Book Club & English Tea Party

As I mentioned in my previous post, my book club just finished reading Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca.  We met tonight to discuss the novel, and in honor of the English setting, we decided to have a tea party.  I made a pie, Annie made scones, and Jill brought several different varieties of tea.  There were seven of us.  The talk was lively, the smell of the teas was heavenly, and the scones were delicious!  Tonight was SO much fun.  My house still bears the lingering scent of the teas and oh, I wish it would smell this way all the time!  We all had such fun that it seems the tea party is going to become a staple in our gatherings, and that makes me happy.
For next month, we're going to read Heaven Is For Real by Todd Burpo with Lynn Vincent.  For the month following that, we'll read Jane Eyre (which I have read previously and loved.)  Then for October, we'll read Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express.  I've never read any of Agatha Christie's work, but having seen several of her Poirot mysteries performed for the BBC's "Masterpiece Mystery" television series, my interest has been piqued and I am very much looking forward to that read!

My poor, neglected blog...

I promise, I've not been neglecting my books.

Not on purpose, anyway.

I have been caring for my grandmother since mid-October, and while at the beginning, I had a lot of free time, the last several months were incredibly demanding.  That being said: if you happen to be a caregiver, I admire you, and I understand fully now how difficult it is and, in spite of the difficulty, how rewarding it is.  If you know a caregiver, please thank them and hug them and pray for them every chance you get.  Until you take on something like that, you cannot know what it is like.

Grandma passed away on the Fourth of July.  She claimed her freedom from pain, and I'm happy for her.  I miss her SO much, but she is not to be pitied.  "Do not pity the dead, Harry.  Pity the living."  

Caring for her at the end was all-consuming, but I usually managed to read myself to sleep, at least.  I was so constantly tired that I'd only get through a few pages at night before exhaustion would overtake me, but I'll go ahead & list off what I read.  I'll just do short notes on them.  In no particular order (because I can't remember!) here they are:

I did re-read Harry Potter 5-7, as I said I intended to do.  Cried my way through Deathly Hallows.  Let me just say, for the record, that Neville Longbottom is my favorite character in the whole thing, much like Sam is my favorite in Lord of the Rings.

Songs of the Humpback Whale by Jodi Picoult

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My book club read this one.  It was chosen because several of the other women had read some of Picoult's other books, and they were clean (this is a group of ladies from church, after all) so we went into this one with no trepidation.  OOPS.  There wasn't anything super-graphic, but it was just graphic enough to be uncomfortable for a setting like ours.  Also had somewhat incestous overtones and definite pedophilia.  I was NOT impressed and our group didn't even bother to meet to discuss it because we were all so thoroughly disgusted.

I WAS, however, impressed with my Nook!  This book was the first I read using it, and while I wasn't crazy about the material, I did fall in love with the method!  I won't be using the Nook exclusively, but I've already downloaded a few more books for it!

Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier

This one immediately followed SOTHW and was SUCH a refreshing change!  It was my pick :-D  I have long loved the David O. Selznick/Alfred Hitchcock film, and have been intrigued by the book for years.  I was happy to finally have a chance to read it!  My group meets this Thursday to discuss it, and I think it just might turn out to be the best we've had yet.  To honor the English setting, we're planning to have tea and scones, complete with pretty little teacups and everything.  Comments thus far indicate that everyone has loved it, making this read the first that we've all had positive & enthusiastic thoughts about.

I found Rebecca to be haunting and mesmerizing.  I was sucked in immediately by the oh-so-familiar opening lines (the film begins verbatim from the novel!) and could not put it down. And I really didn't put it down...I started this one after Grandma passed, so there really wasn't much distraction.  This one will definitely be forever treasured.  I'll need to find a hardcover (possibly vintage?) copy.  HIGHLY recommend this one.

Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe

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I'll be honest...I couldn't get into this one.  I tried.  OH I tried.  This was another for my book club, and its beginnings were just so horribly sad that I just couldn't deal with it AND with what was going on with Grandma and her rapidly declining health.  Some day, I'll restart it and get through it, but I just couldn't handle it at this particular point in my life.

Same Kind of Different As Me by Ron Hall & Denver Moore

Again, this was a book club pick.  As I'd read it before, I only sort of skimmed it, but still loved it.  It is a truly inspiring story of the most unlikely friendship, made all the better for the fact that it is completely true.

A Red Herring Without Mustard by Alan Bradley

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As with the two previous Flavia de Luce mysteries, I adored this book.  Flavia has not yet failed to delight and intrigue me, and once again, has left me hungry for the next installment of her wonderfully, entertainingly, macabre young life.  It is due out in November!

I think there were some others mixed in there, but they're not coming to mind at the moment.  If I think of any more, I'll post them!

Confession

I have a confession to make.

I absolutely LOVE Harry Potter.

I needed a mental break from reading new material, so I decided to re-read the last three Harry Potter books. The first four, I'd already read several times, so I didn't go back to the beginning. From the fifth book on, however, I've read only once, and knowing that an awful lot had been left out of the movies, and that, therefore, my parents would have a LOT of questions about the films, having never read the books themselves, I decided to refresh myself before they see the films based on the seventh book.

I say all of that simply to say that I am NOT neglecting my precious paper companions, but simply revisiting old friends...friends who are quite thoroughly reviewed by better critics than I, and which I therefore do not feel the need to critique :-)

Do let me say this one thing, though: the final chapters of books five and six are, if anything, more heartbreaking the second time through. I'll be keeping kleenex nearby for the re-reading of the seventh.

Playing Catch Up

Since my last post, I've moved and taken a new job as caregiver for my elderly grandmother. Naturally, I haven't had the time to read as much as I had for a while, nor have I really had time to post about what I DID read. So...here's a quick update.

I finished Elizabeth Gilbert's Eat Pray Love and identified with a lot of it. She has me pretty much convinced to fly off to Bali and meet some exotic fellow traveler...hmm. Definitely recommend.

Most recently, I read a little book called Angel Unaware that I found in some of Grandma's things. Dale Evans Rogers wrote it after her daughter died. That daughter was the inspiration for so many of the wonderful things that Roy & Dale Evans Rogers did. It is written as though it was spoken by little Robin to God, after her mission on earth was finished. It was short, but SO touching. If you ever have a chance, pick it up. Buy a box of Kleenex before you read it...you'll need it.


This copy was in my Grandma's things, but actually belongs to my mother, and you can see that she read it a lot. It was given to her new, but she's read and re-read it so many times that the binding is falling apart and the pages are fragile. After reading it myself, I can definitely see why it touched her so. Like I said, it is short...this copy is 63 pages...but it says so much. Please read this one!

Soul Mates

I'm currently reading Elizabeth Gilbert's book, Eat Pray Love. I tend to find something within the books I read that I really identify with, but with some books, that connection is a lot stronger and easier to see. This particular book has had me doing a lot of soul-searching.

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This was a very personal book for her to write...full of raw honesty and actual events and feelings in the year or so after her divorce. When I picked it up, it was simply because I wanted to read it before seeing the movie, but as it turns out, it's a very personal book to me, too. I totally identify with so much of what she's written (and I'm only about half-way through it right now.) The circumstances that led to my divorce were horrible, and I remember that for a while, ALL I wanted was to get AWAY. I wanted to go on a cruise or just take off to Italy or Ireland or really anywhere but here. The difference between Gilbert & me is that somebody actually paid her to do it.

After she left her husband, she fell in love with someone else very quickly. I did, too. And today, I read a chapter from her time in India that resonated with me very deeply with regard to that, and I just wanted to share it. It's part of a conversation between Liz and a man she met at the ashram she stayed at in India...Richard from Texas, who calls her Groceries (you'll have to read it to understand.)

"But I really loved him."

"Big deal. So you fell in love with someone. Don't you see what happened? This guy touched a place in your heart deeper than you thought you were capable of reaching. I mean you got zapped, kiddo. But that love you felt, that's jut the beginning. You just got a taste of love. That's just limited little rinky-dink mortal love. Wait till you see how much more deeply you can love than that. Heck, Groceries - you have the capacity to someday love the whole world. It's your destiny. Don't laugh."

"I'm not laughing." I was actually crying. "And please don't laugh at me now, but I think the reason it's so hard for me to get over this guy is because I seriously believed David was my soul mate."

"He probably was. Your problem is you don't understand what that word means. People think a soul mate is your perfect fit, and that's what everyone wants. But a true soul mate is a mirror, the person who shows you everything that's holding you back, the person who brings you to your own attention so you can change your life. A true soul mate is probably the most important person you'll ever meet, because they tear down your walls and smack you awake. But to live with a soul mate forever? Nah. Too painful. Soul mates, they come into your life just to reveal another layer of yourself to you, and then they leave. And thank God for it. Your problem is, you just can't let this one go. It's over, Groceries. David's purpose was to shake you up, drive you out of that marriage that you needed to leave, tear apart your ego a little bit, show you your obstacles and addictions, break your heart open so new light could get in, make you so desperate and out of control that you had to transform your life, then introduce you to your spiritual master and beat it. That was his job, and he did great, but now it's over. Problem is, you can't accept that this relationship had a real short shelf life. You're like a dog at the dump, baby - you're just lickin' at an empty tin can, trying to get more nutrition out of it. And if you're not careful, that can's gonna get stuck on your snout forever and make your life miserable. So drop it."

"But I love him."

"So love him."

"But I miss him."

"So miss him. Send him some love and light every time you think about him, and then drop it. You're just afraid to let go of the last bits of David because then you'll really be alone, and Liz Gilbert is scared to death of what will happen if she's really alone. But here's what you gotta understand, Groceries. If you clear out all that space in your mind that you're using right now to obsess about this guy, you'll have a vacuum there, an open spot - a doorway. And guess what the universe will do with that doorway? It will rush in - God will rush in - and fill you with more love than you ever dreamed. So stop using David to block that door. Let it go."

"But I wish me and David could - "

He cuts me off. "See, now that's your problem. You're wishin' too much, baby. You gotta stop wearing your wishbone where your backbone oughtta be."

There have been a lot of passages in this book that caught my eye, but that one just really hit home.

The Lace Reader by Brunonia Barry

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I've had a bit of ADD when it came to reading lately. I started this book a while back...right after finishing the last one I posted about...and got about half way through and totally lost interest in reading. It wasn't a loss of interest in the story at all; just a general apathy toward sitting and reading. However, yesterday, the desire to read resurfaced, so I picked this up and finished it. It was a great story! Things I thought I had pegged wound up surprising me, which was nice, and there was even a somewhat Hitchcockian element to it that just intrigued me all the more.
My mom wants to read this, now that I'm done with it...I'll need to warn her about some language first, but I think she'll like the story. My brother's girlfriend, Caitlin, wants to read it too...I've already pointed her to Cecelia Ahern's writing & that just makes me happy!
I literally bought this book because I liked the cover. I do that every once in a while...I know you're not supposed to judge a book by its cover, but sometimes, the art just draws me in, and that's what happened here. I was not disappointed :-)
The story is set in the mid-1990s in Salem. It is a mystery...one that I truly think Hitchcock would have made into a masterpiece of a film...and it really is captivating. Even while I was so disinterested in reading, I kept thinking about what I'd read so far because I just kept trying to figure it out. I don't want to say too much, because I don't want to ruin the twists for anybody who might actually read this blog...but I will say that I enjoyed it and uttered quite a few gasps at the surprises. It was a fun read!

Smith of Wootton Major and Farmer Giles of Ham

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I got off of work a little earlier than usual yesterday, and instead of going back to my apartment, I went over to one of the local coffee houses and got a blended iced latte and a chocolate cupcake with delectable strawberry icing and read through a rain storm. It was actually completely idyllic and I read the entirety of these two wonderful little stories while waiting out the rain.

The first of J.R.R. Tolkien's works I ever read was The Hobbit, which remains one of my favorite stories of all time. I remember reading these two short stories as a kid, and remember liking them, but had no recollection of the stories themselves. It was a nice treat to revisit them! And, while I read them first as a child, they're really not childrens' stories...check 'em out!

Smith of Wootton Major is something of a fairy tale...the magic that happens when the world of Faery intersects with humanity. Farmer Giles of Ham is a story of courage and cowardice, and...my favorite part...a dragon named Chrysophylax. And a dog named Garm. If I ever have a male dog, I just might name him Garm :-)