Sunday Salon: Books Read in May, 2012

Jun10

Children’s and Young Adult Fiction:
Life: An Exploded Diagram by Mal Peet. Semicolon review here.
The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater. Semicolon review here.
Someone Else’s Life by Katie Dale. Semicolon review here.
Robbie Forester and the Outlaws of Sherwood St. by Peter Abrahams. Semicolon review here.
The Always War by Margaret Peterson Haddix.
Where I Belong by Gillian Cross. Semicolon review here.

Adult Fiction:
The Bookshop by Penelope Lively. Semicolon review here.
The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides. Semicolon review here.
The Return of the Soldier by Rebecca West. Semicolon review here.
Memento Mori by Muriel Spark.

Nonfiction:
Kisses from Katie by Katie Davis, with Beth Clark. Semicolon review here.

Book Tag: The Great Outdoors

Jun5

Today is National Trails Day, a day that exists to “bring the next generation outside and into the wonder of the natural world.” Since I am what a friend once called a “hothouse plant” (you should hear what my enemies call me), I generally celebrate holidays of this nature, that is “nature holidays”, by reading a good book about getting outdoors.

So in today’s edition of Book Tag, please suggest your favorite book, fiction or nonfiction about The Great Outdoors, getting out and enjoying God’s creation, sunshine and open spaces.

Remember the rules: In this game, readers suggest ONE good book in the category given, then let somebody else be “it” before they offer another suggestion. There is no limit to the number of books a person may suggest, but they need to politely wait their turn with only one book suggestion per comment.

My kick-off suggestion is Peter Jenkins’ classic A Walk Across America, the true story of a young man who decided to walk across the country from the Atlantic coast to the Pacific in search of . . . himself? Meaning? Patriotism? It’s a great story, and I absolutely loved living vicariously through Mr. Jenkins’ journey through the United States of 1979. (Jenkins only made it to New Orleans in the first book, so there’s a sequel, The Walk West.)

Oh, and thanks for the summer reading suggestions from last week. I’ve already reserved a few of the books you all suggested at the library so that I can read them this summer, outdoors while watching someone else hike down a lovely woodland trail. From my lawn chair. Under a shade tree.

Ready, set, go!

Book Tag: Summer Setting, Summer Reading

May29

How would you like to play book tag this summer? The idea for this game originally came from Carmon at her blog Buried Treasure, but since she no longer seems to be keeping a blog, I thought we’d play here.

“In this game, readers suggest a good book in the category given, then let somebody else be ‘it’ before they offer another suggestion. There is no limit to the number of books a person may suggest, but they need to politely wait their turn with only one book suggestion per comment.”

So, the category for today is: Summer Setting, Summer Reading.

What are the best books you’ve read that are set during summer or make you think of summer or seem just right for summertime reading?

I’ll start off with a couple of links to posts here at Semicolon, and a suggestion.

Summer Reading: 52 Picks for the Hols
Death in Summer: Mysteries for Hot Days

And my suggestion to start off this game of book tag is Three Men in a Boat (to Say Nothing of the Dog) by Jerome K. Jerome. Three young men and a dog named Montmorency go boating down the Thames to improve their health and disposition. They meet up with angry swans and assertive steam-launches, among other obstacles, but they are nevertheless determined to finish out their “fortnight’s enjoyment on the river.”

It’s funny in a Wodehousian way, and I think it takes place in the summer, at least during some sort of holiday time.

So, ready, set, go! What’s your summer book recommendation?

Sunday Salon: Books Read in April, 2012

May6

Children’s and Young Adult Fiction:
Unbreak My Heart by Melissa Walker. I read an ARC of this YA romance novel. It’s due out from Bloomsbury on May 22, 2012.
Dead End in Norvelt by Jack Gantos. Newbery Award winner for 2011. Semicolon review here.
On the Blue Comet by Rosemary Wells. Time travel via Lionel model train. Semicolon review here.
Eyes Like Willy’s by Juanita Havill. World War I fiction.
A Time of Angels by Karen Hesse. World War I fiction.
Private Peaceful by Michael Morpurgo. More World War I fiction. Semicolon reviews of all three WW I novels here.

Adult Fiction:
Nanjing Requiem by Ha Jin. Fiction based on the life and work of school principal Minnie Vautrin during the Rape of Nanjing. Semicolon review here.
Scoop by Evelyn Waugh. The first read from my Classics Club list. Semicolon review here.
In the Country of Men by Hisham Matar. North Africa Reading Project.

Nonfiction:
Fortunate Sons by Liel Leibovitz and Matthew Miller. “The 120 Chinese Boys Who Came to America, Went to School, and Revolutionized an Ancient Civilization.” Semicolon review here.
Why Jesus? Rediscovering His Truth in an Age of Mass-Marketed Spirituality by Ravi Zacharias.

The Classics Club: (At Least) 50 Classics in Five Years

Apr10

From the list of 1001 Books To Read Before You Die:
Bleak House by Charles Dickens.
Scoop by Evelyn Waugh. READ in 2012.
The Absentee by Maria Edgeworth.
Doctor Thorne by Anthony Trollope.
The Small House at Allington by Anthony Trollope.
The Last Chronicle of Barset by Anthony Trollope.
Middlemarch by George Eliot.
The Kreutzer Sonata by Leo Tolstoy.
Some Experiences of an Irish RM by Edith Somerville and Martin Ross.
Of Human Bondage by Somerset Maugham.
The Good Soldier by Ford Maddox Ford.
The Return of the Soldier by Rebecca West. READ in 2012.
The Case of Sergeant Grischa by Arnold Zweig.
To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf.
Living by Henry Green.
Passing by Nella Larsen.
The Thin Man by Dashiell Hammett.
Testament of Youth by Vera Brittain.
Out of Africa by Isak Dineson.
U.S.A. by John dos Passos.
The Grass Is Singing by Doris Lessing.
The Thirteen Clocks by James Thurber.
Casino Royale by Ian Fleming.
Day of the Tryffds by John Wyndham.
The Long Goodbye by Raymond Chandler.
Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi.
Everything That Rises Must Converge by Flannery O’Connor.

From Image Journal’s 100 Writers of Faith:
The Diary of a Country Priest by George Bernanos.
Silence by Shusaku Endo.
The Sin Eater by Alice Thomas Ellis.
All Hallows Eve by Charles Williams.
The Blood of the Lamb by Peter de Vries.
Memento Mori by Muriel Spark. READ in 2012.
A Soldier of the Great War by Mark Helprin.
The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene.

Pulitzer Prize Winning Biographies or Autobiographies
American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House by Jon Meacham. 2009.
Eden’s Outcasts: The Story of Louisa May Alcott and Her Father by John Matteson. 2008.

Pulitzer Prize Winning Novels
Alice Adams by Booth Tarkington. 1922.
Lamb in His Bosom by Caroline Miller. 1934.
The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters by Robert Lewis Taylor. 1959.
Godric by Frederic Beuchner. Finalist in 1981.
Mr. Ives’ Christmas by Oscar Hijuelos. Finalist in 1996.
Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Stout. 2009.
Tinkers by Paul Harding. 2010.

Newbery Winners and Honor Books
Waterless Mountain by Laura Adams Armer. 1932 Medalist.
Winged Girl of Knossos by Erik Berry. 1934 Honor Book.
Dobry by Monica Shannon. 1935 Medalist.
Down Ryton Water by Eva Roe Gaggin. 1942 Honor Book.
The Silver Pencil by Alice Dalgliesh. 1945 Honor Book.

Other Children’s and YA Classics
Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome.
The Summer Book by Tove Jansson.
Greengage Summer by Rumer Godden.

If I counted right there are 52 books on the list now. I’ll add a few more as I go along, I’m sure. I plan to finish all 52 books and blog about them by April, 2017. I’m joining the Classics Club project at Jillian’s A Room of One’s Own.

Late Additions:
Elizabeth and her German Garden by Elizabeth von Armin.

Links During Lent

Apr8

I was feeding my fascinations, even during my Lenten blogging break.

Book Lists:
Top 50 Books for Children by Lorna Bradbury at The Telegraph (British).

The 50 Best Books for Kids by Elizabeth Bird.

World Literature That High School Students Actually Want to Read at The Reading Zone.

John C. Wright: 50 Essential Authors of Science Fiction. I’ve read only a handful of these authors, and I don’t really feel a need to read all of them, since some sub-genres of sci-fi (cyberpunk, military sci-fi) are not to my taste. The ones I have read and can recommend on some level are Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, 1984 by Orwell, Brave New World by Huxley, Heinlein’s Orphans of the Sky or Stranger in a Strange Land,, C.S. Lewis’s space trilogy, Perelandra in particular, Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes, A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller, Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. LeGuin, and Dune by Frank Herbert.

Historical fiction set in Russia from Sarah Johnson at Reading the Past.

Language:
An Indigenous Language With Unique Staying Power by Simon Romero. Mr. Romero writes about Guarani, the native language of Paraguay, which is enshrined in the Paraguayan constitution as one of two official languages along with Spanish.

Why bilinguals are smarter. I knew my Spanish was an advantage in more ways than just being able to understand what they’re saying when they think I don’t know.

Hymns, Psalms, and Spiritual Songs
Thanks go to The Headmistress and Zookeeper at The Common Room for the link to this site, Psalms in Metre, which allows one to match metrical psalm paraphrases with their tunes in a sort of mix-and-match sort of template. I love to sing psalms, and I’d like to teach my children to sing them, too.

Straight Talk:
Every single teenage girl who is considering “hooking-up” should read this post by a Catholic mom who has more courage to speak out than I have. And sometimes I’m rather blunt, but I’d have to pray for the presence of mind and courage to say what she said, even though it’s true.

Bookish and Wordie Humor:
For straight talk with a quirky and humorous bent, try this blog post about advertising roof tiles in Zambia. I can’t imagine how this advertising campaign would go over in the U.S., but it seems to be working in Zambia.

President Obama’s Young Adult Novel Economic Plan. This plan, on the other hand, could definitely work, folks.

Sunday Salon: Books Read in March, 2012

Mar31

No reviews, since I’m on a Lenten blog break. But I thought you might want to see what I’ve been reading while not blogging. I’ve kept some notes, so I’ll try to post reviews after Easter.

Children’s and Young Adult Fiction:
The House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer.
Scrawl by Mark Shulman.
The Penderwicks at Point Mouette by Jeanne Birdsall.
Breadcrumbs by Anne Ursu.

Adult Fiction:
Crampton Hodnet by Barbara Pym.
Alice I Have Been by Melanie Benjamin.
The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes.
Before I Go To Sleep by S.J. Watson.
What Is the What by Dave Eggars.

Nonfiction:
The New Kids: Big Dreams and Brave Journeys at a High School for Immigrant Teens by Brooke Hauser.
Pictures at a Revolution: Five Movies and the Birth of the New Hollywood by Mark Harris.

All Things Irish

Mar17

Melissa Wiley and her brood go on an Irish rabbit trail of learning.
Hope is the Word and St. Patrick’s Day picture books.
Carrie at 5 Minutes for Books with more St. Patrick’s Day Irish picture books.
Cindy Swanson’s favorite Irish books and stuff.
Ireland by Frank Delaney, reviewed at Cindy’s Book Club.
The Girl Who Lived on the Moon by Frank Delaney, reviewed at Jules Book Reviews.
The Last Storyteller by Frank Delaney, reviewed by Carrie at Books and Movies.
Leaving Ardglass by William King, reviewed at Reading Matters.
The Outside Boy by Jeanine Cummins, reviewed at Take Me Away. YA fiction about a Pavee Gypsy boy in 1950’s Ireland.
An Irish Country Doctor by Patrick Taylor, reviewed by Page Turner.
An Irish COuntry Girl by Patrick Taylor, reviewed by Beth at Weavings.
An Irish County Courtship by Patrick Taylor, reviewed by Beth at Weavings.
Indie Reader: A bit o’ Irish fiction.
Dance Lessons by Aine Greaney, reviewed at IndieReader.
The Wild Irish Sea by Lucinda McGary, reviewed by Gautami Tripathy at Everything Distills into Reading.
Black Potatoes: The Story of the Great Irish Famine, 1845-1850 by Susan Campbell Bartoletti, reviewed at Fingers and Prose.
S Is for Shamrock and other Irish-themed picture books, reviewed at 5 Minutes for Books.
Trinity by Leon Uris, reviewed at Whimpulsive.

'Irish Flag' photo (c) 2010, Sean MacEntee - license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/

And here a few links to Irish-related posts here at Semicolon:
Writings of St. Patrick for Lent.
Celebrating the Irish.
St. Patrick’s Breastplate by St. Patrick, c.400. The Lorica.
Be Thou My Vision
An Old Woman of the Roads by Padraic Colum.
A Few Irish Blessings for St. Patrick’s Day.
Easter, 1916 by W.B. Yeats.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day, reading and wearing of the green! If you have an Irish book or review link to share, please leave it in the comments section for all to enjoy.

Sunday Salon: Books Read in February, 2012

Mar4

I’m taking a mostly-break from blogging for Lent, so most of the following books will be reviewed here after Resurrection Sunday in April.

Children’s and Young Adult Fiction:
Love Twelve Miles Long by Glenda Armand. Semicolon review here.
Girl of Fire and Thorns by Rae Carson. Semicolon review here.
Okay for Now by Gary Schmidt. Should have won the Newbery Award.
Blood Red Road by Moira Young. Winner of the Cybils Award for Young Adult Fantasy/Science Fiction.

Adult Fiction:
Lone Star Rising by Elmer Kelton. A three book trilogy about Texas Ranger, Rusty Shannon, that I picked up at a library book sale a long time ago. Semicolon review of The Buckskin Line, the first book in the trilogy, here.
The Hour Before Dawn by Penelope Wilcock. Semicolon review here.
Dancing Priest by Glynn Young.
What Alice Forgot by Lianne Moriarty.
The Expats by Chris Pavone.
Joy for Beginners by Ericca Bauermeister.

Nonfiction:
Desert Elephants by Helen Cowcher. Semicolon review here.
The Devil in Pew Number Seven by Rebecca Nichols Alonzo. Semicolon review here.
Sahara: A Natural History by Marq de Villiers and Sheila Hirtle. Semicolon review here.
Passport Through Darkness by Kimberly L. Smith.
Moon Shot by Alan Shepard and Deke Slayton with Jay Barbree.

1957: Books and Literature

Feb1

The National Book Award goes to a book called The Field of Vision by Wright Morris.

Albert Camus wins the Nobel Prize for Literature.

Dr. Seuss (Ted Geisel) publishes The Cat in the Hat, using only 236 simple words. The story, about a subversive cat who brings chaos into two children’s rainy day but then manages to resolve the problem before mom comes home, is an instant classic.

Published in 1957:
Through Gates of Splendor by Elisabeth Elliot. Mrs. Elliot tells the story of her husband, Jim Elliot, and the other men who in attempting to make contact with the Waorani Indians in Ecuador were killed by the very people they came to help.

Kids Say the Darndest Things by Art Linkletter. Art Linkletter had a daytime TV show, a talk show called House Party, and at the end of each show he had a panel of children that he talked with and interviewed.

4.50 from Paddington by Agatha Christie. Aren’t trains romantic? Several of Agatha Christie’s novels involved trains, train travel, death on a train, even romance on a train.

On the Road by Jack Kerouac. I’ve never read it, even though road trips are one of my many fascinations. The New York Times hailed it as “the most beautifully executed, the clearest and the most important utterance yet made by the generation Kerouac himself named years ago as “beat”. I’m just not interested in drug-hazy memories of taking drugs while driving across country looking for more drugs.

The Guns of Navarone by Alistair McLean. We watched the movie based on this book a few months ago, and it felt really hokey and unbelievable. I remember the book as a better experience, but I read it a really long time ago.

How the Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr. Seuss.

On the Beach by Nevill Shute. Semicolon review here.

Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. I’m not an Ayn fan. Has anyone else here read it?

The Assistant by Bernard Malamud. I read this book when my mom was taking the aforementioned Jewish literature class, but I was too young to get it.

Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak. My opinion of this very long Russian romance is the same as her opinion, without the cursewords.

Semicolon

Books we must have though we lack bread.

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