Worthwhile Books

Willie and Joe Back Home by Bill Mauldin

2012-01-27T18:31:00.000-08:00

In 1940, 18 year old William Henry Mauldin joined the war effort. While soldiering he offered to do cartooning for his unit’s newspaper. His creation of Willie and Joe, two “down-on-their-luck” GIs, would endear him to thousands of fellow dogfaces and win him the Pulitzer Prize five years later (the youngest winner at that time).

During the war, Willie and Joe’s resilience, humor, and camaraderie served as partial redemption for the brutalizing and dehumanizing conditions of their existence (xii). General Patton reportedly hated the sloppy twosome, but when he tried to stop the cartoons, General Dwight D. Eisenhower stepped in to support Mauldin’s “foxhole realism.” It was good for the soldiers’ morale to feel that someone understood them and it was a good for folks back home to understand some of the hardships of war, albeit in small and humorous doses. Many of these cartoons were immortalized in Mauldin’s biography, Up Front.

Willie and Joe Back Home is quite a different story. Just as Mauldin had championed the cause of the lowly recruits on the battlefield, he came to their defense after the war. The book’s introduction states: Our collective memory and history books emphasize the national unity of the time, a patriotic and unquestioned support for the cause and those who fought for it. But the everyday reality was far more complicated…. Most distressing to Bill was the public’s continued ignorance of the special hardships borne by combat veterans, who represented only 5% to 10% of uniformed personnel. As he had relentlessly shown in his Willie and Joe cartoons, the American army was really two armies, one that fought and another that didn’t. Up Front had chronicled how those farthest removed from combat claimed the lion’s share of benefits: alcohol, ribbons, promotions, good clothing, hot baths, decent food, entertainment, black market luxuries, and women. Bill was stunned to see this disparity extended to the home front… The real Willies and Joes were isolated, in the shadows, misunderstood and overlooked, alienated survivors out of 100 million dead worldwide. More serious were the economic disadvantages that former dogfaces suffered. While engineers, journalists, draftsmen, and clerks had acquired skills in the army that gave them a leg up on the competition at home, riflemen had gained little useful experience and had a far tougher time finding jobs than other veterans.

Mauldin post-war cartoons were extremely hard-hitting and divisive and his career took a nose dive as paper after paper dropped his column. Reading the book’s intro is essential to the understanding of many of the drawings. They are the work of a gifted but disgruntled artist and, frankly, they’re depressing. However, I recommend the book to those who are interested in WWII history because of Mauldin's fame, and also because it reveals many of the prevailing attitudes of post-war America.

Mauldin won two Pulitzer prizes for his cartoons and some say he should have won a third for the one he drew on the day of President John F. Kennedy’s assassination.

Youtube has a short video of his cartoons (unfortunately, most captions are cut off) and also a four minute tribute.

Books on the Covenants in the Bible

2012-01-20T18:28:00.000-08:00

My Bible study group is going through an eleven-week Precepts course on the covenants. The course is excellent in itself, but I’ve learned even more as I’ve looked into additional resources.

Kevin J. Conner has written a book called The Covenants, in which he highlights all nine covenants in the Bible. (Who knew there were nine? I didn’t.) It is very detailed and written in outline form so it doesn’t seem “readable” at first glance. However, it is extremely informative and one can dip into (or skim over) chapters of choice.

Another book is Aliyah by Richard F. Gottier. Gottier’s book emphasizes one aspect of the Abrahamic covenant, the land of Israel. “Aliyah” means the immigration of Jews into Israel and the author writes, “The re-gathering of God’s chosen people from the farthest corners of the earth is the great fulcrum around which He is orchestrating the final moments of history.” Although I appreciated Gottier’s thoughts, his narrow focus made the book less personal than the other sources.

Last, and best of all, was The Two Covenants by Andrew Murray, the writer of many devotional classics. In this book he compares the Old and New Covenants and expertly explains why the first one (in its seeming inadequacy) was necessary before the advent of the second.

The Old Covenant was indispensably necessary to waken man’s desires, to call forth his efforts, to deepen the sense of dependence of God, to convince of his sin and impotence, and so to prepare him to feel the need of the salvation of Christ. (p. 28)

This is only one of dozens of passages I underlined. Murray writes that if Christians had a true understanding of the nature of their covenant-making and covenant-keeping God, they would have the faith to move mountains. His Two Covenants is one of the most inspirational books I’ve read in years. Highly recommended! (I bought it for 99 cents on my Kindle, but had to get a paper copy so that I could read and re-read favorite passages with more ease.)

Words for Wednesday

2012-01-18T07:04:00.000-08:00

Redeemedreader.com has an interesting interview with Alan Jacobs who teaches at Wheaton. His book Reading in an Age of Distraction has been reviewed by several of my favorite bloggers. This question intrigued me:

Christians are known as “people of the book.” Do you see a great obligation for Christians to be close readers, as opposed to unbelievers?

His response: I don’t think of it in terms of “obligation” but rather as a natural consequence of being Book-focused. If you take all American colleges and universities, about 3% of students major in English. Here at Wheaton College it’s closer to 10%, and that’s in part because my students come from Bible-centered families who give their children the message that what they read, and how they read it, can be vitally important for their lives. This makes them inclined to be receptive to words on the page… It’s just natural that people who revere Scripture would be more attentive to the written word than most other folks.

Not all non-believers are oblivious to the power of words, nor do all Christians revere and study the Bible, but I do like the idea that when we are "Book-focused", it makes us receptive to words in other contexts.

Murder at the Vicarage by Agatha Christie

2012-01-13T19:40:00.000-08:00

“There is no detective in England equal to a spinster lady of uncertain age with plenty of time on her hands.” When my sister sent this quote, I knew I had to read the book.

Murder at the Vicarage introduces one of Christie’s most popular sleuths, Miss Jane Marple. Marple would appear in eleven more novels and numerous short stories. In this book Colonel Protheroe is murdered and just about everyone has a motive. Even the vicar's wife looks suspicious!

Christie writes an engaging tale with colorful characters; she succeeds in keeping you guessing right up to the end. Good writing, a darling heroine, and British witticisms all add up to an enjoyable read.

Betsy and Tacy Go Downtown by Maud Hart Lovelace

2012-01-07T07:30:00.000-08:00

Although I’m a huge fan of children’s literature, I haven’t visited it much in the past few years due to the fact that three of our sons are now in college. But the other day I wanted a light, fun read and picked this off the shelf. The story is about two little girls growing up in Minnesota at the turn of the century, a time when cars and telephones were new and exciting inventions. The book opens with references to Lady Audley’s Secret and contains many delightful allusions to books throughout its pages.

Twelve year old Betsy is an aspiring writer. Unfortunately she’s been influenced by sensational and melodramatic novels and is writing stories with similar themes (“Lady Gwendolyn’s Sin”). Betsy’s mother and father handle this problem with gentleness and sensitivity. Instead of condemning her, her father gives her a library card and 15 cents for lunch so that she can spend all day Saturday in town, reading the classics. Her trips to town open up a new world to her.

Betsy and Tacy Go Downtown is a book about simple pleasures and great kindnesses. With its references to classic books, it’s good writing, and it’s pleasant tone, I found it hard to put down. Thank you to fellow book blogger, Sarah, for putting this author on my radar. I loved this book!

War Horse by Michael Morpurgo

2012-01-01T15:04:00.000-08:00

When I think about World War One, I think of mustard gas, trenches, no-man’s land, rats and disease, but I never knew that horses played any part in it. Thanks to Michael Morpurgo’s book , I’ve learned a few things. Though tanks and machine guns would eventually change the face of that conflict, initially all the major combatants began with cavalry forces.

Another revelation for me was Michael Morpurgo himself. He’s written over 100 books and is England’s third Children’s Laureate, but until my son brought War Horse home, I’d never heard of him.

The British Council on Literature describes him as old-fashioned because “unlike many of today’s authors for young people, Morpurgo rarely features contemporary family issues such as divorce, inadequate parents or urban social problems. Instead many of his books have historical and rural settings, and he uses his gift for telling enchanting stories to explore timeless values such as stoicism, courage, and trust.”

War Horse is the story of Joey, a British thoroughbred who is shipped off to France to help in the war effort. The book is written from his perspective as he responds to the people he meets, which include English and German soldiers as well as French civilians. Men of every kind are drawn to the beautiful horse and the story is built around their words and actions toward him.

The inspiration for the story came from Morpurgo’s conversations with a WWI veteran who told him that in the horror of the war the only thing that kept him sane was being able to talk to his horse. “That was all that kept me surviving ‘cause I would go to the horse lines each night to feed the horses, and I would talk to my horse, and I’d talk about my mother, and I’d talk about my sweetheart and about home. And about being frightened. Terrified. Particularly the last one. You could not talk amongst your chums about being terrified ‘cause everyone was terrified. People were dying all around you and you saw things that you simply couldn’t talk about.”

Morpurgo has given his readers a gift. In situations where hope seems lost, love and compassion break through the darkness, reminding us that in this world of woe there are still threads of grace. Highly recommended.

Watch for the Light - Readings for Advent and Christmas

2011-12-31T16:46:00.000-08:00

As I’ve stated before, I prefer to write about books I can heartily recommend and rarely mention books that I dislike. However, I feel that the cover of the book is deceptive and might fool you (as it did me) into thinking that it contains thoughtful, well-written, and inspiring meditations for Advent.

With names like C.S. Lewis, Philip Yancey, Madeleine L’Engle and Dietrich Bonhoeffer on the cover, I expected, at the least, that the book would be orthodox. It didn’t take long, though, to realize that most of the writers were extremely liberal in their theology.

William Stringfellow wrote of the “political character of Advent” while John Howard Yoder wrote of Mary’s Magnificat as “a revolutionary battle cry.” Furthermore, the people walking in darkness (Isaiah 9:2) are not walking in the darkness of sin, according to Jürgen Moltmann, but are crying out for their human rights. Dorothee Soelle wrote that the sick people in the Gospel of Luke had been made sick by political oppression and economic plunder. Sadly, the book manages to squeeze sin and salvation into the very narrow molds of poverty and justice.

While I enjoyed the entries by John Donne, Brennan Manning and C.S. Lewis, the other chapters were too militant to be encouraging or inspiring.

Goals for 2012

2011-12-31T09:49:00.000-08:00

I avoid book challenges because I don't like to be hemmed in by other people's book choices for me. On the other hand, after reading other book bloggers' lists of "Best of 2011", I'm tempted to add a few titles to my list for the year.

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee (because my son says it's one of the best books he's ever read.)
Return of the King by Tolkien (because I loved the first two books that I read in 2011)
Murder at the Vicarage by Agatha Christie (because my sister liked it)
Jeff Shaara's trilogy of World War II novels (because I found one of them for a quarter at the Goodwill and because I love WWII history)
Unbroken by Hilenbrand (because it's about WWII and because almost everybody who read it said it was their book-of-the-year)
Gold by Moonlight by Amy Carmichael (Xmas gift from a dear friend)
Dean's Watch by Elizabeth Goudge (because it's about time I've revisited this favorite author)

Other than that, I plan to "shop" my own bookshelves and the local university library, following my whims, while saving my Kindle books for when we return to Brazil next summer (Lord willing).

Best Books of 2011

2011-12-29T09:37:00.000-08:00

I managed to read 69 books this year, which is a bit over my “book-a-week” goal. However, as I look over the list, I notice that I read fewer books in 2010, but many of last year’s books had more of a “Wow!” factor. Each year is a reading adventure and I look forward to what’s ahead. Summary of 2011:

Biggest disappointment: Watch For the Light - Readings for Advent

Best youth fiction: War Horse by Michael Morpurgo

Favorite biography: Hitler by Albert Marrin

Favorite new author: Jon Hassler (I fell in love with protagonist, Agatha McGee, and quickly breezed through four books in which she played a central role - A Green Journey, Dear James, Staggerford Flood, The New Woman.)

Favorite “old-time” authors discovered through Kindle: Maurice Le Blanc & Joseph Crosby Lincoln

Favorite re-read: Jane Eyre (almost a yearly tradition)

Favorite WWII book: South to Bataan, North to Mukden (P.O.W. diary)

Most demanding, yet most satisfying: Fellowship of the Ring & Two Towers by Tolkien

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

2011-12-23T18:12:00.000-08:00

A few years ago I bought J.R.R. Tolkien’s translation of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. The original version was written in a 14^th Century English dialect that has not survived and Tolkien sought to make the story accessible to modern day readers. However, he strove to retain the poem’s original cadence and it seems somewhat stilted at times.

Since our family is reading War Horse by Michael Morpurgo, Morpurgo’s name has been on our radar and my son found his children’s version of Sir Gawain. It seemed less intimidating than Tolkien’s version, and I dug right in. At first, I read one chapter from Morpurgo and followed it with the same chapter in Tolkien. But by chapter three I was so caught up in the story that I discarded Tolkien’s version and read Morpurgo’s straight through to the end.

The story begins with King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table:

It was Christmastime at Camelot, that time of year when all King Arthur’s Knights gathered to celebrate the birth of their Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. For fifteen joyous days, after holy Mass each morning, there was nothing but feasting and dancing and singing, and hunting and jousting too. Jousting was the favorite sport, each Knight striving to unseat the mighty Sir Lancelot – but rarely succeeding, of course. And all was done in fun, in a spirit of comradeship, for they were happy to be all together once more at this blessed time. (p. 12)

The festivities are interrupted by a huge green giant who enters the banqueting hall. He dares any knight to take up his challenge. Gawain accepts and his adventures begin. I don’t want to share any details because going into the story without knowing the particulars is what makes it such a page turner. As Sir Gawain faces trials and temptations, will he be true to his chivalric code? Will he survive the wrath of the terrible green giant? Will he return safely to Camelot?

While I enjoyed the story very much, I was puzzled at this paraphrase for children because one of the subplots involves a woman who is more than willing to be unfaithful to her husband. Maybe that’s why Michael Dirda calls this “an adult Christmas story”. Anyway, I enjoyed Morpurgo’s translation very much.

The Two Towers by J.R.R. Tolkien

2011-12-16T20:20:00.000-08:00

Trying to review the Lord of the Rings trilogy is like standing in front of “The Pieta” and calling it “a nice statue.” There just aren’t words to describe the combination of whimsy, adventure and manly virtue. As I noted in my review of Fellowship of the Rings, Tolkien’s novel requires a tremendous amount of perseverance, but the rewards are rich. It’s no wonder that those who love these books have a mystique about them. The beautiful language and compelling story seem to demand a heart response from the reader.

Near the end of The Two Towers, Sam talks to Frodo about what makes an enduring story.

“The brave things in the old tales and songs, Mr. Frodo: adventures, as I used to call them. I used to think that they were things the wonderful folk of the stories went out and looked for, because they wanted them, because they were exciting and life was a bit dull, a kind of a sport, as you might say. But that’s not the way of it with the tales that really mattered, or the ones that stay in the mind… I wonder what sort of tale we’ve fallen into?

“I wonder if we shall ever be put into songs or tales. We’re in one, of course; but I mean: put into words, you know, told by the fireside, or read out of a great big book with red and black letters, years and years afterwards. And people will say: “Let’s hear about Frodo and the Ring!” And they’ll say: “Yes, that’s one of my favorite stories. Frodo was very brave, wasn’t he, dad?” “Yes, my boy, the famousest of the hobbits….”’ (p. 711-712)

Did Tolkien know when he wrote these words that he was writing a masterpiece that would be read and re-read for generations to come?

Again, nothing I write can do the book justice. I loved the Ents, I loved Faramir, I loved the constant references to Galadriel, I loved Gimli’s guileless infatuation with her, I loved faithful Sam, I loved the gorgeous prose:

When Sam determines to go with Frodo till the bitter end: “Sam said nothing. The look on Frodo’s face was enough for him; he knew that words of his were useless. And after all he never had any real hope in the affair from the beginning; but being a cheerful hobbit he had not needed hope, as long as despair could be postponed.” (p. 638)

Or when Sam describes Galadriel as “Hard as di’monds, soft as moonlight. Warm as sunlight, cold as frost in the stars. Proud and far-off as a snow-mountain, and as merry as any lass I ever saw with daisies in her hair in springtime.” (p. 680)

The Two Towers is a literary feast that nourishes and delights.

P.S. I watched the movie a few days after completing the book and was disappointed with its portrayal of Gimli and Faramir. Gimli brought comic relief in the film, but he was not a buffoon in the book. Faramir is a much more honorable character in the print version, although he does redeem himself in the movie. Oh well. We all know that films are rarely as satisfying as the books...

Words for Wednesday - Rumer Godden Quote

2011-12-14T06:42:00.000-08:00

From Godden's China Court: "All our happiness is shot through with unhappiness and all our unhappiness is shot through with happiness."

This quote came to mind as I mulled over various Christmas memories:

My grandmother passed away at Christmastime almost 30 years ago. I remember the bitter cold of the graveyard, and the astonishing beauty of the ice-covered trees.

A few days ago, my father-in-law slipped into Heaven. With one breath we were commiserating over our sense of loss, and with the other breath we were cooing over the newest addition to the family, one week old Benjamin.

Truly, life is a mixture of joy and pain.

A Man for All Seasons - Worthwhile Movie #6

2011-12-09T14:51:00.000-08:00

How can I convince you to watch a long, slow moving film with an unhappy ending? I wasn’t enthusiastic about watching it myself, but planned to do it for my husband’s sake because he loves movies based on true stories. We were surprised to be treated to some of the finest dialogue we’ve ever heard in a movie. We laughed out loud over and over, not because it was funny, but because we were filled with delight at truth being proclaimed with such eloquence and beauty.

Sir Thomas More was a contemporary of Henry VIII and was famous for opposing the king’s divorce to Katherine of Aragon (and subsequent marriage to Anne Boleyn). The film details his lonely stand against pressure to sanction the marriage. Because More was a man of utmost integrity and honesty, false charges had to be trumped up against him and he was eventually tried for treason.

I can’t remember the last time I saw a film when a man of faith was portrayed so well. Paul Scofield does a superlative job in this 1966 Oscar winner. By the way, Orson Welles plays a small part in the film as Cardinal Wolsey and he’s horrifically good.

Words for Wednesday - On Christmas

2011-12-07T18:23:00.000-08:00

The Christmas story - the one according to Luke not Dickens - is not about how blessed it is to be givers but how essential it is to see ourselves as receivers. We prefer to think of ourselves as givers - powerful, competent, self-sufficient, capable people who are motivated to benefit the less fortunate. This is in direct contradiction to the biblical account of the first Christmas. There we are portrayed not as the givers we wish we were but as the receivers we are. Luke and Matthew go to great lengths to demonstrate that we - with our power, generosity, competence and capabilities - had little to do with God's work in Jesus. God wanted to do something for us so strange, so utterly beyond the bounds of human imagination, so foreign to human projection, that God had to resort to angels, pregnant virgins, and stars in the sky to get it done. We didn't think of it, understand it or approve it. All we could do at Bethlehem was receive it.

William Willimon in Watch for the Light

Classics for Pleasure by Michael Dirda

2011-12-02T08:27:00.000-08:00

Some time ago I read Michael Dirda’s Classics for Pleasure. Dirda is a Pulitzer prize winning book critic who writes for the Washington Post, and while I agree with him that many great books are overlooked, I disagreed with his definition of a classic. Often the “pleasure” in his chosen titles was directly related to their bawdiness. One reviewer at Amazon summed it up well: “Too many of Dirda’s picks seem to assume an inexhaustible taste for the macabre, decadence, vulgarity, sexual perversion, and/or cynicism, despair and psychosis”

However, since I’m ever eager to increase my knowledge of the Western Canon, I plowed through the book and obtained many mouth-watering tidbits of information.

On Alexander Pope: “Thackery called him the greatest literary artist that England has seen”.

On Henry Rider Haggard’s book: “C.S. Lewis said, ‘What story in the world opens better than She?’”

On Georgette Heyer: “She’s as witty as any writer of the past century, as accomplished as P.G. Wodehouse in working out complex plots, as accurate as a professional historian in getting her background details right…. She composes superb historical novels, laced with comedy, intrigue, delightful characters, and yes, romance. Clear-eyed realism lies behind all of Heyer’s work, no matter how giddy the goings-on beforehand.”

On James Agee’s Let Us Now Praise Famous Men: “glorious, lyrical excess”

And, finally, his thoughts on Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: “It conveys a wonderful Mozartean lightness and wit, an air of make-believe and festivity, tinged with real darkness. It’s a perfect adult Christmas story.”

And, so, I’ve added to my constantly expanding list of authors/books to explore. Although I did not agree with all of Dirda’s choices, I enjoyed his fine writing and his obvious love of good books.

Cozy Mysteries Reading Challenge

2011-11-27T13:26:00.000-08:00

I don't normally sign up for reading challenges unless they line up with goals I've already set for myself. Because I've already put Agatha Christie and Josephine Tey on my list for next year, I was pleased to discover the "Cruising through the Cozies" challenge at Socrates' Book Reviews. I had no idea what a "cozy mystery" was until I read this definition:

"I find that most of the cozy mysteries that I read take place in a small, picturesque town or village, with characters who I could envision having as neighbors or friends... They are usually not zany people, although an eccentric or two might lurk here and there. On the whole, they are usually normal, everyday characters you might have known at one time in your life. Cozies don't usually involve a lot of gory detail or explicit adult situations, either."

Sounds like my kind of book! Of the many authors listed here, I know very few, but G.K. Chesterton's name appears and he's always a pleasure to read and re-read.

A fun challenge for the new year!

Simplify by Joshua Becker

2011-11-25T19:42:00.000-08:00

THE BEST THINGS IN LIFE AREN’T THINGS.

If you’ve heard Joshua Becker’s story or have read his blog, you’ll be familiar with minimalism: the philosophy that people need a lot less than they have. His mantra is, We were never meant to live life accumulating stuff. We were meant to live life simply enjoying the experiences of life, the people of life, and the journey of life – not the things of life.

This is not your average book about de-cluttering (all though that plays a part). It’s about changing your attitude toward your possessions. It’s about purposeful living that isn’t influenced by TV commercials, peer pressure or “keeping up with the Joneses.” Minimalism is the intentional promotion of things we most value and the removal of anything that distracts us from it.

Obviously, this e-booklet has struck a chord with American consumers. It has been a number one best seller since it debuted at Amazon in mid November. In it Becker offers seven principles for enriching your life. The first part entails letting go of stuff that consumes your time. Whether we are cleaning them, organizing them, buying them, or selling them, the more things we own, the more time they rob from our lives. The book’s second half describes the potential joys of being free from the burdens brought on my rampant consumerism: less piles of stuff around the house, less debt, less stress, etc.

Becker calls himself a “rational minimalist” because he’s not as extreme as some others who espouse minimalist philosophy. “Realistic” would be a better term. He and his wife are realistic because they have not given up all their toys; they have two young children. They are realistic because they have not given up all their extra dishes; they love to entertain. They are realistic because they still buy clothes; but they buy much less and pay more so they’ll last longer. They are realistic about television; they still have it, but only have a limited number of channels so they don’t spend too much time watching.

I don’t like clutter, but if I’m not vigilant, the house gives into it. Once a year I need to read a book like Becker’s to remind me that I love clean closets, clear counters, and the peace that comes with being content with what I already have. In Becker’s words, There is a life of simplicity that is calling out to you… It is inviting you to remove the distractions in your life that are keeping your from truly living.

As we head into the Christmas season, a time when joy and peace are easily snuffed out with the pressures of consumerism, I was grateful for the reminder.

WWII Books from PaperBackSwap

2011-11-18T19:03:00.000-08:00

I'm halfway through four different books so I don't have a post this week. Still, I thought I'd mention how delighted I am with some recent acquisitions from PaperBackSwap. I enjoy WWII history and was happy to receive these titles:

Escape from Warsaw - teen fiction
The Brass Ring by Mauldin - Mauldin was WWII's greatest cartoonist
WWII Bookshelf - highlights 50 essential books about the war
Corregidor - written by Sergeant Ben Waldron about his experiences as a P.O.W.
The Righteous - about Gentiles who risked their lives to help Jews
When Hollywood Ruled the Skies - Aviation film classics of WWII

Nice variety, don't you think? Now, if I could only finish my other books so I can get to these!
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The Return of the Soldier by Rebecca West

2011-11-11T19:46:00.000-08:00

Ordinarily I only review books that I like, but this author is so unusual that I can’t resist making a few comments. Rebecca West is new to me and quite a change from the two other books I’ve been reading (Trollope and Tolkien). The Return of the Soldier (published 1918) begins with a husband gone to war, a deceased child, and a mysterious telegram; and the drama doesn’t let up till the very end. Fortunately, it’s a short book and can sustain that kind of suspense.

Chris Baldry is a captain in the British army during World War One. His wife Kitty and cousin Jenny are awaiting his return when they receive news that he’s been wounded and has no memory of the last 15 years of his life. The book recounts his family’s efforts to bring him back to reality.

I disliked the conclusion of Return of the Soldier so much that I decided to give West another chance by reading her second novel, The Judge. But it was so awful I could not finish it. There are moments of brilliance in West’s writing yet often she flounders through her prose. (Where were her editors?) Frankly, I was surprised to read of her fame as an author because these two novels were both so uneven in quality. In addition to the writing issues, I struggled to like her books for their underlying themes of feminism, socialism and the inefficacy of God.

So why am I even bothering to write this post? Because some of her writing is very, very good.

From Return of the Soldier:

At his father’s death he had been obliged to take over a business that was weighted by the needs of a mob of female relatives who were all useless either in the old way, with antimacassars, or in the new way, with golf clubs.

Cumulus clouds floated very high, like lumps of white light.

Why did her tears reveal to me what I had learned long ago, but had forgotten in my frenzied love, that there is a draft that we must drink or not be fully human? I knew that one must know the truth. I knew quite well that when one is an adult one must raise to one’s lips the wine of truth, heedless that it is not sweet like milk, but draws the mouth with its strength, and celebrate communion with reality, or else walk forever queer and small like a dwarf.

He felt furtive and red-eared while he searched in the purse of his experience to find the coin that would admit him into her world (from The Judge)

In spite of my ambivalence toward the talented Miss West, I’m glad I gave her a try.

Books on My Kindle

2011-11-10T15:36:00.000-08:00

If you are like me, you like to snoop through other people’s libraries to see what they are reading. These are the titles that are presently on my Kindle. All of them were free (except Island of the World which was a gift) either because they are in public domain or because they were offered for free for a limited time via eReaderIQ. (Please be aware that they offer a lot of smut so you may get tired of sifting through their daily lists.) In addition to the 44 books here, I have 65 more on my Kindle Wish List. I've had my Kindle for a year and have definitely gotten my money's worth.

King Henry V by Shakespeare (1599)

Pilgrim’s Progress by Bunyan (1678)

Pascal’s Pensées (1669)

Rime of the Ancient Mariner – Coleridge (1798)

Adventures of Ulysses by Charles Lamb (1808)

The Interior Life by Upham (1845)

Ruth by Gaskell (1853)

The Lifted Veil by George Eliot (1859)

Adam Bede by George Eliot (1859)

Madam How and Lady Why by Charles Kingsley (1869)

Sir Harry Hotspur of Humblethwaite by Trollope (1871)

Michael Strogoff by Jules Verne (1876)

Cousin Henry by Trollope (1879)

The Lady with the Dog – Chekhov (1899)

Book of Dragons by Nesbit (1900)

Famous Men of the Middle Ages - Haaren (1904)

The Elusive Pimpernel – Orczy (1908)

Cy Whittaker’s Place by J.C. Lincoln (1908)

Literary Taste: How to Form It by Arnold Bennett (1909)

Psmith in the City – Wodehouse ((1910)

The House of the Whispering Pines – Green (1910)

Rich Mrs. Burgoyne by Kathleen Thompson Norris (1912)

Confessions of Arsene Lupine by Leblanc (1913)

Penrod by Booth Tarkington (1914)

Travels in Alaska – John Muir (1915)

The Return of the Soldier by Rebecca West (1918)

The Golden Triangle by Leblanc (1918)

The Age of Innocence by Wharton (1920)

Penny Plain by O. Douglas (1920)

The Judge by Rebecca West (1922)

Fair Harbor by J.C. Lincoln (1922)

Freedom from Performing by Harling (2011)

The Art of the Commonplace by Wendell Berry (2002)

When I Lay my Isaac Down by Carol (2004)

A Praying Life – Paul Miller (2009)

Island of the World by O’Brien (2009)

A Child al Confino – Eric Lamet (2010)

Heart of Abundance – Candy Paull (2010)

Live Like You Mean It – T. J. Addington (2010)

Creed by Winfield Bevins (2011 Navpress)

Craving God Devotional by Lysa Terkeurst (2011)

Simplify by Joshua Becker (2011) 99cents this week only

How to Publish on Amazon Kindle

Oxford Dictionary

Holy Bible – ESV

Ayala's Angel by Anthony Trollope

2011-11-04T21:02:00.000-07:00

Long-time readers of my blog know that I’m an Anthony Trollope fan. It takes patience to plow through his (purposely unadventurous) novels, but it’s worth the effort. Ayala’s Angel begins with the plight of two orphaned sisters who are shuffled off to different relatives. Ayala goes to the rich uncle and Lucy to the poor one. Both experience culture shock because neither girl has known the stinginess of poverty or the arrogance of wealth.

Lucy tries hard to make the best of her new life, but Ayala does little to earn the affection of her new family. At first the reader assumes that Lucy is Ayala’s angel because of her sacrificial love for her. But it isn’t long before we learn that Ayala has a dream of an “Angel of Light” who will come and take her away from the tediousness of her life.

This angel is so huge in her mind that no mortal man can come close. She refuses the marriage proposal of her wealthy cousin because he is too plebeian for her taste. Although he is an honorable man, he is unromantic and his pretentious way of dressing is repugnant to her. Later she meets a man whom she likes very much, but refuses his proposal because he isn’t as handsome as her imagined angel. When a third suitor comes on the scene (who is also refused), I shared Mrs. Dosset’s confusion as to “the multiplicity of Ayala’s suitors”. There is no real explanation in the book as to why this penniless women has such amazing powers of attraction.

Ayala’s Angel is a study of romantic love. Ayala’s idea of it is so overblown that she almost misses her chance at happiness. “Her dreams had been to her a barrier against love, rather than an encouragement.” (from Chapter 55) The more practical men in the book are convinced that “Love never put a leg of mutton in the pot,” meaning that financial security is better than romance. Yet, Frank Houston gives up his gold-digging ways to marry the woman he really loves.

I liked this book, but thought it was about ten chapters too long. It took twenty hours to listen to all 66 chapters and I tired of hearing about Tom Tringle’s persistence in pursuing Ayala and Ayala’s blindness as to which of the suitors was the real Angel of Light. (He proposes in Chapter 25 and she finally accepts in 52!)

I would recommend reading this book rather than listening to it. The audio version drags at times, but when I downloaded the book to re-read some of my favorite chapters, the tedium disappeared. I chuckled happily through the brilliant dialogue and skimmed over the boring bits.

Hurry Less, Worry Less by Judy Pace Christie

2011-10-28T15:44:00.000-07:00

We live in a culture of hurry. Our “to do” lists are unending and our days go by in a blur. No wonder this title caught my eye. Frankly, I didn’t need another book on how to get more organized. I’ve read tons of them and I still manage to be overcommitted and stressed out.

The two most important questions in the book are, What would you like your life to look like? and What is keeping you from getting there?

One of Christie’s strategies for bringing balance to overload is to plan an activity sabbatical. “Consider this a time emergency, and you are simply trying to stop the bleeding by putting a tourniquet on your calendar. This may seem extreme, but it works well for those who are so tired that they feel sick (or wish they were sick so they could stay in bed) or for those who truly have no idea where to start.” (p. 42) She suggests that you stop doing everything that is not absolutely necessary (you’d be surprised at how much is not essential) and to prayerfully re-evaluate your priorities. “The journey to living abundantly has to be done deliberately. It is a time for realizing that you cannot, in fact, do everything, but you can do plenty and do it well and happily.” (p. 78)

Dieting fads say “Eat this,” and “Avoid that”, yet many of the newer dieting books teach that temporary food deprivation is not the answer; consistent, healthy life choices are the only way to get slim (and stay slim). Christie’s book is similar in that she doesn’t provide a tidy list of “dos” and “don’ts.” “As with most important things in life, hurrying less and worrying less requires a commitment to an ongoing way of living. Again, this is not a time-management course or a guide to becoming more efficient. It is about transforming your life, tweaking here and there, taking inventory of the good and bad, and moving ahead.” It’s about deciding how you really want to live and taking the necessary steps to make it happen. She adds, “Over the past few years, I have occasionally felt that my life was once more slipping out of control – usually because I said yes when I should have said no and when I momentarily disregarded how I truly wanted to live.” (p. 115)

Christie’s book has made a huge difference in my crazy life. When I actually made a list of the things that were sabotaging my peace, I was able to see activities that had to be relinquished. Several stressful activities could not be eliminated because they are part of the life phase I am in. But seeing them as part of God’s plan for me at present, stripped them of their anxiety-producing hold. I highly recommend this book to those who are experiencing a disconnect between how they want to live from how they are actually living. Hurry Less, Worry Less enables them to take steps toward bringing the two lives together.

So Brave, Young, and Handsome by Leif Enger

2011-10-21T17:29:00.000-07:00

I’ve heard bits and pieces about this book, but was finally nudged into reading it by Amy’s review.

The book’s editor writes, “So Brave, Young, and Handsome is a lean, potent adventure story – a tale of romance and pursuit, friendship and a vanishing American West. Set in 1915, it features two of the most appealing, aging cowboy rivals you’ll have come across and the modest, self-effacing writer who accompanies them on their trip across the country.… Enger’s instinct for clean, entertaining storytelling feels rare in today’s world and transports us to a time when, in Leif’s words, outlaw stories could still lean a body forward in his chair.”

Enger is a gifted writer. Some of the storyline stretches the imagination, but Enger’s writing voice is believable for that time and place. It is a romance in the old-fashioned sense of the word, a tale of heroes and extraordinary events.

The themes of redemption and forgiveness run through the novel, but are not overdone. To maintain the moral integrity of the book, the ending is not happy in the Hollywood sense. Yet it manages to be satisfying because one of the main characters makes a very good decision after a lifetime of very bad ones.

Don’t let the title fool you into thinking this is “chick lit.” The book has a lot more depth than that and could be equally enjoyed by male or female readers. It’s a tribute to the dying west and to men who are trying to discover what it means to live honorably. I’m glad I read it.

The Sabbath by Heschel

2011-10-07T13:17:00.000-07:00

The fourth commandment is often unheeded by today’s Christians because of our understanding that we are free from Jewish laws. Yet I wonder if we aren’t missing something vital to our well-being by ignoring it. Why is it listed with the other “essential rules for living” if it has no purpose? I have read many books through the years that have given me an appreciation for the gift of the Sabbath day, but probably none has been more influential than Abraham Heschel’s.

Heschel does not set out to explain why one should keep the Sabbath as much as he seeks to write a love song to a day that he calls “the queen.” It is a poetic tribute to her glory:

Time is like a wasteland. It has grandeur but no beauty. Its strange, frightful power is always feared but rarely cheered. Then we arrive at the seventh day, and the Sabbath is endowed with a felicity which enraptures the soul, which glides into our thoughts with a healing sympathy. It is a day on which hours do not oust one another. It is a day that can soothe all sadness away. (p. 20)

The Sabbath as a day of rest, as a day of abstaining from toil, is not for the purpose of recovering one’s lost strength and becoming fit for the forthcoming labor. The Sabbath is a day for the sake of life. Man is not a beast of burden, and the Sabbath is not for the purpose of enhancing the efficiency of work…. The Sabbath is not for the sake of the weekdays; the weekdays are for the sake of the Sabbath. It is not an interlude but the climax of living. (p. 14)

In the tempestuous ocean of time and toil there are islands of stillness where man may enter a harbor and reclaim his dignity. The island is the seventh day, the Sabbath, a day of detachment from things, instruments and practical affairs as well as of attachment to the spirit. (p. 29)

I particularly liked Heschel’s idea that keeping the Sabbath gives one a taste of eternity. If you are even slightly interested in the subject of Sabbath keeping, this seminal book is for you.

Another man who deeply loved the Sabbath was George Herbert (1593-1633). He wrote:

Thou art a day of mirth:

And where the week days trail on the ground,

thy flight is higher, as thy birth.

O let me take thee at a bound,

leaping with thee from sev'n to sev'n,

Till that we both, being tossed from earth

fly hand in hand to heaven!

The entire poem can be found here.

Words for Wednesday - On the Ten Commandments

2011-10-05T14:40:00.000-07:00

In its beginning and end, the Decalogue deals with the liberty of man. The first word – I am the Lord thy God, who brought thee out of the Land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage - reminds him that his outer liberty was given to him by God, and the tenth Word – Thou shalt not covet - reminds him that he himself must achieve his inner liberty.

(from The Sabbath by Abraham Joshua Heschel, p. 90)

Kingfishers Catch Fire by Rumer Godden

2011-09-30T19:49:00.000-07:00

In India a woman alone does not go and live alone – not, at any rate, far from her own kind, not unless she is a saint or a great sinner. Sophie was not a saint, or a sinner, but she was undeniably a woman.

So begins the novel, Kingfishers Catch Fire, by British author Rummer Godden (1907-1998). Godden grew up in India and used her experiences as a background for this novel. Kingfishers is the story of Sophie Barrington Ward who takes her two children to live in Kashmir. Her husband, a British officer stationed in India, has passed away and she refuses to return to England to live a conventional life.

Instead she moves to a remote Indian village and rents a small house, hoping to live simply on her husband’s pension. But what passes for simplicity to an English woman is luxurious extravagance to the villagers. From the beginning the people question the strangeness of her ways and her motives for coming. There are two rival clans in the town, but Sophie is completely oblivious to their quarrels. She seems strangely unaware of cultural differences between the villagers and herself, assuming that common sense will win out in every disagreement. She wants to help them, but her western ideas of justice and fairness fall on bewildered ears. Eventually her disregard for the villagers’ beliefs leads to tragedy for herself and her children.

Two men are put in prison, but although they have caused trouble for Sophie, she knows that they are not guilty of the accusations leveled against them. She expresses her concern to Dr. Glenister, the missionary doctor who says, “But, dearie, they hurt you terribly.” Sophie asked herself, Have you a duty to those who hurt you? Surprisingly the answer seemed to be that you had. If Sophie shrank from that answer, that could not take the duty away… (p. 232)

In the end, Sophie does what she can to make amends. Some issues are resolved and others are not. When I finished the book I was left scratching my head over what exactly she had accomplished with her self-imposed exile in Kashmir. Reading Gerard Manley Hopkin’s poem from which the book takes its title, cleared up the mystery to some degree. In the poem Hopkins writes that just as kingfishers and dragonflies reflect glorious color as the sun hits their wings, so mortal men reflect God’s glory when they are expressing grace and justice to their fellow men. When they do that, they are “being Christ in a thousand places”.

A very interesting book!

The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien

2011-09-23T19:50:00.000-07:00

I have long looked at lovers of the Lord of the Rings trilogy as an exclusive fan club (rather like “Trekkies”) with their inside knowledge of the books and their disdain for the rest of us illiterates. I was half afraid to read them just in case I didn’t “get it” and was forever barred from this privileged group. I’m even a little embarrassed about reviewing them now since there are others who have read the books multiple times and who understand them more than I do.

Fellowship is an epic adventure in the truest sense of the word: “an extended narrative poem in elevated or dignified language, celebrating the feats of a legendary hero.” Simple, home-loving Frodo becomes involved in a larger-than-life battle between good and evil and he willingly sacrifices his own wishes and comforts to “do the right thing” as far as the powerful Ring is concerned.

I don’t regret having seen the films first (something I rarely do) because a certain amount of foreknowledge kept me from getting bogged down in the many confusing names. Not only do several people have more than one name (Aragorn/Strider, Gollum/Smeagol), but the mountains and even the swords have names. Being familiar with the main characters from the movie was helpful as I worked my way through the book. “Work” is the key word because Fellowship of the Ring is no easy read. This first book in the trilogy is 400 pages long, but by page 200 hundred, Frodo has barely left the Shire to head out for his adventures. Still, the book is worth the effort.

Tolkien’s tale is compelling in its portrayal of friendship and bravery among Frodo and his companions, but it is made even richer by its use of beautiful language (at times reminiscent of the English in the King James Bible).

An example from page 244: Sauran was diminished, but not destroyed. His Ring was lost but not unmade. The Dark Tower was broken, but its foundations were not removed; for they were made with the power of the Ring, and while it remains they will endure.

I’m very glad I took the plunge and began the LOTR trilogy. Now I’m hoping I’ll find time to read the sequels.

What Would You Want to Read While Marooned on a Deserted Island?

2011-09-17T10:41:00.000-07:00

Abe books ask this age old question this week. (This link will take you to a short youtube video, but if you scroll to the top of the page you'll see the article and various book suggestions.) I'm glad they throw in The Bible and Shakespeare as givens, because you could definitely spend years reading those. As for my other choice, it would have to be Jane Eyre since it's been my favorite comfort "food" for decades now.

What about you?

Words for Wednesday

2011-09-13T21:05:00.000-07:00

Both Socrates and Christ were killed by the best states of their times, which leads us to suspect that truth may in fact be more insecure in democracies than even in tyrannies, where it is frankly recognized as dangerous.

from p. 247 of Another Sort of Learning by James V. Schall

Article about Banned Books Week

2011-09-07T05:24:00.000-07:00

As I surf the book blogging world, I often come across references to book banning. I haven't paid much attention except to wonder why anyone would read a book just because it was banned rather than because they really liked it.

Tuesday's edition of USA Today had an article about Banned Books Week that I found enlightening. Jonah Goldberg contends that there is no such thing as a banned book in America. When a parent or a library removes a book from their shelves because it might be inappropriate for a certain age group, that is called "banning". But, says Goldberg, even if the book in question is removed, it is widely available for sale everywhere else.

Goldberg points out that schools recognize the importance of parental involvement in their children's education, but then decry the parents' "interference" when they question the choice of a particular book. Statistics show that one in every 100,000 parents complains about an age-inappropriate book. Hardly an epidemic. These parents are not saying the book should be banned for all ages and for all time, but just for the slice of time in their kids' lives when some of life's realities may be too harsh for their sensibilities.

What do you think? Is it good parenting or book banning?

Books about England

2011-09-02T18:27:00.000-07:00

I wrote in my last post that I hope to go to England next summer. Since this plan was hatched three weeks ago, I’ve been devouring books on the subject. The first was Susan Allen Toth’s My Love Affair with England. Unfortunately the book dealt too much with her difficult marriage, problem students and her daughter’s very bad foreign exchange experience. Happily, her second book, England As You Like It, had more information about how to actually plan a trip to England.

I appreciate Toth’s habit of heading off the beaten track, as well as her practice of balancing comfort with frugality. Her suggestions are, “always seasoned by experience and caution, with a substantial dash of adventure and a huge dollop of curiosity.” (p. 4)

Her best traveling tip is to spend a week in one area (no bigger than a thumbprint on the map) while exploring its museums, beaches, gardens, churches, shops, etc. This relaxed type of trip has more appeal to me than one where you try to hit as many cities as possible within a short stay.

The final book I read was Philip Crowl’s The Intelligent Traveler’s Guide to Historic Britain. All entries in this book are very brief. It will be useful once we decide on a location since it covers the main places to see in each county.

“From private gardens to quirky museums, woodland walks to seaside resorts, all of Great Britain is a treasure-house for the thoughtful and observant tourist.” (Toth, p. 51)

I’d love any suggestions for other books to read or places to visit.

August Accomplishments

2011-08-31T13:00:00.000-07:00

The “August” in my title refers to the month and not to the real definition of the word meaning “respected and impressive”. (I wish!) I took the month off from blogging to complete a few projects. I finished two mini books (based on my blogs) and they are on their way to me from the publishers. (Both were self published on Blurb.com) Hooray!

I had planned to read the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy, but only made it through half of the first book.

Nevertheless, I hatched some fun plans. My good friend and I turn 50 this year and she suggested that we attack our bucket list and finally make the trip we’ve always dreamed of. I’ve already three books on England, which is why I didn’t make my LOTR goal. Also in the works is the idea for a new blog: World War II in Books and Film.

So, I didn’t get as much accomplished as I had hoped, but I’m very happy with what got done.

Wendell Berry Audiobooks

2011-08-22T04:49:00.000-07:00

ChristianAudio.com is offering all their Wendell Berry titles for $4.98 this month. I'm not familiar with any of the narrators, but Christian Audio offerings are usually well done. They also have 12 Christian classics for 98 cents each. Hope you find something to enjoy!

Georgette Heyer on Kindle

2011-08-15T14:11:00.000-07:00

I just saw a notice that in celebration of Heyer's birthday her books are being offered for Kindle users. Every single title is being offered for $1.99 for a period of one week. Since I'm a newbie to Heyer I can't recommend the best ones, but if you read the comments on my previous post, you'll find quite a few suggestions. Enjoy!

Worthwhile Movies #5 - A Green Journey

2011-08-10T08:29:00.000-07:00

Earlier this year I raved about the book, A Green Journey. Months later I was startled to discover that the book had been made into a film. (I watched it via instant streaming on Netflix)

Anyway, I liked the book a lot and felt sure the movie couldn’t match up. It did and it didn’t. First of all the film was surprisingly faithful to the book. The actors did an excellent job of capturing the personalities of the book’s characters. And, miracle of miracles, the faith of the protagonists was not watered down.

But, the romantic elements in the book (which I would never have classified as a romance novel) were exaggerated in the film. However, the acting was better than your average “Hallmark” film so all was not lost. Angela Lansbury is convincing as Agatha McGee and her co-star, Denholm Elliott is quite good, as well.

Do I need to add that you should read the book before watching the movie? Without the background the book gives, the movie seems sketchy. Telescoped events take a minute on film that take a whole chapter in the book. The element I missed most was Agatha’s friend, Lillian, who is a very funny part of the book, but only a small player in the movie.

This made-for-TV movie was originally called “The Love She Sought”. Lansbury also brought two other books to film that you might enjoy: Mrs. ‘Arris Goes to Paris and The Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax

More Love from PaperBackSwap

2011-08-04T07:57:00.000-07:00

I can still hardly believe the lovely books I'm able to get through PaperBackSwap. Wendell Berry titles take a long time to receive, but they are worth the wait. Most of my recent acquisitions are hardbacks in great condition so I'm pleased to add them to my library. When I went to Brazil recently and had to cull out my "must keep" books, my favorite poetry book was missing. What fun to find it available at PBS in "like new" condition. And take a look at the Ernie Pyle titles that I acquired without being on any waiting list at all!

AWOL in August

2011-08-02T08:41:00.000-07:00

I'm trying to complete some big reading and writing projects this month, so I won't be posting much. Please check back with me in September. Blessings, Hope

London War Notes by Mollie Panter-Downes

2011-07-30T05:24:00.000-07:00

Most books you read about World War II are written in retrospect. The authors have sifted through documents, books and articles to come up with their conclusions about the war. They report on decisive military strategies, what went wrong at a particular battle, or who the real heroes were. London War Notes is completely different in that it was written during the war as events were taking place. Mollie Panter-Downes was already a newspaper columnist for The New Yorker magazine, but when the war began she was asked to write bi-weekly articles specifically about Londoners’ reactions to the war.

What I liked about this book was its candid expression of peoples’ hopes, fears, and disappointments. It’s astounding to read their expectations of total obliteration by the Germans. They knew “it” was coming, but were never sure when or how it would happen.

However upset they might be by current events, the British were devoted to Prime Minister Winston Churchill. They loved him for not sugar-coating the hard news. They only waffled on their affections when he gave them vague platitudes or when he appointed wishy-washy cabinet members. For the most part, they felt they could go through anything if “Winnie” was behind them.

What I didn’t like about this book was that events and emotions were so understated that the book was almost boring. It took me weeks to get through it even though I love reading and love WWII history. Also, because War Notes was written during the war to people who were aware of current events, Panter-Downes doesn’t explain much. It is assumed you know what “Britain’s great disappointment” was on such and such a day. (Occasionally the editor of this book will add a footnote of the events leading up to a specific entry, but only rarely.) I kept wishing for a WWII timeline to connect the dots.

All in all, this was a worthwhile read because it gave an honest, raw view of the war from the people’s , rather than a historian’s perspective. I enjoyed Panter-Downes' excellent writing as well.

At St. Giles, a bomb had fallen slap on the sandbags protecting a stained-glass window, blowing a hole in the wall and toppling Milton off his plinth inside... To observers here, it sometimes seems that more than Milton has been toppled off his plinth. All that is best in the good life of civilized effort appears to be slowly and painfully keeling over in the chaos of man's inhumanity to man. (Aug 30, 1940)

Quote of the Week - On Books

2011-07-26T06:06:00.000-07:00

"My father had left a small collection of books in a little room upstairs, to which I had access (for it adjoined my own) and which nobody else in the house ever troubled. From that blessed little room, Roderick Random, Peregrine Pickle, Humphrey Clinker, Tom Jones, the Vicar of Wakefield, Don Quixote, Gil Blas, and Robinson Crusoe, came out, a glorious host, to keep me company. They kept alive my fancy, and my hope of something beyond that place and time..."

- Charles Dickens

Cape Cod Stories by Joseph Crosby Lincoln

2011-07-22T19:48:00.000-07:00

Author Joseph Crosby Lincoln came across my radar about a year ago so I jumped at the chance to download this free book on my new Kindle. What a lovely surprise.

Lincoln was born in Cape Cod, Massachusetts in 1870 to a family of seamen and his books reflect his heritage. The stories in this particular book are told from the point of view of elderly Barzilla Wingate and his old friend, Cap’n Jonadab Wixon. Most center around the old hotel they run and the tourists who stay there.

The chapters are written in informal, folksy language, much of it with allusions to ships and sailing. Their tone had me chuckling all the way through the book.

Maudina was like her name, pretty, but sort of soft and mushy. She had big blue eyes and a baby face, and her principal cargo was poetry. She had a deckload of it, and she’d heave it overboard every time the wind changed.

He run up to the piazza like a clipper coming into port.

We got there after a spell and set down on the big piazza with our souls full of gratitude and our boots full of sand.

[Referring to a dangerous boat trip in a cutting February wind] I expected every minute to land in the hereafter, and it got so that the prospect looked kind of inviting, if only to get somewhere where ‘twas warm.

Two of the stories in the middle of the book did not ring true. Instead of staying on sure New England soil, Lincoln placed these stories in the islands near Malaysia and Singapore. The themes of these stories were pretty far-fetched and made the islanders look like idiots. There were also some unfortunate, though rare, derogatory terms for African-Americans. I was glad when the stories returned to their original style and subjects for the second half of the book.

For humorous, light reading, Joseph C. Lincoln is my new favorite. Delightful!

What Do You Think of Georgette Heyer?

2011-07-14T06:30:00.000-07:00

My blog friend Julie loves Georgette Heyer. And Michael Dirda in his Classics for Pleasure says she's a hidden gem in the literary world. I don't really like romance novels, but based on their raves I obtained one of her books, The Talisman Ring. It is basically a romance with a mystery thrown in. The witty diaologue saved the book, because the rest of it was just "okay". I was interested to see that Ardent Reader is less than enthusiastic about Heyer too. Any other opinions? Did I pick the wrong book?

While we are on the subject of Miss Heyer, Abe Books just came out with an article saying she outsells even J.K. Rowling. Read it if you'd like to know more about this lesser known author.

Minimizing My Library

2011-07-08T08:55:00.000-07:00

What if you had to reduce your library from 600 to 100 books in one week? Recently I had to make just such a choice. When we left Brazil in 2009, we left all of our earthly possessions behind. Since our return to South America continues to be delayed I went back this spring to pack things up. I decided to keep only what would fit into five suitcases. My friends were horrified that I used so much of that space for books, but, honestly, I had more affection for those than for any knick-knacks.

Some of the decisions were easy. Ten percent of the books were missing or damaged beyond repair. At least a hundred books had never been read and were easy to give up because I had no emotional attachment to them. I had over 200 hundred children’s books, but since my youngest is now fourteen, I let most of them go. (That made me wince a little because I love children’s lit.)

That left about 250 to agonize over.

I found several seminary students who wanted my theology books so I was glad to give them a good home (though I kept a handful of favorites). The non-fiction was easy to let go (again, for lack of emotional attachment). I cut my WWII library way down because I knew I could get most of those books through the library here.

Surprisingly, most classics (including my beloved Trollope) did not make the cut because I knew I could replace them easily. However, anything by Dorothy Sayers, G.K. Chesterton or Elizabeth Goudge was sacrosanct. When it came down to it, why did the Clyde Robert Bulla’s books get left and Enid Blyton’s chosen? And why were Helen Roseveare’s biographies the only ones selected from all my Christian books? My choices may have been based on impulse rather than common sense, but all I know is that now that I’m surrounded by these old friends, I feel “at home” again.

In case you are curious about what I kept, here is the link (though I’m not sure if it’s accessible to the public). During our last two years in the U.S. I’ve accumulated at least another hundred “keepers”, but I have yet to add them to the Library Thing account.

The Children's War by Ruth Inglis

2011-07-01T16:39:00.001-07:00

During WWII heavy bombing in England caused three major migrations of children from the city to the country. The first migration began on September 1^st, 1939 just days before Britain declared war on the Axis powers. The second was in August of 1940 with the onset of the Battle of Britain and the third was in September of 1944.

Half of the children in London were evacuated on E-Day (the first evacuation day). But since German bombers did not appear in earnest until the spring of 1940, two-thirds of the evacuees had returned home by January of 1940. Although the first evacuation seemed a farce, it was, in reality, a practice run for the two subsequent evacuations which were necessary when the Germans blitzed all major cities.

You can imagine the distress of having to decide between parting with one’s children for their physical safety or keeping them home for their emotional well-being. Some parents refused to send their children away even though the government strongly encouraged it. Interestingly, Churchill refused to make it mandatory.

Anna Freud (daughter to Sigmund) and her co-worker, Dorothy Burlingham, directed a war nursery from December 1940 to February 1942. The experience of caring for over a hundred children who had lost one or both parents in the war, led them to conclude that the separation of a child from his or her parent or parents was far more distressing to them than the bombs from which they were being protected. (p. 155)

On the other hand, Bernard Kops, a child of twelve in 1940, recounts the horrors of staying in London: “We went underground to get away from the sirens and the bombs. Yet they followed me and I heard sirens until the world became a siren. One endless cry of torture. It penetrated right into the core of my being, night and day was one long night, one long nightmare, one long siren, one long wail of despair… It was the beginning of an era of utter terror, of fear, of horror. I stopped being a child and came face to face with the new reality of the world.” (p. 84)

The choice was not an easy one. Some who held out (by keeping their children at home) gave in during the 2^nd and 3^rd migrations, particularly the last one when the Germans unleashed a new weapon, the V1 bomb. This terror producing weapon was designed to crush the morale of the British and, truly, it caused many to reach their breaking point. Inglis writes, "It has been said that many housewives confused the sounds of their own vacuum cleaners with the spluttering and buzzing of the V-1s. Gurgling faucets and the sound of frying sausages could also mimic their noise. As a consequence, many women lived in a state of daily auditory hell. (p. 140)… Motorcycles were not popular in 1944 with their spluttering, back-firing machines. It was a war of acoustics and jangled nerves." (p. 142)

The most famous book that mentions evacuee children is The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. One of D.E. Stevenson’s books, Shoulder the Sky, mentions a mother and her children who left London during the war never to return. Tom’s Midnight Garden tells the sad story of an evacuee from a miserable home who finds a true father in his foster home. Does anyone know of any other fictional works that deal with this subject?

Books about Exotic Places

2011-06-27T11:02:00.000-07:00

Carol at Magistramater recently posted a great list of adventure books. Then William Zinsser wrote about some of his favorite travelling nomads here. I have to admit that I don't yet share Carol's enthusiasm for travelogues, but since I love beautiful writing, I was intrigued by the closing statement on Zinsser's post: The worlds that those restless hermits wrote about were often interior worlds, tinged with mysticism, and it could hardly be otherwise; they achieved their destiny by following trails that weren’t on any map. But what raises travel writing to literature is not what the writer brings to a place, but what the place draws out of the writer.

The authors that Zinsser mentions are Norman Douglas (4 of his books are available for free on Kindle), Patrick Leigh Fermor, Charles Doughty (one free Kindle title), Richard Burton (one free Kindle title), Freya Stark, T.E. Lawrence (two inexpensive Kindle titles), W. Thesiger, and Bruce Chatwin.

I look forward to giving them a try.

Faith and Literature in a Prison Camp

2011-06-23T15:47:00.000-07:00

In an earlier post I mentioned that I was intrigued by General W.E. Brougher who had written of his internment in a Japanese P.O.W. camp. He was described as someone whose “looks, personality, and ways made him one of the most attractive and interesting men at Fort McKinley. Handsome – indeed, dashing – in facial features, he was short but well-built. Since college days he had been interested in creative writing, and he published poems and stories in numerous periodicals during the years between world wars. He also possessed a wide knowledge of classical literature…. A polished orator and a conversationalist with a lively sense of humor, he became an active leader in civic and social affairs wherever he was stationed. He was accomplished in several sports and was also a devout Christian who displayed an unusual concern for his men’s welfare.”

In April of 1945 he wrote: Just think! Three years ago today [we were captured]! If we had known it was going to be three years, could we have faced it? Next to the ability to forget, perhaps the most beneficent provision of Providence for our protection is lack of foresight. If we could not forget it or if we could foresee too much, we would go crazy.

His poem, “A Rusting Sword”, is a prayer expressing his frustration at wasting away as a prisoner. Here is the last stanza:

How long, Oh Lord, how long? While ships delay

My precious years round out, my powers decay.

My birthright lost, by ruthless time’s decree,

To lads who learned their alphabet from me!

A rusting sword upon a garbage heap,

God give me grace to smile when I would weep.

Eternal Justice! Judge of right and wrong!

Does Thou still live? How long, Oh Lord, how long?

In addition to his courage and faith, I was fascinated by his persistence in reading and writing under dire circumstances. He read Sir Walter Scott, Jane Austen, Thoreau, Charles Darwin, Hugh Walpole, Robert Louis Stevenson, Agatha Christie, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Aldous Huxley, among others. Books he enjoyed were Rob Roy, Horatio Hornblower, and Plutarch’s Lives, along with biographies and plays. His favorite novel was Hervey Allen’s The Forest and the Fort (New York Times Best Seller in 1943) which I've never heard of, but will look into. Brougher’s book of short stories, Baggy Pants, is next on my list of books to order.

Forgotten God by Francis Chan

2011-06-16T12:49:00.001-07:00

I come from a denomination that emphasizes the power of the Holy Spirit to transform hearts. Yet I live in a South American country where many churches emphasize the Holy Spirit’s power to perform signs and wonders. It’s been a privilege to teach theology in this setting because it has forced me to take an honest look at both sides of the issue (inner or outer workings) and to come to a more balanced view. Frankly, I think most books underestimate the depth of the work God wants to do in a person’s life so I wasn’t sure what to expect with Francis Chan’s book. I was pleasantly surprised with some of his insights. His title refers to the third Person of the Trinity whose personhood is often ignored because His title makes Him seems vaporous and somehow “not-human”. Although I may not agree with Chan’s theology point for point I loved his emphasis on the absolute necessity of the Spirit-filled life.

In Chapter 7 he writes, I don’t believe God wants me or anyone to live in a way that makes sense from the world’s perspective, a way I know I can imagine. I believe He’s calling me and all of us to depend on Him for living in a way that cannot be mimicked or forged. He wants us to walk in step with His Spirit rather than depend solely on the raw talent and knowledge He’s given us.

He admits, I could pull off a fairly adequate church on my own…But who wants that? I don’t want my life to be explainable without the Holy Spirit. I want people to look at my life and know that I couldn’t be doing this by my own power. I want to live in such a way that I’m desperate for Him to come through, that if He doesn’t come through, I’m sunk.

From Chapter 6: You don’t need the Holy Spirit if you are merely asking to live a semi-normal life and attend church regularly. You only need the Holy Spirit’s guidance and help if you truly want to follow the way of Jesus Christ.

My favorite quote of all was from Chapter 4: - As a young man much of me craved God’s power in my life because I wanted the attention. Now I want God’s power because I DON’T want the attention.

Oh, to be so filled with God that only He gets noticed!

South to Bataan, North to Mukden by W. E. Brougher

2011-06-10T00:27:00.001-07:00

In spite of its goofy title and lack of plotline, this book will stand out as one of my favorites of the year. It is the story of General William Edward Brougher and his four years of captivity during WWII. Diaries were not allowed in the prison camps, but Brougher wrote on thin notebooks that he rolled up and hid inside bamboo poles. All but one notebook survived the war.

Brougher was stationed in the Philippines when it fell to the Japanese in April of 1942. He and hundreds of other officers were herded into camps in what he called, “the largest gathering of brass in the history of the war in the Pacific.” (p. 47) For years they suffered from harsh treatment, near starvation, and illness, but the diaries recount their will to endure. Brougher loved to read and to write and used his hobbies as a means of survival. I was touched by the poignancy of many of his diary entries.

July 11, 1943: Issue of one banana each! I was overcome with emotion at the magnanimity of our hosts. Bones in the soup for supper. Potato vines also. They get the potatoes we get the vines. They get the meat, we get the bones! I was “filled” with emotion, but “empty” otherwise.

July 15, 1943: Almost always I find myself under the urge to write – to express in verse or at least in some form to get down on paper some of the sensations and reactions to experiences here in prison camp. A year ago I was well in stride, keeping at it constantly and making some headway… But the time came when I was so reduced in strength and energy through want of nourishing food, our time was taken up with morning and afternoon work on the “farm”, and my feelings were adversely affected by constant abuse of the guards that my feeble sources of inspiration dried up….Also, as time went on, I found it more important to make a good patch on my meager clothing than to make a poem. My patches on my threadbare pants and my little garden patch from which I materially supplemented my pathetically inadequate food issue were my poems of this period.

Oct 15, 1943: Music outside this evening – very nice. Thought a lot of my sweet little wife and how we are going to enjoy life when this misery is over. It shall be one of my principal concerns to discover ways to enjoy the remainder of our lives to the maximum.

I loved how Brougher’s optimism shines through many a hardship: Arrived at this camp one year ago today. Well, I didn’t know that I would still be here on June 8, 1944 – but here I am. And I am better off in many ways than a year ago. In the first place, I have the year behind me instead of ahead of me. And I am in much better physical and mental condition. Have news and pictures of my family and very favorable war news…

I have more thoughts on General Brougher, but will reserve them for a future post. I highly recommend this to WWII history buffs and to those who love a good human interest story.

Words for Wednesday

2011-06-08T00:44:00.000-07:00

If indeed a man writes his books badly, or paints his pictures badly, because he can make his money faster in that fashion than by doing them well, and at the same time proclaims them to be the best he can do, - if in fact, he sells shoddy for broadcloth, - he is dishonest, as is any other fraudulent dealer.

- Anthony Trollope from his Autobiography (1883)

The Children of Men by P.D. James

2011-06-03T04:53:00.000-07:00

When this movie came out a few years ago, I was intrigued by its premise. Sometime in the near future human beings will no longer be able to have children. As hope dies out, one woman becomes pregnant and holds the key to the future of mankind. My son saw the film and told me I would hate it for its violence and profanity. So that was that.

Then I saw the book on a friend’s bookshelf and purposed to read it while skimming over the less savory parts. I’m glad I gave it a chance. Although P.D. James is a bit gritty for me, she’s an outstanding writer and I was immediately enthralled with the story.

Yes, profanity and violence occur, but they are nothing compared to the movie (according to the review I read here.) It’s too bad the film played up the books negatives and completely missed the positives. Although not a Christian novel, biblical themes run throughout the narrative. The most obvious is the hope of the world resting on a baby, but there are many instances of people struggling to find faith in a bleak world.

I was fascinated by James portrayal of sexuality (always discreetly done) in this “brave new world”. You would think the public would welcome sex without the danger of pregnancy, but James proposes the opposite to be true: Without the possibility of procreation, sex has no ultimate meaning and the people lose interest in it.

The Children of Men is a well-written page-turner that offers much food for thought.

Words for Wednesday

2011-06-01T13:35:00.000-07:00

Saint Paul writes in Romans 12:2, "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind." But how can the mind be renewed if it is continually reeling under a bombardment of false words and images? The mind is not renewed simply by packing more and more into it; rather it is renewed by grace and by habits of discernment and by a sincere search for what is good and beautiful and true.

(p. 165 of A Landscape with Dragons by Michael O'Brien)

May Book Report

2011-06-01T08:25:00.000-07:00

It's been a fun month of reading.

A Village Girl by Sarah Shears, reviewed here.

The Extraordinary Adventures of Arsene Lupin, reviewed here.

Forgotten God by Francis Chan, review forthcoming

The Children of Men by P.D. James, review forthcoming.

Maus I by Spiegelman

Bookman's Holiday by Holbrook Jackson

Jane Eyre, reviewed here.

151 Best Movies You've Never Seen by Maltin. (Unfortunately, most were rated "R".)

Secrets of the Vine by Wilkinson

Wendell Berry on Kindle

2011-06-01T04:00:00.000-07:00

Kindle owners, you may be interested to know that The Art of the Commonplace: The Agrarian Essays of Wendell Berry is available for free this week. If you haven't read Berry yet, this may be a great place to start. Read reviews here.

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë

2011-05-27T21:38:00.001-07:00

It’s impossible for me to be objective about Jane Eyre. Her story affected me deeply the first time I read it and through the years I’ve found the need to re-read it often. The introduction to my present copy of the book reads, “It fell like a meteor in 1847, and in more than a hundred years its glow has not faded.” In my case, the glow increases with time.

The book is many stories in one: a penniless outcast who refuses to be beaten down by circumstances, a woman who won’t compromise her principles no matter how tempting the offer of happiness, love lost and then found again, and many others.

This is at least my twentieth time through the book and I’m amazed at how long it has taken me to see the value of Jane’s year away from Thornfield. I must admit that I’ve often skimmed over the chapters about St. John Rivers and his sisters so that I can get back to Mr. Rochester and the “real” story. I’m astounded that I was such a blockhead. (I’m assuming that everyone knows the gist of this story. If you don’t, then be aware that plot spoilers will follow.)

Another blogger once wrote that it was important for Jane to leave Thornfield so that she could come into her inheritance and return to Rochester as an equal. But Jane had declared herself his equal (in heart and spirit) on more than one occasion so, to me, money was not the big issue. However, now that I’ve read the final chapters more closely, I must agree that they contain pivotal events in Jane’s life which cause her to return to Thornfield a much richer (though not in a monetary sense) and more self-assured young woman.

There is no doubt in anyone’s mind that Jane and Rochester truly love each other, but the events in the latter half of the book clarify and, in a sense, purify their love. The whole distasteful episode with St. John starkly contrasts two types of domination. One man would gladly smother Jane for his own purposes, while Jane could call the other one “my master” without the slightest hint of self-negation.

Both Jane and Rochester come to important realizations during their separation. Beforehand he had wanted Jane as his wife no matter what the cost. But later, “Violent as he had seemed in his despair, he, in truth, loved me far too well and too tenderly to constitute himself my tyrant; he would have given me half his fortune, without demanding so much as a kiss in return, rather than I should have flung myself friendless in the wide world.” (p. 444)

Jane was so love-starved when she arrived at Thornfield Hall that it is no wonder she fell in love with the first man who showed her respect and kindness. That is why her time away is integral to the story’s satisfying conclusion. Given the same circumstances, who wouldn’t succumb to Rochester’s proposal? But Brontë does not leave us with a heroine who greedily grabs for her one and only chance at happiness. Instead Jane must make hard moral choices. And in leaving she learns that she can find fulfillment even apart from Rochester. She develops rich friendships with Diana and Mary. She experiences deep contentment in teaching the village school girls. She comes under the power of a cold, implacable man and succeeds in wriggling from his grasp. In just a year she progresses from heartbroken governess to confident young woman who returns to Rochester with her eyes wide open. Ironically, Rochester, though physically blind, now “sees” better than ever. He has come to believe in God and His mercy even before Jane’s return. The closing dialogue is the delightful converse between two adults whose love has been tried and found to be true. Deeply satisfying!

Words for Wednesday

2011-05-25T05:22:00.000-07:00

A funny old poem from This England magazine, Spring 1976:

A Fish Out of Water

I caught a herring long ago,

And kept him in some H2O

I strained his water every day

Till all the salt was drained away.

And so I taught the little chap

To live in water from the tap.

Each afternoon I took about

A thimbleful of water out

Till - though his needs were always small

He got along with none at all!

Gentle of heart and soft of roe

He followed where I chose to go.

One day he took a walk with me

Upon the pier at Brightlingsea

Alack he made a reckless bound

Slipped through a grating and was drowned!

by G.H. Fabes

Why Blog?

2011-05-23T06:22:00.000-07:00

I read a good article on blogging today. I blog because I love to read and I love to write. I wouldn't say blogging is a compulsion, but it has been a hobby that has brought me a great deal of satisfaction. I do get a thrill when the number of viewers is high, but that is not my ultimate goal. My primary purpose for starting a blog was to keep reading (having a blog is a great incentive) and my secondary purpose was to find a handful of readers who shared my interests. In that sense it's been a huge success and I'm grateful for how I've grown through this endeavor.

Why do YOU blog?

P.S. The previous link I had posted was wrong. I think it's fixed now.

The Extraordinary Adventures of Arsene Lupin by Maurice Leblanc

2011-05-20T13:55:00.000-07:00

If you read my last post on Kindles, you know that I heard about this author while reading Teddy Roosevelt’s diary of his 1914 trip to Brazil. I downloaded the Lupin book for a recent trip and found these short, witty mysteries to be perfect for long layovers. My five hours in the airport flew by.

Arsene Lupin is a gentleman thief who steals not out of need, but for the pure adventure of it. He is so famous for his escapades that he sometimes sends a list of items he wants to his victims and asks them to wrap them up and send them to him to save him the trouble of stealing them himself.

My favorite chapter was “The Seven of Hearts”, the story of a man who was robbed, but wasn’t really. The next day a man comes to inquire about the robbery and commits suicide within three minutes of entering the house. Then Miss Nelly arrives unexpectedly and unsettles our cool-headed thief’s plans. (Miss Nelly is the beautiful young socialite who has won Lupin’s heart, but who cannot love him when she discovers who he is.) For her sake he later returns a roomful of stolen wealth.

The book is chock full of surprises. Lupin’s encounter with Sherlock Holmes in the last chapter is wonderfully amusing. (See the Wikipedia article for the controversy this caused.)

Several dozen Arsene Lupin titles are available through Amazon and half of them are available for free on Kindle. If you like a well-written book sprinkled with a good dose of humor, I encourage you to give this series a try.

How My Kindle is Spoiling Me

2011-05-18T19:12:00.000-07:00

I still read more library books than I do Kindle books, but that doesn’t keep me from enjoying the advantages of the latter. Several times, while using my Kindle, the author of the book I’ve been reading mentions another book. Now, instead of heading to the computer to see if the book is available at Amazon, I do a search right on the Kindle. If the book is in the public domain, I promptly download it.

In Teddy Roosevelt’s jungle journal he mentioned Arsene Lupine. Two clicks later I had one of his novels in front of me. Later when I read Chesterton’s All Things Considered, he enthusiastically extolled the poetry of Francis Thompson (most famous for his "Hound of Heaven" poem). I immediately found Thompson’s book among the free offerings.

This could become dangerous! (But not nearly as expensive and house-cluttering as my previous book accumulation habit.) The greatest benefit of the Kindle is still its portability. I love, love, love the fact that I now travel with no less than thirty books in my purse.

A Village Girl by Sarah Shears

2011-05-13T18:46:00.000-07:00

This was another book recommended in Gladys Hunt’s, Honey for a Woman’s Heart. It recounts a young girl’s childhood in the county of Kent (southeast England) between the first and second world wars. Although the book is subtitled “Memoirs of a Kentish Childhood” and is told from the point of view of young Sarah, I feel the book could almost have been titled, “Memories of an Amazing Mother.” As Sarah’s story unfolds, you can’t help but admire the astonishing resourcefulness and courage of a penniless young widow with four children. She suffered hardship with dignity and without complaint, enabling her children to grow up in “genteel poverty”.

This is no action-packed novel, but rather a gentle tale told in a matter-of-fact tone. In fact, Shear’s straightforward prose gives the book much of its charm. Consider this quote from a chapter called “The Aunties.”

Grandmother Prior, who eloped with a poor farmer at the age of seventeen and was left a widow at thirty-five, had eight children – two boys and six girls. The boys, William and Henry, lived just long enough to bequeath their names to my two brothers, then quietly died – of measles. (p, 124)

In the book’s introduction, author R.F. Delderfield wrote, “Occasionally, possibly once every decade, the English literary scene is enriched by a piece of writing that glows with truth like a cottage lamp set down among a cluster of neon lights.” A Village Girl is one such book.

(Note that this book is also available with an alternate title: Tapioca for Tea)

The Staggerford Flood by Jon Hassler

2011-05-06T08:06:00.000-07:00

Agatha didn’t look well. She didn’t act well. She spent whole days in her chair by the front window, brooding and watching the occasional car or pedestrian go by. The flood woke her up. The flood and her new pacemaker. The change was miraculous. She came out of the ordeal looking even smaller and more fretful than she had before, but a lot of her old energy came back, her erect posture, her strong voice, her fiery opinions. (p. 5)

This is my fourth Hassler book. I told my friend, Carol, that it was my least favorite, but that may just be because I’m growing out of my Agatha McGee phase.

In The Staggerford Flood, Agatha, is eighty and declining in health. Honestly, if this had been the first book I’d read, I wouldn’t have liked her at all. In this particular story she’s crotchety and bossy until she experiences regeneration through the flood. As people drift into her home looking for higher ground, Agatha’s “take charge” personality resurfaces and she offers refuge to each one.

Although not my favorite Hassler book, this one filled in a few of the blanks about what happened to James, Agatha’s dear friend from the first two books.

What to Eat by Marion Nestle

2011-04-28T14:02:00.000-07:00

You may wonder how I read this 500 page book in two days. I just followed Nestle’s own instructions to read the chapters that interested me and to skim the rest. Contrary to the title, this is not a book that gives you advice. In fact, the book’s theme can be summed up in this one sentence from the final chapter:

Food choices are not all that complicated – you need to eat less, move more, eat lots of fruit and vegetables, and go easy on the junk food. But to do this you will have to recognize, and then deal with, the hidden ways in which food companies promote the opposite.

Every chapter of this book is devoted to a major food group such as yogurt, bread, milk, fish, vitamins, etc. Nestle explains how the food industry has blinded most consumers to the true nutritional value of these items. Much of what is labeled “healthy” is in fact candy with vitamins added. This was quite an eye-opening book. I appreciated Nestle for not being alarmist, while at the same time crediting me with the intelligence to make better choices after learning how many foods have been hyped up by marketing experts.

Get it from your local library. It’s very educational, but it isn’t anything you need to read more than once.

Classics for the Time-Challenged

2011-04-26T05:31:00.000-07:00

In his article, 20 Novels You Can Read in One Sitting, Mark Nichol argues that even people with very little time can become acquainted with several great classics. I have read quite a few of the books on the list and they took more than one sitting (I'm a pretty fast reader too), but that may be because I was reading slowly to savor the well-written prose. To tell the truth, reading Wuthering Heights was slow going because I didn't like the characters and I had to force myself to finish. Anyway, I appreciate Nichol's list. It encouraged me to try a few new titles.

The Heart Mender by Andy Andrews

2011-04-21T07:27:00.000-07:00

The title makes it sound like a romance novel. Thank goodness it’s not. The cover makes it look like average Christian fiction. Thank goodness it’s not. The fact that it is a New York Times best-seller makes it look like pop culture tripe. Thank goodness it’s not!

Frankly, I opened this book with low expectations because of all its above-mentioned qualities. But I was soon lost in a real page turner. The book appealed to me on many levels. I love World War II history, I love a good story, and I love redemptive themes. Andy Andrew (Who is this guy, anyway?) weaves quite a tale and the fact that it is based on true events makes it all the more fascinating. I read it in two sittings because I could barely put it down.

Helen is a bitter war widow. Wan is the deputy who has a crush on her. Danny is the autistic boy who teaches her about forgiveness. And Josef is the man who washes up on the beach near her house and changes all their lives.

Two factors might make it less appealing to some: A small sprinkling of profanity, and borderline “preachiness”. I have read Christian novels that lay the morals on pretty thickly, so I thought Andrews was restrained in comparison. All in all, a very pleasant read.

A sample of Andrew’s prose:

She carefully picked her way through the dunes, seeking to avoid the occasional cactus or sandspur that grew low to the ground. The sea oats waved toward the young woman, bowing at the insistence of the wind coming off the Gulf. It blew Helen’s blonde hair into her face and assaulted her sense with a pungent, heavy salt smell that, in someone else’s life, she knew, might be welcome, even pleasurable. To Helen, though, the wind was just one more nemesis, something else to fight… (p. 105)

Happy Birthday Charlotte Bronte!

2011-04-21T07:18:00.000-07:00

When I discovered Jane Eyre in the eighth grade it was the beginning of a lifelong love affair with literature. Thank you, Charlotte!

The Pleasures of a Rainy Day

2011-04-16T11:25:00.000-07:00

It's Saturday. The chores are done. I'm the only one home. What else is a girl to do, but head to her cozy reading corner!?

Women of the West

2011-04-15T08:09:00.000-07:00

Hearts West is a fascinating book recounting the courage (or, in some cases, desperation) of hundreds of single young women at the end of the 19^th century in search of husbands. The idea may sound ludicrous, even humorous, to we moderns, but the book makes a very clear case for the necessity of such a phenomenon. Thousands of men had gone west to either dig for gold or buy up land. Thousands of others had been killed in the Civil War, making marriagable males as scarce as hen's teeth. Without time or money to travel back and forth for courting, many men and women began corresponding (via a paper called The Matrimonial News) and eventually became engaged through the mail. When they finally met, a few were disappointed with their correspondents, but most found happiness. Hearts West gives snippets of their histories which only whet my appetite for more.

Fortunately, I already had a book written by one of the brides mentioned in Hearts West. Elinore Pruitt Stewart was a widow with a little girl who answered an ad for a housekeeper in Wyoming. Although she did not go West searching for romance, she and her employer fell in love and married. Her book, Letters of a Woman Homesteader, is a collection of anecdotes she sent to a friend describing her new life. Her sense of humor and “joie de vivre” get her through many a trial and make her an endearing heroine.

December 1912

Dear Mrs. Coney, I have often wished I might tell you all about my Clyde, but have not because of two things. One is I could not even begin without telling you what a good man he is, and I didn’t want you to think I could do nothing but brag. The other reason is the haste I married in…. But although I married in haste, I have no cause to repent. That is very fortunate because I have never had one bit of leisure to repent in. So I’m lucky all around.

I’d like to share Elinore's book with one of my readers. Please leave your comment and I’ll choose a winner by April 30.

Quote of the Week

2011-04-11T04:25:00.000-07:00

From my sister Grace:

"I am always amazed at God’s sense of humor when He made the sloth, so slow and odd looking. Of course he may be thinking the same thing about me, odd looking creature who hurries around frantically, accomplishing little."

The New Woman by Jon Hassler

2011-04-07T14:58:00.000-07:00

Hassler has written another engaging installment in the life of Agatha McGee who at the age of eighty-eight reluctantly moves into the Sunset Senior Apartments. The book recounts her attempts at building friendships, but more importantly her success at regaining her self-respect as she carves out a new life.

What else can I tell you? I can’t help but love this heroine. Even at eighty-eight she’s stretching and growing. She always yearns to do what’s right. In this particular story she follows her heart and breaks the law. Horrified, she confesses to her priest who assures her that though her action was illegal, it was not immoral. Agatha breathes a huge sigh of relief because she doesn’t mind going to jail as long as she hasn’t broken her moral code.

The blurbs on the cover of Hassler’s books compare them to Jan Karon’s Mitford books, but they are not as squeaky clean. Also, several of the subplots in this book are a little farfetched, but I could overlook them for the pleasure of spending a few hours with my friend Agatha.

I thought this was the third of the Miss McGee books, but a careful reading of the reviews at Amazon revealed another book, previous to this one (The Staggerford Flood). Happily, PBS had a copy and it’s on its way to me. If I had a complaint against The New Woman, it would be that James O’Hannon (who played a large part in the other two books) is described in only a few sentences. I would have liked to know more of what happened to him.

Words for Wednesday

2011-04-06T19:14:00.000-07:00

A tasty tidbit from Arnold Bennett’s Literary Taste: How to Form It (1909)

The aim of literary study is not to amuse the hours of leisure; it is to awake oneself, it is to be alive, to intensify one’s capacity for pleasure, for sympathy, and for comprehension. It is not to affect one hour, but twenty-four hours. It is to change utterly one’s relations with the world… The spirit of literature is unifying; it joins the candle and the star, and by the magic of an image shows that the beauty of the greater is in the less.

It is well to remind ourselves that literature is first and last a means of life, and that the enterprise of forming one’s literary taste is an enterprise of learning how best to use this means of life. People who don’t want to live, people who would sooner hibernate than feel intensely, will be wise to eschew literature. They had better, to quote from the finest passage in a fine poem, “sit around and eat blackberries.” The sight of a “common bush afire with God” might upset their nerves.

March Book Report

2011-04-04T13:13:00.000-07:00

When I look back at the month I'm amazed at how much I read. I must be getting over my winter lethargy. I also blame it on Agatha McGee who is the heroine of two of the books. I loved reading about her.

A Rose for Mrs. Minniver - the life of actress Greer Garson

Battle of the Books - essay by Jonathon Swift

House of the Deer - by D.E. Stevenson

The Green Journey - by Jon Hassler

Another Sort of Learning - by James V. Schall

Earth Abides - science fiction

Dear James - sequel to Green Journey

Penny Wise and Book-Foolish - an old volume on book collecting

Hearts West - True Stories of Mail-Order Brides on the Frontier

Dear James by Jon Hassler

2011-03-31T04:43:00.000-07:00

Have you ever read a book whose characters were so real that after you finished it you kept wondering for days how they were doing? Jon Hassler’s Agatha McGee is one of those characters. I enjoyed getting to know her in A Green Journey and was anxious to become reacquainted in Dear James, a sequel that takes place three years later.

I can’t remember the last time I read a book so voraciously. Sunday afternoon I sat down in an easy chair, opened it up, and hardly moved till I’d finished at 1:30 in the morning. I didn’t like it as well as the first one because of some of the side stories, but I was heartened to find Agatha unchanged and as stalwart as ever.

In the first book she and her friend James are separated by a huge secret. In this book they work at rebuilding their friendship. There are several unexpected twists, some hilarious conversations and a satisfying ending to this lovely story. The letters Agatha and James write to each other are delightful.

Dear Agatha,

I cannot tell you how overjoyed I am to have your letter, so generously full of the life you’re leading and the thoughts you’re thinking, I will try my best to respond in kind, but at the moment I’m off to Dublin for an appointment and my bus is about to pull out. This is simply to say that you’ll be hearing from me at greater length, and that by answering my letter you have answered my prayers.

Fondly and gratefully,

James

Dear Heart - Again - But Maybe Too Late

2011-03-26T19:04:00.000-07:00

Two years ago I raved about the movie Dear Heart on this blog. Since it was not available on DVD or via netflix, my readers were a bit frustrated. Now I see that it will be on the Turner Classic Movie channel tomorrow at 4 pm. Hopefully a few of you will be able to watch it. It's not your standard Hollywood fluff (as you know if you read my previous review), but I love it for being made in the midst of the sexual revolution while clearly showing that love and sex are not synonymous. The acting and dialogue are wonderful, but the theme of sexuality may be offensive to some (although it's discreetly done).

Worthwhile Movies #4 - Jane Eyre (2011)

2011-03-25T15:53:00.000-07:00

I found out today that the new Jane Eyre had been released on March 11th. A quick look at the movie listings confirmed it was not being shown in our area so I turned my mind to other things. But my persistent husband kept looking until he found it showing in a city 80 miles from here. Forgetting all of our afternoon plans, we jumped into the car and headed out.

I have read the book so many times that every movie version disappoints, but I was pleased with this particular rendering of the story. The cinematography and costumes were fabulous. "Jane" was extremely well done by Mia Wasikowska. I understand that movies have to cut out a lot of scenes and dialogue because of time restraints, so I missed some of my favorites. On the other hand, this film had a few quotes from the book that are often left out of other versions and I was delighted to hear those.

Cary Fukunaga, the director, took a minimalist approach to the movie. Jane's horrible childhood is seen, but only briefly. St. John River's weirdness is underplayed. The soft, melodic soundtrack never overpowers any of the scenes. The dialogue is good, but almost sparse at times.

The biggest letdown was Mr. Rochester. I could never quite warm up to him, but then again the perfect Mr. R. is only in my head. Overall this film will be a treat for Jane Eyre fans.

Words for Wednesday

2011-03-23T08:21:00.000-07:00

On August 7, 1921, C. S. Lewis wrote to his brother about staying in the King Arthur Hotel in Cornwall. With nothing else to do there, he roamed into the lounge, where had found quite a few uniformly bound books including a Persian epic poem and Aristotle’s Ethics. This uniformity of binding somewhat perplexed Lewis until he realized that the books were part of a series of "The Hundred Best Books". Lewis went on: “How I abominate such culture for the many, such tastes, ready-made, such standardization of the brain. To substitute for the infinite wanderings of the true reader through the bye-ways of the country he discovers... (from The Letters of C.S. Lewis, quoted by James Schall in Another Sort of Learning, p. 242)

As I've commented before, I used to be a slave to lists of "classics to read before you die." Now I've come to peace with my general love for the classics (which allows disdain for a handful of them) and my eclectic interest in other types of books. Hallelujah for the "infinite wanderings of a true reader!"

Most Important Book to Read Before You Die

2011-03-21T12:18:00.001-07:00

I'm a few days late posting the literary question of the week from The Blue Bookcase: What one literary work must you read before you die?

Quite a few bloggers mentioned Shakespeare's Complete Works, but if I knew I were going to die, I think I'd want to read something more edifying to the soul. The Bible is the obvious answer, but I'd also read Pilgrim's Progress because it has always been a comfort to me and ends so triumphantly in heaven.

Taking the question lightly (as though death were decades away), I would read all of Anthony Trollope's books. And if I could only read one of them, it would be The Warden.

A Green Journey by Jon Hassler

2011-03-17T07:49:00.000-07:00

If it had not been for Gladys Hunt’s mention of this book in Honey for a Woman’s Heart, I would never have heard of it. Although the blurbs called it “charming,” “heartwarming,” and “lovely,” I approached the book with my usual skepticism toward anything written in the 20th Century. The beginning was awkward – a stilted conversation between an unwed mother, her father and a stodgy old maid. But as the character of Agatha McGee takes shape, you really begin to care about her and words like “stodgy” and “old maid” don’t fit anymore.

Agatha is in a crisis. She’s looking for meaning in her life after decades of teaching in a parochial school. Her staunch catholic faith seems threatened by the many modern changes occurring in her local church. Her correspondence with another disgruntled Catholic is her only comfort. The book is about her journey to Ireland to meet him and about all the people she touches with her sweet, faithful life. A few off-color moments were not enough to distract me from this compelling story. As one reviewer noted, these characters don’t always do what you want them to do, but they always act according to their beliefs, which is satisfying in its own way.

I loved this book. Hassler has a gift for writing a tender narrative that never crosses over into sentimentality. Fortunately Hassler’s books are readily available through PaperBackSwap and I look forward to reading the two other books with Agatha as their protagonist: Dear James and A New Woman.

A sample of Hassler's wonderful prose:

Lillian was powerfully boring. It had long ago become clear to Agatha that she and Lillian were friends not because they held interests or experiences in common but because for nearly seven decades their back doors had been facing one another across the alley. At least once a week, usually on Saturday mornings, Lillian and Agatha met to share a pot of coffee and whatever they knew of their neighbors, and that was exactly as much of Lillian as Agatha could stand. She knew, of course, that a mind as frivolous as Lillian’s was not without its virtues. The woman was honest, simplehearted and enviably placid. Nevertheless, it was a mind spongy with sentiment and empty of logic, and the light it gave off was so dim that it sometimes made Agatha shudder the way she used to when she was six and afraid of the dark. (p. 13)

The Battle of the Books by Jonathon Swift

2011-03-11T19:26:00.000-08:00

This satire has been on my TBR list for years. Written in 1697, it describes the battle between ancient and modern books. At that time, "ancient" referred to the Greek classics and “modern” referred to books written in the 17^th century. It was a rebuttal to authors who were writing that modern knowledge had surpassed the knowledge that had been available in earlier books. Swift argued that the essential ideas taught by Aristotle and others were just as valid and important as ever.

As for any obligations they owed to the Ancients, [Modern books] renounced them all: For our horses are of our own breeding, our arms of our own forging, and our clothes of our own cutting out and sewing. Plato was by chance upon the next shelf, and observing those that spoke to be in ragged plight, their horses lean and foundered, their weapons of rotten wood, their armor rusty, and nothing but rags underneath; he laughed aloud, and in his pleasant way, swore, by God, he believed them. (p. 107-108)

Later in the book “Moderns” are compared to spiders: For, pray Gentlemen, was ever anything so Modern as the Spider in his Air, his Turns, and his Paradoxes? He argues on behalf of You his Brethren, and Himself, with many Boastings of his native Stock, and great Genius; that he Spins and Spits wholly from himself, and scorns to own any Obligation or Assistance from without. Then he displays to you his great Skill in Architecture and Improvement in Mathematics… Erect your Schemes with as much Method and Skill as you please; yet, if the Materials be nothing but Dirt, spun out of your own Entrails (the guts of Modern Brains) the Edifice will conclude at last in a Cobweb: The Duration of which, like that of other Spiders Webs, may be imputed to their being forgotten, or neglected, or hid in a Corner. (p. 111)

I’m a fan of 19^th century classics (not Swift’s definition of the word) and tend to disdain lack of depth in modern “usurpers” (You can see why I liked the cobweb analogy!) so I thoroughly enjoyed Swift’s criticism’s. It’s a pity that his razor sharp wit is cloaked in archaic language and spellings. Take heart, though. It’s only twenty pages long and worth the effort. It also helps to read an article about the essay beforehand so you can recognize the authors whose names are being mentioned.

On Building Literary Muscles

2011-03-08T18:29:00.000-08:00

The novel she had once found slow now seemed refreshingly brisk, dry still, but astringently so, with Dame Ivy’s no-nonsense tone reassuringly close to her own. And it occurred to her that reading was among other things, a muscle and one that she had seemingly developed. She could read the novel with ease and great pleasure, laughing at remarks, they were hardly jokes, that she had not even noticed before. And through it all she could hear the voice of Ivy Compton-Burnett, unsentimental, severe and wise.

From The Uncommon Reader (p. 99) by Alan Bennett

Can Literature be Funny?

2011-03-05T10:16:00.000-08:00

The Blue Bookcase presents a weekly question related to literature and this week's entry is: Can literature be funny? What is your favorite humorous literary book?

My answer would have to be resounding "Yes!" Apart from the books that are commonly seen as hilarious (like those by P.G. Wodehouse), there are others that are surprisingly funny. As I posted earlier, Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey was laugh-out-loud funny when I listened to the audio version. My favorite, Anthony Trollope, is probably not considered Britain's greatest comedian, but there is a humorous undercurrent to many of his books that keeps me chuckling all the way through. Heavens, I don't force myself to read good books because "they are good for me." I read them because I ENJOY them!

A Rose for Mrs. Miniver by Michael Troyan

2011-03-04T18:54:00.000-08:00

Regular readers of this blog know that I sometimes digress from books to talk about classic films. This week I read the bio of one of my favorite actresses from the 40's, Greer Garson. She was a class act and her biography accentuated that. I have nothing profound to say about the book, but the paragraphs below show some of the reasons why I admire her:

But there were fewer opportunities in the 1970’s for her. Filmmakers rarely made the sophisticated, romantic comedies or dramas that she preferred, and she refused to join her Hollywood peers like Joan Crawford, Olivia de Havilland, and Bette Davis who were making horror films like Whatever Happened to Baby Jane, Lady in a Cage, and Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte. “I’ve been offered nymphomaniacs, kleptomaniacs, pyromaniacs, homicidal maniacs and just plain maniacs,” she reported. “I think producers felt that after playing a long series of noble and admirable characters there would be quite a lot of shock value in seeing me play something altogether different. But I prefer upbeat stories that send people out of the theater feeling better than they did coming in.”

During interviews, she frequently and sharply criticized current films and filmmakers. “I’m no a keyhole peeper in real life, so why should I go to the cinema to be a keyhole peeper?” she said. “Producers should have more courage. People will respond to stories with love and courage and happy endings instead of shockers. I think the mirror should be tilted slightly upward when it’s reflecting life - toward the cheerful, the tender, the compassionate, the brave, the funny, the encouraging..." (p. 327)

Chesterton on "The Dignity of Man"

2011-03-02T07:57:00.000-08:00

Frankly, I had to read this passage a few times before I "got" it, but it certainly has some good food for thought.

Unless a thing is dignified, it cannot be undignified. Why is it funny that a man should sit down suddenly in the street? There is only one possible or intelligent reason: that man is the image of God. It is not funny that anything else should fall down; only that a man should fall down. No one sees anything funny in a tree falling down. No one sees a delicate absurdity in a stone falling down. No man stops in the road and roars with laughter at the sight of the snow coming down. The fall of thunderbolts is treated with some gravity. The fall of roofs and high buildings is taken seriously. It is only when a man tumbles down that we laugh. Why do we laugh? Because it is a grave religious matter: it is the Fall of Man. Only man can be absurd: for only man can be dignified.

(From All Things Considered)

All Things Considered by G.K. Chesterton

2011-02-25T19:42:00.001-08:00

Sometimes Chesterton’s brilliance leaves me breathless with awe, but most of the time he leaves me feeling like an intellectual midget (not a feeling I particularly enjoy). All Things Considered has moments of genius, but at times it reads like garbled nonsense. Chesterton’s own assessment of himself was that he “suffered from a simplicity verging on imbecility” so maybe that explains it.

Chesterton excuses himself in the book’s introduction by saying that “This is a collection of crude and shapeless papers upon current subjects for it is mostly concerned with attacking attitudes which are in their nature accidental and incapable of enduring. Brief as is the career of such a book as this, it may last twenty minutes longer than most of the philosophies that it attacks.”

He was right in saying that the book would be outdated twenty minutes after publishing because many of the subjects of the article have long been forgotten. Nevertheless nuggets of gold are sprinkled throughout the book and patient digging turned up the following treasures:

On journalism: For the journalist, having grown accustomed to talking down to the public, commonly talks too low at last, and becomes merely barbaric and unintelligible. By his very efforts to be obvious he becomes obscure. He leads in to darkness by excess of light.

On reformers: It is a fact that optimists are more practical reformers than pessimists. Superficially, one would imagine that the railer would be a reformer; that the man who thought everything was wrong would be the man to put everything right. In historical practice the thing is quite the other way; curiously enough, it is the man who likes things as they are who really makes them better… It is because the optimist can look at wrong not only with indignation, but with startled indignation… The pessimist can be enraged at wrong, but only the optimist can be startled [enough to want to change it].

On Shakespeare: Nobody could say that a statue of Shakespeare, even fifty feet high, on top of St. Paul’s Cathedral, could define Shakespeare’s position. It only defines our position towards Shakespeare. It is he who is fixed. It is we who are unstable.

On Joan of Arc: It is not for us to explain this flaming figure in terms of our tired and querulous culture. Rather we must try to explain ourselves by the blaze of such fixed stars.

Believe it or not, I have more quotes to share later. I think this post has gone on quite long enough.

Tribute to Brian Jacques

2011-02-17T16:18:00.000-08:00

Thanks to fellow blogger, The Ink Slinger, I heard about the death of Brian Jacques. There's a sweet tribute at the Rabbit Room about this celebrated children's author. If you've never heard of him, the article describes him pretty well. When my children were small we loved the Redwall books. Our favorites were the audiobooks from the library that were narrated by Jacques himself. What a treat!

More Treats from PaperBackSwap

2011-02-11T19:07:00.000-08:00

I've accumulated some credits at PBS and it's been fun to have some books from my wish list trickle in. I had hoped to try Athol Dickinson this year and his book The Cure just came. Also Intimate Allies by Allender - a book on marriage. On Writing Well has been recommended by several other bloggers and I am pleased to have my own copy now. I've received a leather bound copy of My Utmost for His Highest, the devotional book I'm reading this year. And a few Kay Arthur Bible study books. Lovely!

Books to Read in the Wilderness

2011-02-08T14:05:00.000-08:00

In addition to being a very physically active man, Theodore Roosevelt was a voracious reader and writer. I was amazed at the number of books he and his party lugged through the jungle. Below are a few of his journal entries from the book I reviewed last week. Please note that the parenthetical explanations are mine.

“A party such as ours always needs books… I strove to supply the deficiency with spare volumes of Gibbon (The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire – six volumes). At the end of our march we were usually far ahead of the mule train, and the rain was also usually falling. Accordingly we would sit about under trees, or under a shed or lean-to, if there was one, each solemnly reading a volume of Gibbon—and no better reading can be found. In my own case, as I had been having rather a steady course of Gibbon, I varied him now and then with a volume of Arsene Lupin (French crime fiction) lent me by Kermit.”

Later he wrote, “Some of us read books. Colonel Rondon, neat, trim, alert, and soldierly, studied a standard work on applied geographical astronomy. Father Zahm read a novel by Fogazzaro (Italian). Kermit read Camoens (Portuguese poet) and a couple of Brazilian novels, O Guarani and Innocencia. My own reading varied from Quentin Durward (by Sir Walter Scott) and Gibbon to the “Chanson de Roland” (French epic poem).”

Other books mentioned: Thomas a Kempis, Oxford Book of French Verse, La Fontaine, and Victor Hugo’s Guitare. If you read my review last week, you’ll know that Roosevelt’s expedition was no picnic. He must have been pretty determined to drag those books around. I love peaking into people’s libraries, don’t you?

Through the Brazilian Wilderness by Theodore Roosevelt

2011-02-04T19:57:00.000-08:00

In this book Teddy Roosevelt’s chronicles his travels through unchartered territory in Western Brazil. Roosevelt, along with his son, Kermit, and several naturalists from the American Museum of Natural History joined Colonel Cândido Rondon, a Brazilian explorer on his scientific expedition to discover the source of a previously unknown river.

I was very interested in TR’s story because I’ve lived in the part of Brazil where his journey began. I recognized some of the city names and most of the animals he mentions. But I wondered if some of the details might be dull for someone with less knowledge of the area. Also, I felt severely handicapped by the Kindle version of this book because there was no map and I would very much have liked to have seen exactly where they were at specific times.

The trip fulfilled two purposes. The naturalists collected specimens for the museum: 2,500 birds and 500 mammals. (Amazing in light of the many laws in place to preserve Brazilian wildlife today.) The other purpose was for Rondon and company to travel up the unexplored river and chart it on a map for the first time. Roosevelt wrote:

We did not know whether we had one hundred or eight hundred kilometers to go, whether, the stream would be fairly smooth or whether we would encounter waterfalls, or rapids, or even some big marsh or lake. We could not tell whether or not we would meet hostile Indians, although no one of us ever went ten yards from camp without his rifle. We had no idea how much time the trip would take. We had entered a land of unknown possibilities.

At first the journal was a dull routine of animals seen and miles travelled. Halfway through the trip they reached some rapids that were impossible to descend. The canoes had to be unloaded and the baggage carried by land to the bottom of the next calm spot in the river. Then they were reloaded and the group went down the river for a few miles until the whole process had to be repeated over again. The action picked up as canoes were lost, a man is killed, Kermit almost drowns, and Teddy becomes ill with a life-threatening fever.

After two months in canoes (Feb 27 to April 26, 1914), their mission was accomplished. They had put on the map a river nearly 600 miles long which had previously been unknown. The unofficial name for it was “The River of Doubt”, but by the end of the grueling trip, it was dubbed “The Roosevelt River”.

Final note of interest: If you type in River of Doubt on youtube, you can see several short, silent movies of the expedition.

Book Report for January

2011-02-02T16:02:00.000-08:00

Two of my four books were read on my Kindle so I’m getting the hang of it. (I finally deleted the word game which was absorbing way too much time!) I’m going to give it some serious use in the coming weeks when I take a few long airplane trips.

Lavender and Old Lace by Myrtle Reed (1874 – 1911) – This author was recommended by two bloggers whom I admire, but she is a tad too sentimental for my tastes.

I Saw Three Ships by Elizabeth Goudge – delightful, reviewed here.

Hitler by Albert Marrin – clear and sobering account of Hitler’s life, reviewed here.

Through the Brazilian Wilderness by Theodore Roosevelt – review forthcoming.

I'm halfway through three other books which I'll review next month. (I hope.)

Hitler by Albert Marrin

2011-01-29T04:58:00.001-08:00

I’ve heard good things about this book and this author so I was a bit put off when the librarian handed me the book with a big “J” on the spine for juvenile. I needn’t have worried, though. Because Marrin directed his writing to young people, it is very clear and understandable. And it’s a far cry from the dumbed down history books that fill our public school shelves today.

Marrin does a superb job of setting the stage for Hitler’s rise to power. He clearly explains why Hitler was so popular and why most Germans were fooled by him. He describes how Hitler’s persuasive speaking skills sent young people into a frenzy of patriotism. There was nothing they would not do for their fuehrer.

In forming his totalitarian state, Hitler made Mein Kampf required reading in all the schools. Marrin called it a “nasty, mean-spirited book that was dull and repetitious and filled with thousands of errors in grammar and spelling.” (p. 51) But since it was the law for every German to own a copy, Hitler became a millionaire from the sale of the book.

Opponents ignored Mein Kampf as the ravings of crackpot. They were wrong – dangerously, foolishly, wrong, for the terrible thing is that Hitler was sincere. He meant what he said, every word, and he would carry out his threats when he came to power. No one should have been surprised, or claimed that he hadn’t been given fair warning of the savage world Hitler would create. Had Mein Kampf been taken seriously, it might not have cost so many lives - an estimated 125 lives for every word, 4,700 lives for each page, one million lives for each chapter. (p. 52)

Hitler’s desire for power led to a staggering number of deaths . We all know the 6 million figure for the Jews. But how many know that 20 million Russians died? Or that a deluge of Allied bombs on Hamburg, Germany killed 43,000 in two days? Two hundred thousand Germans and Americans died at the Battle of the Bulge. And in 1944, when a small group of army officers hatched a failed plot to kill Hitler, 5,000 people were killed and many others sent to concentration camps in retribution.

If you are interested in World War II this is a fascinating, articulate, and sobering look at the events that were orchestrated by one of history’s most famous villains.

I Saw Three Ships by Elizabeth Goudge

2011-01-21T16:57:00.000-08:00

I ordered this book for the holidays, but the interlibrary loan service was a bit sluggish and it didn't arrive until January. Nevertheless I dove into the story because as a fan of both children’s lit and of Elizabeth Goudge, I had little doubt that I would like it. But I wasn’t prepared for how intensely I would like it. I am in wonder as to how Goudge created such a richly peopled tale around a traditional Christmas carol and made it work.

The story takes place in the late 1700’s in a coastal village in England. Polly’s parents have died in an accident and she has been living with her two maiden aunts for ten months. This is going to be her first Christmas with them and they are shocked with her announcement that the Wise Men will visit their cottage on Christmas Eve. Reading how the skeptical aunts soften and how Polly's dream comes true was a special treat.

A sample of Goudge’s lovely writing:

Dorcas gathered her old brown cloak firmly about her, as though the balmy southwest wind were a savage northeaster, and peered out from the recesses of her brown beaver bonnet like an owl from the shelter of a hollow tree. Nevertheless there was the hint of a smile upon her usually grim mouth. For though she did not admit it, she was enjoying this expedition in search of the erring Polly. The sharp tang of the seaweed lying in shining coils on the sand below her was delightful. The sparkle of the sea in the sunshine raised her spirits. Turning to look at the little town, she found she had forgotten how pretty it was with its steep cobbled streets climbing the hill, its old red roofs all higgledy-piggledy and the plumes of smoke from the chimneys azure in the clear air. (p. 28)

Jane Eyre - The Music

2011-01-20T05:14:00.000-08:00

The other day while running errands I switched on the radio and was amazed to hear strains from a favorite movie soundtrack. It was amazing because it was from a 1970 made-for-TV movie of Jane Eyre (George C. Scott and Susannah York version) that is only offered in horrendous form on cheap DVDs. As a teenager I wore out my record of this music. All these years later I still have fond memories of the film and its music. Frankly, I just assumed the music was no longer available. Silly me! A little research on iTunes showed that all of John Williams' music is still out there for the taking.

Another excellent source of music for Jane Eyre fans is the Broadway musical.

My New Kindle

2011-01-14T09:43:00.000-08:00

Nobody was more shocked than I was to receive a Kindle for Christmas. I should have known what was coming when I declared loudly a week before Christmas that I didn’t see why anyone would ever own one and the room grew strangely silent. Anyway, my dear husband knows that I experience severe book panic before any trip (Do I have enough books? Do I have enough room for all of them? Do I have enough strength to drag them through airports?) and he decided to relieve me of that stress. Although it took me several days to get up the courage to plug it in and read the user’s guide, I found it to be quite simple to use; I easily downloaded ten books and a word game.

I am very pleased with the thousands of titles that are available for free. Books that are in the public domain because their copyright laws have expired are just the kind I enjoy: good stories without the gratuitous sex, violence and swearing. Some of the authors that are available are G.K. Chesterton, George McDonald, Edith Nesbit, Gene Stratton Porter, P.G. Wodehouse and Shakespeare. There are hundreds of “light” novels by authors such as Wilkie Collins, James Oliver Curwood, Harold Bell Wright, Kathleen Norris and Louisa Mae Alcott. In addition I found books by D.L. Moody, Anthony Trollope and Samuel Logan Brengle. Quite a treasure trove! The best thing about it: I never have to wonder which book to grab as I’m going out the door for an appointment. With the Kindle I’ve got plenty of options in an instant.

Now for my true confession: I’ve read one entire book and two half books on my Kindle, BUT the main thing I like to do on it is play the word game while listening to audiobooks on my iPod. Is that weird or what?!

Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott

2011-01-07T19:33:00.000-08:00

I am constantly on the lookout for good resources for my Freshman Writing class. A fifty cent copy of The Lively Art of Writing was a great thrift store find and its simple clear advice has been incorporated into my lectures. Lamott’s book was picked up for the same purpose, but turned out to be quite different. Instead of grammar rules, it contains pep talks for would-be writers. The advice is for people who already love to write so I ended up reading it for personal benefit.

Although the book is sprinkled with distracting obscenities, it gives sound principles on how to create believable characters, plots and settings. Solid wisdom can be sifted out from the chaff and I was truly inspired to spend time each day writing down memories that may later be shaped into stories.

Although Lamott encourages her writing students to pursue publication of their work, she contends that their primary reason for writing must be self-satisfaction:

Even if only the people in your writing group read your memoirs or stories or novel, even if you only wrote your story so that one day your children would know what life was like whey you were a child and you knew the name of every dog in town – still, to have written your version is an honorable thing to have done… If you are writing the clearest, truest words you can find and doing the best you can to understand and communicate, this will shine on paper like its own little lighthouse. (p. 235)

Other favorite quotes: There’s no point in writing hopeless novels. We all know we are going to die; what’s important is the kind of men and women we are in the face of this. (p. 51)

Becoming a writer is about becoming conscious. When you’re conscious and writing from a place of insight and simplicity and real caring about the truth, you have the ability to throw the lights on for your reader. He or she will recognize his or her life and truth in what you say, in the pictures you have painted, and this decreases the terrible sense of isolation that we have all had too much of. (p.225)

I think this is how are supposed to be in the world – present and in awe. (p.100)

Reading Goals for 2011

2011-01-03T13:04:00.000-08:00

Inspired by the many lists I read over the weekend, I have set goals for the coming year. These are so vague that they will be of little use to anyone but me, but I’m putting them here so I can periodically check back and see how I’m doing.

All last year I wanted to re-read something by Austen and this year I’m determined to do it. Probably Mansfield Park.

My new Kindle has ten free books on it and three are titles that have been on my wish list for ages: Lavender and Old Lace by Myrtle Reed, Through the Brazilian Wilderness by Teddy Roosevelt and The Judge by Rebecca West.

Dickens and Trollope are also on my radar for 2011. And I’ll intersperse my literary endeavors with some theology books and a few about World War II. Also, this may be the year I finally read Milton’s Paradise Lost.

Last of all, more than one blogger raved about Christian fiction writer, Athol Dickson. I will give him a try and hope against hope that he’s not too fluffy.

Jesus Calling by Sarah Young

2010-12-31T10:05:00.000-08:00

In the spring of 2008 our world spun out of control. In retrospect I see how the Lord held us together, but at the time, NOTHING was going as planned and the future was scarily blank. Health issues caused us to leave Brazil rather suddenly and subsequently my husband and I found ourselves adrift in the U.S. without a home, a job, or even the prospect of returning to the mission field. It's been quite a journey and one of my most faithful companions along the way has been Sarah Young's book, Jesus Calling. Young is a missionary and licensed counselor, but most of all she's someone who has learned to look to God in difficult times and to "take advantage of her crosses." The book was written as she sat quietly in God's presence and took down notes as to what she thought He was saying to her. Reading a book written in first person from God's perspective was off-putting at first, but I quickly got over it because of the rich truths.

I have never underlined any book as profusely as I did this one so it is almost impossible to narrow down the quotes I want to share with you, but I'll give it a try.

You need Me every moment. Your awareness of your constant need for Me is your greatest strength.... Your inadequacy presents you with a continual choice: deep dependence on Me, or despair. (Feb 22)

Difficulties are gifts from Me, reminding you to rely on Me alone. (Mar 7)

Some fears surface over and over again, especially fear of the future. You tend to project yourself mentally into the next day, week, month, year, decade; and you visualize yourself coping badly in those times. What you are seeing is a false image, because it doesn't include Me. (Nov 9)

When you are plagued by a persistent problem - one that goes on and on - view it as a rich opportunity. An ongoing problem is like a tutor who is always by your side. The learning possibilities are limited only by your willingness to be teachable. (Dec 18)

Beowulf for Dummies (like me!)

2010-12-24T18:14:00.000-08:00

I normally eschew abridged versions of famous books. Shortened versions of Heidi, Robinson Crusoe and The Swiss Family Robinson tend to leave out the strong faith of the protagonists. On the other hand, some classics are so heavily-laden with difficult language that an abridged version is helpful in making them accessible to the average reader. If you’ve read my blog for any length of time you know I’m not averse to reading difficult books, but there are a few books that I haven’t read because the language is daunting; Beowulf is one of them. So I was delighted when I read that British novelist, Ian Serraillier had rewritten it for children.

Although told in simple language, the book captures the poetry and power of the original. I thoroughly enjoyed it! In fact, the language and imagery were so rich that I knew this was a book I could read and re-read with delight, which is the reason it made it to my "If I could only own a hundred books" list.

In case you are wondering about the difference between versions, I’ve cut and pasted a passage from Episode 6 below so that you can compare for yourself.

From the original: [My warriors have] seen me from slaughter come blood-flecked from foes, where five I bound, and that wild brood worsted. I' the waves I slew nicors by night, in need and peril avenging the Weders, whose woe they sought, -- crushing the grim ones. Grendel now, monster cruel, be mine to quell in single battle!

From Serraillier’s version: Because we grieve deep for your desolation, over the long paths of the oceans we have labored, I and my warriors to rid you of the brute that nightly robs you of rest. I am no weakling. With my trusty blade I have slain a monster brood and blindly at night many a foul sea-beast that writhed and twisted in the bounding wave. I beg you to grant my wish. I shall not fail.

(Well, what do you think? Maybe now I understand the story well enough to read the real thing... By the way, Serraillier has also written The Road to Canterbury, a re-telling of another book I have avoided.)

Books Read in 2010

2010-12-22T13:30:00.000-08:00

The year isn’t quite over, but I won’t have much access to the computer over the next few days. So here’s my year in review. I did not meet all of my goals for the year, but I’m happy with the variety and quality of the books I read – sixty-five in all.

Over half of my favorite books this year were written for young audiences. The Wednesday Wars, The Mouse and His Child, Magic by the Lake and the Narnia Chronicles were all lovely. Beowulf, retold for children by Serraillier, was an unexpected delight.

Biggest surprise: Canticle for Leibowitz. I certainly didn’t expect to find so much theology in a sci-fi novel.

Loveliest writing: Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury

Most influential: Jesus Calling by Sarah Young – Next to the Bible, this was the most comforting and convicting book of the year. It’s a daily devotional book for people who are going through especially hard times.

Best non-fiction: London, 1945 by Maureen Waller

Most interesting new author: D. E. Stevenson

I want to say “Thank you!” and “Merry Christmas” to my blog friends. I love it when you share your thoughts on books I’m reading. It adds a whole new dimension to an already wonderful experience!

The Last Battle by C.S. Lewis

2010-12-17T21:02:00.000-08:00

This week I read the disappointing Case for Christmas by Lee Strobel. As a fan of both literature and theology, I grieve when I read Christian books that are flat and boring. Dorothy Sayers wrote that the truths of Christianity describe the greatest drama ever staged. That’s why I’m frustrated with writers who manage to wring all the life out of them. And that is why it was balm for my soul to pick up a book by C.S. Lewis.

The Last Battle is the story of King Tirian, the last king of Narnia and his battle against the Calormenes. I hesitate to describe it in anymore detail because I don’t want to spoil it for potential readers. The final chapters express complicated theological ideas in a gentle, simple, beautiful way. Have you ever wondered if people who don’t hear about Jesus get to heaven? Have you ever wondered what Heaven will be like? These passages will open your understanding (and blow your mind!).

Lewis tied up the series in a satisfying way with references to many of the main characters from the other books. Another pleasurable aspect of the book was that it met my need for meatier fare to prepare my heart for the season. A stable is a major backdrop to the story and Lucy makes a passing comment that “In our world, a stable once had something inside it that was bigger than our whole world.” It was a perfect Christmas comment and clinched the book as my favorite in the series. (Even as I write that I’m not sure that’s true. There was something to love in every single one of the books.)

Book Decluttering

2010-12-10T12:36:00.000-08:00

I promised to tell you how I've taken the sting out of decluttering my precious books. First of all, I realized that quality was more important than quantity and that only a tenth of my books were genuine "keepers." In an earlier post I wrote that I had decided to own less books, but that the ones which stayed in my library would be durable enough to read and re-read. This is where the fun comes in.

For every ten books I've donated to the thrift store, sold on Amazon, or traded at PBS, I've allowed myself to accumulate an old favorite in hardcover form. Since I'm a penny pincher from the word "go" (which is why my present library consists of shabby paperbacks), I've been delighted to scour around for deals. I found Pilgrim's Progress (the Everyman's Library version) for a dollar at Amazon. I received all three of my favorite Austen novels in NEW hardcovers from PaperBackSwap. I also found a hardback copy of my favorite Trollope novel and another of Peter Pan at PBS. It's easy to kiss those tattered, less-loved paperbacks goodbye when I know I'm building up a pretty decent basic library.

(The public library will continue to be a much needed resource for books that I want to read but have no desire to keep.)

Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury

2010-12-03T07:35:00.000-08:00

I’ve been in awe of Ray Bradbury ever since I read Fahrenheit 451, but I was a little afraid to read another of his books. After all, could lightening possibly strike twice? I took a chance and discovered that although Dandelion Wine wasn’t as powerful as Fahrenheit, it was a tremendous pleasure to read. For one thing, the writing is gorgeous. It was often so thick with adjectives and invented verbs that I could feel the heaviness of that long ago summer which was weighted down by heat as well as by life’s challenges.

The book is a loose collection of stories from the summer of 1928. The protagonist is twelve year old Douglas Spaulding whose fictionalized adventures are based on memories from Bradbury’s own youth. Bradbury masterfully juxtaposes the joy of living with the pain of aging and of time passing. (He reminded me of Wendell Berry in that respect.)

In one of the stories, a young boy is coming to grips with his mortality: Douglas watched [the fireflies] go. They departed like the pale fragments of a final twilight in the history of a dying world. They went like the few remaining shreds of warm hope from his hand. They left his face and his body and the space inside his body to darkness. They left him empty as the Mason jar… (p. 187)

I was taken aback by how dark a couple of the stories were. If you look at some older covers of the book you can see that they played up the few macabre aspects of the book (probably due to Bradbury’s fame as a science fiction writer.) Anyway, the stories are good, but they are not this book’s main attraction. I would gladly re-read it to wallow once again in its beautiful language.

Book Acquisitions

2010-11-26T19:50:00.000-08:00

After all my talk about decluttering, I acquired four new books today. Honestly, I couldn't help it. I was visiting my brother for Thanksgiving and he took me to the BEST bookstore. You know the kind. Books are stacked floor to ceiling in rooms loosely labelled "fiction", "mystery", "geography", etc. and you can barely walk through the piles of yet to be sorted volumes. How could I resist digging through them?

I found Rummer Godden's Kingfishers Catch Fire ($2 hardcover), D.E. Stevenson's Gerald and Elizabeth ($2 hardcover), Leslie Charteris' The Saint Plays with Fire ($2 hardcover) and hardcover copies of the first two Lord Peter Wimsey novels by Dorothy Sayers.

Charteris wrote detective novels in the forties and although he's not my normal cup of tea, I enjoy his subtle wit.

BBC Meme on the Classics

2010-11-22T07:55:00.000-08:00

I hadn't heard about this meme until I read it on Brittanie's site. When I did a search to find the orginal meme I discovered dozens of bloggers had already posted it. John Wilkins posted the BBC meme, but with different books at the end. Who changed the list I wonder? His (original?) list had a lot more non-classics, in my opinion.

The BBC claims that most people haven't read more than six on the list. I've only read about 40 on Britannie's list (see below), but there are at least 20 on the list that are not worthy of classic status, so I'll never be reading them. And, as usual, there are a few gems that were left out. Everyone's list is different and I enjoy seeing the variety.

How many of these have you read? (I've put mine in bold.)

Oops! I just found the original list (from 2003!) and it is for most loved novel, not classics after all. Still fun.

1. Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen
2. The Lord of the Rings – JRR Tolkien
3. Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte
4. Harry Potter series – JK Rowling
5. To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee
6. The Bible
7. Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte
8. Nineteen Eighty Four – George Orwell
9. His Dark Materials – Philip Pullman
10. Great Expectations – Charles Dickens
11. Little Women – Louisa M Alcott
12. Tess of the D’Urbervilles – Thomas Hardy
13. Catch 22 – Joseph Heller
14. Complete Works of Shakespeare
15. Rebecca – Daphne Du Maurier
16. The Hobbit – JRR Tolkien
17. Birdsong – Sebastian Faulks
18. The Catcher in the Rye – JD Salinger
19. The Time Traveller’s Wife – Audrey Niffenegger
20. Middlemarch – George Eliot
21. Gone With The Wind – Margaret Mitchell
22. The Great Gatsby – F Scott Fitzgerald
23. Bleak House – Charles Dickens
24. War and Peace – Leo Tolstoy
25. The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams
26. Brideshead Revisited – Evelyn Waugh
27. Crime and Punishment – Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28. Grapes of Wrath – John Steinbeck
29. Alice in Wonderland – Lewis Carroll

30. The Wind in the Willows – Kenneth Grahame
31. Anna Karenina – Leo Tolstoy
32. David Copperfield – Charles Dickens
33. Chronicles of Narnia – CS Lewis
34. Emma – Jane Austen
35. Persuasion – Jane Austen
36. The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe – CS Lewis (repetitive see 33)
37. The Kite Runner – Khaled Hosseini
38. Captain Corelli’s Mandolin – Louis De Berniere
39. Memoirs of a Geisha – Arthur Golden
40. Winnie the Pooh – AA Milne
41. Animal Farm – George Orwell
42. The Da Vinci Code – Dan Brown
43. One Hundred Years of Solitude – Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44. A Prayer for Owen Meaney – John Irving
45. The Woman in White – Wilkie Collins
46. Anne of Green Gables – LM Montgomery
47. Far From The Madding Crowd – Thomas Hardy
48. The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood
49. Lord of the Flies – William Golding
50. Atonement – Ian McEwan
51. Life of Pi – Yann Martel
52. Dune – Frank Herbert
53. Cold Comfort Farm – Stella Gibbons
54. Sense and Sensibility – Jane Austen
55. A Suitable Boy – Vikram Seth
56. The Shadow of the Wind – Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57. A Tale Of Two Cities – Charles Dickens
58. Brave New World – Aldous Huxley
59. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time – Mark Haddon
60. Love In The Time Of Cholera – Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61. Of Mice and Men – John Steinbeck
62. Lolita – Vladimir Nabokov
63. The Secret History – Donna Tartt
64. The Lovely Bones – Alice Sebold

65. Count of Monte Cristo – Alexandre Dumas
66. On The Road – Jack Kerouac
67. Jude the Obscure – Thomas Hardy
68. Bridget Jones’s Diary – Helen Fielding
69. Midnight’s Children – Salman Rushdie
70. Moby Dick – Herman Melville
71. Oliver Twist – Charles Dickens
72. Dracula – Bram Stoker
73. The Secret Garden – Frances Hodgson Burnett
74. Notes From A Small Island – Bill Bryson
75. Ulysses – James Joyce
76. The Bell Jar – Sylvia Plath
77. Swallows and Amazons – Arthur Ransome
78. Germinal – Emile Zola
79. Vanity Fair – William Makepeace Thackeray
80. Possession – AS Byatt
81. A Christmas Carol – Charles Dickens
82. Cloud Atlas – David Mitchell
83. The Color Purple – Alice Walker
84. The Remains of the Day – Kazuo Ishiguro
85. Madame Bovary – Gustave Flaubert
86. A Fine Balance – Rohinton Mistry
87. Charlotte’s Web – EB White
88. The Five People You Meet In Heaven – Mitch Albom
89. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90. The Faraway Tree Collection – Enid Blyton
91. Heart of Darkness – Joseph Conrad
92. The Little Prince – Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93. The Wasp Factory – Iain Banks
94. Watership Down – Richard Adams
95. A Confederacy of Dunces – John Kennedy Toole
96. A Town Like Alice – Nevil Shute
97. The Three Musketeers – Alexandre Dumas
98. Hamlet – William Shakespeare
99. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – Roald Dahl
100. Les Miserables – Victor Hugo