{book}worm wednesday :: a summer list of sorts

Between the shopping and the traveling this summer, reading took a bit of a hit. I did squeeze a few in and they were so refreshing to me that if there had to be only a couple, I'm grateful they were these particular books.

The first is, Romey's Place: A Novel. If ever I could write a story, I would like to write one like this. It is full of honesty and the struggles that make up most of our real lives, but it is a "seeing" story that has clean truth to it, the kind that just sits with you and can make you feel at once uncomfortable and sort of peacefully happy at the same time. I love the boys in this story, and their friendship. It is poignant and far from cookie cutter. I love the picture it paints of the good and the hard of relationships with fathers, and the depth and complexity of our love for them and theirs for us. And it talks about churches and community and sometimes the confusing mess they can all get into. Just overall a great story, and wonderful themes within it.

Next was Joni Erickson Tada's A Place of Healing. I continue to appreciate the life and story and writing of Joni so much. I've shared before of how she had such solvent words during the first days of grief when our friend's boy died this past March. This woman knows about a life of suffering. She knows about crying out to God for answers and struggling with the questions we've asked for centuries. And she just glows with the life of Jesus flowing through her. She is so real, and yet so different. I praise God for her because that is all you can do when you see His work in others-- and I believe it must be nothing but His work in her. So this book is another evidence of that-- the chronicle of her continued struggle with pain as she faced a new chapter of suffering in her life. She doesn't mince words or make it sound easy, but she does seek Him and she works and doing what He says-- and she finds grace to help her in her time of need. She sees God healing parts of her that are far more important than her limbs. She lives with a hope that is unfading and grows brighter each passing day. I was challenged, encouraged, and washed with her words as I read.

Ha. I told you the list was short.

I did buy a couple books I'm looking forward to though. Do you want to hear about those?

Madeleine L'Engle's Walking on Water: Reflections on Faith and Art.
Heard lots of good things about this book. And it's M.L'Engle, how could it not be good?

Churchill. by Paul Johnson.
An interesting fellow I dare say. I think my mom bought this one for us though.

Give Them Grace. by Elyse M. Fitzpatrick and Jessica Thompson.
I've started this book already and can say it is just what I need to read at this stage in life and parenting. I am being challenged to rethink the way I pursue my children and my own response to and understanding of God's grace towards me and them every single day. I've heard one criticism about the book... that perhaps the examples are a bit unrealistic (as far as being able to spend about ten paragraphs explaining something succinctly to your child, and still find them listening in the end)... and I do think that may be true. However, I am finding it helpful at least to see the "language" and thought process worked out, and then proceed to bumble my own way through fleshing it out. I've stalled with the reading so The Man and I can do it together in a few weeks.

Knitter's Almanac by Elizabeth Zimmerman
I feel like a real knitter now! I own Elizabeth Zimmerman!

The Eve Tree by Rachel Devenish Ford
Rae lives in India with her husband and four young children. Several of them have dreads, and they travel the world. She is a blogger and extremely gifted writer. I've followed her at journeymama for a year or so now and knew she was a writing a book, so when she published it this summer- I grabbed a copy. For some reason I have not been able to read it yet. Perhaps now is the time.

Living the Christian Year: Time to Inhabit the Story of God by Bobby Gross, and
Lent and Easter Wisdom by Henri Nouwen
What can I say? This theme excites me. I do love me some Henri Nouwen too.

Super Natural Every Day by Heidi Swanson
This is a cookbook. It is gorgeous. I love the photos... if I could be a photographer for real this is what I would love to do. Take pictures of food. Anyway.
I've enjoyed recipes from Heidi's popular 101cookbooks for some time, and this book seems like a lovely compilation. The ingredient lists are for the most part, friendly to me even in China. Fresh vegetables, grains (most of which I can get or substitute something like, say rice for). Give me a recipe with garlic, sea salt, olive oil, broccoli, almonds,  feta cheese and grains and girl you have me sold. I did find that all the recipes I was trying were somewhat similar though so time to branch out.

In other parts of this house there is a bit of reading going on as well. Somehow the kids ended up with Moby Dick as their nightly story. Granted, it is a very condensed "young readers" version but still. Listening in as I patter around the house while their dad reads to them, it doesn't sound that much more exciting. But somehow they listen, or sleep. I'm not sure.

The Man just finished Same Kind of Different As Me and really enjoyed it. He's also been working on Peter the Great by Robert K. Massie which he swears is an excellent read about that time period in general. I do believe I will take his word on that. No really though, I'm sure I would enjoy it and so would you.

And thank you all for your kind comments and emails yesterday. They did warm my not-quite-at-home heart over here. I really appreciate hearing from you.

{book}worm wednesday :: cry the beloved country

A repost from the archives... one year ago today.

I want to share about books tonight because it's been awhile since I've been able to do that, but also because I've been reading some good ones. I am so thankful for the books we have here, the old friends that have followed us from place to place and even over oceans. And the children's books, the ones that the grandparents have blessed us with time and time again, they are priceless. Many an early morning, long afternoon, sick in bed day, or be quiet while I put the baby to bed, has been saved by these precious books. I love that in all her clambering, the Busy One has started to sit and look intently through her books. She's clearly catching on to what is expected of her. Her little board books may be discussing belly buttons or runaway rabbits, but she is getting the idea.

The books tonight are some of my old favorites. I have also been weeping openly nearly every day now as I've fingered their pages and held their words in my mouth. I have got to stop crying over these coon hound pups. So, as a form of thanks, I offer up this short list-- of books.

Where The Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls

As you can tell from anything I've mentioned about the coon hounds in the past few posts, this story has left me a soppy mess of tears nearly every time I try to read it. This week its just me and the boys, waiting for Daddy to return home and needing an "interim" story. So because the oldest has been talking every day about wanting two puppies, and has already named them, as well as planned out an entire training regimen for when they arrive (which will be when we live on a large farm in the country), I thought this was a fitting story to begin. They are loving it, and I am too- when I can speak without my voice quivering and tears welling up in my eyes. Billy is just so darned determined, and sweetly passionate, and burning up with dog-love. His grandpa is so moved and bewildered by the coins dumped out on the store counter, his parents so torn up about the lack of money and the heartsick dreams of their young boy. Then there's the way he loves his family, and that he buys his sisters candy so their eyes will light up, and his mother material for a new dress. The names carved in the tree, the generous fishermen. I could go on and on. 

I also love that the mother and father are highly concerned about living in the country, at the foothills of the mountains, far from town. "It's no place to raise a family," the father says. And they want to move to town so their children can get an education... "more to an education than reading, writing, and arithmetic." I love this because it is so ironic to me, who worries that living in the city is no place to raise a family. "More to an education than reading, writing, and learning a language..." Like throwing rocks and splitting wood and romping through streams and feeling dirt between your fingers and seeing where the food you eat comes from.  Not sure all of why, but I am thankful for this sweet story right now. 

Cry The Beloved Country by Alan Paton

If I had to give a list of my all-time favorite books, I believe this one would top the list. Maybe at some point in my life this will change. For now, it reigns secure.

The story is tragic. An old minister who is from the hill country in South Africa, where the "lovely little road that runs to Ixopo" lies, goes to Johannesburg in search of his wayward son who has been missing for some time. What he finds brings deep suffering. The road he travels in the city is full of humbling moments, of finding grace through the love of God's people, of temptation and failure, of grief and mercy, of great joy in simple acts of love, of uncertainty and provision. 

Some of the things that stood out to me this time were things I didn't notice the first couple times through. At several points, a friend who sacrifices much to help the suffering minister is thanked, and he with some chagrin states, "I am a weak and sinful man. But God laid his hands on me. That is all." It is no small statement, and has come to my often as I think through all that I am that is not of me, and all that I am not that is not counted against me. All of him... his hands on me and that is all.

I love how it ends. I love how it begins. I cry for South Africa, for all that happened there and all the crying out for humanity and a country torn and fearful. I am humbled by how much this man who wrote these words loved his country, and the people, and knew that what was needed when the hating had turned to loving was forgiveness. I love how he lifts up the way God meets us in our need with mercy and grace, but also questions why some people receive the healing of their suffering and some never see an end (because I too ask these questions), and answers that it is a mystery, but not in a way that makes you question God's goodness, just how much we are able to understand.

I hope you read it. I hope you like it. Given my infatuation, maybe just pretend or say something vague and polite if you don't.

One Morning in Maine by Robert McCloskey

For some reason we've been picking this one up frequently these days. I think the Middle One likes the pictures. He will sit and slowly leaf through them for long periods of time. A simple story of a little girl, Sal and her Saturday morning on the coast of Maine, where she helps her father dig for clams, and loses her first tooth, takes a boat ride to town, and gets ice cream with her sister. The wildlife, the townspeople, the new spark plug, it's all very Maine-ish and delightful.

The Prodigal God by Tim Keller

A friend gave this to me for my birthday and I'm just getting around to it. A quick, but insightful read into the real issues of the Prodigal Son story. Perhaps it's not the younger brother who really has the more serious problem. And if you've grown up religious, or with your moral ducks in a row... it's likely you'll find yourself in the hot seat. 

Les Miserables by Victor Hugo

My faithful husband is still plugging away at this monstrosity of a book. He is loving it and often reads sections to me aloud (sweet, but not recommended in a house with several children under 5, who are not sedated with television or benadryl). 

I Can't Believe I'm Knitting (no author)

I feel like I'm reading this book only because I constantly have my nose buried in it, trying to figure out the directions. I am sooo thankful for it and the simple directions which are guiding me through my baby steps as a knitter. And I am pleased to say that I am halfway through my first simple sweater!! I can't believe it... hopefully I will be proud enough of the finished product to be able to share pictures soon. 

There you have it, a short but important list and one that I truly am thankful for and all the joy it has brought me these past few days and weeks. If you want to share, I'd love to hear what you are reading. Of course that means you'd have to leave a comment... which I know is like public speaking or something awful like that.

Days of Gray :: 19 {a good read is hard to find}

Flannery O'Connor. She is, unparallelled. Like jumping off a cliff into the netherworld of dark reality. It's heartbreaking and ugly. But somehow magnetic and cleansing in a way that the being impaled by a white hot sword of righteousness might feel. Seriously, she's crazy. I didn't really like her much at first, but I think reading her letters has helped me see a little better into her mind and stories. They are not for the faint of heart (and I do think I have a faint heart... most of the time).

So somehow, sitting with her in the afternoon seems like the most wonderful way to spend a couple kid- napping hours. In a twisted and horrifically wonderful kind of way.

I'm off my head!

{book}worm wednesday :: Freaks, Prayer, and Relatives

I hear my boy's voice coming from the door that sits ajar to the bedroom, reading steadily and with increasing ease through a small stack of books he has deemed "learning books" that now sit on his desk. He has recently re-organized it, taking away whatever he think makes it look too juvenile and trying to give it more an appearance "like Daddy's desk." Which apparently means important looking books.

Watching the transformation of a little boy from memorizing these strange looking characters called the alphabet, into an avid and excited reader has to be one of the more understated and exhilirating experiences in life. It is like watching them crack open a door into a parallel universe, and do it without you narrating the way. It's a bit unnerving too though, as you notice your new transparency now that everything is fair game... notes on the fridge, on the table, words on the computer, on signs, in a letter. Everything beckons to be discovered, uncoded, read. A small price to pay, this transparency. The world awaits you my son!

On to the list. And as always, I love to hear what you are reading these days as well!

What He's Reading:
Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything
by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner
It may be one of the more interesting ways to read about economics, which is really "the study of choices people make to satisfy their needs and wants." All I know is, this man sits and reads this book like it's the latest crime novel or something, so it must be interesting. It is perhaps similar to Malcolm Gladwell's style of using the data to explain all sorts of everyday phenomenon.

What I'm Reading:
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
Still working on it... and I have to say it gets better the further on I get. A certain "too small" sweater I was itching to finish sort of got in the way of my evening reading these last few days, so I'm anxious to get back on track.

A Praying Life by Paul Miller
From the perspective of a person who has struggled to really pray, to believe in and not become cynical about prayer, I think this book is an excellent help and antidote to those struggles. I am walking a hopeful journey in this area and I found Paul Miller's belief in the reality of prayer (and particularly in a loving and able God who listens to our prayers) coupled with his honest grappling through the doubts and questions and practical struggles we face as people to be refreshing, insightful, and hard hitting in a Life building kind of way.

What the Kids are Reading:
Tsunami! by Kimiko Kajikawa
This author has a poetic way of retelling Japanese folklore. This story is a bit dark in its subject matter, but ultimately it is the story of how an old man named Ojisan saves his village from the disaster of a looming Tsunami. The illustrations are abstract and interesting, and the story compelling.

The Relatives Came by Cynthia Rylant (Caldecott Honor Book)
A charming story of a large family coming together for a summer reunion. The illustrations are fabulous... quirky and fun and hilarious. My kids looked at each one for ages, and we would each pick out our favorite character on each page. It's a theme that hits close to home too... a long journey to visit the relatives and all the "breathing together" in a tight space in the middle of a hot summer. Delightful, if not a little early as far as seasons go.

Snow by Uri Shulevitz
It's very likely I have posted this book before, but I do love me some Uri Shulevitz and unlike the Relatives book, it is a perfect story for this season... even if we are somewhat snowless for most of the winter. I love to read it with my best Russian accent, and the little ones love finding the snowflakes on each page. Simple, sweet, mesmerizing tale.

{book}worm wednesday :: committed

The books currently on our nightstands (because honestly, that's really the only place the reading is happening these days) all seem to be long ones for some reason. That means the list today will be short, and most (or all) of these are not finished yet either. They are good books though, I tell you, which is why we are reading them.

The Kids:
The Trumpet of the Swan by E.B. White
This book is charming and sweet in it's own E.B.White sort of way, who made us love a rather dull and conscientious pig, and a spider for crying out loud, and it's amazing how he can make you feel the same for a funny family of trumpeter swans. Louis can't "talk" like the rest of his kind, and it's disturbing and perplexing to his parents, and to him... until he learns to read and write which creates a whole new set of problems and adventures. I personally find the Cob (the father swan) the most hilarious of the bunch. He doesn't talk, he pontificates. But his wife just rolls her eyes and says what's what. They make me laugh.

The Husband:
Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy by Eric Metaxas
I think I mentioned before that he was obsessively reading this book... and he still is.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer was one of the most infuential writers and theologians of the 20th century. Most people know him as the author of The Cost of Discipleship and Life Together, but his life was absolutely remarkable in his academic abilities coupled with a prophetic and strikingly counter-(church)cultural understanding of the community of believers. And it plays out in the startling, gripping tale of his life as it goes from academia and pastoral pursuits, to life as an undercover SS agent in Hitler's regime. A very challenging  and inspirational read.

Me:
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy (abridged and edited by Manuel Komroff)
I have an old paperback edition, with 621 pages of the thinnest (as in, lick your fingers and crinkle the pages each time to make sure you aren't skipping one), tissue-like paper with small, close together type. This alone has created it's own challenge. But there is something about those Russian authors that makes you feel you ought to read them. I've read some of Dostoyevsky and needed lots of additional materials to make it come alive for me. Yet I find myself often thinking back to The Grand Inquisitor passage in The Brother's Karamazov when I am struggling through the question of suffering in this life. I guess that means it was worth reading... and that the others will be as well.

I don't know if I'll find a similar passage that forever sticks with me in War and Peace, but I am pleasantly surprised to find I am enjoying and following along the story itself, after tackling and hurdling over the first few somewhat dry chapters. I'm starting to feel a sympathetic liking for Prince Andre and dear Pierre, for Natasha and Rostov. Only half way through at this point but happily determined to keep going.

Committed:: A Skeptic Makes Peace with Marriage by Elizabeth Gilbert
This one has been a great conversation starter, if in no other place than the insides of my very own head.

So far in the reading of this book, I have appreciated several points she brings out concerning the way we currently view marriage and have treated it throughout history, but I also have questions about they way she handles these views. Understanding history is a tricky thing. It's an interpretive thing. A historian will (hopefully) examine primary documents and then begin to piece together an interpretation of events or ideas of that time. So when Gilbert claims that marriage has not always been treated as sacred or that it is evolving over time, I would probably interpret the information a bit differently.

Marriage has always been mistreated, and perverted in certain aspects ever since the Fall. But I would venture to say that it has also always been upheld and treated as sacred to some degree( by the grace of God) during those times as well. I have always appreciated how C.S. Lewis put it: that each era has its own strengths, and its own weaknesses, and it's easy to point those out in an era already dead and gone. But sometimes looking into the world of another time, can lead you to see the pitfalls in your own. I wonder this about the way we criticize marriage in past eras. Or the way we understand the historical treatment of women. It is easy to see the atrocities, because they are there in plain and awful sight... and to think we have attained so much good in the present. I wonder what those women (or men) would say if they were able to comment on our present day marriages and views on/treatment of women. Would they point out things we have lost, or are damaging, even within all our gains?

Another important bit to chew on...marriage as a moral issue: the author doesn't agree that it is one, which I understand. It's a trend these days to take it off the moral list. But everything is on the moral list. You can't say morality has no jurisdiction over some things (like the union of marriage), but then claim morality for the issues you still want it for (like the treatment of homosexuals, which I agreed with her sentiment on). In her argument for the goodness of same sex marriage, Gilbert cites the Greeks as being a culture that accepted it (and because they produced men like Aristotle and Socrates, and the framework for modern day democracy, we tend to get a bit woozy when we talk about the Greeks)... but failed to mention their acceptance of boy-love, also known as pedophilia. We still claim that as a moral issue today that is unacceptable. So without going into a huge diatribe on philosophy here, suffice it to say that I appreciated some of the points she brought out that deserve our careful attention, but with a different starting point for moral, ethical, and epistemological outworkings, I would disagree with many of her conclusions.

One of the things I have appreciated most thus far in the book however, was her musing on whether or not we put too much expectiation on our spouse and all that our marital union holds for us. I think this is true everywhere, and no less in the Christian community. If anything is now in danger of becoming simultaneously destroyed and made into a ridiculous icon of idolatry it is marriage and even the family. I think this is where her quote of the Apostle Paul is also a bit off. Taken in isolation, his statement about wishing everyone were "as he is", may have appeared to make the claim that marriage was bad or lesser than a solitary life wholly devoted to God... but closer inspection would reveal that his whole point was that it shouldn't be the all in all. It can't be. And most of us figure that out in the day to day life of marriage but somehow at the same time still expect that it should be the quintissential completion of our being. It won't be.

I believe in marriage, in the goodness of it, not because I think we're evolving and figuring out better and better ways to make it work for us, or because of it's utilitarian purposes, but because I believe it was formed within the good and perfect plan of God. Right now, in this fallen state of things, that means it is fraught with problems and abuses, failures and perversions, but the grace of God has not left us, and even though it is "not the way it's supposed to be," he is working in spite of it all. That is why there is the possibility of hope... in broken marriages, failed marriages, abandoned marriages, empty marriages, even good and healthy marriages. I'm committed because of this hope.

Days of December 15 {Books}

It's been quite a long time since a book{worm} wednesday. Just recently a friend let me borrow Committed: A Skeptic Makes Peace with Marriage, and at the same time, I started Tolstoy's War and Peace. This seems a strange and ill-planned reading list for the last couple weeks of Advent and I'm not sure what I was thinking. So, both of those may go on hold until the New Year and in the meantime I have been gathering a few of our favorite Christmas reads for the kids. There are a few new finds as well, thanks to a well stocked and thoughtful supply at our school's Elementary Library.

But beyond a short book list, I also want to share a place I've begun to visit regularly. Some of you may remember my timid raving about a new author I was introduced to and her book, Velma Still Cooks in Leeway. Well, my interest has hardly waned and since that time I've been sent a few more of her novels, both of which my husband and I have mused slowly over, and fully enjoyed.

She is not flashy, she is not overly original. She is not poetic like an Alan Paton or profound like a Chaim Potok. But she is exquisitely real, and an observer of the grave realities of life and the presence of God's grace. She writes about small towns, and small lives, people who are very much like ourselves and with all the wonders and flaws we too possess. I love her stories.

So anyway, Mrs. Wright also has a website where she somewhat regularly posts writings: poems, prompts, or some of her own short fiction stories. Right now she is doing a four part Advent Fiction about an old farmer. You can read along here.

Now, onto our list. Merry Christmas reading everyone!

Treasures of the Snow by Patricia St. John.

I have wonderful memories of my mother reading this book to our family growing up. There is so much to love about it, it's set in the Alps for goodness sake, at Christmas-time. But dear Annette has much to learn about friendship, loyalty, and ultimately forgiveness.

The Year of the Perfect Christmas Tree by Gloria Houston (picture book)

This is a new read for us this year. It has beautiful, magical illustrations and a lovely story about a young girl in the Appalachians during one of the World Wars.

The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson

Hilarious story told from the eyes of a young girl about the misfit family in town that takes over the Church Christmas Pageant. Endearing and fun at the same time.

The Wild Christmas Reindeer by Jan Brett (picture book)

I really enjoy this author and the beautiful, unique illustrations. This particular story is a new one this year... haven't even read it yet.

The Christmas Stories of George MacDonald
George MacDonald. That's all I need to say. These stories are a bit old for my children, so they mainly look at the pictures. But I enjoy reading them, and I'm hopeful they will too in the years to come.

{book}worm wednesday :: Neighborly Giveaway

It is the loveliest of fall days today. Even the gusty wind is welcome, bringing the familiar sound of leaves rustling in the cool breeze, the warm sun sending afternoon shadows, while the rise and fall of children's voices wafts in through windows and doors flung wide.

It's the kind of day that makes you cook down a pot of apples for sauce making, or reach for a light sweater, the kind of day that makes the thought of a new novel or a knit hat, even a mid week holiday from school a welcome idea. Today has held all of those things and more, at least for those of us who are here, in this corner of the world.

Today is also Zhong Qiu Jie, or the Mid Autumn Festival, one of the most important holidays in China, when the moon is at its fullest and the Chinese celebrate the bounty of harvest, of togetherness, of family unity and wholeness. On this fittingly crisp day the kids are running about happily, enjoying the freedom and companionship of this neighborhood, while the country all around us does so on a grander scale, with families coming together to celebrate the blessings of both the earth and generations.

It is with these thoughts and scenes in my mind that I happily bring you today's event for this week's {My Neighborhood} theme: a book giveaway... the novel, Velma Still Cooks in Leeway by Vinita Hampton Wright.

Several weeks ago I listed this novel as a new read in {book}worm wednesday, and said I would let you know how it went. It turns out I absolutely loved it, and immediately decided I wanted to give one away for free (how neighborly of me). Aside from simply wanting to put good books into the hands of willing readers, this particular book and author is slightly less well known (than say, Cry the Beloved Country or Grapes of Wrath) and yet its themes are just as timeless and important.

Velma is a middle aged woman, living in a small, mid-western town where knowing your neighbor and the streets that they live and die on is a way of life, and essential to it. It's complicated though, and Velma begins to feel that the weight of the town's griefs and burdens are becoming to heavy for her to bear. She wrestles with the hurts and disappointments she experiences with and through her neighbors, and with God. There are no cookie cutter answers or easy formulas here, just Velma and her story, within which we are made to grapple with our own questions and struggles with suffering, forgiveness, the hope of redemption, and the way life holds all of these but is not crushed under the weight of them, bearing mercy and grace in spite of it all.

Among other themes, some that struck me were the importance of place, physical place-- the memories they hold and they way they tie and unite, comfort or even instruct life in a way. I felt like I had a deeper appreciation or understanding for people in my own life who are deeply attached to places, to memorabilia that holds significance because of its connection to people. Forgiveness is without question a theme... even more so it seemed to me was the power of healing that human forgiveness brings to another soul. It is something Dietrich Bonhoeffer talks about in Life Together, the way we minister God's forgiveness to others by the way we ourselves forgive. It made me ponder the transforming acts of human forgiveness that I have seen, as well as the the ramifications of when it is withheld. 

Last week I handed this book off to a friend, an English Lit teacher, to see if my zeal over it as a piece of honest and transformational work was off or not, and she wrote me the next day to say she couldn't get it off her mind-- the story had already gripped her, and the the themes seemed to be resonating with those in her own life.

Of course, we each have books that hit us, and sometimes especially so at particular times in our lives. Yet, even with that in mind, I think this story has enough merit to stand on its own. And now, I'd love for one of you to have it in your hands-- but hopefully you will ALL read it!

To enter the giveaway, please leave a comment below telling me what book you are currently reading or would like to read. For an additional entry, post a link to this blog on your facebook page or twitter and then say you did so in a separate comment below.

Comments will be closed on

USA time: Friday, Sept. 24th 12:00 am

China time: Friday, Sept. 24th 12:00 noon

Congratulations Sam! You are the (randomly selected) winner of a new copy of Velma Still Cooks in Leeway. Although the odds were in everyone's favor:)

Please email me your address so I can get it sent to you right away. 

{book}worm wednesday :: going west, east, and the final frontier

Reading can go in waves, can't it. Sometimes you just want a novel. Sometimes you want something to challenge you, to make you think. Sometimes you want fluff and feel good. Sometimes you want to be knocked off your feet. Sometimes you need to just read for the sake of letting any or all those things happen to you regardless if you want them or not. Sometimes you need voices from other times to help you see clearer in your own. Sometimes you need the voices of the present to help shed light on the past.

 I remember watching Reading Rainbow as a kid, and sometimes I wish I still could, all those magical journeys through the books other children were reading. This list is just a small glimpse into one person's tunneling through the world's and pathways that a good book takes you. I wish you wonderful wanderings in wherever yours are leading as well.

what I'm reading
The Art of the Commonplace by Wendell Berry
I kind of went on and on about it here, so I won't do that to you again (right now anyway), but I am still reading and still soaking in these words like a field all furrowed and seeded, ready for the drenching rain to soak it full and heavy, and make it grow. You know I must describe it that way... they are agrarian essays after all.


Upgrade: 10 Secrets to the Best Education for Your Child by Kevin Swanson
I appreciate this book, thought it is not quite as groundbreaking as the title suggests. It's a simple, helpful look at the things that any parent can and should do to educate their child in their whole being: Character, One on One instruction, Protection, Relationships, Life Integration, the Love of Learning, and more are just a few of the ideas he builds on. It hasn't changed my life, but it has challenged me in several ways.


Velma Still Cooks in Leeway by Vinita Hampton Wright
I'm intrigued and interested to read this simple story about a woman in a small town, cooking and caring for her neighbors and friends but dealing with the burdens of the deeper things of life. From the jacket cover, "Velma seeks to be lightened from the heaviness of her past and to find hope that her life has meaning beyond the ordinariness of her existence." Ha. Don't we all. Even if we don't have a deep and dark past, we all have a past, and they are all broken in some way. I have read Wright's book about the writing life and am looking forward to her novel, which just arrived yesterday from my mom in a package by the way, so I'll let you know!


the husband list
Children of God by Mary Doria Russell
The first book in this series was deeply moving and thought provoking, which I mentioned a couple months ago. The premise is challenging: the author sharing that she wrote these stories in light of much of the modern day berating we do towards the early explorers and the damage they did and lack of cultural sensitivity they had. So she has crafted this story to ask the question, if we were confronted with a similar situation now (which could only happen on another planet at this point), would we really do it any differently? In this second book, she dives further in. 


Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie
I don't know much about this book except that it is a little crazy, in a good way. Its the telling of family, of land, of people, and all from the unique and delightful mind of a boy who was born the very night of India's independence on August 15, 1947.


The Rest of God: Restoring Your Soul by Restoring the Sabbath by Mark Buchanan
In today's world, busyness is one of the top ten words on most people's lips. And yet it seems to be doing little to improve our lives. This book is about the rest and reverence of setting apart mind and body and soul not in a removal of all things good, but in a truly restful and worshipful way, in a way we were created to. I've seen it challenge the reader and cause him to ponder a changing of ways, of habits, and spur him on to an adding of things that restore instead of just removing things that deplete.


the kid list
James Herriots Treasury for Children
Another package goody! We dove into this right away last night and again this afternoon and already I am smitten (I think they are too, but I should probably ask). Simple but interesting and as the title says "warm and joyful" tales from an old Yorkshire country veterinarian. The illustrations are wonderful. And it's about farms and animals. What is not to love?


Wagon Wheels by Barbara Brenner
A beginning reader book, and one that my boy is taking great pride in earmarking and reading on his own just like a grown up. The story is unbelievable really, three young boys from Kentucky head west with their father to settle on new land. The challenges they face and overcome are hard for this mama to imagine. And it is a true story.


On the Banks of Plum Creek by Laura Ingalls Wilder
There seem to be things I mention almost neurotically, and the Ingalls family appears to be one of them. So, yes I think this was on the list last time and yes, we are still reading it. I don't ever remember crying about these things as a child reading the story, but Laura having to give her precious Charlotte away to that mean little toddler and Ma not understanding? My heart broke. And then the grasshopper crazy cloud that ate their ENTIRE wheat harvest in one sitting? I get depressed and irritated when the internet stops working for crying out loud (now that is an issue in and of itself). Pa walking hundreds of miles for work, Ma living for months with no news of him, Laura and Mary hauling the entire woodpile indoors when a blizzard arrives unexpectedly. I'm just so stinkin proud of them all! The fortitude, the motivation, the ability to see life for what it is and to accept it... it astounds me. And the way you are feeling right now, looking cockeyed at your computer like, "settle down lady" is precisely the way two little bobbing heads look at me every night as I wipe tears and snot from my face and try to get through another chapter.


board books, oh my.
That would be all the board books I am reading to my dear little lady who has taken such an interest in them, it is nearly to the point of madness. How many times can a monkey jump off the bed before it will get the point?? How many belly buttons and dinosaurs, I do love a good Sandra Boynton standby though. They still make me laugh the five gazillionth time through. 


Thank you for reading! As always I love to hear what is on your nightstand or coffee table or living room floor, too!


And here is a little sneak preview of something that is coming up tomorrow...

{book}worm wednesday :: Kipling and Shakespeare and Other Strange Tales

I'm not quite sure what happened to all the other Wednesdays between this one and the last time I posted a {book}worm. But nevertheless here we are again with another round of books that we are savoring, or enduring (in some cases), gobbling up or chewing slowly... or just working our way through.

You may wonder if it even seems realistic that I have more than one book on this list, and if I'm being truthful by sharing them here. I'll tell you that most of our reading happens in bits and pieces of time. With early waking hours these days we usually spend some time on our back patio with toast and coffee and pillows before the rooster or any other reasonable creature has cracked open an eye. If boredom or squabbles set in midmorning, we'll break for some book time. There's usually a story or two before naps, and then while the two younger ones sleep, Skills and I read a more advanced story that's just for the two of us. Keeping little feet out of the kitchen before dinner often lends itself to a couple more minutes on the couch, battling toddler legs that want to get up and down while two more attentive boys wish she would just sit quietly. And then before bed is when our chapter books get chipped away at. There are other moments of solitary "reading" which is more like flipping through picture books, though the older they get the more they can work at sounding out the words, etc.

For me, most personal reading is done in the evening or during a nap if that time isn't packed with something else like cleaning, shopping, cooking, you name it. My husband is somehow blessed with the ability to read while children scamper wildly at his feet or even over top of him, as well as while perched beside the bath while water splashes wildly about. I am somehow not blessed with his ability to focus.


What the Kids are Reading

On the Banks of Plum Creek by Laura Ingalls Wilder
On the heels of Little House on the Prairie, which sang of golden prairies and the lure and mounting tension of the Indian Territory, we head into the Ingall's family new venture in a small dugout on Plum Creek. I continue to be amazed at what Pa can do, at what the girls can be entertained by (days locked in the house, they sat by the hearth and amused themselves), at the lack of information about Baby Carrie and how in the world they did all they did with a toddler around (it's a small point, unimportant to the story... and I need to get over it)


Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls

We curl up on my bed and get lost in the world of a boy and his hound pups. Every time I read it I have a teary moment. We took a break from this book for a little while but just got back into it and I notice my son has begun to do what seems natural for every young child... pine for a pet. He even has his two dogs named, and lists of what to do to train them (jumping through hoops of fire somehow seemed important). One thing I love about this story is how much is revealed about this young boy's character... and none of it is spelled out for you so it's not preachy, something even kids can pick up on.


Just So Stories by Rudyard Kipling
A very exciting arrival. Last week we received a couple books I had been wanting for a long time. This was one of them. The kids were into it right away and don't seem put off by the slightly accelerated language. The stories are fun and imaginative, all recreations of things like "how the leopard got his spots" or "how the rhinoceros got his skin." Every time I read something by someone I admire, it seems they grew up on Kipling's stories... so I'm just trying to cover my bases- but enjoying it immensely in the meantime.


Hamlet (for kids) by Lois Burdett

A truly delightful and easy to read, easy to follow rendition of the Shakespeare plays. Honestly, they're good for me regardless of whether the kids like them or not. But they do like them. They can follow the story and of course his stories are riveting. The poetry is readable, but reflects the style and prose of Shakespeare, to the point that many original quotes are able to be included. This series comes pretty well acclaimed and recommended. I'll be getting more!

Anno's Mysterious Multiplying Jar by Masaichiro and Mitsumasa Anno

A simple book about multiplication but it is fun and helpful for counting too. It's really dealing with factorials in a fun and interesting sort of way... lots of good illustrations and ways of explaining things with words. This is a bit old for my kids, but the oldest likes to think through the math equations and copy them down. He's kind of a type A personality in that way. The rest of us just think it looks pretty.


Belly Button Book by Sandra Boynton

Have to include our twenty-times-a-day little feature. Sandra has a great way of talking about things and belly buttons are included. Now our little Scout runs around poking people's tummies yelling "bee bo!" and giggling infectiously every time you poke her back. What is so interesting and humorous about a belly button?... I wish I could remember.

What I'm reading


The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell
A spell binding story. A heartbreaking tale. A book full of questions, and characters who are slowly but carefully unwrapped. Definitely worth reading and pondering over. Everyone I know who has read it could not put it down.


Love in Hard Places by D.A. Carson
Isn't that the crux of it all? Love is all lovely until it gets hard. D.A. Carson... he is the man. I always learn from and appreciate the way he deals brilliantly with the exposition of the Scriptures, but thinks and works through it so enmeshed in the stuff of life-- which is what it is for. He's a genius scholar, but he doesn't get unnecessarily wrapped up in the scholarly aspects for their sake alone. He is after the gripping, life-altering Truth.


The Husband List


Modern Times by Paul Johnson
Lots and lots of history from the 20th century. A lot.


Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell
All I know about this book was that he "read it in Beijing." 


The Murder Room by P.D. James


The Last Best League: One Summer, One Season, One Dream by Jim Collins
Apparently the most important summer league known to any aspiring baseball players. All the big prospects go there. Kind of like playing at Rucker Park in NYC. Jim Collins went and spent the summer there in 2002 and then wrote about it.

And as always, I'd love to hear what you're reading, or what you're doing to make the reading happen!