Lynness: What have I missed?....

Well, we've been having phone problems- a buzz in the line that not
only makes it hard to hear talking, but evidently produces too much
interference to allow my caller ID to work, or to check voice mail, or
to connect to the internet. I've felt very deprived. The phone company
came out and fixed it today - yippee! I logged on, wondering what I've
missed. Turns out, not much. Oh, there were a few things I didn't hear
about that I might have if I had been online (since I rarely listen to
the radio, only watch PBS once a week - and that only recently because
of Jane Austen, and we don't get the paper). Anyway- I felt very
isolated between the lack of connection and the flu that we had a couple
of weeks ago. All in all, what would I do without my books? (Maybe I'd
clean my kitchen or work on some of my unfinished sewing/crafting
projects. Or maybe I'd finish the bathroom we started painting before
we got sick.) Isn't it nice to have a place to escape to, or a place
where you're not responsible, or a place to make contact with other
adults (even if they are fictional)!! No, really I do get out, but not
so much when it's cold and dreary and I'm sick. But that's finally
passing...and spring is nearly here.
This month I read "Mansfield Park" (Jane Austen) and "New Moon"
(Stephenie Meyer) for my romantic fiction picks. I thoroughly enjoyed
New Moon. Mansfield Park not so much. I thought I had at least started
it before, but nothing was familiar except in that I had just seen the
PBS movie before I read it, so maybe not. I felt like I was slogging
through it, waiting to get to the good part. I never really got there.
Even when the girl gets the guy, my main feeling was relief that I was
almost done with the book. It's just not as engaging a story as Emma or
S&S or P&P (my fav.). A few weeks later I read New Moon and did it in
about half a day- I just wanted to keep going. I love P&P- but it still
requires effort to read it. This requires no effort. Obviously, the
two are not even on the same plane, but sometimes a fun read is all you
want, and it satisfied me well.
If anyone is still looking for a "loverly" read that won't take too
much time, I have enjoyed Madeleine Brent's "Tregaron's Daughter" and
"Moonraker's Bride." My 8th grade English teacher recommended them
(starting with "Stranger at Wildings" which I enjoyed but not as much as
the previous 2). There are others by her- some ok, some I didn't like
at all. The best part is that these 2 are all clean- no "bodice
rippers" as I heard somebody call the men in romance novels once upon a
time.
As for my other reading, I read "Magical Moments," by Dr. somebody??
Terr, about psychotherapy changing children's lives. I don't know what
I thought (or think, still) about psychotherapy. I'd have to think
about it a lot and be sure that the therapist concurs with my beliefs
before I'd send my kid or go myself, for that matter, but there were
some pretty amazing changes made in the vignettes that the book
presented. It was interesting. In a good way.
I also browsed here and there in a book about how prosperity has
changed America and its politics (still trying to find stuff for
January!). All I could think of was the pride cycle in the Book of
Mormon and Brigham Young's quote about how he was afraid it wasn't
persecution and trials that was going to get to the Saints- it was
prosperity and how he was afraid we'd all kick ourselves out of the
Church and down to hell because of it.
Finally, I've been reading the scriptures. The Old Testament-
faster than I ever have before. I'm trying to keep ahead of what I'm
teaching every morning. So far I'm still ahead, but just barely, and
the pace is only going to get faster (until we get to Isaiah, and I
think I have 3 weeks for the whole book!) I think we have 2 days for
1st and 2nd Chronicles, a couple of days for Psalms and Proverbs (yeah,
they're short, but there's a lot of them!). Anyway...hopefully the fact
that nobody's posted much on February books means we're all enjoying a
good romance! Love, Lynness

Rae: Phyllis Whitney

...died Friday at age 104. She was a good writer of many gothics. I enjoyed her works immensely. I read her a lot in high school as did Grandma Hawkes.

Rae: Odds and Ends

First of all, thank you for your responses re non-fiction. I will try harder to make the topics more user-friendly and relevant. Because I have such a large and varied collection of non-read non-fiction (I seem to collect them), I rarely go to the library anymore. I forget sometimes that other people do not always have access to the books or the time to read that I do. I will try to keep that in mind as I choose directions for us to go in our reading.

Lynness...I really appreciated your post. I think we all, as members of the church and as Christians, face some of those same issues. In our primary, we actually voted for Obama because we are unaffiliated and wanted to vote against Hillary. I personally feel that as liberal as he is, he is the lesser of two evils. And we are so tired of the Clintons. Can you imagine Bill in the White House again...and with so much time on his hands? Scary. I would be most interested to hear your conclusions and ideas re illegal immigration. I continue to vacillate and to study the issue. I certainly haven't reached any solid conclusions. I think it's an extrememly volatile issue...not unlike the secession of southern states that led to the Civil War (I am taking a class...). We are counseled here in Utah that if we really loved Nephi then we would care about his posterity. I do, but the Gadianton robbers had posterity also!

Lulu...I started Gone With the Wind a few years ago and wasn't in the mood. I would like to know what you think about it. I should probably get back to it. After giving The English Patient a try (35 pages or so) and not enjoying the writing style or the language (and it's a Booker Prize winner), I have picked up Wuthering Heights as my February read. I have seen the movie and disliked it, but I have never read the book. Maybe I will have a different opinion of the story now that I'm an old married lady.

Mim...I'm intrigued that you are intrigued again with that pesky Wilson Poulter line. I have been thinking a lot about our family on the other side lately because of the death of Ivan's mother and the upcoming death of our own. Thinking about who they will visit with. Mom and I had a wonderful conversation about foreordination the other day. She was pondering the fact that Prez Hinckley had been reserved for this day. And she realized...so had she. It made her so grateful, she said, to be able to live here and now and know who she knows. Yesterday we talked about whether we would care (on the other side) about some of the things we care about now in this world. I was telling her about my Civil War class and how I wanted to ask Franklin Spencer so many questions about his experiences early on in the war...and how and why he ended up fighting for the Confederacy for a while. Being able to talk to someone like that would make the history so much more relevant. The conclusion we came up with was that if we care about it here we will most likely still care about it there...but with a few differences because of the thrust of our work there. It made me hopeful that I can continue my intellectual growth as well as my spiritual growth on the other side. And on another school note, I have started my intimidating math class now. It occurred to me, after reading a Joseph Smith quote (I am slowly working my way through TPJS this year in conjunction with the RS manual) about our intellects being created for enlargement, that I can pray for understanding and enlightenment re those mathematical issues. If I am to co-create with my husband one day...I better understand some math!

I also wanted to report on a book I read this past week for Maren's book group. We read A Thousand Splendid Suns by the author of The Kite Runner. My goodness. Wow. It's about two Afghani women who are thrust together by culture and marriage. It's a dark and rough read that made me so so so grateful for the blessings of living in a free land. Ivan and I had a discussion about how the gospel could possibly be taught in that culture. Very difficult. I can't say that I enjoyed the book because it was so tough to read. But I found it well worth my time. I recommend it.

Happy reading!

Lulu: My February book

Mom, I love that you compared Gore to Lockhart. The thought gave me a huge perma-grin.

I am going to read Gone With the Wind for February. I've never read it. I've seen the movie, but Abby has told me the book has a lot more "meat" to it, and, given that that seems to be the trend with books-turned-movies, I'm excited to read it.

Happy Valentine's Day, everyone!

Lynness: PS

PS- Mim- your characterization of Al Gore as Gilderoy Lockhart was most
enjoyable!! :)

Lynness: Books and more books and politics

Ok, this might be long.  I think all this started coalescing in my mind when I heard that Mitt Romney was dropping out of the presidential race.  I wasn’t sure yet who I was going to vote for this coming Tuesday, and I didn’t agree with all of his stances, but I still would’ve liked to have the option open.  I guess (hope) that it will make my choice that much easier.  Why do I bring this up in the book blog?  The January assignment was one I was interested in pursuing, but it has been a lot harder to follow through with than I had anticipated.  Not for lack of trying (and I still am- I checked out two more books to try).  But let me back up.  A few weeks ago I found a website that asks multiple choice questions on current election issues and lets you weight them as to importance.  My best match candidate was not Mitt Romney, as I was kind of expecting it might be.  The website let me see where I disagreed and let me explore other candidates' opinions on the topic.  One of the survey questions asked my opinion on amending the Constitution to define marriage as between a man and a woman.  It was a simple “yes” or “no” and the answer was quite clear to me.  (For a long, but very thorough and excellent explanation on the Church’s position on homosexuality and the need for an amendment defining marriage as between a man and a woman, see this interview with Elder Oaks).  But part of my trouble wass that for other issues there were as many options (or more) as there were candidates and, to me, one option sounded as good (or bad) as another.  I don’t know enough about education to know what the best course of action is.  I think I can eliminate the answer that says we should dissolve the Department of Education and let parents have full control over their children’s education.  Though I am a homeschool supporter, there are too many irresponsible parents out there to have no public education system.  But what about all the other options?  Would any of them really work?  I wanted some books that would help me understand some of the current issues- especially immigration and the electoral process in general.  I found plenty of books and tried several.  The problem I found is that the books are extremely good at getting one thing across: their point of view.  It is difficult to find one that gives any real attention and discussion to multiple perspectives.  I know how I feel and could find many books to back me up, but I also know that I feel this way in ignorance.  I want to make an educated decision.  At the same time, I don't want to waste my time reading things that oppose (and even bash) my viewpoints just for enlightenment.  I want something that gives me individual expertise and experience from diverse facets of the same issue.  And trying to get that while also trying to figure out which candidate best represents the majority (since none will be exactly like me) of what I have determined while also trying to figure out if they really mean it and will stick to it in office makes me want to just get it bed until it's over!  Maybe it's cynicism, maybe it's experience, but I have little faith that campaign promises- designed to attract people by telling them what they think they want to hear- will make much difference once the candidate is the President.
    I have learned a few things from the books I have read.  I know what I feel about immigration (whether it is plausible or would make the slightest dent in the problem, I don't know).  I will not share that here, but I will share that one of my books has opened my eyes a little to what Mexican immigration to the US does to Mexico, especially its small villages.  I plan to continue to try to wade through the junk and the extremists to find the accurate and the balanced and educate myself.  I've got until the Virginia primary this Tuesday!  After that it's just Republican vs. Democrat, and though I hate to be partisan and I'm not registered as either, marriage and abortion issues trump the war, education, immigration, etc..

Mom/Mim: Al Gore (aka Gilderoy Lockhart) vs. Jane Austen

Well, I only got a few pages into the Global Warming stuff before I was totally fed up with the whole subject and with that "veil of stupidity." It seems like it's our human nature to say the sky is falling whenever saying it will get us something we want. People believe what they want to believe! So my apologies to Lynness and Rae H who seemed most interested in what I would be learning. You both learned more about current events than I did this month. In fact, I think I've been away somewhere in the wrong century!

I did read the first several chapters of Jane Austen's Emma during January. So I thought it was interesting that Lynness watched PBS movies of Austen novels and read some Jane Austen. We're reading Austen novels for our Relief Society book group. Actually, the truth about my reading this month is that I've hardly wanted to read or do anything other than family history all of a sudden!

Now it may seem that I'm going off on a tangent with this blogpost about family history, but hang on, because it all relates. What sparked the family history was a prompting where I re-discovered a bunch of letters from our Yorkshire relatives, some of whom were living when Jane Austen wrote Emma in their own environs. Reading the letters and the novel at the same time helps me envision our ancestors as families in their own households.

For example, a cousin of ours named Jenny writes to her cousin in America, Esther Lillian Poulter Andersen, in 1900. They're both rather newly wed and she writes to Esther during the time that her husband Julius is away from his wife, serving his mission to Denmark. (I have some of the letters between Julius to Esther, too!) Jenny is excited to tell Esther how much they're enjoying the visit of her (Esther's) father, Wilson Poulter, who has finally returned to England to see the family after having emigrated to Utah about 35 years earlier. And I have a few of Wilson's letters written to his son after he arrived in England.

So it's not really the right century--the older two generations of Poulters are the ones contemporary with Jane Austen--but their activities and expressions certainly fit with Austen's gentle characters and their refined entertainments. Jenny's obviously smitten after meeting her uncle, and she describes his reception by the family: "He came to my mothers door asking her if she wanted to buy any cloth mother knew him in a minite. After that there was some kissing & loving going on mother couldnot eat any dinner for crying . . . . Uncle came to my house on Saturday & we had such a jolly evening. Aunt Sarah Ann & three of my cousins & two of their young men . . . . We had Uncle saying Pat & his Leather Britches & singing to us telling us of America."

Well, obviously global warming was irrelevant to my life this month, and I think that's a key to our dilemma over nonfiction and fiction. It seems that those of us who've commented about nonfiction just want it to be engrossing and relevant. I certainly don't want to read any less nonfiction. Maybe we could find more relevant reads if the criteria were more specific? We could read nonfiction that relates to a hobby we all share (like we did in the music month), or Rae could give us some criteria in categories of narrative nonfiction or suspense nonfiction so we wouldn't want to put the books down. Some nonfiction could be sort of practical, like humor or how-to stuff, maybe? Young adult nonfiction might be interesting . . .

I do love having this book blog/club and I love each of you. I'll see some of you soon! Warning: don't ask me about our family history if you only have five minutes to listen. Love, Mim/Mom