Life in a Bed, Or What I'm Reading

This time around (as opposed to last time), I can hold a book and it makes all the difference. I'm much happier being able to read than to watch tv, though I have completely caught up on "Glee" episodes and started watching the new "Upstairs, Downstairs."

Otherwise, I'm reading, both off and online, including:

Books

• Sally Gunning's Satucket books, such as Widow's War, Bound, and The Rebellion of Jane Clarke, related but not exactly sequels, set in colonial Cape Cod. It's like a historic house docent tour come to life, which is particularly appealing to me as I sit out my first several tours.
• other colonial history, including Carol Berkin's Revolutionary Mothers, and the opening chapters of No Idle Hands, a history of American knitting

Magazines

• I've blown through all the back issues of several food magazines (Saveur, Food Network, Vegetarian Times), Martha Stewart Living, Shambhala Sun, Smithsonian, random things (Early American Life, Time Magazine on pain from Gommie, Family Tree on civil war relatives, Civil War Times on Southern women's bread riots) and . . .
• Archaelogy, which I put under a separate heading because I've read so many of them and would be glad to discuss: "bog bodies" of northern Europe; the geography of the ancient sites of Ireland as relate to the agricultural holidays of Imbolc, Beltane, Lughnasa, and Samhain; "Timberhenge" near Stonehenge; a Uighur site on an island in Siberia; Afghanistan's Buddhist remains along the Silk Road; Ottoman palaces in Albania; the rich burial of Chinese Lady Dai; the 18th-century ship found near the World Trade Center site; the ritual uses of the Nasca lines; the reconstruction of a colonial coffeehouse at Williamsburg; a battle between Hamilcar and the Greeks on Sicily; using archaeological techniques to trace current illegal immigration habits through the Sonoran Desert; an addendum to NAGPRA, about Native American remains and grave goods; Warner Herzog on cave art; traditions of Aboriginal rock art, including "x-ray" style that is distinctive and Europeans shown with hands on hips; fleet wrecked by hurricane near Florida that would've altered Spanish colonial expansion; ancient Korean love letter found on mummy; Salado pottery as expression of "poor woman's cult" in American Southwest; excavating a Bonaparte "palace" in New Jersey; excavating the effects of Order 11 and the burning of parts of Missouri by Union soldiers; the renewal of elaborate architectural stepwells of Gujarat that are almost a thousand years old; and, finally, a joint Israeli-Arab community excavation of an Ottoman khan, or inn, by local schoolchildren.

Online

Huffington Post

• "Why 'Do You Believe in God?' is the Wrong Question to Ask"
• "Do You Need to Believe in God to Pray?"
• "Are You Part of the Mindfulness Revolution?"
• "Ten Timeless Tips for Teaching Kids about Money"
• "Reconsidering the Nature of Life with Autism"
• "Talking about Death: We All Want to, But We Don't Know How"
• "What Barbie Would Look Like If She Were a Real Person"
• "10 Teachings on Judaism and the Environment"
• Good Enough Really Is Good Enough: 7 Steps To Overcome Perfectionism
• Better than Advil? or, cherries for inflamation
• World's Largest Lego Tower
• "10 Most Challenged Books of 2010", including Tango Makes Three
• "Royal Wedding, Lego-Style"
• Using Your Hands to Lift Your Heart
• "Can a Tree Consciously Experience the World? Maybe"
• "Learning to Embrace Autism"
• "Prince William's Royal Wedding Groom's Cake"
• "Catholics More Supportive of Gay Rights than General Public"
• "Novel Ways to Think on Grief"
• "Making End of Life Care a Family Decision"
• "Teaching the Difference Between Good and Getting Better"

New York Times

• "A Couple's Knot, Tied Tighter By Dual Diagnoses", a touching post about two young parents facing dual late-stage cancer
• "Is Sugar Toxic?"
• "Economist's Argument for More Children"
• "Teaching Children to do Good"
• "The Hypocrisy of Parenting", on eating habits
• "Overcoming a Parenting 'Sabbatical'", another article about SAHMs entering the workforce
• "Tips on Having Twins"
• "Are You Your Child's ATM?"
• "Panda Dads and Parenting Goals"
• "Custody of Your Child if You Die"
• "The Child Becomes the Parent"
• "Giving Doctors Orders" by Maureen Dowd
• "Time to Make the Matzoh"
• "Frankly, My Dear, 'The Windies' Do Live For This", on Gone with the Wind fans
• China's New Museum
• NYTimes Autism Special
• "A Fighting Spirit Won't Save Your Life"
• Afternoon Tea in New York
• "The Jedi Path", a book Mama got me for Christmas
• "Does the Mediterranean Diet Even Exist?"
• "Dust is Gone Above the Bar, but the Legacy Lingers", relics from wars gone by
• "For New Mass, Closer to Latin"
• About memory competitions
• "How to Beat the Salad Bar"
• NYU Food Library
• "Reading at Some Private Schools is Delayed"
• Royal Wedding Viewing in NYC
• Turmoil of Teacher Layoffs
• 9/11 Memorial Misuses Virgil Quote
• "The Best Part of Parenting" by Anna Quindlen
• "When Class meant Brie and Pears"

Salon

• "An Agnostic Looking for Love in the Bible Belt"
• "Class-System Melodrama as Comfort Food"
• "How Do You Parent the Texting Generation?"
• "Modern Poetry Made Less Terrifying"
• "What He Gave Me Before He Died", from a hospice volunteer
• "How We Talk About Disability" by Emily Rapp, whose other posts are wonderful too (like "When It's Wrong to Fight for Your Son's Life")
• "How I Became A Hillbilly," by Felisa Rogers, on scavenging in this economy
• "My Life as a Gay Grandma"
• Durian: The Stinky Fruit
• "My Month of No Snark"
• Historian tweets about Civil War
• "I Shouldn't Have Left the Finances to My Husband"
• "How 'Dungeons and Dragons' Saved My Life"
• "Middle Earth According to Mordor"
• "Will My Autistic Son and I Look Like That?"
• "I Blog so My Kids Will Know Me When I'm Gone"
• Mormon Mommy Blog Obsession

Other

• Zen Isn't by Karen Maezen Miller
• "Meditation Practices in the Wake of Tragedy"
• Tonglen Practice to keep those who suffer in your heart

Recipes

• Chickpea Vegetable Soup
• DIY Cooking Handbook
• Tender Beans, Without Soaking
• Haroseth
• How to Cook White Fillets
• Secrets of the Bean Pot
• Slow Baked Beans with Kale
• Making Empanadas from Scratch
• SPAM!!
• Mandelbrot
• Orange Blossom Egyptian Limeade
• How to Make Your Own Yogurt
• Guilt-Free Desserts
• Vegetable Frittatas
• Quesadillas
• Going Vegan for Lent
• Popcorn with Mark Bittman
• 7 Ways to Make Lentil Soup
• The Soup Matrix and More Soup Matrix with Bittman
• "The Zen of Beans"