I walked into the store one fine Tuesday afternoon to see seven boxes of old novels stacked up behind the desk. Arrrgh! After calling Monday's volunteer and bellowing "SMALL Batches" into the phone, I rolled up my sleeves and dug in. Several hours later I emerged with a tidy stack including Pearl Buck, Gene Stratton Porter, and Sons of 100 Kings by Thomas Costain, which I decided to read for the Historical Fiction Literary Party.
Carolyn was delightfully outraged that I brought a book by one of her favorite authors to the party. Although she didn't remember reading this novel set in the 90's (thats 1890's!) she launched into a lecture on Costain's other historical novels. I muttered, "but it's my turn," to no avail. I did finally get in my comment about Son of 100 Kings: a poor orphan makes good through hard work, integrity, and the kindness of others--a fairly standard 50's plot, quite enjoyable. Carolyn took it home, along with Justin's recommendation, Paradise Alley by Kevin Baker.
Rita and I traded out Girl with a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier for Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, which is now out in paperback. Between Potato Peel Pie and Susan's offering of The Zion Chronicles by Bodie Thoene, discussion ensued around WWII and the Holocaust, with everybody trying unsuccessfully to get a word in edgewise. Somewhere along the line Carolyn waved around Ken Follett's Pillars of the Earth, generating lots of opinions about the building of cathedrals. Finally I realized that Ward had barely managed to squeeze three sentences into the melee, so I cleared the floor. He proceeded to deliver an eloquent address on The Three Musketeers by Alexander Dumas--it's place in literary history and the socio-political-religious-economic themes layered into the swashbuckling tale of intrigue, romance and adventure. When he finished we were left slack jawed, open mouthed and most amazedly: quiet.
Next month we're doing Poetry. Carolyn is threatening to bring songs, I'm thinking along the lines of Dr. Seuss. Hopefully someone who actually reads poetry will also show up. Each person can read one poem. ONE! Friday, May 22, 1:30.
"A truly great book should be read in youth, again in maturity and once more in old age, as a fine building should be seen by morning light, at noon and by moonlight." ~Robertson Davies
I mentioned on twitter (twitter.com/companyofsaints) that I'd watched the movie The Reader (sad) and also that we had a signed copy of Corrie ten Boom's A Prisoner and Yet at the store ($80). At the next Toastmaster meeting, Rita handed me Briar Rose by Jane Yolen. This is a one of a fairy-tale based series edited by Terri Windling. In Briar Rose, a young journalist investigates the mystery of her grandmother's past. The trail leads to Poland and into the depths of the Holocaust. The story is interwoven with the fairy tale (Sleeping Beauty) and is well written, easy to read, compelling, grim, satisfying. I am, however, now burnt out on the Holocaust. (A bad pun--I discovered when reading the Psalms in Spanish, that the word Holocaust means burnt offering.) Now I feel the need to read nothing but romantic comedy for at least two weeks.
"Ink is handicapped, in a way, because you can blow up a man with gunpowder in half a second, while it may take twenty years to blow him up with a book. But the gunpowder destroys itself along with its victim, while a book can keep on exploding for centuries." ~Christopher Morley
Morality Play by Barry Unsworth was not exactly romantic comedy, but it was the most interesting novel I read all month. The story is set in the fourteenth century. A young renegade priest caught out in the cold, joins a ragged acting group on the road. The troupe stumbles into a town where a murder has recently taken place. After bringing in only a pittance with their usual Biblical fare, the leader of the players devises the new and maybe even blasphemous idea of doing a play of the murder. In the course of figuring out the play the cast delves deeper into the local murder. Perhaps the mute and deaf girl, arrested and due to be hung, isn't guilty after all. Morality Play does a masterly job of presenting the nuances of acting with interesting characters and it layers concepts of theatrical truth, grueling reality and life's daily roles into a taunt, suspenseful mystery. ($4)
“A drama critic is a man who leaves no turn unstoned.” ~George Bernard Shaw
Last night I read Pastors and Prophets; Protocol for Healthy Churches. Susan brought it to our lower room prayer meeting the week after we'd fumbled through discussing prophecy. C. Peter Wagner edited this thin book which includes a couple introductory chapters by him, followed by essays from a few pastors who have prophetic ministries operating in their churches. In other words, it's the sort of book that should be read by pastors--and will probably mostly be read by prophets. It wasn't romantic. Or even funny. I did, however, enjoy one bit about what happens when only one of the five-fold ministry gifts (Ephesians 4) are operating in a church: a church by a sole evangelist will be a mile wide and an inch deep, a sole pastor will have deep relationships but not enough vision to find the door out, an apostle's church will be chaotic because he's never there, a teacher's will become a lecture hall and the prophet's a small group of well beaten sheep.
Baa!
Sasha was invited to two dog-friendly churches after last month's newsletter. She has not yet attended the Science of Mind church, but did go to a wonderful Baptism at St. Gregory's in San Francisco. I was a bit concerned about bringing a country dog to the big city, but the people were very friendly, as was another pup in the congregation. Sasha loved joining the multi-harmonic chanting and was quite excited when everyone got up to dance around the altar at communion--despite the difficulty of translating the steps of the dance from two feet to four. Really, the only significant problem was her running commentary on the sermon.
"If an animal does something, we call it instinct; if we do the same thing for the same reason, we call it intelligence." -Will Cuppy
This week we discussed healing during our lower room prayer time--which reminds me that the folk at the Order of St. Luke's Open House snapped up many of the books that came in a treasure trove from Colorado. Included were copies of Phyllis Tickle's Divine Hours; Prayers for Autumn and Wintertime--Morning, Noontime and Vespers; and her Night Offices: Prayers for the Hours from Sunset to Sunrise. I brought one of the Night Offices home and am trying to figure out how to mush three hours into one (a consistent dilemma). We also received a nice stack of Richard H. Schmidt's Praises, Prayers & Curses; Conversations with the Psalms and a bunch of miniature New Testaments in various denominations. We're selling these (expensive) new books at less then half price. At the end this month we're doing a book table for another Healing Mission in Campbell, so if you want any of these lovely books, you better get 'em now. Hit reply, write words.
We have four more hours of prayer on Wednesdays from 3:00 - 4:00. The upcoming topics are: Miracles, Faith, Discerning of Spirits, Word of Wisdom & Word of Knowledge. Then I think we'll have a Pentecost Party.
"Truth has no special time of its own. Its hour is now -- always." ~Albert Schweitzer
Blessings,
Alliee +