The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society

This book is so good! I read this in the spring, and, along with ten million other people am such a big fan. If you don't know the premise, here it is:

World War II has just ended. The protagonist, Juliet, had become somewhat famous during the war for a regular newspaper column, and an anthology of her columns has just been published. She's looking for a new project. By happenstance, she comes into correspondence with the titular Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society, becomes fascinated by their experience of the war on their isolated but German-occupied island, and finds her inspiration. The novel, by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows (aunt and niece), is completely in letters, a form that works very well for the story. It's uplifting while dealing with the very difficult subject matter of war. Definitely an accomplishment.

Enjoy. Peace out.

Through Closed Eyes

Today I was lying down, trying to nap. I've just come back from a whirlwind road trip that involved much visiting of family, many late nights, and hours upon hours of driving. I was wiped. I needed the rest.

But it was bright out. Even with the blinds down, summertime light was pouring in through the gaps in the slats. I couldn't just drop off to sleep with the light still apparent through my closed eyelids. So my mind wandered, too tired to get up and do anything, too awake to doze off in slumber.

This is what I thought: Even when we try to shut out the light, we can't. I mean this in the metaphysical sense. (NB: I'm not trying to be religious or particularly New Age, either. Although if either of those apply to you, I'm not dissing them. By all means, if what I'm saying speaks to you, no matter what you consider yourself, let it speak to you. I'm just explaining in terms of my own life. I don't consider myself religious or New Age. Rather, I'm just a person seeking meaning. And sometimes the words that describe this meaning for me--light, faith, grace--overlap with the terms used by other institutions and communities. Side note over.) So back to the light. The metaphysical kind. In my life, I've tried to shut it out before. I'm not sure exactly why. It hurt to see the truths light made evident, maybe, the cobwebs it exposed.

The point, though, is that I couldn't shut it out. My metaphysical eyelids, if you will, could keep me from seeing, but they couldn't keep me from knowing the light was still there. So I always ended up opening my eyes again, like I did today when I couldn't sleep, and greeting the light and all it had to show me with grudging respect.

(For the purposes of full disclosure, I do realize that there are other methods of blocking the sunlight when you're trying to sleep in the day--sleep masks, a pillow over the eyes, blackout curtains. None of those are equipment we're born with, though. For this metaphor, let's go with that as a criteria both physical and spiritual. Your means for light-blocking must be something you're born with. Is that fair?)

Metaphors

Now, over the past few months, I've been thinking a lot about metaphors. Good, old metaphors that help us get through the days. Do you know the kind I mean? Maybe not--I'm not coming right out and explaining them. So I will.

Here's an example. I looked down at my knee one day and saw a bruise. I had no idea how I'd gotten it. I had to think back. Oh yeah, I finally remembered, I did bang my knee a few days ago. I guess it just takes a while for bruises to form. That phrase--"it takes a while for bruises to form"--starting echoing through my head.

It's something true of life, too, I realized. We get hurt, and it can take a while to sink in. We're in the middle of something else days later, talking to a friend maybe, and suddenly something in the conversation bumps into us where we were hurt. Ouch, we think. Why does it hurt when she tells a joke about someone making a mistake? It hurts because a few days before, maybe someone yelled at you for a mistake you made. And it's taken a little while for the bruise to form. The emotional bruise will fade, though, just as the one on my knee did.

Metaphors like this help me. I have something physical to relate to something unseen. In this case, it's the reminder that that some out-of-nowhere emotional bump isn't anything to get all worried about. I don't have to analyze it, worry about how I'll get over a neurosis, it's just somewhere I've been recently bruised. And it will go away.

An Abundance of Recommendations

It's been--hmm, months--since my last post. Not that anyone is reading this, which is perhaps why I went away. Of course, why would anyone be reading an unadvertised blog after three posts? But I'm posting again, because hey, someday people might read this, right? And then they'd go back and read old posts?

I didn't run out of uplifting material. No, I still read wonderful books and rent Netflix movies that I'd like to recommend. Let's see what I can think of off the top of my head as examples.

Books: Paper Towns, An Abundance of Katherines, and Looking for Alaska by John Green. All these books had dark elements, but they weren't written in a way that glorified the darkness, and that I appreciated. My favorite of the three? I don't have one. The order they're listed in is the order I read them. Paper Towns has a great mystery component that keeps you turning the pages. An Abundance of Katherines is humorous--the main character spends his time coming up with a mathematical formula to explain why he's always been dumped by his girlfriends. Looking for Alaska is sad and vivid in its portrayal of boarding school life (something with which I have experience). John Green is definitely one of my new favorite authors. I heart deep young adult fiction. (I'm on a YA bender, apparently. Honestly, I've never outgrown the joys of young adult fiction. So fresh, so honest.)

Website: Vlog Brothers' You Tube Channel. This I found through John Green's website. He and his brother Hank Green set out to communicate every weekday without the written word for a year, and this is what it became. Video blogs back and forth, and they're hilarious. That year ended a while ago, but they're still at it just for the fun of it. Watching their old videos got me through days of lying on the couch feeling under the weather. I laughed out loud, all by myself in the room. I really don't know how to describe these at all, besides hilarious. Here's some of my favorites: July 18: Accio Deathly Hallows and Peanut Butter Face. This one's just interesting because haven't you always wondered how audiobooks are made?

Movies: The Singles Ward, The Singles 2nd Ward, and God's Army. I don't happen to be Mormon, nor have I ever been, nor do I ever plan to be. However, these three films were made by Mormons about Mormons. And you know what? It's really cool to see into their world. I rented the first one by accident--hazily noticed that the description of Singles Ward mentioned a Mormon character, but figured that was just the one character. And then the whole movie was about Latter-Day Saints doing Latter-Day stuff. It was a good movie, too. In a normal movie, many of the laughs come from people getting drunk and doing stupid stuff when they're drunk. The Mormons don't drink, though, nor do they even consume caffeine. The humor is tame, but good. I will say this: Singles Ward is cheesy. There are sound effects and the un-ironic wearing of a metallic silver shirt. But it's entertaining and all around fascinating to see how a whole world of people with whom I've had very little contact live their lives. So much so that I sought out the next two films knowing full well they were Mormon productions.

So listing examples took up some room. I didn't realize how much I had stored up in my head. Have fun reading or web surfing or watching. The world has good stuff in it. It's our job to find it and make more of it.

Lost in Austen

During this movie, I actually clapped with delight at several parts. Lost in Austen is a British production, originally a short TV series, about a modern-day woman in her twenties who finds herself in Pride and Prejudice. That's right; in a novel's events. For fans of the novel and of the A&E film version of P and P, Lost in Austen provides many inside jokes and twists that will nevertheless entertain newcomers to the story.

Having been a fan of the novel and the A&E adaptation since 9th grade, when we read it in school, I was ready for the licenses that Lost in Austen takes with the plot. Amanda Price, the main character, switches places with Elizabeth Bennett, the protagonist from P and P, and then must deal with the ramifications of her presence in the story. Her comments and actions change events, and it all becomes a fun soup. It was exciting to wonder what would happen and how matters would work out from the jumble, having gotten the original's plot pretty well down by now. Definitely an uplifter.

As a side note, this reminds me of some of the spin-offs that Jane Eyre prompted. First, the novel Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys was written in 1966. In it, we learn a possible back-story of Mr. Rochester's wife in the attic, Bertha. Going back to their meeting in the Caribbean, where she originally lived, the novel paints a much more comprehensive picture of Bertha's state of mind. This is definitely not a happy-go-lucky novel; it is bracing in its honesty, but definitely of interest. The other related novel is completely different. Jasper Fforde's The Eyre Affair is about a literary detective in an alternate universe. I don't remember much more than that, other than that her literary detective skills somehow get involved with Jane Eyre, but it is definitely entertaining--I remember that much.

Young Adult Books Rock

My foray into the library's young adult section was fruitful. Not only did I discover Jeremy Fink--see last post--but I found two other books I liked.

First off, another book by Wendy Mass. This one is called A Mango-Shaped Space. It's about a girl named Mia who finally discovers that there's a name for her ability to see colors when she sees letters and numbers and hears distinctive sounds. Learning that name, synesthesia, and meeting other synesthetes empowers her to embrace her colors. Of course, it's a rocky road that leads to her own acceptance and the acceptance of friends and classmates, but the book has a definite uplifting note.

The final young adult book that I read recently is Someday This Pain Will be Useful to You by Peter Cameron. The title comes from a quote by Ovid: "Be patient and tough; someday this pain will be useful to you." This book is a great example of a specific type of uplifting material, the type where (a) you feel validated in hearing a characters struggles in life, because you've known similar feelings or struggles, and (b) the character makes something of that struggle. Here, the main character James is generally unhappy, not able to pinpoint an exact reason for it at first. He knows that his confusion around his sexual orientation, his parents' divorce, and the falling of the Twin Towers (he lives in New York) two years before the book takes place must all factor into it, but it takes the course of the book to work toward a new understanding of how to function despite these truths. Someday takes place during the summer before he's supposed to go to college, and though he doesn't have a perky personality, James nevertheless delivers a heartfelt story of subtle change.

Both of these books were as good at the beginning as they were at the end. I love a book with good follow-through. I'm looking forward to reading more by both of these authors.

Uplifting-ness

Do you ever just need something to lift your spirits? I do. Actually, it's become a minor mission of mine to sort through the media out there and find the movies, the books, the websites, the essays that uplift and sustain.

Maybe you're ill and stuck inside all day, staring at the wall again as thoughts float past. Meditation is one approach, a very good one. Crafts are another outlet, but they take energy. During my times of illness, though, there has always come the point when I need a distraction, a message of hope. Stimulation of a positive nature.

Maybe you're going through a rough personal relationship. A breakup, a fight, or a time of little communication that leaves you confused. Sometimes you need to turn to a different world or hear of another's experience that turned out okay.

Maybe you're just bored or a little down after an exhausting day. Enter the uplifting material out there. It's harder to find than I would have expected before I started seeking it out specifically. The definition of "uplifting" isn't saccharine--we're not talking about cream puff happiness here, the type that fades as soon as you've experienced it, giving you a sugar crash soon after. It can be silly, downright stupid, intelligent, thoughtful, serious, or outlandish. Just as long as it leaves you feeling good about life.

Taste, of course, varies. When I Googled "uplifting," the first hit was the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary definition: "to improve the spiritual, social, or intellectual condition of." We're all so different in our experiences of life, so let's just lay it out now that we won't always agree about my picks, and that's okay. I just want this to be a fun place to share my latest discoveries, whether oldies unearthed or more recent fare.

Here's where I'll begin: Jeremy Fink and the Meaning of Life by Wendy Mass. I thoroughly enjoyed this book, one I finished last night. The last time I was at the library, I wandered over to the young adult section. That's where I found this. I often find these novels more honest and real than some of the adult fiction out there. You're often grabbed right from the beginning, and that was certainly true with this book. Jeremy Fink narrates the tale of his journey with his best friend, Lizzy, to uncover the keys to a box his father left him. Engraved with "The Meaning of Life" and the mandate to open on his thirteenth birthday, the box's arrival in Jeremy and Lizzy's life throws them into wholehearted search for a way to open it. Still processing the death of his father about five years earlier, Jeremy soon finds himself deeply questioning life's meaning as he begins to wonder if he'll ever see the box's contents.

I truly enjoyed this one. It was fun and honest. The friendship between Jeremy and Lizzy is quirky, as is that between Jeremy and his mother. Unexpected events and discoveries keep it fresh until the end.

Thanks for reading. If anyone is reading this, I welcome your suggestions for uplifting material out there!