Let's Chat: It Takes a Mother to Raise a Village

I'll start off the chatting about this one even though I wrote a little about it on my own blog. I guess we should be discussing it here, too, though! :) Feel free to add your own posts after reading mine! I'd love to see how everyone else feels. Especially if you are older/younger than me or have more/less children. It would be interesting to see how those things affects your perspective on this topic. Do you feel as strongly as she does?? Do you agree with the things she says? etc...

I LOVED this book and felt like it should be required reading for all stay at home moms. You know we are all just trying to make the world a better place by raising good kids who will turn into good adults. I felt like Colleen Down understands how important the role of a mother is without being "preachy" and making us feel guilty because we are not perfect at it. Sometime we get caught up in being perfect that we forget that it's not about that...I felt like she put raising kids into perspective--you need to not lose yourself completely, you need to have fun, let things roll off your back, and you need to dig in your heels on the things that matter. I laughed a lot, I cried some, and I recommended this book to LOTS and LOTS of the women in my life. I have also thought about this book lots when thinking about things as they are happening in my life. I am personally going to try and read this book once a year so that I can remind myself why I chose the hardest job in the world.

I rated this book a 5 out of 5

Emily: 33yr old mom of 2 boys and 2 girls

May: The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis

Annette is right! I chose C.S. Lewis' The Screwtape Letters. I'm hoping I'm not the only one who hasn't read it. Like I said before, I had a hard time finding a book, but figured since Pres. Monson quotes C.S. Lewis all the time in his talks that he must be worth reading. So there you have it! Happy reading to all!

Here is a little snipit from Amazon.com to tell you what it is about:

Who among us has never wondered if there might not really be a tempter sitting on our shoulders or dogging our steps? C.S. Lewis dispels all doubts. In The Screwtape Letters, one of his bestselling works, we are made privy to the instructional correspondence between a senior demon, Screwtape, and his wannabe diabolical nephew Wormwood. As mentor, Screwtape coaches Wormwood in the finer points, tempting his "patient" away from God.
Each letter is a masterpiece of reverse theology, giving the reader an inside look at the thinking and means of temptation. Tempters, according to Lewis, have two motives: the first is fear of punishment, the second a hunger to consume or dominate other beings. On the other hand, the goal of the Creator is to woo us unto himself or to transform us through his love from "tools into servants and servants into sons." It is the dichotomy between being consumed and subsumed completely into another's identity or being liberated to be utterly ourselves that Lewis explores with his razor-sharp insight and wit.

The most brilliant feature of The Screwtape Letters may be likening hell to a bureaucracy in which "everyone is perpetually concerned about his own dignity and advancement, where everyone has a grievance, and where everyone lives the deadly serious passions of envy, self-importance, and resentment." We all understand bureaucracies, be it the Department of Motor Vehicles, the IRS, or one of our own making. So we each understand the temptations that slowly lure us into hell. If you've never read Lewis, The Screwtape Letters is a great place to start. And if you know Lewis, but haven't read this, you've missed one of his core writings. --Patricia Klein

It's available used from Amazon starting around $2.00! Bargain!!

Picking a Book is Hard to Do!

Okay, so I just have to put up my disclaimer before I reveal by book choice for May. It has been quite a chore for me to pick a book as I'm really not a big time reader (thus my reason for joining the book club). I went thru a lot of choices--ones I had heard about, bestsellers, amazon recommendations, etc. I thought I had a book picked out, but I just kept 'wondering' about it. I'm always leery of most of the world's "choices" as they are filled with garbage that I don't care to read. If only books came with ratings, like movies, I could judge them with a little more insight. But, not so... So, I read thru LOTS of book descriptions and readers reviews and still was having a hard time. I told a few people of my dilemma and got some great book ideas from them (Finally some opinions I can trust.) So, in my next post I will reveal my May selection... Hint: Its from a well known author, who also wrote a very well know children's book.

By the way--How far are you with April's book--"A girl named Zippy?" I'm ready to talk!!