Ann's Words

Harvest Time!

Posted on September 28, 2019 by Ann Laemmlen Lewis

Today was a perfect day. I love Fall. I love my garden and I love the produce that just keeps coming all summer long. It will be hard to walk away before the last tomatoes are picked and enjoyed. Our days are numbered and I am savoring these times in the yard with the kids.

I made a pot of garden goodness this afternoon with the tomatoes and yellow squash. I just brown a pound of sausage with some onion, while simmering a pot full of cut up garden-ripe tomatoes. When the tomatoes are cooked down, I add the meat and then cut several squash into the pot. I season this with Italian seasonings and herbs from the garden. I love eating this with a slice of Havarti cheese melted over it. Yum!

We also picked some fruit from Farmer Ron’s orchard across the street. I miss him on days like today, but am grateful his orchard lives on, oblivious of the developers who would take the trees down and bring in more homes or apartments.

Today was perfect. My life is perfect. I am so grateful.

Posted in Ann Lewis | Leave a comment

Dad’s 89th Birthday and a Visit to Reedley

Posted on September 24, 2019 by Ann Laemmlen Lewis

John and I flew to Fresno this week to visit my Dad and Kris in Reedley. He turned 89 on September 20th. I gave him the quilt I finished last week called “Worlds Without End.” Something to remember me by in the coming cooler months.

We celebrated Dad’s birthday with his brothers, Henry and Wilfred.

My brother, Eric, and Kris’s boys, Kendal and Trevor with their families:

Kendal and Stacey with their kids Addison and his girlfriend and Hayden.

Trevor and Bianca with daughters Nova,

Birthday Boy! Dad was born 20 September 1930 in Fresno. He grew up in Reedley.

My homeplace:My mom planted this olive tree when I was about 10 years old. She’d be happy to see it flourishing now.

Dad and I had time to go through more things for his history. I was also able to video record quite a few stories from his life. A lot happens in 89 years.We visited the Reedley Cemetery and found Grandpa and Grandma and Dad’s little sister, Ruth.

Dad says he’s got 10 more years in him. I’m glad for that! I will miss him these next 2 years while we’re away.

Posted in Ann Lewis, Family History | Leave a comment

A Small Cog in a Big Wheel

Posted on September 16, 2019 by Ann Laemmlen Lewis

Farewell Talk 15 September 2019

Look back on your life. Can you remember times when you were in the right place at the right time? Hopefully that happens every now and again! Our lives are like tapestries that intertwine with those around us. We often get so caught up in the here and now that we don’t realize what the bigger picture is.

Sometimes it’s good to stop, sit still and look back to see where you’ve been in relation to where you are today. Maybe even list a few of the things –events, people, experiences–that brought you here, right where you are, right now.

I believe that as you look back on your life, you’ll notice things that led you to be in certain places, or to just BE a certain person that allowed Heavenly Father to work through you to bless others. I hope you are recording those paths in your journals!

I’ve been involved with work in Africa off and on for almost 40 years. I went there first as a young missionary in South Africa. I returned to live in Nigeria for 3 years after my mission. John and I have been involved with work in Mali for many years now. We have waited a long time for this opportunity to go serve there as missionaries for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

When we received a phone call more than a year ago, asking if we’d consider serving in Mali we said Absolutely! This mission call has been in the works for a long time now. It’s given us time to look back at our lives and see the interesting ways we’ve been prepared to go to this particular place in West Africa.

Just three days ago, the church announced our legal recognition in Mali. Things have been unfolding there for a long long time. It’s been an interesting process to watch.

This last month we’ve been meeting with a church historian who is in charge of collecting and recording the history of the Church in West Africa. I talked with him this week about his interesting job, watching history unfold as he gathers stories and histories. Often at the time things are happening, those involved have no idea what the outcome will be.

Our conversations reminded me of a talk David McCullough gave in a forum at BYU in 2005. He was talking about the Founding Fathers and how at the time they had no idea what the outcome of their actions would be. He started his masterful discourse by saying:

One of the hardest, and I think the most important, realities of history to convey to students or readers of books or viewers of television documentaries is that nothing ever had to happen the way it happened. Any great past event could have gone off in any number of different directions for any number of different reasons. We should understand that history was never on a track. It was never preordained that it would turn out as it did.

Very often we are taught history as if it were predetermined, and if that way of teaching begins early enough and is sustained through our education, we begin to think that it had to have happened as it did. We think that there had to have been a Revolutionary War, that there had to have been a Declaration of Independence, that there had to have been a Constitution, but never was that so. In history, chance plays a part again and again. Character counts over and over. Personality is often the determining factor in why things turn out the way they do. . . . And just as we don’t know how things are going to turn out, they didn’t either.

I believe there is a Grand Plan, but I also believe that Heavenly Father uses whoever shows up to help that plan unfold.

How interesting that this great historian believes that personality is often the determining factor in why things turn out the way they do.

SO, what’s in our personalities? How can we make ourselves more available? More service-minded? More aware of those around us? More willing to help? Do we find a need and fill it? Or do we just sit and watch? How can we change our mind set from “what can I get out of this?” to “what can I give to this?” My father used to say “there are 3 kinds of people: those who make things happen, those who watch things happen and those who wonder what happened.”

Sometimes we stay put or we don’t act because we fear we might miss out on something. That’s called FOMO. Fear Of Missing Out. If we go on a mission we might miss our kids or our grandkids. We might miss a recital or soccer game. But what do we gain and what do our kids (or our missionaries) gain by our going?

When we left for Yakima 4 years ago, Pres Eyring told John and me, “Your children will be more blessed by your going than by your staying.” Now I know he was right. That makes it easier to leave again.

The things we do don’t have to be big or grand. They just have to be Something. Alma teaches by small and simple things are great things brought to pass.

Elder Maxwell (April 2000) said:
Yearning for expanded opportunities while failing to use those at hand is bad form spiritually.

Sometimes it’s just a matter of showing up! Be a warm body. Be present. Sometimes just being there for someone else is enough. We are all little cogs in a great big wheel. Be a helpful, useful cog!

If someone you need doesn’t show up, perhaps they’re a cog in someone else’s wheel. Be patient. Focus on where you need to be, not where others need to be.

Oprah Winfrey said, speaking to this year’s Graduating class at Colorado College:
“The truth is, you cannot fix everything. But what you can do, here and now, is make a decision, because life is about decisions. And the decision is that you will use your life in service; you will be in service to life. You will speak up. You will show up. You will stand up. You will sit in. You will volunteer. You will vote. You will shout out. You will help. You will lend a hand. You will offer your talent and your kindness however you can, and you will radically transform whatever moment you’re in . . . . — which leads to bigger moments.”

Be that person who tries, who shows up, who steps out of a comfort zone. Be an answer to the prayer someone else offers. Be available. Let your personality take you places.

Sister Bonnie D. Parkin, former General Relief Society President said:
“We are all required to make journeys of faith. That is the gospel plan. [Y]our path may not be crossing an ocean or walking alone from an empty train station. But whatever it is, it will demand faith in every footstep. Years from now your grandchildren will tell with amazement stories of your choices which changed their lives. You will be called their pioneers. Have you ever thought that as you step into the unknown you are showing others the way?”

I pray we will all be brave enough to embark, to show up, to serve.

Posted in Ann Lewis, Insights and Thoughts | 3 Comments

Timpanogos Storytelling Festival 2019

Posted on September 8, 2019 by Ann Laemmlen Lewis

I’ve just spent two days at the Timpanogos Storytelling Festival at nearby Thanksgiving Point in Lehi, Utah. Thirty years ago this festival started in Karen Ashton’s backyard. She invited me then, and she’s invited me every year since. It was nice to be back in town this year able to attend. I took some stitching and settled in for hour after hour of wonderful storytelling.

Donald Davis is my favorite teller. He always speaks to my heart. He’s like a national treasure and he always reminds us to tell our stories and to keep others alive by telling their stories. He made an interesting comment this time about a tradition in sub-Sahara Africa. He said to these Africans, there are 3 states of being: Alive, Dead and the Living Dead. The Living Dead are those who have passed on but who still have someone on earth who remembers them and talks about them. I like thinking about what I can do to keep my ancestors alive here.Each evening everyone gathered in the amphitheater for a huge storytelling party.It was magical, restful and insightful to have time to sit and listen and learn and feel and to laugh a lot.

I enjoyed these program pages looking back and honoring my dear friend Karen. Karen and I have been in a weekly quilting group for years. Our husbands worked together before that. She is a dear dear friend who is kind and generous. Last week we bumped into each other in Kansas City where we talked about quilts and family. This week we shared this wonderful festival. I’m grateful to have been there with Karen and so many other dear friends.

Posted in Ann Lewis, Family History | Leave a comment

Faithful Saints

Posted on September 1, 2019 by Ann Laemmlen Lewis

My daughter, Claire is spending this Labor Day weekend up north at Bear Lake. She snapped this photo this morning at church there. It makes me so happy, to see so many good people on vacation, finding the nearest church so they can worship. The chapel is full, the cultural hall is full and the hallways are full of faithful Saints with heads bowed in prayer. I am grateful to be able to worship as I choose, and to be surrounded by good faithful people who do the same, wherever they might be.

Posted in Ann Lewis, Insights and Thoughts | Leave a comment

Family Trip to Kansas City, 21-28 August 2019

Posted on August 30, 2019 by Ann Laemmlen Lewis

We decided we had time to get the whole family together once more before we leave, so we packed up the Utah gang and flew to Kansas City before our summer vacation time ended. We just needed a little more time with the adorable grandchildren and their parents, Adam and Heidi.

Here is where Adam and Heidi live in Kansas City, Missouri:

Adam and Heidi’s KC apartment (right side)

At the top of our family list was FOOD. Particularly Kansas City BBQ! Joe’s Diner was our first stop on the way home from the airport.

The next day we visited some important Church History sites in Independence, Liberty and Richmond. We learned about some of the hardships of the early Saints.

This is the Community of Christ worship place. They call it a temple. You can go there to pray for world peace.

We are always good for a doughnut stop when we’re on vacation!

Liberty Jail:

David Whitmer’s grave at the Richmond cemetery:

Oliver Cowdery’s grave at the Richmond Old Pioneer Cemetery:

Also in Richmond:

River walk along the Missouri River:

Being Grandparents = the Best Thing Ever.

We are all here except for Josie who was in the stroller:Kansas City Public Library:

Saturday’s Farmer’s Market:

We found an African grocery store!

A perfect little family!More BBQ. Delicious!Sunday at church near the Kansas City Temple:

Visiting Kansas City University where Adam is learning to be a Doctor:Lecture hall:This technology projects from this huge iPad-sort of thing onto the wall–life-sized body parts and things:Adam is a Fellow this year. That means he’s teaching, not being a student. He is teaching the first year students anatomy. He spends his days in the cadaver lab. This is is office:

More family time:We had a week with Adam, Heidi, Clark and Josie. It’s not easy to say goodbye, especially for 2 years. Can I just say these adorable children are perfect? They’ll be all grown up when we see them again. Oh how we love our family!

Posted in Ann Lewis, Lewis Family | Leave a comment

Opportunity Cost

Posted on August 11, 2019 by Ann Laemmlen Lewis

I led the discussion today in our Relief Society class. The assigned topic was a talk given by President Oaks in last April’s General Conference called “Where Will This Lead?” He began with the premise, “We make better choices and decisions if we look at the alternatives and ponder where they will lead.”

In his comments, President Oaks used a term I’d never heard before. When I mentioned that term to my millennial son Aaron, he knew exactly what I was talking about.

President Oaks said:

“We make many choices between two goods, often involving how we will spend our time. There is nothing bad about playing video games or texting or watching TV or talking on a cell phone. But each of these involves what is called “opportunity cost,” meaning that if we spend time doing one thing, we lose the opportunity to do another. I am sure you can see that we need to measure thoughtfully what we are losing by the time we spend on one activity, even if it is perfectly good in itself.”

What a perfect label for something I think about All The Time. Now I know what to call it. I’ve been thinking about one of the first times I became acutely aware of opportunity cost. I was 22 years old, a student at BYU, living with roommates. I was also preparing to be a missionary. I had friends and roommates who questioned my desire to step away from our social world and dating for 18 months to go wherever I would be sent. Several friends told me, “I’d rather stay home and get married than go on a mission.”

I left those friends and spent 18 months in South Africa. I was 24 years old when I returned. I remember visiting many of my old friends who had stayed at home to get married. Many were still single. I had gone and come back with the world in my heart, and they were much the same. They had missed an incredible opportunity.

Descriptions of Opportunity Cost: a benefit, profit, or value of something that must be given up to acquire or achieve something else. Since every resource (land, money, time, etc.) can be put to alternative uses, every action, choice, or decision has an associated opportunity cost. The opportunity cost is the missed potential gain from the choice that is NOT taken. When economists refer to the “opportunity cost” of a resource, they mean the value of the next-highest-valued alternative use of that resource. If, for example, you spend time and money going to a movie, you cannot spend that time at home reading a book, and you can’t spend the money on something else. There can never be zero opportunity cost for anything that we human beings do in this life. Every choice has an opportunity cost. There will be times when our opportunity cost cannot really be expressed in terms of money, but the cost is still there.

An unfinished sign sits in my office: a clean house is the sign of a wasted life. Maybe someday I’ll do the stitching to finish it. I showed this sign to the ladies today and we all laughed, but that sign has been something I’ve looked at every day for years. Now I have the vocabulary to explain what it means to me: opportunity cost.

I am asked pretty regularly if I ever sleep. I do. Every single night. But when I’m awake, I try really really hard to use my time doing the most important things I know how to do, or doing things that will outlast me. My dear mentor, Mary Ellen Edmunds taught me long ago the importance of “leaving yourself behind.” I do that with words. I do that with quilts. I do that as I gather family history stories. I’d like to leave something beautiful or meaningful behind when I go. I may not always succeed, but I try hard to.

Today in our Relief Society class, we talked about ways we can improve how we spend our time. We talked about making better choices so we don’t miss out on the important stuff. As we went around the room, each friend and neighbor told one thing they would like to change to live more deliberately. It was enlightening. I love that we are all in this together, cheering each other on.

Here are a few other thoughts and quotes I shared with the women today:

The Prophet Jacob gives this counsel:
“Wherefore, do not spend money for that which is of no worth, nor your labor for that which cannot satisfy. Hearken diligently unto me, and remember the words which I have spoken; and come unto the Holy One of Israel, and feast upon that which perisheth not, neither can be corrupted.” (2 Nephi 9:51)

The Savior taught the following to both the Jews and the Nephites:
“Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal:

“But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:

“For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” (Matthew 6:19-21 and 3 Nephi 13:19-21)

Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf gave the following counsel not too long ago:
“Our Heavenly Father sees our real potential. He knows things about us that we do not know ourselves. He prompts us during our lifetime to fulfill the measure of our creation, to live a good life, and to return to His presence.

“Why, then, do we devote so much of our time and energy to things that are so fleeting, so inconsequential, and so superficial? Do we refuse to see the folly in the pursuit of the trivial and transient?” (General Conference October 2012, Of Regrets and Resolutions)

Sharon Eubank:
I know this isn’t unique to me, but sometimes I’m so pressed with everything I have to do that I often don’t even know what the priority is. I have started asking the Lord every morning, “What is one thing you want me to do today?” I’m a maximizer, and I tend to think if one thing is good then five are better and ten are best. Then I’m overwhelmed. So, I’ve calculated if I do one thing that comes through inspiration, 365 times per year for 50 years, that will be a total of 18,250 things that the Lord wanted done. He has counted on me 18,250 times, and I have tried to respond. That is no small thing!

One of the greatest feelings is to know when you go to bed at night that you did the best you could that day. Offer it to the Lord: “I did my best. Will you please use my offering and augment it with the grace of Jesus Christ?” And then wake up and try again the next day. I have learned so much by doing this. I had no idea how creative the Spirit can be! Some of my “one” things have been making a phone call, teaching kids to play Yahtzee, listening to a forgetful friend tell stories I’ve already heard, and once it was taking a nap.(BYU Women’s Conference, 23 May 2018, “Doing Better Doesn’t Mean Doing More”)

President Russell M. Nelson:
Spend more time on your knees in prayer, more time in the scriptures, more time in family history work, more time in the temple. I promise you that as you consistently give the Lord a generous portion of your time, He will multiply the remainder. (Worldwide Devotional for Young Adults • January 10, 2016 • Brigham Young University–Hawaii)

See also this post from a year ago: https://annlaemmlenlewis.com/2018/07/27/i-was-given-a-gift/

What ideas do you have about what you might change to have no opportunity cost regrets?

Posted in Insights and Thoughts | Leave a comment

The Martin and Elizabeth Degen Bushman Bible

Posted on August 6, 2019 by Ann Laemmlen Lewis

I held in my hands a treasure today. This is the Martin Bushman Family Bible that was published and sold by Kimber and Sharpless at their bookstore in Philadelphia in 1833.

Last week at the Elias Bushman reunion in Lehi, I met Don and Karen Bushman from Herriman, Utah. They told me they had this family Bible in their possession. I was so excited to learn where this Bible has been. I made arrangements for Don and Karen to come to my home today with this beautiful family treasure. Below is a photo of this Bible that has been in our Bushman family records, so I knew it was out there somewhere, I just didn’t know where to find it.

Holding something in your hands that your loved ones held in theirs is a sweet thing.Martin and Elisabeth Bushman were taught the gospel of Jesus Christ from missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1840 in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. This would have been the Bible they studied from.

Martin’s signature dated 1833:

Here is where they read from James 1:5, as Joseph Smith once did, learning that if anyone lacks wisdom, they should ask of God who gives liberally to us if we ask in faith:

Here are the family records recorded by Martin and Elizabeth. Jacob Bushman (top right), their 3rd child, is my 2nd Great-grandfather.

Inside the back cover:

Don and Karen Bushman, who kindly shared this treasure with me today and allowed me to photograph these sacred pages. Not only did they bring this family Bible, they brought photos and histories and family memorabilia which I also photographed and will be adding to FamilySearch as I have time. Today was a Really Good Day!

Posted in Family History | Leave a comment

Erudite Book Club Reading List 1987 to Present

Posted on August 5, 2019 by Ann Laemmlen Lewis

Here is our Erudite Book Club Reading List. Each year each member can suggest up to 5 books. They have 1 minute per book to sell the book selection committee on their recommendations. We do this at an evening dinner party. The selection committee is made up of 3 members and it rotates through the club from year to year.

ERUDITUS BOOK LIST

1987-1988
Les Miserables, Victor Hugo
Two From Galilee, Marjorie Holmes
The Road Less Traveled, M. Scott Peck M.D.
Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy
Much Ado About Nothing, William Shakespeare
Anne Of Green Gables, L.M. Montgomery
Miracle At Philadelphia, Catherine Drinker Bowen
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, Agatha Christy
A Stranger for Christmas, Carol Lynn Pearson
Benjamin Franklin Autobiography

1988-1989
City of Joy, Lapierre
Watership Down, Richard Adams
Screwtape Letters/
Mere Christianity C.S. Lewis
Love Is Eternal, Irving Stone
Exodus, Leon Uris
The Dollmaker, Harriette Arnow
Walden, Thoreau
Mig Pilot, John Barron
East of Eden, John Steinbeck
The Once and Future King, T.H. White
Three Blind Mice, Agatha Christy

1989-1990
The Silver Chalice, Thomas Costain
The Woman In White, Wilkie Collins
Life and Death in Shanghai, Nien Cheng
A Separate Peace, John Knowles
How Green Was My Valley, Richard Llewellyn
Lake Wobegone Days, Garrison Keillor
Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Betty Smith
The Briography of Hugh B. Brown, Firmage

1990-1991
Turn of the Screw, Henry James
Shell Seekers, Rosamunde Pilcher
Saints, Orson Scott Card
Everything I Ever Wanted to Know I Learned In Kindergarten, Robert Fulgam
A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens
The Seventh Son, Orson Scott Card
Eleni, Nicholas Gage
Cold Sassy Tree, Olive A. Burns
Follow The River, James Thom

1991-1992
The Mayor of Casterbridge, Thomas Hardy
A Girl of the Limberlost, Gene S. Porter
Autobiography of Parley P. Pratt
Kaffir Boy, Mark Mathabane
The Education of Little Tree, Forrest Carter
Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant, Anne Tyler
Only When I Laugh, Eloise Bell
Mila 18, Leon Uris
The Spy Wore Red, Alice, Countess of Romanones

1992-1993
Hawaii, James A. Michener
Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe, Fannie Flagg
The Brothers Karamozov, Fyodor Dostoevsky
The Ladies of Missalonghi, Colleen McCullough
My Name Is Asher Lev, Chaim Potok
Tuck Everlasting, Natalie Babbit
The Unexpected Mrs. Polifax, Dorothy Gilman
Powder Keg, Leo V. Gordon/Richard Vetterli
The Lacemaker, Janine Montupet

1993-1994
The Stolen White Elephant, Mark Twain
A Thousand Acres, Jane Smiley
Hero and the Crown, R. McKinley
Walking Across Egypt, Clyde Edgerton
The Bridges of Madison County, Robert James Waller
Animal Dreams, Barbara Kingsolver
The Way Things Ought To Be, Rush Limbaugh
Roots, Alex Haley
Midwife’s Tale, Laurel Ulrich
Emma, Jane Austen

1994-1995
Freedom At Midnight, Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre
All Creatures Great and Small, James Herriot
Stones For Ibarra, Harriet Doerr
The Westing Game, Ellen Raskin
To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee
My Antonia, Willa Cather
One Child, Torey L. Hayden
Fatherland, Robert Harris
Angle of Repose, Wallace Stegner

1995-1996
Princess, Jean Sasson
A Woman of Egypt, Jihan Sadat
The Robe, Lloyd C. Douglas
The Power of One, Bryce Courtney
Middlemarch, George Eliot
Good Night Mr. Tom, Michelle Magorian
A Yellow Raft in Blue Water, Michael Dorris
Vienna Prelude, Bodie Thoene
Wild Swans, Jung Chang
The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde

1996-1997
Mutant Message Down Under, Marlo Morgan
All God’s Critters Got a Place in the Choir, Ulrich/Thatcher
Far From the Madding Crowd, Thomas Hardy
The Giver, Lois Lowrey
Andersonville, Mackinley Kantor
Jamaica Inn, Daphne DuMaurier
Nobody Don’t Love Nobody, Stacey Bess
Sense and Sensibility, Jane Austin
A Town Like Alice, Nevil Shute
First Ladies, Margaret Truman
Faust, Goethe
In their Own Words: Women and the Story of Nauvoo, Carol Cornwall Madsen

1997-1998
The Gathering of Zion, Wallace Stegner
A Mother’s Ordeal, Steve Mosher
Go Forward With Faith, Sheri L. Dew
Henry the Fifth, William Shakespeare
Murder on the Potomac, Margaret Truman
Stones From the River, Ursula Hegi
The Hundred Secret Senses, Amy Tan
Nicholas and Alexandra, Robert K. Massie
The Eight, Katherine Neville

1998-1999
The Color of Water, James McBride
The Face of a Stranger, Anne Perry
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, Mark Twain
A Lantern in Her Hand, Bess Streeter Aldrich
Malkeh and Her Children, Marjorie Edelsen
A Wrinkle in Time, Madeleine L’Engle
I Am the Clay, Chaim Potok
The Glass Lake, Maeve Binchy
The Man Who Listens to Horses, Monty Roberts

1999-2000
A Civil Action, Jonathan Harr
Father Elijah-An Apocalypse, Michael D. O’Brien
The Scarlet Pimpernel, Baroness Emmuska Orczy
At Home in Mitford, Jan Karon
The Children, David Halberstam
Mourning Dove, Larry Barkdull
Cold Mountain, Charles Frazier
The Maltese Falcon, Dashiell Hammett
Memoirs of a Geisha, Arthur Golden

2000-2001
Out of the Dust, Karen Hesse
War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy
Standing for Something, Gordon B. Hinckley
Rocket Boys (October Sky), Homer H. Hickman
Excellent Women, Barbara Pym
The Book Club, Mary Alice Monroe
Walk Two Moons, Sharon Creech
Here Be Dragons, Sharon Kay Penman
Ender’s Game, Orson Scott Card

2001-2002
The Greatest Generation, Tom Brokaw
Holes, Louis Sachar
The Poisonwood Bible, Barbara Kingsolver
Galileo’s Daughter, Dava Sobel
Bourne Identity, Robert Ludlum
The Count of Monte Cristo, Alexander Dumas
The Red Tent, Anita Diamant
Possession, A. S. Byatt
The Silver Crown, Robert O’Brien
A Mormon Mother, Annie Clark Tanner

2002-2003
Cry, the Beloved Country, Alan Paton
The Real George Washington, Parry
The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne
The Other Side of Heaven, John H. Groberg
Bonds That Make Us Free, C. Terry Warner
Stolen Lives, Malika Oufkir
The Trumpeter of Krakow, Eric P. Kelly
From Sea to Shining Sea, James Alexander Thom
The Samurai’s Garden, Gail Tsukiyama

2003-2004
Time and Again, Alan Paton
The Nine Brides and Granny Hite, Neill C. Wilson
John Adams, David McCullough
Danny the Champion of the World, Roald Dahl
Hallelujah, J. Scott Featherstone
Peace Like a River, Leif Enger
Seabiscuit, Laura Hillenbrand
Beethoven’s Hair, Russell Martin
The House of Mirth, Edith Wharton
My Grandfather’s Blessings, Rachel Naomi Remen, M.D.

2004-2005
These Is My Words, Nancy E. Turner
The Persian Pickle Club, Sandra Dallas
Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage, Alfred Lansing
The Five People You Meet in Heaven, Mitch Albom
The Far Pavillions, M. M. Kaye
Forever, Erma Erma Bombeck
The President’s Lady, Irving Stone
The Killer Angels, Michael Shaara
Joan of Arc, Mark Twain
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader , C. S. Lewis

2005-2006
Don Quixote, Cervantes
Charlotte’s Rose, Elaine Cannon
Flag of Our Fathers, James Bradley
The History of Joseph Smith, Lucy Mack Smith
Wish You Well, David Baldacci
Persuasion, Jane Austin
Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini
Johnstown Flood, David McCullough
All But My Life, Gerta Weissman Klien

2006-2007
Eat Cake, Jeanne Ray
Good Hope Road, Lisa Wingate
A Train to Potevka, Mike Ramsdell
Goose, Girl/Princess Academy, Shannon Hale
Night, Elie Wiesel
The Book Thief, Markus Zusak
Fire in the Bones, S. Michael Wilcox
March, Geraldine Brooks
Bound for Canaan, Furgus M. Bordewich
1776, David McCullough

2007-2008
The Emperors of Chocolate, Joel Glenn Brenner
A Girl Named Zippy, Haven Kimmel
The Faith Club, Ranya Idliby, Suzanne Oliver/Priscilla Warner
The Ladies Auxiliary, Tova Mirvis
The Mayflower, Nathaniel Philbrick
I Capture the Castle, Dodie Smith
The Warden, Anthony Trollope
Left to Tell, Immaculee Ilibagiza
The Peacegiver, James L. Ferrell
The Professor and the Madman, Simon Winchester

2008-2009
Unlikely Heroes, Ron Carter
Each Little Bird That Sings/
Love, Ruby Lavender, Deborah Wiles
Three Cups of Tea, Greg Mortenson & David Oliver Relin
Mormon Scientist, Henry J. Eyring
The Citadel, A.J. Cronin
Can’t Wait to Get to Heaven, Fannie Flag
Wives and Daughters, Elizabeth Gaskill
Moloka’i, Alan Brennert
The Agony and the Ecstasy, Irving Stone
To Destroy You is No Loss, Joan Criddle & Teeda Butt Mam

2009-2010
Letters of a Woman Homesteader, Elinore Pruitt Stewart
Cold Comfort Farm, Stella Gibbons
A Thousand Splendid Suns, Khaled Hosseini
The Guernsey Literacy &,Potato Peel Pie Society, Shaffer & Barrows
The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell
Red Bird Christmas, Fanny Flagg
Team of Rivals, Doris Kearns Goodwin
Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson
Dark Tide, Stephen Puleo
The Quilters Legacy, Jennifer Chiaverini

2010-2011
Massacre at Mountain Meadows, Walker, Turley, & Leonard
Your Choice-Books by Richard Peck Richard Peck
The Help, Kathryn Stockett
Jayber Crow, Wendell Berry
Miracles on the Water, Tom Nagorski
Yearning for the Living God, F. Enzio Busche
Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte
Uprising, Margaret P. Haddix
The Blue Star, Tony Earley
Lighting Out for the Territory, Roy Morris, Jr.

End of 2011 (Calendar Changed)
Lives of the Signers of the Declaration of Independence, Benson J Lossing
Lark Rise to Candleford, Flora Thompson
Maise Dobbs, Jacque Winspear
Chains, Laurie Halse Anderson

2012
The Shape of Mercy, Susan Meissner
Jubilee Trail, Gwen Bristow
Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Harriet Beecher Stowe
Candle in the Darkness, Lynn Austin
The Forgotten Garden, Kate Morton
Understood Betsy, Dorothy Canfield
The Prize Winner of Defiance Ohio, Terry Ryan
Eve: Choices Made in Heaven, Beverly Campbell
Women of Character, Susan Black & MJ Woodger
Half the Sky, Nicolas Kristol

2013-14 (Calendar Changed Back)
Destiny of a Republic, Candice Millard
Gifts of Imperfection, Brene Brown
April 1865, Jay Winik
The Tenant of Wildfell, Hall Ann Bronte
Unbroken, Laura Hillenbrand
Major Petigrew’s Last Stand, Helen Simonson
Catherine the Great, Robert Massie
Saving CeeCee Honeycut, Beth Hoffman
Mao’s Last Dancer, Cunxin Li
Between Shades of Gray, Ruta Sepetys
The Well and the Mine, Gin Phillips
Shiloh Autumn, Brodie & Brock Thoene
North and South, Elizabeth Gaskell
Candy Bombers, Andrei Cherry

2014-2015
George Washington’s Secret Six, Brian Kilmeade
The All-Girl Filling Station’s Last Reunion, Fanny Flagg
The Rent Collector, Camron Wright
Moon Over Manifest, Clare Vanderpool
The Secret Keeper, Kate Morton
The Language of Flowers, Vanessa Diffenbaugh
No Name, Wilkie Collins
One Summer, America, 1927, Bill Bryson
Orphan Train, Christina Baker Kline

2015-2016
Esperanza Rising, Pam Munoz Ryan
Boys in the Boat, Daniel James Brown
The Invention of Wings, Sue Monk Kidd
Rebecca, Daphne DuMaurier
The God Who Weeps, Terryl & Fiona Givens
Leave it to Psmith, P.G. Wodehouse
Great Expectations, Charles Dickens
Some Kind of Different As Me, Ron Hall and Denver Moore
Half-Broke Horses, Jeannette Walls

2016-2017
Julius Caesar, William Shakespeare
I Feel Bad About My Neck, Nora Ephron
The Nazi Officer’s Wife, Edith Beers & Susan Dworkin
River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt’s Darkest Journey, Candice Millard
Friendly Persuasion, Jessamyn West
The Residence, Kate Anderson Brower
Quiet, Susan Cain
Wednesday Wars, Gary D. Schmidt
Deadwake, Eric Larsen
The Lake House, Kate Morton

2017-2018
Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe
The Grave’s a Fine and Private Place, Alan Bradley
The Hired Girl, Laura Amy Schlitz
Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare
Before We Were Yours, Lisa Wingate
Peace for a Palestinian, Sahar Qumsiyeh
Ordinary Grace, William Kent Krueger
Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in Korea, Barbara Demick
Beneath a Scarlet Sky, Mark Sullivan
Shoe Dog, Phil Knight

2019-2020
Rocket Men, Robert Kurson
Rora, James Byron Huggins
The Storytellers’ Secret, Sejal Badani
A Piece of the World, Christina Baker Kline
Gilead, Marilynn Roginson
We Were the Lucky Ones, Georgia Hunter
Immortal Irishman, Timothy Egans
My Dear Hamilton, Stephanie Dray
Where the Crawdads Sing, Delia Owens

Posted in Ann Lewis, Books | 2 Comments

Sundance Book Club Retreat 2019

Posted on August 4, 2019 by Ann Laemmlen Lewis

These are some of my dearest friends. We’ve been in a book club together since 1987, the year I returned from living in Nigeria. Every year at the end of summer we have a very fun book club retreat at our Sundance cabin.

Shelley DeVries

Kristy McDowell

Virginia Bryson

Lori Munk

Shauna Gustafsson

Lori Weintz

Stephanie Hofeling

Shirleen Saunders

Cathy Duffin

Debbie Herburg

Ann Lewis

Julie Treadwell

Lori King

Missing here: Nicki Nebekker, Jan Kocherhans and Kitty Bittner

We have a lot of fun at the cabin, mostly visiting. We bring all sorts of projects to work on, including humanitarian projects and quilts. We play lots of games and we watch good movies. Of course food is always a highlight. This is the ultimate mountain get-away and slumber party!

Posted in Ann Lewis, Books | Leave a comment

Ann's Words

Harvest Time!

Dad’s 89th Birthday and a Visit to Reedley

A Small Cog in a Big Wheel

Timpanogos Storytelling Festival 2019

Faithful Saints

Family Trip to Kansas City, 21-28 August 2019

Opportunity Cost

The Martin and Elizabeth Degen Bushman Bible

Erudite Book Club Reading List 1987 to Present

Sundance Book Club Retreat 2019

Categories

Family History Stories

Favorites

Publications

Goodreads

Archives