meme-alicious

Both Carl and Christianne have tagged me, so it's time for me to get my rear in gear and post this book meme. You've all been playing, so you know how it works.

Here we go ...

*the 1-2-3 meme*

[rules:]
pick up the nearest book (of at least 123 pages)
open the book to page 123
find the fifth sentence
post the next 3 sentences

From Ruthless Trust by Brennan Manning:

“Soon I discovered that, in addition to alcohol, I had developed a second addiction: ministry. The attention and recognition that come from writing and preaching, teaching and counseling, had become my latest drug of choice. Even my relationship with God was predicated on my ministerial identity.”

If you spend any amount of time with me, this is a book I’ll reference frequently (as Christianne can attest). This book is one I keep coming back to as I trust God with the hurting places in my heart, with the mystery of what’s before me, with my confusion and doubt, and in short with my life. I appreciate Manning’s candor and honesty, his ability to give it to you straight without pulling any punches.


*that book meme with 9 questions*

1) One book that changed your life:
The Artist’s Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity by Julia Cameron
This book was the beginning of the reawakening of my creative self. What I remember the most is the Morning Pages: engaging in the practice of writing every morning for 30 minutes without editing yourself (it is harder than it might sound, and really awakens you to the reality of how much we edit ourselves before we even get anything out there).

While my primary mode of creativity has to do with language, this book encouraged me to play with other and less familiar forms of art: so I dabbled in photography, watercolors, acrylics. Like with the morning pages, the important thing is just to do it, not to preempt yourself by saying “I can’t” before you even try.

2) One book you’ve read more than once:
East of Eden by John Steinbeck
So many other books could have been listed here, but I chose this one because I love it when an author takes a well-known tale and examines it from a different angle: by telling the story from an alternate perspective (like Anita Diamant in The Red Tent, or Wicked by Gregory Maguire), or by putting the story in a different context like Steinbeck does in this classic work.

Steinbeck retells the story of being cast out from Eden, but in the context of early 20th century California. There is sin, animosity between brothers, intense evil, and profound, earth-shaking wisdom. One Hebrew word is at the center of this story and it shook me and moved me to my very core.

3) One book you’d want on a desert island:
Ruthless Trust by Brennan Manning
I can’t think of any other book that I’ve turned back to more since I finished reading it. Others could be on this list, to be sure (Blue Like Jazz and Waking the Dead come to mind), but this was one of those books that found me and spoke directly to my deepest need at the time.

Instead of trying to do justice by summarizing the book, I’ll offer up one of the many passages that is underlined, starred, and bracketed in my copy: “Often trust begins on the far side of despair. When all human resources are exhausted, when the craving for reassurances is stifled, when we forgo control, when we cease trying to manipulate God and demystify Mystery, then – at our wits’ end – trust happens within us, and the untainted cry, ‘Abba, into your hands I commend my spirit,’ surges from the heart” (p. 117).

4) Two books that made you laugh:
The Boat Who Wouldn’t Float by Farley Mowat
I think I’ve read this book about five or six times at least. Take one author from the far northern reaches of Canada, a lot of rum, the tale of the purchase of a sailing vessel that is something less than seaworthy, an extensive vocabulary (I still need a dictionary with me whenever I read it), and a host of comical but decidedly non-cartoonish characters, and you have a recipe for the first book that made me laugh so hard that I cried and nearly split my gut open. Seriously: go to Amazon.com and order it now. It will be the most hilarious $6 you've ever spent.

Julie and Julia by Julie Powell
This memoir is a hilarious retelling of the author’s quest to find some measure of happiness away from her humdrum temp job in New York by cooking through every single recipe of Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking in one year. The author kept a blog while making her way through the famous cookbook and scored several fans across the country in the process. From her “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” obsession and quest to find obscure (and less than palatable) ingredients, this one is sure to offer a good, hearty laugh.

5) One book that made you cry:
A Grief Observed by C. S. Lewis
I read this very short Lewis book in the fall of 1998 after my teenaged cousins were killed by a high driver in a horrific car accident. In this book, the Oxford don and man of letters becomes decidedly raw, wearing his heart on his sleeve. More sporadic journal entries than well-constructed arguments and steps for handling grief. This book shows him moving from head to heart, and he is frighteningly honest about how dealing with the loss of his wife taught him that faith goes beyond intellectual assent and dabbling in theory: it is flesh and blood, it is life and death, it is deeply and painfully personal.

Reading this book gave me permission to acknowledge my own doubts and insecurities, to know that I was not alone when the death of two someones I loved very much rocked my faith. I'm not so sure that it's book that made me cry as that it gave me permission to cry, to feel deeply, to scream, to tear my hair out ... and to know that God was in the middle of it all.

6) One book you wish you’d written:
In the Name of Jesus by Henri J. M. Nouwen
It is decidedly short, simple, profound, and wise. It is about stepping out of God’s way, it is about embracing humility. It is about letting go of the desire to be significant. It is about downward mobility. It's about ministering to the world like Jesus did. If you haven’t yet, please read it.

7) One book you wish had never been written:
I can’t think of any specific title for this category, primarily because writing this list required me to go back to my bookshelves. Any book that would fit in this category is a book I got rid of. Anything that reduces life or spiritual growth into any number of steps, any book written about getting rich quick, or any book that seeks to discredit or make another person ridiculous is one not worth the paper its written on.

8) Two books you are currently reading:
The Cloister Walk by Kathleen Norris

I love this book. More than one person recommended it to me, so I took the hint and bought it. I love Norris’ earthy and poetic prose, her experience of living in Benedictine community, and the truth she distills from her own life and the lives she observes the lives of those around her.

Persuasion by Jane Austen
I actually finished this on the way home from Florida to have it fresh again in my mind for my book club, but haven’t started another book to take its place. Jane Austen is a literary goddess, a sharp-witted woman who knew and understood perhaps better than anyone the society in which she lived. She’s just brilliant and I love everything she’s written.

9) One book you’ve been meaning to read:
The Road by Cormac McCarthy

But I can only choose just one? Seriously? Have you seen the growing pile in my windowsill? The Kite Runner is near the top of that pile, but since this has already been mentioned several times by meme participants, I’ll offer a different title.

Enough readers I respect have recommended this work by McCarthy that I knew I had to read it. The premise is a captivating one: a nameless father and his son struggle to make their way to the coast (they don’t know why) after a desolating, apocalyptic global catastrophe. I’ve heard this book described as transfixing, searing, a tiny pinpoint of hope and light in the overwhelming darkness.

I just need to mention Anne Lamott and Donald Miller too. They're not on this list as the answer to any question, but as authors I love them: deeply spiritual, hilarious, irreverent, honest, and funny. Those are my kind of writers and I love 'em.

So if you haven't yet, it's most definitely your turn. All the cool kids are meme-ing these days ...