Book Club: The Time Keeper
Hello.
How are you?
It’s a new year…whatdayaknow? (It’s almost March….gol dernit!) As always the new year brings on evaluation for me, but it doesn’t always bring change. Why is it so hard to change? Change my attitude, change my routine, change my eating and spending habits, pray more, love more, care more, serve more.
Maybe I put too much pressure on myself….too much change all at one time. My “word’ this is is Focus…guess I best be doing that!
But there are all these things I want to do….so many ideas of things to write, pies to bake, businesses to start. I need more time.
Do any of you have some time you can give me? I’d gladly pay you for it ;).
It’s the age old problem isn’t it? Unless your Styx…what was with those guys anyway? Such a calamity.
I think I shared with you that our January book club book was Mitch Alboms The Time Keeper. The perfect book to start the year off! The perfect book to give me a little perspective on TIME, and how much time I spend thinking about time, worrying about time, racing against time.
Why do we focus so much on time? Do you find yourself perseverating on time? (I’ve always wanted to use that word…sorry Imadork, cause I probably didnt even use it correctly….please indulge me and let it go if I didn’t.)
After pondering the topic for a bit, I realized how my life is completely “time” focused. I tell myself, I can have 10 minutes for this, 1 hour for that, OH my GOSH I gotta go…its TIME to pick my child up for this or that and get them here or there. OK now I will do this for 5 minutes. I even set the timer on my phone so I don’t loose track of time. WHY? Why can’t I just go about my day, once in a while, and live it. Just plain LIVE it out.
I also realized, since reading this book, how often during my morning devotional and prayer time that I ask God for more time, for time to slow down, that I would find more time.
Realizing this really saddened me. How I am focusing so much on this thing called “TIME” and not really focusing on what God wants for my life…trusting Him with my time! Why can’t I just let a day slip away with out a schedule….just one day!
So now if you’ll excuse me for a sec…I’m going to step down from my soap box.
OOOomph…ugh…mmm, ruffle shmuffle. (I fell)
My mini review of this book…
The Time Keeper was the perfect book to start our 2013 book club out with. It was a quick read, but it wasn’t with out substance. It made us think. I know that it’s fiction, but the whole idea of God punishing someone for discovering time…sort of nagged at me. As did other parts of the story, it didn’t all jive with my belief system, or what I know about history etc. But like I said it’s fiction and I did enjoy the characters, and found myself relating to them, so from that perspective this book was good.
Inside the Cover:
Here’s what GoodReads has to say….in a nutshell:
In this fable, the first man on earth to count the hours becomes Father Time. The inventor of the world’s first clock is punished for trying to measure God’s greatest gift. He is banished to a cave for centuries and forced to listen to the voices of all who come after him seeking more days, more years. Eventually, with his soul nearly broken, Father Time is granted his freedom, along with a magical hourglass and a mission: a chance to redeem himself by teaching two earthly people the true meaning of time.
He returns to our world–now dominated by the hour-counting he so innocently began–and commences a journey with two unlikely partners: one a teenage girl who is about to give up on life, the other a wealthy old businessman who wants to live forever. To save himself, he must save them both. And stop the world to do so.
Overall
We all agreed this book was worth our time. It drew out good discussion, and we all enjoyed it. The BUC’s gave The Timer Keeper a THUMBS UP!
Details of the Night
Missy was our gracious host. She set a beautiful table with all sorts of time pieces here and there. It was so thoughtful! And the food was scrumptious yet simple. Perfect. Missy also served a delicious hot drink with or without spiced rum…it was perfect for warming us all up on a freezing cold January night!
Hot Jello Tea this is not the exact drink, but looked similar to the recipe served. Add the Spiced Rum please and thank you!
Missy also served was a beautiful array of fruits, a Marinated Shrimp Salad and THIS appetizer
Over all we as always had a great time!
Coming up: Let’s Pretend This Never Happened (a mostly true memoir) by Jenny Lawson
Jenny also has a blog..that is quite interesting. TheBloggess.com. Warning I am about half way through this book and I have laughed out loud at least 20 times, peed my pants once and gasped loud enough to make my sleeping husband wake up at least 5 times, this book is not for the faint of heart, or for those of you apposed to a few F bombs, not that I condone F bombs…but this book is….well lets just say I can’t wait for the next BUC’s meeting!
Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand will be up for May.
What are you reading? Have you read any of these books? What did you think?
Hi-I just started following your blog and love it. My two favorite things food and books..well coffee too. I read through all your book club books and jotted a few down to read. Thanks. I have a suggestion for you to try, Into the Forest by Jean Hegland. I had never heard of this book and picked it up at a rummage sale. Won’t say more about it, read it or not. Thanks for the great blog, now I’m going to start on the recipes. They look wonderful. Keep on blogging neighbor(I’m from Wisconsin)
Wendy, HUGS my new friend. Thank you so much for taking the time to comment and say Hi…it means the world to me! And thanks for the book suggestion. Are you on Good Reads? I love that site! Have a great day, Sheila
Unbroken is excellent–it’s great that you’re going to read it. I’m reading War Horse now. It’s written from the perspective of the horse, Joey, which is a little odd.
Kirstin,
I just read The Art of Racing through the Rain, which was from the perspective of a dog. I loved this book. War Horse sounds interesting, was the movie made from this book? Sheila
Yes, the movie and the musical are based on the book by Michael Morpurgo. It’s a children’s book but a lot of adults read it too.
I just finished The Time Keeper as well. I loved Let’s Pretend this Never Happened. Jenny cracks me up. Unbroken is so wonderful, an amazing book, I hope you enjoy them!! Now I need a good book to read 🙂
I’m glad you enjoyed it too! I was in the book store the other day, I could have walked out with a pile of books. It overwhelms me how many books are on my want to read list. One of my all time favorites, is Randy Alcorns Safely Home. Happy reading!
Perhaps if you had more TIME, you could get all those many, many books on your list read!!