Mim/Mom: From the Ridiculous to the Sublime

Hi All! I read a good deal of Calvin & Hobbes and finished Harry Potter #5 for my humorous books for January. One of you said Harry Potter wasn't exactly funny, but I found plenty to laugh at (like the potion made with gravy and bubotuber pus). And Calvin always makes me happy.

For February I'm actually somewhat challenged because our library is under construction, basically closed--so I needed a book made into a movie, and preferably both would be right under my own roof. I chose Longitude, by Dava Sobel. Blake has enjoyed both, and they've been on my wish list for some time. Not exactly a novel, but I think I'll like it (and the movie) if I can only get around to it.

I finished The Professor and the Madman, Simon Winchester's amazing story about the making of the Oxford Dictionary--the dictionary itself was intriguing enough, but the madman's story was fascinating. Winchester portrayed him in a way that made me love him, even with his lifetime of sexual addictions. I felt so much compassion for him and so much gratitude for the Atonement and the hope we have in Christ of overcoming addictions. I probably would never have noticed the book or thought I'd like it, but thanks to Rae's gift for recommending books to us, this was a real winner for me.

I read two others that Rae recommended--one of those was also highly recommended by Beccy--that joint recommendation was No More Words, by Anne Morrow Lindbergh's daughter Reeve Lindbergh (Reeve married but kept her maiden name). The book is a journal of Reeve's loss of her mother, Anne, over a period of years and of course it was immensely relevant for Rae, Beccy, and me. I finished it during the night after receiving the phone call on Thanksgiving telling us that Mother was much worse. Wow, what beautiful, poetic, comforting writing. Anne's children were all adults, like mother's children, and here's an excerpt that's poignant: "Maybe it's hard to die with your children in the room, so you try to slip away when they are near but not exactly with you. Maybe they pull at the heartstrings too much, make you doubt the wisdom and distract you from the work of your departure. You start to worry about how your dying will affect them, and whether they will be all right afterward. Oh, dear. Should I? Shouldn't I? Are they really ready? Is there anything I forgot to tell them before I go? Do they all have their mittens and their lunch money?"

Rae's other winning recommendation was My Stroke of Insight. I'd heard the story of its author, Jill Bolte Taylor, a Harvard neuroscience professor who, ironically, had a brain aneurysm and miraculously recovered enough in eight years to write her own story. Because of Mother and because of my keen interest in the brain and mind, this book gave me lots of insights and compassion, and confidence to help any stroke victim I might encounter thru visiting teaching or whatever. We already have distinct advantages as Saints because of what we know about individual worth and the eternity of the soul, but hearing a firsthand accound (from Mom and then from this book) added a lot to my understanding.

My Relief Society book group is re-focusing on the mission of Relief Society, trying to be sure our reading will increase faith, strengthen home and family, and promote service. Our February theme is black history. I've been enjoying a little collection of Great Speeches by African Americans, my favorites being the speeches of Frederick Douglass and Martin Luther King, Junior. The book includes a speech by Barack Obama; I haven't read it, but it seems appropriate to include it. It seems premature to label him as great, but they did call the book Great Speeches, not Great African Americans. Time will tell, won't it. We must pray for him. LOTS, haha. For March my RS group will read something to strengthen marital or family relationships, even if it's something totally off that subject but they read it out loud with their husbands for quality time. I will read Beccy's esteemed selection, Bonds That Make Us Free, by C. Terry Warner.

Lastly, I have to share my excitement over my Christmas gift from Blake, especially since y'all are about the only people who can even begin to understand why I'd like such a gift. He gave me a two-volume set of the Oxford English Dictionary. And I love it. It's actually quite superior to the World Book Dictionary we've used all these years. And he gave it to me several weeks early (because he was excited too), when I was starting to read The Professor and the Madman with the story of the original OED. I have a dictionary stand and I'm into this dictionary all the time. HAPPY READING, ALL--Love, Mim/Mom