Tuesday Coffee Chat: Reading List

Rory Bore at Ink Interrupted hosts the Tuesday Coffee Chat, and this week she asks the question, The days are definitely getting cooler - we may even have to turn our fireplace on soon.  So naturally I'm gonna need some book recommendations since Winter Is Coming!   What's on your reader/night stand?







Most of my list is going to sound weird, but i'm weird, and i own my weirdness.

The one and only thing you can count on being on my nightstand is my Bible.  Not exactly what many people want to hear, but there it is.  There's my beautiful and much favored King James Version, which is my standard.  Then there's a New Testament that has 8 different translations in one book.  Currently i'm reading through The Message version in that one, just to get a slightly different perspective.  It's very refreshing.

Also in the current reading list is Discovering Jesus, Awakening to God, by Gerritt Scott Dawson.  That's the one our Women's Circle is discussing this year.

For light perusal i keep both Calvin and Hobbes books and The Far Side books nearby.  When i need a laugh, either of them can be counted upon to supply it.

Start, by Jon Acuff, is sitting there waiting for me to start it.  It's highly recommended for those of us who need a bit of a push sometimes, and right now, i do.

Considering the political climate and how much i loathe to think about it, when i get upset or feel my blood pressure rising over political discussions i pull out The Federalist Papers.  It puts me back on a more even keel, until i remember how far we have fallen, and then i have to reach for Calvin or Far Side again.

Three times in the past two days i have run across Dante's Divine Comedy, my copy and mention of the work by others, and it's been years, so it's going on my "curl up with the heating pad and read because it's too cold to do anything else" list.

My "i want to buy and read it soon" book right now is Seven Brief Lessons on Physics, by Carlo Rovelli.  My science brain needs a tune up, and it's supposed to be very good for that.

Along the way, i may also reread Tuck Everlasting, just because i keep telling Brother-in-Law, The Mouth, that he needs to read it.

For good measure, and because i don't like to waste time, i keep Uncle John's All-Purpose Extra Strength Bathroom Reader in the loo.


Today is:

Alaska Day -- Alaska, US

Anti-Slavery Day -- yes, there are still slaves in this world, find out how to help them here

Clean Water Act Day -- US (considered by many a day to give thanks for water and open any who are grateful for clean water)

Hard Boiled Guy/B-Girl Day -- on the anniversary of the general release of The Maltese Falcon (initial release was in NYC on Oct. 3)

Independence Day -- Azerbaijan(1991)

Information Overload Awareness Day -- we all get bombarded, take stock of how it affects you; sponsored by the Information Overload Research Group

King Look Under Your Mattress's Unique Hiding Display -- Fairy Calendar (Finally! Proof, on the internet, that you do, indeed, need to look under the mattress!)

National Chocolate Cupcake Day

National Pharmacy Technician Day -- US (because pharmacy technicians "Help America Feel Better" )

National Statistics Day -- Japan

No Beard Day -- internet generated, a day to shave, which is illogical in the northern hemisphere, with winter coming

Pandrosus Festival -- Ancient Greek Calendar (all-refreshing goddess, or all-dewy one; date approximate)

Persons Day -- Canada (Marking the ruling that women are persons in 1929.)

Procession of the Lord of Miracles (Senor de los Milagros) -- Lima, Peru (Christian celebration of the Lord's miracles, with song, dance, prayers, and parades; through tomorrow and again on the 28th)

Pro-Life Day of Silent Solidarity

St. Luke's Day (The Evangelist; Patron of artists, bachelors/unmarried men, bookbinders, brewers, butchers, doctors/physicians/surgeons, glass makers/glasswrkers, gold workers/goldsmiths, lacemakers/lace workers, notaries, painters, sculptors, stained glass workers, Worshipful Company of Painters; Capena, Italy; Hermersdorf, Germany)

Watch a Squirrel Day -- internet generated, and different from squirrel appreciation day in January

World Menopause Day -- sponsored by the International Menopause Society


Anniversaries Today:

Women in Military Service for America Memorial is dedicated, 1997
University of Heidelberg opens, 1386


Birthdays Today:

Zac Efron, 1988
Freida Pintoo, 1984
Lindsey Vonn, 1984
Vincent Spano, 1962
Wynton Marsalis, 1961
Erin Moran, 1960
Jean-Claude Van Damme, 1960
Martina Navratilova, 1956
Pam Dawber, 1951
Terry McMillan, 1951
Ntozake Shange, 1948
Joe Morton, 1947
Laura Nyro, 1947
Mike Ditka, 1939
Dawn Wells, 1938
Peter Boyle, 1935
George C. Scott, 1927
Chuck Berry, 1926
Melina Mercouri, 1923
Jesse Helms, 1921
Melina Mercouri, 1920
Anita O'Day, 1919
Pierre Elliott Trudeau, 1919
James David Brooks, 1906
A.J. Liebling, 1904
Lotte Lenya, 1900
Henri Bergson, 1859
Salomon Auguste Andree, 1854
Giovanni Antonio Canaletto, 1697


Debuting/Premiering Today:

"Once on This Island"(Play), 1990
"Roseanne"(TV), 1988
"The Girl Is Mine"(Single release), 1982
"Raisin"(Musical), 1973
The Jungle Book(Disney animated film), 1967
"The Apple Tree"(Musical), 1966
“The Yellow Kid Takes a Hand at Golf”(the first actual newspaper comic strip telling a continuing story, as opposed to a single cartoon panel, in American Humorist), 1897
"De Unges Forbund/The League of Youth"(Ibsen play), 1869
"Prometheus"(Liszt S.99), 1855
Moby Dick(Publication date), 1851


Today in History:

Pappus of Alexandria, Greek philosopher, observes an eclipse of the sun and writes a commentary on The Great Astronomer (Almagest), 320
Caliph Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah destroys the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, 1009
Battle of Assadun (Ashingdon), Danes defeat Saxons, 1016
Basel, Switzerland is destroyed by the Basel earthquake, the most significant historic seismological event north of the Alps, 1356
Fourth Battle of Kawanakajima -- Takeda Shingen defeats Uesugi Kenshin in the climax of their ongoing conflicts in feudal Japan, 1561
The shoemakers of Boston form the first labor organization in the Colonies/US, 1648
The Mason/Dixon line is agreed upon, 1767
Herman Melville's Moby-Dick is first published as The Whale by Richard Bentley of London, 1851
The US takes formal possession of Alaska from Russia, for $7.2 million, 1867
Edison makes electricity available for household use, 1878
John Owen becomes the first formally timed person to run 100 yd dash in under 10 seconds, 1890
United States takes possession of Puerto Rico, 1898
The British Broadcasting Company (later Corporation) is founded, 1922
The Grand Ole Opry opens in Nashville, Tennessee, 1925
Texas Instruments announces the first Transistor radio, 1954
The Soviet probe Venera 4 reaches Venus and becomes the first spacecraft to measure the atmosphere of another planet, 1967
Azerbaijan becomes independent from the USSR, 1991
After 8 years in exile, Benazir Bhutto returns to her homeland Pakistan, 2007
Saudi Arabia becomes the first nation to turn down a seat on the United Nations Security Council in a protest over Syria, 2013