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The REALLY Dead Women Writers Meme

Apr21

OK, you saw the Women Writers meme, and some of us had read a few of the books on the list. I found the Really Dead Women Writers Meme at Bardiac, the blog of a literature professor, and I’m not going to list all the Really Dead writers here. I will tell you which ones I’ve read:

Jane Austen (but not the works on the list)
Anne Bradstreet (not all, but some of her poetry)
Hildegard von Bingen (I’ve listened to Eldest Daughter sing some of her writings put to music. Does that count?)

Ummm. that’s it.

The oft-quoted C.S. Lewis: “Naturally, since I myself am a writer, I do not wish the ordinary reader to read no modern books. But if he must read only the new or only the old, I would advise him to read the old. . . . It is a good rule, after reading a new book, never to allow yourself another new one till you have read an old one in between. If that is too much for you, you should at least read one old one to every three new ones.”

Maybe I should check out some DEAD women writers.

Blog Host Recommendation

Apr19

Some of you may have noticed the rude and almost blank screen that greeted you when you tried to visit Semicolon yesterday and part of today. It took about 30 hours for my web hosting company to track down and tell me what the problem was. They first said that my account had been suspended “due to spam.” Since I don’t do spam and I don’t like spam, except for the kind in the can, I didn’t know what to do about this seeming accusation. So I inquired further.

The web hosting company in question didn’t return my emails.

My emails became more and more frustrated and strident in tone.

They still didn’t return my emails.

Yes, I was going through blog withdrawal, but my main concern was the class schedule for our homeschool co-op that was supposed to be available on the web on Tuesday morning. It wasn’t. I had parents emailing and calling both me and the directors of our co-op.

Finally, thirty hours after they suspended my account without notice and after many, many emails from me, alternately irate and pleading, the web hosting company emailed to say that I could have my website back. One of the co-op class pages on this site had been the source of “a whole lot of spam” yesterday. Something was said about hackers, bcc injection, and pretty patches. Don’t ask me; I’m clueless.

Short version, I’m looking for a new website hosting company. Any suggestions?

Books by Women Meme

Apr19

Just BOLD those you’ve read, ITALICIZE the ones you’ve been meaning to read and ??? the ones you have never heard of (or wish you had never heard of? Or the ones about which I wonder, “Why is this book on this list?”)

HT: A Work in Progress

Alcott, Louisa May–Little Women Hasn’t every girl read Little Women?
Allende, Isabel–The House of Spirits
Angelou, Maya–I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
Atwood, Margaret–Cat’s Eye
Austen, Jane–Emma
Bambara, Toni Cade–Salt Eaters ??
Barnes, Djuna–Nightwood ??
de Beauvoir, Simone–The Second Sex
Blume, Judy–Are You There God? It’s Me Margaret
Burnett, Frances–The Secret Garden
Bronte, Charlotte–Jane Eyre
Bronte, Emily–Wuthering Heights
Buck, Pearl S.–The Good Earth
Byatt, A.S.–Possession
Cather, Willa–My Antonia
Christie, Agatha–Murder on the Orient Express
Cisneros, Sandra–The House on Mango Street??
Clinton, Hillary Rodham–Living History?????????
Cooper, Anna Julia–A Voice From the South??
Danticat, Edwidge–Breath, Eyes, Memory??
Davis, Angela–Women, Culture, and Politics???????????
Desai, Anita–Clear Light of Day??
Dickinson, Emily–Collected Poems
Duncan, Lois–I Know What You Did Last Summer
DuMaurier, Daphne–Rebecca
Eliot, Geroge–Middlemarch
Emecheta, Buchi–Second Class Citizen??
Erdrich, Louise–Tracks??
Esquivel, Laura–Like Water for Chocolate
Flagg, Fannie–Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe
Friedan, Betty–The Feminine Mystique
Frank, Anne–Diary of a Young Girl
Gilman, Charlotte Perkins–The Yellow Wallpaper??
Gordimer, Nadine–July’s People??
Grafton, Sue–S is for Silence
Hamilton, Edith–Mythology
Highsmith, Patricia–The Talented Mr. Ripley
Hooks, Bell–Bone Black??
Hurston, Zora Neale–Dust Tracks on the Road??
Jacobs, Harriet–Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl??
Jackson, Helen Hunt–Ramona
Jackson, Shirley–The Haunting of Hill House
Jong, Erica–Fear of Flying
Keene, Carolyn–The Nancy Drew Mysteries (any of them)
Kidd, Sue Monk–The Secret Life of Bees
Kincaid, Jamaica–Lucy??
Kingsolver, Barbara–The Poisonwood Bible
Kingston, Maxine Hong–The Woman Warrior
Larsen, Nella–Passing??
L’Engle, Madeleine–A Wrinkle in Time
Le Guin, Ursula K.–The Left Hand of Darkness (I’ve read the Earthsea books, but not this one.)
Lee, Harper–To Kill a Mockingbird
Lessing, Doris–The Golden Notebook
Lively, Penelope–Moon Tiger
Lorde, Audre–The Cancer Journals??
Martin, Ann M.–The Babysitters Club Series Blah!
McCullers, Carson–The Member of the Wedding
McMillan, Terry–Disappearing Acts??
Markandaya, Kamala–Nectar in a Sieve
Marshall, Paule–Brown Girl, Brownstones??
Mitchell, Margaret–Gone with the Wind
Montgomery, Lucy–Anne of Green Gables
Morgan, Joan–When Chickenheads Come Home to Roost??
Morrison, Toni–Song of Solomon
Murasaki, Lady Shikibu–The Tale of Genji??
Munro, Alice–Lives of Girls and Women??
Murdoch, Iris–Severed Head
Naylor, Gloria–Mama Day??
Niffenegger, Audrey–The Time Traveller’s Wife Blah, also.
Oates, Joyce Carol–We Were the Mulvaneys
O’Connor, Flannery–A Good Man is Hard to Find
Piercy, Marge–Woman on the Edge of Time??
Picoult, Jodi–My Sister’s Keeper
Plath, Sylvia–The Bell Jar
Porter, Katharine Anne–Ship of Fools
Proulx, E. Annie–The Shipping News
Rand, Ayn–The Fountainhead
Ray, Rachel–365: No Repeats??
Rhys, Jean–Wide Sargasso Sea
Robinson, Marilynne–Housekeeping I read Gilead.
Rocha, Sharon–For Laci??
Sebold, Alice–The Lovely Bones
Shelley, Mary–Frankenstein
Smith, Betty–A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
Smith, Zadie–White Teeth??
Spark, Muriel–The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
Spyri, Johanna–Heidi
Strout, Elizabeth–Amy and Isabelle??
Steel, Danielle–The House
Tan, Amy–The Joy Luck Club
Tannen, Deborah–You’re Wearing That??
Ulrich, Laurel–A Midwife’s Tale
Urquhart, Jane–Away??
Walker, Alice–The Temple of My Familiar
Welty, Eudora–One Writer’s Beginnings
Wharton, Edith–Age of Innocence
Wilder, Laura Ingalls–Little House in the Big Woods
Wollstonecraft, Mary–A Vindication of the Rights of Women
Woolf, Virginia–A Room of One’s Own

THere are an awful lot of books and authors on this list that I’ve never read or never even heard of. Can you recommend any of the ones I’ve not read? Are any of them “can’t miss” books as far as you’re concerned?

Booked by Three

Apr18

Meme, courtesy of Shelley’s Bookshelf:

Name 3 books you liked, titles which start with A, B, C (one per letter).
Adam Bede by George Eliot
The Bronze Bow by Elizabeth George Speare
Certain Women by Madeleine L’Engle

Name 3 authors you like whose names (given or surname) start with A, B, C (one per letter).
Ann Kiemel Anderson
Charlotte Bronte
Chuck Colson

Name 3 books on your To Read list with titles starting with A, B, C (one per letter).
Autobiography of A.A. Milne
Books on the Bookshelf by Petroski
Captains from Castile by Shellabarger

You can play ABC books and authors, too—either here in the comments or at your own blog.

Easter Center of the Blogosphere

Apr16

Bill at Out of the Bloo: “Everyone, this is really what it’s all about! Easter is the turning point of history, the culmination of a rescue mission that was planned before the foundation of the world.”

MM-V wishes all a Happy Good Friday: . . . for a few moments, we were, that Good Friday night, aware of terrible sorrow, the ineffable sadness that precedes a renewal or realization of a hopeful promise.

La Corona by John Donne from Waterfall at A Sort of Notebook.

Sparrow is praying for a prodigal this Resurrection Day: “Surely He is searching for her in the dark…watching the road and waiting for her return…unfazed by sorrow’s heavy scars. (O Lord, find her and bring her home!) If only she knew that He was wounded for our transgressions; He was crushed for our iniquities; upon Him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with His stripes we are healed.”

Mission Safari: So What Is Easter All About Anyway? “Yesterday, as I was getting ready to leave the hospital a group of about 4 Muslims and 3 Christians were standing around the Nurse’s Station. One of the Muslim docs looks at me and says, “So, what is Easter all about anyway?” I about fell over. Did he just really ask me that?”

Sarah Louise rambles, but says things worth reading: “For me, Easter is not just the eggs and the chicks, pink bunnies and chocolate. It is a time of real mourning, of real reverence. Lent is a time of contemplation. This year, I had a notebook that I started when Lent began. In the front, I copied out a quote from Soren Kierkegaard, ‘So now, with God’s help, I shall become myself.'”

And an Easter Sermon from St. John Chrysostom, courtesy of At A Hen’s Pace.
“Let us all enter into the joy of the Lord!

First and last alike, receive your reward.
Rich and poor, rejoice together!

Conscientious and lazy, celebrate the day!
You who have kept the fast, and you who have not,
rejoice, this day, for the table is bountifully spread!

Feast royally, for the calf is fatted.
Let no one go away hungry.
Partake, all, of the banquet of faith.
Enjoy the bounty of the Lord’s goodness!”

Happy Resurrection Day, everyone, and may we continue to walk in the Joy of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ throughout the coming year.

The Celebration Continues

Apr16



These two books by Martha Zimmerman are the sources for many of our holiday traditions: the resurrection egg hunt, the covered windows and darkness on Good Friday and on Saturday, our sunrise Easter breakfast, the Emmaus walk, the celebrations of Passover and other Jewish feasts that we have done as a family in years past.

For more ideas of how to celebrate holy-days that are Christ-centered, I highly recommend these books. Coming up is Ascension Day, celebrated on the Thursday that falls forty days after Resurrection Sunday, and also Pentecost, the seventh Sunday after Resurrection Day. You can find many, many ideas for celebrating these and other Biblical and Christian holidays in Mrs. Zimmerman’s books

Emmaus Walk

Apr16

In her book Celebrating the Christian Year Martha Zimmerman suggests that we use part of the afternoon on Resurrection Sunday for an Emmaus Walk.

On Easter Day, two disciples were going to a village named Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem, and talking with each other about all the things that had happened. While they were talking and discussing together, Jesus himself drew near and went with them. But their eyes were kept from recognizing him. And he said to them, “What is this conversation which you are holding with each other as you walk?” And they stood still, looking sad. Then one of them, named Cleopas, answered him, “Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days:” And he said to them, “What things?” And they said to him, “Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, and how our chief priests and rulers delivered him up to be condemned to death, and crucified him. Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since this happened. Moreover, some women of our company amazed us. They were at the tomb early in the morning and did not find his body; and they came back saying that they had even seen a vision of angels, who said that he was alive. Some of those who were with us went to the tomb, and found it just as the women had said; but him they did not see.” Luke 24:13-35

Take a walk together. Discuss the things the Lord has done. Talk about all that has happened to you this year and about what you’re planning for the rest of the year. Enjoy the company of Jesus as you walk and talk.

For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them. Matthew 18:20

Sunrise Worship with Special Effects

Apr16

Valley - Israel, Hills of Galilee, Sea of Galilee



Valley – Israel, Hills of Galilee, Sea of Galilee

Our sunrise worship service was beautiful. The choir and the assembly, all of us, provided the music. We prayed simple sentence prayers of thanksgiving and praise. We read the story aloud. We saw Peter and John in a boat after a hard night of fishing, no fish to show for it. And Jesus came on the shore, called to them to cast their nets again, and they caught a box full of goldfish crackers 🙂

Special effects were provided by God Himself, the sun rising over the bay. Jesus forgave Peter and called him to “Feed my sheep.” We remembered the life, the death, and the resurrection.

We worshipped.

Easter Morning

Apr16

Easter Morning


Easter Morning
Bell, Karyn E.

What do you do on Easter Sunday morning? We usually have a sunrise, or near-sunrise breakfast outside in the backyard. We read the story of the resurrection from one of the gospels, pray, and then we partake of deviled eggs, cinnamon rolls, coffee, and juice. Then it’s time to go inside and get ready for church.

THis year our church is having a sunrise worship time at a local park, and the young adults in the family are committed to sing at the worship service. So I don’t know what we’ll do about our family tradition.