The Four Agreements: A Toltec Wisdom Book by Don Miguel Ruiz

Wow.

"But there is really no reason to suffer. The only reason you suffer is because you choose to suffer. If you look at your life you will find many excuses to suffer, but a good reason to suffer you will not find. The same is true for happiness. The only reason you are happy is because you choose to be happy. Happiness is a choice, and so is suffering.

Maybe we cannot escape from the destiny of the human, but we have a choice: to suffer our destiny or to enjoy our destiny. To suffer, or to love and be happy. To live in hell, or to live in heaven. My choice is heaven. What is yours?"

The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz.

breaking open the head by daniel pinchbeck

This book was recommended to me by a client of mine, after I told her about the adventure in Peru that I was about to go on. In "Breaking Open the Head", Pinchbeck delves into various psychedelics, both exploring them through great thinkers and seekers such as Allen Ginsberg, Antonin Artaud, Walter Benjamin and Terence McKenna, as well as his own personal explorations into other dimensions made available through these medicinal plants and drugs.

Psychedelics are feared in North America - we are closed to the idea that any healing can take place through any alternative means, such as ayahuascha and iboga, which are used in tribal cultures around the world because of their visionary compounds.

Pinchbeck explores worlds through the use of the two medicinal plants mentioned above, but also of mushrooms, and a variety of other compounds. What opened up to him was worlds he didn't know existed, and he makes valid arguments about the validity and existence of these other worlds.

My own adventure with ayahuascha changed my life - it made available to be healing that I didn't know was possible, and that I have spent many years striving for. Aya showed me how important love is, both of self and of life, it made forgiveness a priority and brought clarity to my spirit. Each person's experience with the medicine is different, and the experience changes each time you use it, but I am grateful to have found the beauty of the healing vines.

I wholeheartedly recommend this book, and suggest you give yourself the time and space you need to read it, because it's a lot to absorb.

Vacation reads

so, i read a lot when away. lots of beach reading. but good things. i first dove into a bit of nonfiction with The Best American Crime Reporting 2009, started it when i was in the hospital the day before we left, yep that's right, the hospital. i had to go to bali against the advice of two separate doctors! and i was fine. i just have to have a tiny little surgery at some point in the next week or so. i really liked this book a lot. "Thieves, liars, and killers--it's a criminal world out there, and someone has to write about it. A thrilling collection of the year's best reportage by the aces of the true-crime genre brings together the mysteries and missteps of an eclectic and unforgettable set of criminals. Gripping, suspenseful, and brilliant." I especially liked the one about crime migrating from cities to suburbs due to a nation wide experiment demolishing public-housing projects. Quite a smart read.

Then I read another Kurt Wallander mystery by Henning Mankell called The White Lioness. I know I know, another one but this was my favorite. It switched course partway through and all of a sudden the original case he was pursuing became something else entirely. Also, this is the first time the author included sections from the perspective of different characters mixed in with Wallander's. It was great. Totally gripping and interesting stuff mixed in about apartheid south africa. I wish you liked mysteries.


Next I spent one night reading a kid's book called The Penderwicks. I am in love with this book. It reminds me of all of my favorite kid's books from when I was a kid. Kinda old fashioned but not at all. Story of four sisters and their dad spending a month of vacation in the cottage of a mansion where a
mean lady and a lonely boy live. There's a rakish boy gardener and plenty of adventures. You should read this. It is lovely and simple.



The last book I read, The Black Path by Asa Larsson, was actually the third of a series that the author says she means to be 6 books when completed. I didn't realize this when I chose it or I might have started with the first one, but it reads well on its own. It starts with a woman prosecutor who has been released from a mental institute because the last case she had became so extremely traumatic that she snapped. She moves back to her home town and starts working in a local office. There is a terrible murder there and the local cops get her to help them out on the case. The interesting thing about the author's writing style is the history she goes into with so many of the characters. At one moment you are in the investigation, the next you are reading about how the one character's sister grew up. It all becomes relevant and ties together neatly at the end, but is definitely playing with genre lines. Anyway, I really liked it and now really want to read the first two.

corked by kathryn borel

The tale of a father and daughter - and a trip to France to taste wine. I thought this a very appropriate read as lately I had been struggling with my relationship with my father, and trying to connect with him on another level.

Kathryn Borel and her father, Philippe, have a somewhat complicated relationship - it is her hope, that through learning about his passion, wine, that she might find a way to get closer to him. There were many times in this book that I felt connected with the author and her struggles with her relationship with her father, herself, and her ex-boyfriend. Other times, I admittedly skim-read - I'm not sure if this was because of my short attention span in the jungle, or if the writing was really not that riveting. I'm undecided.

In the end, it is somewhat enlightening and comforting to know that I am not the only that has struggled with my father-daughter relationship.

the girl who played with fire

the second in Stieg Larsson's trilogy, and even better then the first book. it kept me entertained in hot Iquitos. Lisbeth Salander is by far one kick-ass herione - how appropriate that she should have to face her dark past just before i headed into the jungle to face mine. from amazon:

"Fans of intelligent page-turners will be more than satisfied by Larsson's second thriller, even though it falls short of the high standard set by its predecessor, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, which introduced crusading journalist Mikael Blomkvist and punk hacker savant Lisbeth Salander. A few weeks before Dag Svensson, a freelance journalist, plans to publish a story that exposes important people involved in Sweden's sex trafficking business based on research conducted by his girlfriend, Mia Johansson, a criminologist and gender studies scholar, the couple are shot to death in their Stockholm apartment. Salander, who has a history of violent tendencies, becomes the prime suspect after the police find her fingerprints on the murder weapon. While Blomkvist strives to clear Salander of the crime, some far-fetched twists help ensure her survival. Powerful prose and intriguing lead characters will carry most readers along."

Going instantly in the opposite direction, I decided to read a much-talked about book called The Help. Mostly I don't read new hardbacks, unless I have the galleys, but my mother-in-law loaned it to me. She had to read it for her book club. I think thousands of women had to read it for their book club. You may have read it but I don't think you did. It is told from the narrative of three women, a white 20-something aspiring writer, a 50-something black maid and nanny who doesn't talk back, and a younger black maid who does. It takes place in Jackson, Mississippi during the 60s, right when the civil rights movement is just getting going, and things are amping up to a dangerous level. The young aspiring writer has moved back in to her parents' house and is looking for a topic to write about that actually means something. She decides she wants to tell real stories about real maids and their experiences working for these white families, in particular, these white women (of which she is one). I really liked this book. The characters were very well-drawn and it was a moving story. It was definitely one of the better books I have read in the last few years, although I'm not sure I'll keep a copy. I didn't really change me at all. Maybe I should read it a second time, not when I'm up all night with a toothache.

Burning Wire

So, I used to be a big Jeffrey Deaver fan. Or at least I loved his first Sachs/Rhyme mystery The Bone Collector and then read each consecutive one hoping to find the same quality. Finally I stopped. There's just not enough time to read things you know will disappoint you. But... I got a galley of his newest book, not out yet, The Burning Wire, and it kinda harkened back to the quality of the first one. Still not as good, but I liked it, engrossing, all about a man who kills people by rechanneling electricity. It was actually kind of kickass. Can't say I didn't see the end coming, but I didn't mind. I liked it.