A Man for All Seasons by Robert Bolt****

I first came into contact with this play in 1999 when I saw it in production at BYU. I don't remember much of the details - what I do remember is feeling so moved and so privileged to be a part of theatre in general that produced something so profound that I was full to bursting.

I remembered it anew recently as we watched the Showtime series The Tudors - quite enjoyable, and really brought the whole King Henry VIII thing to life for me - for the first time I can name at least 4 of his 6 wives (still haven't seen the last season). One of the most moving scenes that still sticks with me is the execution of Sir Thomas More. Jeremy Northam delivers a riveting performance. But this is a review of the play, not The Tudors. It was helpful having recently watched it because it was easier for me to distinguish between the characters that were a little confusing to me before (Wolsey v. Cranmer, Rich v. Chapuys, etc.) and allowed me to focus more on the point of the play ... which I believe can be summed up in this phrase: "In matters of conscience, the loyal subject is more bounded to be loyal to his conscience than to any other thing."

For those not quite as familiar, I'll attempt to sum up the premise briefly: King Henry wanted to be remarried. He was convinced that his first marriage to Catherine of Aragon was invalid, that the pardon extended from Rome at its onset was also invalid. And to overcome the encumberance of his marriage so he could divorce Catherine and marry Anne Boleyn, he renounced the authority of the Pope and named himself the sovereign authority of church and state for England. Those who disagreed with a charter drafted along these lines were sentenced to death as traitors to the throne. Sir Thomas More, a long-time mentor to the King and faithful Catholic found himself unable to sign on account of his loyalty to the Church, and found himself on the wrong side of the King's favor.

His predicament reminds me not a little of the quote by Karl G. Maeser (for whom the Maeser Building is named at BYU): "I have been asked what I mean by 'word of honor.' I will tell you. Place me behind prison walls—walls of stone ever so high, ever so thick, reaching ever so far into the ground—there is a possibility that in some way or another I might be able to escape; but stand me on the floor and draw a chalk line around me and have me give my word of honor never to cross it. Can I get out of that circle? No, never! I’d die first."

These stirring ideals have long been something that I have aspired to in my personal character. I don't seek for the kinds of circumstances that More found himself in. But, I hope that if my character were ever called into question that I would have the fortitude to stand in the manner of these fine men - to know that ultimately there is only one other Being who needs know my true heart. There is a freedom in that, even if one has to stand shackled to find it.

Notes From a Small Island by Bill Bryson***

Have you ever happened to embark on a conversation with that "experienced" gentleman at church? You know the one ... everyone knows him because he shares these stories of when he was in college, or in the war, or on his mission, or working in Washington. And these stories seem to have nothing to do with what you're talking about at present? Well, having grown up with one of those gentlemen as my father, I've learned over time that there often is a reason to the story, and it often is a good one ... it just may take hours to get to that point.

This book is a lot like that.

Bill Bryson is an American who moved to England shortly after college, got a job, met a girl, started a family and a career, and over a decade later is preparing to return to the States. He takes a farewell tour to as many locations on the "small island" as he can via train, bus, foot, taxi. Though, you'll notice a recurring statement that goes something like this: "I'm sure the village is a lot more quaint when it's not out of season." So, what it ends up being is a travelogue about riding a bus or walking 10 miles to another small town, eating Chinese food (often the only establishment open "out of season" apparently), thinking this town has something cool to offer ... only to realize that it doesn't, or it's closed, and anyway he has to leave before anything can happen because he has to check out of his old motel before they charge him for a second night.

But ... there is something quite enjoyable about this book. Maybe it's the fact that the constant rain, train rides, and tellings of Chinese dinners puts me in a comfy mood that sends me straight to a nap. It took me forever to read this book because I kept falling asleep (seriously ... it's only 317 pages and took me almost 3 weeks to finish. The last book I spent this long reading was Les Miserables with its 1000+ pages). Maybe it was his descriptions of the unexpected surprises, like his discovery of Durham, or the fact that he got a chance to see This is Cinerama in one of the towns, or the night he discovered he was just 20 miles from home and decided to leave off traveling for one night and spend some time with them, or the overall understated way that he obviously cares tremendously for his family, or the unexplained loathing he has of those who drink tea with milk in it (brilliant idea, Brits), or his story of the retail magnate who went all Hugh Hefner on everyone with a pair of twins, or the many ways he's able to capture the pervading wit of the British people in all types of circumstances ... maybe all those little things added up to make something that, while not dramatic, not compelling, still imparts a fondness. Yes, I think that's the best word: I have a fondness for this book and its author. It made me more excited about my trip to London this summer than I was before I started (did I mention that I'm going to London this summer? I meant to). But it did - I'm more excited than before. And that's the main thing.

The Grove by John Rector ***

A brief prologue: I missed last week, so posted this as well as The Hiding Place which shows up below in the date that I wrote it (mid-February). For those of you keeping track, I'm still on course. And now, The Grove:

If you like CSI, The Mentalist, Criminal Minds, or any of those other crime investigation shows, you'll probably like this book. This was a recommendation from my husband - a great one - I thought it was a fast, entertaining, mind-bending read and just what I was looking for. I'll give you the same preface he gave me: A man named Dexter wakes up one morning to discover a body in a grove of trees on his property. You find out pretty early in the book that he has some mental "demons" he's battling, and he struggles for the duration to try to figure out if he had anything to do with how the body got there.

This would be a fantastic movie - sudden clips as he cuts in and out of consciousness, little details that don't seem to be significant until they suddenly are ... so are. I really like that Rector doesn't allow you to watch Dexter's insanity on the sidelines - you're there with him. You only know what he knows, and you only see what he sees - and that's quite a perspective to have sometimes. I really enjoyed it (even if the bit about the fire ants was a little much for me ... I'm allergic to them), and found it a pleasant diversion from real life. And, after all, isn't that what a good book is for?? The only reason it doesn't get more stars is the same reason those shows do - I'm totally enthralled for the 45 minutes I'm watching, and then I immediately think about something else ... the only things that stick with me are the way my skin crawls when I think about certain scenes from the book. Nothing didactic or deep here, just a great diversion. But, again, nothing wrong with that!

Room by Emma Donoghue****

I love having a friend who owns a bookstore. Every so often I'll stop in and see what she recommends - she has great taste and I really like almost everything she recommends. This was no exception. She told me that Room would be the talk the same way The Help was during the summer ... not sure if she's right on that yet or not, but she should be.

Room begins on a boy named Jack's fifth birthday. Jack has spent every day of his life in a tiny room with his mother that boasts a cast of Wardrobe, Meltedy Spoon, Bed, Table, but no window ... just Skylight. He's never been outside of the room, you see. His only glimpses have been what he sees a few hours each day on a fuzzy television. Donoghue paints a startlingly realistic tale told through Jack's eyes, in Jack's words. It took me a while to realize that he didn't have to put an article in front of many of the nouns he refers to regularly ... what's the point of specifying the door, when there's only the one and has never been or ever will be another? Donoghue's details are divine - specifically in the way Jack utilizes language to describe what his world is like.

Even though Jack is only five, this is decidedly not a "kid's book." Jack has to face some really grown-up things in his short time on the earth ... he and his mother refer to the feelings they have as "scave" (a word sandwich of scary, but brave). Without giving anything away, I have to recommend that the last few pages of the book are the scave-est ... and totally, utterly worth it.

This book fits right into my recent niche ... my life is pretty well perfect, by comparison. Whatever "tragedies" I may have experienced, I feel blissfully blessed with all that I have not had to even consider as an ordeal in my life. And, I'm most grateful for the reminder.

Little Bee by Chris Cleave****

What's in a name?? For some of the characters in this book, it means safety. The story of a Nigerian refugee, Little Bee doesn't pull any punches - when it talks about difficult subject matter, it's going to be difficult to read. But it is honest. And its honesty has helped me re-align the context of my life in "the" world, as opposed to "my" world. I realize with breathtaking clarity that there are many things about the world that I do not know about: I do not really know fear, loss, grief, humiliation, or treachery. I do know (to a maddening degree, by comparison) safety, comfort, convenience, vanity, and triviality. This kind of re-definition can sometimes occur when you meet someone for the first time. The two women of this story, Sarah and Little Bee have such an effect on each other. Each having lost much, each guilty (of varying degree), each lonely in their own way, and each finding themselves in need of a redefinition.

As a reader, I found the beginning of this book a little confusing - but in a good way. At first it seemed that I had missed some big elements of the story (I thought maybe I was too sleepy when I was reading the first two chapters), but I eventually realized that I was receiving information as the author intended. Sometimes I find it rewarding when an author chooses to dispense puzzle pieces in a seemingly random manner - I feel so much more grateful for the pieces than if they were just handed out in sequential order.

A note of caution: While I found this novel incredibly satisfying, there are moments of stark violence ... as I said - Cleave pulls no punches. But I find, in media these days, that there's violence for the sake of entertainment, and there's violence for the sake of awakening us in a didactic sense. And, for me, the violence of the second nature, while sometimes more difficult to stomach, is the better kind of violence to bear. Because if it's just for the sake of entertainment, then what does it say about our society??

The Hiding Place by Corrie ten Boom*****

That's right ... another fiver. But it's worth it. This is the non-fiction story of Corrie ten Boom and how her family becomes involved in the underground movement hiding Jews during the Holocaust in Holland. Of course, they're caught eventually (no spoiler here - it almost seems like you shouldn't be surprised) and she and her family spend over a year in a variety of German prisons and concentration camps.

I know life can be hard. I've had my own fair share of challenges, some pretty recently, and I know that there are many people right now going through a much more difficult time than I am. But nothing we experience right now can even scratch the surface of what this family endured. And, they did it with grace, love, a smile, service, patience and dignity. Their faith is the life-line they cling to when everything else is taken from them, and they are miraculously spared from the very worst of experiences in many cases, even though they still have to endure a good measure.

But, I have to say, that's something I've learned recently about God. I know I don't normally get super-religious in this blog, but this is something that really brings it out in me. This is what I've learned recently about God: Life is suffering, like the Buddhists say. But grace is what happens when the Lord allows you to suffer only as much as you must. Now, He will let you walk up to the abyss, look down, and may even allow you to stumble along the edge and hang on by a fingernail. But He will not let you fall. The beauty of the Atonement is that Christ is the author and finisher of our faith. He will take over what we cannot endure, but He loves us enough to allow us to carry the burden just as long as we can. This story is a brilliant reminder in living color of this truth.

When I read a book that has something so profound I know I'm going to find myself wishing I could re-read it again and again, I turn down the corner of the page. This "defilement" is something my husband doesn't understand (he's trained me to read paperbacks without cracking the spine of the book - a totally new concept to me once we got married - I thought that's what paperbacks were for). But, I don't like marking in books (other than my scriptures). The fold in the corner seems to be perfect - easily overlooked, but even after you flip it back up there will always exist a crease in the corner for the rest of the life of the book. I don't do it often .. The Poisonwood Bible has one, Lucky has one, The Grapes of Wrath has six. ... The Hiding Place has seventeen. Towards the end, I found myself turning down almost every page - in fact, I even tore a corner in half so that I could fold down the corner on the front and back of it. This book will have to go into my regular rotation of books I read every few years or so (now totalling 4: Peace Like a River, To Kill a Mockingbird, East of Eden, and now The Hiding Place). All of them have a common theme - there is much evil in the world around you, but if you will it to be so, there is much more good that can be found within you.

The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein****

If you've ever had a pet that you wished could talk, this is the book for you. Told by Denny's dog, Enzo, this book is a wonderful exercise in endurance, will, and the magic that happens when you get just the right amount of help you need when you need it the most. Now, keep in mind, Enzo is a smart dog - a sage, wise grandfather of a dog. And, he's also a perfect dog. Completely in tune with his owners' needs, moods, bodies, and internal rhythms, always well-behaved, can understand full sentences of English, as well as more abstract concepts like reincarnation, etc. If this had been a book written by my dog, it would have read something like this:

"Outside today I dug a hole. I dug and I dug and I dug. And you know what I found?? A stick! I gnawed on the stick and gnawed on the stick and then ... that dog on the other side of the fence is out of his cage again!! I will bark as loud as I can to let him know this is my neighborhood, but if I cou... a BIRD! I'll get him ..."

But, I digress. It was a quick read that gets you right where it means something. SPOILER ALERT:

... SERIOUSLY ... if you don't want to know what happens, stop reading!

...

Okay ... last chance to turn around ... spoiler begins ... N-N-N-N-NOW! (Yoshimi Battles the Robots, anyone?)

I've been trying to understand why every great story about every great dog ends with the dog dying. That doesn't seem great at all! And, while this one does try to buck that trend (you realize the end is near in the first few lines of the book, and the end is not what you would call "final" at the end), I think I've figured out why death is such a staple in dog books. Because to love a dog is to understand that you will, in all likelihood, outlive the dog. And you'll have to figure out how to cope with this loss that feels like a member of your family, even if they've never spoken a word to you. Finn is my first dog ever ... in fact, my first pet that has ever shown anything more than an passing interest and regular disdain for me (my family had a cat growing up ... need I say more?). And, while I love my dog more than I think should be normal, I also try to remind myself on a semi-regular basis that this love, however genuine and good, is temporary. That one day, he won't be there barking like a maniac when I come home from work, or snuggle between my legs while I'm watching TV, or help me mop the kitchen floor by licking off all the food bits I sponge off the counter tops when I do the dishes. And until you can comprehend the loss of a pet, you haven't experienced the full range of what it means to be a pet owner. And, for that, right now, I'm grateful to call myself a novice and still "in training."

Darcy's Story by Janet Alymer****

Did you ever read Pride and Prejudice and wonder what was going on inside of Darcy's enigmatic skull? I think we all did. The cool thing, is that this author (self-proclaimed enthusiast) read the book in school, and happily shared it with her daughter and then wrote this book. It began as a private family thing, but eventually she shared it on the internet, and so many people liked it that she finally published it. And that's how my mother-in-law came to be able to buy it for me for Christmas - I love when even simple stories have a happy ending. The coolest part is that the author's name is a pseudonym - she didn't do it for the money or the recognition, but because she just really loved the book and the characters, and thought she might have something others could enjoy. So ...

I really enjoyed it! I have to say, I was mightily skeptical at first, but after the first few chapters, I was lured hook, line, and sinker. I don't remember the last time I finished a book before my Sunday deadline - it was really quite a pleasure. If you loved Pride and Prejudice too and aren't sure if you'll like this book, I just have one word of advice: the author intentionally writes in a different voice. This is Darcy's story, where Pride and Prejudice is decidedly Elizabeth's. So, it sounds like Darcy - much more factual and perfunctory than Austen's perspective. But none the less enjoyable - don't get me wrong. I just think it wouldn't have taken me so long to get into it if I had realized that at first. Enjoy!

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman****

One of these days I promise I won't read young adult literature every month - it really seems to sneak into my repertoire much more than I expect. But, when it's young adult literature that's this interesting and well-written, I'll tell you right now: I will always make an exception.

This book is an archetypal "bildungsroman" (that's smart-speak for "coming-of-age-story" ... don't worry, I had to ask) but the environment (should be obvious) of a graveyard is only the beginning of how Gaiman uses the archetypes as a springboard to further the medium into something truly unique and singular. Our main character's guide is a vampire, for crying out loud (though I love that Gaiman didn't feel the need to include the word once throughout the 300+ pages). It's a classic example of an author showing instead of telling us something. Add a diamond-edged wit to an already intriguing plot and an exceptionally sympathetic cast of characters (the dead are the ultimate outcasts) and you have a real winner.

We were lucky enough to get an advance copy of this book somehow (signed by the author, no less!), and one of the nifty things about those is the handy facts on the back that help buyers determine the genre, audience, etc. It's printed right on the back that it's a 5th-grade reading level. I would have loved to get my hands on something like this when I had been in the 5th grade! If I had, I'm sure it would have inspired me to believe in myself a little bit more - to be more grateful for the family I've been given and the natural talents I have, the confidence to get through 6th grade again, knowing that no matter what those mean boys said to me, I knew what I was worth. I can see this book as being a real 5-star selection for me if I had read it then. As it is, I found it incredibly entertaining and absorbing - a great diversion. And, if I was needing to turn in a comp lit essay, I'd compare/contrast this book with The Adventures of Tom Sawyer in a heartbeat.

The Last Kashmiri Rose by Barbara Cleverly***

If you like British murder mysteries set in India during the mid-1920s, then this is the book for you. Full of stodgy British humor, innuendo and ritual, it's a quick read, and an interesting mystery. I'd recommend it for a fast read ... but again, I'm guessing it's only fast for those who can read with a British accent in their heads. If not, you'll probably find this cumbersome, boring, and slow. I enjoyed it for what it was, even if it took me 3 days of falling asleep 5 minutes after I started. Once I could get a good 20-30 minutes of reading in to finally get a handle on the characters and the basic plot, I was hooked--after that it was a really fast read.

Oh, and, I'm not sure how you like your mysteries. Question: When reading who-dun-its, do you prefer to have an early inkling confirmed as the killer, or would you rather be totally surprised?

(pausing to politely listen to your responses rather than just rattling of my own first ...)

I think I'd rather be totally surprised. I guessed the killer from the first introduction, though not the methods or motivation. But I couldn't stop thinking that the book would have been all the better if that had just been a red herring and some other killer would have made a mind-twisting revelation at the very end. Always love those.

Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford ***

I liked this book, but I found some of the writer's choices in conflict with my preferences (i.e. the way the chapters were broken up was too choppy, too repetitive throughout in general, I had to keep reminding myself that I wasn't reading adolescent literature, the hotel mentioned in the title didn't seem to me to be more of a contrivance than an anchor in the story,etc.). But, with that said, it's a sweet story. If you're interested in reading a novel about the Japanese Americans who were persecuted during WWII, I would recommend Snow Falling on Cedars over this any day. But, those who don't like Snow, or who fancy young adult lit (Mom, I'm looking in your direction, here) would probably prefer this book to the other.

Maybe it's because I read it in a week when there was too much to do, so it felt more like I was doing it to do it, not doing it to enjoy it. One of the pitfalls of a goal like this, I think. But, it's just a year, and then I can go back to meandering through books. For now, I just want to prove to myself that I can do it. In any case, it's another book down ... only 35 books left! (Whew - for a moment there I thought I was going to have to invoke my Old Testament segments that I read last year for Sunday School as a "book." Though, come on ... I read a ton of it!)

Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton***

I'm not sure how to talk about this. It's one of those books that's best read if you read it knowing nothing about it. One of those stories whose significance is in all the details that gets wrapped up at the end. It reminded me of Our Town in the way that we don't realize how significant normal daily events can be ... and how quickly something can change everything.

It's a quick read, and a great one for reading on a snow day (remember snow days??!!) while you're warm in bed.