A Cottage by the Sea
  • Home
  • On My Mind
  • Quotes
  • Secrets of an Old Woman
  • A Solitary Traveler
  • Compassionate Reading
  • Comfort food
  • Books
  • Suggested reading
  • Poems
  • About me
  • About me and my blog

​The Library Book, by Susan Orlean

11/27/2018

0 Comments

 
Picture

    This is one of the most remarkable, and by that I mean different, unique, on-of-a-kind books I have ever read. Although its focal point is the 1986 fire at the Los Angles Public Library, Orlean weaves in history, humor, compassion, and expands to include both general and specific information about libraries and books.
    The Library Book will definitely make my list of Top Twelve Favorite Books for 2018 (can’t recall if I started out with Top Ten, but that has changed).
    If I were looking for a career, I would walk across the street to my local library and apply for a job; then I get a library science degree. 

0 Comments

​Fear, by Robert Woodard

11/22/2018

0 Comments

 
Picture

       Compassion for everyone who is fearful: for President Trump who lives out of fear, and for all of us in the world who live in fear because of this fearful man. 

0 Comments

​The Race to Save the Romanovs, by Helen Rappaport

11/19/2018

0 Comments

 
Picture

    An historians detailed quest to understand the plans and plots to rescue Tzar Nicholas II, Tsarist Alexandra, and their four daughters and one son. We are given insight into the complicated relationships between the children and grandchildren of Queen Victoria and the role they played in World War I.
     In summary: “Whatever the degree of responsibility of the King of Great Britain, the Kaiser of Germany and their various European royal relatives in the terrible fate of their Russian cousins, there is no doubt that the murder of the Romanovs at Ekaterinburg in 1918 was a pivotal event in the long history of European monarchy. It dealt a body blow to an institution that had persisted against the odds, through centuries of revolution, acts of terrorism and the constant threat of republicanism” (p. 292).   

0 Comments

​Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption, by Bryan Stevenson

11/6/2018

0 Comments

 
Picture

   This will definitely make it to my Top Twelve Favorite Books of 2018. It is an informative, powerful, page turner, and eye opener to the incarceration or the poor and predominantly black men in our country. As a white privileged female living in Massachusetts, I am shielded from so much of the bigotry that lies deep in our psyche. This book has helped open my heart to compassion for the other. But I still have a long way to go. 

0 Comments

​A Sister in My House, by Linda Olsson

11/1/2018

0 Comments

 
Picture

     Definitely on my top ten list for the year. In fact, any book by Linda Olsson will make it. Olsson’s main characters are solitary types; she taps into their interior, private thinking. Maria is no exception.  
      Compassion for siblings, each one of them; compassion for how each views any family situation. Hope when people tell their truth. 

0 Comments

    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.

    Archives

    January 2021
    November 2020
    October 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017

    Categories

    All
    Akiko Busch
    Alan Bennett
    Alyssa Palombo
    Amy Belding Brown
    Anita Moorjani
    Ann Cleese's
    Ann Patchett
    Anthony Doerr
    Banana Yoshimoto
    Cara Wall
    Cindy K. Sproles
    Colson Whitehead
    Delia Owens
    Elaine Pagels
    Elif Shafak
    Elizabeth Berg
    Elliot Perlman
    Gail Honeyman
    Garth Stein
    Glass Castle
    Henning Mankell
    Howard Norman
    James McBride
    Jamie Ford
    Jeannette Walls
    Jean Thompson
    Jennifer Egan
    Jess Montgomery
    Jhumpa Lahiri
    Jim Defede
    Jodi Picoult
    Jojo Moyes
    Joshilyn Jackson
    Joyce Carol Oates
    Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
    Kate Eberlen
    Kate Morton
    Kazuo Ishiguro
    Kristin Hannah
    Linda Olsson
    Louise Erdrich
    Lucinda Riley
    Marie Benedict
    Mark Gimenez
    Martin L. Smith
    Mary Oliver
    Melodie Winawer
    Mirza Fatima Farheen
    Nina Sankovitch
    Pamela Krens
    Paul Kalanithi
    Paul Strarthern
    Richard Powers
    Robert Harris
    Robertson Davies
    Robert Woodward
    Ruth Ozeki
    Sarah Dunant
    Sarah Valentine
    Sebastian Junger
    Sherman Alexie
    Sigrid Nunez
    Stephen Mitchell
    Susan Ella Macneal
    Thrity Umrigar
    Tracy Chevalier

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.