Farm City: The Education of an Urban Farmer

by Novella Carpenter

 

Carpenter started a farm in the middle of inner city Oakland!  She recounts planting a garden in raised beds and rearing animals in the most humane and wonderful way,with such love, finishing them herself with connection and mercy. Obviously a foodie, she deliciously describes preparing and consuming the yield.  Her "gateway" animals were ducks, chickens and turkeys, which led to bees, rabbits and pigs. Gotta love daily dumpster diving behind eco-chic San Francsico restaurants to feed her two growing pigs, Big Guy and Little Girl.  Wholly entertaining, I highly recommend it!

 

Cutting for Stone

by Abraham Verghese

This book had been recommended to me several times, and I finally read it on vacation. Set in Africa and America, Cutting for Stone is a sweeping saga of twin brothers. Their adoptive father gave one of the boys this fine advice: "The key to your happiness is to own your own slippers, own who you are, own how you look, own your family, own the talents you have, and own the ones you don't. If you keep saying your slippers aren't yours, then you'll die searching, you'll die bitter, always feeling you were promised more. Not only our actions, but our omissions, become our destiny." (p. 286) There is a tragic figure in the book with whom one twin was madly in love.  He finally is able to let her go, gets closure, when he realized that she "found her greatness, at last, found it in her suffering. Once you have greatness, who needs anything else?" (p. 489)

Too Much Happiness

Too Much Happiness by Alice Munro are short stories so exquisitely crafted they'll keep you on the edge of your seat. Munro is the winner of the 2009 Man Booker International Prize.

 

 

 

Jesus in the Lotus

Jesus in the Lotus: The Mystical Doorway Between Christianity and Yogic Spirituality by Russill Paul is a study in interspirituality; the concept that relationship is more than dogma, and that each religious tradition can learn from the other.  

The New York Regional Mormon Singles Halloween Dance

 The New York Regional Mormon Singles Halloween Dance by Elna Baker, a very witty account of a young practicing Mormon living in the Big Apple.

Looking for Salvation at the Dairy Queen

Looking for Salvation at the Dairy Queen by Susan Gregg Gilmore is a Southern coming of age novel in the tradition of Fannie Flagg; sweet and satisfying! 

Mennonite in a Little Black Dress

Once in awhile a book comes along that knocks my socks off, and Mennonite in a Little Black Dress by Rhoda Janzen is that book! Janzen is a grammarian with a Ph.D from UCLA and has one keen sense of humor, so her prose is this exquisite scaffolding for hilarity. Elizabeth Gilbert is quoted on the cover, "it is rare that I laugh out loud while I'm reading." This is a very, very funny, poignant and beautifully written memoir. 

How to Be Happy

How to Be Happy by Lama Zopa Rinpoche.

I bought this at Small World Bookstore on the Venice boardwalk the other day, on my day off, because I am a bookstore junkie. Maybe this is obvious to you, but I found these reminders very helpful.  "When there is no anger inside, there is no enemy outside." "The good heart makes the whole life beneficial."  "Without the good heart, it is not possible to get enlightened."  "Examine your motivation carefully!" We don't get our paychecks..technically..unless we review a book; now that's motivation.