Endings and Beginnings

Today I finished reading a book and it is the first book I read for the new year: The Mysteries of Creation: The Genesis Story by Rocco A. Errico. As I read this book, I had hoped it would answer some questions I’ve had about the creation story in the book of Genesis. Like how was the Earth and everything made in just 7 days? Why does God say “let us” at the beginning? And is it true God only wanted humans to eat the plants and not the animals? This book did touch on those questions but it didn’t really “answer” those questions. It just explored different opinions about what the answer could be. It didn’t give anything concrete. I was going to review this book but after I finished reading it, I was just too disappointed with it to write a review. It does offer some interesting information but I wouldn’t really recommend it. And I would have to WANT to recommend a book that I review on my book review blog.

Well, I finished reading one book today and started on another: One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia. It is really good. Jennifer recommended it to me after she finished reading it (she read it for OBOB – Oregon Battle of the Books). I am halfway through it. Reading about the three sisters in Oakland reminded me of when my family lived in Oakland a long time ago. We lived in a predominantly black neighborhood. We wanted to be FRIENDS with the kids in that neighborhood but just couldn’t because they kept calling us “crackers” and hating on us. We just ended up not trying to be friends with them anymore and just fighting right along with them. At least the grownups were nice to us. I shared all this with Jennifer at dinner and told her I got nothing against having black friends. Some of the best friends I have had were black. She told me she feels the same and she has a best friend who is black.

And speaking of books, I went to the bookstore today. I was looking for a new book that just came out. I saw this book advertised in a newsletter I am subscribed to about new books by different publishing companies and I just knew I HAD to have that book! (It helps it had some good reviews on Amazon.) But the bookstore didn’t have the book, because it was published by a print on demand (POD) publisher. So I ordered the book. They said it would ship directly to my house. Later on after I got home, I logged in to my email account and was surprised to see that the order had been processed lickety-split and the book was already shipped to me. Wow! That was fast!

It made me think about my own POD books. I started to wonder if that is the norm for bookstores now. That they DO list POD books but the books will be shipped directly from the publisher to the customer. I made a mental note to ask my publisher about that. (With one of them, I ordered the book and it arrived at the bookstore, not at my house. But that was years ago.)

Today I also finished reading the January issue of Astronomy Magazine. It said that Jupiter is visible this month after sunset in the western part of the sky until the 24th. I went outside looking for it but all I saw was the Big Dipper.

Today is ending on a depressing note. Was reminded just how badly I need to get a job and mulled over my failure to get one. Then I started to remember how, at one job interview, the lady made a fuss over how she was supposed to contact me if she can’t call me on the phone. Apparently, it’s not enough to have text and email. I just hope something comes up.

Now I’m off to watch a movie and I hope it will cheer me up.