Archives

Madeleine L’Engle Project

Jan3

My Madeleine L’Engle reading project, with a goal of reading or re-reading her complete oeuvre, is ongoing. It started out as a project for January 2007, but I quickly saw that I’d need more time to read all of the books. Last year I posted an annotated bibliography of all Ms. L’Engle’s works. And I read and posted reviews for the following books:

The Small Rain

A Winter’s Love

Camilla, also published as Camilla Dickinson

I also read And Both Were Young and re-read A Wrinkle in Time, but I didn’t write about either of them here at Semicolon. I didn’t like the former very much, and I didn’t feel as if I had anything new to say about the latter.

This year I hope to read or re-read the following:

Meet the Austins, 1960
The Moon By Night, 1963
The Arm of the Starfish, 1965
The Love Letters, 1966
The Young Unicorns, 1968
A Ring of Endless Light, 1980.

As you can see if you’re familiar with Ms. L’Engle’s books, I’m concentrating on the Austin family stories this year. If I get all these read, I may try to get to a few more before the end of the year.

P.S. Suzanne has joined in on the project and is inviting others to do the same. You can sign up at her blog or here, and as she says, “Maybe someone could make a button?” Pretty please, because I don’t have any of that graphics talent stuff.

Historical Fiction of Ancient Times Project: Greece

Jan2

These are some of the books I’d like to find and read as a part of my Ancient History Through Fiction Project:
Maia of Thebes by Ann Turner. (1463 BC)

Winged Girl of Knossos by Erik Berry, pseud. (Allena Best) (Appleton) Ms. Bird at Fuse #8 gives this book a wonderful review in an Under the Radar post from last August.

The Windswept City: A Novel of the Trojan War by Henry Treece.

Inside the Walls of Troy: a Novel of The Women Who Lived The Trojan War by Clenence McLaren.

Goddess of Yesterday by Caroline Cooney.

The Moon Riders by Theresa Tomlinson. (c.1100 B.C.) Amazons in Ancient Greece.

The Voyage of the Snake Lady by Theresa Tomlinson. Sequel to The Moon Riders.

Deeper Song by Patricia Pfitsch.

I don’t really know much about any of these books, except the time period (c. 1500-900 BC) and the place (Greece or among Greeks). If you’ve read any of them and have comments or if you have other suggestions of children’s or young adult historical fiction for this time period set in Greece, please leave me a note.

I’ll be reading as many of these as I can find, and I’ll let you know how I like them.

Pulitzer Project

Dec31

I’ve been participating in this project for the past year. I’ve read 15 of the almost 100 Pulitzer Prize winners, and this year I’d like to read six or seven more:

2007 – The Road (McCarthy)

2001 – The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay (Chabon)

1990 – The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love (Hijuelos)

1973 – The Optimist’s Daughter (Welty)

1928 – The Bridge of San Luis Rey (Wilder) I already read this one a long time ago, but I’d like to re-read it and see how and if it relates to LOST.

1926 – Arrowsmith (Lewis)

1922 – Alice Adams (Tarkington)

Bible Reading Project

Dec30

I think in terms of projects rather than resolutions. I’m posting the plans for some of my projects here so that I can keep track of them and for your edification.

I plan to take one book of the Bible or part of one book each month and read it through each day for that month. I also want to take notes of what impresses me from the day’s reading, maybe copy out a verse or two, maybe memorize a passage or a few verses. I memorize fairly easily, but long term retention is becoming more problematic as I get older. Anyway, here’s the tentative plan, subject to revision as the Spirit moves.

January: Mark 1-8. My pastor is starting a sermon series on Mark that will last through the spring. So Mark seems like a good place to start on my Bible reading adventure for 2008.

February: Ruth. We have a women’s retreat in February, and we’ll be doing an intensive weekend study of the book of Ruth. Plus, February is such a romantic month, and Ruth is a romantic story of God’s providence in the area of courtship and marriage. I’ll be taking my annual Lenten blog break during the months of February and March, but I’ll keep a record of anything profound and worth sharing that comes out of my Bible study and share it with Semicolon readers when I return. (Ash Wednesday in 2008 falls on February 6th, and Resurrection Sunday will be on March 23rd.)

March: Mark 9-16. Mark’s the shortest gospel with only 16 chapters, so I’ll read the second half in March.

April: I Samuel 1-11. As a follow-up to Ruth? Samuel and Saul and David seem like good subjects for study and meditation.

May: Romans 1-8. The SBC January Bible study for 2008 is on the book of Romans, so I should be able to find a good study guide at Lifeway. As I’ve said many times, I’m still a Southern Baptist at heart even though we attend an Evangelical Free church these days. Romans also has sixteen chapters, so I’ll finish it up in July.

June: I Samuel 12-17.

July: Romans 9-16.

August: I Samuel 18-23.

September: 1 John.

October: I Samuel 24-31.

November: 2 John and 3 John.

December: Isaiah 52-61. These chapters are chock-full of prophecies about the coming Messiah, especially the Messiah as a Suffering Servant, so I thought they’d be appropriate for next year’s Advent.