Sunday Post: Spring Flowers & Reading Books That Clash With My Personal Beliefs

New to My Shelves: 

Pinkalicious: and Aqua, the Mini-Mermaid by Victoria Kann
The Legend of Rock, Paper, Scissors by Drew Daywalt and Adam Rex

(bookstore purchases)

The Littlest Bunny in California by Lily Jacobs and Robert Dunn
Trolls (A Little Golden Book) adapted by Mary Man-Kong and illustrated by Priscilla Wong

(from the Easter Bunny)

Jane Steele by Lyndsay Faye
(bookstore purchase)

What I Am Reading: I am in the middle of A Killer Ball at Honeychurch Hall by Hannah Dennison at the moment, a cozy mystery featuring antique dealer Kate Stanford who stumbles upon a long dead body--one that was possibly murdered. I am enjoying it so far.

What I Am Watching: The Voice is now in the live voting round stage. Not that it matters given I live on the West Coast and usually watch the show a day late. I am starting to pick out favorites as the performers are narrowed down. I am also keeping up with The Designated Survivor.

I have started watching Supernatural again. I cannot remember where my husband and I left off on the show, but it's been long enough I thought maybe I would start over with season one. I had forgotten how much I liked the show. As a family, we have sometimes been turning on Star Trek: The Next Generation to watch. I was quite fond of the show when it first came out, I remember. It's been fun to re-visit it, even as campy as it seems now. I was never a fan of the original series with William Shatner, admittedly, but I did enjoy the spin-offs that came later.

Movie wise, we recently re-watched Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, Rogue One, and Trolls. All of which we enjoyed just as much the second time around. We also finally got to see the movie Moana. I was really impressed with it. Have you seen any of these?

What's Going On Off the Blog: Did those of you who celebrate Easter have a nice one? It turned out to be a whirlwind weekend for us. Mouse had soccer. This Easter Bunny had a lot of catching up to do to make sure everything was ready. There was the obligatory egg hunt, and then we spent the day binge watching the movies the Easter Bunny had given us in our Easter baskets. My husband and Mouse put together an island for our kitchen. I think it turned out pretty well. We are going to look for little baskets to put in the side cubbies for storage.

Our new island

Parker is responding to the new medication, thankfully. I took him to see the doctor Friday, and he has gained half a pound.  He is not completely out of the woods, and we are still not sure of the cause of his recent decline--only the symptoms. We will go back in another month to check on his progress.

Parker and Gracie are Troll fans

After soccer today, we visited the nursery to look for a couple plants for Mouse to finish her garden project for Girl Scouts, and to celebrate Earth Day. She even made a friend at the nursery, the two girls swapping bug stories and something about lizards doing push-ups (because we watched a little one do just that). Mouse is looking forward to releasing the ladybugs we bought on my rose bushes tonight.

Scrimmage 

End of Class - Parachute Time 

"I really want this plant, Mom!"

My rose bushes

Did you hear about the murder-suicide that occurred in San Bernardino the week before last? It was such a tragedy. Not only was a teacher shot to death by her estranged husband, but a child as well. Thank goodness the other injured child will be okay. Even though it was an isolated incident, many of the schools in the area, including my daughter's, have been re-evaluating their visitor and security practices. The lunch on the lawn event scheduled at my daughter's school this past week was even cancelled as a result. I cannot begin to describe the fear that went through my heart when I first heard there had been a shooting at a local elementary school. My heart goes out to the family who lost their son and to the family of the teacher who was also killed. Such senseless deaths.

It was quite a busy week at work. We had our mandatory all agency meeting, which is always a scheduling nightmare since my particular office has to be staffed 24/7. It is impossible for everyone to go, but we do what we can to get as many people there as possible. The guest speakers this time around were Azim Khamisa and Ples Felix from the Forgiveness Project. In 1995, Mr. Khamisa's son was murdered by a 14 year old gang member, the grandson of Mr. Felix. The two men came together to form the Tariq Khamisa Foundation, named after the murder victim. The goal of the organization is to stop teen violence. Both Mr. Khamisa and Mr. Felix's story is a powerful one. Instead of becoming angry and bitter over the death of his son, Mr. Khamisa found it in his heart to forgive the murderer and is working toward making the society that created such a young killer a safer place.

This past week our Girl Scout troop went to a ceramic craft and paint store and painted Daisy jewelry boxes. We hope to pick them up this next week. The girls had a great time. It just so happens the craft store is right across from the local independent bookstore, which of course we had to stop in to visit before heading home.

Mouse's school is having a fundraiser read-a-thon from now until the beginning of May. She's excited about participating. We set up her fundraiser page together, and she asked when she can have her own computer. I have no plans to participate in the upcoming Dewey's 24-Hour Readathon which is scheduled for April 29th, although it is tempting. The timing is never ideal, but I may try to fit in as much reading as possible. Will you be participating?

This weekend is the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, but we are unable to go. I am really sad about that. I was not able to go last year either.

My mom's dog, visiting over Spring Break

Around the Blogosphere:

• Ramblings from the Stacks - When a Book Just Clicks  - Katherine discusses what makes a book click for her--what makes a book click for you?

The Week Before Last In Reading Mews:

• Bookish Thoughts: The Burning Page by Genevieve Cogman
• Where Is Your Bookmark? (Including My TBR List of "Girl" Titled Books)
• Bookish Thoughts: Monstress, Vol. One: Awakening by Marjorie Liu & Sana Takeda

Tell me about what you have been up to! What are you reading, listening to and watching? How was your week? Do you have anything planned for this coming week?

*

Every Friday Coffee Addicted Writer from Coffee Addicted Writer poses a question which participants respond on their own blogs within the week (Friday through Thursday). They then share their links at the main site and visit other participants blogs.

Would you stop reading a book if an element of the plot strongly clashed with your personal beliefs, or would you continue reading until you finished the book?

One of the reasons I read is to be able to experience and explore worlds and ideas outside of my own limited sphere. I think it is important to venture outside of one's own comfort zone now and then. My way isn't always the right way--and especially not always the only way. And I like to understand where others are coming from, particularly when it comes to choices made, actions taken, and even beliefs that differ from my own. I like to read books that make me think, and sometimes reading books that question or challenge my beliefs is a good thing--whether it opens my mind to new ideas and ways of looking at things or solidifies my own position. I am also fascinated by human behavior (one of the reasons I got a degree in psychology and social work). I am a strong believer in being able to see multiple sides of an issue--even when you stand on one side or another. Problems are rarely solved if you cannot or are unwilling to take into account factors outside of your own life experiences and views. Even so, I have my limits when it comes to books.

Much depends on how the author presents the topic in question. If a novel is compelling enough, and I am invested in the lives of the characters, I do not necessarily have to agree with the choices made or even always the outcome to enjoy a book. For me, it isn't about whether I agree or not, but rather how it impacts the character and how that character reacts or evolves over the course of the book. I do not necessarily have to like the characters in books I read--as long as they are well-crafted and something about them draws me to their story. Sometimes the staying power in a book is the beautiful writing or an especially intriguing setting.

I do not like it when an author pushes their beliefs on me. Preach at me, and I will likely want to set the books aside. For instance, while I find religion of all kinds fascinating in a general sense, I tend to shy away from books that are too heavy in favor of any particular one. The same can go for politics. I do not like books that bash or disrespect other people's beliefs, including my own. But if an author is respectful and open to presenting all sides, I am more likely to continue reading the book even when it may conflict with my own beliefs.

Two instances pop immediately to mind when I think of books in which my personal beliefs got in the way and had me questioning whether I could finish them. One involved dog fighting (Jesmyn Ward's Salvage the Bones) and the other involved the rape of a woman by the main character (Lord Foul's Bane by Stephen R. Donaldson). In the first, the actions were normalized, and just a fact of life--but something I had trouble getting past because of my own strong personal views. In the second, well, I did not feel the character's behavior was adequately addressed, and was glossed over. I continued with both books, and feel they were worthwhile reads in the end, but my enjoyment was definitely impacted in a negative way.

On the other hand, I have also read books that have come up against some of my rather strong personal beliefs which I really liked, even as uncomfortable as they sometimes made me feel. They were compelling stories, well-written, and I was intrigued by the evolution of the characters with the turn of each page. Sometimes much to my surprise. Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov, for example. Humbert being a despicable and disgusting narrator of the story. The Mermaid Chair by Sue Monk Kidd is another, in which the main character commits adultery (I have a strong bias against cheaters). Or even Jeff Lindsay's Dexter Morgan crime fiction series, Dexter being a serial killer with a bit of a moral compass, which I enjoy despite my strong feelings about his criminal activities no matter what the intention.

Then there is Here Comes the Sun by Nicole Dennis-Benn, which deals with the topic of human trafficking in all its ugliness. While the author and I likely share the same opinion of human trafficking, some of her characters made choices that went very much against what I believe to be right. And I think that was part of the point. It was a difficult read, but so worth it. Reality is not always pretty and while some people may choose to only read books that skirt around or avoid reality all together (and there is nothing wrong with this--I like/need to read books for pure escape often myself!), I believe books like Dennis-Benn's bring much needed attention to subject matters that need to be addressed in our society today.

I generally only decide not to finish a book when I am completely and utterly bored with it or the writing is so bad I cannot get passed it. It's rare it has anything to do with challenging any strong opinion I have. There are certain books I may avoid reading at all because they support a topic or person I feel strongly opposed to--or even just carry certain elements that I do not like to read about--but that is an entirely different discussion for another day . . . 

What about you? Would you stop reading a book that challenged or went against any strong beliefs you may hold?

I hope you all have a great week! Happy Reading!

The Sunday Post is hosted by the wonderful Kimba, the Caffeinated Book Reviewer, and gives us all a chance to recap our week, talk about what we are reading, share any new books that have come our way, and whatever else we want to talk about. 

---

 © 2017, Wendy Runyon of Musings of a Bookish Kitty. All Rights Reserved. If you're reading this on a site other than Musings of a Bookish Kitty or Wendy's feed, be aware that this post has been stolen and is used without permission.