What I Did Read

In order of finishing, though not including all the books I started and got bogged down in, but didn't finish.

1)  Franny and Zooey - J. D. Salinger
2)  Things that Make White People Uncomfortable - Michael Bennett
3)  Not That Bad-Dispatches from Rape Culture - Roxane Gay (ed)
4)  Born a Crime - Trevor Noah
5)  Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone - J.K. Rowling (The giant illustrated version which was fun to read.  And first time I'd read any of them, never really in my demographic.)
6) The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe - C.S. Lewis (Read before, but I needed to read something hopeful.)
7)  Girls Like Us - Gail Giles (Young adult.)
8)  Big Little Lies - Liane Moriarty (Recommended by a friend, and also, lighter than most of what I'd been reading, so a nice break.)
9)  Navigating Early - Clare Vanderpool (Young adult.)
10) Bitch Planet Book Two, President Bitch - DeConnick, Kelly Sue (Graphic Novel.  Read while doing laundry at a friend's house because our dryer had been out for weeks.)
11) Secondhand Time - The Last of the Soviets - Svetlana Alexievich
12) New Poets of Native Nations - Heid E. Erdrich (ed) (Another book that was a joy to read. And second favorite thing I read this summer.)
13) Calypso - David Sedaris (My favorite of his.  I appreciate the honesty.)
14) Encounters with the Archdruid - John McPhee (A book I put on a hold list, and then realized I had for years, and hadn't ever gotten around to reading, so I did.)
15) Razor Girl - Carl Hiaasen (Mystery.  The category of which made me confused on if this was or not, and then I thought, "Well, every book you haven't read is essentially a mystery, or you'd never keep turning the pages to see what happens next.  And yes, the genre is something else.  But...)
16) Yes Please - Amy Poehler (Far and away my favorite thing I read all summer. Struck a chord.)

Turned in all the rest of the partially read, and picked up Carrie Fisher's Shockaholic and finished that...I think I would have enjoyed knowing her.

Books

Think this might be the first time in over two weeks that I'm home long enough to do laundry (clean out the fridge, vacuum, etc.)  Yea.

This is a list of ten books that influenced my outlook on life.  Sorta stole the idea from a facebook post.  No particular order.

Huckleberry Finn - Mark Twain
A Tale of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
The Alchemist - Paulo Coelho (got up and walked 2,000 miles)
A Wrinkle in Time - Madeleine L'Engle
The Outsiders - S.E. Hinton
To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
The Norton Anthology of English Literature (Romantic/Victorian eras-at one point reading Byron changed my life)
Rilke's Book of Hours-Barrows and Macy (translation - Rilke was a lifeline when I was going through a really rough time)
Living, Loving, Learning - Leo Buscaglia (got me through my late teen years)
The Edible Woman - Margaret Atwood (I have no explanation, I just really like it.  Her most humorous book, at least to me.)

(Could include, A Sand County Almanac, The Actor's Art and Craft-but I haven't finished it, The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, Little House on the Prairie, The Colussus of Maroussi, but need to limit it.  Oh, and Sam Shepard had a big influence on me in college.)

Don't really know what to do with myself, although I still do need to come up with a self-review before Sunday.  Feel like I just survived something and am now in a respite. 

Cheers!

Not yet midnight

I think we are lucky to be able to experience even just the smallest bit of so many different cultures, to find an awareness of what makes us all unique as well as how we are the same. That's all.

The concert was great. She owned that room, as well as the stage. There was supposed to be an intermission, but they ended up playing straight for around two hours.  At one point before an encore, she ditched all the amplification and just sang out to the room.  And her musicians were just ridiculous.  Geez. I don't think I've ever seen anyone play guitar that effortlessly, it was like he was the guitar. Crazy. Her photos make her (Mariza) look intimidating to me, but live, she came across as very charming. And kudos to the audience for 1) keeping the cell phones off after being asked; and 2) really being into the show: when there was silence in the music, you coulda' heard a pin drop in the room, which is rare, and awesome.

Came across two other acting books while wandering around waiting for the doors to open: Richard Brestoff Acting Under the Circumstances-variations on a theme of Stanislavski, and Michael Chekhov's To the Actor. I've read the first couple chapters of the Brestoff, but am going to start reading a play before I go any further with it, it gives advice on how to approach a play to put yourself in it.  I had just started the Chekhov when I realized it was time to go to the show. The first bit deals with the body and psychology. Brestoff explains exercises I've done, only moreso, i.e., they make more sense to me now, but it probably helps to have done them, and  to do them again.

I should sleep. I have to get up early and shore up the parts of my life that are currently in the process of disintegrating from neglect. Something had to give.

Selling books on a Saturday morning

Working up the will to go sell books. Need a certain amount of internal fortitude for the rejection, the snooty-ness of "I can't believe you think we would possibly want to buy that from you." It's worse with clothing, the disdain of what bad taste I must have. I do it sometimes, but more often, give clothes to Goodwill or some other charitable organization. Some bookstores are more willing to accept than others, but you usually sell to those by the box load, and that would require a car and an appointment.  I will do it. I need groceries. I want to go to the Farmer's Market and these are the last two Saturdays I'm free for the summer. The Saturday market is my favorite, I've been buying my food there for almost 20 years. I've been here a long time. I was graduated from college 20 years ago. Crazy.

Okay, sold books for $13, which did buy some produce, and I had an old gift card with enough left on it to get some coffee. The buyer was super nice, he didn't buy all of them (I ended up finding more books I was willing to part with, will have to do it again, but it's a start), but I think I can sell a few more to a different store. When I was picking through the cherries, I looked up and started laughing, realizing that I was surrounded by people who were as picky about fruit as I am. We were all picking up individual cherries and looking at them before tossing them in the bag. I know I won't eat it if it's really bad looking, even if I should, and I don't want to pay for it if I'm just gonna throw it out. Anyway, I have a little less stuff now, and I thought about more clothes that I am willing to part with, will do that today as well, before I change my mind. Clothes are the easiest thing for me to let go of.  But first, promised myself I would work on the resume for an hour. Gonna do that now. Let go, let go, let go.

Okay, resume draft done. Sent off to have instructor look at it, and waiting to hear back from sister regarding spoken word performance info.