The Girl with a Pearl Earring

I actually completed reading this book although I don't find it very moving or attention grabbing. I found it rather dull, although it could have been more interesting without becoming more "exciting". Not one I'll try to get on my bookshelf.

A Different Perspective

I was invited to participate in another book club. The coordinators are the local atheist/humanist group. I figured it would be interesting and I'm always up for learning things from a different perspective.
Their first selection was a nonfiction piece by Christopher Hitchens, an "antitheist", titled God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything. This is my first piece of overtly anti-religious literature I've read. However, a lot of the "evidence" used in it touches on other literature I studied during college, especially during my "Science and Literature" course. I read a lot of different text on the concepts and theories of evolution and the "missing link". However, I have not continued to follow the science.
It will be an interesting night and a discussion that I hope I can participate in without getting flustered. I have a tendency to lose my train of thought when people are obviously not following my train of thought. I never claimed to be brilliant, so hopefully they'll forgive the "average" intelligence brain I'll be bringing.

The Kitchen House

The beginning of this book had me hoping for more. Sadly, I felt that Kathleen Grissom lost focus on the purpose of the story and ended up kind of wrapping things up at the end. It isn't all roses, but is a believable ending to where she was taking us. I would have just liked more development or emphasis on the theme of "family". I do appreciate her undertaking of difficult subject matter and the way she chose to expose the issues without becoming vulgar or graphic with explanation.
It's an incredibly quick read and I do like her writing style. It was good just to read a book quickly and be able to get other things accomplished, too.

Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister

Love this perspective change on the age-old fairytale of Cinderella. Gregory Maguire brings the fairytale to reality by setting the story in more reality based settings and characters. Isn't real life stranger than fiction? He applied the same theory to freshening this fairytale to be more interesting to a grownup audience. And that means he had to have symbolism and other "meat" to the novel, too! Great, fun read. I look forward to checking out other of his titles of the same genre.

C. S. Lewis

The Screwtape Letters is SO true! Wow, C.S. Lewis so hits the nail on the head with this book. He has pinned down human nature...especially involving religion. It's almost scary. But, it is also a way to become enlightened to vices an individual (say, myself) has had....and to let them go. A work in progress, but at least I am past denial, right?
Definitely something I put on my "must read" list.