Hello All---Mim/Mom here. I've been silent for a long time, but I've been reading everyone's comments and also reading my July and August books. I hope you won't mind that my comments are lengthy and tardy.
Happy Birthday--to everybody else in the book club! From August 18th to September 25th, that is. Rae, does that suggest a genre, maybe?
I loved my July read, The Winthrop Woman, which I finished on August 6th. Anya Seton claims meticulous research so I trusted her history details as well as her portrayal of Elizabeth Winthrop. Seton probably couldn't help giving Elizabeth some modern-day attitudes that she may not really have had, but there must have been a few women in that era (about 1615-1660) who perceived thru the Light of Christ that Heavenly Father might not be a God of wrath and that Puritanism was not the true doctrine of the Atonement. Did you know there were alphabet letters other than scarlet A's to label people as sinners? D for Drunkard, V for Venery, B for Buggery . . . They could've made an entire primer of sins for their children, separate from the Bible alphabet primer they used for educating them. I am so thankful to live today and have a testimony of the restored gospel! I must've been desperate to have my earth-turn now and not sooner.
Anyway, I thought a lot about New England history and our country's beginnings, as Rae hoped we all would. I thought about our own family history, about witchcraft and Anne Hutchinson, about early apothecary skills (Elizabeth kept her family of three husbands and eight children remarkably healthy), and Indians (pardon me, Native Americans). I'd forgotten how violent and vile the interactions between colonists and Indians were, and I saw clearly that Satan fought hard to keep this country from ever getting its little flame going and standing a dim chance for religious tolerance. I'd read a bio of John Winthrop but saw him in a less favorable light this time; only a man truly called of God as was Joseph Smith could ever rise above pride and greed in such a role.
Seton sent me repeatedly to my dictionary stand. You can probably guess the meaning of this fun but derisive phrase: "One little boy cocked a snoot at Will . . ."
My August book was Reading Like a Writer: A Guide for People who Love Books and for Those who Want to Write Them. Author--Francine Prose (really). Some of you may not be interested in her subject, but you'd all enjoy the format because she quotes passages from excellent writers and you just have a lot of fun reading them. (You have to skip a few nasties.) The author's quite acclaimed. She shows you how these writers use word choice, point of view, dialogue, gesture, etc. in creative ways. I'm sure this sounds like an ordinary writing book. But it was captivating, even though I can't say I really liked analyzing literature till I was thirty or so.
Prose's list of "Books to Be Read Immediately" includes lots of classics, but also lots of moderns that I may try now that I've "tasted" them. The book made me decide that my own writing is way too rule-bound and I can learn much by just "reading like a writer." I don't plan to be all weird and wild, but I feel some new freedom and excitement now about my future writing. Thanks for the fun category, Rachel. Love to all---Miriam/Mom