This nonfiction book is a fascinating account of the 1857 sinking of the SS Central America and the recovery of her treasures from the deep sea during the 1980’s. It’s an adventure story and history, but it’s also an inspirational look at a talented engineer and scientist, Tommy Thompson, whose ingenuity, persistence, integrity, and vision made the recovery possible.

In 1857 the SS Central America was carrying more than 500 passengers back from the gold fields of California. It was also carrying gold, shipments from the new San Francisco Mint and the gold that the passengers were bringing back in triumph from their adventures during the California Gold Rush. Many of the passengers were miners, now former miners, returning home. As they sailed up the east coast of the United States, the ship encountered stormy weather that blew them off course and eventually sunk the ship with most of the men still on board. (The women and children were all saved.) All that gold ended up at the bottom of the sea.

More than 100 years later, a kid in his early thirties named Tommy Thompson had a vision for exploring in the deep ocean where no one had really been able to explore or work before. He was a guy with lots of ideas, and he had the intelligence, the engineering ability and education, and the persistence and attention to detail to follow through on some of those big ideas and make them a reality. Finding the SS Central America and her treasure while also exploring the ocean at depths that had never been seen before was one of Thompson’s many dreams.

The book tells about the sinking of the Central America and about the individual stories of the survivors. Then, it turns to the story of how Tommy Thompson goes about finding the funding from investors, finding the cutting-edge engineering that he needs to search for and recover the treasure, and finally finding the ship. It takes years to do it, but after much hard work and millions of dollars spent, Thompson is able to not only find the Central America and its gold but also to establish a working presence in the deep ocean more than 200 miles offshore in order to recover the ship’s artifacts piece by piece.

I was so impressed with Mr. Thompson’s hard work and dedication. So I did what anyone might do: I looked him up on the internet to see what wonderful things he was doing now. (The events in the book took place in the 1980’s, and the book was published in 1998.) Whoops. It’s still a good book, but “the rest of the story” is sad, bad, and disillusioning. It looks as if the treasure turned Mr. Thompson’s life upside down, not in good ways. I was prepared to find him doing great things after I read the book, but instead I was saddened by the events subsequent to the book’s ending in 1989. You can read more about Thompson’s downfall here.

Or just read the book and stay off the internet to maintain your illusions. It’s probably what I should have done. (Not that the book is inaccurate, just incomplete.)

Claire Hucher Bishop worked in the first French children’s library in Paris. She told stories there, and later continued to be a storyteller at the New York Public Library after she moved to the United States. Then, she became a writer and published several acclaimed books for children: The Man Who Lost His Head, The Truffle Pig, The Five Chinese Brothers, All Alone, and Twenty and Ten, among others. Most of her books are set in France, Ms. Bishop’s native country.

[S]he did the research for The Big Loop in the summer of 1953. Being French, she had always been interested in the spectacular Tour de France, but it was not until she happened to study the results of a sociological test given to French factory workers that she realized how acutely most of them had yearned for bicycles as boys or how heart-rending were their struggles to get them. A bicycle, which an American child might hope for with confidence, is often an impossible luxury for a young person in France.

So, with a story forming in her mind, Mrs. Bishop interviewed boys who dreamed of racing, actual racers, managers, engineers, photographers, and past champions. During the 1953 Tour de France she subscribed to two daily sports papers, watched the racers go by in several different parts of France, and was among the crowd of 40,000 who acclaimed the winner at the Parc des Princes in Paris.

This book is the story of classmates in France just after World War II and their desire to compete in the Tour de France. Andre Girard, who lives in a poor section of Paris, dreams of becoming great bicycle racer, but the obstacles seem insurmountable. Andre is small and weak, and worst of all he has no idea how he can ever manage to afford to own a bicycle so that he can train and become a real professional racer.

This story is about Andre and his dreams, but also about Andre’s friends, Jack and Michel and Miquette. Each of the boys has dreams and aspirations, and each boy’s story turns out a bit different. Not all boys can rise to the level of competition in the Tour de France, but they can learn to be men of character and determination and generosity. And they can remain friends even in the midst of competing for the opportunity that each of them wants.

I found this to be an exciting coming-of-age story and a good picture of France and its culture and daily life in the 1940’s and 1950’s. Ms. Bishop must have learned well from all of her library storytelling, and she certainly knew how to spin a good tale. Many children would enjoy this sports story, but certainly if you know someone interested in bicycles or bicycle racing or the Tour de France, this book is a must-read.

For all of us of the Tour de France, the real victory is the victory over ourselves.

In years past, I’ve had a linky at my Saturday Review of Books for end of the year and beginning of the year book lists. I love book lists, and I especially love it when people start posting about their favorite books of the year or the books they intend to read next year or any other yearly list that summarizes and informs us about your reading life in 2019.

So, this year there’s no linky, but I do plan to add a link in this post to all the lists I find , and I do want to see your list. So leave me a comment, and I’ll link to your book list for 2019. Book lists are just the best.

Russell Moore’s Favorite Books of 2019. I love Mr. Moore and his thoughts on his favorite books of the year are especially great. I haven’t actually read any of the books he suggests, but I’m going to add at least a couple of them to my TBR list: Adorning the Dark by Andrew Peterson and Biloxi by Mary Miller. The Common Rule by Justin Earley also sounds good.

Jared Wilson: My Top Ten Books of 2019. Jared’s #10 and #1 both sound interesting:  Chaos: Charles Manson, the CIA, and the Secret History of the Sixties by Tom O’Neill with Dan Piepenbring and  On the Road with Saint Augustine: A Real-World Spirituality for Restless Hearts by James K. A. Smith.

Real Simple: The Best Books of 2019. Lots of good books with a few sentences about each one. I found several that sounded interesting.

The Literary Edit: 13 Captivating Classics to Add to Your Reading Pile.

BBC: 100 Novels That Shaped Our World. The BBC is starting out on a one-yearproject to explore the 100 most influential English language novels written over the past 300 years. I love lists like this one, not necessarily the best or the most read, but the rather the novels that influenced the world and made Western civilization, especially the English-speaking portion of it, what it is today.

Anxious Bench, Our Favorite Books of the Past Year.

Book Chase’s Ten Favorite Nonfiction Titles of 2019. Sam Sattler recommends several that look good, but the one that caught my interest was Furious Hours by Casey Cep, about Harper Lee and a bizarre true crime story that she was following and hoping to write about. It might be kind of depressing, but I think I’ll check it out.

Deb at Readerbuzz is trying something new with Mood-Boosting Books. It sounds like a great idea, but none of the books she has listed appeals to me. If I want to mood boost, I read Wodehouse. Any other suggestions? What books would you consider “mood-boosting”?

The Book Muse: Best Books of 2019.

Kaitlyn Bouchillon: My 10 Favorite Books of 2019. Kaitlyn’s selections all look good, but one that caught my eye was a fiction book called Whose Waves These Are by Amanda Dykes because it’s partly about a rock collection. I have one of those myself in my front yard. Rocks for remembrance.

Jason Kanz: Top 10 Books–2019. Jason is a neuropsychologist and a Christian, so his list is a bit different from my normal fare. But intriguing.

Modern Mrs. Darcy: My favorite books of 2019. I love Modern Mrs. Darcy and her podcast, What Should I Read Next? And her favorites list for 2019 includes one of my past favorites: Kindred by Octavia Butler. It also has several that I would like to check out in 2020. Altogether, a very good list.

Linda Stoll: My Favorite Books in 2019. Glorious Weakness: Discovering God in All We Lack by Alia Joy sounds as if it would be worth a look. As several others on this list.

JonesSchooling: The Best 12 Books I Read in 2019. Lisa says it has been a fantastic reading year for her.

https://mbird.com/2019/12/mockingbirds-favorite-books-2010-2019/ Mockingbird’s Favorite Books: 2010-2019. This list is the favorites of the decade, (which, by the way, can start and end in any year you choose. A decade is ten years. THE decade is the ten years a person is talking about.)

Ashes Books and Bobs: Favorite Books of 2019.

Blue Willow Bookshop: The Best Books of 2019. I see from this list that Ruta Sepetys has a new book out: The Fountains of Silence, set in post-World War II Spain. It sounds wonderful.

Kevin DeYoung: Top 10 Books of 2019. These are all books published in 2019 that Mr. DeYoung found to be “a strong combination of thoughtful, useful, interesting, helpful, insightful, and challenging.”

Trevin Wax: My 10 Favorite Reads of 2019. The first book on this list, Christianity for Modern Pagans by Peter Kreeft, is a thought by thought commentary on Pascal’s Pensees, and it’s a book I thought through a few years ago. Highly recommended.

Laurie’s Lit Picks: Best of 2019. I already have The Feather Thief and The Dutch House by Ann Patchett on my radar. Maybe a few more from this list will rise to the top, too.

Glynn Young at Faith, Family, Friends has Best Books I’m Not Recommending for Christmas. Glynn likes to exert no pressure by “not recommending” his favorites for the year, but I’m still going to look at some of his non-recommendations, especially A Debt of Death by Jonathan Dunsky, Defiant Joy: The Remarkable Life and Impact of G.K. Chesterton by Kevin Belmonte, and Adjustments by Will Willingham. Glynn also “not recommends” Adorning the Dark by Andrew Peterson. That one keeps coming up. It’s as if I ought to read it next.

Jesus Creed Books of the Year 2019 (Scot McKnight).

Robin at A Fondness for Reading is Looking Back at 2019.

Puss Reboots has several favorites lists: Favorite Mysteries of 2019. Favorite Diverse Reads of 2019. Favorite Canadian books of 2019. Favorite book releases of 2019. Blogger Sarah Sammis’s review of Finding Dorothy by Elizabeth Letts really caught my interest.

John Wilson: A Year of Reading 2019 (at First Things). From this list, I definitely want to read Andrew Klavan’s Another Kingdom. And I thought I had already seen and noted the book about Jim Elliot and his fellow missionaries and their martyrdom in Ecuador, God in the Rainforest by Kathryn T. Long. Double Crossed: The Missionaries Who Spied for the United States During the Second World War by Matthew Avery also looks good.

Lisa notes has several books I want to read in her post, Top Books I Recommend of 2019, including What Is a Girl Worth by Rachel Denhollander, The Nickel Boys by Colin Whitehead, The Alice Network by Kate Quinn, and The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah.

Barbara at Stray Thoughts: Books read in 2019. Top Ten books read in 2019.

The Silver of His Fining: Top Reads in 2019. These favorites mostly sound like easy gentle reads to be interspersed among the books for this year. Sometimes I need a book to just be good without being too challenging.

I’m still working on my favorites of 2019 list, but this will keep you busy until I get there. If you have a “best books of” or “favorites of” list at your blog, please leave a link in the comments. Or just share some of your 2019 favorite reads in the comments.

“The Eliots found it a queer sort of evening – a transition evening. Hitherto the Herb of Grace had been to them a summer home; they had known it only permeated with sun and light, flower-scented, windows and doors open wide. But now doors were shut, curtains drawn to hide the sad, grey dusk. Instead of the lap of the water against the river wall they heard the whisper of the flames, and instead of the flowers in the garden they smelt the roasting chestnuts, burning apple logs, the oil lamps, polish – all the home smells. This intimacy with the house was deepening; when winter came it would be deeper still. Nadine glanced over her shoulder at the firelight gleaming upon the dark wood of the panelling, at the shadows gathering in the corners, and marvelled to see how the old place seemed to have shrunk in size with the shutting out of the daylight. It seemed gathering them in, holding them close.”

Elizabeth Goudge, Pilgrim’s Inn

I’m trying to think what actually happens in this story, Pilgrim’s Inn by Elizabeth Goudge. A family buys an old inn and moves to the country. One character struggles with a “mental breakdown” in the aftermath of World War II. Various characters struggle with their own secret sins and temptations. One married couple falls in love with each other all over again, and another man and woman learn to love each other in spite of the difficulties and impediments to their union. Children act like children and do very childlike things, but the insight into child psychology and children’s thought lives is amazing. Altogether, it’s not at all a plot-driven novel, and I can see how today’s readers, trained by television and movies, would find it slow and somewhat sentimental, perhaps becoming restless and even bored. I had to consciously slow myself down and appreciate the unhurried pace of the story and of life in the English countryside with people who are still trying to build new lives after the horror of the war. 

The inn itself is a sort of a magical place, and several encounters and chance meetings in the woods nearby produce healing and psychological breakthroughs. The air and atmosphere of the novel is Christian without the spiritual underpinnings becoming intrusive or didactic. The characters grow and learn and make surprising decisions and revelations, just as people do in real life. All in all, it’s a lovely and thoughtful story, well suited for a slow and thoughtful winter’s read. And there are three book in the Damrosehay trilogy: The Bird in the Tree, Pilgrim’s Inn, and The Heart of the Family.

From A Lantern in Her Hand by Bess Streeter Aldrich:

On the day before Christmas the snow lay deep on the prairie and the children’s greatest anxiety was whether ‘he’ would find the little house which was half buried. Margaret, with the characteristic ingenuity of the female of the species, suggested tying a piece of bright cloth where ‘he’ would notice it. And Mack, with the characteristic daring of the less deadly of the same, got on top of the low house via a crusty snow bank and tied one of little John’s red flannel shirts to the stove-pipe.

At lamp-lighting, they all hung up their stockings, even Will and Abbie. The children were beside themselves with excitement. By their parents’ stockings they put the little presents they had made for them. They danced and skipped and sang. They cupped their eyes with their hands, pressing their faces to the little half-window and looking out into the night. The gleam of the stars was reflected in the snow, and the silence of the sky was the silence of the prairie.

“I see the Star.”

“So do I. Right up there.”

‘It looks like it was over a stable.”

“Yes, sir. It looks like it was over a manger-stable.”

“Now it looks like it’s stopping over us.”

“Yes, sir, it looks like it’s stopping right over our house.”

p.114-115

Christmas and Christmas reunion and family and sacrifice of parents for their children are some of the threads and motifs that tie together this story of a Nebraska pioneer woman in the latter half of the nineteenth century. Abbie Deal and he husband Will face it all: snowstorms, drought, grasshoppers, disease, and disillusionment, with the land, their children, and even themselves. And yet, the Deals persevere and build a life, and a family that perseveres and reunites every Christmas on the old homestead, even when times have changed and the farm is no longer a working farm.

This family saga was a serendipitous read that I picked up while browsing my library, unaware that so much of the story revolves around Christmas and family relationships and the reminiscences of an old woman who is near the end of her life. I’m not quite that old, but I do mull over many of the same things that Abbie thinks about: the passage of time, the differences and similarities between all my children, their gifts and talents, my faithful husband’s unwavering dedication to all of us, and more. Anyone who lives in Nebraska or has Nebraska or prairie state ties should definitely pickup this history-in-a-story of the pioneers who built that state. I also recommend it as a Christmas read or a sort of melancholy (but also hopeful) read for older adults. Maybe teens as well. Yes, well, maybe everyone, as long as somewhat sentimental but also realistic and practical prose is in your wheelhouse.

From The Beatinest Boy by Jesse Stuart:

The next morning David was up and had rekindled the fire from the living embers. The bluster of mad winds roared around their house and banged their gates. It moaned through the branches of the leafless sassafras that stood beside the well in their back yard. It was Christmas at their house, all right. One of David’s socks was filled with two bananas, an orange, and striped candy. These were the things David looked forward to getting since he had known there was a Christmas.

After David made a fire in the kitchen stove, he went out to feed the chickens and cow. This was Christmas morning and he was feeding early. He wanted to give his grandmother time to be up and dressed.

p.104-105

Jesse Stuart was born and educated in Appalachia, and his books gave adults and children a glimpse of life in that region of the country. In The Beatinest Boy, David is an orphan who lives with his grandmother, “the smartest, most wonderful woman in the world.” David spends the entire bod looking for ways to earn enough money to buy his grandmother a Christmas present, and he finally succeeds. The book ends with the chapter in which David and Grandmother celebrate Christmas, a simple but joyful celebration. David and his grandmother both give and receive presents that demonstrate their love for each other.

The Beatinest Boy would make a lovely Christmas read aloud book.

“In the midst of the next room was the biggest and most glorious Christmas tree that had ever been seen in Tatchester. It stood in a monstrous half-barrel full of what looked like real snow stuck about with holly and mistletoe. At the top of this great green fir tree was a globe of green light set about with fiery white rays for the Christmas Star.

The boughs were laden with the most exquisite gifts: whistles, drums, tops of different kinds, whips, trumpets, swords, pop-guns, pistols that fired caps and other which fired corks and many dolls and teddy bears for the little ones. For the older boys there were railways with signals and switches and passenger trains and goods trains, some of which went by steam and others by clockwork. There were airplanes which you could wind up so that they would fly about the room. There were farmyards with cocks and hens which really pecked and cows which waggled their heads. There were zoos with all sorts of animals and aquariums with all sorts of fish. Then there were mechanical toys, men boxing or wrestling and boxes of soldiers with cavalry and cannons, bricks and Meccano and all sorts of adventure books and fairy books. For the girls there were needle-boxes with silver thimbles and cases of needles, necklaces, bangles and brooches. There were boxes of chocolates, candied fruits and great glass bottles of barley sugar, raspberry drops, peppermint drops and acid drops. Then for both boys and girls there were toy boats, some with sails and some with clockwork engines. Hanging from the boughs here and there were white and scarlet stockings, all bulging with chocolate creams dome up in silver paper.

~The Box of Delights by John Masefield, p. 60-61

Poet John Masefield’s The Box of Delights is an odd sort of Christmas story. It reminds me a bit of the Narnia books by C.S. Lewis, except not as coherent and well-organized. Masefield was primarily a poet, but he wrote fiction, biography, history, and literary criticism as well as poetry. He was appointed Poet Laureate of England in 1930, and The Box of Delights was published in 1935

The edition I am reading was abridged*, and I am quite curious as to what the editor left out of the book and whether the additional parts that Masefield wrote would make the story more or less confusing. Magical things happen in the midst of ordinary days, but there are also what seem to be dream sequences in the middle of the night. Or maybe it’s all magic. Kay, the main character, has a small box entrusted to him by a traveling Punch and Judy man, and the box has magical powers to teleport Kay to other places and times and to shrink him and his friends down to mouse-size as well as to return them to their proper sizes.

There’s a gang of thieves and kidnappers who go around stealing things and “scrobbling” (abducting) people. The gang are really after the Box of Delights that Kay keeps in his pocket most of the time, but they’re in league with rats and wolves and all sort of evil creatures. Oh, and the villains have silent aeroplanes that they use to scrobble those that they think might have the Box.

The quote above comes from a description of the children’s Christmas party at the Bishop’s Palace, and it is quite a party, as you can tell. The entire book is worth reading, if only for the taste of children’s life and imagination in pre-World War II England. I’m not quite finished with the book, but I can truly say that I have no idea what will happen next in this very unpredictable Christmas holiday fantasy. If you like E. Nesbit, Lewis, or Joan Aiken’s Wolves of Willoughby Chase, you might want to give Masefield a try. It’s strangely compelling.

*My edition of Box of Delights, in case you’re looking for something that’s only 167 pages long, was published by Macmillan, abridged by Patricia Crampton, and illustrated by Faith Jaques.

Becky’s Christmas by Tasha Tudor.

Well, I suppose Becky’s Christmas takes place in New Hampshire or somewhere nearby, since Tasha Tudor lived in New Hampshire and in Vermont with her four children. The story of Becky’s Christmas seems to be based on the Christmas traditions and customs that Tasha Tudor and her family tried to maintain on their rural family homestead.

In the afternoon Father hitched up Brown Dobbin to the sledge, and they all drove over to the Christmas Woods to get the tree. It was a beautifully bright afternoon; the shadows on the snow were as blue as the far hills, and the Christmas Woods looked like an enchanted forest with the snow-covered spruce trees shining in the sun. There were patterns in the snow where rabbits and birds had left their tracks. Becky noticed where a little mouse had run in and out, ‘looking for fir-cone seeds for his Christmas dinner,’ Kitty said.

It was always hard to decide which tree to take; one was too tall, another too slim, but Dan found a perfect one by the wall, and he and Father cut it down and put it on the sledge. The others brought along the leftover branches for decorations, and they returned to the house, Mother and Kitty on the sledge, Becky astride Brown Dobbin, and Father and the boys walking alongside.

Becky spread out old sheets beneath the tree to catch the wax drips, and Father and the boys braced it in a tub with sand and with strands of wire from the corners of the room. Then Becky braved the prickly needles and poured water in the tub to keep the tree fresh.

How splendid it looked, even without its balls and candles, and how good it smelled!Becky just stood and looked at it with shivers of pure joy tickling the back of her neck. Oh, Christmas was lovely!

p. 26-27

Becky’s Christmas by Tasha Tudor

Becky’s Christmas is a simple story, only 46 pages long, not quite a picture book, but not a novel either. The book just chronicles the events leading up to Christmas at Becky’s rural home and then the events of Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Becky has a ‘lovely” Christmas, featuring homemade gifts, Christmas cakes, a handmade Advent calendar, good food lovingly prepared, and a very special gift from Father and Mother.

Tasha Tudor loved writing and illustrating books about Christmas and other holidays and did so in numerous stories including Corgiville Christmas, Snow Before Christmas, The Dolls’ Christmas, The Night Before Christmas, and A Time to Keep. This last one tells how Tudor’s family celebrated each of the months of the year in a delightful, old-fashioned style and homespun traditions. If she is a bit too precious to live up to in real life, Tasha Tudor is at least fun to read, and it’s great to imagine such a Christmas as Becky’s.

The book Becky’s Christmas, however, is about as difficult to obtain as that old-fashioned Christmas is to reproduce. It’s no longer in print, and copies of Becky’s Christmas start at seventy some-odd dollars on Amazon. If you are a member of my library, however, you can borrow my copy and read this delightful story for yourself.

Tizz Plays Santa Claus by Elisa Bialk.

Next to Christmas itself, Tracy thought that Christmas Eve was the nicest day of the year. The holly wreath was on the door, the kitchen was full of delicious smells of good things cooking and baking, and in the living-room, her father was putting up the Christmas tree.

When they came back from the Candlelight Service at church in the afternoon, Tracy and Don helped trim it. It took a long time, but when it was finished and the lights were on, it was so beautiful that it took Tracy’s breath away.

Tracy got into her coat and boots and went out-of-doors to the corral. She led the pony to the bay window where the tree had been placed, so that Tizz too might enjoy the lovely sight. Tizz watched as if fascinated by the red and green and blue lights, then followed Tracy back to the corral to get her evening meal.

It was time for the Hills to eat, too. Mrs. Hill set out the food in buffet fashion and they all helped themselves, then carried their trays into the living-room. They ate while sitting around the tree, watching its beauty with wonder.

Elisa Bialk wrote an entire series of books about Tracy and Don Hill and their family and their pony named Tizz. The first book, simply called Tizz was published in 1955, and Tizz Plays Santa Claus is the third book in a fourteen book series. In this third book the children take care of Tizz, even when she runs away one day, and Tizz returns the children’s love and care by helping out with Don’s paper route and with the church Christmas play. It’s a very 1950’s “Leave It to Beaver”sort of story, and the flavor and setting and characters reminded me of Carolyn Haywood’s Betsy and Eddie books, except with the added interest of a horse of course.

I remember when half of my friends were obsessed with horses. They all wanted a horse of their own; they all wanted to ride horses. I wasn’t a member of the horse lovers crew, but I do think that the Tizz books would scratch an itch that some girls and boys still have today.

Combine a pony and Christmas and learning to care for others as Tracy and Don do in this story, and you have a winning story for the holidays. The children and Tizzy’s befriend an elderly neighbor and a girl their age who is recovering from polio. The reading level is in line with what are called “early chapter books’ nowadays. The story itself is old-fashioned and sweet.