ojai news at The Ojai Post :: blog, newspaper, events in Ojai, California

This Month

Assault On Reason - Al Gore (though he's a coward)

The Great War for Civilization: The Conquest of the Middle East - Robert Fisk (the best on the ground reporting about the middle east and everything you need to know about the coming WWIII)

Variable Star - Robert A. Heinlein, Spider Robinson (The last book Heinlein was working on at his death, finished by the only guy who could have pulled it off, Spider Robinson)

Against the Day - Thomas Pynchon (nuff said)

Consider the Lobster: and Other Essays - David Foster Wallace (and you thought you could analyze--ha.)

Stone Junction: An Alchemical Potboiler - Jim Dodge (Favorite)

On Deck

In For A Penny - James P. Blaylock
Strange Itineraries - Tim Powers

What can I say, I'm a reading junkie.

spk, you read all those books in a month? Are you a speed reader or just on speed?

Besides Shakespeare, my favorite recent book is "The Body of the Goddess" by Rachel Pollack. I love pre-patriarchal womem. They must have been a trip.

Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking by Malcolm Gladwell

Celebrity Detox by Rosie O'Donnell

Does Hacking Knoppix count?

Carl Jung - A Way of Being
Louann Brizendine, M.D. - The Female Brain
Leaonard Schlain - Alphabet vs. the Goddess
John Rogers - Relationships: Love, Marriage & Spirit

Here some books I've read in the last few months:

* Beowulf (Seamus Heany translation). I needed to read it first before seeing the movie. I'm not sure if I missed something in the book or if the movie took some liberal interpretation.
* Better by Atul Gawande. Excellent, fast read on being a better person. The examples are from a Doctor, but they could apply to anyone.
* Spook Country by William Gibson. Fun, but probably only if your a Gibson fan.
* The Art of Power by Thich Nhat Hanh. Hey, the Governor read it and liked it!

I am in the middle of reading:

* The Darker Nations by Vijay Prashad
* Nothing to Do, Nowhere to Go Reflections on the Teachings of Zen Master Lin Chi by Thich Nhat Hanh

The snoop in me loves finding out what you people are reading!

The books I've read in the last few months ( in addition to the ones posted in previous book threads... ha! ha! bragging here) are in three catagories

1)Books my hip daughter Monica gives me. If not for her I might be buried in Yoga and Animal Rights saga. She urged me to read "The Poisonwood Bible," by Barbara Kingsolver. "Mommy, you HAVE TO read this book!" Coming from a family of fundamental Christians, I so related to this book! Highly recommended for pleasure/escape reading.

2) Books I'm given by publishers, magazines and authors to review. Last month I reviewed: "Yoga and Multiple Sclerosis, " by Loren Fishman MD and Eric Small; "Yoga for Arthritis," by Loren Fishman MD and and Ellen Saltonstall; "Yoga Anatomy," by Leslie Kaminoff. All three of these books are catapulting yoga therapy into the mainstream.

This week I'm reviewing "Green Yoga" by yoga scholar Georg Feuerstein and his wife Brenda Feuerstein. Highly recommended for all aspiring green Ojai yogis!

3) I have a huge stack of animal rights books I'm reading as reference material for my own next book. These include "Naked Empress," a classic on the medical fraud of animal experiments (vivisection) by author Hans Ruesch. I weep when I see the graphic photographs of unimaginable animal torture in his books.

And late at night, when all is quiet, I float down the river with "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn," by Mark Twain, a man so far ahead of his time he gives me hope...

I just read and enjoyed “The Worst Hard Time”, about the survivors of the Dust Bowl and, most interestingly, the human decisions and greed that caused it.
I am currently reading and enjoying Kingsolver’s “Animal Vegetable, Miracle” and recommend it to all of you Ojai Posties and any who want reinforcement for eating local; but then again, I would recommend anything that BK has penned.

Thanks to all for the above tips.

Suza - Kingsolver is a great author and the Poisonwood Bible is exceptional. I have her latest book at home waiting to be read... Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life.

Ha! I'm reading Yoga and the Wisdom of Menopause by Suza Francina!
I particularly like the parts encouraging resting, a lot of resting!

That is too funny!

I just rested deeply in Viparita Karani and Supta Baddha Konasana...

http://www.suzafrancina.com/yoga_for_menopause.shtml

PS That means "Supported Lying Down Bound Angle Pose," (also known as the the "Goddess Pose") and Supported Legs Up the Wall Pose.

The Last Report on the Miracle at Little No Horse by Louise Erdrich. Magical, comical, deeply troubling and very unsual.

heard any good jokes lately?

Thanks Dennis and Evan, I'm aiming to read all books by Barbara Kingsolver. I also have a great one from 1995, "High Tide In Tuscon." A dear editor friend gave it to me in 1998 but I did not get around to reading it till this year. All that time I was oblivious of the great gift that sat unread, unappreciated on the shelf...

have to jump in here and add that I also just read BK's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle - very inspiring. and I must take this opportunity to plug her novel, Prodigal Summer and her book of essays, Small Wonder.

Another book I've been raving about lately - Last Child in the Woods: Saving our Children from Nature Deficit Disorder by Richard Louv.

also just read Kite Runner - incredible and excruciating. looking forward to the film.

just started Highway 99: A Literary Journey through California's Great Central Valley

in the middle of: Alma by poet Alice Notley and Old Path, White Cloud by Thich Nhat Hanh

For El Anonimo (overheard at the Farmers' Market):

Ojai farmer to shopper: "If I was Bill Gates, I'd be richer than Bill Gates."

Shopper: "How's that?"

Ojai Farmer: "Well, I'd have all his money. Plus, I'd sell some vegetables on the side."

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