I try to read books that cover a diverse range of different topics and styles. Mostly I choose books that are relevant to the topics that I am currently most interested in or most affected by. However, sometimes I find myself picking up books that are not related to anything that I’m doing or dealing with it right now. And sometimes those end up being the most important touching books that I read. That seems to be the case with a book I just read called Comfort: A Journey Through Grief.

This is a short book that can be a quick read if you want it to be. It’s the true first-person account of a woman who lost her five year old daughter to a sudden illness. It is about what it was like to live through the three years following her daughter’s tragic death and to come out on the other side of that, wounded and forever changed but still alive and ready to live again. It’s a tough read in the sense that it is highly emotional but it’s an easy read in the sense that it unites the writer and reader through common human emotions.

There are many things that I love about this little book but I think what grabbed my attention most of all was the writing style that was implemented in it. The author uses primarily short sentences and also uses a lot of repetition of the same facts. Sometimes these facts are repeated in the same way and sometimes they are a little bit different. The combination of repetition and short sentence structure ends up being really powerful

One of the things that happens when we lose someone is that our lives become limited to the bare minimum of things that we must get done to survive. We don’t do any extras; we barely even shower or eat. The short sentence structure of the book reflects this minimalization our lives go through during this time. And something else that happens is that we go over and over events in our minds. Sometimes we replay them word for word, again and again, trying to gain some meaning from them. Sometimes we see them through a new lens, repeating them in our minds with a new level of understanding or a new perspective on what happened. The author doesn’t actually come right out and say that these are the things that she is going through but the structure of her story reveals this side of grief.

I am not currently dealing with a major loss. I am not currently struggling with the family issues that arise when such a loss occurs. However I was still touched by this book. I can only imagine how powerful it would be for someone who was going through a tough time. This one is highly recommended!

Tags: ann hood, book recommendation, book review, books, comfort, grief books, reading

I wish that I was a bigger fan of Jack Kerouac than I am. I’ve read a lot of biographical stuff about him and he seems like a fascinating character. I like the ideas behind his work. But for some reason I’ve just never been turned on by his writing style.

Nevertheless, I pick up books by him now and then and try to give him another chance. One of the ones that I did that with recently was Wake Up: A Life of the Buddha. I’ll be honest in saying that it didn’t capture my attention through the entire book. I have no problem putting down books that I’m not loving and that’s what I did with this one.

However, I did like this book more than some of his others and I think it’s an intriguing read for people who like Kerouac’s style and who also have an itnerest in Buddhism. It’s basically Kerouac’s version of the story of Siddhartha which is a key story that helps people understand the basics of Buddhism.

Definitely a book to consider even if I didn’t ultimately decide to finish it!

Tags: book recommendation, book review, books, buddha, kathryn vercillo, kerouac, reading, wake up

Usually if a book has a long title and subtitle then I shorten it when describing it. However, I feel like today’s book of the day is so aptly described by it’s lengthy title that it makes sense to use the whole thing:

Relax – You May Only Have a Few Minutes Left: Using the Power of Humor to Overcome Stress in Your Life and Work. 

This book is by Loretta LaRoche. In the beginning of it, she offers up ten ways that you can get outside of your own head and learn to be positive instead of negative:

1. Stop frowning; start smiling.
2. Use fun self-talk.
3. Be helpful to someone else in life.
4. Listen to yourself.
5. Be indulgent with yourself.
6. Use your creativity and imagination.
7. Unclutter your life.
8. “Tap into the universe of humor”.
9. Be different from the norm.
10. Work on tolerance and gratitude.

The book basically covers thoughts and tips related to these things. It’s one of those easy-to-read books that uses simple expression to allow you to think about your life in a more positive way. A good read if you’re looking for quick tips on being more positive in your life. Couldn’t we all use that?

Tags: book recommendation, book review, books, inspirational books, laroche, reading

I mentioned yesterday that I love checking out a lot of different art books from the library. I have also mentioned in the past that I’m really interested in altered art and collage. So it’s probably no surprise to anyone that I got a bunch of altered art books from the library recently.

3 books that I’d recommend from this bunch are:

• Altered Books Workshop by Bev Brazelton. This one covers over a dozen different techniques for doing altered book art. It’s pretty basic and good for beginners but could be helpful to established altered art artists too. Plus it has great pictures that I felt were inspiring to create my own art off of.
• Altered Art: Techniques for Creating Altered Books, Boxes, Cards & More by Terry Taylor. This one is great because it offers information about how to alter a lot of different types of objects so you can learn to repurpose many different things into art.
• Collage, Assemblage, and Altered Art: Creating Unique Images and Objects by Diane Maurer-Mathison. This emphasizes collage art which is something that I really enjoy. There are a lot of great gallery pictures here to look at for inspiration.

I’m a big fan of altered art books. Do you have any others to recommend to me?

Tags: altered art, altered art books, art books, book recommendation, book review, books, collage art, kathryn vercillo, reading

I love to check art books out of the library. They’re too pricey to buy most of the time but they’re also really inspiring so it’s great to get them for a few weeks to get a creative burst and then return them.

One of the creative books that I just checked out is called Fabric Art Workshop. It’s a really interesting book designed for people who are interested in doing art with fabric.

The book is set up in a cool style. It lists a type of fabric technique and describes what it is. Then it gives a few creative tips for how to use it. There are dozens of pages like this so you get a really good overview of all of the different techniques that you can use for creating fabric art.

Some of the techniques that are covered in this book include the use of paintstiks, monoprinting, adding sparkle with foiling, screenprinting and burning the edges of fabric. Some of the more creative techniques include “shaving cream marbling” and using unique fabrics like angelina fiber and gossamer silk.

This isn’t the easiest book to use if you’ve never worked with fabrics before (although it does have some good step-by-step tips for some of the techniques) but if you’ve done some fabric work (like quilting) in the past then it’s a great way to enhance what you already know.

Tags: art, art books, book recommendation, book review, books, creativity, kathryn vercillo, reading

Today’s book is a book that I read quite a few years ago and then picked up again recently. I’d remembered that I enjoyed it but I couldn’t specifically remember why. The reason is that it’s a character-driven story with an interesting approach to writing – an approach that is specifically of interest to people who write for a living. The book is called Our Sometime Sister and the author is Norah Labiner.

The book is about a woman in her twenties who is writing two books at the same time. The first book is a novel. The second book is the story of her life. The two stories seem to parallel one another and the writer starts to realize that either her novel is too close to real life or her real life is too close to being a work of fiction.

Through the different approaches that the writer takes to writing these stories down, we as readers of the book get some insight into the struggles, mistakes and successes of a young first-time author. Anyone who has tried to write their own life story (as fiction or memoir) will really relate to a lot of the writing experiences in the book.

At the same time, the novel is about more than just a writer’s struggles with writing. It’s a character-driven book which uses the two stories to give us information about the childhood and development of the main character. It’s an interesting approach to learning about the person we’re reading about and one that I think works really well in the novel.

I’ve listed this book for trade over at Paperback Swaps but I like it so much that I’m thinking about keeping it!

Tags: book recommendation, book review, books, kathryn vercill, labiner, our sometime sister, paperback swaps, reading

Most people are familiar with the book Bridges of Madison County which relates an interesting love story that kind of touches the heart. Most people are not familiar, however, with another book called Memories of Madison County. It’s the memoir written by a woman who had her own affair with the author of the original book.

The original book is a love tale that’s slightly controversial since it’s about the burning love that happens during an affair. Affairs aren’t exactly what we hold up as the ideal love story but that doesn’t make them any less passionate or real.

The memoir is about another love affair – one that happened between the author and the man who wrote the book (Robert James Waller). It’s easy to read and is a good love story that stands on its own even if you aren’t familiar with the original book.

The memoir presents a new side to the original story since it gives insight into the author’s love life. Someone who enjoyed the original book might take an interest in this added perspective on the story. On the other hand, they may find that it ruins their impressions of the original tale so they might not like it after all. It’s probably worth deciding for yourself.

I listed this one on Paperback Swap but you can also get it on Amazon through the link above.

Tags: book recommendation, book review, books, kathryn vercillo, paperback swap, reading, smartchick

For awhile I got really interested in reading True Crime books. I’m not sure what drew me to these tales. I was in high school and going through a morbid phase I guess. In any case, I read quite a lot of them at the time so of course I was familiar with author Ann Rule who has written tons of these books.

I don’t really read True Crime much anymore but every once in awhile I’ll find myself interested in one of these books again. It’s usually when I’m looking for a light and simple read and I’m tired of reading Chick Lit (which is my default genre for light and simple reads). Of course, True Crime is a darker kind of light reading that Chick Lit but it’s still easy on the brain.

On my most recent foray back into the world of True Crime, I found an Ann Rule book that I’d never read. It’s called The I-5 Killer and is about (as you might guess) a murderer who was committing murderers on a route along I-5. I’m not sure what there is to say about this book really. It’s pretty straightforward as far as True Crime goes but Rule is a good author and if you like her stuff but haven’t read this one yet then it should go on your list. You can get it through Paperback Swap if it’s still listed there.

On a related tangent, I’ve always wondered how you get into writing True Crime books. Does anyone know?

Tags: ann rule, book recommendation, book review, books, kathryn vercillo, paperback swap, reading, smartchick, true crime

I am not someone who reads science fiction very often. However, there are some science fiction books that I really enjoy. One that I’ve read more than once is Woman on the Edge of Time by Marge Piercy. I loved the way that Piercy presented her vision of the future. Perhaps the fact that she’s a female sci fi writer with a female-centered book helped me to relate to it.

I was excited to get my hands on another book of Piercy’s called He, She and It. Truth be told, I couldn’t ever really get into this book although I tried a couple of times. I think some of the reasons that I didn’t enjoy it were:

• I had high expectations. I really liked the first Piercy book that I read so I expected to love this one and didn’t want to just like it or think it was “okay”.
• This one had more history/politics/religion in it. I wasn’t too keen on that for a fiction book. I think that someone who enjoys those things would be more interested in this book than I was.
• The copy I got was a hardback. It was large and cumbersome which didn’t make me all that inclined to stick with it once I discovered that I wasn’t super into it.

So the reasons that I didn’t love it really weren’t strong reasons. I would venture a guess that other people – particularly those with strong sci fi interests – would like it more. You can probably find it at Paperback Swap.

Tags: book recommendation, book review, books, kathryn vercillo, marge piercy, reading, smartchick

One of the books that I’m trying to swap out through Paperback Swap is Girl, Interrupted. It’s a really good book that most people are familiar with (because of the movie of the same name). I liked it. I’ve just had it for a really long time and I’m probably not going to read it again so I decided to try to trade it for something new through that book swap site.

I hung on to this one for years. I got it when it first came out which I believe was in the late ’90′s. I was working at a bookstore at the time and saw it on the shelf. I was reading a lot of similar books at the time (Prozac Nation, among others) and it caught my attention.

For those who don’t know, it’s the true story memoir of a girl who underwent psychiatric treatment in the 1960′s. The treatments that they gave at that time were horrifying and you get a really good bit of insight into that from the book. I actually never saw the movie so I can’t say how it compares but I can say that I think this one is worth reading if you’re interested in mental illness and / or the mental health system.

Tags: book recommendation, book review, books, girl interrupted, kathryn vercillo, reading, smartchick, susanna kaysen