Saturday Review of Books: March 19, 2016

Mar18

“No entertainment is so cheap as reading, nor any pleasure so lasting.” ~Lady M.W. Montague

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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.

The Little Bookstore of Big Stone Gap by Wendy Welch

Mar14

The Little Bookstore of Big Stone Gap: A Memoir of Friendship, Community, and the Uncommon Pleasure of a Good Book by Wendy Welch.

I forget where I saw a reference to this delightful nonfiction book about a little bookstore in rural southwestern Virginia (Appalachia), but big thanks to whomever it was that recommended the book to me. The actual name of the eponymous bookstore is just about too long to fit on the cover of the book: Tales of the Lonesome Pine Used Bookstore, Crafts, and Cafe. The owners Jack and Wendy Welch serve up Scots shortbread, tea, both iced and hot, and loads of used books in every conceivable genre. Ms. Welch, in her memoir about how two inexperienced innocents started a used bookstore on a shoestring and a prayer, gives unwary wannabe bookstore owners fair warning: running a halfway profitable and successful used bookstore is hard work, especially in a small town of about 5000 people. Don’t try this at home, folks. Well, the Welches did try it at home (they live upstairs above the bookstore); however, after reading The Little Bookstore of Big Stone Gap, I wouldn’t dare to copy their business plan. If you are an aspiring bookseller, I would at least advise reading Ms. Welch’s book to get some idea of what you may be getting yourself into.

Nevertheless, this book about books and bookish people was a great read. As you can see from this video of A Typical Day at Tales of the Lonesome Pine, the little bookstore would be a lovely place to visit, even with all the cats and dogs running loose. (I’m not an animal person, but I love my books enough to put up with a few animals.)

When Ms. Welch quoted C.S. Lewis, Edith Schaeffer, and the Dalai Lama within the first fifteen pages of her book, I knew I had found a kindred spirit. Then, the subtitle of “community and the uncommon pleasure of a good book” is so akin to my little project of creating a community of families who love good books in my little private library. I just settled in and read all about Jack and Wendy and their adventures and misadventures in their little bookstore. I promise that if I ever get anywhere near southwestern Virginia and Big Stone Gap, Tales of the Lonesome Pine Bookstore will be high on my itinerary. And just reading about it made me want to go on a used bookstore adventure trip of my own.

So, what are the best used bookstores in your neck of the woods? Where do you go when you want to browse, and smell, and dip into a multitude of old books?

Saturday Review of Books: March 12, 2016

Mar11

“[D]on’t ever apologize to an author for buying something in paperback, or taking it out from a library (that’s what they’re there for. Use your library). Don’t apologize to this author for buying books second hand, or getting them from bookcrossing or borrowing a friend’s copy. What’s important to me is that people read the books and enjoy them, and that, at some point in there, the book was bought by someone. And that people who like things, tell other people. The most important thing is that people read… ” ~Neil Gaiman

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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.

The Letter for the King by Tonke Dragt

Mar10

Another book for my Around the World project, The Letter for the King (De brief voor de Koning) was published in 1962 by the Dutch author Tonke Dragt. It won the Children’s Book of the Year award in the Netherlands and subsequently in 2004 was chosen as the best Dutch youth book of the latter half of the twentieth century. The book has been translated into over sixteen languages, most recently with an English translation by Laura Watkinson.

It reads like a translation from some other language or some other world, which helps rather than hinders the sense of an otherworldly quest in another time and place. The simplicity of language, sentence structure and plot all remind me of Malory’s Morte D’Arthur. The setting is also Arthurian, but in an imaginary world of three kingdoms, knights with different colored shields and horses, and just a touch of magic and wonder.

Tiuri, a young squire about to become a knight, is interrupted during his overnight vigil which precedes his knighting by a whispered call for help. Tiuri cannot resist the urge to go to the aid despite his promise to keep vigil without talking or leaving the chapel all night. And so Tiuri’s real vigil and real testing begin. The Black Knight with the White Shield who asks for Tiuri’s help gives him a letter to take to the king of a neighboring kingdom. Tiara must keep both the letter and his mission to deliver it secret.

The rest of the book chronicles Tiuri’s journey, both his journey to Unauwen, the kingdom where he is to deliver his secret and vital letter and his journey to manhood and knightly honor and valor. Tiuri learns to keep his word and stay the course, not in a one night vigil, but in many weeks of dangerous travel through treacherous terrain with enemies all about him. He learns to trust the trustworthy, to show kindness even to his enemies, and above all, to remain faithful to his quest.

Those children who enjoy the Arthurian stories as retold by Howard Pyle or Sidney Lanier or Roger Lancelyn Green should enjoy this tale of knights and adventures set in another medieval world similar to the Arthurian one in tone, culture, and values. The underlying moral code and understanding is Christian, with Christian symbols and artifacts such as chapels, a crucifix, monks, and prayers popping up all through the story, even if Christ and Christianity are never mentioned explicitly. Christian values are illustrated in Tiuri’s quest: mercy, faithfulness, love, and courage.

The Letter for the King is a more straightforward, less complicated journey story for fantasy lovers who want a big thick novel but are not quite ready for the three volumes of The Lord of the Rings. As a follow-up or companion readalike to the tales of King Arthur and his knights of the Round Table, this book would be perfect. Ms. Dragt wrote a sequel to A Letter for the King, Geheimen van het Wilde Woud (Secrets of the Wild Woods) in which a grown-up Tiuri has more knightly adventures.

Kiffe, Kiffe Tomorrow by Faiza Guene

Mar9

I have finally made some progress on my Around the World project, a project with a goal of reading a children’s book from each and every nation of the world. I may have cheated here, however, since the book is not really Algerian but rather Parisian, but since it’s my own project I get to make up the rules.

Kiffe, Kiffe Tomorrow is a book set in Paris, written by a Frenchwoman of Algerian descent whose parents were immigrants to France from Algeria. Ms. Guene writes in the voice of her protagonist, Doria, perhaps from experience: the back cover of my book says that Faiza Guene “grew up in the public housing projects of Pantin, outside Paris.” It’s voice that that’s almost unrelentingly pessimistic and depressed. Daria’s father has deserted them and gone back to Morocco to re-marry, since Daria, a girl, is the only child her mother has been able to give her father, a traditional Arabic Muslim who wants a son above all. Fifteen year old Daria feels unloved and unwanted and unmoored. Her mother is struggling with a bad job, illiteracy, and the loss of her husband. Daria herself struggles in school and tries to find some sort of dream or role model to hold onto, but mostly fails. Or the dreams and the people she looks up to fail her. Either way, it’s a bad life, and in some ways it gets worse as the book progresses. Daria flunks out of school and is sent to a vocational high school. Her real-life crush turns out to be a drug dealer who’s too old for her anyway, and she finds out that her TV-crush is gay. Her dreams are unrealistic and mostly unachievable. One day she’s going to become a film star, the next a politician. Then, she wants to marry a rich guy who will take her out of the poverty she lives in. Or she thinks she might win the lottery.

The ending is ambiguous. Daria might make it out of the projects—or she might not. The title of the book reflects this ambiguity. Kiffe, Kiffe comes from the Arabic term kif-kif, meaning same old, same old. But it’s combined in Daria’s made up phrasing with the French verb kiffer which means to really like something or someone. So, kiffe, kiffe tomorrow indicates that Daria’s life may be the same old rut of poverty and failed dreams, or it may happen (tomorrow) that she finds something or someone she really likes to rescue her from her fate.

I can’t imagine that anyone, even a teen from the slums who identifies with Daria and her unrelenting unhappiness and cynicism, would read this book for enjoyment. However, it does end with a little ray of hope, and the narrative painted a realistic picture of the attitude and the actions that a life of poverty can engender in a young teenager who is trying desperately to find some sort of meaning and vision for her life. I didn’t like Daria very much, but I understood a little of why she thought the way she did. Perhaps reading this book will help me have a little more empathy for the people I come across who are trying to grow up and to climb out of poverty.

I don’t think I learned much about Algeria, however, or about Algerian children’s literature. The book is set, as I said, in Paris, and although the author is of Algerian parentage, she chose to send Daria’s father back to Morocco, not Algeria. I suppose I learned a bit about North African immigrants living in France. Anybody know of any children’s books actually from Algeria?

A Pocket Full of Murder by R.J. Anderson

Mar8

“In the spell-powered city of Tarreton, the wealthy have all the magic they desire, while the working class can hardly afford a simple spell to heat their homes. Twelve year old Isaveth is poor, but she’s also brave, loyal, and zealous in the pursuit of justice–which is lucky, because her father has just been wrongfully arrested for murder.” (From the blurb on the front inside cover)

I enjoyed A Pocket Full of Murder for several reasons. First, the book combines two of my favorite genres: magical fantasy and murder mystery. The fantasy world in A Pocket Full of Murder is well-imagined, with lots of rich detail. There are fun, made-up, Lewis Carroll-esque words like “neevils” and “Duesday” and “gobblewit” that are novel, but pretty much self-explanatory in context, and not so plenteous that they become annoying. The society and culture are described through the words and actions of the characters, Isaveth and her family and Isaveth’s mysterious friend with an eyepatch, Quiz. Isaveth belongs to a religious minority called the Moshites (think Jewish or other religious minority), and Quiz is a street urchin turned detective, also jack-of-all-trades, who volunteers to help Isaveth as she works to clear her father’s name and find the real murderer. The story includes trade unions and nobility and a partly democratic government and a manufacturing base and merchants and class divisions—all sorts of interesting elements to explore in a fully envisaged society.

As far as the murder mystery part of the book is concerned, I’m not really very good at guessing the murderer, even though I’ve read lots of Agatha Christie and Rex Stout and Dorothy Sayers, and sure enough, I didn’t guess the villain in this one until near the end. That said, it was fairly obvious when the solution presented itself, and you may be better at solving mysteries than I am. I would guess that middle grade readers are more like me and won’t see the twist and turns until just before they read about them. R.J. Anderson says in her author blurb that she’s a fan of the Golden Age detective novels of Dorothy Sayers and Margery Allingham, and the influence shows in the book, but in a children’s bookish sort of way. The similarity of Isaveth and Quiz to Harriet Vane and Lord Peter Wimsey was just a hint, but enough to add a whimsical air to the mystery.

I also liked the themes embedded in the books. Again, the themes are subtle, no preachiness at all. But Isaveth learns to value her heritage and her religious beliefs, even though the Moshites are shunned and sometimes persecuted by the larger society of Tarreton. Politicians are shown to be sometimes corrupt, even those who seem to be promising to work on behalf of the poor and the working class. (Any application to current U.S. politics is purely a function of the universal truth that politicians don’t always follow through on their promises–and sometimes have purely selfish motives for their seeming altruism.) And truth and justice are the primary values of the minority in a city that is filled with corruption and injustice. I like the idea of teaching , through story, that truth will out in the end and that even though evil may not be completely defeated in this world at this time, it can be battled and foiled for a particular time in a particular place.

The ending is sufficiently satisfying to call it a happy ending, but also leaves an opening for a sequel. I would certainly like to revisit Isaveth and Quiz, and I think you might be in the same camp after reading A Pocket Full of Murder. And sure enough, the second book in the “Uncommon Magic” series, A Little Taste of Poison, is due out in September, 2016. I recommend the first volume to mystery and fantasy lovers everywhere.

Saturday Review of Books: March 5, 2016

Mar4

“I have my library all around me, my cloud of witnesses to the strangeness and brilliance of human experience, who have helped me to my deepest enjoyments of it.” ~Marilynne Robinson

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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.

Poetry Friday: For Our Children

Mar4

For Our Children by Amy Carmichael

Father, hear us, we are praying,
Hear the words our hearts are saying;
We are praying for our children.

Keep them from the powers of evil,
From the secret, hidden peril;
Father, hear us for our children.

From the whirlpool that would suck them,
From the treacherous quicksand, pluck them;
Father, hear us for our children.

From the worldling’s hollow gladness,
From the sting of faithless sadness,
Father, Father, keep our children.

Through life’s troubled waters steer them;
Through life’s bitter battle cheer them;
Father, Father, be Thou near them.

Read the language of our longing,
Read the wordless pleadings thronging,
Holy Father, for our children.

And wherever they may bide,
Lead them home at eventide.

My Personal Statement on Donald Trump and the Republican Primary

Feb28

I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior; Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth. I Timothy 2:1-4

Then Jesus called the crowd and his disciples to him. “If any of you want to come with me,” he told them, “you must forget yourself, carry your cross, and follow me. For if you want to save your own life, you will lose it; but if you lose your life for me and for the gospel, you will save it. Do you gain anything if you win the whole world but lose your life? Of course not! There is nothing you can give to regain your life. If you are ashamed of me and of my teaching in this godless and wicked day, then the Son of Man will be ashamed of you when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”

I live in Texas, and I voted in the Republican primary for this state on Friday (early voting). I did NOT vote for Donald Trump. In fact, I will never vote for Donald Trump, come h— or high water. I am not a fan of Hillary Clinton or of the Democrat party. In fact, I disagree with most of their ideas and positions, especially in regards to their support for abortion and their disregard for the Constitution. Nevertheless, Donald Trump is more dangerous, more despicable, and more incompetent than even Hillary Clinton. I believe that he is a dangerous demagogue and a spoiled con man. He couldn’t make Atlantic City great with his grandiose schemes that went bankrupt, and he won’t make America great either. He will make our country a laughing stock around the world, if not something worse.

This man uses language that is crude and profane at every opportunity, and then has the effrontery to demand an apology when the president of Mexico uses one crude word to describe Trump’s wall—the wall that he hopes to have Mexico pay for. Donald Trump mocks the disabled, disrespects women, and refuses to disavow the support of neo-Nazis and the KKK. He wants to bar an entire religious group from even being considered for immigration to the United States, and he says he will deport an estimated 11 million people who are here illegally, the biggest mass deportation in the history of the world. Actually, Trump says there are probably more than 30 million people who are here illegally, but whatever the number he’s going to deport them all–then let the “good ones” come back in. (Hitler only deported and killed about 6 million Jews.) Donald Trump would have to find a way to do this mass deportation peacefully and without a massive disruption of our economy and culture. I’m sure Mexico would be happy to pay for the police/immigration agents and the infrastructure that would be required to make such a thing happen. (/sarcasm)

Mr. Trump is admitted adulterer and a misogynist. He has no plans to do anything, including no plan to build a wall along the US/Mexican border, no plan to create jobs or improve the economy, no plan to replace Obamacare, no plan for foreign policy, and no real tax plan. He is a fake, and he is vulgarly entertaining his way into the presidency.

I voted for Ronald Reagan in 1980 and in 1984. I voted for George (HW) Bush in 1988. And again in 1992. I voted for Bob Dole in 1996, even though I preferred Phil Gramm or Alan Keyes. I voted for George W. Bush in 2000, even though I was skeptical about his conservative leanings. I was wrong. I happily voted for W in 2004, and I believe he was the best president we’ve had since Ronald Reagan. In 2008, I voted for John McCain in spite of his disdain for evangelical, conservative Christians because I thought he would at least, if elected, appoint conservative judges and govern somewhat conservatively. In 2012 I held my nose and voted for Mitt Romney for much the same reason. I have a history of Republican loyalty and of being able to compromise for the greater good. However, with Trump, all that loyalty is thrown out the window. If Donald Trump is the nominee of the Republican party, then the Republicans are no longer a conservative party. Nor will they be a force for good in this country. I will not have left the Republican party, they will be leaving me, as Ronald Reagan said under somewhat similar circumstances.

In addition, I am disappointed in the political and religious leaders who have jumped onto the Trump bandwagon in hopes of either gaining influence and power or ingratiating themselves with the new political class. Or perhaps they are as deluded and foolish as the other followers of Donald Trump. Either way, I will not be following the words or actions or suggestions of anyone who is now following Donald Trump.

And I will not forget the people, formerly respected voices in the national debate and some in the evangelical community, who decided to sell their souls for a mess of pottage and a boatload of bluster:

Sarah Palin: I thought she was unfairly maligned and ridiculed, and perhaps she was, but now I see that she is blind and without discernment. I never plan to listen to another word she says or writes.

Mike Huckabee: He hasn’t endorsed Trump, but his daughter is working for Trump. And Mike Huckabee has praised and all-but-endorsed Trump. I will not listen to him or support him in the future either.

Jerry Falwell, Jr.: Mr. Falwell is not a man who speaks for me or for my fellow evangelicals. Even some people I know who are graduates of Liberty University are ashamed of his endorsement of Donald Trump.

Pastor Robert Jeffress: He has disgraced the church of Jesus Christ by partnering with a man, Donald Trump, who ridicules the disabled, mocks the name of our Lord, and can’t even disavow the support of the Ku Klux Klan.

Chris Christie (not an evangelical, but supposedly a conservative): I didn’t like Chris Christie very much before he endorsed Trump, but had Christie been the nominee of the Republican party, I would have voted for him in order to stop Hillary Clinton from becoming president of the United States. However, now I will never vote for Chris Christie for anything just as I will never vote for Donald Trump.

Jeff Sessions, Alabama senator. Also Rep. Chris Collins, Rep. Duncan Hunter, Gov. Jan Brewer, and Gov. Paul LePage. All of these formerly conservative politicians should be shunned, and I will certainly never support any of them ever for any national office.

Ann Coulter: I used to think she was kind of funny, but not anymore. She’s just another attention-seeking celebrity.

Willie Robertson (Duck Dynasty): Why Trump? Because, says Mr. Robertson, he has two attributes we need in a leader, “success and strength.” ISIS exhibits success and strength. So do all “successful” dictators and tyrants. I would only note the absence of moral character and good (any) ideas.

Phyllis Schlaffly: She says Trump is “is the only hope to defeat the Kingmakers.” So I suppose she wants to be The Donald’s Kingmaker.

Rudy Giuliani: He’s “informally advising Donald Trump.” I wish he would advise Trump right out of the race, but I see no signs of that happening.

Newt Gingrich hasn’t endorsed either, but he says that we had better “see Trump as the future”, in other words, fall in line behind Mr. Trump. Well, I won’t do it—not ever.

Pat Robertson said of Donald Trump when the candidate visited Regent University, “You inspire us all!” I am not inspired and not impressed with Mr. Robertson’s idea of inspiration.

Herman Cain, former Republican presidential candidate, is campaigning for Trump and tells fellow Republicans to “get over it” and fall in line to support Trump because Trump is going to win.

Steve Forbes

Sean Hannity.

I have also lost respect for:

Ben Carson, who is staying in the presidential race for the sake of vanity and a platform. I doubt that God told him to run for president as a spoiler so that he could come to the debates and complain about face time. Update: Mr. Carson has dropped out of the presidential race, and I can now hear what he is saying about integrity. Before, his actions spoke too loudly for me to hear his humility. I have still lost respect for his common sense and intuition.

John Kasich, who is staying in the race for the same reason and maybe to prove that he can pull enough votes in the Midwest to deserve a vice-presidential offer from Trump?

I probably won’t post about this election cycle again here at Semicolon; however, this blog is my own little corner of the web, and I felt the need to express my opinion. Thanks for listening/reading.

And please, whomever you voted for or plan to vote for, pray for our country and for God to determine the outcome of this election in accordance with His will and for His glory.

Saturday Review of Books: February 27, 2016

Feb26

“Humanity can be roughly divided into three sorts of people – those who find comfort in literature, those who find comfort in personal adornment, and those who find comfort in food.” ~Elizabeth Goudge

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.