Category Archives: Diversions

The stuff that didn’t fit elsewhere.

Reading

Reading lists

Every year for the past 18, librarian Glenna Nowell has written to celebrities, politicians and other random “names” and asked them to share what they’ve been reading or what books they’d recommend for a list she calls “Who Reads What. Some of the answers are lame and, I’m guessing, not really representative of the respondant’s real favorites (*I’m talking to you Newt Gingrich! And if “The Effective Executive” really is your favorite book, remind me never to invite you over for dinner. Oh, and you, too Paul Taylor! Pimping your own book? Not cool).

A few entries:

  • I was happily amused at the idea of Gregg Allman cozying up to read “The Five People You Meet in Heaven.”
  • Writer Barbara Delinsky has high praise for “A Prayer for Owen Meany.” It’s one of my favorites. In years past, it’s been suggested by Sutton Foster and Jeri Ryan, too.
  • Eva Marie Saint suggests “The Year of Magical Thinking,” which is on my reading list. I’d better read it soon just in case I run into her and we run out of things to talk about.
  • “Best-selling author of thrillers and mysteries” T. Jefferson Parker said “Peace Like a River” knocked his socks off. I’m reading it now and hoping for the same results. But with my socks, not T. Jefferson Parker’s. Wouldn’t that be unnerving, your socks flying off for no apparent reason?
  • Smarty-pantses Mira Sorvino and Eddie Cheever Jr. recommend “A Short History of Time” (but Mina says it’s a little challenging). Eddie is a CART Team Cheever owner/driver. What does that mean?

    My dad recently enjoyed “Marley and Me,” but he wasn’t sure I’d like it because I’m not familiar with the “perils of owning an evil dog.” I do have a couple of rotten precious cats, though, so maybe I’ll check it out anyway.

    What are you reading? And what do you recommend?

    • Reading

    "A Pot of Red Lentils"

    American Life in Poetry: Column 053

    By Ted Kooser
    U.S. poet laureate

    Writing poetry, reading poetry, we are invited to join with others in celebrating life, even the ordinary, daily pleasures. Here the Seattle poet and physician, Peter Pereira, offer us a simple meal.

    A Pot of Red Lentils

    simmers on the kitchen stove.
    All afternoon dense kernels
    surrender to the fertile
    juices, their tender bellies
    swelling with delight.

    In the yard we plant
    rhubarb, cauliflower, and artichokes,
    cupping wet earth over tubers,
    our labor the germ
    of later sustenance and renewal.

    Across the field the sound of a baby crying
    as we carry in the last carrots,
    whorls of butter lettuce,
    a basket of red potatoes.

    I want to remember us this way —
    late September sun streaming through
    the window, bread loaves and golden
    bunches of grapes on the table,
    spoonfuls of hot soup rising
    to our lips, filling us
    with what endures.

    Reprinted from “Saying the World,” 2003, by permission of Copper Canyon Press. Copyright (c) 2003 by Peter Pereira.

    Reading

    "Travels with Charley"

    It seems like it took me a really long time to finish “Travels with Charley.” I was expecting it to be a fun-to-read travelogue, but I really didn’t enjoy it that much. Maybe it’s because of my associative distaste for John Steinbeck. It just seemed like he thought he would write a fun little tale of his travels, but then he got home and just couldn’t shake the melancholy. A lot of Steinbeck’s observations are still spot-on, though, and some of his stuff did make me laugh. Well, smile a little, at least.

    “When we get these thurways across the whole country … it will be possible to drive from New York to California without seeing a single thing.”

    “I was so full of humble greatness, I could hardly speak. … I hope that evil-looking service-station man may live a thousand years and people the earth with his offspring.”