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! 

THE END OF LIFE BOOK CLUB by Will Schwalbe

Stand up and be counted Christensen readers!  It's a new year and I'm going to do my best to resurrect this blog, so I'm calling on all of you to re-commit and make an attempt at posting more regularly.  I also think we should post on books that are outside the Christmas B&N trip.
So here I go. 

I'll start with "The End of Your Life Book Club," by Will Schwalbe.  This book was on one of the favorite reads tables at B&N and I was attracted to the advertised themes of mothers, sons, and reading; irresistible themes.  This is Will's homage to his mother, Mary Anne Schwalbe, as she fights pancreatic cancer, and the book club that evolves as the two of them look for interesting-and distracting-conversation during long the chemo treatments.  Life long readers and discussers, the book club is simply a formalized arrangement of conversations they've been having all their lives.  Mr. Schwalbe quite successfully weaves the story of his mother, a gentle, refined, but ahead of her time woman into the chapters and what emerges is a moving tribute not only to his mother, but to the power of books to bind families and friends together.         "[Mother] never wavered" he says, "in her conviction that books are the most powerful tool in the human arsenal, that reading all kinds of books, in whatever format you choose--electronic or printed, or audio--is the grandest entertainment, and also is how you take part in the human conversation....books really do matter: they're how we know what we need to do in life...books can be how we get closer to each other, and stay close."

And now you've just read the last page of the book whether you wanted to or not! But you all know that that's how I roll, and it turns out to be a quirky habit that Mary Anne Schwalbe and I share!

I do recommend this book, it's gentle, inspiring, and well written.

Pro's-

-Well written, largely avoids the sentimentality a book like this could devolve into.
-Provides a stellar list of "want to reads"
-Fun discussion of some of the books we've read
-Models excellent critical reading analysis

Con's-

-Intimidating reading-these guys are blue blood, east coast, wealthy Harvard/Radcliff educated folks with no idea that they live a silver spoon life
-Incites jealousy--they seem to have nothing to do but read 100's and 100's of pages a week while saving the world building libraries in Afghanistan

To Have and Have Not

Report by Mark

1 star

I feel like I should report on this book because it is the book I got on our Barnes & Noble Christmas trip but it was junk so I'll keep it short.

Its about a Harry Morgan, a rough guy who starts running contraband between Cuba and Key West. He is pretty much a jerk to a lot of people, kills some people for petty reasons, makes money and then (*spoiler alert) loses it, gets shot and suffers for a while, then dies.

After being to Key West several times I did really enjoy the description of the area and culture there. I also have always admired Hemingway's literary style. But if you want to read Hemingway don't start with this book. It is very disjointed and in the end has no redeeming qualities. After finishing it I went online to see if I was missing something and found this: film director Howard Hawks, who adapted the novel for his 1944 film, claimed that Hemingway had told him it was his worst book, and a "bunch of junk". I agree.

PROOF OF HEAVEN

Report by Mark

4 Stars

Proof of Heaven is a remarkable story of a neurosugeon's near death experience (NDE). Dr. Alexander is a Harvard trained academic neurosurgeon who abruptly gets very sick and spends about a week in the ICU in a coma after contracting a crazy rare brain disease. The story of his medical miracle is interesting in and of itself, but the unexpected spiritual experience he has is even more fascinating. He was raised Christian but for many years had been very skeptical about religion. He describes a journey to a spiritual realm where he travels through different levels and eventually comes to be with God and although he doesn't see God he communicates with him and is taught many things.

Both Melissa and I read this book and have since had many interesting conversations about our perception of the afterlife and spirituality. There are several parts of this book that sound like they come right out of Gospel Essentials such as when he is describing God's purpose for putting us on earth or when he talks about coming to realize that God is a person like us with personality but a perfected body. But much of his book is a struggle to express things that he feels our words and minds could never really grasp.

I really liked the content. It will make you think and reexamine the lenses we view the afterlife through in our church. It also will be a source a great conversation. The writing itself was average but not bad. It is a quick and easy read. I would recommend it for everyone, especially those who are skeptical about NDEs.

CLOUD ATLAS

Report by AJ

4 Stars

Cloud atlas is a collection of six remotely connected chronological stories.  The first is about a man traveling the pacific in the 19th century and the last takes you to a distant post-apocalyptic future.  The book starts with the first half of each story, then presents the endings of each story in reverse order, chiasmus style.  I would recommend it to anyone looking for a good book to read.

Pros:

• I loved the writing: each story is told using a different medium (letters, journals, interviews, etc...) and voice.  You never would have guessed it was the same author writing all of the stories.  I thought it was brilliant!  Also, very pretty writing to boot.
• Every story is fun to read, exploring every theme from love, to aging, to colonization and racism, to 1984 big brother type stuff. 

Cons:

• You know how the first chapter or two of every book is the worst because you have to get used to the authors writing and become acquainted with hosts of new characters? That happens six times in this book.
• I still have a sense that there should have been a stronger theme connecting it all.  It felt a little ADHD.   

A Civil Action

REPORT BY AJ

5 STARS *****

A civil action is the true story of a Boston Lawyer who takes on a case that consumes his life--think little guy against powerful corporate bullies.  Jonathan Harr (the author) convinced all of the lawyers and parties involved in the case to let him be a fly on the wall throughout the process, so he was able to capture all of the emotion and action (down to every last glare and fist pump) which makes it read like a novel.  I really enjoyed it, but the legal themes might not appeal to everyone.

Pros:

• really interesting expose to the legal world if you interested in law but aren't one of the attorneys in the family.  
• Page turner (took me about two weeks while in school; 500 pages)
• Themes of substance: ambition, justice, greed, virtues of an adversarial legal process, accountability

Con: Sometimes it gives you the feeling that you're working 100 hour weeks along side the characters in the book.