by Rachel Toalson | On My Shelf
On my shelf this week:
Gone Girl, by Gillian Flynn
Gabriel, by Edward Hirsch
Forever, Erma, by Erma Bombeck
This week I’m reading a can’t-put-it-down novel, one of the most beautiful poetry books I’ve ever read and a collection of Erma Bombeck’s best essays.
Best quotes so far:
“I defy any parent who has been on a trip with a child, who kicked the seat for 50 miles, threw his shoes out the window, lost his pet snake in Cleveland during the five o’clock traffic and spilled his slush down your back to tell me she has never considered abandoning him at the next shell station.”
-Erma Bombeck
“What mother has never fallen on her knees when she has gone into her son’s bedroom and prayed, ‘Please, God. No more. You were only supposed to give me what I could handle.'”
-Erma Bombeck
Read any of these? Tell us what you thought.
Or tell us what’s on your shelf.
by Rachel Toalson | On My Shelf
On my shelf this week:
The Thing About Luck, by Cynthia Kadohata
Comedy Writing Secrets, by Mel Helitzer
The Terrible and Wonderful Reasons Why I Run Long Distances, from The Oatmeal
This week I’m reading a new children’s novel, a book on writing comedy (every year I try to learn something new, and this year I’m going to learn how to write comedic material) and a pleasure read from The Oatmeal.
Best quotes so far:
“The only common denominator among (humor) theories is an agreement that humor is so subjective that no one theory can possibly fit in all instances. For those interested in creating humor, there is good news and bad news. The good news is that if humor has so many tangents, it may have an unlimited variety of benefits. Most of them have yet to be discovered. The bad news is that those who create comedy are not sure they know exactly what they’re doing.”
-Mel Helitzer
“The truth is that anyone can learn to write humor. Although some individuals are naturally funnier than others, just as some individuals are more athletic or more musically gifted, humor writing can be taught and humor-writing skills can be acquired.”
-Mel Helitzer
“I grew up a fat kid, and in a way The Blerch is my former self. I run because I’m terrified of becoming that kid again. I run because it’s the only way I know how to quiet the monster. I run because, deep down, I am The Blerch.”
-Matthew Inman, aka The Oatmeal
“There is a stereotype that if you’re a runner, you’re the type of person who celebrates ALL forms of healthy living. I am not that type of person…running through forests and over mountains and under massive cityscapes makes me feel ALIVE. Eating iceberg lettuce and counting calories makes me feel tired and robotic.”
-Matthew Inman, aka The Oatmeal
Read any of these? Tell us what you thought.
Or tell us what’s on your shelf.
by Rachel Toalson | On My Shelf
On my shelf this week:
The Unspeakable, by Meghan Daum
Life After Life, by Kate Atkinson
The Artist’s Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity, by Julia Cameron
This week I’m reading a nonfiction book of essays from Meghan Daum (super good), a new book club selection and a creativity book that’s broken up into course-like instruction pieces.
Best quotes so far:
“Creativity is God’s gift to us. Using our creativity is our gift back to God.”
Julia Cameron
“Our creative dreams and yearnings come from a divine source. As we move toward our dreams, we move toward our divinity.”
Julia Cameron
“Always remember that your Censor’s negative opinions are not the truth.”
Julia Cameron
“We have this idea that we have to be in the mood to write. We don’t.”
Julia Cameron
“Art is an artist-brain pursuit. The artist brain is our image brain, home and haven to our best creative impulses. The artist brain cannot be reached—or triggered—effectively by words alone. The artist brain is the sensory brain: sight and sound, smell and taste, touch. These are the elements of magic, and magic is the elemental stuff of art.”
Julia Cameron
Read any of these? Tell us what you thought.
Or tell us what’s on your shelf.
by Rachel Toalson | On My Shelf
On my shelf this week:
Small Victories: Spotting Improbable Moments of Grace, by Anne Lamott
Lila, by Marilynne Robinson
Edge of Eternity, by Ken Follett
This week I’ve got the latest selections from some of my favorite authors. Robinson’s is the last in the Gilead series, and Follett’s is the last in his Century Trilogy. All are outstanding reads so far.
Best quotes so far:
“The reality is that most of us lived our first decades feeling welcome only when certain conditions applied: we felt safe and embraced only when the parental units were getting along, when we were on our best behavior, doing well in school, not causing problems, and had as few needs as possible. If you needed more from them, best of luck.”
Anne Lamott
“I’ve discovered that offering welcome helps a lot, especially to the deeply unpleasant or weird. The offer heals you both. What works best is to target people in the community whom no one else seems to want.”
Anne Lamott
“Trappings and charm wear off, I’ve learned. The book of welcome says, Let people see you. They see that your upper arms are beautiful, soft and clean and warm,a dn then they will see this about their own, some of the time.”
Anne Lamott
“Whatever you use to keep the pain at bay robs you of the flecks and nuggets of gold that feeling grief will give you.”
Anne Lamott
Read any of these? Tell us what you thought.
Or tell us what’s on your shelf.
by Rachel Toalson | On My Shelf
On my shelf this week:
On Writing, by Stephen King
The Wanderer, by Sharon Creech
If I Stay, by Gayle Forman
This week I’m re-reading an old writing classic from Stephen King and reading a children’s book with the 5-year-old and another young adult book I have to admit I’m only readying because there’s a movie. I’m one of those must-read-the-book-before-I-see-the-movie people.
Best quotes so far:
“You can approach the act of writing with nervousness, excitement, hopefulness, or even despair—the sense that you can never completely put on the page what’s in your mind and heart. You can come to the act with your fists clenched and your eyes narrowed, ready to kick ass and take down names. You can come to it because you want a girl to marry you or because you want to change the world. Come to it any way but lightly. Let me say it again: you must not come lightly to the blank page.”
Stephen King
“I’m convinced that fear is at the root of most bad writing. If one is writing for one’s own pleasure, that fear may be mild—timidity is the word I’ve used here. If, however, one is working under deadline—a school paper, a newspaper article, the SAT writing sample—that fear may be intense.”
Stephen King
“Writing is refined thinking.”
Stephen King
“If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot.”
Stephen King
Read any of these? Tell us what you thought.
Or tell us what’s on your shelf.
by Rachel Toalson | On My Shelf
On my shelf this week:
The Four Loves, by C.S. Lewis
The Book of Unknown Americans, by Cristina Henriquez
Motherhood: The Second Oldest Profession, by Erma Bombeck
This week I’ve got an old classic from C.S. Lewis, a brand new (fantastic) novel and an old classic from a former humor columnist (I’ve checked out all her old stuff from the library and plan to read it all in the next few weeks.
Best quotes so far:
“Where Need-love is felt there may be reasons for denying or totally mortifying it; but not to feel it is in general the mark of the cold egoist. Since we do in reality need one another (‘it is not good for man to be alone’), then the failure of this need to appear as Need-love in consciousness—in other words, the illusory feeling that it is good for us to be alone—is a bad spiritual symptom; just as lack of appetite is a bad medical symptom because men do really need food.”
C.S. Lewis
“In the long run it is perhaps even more apparent in our growing—for it ought to be growing—awareness that our whole being by its very nature is one vast need; incomplete, preparatory, empty yet cluttered, crying out for Him who can untie things that are now knotted together and tie up things that are still dangling loose.”
C.S. Lewis
Our Need-love for God is in a different position because our need of Him can never end either in this world or in any other. But our awareness of it can, and then the Need-love dies too.”
C.S. Lewis
“In each of my friends there is something that only some other friend can fully bring out. By myself I am not large enough to call the whole man into activity; I want other lights than my own to show all his facets.”
C.S. Lewis
Read any of these? Tell us what you thought.
Or tell us what’s on your shelf.
