Archive | May 2011

The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien, chapter 3: A Short Rest

May31

Chapter 1, An Unexpected Party
Chapter 2, Roast Mutton.

In chapter three, Bilbo and the dwarves and Gandalf have a brief respite in Elrond’s country, the Last Homely House west of the Mountains, or Rivendell.

“Now it is a strange thing, but things that are good to have and days that are good to spend are soon told about and not much to listen to; while things that are uncomfortable, palpitating, and even gruesome, may make a good tale, and take a deal of telling anyway. They stayed long in that good house, fourteen days at least, and they found it hard to leave. Bilbo would gladly have stopped there for ever and ever—even supposing a wish would have taken him right back to his hobbit-hole without trouble. Yet there is little to tell about their stay.”

So this chapter really is a rest and a sort of a bridge to the next adventure (goblins). And yet, a few things happen that will be important later on in the story. Gandalf and Thorin learn that the swords that they took from the trolls’ treasure trove are “very old swords of the High Elves of the West,” made to cleave goblins. And the entire company learns that Thror’s map has runes that can only be seen on a midsummer’s eve in a crescent moon:“Stand by the grey stone when the thrush knocks, and the setting sun with the last light of Durin’s Day will shine upon the keyhole.”

Z-baby keeps trying to connect the places and people we read about in The Hobbit to the places and people and events in the LOTR movies. She asked if Elrond was the same Elrond who presided over the Council in LOTR. She connected Gloin, one of the dwarves who is in Bilbo’s company, with Gimli, son of Gloin, one of the Nine in LOTR. We looked at a map to try to distinguish Bilbo’s journey to the Lonely Mountain from Frodo’s journey to Mordor. They both started out from Hobbiton and went across the Wilderlands to Rivendell. After that, I believe they parted ways, with Bilbo headed more directly east or a bit northeast across (under) the Misty Mountains and through Mirkwood toward the Lonely Mountain and Frodo going more south and then southeast to the mines of Moria and then to Rohan and eventually to Mordor.

map1b

We are very much enjoying our Hobbit-time each day, or at least each day that we can manage to work it into the schedule. And I would very much like to spend a fortnight in Rivendell, if anyone knows how that could be arranged.

“All of them, the ponies as well, grew refreshed and strong in a few days there. Their clothes were mended as well as their bruises, their tempers and their hopes. Their bags were filled with food and provisions light to carry but strong to bring them over the mountain passes. Their plans were improved with the best advice. So the time came to midsummer eve, and they were to go on again with the early sun on midsummer morning.”

Yesterday Once More: The Carpenters

May30

I was listening to my Carpenters Pandora radio today, and I had an idea that it would be fun to share some of my more obscure favorite songs. If you’re younger than I am, and you probably are since I’ve passed the median point of normal female life span, you may not recognize many of the songs I post on here. Roll with it. You may find something that makes you smile.

I saw today on Twitter that Ginger at GReads has a feature she calls Tune in Tuesday, so I thought I’d roll with that and share my totally arcane and nearly forgotten songs, mostly from the 60’s and 70’s (twentieth century), on Tuesdays. I looked at the music that people, mostly book bloggers, shared last week, and I’m sure I’ll be in the minority in my musical offerings.

The first song and the first group aren’t exactly obscure, but they were and are easily my favorite voices to listen to. I love(d) The Carpenters. I love Karen Carpenter’s voice because she sings in my range, low to mid-range. And of course, I love it because it makes me sound good when I sing along. And I do sing along, in the car, full volume, windows down, embarrassing the heck out of my kids.

By the way I’m all about the lyrics because I’m a Word Person. So I’ll probably post the lyrics to the songs I share because without the lyrics it’s just . . music.

When I was young
I’d listen to the radio
Waitin’ for my favorite songs
When they played I’d sing along
It made me smile

Those were such happy times
And not so long ago
How I wondered where they’d gone
But they’re back again
Just like a long lost friend
All the songs I loved so well

Every sha-la-la-la
Every wo-o-wo-o
Still shines
Every shing-a-ling-a-ling
That they’re startin’ to sing’s
So fine

When they get to the part
Where he’s breakin’ her heart
It can really make me cry
Just like before
It’s yesterday once more

Lookin’ back on
How it was in years gone by
And the good times that I had
Makes today seem rather sad
So much has changed

It was songs of love
That I would sing to then
And I’d memorize each word
Those old melodies
Still sound so good to me
As they melt the years away

Every Sha-la-la-la
Every Wo-o-wo-o
Still shines
Every shing-a-ling-a-ling
That they’re startin’ to sing’s
So fine

All my best memories
Come back clearly to me
Some can even make me cry
Just like before
It’s yesterday once more

Every Sha-la-la-la
Every Wo-o-wo-o
Still shines
Every shing-a-ling-a-ling
That they’re startin’ to sing’s
So fine . . .

The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien, chapter 2: Roast Mutton

May30

Chapter 1, An Unexpected Party

In a 1977 speech to the Tolkien Society in England, Tolkien’s second son, Michael, said that as children, he, his two brothers, and his sister had each, at some point in their development, thought that the Troll chapter was the best chapter in the book. He continued, “We thought there was something rather nice about Trolls, and it was a pity they had to be turned to stone at all.” ~The Annotated Hobbit, annotated by Douglas A. Anderson.

Z-baby says it’s “the kind of story that you remember whenever you think about it later.”

Indeed. In this chapter, the dwarves and Bilbo get into their first fix, Gandalf rescues them (not for the last time), Bilbo tries his hand at petty burglary, and we are introduced to trolls, the first villains of the Wild places that Bilbo and his friends have chosen to traverse.

At first they had passed through hobbit-lands, a wide respectable country inhabited by decent folk, with good roads, an inn or two, and now and then a dwarf or a farmer ambling by on business. Then they came to lands where people spoke strangely, and sang songs Bilbo had never heard before. Now they had gone on far into the Lone-lands, where there were no people left, no inns, and the roads grew steadily worse. Not far ahead were dreary hills, rising higher and higher, dark with trees.

Sometimes an Adventure doesn’t feel much like an Adventure anymore, but rather more like a dreariness and a muchness of a slough. It’s how I’ve been feeling a lot these days: no people, no inns, and muddy, mucky road ahead. And if I were a pessimist (which I sometimes am), I would predict Trolls on the horizon, too. In the words of Bilbo Baggins:”‘Bother burgling and everything to do with it! I wish I was at home in my nice hole by the fire, with the kettle just beginning to sing!’ It was not the last time that he wished that!”

Oh, for nice hobbit-hole, with a library of books, and a bit of jolly conversation and music for when it’s cold outside or when I’m feeling lonesome, but no dirt or danger or bad decisions or sore muscles or Wild Trolls. It sounds heavenly, doesn’t it? But then again, God didn’t make this world a safe, little hobbit-hole, and maybe it’s best He didn’t. We were made for home and for heaven, but we were also built for adventure and challenge. Who ever said that heaven, although sometimes the metaphor is “rest” and “peace”, isn’t a place where we will still have mountains to climb and even trolls to fight? In Lewis’s The Last Battle, the heavenly travelers are called to go “further up and further in.” The adventure continues.

So maybe all I need is a miracle or two (where is Gandalf when you need him?), and a short rest, which happens to be the title of the next chapter.

Oh, and I agree that the story of the trolls is one of the best and most memorable parts of the book. However, I prefer my trolls turned to stone at the break of dawn.

Prodigal Sons and Daughters

May28

I read about the following rebels and wanderers as an encouragement to myself. I will not give up on the people in my life who have chosen to walk away from God. I thought some of my readers might also need similar encouragement.

Abraham Piper, son of pastor and author John Piper, writes about 12 Ways to Love Your Wayward Child.

Reb Bradley on Solving the Crisis in Homeschooling:

I once believed and taught that a parent could follow the right biblical steps and be assured of raising children who remained faithful to God from childhood into their adult years. In fact, as a parent of young children I judged as a failure any parent whose young adult children were prodigal. However, as my own children aged and I discovered that they were self-determining individuals with their own walks with Christ, I came to the alarming realization that I had a lot of control over their outside, but not their inside. They were like all people who were faced with the choice of whether or not they were going to listen to Christ and follow him. As Christians we all encounter opportunities many times in our lives – to choose to follow Christ or not. It was a rude awakening for me when I saw that even the best parenting could not exempt a person from making the wrong choice when faced with temptation. I do believe that by our influence we can greatly increase the likelihood our children will love and follow Christ, but I see nothing in Scripture that guarantees well-trained children will never succumb to temptation.

Consider the parable of the Prodigal Son – the righteous father raised two sons who turned out sinful – one went deep into sin and then repented – the other stayed home obediently, yet was polluted with self-righteousness and bitterness. Could the Father take blame or the credit for their sinful choices? Not at all, for the story is about God the Father Himself – it is a lesson about His mercy to His children when they fail. May we learn from God’s example!

Loving Those Who Leave by Matthew Lee Anderson.

Some books that might be helpful in this regard:
Nonfiction
Confessions by St. Augustine.
Prodigals and Those Who Love Them by Ruth Bell Graham.
The Prodigal God by Tim Keller.
Rebel With a Cause by Franklin Graham.
Surprised by Grace: God’s Relentless Pursuit of Rebels by Tullian Tchividjian.

Fiction
Beside the Bonnie Briar Bush by Ian Maclaren.
Les Miserables by Victor Hugo.
Gilead by Marilynne Robinson.
Home by Marilynne Robinson.

For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:38-39

The Story of Beautiful Girl by Rachel Simon

May28

The story begins in 1968. A beautiful girl and her friend, a deaf black man, show up on the doorstep of a widow and retired schoolteacher, Martha. The beautiful girl is Lynnie, a developmentally disabled girl who has just given birth to a baby. The man is Homan, not intellectually challenged but limited in his ability to communicate because of his deafness and his lack of a proper education. The couple have run away from the School for the Feeble-Minded in which they have been, for all practical purposes, incarcerated, and now, having seen Martha’s lighthouse mailbox, they are hoping for a safe haven.

Rachel Simon also wrote the nonfiction memoir, Riding the Bus With my Sister, about her relationship with her developmentally disabled sister, a book that I appreciated and that later was adapted as a Hallmark Hall of Fame movie. So Ms. SImon has some experience and expertise in thinking from the point of view of a mentally handicapped person. The book is written in shifting points of view, from Lynnie to Martha to Homan, and sometimes that shift and the limited knowledge of the characters made the book confusing. Still, I hung in there, willing to work at seeing through the eyes of a hearing-impaired black man who usually didn’t even know the real names of the people who were his most intimate friends and caretakers. Or I saw how confusing life could be from the point of view of a young woman who has a history and a personality but doesn’t understand time and the passage of time in the same that most us do.

I liked this book very much, and I especially liked the way Ms. Simon incorporated religion and religious experience into her story, naturally and with an absence of agenda or proselytizing. Lynnie’s family is Jewish, but Lynnie herself doesn’t understand “God” and doesn’t know if she believes in Him or not. Homan is befriended by a couple of maybe sincere, but probably money-hungry faith healers, and later by a couple who run a Buddhist retreat center. One of Lynnie’s most important mentors and friends is Kate, a Christian who works through her need to forgive and to repent of her own sins of omission and fearfulness.

The main themes of the book, though are not religion, per se. What Ms. Simon seems to be interested in relating is the infinite worth of every human being, the need of all people to be treated with dignity and respect, and the importance and the difficulties of clear and timely communication. It’s a good story within which is contained a capsule history of the changes in the treatment and public perception of both mentally handicapped and hearing impaired individuals.

Worth reading. What books can you recommend that have given you insight into the lives and needs of mentally disabled persons in particular?

$500 Million to Fix Five Year Olds Who Can’t Sit Still

May28

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius told CNSNews.com on Wednesday that the administration’s new $500 million early learning initiative is designed to deal with children from birth onward to prevent such problems as 5-year olds who “can’t sit still” in a kindergarten classroom.

Maybe many, if not all, five year olds weren’t meant to sit still in a classroom. Maybe we should modify the curriculum or the environment rather than trying to modify the five year olds.

I had one child who was quite ready to sit and learn to read and do math at age five. I had several children who weren’t. Why are we trying to make five year old “fit” into our own particular cultural and educational jigsaw puzzle instead of working with them as individuals with their own needs and gifts? And who is most qualified to see each child as an individual with his/her own timetable and learning channels?

Hint: I homeschool, and although I don’t believe that homeschooling is the best choice, or even possible, for everyone, I do think that young children are better off and learn more freely and appropriately in their own homes with their own parents teaching and encouraging them. At least they don’t have to be taught to “sit still” as soon as they hit their fifth birthday. And If I did want to teach them to settle down and listen, it wouldn’t cost the federal government, or me, a cent.

HT: Mommy Life by Barbara Curtis

We Die Alone by David Howarth

May27

We Die Alone: A WWII Epic of Escape and Endurance by David Howarth. Recommended by The Ink Slinger.

This true adventure story was published in 1955, and it read like 1955. Maybe it’s that I expected a first person memoir, and I got a journalist’s view of the story, a bit detached and told from the point of view of several of the participants in the story. However, that journalist’s retelling didn’t feel strange to me when I read Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand. I’m not sure what it was about this book, but I never felt the same empathy for Jan Baalsrud, the hero of We Die Alone, that I did for Louis Zamperini, the hero of Unbroken. Maybe I felt more for Zamperini because I got more background on his life both before and after his World War II adventure. Or maybe Jan Baalsrud was too much of a Scandinavian stoic for me to be able to identify myself with him; I’m certainly no stoic.

That’s not to say I didn’t like the book, We Die Alone, because I did. If Jan Baalsrud remains a sort of distant and remote character in spite of his very real sufferings described in excruciating detail in the book, the adventure and survival story itself is riveting and amazing:

“In March 1943, a team of expatriate Norwegian commandos sailed from northern England for Nazi-occupied arctic Norway to organize and supply the Norwegian resistance. But they were betrayed and the Nazis ambushed them. Only one man survived–Jan Baalsrud. This is the incredible and gripping story of his escape.”

Incredible it is. Jan Baalsrud is frostbitten and snowblind. He becomes unable to walk and must be carried to freedom by some astonishingly brave Norwegians and Lapps, through the snow and the mountains and at the risk of Nazi capture and reprisal.

Wouldn’t a book of World War II survival stories for young people (YA) with a chapter for each survivor be a great idea? The book could condense adult books like this one and Unbroken and then refer young adult readers to the full length stories if they were so inclined. What other survival adventures would you recommend for such a compilation? Add your favorite WWII survival stories to my list in the comments.

The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom.
Night by Elie Wiesel.
The Boy Who Dared by Susan Campbell Bartoletti
The Zookeeper’s WIfe by Diane Ackerman.
Evidence Not Seen: A Woman’s Miraculous Faith in the Jungles of World War II by Darlene Deibler Rose.

Armchair BEA : What We’re Reading

May24

I forgot to sign up for an interview at Armchair BEA, so I decided to do some “what are you reading?” interviews via text message, Facebook, and in person with the people I met on Monday. These are the results:

What are you reading today?
Family:
Eldest Daughter: Augustine and the Trinity by Lewis Ayres.
Semicolon Mom says: ED is always reading something that makes the rest of us sound trivial, but we love her anyway.

Musician/Computer Guru Son: Lord of the Flies by William Golding.

Drama Daughter: Girl Power: The Nineties Revolution in Music by Marisa Meltzer.
Semicolon Mom says: I do not get it, but DD has a newly found enjoyment of and appreciation for nineties grunge music. Each to her own . . .

Brown Bear Daughter: What Happened to Goodbye by Sarah Dessen.

Karate Kid: Lord of the Flies by William Golding.
Semicolon Mom says: Uh-oh! I think my older son took younger son’s book and is reading it. Maybe we’re about to have a family book fight?

Betsy-Bee: The Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien.
Semicolon Mom says: I’m so excited that my 12 year baby is starting to read my favorite epic fantasy novel of all time. I think she’ll enjoy it.

Z-Baby: Geronimo Stilton (one of the 47 titles in this series)

Friends and extended family:
Jane: Crazy Love by Francis Chan.
Semicolon says: I read this one a month or two ago, and it frustrated me.

Susi: The Seventeen Second Miracle by Jason R. Wright. So far, pretty good. I’m also reading Swan Thieves by Elizabeth Kostova. I’m halfway through it, and it’s interesting I guess, but doesn’t seem to be going anywhere particular . . .
Semicolon says: I never read Kostova’s other immensely popular book, The Historian. Should I?

Celeste: One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp and Family Driven Faith by Voddie Baucham.
Semicolon says: Those both sound like books worth reading. Can I borrow?

Jen: Russian WInter: A Novel by Daphne Kolotay.
Semicolon says: I took look at this one on Amazon, and I’m looking forward to reading Jen’s review at 5 Minutes for Books or at Snapshot.

Oh, and I’m reading The Story of Beautiful Girl by Rachel Simon and The Riddle of the Sands by Erskine Childers. Something old, something new, both borrowed from the library, and neither of them blue. I guess I’m already thinking about all the weddings that are scheduled for June.

Armchair BEA: Fifty Favorites

May23

A lot of book bloggers and other bookish people are going to spend the greater part of this week in New York City at BookExpo America. However, many of us live too far away and can’t afford to go to BEA, so we’re celebrating books and blogging where we are. The assignment for today is to introduce yourself and your blog. So I thought that sharing with you a few of my favorite (mainly bookish) things would be a good way for us to get acquainted.

French Novel: Les Miserables by Victor Hugo.

Spanish novel: Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes.

American novel: To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee.

Russian novel: The Brothers Karamazov by Feodor Dostoyevsky.

Memoir/biography: The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom.

Christian author: C.S. Lewis

Mystery author: Dorothy Sayers

Musical: Man of La Mancha

Candy bar: Baby Ruth

TV series: LOST, of course.

Current TV series: Friday Night Lights, even though it’s frustrating the heck out of me.

Board game: Scrabble

iPhone app: Words with Friends, an app I just discovered and cant get enough of.

Blog other than my own: The Common Room or Mental Multivitamin

Computer brand: Apple

Fruit: Strawberries

History mini-series: John Adams, based on the book by David McCullough

Beverage: Iced tea with lemon and sugar

U.S. President: Teddy Roosevelt. He was by far the most interesting and personable of the presidents, even if I don’t agree with all of his policies and actions.

Shakespeare comedy: Much Ado about Nothing

Shakespeare tragedy: Hamlet

Shakespeare adapted to movie: Kenneth Branagh’s Henry V

Charles Dickens novel: David Copperfield

Nonfiction U.S. history book: Men to Match My Mountains by Irving Stone.

Nonfiction British history book: The Conquering Family and its sequels by Thomas Costain.

Poet: Edgar Allan Poe

Poem: Renascence by Edna St. Vincent Millay

Narnia book: The Silver Chair

Movie (comedy): The Princess Bride or It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World

Comedic novelist: P.G. Wodehouse

Fantasy novel: The Lord of the RIngs, grandaddy of them all.

Time travel books: Blackout and All Clear by Connie Willis.

Romance novel: Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen.

Fictional couple: Lord Peter Wimsey and Harriet Vane.

Movie (drama): Chariots of Fire

Hymn: When I Survey the Wondrous Cross by Isaac Watts.

Love song: Desperado by The Eagles.

Month: October

Season: Autumn

Pie: Pumpkin with pecan halves arranged in a pleasing pattern on top.

Color: purple

Dystopian novel: Children of Men by P.D. James.

Announced 2012 presidential candidate as of today: Rick Santorum????

Classic children’s book: Eight Cousins by Louisa May Alcott.

Young adult novel: Christy by Catherine Marshall.

Picture book: Oh, Were They Ever Happy by Peter Spier.

Easy reader: Frog and Toad Are Friends by Arnold Lobel.

Quotation: “I know now, Lord, why you utter no answer. You are yourself the answer. Before your face questions die away. What other answer would suffice?” ~C.S. Lewis.

Book of the Bible: The Gospel of John.

Bible verse: Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom would we go? You have the words of eternal life.” John 6:68

If you just can’t get enough of this sort of thing and want more ME, here’s a post on 52 Things that Fascinate Me.

Happy Armchair BEA to all ye who enter here.

The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien, chapter 1, An Unexpected Party

May19

We’re reading The Hobbit in May, aloud to Z-baby, and Betsy-Bee is reading it to herself. I thought I’d blog about our journey from the Shire to the Lonely Mountain and home again along with Bilbo and the twelve dwarves and Gandalf the Wizard.

I found a few old favorite quotations as we read the first chapter:

Of course, there the opening line, which my annotated edition of The Hobbit tells me is now so famous that it’s included in Bartlett’s: “In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort.”

I’ve always enjoyed this exchange between Bilbo and Gandalf:
“Good morning!” said Bilbo, and he meant it. The sun was shining, and the grass was very green. But Gandalf looked at him from under long bushy eyebrows that stuck out further than the brim of his shady hat.
“What do you mean?” he said. “Do you wish me a good morning, or mean that it is a good morning whether I want it or not; or that you feel good this morning; or that it is a morning to be good on?”
“All of them at once,” said Bilbo. “And a very fine morning for a pipe of tobacco out of doors, into the bargain.”

Then there’s this lovely exclamation from Bilbo: “Confusticate and bebother these dwarves! Why don’t they come and lend a hand?” Such a useful but fairly gentle imprecation!

This chapter also features two classic Tolkien songs: Chip the glasses and crack the plates! and Far over the Misty Mountains cold. I think Tolkien was, if not a poet, at least a competent and enjoyable lyricist. I wish I knew a really good tune to each of these songs. I’ve heard them sung on our cassette tapes of The Hobbit, but the tune there doesn’t stick in the mind.

Z-baby said that if all those dwarves showed up at her house, uninvited, she would have told them to get lost. Z-baby is not usually at a loss for words or suffering from any lack of confidence. Perhaps her assertiveness comes from being the youngest of eight. She has no choice but to assert herself.

Did you know that Belladonna Took, Bilbo’s mother, is the only female character named in The Hobbit? I wonder what Peter Jackson, et. al., will do with that lack of female characters in the movie? I’d just as soon they left it alone and made an all-male movie, but isn’t that against the Rules of Hollywood? Even war movies have to have a romantic interlude, right?

Bilbo serves seed-cake at his “unexpected party,” a delicacy that the book tells me is “a sweetened cake flavored with caraway seeds.” I poked about a bit for a recipe and found out that seed cake is an old British bread that originally did not have any sugar in it. However, I think a poppy seed cake, even if it’s not so authentic, sounds better than one with caraway seeds, so I think we might try out this recipe.

The girls, of course, had questions as we read:
Who is the Necromancer?
Answer: Sauron

What are smoke rings?
Answer: RIngs of smoke that come out of a pipe. But I have no idea how to produce them since I don’t smoke a pipe.

What are runes?
Answer: Elvish writing that looks like calligraphy and is somewhat mysterious. I was able to connect the word “runes” to the poem we are memorizing, The Bells by Edgar Allan Poe, in which Poe says the bells are ringing in a “sort of runic rhyme.”

Z-baby wanted me to print out a copy of Thror’s map for her since she likes maps “just like the hobbits do.”
Maps of Middle Earth, including Thror’s Map.

As for me, I’m feeling rather Tookish today after reading the first chapter of this old favorite. How about you? Any adventures in your life this fine May?

The Warden’s Walk, The Hobbit Read-along, Chapter 1, An Unexpected Party.