The Mosher Pit » Books

My reading. Let me show you it.

Helen — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 03:10:33 +0000

The funny thing about being tagged in a “what are you reading” meme (as I was by Jamie Notter) is that I do much of my reading through audiobooks, so the book I’m currently reading doesn’t have a page number, although I could dig up the physical copy of the book if I looked around enough, that’s not true of most audiobooks I “read.” See, I have a long commute, and what makes it bearable is Fairfax County library’s extensive collection of CD audiobooks. Granted, I am an NPR fangirl (we’ve dug up the evidence from the 2004 archives and will migrate it here soon), but I love being read to.

Sometimes I’ve wondered if it’s the result of getting burnt out on reading as a result of doing my senior thesis at Temple U. in 2004 on Virginia Woolf. Other times I know it’s a matter of the fact that I do more reading of online content than media-with-turnable-pages these days. And other times still it’s because the kinds of books I most like to read are hipster slipstream novels that libraries tend to avoid carrying, much less on audiobook.

Right now I’m rereading the Harry Potter series via audiobook, though. Jim Dale is a gifted storyteller, and I must admit I love the series more with each reading, and audio is adding a dimension to the books that’s helping me override the visuals imposed by the movies. I love nerding out on certain editing gaffes that happened because the books were rushed to print, and I love how the series was held up by fundamentalist Christians as antiGod when its good vs. evil rivals the Narnia series in terms of Christian allegory. I’m on Book IV (Goblet of Fire) and intend to listen to the entire series

For work right now I’m reading Wikis for Dummies because I’m planning to build some documentation for our workplace environment that I believe Wikis will facilitate, and Meatball Sundae a little bit although I find reading many of these books is like reading a digest of blogs I read six months ago, and I often wind up thinking to myself “dood, why didn’t i think to propose this book?”
I love Dummies books in particular because I can flip through the pieces I already know but always discover things I don’t know.

On the faith front, I’m not reading anything per se other than a devotional book one of my EfM colleagues passed along last week, and my second year EfM textbook. Have too many faith-related feeds I monitor for the Episcopal Cafe to be able to pick up a book. I have “read” several audio
books on the Reformation and Renaissance recently.

I used to be a bookstore manager and it’s a secret dream of mine to own my own book/coffee shop, with my own mixes spinning on the muzak and a bookstore cat winding about my ankles as I’m shelving. I love used-bookshops, too, and the evidence is mostly in storage at the Annandale house. I love reading kids books, too; I’m too saddled with Disney versions of children’s stories and being a touch of a folklorist with a couple of YA novels in my head, studying up on the real Mary Poppins and the real Peter Pan has been helping me cultivate and discern my own storytelling voice for the post-millennial generation to come–my grandchildren.

So I think there are five books in there somewhere. But I’d much rather be writing them.

Tagging? I’m still cultivating readers, but I think I need recommendations from the faith blogcircle right now, because I’ve been neglecting my gallycat readers since the migration. So I’m tagging:

Progressive Pragmatist

The real mystery…

Helen — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 15:28:00 +0000

…is what is it about female Episcopal priests and murder mysteries?

The latest hat in the ring:

A Deadly Thing, They Say

Sara Miles on Religion and Ethics Weekly

Helen — Sat, 26 May 2007 02:11:00 +0000

From a release:

Sara Miles spent most of her life as an avowed atheist. As a journalist in the 1980s she covered wars in Central America and later became an editor for the left-leaning investigative magazine “Mother Jones.” But her life changed dramatically one day after she walked into St. Gregory of Nyssa Episcopal Church in San Francisco and took Communion. At that moment, Miles found both God and her life’s mission: feeding the hungry. Now, with the help of dedicated volunteers, she runs St. Gregory’s Food Pantry, collecting five to six tons of donated bread and tomatoes and groceries every week to share with the poor and homeless.

Lucky Severson talks to Miles about her conversion and mission to help San Francisco’s poor documented in her recent book, “Take This Bread.” Miles says, “I think what I discovered in that moment when I put the bread in my mouth and was so blown away by the reality of Jesus, was that the requirement for faith turned out not to be believing in a doctrine or knowing how to behave in a church, or being the right kind of person, or being raised correctly or repeating the rituals. The requirement for faith seemed to be hunger. It was the hunger that I had always had and the willingness to be fed by something I didn’t understand.”

Read the full story

I did find the copy of the book that i had bought and I’m hoping to get some reading done this weekend. I’m always curious about people who make this journey because I am following in their footsteps, having been an atheist and coming back to faith and trying to find a way to merge vocation with profession. I’m also fascinated with people who convert as a result of being allowed to the table despite not being a member of the body of Christ.

The difficult thing about some of these books is that many of them are more preoccupied with having been a wretched ~~sinner~~ drinker prior to their conversion. I can’t relate to “getting sober” memoirs and find them grating, perhaps because of my journey as an ACOA.

Sara, thankfully, doesn’t suffer from this self-consciousness. I’ve been wanting this kind of memoir, and love especially how it focuses on communion–which I explain to my secular friends as a purging of negative energy (through Confession) and an inspiration of positive energy (through Eucharist). They often have this face that I can’t explain any other way than newfound comprehension and appreciation.

However, I do note that her grandmother’s name is Helen. Let me just wax self-centered for a moment and complain, once again, that whenever I introduce myself, people seem to automatically with “Oh, I can’t forget that name! My grandmother’s name is Helen.”

Not sister. Not cousin. Not mother or aunt. *Grandmother.* Makes it darn near impossible to be cool.

Take this book

Helen — Wed, 09 May 2007 17:58:00 +0000

Well, I’m pleased to report that I recommended “Take This Bread” to the Fairfax County Library system and now it’s on order.

Jennifer+ recommended it to me the first time we got together, and I’m like, okay, and some weird thing in the back of my brain tells me I went out and bought it. Now I can’t find it. Duh. But I can’t remember if I changed my mind about buying it and then decided to go out and recommend it to the library, or bought it after recommending it and then losing it.

Anyhow, I think it’s keen that I helped influence Virginia’s largest public library system to buy a book. Heh!

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle

Helen — Thu, 03 May 2007 14:07:00 +0000

On Tuesday, we went to the National Cathedral to hear Barbara Kingsolver reading from and discussing her new book, Animal,
Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life.

The writeup is here.

AIIEIEE

Helen — Mon, 27 Feb 2006 01:23:00 +0000

I’ve been away all weekend with my church group, and i come back to find that Octavia Butler has died?

I’m heartbroken. I had the opportunity to interview her in 2003 or so, and she gave me some of the best writing advice ever.

Given that I’m spread out all over the blog-a-verse at this point, I will try to remember to post a deviathan digest because this is my most general readership. I’m not _generally_ reading logged in as deviathan anymore, but i do try to tune in from time to time.

1. I’ve had an essay on temptation accepted for the next issue of Geez Magazine, the faith magazine edited by a couple of adbusters alumni who also happen to be gen-x mennonites. If I were anabaptist, I’d want to be a mennonite.

2. We spent the better part of last weekend putting my parents’ house back together. Pics are up at my flickr account.

3. The annoying co-worker I used to allude to from time to time? After leaving for a month to have surgery and calling last week to say she’d be back this past Tuesday, she submitted her resignation instead. We, uh, celebrated.

4. K. got another D in English on his report card. Maybe if I can get him to write his English response journals on LJ, we’ll have better results.

5. I spent this weekend, as I mentioned above, on a spiritual retreat. Made a couple of new friends and got closer to the group in general. The best part is that we stayed here, and we’re going to help with groundskeeping and other odd jobs around the place, since one of the aforementioned new friends helps the owner with that.

Not much else to report. How are you guys?

Lacking a Feast

Helen — Tue, 15 Nov 2005 16:50:00 +0000

Well, The library still doesn't seem to have a Feast for Crows, the fourth
volume of the George Martin series. I have had that title reserved since I
got my library card right after moving here in May.

But I've gotten my paycheck first.

However, if I buy the fourth volume in hardcover, I'm going to have to go
back and buy the other three in hardcover. I have all three in trade and
mass market.

Grrr. Maybe I should just go back and reread the first three.

sunday a gogo (11:11 11/11)

Helen — Sat, 12 Nov 2005 04:11:00 +0000

i can't get my filters thingie to work right, so this is to everyone… but thanks to those of you who know who they are.

Sunday is on, but I'll firm up the details tomorrow.

K is here and is reading “Good Omens” by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman. Every now and then he reads a long passage aloud and then collapses into giggles.

This makes everything worth it. Everything.

on a more positive note…

Helen — Tue, 19 Jul 2005 04:17:00 +0000

I have a new dining room that is a veritable dining room now. pictures soon. dean and i sat down and had dinner together. K would have joined us but for the fact that he scarfed his down faster than I could finish making ours. it was quesadilla night, and K's being just cheese was easier to fix. but still. the old dining room table is now the computer table. I think we need to rearrange the whole apartment, but the dining room is really looking superfab.

I haven't had my own dining room since I lived with J-hon, and even that wasn't anything like this.

I'm reading a history of the reformation by Diarmaid McCullough, and Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom on the fiction side of things. Lo! She has rediscovered her book gene!!!

Our tomato plant and pepper plant are very productive. Now if the dern veggies would *ripen.*

ok, i'm calmed down. really, it's not that i'm easily offended; it's just really easy to make me blush when TMI gets passed along the pike. I know where to expect it on my flist, and that doesn't generally bother me; i've got ALL images with placeholders so that nothing blatant shows up without my clicking on it. but i do get weirded out by it on my own journal. some of you from the phillygoth days may remember just how bent out of shape I got when Rob invoked my sex life on it, and even I knew it was a joke. and i know i will never live down the dummytown thread where i freaked out over a thread on STDs because I felt that people were making fun of a public health problem that needs to be taken seriously. I'm not good at taking jokes about pr0n or myself-as-sexual-entity. Issues? Sure. I just know what I can handle gracefully, and what makes me turn into a paranoid shrew.

But I appreciate your apologies and know that none of you meant to make me all discombobulated. I guess I just needed to say, hey, I'm a close-the-blinds kind of gal.

The LJ Gom Jabbar

Helen — Thu, 30 Jun 2005 23:50:00 +0000

Apparently I posted several comments on LJ anonymously without realizing it and then got this thing saying “Please prove you are human.”
I didn't figure it out until LJ was already convinced I was a spambot.

This was particularly funny because K and I had just listened to the first chapter of Dune on tape.