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I’m currently reading The Spiral Staircase, a memoir by Karen Armstrong. It starts with her decision to enter the convent at age 17 and details her difficulties there and her decision to leave. She had even more difficulty in the following years, however, always feeling like an outsider as she pursued her education. She was lonely, depressed, and seriously ill much of the time. That’s as far as I’ve gotten now, but I’m really enjoying it. She is so honest and transparent about times of difficulty, and I can relate to feeling like an outsider. Her spiritual journey is also part of the story, and again I can relate to feeling unhappy with childhood religion and wrestling with how to understand God and construct a genuine faith. I read The Cross and the Lynching Tree by James Cone, a famous black theologian. He became disillusioned with traditional religion and started the work of constructing a theology that was true to the black experience in America. His analogy of the lynching tree to the cross of Christ is brilliant and riveting. I highly recommend this book. We’ve all talked about The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek by Kim Richardson, but if you haven’t read it, it’s historical fiction that’s worth reading. It describes the women in a WPA program who rode on horses and mules high into Appalachia in Kentucky in order to deliver library books to the people. They were amazing women, willing to face all kinds of hardship and danger. I was also touched by the people’s abject poverty and delight about having even one book. The protagonist is also one of the “blue people,” and it was fascinating to learn about this group of people and the bigotry they experienced. Another book about the horseback librarians was Giver of Stars by Jojo Moyes. It was from a different perspective and I especially enjoyed it because a lot of it related to corrupt mine owners and how they mistreated the mine workers. Another great historical novel is Shanghai Story by Alexa Kang. It takes place in China in 1936, when foreigners flooded into China from all over. The Europeans and Americans essentially take over and the Chinese are treated as inferior in their own country. They are also being threatened by the Nazis and Japanese. This is a part of the WWII story that was unfamiliar to me, and I enjoyed learning about it. I’ve also made my way through the first four Percy Jackson series, a young adult fantasy series. This series is written by Rick Riordan, and the first book was made into a movie--Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief. It’s well written for that genre and mildly amusing but I wouldn’t recommend it to an adult. I’m reading it because my 14-year-old granddaughter loves it and I’m trying to find things to talk about with her. --Terese
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January 2022
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