Back to the Books

I haven't kept up with my two book clubs very consistently this past year, but here are the complete lists of what has been read.

Book Club # 1

2004:
Clara Callan (Richard B. Wright)--Hannah
The World According to Garp (John Irving)--Rachel

2005:
No Logo (Naomi Klein)--Jenn B.
Reading Lolita in Tehran (Azar Nafisi)--Sue
The Lovely Bones (Alice Sebold)--Shelley
Boy's Life (Robert McCammon)--I can't remember her name!!
The Blind Assassin (Margaret Atwood)--Tanya
The Good Earth (Pearl S. Buck)--Julia
Crow Lake (Mary Lawson)--Hannah
Birds Without Wings (Louis de Bernieres)--Rachel

2006:
Cloud Atlas (David Mitchell)--Jen L. (I think?)
Memoirs of a Geisha (Arthur Golden)--Sue
Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell (Susanna Clarke)--Shelley
Time Traveler's Wife (Audrey Niffenegger)--that girl again--what was her name??
Glass Castle (Jeannette Walls)--Tanya
The Girls (Lori Lansens)--Julia
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time (Mark Haddon)--Hannah
The Secret Book of Grazia dei Rossi (Jacqueline Park)--Rachel
Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood (Rebecca Wells)--Sue

2007:
The Secret Life of Bees (Sue Monk Kidd)--Tanya
Riding the Bus with My Sister (Rachel Simon)--Julia
My Name is Asher Lev (Chaim Potok)--Lois
The Shadow of the Wind (Carlos Ruiz Zafon)--Sherri
Special Topics in Calamity Physics (Marisha Pessl)--Shelley
Rockbound (Frank Parker Day)--Hannah
The Big Over-Easy (Jasper Fforde)--Rachel
Water for Elephants (Sara Gruen)--Sues

2008:
Midwives (Chris Bohjalian)--Lois
*Objects in Mirror are Closer Than They Appear (Katharine Weber)--Julia
*The Red Tent (Anita Diamant)--Sherri
No Great Mischief (Alistair MacLeod)--Sarah
*Stones from the River (Ursula Hegi)--Tara
Plainsong (Kent Haruf)--Elsa
The Reluctant Fundamentalist (Mohsin Hamid)--Hannah
*Refiner's Fire (Mark Helprin)--Rachel

2009
The Lost Garden (Helen Humphreys)--Sue
Eat Pray Love (Elizabeth Gilbert)--Sarah
Belle Falls (Sherri Vanderveen)--Lois
Olive Kitteridge (Elizabeth Strout)--Sherri
Girl with a Pearl Earring (Tracy Chevalier)--Julia
Mutant Message Down Under (Marlo Morgan)--Tara


TOTAL: 41 books

*books that I didn't read/meetings I missed

I think I've got it all right--corrections are welcome!



Book Club # 2

January 27, 2007
The Life of Pi by Yann Martel (Karen’s pick)

March 3, 2007
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Isiguro (Hannah’s pick)

April 14, 2007
Throwaway Daughter by Ting-xing Ye (Marsha’s pick)

May 26, 2007
The Russlander or Katya by Sandra Birdsell (Petra’s pick)

July 7, 2007
Howards End by E.M. Forster (Kirsten’s pick)

September 22, 2007
Gilead by Marilynne Robinson (Sarah’s pick)

November 2, 2007
The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver (Trina’s pick)

December 7, 2007
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (Hannah’s pick)

January 19, 2008
Orlando: A Biography by Virginia Woolf (Karen’s pick)

February 23, 2008
*The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins (Marsha’s pick)

April 5, 2008
*Stones from the River by Ursula Hegi (Petra’s pick)
*Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen (Petra’s pick)

May 17, 2008
The Colony of Unrequited Dreams by Wayne Johnston (Kirsten’s pick)

June 28, 2008
The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova (Sarah’s pick)

July 28, 2008
Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl (Hannah’s pick)


September 20, 2008
Sweetness in the Belly by Camilla Gibb (Trina’s pick)

October 25, 2008
*Rebecca by Daphne DuMaurier (Marsha’s pick)

November 28, 2008
*The Stone Carvers by Jane Urquhart (Petra’s pick)

January 17th, 2009
Travels with my Aunt by Graham Greene (Kirsten’s pick)

February 21th, 2009
The Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce (Sarah’s pick)

March 28th, 2009
*East of Eden by John Steinbeck (Kim’s pick)

May 9, 2009
The Time-Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger (Trina’s pick)

June 13, 2009
Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout (Hannah’s pick)

TOTAL: 23 books

You'll notice some overlap--some by me, and some by other people's choices. And my last choice for Book Club # 2? Completely self-serving, because I didn't have time to finish the book for Club # 1 but really, really enjoyed what I had read, and so now I HAVE to finish it (and now I have all the insights too.)
:)

The Time Has Come...

...to go private.

Thank you all for reading, encouraging, and praying.

If you would like an invitation to view this blog in the future (which will be returning to mostly book-related posts), please send me an e-mail.

I find I don't have the words to explain what life is like now. I don't know how to give expression to the new joy and the growing grief that continue to co-exist. And so I have been avoiding my blog or only posting pictures. Please read this,this, or this by Molly Piper to get a better sense of what I might say if I had the words.

Someone once taught me a "trick" for meditating on a Bible verse: read the verse as many times as there are words; each time you reread the words, place the emphasis on the next word, and contemplate the shift in tone, intent, and implication. This is what I've been doing with that "trick" these days:

SHE is not Tabitha.
She IS not Tabitha.
She is NOT Tabitha.
She is not TABITHA.

And there is both grief and gratitude in that, my friends.

I look forward to hearing from you if you want to keep reading.

What?!

Doesn't everybody go to the cemetery for family pictures?!

:)