The Long Overdue Recent Reading Post
Before I start in about the books that have captured (or not captured, as the case may be) my interest in the last month or so, take a moment to check out Adrienne's excellent hosting of this week's Catholic Carnival. It's her first time hosting, though you can't tell that by the fabulous job she's done. Go check it out.
On to the books. I've been trying, unsuccessfully, to read Watership Down. It's a classic, so the cover and many well-respected people say. I just can't get into it. However, I'm halfway, so I just can't give up yet. It's just not capturing me, though you'd think with the descriptions of the countryside and the rabbits' adventures that it would. So, for now, it's waiting for me.
After I decided to pause on that, I picked up a few things that flew through my hands.
If You Want to Write: A Book about Independence, Art and Spirit, by Brenda Ueland
Lent to me by the friend I call when I'm in the mood to talk about writing (or, really, about anything), it was just as good as she promised it would be. I recommend it to everyone, because it's more about life than writing. On a recent episode over at Forgotten Classics, Julie mentioned On Writing, by Stephen King, and she prefaced the excerpt by saying that, though she has no desire to write, she just loved that book. I agree with her, and I would add this book to that genre of books-about-writing-that-are-really-about-life.
The Field Guide (Spiderwick Chronicles, Book 1), by Holly Black
My youngest brother, who is either ten or eleven (someone has to give him more ammunition for the age jokes, so it might as well be me), has been reading the Spiderwick Chronicles, and he just loves them. Now there's a movie. I polished this off on a slow Sunday, and it was OK. But, you know, this might be a really great series of books - I felt the same ambivalence about the Series of Unfortunate Events series, by Lemony Snicket when I read it a few years ago, and ended up just loving them (and using a certain style of talking that I lifted from the books and that still cracks me up). I'm going to have to get the second book from him, and see what he has to say about this first one, now that I've read it.
My Mother, My Strength, edited by Maria Johnson
Maria's sister is a regular reader here (which still makes me shake my head), and she wrote me to tell me about this lovely book that her sister put together. I finally took a moment to read it, and I couldn't put it down. It's the sort of book that makes you smile and, as you pause between stories, think about your own "Mom Stories." Maria, who has dropped by a time or two to leave me a comment, did a great job of putting together a variety of stories. I couldn't resist mailing it off to a friend of mine who I thought could use a book like this, and I wrote her a note telling her to pass it along when she's done. It's a pass-along-and-share kind of book.
Spe Salvi (Saved by Hope), by Benedict XVI
I have been trying to read Spe Salvi for about a month. In Adoration, about a month ago, I started it, and was hooked. Well, I was hooked during Adoration, but I promptly put it away and didn't pick it back up. So, this week, during the Thursday of Grace (which merits its own post, though I'm not sure I'll have time to put that together), when I found myself unexpectedly at Adoration twice, I took it along. I read this in one day. I'm not bragging, and I'm pretty sure I need to read it again. But what an encyclical. (An encyclical is a fancy name for a letter, though it's really just as much a short book about some topic - available free and printable from the Vatican website.) I had never thought about hope much before, but after reading it, I am looking around with it in the back of my mind. I'm thinking about how hope is all around and within me, and what a wonderful thing it is. The last section, in particular, about Mary and her role as a beacon of hope, really touched me and got the wheels a-spinning.
I realized, as I was thinking about books this morning (I'm in denial about this all-day meeting I have in an hour, so why not think and write about books?), that I never mentioned these May reads.
Embrace Grace, by Liz Curtis Higgs
This was OK. I whipped through it, but it was like whipped cream, in a way. On the other hand, it might have been better if I had read it more slowly...I think maybe that's the way it was written. Higgs has niblet-sized chapters with a format that I don't know how to describe. I'm glad I read it, though I'm still not sure what I think about it. (That's kind of weird, isn't it? It feels weird to me.) I like the concept of embracing grace, though I came away feeling like it was too bad she couldn't embrace the grace of Reconciliation and Eucharist. I'm not trying to say Catholics are better (so please don't read it that way). Sometimes I think, when I share books with my non-Catholic family and friends, that I gain new appreciation for things Catholic and for the non-Catholic enthusiasm of things that it sometimes seems we Catholics forget? ignore? take for granted?
The Quilt, by T. Davis Bunn
This was another fast read. My grandma passed it along, and so, reading it, I couldn't help but think of her. She's the quilter in my life (well, so is my mother-in-law, but they're two very different types of quilting). I've been musing on quilts for some time, and writing about them here and there, and this book just went along with all that. I love the idea behind this story, and, overall, I enjoyed it.
That's all for now. Have yourself a fabulous Saturday!
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