Quick update: I am currently reading Persuasion by Jane Austen (my book club’s choice) and My Life in France by Julia Child (my personal choice). I like the Austen classic, and by far, it is my favorite Austen book (and I have read several). Julia Child’s memoir is amazing! Child is an inspiring woman with a delightful story to tell! One of these days, I will set up a future reading list on this blog, I have many on my mental future reading list.
This is another book chosen by the book club I belong to. I would not have chosen this book by myself, but I am jubilant that someone else did. A Circle of Quiet is the first book in L’ Engle’s The Crosswicks Journal. L’Engle is the well renowned author of at Wrinkle in Time, An Acceptable Time, Many Waters and many other wonderful novels that many of us were likely exposed to as teenagers. A Circle of Quiet is worth reading. This book is full of L’Engle’s reflections, ideas and experiences in Crosswicks, where she spent her summers, and a few reflections of events that shaped her works and career outside of her summers in Crosswicks. It is a journal; and a few spots seemed a little monotonous, but overall this is a good book. I appreciated many of L’Engle’s thoughts and ideas. L’Engle states: “I am going to contradict myself.” I am thankful L’Engle addresses this point, because many of us contradict ourselves without even realizing it; and even fewer of us identify and reflect upon our contradictions. This is one of my favored passages in this book: “To be responsible means precisely what the word implies: to be capable of giving a response…. To refuse to respond is in itself a response. Those of us who write are responsible for the effect of our books. Those who teach, who suggest books to either children or adults, are responsible for their choices. Like it or not, we either add to the darkness of indifference and out-and-out evil which surround us or we light a candle to see by.”
My rating: 3.8 put of 5
Pope Joan is a wonderful book! Well researched and written. Pope Joan is one of the best books I have read. I highly recommend this to readers who like history and a bit of feminist ambition! I checked this out from the local Norfolk Public Library, however; because I liked this book so much I have purchased my own copy. This story is placed in the middle ages. It follows Joan a brilliant girl who shares her brothers’ education, and is able to rise within the Catholic Church after taking up her brother John’s cloak once he dies. I strongly suggest reading the author’s note in the back of the book before reading this novel. In reading the magazine, Real Simple, I noticed that one reader stated that as a little girl she had dreamed of being the first female pope. After reading that statement, I thought, “Well, you could be the second female pope, but the first openly female pope”. I only wish that I would have read this book before visiting the Rome and Vatican city over two years ago. Woolfolk Cross' deep historical inclusion of the Leonine Wall, the popes, the various buildings, streets and Christian churches within Rome made this book come alive to me. I found myself reading, and saying, Woolfolk Cross must have stood in many of the same places that I myself have stood within the Vatican and its surrounding Rome. The next time I walk along the Roman road the Via Sacra, now known as the Via S. Giovanni, it will have an entirely new meaning to me!
My rating: 5 out of 5.
The renowned geography professor Jared Diamond at UCLA writes both of these books. I read both over a year ago, and I am adding them to this book blog because they are both personal favorites among my book collection.
Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail Or Succeed should also be a required reading for everyone. I found this book very intriguing and full of useful information. I specifically liked the local and national ecological issues that Diamond addresses in this book. This book is a must read and analyzes the decisions that certain societies and nations have taken and how those decisions, or lack thereof, resulted in successes or disaster!
My rating for Collapse: 4.5 out of 5.
The Age of Innocence is well written and humorous. This book follows three main characters: May Welland, Newland Archer, and Countess Ellen Olenska. These characters belong to New York's small upper class society in the late 19th century. Newland marries May, and during the process of their betrothal he falls in love with May's newly returning cousin the Countess Olenska. This book is well worth reading and earned Wharton a Pulitzer Prize in 1921. I found myself laughing in many places especially to Wharton's satirical comments about the web and quagmire of these small societies. I was seething when reading this story in places, hoping that Newland would not run out on his wife for the quixotic Countess Olenska. This book helps explain family pressures and gender issue disparities of the focused setting. Newland Archer seems obsessively mad and in lust with Countess Olenska in several parts of the novel. Years later, Newland and his grown son go on a trip to Europe together and the son tells his father: "Yes: the day before she [May] died. It was when she sent for me alone- you remember? She said she knew we were safe with you, and always would be, because once, when she asked you to, you'd given up the thing you most wanted."
My rating: 3.9 out of 5
