Nostalgia (1)

I wrote a blog about a fictional book club and the way these women decided to choose books to read. Reading the story and writing the blog got me thinking about the books of my childhood. I have always loved reading, and I have been surrounded by books my entire life. Actually (confession coming), when I was a child and I needed to be disciplined, by parents would forbid me from reading. Trying to think of my favourite books is going to be hard.

In terms of early childhood, I remember a couple of favourites. One was Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No-Good, Very Bad Day by Judith Voigt. I loved that story. I really felt like I could relate to Alexander. He never got anything he wanted, and he just wanted everything to go well. Wouldn't we all like to move to Australia on occasion? I was also a big fan of Maurice Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are. Again, who hasn't wanted to just escape from our daily life and become king (or queen) of the monsters. I still enjoy reading those books.

As I got older, and began reading to myself, there were a number of favourites. As I stated in an earlier post, Nancy Drew was always a favourite. Hmmmm, as a girl I loved mystery stories and I still do; I guess some things never change. Sorry, brief moment of introspection. Along with Nancy, I also read Trixie Belden, the Bobbsey Twins, and Enid Blyton's Famous Five. Children solving mysteries was obviously something I really enjoyed. I don't know what it was about those mysteries, but I could really lose myself in all those stories.

Another set of stories in which I could get lost were the Anne of Green Gables series by L.M. Montgomery. Anne Shirley was such a great heroine. I just loved how spunky she was. No one ever took advantage of her. Her life wasn't easy, but she made the most of it. She may not have been the most popular, but she managed to achieve everything she wanted. As a result of my last entry about the book club, I want to re-read L.M. Montgomery's works; I also want to read her journals and the new biography that Jane Urquhart has written. There is so much more to see when looking at her work from an adult perspective. Actually, my book club has decided to read Emily's Quest as our book for next month. This means that me being me, I've bought all three of the Emily books to read - Emily of New Moon, Emily Climbs and Emily's Quest. I'm sensing another blog entry for the near future.

On a slightly different note, a big part of my childhood was being read to. My mother would read to me and my brothers every night; it was a wonderful end to every day. I can't remember everything she read, but the memory of having her read to us is a wonderful one. I do remember reading The Wind in the Willows and Anne of Green Gables with my mother. I know that if and when I ever become a parent, reading together as a family will be a really important part of the day.

What are some of your favourite childhood books? These could be books you read yourself or books that were read to you.

Lamb

I'm already struggling with what I should say about Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal. The title alone is a hint as to why this may be a difficult entry. I wasn't sure I even wanted to read it, but I believe in learning how other people see the world and the place of religion in the world. First though, it's important to know how I see the world. I'm a member of the Baha'i Faith, and the teachings of Baha'u'llah strongly influence how I see the world. As a side note, if you are interested in knowing what some of those teachings are, I would suggest www.bahai.org as a good place to start. Being a Baha'i means that I don't follow an orthodox Christian view of Christ or the events of the Bible, even though I firmly believe that Jesus Christ did bring the word of God to humanity. Well, with that out of the way, onto the book.

Lamb tells the story of Christ through the eyes of his best friend Levi, known as Biff. Biff has been brought back to life in order to complete his gospel. He is the one who knows what happened to Jesus, known in the book as Joshua, when he was a child. That's right, Lamb is the story of Jesus before he begins preaching. Christopher Moore has taken the first 30 years of Christ's life and imagined what it could have been like. All I can say is - it was an eventful life. According to Biff, he had Jesus travelled from Galilee to Kabul to Nepal to Tamil and then back to what is now Isreal. The premise is that in order to learn how to become The Messiah, Jesus and Biff must find the three wise men who visited at the time of his birth.

Through these visits, Jesus learns the variations of the Golden Rule and how it can be used in the message of what will become Christianity. This is where I have my first problem. I didn't know how to take this idea when I first met it. My first thought was that by having Christ learn about compassion and justice from the Magi was taking away from Christ's revelation, but then, I started thinking that what this really did was show how the messages of the different religions all come from God. In the Baha'i Faith, this concept is known as Progressive Revelation. I don't agree with the idea that Christ's revelation actually came from Gaspar, Melchior and Balthazar, but the idea that the Christian message shares ideas with Taoism, Buddhism and Hinduism is a good one.

The novel does a good job of showing Christ's human side. It shows him struggling with trying to understand his role in the world, with the guilt of not being able to help everyone, and with being gone when Joseph dies. The character of Biff is there to show the weakness of humanity and all the temptations we feel. He is a big fan of sex, and wherever Jesus goes to learn his lessons, Biff learns more about sex. Biff seems to spend a lot of time in the company of various concubines and prostitutes, and he tries to tell Jesus what he's missing, since the one instruction Jesus has received is that he is not to know women.

When I read Lamb, I thought that the author was trying to be irreverent and anti-Christian, but in reading his notes after the story, the one thing that really struck me was that he says that his perspective was that Christ was who he said he was; he was not trying to take away from Christ's message in any way. I really appreciated that. I'm still not sure what I think about using a Manifestation of God as the main character in a fictional work like this; I guess I'll have to keep thinking about it. I think that the image and idea of Jesus Christ are oven used in inappropriate ways, and if I read a book like Lamb, am I contributing to the irreverent view of Christ? I just don't know.

Any thoughts?

Vacation Books.

Sean and I have recently returned from a week in Washington, DC, and I've been thinking about vacations, and books, and books read on vacation ... you get the picture. Given the nature of the vacation, I didn't pack any books to bring with me, but it didn't take long before I was desperate for something to read. I bought two books while on vacation, and my choice of reading material was definitely influenced by the vacation I was having. Does anyone else find this happens?

The two books I bought were The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara and The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. The first book is a story of the Battle of Gettysburg as seen through the eyes of a number of the participants, and the second is set in Germany during the 1930s. Coincidently, Sean and I spent one day exploring the Gettysburg battlefield and another day at the Holocaust Museum. I highly doubt that I would have chosen either one of those books if we had rented a cottage by the beach or gone to a Caribbean resort. The material would not suit the locale. Does anyone else find themselves doing this?

When I go on vacation, I seem to choose book that fit the trip. A visit to the east coast to visit my parents requires lots of light reading; mysteries and historical romances would be high on the list. A visit to a cottage with Sean, or up to Moosonee like we did last year, requires something a little deeper. With few distractions, I can read something a little more substantial. A trip like that would have literary fiction of some sort. That's when I would read Through Black Spruce or Three Day Road. I haven't actually had a beach or resort vacation in more than a decade, so I don't even know what I would bring; I'm guessing it would be seriously light reading.

I have now now finished Killer Angels, but I haven't started The Book Thief yet. I really enjoyed The Killer Angels and Sean says he wants to read it as well. It tells the story of the Battle of Gettysburg, a pivotal battle in the American Civil War. What is so interesting about The Killer Angels is that Michael Shaara used the journals, letters and diaries of a number of key participants in the battle to craft his story. It is a multi-perspective story that flips between the Union and the Confederacy. The reader gets to see how the battle was seen from the point of view of the generals and the average soldier. If you enjoy history, I would recommend it, but I don't think it's for everyone.

Now, I want to know - am I the only one who chooses their vacation literature based on the type of vacation they are going on? Or am I insane? Let me know your thoughts.

Book Clubs

I've been a member of a book club for years now. It's been probably close to 10 years that I've been choosing and reading books with this group, and it's been great. The group has definitely changed over the years with members moving or disappearing and others joining, but the core members have been the same for the last six years or so. I think finding the right mix is really important. My book club is very laid back, and on occasion, we haven't discussed the book we read (oops). I would hate an uptight book club; that would not be me at all.

This entry was inspired by Stuart MacLean's Vinyl Cafe Diaries. The Vinyl Cafe is a radio program on the CBC that tells the stories of Dave and Morley. Vinyl Cafe Diaries is a book that has collected a group of these stories in print format. One of the entries in the Diaries is about Morley joining a book club. Now, the humour of the story comes from the fact that all the women in the book club are completely pretentious, and that the club is no fun at all. What I found most interesting about the entry was the list at the end. Morley and her friend decide to start their own book club, and they have five categories of books to read. Here is their list:

1. A book about a man I could marry.

2. A book I read in grade school.

3. A book that mentions chocolate favourably.

4. A book I want to read because I saw the movie.

5. A book my husband would quit after the first chapter.

When I read these categories, I thought they would be a fabulous base for a book club. I also started thinking about what books I would put into each category.

1. Pride and Prejudice is the first one to come to mind. Who wouldn't want a Mr. Darcy? Outlander by Diana Gabaldon is another one. Jamie Fraser makes me swoon!

2. This one is harder. To Kill a Mockingbird would definitely make the list. I loved it. I also read a lot of Nancy Drew, so maybe re-reading Nancy Drew and comparing her to a more "grown-up" female detective would be an interesting choice.

3. The only one that comes to mind immediately is Like Water for Chocolate. I'm sure there are a million others, though. Chick Lit is full of chocolate.

4. I actually just finished reading Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief because I saw the ads for the movie. I'm also looking forward to re-reading Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.

5. My husband would quit reading most of the books I read, so that's not hard. Any chick lit is going to be high on his "not to read" list.

Well, now it's your turn. What books would fit into those categories for you? I can't wait for more suggestions.