The Literary Ladies, Lit Chicks, Book Broads, and Third Tuesday Bookclub

In addition to reading and meeting schedules, I will be adding links to information about the books and authors we are reading, as well as an annotated list of recommended books from our members. Please e-mail me or call if you find interesting information on our books, subjects or authors, and I'll add it to our page.

Upcoming meetings:

June 20, 2000 -- We will discuss Anne Lamott's Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith.

Gail Hudson for Amazon.com says: For most writers, the greatest challenge of spiritual writing is to keep it grounded in concrete language. The temptation is to wander off into the clouds of ethereal epiphanies, only to lose readers with woo-woo thinking and sacred-laced clichés. Thankfully, Anne Lamott (Operating Instructions, Crooked Little Heart) knows better. In this collection of essays, Lamott offers her trademark wit and irreverence in describing her reluctant journey into faith. Every epiphany is framed in plainspoken (and, yes, occasionally crassly spoken) real-life, honest-to-God experiences. For example, after having an abortion, Lamott felt the presence of Christ sitting in her bedroom:

"This experience spooked me badly, but I thought it was just an apparition born of fear and self-loathing and booze and loss of blood. But then everywhere I went I had the feeling that a little cat was following me, wanting me to reach down and pick it up, wanting me to open the door and let it in. But I knew what would happen: you let a cat in one time, give it a little milk and then it stays forever."

Whether she's writing about airplane turbulence, bulimia, her "feta cheese thighs," or consulting God over how to parent her son, Lamott keeps her spirituality firmly planted in solid scenes and believable metaphors. As a result, this is a richly satisfying armchair-travel experience, highlighting the tender mercies of Lamott's life that nudged her into Christian faith. --Gail Hudson.

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July 18, 2000 -- We will discuss Sherwin B. Nuland's book, How We Die.

From Booklist: Drawing upon his own broad experience and the characteristics of the six most common death-causing diseases, Nuland examines what death means to the doctor, patient, nurse, administrator, and family. Thought provoking and humane, his is not the usual syrup-and-generality approach to this well-worn topic. Fundamental to it are Nuland's experiences with the deaths of his aunt, his older brother, and a longtime patient. With each of these deaths, he made what he now sees as mistakes of denial, false hope, and refusal to abide by a patient's wishes. Disease, not death, is the real enemy, he reminds us, despite the facts that most deaths are unpleasant, painful, or agonized, and to argue otherwise is to plaster over the truth. The doctor, Nuland stresses, should instill in dying patients the hope not for a miraculous cure but for the dignity and high quality of the remainder of their lives as well as of what they have meant--and will continue to mean--to family, friends, and colleagues. Nuland also has strong feelings about suicide and "assisted death": the doctor should be prepared psychologically and practically to help the longtime patient slip off the scene in relative comfort. William Beatty --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Kirkus Reviews , November 15, 1993: A sobering look at the clinical reality of death by a physician who wants it known that ``we rarely go gentle into that good night.'' Nuland (Yale Medical School; Doctors, 1988) takes the position that if we know the truth about the physical process of dying, we can rid ourselves of both our fears and our false expectations. By becoming familiar with the common patterns of illness, he says, we'll be better prepared to make appropriate decisions about continuing treatment or calling it quits....

Click on the picture to order this book from Amazon.com.

"the buying of more books...is nothing less than the soul reaching towards infinity...we cherish books even if unread, their mere presence exudes comfort, their ready access, reassurance." - A.E.Newton