Books: A Simple Plan

I read A Simple Plan by Scott Smith because it was recommended by a co-worker. He usually spends his lunch hour reading history books in the break room, and we have discussed them briefly. When he mentioned a novel that he said was “perfect” in the way the story developed and concluded, I decided to get it from the library without even reading any reviews first.

I disliked it from the beginning, because I disliked the narrator’s character. Which is to say, I disliked the narrator as a character precisely because he lacked “character” – moral integrity. But I pushed myself to keep reading, because my co-worker had said it was such a good book, so I thought if I kept reading I would find what was so good.

I eventually got to a point where I kept reading because I was far enough along that I might as well know how it turned out, rather than keep wondering. By the time I neared the end, I was in a hurry to get to the end, see what happened, and then be done with it and not have to think about it again – once I had written this blog post.

Books: Barchester Towers

I picked up this audiobook some time ago and was intrigued by what I read on the back cover about it. But it said it was a sequel, so I figured I ought to read the first book first to properly enjoy it. And the library didn’t have the first book on CDs.

A few weeks ago, though, I was chatting with my friend who works at the library (and leads our monthly book club), and she was suggesting books on CD I might enjoy. One she suggested was Barchester Towers, and she assured me that it didn’t matter whether I had read the first book, and that this one was better anyway.

Books: The Milagro Beanfield War

The Milagro Beanfield War by John Nichols is what our book club read last month. It was supposed to be an easy read (because it is summer), but some of us found it was not so easy. It’s not difficult reading, it’s just longer than the “easy” reads usually are, and for me, it just wasn’t all that interesting – which made it hard to keep picking it up and reading for any length of time.

It was also supposed to be funny, but I’ve found before that I don’t always share the book club leader’s sense of humor. I found the characters ridiculous at times, but that’s not the same as funny.

I realize there’s a serious theme behind it all, about who has power and who doesn’t, and the struggles of those who don’t have power to hold on to what little they have. But the author spent so much time going on and on telling far-fetched stories about odd people that it was hard to figure out, for most of the book, whether the power struggle over land and water rights really was central to the novel or not.

I know that exaggeration is often used for comic effect, but for me at least, it is effective only when used sparingly. An odd trait in someone may be endearing, and an eccentric in a community may give it character. But a community where everyone seems to do outrageous things all the time? I find that sort of attempt at humor more tiresome than funny.

Books: And the Mountains Echoed

Having finished The Kite Runner, I decided to read another book by Khaled Hosseini that the library also had on CD. And the Mountains Echoed is very different, and for a large part of the book somewhat confusing to figure out what it really is about.

I have read several novels recently that tell a story from the perspective of multiple characters, and as long as there aren’t too many of them it can be a very effective way of adding more dimensions to a story. Usually, however, all the characters are telling part of the same story. In this novel, the threads between the different characters’ stories are sometimes tenuous and occasionally hard to discern at all for a while.

Hosseini is a good storyteller, however, and I appreciated each story for itself, though I certainly enjoyed some more than others. I just wondered what they all had to do with each other, where the story was going – if there was any destination at all in the sense I was thinking of, and how in the world the title of the story related to any of them.

Books: The Kite Runner

I had for some time been meaning to read the novels by Khaled Hosseini, beginning with The Kite Runner, which members of my book club had highly praised. But I was hesitant to read a book described as “heart wrenching,” “devastating,” and “brutal,” even if it is also called “beautiful” and “inspiring.” I took it off the shelf in the library one day, started walking toward the check-out counter, then after a few steps returned and put it back, deciding I would wait until some time when I felt ready for that challenge.

I’m not sure just when I would have decided I was ready, but my son was assigned the novel as summer reading for his pre-AP Language and Literature class. I don’t generally read the books he is reading for school, but in this case I wanted to read it first, to know what he would be encountering in the novel and to help him deal with whatever difficult issues arose from it.

It is well-written, but I admit that I was having to push myself to read it in the early chapters. When I discovered it on CDs in the library, I decided that would be an ideal way to get through the book faster than my son would. (Not that he read it through quickly. There are so many more interesting things for a teenage boy to do during summer vacation.)

I knew from reviews I had read before purchasing the book that it contains a scene of homosexual rape, and I was not looking forward to that scene – though it was obvious from the first page when it would happen and I was sort of relieved to finally reach that point instead of continuing to anticipate it. It is awful, what happened, but at least once I had read it, I could stop worrying about how bad it would be.

I also was relieved that it is not a graphic description – in fact, my son did not recognize it for what it was at all. I had to explain later that no, Assef did not “beat up” Hassan. My son is sixteen, old enough now to learn that such things happen. But I also felt good, in a way, that such things were so outside his previous experience, even vicariously in books or movies, that the thought of such a thing did not occur to him from Hosseini’s spare description of the event.

Inductive vs deductive Bible study

Note: This post is written by my husband. An ordained Presbyterian pastor, he has plenty of experience both studying the Bible and leading Bible studies.

Inductive versus Deductive: Does there need to be a conflict?

I lead a couple of Bible Studies. Recently, as we finished one of them, and the group looked at what would be next (I decided to let them choose), they came across the terms “Deductive Bible Study/Reasoning” and “Inductive Bible Study/Reasoning”. When researched, articles promoting one were always very dismissive of the other. And the members of the study still didn’t really get what the point was. So, I am writing this article to try to give MY take on it.

Behind the trigger

I fired a handgun for the first time today, at the local shooting range. Actually, I fired four handguns, as my husband and I want to get a feel for different sizes and types of guns before purchasing one.

I can’t say I’m excited about the idea. I support gun ownership in principle, but I have never desired to own a handgun. My husband thinks this is odd, since I am the one who had someone kick in the door to my apartment one night (back when I was single) and then proceed to rape me.

It’s true that I’ve thought many times, over the years since then, about what I would do if I again faced someone who was about to assault me, and I had a weapon available to defend myself. Or if I witnessed such an attack about to happen to someone else. Would I aim to wound? Or to kill? Or would I be too terrified to do anything?