Our Favorite Life: December 2013

Current Reads

I had not updated my "current reads" for about 2 years...not so current!
8/25/13 Just finished The River of Doubt by Candice Millard...about Teddy Roosevelt's journey to explore an uncharted tributary of the Amazon River...ending in Manaus, Brazil. It was a disaster from the beginning, and almost cost him his life. So interesting!
For book club, we read The Rent Collector by Camron Wright. Based on a documentary his son had made about residents of the largest dump in Cambodia, the author tells a story about the importance of books, literature, the ability to read, learning to read and transforming one's life. I had to force myself to put it down so I could make it last!! Wonderful!

Now it is 2015...I have read The Boys in the Boat, about the University of Washington rowing team that won the gold medal in the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. It made me want to stand up and cheer!! I had read Unbroken, about Louis Zamperini who also participated in the 1936 Olympics. Heroic, inspirational, and I don't want to see the movie!! I don't want to be disappointed and I always am.

We just finished The Bully Pulpit by Doris Kearns Goodwin for book club. Painstakingly researched, as always, the author presents a thorough study of Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft...the men, their lives, their friendship and their presidencies. Another Ohio POTUS of whom I knew little, William H. Taft gave me reason to be proud :). They were very different men, of fine character, great intellect, and lasting legacies. So interesting.

In preparation for the Idaho Humanities Council dinner in Twin Falls, featuring the author, Jamie Ford, I am reading Songs of Willow Frost. This author wrote Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, which I enjoyed tremendously and have shared with many friends. His new book is equally passionate in terms of evoking the time and place the characters inhabit, their challenges, relationships, strengths, courage and ability to love, in spite of crushing circumstances. I can't wait to hear him speak!

Favorite Books

Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford
The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown
The Rent Collector by Camron Wright
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
Destiny of the Republic by Candace Millard
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows
Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden
A Year in Provence by Peter Mayle
Imperial Woman by Pearl S. Buck
The Screwtape Letters by C. S. Lewis
Riverwalking by Kathleen Dean Moore
The Sweeter the Juice by Shirlee Taylor Haizlip
Reviving Ophelia by Mary Pipher
The Octopus by Frank Norris
The Hiding Place by Corrie ten Boom
Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
Gifts from the Sea by Anne Morrow Lindbergh
The Diary of Anne Frank

Our Favorite Music

A word of explanation for the playlist: We really do like "old time rock and roll!" (and I didn't go out with Bob Seger...he dedicated a song to me and we hung out with his band one spring evening in 1969) Believe it or not, Reed loves Itzak Perlman's violin virtuosity, and Sherill Milnes' operatic baritone! We enjoy country music, classical music, and pop. However, for the playlist, I chose very meaningful songs! One holds memories of early-morning seminary wakeups. One is a family joke on Mom! (what is that word? twister?) One is just plain beautiful. One represents my Ohio background (Chrissy Hynde, of The Pretenders, is from Cleveland. ) One, A New Day, commemorates Eden's and my trip to LasVegas to see Celine Dion! (It was my birthday present from Eden and Dan). I had to include a few Beatles tunes...I couldn't find my favorite Aerosmith song; had to have Metallica (Dallin). I had to include Somewhere, Missy's sign language choreographed ballet. Also, there is kind of a different version of Reed's and my favorite hymn! We tried to find "our song" by Gary Puckett and the Union Gap...to no avail. We'll keep adding as our feeble memories dredge up the oldies.