Celebrate Yourself! by Eric Butterworth

This book of short essays led to hours of lively discussion in our metaphysics group at Unity Church. Butterworth was a prominent Unity minister who had a knack for explaining Unity principles from the practical ("You don't have to make a nuisance of yourself by criticizing negative people." p. 28) to the transcendent ("...it is wisdom to turn from appearances and know the Truth, to see through all limitation to the cosmic vision of wholeness." p. 185). Part of the fun of discussing Butterworth was that we sometimes disagreed with him, e.g. when he describes God as a Mother-Father figure with the mother part being the heart and the father part being wisdom. Apart from what we regard as sexism, this approach is entirely too anthropomorphic for our group.

Women of the Silk by Gail Tsukiyama

New England had its textile factories where young women came to work while living in communal quarters and China had a comparable situation brought alive in Tsukiyama's novel. Its heroine, Pei, was placed at age eight in a home for girls who worked in a silk factory. Feeling cruelly abandoned by her parents, Pei made the adjustment to her new home and long hours in the factory. Her kindness brought her friends and her competence led to promotion. However, the time is 1919-1938; communism is rising and the Japanese are invading the country and eventually the political and military turmoil have an impact on the lives of the factory girls.

New Grub Street by George Gissing

In the early 1800s Grub Street in London was an impoverished area where many hack writers lived and worked. Gissing brings the struggles of writers and publishers to life in a novel that takes place at the end of that century. In many ways the story is like a soap opera with lots of class consciousness, romance, and the gaining and losing of fortunes. But underlying all that is a debate over whether writers should write for the market or strive for serious literary art. At over 500 pages, the book is somewhat repetitive in making its points, but it is still a fun read.

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest by Stieg Larsson

By the time you hit the third in Stieg Larsson's trilogy, you are very familiar with his voice and his fascination with sexual violence against women. Nevertheless, "The Hornet's Nest" still sucks you into its convoluted and many-peopled plot. It's a good read, but I think the author has (i.e., had -- he died in 2004) a problem about women.

Enemies of the People by Kati Marton

The daughters of journalists for AP and UPI, Julia and Kati Marton spent their childhood in Budapest during the communist occupation. Kati's book about that life is not so much a memoir as it is a study of the lives of her parents during that era. They were constantly spied upon by the secret police who kept voluminous records of their daily lives. Those records eventually became available to the author providing insight into her parents' political problems and forming the basis of this book. For a long time the Martons were allowed to operate freely as journalists in Budapest, but eventually both were jailed for being too friendly with westerners, particularly people at the American legation. Enemies of the People conveys what it is like to live with political oppression we've never known in this country.