Persuasion by Jane Austen

AAh Jane Austen, how she captures my romantic heart. This story is about two people who fell in love when they were young, Anne Elliott and Captain Frederick Wentworth (isn't that a great name?) but her family was against it and persuaded her to give him up for the good of the family. He went away broken hearted and she nurtured hers as well. Eight and a half years go by and they are suddenly thrown together by circumstance and she is having to deal with seeing him seemingly court a girl of her acqaintance and her feelings of still being in love with him. While he maintains a civil but cold air towards her. At times she feels she has lost him forever and others she feels he looks at her as if he may still have feelings for her.

It is beautifully written. I read this book in record time, for me anyway (less than a week). I already knew what basically happened having seen the movie but it had been a while so details were new to me. I thought that since I had seen the movie I wouldn't like the book as much but how could I doubt Jane Austen. She always delivers. But I found that I was reading the book to get to the parts that I remembered from the movie. The great parts that I love in Jane Austen novels: the various encounters of characters, letters between the lovers filled with beautiful language, etc. There are a few paragraphs that argue the constancy in love of men vs. women. I loved it. Good points are made on both sides, but in the end I think women pull just slightly ahead of men. Though I would not call this my favorite Jane Austen novel, it is still very good.

Only have one quote that struck me (well there more but they were whole paragraphs and it would give away the story) "One man's ways may be as good as another's, but we all like our own best."

The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold

Well, this wouldn't be a book club book without a little controversy now would it. Most people started reading this book but only a few actually finished. My roommate for one couldn't get passed the creep factor that set in in the first few chapters, which was the same for the others as well. I admit that I felt it too but pushed on through.

The story is told by a 14 year old girl, Susie, while she is in heaven looking down on earth. She was raped and murdered by a man who lived in her neighborhood and you come to find that she was not the first nor the last. (Enter in the creep factor) Susie watches her family and friends as well as others from heaven and sees how they deal with her death. She is constantly worrying about them and wanting to help them through their grief. The book spans about a 10 year period and shows how Susie's death changed the lives of everyone who knew her. Her family is torn apart. The killer escapes. Two of her classmates form an unlikely bond. Will they all be able to let go of the pain and be able to reconnect with each other?

Well, I didn't dive too deep into this book. It was an interesting story. My bookclub discussion was completely different. Instead of focusing on the dark and sad things of the book we focused on the aspects of heaven and how we think heaven will really be like. Then it sort of turned into a discussion of ghosts and what not but still it made me look at the book differently. We touched briefly on the relationships of the characters. I don't know that this was a favorite of the book club. It didn't seem to elicit as much discussion as we have had for other books. I don't necessarily think it is a must read. There are some pretty weird parts in it and I don't really like the style of writing. And no good quotes.

The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis

*Post about "The Lovely Bones" coming soon.

I decided to read this book 1. because it seemed like a quick read and 2. After reading The Great Divorce, I was interested to read something else of C.S. Lewis'. This book was recommended to me by several people as being very good but not as difficult as others. So I read it (which took me longer than I wanted mainly because I didn't priortize reading in my life) and loved it. The book is set up in the form of letters being written by Screwtape to his nephew Wormwood. They are both devils and Wormwood is a tempter working on getting the soul of a young man in England. Screwtape offers advice and techniques to help Wormwood achieve his goal in each of these letters.

It was so amazing how so many of the tactics that the devil may use as illustrated in this book are things I have experienced or am experiencing right now in my life. We hear it all the time that the devil works in very subtle ways and creeps temptations into our lives. It had never really sunk home until I read this book. As I read this book I thought about how the man or "patient" as screwtape refers to him will turn out. Will he give in to the temptation thereby damning his soul or will he overcome and turn to God?

One of my favorite parts of the book was when Screwtape was advising his nephew on how to use someone's "Unselfishness" against them. I found that my group of friends falls into this sort of thing. There is a story about how a group of people decide to have tea in the garden. One of the group makes it be known that he doesn't want to do that but out of his 'Unselfishness' he will for the sake of the others. But then the others don't want to give him the satisfaction of his 'Unselfishness' so they say they won't. Anyway "passions are aroused" and everyone ends up fighting but in the defense of the other person. I just thought that happens so much and had never thought about how it could ultimately affect me.

Other quotes of interest:

"One must face the fact that all the talk about His love for men, and His service being perfect freedom, is not (as one would gladly believe) mere propaganda, but an appalling truth, He really does want to fill the universe with a lot of loathsome little replicas of Himself--creatures whose life, on its miniature scale, will be qualitatively like His own, not because He has absorbed them but because their wills freely conform to His. We want cattle who can finally become food; He wants servants who can finally become sones. We want to suck in, He wants to give out. We are empty and would be filled; He is full and flows over. Our war aim is a world in which Our Father Below has drawn all other beings into himself: the Enemy wants a world full of beings united to Him but still distinct."

"Indeed the safest road to Hell is the gradual one--the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts."