Sometimes I like to throw out a few sentences to try to tempt you into reading one of the books I’m reading.
And then we get to the room in the back, which was once shared by the three Hsu girls. We were all childhood friends. And now they’ve all grown and married and I’m here to play in their room again. Except for the smell of camphor, it feels the same – as if Rose, Ruth, and Janice might soon walk in with their hair rolled up in big orange-juice cans and plop down on their identical narrow beds.
Am I the only one remembering those orange-juice-can rollers?
Those sentences are from The Joy Luck Club
by Amy Tan. I’m re-reading this old favorite.
I first posted this on my blog, Joyfully Retired
What are your favorite lines from the book you’re reading now?
How funny....i only very recently (within last week) read the coconut oil articles on the web. (100 uses, 80 uses etc.) so i bouht some and ordered some from amazon. (Im a stockpiler.)
Have started trying some of the uses. I tried using it a
If your going to be financially secure enough to venture out and see whats available in the B & B field...take your time and check it out. If you have to jump into a job..just to have one..you will not be happy. Hope you get the time to find wh
Margot
I just finished reading Tracy Kidder’s “Strength in What Remains” What a powerful and TIMELY message! Here am feeling sorry for myself – lost my job, 3 deaths in my immediate family – and then I picked up this book. I recommend it to anyone who thinks he/she cannot overcome life’s adversities. The last sentence of the epilogue says it all, Let’s put this tragedy behind us, because remembering is not going to benefit anyone.” Kudos to Kidder!
I just finished a book that was loaned to me. Bodacious Book of Succulence by SARK, and my favorite line is “I wish for this book to catapult you out of bed and smack into the center of one of your dreams, or lure you back to bed, where you will lie helplessly laughing at all your past mistakes and frozen moments.” I finished the book in two days, and I am not a fast reader! It is printed in the author’s handwriting and very easy to read and uplifting. The author has a website, http://www.campsark.com, she has several books out. Another title that jumped out at me is “Living Juicy”.
I’m re-reading an old favorite too – Pride and Prejudice. The first line always makes me laugh: “It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.” It begs to be rewritten from the perspective of today’s vibrant woman, doesn’t it? “A single woman age 50 in possession of a good fortune must be in want of…” What? I haven’t decided yet!
This is a good question . Is a 50 or 60 something woman witha good fortune be in want of anything ? At my age , 67 11/12ths I am certainly not in possession of a lot of good fortune but I find my want list is so small that I have totally lost it . What do I want ? Well health and so far so good . happiness for my family and thats pretty okay but for me , just me , do I dare even think what I want ? Ill never get it so I think I just dont even go there . The thing is that with all the problems and all the things I dont have dont seem to make a big difference to me . Im happier with less than I can possibly be with more . Maybe having more is just asking for more problems . I also think at this age the differnce between want and need has become much more obvious . The car I buy is just transportation . Noone is particularly impressed with it and thats okay with me . It does what I need it to do . Maybe someone can give me their take on what we are in want of , good fortune or not
I’m in a utter reading frenzy right now, while also traveling in Europe, but one passage that stands out to me from my several recent books is from Carol Orsborn’s book, The Year I Saved My (downsized) Soul:
“Instantly, I understood what the cards meant. Dan was letting me know that he had utter faith that regardless of the battering my spirit had endured, the show would go on. It didn’t matter to him…….He knew that once my feet got going, adventures were sure to unfold. There would be tears, laughter, suspense, pathos.”
thank you so very much Margot for that catchy topic. It never occurred to me to share a favorite line from a book that I am reading. Very fun!!! :*) Your picture is a joy to look at also on the web, very pleasant and personable to view. have a great October !!!! :*) Also, I posted my comment on the book called Hello my name is God by Jeremy Pearsons. He is a young minister and he and his wife share their lives with the viewing audience and the public and in his book he talks about how God is real. It is very interesting to me to read because it is coming from a younger perspective. I love the book and am almost complete with reading it.
Just finished “The Brutal Telling” by Louise Penney….and if you like mysteries this one if for you. Haven’t accomplshed anything this morning – just had to finish it. “My favorite quote fromThoreau is also from Walden,” said Gamache. “A man is rich in proportion to the number of things he can afford to let alone.“
I cannot for the life of me remember the book, but my favorite is “After all, hope is just a memory of the future”. That means so many different things to me that I’ve remembered it for years. If anyone knows the book, please tell me!
If you google it then you can find it. I googled but wasnt sure where you remember it from..
I googled it, too, but didn’t see anything familiar. Maybe it will just pop into my head one day.
I just finished reading The Shack and my favorite line is:” Humans are meant to love just as birds are meant to fly.” And “God only acts out of love.” Great book with a different way of looking at life.
glad you are doing this. Here is my recent favorite:
from Margaret Atwood’s “The Year of the Flood”
Adam One to an assemblage of God’s Gardeners.
“Today is our Feast of Serpent Wisdom, and our Children have once again excelled in their decoration. We have Amanda and Shackleton to thank for the gripping mural of the FoxSnake ingesting a Frog–an apt reminder to us of the entwined nature of the Dance of Life. For this Feast we traditionally feature the Zucchini, a Serpent-shaped vegetable. Thanks to Rebecca our Eve Eleven for her innovative Zucchini and Radish Dessert Slice. We are certainly looking forward to it.”
Robin
I remember both the cans and the book. My daughter who is 23 just asked about reading this book and I told her yes she would love it. As far as the cans go I needed them to straighten out my long locks that way my Mom didnt have to burn my hair while ironing it. My girls laughed when I told them about the cans . They have seen me wearing huge rollers all their lives but couldnt believe that I used to wash out those cans and roll my hair! lol
I wish my boobs would stop staring at your eyes.
…”A man chooses a woman, selects her above all others, and takes her away to live in a box. Then the man loses the ability to address her like a human being. For reasons he cannot explain. And the woman locks herself away in a smaller box within the larger box. That they are in the same box is essential…” This is one of many insightful quotes from Nancy Mauro’s New World Monkeys, a darkly funny, quirky and poignant look at one couple’s experience of life leading them away from their core selves and then back again.
Elizabeth Gilbert’s description of depression and loneliness, which have been my shadows since I retired 2 years ago, in her book “Eat, Love Pray”
“They come upon me all silent and menacing like Pinkerton detectives, and they flank me — Depression on my left, Loneliness on my right. They don’t need to show me their badges. I know these guys very well. We’ve been playing a cat-and-mouse game for years now. . . .Then they frisk me. They empty my pockets of joy…Depression even confiscate my identity… Then Loneliness starts interrogating me, which I dread because it always goes on for hours. . .He asks if I have any reason to be happy that I know of…He asks why I can’t get my act together…” , pgs 46,47.
I couldn’t have put any better. I cannot wait to see the movie coming soon.
Hi Nanafatma,
Sorry to hear of your two Pinkertons that have been following you since your retirement. I guess we all have different reactions to retirement. I’m personally having a good time. Wish I could bring you with me.
I really loved Eat, Pray, Love too. The book really spoke to me. I’m looking forward to the movie too. I hope it’s as good as the book.
I am glad to hear that you are enjoying your retirement. I had dreams and goals for my retirement. I managed to fulfil 2 important goals, getting my finances together and making my pilgrimige to Mecca in the first year of retirement. I have been struggling with caring for my Mom who is suffering from vacular dementia. She broke her hip last summer. My whole summer was spent with her between the hospital and the rehab facility. Although she recovered completely from the hip replacement surgery and was walking fine. The ordeal took its toll on her dementia. When she was finally home she was very aggressive and angry with me. Her personality was totally changed and I was at my wits end trying to care for her. I struggled for two more month with health care system to have her either placed in a facility or get proper homecare help. Finally she was placed and I thought that was the end of that. I thought I can start focusing on my healing. I thought wrong. Everyday there is a different challenge with her. The staff at the facility are great, but they need my help figuring out some of these challenges.
I am climbing out of my bottomless pit ever so slowly. Two books spoke to me and inspired me. A year by the Sea, by Joan Anderson and Eat Pray Love. I wish I can gather the courage like these two women and take a year off from Mom, my four daughters and their demands for help with my four grandchildren.
I want to find my own path to recovery after 21 years being divorced, and a care giver. Where do I go? Sometimes I wonder if there are still convents that will take women like me seeking stillness.