Books

Found a fabulous new blog, Persistent Cookie, which seems as interested in books and quotations as I am. Thank you, Kari, I am glad to know you! And I will take up your book questionnaire:

1. A book that changed your life
The Fountainhead, Ayn Rand (cliched but true – a lesson about individuality and independence and where the boundary of selfishness is)
Waiting for Birdy, Catherine Newman (I am not insane. I am really not insane! And not alone!)
Mrs. Dalloway, Virginia Woolf (a woman’s life is fascinating, no matter how it looks on the outside)
The Wellspring, Sharon Olds (the most thoughtful and tender exploration of family, and specifically the mother-daughter bond, I’ve ever read)

2. A book you’ve read more than once
The English Patient, Michael Ondaatje (for the sheer beauty of his language, by turns voluptuous and spare)
The Book of Qualities, Ruth Gendler (a quirky, wise book that treads the line between poetry and prose and spins pure, resonant truth from its creative imagery)
Crossing to Safety, Wallace Stegner (evocative story about lifelong friendship)
Operating Instructions, Annie Lamott (once before and once after having a baby)

3. A book that made you laugh
Home Game, Michael Lewis
How I Became a Famous Novelist, Steve Hely (cynical but outright hilarious)

4. A book that made you cry
Loving Frank, Nancy Horan (stunning description of a woman torn between her children and the great love her life, discovered too late)
The Time Traveler’s Wife, Audrey Niffenegger (part mystical, magical realism and part absolutely human, this is as good a story as I’ve ever read about loving someone for who they really are, flaws and all, and about the pain and longing for the way we wish things were but know they can never be)

Basically anything ever written by Laurie Colwin, Louise Erdrich, or Anne Beattie, all women who put into words the content of my heart exquisitely beautifully.

5. A book that you wish had been written
What Anne Sexton would have written had she lived to watch her daughters grow up and have their own children.

6. A book that you wish had never been written
Hard to say. I might go with you, Kari, and The Rules.

7. Books you are currently reading
The Embers, Hyatt Bass

8. A book you’ve been meaning to read
The stack/list is endless, but at the top right now: Raising Cain (Michael Thompson), Rage Against the Meshugenah (Danny Evans), Running in the Family (Michael Ondaatje), The Player of Games (Iain M. Banks), Life is a Verb (Patti Digh)