A book is a window to the world Part 1

Note: After I started this post and began to go through my books I decided my list would be to long, so I am breaking this down into a couple of entries.

Part 1

I'm not too sure who said A book is a window to the world besides me. I often give myself credit for quotes that I think are originally mine only to find later that someone else said the same thing first or better.

If you have read my profile you already know that I am an avid reader, and I do mean avid. I can't imagine where I would be right now in my life without my love for reading. I have learned more from reading on my own than I ever learned in a classroom. When I read I do exactly as I do when I write. I block out everything and everyone around me. That's not always a good thing.

I mentioned some of my favorite authors and books in my profile, but I wanted to elaborate more. Although, I tend to lean more toward non-fiction with anything regarding politics or journalists (mostly bios) at the top of my list, I really am versatile in what I read and I also enjoy fiction. The thing is, I don't read only for pleasure. I read to absorb something new. When I start a book I don't nurse it along. I get with the program and don't rest (usually I don't sleep either) until I've finished.

So, kind of like the post where I shared my favorite music, I want to share some of my favorite books. I will say that it is hard to just pick a few of my favorites because there are so many, and some are kind of off the beaten track (sort of like me).

I'll try to break these down into some order and may mention the author first instead of the book. I have a habit of starting on an author and if they're someone I really like to read I pretty much go through everything they have written.

Classics/Literature
Everything by Hemingway (Best: Islands in the Stream and A Movable Feast Hemingway is my favorite author)
J R R Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings (Best: The Fellowship of the Ring)
The Odyssey of Homer A Verse Translation by Allen Mandelbaum

Miscellaneous/Odds and Ends
The Life of Mahatma Gandhi by Fisher (Gandhi remains one of my all time favorite reads)
John Updike's Rabbit series (Best: Rabbit at Rest)
Frank McCourt's Angela's Ashes and Teacher Man
A Monk Swimming Malachy McCourt
Maya Angelou (I have all her books but I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings is my favorite)
The Rice Room Ben Fong Torres
Mitch Albom's The Five People You Meet in Heaven and Tuesdays with Morrie
Devine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood and Little Altars Everywhere Rebecca Wells (these are girlie books)
Hotel New Hampshire John Irving (this is the strangest book I think I have ever read but couldn't put it down)
E.L. Doctrow (Best: Worlds Fair and Lives of the Poets: A Novella and Six Stories
The Prayer of Jabez Bruce H. Wilkinson


Stay tuned for Part 2. A continued list of odds and ends and a list of the best left wing books around and some off the beaten track reads.

Let me just add here that the one most important book that I have read and continue to read is the Holy Bible.

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Someday family Memorial Day tradition will come to an end

Not to dwell on morbidity, but with every Memorial Day I wonder who will carry on my grandmother's tradition of decorating the family graves.

As long as I can remember the annual trip to the cemetery on Memorial Day weekend was a big deal to Ma. My dad and I took my grandmother and her aunts every year until I was old enough to drive and then the duty was passed on to me. I can't tell you how thrilled I was as a teenager to drive three little ancient ladies to the cemetery with a trunk full of flowers. My dad actually bribed me with a tank of gas.

When my grandmother passed on it was my mom and I who made the pilgrimage dragging along my kids. By that time my mom had lost her mother and so we picked up another cemetery to visit.

I moved away for several years and during that time my folks took care of things until I returned and once again I relieved my dad and my mom and I picked up where we had left off and continued on with my younger son in tow until he outgrew the ritual. How many times did I say "If you'll be good we'll go to McDonald's when we finish."

So, is this the right attitude to honor the folks we have loved and lost? I admit that I make the trip more because I think my grandmother would want me to, and not so much because I want to. But I know I would feel guilty if I didn't and once we leave the cemeteries I feel pretty much at peace, I'm not quite sure why.

My dad had a stroke five years ago which knocked my mom out of participating so now my husband has taken her place on the annual trip. This year we walked in 90 degree heat for 30 minutes, my husband took one side of the road and I took the other, trying to locate where my aunt and uncle were buried. I have directions and marker numbers written down but every year the cemeteries change so much because of course they are filling up.

For as long as I can, I won't let me grandmother down. But after I am out of the picture, (note here that I hope to live to be 100) because my kids all live in other states, I know our Memorial Day tradition will come to an end.

When that time comes, I think Ma will understand.

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Martha and the smartest guys in the room

Lay and Skilling are guilty. What a relief. I had my sit-in outfit hanging on the back of the bedroom door just in case.

My interest in this trial was geared more toward worrying if the boys would somehow walk after Martha did her time. I still think Martha Stewart's sentence was unfair and blown out of proportion so that the SEC could make a point. The point they made with me is that you can't be a successful, dynamite, millionaire, woman and get away with what a successful, dynamite, millionaire, man can get away with.

Back to Skilling and Lay, we'll have to wait until September to see how serious the guilty verdict turns out to be with the sentencing, but the media are predicting a pretty harsh outcome. Time will tell.

The whole Enron thing fascinated me from the beginning. I was in line (actually the only one in line) at Borders for The Smartest Guys in the Room when it came out and read it in a weekend. I think the book should be required reading for Finance 101 students. It's much better than any textbook I've ever seen on the subject.

In the early 70s we were caught up in a, how should I say this, creative, company. Later it would be identified as a pyramid sales scheme, and attacked by the SEC. It was one of many pyramid or multi-level marketing plans that came alive during the 70s, only the program we were with was the largest, so the SEC went after the company with loaded guns.

What I remember most about those days is that we flew all over the country, lived on room service and almost never slept. We were dedicated to the company and to those we worked with. I still have a box of cards from people we recruited for the company thanking us and the company for changing their lives. It almost seems like it was a movie of the week instead of real. I guess that's why when Kenneth Lay says he doesn't believe he is guilty, I believe he really believes he's not. That's not to say he isn't guilty, just that he is convinced that he has done nothing wrong.

The point is, things don't always end up the way they start out, and that is for sure what happened to Enron. It will be interesting to see how the sentencing goes.

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I'd like to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony

I used to be so naive. Sometimes I wonder what happened to that girl and sometimes I am amazed that I don't own acres of Florida swamp land.

I remember in my late teens and early twenties I actually believed that one day our world would live in peace. I believed it with all my heart.

I wasn't all that well educated then and didn't get bogged down with politics. I was busy taking care of three little kids and just living day by day. By the mid sixties when we were finally committed to Vietnam I had no in-depth knowledge of why we were there. I think my thought then was we would just win the Vietnam war, convert all the communist and live happily ever after. Did I mention that I was naive? I'm glad reality didn't set in all at once. I don't think I could have taken it if someone had said to me "The world will never live in peace, it's impossible."

Part of my awakening came after I met and married my now husband. Being older and wiser by fifteen years, he brought to me a different perspective of many things. He came from a different generation, a different part of the country, had fought in Korea and had been just about everywhere I thought I always wanted to go. The first thing he taught me was to have an opinion of my own, even when later he didn't like it (just a little humor there).

Since we came from different generations and different backgrounds we disagreed on a lot of the things from politics, race and religion to the Beatles and Saturday Night Live. We had some humdingers, that's for sure, and I don't think he would admit that I ever won an argument, but I won, because with each heated discussion I learned a little more about how the world really is. Not always by taking his word for things but by paying attention and finally realizing that we all have a responsibility to take an interest in what really goes on around us.

I thank God that I have continued to grow and care about people and our world. I've been so blessed to be surrounded by friends and family that have encouraged me to broaden my knowledge and mentored me along the way. I've turned into a borderline political junkie. My book shelves are full of political books most of which are liberal based, because I remain a liberal even when the majority of my family and friends are far to the right. They love me anyway.

Of course I now know that if we had no wars, no disease, no caste system, the world would not hold us all. I am no longer naive, but that doesn't mean I have given up hope for what I wish the world could be.

I'd like to see the world for once
All standing hand in hand
And hear them echo through the hills, "Ah, peace throughout the land"
(I'd Like To Teach The World To Sing written by Roger Cook and Roger Greenaway, recorded by The New Seekers)

And that my friends, is why I used to sign my posts with . . .
May love and peace be with you.

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