Carrie at Reading to Know is hosting a book club for the next year. You can read more about it here. There’s quite an eclectic list of titles to be covered.

I was honored to be asked to lead one of the discussions, so I’ll be reading Uncle Tom’s Cabin in October. Why Uncle Tom’s Cabin? Mainly because I have been wanting to reread it, and this seemed like  good time to do so. Discussing it with others who have read it is icing on the cake!

When I was growing up, I had heard of Uncle Tom, but had no interest in reading the book. I knew that slavery was wrong but didn’t want to read firsthand how awful it really was. I had heard how awful, in school, on various TV programs, etc., but a novel about it seemed like it would be morbid.

But one day when I was in my twenties or early thirties, my pastor mention in passing that Uncle Tom was the kind of Christian you’ve always wanted to be. Well, that piqued my interest, so I did read it some time thereafter and discovered he was right. I was saddened later to hear the name “Uncle Tom” used as an insult on one of the black comedies of the 80s, and I have heard it used that way since. In these day of standing up for one’s rights, meekness is not highly valued. Tom was meek, but he wasn’t weak and kowtowing.

So I’ll be looking forward to revisiting that story and seeing what my impressions are now a couple of decades later. I hope you’ll make plans to join me! And some of the other bloggers involved in the Book Club as well.

I’ve had a couple of questions or comments lately wondering how I find time to read and how I choose what to read. I answered those individuals, but thought I might answer those questions here as well.

How do I find time to read?

A few weeks ago I had this quoted from a comment on 5 Ways to Make More Time to Read on a The Week in Words post: Reading allows me to thrive.  If I don’t, then I feel stagnant. ~ Michael D. Perkins

I feel exactly the same way. If I don’t have some time to read every day, I feel mentally and intellectually dry and dull. I read more some days than others, but I do try to read (from books, not just the computer) every day. Here’s where I usually fit in in:

1. I hope this isn’t crass or TMI, but honestly, a great deal of my reading is done in the bathroom. 🙂 I used to have a link to a cute article on that, but apparently it has been taken down. In searching for it I did find Chamber Plots and Why Do Some People Read in the Bathroom amusing. It’s mainly a profitable way to spend the necessary time in there. More than one person referred to it as their Fortress of Solitude. 🙂

2. Any waiting time. If I am going to a doctor or dentist, a book is a must. Not only does it help pass the time in an edifying way, but it helps me combat nervousness by occupying my mind. Also, before the boys started driving on their own, I usually took a book with me when I picked them up from a youth activity or ball practice. That way if their event ran overtime, instead of stewing in impatience I looked on it as a few stolen moments to read.

3. Driving. Well, not while I’m driving. But if we’re going somewhere more than 20-30 minutes away, I bring something to read. I’m thankful I can do that: I know it makes some people carsick to read in the car.

4. Sunday nights. We’re not legalistic about it, but we try to make Sundays different and more restful than other days by not doing any work other than what it takes to get to and from church and meals on the table and then cleaned up. Sometimes we don’t really get to rest until after the evening services, but it’s nice to come home then and relax, knowing that I don’t have to toss some laundry in or whatever. Sometimes these days we’re Skyping with Jeremy or doing something with the kids or doing stuff on the computer on Sunday evenings, but otherwise, if there is time, I like to stretch out on the couch with a good book. Occasionally in the summertime I might do that in the evenings as well, if we’re up and there’s nothing on TV and everyone is otherwise occupied. But I rarely just sit down during the day with a book unless I’m in a part where I just can’t put it down or unless I am not feeling well.

5. Meals. Usually if I am home by myself, I am at the computer for breakfast and lunch. But sometimes when I have had enough of the computer, I’ll read a bit while eating.

6. In conjunction with devotions. If I am reading a Christian non-fiction book that is not a biography, this is when I’ll usually work it in. Just occasionally I will take a break from reading the Bible through and read a book like this in place of devotions, or I might read it after devotions. But it takes a different mindset for me to read non-fiction: I can’t just pick it up here and there and get as much out of it. I like to read it in chapters or at least in sections at a time.

And that’s about it, I think. I do manage to get through a number of books that way.

How do I choose what books to read?

Since starting to read blogs, I’ve kept a TBR (to be read) list on file so I can jot down recommendations from bloggers I’ve come to know and trust. Many of the blogs I read discuss books to some degree and provide more fodder for my list.

But even before using the Internet so much, my friends’ recommendations gave me lots to read. It just occurred to me while writing this that my friends in “real life” (not that you all aren’t real, of course 🙂 ) don’t really discuss books that much any more. I wonder if it is because we’re spending more time on the Internet or what?

Of course, once I find an author I like, I’m alert for when they have a new book out, and I might try to backtrack and read their older books.

I don’t do this as much any more since my TBR list has gotten so long, but sometimes I’d peruse the shelves of book stores or libraries and pick up something that looked good. (I miss bookstores in malls!) The Christian book store here keeps a regular clearance table year round (whereas my former one in SC just had a huge after-Christmas clearance sale once a year), so if I am in there and have time, I’ll scout out the clearance sales.

Sometimes if I see something interesting in a store, I might wait and check the reviews on Amazon.com or Christianbook.com before buying.

Sometimes I am inspired to read a book when I’ve seen a film based on it.

Every once in a great while. I’ll go to Christianbook.com and click on Fiction and see what’s new.

Usually I read Christian fiction, Christian non-fiction, biographies, and classics, in more or less that order. Occasionally I’ll delve into something modern and not Christian, but it’s getting harder to do so without running into objectionable content. I saw some good reasons for reading non-Christian books, and I agree with them, but it’s hard to find the right balance.

And that, I think, is probably much more than you wanted to know about my reading habits.

While We’re Far Apart by Lynn Austin wasn’t on my radar, but I saw it on a clearance table and seemed to remember it had been favorably reviewed by a few other bloggers I read, so I picked it up. I’m glad I did.

The WWII-era story is told from three points of view. Esther’s  family is reeling from the loss of their mother in an accident when they receive a second blow: news that their father, Eddie, in his grief, decided to enlist. Esther’s anguish in just the first few pages is palpable.

Eddie had counted on his mother to watch his children while he is at war, but she is unwilling and not really able. But neighbor Penny volunteers to. Penny has been quietly in love with Eddie for years. Though she’s sad at the family’s loss, she hopes eventually Eddie will notice her. Her elderly parents strongly disapprove: they’ve rarely let her out of the house, constantly berated her lack of “sense,” and are deathly afraid of strangers, especially those in the Jewish section of Eddie’s neighborhood.

Jacob Mendel is the family’s Jewish landlord, grieving the loss of his wife in the same accident that took Eddie’s wife, angry and withdrawn from his synagogue as well as God Himself, anxious for news from his son’s family in Hungary who are right in the path of Hitler’s advancing army.

Lynn masterfully weaves together the threads of these lives and puts faces on the various aspects of WWII as Esther resents Penny, begins receiving attention from neighboring teen, Jack, and deals with a serious problem with her brother. Penny discovers that taking care of children isn’t easy and doesn’t necessarily garner the attention of their father, but venturing out into the unknown world broadens her horizons. She finds she’s more capable than her parents gave her credit for, but she also begins to unearth secrets that may turn her own world upside down. Mr. Mendel reluctantly opens his heart just a crack for Esther as they both deal with God’s seeming silence.

Lynn’s descriptive phrasing enhances the story as well. “‘You–what!’ Grandma exploded like a shaken soda bottle.” “His words gave Esther the same empty, floating feeling she’d had after Mama died, as if she were a fluff of dandelion, no longer tethered to the earth.”

I was pulled in on the first pages, ached and rejoiced along with the characters, and was reluctant to leave them at the end.

(This review will also be linked to Semicolon‘s Saturday Review of Books.)

The folks at 5 Minutes For Books host What’s On Your Nightstand? the fourth Tuesday of each month in which we can share about the books we have been reading and/or plan to read.

Here’s what I finished since last time:

Thunder Dog: The True Story of a Blind Man, His Guide Dog, and the Triumph of Trust at Ground Zero by Michael Hingson, reviewed here, pretty interesting.

Coffee Shop Conversations: Making the Most of Spiritual Small Talk by Dale and Jonalyn Fincher, recommended by Lisa, reviewed here, mixed emotions.

Love’s Pursuit by Siri Mitchell, Christian fiction about a woman in Puritan New England struggling to live by “the rules” yet realizing they were not helping her to be truly righteous, reviewed here. One of those books that keeps you thinking long after you close it.

The Mercy by Beverly Lewis, last of The Rose trilogy, not reviewed, but a fitting wrap-up and an enjoyable read.

Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell, reviewed here, pleasant but not riveting.

I’m currently reading:

Created for Work: Practical Insights for Young Men by Bob Schultz, reading with my youngest son.

While We’re Far Apart by Lynn Austin.

The Best Seat in the House: How I Woke Up One Tuesday and Was Paralyzed for Life by Allen Rucker about dealing with transverse myelitis (same ailment I have) and it’s after-effects. Very interesting though marred by a smattering of bad language.

Next up are:

Longing, book three in the Bailey Flanigan series by Karen Kingsbury.

One Imperfect Christmas by Myra Johnson.

I haven’t decided for sure what’s after that, but I have a stack of a dozen or so to choose from, not to mention my ever-growing TBR list.

I also wanted to let my fellow readers know I am hosting a Laura Ingalls Wilder Reading Challenge here in February. You can read more about it here. Hope you’ll make plans to join us!

Love’s Pursuit by Siri Mitchell takes place in a Puritan community in Stoneybrooke, Massachusettes. Susannah Phillips outwardly is a model of Puritan goodness and righteousness, but inwardly she almost constantly wrestles with wrong desires and motives.

A perceived threat of Indian attack leads the government to send a captain out to protect the community and train the men to defend themselves, and his “heathen” dress and ways stand out. The captain boards with Susannah’s family, and at first his talk about God, so different from her understanding, seems foolish to her. But gradually some of what he says begins to penetrate her thinking and make her wonder if what he says is true.

The captain unsettles not just her religious thinking, but her romantic notions. She is almost engaged to John Prescotte, but the captain makes his interest clear.

Furthermore, town leader and most eligible bachelor Simeon Wright shows an unwelcome interest in Susannah as well. Though outwardly Simeon is the epitome of Puritan manhood, there’s something not quite right about him from the very beginning.

A subplot concerns a young goodwife named Small-hope, rescued from an abusive home by her husband, yet holding herself protectively away from him as well as the rest of the community. Will the need to save someone else propel her from her shell, or will she stay safely retreated?

The story doesn’t go where one thinks it will at first: in fact, the climax almost had me wailing out loud, “Noooooo!!!!” But I think it underscored that the “love’s pursuit” Susannah most needed was not man’s, but God’s.

Love’s Pursuit is no featherweight romance. Siri Mitchell has done a marvelous job drawing the characters and portraying Susannah’s inner turmoil in her relationship with God and man as well as the problems of living in a community where one’s righteousness is based on performance and keeping the rules.

(This review will also be linked to Semicolon‘s Saturday Review of Books.)

I first heard of Cranford when I saw ads for the BBC production. Somehow I wasn’t drawn in enough to tape it then, but when I saw the book during Borders’ close-out sales, I picked it up.

I hadn’t read anything by Elizabeth Gaskell, though I enjoyed the DVD of Wives and Daughters.

This book was originally told as installments in Charles Dickens’ magazine, Household Words. That may be why there doesn’t seem to be much of an overall plot arc, but rather a series of vignettes into the lives of a group of ladies who are friends in mid-nineteenth century England.

At first, when the story began by describing how the community was mostly made up of women, I was afraid it was going to be a pre-feminist rant against men, but thankfully that was not the case.

The two central characters are sisters, Deborah and Matty Jenkyns. Deborah is the stronger of the two, and thus her influence on Matty lingers long after Deborah dies fairly early in the book. Deborah is firm and opinionated: Matty is sweet but easily confused. The story is told through the eyes of a frequent visitor, Mary Smith.

At first, honestly, I was a little bored with the book. But gradually I began to see the humor in various incidents and a little Austenesque poke at the ironies of life in those times, people’s foibles, etc. In one example, the ladies were visiting a Mrs. Jamieson, who had both milk and cream for tea time but gave the cream to her spoiled dog, Carlo. “[Carlo] knew cream quite well, and constantly refused tea with only milk in it: so the milk was left for us, but we silently thought we were quite as intelligent and sensible as Carlo, and felt as if insult were added to injury, when we were called upon to admire the gratitude evinced by his wagging his tail for the cream, which should have been ours.”

By the later chapters the book seemed more of a character study of Matty, who at first seems simple and unassuming but is gradually revealed to bear up under trials large and small, including the loss of a brother, the loss of a possibility, of love, and the loss of fortune with a depth of character, fortitude, and sweetness. Other characters in the book, as well, show strength and compassion in spite of their idiosyncrasies.

One of my favorite quotes in the book comes when one member of the friends is engaged, to the shock of the others. Maddy softens to the idea before the others and says, “A man has a sort of knowledge of what should be done in difficulties, that it is very pleasant to have one at hand ready to lean upon.”

This edition is a Penguin Classic with copious end notes. I’d so much rather they had been footnotes, because it did interrupt the flow of the story to keep  having to turn to the back of the book, but I kept doing so, afraid I was going to miss something enlightening. I think there were a few too many notes, unless this was designed for younger students: some of its explanations seemed obvious to me.

I had wanted to watch the BBC film before reviewing the book, but I hadn’t realized it was a five part series including material from others of Gaskell’s books. I might look for it during the summer.

Cranford wasn’t spell-binding and didn’t leave me eager to add another Gaskell book to the queue, but it turned out to be a pleasant read in the end.

(This review will also be linked to Semicolon‘s Saturday Review of Books.)

Last year during Carrie‘s Lucy Maud Montgomery Reading Challenge, I remarked that I was thinking about doing the same thing with either Laura Ingalls Wilder or Louisa May Alcott. There seemed to be a lot of interest in Laura, so in trying to determine what month would be good for a challenge, I saw that her birth and death both occurred in February. February seemed the ideal month, then, to have a reading challenge focused on Laura Ingalls Wilder.

You can read anything Laura has written or anything written about Laura. You can read alone or with your children or a friend. You can read just one book or several throughout the month — whatever works with your schedule. If you’d like to prepare some food or crafts somehow relating to Laura or her books, that would be really neat too.

On Feb 1, 2012, I’ll have a post up where you can sign in and let us know you’ll be participating and what you think you’d like to read that month. That way we can peek in on each other through the month and see how it’s going (that’s half the fun of a reading challenge). On Wed., Feb. 29, I’ll have another post where you can share with us links to your wrap-up post. Of course if you want to post through the month as you read, as well, that would be great, and I might share those from time to time. You don’t have to have a blog to participate: you can just leave your impressions in the comments if you like.

I’m really looking forward to getting back in touch with these books. I’ve read the whole original Little House series at least once, maybe more, but I am not sure whether I’ll reread those or a biography of her and a book of her newspaper columns I have been wanting to get to as well.

So, what do you think? Anyone interested? Make plans now to join us this February — I’m looking forward to seeing you then!

Thunder Dog: The True Story of a Blind Man, His Guide Dog, and the Triumph of Trust at Ground Zero tells of Michael Hingson’s ordeal on 9/11. He was working on the 78th floor of the north tower of the World Trade Center when he and his colleagues heard an explosion and felt the building tilt. Not knowing what had happened, they evacuated everyone and then tried to power down computers and such, but quickly decided they need to leave the building. The only way to do so was by 1,463 stairs.

There was just one problem. Michael has been blind almost since birth and had his guide dog, Roselle, with him.

But it’s not really a problem. Michael’s parents “mainstreamed” him before the concept became popular. During his childhood Michael’s parents calmly fielded neighbor’s concerned calls about their blind son zipping around the neighborhood on his bicycle.

Interspersed between details of 9/11 are flashbacks from Michael’s life: childhood, education, work life, acquisitions of guide dogs, marriage, and then how 9/11 impacted the rest of his life. Though I know that’s the style these days, I do miss the time when a book started at the beginning and told a story straight through to the end. But it’s not at all hard to follow, and both aspects of the story are quite interesting.

(This review will also be linked to Semicolon‘s Saturday Review of Books.)