Tag: books

Favorite-est things from #2015

The good stuff from this year…

 

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Oprah Chai Teabags from Teavana, which taste like lattes only healthier

Books:

Accidental Saints Nadia Bolz-Weber: Confessional Pastoral Tales of  mishaps & ministry–>seeing the holy in the messiness of humanity

Grounded by Diana Butler Bass: Mysticism, Spiritual but not Religious

Rook by Sharon Cameron: Fantasy YA version of The Scarlet Pimpernal

Six of Crows by Leigh Burdugo: Get together a crew to steal a prize, fantasy YA style

Prudence by Gail Carriger: Cyberpunk-ish tea drinking lady defies Victorian odds in werewolf and vampire politics

Court of Fives by Kate Elliot: Young woman in a Romanesque style class system competes in Olympic-like trials and uncovers the deep seated plots, classicism and intrigue (did I mention plots?)

Ash & Bramble by Sarah Prineas: Post Apocalyptic Sleeping Beauty Fiary Tale, where the world turns by story magic

Fairest by Marissa Meyer: Heart-rending portrayal of the villain of the Lunar Chronicles.

Movies

Star Wars A Force Awakens: Awakening a new (better represented diversity of) Star Wars fan with the now arch-typical stories of friendship and redemption

Martian nerdy science-ness and survival without a bad guy! No angst, just a collaborative game of survival

Inside Out what if feelings had feelings? Portraying the complex emotional development of children

Best Moments

Announcing Marriage ratification in the PCUSA

Love Wins: marriage equality Jun 29th 2015

My sister graduating from Oberlin May 2015, senior show, getting engaged…

Water on Mars!

Church Kids doing Charlie Brown Christmas Performance

Westley potty training!!!

Ashburn talking more

Franklin being creative and kind to everyone

http://www.transmography.net/brainery/ Fairy Tale Writing Class

Church: Kids day at the farmer’s market, 1st ever craft fair, 1st Breakfast with Santa, Doing Christmas all in Advent, NextChurch, 2nd Credo

Media

#blackharrypotter

#morallycomplicatedYA

#folkloreThursday

http://thiseverydayholy.com/ podcast about holiness in the daily

YAY BLOG

My Post on #Christianity I don’t think it means what you think it is

Theological Breakthru about my belief about Jesus coming

Things to work on

Gun Violence, Syrian Crises, Ebola, Floods, Climate, Poverty, Economy, other big things….

 

 

and…for my #fairytale friends #Cinderella thoughts by Malinda Lo

http://www.malindalo.com/2015/03/ash-in-korean-and-other-thoughts-on-cinderella/

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“Did you notice that the illustration of the girl on the cover looks Asian? The moment I noticed that, I had to sit down. You see, in my imagination, the main character looks Asian. That’s not clear in the book, and I’ve written before about why it’s OK if you (the reader) didn’t get that from the text. To me, though, Ash looks Asian, and I’ve never seen that represented in an illustration before this Korean cover. It was astonishing. I felt like crying.”

All organizing …

All organizing is science fiction. What does a world without poverty look like? What does a world without prisons look like? What does a world with everyone having enough food and clothing look like? We don’t know. It’s science fiction, and it is as foreign to us as the Klingon homeworld (which is called Q’onos in case you were wondering). But being able to envision it and imagine it means we can begin seeing the steps it would take to move us there.

– Walidah Imarisha, Growing Octavia’s Brood: The Science Fiction Social Justice Created (via nomadmanifesto)

Yay Tumblr…this is definitely why/how I read Sci-Fi/Fantasy as a hopeful act

Ch 7: Angst

Its just a cookbook, I take a deep breath and exhale–careful not to growl this time.

Think about good things…don’t angst out….seriously….is this what living alone for too long means? That everything causes angst?

Good things, Good things.

1) She reads

b) She talks to herself, so she’s crazy, hopefully crazy like me, like in a good way

3…wait was  I counting or going a, b, c….

hmm……seems to be I’m getting more and more confused….

Wait, did she just say her name was Pri?

This year I will……

This year I will talk to dragons, I will spend the time I need to with fairies and fight off the bad guys with a sword.

I will flirt outrageously

I will laugh more than ever

I will be sure to build as many towers as I knock down, and remember that journeying to the castle is just as important as defeating the bad guy

I will improve my tea drinking ritual–because its more fun the more you do it

I will remember to sing loudly in the car, try new upsidedown and balancing thingies in yoga and throw more snowballs

I will wiggle more in my seat, draw more doodles and as a result become wiser than ever

I will pick the flowers

I will get my hopes too high on a regular basis, expect all  people I know to be brave & wise & good no matter what I might (or might not already) know about them and catch up on Dr. Who

I will exclaim over every baby that they are each the most beautiful baby in the universe—because every single one is, and spoil my cats while contemplating with my husband the fact that we’ve acquired a creature (baby or kitten) every year that we have been married.

I will make it my mission to make my job be more and more about people (and less about paperwork)

I will declare random vacations to go out and play in the sun

I will do silly things I’m not good at, I will play strategy games, draw, play music, etc. because those are the things I love

I will do something meaningful to support trans*/bi community

I will watch as many Disney movies as possible and get my haircut when I feel like it

I will remember never to eat the food in fairyland

I will let my kids be messy, allow them to have fun, and teach them to love people

I will play more practical jokes on my husband

I will enjoy God’s sense of humor!

I will get lost and have fun while I’m doing it

I will read many, many library books

I will chase rainbows…and sunsets….

I will go on as many adventures as I can cram in…

I will walk to nowhere

I will tell the stories that give my life meaning, and repeat them over and over again until they are true

I will be Katy 🙂

Christmas Books: Classics, Children’s, Adult’s, Books you didn’t know were about Christmas

Every year I look for a great Christmas book to read during Advent. Here are some that I enjoy over and over again!

 

 

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens: Ever actually read the book? Its a good read out loud Tale.

 

 

 

 

 

The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis: There’s nothing quite reading about a land where its “Almost winter and never Christmas” when Christmas is on its way…

Miracle and Other Christmas Stories* by Connie Willis: A great collection of fiction stories that is about the true meaning of Christmas by the amazing author of “To Say Nothing of the Dog.” This is more fiction than sci-fi, but is SO amazing!

Skipping Christmas by John Grisham: Similar to the movie (Christmas with the Kranks), this very quick read talks about the ridiculousness and wonder of the Christmas hoopla

 

 

 

Mrs. Miracle by Debbie MacComber: Total popcorn, the first and best in this series. I do love a good Mary Poppins

type story is awesome, and the angels are awesome.

 

 

 

 

 

The Worst/Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson: A story of transformation from the worst things of Christmas…to the best…in fact I might say Skipping Christmas is an adult version of this same story.

How the Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr. Suess: My advice: do the voices

The Gift of the Magi by O Henry: a tearjerker

The Little Matchgirl by Hans Christian Anderson: ditto

The Night Before Christmas preferably right after you hang stockings and right before bed. Get 8 different copies and let everyone choose one to looks at, that’s the Hedges-Goettl way 🙂

The Nutcracker: If you can’t go to the ballet, read it. Or buy the advent calendar and read a little of the story all the way til Christmas

Velveteen Rabbit by Margary Williams: Starts at Christmas, ends with resurrection, best translation of the Gospel ever!

Polar Express by Chris Van Allsburgh: Beautiful, poignant, perhaps not a kids story (that’s all I’m sayin)

 

 

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott: Starts at Christmas, ends at Christmas, life happens in-between Christmas…

 

 

 

 

 

*top recommendation

Nanowriting and other musing

Culturally I am very interested in how the arts are playing out for millennials. 

I mean we’re mostly broke, so maybe creativity will abound? (this is my hope)

Let’s review

Couch Surfers

Open Source Computer Programs

Etsy

Carshares

and now I’ve re-discovered nanowriMo: National Novel Writing Month(which I’ve heard of briefly last year): in which you set yourself a goal to write a novel through writing about 50,000 words by the end of November

What I love is, you are really doing it for you….the website is (to me) like a self-determined excercise program where you count calories…no wait I mean words 🙂 on your own time and set goals for yourself.

I probably won’t keep up with the word count…but (partially inspired by avidly reading Robin McKinley’s KES) I’ve decided to give it a try…..I will definitely be farther along than I have been so far, I’m four short chapters in already 🙂

GO CREATIVITY! 

YAY BOOKS!

 

The Hermione Method

 

“Harry — I think I’ve just understood something! I’ve got to go to the library!”

And she sprinted away, up the stairs.
“What does she understand?” said Harry distractedly, still looking around, trying to tell where the voice had come from.
“Loads more than I do,” said Ron, shaking his head.
“But why’s she got to go to the library?”
“Because that’s what Hermione does,” said Ron, shrugging. “When in doubt, go to the library.” 
― J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

 

I also love the quote where Ron comments that it would take about two seconds for her to explain what she was doing, BEFORE she goes to the library…