Hello Ladies

Okay so I have been reading almost constantly for the last two months. A lot of fiction (hello 3 Harry Potter books, Steven King, and Water for Elephants among many others) but more than that I have been delving into non-fiction, something I never did before. The major reason for this is the fact that Mike and I decided to get married. You both know this already, (Ann, if Jackie didn't mention it then shame on her) and you are both, probably, aware that this has been an emotionally confusing time for me. I am so excited to marry Mike but I have a lot of baggage about marriage and weddings (let's think about analogies for that - like dumpster truck loads, like huge heaping landfills...) and I've been trying to work that out through reading. In the book I started today, specifically, the author says that when she doesn't understand something she feels a compulsive need to research it. That is what I am feeling about marriage (incidentally, that is what prompted the author to writer her book - about marriage - which is why I picked it up).

So anyway, I know that you both have a lot of thoughts about marriage as well and I have discussed this with both of you at some length. I thought that since we have different situations in dealing with marriage since we have such different lives, that a book or two on marriage might be an interesting direction to take here. I have several that I have finished and have posted in the sidebar, but I would like to tackle something together that is new to all of us.

Along with that, a website that is helping me to deal with a lot of issues has a recurring book club, where many of my recent selections have come from. They select a book related to marriage (weddings, married life, children, something like that) and read it. Then they organize get-togethers all over the country as well as online discussion of the points of the book. The last book club included a meeting in Madtown.

They just picked another new book and I think it would be an awesome idea to jump into this one. It is called For Better: The Science of a Good Marriage by Tara Parker-Pope. The site describes it as a "(slightly) scientific approach to love and marriage." The book is a distillation of Parker-Pope interviews of different scientist who have studied marriage from different points of view. That is then given over as advice for the average reader on how to make a marriage work. After the book is read, then they organize meeting dates and women get together to talk about the book.

Anyway, it's a suggestion. Let me know what you think.

Here's the link for the original post on apracticalwedding.com. While you're there, scroll around and look at some of the elegantly written articles. They are truly wonderful. Talk to you soon ladies!

Sidebar Sidebar

Just a note for the ladies.  There is a sidebar on the page to the right for listing books we have read this year.  Feel free to add any books that you are reading on your own.  This is a good way for us to a.) feel like we've accomplished something and b.) share other books that we are reading with each other.  Since you are both administrators, you can add books that you have read by clicking on the Design tab at the top of the blogger page.  Then click on the box for "Books Read by The Lovely Ladies in 2011" and add your book title to the list of items.

Have a good day ladies!

Arg... Ugh...

I'm really glad that you guys enjoyed the book.  I was supremely bored with it.  Like Jackie said, a good tale for boys with lots of "this is the right thing to do" examples.  Satisfies the mystical call to sea that was so prevalent among young men for so many centuries.  I think that so much literature of the day was separated into these gender categories and makes it difficult to cross them.  I hate to find myself thinking this because I've always argued that anyone can read Jane Austen and love it, no matter what gender they are.

I did want to focus on this call of adventure in young people, young men particularly.  Where has this gone?  Does it exist in the youth of America today?  In my experience with young men, cynical though it is, I do not see this spark to strike out from the ordinary and try something new.  I see very little independence and wish to make his own way in the young men that I know.  I know that the sample of which I speak is a poor representative of the youth of America but I look beyond that to other men that I know or have known and still see very little evidence of adventure.

Didn't these boys read Hatchet?  What about The Call of The Wild?  Or maybe even Jack Kerouac? I know, I know.  Kids today don't read, let alone imagine what possibilities exist in the world.  And I did read Into the Wild and I saw 127 Hours.  I know that some men are possessed with the spirit of Hemingway but I'm sorely lost to see much of it.

So I throw the question to you.  Have you seen the spirit of Jack London in any of the men you've known?

Anyway, in addition to that, I have little to say about Treasure Island.  Lady Anne, it is your turn to select a book.  What have you got in mind?

ps.  On a side note, I recently read Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen and Empire Falls by Richard Russo.  Both were excellent and I highly recommend them.  Water for Elephants is being made into a movie staring Reese Witherspoon and (uck!) Robert Pattinson.  Empire Falls is written by the same man who wrote Nobody's Fool, which was made into a movie like 15 years ago staring Paul Newman.  Very good books both and worth picking up.