Wednesday’s Whatever: I Like Lists

Oct21

Especially book lists:
Time’s Top 10 Literary Hoaxes. This list is interesting, but it’s really the Top Ten Mostly Recent Literary Hoaxes. I’ve written about a couple of others that were perpetrated in the past:
Leonainie: The Poet Poe in Kokomo
Chatterton, the Wonderful Whelp.

C. Michael Patton’s Top Fifteen Must Have Books on Apologetics.

In light of today’s hymn (tba), Randy Alcorn’s bibliography of books about suffering and the Christian.

Also related to hymns, here’s a list of some of the hymnbooks that I have in my collection:

The Cokesbury Hymnal, For General Use in Religious Meetings, Printed in Round and Shaped Notes With Orchestration. Music Editor: Harold Hart Todd. Nashville, Tennessee: Cokesbury Press, 1923.

The Cokesbury Worship Hymnal. General Editor: C.A. Bowen. New York/Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1938.

All-American Church Hymnal. An inspiring Book of Hymns and contemporary Songs, practical and resourceful for use in all phases of religious services for Churches, Tabernacles, Sunday Schools, and Homes. Compiled by Earl Smith and John T. Benson. Nashville, Tennessee: John T. Benson Publishing, n.d.

Triumphant Service Songs. No publisher, no date. This one seems to have been published by the Homer Rodeheaver Company.

The Broadman Hymnal, Great Standard Hymns and Choice Gospel Songs New and Old, for Use in all Religious Services, such as the Worship Hour, Sunday School, Young People’s Meetings, Assemblies, and Evangelistic Services. Music Editor: B.B. McKinney. Nashville, Tennessee: Broadman Press, 1940. These were the “old hymnals” that we used at our church when I was growing up, banished to the Sunday School rooms upstairs, but not good (new) enough for the main worship auditorium.

Voices of Praise, A Collection of Standard Hymns and Gospel Songs Published for Use in the Worship Hour, Sunday Schools, Young People’s Meetings, Evangelistic Services, and all Christian Work and Worship. Editor and Compiler: BB. McKinney. Nashville, Tennessee: Broadman Press, 1947.

Worldwide Church Songs. Compiled by The Stamps Quartets. Dallas, Texas: Stamps Quartet Music Company, Inc., 1947.

Church Service Hymns, a superior collection of Hymns and Gospel Songs for every department of church work. Compiled by Homer Rodeheaver and George W. Sanville. Music Editor: B.D. Ackley. Winona Lake, Indiana: The Rodeheaver Hall-Mack Co., 1948.

Baptist Hymnal. Edited by Walter Hines Sims. Nashville, Tennessee: Convention Press, 1956. I was born in 1957 and grew up singing from this particular edition of the Baptist Hymnal.

Worship and Service Hymnal, For Church, School, and Home. Chicago: Hope Publishing Company, 1957.

Baptist Hymnal. Nashville, Tennessee: Convention Press, 1975. I remember when this Baptist Hymnal replaced the old 1956 edition. We thought we were really up to date, contemporary.

The Hymnal 1982, according to the use of the Episcopal Church. New York: Church Hymnal Corporation, 1982.

The Hymnal for Worship and Celebration. Senior Editor: Tom Fettke. Waco, Texas: Word Music, 1986.

The Baptist Hymnal. Nashville, Tennessee: Convention Press, 1991. I wonder if my old home church in West Texas uses this hymnal now or if they simply project the lyrics on a screen as we do in my current (not Baptist) church?

I really like hymnbooks.

Sunday Salon: What a Week!

Sep13

Tomorrow starts Book Blogger Appreciation Week, and I’m stoked. I’ve already enjoyed discovering lots of new-to-me book blogs as I explored the blogs nominated for awards. And I also, of course, gleaned lots of titles for my TBR list:

Short Girls by Bich Minh Ngyuen. Recommended by My Friend Amy.

Hands of My Father by Myron Uhlberg. Recommended at Nonfiction Book Reviews.

The Lace Reader by Brunonia Barry. Recommended by Trish at Hey Lady, Whatcha’ Readin’?

Fire by Kristin Cashore. Recommended by Jen Robinson (and lots of others).

Rachel Ray by Anthony Trollope. Recommended by Carol at MagistraMater.

The Knife of Never Letting Go and The Ask and the Answer by Patrick Ness. Recommended, together, by Becky at Becky’s Book Reviews.

It’s going to be a busy week here at Semicolon. The Top 100 Hymns are back. I have an interview to post for Book Blogger Appreciation Week on Tuesday. I have several books to review. And I need to write something to spur me, and you, on to good works in the area of homeschooling. Please join in, leave a comment to tell me what you’re reading and enjoying.

Hang on; it’s going to be good!

Sunday Salon: Additions to the TBR List and Other Bookish News

Sep6

So as I went through the Saturday Review I found the following books to add to my TBR list:

Prayers for Sale by Sandra Dallas. Recommended at Small World Reads and at 5 Minutes for Books.

The Manual of Detection by Jedidiah Berry. This one sounds weird, maybe too weird for me. However, it also sounds intriguing, so I’ll have to check it out. Recommended at Kate’s Book Blog.

The Last Newspaper Boy in America by Sue Corbett. Jen Robinson says, “I also think that homeschooling families might get an extra kick out of it. But really, The Last Newspaper Boy in America is an entertaining read for people of all ages. Recommended.” I’ll bite.

They Loved to Laugh by Kathryn Worth. Recommended at Framed and Booked. I’ve heard of this one before, but I never added it to the TBR list. I think I’d like it.

I thought this meme looked like fun, based on books read so far in 2009:

Describe yourself: Graceling (Kristin Cashore)

How do I feel: Secret Keeper (Mitali Perkins)

Describe where I currently live: Paper Towns (John Green)

If I could go anywhere, where would I go? Home (Marilynne Robinson)

My favorite form of transportation: ?

My best friend is: An Exact Replica of a Figment of My Imagination (Elizabeth Macracken)

I and my friends are: Birds of a Feather (Jacqueline Winspear)

What’s the weather like: After the Fire (Robin Gaby FIsher)

I fear: The Deadliest Monster (Jeff Baldwin)

What is the best advice I have to give: Your Jesus Is Too Safe (Jared WIson)

Thought for the day: I Choose To Be Happy (Missy Jenkins)

How I would like to die: The Chosen (Chaim Potok) and Careless in Red (ELizabeth George)

My soul’s present condition: Blue Like Jazz (Donald Miller)

In other booking and blogging news:

Book Blogger Appreciation Week is coming soon, September 14-18, 2009. Voting for the BBAW Awards in various categories opens tomorrow, September 7th.

I’m so thankful that my TBR list is online because my computer crashed a couple of weeks ago, and I may or may not be able to retrieve the information on there: one good reason to post non-sensitive information (recipes, booklists, educational plans, what else?) on the internet.

The KidLitosphere Conference is coming up in Washington, D.C. on Saturday, October 17th. I still wish I could be there, but maybe you can go and then tell the rest of us all about it on your blog. That’s what blogging is good for, right?

I might, might, might be able to retrieve the information that was on my hard drive in my other computer that crashed. I’ll know something within the next few days. If I can, then I can continue the much missed (by me, anyway) Top 100 Hymns series, which left off with Hymn #36, My Jesus I Love Thee. Here’s hoping to be able to post the remaining 35 hymns in the list soon . . .

Books Read in August, 2009

Aug31

Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K. Jerome. Semicolon review here.

Fieldwork by Mischa Berlinski. Semicolon review here.

Main Street by Sinclair Lewis. Semicolon review here.

Graceling by Kristin Cashore. Semicolon review here.

Forgive Me by Amanda Eyre Ward. I didn’t manage to review this novel, set in New England and in South Africa. It was readable, but I found it hard to connect with the characters.

Heart of a Shepherd by Roseanne Parry. Semicolon review here.

The Best Bad Luck I Ever Had by Kristin Levine. Semicolon review here.

Fingersmith by Sarah Waters.

Little Face by Sophie Hannah. A review of these two novels, Little Face and Fingersmith will be up by tomorrow. In the meantime, they were OK, but not without flaws.

Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller.

Buffalo Moon by G. Clifton Wisler.

Comanche Song by Janice Shefelman.

The Wolf’s Tooth by G. Clifton Wisler.

Wild Things by Clay Carmichael.

Best Children’s Fiction of the Month: Heart of a Shepherd by Roseanne Parry.

Best Adult Fiction of the Month: Fieldwork by Mischa Berlinski.

Best (Only) Nonfiction of the Month: Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller. I just finished reading thisone, long after everyone has been there, done that. And I was prepared to NOT like it, to find it shallow and silly, just on the basis of an impression I had from reading someone else’s thoughts about the book (I don’t remember whose.). It’s not really shallow or silly, and it made me think, the highest compliment I can give a book. Review-ish thoughts coming soon.

Secret Places

Aug27

Peter Sieruta at Collecting Children’s Books writes about The Velvet Room by Zilpha Keatley Snyder in which “Robin, the middle child in a large migrant family finds her special place in the tower room library of an otherwise abandoned estate. On the bookshelves, Robin discovers an old diary that helps her unravel the mystery of the estate’s long-missing heir.”

I started thinking about other books for children in which the protagonist finds a secret place where he or she can read and think and imagine and play pretend and grow.

Mandy by Julie Edwards. Mandy finds an abandoned cottage where she can make a pretend home of her own, but will keeping her secret make her lose the friendship and love of those who care about her?

The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett. Mary, a spoiled orphan child raised in India, finds both solace and friendship in a secret garden on her aunt’s estate. The little girls have been listening to the Focus on the Family radio drama production of this classic, and I’ve enjoyed rediscovering it along with them.

Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson. Jesse and Leslie create a secret kingdom in the woods where they fight off enemies and crown themselvs king and queen of Terabithia.

In Patricia St. John’s Rainbow Garden, Elaine is sent to live with a family in the English countryside while her mother goes to work in France. Elaine is selfish and bitter, but she experiences healing and forgiveness in her garden.

The View From the Cherry Tree by Willo Davis Roberts. Rob Mallory has his own secret hiding place in the cherry tree, but spying on the neighbors from the branches of the cherry tree turns out to be a dangerous occupation.

Jean Craighead George wrote My Side of the Mountain in which Sam Gribley runs away to the Catskill Mountains and builds himself a secret home inside an old tree.

In their very first adventure The Boxcar Children (Gertrude Chandler Warner) find an old deserted boxcar where they make their home. This part of the story was most intriguing to me as a little girl: how do you make a home out of found objects out in the woods, no money or very little, lots of ingenuity?

Of course, the Magic Treehouse kids have . . . well, a Magic Treehouse.

Now that I think about it these are only the books in which the “secret place” itself is a central issue in the story; lots of other characters in children’s books have their own special places to get away from the fray:
Huckleberry Finn has an island and later his raft.

Tom Sawyer had a cave.

The Little Princess (Frances Hodgson Burnett), Sara Crewe, had her own attic room.

Betsy-Bee reminds me that the girls in Ursula Nordstrom’s The Secret Language not only had a secret language; they also had a fort with a little swimming pool inside (?).

I’ve always been quite fond of nooks and clubhouses and secret hiding places in books and in real life. What others can you think of?

Sunday Salon: Adding Still More Books

Aug22

I’m finding more books at yesterday’s Saturday Review that I must add to my TBR list. When I see you in heaven, I will be the one who’s still reading in a vain attempt to finish the list.

The Great Fire by Shirley Hazzard. Mindy says this one has joined her top twelve favorite novels list, so I have to read it.

A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry. Recommended at Kacie’s Mixed Media. I thought this novel, set in India, sounded like a good. long, satisfying read.

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley. Recommended by The Indextrious Reader Word Lily, and a host of others.

Sacred Hearts by Sarah Dunant. Carrie says this one moves a little slowly at first, but I’m interested in the subject: convent life in Italy, not sure when.

I ran out of time to peruse any more reviews before I got through the entire Saturday Review last night, but I’m sure these plus the ones already on my TBR list will keep me busy until Kingdom Come.

Sunday Salon: More Books I Want to Read

Aug9

The Whole Five Feet: What the Great Books Taught Me About Life, Death and Pretty Much Everything Else by Christopher Beha. Grove Press. New York Times Book Review. Excerpt from the first chapter of The Whole Five Feet. Why do I so enjoy reading books about people reading books? About reading projects? It’s addictive and tempting. I want to start another project of my own, write a book about it, have everyone read about my reading. Which is what I’m doing here at the blog, isn’t it?

The Last Queen by C.W. Gortner. A fictional account of the life of Juana la Loca, daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella and mother to Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. Reviewed here by Heather at A Lifetime of Books. I really like historical fiction about royals, IF it’s done well and not too romanticized. This novel sounds like a winner. (But I could do without the partially decapitated model on the cover.)

Funny in Farsi: A Memoir of Growing Up Iranian in America by Firoozeh Dumas. This memoir of an Iranian American refugee growing up in California is reviewed at Small World Reads. I’ ready for something funny since most of my reading has been quite serious lately.

When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead. I’ve read a lot of buzz about this YA novel, and now I see in Jennifer’s review that the protagonist of the novel has a favorite book: A Wrinkle in Time! Since I’m a Madeleine L’Engle fan from way back, how can I resist?

The Widow’s Season by Laura Brodie. Reviewed by Carrie K. This one just sounds like fun.

Pastwatch by Orson Scott Card. Reviewed by Seth Heasley at Collateral Bloggage. (By the way, I like the title of Mr. Heasley’s blog, don’t you?) I may need to move this sci-fi/historical fiction novel way up on the list since we’re starting this year’s history unit with Christopher Columbus.

Looking for Salvation at the Dairy Queen by Susan Gregg Gilmore. Reviewed by Kathy at Bermuda Onion. Georgia, Baptist church, Dairy Queen, I’m hooked.

The Cottage Tales of Beatrix Potter by Susan Wittig Albert. Reviewed at Framed and Booked. This series of cozy mysteries sounds as if it’s worth a try at least.

Sometimes a Light Surprises by Jamie Langston Turner. Reviewed by Barbara at Stray Thoughts. Read here about my love for the writing of Jamie Langston Turner. I’m pleased to read about this new book by a favorite author. (Yikes! another half head guillotined by the edge of the cover!)

Culture Making: Recovering Our Creative Calling by Andy Crouch. Carrie makes this book sound like a must-read, and I heard someone recommend it at the homeschool conference I attended this weekend. So I’ll read it.

Hollywood Worldviews: Watching Films With Wisdom and Discernment by Brian Godawa. Another Carrie (Reading to Know) pick.

Books Read in July, 2009

Jul31

The Snow Goose by Paul Gallico. Semicolon review here.

An Exact Replica of a Figment of my Imagination by Elizabeth McCracken. Semicolon review here.

Dough: A Memoir by Mort Zachter. Review coming soon.

A Perfect Union: Dolley Madison and the Creation of the American Nation by Catherine Allgor. Semicolon review here.

The Great Little Madison by Jean Fritz. I read this one after reading A Perfect Union, and between th two I now feel as if I have a decent picture in my mind of who our fourth president was and what he did and believed. Children’s biographies, especially those written within the past thirty years or so and not fictionalized, are a great introduction to historical persons that you might want to get to know but not spend the time and energy that an adult biography would require.

Adrift by Allan Baillie. I mentioned this book in this Maps and Globes post, but I hadn’t actually read it. I think it would be an excellent choice for unit study on Australia or oceans or geography in general. It’s the story of a boy and his five year old sister who, while playing in old crate on the beach, accidentally drift out to sea. The boy, Flynn, must be responsible for Sally and her cat Nebu in spite of his conflicted feelings and inability to know what to do.

The Chosen One by Carol Lynch Williams. I thought this book was well-written and absorbing, but ultimately unfair. It’s about a thirteen year old girl caught in a polygamous cult. “The Prophet” says that she must marry a man fifty years older than she is who also happens to be her own uncle. The unfair part is that the polygamy and the underage, forced marriage aren’t enough drama for the author. The cult leaders have to be portrayed as murderers and child abusers and almost every other kind of evildoers that you can imagine. So a person reading from outside such a cult can stereotype polygamists as completely evil in every way, and anyone who reads the book from inside such a group can justify the evils of polygamy by saying that their group certainly isn’t as bad as the one in the book.

Real Sex: The Naked Truth About Chastity by Lauren Winner. I would like to give a copy of this book to each of my four oldest children (ages 24, 22, 20, and 18) and require them to read it. However, I’m not sure what subtext thay would read into such a gift, so I’ll probably be more casual about suggesting it. I might just write about it in a blog post and make them curious. Winner takes a fresh, up-to-date approach to an old and important subject, and makes chastity, if not easy, at least understandable and somewhat attractive to today’s rather jaded young singles —and even young married people. The perspective is definitely (conservative) Christian, but she doesn’t shy away from discussing the most delicate topics with insight and frankness.

Your Jesus Is Too Safe by Jared Wilson. Come back Tuesday, August 11th for a Semicolon review of this new book by Thinkling, Jared Wilson.

And come back Wednesday, August 12th, for several reviews of books about or set in or written by an author from Southeast Asia as a part of Chasing Ray’s One Shot World Tour.

When the War Was Over by Elizabeth Becker.

When Broken Glass Floats: Growing Up Under the Khmer Rouge by Chanrithy Him.

Hitchhiking Vietnam by Karin Muller.

Books Read in June, 2009

Jun30

The Chosen by Chaim Potok. An amazing book about fathers and sons and friendship and tradition and the pull of change. What really drew me into the story was the authentic detail about Jewish and Hassidic life and belief. I loved it so much that I had to find the sequel and read it next.

The Promise by Chaim Potok. A worthy follow-up to a great novel.

Alligator Bayou by Donna Jo Napoli. Semicolon review here.

Confetti Girl by Diana Lopez. Semicolon review here.

The Arrow Over the Door by Joseph Bruchac. Semicolon review here.

Family Reminders by Julie Danneberg. Semicolon review here.

Escape Under the Forever Sky by Eve Yohalem. Semicolon review here.

Things Change by Patrick Jones. Semicolon review here.

The Adventurous Deeds of Deadwood Jones by Helen Hemphill. Semicolon review here.

The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation:
Volume 1: The Pox Party
Volume 2: The Kingdom on the Waves
by M.T. Anderson. Semicolon review here.

North of Beautiful by Justina Chen Headley. Semicolon review here.

Singin’ Texas by Edward Abernethy Francis. I really sort of skimmed this one, still doing research for my Texas history/literature class in the fall.

Abide With Me: The World of VIctorian Hymns by Ian C. Bradley.

Lady of Milkweed Manor by Julie Klassen. Too many implausible coincidences and unreasonable acts made this novel difficult to finish. I did enjoy the period details, but the story and characters were not believable and therefore not very enjoyable.

The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett. Great story. Way, way too much graphic, violent, gratuitous sexual details. Mr. Follett seemed at times to be obsessed with the subject of rape —or maybe I just have a low tolerance for reading about the details of such a crime. I finished the whole 973 page epic, but had they asked me to edit, I could have taken it down to about 800 pages without losing anything significant.

The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula LeGuin. Semicolon review here.

Madonnas of Leningrad by Debra Dean. This book raises interesting questions about memory and the role it plays in our lives and in our survival. In it, a Russian survivor of the siege of Leningrad (WW2) uses her memories to cope with her incipient Alzheimer’s in ways that her children cannot understand.

101 Hymn Stories by Kenneth W. Osbeck.

101 More Hymn Stories by Kenneth W. Osbeck.

Then Sings My Soul by Robert Morgan.

Hymn research and reading for the 48-hour Book Challenge shaped a lot of my reading this month. The best adult fiction I read was, hands down, The Chosen by Chaim Potok. The best of the children’s/young adult fiction: The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation.

Narnia Aslant: A Narnia-Inspired Reading List

Jun23

In the fifty some odd years since C.S. Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia were published, other authors have been inspired by, or provoked by, Lewis’s imaginary land and characters. If you like the Chronicles of Narnia, especially if you’re a die-hard fan, you may enjoy these related books:

Young Adult Fiction:

Here There Be Dragons by James Owen. Owen’s Imaginarium Geographica and the lands it maps are clearly inspired by Lewis’s Narnia as well as other fantasy and science fiction classics.
Nymeth’s review of Here There Be Dragons. I’m pretty much in agreement with her: great literature it’s not, but it is a lot of fun.
Semicolon review here. The sequels are The Search for the Red Dragon and The Indigo King. I just finished reading The Indigo King, and as with the other two it was a lot of fun, mostly because of all the sic-fi and fantasy allusions and in this third book also because of the time travel element which reminded me somewhat of LOST. (Of course, everything reminds me of LOST.)

A Door Near Here by Heather Quarles is quite a different kettle of fish, although it has a Narnia slant, too. It’s young adult contemporary fiction about a family of children dealing with the alcoholism of their mom. One way the youngest child copes is by writing letters to C.S. Lewis and believing that she can go to Narnia if she can just find the right door.
Semicolon review here.

In Bridge to Terebithia by Katherine Paterson, Leslie is a fan of the Narnia books, and the children name their secret place Terebithia, which Ms. Paterson says was not consciously a corruption of Terebinthia, an island in Narnia. It sure sounds awfully close to me, though, and the author admits that she probably got her secret kingdom’s name from Lewis, although sub-consciously.

Adult fiction:
Neil Gaiman wrote a 2004 short story called The Problem of Susan in which we get to meet a grown-up, left behind, Susan Pevensie. I suspect I won’t like the story very much, because I don’t like short stories in general and I never did understand what the problem was with Lewis’s having Susan refuse to return to Narnia. She “outgrew” Narnia, so Narnia was closed to her. I’m going to read it, though, just to see what Gaiman’s take is on the whole “Susan problem.”

Nonfiction Narnia-lore:

The Narnia Cookbook by Douglas Gresham. Illustrated by Pauline Baynes. HarperCollins, 1998. I haven’t actually seen this book, but doesn’t it sound like fun. Who wouldn’t want to learn how to make Turkish Delight, even though I hear it’s not nearly as good as it’s cracked up to be?

Planet Narnia: The Seven Heavens in the Imagination of C.S. Lewis by Michael Ward. I’m definitely going to read this book as a part of Carrie’s Narnia Challenge. You can read more about the book here and here.

Any other suggestions for Narnia-inspired fiction or nonfiction?

Semicolon

Books we must have though we lack bread.

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