Inspiration in ivory

When I have a hard time reading through a book, I'll sometimes put it in my restroom to read when I'm taking a bath. One I struggled with for upwards of a year was Eckhart Tolle's The Power of Now. I bought it because so many people had said how inspirational it was. However, it just didn't "click" my inner inspiration.

His book describes detaching from  physical and earthly things in an effort to live in the now. The book's concepts are good. However, I think the presentation is what got in my way. It is written in an "argument" style, where an unnamed person representing the reader offers questions and arguments with Tolle. For me, this merely leads to frustration that I can't ask questions of my own. Better questions, at that. I think it is worth a read, even if it wasn't what I was expecting.

But as I tidied my drawer in the restroom I did find inspiration elsewhere.

I found my Ivory soap. I've used Ivory for years, but I never noticed until that day that there are quotes inscribed (in English and in French) on the wrappers.

Some of those quotes include:
"The secret to a happy life is to live simply."
"The ultimate point in life is joy."
"Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things."

I smiled as I went through each one. Essentially the quotes encouraging simplicity are urging the same sort of thing as Tolle. Live simply. Enjoy the now, etc.

Turns out, my inspiration was there... just not in the form I thought it might be :)

Book fast

It seems like I"ve been on a fast from reading. I've been writing so much lately I haven't read hardly anything! I did just finish The New Diary by Tristine Rainer. Although I already knew most of the techniques in it, it was a good inspiration. I've been writing in a journal nearly every night now. I wouldn't say big revelations, at least not yet! She suggests naming your journal before beginning as a sort of blessing, mantra or vision for the time recorded in the book. I named ine Verto Prosperitas Venustas. I haven't really shared that before and it seems so personal, but that is ok. I've been thinking a lot about Harry Potter and the various spells and the relation of that and the visions I have for my future. So it is a play on words from a transfiguration spell, meaning transfigure: prosperity, beauty. I suppose it is also a test of myself and my ability to work on something and stick with it. I've never kept a journal to the point that I finish an entire notebook, probably because I've always been afraid of someone reading it. Now I'm taking charge of that. I have a vision of journals lined up on a shelf chronicling my life, journal and future. :) I know this is less about books and more about MY books, but this seems like the right place for this blog.

The dead who are watching

Wow. I thought there was no way I would enjoy Stephanie Kallos' new book Sing Them Home more than her first Broken For You. But it had the same haunting feeling and well-carried out themes.

It is the story of a family who is haunted by the disappearance of their mother -- Hope -- who is carried away by a tornado, and her body is never found. Her three children and husband have lasting repercussions from never having a closure on her death. That lack of closure is further emphasized by the complicated and slightly eccentric funeral rituals that is common in their hometown. The story is told in shifting points of view (although most of it is told in limited objective narrator, it allows us inside the minds of alternating characters.) We are allowed also inside the mind of the ghost of Hope as well as her younger mind through her diary (the only portion told in first-person.) What develops is a complex and sometimes surprising and sometimes predictable story on a quest for redemption and closure.

I will be anxiously awaiting anything new from Kallos.

Harry Potter

I'm about to embark on the Harry Potter series! I've read the last one but the others only kind of skimmed off and on through the years. So I'm starting at the beginning and reading straight through to find out what all the fuss is about! Did you like the series? Is it all it's cracked up to be?

Into the Forest

I finished Into the Forest a couple weeks ago. Most people from book club have been loving it, but my feelings are mixed. I really liked the concept and two sisters trying to make it in an apocalyptic world was immediately interesting to me. The writing was wonderful and admittedly I was obsessively thinking about what I would do in those sisters' shoes for days afterwords.

The main problem I had with the book was that it never really said what happened. My questions still continue to plague me. Why did the government collapse? Why no transportation or gas? Did it run out or international relations collapse? Also the girls in the book seemed convinced that everything was temporary. I wasn't really sure if that was because they were naive or if that was the general sentiment.

But overall, I did enjoy the book, despite my lack of connection to the characters. Worth a read if you like apocalyptic survival stories!

All Quiet on the Western Front

All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque surprised me as a teenager. I was sure that a book about war wouldn't appeal to me. I was much more enchanted with other types of books. But when we read this my sophomore year in high school I loved it. The melancholy rhythm has stayed with me through the years, but this weekend I picked it up again to fall in love all over again.

The cover of my copy proclaims "The Greatest War Novel of All Time." Now, I'm not a fan of war novels so I don't know if that is true, but I do know it is my favorite war novel. I love the characters and the way they are transformed.

I think this book impacted me even more this time around because of the men that I know who have been in war. In high school I never even knew someone who had been in the military much less in a war. I have seen how my friends have been transformed. So much more then it breaks my heart the plight of the men in the book. This quote in particular from the intro touched me.

"This book is to be neither an accusation nor a confession, and least of all an adventure, for death is not an adventure to those who stand face to face with it. It will try simply to tell of a generation of men, who even though they may have escaped shells, were destroyed by the war."

I also love that this was written by a German soldier. Although they were our enemies in both WWI and WWII I think he captures how many soldiers felt -- as if the decisions were not their own but those above them were making all of their decisions; as if their enemies might be more like them than they first imagined.

Weekend reading!

I love nothing more than to stay inside during a truly hot day with the wind blowing through the window and reading on my couch in comfort. I recently finished two books by Madeleine Wickham. One called Swimming Pool Sunday and the other Cocktails for Three. I enjoyed both, but missed the wit and hilarity of her books written under her pseudonym Sophie Kinsella.

I will probably read more of her "serious" books, but perhaps without the anticipation of her other books.

Swimming Pool Sunday is about what happens to a family and group of friends when a tragedy happens during a swimming party. The divides and bonds the tragedy creates are intricately woven albeit predictable. My favorite scenes were the ones featuring the children, which there weren't many of.









Cocktails for Three was also fairly predictable, and there is one "moment of revelation" which I found hard to believe that three women who work together and are best friends wouldn't have picked up on. There were several of those moments. Who knows, maybe one day I'll find myself in a similar situation and take it all back. In all it made me long to have a group of friends that I could have cocktails with on a regular basis. The bonds of friendship is another aspect of Wickham's books (even her ones as Kinsella) that are always masterfully done. She captures that unspoken bond very well.