best reads of 2014

12.27.14

Even with a car my habit to remain in the grotto and not spend a dime at least one day a week holds strong.  It’s not keeping me from going to mass, though I waffle an hour away from making that decision.  

I finished Margaret Fuller this afternoon and am glad to have been introduced to a true revolutionary.  A tragedy for this woman and her family to have died within shore, a great loss for women rights.  So, it appears you won’t finish another book this year, what were your five favorites?  In descending order:

5.  Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand

You always know you got a good book when you think about it all day and can’t wait to return to it and finish it.  An inspiring story which left me feeling good about humanity in spite of humanity’s evil in times of war.

4.  The Last Crusade by Nigel Cliff

The Vasco Da Gama I never knew in high school.  So, it wasn’t just spices the boys wanted, they wanted to drive out the Muslims from Jerusalem so Jesus would return and establish this earthly kingdom.  I don't know, it just feels like a ruse, or a terrible mistranslation somewhere along the line.  Time is relative, right, and God-time sucks. 

And I was surprised at first with the Portuguese’s first encounter with Hindus.  They thought they were a strange Christian sect.  This was an enjoyable read.

3.  The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt

I would love to write like this.  And I love what it did to me.  I got lost and was sorry to finish it.

2.  What am I doing here?  by Bruce Chatwin

This is probably the only book I’ll take with me when I leave here.  It’s a collection of stories where some left me breathless and others that left me wondering why I didn't know this before, this is why man is aggressive.

1.  East of Eden by John Steinbeck

I understand why we read The Grapes of Wrath, Tortilla Flat, The Pearl, and Of Mice and Men in high school and I understand why we didn’t read East of Eden and I am so grateful I read it now.  Every line is poetry, warm butter on the back of your throat.  How can anything I read after this come close, I don’t know.

So, what’s next.  I’ll go through the magazines, contemporary thought to finish the year though yesterday’s purchases look at me and wait with baited breath.

I am out of zantac.  I wish I didn’t need to take the stuff, putting on a pair of running shoes and losing the extra weight that causes this discomfort would be better but this dusty dirty truck stop does not inspire.  Well, with a car now you can drive out to a solitary gravel road off the main road and run to your heart’s content.  Right.

I must have burned a few calories today.  I swept the floors, cleaned the sinks and toilet, spot wiped floors, washed clothes and…and that’s it.  I cannot decide whether to renew the border pass.  I will have to go to Muscat and have the embassy stamp again a copy of my diploma.  Blah.  Why in the world do I have to submit all the papers again?  Nothing has changed in three months, dudes.  How about a cup of tea?  I still have to iron.

8.16pm

I didn’t go to mass and I feel bad about it.  Well, it’s crossing the border that made me hesitate.  Say they have an eight am service tomorrow, whaddaya say, go to bed right now and you can make that.  It is tempting.  Then after mass I can go to Tim Hortons for sour cream donuts and good coffee. 

So tomorrow it’s week 12, a month to go I told the students last week.  They are ready for a break, this is a hard program for kids who weren’t challenged in high school and that includes all of them.  They also take math and IT classes and some come to the ‘campus’ (I quote that word because this isn’t a campus, a campus has trees and places to sit and this whatever it is has neither) early in the morning and stay all day.  A holiday is coming, another prophet’s birthday, we may get Thursday or Sunday off.  It is unlikely we’ll get the former off, I mean that is January 1 and every closet alcoholic will descend on the Buraimi Hotel. 

Workers are drilling in the new shops below and it is irritating.  When will they stop, I don’t know but there’ll be no sleep until they are done. 

Any last thoughts on this Christmas  2014?  Well I didn’t wish for anything.  I bought a car and it was more of a timing thing than a decision to buy it at this time of year. 

Any last thoughts on the year?  Give me a few days to think about that.  One thing that sticks out.  This was the first year since 2008 I had one address.  And you’ve decided on another place next year.  Ya, it tires.