![]() But when I don't really understand most of these poems, an ongoing narrative string doesn't add anything for me. ![]() I liked that there was an ongoing sort-of narrative that connected many of the poems, that is an interesting way to do a collection, I have not experienced it quite like this before. ![]() And yeah, this was a miss.įor the most part these poems either fell flat or went over my head (and maybe the ones that I say fell flat eluded me, too). "Rocket Fantastic" ended up with me mostly for the cover, I love this cover, and of course that's not a good reason to choose a book but honestly, it is so hard for me to pick poetry. I choose by what I think of the vague description, at this point try to avoid anything that could be Instagram style poetry, then the title and sometimes the cover. I know what I like when I read it but beforehand I am basically digging around a giant pool of possibilities. I got on top and let it find the tightness It poured across the girls and slicked across Its mouth and made a gong of the canyons. I needed to makeĪn appointment with my anguish, so I couldĬlose by a voice I couldn't see because the sun Because we're all so busyĪren't we? And so broke. Which seems like something I'd make up in a poem And I had made a planĪnd into the evening. Put my hand up to see what they were saying. ![]() And also that there was no waterĪnd the sun poured across the women's bodies And lured me outside so I forgot her death entirely. ![]()
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![]() ![]() She was also a chronic alcoholic, married three times, and a mother of four sons. She worked as a cleaning women, an ER nurse, a creative writing teacher for prisoners, a writer, and an academic. She lived in Alaska, the US Midwest, Texas, and Santiago, Chile. Unlike William Stoner, however, Lucia Berlin experienced a life of incredible diversity. As with Williams’ hero (or antihero, depending on your perspective), Lucia Berlin died with her hand on the favourite of her short story collections. This death in mediocrity serves as the inevitable conclusion of an unremarkable life, challenging the reader to consider the true meaning of a person’s place in this bustling world of cross purposes and essential solitude. In John Williams’ highly under-appreciated novel Stoner, the story’s eponymous character dies with his hand upon his only published work. I like to wait and see the names appear in the mirror vision of the dryers. Tina, Corky, Junior. Their husbands wear blue overalls with names in script on the pockets. Towels, pink shortie nighties, bikini underpants that say Thursday. Grain stores and motels for lovers and old women with hennaed hair who do their laundry at Angel’s. Shabby shops and junkyards, secondhand stores with army cots, boxes of one-socks, 1940 edition of Good Hygiene. “Angel’s Laundromat is in Albuquerque, New Mexico. ![]() ![]() ![]() There are many more such puns and linguistic jokes. On the way they encounter the Half Bakery, which produces half-baked ideas: “They’re very tasty but they don’t always agree with you.” They have an encounter with the smallest giant in the world, the thinnest fat man and the fattest thin man. This is all as daft as it sounds, but far more entertaining. Together, they race off through the various regions of the Lands Beyond – Expectations, Dictionopolis, the Valley of Sound – on a quest to rescue the princesses Rhyme and Reason from a Castle in the Air. In a few more pages, the no-longer-bored boy makes friends called the Humbug (because he’s a Humbug) and Tock (because he is a dog with a watch on his back – yes, a watchdog). A few pages in, Milo finds himself in a place called the Doldrums, where the local inhabitants tell him about their daily routine:Īt 8 o’clock we get up, and then we spendįrom 9.00 to 9.30 we take our mid-morning nap.įrom 10.30 to 11.30 we take our late morning napįrom 11.30 to 12.00 we bide our time and then eat lunch.Īnd on goes the day until the final entry:įrom 7.00 to 8.00 we take our early evening nap, and then for an hour before we go to bed at 9.00 we waste time.īut I couldn’t dwell on that for long, as Milo moves too quickly. But some things did seem very different to my adult eyes. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Money! Paul is a self-professed cash hound. And for the rest on the ever-changing forms and revisions, the book has undergone, tune into the episode. He eventually self-published the book and the rest is history. ![]() Paul goes on to speak about the many iterations of the book–he even had to cut almost half of his draft to appease editors. Even a North Carolinian editor of a publishing house wagged his finger, saying that the subject matter would never fly but ironically, years later, his book is being used as a central resource for sexual education for three college courses in North Carolina. After Paul had taken nine years to finish the first draft of what would become The Guide To Getting It On, he wasn’t met with much success as he tried to get his work into circulation. If there was ever an excuse to self-publish a book, The Guide is a great example of how successful one can be using the practice. The Guide to Getting It On : A Self-Published Phenomenon ![]() ![]() ![]() She watched her fingers form the loops and snug the knots, the diamond pattern slowly widening,” (p. Hitching was finer work, each knot like a decision you made that cinched into place and added a pattern you see only gradually, looking back over the lay of it. A little wear takes off the prickles and you get a soft rein that lies easy on a horse. In a particularly moving passage in the point of view of Essie, Brown writes, “What she had once thought to find in marriage was nonetheless true in the matter of horsehair rope. ![]() ![]() The book’s real subject, however, is the negotiation of attachment, obligation, and love between men and women. The book ostensibly concerns the Alaskan Gold Rush of 1900, and a woman named Essie Crummey, who finds a place for herself in a mining company after fleeing a bad marriage. Brown’s new novel The Fugitive Wife (Norton, 2006). What is ultimately the more perilous journey – the one across harsh, cold and unknown land, or the one in which the delicacies of feeling must be carefully traversed, with no destination in mind or in sight? This was the primary question that came to mind after I finished Peter C. ![]() ![]() ![]() System 2 is logical and conscious, allowing us to form carefully contemplated decisions. System 1, he writes, is fast and emotional, resulting in snap decision-making. He argues that the two systems are very different but function in harmony. Kahneman breaks down the decision-making process into two clear systems, which he labels System 1 and System 2. Daniel Kahneman is a Professor of Psychology and Public Affairs at Princeton and won the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences in 2002. Thinking, Fast and Slow is a psychology book ideal for beginners looking to improve their understanding of decision-making. Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman Book cover for Thinking, Fast and Slow ![]() The Psychopath Test: A Journey Through the Madness Industry by Jon Ronsonīest Books on Psychology for Beginners Ranked 1. The Happiness Hypothesis: Ten Ways to Find Happiness and Meaning in Life by Jonathan Haidt Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi A Brief History of Psychology by Michael Wertheimer ![]() Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert Cialdini Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions by Dan Ariely NLP: The Essential Guide to Neuro-Linguistic Programming by Tom Hoobyar, Tom Dotz, and Susan Sanders ADHD: What Everyone Needs to Know by Stephen Hinshaw and Katherine Ellison Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking by Malcolm Gladwell Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman Best Books on Psychology for Beginners Ranked. ![]() ![]() ![]() Call me superstitious!) Though, I never mention the tomatoes until after people start bragging on how moist and delicious it is, and begin asking what's my secret. (However, I'll only bake it during a thunderstorm. My Grandmas Thunder Cake Cream together, one at a time 1 cup shortening (I wouldve preferred butter myself) 1-3/4 cup sugar 1 teaspoon vanilla 3 eggs, separated (Blend yolks in. You will love it! I bake this cake for get-togethers and parties. N.B.: If you're thinking of skipping the tomatoes, DON'T!!! They're what give the cake its deliciously rich & complex flavor and its supreme moistness. It'll be the best stormy afternoon you'll have together! I promise. Especially, if you have little ones helping make the cake. Also, reading the book while baking it greatly adds to the experience. INGREDIENTS 1 CUP Shortening 1 3/4 cup sugar 1 teaspoon Vanilla 3 Eggs separated 1 cup cold water 1/3 cup pureed tomatoes 2 1/2 cups cake flour 1/2. It truly does seem to taste best when baked under those weather conditions. It's best (according to the story's lore and my experience) to begin making this cake when a storm is approaching, about an hour out. ![]() ![]() Thunder Cake is very much like a good, super moist chocolate cake, only there's a unique and tasty twist: Tomatoes! ![]() This is one of my absolute favorite cake recipes! The recipe is taken from Patricia Polacco's children's book of the same name, "Thunder Cake". ![]() ![]() ![]() Set those aside for a moment, and think of habits as the things we do without thinking about them. When you think about habits, you might automatically think about good habits, such as exercising regularly - or bad habits, like smoking. Understanding Tiny Habits Starts With Understanding Habits In this post, you’ll learn what tiny habits are and exactly how to create tiny habits to improve any part of your life you want. That’s kind of a big thing to say, but it’s completely true. ![]() With tiny habits, you can change your life for the better - and you can do it with very little effort. What if…you could make changes in your life? What if you could make real changes - the kind of changes you’ve been trying to make for years?Īnd that’s what you can do with tiny habits. Why do you keep making these resolutions, again and again, when you know you’re never going to be able to keep them?īut. How many times have you made the same resolutions? Two years in a row? Five years? More? What kind of resolutions do you make every year? ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() of the Species by Mindy McGinnis, Audible with 3 different narrators. I loved Amanda and felt her emotions were wrenching and understandable. ![]() This book is eye-opening and important to read. The Stonewall Book Awards are given annually to English-language works of exceptional merit relating to the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender experience. An #ownvoices title, it won the 2016 Stonewall Award in the YA category. I just finished this at 3am this morning: If I Was Your Girl by Meredith Russo. They’ve actually inspired me to seek out other mystery series, and I stumbled across the Commissario Brunetti series by Donna Leon which are set in Venice the first is “Death at La Fenice”, and the combination of the protagonist Brunetti and the lush descriptions of Venice had me hooked. I’ve also been devouring the Inspector Gamache stories from Louise Penny, but I deliberately take my time with them so that I can savor their coziness. “Before The Fall”, “A Man Called Ove”, and “The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society” were three other ‘unputdownable’ books for me (all based on recommendations from WSIRN). I adored “Rules of Civility”, and have recommended it to so many friends (for what it’s worth, I also loved “A Gentleman in Moscow”, but for different reasons - it was definitely a quieter book). I really enjoyed it - and it literally took me 24 hours. I actually just finished “Tell Me Three Things” about 20 minutes ago, and came to MMD to decide on my next read (despite my long TBR stack!). ![]() ![]() Mirror, Mirror The Uses and Abuses of Self-Love by Simon Blackburn Hardcover, 248 Pages, Published 2014 by Princeton University Press ISBN-13: 978-2-6, ISBN: 2-9Įthics (1st Edition) A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions) by Simon Blackburn Paperback, 152 Pages, Published 2009 by Oxford University Press Kindle Ebook ISBN-13: 978-0-19-280442-6, ISBN: 0-19-280442-1 Think (Updated) A Compelling Introduction to Philosophy by Simon Blackburn Paperback, 320 Pages, Published 2001 by Oxford University Press ISBN-13: 978-0-19-285425-4, ISBN: 0-19-285425-9 ![]() What Do We Really Know? The Big Questions in Philosophy by Simon Blackburn Paperback, 208 Pages, Published 2012 by Quercus Publishing ISBN-13: 978-1-78087-587-3, ISBN: 1-78087-587-8īeing Good (2nd Edition) A Short Introduction to Ethics by Simon Blackburn, University Of Cambridge Paperback, 172 Pages, Published 2003 by Oxford Paperbacks ISBN-13: 978-0-19-285377-6, ISBN: 0-19-285377-5 ![]() |