Tearjerker

While I was at a Little Free Library a few weeks ago, searching for (and finding) a geocache, I took a minute to scan the book titles. I found this kid's book that I'd never heard of before, but it had the symbol of a Newbery Honor Book on the cover, so I snagged it.

Pictures of Hollis Woods by Patricia Reilly Giff is the story of a 10 year old girl lost to the foster child system. She was found in the woods as an infant, and has stayed with family after family her entire life. She's thought of as a troublemaker and angry. She doesn't like to give straight answers. When things get tough, she runs. Eventually she's found and dumped in another home.

Hollis is an artist. Quite a good one, at that. She draws pictures of her experiences. We get to hear the stories behind those pictures.

Eventually Hollis is placed with a family that wants to become her forever family. But there's an incident (hinted at throughout the book), that causes Hollis to run again. This time when she's caught, she's placed with an old woman who is an artist. It's a great match, except that the woman has early onstage dementia. As much as Hollis wants to stay, she'll be forced to move on again. So, she runs. 

This time she takes the old woman with her.

It's a lovely, lovely book with characters you want to care about. It all comes out well in the end, as you might expect. But it comes out even better than expected.

I absolutely love this book. Best book of children's literature I've read in a while. This book reminds me why I love Kid Lit so much. 

Hummingbird

When I visited my sister Eleanore last month, we had a rambling conversation that included some childhood memories. We talked a bit about how difficult is was to relate to our dad. He was ... intimidating.

She asked me, 'Do you know who helped me?" I shook my head no. "Fr. Joe. He had a difficult Italian father, too. He helped me understand Dad a little more."

Fr. Joe was a young new priest at our parish. I remember him giving good homilies during Mass. He was cute and most of the girls in the parish swooned over him a bit. He was really good with the teens. As I remember it, Fr. Joe left the parish, and then the Church, with some scandalous stories that followed him out the door. 

A few years ago I learned that he'd written an autobiography called, Confessions of a Roaming Catholic Priest: an Autobiographical Thriller. It's out of print, of course. It pops up on Amazon as a used book now and again. I hadn't bought it because I wasn't sure if I'd read a print book (I've gone primarily digital), and didn't want to spring the 20 bucks for a book if it was going to languish on my shelf.

But after talking to Eleanore, I decided to purchase it. I read it before passing it on to my sister. It's not bad. It's fairly well written and has a decent storyline about how Fr. Joe became a drug smuggler. He wasn't very good at it, and got caught. He spent some time in prison. Much of the book is about the friendships he built and his experimentation with various drugs during his initial travels after giving up the priesthood. The rest of the book concerns the men he met in prison and how the inmates helped each other on their spiritual paths. I can recommend this read.

Another part of my conversation with my sister was about how we feel our loved ones who have passed on. Eleanore told me that her sign of Jerry is a hummingbird. She has some that visit in her backyard.

So I decided to stitch a bookmark as a gift to go along with Fr. Joe's book.

I'm not exactly sure of the name of the chart or designer. The pamphlet just says, "Hummingbird Chart." It was a freebie chart that came with an order I received from The Needleworker, which was a quarterly cross-stitch magazine back in the 90s. The style of this pattern is reminiscent of Just Nan designs.

I kept the chart all these decades because I liked the bird and the flowers that formed a sweet heart shape. And you know how I like my hearts.

The pattern is nearly too big for a proper bookmark, but I made it work. I stitched it on a 32ct linen scrap, finishing the edges with a nun's stitch and fringe.

I can't believe how out of practice I am with stitching now! I sure do like the results.

The Time Has Come

I've been carrying this book with me from home to home for nearly 30 years. I plucked it off the shelf today intending to read through the introduction so I can decide it it's finally the year for me to work through it, or the year to give it away. I bought At A Journal Workshop: Writing to Access the Unconscious and Evoke Creative Ability all those years ago because the very title spoke to a deep aspiration.

What would it be like to have the time, the money, the headspace, the self-indulgence, and the emotional fortitude to go to an intensive journal workshop? That sounded like heaven to me.

But it never happened. When I opened the book today, it was clear that I'd never even cracked the cover.

This year, I'm exploring a different way to journal. For several years now, I've written Morning Pages as taught in Julia Cameron's The Artist Way. I like that method of journaling. It worked well for me -- until it didn't when the pandemic hit. I haven't been journaling for six months, and I miss the practice.

From what I've read so far in the book, and from the YouTube videos I've watched about this method, "intense" is an understatement. Some of the method sounds awfully familiar from other self-help psychology books I've worked though -- and they were intense. Will this be repetitive? Have I already done this inner work? Am I up for it? Maybe. I'll see.

One way or another, this book and I will have a new conclusion this year.

Score!

Go me! Hooray!

I completed another of my 19 in 2019 goals today!

Goal #19:  "Finish at least one of these courses" ... and I gave 7 possibilities. I worked through The Creative License by Danny Gregory.

At the start of the year, I was gung-ho about taking this course and finally learning to draw. My early efforts were good. But then drawing got hard. It made my head hurt to try. I didn't want to pick up my pencil. So I switched gears and used some online tutorials to draw some of my favorite cartoon characters. I liked that better. But I was finding excuses to do anything except draw. Honestly, I'd rather clean the kitchen or do laundry. Instant satisfaction from a job well done!

So I switched gears again. I decided to carefully read through the book, and absorb some of the concepts offered, then use them to apply to the arts I enjoy more. So here are my final thoughts on this book.

Though there are some basic guides to learn to draw in the beginning of the book, that is not the book's primary thrust. The subtitle to The Creative License is "Giving Yourself Permission to be the Artist You Truly Are." 

That means giving yourself permission to try and fail at drawing. Then to try and fail at any other art form you choose to attempt.

Danny Gregory uses drawing as his entry point into a creative life. He annoys me sometimes by presuming it's the best entry point ... mostly because of its convenience, I guess. All you need is a pen and a notebook. 

Of course, I take issue with that presumption because the concepts he presents can easily be adapted to any creative medium. After all, with a smartphone in your pocket, I'd say that photography is equally or more convenient than drawing. But that is my bias.

He does get around to talking about other artistic mediums toward the end of the book.

What I learned for sure is what I truly already knew: drawing is not something I really want to do, or I would have been compelled to try it a lot earlier in my 61 years on the planet.

I also learned that I'm capable of learning to draw, and can have some success at it if I put the time and effort into it. But it hurts my head right now. I don't itch to pick up a pencil and draw the way my fingers itch for a needle, floss, crochet hook, yarn, or camera.

Will I ever learn to draw? Maybe. If I find the right teacher at the right time in my life. 

So I had to ask myself, "Why did you think you wanted to learn to draw at the start of 2019?" That answer is easy. 

Whenever someone asks me, "What do you do?" I find that a tricky question. Being an at-home mom and a homemaker for most of my life has been rewarding, but those occupations are not generally satisfying to questioners who are looking for a profession as an answer. 

But if I say, "I'm an artist," the response is usually, "Oh! You draw and paint? I wish I could do that." Then I have to say, "No. I can't draw. I'm a needle artist." That always gets a weird look and I have to explain more. Saying "I'm a photographer" is easier to understand, but then people want me to take photos of people or events, and that's not my preferred subject. To me, taking those kinds of photos can hurt my head as much as drawing does. 

I took up The Creative License hoping to learn to draw to simply have an easier, truthful answer to a banal question. Honestly, that's an awfully insubstantial reason to want to learn to draw.

At the end of the book, Danny has a  l-o-n-g  list of other art forms to try. I counted 50 that I've already done, most with a degree of success. I'll own that achievement and proudly display those gold stars.

So for now, I'll call this goal reached. I'll return to some of my many other more favored art forms. I have a plethora awaiting my attention in my Studio. Tending to some of those will help me mark off more entries from my 19 in 2019 list of goals.

The Highest Dream

When I was a junior high student, I read this book about a young woman just out of college, trying to figure out how she wanted to live her life. She started her career as a guide at the United Nations. I also remember a love story was part of the plot.

There was something about this book ...

The images in my mind that this book created left an impression long after I read the book, forgot the author, forgot the title, and grew up. I wracked my brain for this title off and on for years. I asked my favorite children's librarian from my days as a kid if she recognized the story. No. I asked my daughter the young adult librarian. No such luck. But last year I asked my friend Google a series of questions that finally narrowed my search -- and found the answer.

The book is The Highest Dream by Phyllis A. Whitney. It's copyrighted 1956 - the year before I was born. I read it about 12 years later.

This is the cover of the copy I had as a kid. I found a large print version online for a few bucks, and bought it. I finished reading it last weekend. Though all the elements I remembered about the book were there, and I'd remembered them accurately, I saw some new things this time.

The main difference I have now that I didn't have as a pre-teen was a sense of history. To me, the United Nations has "always" been around. But when the book was written, the notion that nations of all sizes would send delegates to come together, to listen to one another's needs, to help one another to grow their economies and to provide health care through food and vaccines was novel. The U.N. was formed in October 1945. That's just 11 years before The Highest Dream was published.

This passage in particular struck me as prescient / ironic / sad / hopeful:

Norman, a young man who works in broadcasting at the United Nations, is speaking to Mr. Somers, an iconic newsman, about the young man's father:

"I'm afraid Dad belongs to a school of thought that is, thank goodness, dying out. He feels that the United States is only safe behind its own walls and there is too great a risk in getting into the world's affairs."

Mr. Somers nodded. "It's surprising that there are still those who forget that no walls are high enough today. To live with honor means to take a risk. Yet in our eagerness to get away from this sort of thinking, the United States has sometimes rushed in with too much forceful enthusiasm and tried to change things too rapidly in other countries. I believe the United Nations does a wise job of starting where people are."

"Sometimes though," Norman said, "the progress is so slow that it all seems hopeless."

"That's when we look ahead to all we want to accomplish. But when we look back --" Mr. Somer's eye lighted - "we know how far we've come."

This passage could as easily be written today as in 1956. The U.S. is still talking of building walls and pushing against people that want to join our nation. There are those that still want to take care of just the legal citizens and let the others be damned. In 1956, Phyllis Whitney thought that approach was dying out. I find it sad and frightening to watch its recurrence.

In the early years, the concept that nations can work together to lift one another up was under attack. A world war had just ended. Many nations were licking their wounds and thought they should simply take care of their own within their own borders. Some people rooted for the United Nations to fail, just as the League of Nations had failed at the beginning of the 20th century.

Personally, I'm glad that over seventy years later, the concept of the United Nations is holding. Yes, there has been corruption in the ranks over the years. But the world is smaller now due to travel and technology. If walls couldn't hold then in 1956, they're even less likely to hold now.

The greater U.N. goals of listening to one another and counties-helping-countries has remained. Thank goodness there are times when the U.N. helps the U.S. cool its jets when our power goes to our head.

I suppose I have much of the same optimism as the heroine of the story, Lisa Somers. She sees that there's a lot of work to do to make our world a more fair, just, and peaceful place for all. There's a lot of good that can be done. I can do my little part, while keeping the bigger picture in my mind's eye.

Having My Ups and Downs

The last three weeks have been atypical around here. First Dale was on a business trip for a week ... so I didn't sleep as well as usual. Then I worked through a busy week of prep so the extended family could join us to celebrate Thanksgiving. Last week I began recovering from that extended weekend of activity (the house still isn't quite put back together). Finally yesterday, Grandma and Grandpa got to babysit Melody for almost six hours -- AND Jeanne and I celebrated our joint birthday.

My emotional health is all shaken up again simply from the excitement of many good things. My physical health could use a break, too.

So today Dale spent flying around the universe of No Man's Sky. I needed a quiet and repetitive respite. So I started a new craft project. Using scraps of fabric I received when I was part of a quilt group, I cut a lot of circles, and started turning them into yo-yos.

I saw yo-yo wreath, ornament, and topiary tree designs in the Mary Maxim catalog. I thought I'd give the tree a try using the materials I have on hand.

I sat and cut and sewed while listening to the audiobook recording of Michelle Obama's wonderful memoir, Becoming. It's superbly written. She narrates it exceptionally well. I highly recommend it!

A few more restful days like this and I'll be re-energized and ready to welcome Christmas.

Let's Read This Year

I'm hoping to spend a bit more time lost in the leaves in 2016. Maybe you'll join me. Today I finished this book.

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.
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.
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A gripping story from the headlines made for a quick read, but not great writing. Far to linear for my taste and too lacking in place and detail. The last chapter was worth the entire book.

Lupine Love

The lupines in our yard are volunteers

I like them so much, I can't think of them as weeds. They're far too pretty.

Besides, they remind me of one of my very favorite children's books, Miss Rumphius.

Book Review: I Want It NOW!

My overall impression?

Don't bother.

I Want it Now: A Memoir of Life on the Set of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory is (co)written by Julie Dawn Cole, the gal who played the little brat Varuca Salt in the original Willy Wanka movie.


There's nothing really wrong with this book. There's just not a whole lot right. It's a fairly linear tale of how Julie won the role, what it was like on the set, and how it affected her life.

The photos are fun to see, but the captions nearly word-for-word follow the text they accompany -- they don't add more insight. Her impression of the other child actors is a little interesting. The lifelong connections she made at that critical time in her life are understandable.

The trouble with the book is that it's written as though this was the highlight of Julie's life -- at 13 years old. And that is just sad.

Oh, sure, she goes on to tell a bit more about her career in film and movies and voice-overs. But it's told only as an adjunct to the next time she sees her old cast members and other post-Wanka celeb meet-ups. So, it falls flat as a story of a child actor that was able to make the transition into the entertainment industry as an adult. There's no depth of description to the characters presented. There's too much name-dropping. There's nothing to sink your imagination into. There are no real lessons learned. It's the old adage: SHOW us, don't TELL us.

So ... eh.

I recommend spending your time reading a memoir that leaves you wanting more, rather than this tale you're glad is finally over.

2 stars

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Book Review: The Fault in Our Stars

Buy it. Read it. Love it.

There's a reason this book is #1 on the New York Times and Wall Street Journal best seller's list. It's a really good book.

I was introduced to John Green and his brother Hank by my daughters in the summer of '07 right before the release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Hank wrote an awesome song about the book release. So I knew that these siblings are known as the VlogBrothers, that Hank sings, that John writes, and that their followers are the Nerdfighters.

What I didn't know was how well John writes. I was completely enthralled with this story of teenage kids dealing with cancer, death, life, and love. All the characters are well-formed. And for a young adult audience, it was nice to see realistic adults in this book. It's a good plot. And like life, there is not exactly a happy ending. But neither is it sad. One might even ask, "Does the story end?"

Lovely book. Great read. You won't be disappointed.
5 stars


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I'm an Artist-ish

This sweet picture book was recommended to me by my dear friend Louise. Ish is all about living and enjoying your imperfection. All you really need is to try to do things to the best of your abilities.

In this story, little Ramon loves to draw. His older brother looks over his shoulder and laughs at Ramon's drawing. From that moment forward, Ramon looses his drawing mojo, feeling like his drawings will never measure up to the real deal. Until, that is, his little sister sees the artwork for what it is.

So what if the flower vase doesn't exactly look like the real thing? It looks vase-ish!

Life isn't perfect, and neither is art. One can still be an artist, even if what one draws or paints or writes or stitches is not perfect. So be imperfect -- add your creativity to your world!

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Ol' Amos McGee

As a long-time fan of children's literature, I've been collecting the Newbury Award and Caldecott Award books for years. Short as they are, I've not read most of the books in my collection!

So one of my goals for 2012 is to read the Caldecott books. These are the picture books, so the goal is quite do-able, even though I haven't been reading a lot of books lately. (My main reading tends to be blogs these days. Wonder why?)

For Christmas, my librarian daughter, Julie, gave me A Sick Day for Amos McGee written by Philip C. Stead and illustrated by his wife, Erin E. Stead. This is a totally charming book!

It's a simple story of an older gentleman, Amos McGee, who rises early each morning to catch a bus to the zoo where he works. The animals are his friends. Amos spends one-on-one time with his friends doing activities unique to each. He plays chess with the elephant, races with the turtle, sits quietly with the shy penguin, wipes the nose of the highly allergic rhinoceros and reads bedtime stories to the owl (who is afraid of the dark).

One day Amos awakes, not feeling well. He stays home from work. His animal friends are worried about him so go for a visit. Each one cares for Amos in his own way to help Amos feel better.

As with so many Caldecott award winners, the story is sweet and is largely a vehicle for the extraordinary artwork. This book has gentle pencil illustrations, each with a dash of color. The attention to detail is a large part of the charm: the pattern of the quilt, the socks on the penguin's feet, the way the owl wears spectacles... even the polka dots on the rhino's handkerchief.

A wonderful aspect of these books, for me, is that though they are intended for children, adults can appreciate them as a feast for the eyes and a sigh for the soul.

Haiku

I've been reading a thoroughly engrossing book this week, Barefoot Sisters: Southbound. It's the true story of two sisters from Maine who hike the Appalachian Trail from north to south -- barefoot. There are great descriptions of the land and the people they meet along the trail. They make up songs and stories along the way. I highly recommend this book for people who want to go on a journey of inspiration ... especially if you're snowbound and ill as I've been this week!

Today, I read this haiku, written by jackrabbit, the younger sister. She was wistful about a fellow hiker she met early in her journey who was now far, far ahead of her on the trail:

Winter moon, tangled
branches -- now not even dreams
return him to me

That image struck me with poignancy.

I found it amusing that I should run into a haiku in the book. It's not a form of poetry one stumbles over every day. Yet just earlier in the day my daughter Jodie was waiting in the rain at the bus stop, wanting a ride home from school. She texted me a series of four haiku! Here's my favorite (not bad for a girl grumpy due to wet feet!)

Couple strolling forth
Beneath single umbrella.
Romance is alive.

Since I've been under the weather, texts from my daughter help keep my spirits up. My haiku reply to her was not nearly as inspired, but is nonetheless a window into my slightly stir-crazy situation:

I'm messing around
on my computer right now.
Nap in my future.

Reading Today

I'm trying to get myself to sit down and read today. I love reading. I really don't know why it's been such a struggle for me to just sit down and enjoy it. I've been like this for months!

I'm actually reading this book on my Kindle ... but the software is in the process of updating on my device, so here I am, back on my laptop.

The book?

The Irresistible Revolution: Living as an Ordinary Radical
by Shane Claiborne

A friend and I have a "bookclub for two" and this is a title he recommended. I find the book quite a challenge. First, because it's written from the perspective of a Christian. I am just not sure where I fall on the Christian scale any more. I'm a cultural Christian. That is my background, was my strong belief system for most of my life, was the framework in which I took action, and those are the holidays I celebrate. But this modern Christian world is not something I recognize as being very Christ-like. A predominance of American Christians seem to have gotten faith and belief mixed up with ideology and politics. I can't be a part of that. So I wonder how this Christian-based book can be translated for a more secular audience that still is drawn to the idea of social outreach and equity.

Beyond that, this book is challenging for its message. What would it be like if we as a people actually LIVED the teachings of Jesus? What if we dwelled with the poor and disenfranchised? What if we cared for the sick, dying and homeless personally? What if we shared all our meals? What if we loved our enemies every time? What if we lived the Beatitudes?

Challenging indeed. In many ways, not very practical while raising a family and trying to provide health insurance. But challenging, nonetheless, to do what we can in our ordinary lives to be as servant to one another.

Perhaps it's taking me a long time to read this book because I can only take so much of this kind of challenge at a time. Then I have to stop. Think. Pray. Mull. And dive in again.

Book Review: When You Reach Me

A short review today ...

I looked forward to reading this book, as I collect Newbery Award winners. One of my daughters gave this to me as a gift, knowing my love for children's literature.

I was ... dissappointed.

It's very likely I would have enjoyed it more if I had recently read Madeleine L'Engle’s classic A Wrinkle in Time. But it's been eons since I read that classic, so I missed a lot of the references in this book.

My two main objections?

I suppose I just got too creeped out by the notes Miranda was receiving ... notes from the future. This, of course, is likely what lots of kids like about the book ... the creepiness that comes with imagining time travel. To me, it was like having a stranger invade my space and steal from me. I'm super-sensitive to that scenario.

I also thought that the characters could have been drawn more distinctly. I was left with an image in my mind of only two of the minor characters, none of the main characters. That's pretty unusual for me.

I do recommend going over to Amazon.com and reading their Exclusive Q&A with the author, Rebecca Stead. Perhaps I would have enjoyed the book more, if I'd taken that step.

But I think it's a shame that I couldn't just enjoy this book on its own merits, picking it up blind and delving between the covers.

On a five star rating, I give it three stars.

In Early February

Outside my window...
traces of snow at the curb
far too many pine needles

I am thinking...
way too much
especially in the wee small hours of the morning

I am thankful for...
Julie's safe solo trip across the country
Jodie's last months at home before college

From the kitchen...
the aroma of pasta e fagioli
a fresh batch stewing in the pot

I am wearing...
my uniform:
blue sweats, black T, lined hoodie

I am creating...
a vision of life with Dale
once kids are gone and we get to be "a couple"

I am going...
to learn to use my new camera!

(one of these days)

I am reading...
The Wednesday Sisters
by Meg Waite Clayton
just finished, in fact
(can't really recommend it)

I am hoping...
to put two and two together
and finally come up with four

I am hearing...
the sound of my fruit gum
popping

Around the house...
bits
of Valentine love

One of my favorite things...
slipping into clean sheets
after a hot shower and powdered body

A few plans for the rest of the week...
help Julie get settled back into life at home
then do my job to help her on to her career

Sunday Secrets: December 05, 2010

PostSecret is an ongoing community art project where people mail in their secrets anonymously on one side of a homemade postcard. I find it to be an insightful sociological experiment. Only one of today's secrets caused me to raise an eyebrow:

I'd think that shopping lists and receipts
would make for good fodder for a novelist.

The name Frank gave this postcard:
checkout.www.foundmagazine.com

I've read Found for a couple years now. It's fun.
Makes for a quirky gift, too.









They even have a "Dirty Found" magazine for those that enjoy a bit of extra steam in their lives.





Today's secret also reminds me of this book:
To-Do List: From Buying Milk to Finding a Soul Mate, What Our Lists Reveal About Us.
Browsing through this book is an interesting way to while away an hour.





There are FIVE PostSecret books that also make for great gifts. I've got all five, and just love them. My favorite just might be The Secret Lives of Men and Women

Book Review: I Feel Bad About My Neck

I Feel Bad About My Neck by Nora Ephron

I'm glad this was a short book, because it was a waste.

That makes me a little sad.

• Because I wanted to laugh
• Because I rarely sit down to just read for pleasure, and this wasn't a pleasure.
• Because I really like Nora Ephron. I like her movies. I like watching people interview her. I like her humor in those settings. I like to laugh.
  
• I didn't laugh.
  

I'm pretty sure I didn't like the book because, unlike Nora, I'm not over 60. But neither is my best friend. She gave me the book because she loves to laugh. She read it and laughed.

I'm pretty sure I didn't like the book because I don't like big cities. Nora likes Los Angeles. Las Vegas. She loves New York. When I was in New York, it creeped me out.

I'm pretty sure I didn't like the book because, believe it or not, I'm enjoying growing older. I don't mind that I have laugh lines and that my hair is thin with gray bits. I don't mind that when I look in the mirror, I see images of my grandmother. I loved my grandmother. If I'm becoming more like her, I think that's a good thing to be. I'm looking forward to being a grandmother. (When you're ready, Daughters. Not now.)

Maybe I'll feel differently when I'm over 60. I doubt it. She has complaints in there about being over 50. Even over 40. Nora finds the funny in life one way. I find it another way. There's room for both of us on this planet.

So just because I thought this was a waste, you might not. You and I might not laugh at the same jokes. The rose-colored lenses in our glasses might be two different shades.


2 Stars

Book Review: Gunn's Golden Rules

Gunn's Golden Rules: Life's Little Lessons for Making it Work by Tim Gunn

What a great book! Read it!

5 stars

--

Oh, that's not enough of a recommendation? OK. Here's why.

It's sensible.
It's down to earth.
It's about treating yourself and others with respect.
It's funny.
It's serious.
It's light.
It's deep.
It's readable.
It's honest.
It's wise.
It's quotable.

There are some gossipy stories about well-known people that illustrate the points he's making. Those stories are getting the press in book reviews. But that didn't hold the charm for me. Tim's way with words and dignity in the telling are what drew me in.

Here are some quotable gems:

• Speaking of a hideous white elephant gift: "It's ambitiously bad."
  
• "Why would you want to derail people who have a good impulse?"
• "There should be a lot more thank-yous."
• "There are a lot of people with whom I interact because I have to; that doesn't man I want to eat cake with them."
• "If someone doesn't ask, you don't have a moral obligation to say every thought that pops into your head."
• "Niceness can at times feel a little bit thankless."
  
• "There is absolutely never any reason to be a fire-breathing dragon."
• "Shorter is better. Always."

On that note, I end this review.

(READ THIS BOOK!)


p.s. This is the first book I read on my Kindle. I'm falling in love with my electronic book! As a bibliophile, I wasn't sure I'd like it. Where are the covers, the pages, the texture, the color images, the smell that are a big part of the book-reading experience? True. Those are missing. But there is an ease in reading that makes this a pure pleasure. I found myself picking up my Kindle far more often than my paper volumes. I don't keep dropping my bookmarks! My favorite feature is being able to make notes and marks "in the margins" and then being able to easily pull up your favorite bits. And the entire book is search-able ... without relying on an index! I'm making a vow that of every two books I read, one will be a paper version from my vast library of unread tomes. The other will be on my Kindle!

The Story of Awesome

From a TED conference







Get The Book of Awesome
Immerse yourself
in the small, good details of life!