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I wanted to re-read Emma after watching one of the many movie adaptations, especially when it occurred to me I hadn't read it in quite some time. After watching and then reading in a short time period, I feel that the movie versions invariably make Emma seem to be a bit of an idiot -- whether due to the fact that the story is compressed for time, or the need to visually telegraph what is going to the viewers. In the book, it's rather more subtle. Emma is a lively, intelligent, imaginative creature who makes some errors in judgement - which are actually fairly reasonable, especially when you consider the fact that your perspective is usually rather skewed when your involved or close to what is going on, and particularly when someone is actively trying to deceive you.

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The story of the cool, collected, imperturbable Englishman Phileas Fogg and his passionate, good-hearted, sometimes hapless manservant, the Frenchman Jean Passepartout, and their famous trip around the world. Fogg lives his life completely by regimen, every day the same down to the minute he arrives at the Reform Club (he fired his previous servant because he couldn't keep up that schedule). Then, suddenly, on a bet-- to prove it can be done, and that "the unforeseen does not exist"-- he sets off around the world. He doesn't do it for the money that is wagered; in fact, he spends nearly all of the remaining half of his fortune that he didn't wager, so by winning he just breaks even. He doesn't do it for the adventure or to see the sights; Passepartout does quite a bit more looking at sights than Fogg, who is simply planning his next train or steamer. Certainly, Fogg doesn't shy away from adventure-- he saves Auoda from suttee because he has time, and he calmly and repeatedly bails out Passepartout, even to the point of chasing after American Indians to rescue him.

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I know that Dickens' tended to write the "big, baggy monster" type of novel, but this one seemed much bigger and baggier than other Dickens' I have read. You are introduced to characters briefly who leave the novel for chapters at a time, but then much later come back into the story, sometimes in significant ways for the plot. When we first meet Mr. Merdle, he seems like a tangential character (the husband of a woman Fanny and Amy Dorrit meet), but he gets a whole chapter to himself about his very high, significant position in society (due to his wealth), and his complete unease among the people of "society"-- although later, of course, he plays a pretty significant role in the story. The book follows mostly the story of "Little" Dorrit, or Amy- a young woman who was born in the debtor's prison at Marshalsea, where her father has lived her entire life; and also Arthur Clenham, who takes an interest in Little Dorrit.

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I purchased and read this book because it was the ebook was sale for 99 cents, and the description of the protagonist intrigued me: a woman math professor on the run, who sees patterns and numbers and also knows about poker from her father. I was rather disappointed with the character of Dr. Renee Carter-- she seems like the generic pretty-lady plucky heroine, with a few trappings and comments to remind us she works as a college professor. Dr. Carter accidentally gets in trouble with some bad guys because, in her role as mentor to the campus poker club, she notices a statistical anomaly that would significantly benefit the owners of the website. Because of this, a couple of bad guys come to "take care of" her and the other professors she consulted about the data. When the hit men frame Renee for the murder of the local sheriff, she ends up on the run with the regional detective who was called in, Trent Schaefer. Carter can tell there is something off about Trent (he's a little too good at surviving on the run), something he's not telling her, but she never really does figure it out, and the best that can really be said is that she survives.

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Jerusha Abbott (or Judy, as she decides to call herself) is the oldest girl at the John Grier Home (an orphanage), and when the subject of her future comes up at a Trustee meeting, along with the fact that she is quite good in school (particularly in English)-- they read a humorous essay she's written for school about the Wednesdays when Trustees come to visit the orphanage, and one eccentric Trustee decides to pay for her to go to college and educate her as a writer. He prefers to remain anonymous - she doesn't even know his name, and all she sees is a tall silhouette, and a shadow from car headlights that looks like a daddy-long-legs spider, which is where Judy comes up with her nickname for him. His only requirement for putting her through college is that she write him a letter once a month. From there on, the book is told entirely through Judy's letters to her benefactor as she goes through her four years of college. The book is a quick, entertaining read, and Judy is delightfully engaging letter-writer: the letters change style depending on her mood or the things she is learning in college, and she is good company.

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14-year-old Sophie Amundsen is a normal school-girl who discusses normal school-girl things with her friend Joanna-- until she gets an unusual note in her mailbox, which begins her on a course of studying the history of philosophy with her equally unusual teacher, Alberto Knox. The first few lessons begin with thought-provoking questions like who are you? and where does the world come from?, or why is the Lego the most ingenious toy in the world?. These simple questions get Sophie to wondering, and then are usually followed up by a lesson-- initially in written form, later on via in-person discussions with Alberto Knox. In addition, to the philosophy course, Sophie starts finding postcards and other things that belong to a girl she's never heard of, Hilde Moller Knag-- and something about the postcards doesn't quite add up (they are sent from Lebanon but apparently took no time to get to Norway, Hilde's birthday is the same as Sophie's, Sophie is being relied upon to deliver the postcards, etc.). About half-way through the book, when Sophie and Alberto are discussing the philosophy of Berkeley (who believed that the only thing we could be certain of were our perceptions and not physical reality, and thus we exist in the mind of God), they discover that they (Sophie and Alberto) are characters in a book that Major Knag is writing for his daughter Hilde-- so they exist only in his and Hilde's imaginations.

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This story is set in India which means that as one reads, bits of culture are picked up along the way. In a quiet and delightful way. A number of stories are woven together into one novel, with themes running through each of them, and deep connections. Kanai is a well-to-do Indian going to visit his aunt, to read a story that his uncle wrote and left to him years ago. Piya was born to Indian parents but grew up in America, and is back in India to study dolphins. Fokir is a man who catches crabs for a living and knows the islands and rivers and tides in the Bay of Bengal as well as his own home.

As always, nothing is quite as clear as it seems. People meet each other and their initial reactions are rarely correct. Especially in this setting, where there are so many factors that are unseen. Each of the characters in this book is searching for something .. meaning, a place to call home, worth, accomplishment, a better life, love. In various ways, with varying amounts of success. Fokir is a simple man who is viewed as inferior by many, but Piya sees him as someone who is knowledgeable, and could be a boon for her research. This is a beautiful example of someone who sees differently. So often we get caught up in matching things to the standards of the world, but Piya refuses to play into that and is willing to see value in anyone around her. Her example, while not perfect, is a reminder to me to be careful of who and how I see those around me.

Title:	The Hungry Tide
Author:	Amitav Ghosh
Date published:	2005
Genre:	Fiction
Number of pages:	329
Notes:	from Karen K.Y.

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This is the first time I can remember reading a book with a soundtrack playing along in my head. The musical is wonderful, so as I got to distinct events, the music was in my head. Quite interesting. Jean Valjean goes to prison as a young man for trying to steal a loaf of bread for his sister and her numerous children. He stays longer because of escape attempts, and when he finally gets out nobody will receive him because of his criminal's passport. A bishop takes him in for a meal and a night's sleep, but Valjean steals something valuable, is caught, and taken back to the bishop who says he forgot the silver. He 'buys his soul' for God, and after that Jean Valjean is a changed man who seeks to care for those around him, live honestly and make up for past evil.

Over and over, Valjean is shown to be a man who is strong beyond reason. He gets under a horse cart which has trapped a man and lifts it up by himself. He climbs a high wall by pushing himself up the corner where it meets another wall. He saved men in the quarries by various acts of strength. He saves Marius' life by carrying him through horrible conditions in the sewer for a great distance. And yet .. more than his physical strength .. the reader sees his character. This is, of course, shown most strongly in his care of Cosette, the daughter of Fantine, who he rescues and raises as his own with great affection and care. A man who was consistently treated as less than human in the quarries returns grace and mercy. Humanly speaking, that is not possible. This man exemplifies what a transformed life can be .. a second chance, used to the fullest, for the good of all those around him. Javert is another very intrigue character. He is a policeman and very just. For him all things fall easily into categories. One of which is that all criminals are evil and cannot be good. Throughout Jean Valjean's life, Javert continues to search for him to send him back to prison. When Valjean does something extraordinary, Javert can no longer fit him into the 'evil' box .. and something inside Javert crumbles. Valjean is the criminal turned benefactor, and Javert is the upright man who can no longer comprehend the world. What striking juxtaposition. A book worth reading again!

Title:	Les Miserables (abridged)
Author:	Victor Hugo
Date published:	1961
Genre:	Fiction
Number of pages:	321
Notes:	repeat reading

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In college, I was told that this is a book that is generally understood better as one matures and ages. That is true for me. I still don't get it all, but I understood more of it this time! Orual is the oldest of three daughters of a king in a small land. She is not beautiful, and is not treated well by those around her, but nor does she treat them well. Their father provides them with a Greek tutor who becomes like a father to them, caring for them and teaching them in a way that is very different than the beliefs of their people. There are variety of themes that run throughout the book .. religion vs. reason .. faith vs. knowledge .. and love of self vs. love of other. The youngest daughter, Psyche, is given as a sacrifice to the gods to save the people, and Orual finds herself in a fight with the gods over this .. and fights until the end of her life.

Lewis repeatedly and variously asks questions about love. What is love? Is love that is selfish really love? As humans how much can we love? Can humans understand divine love? What does love demands of others? These are almost all asked through story and not simply words. They (and Lewis' answers) are seen in the lives of characters, for either good or ill. Orual tells her own story, and of course she tells it as she sees it, through her own eyes. The reader confronts his own selfishness, the way that emotions and actions which are not really love are treated and conveyed as love. Human love is so far from divine love .. and we have no way to make it perfect or right. At the end Orual confronts the gods and is left speechless. As it should be. Except for the gracious gift that God makes to give us one to speak for us, we have no defense. A book worth reading and re-reading, giving its truth space to work its way down into one's soul.

Title:	Till We Have Faces: A Myth Retold
Author:	C. S. Lewis
Date published:	1956
Genre:	Fiction
Number of pages:	313
Notes:	Repeat reading

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A young boy is growing up in an Arab family in Palestine, with a father full of pride and anger toward the Jews who will not give them their land. This young boy is very good at surviving, although he doesn't always keep his pride. Because he does well on a test at school, he is given the opportunity to attend a Jewish boarding school and receive excellent training. He doesn't want to go, but his father won't let him back out. So he goes to the Jewish school, but to survive he ends up working to blend in. He can fade into either culture, and does so throughout his life. But .. as with anyone who lives in two cultures .. the question then becomes if he belongs in either one.

Kashua gives a wonderful picture of Arabic life. Narrative-style .. not by explaining or show and tell .. but simply by putting the reader in the room with events as they happen. Enough is explained to understand something very 'other' from what I know, but not so much that one is ever bored. The stories are told vignette style, with pieces and chunks missing. But everything flows together beautifully. I remember Larq talking about how fantasy or science fiction works when authors have so crafted the respective world or culture that slang and expectations about how life works. These rules or expectations are taken for granted, in a way. Which is true of Kashua's writing as well. Things which he has experienced, growing up in similar places to the main character, make some things 'commonplace' for him that I have never experienced in my life. The reader is given a gift in this glimpse into daily life. Not just important events or big stories .. but family relationships, village etiquette, violence, religious rituals .. this book is worth savoring, both for the writing style and the cultural learning to be gained simply by reading a story.

Title:	Dancing Arabs
Author:	Sayed Kashua
Date published:	2002
Genre:	Fiction, Cultural
Number of pages:	227
Notes:	Given by Jude

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This author and his books are highly respected and talked of, and this was indeed well written. But also hard to read. It's so full of despair. Once I finally reached the end, there was some hope .. but a few times I had to force myself to pick up the book .. knowing I would most likely read something deeply saddening. Mariam is a young girl when we first meet her, in a house a few kilometers away from a small city in Afghanistan. We follow her through her life and in the process see pieces of the history of Afghanistan that one might not wish to have seen.

Mariam is born to a unmarried mother, and has a father who is rich but will not marry her mother. She adores her father .. until she discovers that he does not wish to acknowledge her existence in public. After her mother dies, Mariam is quickly married off to the first suitor. Who happens to be much older than her, not physically handsome, and overweight. As a young teenager, she takes over the duties of a household, cleaning and cooking and of course sexual relations. Mariam has little to look forward to in life, and simply tries to get through each day. war becomes part of their daily lives, and the daughter (Laila) of the next door neighbors ends up an orphan, and is 'kindly taken in' by Mariam's husband as a second wife. There is rivalry .. but eventually these two women become friends as they face a common enemy. And Mariam, who has had little hope since childhood suddenly finds herself with hope. Laila has two children, and these two women value them and nurture them. Even Rasheed, their husband, is human again when he is with his son. Laila's childhood sweetheart who she hoped to marry, named Tariq, is a strong man who has seen evil and still come out gentle. May there be more men such as him!

This book is full of sadness. It's about life during war. A number of wars. Evil is clearly depicted. Men who want power, men who tell lies, what death can do to people, what living under fear does, how boundaries can change .. stories that can be hard to read. But for this story .. there are millions of other stories with similar pieces. That are true. Despite the overall sadness and weight and pain in the book, the end is actually hopeful. Not amazing or perfect or wonderful, but there is some light. In the places where darkness has reigned so long, there are people choosing to value each other, choosing to not only survive but work to find the beauty in life. And, by the grace of God .. that is strangely possible in life. Even in the darkest places, God made humans to find reasons to delight in simple pleasures and to hope.

Title:	A Thousand Splendid Suns
Author:	Khaled Hosseini
Date published:	2007
Genre:	Fiction,
Number of pages:	367
Notes:	Given by Birgit

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Beth Cappadora, a mother of three, takes her children with her to her fifteenth high school reunion, excited to finally spend time with friends and get a break from being a mother. But everything changes in a moment .. she leaves her older son, Vincent, who is 5 holding Ben's hand, who is 3. A friend had already taken Kerry, the baby, upstairs to nap. When she returns from the front desk 5 minutes later Ben is nowhere to be found. Everyone searches, people ask questions, police come .. and her husband, Pat, arrives to participate in the search. At first the policemen are helpful and assuring her that they'll find him .. but as time continues, things become more serious.

Fast forward ten years or so .. and Ben shows up on their doorstep offering to mow their lawn. He lives two blocks down the street. But he isn't Ben any longer. He is Sam. And although they can piece together what happened and how, that doesn't mean Sam/Ben remembers any of it or wants to move in with his new/old family. A classmate stole him, and is in a mental institution, and Sam lives with his father who knows nothing about it. The only person they can blame is crazy and catatonic. What would it be like to live with the guilt that 'I caused this horrible event to happen' for ten years? Both Beth and Vincent live with this guilt. And even Pat, who wasn't there at the time. But they aren't able to talk about it, so each responds differently. Beth stops being a mother, stops caring about life, stops feeling anything. She figures that she was a mother to Ben and because of that he was hurt, so if she stops being a mother to her other two children they won't be hurt as badly. Pat retreats into his work, into dreaming up a new Italian wedding themed restaurant with his family that does brilliantly. Because he works in the restaurant business he is always working and always busy, and he is glad for that. Vincent, on the other hand, knows his mother both before and after .. and knows that she is nothing but a shell. He acts out, gets into fights, challenges everyone and everything. Nobody can make him stop, although his counselor, Tom, finally gets him to face facts and remember what happened and speak it out. At the end of the book it's revealed that Vincent considers it his job to protect his family in any way that he can .. growing up too quickly because his parents didn't really care for him as parents and he had to parent himself. A very interesting psychological story .. including the effects of what happens when Ben is reintroduced into the story. They can't just pick up where they left off .. so how do they pick up? Where do they begin? Can they deal with the new stress and the loss of old stress? And there's even a hopeful ending, which I was glad for :)

Title:	The Deep End of the Ocean
Author:	Jacquelyn Mitchard
Date published:	1996
Genre:	Fiction
Number of pages:	434
Notes:	brought by sue

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The story of a young woman (19 or so!) who leaves her home in Asheville to go teach at a school for children in an impoverished area in the hills of Tennessee at a mission. She has almost seventy students of various levels and must learn how to teach them all .. but she also must learn to understand and value their culture, and most importantly she learns what she really believes about God. Before she heard Dr. Ferrand speak about the mission work that was being done in the poorer, rural areas of Tennessee and various states, she had enjoyed life and known all the right words. But in this new place she is faced with hard truths and people who are desperately in need, and her faith is deeply challenged.

Alice Henderson is a gift to all those she interacts with. She has experienced deep pain, and has chosen hope and love and care even in harsh places. Even those of the Cove (where they work and live) who do not easily accept outsiders into their lives have accepted her and value her input and care. Many of the truths that are clearly spoken in this novel are spoken by Alice Henderson. She wants nothing to do with easy religion, or those who say the right words but do not act on them, or those who have some sort of intellectual faith but don't believe in the real power of God. And of course, there is a man. Actually two of them. Who both fall for Christy. Both handsome and good at what they do. But oh, so different. David is the preacher for the mission and has strong convictions and wants to fight the evil he sees even though he doesn't understand the culture very well just yet. He is funny and works hard and wants to make a difference. Dr. Neil MacNeill grew up in the cove and through the kindness of outsiders was able to go to medical school and get topnotch training. He chose to return to the Cove and help as he can. He travels often, works hard to improve the lives of those around him, believes in science and tradition, and has no use for a God who allows such pain in the world. Christy enjoys both men, and both learns from and challenges both of them. But in the end she makes the only choice possible. choosing the man who really loves her and not the one who simply wants somebody to be loved by.

Title:	Christy
Author:	Catherine Marshall
Date published:	1967
Genre:	fiction
Number of pages:	501
Notes:	repeat reading

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David Wheaton is a man who is passionate about life. He is an actor who has been quite successful, but in life he has been a bit less successful. Turns out that he has had a number of wives .. 9, actually. And 11 children, although a number of them have already died when the reader joins the story. David is closest with his daughter Emma, who married a playwright, Nik. Nik's dream is to write a play about the Biblical King David and have his father-in-law play the main character, and has worked quite a bit on the script and ideas. David is dying, and is being cared for by his current wife, Alice, and Emma is present with them on a boat in Alaska enjoying this last time with her father. he wants to revisit memories, to apologize, to remember the beauty, to confess, and to prepare himself for a peaceful death. this means that Emma (and Alice & her brother Ben) must also revisit the past with him.

L'Engle carefully weaves together Biblical truth with this story of a man and those connected with his family. I often have a hard time with novels that refer to the Bible because I rarely agree with them. But L'Engle is careful about what she uses and how she uses it. Her characters often quote directly from the Word and make interesting connections. When one reviews the story of David, it is amazing that such a sinful and human man could have been used so strongly by God. The modern character, David, is also quite human and sinful .. and yet has brought much good to his family. He made his share of mistakes and ignored things he shouldn't have ignored .. but there has also been grace and care in his family. L'Engle is careful to leave the reader with hope .. even though some awful events come to light in the course of the story, the end feels like an inhaling and preparing to move forward. For both the characters and possibly for the reader as well, if one has identified with the characters in helpful ways.

Title:	Certain Women
Author:	Madeleine L'Engle
Date published:	1992
Genre:	Fiction
Number of pages:	352
Notes:	first non ya fiction of hers I've read

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This is the strange, out-of-order love story of Henry and Clare. Henry is a "Chrono-Displaced-Person": he has a genetic disease that causes him to travel through time-- but he can't control it, so he is constantly ending up in unlikely or inconvenient places, naked (because nothing goes with him when he travels), and having to fend for himself or rely on the few people who know his secret, if he's in a place and time when they know about it and can help. For Clare, the first time they meet is when she is a girl and Henry is an older man who is already married to her. For Henry, the first time they meet is when he is a young man working in a library-- but Clare is so excited to finally meet him in real time, and already knows the future self that he has not yet become.

There is a brilliance to Niffenegger's concept-- this is an incredibly unique story, and it's well told; every section is labeled with the age(s) of Henry and/or Clare, which helps to alleviate some of the confusion. Henry is often hearing things from people in the past that suddenly make sense of things they've said to him before (in his past, their future); and to some extent, the reader gets to experience a bit of this as well: getting parts of the story now, through Clare's eyes, and part of it later, through Henry's perspective. However, there is a disturbing aspect to the morals and ethics of this story that bothered me; the narrative touches on it at moments, but then dismisses it too easily for my taste. An older Henry corrupts his younger self on one of his first times travelling-- teaching him how to steal wallets and unlock doors so that he will be able to fend for himself when he's on his own in time. The older Henry feels a twinge of guilt about this, but for him it is a necessity-- and, what's more, it has already happened in his past, so he can't change it (this comes up more frequently-- causation in Henry's life is quite tangled because of the things that have already happened, and he explains at various points to others and even himself that he can't change anything when he's in the past). Likewise, the older Henry worries that he is perverting Clare through his relationship with her as a girl and then a young woman-- even though he is careful, of course the very fact of Henry being there changes her and makes her different from all the other girls. I was also troubled by the idea of cheating on one's spouse with a future or past version of them.

For all the brilliance of the idea of this book, I found myself slogging through it just to finish, and I finally figured out why when I met Henry and Clare's daughter Alba. She is a delightful character; afflicted with the same time-travelling disease that Henry has (although perhaps with a little more control), but clever and smart and-- perhaps what is strikingly different from the other characters-- happy and well-adjusted. Alba is the first character in the book that I actually liked. The other characters, even Henry and Clare, are so unhappy and messed up-- they have sad childhoods (in many of his time trips, Henry revisits the scene of his mother's death over and over) and mixed up relationships with their friends. There is a sadness about Clare, because she is nearly always waiting for Henry-- waiting for him to come visit out her out of time, waiting for him to come back from his time trips. And the murky ethics of it all is disturbing to me-- but there is none of that in Alba. For Henry, his disease is a curse that warps his life and eventually destroys him; for Alba, in a way it is a blessing because of the moments out of time that she gets to spend with her father.

This book was recommended to me by several people (I don't remember who all); my first hint that it might not be the kind of book I first thought was when I looked for it in a bookstore and it wasn't in the Science Fiction section.

Title:	The Time Traveller's Wife
Author:	Audrey Niffenegger
Date published:	2003
Genre:	Fiction
Number of pages:	560
Notes:	recommended by several people; gift from Jane

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Chesterton writes well .. with enough detail and not too much, and this book flows quickly and well, as one would expect from a nightmare. And there are certainly dream-like elements: at various points time moves much too quickly or too slowly for real life; there are sudden changes, with strangers suddenly being revealed as friends and the like; and oddities are seen as expected and normal. As with much of Chesterton's work, there are many layers and levels of ideas and relationships and truth in this work, and I'm sure I only grasp a few .. but on this reading I understood a bit more than on my first reading.

Gabriel Syme, a man who was selected to be a police detective fighting the anarchists, enters the story and debates with a poet spouting anarchist propaganda. Nobody believes he is one because that would be too obvious .. but shortly thereafter Gregory is invited to a meeting of anarchists so that he will believe there are actually such people. Which is exactly what he wants. Through a series of events, he is elected to the high council of anarchists. Which is composed of 7 people .. each known mainly by a name which is a day of the week (hence the title). At the first meeting where Gregory is present, they eat breakfast together and Sunday denounces one of the members as a policeman .. which later turns out to have affected everyone strongly.

Sunday is the leader of the anarchist high council, and is the definition of so much. All events revolve around him, whether others know it or not. All the anarchists are afraid of him and aware of how much power he has. The ending is spectacular. Sunday is revealed for who he really is (or at least what he can be understood to be .. ) and the other six days of the week are given clothes which beautifully represent the days of creation. Sunday is revealed to have been in all sorts of unexpected places, playing many parts to make things have happened as they did. although this was written and meant as a nightmare, there are many beautiful truths in it. Two being that each man experienced Sunday differently and remembered different facets of him & they experience challenges and suffering, but consider it all worthwhile once they reach the 'end'. This book is well worth reading, as are all the books of Chesterton I've read so far. And worth re-reading!

Title:	The Man who was Thursday: a Nightmare
Author:	G. K. Chesterton
Date published:	1908
Genre:	fiction
Number of pages:	186
Notes:	borrowed from jonathan, repeat reading

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Not my favorite of Jane Austen's books, but I was inspired to re-read it after seeing the delightful Masterpiece Theater version of the story. They did a wonderful job of bringing to life this plain, ordinary heroine who reads to many Gothic mysteries and is ready to imagine romance or intrigue anywhere. The narrator makes a great deal of the fact Catherine Moreland does not resemble the usual heroine of a novel-- not extraordinarily pretty, neither extremely rich nor poor; she is just about as ordinary as she can be. And yet in spite of that, she gets to have her own little adventure and finds her own romantic hero.

Catherine is kind and generous; somewhat naive and innocent, and sometimes outright ignorant. There were times when she reminded me of Jane Bennet in Pride and Prejudice-- always trying to think the best of people, even when things don't quite add up. Except that Catherine isn't as wise or intelligent as Jane (and, of course, she doesn't have a sister like Eliza to tell her how things really are). Austen does a great job of making things clear to the reader that Catherine completely misses-- Catherine's faithful "friend" Isabella, people's concerns with wealth and mis-perceptions about how wealthy Catherine might be.

Catherine's romantic interest, Henry Tilney, is a completely delightful character. He's amused by the foibles of other people, like Catherine's obsession with Gothic novels, or Mrs. Allen's obsession with clothing; he's witty and humorous, and very aware of language-- he teases Catherine over the silly things that she says, which probably she has heard other people say, and in the process he begins to educate Catherine and form her mind. When she says a book is "nice" he responds according to the original meaning of the word (neatness), which of course confuses Catherine, and Henry digresses on how the word is used for anything and hence comes to mean nothing. Another time Catherine says she has "learned to love" a particular kind of flower, and Henry teasingly asks how she learned such a thing. According to the narrator, these two end up together because Henry was the cause of Catherine's "first serious thought," which was incredibly flattering to him.

Title:	Northanger Abbey
Author:	Jane Austen
Date published:	1818
Genre:	Fiction
Number of pages:	221
Notes:	repeat reading

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A young boy is growing up in an Hasidic Jewish community, with all the rituals and traditions and expectations that go with that. Add to this the fact that his father works for the Rebbe (the leader of the community) .. and it becomes a real problem that this boy, Asher Lev, doesn't do well in school. Instead, he spends time drawing and looking at life through different eyes. Good boys are supposed to study the Torah, to understand at least a few languages, to do well in school, and not to be artistic. At a young age, he experiences the darkness of a painful truth, and gives up drawing because it seems futile, useless. But he cannot stop it, and a few years later this gift comes back with a vengence.

The Rebbe calls Asher in for a conversation that all boys at his age have. They talk about his art, and the Rebbe tells him that he will be apprenticed to another Jewish artist -- Jacob Kahn. In their first meeting, Jacob warns him that art is not something to be done lightly .. especially as a Jew. Asher looks into all the hard truth he is presented with, and still chooses art. He must take large steps out of his world, though .. spending hours at the museum, studying & copying and learning from masterpieces, at the library studying various works, working on various techniques, even drawing nudes. These are challenging for him, but he takes the steps because he cannot help himself .. art must pour out of him in some fashion and he chooses to hone his skills and grasp of what art really is. If these things are challenging for him, they are beyond comprehension to his father. When someone in a community challenges the status quo, his questions or wonderings also affect the rest of the community, either directly or indirectly. Because Asher wants to and can produce real, beautiful art, he causes his teachers and schoolmates and parents to ask different questions about what is and isn't proper and why. In being true to this gift that was given to him by the Master of the Universe, Asher eventually creates something that the community cannot accept because it is so far outside their comprehension and definitions. That feels true for some art these days as well. How rare it feels to have people who really follow God and seek His face also producing beautiful, good, true art that challenges conceptions and speaks to deeper levels of the soul. And when they come along, I wonder how well the faith community accepts them. This is a book I'm sure I will read again. At least once :)

Title:	My Name is Asher Lev
Author:	Chaim Potok
Date published:	1972
Genre:	Fiction, Art
Number of pages:	369
Notes:

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A story told by 5 women, a mother and her 4 daughters, who are taken by Nathan Price (husband and father) into the Belgian Congo in 1959. He wants to take the Gospel to the natives, regardless of the cost for himself or his family. They arrive and are sent to a small village where they are the only white people - a vast difference from the life they knew in Georgia. The story begins in 1959 and continues through 1986 and beyond, telling the story of how each family member is strongly affected and changed by Africa. Nathan is horrified by trauma he experienced during the war, and because of this he runs through life, pushing himself to make a difference, to save lives to make up for his 'sin' and demands moral goodness and obedience from all the women in his life - to some how atone for his past.

There are four sisters: Rachel, the oldest; Leah and Adah who are twins; and Ruth May. Rachel likes pretty things and wishes for an easy life, and never adjusts to living in a village without so many comforts that she knew before. Leah is intelligent and adores her father until something happens and suddenly she can't get far enough away from him, but she asks questions and doesn't want to live a certain way just because she has been told to, but wants to know truth and to keep learning. Adah was born with a defect, and walks with a limp and sees the world differently. Her reflections are filled with palindromes and doubt and disbelief and comments her father would never allow, but in some ways she sees much more clearly than any of her family members. Ruth May is young, stubborn, and quite good at getting what she wants out of life, even taking what she wants if it isn't given, and finding things to enjoy. After a tragic event, each woman goes a different direction: one to eventually own a hotel in another African country; another to marry an African and face harsh life and dangerous political events her whole life; another to become a doctor seeking cures for dangerous diseases; another to plant gardens and mourn their losses and ache for the land where so much happened. Orleanna, the mother, has a chapter at the beginning of each section. She is speaking to another character in the book, and also to the reader. Kingsolver compares Orleanna to Africa, which makes sense. Orleanna was married to a husband who cared so much for himself that he only thought of her to be angry or to demand something or to chastize her. Many political events in Africa take place as these women live through history, but the villagers who make up most of the population of Africa are largely unaffected. They continue on with their hard lives, trying to survive as famine and flood and plenty take their turns in the conditions of Africa. A people and a continent which has been beaten and taken for granted and used - but which still manages to survive and to have something worthwhile and beautiful to offer to the world. Kingsolver plays with words and images in beautiful ways. Adah's chapters were probably my favorite, with their slightly 'skewed' perspective and word plays. She and Leah learn the language of the village the most quickly, and find odd links. The same word can mean three or four different things depending on how it's pronounced, which means that when their father preaches or talks, he often miscommunicates - saying something quite different than what he intended. This is definitely a commentary on missionaries and those who go abroad, seeking to carry God's truth. In the various examples of words and meanings and concepts in this new language, there are some beautiful comparisons to Biblical truths - but nathan was completely unaware of these and totally unwilling to recognize them, had he seen them. It is easy for people to be so stuck to their own culture and way of viewing Scripture that they are blind to any other culture or facet of truth. This is painful to see and to hear of. Someone told me that one of the most important things a missionary can do is pray not to be an obstacle to the Gospel they preach, as they miscommunicate with language and culture. Only by the grace of God is Truth shared and learned from others - of the same culture, let alone others with a different culture and language.

Title:	The Poisonwood Bible
Author:	Barbara Kingsolver
Date published:	1998
Genre:	Fiction
Number of pages:	543
Notes:	recommended by jude & diane

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A husband lives a life of secrets, telling no one of his past. He marries a woman, and they truly love each other. She becomes pregnant and on the night of her pregnancy, due to a blizzard, he is the one to deliver their child. Or children. Only a nurse is there to help them, and only she too knows the secret. The second child is a girl who has Down's Syndrome, and because of his past, this man cannot imagine allowing his wife to have this pain. So he sends their daughter away and tells everyone she died. Dr. David Henry makes a decision that takes away one source of pain and puts another in its place - for himself, for his wife, for their son.

David and Norah feel themselves fading farther and farther from each other. David has built a wall around himself to protect the secret, but this wall also keeps everyone else outside. So much is unspoken in their family .. David's painful past; Norah's present attempts to run away from pain and loss; the way Paul (their son) escapes and seeks to fill the emptiness with music; Phoebe (their daughter) and her very existence. Edwards does a wonderful job of creating connections between times and people, whether or not they are aware of them. David's sister loved to sing, and both of his children also create beautiful music. Both Norah and Caroline (the nurse) change from being dependent on David to becoming independent, strong, forceful women. All the main children grow up disconnected from their parents one way or another. Two spouses are often running from something, having a hard time sitting still.

Near the beginning of their sadness together, Norah gives David a camera. It becomes his way to see the world .. to make sense of his pain .. to find connections and establish relationship where it has been broken. This seeking to capture moments and connections often sets him one step away from others, but he already feels that separation so this only aggravates his loneliness. As a doctor, he enjoys being able to see and help others to see the way our bodies reflect the world (ie lungs and trees, veins and rivers). His art becomes valuable and honored later in life, but is almost adverse to the depth of his relationships. The only person he tells his story to is a stranger, who then becomes part of his life and closer to him than his wife .. although still held at arm's length. Art has such power .. but when used as a way to hide it's effects are painful for so many. As with all good art, there are many levels of truth in this book, and I suspect that I will revisit it a number of times in the future.

Title:	The Memory Keeper's Daughter
Author:	Kim Edwards
Date published:	2005
Genre:	Fiction
Number of pages:	513
Notes:	Recommended by Betty

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