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!

Getting Back on Track

It seems that I am having a hard time cramming everything into my days! Which basically means that my blogs have been neglected. Hopefully, now that I've got another task marked off my list, I can be better about that!

We decided to move the office downstairs, so that we could actually use it while Braxton was sleeping. And, of course, I have the great idea that I need to wash the walls, paint and get everything all situated before we can move it down there.
I was thinking this would be an easy task and wouldn't take very long... however, I did not take into account that I have a little 15-month old helper.... or the fact that I tend to sign up for more than I realize. I decided it would be really fun to have it be more of an old world style, so I did Venetian Plaster. It looks really cool, but it took forever! So needless to say, three weeks after I started, the new office is finally painted. It also didn't help that we went on vacation for a few days. It always seems to take me a little bit to get back on track with my chores..

This last weekend I did manage to get the desk and computer moved down, but now comes the great task of organizing everything.... hopefully I can accomplish that a lot quicker.

I wanted to post a picture of our nice new office, but I really don't want everyone to see the big mess that it is right now. So, when I get it all organized, I will post a picture for ya all to see!