The Alchemist, by Paulo Coelho





I believe this book can speak for itself. It has many, many kernels of truth in it that lead toward God:

"I couldn't have found God in the seminary, he thought, as he looked at the sunrise."

 

"The old man pointed to a baker standing in his shop window at one corner of the plaza. "When he was a child, that man wanted to travel, too. But he decided first to buy his bakery and put some money aside. When he's an old man, he's going to spend a month in Africa. He never realized that people are capable, at any time in their lives, of doing what they dream of." 



"When someone makes a decision, he is really diving into a strong current that will carry him to places he had never dreamed of when he first made the decision."

 

"The boy was beginning to understand that intuition is really a sudden immersion of the soul into the universal current of life, where the histories of all people are connected, and we are able to know everything, because it's all written there."

 

"Every second of the search is an encounter with God," the boy told his heart. "When I have been truly searching for my treasure, every day has been luminous, because I've known that every hour was a part of the dream that I would find it. When I have been truly searching for my treasure, I've discovered things along the way that I never would have seen had I not had the courage to try things that seemed impossible for a shepherd to achieve."

Isaac's Storm, by Erik Larson



I wasn't sure, during the hurricane, if all the points of view of the terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad day were going to end with me feeling elevated by this read, but they did. Even though the storm was so completely devastating, the people of the town were able to regroup and rebuild. 'Honesty in your dealings with your fellow men' is an anchoring discussion point throughout the book. People who are dishonest with others cause a lot of harm.

There was a fascinating discussion of the inception of the weather bureau and it's involvement in the disastrous effects of the storm. Some of the personalities involved are so pompous as to be unbelievable, but their words are direct quotes from telegrams and etc. Also there was a semi-technical discussion of the way the winds move around the globe and how that affected the hurricane, and how hurricanes in general develop. I think a diagram would have helped me understand the winds better.

I highly recommend becoming familiar with the map of Galveston in the front of the book before beginning. Understanding the general layout of the town is important to the story telling.

The Host, by Stephanie Meyer

The idea of having two people inside one mind and body was fascinating and well-done. The concept of 'self,' what it means to love oneself, and what it means to have others love you, were all main themes. The treatment of others who are different from you was given a thorough discussion. Being strong in the face of adversity, keeping passions within set boundaries, working together with others to accomplish goals, and keeping priorities straight were other important things addressed.

The two main external relationships that are compared and contrasted include discussion of the sense of heat when skin contact is made and of molten earth moving inside. There is also some violence but for the most part, I felt the themes of the book were meaningful and thought-provoking 

The Light Between Oceans, by M.L. Stedman





This is an incredible story of war and peace, love and loss, guilt, sacrifice, and redemption. The plot is intricate but (after the first couple chapters) fluid. The characters grow and change, and yet stay true to themselves.

I particularly loved the influence that the war plays in the book. All the characters are affected by it even though it is over, and it really touched me to see the effects played out in so many lives in such a variety of ways. War is awful. It changes everything except God - and it's changes are pervasive and long-lasting. This theme is close to home for me because I have a younger brother who served in the US armed forces. I was very impressed by the treatment of the after-effects of the war.

There is one case of a newlywed wife arousing her husband.

The cast of characters widens effortlessly throughout the novel, leaving the reader with many characters who are well developed (and loved!) and knowing how their stories intertwine - but at a loss convey the relationships to someone else concisely; they are too complex, but the reader hadn't realized they'd become that way.

Tom the lightkeeper has a mundane task - raising an ensign any time a "man o'war" passes the island.

"He knows keepers who swear under their breath at the obligation, but Tom takes comfort from the orderliness of it. It is a luxury to do something that serves no practical purpose: the luxury of civilization."

Anne of Green Gables, by L.M. Mongtomery

Beautiful, squeaky clean, and full of delight. A plot that wraps your heart around it - set in safe moral ground, with clean humor, and manners taught - is my kind of world.

"Oh Marilla, looking forward to things is half the pleasure in them," exclaimed Anne. "You mayn't get the things themselves; but nothing can prevent you from having the fun of looking forward to them. Mrs. Lynde says, 'Blessed are they who expect nothing, for they shall not be disappointed.' But I think it would be worse to expect nothing than to be disappointed."


"Somehow," she told Diana, "when I'm going through here I don't really care whether... anybody gets ahed of me in class or not. But when I'm up in school, it's all different and I care as much as ever. There's such a lot of different Annes in me. I sometimes think that is why I'm such a troublesome person. If I was just the one Anne it would be ever so much more comfortable, but then it wouldn't be half so interesting."

... we pay a price for everything we get or take in this world; and although ambitions are well worth having, they are not to be cheaply won, but exact their dues of work and self-denial, anxiety and discouragement.

Xenocide, by Orson Scott Card

Card includes more swearing in this novel than in the first two, which I think is an unfortunate and misguided reflection of the age of the audience he's targeting. The moral, pholosophical, and ethical dilemmas Card discusses (sentient life, martyrdom, personal dichotomy, the human soul, genetic makeup vs. destiny, family, etc, etc) are passionately written and thought-provoking to follow.

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A man's wife lay dying. There is a beautiful and long philosophical discussion, of which this is my favorite part: "If I had any part of you in me," said [he], "I would not have needed to marry you to become a complete person... The husband longs for his whole self, which was made of the husband and wife together. Thus he never believes any of hiss own thoughts, because there is always a question in his mind to which his wife's thoughts were the only possible answer."

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...it was much easier for the godspoken to follow the Path, because to them the price for straying from it was so terrible. The common people were free; they could leave the Path and not feel the pain of it for years. The godspoken couldn't leave the Path for an hour.

I am taking this quote out of context and applying it to myself: If God has spoken to us, is it then easier to follow His path? Do we know the price of straying from it? Those who have not heard His voice are free after a fashion, but their freedom is so limited. The Light of Christ in every man helps him feel the pain of leaving God's path, even if one chooses to ignore it until they are no longer sensitive enough to feel it. Those who are coming to know God - then stray from Him - either come back or do not. So the challenge faced in this book is that the godspoken are forced to come back, forced within moments. They are not free.

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"I'm sorry," he said.
"You're welcome," she said. She believed in answering what people meant, not what they said.

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[She] had long ago observed that in a society that expected charity and fidelity, like Lusitania, the adolescents who controlled and channeled their youthful passions were the ones who grew up to be both strong and civilized. Adolescents in such a community who were either too weak to control themselves or too contemptuous of society's norms to try usually ended up being either sheep or wolves--either mindless members of the herd or predators who took what they could and gave nothing back.
...
[They] would now make the great effort to pretend that they were simply two people doing their jobs--that all was normal between them. Inner strength and outward respect. These are the people who hold a community together, who lead. Unlike the sheep and the wolves, they perform a better role than the script given them by their inner fears and desires. They act out the script of decency, of self-sacrifice, of public honor--of civilization. And in the pretense, it become reality. There really is civilization in human history, [she] thought, but only because of people like these. The shepherds.

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"I saw what Andrew did in our family. I saw that he came in and listened and watched and understood who we were, each individual one of us. He tried to discover our need and then supply it. He took responsibility for other people and it didn't seem to matter to him how much it cost him. And in the end, while he could never make the Ribeira family normal, he gave us peace and pride and identity. Stability. He married Mother and was kind to her. He loved us all. He was always there when we wanted him, and seemed unhurt by it when we didn't. He was firm with us about expecting civilized behavior, but never indulged his whims at our expense. And I thought: This is so much more important than science. Or politics, either. Or any particular profession or accomplishment or thing you can make. I thought: If I could just make a good family, if I could just learn to be to other children, their whole lives, what Andrew was, coming so late into ours, then that would mean more in the long run, it would be a finer accomplishment than anything I could ever do with my mind or my hands."
"So you're a career father," said Valentine.
"Who works at a brick factory to feed and clothe the family. Not a brickmaker who also has kids. [My wife] also feels the same way. ... She followed her own road to the same place. We do what we must to earn our place in the community, but we live for the hours at home. For each other, for the children. It will never get written up in the history books. ... It's a boring life, to read about," said Olhado. "Not to live, thought."

This is a beautiful family perspective, though I also believe that it is worth proactively strengthening the community for future generations. He learned a powerful lesson from another man's kindness.

Speaker for the Dead, by Orson Scott Card

Gripping and powerful, Card's new world brings the dilemma Ender faced in Ender's Game back to the scene, but from an adult perspective. Also introduced are the complexities of family, religious, government, and community relationships. I love this quote from Card's introduction:

"But I hope that in the lives of Ender Wiggin, Novinha, Miro, Ela, Human, Jane, the hive queen, and so many others in this book, you will find stories worth holding in your memory, perhaps even in your heart. That's the transaction that counts more than bestseller lists, royalty statements, awards, or reviews. Because in the pages of this book, you and I will meet one-on-one, my mind and yours, and you will enter a world of my making and dwell there, not as a character that I control, but as a person with a mind of your own. you will make of my story what you need it to be, if you can. I hope my tale is true enough and flexible enough that you can make it into a world worth living in."

The biology and study of the alien species on this planet are fascinating. The studies of inter-personal relationships and the power that grief and truth have on the lives of the people is wonderfully played out. There is definitely closeness and desire for others but no erotic descriptions and the adultery is cast as properly devastating. The conflict created when government tries to control science is both repulsive and hilarious. Demosthenes, as always, is vibrantly clear in her analysis of situations. And then there's Jane. Oh, I'm excited to read the last two books in this series and learn more about Jane. She is a somebody who came from nobody and can influence everybody, but has a wonderful sense of conscience and is a great judge of character. She knows almost everything and can use that information! I guess I admire her a bit.

The Snow Child, by Eowyn Ivey

A poignant tale of a childless couple who moved to Alaska to escape children, but ended up finding one. There is a little bit of heat, plenty of times when it says people went to bed together, one description of finding second base.

My favorite quote:

"Mable realized she had never really studied the stove before, just as she knew that Esther had yet to notice the carefully set table or the few photographs hanging on the walls. It was as if she were seeing a different cabin altogether."

Lots of good content about friendships, parenting, neighbors, and nature.