I began Mother Reader‘s 48-hour Reading Challenge last night (Friday) at midnight, and I’ll finish up tomorrow at midnight. I’m still working on my first book, Doc by Mary Doria Russell.
The 48-hour Reading Challenge is sponsored this year by Miss Yingling Reads, and sh’s got some wonderful prizes and great posts about books and reading. Check it out.
I’ll update this post as I finish books for the challenge.
Dancer Daughter is 23 years old and just went away to college in North Texas for the summer. She called this afternoon and asked me for some reading suggestions, so I thought I’d post my list for her so that you all could see it, too.
Some of Dancer Daughter’s favorite authors are Madeleine L’Engle, Robin McKinley, Agatha Christie, and Sarah Dessen. She also likes memoirs and true crime books and books related to biology and forensics. She’s majoring in college in laboratory science/biology.
Berry, Wendell. Jayber Crow. Jayber Crow is a book about community and about the secret life of a Kentucky bachelor and about love that is love even when it’s unconsummated. And Mr. Jayber Crow is one of the most thoughtful characters I’ve read about in any book. He’s a homespun philosopher, and better yet, a loving man.
Cahalan, Susanah. Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness. A journalist describes her remarkable recovery from a rare and mysterious illness.
Christie, Agatha. Evil Under the Sun. “And from June till September (with a short season at Easter) the Jolly Roger Hotel was usually packed to the attics. . . . There was one very important person (in his own estimation at least) staying at the Jolly Roger. Hercule Poirot, resplendent in a white duck suit, with a panama hat tilted over his eyes, his mustaches magnificently befurled, lay back in an improved type of deck chair and surveyed the bathing beach.â€
Dean, Pamela. Tam Lin. Dean’s novelization of the ballad/story Tam Lin is set on a modern day college campus that is “haunted†or maybe invaded by faery folk disguised as professors and students. The students themselves are rather pagan, with very little hint of even the vestiges of Christian thought to inform their decisions.
Godden, Rumer. In This House of Brede. An excellent story about the lives of women within a closed community of nuns. Not only does the reader get to satisfy his curiosity about how nuns live in a convent, but there’s also a a great plot related to contemporary issues such as abortion, the efficacy of prayer, and the morality of absolute obedience.
Lindbergh, Anne Morrow. Bring Me a Unicorn: Diaries and Letters of Anne Morrow Lindbergh, 1922-1928. Before she was married to famous aviator Charles Lindbergh, Anne Morrow, daughter of the American ambassador to Mexico, kept a journal and wrote a plethora of letters. This book is the first of five volumes of collected letters and journal entries of Anne Morrow soon-to-be Lindbergh. The others are called: Hour of Gold Hour of Lead, Locked Rooms Open Doors, The Flower and the Nettle, and War Within and Without.
Mckay, Lisa. My Hands Came Away Red. Eighteen year old Cori decides to spend her summer in Indonesia, building a church, out of mixed motives. Yes, Cori is a Christian, and she wants to do something meaningful in God’s service. She also wants to get away from her confusing relationship with her boyfriend, Scott, and she just wants to experience her own adventure. She gets a lot more “adventure” than she bargained for.
Verghese, Abraham. Cutting for Stone. Co-joined (Siamese) twins are separated at birth but sustain an unbreakable bond throughout the vicissitudes of life in Haile Selassie’s Ethiopia, and even after one of the twins, Marion, must flee to the United States for political reasons.
Young, Glynn. Dancing Priest and the sequel, A Light Shining. The story of Michael Kent, Olympic cyclist, Edinburgh student, Anglican priest, and orphan with a mysterious past. Of course, it’s also the story of Sarah Hughes, American artist and also a student in Edinburgh, whose lack of faith throws a kink in the developing romance between her and Michael.
Ooooh, let’s play book tag:
“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.”
Only this time, instead of a category, look at Dancer Daughter’s interests and favorites, and suggest one book per comment for her summer reading list.
“Book love, my friends, is your pass to the greatest, the purest, and the most perfect pleasure that God has prepared for His creatures.” ~Anthony Trollope
Welcome to the Saturday Review of Books at Semicolon. Here’s how it usually works. Find a book review on your blog posted sometime during the previous week. The review doesn’t have to be a formal sort of thing. You can link to your thoughts on a particular book, a few ideas inspired by reading the book, your evaluation, quotations, whatever.
Then on Friday night/Saturday, you post a link here at Semicolon in Mr. Linky to the specific post where you’ve written your book review. Don’t link to your main blog page because this kind of link makes it hard to find the book review, especially when people drop in later after you’ve added new content to your blog. In parentheses after your name, add the title of the book you’re reviewing. This addition will help people to find the reviews they’re most interested in reading.
After linking to your own reviews, you can spend as long as you want reading the reviews of other bloggers for the week and adding to your wishlist of books to read. That’s how my own TBR list has become completely unmanageable and the reason I can’t join any reading challenges. I have my own personal challenge that never ends.
Powered by… Mister Linky’s Magical Widgets.
Great Summer Reading Suggestions from Breakpoint and The Chuck Colson Center.
Free June Desktop Wallpaper and Calendar from The HOmeschool Post.
Born on this day:
Federico Garcia Lorca, b.1898, d.1936. Spanish playwright and poet. He was actually executed by Nationalist forces during the Spanish Civil War.
Richard Scarry, b.1919, d.1994. Author of busy, busy children’s books set in Busytown and featuring characters such as Lowly Worm, Bananas Gorilla, Huckle Cat, Mr. Frumble, and others.
Allan Ahlberg b.1938. Author with his wife Jan of The Jolly Postman, The Jolly Pocket Postman, and The Jolly Christmas Postman. Ahlberg on children’s books: †. . . just because a book is tiny and its readers are little doesn’t mean it can’t be perfect. On its own scale, it can be as good as Tolstoy or Jane Austen.â€
Ken Follett, b.1949. Mr. Follett gained fame as a writer of political thrillers, and then turned to historical fiction with 1989’s epic novel The Pillars of the Earth. I read Pillars, but I wasn’t terribly impressed. He’s good at creating characters and setting, but the attitudes and cultural mores in the book sometimes felt anachronistic to me.
I’m going to blog this one as I watch.
Episode 1: Ji Eun, the leading lady in this romantic drama, is sort of an “I Love Lucy” klutz. And I find it difficult, if not impossible to believe that she would just let her friends steal her house, clean out her bank account, and leave her stranded in China, without pressing charges. But Rain, the actor who plays the male lead, Young Jae, is really good-looking. Oh, Young Jae buys Ji Eun’s house from her thieving friends, not knowing that the house is stolen property.
Episode 2: Young Jae likes Hye Won. Hye Won likes Young Jae’s friend, Min Hyuk. Ji Eun just wants her house and her life back. Ji Eun’s “friends” just want an easy life on somebody else’s hard work and money. Gotta get this all sorted out by episode 16.
Episode 3: Ji Eun and Young Jae sign a marriage contract. It’s a marriage of convenience, a way for Young Jae to stay out of “scandals” and protect himself from his desire for Hye Won (who says they’re just friends, but shows up to spoil romantic moments between Young Jae and his “bride”, Ji Eun.) For Ji Eun, it’s a way to get her house back. Young Jae promises that the two of them will divorce within six months, and the house will be hers. Young Jae and Ji Eun get married, go on a honeymoon, ride bicycles, and fight.
Episode 4: Young Jae and Ji Eun fight. Ji Eun is a ditz, and Young Jae is a jerk. They make up, and Young Jae buys Ji Eun a recorder for her writing career as a birthday present. But he still orders her around like a jerk.
Episode 5: Young Jae is even more of a jerk. He calls Ji Eun a birdbrain and makes fun of her writing. He goes to meet Hye Won, who is just pulling his chain, at a bar, and he leaves Ji Eun waiting for him at the mall. He doesn’t even CALL, for Pete’s sake. He tries to make it up to Ji Eun by going to a movie with her, but Hye Won calls to say she’s in the hospital, and of course, Young Jae goes running to comfort her. Ji Eun tags along and sees her (platonic) “husband” holding Hye Won’s hand. This hand-holding thing is apparently very meaningful in Korean culture. Holding hands=he really likes her, not Ji Eun? Pretty boy jerk!
Episodes 6-9: More Young Jae moon-eyed over Hye Won. Hye Won is beautiful, but rather pitiful. The actress who’s playing Hye Won doesn’t seem to have much range: playful or tearful. That’s about it. More Ji Eun getting teated poorly by Young Jae. Did I mention that Young Jae (actor:Rain) is seriously good-looking, but the character he plays has issues with emotionally abusive behavior? More fighting between Young Jae and Ji Eun. But now Min Hyuk, the guy that Hye Won really likes when she’s not jerking Young Jae’s chain, likes Ji Eun. Ji Eun’s thieving friends continue to poke their fingers in the pie, mess things up, and provide comic relief.
Episode 10: Young Jae actually apologizes to Ji Eun! But his behavior doesn’t get much better. The couple sign a revised marriage contract with lots of new requirements from Ji Eun for Young Jae to fulfill (at least 105), including Young Jae has to help with the housework, and he must bring Ji Eun roses on Wednesdays. Young Jae signs the contract without reading it because he wants only one thing: for the contract marriage period to be extended to three years. He’s in love with Ji Eun but still hasn’t admitted it to himself. Ji Eun, on the other hand, is about to give up on Young Jae and go for Min Hyuk.
I knew from the beginning that Ji Eun and Young Jae were going to be together, for real and not just because of a contract of convenience, by the end of the series. But if I were advising Ji Eun at this point, I’d tell her to get herself away from Young Jae and think seriously about Min Hyuk. Young Jae tells her that she’s a birdbrain and an idiot at least five or six times per episode. The only thing he has going for him is his family, which I haven’t mentioned. Grandma (Halmoni) is a hoot, and the family loves Ji Eun. Young Jae, not surprisingly, is not on great terms with his family, especially his father who wanted him to be a doctor instead of an actor. Here’s a scene where Ji Eun gives a gift to Young Jae’s family—priceless:
Really though, what kind of man has a huge, bigger than life-size, model-type photograph of himself, bare-chested, hanging in his bedroom entryway? Narcissistic much?
The series did go on to end as I thought it would: Young Jae and Ji Eun together at last! I still think she would have been better off with the other guy, but you watch and form your own opinion. (I’ll reiterate that Rain, the actor who plays Young Jae, is a good-looking guy, but his behavior as Young Jae leaves something to be desired.)
Telephone booth transformed into a library. What a wonderfully British idea! I wish I had a telephone booth to metamorphose into a little library.
Also, on June 4, 1989, approximately 300-800 Chinese students and others died. Do you know what happened on this date?
Paris Books for Kids. Chapter books set in Paris, and picture books set in Paris. I love lists like this one. In fact, I’d really like to publish a follow-up to my Picture Book Preschool curriculum, called Picture Book Around the World.
Traditional Marriage Movement Sweeps through France. Who would have thought? “Their mouths overflow with the words ‘equality of man and woman.’ But why should marriage not be a place of equality, too, so that a child will be raised by man and woman? What a strange idea!”
Prince Liam, Prince Frederic, Prince Duncan, and Prince Gustav are back, and they’re just as klutzy and heroic as they were in the first book in this series, The Hero’s Guide to Saving Your Kingdom. And the ending to this book, which I will not reveal even if you torture me, promises more adventures to come for The League of Princes.
I find these books and the princes and their princesses to be silly, hare-brained, ludicrous, comical, foolish, crackpot, preposterous, and absurd. In short, I used a thesaurus, and the books made me laugh. If you want to go on a Hero’s Guide blog tour and get introduced to all of the heroes and heroines, and even the villains, you can find those links here. Or you could just read the books.
A few choice quotes to whet your appetite:
Prince Gustav: “Today’s lesson is brawling. Everybody start beating up your neighbor.”
Prince Duncan (from his work-in-progress, The Hero’s Guide to Being a Hero): “The element of surprise can offer a hero great advantage in battle. The element of oxygen—also important.”
Prince Frederic: “No one is defined by a single act, whether it was years ago or weeks ago. We’re all given chances to change, to make up for things we’ve done wrong. It’s how we handle those opportunities that really matters. For most of my life, I ran and hid from anything remotely dangerous. Does that make me a coward now? No.”
Prince Liam: “I’m Liam of Erinthia! Getting out of tough situations is what I do best!”
Reading, but not finished:
The Hidden Art of Homemaking by Edith Schaeffer. I’m reading along with Cindy’s group read, but I got stuck on the chapter about Interior Decoration. I didn’t want to read it because my house is headed for an episode of Hoarders, and I don’t know what to do about it. Maybe I’ll just read “Interior Decoration”, wince, and get on with the rest of the book.
Chapter 2, What Is Hidden Art?
Chapter 3, Music.
Chapter 4, Painting, Sketching, Sculpturing
Lewis Agonistes by Louis Markos. Subtitled: How C.S. Lewis Can Train Us to Wrestle With the Modern and Postmodern World. I’m slowly making my way through this seris of essays on what C.S Lewis has to say to those of us who come after him and live in a philosophical and cultural world he might have predicted, but didn’t address directly because when Lewis lived “post-modern” and “new age” were concepts barely on the horizon. Nevertheless, Lewis has much to say about these and other “–isms” of the twenty-first century.
Children’s and Young Adult Fiction:
Beholding Bee by Kimberly Newton Fusco.
Love, Chickens, and a Taste of Peculiar Cake by Joyce Magnin. Nominated for the INSPY Awards.
Adult Fiction:
The Last Plea Bargain by Randy Singer.
Nonfiction:
Letters from a Skeptic: A Son Wrestles with his Father’s Questions about Christianity by Dr. Gregory A. Boyd and Edward K. Boyd.
The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely COnvert by Rosaria Champagne Butterfield.
Wisdom and Innocence: A Life of G.K. Chesterton by Joseph Pearce.
“You don’t have to read a book to have an opinion. I don’t read novels. I prefer good literary criticism. That way you get both the novelists’ ideas as well as the critics’ thinking. With fiction I can never forget that none of it really happened, that it’s all just made up by the author.” ~Tom Townsend in the movie Metropolitan
Welcome to the Saturday Review of Books at Semicolon. Here’s how it usually works. Find a book review on your blog posted sometime during the previous week. The review doesn’t have to be a formal sort of thing. You can link to your thoughts on a particular book, a few ideas inspired by reading the book, your evaluation, quotations, whatever.
Then on Friday night/Saturday, you post a link here at Semicolon in Mr. Linky to the specific post where you’ve written your book review. Don’t link to your main blog page because this kind of link makes it hard to find the book review, especially when people drop in later after you’ve added new content to your blog. In parentheses after your name, add the title of the book you’re reviewing. This addition will help people to find the reviews they’re most interested in reading.
After linking to your own reviews, you can spend as long as you want reading the reviews of other bloggers for the week and adding to your wishlist of books to read. That’s how my own TBR list has become completely unmanageable and the reason I can’t join any reading challenges. I have my own personal challenge that never ends.
Powered by… Mister Linky’s Magical Widgets.
Today is the birthday of poet Walt Whitman. I tend to think of Mr. Whitman as a rather self-indulgent poet (song of myself, me, me, ME!), but I rather like this particular snippet and use it frequently to explain (or not) myself. (And who am I, blogger that I am, to accuse anyone else of self-indulgence and egotism?)
“Do I contradict myself? Very well, then I contradict myself, I am large, I contain multitudes.”
Do fish feel pain? My vegetarian daughter and I had a discussion recently on the advisability and morality of killing and eating animals. This article touches at least tangentially on some of the things we were discussing. Bottom line: “Whether fish, fowl or mammal, neurological pain happens to us all. It’s the capacity for suffering that remains up for dispute.” Other bottom line: I’m still a carnivore, and my daughter is still vegetarian.
Then another kind of fish story: The Golden Fish: How God Woke Me up in a Dream by Eric Metaxas, in CHristianity Today. Mr. Metaxas is now a leader at the ministry, Breakpoint, that was begun by the late Chuck Colson. The article I linked to tells the unusual story of how God showed him his need for Christ in a dream . . . about a fish.
Tomorrow is beginning of June. Get a head start on June Celebrations, Links, and Birthdays.