Archive | June 2008

Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro

Jun14

Ishiguro could be a playwright, or at least a writer of monologues, as well as a novelist. I’m impressed by his ability to inhabit the mind of his narrator and enable the reader to do the same. In this book, when the consummate English butler Mr. Stevens felt unsure, I, too, had questions. I thought I knew more than Mr. Stevens, the narrator of the novel, himself, could see undercurrents and subtleties that he had chosen to ignore or was unable to see. But I couldn’t even be sure that I was not blinded by my own assumptions. I felt pity for Mr. Stevens, the coldness and futility of his life service to an ultimately unworthy cause. And yet . . . . It’s that ambiguity that gives the novel its beauty and makes it stay with me.


I imagined actor Anthony Hopkins as Mr. Stevens throughout my reading although I’ve not seen the movie version of Remains of the Day. I’m sure Mr. Hopkins did an admirable job in the role. However, I do wonder whether the movie was able to capture the nuance and self-deception and melancholy inherent in the novel.

I really liked Never Let Me Go, also by Ishiguro. I was not as taken by When We Were Orphans, another book I read by this author last year. Remains of the Day ranks with Marilyn Robinson’s Gilead as a novel of reminiscence, of confronting old age and lost dreams, and of assessing one’s legacy at the end of a long life. What if you spend your life in well-meaning and faithful service to a cause that turns out to be unworthy, even fraudulent?

Mr Stevens on dignity: “I suspect it comes down to not removing one’s clothing in public.”

What would he think of the internet and blogging?

Mr. Stevens in accepting an apology: “I am happy to assure you, sir, that I was not unduly inconvenienced.”

Warning: Not much happens in this novel. Mr. Stevens goes motoring. Mr. Stevens runs out of gasoline. Mr. Stevens has tea with an old friend and co-worker. Mr. Stevens reminisces. But there’s a richness there, nevertheless, that well repaid me for my time spent reading.

Engineer Husband’s Summer Reading List: 2008

Jun13

I am asking my children —and my husband— to read at least ten of the books on their individualized list before August 18, 2008. I also want each of them to memorize two poems this summer and present them for the family. I will take each family member who does so out to eat to the restaurant of his choice, and I will also buy a book for each one who finishes the challenge. This list is for Engineer Husband. It’s my sneaky way of recommending books that I’d like for him to read and think he would enjoy.

Just in time for Father’s Day:

1. Romans from The Bible.

2. I Samuel from The Bible.

3. 1984 by George Orwell. Classic, futuristic fiction, in spite of the dated title, it’s also on Computer Guru Son’s Summer Reading List.

4. Walk Across America by Peter Jenkins. Because Engineer Husband needs some adventure in his life.

5. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling. He’s been planning to read this one since the kids became fanatics several years ago. I refuse to read the series out of pure perversity.

6. The Physics of Superheroes by James Kakalios.

7. E=Mc Squared by David Bodanis.

8. Ask Me Anything by J. Budziszewski. Professor Theophilus gives provocative answers to college students’ questions. The book is written by a professor of government and philosophy at the University of Texas at Austin. It’s also on Computer Guru Son’s Summer Reading List.

9. The Periodic Table: Elements with Style by Adrian Dingle. For sixty-four of the elements, each has its own ‘home-page’ in this introduction to the periodic table. Also on Karate Kid’s Summer Reading List, perhaps the two of them should enjoy an element together every evening.

10. How Math Explains the World: A Guide to the Power of Numbers, from Car Repair to Modern Physics by James D. Stein. I chose this one not because I’ve read it or intend to do so, but because it sounds like something Engineer Husband would like.

Poetry and Fine Art Friday: Caedmon

Jun13

Caedmon was a servant at the monastery of Whitby Abbey in the seventh century and is the first English poet whose name is known. Bede wrote of him:

Then he did this on a certain occasion, that he left the banquet-hall and he was going out to the animal stables, which herd had been assigned to him that night. When he there at a suitable time set his limbs at rest and fell asleep, then some man stood by him in his dream and hailed and greeted him and addressed him by his name: ‘Caedmon, sing me something.’ Then he answered and said: ‘I do not know how to sing and for that reason I went out from this feast and went hither, because I did not know how to sing at all.’ Again he said, he who was speaking with him: ‘Nevertheless, you must sing.’ Then he said: ‘What must I sing?’ Said he: ‘Sing to me of the first Creation.’ When he received this answer, then he began immediately to sing in praise of God the Creator verses and words which he had never heard, whose order is this:

Now [we] must honour the Guardian of Heaven,
the might of the Architect, and His purpose,
the work of the Father of Glory
— as He, the Eternal Lord, established the beginning of wonders.
He, the holy Creator,
first created heaven as a roof for the children of men.
Then the Guardian of mankind, the Eternal Lord,
the Lord Almighty, afterwards appointed the middle earth,
the lands, for men.

Saint Hilda of Whitby Anglo-Saxon Abbess Receiving a Visit from Caedmon




Saint Hilda of Whitby Anglo-Saxon Abbess Receiving a Visit from Caedmon

Giclee Print

Reid, Stephen


Buy at AllPosters.com

This poem fragment (translated from Old English) is the only one of Caedmon’s poems extant. If you want to try your hand at reading seventh century English, you can find Bede’s account of Caedmon here.

Cloudscome has the Poetry Friday Roundup at A Wrung Sponge this week.

Crises, Major and Minor

Jun12

Well, it’s already been a long week here at Semicolon Family Home in Major Suburbia. On Saturday I had to abort my participation in Mother Reader 48 Hour Book Challenge at about the 28 hour mark because of a minor kerfuffle which didn’t feel minor at the time. Bluntly, I had an argument with one of the urchins. It was a full-blown altercation, hormones were flying, and no one wanted or felt the need to apologize. (I’m telling about this here just in case anyone got the idea that all we ever do here in Semicolon Country is sit around and read books and discuss their literary merits. I wish.)

Then, on Sunday, I had to take one of the urchins to the Emergency Room. She’s having seizures, and no one really knows why or what to do. The test results were confusing, to say the least, and we’re all bamboozled, bumfuzzled, and concerned. She’s home, taking medications, and we’re hoping to be able to figure what’s wrong and how to fix it.

Then, while I was at the hospital on Monday, my blog went crazy and started showing a lot of code instead of the content. So, Computer Guru Son switched it back to an old (blah) template, and I reinstalled the sitemeter. And my hits went down to next to nothing. Right now the sitemeter is showing that hardly anyone is stopping by, but since I’m not providing much content, I guess that’s OK.

If you all are out there, please pray for us. And leave a comment. It would be greatly appreciated.

Oh, and tomorrow is Poetry Friday, and I think I’m the hostess. Come back tomorrow and link to a poetry post at your blog, and we’ll see if the sitemeter goes bonkers or not.

Oops, Poetry Friday this week is hosted at A Wrung Sponge. Next Friday, June 20th, come to Semicolon to link to your Poetry Friday posts.

Small Groups

Jun10

My church has decided to go to a small group format for the summer for the Sunday School/Bible study time on Sunday morning rather than age-graded Sunday School. The small groups would be made up of two or three families along with some single adults. Families, ages four or five to adult, would go together to one small group and spend about an hour in Bible study and prayer. The stated goal of this experiment in small group fellowship and study, as stated by one of the initiators of the idea, is:

. . . to build depth of relationship. It is very hard to come alongside each other in our walks, encouraging each other to grow and mature, until we know one another better and build trust. That kind of trust is what we hope to build over time through these groups. ‘Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.’ (1 Peter 4:8). As we have the opportunity to love each other more deeply, we will be better prepared to bear with one another’s weaknesses and struggles, praying for and encouraging one another. I know I have plenty of weaknesses and blind spots in my life—I need brothers and sisters in Christ who will love me in spite, actually in the midst, of them and pray for the Holy Spirit to do His sanctifying work in opening my eyes to them. I think we all have this need—as a church, we need to ensure we are meeting this need for everyone in the body.”

Even though I agree with these goals in principle, the whole concept makes me feel uncomfortable and uneasy and reluctant to attend anything other than the worship service on Sunday mornings. I’ve been trying to figure out why I’m so resistant, and I think I’ve come up with a couple of reasons, not necessarily good reasons, but reasons:

1. I’m an introvert. I don’t gain energy from relating to groups of people, even small groups of people, but instead I lose energy as I struggle to relate and to be both vulnerable to and accepting of others. As an introvert, I usually get and give encouragement either one-on-one or in a large group where I am not singled out and not trying to relate to an entire group of people. The latter is emotionally exhausting and difficult for me. Therefore, participating in a small group on Sunday mornings would not be a ministry TO me, but it would require me to give and to expend emotional energy, which might be a good thing even though it’s hard.

2. I’m concerned about the make-up of the groups and how that is going to be handled. I don’t know how families and others are going to be assigned to groups, but (being honest here) I do know that there are people in our church with whom I could easily build close, supportive relationships and others that I tolerate and love as best I can. I’m sure there are people in the church who feel both ways about me, too. Maybe I would learn to love and be more Christ-like if I were thrown together with some of those people that I only “love from a distance” right now, but maybe we would all be sorry that we tried such an experiment.

3. The wide age range that is an inherent part of this plan is problematic. Either we’re going to “dumb down” the study and the prayer time to cater to the youngest children in our group, or we’re going to communicate and relate on an adult level and send the children to the corner with a picture page and a package of crayons. I know family, age-integrated Bible study has been done in other groups, and I used to be a advocate of mixed age groups until I saw some attempts firsthand. Now I think you can mix adults and teens successfully, but children are just not mature enough to handle adult topics that need to be discussed and taught in adult Bible studies and prayer groups.

4. Leadership is going to be a problem, as it always is. If the Lord wants us to have these small groups, He will provide the leadership. However, it’s going to take more prayer and thoughtful consideration and planning than just asking for volunteers or putting out a sign-up sheet.

With all those caveats and questions, I’m prayerfully willing to try this plan and see how it goes. I would like to be positive and supportive of the leaders in our church who have conceived this experiment, and I plan to make myself attend in spite of my misgivings. So can anyone tell me, either from experience or from wisdom gained, how well such a plan would work and what things should we be concerned about as we begin this new approach to Bible study?

Abbeville by Jack Fuller

Jun7


Book #6 in Mother Reader’s 48 Hour Book Challenge.

“Until the dot.com bubble burst, George Bailey never gave much thought to why his grandfather seemed so happy.” George Bailey goes back to visit his grandfather’s Central Illinois hometown, Abbeville, and perhaps learn the source of his grandfather’s strength and resilience. The novel skips back and forth between George’s story and that of his grandfather, Karl Schumpeter. It turns out that Karl’s story is a sort of serious, more believable version of It’s a Wonderful Life. (George Bailey says he owes his name to his mother Betty’s sense of humor.) And there’s more to Karl’s life than just a tale of endurance through the trials of the Great Depression and two world wars.

This novel can be enjoyed on many levels. It’s a family/generational saga about the ups and downs of twentieth century history as they affect one town and one family. It’s a story of four generations of young men coming of age, with a fishing trip on the river to anchor and serve as a metaphor for maturation and for the financial cycles that affect the family’s lives. It’s a spiritual narrative about a man’s rise to prominence, his fall to ignominy, and his redemption in the love of small things and of work done well.

It seems as if I’m always reminded of some other work of literature when I read a book. This one reminded me of The Magnificent Ambersons by Booth Tarkington, maybe because of the time period beginning in about 1910, and maybe because of the midwestern setting, or maybe because both books are about the rise and fall of a family dynasty in a small town. Abbeville is, however, filled with a grace and sympathy that Tarkington’s novel lacked.

Key quotation from a French cure (priest) to Karl during World War I:

“And as to your fear, remember that God’s grace is nothing you need to repay, nor is punishment the proof of sin. This is the first great mystery, my son, and it is only made bearable by the second, which is love.”

“You see,” the cure said, “fortune is not the outcome of a test. Good or bad, it is the test.”

Thanks to Unbridled Books for sending me a copy of this novel for review. I’ve never heard of Jack Fuller, although the back cover blurb describes him as “a Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial writer who has published six broadly acclaimed novels and a book of non-fiction.” I don’t know about the other six, but I am seriously impressed with the novel Abbeville.

You Know Where to Find Me by Rachel Cohn

Jun7


Book #5 in Mother Reader’s 48 Hour Book Challenge.

In the wake of her druggie cousin Laura’s suicide, overweight, depressed, liberal, sarcastic, under-achiever, seventeen year old Miles loses herself in drugs and self-pity. It’s not a pretty ride, but after 189 pages of self-indulgent pity party, Miles goes into rehab counseling and becomes the editor of the school newspaper. All’s well that ends well.

Note to self: Do not read anymore books by Rachel Cohn. In my defense, I had forgotten when I picked this book out that Ms. Cohn also co-wrote Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist, one of my least favorite books of all time.

If you hate Jane Austen, prefer to “absorb the bleakness of Burroughs or Bukowski, or even the sophisticated, mean-spirited wit of Dorothy Parker, rather than choke down the false promises of Austen and her descendants,” then You Know Where To Find Me is the book for you. You know where to find it.

The Missing: Found by Margaret Peterson Haddix

Jun7


Book #4 for Mother Reader’s 48 Hour Book Challenge.

Wow! This first book in a new series by best-selling author Margaret Peterson Haddix is a page-turner. If you’re a fan of Haddix’s other books, either the Shadow children series or her stand alone novels such as Leaving Fishers or Double Identity, you’ll love this new book and be longing for the others in the series to hurry up and get published. If you like Caroline Cooney’s Janie series or her Time series, as I did, you should also enjoy Found and, eventually, its sequels. Ms. Haddix has written another imaginative and compelling novel that combines realistic YA fiction with elements of supernatural sci-fi.

And that’s all you need to know if you haven’t yet read the book. WARNING: Hereafter there be spoilers. Do not enter if you want to read the book without preconceptions and fore-knowledge.

The Missing: Found starts out like a book about adoption. Jonah is adopted, but to him it’s no big deal. His parents have been excruciatingly honest with him, retelling his adoption story ad nauseum until Jonah is so comfortable with his origins that he’s a bit embarrassed about how very open and psychologically correct his parents have been. However, almost before the reader realizes the book has changed from a book about adoption to a book about time travel and the danger that lie therein. Or maybe it’s a book about trust and about whom you can trust and about betrayal of trust.

I liked way Ms. Haddix put a twist to time travel and the inherent problems that such travel entails. I liked Ms. Haddix’s characters, typical adolescents thrown into a very atypical situation. I liked the fact that although I saw some plot developments coming, others were a complete surprise. In fact, I had only two minor problems with The Missing: Found: the title, combined as it is with the series title, is awkward, and the sequels aren’t due out until ???

I seriously can’t wait.

The Golllywhopper Games by Jody Feldman

Jun7


Book #3 for Mother Reader’s 48 Hour Book Challenge.
Recommended by Becky at Becky’s Book Reviews.

I thought while reading it that this book was reminiscent of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl or last year’s Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Stewart. It turns out that there’s a reason for that deja vu feeling. In the acknowledgments, Ms. Feldman thanks “the student who returned Charlie and the Chocolate Factory to the school library on day when I was volunteering. He asked the librarian for another story like it, but neither she nor his teacher could find a title to satisfy him. It was at that moment that I decided to write a book for that ten-year-old boy.”

So The Gollywhopper Games was born. Gil Goodson, a good son indeed, has made it his ambition to restore his family’s fortunes and vindicate his dad’s reputation by winning the Golly Toy and Game Company’s Gollywhopper Games, a huge publicity stunt in which several thousand kids compete for the grand prize: a college scholarship, a cash prize of several thousand dollars, a set of all the toys and games ever made by Golly Toy and Game Company, and other unnamed prizes. Gil wants to win because his father was fired by the company over a year before for allegedly embezzling money from the company. Gil’s father is, of course, innocent.

Ms Feldman doesn’t quite have Dahl’s almost macabre and earthy sense of humor, but she does have a great story, intriguing puzzles, and caricatured characters that still seem somehow real and approachable. And if the puzzles are not as multi-layered and tricky as those in Mysterious Benedict Society, the kids are more normal, not geniuses or super-heroes, but rather just regular kids. That ten-year-old boy Ms. Feldman was writing for would be able to picture himself participating in the Gollywhopper Games and maybe even winning.

The Gollywhopper Games is Jody Feldman’s first book for children. May she write many more. My eleven year old Karate Kid loved The Gollywhopper Games. I daresay the kid in your life will, too.

The Gollywhopper Games has already (on the first day) been nominated for a Cybil Award in the Middle Grade Fiction category. Nominate your favorite children’s and YA books of 2008 in nine categories at the Cybils blog.

100 Cupboards by N.D. Wilson

Jun6


Book #2 for Mother Reader’s 48 Hour Book Challenge.

100 Cupboards is the story of Henry who finds 99 cupboards behind the plaster in his attic bedroom in his Uncle Frank’s and Aunt Dottie’s house in Kansas. Each cupboard has its own secrets to reveal, but the most exciting, magical cupboard is behind the locked door of of an ancient bedroom belonging to Henry’s grandfather, dead for the last two years. Grandfather, however, left a legacy of secret journals and magical cupboards and mysterious messages. Henry and his three girl cousins are the beneficiaries of that legacy.

I don’t know if most kids are passionately fond of metaphors and descriptive language in general, but I am. And Mr. Wilson has some great language fun, as in:

She was diligently eye-wrestling him.

The paint was scum-brown, the sort that normally hides at the bottom of a pond, attractive only to leeches and easily pleased frogs.

There is no known protocol for how young girls ought to behave when discovering small older men puttering around in an already mysterious bedroom. Henrietta did her best.

Dottie . . . was looking past years, sorting summers in her mind.

Those are few of many examples. The story itself reminded me of Narnia, especially The Magician’s Nephew with its multiple entrances into other worlds and the terrible Jadis. It also felt a bit like the game Myst that our family spent a great deal of time decoding a few years ago. There are locks and keys and combinations and again portals into Other Places. 100 Cupboards is bloodier and scarier than either Narnia or Myst however.

Some of the action was a bit confusing, and although I kept most of the characters and worlds straight, I kept confusing the protagonist Henry’s two younger cousins, Henrietta and Anastasia. I’m trying to remember that Henrietta is the one who actually helps Henry, and Anastasia is the one who only wants to be part of the action. And Penelope is the mature older cousin who’s too old to do much.

I must say that I liked Leepike Ridge much better than this second novel by N.D. Wilson, and I found the epilogue at the end totally incomprehensible. Nevertheless, it’s a good magical adventure story in the tradition of the Narnia stories or Edward Eager’s magic stories or Ende’s The Neverending Story. If you’re fond of any of those, you might want to try 100 Cupboards. And if you like this one, Mr. Wilson has left plenty of room, and several unanswered questions, for sequels.

Ah, yes, I see in looking at Amazon that 100 Cupboards is Book 1, and there is a Book 2 called Dandelion Fire due out in February 2009. Of course.