Monday, February 01, 2010

The mighty queens of Freeville

Our bookclub meets tonight and we will be enjoying together a great read--The Mighty Queens of Freeville by Amy Dickinson. Amy replaced Ann Landers as "Ask Amy"--and after giving advice to others based on experience and small town values, she collected the snippets and pieces of her own life and put them in this delightful book. Although each chapter has a theme and could stand alone, Amy wanders in and out of her marriage, divorce, her parents' divorce, child rearing, location, age, church, house and career but manages to hold it all together. It's an adventure just following her train of thought.

I just clicked over and looked at her Feb. 1 "Ask Amy" column. Yup. Women are still dumb, after all these years. And I don't mean Amy. They still move in with a boyfriend when they have a primary responsibility to a child; they still can't come up with a put down for a fresh, married man. Don't want to lose the friendship. Duh! Doubt that is his concern.

Read the book. I recommend it. You don't have to be divorced or a single parent to get a lot out of it, but if you are, you'll love it even more.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

So she's been divorced and her parents have been divorced? Where do the small-town values come in? And if she selfishly put her child through the agony of a split home, is she really any smarter than those other women you decry?

Norma said...

Are you saying that divorced women living in small towns whose husband left them for the truck stop waitress or living in London whose spouse left with the cutie down the hall can't have good values? Are you saying because married parents are overall the best plan for raising children, based on all authoritative research, personal experience, and the Bible, that no single parent can do a good job? Are you saying that because a majority of children living in poverty do not have married parents, that commenting on that is demeaning to women? Are you saying you are cranky today and got up on the wrong side of the bed?

Anonymous said...

I'm saying that with half of marriages ending in divorce, you can't blame it all on the extreme scenarios you present. Jesus spoke out against divorce and I'm not afraid to do the same. It's time we started living the scriptures instead of thinking they only apply to other people or can be discarded when life gets hard. Christian conservatives should be taking the lead in recognizing the sanctity of marriage, not making excuses for ourselves.

Norma said...

I don't know what you read into my review, but the author was devastated by her divorce, she had no options, yet she made a very good life for herself and child. She very much believed in the sanctity of marriage in general and hers in particular. Her values weren't shared by her husband.