spinner dolphins

Swimming and playing and spinning right next to our boat, as we sailed past the Na Pali Coast, Kauai.

Mr. Mapleface

I got this silly Tree Face from www.yardiac.com

Book Review: Divisadero

I read this for my next book club meeting, and was slightly disappointed. Living in San Francisco, and having walked and driven down Divisadero on a near weekly basis, I was looking forward to reading a book based in my 'hood. The story jumps from Napa to SF to France and Tahoe. All of the action happens in the first couple of chapters, and the story meanders around different characters and starts to bore halfway through. Although it got me daydreaming of summering in France, by the end of the book, I was left wondering exactly what was the connection between the characters?

Book Review: Dance, Dance, Dance

This book is the sequel to "A Wild Sheep Chase", which I ate up in a couple of sittings over the span of a foggy weekend. It's only slightly less bizarre than the first book. It finds our protagonist (who remains nameless) searching for Kiki, the girl with the bewitching ears. We go back to the Dolphin Hotel, then to the shores of Hawaii with a clairvoyant teenager. And yes, The Sheep Man makes another appearance. Delightful.

Shrinking Sheep?

Oh no!

mutant strawberry

Sure tasted good though.

Book Review: Thousand Pieces of Gold

This is a biographical novel of Lalu Nathoy, who lived in northern China in the late 1800's. She was sold by her father to bandits so he could feed the rest of his family during a famine. Just a teenager, Lalu is shipped to America, landing first in San Francisco, and then being sent to Idaho to work in a brothel in a mining town.

Lalu is called Polly, and against all odds she wins her freedom and ends up marrying a local saloon keeper. They settle along the Salmon River in Idaho, and live in a cabin in the wild west, in a land that would have been similar to the homeland she left in China. Her ranch is a National Historic site, located in a protected wilderness area.

The book has photos of Lalu, which you can also see here.

A fascinating read of a pioneer woman, who not only survives against all odds, but comes to love her new home and country.

Book Review: Life After Death

 

Whew, May was a busy month. Not much time to blog, but I'm back for the summer.

I've been reading up a storm. I just finished reading Life After Death: The Burden of Proof, recommended by a coworker. We work in a high school together, and the death of a student had drawn this book to her, and then to me.

I used to read Deepak Chopra's books when I was exploring spirituality in my 20's, but have since moved on from him and his works. He gets a bit repetitive. And when a friend living in San Diego, where he's based, told me his nickname is "Deep Pockets" to the locals, it became hard to take him seriously.

Anyway, this book was surprisingly comforting at a time when I needed it. There is nothing shockingly new here, but there are lots of interesting anecdotes and summaries of different beliefs on what happens after we die. The retelling of an Indian parable on death is weaved throughout the book, which gets draining. It's the real-life stories, and information on the Akasha, the soul, consciousness, and what science can tell us that make this book a good read.

cat + wings

No way.

I want, like, five of these.

snail

This big guy was sliming up my house when I left for work...

sidewalk graffiti

On the sidewalk, down the street from a Catholic school.

Buddha Shrine

in our backyard:

Belated gift from the Easter Bunny?

Oh no, this little blue bird's egg must have fallen out of it's nest. We've had some windy days here.

Book Review: Addition

Grace is a 30-something year old woman living in Australia who has obsessive-compulsive disorder. She is obsessed with counting, numbers, and measuring her world. For about two pages it's fascinating to be in the mind of someone with OCD, but by page 3 my own mind was wandering off to daydream about something more interesting. Every paragraph is filled with numbers and counting, and it gets old pretty fast. I admit, I had to skim through the majority of this book. Things get interesting and more readable about halfway through, when Grace enters therapy, but at this point I was pretty checked out.

Book Review: blink

A fun read, and a must-read!

I admit to seeing this book around and purposefully not picking it up. It seemed to be everywhere, and I didn't want to fall prey to the hype.

Blink was referenced in 50 Psychology Classics (still reading and yet to be reviewed...), and I was intrigued.

The premise of the book is that choices that we make in an instant may be more right-on and sophisticated than previously thought. The author provides us with lots of information on the brain, current research, and real-life examples of people who know how to focus on "thin slices" of information when reading a person or a situation.

Fascinating!