More books

I haven't written anything in a while. I will blame the holidays, Riverside church, and an impossible 2000 piece jigsaw puzzle for the lack of posting. Although I haven't read a ton lately, I have read. For what it's worth...

1. One Hundred Years of Solitude, Gabriel Garcia Marquez- a Noble Prize winner, and very deserving of the honor. I love when books span generations and can back up and show a bigger picture as this book beautifully accomplished. Another hit from my main man GGM. My next life project will be something related to him.

2. The World to Come, Dara Horn- This was a great book. I judged it by its cover, and was rewarded for my folly. Horn introduces us to three generations of a family and their relationship to a seemingly stolen Chagall painting. I loved it. It was full of unexpected and intriguing twists.

3. How We Are Hungry, Dave Eggers- I have never really been on the wagon of short stories, so I didn't just love this book. Maybe I'll give it another chance someday. It was entertaining, I just don't think I'm the type who "gets" short stories.

4. Memoirs of My Melancholy Whores, Gabriel Garcia Marquez- Another good one. An old man facing death looks back at his life and tries to get a little bit of lovin.

5. Cities of the Interior, Anias Nin- Nin is a tough cookie, but I've always been intrigued. This was a compilation of five of her novels into one. I am pretty versed on her real life, so it made the book more captivating to me. I thought it was dark, tough to read, but lovely. (I wish people said that about me.)

whatever.

I feel uninspired and empty, as if the sand beneath me has slipped. I walk in hope--hope that a new wave will crash in and place my footing back where it is cool, wet, and leaves a print.

If You're Interested

I decided a couple of months ago that I would begin to read again. I started off slowly, but quickly started reading books in a day or so. Looking back, I learned a lot from what I've read so far...some of the books were really good and some made me wish I hadn't put my already deteorating eyes through them. Here is a spattering of the books and what I thought of them. This is only a useless collection of MY opinions. Please don't be offended if you don't agree. I just wanted to document and reflect on my feelings about the books.
1. The Book of Ruth, Jane Hamilton- an Oprah's book club pick. Not a Cary pick. At all. It tried to hard to create something and failed in the process. It seemed a bit cliche.

2. Fall On Your Knees, Ann-Marie Macdonald- this book was pleasantly disturbing. I loved it. It was unassuming and creepy. It's all about the secrets and pain that a family has and how they trickle down the generations.

3. The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho- this book came highly recommended by someone I love, but I didn't enjoy it. Something about the language didn't appeal to me. I understand that simple truths should sometimes be expressed with simple language, but it wasn't for me.

4. The Red Tent, Anita Diamant- a book about the family of the old testament Jacob, told by Dinah, one of his daughters of one of his wives. The book focused largely on the women--their days, traditions, fears, etc. I thought it was good. It tells a story that doesn't get told often, so I appreciated that.

5. Into The Wild, Jon Krakauer- I loved this book, but I don't really know why. I am a fan of the author--I love the way he can creep into the head of his characters while doing a decent job at presenting unbiased information. The story of this man who abandoned society to live simply and solely with nature was a surprising page turner.

6. Wicked, Gregory Maguire- another favorite...the untold story of the wicked witch of the west. I couldn't put it down. I was afraid that it was going to be cheesy, but it was serious and endearing. I also saw the Broadway production, and although it was just amazing, it hardly did the book justice.

7. Forever, Pete Hamill- I definitely judged this book by its cover. I bought it because the artwork and fonts on the book were beautiful and assumed the book would have to live up to the cover. It was about a man who is granted somewhat of an eternal life and forced to stay in Manhattan. He gets there in the 1700's and it goes until about current day. I can't decide if I loved it or not. I think some parts were lovely and intriguing, but some parts were dry and passable.

8. House of Sand and Fog, Andre Dubus III- this was one of the earlier ones a couple of months ago, so I remember it less. I did enjoy it, but it wasn't groundbreaking for me. It did have a nice mysterious feel to it, like the fog of the title. Towards the end, it really picked up and was impressive.

9. Till We Have Faces, C.S. Lewis- One of my favorites. I've read this book about 8 times and glean something different each time. It isn't a typical C.S. Lewis, so maybe that's why I love it so much. I think that Till We Have Faces is everything a book should be to me. It is just my taste.

10. Rembrandt's Whore, Sylvie Matton- This was such a good book! An interesting tale of a muse of the artist who wasn't his wife, (gasp!) but a woman he hired to care for his home.

11. The Memory Keeper's Daughter, Kim Edwards- This book was okay, I guess. It started off good--a doctor who delivers his own twins, realizes the baby girl has Down's Syndrome, so sends her to live with the nurse who assisted him. He made the mistake of telling his wife the baby died during childbirth, so the book is the tale of the consequences of the sins and the two families that it creates. I lost interest about halfway through.

12. Dogs Of Babel, Carolyn Parkhurst- It is a celebrated novel, but I was so disturbed by it. I don't even want to describe what it was about, because I will get upset and start to get paranoid again that something bad will happen to my sweet Puddy.

13. Painting Music, Hajo Duchting- A book that gives the biography of my favorite artist, Paul Klee, while highlighting the impact of music on his art. I'm glad someone devoted an entire book on the relationship of the two concepts in his work. With him, its sometimes nearly impossible to divide the two into separate entities. I was interested in it.

14. Under The Banner of Heaven, Jon Krakauer- I really liked this one. I didn't know much about the Mormon faith, namely Mormon fundamentalism, before reading this. I probably got a little too fired-up about it. I spent too much time worrying about my tax dollars supporting polygamous families and trying to wrap my mind around being my own grandmother or my aunt being my step-daughter. But it was a good and informative read.

15. Coach K: Building the Duke Dynasty, Gregg Doyel- A good read...it gave me a little more history on my husband's (and now, my) beloved Blue Devils and their amazing Coach Krzyzewski. I actually can spell it now. It was, however, an older book, published too close to their unfair and heartbreaking 98-99 season when they lost the NCAA Championship game to Connecticut after an undefeated and stellar season. It gave the whole book a sad feel.

16. Love In The Time of Cholera, Gabriel Garcia Marquez- my new favorite book. I avoided it for a while, because it was the book featured in the movie "Serendipity." I thought that made it weird to read or something. But it was amazing. I thought it was, again, everything that I thought a book of value should be. The writing was beautiful--thick and amazing. It seemed like every sentence, every paragraph carried so much more than just the words that made it up. I fell in love with the story and the characters and the passion that carried them through their lives. Just beautiful. I'm probably going to read it again very soon.

Today Was A Good Day

We had a good day today. I woke up to my puppy crying for me. It's good to feel needed. I had my usual Kashi Go Lean Crunch for breakfast, but it tasted better because it was out of the huge box from Sam's (which means it was cheaper than usual). I watched Project Runway reruns of season two all morning, and laughed the whole time. Second season is way funnier than the third. I had a Tostino Party Pizza for lunch--an old favorite. Andy and I went to the St. Louis art fair and had a great time looking at everything. We even bought a huge painting from our favorite local artist, Alicia LaChance, that looks a lot like the painting at the top of the post (another one of hers). It's beautiful--just our taste. We've been staring at it all day. Andy bought me a martini that was made from lemonade and Stoli blueberry. Also very good. I got tickets to the upcoming Indigo Girls show at the Pageant. Since I was having such a good day, I made chocolate milk and pancakes with five different types of berries for dinner. But the cherry on the top of the sun-day I've had is that my husband has caught an unusual bug of cleaning, organizing, and rearranging our home. Just my style. I could die happy tonight.

Blowin In The Wind

"How many times can a man look up, before he can see the sky?" -Bob Dylan

It's never too late to see things for the first time. I wish that everything I saw was as if it were the first. I remember one day sitting at the light at Lindbergh and Manchester--not expecting anything beautiful when I suddenly realized that was all that surrounded me--beautiful. People see pretty skies all the time. But it was more of that for me. It was the first time I saw grandeur and discovered how small I was. Trips to the Rocky Mountains, oceans, Europe...nothing else touched that moment. I guess my heart was just desperate for something beautiful, and I got it. Most other times, I take everything like that for granted. Note: If you're a St. Louisan, you obviously can tell this picture was not shot by me at the above mentioned intersection. It definitely lacks a little Lou Fusz action. And the awkward pet grooming house.

And Feel It Now

I spent some time with David Gray today. It's been a long time coming...I camped out with Ray LaMontagne for about a month and listened to R.E.M.'s "Nightswimming" on repeat for a couple of weeks. But back to my first love. Really. I'm one of those crazy music people who has violent opinions and severely judges people on their taste. I don't understand why everyone in the world can go about their every day without David Gray. Before him, my life seemed muddled, at best. If you don't love him, we need to talk about it--allow me to make you a cd--I can personalize David Gray mixes to inspire a multitude of personalities, circumstances, or events. It's an art form for me. He's one of those very few people...a man who it seems God put right on the earth to sing--just sing. His lyrics throw you into confusion between wanting to vomit because you can't believe someone reached so deep into the darkest chasms of your soul and ripped out all of the honesty that lies there and wanting to cry because he somehow made it all so beautiful. Maybe that's it...you can somehow find a beauty in what you didn't even know was there. It's, most of the time, more than I can handle, and I just cry along with every song. I don't know if I've ever made it through the likes of "Hold on to Nothing," "Slow Motion," or "Say Hello Wave Goodbye" with dry eyes. And who knows why I'm crying...is it remnants of my past I can't let go of? Is it the powerful music behind the lyrics? Is it just the same reason I cry when I stare at Chagall's American Windows? Who knows. That's why I love. It's a little of this, a little of that. Give him a shot. If you love him, I will think you are cooler. And you know you need it.

This Is My Nephew!

Gauge piles on top of Finn during his session. Animal-assisted therapy is used in addition to traditional therapy, and patients can often recognize greater results through their interactions with an animal. COURTNEY KUHLEN PHOTO

Gauge works like a dog
Speech-language pathologist employs her golden retriever to reach children
By JESSICA BAUER
LOG CABIN STAFF WRITER
(taken from the Log Cabin Democrat, the local paper in Conway, Arkansas)
Studies show pets can reduce their owner's blood pressure and improve overall health, and Kindra Schrader, speech-language pathologist at Conway Therapy Services, is putting that notion to work.
Schrader uses her 3-year-old golden retriever, Gauge, as a helpful tool in speech therapy.
"It's kind of another tool that any therapist can use," Schrader said. "Physical therapists or occupational therapists can use an animal in therapy to help either motivate the patient or help with the therapy."
Schrader said animal-assisted therapy is fairly new to Conway.
"He plays with my patients, but I also use him as a tool," Schrader said. "If I didn't have him, I would use a game or something else. For instance, if I didn't have a doll, I would have the patients point to his eyes or nose."
She only uses Gauge at work a few times a week, but said she is hoping to make pet therapy a common practice.
"I want to get more patients interested in working with me and the dog," Schrader said. "My goal is to become a certified evaluator so I can get more people certified in the area."
In her sessions, Schrader said she does language and articulation therapy. She said this type of therapy can be boring for young kids, but they always seem to get excited when they see Gauge enter the room.
"If I'm working on sounds with them, I'll use him and his ball," Schrader said. "I attach their cards to his ball and have him retrieve it for them."
She added she uses Gauge with kids who have autism, Down syndrome, Asperger's Syndrome and mental retardation.
In 1997, a study was done that proved kids with Down syndrome can be more attentive with pet therapy, she said, and responded better to a real dog rather than a stuffed animal.
"These kids are less social and less likely to have those pragmatic skills where they'll play or interact with other people," Schrader said. "When you bring a pet around, these patients are more social and show less of those self-absorbed behaviors."
Schrader said one specific example of Gauge being a big help was with a patient who would never talk in complete sentences.
"I could work with him over and over and he would be frustrated," Schrader said. "When I brought Gauge in, he immediately wanted to play with him so I told him Gauge could only do what he wanted when he spoke to him in full sentences."
Schrader said the use of pet therapy provided immediate progress for this patient.
"That kind of helps me, too, because it will calm my patients down and they will be more likely to want to interact with me," Schrader said.
Not just any dog can be a therapist, however. Schrader said Gauge had to prove his tolerance before becoming certified.
"He had to pass a skills and aptitude test where he had to follow all commands and he had to be able to withstand a certain amount of stress," Schrader said. "Strangers would come pull on his tail and ears and he had to stand there and be OK with that."
She added he also had to be able to tolerate people yelling in the room and someone walking across the room with a walker.
Both Schrader and Gauge had to pass a test through the Delta Society before beginning this practice.

Buckle Your Tastebuds

I committed two of my most hated acts this morning. First, I got to the mall 30 minutes early. I feared being one of those people who just stood in front of the store's locked doors, staring until it opened. Having worked at Pottery Barn and Abercrombie & Fitch, I have grown to despise those people. Second, I went to Starbucks to pass the 30 minutes. I don't like Starbucks. They charge too much for mediocre product. But more notably, I hate when people are Starbucks crazy. I knew this girl at kamp a few years ago who talked incessantly about Starbucks...she craved it constantly. It would be 100 degrees during Work Week while we were raking leaves, and she would be craving a mocha. Sick. It drove me nuts. With that said--so I go into Starbucks and ordered a Blackberry Green Tea Frappuccino. HALLELUJAH! It was good. It looks a little weird--three people stopped me while I was shopping to inquire about what I was drinking. I am thinking that I've enough time to go get another one before work. I am so ashamed. I've become one of them. Mark Poshak, you'll think it's yummy, you have to try it. And, you've got that one corner with two Starbucks, so I figure it's accessible.