The Rain God

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Doesn't it sometimes feel like the sky is brighter somewhere else? Somewhere you aren't? Have you ever wondered if you may in fact be another Rob McKenna*?
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It was starting to feel a bit like that in Israel earlier this week, as the country experienced the first major rainstorm of the season. After four days of nearly constant rain things were looking and feeling pretty soggy, which made this sky, with the sun trying so valiantly to break through, all the more welcome.
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Click to enlarge

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Visit Skywatch Friday to see what everyone else's skies look like this week.

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* And as he drove on, the rain clouds dragged down the sky after him for, though he did not know it, Rob McKenna was a Rain God. All he knew was that his working days were miserable and he had a succession of lousy holidays. All the clouds knew was that they loved him and wanted to be near him, to cherish him and to water him.~~~So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish (the fourth book in Douglas Adams' fabulously wonderful Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy series)
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It's Giveaway Time Again - Inspiring Books for Parents

This giveaway is now closed. Thank you for entering everyone. The winners will be announced in a separate post later today.
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It's hard to believe that time is going by so quickly, but here it is already - the big Fall 2008 Bloggy Giveaway kicks off today, and you're invited. Click on the link (going live at 8am CST) to participate in literally hundreds of great bloggy giveaways.

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For my own giveaway this time I'm giving away inspiration. How do you give away inspiration, you ask? The answer is with three different books that will recharge your batteries and inspire your parenting. All three are books you can pick up for a minute or two here and there, no need to carve out a large block of time in a busy parent's day. Keep them for yourself or slip them into a shower or new baby gift to bring a smile to a tired new parent's face.

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Two are perfect gifts for the fathers in your life:

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Father to Son - Life Lessons on Raising a Boy - full of small tips and good advice - everything from "Let him learn the joys of chocolate chip cookie dough" and "teach him how to throw a curve" to "talk to him about his dreams. And about yours". Good stuff, well-packaged.

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The Little Big Book for Dads - this one moves well past tips and advice into how-to's. I love this book. There are sections on songs and nursery rhymes, jokes and tongue-twisters, activities, and even recipes. Everything from how to collect insects or fly a kite to the words to "Froggy Went A-Courtin'" and a recipe for french toast. It even teaches you how to juggle marshmellows and do magic tricks.

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A Special Collection in Praise of Mothers - this collection of essays and quotations is sure to tug at your heartstrings. Here are two of my favorite quotes:

The mother is the most precious possession of the nation, so precious that society advances its highest well-being when it protects the functions of the mother. Ellen Kay

It will be gone before you know it. The fingerprints on teh wall appear higher and higher. Then suddenly they disappear. Dorothy Evslin

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To enter, leave me a comment telling me who inspires you as a parent, and be sure to leave me a way to contact you if you win. And while you're here, grab a fresh cup of coffee, kick off your shoes and take a look around. You never know quite what you'll find.

Three winners - one for each book - will be chosen at random on Friday, 31 October.

This giveaway is international and open to everyone.
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The Oracle Glass

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You never know quite how a favorite book is going to enter your life. Sometimes it's a friend's recommendation, or a book club selection, sometimes a fancy display in a bookstore or a slick promotion attracts your attention, or perhaps you were asked to participate in a blogger book tour. Sometimes it's as simple as grabbing an eye-catching cover out of the sale bin outside your local bookstore.
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I found Judith Merkle Riley's The Oracle Glass in a $2 bin outside the bookstore when I was looking to grab something to read on a plane. With it's gorgeous, and very red, cover it was bound to catch my eye ("bound" to catch my eye, get it?). When I flipped it over and saw that it was a story of witchcraft and decadence set in France during the reign of Louis XIV, with a feisty and independent young girl as the protagonist, and best of all based on a series of true scandals that had rocked 17th French society, I knew that this was the one that would be coming home with me. It didn't disappoint either. Riley is a gifted storyteller, creating such vivid portraits with her words that you can almost reach out and touch the sights and sounds of 17th century France. I've read this book over and over again, it's one of those comforting, familiar friends that I can just pick up whenever I crave some easy familiarity, sometimes starting from the beginning and proceeding through to the end, other times just jumping in mid-stream and letting the story carry me away.
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And of course with its ruby red cover it is also an obvious choice for a Ruby Tuesday post, don't you think?
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I Will Not Be Broken - 5 Steps to Overcoming a Life Crisis

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Bad things DO happen to good people. And to bad people. And to everyone.

That is the premise of a book I was asked to review - Jerry White's I Will Not Be Broken - 5 Steps to Overcoming a Life Crisis. There are plenty of books out there that talk about why bad things happen. This one doesn't. It takes it as a given that everyone experiences a crisis in their own life or in the life of a loved one at some point, whether it is a horrific accident like the land mine that took Jerry's leg, or the loss of a loved one, or a serious illness, or the loss of a job, or the breakup of a marriage, or any one of a thousand other tragedies and crises that turn our lives into chaos in a single moment. Instead of dwelling on the why, Jerry provides a blueprint for the how - how to survive your moment and come out of it even stronger.

This survivor's blueprint has grown out of common experiences Jerry has seen over and over again in his work with survivors around the world through Survivor Corps, an organization that helps victims of war and terror to take their lives back. It is based on five simple and concrete steps for a person to follow to find their way from victimhood to survival, and then move past mere survival to a vibrant and thriving life. I'll let Jerry explain them in his own words:
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1. FACE FACTS. One must first accept the harsh reality about suffering and loss, however brutal. "This terrible thing has happened. It can't be changed. I can't rewind the clock. My family still needs me. So now what?"

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2. CHOOSE LIFE. That is, "I want to say yes to the future. I want my life to go on in a positive way." Seizing life, not surrendering to death or stagnation, requires letting go of resentments and looking forward, not back. It can be a daily decision.

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3. REACH OUT. One must find peers, friends, and family to break the isolation and loneliness that come in the aftermath of crisis. Seek empathy, not pity, from people who have been through something similar. Let the people in your life into your life. "It's up to me to reach for someone's hand."

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4. GET MOVING. Sitting back gets you nowhere. One must get out of bed and out of the house to generate momentum. We have to take responsibility for our actions. "How do I want to live the rest of my life? What steps can I take today?"

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5. GIVE BACK. Thriving, not just surviving, requires the capacity to give again, through service and acts of kindness. "How can I be an asset to those around me, and not a drain? Will I ever feel grateful again?" Yes, and by sharing your experiences and talents, you will inspire others to do the same.

The book is full of survivors' stories. The effect of these shared stories is twofold - they show the remarkable strength and resilience of the human spirit, and at the same time they make your own crisis seem more manageable ("if they can overcome such incredible obstactles, than surely I can overcome this"). There is even a chapter which talks about how to support someone else in their struggle, how to build them up and encourage them to thrive, and equally importantly what not to do.

Here, come see for yourself. You can download several chapters of I Will Not Be Broken (for free) here. Their easy to read style, clear plan of action, and inspiring stories will definitely touch your heart and leave you wanting to learn more.

The steps laid out in I Will Not Be Broken worked for Jerry and thousands of others. They can work for you too.
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TT - 13 Page-turners on my shelf

While my book club tends towards fairly serious literature, when I'm reading for myself I love a good whodunnit or spy novel, a page-turner. Here are 13 books or series from my bookshelf:
1. (Almost all of) Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan series. The earlier ones were definitely better though. The last one I read (The Bear and the Dragon - I read them slightly out of order) the editing was horrific, I spent the entire book aggravated at characters who were acting completely OUT of character, so to speak. Completely distracting. A shame too, because the earlier books were so strong.

2. Several of Clancy's Op-Center books. These never really did it for me. I was reading Tom Clancy for the characters and the plot, not all the military mumbo-jumbo.

3. Robert Ludlum's Bourne Trilogy - so so so much better than the movies, albeit with less eye candy.

4. Other Robert Ludlum books - The Aquitaine Progression, The Prometheus Deception, The Holcroft Covenant and the Chancellor Manuscript - oldies but goodies

5. Robert Kellerman - a bunch of the Alex Delaware series

6. Faye Kellerman - Prayers for the Dead - I like the Rina/Decker novels, it's not often that you see an Orthodox Jewish woman as a main character, especially one that is trying to walk in two worlds

7. Batya Gur - Murder on a Kibbutz, A Communal Case - not great, but not terrible either

8. Dan Brown - The Da Vinci Code - ok fine, a bit over the top, but a definite stay up to late reading page turner

9. Sue Henry - Murder at Five Finger Light - again, not fabulous, but interesting for its peak into Alaskan life

10. Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose - love this book.

11. G.M. Ford's Who in Hell is Wanda Fuca. I admit I haven't read this one yet, but I loved the title. I found it in a used book store shortly after returning from the Pacific Northwest and, yes, the Juan de Fuca Straight

12. Tony Hillerman's The Fallen Man - murder, native American style

13. And saving the best fun for last, The Story of Elijah, written by TT's very own Nicholas Temple-Smith. Chock full of colorful characters with a plot twist that you will definitely not figure out on your own, this one keeps you reeled in until the very last page. Good stuff indeed.

Sorry for the lack of links - it's late and my husband is waiting for me to start watching season 2 of Gray's Anatomy. You'll have to google if you're curious.

Happy Thursday everyone.



Visit the Thursday Thirteen hub to see what everyone else is up to this week.

Catching up - the book meme

I've been tagged for a bunch of memes lately (and not so lately) that I haven't had a chance to get to. My parents are gone now and I have a small lull before a major work project hits, so this seems like as good a chance to play catch up as I'll ever get.

Fourier Analyst tagged me for the book meme AGES ago, so I'll start with that one:

Total Number of Books I own - I have no idea, but I suspect it's still well up into the hundreds despite the recent purges. I give books I know I won't want to reread to my cleaner, but anything I even remotely liked tends to stay on my shelves forever. And that's not even counting the hundreds of children's books we have. Those are even more fun now that Itai is learning to read English and Maya is suddenly discovering that she enjoys sitting still to let mommy read to her on occasion. (The current flavor of the week is the Hebrew translation of Not Now, Bernard by David McKee, which she got from her preschool's library, but If You Give A Mouse A Cookie and David Gets In Trouble are perennial bedtime favorites.)

Last Book Read - The last book I finished was Alice Steinbach's Without Reservations: The Travels of an Independent Woman, read, apppropriately enough, on the plane home from Italy. A lovely, engaging read and definitely one to get you reflecting on the path your own life is taking and the choices you're making each day. The book I'm reading now is Reay Tannahill's absolutely fascinating Food in History. A must-read for any foodie. This is a reread actually. I owned this book years ago but it went missing after I lent it out. After years I saying "gee, I really wish I could reread the section on X Y or Z," I finally just went out and bought it again. The good news is it's been updated since I last read it, so I'm on a hunt for new little gems. Next up is probably Tommy Sands' The Songman, which so far I've just had time to skim but it looks enchanting. Either that or whatever it was that I am supposed to be reading for my next book club meeting, but we all know how I tend to procrastinate with those...

Last Book Purchased - I bought a bunch of books online just before my parents came (gotta love that free international delivery service). They included several Florence guidebooks (regular and food-oriented), Food In History, and a mystery novel that will be revealed in a later TT. No, I won't tell you what it is right now.

Five Meaningful Books -

Though I tend to read quite serious books for my book club (no, I don't usually select them, how did you guess?), when left to my own devices I tend away from that towards the much more fun classic escapist literature. Here are five of my favorites, and yes, I cheated by selecting series. Sue me.

Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide series - because it simply doesn't get any better than this.

The Oracle Glass by Judith Merkle Riley - not meaningful per se, but great fun and one I find myself coming back to time and again.

The Harry Potter series - not only is this a cracking good story, but also anything that has gotten an entire generation of children to embrace reading needs to be taken seriously.

Patrick O'Brian's Master and Commander series - a great peek into Britain's Navy during the Napoleanic Wars, as seen through the eyes of one of literature's great pairs - Captain Jack Aubrey and Ship's Surgeon Stephen Maturin. I was absolutely bereft when the last one ended, mid-sentence, left unfinished by the author's death.

CS Lewis' The Narnia Chronicles - as much fun to read now as they were when I was a child, particularly if I ignore the religious overtones. I still have the same set I received when I was nine, pages falling out and much loved. We read the entire series to Itai this year and now he loves them too. For Hannukah this year (otherwise known as the Festival of Overly Expensive Big Budget Children's Musicals here in Israel) I'm taking him to see a (Hebrew language) musical that they've made of The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe. (We'll be doing that instead of Festigal this year (his choice), though I did agree to buy the Festigal dvd. I wasn't going to shell out for tickets to both though. There are limits...)