No matter the genre, the characters can provide thought provoking statements:
Loving is an act of faith as much as believing in the God is. p. 231
We must do what we know to do, not what we want to do. p. 275
Saturday, November 2, 2013
Tuesday, September 3, 2013
The Little Way of Ruthie Leming: A Southern Girl, a Small Town, and the Secret of a Good Life by Rod Dreher
I think this book really spoke to me because growing up I never lived in a place longer than 4 years and that pattern has continued throughout my adult life. I have yearned to be physically close to best friends and feel I am part of a community. Hence the many excerpts. My apologies-
I highly recommend this book.
"Ruthie said, 'What are you doing with my number?' I didn't know what she was talking about," says Mike. "She said, 'That's mine.' I said no, I just took it out of my backpack. She took off running to the back of the house, and came back with hers. They were exactly alike, with the number 709."
She thought these kinds of things were like God winking at us, letting us know that there is a hidden order running deeply beneath the surface of the world. Loc 1081 page 74
Did I have the right to risk my life for the sake of a story? How could I leave my wife a widow and my son fatherless because I found the danger exciting and wanted to write a better column for the next day's paper? Loc 1209 page 83
Why do we turn away from the opportunities for grace and mercy, and withhold them from others, who need them as much as we do?...we fallible creatures sometimes need to see something amazing to make us grasp that life is a miracle, and that hope and redemption are in all things, every day of our lives, if only we could be humble enough to accept them. Loc1840 page 126
I thought once again about how little I really knew about Ruthie's life, and how I understood even less. I had somehow come to think of her living in a small town as equivalent to her living a small life. Loc 2840 page 194
Like Ruthie, my mother and father had cultivated it, in this little patch of ground, all their lives. They had no grand gestures of philanthropy or goodness to their name, but rather they always faithful in small things....He did it because he was their neighbor. You live in one place long enough, and live that way, the interest in your good deeds add up.
I did not live that way. I never stayed in one place long enough to develop that kind of relationship with my community....It was so easy, though, to live inside one's bubble, and not see your neighbors in the way West Feliciana people saw their neighbors. Bowling alone, so to speak, was the way so many in my circles rolled. Loc 2996 page 205
...if you haven't lived in a place for years and come to make its stories part of yourself. Absence has consequences. Loc 3052 page 208
Accept the limitations of a place, in humility, and the joys that can also be found there may open themselves. Loc 3295 page 225
This is what it meant to move home. Communication romanticism is fine, but what do you do when the past isn't even past, but is in fact jogging down your street, and stepping onto your front porch to say hello? Loc 3369 page 230
You can't unsee what you have seen, unlearn what you have learned. The only way to live entirely at ease with one's hometown is never to have left, never to have seen how else life is elsewhere, right? Or maybe not. Ruthie's nature was not my nature. For me the only reason I was able to return to St. Francisville in the middle of my life was because I left it so long ago and satisfied my curiosity about the world beyond. Had I chosen Ruthie's path when I was young, my way through life would likely have been bitter, filled with regret about roads not taken. Loc 3532 page 242
...trying to recapture the shock and awe that captivated my imagination at seventeen. It would not come. You can meet your true love for the first time only once. Loc 3551 page 243
...I grieve for how cracked and broken we all are. Love is the only thing that can fill the cracks and make us whole and strong again. Loc 3555 page 243
It's always better to live in the truth, as hard as it is, than to live a happy lie. Loc 3592 page 245
Doing good things instead of thinking good thoughts - that was new to me, and it felt right. Loc. 3757 page 256
For myself I had seen the errors one can fall into by placing too much emphasis on career and individual desire at the expense of family and place. But what Paw had done, in part, was to reveal the catastrophic mistake one can make if one makes a false god of family and place.
There has to be balance. Not everyone is meant to stay - or to stay away - forever. There are seasons in the lives of persons and of families. Our responsibilities, both to ourselves and to each other, is to seek harmony within the limits of what we are given - and to give each other grace. Loc 3838 page 262
I highly recommend this book.
"Ruthie said, 'What are you doing with my number?' I didn't know what she was talking about," says Mike. "She said, 'That's mine.' I said no, I just took it out of my backpack. She took off running to the back of the house, and came back with hers. They were exactly alike, with the number 709."
She thought these kinds of things were like God winking at us, letting us know that there is a hidden order running deeply beneath the surface of the world. Loc 1081 page 74
Did I have the right to risk my life for the sake of a story? How could I leave my wife a widow and my son fatherless because I found the danger exciting and wanted to write a better column for the next day's paper? Loc 1209 page 83
Why do we turn away from the opportunities for grace and mercy, and withhold them from others, who need them as much as we do?...we fallible creatures sometimes need to see something amazing to make us grasp that life is a miracle, and that hope and redemption are in all things, every day of our lives, if only we could be humble enough to accept them. Loc1840 page 126
I thought once again about how little I really knew about Ruthie's life, and how I understood even less. I had somehow come to think of her living in a small town as equivalent to her living a small life. Loc 2840 page 194
Like Ruthie, my mother and father had cultivated it, in this little patch of ground, all their lives. They had no grand gestures of philanthropy or goodness to their name, but rather they always faithful in small things....He did it because he was their neighbor. You live in one place long enough, and live that way, the interest in your good deeds add up.
I did not live that way. I never stayed in one place long enough to develop that kind of relationship with my community....It was so easy, though, to live inside one's bubble, and not see your neighbors in the way West Feliciana people saw their neighbors. Bowling alone, so to speak, was the way so many in my circles rolled. Loc 2996 page 205
...if you haven't lived in a place for years and come to make its stories part of yourself. Absence has consequences. Loc 3052 page 208
Accept the limitations of a place, in humility, and the joys that can also be found there may open themselves. Loc 3295 page 225
This is what it meant to move home. Communication romanticism is fine, but what do you do when the past isn't even past, but is in fact jogging down your street, and stepping onto your front porch to say hello? Loc 3369 page 230
You can't unsee what you have seen, unlearn what you have learned. The only way to live entirely at ease with one's hometown is never to have left, never to have seen how else life is elsewhere, right? Or maybe not. Ruthie's nature was not my nature. For me the only reason I was able to return to St. Francisville in the middle of my life was because I left it so long ago and satisfied my curiosity about the world beyond. Had I chosen Ruthie's path when I was young, my way through life would likely have been bitter, filled with regret about roads not taken. Loc 3532 page 242
...trying to recapture the shock and awe that captivated my imagination at seventeen. It would not come. You can meet your true love for the first time only once. Loc 3551 page 243
...I grieve for how cracked and broken we all are. Love is the only thing that can fill the cracks and make us whole and strong again. Loc 3555 page 243
It's always better to live in the truth, as hard as it is, than to live a happy lie. Loc 3592 page 245
Doing good things instead of thinking good thoughts - that was new to me, and it felt right. Loc. 3757 page 256
For myself I had seen the errors one can fall into by placing too much emphasis on career and individual desire at the expense of family and place. But what Paw had done, in part, was to reveal the catastrophic mistake one can make if one makes a false god of family and place.
There has to be balance. Not everyone is meant to stay - or to stay away - forever. There are seasons in the lives of persons and of families. Our responsibilities, both to ourselves and to each other, is to seek harmony within the limits of what we are given - and to give each other grace. Loc 3838 page 262
Tuesday, July 23, 2013
Tell Me No Lies by Elizabeth Lowell
"Art isn't a luxury or an investment. It's the soul of humanity made tangible." Loc 2266
"Where sons once lived with parents, now a wife and husband live alone. A single grandchild is shared among four family-hungry grandparents. A single child grows alone, never sharing, never learning the needs of others."....."The government tries to fill rooms emptied of the extended family. We care for the sick. We feed the poor. We punish the evil. We reward the earnest."...."It is not enough. When the child's parents die, so does the child's history. There is no fabric of interlocking generations. There is no continuity." Loc 6514
"Where sons once lived with parents, now a wife and husband live alone. A single grandchild is shared among four family-hungry grandparents. A single child grows alone, never sharing, never learning the needs of others."....."The government tries to fill rooms emptied of the extended family. We care for the sick. We feed the poor. We punish the evil. We reward the earnest."...."It is not enough. When the child's parents die, so does the child's history. There is no fabric of interlocking generations. There is no continuity." Loc 6514
Sunday, July 21, 2013
Anatomy of a Murder by Robert Traver
This ended up being an even more interesting read because I was finishing the book at the same time the George Zimmerman murder trial was coming to a close. I thought the book was slow starting, but once he got into the trial I found it fascinating. My quotes:
"This is the story of a murder, of a murder trial, and of some of the people who engaged or became enmeshed in the proceedings. Enmeshed is a good word, for murder, of all crimes, seems to possess to a greater degree than any other that compelling magnetic quality that draws people helplessly into its outspreading net, frequently to their surprise, and occasionally to their horror." prologue
"Man is the only animal that laughs and weeps, for he is the only animal that is struck by the difference between what things are and what they ought to be." p. 262
"This is the story of a murder, of a murder trial, and of some of the people who engaged or became enmeshed in the proceedings. Enmeshed is a good word, for murder, of all crimes, seems to possess to a greater degree than any other that compelling magnetic quality that draws people helplessly into its outspreading net, frequently to their surprise, and occasionally to their horror." prologue
"Man is the only animal that laughs and weeps, for he is the only animal that is struck by the difference between what things are and what they ought to be." p. 262
Wednesday, April 10, 2013
On Folly Beach
Some of this is rather along the cliche' line, maybe that's why I thought the book was just OK, but still they struck me as something to ponder. I'll probably read this later and wonder what I was thinking. Here I go:
it was important just to have that little piece of something that reminded you of some place or someone you loved. Loc. 299
she felt a longing to be free of the sadness that dogged her like a sand fly. Loc.464
but every once in a while, when she saw her mother staring out a window or holding a forgotten cup of coffee until it got cold, she pictured the girl with dreams of being an artist carefully hidden inside the face of a woman who chose to paint the colors of her walls beige. Loc.535
Sometimes, just when we think we can see our lives on course and we can settle back and get comfortable, a new path opens. Some people just keep going, too scared to veer off the familiar path. But others, well, they step off into the unknown, and find that maybe that was where they were supposed to be all along. Loc. 546
Maybe that's why there's this distance between us. You were going to leave me eventually, and I didn't want it to hurt too much. Loc. 551
Life should be a question, Emmy, and you're way too young to think you've already found all the answers. Loc. 561
You can choose to unpack your bags at the detour sign and dig a trench for the long haul, or you can make you own detour. Loc.597
"Because you're the me I never let myself be." She shrugged. "I've never known how to love you, Emmy. You've always been so damned independent. Maybe I've finally figured out that to love you means letting you go." Loc. 603
We had the same eyes, you see. So whenever I look in the mirror, I'm reminded of her. Loc. 768
The squeezing pain around Emmy's heart surprised her, as if to remind her that broken hearts were ageless and not her private domain. Loc.1808
She creates such beauty, as I think only those who've known great sadness can do. Loc.1929
It reminded Emmy that Lulu had once been young, too, before the hurts and disappointments of growing up had found her. Loc. 1972
They turned at the sound of a sharp cry behind them, and for a moment, they watched a gull circling something still and dark in the sand, flying down to peck at it before swooping up with a cry into the air again. It reminded Emmy of her grief, of the way she continued to live and breathe and eat, but every so often she would return to the dark speck inside, and renew her sorrow. Loc. 2254
There're always surprises to find here in the sand. When I was a boy, my mother told me that what you found on the beach was just reminders that we're not alone in the world. That you'll always find what you need if you look hard enough. Loc. 2267
Some people are like that, you know: they just fall apart at the first hurdle instead of looking for ways to go around it. Loc. 2808
Maybe it's time for you to become somebody different from who you were before. Loc. 4095
reminding her how permanent the bond of a promise made could be: as delicate as a spiderweb, but just as impossible to extricate yourself once the words were spoken. Loc.5097
love doesn't have a time span. Only pain does. I think sometimes it's hard to distinguish between the two, so we just hold on to both of them like they're inseparable. Loc. 5607
if you don't give up, you can make things happen. Loc. 5668
it was important just to have that little piece of something that reminded you of some place or someone you loved. Loc. 299
she felt a longing to be free of the sadness that dogged her like a sand fly. Loc.464
but every once in a while, when she saw her mother staring out a window or holding a forgotten cup of coffee until it got cold, she pictured the girl with dreams of being an artist carefully hidden inside the face of a woman who chose to paint the colors of her walls beige. Loc.535
Sometimes, just when we think we can see our lives on course and we can settle back and get comfortable, a new path opens. Some people just keep going, too scared to veer off the familiar path. But others, well, they step off into the unknown, and find that maybe that was where they were supposed to be all along. Loc. 546
Maybe that's why there's this distance between us. You were going to leave me eventually, and I didn't want it to hurt too much. Loc. 551
Life should be a question, Emmy, and you're way too young to think you've already found all the answers. Loc. 561
You can choose to unpack your bags at the detour sign and dig a trench for the long haul, or you can make you own detour. Loc.597
"Because you're the me I never let myself be." She shrugged. "I've never known how to love you, Emmy. You've always been so damned independent. Maybe I've finally figured out that to love you means letting you go." Loc. 603
We had the same eyes, you see. So whenever I look in the mirror, I'm reminded of her. Loc. 768
The squeezing pain around Emmy's heart surprised her, as if to remind her that broken hearts were ageless and not her private domain. Loc.1808
She creates such beauty, as I think only those who've known great sadness can do. Loc.1929
It reminded Emmy that Lulu had once been young, too, before the hurts and disappointments of growing up had found her. Loc. 1972
They turned at the sound of a sharp cry behind them, and for a moment, they watched a gull circling something still and dark in the sand, flying down to peck at it before swooping up with a cry into the air again. It reminded Emmy of her grief, of the way she continued to live and breathe and eat, but every so often she would return to the dark speck inside, and renew her sorrow. Loc. 2254
There're always surprises to find here in the sand. When I was a boy, my mother told me that what you found on the beach was just reminders that we're not alone in the world. That you'll always find what you need if you look hard enough. Loc. 2267
Some people are like that, you know: they just fall apart at the first hurdle instead of looking for ways to go around it. Loc. 2808
Maybe it's time for you to become somebody different from who you were before. Loc. 4095
reminding her how permanent the bond of a promise made could be: as delicate as a spiderweb, but just as impossible to extricate yourself once the words were spoken. Loc.5097
love doesn't have a time span. Only pain does. I think sometimes it's hard to distinguish between the two, so we just hold on to both of them like they're inseparable. Loc. 5607
if you don't give up, you can make things happen. Loc. 5668
Saturday, March 2, 2013
First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers
In reference to my first post in the blog - "Thank Goodness I have a Kindle" -Now I must say, "Darn I had to turn in that Kindle. I have move from one side of the country to the other and had to turn in my school district owned Kindle. In reviewing my blog I found a draft never ppublished which follows. Now I don't have the book to see if I marked any other passages. I do know this was a book well worth reading, so maybe one day I will read it again and find out.
In one of letters written to Luing Ung after the book was published, the writer of the letter states: "as forgetting the past annihilates hope for the future."
In one of letters written to Luing Ung after the book was published, the writer of the letter states: "as forgetting the past annihilates hope for the future."
Friday, March 1, 2013
Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
I am obviously taken with Suzanne Collins prose. I felt she really drew me into how the characters felt and there insight into the world they live in.
In that one slight motion, I see the end of hope, the beginning of the destruction of everything I hold dear in the world. I can't guess what form my punishment will take, how wide the net will be cast, but when it is finished, there will most likely be nothing left. So you would think that at this moment, I would be in utter despair. Here's what's strange. The main thing I feel is a sense of relief. that I can give up this game. that the question of whether I can succeed in this venture has been answered, even if that answer is a resounding no. That if desperate times call for desperate measures, then I am free to act as desperately as I wish. p 75
"I don't know if it's really an uprising. There's unrest.....And it's my fault, Gale. Because of what I did in the arena. If I had just killed myself with those berries..."
"You haven't hurt people- you've given them an opportunity. They just have to be brave enough to take it...." p.99
Life in District 12 isn't really so different from life in the arena. At some point, you have to stop running and turn around and face whoever wants you dead. The hard thing is finding the courage to do it. p.118
...and I really can't think about kissing when I've got a rebellion to incite. p.125
"No one really needs me," he says, and there's no self-pity in his voice....I realize only one person will be damaged beyond repair if Peeta dies. Me. p.352
This time, there is nothing but us to interrupt us. And after a few attempts, Peeta gives up on talking. The sensation inside me grows warmer and spreads out from my chest, down through my body, out along my arms and legs, to the tips of my being. Instead of satisfying me the kisses have the opposite effect, of making my need greater. I thought I was something of an expert on hunger, but this is a entirely new kind. p. 352
In that one slight motion, I see the end of hope, the beginning of the destruction of everything I hold dear in the world. I can't guess what form my punishment will take, how wide the net will be cast, but when it is finished, there will most likely be nothing left. So you would think that at this moment, I would be in utter despair. Here's what's strange. The main thing I feel is a sense of relief. that I can give up this game. that the question of whether I can succeed in this venture has been answered, even if that answer is a resounding no. That if desperate times call for desperate measures, then I am free to act as desperately as I wish. p 75
"I don't know if it's really an uprising. There's unrest.....And it's my fault, Gale. Because of what I did in the arena. If I had just killed myself with those berries..."
"You haven't hurt people- you've given them an opportunity. They just have to be brave enough to take it...." p.99
Life in District 12 isn't really so different from life in the arena. At some point, you have to stop running and turn around and face whoever wants you dead. The hard thing is finding the courage to do it. p.118
...and I really can't think about kissing when I've got a rebellion to incite. p.125
"No one really needs me," he says, and there's no self-pity in his voice....I realize only one person will be damaged beyond repair if Peeta dies. Me. p.352
This time, there is nothing but us to interrupt us. And after a few attempts, Peeta gives up on talking. The sensation inside me grows warmer and spreads out from my chest, down through my body, out along my arms and legs, to the tips of my being. Instead of satisfying me the kisses have the opposite effect, of making my need greater. I thought I was something of an expert on hunger, but this is a entirely new kind. p. 352
Wednesday, February 27, 2013
Sylvie and Bruno byLewis Carroll
I am trying hard to stop reading bad books. I've gone through life feeling compelled to finsih what I start, which includes BAD BOOKS. It runs in the family too. My brother is just like me. Having said that, I'm going to include some passages from Sylvie and Bruno by Lewis Carroll. I have not finished the book and may not. You will have to check back and see. All I can say is if you were in doubt about Lewis Carroll being an opium addict, read this book.
"Oftens and oftens," said Bruno, "haven't oo told me 'There mustn't be so much noise, Bruno!' when I've told oo 'There must!' Why, there isn't no rules at all about 'there mustn't! But oo never believes me!" "As if any one could believe you, you wicked wicked boy!" said Sylvie. The words were severe enough, but I am of opinion that, when you are really anxious to impress a criminal with a sense of his guilt, you ought not to pronounce the sentence with your lips quite close to his cheek-since a kiss at the end of it, however accidental, weakens the effect terribly. p. 125
Yet is it wise to leave it unasked? You must not waste your life upon an 'if''! p.166
"Oftens and oftens," said Bruno, "haven't oo told me 'There mustn't be so much noise, Bruno!' when I've told oo 'There must!' Why, there isn't no rules at all about 'there mustn't! But oo never believes me!" "As if any one could believe you, you wicked wicked boy!" said Sylvie. The words were severe enough, but I am of opinion that, when you are really anxious to impress a criminal with a sense of his guilt, you ought not to pronounce the sentence with your lips quite close to his cheek-since a kiss at the end of it, however accidental, weakens the effect terribly. p. 125
Yet is it wise to leave it unasked? You must not waste your life upon an 'if''! p.166
Tuesday, February 26, 2013
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
My fingers stroke the silky braids my mother so carefully arranged. My mother. I left her blue dress and shoes on the floor of my train car, never thinking about retrieving them, of trying to hold on to a piece of her, of home. Now I wish I had. p. 63
The Good German by Joseph Kanon
His eyes moved over the map - the Alex and its impossible trial, Prenzlauer where she'd hidden the child, Anhalter Station, cadging a cigarette on the platform. You could trace a life on a map, like streets. p. 420
"Maybe things will be different for you now, in America."
"Different?" Emil said, flushing, aware that the others were looking.
But their eyes were on Professor Brandt, whose shoulders had started to shake, a raw, uncontrolled blubbering, catching everyone off-guard, an emotion no one expected. Before Emil could react, the old man reached out and clutched him, wrapping his arms around him, holding on, a death grip. Jake wanted to look away but instead kept staring at them, dismayed. Maybe the only story that really mattered, the endless ties of life's cat's cradle, tangled like yarn.
"Well, Papa," Emil said, leaning back.
" You made me so happy." Professor Brandt said, "When you were a boy. So happy." p. 478
"Maybe things will be different for you now, in America."
"Different?" Emil said, flushing, aware that the others were looking.
But their eyes were on Professor Brandt, whose shoulders had started to shake, a raw, uncontrolled blubbering, catching everyone off-guard, an emotion no one expected. Before Emil could react, the old man reached out and clutched him, wrapping his arms around him, holding on, a death grip. Jake wanted to look away but instead kept staring at them, dismayed. Maybe the only story that really mattered, the endless ties of life's cat's cradle, tangled like yarn.
"Well, Papa," Emil said, leaning back.
" You made me so happy." Professor Brandt said, "When you were a boy. So happy." p. 478
Wednesday, January 2, 2013
I Am Half-Sick of Shadows by Alan Bradley
"I'm sorry, Miss Wyvern. I've been seeing to the unpacking."
" 'I'm sorry, Miss Wyvern. I've been seeing to the unpacking.' God help us."
She mimicked her assistant's voice in the same cruel and cutting way that Daffy had mimicked mine, but in this case, though, the imitation was brilliant. Professional.
I realized at once that a great actress can never be greater than when she's starring in her own life. p. 51
What appealed to me, what really warmed my heart, was the thought of suspending over our ancestral home, even if only for a few seconds, an umbrella of deadly poisonous fire that would fall - then suddenly vanish as if by magic, leaving Buckshaw safe from harm.
I didn't care if it made sense or not. It was the idea of the thing, and I was happy that I'd thought of it. p.151
I thought with a delicious shiver - half pleasure and half fear - that before the night was out I would be scaling those ragged pinnacles for a rendezvous with Saint Nicholas - an experiment whose outcome might well determine the future course of my life.
Would chemistry put paid to Christmas? Or would I, tomorrow morning, find a fat, infuriated elf caught fast and cursing among the chimey pots?
I must admit that part of me was hoping for the legend.
There were times when I felt as if I were standing astride a cold ocean - one foot in the New World and on foot in the Old. As they drifted relentlessly apart, I was in danger of being torn up the middle. p.163
" 'I'm sorry, Miss Wyvern. I've been seeing to the unpacking.' God help us."
She mimicked her assistant's voice in the same cruel and cutting way that Daffy had mimicked mine, but in this case, though, the imitation was brilliant. Professional.
I realized at once that a great actress can never be greater than when she's starring in her own life. p. 51
What appealed to me, what really warmed my heart, was the thought of suspending over our ancestral home, even if only for a few seconds, an umbrella of deadly poisonous fire that would fall - then suddenly vanish as if by magic, leaving Buckshaw safe from harm.
I didn't care if it made sense or not. It was the idea of the thing, and I was happy that I'd thought of it. p.151
I thought with a delicious shiver - half pleasure and half fear - that before the night was out I would be scaling those ragged pinnacles for a rendezvous with Saint Nicholas - an experiment whose outcome might well determine the future course of my life.
Would chemistry put paid to Christmas? Or would I, tomorrow morning, find a fat, infuriated elf caught fast and cursing among the chimey pots?
I must admit that part of me was hoping for the legend.
There were times when I felt as if I were standing astride a cold ocean - one foot in the New World and on foot in the Old. As they drifted relentlessly apart, I was in danger of being torn up the middle. p.163
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