Finished reading: Poison is Medicine by Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse 📚
Books
Finished reading: Jénifer, or a French Princess - The (Truly) Unknown Islands (Jénifer, ou a Princesa da França - os Açores ignorados, in Portuguese) by Joel Neto 📚
Finished reading: The Place of Tides by James Rebanks.
A wonderful book. If I had to put it down I was always thinking of when I would return to it, wanting to be transported back to the remote islands off the north west coast of Norway, where an old woman cared for Eider ducks and collected their down. Here is a short passage put to animated video (source unknown). 📚
Finished reading: The Gift of Stones by Jim Crace 📚
Finished reading: Of Thorn & Briar by Paul Lamb. A year in the life of a West Country (England) hedge layer. A lovely read. 📚
Finished reading: The Pocket Thich Nhat Hanh by Thich Nhat Hanh. I read a little each morning, just to remind me, just to set a tone for the day. 📚
Finished reading: Spring by Michael Morpurgo. 📚
I finished reading this while listening to Ralph Vaughn Williams’s Lark Ascending, which felt wholly appropriate for a book describing a British Spring.
Finished reading: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis. I haven’t read it since I was a kid, and just felt like giving it another go. I was little surprised at the violence depicted in it, but enjoyed the story. I can see me slowly working my way through the whole series. 📚
Finished reading: Being Peace by Thich Nhat Hanh. I read this book many years ago, and Thay’s teachings have been in my orbit for as long. With the current world climate, I felt that I needed a reminder, a good reminder of holding onto peace of mind when adverse conditions arise.📚
I have just finished reading Colin Walker’s (@colinwalker) ebook It’s Only Words, based on his love of writing and his learnt experience of the challenge that he set himself, to post to his blog every day for a year. While not having undertaken such a challenge, I could hear within the struggles that Colin speaks about during that year of writing, similar trials that writing can unexpectedly bring up for me. A good read, download it from the link above, and an inspiration to write. 📚
Finished reading: Catnip & Brimstone by Jessica Nickelsen 📚
Finished reading: A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness.
I’m still sitting with this one. It packed a strong emotional punch.📚
Finished reading: This is Amiko, Do You Copy? by Natsuko Imamura. This was a short read, but both difficult to read the story, and sad. 📚
Finished reading: More Days at the Morisaki Bookshop by Satoshi Yagisawa 📚
Finished reading: Days at the Morisaki Bookshop by Satoshi Yagisawa 📚
Finished reading: Instructions for Traveling West by Joy Sullivan 📚
The bus aisle is a long series of choices.
My sisters and I would arrive home, caked with dust. As if God were baking with red four and sneezed.
Even I know a sunset doesn’t save us but still I swerve to the side of 405 just to see the sky squish pink beneath night’s dark thumb.
Finished reading: The Lady With The Dog by Anton Chekhov 📚
Finished reading: Soul Writing by Claire de Boer 📚
Currently reading: The Story Handbook by Helen Whybrow 📚
I finished reading: In Love with the World by Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche. This book felt like a gift that I am very grateful for. I took my time with it. An account of a young Buddhist monk setting off on a wandering retreat who then becomes severely ill and almost dies. What made this book special for me was the intimacy of his story. Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche, a Tibetan Master, shares his Buddhist approach to the struggles that setting off on the retreat brings to him. Then as illness strikes he offers rare insight, from my perspective, into the Tibetan view on mind, consciousness and dying. 📚
Finished reading: Foster by Claire Keegan 📚
This is the third book that I have read by Claire Keegan, an author who I had not heard of a few months ago. Each time brought into a story, taken through a snap shot, and then we leave the characters to the larger story. But that snap shot contains so much.
Highly recommended.
Finished reading: Grief Is the Thing with Feathers by Max Porter. A quirky and resonant meditation on grief. 📚
Finished reading: A Child’s Christmas in Wales by Dylan Thomas.
I read this each year. My father’s side of the family is from Wales and I lived there for almost 20 years. This year I read it while rain fell outside, the Christmas tree lit up and carols played. I was transported back to Christmas’ of my youth. 📚
Finished reading: So Late in the Day by Claire Keegan 📚
Finished reading: Weasels in the Attic by Hiroko Oyamada 📚
Wednesday, November 15, 2023 →
Finished reading: People From My Neighbourhood by Hiromi Kawakami 📚
Finished reading: Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan 📚
Back in a warm hotel room drying out clothes (the heating cranked up to dry out those clothes) after a good pizza and browsing books in a bookshop. I love a good bookshop, even if 99% of the books are in a language that I don’t understand. I still came out with a book…in a language that I understand. 📚 🍕
Finished reading Getting Your Important Work Done by Michael Nobbs. A collection of essays on being sustainably creative, using “whatever energy you have available, however limited it may be, to maintain a creative life (or even livelihood).”
I don’t know when I came across Michael’s work, but I have always appreciated his quiet and gentle advice. 📚
Finished reading: A Prayer for the Crown-Shy by Becky Chambers 📚