Reinventing the wheel and grabbing diamonds

This is one of those, “yours, in haste,” kind of days, as too many deadlines in the non-blog world are threatening. I intend to review two of the books I read last week at length, and I’m putting in links to their websites.

March 30 to April 9, 1976 I read:

Looking for Mr. Goodbar, Judith Rossner
I read three of her books and liked them. I didn’t realize she had passed away, but she sounds like she was a great person
http://books.guardian.co.uk/news/articles/0,6109,1548416,00.html
Also, I just discovered a site that I’ll probably end up using again, alas, RIP, Ms. Rossner.
http://www.deadoraliveinfo.com

Clarion 11 (SF Anthology)

The Immense Journey : An Imaginative Naturalist Explores the Mysteries of Man and Nature, Loren Eiseley
I didn’t note it, but I’m pretty sure I didn’t finish this book (too immense, I guess). I remember because it’s one of those books that I’ve been “meaning to” go back and finish for about 30 years....hmm, still got a copy somewhere I think.

Pictorial Astronomy

Hammett, Joe Gores

The Dispossessed, Ursula K. Le Guin

Return to Earth, Return to Earth, Col. Edwin E. “Buzz” Aldrin, with Wayne Warga
He now has a pretty cool web site, best selling children’s book etc.,
http://www.buzzaldrin.com/


March 30 to April 9, 2006 I read:

Just a few words about Taking Up Space, and Living Large—both of which I intend to review soon on my website. I read an online reaction to hearing an interview by Michael Berman. Found the link it was at
http://www.bigfatblog.com/archives/001810.php#comments

The comment was along the lines of Berman seeming to have the impression he invented size acceptance. Ya know, we all do.

Those of us who have come to accept and deal with our bodies as they are must each of us reinvent the wheel. It’s so painfully rare to stand up and accept oneself, in the teeth of prevailing gale force winds urging NOT accepting one’s body, that every time one person does it, it’s like a small miracle. The other metaphor along these lines that occurred to me to relate to what you might call “Health and Self-Esteem at Any Size” comes from my early days as a young Buddhist. Encountering and fostering spiritual growth in others was described as grasping a handful of diamonds. When each life is a diamond you try not to lose hold of even one.

Staying Dead, Laura Anne Gilman

http://www.sff.net/people/lauraanne.gilman/


Taking Up Space: How Eating Well and Exercising Regularly Changed My Life, Pattie Thomas, Carl Wilkerson, (intro by Paul Campos)

http://fattypatties.blogspot.com/


Living Large, Michael S. Berman and Laurence Shames

http://www.mikelivinglarge.com/