My June read done

Hi everyone! I am done with Man's Search for Meaning. It was very interesting. It made me feel stoic afterwards, like I should be able to handle any suffering. I had mixed feelings about his being so detached about it all. I sort of wished he would be more personal, but then I thought that maybe it was the only way he could cope with the experiences.
I shared some of the incidents in it with Pat and he was very interested. I recommend it to anyone; it made me think and ponder purposes and meanings in life . . . but I do not want it to be my only read about the Holocaust. I haven't read anything else. I'd like to read The Hiding Place now after what Beccy said about it.
As for July, I do not think I will try to fit in a book--I think I will be pretty tired! I am already three days overdue. Wish me luck! Love to you all; I'll keep reading your posts and joining in when I can.

Beccy's June & July reads

First, I delighted in all of your posts! I'm curious, Liz, to know your thoughts about Man's Search For Meaning. I am glad I read it, but I can't say that it changed my life. I did feel that The Hiding Place was a life-changer when I read it, probably in part because it was written without Dr. Frankl's heavy-duty and--to me, sometimes cold--psychological analysis. (It was interesting to me, Mim, that you mentioned it, because it was on my mind all throughout Frankl's book.)

Also, The Hiding Place was really my first (literary) exposure to the atrocities of the Holocaust. But now that I think about it, it wasn't learning about the Holocaust but the character of Corrie Ten Boom's father who had the life-changing effect on me. One of the most touching parts to me is when Corrie asks her father one of those deep questions that children innocently ask. They are riding on a bus with their luggage, all of their possessions in one big bag if I'm remembering right. He knows that the answer to her question is too painful and beyond her comprehension. He gently explains how knowing ugly things about the world is like carrying heavy luggage, and since she is still so small, she can just let him carry that luggage for her until she is big enough to lift it herself. Does anyone remember that?

Anyway, later Troy and I went through Dachau. I felt like a witness to the Holocaust, in a small degree. That was mind-blowing. I wept continuously throughout the tour.

Frankl's descriptions of incidents of Nazi cruelty reminded me of the depravity of the Nephites before their annihilation--they too were hardened, blood-thirsty, past feeling. I truly cannot comprehend being so cruel, so ugly-evil to another human being, though I can see how a person gets to that point through increasingly evil choices. At the same time, there were some who retained charity for others while being tortured. The cumulative effect of the book on me (with The Hiding Place in the back of my mind the whole time) was to bring into sharp and sobering focus the two extremes of what man can become.

Fun genre for July, Rae! I am excited to read Shadow Patriots by Lucia St. Clair Robson. It's about a young woman from a Quaker family who risks her life during the Revolutionary War when she becomes a spy for patriot forces. It is a fictional account of George Washington's female spy in New York that only went by "355." It has rave reviews on Amazon. Incidentally, the heroine's name in the novel is Kate. :)

I hope to finish it before Harry Potter comes out!

More Bookish Thots

This is just too much fun! I love thinking of each of you reading in between your lives...I stayed up late last night and finished my book. I need to do homework tonight and tomorrow because we are going camping towards the end of the week. I didn't want to be able to use the book as an excuse not to do homework! Because I would have.

I am going to post several long-winded items on the blog re my read. I have so much to share with you. I think we've all read the book, To Kill A Mockingbird, and so I think you'll each be interested in what I found out. If not, you can skip my comments...

Mim, thanks for NOT posting in Japanese. Congrats (or condolences) on your new call. You'll do a wonderful job, as you do in every calling. You have unique aspects that you bring to a calling because of where you have lived and who you have associated with. I absolutely love being in Relief Society. I have very little in common with the ladies in our group, but I love the good spirit that is there. The power of righteous living. It strengthens me enormously each week.

Re holocaust books. I have "enjoyed" many of them over the years. I hesitate to use that word. But I think they all have something good to bring to the table, in that each individual reacted to their circumstances in a different way. Maybe that's why The Hiding Place shows much forgiveness, whereas Man's Search for Meaning is more individualistic and clinical. I agree that everyone should read about that event, if only to try to understand good and evil coexisting...and how one can rise above the evil while being amidst it.

On to the Mockingbird posts.

Another Proxy Post for Mim/Mom

Well, soon enough I'll be in Japan and able to figure why Mom/Mim hasn't been able to post blogs in anything but JAPANESE. Until then, here's her latest post.

Hi All y'all! I'm sure enjoying my book, Lucile Tate's bio of President Packer. What a difference a good biographer can make, because this is so much more enjoyable than a couple of other biogs of GA's and it's not because the subjects aren't good. Another reason I'm enjoying it so much is that he's just Dad's age, so I've lived much of the history that's described. I feel like I have so much in common with him, and yet I'm in such awe of him. The timing of reading this is perfect; I've just been sustained as Relief Society president in our branch (!) and I'm inspired by President Packer's very focused approach to his service. It's easy for me to be overwhelmed and try to do everything all at once. He discovers the Lord's will and patterns by studying the Doctrine & Covenants. Funny, that almost seems like a novel idea to some people.

About Catch Me if You Can--Maddie and Blake read it a few months ago and enthusiastically shared stories with me. Yes, Abby, I think he must've gotten a rush out of duping people. Interesting that he changed. It's scary that people can fool us so easily. I remember the Readers' Digest story about the English professor who actually could not read and no one knew it. I also thought of Frank Abagnale (of Catch Me) when I had Maddie at the doctor's office and the doc said something pretty questionable followed by some comments about appendicitis with gestures toward his left side. Kind of raised the hair on my arms . . .

Must comment on other reads--Beccy and Rae H, I'm about a third of the way thru You Can Never Get Enough of What You Don't Need (haven't started the peculiar people one yet) and I, too, love her frankness and cut-to-the-chase viewpoint. Will be interested in the Harold Bloom book about reading because I really liked Arthur Henry King's Arm the Children and his encouragement of significant reading. Man's Search for Meaning seems like one of those really worthwhile books, Liz and Beccy . . . When I read it I felt like everyone ought to read at least one such book--like The Hiding Place or Elie Wiesel's Night. Blake doesn't think so highly of it as he does of The Hiding Place because the message of forgiveness doesn't seem to come through as clearly, which he thinks is due to Frankl's Jewish eye-for-an-eye mindset. But it changed my life for the better.

Sure is fun to think of all of us reading. Love you each--Mim/Mom