The Scarlet Letter

I had book club tonight. It was fantastic - and can I send a great big thank-you! to my sweet sister, who would come over to my house and sit with a sleeping baby and two hairy dogs so I could go. I'm so lucky to have Jenny!

Anyway, the book - The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Now, I read this book in high school, and I'm certain that I hated every minute of it. It is written in 1850 wording, so it takes a little time to get the brain in the right mode. However, reading it this time (as a much more mature adult) was different - I actually enjoyed it!
I'm still an idiot and miss out on a lot of the symbolism that English teachers love to point out, but at least this time I liked reading it! I have never been good at picking up on symbolism. And I have to admit that as a teen I would get so annoyed 1) for not getting it, and 2) for having to pick books apart, instead of just enjoying them. I remember just wanting to argue that we have no idea what the author was intending, so why did we have to figure it out? Good thing I've matured a little....
The lady who hosted this month's book club, is in fact, an English teacher. She did a great job of pointing out important themes and symbols throughout the book. And I guess since I didn't have to write an essay on it, I was less intimidated (and less irritated) by all the theories and symbolism that it has. In fact, I enjoyed it and it really made the book much more interesting to me.

A quick synopsis (courtesy of Wikipedia):
"The Scarlet Letter, published in 1850 is an American novel Set in Puritan Boston in the seventeenth century, it tells the story of Hester Prynne, who gives birth after committing adultery, refuses to name the father, and struggles to create a new life of repentance and dignity. Throughout the novel, Hawthorne explores the issues of grace, legalism, sin, and guilt.

I would recommend this book to those who like to read the classics. But if you are looking for a thriller, this is not the book for you!

Pope Joan

Okay, so I realize that I am the ultimate blog-slacker! I just haven't been able to squeeze everything into my days... my sweet little Braxton who has figured out how to get into EVERYTHING, my need for cleanliness, and of course, my need for sleep keeps me pretty busy!

However, I did go to book club in May, and it was a really good book. We read Pope Joan, by Donna Woolfolk Cross. It is a historical fiction, and is based on controversial history. It is a great combination of history, heroes, love, violence and secrets.

Here is the synopsis (courtesy of the Pope Joan website):

"As its title reveals, the novel is based on the life of one of the most fascinating, extraordinary women in Western history--Pope Joan, a controversial figure of historical record who, disguised as a man, rose to rule Christianity in the 9th century as the first and only woman to sit on the throne of St. Peter.
Brilliant and talented, young Joan rebels against the medieval social strictures forbidding women to learn to read and write. When her older brother is killed during a Viking attack, Joan takes up his cloak and identity, goes to the monastery of Fulda, and is initiated into the brotherhood in his place. As Brother John Anglicus, Joan distinguishes herself as a great Christian scholar. Eventually she is drawn to Rome, where she becomes enmeshed in a dangerous web of love, passion, and politics. Triumphing over appalling odds, she finally attains the highest throne in Christendom.
Pope Joan is a sweeping historical drama set against the turbulent events of the 9th century -- the Saracen sack of St. Peter's, the famous fire in the Borgo that destroyed over three-quarters of the Vatican, the Battle of Fontenoy, arguably the bloodiest and most terrible of medieval conflicts. The novel is a fascinating vivid record of what life was really like during the so-called Dark Ages, as masterwork of suspense and passion that has as its center an unforgettable woman, reminiscent of Jean Auel's Ayla, Jane Austen's Emma, and other heroines who struggle against restrictions their souls will not accept."

This book made me realize how blessed I am to be living now, instead of then! The poor women of that time (the Dark Ages) were so repressed! The women were treated as perpetual minors, with no legal or property rights. By law, they could be beaten by their husbands - the only rule being the size of the club they could be beaten with! They were not allowed to learn (it was believed that a woman's brain and her uterus were connected - so if a woman were to be educated, her uterus would shrink, thus resulting in her being barren. Of course, if this were true, I should be super smart! :)

The Thirteenth Tale

For March/April book club (we are behind a month due to Spring Break) we read The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield. It is categorized as a gothic suspense novel.
And I LOVED it!

A quick summary (courtesty of Wikipedia.com):

"Vida Winter, allegedly the most famous novelist in England, and quite possibly the world, has never been forthcoming when it comes to her past. Her entire life is a secret, and for fifty years reporters and biographers have attempted to discover the truth. With her health quickly fading, Ms. Winter hires an unknown, bookish biographer, Margaret Lea, to bear witness to the tragic story of the Angelfield family, their eccentric beginnings as well as their demise. Margaret, who has family secrets of her own, must unravel the mysteries of the past in order to reconcile not only Ms. Winter with her ghosts, but also Margaret with hers."

I have never read a book like it. It was such a page turner for me that I couldn't even put it down to go to sleep - believe me, I tried! It is a story in a story in a story.... It had so many twists and turns that I couldn't quit thinking about it, and so I had to read the next chapter and then the next and then the next...

Everyone in my book club also stated that they loved the book and it was also a page-turner for them. A few of the ladies in my book club figured out the ending, but most of us didn't. And, we still had a lot of things that we were figuring out at out meeting. It was so fun to see what the other women thought was going on in the book... We all decided that we wanted to read the book again, (now that we had figured a few things out) and see if we could pick up on anything that we had missed the first time through.

I will warn you that there is an icky part that has to do with incest, but it doesn't go into too much detail (thank goodness!). It's at the beginning of the book, but just keep reading - You'll love it!