December 2009 *2

A Trial By Jury

D. Graham Burnett

When Princeton historian D. Graham Burnett answered his jury duty summons, he expected to spend a few days catching up on his reading in the court waiting room. Instead, he finds himself thrust into a high-pressure role as the jury foreman in a Manhattan trial. There he comes face to face with a stunning act of violence, a maze of conflicting evidence, and a parade of bizarre witnesses. But it is later, behind the closed door of the jury room, that he encounters the essence of the jury experience--he and eleven citizens from radically different backgrounds must hammer consensus out of confusion and strong disagreement. By the time he hands over the jury's verdict, Burnett had undergone real transformation, not just in his attitude toward the legal system, but in his understanding of himself and his peers. Offering a compelling courtroom drama and an intimate and sometimes humorous portrait of a fractious jury, A Trial by Jury is also a finely nuances examination of law and justice, personal responsibility and civic duty, and the dynamics of power and authority between twelve equal people.

December 2009 *1

Beautiful Boy

David Sheff

The author, David Sheff, exposes his personal life and his families' life in order to tell his story.

The book chronicled the author's son, Nic, from childhood through adolescence into adulthood. It is an emotional book that is filled with all of the guilt and doubt that a loved one feels when trying to deal with the trauma of watching your child slowly killing themselves through a myriad of drugs. In this case-primarily methamphetamine. This book goes into great detail and uncovers the lies, chaos, and criminal behavior of addiction.

The author examines his role and the impacts on his family. The book is emotional and heartfelt. In the end, it is about accepting that you can't control others including those you love.

November 2009

The Weight of Silence

Heather Gudenkauf

It happens quietly one August morning. As dawn's shimmering light drenches the humid Iowa air, two families awaken to find their little girls have gone missing in the night.
Seven year old Calli Clark is sweet, gentle, a dreamer who suffers from selective mutism brought on by tragedy that pulled her deep into silence as a toddler.

Calli's mother, Antonia, tried to be the best mother she could within the confined of marriage to a mostly absent, often angry husband. Now, though she denies that her husband could be involved in the possible abductions, she fears her decision to stay in her marriage has cost her more than her daughter's voice.
Petra Gregory is Calli's best friend, her soul mate and her voice. But neither Petra nor Calli has been heard from since their disappearance was discovered. Desperate to find her child, Martin Gregory is forced to confront a side of himself he did not know existed beneath his intellectual, professorial demeanor.
Now these families are tied by the question of what happened to their children. And the answer is trapped in the silence of unspoken family secrets.

October 2009

The Bell Jar

Sylvia Plath

Esther Greenwood, seems to have the perfect life. She has received numerous awards for her poetry and writing and is on scholarship at a prestigious women's college. She wind a month long job assignment in New York City for a women's magazine. To the outside world it would seem that she is living a dream life:

dining on sumptuous meals, hobnobbing with celebrities, and being showered with gifts, all courtesy of the magazine. Inside, however, she is wrenched with confusion. She struggles within herself to reconcile her desires to become a writer in a world where women are expected to be perfect housewives and mothers as well as her desires for sexual equality in a world where women are expected to be pure and virginal, but men are free to experiment with sexuality without fear of pregnancies or ruined reputations.

As she returns home for the remainder of the summer, her thoughts turn increasingly melancholy. Her application for a much-coveted summer school writing course is rejected. To ass insult to injury, she learns that her boyfriend is having feelings for another woman and is not a virgin as he has led her to believe. She begins a rapid decent into a deep depression unable to eat, read, or sleep.

Eventually Esther attempts a near-fatal suicide by overdosing on sleeping pills. She ends up in an asylum convinced that her case is without hope. From this point forward, we get a fascinating glimpse into just how far the treatment of depression has come in recent decades. Esther's treatment involves insulin injections, psychotherapy (her mother feels guilty that she may have make mistakes during toilet training), and eventually electroshock therapy.

After several months, she is released to return to school. As she recovers, she uses the apt analogy of the distorted view of the world seen from within a bell jar to describe her former condition. Esther states near the end of the book:

How did I know that someday--at college, in Europe, somewhere, anywhere--the bell jar, with it's stifling distortions, wouldn't descend again?

This quote becomes all the more poignant when one discovers that only a month after "The Bell Jar", her first novel, was published, Sylvia Plath took her own life. One wonders if things would have been different had she lived today.

July & August 2009

Mistaken Identity: Two Families, One Survivor, Unwavering Hope

by Don and Susie Van Ryn, Newell, Colleen and Whitney Cerak, and Mark Tabb

The Stunning true story of two families trading places from graveside to bedside.

Five lives were lost in a tragic accident involving a Taylor University van, and one young woman, severely injured and comatose, was rushed to the hospital. Families, faculty, students and communities grieved their losses and joined in prayer and hope as the one young woman, Laura Van Ryn, fought for her life in a hospital bed. The national news spread the story, and people everywhere shared the grief and the hope.

Five weeks passed for the Cerak family. Believing they had buried their daughter, the Ceraks clung to their faith and worshipped God through their tears, learning to look forward with hope to an eternal reunion with their lovely daughter Whitney. They spent weeks in mourning and grief, slowly moving toward healing.

Five weeks passed for the Van Ryns. Keeping a constant vigil over their precious daughter Laura, they sat and prayed and hoped. They rejoiced at each tiny advance toward recovery. They celebrated each sign of Laura's healing.

And then shock! "Okay, Laura, I would like you to write your name for me," the occupational therapist said. W-H-I-T-N-E-Y.

An event that could be seen as pure tragedy becomes a celebration of life's unfathomable gifts and mysteries.