Happy Wednesday! I have a couple of recommendations this week…
** Discussion Questions Available for The Gathering! **
First, I have not quite finished Egger’s A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, but I’m still enjoying it. Personally, I would have cut at least 50 or so pages from the middle — he gets a bit bogged down discussing the start up of his magazine Might. This is still somewhat interesting, but he loses the focus of his journey/relationship with his brother and I miss Topher right now. But I WILL finish by this Friday, because we are heading to the cabin, and I just picked up Michael Chabon’s The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay and Envy by Kathryn Harrison. So, while my husband spends hours shoveling, I hope to plow through both of these.
When I needed a break from Egger’s struggles with Might, I finished Greenberg’s Why My Wife Thinks I’m An Idiot. I talked about this pleasant little memoir in a previous post so I won’t repeat myself, but if you are looking for a gift for the man in your life… this is a nice, light, funny choice.
On to my current kits under construction. First, The Gathering by Anne Enright. Originally this Booker Award-winner fell victim to the 50 page rule, but a book club requested a kit so I tackled it again and I’m glad I did. It was as relentlessly bleak and profane as the first 50 pages promised, but was ultimately worth the time invested. Enright waits to reveal crucial information about the characters until page 140 — and at that point it is REALLY hard to like the narrator (or any of the characters). However, she certainly can write and I could see why it won the Booker. Sort of like No Country for Old Men — I can’t say that I liked it, but I can see why it won Best Picture and I’m glad I gave it a shot (unlike the brutally long and painful There Will Be Blood — I truly detested that film, despite Daniel Day Lewis clearly well-earned Best Actor Award).
Happily, my next kit is on a book I am throughly enjoying — The Faith Club. This is my first non-fiction kit and what a wonderful work to start with — I can barely put it down! The three women’s voices are so authentic and clear, and they discuss difficult questions of faith honestly and with open hearts. Extremely readable and fast-paced, too. I’m only 2/3rds of the way through, but I strongly recommend it if you haven’t tried it yet.
Other loose ends — I finished Yoga for Equestrians and hope it translates into a more balanced and secure mare (who tried to buck me off twice this morning — doesn’t seem to be working yet…).
I also read another chapter in Tolle’s A New Earth — which was a great companion to The Faith Club. In an early chapter, Tolle quotes Buddha: “The finger pointing at the moon is not the moon.” This wisdom could succintly summarize The Faith Club and how easily it is for us to forget the common truths behind our different traditions.
Happy Reading!
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