HungryForLife

the night circus

Booklovers, have you ever started reading a book with a story or characters that resonate so deeply you don’t want to read it too fast? For me Erin Morgenstern has done exactly that with The Night Circus.

What’s it about you may wonder? Hmmm, I’d say. Then I’d have to pause and think for a minute because it’s an unusual story steeped in magic and quirky characters and ultimately a circus that is only open at night and filled with impossible delights. There’s a mysterious challenge between opponents who are not aware of each other’s identity. All wrapped in a velvet cloak of a love story. It’s a black and white striped world filled with explosions of vivid color and life.

I’m savoring The Night Circus a couple short chapters at a time, it’s lasted me two weeks so far! I’ll let you know if I’m as enamored with the ending as I am of the beginning.Intrigued? I hope so!

Marvelisms

My mom's subscription of O Magazine has arrived each month all year and I have piled them in a basket without reading them. Not because of the magazine but because it was something mom loved to do and had struggled with so much in her final months. She was always tearing out tidbits and words to share with me from magazines. I miss that.

Last month when I was ready to create my weight goal vision board I used the magazines to cut out words and photos that spoke to me. I also couldn't help but read a few articles and was wowed at the content and insightfulness. Mom would want me to read them, of course she would! I know it seems such a glaringly obvious fact but for me this was an AHA moment.

I read January's edition from cover to cover and the final page "What I Know for Sure" by Oprah resonated with me immensely and I hope you'll go here and read it in it's entirety. Here's an excerpt that seeped deep into my core and settled quietly, stilly, basking in the truth and power of these words:

"I choose to see it (2012) as the dawning of a new year of alignment, because with alignment comes enlightenment. When you're aligned with your heart's desire, when you're in sync with who you're meant to be and how you're supposed to contribute to our magnificent Earth, you feel a shift in perception. You start to notice that miracles show up regularly.

Some people call these miracles coincidences or serendipity. I like to call them marvelisms. Because when I'm doing everything I'm meant to do to keep my mind, body, and spirit whole (which for me means meditating twice a day, eating healthy, and exercising at least one hour daily), I constantly marvel at how other experiences fall into place. It's as though that beautiful line in Paulo Coelho's novel The Alchemist comes true: "When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.""

Isn't that the best word!? Marvelisms. What marvelisms do you want to attract for yourself in 2012 dear reader? I have made great strides the last month of 2011 to answer that question clearly for myself and already on this fisrt day of the New Year feel I am on the exact right path and it feels...well it feels marvelous!

stories that will haunt you

Chris Bohjalian has done it again with The Night Strangers. It’s a gripping ghost story with a hum dinger of an ending. Here’s an excellent review.

The Lantern is a beautifully written first novel by Deborah Lawrenson. A haunted house, dark family secrets, disappearances, and troubled lovers all combined and set in Provence with gorgeous lilting descriptions of past and present French countryside.

Reading list from Learning2011

Many of the speakers and presenters at Learning 2011 were also authors and so I've compiled a list of their books and the books they recommended. Being a bibliophile and working with a group of librarians made this list a must have!

The Learning Explosion: 9 Rules to Ignite Your Virtual Classroom By Matt Murdoch & Treion Muller

The Art of the Focused Conversation Edited by  R. Brian Stanfield

Wikinomics & Macrowikinomics By Don Tapscott and Anthony Williams

Back to Work By Bill Clinton

The Big Sort By Bill Bishop and Robert Cushing

Being Wrong By Kathryn Schulz

The Indian Clerk: A Novel By David Leavitt

Social Media for Trainers By Jane Bozarth

Power of Pull By John Seely Brown

The Checklist Manifesto By Atul Gawande

Take the Lead By Betsy Meyers

A call to action from Mr. Clinton

Former President Bill Clinton was the keynote speaker at the Learning 2011 Conference I attended last week on behalf of my client. Our host and presenter Elliott Maisie asked our former president to tie his speech to the topic of learning as a continued conversation about the future of learning. Mr. Clinton was scheduled to speak for thirty minutes and be interviewed by our host for thirty minutes. He took the topic to heart and masterfully wove the culture around learning into every aspect of his presentation.

Mr. Clinton was ushered in by the lively playing of Eric Stanley on the violin. (More about Eric's amazing talent in a future post.) He had two pages of notes, there was no teleprompter for this live audience of just over 2000 people. And he did put his reading glasses on but then proceeded to speak to us from the heart for sixty minutes without using his notes at all!

I’m not a public speaker and could never imagine what it takes to connect with so many people so intimately. He knew his stuff. And regardless of a person’s political views or personal opinions of Bill Clinton I think he reached many hearts and minds that evening. I was awed and impressed by his passion for his country, his commitment to making a difference in the world, and for his message of possibility and call to action. Thank you Mr. Clinton for leading the way as a philanthropist and humanist and keeping our dreams for the future alive.

Here are the highlights as I recall them; my note taking was scribbled longhand so I’m not quoting directly:

The How’s:

How do we  invite people to “…drop their barriers to hearing new things in new ways.”

What’s the roll of education and learning in creating new systems? Ditto the roll of technology and how will we disseminate it.

How to lift people up (third world countries) without tearing yourself down.

How to share the future.

His call to action:

Lifetime learning—be a lifelong learner

We have to reform our systems and there’s a vital educational component to that

Re-form education how much we can teach through technology

Copy models that work, re-forming the way we learn

Why don’t good ideas or models travel in developed societies?

A glimpse of his initiatives at The Clinton Foundation:

Renewable energy and climate change

Childhood obesity

Mr. Clinton is an avid reader and says he learns best by reading, here are a few titles he recommended:

His new book of course, Back to Work (yes I bought a copy!)

Bill Bishop’s The Big Sort 

Being Wrong by Kathryn Schulz

The Checklist Manifesto by Atul Gawande

The Indian Clerk by David Leavitt (a novel recommended by his daughter Chelsea)

Wisdom:

Utter once a day: I was wrong or I don’t know.

Develop a decision making process that’s rooted in tomorrow.

Everybody has a story—he grew up in a family of storytellers where you had to demonstrate you could listen to a story before you were allowed to tell one.

Most people are happiest doing what they are best at.

curl up and read

A Secret Kept by Tatiana de Rosnay brings a variety of relationships viividly to life as we follow two French siblings in their forties as they delve into forgotten childhood memories and journey through a maze of secrets of their long dead mother's past. Who was she? How did she really die? A definite page turner! By the author of the beloved novel Sarah's Key (which is now also a major motion picture starring Kirsten Scott Thomas—heart touchingly portrayed).

The Dive From Clausen's Pier is the first Ann Packer novel I've read. I'll be ordering more. Enriched with details of Carrie's life and the tradgey she runs away from, this is moving story about relationships. And this gem from the protagonist's mom about the choices we make resontaed strongly for me, " But it's not very helpful to regard your choices as a series of right or wrong moves. They don't define you as much as you define them."

I often note passages that resonate with me and collect them in a notebook. Makes for interesting reading down the road—I'm able to track my growth and interests on my reading journey. You?

Happy reading booklovers! ♥

Journaling joy

Here's the handmade (designed cut sewn everything) journal Lisa gave me when we met in San Diego! You can see more of Lisa's beautiful paper and ink creations at Rivertown Press. Lisa you are amazing—thank you again!

 

And here are my new fun instant scrapbooks, my SMASH journals, "For the moments and musings that stick"! I received both as gifts and love them, two different themes, thank you again Honoré and Lucy! I add everyhthing from movie ticket stubs to the tags off the top and pants I bought!

Books that transport

The Way is magically written and transported me to the time of Jesus and combines spirituality, myth, history, and fantasy into a story about the Messiah that is sure to be deeply discussed in book clubs, living rooms, and café's worldwide. Controversial? Yes. Written from the heart to spread love? Absolutely. If you enjoyed Og Mandino's The Christ Commission or Kathleen McGowan's novels like The Expected One. You're sure to find yourself transported by Kristen's debut novel.

I only resecently discovered Diane Chamberlain when I picked up a copy of The Secret Life of Cee Cee Wilkes. It was a good story with solid characters. My girlfreind passed on a well worn copy of Secrets She Left Behind and I was up way too late turning the pages—transported to an island off North Carolina where tradgedy has befallen the community. I was captivated by the way Diane told this story from four alternating viewpoints. There is a prequel (which I discovered afterwards) but it's meant to stand alone, maybe she'll consider making it into a trilogy.

The characters and plot are so complex and well delivered that it seems impossible this is Vanessa's first published novel. The Language of Flowers is a story of forgiveness, redemption, mother daughter relationships, and a unique and fascinating communication style: the meaning and definition behind a simple bloom. Oh dear reader, you will be transported by the sights and smells on these pages and you'll think lovingly of Victoria Jones whenever you see a bouquet of flowers and wonder if the giver and receiver know what's being said. Remarkable debut novel! Not a coincidence I chose bougainvillea to include in the photo above. ;)

My bookshelf

 

I keep a little notebook of books I've read and its kinda sparse for 2011—I haven't read that many books so far this year. After my full days I find I am drawn to a movie on Netflix or an older television series that we can view online. At night my tired brain can't seem to focus on a story in print. I've pledged to break this habit this month! Often when I mindlessly watch the screen I am also mindlessly eating and I absolutely want to HALT that old habit off immediately.

I usually walk through a bookstore and let books call to me. Yanno sometimes its just a little, "Pssst!" And other times it will be a title someone left on a table in the café.These are a few titles that attracted me that my lovely public library was helpful enough to order and reserve for me. I love our library! I 'll share my thoughts on those I recommend as I finish reading them.

A Stolen Life a memoir by Jaycee Dugard(audio read by author) It’s not an easy story to hear, it’s written very simply but graphically. It is similar to the story told in ‘Room’ except this is unbelievably real life. I decided since Jaycee was brave enough to write it I’d be brave enough to listen.

Signs of Life  a memoir by Natalie Taylor I'm still drawn to books on how others live through loss and grief. Natalie was a newlywed, with a new house, new career, and new baby on the way when her husband was killed in a freak accident. She finds her way through to hope with the surprising help of a saucy fairy-god-mother and her wicked sense of humor.

Healer by Carol Cassella A novel of lost financial freedom and security. A medical career set aside to raise her family. Claire is determined to keep her family together and learn the true meaning of healing.

Left Neglected by Lisa Genova I read Lisa's first novel about early onset Alzheimers in one sitting. Gripping and haunting. She follows with this story of a brain injury that leaves go-getter-career-mom Sarah without the use of her left side.

This Beautiful Life by Helen Schulman A teenage boy receives a sexually explicit video from a girl who likes him. One keystroke and bad decision later he shares it with a friend. Within hours the video is viral.

Next to Love by Ellen Feldman Quote from book flap: "Sometimes the most interesting war stories are not about the soldiers themselves but about the loved ones they leave behind."

Coloring My World

I read about Kathryn Sockett, this new author, some time ago. She had written a book about black maids raising Southern white children.  I resonated with the story right away and couldn’t wait to read The Help.

I grew up in the Bahamas Islands with a professional mother who worked in real estate and later owned tourist shops in the Bazaar.  We always had a maid that worked at our house and was home after school. This wasn’t because we were wealthy by any means  – these women worked cheap and were often employed illegally. As a kid in the late sixties I didn’t wonder about this arrangement.  Unfortunately our maids didn’t stay with us for long so I never grew attached. We had high spirited Jamaican women with their lovely lilting accents enticing me into our kitchen to taste their fried plantains. There were quiet hard working Haitian women who only had a few words of English but signed and pointed animatedly so that I understood their meaning. And even Bahamian women with proud attitudes who were insulted by the job and sat and watched television with me.

I was in awe of these women—their rich ebony hands on my pale freckled arms made me long to be like them. Dark. Strong. Passionate.  They spoke their minds around the bosses kid, I never made a peep anyway as I was drunk on their foreignness yet their differentness seemed so natural to me. They lived in their bodies danced and sang while they made beds, mopped floors, and cooked exotic meals I was far too tentative to taste.  I learned the song Yellow Bird and longed to fly away with them when they left.

I grew up a minority in a country that was learning how to be independent and was achingly proud; many natives were prejudiced towards foreigners regardless of their skin color. I know what it’s like to be judged by what I look like not who I am.  But the dark skinned women who wove a colorful patina on my monochrome world opened my eyes to a new way of being and living that was alive and free of any judgment for my shyness, pale skin, or lack of culinary appreciation.  They accepted me as I was and gave me the greatest gift—I was free to be me.

Watching Kathryn’s book come alive on the screen last week was an emotional tug-of-war.  These women’s stories were the weapon of choice for justice and what was right. When I wasn’t laughing out loud I was crying either tears of heart rending grief or rivers of joy.

When Aibileen asks Mae Mobley to remember what she told her for the last time and Baby Girl recites,
“ I is kind. I is smart. I is important.”

Heart rending.

Skeeter summed it up with this description of her relationship with her maid Constantine,
"Oh, it was delicious to have someone to keep secrets with...It was having someone look at you after your mother has nearly fretted herself to death because you are freakishly tall and frizzy and odd. Someone whose eyes simply said, without words, "You are fine with me."

Joy. Rivers of joy.

The Help Official Movie Site