The Time Traveler's Wife, Audrey Niffenegger

I picked this up at a library book sale last Saturday.  I'd seen the movie a few months ago, and had heard good reviews of the book.  Despite the length (over 500 pages), it was a quick read.

Henry DeTamble is an involuntarily time-traveling librarian with serious substance abuse problems.  Clare Abshire is a beautiful paper artist with a sizable trust fund.  They meet in the present and during Henry's sporadic voyages through time.  They fall in love.  They marry.  They live.  I enjoyed considering the fascinating and disturbing question of free will and fate in Henry and Clare's lives.  But though I like a good love story, I wasn't terribly impressed by The Time Traveler's Wife.

Perhaps I've been spoiled by classic literature - it's hard to find a well-written love story to equal that of Jane Eyre and Edward Rochester.  Maybe I am also spoiled by the good hearts and lives of my friends and family - it's hard to fall in love with characters who seem so selfish and shallow by comparison.  This book left me dissatisfied, thinking, This is it?  I may be young, but I know that there is more to life, and love, than this.  There are also better-developed characters, more cogent plots, and better overall examples of writing in the literary universe.  It's entertaining, but not great.

I think I'll go read some Dickens.

Cranford, Elizabeth Gaskell

After reading North and South, I decided I'd like to read more of Elizabeth Gaskell's works.  I found Cranford at a church sale in early June, right after I finished reading Emma.  And while it wasn't the most riveting book, it presented a lot of interesting themes and sweet old lady characters.

Cranford was originally published as a series of eight sketches in the weekly journal Household Words (which was edited by a certain Mr. Dickens).  The sketches were later integrated into book form, but together comprise a series of amusing stories rather than a coherent plot.  Through the narration of Mary Smith, a frequent visitor to Cranford, we meet the Miss Jenkynses, Miss Pole, Mrs. Jamieson, and many other inhabitants of the female-dominated town.  While the stories are set primarily in the 1830s and 40s, Cranford’s inhabitants seem to be stuck in the late-eighteenth and early-nineteenth centuries.  Their old-fashioned customs, representative of old aristocratic England, conflict with the increasingly global and industrial world.  All in all, the satire is pretty funny – I caught myself laughing many a time – but in a character-driven way rather than a plot-driven way.

Emma, Jane Austen

I finished Emma today on the way home from a weekend visit to New Jersey. It's always a little sad to finish a good book, because it means saying goodbye to the characters.  However, I'm looking forward to watching the 2009 BBC version again!

Emma Woodhouse is probably (in my opinion) Jane Austen's most flawed heroine.  She is rich, spoiled, and very satisfied with herself.  Yet over the course of the book, matchmaker Emma is forced to come to terms with some pretty uncomfortable mistakes - and does a lot of growing up in the process.  Emma's a bit more human than Fanny Price or Anne Elliot, who seem too saintly to me.  I certainly recommend Emma as an entertaining read and some very funny, dynamic characters.

I could go on, but I'll leave it at this - Mr. Knightly is definitely a 10.

Springtime in Guatemala, Fr. Paul Aumen

"Violence must be told and retold so that no one will ever forget how horrible it is and how little is accomplished by it.  There must be a better way for all people to live together.  As India's Ghandi so truthfully said, 'There is room on this earth for each one of us.'"

This book was a Christmas gift from my aunt and uncle - and a beautiful gift it was!  I saved it for a Lenten read, which turned into a Holy Week read when Mansfield Park took longer than expected.

Springtime in Guatemala is a memoir of sorts, written by Fr. Paul Aumen, a missionary of the Precious Blood.  He served for 20 years in Chilean missions, then moved on to serve an additional 18 years in Guatemalan missions.  The book is a collection of stories and experiences, about several parishes, the Guatemalan people, and Guatemala's 36-year civil war and genocide.  It's not an overly complex book, and is an (intellectually) easy and quick read.  However, the memoir is full of pain.  Through Fr. Aumen's stories, we see how, through pain, suffering, and death - there is beauty and truth and life.

As I read, I could picture so many of his experiences.  The magnificence of climbing a volcano.  The absolute poverty and violence that  has caused (and causes) so many good, innocent people to suffer.  How alive Antigua is during Cuaresma and Semana Santa.  Words cannot express how beautiful this book was for me, in its heart-wrenching, simple truth.

On Wealth and Poverty, St. John Chrysostom

Yes, I have been reading lately, I promise. I just haven't been blogging... about anything.

This short little book, which I finished weeks ago, contains a collection of sermons given by St. John Chrysostom when he was Archbishop of Constantinople. They focus on the parable of Lazarus and the rich man (Luke 16: 19-31). Despite the fact that he was preaching to people who enjoyed their wealth (or perhaps because he was), he emphasized, in various ways, the virtues of giving up material wealth and the blessedness of the poor in heaven. He points out eloquently that our material goods came from God and belong to Him, to be used among His children, and therefore one who possesses a superabundance is stealing from the poor. He also explores idea of how God punishes and rewards people in the afterlife according to their actions (not wealth) here.

Mansfield Park, Jane Austen

After starting several books - and being plunged into preparation for marriage and a wedding (in that order), while working two jobs and working on a graduate certificate - I finally finished a book!  My previous Jane Austen reads have been rather light and I confess that's what I was looking for when I started reading Mansfield Park in February.  No to be!  The introduction (I'm a sucker for Oxford World's Classics) begins: "Mansfield Park is Jane Austen's most dramatic and disturbing work."  And so it is - there are quite a few theatrical themes in the novel, and the characters' actions are at times quite disturbing for Regency England.  Sadly, adultery doesn't seem quite as shocking in today's world.

Fanny Price is not your typical Austen heroine.  At the age of ten, Fanny is sent by her working-class family to live with her wealthy relations at Mansfield Park - perhaps a surprising favor for such an unaffectionate family.  She grows up passive, quiet, and modest, downtrodden by her awful Aunt Norris, but protected by her cousin Edmund.  At the same time, the is the only player not wholly deceived by others' true characters.
The novel picks up when fashionable brother and sister Henry and Mary Crawford arrive to visit their sister at the parsonage, and become "intimate" friends with the party at Mansfield Park.  Flirtation and more ensue.

I really grew to enjoy this novel as I got into it.  Its themes are heavier and content more mature than Austen's other novels.  Mansfield Park is not a love story - probably the reason that recent film adaptations (see imdb.com, 1999 and 2007) have been such poor representations of the book.  But it an excellent read, well-written with well-developed and exciting (if often despicable) characters.

Love and Responsibility, Karol Wojtyla

Yes, I have been reading for past 7 weeks. At long, long last, I have finished Love and Responsibility, written by our late Pope John Paul II before he became pope. This book lays out the philosophical background for the pope's theology of the body, which he developed more fully during his papacy. I picked up the book because many CCMers have read it or talk about it on a regular basis, and I wanted to have it from the source. I like to know what other people know and be well-informed. So, while I cared about what was written in the book, it was not a topic that resonated with me as much as, say, Irresistibly Revolution.

The book contained dense meditations on the nature of personhood, love, and sexuality, arguing for that order of importance in interpersonal relationships. Wojtyla explains that we have an inherent "sexual urge," which simply means that we are attracted to people of the opposite sex as such. But the way we respond to this urge must recognize other people as persons. He calls this the "personalistic norm." The personalistic norm leads us naturally to love -- a desiring the good for another person. It also keeps us from the sin of utilitarianism, or using other people for our own pleasure, either physical or emotional. Only within the context of love, which keeps us from using the beloved, can we express our sexuality in a full and just way. Wojtyla also explains why the specific context of marriage is the only place where we can act upon the sexual urge without using our partner, and the way birth control stands in the way of the fullness of giving and openness that should exist in the sexual act.

Wojtyla presents a detailed philosophy that rings true with experience, but also describes parts of existence in a new way, which makes for a good read. As I said, however, it is very dense, and the 200-odd pages took me seven-ish weeks to get through, often because I had to force myself to pick up the book, knowing the intellectual task ahead of me... compared to Narnia, which I was reading on the side. However, the ideas should be spread, because our world lacks an understanding of love, and this philosophy helps clear up some confusions that we have.

Introduction to the Devout Life, St. Francis de Sales

I had someone recommend this book to me because it would be "more applicable" to my life than the religious book that I was currently reading. Within the first few pages I understood what he meant - I felt like St. Francis de Sales was writing this book just for me. The book is definitely written for lay people and describes how to be holy in your life and current occupation. I think of this book as a sort of "handbook for spiritual engineers."

While not all of the advice was directly relevant to me, I found most of it incredibly useful and inspiring. In the first section of the book, St. Francis explains what true devotion is and the detachment from sin necessary to devotion, as well as giving some meditations. In the second part he discusses prayer, especially meditation. The third part focuses on practicing certain virtues in daily lives, including humility, obedience, purity, and poverty. He also discusses friendships, conversation, and recreation. The fourth part is about temptations, and the final part discusses how to renew your resolutions to live a devout life.

As I mentioned above, my favorite part about this book was that it is clearly written for lay people. St. Francis de Sales recognizes that we live in the world, have occupations, and interact with others and gives advice accordingly.

Father Brown Mysteries, G. K. Chesterton

The Father Brown Mysteries are possibly my favorite short stories. I first became familiar with them when my former roommate found some at a used bookstore and began reading them to me as bedtime stories. The main character, Fr. Brown, is a humble priest with a shabby umbrella and a knack for solving mysteries and understanding people. His intuitive understanding of people allows him to see each crime from a new point of view, and therefore find the secret (and the criminal) behind it. I recommend them for anybody looking for a short and enjoyable read.

Note: There are a lot of different editions to these stories, but they were originally published in 5 books. For the most part, jumping around in order is perfectly fine, but it's best to read the first five stories in order to witness the development in the character of Flambeau.

Primary Colors, Anonymous (Joe Klein)

Primary Colors was originally published anonymously in December, 1996, and caused immediate controversy.  The novel follows a Southern governor's campaign for the Democratic Party Nomination for President; but each character is a near exact replica of a member of Bill Clinton's staff.  Jack Stanton (the Clinton figure) runs into trouble on the campaign trail when news breaks of his affair with his wife's hair dresser.  He fiercely denies these claims and his aide Henry (the narrator and protagonist) struggles to cover up his messes.  He soon enlists the aid of the loud-mouthed ex-mental patient and former Stanton political adviser Libby to help him "dust-bust."  The novel reveals the inner machinations of political campaign, the conflicts between Stanton's staff and his ambitious wife's staff, the temptation of negative advertising, the pitfalls of staff romances, but above all, the idealistic and genuine principles on which Stanton and his wife build their campaign.  These principles are tested and tried throughout the novel, and in the end, Henry and Libby administer the ultimate test of Stanton's true character.

Joe Klein, a journalist, was not involved in any Clinton campaigns.  Yet his observations and imaginations of how the larger-than-life personalities might interact proved accurate.  Immediately upon the book's anonymous release, White House staff members began to accuse one another of having written it and of revealing too many personal details.  The novel is an engaging--and apparently perceptive--glimpse into our nation's political system.

The 1998 Mike Nichol's film starring Adrian Lester, John Travolta, Emma Thompson, and Kathy Bates, is an excellent adaptation.  Klein actually confesses that when writing the character of Libby, he pictured Kathy Bates.

First People: The Early Indians of Virginia, Keith Egloff & Deborah Woodward

We all love the story of Pocahontas, even if we don't want to admit it.  But there's a whole lot more to Virginia Indian history than a mythic princess and her love affair with Mel Gibson John Smith.  And believe it or not, there are still a number of active, thriving Native American tribes in Virginia today, despite the Commonwealth's early 20th century efforts to "erase" Indian identities.

Egloff and Woodward's book is written at about a 6th grade reading level, which made it easy to read during metro commutes.  It offers a simple, succinct history of Virginia Indians from time of Virginia's first inhabitants more than 15,000 years ago to the present day.  Most of the information was drawn from archaeological evidence and the book was also written in collaboration with contemporary Virginia Indians, both of which made me very happy.  I would like to see the information from this book become part of Virginia history curriculum.  And by that I mean, I am making it one of my career goals.

There is a lot more to Virginian heritage than so many of us recognize.   This book is a great way to start learning about a deeper, richer history and to recognize the contemporary implications of 1607 for Virginia Indian communities.

Ordinary Work, Extraordinary Grace, Scott Hahn

Scott Hahn is one of my favorites. Once, for about 30 seconds, I thought there was the tiniest possibility of my marrying his son, and I just about died. Seriously.

Okay, so the second sentence wasn't serious. The first one was, however.

I picked up this book while looking for Letter and Spirit (same author), which I found as well (but didn't finish reading before I left NoVA without PWC library books). Hahn wrote Ordinary Work, Extraordinary Grace about his experience with Opus Dei. Prior to reading it, I knew very little about Opus Dei except: 1) Dan Brown was wrong and 2) some Catholics I know are part of it. I picked it up to better myself as a Catholic and as a minister-type-person.

This book was a short and quick read -- I finished the 120 pages in two days (neither of which were reading-intense). Hahn basically provided an overview of Opus Dei : its origin and its spirituality and how it affected his journey to the Catholic faith. The center of Opus Dei is the idea of "divine filiation," the Latinate words for "we are the children of God." Our position as children of God permeates every aspect of our lives, allowing us to take the works of daily life and sanctify them for God. Opus Dei offers particular paradigms, strategies, and tools for doing just that, so that ordinary day jobs, family life, and daily routines can center around Christ.

I'm still not sure I quite know what Opus Dei is, other than a personal prelature -- a group of laity and clergy who answer spiritually to the prelate (leader) as well as their diocesan bishop -- and a specific image of how to live out Catholicism that seems particularly applicable to today's world. But I think this lack of knowledge isn't the fault of Hahn, so much as the fact that it is hard to put a life-style into a short book and make it make sense. My sister and I both agreed that the book didn't say much new, per se, about Christianity or Catholicism, but was informative about Opus Dei

Irresistible Revolution, Shane Claiborne

Let's ignore the amount of time, over the last three weeks, it took me to learn how to spell "irresistible," and go straight on to the book. This book is one enthusiastic Christian's rallying cry to return Christianity to his idea of its roots : the simple, self-supporting communities of Acts that lived simply and reached out both materially and spiritually. Claiborne organized his book half around ideas related to his vision of Christianity -- or the revolution, as he calls it -- and half around his own story, how he came to where he is now (or in 2007).

I'm having a hard time writing this review as a book review, because the book spoke to my heart as a Christian. Claiborne essential advocates for the idea that Christianity doesn't merely mean living morally as we pursue the American Dream -- it means dreaming a different driving and clinging to an alternative way of life and an alternative way of being. He describes a peaceful, joyful, Christ-centered, others-oriented, down-to-earth, idealistic, relationship-infused, communal, complete way of being that marks the irresistible revolution. Christians, he maintains, should start this revolution, and it will catch.

Unlike most of my favorite spiritual writers, Claiborne does not come with credentials -- not degrees from Catholic institutions (um, he's not Catholic) nor seals of approval from the Church. He writes playfully, yet seriously, with great emotional appeal, yet grounded. I don't know if he would have convinced me if I had strongly disagreed with his ideas. However, since I was already convinced that as a Christian I should be seeking another way to live my life, I found the book inspiring (hey, I'm not alone) and challenging (but I have a long way to go).