Author: Richard Foster
Title: Celebration of Discipline, the Path to Spiritual Growth
Call Number: BV4501.2 .F655 1988
Rating: 5
I had enough discipline to finish reading this book, but am not yet ready for the celebration.
This is a wonderful book that manages to merge practical suggestions with philosophical ideas and religious ideals. I realized early on that the rather fast kind of reading I needed to do to get this book report out would be inadequate for the long term value available here. Each chapter really requires contemplation and reflection followed by committed action for the maximum benefit. It is also the kind of work that lends itself well to discussion with others, so I would recommend it highly to anyone looking for a book to share in a small discussion group setting. Be forewarned that this book has the potential to transform your life.
The text is divided into three sections with a chapter for each discipline discussed: Inward Disciplines (meditation, prayer, fasting, study); Outward Disciplines (simplicity, solitude, submission, service); and, Corporate Disciplines (confession, worship, guidance, celebration). A scripture index, chapter notes, and bibliography provide additional resources for delving deeper into each area. The perspective of this text is firmly grounded in Biblical scripture and in the classic literature of Christian spirituality. Complex concepts are presented in an easily accessible style. Although the reading is easy, the response encouraged by the reading is truly challenging.
Kitty J. Simmons, Library Director
Author: Kathryn Hughes
Title: The Short Life and Long Times of Mrs. Beeton
Call Number: TX140.B4 H84 2006
Rating: 5
Mrs. Beeton is kind of the British version of a Betty Crocker--Martha Stewart mashup. Although she died in 1865 at the age of 29, Beeton’s Book of Household Management has immortalized her name through many generations.
As indicated by the title, this book is more than an individual biography. The text is rich with the history of life in Victorian England and also includes interesting coverage of the development of the London publishing scene. This is a full blown scholarly treatment with copious notes and bibliography at the end. It is not a "beach book" or an easy read and probably includes more details about Mrs. Beeton’s ancestry than the causal reader wants to know. However, the resulting work has a fascination that kept me going through it all.
Spoiler alert: Beeton’s Book of Household Management contains very little original material with nearly all the recipes and other ideas "borrowed" from other authors. Mrs. Beeton’s work was that of a journalist and editor and she had very little experience either as a cook or as a housewife when her landmark book was issued. Her fame was posthumous and largely the result of marketing efforts by the publisher who gained rights to the book after she and her publisher husband had died. She had a knack for smoothing out bits and pieces from many sources, writing with a style and tone that appealed to a large audience. Also, she was a lot more interested in fashion than in cooking.
Regardless of her literary accomplishments, Mrs. Beeton’s life is a fascinating one which sadly ends with her dying from childbirth. Her marriage was a blend of professional and domestic pursuits that resonates with the modern reader even though her own aspirations were clearly Victorian in scope. Eels and tongue don’t sound nearly as appetizing today as they must have been to Mrs. Beeton and her crowd.
Author: Sue Grafton
Title: Q is for Quarry
LSU
Rating: 5
Summary: This is another in the alphabet series of Kinsey Milhone mysteries. It’s a perfect summer read, easy, fast paced, entertaining, and interesting. Unlike the others, this one is actually somewhat based on a true crime. This is available from LINK+, but the one I read came from the Library’s paperback book exchange. Check it out!!
Author: Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings
Title: Cross Creek
Call Number: PS3535.A845 C7
Rating: 5
If Florida brings to mind Disney World or scenes from CSI Miami, you will be amazed by this totally different vision of the same state. Be prepared to slow down, imagine the Spanish moss swaying gently in a summer breeze, and spend some time with critters, Crackers, and other characters as they were in 1930s Florida.
Summary: Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings won the Pulitzer Prize in 1939 for The Yearling, but the memoir of her life in rural Florida published a few years later is the book which best captures a special place and time for me. She moved from Rochester, New York to a farm in Cross Creek, Florida in 1928 with her writer husband intending to live on profits from their orange grove and writing. The marriage didn’t last, the orange grove was a continuing challenge, and the writing got off to a slow start, but Marjorie stayed. She generously shares her experience of this place with the readers of Cross Creek though a series of stories that reveal the highs and lows she endured learning to live off the farm and live with her neighbors, both human and animal. Although inspired and invigorated by the natural beauty of the area, the difficulties of everyday rural Southern life during the Depression prevent the author’s descriptions of the environment from ever seeming overly romantic. The uncomfortable and sometimes lethal aspects of this rugged country were not ignored. Reality permeates the writing even through the recounting of some pretty fantastic episodes.
Although Rawlings was progressive in many ways throughout her life, this book reflects the racial viewpoint and stereotypes commonly held during this era. An even more grating example of this perspective published a few years earlier can be found in Erskine Caldwell’s Tobacco Road. In fact Caldwell’s story of a rural family in Depression-era Georgia was my first choice for this week's state theme. However, after reading it, the moral bankruptcy of the Jeeters and their desperation just made it too depressing for me to recommend.
Cross Creek also has a element of personal appeal for me. My father was also born in 1928 and grew up on orange grove farm much like Marjorie’s about 100 miles south of Cross Creek. I felt that the times and places described in this book are part of my own heritage through my dad. Also, I had visited the Rawlings Cross Creek home during my college years when the University of Florida managed the property as a retreat for students. After recently reading the book, my interest was renewed and I returned for another visit last month when I was in Florida. The homestead is now a state park with guided tours. Being there to see the area and house again was a memorable experience for me and brought to mind the book’s closing lines: "Cross Creek belongs to the wind and the rain, to the sun and the seasons, to the cosmic secrecy of seeds, and beyond all, to time."
Author: Letitia Baldridge
Title: Taste: Acquiring What Money Can't Buy
Call Number: BJ1853 .B37 2007
Rating: 5
Tasteful or Tacky? If you’re wondering and if you care, this is the book for you!
Summary: Part memoir, part inspiration, this book is definitely not a "how to" guide, but at the end you should have a pretty good grasp of how to manage a tasteful lifestyle. The author’s imminent qualifications for being an arbiter of taste include her service as Social Secretary at the U. S Embassies in Paris and Rome and at the White House during the Kennedy years. She was also Director of Public Relations at the renowned jeweler Tiffany’s. The book is full of examples, anecdotes, and considerable name dropping from the author’s extensive life experience. As the subtitle implies, wealth doesn’t guarantee tasteful results, but the examples included here are more often from the lives of the rich and famous than from those of the plain and simple.
The main areas covered are fashion, entertaining, and interior decoration along with a discussion about the nature of good taste and the importance of incorporating tastefulness into the fabric of life. Lifelong learning is enthusiastically promoted as a vehicle for developing an understanding of taste. Careful observation, analysis, kindness, interest in others, and frequent patronage at museums are also cited as hallmarks of persons with taste.
This is a relatively short book and an easy read. Interspersed among the names and stories are gems that I wanted to underline such as "One is never done with the study of art and design and all the benefits that flow from it" and "Entertaining is an effective way to accomplish a number of life's goals." So I’m buying copies of this book for myself and for my sisters-in-law and nieces. Can’t give a much better recommendation than that!
Author: Upton Sinclair
Title: Oil
LSU
Rating: -
There will be a lot of OIL and not much blood at all!
Summary:
I had planned to use this as my "movie book" when I heard that There Will Be Blood was based on this book. Having read The Jungle in college, I expected a high level of passion and social consciousness from this classic "muckraker" and wasn't disappointed. The book is entertaining, informative, and very thought-provoking. Which is a lot more than I can say for the movie, which was such a Huge departure from the book that I decided it shouldn't even be included in the "movie book" category, so I'm submitting it for my fiction read: historical fiction.
The book is largely written from the point of view of the oil man's son, Bunny and opens as they are driving across the state to negotiate leasing mineral rights from some landowners. This first chapter entitled "The Ride" sets the stage for the rest of the book as the reader is carried along with Bunny into a maelstrom of forces that emerged and clashed in the early twentieth century. The conflict between the oil man and the preacher that figures so prominently in the movie doesn't happen in the book. Instead, the major tension in the book is between the developing labor union movement and the capitalist bosses. Paul, the preacher's communist brother, is the tragic figure who dies in the book at the hands of mob thugs. I almost could hear Pete Seeger singing in the background as the idealistic union organizers mix it up with the barons of power.
The author's viewpoint is forcefully presented and clearly summed up in the book's last sentence describing unfettered capitalism as "an evil Power which roams the earth, crippling the bodies of men and women, and luring the nations to destruction by visions of unearned wealth, and the opportunity to enslave and exploit labor." However, since the story unfolds mostly through the son as he grows up loving his father, enjoying the benefits that come his way, yet also sympathizing with the workers and their struggle, the complexity of the competing philosophies is artfully revealed. There are no easy answers. I think this would make a great text for a business ethics class, and it provides a compelling experience for learning about the history of this period. It left me wanting to read more about the Teapot Dome scandal, and there aren't many novels that will do that for you!
Kitty J. Simmons, Library Director
Author: Pauline Stevick
Title: Beyond the Plain and Simple: a Patchwork of Amish Lives
LSU
Rating: -
Plenty of plain in the clothes, but a lifestyle that includes supporting a large family on the farm with few modern conveniences isn't exactly simple.
Summary: This is another "insider look" at the Amish way of life providing insight into a subculture that I find intriguing. The author belongs to a Mennonite offshoot denomination, and she and her husband gain entrée into a variety of Amish communities through a wide network of Amish friends. Each chapter presents an aspect of life or experience during a visit covering such topics as the church service, weddings and funerals, family relations, and dealing with "prodigals". One of the most interesting things I learned was that there is even an Amish "snowbird" community in Sarasota Florida!
The author provides more narrative than analysis which was fine with me. Although the benefits of the Amish lifestyle are evident for those who embrace it, the difficulties are not ignored. This religion is not a cult composed of coerced members who don't think for themselves. The very mindfulness that the Amish display throughout their lives in spite of some apparent inconsistencies of practice is partly what makes them so interesting to outsiders. One of the key points clearly made in these vignettes is the central importance of community in the Amish life. Whether or not a practice fosters or undermines the communal cohesiveness of the group is often the test of acceptance or rejection.
This book would be interesting either as a first exposure to the Amish or as a supplement to previous reading on the subject. It's not long, has illustrations (drawings, not photos of course), and is very interesting: in short, a perfect summertime read!
Kitty J. Simmons, Library Director
Author: Jung Chang
Title: Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China
Call Number: DS774 .C3718 1991b
Book Jacket Quote: "It is impossible to exaggerate the importance of this book."
I agree!
Summary:
The history of twentieth century China told as the story of a family over three generations is portrayed with a vividness and poignancy lacking in the usual historical treatment of the same events. The author's grandmother, born in 1909, endured tortuous foot-binding, was given as a concubine to a warlord at the age of fifteen, but still manages to find love and happiness during her long life. "Wild Swan", the author's mother was born in 1931, and comes of age during the treacherous World War II era when the Communists battle the Nationalists for control in China. She marries a Communist Party true-believer and together they totally dedicate their lives and family to the Communist cause. Disillusionment with Mao comes late and at a very high price. The second "Wild Swan", Jung Chang, was born in 1952, and we follow her story as Mao's legacy turns to madness through a series of events that culminates in the disaster that was the Red Guard. Through an amazing turn of events, she maintains both her humanity and hope, and is able to leave China in 1978. A visit from her mother prompts her to probe into the family story, and this fascinating saga/memoir is the result of that effort.
This book is important because it helps the reader understand how it was possible for the entire nation of China to fall under the spell of a tyrant and remain there even after his actions demonstrated a serious departure from sanity. Having a true insider as a guide throughout this story adds to our understanding of both the events and the underlying psychology that made those events possible. Although I was filled with sympathy for those unfortunates who were caught in the machinations that seemed to unfold with horrible frequency, the resiliency of those who survived was also inspiring. This book will provide the reader with useful background about a very complex country and society as China becomes a center of world attention during the Olympic Games later this summer.
The area of Chengdu where much of the action in this book takes place, is also the area hard hit by the recent earthquake in China.
Author: John Grisham
Title: The Firm
LSU
Rating:
Mitch, the newly graduated Harvard lawyer, lands a job at a prestigious Memphis law firm. Is this job just too good to be true? Well, in a word YES!
Summary: The Firm was the second novel written by attorney-turned author John Grisham, and in my opinion one of his best. Some of the subsequent books are too obviously influenced by his political/social viewpoints for my taste and lacking in the taut suspense running through this one. After Mitch and his wife get settled into a life of luxury and the dream job begins, he discovers some unsettling aspects of his employers. However, the firm has seriously underestimated both the scruples and ingenuity of their new hire. As Mitch uncovers the nasty truth about what everyone is up to, the action really ramps up. Some surprising twists emerge as he figures out how to elude the many dangers encountered along the way and manages to sail into the sunset by book’s end.
The movie version was directed by Sydney Pollack with a star-studded cast including Tom Cruise, Gene Hackman, Ed Harris, and Holly Hunter. As usual with a film adaptation, there are some significant diversions from the book, but the suspense is definitely there. I would suggest reading the book first. The Memphis settings and landmarks were fun for me to revisit since I spent some time there in the 1980s. I thoroughly enjoyed both book and movie and recommend these as perfect fodder for enjoyable summertime diversion.
Kitty J. Simmons, Library Director