Hi My Dears---I'm reporting back about my Christmas reads. Lynness, did you read that short story, "The Mansion?" I didn't really enjoy it and I wondered why President Monson reads it over and over! The characters seemed so flat after reading A Christmas Carol (and Dickens is great at characterization anyway). The message seemed kind of trite--basically, you get a tiny mansion in heaven if your focus on earth is your earthly mansion.
So I talked about A Christmas Carol in my other December post. But Dickens' The Life of Our Lord was a nice little surprise. A sweet little book but I don't know if any of you would get very excited about it. He does have a gift for writing simply, in a way his children would've been enchanted with. He had ten children! Anyhow, the best thing about the book is the two letters at the end, which President Hinckley quotes from, where Dickens teaches his children, "Remember! True Christianity is TO DO GOOD always . . ."
Here's a question for everyone: What can you recommend for Maddie on the topic of immigrants to America? She's been reading about this in her history text this week and she said it was the first time in forever that she'd been excited about something she's learning at school (other than Spanish and Japanese). She hasn't even been as enthused this year about reading in general. So I want to give her some titles and "strike while the iron's hot" to encourage her. I did a Google search but without any personal recommendations the selections offered are just unknowns. Anyone know some good ones? Nonfiction, of course, and not too scholarly. She would like it to be narrative, to read like a story. Says she wants to read about the clashes of culture and about the hardships people overcame . . . Thanks for your answers . . .
Merry Christmas and I love you all! Lynness, I feel like I'm getting to know lots about you thru this blog! And Samantha, are you still out there? Or are you spending all your time writing instead of reading? One day we'll all be reading a Samantha Weigel book together, no? Love, MIM
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