Category: books

  • just about as good as sex

    –hunting for a pen in the space behind the parking brake–that space where random car objects live–and finding a dark chocolate bar, 73% cocoa content, with a label that reads “Sexy”

    –wearing sandals. little white strappy sandals with tissue-thin soles. for the first time in 21 years. the air moving over my instep making my foot feel mustang-convertible cool.

    –taking my 5 min daily lay-in-bed-naked-after-my-shower moment and have Toby lay down next to me, purring up a storm. doze for a moment and wake up with toby napping at my ear and ellycat draped over my foot.

    –biking home at 11 pm after my AROOM group discusses A Midwife’s Tale. speeding down the hills that were so arduous on my way to group. walking in the door to greet John with cheeks flushed and heart pumping hard. wanting nothing more than to get back on the bike and go for another few miles.

  • on being a pilgrim…


    I became fascinated with pilgrimage journeys about six years ago when I took a Humanities class about journey narratives. I began to view my own life as a journey, and this worldview helped me to make sense of my mortality.

    I started reading all types of journey narratives, from Road from Coorainto Mutant Message Down Underto The Pilgrimage. I re-read classics like The Odysseyand Gilgamesh.

    From all of this reading and soul-searching I realized that the pilgrim motif resonated with me. By seeing life as a journey I could more fully live each day as part of that process. It made me less afraid to take steps towards my goals. It made me believe that I could achieve something heroic.

    One of the very hardest parts of my life were those days during my cancer treatments that I couldn’t even take a step by myself (or I couldn’t even push myself in a wheelchair anywhere either). More than anything I feared the loss of mobility, of progression, of autonomy, of freedom. Perhaps that is why I now feel so happy to be walking on my ‘own two feet’ and to be making progress in my daily journey.

    The little twist of irony in my blogname is that John has since begun his own pilgrimage (I guess that makes him ‘pilgrimboy’ or ‘Mr. Pilgrimgirl’). What’s cool about this is that we are fellow travelers now. We’ve both taken up the staff of the pilgrim and are charting our course through the terrain of each day together.

  • Make me smile…

    –turning in grades yesterday. whew. another quarter of school all done. ate 2 do-si-dos and did some high-fives with the kiddoes to celebrate.

    –a blank page on my calendar today. still lots of stuff to do, but no classes, no appts, no meetings. woohoo!

    –crocheting. about 10 years ago my friend Mindy taught me how to crochet and since then I’ve made many crocheted items, but I’ve never learned how to read & follow a pattern. Thanks to the Happy Hooker I’m about halfway through my first follow-a-pattern project.

    –the sun is shining today, small birds are twittering on my front porch, I’m sipping hot tea w/milk, and the day stretches ahead of me with all of the joy and promise of a grassy field filled with wildflowers.
    :)

  • name games

    I don’t care much for fantasy novels. Perhaps one reason why is that the names are all so goofy-sounding. As an example, in one of my kids’ fantasy books (titled, appropriately, The Naming), here are a few of the names that I found in thumbing through the pages for about 15 seconds:
    Maerad
    Cadvan
    Farndar
    Valverras
    Dernhil of Gent
    Likud
    Ceredin
    Enkir
    Nelac
    Owan
    Gast

    So here are the fantasy names that I’ve made up myself in a little more than 15 seconds:
    Veedubvan
    Fahrder
    Dunghyl of Baedcent
    Garghill Anspyt
    Verraslaepe
    Shelac
    Cankir
    Claen de Ovan
    Emerod
    Gast (that last one works for me, too)

    Ok, for those of you who are having an I’d rather-be-blogging-than-doing-my-job Friday, why don’t you join in the fun and see what you can come up with….

  • which book are you? a friday quiz….

    The name of the rose
    Umberto Eco: The Name of the Rose. You are a mystery novel dealing with theology,especially with catholic vs liberal issues.
    You search wisdom and knowledge endlessly,feeling that learning is essential in life.

    Which literature classic are you?
    brought to you by Quizilla

  • reading

    City of Beasts
    Kingdom of the Golden Dragon
    by Isabel Allende

    These novels are adventure stories, with a few fantastical elements thrown in. Mostly the magical elements are the result of mystical experiences that the main characters (Alexander–a teen boy from California, and Nadia–a teen girl raised in the jungles of South America by her scientist father) have with nature. For example, each teen connects with a totemic creature to draw strength during difficult times. Each of them also connects with indigenous peoples and learns ancient lore that gives them healing skills, or the power to accomplish almost super-human tasks.

    What I liked best about these books is that they have inspiring protagonists, particularly Nadia who is as savvy as ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer,’ but also retains a tender love for family and animals. In addition, the exotic locations of these adventures teach readers about the geography, flora & fauna, and religious beliefs of other cultures.

    These novels are probably too short and too simplistic to satisfy most adult tastes. But they are great for young people–I’d recommend them for grade 4+.

  • A book meme (three)

    From Shelly’s Bookshelf:

    Name your 3 favorite children’s series.

    Trixie Belden
     by Kathryn Kenney
    These were my favorites when I was a kid. Though a close runner-up would be the Boxcar Children. Oddly, I don’t think my kids have read any Trixie Belden books. They don’t carry them in any of the bookstores that we frequent.

    Emily of New Moon
    by L.M. Montgomery
    IMO, much better than Anne of Green Gables. Besides that, Emily is an aspiring writer and has cats. ‘Nuff said :)

    It seems to me that there were far fewer “series” of books when I was a kid. There weren’t Babysitters Club, or Goosebumps, or Animal Ark like there are today. Not to mention no Harry Potter or Eragon, etc. Nowadays it’s almost a given that books are serialized. Must be a good sales tactic…

    Name your 3 favorite non-series children’s books.

    Bargain Bride
     by Evelyn Sibley Lampman

    Strawberry Girl
    by Lois Lenski

    Roller Skates
     by Ruth Sawyer

    Name 3 favorite children’s book characters.
    Jo (Little Women)
    Like Jo, I was so sure I would grow up and marry an eccentric German professor and write novels..
    Harriet (Harriet the Spy)
    Harriet is so sneaky cool! I wanted to go up and down the neighbors dumbwaiters just like her!
    Meg Murry (A Wrinkle in Time)
    Meg and her family were my heroes. I wanted to be a scientist like her mother–cooking dinner on a bunsen burner in my “lab,” and have eccentric kids and adventures, etc. I was pretty sure that I would grow up and have a big dog named Fortinbras.

    I’m not going to tag anyone with this meme (I don’t want to annoy people with continual tags), but I’d love to hear any of your responses to these questions–put a response or a link in the comments. :)

  • books…


    Wow, this is a amazing. Books are cool not only for what’s on the inside, but also for themselves :)

    I found these pictures at booklust. A new favorite book blog. Enjoy!

    As a few of you may have heard, I’ve had a nasty 24 hour stomach flu for the past 24 hours. I’m just now starting to eat w/o nausea and I’m craving the oddest things: sunchips, chocolate frozen yogurt and sour candy straws. Weird, eh?

    Thanks go to John and the kids for nursing me through the awfulness of this flu…

  • reading

    Can’t say enough about this book. I recommend for all tastes, for all readers: Exuberance

  • autist

    My brother David posted this test for autism on his blog. I’m a 22, which means that I’m on the upper end of normal for a female. Curious.

    My results may have been skewed by the fact that I just finished reading a book with an autistic protagonist. Elizabeth Moon’s _The Speed of Dark_ is a fabulous tale about an adult autist who is faced with the choice of whether to take a treatment to cure his condition or remain as he is. I picked up the book because I like thinking about the way that disability affects personal identity. In my own situation, I know that my disability is not the core of who I am, yet it is such a big part of me that I can’t really imagine life without it. And I’m not sure I would want to. Though I would like to run, jump and frolic like a 2-legged person, I like that having just one leg makes me unique. And that this uniqueness is something that draws people to me. Would I really want to give this up?

    I suspect that with increasing advancements in medical technology, I may have to make this choice someday. While, at times, I crave being a bi-ped again, at other times I wonder if I’m too comfortable as I am.

  • riding the rails


    Our family took our train trip to Northern Cali yesterday. Unlike what John B said, the train did not dump us out in the middle of nowhere or derail anywhere along the way. The view along the coast was absolutely stunning. I highly recommend it. I listened to Stephen Ambrose’s Nothing Like it in the World (about the development of the RRs in the West) as we rode along. The perfect accompaniment to a train trip!…

  • gesture


    gesture
    Originally uploaded by pilgrimgirl.

    Not sure why, but when I get nervous talking to famous people I feel compelled to make odd hand gestures. What was I trying to say??

    Here I am getting my Rough Stone Rolling signed by Richard Bushman. I’ve had a nice email exchange with him since then. Also, I’m writing up an article about his speech for the “Church News.”