Book (P)review

Normally I wait until I've read a book and write a review but, for this book, I just couldn't wait that long.  The blurb on the front flap - actually an excerpt from the book - fit so well with what I wrote yesterday about creativity, that I had to share immediately.

The book is Return to Me by Lynn Austin.  These wise words from a grandfather to his grandson are what made me check the book out of the library:

We're made in the Holy One's image so our words also have power.  You tell someone they're ugly or that they're a fool, and if you repeat it often enough, you might create ugliness or foolishness in that person.  You praise them for their goodness or kindness, and your words just might create even more kindness in that person.  You must be careful to speak words of life.

I have long held that each of us has an ability to be creative because we are made in the image of the Creator, but I had never considered that we can actually "create" ugliness or kindness with our words. 

Return to Me is the first book in The Restoration Chronicles, with book #2 due out next month.  I chose this book as the October selection for the T&T book club partially because it is a departure from norm for me; not a genre I usually read.  However, I'm so intrigued by this paragraph that I'm getting a jump start on October and starting tonight.  I'll report back when I've actually read the whole book.
 

"50 IS the New Fifty: 10 Life Lessons for Women in Second Adulthood"

In keeping with my Life Under Construction theme, Teri - my sister, the other "T" in the T and T Book Club, blogger at Henningsen Happenings, and fellow "second-halfer" - selected Suzanne Braun Levine's 50 is the New Fifty as the September T and T selection.   Ms. Levine subtitled her book "10 Life Lessons"; however, while I did learn some interesting lessons, I didn't necessarily learn the lessons she intended.  Not all of the lessons applied to me, and Ms. Levine and I do not share all of the same views on theology and/or feminism, so our experiences - and, therefore our lessons, are different. I still gleaned some valuable advice:

At this stage we "recalibrate our place in the world" and our priorities change.  We are "inspired to get rid of old baggage...and move on with what we've found worth holding on to."  This is exactly what I've been dealing with.  My relationship with my children has changed.  My relationship with my parents is changing.  Even my relationship with my husband is changing (don't worry - it's good) because of all the other changes. The last couple times Dave and I have traveled, we have found that we prefer to carry less with us.  Let the paid professionals haul our baggage, and we can enjoy the trip unencumbered.  The same theory works in life. 

Lesson Two:  Nothing Changes if Nothing Changes  This was my favorite lesson! I've never been a huge fan of change, mainly because, for 30 years, I've been regularly thrown into change (moving) every few years, whether I've wanted it nor not. Stability and NON-change became the "dream" for me.   

For the "second half", I've actually reached a point where I WANT change  - but it doesn't have to be total transformation.  "While some women can redesign their lives from top to bottom...most of us can only manage small changes at first."  Most of what I have been writing about lately are small steps toward bigger changes.

The biggest change I want and need to make is described in the book as "getting out of the emotional management business.  Scale back the intensity of your sensitivity to every nuance of mood, your anticipation of every need,and your desire to solve every problem for those you love".  My children are now adults.  They can't take responsibility for themselves if I refuse to let go.

There were chapters of this book that I felt were pointless - and at least one that I thought was just wrong! - but I was able to look past those and benefit from the rest.  I am curious to find her previous book "Inventing the Rest of Our Lives".

T&T Autumn Readathon

POSTONED - Scheduling conflicts have come up so we have had to postpone the readathon.  I'll let you know a new date if/when it's scheduled.

My sister, Teri, was traveling in south Texas last week to visit her son and his family, so she wasn't able to participate in the October Dewey's Readathon.  She was so disappointed to miss out that she suggested we have our own mini-version. 

So. announcing . . .

The T&T Autumn Readathon

Saturday, October 27th

    7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. CT

The readathon is open to anyone who cares to join.  There will be six challenges with prizes and other fun activities.  To sign up, just leave a comment here or on Teri's blog - or just show up on Saturday morning and start reading.  The more the merrier!

Where Lilacs Still Bloom

German immigrant and farm wife Hulda Klager possesses only an eighth-grade education—and a burning desire to create something beautiful. What begins as a hobby to create an easy-peeling apple for her pies becomes Hulda’s driving purpose: a time-consuming interest in plant hybridization that puts her at odds with family and community, as she challenges the early twentieth-century expectations for a simple housewife.  
 
Through the years, seasonal floods continually threaten to erase her Woodland, Washington garden and a series of family tragedies cause even Hulda to question her focus. In a time of practicality, can one person’s simple gifts of beauty make a difference?  
 
Based on the life of Hulda Klager, Where Lilacs Still Bloom is a story of triumph over an impossible dream and the power of a generous heart. (publisher blurb)

Many years ago, my sister, Teri, and I created our own book club.  The details have changed off and on, but the general idea is that we take turns selecting a book to read each month and creating an activity based on the book.  September was Teri's pick, and she selected Where Lilacs Still Bloom by Jane Kirkpatrick. 

This is a lovely story that wasn't so much about plot as about questions.  Like most of us, Hulda's life did not play out like a perfectly paced thriller or romance novel, and to add those elements would have distracted from the real story of her life work.  Consequently, this book is one to make you ponder and question.  

One of the questions I asked several times was "If the river is going to wipe out your garden every few years, why don't you move your garden farther from the river?"  I never got an answer to that one.  But part of our book club assignment was to write a blog post based on one of the discussion questions at the end of the book and I do feel that I have an answer for this one.  

Do you agree with Hulda when she tells her sister, "Beauty matters...It does. God gave us flowers for a reason.  I think so we'd pay attention to the details of creation and remember to trust Him in all things big or little, no matter what the challenge.  Flowers remind us to put away fear, to stop our rushing and running and worrying about this and that, and for a moment have a piece of paradise right here on earth."

I settled on this discussion topic because it immediately brought to mind two ideas that I firmly believe.  First, we are created in God's image, so we all have an innate desire to create - to be creative.  Some of us sew or knit or bake. Some express their creativity in a spreadsheet with formulas and calculations. Some write, some garden, some sing.  Some build houses, some repair cars, and some completely deny that they have any creative tendencies.  But they just aren't looking.  

My second thought was a resounding, "YES, beauty matters!"  If you've watched my evolution since moving to Green Acres (our two-acre patch of Eden), you've seen my awakening - for lack of a better word - to the beauty of nature.  God's creation is full of detail - the variety of colors, shapes and sizes in a flower bed, the intricate "wood grain" in a buckeye, the changing colors of Autumn leaves.  None of these details are really necessary to sustain life.  He could have made a much simpler world - one type of tree to produce oxygen, one variety of animal or grain to eat, one climate, one landscape.  But He didn't.  He made an intricate world, full of variety and detail, yet all connected.  Surely the reason for this intricacy is to show us that He cares about our details as well.  To remind us "to trust Him in all things big or little" and to sometimes take the focus off the details that have us running and worrying, slow us down and remind us of all that is good in the world when all we can see is the bad.

Lilacs have always been one of my favorite flowers. We have them spread around Green Acres, but they have been untended for many years and are out of control. I appreciated the educational side of this story that taught me the proper method for pruning overgrown lilacs.  I also appreciated the historical aspect. I found it interesting that during the Great Depression the government instituted programs to encourage the arts because they (whoever "they" were) knew that, especially during such dark times, people needed to find beauty. What a contrast to current school budget "depressions" that are being solved by cutting the arts.  But mostly, I enjoyed Mrs. Klager's dedication and inspiration to create and share beauty.

To check Teri's homework, check out her post on Where Lilacs Still Bloom.

The Great Christmas Bowl by Susan May Warren

Marianne Wallace is focused on two things this holiday season: planning the greatest family Christmas ever and cheering on her youngest son’s team in their bid for the state championship. Disaster strikes when the team loses their mascot—the Trout. Is it going too far to ask her to don the costume? So what if her husband has also volunteered her to organize the church Christmas tea. When football playoffs start ramping up, the Christmas tea starts falling apart. Then, one by one her children tell her they can’t come home for Christmas. As life starts to unravel, will Marianne remember the true meaning of the holidays?


This book was my sister's choice for our personal book club during December - something light and fun to fit in between shopping trips, baking cookies and addressing cards.  And that's all I was expecting - just another Christmas-themed story with a string of calamities, a little holiday magic and everyone lives happily ever after.  But I got a little gift in this unusual twist on the Christmas novella.

First we have the "church ladies" who insist that the Christmas Tea be hosted just as it always has, nothing can change; and then there are the young mothers who want to change everything.  Anyone who has ever been involved in a church of any denomination knows these women! But Marianne takes her responsibility as Hospitality Chairman seriously and searches for the true meaning: service.

On the family front, her picture-perfect Christmas vision is falling apart as, one after another, her children announce that they won't be able to make it for Christmas.  I am the Queen of the Norman Rockwell Fantasy - and the fact that they never work out as envisioned doesn't deter me from trying again.  So I really connected with Marianne on this issue:

"I realized I needed to surrender.  No more perfect Christmases.  it was over, the season when my children would join me to chop down our tree, decorate it with oohs and aahs.  The precious Christmas Eve dinners by candlelight, when we told each other the gifts we'd give to the Baby Jesus.  The magic when they'd arise from their beds, surprise in their eyes as they opened their stockings.  Over.  I'd had my mom season.  And now, it was just me and my fake tree and a really big turkey."

 There are several other favorite quotes that I would like to share with you, but I don't want to ruin the ending.  I will tell you that I cried through the last two chapters, and I'll share part of Marianne's response when she's asked, if she had it to do again, would she raise five children:

Would I do the chaos, the late night feedings, the challenge and worries?  Would I do the book reports and the piles of laundry and the illnesses?  Would I let them take over my heart so that when they grew up and left home, it created this hollow space that seemed cavernous?

But you have to read the book to learn the rest.  

T&T Book Club: February Selection

My sister and I have our own two-person book club, T&T (for Tami and Teri, or Teri and Tami, depending on who you ask), in which we take turns selecting a book to read and discuss.  Over the years it has been monthly, quarterly, and whenever-we-get-around-to-it.  We are attempting to return to the monthly format so I'm going to use the blog as a means of keeping on track.  So far in 2011, we read The Shepherd, the Angel and Walter, the Christmas Miracle Dog by Dave Barry (Teri's pick and her Christmas gift to me), and my February pick, Murder at the Vicarage by Agatha Christie. 

I used to read alot of Agathat Christie's books, but since starting at the library my reading time has been dominated by new releases.  So this choice was a return to an old favorite, and if it just happened to fulfill the final category on my Library Bingo card, that was just a happy coincidence.  And if you believe that...

Murder at the Vicarage is the first in the Miss Marple series.  I was slightly disappointed because Miss Marple played such a small role.  Of course, she solved the case, but the story is written from the Vicar's perspective so the majority of the action centers around him.  Nonetheless, it was a good mystery, cozy setting and an unexpected solution.

The Shepherd, The Angel, and Walter the Christmas Miracle Dog by Dave Barry

The year is 1960, and, as it is every year, the Christmas pageant at St. John's Episcopal Church is a very big deal.  Doug is a shepherd this year, which is better than being a Three King, because, for one thing, you get to carry a stick.  But there are problems everywhere. His fellow shepherds are hacking around, which makes Mrs. Elkins yell at all of them; the girl he likes is playing Mary opposite a Joseph who is depressingly smart and athletic and cute; the family dog is doing very poorly, and they have no idea what they're going to tell Doug's little sister Becky, who's playing one of the Host of Angels and who loves the dog more than anything; and his dad's just gotten a flat tire, which means they might not even get to the pageant at all.   But Christmas is a time of miracles. And for Doug and his family, this will be the most miraculous Christmas ever.

What a hoot!  This fun, little story is reminiscent of The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson, A Christmas Story by Jean Shepherd, or Wishin' and Hopin' by Wally Lamb.  It's the 1960's (the era of my youth), the familiar Christmas pageant (I remember the year I was finally old enough to be the narrator!) and a Christmas miracle.  It's a quick read and rather predictable, but for folks "of a certain age" it's also a walk down memory lane. 

My sister gave me this book for Christmas and it was a great "blast from the past" for us to share.  The pictures are especially precious.  One shot of a 1960's household, decorated in the "in" aqua color, with vintage gifts stacked by the fireplace looks exactly like our grandparent's home. I want to clip it out and frame it!  We both had Kewpie dolls similar to the one pictured in the book.  This was the January selection for our T&T Book Club - our method of staying connected through reading together - and the perfect laid-back start to the new year.

Death by Darjeeling by Laura Childs

Part one of the T&T Bookclub June assignment is complete. The three steps were to read Death by Darjeeling (the first book in the Tea Shop Mysteries series), to sample some darjeeling tea and to visit the Huckleberry Tea House in Concordia, KS with my mom and sisters.  As of yet, I haven't located any darjeeling tea, but then, the only place I've looked is Wal-Mart.  Southwest Kansas is rather short on tea shops.  Part three will have to wait until after wheat harvest when Daughter and I can make the trip to Mom's.  In the mean time - part one was a success.

Ordinarily, Charleston's Indigo Tea Shop is an oasis of calm. But when tea shop owner, Theodosia Browning, caters the annual Lamplighter Tour of historic homes, one of the patrons turns up dead. Never mind that it's Hughes Barron, a slightly scurrilous real estate developer. Theodosia's reputation is suddenly on the line. Aided by her friends and fellow tea shop entrepreneurs, Theo sets about to unravel the mystery of the deadly Darjeeling and encounters a number of likely suspects. (from author's web site)

What a perfect summer read! I immediately fell in love with the Indigo Tea Shop and it's employees.  I've never been to Charleston, or anywhere near there unless you count changing planes at the Charlotte airport, but the elegant tea parties, the southern wit and the beautiful gardens made me want to go immediately. 

The story is pretty typical "cozy mystery" fare - local business owner turns amateur slueth - but Ms. Childs managed to avoid my pet peeve of cozies.  Frequently, mystery authors write "down" to their readers by stopping the action of the book to rehash what has happened and all the possible suspects.  This is usually accomplished by having the hero/heroine stop to ponder all this in their head.  My problem with this method is that, not only does it kill the action of the story, but it assumes I'm not able to follow the story and make these connections on my own.  I once heard a popular mystery author speak at a convention and she admitted "When I need to recap the story, I have [heroine] go in her kitchen and cook and think things through."  (Not an exact quote, but as close as I can remember.) This is not to say that Theodosia's thought processes are not developed in this story, but they are woven into the action in small doses so as not to interrupt or annoy.

I will definitely be reading further in this series and checking out Ms. Child's other series, the Cackleberry Club Mysteries, which I have already purchased for the library:

In a rehabbed Spur station outside the small town of Kindred, three semi-desperate, forty-plus women have launched the Cackleberry Club. Eggs are the morning specialty here--fluffy omelets, slumbering volcanoes, toad in the hole, and eggs on a cloud. This cozy little café even offers a book nook and knitting nest--and business has been good. But two murders, a runaway girl, a vicious widow, and a messianic cult leader just might lead to their undoing. (from author's web site)

And the Scrapbook Series - the story of Carmela Bertrand, owner of Memory Mine, a scrapbooking shop in the French Quarter.  I'm not a scrapbooker, but I can overlook that for a well-written cozy mystery.

Now if I could just track down some darjeeling...

T&T Bookclub

Necessity is the mother of invention, or so they say - whoever "they" are - so when my sister and I needed a way to stay close in spite of the 250 mile distance between our houses, we invented the T&T bookclub (named after ourselves, of course).  Over the past 12-15 years (can't remember the exact start date - can't ask Sis, she's even older than I am) it has changed forms several times, but the basic idea is that we take turns selecting a book to read and creating a related activity - anything from a simple verbal review of the book, to trying out a recipe, to taking a field trip. 

Sis's selection for June is "Death by Darjeeling", first in the Tea Shop Mystery series by Laura Childs.  From the beautiful picture on the cover to the cut line "Just the right blend of cozy fun and clever plotting", this book looks to be just my cup of tea.  In fact, I purchased the entire series for the library with the intention of reading them myself, but haven't gotten to them yet, so I'm excited to get started.

Our activity to accompany our reading is to take our mom, other sister and as many granddaughters as we can round up for lunch at The Huckleberry Tea House in Concordia, KS (near where Mom and sisters live - I'm the oddball that moved away, but you probably would have guessed that). 

Once again, I'm advocating reading together.  Sharing a book is a great way to maintain or expand a friendship, and a book club for two or three can take on any form that fits your schedule and preferences.  Find a friend and share a story!