat by by Mireille Guiliano and books by Michael Pollan, including The Omnivore’s Dilemma and In Defense of Food.  More favorite foodie books include Epitaph for a Peach: Four Seasons on My Family Farm and  Heirlooms: Letters from a Peach Farmer, both by David M. Masumoto and Stanley Crawford’s A Garlic Testament. And, don’t get me started on cookbooks, which I love to read through and salivate over (I am also starting to focus on cookbook indexing with my new business, Summit Information Services).  I just read through one of my favorite vegetarian cookbooks, The New Laurel’s Kitchen by Laurel Robertson and the American Wholefoods Cuisine by Nikki Goldbeck and also Jeanne Lemlin’s Quick, Simple and Main-Course Vegetarian Pleasures. Have a favorite cookbook or recipe website? Send me a note at greycatblog [at] gmail [dot] com or post a comment to GreyCatBlog. Thanks!

Happy Reading, Movie-Going, and Cooking! Bon Appetit!

Book Festivals

So, who’s going to the Ninth Annual National Book Festival on the National Mall on Sept. 26, 2009? I’d like to consider, except it’s a four hour flight from CO. I may just ride my bike out though (see my earlier post on travel books and cycling). The upcoming book festival has me thinking: What if I attend all the known book festivals and blog about it, combined with some travel writing…. now for how to fund that venture!

To enable my book festival travel dreams, I thought it would be best to be prepared with a list of the available festivals. Plus, I love to make lists. Here is a partial list:

• Book Fairs and Other Literary Events listing from the U.S. Library of Congress Center for the Book (the master list – consult the LOC site for a comprehensive listing of book fairs, festivals, and other literary events)
• Antiquarian Book & Ephemera Fairs
• National Book Festival
• BookExpo America
• Guadalajara International Book Fair
• Frankfurt Book Fair
• World Book and Copyright Day
• Book World Prague

Here are a couple of festivals and events I’m pretty sure I can’t miss:

• Hawaii Book & Music Festival
• Extreme Trail Tails: An Iditarod Event
• Mariposa (CA) Book Festival
• Norwegian Literature Festival

I’m also interested in starting up a book festival or a one book event in my area… Have suggestions or recommendations? Send it my way. Happy reading and attending a book festival in your area!