May Reading

I just finished a really good book. The Light between Oceans by M.L.Stedman. It is set in Australia shortly after WW I. Good story, well drawn characters. Love, loss, redemption. I gave it 5 stars on Goodreads and I almost never do that for fiction.

I read that one, too. It was a very nice story well told.

I am struggling to finish The Good Lord Bird by James McBride. The main character is a Huck Finn type African American slave boy who is set free by the anti-slaver John Brown and their subsequent adventures. Fiction. It's actually pretty good, but the plot just isn't grabbing me. A very interesting writing style told in the vernacular of a mid-nineteenth century former slave boy. He is mistaken for a young girl, which gets him out of a number of fixes and adds to the humor of the book.

I'm also reading Dan Brown's Inferno. His books are always a quick light read. And also a book called Nine Lives that is about some of the less heard of religions of India. It's interesting and not too cumbersome.

May reading....

Mostly non-fiction now, most notable:
- The Vegetable Gardener's Container Bible by Ed Smith - Superb overview of planting in pots for good eats.

Fiction, Kim Stanley Robinson's 2312 - he is a very interesting sci-fi read with good characters and plot, and fascinating ideas. Check out his previous Mars terra-forming trilogy - brilliant stuff!

Gaffer, I will ask my husband if he has read any of Kim Stanley Robinson's science fiction. DH is a huge sci-fi reader. Thanks!

I'm reading Encaustic Art (painting with wax--a good overview), and The Paleo Approach. The latter, subtitled Reverse Autoimmune Disease and Heal Your Body, by Sarah Ballantyne, PhD, is huge, colorful, and exhaustive--an excellent reference with lots of pictures and charts. I'll probably buy a copy, as it's a good reference. (And who knew there was a vegetable called Good King Henry. Like I said--exhaustive!)

I just finished How To Hide Money From Your Husband...and Other Time-Honored Ways to Build a Nest Egg. The foreword was by Judge Judy Scheindlin. She sees so many women who end up divorced with nothing. I'm single, but was interested in a book for women on building a nest egg. A lot of these women had nothing in their name. If they got divorced late in life, they were screwed. I don't like deceit, though. Things are much different now, with so many women working and investing. It was still interesting to see how many women were stashing cash in the cookie jar for an emergency, and how it came in handy when the unexpected happened.
Now I'm reading a book called On Your Own-A Widow's Passage to Emotional and Financial Well-Being. I always seem to check out books on money or spirituality. This one details several women and their financial situation after their husbands died. For some reason, I'm fascinated by people's financial situations. Why are some people able to save and invest, while so many others can't get ahead? I listen to Suze Orman's podcast each week for the same reason.
I'm also reading posts on Frugalvillage.com's forum by a woman who lives in the woods with her husband on under $900. a month! She does all kinds of canning, food growing, etc. It's really fun to read about her lifestyle. It inspires me to lower my monthly expenses...

I am reading, "Feeding the Hungry Ghost. Life, Faith, and What to Eat for Dinner," by Ellen Kanner.

The back cover says,"Ellen offers an irreverent (boy howdy--my words) approach to bringing reverence into daily living--and eating. She presents global vegan recipes that call you to the table, stories that make you stand up and cheer, and gentle nudges that aim to serve up what we're hungry for: a more vital self, more loving and meaningful connections....."

Kanner has a really casual, funny style. She is a food blogger and writer for the Huffington Post.

Ha, awakenedsoul! I've never visited frugalvillage.com before until I saw your post. The first thing that caught my eye was the little marquee at the top promoting an article on uses for a salad spinner! Oh, the humanity!!

KayLR, Oh, I missed that. I love their forum. The woman I'm following is woodswife. It's in the frugal section. She's a real character. They live without electricity and she cans everything. It sounds like she drinks coffee nonstop...

The last book on tape I listened to was By Ox Team To California. I just loved it. She had such a great attitude. It was fascinating to me to hear about life back then...I still think about her every day.

I have recently jumped into Buddhism with both feet and the amount of reading is unbelievable! Good, but there is so much of it. Just finished The Door Of Liberation by Geshe Wangyal and have 5 other books waiting!