Happily Ever After: The Fairytale Formula for Lasting Love

I picked up this book at a used bookstore in England. I'm pretty sure I thought it was a collection of fairytales and thought that it might contain the fairytale that I remember but can't seem to find anywhere. I had a pretty good laugh at myself when I finally really looked at it a few weeks ago and realized it was a self-help book, albeit one inspired by fairytales.

Some key tips:

Know your inner value, no matter how worthless your external situation may seem

If a man wants to sweep you off your feet, go ahead and let him. Just because he's gallant doesn't mean he wants you to quit your day job and take up knitting.

Don't take one man's rejection as a reflection of your worth.

See the beauty and value in your own life. Don't assume it's inferior to your idealized vision of someone else's.

Don't let a bad experience with one man make you suspicious of the next. All men are not alike.

Don't give up on love, even if it seems like you've been single for one hundred years. The length of time it takes is no reflection on your worth or appeal.

It was cute. It was based on fairytales (which I love) and most importantly it reminded me to get back to the basics and focus on the positive possibilities for my future not the bad luck clouding my past.

Welcome Home - Travels in Smalltown Canada

I was a little leery about picking up another Stuart McLean book. I must admit that I wasn't a huge fan of the Vinyl Cafe when we read it for book club. Although I think if I had known it was based on his radio show I might have read it differently. But Welcome Home came highly reccomended by my friend Crystal so I thought I would give it a shot ... and I am glad that I did.

I didn't exactly grow up in a small town, but my grandparents lived on a farm just outside of one so I spent a lot of time in small town Alberta growing up. I remember my grandfather taking us into town on Saturday mornings. He would drink coffee and we would eat penny candy. He knew everyone in the cafe and they would all stop by the table to say hi and admire the grandkids. They all identified me as my mother's daughter. I remember church on Sunday mornings where again there was that sense of belonging, of everyone knowing everyone else by name. Fall suppers where all the ladies pitched in to serve a delicious meal. Weddings of 350+ people.

This book captured the essence of that small town spirit. Not only that, it reminded me of my roots and brought back memories of my grandfather long forgotten.

The Measure of a Man - a spiritual autobiography - Sidney Poitier

I don't know a lot about Sidney Poitier. I don't watch a lot of old movies. But somehow I was drawn to this book when I saw it on my friend Simone's shelf.
I read about how Mr Poitier came of age in the America of the 1940's, how he dealt with racism and oppression, how he beat the odds to become a successful actor and helped pave the way for the Denzel Washingtons and Halle Berrys of our day. I have no experience in my life to help me identify with his. But his words spoke to me and made me think and maybe at the end of the day that is all you can ask from a good book.

"So what we do is we stay within the context of what's practical, what's real, what dreams can be fashioned into reality, what valued can send us to bed comfortably and make us courageous enough to face our end with character. ... We're all somewhat courageous, and we're all considerably cowardly. We're all imperfect, and life is simply a perpetual, unending struggle against those imperfections." (p243)

"Why do we spend most or all of our lives searching for blance between the bewildering variety of opposites designed in Nature's nature? ... Ever present is this duality, and ever present is our need to articulate ourselves betwixt the various poles." (p223)

"But when I focus beyond the self, the interference drops away and suddenly I have access to a much grander form of awareness. It includes what I see and what I don't see but know to exist - even what will far outlast me as a physical being. I can begin to sense the connection of it all, and my place within it all, but only by removing myself from the center. ... When I cling to the sefl, I feel neurtoic, alienated, insecure, It's when I let the self go that I can begin to realize how fully a part of this grand scheme I am and will always remain." (p201,202)

Where the Heart Is

I saw the movie based on this book ages ago. Which is a good thing because it meant I didn't have the annoying picturing the characters as the actors who portrayed them instead of how my imagination portrays them. I am not sure which is worse, reading the book first and then having the movie fall flat because it missed what I considered important parts and portrayed characters differently (and thus less well) than my imagination, or watching the movie first and having the book be colored by other people's impressions.

I really really liked this book. It made me think about home and loving and being alone and ...

The concept of home has been big with me for a while. I haven't felt like I have had a true home for a while now. A few places have made me feel safe but I am not sure, in retrospect that they were home. But all of the work I have poured into my new place, all the struggles it took to get here, all of the obstacles (real and imaginary) that were overcome, the sense of belonging and relaxation I feel everytime I walk through the door - this, finally, is home. I don't know what makes it so, I only know that it is.

Loving is also something I think about a lot. People I love and have loved and thought that I loved. People who have taught me about love - loving others, loving myself. Things that I love, things that I love to do. There are not always words to express why something or someone is important to me, but I am starting to think it might be enough to just know that it is. I love different people for different reasons, in different ways, to the best of my ability.

The concept of being alone versus being lonely. And thinking you are alone and waking up one day and realizing that being physically by yourself is not the same as being alone. That there are people in your life who have had similar experiences, or who are present in your life despite dis-similare experiences. That simply opening your eyes and reaching out and being open to the world makes a huge difference. I have been meeting people slowly but steadily over the last little while, all people I might have passed by in the past, all people who bring a new perspective, a new challenge, a new possibility.

Ovid's Metamorphoses

A book I picked up in University for one of my Roman Mythology courses but never read. It may even be from my last semester of school (post-graduation) when I decided I wasn't going to do my masters or get a 2nd degree in library sciences so I dropped all my classes part way through the term.

I have a slight obsession with Greek/Roman history and mythology. I definitely don't know as much as I would like to know but I am passionate about what I do know. Just ask Beth about the whirlwind tour I took her on when we were in Rome and my determination to see certain sites such as the Ara Pacis and the Tomb of Augustus. I was so focused that I blew right past an entire street of designer stores without so much as a window shop.

So the Metamorphoses has sat patiently on my bookshelf for a few years now waiting for me to get around to reading it. And I am very glad that I finally did. I think I would have liked it even better if I was familiar with all of the myths and history it borrows from, because I found that the background knowledge I did have helped a lot with certain sections and other sections where I was less in the know I felt a little lost. And I am not sure I liked how much Ovid flipped between usage of the Greek & Roman names of the gods. He was pretty consistent in using the Roman Jove & Juno but otherwise it felt a bit like a crapshoot. Of course that could be the translator and not Ovid at all but it bugged either way.

A book about change and transformation that I couldn't have read at a better time as I have been going through a lot of changes lately. Definitely a book that will stay on my shelves awaiting another round.

The Bourne Trilogy

I really thought I had read all three books years ago. I picked up the Bourne Identity figuring it would be a good beach book for when I was in Mexico and quickly realized how many details I had forgotten. When I got to the third book I realized I didn't remember it at all. So either my memory is really bad or I didn't actually get through it the first time.

These books fall into the small list of books that have been made into movies that I actually also really enjoy. I think the reason this adaptation works so well is because the movies are not at all like the books, so you don't have that whole "well this isn't how I imagined it" feeling nagging at you through the whole movie. The screenwriter basically took the premise of the books - man trained by CIA to be an assassin, man gets amnesia, hyginks ensue - and then branched into his own story from there. And I understand why you would do that because the books are very much a part of the era in which they were written and the movies are an updated version with America's new enemies.

I kind of love Robert Ludlum and spy novels and books that keep you on the edge of your seat biting your nails thinking oh my god will he actually escape this time all the while knowing that he is the hero and of course he will escape but oh my god WILL HE ESCAPE?? And in the Bourne books, will he go back to being the nice normal professor David Webb with his beautiful wife or will the spector of Bourne/Delta continue to haunt him. I kind of think of him as more than a little schizophrenic, not naturally but because he has been trained to be these other two men, has had to be these other men convincingly so that he could do the job he was created for. Eventually the pretending becomes a reality.

More Quick Notes

10. Dropped Threads - Shields & Anderson

11. Fables: Legends in Exile

12. Fables: Animal Farm

13. Dark Matter - Philip Kerr

14. Men are From Mars; Women are From Venus

15. Tales from the Bed (A Memoir) - Jennifer Estess

16. Emma - Jane Austen

17. Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers - Mary Roach

18. Life of Pi - Yann Martel

Round 2

6. The Madman's Tale - John Katzenbach

7. Cat's Cradle - Kurt Vonnegut Jr

8. How to Sleep with a Movie Star - Kristin Harmel

9. The Greek for Love (a Memoir of Sorrow & Joy) - James Chatto