The Unfinsished Work of Elizabeth D, by Nichole Bernier

I am so disappointed in the book selections from this former book club. I am reading one more of their picks after this, and if it has sex in it too, I’m bowing out.

This book would be a beautiful and deep discussion of what it means to be a friend, sister, mother, and wife if it weren't for the unnecessary (in my view) junk.

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.

Till We Have Faces, by C.S. Lewis

This is a very powerful book and has the potential to engender amazing discussion at a book group. Book I is a woman's complaint against the gods. When I finished it, I felt like it was a nice story. When I started Book II however, I began to See . . . not only what was written in the second book, but also what was written in the first.

There are so many beautiful themes: what it means to be oneself, how we sacrifice for others, how we cause others to sacrifice for us, what it means to wear a figurative or physical veil, the importance of beauty, loyalty, determination, and humility.

"Are the gods just?"
"Oh no, child. What would become of us if they were? But come and see."

"In that far distant day when the gods become wholly beautiful, or we at last are shown how beautiful they always were, this will happen more and more. For mortals, as you said, will become more and more jealous. And mother and wife and child and friend will all be in league to keep a soul from being united with the Divine Nature."

"... Divine Nature can change the past. Nothing is yet in its true form."

Highly recommended.

State of Wonder, by Ann Patchett

Not recommended. Spoiler alert:

I enjoyed the book until they slept together at the end - that was supremely disappointing, especially because the author casts it as perfectly acceptable because the people they "should" have been sleeping with didn't happen to be there, and they can just move on and never talk about it.

Shell Seekers, by Rosamunde Pilcher



What a great, adult novel! There are references to people going to bed together, but no descriptions that I can remember (it's been awhile since I read the book, sorry. If there are, someone let me know : ) Someone has an affair but just recompense ensues.

The main theme of family relationships is wonderfully explored through Penelope Keeling and her three very different grown children. My favorite quote comes from the most reasonable (though still flawed) child:

"But the next few months would not be easy. As long as Mumma was alive, she knew that some small part of herself had remained a child, cherished and adored. Perhaps you never completely grew up until your mother died."

Very engaging: history, art, gardening, travel, love - enjoy it!

Children of the Mind, by Orson Scott Card

 

The concept of these "children" of Ender's mind is fascinating, and their battle to become is meaningful. Ender's history, from Ender's Game on, makes the existence of these children meaningful, makes their battles meaningful, and makes what they become - to be the most beautiful gift that Ender left for the human species on the hundred worlds.

"The whitest of them, the thinnest, the most elegant of the people of this place called themselves Pacifican and spoke at times as if the ancient music of the place rang in their ears, as if the ancient stories spoke of their own past. Adopted into the family, that's what they were, and the true Samoans, Tahitians, Hawaiians, Tongans, Maoris, and Fijians smiled and let them feel welcome even though these watch-wearing, reservations-making, hurrying people knew nothing of the true life in the shadow of the volcano, in the lee of the coral barrier, under the sky sparkled with parrots, inside the music of the waves against the reef."

I suppose I like that quote because I yearn for the life of those who are slow enough and in tune enough to know everything of the true life in the shadow of a volcano. I might live inside 'the music of the waves against the reef' for a minute, but I'll never live there for an hour, let alone years. God has called me to both a higher and a lower path:

"Ender would have wanted neither more nor less for him. Changing the world is good for those who want their names in books. But being happy, that is for those who write their names in the lives of others, and hold the hearts of others as the treasure most dear."

I may become someone, through God, who has their name written in a book. But if that happens it will be because I am happy, because I have succeeded in writing my name in the lives of others, and hold their hearts most dear. It will just have to be more hearts than Card was referring to.

Spoiler alert: One of the characters in the book thinks about her lofty long term goals, her short term goals, and then the fact that she's hungry and needs to use the bathroom.

"I guess that means I'm human, thought Wang-mu. Not a god. Maybe just a beast after all. Part raman (good and reasonable). Part varelse (selfishly destructive). But more raman than varelse, at least on her good days. Peter, too, just like her. Both of them part of the same flawed species, determined to join together to make a couple of more members of that species. Peter and I together will call forth some aiua to come in from Outside and take control of a tiny body that our bodies have made, and we'll see that child be varelse on some days and raman on others. On some days we'll be good parents and some days we'll be wretched failures. Some days we'll be desperately sad and some days we'll be so happy we can hardly contain it. I can live with that."

Me too.

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.

---

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."

---

...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.

---

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

---

[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.

---

"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.

The Extra-Ordinary Princess, by Carolyn Q. Ebbitt

Engaging but juvenile. Little girls would surely enjoy having this read to them. There is a great theme of choosing to be oneself despite what siblings, friends, enemies, and grownups think of you. The king and queen are great role models, as are the aunts.

"...the deep anger of the ravens can only poison those who are willing to take such poison into their heart."
I nodded, considering this. It seemed true--if any heart could withstand poisoning, it was Henry's. However, I couldn't help but wonder if I would have been able to withstand it--for although I try to be good, I know I'm not as good as Henry. I don't have the same gentleness and I don't have the same patience.

"Patience," Lucien said, and smiled. "Every journey has its share of stops and each one serves some purpose."

This second quote is one I believe unequivocally to be true - the Lord knows what we need and allows us to grow through experiences we may or may not understand. The result is that if we have faith in Him, we can endure the "stops" or trials along our paths and come away from them more like Him, and ready to face the next challenge.

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.