Beginning ~ with Anne Frank's diary

Words from the 6th paragraph:

"[W]hen she first began, Anne Frank wasn't writing a book.  She was talking to herself.  And she was talking to herself in a way that any of us can do too.  She was finding solace in writing her life, her thoughts and feelings, day after day.  Words to live by."

Write for Your Life ~ by Anna Quindlen, 2022, writing, 240 pages

The book's theme is that we need to leave a legacy of our life by writing about it.  When we write we not only look, we see; we not only react, but reflect. Writing gives us something to hold onto in a changing world.  Writing connects us to ourselves and to those we cherish.  Drawing on her personal experiences not just as a writer but as a mother and daughter, Quindlen makes the case that recording our daily lives in writing is essential.

Gilion at Rose City Reader hosts

Book Beginnings on Fridays.

Thinking out loud

Do you keep a journal?  Do you write in it daily?  This blog is my "journal," which is wide open for anyone to read.  Here's an example:  Three days ago, I posted black-and-white photos of two families — both mine, but at different times in my life:  one showing me with my husband and our children, and one showing my parents with their first two children.  I'm the oldest, and my brother was the toddler in Daddy's lap.  The nice thing about journaling in a blog is being able to include photos like those.  Writing in a journal, as in this illustration, records my memories.  However, scrawling the words by pen is also less legible and cannot be corrected — well, except by marking through the words and leaving a mess.  Blogging my journal means I can share memories with my children and grandchildren.  And maybe even great-grandchildren years from now, unless Blogger deletes the whole thing.  It's kind of like I'm thinking out loud.  Okay, so I guess I'm weird, thinking of these kinds of things.

Oooh, I just remembered that Thinking Out Loud is the title of a book by Anna Quindlen, one of my favorite authors.  Here's the book, if you are interested:

Thinking Out Loud: On the Personal, the Political, the Public, and the Private ~ by Anna Quindlen, 1993, essays, 320 pages

Thinking out loud is what Anna Quindlen does best.  As a syndicated columnist with her finger on the pulse of women's lives, and her heart in a place we all share, she wrote about the passions, politics, and peculiarities of Americans everywhere.  From gays in the military, to the race for First Lady, to the trials of modern motherhood and the right to choose, Anna Quindlen's views always fascinate.

Two books from the library ~ by Anna Quindlen

How Reading Changed My Life ~ by Anna Quindlen, 1998, memoir, 96 pages

From the Inside Flap — THE LIBRARY OF CONTEMPORARY THOUGHT is a groundbreaking series where America's finest writers and most brilliant minds tackle today's most provocative, fascinating, and relevant issues. Striking and daring, creative and important, these original voices on matters political, social, economic, and cultural, will enlighten, comfort, entertain, enrage, and ignite healthy debate across the country.

I like this quote from Anna Quindlen, who is one of my favorite authors.  I like reading her books so much that I disregarded my own intent to "read books from my own shelves" for awhile — and requested How Reading Changed My Life from my library, because it was mentioned in something I was reading.  While I was at it, I went ahead and reserved another of her books.  So here's my second "library loot" of the day:

Nanaville: Adventures in Grandparenting ~ by Anna Quindlen, 2019, memoir, 175 pages

I like a comment someone left online about this book:  "She [Quindlen] is able to zoom in on the wonder of her first grandchild, while also zooming out to see him — and herself — as part of a family chain that stretches forward and backward."  The two commandments for being a grandparent, according to Anna Quindlen, are to love your grandchild and keep your mouth shut.  That sounds about right to me.

A robin, dark skies, and the books I'm reading

I saw this robin when I was out walking on Monday.  He's on the fence between our driveway and the apartments next door.

I saw this dark sky today, while also hearing rumbling.  It has been hot here in St. Louis with a high of 90°F.  But the worst part is been that today's thunderstorms are in the forecast all week long.

I finished reading One True Thing by Anna Quindlen (1994, fiction, 8/10), but I didn't love it as much as the first time I read it — maybe because I'm now a quarter of a century older.  I'm old now, the age of the book's dying generation.  A favorite quote from the book:  "My father . . . did what so many men do:  he divided women into groups . . . the intellectual twins, the woman of the mind and the one of the heart. . . . I had the misfortune to be designated the heartless one, my mother the mindless one.  It was a disservice to us both but, on balance, I think she got the better deal" (p. 281).

The book I'm reading now is The Old Girls' Network by Judy Leigh (2020, fiction).  It's never too late to change.  After a health scare, 77-year-old Barbara goes to convalesce in the English country village of Winsley Green where her sister Pauline lives.  The sisters are very different — Barbara is outspoken and aloof, and Pauline is good-natured — so tensions rise.  When Pauline accidentally knocks down a man named Bisto Mulligan, she finds herself with a second house-guest.  It becomes apparent as he is recovering that Bisto is not who he first seemed and, as they get to know the kind of man he really is, it’s clear he could change their lives.

    Deb at Readerbuzz hosts Sunday Salon, 

    a place for us to link up and share what 

    we have been doing during the week.

Two book beginnings ~ (1) in a jail cell, and (2) with a question

I usually have both fiction and nonfiction books going at the same time.  I'm re-reading Anna Quindlen's novel One True Thing (1994).  I've recommended it many times, but had forgotten the book's beginning lines:

"Jail is not as bad as you might imagine.  When I say jail, I don't mean prison.  Prison is the kind of place you see in old movies or public television documentaries, those enormous gray places with guard towers at each corner and curly strips of razor wire going round and round like a loop-the-loop atop the high fence."

A mother.  A daughter.  A shattering choice.  Ellen Gulden is enjoying her career as a successful magazine writer in New York City when she learns that her mother, Kate, is dying of cancer.  Ellen’s father insists that she quit her job and return home to become a caregiver.  A high-powered career woman, Ellen has never felt she had much in common with her mother, a homemaker and the heart of their family.  Yet as Ellen begins to spend time with Kate, she discovers many surprising truths, not only about herself, but also about the woman she thought she knew so well.  When Ellen is accused of the mercy killing of her mother, she must not only defend her own life but make a difficult choice — either accept responsibility for an act she did not commit or divulge the name of the person she believes committed a painful act of love.

I'm re-reading Jürgen Moltmann's Experiences of God (1979, English edition, 1980), that I thought I had misplaced.  When I moved my bed away from the wall, I found it had slid down the wall to the floor.  I first read this book in 1988, thirty-three years ago.  Here's the beginning:

"Why am I a Christian?  What a curious question!  Who is interrogating me like this?  Do I have to put my name on my answer?  The question sounds inquisitive.  Somebody wants to know the reasons that led some-body else to a particular conviction.  It sounds impertinent too — as if the other person is bound to justify his decision to believe."

Enduring meditations on hope, anxiety, and mystical experience, together with the author's personal confession of faith.

Gilion at Rose City Reader hosts

Book Beginnings on Fridays.