11/27/12

Traveling With Pomegranates: A Mother-Daughter Story

By Sue Monk Kidd and Ann Kidd Taylor

Committed: A skeptic makes peace with marriage

by Elizabeth Gilbert

The second book after Eat, Pray, Love.  Boy, am I glad I never saw the movie on the first one.
This, however, was a fast, quick and slightly entertaining read.  Marriage is just another box and this box happens to reside on a roller coaster sometimes.

10/28/12

The Night Circus

by Erin Morgenstern

Entranced until p. 37.  Always my stumbling block, I wonder about the intent of authors who write with such ease about relationships between men and women starting so swiftly and seemingly without much care -as if there were no baggage, strings or mixed emotions involved.

The story is engaging and I enjoy the feeling of my mind humming with potential threads.

10/25/12

The Language of Flowers

by Vanessa Diffenbaugh

Exquisite, 83 pages in.  Ugh, page 84.
The layout of the story, building like perfectly shaped ice blocks, has just shifted and now it melts.  Boo.

Peace is the Way

by Deepak Chopra

Just able to get through three pages of this one.  My focus is not headed in this direction currently and, from what I already know of human nature and the aspect of peace on us, I seriously doubt by my reading this book will I swerve the conscious and unconsciouses needed to proclaim any person fully and truly at peace long enough to make changes for all.

10/22/12

Love is a Four-Letter Word: True Stories of Breakups, Bad Relationships, and Broken Hearts

Edited by Michael Taeckens

Of the many authors who have contributed or were amassed together for this book I now know of a few that I would skip in the future and others who I would take a second look at.  Having this one theme as a focus gave me the space to think on what I would write and, once those thoughts clouded my head, the more pressing thoughts of why I would skip this assignment.  I found many to be navel-gazing without imparting much significance for others to glean from.  This, alone, was good for me to understand.

10/18/12

On Becoming Fearless in Love, Work, and Life

by Arianna Huffington

In Her Place: A Documentary History of Prejudice Against Women

edited by S.T. Joshi

Lots of works compiled together here - the enormous luggage we carry on our backs for all to read.

10/16/12

The Marriage Plot

by Jeffery Eugenides

Loving this one so far.  Day 1.5 and 132 pages in.
Sentences like this: "Since coming east to college, Mitchell had been trying to wash the Midwest off of himself.  Sitting around Larry's room, drinking the muddy espresso Larry made and hearing him talk about "the theater of the absurd," seemed like a good way to start."
...and this one is a minor bit - some of the power-packed punches are delightful to read, as if swirling a refined red about on the tongue.  So far, a very nice read for me that I am having trouble putting down.

Now finished with the novel, I have to admit I was engrossed because it seemed like a story I would have written although the ending was lacking a sentence to two to make it seem more real.  Also, I have to add, often times a male author can  not adequately capture thoughts and feelings that a woman would have but Eugenides handled this taks with confident ease.  Although a beach book but of higher class, I still enjoyed the reading.


...yikes, as the sediment of this book sinks lower I am struck by many different ideas.  The main characters and their intertwining plot lines, or lack thereof, the availability of a religious experience for an american man in India or anywhere for that matter, the choices a woman has to decide between at all stages of her life - marriage, work, self, children.  Ugh.  What I really wish to do is devote myself to the religious experience of reading and writing but, alas, I can not at this point due to, you guessed it, marriage, work, self, children.  Ugh.

10/13/12