SCC Reading Group 2013-2014

OCT: Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K. Jerome NOV: A Daughter's Walk by Jane Kirkpatrick DEC: The Ragamuffin Gospel by Brennan Manning

JAN: The Mind of the Maker by Dorothy Sayers

FEB: Speaking from Among the Bones by Alan Bradley

MAR: The Harbinger by Jonathan Cahn

APR: Booked: Literature in the Soul of Me by Karen Prior

MAY: Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay

JUN: God and Stephen Hawking by John Lennox

SUM: Where River Turns to Sky by Gregg Kleiner

5. A Year of Biblical Womanhood by Rachel Held Evans

What a controversial book! I enjoyed it. I think she is a very good writer. I think she grew from this experience, and her reflections are very good. I also like how she organized her quest by tackling a different aspect of "Biblical Womanhood" every month:

Gentleness
Domesticity
Obedience
Valor
Beauty
Modesty
Purity
Fertility
Submission
Justice
Silence
Grace

I feel like she matured through the process. She is a young woman that is still trying to find her way in the world, and I think some people have been too hard on her. Since I mentor women her age, I wasn't shocked by many of her thoughts and insights about submission and egalitarian marriage. I wasn't shocked that she knew very little about baking bread and domestic endeavors. I find her generation did not learn those kinds of things. I am so glad she learned to bake my favorite bread: Challah.

I was surprised she had never celebrated a Passover like it was some new invention that evangelicals rarely celebrate (see PHOTOS). I know evangelicals don't practice the Old Testament law, but there are so many things that point to Christ in it, it is a really important thing to experience at least once! It is really common in the churches here in the West to do so. 

She has some good thoughts, and I believe she is truly open to growing. I think because she grew up in the Bible Belt she thinks all Evangelical Christianity is inferior to her thoughts. I have never lived in the Bible Belt. So, what she was raised in is probably more stereotypical cultural Churchianity rather than biblical Christianity. I think her quest helped her to discover this. I wasn't raised in the church like her. So, I didn't relate to some of her more negative experiences.

This part of the introduction made me want to open up more dialogue with her though:

I was raised evangelical, which means I spent a good part of my life feeling sorry for the rest of humanity on account of its certain destiny in hell. This was not something my parents taught me directly, just something I picked up from preachers, Sunday school teachers, and Christian playmates along the way. After hearing time and again that “wide is the path that leads to destruction,” I just assumed that Buddhists went to hell for worshipping Buddha. 

(Evans, Rachel Held (2012-10-30). A Year of Biblical Womanhood: How a Liberated Woman Found Herself Sitting on Her Roof, Covering Her Head, and Calling Her Husband "Master" (p. xv). Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition.)

Later she says "I . . . am no longer convinced that everyone different from me goes to hell" (p.xviii). 

Then why did Jesus die, Rachel? That is where I would love to sit down with her and talk through that summation. This statement alone almost made me put down the book, but I am glad that I did not. 

I feel like she grew more in love with God and His plan for her through the whole process, which is a good thing. She dug into Scripture, and that is a good thing too. I wish she had a face-to-face mentor through the process of writing the book and beyond. She would really benefit from it. 

I think she also grew to really appreciate her husband, Dan, who is the real star of the book. What a great guy! "Go team Dan and Rachel" was so heartwarming to read! It is similar to my marriage. So it made me smile. Here is what I wrote in a post of my comical application of Genesis 3:

It dawned on me that the whole POINT is that “it is better that my man (George) not be alone.” It is more about the two of us being together as a team, and our team is going to look different from another couple’s team because we have different personalities, gifts, talents, and abilities. My organized managing abilities compliment his more “free-flowing” creative nature. It is also more about me entering into his joy (and sorrows) too. It is about working as one in a team partnership. 

In many marriages, being a helpmate does involve the woman cooking and making coffee. At my mom’s memorial service, I shared that the legacy she left for me is the model of a “helpmate” and “partner" for my dad. My mom got up every morning of their twenty-nine years of marriage to make my dad breakfast (she was aghast when she discovered that I didn’t do the same)! For mom, it meant that she was the woman behind a “larger than life, life of the party” man, but she REVELED in that role. Being a “helpmate” doesn't look like that in my marriage, but I still learned by her example. It is all about being a helpmate suitable for my husband and not someone else's! (The entire post is HERE if you want to read my process of reflecting on Genesis 3 and the "helpmate" thing)

All that to say, I did not grown up in a culture where I was oppressed as a woman, and my marriage is more egalitarian like Rachel and Dan's because it works to have it that way. I do not feel any outside pressure to conform to a cultural interpretation of how I should be the Proverbs 31 woman (And Rachel got the "woman of valor" right from her Hebrew studies!).

She has some great points. I loved her quote by Carolyn Custis James:

A message that points to the marriage altar as the starting gate of God's calling for women leaves us with nothing to tell [unmarried women] except that God's purpose for them is not here and now, but somewhere down the road. (Half the Church: Recapturing God's Global Vision for Women, p. 103)

Her conclusion after James' quote is great:

As a Christian, my highest calling is not motherhood; my highest calling is to follow Christ. And following Christ is something a woman can do whether she is married, or single, rich or poor, sick or healthy, childless or Michelle Duggar (a TLC Reality Show mom of 19 children. http://www.duggarfamily.com/ ).

I heartily agree! I did not marry until I was 31 years old and lived a lot of life before I met my husband and would have been totally fulfilled as a single woman. Thankfully, I grew up in a community that valued single women. In fact, my mentors are two single, retired missionaries in their 80's!

I feel like she is very hard on John Piper in regards to Biblical manhood and womanhood. I wished she could have initiated a heart-to-heart talk with the man. Has she read Desiring God? Would she be so hard on him if she knew his heart and where he is coming from? Her slam on evangelicals was a bit heart-breaking to me. She comes across very judgmental of them and wished she had opened a door for dialogue with them instead of slamming it shut. Maybe I am wrong, but I think John Piper would have invited the dialogue. Therefore the slams made me sad. 

Not surprisingly, this young woman has gotten some push back for her thoughts:

"Given the state of the evangelical world, this book is the equivalent of carrying a torch through a forest that hasn’t seen rain in years.  The odds of a fire are somewhere in the neighborhood of one." (Matthew Lee Anderson at http://www.mereorthodoxy.com/controversy-and-interpretation-biblical-womanhood/)

 Before I read her book, my friend posted this link on his Facebook page, prefacing it by saying, "A good review of a bad book." Here is the link if you want to read it:

The Gospel Coalition Book Review

I agree with the above reviewer that we are not under the Law, therefore we do not have to follow Old Covenant restrictions for women like  being outside in a tent during menstruation!




Her reaction to the fire:

The overwhelming majority of readers seem to have understood that such exercises were meant to be hyperbolic and provocative, intended to bring some of the Bible’s most interesting word pictures to life, and to illustrate, Amelia Bedelia-style, the futility of a hyper-literal application of the text. 

I think I understand that too, Rachel.

2. Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury

Bradbury is a beautiful writer, but I was never really "grabbed" by this book. It is Bradbury's "gathering of dandelions" over the years in Illinois. Written in 1959, they are fictional short stories that are loosely connected together with fantastical elements and related to his growing up in Waukegan, Illinois in 1928. I don't want to discourage anyone from reading it, but because it lacked a plot, it just didn't drive me to keep reading it like many books with a good story. In some ways, it is like Dubliners, but Dubliners was so much more interesting to me!


Here is a brief synopsis: 

Although Bradbury is primarily known as a science fiction writer, Dandelion Wine is not a science fiction book. However, it does contain elements of the dark side of human nature and the fantastical magic that permeates the book makes it different from other novels. In his introduction, Bradbury comments that a reviewer once took him to task for not describing Waukegan (Green Town) as an ugly and sometimes depressing town. Bradbury's response is that he was writing from the perspective of a twelve-year-old boy. To children, everything can be magical, and that is the sentiment that Bradbury attempts to bring across in his novel. Furthermore, Bradbury insists that his novel is real and true because he says it is. Even if it is not historically accurate, it is the portrayal of a child's summer. Bradbury believes that because that portrayal is his way of writing his own childhood and is steeped in the poignant memories of his past, it is therefore real. (http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/dandelion/context.html)

Here is a better review by someone who REALLY loves the book and has thought deeply about it. It helped me appreciate the book much more!

http://www.librarything.com/work/2460/reviews/74592639

Here is the best part of her analysis:

 To me, the overarching intent of the book is to remind all us adults that: 

* Being alive means maintaining a balance between Discoveries & Revelations and Ceremonies & Rites. Though the latter are important, binding us to our family & our community, our future & our past, it is Discoveries & Revelations that make us think, experience, change, and grow. 

* Being alive means living in the present. Even if this means giving away the tokens of a beloved past, as happens in one particularly poignant tale. 

* Being alive means being connected with the world - with family, neighbors, your community, the earth. It's no coincidence that the mysterious murderer haunting Douglas Spaulding's Childhood is called The Lonely One. 

* Being alive means being able to experience happiness ... not only understanding the nature of happiness, but possessing the wisdom not to let yourself be tricked into pursuing something that can't/won't make you happy. (Dorritt, June 20, 2012)

* Being alive means recognizing the presence of magic in our everyday lives. Because magic is out there ... in the spring of a new pair of tennis shoes, in the mysteries of love, in the essence of Dandelion Wine.

52 in 52 Week 50: I am Half Sick of Shadows by Alan Bradley

What better Christmas surprise for detective-in-training Flavia de Luce than a dreadful murder under Buckshaw's roof - and a snowbound house full of suspects!

It's Christmas time, and our beloved Flavia is tucked away in her laboratory whipping up a sticky concoction to trap that infamous sneak, Saint Nick, and thereby prove once and for all - despite the claims of her evil sisters - that he does exist. But she is soon distracted from her task: Colonel de Luce, in desperate need of funds, has rented the family's crumbling manor house to a film company for the holidays. When its crew arrives from London to shoot a movie starring the reclusive and renowned actress, Phyllis Wyvern, there's no end to the disruptions - and dramas - demanding Flavia's attention. (From:http://www.randomhouse.ca/books/196414/i-am-half-sick-of-shadows-by-alan-bradley)

I don't know if I ever would have picked up this book if it hadn't been that my new book club was reading it. I am reading Christmas books in December (have a stack given to me from Christmas past that I have never read!). So, I thought this counted, but it really isn't a "Christmas Book" other than the time setting, but it is delightful. It isn't anything deep or meaningful, but the writing is brilliant and beautiful, and the precocious main character, Flavia, is a kick. I found myself chuckling through many parts as I listened to the flawless narration by Jane Entwistle (who narrates the other three novels as well). I have listened to many audiobooks over the years, and I think that Jane ranks as one of the best narrators.

This is the fourth installment of the Buckshaw Chronicles. I love novels set in the English manor houses. The sister reading Bleak House cracked me up. I could totally see this being a BBC mini-series and delighting the whole family (even though it is a murder mystery series). 

The only thing that was unusual is that the murder occurred so late in the book! I had to go back and check whether it was really a murder mystery, but, no matter, it was still delightful!

By the way, The title of this book comes from the famous "Lady of Shalott" poem by Alfred Lord Tennyson (Remember Anne Shirley in a sinking boat?):

PART II

  There she weaves by night and day
  A magic web with colours gay.
  She has heard a whisper say,
  A curse is on her if she stay [5]
  To look down to Camelot.
  She knows not what the 'curse' may be,
  And so [6] she weaveth steadily,
  And little other care hath she,
  The Lady of Shalott.

  And moving thro' a mirror clear
  That hangs before her all the year,
  Shadows of the world appear.
  There she sees the highway near
  Winding down to Camelot:
  There the river eddy whirls,
  And there the surly village-churls, [7]
  And the red cloaks of market girls,
  Pass onward from Shalott.

  Sometimes a troop of damsels glad,
  An abbot on an ambling pad,
  Sometimes a curly shepherd-lad,
  Or long-hair'd page in crimson clad,
  Goes by to tower'd Camelot;

  And sometimes thro' the mirror blue
  The knights come riding two and two:
  She hath no loyal knight and true,
  The Lady of Shalott.

  But in her web she still delights
  To weave the mirror's magic sights,
  For often thro' the silent nights
  A funeral, with plumes and lights,
  And music, went to Camelot: [8]
  Or when the moon was overhead,
  Came two young lovers lately wed;
  "I am half-sick of shadows," said
  The Lady of Shalott. [9]

52 in 52 Week 47: Maisie Dobbs by Jacqueline Winspear

This was a read for a new book club that I just joined. It is a simple and easy book, and the writing is pretty good. I loved the back story centered around England leading up to and through World World War I better than the actual mystery. The mystery wasn't that clever and pretty predictable, but I suppose it was hard to get through Maisie's back story and a current mystery in one book. 

It is interesting to note that I had started The Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowlings before Maisie Dobbs, but I had to put it down because it was TOO CRUDE! I thought the writing was better in Maisie Dobbs too!