Eat, Read, Pray Book Club: Ann VosKamp's One Thousand Gifts Part 3

As members enter for Part 3 of Ann VosKamp's One Thousand Gifts, engage them in the Opening Activity of what VosKamp describes as Ugly Beautiful:

Look at page 135 in your book and read through VosKamp's list of “Ugly Beautiful.” Now, in your thanksgiving journal, add ten items which you would deem “Ugly Beautiful” in your own life.

Then, put members in pairs to discuss the questions covering chapter 5:

Chapter 5

1. Think of a recent moment where something went wrong with you, didn't go as planned, etc. Find one thanksgiving in that moment.
2. Define hard eucharisteo.
3. How would you rate your daily discipline to give thanks on a scale of 1-10? Are you (inert name) full of grace?
4. How do you feel about “awakening to joy awakens to pain” (84)?
5. “Can it be that, that which seems to oppose the will of God actually is used of Him to accomplish the will of God” (88)? Explain.
6. What does VosKamp mean by “ugly-beautiful” (99)?
   In an effort to cover chapter 8, have members complete the following activity:
   Chapter 8 
   Write “stress” on your note card. Discuss this term with your partner, and then list on your note card all items which cause you “stress”- emotional, physical, spiritual, etc.
   With "stress" cards in hand, discuss the meaning of theology as your group is walking outside in order to "chase the moon."  In groups, have members take creative pictures which can include chasing the moon such as VosKamp did in chapter 6.  Click here for further ideas. 

   

   Hunky Guy Seen Here Holding the Moon

   While outside, have readers tear "stress" cards into tiny pieces and then bury under the soil for a symbolic and literal release of "stress."
   
   
   Last but not least, members may enjoy a luscious snack inspired by chapters 5-8 of VosKamp's One Thousand Gifts.
   
   

   

   Moon Pies, Photo and Snack Courtesy of Beth Miramonti

   
   

   
   

   
   

   
   

Eat, Read, Pray Book Club: Ann VosKamp's One Thousand Gifts Part 2

Part 2 of Ann VosKamp's book study covered chapters 1-4 and book club members were given a thanksgiving journal at the first meeting in order to begin documenting their 1000 gifts.  As members enter for discussion, ask them to highlight five thanksgivings from their journal they would be willing to share with the group.  Once everyone has arrived and is settled, go around the room and have each member share their five thanksgivings- why these thanksgivings were chosen, when they were identified, the grace that resulted.

This would be an ideal time to introduce the snack of the evening, cheeses meant to be grated.  Allow members access to various cheeses and various size graters in order to create their own rings of cheeses.
While taking turns with the grater, the following study questions may be discussed:

 

Chapter 1-

1. What do you think of the opening epigram, “Every sin is an attempt to fly from emptiness”?
2. Are your hands curled like cupped hands, a receptacle open to the gifts God gives?
3. Do you have any memories which were jolted awake due to the electricity of the trauma?
4. How can God be good when babies die, marriages implode, and dreams blow away?
5. Does God really love me?
6. What is the human inheritance/legacy of the Garden?
7. When do your soul's macular holes spontaneously heal?
8. Define “grace” according to VosKamp.
9. How do you know you can say “yes” to whatever He gives? 
   10. How do we “choose” to allow the holes to become seeing- through-to-God places?

Chapter 2-

1. Can you relate to Ann's dream? Has a dream or life experience ever made you want to live fully?
2. Do you understand what Ann means when she talks of the life in between?
3. Are you ready to go Home if the call came? If not, how do we live fully so we are fully ready to die?
4. Are there places that must be known, accomplishments that must be had, before one is really ready to die?
5. Define eucharisteo.
6. Define the fall according to Voskamp.
7. How often do you remember to say thanks? Every day?

Chapter 3-

1. Thinking of your own life experiences, does change take real intentionality?
2. Are you able to show gratitude in the midst of death, divorce, debt, etc. in order to accept the joy?
3. Will you commit to name the gifts you already have, the gifts He bestows? What, if anything, causes you to hesitate?
4. As you document your 1000 gifts, be specific. For, the small “moments will add up” (57).
5. Complete a prayer of thanks three times a day.
     
   Chapter 4-
   1.   Is the busyness of your life leaving little room for the source of your life? How can you make your life less busy?
   
   2.  What is your most profound regret in life? What did you think of the pastor's regret of “being in a hurry” (65)
   
   

   3.  How can you take time to live with soul and body and God all in sync?

   4.  Document your own version of “Suds . . .all color in sun” (68).
   
   5.  Fill yourself with the weight of the present, be all here.
   
   

   6.  Tell someone you “love them . . . and all this” (77).

   

Finally, at the conclusion of discussion comes our INTENTIONAL activity of joy.  Since VosKamp lists #362 in her thanksgiving journal as the suds in her sink, use this time to allow the grown members of your book club to walk outside and blow bubbles, pop them, and catch them.

If interested in Eat, Read, Pray Book Club, please e-mail EatReadPrayTroyUMC@gmail.com

Charlaine Harris' Deadlocked Book Club

Charlaine Harris' twelfth novel in the Sookie Stackhouse series, Deadlocked, failed to satisfy my Eric Northman cravings.  In fact, his character was practically AWOL from the entire novel.  If a Bon Temps resident myself, I definitely would have enlisted the aid of the Long Tooth Pack in order to find my Viking.  Other characters made cameo appearances (via telephone in this case) in the novel as well such as Quinn the weretiger, but did not seem to add anything to the storyline.
Although I continued to turn the pages and finished Deadlocked within a forty-eight-hour reading, I think it had more to do with an inner determination to find the hook found in previous Stackhouse novels.  Nevertheless, I will be anxiously awaiting the thirteenth in the series.
For the purposes of book club, discussing this novel over the meal Sookie made for friend Tara and husband J.B.  seems like the likely choice " . . . hamburger-and-sausage meatloaf, a pasta salad, and a carrot casserole . . . [as well as] a blackberry cobbler" (184) and Sookie's famous iced tea.  In addition, Sookie's sweet potato casserole would be a comforting addition to book club considering the lack of tall, blond, and built.

Charlaine Harris

Eat, Read, Pray: Ann VosKamp's One Thousand Gifts Part 1

Last night was Eat, Read, Pray Book Club's initial meeting over Ann VosKamp's One Thousand Gifts.  The book cover serving as inspiration, snack included deviled eggs topped with a carrot "nest" filled with an olive "egg."

No reading was required; the group as a whole answered the following questions in order to think in terms of our abundance of God-given gifts:


What happened today for which you are thankful?
What did you see today which made you smile?
What made you laugh?
What was a delight to your eyes?
What brought you comfort?
What did you eat today which "hit the spot" and relieved your tummy grumbles?
What did you witness today which made you happy?
Did you receive an unexpected gift today (i.e. "thank you," hug, smile, assistance, wave, text, e-mail, phone call, letter, love note, etc.)?
Did you give someone a compliment today?
Who hugged you today?
Who did you hug today?

The term, eucharisteo, with all of its components- grace, thanksgiving, joy- was then discussed followed by the "Homework" assignment:  reading of chapters 1-4, documentation of 333 gifts, and the sending of a handmade card.

This card in question was then created under the direction of Miss Cathy along with the use of her many card-making supplies.  This was deemed our INTENTIONAL activity of thanksgiving.

Our next meeting is September 19, 2012 at 7:30 p.m. in the Oak Room at Troy United Methodist Church.  If interested, please e-mail EatReadPrayTroyUMC@gmail.com.

Bill Bryson's A Walk in the Woods Book Club

A new friend and I recently connected with a discussion of books.  She had recommended to me Bill Bryson's A Walk in the Woods and told me how humorous it was, so I was sold and ordered myself a copy from the library (attempting to save trees and money while keeping our libraries in business).  Brutally vivid descriptions, "If the mattress stains were anything to go by, a previous user had not so much suffered from incontinence as rejoiced in it"  (81), alarming statistics (six deaths on Mt. Washington's slopes in the first half of 1996), and hilarious analogies fill the pages:

So woods are spooky.  Quite apart from the thought that they may harbor wild beasts and armed, genetically challenged fellows [think The Hills Have Eyes] named Zeke and Festus, there is something innately sinister about them, some ineffable thing that makes you sense an atmosphere of pregnant doom with every step and leaves you profoundly aware that you are out of your element and ought to keep your ears pricked.  Though you tell yourself that it's preposterous, you can't quite shake the feeling that you are being watched.  You order yourself to be serene (it's just a woods for goodness sakes), but really you are jumpier than Don Knotts with pistol drawn.  Every sudden noise [. . .] makes you spin in alarm and stifle a plea for mercy [ . . .].  Even asleep, you are a coiled spring.  (44-45)

This memoir retells not only 870 miles walked on the Appalachian Trail, but also uncovers a touching friendship which had not been nurtured since childhood.

Watershed Nature Center in Edwardsville, IL

Not simply an entertaining, informative read, but also a motivator to walk in the great out-of-doors.  So, a leisurely stroll in the woods, perhaps a nature preserve, is a must for book club with a backpack loaded with water, Snickers bars, Slim Jims, and raisins.

Bill Bryson

Cathi Hanauer's Gone Book Club

Years ago shortly after we had our first child, my husband and I read Cathi Hanuer's The Bitch in the House and had great belly laughs (while pointing fingers at one another) at her honest writing as well as the writing of others anthologized in the book.  So, while reading Hanauer's article in Real Simple Magazine, I noticed she had recently published Gone, a novel in which I had not read (in case you were wondering how books find me- chance, mail,  text recommendations in the middle of the night, and inviting covers).
Immediately intrigued by the ideal of a sculptor husband, Eric, up and vanishing with the babysitter one night after a romantic dinner with his wife, Eve, I did not feel hooked, though, until I had reached the vicinity of page 80.  For me, the beginning needed a metaphorical boost of vitamin C with the wife's reaction to circumstances being a bit too accommodating for belief.  A strong front for the sake of the children is understandable as Eve has always been the one who holds the family together through routine and healthy eating, but as a reader, I yearned for more depth from Eve.
Nevertheless, again, once page 80 was reached, I needed to read on and on through the night so that I could know what eventually happens to this family dynamic.  Hanauer manages to keep the reader in suspense until the near end regarding  whom decides to do what with whom, yet I turned the final page feeling as if I still wanted more- more explanation, more layers, more . . .
As Eve is a nutritionist and her mother-in-law is eating more healthfully after a breast cancer scare, numerous, mouth-watering meals are described in detail.  Perhaps, a bruschetta much like Danny's would be a nice starter for book club.
Then, perhaps Penelope's meal of chickpeas, spinach, and tofu sausage (or chorizo for the carnivore).  Finally, a carrot cake with plenty of icing initially meant for a birthday girl, but instead enjoyed by bookies.


Cathi Hanauer

Cheryl Strayed's Torch Book Club

Having recently inhaled Cheryl Strayed's Wild, I was then eager to read her first novel, Torch.  With similar life experiences as the female protagonist Claire- a parent who suffers a gruesome death at the hands of cancer, various familial dysfunction, and a previous longing for the consummate romantic relationship- I bookmarked passage after passage which seemed to have come from my own thought processes during my near-identical life experiences:  

Years passed. . . Slowly, stingingly, she forgave them [her parents] without their knowing about it.  She accepted the way things were- the way they were- and found that acceptance was not what she'd imagined it would be.  It wasn't a room she could lounge in, a field she could run through.  It was small and scroungy, in constant need of repair.  (52)

Strayed does not romanticize life, but, instead reveals it in all its awkwardness, ugliness, and blessedness.
In addition, Strayed is not only author, but also neologist with the creation of parentified- "' . . . where a child who is still a child doesn't get to be a child entirely because he or she has to take on things that children shouldn't have to take on . . . common in single-parent families- where the child has to look after younger siblings, cook meals, and stuff like that'"  (56).  Recalling my own childhood, I can easily see how my older sister was definitely parentified,  and certainly not of her own volition at the tender age of fourteen.
For the purposes of book club, an assortment of vegetarian dishes in honor of Teresa Rae Wood would be appropriate.  Perhaps a scalloped potato casserole with peas along with herbal tea would be ideal items offered at your book club discussion.

Cheryl Strayed