Book Review: Everyone is Beautiful

Everyone is Beautiful by Katherine Center
I read the Kindle Version
Genre: Fiction
You might like this book: If you enjoy stories about motherhood, womanhood, and marriage, or if you are interested in reconsidering the idea of beauty in society today.

This book went on my list after a trusted friend and bookblogger Morninglight Mama told about her experience reading it.  I usually like what she likes so I bought it for my Kindle in like, March.  Today, in that lull after Christmas, with nothing really tangible on my to-do list, I stayed in my PJ's all day and read it. Uff. It was a gloriously interactive experience. As Morninglight Mama opined, this may be the most accurate book ever written about the day to day demands of motherhood and how women start to see themselves in terms of the people and circumstances around them. This is the story of how a woman named Lanie changes her life, but not in the way she first set out to do. Her arc is about self discovery, yes, but more importantly, she re-learns to see outside the tiny world that her children's needs have drawn around her.  I have experienced the odd kind of selfishness that somehow coexists with the utter unselfishness of motherhood. We draw into ourselves and become needy for attention, for tangible evidence of hard work. It is hard on marriages and on all the other people around us. Lanie's story teaches the importance of finding a way to take care of the core of ourselves. This story reminds me that it is okay, even important for a devoted and fully focused mother to have a piece of the world that is all her own. Woven in among that message are others, just as compelling, about the beauty of everyday people; the special comfort of marriage, even in its persistent unglamourousness; and the fact that what we have is usually way better than what we think we want.

I'm so glad I read it.  It gave me the same kind of warm feeling about my life and the state of the world as watching the beginning and end of Love, Actually. I just want to go and hug all the ordinary, beautiful people out there.

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Book Review: The Christmas Sweater

The Christmas Sweater by Glenn Beck
I read the Kindle version.
You may like this book: If you like stories of redemption, faith, finding joy after hard things happen, and sentimental Christmas stories.


Okay, let's just get it out of the way. I like Glenn Beck. I think he is interesting, bold and honest. I don't always agree with what he says, and I know he is mostly an entertainer, but these days, most of the news media is. Let's move on now.
So, with that in mind and knowing that this book had at least somewhat of an autobiographical side to it, I was curious and suggested it for my in-person book group. I had to miss the meeting, so I don't know what everyone else thought of it, but I found it readable and more enjoyable than I thought it would be since I usually avoid Christmas Tear-Jerker type books like the plague. The story is fairly predictable, although I was thrown for a minute by the twist at the end, and the heart-strings are tugged as one would expect.  So, it is a nice little read for this time of year. What I actually liked the most though, was Beck's epilogue in which he tells about the synthesis of the story, explains the autobiographical connection, and basically bears his testimony of his beliefs without getting dogmatic or specific about his Mormonism, thus leaving it accessible to anyone who has ever searched for more meaning in their life or come back from a serious challenge. This part of the book was true to his ways-honest, no punches pulled, and pleading for folks to consider, just for a moment, looking at things from a different vantage point. So, if you don't think you could stomach the book, then check out the epilogue while you're browsing at the bookstore. You might be surprised to find out that Mr. Beck is a real human being.

Oh, and of course I LOVED the knitting content. It IS about a sweater, after all. 

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Book Review: Nine Days a Queen

Nine Days a Queen: The Short Life and Reign of Lady Jane Grey
Anne Rinaldi
Genre: YA Historical Fiction
You might like this book if you like history, especially English royal history, or if you like interesting female characters, or if you like learning about peripheral or lesser known individuals surrounding really famous people.

I had never really thought about Lady Jane Grey, later Jane Dudley and, very briefly, Queen Jane. I had heard about her, but most of my knowledge about the tumultuous times of the Tudors was limited to Henry VIII and Elizabeth. Apparently, Lady Jane did not like that situation and has managed to make herself known to me in some interesting ways. Some weeks ago, I was having a night of insomnia and started poking around the free movies on demand from my satellite provider. I found an unfamiliar film from 1985 or so called Lady Jane and starring Cary Elwes and Helena Bonham Carter, two favorite actors. I loved it, it got me through my insomnia, and I started trying to find out more about this Jane person. A few weeks after watching the found movie, I was at a friend's house inspecting her bookshelves, as I am wont to do, and found this book. Had it not been for my recent foray into the life of this poor girl, I would have had no idea what the title meant. Newly savvy, I was immediately interested in another telling of the story.

It's a good one. It is the story of a girl-relative of Henry and Elizabeth who, by no fault of her own, was caught up in the machinations of the Royal Family of the time. As a result, she ended up being queen without any ambition to become so.  We already know that Royals, shall we say,  have many obstacles to normal relationships, and this book just proves it in spades.  Since it is YA, it is accessible, easy to read and focuses on the feelings and observations of the eponymous young person. Jane tells her own story and I really liked the way the author imagined what it was like to be a doomed teenager. She manages to tell her story without  sentimentality, but I found myself really caring about her.  If you do watch the movie and read the book, know that neither is exactly right, of course, but the book is closer to the truth. The movie ramps up the romance, which is good with two such lovely actors, but the book is easier to swallow as far as how things probably really were. It was a delightful read and a serendipitous follow-up to the movie.As a side-note, I appreciated that it was a clean book. The sexual shenanigans of the royal family were handled in a way that might invite a young reader to ask questions but nothing was described in any visual or graphic way.

In the end, while it stands on its own as a good read, it rekindled an interest in reading more about the realities of that time in history, and its always a good thing when one books leads to another.

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Book Review: The Anatomy of Peace

The Anatomy of Peace
by The Arbinger Institute
Genre: Self Help, specifically about Peacemaking
Non-Fiction
Adult

The Arbinger Institute is a sort of think tank that applies its research and consulting to the subject of peacemaking. I've been interested in their work for a while and find that the ideas they promote resonate with me. This is a self-help book, but it is presented as a story. The creative writing aspect of it is not its strongest characteristic, but that's okay. It teaches the concepts in the setting of a fictional group of parents who have just dropped off their troubled kids at an intensive outdoor intervention camp. The parents have to have some training with the camp staff so they can prepare to support the kids after their experience in the wilderness. The teaching is clear and the concepts are presented in an organized way, but sometimes the dialog and characterizations are a tiny bit cheesy. They are designed to be representative of a wide cross-section of people, so the concepts can be shown as applying to everyone. I get that, and I learned what the book has to offer, so the choice of style worked.

So, beyond a bit of criticism for the presentation, I really believe what this book teaches. I believe it with all my heart, and I think that if I can internalize it and learn to apply it, it really will help me in all my relationships. There were several moments of deep personal recognition of struggles that I have. Fortunately, these moments were eased by practical, useful pointers to new ways of thinking about my "way of being." Which brings me to another head's up. Just like any set of skills, whether it be skiing, knitting or car mechanics, this one comes with its own vocabulary. Some might dismiss it as psychobabble, as I did at first. What I've found however, as I've thought about and really tried to use the concepts taught is that using the language of the book actually helps me to build the new habits I want to build. The new words help me to sort of short circuit my usual habits.
I found the book most applicable to my family relationships, but really the concept of how to relate to others with a "heart of peace" is something that can be used in all situations. I thought of dealing with teachers at school, the staff at the doctor and dentist offices, and many other times when I've found myself not so peaceful.
If you are interested in a new way of thinking about looking at others, especially people you have struggled with for any reason, this could be a really useful book for you.

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Book Review: The Big Rock Candy Mountain

The Big Rock Candy Mountain by Wallace Stegner:
This is a beautifully written novel, large in scope, rich in emotion and ideas, and one I'll remember for a long time. It is the heartbreaking saga of a family during the first third of the 20th century. The narrative does not dwell on history except to place the events of the story in context. So we know that prohibition is going on, WW1 is going on, and the Great Depression is going on, but they serve mostly as the backdrop to the wild and challenging life of Bo Mason and his family. Stegner's writing is spare yet so descriptive of both the expansive settings of Western North America and the complex personalities of the characters that every scene came alive with detail. All five of my senses got involved and I was transfixed until the very end. There are lessons to be learned along the way, and it is not an easy story to read, but in my opinion, well worth the effort.

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Book Review: Beauty by Robin McKinley

This turned out to be a really nice retelling of the very familiar story of Beauty and the Beast. I think that the Disney film was much influenced by some of the imagery in this book. The descriptions are lush and imaginative, but the world of the story is still recognizable. The one thing I liked about this story that was a bit different from other versions I remember is that Beauty herself had to realize her own power and even her own beauty. Her character had more of an arc than merely coming to see the Beast differently. She also had to learn to see herself differently. For that reason, this would be a great book for any young woman or girl to read. It was absolutely wholesome, with no scenes at all that I would be concerned about sharing.

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Book Review: Alive: The Story of the Andes Survivors

Alive: The Story of the Andes Survivors
Piers Paul Read
Adult, Non-Fiction, Documentary
You might like this book if: You enjoy survival stories, situations where group dynamics and working together are important, or you've heard of this story and are curious about what happened.

In 1972, a plane with 45 Uruguayans went down in the Andes. 16 of those original passengers survived. This is their story. And, yes, it pretty much is as dramatic as that movie-trailer style introduction makes it sound.

It is interesting to read a book like this because so much of the story was known to me, but just like Apollo 13, I really enjoyed it anyway, even knowing the outcome and one of the principal sources of tension. Don't get me wrong, it's a grueling read, but I literally couldn't put it down and read it in one sitting. It is a detailed account of what it takes to survive such seemingly impossible conditions: a plane crash in the high mountains,  the difficult weather conditions of late winter/early spring, little food, improper clothing, and no natural resources.

Yet, some did survive, and they did it by dint of faith, determination, incredible creativity and then, of course, being willing to do, as the book cover attests, the unthinkable.  They were careful and thoughtful about their food. They rationed, they worked together, they developed a kind of government that kept people honest and contributing. But they still had too little food to survive, so the grueling decision was made to use the bodies of the dead as food. That story is told in full here, and it is difficult to read and think about, but in this straightforward telling, there is no sensationalizing, so there is nothing that is told for mere shock value. This leaves the reader to ponder the obvious questions of "Would I be able to do that?"and "Should they have just given up and died instead of eating the fallen?"

I also really liked that the author gave nearly as much time to the rescue efforts that were taking place. These parents were relentless in the face of political unrest, developing nations with little resources and skepticism. They would not give up. That was as heroic and meaningful to me as what the boys on the mountain were going through, and the character and faith of the searchers provided some of the best moments of the book for me.

The author met the survivors and he was chosen to write the book, and it appears that he did so with a great deal of personal affection and respect for the survivors. He tells it in true documentary style, as an observer. There is little of editorializing or embellishing and it is left solely up to the reader to form opinions.  I appreciated this approach, because in the end, I was cheering and weeping along with the world of 1973. I was able to focus on the real meaning of the story which to me is the power of faith,  character, friendship and hard work to give regular people the strength to do amazing things. 

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Book Review: Moloka'i by Alan Brennert

Moloka'i
Alan Brennert
Adult Historical Fiction
I listened to the Audible audiobook.
You might like this book if: You like historical fiction, you're interested in Hawaii, you like strong female characters, or sweeping stories that follow a character over a long period of time.

This book involved another of the moments of Synchronicity that often happen to me in connection with books. A few months ago, I happened upon an episode of a public television show called The Generations Project, which I'd never watched before. This is a genealogy show that helps an individual find out more about an ancestor about whom they are missing information. In the episode I accidentally found, a Hawaiian woman is trying to find out about her ancestor who was an inmate in the Kalaupapa settlement on the island of Moloka'i. It was a leper colony and I had never heard of it before.

When we chose books for one of my book groups, this one came up and I didn't really find out any information about it before I started reading. I had no idea what it was about. Well, it turns out that my TV show had prepared me well for the reading of this book and really enriched my experience with it. It is about the Kalaupapa Settlement, and the main character actually has several things in common with the person on the tv show. I loved that while I was reading, I could picture the place in my mind and have this real-life connection to the events of the story.

To summarize, this is an epic tale, following the life of one woman almost in its entirety. Hers is a rich life and I deeply loved her by the end. There are lots of other characters along the way and the story goes in waves of more and less interesting at times, just as life does. The writing is pretty good, though I'm curious to sample it in written, rather than audio, form. The narrator has such an influence on how a book comes across. This narrator has a cultural connection to the story, and that did add authenticity, which I liked, but the voice sometimes does obscure the writing. There were a few parts that the author included that seemed like they were added, while I'm sure they came from historical sources, merely to titillate rather than truly moving the story forward. It all worked out in the end though and even those characters became woven into the story in a way that fit a little better. Overall, I loved it and couldn't wait to pick up my knitting and listen. It is a 17 hour audio book, which means it must be several hundred pages as a book, so it is an undertaking, but it was a great story and I'm really glad I listened.

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Book Review: The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery

The Elegance of the Hedgehog
Muriel Barbery
Adult, Fiction, Translation

I had this book in my possession for quite a while and then last month it was my bookclub's pick so I was motivated to dig it out of the pile and read.

Just so you know, the author is a professor and student of philosophy, so there is much mention and quoting of the theories of some of the philosophers of the world, both well-known and not so. Some in my bookclub found all that a bit abstruse and it took a while for them to get into the book.

I did not have that experience. I loved it from the get-go, philosophical musings and all. The story is pretty simple, really. There is an apartment building in Paris full of rich people. The Concierge, what we would call the Super or Building Manager, is a woman of no consequence in terms of class, but has a secret that she keeps from the people who live in the building. One of the tenants is a little girl who has become deeply cynical about the world because of the hypocrisy she sees all around her. The third main character is a new tenant to the building who changes everything.

To me the book is about seeing, perceiving and knowing people.  It is about how we respond to others based on our own experiences, desires, needs, wants and pain rather than based on what is actually happening at the moment of interaction. I loved the main characters and saw bits of myself in all three, for better and worse. I struggle with this idea of hiding parts of myself because I'm convinced that I will never be accepted or understood. I enjoyed the included philosophy texts and quotes. For me they fit the purpose of trying to sort out what is important and what only seems important. As I read the book, the answer to that question is that we must come to see and to value those around us for who they are, and it really boils down to being as simple as that for me. Thus, I found myself laughing, crying, thinking, wishing and hoping throughout the entire arc of the story.  I think I will read this one again to view the characters omnisciently and extract more detail from the events of the story. 

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Book Review: Yarn: Remembering the Way Home by Kyoko Mori

Yarn: Remembering the Way Home
Kyoko Mori
Memoir, Adult

This one came my way due to the title since I love yarn.  Appropriately, I read it while away for the weekend at a knitting conference. It was a fairly fast read, and the skilled and quiet writing drew me into the story.

It does have to do with knitting as the author tells the story of her life, beginning in Japan and ending up in Washington D.C., and among all the changes she experiences along that journey, knitting becomes the still place where she goes to find order and peace.  Mori had a very painful and difficult childhood, overshadowed most of all by the strong personalities and powerful choices of her parents. Her quest to heal those wounds and make for herself a meaningful home is something that we can all relate to on some level. 

Overall, it was an enjoyable and thought provoking read. The author was deprived of a complete relationship with her family, and was left insecure and damaged. She tells that story in such a way that I cared about that pain and hoped for her to find a life beyond it, one where she can feel the same kind of comfort and familiarity that she does when she is knitting.

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Book Review: The Things They Carried

So, enough of the emotional CAT scans I've been writing. Here is a book review that I'm posting right on the front end because it was so compelling. Ironically, it is someone else's emotional CAT scan, laid out for all of us to read.

The Things They Carried
Tim O'Brien
Fiction
Adult

This is a collection of stories about marching as an infantryman in the Vietnam War that are loosely woven together by a common narrator who also happens to be named Tim O'Brien. This is a work of fiction, however, and is not autobiographical. Even though the author did serve as an infantryman in Vietnam, he uses storytelling rather than documentary writing to cope with his experiences there. He even explains how this works in one of the stories, "How to Tell a True War Story:"

In any war story, but especially a true one, it's difficult to separate what happened from what seemed to happen. What seems to happen becomes its own happening and has to be told that way. The angles of vision are skewed...The pictures get jumbled; you tend to miss a lot. And then afterward, when you go to tell about it, there is always that surreal seemingness, which makes the story seem untrue, but which in fact represents the hard and exact truth as it seemed.

That means that it wouldn't be enough to just describe the death of a Vietnamese soldier. It means that one has to put words around the feelings of witnessing that death. This is what the author works to do in this book.

This is an ugly book, yet it is beautifully written. It has lots of foul language, yet it also has passages of an almost delicate beauty. It has images of war that are horrifying and brutal, yet they serve to shake anyone out of any sort of fog they might be in about the fact that war is, in fact, evil. People lose their very humanity during war, and it is a terrible thing to witness. Mr. O'Brien managed to use his writing as a way to work through his tour of duty and survive. Many are not so lucky, so I am glad for his willingness to share. I found myself in his writing and liked how he used rather spare prose, with just enough words, to complete an image in my mind.

In my book group today, a group of very nice, normal, middle-aged suburban moms, we had the longest, most detailed and passionate book discussion that we've ever had since I've been in the group. It was awesome to really tap into everyone's life experiences about the Vietnam war (we range in age from mid-forties to mid-fifties), misconceptions about war in general and how and why it is relevant in our every-day lives.

I didn't "like" this book. It frightened me, disgusted me, made me sad and sat heavy in my mind. On the other hand, I'm really glad I read this book because I have a larger view of the world and more tools to help me consider the complicated questions of right and wrong. I want to make it clear that while I firmly believe there are things worth fighting for, this book is not about that, so it is only part of the discussion in terms of the absence of honor that seemed to permeate the Vietnam war. The author refers to his political leanings, but mostly this book is about the act of war, not so much about the bigger picture. Yet, I am left thinking about the bigger picture as a result of his micro-view of actually fighting a war.

If you don't think you can deal with all the stories, read the first one, "The Things They Carried," and then read "How to Write a True War Story." They will be wrenching enough to stay with you for a long time.

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Book Review: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, by J.K. Rowling
Genre: YA Fiction/Fantasy
You Might Like This Book: If you're breathing, for heaven's sake! Just read them all!
Bloomsbury Audio Book, read by Stephen Fry


I know I read this in the summer of 2007. I was waiting in line at a Wal-mart in Oakland, MD with everyone else when it came out. I couldn't wait to get my hands on it. Then I went and read it in about 8 hours. What I've since realized is that reading a book so full of detail in such a ridiculously short time requires is a kind of speed reading in which one skips all but the largest words. Apparently I didn't always choose the right words to speed read. I remembered a few of the major highlights, but as I listened to this delightful rendition by Stephen Fry, it became clear that I was, for all intents and purposes, coming to really know the book for the first time. All the other HP books I can remember. I've read several of them multiple times. This one I just read the once, that first breathless weekend.  But what a treat to rediscover this story so long after all the hype has died down. It was wonderful! I really, really loved it. I wholeheartedly commend J.K. Rowling as the author of a true classic. The themes in the book (and in the whole series) are just so universal and timeless that I found myself not just entertained, but actually uplifted and edified. I appreciate that she had the courage to paint a picture of real evil.  There are lines in this world and some things are bad and some are good. That is a courageous stand to take in a time in history when moral relativism is the norm and accountability is unpopular. For me the basic, bottom line truth that these books offer and that will keep me rereading them throughout the rest of my life, is that choices matter and that the most fundamental and important choice we each have to make, all the moments of our lives is between acting in a loving way or acting in a selfish way. Love really is the deepest and most powerful magic in the universe and I applaud Ms. Rowling for helping us all to remember that important fact. 

PS. If you're only familiar with the Jim Dale audio version, those are wonderful, too. I just love Stephen Fry as an actor, and loved his reading of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.  From there, I developed a sort of obsession to hear his version of the HP books. I was not disappointed by his reading, plus these had all the awesome Britishness, some of which was edited out for us Americans. I highly recommend it, but I also recommend you borrow it from me since I had to order it all from the UK.

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Book Review: The Hunger Games

The Hunger Games
By Suzanne Collins

YA Fiction
Post-Apocalyptic??? Dystopian??? You Decide...

I really knew nothing about this book before I read it. I didn't buy the actual book, but instead downloaded it to listen to for my book group. Thus, I've seen no photos of the cover, read no book-flap summaries, trade reviews, nor print media recommendations. I'm reviewing it completely on my own experience with it. Well, with one caveat. In our book group, everyone chimes in as to whether or not they've read the book, whether or not they will be participating in the discussion and maybe what they thought. With very few exceptions, the other members loved it, called it a page-turner, a great book, etc. So I started listening with that bit of public opinion ringing in my ears. Beyond that, really, I knew very little.

I have to admit that for the first half and more of the book, based on what my Nook pals were saying, I wondered if I had downloaded the wrong book. I actually double-checked. It wasn't going quickly for me, it was kind of annoying and I wasn't finding myself engaged at all. Gradually however, by the last 3 hours of listening, I couldn't put it down, so to speak, and began to care what the outcome was. Your mileage may vary, of course, and it could be that it just didn't really lend itself to being listened to instead of read, although I really liked the reader. Her name is Carolyn McCormick. She played the female psychaitrist on Law and Order, and I like her acting. So, I don't know what it was-it just didn't click for a long time.

So, to the actual story. It is a terrible story, really, but sometimes those are the ones that are important to tell because they allow one to think about difficult and terrible things without having to actually experience them. Therein lies the value of this book in my opinion. Understand that it's not a terrible book, it is a good book, and the author is a skilled storyteller. Its just a really difficult world to live in, even for a little while. I can't really say that I enjoyed it the way my friends did or that it was transporting for me, but I believe it has value and I'll encourage my kids to read it because they've read other things by this author and liked them. It asks questions about class, politics, relationships, ethics, morals, and many other important things through the story of a flawed society that pits its youth, gladiator-style, against one another in the most brutal of ways. Because of the gladiators of old and the Reality T.V. of today (and even the way we cheer on the violence in movies and video games), it is sobering to consider that humans are capable of treating each other in this way, but this story has its heroes as well, with their necessary bits of hope to keep one from despairing altogether about mankind and our future.

I for one am not inclined to such despair, so I tend to notice the beauty among the ashes in stories like these, and they really and truly don't depress me. Evil is all around in the world right now, but so is good. This book had some really powerful moments of good that nicely balanced out the difficult parts without making the story sappy or melodramatic. I can live in fear or I can remember that I still have control over my actions and responses, even if I have none over others. That is a central theme of this book. Are you trapped because the Capital says you are or are you free because you are a human being?

Good stuff for anyone to think about.

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New Year Dreams

Happy New Year 2009!
I resolve to lighten up this year, physically and mentally, to smile more, to worry less, to write less about stress and bother and more about joy and accomplishment, and to make sure I'm living life rather than just photographing it for my blog.

It is my dream this year:

• To improve my kitchen
  
• To solarize my house
• To travel somewhere I've never been
• To not weigh 170
• To paint my living room/dining room
• To build shelves over the entry into the family room
• To either use or get rid of fully half my yarn
• To either use or get rid of fully half of my other craft supplies
  
• To move to the next level in my creative pursuits
• To run another full marathon
• To live more simply and scale down in all areas
  
• To make more bread
• To take more walks by the river
• To take a photo a day that shows something I've learned about photography
• To publish two of my knitting designs

So, something I think about a lot is the connection between dreams as a motivating power and practical plans bridging the gap to actual accomplishment. I perennially aim farther than I can actually shoot, meaning I sometimes get stuck because I dream too big. It is good for me to take the colors of a dream and use them to fill in the outlines of what is actually possible in my real life. Thus, I keep the sense that anything is possible, but then I actually go about the work of making things happen rather than staying in dream mode. I'm not stuck with a half-completed wall-sized fresco that doesn't fit anywhere when all I really want is a nice little watercolor to fill in a blank spot.

So, here are 12 goals relating to those dreams:

1. Paint my cabinets and get new hardware. Paint the walls of the kitchen along with the DR/LR and coordinate colors and accessories
2. Get a new countertop, most likely a mid-range laminate that can be had for a few hundred dollars rather than something more tony that would cost thousands. After all, the builder's grade laminate I have has lasted nearly 30 years, so it can't be that bad.
3. Build the shelves I want. They are already sketched, I know how to do it because I did the ones in my bedroom, and I think they will look great.
   
4. Train for the marathon. The race is in March. I know I can do that one, too, because I did it before.
   
5. Take more classes at the gym to jump-start my exercise routine and save me from boredom. They are already paid for in my membership and they offer a lot of variety.
   
6. Have a consulting session with Chesapeake Solar to see if our house is even a candidate. Also, talk to the Homeowners' Association to get a handle on whether or not it would even be approved.
7. Give away all my unopened stamps, and make one card a week to send to someone in my seminary class, a missionary or a friend.
   
8. Knit for two hours per day, and finish formatting all patterns in my library.
   
9. Submit something to Yarn Forward under the current call for designs
10. Submit something to Knitter's
11. Take a class from Penn Camera
12. Walk the dog every day down in the park
    

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Book Review: Patriotic Grace

Patriotic Grace
By Peggy Noonan

I really like Peggy Noonan. To me she has been a voice of calm and reason through the turmoil of the last few years in politics. She is always kind and reasonable, even if she disagrees with something. If you don't read her because she is a conservative, I hope you would set that aside and consider reading this book. It is a small book, written just before the election, and is a combination of things. It tries to explain, in balanced, non-partisan terms, what has happened to the political life of America in the last years, and it is a call to all Americans to consider a new kind of political discourse. She asks us to stop the brutality and partisanship that has torn us apart and learn to come together. She uses the example of a time when she was in the capitol building and there was an attack and she took note of the fact that everyone had to help everyone get out, regardless of party affiliation. She says that someday, we will all have to help each other down the stairs. I believe this.

Her words resonate with me because she feels the same way that I do-which is that America is great, Americans are good people, and we can rise above the current troubles. I enjoyed the book, learned a lot and came away hopeful and optimistic.

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