Lisa Niver's Blog: We Said Go Travel, page 44

My Favorite Reese’s Book Club Books

I love books! I was an early reader and often was reading more than one book at a time growing up. One of my most favorite places to go as a child and as an adult is to the library. I appreciate all the book selections in Reese’s Book Club and have written about many of them!

I wrote about Glennon Doyle’s book for Ms. Magazine: “Untamed”: Brave Means Living From the Inside Out:

Reading Glennon Doyle’s memoir, Untamed, is diving into an adventure of what we can become. We collectively grow stronger as we are more willing to ask hard questions…Reading Glennon Doyle’s memoir, Untamed, is diving into an adventure of what we can become. We collectively grow stronger as we are more willing to ask hard questions….When I chose to leave my marriage and the continent I was on, many people called me brave. I found it challenging because I did not feel courageous—and in fact looked both words up in the dictionary, often trying to understand what they were telling me. Continue reading

I wrote about Christie Tate’s memoir, Group: How One Therapist and a Circle of Strangers Saved My Life, where she shares her shift from believing she will never be enough to having her dreams come true for Thrive Global.

Women in America often ask themselves, “When will it be enough?” and perhaps more importantly, “When will I be enough?”…I highly recommend this book which I loved and read all in one day. I felt like I was right there with her on the bad dates, in the group therapy sessions and I wanted to go grab some plates from my kitchen and break them when she broke hers. Keep Reading…

For Ms. Magazine, I wrote “Eve Rodsky Wants Feminist Partners to Play Fair!”

In order to pick up all of these “invisible” tasks, there is a cost to women’s health, professional goals and personal relationships. “This ‘time tax,’ where women are burdened with more than our fair share of childcare and domestic work,” Rodsky explains, “compromises every aspect of our lives—our relationships, career, sense of identity and physical and mental health. Our perception of men’s time as finite versus women’s time as infinite, or weighted differently in any way, must change if we ever want to achieve true liberation....But what also resonated with me was Rodsky’s definition of “Unicorn Space”—the “rare, magical and essential” time where one partner in a relationship gets to focus inward and “reclaim the interests that make you uniquely you, stoking your passion and driving you to be the best version of yourself.” Reclaiming this space is part of Rodsky’s second rule: reclaiming our right to be interesting. Keep Reading

Fair Play Eve RodskyBrene Brown’s book, Braving the Wilderness, is on the list and I wrote about her book, Daring Greatly, as inspiration for one of my 13 travel writing competitions!

“Daring greatly is not about winning or losing. It’s about courage.” I realized after reading her books and listening to her talks that I am doing enough. When my focus is on Courage, Compassion and Connection as my goals, I remember that I am good enough.

I wrote about Reese’s pick, The Rules of Magic, for Thrive Global in Escape into Fiction this Fall:

Many of the books on my list are set in other locations and times because I missed traveling. Magic Lessons begins with Maria Owens, “in the 1600s, when she’s abandoned in a snowy field in rural England as a baby.” Maria learns the “Unnamed Arts” and the story takes place in England, Curaçao and Salem, Massachusetts. I loved reading about familiars, green magic, Grimoire and the history of the mysterious Maria from the first two books.

It felt strangely familiar to read about how “in the year 1675, when Maria turned eleven, there was another epidemic, of smallpox. Some towns and villages were emptied of all of their inhabitants, and the doors to houses swung open and robbers ruled the roads.” I felt like part of the magic as this tale wove its way through different locations, family members and tragedies. Remember, “Fate is what you make of it. You can make the best of it, or you can let it make the best of you.” During this time of uncertainty between COVID and the election, I liked reading about “Avra kadavra, I will create as I speak, I will force into being that which is impossible and illogical, all that is against the rules of men.”

I also wrote about Untamed and Wild for Undomesticated Magazine in an article called A Reinvention Reading List about the journey to writing my memoir when “these books felt like a flashlight in the darkness of winter, and helped me find my way and myself again.”

I wrote about both Wild by Cheryl Strayed and The Henna Artist in this Ms. Magazine article called, “8 Books That Will Transport You:“

Wild  came out in 2012 while I was on an 18-month adventure in South East Asia. During my travels, I conquered my fears and did two eight-day treks in Nepal with no sherpa. I fell madly in love with this book and Strayed’s honest account of the challenges on the Pacific Crest Trail. When she named her backpack, Monster, I remembered when I had a breakdown in the REI store because I felt so overwhelmed to think that all my belongings had to fit in the bag, and I had to lug it around with me.

I also wrote about Cheryl Strayed’s book, Brave Enough, which helped me feel braver!

While author Alka Joshi’s story starts in 1955 in Jaipur, India, I have to admit some of her descriptions reminded me of my travels there in 2013. I spent three months on the public bus traversing the sub-continent—and her descriptions of the colorful saris, delicate samosas and other tasty treats reminded all my senses (especially my sense of smell) of my adventures.

Women’s lives are intertwined from the village, to town, from one town to another and one life to another. The way that boys become men, and men act like boys, causes many dramas and traumas in this tale. The women find ways to run away from one life but are often surprised by the ways it catches up to you.

I was able to interview Alka Joshi for Thrive Global, “Writing and Rewriting during COVID with Alka Joshi.” And she interviewed me on her show, Reimagine:I wrote about Alka Joshi’s second book for the Jewish Journal and cannot wait for book three! Read all about it here: Travel back to India: The Secret Keeper of Jaipur

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I also wrote about The Secret Keeper of Jaipur for Thrive Global in an article called Sizzling Summer Reads: Feel All Your Feelings. What other books have I written about? Read more here on my portfolio page. Thank you to Reese Witherspoon and Hello Sunshine for creating Reese’s Book Club and bringing more light to all of these incredible books! I look forward to reading more of her picks and hope someday you might be reading my memoir on her list!

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Turkish Coffee Tales, Micro Art Show & Lisa Niver at the Turkish Consulate

Turkish Coffee Tales of Anatolia Documentary Screening & The Greatest Micro Art Show on EarthHow did Turkish Coffee Culture Change the World 500 Years Ago?

Event Invitation: Turkish Coffee Tales of Anatolia Documentary Screening & The Greatest Micro Art Show on Earth
Premier of the “Turkish Coffee Tales of Anatolia” documentary

The private screening at the Turkish Consul General’s Residence on May 20th from 6:30-8:30pm. The launch event will also feature an extraordinary live demonstration from micro art master Hasan Kale.

Please RSVP at trconsulate.events@gmail.com

About the Documentary: 

In December 2013, Turkish coffee was admitted to UNESCO’s World Heritage list as a “cultural inheritance that has to be protected.” Initiated by the Turkish Coffee Lady Foundation, the world’s first coffee diplomacy platform, the documentary is composed of special shootings featuring “dibek coffee” in Mardin, “mirra coffee” in Şanlıurfa, “menengiç coffee” in Gaziantep, “saffron coffee” in Karabük, “coffee brewed on ash” in Nevşehir, “coffee brewed on sand” in Ankara, “mastic coffee” in Izmir and “traditional coffee” in Istanbul.  

About the Artist:

Hasan Kale; a world-renowned micro artist master who can turn tiny objects into miniscule paintings. Known as “Turkey’s Microangelo”, Kale’s exquisitely detailed paintings include pumpkin seeds, coffee beans, rice grains, chickpeas and tiny discarded items such as matchsticks to bottle caps. One of Istanbul’s most famous and talented artists, Hasan Kale will be showcasing some tiny masterpieces and unique designs during this live show. In addition to live demonstration, the event will also include a breathtaking art exhibition and a raffle drawing.

About Lisa Niver

Lisa Ellen Niver is an award-winning travel expert who has explored 101 countries and six continents.
She founded We Said Go Travel in 2010 and now writes for WIRED, Teen Vogue, USA Today 10Best among many others. Her memoir, Brave-ish, One Breakup, Six Continents, and Feeling Fearless After 50, will be available in 2023. She is a KTLA TV travel expert and her YouTube videos on diving, travel, and more have over 1.5 million views. See her videos, articles, awards, and interviews here: https://lisaniver.com/one-page/

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What’s NEW at Princess Cruises?

On April 29, 2022, I was on the Discovery Princess for her naming! I absolutely loved seeing one of the two Sky Suites!Discovery Princess is the final of six sister ships in the Royal Class. What will be next? SPHERE CLASS Did you love watching THE LOVE BOAT? Get ready for the REAL Love Boat coming soon! On your cruise, you want to be in GOOD SPIRITS! Learn about the latest in the beverage program from Rob Floyd, Master Mixologist:

Look forward to food that is WILD for ALASKA with Chef and Culinary Artist Rudi Sodamin. Experience the freshest and most sustainable local delicacies from your destination! How does Princess Cruises take care of the environment? Ask Jeff Corwin, Environmental Ambassador:WELCOME to the Discovery Princess! Join us for the Princess Cruises naming ceremony:

“Princess Cruises announced Princess Premier, a new premium add-on package that offers guests unlimited WiFi for up to 4 devices, premium/top-shelf beverages, photos, specialty dining, and crew gratuities/appreciation. For just $75 per person per day, the inclusive package builds off the popular Princess Plus add-on to offer a more comprehensive bundle and savings of more than 50 percent when the amenities of Princess Premier are purchased separately. In a unique promotion twist, Princess Premier guests also will be automatically entered into a new onboard promotion for a chance to win a cruise for two every year for a decade and up to $100,000 in cash prizes.” Princess Premier goes on sale May 25, for voyages starting June 25 and beyond.

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AND…Don’t forget about the fantastic entertainment!

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Book Launch for Brad Listi: Be Brief and Tell Them Everything

Be Brief and Tell Them Everything by Brad Listi “A darkly funny meditation on creativity and family. The life of an author who is struggling to write his next novel & understand his son’s disabilities, set against a backdrop of escalating human insanity in contemporary Los Angeles.”

Twelve years in the making, Brad Listi read from his new book, Be Brief and Tell Them Everything, at Chevalier Bookstore, the oldest bookstore in Los Angeles. 

Listi shares the darkness, the turbulence and his sense of humor about the madness of living in a city like Los Angeles where “the unifying theme is that there is no unifying theme, the point is that there is no point.” Listi questions everything and asks: “What does it mean to be an artist, a husband, a father?” In life, you can “be whoever you want to be. Live however you want to live. Scrap and claw and fight and dream, and pretend to be infinite in your infinity pool.”

On his arduous journey to this book, Listi implores:  “Who am I? What happened? And what should I do? And why am I here? The problem of how to be a person. The issue of what to write down.” As a writer working on a memoir, I felt comforted by questions which I worry about as well.

Over the last decade he has been interviewing authors on his podcast, OtherPPL, and finding, “the only critical ingredient is transparency, the willingness to face things openly in the company of another person. On a functional level it can feel like an active demonstration of what it means to be human. When this happens, things get effortless and affirming in a hurry, occasionally even transcendent. The basic, deep relief of truly communicating with another human being, giving the mind its proper exercise, and silencing the voice in your head.”

Listi ponders the complexity of being human in this conversation with his wife, Franny, He tells her, “The unlived life of a parent can have enormous psychological impacts on a child. Our job or one of our jobs, I think, is to figure out what we’re called to do. And then do what we’re called to do.”Franny asks him, “So what are you called to do? He tells her, “I’m called to articulate my confusion.” This scene and several others made me laugh out loud as I was reading. Another time he tells her, “There’s an asteroid called Apophsis, Named after the Egyptian god of death. I was reading about it in National Geographic. It’s gonna buzz past Earth in 2029, and if it gets close enough, and moves through something called “the keyhole,” then we’re guaranteed a direct hit in 2036.”“Perfect.” she says. “The entire west coast of North America will be obliterated, I say. But only if it goes through the keyhole. If it misses the keyhole, we’re fine.""Keep me posted," she says.

Life is full of hardships and Listi and his family have gone through many tragedies. As Listi writes, “At times it can leave me feeling like I weigh a thousand pounds…In my experience, there’s only so much benefit to be derived from keeping a running tab on the sadness—a sadness that will, I suspect, come and go in waves for the rest of our lives.” Listi leans into all that has gone wrong and reminds us that “at times, I can feel a sense of enormous pride over the simple fact that we’re managing. The triumph of survival. It isn’t easy.” 

He reminds himself “of world historical figures who had it way worse than I do, who endured unthinkable miseries but found a way to triumph in spite of it all. Nelson Mandela and his twenty-seven years of unjust imprisonment. Anne Frank in the attic with her diary. Helen Keller finding her way out of the darkness. People who have absorbed some of the most dreadful absurdities that life can serve up, but who somehow managed to retain their grace and keep a firm hold on the best of themselves.” I love this historical perspective. One of my favorite proverbs is: “Fall Down 7, Get Up 8!”

I agree with him that there is a “need to address the darkness but [not] get to the point where I’m bludgeoning anyone with it… It is a problem trying to write about the crushing sadness and capture it accurately, without hyperbole, and with some jokes thrown in to make the process bearable.”

In his auto-fiction, Listi suggests that we “forget about trying to have a better past, and accept that some questions have no answers. The answer is that there are no answers. And that’s the only answer there will ever be.”

Listi hopes for us, his family and himself that we make peace with reality and our challenges and come to see what happens to us “less as a mark of difference and more as a binding thread.”

Get your copy of Be Brief and Tell Them EverythingListen to Brad read the beginning of his new book on APPLE PODCASTS , YouTube, Spotify and iHeartRadio:

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This is Not Your Parents’ Hebrew School

This is Not Your Parents’ Hebrew School: Wise CYE and Leo Baeck Are Reinventing Jewish Education

On Sunday May 1, 2022, families at Stephen Wise Temple’s Center for Youth Engagement (CYE) celebrated an academic year unlike any other in the temple’s 58-year history, one which marked a re-imagining of Jewish education for children attending secular schools.

For our end of school celebration, families from five different CYE programs gathered to mingle and share unique stories about their distinct Jewish educational experiences.

“It always felt like we had to work so hard to get our children a Jewish education,” said Jonathan, father of three children enrolled in CYE’s monthly Jewish day camp. “Now, it feels like their Jewish education is working for us, and we couldn’t be happier.”

No matter what name it’s been given—religious school, Hebrew school, or Sunday school—traditional supplementary Jewish education experiences, including those at Wise, have often prioritized community and content over discovery and customization, preventing them from meeting the variety of goals and expectations different families have for their children’s Jewish learning.

Recognizing how the shortcomings of the traditional model prevented us from meeting the unique needs of students and families during the pandemic, we approached our return to on-campus learning in 2021 with an eye towards change. Instead of offering only the same weekly religious school experience as in the past, we began to craft tailored experiences to meet the disparate needs and schedules of our families, who come from a multitude of ethnic, economic, and religious backgrounds.

With limited staff and resources, we needed to think creatively. Our first step was to explore a novel partnership with Leo Baeck Temple—historically a partner of the Wise community and home to one of Los Angeles’s premier religious schools—to ensure that we could still provide a world-class weekly religious school experience to those families who wanted it. Next, we sought to identify the different priorities of our families, using interviews, surveys, and recommendations to determine the content and schedules they craved for their children’s Jewish education. Finally, we carefully considered the resources at our disposal, as well as available scholarship in the field, in order to select the best experiences we could provide to meet the needs of our families.

We began with five programs, each offering Jewish education for students with different goals, different learning styles, and different needs.

Five distinct learning opportunities for Jewish childrenA monthly Jewish day camp , filled with fun and engaging experiences that allow students to fall in love with their Judaism as they practice Jewish values on the field of play, in the pool, at the art studio, and more.A monthly family learning experience , filled with project-based learning activities that enable families to determine how to infuse their homes with moments of meaning, discovery, and joy from our tradition.A weekly Shabbat Torah study , filled with deep insights into our tradition’s sacred teachings that allow students who want academic rigor (without the stress) to tackle in-depth study of Judaism.A weekly T’filah class, filled with opportunities to enjoy and master the art of Jewish prayer, either in-person or online.A weekly religious school experience at Leo Baeck Temple, where students discover the joys of Judaism through study, prayer, art, dance, gardening, and more.

Having developed these five different choices for supplementary Jewish learning, we then engaged our families in deep discussions about their priorities for their children’s Jewish education, in order to help them select the best path for their children’s learning.

There have been challenges: offering different courses at different times makes community building among students a Herculean challenge, one we are still learning to navigate. For some students, this Sunday was their first time meeting one another. Meanwhile, for many families, like Jonathan’s, the opportunity to choose their children’s Jewish educational path made sense immediately, but for others, it took some time to see the possibilities that flexibility creates. Some children moved between programs until they found the right fit for their learning and scheduling needs.

The early results, though, have been encouraging. The flexibility of the offerings attracted families who otherwise may have eschewed Jewish education for their child, either because of their religious school memories or the time demands.

“We wanted to introduce our children to Jewish education, but once a week was too much for us,” said Jamie, the father of a kindergartener and first grader. “We already miss so much family time with them. But the camp Sundays and the family program made the perfect way to introduce them to Jewish study.”

In addition, families new and old have expressed deep satisfaction with the multitude of options at their disposal.

“We’re so grateful,” said Roya, the mother of a fifth grader in our Shabbat Torah study. “We’ve been here a long time, and this is what we’ve always wanted. My daughter loves it, and it’s never a fight to get her here on Saturday morning.”

As our academic year concludes, we look forward to 5783 and all the opportunities it presents to build meaningful relationships between our families and to further enhance and develop the available choices for families searching for the right fit for Jewish education.

To learn more, visit us online at https://wisela.org/cye or call us at 310.889.2211.

Why Jewish Education?

Throughout their history, the Jewish people have engaged in an ongoing search for purpose and meaning that has led to countless developments which affect the ways in which we live and think. Jewish education enables children and adults alike to continue this conversation, augmenting our perspectives with the wisdom and values of our forebears while advancing their search for purpose and meaning. In order to lead deep and engaging Jewish lives, we must embrace deep and engaging Jewish learning.

In addition, while a firm Jewish education is essential to becoming better Jews, modern research suggests that Jewish education and participation in a Jewish community makes us healthier, happier, and more successful, too.

Why WISE?

All our Center for Youth Engagement programs contain meaningful and joyous Jewish learning opportunities designed to prepare Jewish children to:

Question. Navigate life’s challenges and mysteries with critical thinking, curiosity, and wonder.Make a difference. Make the world a more just and moral place.Be good. Make choices consistent with progressive Jewish values.Be fulfilled. Achieve shleimut, a sense of wholeness, through purpose and resilience.Connect. Understand the strength of community, history, and heritage – on their own, and as the key to achieving the goals above. https://www.facebook.com/WiseLA

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