Being under the weather has its perks when you have a Sony eReader and a great library. Here are some of the books I’ve read recently:
Olive Kitteridge is Elizabeth Strout’s Pulitizer-prize-winning story of a retired schoolteacher’s reflections on her life in coastal Maine. This is an exquisite gem of a book, its prose never jarring but always True.
Dark Mirror is Barry Maitland’s latest offering in the Brock and Kolla mystery series. In this installment, a London student, Marion Summers, is researching the use of arsenic among the Pre-Raphaelites (Dante Gabriel Rossetti, William Morris, and others), until she herself falls victim to arsenic poisoning. Brock and Kolla investigate, keeping us guessing right up to the end.
The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power is a well-written expose by Jeff Sharlet. The book explores the activities of Ivanwald, a Washington-based fundamentalist group which sponsors the National Prayer Breakfa
st. Most frightening to this former campus minister is the Family’s ties to Young Life and Campus Crusade. Frankly, I tried to read this book three times and couldn’t. It’s an amazing piece of journalism and highly readable, but it’s too scary for me. Maybe it’s just a little too close to home.
On the To Be Read pile is Barbara Kingsolver’s latest, The Lacuna. According to reviewers, this is Kingsolver’s masterpiece, and it features two of my favorite people from history, Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera.
If you’re paying attention to all those political ads on your television, then you have been informed that all of our candidates in all of Tuesday’s elections are liars and crooks possessing ethical and moral principles you wouldn’t allow your dog to hold. Worse, at a time when we desperately need our media to stick to the facts, news broadcasters line up to infotain us with gimmicks called Truth Trackers (which aren’t) and parodies designed to Pump Us Up (incite us to riot). To top it all off, national clubs are funneling their money into and imposing their ideals onto small campaigns that regular folk have had no trouble deciding without outside help for the previous couple hundred of years or so. I’m pretty sure that at this point, we wouldn’t know the truth if it smacked us in the face.
young woman with a cute haircut and a 
website. [Note: See some more cool posters, like the one above, that have come out of Handmade Nation screenings 
As loyal readers know, I am a huge fan of the Arts & Crafts movement that occurred around the turn of the last century which was led by such luminaries as Frank Lloyd Wright, William Morris, and John Ruskin (more 
well as calendars and journals that are easily accessible to all of us (2010 Calendar cover pictured above). McClure’s artworks can be purchased at 
Since Diane, Nancy, and I are knitters, we especially enjoyed the Handmade Nation segment featuring Sabrina Gschwandtner. Sabrina publishes the magazine 
Jim Rash, formerly Fenton on That 70s Show, plays Dean Pelton (photo right) whose greatest aspiration is to turn Greendale into the next Harvard. Dean Pelton attempts to motivate students through loudspeaker announcements: “Good morning students! A few changes to the college catalog: Cosmology is actually Cosmetology, Astrology is Astronomy, and the students in the photo on the front cover are supposed to be smiling!” Rash is joined by John Oliver, known for his witty portrayal of a news correspondent on The Daily Show, who plays psychology professor Ian Duncan. Ken Jeong plays Spanish teacher Senor Chang (“Come on, hands people! It’s 90% of Spanish.”), who believes himself to be a Spanish genius and is tired of answering the question, “Why do YOU teach Spanish?”
Adam Richmond recently filmed his show, 
