Gift Ideas--Nonfiction Books: Thursday's Reflection

I certainly hope you plan to do a big chunk of your shopping this holiday season in an independent book store. One of our family traditions is to give everyone a book--often something we want to read ourselves and plan to borrow. 

Saturday Bruce and I will go to an art fair near us and then stop in at Common Good Books in St Paul, one of our favorite spots for a book fix. Perhaps next week we will drive to Northfield to shop at Contents, another terrific independent book store. I will try to limit my shopping to gifts for others, but no promises!

If you are looking for suggestions, here are three nonfiction titles I recommend.

1. Let the Whole Thundering World Come Home, A Memoir by Natalie Goldberg. Goldberg is most famous for her books on writing--Writing Down the Bones and others. She has made writing accessible to anyone with the inclination, a notebook and a pen. This book, however, is about her cancer experience, which she said,  "...like a wild animal, followed me one hundred paces behind." What I especially appreciated in this book was her honesty, which meant at times she was totally self-absorbed, but also how she grew into living life more fully. 
            This is one heavenly life. This afternoon. This 
            Thursday. This sun on the pale dirt and the cottonwood
            green leaves. This blue mesa in the distance, this gutsy
            temporary life lived as the Buddha taught--with gusto. 

2.  Almost Everything, Notes on Hope by Anne Lamott. Just the fact that there is a new Anne Lamott book is cause for hopeful rejoicing. I read this book in its entirety as we flew home from Memphis at the end of the civil rights tour. So much about that tour in Alabama and Mississippi was sobering, and how grateful I am that Anne was my homeward bound travel companion. Her advice was just what I needed: 
               Go do some anonymous things for lonely 
               people, give a few bucks to every poor person
               you see, return phone calls. Get out of yourself
               and become a person for others, while 
               simultaneously practicing radical self-care;
               maybe have a bite to eat, check in with the sky
               twice, buy some cute socks, take a nap.
Reading this latest book of hers makes me want to pull all her other books off my shelf and curl up in a quiet corner where the only sound is the turning of page after page. 

3.   Becoming by Michelle Obama. I am doing something rare for me--recommending a book before I have finished reading it. As of this minute I have only read 200 pages, but I love this book. I don't read celebrity memoirs or autobiographies very often, but I was totally sucked by the first sentences.
                 When I was a kid, my aspirations were simple.
                  I wanted a dog. I wanted a house that had stairs in 
                  it--two floors for one family. I wanted, for some
                  reason, a four-door station wagon instead of the 
                  two-door Buick that was my father's pride and
                  joy.
Of course, we all know what happened to that wish list! This is a real woman writing a real book about a real life, one that happens to include being the First Lady. What intrigues me, however, is her honesty about herself--her need to achieve, her concerns for much of her life that she is "enough," and her view of being Black in our culture today. 
       When she considered applying to Princeton, her high school counsellor said to her, "I'm not sure that you're Princeton material." Obama writes,
                  ...failure is a feeling long before it's an actual
                  result. And for me, it felt like that's exactly what
                  she was planting--a suggestion of failure long
                  before I'd even tried to succeed. She was telling
                  me to lower my sights, which was the absolute
                  reverse of every last thing my parents had ever
                  told me.

A few pages later, when she writes about being at Princeton, she says,
                  It takes energy to be the only black person in a
                  lecture hall or one of a few nonwhite people
                  trying out for a play or joining an intramural
                  team. It requires effort, an extra level of
                  confidence, to speak in those settings and own
                  your presence in the room. 
Last Christmas I was given the wonderful collection of photographs by the former official White House photographer, Pete Souza, and occasionally when I have felt discouraged about the state of our country this past year, I have paged through this book. Now I also have Michelle's book to inform me, to inspire me, and to remind me of the strength of good people doing good things.  


So...get thee to a bookstore! 

An Invitation
What books are you giving or recommending this year? I would love to know. And stay tuned for my annual favorite books of 2018 lists. 

NOTE: If you live in the St Paul area, I am giving a program/workshop on Advent and the spiritual practice of waiting, "My Soul Waits for Thee" on Tuesday, December 4. I am doing two sessions: one in the afternoon (1:30-3:00), which is quite full, but the evening session (7:00-8:30) has more space available. The sessions are at Gloria Dei Lutheran Church and are open to all. Let me know if you are interested.