★★★★★

The Odyssey by Homer

/ ★★★★★, Epics and Poetry, Reading

★★★★★ | Ancient | Print | Own | StoryGraph | Goodreads

It was high time I reread this classic.  I found the story much more engaging that The Iliad — crafty Odysseus and his wily ways.  There are so many stories in this epic that are embedded in our literary subconscious — Circe, Calypso, the Sirens, the Cyclops, revenge against the suitors, etc. Because of its legacy, I can’t rate this any lower than a five.  And yet, I didn’t find myself rooting for Odysseus after all his hubris and, in particular, thinking of all the grieving fathers who lost sons during his exploits.  And what for?

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The Big Rock Candy Mountain by Wallace Stegner

/ ★★★★★, Literary Fiction, Reading

★★★★★ | Literary Fiction | Print | Own | StoryGraph | Goodreads

A bleak, bleak story that could have been written about my upbringing.  I am giving this book a five-star rating because of the writing and how perfectly Stegner captured the angst of living in the perpetual get-rich-quick ambition that plagues some people.

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Parnassus on Wheels by Christopher Morley

/ ★★★★★, Literary Fiction, Reading

★★★★★ | Literary Fiction | Print | Own | StoryGraph | Goodreads

What a delightful little book.  I read this 36 years ago, so parts of it were vaguely familiar.

When you sell a man a book you don’t sell him just twelve ounces of paper and ink and glue-you sell him a whole new life. Love and friendship and humour and ships at sea by night-there’s all heaven and earth in a book, a real book I mean. 

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The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd

/ ★★★★★, Literary Fiction, Reading

★★★★★ | Literary Fiction | Print | Own | StoryGraph | Goodreads

I enjoyed this book so much more than I expected.  Perhaps it’s the grief I have been feeling that has opened up new emotional channels.  I found myself tearing up at multiple points in reading this book.  I really cared for the characters: Lily, August, May, Rosaleen, these beautiful, wise women.

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Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

/ ★★★★★, Literature, Reading

★★★★★ | Literature | Print | Own | StoryGraph | Goodreads

A beautiful, wise book touching so many themes: true love, societal pressures, women’s rights, nobility excesses, religious zealotry, jealousy, the fruitless search for the meaning of life, angst over landowner privilege, thinking vs. feeling/living, capitalism vs. communism. Reading Tolstoy is the study of life.

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Finding Meaning by David Kessler

/ ★★★★★, Psychology, Reading

★★★★★ | Psychology | Digital | Borrow | StoryGraph | Goodreads

Reading Notes

Six Stages of Grief

  1. Denial: shock and disbelief that the loss has occurred
  2. Anger: that someone we love is no longer here
  3. Bargaining: all the what-ifs and regrets
  4. Depression: sadness from the loss
  5. Acceptance: acknowledging the reality of the loss
  6. Meaning: finding a way to sustain your love for the person after death while you move forward with your life.

The Three Steps of Taking in the Good

  1. Identify a positive experience or memory you shared with your loved one.
  2. Enrich this memory. Savor it. Think about it.  Repeat it over and over again in your mind for 20 – 30 seconds.
  3. Absorb the experience. Sink into it and let it sink into you. Feel it in your body. Soak it in. Visualize it in your mind.  Let it become part of you.
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Treason’s Harbour by Patrick O’Brian

/ ★★★★★, Nautical Fiction, Reading

★★★★★ | Nautical Fiction | Digital | Own | StoryGraph | Goodreads 

The week after Connor passed, I could not distract myself with reading. But, I desperately needed the distraction, so I turned to the healing salve of Aubrey and Maturin. I picked up where I left off with Treason’s Harbour, which is either my third or fourth time through these books.  Transporting myself to another known world outside my suffering and despair seemed to help.

As with most of these books, the story line seemed only vaguely familiar, despite multiple readings.  Why is that? I believe I read O’Brian in such a comfortable state, letting the words roll over me, that I don’t pay too close attention to the plot.

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Moby Dick by Herman Melville

/ ★★★★★, Literature, Reading

★★★★★ | Literature | Print | Own | StoryGraph | Goodreads

A close reading of this classic with the group. I read this in college, and while I finished it, I wasn’t quite sure what I had read. This time, having many decades to reflect on it, and benefitting from the expert notes of my fellow readers, and understanding better the brutal facts of mortality and existence, I drank this in, entranced. Maybe this one is only meant to be read later in life.

When I feel that “damp, drizzly November in my soul,” I’ll return once more to this incredible novel.

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Searching for Stars on an Island in Maine by Alan Lightman

/ ★★★★★, Reading, Science

★★★★★ | Science | Digital | Borrow | StoryGraph | Goodreads

A short book of essays on the meaning of life from the perspective of a physicist and poetic writer.  This particular volume intersperses anecdotes from Lightman’s life at his summer cottage on a remote island in Maine.  His depictions of island life were touching, especially as we make arrangements to leave our own island.

In a meandering, thought-provoking manner, Lightman eventually comes around to a nihilistic view of existence.  We’re here by chance in an uncaring, random universe that will eventually fade out and collapse like everything else, which is no great loss for the cosmos since in his view there are billions of additional universes in the greater multiverse.  This perspective makes me dizzy to the think of our impossibly small stature in space and time.

But, perhaps we ourselves represent a multiverse, with countless universes inside us.  Space is infinitely large and small, the theory goes.  Time is also infinite, long and short. The life of a star — billions of years in our concept of time — might elapse inside of a single heartbeat for the multitudes within us.

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Will by Will Smith

/ ★★★★★, Memoir, Reading

★★★★★ | Memoir | Audio | Borrow | StoryGraph | Goodreads

Fascinating memoir. I listened to the audiobook narrated by Will Smith himself, which was a performance in itself. Some very good life lessons about pushing through adversity to achieve big goals. Some very funny parts, and some sad ones too. I loved it.

Favorite Quotes

“Stop thinking about the damn wall!” he said. “There is no wall. There are only bricks. Your job is to lay this brick perfectly. Then move on to the next brick. Then lay that brick perfectly. Then the next one. Don’t be worrying about no wall. Your only concern is one brick.”

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The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway

/ ★★★★★, Literature, Reading

★★★★★ | Literature | Print | Own | StoryGraph | Goodreads

At least my fourth reading of this Hemingway classic. My comfort read, maybe my favorite book.  I had to buy a new edition because I wore my last copy to tatters.

Highlights

As he had been thinking for months about leaving his wife and had not done it because it would be too cruel to deprive her of himself, her departure was a very healthful shock.

Brett was damned good-looking. She wore a slipover jersey sweater and a tweed skirt, and her hair was brushed back like a boy’s. She started all that. She was built with curves like the hull of a racing yacht, and you missed none of it with that wool jersey.

You can’t get away from yourself by moving from one place to another. There’s nothing to that.

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Meditations by Marcus Aurelius

/ ★★★★★, Philosophy, Reading

★★★★★ | Philosophy | Print | Own | StoryGraph | Goodreads

Nine Things to Remember When Offended:

  1. You are a part of mankind, not a thing apart. You were born to lead.
  2. Put yourself in the minds of those who offend you.
  3. If what annoys you is done in the right, you should not be perturbed.  If it’s wrong, know that it done unintentionally or in ignorance. They know not what they do.
  4. Remember that you offend others in ways you don’t know.
  5. You can’t know the hidden intentions of others. They may be acting on a perfectly sensible way.
  6. Remember that mortal life is fleeting.  No one will care about this in 100 years.
  7. It is not the act itself that annoys us, but the color we ascribe to it.
  8. The act of becoming angry hurts us more than the act itself.
  9. Kindness in the moment of another’s rudeness is irresistible. Be kind.
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Bleak House by Charles Dickens

/ ★★★★★, Literature, Reading

★★★★★ | Literature | Digital | Borrow | StoryGraph | Goodreads

Key Themes

  1. Corruption in the British court system.
  2. Miseries of children — orphans, child labor, mistreatment.
  3. The mystery of Lady Dedlock.

Highlights

It is the long vacation in the regions of Chancery Lane. The good ships Law and Equity, those teak-built, copper-bottomed, iron- fastened, brazen-faced, and not by any means fast-sailing clippers are laid up in ordinary. The Flying Dutchman, with a crew of ghostly clients imploring all whom they may encounter to peruse their papers, has drifted, for the time being, heaven knows where.

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