When Things Fall Apart, and Fragile Things

[mira_reads]

A few days ago, I posted in my other LJ a kind of essay about how different this December is from the last three Decembers -- and how much better. There are lots of reasons for the differences, some of which I mention, but here is another.

Pema Chodron (she has her own brief entry in Wikipedia) is a teacher of Tibetan Buddhism, and has written

Comments

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Thanks for the recommendations, Mira. I don't listen to a lot of books on CD, but I've been thinking about acquiring a few for long car trips. I wonder if you could recommend anything that would be kid-safe. When we travel, we have our four- and six-year-old in the car with us. It doesn't necessarily have to be something they'd be interested in, lol, just something that wouldn't frighten them or have lots of explicit sex. Generally I read fiction (scifi, fantasy, general fiction), but the few times I've done books-on-tape in the past, I've liked science (years and years ago my father and I listened to a great series on cosmology on our way from Texas to Indiana) and travelogues (one of the few forms of nonfiction I read regularly anyway).

Okay, so now you know way more about my reading/listening habits than you need to. But... any ideas for me? I'm driving to Poland in January, so I could definitely use some listening materials. :-)

[mira_reads]

Hmm. Well, I really enjoyed John Berendt's City of Falling Angels on tape. That might be good for your purpose. I also enjoyed the CD version of Carl Sagan's novel Contact.

I'm afraid the rest of the books I've listened to wouldn't suit your purpose -- either they're too sexy or too scary for the kids.

But the best thing I've learned is that every single book ever published appears to now be on CD or tape. All of Austen, Dickens, Shakespeare, Dostoevsky . . . Or you might fall back on an old reliable: The Hobbit. Especially if you can find the BBC version with Ian Holmes as Bilbo.

If you find something you enjoy, please let me know! I'm always looking for others to listen to. Right now, I have more Neil Gaiman lined up, plus short stories of Annie Proulx, and The Kite Runner. But they'll go pretty fast.

To Poland! Wow. What a great opportunity your kids have. And you!

[mira_reads]

No! I'd never heard of them, but that's great. Bookmarked the page and will subscribe to it. Thank you so much!

The new commute's not so bad -- I was doing around 90 miles/day until the move. Fifty is still longer than I prefer, but oh, I do love our new place.

Thanks again for the link to Escape Pod!

[mira_reads]

For both of us, dear princess!