Sunday, November 25, 2012

Snippets

How was your Thanksgiving weekend? Ours was spent with extended family, lots of swimming, not too many leftovers (a good thing??), and even some sleeping in. 

Have you read the reviews in the The New York Times Book Review (front page) and Salon.com about Andrew Solomon's new book Far From the Tree: Parents, Children, and the Search for Identity? The book describes how "parents of extraordinary children find joy in difference, and strength in themselves." The reviews are amazing, glowing--Julie Myerson in the Times says "It’s a book everyone should read and, although everyone won’t (at a hefty 700 pages of text, with more than 100 pages of notes, it’s no pocket guide), there’s no one who wouldn’t be a more imaginative and understanding parent — or human being — for having done so." It's en route to our house right now. I may host a virtual book club on this one; let me know if this is something you'd be interested in joining.

Two quotations grabbed me this weekend:

"Poetry is a life-cherishing force. For poems are not words, after all, but fires for the cold, ropes let down to the lost, something as necessary as bread in the pockets of the hungry. Yes indeed." 
--Mary Oliver (via Priscilla Gilman)

"I wasn't born to be a fighter. The causes I have fought for have invariably been causes that should have been gained by a delicate suggestion. Since they never were, I made myself into a fighter."
--Margaret Anderson (via Writer's Almanac)

Here's hoping your re-entry after the long weekend goes gently.

3 comments:

  1. Sounds really good. Let me know when you dig in. I may actually read a book for this!

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  2. I am in as well. There was a great article in The New Yorker about Solomon's book.

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  3. Guess what? The "I wasn't born a fighter" quote stuck with me, too, only I couldn't remember where I read it to copy it down. Now, I know I saw it via Writer's Almanac--and you copied it here! Really like the phrase "a delicate suggestion."

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