"Small Victories:" A Good Way to Celebrate Epiphany

I began reading essayist Anne Lamott's new book, Small Victories,  after  hearing her speak in November  at the Free Library of Philadelphia. My friend Shannon, an author and a  jail chaplain in Tacoma, suggested this would be a great book to read for Advent.

Well, even though it's under 300 pages, I just completed it today. Lamott's  is an authentic voice, one that does not sugar coat reality but which helps me find God in the smallest moments. Finishing the book is a good way to celebrate the Epiphany, that time when Jesus revealed himself to the world beyond his circumstances.

Lamott is a writer  we writers are supposed to love and one whose work I have not taken the time to read fully. While I have read bits and pieces of her illuminating work, this is the first full book of hers I have read from start to finish. She labels herself a "left wing" Christian and I suppose she is, but the label, as any political label does, reduces the value of her insights.

Life's a Beach: Brain Popcorn

On the coffee table in my mother's family room sat a pile of audiobooks her church thrift store had given away. My mom had taken them home because she knows I listen to audiobooks during my long commutes to work.  "Which ones do you want?" she asked. I rifled through.

Book Review: Don't Bother with "Carsick"

This morning, once I finished reading it, I left my copy of John Waters' travelogue, Carsick, on an northbound NJTransit train, next to our used New York Times. You see, I did not like the book. At all. It was one disappointment after another. I recommend no one read it.

But I am not capable of throwing out a book. But to donate it to my public library or to Goodwill somehow would feel like an endorsement. So some unsuspecting commuter is going to thumb through this book now at his or her own peril.

The Fault in Our Stars: Heartbreaking and Beautiful

Perhaps I am the last English-speaking person on the planet to read The Fault in Our Stars, the young adult novel about two teens with cancer who fall in love.  But I am glad I got around to it. This beautiful book will break your heart.

Well, I haven't actually read the novel; I listened to it on my iphone yesterday and today as I drove from Indianapolis back to my home in New Jersey. I had spent the week in Indianapolis, attending a conference called "Teaching Teachers to Teach Kurt Vonnegut."

needle & thREAD: Why Kurt Vonnegut Would Like Community Knitting

Okay, so I am so cheating on this meme of telling my readers what I have been sewing and reading lately. I haven't done any knitting or sewing or handcrafted anything in a few months!  But I have been doing lots and lots of reading...of writer Kurt Vonnegut. After my husband and I drove out from New Jersey, I have spent the past week in Indianapolis at the Kurt Vonnegut Memorial Library in downtown Indianapolis at a workshop called "Teaching Teachers How to Teach Vonnegut."

Perhaps the most wonderful aspect of the workshop has been connecting with professionals who teach in a wide range of settings; I teach students with special needs at a large suburban high school and this week's colleagues included: a man who teaches international students at a private school in Singapore; my friend Meredith, who teaches largely poor, first generation community college students; a veteran teacher of farmers' children on the outskirts of Indianapolis, a teacher of deaf high school students,  a man with a law degree who runs an International Baccalaureate program at a public high school in Franklin, Tennessee and a young lady who teaches at a swank private middle school in Indianapolis. The way we teachers, strangers to one another on Monday,  all rolled up our sleeves and helped one to improve our teaching was nothing short of miraculous.

This week and last I have been reading lots and lots of Vonnegut. My favorite book of his remains Slaughterhouse Five, a satirical novel about World War II that I read and absolutely did not understand in high school. Now that I am well into middle age, the novel makes perfect sense.

"There isn’t any particular relationship between the messages, except that the author has chosen them carefully, so that, when seen all at once, they produce an image of life that is beautiful and surprising and deep. There is no beginning, no middle, no end, no suspense, no moral, no causes, no effects. What we love in our books are the depths of many marvelous moments seen all at one time."

On my way out of the city today, I stopped for an iced soy latte at a cozy coffee shop called Calvin Fletcher's  in the historic Holy Rosary Neighborhood at the edge of downtown Indianapolis and right be the on ramp to I-70 East.  While I waited for my latte to be prepared, I saw a basket full of knitting and a  handwritten sign. How awesome is this.

This was the perfect ending to my days in Indy, immersed in conversation with teachers and scholars about Kurt Vonnegut. I think he'd really embrace the idea of the community knitting. Vonnegut was a novelist and an essayist whose spoke out against wars and totalitarianism and the rise of materialism in American society. In a collection of essays published in 1999 called Palm Sunday (he was not a religious man), Vonnegut wrote: 

"What should young people do with their lives today? Many things, obviously. But the most daring thing is to create stable communities in which the terrible disease of loneliness can be cured.”

― Kurt Vonnegut, Palm Sunday: An Autobiographical Collage

Novels from the Caribbean: Join My On-Line Book Club

So...those of you who love to read novels: will you join my online-book club?

Stories from Haiti: "The Dew Breaker"

My husband headed to bed before I did last night. Our sons are in New Brunswick for a few days at Rutgers Model Congress. So the house is quiet for once.  At my request,  my husband put the novel I am reading outside our bedroom door. A little light reading? he joked when I told him The Dew Breaker is the story of a torturer from Haiti who immigrated to Brooklyn.

So how have I ended up immersed in my second novel in as many weeks by Edwidge Danicat?

Home Sweet Home with David and Goliath

All of New Jersey, it seems, is dealing with a snowstorm. The public high school where I work closed a little before noon. I figured it would take an hour to drive home. Instead, it took three hours to drive 40 miles. The roads were clogged with every other New Jerseyean who had been let out early to beat the storm. I had my latest audiobook, Malcolm Gladwell's David and Goliath, to keep me company. I ended up finishing the book. Friends have been gushing about Gladwell for years; now I know why.

Preparing to Teach: To Enter Into A Yearly Journey

First, a disclaimer: I didn't invent that phrase "to enter into a yearly journey" to describe teaching high school. I swiped it from a woman named Anglica Q., on the website Ignatian Spirituality.  You see, "Ignatian spirituality,sees God as actively involved in the world and intimately involved with us in every moment and place." Yup!

Angelica Q.  tweeted:

"I find God in my service as an educator--in the eyes of my students with whom I 
enter into a yearly journey.

I stole her description it because it perfectly encapsulates how I feel about teaching high school, and about the learning communities I try to cultivate each year in my classes. 

August looms. I am closing my summer reading books, finishing two graduate school classes, and preparing to teach two new courses: American Literature and American History. This book is in my purse.

This Moment: Monroe County Courthouse, Monroeville, Alabama

Last week I attended a teachers' workshop in Monroeville, Alabama, Harper Lee's hometown, on how to teach her novel, To Kill a Mockingbird. That book has found its way deep into my heart. Lee based her fictional town, Maycomb, on Monroeville, the town where she grew up next door to writer Truman Capote, after whom she modeled the character Dill Harris.

Much of Monroeville has changed since Lee and Capote were children. Both their homes are gone; her family's lot now houses Mel's Dairy Dream; the site of his summer home now is just the stone foundation. The jail on the courthouse square has been remodeled beyond recognition and now houses the Monroe County Human Resources department.

But the courthouse is unchanged. Universal Studios came to Monroeville when it was filming the Academy-Award winning movie based on Lee's book. They recreated every last detail on a Hollywood set. I've watched the movie nearly as often as I have read the book - perhaps a dozen times. As readers of the book know, the dramatic height of the novel is the trial of a black man falsely accused - and convicted - of raping a white woman.

So you understand why, when I walked into the courtroom, I nearly burst into tears. Tears of joy that a writer could create such a world from the confines of her imagination. Tears of joy that the world she invented a half century ago  still makes its readers laugh, and cry, and rail for justice that still eludes us.

Linking with Amanda.

Theme Thursday: Bright

This is a goofy photo of a bright young lady named Anna, 13, in front of the Monroe County (Ala.) Courthouse yesterday morning.  My friend Meredith and I, along with her daughter Annaleigh, traveled to Monroeville, Alabama to attend a teachers' workshop on "To Kill a Mockingbird." Monroeville was the model for Harper Lee's Maycomb in that classic novel.

Meredith and I are both writers and teachers. Anna is a ravenous reader: she has read "To Kill a Mockingbird" at least four times, but she reads whatever she can get her hands on.


Anna is bright, very bright. On the long car rides we took all over Alabama, she sat in the back of the van, reading, reading, reading. She also read in our hotel rooms, in restaurants, anywhere she could.

If you ask Anna what kinds of books she likes to read, she will tell you "every kind."

Linking up with Cari on this one!

Seven Quick Takes: Milestones

1. The past week or so has been filled with milestones, for me and for my family. It is exciting to see chapters end and new ones beginning.  One milestone is that I was rehired to teach at my high school, which means I will be a tenured public school teacher in the fall. I am supported so much by my colleagues and the administration here.

2. Our elder son went to the junior prom last Friday night with a classmate. It was fun for me to help him pick out a suit. I thought it was cute his date and he spent time matching her hijab to his tie. Here is a goofy photo of them with friends.

Confirmation and "A World Unbound by Time"

Usually, I imagine eternity as time never ending. I imagine it like an infinite number, like this one. This means when I think about heaven I think of a place where time goes on and on and on. Interminable. It sounds so dull.

This Pentecost, our younger son was confirmed in the Catholic Church. During the liturgy I had this powerful, visceral sense of eternity. I felt it all the way to my bones. It was not the kind of eternity I usually imagine, but the kind of eternity I have come to understand, a world unbound by time.

Why Our Son Chose Antoine Daniel as His Patron Saint

Here is our 13-year-old son's report on Saint Antoine Daniel, S.J. Thank you, John Janaro, for recommending the wonderful book from which we both studied the Jesuit Martyrs of North America.  Pentecost is right around the corner and that is when Lucas will be confirmed.
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Name Chosen: Antoine Daniel

Brief Biography of the saint: Born in France in 1601, Antoine Daniel was a Jesuit missionary among the Hurons in Canada and one of eight Jesuit martyrs. He studied the Huron language before becoming a missionary.

Father James Martin, S.J.:George Carlin With a Roman Collar and No Potty Mouth

I've "known" Father James Martin S.J. for years. My friend Webster Bull was deeply influenced by his book "My Life with the Saints" and so I read it too.  The book, which explained to me for the first time and in a very accessible way,  who and what saints are, is  a huge part of my continuing conversion. I follow Father Jim on twitter, I am a "friend" of his on Facebook and I read his articles as Editor at Large of  America magazine when they pop up on my facebook newsfeed. And I have seen his frequent appearances as the unofficial "chaplain" of the Colbert Report.

So in my 21st century way, I felt like I "knew" him. Of course, I didn't. I had no idea how laugh-out-loud funny the man is until I went to a talk he gave tonight on the Rutgers campus. My girlfriend Melissa, who went with me, compared him to George Carlin. Yes, a G-rated George Carlin with a Roman collar and without profanity.

On A Failure of Love: "Poor Baby: A Child of the Sixties Looks Back On Abortion:"

Last night - Good Friday -  felt like the right time to download on my brand new Kindle a book - really more like a 50-plus page essay, by L.A.-based writer Heather King called "Poor Baby," a raw meditation on her three abortions.

No matter one's personal history, or one's political views on whether abortion should be legal, or one's moral belief as to whether abortion ever can be an ethical choice, this book is worth reading. In fact, I would say anyone with strong views about abortion should read this book with clear eyes and an open heart. We need King's voice in the conversation.

So much of the profoundly polarizing abortion "debate" in this country lacks nuance; this book does not.

"Admission:" From Thoughtful Book to Funny Movie

After dinner at our favorite Italian restaurant last night, my husband and I drove over to our local multiplex for the opening of the romantic comedy "Admission." This PG-13 movie stars Tina Fey and Paul Rudd; she as Portia Nathan, an uptight Princeton University admissions officer and he as John Pressman, the founder of an alternative high school in the boondocks of New England.

This is a delightful movie that had us laughing and smiling and kept us thoroughly engaged for its 117 minutes. Don't judge this movie by its trailer, which would make you think it is a slapstick comedy. While there are plenty of laugh-out-loud moments, this sweet movie also weaves in the questions of what constitutes maternity and what makes life meaningful.

Before I continue, I need to make my own admission: Jean Hanff Korelitz, whose 2009 novel of the same name was adapted to the big screen by Karen Croner, is a dear family friend and her eighth- grade son, who has a brief, nonspeaking part in this movie, has been our younger son's best friend since nursery school.

Seven Quick Takes For Friday

1. In the past week two disabled combat veterans of my acquaintance died. Last Friday, a 90-year-old World War II survivor died. He was burned badly in a kamikaze attack in the Pacific. He was the father of a colleague of my husband's.  The second death happened Monday, when the brother of a former student died. He was a veteran of the war in Afghanistan who lost both his legs when he stepped on two improvised explosives. These deaths have moved me deeply. I am going to write more, much more, about these men, their legacies, and the human cost of war. Rest in peace, valiant soldiers.

"The Infancy Narratives:" Compelling Gift from a Pope Emeritus

In the days of Sede Vacante, between Feb. 28, when Pope Benedict XVI resigned and March 13, when Argentina's Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio was elected the Holy See, I felt the profound silence of the former pope as he withdrew from public life and into a world of monastic prayer.

It felt clear we won't be hearing from this man, so often maligned within the Church and without, ever again. What has been lost to so many, including millions of us Catholics, is that this man is a gifted writer and theologian, a student of St. Augustine and a deep thinker in his own right. I felt the loss and, as a kind of homage to him and as a reminder to me that his legacy continues, I spent my morning commutes listening to the now-emeritus Pope's latest book - Jesus of Nazareth: the Infancy Narratives.

I find this book deeply reassuring and have since passed it along to an Evangelical friend, who I know will find it inspiring. This is a book for any of us who call ourselves Christians and for anyone who is curious about the Christian claim. The book comforts me because it reminds me the Holy Spirit moves among is the men who lead our church and because it gives us a taste of a Pope whose absence is palpable to me.

Five Favorites

1. Sweet Potato Knishes. Found a great recipe here.

2. This boy. Now, don't get me wrong. He is not my favorite son. He is simply, a favorite son. We just had an IEP meeting today to set up his learning plan for high school. After he left the meeting, his caseworker told me and my husband:  "He is a gem. He is as good as gold."

And yes, that just about sums up how I feel about our 13-year-old. He's an athlete who also sings in the choir and plays the trumpet. He is friends with a wide range of kids. He is a hambone and he is a loyal friend. He takes his faith seriously. He is willing to work hard to succeed in school, even when the going gets tough. Plus, he makes an awesome chili. 'Nuff said.


3.  This man and this book. I just finished listening to it in the car. Wonderful, well-researched and inspiring.

4. Saturday Date Nights. Now that our boys are teenagers, and well past the need for babysitters, my husband and I have been taking ourselves out to dinner on Saturday nights. Lovely. Here is where we went on Saturday; he ate mussels and I ordered salmon.

5. This fascinating interview with Dean Koontz, best-selling author of supernatural suspense stories.