I think I'll celebrate by doing a little spring cleaning. I have been lax of late in my cleaning efforts. I started reading a new book on Saturday and I tend to get sucked in while reading fiction causing other areas of my life to suffer. Namely the house. I finished the book yesterday and have no more excuses to keep me from vacuuming, dusting, and scrubbing some bathrooms.
The book, "The Memory Keepers Daughter" was interesting and intriguing, but we will not be reading it for our book club. It was suggested by someone, but I wanted to read it for myself first to make sure it was something I felt comfortable discussing in a Relief Society sponsored book club. I am glad I did. It did have s*x scattered throughout it's pages. I just didn't feel like it was something that was appropriate for our book club. Besides it was somewhat depressing. Not that a book has to happy and uplifting and inspiring to be a good one, this one just didn't sit well with me. As I said before the story was interesting. It begins with a choice made by one of the characters and shows the lasting effects, negative effects, on himself and his family and others over the course of 25 years. Moral of the story, don't lie and don't let bad choices dictate the rest of your life.
Does anyone have any suggestions for good books to read? Keep in mind that this book club is church sponsored, so if you wouldn't feel comfortable recommending it to your grandmother or to the bishop's wife then we probably won't want to read it for our book club.
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All the books I read are not RS proper. No help here sorry.
It snowed a bit yesterday, big old flakes were coming down and I thought "Oh please no, we can't do another snow day", then I thought about you and your feet of snow.
Hope spring gets to you soon Amanda!
NCS, thanks for thinking of me! Glad to hear you didn't have another snow day. Unfortunately we don't have feet of snow here. I wish, because we really need the moisture. We got a sprinkling the other day, but it is already mostly melted. I guess there are feet of snow around town in parking lots from our snow a couple of weeks ago. ;)
I started a book log on my blog (similar to yours), I would suggest any of those books. The only thing about Dekker is that sometimes his books can be intense. Good, but intense (not 'bad' scary, if you know what I mean). I'm reading a book by Karen Kingsbury right now, and I recommend just about anything from her. I read mostly Christian fiction, so I don't think it should anything that you couldn't read and discuss in your Relief Society.
I know what you mean about being sucked in by a good book. It's like all other life ceases until you've finished the book! Sorry kids, mama's reading a really really good book!! :)
Yeah for March! I am so happy about the arrival of this month too! Spring and fall are the best times to live here in the East. Lovely!
RS-appropriate (or a least to me) book ideas:
A Girl Named Zippy by Haven Kimmel (An autobiography that is funny!)
No. 1 Ladie's Detective Agency (Easy read, fun little mysteries solved by a quirky African lady)
The Chosen by Chaim Potok (Great)
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Excellent)
I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith (So funny)
Good luck and happy reading (I won't be offended if you don't choose mine. Those are just a few I have read recently that shouldn't be embarrassing to discuss with churchy folk.
I really have no idea... although a friend in Logan told me about a book called "What To Read" - it seriously gave list after list, depending on your interest/standards/etc. You might try to find it and see if it helps.
I read the Memory Keepers Daughter on the plane out here. It put me in a bad mood. I did NOT like that book. Blech.
Mary has a good list of books, I've read them all but the Zippy book. There is a wee bit of sex in a few of them, so you might want to pre-read, but I could see Sarah reading them. I wonder if a highschool required reading kind of list would be good.
I miss your reading group.
Deanne: Thanks for the great book suggestions. I did manage to get one bathroom scrubbed today and a lot of vacuuming and dusting done. Yeah!
Mary: A Tree grows in Brooklyn looks interesting. I remember seeing it on DYM's blog. Thanks for the great suggestions!
Wendy, it was a downer wasn't it! I guess if you would recommend it to Sarah, it can't be too bad. We miss you in our reading group too. I'll have to look into a highschool reading list. Good idea!
I've wanted to read that book.
No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency was a cute book.
I loved Secret Life of Bees.
It's hard to suggest "church worthy" books, because everyone has a different opinion on what is appropriate. Good Luck!
One of my favorite books for discussion (and it's LDS appropriate) is called "The Giver." It's intended for teens but has in-depth themes and fantastic insights into what it truly means to have a Savior and what life would be like under Satan's plan...
Last month our book club read, "The Education of Little Tree".
Another good one is "The Ladies Auxiliary" by Tova Mirvis. I like it because some of the questions and issues it raises are easily applicable to our own little culture.
Okay, more "safe" ideas since I'm a book nerd and Wendy accused me of posting books that are full of sex (waha, she didn't, but it's fun to type that):
To Kill a Mockingbird (best book ever)
The Persian Pickle Club (cute, easy read)
Chronicles of Narnia (juvenile fiction, but easy, fun, and then you can all wax philosophical about the deeper meaning and all...)
Mary took a lot of my suggestions. Humpf! How about "Persian Pickle Club?"
Waaa! Sorry about the hot steamy comment Mary - I didn't mean all bad, but... you know... Sister Mohler and all that...
Well I don't have any good suggestions, but I still wanted to drop by and say hi. So "Hi!" :D
Wendy, I checked back here to see if you checked back on this thread and noticed my comment about you...waha, I'm a dork!
I'd like to get some Sis. Mohler stories, but in the interest of not gossiping, I'll just have to imagine her personality, leading to objections over "hot and steamy" content in books.....
Mary, she doesn't even go to the book club, but if she DID go, and if we WERE reading a steamy book, it would be fun to see her face. She is a really sweet lady.
Sorry to hijack, Amanda!
I'd have to second the suggestion of To Kill a Mockingbird. It's a good one.
We just did The Proper Care and Feeding of Husbands by Dr Laura. It was a very interesting discussion.
I have such a hard time choosing books for everyone to read and discuss. Stressful.
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