"A nomad I will remain for life, in love with distant and uncharted places." -Isabelle Eberhardt
"A nomad I will remain for life, in love with distant and uncharted places." -Isabelle Eberhardt
To Be Read – July
Aimee Geurts • Jul 06, 2018
Zandbroz book section (photo courtesy of their website) PS One of them says NOMAD!
On the way back to Bismarck (home of my immediate family) from Minnesota, we stopped in Fargo to make a special trip to Zandbroz Variety. This is one of the coolest stores and my what a variety it has. Books, home goods, jewelry, cards, you name it. What I love the best is the book section that takes up one whole side of the store. Great picks and recommendations. This time, I also noticed a large book room in the back, full of vintage (used) books and specialty items including a whole case of signed, first editions. They called this room Danz Boys Books. They were ‘closed for browsing’ but the store bathroom is in that room so we got to peek around. In the Zandbroz book section, I wandered around and did something I’ve never done in a bookstore before. Instead of adding the books I was interested in to my Amazon cart, I added them to my library hold list. I’m seriously contemplating adding books to my shopping ban, because that is somewhere I spend with wild abandon. I have so many books I have not yet read and continue to add more.I am working on paring down my books, yet again, so it seems like a really good idea to stop adding more! It does make me feel guilty to go into a bookstore and not purchase anything – I hate it when bookstores close. And yet, I was really proud of myself for only buying my nephew a book ($18!) and putting the rest on my hold list at Denver Public Library. Here’s what I added to my list (plus a couple I had picked up right before my trip).
- Portage: A Family, a Canoe, and the Search for the Good Life
by Sue Leaf
- Part travelogue, part natural and cultural history, Portage
is the memoir of one family’s thirty-five-year venture into the watery expanse of the world. Through sunny days and stormy hours and a few hair-raising moments, Sue and her husband, Tom, celebrate anniversaries on the water; haul their four kids along on family adventures; and occasionally make the paddle a social outing with friends.
- I’m currently reading this one. I want nothing more to live in the woods by a lake. I’m looking at this as a how to guide, not that they live in the woods by a lake but they do get to water, with their canoe, as often as possible.
- Part travelogue, part natural and cultural history, Portage
is the memoir of one family’s thirty-five-year venture into the watery expanse of the world. Through sunny days and stormy hours and a few hair-raising moments, Sue and her husband, Tom, celebrate anniversaries on the water; haul their four kids along on family adventures; and occasionally make the paddle a social outing with friends.
- The Book of Essie
by Meghan MacLean Weir
- A captivating novel of family, fame, and religion that tells the story of the seventeen-year-old daughter of an evangelical preacher, star of the family’s hit reality show, and the secret pregnancy that threatens to blow their entire world apart.
- I’ve seen this one all over Instagram so had to pick it up. The story reminds me a bit of J.D. Salinger’s Glass family. Maybe Essie is based on Franny from Franny and Zooey.
- A captivating novel of family, fame, and religion that tells the story of the seventeen-year-old daughter of an evangelical preacher, star of the family’s hit reality show, and the secret pregnancy that threatens to blow their entire world apart.
- Men Without Women
by Haruki Murakami
- Across seven tales, Haruki Murakami brings his powers of observation to bear on the lives of men who, in their own ways, find themselves alone. Here are lovesick doctors, students, ex-boyfriends, actors, bartenders, and even Kafka’s Gregor Samsa, brought together to tell stories that speak to us all.
- The only other Murakami I’ve ever read is A Wild Sheep Chase and that was so long ago I don’t remember.
- Across seven tales, Haruki Murakami brings his powers of observation to bear on the lives of men who, in their own ways, find themselves alone. Here are lovesick doctors, students, ex-boyfriends, actors, bartenders, and even Kafka’s Gregor Samsa, brought together to tell stories that speak to us all.
- Futureface: A Family Mystery, an Epic Quest, and the Secret to Belonging
by Alex Wagner
- An acclaimed journalist travels the globe to solve the mystery of her ancestry, confronting the question at the heart of the American experience of immigration, race, and identity: Who are my people?
- After getting my DNA test done through Ancestry.com, and being disappointed by the vague results, I have been wondering: Who are my people? as well. I originally saw this on Obama’s to read list and the topic is of much interest to me. I have a fantasy of going to Germany and/or Poland and finding relatives that still live there and having a life-changing experience finding out about my ancestors.
- An acclaimed journalist travels the globe to solve the mystery of her ancestry, confronting the question at the heart of the American experience of immigration, race, and identity: Who are my people?
- Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race
by Reni Eddo-Lodge
- The book that sparked a national conversation. Exploring everything from eradicated black history to the inextricable link between class and race, Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race is the essential handbook for anyone who wants to understand race relations in Britain today.
- As a young-ish, white female, I want to know all i can about race and how I can not be an a-hole in general.
- The book that sparked a national conversation. Exploring everything from eradicated black history to the inextricable link between class and race, Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race is the essential handbook for anyone who wants to understand race relations in Britain today.
- The Underground Girls of Kabul: In Search of a Hidden Resistance in Afghanistan
by Jenny Nordberg
- In Afghanistan, a culture ruled almost entirely by men, the birth of a son is cause for celebration and the arrival of a daughter is often mourned as misfortune. A bacha posh
(literally translated from Dari as “dressed up like a boy”) is a third kind of child–a girl temporarily raised as a boy and presented as such to the outside world. Jenny Nordberg, the reporter who broke the story of this phenomenon for the New York Times
, constructs a powerful and moving account of those secretly living on the other side of a deeply segregated society where women have almost no rights and little freedom.
- Honestly, I thought this was about something entirely different when I requested it and now reading the synopsis, sounds even better than what I was thinking. I had no idea this type of gender switching was happening.
- In Afghanistan, a culture ruled almost entirely by men, the birth of a son is cause for celebration and the arrival of a daughter is often mourned as misfortune. A bacha posh
(literally translated from Dari as “dressed up like a boy”) is a third kind of child–a girl temporarily raised as a boy and presented as such to the outside world. Jenny Nordberg, the reporter who broke the story of this phenomenon for the New York Times
, constructs a powerful and moving account of those secretly living on the other side of a deeply segregated society where women have almost no rights and little freedom.
- The Invention of Nature: Alexander von Humboldt’s New World
by Andrea Wulf
- Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859) was the most famous scientist of his age, a visionary German naturalist and polymath whose discoveries forever changed the way we understand the natural world. Among his most revolutionary ideas was a radical conception of nature as a complex and interconnected global force that does not exist for the use of humankind alone. In North America, Humboldt’s name still graces towns, counties, parks, bays, lakes, mountains, and a river. And yet the man has been all but forgotten.
- What got me on this one was the part about nature not existing for the use of humankind alone. I don’t think nature exists FOR us at all so I want to figure out what that’s all about. Also, I’m a nature nerd.
- Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859) was the most famous scientist of his age, a visionary German naturalist and polymath whose discoveries forever changed the way we understand the natural world. Among his most revolutionary ideas was a radical conception of nature as a complex and interconnected global force that does not exist for the use of humankind alone. In North America, Humboldt’s name still graces towns, counties, parks, bays, lakes, mountains, and a river. And yet the man has been all but forgotten.
*All synopses borrowed from Amazon. I wanted to write my own but it’s 5 a.m. so cut me some slack.
The post To Be Read – July appeared first on The Book Nomad.
An Ode to Midge
A poem
In Great Circle Jaime says, “The compromise is that I’m living day to day without making any sweeping decisions.” I realize I have fallen into this way of thinking. Whispering to myself, everything is fine today. Although I do still enjoy imagining other lives, get caught up in the swell of possibility, for the first time in a long time I feel settled. Jamie’s sister Marian says, “Is that compromise? It sounds a bit like procrastination. You don’t think you’ll go back to being how you were before, do you?” I know I won’t go back to being how I was before. I know that today. I’m not sure what I’ll know tomorrow. Reading articles about women realizing they are tired of working the corporate ladder and feel vindicated in my low-paying jobs with no benefits. When the farmer in Spain doesn’t reply to my emails about a room and board work agreement, when the Airbnb host in Greece offers me his camper van instead of his home, I decide it’s all too much and I give up. I’m not upset about it. I’m relieved. Instead, I make easy plans to see the Redwood Forest, right here in the good ol’ U. S. of A. I plan to stop in Medicine Bow, WY on my way from Denver to Bismarck next time I’m there. My next adventure is right around the corner instead of a nine-hour flight away. I make plans to make less plans. I stop looking for more jobs. The low-paying jobs I have now are quite fulfilling and they pay me enough to cover my health insurance and put a little aside. What they give me is time. Time to have lunch with my sister-in-law on her birthday. Time to take a 4-day weekend to see my new niece. Time to take a walk downtown on a Wednesday and bring Roxy a sandwich while she slings books at the low-paying bookstore where I no longer work. Time to read all the books in my house. Time to volunteer in the middle of the day. Call it compromise. Call it procrastination. I call it feeling settled.
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