The Mother's Song by Meinrad Craighead & Illuminating the Threshold by Jan Richardson

While going through a self-guided retreat last month, this book, The Mother's Song by Meinrad Crighead was quoted. I am so glad it snagged my attention enough to request it from the library. It is an unforgettable book filled with the creative art and prose of the author. 

From the Introduction:  I draw and paint from my own myth of personal origin. Each painting I make begins from some deep source where my mother and grandmother, and all my fore-mothers, still live; it is as if the line moving from pen or bush coils back to the original matrix. Sometimes I feel like a cauldron of ripening images where memories turn into faces and emerge from my vessel.  

 The retreat was Women's Christmas Retreat  Illuminating the Threshold by Jan Richardson. I have shared this retreat and link with several as it was very encouraging for me. Here is Jan's explanation of Women's Christmas Retreat:
 

Did you know that in some parts of the world, Epiphany (January 6, which brings the Christmas season to a close) is celebrated as Women's Christmas? Originating in Ireland, where it is known as Nollaig na mBan, Women's Christmas began as a day when the women, who often carried the domestic responsibilities all year, took Epiphany as an occasion to enjoy a break and celebrate together at the end of the holidays.
Whether your domestic duties are many or few, Women’s Christmas is a good time to pause and take a break from whatever has kept you busy and hurried in the past weeks or months. As the Christmas season ends, this is an occasion both to celebrate with friends and also to spend time in reflection before diving into the responsibilities of this new year.

It's become a tradition for me to create a retreat that you can use for Women's Christmas—or anytime you're in need of a space of reflection. This year's retreat is titled "Illuminating the Threshold." I have a lingering fascination with thresholds, those betwixt and between places that emerge when we have left what is familiar but have not arrived at what lies ahead. This retreat offers an invitation for you to engage your own thresholds and do some reflecting and dreaming there.

Here is her website if you are interested in downloading the retreat: http://sanctuaryofwomen.com/blog/
You will also be impressed with her style of art and poetry.

Ancient Furies A Young Girl's Struggfles in the Crossfire of World War II by Anastasia V. Saporito

This book was extremely hard for me to put down and since it isn't a "skimming kind" of book, I put in a lot of late night reading hours. I finished it last week on the 70th Anniversary of Liberation for Auschwitz and International Holocaust Remembrance Day. This memoir isn't about a Jewish family, but a "stateless" Russian family who were living in Belgrade, Yugoslavia when the forces of Nazi Germany invaded and destroyed the city. As the author died before this book was ready for the publisher, it was finalized by her husband.  Here is the dedication given by Anastasia Popova Saporito:

This book is dedicated to my children, who have a right to know more of their mother, her background, and therefore their heritage than time, or circumstance, or the pain of remembering ever permitted me to tell them; to my parents, who gave me both life and the "foundation" needed to prosper; to Kristina, who has lived always in my heart, and whose memory so often guides me in my own kitchen; to my husband, whose constant love, urging, and editing finally brought this memoir to completion; and finally to the millions who lie in unmarked and/or forgotten graves throughout the world, victims of armed conflicts they neither sought nor under stood.

 Quoting Desmond Tutu from Made For Goodness: In an extraordinary way, we can return to goodness more quickly when we have a clear vision of the present. That clarity about the present is rooted in making peace with the past. Putting words to our pain begins the process of building that peace. In speaking the truth of our pain, we start to collect the memories of what we have done or experienced. When we retell our stories we can be heard into healing. We can be heard back to wholeness, back to goodness, back home to ourselves. Being heard into healing is a need experienced not only by the perpetrators of heinous crimes.  It is a basic human need that we all share.

Read Ancient Furies and be part of the healing as you listen to story of Anastasia.    

  

Daphne Du Maurier

Over the years, I have tried to read all Daphne Du Maurier has written, but I have failed  Of course, it all started with Rebecca! What a story! And you never ever know Mrs. De Winter's name. My next favorites are:  The Glass Blowers, The House on the Strand, The Scapegoat and The Birds. Also read and in my library are the following:  Rule Britannia, Jamaica Inn, Frenchman's Creek, My Cousin Rachel, Mary Anne, The King's General, I'll Never Be Young Again, Hungry Hill, The Parasites, The Flight of the Falcon, The Infernal World of Branwell Bronte,  Don't Look Now. Daphne Du Maurier's autobiography  Myself When Young  and Letters From Menabilly by Oriel Malet are interesting books on her life. Cannot forget to mention that the characters of Rebecca and/or Mrs. De Winter have been continued by other authors:  Rebecca's Tale by Sally Beauman is one I have read.


Still on my To-Read List are several:  Breaking Point, The Loving Spirit, Julius, The Doll: The Lost Short Stories, Castle Dor. Golden Lads, Winding Stair, and Mrs. De Winter by Susan Hill.

My First Graphic Novel: The Night Bookmobile by Audrey Niffenegger

When researching for books about bookmobiles this is one of the books I found and did not notice it was a graphic novel or I probably would not have requested it from the library.  But I am very glad that I met this book. The story is haunting and the illustrations by the author in full-color pen-and-ink are wonderful. Instead of my review, here is the review that was given by Neil Gaiman on the back of the book.

The Night Bookmobile is a love letter, both elegiac and heartbreaking, to the things we have read, and to the readers that we are. It says that what we read makes us who we are. It's a graphic sort story, beautifully drawn and perfectly told, a cautionary fantasia for anyone who has ever loved books, and I hope the story of the library, of Alexandra, finds it place on the shelves of the night bookmobiles of all of us who'd care. It's a treasure.   --- Neil Gaiman

The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood

This is how I discovered Margaret Atwood ......  Gypsi loaned me The Handmaid's Tale to read.  I was very skeptical as the description on the book jacket didn't sound like anything I would enjoy, but by the end of the first chapter I was saying "what else has this woman written?"  I was not able to put this book down. I have that problem a lot. I start a book and it grabs me into the story and I will neglect duties in order to read.  So I have to be careful when I start a book .... is it late at night or do I have commitments for the next morning or top priorities for the next day or two. Nothing is worse as being in a story and having to stay in neutral for an extended period of time. Because my pace of reading to keep up with my desire needs to be fast, I read again many of the books that have given me much pleasure because I may miss some of the smaller but important details. I'm sure there are many readers like I am. Margaret Atwood has not disappointed me; some of her novels may not grab me as strongly as others, but I've never given up reading the book to the end. I have only read a few of her novels:  The Handmaid's Tale, Cat's Eye, Alias Grace and Oryx & Crake; there are so many more I want to read:  The Blind Assassin, The Door, Morning in the Burned House, Bluebeard's Egg.       

Books I Want to Read Again or My Recommendations

These books are ones that I want to read again and are the ones I recommend to others for reading.  They are not compiled in any special order. Keeping this list handy will help me remember the titles and where needed, to purchase a copy for my library. A lot of the novels I read are recommendations from Gypsi, who not only has an unbelievable yearly reading quota, but also does book reviews for Amazon, so I am introduced to a large range of books by her. I also love browsing in the library and on their link, searching used book stores and thrift shops, and I can spend an entire evening on the internet downloading free books to my Kindle; I should never visit a chain book store like Barnes and Noble or Books-A-Million with a credit card and plenty of time.

The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini
Baking Cakes in Kigali, Gaile Parkin
The Book Seller of Kabul, Asne Seirstd 
Reading Lolita in Tehran, Azar Nafisi
The Book Thief, Markus Zusak
Room, Emma Donoghue
5th Mountain, Paulo Coelho
Three Cups of Tea, Greg Mortison
Solitaire Mystery, Jostein Gaarder
Giver, Lois Lowry
Gathering Blue, Lois Lowry
Messenger, Lois Lowry
Education of Little Tree, Forrest Carter
From My Highest Hill, Olive Tilford Dargan
Going With the Grain, Susan Seligson
The Storied Life of AJ Fikry: A Novel, Gabrielle Zevin
I Captured the Castle, Dodie Smith
Book of Secrets, Elizabeth Joy Arnold
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, Mary Shaffer
The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, Rachel Joyce
Chasing the Rose, Andrea Di Roilant
Standing Alone in Mecca, Azia Nafisi
The Graveyard Book, Neil Gaiman
Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury
All Roads Lead to Austin, Amy Elizabeth Smith

My best enjoyment from reading comes when I'm in the genre of books about other books, or book stores and several of them are listed above. Here are a couple of links to lists:  https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/7027.Books_About_Bookstores
http://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/books-about-reading 

Coloring Books and Crayola Crayons

I always get excited when I meet another adult woman that loves coloring books and crayons. I left the coloring world behind for many years, and came back to it when Gypsi reached the age for coloring. While coloring with her, I realized how enjoyable it was and that it actually relaxed me. When I returned to the work place, I would color at breaks and/or lunch for a mindful relaxation. I discovered adult coloring books when buying coloring books that were not either movie or cartoon illustrated became impossible.  Dover Publications offers some great ones http://store.doverpublications.com/. Then I discovered the benefits of coloring when I started quilting as it helped with determining color schemes. Now the fact that it is indeed a stress-reducer is being promoted. I have a large collection of coloring books and even larger collections of Crayola crayons. Collecting Crayola crayons started with a box of special crayons that Gypsi gave me that were called Gem Tones with names such as Rose Quartz, Moonstone, Smokey Topaz, Pink Pearl. At that time, Crayola had started a big production of a variety of boxed crayons: Metallic, Pearl Brite, Retro, Glitter, State Collection. I would purchase each new one that I found and soon I needed a large box for the collection. With the internet came a Crayola web site http://www.crayola.com showing all the products you may not find or could not purchase at any local store. My favorite Crayola color is Purple Mountain Majesty which was voted #17 for the America's Favorite Top 50 Crayons and #1 was Blue. If you go to the Crayola web site be sure to check out the History link and see the colors that have been retired.