Dystopia to Utopia?

Lighthouse Island: A Novel by Paulette Jiles
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I am conflicted on how I feel about this book. I struggled to get through the first seven chapters, but I kept going because the review I read talked about the beautiful prose. I am a huge fan of beautiful prose. At Chapter 7, I was still waiting for it. I persevered though. On Chapter 13 I had to force myself to put the book down so I could go back to work. Still, for me, the book is really between 3 and 4 stars.

The beginning chapters describe the current world. If it was a movie, I would compare it to maybe The Matrix, or The Book of Eli. The world seems to have been annihilated and people struggle to survive. Water is rationed, people disappear, and there is little hope in this world. However, our heroine, Nadia, is both resourceful and audacious. She has a goal beyond just surviving, and that is to get to Lighthouse Island. She has books and poets to encourage her on her journey.

In her quest to go north, Nadia meets a man, James. They are instantly intrigued with each other. James uses his skills as a cartographer (illegal in this new world) to guide Nadia on her journey. Can Nadia make it on her own? Will James re-connect with her? Is there really a Lighthouse Island?

I did run across some beautiful prose:

"Small traveling elements of joy passed through her like x-rays and lit up all her bones."

and

"an elegant small skiff rocked on its painter as wave after wave boiled up under the trackway, impatient, as are all craft, to be at sea."

are two examples.

I would recommend this book, but know that it will take a while to get drawn into the story.





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The Fault in Our Stars

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

So many people have been talking about this book that I was interested to read it. This is a perfect book club pick as it begs for discussion.

Why is death such a difficult subject in our society? Disability, death, and any situation that puts us out of our comfort zone seems to produce such banal conversations. I cannot imagine what it's like to have cancer, nor have I known any teens with cancer, so it's difficult to judge how realistic the conversations in this book are, particularly between two young people who are dealing with the disease.

I did like the conversations that Hazel and Augustus have with each other and with their families, as well as how the author depicted the thoughts these kids had about their families, themselves, and their non-cancer friends. I think those parts of the book should be taken seriously, and use them to change how we think, feel, and talk with people that walk with a life-threatening illness.

I have never been to Amsterdam, and would be interested to know if the lovely descriptions of that city are accurate. I loved the cabdriver's statement:

"Some tourists think Amsterdam is a city of sin, but in truth it is a city of freedom. And in freedom, most people find sin."

This would be a great discussion point, particularly with teens.

There is a point where the teens have a sexual relationship, which appears to be approved by their parents. I think that yes, teens are definitely pulled toward all things sexual,but having sex before you die is really not going to improve the quality of your life. Our society places so much emphasis on our sexual natures, and really Augustus and Hazel are so much more than that. Their conversations were way more intimate than that actual encounter.

Overall, a good book that would benefit from post-reading discussion.


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Hello You Women of Valor!

A Year of Biblical Womanhood by Rachel Held Evans
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I did not expect to enjoy A Year of Biblical Womanhood as much as I did. In my head, I thought it would be like A.J. Jacobs book The Year of Living Biblically, which had me chuckling throughout.

There is also some humor in Evan's book, but all in all it was a bit more reflective and serious. This was a pretty big plus for me. Much of what she has to say is reinforced by what I've learned from the Teaching Pastor in my own church, lending authority to her voice.

I loved how she described the spiritual practice of Lectio Divina:

"Lectio Divina, or "holy reading," isn't really about reading at all; it's about listening. It's about approaching the text as you would a sanctuary and inviting God to inhabit the words."

There is much to like throughout the book, but I especially liked the chapter on the Proverbs 31 woman. The Proverbs 31 woman is like, so perfect that I, at least, could never hope to attain her magnificance.  Evans explains that the Hebrew (eschet chayil) that describes the wife in question as virtuous or excellent is actually best translated "valorous woman".

This is what her Jewish friend Ahava says about Proverbs 31:

"Take Proverbs 31 for example. I get called an eshet chayil (a valorous woman) all the time. Make your own challah instead of buying? Eshet chayil!! Work to earn some extra money for the family? Eshet chayil!!. . . Every week at the Shabbat table, my husband sings the Provers 31 poem to me. It's special because I know that no matter what I do or don't do, he praises me for blessing the family with my energy and creativity.

I find this beautiful. According to Evans, this is not unique. Jewish men memorize Proverbs 31 and say it to their wives at the Sabbath meal. I love this chapter because it reminds me that I am surrounded by "women of valor" every day, and that we should celebrate each other more.

Evans is passionate about the role women play in all areas of life. She did a great job of bringing out the value that woman played in the Bible and as lovers of Jesus, both historically and today. She did a nice job of bringing her husband's thoughts into the book as well.

Bottom line is, we are all, man, woman, child, valued members of the Kingdom of Heaven. I agree with one of her ending statements:

"It's not our roles that define us, but our character. A calling, on the other hand, when rooted deep in the soil of one's soul, transcends roles."

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Racial Injustice Revealed Through Story

The Round House by Louise Erdrich
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was an excellent book - not only was the story captivating, but the relevance to issues for people of another culture (in this case the Indian culture) are still current. I rarely think about the prejudices that other people incur since most of the folks I hang out with are from the same culture and upbringing. Books like this are so valuable for jolting us awake to the problems we have in our neighborhood and world right here in the good old USA.

"Oops", the main character in the story was very real to me. Oops and his friends lived a pretty normal life up until a racial attack on his mother. The way he and his family, as well as his community, react to this was so believable. It was very easy to empathize with all the characters in the story. Injustice always captures the imagination, but since the basis for the tale was based on very real facts, the story becomes even more compelling.

The ending was a little abrupt for me, but it fit with the overall tale.


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Food. Beautiful, Functional, Delicious!

An Everlasting Meal: Cooking with Economy and Grace by Tamar Adler
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This book rates a 5 just for the fact that is making me rethink the way I do food in my house.

First, this author loves food and her writing affirms this. Take eggs for instance:

"Good eggs are worth it, as long as your stance egg in hand isn't automatic. As long as you stop before cracking it and think: "I am going to softly scramble this egg," or "A bowl of yesterday's rice would be delicious topped with this one . . . A gently but sincerely cooked egg tells us all we need to know about divinity. It hinges not on the question of how the egg began, but how the egg will end. A good egg, cooked deliberately, gives us a glimpse of the greater forces at play."

This is how Waters talks about every food - with respect, love, and a little bit of amazement at all these riches the earth delivers to us.

Since God created the earth to so richly provide for us I want to prepare the food at my table with a grateful heart. Have you noticed how really beautiful vegetables are? I'm not talking about that canned stuff we buy in the store, but the carrot or onion dug out of the dirt? Compare the taste of that freshly purchased leek from the Farmer's market to the leek you bought from the produce section at the grocery store--the taste, and even the small, can't compare. (Leeks are a new vegetable for me,I'm telling you this book has inspired me!)

So, to date, these are the changes I've made at my table.

You know those rotisserie chickens? Well, I buy those here and now, and I have been so wasteful with them. Now I take what's left and boil the carcass on the stove to get every leftover piece of chicken I can and a delicious broth as well. You can do this with raw chicken too. I bought a boiler, let it cook overnight in the crockpot and in the morning the meat just fell off the bones. This worked great other than waking me up multiple times in the night because of the delicious smells.

Onion/Leek tops - throwing these in the freezer to toss in with chicken or beef to flavor the broth.

Bread - I have a bread machine, and we never seem to finish the loaf after that first yummy, warm out of the oven freshness. Now I cut off the crusts and make croutons.

Picnic ham cooked down for 2 meals - scalloped potatoes with ham, and pea soup (I used both the broth and the ham for this).

Beef - cooked for dinner, and have leftover beef and broth in the freezer for at least two more meals -  most probably stew and soup - or, it could be transferred into hot roast beef and mashed potatoes on toast.

One of the things I have not done yet is to take fresh root vegetables from the Farmer's market, roast with some olive oil and salt in the oven and then freeze for future meals.

An Everlasting Meal is all about respecting our daily provisions and being thankful for them, whether they are animal, fruit or vegetable. No more wasting chicken lives for me!

I gather this book is a classic--I thank my friend, Sara, for recommending it to me, and recommend it to all of you!


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Libraries, Tourette's and Morman Upbringing in One Book!

The World's Strongest Librarian: A Memoir of Tourette's, Faith, Strength, and the Power of Family by Josh Hanagarne
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

You will learn so much by reading this book, and about so many things.

Josh Hanagarne writes in such an engaging and warm manner that you'll feel like you're having a conversation with a friend. His love for books, his struggle and description of Tourette's, and his growing up as a Mormon are all shared honestly and with a self-deprecating humour throughout the book.

Don't you think people with Tourette's are often laughed about behind their backs, even though this disability must be so painful for them. What is the world about except being perfect and acting correctly, and Tourette's tears that all down. I think Josh described as best he could what it feels like to have his tics just waiting to explode on him. He tries his best to help us understand what that feels like, and how it feels to know how people may judge him because of it.

The story is about so much more than Tourette's though. It's about how his family supports him, how reading helps him control and escape his disability, and how he continually learns what he can to help him overcome his disability. It's about his love of books, and his job as a librarian and a little peek at what a real live librarian's world looks like. It is quite different from how I imagined it. In his quest to learn more and defeat his tics, Josh tries many things, and the people that help him most along the way are unconventional and surprising. Josh learns some unexpected things about the strategies that help him through these folks.

I have to say that what I love most about this book though, is how Josh loves libraries and what they stand for. I have to share some of the book to demonstrate his passion - a passion that I and many of my friends share, for libraries:

Recently a man approached the desk . . . "I never could have imagined a place like this in Nicaragua . . . I've been traveling for a long time, to this country. I hope you know what you have. In my towns we had nothing like this. And if we did, we had to pay for any information. And just because we were willing to pay for it didn't mean there was anything there worth reading."

A library is a miracle. A place where you can learn just about anything for free. A place where your mind can come alive.

. . . a good library's existence is a potential step forward for a community. If hate and fear have ignorance at their core, maybe the library can curb their effects, if only be offering ideas and neutrality. . . A community that doesn't think it needs a library isn't a community for whom a library is irrelevant. It's a community that's ill.

I want people walking through the doors. I don't care what their reasons are. . . Once they're here, we'll work on why they return. Once they're here they've entered an institution dedicated to fighting ignorance and providing a space without ideology. ..Anyone could enrich their life by spending some time here, if only they were willing to look around.

I appreciate borrowing books on my kindle and finding information on the internet, but the library is still important and necessary. We should do whatever we can to protect it and create community from it. (Seth Godin has a great section on this in his Stop Stealing Dreams Treatise.)

So now I'm off my library rant, but do give this book a try, it's very informative and enjoyable.

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Murder . . .Not My Typical Genre

The Light in the Ruins by Chris Bohjalian
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I don't usually read murder-mysteries, but I like Chris Bohjalian, and when I saw he had a new book out, jumped at the chance to read it. There were several times that I thought I had the plot figured out, and each time I was wrong--that's a huge plus for me. I like that I was kept guessing as I read and as a result I was engaged for the duration of the book.

There are many facets to The Light in the Ruins, as well as to the main characters Christina and Sarafina. Their stories are weaved between the years 1943 and 1955, giving you a chance to know them in both their past and present lives.



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