What Are You Reading?

I have several new and intriguing books on my nightstand (and in my car, for Starbucks, after wellness workout) that have been left mostly unread, due to time not interest.

• How to Bury a Goldfish and Other Ceremonies and Celebrations for Everyday Life by Virginia Lang and Louise Nayer: This book describes ways to honor and observe both everday occurrences and more "red-letter" occasions. Our family has its fair share of homemade rituals--from our goodbye "beep-beep" to our dinner "family song" and our evening tuck-in tradition. Our mornings are a little rough and irregular and we're always looking for new ideas to incorporate. I just like glancing at the text of this very UU book, which has gentle, intuitive ways for marking special and more mundane events.
• Siblings Without Rivalry: How to Help Your Children Live Together So You Can Live Too and How to Talk So Kids Will Listen and Listen So Kids Will Talk by Adele Faber and Elaine Mazlish: The titles are pretty self-explanatory, I think, though we're probably a little young for most of the ideas and techniques. Advance prep never hurts, though. Interseting, the whole first section of How to Talk is exactly what we learned in my caregiver workshop and what is described in . . . .
• Radical Hospitality: Benedict's Way of Love by Dan Homan and Lonni Collins Pratt: Not my usual reading, this examination of the Rule of St. Benedict and monastic hospitality as a guide for modern, civilian/secular (i.e. not monastic) living is an inspiring reminder that hospitality is not matching napkins, the right wine, and enough appetizers, but the opening of our homes and hearts to those who are strangers, both literally and figuratively, no matter how different, in need, or even frightening. This book was one of the resources for my caregiver workshop.
• George Eliot: The Last Victorian by Kathryn Hughes: I really liked my Beeton bio, so I'm reading another by the author. I've read Eliot's Middlemarch and was greatly inspired by its main character. I know something about her life--male pseudoynym and living with a married man--and the ideas behind her amazing books firmly planted in her time and filled with social justice, so I'm loving the bio, even if I'm not keeping up with all of the references. Might have to add some Eliot to my list before I finish this one.
• World Vegetarian by Madhur Jaffrey and Moosewood Cookbook by Mollie Katzen: I love to see all the vegetarian possibilities. But my spice rack isn't this deep. We'll see. I want to branch out . . .

What are you reading?