Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation by Joseph J. Ellis

My good friend Jera brought this book over--somehow she ended up with two copies.  I can't think of the last time (if ever) I have read a whole book about our Founding Fathers, although I always have the best of intentions--I have a few of them on my "to-read" list on Goodreads . . . Since this one wasn't too thick (which is what usually scares me away from historical books or biographies), I decided to give it a try.  So glad I did--this one really got me thinking about our founding fathers and their contributions to the life we live today, as well as how far we have strayed as a nation from some of their original ideals.

Taking sort of a back-door approach, Ellis looks at some less-written-about episodes or aspects in the lives of Washington, Jefferson, Franklin, Adams, Madison, Hamilton, and Burr (i.e. unlikely friendships, Washington's farewell address, the duel between Hamilton & Burr) and uses them to paint a picture of what things must have really been like for these amazing men.  He does make a lot of assumptions, which troubled me at times, but he is a beautiful narrator; never once did I feel bored with it.  There were several moments during my reading when I was disenchanted with these great men, but just as I thought Ellis was going to knock them off my personal pedestal, he came full circle and restored my faith in their inspiration.  Well, maybe not Aaron Burr so much . . .

So yes, I would highly recommend it as a springboard to heftier historical or political reading. It has inspired me to attack John Adams by David McCullough.  Do you think I can handle it?

Gilead by Marilynne Robinson

We are reading this book for our book club, and I admit I wasn't very excited about it.  The name sounded quite forbidding and sermonizing somehow, and as I thumbed through the pages, I saw little or no dialogue.  But since it is a Pulitzer Prize winner, I thought I'd better give it a sporting chance.


And I am so glad I did!  Both reflective and inspiring, but with a good story line (yes, it does have a story, even without the dialogue!) it wasn't preachy like I suspected.  Ironically enough, it is the fictional autobiography of a preacher in Gilead, Iowa, nearing the end of his life.  As he writes to the son who will not remember him, he discovers that even in old age there is much to learn.  It is so beautifully written!  Marilynne Robinson's writing style kept reminding me of C.S. Lewis in his more serious books (i.e. Mere Christianity, etc.).  No swearing that I can recall, and nothing inappropriate or risqué.


It was one of those books that made me contemplate how I treat others and what I judge them by.  It seemed to go right along with our prophet's words from the General Relief society meeting last weekend:


"Mother Teresa, a Catholic nun who worked among the poor in India most of her life, spoke this profound truth: 'If you judge people, you have no time to love them.' . . . I ask: can we love one another, as the Savior has commanded, if we judge each other? And I answer—with Mother Teresa: no, we cannot. . . .I have in mind the charity that impels us to be sympathetic, compassionate, and merciful, not only in times of sickness and affliction and distress but also in times of weakness or error on the part of others."


I hope you find time to read and enjoy this one!  And  Pres. Monson's talk too, if you have the chance!

Roots by Alex Haley

"It begins with a birth in 1750, in an African village; it ends seven generations later at the Arkansas funeral of a black professor whose children are a teacher, a Navy architect, an assistant director of the U.S. Information Agency, and an author. The author is Alex Haley. This magnificent book is his."

So states the back cover write-up of this magnificent book--doesn't it just give you the chills?My good friend Taryn, when I told her I hadn't read it before, told me I simply had to read it. I had seen the TV series with I was little and remembered it as being quite troubling. But I think it deserves to be read.

As I read it, I thought so much of my own family history, of our nation's history, of resiliency of the human soul, and of the human need to pass on to our children the things that we know. After so much struggle, heartache, love, and perseverance, when I read the final chapter of the book where the author himself comes into the story, I couldn't hold back the tears. Life is truly beautiful!

*Disclaimer: You should know (and probably do) that this book deals quite graphically with slavery and all its horrors. There are brutal beatings and wicked slave masters . . . I won't go on, but there were a couple of parts I skimmed over. Yet I still feel it is such an important book that it's worth reading--if it wasn't, I probably wouldn't have posted it!

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

I love reading a book that I'm sorry to finish.  Usually books that fall into that category are the classics, like a good Jane Austen or Charles Dickens.  In fact, it used to be that I didn't trust modern writers to come up with anything half as good.  But I absolutely loved this book, in spite of its being a national bestseller (and it looks like they're making it into a movie).  It's just about perfect for a book club (luckily that's how I was introduced; I don't often read books unless they come highly recommended by people I trust!).

Set in Jackson, Mississippi, in the midst of the Civil Rights movement, surrounded by Jim Crow laws, lynchings, and all kinds of racial issues, this novel explores the lives of two types of women; the white women of "society" and the black "help" they employ.  Stockett unfolds the experiences of three strong women; Skeeter Phelan, a white girl raised on a plantation, and Aibileen and Minny, two maids to her white friends.

Kathryn Stockett writes this book from three different and distinct viewpoints, reminiscent of Barbara Kingsolver's style in The Poisonwood Bible.  I couldn't pinpoint one I looked forward to hearing from the most--each had a lovable personality and faults a-plenty.  Perhaps that's what makes this story was so real and human.

I must warn you that it does have some swearing; not every-other-word or anything, but enough to discourage me from ever hearing it on tape . . . and there is a chapter with a "flasher" (I don't know how to put it more delicately) that I thought could have been left out.  But I still think it's a beautiful story well worth reading.