Book Tag: Dog Days

Aug14

These are the dog days of summer (where does that phrase come from?), and we have a dog. Not my choice, my son brought him home and foisted him upon us in a moment of weakness on my part, but he is kind of cute, both actually the dog and the son.

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So let’s play Book Tag again. In today’s edition of Book Tag, please suggest your favorite dog book. If the dog doesn’t die in the book, you get extra points.

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.

I’ll start off with a classic, sort-of dog book, the series by Yorkshire veterinarian James Herriot that begins with All Creatures Great and Small. I’m not even much of an animal lover, but I love these books. The stories Herriot tells are funny, poignant, sometimes dramatic or sad, but always absorbing and full of human (and animal) interest–and lots of dogs.

The Presidents Club by Nancy Gibbs and Michael Duffy

Aug14

The Presidents Club: Inside the World’s Most Exclusive Fraternity by Nancy Gibbs and Michael Duffy. Recommended by Al Mohler.

Fascinating. I learned a lot about the presidents of the latter half of the twentieth century and their post-presidential lives.

I learned that both Truman and Hoover were at first rather neglected and forgotten after their respective presidencies were over, but that later presidents came to rely on them for advice and encouragement and sometimes (Hoover) help in carrying out humanitarian initiatives. According to the book, Hoover was great at organizing and carrying out post-war recovery programs to help refugees and starving people in the war zone, something he did after World War I and before he became president and after World War II, after he was president.

Johnson was a pain and a blowhard who nevertheless agonized over his role in escalating the Vietnam War. I don’t think I would have liked LBJ very much.

Nixon came across as a very complicated, arrogant, insecure, devious, and intelligent man. He knew a lot about the Russians, and thought he knew even more than he did. He advised presidents on foreign policy, towards the Soviet Union/Russia in particular, and he very much wanted to be recognized and admired for his contributions.

The authors depict Gerald Ford as a courageous man who knew that his pardon for Richard Nixon would heal the country and strengthen the presidency but knew also that it would seriously undermine his chances to serve as an elected president.

Carter was apparently a loose cannon, talented in diplomacy, but prone to go off on his own and cut his own deals without consulting the sitting president or the State Department. He practically worked miracles when he was sent on diplomatic missions to North Korea and to Haiti, but everyone back in the U.S., the president and all his advisors, was on high alert, wondering what he would do or say next.

George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton became close friends after their time as president was over, working together to raise money for disaster relief after Hurricane Katrina and after the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. Then, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton became friends and cooperated to raise funds for Haiti relief.

That’s the kind of stuff ex-presidents do, and the thesis of the book is that they form a sort of “club” made up of the very few people in the world who know what it’s like to deal with the pressures and responsibilities of being the president of the United States of America. They become concerned with their own legacy to some extent, but also with the guarding of the office of the presidency. So they cooperate with each other and with the president who is in office to protect the prestige and honor of the presidency, even while possibly disagreeing in fundamental ways about policy and politics.

Sunday Salon: Books Read in July, 2012

Aug12

Children’s and Young Adult Fiction
Chronal Engine by Greg Leitich Smith.
Crazy Dangerous by Andrew Klavan. Semicolon review here.
Something Like Normal by Trish Doller. Semicolon review here.
Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Saenz. Wonderful writing, appealing characters, not so appealing theme or plot.

Adult Fiction
The Hypnotist’s Love Story by Liane Moriarity.
The Limpopo Academy of Private Detection by Alexander McCall Smith. Semicolon review here.
A Lady Cyclist’s Guide to Kashgar by Suzanne Joinson.

Nonfiction
The Fortune Cookie Chronicles by Jennifer 8. Lee. Semicolon review here.
Goodbye to a River by John Graves. Semicolon review here.
Bringing Home the Prodigals by Rob Parsons. Semicolon review here.

Saturday Review of Books: August 11, 2012

Aug10

“I am one of those overeducated library types who might be expected to look down her nose at self-help books–-but the whole bookstore is a self-help section to me. When something needs to be fixed, my first and abiding instinct is to read. I think I can read my way to a solution. Or at least an evasion.” ~Lauren Winner

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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.

55 Recipes I’d Like To Make

Aug7

Now I haven’t made any of these, but I am in need of some new ideas. So, these are the ones I’ve found that I’m planning to try out soon.

1. Chocolate Cherry Cake from Brenda at Coffee, Tea, Books and Me (who shares my reason for celebrating at this particular time of year)

2. Sweet Sour Meatloaf from Norma at Collecting My Thoughts

3. Pumpkin Bread Pudding from The Anchoress. I’ll probably save this recipe for autumn, the time for pumpkin.

4. Sweet and Sour Meatballs and Cherry Crockpot Cobbler from Dawn at By Sun and Candlelight Dawn always has such wonderful posts about homemaking and homeschooling and organization and loving life.

5. The winner of Rachel Held Evans’ Recipe Contest of Biblical Proportions: Medallions and Carrots It’s actually Pork and Carrots, and I think my family would like it because it’s a bit sweet. We’re all sugar addicted.

6. Gingery Marinated Beef Cubes from The Reading Zone Sometimes in addition to all the yummy books and teaching tips, Sarah includes a “slice of life”, which is where this recipe idea comes from.

7-12. Cranberry Ketchup.
Wisconsin Cheese Soup.
Spinach Lasagne.
Surprising Chili
Cheeseburger Soup
Strawberry soup
All from The Common Kitchen. A lot of the Headmistress’s recipes are way too “healthy” or labor intensive for me, but the above look just right, veggies and all that good stuff, but easy and tasty, too.

13. Recipe for a Sweet Smelling House from Carol MagistraMater.

14. Best Scones Ever from LiterariTea

15. Fruit Crisp from Like Mother, Like Daughter. Actually, I’ve made lots of fruit crisp, but Aunt Leila suggests making the crisp part ahead and freezing. I like that idea.

16. Our Favorite Potato Soup from Melissa Wiley Melissa says she’s a “disorganized cook”, like me! So her recipe should work perfectly in our disorganized, soup-loving house.

17. Spicy Lentil Meatball Soup from Violet at Promptings.

18. Winter Fudge Cake from Farm School

19. Moo-Shu Pork from Jessica Snell at Homemaking through the Church Year. Jessica is a lovely and inspiring Anglican writer, homemaker, and mom.

20. Root Beer Bundt Cake from Girl Detective. I’ve made 7-up Cake and Coke Cake, but never root beer. Girl Detective, by the way, not only reads and reviews great books; she also bakes bodacious birthday cakes. I am much too lazy to go to this much work for a birthday cake, even though I love my urchins very much.

21. Pumpkin Rolls from Sheila at Book Journey. I’m sensing a pumpkin, soup, chocolate theme in the recipes that appeal to me. Sheila’s blog is is lovely place for readers and bloggers and writers to meet together and discuss books, maybe over a slice of pumpkin roll.

22. White Chicken Chili from Hope Is The Word. I made this on Sunday, July 1, and we all enjoyed it very much. I wanted to add some corn to the recipe, but I didn’t have any.

23-24. Jama Rattigan at Jama’s Alphabet Soup is all about food and fun and books and celebration, so I found a couple of recipes there that I’d like to try
Black-eyed Pea Salad Medley.
Tracie’s Cheatin’ Shells

25. Potato Casserole from My Friend Amy.

26. Corn Salad from Heather at Sprittibee.

27. Lemony Buttered Shrimp from Jennifer at Conversion Diary Jen is a hilarious Catholic mom who lives and writes from Texas.

28. Chicken Marinara from Kim at The Upward Call

29. Banana Sheet Cake from Rebecca Writes Rebecca is a theologian as well as a homemaker, and she is worth reading on either subject.

30. Philly Cheesesteak Sloppy Joes from Chef in Training (Actually I found a link to this and several other recipes from Pinterest at Shonya’s blog, Learning How Much I Don’t Know)

31. Chocolate Chip Pie from Renee at Add More Chocolate. Renee hasn’t posted in a while, but she still has a whole bunch of chocolate recipes in her Month of Chocolate feature that she did in February, 2010.

32. Cranberry Salsa from A Circle of Quiet. She has a food blog called Notre Pain Quotidian.

33. Gooey Butter Cake from Laura at Lines in Pleasant Places.

34. The Best Chocolate Sheet Cake Ever from The Pioneer Woman via Beth at Weavings. I actually made this cake for the 4th of July, and everyone loved it.

35. White Chicken Enchiladas from Donna at Quiet Life.

36. Picadillo from Dorian Speed at Scrutinies.

37. Ammie’s Unbeatable Beef Stroganoff from Heather at Sprittibee.

38. Delicious Chicken Skillet from CIndy at Notes in the Key of Life. More links to Cindy’s favorite recipes.

39. Hawaiian Bread Sandwich from Staci at Writing and Living.

40. Breakfast Cookies from Susan Wise Bauer.

41. Jambalaya from Amy’s Humble Musings.

42. Seven Layer Salad from Barbara at Mommy Life.

43. Chicken Piccata from Seasonal Soundings.

44. Crockpot Swiss Chicken Casserole from These Four No More.

45. Crockpot Chicken and Wild Rice Soup from Kathie’s Garden of Life.

46. Crack Dip from Shannon at The Mommy Diaries.

47. Crockpot Cranberry Pork Tenderloin from Tiny Tidbits.

48. Greek Potatoes and Chicken from The Southern Belle.

I found the preceding four recipes at Kelly’s Korner blog on a crock pot link-up called Crockpotalooza.
49. Patty Melts from The Pioneer Woman.

50. Orange Julius. I have made this before, and I’ll post the recipe soon for those who don’t know it. Yummy summertime breakfast drink!

51. Flaky Apple Foldovers From my book, Summertime Favorite Recipes by Pillsbury.

52. Turkey Salad Polynesian. From my book, Summertime Favorite Recipes by Pillsbury.

53. Creamy Corn ‘n Zucchini. From my book, Summertime Favorite Recipes by Pillsbury. I can’t find it online. If it turns out good, I’ll post the recipe.

54. Country Morning Coffee Cake. Ditto #53.

55. Cinnamon Baked French Toast from The Pioneer Woman.

I know I could probably “pin” all these recipes on Pinterest, and it would be a lot easier, IF I could figure out to use Pinterest and IF I didn’t keep reading bloggers who are complaining about how Pinterest is eating up their lives and IF I hadn’t already spent hours making this list, so it’ll have to do, and if you want pictures click on the links and most of them have pics, and yes, I know this a run-on sentence, but I can’t stop myself which is why I’m not on Pinterest. END.

By the way, these recipes are mostly from bloggers who are on my Google Reader, bloggers whose recipes and book recommendations I trust. Thanks guys for all the new additions to my meal repertoire and for all the other lovely blog posts that you share with all of us each day.

Saturday Review of Books August 4, 2012

Aug3

“I am simply a ‘book drunkard.’ Books have the same irresistible temptation for me that liquor has for its devotee. I cannot withstand them.” ~L.M. Montgomery

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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.

Book Tag: Something Old

Jul31

It is a good rule, after reading a new book, never to allow yourself another new one till you have read an old one in between. If that is too much for you, you should at least read one old one to every three new ones.
Every age has its own outlook. It is specially good at seeing certain truths and specially liable to make certain mistakes. We all, therefore, need the books that will correct the characteristic mistakes of our own period. And that means the old books. ~C.S. Lewis, Introduction to Athanasius’ On the Incarnation

Let’s play Book Tag again. In today’s edition of Book Tag, please suggest your favorite book or work of literature, fiction or nonfiction, written or published BEFORE 1800.

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.

I’m going to start off the game with Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes or El ingenioso hidalgo don Quijote de la Mancha as it was originally titled. Published in two separate volumes in 1605 and 1615, Don Quixote was one of the earliest examples of a “novel” and has been influential in literature from the picaresque novel to modernist school of magical realism. At first people considered Don Quixote to be a comedy; the bumbling hidalgo, or gentleman, muddles his way across the Spanish countryside making a fool of himself and his faithful servant Sancho Panza. Then, later, critics sawa the book as a tragedy in which a cruel world destroys the idealism and gallantry of a good man and eventually drives him to insanity. Take your pick, but I think it’s a little of both.

En un lugar de la Mancha, de cuyo nombre no quiero acordarme, no hace mucho tiempo que vivía un hidalgo de los de lanza en astillero, adarga antigua, rocín flaco y galgo corredor.
In some village in La Mancha, whose name I do not care to recall, there dwelt not so long ago a gentleman of the type wont to keep an unused lance, an old shield, a skinny old horse, and a greyhound for racing.

Now it’s your turn. What Old Book can you recommend?

Olympic Athletes: We’ve All Got a Story

Jul31

Like millions around the world, I like watching the Olympics every four years, even though I hardly ever watch sports any other time. I watch the gymnasts and the swimmers and the runners and marvel at what they can do with body that God has given them. But even more than watching the feats of athletic prowess, I enjoy reading and hearing the stories of those athletes who have trained themselves to physical preeminence, and who are also pursuing spiritual maturity in Christ. Here a links to few stories I’ve found inspiring:

Sarah Scherer, who will vie for a gold medal in the air rifle competition at the London Olympics, draws strength from her faith in God after a tragedy shook her life two years ago.

Missy Franklin, swimming gold medalist:

Brady Ellison, archery: “I just step on the field and try to let how I shoot, how I behave and how I act in my life represent myself and God. If people like that, they do; if they don’t, they don’t.”

Francena McCorory, track.

Ryan Hall, marathoner. “I was a runner who happened to be a Christian. I needed to become a Christian who happened to be a runner.”

The Limpopo Academy of Private Detection by Alexander McCall Smith

Jul30

As always, Mma Ramotswe and her family and friends were entertaining and relaxing to read about in this latest episode of Mr. McCall Smith’s No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series. This particular installment has Mma Ramotswe meeting her long-time literary mentor, CLovis Andersen, author of that hallowed tome, The Principles of Private Detection, upon which Mma Ramotswe has based her own business of private detection in Botswana.

One theme of the book seems to be whether truth really matters, whether basic principles of detection or of life must be “True Truth” in order to be useful. Mma Ramotswe says not:

“[T]here were plenty of old Botswana sayings that did the same thing, that gave you little rules for getting through life, for coping with its disappointment and sorrows. And did it matter, she wondered, whether they were true or not? Words could hurt you,and hurt you every bit as badly as sticks and stones. So that saying was wrong but that was not the point. The point was that if it made you better, made you braver, then it was doing its work. The same thing was true, Mma Ramotswe thought, of believing in God. There were plenty of people who did not really believe in God, but who wanted to believe in him, and said that they did. Some people said that these people were foolish, that they hypocritical, but Mma Ramotswe was not so sure about that. If something, or somebody, could help you to get through life, to lead a life that was good and purposeful, did it matter all that much if that thing or that person did not exist? She thought it did not—not in the slightest bit.”

I think Mma Ramotswe is somewhat right and somewhat wrong. If you comfort a child with a truism that is not really True, eventually that child will see that you are not a person of wisdom, not trustworthy. However, since God really does exist, it can only be a good thing for a person to act as if he believed in the God of Christianity even when he doesn’t completely believe. But this acting as if is only good because God is, and His law is good, and He is good. If there really were no God, then how could it be worthwhile or meaningful to follow the commands of this imaginary God? One might as well make up one’s own code of conduct and be one’s own autonomous god.

Clovis Andersen’s book helped Mma Ramotswe to start and sustain her detective agency because it had within its pages true principles of detection that Mma Ramotswe was able to apply to specific cases using the wisdom and native common sense that she already had. Even if Mr. Andersen didn’t know it, what he wrote was truth, not exhaustive truth, but truth nevertheless. Had Mr. Andersen written a book that was untrue in its basic underlying principles, Mma Ramotswe would not have found it useful, no matter how much she believed in it or pretended to believe in it.

It is never foolish to follow Truth, whether you believe in what you are doing or not. It is always foolish to follow falsehood, even if it seems to work out in the short run. All Truth is God’s truth in the end.

Creation: God Did it, I Believe It

Jul29

I have had trouble, in the past, articulating what I believe about God and creation in a way that doesn’t either offend or compromise the gospel. Thanks to R.C. Sproul, one of my favorite Bible teachers, I can give it to you in a nutshell. This excerpt is from an interview Mr. Sproul did with blogger Tim Challies:

Have you ever had second thoughts about the stand that you took in favor of a six-day creation and a young earth, especially in view of all the new material on the subject that has come out since 2006?
Well, that’s kind of a complex question because when I took the stand, I took the stand on a six-day creation. I didn’t take a stand on a young earth. I don’t know how old the earth is. I didn’t know then. I still don’t.

And what do we mean by “young earth”? If you’re thinking six thousand years, I doubt that. If you’re thinking 12 billion years, I doubt that, too. All I was speaking about was the understanding of what the Scriptures teach regarding the six days of creation. And I’m not even sure it’s correct to say that I took a stand. I said that’s what my view was.

When you say you have a view, it’s one thing to say, “I think that this is the way it is.” It’s another thing to take a stand where you say: “Here I stand. I’m going to die on this mountain.” I could be wrong in my understanding of Genesis. It’s very difficult to deal with the literary genre in the opening verses of the beginning chapters of Genesis. I think there has to be some room for some flexibility on it.

I don’t know how old the earth is. I would go even further and say that I don’t know how long a day was when God created the earth in six days and rested on the seventh. I do know that God created it and said that it was good.

We’ve been reading in Genesis in our daily family Bible reading time, and I am reminded of just how poetic and rhythmic and vivid the words of of those first few verses and chapters of the Bible are: