The Blackwater Lightship by Colm Toibin

1/10

I read this book a while ago and the only thing I really remember about it is that I didn't like it. At all. So this one will be short and I am posting this one just to get it out of the way. But apparently most everyone else likes it somehow so I am in the minority, just so you know.

A lady finds out her brother has AIDS and she has to break the news to their Mom but she has a strained relationship with her. So the rest of the book is a bunch of pointless arguing and getting mad at each other for small things because of all these lame underlying issues they have that I couldn't relate to at all. And her brother comes and stays with the Grandma for a while and he reveals that he has been gay for a long time. Needless to say, there are so many heart to heart conversations and coming to terms with each other. I was like, "Yay! Looks like another chapter of deep, meaningful conversations that are carried forth with such honesty and passion, it is so fun to read about this dysfunctional family." I don't know, it was just a lame book for me.

Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton

6/10

I read this 6 or 7 years ago. It's a good book and pretty interesting. It is a book for the serious reader, that's for sure. It has a very Biblical feel to it with the way that it is written. I enjoyed it to an extent but lacked a certain knowledge and feel for the South African political climate in 1948 that would have helped me grasp much of the underlying themes that I probably missed.

It is an interesting story and one that is pretty heart-wrenching. A priest from a small town in South Africa goes to Johannesburg to help his sister who had fallen into wayward paths. Once he gets her taken care of he begins to look for his son who had come to the big city and did not return. He starts to get a scent and follow his trail and finds out some pretty crazy things including... (should I say it, is it a huge spoiler? Yes it is. Do not read the rest of this paragraph if you don't want to read the spoiler). Here it is, his son has been arrested for the murder of a man while committing a burglary of his house. It is important who this murdered person is and what all comes from it. All in all, it ends up as a pretty touching tale.

The book also has this unique way of doing dialogue. Rather than using quotation marks Paton uses hyphens. So, in honor of that method I will do the same for my selected quote:

- [O]ur Lord suffered. And I come to believe that he suffered, not to save us from suffering, but to teach us how to bear suffering.

Katherine Mansfield's Selected Stories

2/10

I read this 7 or 8 years ago. It is a collection of 35 short stories, 20 letters written by Mansfield, and 18 works of criticism from the smarty-farty's. Lets just say that I didn't enjoy reading this book.

First of all, for some reason I am not a big fan of short stories. Which is weird because it seems like they would be awesome. After all, you can start and finish a whole tale in one sitting. But it seems like most short story writers just ramble about non-eventful activities and I'm supposed to come away with some deep meaning from it all. No thank you. It has been a while since I read Mansfield's stories but I recall that there was a lot of boredom on my end and I was like, "Oops, looks like I didn't catch the deep meaning of a story about a guy giving a dill pickle to a bunch of people." It's true, Mansfield's 'A Dill Pickle' is not the type of tale I enjoy. Looking over the stories there are only two that I recognize that I remember enjoying. The first one is 'The Woman at the Store' which is actually really, really good and the type of short story that I wish was more common. The second one is 'Millie.' Both stories actually have some excitement involved with pretty cool endings (is that so much to ask?). The other 33 were meh.

Second of all, I have stated before that I don't usually like reading scholarly criticism. And this was no exception. And yet I read them all anyway (why do I do it?).

But, the saving grace, believe it or not, was the letters. She is a good writer (I just didn't enjoy her stories) and her honest letters to her acquaintances were kind of fun to read.

A quote from one of her letters to Garnet Trowell (the son of her cello teacher and her "lover". Garnet's parents forced them to separate and he was the father of the child Mansfield miscarried. Juicy stuff): "[I]t is the same with Love. The more you give me, the more I feel that you enrich my nature so I can give you more."

Look to the Mount by Leland H. Monson

<-- a="" about="" and="" at="" be="" beatitudes.="" book.="" book="" br="" breakdown="" breaks="" but="" by="" can="" could="" didn="" don="" down="" enjoyed="" find="" for="" from="" gaga="" get="" got="" have="" honest="" i="" in="" is="" it.="" it="" just="" like="" literally="" looking="" looks="" lots="" m="" meekness="" member="" mish.="" mission="" more="" mount="" much="" my="" obscure.="" of="" ok="" on="" one="" only="" out="" outside="" over="" particularly="" picture="" pretty="" provides="" quotes="" re-read="" read="" realize="" really="" remember="" sealy="" sermon="" so="" sources.="" still="" sure="" t="" texas.="" that="" the="" there="" things="" thinking="" this="" to="" underlined="" was="" wasn="" while="" with="" you="">4/10
<-- a="" about="" and="" at="" be="" beatitudes.="" book.="" book="" br="" breakdown="" breaks="" but="" by="" can="" could="" didn="" don="" down="" enjoyed="" find="" for="" from="" gaga="" get="" got="" have="" honest="" i="" in="" is="" it.="" it="" just="" like="" literally="" looking="" looks="" lots="" m="" meekness="" member="" mish.="" mission="" more="" mount="" much="" my="" obscure.="" of="" ok="" on="" one="" only="" out="" outside="" over="" particularly="" picture="" pretty="" provides="" quotes="" re-read="" read="" realize="" really="" remember="" sealy="" sermon="" so="" sources.="" still="" sure="" t="" texas.="" that="" the="" there="" things="" thinking="" this="" to="" underlined="" was="" wasn="" while="" with="" you="">
I will end with a quote from one of the aforementioned outside sources:

From William George Jordan under the chapter 'Judge Not That Ye Be Not Judged': "One judges a painting by the full view of the whole canvas; separate, isolated square inches of color are meaningless. Yet we dare to judge our fellow man by single acts, and words, misleading glimpes, and deceptive moments of special strain. For these we magnify a mood into a character and an episode into a life."

The Way to Nibbana by Ven. Narada Thera

3/10

I read this book on my mission after a Buddhist lady invited us into her home, showed us her various shrines, and gave us some literature. I always enjoyed such encounters and she was a real nice lady as I recall. Meeting a Buddhist on my mission was usually more enjoyable than meeting a "Christian" because the Buddhist was usually kind while the "Christian" usually not so much. So I said, "Hey, I will most certainly peruse this book during my morning studies and sometimes during my lunch break." And so I did, and so I did.

It's a short little 83-page book of Buddhist philosophies on how to become a better person and strive for better things. I learned a bit about the religion (while still not fully grasping all of the terminology and such) and found some of the ideas to be useful. I also enjoyed finding some similarities between Mormonism and Buddhism, including their beliefs on chastity ("sexual misconduct debases the exalted nature of man"), Word of Wisdom stuff ("certain drinks and drugs promote heedlessness and mental distraction"), fasting ("fasting at least once a month is advisable"), tips on how to subdue evil thoughts ("endeavor to control any unwholesome thoughts at their very inception," "[h]arbour[] a good thought opposite to the encroaching one"), etc.

And for those of you wondering what "Nibbana" is, I will write the first sentence of the introduction: "Nibbana or Nirvana can be interpreted to mean the extinction of the thirst of sensual pleasures." So there you have it, this book was about the journey to such self-mastery.

Quotes:

"Very few people have realised that the cause of suffering is due to their own attachment and craving towards various things."

"The Buddhist way of salvation and eternal bliss cannot be obtained unless man purifies himself by becoming a perfect one."

"There is a great difference between the pleasure one derives from sensual gratification and that which one gets from restraining from it....[T]he highest form of bliss in life is to be attained by controlling one's senses and not by indulging in them freely."

"The best repentance is the will not to repeat that evil."

And then this quote for fun: "Bodies are adorned and adored. But those charming, adorable and enticing forms, when disfigured by time and disease, become extremely repulsive."