Raehink: December Reading

With the holidays coming upon us all quite quickly, I will make our December read an easy one. Your assignment is to choose any book that you own to read. It could be one you've had sitting in your "to be read" pile, one you've been putting off, or one you just haven't had a chance to get to because you were reading books given to you or from the library. I know you each have at least one or two titles like this. So enjoy the holidays and curl up with a good book. And don't forget to post about what you've been reading each month. We love to hear from you!

Happy reading!

Mim/Mom: Of Bodies, the Fall, and Frankenstein's Monster

In October I read two of the books I'd hoped to read: Frankenstein (Mary Shelley), and The Body Snatcher (Robert Louis Stevenson). They were sufficiently creepy and suspenseful! I especially enjoyed the literacy of both authors--their ability to express things clearly and beautifully. I was unprepared for all the symbolism in Frankenstein--all the implicit comparisons to the story of Adam and Eve and the Fall. (Where have I been?) It was fun to be aware of the 1816 prevailing thought regarding the Fall, and to see how the Monster was a modern Prometheus who created a great dilemma for his creator (as Adam and Eve supposedly ruined things for God). Actually I've had a chance to comment on the importance of the Fall, both in our Relief Society book group full of nonmember friends (regarding the book Frankenstein) and in Protestant Women of the Chapel groups.

Here's a Halloweeny passage from Frankenstein. Most of this is actually a quote from Samuel Taylor Coleridge: "I hurried on with irregular steps, not daring to look about me:

Like one who on a lonely road,
Doth walk in fear and dread,
And having once turned round, walks on,
And turns no more his head;
Because he knows a frightful fiend
Doth close behind him tread."

The Body Snatcher is only 16 pages long in my little Dover Thrift Edition, and it's a really fun short story when you don't have time for anything long. Based of the reality of medical students using cadavers for their studies, and the possibility of actually recognizing a cadaver in class . . . Did you know Mary Shelley never really spells out how Dr. Frankenstein got the parts for his monster(s)? But everyone assumes it was "bodysnatching." I like Stevenson (Treasure Island, Kidnapped, etc.). Both of these books had the effect of making me want to write more, and to read lots of well-written stories!

For November I'm going to watch a biographical DVD instead of reading a book. I've ordered Paradise Lost: The Life and Times of John Milton from Amazon. (More Adam-and-Eve stuff, actually.) With my being at an overseas military address, the DVD may not get here till December so my "report" will lag behind. I didn't find the book about Milton that I was looking for, so the DVD will be better than a book this month.

Besides, I need extra time for another book I'm supposed to be reading for our Relief Society book group. We chose a Military category for November (and Veterans' Day), so I'm going to read If You Survive (George Wilson). As I was telling Rae H, this is a book Maddie actually picked up off the Recommended Military Reading shelf, of all places. She knew nothing about it, but it looked interesting and then she just devoured it! And Blake stayed up most or all of one night reading it himself. (He has an endearing habit of snitching our books and reading them during the same time we're reading them.)

Happy Thanksgiving to All!

Lynness: random replies and news

Well, Inkheart, etc. sounded interesting, so I read the first 2 last week.  I loved the idea of 'getting lost in a book' and how they change you and you them (kind of like Jasper Fforde, but very different), but I didn't like the actual story in the first one as much as I wanted to.  I did like the second one better.  I'll have to put a hold on the 3rd and see where it goes.  I also got The Thief Lord, by the same author, and have high hopes.  I checked out a book on Joan of Arc and an African-American woman's memoir of her life as a slave, neither of which I have cracked, b/c I'm frantically trying to finish my parents' anniversary gift for Wednesday.  Here's the real reason for the post- we talked to Jennica last night: she has read Twilight and went with a group of friends Saturday to...Forks, WA!  Evidently 'Dr. Cullen' has a reserved parking spot at the hospital, different houses are labeled as being various book characters', you can see the cliff where Bella dove, etc..  I guess the whole town is in the act!