A new book by Pico Iyer is a great cause for joy. Known as a travel journalist, Iyer is one of my favorite authors; he and Malcolm Gladwell have similar minds, I think, but Iyer goes deep into memoir. This book recounts his travels in search of Paradise—the idea if not the place. He travels to places most of us will never see: Iran, North Korea, Japan, the Himalayas, India. Iyer has companioned and learned from the Dalai Lama in Japan, where the writer lives. Iyer also spends time annually at a Benedictine monastery in California; he’s written about that elsewhere. He was born into a Hindu family in Great Britain, where he was educated. Iyer is a world traveler—and his writing is gorgeous.
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Vanessa Zoltan is Jewish and a chaplain, a graduate of Harvard Divinity School, and an atheist who wants to pray. Her atheism is the result of both sets of grandparents having lived through the Holocaust; they survived, but their faith didn’t. While at Harvard for her MDiv, Zoltan began reading Jane Eyre, one of her favorite novels, as a text to pray with, as some of us might pray with Psalms. She begins with an author’s note, an introduction, and a spiritual autobiography before beginning eleven chapters on Jane Eyre. Those three prefatory sections are well worth reading. She concludes with a chapter each for Little Women, Harry Potter, and The Great Gatsby. Caveat: If you love Jane Eyre, you will be challenged in your interpretations. This book is filled with close reading, way beyond pleasure reading or classroom analysis. I felt as though I went “out on the end of a very whippy branch” as one of my professors described a colleague's work during seminary. It is not a difficult, academic read, but it could well change how you read. J.B. West was Chief Usher at the White House, where he was employed for nearly 30 years. This memoir, published in 1973, covers the Roosevelts through the early days of the Nixon administration. It is not gossipy or salacious, but it does drop names and give great stories and insights about the First Ladies. Each woman put her own stamp on the furnishings and artwork, as well as the entertaining, of the “President’s House.” This was a thoroughly enjoyable book, despite rather poor quality black-and-white photographs. I wish only that West had stayed longer and written about successive First Ladies. Author Kate Bowler, who was diagnosed with Stage IV colon cancer at 35, has lived with the disease for several years. Married, with a young son, a faculty member at Duke Divinity School, she tells her story. Along the way she thinks theologically about pain and suffering, and skewers the way we sometimes talk to people who are sick or grieving. The irony of it all: a Quaker, she was studying and writing about the “prosperity gospel” when she became ill. If you think you don’t have the time or bravery to read it all, at least look at Appendix I: Absolutely Never Say This to People Experiencing Terrible Times, a Short List. (Just eight cringe-worthy items we’ve said or heard.) The book was a Goodreads Choice and a New York Times bestseller, if that matters to you. |
What I’m ReadingI began working in libraries as a seventh grader, courtesy of scoliosis. My orthopedic surgeon wrote me a pass to miss gym class, so I began working in the school library to feed my love of reading. Even after my surgery to correct the curvature, I kept getting out of gym to work in my high school library and then in my college library (for pay, at last!).
So began my eventual career as a college reference librarian—after a detour into teaching high school English. Later I worked for an educational publisher before going back to libraries.
I have a reading and writing life now. I devour both fiction and nonfiction, and will tell you about some of my favorite reads, both old friends and new discoveries.
Here's some library-themed music to get you in the mood.
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