HOLIDAY BREAK

HAPPY SOLSTICE

HAPPY HOLIDAYS

I am taking the rest of the year off from the blog. Be back in the New Year.

May the trees be with you!

SONGWRITERS AND THE TRUTH

I don't usually write much about music here, though it is music that has run through my life in so many ways and saved me in so many ways.
Last night I learned that an old friend of mine whom I have not seen in years has died.
Today I learned that Dolores O'Riordan, lead singer and songwriter for The Cranberries, has died at 46. Too young.
On this day, 89 years ago, Martin Luther King, Jr was born. Today we observe the only American holiday that honors an African American. A holiday that took over 15 years to be approved by our government. I find it fitting that it is celebrated on or near the day of his birth rather than his death. What is important is that he was born, he lived, he fought for justice and freedom.
 On Twitter last night I found a tweet from Margaret Atwood saying she was taking a time out from Twitter due to all the attacks against her for a piece she wrote in The Guardian. You can look it up.
The world is so harsh with people who fight for freedom, justice and rights for all human beings.

As I was writing in my journal this morning I felt stunned, sad, beaten down, and words were hard to find. I found the lyrics of a song running through my mind. So I give you those lyrics, written by Stephen Stills when he was in Buffalo Springfield:

For What It Is Worth

Buffalo Springfield

There's something happening here
What it is ain't exactly clear
There's a man with a gun over there
Telling me I got to beware

I think it's time we stop, children, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down

There's battle lines being drawn
Nobody's right if everybody's wrong
Young people speaking their minds
Getting so much resistance from behind

It's time we stop, hey, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down

What a field-day for the heat
A thousand people in the street
Singing songs and carrying signs
Mostly say, hooray for our side

It's s time we stop, hey, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down

Paranoia strikes deep
Into your life it will creep
It starts when you're always afraid
You step out of line, the man come and take you away

We better stop, hey, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down
Stop, hey, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down
Stop, now, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down
Stop, children, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down

Songwriters: Stephen Stills

For What It Is Worth lyrics © Warner/Chappell Music, Inc

 (How appropriate that our much vaunted technology had to garble my copying and pasting. At least the copyright is there.)

HOLIDAY GREETINGS

Wishing all my followers, visitors, and those who comment here a wonderful holiday week!

My Christmas cactus bloomed for Thanksgiving this year. It is a new one, only two years old and though I forgot to take a picture, it looked somewhat like this one. 

I am taking a blogging vacation in favor of reading as many more books as I can before the year ends. I will be back in the New Year with my list of what were my Top 25 best books read this year. Then probably daily reviews to catch up on what I read in December.

I am also taking a break from the news, social media, and all things horrible and upsetting. It will all still be there when I return, I am sure. I feel chagrined at the growing tones of hatred and conflict and wish to spend my energy thinking about how most people are basically good and remembering that politics, war, and arguing has never solved much of anything.

Random acts of kindness and understanding will be my operating basis and my New Year's Resolution.

May creativity and clear thinking be what brings us through these times!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

I will be off the blog for the rest of this week. We are taking a road trip to visit with family. I plan to eat and drink and eat and drink and so on. The next generation is doing all the work. There will be lots of talking and laughing and playing of music. 

Happy Thanksgiving to all of my readers and followers. Keep The Wisdom is ten years old this year! It is hard to fathom that I have been at this for a decade. If you get bored, you can read my blog on your device while you digest. This is post #1294 and most of them are about books.

If you go back far enough you will even find some early rough drafts of chapters for my memoir, another parallel project begun a decade ago. It has turned into a version of the Myth of Sisyphus as I read the books described in My Big Fat Reading Project because I keep finding more books to put on the lists as well as more memories and thoughts to incorporate into the memoir. Who knows if I will ever finish it, but the journey so far has been amazing.

 

My prayers go out to all the refugees, the orphans, the homeless, the poor, and the hungry. No single one of us can feed the world or stop the wars. But I do have faith in the power of literature to shine the lights of knowledge and wisdom even into the darkest of places.

HOLIDAY BREAK FOR ME AND WISHES FOR YOU!

A SHORT LIST OF CHRISTMAS NOVELS

As of tomorrow, I am taking the rest of December off from blogging. I am just going to read. Yes, a reading vacation. Can' think of a better kind.

Thank you to all of you from around the world who visit and read my blog. I do not make any income from this blog unless you count the free books I get from publishers who want me to review them. I look at it as my service to literature and writers and readers. The only thing I could ask for in return is more comments, especially if you have read the books I review and would like to share your reading experience. If you have trouble posting a comment please let me know. My email address can be found in the profile section.

I will be back on or about New Year's Day with my top favorites list, the reading group update and more reviews. Meanwhile here are some suggestions of books that approach Christmas from many different viewpoints. They are all books I have read and enjoyed.

Wishing you a happy and non-stressful Holiday Week with lots of good reading!!

See my review

Shop Indie Bookstores

There are three holiday stories in this collection: two about Christmas and one about Thanksgiving. It is all autobiographical and gives us insight into Capote and the childhood that strongly influenced him. The writing is exquisite.

"In 'The Sister of the Angels,' Elizabeth Goudge takes us back to the City of Bells, and tells an enchanting story about Henrietta, a young girl in love with every nook and cranny of her grandfather's cathedral. This is a perfect story for the holiday season, and, because of its peace and charm, a book to cherish all the year round." (Publisher's blurb)
Henrietta is an orphan adopted by a minister and his wife, a charming but realistic child. The novel has the theme of someone returning from an earlier life to finish what was left unfinished. 

Shop Indie Bookstores

Owen Meany is one of the most amazing characters I have run across in a book. When I read books like this, I feel so ordinary. Actually, I know I am not, but I don't even know people with this much depth. It makes me feel like trying to be normal is a ridiculous pursuit.

The main point of the novel is that the human spirit has nothing to do with environment. Some fulfill their destiny no matter what the circumstances. The section with the Christmas pageant is moving beyond belief.

Shop Indie Bookstores

See my review

THANKSGIVING WEEKEND

EAT, SLEEP, READ!

The above is a motto of independent bookstores but also describes my holiday so far. I haven't had to cook much but food is plentiful, oh my.

Today is a magical day, being the birth date of three incredible authors.

Louisa May Alcott, 1832. I used to know the first page of Little Women by heart because I read it so many times. It was the first book that made me want to write a novel someday. Still working on that. LOL!

C S Lewis, 1898. I also read The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe over and over, but my favorite book of his was Till We Have Faces.

Madeleine L'Engle, 1918. A Wrinkle in Time made her famous but her early novels are special and unique for their insight into creative females coming of age, especially The Small Rain.

It is a nice rainy morning in LA and I am reading The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making by Catheyanne M Valente. Have to do something besides eat!

Are you reading or just eating?

 

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!


I have much to be thankful for this year, including you my readers. Here is a gift for you.

I wrote the lyrics to "I'd Thank You" several years ago as a Thanksgiving prayer for an ecumenical group's November meeting. Later I set it to music and had my friend Dale LaDuke arrange harmony parts for the chorus. When Greg Krueger and I recorded this version for my last CD, Inspiration, I recruited my songwriter friends to form a Folk Choir.

Enjoy the music, enjoy your day, enjoy your life!




I’D THANK YOU

If I could see life as a game
With a purpose and some freedom
Then I’d thank you for the barriers
That make a game a game
If I could look upon my family
With love and understanding
Then I’d thank you for the trying ones
And love them just the same.

If I had a destination
A place I’d really like to go
Then I’d thank you for the journey
And delight in passing here.
If I could know that deep inside
My lover is a shining being
Then I’d thank you for the quirks
That make him difficult yet dear

But I am in need of mercy
For ingratitude has been my way
Of dealing with life’s vagaries
And getting thru the day
I have lashed out with my anger
I have given in to fear
While you go on giving life
Year after year.

Copyright 2004 Bearded Iris Music/BMI