How I'm Doing, Reading-Wise

First, I finished Nineteen Minutes. (7) This was our February book club offering. It's one of Jodi Picoult's many novels, and it offers a fictional account of a school shooting. In the novel, the boy who becomes the shooter is bullied terribly. He hear his point of view, as well as the point of view of a young woman who had been his only friend, and both parents. When I first started reading, I was immediately skeptical, because it wasn't that long ago that the book Columbine came out, and I read excepts. The excerpts revealed that the two boys had not been bullied; this was not the cause of Columbine. But there is such a thing as bullying in schools, and despite my skepticism, I was still drawn into Picoult's story. Now, I see that the book Columbine is out in paperback. I picked it up off of the shelf a couple of times....

(8) I read our March book club book, Olive Kittridge, while on vacation. We are discussing "Olive" tomorrow night at my book club meeting, so I'll save comments for afterwards.

(9) I read The Help on vacation as well. This is a civil-rights story of a young woman who wants to be a writer, and two african-american maids ("the Help") who tell their stories about what it's like to work for white families, raise their babies, be a part of their lives, but also to be treated like 2nd class citizens. I had conflicting feelings about this one; in part, I thought it was well-written, and there are things it made me think about in my own life, about what stories I might need to tell, and about who has encouraged me. But I also was aware of the fact that, at least in part, it was a white woman telling the stories of black women, and I wondered about that. I want to know how this book is received in the African American community as well. More on this later.

(10) Transforming Congregational Culture, by Anthony Robinson. Lots to think about regarding how to lead a congregation -- will post more with quotes soon...

I've got more than a few books on the "interested" list right now. So many people have told me I "have to" read Walter Bruggemann's "The Prophetic Imagination" that I guess I really have to! Our April book club book is "The Book Thief." I have many books that I am pining after, but I don't want to clutter up the house any more than it is already cluttered, so I am pining after a "Nook" as well.