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Shelly Stackhouse's avatar

I used to use Bird by Bird to teach preaching! She has a lot to say about paying attention that translates well from writing to the oral medium of preaching!

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David Nash's avatar

Nice to read about Anne. I loved Bird by Bird and I also enjoyed Blue Shoe.

This week I’m reading The Blue Flowers by Raymond Queneau. It’s funny in a Monty Python or Confederacy of Dunces way. It’s expertly translated from French to English.

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Lauren Flanagan's avatar

I loved Traveling Mercies. I'll have to pick up Plan B one day...

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Diane Joy Charney's avatar

Thanks so much for writing about Anne Lamont who has long been a favorite

of mine. I started with Bird By Bird, and thought I had worked my way through everything of hers, but I did not know about Hard Laughter or Plan B and will seek them out. In recent years I’ve mostly been reading her columns for the Washington Post and NPR. She’s had a rough, bumpy journey but she’s been tough and brave and deserves the happy ending and respect she has earned.

I just finished Orbital which will be discussed by my book group this weekend. In looking for thoughts about the ending of the book, I came across the Booker Prize site’s Reading Guides. It’s my second encounter with that feature which I found helpful for our discussion of my questions about the ending of That Other Eden.

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Claire Zoghb's avatar

You gotta love Anne Lamott—she always keeps it real! I love that you got more out of her book than those by all the “experts”! I was reading OI when traveling through Egypt and this poem came out of the Sinai leg of the trip. The mosquitoes are vampires at St Catherine’s monastery!!!!

IMPROVISATION ON ANNE LAMOTT’S

OPERATING INSTRUCTIONS

I want to jot a note to Anne Lamott.

I know her only from her books—that dread-

locked angel’s face, her ruthless honesty—

but have a hunch she’d find the blessing in

my smashing fat mosquitoes as they flew

with her paperback account of Sam’s first year.

This touching look at single parenthood

could double as a WMD?

She knows mothers are nothing if not practical.

In the spirit of her words, I improvised

and at Mt. Sinai’s commanding foot no less.

Perhaps I’ll rip out one of the pages stained

brown with blood, slip it inside the envelope—

further proof of the power of her words.

SINAI DESERT, 2000

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Kathy Leonard Czepiel's avatar

“further proof of the power of her words”! I love it—thanks for sharing!

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Rebecca Stultz's avatar

This is delightful! Thank you for sharing.

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Claire Zoghb's avatar

Thank you, Rebecca!

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Rebecca Stultz's avatar

Anne Lamott is on my "consider completing" list. I love how she is irreverent and reverent, humble and honest and sometimes hilarious. I started with Traveling Mercies, which I immediately reread. I've read all the nonfiction you mention plus:

Grace (Eventually): Thoughts on Faith

Help Thanks Wow (on prayer)

Hallelujah Anyway (on the presence of mercy everywhere)

Dusk, Night, Dawn: On Revival and Courage.

I definitely want to read her latest, published last year, Somehow: Thoughts on Love.

This week:

Continuing Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner. I've enjoyed this much more than I was anticipating. The characters are distinct, fully developed and complex. I'm appreciating the lyrical descriptions of place. And I'm enjoying the occasional challenge of foreign words and vocabulary that lead me to using a dictionary. I've about 50 pages to go.

One more chapter in Richard Rohr's The Tears of Things.

Morning reading in Ryan Holidays' The Daily Stoic and in the chapter of Elaine Pagel's book that's about Christianity in other countries.

Poetry from various sources.

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Kathy Leonard Czepiel's avatar

So many great books! I loved Stegner's Angle of Repose, but I've never read Continuing Crossing.

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Rebecca Stultz's avatar

Oops. The Stegner book is Crossing to Safety. I apologize for not catching my mistake.

I finished it last night. The ending is fraught with emotions as the characters are brought back together after a period of separation and the personalities and the two marriages are compared and contrasted. There should be good discussion at book club tomorrow night.

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Kathy Leonard Czepiel's avatar

No, that was my mistake, not yours. :)

Hope you had a great discussion!

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