Sunday Salon ~ fortune cookie edition

BOOKS

Last week I wrote about buying a book I already had, and Helen @  Helen's Book Blog commented:

"That's really funny that you have bought the same book twice (and from the same store!). Even better is that you haven't read it yet, right? Maybe it's a sign that it should be your next read."

What do you think?  Is it a sign?  Should that book be at the top of my TBR (to be read) stack?  How do you choose what comes next?

And more BOOKS

Three books found their way home with me this past week:  one bought, one found, one a repeat.  I'm at different stages of writing a couple of books, one on Women Unbound and one on prayer (which is not, in my opinion, what most people think it is).  That may explain these titles, and the teasers I've pulled from each one:

The Feminine Mistake: Are We Giving Up Too Much? ~ by Leslie Bennetts, 2007, women's studies

"And I'll freely confess that some of my contributions to school bake sales were store-bought.  So what?" (p. 171).

"It has become inescapably clear that choosing economic dependency as a lifestyle is the classic feminine mistake.  No matter what the reasons, justifications, or circumstances, it's simply too risky to count on anyone else to support you over the long haul.  In an era of disappearing pensions, threats to Social Security, high divorce rates, a volatile labor market, and attenuating life spans, the social safety net continues to erode even as the needs grow -- particularly for women, who are twice as likely as men to slide below the poverty line in their later years" (pp. xxiii-xxiv).

I've Got to Talk to Somebody, God: A Woman's Conversations with God ~ by Marjorie Holmes, 1969, prayer

"Oh, God, how I dread cleaning the refrigerator.  And I mean that not as an oath, but a prayer.  There it stands, singing away so faithfully, keeping our foods fresh for us.  Reluctantly I open it, and instead of being grateful for its overflowing plenty, I want to back away and slam the door."

The Faith Club: A Muslim, A Christian, A Jew — Three Women Search for Understanding, by Ranya Idliby, Suzanne Oliver, and Priscilla Warner, 2006, religions

In 2009, I used a quote from Priscilla (the Jew) as a teaser, so this time I'll let Ranya (the Muslim) speak about her children:

"I hadn't thought much about their religious identity.  To me, one's religion is primarily an accident of birth.  Yet, after 9/11, I becane concerned that our Muslim religion meant more than that.  I felt that being Muslim and American might be more of a challenge than a privilege that my children were inheriting" (p. 91).

FORTUNE COOKIE : a story

I had lunch with my friend Emily at a Chinese buffet this week, and we got fortune cookies with the bill.  She opened one and said, "I think I got yours."  That's a funny reaction, so I reached for it, but she said, "No, open that other one first."  It was pretty non-descript, since I can't even remember what it said, so she swapped with me.  Here's the one Emily said was mine:

"You have a friendly heart and are well admired."

How nice!  Emily says she's shy, and it's true that she is less likely to become instant friends with anybody within the sound of my voice.  Last week, for example, my other friend, Donna, went to the ladies' room before we left a restaurant and I had made friends with our waitress and the manager while waiting for her.  I'd already learned the manager had to reprimand his own mother once — for insubordination, no less — when he hired her to work for him in a restaurant in another state.  I asked him, "What did you get for Christmas (or your birthday) that year?"  The question surprised him, and he got a look on his face, saying, "Good question!  Hmm, I don't remember."

Anyway, as we walked out to the car, Donna shook her head and said,

"I leave you alone for just one minute...."

Maybe Emily's right, that it was my fortune cookie that said, "You have a friendly heart."

FAMILY

My granddaughter wrote about her daughter playing with her daddy, "Cheetos!  I guess I should get on to them for playing with their food."  One of my daughters commented, "I would tell you that they will out-grow that, but probably not."

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Caturday ~ which of these things?

Two of these things ...
look ready for Halloween.

Beginning ~ with a letter

Paris, France, January 1952

Lucy was dead.  Eleanor Roosevelt sat alone in her suite at the Hôtel de Crillon and looked at the obituary a friend had mailed to her the week before.  It was from the newspaper in Aiken, South Carolina, dated January 7, 1952:  "Lucy Page Mercer Rutherford, fifty-seven years old, died from complications of kidney disease.  Widow of Lord Edward Rutherford."

Eleanor vs. Ike ~ by Robin Gerber, 2008

It is a time of turmoil, with the nation mired in an unpopular war in Korea and with Senator Joseph McCarthy stirring up fear of a lurking Communist "menace."  Racial discrimination is rampant.  A woman's place is in the home.  And when a shocking act of God eliminates the Democratic presidential nominee, the party throws its support to an unlikely standard bearer:  former First Lady and goodwill ambassador to the world Eleanor Roosevelt.  This fast-paced book pits the unforgettable Eleanor against the enormously popular war hero Gen. Dwight David ("Ike") Eisenhower.  But while the opponents promise "an honest campaign," their strategists mire the race in scandal and bitter innuendo.  Suddenly Eleanor finds herself a target of powerful insiders who mean to destroy her good name — and Ku Klux Klan assassins dedicated to her death — as she gets caught up in a mad whirl of appearances and political maneuvering ... and a chance encounter with a precocious five-year-old named Hillary Rodham.

I'm finally getting around to reading this novel, which I mentioned last year in a Friday Five about women:

Name a famous woman from history with whom you would like to have lunch.

Eleanor Roosevelt was first lady when I was born in 1940.  Eleanor vs. Ike, a 2008 novel by Robin Gerber, is hiding in a box somewhere in my apartment.  When I find the right box, I'll read this alternative history of a political campaign between the unforgettable Eleanor and the popular war hero Gen. Dwight David Eisenhower, known as Ike.  I was twelve when Ike was elected in 1952, but what fun if Eleanor had become the first woman president.  Will it happen in this book?

The book has been unpacked from that box, and I'm ready to read it now.  I read to explore ideas — this book explores the idea of a woman running for president of the United States six decades ago.  Apparently, the majority of people in the United States are still unable to imagine such a thing.

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

Pickpocket, toolsmith, or professional nose ~ what's your job?

"The mind boggles at how many forks on the road of life are possible to lead us to different careers."

That sentence stood out for me as I read an article about peculiar professions at AbeBooks.com.  And there are many jobs in the article:  brushmaking, professional pickpocket, airline stewardess (an old book that's 50+ years old).  And from the comments I gathered these:  artisan blacksmith, worm farmer, bovine podiatrist, and "professional nose."  Yes, that's what she said.  Two more jobs from the book cover used to illustrate the article:  toolsmith and steelworker.

My baby sister was born when I was almost five years old.  That's when I decided to be a nurse in a hospital and work with babies.  That lasted until I learned nurses don't get to sit around playing with babies.  In first grade, I wanted to be a teacher.  In third grade, it was magician.  In fifth grade, I was planning to be a doctor healing people in the Belgium Congo.  (Revealing my age, aren't I?)  I ended up a stay-at-home mom, until I was divorced and finished college, at which time I worked as a "manpower planner" (no longer a politically correct job description).

Over time, I became an editor of two in-house publications; an instructor doing management training; a freelance writer published locally, nationally, and internationally; an ordained minister; an adjunct college teacher; and a bookstore owner.  Oh, yeah, I was also a library assistant while in college and at one point had a part-time job stuffing the comics and advertising in the Sunday newpapers as they came rolling along a conveyer belt.  I'm a walking collection of former jobs and careers, many — if not most — having something to do with books and words.  I keep remembering other jobs, like drawing the illustrations for a couple of books when I was in my 20s, and being a file clerk after school when I was in my mid-teens.

What's the strangest or most interesting job you've ever done — or heard of?  At what age did you decide on whatever it is you now do for a living?
__________

ADDED an hour later:

I've found what I want to be, if and when I ever grow up!  I want to be a Diction Fairy like this one.  Books and words, as I said earlier.  Yep, the diction fairy covers those.

Monday Mindulness ~ be aware

"Mindfulness is the energy of being aware of what is happening in the present moment.  When we are fully present, we are fully alive and we live deeply every moment of our daily lives. ... Mindfulness is the capacity to recognize things as they are."

— Thich Nhat Hanh

Sunday Salon ~ too many books

BOOK TWINS

Misquoting Jesus: The Story Behind Who Changed the Bible and Why ~ by Bart D. Ehrman, 2005

"This book is about ancient manuscripts of the New Testament and the differences found in them, the scribes who copied scripture and sometimes changed it. ... It is written for people who know nothing about textual criticism but who might like to learn something about how scribes were changing scripture and about how we can recognize where they did so."

See this book?  It has a twin, stacked right here in the same room.  It was only when I happened upon this post about acquiring the book in 2012 that I realized I'd bought the same book — again — while shopping with my out-of-town book friend Norice last week.  Yep, I bought a book I already had.  I even bought it from the same bookstore.   Both volumes were published by HarperSanFrancisco, but one is 9x6" (left) and the other is 8x5.3" (right).  The larger edition is easier to read, with slightly larger letters.  But my new one, the smaller one, has a Plus: Insights, Interviews, and More section at the back.  The little one also has the worst feature dreamed up by a book designer — that cut-out with the medieval copyist showing through.  I hate it because it makes the book less sturdy and more easily torn.  With all the physical differences, I guess these books are fraternal twins.  Ha!

BOOKS to the left of me, BOOKS to the right of me

How to Know God: The Soul's Journey Into the Mystery of Mysteries ~ by Deepak Chopra, 2000

According to Chopra, the brain is hardwired to know God.  The human nervous system has seven biological responses that correspond to seven levels of divine experience.  These are shaped not by any one religion (they are shared by all faiths), but by the brain's need to take an infinite, chaotic universe and find meaning in it.  This book describes the quest each of us is on, whether we realize it or not.  As Chopra puts it, "God is our highest instinct to know ourselves."  This book makes a dramatic and enduring contribution to that knowledge.

While looking for the Misquoting Jesus book that I knew had to be in the stacks of books beside my desk, I found this one by Deepak Chopra.  My friend Jane had asked me a couple of days ago if I'd read any of his books, which she discovered this month.  I pulled this one out of the stack and called her.  She really likes what he writes, and this was the second of three Deepak Chopra books she's already finished reading.  I agreed to read it now so we can discuss it, and she's planning to re-read it so this particular one will be fresh in her mind.  Have you read any books by Deepak Chopra?

Obviously, I have too many books if I buy duplicates without knowing it and discover others I've forgotten I have in my piles.

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Caturday ~ Amen edition