Books

Page 219

“And after and for a long time to come he’d have reason to evoke the recollection of those smiles and to reflect upon the good will which provoked them for it had power to protect and to confer honor and to strengthen resolve and it had power to heal men and to bring them to [...]

Read the full article →

A Foray into Fairytales

I’ve never been much for fantasy or science fiction books. Apart from an obsession with unicorns at a very young age, I just didn’t get it. But every few years, a new one lands on my nightstand. And every time, there seems to be some poignancy to its presence. I read Gate to Women’s Country [...]

Read the full article →

Martha & Beck (to your left)

Expecting Adam is an autobiographical, life-altering book by Martha Beck (of Oprah mag fame) which details her own journey as a married Harvard grad student going through a difficult pregnancy. It is about being open to a new spiritual space. About reconsidering your beliefs. About the evil of academia. About the potential problem with feminism. [...]

Read the full article →

FAB (From a Book) #3

Kundera’s Unbearable Lightness of Being has made me consider the word kitsch. So I did a little research. Bulgarian definition: Something tacky or inappropriate. You know, like wearing shorts to a wedding. Offhand definition: Um, it’s anything retro, like napkins with a woman from the 50s vacuuming her home. Elvis decanters. Something campy. Gnomes. Virgin [...]

Read the full article →

Wicked

It’s been a few years since I read about the little green babe, Elphaba. I never did see the musical (sniff), but I listened to the soundtrack thanks to Erin. A far cry from the lollipop kids, this book shook the original Wizard of Oz free of its clean candy-covered borders and zigzaged the lines [...]

Read the full article →

FAB (From a Book) #1

From Ayn Rand’s Fountainhead. “Jules Foulger said in last Sunday’s Banner (a newspaper) that in the world of the future, the theater will not be necessary at all. . that the daily life of the common man is as much a work of art in itself as the best Shakespeare tragedy. In the future there [...]

Read the full article →

Curling Up With a Good Club

Reading is a bliss of mine. Perhaps even a glory. Since living in Bulgaria, I’ve cried with Pearl S. Buck in China, got swept away with deranged delight in Asylum and pondered the human condition in Ann Marie McDonald’s epic The Way The Crow Flies. I was fascinated by Malcolm Gladwell’s surprisingly clear academia, uncovered [...]

Read the full article →

Post Marathon and Pro Mykonos

We’d gone down too early. Huddled in the lower deck of the ship, vibrations attacking from every angle, we stood waiting for the rope to move so the ramp could lower, so the chain could be opened so the people could push. We should have waited. It was too soon. What were we thinking? That [...]

Read the full article →

Epiphany

Last week, I flipped to a page in what I call my “bible”–my copy of Long Quiet Highway, by Natalie Goldberg. This book is about waking up in America through the eyes of a woman seeking something more. It’s about Buddhism. Because of its independent principles, I can turn to any page at any time [...]

Read the full article →