A Woman's Worth by Marianne Williamson

A key to mothering is to visualize our children as the adults we would love them to become:   strong, happy, serious, loving.  Now imagine what kind of mother they must have had to grow into such fabulous grown-ups.  And whatever that is, becoming it is the task that lies before us. (p. 110)

When we listen deeply to another person, we gain the power that comes from joining.  Trying to put across our own idea or wish without first finding common emotional ground with the child or other adult will only bring out resistance, whether acted out now or later. (p.111)

So I say to myself, What would it take for us to remember our worth?  How good we are, and how complete and loving and lovable.  Men shouldn't have to bear the burden of our remembrance.  It's not their function to remind us we are goddesses.  It's our function to remember it and then reveal it to the world.  When we remember, they will too.  The light will be dazzling.  (p. 136)

Horns and Wrinkles by Joseph Helgerson

 Horns and Wrinkles opens with Claire's unpleasant cousin Duke holding her over the Mississippi River by her ankles.  Rhinoceros noses, a muskrat holding a orange tennis shoe, and a magical boat (containing an old lady who knows a lot about rock trolls) quickly follow.

Fiona has read Horns and Wrinkles on her own several times already but this was the first time we'd read it together. I felt somewhat ambivalent about it.  It may have just been my mood, but the story didn't capture me in the way I thought it might.

A Thursday evening in Colorado

Was all sleepy, turned out the light, and couldn't sleep.  I'll spew here for a bit and see if it helps.

I'm still doing some major grieving that my marriage of nearly 10 years is coming to an end.  There is so much to mourn and so much that will be missed.  One of my hopes is that we will return to friendship and ease with each other, and sooner rather than later. However, it isn't always clear what actions/thoughts/behaviors/words taken/thought/done/said now will help that come to pass.  At first glance, it seems like the best thing for us to do would be to say, "Oh, we'll just be flexible, figure it all out as it comes, it'll be fine" and both just try to be as giving and easy-going as possible.  Upon further reflection, though, it seems like it would actually better serve us both to be as specific as possible, to think hard about how we are filling out the mountain of paperwork, and to get things down on paper now -- because then, in two years, we won't still be fighting because there will be nothing left to fight about.  (Okay, that's obviously an exaggeration, but it seems, at least, that there would be a lot less left to keep hashing out.)

Hard stuff, folks.  If I'm learning nothing else from this (and I am) it's sinking in deeper that I really have no clue about other people's lives and decisions -- and that I can't even predict my own thoughts, feelings, and reactions two months into the future.  I just continue to try to do things/say things/make decisions in a way that I will feel good about in five years.  Easier said than done, but a good starting point.

Earth (The Audiobook): A Visitor's Guide to the Human Race by Jon Stewart

When I won the audiobook version of Jon Stewart's latest book, I was skeptical, given what I remembered from America: The Book.  America seemed like such a visual book that I just wasn't sure how sure how this second work from the people of The Daily Show would be as an audiobook.

Well, I had nothing to fear.  Jon Stewart, Samantha Bee, Wyatt Cenac, Jason Jones, and John Oliver are the readers for the audiobook and I loved it!  I took it with me on my trip to Indiana and at night, when I couldn't sleep, I could listen to my audiobook and laugh instead of cry.

If you are offended by The Daily Show, there is no doubt in my mind you will not enjoy Earth.  If however, you find The Daily Show a voice of sanity in an insane world, Earth is the book for you and I would definitely check out the audio version.

Moonlight Mile by Dennis Lehane

Moonlight Mile is what I call airport fiction -- the kind of book you can buy in paperback at the airport gift shop and buzz through on your three hour flight and the kind of book that always makes me want to assure people that I do often read books of more substance. 

That said, I was not sorry I read Moonlight Mile. After I started reading, I realized that several of the characters have been present in one or more of Lehane's previous novels.  I wondered whether I should put it down and start with an earlier book -- I don't like picking up a series in the middle.  But Lehane says it can stand on its own and I agree with that assessment. 

I won't say much more about it here, but I will say that, while in some ways a semi-typical detective-y, airport fiction-y kind of story, Mile also delivers a fair bit of substance -- and a presentation of life that is gritty but hopeful, dark but possessing a fair number of people you can love and trust.  I'm down with that. 

I'll leave you with a short quote that probably won't strike others the way it did me, but that I'm still thinking about:

I just notice people sometimes mistake their life choices for their moral ones.
~p.133, Moonlight Mile by Dennis Lehane

Death in the Air by Agatha Christie

I'm happy to report, after re-reading Death in the Air, that the shine has not worn off Agatha Christie's writing for me after all and that indeed, it was simply that The A.B.C. Murders is simply not my favorite.

Death in the Air reminded me that one of the things I appreciate about Agatha Christie is the dry humor that permeates her writing.  Here's Inspector Japp, speaking of one of the passengers -- an author:

". . . 'I don't think it's healthy for a man to be always brooding over crime and detective stories.  Reading up all sorts of cases.  It puts ideas into his head.'

'It is certainly necessary for a writer to have ideas in his head,' agreed Poirot." (page 63)

I love it.

This is a locked room mystery with a twist -- it takes place on a flight from France to England.  At the rear of the plane, one of the stewards attempts to wake one of the passengers, a Madame Giselle, in preparation for landing.  Upon realizing she is dead, there is an uproar in the plane.  Luckily, Hercule Poirot is on the plane so the day, as always, is saved.

If you want to try Agatha Christie for the first time, you could do worse than to pick up Death in the Air.

Making "cookies" with Aunt Vinnie