Friday book suggestions

I read Dear Committee Members last night with a smile on my face the entire time.  If you've ever taught in a university, you won't know whether to laugh or cry at these letters of recommendation which demonstrate the general state of the humanities and fiction writing in universities today.  It's both funny and sad.  It's perfect.

Anne Lamott, who wrote one of the finer books on writing, Bird by Bird, (in which she expounds on "shitty first drafts,") has a new book, Spotting Improbable Moments of Grace,  (she believes in Jesus but doesn't have a pious bone in her body--it's such forgiving, generous writing). A couple of quotes: "Getting found almost always means being lost for awhile," and, "God. What a nut."  This reminds me of G.K. Chesterton's statement that the one thing God has hidden from us is his sense of humor.

I love the word, "grace."

Last night, I couldn't fall asleep and so I went downstairs and read an hour into Elizabeth Kostova's
The Historian, and I'm completely hooked.  Who doesn't want to read about Vlad, the Impaler, and Drakula [sic].  Well, honestly, I'd be the last person interested in a dracula story, but this is not Twilight, people.

One of my goals for the year (I'll just leak these out to you a little at a time), is to be more consistent  with the blog.  So far, so good, for week one.  I'm going to take weekends off, but I'll return on Monday.