Have a Dad?  Aware that Father’s Day is right around the corner?  Don’t want to get him another tie?  Need some gift ideas?  I’m here to help…sort of.  These are not your run of the mill Father’s Day present ideas but then again, I’m not your run of the mill gift giver.

First up is The Gentleman’s Bedside Companion.

In this book you will find a vast variety of tid bits.  Here are a few of my favorite chapters: Human Anatomy for the Practical Man, The Weirdness of Earthquakes, Ball Lightning, The Story of Heroin, Famous Car Crash Victims, To Cuff or Not to Cuff, How to Iron a Shirt, Best Ever Book Titles and How to Slaughter and Bleed a Pig.

In the section on Old-Fashioned Activities you are given some history to the Ship in the Bottle which has always fascinated me.

A little slice of miscellany is never a bad idea in my opinion.

Secondly we have Farts: A Spotter’s Guide

Yes, I’m serious.  I gave this to my Step-Dad and he absolutely loves it.  In this book you learn about and can listen to the 10 types of farts. 

10 types of farts?  Who knew?  Here they are:

The Seismic Blast, The Silent but Deadly, Blowing Smoke, The One That Got Away, The Flight of the Buttock Bess, The Poof, In Between States, The Sleeping Dog, The Long Good-Bye and The Aftershock.

For the Dad who passes and gas and can laugh about it.

Next up is The Little Book of Beards…and a Couple of Mustaches!

Each beard in this book is accompanied by a bit of information about the style, what it says about those who wear it, how to grow that particular style and who of note is know for donning the beard.

Also, underneath each beard is a grooming, growing and grating rating so you’ll know how much trouble the new style of beard you’ve wanting to try out will be.  We don’t want you to get in over your head.

My favorite style in this book is the Octopus, “As worn by the weird, the wonderful, and the really f***ing hairy.”

The Octopus is “Elaborate and complex, the Octopus is the ultimate experiment in beard landscaping (or “pogonotopiary” if you want to be fancy).  You probably need to get our more, though.”  You’ll notice that it’s got a grooming, growing and grating rate of 5 (the max).  This beard is “Also worn by…Die-hard, competitive beardies, and mad scientists from The Future.”

This is an essential for all those Dads out there who love their whiskers.

Lastly we have My Tattooed Dad.

“Life is very exciting when Dad comes home.  He fries up chicken samosas for dinner, makes jokes and fools around, and carries his sleepy son off to bed.  He also tells wonderful stories that seem to almost spring from the fantastical tattoos all over his body.  Even his letters tell amazing tales, such as how he saved the boy’s life twice – once when he was stolen from his baby basket by a wild dog and once when he flew out the car window!

But as the boy’s mother says, his dad has ants in his pants, which means he’s often not around.  Still, life rolls along with one tale after another, in good times and bad.  This extraordinary dad’s gift is the world of the imagination, which is always with his son, even when he is not.”

This book is just amazing.

All Dads should be read to every once in a while.

Hope this helps…at least a little.

by Zita

Daring to Trust: Opening Ourselves to Real Love and Intimacy by David Richo (Shambhala, 2010)

Trust is defined as “a firm and hopeful reliance on the fidelity, integrity, or in the ability of a person or thing.” It is not dependency but rather an inner assurance, a confidence that gives us a sense of security, a reliance on reliability. Trust happens in the present and connects past experience with future possibility. Trust can be damaged at anytime. The foundation of trust is “I trust myself with whatever you do.”

Being a fan of David Richo’s work, I jumped to read his new book. I finished reading Trust some time ago, however, it’s taken me a while to come to terms about writing my thoughts on this broad and deep book. I don’t recall reading a book solely devoted to trust before.

The way we trust openly reflects our inner self and from which we learn and grow. Our declaration of our history of trust is essential in understanding ourselves and growing in intimacy with those we love. Learned through our experience we cannot always trust ourselves, our neurotic ego shield is constantly a blink away.

Richo’s new book is about how to trust and how to be trustworthy. He explains four directions our trust can take:
1. toward others

2. toward ourselves

3. toward reality

4. toward a higher power or spiritual path

He explores trust groups by helping us understand the difference between the way a child trusts and the way adults trust. As we grow in our understanding of trust, we become more adept as setting boundaries so that we are not taken advantage of.

By explaining intelligent distrust, we grow in our capacity to trust. By studying our shadow, we gradually thin the effects of youthful trust factors which influence our neurotic reactions and hinder the present.

My previous Richo reading has helped me in a large way to understand my adult self. Daring to Trust helps you consider, understand and forgive injustices you have created–those that have caused you harm and mistakes you have made towards others. Coming to an understanding with trust worthiness enables you to view your loves ones, family, partner, pals, and coworkers in a growing, sharing way basically centered around genuine love and care. I cannot express enough to David what seriously reading this book has meant to me. This is a book to share with all, especially those who have been dealt hurtful blows by others. For those readers who feel comfortable with others, reading Daring to Trust helps you see why you feel more secure.

It would give me great pleasure for Lemuria to host David in Jackson and to make our community more aware of his excellent work. I have no hesitation in recommending his books to any of Lemuria’s readers. His efforts will have effects if you take his insight to heart and practice awareness in your daily activities.

Our community of Jackson could use his influence and insightful awareness.

Click here for a full listing of David’s books.

Not often does a life long advertising executive put his pen to paper and yield, on the first try, a captivating work of fiction, but David Abbott from the United Kingdom, meets this challenge in the newly released The Upright Piano Player. Those readers looking for  a provoking summer read, but not typically a “beach read”, will be gladdened by reading this smallish novel. In fact, it is published in such a small format that it fits perfectly in a tote bag or a satchel or a purse, but that is where the typical summer vacation book similarity ends.

As the novel opens in a short Part One, which actually serves the purpose of a preface, the reader is actually taken forward in time to pique his interest, for the rest of the novel jumps back to play out the story, not in a linear pattern, but certainly in a well crafted way in Part Two. As the protagonist, aging Henry Cage, enters the last part of his life, he is ready, as most people are, to have some peace and to enjoy some relaxing times in the sunset of  his life. But as life itself usually unfolds, this is not what happens. If good fiction mimics reality, then this novel qualifies as superlative fiction.

A series of unfortunate events flow rapidly toward Henry Cage’s life, and he is caught by surprise multiple times, often ignoring the danger and/or the possibilities. An ex-wife becomes gravely ill, and he has the opportunity to set some things right.  A violent stalker starts threatening his life and well being, and he initially refuses to contact the police. A beloved grandchild is snatched from him, and he can’t face the pain and reach out to his own son.

The reader suffers with him but wishes he would stop the long series of denials and step up to the plate to make some things right in his life. Yet, in spite of his ineptitude, the reader becomes fond of Henry and wishes the best for him.  Is Henry Cage an “everyman”? Is he simply a victim of life’s fickleness? He has seemingly done most things “right”, but he seems to have an disproportionate amount of pain heaped upon him in his old age. Will he find happiness ever, or only moments of fleeting joy?

I was reminded in a slight way of Philip Roth’s Everyman, which I read last summer, even though the characters themselves have quite different personalities. What the reader gets here is a look into the life of a character who could live anywhere at any time making life long choices, some right, some wrong. The British author does get it right, however, in the telling of this provoking story.

Once again, I thank Liz, our Random House rep, who put the advanced reader’s copy of  this little novel in my hands a few months ago. I’ll be recommending it to readers at Lemuria this summer, and I’ll probably choose it for book club when it comes out in paperback next year. A contemplative book it is.  -Nan

Those Guys Have All the Fun has made quite the impact in the sports blogosphere. ESPN stands as the singular giant in the sports industry, so far-reaching that it has become virtually synonymous with sport itself. It has blurred the line between athlete, journalist, and fan. It has become the establishment, a massive multi-billion dollar company that is worth more than the NBA, MLB, and NHL combined. It has also at times been accused of taking itself a little too seriously.

It is for this last reason that Jim Miller and Tom Shales’ book was garnering press in the weeks prior to its release. The excerpts made available in advance revealed that the book wasn’t simply an outsider’s perspective on ESPN – it was an account pieced together from interviews with ESPN employees. This is a guess, but I’d say that something like 95% of the book’s text is actually direct quotes from employees, simply arranged and ordered into a narrative, with only occasional text from the authors to give context or summary.

I was concerned that the format would make the book a bit tedious – and since the book is over 700 pages long, tedium is no small worry. The trick, however, is in the editing. The authors have done a wonderful job placing and ordering the quotes to form a coherent and engaging story. It works well, and it makes for oddly funny moments – five or six quotes in a row from various ESPN employees, all complaining about the same person, followed immediately by a quote from the person in question, saying, “I think my time there was great. I think I was well-liked.” If the authors just described the scenario, it’d be a little painful, and not particularly funny, but to read the words of the people, to gauge for oneself how candid or honest each person is being, adds a fascinating element.

ESPN employees sniping at each other and complaining about the company played a large role in the advance publicity of the book. Little, Brown kept the contents of the book secret for weeks, finally lifting the embargo just days before the release date. Readers were not disappointed – the number and size of the egos meant for plenty of TMZ-ish celebrity gossip. Chris Berman, Keith Olbermann, Dan Patrick, Mike Tirico, Rick Reilly, Bill Simmons, and virtually every big name in the ESPN universe is targeted at one time or another. Some of it is merely petty, and some of it is legitimately disturbing.

Fortunately, the gossip column is just a part of the book, and not its entirety. There’s plenty of material on the early days of ESPN, the expansion into the largest cable network, and the forays into radio, magazines, and the array of secondary channels. If anything, there’s so much information that it’s a little daunting, but the format makes it easy to read in chunks – I’ve had it sitting on my bedside table for a couple of weeks, and it’s perfect whether you want to pick it up and read 5 pages or 50 pages at a time. A must read for the sports fan, especially for those interested in the role of media and the evolution of journalism.

I was reading the Wall Street Journal’s suggestions for Summer reads and Don’t Breathe A Word by Jennifer McMahon piqued  my interest.  Sure enough, we had a copy over in the fiction room so I took it home and read it in two nights. I read it on my couch but really think that it is a great page turner to read at the pool or the beach.

“Are you one of the chosen?”

Twelve-year-old Lisa, her cousin Evie, and brother Sam are constantly going on adventures in the Vermont woods behind their house.  Lisa is positive that Fairies live there and that the King of the Fairies is leaving her gifts.  One of the gifts she finds is  The Book of the Fairies, she decides that she is going to ‘cross over’ to the Land of the Fairies and become their queen.  She follows the instructions carefully and goes out one night and is never seen again.

It’s fifteen years later and Phoebe is in a relationship with a man who helps her conquer her fears of the dark and her nightmares.  She has never felt as safe with anyone as she does with Sam.  One day, Phoebe receives a phone call from a little girl:

“Tell Sam to look in the crawl space, behind the insulation.”

Sam immediately goes there and finds the missing Book of the Fairies.  Soon Evie contacts Sam and wants to meet at a cabin and talk about Lisa. When they arrive she shows them a note:

”I am back from the land of the fairies.  I’ll be seeing you soon. -Lisa”

All of sudden all of these strange and unexplainable things begin happening to Phoebe and Sam, and Phoebe begins to think that Sam is not telling her everything that he knows about the day that Lisa disappeared and soon a promise that Sam made is revealed that could ruin their lives forever.

Alright, I know that some of you are saying that you don’t want to read about fairies. I promise that you will not be disappointed. This is a story full of family secrets and is just plain perverse and creepy. Make sure that before you get in your lounge chair that you have a everything you need because you will not want to get up until you close this book!