Lady Susan, by J. Austen

I love Jane Austen! I have read her major six novels several times, but had never read Lady Susan. This book differs from her other books in several ways.  First, it's in letter format, so all we read are letters the characters send to each other.  This is interesting because you get to read about events from different perspectives. Second, Lady Susan, unlike Austen's other main characters, is not very likeable. If I had to describe her using one word, it would be manipulative. She wants to control people so that she gets her way in everything, and she doesn't care who she hurts in the process.

I enjoyed the book very much. I couldn't believe how manipulative Lady Susan was. But in the end, as in Austen's other novels, evil does not prevail (a characteristic I always enjoy in a novel - and real life!).

Getting to Know Thomas

Ever since I read James Martin's books, I was interested in reading something by Thomas Merton. I decided to start with The Seven Storey Mountain, his autobiography. In this book, Merton writes about his life from childhood to around the time he became a monk. After reading this book, I read No Man is an Island, which is a collection of essays on different topics. Both books were very good. They were not always easy to read, so I did not read these as fast as I thought I would, but it was definitely worth it. Merton is an example of how much God can do in and with a willing person. The more I read, the more I couldn't help being amazed at the beautiful person God turned Merton into.

I would definitely recommend these two books.

February Prompt - A Classics Challenge

This month, we have to talk about one of the characters we found interesting.  The latest classic I read was Excellent Women, by Barbara Pym, so I picked a character from this book.

I was intrigued by Everard Bone, even though I wouldn't consider him a main character.  I imagine Everard as a haughty, proud person who never smiles and is always looking down on you.  (I couldn't find a picture).

We're led to believe that Helena is in love with him (Helena is Mildred's new neighbor, and Mildred is the book's main character).  It's hard to answer some of the Challenge questions, because I feel we don't really know that much about Everard, but I'll do my best.

At first, I did not like him at all.  He seemed to me to be incredibly rude and haughty.  But then we start to learn a few things about him and I started to dislike him less.  I wouldn't say I ever completely liked him, but my opinion of him did improve a little bit as I read more.  That said, I don't think I would ever want to meet him.  I found him to be an interesting character mostly because I never knew what to expect from him.  Sometimes I had a certain idea about him and then learned it was actually the opposite.  So that made him interesting as a character, but I'm not so sure I would find him that interesting as an actual person.

A Red Herring without Mustard - by A. Bradley

This is the third Flavia de Luce mystery.  I had already read the first two, and thought it was time to find out what was new with Flavia.

A quick summary:  An old gypsy woman has been the victim of an attack.  She's left for dead when Flavia finds her.  Sometime later, Flavia finds a dead body.  In this book, Flavia goes about trying to find out who the attacker/murderer is.

For those who haven't read any of the Flavia de Luce mysteries, Flavia is an 11-year-old chemistry-loving girl.  Although the main character is a little girl, I find that the books are pretty adult, and Flavia is quite witty.  I enjoy reading these books.  Throughout the book, besides reading about the mystery, we also read about Flavia's constant feuding with her two older sisters and about the family's financial troubles.  We also read about Harriet, Flavia's mom, who died when Flavia was a baby.  There seems to be something somewhat unresolved about Harriet, so I expect we will continue to read about her in future novels.  Finally, there's Gladys.  Yes, Gladys is Flavia's bike, but the way Flavia talks about her, I feel like she is another character, which I find amusing.

This was a fun book to read, and a very welcome treat after having read the very serious Thinking, Fast and Slow.

Heaven is for Real - by T. Burpo

Several people recommended this book, so I thought I'd give it a try.

A quick summary: Colton is a little boy who had to have some emergency surgery.  While he was in surgery, he went to heaven for a little while.  The book is narrated by Colton's father.

I really enjoyed this book.  Hearing about heaven from a little boy's perspective was really awesome.  Here are a few things I liked and/or found interesting:

- His description of Jesus, with the "pretty eyes."  One of the things I would have liked about meeting Jesus in person was to have seen His eyes and expressions.  I've always  believed if you ever got the chance to look into His eyes, there would be no turning back.  So somehow I can see how this would be something Colton noticed and remembered. 
- At one point in the book, Colton said Jesus was the first thing you saw when you got to heaven, which I think is pretty awesome.
- There were a couple of people he met when he was in heaven, some family members who had died before he had been born.  It was pretty cool to read about how they recognized each other and how he knew so much about these people without having previously met them.
- Colton described the throne of God and some of the other people who were there.  I thought that was pretty cool.

There's certainly more, but it's hard to pick only a few.  I would recommend this book.  I enjoyed it a lot more that I thought I would, and I'm very glad I read it!

Thinking, Fast and Slow - by D. Kahneman

A quick summary:  The author talks about thinking and decision making.

This was an interesting book.  The author is a professor who won a Nobel Prize, and I think it’s obvious in this book – if I had to describe this book in a few words, “scholarly” would certainly be one of them.  He usually describes different experiments to support the ideas he is writing about, and I found these experiments pretty interesting.  Overall, this was a good book, and definitely made you think.  

I realize this review is really short, but I've been sick the last few days :(

When the Heart Waits – by S. Monk Kidd

I read The Secret Life of Bees a while ago, so I was familiar with Sue Monk Kidd’s writing.  But when I got this book as a gift I was surprised – I didn’t know she wrote books on spirituality and faith.  I started reading and definitely enjoyed her writing and the points that she made.

A quick summary:  In this book, the author talks about waiting in the spiritual sense.  She talks about how when we face those dark moments of questioning and wondering what the whole point of everything is, we should simply wait.  She compares this to the time a caterpillar spends waiting in a cocoon, which leads to the transformation into a butterfly. 

I liked this book (although sometimes it felt a bit slow).  Waiting is very hard.  But the point she makes is that when we wait, it’s not like nothing is happening – that waiting period can be a time of growth and transformation.  At one point, she compared it to the yeast in bread: as you wait for the yeast to make the bread rise, it doesn’t look like anything is happening, but in reality, something is happening. 

She also talked about the process of becoming our true selves and letting go of our false selves.  Waiting, or “cocooning,” is an important part of this process. 

I liked this book.  Like I said, I thought she made some great points.  She had good insights that would be helpful to anyone in the process of waiting.  I liked that she referenced books by authors I want to read, which has now made me more excited about reading those books (for example, books by Thomas Merton).