The dutch house. By Ann Patchett

The dutch house 

By Ann Patchett

Ok Brigham I confess I’m enjoying it. What’s not to like about sentences like:

-But that’s where we wound up: like swallows like salmon with a helpless captives of our migratory patterns.

-to list the things I didn’t ask my father about would be to list the stars in heaven, so let me throw out one:

“ we were for filling the expectations that have been set for us: the sons of doctors were expected to become doctors because back in the day medicine was still where the smart kids went a handful of them in my medical school class who knows maybe they were one to actually want to be there ... immigrants were expected to become doctors in order to make a better life for their families and others had been driven to work the hardest be the smartest respect

“ I learned a lot about Celeste in the year she been gone I came to see her willingness to not be a distraction as something that took effort I didn’t even know how to be grateful for it; until I was with other women who wanted to read the articles from the paper in the morning I was studying or read me their horoscope for my horoscope explain their feelings to me or crying over the fact that I never explained my feelings to them. Celeste had been so adept at making me her job that I hadn’t seen her doing it l. It wasn’t until after she left that I realize she stayed till Sunday nights because Sunday was when she wash the sheets and the rest of the laundry made the bed and got back in it. 

And so I made the decision to change it might seem like change is impossible with my nature and my age but I understood exactly what there was to lose. It was chemistry all over again. The point was it whether I like or not I liked it . the point was it had to be done.

Back of Candlelight

I think this is on the border of being a romance novel. it’s smart women,in a small town,the bookstore is a central player in the story. Where all the main characters are single women, of various races, ethnicitites persuasions except one - There are multiple second-tier men in the story as well though they are not critical, essential yes, Not critical.

Bibliotherapy words have power to hurt and heal but can do both. will hurt because they’ll give voice to the pain you’re feeling then they’ll help you heal. 

Life of our Lord by Charles Dickens

Life of our Lord 

by Charles Dickens

Between 1846 and 1849 Charles Dickens wrote The Life of our Lord;  The New English version of the gospels,  the story of Christ. He wanted to make sure it was in the language that his children could understand this was just for his kids. They were never published as a book and he made others promise they would not publish it either. Once they were all dead , a grandson , published it in 1934. It was never counted among his published works, millions and millions of copies. His purpose was simple to teach his children about the life in history of Jesus Christ to bring your tears of mercy and forgiveness.

Read it in one day that was meant to be read that way. He made  it easy to read and comprehend the story of Christ Jesus. Power of the scriptures I found it a good Christmas activity.

“It is Christianity to do good always, even to those who do evil to us. It is Christianity to love our neighbors as ourselves, and to do to all men as we would have them do to us. 

It is Christianity to be gentle, merciful and forgiving, and to keep those qualities quiet in our own hearts, never make a boast of them or of our  prayers or of  our love of God, but always to show that we love him by humbly trying to do the right in everything. If we do this, and remember the life and lessons of our Lord Jesus Christ and try to act up to them, we may confidently hope that God will forgive us our sins and mistakes and enable us to live and die in peace.

The Murmur of Bees

The Murmur of Bees Sophia Segovia 

 The main story focuses on the Morales Cortés family in Linares, north of Mexico, during the Mexican Revolution in the early 1900s and the scourge of the Spanish flu epidemic. An unpredictable love story of beautiful versatility and dedication to the family, to life, to land and to a brother that has always been waiting. But, also, a story of a betrayal that could end everything.

...and by the rapturous smells of “oranges, blossoms, and honey. Without the bees swarming around him, coming and going, the information he received from the world was linear; while with them, from the moment he had begun to feel sensation, he had grown accustomed to perceiving the world as it was: a sphere.” the changes in his community, the adventures and misfortunes, and, most of all, how Simonopio, a young boy that has a strong intuition to foretell future events, manages to change the history of the family that takes him in and of the whole region

And then told themselves everything was back to normal. Lost in Hardwork they forgot that the families living in exile as far away as possible from ...

Delighted him that his was a story that never been written down. Being in possession of that story meant Simonopio could make endless changes… He does not put it in writing enjoy the freedom to reshape it at will

“ that “you leave a place or say goodbye to someone, and thereafter, you feel the existence you have left behind is frozen by your absence.”

..life had no guarantees regardless of how many plans were made ... while life did not make promises sometimes it offered opportunities... 

... it was if she lived only half life in complete in both places after that because after the experience of three months in exile she knew that life stopped for nothing, not even for the needs of a woman abandoning everything, albeit temporarily to be with her daughters to get to know her grandchildren… She felt The relationship would change she would be left outside like an intruder in her own home , a voyeur who can only look into a cracked closed window. 

The world is for the living ... When should I claim to old habits in a longer work in changing world even if it felt as if they had been hit by another revolution

... It doesn’t matter whether Time passes slowly or quickly. What you can be sure of is that in the end all you want is to have more. ...

If he had his wife in front of him just one more time, and find a way to repeat in the single look all of the tender words that he had said to her since they met. He would make sure that this last look would even create new words just for her.

The permanent absence of her husband had given her no choice but to admit it out loud life offers no guarantees to anyone and waits for nobody has no consideration for anyone

Houses die when they are not fed with their owners energy… Living house where I was born gave me everything that defined it when I left...

How did the bees do it ... it was important to listen to listen to what life sometimes murmurs into your ear, heart, or gut. Listen carefully and pay attention, Francisco. 

Tell the story to my children they only know pieces of it it’s time for them to know at all tell them I love them very much they’re worth the years I spent that see my brother tell them to walk in the shade to listen with their eyes to see what their skin feel with their ears because life speaks to us all just need to know wait to listen to it see it feel it I know all too well that these lessons come late but I wasn’t ready to teach them until today.

We walk without looking back because on this journey all we care about is our Destination

Remind you of the ending of Chronicles of Narnia as they walk to the greenline remind you of the ending of great divorce as people walk to where they become real to having

Overground railroad: the green book and the roots of black travel in America.   by Candacy Taylor

The green book represents an ingenious solution to a horrific problem - optimism of a race of people facing tyranny and terrorism.

An opportunity to examine America's story of segregation,  black migration, and the rise of the black leisure class; and you go to these sites you remember that America is a messy collection of customs traditions and values and beliefs systems that have been shaped by capitalism patriarchy and white supremacy.

“Don’t buy where you can’t work” great theme for a protest I think

“Sundown town” is an all white enclave that bands black people from entering after dark.

Esso corporation headed by Rockefeller had a vision for treating black people with dignity and respect back in the 1930s. I never knew he had done such good things wayback when and had someone of color, even at the VP level. 

Some green book hotels are literally the first tourist homes - the first Airbnb’s

The new Jim Crowe mass incarceration in the age of color blindness found that more African-Americans are under correctional control today than were enslaved in 1850.

History does not repeat itself humans do!

Prison gerrymandering takes black people out of their communities and places them at least in the census in a nearly all black inmates are counted as resident in the prison instead of the towns where they are from .

Not a particularly well written or structured book. Fraught with redundancy  and cobbled together thoughts. It was extremely well researched and commented. Overwhelming in the totality of institutional racism that has and does continue to define America. Yet, another voice that aids in the awakening of the need for change  in the US of A.

Here in the Real World  by Sara PennyPacker

Under the guise of pre-screening a new book to share with Eden and or Dean, in the NYT Reviews,I found this from the author of Pax, - Here in the Real World - a middle grade novel that is “an ode to introverts, dreamers, and misfits everywhere”.  It had me second guessing at the beginning, in candor to the end, whether it was an evangelical, born-again novella. It was not, she simply uses that vocabulary and language in a comfortable, natural, non-forced manner. I should do more of that by embracing gospel terms in my everyday language. I think the kids will enjoy it. I did.” Don’t ask to be normal - you are so much more than that.” The main characters are different yet the same as they try to self identify and as they do , how to live in a world that does not always embrace who you want to be. Naturally, it is set in Florida.

Talking to Strangers by Malcolm Gladwell.

Gladwell proposes that we don’t know how to talk to strangers because of this we are inviting conflict and misunderstanding that have a profound effect on life in the world. He provides very solid examples. However I feel short-changed at the end in that he doesn’t provide sufficient solutions or workarounds. Still an interesting read.

• Assume the best of other people is an anchor point of modern society
• There are definitely limits to our ability to decipher a stranger . And statistically were easily mistaken
• we need to exercise restraint / caution and humility when evaluating a stranger
• Truth and transparency are needed recognize that we don’t understand the stranger 

We are the weather Jonathan Safran Foer

We are the weather - saving the planet begins at breakfastJonathan Safran Foer

We all have to choose to make a difference as little as I can be and as public as it can be

   Over the years my motivations changed because the available information changed because my life changed aging has proliferated  my identities ,  time softens ethical boundaries fosters a greater appreciation for what might be called the messiness of life 

      A pivotal moment in the Bible where God asks his people where they are he finds Adam hiding after eating the forbidden fruit and says where are you?and when he calls to Abraham before asking about sacrifice his only son clearly an omniscient God knows where his creations are his questions are not about the location of a body in space but the location of a self within a person

⁃ 59% crop growing land is growing crops  for livestock 

⁃ 1/3 of all freshwater that human use this for livestock 

⁃ 70% of the antibiotics produced globally are used for livestock 

⁃ 60% of all mammals on earth are raised for food 

⁃ There are 30 farm animals for every human on the planet

The four  highest impact things an individual can do to tackle climate change are :

1- eat a plant-based diet 

2- avoid air travel 

3- use the car less

4- have fewer children

I  could not see it because I was not looking for it

It’s a shame that instead of having a minority of climate atheists we have a majority of climate  agnostics

It is not enough to say that we want more life m, we must refuse to stop saying it! can you show me a home together which was arguing with ourselves and we shall make a home together

Kindness and Wonder Fred Rogers By: Edwards Gav

Kindness and Wonder

Fred Rogers

By: Edwards Gav

I just finished listening to this delightful book of an exemplar man; and I’m anxious to see the movie with Tom Hanks . Fred was incredibly consistent between his public and private self; in a good way. 

I enjoyed listening ! 

Phrases to go by

1-there’s just one person in the world just like you and I like you just the way you are

2- A gift of a grand piano from his grandma change the way Fred saw him self

3- there’s no contradiction in using a secular tool for religious purpose (his view was the TV the brothers today as the Internet)

4- pray more for other people in the morning before your day starts

5- that which is essential is invisible to the eye - Ralph Waldo Emerson 

6-You can talk to me about anything you want to and I will try to help you in anyway I can

7- Did I help someone in need today and I let them know I was their friend

Emulate Fred Rogers:

• Be deep and simple 
• Be kind to strangers
• Make a joyful noise
• Tell the truth
• Connect with other people in anyway you can
• Love your neighbor
• Find the light in the darkness
• Always see the very best in everyone
• Accept the changing seasons
• Share what you learn
• (Spontaneous acts of kindness)

The Convert A Novel. Stefan Hertmans. Translated by David McKay

 T

The Convert

A NOVEL.

by Stefan Hertmans 

Translated by David McKay

The story where worlds collide. What’s the blond-hair blue-eyed Viking descendant daughter of a Christian manor lord doing getting married with a Jewish son of a rabbi traversing old France to Egypt evading pogroms and the Crusuades kicking into gear in the 1090’s .

This historic novel is narrated by the author (within the book - not Stephan hertsman) writing the book about the woman convert . Retracing her steps of the 1100s as sleuths

the puzzle of documentation and place 1000 yrs after the fact , by retracing her steps today.

If you like the middle ages , like revisiting places in Egypt and France and Spain that you visited before; like a blend of good guys between Muslims and Christians and Jews - then this is a book for you. I enjoyed all those aspects what a fun read it was a quick read.