A THOUSAND SPLENDID SUNS by Khaled Hosseini

This is one of those books that you put off and then kick yourself for not reading sooner. Because I knew it was heavy, and because AJ and I had just read the also-heavy (also-written-by-Khaled-Hosseini) Kite Runner, it sat on my nightstand for months. I kept convincing myself I needed a break from heavy. Several months and two teen-fiction, vampire-robot-hunting series later (The Infernal Devices and The Mortal Instruments - call me if you want to know more. There's no way I'm doing a public book review of either of those), I finally picked it up.

And I am so glad I did. It was heavy, as promised, but so so good.

A Thousand Splendid Suns is from the Afghan woman's perspective. That's a world I don't know very much about and the insight was fascinating to me. The book starts out jumping between the stories of two separate women whose lives eventually become intertwined. It spans something like 30 years, but the story illustrates what it was/is like to be a woman in Afghanistan - atleast what Khaled Hosseini thinks it's like and chose to portray. The women in the story are forced to wear burkas, endure arranged marriages, stay inside, cope with death, wait on and take abuse from their husbands, etc. Even though the story is sad, I think this book is near the top of my 'Favorites' list. I totally ate up the friendship that grows between the two suffering women, the glimpse it provided into a world so unlike my own, and the beautiful writing.

I highly recommend it.

LONGBOURN by Jo Baker

Longbourn, by Jo Baker, a sad attempt that was enjoyed by some, but alas not me.  When we were at B&N at Christmas I over heard several people talking about this book with high praise, and being a Jane Austen fan I was excited to think there was something new to read.

The opening chapters are okay, the characters show some promise and make you want to like them, but by two thirds of the way through I was just reading because I finish all the books I start (I'm going to have to re-think this strategy!).  The story and characters had disintegrated to stock characters with predictable and annoying characteristics.  Also offensive to my purist mind, was the way Baker treats Jane and Elizabeth, I just don't want them to be selfish or petty, I want to retain the perfect sweet and spunky characters that Austen created. I guess I'm a romantic! Surprise!

Don't bother reading this.

LEAN IN by Sheryl Sandberg

I started reading this book convinced that I would not like it and that I would disagree with everything Sandberg had to say, seeing as how her life choices are about as opposite of mine as you could get!  But, it turns, out I agreed completely with her general thesis, and even a fair amount of her application. Her argument, that women too often sit back and follow or wait for life to happen to them, is one I whole heartedly agree with. It's certainly a tendency I have fought all my life, and her plea that women step up and design and navigate life with purpose is spot on. Her insistence that life works better when we live in smoothly functioning partnerships and families is so obvious it's a shame that we need to be so blatantly reminded of that fact.  For that reason, I think it's a great read, even an important one and a book that I would love all the women and men I love and trust (i.e. you-all) to read, just so we could talk about it!

So, how do I disagree you ask?  Just with her other main assumption:  that true social equality will only be achieved when women fill half of the high-powered careers in business and positions in government.  I don't think that's the real or lasting solution to equality, it's just the obvious one (See Gladwell's David and Goliath.  I do understand that the real lasting solutions, with no fall-out to families, reside somewhere on the same planet has successfully living the Law of Consecration, and so it's tempting to want to agree with Sandberg. But when reading this book the realities of real family life are strangely absent and in their place are descriptions of small families with an excess of money and two parents who both have such high-powered jobs that they are essentially in complete control of their time with money to spare. In this world children generally have either one parent or the other available or, an expensive, best-money-can-buy caretaker, along with every other advantage offered to those in this tip top tier.  Sandberg's chapter on children and working parents uses carefully chosen statistics and studies to justify her position and feels so elitist that even though she acknowledges her advantages her protestations fall flat. In the end I am convinced that, while children are a close close second for her, her career and what it offers is truly the primary motivator and purpose in all she does.

Still, I would say read this book, and ladies, we need to Lean In!

DAVID AND GOLIATH: UNDERDOGS, MISFITS AND THE ART OF FIGHTING GIANTS, by Malcom Gladwell

Another audio book, and my first Malcom Gladwell.  I know several of you have read some of his other books so I can't speak to how this compares, but I quite enjoyed it.  It's not so long that it repeats itself as some self-help books do, but it's long enough to flesh out his point which is that many of life's biggest problems are solved by ignoring the obvious and looking for the "other" solution. He deals with everything from education, money, and war to crime and punishment and careers.  His suggestion that a constant willingness to think outside the box is timely and well framed.  The book is full of very interesting stories with relevant application and was a great juxtaposition to my reading of Sheryl Sandberg's Lean In which I was reading at the same time  See me for further discussion, but help yourself to the audible account and give this book a listen-to!

THE ORCHARDIST by Amanda Colpin

It might be a little early to write about this book, because I suspect that I will still be thinking about it a month from now.  Amanda Coplin is a stunningly good writer for her age.  At 31 she has produced a novel that is rich, complicated, and haunting.  Her ability to craft sentences that pinpoint the deeper emotional experiences that make up life is sometimes breathtaking.  I found myself wanting to underline whole passages, not because I had learned something new, but because she had so precisely captured the layers and meaning of experiences I have had.  I was often so in awe of her writing that it would distract me from the story itself.

Having spent much of my childhood in my family's peach orchard I was captivated by Coplin's setting and the characters she creates.  In Talmage, the orchardist, I saw shades of my dad, and even deeper shades of his mentor, Elmer Smith, who would wander into our farm on a regular basis with quiet, homey and wise advice; it was natural for me to love Talmage from the first page.  Having said that, readings Coplin's story was sometimes exhausting for me, with elements that were so intense they seemed to clash with her setting and gentle writing style. It was often so rich that I couldn't read it before going to bed because it would rev up my brain and make sleeping difficult. But now that I've finished the book I realize that this book is not about the plot, it's simply a beautifully written story about the journey of life, about how one person's life touches others, how some of life's dreams evaporate while others are truly realized and how we are simply the sum-total of all that happens to us and around us.  I was completely entranced through the whole book, and then, in the closing two pages (which, for some unknown reason I thankfully had not yet read!), she took my breath away and I re-grieved and celebrated an important part of my life.

Others have compared Coplin's writing to Marilyn Robinson, Steinbeck and others we have loved.  I would agree, and heartily recommend this book.  I'm anxious for someone to read it so I can talk to you about it!

WOMEN AND THE PRIESTHOOD by Sheri Dew

This is actually one of the books I bought on our B&N trip.  Since I am currently reading everything I can find on this particular issue due to current social conversations and my new RS calling, this book seemed appealing since, even if she's not saying anything new, Sister Dew usually says the old stuff better than anyone else.  And this book ultimately did not disappoint.  Slow to get going, the first couple of chapters were a bid tedious, but about half way through things start to pick up and Chapters 6 and 7 are the best.  In chapter 6 she gives the clearest, most relevant doctrine defining priesthood keys, authority, and power that I've ever read, and she's very convincing in her argument that women have nothing to be afraid of, or feel cheated about. This is followed by chapter 7, titled "God Reserved the High Privilege of Motherhood for Women." This chapter scared me, because I'm done with the patronizing talks on this subject, but here, Sister Dew comes through with flying colors, she avoids platitudes, discusses sound doctrine, and makes one of the best arguments for honoring motherhood I've read.  It includes this little story: " I have friends," she says, "a husband and wife, who have served widely in the Church an at the same time raised a large and close-knit family.  The husband has also enjoyed sustained professional success.  One day I asked how they had managed it all.  "One day early in our marriage the light clicked on for me," he explained. "It happened after we had been to an event sponsored by my work.  One person after another complimented my wife on supporting me in my career.  As we drove home, it dawned on me that actually I was the one doing the supporting.  I went to work every day to make it possible for her to stay home with our children and focus without distraction on the most important work we as a couple would ever do--and that was raise our children to love the Lord."  I love all the levels of perspective illustrated in this short paragraph.

I do recommend this book, even if all you read are the last 3 chapters!

THE PAINTED VEIL by Somerset Maugham

This is one of the books discussed in "The End of Your Life Book Club."  I have this book by Somerset Maugham on Audible and had listened to it about 18 months ago and decided after reading the Schwalbe's discussion of it thought it deserved another look. I put my earphones in and listened for a whole afternoon while cleaning the house and then for another couple of enjoyable hours while I worked on a puzzle at the Lake.  This short romantic book, one of Maugham's classics, is a look at turn of the century women, adultery, and redemption.It takes place primarily in colonial China and tells the story of a woman on the edges of society who is ambitiously determined to marry up. She ultimately enters into in a loveless marriage simply to avoid spinsterhood and follows her doctor husband first to Tiching-Yen (euphemism for Hong Kong) and then into the interior of China where he is studying a cholera epidemic. It's a bitter-sweet story of lovelessness and love and a story that ultimately allows for the real possibility that a person can evolve into their better self.

I enjoyed this book even better the second time and would recommend it as a good beach read or to keep you company while housekeeping!