Hello All,
We met at the home of Geri Christensen on Thursday, April 25th and discussed a lot of very
wonderful books. Below is a list of the books that have been given to me thus far:
BETH HEDENGREN
How to Know a Person: The Art of Seeing Others Deeply and Being Deeply Seen by David Brooks
In the past David Brooks, a popular columnist for the New York Times and long-time commentator on PBS Newshour, has written books about the way people interact and influence each other, including The Road to Character and The Second Mountain: How People Move from the Prison of Self to the Joy of Commitment. I have often been impressed by his wisdom and ability to bring together research from many sources in meaningful ways.
In this book, Brooks tackles the need for “knowing” others, and how we have lost the skills needed to truly understand each other. He suggests many of us have become “diminishers” who only see a person as part of a group, labeling them. Instead, we should become “illuminators” who truly see and understand others. Some of the skills he teaches include empathy, active listening, compassion, and asking open-ended questions. He suggests we try to let go of our ego, not thinking of how we can impress those we are with, but rather to truly listen to others’ experience before sharing our own. Brooks also offers advice on navigating hard conversations; disagreement and differing realities can be opportunities. We can also listen to each other’s’ life stories and in this way help each other to understand their own experience. This book made me want to become a better listener, to know others better.
Scythe by Neal Shusterman
In the novel’s world, all pain, illness, suffering, and death have been overcome. People can even choose to “reset” their lives as they age, re-gaining the body of a 20-year-old as many times as they want. The only problem with this world is that over-population would result if nothing were done. Therefore, an almost mystical order of priest-like individuals with the sole purpose of taking lives—they are called reapers. In the book, two teenagers are apprenticed against their will be become reapers. They learn to be skilled at killing, and ideally taught to do so in an ethical and humane way. However, as with all dystopian fiction, there is trouble in paradise and the root of that trouble is humanity’s natural proclivity toward wanting power. First book in a series of 3. Very well written and compelling.
The Chocolate Wars: The 150 Year Rivalry Between the World’s greatest Chocolate Makers by Deborah Cadbury
Written by a relative of the family who founded the Cadbury chocolate company, this book focuses primarily on that company, which was founded by devout Quakers in 19th century England. The two founding brothers believed in hard work to achieve success, but wanted to use the profits of their business to benefit their employees and the society they lived in. I was fascinated by the model community they built alongside their chocolate factory, to provide pleasant homes in a healthful atmosphere for their workers. There was a lake, fields for outside exercise, and a garden for each home. Another fascinating element of the history was the difficult task of perfecting the making of chocolate. Each company developed their own method through hard won trial and error. The technique for each chocolate manufacturer is still a tightly kept secret. You can tell the difference if you do side by side taste tests. Reading this made me want to eat chocolate!
MARYANN STEVENS
Death of a Gossip and Death of a Cad two Hamish MacBeth murder mysteries By MC Beaton (author of Agatha Raisin series) 3.5 With his local knowledge & ‘charm’, a small town constable in the Scottish highlands manages to solve mysteries the big city coppers can’t.
Women of the Blue & Gray by Marianne Monson 4.5 Monson describes the Civil War through the eyes of women. Some women stayed behind protecting children & homes, some fought alongside family members, some were laundresses, some were spies, nurses & even surgeons. White, Black, enslaved and free, Native peoples. These war causalities were never counted nor labors reimbursed but a careful review of history confirms, women & children generally bear the burnt of the suffering. Very well written.
Ripper by Isabel Allende 4 ‘Ripper’ is the name of an online group (mostly teens) dedicated to solving murders, historical unsolved or current. A serial killer in San Francisco is out to get revenge for abusive parents, biological & foster, a correction officer, a judge & others. Alert- Allende describes multiple murders in gruesome detail.
The Death of an Outsider: a Hamish MacBeth murder mystery by MC Beaton. 3.5 Hamish, a country sheriff in NW Scotland is transferred for 3 months to a slightly larger village. Murder & romance ensue.
KARLA COX
A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman
I’m sold on this Swedish writer of sadness and humor so artfully bundled together one hardly realizes one is crying and laughing at the same time…
I didn’t say much since most have read it; but it’s the sweetest grumpy old man story imaginable!
The Opera Sisters by Marianne Monson
A lovely book - so nice to read about heroines and survivors, in spite of the horrors around them. Thank you, MaryAnn!
The Last Slave Ship by Ben Raines
From the book’s synopsis:
The enlightening true story of the last ship to carry enslaved people to America, the remarkable town its survivors founded after emancipation, and the complicated legacy their descendants carry with them to this day — by the journalist who discovered the ship’s remains.
From the forward:
“Out of 20,000 ships used in the global slave trade, just 13 have been found; and the Clotilda is the only slave ship ever found that brought enslaved people to America. Remarkably, those smuggled aboard the ship still live in AfricaTown (orig called AfricanTown), a community founded after the civil war by the Clotilda survivors, on land they bought from the plantation owners who had enslaved them.” AfricaTown was governed by the the laws and customs of the African homeland of these people - remembered bc they had only been the U.S. for five years before they were freed.
This is just a taste of this incredibly interesting and informative espose. I highly recommend it! But - be prepared for crime, corruption, and major sorrow in behalf of people who didn’t have a choice. From the slave ships and the unbelievable crimes committed then, to the more recent toxic paper mills surrounding AfricaTown, this is a story of WRONG.
But the best part of the story - the heartwarming, hopeful part - is near the end, when the descendants of the last slave ship insist that the answer is reconciliation. Even if the perpetrators’ descendants won’t apologize, they know they can forgive, and move on with their lives. What a universal truth!
The Hummingbird by Sandro Veronesi
“We’ve been glorifying change for such a long time now, that all everyone wants is change. Even when it’s just change for change’s sake. Therefore, inevitably, those who choose to move on are brave and those who stay still are cowards. Those who change are enlightened, and those who don’t are ignorant.” The elemental untruth of this story. Because it’s about a man who resists change; who finds stillness amidst chaos, and purpose in tragedy. Possibly the most unusual book I’ve ever read, it’s translated from Italian; the author is famous in Italy, and this book has a distinctly European sensibility. At some points I wondered where it was going. But the beautiful chapter about his granddaughter, who he raises from infancy because her mother dies in a tragic accident, is so hopeful and beautifully written, it all came into focus. I don’t have to fully agree with the main premises to enjoy a well-written story. This was proof of that.
Cry, The Beloved Country by Alan Paton
Another story of Africans; but Africans at home in their Beloved Country. A story written with poetic and simple longing for the African land that was kinder and gentler (much as we long for the same).
Phrased with the language of Native Africans, there is much poetic repetition; and there are quaint phrases, like the greetings: Be well, to which one responds, Go well; and Are you in health? With the response, yes I am in [great, deep, enough] health.
This is the e story of a man, an Anglican priest, who travels from rural South Africa to Johannesburg; there to reclaim his sister, his son and a few new family members from the evils that befell them in the biggest of cities to these country folk. There are those who help him, and those who make his way “heavy”, as they say. It’s also the story of a white man whose roots have been in rural S Africa a long time; whose son went to Johannesburg to try to improve the lot of natives, only to be shot by one in a house burglary.
It’s the story of two fathers, grieving from opposite sides of the river of heartbreak.
It’s a story of love, pain, forgiveness and redemption, told simply but slowly. (The style is much like Alexander McCall.)
There are moments of intensity, when one senses the horrible injustice between blacks and whites, Europeans and non-Europeans. The story could be very different; instead, it speaks of the secrets of God; it is a resigned telling of the way it was in South Africa pre-apartheid. Beautiful language, beautiful kindness. Things change through goodness. So goodness prevails.
“Dawn will come. But when that dawn will come, or our emancipation from the fear of bondage, and the bondage of fear; why, that is a secret.”
“God save Africa, the beloved country.” A phrase in prayer, in poetry, in the hearts of the people.
The Summer of Songbirds by Kristy Woodson Harvey
A quite worldly but light read. I must have needed that, I’ve been steeped in heavy lately…
Three friends that became friends at a summer camp when they were very young, combine their individual and collective forces to save that camp. And each other. A story about struggles, love, and friendship that lasts through everything.
Beartown by Fredrik Backman
Oh my goodness. I might have a new favorite author for a while. This book was deep, gut-wrenching, and painful, but also funny, heart-warming and healing. Unbelievably well-written story of a hockey town, rape, and redemption.
Us against You by Frederik Backman
Turns out this is a three-part series; second and third books became available at the same time, so they followed Beartown.
There’s not much cheerful or even funny in this one. But there’s a lot of power, surprisingly good bad people and some disappointingly bad good people. Lines are blurred. But mostly there is love, survival, redemption… and ice hockey.
The Winners by Fredrik Backman
It’s a triad; I had to finish it. Same community, same endless struggles; but the closure of sorts that this intense tale needed.
“He didn’t have time… But everything that happens in childhood is a postcard that parents send to themselves. Things are never quite the way that we remember them.”
Backman’s stories are a series of wise words and poetic prose. I will probably end up reading all of his books. Heartbreaking and healing. Powerful and relevant.
The Women by Kristin Hannah
Everyone should read this book - especially those of us who were blind to the realities of Vietnam as it unfolded around us, and also so far away.
Here’s a quote from the middle of the story that says a lot about the story through the main character, a young girl named Frankie, with minimal nursing training who signs up to be an army nurse and goes to Vietnam to be near her older brother and make her father proud. Neither happens, and the story is entirely hers, but is based on the many who experienced the horrors of that war.
“In time, hiding her service and not talking about it had allowed shame to take root. She was never exactly sure what she was ashamed of, just that she was weak, or had somehow done something bad, been a part of something bad, something no one wanted to talk about. Maybe it was simply being a part of the apparent breakdown of American honor. She didn’t know. “
And this, which says so much about so many situations: “War trauma isn’t a competitive sport. Nor is it one-size-fits-all…”
GERI CHRISTENSEN
THE MAID by Nita Prose
This is a great read and a marvelous mystery. I recommend it highly.
THE GOLDEN SPOON by Jessa Maxwell. I
If you like to watch The Great British Baking Show on Netflix, then you will enjoy this book. It was a fun read and a good mystery.
LOST HORIZON by James Hilton
One of my all-time favorite books about a group of four people who get on a plane trying to escape a revolution in China and end up in Tibet in a place called Shangri-La. It is one of the best fantasy books ever written in my opinion. I never get tired of reading how Conway, the main character, is taken in by this place and learns what his future will be. It is full of interesting and surprising details and a marvelous story, to boot.
CARAVAN by Dorothy Gilman
This book was a little disappointing for me. I have enjoyed most of the books written by Dorothy Gilman, especially the Mrs. Piolifax series, but this one seemed very slow and labored about a young woman who finds herself abandoned in the Saharan desert and has to fend for herself while she survives all kinds of mishaps and challenges. I just wanted her to GET OUT OF THERE AND GET B ACK HOME!!! It seemed to take forever.
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