Book reviews – Page 4 – Letters from Home

Three February Favorites

Richard and I tried the Vid Angel app this month to watch some movies. It’s a streaming service that will edit your movies. You buy the movie, choose the filters you want, such as profanity and vulgarity, and the edited movie streams to your device. Then you sell the movie back for $1 less than you paid for it. They have a pretty good selection of new and older movies and we love not hearing the bad language in the films. We aren’t big TV watchers, but this month we binged a little on movies on the weekends.

One of my favorites was Bridge of Spies. We heard that the Russian spy in the movie won the Oscar for best supporting actor. He really was amazing, and who doesn’t love Tom Hanks?

My friend and counselor in the Relief Society handed me this book and said I must read it. It was delightful. Not my usual genre, but very fun and it made me want to have pen pals who like to talk about books.

Bridge of Spies, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, and Vid Angel are my favorites of the month.

A good read

I saw the cover and read the premise and worried that it would be book about a savant child with uncanny wisdom about life. Nope! He is a character we can relate to. The first person narration from several characters is a moving way to tell this simple story of a boy with a facial abnormality who goes to school for the first time.

I read this quickly, breathlessly sometimes, and not without tears. Beautiful book.

I read this twice this month.

My Life in Middlemarch by Rebecca Mead

I read Middlemarch by George Eliot earlier this year and since then, this title has been suggested reading on my Amazon account. I got it from the library but ended up buying a copy of my own so I could write my thoughts in the margins.

This book is partly a memoir of the Mead’s life, describing how Middlemarch has been a part of her life since she was a teenager and how her understanding of the book has changed over time. There is a bit of character analysis from Middlemarch, too. Most interesting to me was how Mead explores George Eliot’s life, highlighting experiences that would have helped her create the characters in Middlemarch.

I liked the thoughts about raising young men, reaching middle age, the landscapes of childhood, and the value of home life. I think you could enjoy this if you haven’t read Middlemarch*. I totally understood the feelings of kinship the author has with her favorite book. My favorite book, although it isn’t Middlemarch, has has taught me many lessons over the years.

*You could watch Middlemarch on Netflix.

The Great Dissent Book Review

The Great Dissent: How Oliver Wendell Holmes Changed His Mind and Changed the History of Free Speech, by Thomas Healy

This book was good.

Do I enjoy reading about Constitutional Law? No. But this law book is very readable. Complex arguments are explained clearly by the author, and details of the lives of those involved make the story very interesting. You have the highly conservative Supreme Court Justice from New England who, through study and correspondence with more liberal and progressive friends, comes to see that “he was ignorant” in early cases involving free speech.

The late teens and early twenties was a time of real turmoil, with its own “Red scare” because of the Bolchevik Revolution, riots and strikes over labor issues, and protests about the U.S. involvement in WWI. There were several cases brought before the Supreme Court where the Justices had to decide under which conditions the First Amendment would apply. They wrestle with themes such as intent, war-time vs. peace- time speech, and the value of a “free market” of ideas.

You know that Oliver Wendell Holmes changes his mind from the title page, but it is the study of his correspondence, friendships, and the literature choices that influenced his opinion that makes this a fascinating read.

Favorite things: Day 5

Some of my favorite works of FICTION include:

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell
The Lord of the Rings trilogy by J.R.R. Tolkien
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Peter and Wendy by J.M. Barrie
Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery
Mitford Series by Jan Karon
Christy by Catherine Marshall
Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
The Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

I just know that when I hit “publish” I will think of more. All well.

Favorite things: Day 1

Summer is my fallow season for writing. Since I’m not doing well connecting sentences, the next few days I have decided to share lists of my favorite things, beginning with books. About 10 years ago I discovered that I enjoy reading history. Here are 5 of my favorite works of history/biography. Do you have some favorites not listed here?

Truman by David McCullough (It’s so thorough. It was great.)
John Adams by David McCullough (I have read this a couple of times I liked it so much. I like all of the letters to and from Abigail. It was a good study about Jefferson, too.)
Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman by Robert K Massie (Fascinating! I have an affinity for Russian history and this was my favorite so far.)
The Forgotten Man by Amity Schlaes (Conservative author; scathing review of the failed policies and philosophies of Roosevelt and his cabinet during the Depression)
A Day in Old Rome by William Stearns Davis (This made me want to visit Rome. Perhaps any book on Rome would have done it, though.)

No Speck so Troublesome as Self

I am reading Middlemarch by George Eliot. It is taking me forever. It’s a real study in human psychology. One character named Mr. Casaubon is someone you learn to abhor, but also understand. His main problem is selfishness. He believes his personal project is a sacrifice for mankind, but really, his work serves to feed his ego. He doesn’t realize how his pride and selfishness taint his view of humanity. He misinterprets acts kindness as insults to his abilities. He is hyper-sensitive to suggestions, thinking they are criticisms. His focus on self shows the smallness of pride and the insecurity that follows. He’s such an interesting character.

Will not a tiny speck very close to our vision blot out the glory of the world, and leave only a margin by which we see the blot? I know no speck so troublesome as self.

-Middlemarch by George Eliot

C.S. Lewis

I’ve spent a year reading the writings of C.S. Lewis not realizing that it was the 50th anniversary of his death on November 22. I have collected many quotes. There are fundamental differences in his theology and mine, but his insights into human nature are honest and enlightening. I like his words about God’s love and methods of perfecting his children.

Here are a few quotes that I have enjoyed in my study this year:

…on wasting time and energy on things of little worth:

“The Christians describe the Enemy as one ‘without whom Nothing is strong’. Nothing is very strong: Strong enough to steal away a man’s best years not in sweet sins but in a dreary flickering of the mind over it knows not what and knows not why, in the gratification of curiosities so feeble that the man is only half aware of them, in drumming of fingers and kicking of heels, in whistling tunes he does not like, or in the long, dim labyrinth of reveries that have not even lust or ambition to give them a relish, but which, once chance association has started them, the creature is too weak and fuddled to shake off.” –The Screwtape Letters

…on forgetting to count our blessings:

“We want a whole race perpetually in pursuit of the rainbow’s end, never honest, not kind, nor happy now but always using as mere fuel wherewith to heap the altar of the future every real gift which is offered them in the present.” –The Screwtape Letters

…on free will:

“The sin, both of men and angels, was rendered possible by the fact that God gave them free will: thus surrendering a portion of His omnipotence …because He saw that from a world of free creatures, even though they fell, He could work out… a deeper happiness and fuller splendour than any world of automata would admit. –Miracles

…on mourning and remembering a loved one:

“For, as I have discovered, passionate grief does not link us with the dead but cuts us off from them. This becomes clearer and clearer. It is just at those moments when I feel least sorrow… that H. rushes upon my mind in her full reality, her otherness. Not, as in my worst moments, all foreshortened and patheticized and solemnized by my miseries, but as she is in her own right.” –A Grief Observed

“I will turn to her as often as possible in gladness. I will even salute her with a laugh. The less I mourn her the nearer I seem to her.” –A Grief Observed

…on our unanswered questions:

“Can a mortal ask questions which God finds unanswerable? Quite easily, I should think. All nonsensical questions are unanswerable. How many hours are there in a mile? Is yellow square or round? Probably half the questions we ask–half our great theological and metaphysical problems– are like that.” –A Grief Observed

“Heaven will solve our problems, but not, I think, by showing us subtle reconciliations between all our apparently contradictory notions. The notions will all be knocked from under our feet. We shall see that there never was any problem.” –A Grief Observed

…on reading:

“The great thing is to be always reading, but not to get bored–treat it not like work, more as a vice! Your book bill ought to be your biggest extravagance.” -quoted in CS Lewis, A Biography by Roger Lancelyn Green and Walter Hooper

…on God’s love for us:

“The great thing to remember is that, though our feelings come and go, His love for us does not. It is not wearied by our sins, or our indifference; and, therefore, it is quite relentless in its determination that we should be cured of those sins, at whatever cost to us, at whatever cost to Him.” –Mere Christianity

…and a reminder on how to reflect God’s light:

“He [God] shows much more of Himself to some people than to others–not because he has favorites, but because it is impossible for Him to show Himself to a man whose whole mind and character are in the wrong condition. Just as sunlight, though it has no favorites, cannot be reflected in a dusty mirror as clearly as in a clean one.” –Mere Christianity

…and about the word “Christian”:

“if at once we allow people to start spiritualizing and refining, or as they might say ‘deepening’, the sense of the word Christian it too will speedily become a useless word. In the first place, Christians themselves will never be able to apply it to anyone. It is not for us to say who, in the deepest sense, is or is not close to the spirit of Christ. We do not see into men’s hearts. We cannot judge, and indeed are forbidden to judge. It would be wicked arrogance for us to say that man is, or is not, a Christian in this refined sense… as for unbelievers, they will no doubt cheerfully use the word in the refined sense. It will become in their mouths simply a term of praise. In calling anyone a Christian they will mean that they think him a good man. But that way of using the word will be no enrichment of the language, for we already have the word good. Meanwhile, the word Christian will have been spoiled for any real useful purpose it might have served.” –Mere Christianity

…and finally, why we should seek Christ:

“Look for yourself, and you will find in the long run only hatred, loneliness, despair, rage, ruin, and decay. But look for Christ and you will find Him, and with Him, everything else thrown in.” –Mere Christianity

Books?

In my recent foray into the world of child psychology literature I am now up to date with the worn out lingo of the five love languages. I’m probably the last person on the planet to read about these. Do you know your “love language”? What do you register as the greatest acts of love? Are they service, words of affirmation, physical touch, quality time, or gifts? I have learned that my primary love language is words of affirmation. I guess that’s why I don’t allow comments on this blog. A snarky line in a comment would send me reeling for a decade. This also explains my hoarding of every kind email, text, and note anyone has ever sent me.

Here’s something that you can do for me that will appeal to my need for words of affirmation without you needing to come up with a heartfelt comment. Perhaps you can give me a book recommendation. I’ve had a dry year in reading. If you want to see what I read, I have a list of the books I have read the last few years in my sidebar.

And remember, if you share a book title, you will really be saying, “Angie, you are so weird, but I like you anyway.”

I’m shaking. What if no one gives me a book title? I’ll just have to continue slogging through C.S. Lewis. Help!

Do you feel manipulated?

Sorry.

Book Review: Founding Mothers by Cokie Roberts

I loved the concept of this book. It’s a collection of stories about the women of the Revolutionary War era. I liked reading about women from the southern colonies, not just Abigail Adams. However, the slim amount of material written by women in this era, along with some annoying habits of the author left me a little disappointed.

It’s not the author’s fault that there isn’t much primary source material from the period. Many women didn’t have the luxury of education or time to write. Also, many women burned their letters. It was the ladylike thing to do. I blame Martha Washington for the world’s lack of understanding of George Washington because she burned much of his correspondence.

Since there is no way to really know what the women thought or felt, Roberts compensates by inserting her own feelings into the situation. Roberts repeats the phrase, “she must have…” again and again, inserting a modern feminist tension where there may not have been any.

Cokie’s shortsighted feminism is a major weakness in the book. Childbearing is depicted primarily as a burden. She celebrates these women for all that they did without their husbands, but she can’t seem to cheer for their husbands at the same time.

She finds every opportunity to list faults in Washington, Adams, and Franklin. She had a hangup about George Washington writing about beautiful ladies. She especially seems to dislike Franklin because he left his wife to run the business while he had fun in Europe. It seems pretty clear that Franklin’s wife wished to be home. History is rarely as simple as, “He was a jerk. She was a martyr. We should rewrite the history books.” Roberts doesn’t make a serious effort to explore other motives or possibilities.

Not far into the book I realized that author doesn’t trust the few primary sources that she quotes to speak for themselves. This author’s thoughts are really intrusive. Abigail, in 18th century prose, is suddenly interrupted by Cokie’s, “No kidding!” (How annoying.)

John Adams by David McCullough gives a more complete picture of several women of the day because he allows historical characters to speak for themselves. His research is amazing. I recommend that you read this instead of Founding Mothers.