Library Loot ~ February 22-28

Ninety Minutes in Heaven:  A True Story of Death and Life ~ by Don Piper, 2004, memoir

When Don Piper's car collided with a semi-truck he was pronounced dead at the scene.  For the next 90 minutes, he experienced the glories of heaven.  Back on earth, a passing minister felt led to pray for the accident victim even though he was told Piper was dead.  Miraculously, Piper came back to life, and the pleasure of heaven was replaced by a long and painful recovery.

My friend Jane wants me to read this book so we can discuss it.  Since it was published eight years ago, I haven't had any particular desire to get it, but Jane has questions.  If you've read it, tell me what you think.

A Grown-Up Kind of Pretty ~ by Joshilyn Jackson, 2012, fiction

Fifteen-year-old Mosey Slocumb — spirited, sassy, and on the cusp of womanhood — is shaken when a small grave is unearthed in the backyard, and determined to figure out why it's there.  Liza, her stroke-ravaged mother, is haunted by choices she made as a teenager.  But it is Jenny, Mosey's strong and big-hearted grandmother, whose maternal love braids together the strands of the women's shared past — and who will stop at nothing to defend their future.

The Invisible Ones ~ by Stef Penney, 2012, fiction

Small-time private investigator Ray Lovell veers between paralysis and delirium in a hospital bed.  But before the accident that landed him there, he'd been hired to find Rose Janko, the wife of a charismatic son of a traveling Gypsy family, who went missing seven years earlier.  Half Romany himself, Ray is well aware that he's been chosen more for his blood than his investigative skills.  Still, he's surprised by the intense hostility he encounters from the Jankos, who haven't had an easy past.  Touched by tragedy, they're either cursed or hiding a terrible secret — whose discovery Ray can't help suspecting is connected to Rose's disappearance.

Something Wendy Robards @ Caribousmom said made me reserve this one at my library:

"Penney has a way of constructing her novels to provide tension.  This novel had me guessing right up until the end when Penney inserts a twist I did not see coming."

I Could Tell You Stories: Sojourns in the Land of Memory ~ by Patricia Hampl, 1999, memoir

Memoir has become the signature genre of our age.  In this timely gathering, one of our most elegant practitioners explores the autobiographical writing that has enchanted or bedeviled her.  Patricia Hampl's topics include her family's response to her writing, the ethics of writing about family and friends, St. Augustine's Confessions, reflections on reading Walt Whitman during the Vietnam War, and an early experience reviewing Sylvia Plath.  The word that unites the impulse within all the pieces is "Remember!" -- a command that can be startling. For to remember is to make a pledge:  to the indelible experience of personal perception, and to history itself.

I do remember I discovered this one when Beth Kephart quoted from it, saying her students would be reading the first two chapters that week.  I put the book on reserve because of this section she shared.  Thanks, Beth.

Maybe a reader's love of memoir is less an intrusive lust for confession than a hankering for the intimacy of this first-person voice, the deeply satisfying sense of being spoken to privately.  More than a story, we want a voice speaking softly, urgently, in our ear.  Which is to say, to our heart.  That voice carries its implacable command, the ancient murmur that called out to me in the middle of the country in the middle of the war — remember, remember (I dare you, I tempt you).

Besides teaching and writing novels for young adults, Beth Kephart has also written several memoirs, which I wrote about in an earlier library loot post.

Library Loot is a weekly meme co-hosted by Claire from The Captive Reader and Marg from The Adventures of an Intrepid Reader that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library.  If you would like to share a list of the loot your brought home from the library, Marg has the Mister Linky this week.

Just walked in the door ~ Still

Still: Notes on a Mid-Faith Crisis ~ by Lauren F. Winner, 2012, memoir

Synopsis:  In the critically acclaimed memoir Girl Meets God, Lauren F. Winner chronicled her sojourn from Judaism to Christianity.  Now, in Still: Notes on a Mid-Faith Crisis, Winner describes how experiences of loss and failure unexpectedly slam her into a wall of doubt and spiritual despair:  “My belief has faltered, my sense of God’s closeness has grown strained, my efforts at living in accord with what I take to be the call of the gospel have come undone.”

Witty, relatable, and fiercely honest, Winner lays bare her experience of what she calls the “middle” of the spiritual life.  In elegant and spare prose, she explores why — in the midst of the overwhelming anxiety, loneliness, and boredom of her deepest questioning about where (or if) God is — the Christian story still explains who she is better than any other story she’s ever known.  Still is an absorbing meditation combining literary grace with spiritual wisdom.  It is sure to resonate with anyone looking to sustain a spiritual life in the midst of real life.

This book arrived in the mail today.  A couple of weeks ago, while waiting for this book to arrive, I got Girl Meets God (2002) from the library.  I wanted to read it first, and now I have the next installment of her faith journey at hand.  And, hey, she inscribed this fresh-off-the-presses book to me before mailing it.  See?

Thanks, Lauren.  I've already printed out the study guide and plan to go through it thoughtfully, day by day.

Sunday Salon ~ bookstore bounty

BOOKS

After lunch last Sunday, Donna and I went to the bookstore in sight of Applebee's door.  As a matter of fact, when she told me to pick a restaurant, I chose that one for its proximity to the bookstore.  After all, I'm a bookie, aren't I?  Bookie, bookaholic, book blogger, something like that, all of that.  Anyway, I rarely walk away with nothing, and that visit was about average.  Donna got five or six books, so I think I was entirely circumspect in going home with only two young adult novels.

Patience, Princess Catherine ~ by Carolyn Meyer, 2004, YA fiction (England)

Catherine of Aragon grew up expecting she would someday become the queen of England — not a dejected teenage widow.  But that is exactly what happens when fragile Prince Arthur, to whom she has been betrothed since the age of three, dies only months after their wedding.  Her power now obsolete, Catherine is exiled to a dank castle in a remote part of the country.  She is stranded there for years with little money and no control over her own fate.  The one ray of light in her lonely life is her friendship with handsome Prince Henry, her deceased husband's younger brother.  A marriage to Henry could elevate Catherine from her precarious position and give her the crown that she was once promised.  But will Henry take the risk of making the destitute princess his queen?

Mary, Bloody Mary ~ by Carolyn Meyer, 1999, YA fiction (England)

Mary Tudor is a beautiful young princess in a grand palace filled with servants.  She is accustomed to sparkling jewels, beautiful gowns, and lavish parties.  Then, suddenly, she is banished by her father, King Henry VIII, to live in a cold, lonely place without money, new clothes, or even her mother.  At first it seems like a terrible mistake.  Even when her father has a public and humiliating affair with a bewitching woman, Mary remains hopeful.  But when he abandons her mother, marries his mistress, and has a child with her, Mary begins to lose faith.  And now, dressed in rags, she is summoned back to the palace to be a serving maid to her new baby half sister.  Mary Tudor, daughter of Henry VIII, is a servant in her own home.  Believe it or not, it's all true.

I had checked out six books about Eleanor of Aquitaine, who married into the Plantagenet dynasty.  So these Tudor princesses, one the mother of the other, moved me on down the line of English royalty into a later century or two.  Although these books may be in my public library, buying them as remaindered books makes sense to me.
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STATS

Just finished:  Defending Jacob ~ by William Landay, 2012, fiction (Massachusetts), 8/10

Currently reading:  American Gospel: God, the Founding Fathers, and the Making of a Nation ~ by Jon Meacham, 2006, politics and religion

Up next, or actually, also currently reading:  Ninety Minutes in Heaven: A True Story of Death and Life ~ by Don Piper, 2004, memoir

Totals for 2012:  15 finished + 1 DNF (did not finish) + 9 reviews

____________________

LIFE

Three years ago today, I had quadruple bypass surgery.  Talk about life-changing!  I was missing from the blogging scene for weeks, with only two possts between mid-December and mid-March.  I returned with a post I called "Ya gotta have heart."  Then no more posts for a couple of months.  Since I "started over," I consider this my new birthday.  That means I'm three years old today!

I actually had a first birthday party, which I dubbed my rebirthday, inviting my post-surgery support group to party with me.  We played games — well, only the pin-the-tail game shown here, which had special rules for the elderly, meaning (in this case) anyone over ten.  And for you youngsters who don't know, the ancient technology in this photo is called a record player — it plays vinyl records, which I still have in two heavy boxes.  The very first song on the first album picked by one of my friends that day was Carole King's "You've Got a Friend" from her Tapestry album — "Ain't it good to know that you've got a friend?"  How appropriate was that?

Raegan, my 2-year-old great-granddaughter, is very proud of her artwork.  Good job, Raegan!

Visit the Sunday Salon's Facebook page for links to more posts.

Dead ~ at the beginning

Ninety Minutes in Heaven:  A True Story of Death and Life ~ by Don Piper, 2004, memoir

I died on January 18, 1989.

Paramedics reached the scene of the accident within minutes.  They found no pulse and declared me dead.  They covered me with a tarp so that onlookers wouldn't stare at me while they attended to the injuries of the others.  I was completely unaware of the paramedics or anyone else around me.

While I was in heaven, a Baptist preacher came on the accident scene.  Even though he knew I was dead, he rushed to my lifeless body and prayed for me.  Despite the scoffing of the Emergency Medical Technicians (EMTs), he refused to stop praying.

At least ninety minutes after the EMTs pronounced me dead, God answered that man's prayers.

I returned to earth.

This is my story.

I've already started reading this book -- today -- almost as soon as I left the library with it.  I'll probably have it finished before my library loot is posted on Wednesday.

 If you want to share the first lines of a book you are reading, click on the link and visit Katy at A Few More Pages.  (Today's list.)

Browse there to find interesting books for your own reading list.  And don’t forget that Katy and all the contributors to this meme (including me) love comments.

Quote from Plato

"The wise* talk because they have something to say;

fools, because they have to say something."

— Plato

* "Wise men" is the way it was translated from the original Greek, but I want to include women among those who are wise and foolish.

Thinking cap ~ a new feature

Let's do something a little different today.  But first, don your thinking cap and get ready.  Yes, thinking.  That's today's game plan.  Do we need a little practice before we get into the heavy stuff?  Okay, I won't make this hard since it's your first day on this particular playing field.  Ready?  Time to use your noggin.

Which is correct?  (Or better, which makes more sense to you?)


One is half of two.

-or-

Two are halves of one.


The conversation is HERE.




To access all my "thinking cap" posts, click HERE.

Library Loot ~ February 15-21

A Long, Long Sleep ~ by Anna Sheehan, 2011, YA fiction

It should have been a short suspended-animation sleep.  But this time Rose wakes up to find her past is long gone — and her future full of peril.  Rosalinda Fitzroy has been asleep for sixty-two years when she is woken by a kiss.  Locked away in the chemically induced slumber of a stasis tube in a forgotten subbasement, sixteen-year-old Rose slept straight through the Dark Times that killed millions and utterly changed the world she knew.  Now, her parents and her first love are long gone, and Rose — hailed upon her awakening as the long-lost heir to an interplanetary empire — is thrust alone into a future in which she is viewed as either a freak or a threat.  Desperate to put the past behind her and adapt to her new world, Rose finds herself drawn to the boy who kissed her awake, hoping that he can help her to start fresh.  But when a deadly danger jeopardizes her fragile new existence, Rose must face the ghosts of her past with open eyes — or be left without any future at all.

Alyce @ At Home with Books is giving away a copy of this book, which sounded to interesting that I went ahead and reserved it at the library.   Even if I win it, I can go ahead and start reading now.

Defending Jacob ~ by William Landay, 2012, fiction (Massachusetts)

Andy Barber has been an assistant district attorney in his suburban Massachusetts county for more than twenty years.  He is respected in his community, tenacious in the courtroom, and happy at home with his wife, Laurie, and son, Jacob.   But when a shocking crime shatters their New England town, Andy is blindsided by what happens next:  His fourteen-year-old son is charged with the murder of a fellow student.  Every parental instinct Andy has rallies to protect his boy.  Jacob insists that he is innocent, and Andy believes him.  Andy must.  He’s his father.  But as damning facts and shocking revelations surface, as a marriage threatens to crumble and the trial intensifies, as the crisis reveals how little a father knows about his son, Andy will face a trial of his own — between loyalty and justice, between truth and allegation, between a past he’s tried to bury and a future he cannot conceive.  Award-winning author William Landay has written the consummate novel of an embattled family in crisis — a suspenseful, character-driven mystery that is also a spellbinding tale of guilt, betrayal, and the terrifying speed at which our lives can spin out of control.

Sheila @ Book Journey listed ten books she had heard were "the best of February."  Defending Jacob was fifth on the list, but one she herself was considering.  After clicking her link and reading about it, I agreed and reserved it at the library.  She said,

"I have read none of these.  Have you?  Out of the list two interest me… maybe three.  Defending Jacob sounds pretty good..."

Ninth Ward ~ by Jewell Parker Rhodes, 2010, YA fiction (Louisiana), 9/10

I rarely re-read books, and this is one I read less than a year ago -- in May.  So why this book, and why now?  Because I'm reading it during February as the book chosen for the online African American Read-In.  To read a summary of the book and learn more about the read-in, click here.

Library Loot is a weekly meme co-hosted by Claire from The Captive Reader and Marg from The Adventures of an Intrepid Reader that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library.  Claire has the Mister Linky this week, if you'd like to share the loot you brought home.  You may submit your link any time during the week.