the curious incident of the dog in the night-time by Mark Haddon

Nov21

I’m always a little late because I get most of my books from the library or the used bookstore. So I’m just now reading this book, published in 2003, that I remember lots of bloggers talking about last year. To add to the acclamation, I thought it was wonderful.

If you’ve never read the book or read about the book, it’s the story of Christopher John Francis Boone, age 15 years, 3 months, and 2 days, who decides to investigate the death under mysterious circumstances of a dog named Wellington. Christopher knows a lot of things —the names of all the countries of the world and their capitals, every prime number up to 7057, and the steps to take in detecting a crime ala Sherlock Holmes; however, he also knows that there many things he doesn’t understand —how to read the expressions on people’s faces, metaphors, and belief in the supernatural, to name a few. Christopher is autistic, and his autism causes him to observe things that other people don’t notice. It also causes him to discount things that can’t be explained logically. He’s good at math, bad at relationships.

In one part of his book, written in first person from Christopher’s point of view, Christopher discusses how he likes Sherlock Holmes, but dislikes Holmes’s creator, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. He dislikes Doyle because Doyle became interested in the supernatural, particularly seances and ghosts, after the death of his son in World War II. As I read, I was left with a picture of a boy who likes Sherlock Holmes because he’s safe and predictable, because he follows the logic of the fictional detective, but can’t stand the writer who made Sherlock Holmes because Doyle is more complicated and believes in things outside the conventions of fiction. Christopher is a boy who is limited by a quirk of the mind, although quite intelligent, limited to his “maths” and his science and his safe home and his strict version of literal truth.

And, for example, some people say how can an eye happen by accident? Because an eye has to evolve from something else very like an eye and it doesn’t just happen because of a genetic mistake, and what is the use of half an eye? But half an eye is very useful because half an eye means that an animal can see half of an animal that wants to eat it and get out of the way, and it will eat that animal that only has a third of an eye or 49% of an eye instead because it hsn’t got out of the way quick enough, and the animal that is eaten won’t have babies because it is dead. And 1% of an eye is better than no eye.

So, the ever logical Christopher reduces Irreducible Complexity to nonsense. Except, of course, Christopher’s explanation is itself nonsense. Half of an eye isn’t useful at all, and 1% of an eye is not better than no eye. If I have only a few rods and cones floating about with no cornea or retina or nerves leading to the brain or whatever, I have nothing. Such a thing would never evolve. And Christopher’s superior intelligence combined with an autism that causes him to miss out on many of the skills he needs to survive in human society is not an evolutonary adaptation that will make him more likely to survive and reproduce, but rather a seriously tragic handicap that requires the help of others and the bravery and resourcefulness of Christopher himself for him to transcend his own blindness and be able to live a real, connected life.

Christopher doesn’t believe in God, but his flawed, but loving parents and other people who help him to survive the journey that he embarks upon demonstrate the truth that God believes in Christopher and has provided a way for him to survive and even thrive in spite of his limitations. I wanted to quote to Christopher many times over the course of the story, “There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.”

I really enjoyed the way author Mark Haddon was able to climb inside the mind of a high-functioning autistic young adult and present his thoughts to the reader. I don’t know if the book accurately portrays the thoughts and attitudes of an autistic person, but it feels right, and I liked Christopher in spite of his somewhat self-centered outlook on life. I wonder if Mr. Haddon knows someone or is close to someone who is autistic?

The curious incident of the dog in the night-time is short, thoughtful, and absorbing. It’s hopeful without being unrealistic about the problems facing both those with autism and their care-givers.

Pippa Passes by Rumer Godden

Nov21

I’m not sure what to say about this book. I feel as if I should warn potential readers that the book is rated R for nasty sexual behavior and that the protagonist makes immature choices and finally chooses the right thing for, mostly, the wrong reasons. I wanted to recommend this book to Dancer Daughter since the main character is a dancer, but I can’t do so in good conscience because of the R rating.

Still, I liked Pippa. I liked the atmosphere of Venice where most of the story takes place and the vivid portrayal of the world of professional dance. I thought Ms. Godden did a good job of showing the coming of age of a young, sheltered girl as she goes out into the world and yet meets with danger and seduction in her own backyard where she least expects it. Pippa reminded me of my own daughters, confident that they are prepared to meet any crisis, and yet so woefully unprepared for that one unexpected confrontation with raw evil. For that matter, I was reminded of myself at that age. I thought I knew everything because I’d read about it all in books.

Rumer Godden tells a good story. Her novel about the world of a Roman Catholic convent, In This House of Brede is one of my favorite books of all time. Pippa Passes is OK, but you can probably pass it by in favor of In This House of Brede if you’ve never read it. Now there’s a good story, and it deals with the same themes as Pippa Passes —loyalty to one’s calling, recognition of human weakness, the loss of innocence— in a much more nuanced and, at the same time, accessible way.

Pecan Odyssey

Nov19

We went on our annual pecan purchasing journey on Saturday. We always take a Saturday in early November to go to Richmond, Texas to R. B. Bagley and Sons Pecan Warehouse. There we purchase an inordinate amount of fresh pecans in the shells, cracked, which we bring home and shell and put in the freezer to make all kinds of delightful goodies for Thanksgiving and Christmas and other special days.

My motto is: “Anything good is even better with pecans.” Fudge is better with pecans in it. Brownies are better with pecans. Most cookies are better with pecans. Some cakes are great with pecans added. Salads are even better with a few chopped pecans to give them some crunch. We put pecans on top of our sweet potato casserole, and I like to add a few pecan halves to the top of a pumpkin pie to improve the looks and the taste.

Did you know?
1. The word “pecan” comes from the Algonquian Indian word “pakan” meaning “a hard-shelled nut.”
2. Pecans are native to the Americas and were a major source of food for several Indian tribes during the autumn.
3. Shelled pecans should be stored in the freezer in an airtight container. They’ll keep for about a year.
4. George Washington and Thomas Jefferson both planted pecan trees in their gardens.
5. Pecans are nutritious, rich in calcium, phosphorus, iron, potassium, magnesium, thiamin, riboflavin, and niacin.
6. Pecans taste a lot better than walnuts. (IMHO)
7. The word “pecan” is pronounced “puCAHN,” not “PEEcan.” (In my not-so-humble opinion)

If you like pecans and have written something pecan-related on your blog, please leave a link in the Mr. Linky. I’ll be sending some fresh pecans to one lucky contributor at the end of November.

I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry, or Lonesome Dove Bites the Dust

Nov19

I’m a Texan and a reader, and I’ve never read any books by Pulitzer-prize winning author Larry McMurtry. I’ve heard of Lonesome Dove and Streets of Laredo and Terms of Endearment and The Last Picture Show. I’ve heard of the movies based on some of these books. But I’ve never read any of them, nor have I ever seen any of the movies. I saw a paperback copy of Lonesome Dove in the used bookstore a week or two ago and figured it was time to remedy my lack of Texas loyalty in reading.

I read a little over two hundred pages of this nine hundred forty-five page book and decided that life is too short to spend my reading time in the company of people I don’t like who are doing things I find repulsive. The book won a Pulitzer Prize; I would imagine there’s something there I just don’t appreciate, but I’ve come to a mid-life crisis in my reading in just the last year or two. I’m not telling how old I am, but I’m probably over halfway through my reading life. I have too many books on my TBR list to spend time reading books I don’t like. And I really didn’t like Lonesome Dove. How did I hate this book? Let me count the ways:

As I hinted before, I didn’t like any of the characters in the book. Gus is a talkative, lazy drunk who thinks he knows something because he can talk a blue streak and knows how to read and write and charm the ladies. Captain Call is a silent, hardworking, sober washed-up ex-Texas Ranger who may have depths of character that I will never fathom because I don’t like him or the company he keeps. Jake is a another lazy charmer who makes promises he doesn’t intend to keep and is so careless that he murders people by mistake. Oh, and they’re all a bunch of horse thieves. And there’s also Lori, the obligatory town prostitute who is suppposed to be idealistic because she dreams of going to San Francisco where I assume she will continue to ply her trade with an ocean view. She is. of course, more sinned against than sinner, hardened by the life she’s forced to lead, but with a heart of gold somewhere beneath her rough exterior. (Yech!)

I grew up in West Texas, a little later than the time in which this book is set (I’m not that old). I don’t know anyone who acts the way the people in this book act, nor anyone who talks the way they talk. The men are all a bunch of losers. They spend a lot of time arguing about nothing and teasing each other about inane subjects. My great-grandparents didn’t live the way these guys live. If this is West Texas or South Texas culture, I’m a monkey’s uncle. “You never knowed much about women,” says one of the characters. I’ve heard bad grammar in West Texas, and I could reproduce it, but “knowed”? And when they curse, they say, “‘I god.” What’s that supposed to be a representation of?

These people are depressing. They live in a (literally) God-forsaken dirt mound, no mention of any god except as a curse word, and they decide to leave and go to Montana, not because they want to better themselves or go somewhere else–just because. Except for Lori who wants to go to San Francisco for some unknown reason, no one really wants to go to Montana. On the other hand no one in the Hat Creek Outfit, the name of the poor excuse for a Texas ranch the characters mostly live on, has the gumption to back out of the trip once the momentum has started in that direction. Did I mention that they’re all a bunch of losers?

This is supposed to be great literature, note the Pulitzer Prize, but I never got to the great literary part. If there’s a theme, I’m guessing that the book says that life is a drag, and death ain’t much better. So, you might as well argue, wh0re, and gamble yourself into the grave, but don’t have any fun doing it. Because life is a drag.

Early Reading Meme

Nov18

Since this week was Children’s Book Week, and since I found this meme and copied it at Kate’s Book Blog, I thought today would be an appropriate time to answer the questions. Scroll down for the Saturday Review of Books.

1. How old were you when you learned to read and who taught you?
I learned to read in first grade, public school, six years old, no kindergarten for me.

2. Did you own any books as a child? If so, what’s the first one that you remember owning? If not, do you recall any of the first titles that you borrowed from the library?
I don’t know what the first book I owned was, but I remember the first books I owned and lost. I had a whole set of blue-covered Nancy Drew mysteries, numbers 1-3?, and when we moved the summer after I finished fifth grade we left the Nancy Drew books behind for some reason. I still miss those books. I think some of the first books I borrowed from the library were the Snipp, Snapp, Snurr books and the Flicka Ricka, Dicka books.

3. What’s the first book that you bought with your own money?
What money? Honestly, I don’t know. It was probably something from Scholastic’s Arrow book club.

4. Were you a re-reader as a child? If so, which book did you re-read most often?
I didn’t have much time for re-reading as a child. There were too many titles calling to me from the library shelves.

5. What’s the first adult book that captured your interest and how old were you when you read it?
In my library, children were not allowed into the adult section until they were . . . I’m not sure what magic age. As a teenager, I checked out some books from the (one) shelf of YA books that marked the boundary between the children’s room and the adult section. At some point, about high school age maybe, I ventured into the adult section, and no one stopped me. I think I read some Agatha Christie and Rex Stout mysteries to start out. Then, one day, I checked out Exodus by Leon Uris, and I remember it being exciting, but somewhat shocking. In one scene, two unmarried young people who are “in love” but also in the midst of a war, find time to go off into the hills and make love with the excuse that one or both of them might be dead before they can get married. I thought this was a poor excuse for a foolish decision at the time, and come to think of it, I still do. But I loved Exodus.

6. Are there children’s books that you passed by as a child that you have learned to love as an adult? Which ones?
I never read The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame as a child, and I don’t know if I would have enjoyed it then. I now think it’s a delightful book. I preferred action to description back then.

Landon Snow and the Auctor’s Riddle by R.K. Mortenson

Nov16

I received a review copy of this first book in the Landon Snow fantasy series and also the sequels, Landon Snow and The Shadows of Malus Quidam and Landon Snow and the Island of Arcanum. Before I could read them, Karate Kid (age 9) gobbled them up, all three, and asked for more. Then, Brown Bear Daughter started reading them at a more ladylike pace, but just as voraciously. Now, finally, I’m getting my hands on them, and I think I see what all the fuss is about.

I don’t much like the marketing campaign for the Landon Snow books. Although it’s clever to put the books in covers that make them look like the very popular Lemony Snicket series or the almost equally popular Spiderwick Chronicles and although it probably entices readers (and parents) to tell them that the books are “a Christian alternative to Harry Potter,” these ploys do a disservice to the books themselves. (I’d complain about the idea that we have to have a Christian alternative to every bestseller that comes along, but that’s another post . . .) If I were to compare the Landon Snow books to anything else it wouldn’t be Unfortunate Events or Harry Potter or Spiderwick, but rather Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland or The Phantom Tollbooth by Norman Juster. Landon falls, like Alice, into a dream-like wonderland, and like Milo, Landon encounters lots of games and puzzles and wordplay and adventure.

Yes, the books are a “Christian alternative,” I suppose, but the Christian message is not obtrusive nor is the story subordinated to the preaching of a sermon. Scripture is sprinkled about in a tasteful and intriguing manner. In fact, the books may make some children curious enough to look up a few vocabulary words and a few BIble verses, just to see what the meaning and context are, not a bad side effect.

Landon, age 11, is a boy with a a lot of questions —and answers– and a love for books and words. His sister, Holly, less than a year younger than he is, likes numbers. And Bridget, the baby at seven years old, asks lots of questions, too. Along with their parents, the three children go to visit their grandparents in Button Up, Minnesota, and the most exciting part of the trip is a visit to the BUL, the Button Up Library, a magical place where first Landon, then Landon and Holly, then all three children, are drawn into adventures the same way a reader will be drawn into this series of books. The blurb on the back of the book warns: “Don’t Fall In. {This book may swallow.}”

I would suggest that these books would make wonderful Christmas presents for boys and girls ages nine to thirteen. However, I wouldn’t buy just the first one because I think your fantasy fans are going to want to read the second and third books, too. Mr. Mortenson, by the way, is an ordined minister and a Navy chaplain. Go to the Landon Snow website to learn more about the author or about the books.

Monsoon Summer by Mitali Perkins

Nov16

Monsoon Summer is light reading for the teenage set, but it’s good, decent, well-constructed, light reading, with even a few details and episodes thrown in to provoke a bit of thought.

Jazz Gardner is fifteen, the daughter of an ethnic Indian mother, who was adopted from an orphanage in India as a young child. Jazz’s father is a computer programmer, the strong , silent type, who supports her mother in all her philanthropic projects. Jazz is expected to participate in “helping others”, but she doesn’t really think she has the right personality to help anyone since the only time she ever attempted to do a good deed, it turned into a disaster. Since then, she’s stayed out of philanthropy and used her time to run a successful tourist business with her best friend, Steve.

Now Jazz’s mom tells her that the family is going to spend the summer in India, helping out at the orphanage that Mrs. Gardner lived in before she was adopted. And at about the same time, Jazz realizes that her feelings for Steve, her longtime business partner, have turned into something more than just platonic friendship. Unfortunately, there’s no indication from Steve that he sees Jazz as anything but a friend and a partner. And other girls are after Steve. And the business needs her. And who wants to go to India, anyway?

Jazz learns a lot about herself and her own abilities as she copes with a foreign culture, and she learns something about how to relate to Steve, even from the other side of the world. The picture of India and Indian culture is vividly drawn, and Jazz’s Indian friend, Danita, has something to teach Jazz, just as Jazz finds out that she has gifts that can help her friend. I think I’ll recommend this one to Brown Bear Daughter, even though she’s only eleven (going on twenty). The relationship between Jazz and her friend, Steve, is treated sensitively and yet honestly.

The orphanage in the story is a Christian orphanage, so the characters are mostly at least nominal Christians. The religious differences between India and the U.S. are hardly mentioned. However, the cultural differences loom large. Jazz is amazed at the possibility that her friend, Danita, may marry a much older man in order to provide a home for herself and her orphaned sisters. Jazz is also surprised at the caste prejudice that she encounters as Indians who look different are treated better or worse according to their perceived caste. Then, too, Jazz is trying, as do many adolescent girls, to figure out her own attitude about her body, about whether she is attractive or not, what it is that makes a girl pretty, what others think about her looks and why. These more thoughtful parts of the novel come across as real without being preachy or over-emphasized.

If you’re looking for a good, solid story for your teenage girl that will hold her interest without being a problem-of-the-week novel or a trashy romance, Monsoon Summer fits the bill.

Bookspotting #22

Nov16

Funny: Breaking the novel habit, courtesty of readers of The New Yorker.

Thought-provoking: “Kathryn Joyce is working on a book about Christian conservative women, to be published by Beacon Press.” What she has now is this article in Nation about what she calls “the Quiverfull movement.” I certainly wouldn’t endorse everything Joyce writes about Christian families with large families, but she does have an interesting, albeit secular, perspective. She’s totally missed the many Catholic families and families of other denominations (not fundamentalist) who have embraced a family-centered, God-honoring lifestyle.

Gift-giving: I am going to use this list of “Ten Books On Scientific Subjects That I Personally Guarantee You Will Enjoy Immensely (Or, At Least Find Mildly Interesting)” as a guide for buying My Favorite Engineer and Amateur Scientist and Mathematician a Christmas present. (Don’t tell!)

Truth in labelling: Carmon writes about bookplates, with links to sites where you can print some out or design your own.

Thanksgiving: The Queen of the Beehive recommends some great Thanksgiving books for families. I thought about doing a post on Thanksgiving books, but why re-invent the wheel when Queen Bee has already done such a great job?

Words, Words, Words

Nov15

Start with a meme; go out with a bang. I borrowed the word meme from Stefanie at So Many Books, a long time ago. I asked a couple of the urchins to give me their word choices, too.

Words that always look misspelled to me:
obscene, obsession, skiing, Qatar, judgment, acquiesce, grieve, posttest

Brown Bear Daughter, age 11: precipitate (It looks as if it has too many i’s.)
Karate Kid, age 9: theirs

Words I enjoy saying:
misanthropic, anthropomorphic, surreptitious, melancholy, parmesan, lackadaisical

BBD: tortilla
KK: pervert

Words I enjoy hearing:
thank you, I love you, yes m’am.

BBD: Daddy’s home!
KK: awesome

Abbreviations I dislike:
lbs. (lubs?), ms. (miz?)

BBD: oz., m, mm
KK: lb., mrs.

Proper nouns I enjoy:
Dime Box, Texas
Bilbo Baggins
Lake Wobegon
General Shalishkavili
Ramona Quimby

BBD: Butterfinger
KK: Milky Way

Words I associate with happiness:
children, chocolate, celebration, flowers, autumn

BBD: flute, lyrical, recital, christmas
KK: win, guitar

Words I always misspell:
obcession, judgement, innoculate, preemptory.

BBD: suprise, imeadiately
KK: their, there, they’re

Words I enjoy spelling correctly, every time:
miscellaneous, embarrass, Philippians, Deuteronomy, congratulations

BBD: iridescent, Wednesday, February, staphylococci
KK: prestidigitation

Words that, though I love their meaning, I’m too embarrassed to say out loud:
Any big long words that I’m afraid people will think pretentious.

Words I can never remember the meaning of no matter how many times I look them up:
biennial, mauve, cerulean

Words that sound like what they mean:
lugubrious, grotesque, bilious, loathe, wheeze, brusque

BBD: chocolate
KK: karate

Words that sound like something other than what they mean:
pulchritude, corporeal, minuend, benignant, cryogenics

What are some of your favorite words? Your least favorite?

George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and the Pecan Tree

Nov15

“The French botanist Du Mont de Courset recorded hearing from his brother, who served in George Washington’s army, that the general was forever munching on pecans and always had some in his pocket.” from The Pecan Tree by Jane Manaster

In 1775, George Washington may have planted pecan trees at Mount Vernon. Certainly, in May of 1786, his journal records the planting of a row of “Illinois nuts,” as pecans were sometimes called at the time.

In 1780, Jefferson planted pecan trees at Monticello. However, by 1801 they were still not bearing fruit. While in France, Jefferson begged his pecans from friends in back in the U.S., writing, “. . . procure me two or three hundred Paccan nuts from the Western country . . . they should come as fresh as possible, and come best, I believe, in a box of sand.”

If both Jefferson and Washington could agree on the “delectability” of the pecan, who are we to gainsay their verdict? If our Founding Fathers loved the pecan, so should we. If you like pecans and have written something pecan-related on your blog, please leave a link in the Mr. Linky. I’ll be sending some fresh pecans to one lucky contributor at the end of November.

Pecans: Good Enough for Washngton and Jefferson!
Pecans: Good Enough for Me!