October Books

The Horizontal World: Growing Up Wild in the Middle of Nowhere by Debra Marquart -- The author tells of her life growing up in North Dakota

Bruchko by Bruce Olson -- what a neat story about a 19-year-old man who went to tell the Motilone Indians about Jesus. I really appreciate how he tried to relate to them, share the gospel within their cultural boundaries and not try to make them into white, Christian Westerners.  Someone at church wanted Andrew to read it, so I decided to read it as well.

The Summer of My Greek Tavérna by Tom Stone - a rather delightful book about the author's attempt to run a restaurant on the isle of Patmos one summer (hard work); this book soooo made me want to visit Greece

Twenty Chickens For a Saddle: The Story of an African Childhood by Robyn Scott -- I got this book at a book exchange at a local park. I wasn't sure how interesting it would be, but I enjoyed it even though it had rather small writing and was over 400 pages.  Africa is fascinating to me. And this book took place in Botswana. I had fun trying to imagine growing up there. It was great reading about life through Robyn's eyes.

Forever Lily: An Unexpected Mother's Journey to Adoption in China by Beth Nonte Russell  -- I usually really like these China adoption stories, and I did like this book. The story has a unique twist - or one I'd never heard of before. But I didn't care as much about all the talk of dreams and visions and meditations and past lives since those are just things I struggle with believing. But the story itself is pretty good.

Yao: A Life in Two Worlds by Yao Ming with Ric Bucher -- I saw this book while browsing my library's biographies. Since I'm often interested in China, I thought it would be good to see how Yao talked about his life there - and his life in the United States.  And it had some interesting and humorous facts at times, but it was a little heavy (understandably) on NBA talk.  Some of that was OK, but I tend to prefer more cultural tidbits. Thankfully those were in this book and were among my favorite parts.

Zacarias, My Brother by Abd Samad Moussaoui -- The author talks about growing up in France and the path his brother took from being a nonreligious Muslim to becoming one of the strictest, most intolerant kind.

My Story by Elizabeth Smart -- a friend sent this to me after she finished; great book. I was truly amazed by her story. What a wonderful person!

The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls  -- I found this in a book exchange box at the park,and, wow, it was so interesting and dreadful to me at the same time.  Jeannette's life could not be more different than Elizabeth Smart's (aside from the hunger part). I couldn't help comparing the two a bit since I'd just finished Smart's book.  I really enjoyed this book, and am amazed by the author's pluck in surviving her childhood. What crazy, crazy parents.  I think you'd judge them, too.

I think the last two books I read made me want to be more aware of a few things.

1.  People who are panhandling may truly be evil deceivers.

2.  If I ever see a young person who doesn't seem like she belongs, probe.

3. Try to question a young person in this situation away from the adult she is with.

4.  Realize there are hungry people not too far away. 

5.  Give to them.

September books

The Lost Heart of Asia by Colin Thurbron - join the author as he travels through parts of Central Asia. I'm not very familiar with these regions so this book was somewhat interesting although I felt it took me a long time to read it.

Between a Church and a Hard Place: One Faith-Free Dad's Struggle to Understand What It Means to Be Religious (or Not) by Andrew Park - I enjoyed this perspective on religion from a "faith-free" guy.  I especially enjoyed reading about his brother's conversion, and the author's visit to a local Bible study group and humanist lecture.

The Girl With No Name: The Incredible Story of a Child Raised by Monkeys by Marina Chapman  -- very interesting book especially about Marina's childhood in the jungle. I only wish the book hadn't stopped when she was 14.  The ghostwriter did mention a sequel...I'd love to know more of this story!

Beyond Belief: My Secret Life Inside Scientology and My Harrowing Escape by Jenna Miscavige Hill  -- what a controlling religion - I guess they all are to some degree, but this one didn't even appreciate family relationships. Scientology: not for me

The Road Out: A Teacher's Odyssey in Poor America by Deborah Hicks  -- A teacher who grew up in a small Appalachian town dedicates herself to a small group of poor girls in Cincinnati.  They bond over their love of reading...well, love for most of them.  This book introduces us to the girls around age 8 and follows them until most of them are twenty.   It's quite interesting to see how they ended up (as if 20 is how they ended..ahem).

The Frozen Leopard: Hunting My Dark Heart in Africa by Aaron Latham -- Another book about safaris in Africa.  I enjoyed visiting the gorillas, zebras, learning about rhinos and elephants and impalas with this group!

August Books

In Search of King Solomon's Mines by Tahir Shah -- After purchasing a treasure map in Jerusalem's Old City, the author sets out on an adventure to locate King Solomon's gold mines.  This book takes you through parts of Ethiopia, introducing you to lovable characters such as the Bible-toting Samson, and the crazy, qat-chewing driver Bahru, and Yusuf, the guy who slaughtered and quartered cows and fed them to hyenas by holding a stick (why? so they wouldn't come eat the village children).  Although the adventure of finding gold doesn't really interest me, the author's storytelling was pretty good. And I like reading about African countries so there's that.

Secret Girl by Molly Bruce Jacobs -- When she was thirteen, the author's father told her she had a sister she didn't know about.  Anne was born with water on the brain, and as done quite often back then, was institutionalized. This book is Brucie's memoir - her story of meeting her sister and pursuing a relationship with her all while dealing with her own problems with addiction. 

To the Moon and Timbuktu by Nina Sovich - Most books like this that I find at my library are a dozen or more years old, but this one was on the new book shelf. I tend to enjoy travel memoirs and this one depicting the author's "trek through the heart of Africa" was pretty good.

A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail by Bill Bryson -- After twenty years of living abroad, the author decides to hike the AT.  I read parts of this to Andrew and we laughed and laughed. So, yeah, it was funny in parts. Other parts were rather interesting (like chapter 14 on Centralia, PA) and others a bit boring.  Good book overall. 

Maphead by Ken Jennings -- curious about places and maps and geocaching and contests to see who can visit the most countries?  Curious about geography bees and road atlas rallying?  If so, you may really enjoy this book!

Grounded: A Down to Earth Journey Around the World by Seth Stevenson -- Yes, another travel book, but this was different in that the author and his girlfriend went to some different places, AND their goal was to travel without flying. So, the book is more about the journey to places rather than the really cool sights they saw within certain cities and villages.  Sailing by cargo ship - yep. Sailing by cruise ship - reluctantly.  Biking in Korea - did some of that.. Russian trains - so different from the speed bullet train in Japan and traveling by train in the good ol' USA.  Neat book.

Too Proud to Ride a Cow: By Mule Across America by Bernie Harberts  -- Ever thought about riding a mule across the southern states of the US from coast to coast? Me either. But that's what the author did.  He started out with Woody the mule and his goal was just to go from one end of North Carolina to the other. But when he got to the Tennessee border he decided to keep on traveling.  I read a few parts of this to Andrew. I especially enjoyed when he talked about fearing others and the hospitality of the people he met along the way (especially around page 75), and also when he worked a day picking pecans and his thoughts on how much Mexican workers are paid after he did this all day and made $17 for his efforts (pg. 147).

Mixed Signals by Liz Curtis Higgs -- just a Christian fiction I picked up at a book exchange.  It's the story of Belle the star of mid-day radio. I liked that it took place in Abingdon, Virginia, since I was there just last month.  The book also mentions Damascus which is nearby.  An easy read as we drove home from the beach, and my first fiction book in a while!

The Way It Was ~ 1876 by Suzanne Hilton -- a pretty neat book about the way life was the year the United States celebrated it's 100th birthday. Full of information from books, magazines, journals, and diaries.

July Books

All Things New by Lynn Austin -- This is first fiction book I've read in quite some time. My mom picked it up from the library and thought I'd like it so I read it when she was finished. It takes place in the South after the Civil War.  It was a bit predictable, but a good lesson to me in some ways. I especially took note of how certain thoughts were engrained in people: Negroes are made for manual labor and can't be taught to read; some people are below your station in life - don't marry outside of your station; how to be a proper young lady or gentleman. Overall I'm so glad we've moved passed all that. I definitely would not make a good fit for that past southern way of life!




Native Stranger: A Black American's Journey Into the Heart of Africa by Eddy L. Harris -- a really interesting read of how many African destinations looked/was experienced by a black American

"Africa had made me wish for the first time in my life that I were someone else, made me wish I were shorter so I could squeeze into the backs of trucks better, made me wish I were richer so I could help more or hide more,  insulate myself better, made me wish I were poorer so I would not be so affected by the poverty.

But it was why I had come: to walk the same earth, choke on the same dust, and feel what they feel. I was feeling it.  And I was hating what I felt."  (pg. 262)

Paul Among the People: The Apostle Reinterpreted and Reimagined in His Own Time by Sarah Rudin -- I'm not familiar with this author, but somehow ended up with this on my Amazon wishlist and received it for my birthday (or was it Christmas?).  Anyway, I enjoyed her thoughts on Paul. She stated how she wasn't a huge fan of Paul because of his controversial stances, but the more she studied Paul among his contemporaries, she realized he wasn't half bad!   Curious about the sexism, the homophobia, the love chapter, why he was OK with slavery?  Give this book a read and see if it changes your perspective. -- also see previous posts for more discussion on veiling

Predators, Prey,and Other Kinfolk: Growing Up in Polygamy by Dorothy Allred Solomon -- for the thousandth time I was reminded why I despise polygyny and what it does to families.  The author details her life, the struggles and heartache of growing up in a fundamentalist sect of the LDS.  While her father isn't portrayed as a villain - you can tell she loves him very much - I can't stand the heartache these women and children went through all because they wanted to please God (whatever!).  The author details her family's (and ancestors') polygamist pasts, their life from here to yon (as they moved to avoid anti-polygamist authorities and traditional Church members), a rival fundamentalist group and more sinister things that happened. 

There Are Mountains to Climb: An Inspiration Journey by Jean Deeds -- Andrew and I both enjoyed this account by a 51-year-old lady from Indiana who decided to hike the Appalachian Trail from Georgia to Maine.  It was great reading about her experiences on the trail, and hearing about people she met.  It's especially nice since we have been in certain areas near the AT so we could picture certain things (like hikers visiting Damascus, Virginia.)

River Town: Two Years on the Yangtze by Peter Hessler  -- This book is about a Peace Corp volunteer and his life in Fuling in the mid-1990s.  I enjoyed his perspective as one of only a handful of foreigners living in this area of China.  He discussed social taboos, how his students would react if he said something "wrong," how he was greeted and harassed on the streets, his relationship with locals, his travels during the summer holiday, the locals' political views and thoughts on the US, his struggles and successes in learning Chinese.

"There was a great deal of history in China and if you protected all the ancient sites the people would have nowhere to grow their crops."  (pg. 107)

"Some Fuling men allowed their pinkie nails to grow a full two inches, because this was a sign that they didn't do manual labor. A number of my male students had nails like this, which looked absurdly feminine on hands that clearly had been toughened by work in the fields.  But none of the students planned on returning to the peasant life, and their nails were a clear indication that their lives were moving forward.  Most of the long-nailed men in Fuling were of this transitional social class; they tended to be former peasants who were finding success as cab drivers, clerks, or small entrepreneurs.  The truly rich rarely grew out their nails, because their wealth was already obvious enough from their expensive suits and cell phones."  (pg. 276)

A Journey North: One Woman's Story of Hiking the Appalachian Trail by Adrienne Hall -- That's right. Two books this month about women hiking the AT.  Maybe it has everything to do with our going to the mountains twice within four weeks.  This past weekend when we went, we talked a lot about Jean Deeds' account (see above) since we were in Damascus, Virginia, part of the time and actually walked a few minutes on both the southbound AT and the northbound AT.  We recalled many tidbits from Jean's book. When I got home, I read this one.  Several things were different.  Adrienne was half Jean's age (22 as opposed to 51).  Adrienne didn't hike alone (she went on the AT because her boyfriend asked her on this date...haha).  Adrienne and Craig left mid February for their trip, whereas Jean left around the end of March when most thru-hikers leave.  Jean's journey began in 1994 whereas Adrienne went two years later.  That part isn't much different, but their accounts and experiences seemed to be.  Adrienne and Craig ran into lots of snow in the South and lots of swollen streams in Maine.  Along the trail (not at a stream or river-crossing location) at one point, Adrienne said the water was up to her waist!  Adrienne was an environmental studies major and you can tell from her book. She shared more about reintroducing red wolves to the Southern Appalachians, the habitats of salamanders and how logging and development have caused their decline.  She talked about keeping the AT wild and how awful she felt when she saw people using cell phones in the shelters or saw cell phone towers as they were hiking.  She told more of the Cherokee legends of, say, why the Smoky Mountains were smoky and talked about being one of very few female hikers and her own dabbling with goddess accounts in college and related those to the mountains.  A good book for the most part.

Veiling as a sign of equality?

In my last post, I mentioned reading Paul Among the People by Sarah Ruden, and talked about hair and veiling and Paul's instructions for women in the church to cover their heads.  A few of you offered your thoughts and interpretations you have heard. This is what Sarah Ruden had to say about this matter in her book.

Respectable Greek and Roman women traditionally wore concealing veils in public. Marriage and widowhood were the chief things that a veil signaled.  (For a Roman woman, "to get married" and "to veil oneself" were exactly the same word.)  The veil held great symbolism:it reminded everyone that all freeborn women, women with families to protect them, were supposed to enter adulthood already married, and that they were supposed to stay chastely married or else chastely widowed until the end of their lives.  The veil was the flag of female virtue, status, and society.  In the port city of Corinth, with its batteries of prostitution - including the sacred prostitutes of the temple of Aphrodite - the distinction between veiled and unveiled women would have been even more critical.

But on the other hand, society was changing fast: slaves ... gaining more status and security in households and settling down more often with slave partners; slaves being freed; divorce proliferating...- any or all of these things could have made the veil a matter of controversy. Women not entitled to the veil may have wanted it, and women entitled to the veil may not have wanted it.  Bruce Winter puts the emphasis on a new type of married, divorced, or widowed Roman woman on the scene in the first century A.D., more keen on showing off her elaborate hairstyle than on constantly wearing an old-fashioned veil. 

...

At the very least, there must have been among the Christians women with pasts.  Would not bareheadedness, the lack of a "symbol of authority" on their heads, have galled them? They were entitled to be there - but the norms of the time said that they had to be there in the outfits of degraded, vulnerable beings. It was against the custom and perhaps even against the law for them to be veiled.  At Greek religious festivals, "women's police" would circulate, making sure not only that respectable women were not flashily or revealingly dressed, but probably also that other women did not take on the exclusive, prestigious symbols of a matron or widow.  In Rome also, dress was regulated in detail: for example, any married woman found to have committed adultery would lose forever the right to wear a floor-length, heavily bordered stola and a veil.  Any woman who had ever been a prostitute was of course not allowed to wear them either.

I think Paul's rule aimed toward an outrageous equality. All Christian women were to cover their heads in church, without distinction of beauty, wealth, respectability - or of privilege so great as to allow toying with traditional appearances.  The most hurtful thing about bareheaded, gorgeously coiffed wives might not have been their frivolity but rather their thoughtless flaunting of styles that meant degradation to some of their sisters - as if a suburban matron attended an inner-city mission church in hip boots, a miniskirt, and a blond wig.  Perhaps the new decree made independent women of uncertain status, or even slave women, honorary wives in this setting.  If the women complied ... you could have looked at a congregation and not necessarily been able to tell who was an honored wife and mother and who had been forced, or maybe was still being forced, to service twenty or thirty men a day.

(pgs. 85-88)

What do you think?

On Veiling and Hair and Paul

I have a relatively new Facebook friend and she's Jewish - my first Jewish friend! I met her on a HuffPo link. I liked one of her comments, and she requested me as a friend just like that!  I'm not sure how she'd label herself (if she would), but she told me that as a married woman she doesn't wear "trousers," but wears skirts that cover her knees, blouses that cover the elbows and she covers her hair in public.  She said single women don't cover their hair, but married women do in her community.  She also pointed out that her husband does modest things for her like not swimming in gender-mixed places.

I say all that because I was reading Paul Among the People by Sarah Ruden. She said she really did not like Paul because he sounded so misogynistic and homophobic, but as a scholar in classical languages, she started reading Paul in light of his contemporaries.  The book is "the apostle reinterpreted and reimagined in his own time."  She quotes Bible passages attributed to Paul, and compares them to other literature and known historical contexts of Paul's time.

One thing that really took my attention was about hair. It made me think, "Oh wow, the Middle East really hasn't evolved much from this thinking," and I don't mean that in a derogatory way because, likely, they have evolved, but they just still hold onto the traditions. That's more what I mean. I recall hearing people talk how in some places in, say, the Levant tribes do what they have done for centuries. And in many ways, I find that wonderful because there is something to be said for holding onto your culture and not letting social media or all this dang stuff available in the world make you lose something precious.

(I'm probably not saying that right, but I know what I mean in my own mind.)

So the subject was women's hair. More specifically she was talking about that passage concerning women in church covering their heads. From time to time I see a Christian group that practices this here, but despite my rather strict upbringing, it's one thing we never did in the Baptist churches I'm familiar with.  (Women didn't even have to have particularly long hair thankfully, since mine really doesn't grow long without growing into a shrub).  I have heard Muslims declare "See, you all are supposed to do what our women do...you just cherrypick that out and don't obey. You should be wearing hijab as well."  (Have you heard this, too?)

So I was going to write what she said about the veil, but figured first I'd ask for interpretations that you have heard regarding this passage. The main one I recall is that it was cultural and that our hair is our natural covering so we don't have to worry about veiling in the 20th century.

Instead of writing her thoughts on the veil, here is what she said about hair:

"Paul does not write of 'nature' (verse 14) by accident. The ancients believed that it was female hair's nature to inflame men, almost like breasts or genitals: men experienced women's hair as powerfully, inescapably erotic, in a way that makes our hair-care product companies look like an accounting textbook."  (pg. 88)

Then she quotes erotic passages from Ovid and Apuleius about hair and continues, "Notice the implicit association between hair on display and actual nakedness. This wouldn't make much sense unless both signaled sexual availability and both were thought of as automatically bringing on male desire."  (pg. 91)

What are your thoughts on hair, veiling, Paul's words on the subject, interpretations you've heard, what your church teaches on this matter, the fact that I added a new friend on Facebook based on a HuffPo link comment?  Anything?

June Books

The House by the Dvina: A Russian Childhood by Eugenie Fraser -- an interesting account of life in Archangel through the eyes of a girl growing up there with her Scottish mother, Russian father and extended family.  Bridget recommended this book and I got it for my birthday off my Amazon Wishlist. 

Dispatches from the Edge: A Memoir of War, Disasters, and Survival by Anderson Cooper  -- I've seen this one at my local library and finally decided to read it.  I enjoyed reading more about his personal life as he told stories from various troubled spots around the globe. 

The Meaning of Jesus: Two Visions by Marcus J. Borg and N.T. Wright  -- as the cover states, "the leading liberal and conservative Jesus scholars present the heart of the historical Jesus debate." I got this one for my birthday, and enjoyed reading both men's perspectives. A very respectful book. These two may not agree on Jesus, but they are friends!

I shared this bit on Facebook one day:

I often find it interesting how people talk about the Biblical stories and creeds within their own cultural context. For instance I was reading this morning ...

"The cultural relativity of biblical and creedal language struck me with considerable force when I was in South Africa on a lecture trip a few years ago, soon after the official end of apartheid, My schedule including lecturing at a black theological seminary, an interesting learning experience.  On the drive back to Pretoria with my white host, I was told that the black church was being encouraged to develop its own creed. The reason?  Because the status of "only son" was not a very high status in that particular black culture. One has no access to an "only son"; he is socially isolated.  A much higher status was that of "oldest brother." Thus, if one were to speak of Jesus with the highest status known in that culture, one would speak of him as "our oldest brother" and not as an "only son."  (p. 154)

The Year of Learning Dangerously: Adventures in Homeschooling by Quinn Cummings -- I know a lot of people who homeschool their children including my sister. I saw this book on the new books shelf at my library and it was an entertaining and informative read.  Although the author's version of homeschooling seems quite different from what I'm used to here in North Carolina, I really appreciated seeing how "we" looked through her Los Angeles eyes.  My sister said she read this book awhile back and enjoyed it as well.

The World's Strongest Librarian: A Memoir of Tourette's, Faith, Strength, and the Power of Family by Josh Hanagarne -- I stopped by the library the other day and saw this on the new books shelf. I glanced at it and decided to check it out.  Apparently this guy has a blog, but I've never heard of him before. Still, it was a good way to learn more about Tourette's (I have an online friend whose daughter has this) and how this syndrome affected this guy's life. Also, he grew up Mormon so I appreciated that aspect as his faith was mentioned often in this book. I enjoyed the anecdotes from the library as he works at the Salt Lake City Public Library which sounds massive compared to the small branches in my own county. 

A Comrade Lost and Found: A Beijing Story by Jan Wong -- The author, a Chinese-Canadian journalist travels with her husband and teenaged boys for a month-long stay in China.   The author has a special reason for the trip: she wants to find a young woman she betrayed three decades prior.  I enjoyed this book - a great way to learn tidbits about China through the eyes of a former Maoist.  It's interesting to see how drastically this country has changed, and what shocked the author about this country's changes.  How former dedicated Maoists, for instance, lived such luxurious lives.  Lots of interesting tips about life in Beijing as well.

The Unwanted by Kien Nguyen  -- A memoir of an Amerasian man who grew up as a despised "half breed" in Vietnam, but later was able to come to America.  The author tells of his growing up years - the privileged life he lead until the fall of Saigon and how drastically things changed for them as the years went by.  I read books like this wondering why I ever complain about anything because, truly, some people in this world have horrible lives. He closes the book saying, "as dark as my memoir may be, it is not unique by any means. It's estimated that more than fifty thousand Amerasian children shared my fate, or worse.  Their stories were all too common ones of terror and repression, abuse and neglect, strength, and ultimately - for the lucky ones - survival. I kept writing in hopes that these innocent victims' lost childhoods might finally be mourned, and their buried secrets at last revealed."  (pg. 343)

To See You Again: A True Story of Love in a Time of War by Betty Schimmel -- I seem to be a sucker for these memoirs from people who were persecuted by the Nazis.  This story takes place mostly in Hungary although later the family was marched to concentration camps in Austria and later moved to Germany (by the US liberators). The last part of the book tells of the author's married life in the United States as well as her visit back to Hungary after the Communists took over.   Once again I am amazed at how cruel people are to each other, and am disgusted by Germany and  likeminded people who treated fellow humans worse than animals.  I enjoyed this book for the most part though the latter fourth I thought the author was stupid for having married a man she didn't love. Maybe I figured she could have made a better effort since she was foolish enough to marry him.  But then who am I to judge why people marry?