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I promised myself that I would write one blog post this weekend.  It's been so long that I've written anything, that I have now blown it completely out of proportion in my head and the thought of writing anything has become totally overwhelming.  And it's not even like I haven't had anything to write about, because even though there have been no posts, I have been crossing things off my lists and keeping my book and movie lists current.  So I thought I would start with something fairly easy.  I have finished two of the books that are on my list to read (#66)... Peyton Place and A Month of Sundays.

I consulted several lists in addition to my own internal wish list when I created this group of fifteen books to read, and I think I added Peyton Place because it was said to be so controversial when it came out (in 1956) and it became such a part of pop culture that it is still a common phrase.  I know I've used it to refer to my high school marching band and to places I've worked (probably better if I not name those!), so I thought it might be good to make sure I was using the reference appropriately.  Well let me tell you, I was!  The book itself was a little slow at times, and there were points when I thought to myself, "this is supposed to be controversial?".  But once it gets going, it was a slippery slope and not a single character was safe.  The story was actually set in the late 30's and early 40's, which I didn't realize at first, and follows the interconnected lives of the residents of a small New England town.  I think the one thought that kept coming up for me over and over while reading this book was how little society has really changed.  People like to paint the picture of how much more refined things were in the "olden days".  That certain things just didn't happen and that life was much more pure.  But's that's just not true.  The same things happened then that happen today; they were just overlooked or glossed over or accepted or swept under the rug.  I don't know that I would say that this book was good or that I got an entertainment value from reading it, but it was very interesting, and for that I'm glad that I read it.

A Month of Sundays was an entirely different kind of book.  I think I found this on a list of "new classics", and the full title, A Month of Sundays: Searching for the Spirit and My Sister, caught my attention.  Here's the blurb from Barnes and Noble...

After witnessing her older sister's losing battle with pancreatic cancer, "her journey though the dark landscape of religious doubt toward her God," Mars was overtaken with a compulsion: she wanted to go to church. So, she dedicated herself to visiting 31 houses of worship over a period of as many weeks. A Month of Sundays is the story of her enlightening spiritual pilgrimage.

Since I am so unsure of my own opinions about spirituality much of the time, I was interested in hearing about this woman's journey.  And this was an emotional journey.  I laughed and cried and made notes and looked stuff up.  This book was satisfying and yet made me want more.  I was a little surprised and disappointed by some of her choices for churches, but that really was secondary to the things that came out of her visits.  And I liked the sense that this book really was like a segment of a lifelong journey... things are not cleanly wrapped up with a neat and tidy message at the end.  But that's how life really is.  And I think that's something that bothers me in some books about people's lives... do they really go through something and then come out with all the answers?  Are their lives magically perfect or suddenly have massive clarity at the end of this piece?  I see how you might reach some epiphany that changes your life, but that doesn't mean that there isn't more to learn (unless you are Buddhist and have somehow reached Nirvana!).  I think I'm getting off track here, but the point is that for whatever reason, this book resonated for me and I think I would recommend it for anyone who is on a journey for meaning and spirituality.

So, of the fifteen books on my list, I have now completed five with another two in progress (but on a current hiatus).  And I am very excited to announce that I am now in possession of all fifteen books on the list!  (A shoutout to Half-Price books and their Indiana authors section for providing the last one, A Girl of the Limberlost!)

Well, that wasn't so bad.  I might even write another one this weekend... maybe.