The John Cheever Audio Collection (1000 Books to Read)

Oh dear, I had so much adrenaline still in my system (see "circling the eddy" post) that I was up until 1 am this morning listening to this audio collection by John Cheever. I must have pressed the send button without writing what I thought. 

He is an amazing writer and writes about people and their problems in such a beautiful way. I especially loved this because of all the narrators: Streep, Plimpton, Herrmann (RIP), Blythe Danner, and the actual author. I love it. 

Here is why James Mustich thinks it should be one of the 1000 Books You Read Before You Die:

James Mustich

The sixty-one stories (I read a shorter version than Mustich recommends) gathered here were written in the three decades after the end of World War II; most were originally published in The New Yorker, then collected in slim volumes that had been largely forgotten by the time this fat, retrospective tome was issued to popular success and critical acclaim in 1978. While the nearly seven-hundred-page Stories of John Cheever delivers much more than the sum of its parts, it must also be proclaimed—with pleasure and admiration—that those parts remain more gloriously particular than its author’s enduring reputation as the “Chekhov of suburbia” implies. And although Cheever’s people seldom prove themselves up to the task of redemption, they seldom lose hope of its embrace; like nymphs pursued by insatiable divinities, these recognizable modern Americans survive—and perhaps even triumph—through their transformation by Cheever’s hands into figures of warning, yearning, and human imperfection.

True History of the Kelly Gang (1000 Books to Read)

The story of a reluctant outlaw! I want to know how much of this is true about this story. It sounds like the law was pretty corrupt in the wilds of Australia. 

Here is why James Mustich thinks it should be one of the 1000 Books You Read Before You Die:

James Mustich

Jul 30, 2018

The son of an Irish convict father, Ned Kelly stole horses as a child, murdered policemen, robbed banks, and took up as a “bushranger”—the Australian term for runaway convicts who evaded British authorities in the open continent. His notoriety grew until Kelly became a Robin Hood–like symbol of Irish-Australian opposition to the young country’s Anglo elite. Today he’s seen as an icon of the Australian psyche—untamed, independent, and a little crazy. A tour de force of authorial invention and tonal control, Peter Carey’s True History of the Kelly Gang tells the outlaw’s story in his own voice, with the protagonist frantically scribbling down his story as he flees the police. Working from a long letter Kelly wrote in 1879, Carey invents an entire vocabulary and syntax of Kelly English: muscular, vernacular, and totally profane. Although the unforgettable voice of Kelly, which makes a century-old outlaw’s tale breathtakingly immediate, may be the most memorable achievement of True History of the Kelly Gang, this book is also a rock ’em, sock ’em true crime tale of page-turning intensity.

The Tin Drum (1000 Books to Read)

This is a very strange book. It is about a man guy who stays at three years old even though he is 30. 

It says a lot about Germany during the rise of the Nazis.

I found this explanation helpful.

https://allegoryexplained.com/the-tin-drum/

Here is why James Mustich thinks it should be one of the 1000 Books You Read Before You Die:

James Mustich

Narrated from an insane asylum by Oskar Matzerath, a thirty-year-old who has not grown an inch since the age of three, when—in possession of a tin drum his mother had given him and all the faculties of an adult, or so he claims—he determined not to grow beyond the three feet he then stood. Anything but innocent, this childlike figure who can, and frequently does, shatter glass with his voice, is the most unreliable of narrators, rendering the experience of Germans before, during, and after the Second World War as a kind of Brothers Grimm story in which both “once upon a time” and “happily ever after” have disappeared; what’s left is an intimate pageant of primal emotions, grotesque characters, and bizarre incidents that enchant the reader’s imagination with a kind of wicked glee. Like the most indelible fairy tale, Grass’s masterpiece leaves images rooting around in our minds that are ominous and enduring, fraught with a meaning we can neither evade nor explain.

Sunday Morning Freewrite Fifteen

I am going to stick to a true 15 minute freewrite today. Lately, I have been doing longer ones to match the "Morning Pages" of Julia Cameron, but that takes about 35-40 minutes, and I want to get on with my day.

I have done it. The end of an era. I have finished my 2HC journey. I am so glad I did it, and I am sure that I made a good decision to end it. I will have a lot more freedom and flexibility now. It was such a sweet send off and probably the nicest send off I have ever had. They sent me flowers and read blessings from each of the leaders. It was wonderful. 

To celebrate, I went out to Elmer's with George and went up into the Paul Dunn Forest with Nancy riding their e-mountain bikes. How fun. We went really far. I have 13 miles on my watch, but we had already done a loop to Moss Rock and back and then were half way up the hill before I turned my watch on. I wasn't sure how to count it as I am not peddling like I would on a normal bike, but I am putting some effort into it. We probably went closer to 20 miles when all was said and done. We climbed high up on a ridge overlooking the valley. It was a perfect day, not too hot and not too cold. Lovely. Then she made me a wonderful lunch and we sat out on her deck with Kevin for half the time and the rest of the time, Nancy and I talked about abiding in Christ and deeper things of the soul. I was there from 11-5:30! Yikes. I didn't mean to stay so long, but we had not seen each other since December 17th. So there was a lot to catch up on.

So, here I sit before church. We are going to the later service today because there is a meeting after church that George is helping lead up, and I will go to as support. 

Sad thing was that I stayed so long at Nancy's that I didn't get to go to the potluck for the P's. George went without me and a funny picture of me from 1997 was laying on my computer this morning (I was fast asleep when George returned). I have no idea where it is at and who I am with in the picture. I have known Gayle P since she was in 7th grade in 1981. I am assuming that it who gave the picture to George to take home from the potluck. 

It was such a perfect day. It is going to be hotter today. I will walk now so that I can get my exercise out of the way before church (or maybe I should walk there). I am not sure.

I tried to finish my book before I went to Nancy's, but going out to breakfast with George made that impossible. It was due at 1:17 yesterday, and they automatically take it off your phone. I only had about 13 pages left in the audiobook. Thankfully, I have the print version of the book, and I found the place in the print version so I can finish it today. I also have The John Cheever Audio Collection. It doesn't have all of his stories, but it has a good six hour version, and that will have to do! Maybe I will listen to that if I walk to church. 

So, I think my time is almost out. I am back to writing freewrites and have a little more wiggle-room now that I am not doing 2HC. I HIGHLY recommend it though. For most people, it has been life-changing. So, I will always promote it with high praise. 

I will post the funny picture from 1997 and from our bike ride in the Paul Dunn. Ta Ta for Now!!! 

Doctor Zhivago (1000 Books to Read)

So good! What is it about me and Russian authors? The writing is so beautiful. I have always wanted to read this book, having seen the Omar Sharif/Julie Christie version when I was a kid (and didn't understand it) and later as an adult. I also watched the Kiera Knightley series. Both are excellent, and the book is even better. 

I cried at the end. Russia has been through so much. This is a sweeping epic from 1902 to World War II. I highly recommend it. When I found out that Pasternak was also a poet, it made sense! His prose is written almost like poetry! 

Here is why James Mustich thinks it should be one of the 1000 Books You Read Before You Die:

James Mustich

Jul 30, 2018

Even though its artistic achievement was hailed upon its original publication in Italy in 1957, and its author was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in the subsequent year, the true grandeur of Doctor Zhivago remains hidden for many by two factors: the shadow of Cold War politics surrounding its publication and the glamorous glow that still emanates from David Lean’s 1965 film. You should make no mistake about the rare reading experience Boris Pasternak’s novel offers: To get lost in its pages is to go beyond politics and glamour and encounter life itself in all its chaos and commotion, love and sorrow. On every page, Doctor Zhivago embraces the heedless rush of existence with an abandon at odds with the carefully calibrated artifice and ironic detachment of most modern fiction.

Dawn of Art: The Chauvet Cave (1000 Books to Read)

This was so interesting! I would have never picked this book up, but it was exciting to read the story of the three people who discovered the oldest art in the world!

Here is why James Mustich thinks it should be one of the 1000 Books You Read Before You Die:

James Mustich

Dawn of Art chronicles—in text and scholarship, appreciation and analysis, and, most importantly, in astonishing, detailed color photographs—the discovery made in the Ardèche Valley of France in December 1994 of a cave, untouched for thousands of years, filled with Stone Age bear skeletons, the remains of fires, and, staggeringly, more than three hundred paintings and engravings of animals. Radiocarbon dating has established these images to be more than thirty thousand years old; they are the oldest known paintings in the world. With nearly one hundred large color photographs, Dawn of Art is a stunning volume, documenting a thrilling discovery as it provokes both thought and awe.

An Infamous Army (1000 Books to Read)

It took me forever to get into this book, but I liked it about half way through. The activity is around all the Brits in Belgium before Waterloo. So, I kept waiting for that action to happen. It is a bit "sappy" on the romantic fiction end, and she has compared to Jane Austen. NO!!!! She does not reach Jane Austen's insight into people, dynamics, and masterful dialogue! 

Here is why James Mustich thinks it should be one of the 1000 Books You Read Before You Die:

James Mustich

Georgette Heyer may fairly be said to have found, nurtured, and raised to adulthood that flourishing foster child of Jane Austen, the Regency romance. Through dozens of novels, beginning with The Black Moth, composed when the author was seventeen to amuse her sickly brother, Heyer deployed wit, invention, research, and an astute sense of human nature (and the way desire shifts and shapes it) to construct confections of plot and character distinguished by both satisfying storytelling and authentic historical flavor. An Infamous Army shows how, as in the novels of Patrick O’Brian and Bernard Cornwell, a gift for narrative entertainment can be enriched by the tang as well as the trappings of history. Beginning in Brussels in the weeks leading up to Waterloo, the story is choreographed—with a willful and flirtatious widow and an adjutant of the Duke of Wellington at the center—as a swirl of affections, scandalous behaviors, and secret assignations.

Mumbo Jumbo (1000 Books to Read)

It think it is cool that I would read four books set in New York (Ragtime, A Rage in Harlem, and The Portable Dorothy Parker). This is a weird book. I think it was my least favorite of the four (although Dorothy Parker's was incredibly depressing - like her life!). 

Here is why James Mustich thinks it should be one of the 1000 Books You Read Before You Die:

Mumbo Jumbo may be the most rambunctious novel you’ll ever read, a noir mystery steeped in the lore of African American HooDoo, the social tumult and political corruption of the 1920s, Egyptian mythology, and the deep wells of Ishmael Reed’s idiosyncratic imagination. Shrewdly synthetic in its creative logic, Mumbo Jumbo is simultaneously fierce and funny, jubilant and angry. Exploding across its own pages like illicit fireworks, the book is a startling and colorful illumination of the tangled history of black-white relations.

Friday Freewrite

I slept in until 6 am this morning! That is late for me, but K and J didn't leave until after 11 pm last night, and I wanted to watch Welcome to Wrexham (one of my favorite shows), but I fell asleep during it at about midnight.

Our friends were on the tarmac in the Middle East when the airspace was shut down due to Israel bombing Iran. Oh no! They were there until a little bit ago to find all flights canceled. So, they will be delayed in getting back to the States.

I went to the doctor's yesterday for my annual check up and got a pneumonia vaccine. I guess they are recommended for people over 65. I also got my final Pap Smear. I had it last year, but there were insufficient cells for the lab. They wanted me to come back in, and I just wasn't able to get back. So, I got one yesterday. I waited almost an hour for the blood test, and she couldn't get the blood to come out. I may have had too little liquid while fasting or I was cold. K said the tech should have continued to look for a vein. I have had problems with this in the past. So, I will fast and flood my body with water next time. Bummer that I fasted before and had to miss my chai tea yesterday morning because of the fast. (First World Problem - imagine being stuck on a plane with a bunch of people with kids and your own 4 year and 18 month old. Then having your flight canceled home.)

So, I was dragging all day due to no chai in the morning. :) I have good news though. The same medical assistant measured me last year at 6 feet 1 1/4, and I thought it was wrong. So he was more careful this time and I was solidly 6 feet 1 3/4. That means I have only lost 1/2 inch over life which is probably more accurate. Also good news that I am at a normal and healthy BMI! Yay. I have been working so hard to keep my weight down. 

I was looking at my BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate) and it is 60 calories per day less than it was when I got down to a lower BMI on the range. My goal is to lose at least 5 more pounds before I go on my raft trip in August. I like to be a little lower than I am now, but I am in the range! WOOHOO! That is reason to celebrate.

Today, I have one directee, and we will be going over the ins and outs of her Enneagram type. I did a typing interview last week, and this week we will discuss self-awareness. Maybe this summer I will develop more helps for transformation in this area. She has been stuck for years, maybe 40. 

Well, since last Friday Freewrite, we are NOT going to do the Camino in October, and K is! We had asked J and K to do the Camino since we did part of it with them in 2022, but they didn't think they could. She is going with her sister and parents. That should be really lovely for them. I wish I could go with them though! (They didn't ask.) 

We talked for five hours last night. I love those two. Such lovely people. So much to talk through - their trip to the Middle East and an identity weekend they did with this lady. (I don't know if they realize I do all that stuff too, but I do it more in the context of long-term cohorts or one on one. Oh well - whatever way they get it is good. Comes down to our belovedness!)

I have ten more minutes. Today is meditation on Jesus' baptism. I will meditate through the YouTube I have on this. LOL! Watching my own YouTube. That is so funny. 

After my time with my directee, I will have a two your break and will go to see K for a walk (I think we are walking) out in the south end of town and some good catching up time. I feel like it has been at least two months since we last got together. I have missed her. I also need to get a hold of T. I don't like to bother her when she is in the middle of the school term, but the year ends today! So, I will call her and invite her over for some deck time in the sanctuary.

We were invited to M's graduation at Southern Oregon, but I didn't get the date and time and had already scheduled the annual 12 hour walk that I have already postponed twice in lieu of one of my directees deliverance sessions with C. I went to two of them but let them continue together. I think that is very healthy for me to let go of that for a while. It is not my calling, but it is C's, and my directee is in capable and safe hands. 

Well, I better go and get dressed. I will add a picture to go with this freewrite. Maybe my Belovedness Playlist! (K and J didn't know I had a YouTube channel either. Or at least J didn't know.) 

TTFN - TGIF! I am almost done with all my August to June intensity. One more leadership meeting and one more three day retreat, and I am DONE and ready for the summer! 

A Death of the Heart (1000 Books to Read)

I had never heard of this book. The protagonist might be a Type 5. She is a keen observer of people. She is innocent and around a bunch of hypocrites. I liked it. 

Here is why James Mustich thinks it should be one of the 1000 Books You Read Before You Die:

James Mustich

The opening of The Death of the Heart, Elizabeth Bowen’s discerning portrayal of one woman’s coming-of-age and another’s realization that her own period of becoming has come and gone, reveals the power of perception this author calibrates with words. The sentences follow one another like facts in a natural history of sensibility. Bowen’s prose is precise, but it sets off vibrations like the strings of a viola; the resulting music is seductive, compelling, often haunted by the evocation of unresolved, and unresolvable, emotions. If you’ve ever been bewildered by the deliciously tortured delicacy of consciousness that defines the later novels of Henry James and wondered what he is trying to get at, you might read Elizabeth Bowen to find out.

Morning Pages Freewrite

Download the Introduction and First Month HERE!

This is a "Morning Pages" freewrite. I know I am supposed to be writing by hand, but I had my computer on because of being in the Meditation Chapel for their 4:20 am Centering Prayer sit. So, I am already on here.

Yesterday, we went to see my mother-in-law. She is such a lovely woman. She will be 96 years old in nine days. She has a lot of pain right now. So, we are hoping that she can get some relief at her doctor's appointment today. 

I only got a few minutes of reading done yesterday because we left early in the morning, and that is when I get most of my reading done. Oh, there is my tea. I am going to stop the timer to get my second dose of chai. 

Here is my reading into July. These are in no particular order:

Currently reading:

The Death of the Heart

Mumbo Jumbo

An Infamous Army

Checked out but have not started reading yet:

The Tin Drum

Wide Sargasso Sea

True History of the Kelly Gang

The Tartar Steppe 

Own but it keeps getting shoved back on the pile because I have library books due:

The Birthday Boys

On hold at either Washington County Cooperative Library Services or Library2Go:

Dr. Zhivago

Cheever Stories 

I have a couple of books related to the spiritual direction training I will be doing. So, once I am through 500 on this list, I will go to reading those. I will be well over 500 books read on the 1000 Books to Read Before You Die List, and I have always said once I reach 500, I will be reading more slowly. Paul said when I first started on the list in 2019, "That is going to take you forever, Mom!" I think it will because I started in 2019 with many of the books already read (because of the other three lists I had completed). So, I have read probably 200-300 in the last six years. It would take me well into my 70s to finish the list, and some of the books don't look appealing to me OR they are hard to find and expensive to buy, and I am not willing to buy them just to read this arbitrary list. I will say that some have pleasantly surprised me at how much I have liked them. I never would have known they existed if it were not for this list. So, there you go!

Well, this week has been so much lighter in spiritual direction. The training internship with Marty and Sandy is over. That was a lot of time, but I loved it. My "Campfires" with the 2HC are over, and I only have a final meeting with the team on the 18th and retreat on the 28-30th.

Pilates is also over for the school year. I am subbing for four classes though. I am also done with the 19th and 18th annotations of the Spiritual Exercises, and this year was a lot because I was putting time stamps and covers on all my YouTube videos. That was a very fun project but time intensive.

Also, Renovare Book Club is over, and I don't think I will continue to lead it. It is very time consuming, and I think I would like someone else to lead it. I might be in it, but if no one steps to the plate to lead, I will just read the books on my own. 

I think that is all the groups that I was leading. 

I have a doctor's appointment with Dr. M today to align my back. There are no major problems, but I want to be strong going into the summer, and I don't' think I have an appointment in July. So this will have to carry me into the summer. Tomorrow, I have my annual check up, and my weight is down, and I have no problems, but it is good to go for a check up!

One thing that happened yesterday was S contacted us to say that she was being honored at the School of Engineering at Oregon State, and it was on the day we would need to start our Camino in order to do it before the 24-7 Gathering in Stuttgart. So, we are canceling the Camino until further notice! I didn't have a peace about making a reservation with the tour company, and now I know why! I am so happy that I was listening because I would not want to miss this honor for S! 

But I might be going to Spain for Deepen. I had said no to being a training cohort leader in spiritual direction, but they came back and asked me again, and some of my hesitations were done away with when I was able to talk to the director. I was misinformed about some things, and it seems more doable, and I am wondering if I would like the experience of having my own cohort. I am praying about this. Maybe if we do it, we could do the Camino before I do Deepen (maybe even ride bikes through the Meseta from Burgos to Leon) instead of after, and then George could go home, and take my Camino gear with him? I don't know. I am praying into it too. 

In fact, I am going to pray into some things on a prayer walk this morning so I can do it before my 8 am spiritual direction meeting, and doctor's appointment. 

Oh, one thing that I want to do is set up a spiritual direction session with Fran. I think it has been about six weeks. I think that is a better time frame for me than every month. 

I was invited late to go to M's graduation, but I had already postponed my 12 hour walk three times because of ____ deliverance sessions, and I wasn't going to do it another time, especially since I didn't get invited until two days ago, and it is a 3 1/2 hour drive down there and back. It would be too much (but a beautiful day for a drive to Southern Oregon), especially with our commitment to go to the Behold Prayer Conference. I am going to go out and get a graduation card and send it, and I want to host a party for her when she comes here next. 

Oh, I am also doing The Reservoir again (see above for a link to a free download of the Introduction and First Month). I know it is a very simple book with simple Scriptures every day, but it is good to go back to the basic of concept of God and myself, asking yourself the question, "What is Spiritual Formation?", and going through the five streams of the Prayerful Life, Virtuous Life, Spirit-Empowered Life, Word-Centered Life, and God-Saturated Life. 

During prayer yesterday, I got this crazy idea to do a YouTube series on it: taking people through each of the passages. I would encourage people to buy the book (see link above) and not necessarily read the book word-for-word, but just take people through meditations/contemplations and then asked prayerful questions as I go along. I don't necessarily like the questions in the book, but I do like how it is arranged. It was written by the Renovare team, and I was told about it in its infancy when Eric and I talked to the president of Renovare at the Renovare Institute about having something for international workers, and he told us about something in the works with his friend who was head of a major world relief agency. This friend wanted to have something for his workers, and this was the result! This is my second time through, I started the first few months last summer, but then I started with the 19th Annotation people, and that became my devotional time every morning. Next year, if God should bless me with people to do it with, I will still keep abreast with them of their daily meditations, but it won't be as much time as last year when I was also putting those time stamps and covers on each of the 225+ videos. (Oh, and I was also creating another list for the 18th Annotation people.) So, why not do the Reservoir?

I am also still waiting to hear back from Jill about doing a Centering Prayer time for the Order of the Mustard Seed. I would do it on Tuesday and Thursdays in the middle of the day. So, I already have those times blocked out for Centering Prayer with my nuns in East Mosely. So, it would not interfere with other things. It used to be Mondays and Thursdays, but I might be teaching Pilates on Mondays in the fall.

Speaking of the fall, if we don't do the Camino then, I will probably only need to take a couple of Fridays off from teaching Pilates to do Deepen in Spain. Oh, I have a lot to pray about, but...

I was on a prayer walk two days ago, and two things came into my heart to put intense prayer on, and the next day, I got a text from S asking me to pray for those two things and the second thing she asked for prayer about was something I prayed would happen. So, God is on the move with the person I was asked to pray about. Someone who had never really had any background of faith and wanted to know more. 

Well, I am going to get to meditating on The Spirit-Empowered Life here and then a walk and then a direction session with N and then a trip to make sure my back is aligned. Then REST for the REST of the day. I love summertime!

(I have two more minutes. what picture should I have to go along with this picture? Oh, I will put a picture of The Reservoir cover with a link to the book - That would be great. I love freewriting morning pages! I need to do this more in the summer time. Off to finish my tea and time with Jesus - Ta Ta for Now, Moring Pages!) 

Independence Day (1000 Books to Read)

This is such a well-written book. It deserved the Pulitzer, and it is another one I never would have read if it had not been for the 1000 Books to Read Before You Die List. :) 

What does "Independence Day" really mean for the main character, Frank? 

This is another story about what Thoreau terms a life of "quiet desperation," and I often wonder what the life of the author is like. The book is sad but satisfying to read.  

And I have to tell you something funny, I picked this out of the list because the movie, Independence Day, was on TV, and I thought, "I'll record it and read the book first." I was halfway through the book, still expecting aliens to show up and thinking how much time this author spent on character development versus the action of aliens, when I realized this was a different Independence Day! LOL! 

Here is why James Mustich thinks it should be one of the 1000 Books You Read Before You Die:

James Mustich

In the course of a July Fourth weekend, Frank Bascombe tries to sell a house to an intransigent couple, has a date, checks in on the residents of his rental properties, and drives to Connecticut to pick up his troubled adolescent son for an unfortunate jaunt to the Baseball Hall of Fame. Possessed of an anxious self-assurance, Frank’s perceptions and emotions are genuine enough to shine searching lights on our own experience; we’ve heard his voice before, inside our own heads. Depicting Frank’s hopeful fumblings toward his son, his ex-wife, his girlfriend, and—most of all—himself, Ford offers a heartrending but exhilarating anatomy of human feeling. This is a wise and welcome book, revealing life, and teaching us something about how to live it.

The Book of the City of Ladies (1000 Books to Read)

This is a rejection of misogynist thought. She was ahead of her time having written this book in 1405!

Here is why James Mustich thinks it should be one of the 1000 Books You Read Before You Die:

James Mustich

The first laywoman in Europe to make her living solely by her writing, Christine de Pizan used her gifts to refute the misogyny of philosophers, poets, orators, and churchmen, who, the author asserts at the outset, were unanimous in their view that “female nature is wholly given up to vice.” Drawing upon classical mythology, ancient history, scripture, and the lives of the martyrs, Pizan cites examples of female virtue and achievement, honoring women who were warriors, inventors, scholars, oracles, artists, saints. An anthology of entertaining stories, her book is also an important intellectual document and a fierce argument for women’s education: “If it were customary to send little girls to school and teach them the same subjects as are taught to boys,” Pizan wrote at the turn of the fifteenth century, “they would learn just as fully and would understand the subtleties of all arts and sciences.” 

How Buildings Learn (1000 Books to Read)

I NEVER would have picked up this book had it not been on the 1000 Books to Read List, but it was fascinating (although a bit tedious because I think it is written for architects). I'm glad I read it even though it was hard to get through! 

I will never look at a building in the same way again! LOL! 

Here is why James Mustich thinks it should be one of the 1000 Books You Read Before You Die:

James Mustich

Beginning with an anecdote about the predictable long line for the ladies’ room at the San Francisco Opera House, Brand argues that too many buildings are built in rigid adherence to long-held notions. Despite the assumptions of many planners, architects, and builders, he continues, time means more to most architecture than space; as a corollary, then, it’s clear that design is not as important as the way that design adapts to use as use changes. What starts out as a treatise on architectural adaptability ends up delivering to the reader a host of new inspirations for exploring other “permanent” things—from cities to selves—that are layered in time. How Buildings Learn is a capacious toolbox of ideas, filled with surprising compartments. You’ll learn a lot no matter where you open it.

The Spare Room (1000 Books to Read)

This was a beautiful book and easy read. I am reminded that one of my best friends had a fellow house mom from her previous university assume she was going to take care of her when she died and wanted to move in. It was a very weird situation, but she declined, and the woman never talked to her again (and died having intruded in, without asking, on another person).

I had a dad die of cancer, and it was my highest privilege to be with him in his last days. We had a bunch of people though. It wasn't all on me. So, "many hands made light work." I cannot imagine the load on the character in this book. 

It is a worthy read. 

Here is why James Mustich thinks it should be one of the 1000 Books You Read Before You Die:

James Mustich

The Spare Room chronicles the experience of a novelist named Helen whose Melbourne life is upended when Nicola, an old friend in the final stages of terminal cancer, arrives for an extended visit. Although the book is labeled a novel, the connection between the characters and situations the book describes mirrors real events in Garner’s life, calling into question the nature of its fiction (to the consternation of several critics when The Spare Room was published). Regardless, the frankness of the telling is revelatory: Helen’s impatience with Nicola’s faith in the quack course of treatment that has brought her from Sydney, Nicola’s indulgence of her own desperation, and the harsh realities of disease, friendship, and looming mortality are rendered with striking candor, whether the emotion of the moment be anger or tenderness. 

Above is a YouTube with the author. 

Friday Freewrite

Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash

Ok, I am doing a 20 minute freewrite. I think I am going to shut off "Grammarly" because it annoys me with over suggestions that are more "preferences" for them. 

I think my freewrites are usually 15 minutes. I am not sure why I told my timer to set it for 20, but I am going with that.

I am out in my outdoor office again on this Friday. It is my last workday for the school year. I am going to sub for four more classes in June and July, but I won't be back for the fall, if not for the Winter as I am probably going to Europe.

I had something come up. I had decided in March to not do the Deepen, but the head of it wanted to meet with me. As I suspected, they did want me and there were some changes to their plan that made the whole thing a bit more appealing for me. 

If I did that, I would be in Europe for quite a long time, and I am thinking that maybe I might just do that and the Camino and forget about the Gathering later on. I would be in Europe from October 11-November 4th, and I don't really want to be away from home that long.

So, I will go back to pray and see what happens. I hold it all with open hand. As the time I made the decision, I was thinking I would be starting an in-person spiritual direction training, but K cannot start until 2026, and I have had no other "takers." I think people don't really understand what spiritual direction is.

I had someone over, and we talked for six hours. So many things that I had discerned about dynamics were confirmed. I cannot go into it here, but it has caused me to realize that K and I have discern things correctly over the years, and that confirmation was good but also sad. I had to do some walking and talking with God over the whole thing. I know that I am glad that I trusted my discernment enough to say, "No" to two things I was asked to be a part of. I realize it would have sucked me into the control of a very unhealthy person, and I do not want to do that.

But the talk with the director of Deepen was so refreshing. I see growth. I see less stress. It was a lightness on the face that I found endearing. It is also a realization that my lightness of being and overflow of joy was welcomed. Could I bring that light and love to an in-person residency? 

Again, I will pray and reconsider. Things were so much clearer for me when I had made a final decision in March. I will let it play out.

Oh, and it was also so good to know that it wasn't as much work as I thought going to be! I would have a "reader" who would read the written projects. I also did not have to read through and give feedback on the non-supervised areas people per month. That added another two-three hours per month that I was not paid for last time. Basically, last time I worked for this group, I put in about 160 hours of work in 10 months, and it turned out to be about $7 an hour! That just was not worth it. Well, I am going to freewrite something that was worth it: it lead to the ABC Supervising Group with five lovely ladies who we so fun to supervise because they are such good directors! It also led me to go on with J. So, I do think it was a good thing.

I am still dreaming of doing something with the graduates of the 2HC. 2HC continuing formation. I need to give this a proposal when I meet with the guys in the middle of June. I am so grateful for this group. It has grown me in many ways. I am grateful. 

So, what else have I been up to? I have lost about 10-12 pounds, and this time, it has been pretty easy. I always tell myself that recording on Lose It! has been the best thing (well maybe BodyBugg was a bit more successful, but they went out of business.), and I got so lazy, but I have recorded for 38 days now, and I am doing well. I am just taking it 10 lbs. at a time, and I only needed lose a bit to be in the "healthy" range of my weight. I feel much better. 

I have also been reading crazily. Now that I am done with Renovare Book Club (perhaps for good), I am able to read from my 1000 Books to Read, and as this blog shows, I am been going pretty crazy for the last couple of months. I am now #1 on the List Challenge 1000 Books to Read List. I am still going to get to 500 and take a break. I have a whole group of books queued up, and I am plugging my way through them. I tried to finish the book, How Buildings Learn from the OSU Library so I could turn it in for my last day of teaching, but it is pretty tedious (albeit interesting at the same time). So, I will turn it in when I substitute on the 23rd. I have a long term loan on it since I am faculty (or am I staff ? I cannot remember.) So, there is no hurry to get it in, and it certainly isn't a "high demand" item!

There is my timer. BYE!  

Here is why James Mustich thinks it should be one of the 1000 Books You Read Before You Die:

Rory Gilmore's List Revisited Again: 162

I posted about this in 2012. My friend sent me the link to check off everything I had read. This was the first I had heard of Rory Gilmore. Here is the list with the new books added in BLUE.

2023 Update: I will add the new ones in GREEN! +7

2024 Update: DARK PURPLE additions +3

2025 Additions in BOLD +7

I'm up to 155 books May 2024 (but have read many of the other books by the authors mentioned)

Rory Gilmore Reading Challenge

1984 by George Orwell
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll – read – July 2010
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon
An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser
Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank - multiple movies and play
Archidamian War by Donald Kagan
The Art of Fiction by Henry James 
The Art of War by Sun Tzu
As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
Atonement by Ian McEwan
Autobiography of a Face by Lucy Grealy
The Awakening by Kate Chopin
Babe by Dick King-Smith
Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women by Susan Faludi
Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie
Bel Canto by Ann Patchett
The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath 
Beloved by Toni Morrison
Beowulf: A New Verse Translation by Seamus Heaney
The Bhagava Gita
The Bielski Brothers: The True Story of Three Men Who Defied the Nazis, Built a Village in the Forest, and Saved 1,200 Jews by Peter Duffy
Bitch in Praise of Difficult Women by Elizabeth Wurtzel
A Bolt from the Blue and Other Essays by Mary McCarthy
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
Brick Lane by Monica Ali
Bridgadoon by Alan Jay Lerner
Candide by Voltaire – read – June 2010
The Canterbury Tales by Chaucer
Carrie by Stephen King
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
Charlotte’s Web by E. B. White - and movie
The Children’s Hour by Lillian Hellman
Christine by Stephen King
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens – all movie versions known to man
A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
The Code of the Woosters by P.G. Wodehouse
The Collected Short Stories by Eudora Welty
The Collected Stories of Eudora Welty by Eudora Welty
A Comedy of Errors by William Shakespeare - multiple plays though
Complete Novels by Dawn Powell
The Complete Poems by Anne Sexton
Complete Stories by Dorothy Parker
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas père - and multiple movie versions
Cousin Bette by Honor’e de Balzac
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
The Crimson Petal and the White by Michel Faber – started and not finished
The Crucible by Arthur Miller
Cujo by Stephen King
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
Daisy Miller by Henry James
Daughter of Fortune by Isabel Allende
David and Lisa by Dr Theodore Issac Rubin M.D
David Copperfield by Charles Dickens - and multiple movie versions
The Da Vinci -Code by Dan Brown 
Dead Souls by Nikolai Gogol
Demons by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller
Deenie by Judy Blume
The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America by Erik Larson
The Dirt: Confessions of the World’s Most Notorious Rock Band by Tommy Lee, Vince Neil, Mick Mars and Nikki Sixx
The Divine Comedy by Dante
The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood by Rebecca Wells
Don Quijote by Cervantes - and musical 
Driving Miss Daisy by Alfred Uhrv
Edgar Allan Poe: Complete Tales & Poems by Edgar Allan Poe - many
Eleanor Roosevelt by Blanche Wiesen Cook
The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test by Tom Wolfe
Ella Minnow Pea: A Novel in Letters by Mark Dunn
Eloise by Kay Thompson
Emily the Strange by Roger Reger
Emma by Jane Austen – and multiple movie versions
Empire Falls by Richard Russo
Encyclopedia Brown: Boy Detective by Donald J. Sobol
Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton - and movie
Ethics by Spinoza
Europe through the Back Door, 2003 by Rick Steves - parts
Eva Luna by Isabel Allende
Everything Is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer
Extravagance by Gary Krist
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
Fahrenheit 9/11 by Michael Moore
The Fall of the Athenian Empire by Donald Kagan
Fat Land: How Americans Became the Fattest People in the World by Greg Critser
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson
The Fellowship of the Ring: Book 1 of The Lord of the Ring by J. R. R. Tolkien - and movie
Fiddler on the Roof by Joseph Stein - and movie
The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom – and movie
Finnegan’s Wake by James Joyce
Fletch by Gregory McDonald
Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
The Fortress of Solitude by Jonathan Lethem
The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley - andm movie
Franny and Zooey by J. D. Salinger
Freaky Friday by Mary Rodgers
Galapagos by Kurt Vonnegut
Gender Trouble by Judith Butler
George W. Bushism: The Slate Book of the Accidental Wit and Wisdom of our 43rd President by Jacob Weisberg
Gidget by Fredrick Kohner
Girl, Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen
The Gnostic Gospels by Elaine Pagels
The Godfather: Book 1 by Mario Puzo
The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
Goldilocks and the Three Bears by Alvin Granowsky
Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell – and movie
The Good Soldier by Ford Maddox Ford
The Gospel According to Judy Bloom
The Graduate by Charles Webb
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck - and movie
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald – and movie
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens - and multiple movie versions
The Group by Mary McCarthy
Hamlet by William Shakespeare - and multiple movie versions
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J. K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the (Philosopher's) Sorcerer’s Stone by J. K. Rowling 
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers
Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders by Vincent Bugliosi and Curt Gentry - and movie
Henry IV, part I by William Shakespeare
Henry IV, part II by William Shakespeare
Henry V by William Shakespeare
High Fidelity by Nick Hornby
The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon
Holidays on Ice: Stories by David Sedaris
The Holy Barbarians by Lawrence Lipton
House of Sand and Fog by Andre Dubus III
The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende
How to Breathe Underwater by Julie Orringer
How the Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr. Seuss
How the Light Gets in by M. J. Hyland
Howl by Allen Ginsburg - disgusting! 
The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo
The Iliad by Homer - and movie Troy
I’m with the Band by Pamela des Barres
In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
Inherit the Wind by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee
Iron Weed by William J. Kennedy
It Takes a Village by Hillary Clinton
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë – and multiple movie versions
The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan - and movie
Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare
The Jumping Frog by Mark Twain
The Jungle by Upton Sinclair
Just a Couple of Days by Tony Vigorito
The Kitchen Boy: A Novel of the Last Tsar by Robert Alexander
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini - and movie
Lady Chatterley’s Lover by D. H. Lawrence
The Last Empire: Essays 1992-2000 by Gore Vidal
Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman
The Legend of Bagger Vance by Steven Pressfield
Less Than Zero by Bret Easton Ellis
Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke
Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them by Al Franken
Life of Pi by Yann Martel
The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis - and movie versions
Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens
The Little Locksmith by Katharine Butler Hathaway
The Little Match Girl by Hans Christian Andersen
Little Women by Louisa May Alcott – two movie versions too
Living History by Hillary Rodham Clinton
Lord of the Flies by William Golding
The Lottery: And Other Stories by Shirley Jackson
The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold – read
The Love Story by Erich Segal
Macbeth by William Shakespeare 
Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
The Manticore by Robertson Davies
Marathon Man by William Goldman
The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter by Simone de Beauvoir
Memoirs of General W. T. Sherman by William Tecumseh Sherman
Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris
The Meaning of Consuelo by Judith Ortiz Cofer
Mencken’s Chrestomathy by H. R. Mencken
The Merry Wives of Windsor by William Shakespeare (saw it in Ashland)
The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka
Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
The Miracle Worker by William Gibson
Moby Dick by Herman Melville
The Mojo Collection: The Ultimate Music Companion by Jim Irvin
Moliere: A Biography by Hobart Chatfield Taylor
A Monetary History of the United States by Milton Friedman
Monsieur Proust by Celeste Albaret
A Month Of Sundays: Searching For The Spirit And My Sister by Julie Mars
A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway
Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
Mutiny on the Bounty by Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall
My Lai 4: A Report on the Massacre and It’s Aftermath by Seymour M. Hersh
My Life as Author and Editor by H. R. Mencken
My Life in Orange: Growing Up with the Guru by Tim Guest
My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult 
The Naked and the Dead by Norman Mailer
The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco
The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri
The Nanny Diaries by Emma McLaughlin - and movie version
Nervous System: Or, Losing My Mind in Literature by Jan Lars Jensen
New Poems of Emily Dickinson by Emily Dickinson
The New Way Things Work by David Macaulay
Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich
Night by Elie Wiesel
Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen – two movie versions
The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism by William E. Cain, Laurie A. Finke, Barbara E. Johnson, John P. McGowan
Novels 1930-1942: Dance Night/Come Back to Sorrento, Turn, Magic Wheel/Angels on Toast/A Time to be Born by Dawn Powell
Notes of a Dirty Old Man by Charles Bukowski
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
Old School by Tobias Wolff
Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens - and muliple movie versions
On the Road by Jack Kerouac
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovitch by Alexander Solzhenitsyn
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey - and movie
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
The Opposite of Fate: Memories of a Writing Life by Amy Tan
Oracle Night by Paul Auster
Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood
Othello by Shakespeare 
Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens
The Outbreak of the Peloponnesian War by Donald Kagan
Out of Africa by Isac Dineson
The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton
A Passage to India by E.M. Forster
The Peace of Nicias and the Sicilian Expedition by Donald Kagan
The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
Peyton Place by Grace Metalious
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
Pigs at the Trough by Arianna Huffington
Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi
Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk Legs McNeil and Gillian McCain
The Polysyllabic Spree by Nick Hornby – read
The Portable Dorothy Parker by Dorothy Parker
The Portable Nietzche by Fredrich Nietzche
The Price of Loyalty: George W. Bush, the White House, and the Education of Paul O’Neill by Ron Suskind
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen – and multiple movie versions
Property by Valerie Martin
Pushkin: A Biography by T. J. Binyon
Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw (August 2019)
Quattrocento by James Mckean
A Quiet Storm by Rachel Howzell Hall
Rapunzel by Grimm Brothers 
The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe
The Razor’s Edge by W. Somerset Maugham
Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books by Azar Nafisi
Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier – and two movie versions
Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm by Kate Douglas Wiggin
The Red Tent by Anita Diamant
Rescuing Patty Hearst: Memories From a Decade Gone Mad by Virginia Holman
The Return of the King: The Lord of the Rings Book 3 by J. R. R. Tolkien
R Is for Ricochet by Sue Grafton
Rita Hayworth by Stephen King
Robert’s Rules of Order by Henry Robert
Roman Fever by Edith Wharton
Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare
A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf
A Room with a View by E. M. Forster - and multiple movie versions
Rosemary’s Baby by Ira Levin - started but TOO SCARY to finish!
Sacred Time by Ursula Hegi
Sanctuary by William Faulkner
Savage Beauty: The Life of Edna St. Vincent Millay by Nancy Milford
The Scarecrow of Oz by Frank L. Baum
The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne 
Seabiscuit: An American Legend by Laura Hillenbrand
The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir
The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd 
Secrets of the Flesh: A Life of Colette by Judith Thurman
Selected Letters of Dawn Powell: 1913-1965 by Dawn Powell
Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen - and multiple movie versions
A Separate Peace by John Knowles
Several Biographies of Winston Churchill
Sexus by Henry Miller
The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
Shane by Jack Shaefer
The Shining by Stephen King
Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse
S Is for Silence by Sue Grafton
Slaughter-house Five by Kurt Vonnegut
Small Island by Andrea Levy – on my book pile
Snows of Kilimanjaro by Ernest Hemingway
Snow White and Rose Red by Grimm Brothers 
Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy: Lord and Peasant in the Making of the Modern World by Barrington Moore
The Song of Names by Norman Lebrecht
Song of the Simple Truth: The Complete Poems of Julia de Burgos by Julia de Burgos
The Song Reader by Lisa Tucker
Songbook by Nick Hornby
The Sonnets by William Shakespeare
Sonnets from the Portuguese by Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Sophie’s Choice by William Styron 
The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner
Speak, Memory by Vladimir Nabokov (August 2019)
Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach
The Story of My Life by Helen Keller
A Streetcar Named Desiree by Tennessee Williams
Stuart Little by E. B. White
Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
Swann’s Way by Marcel Proust - (August 2019)
Swimming with Giants: My Encounters with Whales, Dolphins and Seals by Anne Collett
Sybil by Flora Rheta Schreiber - saw it when I was young and SCARY!
A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
Tender Is The Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Term of Endearment by Larry McMurtry
Time and Again by Jack Finney
The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger – read
To Have and Have Not by Ernest Hemingway
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee 
The Tragedy of Richard III by William Shakespeare
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
The Trial by Franz Kafka
The True and Outstanding Adventures of the Hunt Sisters by Elisabeth Robinson
Truth & Beauty: A Friendship by Ann Patchett
Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom
Ulysses by James Joyce
The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath 1950-1962 by Sylvia Plath
Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe 
Unless by Carol Shields
Valley of the Dolls by Jacqueline Susann
The Vanishing Newspaper by Philip Meyers
Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray 
Velvet Underground’s The Velvet Underground and Nico (Thirty-Three and a Third series) by Joe Harvard
The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides
Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett
Walden by Henry David Thoreau
Walt Disney’s Bambi by Felix Salten
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy - and the mini-series
We Owe You Nothing – Punk Planet: The Collected Interviews edited by Daniel Sinker
What Colour is Your Parachute? 2005 by Richard Nelson Bolles
What Happened to Baby Jane by Henry Farrell
When the Emperor Was Divine by Julie Otsuka
Who Moved My Cheese? Spencer Johnson
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf by Edward Albee
Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire
The Wizard of Oz by Frank L. Baum - and the movie
Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë - and multiple movie versions
The Yearling by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings
The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion (July 2019)
A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole