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Book Tuesday: La Seduction

March 27, 2012 by admin

Today’s post is later than normal. Our car arrived in Tacoma! Yay! We drove to pick it up and drop off the rental car at the Seattle airport, so I’ve been in a car all day and have the sore behind to prove it. It felt so wonderful to be in our own car again! Anyway, sorry I’m late, but on to our regularly scheduled post…

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I’m not sure I’ve ever read a book that truly captures the essence of France for me. I’ve read travel narratives intended to entertain that fall flat with cultural stereotypes. I’ve enjoyed the Peter Mayle books the most, because he writes about Provence with such affection and delight, but even they do not convey my experience of France. I’m always a sucker for yet another book on French culture, though, in the hopes I will find someone whose vision matches mine.

La Seduction: How the French Play the Game of Life by Elaine Sciolino approaches France, particularly Paris, from the “charm offensive” point of view. From dress to food, perfume, and even politics, Sciolino attempts to bridge the gap between our two cultures by explaining the French need to infuse beauty and sensuality into all aspects of life.

Whenever I read a book like this, I am interested not only in the content as it stands on its own, but its relevance to my own life. Is there information that is useful for me? To that question, I can answer yes. Over time I have learned to create a more aesthetic life, racing less from task to task and focusing more on quality of life. I’ll never dress like a sophisticated Parisian woman, though I have learned a bit more about combining scarves and hats (more on this tomorrow) with my hiking pants and sweat-wicking tops. I don’t mind the occasional vase of flowers to dress up the house, and I look for little ways to add “plaisir” (pleasure) to my day. Sometimes the small touches bring great joy!

One thing I do not learn from any of these books is what the poorer French, especially those living on the outskirts of Paris, have to say. No one seems to ask them what their lives are like. So we tend to get a distorted picture of the French from its upper crust, and this book, which details interviews the author had with high muckety mucks, including Sarkozy, is no exception.

Still, Sciolino has plenty of fun stories to tell, and she doesn’t hesitate to share her reactions to what we American women would consider sexism or even harassment. She delights in her dealings with a local butcher, learns to not run around in sweat clothes (you might bump into someone you know and have coffee), and revels in sublime French food. She reflects on changes occurring in France — fewer farms, for example, and the second highest consumption of McDonald’s hamburgers behind the U.S. (I’ve been inside a French McDonald’s, and it was so jammed that even my laid-back hubby freaked out a little.)

La Seduction seduces, to a degree. If you’re a francophile, you’ll probably enjoy it, and reading it made me a bit “homesick” for a visit. Sciolino shines best when she’s talking about her interviews over the years. Other reviewers have called her to task for describing a dinner party (they called it boring), but I loved that segment of the book. For this party, Sciolino prepared as best she could, trying to follow the intricate rules of protocol — only to find that the French themselves often broke the rules. To me, it described, in a nutshell, the impossibility, no matter how hard one tries, to truly understand French culture.

Filed Under: books, travel Tagged With: book recommendations, Elaine Sciolino, france, francophile, french culture, joie de vivre, La Seduction, travel

Poser by Claire Dederer

March 20, 2012 by admin

I know I’ve written a lot about yoga lately, and I promise, I’ll get on to other topics. However, I ran across a wonderful book that I couldn’t put down, so may I share just one more?

In Poser: My Life in Twenty-Three Yoga Poses, author Claire Dederer explores her life with yoga as the backdrop. While the book at times gets heavy on yoga explanations and history, it’s more about the yoga of life. Dederer grew up in an unusual family situation, and her yoga practice helps her come to terms with how her unique upbringing affected her marriage and how she raises her children. As she examines and unwinds the knots of her earlier life, she begins to let go of her need to “grow,” to “improve,” to “get better.”

When reading Poser, there were times when I felt annoyed with Dederer for a variety of reasons. She could be, at times, pedantic, self-absorbed, spoiled. Though only a little more than a decade separates our ages, I felt the wide gulf of our different generations separating us from each other.

As a writer, though, I admire her for telling her story so honestly that I would feel these emotions and judgments. There is an element of fearless authenticity to her work that grabbed my attention. I kept finding time in my day to pick up the book and read yet another chapter. In the end, I applauded her journey. She has written about ordinary life — marriage, children, and work struggles — but in a way that never gets boring.

Whether or not you’re into yoga, if you have ever found yourself trying to be the perfect wife or mom, or perfect woman of any kind, Poser will remind you that self-acceptance, not self-improvement, brings greater peace and joy to life.

Filed Under: books, Yoga Tagged With: book recommendations, books, Claire Dederer, Poser, yoga

Book Tuesday: Cucina Povera

March 6, 2012 by admin

We’re starting to settle in to our new life here in Washington State. A kind neighbor dropped by the other day with a plate of homemade cookies, which charmed the heart of this long-time city gal. Turns out there’s a lot to do, too, and my biggest challenge so far is to make sure that I get my work done before going out to play.

Being a lover of all things healthy, I walked downtown to check out a scheduled olive oil tasting. There’s nothing like the taste of fresh olive oil, which leaves a peppery tickle in the back of the throat. The olive oil to be tasted came directly from Tuscany, where author Pamela Sheldon Johns runs an organic farm and bed and breakfast.

58 people showed up at Port Townsend’s Undertown, a coffee and wine bar that is, quite literally, under the town. Johns had set up a long table for sampling the olive oil with fresh crudite and sauteed kale sitting atop bruschetta.

Johns’s olive oil has a more subtle “burn,” or pizzico in Italian. This dazzling flavor comes from the coreggiolo olive or by early harvest of other olives and is highly prized. Johns prefers to wait a bit longer to harvest, though, toning down the intensity of the burn and giving the oil a flavor she prefers. I have to agree that I prefer it to the stronger pizzico of the Texas oils I used to buy.

Johns is on tour promoting her book, Cucina Povera: Tuscan Peasant Cooking. Cucina Povera is a lovely book to behold, complete with full-color photographs of the Tuscan countryside. Johns lives outside of Montepulciano, where Hubby and I once sampled the brilliant Vino Nobile and Brunelo wines that are famous in that region. On this day, for the tasting, I sampled a glass of white wine from the nearby Umbria region of Italy.

Despite Italy’s reputation for great food, poor Italians went through many periods of food scarcity in their history. From this, they learned to “make do,” wasting nothing. The local bread, made without expensive salt, would harden in a day — hence the use of bread in soups that we continue to see today. While Johns’s recipes reflect a greater abundance, they keep the simplicity of the Tuscan diet: a few ingredients, fresh and organic wherever possible. This, along with generous amounts of olive oil, make up what we know as the Mediterranean Diet, one of the healthiest on the planet.

Cucina Povera is more than a cookbook, much more. Johns interviewed many older locals, getting their perspective on life with hard times. She was struck by the fondness with which memories were recalled. Having had my own share of lean years — though I always had plenty to eat — I can relate to the strength of character that comes from having to do without, and I feel a similar affection for those hard times. If you love good stories and good food, take a look at Cucina Povera! It’s the next best thing to going to Tuscany.

Filed Under: books Tagged With: books, cooking, Cucina Provera, Italian cooking, olive oil, Pamela Sheldon Johns, Port Townsend, Tuscany, Undertown

An Adventure in Books

February 13, 2012 by admin

Have you seen The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore yet? What the heck is that, you ask?

This magnificent short film stands head and shoulders above its fellow Academy Award nominees for best animated short film. With no dialogue, The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore provides a sweet, touching, and entertaining tribute to books. Click on the link above, and you can watch it for free! If you’ve ever gotten lost in a book, you will love this movie.

In an odd timing synchronicity, I saw this film the day after visiting Poe Elementary School here in Houston. Poe is revamping its school library and as contributors, we were invited to come for coffee and to see its progress. We were told tales of moldy books, some of which had racially insensitive content, being removed from the shelves and replaced with a wide selection of everything from Dr. Seuss to The Adventure of Hugo Cabret.

Wandering among the books, I couldn’t help but reflect back to my childhood, and how the library became my favorite place in the school. My parents, married as teenagers, didn’t have college degrees, but I remember them both sitting on the sofa in the evenings after dinner, noses buried in books. In our home, piles of books traveled from and back to the library on a routine basis. Some books were read by several household members and discussed, sort of an in-home book club. On Saturday mornings, when doing my cleaning chores, I would have the vacuum cleaner in one hand and a book in the other. The house was never clean, but by God, there were books to read! Even now, though macular degeneration has taken my father’s eyesight, he revels in audio books.

How would I have known I was a writer if I hadn’t grown up with such easy access to books?

These days, if I want to read something I download it onto my iPad, but my visit to Poe reminded me how special libraries, especially school libraries, are.  Budget cuts are making it more and more difficult to keep these libraries stocked. Poe is no exception, and they are continuing their fundraising drive, which is far from over.

I think about how different my life would have been without books and the way they showed me a bigger world. School libraries are — or can be — a great equalizer, feeding young minds hungry to learn, and potentially lifting people out of poverty. It troubles me to think that some young people will never know the joy of books reflected in The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore, only because there are few books available to them. If you think this is hyperbolic rhetoric, read this. Or this. Or this.

Visiting Poe Elementary, I was reminded how far a small donation can go in an arena such as this. Many people are looking for charities where their donations won’t get lost in the shuffle of a big organization with lots of administrative fees to support the cushy lifestyles of their CEOs. Your local school library is one of those places, where you can see tangible evidence that your contributions have made a difference. If you love books, fantastic flying books or otherwise, won’t you consider sending a few dollars to your local school library? Visit one nearby, and watch your contributions work their magic. Doing so will leave a lump in your throat and a spring in your step. I guarantee it.

Filed Under: books Tagged With: books, donations, Dr. Seuss, funding for school libraries, love of reading, Poe Elementary, Poe Elementary library fund drive, reading, school libraries, The Invention of Hugo Cabret

Time for a Blog Recommendation!

January 19, 2012 by admin

It’s Thursday, so it’s that time again to talk about someone else’s blog for a change! I always check my Twitter feed for people who are doing interesting things, and I’m never disappointed.

This week’s recommendation is Aging Abundantly, a great website for the over-50 set. It is so chock-full of information and inspiration that I won’t even try to sort it out here! Suffice to say that if you visit the site, you’ll find anything and everything you want to know about enjoying this stage of our lives!

I’m keeping things short today. I’m finishing the latest revisions to Blood and Loam in hopes of getting it into the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award Contest, and I have a lot to do! At least I finally know, after a number of rewrites, the way it needs to end. It’s had an ending all along, and that doesn’t change, but my method of getting there is changing — and that’s a good thing. I finally feel satisfied that I am doing my absolute best!

Have a great weekend! I’ll be back on Monday.

Filed Under: blogs, books Tagged With: Aging Abundantly, Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award, Blood and Loam, fiction, good blogs, midlife, novels, women, writing

Blindsided by Being Bright-Sighted?

January 17, 2012 by admin

I like a book that makes me think, even if I don’t agree with everything the author has to say. Bright-Sided: How the Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking has Undermined America is one such book. In it, author Barbara Ehrenreich, best known for Nickel and Dimed, points out the various ways that the positive thinking movement actually causes problems.

She begins by describing her bout with breast cancer and her frustration at finding a place to express her grief. In fact, at one point she gets lectured about her attitude as she tries to get information on the downside of treatment. She tells the story of one woman who freaked out whenever she felt angry or scared because she thought that she was feeding her tumors by feeling this way.  She doesn’t want to look at the bright side of any potential “gifts” of the illness.

I haven’t had cancer, so I can’t tell anyone what to think or feel about it. However, I have had a long illness that was a gift to me. That doesn’t mean it wasn’t frustrating and at times infuriating to be sick, but I did see the gift over time, and I’m sorry she hasn’t had that experience. I will agree, though, that we all need to have a place where we can grieve, and even rage when we have to, without having someone try to cheer us up. Once we do that, we are better able to cope with the difficulty at hand.

I think she’s more effective when she starts talking about the workplace. I had a greater understanding for what was happening in the office of my last corporate job. Our director was constantly reading motivational books and demanding that his managers do the same. While this may sound like a good idea in theory, it was really a set-up to make sure that no one complained or brought problems to management’s attention for fear of being labeled “negative.” This sets up a scenario where a corporation stretches the limit of legalities because no one is putting the breaks on — something we have certainly seen in recent years with the burst of the housing bubble.

Ehrenrich’s premise also may explain the current backlash against the unemployed and underemployed — and in particular, an odd lack of compassion toward the working poor espoused by so-called religious people. Herman Cain said in his campaign that the unemployed needed to blame themselves. We blame joblessness on attitudes, ignoring the mass outsourcing that has occurred over the past several years, eroding opportunities. We’ve actually heard politicians state that poor children need to be exposed to a work ethic, ignoring the fact that the working poor are some of the hardest-working Americans that we have. If they change their attitudes, these politicians say, they’ll be more successful.

Still, we can benefit from certain aspects of positive thinking. I used it to heal some of the chronic negative thought-loops that went on in my head when I was younger. Sometimes, to do that, we have to fake it to make it. Studies show, for example, that smiling actually helps us feel better. We can watch comedies when we need a laugh. We can exercise and eat well, creating hormonal balance that helps us find joy. We can surround ourselves with people who love life.

It’s a balancing act, to allow all of our feelings, including the so-called negative ones, without letting them run our lives. Although Ehrenreich doesn’t mention this, I think when we label anger, fear, or sadness as “negative,” we set ourselves up for problems. What we feel is not the problem…it’s how we respond to those feelings. If we accept and allow those feelings to be there without shame, they will move through us and out, often leaving us with greater power and clarity.

While I think that Ehrenreich misses the boat to some degree, I enjoyed reading the book and am grateful to her for the food for thought.

Filed Under: books Tagged With: Barbara Ehrenreich, books, Bright-Sided, denial, positive thinking

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