The Secret Life of Cee Cee Wilkes

The Secret Life of Cee Cee Wilkes is a fun read. Perfect spring break book to tote along to the beach or hotel or wherever you're going.

Merle's Door by Ted Kerasote

Merle's Door: Lessons from a Freethinking Dog is a fascinating good read. Kerasote mixes history, science, speculation, and personal story together to create a book about a particular dog while exploring ideas about dogs in general.

A departure from most dog books, which stress how you need to be the alpha and always controlling every aspect of your dog's way of life, Kerasote lets Merle make decisions. As the man and the dog learn about each other, they also teach other. This "dog as partner" view is filled with respect for the differences between us and dogs--and some interesting similarities.

He finds Merle as a 10 month or so old puppy in the desert in Utah on a rafting trip. From that point, Merle and Kerasote share many outdoor adventures, from skiing to elk hunting. You may find some of this ideas on dogs a bit controversial. They're certainly a departure from the norm. But if you like dogs, you'll enjoy the story of the dog and the man getting to know each other and sharing a life together. Then go to the web site and look at the great photos.

Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky

My mom recommended this book to me and I highly recommend it to you! Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky is a fantastic read, even if you don't know the background.

Several characters' stories intertwine and overlap. Each is told from its main characters perspective but you then get that characters insight into other characters, all touching and influencing each other. The Germans are invading Paris and people are evacuating. How they behave during (and after) the invasion shows you their values and character quite clearly: the bank manager who fires those who were unable to get to another town after he took gave their promised seats in his car to his lover and her dog and they couldn't get on the full train; the man who steals gas from a young couple after promising to watch their car; the priest shepherding orphans away who really doesn't like them much.

There is a true tragedy behind the tragic stories however. Irene Nemirovsky was writing this suite of stories while the Germans were actually invading. She and her husband died in Auschwitz in 1942. Her daughters discovered that the notebooks they'd saved had this novel and it was published 60 years later.

I picked this, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life, up because I have totally loved other Barbara Kingsolver essays. This is fantastic book, addressing issues of how we eat, what we eat, where and how it grows...

Kingsolver seems to manage that fine line between having an opinion and being an evangelist who turns you off the very idea they'd like you to consider. I suppose that "consider" is the difference. She tells you what she thinks, how she arrived at the idea, she gives you a few other viewpoints, she makes you consider your own views. It's a fine line to walk and she does it wonderfully.

Of course, I'll readily admit that I already grow some of my own fruits and vegetables so probably lean towards her views a bit. But at the grocery store, I tend to lean towards the cheap cooking viewpoint. Organic stuff is expensive generally. Free range chickens? My gosh, they cost 4 times what I can get a chicken for. So how do I balance my desire to feed my family cheaply with good farm habits, etc.? It's a puzzlement. (Sorry, we just watched The King and I, again.)

My eldest just read Fast Food Nation so we've both been approaching this idea from different angles. I don't think I'm ready to make an ultimatum. And frankly we already grow a good percentage of fruits and vegetables or buy them at the local farmer's market, but the meat, that we all enjoy, is becoming a new focus.

Food for thought takes on a whole new meaning after you've read this.

The Art of Possibility by Rosamund and Ben Zander

A friend had started reading The Art of Possibility: Transforming Professional and Personal Lifeand gave the opening pages a dismal review, yet something in his description started a spark so I had to go read it for myself. I just loved it.

They use the idea of "practices" to create the idea of possiblity in your life, to help you go from a viewpoint of a negative spiral to having a set of tools that will help you live a more creative, more passionate framework in which to live, to change your viewpoint rather than your view.

The stories they tell from their own lives are encouraging and uplifting. From volunteer community orchestras to traveling the world with youth orchestras, the ability to step back and reframe things into a new orientation helps them and others see life as filled with possibility rather than limitations.

The practices are deceptively simple, as are many wise things.