My 2011 Reading List

I don't think it comes as a surprise to any of my blog readers that my spare time is usually consumed by spending time with my family and friends, watching hockey and reading. I'm also a list maker and it makes me feel good to check things off my list or in this case to look back and see what I have accomplished throughout the year. I think when 2011 began I had a goal of reading one book a week. So that was probably a little too ambitious; like starting a diet and hoping to loose 10 pounds in one week. So I didn't do a book a week but I must say I'm pretty pleased at my list here.

2011 Book List

The Good Thief

In the Neighborhood: The Search for Community on an American Street, One Sleepover at a Time

(Disclaimer I did start these two in 2010 but finished in 2011)

Room: A Novel

The Art of Mending
Churched: One Kid's Journey Toward God Despite a Holy Mess

Flight to Heaven: A Plane Crash...A Lone Survivor...A Journey to Heaven--and Back

I had surgery at the end of January and was out of work for 6 weeks. I thought having all this time off would provide me with ample opportunities to read. It was a good plan yet while I really wanted to read, my body fought me and well I slept A LOT. During those 6 weeks I'm sad to report that I only completed the following 2 books:

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close MTI: A Novel

Abide with Me: A Novel

Confession Time: Growing up I loved, loved, loved Little House on the Prairie. The books yes, but also the television show. Turns out 3 of the actresses from Little House all penned books recently and yes, I have completed the trifecta and have listed them in that order (win, place and show)
Confessions of a Prairie Bitch: How I Survived Nellie Oleson and Learned to Love Being Hated

Prairie Tale: A Memoir

The Way I See It: A Look Back at My Life on Little House


Two of my friends published books this year. One of my favorites of the year, was written by my friend Eileen Button.

The Waiting Place: Learning to Appreciate Life's Little Delays
The other was written by a faculty couple who I work with.

Cheap Love: Living and Loving on Less

Summer Reads (and probably my favorites of the year) I love summer reading. For some reason, I think it's better than any other time of the year.

Prayers and Lies
The Pilot's Wife
The Sweet Relief of Missing Children: A Novel

Cutting for Stone
Surprised by Oxford: A Memoir

The Book Thief

Maine

I actually read Maine, while I was vacationing in of all places, Maine.

And rounding out the year:
Life Is So Good: One Man's Extraordinary Journey through the 20th Century and How he Learned to Read at Age 98

This I Believe: The Personal Philosophies of Remarkable Men and Women

Whistling In the Dark

Gilead: A Novel

Man's Search for Meaning Probably the 3rd or 4th time I've read this one. Assigned it to my Freshmen class this year, and a little disappointed that they did not love it as much as I do. Maybe someday they will.)

The Slow Fade: Why You Matter in the Story of Twentysomethings Another college read. This was a faculty read about engaging our students when it comes to matters of faith and mentoring.

And finally

Holidays on Ice I love David Sedaris, but this "holiday" book may be just a little too dark and sarcastic for me. Although I have laughed throughout and then felt a little guilty for laughing.

Well, that's my reading list for the year. Already starting to think about 2012. Shameless plug for comments here but what have you read this year and really enjoyed?

Things that make me smile

I cannot remember a fall semester ever being this busy, I feel like my office is a revolving door of students wanting career advice, and when I'm not in my office I've been speaking in various classes as well as planning some career events that I'm happy to say have gone really, really well. I like it when that happens. It makes me smile.

This past Thursday night a few of my girlfriends and I grabbed dinner together and then my friend Kathy and I made a trip to Lowes. I don't typically hang out at home improvement stores. Truth is I am not that handy, my home improvement talents seem to end at painting the walls. However this Thursday night I had my eye on something very specific, something that will be life changing in my little home.

That's right I bought my self an electric "fireplace" well it's more of a stove than a fireplace but I am giddy with excitement over it. Cold winter days coming up? Bring it! I will be toasty warm by my fire. It actually does admit a very nice amount of heat and the the flames are well, semi realistic. At any rate, it make me smile. A LOT.

At the end of Thursday night I pulled back into my garage and then happened to notice something sticking out from underneath my windshield wipers. My first thought was oh no a parking ticket, Kathy thought it was a political propaganda (tis the season) turns out it wasn't a ticket it was two tickets.
Someone, who has yet to reveal themselves, left me two tickets for the hockey game. Turns out I found the tickets at about 9:00 pm. and the game started at 7:00. Missing the game didn't bother me, and the surprise act of kindness really made me smile. Oh and the Sabres won that night too. Something else to smile about.

Just Some Sentences

I baked again, today. Shocking I know but my department is trying to make nice with another department who we share a suite with. Actually we all get along quite well, we just rarely take the time to socialize with each other. So tonight, I made my friend's recipe for what she calls "Apple Crack" I'm not crazy about the name but the dessert is oh so good.

It's hockey season again and that makes me oh so very happy.

I'm loving fall in western New York and strangely enough I (the lover of all things light) am actually enjoying the darker evenings, it's a great excuse to my pajamas on early, drink hot cocoa and a good book. I'm currently reading "The Book Thief" which quite frankly is keeping me up at night. Apparently, I'm a bit behind the times because I asked a good friend of mine who is also an avid reader if she had read it yet. "Uh yeah, Mary about 2 years ago, where have you been?" I'm not sure where I've been but I'm certainly glad I found it.

"I think I flushed my keys down the toilet."

I won't identify this person by name but today one of my friends accidentally flushed her keys down the toilet. Now of course this was an accident because who would flush their keys down the toilet on purpose? To make matters worse, these were not really her car keys but the car keys to a rental car that she needed to return to the car dealership this afternoon. She called the facility department on campus to see if they might some how magically be able to pull her keys from the toilet. The conversation went something like this:

"Hello, I'm calling to report a situation" Now by this time several of us had gathered around her trying to figure out a solution to her problem. Calling it a "situation" sent us all into fits of laughter.

"Umm hold on for a second" she said and then looked at us. "They want to know my name." Now it's bad enough to admit to your friends that you have flushed your rental car keys down the toilet, but to admit it to someone else? Well that takes courage. I'm sure the facilities folks will be talking about this for awhile.

Ultimately they were not able to find her keys, she had her rented car towed back to the dealership, picked up her car and unfortunately owes the dealership a hefty sum for the missing key. I bought her a hot fudge sundae tonight for dinner, it was the least I could do.

Surprised by Oxford

I'm sure it is no surprise to any of my blog readers that I am a book fanatic. I've joked in the past about trying to figure out a way to get paid just to sit and read. Well, I still haven't figured that out, but I did learn about a website www.booksneeze.com that does provide free books to bloggers in return for a review on their blog. Sign me up! The first book I picked was Surprised by Oxford a memoir by Carolyn Weber.

I work in student development at a Christian college so a memoir about discovering one's faith during their college years, well that's just right up my alley. Carolyn Weber is a self professed agnostic who from London, Ontario who receives a full scholarship to Oxford University where she plans to study romantic literature. She has spent her life relying on intellect and reason to survive, but it is faith she finds at Oxford. Her book reminded me a lot of another memoir "Girl meets God" which I also loved. Carolyn in just her first few days at Oxford was challenged by fellow students to really think more about her faith, God and what it means to be a Christian.

The fact that Ms. Weber has spent her life relying on her intellect she begins to look at her faith from an intellectual perspective and asking a lot of hard questions. One of my favorite quotes from this book is an interaction she has with one of her friends regarding her spiritual journey " I don't know if I can do this.. It's no use, I think I may need to leave it alone." Her friends response "Friend, you are no longer the person you were when you arrived in Oxford.. Oxford has changed you, or rather, what God is working through you at Oxford has changed you. You have been brought across, over, beyond. You are now in a different place. Of course you will continue to love, to question, to study, to learn, to do everything as before and more, just from a different place, this change, changes everything.

Isn't that the truth? Once we know and understand God's love, mercy and grace we are changed and we can no longer look at things in the same way. Ms Weber's mix of literature, her academic experience along with her spiritual journey make this a book I will share with others and keep for some time.

Be Still and Know that He is God

Be still and know that He is God
Be still and know that He is holy
Be still oh restless soul of mine
Bow before the prince of Peace
Let the noise and clamor cease
Be still and know that He is God
Be still and know that He is faithful
Consider all that He has done
Stand in awe and be amazed
And know that He will never change
Be still
Be still and know that He is God
Be still and know that He is God
Be still and know that He is God
Be still
Be speechless
Be still and know that He is God
Be still and know He is our Father
Come rest your head upon His breast
Listen to the rhythm of
His unfailing heart of love
Beating for His little ones
Calling each of us to come
Be still
Be still

I love this song, it challenges me in so many ways. While I would never describe myself as an overly active individual I have a very, very hard time being still. And what I mean by that is I cannot just sit and be still. If I'm watching television, I usually have my laptop, a magazine or a book in my lap. If I'm reading, I might also be plugged in to my ipod. Even my prayer life can be somewhat schizophrenic. A prayer for someone may remind that I should really send them a note or at least a phone call, and speaking of phone calls did I pay my cell phone bill this month? Some people might call this multitasking I call it restlessness. Even as I fall asleep each night I need background noise, the television or a white noise machine with crashing waves, a thunderstorm or perhaps the sounds of a babbling brook, although truth be told the babbling brook makes me think I have to pee.

This past week though I was forced to be still. At the end of June I did a back somersault with a half twist down a flight of stairs. The Russian judge gave me a 9.3 because I did not stick the landing. As a result of this tumble I took a trip to the emergency room for a CT scan of my head and some x-rays of my ankle. I left the emergency room thinking I had nothing but a sprained ankle and a lot of bruises. Turns out, I was wrong and the CT scan of my head revealed what my doctor called "suspicious white matter" which I later learned from my neurologist are lesions on my brain. They wanted to do further testing.

I spent the weeks leading up to the MRI stressing out, doing multiple Google searches of what brain lesions could mean and having a few melt downs here and there and praying. A lot of praying. I already have more than one chronic illness and the thought of dealing with another (Multiple Sclerosis) was not something I was ready for. My MRI was Thursday, I've had MRI's done before but I guess I forgot how tight those MRI capsules are, how loud they are and how still one must be during this type of examination. For each new "picture" that the technician would take they would tell me "this one will last about 2 minutes" and then you are put through two minutes of the most annoying noise I can recall. The sound is hard to describe, smoke detector? Air horn? Car Alarm? You get the point. For each new picture the length got longer. "This next one will be 7 minutes" Are you kidding me? At this point I had to come up with someway to avoid the torture that was going on around me. I started signing Don McLean's "American Pie" its an 8 minute song, the longest one I know. And yes it's true I know all the words. Doesn't everybody?

At some point during the MRI Steven Curtis Chapman's song "Be Still" came to me. I may have laughed a little, what choice did I have but to be still. And so I began signing this song to myself to block out the noise going on around me. "Let the noise and clamor cease" And for the first time in weeks amongst all the stress and worrying I had done I felt a sense of peace. His peace. I still do not know the results of the MRI but God does, and I am trusting Him.

Summer Reading

I'm sure it is no big secret to any of my blog readers but I love to read. And summer reading, when I can spend the day outside in my Adirondack chair or on my porch swing reading There really is nothing sweeter than that. My goal for this summer was a book a week, that has not happened but I have been making my way through some good books. Here's what I've accomplished so far.

The Waiting Place: Learning to Appreciate Life's Little Delays by Eileen Button. Now I know I am bias because Eileen happens to be on of my most treasured friends but her book is outstanding and this is a book that should be on everyone's nightstand, whether you read a chapter a night or fly through it as I did and then start over.

Room: A novel by Emma Don0ghue. I'll admit I downloaded this book to my Kindle on Christmas day started reading it and then got side tracked by other books. It is the story of 5 year old Jack who has lived with his ma in "room" his entire life. To Jack room is his world but to his ma it is where they are being kept prisoner. Once I finally took the time to sit down and read this one, it was a real page turner.

Others that I have completed:
The Pilots Wife by Anita Shreve
Prayers and Lies by Sherri Wood Emmons
The Sweet Relief of Missing Children by Sarah Braunstein

Still on my list for the summer:

Maine by Courtney Sullivan
Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese
The Memory of Running by Ron McLarty
Labor Day by Joyce Maynard

If you are looking for me I'll be outside somewhere most likely with my nose in a book. So what are you reading? Comments please!