Introducing. . .Pamela R.A.W.

This blog will host the two things that are on my mind the most - my writing and the great books I am reading. The poems have outgrown the NOTES section on Facebook and there are never enough characters to say everything I want to say about the books on my Virtual Bookshelf. Hopefully, Blogger/Blogspot will be the perfect space for this.

To kick us off, I will say a little about the books that are in arms reach:

1) The Good Parents by Joan London - I read the NYT review a few weeks ago and immediately placed a hold on the book at the Durham Public Library (on a book diet - will definitely blog about this later). I picked it up on 2/23 but haven't started it yet.

2) A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose by Eckhart Tolle - I started this book in early January, with the intention of reading a chapter a week. At that pace I should have been finished by now; I read/listened to Chapter 5 earlier today (I read along to the audiobook - it has really helped in remembering the messages). A few of my favorite quotes from this chapter are:

Thinking is no more than a tiny aspect of the totality of consciousness, the totality of who you are." (p. 130)

To see one's predicament clearly is a first step toward going beyond it. (p. 131)

An emotion that does harm to the body also infects the people you come into contact with and indirectly, through a process of chain reaction, countless others you never meet. There is a generic term for all negative emotions: unhappiness." (p. 136)

3) The Complete Poems: Anne Sexton - I was introduced to Love Poems by a writer friend and found the book of Anne Sexton's complete poems at my friendly neighborhood library. I'm skipping around this one - finished all the poems in Love Poems and have read the sections I, II and half of III of Mercy Street, a book of poems published after her death. I'll have to devote an entire blog on Anne Sexton. Her work is just that powerful.

4) The Witch of Portobello by Paulo Coelho - This was one of the last books I bought before I went on the book diet. Paulo Coelho's books simply resonate with something deep inside me. This book tells the life story of Athena through the eyes of the people who knew her - an interesting premise. I'll have to put this book on the back burner so I can start The Good Parents. In the meantime, here is the page 56 quote:

When we free ourselves, we are freeing all humanity.