In thinking of books for boys, I came up with two more beloved books from my own childhood. I looked on the internet for the first, Friday’s Tunnel by John Verney. I remember this one as a very British, cartoon-like story about an eccentric family by the name of Callendar. The boy’s name is Friday, and his sister is named February. I found that this book and all the others by this author are out of print. That’s a shame because I remember them quite fondly.
The other book is The Silver Sword by Ian Serrailler. This story tells of four children, refugees in post-World War II Europe, and how they manage to survive and eventually become reunited with their father. This book is also sometimes entitled Escape from Warsaw.
Anybody read either of these? I plan to add both of them and several other books by both authors to my ever-growing LIST.
Archives
The Books I Want to Read This Year
This is a very incomplete list of all the books I want to read in 2005. I discovered most of these while browsing through Barnes and Noble or while blogging.
#1 Ladies Detective Agency—Smith
Michaelangelo and the Pope’s Ceiling—King
Right Turns: Unconventional Lessons from a Controversial Life–Medved
The Household Book of Lady Grizel Baillie, 1692-1733
Nectarina Sieve—Markandaya
Please Stop Laughing At Me—Blanco
Another Place at the Table—Harrison
Rating the First Ladies—Johnson
The Disappearing Duke—Freeman-Keel
Dangerous Diplomacy—Mowbray
Prophetic Untimeliness—Guinness
The Power of the Powerless—De Vinck
After the Ball—Beard
The Mystic Rose—Lawhead
The Recreations of a Country Parson–Boyd
Tathea—Perry.
Chasing Hepburn—Lee
The Prizewinner of Defiance, Ohio–Ryan
The Great Fortune, The Spoilt City, Friends and Heroes—Olivia Manning
Empires of Light : Edison, Tesla, Westinghouse, and the Race to Electrify the World –Jonnes
Habits of the High-Tech Heart: Living Virtuously in the Information Age—Schultz
Cold Mountain—Frazier
Eragon—Paolini
The Canterbury Papers—Healey
Sailing the Wine Dark Sea—Why the Greeks Matter—Cahill
Brief Intervals of Horrible Sanity—Gold
This Vast Land—Ambrose
Armey’s Axioms—Armey
The God I Love—Tada
Game of Kings—Dunnett
Wild Strawberries—Thirkell
Tenant of Wildfell Hall—Ann Bronte
John Halifax, Gentleman—Dinah Mulock Craik
Miss Marjoribanks–Margaret Oliphant
Blog: Understanding the Information Reformation that’s Changing Your World–Hewitt
Total Truth–Nancy Pearcy I got this one for Christmas.
Shepherds Abiding–Karon Another Christmas present.
Don Quixote–Cervantes Yes, we are going to read the whole thing this year.
In the Heart of the Sea–Philbrick
To the Last Mind–Shaara
Light Force–Janssen
Mad Mary Lamb–Susan Tyler Hitchcock
Dragon Rider-Funke
Airborn–Oppel
Beyond Statliest Marble: The Passionate Feminity of Anne Bradstreet–Wilson
Call of Duty: The Sterling Nobility of Robert E. Lee–Wilkins
Jonathan Edwards: A New Biography–Murray
Forgotten Founding Father: The Heroic Legacy of George Whitfield–Mansfield
Give Me Liberty: The Uncompromising Statesmanship of Patrick Henry–Vaughan
So, are there any books I should add to the list? Any I should remove (not worth the time)? Does anybody recommend I start with one particular book? I notice that there’s not too much fiction on this list, and I like fiction. Can anyone recommend anything that I might like? (I don’t enjoy too much twentieth century fiction, unfortunately, other than fantasy, some YA fiction, and mysteries.)
iTunes Songs for This Week
I have a plan to purchase two songs per week from iTunes. The songs for this week are both by the same group, Caedmon’s Call, from here in Houston. The tunes are We Delight and The Danse. The latter song was composed by Kemper Crabb, also from the Houston area. I got to see and hear his Medieval Christmas concert at my own church a couple of weeks ago.
Merry Christmas to All
I wanted to think of something profound to say on this Christmas/Christmas Eve, but all I know is that I am profoundly thankful for Christ and for another occasion to celebrate His love and mercy in my life. I hope you all have a very merry Christmas, and I pray that you and I both will honor the Lord of Christmas in all that we say and do this Christmas.
Historical Fiction/Historical Fact
As I said in an earlier post, I’ve been enjoying reading several books of historical fiction by Ann Rinaldi. I wonder if Ms. Rinaldi or another writer of historical fiction has ever heard of Lady Grizel Baillie.
Born at Redbraes Castle in Merse, Scotland on Christmas Day of 1665, she was the eldest of Lady Grisel and Sir Patrick Hume’s eighteen children. As her mother’s health was frail, the care of her brothers and sisters fell on young Grisell’s shoulders and throughout her life she exhibited a strong sense of duty and responsibility. At the age of twelve, she was dispatched by her father to take a letter to the imprisoned Robert Baillie of Jerviswood and was expected to collect intelligence while inside the prison.
That’s only the beginning of her story. Grizell’s father later had to go into hiding in his own familly’s burial vault because he was suspected of being part of a plot to assassinate Charles II and his brother James. Grizell “would slip items from off the dinner table and carry them, under the cover of night, to her father’s hiding place.” The situation in Scotland became so difficult that the entire family (including all eighteen children) fled to Holland and lived there for three years. There Grizell renewed an acquaintance with the son of the prisoner to whom she had delivered the letter at age twelve, and she managed to get her parents, in spite of their initial reluctance, to consent to her marriage to George Baillie. She was also busy during this time composing a book of songs. And there’s more . . .
Spies, political intrigue, love thwarted and then triumphant–wouldn’t Lady Baillie’s life make a fantastic novel?
SNOW
In Houston on Christmas Eve! We came out of the church at about 7:30 this evening, and there was a thin layer of snow on top of all the cars. We’ve been in Houston for nineteen years now, and most of my children have never seen snow. Only Eldest Daughter has been to Colorado and to Chicago and experienced snow. The rest have only seen pictures and movies. What a blessing!
Now we’re enjoying our traditional Christmas Eve dinner–chili cheese dip, chips, Christmas Eve salad, and punch. What an amazing Christmas Eve! It’s still snowing outside. At this rate, we’ll be making a snowman for Christmas day.
Noel Streatfield
Noel Streatfield wrote 58 books for children, and she was born on Christmas Eve, 1895. (Now I suppose I know where the name “Noel” came from.) The “shoes” books are Ms. Streatfield’s most famous: Ballet Shoes, Theatre Shoes, Tennis Shoes, Dancing Shoes, Circus Shoes, Movie Shoes, New Shoes,, and Party Shoes, maybe more. Some of the books were apparently re-named for the American market and to take advantage of the popularity of Ballet Shoes. Ballet Shoes I can recommend without reservation. It’s a lovely story of three sisters, Pauline, Petrova, and Posy Fossil, who are determined to do something to make their surname famous. Each girl must find her own talent and her own way to uphold the Fossil name while coping with near-poverty and a very strict ballet school.
In Memory and In Honor
Eleven years ago today I was in the hospital. Our fifth child, Joanna Kirsten, was born and died two days before this date, and I spent Christmas 1993 in the hospital recovering from a very difficult and scary premature (eight months) birth.
Ten years ago today I was in the hospital again. Brown Bear Daughter was born, safely and easily; Engineer Husband called her our “Return to Flight Baby.” She’s been flying ever since. Of course, she didn’t replace little Joanna, but she did bring a new joy and beauty to our family. We call her Brown Bear Daughter because she was the happy recipient, we theorize, of the Native American genes that come from my mother’s side of the family, brown hair, brown eyes, brown skin. She’s our drama queen, our social butterfly, our curly hair pokey bear.
Happy Birthday, Brown Bear.
See You in Heaven, Joanna Kirsten.
Books for Boys (and Girls): Christmas Edition
The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson. The Herdmans take the meaning of “bad kids” to a whole new level, and when they decide to participate in the annual Christmas pageant, all h— breaks loose. The Herdmans have never experienced the Christmas story, so they put a fresh interpretation on the old story for everyone.
My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George. A boy leaves his crowded home to live alone on a mountain. He builds his own home, finds his own food, and has visitors for Christmas.
Christmas in Camelot by Mary Pope Osbourne. Jack and Annie travel via the Magic Treehouse to Camelot where they go on a quest for some special gifts.
Mental Multivitamin
Mental Multivitamin has a wonderful “un-blog” that so often seems to see into my home. Kind of scary! Today she reminds her readers to get back to reading Edith Grossman’s translation of Don Quixote in honor of the 400th anniversary of its publication. I’m one of those who bought the book early in 2004 with good intentions, and Engineer Husband and I do need to get back to it.
Mental Multivitamin also has an occasional feature called “On the nightstand (under the pillow, in the knapsack, etc.)” She gives us a picture and commentary about what the family has been reading, skimming, browsing through, etc. In the most recent post of this nature, M-MV has a hardbound copy of Lord of the Rings, just the book that we’re referring to and re-reading around here in preparation for a marathon movie viewing around the first of the new year in honor of Tolkien’s birthday (January 3rd). As the urchins would say, Mental Multivitamin rocks!