Beginning ~ at 4:45 a.m.

If I'd Killed Him When I Met Him... ~ by Sharyn McCrumb, 1995, mystery

The fact that Eleanor Royden was putting on lipstick at 4:45 was not unusual; the fact that it was 4:45 in the morning, however, made it an unprecedented departure from her usual routine.

Because I enjoyed reading several of her books, I checked out three by Sharyn McCrumb from my library.  That was three years ago, and I didn't get any of those books read.  Now I live in St. Louis, and I found this mystery book at one of my new libraries.  It was on the sale shelf, which means I own the book and haven't gotten around to reading it yet.  I did, however, finish the other book I bought that day.  Now I need to find out why Eleanor Royden was putting on lipstick at 4:45 a.m.  At this point, I don't even know who she is.

Gilion at Rose City Reader hosts Book Beginnings on Fridays.  Click here for today's Mister Linky.

Library Loot ~ October 29 to November 4

When I Was a Child I Read Books ~ by Marilynne Robinson, 2012, essays

In the ten essays of this book, Robinson tackles the charged political and social climate in the United States, the deeply embedded role of generosity in Christian faith, and the nature of individualism and the myth of the American West.

Through the Evil Days ~ by Julia Spencer-Fleming, 2013, mystery

Julia Spencer-Fleming raises the stakes for Russ and Clare, putting their new marriage, their unborn child, a missing teen, and their very own lives on the line.  On a frigid January night, Chief of Police Russ Van Alstyne and Reverend Clare Fergusson are called to the scene of a raging fire.  The extent of the tragedy isn't known until the next day, when the charred remains of a man and woman are recovered — along with evidence showing they were shot execution style.  The last thing Russ needs are two potential homicides.  He's struggling with the prospect of impending fatherhood, and his new wife is not at all happy with his proposal for their long-delayed honeymoon:  a week ice-fishing at a remote Adirondack lake.  St. Alban's Church is still in turmoil over the Reverend Clare Fergusson's news that she's five and a half months pregnant — but only two and a half months married.  Worried her post-deployment drinking and drug use may have damaged the baby, she awaits the outcome of the bishop's investigation into her "unpriestly" behavior:  a scolding, censure, or permanent suspension.

Officer Hadley Knox is having a miserable January as well.  Her on-again, off-again lover, Kevin Flynn, has seven days to weigh an offer from the Syracuse Police Department that might take him half a state away.  And her ex-husband's in town — threatening to take custody of their kids unless Hadley pays him off with money she doesn't have.  When Hadley discovers that the dead couple fostered an eight-year-old girl who was a recent liver donee, the search for the killer takes on a new and terrible urgency.  With no access to immunosuppressant drugs, transplant rejection will kill the girl in a matter of days.

As a deadly ice storm downs power lines and immobilizes roads, Russ and Clare search desperately for the truth about the missing child, but the hunters will become the hunted when they are trapped in the cabin beside the frozen lake and stalked through the snowbound woods by a killer.

Americanah ~ by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, 2013, fiction

Ifemelu and Obinze are young and in love when they depart military-ruled Nigeria for the West.  Beautiful, self-assured Ifemelu heads for America, where despite her academic success, she is forced to grapple with what it means to be black for the first time.  Quiet, thoughtful Obinze had hoped to join her, but with post-9/11 America closed to him, he instead plunges into a dangerous, undocumented life in London.  Fifteen years later, they reunite in a newly democratic Nigeria, and reignite their passion — for each other and for their homeland.

Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Claire @ The Captive Reader and Linda @ Silly Little Mischief that encourages us to share the names of books we checked out of the library.  See what others got this week.

Readers' Workouts ~ third week

Readers' Workouts for October 28, 2014

On Friday, I put in a couple of extra hours walking after my one-hour exercise class when Joy of Joy's Book Blog showed me around the Missouri Botanical Gardens.  Joy, how long was our "long walk at the Missouri Botanical Garden" on Friday?  How many minutes did you generate during our walk?  I'm sure I went a lot slower than you usually would, but I do so appreciate the tour and getting to meet you.  I didn't take a picture during my class, but here's the architect's drawing of the exercise center.  We had only ten of us on Friday, but nearly twenty the week before.  By the way, I live in a senior center, and my exercise class includes people with walkers and at least one in a wheelchair.  We do gentle exercises twice a week, for one hour each time.

Joy also mentioned our visit to the Missouri Botanical Garden.  Thanks, Joy.

Monday Mindfulness ~ what's on your mind?

"All that we are is a result of all that we thought." — Buddha

Beginning ~ with a television news crew

Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet ~ by Jamie Ford, 2009, fiction (Seattle, Washington)

"Old Henry Lee stood transfixed by all the commotion at the Panama Hotel.  What had started as a crowd of curious onlookers eyeballing a television news crew had now swollen into a polite mob of shoppers, tourists, and a few punk-loooking street kids, all wondering what the big deal was.  In the middle of the crowd stood Henry, shopping bags hanging at his side.  He felt as if he were waking from a long forgotten dream.  A dream he'd once had as a little boy."

My friend Joan, who is married to a man of Japanese descent, handed me her copy of this novel.  Here's the story:

Henry Lee comes upon a crowd gathered outside the Panama Hotel, once the gateway to Seattle’s Japantown.  It has been boarded up for decades, but now the new owner has made an incredible discovery:  the belongings of Japanese families, left when they were rounded up and sent to internment camps during World War II.  As Henry looks on, the owner opens a Japanese parasol.  This simple act takes old Henry Lee back to the 1940s, at the height of the war, when young Henry’s world is a jumble of confusion and excitement, and to his father, who is obsessed with the war in China and having Henry grow up American.  While “scholarshipping” at the exclusive Rainier Elementary, where the white kids ignore him, Henry meets Keiko Okabe, a young Japanese American student.  Amid the chaos of blackouts, curfews, and FBI raids, Henry and Keiko forge a bond of friendship — and innocent love — that transcends the long-standing prejudices of their Old World ancestors.

After Keiko and her family are swept up in the evacuations to the internment camps, she and Henry are left with only the hope that the war will end, and that their promise to each other will be kept.  Forty years later, Henry Lee is certain that the parasol belonged to Keiko.  In the hotel’s dark dusty basement he begins looking for signs of the Okabe family’s belongings and for a long-lost object whose value he cannot begin to measure.  Now a widower, Henry is still trying to find his voice — words that might explain the actions of his nationalistic father; words that might bridge the gap between him and his modern, Chinese American son; words that might help him confront the choices he made many years ago.

I'm really getting into this novel and like it so far, except for one thing.  It's 1986, and "Old Henry Lee" was twelve years old in 1942.  That means he was born in 1930, making him 56 years old in 1986.  "Old"?  I'm 74 now, so I guess old is relative, but ... really ... do you think of a 56-year-old man as "old"?

Gilion at Rose City Reader hosts Book Beginnings on Fridays.  Click here for today's Mister Linky.

Title wave of books

“I love walking into a bookstore.  It's like all my friends are sitting

on shelves, waving their pages at me.” ― Tahereh Mafi

Library Loot ~ October 22-28

Rise of the Warrior Cop: The Militarization of America's Police Forces ~ by Radley Balko, 2013, sociology

The last days of colonialism taught America’s revolutionaries that soldiers in the streets bring conflict and tyranny.  As a result, our country has generally worked to keep the military out of law enforcement.  But according to investigative reporter Radley Balko, over the last several decades, America’s cops have increasingly come to resemble ground troops.  The consequences have been dire:  the home is no longer a place of sanctuary, the Fourth Amendment has been gutted, and police today have been conditioned to see the citizens they serve as an other — an enemy.  Today’s armored-up policemen are a far cry from the constables of early America.  The unrest of the 1960s brought about the invention of the SWAT unit — which in turn led to the debut of military tactics in the ranks of police officers.  Nixon’s War on Drugs, Reagan’s War on Poverty, Clinton’s COPS program, the post–9/11 security state under Bush and Obama:  by degrees, each of these innovations expanded and empowered police forces, always at the expense of civil liberties.  And these are just four among a slew of reckless programs.  Balko shows how politicians’ ill-considered policies and relentless declarations of war against vague enemies like crime, drugs, and terror have blurred the distinction between cop and soldier.  His fascinating, frightening narrative shows how over a generation, a creeping battlefield mentality has isolated and alienated American police officers and put them on a collision course with the values of a free society.

The Rule of Benedict: A Spirituality for the 21st Century ~ by Joan Chittister, 2010, religion

This new edition of a classic religious text combines the timeless wisdom of Benedict of Nursia's Rule with the perceptive commentary of a renowned Benedictine mystic and scholar.  In her new introduction to the Rule, the author boldly claims that Benedict's sixth-century text is the only one of great traditions that directly touches the contemporary issues facing the human community — stewardship, conversion, communication, reflection, contemplation, humility, and equality.   Tracing Benedict's original Rule paragraph by paragraph, it expands its principles into the larger context of spiritual living in a secular world and makes the seemingly archaic instructions relevant for a contemporary audience.  A new foreword, updated content, an appendix, and a recommended calendar for reading the entries and commentaries make this an invaluable resource for solitary or communal contemplation.

My Beloved World ~ by Sonia Sotomayor, 2013, memoir

The first Hispanic and third woman appointed to the United States Supreme Court, Sonia Sotomayor has become an instant American icon.  Now, with a candor and intimacy never undertaken by a sitting Justice, she recounts her life from a Bronx housing project to the federal bench, a journey that offers an inspiring testament to her own extraordinary determination and the power of believing in oneself.  Here is the story of a precarious childhood, with an alcoholic father (who would die when she was nine) and a devoted but overburdened mother, and of the refuge a little girl took from the turmoil at home with her passionately spirited paternal grandmother.  But it was when she was diagnosed with juvenile diabetes that the precocious Sonia recognized she must ultimately depend on herself.  She would learn to give herself the insulin shots she needed to survive and soon imagined a path to a different life.  With only television characters for her professional role models, and little understanding of what was involved, she determined to become a lawyer, a dream that would sustain her on an unlikely course, from valedictorian of her high school class to the highest honors at Princeton, Yale Law School, the New York County District Attorney’s office, private practice, and appointment to the Federal District Court before the age of forty.  Along the way we see how she was shaped by her invaluable mentors, a failed marriage, and the modern version of extended family she has created from cherished friends and their children.

Twelve Years a Slave ~ video adapted from the 1853 slave narrative memoir by Solomon Northup

Based on an incredible true story of one man's fight for survival and freedom.  In the pre-Civil War United States, Solomon Northup (Chiwetel Ejiofor), a free black man from upstate New York, is abducted and sold into slavery.  Facing cruelty (personified by a malevolent slave owner, portrayed by Michael Fassbender) as well as unexpected kindnesses, Solomon struggles not only to stay alive, but to retain his dignity.  In the twelfth year of his unforgettable odyssey, Solomon's chance meeting with a Canadian abolitionist (Brad Pitt) forever alters his life.

This is the first video I've ever gotten from a library, and so I've never written about videos on my blogs.  If the video quits working, view it on YouTube.

Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Claire @ The Captive Reader and Linda @ Silly Little Mischief that encourages us to share the names of books we checked out of the library.  See what others got this week.

Readers' Workouts ~ second week of my exercise class

Readers' Workouts is hosted by Joy's Book Blog.

Yesterday morning, I took a friend from my neighborhood to my exercise class.  Much later, after a long day together, she marveled at my stamina.  She was exhausted, and I was still bouncing around in my seat across the table from her over a meal.  I asked myself if that's because I have a whole week's advantage over her, meaning two extra one-hour exercise classes.  Okay, I'll quit patting myself on the back and tell the WHOLE truth.  We had spent a couple of hours visiting her husband in rehab where he's been since early July after chemo for acute leukemia and a stroke that took away the use of his left side.  Her lack of energy has more to do with emotional exhaustion than anything else.

Nevertheless, I have to say that I'm enjoying the classes and feel energized by doing the exercises.  Next time, on Friday, I'll try to remember to take a picture of either our exercise area or get someone to photograph me.  At least it would "prove" I'm working on this exercise stuff.

TWOsday ~ two books by Freke and Gandy

A couple of months ago, I wrote about The Laughing Jesus by Timothy Freke and Peter Gandy, published in 2005.  Even though I have not yet read that book, I bought another one by this writing team, one which was published a few years earlier:  Jesus and the Lost Goddess: The Secret Teachings of the Original Christians, published in 2001.  Here are summaries of the two books I have on my bookshelves:

The Laughing Jesus: Religious Lies and Gnostic Wisdom (2005) ~ What if the Old Testament is a work of fiction, Jesus never existed, and Muhammad was a mobster?  What if the Bible and the Qur'an are works of political propaganda created by Taliban-like fundamentalists to justify the sort of religious violence we are witnessing in the world today?  What if there is a big idea that could free us from the us-versus-them world created by religion and make it possible for us to truly love our neighbors — and even our enemies?  What if it is possible to awaken to a profound state of oneness and love, which the Gnostic Christians symbolized by the enigmatic figure of the laughing Jesus?

Jesus and the Lost Goddess: The Secret Teachings of the Original Christians (2001) ~ Why were the teachings of the original Christians brutally suppressed by the Roman Church?  Because they relate the myth of the Christian goddess Sophia.  Because they portray Jesus and Mary Magdalene as mythic figures based on the Pagan dying and resurrectingn Godman and the fallen and redeemed Goddess.  Because they show that the gospel story is a spiritual allegory encoding a profound philosophy that leads to gnosis — mythical enlightenment.  Because they undermine all external authority by directly revealing the Christ within.  Because they have the power to turn the world inside out and transform life into an exploration of consciousness.

It appears this set includes two more books, which I have not (yet) bought.

The Jesus Mysteries: Was the "Original Jesus" a Pagan God? (1999)
The Gospel of the Second Coming: The Long-Awaited Sequel (2007)

Until I have these last two in hand, I won't try to write about them.  However, I may have to acquire them — or at least the older one — before I start reading this series.

Get Poi? ~ by Lowell Uda

Get Poi? Childhood Memories of Hawaii during World War II ~ by Lowell Uda, 2013, memoir (Hawaii), 8/10

Get Poi? is creative nonfiction in which I remember and recreate my experiences as a child in wartime Honolulu.  I wanted to touch, see, hear, smell, and taste the world that shaped my growing up and acquiring of language.  It was a world of growing ethnic diversity, a polyglot culture in which the ability to speak Standard English was a touchstone of one's trustworthiness and loyalty to the United States of America, and in which my second generation Japanese-American parents did their best to raise me and my increasing number of siblings to become the human beings we would need to be.  The task of Americanizing us was complicated and enriched by my mother who was entrusted as an infant to a native Hawaiian family.  This family received her as one of their own and taught her not only the Hawaiian language but also the Hawaiian way of relating to the world.  She also became a Mormon, seeing in the religion of the Latter-day Saints something uniquely American that might insulate her children from unwanted influences.  It was my father who kept our connection with the Japanese-American culture alive.

I'm getting to know the author as I visit with him in rehab, so it's very interesting to read what he says about his life in this memoir.  Later, I hope to read some of the books written by his wife, who is becoming a friend here in St. Louis.  Both Lowell and Joan are retired United Methodist ministers, as I am.

Mindfulness meditation

The assertion below is from an article about personality and health.

"Retrain your brain with meditation. Harvard research shows that only eight weeks of mindfulness meditation — which is as simple as sitting and focusing on your breathing  — can physically change the gray matter in your brain in ways that may help you manage your emotions better."

Readers' Workouts ~ my new exercise class

Readers' Workouts is hosted by Joy's Book Blog.

Last week, I joined one of the exercise groups here in the senior apartments where I live.  We exercise an hour on Mondays and an hour on Fridays.  They took each of us into another room and put us through a "test" of our abilities so there would be a baseline to judge any improvement in strength, balance, endurance, and whatever else they measured.  I presume they'll test us again at the end of the 20 sessions we signed up for.

Part of our routine included the use of a stretchy resistance band, also called an exercise band.  I didn't take any pictures during the sessions, but I did find this photo online. The bands are different colors, indicating different strengths.  Mine is blue and says "8.0 lbs" on it.   Except for one person in a wheelchair, we were standing and twisting and stretching the bands out to each side and behind our shoulders.

The shoulder exercise really made me feel the muscles where my shoulder was broken in December 2012, even though I faithfully did all the exercises in physical therapy in 2013.  I bought the pulley that hooks over a closed door so I could work on my range of motion, and I also used my tension cord for stretches to the side, from an angle, lifting up, pulling down, and pulling from behind me.  All of that gave me almost complete use of my right shoulder again.  Now I'm working on it with this class.

Beginning ~ with a reference to Satan

Thank God for Evolution: How the Marriage of Science and Religion Will Transform Your Life and Our World ~ by Michael Dowd, 2007

"Satan obviously has a foothold in this school!" I told my roommate twenty-five years ago at Evangel University.  Moments earlier, I had stormed out of freshman biology class after the teacher held up the textbook we were going to use, and I recognized it as one that taught evolution.  How else could I explain why a Bible-believing, Assemblies of God institution would teach evolution?

A little background...

Michael Dowd

Dowd goes on to tell us about his "personal journey" (the title of this prologue), from self-righteous (my word) college boy to "evolutionary evangelist" (his term).  This is what the book is about:

Few issues have revealed deeper divisions in our society than the debate between creationism and evolution, between religion and science. Yet from the fray, Reverend Michael Dowd has emerged as a reconciler, finding faith strengthened by the power of reason.  With evidence from contemporary astrophysics, geology, biology, anthropology, and evolutionary psychology, Thank God for Evolution lays out a compelling argument for how religion and science can be mutually enriching forces in our lives.

Gilion at Rose City Reader hosts Book Beginnings on Fridays.  Click here for today's Mister Linky.

Essence of meditation

Become intensely conscious of the present moment.

This is the essence of meditation.

Books and trees