Fiction
Bear Town - Fredrik Backman
The Aloe - Katherine Mansfield
A Glass of Blessings - Barbara Pym
Death and the Dancing Footman - Ngaio Marsh
An Unavoidable Delay and other short stories - Diana Athill
Siddhartha - Herman Hesse
The Lilac Bus - Maeve Binchy
God Bless You Dr. Kervorkian - Kurt Vonnegut
White Teeth - Zadie Smith
The Copper Beech by Maeve Binchy
Thornyhold - Mary Stewart
On Beauty - Zadie Smith
Possessing The Secret Of Joy -Alice Walker
Jane and Prudence - Barbara Pym
I Saw A Man - Owen Sheer
No Harm Done - Ruth Rendell
Farewell To Fairacre - Miss Read
The Punishment She Deserves - Elizabeth George
Well Schooled in Murder - Elizabeth George
Educated - Tara Westover
Incredibull Stella - Marika Hamilton
Miss Marple The Complete Short Stories - Agatha Christie
The Mysterious Affair At Styles - Agatha Christie
A Caribbean Mystery - Agatha Christie
N or M - Agatha Christie
Less Than Angels - Barbara Pym
Non-Fiction
The World Peace Diet - Dr. Will Tuttle
Short Stories
Cambric Tea - Marjorie Bowen
Death on the Air - Ngaio Marsh
Poetry
Feminine Gospels - Carol Ann Duffy
Auto-Biographies/Biographies
Innocence - Roald Dahl (auto-biography) (plus 4 short stories)
Religious/Spiritual Growth
Word On Fire - Proclaiming the Power of Christ - Bishop Robert Barron
The Seven Storey Mountain - Thomas Merton
How To
Yoga Body and Mind Handbook - Jasmine Tarkeshi
The Sivananda Companion to Yoga - The Sivananda Yoga Center
I recently discovered that Greta Thunberg has a book out. I decided to order it, and already have had some flack from a few people about my choice of reading material. My response to the "flack" is how can you agree or disagree with a persons point of view unless you first are willing to listen and understand the other persons point of view. This is why I decided to read Greta's book.
"No One Is Too Small To Make A Difference" is a collection of Greta's speeches made at climate rallies around the world. Greta is very serious about her subject and does not mince words. Almost everyone has an opinion about her, yet very few have actually listened to her speeches or made an effort to understand what she is saying. Climate change as a topic is a mine-field, it is like politics and religion, everyone has their own opinion and everyone believes their opinion is the only one that is correct.
It stresses me out to see how polarized western society is with this "us vs them" attitude, it is not productive. The Extinction Rebellion protests, I am not really sure at all what they achieved as some of the tactics used were destructive to the point of vandalism and turned people off. I think Greta is much more effective in getting her message across, she calmly and succinctly makes her points and that is why she has had such an impact. Fifteen months ago no one knew who she was, now everyone knows who she is and what she stands for, and she lives what she preaches. I am glad that she is the Time Magazine person of the year, she deserves it.
I am not a climate change denier, but I am also not sure that mankind is going to stop climate change, as the climate is now, ever has, and always will be changing.
Last week I listened to a radio program as the host and guests discussed "being green at Christmas". It sounded interesting so I listened. What a joke it became. Here are two of the most hypocritical suggestions from two of the guest "green experts".
Decorate a house plant with Christmas lights so a tree does not have to be cut down or an artificial one be purchased. The guest was questioned further about this, it turns out she will not actually be home for Christmas, she will be visiting her parents who will have a real Christmas tree for all to enjoy. To me this does not seem "green" so much as sensible, if you are going away for Christmas why bother putting up a tree?
The next expert also suggested decorating a house plant with Christmas lights and mentioned she and her family had already had their Christmas celebration with extended family. The host asked what their plans were over the actual date of Christmas, oh, she and her family were going on a skiing vacation, the host asked how they were getting there! FLYING!!! What absolute hypocrisy. She did seem embarrassed to admit she was flying and spent a fair amount of time trying to avoid answering the question directly. The host laughed along with her about feeling "plane shame"! What the heck!
A caller said they decided against Christmas cards this year as it seemed a waste of paper. So instead had written a brief poem, and made some hand-crafted ornaments and mailed those out to her friends and family. I think her idea is nice, but I am really not seeing how it saved anything at all, surely the poem was printed or written paper, and the ornament and poem needed to be packaged for mailing etc.
Others called in with what I thought were more practical suggestions, using newspaper and recycled ribbon for wrapping. Although I wondered why they still took a paper newspaper when most news is freely available on the internet requiring no paper be used.
A few callers preferred to shop at second hand shops looking for gifts, but agreed this was probably not something most people would be comfortable doing. But of all the "green" suggestions it seemed the most practical.
