I'll be updating this post regularly to note books that I'm interested in reading for one reason or another. If/when I read one of the books, I'll also post an update.
Rag and Bone: A Journey Among the World's Holy Dead by Peter Manseau. Who can resist "a global odyssey in search of the 'dismembered toes, splinters of shinbone, stolen bits of hair, burned remnants of an anonymous rib cage, and other odds and ends' belonging to saints and other sacred figures." (Joshua Hammer, NYTimes Sunday Book Review 05/31/09
Driving Like Crazy: [subtitle too long to bother typing] by P.J. O'Rourke. What can I say? I shouldn't, but I can't help myself. I find O'Rourke very, very funny despite the fact that I can't abide his politics. Or as Neil Genzlinger writes in the 5/31/09 NYT book review, "Sure, he's responsible for the impending death of our race and planet, but at his best...the guy's hilarious."
The Family Man by Elinor Lipman. This one's fiction. I'll start reading it in the middle, no doubt. But a "screwball plot" social comedy is what I need. (Read this one. Definite thumbs up.)
Rodale's Ultimate Encyclopedia of Organic Gardening (various editors), Understanding Perennials by William Cullina, and Well-Preserved: Recipes and Techniques for Putting up Small Bathces of Seasonal Foods by Euginia Bone. Because I hope that someday I might have the time to do any of these things. Because scratch me and you find the child of 9 or 10 who in the early 70s dreamed of becoming a hippy homesteader in Vermont, with a peasant blouse and hair down to my waist, wading through fields of sun-drenched wildflowers. (Then my mother gave me a modern homesteading book and the section on castrating goats rather gave me pause. Also, I really don't like winter.) In the meantime, if at the end of the growing season my progress (native plants in the ground, soil incrementally improved, wisteria and English ivy fought to a temporary draw, surprise annual return of black cohosh) outweighs my regress (see: wisteria, English ivy, maddening squirrel compulsion to bite off the branches of oakleaf hydrangea), then I try to take the long view of things and recognize that I have done something, at least. Also, the birds, chipmunks, toads, worms, and squirrels, plus the occasional snake and rabbit that show up (but not together) all seem to approve.
Comments