Booklists, Yet Again

May28

The Telegraph lists their 110 Best Books: The Perfect Library.

I’m a sucker for booklists.

Josh Sowin at Fire and Knowledge links to his own list of favorites in the following categories: Literature, Reading/Literary Criticism, Biography and Autobiograpy, Cultural Studies, Art and Aesthetics, Food and Agriculture, Science and History, Economics, Finances, Writing, Education, Humor and Satire, Marketing, Web Design, Music, and Other. I’m impressed that he’s actually read good (recommended) books in all these categories. I’m a little weak on the marketing, food and agriculture, and web design myself.

The Telegraph also lists 50 “Cult Books”. I remember jumping on a few of these bandwagons: Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach, The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran, Dune by Frank Herbert . . . Ahhh, yes, those were the days, my friend.

What is a cult book? We tried and failed to arrive at a definition: books often found in the pockets of murderers; books that you take very seriously when you are 17; books whose readers can be identified to all with the formula “ whacko”; books our children just won’t get…

Three manly guys make a list of The Essential Man’s Library: 100 Must-Read Books. Far be it from me, being of the female persuasion, to even comment on their list, except to say that it looks like a good start on a library for persons of either gender.

Have you seen any good booklists lately?

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.

Friday’s Center of the Blogosphere

May23

May is Get Caught Reading Month. Doesn’t he (yes, it’s a boy) look as if he’s excited about his reading choices?

Et Tu? on God and the tow truck driver: “Eventually I realized that what it means to accept I am part of God’s story is to ask in every moment not ‘What is God trying to tell me with this situation?’ but rather, ‘How can I better know, love and serve God through this situation?’ It is to stop reading tea leaves to see what God thinks of all my great, important plans and to realize that my plans are neither great nor important in the grand scheme of things.”

Alan Noble at Christ and Pop Culture has a brilliant discussion of Aslan as presented in the movie version of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe versus C.S. Lewis’s Aslan: “For Lewis, this experience was central to any Biblical understanding of God, and so when he created Aslan as a Christ-figure, it was fitting that he should have the other characters of his books respond with awe-ful fear to Aslan. He was the God of Narnia, and just like the God of this world, any real encounter with him is bound to be marked by reverent fear and wonder. In the film adaptation of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, the numinous quality of Aslan’s character all but disappears, and with it Lewis’ conception of God.”
I think Mr. Noble is absolutely right, but the contrast may have been unavoidable, given the limitations of the film medium. How can anyone portray a truly God-like lion using costumes, actors, and video technology? In this instance, words and the imagination are much better tools.

If you like words, you’ll enjoy this essay by Joseph Bottom from The Weekly Standard: “Thwart. Yes, thwart is a good word. Thwarted. Athwart. A kind of satisfaction lives in such words–a unity, a completion. Teach them to a child, and you’ll see what I mean: skirt, scalp, drab, buckle, sneaker, twist, jumble. Squeamish, for that matter. They taste good in the mouth, and they seem to resound with their own verbal truthfulness.”

A husband, father, deacon and grad student confesses: he loves chick flicks: “Sure they’re often shallow and clichéd, but these stories always center on people who go out of their way to make each other feel special and loved, and I for one can never be reminded of that too often.”

A Ray of Sanity and a Troubling Future

May22

Via The Headmistress, Zookeeper at The Common Room:

AUSTIN, Texas (KXAN) — The Third Court of Appeals has ruled that Child Protective Services did not have the right to remove children from the Yearning for Zion ranch last month.

The ruling comes as a result of a document filed by Texas RioGrande Legal Aid last month. The TRLA is the largest provider of legal aid in Texas, on behalf of 48 FLDS mothers that TRLA is representing in their child custody cases.

I’ve been following the case of the FLDS families whose children, as far as I’m concerned, were kidnapped by the State of Texas and DFPS. Thanks, Headmistress, for keeping me and many other concerned citizens updated on what’s happening with the child custody cases for these families.

In addition to being concerned about the 400+ children of the FLDS families who were forcibly removed from their homes and then separated from their fathers, then mothers, then siblings, and transported all across the state of Texas to children’s homes that were admittedly unprepared to care for them, I’ve been quite concerned about the future ramifications of this raid and power grab by CPS. When analyzing court decisions and law enforcement actions, some people are quite fond of talking about how this or that decision can have a “chilling effect” on the free exercise of some right or privilege, i.e. the arrest and prosecution of child pornographers might have a chilling effect on the exercise of free speech.

Well, I think the Yearning For Zion Raid and Kidnapping of 2008 will have a chilling effect on a lot of things that we as free citizens might not want to have chilled. First of all, the leadership of the FLDS was already somewhat anti-government and privacy-obsessed, having already experienced a similar raid and prosecution in the 1950’s in their community along the Arizona/Utah border. The entire community, Short Creek, was taken into custody, including 236 children. Most of the parents were released when no case of having committed any crime could be made against them, and most of the children were returned . . two years later. (Read more here.) Anyway, FLDS leaders and educators have kept the memory of the Short Creek Raid alive and have basically warned the FLDS flock that the same thing was likely to happen again, that they could expect persecution for their faith. Now, they’ve been confirmed in their image of themselves as a persecuted faithful minority, and they will be much less likely to talk to outsiders, ask for help in coming out of the group, or do or say anything that might be construed to be in any way questioning of FLDS doctrine or teaching. As the Headmistress says, “Imagine somebody is abused and would like to ask for help. Having seen how CPS has acted on the basis of one lying phone call from somebody who doesn’t even know the community, chances are good that some victims of abuse will decide the slash and burn response of CPS and the attempted destruction of their entire community is not worth it, and they will sacrifice themselves on the altar and keep quiet for the sake of their friends and neighbors.”

However, it’s not only the FLDS who are being “chilled.” In the past ten years I have seen and talked to several families who decided not to take a child to the doctor for a minor injury because they were afraid that the doctor would question them about how the injury took place and then report them to CPS. They had valid fears even though none of them had done anything wrong. I have also seen CPS workers abuse the mother of a child who drowned in a tragic backyard swimming pool accident by telling her that she must be an unfit mother and asking her repeatedly if she ever drank alcohol to excess or took drugs because she was so tired from parenting all those children, implying that she was drunk or drugged when her child drowned. I am close to two other cases in which CPS took the word of a disgruntled informant and almost removed children from loving, non-abusive homes where there was absolutely no evidence of physical abuse. The parents in both of those cases had to take parenting classes and become CPS yes-men in order to keep their children in their own homes.

I am saying that this case, in which there may have been a minority of people participating in illegal acts (sex with a minor), will have a chilling effect on the investigation of all possible child abuse cases and will have a chilling effect on law-abiding parents who want to seek medical care for their children. I am hesitant to take my child to a doctor I don’t know for an emergency in which the injury might be misconstrued as child abuse and in which there were no witnesses aside from immediate family. If my child really needed medical care and our family doctor who knows us was unavailable, I would swallow my fears and go in prayer. However, if the decision was borderline/iffy . . .

THe Texas Department of Family and Protective Services has made a mess of this entire situation, and the sooner the children are returned to their homes, the better. Maybe, in another fifty years parents and children in Texas will forget to be afraid of DFPS and look to them to protect children and families. I doubt the FLDS children will ever forget April, 2008.

Lobelisms

May22

Today, May 22, is the birthday of author and illustrator Arnold Lobel. He wrote the Frog and Toad books and the Mouse books and Owl at Home and many others. Perhaps you don’t use Lobelisms in your home, but we certainly do.

“Let us eat one very last cookie and then we will stop.”

“Will power is trying hard not to do something that you really want to do.”

“We have lots and lots of will power.
You may keep it all, Frog. I am going home now to bake a cake.”

“What will I do without my list? Running after my list is not one of the things that I wrote on my list of things to do!”

“Tonight I will make tear-water tea.”

“The whole world is covered with buttons, and NOT ONE OF THEM IS MINE!” (Substitute any lost item for “button” and you have the problem with the universe in a nutshell.)

“Winter may be beautiful, but bed is much better.”

“I am laughing at you, Toad,” said Frog, “because you do look funny in your bathing suit.” “Of course I do,” said Toad. Then he picked up his clothes and went home.

Writer 2b celebrates Arnold Lobel.

More May Celebrations, Links, and Birthdays.

Christian Worldview Fantasy/SciFi

May21

Rebecca LuElla Miller at A Christian Worldview of Fiction is taking nominations for the 2008 Clive Staples Award for Christian Speculative Fiction.

Nominations, so far, for the 2008 Clive Staples Award for Christian Speculative Fiction are:

Auralia’s Colors by Jeffrey Overstreet (WaterBrook)
Demon: A Memoir by Tosca Lee (NavPress)
DragonFire by Donita K. Paul (Waterbrook)
Father of Dragons by L.B. Graham (P&R)
Fearless by Robin Parrish (Bethany House)
Flashpoint by Frank Creed (The Writers Cafe Press)
Isle of Swords by Wayne Thomas Batson (Thomas Nelson)
Landon Snow and the Volucer Dragon by Randy Mortenson (Barbour)
The Legend of the Firefish by George Bryan Polivka (Harvest House)
The Restorer by Sharon Hinck (NavPress)
The Restorer’s Son by Sharon Hinck (NavPress)
Scarlet by Stephen Lawhead (Thomas Nelson)
A Wine Red Silence by George L. Duncan (Capstone Fiction)

– – –

The works that are eligible are Christian worldview science fiction/ fantasy/allegory/furturistic/supernatural novels published in English by a royalty paying press between January 2007 and December 2007. Deadline for nominations is June 15th.

Go over and add your nominations if you know of any books that meet the criteria. I think the details on this fairly new award are still being worked out.

Dancer Daughter’s Summer Reading List: 2008

May21

I am asking my children, even the older ones, to read at least ten of the books on their individualized list before August 18, 2008. I also want each of them to memorize two poems this summer and present them for the family. I will take each child who does so out to eat to the restaurant of his choice, and I will also buy a book for each child who finishes the challenge. This list is for Dancer Daughter, age 18, who graduated from high school last year and will be starting college this fall (2008).

The Bible. Romans.

The Bible. I Samuel.

Budziszewski, J. Ask Me Anything: Provocative Answers for College Students. Professor Theophilus gives provocative answers to college students’ questions. The book is written by a professor of government and philosophy at the University of Texas at Austin.

Lindbergh, Anne Morrow. Bring Me a Unicorn: Diaries and Letters of Anne Morrow Lindbergh, 1922-1928. Before she was married to famous aviator Charles Lindbergh, Anne Morrow, daughter of the American ambassador to Mexico, kept a journal and wrote a plethora of letters. This book is the first of five volumes of collected letters and journal entries of Anne Morrow soon-to-be Lindbergh. The others are called: Hour of Gold Hour of Lead, Locked Rooms Open Doors, The Flower and the Nettle, and War Within and Without.

Lowry, Lois. The Giver.

McCaughrean, Geraldine. The White Darkness. May selection for Biblically Literate Book Club.

MacInnes, Helen. The Hidden Target. MacInnes gives the flavor of the Cold War era in a story of terrorism, counter-terrorism, hippies, drug culture, and communist threats. Nina O’Connell, a college student in Europe, agrees to join a caravan across the continent to “find herself” and assert her independence. However, the driver and leader of the free-spirited group may have ulterior motives.

Malley, Gemma. The Declaration. Semicolon review here.

Marshall, Catherine. Christy. Romance and Christian service clash with culture shock in the mountains of North Carolina. Christy is an eighteen year old innocent idealist when she goes to the mountains of Appalachia to teach school in a one-room schoolhouse. By the end of the story she’s a grown-up woman who’s experienced friendship, grief, and love.

Ramsey, Dave. Financial Peace Revisited. I don’t follow the entire Dave Ramsey plan, but he has a good basic handle on money management and financial responsibility.

Rose, Darlene Deibler. Evidence Not Seen: A Woman’s Miraculous Faith in the Jungles of World War II. This autobiography of a missionary who survived, by faith, four years in a japanese prison camp in the jungle of New Guinea was a graduation gift from a dear friend. I think DD and I will both gain from reading it.

Schaeffer, Edith. The Hidden Art of Homemaking.

Shakespeare, William. The Merchant of Venice.

Veith, Gene Edward, Jr. State of the Arts: From Bezalel to Mapplethorpe.

Four issues of WORLD magazine. The purpose of this particular ‘assignment’ is to help prepare Dancer Daughter to vote in her first presidential election. Does anyone else have any other reading suggestions for me and my three eligible young adult voters?

Women Are Different From Men

May20

In the “duh” category, researchers have determined that when given equal opportunities, women often make different choices than men do:

Now two new studies by economists and social scientists have reached a perhaps startling conclusion: An important part of the explanation for the gender gap, they are finding, are the preferences of women themselves. When it comes to certain math- and science-related jobs, substantial numbers of women – highly qualified for the work – stay out of those careers because they would simply rather do something else.”

Reading this article from The Boston Globe was unintentionally funny. The feminists stumble over each other trying to tell us why these research results do not imply innate differences between the sexes or why it doesn’t matter if there are differences. They say things like:

“. . . boys and girls are not, at root, different enough for such clear sorting to be seen as a matter of ‘choice.'” So some one bribed these women and men to give differing answers to clear questions of preference in this study? Or maybe they were brainwashed, and the women don’t realize that they really, really do prefer careers in the hard sciences and in computers.

“It may seem like a cliche – or rank sexism – to say women like to work with people, and men prefer to work with things. Rosenbloom acknowledges that, but says that whether due to socialization or ‘more basic differences,’ the genders on average demonstrate different vocational interests.” Why, oh why, is it sexist or discriminatory to say that men and women are different and tend to have different preferences within a wide range of choices?

Prince Caspian is Everywhere

May20

I’m going to post this list and add to it as I read more reviews and related posts. I don’t know whether the movie is a winner or a clunker, but I’m happy to see St. Jack getting so much attention because I think all of his books are Excellent.

I’ll bet you didn’t realize that Prince Caspian is about beer.

In a sort of schizophrenic post, Betsy Bird discusses the book and the movie with a viewer and a reader, both herself.

The Narnia fans at The Common Room are forgiving . . . to a point. Then they just get mad.

Libertas has the exact opposite reaction: “The Christian theme is not only stronger in Caspian than in Wardrobe, but integrated more naturally into the story — slowly building with events until it perfectly climaxes at the end for maximum emotional effect. This is not some new-age Christian allegory where if you fall to your knees in some sun-dappled field and raise your hands to Jesus all your problems will go away. As in life, God is not a deus ex machina. There’s a bigger picture at work — a master plan — and it’s up to us to find our place within that plan, not the other way around. What Would Aslan Do? No. What Would Aslan Want Us To Do.”

Carissa Smith (Christ and Pop Culture) says the movie is about “putting away childish things.”

Barbara Nicolosi at Church of the Masses calls it a compentently executed fantasy movie with a lot of fighting, pleasant visuals, engaging actors, and a mediocre script. But she doesn’t like fantasy in the first place, so . . .

Ken Brown of C. Orthodoxy prepared himself to see the film version of Prince Caspian by . . . not re-reading the book. Perhaps that’s not a bad idea for those who want to enjoy/evaluate the movie on its own terms.

I haven’t seen the movie yet. No offense to the the Headmistress and crew, but I actually think I’m going to like it. A lot.