Running the Books by Avi Steinberg

Jul24

Running the Books: The Adventures of an Accidental Prison Librarian by Avi Steinberg.

I’m willing to read almost anything that focuses on books and libraries, written by a librarian, even if the setting is a prison and even if the librarian is a lapsed, formerly Orthodox Jewish, now agnostic, Harvard graduate. Mr. Steinberg is hip, cool, humble, lost, aimless, and somewhat annoying. Anyone who can afford to wander around taking crummy jobs whilst he wonders what to do with his life after graduating from HARVARD, is annoying.

Mr. Steinberg has a friend who becomes an anthropologist, studying leftover hippies somewhere in the Midwest or Colorado or something. Steinberg himself comes across as an anthropologist who is studying the tribal customs of that esoteric and mysterious tribal group, the American felons. He opens his library to pimps and prostitutes and con artists and drug dealers while pondering that age-old question, “What is the purpose of the library anyway?” To provide books, education, access to information? He is soon disabused of such a quaint notion by his prison clientele who generally use the library for more practical purposes: socialization, communication, and sometimes criminality. The criminal pursuits of these, well, criminals, shouldn’t be a complete surprise, but Mr. Steinberg seems to keep forgetting that he works inside a prison.

And, of course, there are the one or two inmates who are the exceptions that prove the rule:
Jessica, who comes to writing class to catch glimpses of her son, also incarcerated, through the window of the classroom. Her story ends tragically.
Chudney, whose ambition is to have his own cooking show called Thug Sizzle. His story also ends tragically.

I was never sure of the point of all of these stories of lost, violent, victimized, and tragic people, compiled with commentary by the narrator, who was sometimes lost, sometimes victimized, sometimes even a little bit violent in response to all of the violence around him. Maybe that was the point: all of our stories are tragic. We observe and tell each other’s tragic stories. But coming from a Harvard graduate, the moral of the story sounds a little hollow. Avi Steinberg is in prison (as a librarian) for a couple of years, but he doesn’t have to be there. He can get a real job, write a book, get a life. And eventually, by the end of the story, he does.

I first heard about this book on NPR. It’s an NPR-ish kind of book.

Being Henry David by Cal Armistead

Jul23

Cal Armistead lives near Concord, Massachusetts, where most of this story is set, and of course, since it’s Concord, the “Henry David” of the title refer to Henry David Thoreau, Concord’s most famous former resident. This YA novel, however, is set in current times, and it’s an amnesia novel, just so you know going in.

Amnesia, the kind where you forget your own name and everything about your past, is not very common, but it’s really useful in creating a suspenseful, roller coaster plot with and identity, who-am-I theme. Being Henry David is strong in terms of plot. Unexpected events give the story credibility and draw the reader into the plot. I wanted to keep reading to find out who Henry David, or Hank as he calls himself in the book, really was and what would happen to him. I was fairly sure that he was not, as one minor character suggested, a reincarnation of Henry David Thoreau, even though Thoreau does appear in Hank’s dreams and give him advice.

The characterization in this novel, on the other hand, is just O.K., not bad, but also not exciting. I never really felt as if I knew Hank or completely understood his motivations, even after he remembered who he was. And the other characters are stereotypical: the love interest with a silky, sultry voice, the kindly research librarian, the absentee parents, a couple of abused teen runaways, and the scary drug dealer. These are all characters who could exist, but I never totally bought in to any of them.

So Being Henry David has a good plot, OK characters, recognizable themes of guilt, remembrance, and identity. It was an enjoyable way to spend a couple of hours.

Joni and Ken by Ken and Joni Eareckson Tada

Jul22

Even the title and cover picture says it: there are issues related to being married to a famous Christian author, artist, speaker and quadriplegic who heads a world-wide ministry to disabled persons. Whose name (and ministry) comes first? Ken Tada knew about some of the difficulties when he married Joni, but the “daily-ness” of Joni’s physical needs plus the annoyance of always living life in Joni’s shadow was enough to wear down Ken’s dedication to Joni and to their life together and transform their marriage into a series of tasks that had to be done instead of a joyful journey.

In case you don’t know, Joni Eareckson Tada is the founder and CEO of Joni and Friends, an organization that provides practical support and spiritual help to special needs families worldwide, and equips thousands of churches in developing disability ministry. Joni is the author of numerous best-selling books, including When God Weeps, The God I Love, Heaven: Your Real Home, Joni, and A Step Further. Ken Tada recently retired from thirty-two years of teaching school. He and Joni have been married for over 30 years.

Joni and Ken is a great “anatomy of a marriage” kind of memoir that probes deep into what it means to love someone consistently, daily, and sacrificially. Ken knew what he was getting into when he married Joni. She was already a bestselling author and a quadriplegic when the two of them met, began dating, and eventually married, believing that they could serve God together better than apart. Ken knew, in a sense that he would have to take care of Joni physically for the rest of their lives, that there would be difficulties in their marriage that able-bodied spouses can only imagine. He knew, but mostly on an intellectual level. He didn’t know how exhausting the quotidian tasks of caring for Joni, supporting her emotionally, and following behind her in her calling would become. After many years, Ken seems to have done what many spouses who are in difficult marriages do, both men and women: he checked out emotionally. He And in response to his distancing himself from her, Joni began to pull back, too. It happens in many (most?) relationships, even those with far fewer challenges than Joni’s and Ken’s marriage.

This book would be a good read for someone who is caregiver for a disabled spouse or parent or child. The narrative could have been improved with a more chronological organization of the story and with more information from Ken’s point of view about the couple’s struggles. However, the lack of particulars about how Ken was feeling and what he was thinking may come from a difference in the personalities of the two people involved. I get the idea that Ken tends to keep his thoughts and feelings more hidden and unspoken whereas Joni comes across as the more emotive and dramatic of the pair.

Marriage is an endlessly fascinating subject. How do two people get married and stay married? What makes a good marriage? Do all marriages go through seasons of aridity and apathy? How does a married couple go about renewing their passion and love for one another? Where does the ardor for a lifetime of mutual submission and servanthood and love come from?

The answer to that last question: the Holy Spirit himself who is the Maker and Sustainer of any marriage, even, I believe, non Christian marriages. But no one ever said it was going to be easy. Worthwhile, yes, but not easy.

No Dark Valley by Jamie Langston Turner

Jul21

Jamie Langston Turner is one of my “go-to” authors for Christian-themed fiction. So when I saw a copy of a novel by Ms. Turner that I hadn’t yet read while I was perusing the shelves at Half-Price Books, I bought it without a second thought. And I’m glad I did.

No Dark Valley is a little more “religious” than some of Ms. Turner’s other novels, although all of them are about how ordinary people find redemption and strength through faith in Jesus. Nevertheless, just like the characters in her other books, the characters in No Dark Valley are real. I can imagine meeting these people, talking to them, understanding them. There are no pasteboard saints in this story, although Ms. Turner does indulge in a meta-fiction thread that runs through the novel about how Celia, the protagonist, imagines that her life and the people in it would never be believable as fiction:

“Another reason her life would make a bad novel, Celia had decided, was that the characters would seem so stereotyped. Nobody would believe that one person could have so many rigidly religious relatives, all stuck in the rut of such predictable, countrified ways of viewing life, all trekking to church several times a week, all so unaware that the twentieth century had come and gone. You could get by with one or two characters like that in a book, for quirky splashes of color, but not dozens and dozens of them. The whole thing would turn into a farce.”

Of course, the funny thing about No Dark Valley was that I found the characters to be quite plausible and true to life–my life in the South, in the Bible Belt. I’m not sure if Ms. Turner was actually worried that readers would find her Christian characters stereotypical and so wrote her concerns into the book, or if she was simply having fun with Celia and her own rigid ways of thinking. (Celia is a champion at projecting her own rigidity and prejudice onto her relatives and others.) Either way, Celia’s interior monologue, and later in the novel when the point of view switches to Celia’s neighbor, Bruce Healy, his thoughts, are both relatable and authentic.

No Dark Valley is both a romance story and a conversion story. Jamie Langston Turner’s prose is intelligent, vivid, and sometimes crosses over into the poetic. I really enjoy Ms. Turner’s novels. If they can be classified as “Christian chicklit”, it’s excellent, smart Christian chick lit.

Jamie Langston Turner’s other books:
Suncatchers
Some Wildflower in My Heart (1998)
By the Light of a Thousand Stars (1999)
A Garden to Keep (2001)
Winter Birds (2006)
Sometimes a Light Surprises (2009)

And if you like a series of novels with recurring and overlapping characters, Ms Turner’s novels, like those of another of my favorite writers, Madeleine L’Engle, have characters from one novel that reappear in later books. In No Dark Valley, Eldeen Rafferty from Suncatchers makes a (loud) appearance. Margaret Tuttle, from Some Wildflower in My Heart, is the friend of a friend. And Elizabeth Landis from A Garden to Keep becomes a friend and mentor to Celia as the two women play on a tennis team together.

And now I have to admit that Ms. Turner and I have a little bit of a mutual admiration society going here, and I am pleased to read that she has a new novel coming out in 2014.

Saturday Review of Books: July 20, 2013

Jul19

“He won’t read a book that contains love-making or death-beds.’Does anybody marry?’ ‘Does anybody die?’ are his first questions about a book, so naturally his reading is much restricted.” ~Anna Buchan

Are there any subjects that you just won’t read about at all? Any disqualifying question that you ask about a book before you start into it?

SatReviewbutton

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.

1. Girl Detective (Harriet the Spy)
2. Girl Detective (Around Beauty)
3. Girl Detective (A Matter of Life GN)
4. Girl Detective (Maddaddam)
5. Girl Detective (The Ocean at the End of the Lane)
6. Hope (Okay for Now by Gary D. Schmidt)
7. Becky (All The Truth That Is In Me)
8. Becky (Death in the Clouds/Christie)
9. Becky (The Frog Who Croaked/Platypus Police Squad)
10. Becky (Second Fiddle)
11. Becky (Four Nonfiction PictureBook Biographies)
12. Becky (Half Magic/Eager)
13. Becky (By Grace Alone)
14. Becky (Cost of Discipleship)
15. Becky (Chosen by God)		 16. Becky (A Big Year for Lily)
17. Susanne (Sherlock Holmes & the Needle’s Eye)
18. Beth@Weavings (Cordelia Underwood)
19. Beth@Weavings (Badge of Honor)
20. Amy @ Hope Is the Word (Illusion by Frank Perretti)
21. Amy @ Hope Is the Word (Hattie Ever After)
22. Carol in Oregon (Lark Rise to Candleford)
23. SuziQoregon @ Whimpulsive (Under the Dome)
24. SuziQoregon @ Whimpulsive (Hawkeye Vol. 1: My Life as a Weapon)
25. Thoughts of Joy (Let’s Take the Long Way Home)
26. Thoughts of Joy (Down to the Wire)
27. Thoughts of Joy (Killer Ambition)
28. Glynn Young (Dragonfyre)
29. Glynn Young (Significant Work)
30. Lazygal (In Falling Snow)		 31. Lazygal (If I Ever Get Out of Here)
32. Lazygal (The Quarry)
33. Lazygal (The Thinking Woman’s Guide to Real Magic)
34. Reading World (The Golden Dice)
35. Beckie @ ByTheBook (A Big Year for Lily)
36. Beckie @ ByTheBook (Rosemary Cottage)
37. Beckie @ ByTheBook (Pretty Is As Pretty Does)
38. Beckie @ ByTheBook (Fright At The Museum)
39. Beckie @ ByTheBook (Soul’s Gate)
40. Silvia (Remains of the Day)
41. Danzel (Ozma of Oz)
42. Melissa (The Joy of Origami)
43. Anna @ Diary of an Eccentric (Lord of the Flies)
44. Anna @ Diary of an Eccentric (Letters From Skye)

Powered by… Mister Linky’s Magical Widgets.

Seeing Through the Fog by Ed Dobson

Jul19

I think that had I met Ed Dobson twenty years ago, we would have annoyed each other. That was before he was diagnosed with AML, Lou Gehrig’s disease, and before I had my own peculiar area of suffering and grief in my life. Wikipedia says that Ed Dobson, who used to work for Jerry Falwell and who used to be a leader in the Moral Majority, went on to pastor a large church in Michigan and became a mentor to Rob Bell, the Love Wins guy. I freely admit that I find aspects of the Moral Majority’s agenda and of Rob Bell’s teaching to be suspect and annoying.

Nevertheless, reading Mr. Dobson’s reflections on facing his own mortality and suffering, Seeing Through the Fog, was an encouraging, life-affirming, God-glorifying experience. This book is not Rob Bell speculating on things beyond his understanding (or mine). It’s not a legalist Christian giving a list of rules to be kept and sins to be repented. Seeing Through the Fog is the honest, painfully honest, meditations of a man who is facing a slow deterioration of his muscles and of his ability to care for himself and for others. And he’s not thankful for all the horrible, life-sucking symptoms and disabilities that manifest as AML. He’s not happy all the time, and he doesn’t know why God doesn’t heal him. However, Mr. Dobson’s memoir is an inspiration because he continues to embrace the life that God has given him, continues to serve others, and learns to accept the help and service of friends and family, with thanksgiving.

The book reminded me a somewhat of The Little Way of Ruthie Leming by Rod Dreher. Mr. Dobson pursues healing, too, like Ruthie did. His life gets smaller, and richer in some ways, as the disease progresses. He learns to appreciate his family, his wife in particular, in new ways as he must depend on her for help with daily tasks. And still the disease itself is not a good thing. No one has to feel as if reading this book will make them feel guilty for not embracing their own personal suffering as unqualified blessing. Instead, in Rod Dreher’s book about his sister and in Mr. Dobson’s essays on his experience with AML, we are called to see the suffering and disease as realities that may be used by God to teach us and mold us and even bring us into His presence.

Going Clear by Lawrence Wright

Jul16

Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief by Lawrence Wright.

Wow! After reading Mr. Wright’s exposé of L. Ron Hubbard’s “new religion” of Scientology, I want to make sure that I and my family never even read any of Mr. Hubbard’s multitudinous works of fiction, much less his supposed nonfiction best sellers such as Dianetics and Self Analysis, to name only a couple of the many, many books he wrote and published. (Mitt Romney said during his run for the presidency that his favorite novel was Battlefield Earth by L. Ron Hubbard. That’s a little disturbing on several levels.) Yes, I know that sounds a little paranoid, and the books themselves may or may not be harmlessly entertaining, but the information about the abusiveness of Scientology in Going Clear is just that disturbing. So disturbing that I’m looking for my ten foot pole.

Scientology doesn’t get many (any) kudos in this book by a Pulitzer prize winning author and journalist. Famous Scientologists come across as either well-meaning fools (John Travolta) or deluded jerks (Tom Cruise). Hubbard himself seems to have been a megalomaniac with delusions of grandeur and a sadistic streak. Then, of course, he did establish a religious empire with millions of dollars in assets and a lot (Scientology won’t say exactly how many, with estimates varying widely and wildly) of adherents.

I won’t go into the specific abuses and illegalities that Mr. Wright alleges against Hubbard and the Scientology organization. You can read the book for more corrupt and salacious details than you probably want to know. I will warn anyone who is even considering taking one of Scientology’s copious and expensive courses that he or she should read Wright’s book first. If even half of what Mr. Wright writes is right, then you will want to stay as far away from Scientology as possible.

Of course, Lawrence implies in the final chapters of his book that all religious faiths are much the same as Scientology in their irrationality and odd beliefs. He writes, ” . . . every religion features bizarre and uncanny elements.” Then he proceeds to compare Scientology to Christian Science, the Amish, Shakers, Buddhists, Pentecostals, and several other groups. He’s struggling to put Scientology into some sort of context, but there is very little precedent for an L. Ron Hubbard and his invention of a money-making pseudo-science that outlived its founder. To invoke one of those beliefs that Mr. Wright classifies as bizarre, I think Scientology is simply demonic.

Read the book and weep for those who are enmeshed in a belief system that defies belief. I especially felt moved to pray for those children who are raised and indoctrinated in Mr. Hubbard’s exploitative religion. I believe the only Power that can free them from such an insidious and insane cult is the power and sanity of Jesus Christ.

Famous Scientologists and former Scientologists. I was surprised to read (not in this book but online as I looked up information) that author Neil Gaiman was raised in a Scientology family. He has left the Church of Scientology as an adult, but prefers not to talk about it either negatively or positively, probably because he still has family members who are deeply involved in Scientology.

Other author connections with Scientology:
Science fiction author Robert Heinlein was close friends with L. Ron Hubbard in their early days in the 1940’s as aspiring writers of science fiction. In fact, Hubbard had an affair with Heinlein’s wife, after which they weren’t such good friends anymore.

L. Ron Hubbard’s Writers of the Future contest for new writers of science fiction and Illustrators of the Future contest are “prestigious and lucrative. They feature judges who are among the biggest names in the field, and they’ve helped launch the careers of important new artists.” These contests are administrated, sponsored, and funded by a subsidiary of The Church of Scientology. However, the judges and the authors who win the annual contests are, for the most part, not members of the Church of Scientology. (Scientology’s Writers of the Future Contest, Village Voice, by Tony Ortega)

Uncommon Criminals by Ally Carter

Jul15

First, I read Ally Carter’s novelette, Double Crossed, on my Kindle. It’s an intersection between her Gallagher Girls books and her Heist Society adventure novels. Macey Henry, Gallagher Girl, meets W.W. Hale the Fifth and his maybe girlfriend Katarina Bishop, the daughter of an infamous family of con men and criminals. Macey and Hale foil a gang of would-be jewel thieves at a high society charity event while Kat and Gallagher Girls’ Covert Operations teacher, Abby Cameron, provide help from the outside.

So, after getting a taste of Heist Society adventure, I remembered that I hadn’t yet found the time to read the second book in the Heist Society series, Uncommon Criminals, even though I bought it for Brown Bear Daughter for Christmas. And since said daughter is in Slovakia, I have unfettered access to her books. So, while waiting for the fireworks to start at the 4th of July celebration in Friendswood, I read about jewel thieves and con artists and the people who love them.

The book reads like a movie, a romantic adventure sort of movie, which, if one could go back in time, would suit a young Cary Grant playing opposite Grace Kelly or Audrey Hepburn. Most of the story takes place in Monaco, which is probably why I thought of Grace Kelly. Alfred Hitchcock, of course, would direct. A young Jimmy Stewart could play the second love interest, Nick. I’m not sure who would play Katarina and Hale in a movie made with actual actors who are available nowadays.

At any rate, Ms. Carter has created a couple of fine, entertaining series for teens: The Gallagher Girls spy novels and the Heist Society crime caper novels. Try either series, but read the books in order and get ready to have some fun. Classify these as light summer (or anytime) reading when you’re in the mood for a little mind candy.

Gallagher Girls Series
I’d Tell You I Love You, But Then I’d Have to Kill You (2006)
Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy (2007)
Don’t Judge a Girl by Her Cover (2009)
Only the Good Spy Young (2010)
Out of Sight, Out of Time (2012)
United We Spy(2013)

Heist Society Series
Heist Society (2010)
Uncommon Criminals (2011)
Perfect Scoundrels (2013)

Novella cross between the two series: Double-Crossed (2013)

Now, I still need to read United We Spy and Perfect Scoundrels. I’ll probably save them for my next summer event that involves waiting in a crowd or mild distractions that aren’t conducive to reading more serious tomes. Actually, these books would be just the right ones to keep on your e-reader and pull up in case of just such a reading emergency.

New Clothes for New Year’s Day by Hyun-Joo Bae

Jul13

Picture Book Around the World: Reading Through Korea I’m working hard on my Picture Book Around the World sequel to Picture Book Preschool, my preschool read aloud curriculum for homeschooling your preschooler or kindergartner. This week at Semicolon, we’re going to be visiting Korea through the medium of a treasure trove of picture books featuring that country and its children.

An adorable little Korean girl puts on her new clothes for New Year’s Day. She’s wearing:
Saekdong jeogori–a jacket made of colorful fabric. The one in the book has a rainbow of stripes down the sleeves with tiny images on the vest part.

Norigae–a charm that hangs from the jacket. I might skip this part of the text if I didn’t want to explain good luck charms to my read aloud buddy.

Chima–a red silk skirt.

Baessi Danggi–a decorated headband.

Ttitdon–a special ornament to link the charm to the jacket.

Jumeoni–a lucky bag.

Jobawi–a hat worn behind the headband to keep her head warm.

Beoseon–cotton socks with embroidered decorations on them.

Kkotsin–leather shoes covered with embroidered silk.

The book shows the unnamed little girl putting on each piece of her new wardrobe—all by herself and very carefully. In one picture the girl tumbles head over heels as she pulls on her new socks. In another, she struggles with her hair ribbon, until she gets it just right. One page does mention the “good luck charm” and “lucky bag”, but the emphasis is on starting out the new year with new clothes and a new attitude.

This picture book was originally published in Korea, and the illustrations are crisp, bright, colorful, and confined, to give a brilliant introduction to traditional Korean clothes and furnishings. In fact, the text is OK, but it’s the pictures in this one that shine. Read this one to your little girl, and she will want her own Korean New Year’s outfit. Time to play dress-up.

Other reviews:
Kelly at BigALittleA: “It’s a simple, yet beautiful and optimistic tale, completed by Hyun-Joo Bae’s stunning illustrations.”

The Miss Rumphius Effect: “Reading this made me reflect back on all those days of grade school when I waited anxiously to put on my “best” new outfit for that important first day. You can’t help but feel the excitement of the young girl as she dresses from head to toe.”

Jama’s Alphabet Soup: “There is joy in each piece, from the crimson silk skirt, to the rainbow-striped jacket, delicate socks embroidered with flowers, to the hair ribbon of red and gold.”