A Weekend to Change Your Life: Find Your Authentic Self After a Lifetime of Being All Things to All People
by Joan Anderson
I was raised to be responsible for the happiness of everyone around me. Now, as an adult, I know we’re only responsible for our own happiness. I’m journaling along with the book to muzzle that secret voice telling me it’s always my fault when things go wrong.
FYI: It’s taking me longer than a weekend.
Case Histories: A Novel
by Kate Atkinson
I adore mysteries, but don’t you wonder why this essentially terrible subject is so popular? I don’t have an answer, but my supposition is because good eventually prevails in the end—at least in the mysteries I read.
Even if we don’t see the bodies, the mystery genre is still about people killing people. But I keep reading them and try to tamp down that little voice suggesting there is something inherently questionable about my character because I enjoy reading them.
What are you reading and why?
Hmmm....I like this kind of thing, too. Mysteries, Forensic TV series, even disaster movies involving natural phenomenon.....
ReplyDeleteI have a couple theories to why these types of things appeal....at least to women. First, I admire the process that scientists and investigators employ to track down the "bad guys" or to warn us of impending doom. God has blessed us with inquisitive minds and even though I am disturbed by the direction science sometimes turns, it still reminds we of the miracle of the potential we our given. Second, I have, thankfully, not been touched by many of the things I read about......reading makes me more aware....puts me more in touch with the world outside my own sheltered existence. (My children say I live under a rock....in the nicest way, of course).
There is also just the fact that there is pure entertainment value in reading words that an author has so masterfully arranged into an enthralling story.........an opportunity to live your world and become part of something scary......but in a safe way :-)
Gosh, June.....sorry this is a long comment. This subject is truly one a enjoy as much as decorating. HA! ((HUGS)) Rosie
About a year ago, I decided that I was tired of all of the murder themed television shows and books. I love James Patterson but found that I couldn't read past the first chapter. I'm looking for happier books now. I am reading a mystery though, but much lighter hearted. The tea shop mystery series. I'm also reading the latest Karen Kingsbury book "Sunrise". I can't put her books down.
ReplyDeleteMeditation for Busy People: Sixty Seconds to Serenity by Dawn Groves.
ReplyDeleteI've been thinking about, talking about, meditation for a year and a half. I gave up on my Meditation for Dummies book a year ago--too much to get through, and I figured it can't be that difficult. So I'm trying something else.
I used to be a big fan of mysteries, but my tolerance for murdertainment has decreased significantly since Death touched my life. I don't think it says anything negative about you that you like them. We have to experience all aspects of life to be whole persons; some of them are better experienced safely through fiction than in real life. I think it's as much shadow work than anything.
Great question, when I like to read is the Earlene Fowler books. Mostly because I like the mystery also and the quilting theme she puts in them.
ReplyDeleteI can imagine you need a break after all the mayhem of helping heal lepers around the globe. :) These books look great!
ReplyDeleteMust get a copy of the first book listed!!! I found the Simple Abundance book very helpful too. Its based on recognition that:
ReplyDelete"For many women today, daily life has become a constant tug-of-war between duty and desire. Which comes first—fulfilling the expectations of others or honoring your own authentic needs and wants?
At the heart of Simple Abundance is the belief that true contentment lies not at some distant horizon, attainable only by immense sacrifice, but is found all around us. It exists in the creative choices we make each day and the awareness and appreciation of simple pleasures, bountiful blessings, and everyday epiphanies.
This life-changing discovery comes not from learning a formula or repeating a mantra but from opening the soul, by finding the quiet places in our daily routines—moments of repose when the Authentic Self can reawaken and peek out from the complicated web of life’s frustrations. Only then can we see what surrounds us with a new set of eyes, clear and keenly aware of the comfort that would otherwise go unnoticed."
You have reminded me that I should re read simple abundance too.
Thanks Junie Moon - I really appreciate the gentle way you raise important thought provoking ideas
I like mysteries too and also
What a fun post :)
ReplyDeleteRight now I am very slowly reading "The Friday Night Knitting Club"
I love books that are set in knitting shops, tea shops etc.
crystalxo
I am reading "Becoming a Woman of Influence" by Carol Kent because the group of mentors I am a part of for teenage moms is studying it as a group. A very helpful book since this is my first time as a mentor in this organization.
ReplyDeleteI love mysteries too!!
ReplyDeleteEnjoy your books!
Rosemary
I'm reading "Junie Moon". It's a facinating story about a woman who is so kind and wonderfully creative.
ReplyDeletePS-Hang onto that weekend book, I'm going to borrow it in about 10 years.
I just started Imperial Woman by Pearl S. Buck, because it was part of the stack I checked out of the library and thought it would be fun this week, being so close to the start of Chinese New Year and all.
ReplyDeleteI'd be interested to hear your take on the first book you mentioned once you've finished it; it sounds like a good one. As for mysteries, I have trouble with stories that are too graphic or violent, but aside from those, I still love a scary page-turner!
I love mysteries too! Especially anything British.
ReplyDeleteI also enjoy any books that take me to other contries. I'm in Borneo at the moment, rereading Shooting the Boh. The Boh is a river that has many unexplored areas. The author and a team of 9 others are traveling down the river in order to explore the possibilities of opening it up for a company that sponsors Adventure Trips. Very fascinating.
I'm going to reread Pretty Birds after that. It's a story of Bosnia and man's inhumanity to man.
Joni
Oh...I have so many books to read. Right now I'm reading 'Twilight' by Stephenie Meyer. It's the first of three books that have been on the New York Times bestseller list. I think it's billed as a teen book, but I'm just engrossed in it. Wonderfully written.
ReplyDeleteI love, love, love mysteries. And I like them to be a little tougher than softer. My favorite authors are John Sandford, Michael Connelly and Robert Crais.
ReplyDeleteWe have a great mystery bookshop in Milwaukee called Mystery One that the authors like to stop by. It is fun meeting them and hearing how they come along their ideas or their methods of writing. In fact, a lead character in Robert Crais' last book went by a pseudonym of the owner of Mystery One. It was fun to hear them talk about it at the last signing I went to (blogged about here.)
Right now, however, I am reading A Long Way from Chicago by Richard Peck. My sister recommended it to me. I just finished No Dominion by Charlie Huston. Vampire mysteries - I didn't think I'd like them but I do!
Outside of mysteries, I love Jane Austen. My favorite book is Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston. The dialect was initially difficult for me but I got past it and the love story is wonderful.