7 & 8, from the self-help shelf

I don't always turn up my nose at self-help books.  They usually are quick reads and sometimes have good ideas. 

7.  Better Than Before:  What I Learned About Making and Breaking Habits -- To Sleep More, Quit Sugar, Procrastinate Less, and Generally Build a Happier Life by Gretchen Rubin
I enjoyed this book.  She does a lot of research and uses wise quotations often, but also has original ideas. She tells enough about herself that the reader can form a good idea of her character. She is another one of those New York authors, sigh. I might take some ideas from it.

8.  That's So You: Create a Look You Love with Beauty, Style and Grace  by Ginger Burr
This book says approximately nothing.  I'm still trying to discover what Retired Becky wears, and thought from the title it might have some ideas for me.  She basically says to buy becoming clothes  you love, and get rid of the other ones.  How to determine which are becoming?  Hire a consultant. I regret spending the money on this one.

#6 The Forest Lover, by Susan Vreeland

This book is historical fiction based on the life of Emily Carr.  The author sets it up that the artist is struggling between showing her subjects as they are versus how she feels about them, and comes down on the side of feelings. She apparently writes the story with the same dilemma and answer, fabricating emotional issues that she would like the artist to have had. I come away not really knowing much more about Carr.  If I think of it as fiction entirely, I like it better.

I found it a good novel.

There's one of Emily Carr's paintings at Crystal Bridges.  If I ever go to Northwest Canada, I would like to see more. She has been compared to O'Keeffe and Kahlo, and there was once a traveling exhibit of the works of the three. I missed it. I don't know how to find exhibits of interest to me in the U.S. without spending a lot of time searching the internet.

The author Louise Penney goes out of her way to bring Emily Carr into one of her stories.

I bought this book last summer after I had been talking to a friend who teaches art history. She is an insightful reader, but she has lots of other interests and doesn't spend a lot of time reading these days. I thought fiction based on artists would be an easy way to learn some art history. Now it's time for me to read a little less and tackle some of my projects around the house.  Reading one book off the bookshelf overflow doesn't really count as progress.

5. Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time, by Dava Sobel

I really enjoyed this charming little book.  The title says it all, I have little to add.  It's set mostly in the 1700s. It does confirm my rather cynical outlook on many persons with political power. Very readable, it tells the story of people and is not too technical. There is a nice introduction by Neil Armstrong.

I think I must have chosen it off my out of control above the bookshelf stacks as an antidote to the last book I read, about the vapid New Yorkers. The sticker indicates I bought this book at the used bookstore. My book group read this same author's book about Galileo's daughter a while back. I believe there was a PBS documentary on the history of finding longitude, and I might see if that is still out there somewhere. It appears the book was originally published in 1996. I remember that it was well thought of at the time, and I'm glad I finally got around to reading it.

4. The View from Penthouse B, By Elinor Lipman

This is one of the eighty percent of novels published in America that are by and about people who live in New York.  Okay, I made that number up. The rest of us, here in the middle, aren't quite so obsessed with the status of address, fancy restaurants, and so on.  I've been to New York a few times, but that stuff about living on 12th Street or in the village doesn't really mean anything to me.

It reminded me of Little Women, where they were constantly feeling sorry for themselves for their poverty. In that story, they only had one servant. 

This book is a love story and the main characters are nice enough. I don't remember what led me to select this one. Possibly I knew that the main character was the middle sister of three, like I am. I could see living with one or both of mine if bad things happened. If you just wanted to think about somebody else's life for a while, this would be fine for that.

In my mind, it's a step up from romance novels and most television.