in a perfect world

I read the most eerie and chilling book - "In a Perfect World" by Laura Kasischke. This phantasmagorical story starts off as a romantic tale of a flight attendant finally finding love with the most handsome pilot -- and then turns into a harrowing apocalyptic world where a deadly virus is sweeping the world, international trade has stopped and gas is $11/ gal. The nightmare is a combination of how people reacted to the Black Plague in the Middle Ages with cultish fervor and blaming different groups with deprivation and rationing of goods like in England in WW2. Very unsettling. I shouldn't read books about climate change devastation b/c it just freaks me out and I can't function. I wrote letters to some policitians after reading this book.

Anyway, another thing she does well is take a tiny detail and make it seem full of portent in the manner of a fairy tale where the slipper is the key to fate.

"Alicia: My Story" by Alicia Applebaum-Jurman is a memoir about the Holocaust so obviously it's horrific and full of Nazis shooting babies - but the young woman is a true hero who saved many lives. She was amazingly inspiring and resourceful and strong - and the book covers her life from age 10 - 15! It's unbelievable. I'm left haunted the question - why? Why did the Holocaust happen? I don't know and I'll never know. I read a book called "Hitler's Willing Executioners" in high school, trying to grasp why people would suddenly turn into homicidal psychopaths.

I thought I knew about the Holocaust but the book depicts a different experience as she wasn't sent to concentration camps but hid out in wheat fields for some time. It seemed like every ten pages she was close to being killed. Her entire family was killed.

Anyway, the book made me aspire to her courage. Also it made me savor the good qualities of my life - I feel that I can protect my child, and that is everything. Also it's a warning to be ever viligant for intolerance in society.

Anyway, I'm reading "A Homemade Life" by Molly Wizenberg. She tells little tales before presenting a recipe. She's a good writer but I want more - it's more a cookbook than memoir at this point.

In "Principles of Uncertainty," Maira Kalman muses on the meaning of life around her melancholy paintings. It's a satisfying peek of her view of a world that is so various and gorgeous and lonely and sad. Having a heart means sometimes it's full and sometimes it aches. I really relate to this particular sensibility - I think about how much I love my husband and bring myself to tears. All I want is to be truly grateful for the blessings of my life. I am so fortunate - how can I be worthy? I can't, I can only strive to be thankful. I heard about this book from Catherine Newman's blog - I adore her writing. Her book "Waiting for Birdy" is the only thing that got me though the crazy newborn baby stage.

I also picked up some books for the baby by Sandra Boynton, who is so lively and sweet. Also some by Charley Harper. I have determined that only way to stave off boredom from reading the same books over and over is by having great art to admire. This is "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?" theory.