Reading Connection
Reading Connection meets Thursdays, once a month, from 7 - 9 PM in the conference room.
...
All women invited! For more information, email Susy Flory at susyflory@gmail.com.
...
The Year of Living Biblically
by A.J. JacobsSeptember 18
With The Year of Living Biblically, or "One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible," Jacobs, or A.J., as his two-year-old son calls him, does just that. It is likely that no one but A.J. Jacobs could have accomplished such a feat. After all, his last book, The Know-It-All, chronicles his reading of the entire Encyclopedia Brittanica, from A to Z. No one but a smart, witty, self-deprecating, nitpicky kinda guy would undertake two such daunting tasks, and complete them with grace, no pun intended. Jacobs, a New York Jewish agnostic, decides to follow the laws and rules of the Bible, beginning with the Old Testament, for one year. (He actually adds some bonus days and makes it a 381-day year.) He starts by growing a beard and we are with him through every itchy moment. Jacobs is borderline OCD, at least as he describes himself; obsessing over possible dangers to his son, germs, literal interpretation of Bible verses, etc. He enlists the aid of counselors along the way; Jewish rabbis, Christians of every stripe, friends and neighbors.
Deadlock
by James Scott BellNovember 20 (our October 16 meeting is cancelled. On Nov 20, we'll be discussing Deadlock, as well as The Faith Club, the book listed below.)
In this legal thriller for the evangelical Christian market, former trial lawyer- turned-novelist Bell imagines what would happen if a prochoice, atheistic Supreme Court Justice suddenly became a born-again believer. A near brush with death and the sudden loss of her mother leaves 52-year-old liberal Justice Millicent "Millie" Hollander pondering eternity and considering faith. When she becomes chief justice, Millie discovers that the belief she has embraced excites a firestorm of confusion and anger from her former supporters. A case involving a separation of religion and state opens up a huge rift in the Court, and the media soon turns the whole affair into a three-ring circus. Alarmed about Millie's potentially conservative positions, the president and stereotypically hard-drinking, womanizing Sen. Sam Levering plot her impeachment and possibly her death. A weak subplot concerns a teen's abortion and subsequent lawsuit against the clinic where it was performed, which rather unconvincingly intersects with Millie's story toward the close of the novel. Portions of the plot aren't completely fresh Angela Elwell Hunt's recent The Justice ably tackled the same general topic for the same audience. But Bell's take on the idea of a Supreme Court justice making a religious about-face offers some unique spins, including a curveball plot development that will blindside most readers. Laudably, most characters are multidimensional, and even the senator's evil troubleshooter, Anne Deveraux, becomes worthy of pity. Evangelical prolife fiction aficionados should appreciate this addition to the CBA thriller genre.
The Faith Club: A Muslim, a Christian, a Jew--Three Women Search for Understanding
by Ranya Idliby, Suzanne Oliver, Priscilla WarnerNovember 20
In the wake of 9/11, Idliby, an American Muslim of Palestinian descent, sought out fellow mothers of the Jewish and Christian faiths to write a children's book on the commonalities among their respective traditions. In their first meeting, however, the women realized they would have to address their differences first. Oliver, an Episcopalian who was raised Catholic, irked Warner, a Jewish woman and children's author, with her description of the Crucifixion story, which sounded too much like "Jews killed Jesus" for Warner's taste. Idliby's efforts to join in on the usual "Judeo-Christian" debate tap into a sense of alienation she already feels in the larger Muslim community, where she is unable to find a progressive mosque that reflects her non–veil-wearing, spiritual Islam. The ladies come to call their group a "faith club" and, over time, midwife each other into stronger belief in their own respective religions. More Fight Club than book club, the coauthors pull no punches; their outstanding honesty makes for a page-turning read, rare for a religion nonfiction book. From Idliby's graphic defense of the Palestinian cause, Oliver's vacillations between faith and doubt, and Warner's struggles to acknowledge God's existence, almost every taboo topic is explored on this engaging spiritual ride.
Christmas Book, title to be determined
December 182009 Schedule
Jan 15
Winter Birds by Jamie Langston Turner
Feb 26
Prisoners of Hope
Mar 19
Hot Tropics and Cold Feet by Diann Hunt
Apr 23
The Shack by William Young
May 21
And the Shofar Blew by Francine Rivers
Jun 18
Magdalene by Angela Hunt
Jul 16
90 Minutes in Heaven by Don Piper and Cecil Murphey
Aug 20
Unspoken by Francine Rivers
Sep 17
Gilead: A Novel by Marilynne Robinson
Oct 15
When Crickets Cry by Charles Martin
Nov 19
Leota's Garden by Francine Rivers