Books! Books! Bounteous books!
Bounteous books to be had!
Books by Xander, books by friends,
books by me, books by Dad!
Books about climbs
books full of prose
books full of poems –
you want some of those? 🙂

For those of you wondering what to buy your family and friends for Christmas this year, might I offer these suggestions?

My friend, Constance Mears, published a wonderful book this year called The Bumbling Mystic’s Obituary. Here’s my review for it:
I laughed out loud, I cried – *The Bumbling Mystic* touched my heart and filled my soul. Mears has a way with words – she’s poetic and funny – but more important than her skill as a writer is the way she uses the tools of her craft to help the reader look at life with a new perspective and see the possibilities in front of each of us.

She writes “Clearly I was missing the point in my choice of occupation: I liked the military, except for the killing; I liked missionary work, except for proselytizing; I liked homemaking, except for being married. I wanted to be a martyr, without the gruesome end.” And as she finds her purpose in life, she comes to realize that the “Universe was not only aware of my plan, but was enthusiastically playing along.”

Connie Mears’s book is a joy to read. I would recommend it to anyone in need of inspiration. And who isn’t, right?

Xander Terrell’s book of poems, Dream Voyage, can be purchased through Amazon. Songbird writes: “If only fear could fuel a rocket” – wonderful philosophizing and musings from a young poet. Both my kids and I enjoyed this collection.”

Here’s one of the poems from Xander’s book –

Where Happiness Lives

Golden lights
and the deepest shadows.
Smiling faces illuminated by life.
A commodity where I come from.
An inherent condition here.
Where joy runs rampant,
like that one naked man who,
in the presence of a police officer,
streaked across the town in the wake
of the city-wide party,
the officer laughing in mutual enjoyment
before calling the man by his first name,
as a friend and a neighbor,
to get his shit together.
– Xander Terrell

Dad (Dee Molenaar) has several books on the market – Memoirs of a Dinosaur Mountaineer, his award-winning The Challenge of Rainier, and Mountains Don’t Care, But We Do.

And I added another book to the market with Are You Taking Me Home Now?: Adventures with Dad. (Are You Taking Me Home Now? has eight reviews now – all five stars! And may I offer my sincere appreciation to anyone who takes the time to write a review – it means an awfully lot to an author to know her book has ventured forth and made contact with another human being.) Are You Taking Me Home Now? is about my adventures with Dad in the year and a half since Mom died. I wrote another book, Finding the Rainbows, that chronicles my adventures with both Mom and Dad during the year after they’d moved from the family homestead to a retirement home near me.

Latest book!

I also have two books of poetry on the market: The Brush of Angel Wings, and A Poem Lives on My Windowsill. Here’s one of the poems from The Brush of Angel Wings:

Two Earthworms

I came upon two earthworms on the sidewalk today –
their noses suspended in the air, frozen by the heat
of the sun – dried out and stiff
and I reached down and plucked up the first
and carried him to the dirt.
I dug a little hole for him and covered him
with earth – a grave to bring him back to life.
Gently I used my fingers as tweezers and pulled
the second worm from the sidewalk
and lifted him to the moist soil, laid him down,
and covered him with a wet leaf.
Fare thee well, my new friends –
May you revive and spend the rest of your days
happily leaving a trail of rich earth in your wake

The four books in the “Madcap Christian Scientist” series can be found on Amazon or purchased through your favorite book store.  The first book in the series is Blessings: Adventures of a Madcap Christian Scientist; The second book is The Madcap Christian Scientist’s Middle Book; Book number three is The Madcap Christian Scientist: All Things New; and the final book in the series is The Madcap Christian Scientist’s Christmas Book.

Whew! Okay. I think that’s it. For now. 🙂

Happy gift-shopping!

– Karen