Good Reads:Mornings on Horseback 1 '09

I have just finished reading Mornings on Horseback by David McCullough.  It’s a remarkable book about the youth of Theodore Roosevelt and the family and friends who shaped his character.  It is about 400 pages long plus another 100 + pages of prologue and Footnotes It gives a fascinating insight into the lifestyle and mores of wealthy Victorians.

It begins in a time before telephones and radios or TV.  People of means would spend their evening reading, and socializing with one another.  They were prolific letter writers, and were constantly dashing off pages to their friends and relatives about almost every positive detail of their lives.  Even children as young as five or six regularly wrote letters.  The tone of these letters is one of constant love and optimism.  People openly wrote of their affection for one another in long flowery passages which would seem infantile and gushy by today’s standards.   Nor is there ever a hint of any strong negative feelings the writer might be having.  They might, for example, express concern that someone was ill, but would never express their prolonged grief or despair over a loved one one’s death, or a relatives decline into alcoholism.  Nor would they ever mention negative happening like the loss of a fortune.  Life it seems was to be appreciated for the goodness and joy it brought.  Any other aspect one was simply supposed to put up and shut up about. 

The amazing thing is how many of these letters have been preserved.   (Most of the text for this book was drawn from letters written by the family to one another).   When one considers that a letter might be handed off to a passing stranger who would volunteer to take it to a town 70 miles away, or that it might take two to three months to be delivered if the recipient was traveling, it is amazing some of the letters ever reached their destination, much less were kept and preserved intact for us to read.   If I have learned anything from this book it is the power of the positive influence that family members can have on future generation if they take the time to communicate with them.

About eighteen years old Theodore Roosevelt (top left) with brother Elliott, sister Corinne and family friend Edith (who would later become his second wife).

Why join a book club? 1 '09

 Last year I joined the Pawley’s Book Group.  About  30 women belong to the organization. We meet once a month in a members home to discuss a book that we have all read.  While I originally joined to help meet my 2008 resolution of becoming more socially established in South Carolina, it is definitely something I will continue to be involved in even once I am socially well established in my community.

For one thing a book club can be an excellent way to enjoy books more and challenge your mind,  They can also encourage you to read more, or to read books that you might not normally choose. In short, most people join a book club, or start their own, in order to have fun, make friends, stimulate the brain cells and meet like minded people! .  The books we read range from “who-done-it”s to biographies.  The group has a strong leaning towards books that open doors to other cultures and mores the enthusing discussions are always lively.  

So Far I’ve read:

·        Carol Smith’s Wild Swans which is a story of three generations of Chinese women whose lives span from the time of warlords, when women’s feet were still bound, through to the present. Their ordeal during the Cultural Revolution is particularly heart rending.

·        Ian Doig’s  The Whistling Season is a wistful tale of a time of  innocence and self reliance on the edge of the prairie. It generated a lively discussion about education as much of the novel revolved around a one room school house.

·        Harlan Coben’s Tell No One is a suspense thriller. With lots of twists and turns in the plot.  Not my favorite genre, but it was well written.

·        Kate Jacob’s The Friday night Knitting Club, is a tale of female friendship.  Think Steel Magnolias set in New York City, while the plot was predictable, the characters held up to scrutiny.

·        Greg Mortenson’s Three cups of Tea is a true story about a man on a mission to fund and build schools for girls in the remote regions of Pakistan. It gave us deep insights into the Muslim religion and a strong empathy for the daily hardship of life in Pakistan.  Of all of the books I have read this year, this one caused the most soul searching.

·        Debra Dean’s The Madonna’s of Leningrad is a historical novel set in the basement of Leningrad’s Art  Museum during Hitler’s siege the city in 1941.  The museum’s staff protects their National art treasure first by risking their lives in staying to ship the art to safety, then by building memory palaces in their minds to keep the art alive.  It was a haunting testimony to the human reverence of art.

·        I’ve just begun to read this months book , Morning’s on Horseback by David McCullough.  It is a biography of the youth of Teddy Roosevelt. 

·        Waiting to be read are Geraldine Brook’s March, Gail Tsukiyama’s Women of Silk, and Betty Smith’s A Tree Grows in Brooklyn.