I’m feeling sentimental. Tasha Tudor has died, and I’ve been sitting here thinking of the many heroines I’ve adored, and still adore.

Isak Dinesen, aka Karen Blixen—we watched Out of Africa last night, and cried and cried. No wonder I’m feeling sentimental.

Others that come to mind:

Virginia Grainger–first owner of our house in Okanogan and the first schoolteacher in the Okanogan valley, WA.

Helen Keller

Katherine Hepburn

Audrey Hepburn

Minerva Teichert, painter, Idahoan.

Jane Goodall

Anne Morrow Lindbergh

Amelia Earhart

Rachel Carson

Virginia Woolf

Good Fun:

Six Words You Never Knew Had Something to Do with Pigs is a delightful little book that we enjoyed reading at the dinner table.  The author, Katherine Barber, is clever and the content is illuminating and lots of fun for language-lovers. 

Good Gracious:

I finished Michael Pollan’s The Omnivore’s Dilemma, which I very much enjoyed and was good food for thought.  I read it slowly, in bits and pieces, which gave me time to digest.  At various points in the book, I was seized with a desire to move to Tonasket, join the neo-hippies and organically farm my way to bliss; become a devout vegetarian; adopt some chickens this spring and convince B. that this time they wouldn’t be that much work, really! and have happy chickens and fresh eggs; search out farms in Silverdale, Poulsbo, and Bainbridge that already perform the hard work and become their loyal customers; increase the garden space on the side yard and install deer fencing; forget vegetarianism but only eat meat that’s been humanely raised and slaughtered.  

Whew!  It’s a good book, even if it does make me feel even more like every alimentary choice I make is fraught.

Good Diversion:

Anna Quindlen’s Rise and Shine was a quick read and a fairly engrossing story.  I like Quindlen’s prose, and even if this novel disappointed compared to her others, it was a good cuddle up next to the fire on a rainy day book.  

No doubt it’s the doing of Michael Pollan’s The Omnivore’s Dilemma, but I’ve got sustainability on the brain.  Not done with the book yet, and no really stellar thoughts of my own, but here are two interesting sites:

Windward is a fascinating WA community founded on sustainable practices.

2Good2Toss is a WA state online materials exchange that I just discovered!

Two of my favorites for curling up next to the fire with a cup of chai:

Grace Paley’s Begin Again: Collected Poems.  I discovered Paley while perusing the new books shelf at the Homewood, AL Library in 2000.  Her writing is powerful, familiar, graceful, lucid, and forthright, which is saying something if you’re talking about poetry.  Honed down and full of intent.

Annie Dillard’s Pilgrim at Tinker Creek.  First introduced to me by a college roommate who couldn’t stop reading passages aloud, Dillard’s work is part of how I view the world. It’s been more than a decade now since I read this Pulitzer Prize-winning book, and I’ve worked my way through half of it in the last 2 days.  Honestly, I read this in small doses or else I start to feel winded.  But the interest she takes in the natural world around her inspires me and fills me with gratitude and wonder.

Last night the library book group met to discuss Lunch at the Piccadilly. We were a group of 10, which is a good size for a book group–the conversation split into two only a couple of times.

I probably had the most positive reaction to it. That just might be because I’m the youngest in the group by a good bit, and the book’s about aging, a nursing home, and death. (It’s also about caretaking, friendship, and finding humor in unlikely places.) Or maybe I’m simply so book-starved I’ve become less discriminating–it’s not 1-2-3 Count with Me! or 2nd grade homework, or this really! really! good part in K’s latest Animorph adventure. I’m certainly not researching nursing homes, as one participant is, nor have I any first-hand experience with caretaking. As one dear woman said, “Ashley, you just have no idea yet.”

The conversation leapt quickly from the book to real-life experiences and concerns. As substitute facilitator for the evening, I had wondered how my age would play into the conversational dynamic–and I was largely a listener, as the women talked about their own parents’ return to a childish state, with loss of dignity and ability, their concerns about affording nursing home care, terrible paths of decline (Lou Gehrig’s was mentioned).

I went to the meeting expecting to talk about narrative voice and the use of humor; I left the meeting feeling empathetic and lucky enough to have sat in on a well-spoken women’s group.

I just found my favorite children’s book ever: Ooh-la-la (Max in Love), by Maira Kalman. It’s a blast to read out loud, and long after you finish, you hear puns and poetry everywhere.

Also recommended: Night of the Moonjellies, by Mark Shasha. Beautiful pictures paired with a nice read-aloud story.