Thank God it’s Monday. It’s the second day of the weekend (for me) and I’m off to a lovely start. I rode my bike to the closest Starbucks to meet up with Shivyon before she scooted off to school. The java-charged conversation and hamstring-stimulating ride home have me fully awake and all too excited about the prospect of blogging. I’d love to fill you all in on the exciting goings-on of the Mid-Columbia basin…but there are none. So let’s do a book review instead.
I tried to scrounge up the notes I took on the books I’ve read since graduation but I’ve misplaced the journal that I was using for a couple summer months. So, while I can’t really back up my recommendations, I would say that God’s Will as a Way of Life by Whitworth’s own Jerry Sittser and Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl (a Holocaust victim) are both worth the read. Luckily, my current journal picks up on July 28 and catches the reflections on my favorite book to date—The Brothers K by David James Duncan.
This novel tells the story of a family from Camas, Washington from the late 1950s up through the 80s. The Chance family is composed of twin girls, four boys, a Seventh Day Adventist mama and a baseball hero papa. Each member of the family offers an opportunity for Duncan to comment acutely on some facet of religion, politics, philosophy, and human nature. Peter is a Buddhist, Everett’s a draft-dodging hippie during the Vietnam War, Irwin is the lovable all-American family man, Kincaid plays the quiet observer, and the twins find opposing fulfillment in science and Christianity.
I stumbled across this title while perusing a list of favorite books of Whitworth faculty members. About half the staff had chosen The Brothers K as their book of choice and I have to follow the crowd on this one. I got to know the characters so well and was deeply emotionally involved with the storyline. I would laugh out loud at Everett’s wit and cry for the twisted injustice portrayed in the last 50 pages.
I won’t give any more details in case anybody is planning on reading it. If you do, let me know so we can compare notes. Love to all.
Lindsay! Hello. I went to the public library over here in search of a good book and left empty handed. I am going to go check this one out. I am currently reading One Day by David Nicholls. It's okay. It's about two people who are friends/sometimes more than friends, and each chapter is ONLY written on july 15th. So you get a snapshot of their life from year to year. Hard to explain. But interesting. Thanks for the book recommendation!!I love a good book.
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