Time to "Book Club"

It is the end of the month and time for everyone who would like to comment on "The Giver", to do so.  I hope that you all enjoyed it. It is a different sort of book. I love it!!

So, I guess I will go first..... I have not read the book in several years, and so it was fun for me to read it again. I love this book mostly because of how thought provoking it is. It makes you really think about life the way it is, and possibly how it could be. Not that I think our world could ever be like it is in this book. However, had our Heavenly Father not chosen Jesus' plan, our world may very well be exactly like this. Maybe worse though, who knows? 

      There are some aspects of the community that I wish our world had though. They all work together and for the good of one another. They all focus on being kind to one another. I think that if everyone was required to spend several volunteer hours a month, the world would be a much better place. People would love one another more. Since service is the greatest way to gain love for someone. I am not claiming to be a noble person, I just see in this book, several ways that I can improve myself. 

       I love the parts where the Giver transfers memories to Jonas. It is just so cool. You feel like you are there and experiencing for the first time with him. The Giver in a way makes me think of our Savior. I don't know if Lois Lowry is a religious woman, but the character of the Giver is a very sweet, caring man who loves everyone in the community. He sacrifices his life in a way. He does not die, but lives a life of solitude because of the knowledge that he has. He believes that he has to protect them from it. He takes on all of the different possible emotions. Pain, love, fear, sorrow, joy, and many others. He takes them on himself. So, yeah, very different from Christ's story, but I can't help but think of Christ when I read this book. 

       I love that in the end, Jonas and the Giver are brave enough to put a stop to their world as it is. I recognize that there are several things about the community that are very disturbing. The way they treat birthing mothers, the elderly, and children who do not seem to develop as fast as they think they should. That is so sad. If that were the case in our world, my sweet Luke might not be here. It took him longer to talk than it does most children I think. But that is ok. Well, I think this is long enough, I could go on for a while, but I wont. I am anxious to hear what you all thought. 

Hurry, Hurry, Hurry!

I'd forgotten how much I enjoyed "The Giver," and want you all to hurry with reading it, so we can begin to discuss it. I'm anxious to read your comments. I read the first 8 chapters last night.

The Gospel According to Dickens

Some months ago I became aware of the existence of a Life of Christ written by Charles Dickens for his own children. I spoke about it with someone, perhaps Johanna, and it showed up in the mail recently, not long after my birthday. My heartfelt thanks to the person who bought it and had it sent to my home. I'm not sure who it is, although, as I said, I suspect it was Johanna.

Sheryl and I read about half of it the other day while traveling to and from Rexburg for a doctor's appointment. There is nothing in it to disappoint the Dickensian scholar. He simply combines all the best parts of the other four gospels and tells them in such a way that anyone, adult or child, could understand and remember them. There is something almost Milne-esque about them, I think. He is personal in his telling of every story and in his explanation of every character or circumstance.

It was his wish that it not be published at all, and it was a few generations after his death that it finally was published, in 1933, the same year as our mother's birth. The foreword to the 1999 edition is written by a fifth-great grandson of the great master who seems to feel that it is time his great ancestor's beautiful testimony of the truths of the Lord's life come to light in the world. When one thinks back to what was happening in 1933, perhaps no better time for such a ray of hope could have been chosen.

The English-speaking world was about to be plunged intoyet another chaotic period of destruction of its families and its lifestyle. The Chancellor of Germany was grabbing power everywhere he could and breaking the Treaty of Versailles in every imaginable way. Those powers which had forced that treaty down Germany's throat in 1919 felt guilty enough to let him get away with it. The leaders of Britain in the thirties were perfectly willing to, in Churchill's definition of appeasement, "feed the crocodile, hoping it will eat him last." And England's once and future allies were willfully turning their faces away from what was happening in Eastern Europe, Ethiopia, China, and elsewhere. After the 9,000,000 dead in the War to End All Wars, they had decided that there would never really be a necessary war again.

It was appropriate that the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ had been organized into missions in all the major countries which were about to spend all their money and all their youth to destroy each other. And it was a sweet little cherry on top that The Gospel According to Dickens should be published that year. Its actual title is The Life of Our Lord. It was read aloud to his children and grandchildren from his handwritten manuscript which was tied together with string. There's nothing new in it, although you might be surprised at what he considers to be the most important parts of the story. It's simply a familiar old story told with an easiness of style that one might expect from someone who could say "Marley was dead to begin with" or "It was the best of times. It was the worst of times." I hope you'll all get the chance to read it some day soon.

SOOOOOO SORRY!!!!!!

Ok, so when I picked "The Art Thief" for the book for March, I was sort of in a hurry to find a book and it was the first one I found that was interesting. But I had never read it before. My Mom started reading it yesterday and found that it has quite a bit of bad language. I apologize to those of you who have already started to read it. So, I have learned that from now I should probably choose books that I have read so that I know that it is an ok book. I have decided that I am going to change the book for March. Since this cuts us down on time, I have chosen a pretty short book, but a wonderful book. "The Giver", by Lois Lowry. It is one of my all time favorite books. I am sooo sorry again, and I hope that you will be able to find it at your local Library or borrow it from a friend or something, because I know that you will love it.