opinions

Abraham Lincoln-His Essential Wisdom

Angela1 Comment

A book that sits on my desk at work is “Abraham Lincoln~ His Essential Wisdom”, edited by Carol Kelly-Gangi. No, I don’t flip through this book looking for little gems of insight to hand out to my team members should they have questions, issues, complaints, etc. But…. I have read it. It is a wonderful little book that has many known, and unless if you read EVERYTHING about Abe like I do, many unknown quotes.

Mr. Lincoln truly was a funny man, with a sense of humor that some may have found as dry, or even rude, but those close to him knew it as nothing more than his wit and clever thinking.

Sometimes it may have come out at an inappropriate time, or shocked some of his guests or listeners, but I really think no harm was meant by it on Abe’s part. I really think he could do nothing more than just be honest, no matter how much one didn’t want to hear the truth.

So why do I have this book sitting on my desk? I like to look at it. It has a nice portrait of President Lincoln on the cover, and I have a slightly over-zealous obsession of all-things-Lincoln. No, I do not know why. He is not a long-ago branch on my family tree, and I cannot remember the first time I became aware of who our 16th President was. Maybe I did a report on him when I was in Kindergarten?  Maybe we had a school celebration for Presidents day that I was conscious of but too young to remember today?

On My Desk
On My Desk

It’s a book I will take home eventually to put back in my bookcase, maybe replacing it with another book of one type or another. I think I like it on my desk because it is a part of who I am, and a part of what defines me, my feelings, my beliefs, and my love of all comments sarcastic, right-in-your-face, no words minced.

With that being said, I should also say I have a Pop Television Dr. Sheldon Cooper vinyl doll standing in front of this book (but not blocking the portrait!), pictures of my girls all over my cork board, usually a Portals of Prayer book sitting somewhere near-by if I take it out of my purse, and a candy dish that I change with the holidays full of whatever candy happens to be in season. Gingerbread Twix, Hot Cocoa 3 Musketeers, and Cordial Cherry Hershey’s Kisses right now. Yummy!

You Cannot Help But Love This Guy! Unintentional sarcasm at its best!
You Cannot Help But Love This Guy! Unintentional sarcasm at its best!

I spend 50-60 hours a week at work, sometimes more. I spend a lot of that working on a computer. So having my desk feel a little bit like home makes it not-so-bad to be at work so much. Oh. And loving my job helps too!

“An Irish Country Christmas” by Patrick Taylor

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A great, feel-good story!
A great, feel-good story!

If you are looking for a feel-good book to read to get you in the Christmas spirit, and you want something a little more cheerful than “A Christmas Carol”, this is the book for you!

It was by chance that I happened upon one of Patrick Taylor’s Irish Country books. Being Irish, if it has anything to do with it, I am reading it! I was glad to find these books, they are a fun read, while interesting, and the descriptions have you feeling like you are sitting in the same room as the characters.

The series revolves around an Irish town Doctor of long-standing, and his newly hired Doctor, who is learning his senior partners’ ways, usually with laughs. They share a house with a housekeeper who keeps you chuckling as well, and the practice is actually ran out of said house. (Don’t you wish it was still like that?)

They are in the county of Ballybucklebo, and Barry is excited to spend his first Christmas in the village, if his fiancé cooperates, that is. A new Doctor in town is proving to be stiff competition as well, practicing medicine in a “new” way that the other two gentlemen don’t favor. This “new” type of medicine is the basic way we are treated by doctors. Not new to us, but new to the setting this story takes place in.

As Fingal tries to figure out his love-life, and Barry tries to salvage his, they also take it upon themselves to help a young single mother who is struggling with her sick son. The story is not overly romantic (I certainly wouldn’t put a Harlequin stamp on it) but definitely gives you an idea of what these two somewhat attached men struggle through with the respective women in their lives.

There is enough drama and emotional attachment to this little sick boy, his mother, and the doctor’s themselves that will keep you turning the pages on this book until you realize you are at the end and looking for another of Patrick Taylor’s Irish Country stories. This is a great read, a feel good story, that will have you laughing as well as rooting for the characters in the story.

For your own information, some other Irish Country books by Patrick Taylor are, “An Irish Country Doctor, An Irish Country Girl (about their wonderful housekeeper in her younger days), and An Irish Country Wedding.”

Have you been lucky enough to read one of these books? Did you enjoy them as much as I have?

I Need To Find That Book

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I have read 4 books in the past month, and I am still searching for that book. You know the one; you stay up late reading it, fall asleep reading it, put off chores reading it, skip cooking dinner reading it, forget-the-world-around-you exists reading it. You hate to set it down and cannot wait to pick it back up. The book you think about when you are supposed to be thinking about something else. The book that makes you not hear what is being said to you because you are replaying in your head the last thing you read, and imagining what is going to happen next.

I’ve read a lot of those books. Just not recently. The books I’ve read have been good; just not the stand-in-line-before-midnight type of books. I crave a story that makes me laugh out loud, cry, cringe with fear, feel sick with disgust, believe in miracles, or feel like I will never read a book that good again.

For me, those books were written by C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, J.K. Rowling, Stephanie Meyer (yes, those books!), Andrew Greeley, Gregory McGuire, Stephen King, Judy Blume, William Johnstone, V.C. Andrews, James Patterson, and so many others I could fill two pages.

When I was a young girl and teenager I could not read enough Encyclopedia Brown and The Three Investigators books, or The Boxcar Children. I will still randomly go to the library and check out about 10 of these books on that rare occasion when I know it is going to be a quiet, childless weekend.

Sometimes I worry that writing has gone commercial. Do you know what I mean? Someone has a contract, and has to churn out these books, and it turns into cookie-cutter reading that sounds a little like that story you read last year, but a couple things are different so it’s OK.

Where is the creativity? The magic? The unbelievable that is written so you believe it? I need that book.

Have you seen this book I’m looking for?

Tuesday’s Thought For The Day!

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Tuesday's Thought For The Day!

I have fallen in love with many different books! Some were dependent on what was happening in my life, some helped me to avoid life and enjoy a fantasy world, even if only for a little bit. But all of them have taught me something. Maybe only one thing; but still, something. Every book I open captures a piece of me in its pages, no matter who opens it next.

What I don’t like about “Killing Jesus”

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Footnotes. Footnotes on every 2 pages. Footnotes that take sometimes up to half of the page. I get that they are trying to make this a factual historical writing. From the introduction:

“In the writing of this fact-based book, Martin Dugard and I do not aim to suggest that we know everything about Jesus. But we know much and will tell you things that you might not have heard. Our research has uncovered a narrative that is both fascinating and frustrating. There are major gaps in the life of Jesus, and at times we can only deduce what happened to him based upon the best available evidence. As often as possible, we relied on classical works.” (O’Reilly, B. 2013, Killing Jesus, pg 2).

I feel like I am reading a college paper (one of many I wrote) that has as many footnotes as story. Which I know is necessary. Give credit where credit is due, right? Maybe I have read so many fiction books based on Jesus that I wasn’t expecting this kind of format.

In all fairness, I am only a couple chapters in, and will continue reading this book. I just don’t like having to stop what I’m reading to read the footnotes and then go back to where I left off at. I am also anal enough that I cannot read this story without reading the footnotes. What if I missed something important? I have to read everything 🙂

So there’s my gripe for the day, and Happy Monday and Happy Reading!

Knuckles Deep in Dr. Sleep!

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I am just about finished with Dr. Sleep. I am very pleased with this book; as I mentioned before, I tend to run hot-and-cold with Stephen King’s books.

 

A quote I came across at about 3am that I thought was great: “Billy likes to tell people that the good thing about being old is that you don’t have to worry about dying young.” (King, S. 2013, Dr. Sleep, pg. 303). Profound, right?

How are you coming along with the book, and is it as good as you hoped?