Wednesday, January 20, 2010

The Book of Rapture by Nikki Gemmell



Or... "The Tea Pot House"

Read this book if: you want to met refections of your family, fractured, imperfect human love, and a quilt of faith inside a Tea Pot House. 

She is  scientist. 
We never discover her name, only that her three children are taken from Salt Cottage aka, Tea Pot House, and wake up in a basement. Her scientific work has put all the family in danger. To protect them, she must let a family friend kidnap them.  Her and husband Motl drew love colored brightly on the hearts of everyone of their children. Now they must  place faith in the lessons they taught in the Tea Pot House when family was thick, safe and sure.  

"Now is the time when what you believe is put to the test."  


Let me tell you about my Tea Pot House...

 Matt and I meet each other inside the Tea Pot house, when at first it was merely a humid greenhouse with wild lawns.
We walk together to the backyard assessing its 'ownability'.

"It needs a lot of work..." 
"See the vision, Tab. See the vision."
"Hmmm.... or see how much work needs to be done."
"There is always that choice."
I look around at the meandering grass weaving its roots together with the weeds and wearing the leaf matter like an overcoat.
"You think we could make something of this place?" 
"No. I know we could make something of this place. It is little boy heaven..."
I think of our young sons. "Or Tarzan's heaven."
"It isn't anything that can't be mowed-" He looks back at the house, "or painted."
Then he snickers despite himself. I join him. The snickering turns to giggles and the giggles to hooting laughter. 

Because here's the thing about Tea Pot Houses- they have potential to brew a family to many happy moments within their walls. Sure, this one is begging for a face lift, tummy tuck and all out surgery, no holds barred. No amount of painting or mowing would produce a roof over the back deck, or sand and seal the front one. It won't turn three small bedrooms into room for four and maybe more. The bathroom would not be painted into newness. The tub needed ripping out and the tiles were already helping themselves to freedom by lifting in places they never had permission to lift... but we could see ourselves here. 

 A Tea Pot House is spice waiting to be added. And Matt and I know enough about imperfect human love  and family to add the spice.

So we bought it.

I thought of my boys when I read these words in The Book of Rapture and that's when I knew we had made the right decision. We had found our Tea Pot House. 

"Molt and you wormed that fat little teapot of a house into all their hearts. You both dreaded a blunting when wonder would not cradle them, but it never came, for the two of you pulled happiness around them like a wondrous cape." ( pg.23)

And that is what Matt and I intend to do in this Tea Pot House. Sometimes to protect a family, to brew a family, you have to let it go, release the worry, and just believe.  

Book Rating: 7/10.  Books written in the second person are still growing on me, but the words were every bit a 'wondrous cape.'


What about you? Do you live in a Tea Pot House? 


 [image]

17 comments:

  1. If anybody said "see the vision" to me, I'd smack him, but that's me.

    I love the picture of the two wrapped up in the quilt. It's sweet. :-)

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  2. I'm just fancy free, don't even have a house anymore, but I have a life...

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  3. I wish you so much happiness in your tea pot house. We live in our second. We've redone every room, some of them twice, and there will always be more to do. And while we'd love wider halls and another bedroom and a back porch so the mosquitos don't kill us in the summer, we love that we've raised our daughter in this one, she's been here for 16 of our almost 18 years, she's been able to make forts in the woods and climb the ledges and run up the path to her cousins. As you know, the house is important, but it's the family within that matters the most.

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  4. Oh, this sounds like a journey for you and your family with "visions" in mind. What fun.

    After eight years in our current home I'm finally allowed to consider it in Teapot light and am now working on renovating it to suite us as a family.

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  5. How clever.

    Yes, we finally got our Teapot house. It's a continual work in progress ... but it's ours.

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  6. I live in a tea pot house with my son...it is not something I built with my hands, it didn't need a lot of work but I made it our own.

    I feel the warmth and love from your tea pot house.

    much love

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  7. Possibly. Our house is old enough that we're planning things we need to do to it and when we can do those things. We love the house, so perhaps it is our Teapot house.

    Helen
    Straight From Hel

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  8. Your teapot house sounds like a wonderful family sanctuary, full of love and warmth. :-)

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  9. Yes, it is the Family full of love and warmth that makes a House into a "Home". Your teapot house sounds like Heaven! God Bless

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  10. Kind of. LOL It sounds like a wonderful place for boys! :-)

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  11. How EXCITING, TABITHA!!! I just LOVE that image of a teapot house and now want to read the book.

    Second person, hum. On "second" thought...

    Sigh. We had a teapot house in Terre Haute, Indiana. A porched wrapped the house and brought the outside in. The entire third floor was occupied by a secret room, which became a writing retreat/play room. Twas only at the teapot house that I could ever get poppies to grow. Brilliant tangerine petals with black saucy eyes.

    LOVE your blog...your post. Hope you type...www.pattilacy.com/blog and visit!!!

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  12. The book sounds great, but I want to read more about YOUR tea pot house. Congrats on the house BTW.

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  13. Sound amazing, but HOW DO YOU HAVE TIME TO READ? You're a wonder, a WONDER, I tell you!

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  14. Thanks for the comments all. :)

    Carrie LOL! Thank you. How can I avoid reading really. I. Must. Read. The end. :)

    Thanks T. Anne.

    Patti- I love that you grew poppies at your tea pot house!

    Liza- yep, it is all about family isn't it. That is what really makes a house into a tea pot house.

    Fireblossom. LOL! Really? You'd smack em? I don't have to , I just glared. He was joking when he said it though so I pretty quickly ended up laughing. We know each other well.

    Thanks shannon.

    Welcome to the blog Saras.

    Helen, age isn't what makes it Teapotsih. It is what you fill the pot with that determines if it is a tea pot house :)

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  15. I wouldn't mind having my own Tea Pot House one of these days. Yours sounds like a fun and cosy place. x

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  16. Hey, I think I figured out how to link with you, thanks to my genius friend Tyora Moody. She has dissected my issue.

    Does this work?????????!!!!

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  17. This sounds wonderful. A Tea Pot House. I can so relate. It sounds like a wonderful place to stretch and grow. Enjoy your tea pot house. I need to start steeping in mine.

    Jen

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