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."