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Books for Living, by Will Schwalbe

1/31/2017

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Books for Living, by Will Schwalbe
My goodness, all we can learn from books. For Will Schwalbe books open us to compassion.


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The Lake, by Banana Yoshimoto

1/27/2017

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    A comforting love story of two humble people who accept who they are, both as individuals and as a couple. They have talents, but are not proud. They live, putting one step in front of the other.
       Compassion for those who, seeing beauty and sadness of their lives, are able to create love out of the truth of it.


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Eleven Hours, by Pamela Erens

1/24/2017

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Compassion for the individual labor and delivery experiences; for nurses.


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When Breath Becomes Air, by Paul Kalanithi

1/19/2017

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Compassion for those with early diagnosis of a terminal illness, and for their families. Hope they can accept that dying is part of living, and believe their life had meaning and was worth living.


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Underground Railroad, by Colson Whitehead

1/18/2017

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Compassion for those brutally treated, blacks and abolitionists. Awe for their courage.
Fear that we all have it in us to kill, ridicule, bully.
Hope that we can learn from the past.


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The Space Between Us, by Thrity Umrigar

1/16/2017

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Compassion for human poverty in the world, for women who are regarded as less than men, and for men who know no other way.
Awe for women who are able to find some light in the midst of oppression.


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Hillbilly Elegy, by J.D. Vance

1/13/2017

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Compassion for everyone struggling. Compassion for myself, so ignorant and naïve. Gratitude for the good that people do in the midst of all kinds of poverty; and gratitude for the printed word.


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Commonwealth, by Ann Patchett

1/10/2017

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Compassion for the life children are born into, the external events that happen to them, and the myriad ways they react. This seems to be the response I am having to each of the books I have read so far. But it doesn’t end with compassion; I am humbled. How can I judge? How I dare I assume to know what another should do?


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All the Light We Cannot See, by Anthony Doerr

1/8/2017

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     Compassion for the time and location where we are born. Marie-Laure, born in France, blind at age six, taught, led and loved by her father.Werner, an orphan in Germany, an expert in fixing radios. Both with such resilience in the midst of World WarII, which was filled with kindness and brutality.
     What do we choose to do with the only life we are given? I believe we have choice, but do we always make the best one? At the moment, yes, but in retrospect, not always so.


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The Clothes They Stood Up In and The Lady in the Van, Alan Bennett

1/5/2017

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Compassion for external circumstances, combined with the internal commitment some people make to changes their lives and follow their longings.

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    Author

        Compassionate Reading may sound strange, but that’s my purpose in joining the Goodreads 2017 Reading Challenge. A book a week seems like a reasonable goal. Maybe I’ll read 52, maybe I won’t. Maybe I’ll read 32, but probably not 520.
         Number goals appeal to me, especially ones connected with the calendar. As a teacher, I loved the definitive school year. There is nothing like a Monday morning every seven days to give me another jump start. The first of every month I take delight in turning the page of my wall calendar. I like numbers.
         However, this reading goal isn’t about adding books to a list. My goal is understand lives different from mine. Up until now I have read through the lens of my own life, one of ease, privilege, freedom and advantage; they never promised a rose garden, but I was given one. Now I want to wear the lens of the authors and their characters. I want to step into their feelings and experiences without comparing them to mine. I want to observe without judging. I want to appreciate the nuances rather than put everything into categories. I want to I want to read with my heart more than my head.
         My plan is to post how each book opened my heart to compassion.

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