The Five Love Languages by Gary Chapman

This is a book about relationships and how to love. Melissa recommended it to me and I thought it was very good. I was able to determine that my love language is Quality Time. Basically that means that I need John to spend time with me when we're not distracted by other things. Since we're in a long distance relationship right now, that is kind of hard, but even a phone call every day or two where I can tell he's actually paying attention to me only and not his homework or the tv or whatever else. Unfortunately I'm not actually getting quite that kind of attention right now, but hopefully John will also read this book, like I suggested to him, and he'll figure out what it is I need. Don't get me wrong... I have asked for this kind of attention, many times. But sometimes guys just don't get it.

I'd also like to find out what John's love language is. I think part of the problem with a long distance relationship is that I don't know him as well as I'd like to, so I can't figure it out as easily as I might be able to if he were actually around a lot of the time.

I would recommend this book to anyone who is in a relationship or might want to be in a relationship someday. Heck, anyone else too. I saw some things that made my reactions at work make a lot more sense too.

The Constant Princess by Philippa Gregory

The Constant Princess tells the story of Katherine of Aragon, Queen of England, Henry VIII's first wife. It tells her story from her point of view, starting at age 5 in a siege encampment outside of Granada with her parents, Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand of Spain. She has been betrothed to Prince Arthur of England since the age of 3 and is called the Princess of Wales. Her destiny is to become Queen of England and even at the tender age of 5, she knows it and is determined to hold it. At the age of 15 she sets sail to England and to her wedding. Things get off to a rocky start, but she soon falls madly in love with her new husband and they begin planning what they will do when they are made king and queen. Unfortunately, Arthur dies only 5 months into their marriage, but he extracts a promise from Katherine that she will marry his brother and become queen anyways. She never breaks this promise, although it is many years before she finally succeeds in keeping it. She eventually marries Arthur's brother Henry, who was a spoiled child and turns into a very spoiled man and king, and she pretty much singlehandedly keeps her husband in line (for awhile at least) and the kingdom safe from the Scots and running smoothly.

I loved her determination in a male dominated world to become the woman her mother was, to be a Queen Militant and not just the woman who does whatever her husband says. I also loved how she learned that not everything her mother believed was right and how she chose to not make the same mistakes her mother had made.

The Elegant Gathering of White Snows by Kris Radish

This book is about a group of women who have been meeting together every week for a few years, sharing their lives and bonding with each other. Suddenly, one evening they decide to just start walking. They walk right out the door of the house they were meeting in, taking nothing with them except some old tennis and a few jackest and pretty much don't stop walking for about a week straight. Throughout their walk they tell each other about all their deepest and darkest secrets and it becomes a sort of learning and healing process for each of them. It also becomes a national headliner which makes many other women stop and think about their lives.

I'm not sure I was able to really identify with any of the women in this book individually, but I did understand the general concepts of needing friends and needing to stop and really think about your life. If it's not making you happy, you should change it. I cried a bit during this book; sometimes because the story was sad, but more often because it made me think of something I'm not happy with in my own life.


Book Club comments:

There were only four of us at book club this time, so we didn't end up discussing the book for very long, but overall we seemed to agree that the book was interesting for the most part, made us think about our own lives, but wasn't one of the best books ever written.