The Big List - 2009 Reads

One of my goals, set about this time last year, was to read more in 2009. I think I can mark that as accomplished. I managed 41 books. When confessing this on Facebook and then asking if that made me even geekier, the answer was a resounding "yes!"

I prefer to think they're just jealous!

Here's my take on 41 books, for whatever it's worth. They are in no particular order and several got 5 stars. BY FAR the best book of 2009 for me was Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese. Might be the best book I've ever read!

And, here's to a 2010 with even more reading!!

5 STARS – An Altar in the World by Barbara Brown Taylor - One of my all-time favorite religious writers. On ways to see the sacred in every day life. I should read this one in January every year.

4 1/2 STARS – The Hour I First Believed by Wally Lamb - I've read his other books - She's Come Undone and I Know This Much Is True and enjoyed them very much. This one is his best.

4 STARS – What We Eat When We Eat Alone by Deborah Madison - Madison is the chef at Greens Restaurant and has authored ten cookbooks. This little book peeks into our dirty little secrets of how we eat when we're alone. Quirky. Loved it.

1 STAR – The Ruins by Scott Smith - Terrible. Horrible. Can't believe I even finished it. Any comparisons to Stephen King are an insult to King.

2 STARS – The Amnesiac by Sam Taylor - Tried really hard to like it. Too English or something. Didn't finish it.

3 STARS – The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon - (Winner of the Pulitzer Prize) - I wanted to love this. There are so many good reviews out there. Just couldn't get into it, despite a gay character. Will try it again someday.

4 STARS – Diners, Drive-ins & Dives by Guy Fieri - I love this guy's personality. His books are like his show. Enjoyed it, but not sure I will ever cook anything out of it.

5 STARS – I'm Just Here for the Food version 2.0 by Alton Brown - He's "Bill Nye, The Science Guy" for foodies. LOVE IT!

4 STARS – America's Best Lost Recipes, from the publishers of Cook's Illustrated - Anything from Cook's Illustrated is worth the money. Some old recipes that deserve to be remembered.

4 STARS – Lost Recipes: Meals to Serve Family & Friends by Marion Cunningham - same genre, but recipes are a lot more complicated. This is weekend cooking at it's best.

4 STARS – More Diners, Drive-ins & Dives by Guy Fieri

4 STARS – American Rust by Philipp Meyer – Amazon.com Editor's Pick: Top 100 Books of 2009; New York Times 100 Notable Books of 2009 - I'm in the middle of this one now. Really enjoying it. The pace builds slowly. About a down and out steel town in Pennsylvania and a couple of boys who make bad choices.

5 STARS – All the Living by C.E. Morgan - LOVED THIS ONE!! A young woman marries her sweetheart in rural Kentucky and follows him to a tobacco farm. In the process she begins to lose her dreams of music. Sparse language and beautiful, haunting images.

3 1/2 STARS – Await Your Reply by Dan Chaon – Amazon.com Editor's Pick: Top 100 Books of 2009; New York Times 100 Notable Books of 2009 - I like this but not as much as all the awards would suggest. The lives of three strangers intersect in unforeseen ways.

4 STARS – Bridge of Sighs by Richard Russo – New York Times 100 Notable Books of 2007 - I like all of Russo's writings. He captures small towns and the people who inhabit them perfectly.

2 STARS – Brooklyn by Colm Toibin – Amazon.com Editor's Pick: Top 10 Fiction of 2009 - Irish immigrant girl during WW2 comes to New York - Didn't finish it. Just didn't capture my imagination. Got more than half way, but just couldn't do it.

2 STARS – The Clearing by Tim Gautrueaux - Murder in a Louisiana mill town surrounded by a swamp. Very dark novel. Didn't finish it. May try this one again.

5 STARS – Columbine by Dave Cullen – Amazon.com Editor's Pick: Top 100 Books of 2009; New York Times 100 Notable Books of 2009 - The author debunks the myths surrounding the Columbine shootings based on meticulous evidence and research. Excellent read.

5 STARS – Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese – Amazon.com Editor's Pick: Top 10 Fiction of 2009 - This may be the best book I've ever read. I cried at the end, not wanting it to be over.

4 1/2 STARS – Dark Places by Gillian Flynn - I read her first novel Sharp Objects last year and really enjoyed it. This one is about the survivor of a childhood tragedy in which her family was murdered. Deals with the aftermath of press coverage of a high profile murder and how a woman learns to cope. Like this one very much.

1 STAR – Enduring Love by Ian McEwan - Can you say BORING??

4 STARS – The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson - First in the trilogy. On the edge of your seat reading!

4 1/2 STARS – The Girl Who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson – Amazon.com Editor's Pick: Top 100 Books of 2009 - Second in the trilogy. Almost as good as the first.

4 STARS – Half-Broke Horses: A True Life Novel by Jeannette Walls – Amazon.com Editor's Pick: Top 100 Books of 2009; New York Times 100 Notable Books of 2009 - True story of author's great grandmother and her amazing skill to survive in the early 1900's West.

5 STARS – The Help by Kathryn Stockett – Amazon.com Editor's Pick: Top 100 Books of 2009 - I initially resisted reading this. Thought it would be too sweet and and answers too "pat." Glad I listened to other people's recommendations. This is an excellent, thought provoking, mind widening read.

4 STARS – In the Woods by Tana French - Police procedural meets psychological thriller. Lots of twists and turns. Author's first novel. Liked her second one better.

4 1/2 STARS – The Likeness by Tana French - Same detective as In the Woods. In her next case she finds the body of a murdered young woman who looks like she could be her identical twin. The detective steps into the dead woman's persona to find the killer. Great read!

5 STARS – The Last Child by John Hart - I will read ANYTHING by this author. He gets his characters perfectly - depth, personality, family dynamics. This is the story of a young boy hunting for his sister's killer.

3 1/2 STARS – Little Bird of Heaven by Joyce Carol Oates - Like most Joyce Carol Oates novels, this one starts slow but rewards you for sticking it out.

5 STARS – The Little Giant of Aberdeen County by Tiffany Baker - Revenge, redemption, folk magic, family relationships, betrayal, friendship, love. This book has it all!

3 1/2 STARS – Monk Habits for Everyday People by Dennis Okholm - How to be present in life.

4 STARS – The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan - This book looks at the relationship between humans and food. A journey up and down the food chain, and how food gets from "farm" to table. Honestly, this book freaked me out so bad I couldn't finish it. Everyone SHOULD read this book.

3 STARS – The Pilo Family Circus by Will Elliott - Horror. Fantasy. Gross.

3 STARS – Precious by Sandra Novack - Set in the 1970's and deals with the family ramifications of divorce, kidnapping and hope. I didn't finish it. I will try it again. (This isn't the novel the current movie is based on.)

5 STARS – The Reader by Bernard Schlink - Sex, love, reading, shame - this book forces you to wrestle with the meaning of love.

5 STARS – Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates - Yes, it's depressing. But it's also real.

4 STARS – That Old Cape Magic by Richard Russo - I like all his books. This one didn't disappoint. At times it's both funny and sad and I saw myself and lots of people I know in it's pages.

5 STARS – Thirst: Poems by Mary Oliver - love her work. Lesbian. Christian. Honest.

4 STARS – Those Who Save Us by Jenna Blum - Holocaust survival novel. Deals with the legacy of shame and personal responsibility.

3 1/2 STARS – The Weight of Silence by Heather Gudenkauf - Suspenseful. Great story. Crummy ending.

3 1/2 STARS – Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann – Amazon.com Editor's Pick: Top 10 Fiction of 2009; New York Times 100 Notable Books of 2009 - Three lives intertwine in New York City in 1974. Liked it. Didn't love it.

Bible Study - An Outcast Woman

Observers think:
“This man not only
Eats with sinners and outcasts
He’s also too friendly with women
Even foreign women.
How can he be a prophet?”

But the woman thinks:
“He’s different
His closeness is not a man’s invitation
His nearness is God’s invitation

God’s invitation to change
God’s invitation to discipleship
God’s invitation to live-giving water
My invitation to closeness with God.”

Bible Study • Tonight • Our House • 7:00 p.m.

What A Good Helper!

Izzy, "helping" Ali put sheets on the bed!

Approaching A New Year

Have patience with all things, but chiefly have patience with yourself. Do not lose courage in considering your own imperfections but instantly set about remedying them – every day begin the task anew.

Saint Francis de Sales

I think this adequately sums up my feelings approaching a new year – a clean slate. About this time of year I begin to feel a sort of looming cloud of "should have, would have, could haves." I love the idea of a fresh start, of a blank book of a new year waiting to be filled with successes, challenges and improvements.

The key for me, as with most things in my life, is to have patience and trust in God's timing.

Best Christmas Memories

:: That tree from sometime in the early 1970's at my grandparents house. It was 10 feet tall and sprayed with dozens of cans of white flock. Remember those weird, white trees?? It was a thing of strange beauty in my eight year old eyes.

:: Tacking my grandfather's old man-ish, black nylon socks to the mantle of Christmas Eve at their house. When we woke in the morning the socks were always sagging with oranges in the toes and candy stretching them beyond recognition as footwear.

:: The kitschy ceramic Christmas tree that my mom put out every year. I wish I had one now.

:: The creme de menthe liqueur recipe that was in a tall clear glass at all my grandmother's fancy dinners. It was off limits to me as a kid but she would give me a secret taste in the kitchen every year. By the time I was getting old enough to have a little bit of my own my parents declared all alcohol unacceptable – even for adults. Momma still snuck me a taste.

:: Chili on Christmas Eve – it always was accompanied by a fancy cheese and cracker tray.

:: Opening one present every Christmas Eve when we were kids. We always picked the biggest one.

:: Learning that making gifts to give was the best way to let people know that you really, really love them.

:: Hearing Scott M. sing A Strange Way to Save the World. It's not Christmas without it.

:: Singing in the Christmas cantata. We were pretty good for a raggedy band of has-been singers!

:: Listening to Ali's family sing karaoke on Christmas night. Sometimes good. Sometimes frighteningly bad. But always, always funny!

This is just a short list of my very favorite memories on Christmas Eve, 2009. Merry Christmas to you!

Status Updates

I really have started enjoying Facebook this year. I have found friends from first grade, the boy who gave me my first kiss and a way to keep up with people who were so formational for me in college. I found a friend who I used to ride the bus with when I was a freshman and he was a junior. We became really good friends and I have thought of him often - especially whenever I saw an old, junky car with a terrible paint job. For the life of me I couldn't remember what we called his car. When I found him on Facebook the very first thing he asked me was if I remembered "Old Paint!" It was such a relief to finally remember the name of that old car. . .turns out he totaled it the year I moved to Ohio.

If you choose, you can write a tiny little snippet of your life as often as you want. The little box at the top of the page simply asks, "What's on your mind?" When you set your status, everyone gets a glimpse into your life.

The collage above is a little visual representation of my status updates in 2009. They were chosen randomly by the application and put together in no particular order. It made me smile to read little scraps and impressions of 2009.

I like status updates. I like reading the ones from the past year and I'm looking forward to more optimistic snapshots in the year to come!

Merry Christmas Eve Eve!

Bible Study - Waiting on God

Bible Study Tonight - Tuesday, December 22, 2009

7:00 p.m.

Our House

Tonight we will think about how difficult it is to wait –

• in line

• on Santa Claus when you were 5

• for that job to open up or that human resource manager to realize what an incredible worker you might be

• for your true purpose in life to be made clear

We will look at the ancient Christmas story in the light of what it's like to live in 2009.

You're invited! Please come!

Finished!

"We make a living by what we get, we make a life by what we give."

– Sir Winston Churchill

Happy Anniversary Oliver!

Just one short year ago we added Oliver to the Hurd Avenue Zoo! While he's added much excitement and some consternation to our lives, he's also stolen our hearts. I thought we needed to celebrate his Forever Home Day anniversary so I made him some cookies. Doggie cookies – although they smelled good enough to come to work with me as a snack!

They took a total of 5 minutes to put together and 15 to bake. He is totally worth it.

Oliver's Peanut Butter Dog Cookies

1 to 1 1/2 cups flour
¾ cup oatmeal
¼ cup wheat germ
¼ cup peanut butter
¼ cup vegetable oil
¼ cup honey
1 tsp baking powder
½ cup water

Throw all the ingredients in a mixing bowl and combine.

It should be thick enough to roll into 2" balls, but not so dry it falls apart.

Flatten each one with the tines of a fork, the same way you would for a "human" peanut butter cookie! Bake at 325 for 15-20 minutes, or until they are golden brown.

In testing, Oliver definitely gave it two paws up!

Happy Forever Home Anniversary Oliver! Maybe next year I will try to make them squirrel shaped!

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

This is Izzy at the keyboard now. I deposed that stupid human woman. Told her that imbecilic dog Samson had broken a nail. . . She's such a muttonhead that she left with much crying and wimpering to take care of "my itty bitty baby boy who is just the sweetest dog ever on the face of the earth and how could anything happen to my sweet boy and mama is coming darling. . ." Dumb b*tch.

I have a plot to rid the world of dogs you know. All this simpering foolishness about Forever Home Anniversary is just bullsh*t. No one will remember the day I was rescued from under the dumpster. Why should we make such a big deal for one of "them" – that's the way I refer to all dogs now. . ."them."

This was the only way I could get any cookie action –

See me looking out of the corner of my eye? I knew either one of "them" was going to come and rat me out or "she" was going to yell and throw me off the counter.

I get no respect.

She's coming back. Probably got Samson's leg in a sling or something. Makes me sick to even think about it. You just keep your ear to the ground, because Izzy is my name and making "them" look stupid is my game.

Not that it's that difficult. . .

The Blessing of Loss

"Loss makes artists of us all

as we weave new patterns

in the fabric of our lives."

– Greta W. Crosby

Sickness

There won't be any Bible Study at our house tonight – because our house is filled with wicked bad throw-up germs. And I'm quite sure that's a Christmas present you don't want!

Please leave me a comment, shoot me an email or text me to let me know you got the message so I know who to call with the cancellation! You can also let me know if you want to meet next week or wait until after the holidays are over.

Oh yeah, you can also say a little healing prayer for Ali. . .

Hey, Hey Good Lookin'

I stood over the stove last night with my back to the kitchen door. Bacon was cooking in the oven and I was flipping pancakes for dinner. No preparation of a pancake meal is complete for me without thoughts of my parent's lifelong skirmish involving the humble flapjack.

In my mind's eye I could see my mother standing over the stove, flipping pancakes for dinner. I remember my dad sitting at the table, waiting. She would take him a plate only to hear these words, or something like them, a few minutes later. "These don't taste like my mother's. They're too thick and too big. My mother always made us silver dollar pancakes. They would melt in your mouth. . ." Mostly he was joking but there was truth below the smiles.

One day, she could take it no more. Only half kidding she said, "If you want your mother's pancakes, go to your mother's house. I'm done making you pancakes." And she quit. We didn't have pancakes for years. . .

Thinking about family stories and feeling incredibly grateful that Ali loves my pancakes, I was lost in thought when she burst into the kitchen, singing a Hank Williams song at the top of her lungs –

Hey, hey, good lookin',

Whatcha got cookin'?

How's about cookin' somethin' up with me?

Hey, sweet baby,

Don't you think maybe

We could find us a brand new recipe?

Hot tears immediately pricked my eyes and I struggled to hold them back. She was laughing and dancing in the middle of the kitchen and my tears would only have confused her. How could she have known that I'd heard my dad singing that song at least a hundred times to my mom, trying to get her to dance with him in the kitchen?

I turned around to smile and laugh with my partner – her silly dancing, her desire to make me laugh – and in that moment I realized that our ability to make new memories is such an amazingly precious gift.

The weepy feeling quickly disappeared as I joined in and picked up the second verse, laughing and dancing around with a plate of pancakes for my girl.

I'm free and ready,

So we can go steady.

How's about savin' all your time for me?

No more lookin',

I know I've been "tooken."

How's about keepin' steady company?

Sunday Soup

Sunday has become the day that I cook our best meal of the week. The rest of the week has become so chaotic and tiring that we're lucky to scrounge something besides cereal by Wednesday or Thursday night. But Sundays are perfect for something warm and homemade.

This week was a new soup recipe. It was vegetarian, flavorful and downright yummy.

White Bean and Pasta Soup with Basil

1 T. olive oil

2 carrots, sliced

4 garlic cloves, minced

8 C. vegetable stock

1 T. chopped fresh basil

16 oz. chopped tomatoes

3 cans white beans, rinsed and drained

1 zucchini, sliced

1/2 C. small pasta shapes or broken spaghetti

salt, to taste

pepper, to taste

Parmesan cheese, grated

Heat olive oil in soup pot. Saute carrots for 5 minutes, to soften. Add minced garlic and stir for 60 seconds. Add basil, tomatoes and vegetable stock. Bring to boil. Add white beans. Simmer until carrots are tender, about 20 minutes.

Add zucchini and pasta. Cook 10 minutes or until pasta is tender. Add salt and pepper to taste. Top with grated Parmesan after serving.

Of course, you could cook your own white beans to feel even more virtuous and Becky Home-ecky-ish but with the Sunday cookie decorating marathon the three cans of precooked beans made me a little less suicidal. . .or perhaps homicidal. . .tu-da-dae!

The Truth Is. . .

Just a few tidbits of truth to share on a Sunday night –

:: It's not that I don't think about blogging; it's not that I don't write blog posts in my head nearly every day. I just haven't felt like actually making myself write them.

The truth is, I will try to do better this week.

:: We had an most excellent weekend. A long time ago Ali made up a funny little word that is loosely translated to mean "life is good." Her word is tu-da-dae.

The truth is, it's been a tu-da-dae weekend.

:: I found Izzy in the oven this afternoon.

The truth is, I had to restrain myself from shutting the door and turning it on. Not tu-da-dae. . .

:: Yesterday we went to a local tattoo parlor and got that little piece of cartilage in the front of the ear pierced. (It's called the tragus but without explanation it kind of sounds like something dirty!) I went in there wearing a grey turtleneck with a beautiful red silk scarf from India. I'm sure I'm not among their usual piercing demographic.

The truth is, I love not being the usual demographic for anything.

:: We made Christmas cut out cookies this weekend. We made six colors of royal icing, turned the kitchen into a disaster zone and got in a fight because I get impatient with fiddly cooking tasks – all before Ali finally turned out cookies that Martha Stewart would be proud of. . .in spite of me.

The truth is, I love that she pushes me to be a better, more patient person, even when I have a fountain of white royal icing running down my leg. . .

Tu-da-dae. . .

Coming Home

Who?

You!

What?

Bible Study

When?

Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Where?

My house (need directions? have questions? leave a comment, email me or call me!)

Why?

We all need another chance to "come home." Come take a look at the story of the Prodigal Son in a completely different, multi-sensory way!

What to Bring?

Your Bible, a pen or pencil

To accommodate various work schedules we will meet this Tuesday, the next Wednesday, the following Tuesday and so on.

Sunday Breakfast

Sunday mornings are my favorite time of the week I think. No big hurries. Time to piddle around in the kitchen if the mood strikes.

Lately, I've been making some kind of semi-sweet bread every Sunday morning. Most weeks it's Banana Crunch Bread so that I can use up any mushy bananas that have survived the week. If there aren't any bananas around I sometimes make this yummy peanut butter bread. It has a wonderfully crunchy crust but the inside is tender and moist.

Happy Sunday!

Peanut Butter Bread

from The Modern Family Cookbook, 1953 edition

1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon soda
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
1 cup brown sugar, packed
1/3 cup peanut butter
1 egg
1 cup buttermilk

Sift flour, measure and resift 3 times with soda and salt. Blend sugar into peanut butter. Stir in beaten egg and beat until smooth. Add flour mixture and buttermilk alternately, beating until smooth after each addition. Turn into buttered loaf pan, bake at 350 for 1 hour or until well browned.

It's especially yummy if you've got some Strawberry Freezer Jam that you made earlier in the summer!!

Trouble

Oh the ridiculousness that is my life. . .

It was 27 degrees this morning. The coldest we've had so far. I got in my car to come to work and my driver's door wouldn't latch. I tried to shut it about six times and of course, that didn't work. The easy things never do.

Thinking that perhaps a tool would help the situation, I went into the garage and got a screwdriver. Digging around in the latch I moved the only moving part in there. That made it worse.

By now, I'm freezing. Deciding that a coat and gloves might be in order I went back into the house to retrieve them. There were only two solutions to this problem that I could see – either stay home from work or drive to Bluffton hanging onto the door for dear life.

As much as I wanted to stay home on a Friday, I decided to that it might be kind of exciting to drive 15 miles clutching the door so I didn't fall out.

Like so much of life, what sounds like fun in theory isn't quite so exciting in practice. Turns out it's not all that exhilarating – but there is an interesting principle at play – the faster you go, the colder the air in your car gets; however the faster you go, the less effort you have to exert in holding your door closed!

It's now lunchtime and the kid I called to fix my door hasn't showed up yet. Here's the dilemma for the noon hour – if you go through the drive-thru clutching your door semi-closed, do you actually have to roll down the window to place your order???

Contact Sheets

One of my responsibilities when I worked at the Bluffton News was to develop the black and white film that the editor shot every week. That was back in the days before digital cameras were the photographer's tools of choice. After winding the film into the canisters in total darkness, the process of developing each roll took about thirty minutes.

It was always a somewhat stressful half hour for me.

What if I'd mixed up the chemicals for development incorrectly? Or what I forgot to set the timer and there was no way to know the precise measurements for development with any accuracy? What if the fixer was old and didn't stabilize the images into the film?

If anything went wrong, there was no recourse. A week's worth of photos would be ruined – the events were over and done with and there was no way to recreate them. Even worse, there would be an issue of the small town weekly news that had no photographs.

It was always a relief to unwind those spools after a half hour and see that there were indeed images on that film.

The next step in the process was to create a contact sheet. A contact sheet is just a simple picture of all the images on that particular roll of film.

Contact sheets aren't meant to be pretty. They just to give you an idea of which pictures are worth printing and which might need to be burned (more light) or dodged (less light) in some areas. They also tell you which pictures are just so bad they aren't even worth considering.

After marking all the photographs that he wanted printed for the newspaper in red wax pencil, I filed the editor's contact sheets in a large three ring binder. Adorning the shelves of the darkroom were literally years worth of contact sheets - each one freezing the images and memories in place forever.

For the most part, contact sheets have disappeared from the photographer's landscape. With the advent of the digital camera, the photographer can decide instantly if a shot is headed for the garbage or whether it's a winner. There is no longer a development process and, for the most part, the magic of seeing images appear before your eyes in the darkroom setting is a thing of the past.

Still, I find contact sheets fascinating. They are like a spyglass into the thought processes of the photographer. The shots are in order. You can see how the photographer played with the subject. You can see all the photographs that will never make the cut and you can quickly pick out the single gem of a shot that made the photographer's day.

Since an incredible Bible study last night, with people who are smart, funny and so alive, I've been thinking about my life as a series of contact sheets. Tiny little moments, frozen into images. There are periods in which it seems that every little cell in the row is filled with precise images – perfectly focused, crisp and full of possibility and energy. And then there are times that feel like a terrible drought of energy and creativity. In these times the cells on the sheets are foggy, out of focus, composed badly or just uninspiring. Of course, dry spells don't last forever. Soon the energy starts to return and the shots that document my existence begin to waken again.

Since last night, I'm feeling alive again.

When I visualize the rows and rows of binders holding all the contact sheets that would compose my life, I see all these periods of good and bad in kind of a linear context. I'm the kind of person who believes that good will always outweigh bad over the long haul. If there's one thing that working with contact sheets has taught me it's that, when viewed all together, it's the rows and rows of crummy shots that make that one serendipitous moment captured in film a miracle of thanksgiving.