Archive | August 2009

Books Read in August, 2009

Aug31

Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K. Jerome. Semicolon review here.

Fieldwork by Mischa Berlinski. Semicolon review here.

Main Street by Sinclair Lewis. Semicolon review here.

Graceling by Kristin Cashore. Semicolon review here.

Forgive Me by Amanda Eyre Ward. I didn’t manage to review this novel, set in New England and in South Africa. It was readable, but I found it hard to connect with the characters.

Heart of a Shepherd by Roseanne Parry. Semicolon review here.

The Best Bad Luck I Ever Had by Kristin Levine. Semicolon review here.

Fingersmith by Sarah Waters.

Little Face by Sophie Hannah. A review of these two novels, Little Face and Fingersmith will be up by tomorrow. In the meantime, they were OK, but not without flaws.

Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller.

Buffalo Moon by G. Clifton Wisler.

Comanche Song by Janice Shefelman.

The Wolf’s Tooth by G. Clifton Wisler.

Wild Things by Clay Carmichael.

Best Children’s Fiction of the Month: Heart of a Shepherd by Roseanne Parry.

Best Adult Fiction of the Month: Fieldwork by Mischa Berlinski.

Best (Only) Nonfiction of the Month: Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller. I just finished reading thisone, long after everyone has been there, done that. And I was prepared to NOT like it, to find it shallow and silly, just on the basis of an impression I had from reading someone else’s thoughts about the book (I don’t remember whose.). It’s not really shallow or silly, and it made me think, the highest compliment I can give a book. Review-ish thoughts coming soon.

Heart of a Shepherd by Roseanne Parry

Aug30

First you should know that this book was published by Random House. And the next obvious thing about this children’s novel is that it’s very Catholic. I am surprised, pleasantly surprised, to find those two aspects together: a book not only respectful of Catholicism and Christianity but actually featuring orthodox Christian religion published by a secular publisher.

Next surprise, Heart of a Shepherd is a book about the war in Iraq that is neither pro-war nor anti-war. Some of the most sympathetic characters in the book are officers and soldiers in the U.S. Armed Forces, and they are not presented as ogres or as misguided dupes. On the other hand the protagonist’s grandfather, a central character in the book also, is a Quaker and a pacifist. And he is not an idiot or an unpatriotic curmudgeon. It’s refreshing to read a book about war written for children that has no axe to grind, no political agenda, only giving children things to think about as they begin to process the fact of war and people being killed and injured in their service to their country.

A brief synopsis: Twelve year old Ignatius Alderman discovers the “heart of a shepherd” as he helps his grandparents take care of the family ranch when his father is deployed to Iraq. Nicknamed “Brother”, Ignatius is the youngest of five brothers, named for St. Ignatius, and searching for his own gift, talents, and career path. He’s not sure that ranching or military service, the two traditions that dominate his family, are truly his gifts, and although he learns to live up to his responsibilities, it will take a major crisis for Brother to find his own “right road” to maturity.

The book is rather quiet, the pacing slow and deliberate, like Brother himself. Even when the crisis I mentioned comes, it sneaks up on the reader rather than announcing itself with trumpets. I think this book will appeal especially to boys. In addition to its coming of age theme, it also has lots of little details about ranching life and rural Oregon and the life of a soldier in Iraq and even about chess that will capture the young man who’s interested in any of those subjects and make him pay attention to the larger themes in the book.

This first novel by author Roseanne Parry is a treat to be savored. I look forward to her next with great anticipation. I definitely hope to see this one nominated for a Cybil Award.

Postscript: Here’s a list I found at Ms. Parry’s website of ways that teachers can support the chilld of a deployed soldier. I thought it was a good list.

Where are the Hymns?

Aug28

Well, the sad ending to the story of the Sad Mac is that the Top 100 Hymns List is trapped inside my Mac. I have no way to transfer the informaiton inside the Mac to another computer until I buy another computer. The computer I’m working on now is a Dell running Windows, and it’s so buggy that it takes me twice as long to write a post as it would have taken on my Beloved Old Mac (BOM). Since it would cost about $1000 to (maybe) fix The BOM, and since I don’t have $1000 spare dollars to fix The BOM or to buy a new computer, I do not know what to do about the hymns project.

I do have some of the hymns with their places on the list because I had already started drafts of posts about them. I have 35 more hymns to count down, and of those I can probably reconstruct about 20. Should I post the ones I have? Should I wait and hope that a miracle will let me back inside The BOM? Should I undergo hypnosis in order to try to remember the names and places on the list of the missing hymns?

‘Tis a puzzlement.

Linking in Agreement

Aug28

To buy a skirt=torture: “My mental state slams into disaster mode. My eyes cross, my vision blurs. I feel unworthy, angry, and giddy all at once, at the same time as trying to get a grip. This is only the first store, and I can’t go home yet! I think of how annoyed at myself I will be if the day of the special occasion comes, and I have to assemble an outfit out of the stained, pilled rags and bags I already have at home. So I begin to try things on.”
This post at Conversion Diary details my opinion on shopping exactly. It’s not therapy; it’s torture.

Poetry Friday: John Betjeman

Aug28

John Betjeman, Poet Laureate of England from 1972 to his death in 1984, was born on this date in 1906. He was a poet born out of his time, in a way; his poetry sounds more like that of Thomas Hardy or even one of his favorite poets, William Cowper, than it does the poets of the twentieth century, T.S. Eliot and his ilk. (“A precocious writer of verse, at the age of 10 Betjeman presented the manuscript of ‘The Best Poems of John Betjeman’ to his favourite teacher at Highgate, ‘the American master’, Mr T S Eliot.”) Betjeman studied at Oxford with C.S. Lewis, and according to this article, JB (as he was called) rather blamed Lewis for Betjeman’s failure to receive a degree from that institution.

JB, in addition to writing poetry, was a journalist, an editor, a broadcaster, and a film critic. He also campaigned tirelessly for the preservation of the architectural heritage of Britain, making appearances on radio and television to promote this cause. His poetry has a great sense of place and setting, probably due to his love for architecture and for history.

Here are the first two stanzas of his poem, Verses Turned . . .:

Across the wet November night
The church is bright with candlelight
And waiting Evensong.
A single bell with plaintive strokes
Pleads louder than the stirring oaks
The leafless lanes along.

It calls the choirboys from their tea
And villagers, the two or three,
Damp down the kitchen fire,
Let out the cat, and up the lane
Go paddling through the gentle rain
Of misty Oxfordshire.

Go here to read the rest of this quiet ecclesiastical poem about the church’s endurance.

Links to more Betjeman poems:
Myfanwy
Trebetherick
Back From Australia
Inexpensive Progress
Middlesex
Felixstowe, or The Last of Her Order.
A Subaltern’s Love Song
Youth and Age on Beaulieu River
Diary of a Church Mouse

Delightful poet. Very British and somewhat “churchy.” But not too serious or full of himself. I like his poetry very much. It’s unfortunate that he and Lewis couldn’t get along; they may be laughing about their erstwhile feud in heaven now.

In her Poetry Friday round-up post, Book Aunt remembers poet Karla Kuskin, who died last week leaving a legacy of playful poetry.

Secret Places

Aug27

Peter Sieruta at Collecting Children’s Books writes about The Velvet Room by Zilpha Keatley Snyder in which “Robin, the middle child in a large migrant family finds her special place in the tower room library of an otherwise abandoned estate. On the bookshelves, Robin discovers an old diary that helps her unravel the mystery of the estate’s long-missing heir.”

I started thinking about other books for children in which the protagonist finds a secret place where he or she can read and think and imagine and play pretend and grow.

Mandy by Julie Edwards. Mandy finds an abandoned cottage where she can make a pretend home of her own, but will keeping her secret make her lose the friendship and love of those who care about her?

The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett. Mary, a spoiled orphan child raised in India, finds both solace and friendship in a secret garden on her aunt’s estate. The little girls have been listening to the Focus on the Family radio drama production of this classic, and I’ve enjoyed rediscovering it along with them.

Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson. Jesse and Leslie create a secret kingdom in the woods where they fight off enemies and crown themselvs king and queen of Terabithia.

In Patricia St. John’s Rainbow Garden, Elaine is sent to live with a family in the English countryside while her mother goes to work in France. Elaine is selfish and bitter, but she experiences healing and forgiveness in her garden.

The View From the Cherry Tree by Willo Davis Roberts. Rob Mallory has his own secret hiding place in the cherry tree, but spying on the neighbors from the branches of the cherry tree turns out to be a dangerous occupation.

Jean Craighead George wrote My Side of the Mountain in which Sam Gribley runs away to the Catskill Mountains and builds himself a secret home inside an old tree.

In their very first adventure The Boxcar Children (Gertrude Chandler Warner) find an old deserted boxcar where they make their home. This part of the story was most intriguing to me as a little girl: how do you make a home out of found objects out in the woods, no money or very little, lots of ingenuity?

Of course, the Magic Treehouse kids have . . . well, a Magic Treehouse.

Now that I think about it these are only the books in which the “secret place” itself is a central issue in the story; lots of other characters in children’s books have their own special places to get away from the fray:
Huckleberry Finn has an island and later his raft.

Tom Sawyer had a cave.

The Little Princess (Frances Hodgson Burnett), Sara Crewe, had her own attic room.

Betsy-Bee reminds me that the girls in Ursula Nordstrom’s The Secret Language not only had a secret language; they also had a fort with a little swimming pool inside (?).

I’ve always been quite fond of nooks and clubhouses and secret hiding places in books and in real life. What others can you think of?

Ramadan Prayer

Aug26

Sunday, August 22, was the beginning of the Muslim observance of Ramadan, a time of prayer and fasting for Muslims around the world. It was also the beginning of a now-annual effort on the part of Christians around the world to pray especially for Muslims. If you want to join in this concert of prayer during the 30 days of Ramadan, you can find a prayer guide here.

The first day’s devotional thoughts were particularly convicting and useful:

Faith is important, but do I also love Muslims? What is my
most profound reaction when I meet them, when I see them
on television? How would I react if a man in Islamic clothing
came to my church? How would I react if a new believer from
a Muslim background wanted to marry into my family? Would
I be willing to give a thousand dollars so someone could proclaim
the Gospel among Muslims? Would I be willing to sit and
eat with a Muslim in a crowded restaurant? Have I been involved
in criticizing them without knowing them? Am I fearful
of Muslims? Is my main attitude toward them one of mistrust?
Am I able to do as Jesus says, “You shall love your neighbor as
yourself”? Is this my desire, is this my goal?

I know that some Muslims might find this prayer focus offensive or patronizing. Please know that this time of prayer is about “Christians learning about, and praying for our world’s Muslim neighbors during their holy month of Ramadan; doing so in humility, and without fear or ill-intent.”

May God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, reveal Truth to us all and help us to know how to love each other.

Dough: A Memoir by Mort Zachter

Aug25

Dough: A Memoir by Mort Zachter. Recommended by Lisa at 5 Minutes for Books.

This book is a sort of sad memoir about two brothers who ran a bread store in New York City’s Lower East Side for most of their lives. The book is written by the brothers’ nephew, their sister’s son. Unfortunately, the brothers, Harry and Joe, while good at making money were not so good at sharing with their hard-working family members or even being honest with them about the extent of their wealth. It’s only after Uncle Joe dies and Uncle Harry becomes completely incapacitated that Mort Zachter finds out about his uncles’ hoard: both valuables and junk all mixed together in a cheap apartment where Joe and Harry lived an extremely frugal, even miserly, life for more than sixty years. And all the while they were storing up riches, not in heaven, but on earth where the money did no one any good.

Mr. Zachter tries to understand his uncles and their obsession with making money and keeping it secret. He fails, finally, to make sense of his uncles’ lives, but he does come to appreciate their quirks even while he wishes that they could have lived somewhat differently, enjoying their hard-earned wealth and even sharing it with the family. (Mr. Zachter’s mom served as an unpaid worker in her brothers’ store for many, many years and never knew how rich they were.)

It’s a bittersweet story, not terribly exciting, but thought-provoking in its examination of attitudes toward money and material things.

Ice Skating and Reading

Aug23

My 15 year old friend, David, told me something the other day that made me sad. He said that he never reads books, unless it’s assigned for school, NEVER! He says he hates to read.

Since Brown Bear Daughter communicated my concern (squealed on me) to David, he came back and told me today that he is reading a book now that’s not for school: a biography about Russian ice skater Ekaterina Gordeeva and her late husband, also an ice skater. He says it’s a really good book, and he shared some information he had learned from the book about Russian skaters in general. You see, my friend David is an aspiring ice skater.

This semi-conversion on David’s part to the world of reading confirms a theory, not original with me. Almost everyone can be enticed to enjoy reading; you just have to find the right hook. Now I know David’s hook, or one of them at least, so can anyone direct me to some good books related to ice skating, appropriate for a 15 year old boy? He’s a good kid, so I figure if I don’t innundate him but just give him about one book a month, he’ll try them out for my sake.

What books would you give David the Ice Skater?

Sunday Salon: Adding Still More Books

Aug22

The Sunday Salon.comI’m finding more books at yesterday’s Saturday Review that I must add to my TBR list. When I see you in heaven, I will be the one who’s still reading in a vain attempt to finish the list.

The Great Fire by Shirley Hazzard. Mindy says this one has joined her top twelve favorite novels list, so I have to read it.

A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry. Recommended at Kacie’s Mixed Media. I thought this novel, set in India, sounded like a good. long, satisfying read.

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley. Recommended by The Indextrious Reader Word Lily, and a host of others.

Sacred Hearts by Sarah Dunant. Carrie says this one moves a little slowly at first, but I’m interested in the subject: convent life in Italy, not sure when.

I ran out of time to peruse any more reviews before I got through the entire Saturday Review last night, but I’m sure these plus the ones already on my TBR list will keep me busy until Kingdom Come.