12, no, 13, Best Middle Grade Fantasy/Science Fiction Books of 2016

Jan6

I read about 100 middle grade fiction books out of all the ones that were published in 2016. These are the ones, a baker’s dozen, that I thought were the best of the lot.

The Evil Wizard Smallbone by Delia Sherman.

When the Sea Turned to Silver by Grace Lin.

Time Traveling With a Hamster by Ross Welford.

The Firefly Code by Megan Frazer Blakemore.

Edge of Extinction: The Ark Plan by Laura Martin.

Voyage to Magical North by Claire Fayers.

The Secret Keepers by Trenton Lee Stewart.

The Nine Lives of Jacob Tibbs by Cylin Busby.

Sophie Quire and the Last Storyguard (Peter Nimble, #2) by Jonathan Auxier.

The Goblin’s Puzzle: The Adventures of a Boy With No Name and Two Girls Called Alice by Andrew S. Chilton.

Red: The True Story of Red Riding Hood by Liesl Shurtliff.

Fuzzy by Tom Angleberger.

The Girl Who Drank the Moon by Kelly Barnhill.

12 Historical Fiction Books Set in the 18th Century

Jan5

I hope to read these recommended books sometime this year:

Fire by Bill Bright and Jack Cavanaugh.

Storm by Bill Bright and Jack Cavanaugh. The Yale Revival of 1798-1800.

Spider in a Tree by Susan Stinson. About Jonathan Edwards and his family.

Waverley by Sir Walter Scott. A young English dreamer and soldier, Edward Waverley, is sent to Scotland in 1745, into the heart of the Jacobite uprising.

The Book of Fires by Jane Borodale.

Demelza: A Novel of Cornwall, 1788-1790 by Winston Graham.

Jeremy Poldark: A Novel of Cornwall, 1790-1791 by Winston Graham.

Warleggan: A Novel of Cornwall, 1792-1793 by Winston Graham.

The Black Moon: A Novel of Cornwall, 1794-1795 by Winston Graham.

Thorn in My Heart (Lowlands of Scotland Series #1) by Liz Curtis Higgs. “In the autumn of 1788, amid the moors and glens of the Scottish Lowlands, two brothers and two sisters each embark on a painful journey of discovery.” (Amazon)

Ashes by Laurie Halse Anderson. Third and final book in the Seeds of America Trilogy.

Scandalmonger by William Safire. James Callender, was a Scots immigrant who became an American journalist in the 1790s before his suspicious death in 1804: he drowned in three feet of James River swamp water. Callender interacted with and influenced all the great names of the day: Aaron Burr, Madison, Monroe, Jefferson, and of course, Alexander Hamilton, and the late great Safire includes them all in his sweeping novel.

I’m also interested in Gore Vidal’s Burr, A Conspiracy of Paper by David Liss, Rob Roy by Sir Walter Scott, The Lost Ones by Norah Lofts (about Princess Caroline Matilda, younger sister of George III), Devil’s Cub and The Convenient Marriage by Georgette Heyer, and Bonnie Prince Charlie by G.A. Henry—-if I can get the first twelve read, then maybe I’ll look at these.

Other suggestions?

12 Best Adult Fiction Books I Read in 2016

Jan4

The Chequer Board by Nevil Shute.

The Martian by Andy Weir.

Ordinary Grace by William Kent Krueger. Frank Drum, son of a Methodist minister, looks back on his thirteenth summer in Bremen, Minnesota where he and his brother Jake experienced death, secrets, false accusations, prejudice and growing up.

The Ringed Castle by Dorothy DUnnett.

Checkmate by Dorothy Dunnett. These are the final two books in the Lymond series about a ne’er do well younger brother to a Scottish lord. Lymond ranges across Europe and the Middle East in these books, set during the sixteenth century, as he pursues adventure and romance.

Captain Blood by Rafael Sabatini. Pirates!

Still Alice by Lisa Genova.

Come Rain or Come Shine by Jan Karon. Dooley and Lace finally get married, not without comic mishaps and a few misunderstandings.

Ross Poldark by Winston Graham. Half of the first Poldark season is contained in this first novel in the series.

The Book of Strange New Things by Michel Faber.

Talking to Strange Men by Ruth Rendell.

To round this list off to twelve, I’ll add a book that has been on my TBR list for a while, but that I have not yet read. However, Computer Guru Son says that one of the best books he read in 2016 was The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah. It’s just been moved up to the top of my 2017 TBR list.

Links are to my reviews here at Semicolon.

12 Books from my Library to Read in 2017

Jan3

Tales of Persia: Missionary Stories from Islamic Iran by William McElwee Miller. Mr. Miller spent forty-five years as a missionary to the Muslim people of Persia, now called Iran. These stories of God’s revealing of His son to people in Iran are written as devotional narratives to be read aloud to children, but I would like to read them myself.

Susan Creek by Douglas Wilson. “Set during The Great Awakening.” I am planning to have Jonathan Edwards as my historical mentor this year, so a book set during this time period makes sense.

John Treegate’s Musket by Leonard Wibberley.

Peter Treegate’s War by Leonard Wibberley.

Jamie Ireland, Freedom’s Champion by William N. McElrath.

Kidnapped: The Adventures of David Balfour by Robert Louis Stevenson.

Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr: their lives, their times, their duel by Anna Erskine Crouse. Because of Hamilton, the musical, of course.

A Burning & Shining Light: The Life & Ministry of David Brainerd by Denise C. Stubbs. Jonathan Edwards edited and compiled missionary David Brainerd’s diary along with biographical notes after the missionary’s death.

In Search of Honor by Donalynn Hess. French revolution.

In Mozart’s Shadow by Carolyn Meyer. Historical fiction about Mozart’s sister, Nannerl.

Evangeline and the Acadians by Robert Tallant. A Landmark history book.

The Slave Who Freed Haiti: The Story of Toussaint Louverture by Katherine Scherman. A Landmark history book.

The Prisoners of September by Leon Garfield. French revolution historical fiction.

12 Books on Christian Topics I Want to Read in 2017

Jan2

These books from this list by Tony Reinke are all intriguing for one reason or another:

Exalting Jesus in Hebrews by Albert Mohler. CCEC (March, 2017). The Bible study group I’m in will be studying Hebrews this spring and summer, so this book comes at just the right time.

The Imperfect Disciple: Grace for People Who Can’t Get Their Act Together by Jared Wilson. (May, 2017).

Katharina and Martin Luther: The Radical Marriage of a Runaway Nun and a Renegade Monk by Michelle DeRusha. (January, 2017).

Benjamin Franklin: The Religious Life of a Founding Father by Thomas Kidd. (May, 2017).

Then, because I plan to make a study of the life and works of Jonathan Edwards in 2017, the following books are on my TBR list:

A Quest for Godliness: The Puritan Vision of the Christian Life by John Piper.

Jonathan Edwards: A New Biography by Iain H. Murray.

Jonathan Edwards: A Life by George M. Marsden.

God’s Passion for His Glory: Living the Vision of Jonathan Edwards by John Piper.

Of course, in addition to these, I hope I’ll be reading at least some of Edwards’ actual sermons and treatises.

And these are 2016 and even older titles that I didn’t get around to reading when they were new, but I want to read now:
None Like Him: 10 Ways God is Different From Us (And Why That’s a Good Thing) by Jen Wilkin.

Enjoy: Finding the Freedom to Delight Daily in God’s Good Gifts by Trillia Newbell.

A Wind in the House of Islam by David Garrison.

Projects, Plans, and Themes for 2017

Jan1

I love planning projects, making lists, and deciding on reading and study themes for a new year or semester. I used to satisfy this urge by making up homeschool plans and imposing them upon my unsuspecting and mostly unprotesting progeny. Now, I only have one homeschool student, and lest she bear the brunt of all my schemes and dreams, I will make this list for myself and for whomever would like to join me in these projects for 2017.

1. My spiritual and intellectual mentor for 2017 is Jonathan Edwards, a fascinating philosopher and pastor in Colonial America. Most people who know of Mr. Edwards have read nothing of his other than his sermon, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.” However, he was a much more prolific writer and thinker than that one sermon could embody. In fact, he wrote more about the love of God than about His anger, although he would have insisted that both were compatible aspects of the One God. Anyway, I plan to read about Edwards, and I hope to read some of Edwards’ own writings, at least those that I can understand and assimilate, for myself.

2. In keeping with my Jonathan Edwards (b.1703, d.1758) project and with my and my children’s current fascination with all things Alexander Hamilton, I plan to read a lot of books (and maybe watch some movies) set in the 18th and early 19th centuries (more in a separate post). I hope to post here at Semicolon on Thursdays about something, probably a book, eighteenth or early nineteenth century related.

3. 2017 Friday Night Film Club. Films on Fridays, reviews and afterthoughts here at Semicolon on Monday mornings. I’ll write more about this project in a separate post.

4. Meriadoc Homeschool Library, of course. I have story time every other Wednesday morning, and then there’s just the project of keeping the books organized and checked in and out—and adding to the collection from time to time.

5. As far as Bible study is concerned, my Bible study group will be studying the book of Hebrews for the first six months of 2017. I hope to post about Hebrews and what God teaches me there once a week or so, maybe on Sundays. I also plan to continue Bible journaling, which for me involves notes written in one of my Bibles, not drawings, and the copy work I have been doing from the Psalms. I have been copying one Psalm or part of a Psalm two or three times a week to enclose in a letter to my son. He seems to appreciate it, and it does my soul good to write the Scriptures out.

6. Texas Tuesday. I plan to read a Texas-related book each Sunday or Monday, mostly children’s books, and then post about it on Tuesday mornings.

7. My word for 2017 is TRUST. I want to learn to trust God above all, but also how and when to trust others, how to rebuild trust when it has been betrayed, and how to regain the trust of others when I have failed them. I want to trust more and worry less, even when things look dark.

8. I’d like to try out at least one new recipe each week, but I’m usually more ambitious in the thinking than in the doing when it comes to cooking. If you have an excellent (easy and tasty) recipe for me to try this year, please leave a comment with link to the recipe or with the recipe itself. Bonus points if the dish is also healthy. We don’t do healthy around here much.

9. Daily exercise project. I need it, and I’m abysmally bad at it. Enough said.

10. I have several boxes of books to sell, mostly duplicates of books in my library, older children’s titles, ex-library, Landmark histories, Childhood of Famous Americans, and others. I hope to get those posted online, sold, and shipped in January or February. If anyone here at the blog is interested in seeing the list of books for sale when I get it made, leave me a comment or email me privately. (sherryDOTearlyATgmailDOTcom)

That plus family and church and reading wildly and widely ought to keep me busy and out of trouble, as my mother would say. What are you doing to stay out of trouble in 2017?

The Girl Who Drank the Moon by Kelly Barnhill

Dec30

Kelly Barnhill on writing The Girl Who Drank the Moon: “I started writing this book, finally, in a small purple notebook at four in the morning in an un-air-conditioned motel room in Costa Rica during my honeymoon.”

The Girl Who Drank the Moon may be much too witchy for some readers. It was a little too witchy for me. There’s a mostly good witch, and a bad witch, and a fellowship of Sisters who are really deluded and autocratic, or blind follower, witches, and a young girl who grows up to be a good witch under the tutelage of the first witch in this list. From all of that witchiness it may seem that the book is about witches, but it’s really about magic, and growing up, and child sacrifice, and adoptive families, and birth families, and extended families. In all of those “abouts” or themes, I thought the book was so good that I didn’t mind the witchiness too much, although I’d rather the word “magician” or something else were used.

The characters are Xan, the Witch in the Forest; and Glerk, the Swamp Monster; and Fyrian, the Perfectly Tiny Dragon; and Luna, the baby who is enmagicked by feeding on too much magical moonlight. The story tells of Luna’s childhood with her adoptive mother, Xan, deep in the forest, and of the harsh life of the villagers who live in the Protectorate on the edge of the forest. The villagers are governed by the dictatorial Council of Elders and by the Sisters of the Star, and they live lives of deprivation and poverty while the Elders and the Sisterhood benefit from the villagers’ fear of the forest witch and their sorrow over the many infants that have been sacrificed to appease the witch.

I could not help thinking of the many, many infants that have been sacrificed to Fear and to autocratic Old Men in our own country over the years since Roe v. Wade became the law of the land in 1973. How much sorrow has fed how many demons since that edict was handed down?

The Girl Who Drank the Moon is not an anti-abortion book, or any kind of Book With a Message. I’m not sure the author ever intended the analogy to be drawn between the babies sacrificed to the witch and the babies sacrificed to abortion. Nevertheless, I can’t be the only one who saw the underlying similarity. This book is a lovely story with beautiful writing and memorable characters.

Examples of the beautiful sentences that will draw and hold word-lovers:

“This is what allows her to wander the world, spreading her malevolence and sorrow. This is what allows her to elude capture. We have no power. Our grief is without remedy.”

“Her mother gathered the flowers of particular climbing vines and sapped them of their essences and combined them with honey that she pulled from the wild hives in the tallest trees. She would climb to the tops, as nimble as a spider, and then send the honeycombs down in baskets on ropes for Xan to catch. Xan was not allowed to taste. In theory. She would anyway. And her mother would climb down and kiss the honey from her little-girl lips.”

Lots more lovely writing is available in this book if you like that sort of thing (I do).

12 Quotes Apropos of 2016

Dec29

“My style of deal-making is quite simple and straightforward. I aim very high, and then I just keep pushing and pushing and pushing to get what I’m after.”
~Donald J. Trump, Trump: The Art of the Deal.

“To have power without the proper vision of how to use it makes one blind. Greed makes one blind. Fear makes one blind. It is difficult to see when you walk in darkness.” ~Behind the Canvas by Alexander Vance.

“We sit by and watch the Barbarian, we tolerate him; in the long stretches of peace we are not afraid. We are tickled by his irreverence, his comic inversion of our old certitudes and our fixed creeds refreshes us: we laugh.
But as we laugh we are watched by large and awful faces from beyond; and on these faces there is no smile.” ~The Servile State by Hilaire Belloc.

“You can resolve to live your life with integrity. Let your credo be this: Let the lie come into the world, let it even triumph. But not through me.” Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn.

“Disgusted alike at the facility with which the sovereign of a warlike nation could resign his people and his crown into the hands of a treacherous invader, and at the pusillanimity of the nobles who had ratified the sacrifice, William Wallace retired to the glen of Ellerslie.” ~The Scottish Chiefs by Jane Porter.

“It is not a question of God ‘sending us’ to hell. In each of us there is something growing that will BE Hell unless it is nipped in the bud.” ~C.S. Lewis

“Hell is simply one’s freely chosen identity apart from God on a trajectory into infinity.” ~Tim Keller, The Reason for God.

“If you draw a giraffe, you must draw him with a long neck. If, in your bold creative way, you hold yourself free to draw a giraffe with a short neck, you will really find that you are not free to draw a giraffe. The moment you step into the world of facts, you step into a world of limits.” ~GK Chesterton

“There are only two kinds of people we can call reasonable: either those who serve God with their whole heart because they know him, or those who search after him with all their heart because they do not know him.” ~Blaise Pascal

“Being happy in God and living righteously tastes far better for far longer than sin does. When my hunger and thirst for joy is satisfied by Christ, sin becomes unattractive. I say no to immorality not because I hate pleasure but because I want the enduring pleasure found in Christ.”
~Randy Alcorn, Happiness

“Remember: the most perfect machinery of government will not keep us as a nation from destruction if there is not within us a soul. No abounding material prosperity shall avail us if our spiritual senses atrophy. Do justice and fight valiantly against those that stand for the reign of Molech and Beelzebub on this earth. Love mercy; treat your enemies well, succor the afflicted; treat every woman as if she were your own sister; care for the little children; and be tender to the old and helpless. Walk humbly; You will do so if you study the life and teaching of the Savior, walking in His steps.” ~Theodore Roosevelt

“And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility and Union.” ~Abraham Lincoln, October 1863.

12 Best Nonfiction Books I Read in 2016

Dec28

For the Glory: Eric Liddell’s Journey from Olympic Champion to Modern Martyr by Duncan Hamilton. The best nonfiction book I read in 2016, and maybe the best book of any kind from 2016. Mr. Liddell’s life, told from a mostly secular perspective, but wth great respect and appreciation for his faith and his God-given goodness and perseverance, is an inspiring read. I was deeply moved to read about what God can and will do with one man who determines to follow Him.

Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption by Bryan Stevenson. More disturbing than inspiring, although the book had its inspirational moments. It’s hard to believe that injustices like those chronicled in this book

Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen by Christopher McDougall. This book and the next one on this list, about ultra-marathons and ultra-marathoners, are odd picks for a sedentary 59 year old reader, but I’m always interested in being introduced to worlds and communities that are foreign to me. The world of ultra-marathon running was certainly that: foreign and fascinating.

Running Man by Charlie Engle.

Irena’s Children: The Extraordinary Story of the Woman Who Saved 2,500 Children from the Warsaw Ghetto by Tilar Mazzeo. Wonderful biography of a Polish heroine.

How the Scots Invented the Modern World: The True Story of How Western Europe’s Poorest Nation Created Our World and Everything in It by Arthur Herman.

The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism by Timothy Keller.

Happiness by Randy Alcorn. Everything you ever wanted to know about a Biblical perspective on joy and happiness, including quotes from every conceivable writer who ever wrote anything about happiness and the pursuit thereof.

The Little Bookstore of Big Stone Gap: A Memoir of Friendship, Community, and the Uncommon Pleasure of a Good Book by Wendy Welch. Almost every reader has had the thought, even if only a passing thought, of how fun it would be to own a bookstore. This book tells all about the pitfalls and perils of running a bookstore while still managing to make it sound like fun.

Joy: Poet, Seeker, and the Woman Who Captivated C. S. Lewis by Abigail Santamaria. I’ll admit that I was somewhat disillusioned with Ms. Davidson-Lewis who seems to have been exactly what many of C.S. Lewis’s friends and associates thought she was: a woman who was out to seduce and marry Mr. Lewis before she was even divorced from her first husband. And she was deeply involved with Scientology, of all things, in her younger pre-Lewis days. But still, she seems to have been a complicated and multi-faceted woman, and the love of Lewis’s life. So I’ll give her the benefit of the doubt.

The Boy Who Became Buffalo Bill: Growing Up Billy Cody in Bleeding Kansas by Andrea Warren. Excellent children’s biography of the great showman, illuminating Bill Cody’s life as well as the times he lived in.

The Fellowship: The Literary Lives of the Inklings: J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Owen Barfield, Charles Williams by Phillip Zaleski. In this one, I was disillusioned, or enlightened, mostly about the strange life and theology and philosophy of Mr. Charles Williams, who seems to have been a Christian and at the same time a very confused and odd man. Tolkien, Williams, Barfield, and the two Lewises, Jack and Warnie, were a motley crew, and according to this telling of the story, Jack (C.S.) Lewis was the only thread that held them together as the Inklings.

Ghost by Jason Reynolds

Dec27

The best middle grade sports fiction I’ve read in a long time. Ghost is a book about running, literally running track and metaphorically running away form circumstances and difficulties of life, trying to run away from oneself.

Seventh grader Castle Creshaw has given himself a nickname, Ghost. Ever since his drunken, abusive dad fired a gun at him and his mom, Ghost knows how to run—and run fast. He thinks of himself as a basketball player, since that’s the game with most credibility and reputation in his neighborhood, but when he accidentally becomes involved with a track team, he finds his talent, his sport, and his community. Coach becomes his substitute father figure, and the team becomes Ghost’s family. But what will Ghost do when it all threatens to fall apart, and the disintegration is all Ghost’s fault?

This short novel could sound like a cliched high interest/low reading level sports fable. “Troubled African American boy from a poverty-stricken neighborhood and family discovers his sports talent and learns to be a man under the tutelage of a wise and caring coach.” And the book is short, only 180 pages. And Ghost sounds like a seventh grader, a twelve year old, somewhat street-wise, but not jaded or too cynical about himself or others in spite of his family history. These are things—the simple plot, the length, and the voice of Ghost as narrator–that combine to make the book accessible.

But Ghost has a little something extra that makes it transcend the genre. Maybe it’s the minor characters, other members of Ghost’s track team, who seem as if they could jump out of the pages of this novel as full, well-rounded characters themselves. (Ghost is the first book in a planned series, so maybe the other team members will get their own book.) Or maybe Ghost is good because I really wasn’t sure how the crisis was going to be resolved in the end. Maybe I just liked that the book is realistic and believable, but also hopeful. Ghost experiences consequences for his very poor decisions over the course of the story, but those consequences don’t ultimately ruin his life. I like that a lot.

I would suggest Ghost for runners and readers and readers who run, and for anyone else who wants a feel-good sports story that will draw you in and capture your heart.