Through a Glass, Darkly

I haven’t done an entry on reading in a while. This is mostly because I haven’t been reading as much as usual lately, what with all the traveling and now my car being in the shop (not to mention my *ahem* current obsession taking up a lot of my reading time). (Side note: Mike never reads my blog, so I thought I was safe referring to my new interest. Of course not. He happened to read it last night. Of all the times for him to read it. I am so busted. hehe.)

Geof asked me how I liked the Keillor that he and Trey recommended. The honest truth is that I haven’t had time to read it. I returned it yesterday. Luckily, I work at a library, so it’ll be here when I do have time. I hate that I had to take it back, but I promise it didn’t mean I didn’t appreciate the suggestion. Three of the books I placed on hold came in at the same time, and I’ve been trying to read those since some of them have long waiting lists. I read Queen Bees and Wannabees last week, I’m about 2/3 done with My Name is Asher Lev, and next up is The Rule of Four. (Side note: My dad likes to listen to books on tape, so I got him The Rule of Four on tape for Father’s Day, so we could “read” it together.)

So, how did I like Queen Bees and Wannabees? It was good, very insightful, but I did feel like something was lacking. She characterized girls in certain ways, but there was never really a mention of the goody-two-shoes youth group girl. She is probably a hybrid of some of the other characterizations, but . . . I guess I felt like religion was completely left out of the picture, and it’s such a huge part of life here in the South that it seemed like a glaring omission to me. I am not completely sure how to phrase this, but I think that youth group and church (and, of course, God) were a huge factor in helping me make good decisions during my teen years. Those influences gave me a better perspective on the issues I was facing, which is crucial to girls that age who have a very hard time keeping things in perspective. Both this book and Reviving Ophelia had little to no discussion of the positive aspects of religion. It was interesting to me to see how different my take on things would have been. Overall, I would still recommend it to anyone who has a daughter or who works with girls that age. I have even found it helpful in conversations with friends – one of my friends broke up with her boyfriend, and she was telling me all about it over coffee, and I kept thinking, “The book said not to say X or Y when there’s been a breakup . . .” It has definitely challenged me to be more thoughtful in some of my responses to my friends, and I could see how it would be very helpful when negotiating a relationship with a teenage girl.