April Reads

Over a Thousand Hills I Walk With You by Hanna Jansen

Jeanne is a survivor of the Ywanada genocide. A child of a rich family, she is witness to a world turned upside down.


Fire by Bill Bright & Jack Cavanaugh

Josiah Rush leaves his hometown of Havenhill, outcast. As a young man he accepted the blame for an accident which results in three people’s death by fire. Now he returns, seven years later at the behest of his best friend from the school days, to serve as their minister. He knows he’ll be facing a lot of judgement. The town has changed a lot, suffering from what Josiah calls “soul sickness.” He sets out to find it’s root and to save the town, even though the odds are against him. I enjoyed the book…the characters were interesting, and the story was overall well written.

One area irritated me, though. At one point, a big slaver arranges a slave auction in Havenhill in hopes of eventually turning the town into a slave port. The citizens decide to outfox the slaver by joining the auction, outbidding everyone, and setting the slaves free (putting them on a ship back to Africa ). The slaver is outraged. My question…..why would the slaver care? No matter who bid for the slaves, that money still went into his personal purse. Releasing the slaves also did not impact the slaver’s profit margin. That part of the story didn’t make sense to me.


The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver

I’ve been planning to read this book for a long time. I adored Kingsolver’s The Bean Tree. The Reverend Price takes his wife and four daughters to the Congo where he hopes to convert the Congolese to christianity. We quickly learn that he is a horrible, hateful man, completely self-absorbed and seeing things only his way. As a result, he makes no progress with the natives, and quickly alienates his own family. We follow the thoughts of the five women as they try to adjust to life in this foreign place, during a time when the Congo is in political turmoil. Between the natural disasters and the violence of mankind, they reevaluate their existing views of God and shape into a completely different family.


The Ghost Map (the story of London ’s most terrifying epidemic – and how it changed science, cities, and the modern world) by Steven Johnson

This nonfiction book is fascinating. It’s written in a truly engaging manner, not just dry facts. I loved hearing about some of the 18th Century London jobs that no longer exist – like nightsoil men. There were several of these jobs designed to help control a city’s waste management. As the city became larger and as the economic demographics changed, these positions were eliminated, allowing the waste to grow out of control.

I always knew that cholera was transmitted by polluted water. However, the book explained that cholera had ALWAYS existed in the water. So, what caused this bacteria to go from being a common, harmless thing to an epidemic that killed thousands in a matter of days? The explanation boils down to waste management and the pollution of drinking water. Cholera was designed to consume human excrement. In order to effect a human being, it had to be ingested. Normally, since humans do not ingest excrement, the cholera bacteria would have been passed out of the human digestive system without any notice. However, as human waste began to build up in the drinking water, everything changed. In addition, bacteria – with its tremendously fast reproductive and evolution cycle – was able to change into a strain that was even more dangerous. Normally, a parasite needs to keep the host alive as long as possible to survive. However, once the bacteria was able to survive by passing quickly and easily from one host to another, the need to keep the host alive was unnecessary, and the strain began to reproduce more quickly and become viciously virulent.

The book discussed how medical studies communicated their theories on how to cure cholera….generally by argumentative articles in the local newspaper. There were no processes available to guide research, ensure data accuracy, and to protect the general public. Also, the process of research into the actual cause of cholera was limited and often misguided. It was fascinating to read on the progress of the medical research.

Why do some nationalities have low tolerances to alcohol or lactose? Johnson throws out his theory on this one. Nationalities with no tolerance to alcohol trace back to hunter/gatherer tribes (American Indian, Eskimo, Aborigines); their introduction to alcohol has been fairly recent in the scope of genetic evolution. Nationalities that came from cities or agrian backgrounds started drinking alcohol a long time ago. Alcohol is, actually, a poison; many of the early users died from alcohol poisoning or from the effects of alcohol abuse (cerosis). Those who drank alcohol and survived (exhibited an early tolerance to the poison) passed on their genetic predisposition to their descedants. Similarly, dairy from milk and goats is not natural to the human diet. Many non-white cultures (Indian, Asian, African, etc.) are lactose-intolerant. Again, we can trace the ability to consume milk products back to those civilizations that were predominantly herders. The increased lactose tolerance was genetically passed on.


The Cheese Monkeys by Chip Kidd

This little story is hilarious. You follow the progress of a young man goes to college as an art major. He doesn’t even particularly LIKE art, but there is no major for “making stuff.” We get a description of the creative friends he makes, the classes he takes, his quirky teachers, and his personal development as he discovers what he really loves – graphic design. The dialogue is intelligent and humorous. I think my niece would love this.


Resurrection by Tucker Malarkey

A mystery intrigue novel based on the Lost Gospels of Nag Hammadi, along the lines of The DaVinci Code (which I loved). It’s post WWII, and Gemma (a nurse) is still mourning her mother’s death when she receives communication from her father. He’s working on a very exiciting project in Egypt , and he tells her he thinks it will change Christianity. He is purchasing a home, and the plans are for Gemma to join him soon. The next thing she knows, she is notified of his death from heart attack. While she is contemplating how a healthy, vivacious man with no heart problems can suddenly have a heart attack, she receives a package that her father mailed just before his death. It contains a piece of an ancient script. Gemma goes to Egypt to claim her father’s remains….and to uncover the mystery of his suspicious death and to unveil the mystery of his project.



Step-by-Step Composition Techniques for Digital Photographers by Ernst Wildi

Neatly organized into a variety of categories….different things to look for when composing pictures to avoid distractions and to help reinforce the subject. His strength was clearly in the landscape realm. His written tips for portraits was all right, but his pictures for them were ridiculous…particularly when he was talking about “natural” poses. I thought the first half of the book was quite helpful, and then it went downhill from there.

The Root of All Evil

I suck at money management. Always have. Can't wrap my brain around "estimating" expenses....if I don't keep penny by penny tabs, I always find that I've spent way more than I though I had. I never have a slush fund....I live paycheck to paycheck. I can't seem to figure out the whole budget thing.

This is a source of contention with my husband. He asks where all of my money goes. I always say I don't know, and that is the truth! I don't buy clothes or jewelry or make up. I stopped buying books and scrapbook supplies years ago. I fire the housekeeper. My extravagances these days seem to be taking the boys out to eat. And we don't even do that much any more. I do spend $35 a month on BlockBuster to Go. Should I cancel that? Probably.

I really want to get better at this. It's not fair that DH pays all of the bills (except for daycare). I contribute virtually nothing to this family. I don't like that DH has so little respect for me; salt in the wound that I have brought it on myself.

He wants to change careers. He's been unhappy in his job for a long time, and I of all people know what it is to hate your job. I want to support him in his decision to change jobs. But, as he pointed out today, a career change means a reduction in income, and doesn't think he can count on me to help. I offered to let him take over my money management altogether. Give me an allowance. Give him access to my account and let him handle the bills. He has not accepted this offer.

So, this is what I will do. I will send him a weekly financial report of all my expenses. Here is what I got paid. This is what I spent and on what. Here is my credit card payment and outstanding balance. What would he like to see me do differently?

This is me handing over a piece of my independence. Financial dependency used to outrage me. Now I don't care. It's a burden to me, since I do it so poorly.

OCD

My brother is a prankster and good-natured comedian. Whereever he is, people are laughing and having a good time. For this reason, he is surrounded by people who love him and call him friend...even when he is more inclined to call them "acquaintance." The downside to his personality is that we often forget that underneath the humor and amiability is a smart, deep-thinking man.

In short, he's often brilliant.

He had a brief conversation with my husband in which only the sparest detail has been passed to me. DH told me just enough to rile me up, it being his nature to put me off-kilter. Something about how I am generally surrounded by turmoil and trouble of my own making, and that I'm obsessive compulsive.

Trying to turn it into a joke, but really being somewhat hurt by the insinuation, I called my brother and challenged him on it. He did some skirting, but admitted that he thought I was OCD.

At first I was derisive. But even I had to finally admit that there was something to the accusation, since I dwelled on that comment for weeks.

One to overthink a subject to death. That's me. One to get onto a new passion and work on it frenzedly. That's me. Hold a grudge. That' me.

Funny that I could live this lifestyle for 40+ years and not see it for what it is. I might not be the kind of person that locks and unlocks a door twenty times or follows destructive rituals to the point of exhaustion (is hashing over a subject for months a destructive ritual?), but I have to admit that I do have OCD tendencies. Combine that with my anxiety and depression patterns, I finally have to admit to myself that lived my adult life with a form of mental illness. Have I lived my life successfully? Meaning, have I lived a full life despite my disorder, or have I lived a crippled life because of it. My answer is different depending upon the day.

My brother-in-law lost his five year battle to cancer. I flew to my sister's side in hopes of being help to her. Instead, I had this most horrible realization while I was there. My family expects nothing of me. Asks nothing of me. Because they think me incapable of providing it? It hasn't always been this way, which makes me think that maybe I've gotten much worse over the years. My sister was glad I was there; I know that. But, she got her emotional support from her girlfriends and from my brother (proving once again his amazing insight). Originally, there was a fear that T's husband may have left her into financial straits, and plans were made to organize her bills and determine the status of her current situation. The organization of this paperwork was assigned to my SIL, despite the fact that she was already overwhelmed with a number of time-consuming tasks of her own. The fact is that everyone knew she would come through for them, no matter what. Nobody asked me to do anything. I sat there like a third wheel.

Because I have created this myself. I do become overwhelmed by things, get angry and upset, and I withdraw. I don't cope well. My family knows this, and they have learned to not assign tasks to me. But somehow, I've slipped through these years without seeing what was happening.

There is another woman in my family who is socially inept. She has "problems" but nobody is particularly clear on exactly what those problems are. In the fashion typical of my family, we handle her as a family joke and embarrassment. It occurred to me that I had become another version of her. My family doesn't exclude me, but I sense now that I have sort of edged to the outside circle of my family. It used to be because I lived so far away. Now I think it is also because I simply don't function in an acceptable way. I have isolated myself. I fear that they might be joking about me the same way we did her. This horrifies me.

The worst part is that even as I see the isolation happening and I dislike it, I continue to add to it. I've been home this whole week recovering from a surgery, and I'm lonely. But I don't call my friends and I don't call my friend to say that I'm lonely and i'd like company. I tell myself instead that nobody wants to be bothered with my whining. I'm so often depressed or down about something, I'd rather keep it to myself. And the OCD spins merrily on. To fill my hour, I started reading a Western Civilization textbook, and now I've got maybe 30 books on order at the library based on interesting subjects I now want to read about in further detail. Not one or two books.....every book the library has to offer on the subject of paleonthropic and neolithic culture....and I've got a list on other Egyptian and Mesopotamian subjects to follow. Sheez. What's the point of that.

And yet, despite the fact that this worries me a bit, I'm also happy that I'm interested in something enough to want to pursue it. Because when I'm depressed, nothing interests me. So, in this way, my depression and OCD patter back and forth, and I sit and watch to see how this tennis match called my life will play out.

June Reads

A Name of Her Own by Jae Kirkpatrick

Based on the true story of Marie Dorion. An ambitious Indian woman married to a half-blood (French Canadian Indian), Pierre Dorion, wants to be wife to a successful man. Pierre works as an interpreter for the Americans seeking to make a new trading route from the old Lewis and Clarke trading trail. She hopes that he will prove himself and get the recognition that no other half-breed ever has. This does not happen, of course. Pierre wants to leave his wife in safety while he goes off on the expedition, but she forces her will so that she and her two sons accompany the expedition. The presence of a woman and children saves the troupe several times, but also challenges her definition of a mother. Does she have the right to put her sons at such risk? This is a fascinating story of the early invasion of whites into the Northwest territory, and that of a woman's place among men, as well as that of an Indian among whites.


The Painted Drum by Louise Erdrich

Poetically written. Sometimes you wonder what the point is as the author navigates between the different viewpoints of several individuals...but if you tough it out, you are well rewarded. Faye, the daughter of a half-blood mother and a white (crazy) father, is an antiques collector. She discovers an old indian drum among several other fantastic Indian artifacts in the estate of an old Indian trader. Something drives her to hide this drum from the family estate in an attempt to find the home from where it was originally stolen. We discover that the drum was built by a father, devastated by the loss of his family. His wife leaves him for another man in an ill-fated love affair. Horribly, to survive the trek to her lover, she is forced to fling her daughter into the mouths of starving wolves in order to survive. The drum is built with the bones of the dead child inside. The spirit of the daughter incompasses this drum, lending healing and sacrifice where it is needed most.


Virgin by Robin Maxwell

Just one of the many novels that Robin wrote about Queen Elizabeth. Doesn't she have any other stories in her? Anyway, this particular book has merit via her description of Anne Bolyn. Catherine Parr, Henry the VIII's last wife, brought Mary, Elizabeth, and Edward VI out of banishment and raised them lovingly as her own. She also sought to teach Elizabeth how to be queen, despite the fact that at the time it seemed highly unlikely she would ever be queen. Caherine said this....that Elizabeth had a lot to learn from her mother Anne...especially from what Anne had done wrong. She explains that Anne was an educated woman, rare at the time, and that her education served her well. However, she had never been taught to be a queen, and so her behaviors of flaunting her dislikes, hugging her power to herself and trying to hold back the people around her, served to bring on her own demise. She instructed Elizabeth to learn from her mother's mistakes and adopt her mother's virtues.


Green Girls by Michael Kimball

This book was frustrating in how obtuse the characters can be. Beliefs and suspicions are blindly converted to "fact" and the repercussions for these errors are vast. All of Michael's characters are poor communicators, hugging their stories to themselves, and refusing to share information even with those they trust. It gets really annoying.

March Reads

Green Dragon, White Tiger by Annette Motley

Another book on Empress Wu, although I hadn’t realized it when I ordered it. Fascinating how many different perspectives there can be on one historical individual. This one is written more as a romance tale; Lady Wu is written as a sympathetic character in all ways. What keeps this from being tripe, however, is that Motley allows her character to darken as time goes on. After all, how can a woman experience this much luxury and power and not lose some of her innocence….and Dark Jade (Empress Wu) does just that.


March by Geraldine Brooks

This is a very interesting book. A spin-off from Alcott’s Little Women books, this is the story of their father’s point of view. During Little Women, the farther is absent, serving as a chaplain in the war. This is his story. Through his eyes, we see that Marmie, the girls’ mother, was actually hot-headed and impulsive as a young woman…..just like Jo. That was interesting, because she is so mild-mannered and soft-spoken in the Little Women novels. And father March is an abolitionist, so a lot of the story’s dialogue is on his outrage against slavery. This is always a subject I enjoy to read about.


The Gnostic Gospels by Elaine H Pagels

With the discovery of the Nag Hammadi texts, what have we learned about Christianity? It was generally believed that factioning of Christian belief was a fairly recent phenomena. However, the uncovering of these writings shows that there was disagreement and factions even during the first couple of centuries. What makes a text orthodox vs. or heretical? Who makes that decision? Are the teachings in these documents truly herectical and misguided, or is our holy bible incomplete? This book laid the debate out in a very interesting, clear way. The orthodox and gnostics varied in many ways, but she identified seven key issues that were pivotal.

One church, one bishop. The orthodox established a hierarchy of bishops based on their understanding of Peter’s requirement. I don’t really get that, since I don’t see anywhere in the Bible that describes this hierarchy in heaven that Peter is supposedly imitating. I think the gnostics were correct when they accused a group of men buildng a structure to enforce their own power over other men. On the other hand, the gnostic approach was almost childlike and incredibly naïve. They believed that God was inside each person, so any one who dreamed or “experienced” what they believed to be a godly moment, was at that moment touched by God and should teach. Therefore, everyone’s interpretation was correct (except the orthodox, of course), and anything they did in the name of God was ok. Instead of a hierarchy, they drew lots to determine who would be the priest, etc. That’s just chaos, to my mind.

Monotheism. The orthodox says there is one God. Familiar, despite the confusing trinity thing. Certain sects of gnostics said there were more than one God (what???) and that the God that the orthodox worshipped was merely a lowly, misguided creator who was jealous BECAUSE there were other Gods. In comes goddesses, etc., and there are also some really disturbing gnostic passages where the serpent in the garden is telling man that God (we’re talking the lowly creator here) should be ignored because he doesn’t have man’s best interest at heart. Scarey.

God the male and the feminine. This one got pretty complicated. Was Mary Magdalene really an apostle….especially a favored one? Orthodox says no, but then orthodox pretty much delegates women to worthless pieces of crap, so no surprise. However, The gnostic view was pretty creepy too. Don’t know what to think about it.

Essentially, what my take away is this……somewhere between the two is the truth. I believe that the orthodox church is a creation of man….not of God. It’s a big ol’ institution designed to empower a select few, with the secondary mission of worshipping God. The gnostics disagreed with some stuff, but their approach was just plain crazy. It probably seemed logical during the 1st and 2nd centuries, but in this age of science, it’s easy to see that their methods were horribly flawed.


The Nag Hammadi Library in English by Coptic Gnostic Library Project

And, of course, how can I read and thoroughly understand what is being explained in The Gnostic Gospels without having access to the library itself? This book also includes a number of writings on experts, giving their opinons on these texts, examining them from multi angles…philosophical, religious, social/economic, etc. I tried to read some of the texts on my own….yegads. Very difficult to read, and really boring. I think I’ll leave it to the experts.


Off Main Street : Barnstormers, Prophets, and Gatemoutyh’s Gator by Michael Perry

I requested this book as soon as I finished reading Perry’s Truck, a Love Story. I love his writing style, his sense of humor, and his upbeat approach to life. His book of essays didn’t let me down, even though I don’t consider myself a big essay reader. This is a collection of articles that he’s written for different sources as a freelance writer. Some didn’t do much for me, many did. My favorite was his response to a personal invitation to join the KKK. This is a guy with his head screwed squarely on. The only time I out and out disagreed with him was on his piece on Elvis. He writes that he never really “got” the whole Elvis thing, but that it didn’t matter that Elvis was dead because the whole Elvis icon thing is still alive and well. That’s where I disagree…..the Americana Elvis kitsch is upsetting to me. It has made a talented artist and a truly good person into something laughable. My argument is that Micheal didn’t “get” Elvis, and still doesn’t.


The Wednesday Letters by Jason F Wright

Husband and wife die on the same day….the wife of a heart attack, and the husband because there is no need to fight his cancer any more. An amazing little blessing for this couple. The children return to prepare the funeral, and discover something they never knew about there parents. For as long as they were married, Dad wrote a letter to his wife every Wednesday. Some were love letters, some were journal entries written on notepaper, scraps, envelopes….whatever. Essentially, it was a running discord that kept a history of their marriage. The children are shocked to discover that, unknown to them, there had been a shocking secret…resulting in the birth of the third son. Infidelity? If so, why did the couple stay together? This is not a story about about gleefully uncovering dirty little secrets. This story is a heart-lifting testimony to faith and the endurance of real love.


The Magical Life of Long Tack Sam by Ann Marie Fleming

A graphic novel based on Ann’s real life search to examine her family genealogy. She discovers that her great grandfather was a Chinese magician and acrobat….apparently fairly common occupations in China . However, Sam’s enterprise was successful in America ….and yet her family knew virtually nothing about it. A pretty cool little book.


An Imperfect Lens by Anne Richardson Roiphe

Cholera strikes Alexander, and two groups of scientists (one from France, one from Germany ) rush to the site to study the disease. Each group hopes to be the first to see the bacteria. We see the impact of the disease through their eyes. The title is a play on the fact that their microscopes were barely strong enough to see such a small life form….but also that what their “eyes” saw was shaped by what they believed to be scientifically true. I think I might not have enjoyed this book very much (the writing style was clipped and almost childlike), except that I read it hard on the heels of the other book about Cholera in London . Sometimes it’s all about the timing.


Finn by Jon Clinch

This is a spin-off of Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn. The story of Huck’s father. I find it very interesting that Finn’s first name is never revealed, as if to keep him as a mere shadow of humanity. We learn the full name of his brother, his father, and his grandfather, but never the name of Huck’s father. The closest we come to his name is the twice repeated, “His mother greeted him by his christian name.” Interesting.

I thought this book would give us the background of Huck’s father (it does) and turn him into a more sympathetic character (it doesn’t). Rather, we find that Finn was always rather a despicable person. Even as a child, he was rebellious and angry. His father was hard-nosed, judgemental, rigid, cruel, and a screaming bigot…and his efforts to shape Finn only served to alienate him. But, I get the impression that no matter who the parent, Finn would have been the same. It’s as if Finn is ruled more by nature than any bent of society.

The first scene in this novel, an older Finn joins an old, blind moonshiner and shares some “pork fatback” with him. An unusual kindness, one grasps, especially since Finn doesn’t partake of it himself. We later learn that that fatback is actually the peeled and sliced skin from the face of a woman Finn has killed….he has the face consumed so that noone will ever recognize the corpse of the woman once she is fished from the river. The identity of the woman isn’t revealed until the end of the book.

Near the middle of the book, we go back in time and witness when Finn first moves out of his father’s house. He kidnaps a black woman and, over time, the establish a kind of comfortable existence with one another. Huckleberry, we learn, is a mulatto child born of this union (I recall no such mentioning in the original book). This is the closest we see Finn come to tenderness. He takes care of them woman, seems to enjoy her company. The child he likes to keep near him, amazed by the beauty of the child (and thankful for the whiteness of his skin). Later, when a jerk starts making mocking jokes in front of Huck about his mixed blood, Finn beats the man severely. As a result, he is sent to prison for a year. During his absence, Huck’s mother has started doing laundry for the hotel to eke out a living for herself and the child. While she may have missed Finn, she enjoys the new freedom her employment gives her. When Finn returns, he resents her job and her new outspokenness, and things go downhill. He even begins beating her, although never the child. She finally takes Huck and runs off, and Finn goes downhill into bitterness and meanness very quickly. The contentment he experienced as a family man becomes a resentment of the responsibility owed to others.


The Almost Moon by Alice Sebold

Sebold’s Lovely Bones was so compelling that I had to go find her other novels. From the first line, I am sucked into this novel, “When all is said and done, killing my mother came easily.” What the heck???? Sebold doesn’t allow you read passively. Her style keeps you off balance, uncomfortable. She tells you just enough to feel the threat, then backs off. Did Helen’s mother kill her father? Who is this distant, critical, unloving woman, and what did she do that drove her daughter to this point? But, just when you start thinking the mother is the villain (i.e., you get comfortable), Helen starts behaving in ways that make you wonder if she isn’t a little off herself. Mental illness in the family, and how it affects everyone, and the fear of who will inherit it (and when).


The Secret Supper by Javier Sierra

A prodigious amount of literature was spawned by The DaVinci’s Code. What’s even more amazing is how much of it is GOOD! This is another novel based on the hidden codes inside DaVinci’s “Last Supper.” This time, it’s written in 1497 in Milan , from the perspective of a Dominican Inquisitor who is sent to investigate the rumor, via messages delivered from the unknown “Soothsayer,” that the hidden message in DaVinci’s painting could have devastating repercussions for the Catholic Church, if not all of Christianity. DaVinci is saying things and painting things that upsets the church officials, because it is not matching up with biblical text….but DaVinci is quoting unauthorized text…which I’m recognizing from my gnostic studies.

The thing that I’m finding most interesting in this book so far is the explanation of codes. During the early renaissance, a lot of codes, riddles, and hidden meanings were tucked into works of art….much of which is lost to the modern viewer. I read as much in Portrait of an Unknown Woman (which was marvelous). This book delves into the same sort of thing, although from a religious slant. It’s very interesting…for example, a knot represents Mary Magdalene.


The Art of Mending by Elizabeth Berg

I wonder how I got Berg’s name. Did I stumble on her novel in the library, or did I see her name as a reference on one of Sebold’s novels? I suspect the latter, because their writing styles and choice of subject are quite similar. In this novel, the main character, Ellen, is planning to attend her family reunion when she gets a call from her younger sister, Chris. Chris wants the three siblings to meet in order to discuss some bad memories that she has been experiencing. Chris shocks them all with stories of physical abuse from her mother, which neither of the other two siblings ever experienced personally nor remember seeing. Chris has had a long history of being a “drama queen” and seemed like she loved dark movies, dark novels….anything that could depress her. They wonder if she isn’t making the information up. But slowly, odd hints and rogue memories come back to the other siblings that make them wonder what is true and what isn’t.


Mouth to Mouth by Michael Kimball

A suspense thriller. Ellen, a sheep farmer, is unhappy when her daughter, Moreen, gets pregnant and marries Paul, an abusive creep. Helpless, Ellen watches the various hints that her daughter is being abused by this creep, and wonders what she can do about it. Then her nephew returns after an absense of 12 years, bringing with him a slew of unhappy, buried family memories. Hired by her husband, the nephew begins to rebuild their barn for them. He seems like a nice guy….but is he? Things start happening that Ellen feels manipulated into, and when the nephew casually suggests that Paul could be eliminated, she watches in horror as the events start falling into place to make it happen. She makes a few half-hearted attempts to put a halt to it, but deep down, she wants this man out of her daughter’s life, and so she recognizes her own complicity. Who is this nephew? Her rescuer? Her accomplic? Or something much darker?


The Choice by Nicholas Sparks

I enjoy Sparks ’ novels. My favorite was The Notebook, but I’ve enjoyed his others as well. This one wasn’t quite as good as some of the others. We watch as two neighbors begin friends and then, within just a few days, fall in love with each other. She has to make a choice to leave her long-time boyfriend for her new love. About ¾ of the through, we jump ten years into their married future where the family has experienced a tragedy and the man is forced to make a bitter decision. The first part of the book I enjoyed, the last part I felt was forced and rushed. The first part of the book “shows” and the second part “tells,” forcing you to feel a detachment toward the situation that the characters clearly are not feeling themselves. That and the unlikely ending sort of ruined the book for me.


A Hundred Secret Senses by Amy Tan

This is Amy literature at it’s best. You can’t be a lazy reader and follow Tan’s story, though. We move between the viewpoints of two half-sisters, American-born Olivia and her older sister, Chinese-born xxx. Sometimes it takes a moment to know which character is speaking. To further complicate things, xxx has what she calls, “Yin Eyes,” the ability to see ghosts. Not only that, she talks to them. XXX also can see the past lives of the ghosts, as well as her own. So, when she is recalling, you are never sure which life she is recalling from. A casual reader would get lost quickly. The careful reader gets great rewards.


Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

I’d heard mixed reviews about this book. It’s hot on the book club lists, and online reviews have been glowing. However, every person I spoke to that read it was negative, claiming it dragged and was boring. I can see why. This novel is written in the same stayle as the novels of that particular period were written. The piece is almost entirely narrated, sans dialogue, with dense descriptions of life styles and personal itineraries that are unfamiliar to the modern reader. However, once one adjust to the style, I have found it easy to become interested in the characters….particularly since the book immediately begins with the death of two and a hint of intrigue.

February Reads

The Gost Map (the story of London ’s most terrifying epidemic – and how it changed science, cities, and the modern world) by Steven Johnson

This nonfiction book is fascinating. It’s written in a truly engaging manner, not just dry facts. I loved hearing about some of the 18th Century London jobs that no longer exist – like toshers and nightsoil men. There were several of these jobs designed to help control a city’s waste management. As the city became larger and as the economic demographics changed, these positions were eliminated, allowing the waste to grow out of control.

I always knew that cholera was transmitted by polluted water. However, the book explained that cholera had ALWAYS existed in the water. So, what caused this bacteria to go from being a common, harmless thing to an epidemic that killed thousands in a matter of days? The explanation boils down to waste management and the pollution of drinking water. Cholera was designed to consume human excrement. In order to effect a human being, it had to be ingested. Normally, since humans do not ingest excrement, the cholera bacteria would have been passed out of the human digestive system without any notice. However, as human waste began to build up in the drinking water, everything changed. In addition, bacteria – with its tremendously fast reproductive and evolution cycle – was able to change into a strain that was even more dangerous. Normally, a parasite needs to keep the host alive as long as possible to survive. However, once the bacteria was able to survive by passing quickly and easily from one host to another, the need to keep the host alive was unnecessary, and the strain began to reproduce more quickly and become viciously virulent.

The book discussed how medical studies communicated their theories on how to cure cholera….generally by argumentative articles in the local newspaper. There were no processes available to guide research, ensure data accuracy, and to protect the general public. Also, the process of research into the actual cause of cholera was limited and often misguided. It was fascinating to read on the progress of the medical research.

Why do some nationalities have low tolerances to alcohol or lactose? Johnson throws out his theory on this one. Nationalities with no tolerance to alcohol trace back to hunter/gatherer tribes (American Indian, Eskimo, Aborigines); their introduction to alcohol has been fairly recent in the scope of genetic evolution. Nationalities that came from cities or agrian backgrounds started drinking alcohol a long time ago. Alcohol is, actually, a poison; many of the early users died from alcohol poisoning or from the effects of alcohol abuse (cerosis). Those who drank alcohol and survived (exhibited an early tolerance to the poison) passed on their genetic predisposition to their descedants. Similarly, dairy from milk and goats is not natural to the human diet. Many non-white cultures (Indian, Asian, African, etc.) are lactose-intolerant. Again, we can trace the ability to consume milk products back to those civilizations that were predominantly herders. The increased lactose tolerance was genetically passed on.

Resurrection by Tucker Malarkey

A mystery intrigue novel based on the Lost Gospels of Nag Hammadi, along the lines of The DaVinci Code (which I loved). It’s post WWII, and Gemma (a nurse) is still mourning her mother’s death when she receives communication from her father. He’s working on a very exiciting project in Egypt , and he tells her he thinks it will change Christianity. He is purchasing a home, and the plans are for Gemma to join him soon. The next thing she knows, she is notified of his death from heart attack. While she is contemplating how a healthy, vivacious man with no heart problems can suddenly have a heart attack, she receives a package that her father mailed just before his death. It contains a piece of an ancient script. Gemma goes to Egypt to claim her father’s remains….and to uncover the mystery of his suspicious death and to unveil the mystery of his project.

Abraham: A journey to the heart of three faiths by Bruce S Feiler

I enjoyed Bruce’s Walking the Bible, which held lots of interesting information about the OT patriarchs. This book was less interesting. I hoped to learn more about Abraham, but there was little to know, except that Abraham is shared by Jewish, Muslim, and Christian faiths. Disappointing.

The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls

I read this memoir because it was included in my sister’s reading group. Fascinating! Jeanette tells the story of a poor, nomadic family. Her father was a drunk and a dreamer, never really holding down a job and full of stories of the great things he would achieve. Her mother was the real mystery, to my mind. Although it is never said, I think the woman was crazy. The kids experience deprivation and neglect, and only realize it as they get older. The things they experienced were upsetting, especially because nobody helped them and the means were there to prevent it. In her adulthood, her parents are homeless. In the beginning, you think the father is the culprit, but the more I read, the more I’m convinced that it was the mother who caused the worst of the problems.

Watchmen by Alan Moore

A graphic novel that kind of reminded of The Incredibles. A story of a bunch of retired superheroes who become active again when their numbers start mysteriously dying or vanishing.

The Sound of Butterflies by Rachael King

Thomas Edgar goes to the Amazon to try to find evidence of a rumored, but never caught, butterfly. He leaves his wife in London . His letters taper off to nothing, and when he returns, he is strangely changed. He refuses to speak, and alternates between seeming frightened and angry. His wife, Sophie, tries to find out what happened. The story alternates between Sophies impressions and investigations, excerpts from Thomas’ journal, and Thomas’ memories. The story is fictional, but she says that the character of her antagonist, Santos , is based on a real criminal who tortured and enslaved the Indians in the Amazon.

Born on a Blue Day by Daniel Tammet

Daniel is an autistic savant, and this is his memoir. I have read some other books that touched on autism, with great interest. One was actually a book on chimpanzees and apes, and how the scientist learned a lot about overcoming the language barrier in autistics by studying communication among the nonverbal apes. Fascinating….because autistics do not see or understand things in the way the majority of us do. It’s like their brains are hardwired differently, but just as intelligent and just as capable of learning. The second book was also about animals, written by an autistic. This individual studied animal behavior, understanding it better than he did human behavior. He said that animals and autistics actually saw things similarly…..while the “normal” human mind tends to ignore things that are common, the autistic mind cannot. High contrasts (deep shadow or a bright reflection), fluttering items like a flag or piece of trash – these things can be hugely distracting and upsetting to both animals and autistics. As a result, this autistic animal behaviorist was able to help make improvements to stockyards, farms, and zoos that minimized animal behavior problems. Unfortunately, it wasn’t able to help minimize negative human behavior on animals.

So, I’m reading Daniel’s book with great anticipation. Daniel is diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome. “Austism, including Asperger’s syndrome, is defined by the presence of impairments affecting social interaction, communication, and imagination (problems with abstract or flexible thought and empathy, for example)…People with Asperger’s often have good language skills and are able to lead relatively normal lives.” In the first chapter, Daniel explains how he “sees” numbers, letters, and words. He said they have colors, shapes, textures, and even personalities. They are like people. His capability to remember large sequences of numbers and to calculate formulas is astounding. When he is overstimulated and stressed, counting or repeatedly squaring or cubing the same number over and over can relax him. He said that while his visual approach to numbers and words makes it possible for him to do math without really thinking and to easily learn new languages (within a week), it can cause problems. For example, if he sees a word printed in red that his mind says should be blue, it is extremely agitating to him.

To Dance with the White Dog by Terry Kay

A fast read. Shortly after losing his wife, the old man starts seeing a white dog. A stray that he feeds. His family, all living in homes nearby, never see the dog, despite coming to his home frequently to take care of him. Strangely enough, their dogs never start barking, either. The white dog serves as a companion to the old man, who’s hip forces him to use a walker, and keeps him from being as active as he would prefer. At first his daughters think the old man may be going senile. Then one black woman suggests that the white dog is a ghost dog. The reader must decide, as we share the old man’s last days with his new companion.

Lady Wu by Yutang Lin

A fascinating story about the Empress Wu….the first woman to be named Emperor of China. She lived during the 7th century, and during her long life she was attributed to many cruelties, assassinations, and perversions. Were they true? Told from the perspective of one of her relatives who hated her. Well written.

Empress by Sa Shan

Another story of Empress Wu, this one written from the Lady’s perspective, so it of course has an entirely different slant from the first novel. Fascinating, though.

January Reads

Eat, Pray, and Love by Elizabeth Gilbert

I’m reading it slowly, just a bit here and there, because I have library books with looming due dates. But, the bits I’ve read are really fascinating. First of all, her desire to explore her spirituality is interesting to me since it’s happening at a time when I’m exploring my own as well. But, I was also surprised when hard on the spirituality chapter, she started talking about her struggle with depression. Hello!!!! I really found her description fascinating. She describes Depression and Loneliness as two separate entities that visit her. I personally never separated them, but it makes sense since a big part of loneliness is a sense of isolation. Anyway, it’s proving a very interesting read to me.

The Princes of Ireland by Edward Rutherfurd

I love good historical fiction. This novel introduces Dublin area history in stages, from pre-Viking to the time of King Henry the VIII (I wonder why he left out the turbulent Elizabeth periods). We are introduced to fictional families that have front-seat views of important Irish personages, and stay with those families from generation to generation. If I had any complaints about the book, it was that Rutherfurd seemed to only create abrasive, annoying women characters. What gives with that?

The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan

This is one of my favorite movies, but I’d never read the book. I’m really enjoying the book on CD read by Amy herself.

The Abstinence Teacher by Tom Perrotta

Book on tape. Two radically opposite ends of the morality question. She’s a Sex Ed teacher who suddenly, after years of conducting the class without complaint, is attacked by the Bible community as condoning sex to children. To protect itself from lawsuits, the school forces her to change her class approach to one of abstinence rather than education. It would be easy to see the Bible community as the enemy. But, we are introduced to Will, a battered man with a long and destructive history, who – though still fighting a daily battle with his issues – feels that the church has saved his life.

A Contract with God and other Tenement Stories by Will Eisner

Graphic novel. A peek at the Jewish, inner-city community during the depression.

The Feast of Roses by Indu Sundaresan

The story of Emperor Jahangir and Mehrumnisa. Mehrumnisa was Jahangir’s 20th wife, and aunt to Arjumand. Arjumand married Jahangir’s son, Khurram. Khurram would eventually build the Taj Majhal for Arjumand. Mehrumnisa becomes the favorite wife of Jahangir, makes unusual demands (like to attend court by his side), and doesn’t hesitate to make enemies. This amazes me. In a world where women are in favor only temporarily, and then the rest of their lives are spent with the other discarded wives, why did she believe herself to be different? Why was she so willing to maliciously injur the women she had surpassed, knowing that if she fell one day, they would take revenge on her. It’s beyond my understanding. And yet, I’ve read it enough time in biographies to know that favored wives did this frequently.

From Hell by Alan Moore

Wow! A graphic novel with a fresh approach to the Jack the Ripper Story. Was the London slayer one person or, as this book portrays, the combined efforts of several unconnected people? Also offers an interesting view of the Masonry and ancient religions combined in modern day Christianity.

The Holman Illustrated Study Bible

This offered some fantastic insights into the various chapters of the old and new testaments. What was the purpose of the chapter? Who is believed to have written it and when? What was the literary style? Etc.

The League of Extraordinary Gentlement – Vols 1 and 2 by Alan Moore

The movie was fun, and these two graphic novels were quite interesting. I still liked the movie better.

Unspoken by Francine Rivers

A very short novel on the story of Bathsheba. There was one point that was made very well in this story. David and Bathsheba sinned, and many people were hurt by their action….even after they were forgiven. Bathsheba stresses that when teaching her children. She told them that God could forgive them their sins, but he would not take away the consequences. When asked why, her response was, “Because we must learn to obey.” That was a good point. Many people think they are not forgiven, because the consequences have not been lifted from them….this book sheds good light on that.

Dream of the Walled City by Lisa Huang Fleischman

China’s history is one of turmoil. Always. But, as the character says, the Chinese people are resistant and always survive. This story was written in the early 1900s, during the time of the fall of the last Emperor (just a child) and the invasion of the Japanese. The character is born of a wealthy family that falls into poverty at the death of her father. She is an educated woman, and we see China through her eyes and the experiences of her family and friends. Her closest friend is a communist activist, always trying to recruit our character into an active, dangerous, exciting life. But, our character is quieter, though equally involved. She marries, cares for her vicious in-laws after the death of her husband, teaches young women mathematics, and later remarries and raises a family. We see the devastation of the old ways through her eyes as she struggles to hold her family together and keep them safe. She is an empathetic woman, feeling the pain of all around her, seeing the beauty of the old ways while recognizing the failures of that same society, allowing us to see all points of view of a changing time.

Saving Fish From Drowning by Amy Tan

A quirky story. After her death, Dee-Dee talks about her murder and the group of Americans who are abducted from Burma.

Sons of Heaven by Terrence Cheng

Story of the massacre at Tianneman Square, and particularly about the young man who stood in front of the tank.

Bathsheba by James R Shott

Disappointing. Unspoken was much better, because it also clarified the Biblical point of the Bathsheba story. Also, Shott’s writing style bugged me. I was convinced that if I read “Bathseba shrugged,” one more time, I would scream.

The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold

I definitely have to check out some more of Sebold’s novels. Another tale told from beyond the grave. Susie is abducted, raped, and murdered during the 70s, a time during which, she says, people just couldn’t believe things like that happened. Her murderer was a neighbor, a quiet man who had been moving around the country killing young girls for most of his life. The story is not so much a focus on Susie herself, but on the impact her death has on her parents, her younger brother and sister, and her friends. The story was written with a sense of humor and a sense of hope….the death was probably made easier for the reader to bear because we knew WHAT had happened and HOW and WHY. I think it was the uncertainty….the not knowing if she was REALLY dead or whether or not she had suffered that made the tragedy so difficult for those she left behind.

Rahab’s Story by Ann Burton

Well written and interesting. Mostly based on fiction, since I believe the Bible actually tells very little about Rahab.

The Invisible Wall by Harry Bernstein

Pre-WWI, Harry tells about his life living on a street where one side (his) is Jewish and across the street is Christian. Generally, the two groups co-existed pretty well. But, Harry witnesses the reactions and consequences when a Christian boy falls in love with a Jewish girl, so he recognizes the danger when his own sister falls in love with the boy across the street.

The Sandman: Preludes & Nocturnes

Graphic novel.

The Yearling by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings

A coming of age story. It’s more about the life of this little boy, growing up the only surviving son on a poor Florida farm, than it is about the deer itself. His loneliness, his love of his father and of nature. The book is pure pleasure to read.

End of December Reads

The Old Curiosity Shop by Charles Dickens

I never thought there would be the day when I could say I didn’t like something by Dickens. But I am so bored by this book! I’m reading this in the form of an eBook. I’ve only read two other books by Dickens: The Tale of Two Cities and Great Expectations. Both of these were serious, soberly written, and wonderful. The Old Curiosity Shop, by contrast, is written in quite a light-natured way. It shows the silly side of Dickens, despite the fact that the plot is grim enough. Despite this, the reading is somewhat tedious. If he wasn’t already dead, I’d write to Dickens and tell him to give it up and stick to what he does best….drama!

Young Nell (a saccharin young do-gooder) lives with her grandfather. Everyone believes him to be a very wealthy man, including his grandson (Nell’s older brother). But, he has apparently gambled it all way. Near the early middle of the book, Nell and the grandfather sneak out of their home to try to avoid the debtors. The grandfather thinks that Nell doesn’t know what is going on, but she quickly figures it out when the old man gambles away their little bit of cash and then sneaks into her room after dark to steal from her.

It appears to be a book about avarice. The grandson, believing his grandfather to be rich, is angry when the old man cuts him off. Whether the grandfather cuts him off because the money was already gone or because he recognized his grandson’s grasping greed, I’m not sure. A dwarf, violent and nasty, appears to have lent money to the grandfather, and gleefully takes over the house and all of the property.

Now that Nell and the grandfather have left town, the grandson and the dwarf are both trying to find them. Both have made partnerships with unsavory characters in attempts to land the old man’s wealth for themselves. The rest of the book is a trip back and forth between the schemings of evil doers, and Nell and her grandfather who seem to always come upon loving people. A tedious, read.

The Storytellers Companion to the Bible – Jesus’ Parables

Fascinating. I’m not all that interested in the new stories, frankly. But, the scholarly discourses on the little bits of readings is very information and interesting. For example….when Baby Jesus was born, and is surrounded by shepherds guarding their flocks….who knew that to the original audience of the Bible this was a symbol of danger??? Today we see shepherds as pastoral, gentle, protective, benign, etc. However, being out in the country was to be unprotected from brigands, and shepherds were themselves known to be violent persons at this time. I’m really enjoying this book.

A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini

A book on tape that mom gave me. Excellent! Placed in turbulent Afghanistan , two women, with very different backgrounds, both find themselves married to the same creepy man. At first, they are enemies (how fascinating that they, both powerless in their situation, would fight each other instead of the real enemy), and then they eventually become friends and co-protectors. This story shows how powerless the Afghanistan woman is against male brutality. The story ends with the ultimate sacrifice.

Runaway by Terry Kay

Kay is a white man raised in the south, and he experienced first hand the change the south experienced following WWII. Not that prejudice and hatred were not still rift. But he said many awakened to the fact that freedom and dignity were important things worth fighting for and should belong to every human. His story is his attempt to capture that subtle but powerful conversion in southern thinking.

The story starts with two boys born on the same day: Tom, a white boy, and Son Jesus, a black boy. On the day of their birth, the feared and respected Conjure Woman appears to announce that these boys would begin “the change.” We follow the story of these boys, best of friends, when they discover a human leg bone while on one of their adventures. The bone turns out to belong to Son Jesus’ father, one of several colored murders that had occurred several years prior, but never been solved. Enter the Frank, the sheriff and WWII hero. Frank investigates the murders unrelentingly, facing the derision of white men who ask him why the death of a few black men should matter. But, Frank has been changed by the war, and the prejudices he sees (seemingly worse among those who had never gone to fight) make him angry and ill. We meet several other white people who also are battling the long engrained prejudice they meet every day (such as Tom’s family). We also see many black men and women who, despite their fear and a long history of terror, are no longer willing to accept the status quo. The veneer of white superiority is cracking.

This book is wonderful on many levels. The delight of watching childhood’s friendship, a murder mystery, and a peek at the splintering of a long-standing and evil institution.

The Wild Irish by Robin Maxwell

The story of Grace O’Malley, the famous Irish woman pirate.

The Floating Life: The Adventures of Li Po by Simon Elegant

Li Po was a famous poet in China . In this novel, he is telling the story of his life, after he had already been banished from the city. He is arrogant, impetuous, and a drunk. But the story is told in an interesting manner.

The Professor’s Daughter by Emmanuel Guibert

What a hoot. This is a graphic novel, and I admit that it WAS kinda fun to read. The design work was a simple watercolor style, but very well done. The story was cute. The 1800’s daughter of an archeology professor falls in love with a mummy. No common mummy, mind you, this is Prince Ihotep….walking around and communicating. They fall in love with each other, knowing it is doomed. Enter another mummy, Prince Ihotep’s father, who is rather a brute and tends to botch up the works. It was fun to see that the Prince and his father had a long history (several centuries, in fact) of disagreeing. I got a few chuckles out of this little book. A very quick read.

MirrorMask by Neil Gaiman

Another graphic novel, but this one I didn’t like. It was a dream story, and as such, made no sense. I didn’t enjoy reading one nonsensical thing after another. What I DID enjoy was how the book was laid out. It looked like the “found item” art books that were so popular a few years ago. The text followed unusual patterns, the pictures and sketches scattered about in an artistic way. Visually, I found this book appealing. I might have enjoyed it had the story been worthwhile.

Cairo by G Willow Wilson

Now this graphic novel I really enjoyed. A combination of current day history, Egyptian mythology, and spiritualism. The characters are surprisingly well defined, and each one very individualistic. There was a surprising amount of really good humor. Also, the artwork was fabulous. I enjoyed this one a lot.

Here if You Need Me by Kate Baestrup

It’s about this woman, Kate, who was raised by agnostics (people who don’t know if there is a God or not), but married a man who was very faithful. He was a police officer, and studying to become a clergy for the police department. Anyway, he is killed in an accident, leaving her a widow with four children. For some reason, she felt compelled to study herself, and is now a clergy for the Forest Rangers. I didn’t even know they had a clergy. It’s a part-time job, called out only in search and rescue cases. But, her experiences and personal growth are also interesting to read.

Once chapter in particular struck me. You know how many faiths teach that suicide is the one unforgiveable sin. She had a take on this theory that I found remarkably insightful. She is called out to assist on the search for the body of a suicidal woman. They find the woman, but she is already dead. She took a lot of amphetamines, then crept off into the woods to die. When her body is found, they contact the brother. Kate speaks to the brother, who tells her that this sister had been getting therapy and was on medication, but nothing could help her out of her depression (poor thing. I’m so glad that meds work for us). Anyway, he said that she had really suffered. But, HE was struggling because his personal church told him that she couldn’t receive a Christian burial and that she was doomed to hell because of her suicide, and he asks Kate about this. I loved what she wrote. She said, as she listened to him, she felt such an anger at the church. She told him that she didn’t personally know the pastor he had spoken with, didn’t know what that man knew or didn’t know. But, she told him, this was what she knew. The park rangers were willing to go out in a snow storm and search all day for several days for this woman. They left their families, and were willing to spend hours and days in discomfort (sub zero weather), risking their own health and lives to find her. She was that important to THEM. She said, surely these men couldn’t love this woman more than God himself did….and if they were willing to go so far for the sake of a woman they suspected had killed herself, how much more could God love her and want her back?

I thought that was really beautiful and well said.

She also had another little discussion that I found interesting. She said that she was a Christian Universalist (I don’t really know what that is), so as such, her church didn’t spend a lot of time talking about Jesus and the afterlife. However, she studied a lot about it in seminary. She said that she noticed that Jesus didn’t spend a lot of time describing heaven. Only things like heaven having many rooms, and heaving being like yeast mixed with flour. She found that amazingly vague. Her opinion, in reading Jesus teachings to love others and to give everything you had, was that Jesus was teaching us how to LIVE, not how to die. She thinks that when we die, we die. She thinks that God’s ruling is for how we live, and that when we love people and are loved by others, we are in heaven no matter where we are. If we do not feel love, we are in hell, not matter where we are. I don’t know if I believe this, but it is an interesting and viable opinion.

Aesop’s Fables

OK, so what is the big deal? Why is this considered great literature? Boring.

Empress Orchid by Anchee Min

The tale of a poor, young Chinese girl who becomes the favorite concubine of Emperor Hsien Feng (Ch’ing Dynasty), which is the during the last days of its imperial glory. She is “married” to the Emperor, but then doesn’t see him for almost a year. It was interesting to learn that, despite the fact that it is the concubine’s duty to provide the Emperor with many male heirs, getting visited by the Emperor is not a given. The story tells how the concubines must suck up to and bribe the Chief Eunuch in order to get time with the Emperor. Interesting how little control the Emperor has over his own life, really just a slave to the power and intrigues of his court officials. Also, the concubines compete with and hate each other. Perhaps worse than being ignored by the Emperor (which seems to be Orchid’s fate in the beginning) is the danger of becoming a favorite. A concubine accused of selfishly keeping the Emperor’s attention all to herself (because then how can he spread his seed and have many sons?) is in danger. In the early chapters, the new concubines are showed the Emperor’s old favorite, her arms and legs removed and kept a live in a glass jar to serve as an example to the new concubines.

The kingdom is failing, and the Emperor is under great stress…and thus, is often unable to sleep and is often impotent. Orchid’s rise to favoritism is through her intelligence and willingness to help him with his daily tasks (acts that are forbidden to her).

300 by Frank Miller

I was itching to read this graphic novel since I loved the movie so much. I loved it!

9-11 Emergency Relief by Alternate Comics

A whole bunch of comics artists created their takes/responses on the 9-11 disaster. It was kind of interesting to see all the different design styles.

Ghost World by Daniel Clowes

Another graphic novel. This is about to bitchy girlfriends who spend their time mocking and insulting others. They think they are cool, but really they are bored, aimless, and being left behind. They are always shocked when they see how the lives of school mates have changed. Their friendship is tested when one takes an exam to go to college, which means the two would be separated. In fact, they become separated for other reasons. You are left hoping that they both will change for the better.

Gob’s Grief by Chris Adrian

This is a strange story about a man, Gob, who builds a machine in an attempt to defeat death. His twin brother, Tom, dies in the Civil War, and Gob is forever haunted by the loss, and sets out to bring back every soldier that died in the war. Characters, such as Walt Whitman and Abraham Lincoln, visit the pages, and many viewpoints of death are shared.

Great Quote

Life is short. Life is short. Read fast!

Do You Know What I Know?

Before Christmas, Mn came home from school with the lyrics for “Silent Night” and “Joy to the World.” He was supposed to ask his parents to help him memorize the lyrics, but, he said, “I’ll have to teach you the songs, Mom, because you don’t know them.”

I told him that I did indeed know these songs. Very well. He looked at me with a cynical expression that is the spitting image of his father’s, and asked me to prove it. I started singing “Silent Night.” Mn’s eyes just about bugged out of his head. “Mom! How do you KNOW that?????” Laughing, I then belted out “Joy to the World.” Mn just about fell out of his chair in shock. “Mom, did you come to my school and hear us singing?”

No amount of explaining could convince the child that these songs actually existed in the “olden days” of Mom’s childhood.

Early December Readings

Bibliographies rule! In addition to reading like a maniac, I checked out several bibliographies from the library. These are lists of suggested reading from various approaches. Some of the more frivolous (and fun!) bibliographies were Book Lover cookbooks. Two loves combined!

Anyway, it occurred to me that I'm not as well read in the classics as I should be. So, I've been making reading lists (yet one more compulsion for my brother to call me on).

The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas

For every few contemporary books I read, I want to throw in one of the classics. The fact is, for being an English major, I’m not as well-read as I would like. It’s shameful that I would know these stories by movies, rather than by literature.

For having been written in the 1800s, the story is surprisingly easy to read. In some of the older books, it’s difficult to follow along the dialogues, as they are riff with strange patterns, slang, and references. But, I’m having no such problem with The Count. The story is so intriguing. We start off really caring for the young Edmond …he is a sensitive, gentle, kind-hearted fellow who is well-liked by all, except for a handful of people who are jealous of his good fortune. After his betrayal by the said jealous comrads, he is locked in prison for several years, and when he comes out, he is altered in many ways. For one, due to his friendship with and education by the “mad” abbe, he comes out a much more polished person than he went in (not to mention, now he’s rich, since the abbe shared the location of his vast wealth hidden on the deserted island of Monte Cristo ). But not all of his changes are for the better. His desire for revenge has altered him quite a bit, so that some people find they are repulsed by him (I was, myself, while reading Edmond ’s rant on the necessary of torturing people who deserved more punishment than death). One character actually compared him to a vampire.

It appears that the Edmond of old did good simply because that was his natural inclination. The “Count” did good as a means of acquiring “friends” (you may as well call them tools) for fulfilling his long-term plans of revenge. It’s as if he takes the all the good and training given to him by the old abbe, and becomes it’s antithesis.

I had to laugh at one description…..even several years after his escape from the prison, Edmond is described to have an unearthly, pale pallor to his skin. That made sense immediately after his escape from prison…after all, he had been underground for years. But, several years as a sailor AFTER his escape would surely have added color to his skin, yes? Why would he still maintain the paleness of a prisoner after all this time?

Anyway, the detail of the characters, and the interweavings of storylines and plots is well done and fascinating. I have particularly enjoyed the sense of humor that some of the characters have revealed.

In the end, the Count seems to reevaluate whether he had the right to act as an avenging angel. Especially when certain innocents died in the process (the young girl and the little boy who were poisoned). It bothered me when he decided that he really was doing what God wanted, although, he admits, he did have regrets. Hmmmm. I also couldn’t help marvel at the audacity of the Count as he told one of his enemies that he “forgave” him…..after he had already stripped him of everything. What significance is a forgiveness after you’ve already excercised your revenge to the fullest extent?

It was an unexpected twist at the end of the book when Edmond did not end up with his first love. I fully expected that to happen all the way through the novel….it’s the route that most authors would have taken. Instead, while they parted friends, and it was clear that Edmond would have tender feeling for her the rest of his life, they both knew that too much had happened to each of them to ever be together again.

Overall, an unexpected marvelous read that really causes one to reflect on one’s own feeling of right and wrong.

Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism by John Shelby Spong

I’m disappointed. The book started off with so much promise, but almost ended up like an exercise in arrogance for Spong. I agree with Spong that fundamentalism is a dead-end for Christianity. But, instead of a book-length rendition of everything that’s wrong with fundamentalism, I wanted an explanation of how the Bible could be viewed by those of us who weren’t fundamentalists. He himself stated that he loved and valued the Bible…..but he never explained why….or (more importantly to me) how. What’s more, some of the arguments he used as examples of conflicts in the Bible were weak, even to my limited knowledge….for example, he called Abraham a murderer and said, “So much for ‘Thou Shalt not Kill,’” and pointed out that Moses had broken the “Thou Shalt not Lie” commandment by tell the Pharoah that he was taking the Hebrews to the desert to pray, but he would bring them right back. Both incidents were pre-commandments….so his argument is ridiculous, even to me who agrees with his anti-fundamentalism. By the time I was half-way through the book, and Spong still hadn’t done anything except bash fundamentalists, I just quickly scanned the rest of the book, and then gave up.

The Storytellers Companion to the Bible – Jesus’ Parables

Fascinating. I’m not all that interested in the new stories, frankly. But, the scholarly discourses on the little bits of readings is very information and interesting. For example….when Baby Jesus was born, and is surrounded by shepherds guarding their flocks….who knew that to the original audience of the Bible this was a symbol of danger??? Today we see shepherds as pasteural, gentle, protective, benign, etc. However, being out in the country was to be unprotected from brigands, and shepherds were themselves known to be violent persons at this time. I’m really enjoying this book.

Truck – A Love Story by Michael Perry

I am LOVING this book, and will absolutely check out Perry’s other novel, Population: 485.

This book is all about the journey, not the destination. It’s written in what almost feels like a personal journal, as you reflect on gardening, cooking, failed romances and promises of new ones, living single, gardening, redneck living in a small town, and – the main point – the love of an old, beat-up pick-up truck. Perry incorporates a writing style that is pure delight. His sense of humor, often self-effacing, is a pleasure, and his use of metaphor is completely fresh.

The 101 Best Graphic Novels by Stephen Weiner

I for one want to know what’s up in the graphic novel genre. It seems to be getting bigger all the time. I initially wrote it off as just big comic books, but it’s come to my attention that there are some fabulous, adult stories out there. My friend, Erik, who is well read and has a sophisticated reading style, has caught the graphic novel bandwagon….so I thought it was time to check it out. I know I peeked at the book 300 by Frank Miller, and would really like some time to read it, especially since I loved the movie so much. Anyway, this little book had a list of some of the best graphic novels out there (at least according to Weiner), and he kindly categorized them for adult, youth, and child. So, with a focus on adult, I requested a few graphic novels from my public library. One can never have too much to read, right?

Late November Readings

As I said, I've been in a reading fury. The trunk of my car is filled with library books...literally. I cannot walk into the library without walking out with at least 3 books...often over 10. And, I've been spending a lot of time with the online library catalogue, putting in book requests. If I find an author I really enjoy, I start requesting their other novels.

Anyway....this is what I read during the second half of November.

The Binding Chair – or a Visit from the Foot Emancipation Society by Kathryn Harrison

Such a fascinating story about an extraordinary, one-of-a-kind woman living in a world where women were not allowed to be unique. Woman behavior is strictly regulated and controlled. As a child, May’s feet are bound, just like any other upper-class Chinese woman. This excruciating process of slowly breaking a woman’s feet so that she is barely able to support her own weight, and which will cause her problems for her entire adult life in the form of infection and daily pain, is inflicted on young girls by other women. In May’s case, it was her grandmother. Women damaging women for the sake of their men. I could have cried as I read about the little girl lay sobbing on the floor, crying out to her grandmother, “Help me!” Her grandmother forces her to walk on her splintering feet and says, “I am.”

As was expected, May is given in marriage. From the first, she is disrespected and abused by her new family. Unaware that she was the fourth bride, rather than the first, she was forced to sit in her private rickshaw in the street for hours before being allowed into her new home. The promised wedding ceremony was not provided. Instead, she was married by a quick, little affair that was clearly intended to insult, but from which she had no recourse. Her husband was abusive and twisted, and to escape her degradation, she attempts suicide. When she fails, she is subjected to further punishment from her new family. Her grandmother basically tells her to quit whining and tough it out.

At this point, May decides to break way and to become her own woman. She steals some jewels from her husband, and bribes a gardener to help her run away by carrying her on his back. As a woman, she finds herself helpless many times, but determinedly uses her wiles to get what she wants. She becomes a prostitute in a fancy house, and only sells herself to foreigners. She refuses to allow herself to be used by a Chinese ever again. Her plan is to make a foreigner fall in love with her so she can escape the lifestyle of a Chinese woman. It takes years, but she succeeds.

She is married by a European man who is living with his sister and her family in China . May’s story is told from the vantage of her caucasian niece. Living in a family of caucasians, May’s life was not without it’s trials. But, clearly, her niece celebrates this woman, even during the period of time when the young woman is rebelling against her authority. One telling scene is when the rebellious teenager takes a Chinese lover, to May’s outrage. May rants, “After everything I have done, you would do this…..lay with a Chinese!”

And yet, it is the restrictions of the Chinese woman that May rejects, not her Chinese-ness. She is still as bound to the stories and superstitions as she is confined by her bound feet. This contradiction in character is confusing to the niece, and perhaps to the reader. But it is still one of the essences of May that make her a fantastically fascinating character.

Brother One Cell – an American coming of Age in South Korea’s Prisons by Cullen Thomas

A true story. Cullen is a cocky young American, who goes to Korea to teach English, thinking it will be a great adventure. Instead, he finds his job tedious, and he start itching for a little “excitement.” He describes how he felt “outside” of Korea ’s society and laws and, as a result, invincible. He then made a decision that impacted the rest of his life. He runs hashish into Korea , gets caught, and is sentenced to 3.5 years in the Korean prison.

What makes this book interesting is Cullen’s take on his confinement. He truly grows into a better person by his ordeal, and comes to respect the Korean people greatly. He makes no excuses for himself, although in the beginning he feels like he is being treated unfairly. He acknowledges that, through his own arrogance and stupidity, he has placed himself in this situation, and thereby caused tremendous suffering for his family.

Life in the Korean prison is different from that of U.S. prisons. The normal schedule is that 23 out of every 24 hours is spent in confinement in a tiny solitaire cell. Sometimes, such as when execution are being performed, they would not be let from their cells for days. The lights are never turned off. There is no toilet. There is a bucket, and there is a trough on one end of the cell through which water runs once a day. They get their drinking and cleaning water from this trough. They wash their own clothes. There is no heat or air conditioning, and the temperatures in their cells can be extreme. They suffer from frost bite in the winter. The greatest danger was not from the other cell mates, but of going crazy from loneliness. Very few prisoners were allowed to participate in work programs. But, because Cullen is American, he is in demand, and is allowed to teach English to several people.

Despite the difficulties described above, Cullen admits he is treated well by the Korean authorities. He describes them as a polite, gentle people. Once he learns to obey their system of etiquette (their rules of politeness are subtle and complex), his life gets easier. In short, he finds that his incarceration turns him into a thoughtful, thankful, respectful person, whereas before he was restless and selfish.

On Agate Hill by Lee Smith

This is a pretty interesting book about a young orphan girl raised in a southern family that has been shattered by the Civil War. Their plantation, Agate Hill, is full of ghosts – her parents, her siblings, her aunts and uncles…..all the deaths that came with a sad time of deprivation. Molly and her baby brother are taken in by her Uncle Julius, but he is past caring about life. And Molly is forced to watch as life around her crumbles. She often refers to herself as ghost, as she is often forgotten and ignored and left to made do for herself. Her aunts come and take away her little brother, but leave her behind…..forgotten? Can you imagine how she must have felt?

She has a friend for a short while. When her aunt comes to “take care of” Uncle Julius, she brings her granddaughter, Mary White. The two are as close as can be; but when the aunt and Mary White later leave, it seems to only reinforce poor Molly’s isolation. Years later, she finally leaves Agate Hill, and we watch Molly grow, become a school teacher, fall in love, live and love with abandon. In her later years, she returns to Agate Hill.

I enjoyed this book, written in the epistolary form of letters, diaries, etc.You really get a feel for post-Civil War south.

The Kitchen Witch by Annette Blair

If you want a really quick read that will give you a fit of the giggles, read this book.

By page 17 I was laughing out loud so much that Minao asked me to read the book to him….but, since the book is spicy in more ways than one, I couldn’t do that.

Basically, this book is a romance. At first I though….ugh, a Harlequin-type book. But, it’s a bit racier than that without getting out and out pornographic. LOL!

The book starts out with Logan, who is completely stressed out because he has to be to work in 20 minutes, and he has no babysitter. He is begging a friend, a retired Judge to please watch his son, but she can’t because she has started a new job – cemetery tours. We quickly learn his background – he’s an executive who has just landed a job at the local TV station, WHCH (witch – get it?) in Salem , Philadelphia . He’s stressed, because he’s also landed a son. His wife had left him 4 years ago when she was pregnant. He spent a lot of money on a detective, but could never find her. She suddenly shows up on his doorstop with their 4-year-old son and says, “I’m done. You take him.” And she’s gone. The little boy asks every day when his mother is coming back for the first few weeks, and then quits. Can you imagine???? On top of that, his new boss is completely insensitive to the single-Dad situation, and is doing what he can to make Logan completely miserable.

So, immediately you are rooting for Logan because he is busting his butt trying to build a relationship with his son, worried that he might be damaged by his mother, and – essentially – put his son first in all things. A truly awesome dad.

Anyway….his retired judge friend tells him to ask Melody to watch Shane (the son). Melody lives in the apartment below Logan , but he hasn’t met her yet.

Enter Melody. She’s drop-dead gorgeous, vivacious, funny, a “magical” personality………and a total disaster. She can’t hold down a job. And she has a father who reminds her on a regular basis how much of a failure she is at everything. He’s rich, and he gives her money, but she refuses to use his money for herself. Instead, she signs the checks over to charities……homeless, unwed mothers, etc……which drives him crazy. When she finds out that Logan works for WHCH, she gets excited because she knows that station is starting a new cooking show, and she thinks she would be perfect as the hostess of the show! She gets an interview through Logan , and comes up with the Kitchen Witch idea, a combination of “make-believe” magic and cooking, and the boss of the company LOVES the idea. She’s in!

The problem……she can’t cook. Her chickens explode. The night she babysits Shane, she tells him she wants to cook a meal to impress his dad (to get the interview). This hysterical chapter has you totally in love with her and the little boy, and you’ll need to change your pants because you’ll laugh so hard that you’ll wet yourself. And if you think that’s funny, wait until her first cooking show broadcast. Wow!

The love dilemma….. Logan is falling for Melody. Who wouldn’t, since she’s gorgeous and funny and everything. But, he’s very focused on providing a safe, reliable home for his son, and Melody reminds him in many ways of his first wife….flighty, out of control, dangerous. For his son’s sake, he thinks he needs to stay away from her, but it gets complicated because his son adores her. And Melody is so good with the little guy, you can see why.

What’s best…..it’s a FAST read. One day, maybe two, and you’ll be done.

From the Mouth of Mother Teresa

A few weeks ago in her sermon, Mother Mary talked about Mother Teresa’s perserverence. It occurred to me that although I had grown up knowing the name Mother Teresa, I actually knew nothing about the woman herself. So, I picked up a book from the library.

What a remarkable story. It is amazing what one tiny person was able to accomplish so much. But I tell you what I found even more amazing than all of her accomplishments….the fact that she actually doubted that God was speaking to her. Imagine! People came from nowhere to lend assistance, money appeared at the exact time it was needed, one by one she established more facilities to lend the necessary aid. Her work spread from Calcutta to all across the world. And yet, she doubted that God heard her.

If this tiny woman who could move mountains suffered doubt, is it any wonder that the rest of us do? That somehow, was reassuring to me.

Some of my favorite quotes from Mother Teresa:

“In this life we cannot do great things. We can only do small things with great love.”
“There are no great things, only small things with great love. Happy are those.”
“Being unwanted, unloved, uncared for, forgotten by everybody, I think that is a much greater hunger, a much greater poverty than the person who has nothing to eat.”
“Each of them is Jesus in diguise.”
“Joy is the net of love by which you can catch souls.”

Early November Reads

I’m back in the reading mood. I’d been out of it for a while; not sure why. Watching a lot of DVD movies. But, now I’m frequenting the library again, and so the TV has been turned off for several weeks. This is a good thing.

I find that I’m not as much of a fiction reader as I used to be. I probably read one piece of fiction for every 5 non-fiction. Most of the non-fiction I’m reading isn’t worth recording, though. It’s just my perpetual curiosity/self-improvement/permanent student mode in action. A lot of kitchen remodel texts, cook books, Photoshop CS3 manuals, photography techniques, and -- more recently -- some Christian texts.

However, I’d like to do a better job of tracking my reading. I can be a voracious reader, but I suspect I’m also a careless reader. How many times have I recognized a title, but was really fuzzy on what the story was about? Too often!

Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck.

I had forgotten how much I love Steinbeck’s writing style. I picked up a recording of Of Mice and Men to enjoy while driving to Joplin , Missouri . I was sucked in within the very first few minutes. A surprisingly short book….but so rich. The writing is clean…not a single unnecessary word.

My memory of the book, from years ago, was that the story (with a shocking ending) about two unusual friends and hard it was to be a migrant worker during the depression. That is only tapping the surface though. This is really a story about loneliness, friendship, and the quest for the American Dream.

“Guys like us, that work on ranches, are the loneliest guys in the world. They got no family. They don’t belong no place. . . . With us it ain’t like that. We got a future. We got somebody to talk to that gives a damn about us. We don’t have to sit in no bar room blowin’ in our jack jus’ because we got no place else to go. If them other guys gets in jail they can rot for all anybody gives a damn. But not us.”

The loneliness is the strongest emotion. The old man who loses his old dog. The black man, isolated from the others. The pretty wife hungry for attention. George and Lenny had their share of trials too, but they seemed somehow easier since the had each other.

I loved the voice Steinbeck used for his characters. Direct, gritty, tough….it rings true, and you can hear all the cracks, callouses, fears, resentments that each man bears by the words he chooses.

A Long Way Gone – A Memoir of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah

Nonfiction. Ishmael lived in Sierra Leone . He was twelve years old when the civil wars began, and he saw families wiped out – in fact, entire villages devasted. The brutality that he saw is such as no child (or adult) should ever have to witness. Separated from his parents, and eventually from his older brother, Ishmael flees the war by crossing through the forests from village to village, struggling to avoid being shot, captured, or starving to death.

Eventually he is captured by the army and forced to become a soldier. The training is brutal. The expectations are heinous. They are told that they must take revenge on the people who had killed their families. Ishmael describes, in clear language, the conversion of a child’s mind from one of innocence and fear to one of unbridled violence. And when, finally, he and some other youths are rescued from the soldier’s life, he admits their resentment.

Ishmael never sees his family again. One can only assume they did not survive the war…so many did not. Ismael traveled to the U.S. to share the story of what was happening in Africa . His story is a shocking and enlightening one.

Ghostwalk by Rebecca Stott

Ugh. Talk about your waste of time. Rebecca is a glutton for melodrama, but lacks the talent to actually create it. The story is actually about a Ghostwriter. Her lover’s mother died while writing a controversial book about Isaac Newton’s involvement in Alchemy. The lover contacts her to finish writing the book. What follows is a bunch of weird hauntings (to no real effect), descriptions of ancient murder and intrigue, and a revelation of Newton ’s selfish scramble to the top as fellow scientists. There is potential for some great scenes, but Stott prefers to keep the action entirely mental and, in my opinion, a lot less interesting or satisfactory. The description of the love affair is on a some bizzarro intellectual/spiritual plane that doesn’t seem real. The characters have no control over the situation, but are pawns in the after-life greed of the deceased alchemists. In short, a potentially good story poorly executed.

Parents' choices

DH had his heart set on DMCC for Mn. After everything that Mc went through in middle school, we wanted to avoid that for Mn. Not that there are any guarantees, off course. Substance abuse and bullies can be found anywhere….but we felt Mn’s odds would be better at DMCC.

I had my concerns. The literature clearly stated that everything would be taught with a Christ-centered emphasis. What did that mean? Creationism vs. evolution? Did the children work out of secular texts or Christian-based texts only? Did they practice book banning?

While I liked the idea that a child was being raised in such a way that his or her faith was an every-day lifestyle instead of an activity restricted to Sundays, I had concerns. I felt that if secular and modern science were eliminated or undermined, the child would be living in a faith outside of the real world. That is unacceptable to me. I didn’t want Mn to become a Bible-beating freak who couldn’t function in the real world. I wanted him to be a person who was comfortable with his ideals, his beliefs, but could also be successful in his daily interactions of life.

So, with these fears in my heart, I wrote a careful letter to the Principal of DMCC, asking my questions in what I hoped was a diplomatic, non-offensive way. Was I ever impressed. Less than five minutes after pressing “send” on my email, I received a call from the Principal. He said my message deserved a one on one discussion. He put my mind to rest on so many issues. Yes, the children worked out of secular texts, receiving the same science, literature, and art background as any other school…..but with more. He said they also taught the Bible side and without any apologies. He told me that there would undoubtedly be times when parents would be unhappy with a school policy…..some parents were extremely protective and wanted to isolate their children from the world, other parents were like me who wanted to expose the children to everything in a safe way. DMCC is in an awkward position of trying to please everyone.

All my fears were put to rest. I gave DH my whole-hearted consent for Mn’s enrollment into DMCC.

The picture in the next blog is one of Mn all dressed up for his first day of Kindegarten. No longer a little boy….no more preschool. Now he’s a big kid in a big-kid school. Some mother’s are an emotional wreck when they send their baby to Kindegarten. Me…..I was excited and proud.

See the big ol’ box at his feet. What a lot of loot a kid needs to start school!!!!! When I went to Kindegarten, it was with a box of crayons, a package of tissues, and a pencil box. How times have changed.

I’m happy to say that we made a good choice. Mn is thriving! I cannot believe how much this little boy has learned in just a few short weeks. He can spell almost all of his colors. He has such a strong grasp of the various sounds that letters make, and is actively trying to read and spell everything. The boy is writing lists all of the time! He already knows some sight words (the, a) and he knows the difference between vowels and consonants. Good heavens, he is going to be reading Beginner’s Books by Christmas, I’m sure of it.

We had our first parent teacher conference last week. I am so impressed with the creative approaches his teacher utilizes to teach a concept. So many different ways of accomplishing the same task, so that the process of learning is not only stays interesting, but actually allows the child to recognize the principals from several different vantage points. Education methods have changed so dramatically….even from Mc’s day. Mn has a beautiful, bright future ahead of him at DMCC.