May Read 2019

Title: Elegy For Eddie
Author: Winspear, Jacqueline
Call Number: F
Book Description from amazon.com:
This book is about an investigation into the killing of a local man from Maisie's childhood neighborhood that leads the sleuth from her own doorstep to London's halls of power.
My Read:
Another good read of Maisie Dobbs's series.

April Read 2019/2

Title: A Lesson in Secrets
Author: Winspear, Jacqueline
Call Number: F
Book Description from amazon.com:
Private investigator Maisie Dobbs receives her first assignment from the British Secret Service in A Lesson in Secrets, the eighth book in Jacqueline Winspear’s award-winning mystery series. Sent to pose as a junior lecturer at a private college in Cambridge, she will monitor any activities “not in the interests of His Majesty’s government.” When the college’s pacifist founder is murdered, Maisie finds herself in the midst of sinister web of murder, scandal, and conspiracy, activities that point towards members of the ascendant Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei—the Nazi Party—on Britain’s shores. An instant classic, and sure to captivate long-time Maisie Dobbs fans as well as readers of Agatha Christie, Elizabeth George, and Alexander McCall Smith, A Lesson in Secrets is “a powerful and complex novel, one that will linger in memory as a testament to her talent and her humanity” (Richmond Times-Dispatch).
My Read:
Page 321--"She wondered abut happily ever after. Did it exist only in fairly tales, in stories for children? Or was there hope, really?..Was it that she did not trust happily ever after, that she was deliberately indifferent to the possibility? Or was happily ever after another one of time's secrets, waiting to be revealed on the journey? She smiled at the irony--the junior lecturer in philosophy struggling with a child's fairy-tale ending. Yes, time would give up her secrets. She just had to wait."
I think "happily ever after" is not as illusory as it sounds. It's the willing mind that would set the path on the journey. Happiness is not for pursuit; instead, it's a by-product of hardworking and determination for a better life.  

April Read 2019

Title: The Mapping of Love and Death
Author: Winspear, Jacqueline
Call Number: F
Book Description from amazon.com:

August 1914. As Michael Clifton is mapping land he has just purchased in California's beautiful Santa Ynez Valley, war is declared in Europe—and duty-bound to his father's native country, the young cartographer soon sets sail for England to serve in the British army. Three years later, he is listed as missing in action.

April 1932. After Michael's remains are unearthed in France, his parents retain London psychologist and investigator Maisie Dobbs, hoping she can find the unnamed nurse whose love letters were among their late son's belongings. It is a quest that leads Maisie back to her own bittersweet wartime love—and to the stunning discovery that Michael Clifton was murdered in his dugout. Suddenly an exposed web of intrigue and violence threatens to ensnare the dead soldier's family and even Maisie herself as she attempts to cope with the impending loss of her mentor and the unsettling awareness that she is once again falling in love.

My Read:

Page 62-63--"Extremes live within us all. The joy of association resides alongside the anticipation of loss. What is given will be taken, what we have is often only of value to us when it is gone."....."A map is a conduit for wonder, a tool for adventure. But it is also an instrument of power--and like all things, power has two faces."

Page 69--"When you are sitting in silence, you open the door to a deeper wisdom--the knowing of the ages. When you are walking, with the path to that wisdom already carved anew by your daily practice, you find that an idea, a thought, a notion, comes to you, and you have the solution to a problem that seemed insoluble."

Monthly Read 2019/3

Title: Among the Mad
Author: Winspear, Jacqueline
Call Number: F
Book Description from amazon.com:

It's Christmas Eve 1931. On the way to see a client, Maisie Dobbs witnesses a man commit suicide on a busy London street. The following day, the prime minister's office receives a letter threatening a massive loss of life if certain demands are not met―and the writer mentions Maisie by name. After being questioned and cleared by Detective Chief Superintendent Robert MacFarlane of Scotland Yard's elite Special Branch, she is drawn into MacFarlane's personal fiefdom as a special adviser on the case. Meanwhile, Billy Beale, Maisie's trusted assistant, is once again facing tragedy as his wife, who has never recovered from the death of their young daughter, slips further into melancholia's abyss. Soon Maisie becomes involved in a race against time to find a man who proves he has the knowledge and will to inflict death and destruction on thousands of innocent people. And before this harrowing case is over, Maisie must navigate a darkness not encountered since she was a nurse in wards filled with shell-shocked men.

In Among the Mad, Jacqueline Winspear combines a heart-stopping story with a rich evocation of a fascinating period to create her most compelling and satisfying novel yet.

My Read:

It's another good read in the Maisie Dobbs' series.

March Read 2019/2

Title: An Incomplete Revenge
Author: Winspear, Jacqueline
Call Number: F
Book Description from amazon.com:

With the country in the grip of economic malaise, and worried about her business, Maisie Dobbs is relieved to accept an apparently straightforward assignment from an old friend to investigate certain matters concerning a potential land purchase. Her inquiries take her to a picturesque village in Kent during the hop-picking season, but beneath its pastoral surface she finds evidence that something is amiss. Mysterious fires erupt in the village with alarming regularity, and a series of petty crimes suggests a darker criminal element at work. As Maisie discovers, the villagers are bitterly prejudiced against outsiders who flock to Kent at harvest time—even more troubling, they seem possessed by the legacy of a wartime Zeppelin raid. Maisie grows increasingly suspicious of a peculiar secrecy that shrouds the village, and ultimately she must draw on all her finely honed skills of detection to solve one of her most intriguing cases.

Rich with Jacqueline Winspear's trademark period detail, this installment of the bestselling series, An Incomplete Revenge, is gripping, atmospheric, and utterly enthralling.

My Read:

Another lovely read.

Page 261--"And she remembered Simon, that final day working with him, and his last words when shells began to rain down on the operating tent as they tried to save the life of another soldier:"Let's get on with it." I like the spirit of the words. 

Page 303--"with each new tune, something of the gypsy woman's life was commemorated--her vivacity in youth, her laugh, her wisdom, the fields she called home, and her wanderings along the country lanes. Then it was done, the mourning not confined to that which was dark and shadowed by loss but also rejoicing in the life that must go on." A life is taken, another will go on. It's life.

March Read 2019

Title: Maisie Dobbs
Author: Winspear, Jacqueline
Call Number: F
Book Description from amazon.com:

Maisie Dobbs got her start as a maid in an aristocratic London household when she was thirteen. Her employer, suffragette Lady Rowan Compton, soon became her patron, taking the remarkably bright youngster under her wing. Lady Rowan's friend, Maurice Blanche, often retained as an investigator by the European elite, recognized Maisie’s intuitive gifts and helped her earn admission to the prestigious Girton College in Cambridge, where Maisie planned to complete her education.
 
The outbreak of war changed everything. Maisie trained as a nurse, then left for France to serve at the Front, where she found—and lost—an important part of herself. Ten years after the Armistice, in the spring of 1929, Maisie sets out on her own as a private investigator, one who has learned that coincidences are meaningful, and truth elusive. Her very first case involves suspected infidelity but reveals something very different.
 
In the aftermath of the Great War, a former officer has founded a working farm known as The Retreat, that acts as a convalescent refuge for ex-soldiers too shattered to resume normal life. When Fate brings Maisie a second case involving The Retreat, she must finally confront the ghost that has haunted her for over a decade.

My Read:

It's truly an interesting and inspiring book. The mentoring relationship between Maurice Blanche, the mentor, and Maisie Dobbs, the mentee reminds me of those in ancient Chinese history. The Teacher discovered jewel in the Student. Together, they stroke spark and made huge impact in each other's life. Traits and character of Ms. Maisie Dobbs are intriguing and inspiring. It's especially good that it's a series featured a strong female character in a harsh period in human history. Really a good series to read. I enjoyed it very much.

February Read/2019/4

Title: Messenger of Truth
Author:  Winspear, Jacqueline
Call Number: F
Book Description from amazon.com:

London, 1931. The night before an exhibition of his artwork opens at a famed Mayfair gallery, the controversial artist Nick Bassington-Hope falls to his death. The police rule it an accident, but Nick's twin sister, Georgina, a wartime journalist and a infamous figure in her own right, isn't convinced.

When the authorities refuse to consider her theory that Nick was murdered, Georgina seeks out a fellow graduate from Girton College, Maisie Dobbs, psychologist and investigator, for help. Nick was a veteran of World War I, and before long the case leads Maisie to the desolate beaches of Dungeness in Kent, and into the sinister underbelly of the city's art world.

In Messenger of Truth, Maisie once again uncovers the perilous legacy of the Great War in a society struggling to recollect itself. But to solve the mystery of Nick's death, Maisie will have to keep her head as the forces behind the artist's fall come out of the shadows to silence her.

Following on the bestselling Pardonable Lies, Jacqueline Winspear delivers another vivid, thrilling, and utterly unique episode in the life of Maisie Dobbs.

My Read:

Page 300--"She said nothing to Georgina about truth, about the instinct that had inspired her to seek Maisie's help. It was not the right moment to speak of the inner voice that instructs us to move in a given direction, even though we know--even though we know and might never admit to such intuition--that to continue on our path is to risk the happiness of those we hold dear."

Another good read in the series.

February Read/2019/3

Title: Play: How It Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul
Author: Brown, Stuart L.
Call Number: 155 B879P 2009
Book Description from amazon.com:
We've all seen the happiness on the face of a child while playing in the school yard. Or the blissful abandon of a golden retriever racing across a lawn. This is the joy of play. By definition, play is purposeless, all-consuming, and fun. But as Dr. Stuart Brown illustrates, play is anything but trivial. It is a biological drive as integral to our health as sleep or nutrition. We are designed by nature to flourish through play. 

Dr. Brown has spent his career studying animal behavior and conducting more than six-thousand "play histories" of humans from all walks of life-from serial murderers to Nobel Prize winners. Backed by the latest research, Play (20,000 copies in print) explains why play is essential to our social skills, adaptability, intelligence, creativity, ability to problem solve and more. Particularly in tough times, we need to play more than ever, as it's the very means by which we prepare for the unexpected, search out new solutions, and remain optimistic. A fascinating blend of cutting-edge neuroscience, biology, psychology, social science, and inspiring human stories of the transformative power of play, this book proves why play just might be the most important work we can ever do.
My Read:
Page 185--"The hand and the brain need each other--the hand provides the means for interacting with the world and the brain provides method. Neurologically, "a hand is always in search of a brain and a brain is in search of a hand.""
Page 200--"The advantage that countries like the United States, Britain,, France, Germany, Scandinavian nations, and Japan retain is the ability to invent--to dream up solutions to problems that people may not yet even know they have. Nations that remain economically stronger are those that can create intellectual property--and the ability to innovate largely comes out of an ability to play."
Page 201--"A successful life is one in which we are able to fulfill our own basic needs and give or ourselves to others. We are happy when we can live an expansive life, one in which we are aware that we are actively participating in something greater than ourselves-- a part of a loving couple, a friendship, a family, an intellectual, social, or spiritual community."
Page 205--"Making all of life an act of play occurs when we recognize and accept that there may be some discomfort in play, and that every experience has both pleasure and pain."
According to the author, play comes in different ways: i.e. music, sports, art, exercise etc.

Polar bear and Hudson, the husky play

February Read/2019/2

Title: Pardonable Lies
Author: Winspear, Jacqueline
Call Number: F
Book Description from amazon.com:

In the third novel of this bestselling series, London investigator Maisie Dobbs faces grave danger as she returns to the site of her most painful WWI memories to resolve the mystery of a pilot's death.

A deathbed plea from his wife leads Sir Cecil Lawton to seek the aid of Maisie Dobbs, psychologist and investigator. As Maisie soon learns, Agnes Lawton never accepted that her aviator son was killed in the Great War, a torment that led her not only to the edge of madness but to the doors of those who practice the dark arts and commune with the spirit world. In accepting the assignment, Maisie finds her spiritual strength tested, as well as her regard for her mentor, Maurice Blanche. The mission also brings her together once again with her college friend Priscilla Evernden, who served in France and who lost three brothers to the war―one of whom, it turns out, had an intriguing connection to the missing Ralph Lawton.

My Read:

I like the following sentence found in the book:

Page 323--"I'll tell you on the way. I can make mistakes and I did--in not asking the right questions at the right time."

Page 335--"Maurice remained in London before returning to Chelstone, more from concern for Maisie's well-being than his own needs. They spent time together in quiet conversation, each working to repair the fabric of their friendship, so that the past might be remembered with warmth as they worked with the fresh canvas to create a bond for the future. They both knew that her trust in him remained compromised and understood that what had happened could not be undone, only accommodated. But the rupture had brought with it an unanticipated gift. Maisie now felt more independent of her teacher, better able to trust her instincts rather than harking back to her apprenticeship. Yet she knew, too, that to continue her recovery she would need his guidance. She was not out of the woods."

It's a good read and I enjoy the way the author intertwined different cases allowing readers' imagination to render clues. 

February Read/2019

Title: Birds of a Feather
Author: Winspear, Jacqueline
Call Number: F
Book description from amazon.com:
Jacqueline Winspear’s marvelous debut, Maisie Dobbs, won her fans from around the world and raised her intuitive, intelligent, and resourceful heroine to the ranks of literature’s favorite sleuths. Birds of a Feather, its follow-up, finds psychologist and private investigator Maisie Dobbs on another dangerously intriguing adventure in London “between the wars.” It is the spring of 1930, and Maisie has been hired to find a runaway heiress. But what seems a simple case at the outset soon becomes increasingly complicated when three of the heiress’s old friends are found dead. Is there a connection between the woman’s mysterious disappearance and the murders? Who would want to kill three seemingly respectable young women? As Maisie investigates, she discovers that the answers lie in the unforgettable agony of the Great War.
My read:
     Maisie Dobbs Mysteries Series is my friend, Mary's favorite. After Agatha Christie, I have been looking for fiction books to read. Last week I came across Ms. Winspear's novels and I checked out this book two( book one was not available) to begin with. And I love it!
     In the book, "aura," and "meditation" are mentioned many times. This further got me interested in reading more of this author's books. Followed are from pages I found useful for me:
Page 21--"an enclosed area encouraged an enclosed mind. Always take the person to be questioned to a place where there's space, or where they can see few boundaries. Space broadens the mine and gives the voice room to be heard."
Page 36--"One must know how to doubt."
Page 46--"Knowing that at that point Maurice might have cautioned her against anger directed at the self, Maisie quickly sat back in the chair with her eyes closed. She placed her left hand on her solar plexus to become centered, and her right hand across her heart to denote kindness."
Page 143--"Maisie allowed a silence to envelop them, a time in which she composed her body, cleared her thoughts and saw in her mind's eye a connection forming between herself and the man opposite her. She imagined a stream of light emanating from the center of her forehead just above her nose, a bright thread that flowed toward her subject and bathed him with a luminous glow."
Page 194--"I am not at all surprised. As I have said many times, my dear, each case has a way of shining  a light on something we need to know about ourselves."
Page 299--"What I mean is this: Resentment must give way to possibility, anger to acceptance, grief to compassion, disdain to respect--on both sides. I mean change, Mr. Waite. Change. You've remained a successful businessman by embracing change, by mastering it, even when circumstances were against you..."

January Read/2019/2

Title: Nothing Is Hidden: The Psychology of Zen Koans
Author: Magid, Barry
Call Number: 294.3927 M194N 2013
Book Description from amazon.com:
In this inspiring and incisive offering, Barry Magid uses the language of modern psychology and psychotherapy to illuminate one of Buddhism's most powerful and often mysterious technologies: the Zen koan. What's more, Magid also uses the koans to expand upon the insights of psychology (especially self psychology and relational psychotherapy) and open for the reader new perspectives on the functioning of the human mind and heart. Nothing Is Hidden explores many rich themes, including facing impermanence and the inevitability of change, working skillfully with desire and attachment, and discovering when "surrender and submission" can be liberating and when they shade into emotional bypassing. With a sophisticated view of the rituals and teachings of traditional Buddhism, Magid helps us see how we sometimes subvert meditation into just another "curative fantasy" or make compassion into a form of masochism.
My Read:
Page 15--Perfection and change aren't opposites; they turn out to be synonyms. Not only don't we have to change in order to become perfect, our perfection manifests moment after moment in change itself.
Page 16--It was also a revelation that nothing is hidden. Everyone was fully displaying who they were. There was nothing more "behind the scenes" to uncover or decipher, the way my usual psychoanalytic mindset would lead me to think. There was both clarity and acceptance of each person being just who he or she was....For the rest of us, realization is never once and for all, and old doubts and old habits will resurface to be dealt with over and over throughout our life. Yet doubts and old habits are part of how we twinkle like that star. As is sickness, old age, and death. And delusion and joy--the full spectrum of life as it is.
Page 17--The koans that follow can all help us see who really are, especially those parts of ourselves that we have, sadly, for one personal reason or another, tried to turn away from. We have all blinded our self to parts of life we reflexively have felt too painful to behold or face directly.
Like Shakyamuni, we must be able to look up and say, "That's me."
Page 23--You can't answer by somehow standing outside of life, examining it and offering your description. You yourself must become the answer..We have natural human desire to be understood, and feeling understood in itself gives us a kind of strength to face the difficulties life brings.
Page 126--Boundaries must be maintained, differences respected, turns taken, acknowledgements made that, at some very important levels, you are not me. That is one very important meaning of love.
Page 154--To study the Buddha Way is to study the self. To study the self is to forget the self. To forget the self is to be actualized by myriad things. When actualized by myriad things, your body and mind as well as the bodies and minds of others drop away. No trace of realization remains, and this no-trace continues endlessly. When you first seek Dharma, you imagine you are far away from its environs. At the moment when Dharma is correctly transmitted, you are immediately your original self.
Page 174--Acceptance can only happen with surrender. 
Page 175--Acceptance feels like a starting point. Killing the ego can not be equivalent to crushing our spirit.
Page 176--True surrender has no goal. True surrender kills completely any expectation or gaining idea.
Page 178--Unless we are prepared to admit that our own good intentions may mask a deeper unconscious need to always be seen as good, as always right, as always clear, we will never be able to acknowledge the ways that we have inadvertently hurt the very people we are trying to help. "We have met our enemy, and he is us."

January Read/2019

Title: Healing From the Inside Out: Overcome Chronic disease and Radically Change Your Life
Author: Naeem, Nauman
Call Number: 616.044 N139H 2017
Book Description from amazon: 
This book takes you on a journey to the very core of your being. This is done through unravelling layers and layers of density that most of us accumulate throughout our lives, and which often initiate and perpetuate chronic disease. Once you touch the light of your being, you illuminate the dark recesses of your thoughts, emotions and your physical body, thus facilitating the healing of any chronic illness. The exercises given in this book allow you to gain more clarity about your life’s mission, heal old emotional wounds, lift subconscious blocks, remove limiting beliefs, enter the natural flow of the Universe and fearlessly embrace uncertainty. Dr. Naeem is a critical care specialist, pulmonologist and palliative care specialist, whose unique insights into healing stem from caring for tens of thousands of critically and chronically ill patients for more than a decade in two countries. This experience, combined with his own search for the meaning of existence and the true nature of ultimate reality, has culminated into the incredible journey which is the subject of this book.
My Read:
Main Point of this book is summarized at page 167:
All chronic diseases have their roots in deeper aspects of our being, and the physical body is simply the final place where they manifest.
Page 165-It is not simply the environment that affects your genetic expression but how you respond to your environment. Your response to your environment is conditioned by your subconscious mind, your emotional self, your vibrational frequency, and, ultimately your spiritual self. The development of illness, thus, ties back to the higher aspects of your being, which is why healing is a more comprehensive and holistic approach to dealing with disease than simply seeking a cure.
Page 172- Awareness is a type of knowing, but it is deeper than simply knowing as it is also involves focused attention. This focused attention can be directed toward anything within ourselves or outside ourselves. Awareness is the key to getting someone to a place where they can start to heal by setting their intention.
Page 176-The beauty of life's journey is that it is always trying to lead you back to your true nature, and your illness is just a signpost to show you that you have deviated away from who you truly are. There are no mistakes, no problems, and nothing to regret in life. Everything that you experience and suffer through in this world is just there to show you the way back to your true self, your whole self, your naturally healed self.
Page 38-The healing process has nine parts:
Intention: Self and Universe
Exploration
Mentation
Emotion
Narration
Vibration
Motion
Realization
Creation

December Read/2018

Title: Verbal Judo: The Gentle Art of Persuasion
Author: Thompson, George J.
Call Number: 153.6 T471V 2013
Book Description from amazon:

Verbal Judo is the martial art of the mind and mouth that can show you how to be better prepared in every verbal encounter. Listen and speak more effectively, engage people through empathy (the most powerful word in the English language), avoid the most common conversational disasters, and use proven strategies that allow you to successfully communicate your point of view and take the upper hand in most disputes.

Verbal Judo offers a creative look at conflict that will help you defuse confrontations and generate cooperation from your spouse, your boss, and even your teenager. As the author says, "when you react, the event controls you. When you respond, you’re in control."

This new edition features a fresh new cover and a foreword demonstrating the legacy of Verbal Judo founder and author George Thompson, as well as a never-before-published final chapter presenting Thompson’s "Five Universal Truths" of human interaction.

My Read:

Page 166--Train yourself to be free of bias, prejudice, and expectation. That's easier said than done, of course, and I'm the first to admit that it isn't something that comes naturally. There is a Chinese word that means both "crisis" and "opportunity." By remembering that, I am now able to like Difficult People, or at least to appreciate where they're coming from and view them as challenges and opportunities rather than obstacles.

Page 167-A whole day of Nice People would be boring, but a whole day of Difficult People makes us work. Difficult customers should be interesting and challenging.

PAVPO stands for:

Perspective

Audience

Voice

Purpose

Organization

LEAPS stands for:

Listen

Empathize

Ask

Paraphrase

Summarize