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Sunday Salon: Books Read in April, 2011 Plus Some Fine Links

Apr30

The Sunday Salon.com

Children’s and Young Adult Fiction:
In the Shadow of the Lamp by Susanne Dunlap.
Fallen Grace by Mary Hooper.
The Agency: A Spy in the House by Y.S. Lee.
I read these three historical VIctorian-era YA novels one after another, and my review of all three will be coming up soon. I’ll just say I rather enjoyed all three.
Edges by Lena Roy. Semicolon review here.

Adult Fiction:
Goodbye, Mr. Chips by James Hilton.
Firefly Lane by Kristin Hannah. Semicolon review here.

Nonfiction, History, Biography, and Memoir:
Friday Night Lights: A Town, a Team, and a Dream by H.G. Bissinger. Semicolon review here.
Cannibals of the Heart by Jack Shepherd.
Praying for Strangers by River Jordan.
Choosing to See by Mary Beth Chapman. Semicolon review here.
Son of Hamas by Mosab Hassan Yousef. Semicolon review here.
Little Princes by Conor Grennan. Semicolon review here. This one was of particular interest because I know someone who lives in Nepal. It has become a small world in many ways, hasn’t it?
William F. Buckley by Jeremy Lott.
Righteous Indignation by Andrew Bretibart.
AfricaTrek: A Journey by Bicycle through Africa by Dan Buettner.

I read lots more nonfiction than fiction this month, unusual for me. I find myself impatient with fiction lately; a lot of what I’ve picked up lately seems so trivial and unsatisfying for some reason. My favorite book of the month? Praying for Strangers by River Jordan. It’s inspired me to start on my own prayer adventure, and I’m having a great time, praying for strangers (and friends) and conversing with the God of the Universe.

Sunday Salon: Prequels and Sequels and Films, Oh, My!

Apr16

Frank Cottrell Boyce will be writing a trilogy based on Ian Fleming’s Chitty Chitty Bang Bang: “The new story is about a family where the father has been made redundant and sets about trying to reconstruct a VW Camper Van. He unwittingly uses the original Chitty Chitty Bang Bang engine for the camper van, which has its own agenda, to restore itself.”

Newbery Award winner Patricia MacLachlan has signed up with Albert Whitman & Company to write a prequel for Gertrude Chandler Warner‘s popular series, The Boxcar Children. I hope her prequel is better than the awful sequels/series extenders (over 100 of them) that were written and published starting in the 1990’s. Only the first nineteen books in the series were written by Gertrude Chandler Warner, and only those nineteen are worth the time as far as I’m concerned.

Walden Media announced that they will adapt The Magician’s Nephew next in the film adaptation of the Narnia series. I don’t know why they’re skipping over The SIlver Chair, but I would imagine that The Horse and His Boy, with its vaguely Arabic-culture villains would be way too controversial.

And Peter Jackson has finally started filming on his version of The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien. I say, “Hooray for The Hobbit! Long live Bilbo Baggins!”

The King’s Speech, the account of King George VI’s stuttering problem that won the Academy Award for best picture, is coming out in a PG-13 version in April. The original was rated R because of a scene in which the struggling king uses some crude and profane language to try to overcome his stammering. I thought, despite the language which is mostly confined to that one scene, the movie was wonderful, and it would quite inspiring for Christian young people to see the persistence and character exemplified in this story.

Some tips on How to Read a Classic (Novel) at A Library Is a Hospital for the Mind. Sarah makes these suggestions in relation to reading Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities, but her ideas are adaptable for most classic novels. Good stuff. Challenge yourself.

We’ve been watching mostly TV shows on Netflix here at the Semicolon household: Larkrise to Candleford and Psych. That’s an interesting combination.

Prayer Adventures

Apr15

I’ve been thinking a lot about prayer, and I’ve actually been praying more—ever since I read the book Praying for Strangers by River Jordan. It sounds a little crazy, since I’ve been a Christian for almost fifty years, but I think maybe God is trying to teach me to pray. Really pray. Not just think about praying or talk about prayer or read about prayer, but actually get still and form words and offer them up to Him. So, here’s a sampling of what’s been going on in my mind and heart around this topic of prayer:

I read and appreciated this brief post: Prayer and Goosebumps Yes, I’m praying a lot more short, on the spot, before-I-forget, prayers.

Prayer is not merely an occasional impulse to which we respond when we are in trouble: prayer is a life attitude. ~Walter A. Mueller

Certain thoughts are prayers. There are moments when, whatever be the attitude of the body, the soul is on its knees. ~Victor Hugo, Les Misérables

We must move from asking God to take care of the things that are breaking our hearts, to praying about the things that are breaking His heart. ~Margaret Gibb

Men may spurn our appeals, reject our message, oppose our arguments, despise our persons, but they are helpless against our prayers. ~Sidlow Baxter

There is not in the world a kind of life more sweet and delightful than that of a continual conversation with God. ~Brother Lawrence

Prayer does not fit us for the greater work; prayer is the greater work. ~Oswald Chambers

The main lesson about prayer is just this: Do it! Do it! Do it! You want to be taught to pray. My answer is pray and never faint, and then you shall never fail. ~John Laidlaw

God’s Trombones by James Weldon Johnson

Apr8

40 Inspirational Classics for Lent

These poems, based on the preaching style of the traditional Black preacher, contain some of the finest images of Biblical truth and of Scriptural exposition that I have read. I posted here a You-tube video of pastor Wintley Phipps performing Johnson’s poem, “Go Down, Death.” Here’s another poem from God’s Trombones, “The Creation”:

But this poem, The Prodigal Son, is my favorite one from the collection. “Young man, your arm’s too short to box with God.” Oh, it is, and thank God that it is and that we can learn to “be still and know that He is God” and that we are not.

Gleaned from the Saturday Review and Other Places

Apr6

Thanks to Carrie for pointing me to this review of Praying for Strangers by River Jordan. I’m intrigued by the idea of this book about an author who decides to choose one stranger to pray for each day. My first thought after reading about Ms. Jordan’s resolution was, “I could do that!” Then, I read at her blog that Ms. Jordan not only prays for a stranger each day, but she also often feels led to tell the person that she will be praying and asks for prayer requests. That’s a little more intimidating. See, I’m really rather shy and reserved. The idea of going up to a complete stranger and telling them that I’ll be praying for them is, well, actually terrifying. So I’ve been praying for a stranger each day for the past three days, but I haven’t told anyone about it, especially not the person I prayed for, until I wrote this post.

I also downloaded the book for my Kindle and started reading it today. I’m intrigued, and I can see the benefit to me and to others of actually talking, getting my stranger’s name, and telling the person that I’ll be praying for him or her. I’m just not sure I have enough courage to do it. Maybe in the pages of Ms. Jordan’s book, I’ll find the gumption and unselfishness to move me to talk to strangers. Maybe I’ll just continue to talk to God about the people He brings across my path. Either way I’m expecting God to work through this prayer thing, even though I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t really understand how or why prayer works.

On another note, I found a few other books at Borders and at Barnes and Noble that I’d like to read soon. I didn’t buy anything, but I’ll be looking for these books at the library soon:

Decision Points by George W. Bush. I’m a Bush fangirl, and I’ve been meaning to read his book. But I sort of forgot about it, so I was happy to be reminded whe I saw it in the bookstore.
Truman by David McCullough. Another president, another biography by the author of John Adams. I expect to enjoy learning more about Mr. Truman when I get around to this one.
The Last Greatest Magician in the World: Howard Thurston versus Houdini & the Battles of the American Wizards by Jim Steinmeyer. I heard the author of this book talking about Thurston and Houdini on NPR, and I thought then that I would like to read the book. However, it’s another one I had forgotten until I saw it displayed in the bookstore.
Fortunate Sons: The 120 Chinese Boys Who Came to America, Went to School, and Revolutionized an Ancient Civilization by Leil Leibovitz and Matthew Miller. “In 1872, under the auspices of the Chinese Educational Mission, 120 Chinese boys were sent to the U.S. to attend elite colleges, absorb the best this mysterious country could offer, and return to enrich China with their experiences and knowledge.” (Booklist) Why does this subject sound so fascinating to me?
The First Clash: The Miraculous Greek Victory at Marathon and Its Impact on Western Civilization by Jim Lacey. And this one, too?

Right now, in addition to the prayer book, I’m reading a book about Louisa and John Quincy Adams called Cannibals of the Heart: A Personal Biography of Louisa Catherine and John Quincy Adams. The book is annoying me in some ways because the author, Jim Shepherd, seems to have no sympathy for John Quincy Adams at all. In fact, his portrayal of JQA makes one wonder how in the world he ever would have managed to get a job as local dogcatcher much less world famous diplomat, senator, U.S. president, and legislator. Mr. Shepherd likes Louisa a lot more and tries to induce his readers to feel sorry for her and her lot as an early nineteenth century woman, enslaved and dominated by the men in her life, especially the irascible Mr. Adams. I’m sure she was in a pitiable state and one at which I would have chafed, but Mr. Shepherd’s obvious and heavy-handed partisanship makes me want to take JQA’s side just to be contrary. Still, I’m finding the life story of of this Washington power couple to be full of interest and excitement, not to mention historical significance. I’ll be writing more about the Adams family soon, I’m sure.

I will finish my posts on the 40 Inspirational Classics for Lent, too. I’ve been in the midst of a blogging block or dry spell or something the past few days, so my 40 Classics posts may go past Easter and into the time of feasting after Easter. But that’s OK with me.

Sunday Salon: Books Read in March, 2011

Apr2

The Sunday Salon.com

First of all, announcing: The National Homeschool Book Award Homeschoolers will vote for one of four nominees to win the award in the inaugural year of this children’s book award.

Adult Fiction
She Walks in Beauty by Siri Mitchell. Semicolon review here.
The Double Comfort Safari Club by Alexander McCall Smith. I’m just getting around to this latest in Mr. McCall Smith’s series about traditionally built lady detective Precious Ramotswe and her assistant Mma Makutsi. I actually think this series, contrary to typical expectations, gets better with each installment. The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series is comfort food for traditional readers. There’s a new book in the series just out this month: The Saturday Big Tent Wedding Party.
Talk of the Town by Lisa Wingate. The accented dialog in this Texas chick-lit novel about a reality TV producer who finds true reality in the small town of Daily, Texas was a bit overdone, but the story was readable and entertaining. Read on my Kindle.
After the Leaves Fall by Nicole Baart. Also a Kindle read. Review will be forthcoming.

Young adult and children’s fiction
Taking Off by Jenny Moss. Set in Houston in 1986, the time of the space shuttle Challenger crash. I remember these events, so how could I not become absorbed in this coming-of-age novel about a girl and her dream and her admiration for Christa McAuliffe?
Trash by Andy Mulligan. Excellent mystery/action/adventure story about poor garbage picker children living next to the trash dump in the Philippines who find a valuable treasure in the garbage. Resilience and courage were the hallmarks of the young protagonists in this thriller for kids.
Sent (The Missing: Book 2) by Margaret Peterson Haddix. I had to read this next book in Haddix’s The Missing series since it deals with the two princes in the Tower and Richard III. I’m still with Josephine Tey and the Richard defenders, but Haddix’s take on the story was enjoyable anyway.
Bitter Melon by Cara Chow. Semicolon review here.
Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver. I read this one because my teens have been reading this book and a newer one by this author. I found it disturbing because of the very unlikeable characters and the toxically self-absorbed teen culture that is described. I think Ms. Oliver probably describes the teen/high school world quite accurately; it’s just a world that I’m sorry that anyone has to inhabit. Even in a book. Read more about the book itself, rather than my reaction to it at Reading Rants, Rhapsody in Books or Life With Books. Many other reviews are only a Google search away.
Delirium by Lauren Oliver. Of the two by this author, I liked this dystopian novel the best. Very sad.

Nonfiction
The Great Silence: Britain from the Shadow of the First World War to the Dawn of the Jazz Age by Juliet Nicolson. Semicolon review here.
Orthodoxy by G.K. Chesterton. Semicolon review here.
Crazy Love by Francis Chan. Semicolon thoughts here.
What Good Is God? by Philip Yancey. The next book for the Faith ‘n Fiction Roundtable, to be discussed at the end of April.
Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Prophet, Martyr, Spy by Eric Metaxis. Excellent. One of the best nonfiction biographies I’ve read in a good while. After having finished the book and re-read the criticism, I can say that I think this bit of fault-finding is both unwarranted and unfair. Metaxis did a good job with writing about a complex man, and I found myself both admiring and questioning Bonhoeffer’s life and decisions. That’s a good balance.

Poetry Friday: Poetry and Sermons of John Donne

Mar25

“Despair is the damp of hell, as joy is the serenity of heaven.”
~John Donne

40 Inspirational Classics for Lent

I’ve written several times here at Semicolon about the seventeenth century poet and Anglican priest, John Donne:

A Valediction Forbidding Mourning by John Donne, 1611
Holy Sonnet X (Death Be Not Proud) by John Donne
The Sunne Rising by John Donne
Song (Go and Catch a Falling Star) by John Donne
Hymn to God, My God, in my Sickness by John Donne
The End of the Alphabet, Wit and John Donne

I strongly suggest both the poetry and the sermons of Mr. Donne for your Lenten edification.

From A Lent Sermon preached at White-hall, February 20, 1629 on Matthew 6:21, For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also:

The words admit well that inversion, “Where your Treasure is, there will your heart be also,” implies this; Where your Heart is, That is your Treasure.

Do all in the Fear of God: In all warlike preparations, remember the Lord of Hosts, and fear Him; In all treaties of peace, remember the Prince of Peace, and fear Him; In all Consultations, remember the Angle of the Great Council, and fear Him: fear God as much at Noon, as at Midnight; as much in the Glory and Splendor of his Sun-shine, as in his darkest Eclipses,: fear God as much in thy Prosperity, as in thine Adversity; as much in thy Preferment, as in thy Disgrace.

(Heaven) Where all tears shall be wiped from mine eyes; not onely tears of Compunction for my self, and tears of Compassion for others; but even tears of Joy, too: for there shall be no sudden Joy, no Joy unexperienced there. There I shall have all joys, altogether, always. There Abraham shall not be gladder of his own salvation, then of mine; nor I surer of the Everlastingness of my God, then of my Everlastingness in Him. This is that Treasure.

U.S. Launches Missile Strike on Libya

Mar19

The Pentagon reports the United States has launched a missile strike on Libyan air defenses.

American warplanes, ships and submarines are prepared to launch a furious assault on Libya’s limited air defenses, clearing the way for European and other planes to enforce a no-fly zone designed to ground Moammar Gadahfi’s air force and cripple his ability to inflict further violence on rebels, U.S. officials said. The U.S. also has the ability to knock out air defense radars with Navy electronic warfare planes.

Hours after Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton attended an international conference in Paris that endorsed military action against Gadhafi, the U.S. was poised to kick off its attacks on Libyan air defense missile and radar sites along the Mediterranean coast to protect no-fly zone pilots from the threat of getting shot down. (Sources: Associated Press, USA Today, the Pentagon)

As the Lord leads, please pray now:

* For the protection of all U.S. servicemen and women participating in this attack.
* For the safety of all Allied forces engaged in the operation.
* For the safety of Libyan civilians and rebels and all who are in the strike zone
* For God’s purposes to be accomplished as a result of this international action against Libya.

From: The Presidential Prayer Team

Poetry Friday: Poetry of Gerard Manley Hopkins

Mar18

40 Inspirational Classics for Lent

Mr. Hopkins and I share a birthday, and I’ve posted poems by him before:
At the Wedding March
Pied Beauty

And here’s another:

Easter Communion

Pure fasted faces draw unto this feast:
God comes all sweetness to your Lenten lips.
You striped in secret with breath-taking whips,
Those crooked rough-scored chequers may be pieced
To crosses meant for Jesu’s; you whom the East
With draught of thin and pursuant cold so nips
Breathe Easter now; you serged fellowships,
You vigil-keepers with low flames decreased,

God shall o’er-brim the measures you have spent
With oil of gladness, for sackcloth and frieze
And the ever-fretting shirt of punishment
Give myrrhy-threaded golden folds of ease.
Your scarce-sheathed bones are weary of being bent:
Lo, God shall strengthen all the feeble knees.

Hopkins’ poetry is somewhat difficult to read and understand because he uses words in odd ways and plays with syntax and sentence structure until it’s almost unrecognizable. However, his poems are worth the effort. Read them aloud. Play with the poems as Hopkins plays with your understanding. You might come away inspired.

The poems of Gerard Manley Hopkins.

Poetry Friday: Poetry of George Herbert

Mar11

40 Inspirational Classics for Lent

LOVE. (II)

IMMORTALL Heat, O let thy greater flame
Attract the lesser to it : let those fires
Which shall consume the world, first make it tame,
And kindle in our hearts such true desires,

As may consume our lusts, and make thee way.
Then shall our hearts pant thee ; then shall our brain
All her invention on thine Altar lay,
And there in hymnes send back thy fire again :

Our eies shall see thee, which before saw dust ;
Dust blown by wit, till that they both were blinde :
Thou shalt recover all thy goods in kinde,
Who wert disseized by usurping lust :

All knees shall bow to thee ; all wits shall rise,
And praise him who did make and mend our eies.

I’ve posted poems by George Herbert, the seventeenth century Christian poet, on this blog numerous times. If one were to spend Lent and Eastertide just reading through the poems of Mr. Herbert, one a day, it would be devotional enough to last you through the season and to bring you to an awareness of poetry of faith.

Here are some of the posts from Semicolon about George Herbert’s poetry:
Love Bade Me Welcome
The Pulley
Christmas
The Dawning
The Sonne
A Wreath
Easter Wings

Other Links:
More poetry by George Herbert.
The God of Love My Shepherd Is by George Herbert at Rebecca Writes.