“I'm alive. When I'm eating that's all I think about. If I'm on the march, I just concentrate on marching. If I have to fight,it will be just as good a day as any to die. If you can concentrate always on the present, you'll be a happy man. Life is the moment we are living now.”

~ Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist

I'm going to call this "The Book that Made Me Think Alot". About time. About money. Control and chance. About dreams and journeys and realities. Love. About self.

 The Alchemist is simple and understandable to read, but full of complex, thought provoking ideas. A young shepard named Santiago leaves his flock to follow his heart. He travels from Spain to Egypt, loses everything (or so he believes), and then must live and decide things day to day, moment to moment. There is no past because it is already gone and no future because it is not yet here. Only the present. Now.

“We are travelers on a cosmic journey,stardust,swirling and dancing in the eddies and whirlpools of infinity. Life is eternal. We have stopped for a moment to encounter each other, to meet, to love, to share.This is a precious moment. It is a little parenthesis in eternity.

Gosh, I got to read quite a few good books this year. It's hard to choose favorites, but I'm going to :)

Favorite Fiction - The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

Favorite Non-Fiction - Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President by Candice Millard

Favorite YA Novel: The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

Worst book that I kept reading because it was so terrible I just couldn't look away: Vampire Shrink (Kismet Knight, Ph.D., Vampire Psychologist #1) by Lynda Hilburn. Seriously, I ran across the title in the library catalog and felt compelled to read it. Why oh why. But it was excellent fodder for lunch room conversation.

                                                              Happy New Year!!!

Sheryl Sandberg is one year older than I am. She graduated from Harvard Business School; I graduated from Kent State. She is the chief operating officer of Facebook; I am a librarian. We are both women who want to have successful, productive careers.

Since I work at the library, I rarely ask for books as gifts. But this year I have requested a copy of Lean In: Women, Work and the Will to Lead. As I was reading the book I was using post-its to mark passages I related to or found inspiring and wanted to go back and read again. When I finished, I noticed there were an awful lot of colorful little flags sticking out of the pages. That's when I realized I should probably have my own copy for reference.

Sandberg's writing is both personable and encouraging. She has a fantastic education and a wealth of accomplishments behind her, has worked hard and learned that "having it all" is not all it's cracked up to be. How often have we heard the phrase "It's not personal. It's business."? For many people, the workplace is not only a place to collect a paycheck, but coworkers become friends. Our problems don't leave themselves at home (have you cried at work? She has. And so have I.) Decisions have to be made and they can be tough decisions. And since many women are not comfortable with disagreement and confrontation, learning how to trust your own judgement, delegate responsibility, and let go of worrying about decisions once they are made can be the toughest part of the job. Sheryl challenges us to step up and gives some great pointers about how to do it.

Sheryl Sandberg: Why we have too few women leaders (TED Talk):

It's the time of the year when the "Best Books of 2013" lists are coming out. There are top picks for a variety of genres as well as non-fiction, but three books pop up again and again. Khaled Hosseini, noted author of The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns, triumphs again with his generational and global novel about how people act and react to each other in And the Mountains Echoed. Altering time, history and life itself, Kate Atkinson reflects on the choices we make with Life after Life. And The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt relates the story of Theo, a boy who loses his mother in a tragedy, and his difficult passage from teen to adult. For more about these titles and plenty of other recommended books, check out the following sites:

• Goodreads Choice Awards 2013
• Amazon's Top 100 Editor's Picks 
• The New York Times 10 Best Books of 2013 
• The Huffington Post Best Books of 2013
• Barnes and Noble Best New Books of 2013