On the bookshelf, #48

To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee

This was my last gift for myself this year…reading one of the best books ever written. I found myself re-reading certain passages to fully absorb the language and the message that was being described and then quickly speeding through others because I knew what was coming next and I couldn’t wait to get there.

It is impossible to limit this book to a synopsis. The scope of the story lies far outside the plot. But it can be described. It is touching, far-reaching. It is simple language telling a most elegant story. It is important.

I have been asked what my favorite part is. At times, I think it is Scout in front of the courthouse the night before the trial and her little girl’s naivety in the way she said “Hey, Mr. Cunningham. Don’t you remember me, Mr. Cunningham?” Other times, I think I favor the conversations Atticus had with his children, in which he imparted wisdom from a heart unlike any other. And then, I get to the end of the book and again, Scout comes to the forefront with her “Hey Boo”, as she recognized her neighbor for the first time.

But if I had to pick a single passage today, it would be this conversation between Jem and Scout:

“You know something, Scout? I’ve got it all figured out, now. … There’s four kinds of folks in the world. There’s the ordinary kind like us and the neighbors, there’s the kind like the Cunninghams out in the woods, the kind like the Ewells down at the dump, and the Negroes.”…”Naw, Jem, I think there’s just one kind of folks. Folks.”

Beautiful.

Okay, if resolutions aren’t your thing…

how about a word? A single inspirational word. You can do that, right? Of course you can.

I read this article yesterday and have been thinking about it ever since. Thank you, Wesley, for leading me to it!

So now I’m contemplating my word for 2008. I already have my goals, I have my personal mission statement…and now I just need a word to set the tone for the year. A single word that I can use as my touchstone, my mantra, to bring me back to center when the world starts to spin a little too crazily.

Confidence
Simplify
Give
Embark

Any number of words are floating around me at the moment. I know that one will show itself to be the right one if I have enough patience.

What will your word be?

On the bookshelf, #47

The Law of Similars, by Chris Bohjalian

Did I mention that I met Chris Bohjalian in November? I’m still giddy about it. And it made reading another of his novels even more special — because I could hear his voice in my head, reading it to me.

Yes, I’m weird. Where have you been?

And now from the BN.com site:

The narrator is Leland Fowler, a deputy state prosecutor of Chittenden County, living in rural East Bartlett. Leland is a widower, his beloved wife having been killed in an automobile accident, leaving him to care for Abby, their two-year old daughter. Abby is now four, Leland is a dedicated father who is feeling the strain of his responsibilities, and suffering from a nasty, lingering, apparently untreatable cold. In desperation he goes to a local homeopath, who is also a psychologist. Carissa Lake spends some time questioning him on his daily life as a lawyer and single father and getting an account of his emotional state before prescribing any treatment. Leland is strongly attracted to Carissa, and in the Christmas week that follows there is the beginning of a passionate affair. But simultaneously another patient of Carissa’s becomes desperately ill.

Leland, hitherto a model citizen, compromises his legal impartiality in his efforts to protect Carissa from prosecution. Other people’s lives are affected, and tensions are crossed like so many fallen power lines sparking in a lethal triangle.

Loved the book! Didn’t like Leland too much but I really loved the book. But of course, you knew that was coming, didn’t you?

Have I mentioned how much I love Chris Bohjalian’s writing? Maybe once or twice? Or thrice? Maybe more? And again?

I think it is safe to say that the theme for 2007 was reading almost everything written by Chris Bohjalian. Pssst…the theme for 2008 is biographies and memoirs. Remember, you heard it here first!

Friday Five, #24

1. What a lovely morning! Large fluffy flakes of snow are falling outside my windows and I’m able to look up from my laptop and watch them whenever I need a break from work. It really is pretty. Even more so, when you don’t have to be out in it!

2. Speaking of work, I have thoroughly enjoyed this week, working at home. I have gotten at least twice as much done as I would have in the office during a normal week, and felt none of the stress or “fractured”-ness of getting interrupted 80-bazillion times a day for other people’s so-called emergencies.

3. But working this week, when I’m supposed to be on break, has allowed me to not feel quite so guilty about letting the house go. Well, until this morning…when I got a good look at how cluttered and messy everything is getting. I have clothes strewn all over the bedroom, my gifts are still lying all over the table and the mail has been “fruitful and multiplied” all over my counters. I can’t stand it much longer. I may have to take a break at lunch and tidy up.

4. This week, I lost all my bookmarks/favorites from my laptop. Where did they go? I have no idea but I even tried restoring my laptop back to a point earlier in the week when I still had them but to no avail. So in my spare time, I’m trying to remember all my favorite haunts on the web. I suppose if I can’t remember them all, then they weren’t truly favorites, were they?

5. And I have some great new ideas for 2008 goals/resolutions. How are yours coming?

Merry day after

How was your Christmas, if you celebrate it? Mine was last Saturday so the 24th and 25th were completely on my own. I read, watched some movies, reveled in my gifts, and read some more. It was wonderful.

Speaking of gifts, I got everything I wanted — books and bookshelves. I ended up with Barnes & Noble gift cards totaling $330 so I’m ecstatic. And Dad decided he’s going to turn his home office back into a bedroom, so I’m getting his old bookcases for free. I just have to wait until the weather shapes up for him to bring them over. Yea!

Besides all that, I got a bathrobe that is so soft I swear, it’s like being wrapped in kittens. Also, matching slippers, lotions and shower gels and body sprays (oh my!), Donna Karan’s Cashmere Mist perfume (which is the smell of soft, if soft were a fragrance), The Devil Wears Prada on DVD (Stanley Tucci and Adrian Grenier are now at my beck and call, woohoo!), and gift cards from Target, Macy’s, Bath & Body Works, and Lands End. Oh, and I bought myself two pairs of jeans and some new pajamas.

I was a very good girl.

So what about you? Did you have a wonderful holiday? I certainly hope so. And I was thinking about you…you know, in between the reading and the movies and the online shopping.

Now, it is back to work for me. Have a great Wednesday!