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Christmas in New Jersey, 1776

Dec7

“The attack was set for Christmas night, December 25-26, when most of the Hessians would be drunk or exhausted from the day’s celebrations.

About twenty-four hundred Continentals began marching toward the Pennsylvania side of McKonkey’s Ferry several miles upstream from Trenton late on Christmas afternoon. Paths down to the river were covered with snow. In the failing light, Washington saw the snow marked by the bloody footprints of those who went without shoes. None complained; it wouldn’t have done any good.

It hadn’t been a merry Christmas for those gathered on the shore. Miserable and homesick, they stood about in groups, waiting to board the boats. Rain began to fall, then wet snow. The temperature dropped. All they had to cheer them were the words of Tom Paine’s latest pamphlet, printed in Philadelphia three days earlier.

*****

As the shivering troops waited, Washington had the pamphlet read to them. Paine’s words went to their hearts like flaming arrows.

These are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country, but he who stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of men and women. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph . . . “

~The War for Independence: The Story of the American Revolution by Albert Marrin.

Billy by William Paul McKay and Ken Abraham

Dec6

I received a review copy of this book from Thomas Nelson Publishers as a result of their seemingly controversial Book Review Bloggers program. In return for the book, I agreed to write a review for my blog and for one other site. I’m not sure what the issue is with that agreement, but there it is up front and transparent.

As for the book itself, subtitled The Untold Story of a Young Billy Graham and the Test of Faith That Almost Changed Everything, it reads like the movie spin-off that it is. It’s not badly written at all, but it’s also not prize-winning biography either. I enjoyed reading about Billy Graham’s early life and ministry, but I felt as if I were reading a screenplay, scene by scene descriptions of Graham’s life, with actual dialog from the movie. After I read the book, I looked at some clips and trailers from the movie, and sure enough it looks as if the book IS the movie, essentially.

There’s one section I’m not so sure about, just because I’m not sure how it would have been filmed. At the climax of the story, Billy wrestles with his doubts brought on by the apostasy of his friend and mentor, Charles Templeton. In the book, the author describes how Satan and his demons battle the hosts of heaven for possession of Billy’s soul. All these unseen powers wait for the decision that will determine whether Billy Graham will become a spokesman of God’s truth, allowing God to change hearts and lives all around the world, or whether he will give in to his own doubts and fears and insecurities and become ineffective for the kingdom of God. It’s a dramatic scene, but I don’t know whether the movie actually shows demons and angels, hovering, waiting for one man’s crisis of the soul to be resolved.

I do know that I have a lot of respect and admiration for evangelist Billy Graham. I enjoyed reading his story even though it was difficult to know how biographically accurate the story was. There is a disclaimer in the front of the book which says:

“This book is the unauthorized retelling of a true story and is based on actual events. Certain items have been adapted for dramatic effect, and some artistic license has been taken to assist in the flow of the storyline.”

I’m really not sure what that means as far as the integrity of the facts in the story, and that uncertainty bothered me as I read. Did Charles Templeton really film an interview with a TV reporter near the end of his life from his hospital bed? Did Billy Graham really experience a life-changing “encounter with the Holy Spirit” after a meeting with Welsh evangelist Stephen Olford? Was there a reconciliation scene between Billy Graham and Charles Templeton before Templeton’s death? More importantly, was there a reconciliation between Templeton and his God before Templeton died? I don’t know since those particular events in the book may have been “adapted for dramatic effect.”

Bottom line, I liked the book, but I wouldn’t recommend it as a source for factual information about the early life of Billy Graham. And the movie, which I haven’t seen, might be a better way to assimilate the story. The audience for this novelization of Billy Graham’s early years is probably limited to fans only —like me.

Fiction/Nonfiction Pairs for More Book-giving to Kids

Dec4

Sandy’s Circus: A Story About Alexander Calder by Tanya Lee Stone, illustrated by Boris Kulikov.
The Calder Game by Blue Balliet. Semicolon review here.

The Trouble Begins at 8: A Life of Mark Twain in the Wild, Wild West by Sid Fleischman.
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain.

Helen’s Eyes: A Photobiography of Annie Sullivan, Helen Keller’s Teacher by Maria Ferguson Delano.
Miss Spitfire by Sarah Miller. Semicolon review here.

The Road to Oz: Twists, Turns, Bumps, and Triumphs in the Life of L. Frank Baum by Kathleen Krull.
The Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum.

In Defiance of Hitler: The Secret Mission of Varian Fry by Carla Killough McClafferty. Reviewed here by Laura Salas.
The Boy Who Dared by Susan Campbell Bartoletti. Semicolon review here.

Our White House: Looking In, Looking Out, a compilation by various authors. Reviewed here at a Patchwork of Books.
First Daughter: White House Rules by Mitali Perkins. Semicolon review here.

Snow Falling in Spring: Coming of Age in China During the Cultural Revolution by Moying Li. Reviewed here by Jennie at Biblio File.
Little Leap Forward: A Boy in Beijing by Guo Yue. Reviewed by Melissa at Book Nut.

The Kid’s Book of the Night Sky
Every Soul a Star by Wendy Mass. Reviewed by Melissa at Book Nut.
(I stole this idea from Mother Reader who has a great list of Twenty-one More Ways to Give a Book.)

Mighty Jackie the Strike-Out Queen by Marissa Moss. Reviewed here by Lori Calabreese.
No Cream Puffs by Karen Day. Reviewed by Melissa at Book Nut.

Sawdust and Spangles: The Amazing Life of W.C. Coup by Ralph Covert and G. Riley Mills. Reviewed here by Lori Calabrese.
The Floating Circus by Tracie Vaughn Zimmer. Semicolon review here.

Lincoln Shot: A President’s Life Remembered by Barry Denenberg, illustrated by Christopher Bing.
An Acquaintance with Darkness by Ann Rinaldi.

The Day the World Exploded: The Earthshaking Catastrophe at Krakatoa by Simon Winchester. Recommended by Kathryn Krull at I.N.K., Interesting Nonfiction for Kids.
The Twenty-One Balloons by William Pene du Bois.

How Does the Show Go On: An Introduction to the Theater by Thomas Schumacher.
The Diamond of Drury Lane by Julia Golding.

So You Want Women to Vote, Lizzie Stanton? by Jean Fritz.
The Hope Chest by Karen Schwabach.

Winston Churchill: Soldier and Politician by Tristan Boyer Binns.
Window Boy by Andrea White. Semicolon review here.

The Story of Baseball: Third Revised and Expanded Edition by Lawrence S. Ritter.
Keeping Score by Linda Sue Park. Semicolon review here.

How To Be a Samurai Warrior by Fiona Macdonald.
Sisters of the Sword by Maya Snow. Semicolon review here.

Knight (DK Eyewitness Books) by Christopher Gravett.
The Youngest Templar: Keeper of the Grail by Michael Spradlin.

Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin

Aug25

“The first time you share tea with a Balti, you are a stranger. The second time you take tea. you are an honored guest. The third time you share a cup of tea, you become family, and for our family, we are prepared to do anything, even die,” he said, laying his hand warmly on Mortenson’s own. “Doctor Greg, you must make time to share three cups of tea. We may be uneducated. But we are not stupid. We have lived and survived here for a long time.”

Subtitled One Man’s Mission to Promote Peace One School at a Time, this book was both inspiring and disappointing at the same time. Greg Mortenson was a mountain climber who attempted and failed to climb K2, the second highest mountain in the world found in the northern regions of Pakistan (Baltistan). While he was in this remote area of Pakistan, Greg was inspired to begin a one-man mission to build schools there, especially schools for girls, most of whom were not getting any kind of education.

As the son of Lutheran missionaries, Mortenson grew up in Africa as an MK, and even after they returned to the U.S. neither Greg nor his parents were exactly rich according to American standards. So Mortenson, living out of his car, began his campaign to build schools for girls in northern Pakistan by writing letters on an antiquated typewriter to every celebrity, famous person, or potential donor he could think to write. He explained what he wanted to do, wrote something like 600 letters, and got no response. A Pakistani expatriate who owned a copy store taught Mortenson how to use a computer and a word processing program, and he wrote more letters. Still no response.

Finally, he connected with one rich, sort of eccentric, donor, and he went to Pakistan with $30,000 to build his first school in the mountain village of Korphe. That one school was only the beginning, and that’s a capsule version of the inspiring part.

The disappointing part was that, as much as I admire what Greg Mortenson has done and continues to do, I think he is mistaken to put his trust in education alone. He seems to have left his Christianity behind in a quest change the world through education. Education is a wonderful thing. Education may be the best, perhaps the only thing, that can be done for the girls and boys of Pakistan and Afghanistan, given their cultural and religious heritage. So, I applaud Greg Mortenson and his organization CAI for what they have done and for what they continue to do.

However, I first of all agree with this reviewer at Amazon who opines that boys need education just as much as girls do. Read his exposition for a look at why educating just girls or girls in preference to boys may be counter-productive and produce civil unrest instead of the peace we all want.

Secondly, education without a Christian moral foundation produces only educated fools, according to the Bible and according to historical experience. I can name many individuals and groups of individuals who have been highly educated and also committed to evil goals and foolish ideals. An education does not guarantee peaceful intent, and neither does a change for the better in socio-economic class. No matter how much we as Americans may want to think that we can change the world by improving people’s standard of living and giving them books, it will have only limited success. Do I believe that making poor people richer and giving young people a chance at an education is a goal worth working for, and donating to? Yes, I do. However, according to CAI’s website, “The best hope for a peaceful and prosperous world lies in the education of all the world’s children.”

No, our hope does not lie in education. Without Christ, the change in a culture that is produced by education is only cosmetic and unlikely to produce the kind of lasting political change that we as Americans would like to see. People can be educated, even educated using funds donated by Americans, and still hate us. We should give and do good because it’s the right thing to do, not because we expect that a school building and classes and clean water will make them quit believing the mullahs who tell them that we are godless infidels. I know it’s unpalatable and controversial, but education is not God.

The book itself is decently written, and the story is absorbing. The idea that one person can have an idea and do something important to make the world a better place and the details of that idea working out in one man’s life are inspiring, as I said. Don’t expect great literature; do expect the story of a great life.

Home by Witold Rybczynski

Jun30

Recommended by Carol at Magistramater.

I’m not sure I have the interior decorator/homemaker/domestic engineer gene or talent or something. Although I enjoyed this book and found the history of the idea of “home” and a “comfortable home” interesting, I can’t say I felt that much of the information in the book related to me or my family or the way we live.

That is, I didn’t become engaged in the book’s ideas about home and how to achieve a comfortable home until the very end of the book when Rybczynski discusses comfort as both an objective, measurable ideal and a subjective, experiential idea:

We should resist the inadequate definitions that engineers and architects have offered us. Domestic well-being is too important to be left to the experts; it is, as it has always been, the business of the family and the individual.”

SO what furniture and what kind of design makes your home comfortable? What would make it more convenient and comfortable and habitable?

I know exactly what would would improve my home. I have a whole list:

1. I want new countertops. These kind.

2. I want my lower kitchen cabinets to open on both sides. I want bookshelves in the sides towards the living room, a divider in the middle, and shallower cabinet space in the kitchen. I don’t know if anyone else can picture what I’m talking about, but my lower cabinets are much too deep and dark with lots of unused space. And I always need more bookshelves.

3. I need better lighting for reading in the living room and the game room.

4. I would love to have a durable, but fluffy comforter on my bed and lots of super-sized cushy pillows that could be configured as needed. Right now I have a quilt covering on the bed because the comforters I’ve had in the past have not stood up to repeated Semicolon family use and abuse.

I may not be much of an interior designer, but as the amateur art critics say, “I know what I like.”

The Zookeeper’s Wife by Diane Ackerman

Jun18

Jan Zabinski was the Polish director of the Warsaw Zoo in 1939 when the Nazis invaded and subjugated Poland. His wife, Antonina, was his helpmate in runing the zoo and the mother of a young son. During the German occupation, she gave birth to a daughter as well.

This nonfiction book tells the story of how Jan and Antonina worked with the Polish Underground to hide Jews, stockpile arms and ammunition, eventually participate in the doomed Uprising of August 1944 when the Russians halted outside Warsaw and allowed the Germans to destroy the Polish Underground that had come out of hiding to support the Allies in re-taking Poland and driving the Nazis out. A lot of the story tells about the animals in the zoo and what happened to them and how Antonina survived pregnancy-related illnesses, inadequate rations, and providing secret hospitality for fifty to seventy people at any given time throughout the course of the war and the German occupation.

Something about the way the story was told made me admire these people, but not like them very much. I’m not sure what I didn’t like, but I felt uncomfortable in their company. Jan seemed very controlling, and Antonina like a wife making excuses for an authoritarian husband. Maybe that’s not the way it was at all since Ms. Ackerman derives her story from written accounts, Antonina’s diary mostly, and from interviews with people who knew the Zabinskis during the war. Both Jan and Antonina Zabinski died before this book was conceived. Their son, Rys, did contribute his memories of a childhood filled with animals and with war.

I don’t know. I’m ambivalent. If you like nonfiction about animals and and about World War II, you should try it out.

Worst Hard Time by Timothy Egan

Jun3


The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl by Timothy Egan

“We dream of the faint gurgling sound of dry soil sucking in the grateful moisture, but we wake to another day of wind and dust and hopes deferred.” —Caroline Henderson, 1934.

“We are getting deeper and deeper in dust.” The Boise City News, 1934.

“Our country has been beaten, swept, scarred, and torn by the most adverse weather conditions since June, 1932. It is bare, desolate and damaged. Our people have been buffeted about by every possible kind of misfortune. It has appeared that the hate of all nature has been poured out against us.” —John McCarty, editor of the Dalhart, Texas newspaper, The Texan, 1935.

“Three little words, achingly familiar on a Western farmer’s tongue, rule life in the dust bowl of the continent —‘if it rains.'” —Bob Geiger, AP reporter.

“If God can’t make rain in Kansas, how can the New Deal hope to succeed?” —A U.S. congressman on ambitious government plans to renew the soil and bring rain to the Dust Bowl.

An amazing true story. My grandparents and my husband’s parents lived in West Texas during these times and must have experienced some of the drought, dust storms, and hard times chronicled in Egan’s book. But I never heard them talk about anything like the stories in the book: dust so thick that people got lost and ran their cars off the road, respiratory diseases caused by the dust, dusters, clouds of dust so tall they blotted out the sun. I remember dust storms when I was growing up in San Angelo in West Texas, but nothing like the cataclysmic storms of the 1930’s.

Word Freak by Stefan Fatsis

Jun1

Stefan Fatsis set out to write a book about Scrabble, particularly competitive Scrabble, and he ended up becoming a part of the competitive, obsessive, game-playing culture that he intended to chronicle as an outsider, a journalist. Fatsis got sucked into a fascinating game, and he says he loved it, still loves it as far as I know.

I’m always interested in worlds, hobbies, and passionate interests that consume other whole groups of people and that I never even knew existed. I knew that some people played competitive Scrabble, but I didn’t know that serious players travel all over the U.S. and even the world to play in tournaments in which the prize money for the winner is usually barely enough to pay travel expenses. And they memorize word lists: all of the permissible two-letter words, then the threes, the words that have a “q” without a “u” following, the combinations that yield a “bingo” (a seven letter word using all the letters in your rack which gets you an extra 50 points in Scrabble). It’s amazing to me that anyone can become so consumed with playing Scrabble that they build their entire life around the game. They play incessantly: on the internet, pick up games in the park, at Scrabble clubs where players pay a cover fee to get in, at home, at tournaments. It’s almost a religion. In fact, one of the players profiled in the book says that Scrabble is the only thing that gives his life meaning.

The book includes a fairly full history of Scrabble, its invention and its growing popularity. But the most fascinating part of the book is the stories about the people who play the game and who compete for the glory, not much money, that is to be gained by winning the National or World Scrabble Championship.

I must admit that I’ve been playing Scrabble online at scrabulous.com. It’s fun, but I’m terrible. My rating is below 1000, way lower than Mr. Fatsis started out as a novice. And the urchins have been playing a weekly Sunday night Scrabble game. Computer Guru Son and I are tied at two games apiece in the series.

“This is my favorite anagram of all,” Eric says, and he makes me write this down in my notebook: 11+2=12+1.

Then he instructs me to spell it out: ELEVEN + TWO = TWELVE + ONE

“God put that there,” Eric ays. “There is no other explanation.”

I like that story. Maybe I’m a bit of a word freak myself.

Stolen Lives by Malika Oufkir and Michele Fitoussi

May26

Stolen Lives: Twenty Years in a Desert Jail by Malika Oufkir and Michele Fitoussi.

Recommended by Laura at Musings: “In 1972, Moroccan defense minister General Mohamed Oufkir staged a failed coup d’etat against King Hassan II. Oufkir was reported to have committed suicide, but was found with five bullet wounds. In retaliation for the coup, his entire family was imprisoned: Oufkir’s wife, Fatima, and his children Malika, Raouf, Soukaina, Maria, Myriam, and Abdellatif. A cousin, Achoura, and a close family friend, Halima, joined them. Malika Oufkir was 17 years old; her brother Abdellatif was only 3.”

This nonfiction account of a family kept in cruel and unusual confinement in the desert of Morocco reminded me of nothing so much as Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities. The Oufkir family were so badly treated and so cut off from the world for so very long that they, like the fictional Dr. Manette, were impaired in body, mind and soul when they were finally freed from the prisons of King Hassan II.

Malika Oufkir’s story is that of the spoiled rich girl brought low by injustice and subsequently redeemed through suffering and finally freed to appreciate a new life and love. It’s a classic plot, and the fact that it’s a true story, as trustworthy as memoirs can be these days, makes it all the more compelling. Some parts of the story are difficult to believe: Malika says that as a nineteen year old, educated and well-travelled, she had no idea that her father was a murderer and a tyrant. Perhaps not, but then again, maybe she chose her own blind spots. She also describes scenes of treatment so horrendous during the twenty years of her imprisonment that I would choose to disbelieve her testimony if I could, not wanting to believe that man can be so cruel to his fellowman. Western law embodies the principle that no person’s family should be punished for that person’s crimes. Malika, her mother, and her five brothers and sisters are cruelly punished for the crimes of Malika’s father, a fate that Ms. Oufkir says was not uncommon in Morocco under Hassan II.

An amazing story human resilience and courage. Read it and weep.

When Men Become Gods by Stephen Singular

May25

When Men Become Gods: Mormon Polygamist Warren Jeffs, His Cult of Fear, and The Women Who Fought Back by Stephen Singular.

If ever a book were “overtaken by events” this expose by Stephen Singular was overtaken and made both relevant, as background to the raid last month at the Yearning for Zion Ranch, and irrelevant, as those who were interested learned more about the Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints than anyone needed to know and more even than Mr. Singular, after a year of research, knew when he wrote his book. In fact, although the book gives the reader a lot of information on the history of the FLDS, it’s obvious that very little, if any, of Mr. Singular’s information came from actual, current FLDS members. Probably that’s not his fault, since I’m sure they refused to speak to him. Still, he had to get his information from law enforcement officers, social workers, and disgruntled ex-members. None of those groups could be expected to give an unbiased report on the FLDS, and they don’t. Mr. Singular’s picture of life inside the FLDS is unrelentingly negative. Reading about it feels like reading about life under the Taliban in Afghanistan.

However, the difference between Afghanistan and Short Creek is night and day. It truly is possible to leave the FLDS; many men and women and teenagers have done so. Although “prophet” Warren Jeffs probably is a power-hungry cult leader with sadistic tendencies, no one is forced by law to obey him or even listen to his dictates. Mr. Singular writes about girls and women “forced into marriage” and about men who “lost their families” when Mr. Jeffs excommunicated them from the FLDS. However, no adult woman had to marry anyone, and those families chose to disown their excommunicated loved ones. Many of the situations Mr. Singular describes constitute a tragedy, to be sure, but the participants in those tragedies for the most part chose to obey Mr. Jeffs as consenting adults. The crime for which Mr. Jeffs is now in prison, participation in the forced marriage of a fourteen year girl, is an exception to that rule of adult willingness to obey Warren Jeffs, and Mr. Jeffs is rightly serving time for his disregard for the wishes of the (minor) girl involved.

There are lots of allegations of child abuse and spiritual abuse and under-age marriage and polygamy in this book, but Mr. Singular never explains why, if these crimes were being committed, no one was ever charged or prosecuted. He implies that this lack of prosecution is due to a lack of willing witnesses, a common problem in cases of spousal abuse and child abuse. Nevertheless, anyone can write a book and allege all sorts of crimes, but unless some proof is offered that will pass the standards required in a court, the accused are considered innocent in the eyes of the law.

Because Elissa Walls was willing to testify against Warren Jeffs, he is in prison. Because the Texas DFPS had no solid evidence to back up their allegations of physical and sexual abuse at YFZ Ranch, the FLDS children should be returning to their parents very soon. (I hope.) And that’s all as it should be.

When Men Become Gods was published “sooner than planned” according to Mr. Singular’s website “because of recent events.” The book has no index, maybe because of its rushed publication, a serious drawback since I wanted to give a few specifics here but I was unable to find some of the incidents and events I wanted to discuss. It’s also NOT about YFZ Ranch, but rather centers on the FLDS community at Short Creek on the Urah/Arizona border and on the rise and fall of leader and prophet Warren Jeffs. It’s a fascinating read, and it’s obvious that Mr. Singular and Texas law enforcement and CPS officials were getting their information about FLDS beliefs and practices and crimes from many of the same sources.

If you would like more information about the raid on the YFZ Ranch in Eldorado and subsequent events, check out the coverage at The Common Room or at Grits for Breakfast. Either blogger has much more, and more accurate, information posted on this CPS power grab than can be found anywhere in the mainstream media.