reading confidential

a fine introduction to the good book, if a little poorly written. the examples were great. 

the answers were fine, for the most part, but I could have lived without some of these questions. 

a nice exploration of various practices and intentions across different contexts. 

Creation, we are taught, is not an act that happened once upon a time, once and forever. The act of bringing the world into existence is a continuous process. God called the world into being, and that call goes on. There is this present moment because God is present. Every instant is an act of creation. A moment is not a terminal but a flash, a signal of Beginning. Time is perpetual innovation, a synonym for continuous creation. Time is God’s gift to the world of space.

A world without time would be a world without God, a world existing in and by itself, without renewal, without a Creator. A world without time would be a world detached from God, a thing in itself, reality without realization. A world in time is a world going on through God; realization of an infinite design; not a thing in itself but a thing for God. 

To witness the perpetual marvel of the world’s coming into being is to sense the presence of the Giver in the given, to realize that the source of time is eternity, that the source of being is the eternal within time. 

We cannot solve the problem of time through the conquest of space, through either pyramids or fame. We can only solve the problem of time through sanctification of time. To men alone time is elusive; to men with God time is eternity in disguise. 

Creation is the language of God, Time is His song, and things of space the consonants in the song. To sanctify time is to sing the vowels in unison with him. 

This is the task of men: to conquer space and sanctify time. 

We must conquer space in order to sanctify time. All week long we are called upon to sanctify life through employing things of space. On the Sabbath it is given to us to share in the holiness that is in the heart of time. Even when our soul is seared, even when no prayer can come out of our tightened throats, the clean, silent rest of the Sabbath leads us to a realm of endless peace, or to the beginning of an awareness of what eternity means. There are few ideas in the world of thought which contain so much spiritual power as the idea of the Sabbath. Aeons hence, when of many of our cherished theories only shreds will remain, that cosmic tapestry will continue to shine. 

Eternity utters a day.

an account of a woman who grew into the orthodox jewish tradition and formally converted (as the daughter of a jewish father of the reform movement) before discovering her strong beliefs in the christian tradition and converting to christianity.

clear, memorable presentation of information. this book covered much of the same ground as the others, but chapters such as the one presenting memorable figures in the history of judaism made the material more immediate. the many tables, charts, and sidebars make this a handy reference book as well. 

this is the first of these books that I am reading to not be addressed to a christian audience. it was a much more sound and thorough introduction than the others I have been reading. also, it was more forthright in its presentation of the persecution of jewish communities as a pattern rather than single episodes. 

this one was a bit more complex and thoughtful than the schoen book, and it’s written for a more international audience than the schoen book. it is also a bit drier, but it has lots of good sidebars. 

a basic procedural manual for those (especially those who are american christians) who wish to feel better informed about the history, rituals, practices, and beliefs of the thirteen million or so people who are jewish in one way or another. it is conversational and pleasant with a dash of self-indulgence. 

unstable and de-stabilizing. the threats at the center of this book help us remember how fruitless so many of our puzzles are, and how obvious the solutions may be. 

a compelling but horrific account of the systemic brutality of american policy and strategy in the war in viet nam that led to the decimation of a terrific portion of the civilian population as well as the landscape and infrastructure. the book also addresses the deliberate measures undertaken by the military to assure that congressional oversight and public outcry failed in many attempts to debunk its myth of progress in the conflict and proper employment of the rules of engagement. 

turse argues early in his book that we moved from blithe ignorance to cynical acceptance of such atrocity and in this way justifies his work even in light of previous publications on this topic. I’ve not read enough on this particular subject to know whether he is right, but I can’t imagine that any american citizen should be exempted from this understanding of what we have done, and can do. 

We find here a story of bureaucratic pressure and practical impossibility, a story that seems inevitable in retrospect and offers limited opportunity for rectification. 

Even in my old age I can live without poetry interspersed in prose as a narrative device. perhaps I’ll mature out of it, and so for now I’ll not fault Doc Humes for this decision. 

are they ever. I had never fully appreciated this play as post-apocalyptic and in light of what seems to be certain doom in the coming days, it feels especially relevant. 

VLADIMIR: Shall we go? 

ESTRAGON: Yes, let’s go. 

They do not move. 

whoa! morphic resonance! I cannot wait  to find out if that’s a real thing. it is my favorite explanation ever for how evolution leaps ahead. plus, I am delighted by the ideal of a zillion little dr. manns running around. 

the gang’s in japan! lots of movement during this one, and plenty of surprises. 

I would love to see this play staged today, especially in light of our current societal obsession with the apocalypse. I had forgotten the vaudevillian magic of this show and the significance of the pacing. 

it’s distressing that this play is so insightful and ahead of its time. we are, I imagine, more delusional and less substantive than we were then. and the staging!

the genre & the genre & the genre

the good book & the good book

the imagined & the imagined

the girlfriend & the girlfriend

the protagonist & the protagonist & the protagonist

his name & his name

his crime & his crime

his career & his career

the story & the story

starts out strong, veers into burnout, burns out in burnout, but boy does it blaze. 

And so the woman Dikeledi began phase three of a life that had been ashen in its loneliness and unhappiness. And yet she had always found gold amidst the ash, deep loves that had joined her heart to the hearts of others. She smiled tenderly at Kebonye because she knew already that she had found another such love. She was the collector of such treasures. 

it sure is. get ready for the showdown. 

still a labyrinth, but I’m getting there. 

a nice time to settle down in texas and fix some problems. 

identities lost, found, and loved.

355’s back story is AWESOME. I cannot wait to see why there are so many typewriters. 

not just anyone will sell you this book because somebody probably just bought the last copy. the dream sequences are pretty cool. 

here’s a secret: not everyone is good at teaching other people. but some people are good at it, and this book is helpful for copying off them. 

leave it to an irish poet to uncover just how disgusting and horrifying nature really is. and here’s a sneak preview of the ending: no, it doesn’t. 

bitches and science be crazyy!

the handle here’s a little easier to grasp. running on a deficit. 

“the sauce is up, sport.”

that’s right: the fellowship of the ring, parts I & II; the two towers, parts I & II; and the return of the king, parts I & II. I even liked all the endings. what a week of making up for lost time. 

what a charming romp! and much less malevolent than the epic that follows it. in fact, it feels so chubby and animated that I’m curious to see how these movies go. 

yes, again. I didn’t quite catch it the first time. 

such a good companion piece to 11/22/63 though my lee harvey oswalds are getting tangled up. 

a darling meander through albert camus’s life and works through the very self-aware lens of our young ingenue narrator. the rose glasses were a little much in places but the emotion was so sincere that I didn’t mind. 

the setup is good and so is the punchline. super good. as page-turning a page-turner as any of his other books, and I’m especially impressed that he managed to keep the gore and the cell phones out of the action. 

I have a hard time with novels so descriptive as this one. I love the words but I lose the plot over and over again. the second time around, when I have a sense of how the action will proceed, I become enchanted with the relationship between plot and language. I’ll have to give this one another whirl before it reaches its full potential but I already love it. 

a delightful romp through the metropolitan museum of art with two charming and clever children told by an unusual and rather effective narrator. it’s a lovely little book for those interested in falling in love with cities, and people, and art. I’m on a real awe kick these days, and this book is perfect for encouraging that. 

I’d never read the sequel before, and I’m so very glad I did. mrs. elaine l. konigsberg offered it in her acceptance speech for the newbery (jamie: “what kind of berry is that? I never heard of a one-R-berry.”). I urge you to find it on the internet if you’ve read the first and haven’t run into it. and if you’ve not yet read the first then get cracking. 

an exquisite companion piece to the drowned and the saved, this novel leads us through the end of the war and the subsequent days with a band of partisans who reveal to us the different ways one comes to be a partisan, the conflicts that carry over from the more typical parts of the war into this one, and the confirmation that we are both drowned and saved. 

gripping; relentless. in the same universe of considerations coetzee later puts forth, but without the temper of age, they come forth raw and unbridled. and the echoes of early lessing are so strong that she might justifiably be listed as a co-author. 

ramona’s just about finished self-actualizing, with the help of a baby sister and a new best friend. but unfortunately for the reader, she’s running low on conflicts. 

a quick read, and a good one, about the first and most important part of becoming part of our army. not unlike part i of the short-timers or full metal jacket. 

okay, I obviously did not read this book in italian. but, while I understand that this translator is an award-winning translator, it’s impossible to read this book and not feel suspicious about translation. on this, the second time around this book for me, I found it even more insightful and compelling. levi gives us compassion without sacrificing rigor, and warmth without sacrificing reason. what a treasure. 

neat subject, but GET OUT OF THE WAY, BIOGRAPHER, you’re ruining the whole enterprise with your “creative” writing. 

fascinating series of obsessions with language, catastrophe, technology, death, assurances, families, etc., etc., etc. I’m so glad I finally got around to delillo. 

oh boy. is that irish fool really going to do this? 

a friend aptly characterized this book as “stupidly titled but awesomely good” and boy was he right. cowie presents a compelling argument about the promise that organized labor could shift into something more meaningful — collective economic rights to stand alongside individual civil rights — but didn’t, for lots of economic and political reasons, all of which fundamentally boil down to the fact that power attempts to always maintain power. and let’s not forget about his apt analyses of contemporary songs, movies, and tv shows. 

unimpressive writing and even less impressive research, but a good topic, a good set of case studies, worthwhile contributors and contributions. 

I suppose at some point I’ll have to stop describing books as being required reading for american citizenship, but this isn’t that point. this book should be required reading for american citizens. well-researched, clever, trenchant. good work, ms. maddow. and her sources are all public, not wrapped up and waiting to be uncovered with some clever FOIA requests, which makes the surprising part of this information all the scarier.