The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver was a fascinating journey into the Congo c. 1960. I loved the book and sobbed though the sad parts. It made me feel so gluttonous - we have so much luxury and safety and we don't even know it! It makes me want to sew little girl's dresses to donate to the Humanitarian Services. And it makes me want to learn more - so I checked out Heart of Darkness by Conrad, and a couple nonfiction books about Africa.
Charms For the Easy Life, by Kay Gibbons. Love this book. Loved watching the changes in America in the early 1900's. Loved the grandmother. Loved when he sent her a box of all his childhood memories. I also read A Virtuous Woman.
I must stop here to take a picture. I have my windows open and I hear some guys outside saying "Bang Bang Bang." Apparently there is a little war game going on in the field behing our house. THere are guys in camo wearing rucksacks and helmets, carrying pretend guns.
Sorry about the terrible picture - the good camera is livin' it up in Vegas, but that is basically the view from the kids bedroom. How much counseling are my children going to need...Back to books:
Ophelea's Mom by Nina Shandler. With Hannah turning 13 this year, and me without many friends with kids over 6, I'm looking for a little "how to be a mom of a teenager" guidance. This book was not it. It was discouraging and I did not love it. But looking back on my teenage years, and what my sisters and I put my mother through, this book was probably more realistic than I want to believe. Maybe mom should write the book - My 23 Years Living With Teenage Girls or 23 Years of Crazy or How I Raised 7 Daughters and Lived to Tell or....
Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think by Brian Wansink. Interesting look at food, but it just made me hungry. In fact, I think I need to go bake a batch of chocolate chip cookies.
What are you reading?
14 comments:
I love the poisonwood bible, although it totally changed my mind about wanting to live in Africa!
I have not read the others but will have to go look them up.
I just finished Twilight, which I loved. My teens read it and loved it, it's a vampire book so I probably would never have looked at it but our book club chose it and I could harldy put it down, and it wasn't scary.
I'm reading your blog, silly girl.
Barbara Kingsolver - didn't she write something called The Bean Trees? Or something like that?
I read the same books over and over again. I'm so boring. Or I read magazines or encyclopedias or stuff online. I can't do the book thing that often. Is that weird?
I just read Mindless Eating, too. I thought it was fascinating. Much more about marketing and psychology, really, than anything else.
I also loved the Poisonwood Bible. Read it in a matter of days a few years ago. I've tried reading something else by her (can't remember the name) but it had some yucky stuff in it and I just couldn't get into it.
Whoa! Someone has been busy! I thought I was livin' it up because earlier I got to read the back of my shampoo bottle without anyone calling me. It was a miracle. Truly. No sarcasm.
Millie, she did write The Bean Trees.
Loved Poisonwood. My MIL was a missionary's daughter in Nigeria when she was a teenager. PB gave her total flashbacks :)
Almost done with Reading Lolita in Tehran. I've decided that I read a lot more books in my pre-blogging life :(
txmommy - my daughter says she read twilight, too, I'll have to find it.
milly - read my lips - keep reading my blog...
Nikko - it was an interesting look at marketing, wasn't it.
toni - my husband is out of town and I am not sleeping, so I am reading! I've read more in the last weeks than I have in ages.
elizabeth - wow - could I come over and hang out with your mil for a while? Do you like Lolita?
I'm back! I'm back on my own computer! Great book list! Funny picture! Lots of these !!!!
I loved Poisonwood Bible. It really is fascinating. I want to read Heart of Darkness too.
Charms for the Easy Life is one of my favorite books of all time. Kaye Gibbons is a great author.
One comment mentioned Reading Lolita in Tehran. It is a great book - I know so little about the culture in places like Iran, so it was a real thinking book.
Yeah! Welcome home, Mary.
I was thinking, I should mention to Amanda that both Charms for the Easy life and Poisonwood Bible would be good book club book - nothing too steamy!
Is the Poisonwood Bible negative about the missionaries?
Making them out to be bad people?
For some reason, I thought it was anti-christian.
You know, Donna, the family that the book follows is a missionary family, and the father is CRAZY! But I didn't feel like it was anti-christian so much as he was a wierdo and unable to find any understanding or beauty in the locals. It was more anti-western influence, I think.
On the other hand, I know there has been much good done by Christian missionaries in Africa, but the book rarely points out that, and now that I think about it, many of the main characters seem to lose their faith. Not good.
Thanks Wendy...
I have been curious about that book for quite a while.
i loved poisonwood bible. i love almost all of barbra kingsolver's books.
right now i'm rereading jane eyre for our book blog. then planning on watching the new bbc version of it.
Wendy, I just got an email from my friend Jessica who said that the "Charms for the easy life" book she recommended for her RS book club has caused a stir - even emails saying that a lady took it back to the library unfinished and wouldn't be attending that week's book club. So I guess there's something a bit too racy for Amanda's book club. RIDICULOUS. But I am totally biased because I LOVED that book too. Maybe it's a good thing my ward isn't doing a book club, I would be too defensive and sensitive about people banning my beloved books.
Mary - that's funny! I guess there are some odd bits, but no steamy details! Good think I'm not the boss of the book club...
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