Book # 5: Heaven is For Real

by Todd Burpo

Incredible book!  It's about a four year old boy who "almost" died of an undiagnosed burst appendix.  He was in heaven for "3 minutes", but the things he saw were amazing.  I can't do the story justice as there are so many details, but seriously, this is one of those life changing books.  I am an Orthodox Christian, so it's not like I haven't discussed heaven before and what all that means, but something about having a four year old matter of factly discuss it, is truly amazing.  On another level, the whole hospitalization and roller coaster ride his parents went on is so relatable with what we have gone through with our son's diagnosis of infantile spasms that this book had me tearing up at times.  Just wow.  That's all I can say to having read this. 

Book # 4: Meditations in an Emergency

by Frank O'Hara

My husband and I are hooked on the TV show Mad Men ever since we discovered it on Netflix instants.  We finished all the seasons on there, and have been going through withdrawal ever since.  Thus this book.  Don Draper sees someone else reading it and is promptly informed that he "wouldn't like it".  So of course he reads it.  It reminds him of one of his ex-mistresses, and he mails her a copy.  I was intrigued because to be honest it's one of the only books mentioned in the show.  I wondered why it was so pivatol for the time period.  So I got it for my husband as a Christmas gift.  Well I will be honest I still have no clue why they mentioned it.  The poems are cryptic.  I am a good past Honors English student--I promise-- I know you are never supposed to say I don't know.  You should make up some reason using as many big words as possible.  But I've grown since high school, I'm big enough to admit that a ton of these poems sounded to me like the mom on Peanuts--waaa waaaa waaa.  Definitely would love to read a companion piece to this that would give me cliff notes into O'Hara's life and thinking.  But here's one that I did sort of "get" and loved:



For Grace, After a Party

You do not always know what I am feeling.
Last night in the warm spring air while I was
blazing my tirade against someone who doesn't
interest
me, it was love for you that set me
afire,
and isn't it odd? for in rooms full of
strangers my most tender feelings
writhe and
bear the fruit of screaming. Put out your hand,
isn't there
an ashtray, suddenly, there? beside
the bed? And someone ou love enters the room
and says wouldn't
you like the eggs a little
different today?
And when they arrive they are
just plain scrambled eggs and the warm weather
is holding.



Now you explain it to me.  :)