TWO books from the library

Life in the Ocean: The Story of Oceanographer Sylvia Earle ~ by Clair A. Nivola, 2012, children's, 9/10

This children's picture book biography tells the story of Sylvia Earle's growing passion for the wonders of the sea and how her ocean exploration and advocacy have made her known around the world.

The Reluctant Midwife ~ by Patsy Harman, 2015, fiction (West Virginia), 9/10

Nurse Becky Myers is a reluctant midwife.  She's far more comfortable with tending the sick than helping women deliver their babies.  For these mothers-to-be, she relies on an experienced midwife, her dear friend Patience Murphy.  But the Great Depression has hit West Virginia hard.  Men are out of work; women struggle to feed hungry children.  And sometimes Becky is called upon to bring new life into the world.  Though she is happy to be back in Hope River, time and experience have tempered Becky's cheerfulness — as tragedy has destroyed the vibrant spirit of her former employer, Dr. Isaac Blum, who has accompanied her.  Patience too has changed.  Married and expecting a baby herself, she is relying on Becky to keep the mothers of Hope River safe.  Becoming a midwife and ushering new life into the world is not Becky's only challenge. Her skills and courage will be tested when a calamitous forest fire blazes through a Civilian Conservation Corps camp.  And she must find a way to bring Isaac's spirit back to life and rediscover the hope they both need to go on.

Recently, I got this email from Patricia Harman:

"My second novel, The Reluctant Midwife (HarperCollins), came out this month.  Set in the Great Depression in WV, it features Becky Myers RN and Dr. Isaac Blum who return to the Hope River Valley, impoverished and homeless.  Something is really wrong with the once brilliant surgeon and Becky is stuck with him.  His older brother, also a physician, has kicked him out.  Dr. Blum won’t speak or even eat without help.  With nowhere to go, they are forced to call on their midwife friend, Patience.  If you read The Midwife of Hope River, you will like this.  It’s a book about healing, the power of community and hope.  Be well, Patricia Harman, CNM, MSN, Morgantown, WV."

Full awareness

"All that you seek is already within you.  In Hinduism it is called the Atman, in Buddhism the pure Buddha-Mind.  Christ said, 'The kingdom of heaven is within you.'  Quakers call it the ‘still small voice within.’ This is the space of full awareness that is in harmony with all the universe, and thus is wisdom itself." — Ram Dass

Whatcha reading?

This is what I'm reading.

1.  A Man of My Words: Reflections on the English Language ~ by Richard Lederer, 2003, language

2.  No Job for a Lady ~ by Carol McCleary, 2014, fiction (Mexico)

3.  Ice Bound: A Doctor's Incredible Battle for Survival at the South Pole ~ by Dr. Jerri Nielsen, 2001, memoir (Antarctica)

4.  Kind of Kin ~ by Rilla Askew, 2013, fiction (Oklahoma)

5.  Gather at the Table: The Healing Journey of a Daughter of Slavery and a Son of the Slave Trade ~ by Thomas Norman DeWolf and Sharon Morgan, 2012, race relations

Beginning ~ with a snowmobile ride

Ice Bound: A Doctor's Incredible Battle for Survival at the South Pole ~ by Dr. Jerri Nielsen, 2001, memoir (Antarctica)

Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station, October 16, 1999.  Today I take my last snowmobile ride in Antarctica — from the ice-crusted dome where I have lived for eleven months, to the edge of an airfield plowed out of the drifting snow.  Normally I could walk the distance in a few minutes, but I am too weak.

So what's this book about?

Jerri Nielsen was a forty-six-year-old doctor working in Ohio when she made the decision to take a year's sabbatical at Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station on Antarctica, the most remote and perilous place on Earth.  The "Polies," as they are known, live in almost total darkness for six months of the year, in winter temperatures as low as 100 degrees below zero — with no way in or out before the spring.  During the long winter of 1999, Dr. Nielsen, solely responsible for the mental and physical fitness of a team of researchers, construction workers, and support staff, discovered a lump in her breast.  Consulting via email with doctors in the United States, she performed a biopsy on herself, and in July began chemotherapy treatments to ensure her survival until condition permitted her rescue in October.  What ensued was a daring rescue by the Air National Guard, who landed, dropped off a replacement physician, and minutes later took off with Dr. Nielsen.

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

BTT (#46) ~ carrier

Deb's question for today's Booking Through Thursday:

Do you carry a book around with you?  Inside the house?  Whenever you go out?  Always, everywhere, it’s practically glued to your fingers?  (And yes, digital books very much DO count as long as you’re spending time reading on your Kindle or iPad and not just loading them with books that you never actually read.)

Yes, I usually have a book with me, something to read if I'm stuck waiting for someone.  Next week, I am scheduled to take a friend for oral surgery, so I know I'll need to have a book with me there.  I don't always take along a book when (for example) I'm meeting someone for lunch, since I also enjoy people watching and spending time pondering life's imponderables.  But when I expect long waits, I always take along something to read.  For that, I'd choose a book with short chapters or maybe a magazine that could be put aside when the person arrives.

TWO more books ~ old and older

A Man of My Words: Reflections on the English Language ~ by Richard Lederer, 2003, language

Popular author and speaker Richard Lederer is one of the foremost and funniest commentators on the pleasures and quirks of the English language.  In this far-ranging and career-capping collection of essays, Lederer offers readers more of the irrepressible wordplay and linguistic high jinx his fans can't get enough of, along with observations on a life in letters.  From an inner-city classroom to a wordy weekend retreat, from centuries-old etymological legacies to the latest in slang, dialects, and fadspeak, these essays transport, inform, and entertain as only wordstruck Richard Lederer can.  Iluminating everything from secrets of the writing life to the last word on the pronunciation of nuclear and offering his thoughts on "Sex and the Singular Pronoun" and an open letter to Ann Landers (signed "English Lover in San Diego"), along with games, quizzes, and a Declaration of Linguistic Independence, this collection has something for everyone who delights in our language.

The Celestine Prophecy: An Adventure ~ by James Redfield, 1993, fiction (Peru)

In the rain forests of Peru, an ancient manuscript has been discovered.  Within its pages are nine key insights into life itself — insights each human being is to grasp sequentially; one insight, then another, as we move toward a completely spiritual culture on earth.   Drawing on ancient wisdom, it tells you how to make connections among the events happening in your life right now and lets you see what is going to happen to you in the years to come.  The story of discovery is also a guidebook with the power to crystallize your perceptions of why you are where you are in life and to direct your steps with a new energy and optimisim as you head into tomorrow.

I read the Celestine Prophecy a couple of decades ago and am only re-reading it to discuss it with a small group.  It's a library book, but Lederer's book of essays on words and language is mine, all mine.  It was on the library's sale table for a quarter.  Don't you love finding books for practically nothing?

Proper prepositions?

 

 

 

Knock knock.

Who's there?

To.

To who?

No, to whom.