The Right Book

There is a special place in my heart for books that have been exactly the right book at the right time. I'm not sure how it works but I cherish it. A few days ago I woke up and my first thoughts were to look up Ram Dass. I still remember the day I read his book Be Here Now. I was in high school, and my parents were gone for the weekend. I lay down on their bed and read the book in one swoop. The top of my head blew off and I was never the same. I called my library, and they had a recent book of his called Still Here. I've inhaled it! He is a magnificent teacher.

I particularly love transformation memoirs, and one of my favorites is A Place to Stand, by Jimmy Santiago Baca. He is also a magnificent writer of poetry and short stories. He gave an inspiring lecture in December 2006 called The Power of Books. It's available on-line as a 35-minute audio file, provided by the Pima County Library on their website.

Speaking of memoirs and lectures, Julius Lester wrote an amazing memoir called Love Song, as well as many other books. Recently Julius published a fabulous lecture about Children's Literature on his blog, Olio.

A painter named Justin Clayton of Austin TX is posting a visual blog of his realist oil paintings, called Daily Paintings. I am so inspired by this. Habit is the muse, and this guy is demonstrating it!