Book Review: A Merry Heart

Well, I didn't start out to write a book review blog, but that's what this has turned into. Oh well, my latest read is called A Merry Heart by Wanda E Brunstetter. It is an Amish romance novel. I've read several books she wrote about the Amish but frankly they aren't that well done. She recycles her characters (this is the third one I've read) at different points in their lives but the books are all obviously set in the present. This one mentions a reporter taking a picture of the main character with a digital camera. That wouldn't be a problem except that one event in the book is that a child is injured and paralyzed. In other books this child is a young adult, and, later, a grandmother. Anyway, except that it is set in Amish country, this is the basic book about a young woman jilted by her first love who closes off herself to love but is eventually wooed and won by the shy guy who loved her all along. It's on BookMooch if you want it.

Yarn Shop Books

I mooched a couple of books from Renee. They are by the same author as Morning Comes Softly reviewed earlier. They are titled A Good Yarn and The Shop on Blossom Street. They are feel-good chick-lit. Both books are set in a yarn shop in Seattle and focus on the lives and friendships between the owner of the yarn shop and members of a class she teaches. There is nothing very deep about the books, and stuff almost works out too well, but hey, I read for entertainment and its nice to be left smiling, not crying.

Mourning

The confirmation program in our parish requires Catholic school students to attend the Lifeteen Mass once a month, and the Lifenight that follows. This was the week and I took my son to mass tonight. Since I never quite outgrew youth masses, I stayed. Part of autism is sensory sensitivity--in short loud music hurts his ears. The work-around we've found for the Lifeteen mass is to let him sit in the cryroom, where the music all comes in over the speaker, and where the speaker has a volume control knob. I asked if he wanted me to sit with him and he said no, so I sat in the pew. Behind me were a couple of pews of high school kids behaving badly, whispering and giggling during mass. Its times like that, when surrounded by normal high school kids that my son's handicap hits me the hardest. I found myself wishing he was back there cutting up with the other kids.

People who write stuff for the parents of handicapped kids sometimes say that you have to let yourself mourn for the kid you didn't have, and maybe that's what I was doing tonite, because after communion the tears flowed. At this point, we really don't know what the future holds, he has some real strengths--he is kind, he is smart, he isn't easily led to do things he knows he shouldn't (one advantage to not noticing coolness). On the other hand, school gets more difficult every year. He isn't showing the ability to stick with a task or self direct. He has no social skills. It's hard to see him holding down a real job. Sometimes he seems almost normal, other times it seems like he is so different from the other kids. The last few months have been really tough especially.

In tonights homily Fr. was telling us that ways of dealing with problems like anger, passive agression, avoidance etc. were harmful to us and didn't help--what helps is asking for help in prayer and of people we love. I have been praying about this more lately, I guess I need to keep it up and let Him lead us on this journey.

Book Review: Morning Comes Softly

Just so you don't think all my reading is religious or serious, this review is of a nice fluffy romance novel, Morning Comes Softly. A rancher in Montana inherits his nephews and niece when his brother and sister-in-law are killed in a car accident. He finds it impossible to take care of them and impossible to hire help--the agency told him he was looking for a wife, not a housekeeper. Therefore, he placed a personal ad for a wife to take care of the house and kids. His ad is answered by an old-maid librarian from Louisiana. She moves to Montana, marries him and then, of course, they fall in love.

One thing I found interesting is what she told her best friend. She said "They need me". I know the book is fiction, and it is set in pretty much the modern day, but I wonder if a lot of us wouldn't be happier if we concentrated on meeting the needs of others, rather than worrying about what we can get. My dad is into geneology. During his research he found out about this guy who lived around the turn of the century. He was a widower with small kids. One day he went to this strange woman's house. Before he knocked on the door, he looked in the window. What he saw must have been ok, because he knocked on the door and when she open, he introduced himself as a friend of a friend and then proposed. Though she hadn't been a widow very long, she accepted. The fact of the matter was they needed each other. He couldn't take care of the farm and watch the kids and fix the meals, and she couldn't watch the kids and make the meals, and work in the fields at the same time. They managed to have several more kids, so they must not have found each other too rupulsive.

Anyway, the book is on my Bookmooch list and is a good fluffy read. However if sex scenes offend you, don't get it, there are a couple, but they happen after marriage.