Put It On Your Calendar

Our next meeting is on April 18th, at 7:00, at Judy's house - 876 E. Wright Street.  Lyn and Judy will be the discussion leaders, and the treats will be great because Mary Jo is bringing them.  (By the way, I'm going to start hounding people for their recipes from our potluck in March.  We need to get them posted.) 

Our book is Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin. 

Two Related Books

For those of you who have extra reading time, there are two more books that relate to our April selection, Three Cups of Tea.  I haven't read either of them, but they are both highly recommended.  I'll put the Amazon links here so that you can read the reviews.

The first is The Dressmaker of Khair Khana:  Five Sisters, One Remarkable Family, and the Woman Who Risked Everything to Keep Them Safe by Gayle Tzemach Lemmon.    The Dressmaker of Khair Khana tells the incredible true story of this unlikely entrepreneur who mobilized her community under the Taliban. Former ABC News reporter Gayle Tzemach Lemmon spent years on the ground reporting Kamila's story.  These women are not victims; they are the glue that holds families together; they are the backbone and the heart of their nation.  This book moves beyond the headlines to transport you to an Afghanistan you have never seen before. This is a story of war, but it is also a story of sisterhood and resilience in the face of despair. Kamila Sidiqi's journey will inspire you, but it will also change the way you think about one of the most important political and humanitarian issues of our time.

The second book is also set in the Himalayan Mountains, but on the other side of India in the country of Nepal.  Little Princes:  One Man's Promise to Bring Home the Lost Children of Nepal by Conor Grennan tells the story of an adventurer who begins a year long trip volunteering in an orphanage where he is stunned to find out that the children were not orphans at all.  Child traffickers were promising families in remote villages to protect their children from the civil war—for a huge fee—by taking them to safety. They would then abandon the children far from home, in the chaos of Nepal’s capital, Kathmandu.  For Conor, what began as a footloose adventure becomes a commitment to reunite the children he had grown to love with their families, but this would be no small task. Little Princes is a true story of families and children, and what one person is capable of when faced with seemingly insurmountable odds. At turns tragic, joyful, and hilarious, Little Princes is a testament to the power of faith and the ability of love to carry us beyond our wildest expectations.

The Tale of Holly How

I've been reading ahead of the book group.  Our November selection is a mystery from a series call The Cottage Tales of Beatrix Potter.  I love Beatrix Potter and English cottages.  I've decided to spend a good deal of my summer reading this series, out on a patio swing, with lemonade, and maybe even cucumber sandwiches.  It's like a cross between the books of James Herriot and The First Ladies Detective Agency in Botswana.  The animals talk and help solve the mysteries and it works.  I've been delighted.

We were watching the basketball tournament this week and one of the teams were the badgers - maybe Wisconsin.  I've always thought of badgers as being mean and stinky, but now that I've read about Bosworth Badger, I really like them.  Bosworth keeps the history and genealogy of the badgers.  He has a beautiful library in The Brockery.  I like him better than Professor Galileo Newton Owl, and I've always loved owls.

This morning I was reading a chapter that started at breakfast in The Brockery.  There are a variety of animals at the table since the badgers take in permanent and temporary lodgers.  They were all rested and full of exuberant energy and interesting plans for the day--always a wonderful day, because animals rarely worry or imagine the worst of what is to come, as people do.  They are generally planning a picnic, or a foraging expedition, or just loafing on a quiet river bank.  I thought wouldn't it be great to have toast and marmalade with them.  What a way to start the day.

It Will Change Your Life

The selection for April is Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson with David Oliver Relin.  The writing is not the best - a little wordy and drawn out - but it is a book that will change your life.  It is the true story of one man's mission to promote peace, one school at a time.  If this version is too slow for you, there is an edition written for middle school students, a condensed version.  (There is also a picture book.)  Many schools or classrooms are reading this book as a project, and raising funds to help build schools.  If you're not hooked yet, here are a couple quotes from the back of the book:

"Here (in Pakistan and Afghanistan), we drink three cups of tea to do business; the first you are a stranger, the second you become a friend, and the third, you join our family, and for our family we are prepared to do anythin--even die." --Haji Ali, Korphe Village Chief

The astonishing, uplifting story of a real-life Indiana Jones and his remarkable humanitarian campaign in the Taliban's backyard.

You can also go to www.threecupsoftea.com

Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet

Everyone loved our March selection, a debut novel by a western author.  The title was perfect for this bitter sweet story.  The basement of the real Panama Hotel in Seattle was a place where many Japanese families stored their belongings before they were taken to internment camps during WWII.  During renovations in 1986, an older Chinese man searches through the storage to find a jazz album and other belongings of his lost love.  There were so many things to discuss:  patriotism, China/Japan relations, prejudices, father/son relations, first loves, forbidden love, cafeteria ladies, friendship, loyalty, WWII, Minidoka, traditions....and more.  Here's a quote from a reviewer that I liked:

Ford expertly nails the sweet innocence of first love, the cruelty of racism, the blindness of patriotism, the astonishing unknowns between parents and their children, and the sadness and satisfaction at the end of a life well lived.

Besides a great book, the potluck was pretty yummy too.  I'll be bugging people for their recipes - chicken salad, pasta salad, big shell caserole - mmm mmm good!

Announcing the Last Two

We've had a couple holes in our reading schedule this year.  It's about time to announce our final two selections.  On May 17th we'll be discussing the book that was given to RS sisters as a Christmas gift last year, What a Friend We Have in Jesus by Chieko Okazaki.  There should be plenty around the ward to borrow if you don't have a copy.  In November we'll read the first book in a YA mystery series (The Cottage Tales of Beatrix Potter), The Tale of Hilltop Farm by Susan Wittig Albert.  You can find out more at cottagetales.com.

Interesting Read

I'm just finishing (finally) our own Anna Marie Davis' book that she wrote while on her mission.  It's called Missionaries and Mental Health - The Blessings of Service.  We have it on our reading list for July, and I'll bring this copy to our meeting on Tuesday, it anyone wants to get started.  It's easy to read and we all know the Mormon culture, so it's very interesting to see behind the scenes of a missionary's life and struggles.  I think if I had actually served a mission, it would be even more insightful.  I do know that it would be good for us to change our judgements concerning missionaries that return home early, or concerning those young men that don't go.