Our Page Turners group gave The Year of Living Biblically by A.J. Jacobs a 4.5 out of 5. Most of us in the group thought it was hilarious in many parts and thought-provoking in others. The majority of our members are Christians but none seemed to be offended by the premise or the silly results of applying the commands of the Bible literally. At least one person thought it was too silly and did not finish. Another did not find it all that well-written but most of us loved it, rating it 4 or 5. Some of the members said it made them laugh out loud and more than one made someone else listen to portions of it. We did agree that more conservative Christians might not find quite so much humor.
I found a discussion guide and a very interesting Q and A with the author regarding the book at the following site:
http://www.ajjacobs.com/books/yolb.asp?id=guide
We generally take turns providing refreshments for the group and occasionally we try to fit the food or drink to the theme of the book. I made "scripture cake" for this meeting---what could be more perfect? This is sort of a fruity, spicey cake with figs, almonds, raisins, cinnamon and other spices. Tasty but a little labor-intensive. The recipe gives scriptures that mention ingredients and you are meant to look them up in the Bible. There are several variations of the recipe: just Google Bible Cake or Scripture Cake. I used one with a "cheat sheet"! We had grape juice to drink---wine would have been better but we meet in the church at 10 in the morning, for goodness sake!
A few in the group had heard about a related book: A Year of Biblical Womanhood: How a Liberated Woman Found Herself Sitting on Her Roof, Covering Her Head, and Calling Her Husband Master by Rachel Held Evans. Some of us saw the author on the "Today" show but one brought an article from Sojourners, November, 2012. An interview with the author informs us that Ms. Evans had read Mr. Jacobs' book about living Biblically and was taken with the idea of how different it would be from a woman's perspective. Apparently Ms. Evans is a Christian, as opposed to A.J. Jacobs self-description, a "reverent agnostic." I am going to read this one. I wonder if others in our group will, too.
No comments:
Post a Comment