The Watsons Go to Birmingham -- 1963

The book this past month was The Watsons Go to Birmingham -- 1963.

It reminded me of my family. My Grandma Katherine (who Kateka, my sister, was named after) was from Toxey, Alabama. We drove out there one summer after she had passed away it was about three weeks of hot sticky sibling love in the mini-van, in short a dream vacation.

I remember when Grandma Katherine used to cry when we would get to her house and when we would leave. She lived pretty far out in the country, and pretty far from most people, but especially the people she loved. It reminded me of this, "Grandma Sands squeezed me hard and cried all over me. She wiped a bunch of tears aways with a twisted-up hand and blinked a couple of times before she looked at me. She was so short she didn't even have to look down!

"She tried to say something but she couldn't talk, she just stuck her bottom lip out some and nodded her head up and down a couple of time, then pulled me back to her and squeezed me like crazy."

The book reminded me of my slightly wacky family, but mostly it made me think about the relationships we have with each other. Our relationships are never perfect and mostly we are dancing around each other trying to figure out the correct footing of living together.

"Some of the time it was hard to figure Byron out. He was very right about some things and he was very wrong about some things...

"He was also very wrong about there not being anything like magic powers or genies or angels. Maybe those weren't the things that could make a run-over dog walk without wobbling but they were out there.

"Maybe they were in the way your father smile at you even after you'd messed something up real bad. Maybe they were in the way you understood that your mother wasn't trying to make you the laughing "sock" of the whole school when she'd call you over in front of a bunch of your friends and use spit on her finger to wipe the sleep out of your eyes. Maybe it was magic powers that let you know she was just being Momma. Maybe they were the reason that you really didn't care when the kids would say, "Yuck! You let your momma slob on you?" and you had to say, "Shut up. That's my momma, we got the same germs."

"Maybe there were genies in the way your sister would throw a stupid tea party for you and you had fun even though it was kind of embarrassing to sit at a little table and sup water out of plastic teacups.

"Maybe there were magic powers hiding in the way your older brother made all the worst thugs in the neighborhood play basketball with you even though you double-dribbled every time they threw you the ball..

"And I am sure there was an angel in Birmingham when Grandma Sands wrapped little arms around all the Weird Watsons and said, "My fambly, my beautiful, beautiful fambly."

But aren't we all angels to each other. Didn't a neighbor call and tell you how great you are? Did your baby tell you he loved because you played with his markers with him today? Didn't your sister help everyday when you felt so completely trapped in your life? Isn't there always someone there to lift and help you? I love finding these people. I love when you meet someone and you feel they have been your friend forever even though you have only known them for 7 minutes. Some are lucky enough to have this in their families, some find and make their families as they go.

I appreciate these people, the true and constant people. Honesty. Loyalty. Strength.

"These people are the true American heroes. They are the boys and girls, the women and men who have seen that thing are wrong and have not been afraid to ask that things are wrong and have not been afraid to ask "Why can't we change this?" They are the people who believe that as long as one person is being treated unfairly, we all are. These are our heroes, and they still walk among us today. One of them may be sitting next to you as you read this, or standing in the next room making your dinner, or waiting for you to come outside and play.

"One of them may be you."

March Book

They're called Weird Watsons, and sometimes Kenny, Joetta, and delinquent big brother Byron, deserve the name, like when Byron gets his lips frozen to a car mirror while he's practicing kissing. But when they visit Grandma Sands in Birmingham, they head into a nightmare. At first hilarious, but by the end devastatingly powerful, Curtis's first novel packs a terrific punch.

Ten-year-old Kenny introduces readers to his family; his parents, little sister Joetta, and tough, cool, delinquent-wannabe Byron. When Byron's antics escalate, though they are mild by today's standards, his parents decide he needs a dose of the iron hand of Grandma Sands. So they load up the car and head off to Birmingham for the summer.

Humorous incidents abound, but when the Watsons arrive in Alabama, they find themselves caught up in something far more serious than dealing with a mildly delinquent adolescent. Racists bomb Grandma Sands's church, and Kenny's little sister is feared dead. Kenny, who witnessed what happened, sinks into depression and believes that only magic can heal him. But when his parents don't know how to help him, he finds comfort in the words of the person he least expected.

(Plot review courtesy of Matt Berman @ commonsensemedia.org)

The Friday Night Knitting Club

Forgiveness? Acceptance? The joy in hating and then hooking up (again) with the long lost boyfriend who got you pregnant all those years ago? Any of these themes or more could be the overarching idea behind The Friday Night Knitting Club.

A great story and a quick read, "TFNKC" was an enjoyable book, though markedly cliched and a bit predictable. Birth, death, reunion, regret, acceptance, and peace all find their way into the lives of the women who find themselves alone and seeking friendship every Friday night at the Walker and Daughter Yarn Shop.

(I ran out of energy writing this review - I just didn't have it in me. If anyone else wants to take a stab at it, let me know)

February Book

February's book club book is The Friday Night Knitting Club and proves to be a winner.

A charming and moving novel about female friendship and the experiences that knit us together—even when we least expect it.

Walker and Daughter is Georgia Walker's little yarn shop, tucked into a quiet storefront on Manhattan's Upper West Side. The Friday Night Knitting Club was started by some of Georgia's regulars, who gather once a week to work on their latest projects and to chat—and occasionally clash—over their stories of love, life, and everything in between.

Georgia has her hands full, juggling the demands of running the store and raising her spunky teen daughter, Dakota, by herself. Thank goodness for Anita, her mentor and dear friend, and the rest of the members of the knitting club—who are just as varied as the skeins of yarn in the shop's bins. There's Peri, a prelaw student turned handbag designer; Darwin, a somewhat aloof feminist grad student; and Lucie, a petite, quiet woman who's harboring some secrets of her own.

However, unexpected changes soon throw these women's lives into disarray, and the shop's comfortable world gets shaken up like a snow globe. "James", Georgia's ex, decides that he wants to play a larger role in Dakota's life—and possibly Georgia's as well. Cat, a former friend from high school, returns to New York as a rich Park Avenue wife and uneasily renews her old bond with Georgia. Meanwhile, Anita must confront her growing (and reciprocated) feelings for Marty, the kind neighborhood deli owner. And when the unthinkable happens, they realize what they've created: not just a knitting club, but a sisterhood.

If you are interested in more information about the book, click HERE.

We'll see you on February 28, 2008.

January, 2008

The blog has gotten a bit of a face lift and hopefully, we will all benefit physically, mentally, and emotionally from a new year of book club.

For the month of January, we didn't select a book to read as a group. Rather, come prepared to discuss some of the key points of one of the best books you read in 2007.

As always, be prepared for great food, conversation and fun.

Here's to 2008!

November Book

For the month of November, we will be reading, Stumbling on Happiness, by Daniel Gilbert.

Do you know what makes you happy? Daniel Gilbert would bet that you think you do, but you are most likely wrong. In his witty and engaging new book, Harvard professor Gilbert reveals his take on how our minds work, and how the limitations of our imaginations may be getting in the way of our ability to know what happiness is. Sound quirky and interesting? It is! But just to be sure, we asked bestselling author (and master of the quirky and interesting) Malcolm Gladwell to read Stumbling on Happiness, and give us his take. Check out his review below. --Daphne Durham

If you are interesting in more information about the book and the reading guide, click here .

We'll see you all in November.

October Book: The Hiding Place

The Hiding Place is a 1971 book on the life of Corrie ten Boom, written by Corrie together with John and Elizabeth Sherrill.

The idea of a book on Corrie's life began as John and Elizabeth Sherrill were doing research for the book God's Smuggler, about Corrie ten Boom's fellow Dutchman, Brother Andrew. Corrie was already in her mid-seventies when the Sherills first heard about her. She was one of Brother Andrew's favorite traveling companions and many of his recollections were about her. In the preface to the book, the Sherills recount:

...his [Brother Andrew's] fascinating stories about her in Vietnam, where she had earned that most honorable title "Double-old Grandmother" - and in a dozen other Communist countries - came to mind so often that we finally had to hold up her hands to stop his flow of reminiscence. "We could never fit her into the book," we said. "She sounds like a book in herself." It's the sort of thing you say. Not meaning anything.

It was later made into a film of the same name.

The title refers to both the physical hiding place where the ten Boom family secreted Jews from the Nazis, and also to God, as in Psalm 32:7: "You are my hiding place; you will protect me from trouble and surround me with songs of deliverance."(NIV)

If you are interested in more background information, check out these sites:
Corrie ten Boom Museum
Wikipedia article
IMBD movie site

The Magic of Ordinary Days

I love to watch the snow fall on an early winter morning just as the sun is starting to rise. I sit on my sofa with the blinds open and a glass of hot chocolate (with a little bit of vanilla ice cream on top) and just watch the snow float gracefully to the ground. My chances to do this are pretty fleeting so on the rare occasions where I get to watch the snow drift, I'm forever happy.

The novel, "The Magic of Ordinary Days" reminded me of one of my own personal "magics". Those ordinary activities turned extraordinary because of time, place, and mind. Those chances we have, when we're paying attention, to be truly happy, content and in love with life. Whether it's watching the snow, the contagious laugh of a child, or being curled up in bed with a good book, we all have the opportunity to find contentment and peace in our lives. As a line from the text tells us, "Sometimes you do find what you're looking for closer than you think."

On the flip side, we've probably all been faced with a similar situation as Livvy, the main character in the book. We might not have gotten ourselves in "trouble" as she did, but we've all found ourselves in uncommon surroundings sometimes out of our control. The key to surviving these situations, however big or small, seems to be looking for life in a barren land...trying to find the good in the bad...forging relationships out of seemingly nothing because one day, those relationships might save us.

The story, set to a back-drop of World War II shares with us not only a glimpse into history, but a love story for the ages. A young girl, finding that her "love", a soldier about to be sent to Europe to fight a war he probably wouldn't come home from, gives of herself in a way she imagined would be forever. That act left her in trouble, alone, and shunned from her family, sent far away from home to make as much of a respectable existence as possible by marrying a shy, seemingly innocent farmer. The story unfolds with us watching (in our minds anyway) the slow progression to love and safety that Livvy makes towards Ray. In the end, truly falling in love with him, forgiving herself, and making a new life for herself and her new little family.

What is so lovely about this story? Ray. The farmer. He decided to love Livvy regardless of circumstance, regardless of whether or not she loves him back, and regardless of the fact that she'd forgotten how to love herself. When Livvy says to Ray, "Do you love me just because I came here?" he replies, "I love you because you came here to me."

This was a sweet, unassuming novel about some of the things that are important in life. Our friends, our family, our history, and most importantly finding the people to share it all with.

FYI: Hallmark turned "The Magic of Ordinary Days" into a made for TV movie. It's a little corny, but you can watch the whole thing in 15 segments on YouTube if you want. Skeet Ulrich is "Ray". He's much more attractive than the Ray I pictured in my head.

September Book

For the month of September, we will be reading, The Magic of Ordinary Days, by Ann Howard Creel.This book is so good that it was recently turned into a Hallmark movie. If you are a former Felicity fan and love Keri Russell, then click here to find out information about the movie.

If you are interesting in more information about the book and the reading guide, click HERE .

We'll see you all in September.

My Sister's Keeper

by Jodi Picoult

There are lyrics from the song What Sarah Said by Death Cab for Cutie that say, "And it came to me then that every plan is a tiny prayer to father time."

Isn't it true? We plan on vacations months in advance we start buying for Christmas when we find the perfect gift a year early. We plan long lives with the people we love surrounding us. But we never know what is really going to happen. We don't know how unlimited or limited our time together really is. In your mind you aren't thinking, I hope you are around in three months so we can go on vacation. You just assume your people will be around. No questions asked.

"I wonder if all mothers feel like this the moment they realize their daughters are growing up--as if it is impossible to believe that the laundry I once folded for her was doll-sized; as if I can still see her dancing in lazy pirouettes along the lip of the sandbox. Wasn't it yesterday that her hand was only as big as the sand dollar she found on the beach? That same hand, the one that's holding a boy's; wasn't it just holding mine, tugging so that I might stop and see the spiderweb, the milkweed pod, any of a thousand moments she wanted me to freeze? Time is an optical illusion--never quite as solid or strong as we think it is. You would assume that, given everything, I saw this coming. But watching Kate watch this boy, I see I have a thousand things to learn."

I wonder when we learn how little control we actually have, and how lucky we are to share the special moments we do.

In this book, Kate the oldest daughter has some form of Leukemia. Her brother is not a perfect match for her and so her parents have another daughter, Anna, and genetically make sure she is a perfect match to be a donor for her. Anna was created and born to keep Kate alive. As soon as she was born they harvested her cord blood cells, which seems fairly mild. What else would you do with it? Throughout her life Anna keeps giving blood and bone marrow, trying to save her sister. But when Anna, as a teenager, is supposed to give her sister a kidney, she decides she does not want to give anymore of herself to keep her failing sister alive. She gets a lawyer and tells her parents she no longer wants to keep her sister living.

But she loves her sister and she wonders...

"If you have a sister and she dies, do you stop saying you have one? Or are you always a sister, even when the other half of the equation is gone?"

Her father, studies stars. He later relates the following.

"There are stars in the night sky that look brighter than the others, and when you look at them through a telescope you realize you are looking at twins. The two stars rotate around each other, sometimes talking nearly a hundred years to do it. They created so much gravitational pull there's no room around for anything else. You might see a blue star, for example, and realize only later that it has a white dwarf as a companion-that first one shines so bright, but the time you notice the second one, it's really too late."

Isn't it rare and beautiful to find people in your life who want to share their lives with you.

"I wonder if Julia feels like it has been moments, not years, since we've been together. If sitting at this counter with me feels as effortless for her as it does for me. It's like picking up an unfamiliar piece of sheet music and starting to stumble through it. Only to realize it is a melody you'd once learned by heart, one you can play without even trying."

Isn't that what life is about? Finding your melody, the people who enter and leave, place their song along with yours, creating a beautiful masterpiece. It is your song, your life, and your love that create the beauty that surround you. If even just for a few moments, people can add to your life in the most beautiful ways.