The Year in Books

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Because I love to read reading lists, here is my offering of books read in 2009. 
Titles with Ω next to them indicate audio books.

It was a good reading year; there were many painful stories relative to WWII, but the comfortable books in-between helped.  Many of you influenced my reading with your own book reviews and recommendations.  Thank you!  I am grateful for the book-loving blogging community.

Loved

■   Rachel Ray, Anthony Trollope (written in 1863, my favorite of 2009)
■   The Herb of Grace, Elizabeth Goudge (comfort and joy)
■   Cold Sassy Tree, Olive Ann Burns (quirky, colorful, lovable, Southern)

■   Band of Brothers, Stephen E. Ambrose (grand and gripping)
■   D-Day, June 6, 1944, Stephen E. Ambrose (I couldn’t put it down)
■   Beyond Band of Brothers, Dick Winters  Ω (I totally admire this man)

■   My Lucky Star, Zdenka Fantlova (absorbing, haunting)
■   The Book Thief, Markus Zusak Ω  (most unusual – a must re-read)
■   The Pianist, Wladyslaw Szpilman (Holocaust memoir, Poland)

■  All but My Life, Gerda Weissman Klein (left me in an emotional puddle)
■  The Proud Tower, Barbara Tuchman Ω (1895-1912 could be compelling? Yes!)
■   How to Cook a Wolf, M.F.K. Fisher (written for the starving; acerbic wit)

■   Simple Courage, Frank Delaney Ω (I yearn to write this well, audio excellent)
■   A Thread of Grace, Mary Doria Russell (Jewish resistance in Italy during WWII)
■   String Too Short to Be Saved, Donald Hall (life on a Maine farm, rec. by Wendell Berry)

Really Liked

■   Suite Française, Irène Némirovsky Ω (captures the horror of invasion)
■   Garlic and Sapphires, Ruth Reichl (mischievous, sparkling, crackin’ good fun)
■   Schindler’s List, Thomas Keneally (he saved > 1000 Jewish lives in WWII)

■   Good Night, Mr. Tom, Michelle Magorian (sweet story without syrup)
■   The Last Chronicle of Barset, Anthony Trollope Ω (good but not Trollope’s best)
■   A Gravestone Made of Wheat, Will Weaver (basis of movie Sweet Land)

■   Children of the Storm, Natasha Vins (modern Soviet memoir)
■   The Second World War in Color, Stewart Binns  (great photography)
■   Dr. Seuss Goes to War, Theodor Geisel (a different side of Dr. Seuss)

■   The Rising Tide, Jeff Shaara Ω (brings history alive)
■   The Steel Wave, Jeff Shaara Ω (D-Day was a particular focus in my reading)
■   The Hours After, Gerda Weismann Klein and Kurt Klein (sequel to ABML)

■   All God’s Children & Blue Suede Shoes, Kenneth Myers (culture & faith)
■   Walter, The Story of a Rat, Barbara Wersba (the rat loves books)
■   Island on Bird Street, Uri Olev (young adult book based on author’s life)

■   The Art of Civilized Conversation, Margaret Shepherd (full of delightful quotes)
■   The Holy Wild, March Buchanan (quality writing not usually found in devotionals)
■   Easy Company Soldier, Don Marlarkey Ω (another Band of Brothers soldier)

■   The Phoenix and the Carpet, E. Nesbit (warmth of Narnia without the allegory)
■   Tea Time for the Traditionally Built, Alexander McCall Smith (an easy, enjoyable read)
■   A Nice Cup of Tea & A Sit Down, Nicey and Wifey (from a blog on tea and biscuits)

■   The Book That Changed My Life, ed. Diane Osen (authors interviewed)
■   The Incredible Shrinking Critic, Jami Bernard (NYC-style wit and sarcasm)
■   The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop, Lewis Buzbee (adventures of a book seller)

Liked Parts of It

■   Living in a Foreign Language, Michael Tucker (TV stars move to Italy)
■   Head Over Heels in the Dales, Gervase Phinn (James Herriot of schools)
■   The Water is Wide, Pat Conroy (a young teacher, a South Carolina island)

■   The Invisible Heart, Russell Roberts (economics for dummies)
■   1916, Morgan Llywelyn (historical fiction, Easter Rising in Ireland)
■   Fire in the Blood, Irène Némirovsky Ω (a bit strange)

■   Bedside Manners, David Watt MD  (some weird patients/maladies)
■   The Gathering Storm, Winston Churchill (“see? I told you so!”)
■   The Airman’s War, WWII in the Sky, Albert Marrin (juvenile history)

■   Overlord, D-Day, Albert Marrin (another good juvenile history)
■   Churchill, Hitler & the Unnecessary War, Pat Buchanan Ω(didn’t buy premise)
■   The Penderwicks, Jeanne Birdsall (not up to Nesbit, Alcott, & Lewis)

■   The Ocean of Truth, Sir Isaac Newton, Joyce McPherson (juvenile history)
■   Isaac Newton, Scientific Genius, Pearl & Henry Schultz (another juvenile history)
■   The Wild Blue, Stephen E. Ambrose (pilots of the B-24)

■   Luther and His Katie, Dolina MacCuish (juvenile history)
■   Women of the Old Testament, Abraham Kuyper (devotional)
■   The Illumined Heart, Frederica Mathewes-Green (Orthodox author, devotional)

■   Luncheon of the Boating Party, Susan Vreeland Ω (book based on Renoir’s painting)
■   The Panama Hat Trail, Tom Miller (made in Ecuador; compelling non-fiction)
■   A Year Down Yonder, Richard Peck (juvenile fiction, the cover drew me in)

■   Evasions, Melanie Jeschke (preferred author’s other books)
■   The Spiritual Life, Evelyn Underhill (a deep book, I didn’t “get it”)
■   Isaac and His Devils, Fernanda Eberstadt (parts I loved, parts I hated)

■   Common Sense Christian Living, Edith Schaeffer (a spin-off of film series)
■   The Uncommon Reader, Alan Bennett (excellent sections, except for the gay bits…why?)
■   Vanishing Acts, Jodi Picoult (a page-turner)
■   Winterdance: The Fine Madness of Running the Iditarod, Gary Paulsen (intense)

Didn’t Care For It

■   Mein Kampf, Adolf Hitler (How bad was it?  Very bad.)
■   Eating My Words, Mimi Sheraton (her voice grated–and it wasn’t an audio book!)
■   The American Classics, Denis Donoghue (I don’t like literary criticism; I prefer literature)
■   Speaking of Beauty, Denis Donoghue (it was a struggle to make it to the end)

Favorite Films of 2009

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It’s kind of fun, isn’t it, to look back over the year and note the high spots.  Here is a list of the best DVDs we watched, the ones that I would rate 5/5.  We studied WWII, we (she says) like food, we like Donne, we like Dickens and we like song. 

Documentaries

Our favorite DVD was I Have Never Forgotten You: The Life and Legacy of Simon Wiesenthal.  At the beginning of March it was the best DVD we had seen in 2009, and at the end of December I can still say it was the best.  My review.

The Singing Revolution documents the independence of Estonia through the power of singing.  It’s simply incredible!  Please!  Take two minutes, click on the link and watch the trailer.  I had the same response to this film that I had to a much different movie, Hotel Rwanda: these events took place during my (adult) lifetime.  Where was I? Why was I so ignorant?
In the case of Estonia, I just didn’t connect with the phrase, Baltic States.  Oh, if I was teaching the American War of Independence, I would show this film to compare and contrast America’s war and Estonia’s.

  

We rented one disc of Planet Earth from Netflix and decided we needed to own this series.  We gave the set to our sons for Christmas.  Extraordinary footage.  If you have kids in your life, it is worth owning this.  My review

Food, Inc. is an eye-opening look at what we eat.  Sounds appetizing, eh?  If you enjoyed Michael Pollan’s book The Omnivore’s Dilemma, you will like Food, Inc.  It comes from the same kernel as King Corn. The highlight of the movie, for us, was the segment with Joel Salatin on Polyface Farms.  Warning: if you watch this, you might change your food choices.

World War II


As a family, we often remember a season or a year by our viewing.  One summer it was the Jeeves and Wooster videos, one autumn was occupied with Foyle’s War.  Last winter it was Band of Brothers.  It took us a while to find a friend willing to lend it to us.  Curt had co-workers who owned this set, but it was too precious to them to lend it out. Gritty, war-violence, it is not for the faint of heart. If you can stomach the intensity of combat scenes, it is highly excellent.  Our son was very happy to get this from his brother for Christmas.  On a side note, the theme music is the most compelling, haunting, soul-grabbing collection of notes. 

It is ironic that I watched Valkyrie with my daughter-in-law and her sister.  They said it was the best war movie they’d seen.  Apart from the opening, there are no gunfights or battle scenes.  It is all spy and mystery and thriller.  Even though you know that this operation failed, you are sucked into the suspense and hold your breath.  After watching this movie I am left with the question, how many lives would have been saved if this attempt on Hitler’s life from the inside of the Nazi machine had succeeded?  There are many potential points of discussion.

BBC and Me

I don’t know how I completely missed David Copperfield when it came out in 2000, but I did.  I love Dickens and I loved David C.  We’ve enjoyed Martin Chuzzlewit, Bleak House, Nicholas Nickleby and have Our Mutual Friend waiting for me to finish the book. However, I don’t believe there is middle ground with Dickens: either you are a fan of sad, sordid, sorrowful scenes where one ray of light appears…or you aren’t. 

There is nothing funny about Wit but it is gripping.  This is, I believe, Emma Thompson’s best role….ever.  John Donne, the metaphysical poet, is worth exploring.  My review here.

Foreign

File The Chorus (Les Choristes) under films that demonstrate the power of music.  A composer/teacher takes a job at a boy’s reform school after WWII.  The headmaster is a typical two-dimensioned cruel man, a foolish tyrant.  Singing in a chorus brings beauty into the students’ lives.  A few gritty parts, and a little heavy on sentimentalism, but I liked it.

Fun with Food

A friend recommended Jamie Oliver – Oliver’s Twist to us.  It’s the first foodie show we’ve raved about.  Jamie Oliver is a guy’s guy who loves to cook.  Unpretentious. With a British accent.  What’s not to love?

I was delighted to receive (and watch!) Julie & Julia this Christmas.  Since Curt and I watched it in the theater, we rented a disc of Julia Child’s cooking shows. Having seen them underscored how brilliant Meryl Streep really is.  Perfectly delightful.  My review

What about you?  Which movies would you watch again in 2010?

Reading Evening

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Tucked in between the happy chaos and loud gatherings of the 22nd and the 24th was a quiet reading evening. 

It was reminiscent of my childhood: siblings sprawled in various positions between horizontal and vertical, the quiet occasionally punctuated by a chuckle, hum, or gasp.  Curt was working late, Carson had taken Noah out to look for who-knows-what. Those of us at home were at home with a book. 

Taryn, my daughter-in-law, was reading Kristin Lavransdatter.  Collin was chuckling his way through P. G. Wodehouse’s The Heart of a Goof.  I was dipping into Michael Ruhlman’s The Soul of a Chef: The Journey Toward Perfection.  The tree twinkled, the fire crackled; the only other sounds were barely audible breathing.

When the missing men arrived back home we popped a bottle of champagne to celebrate.  Son #2 toasted to God’s goodness in his life: three years of marriage and an inquisitive one year old boy.  While Carson was toasting I had a flashback to a day seven years ago when he experienced a rare bout of angst.  He knew what he wanted (a family of his own…I believe his words were “a wife, a house and a kid”) but it all seemed so very far off and unimaginable. 

His dream was out of my sight too, but I encouraged him to wait and hope…and to work while he waited.  Seven years ago I couldn’t give him a snapshot of his life today.  But it is glorious to look back and see the gifts, stacked to the ceiling and spilling over, he has been given.  Praise God from Whom all blessings flow.   

 

Fourth Sunday of Advent

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We learned a new Advent hymn today.  The words are by St. Ambrose (397) and the music was written in 1524.  The tune is easy to learn without being facile, really very singable.  The harmony, rich in interior movement, is luscious.  Of course it is — J.S. Bach wrote it. 

Savior of the nations, come;
Virgin’s Son, here make Thy home!
Marvel now, O heaven and earth,
That the Lord chose such a birth.

Not by human flesh and blood;
By the Spirit of our God
Was the Word of God made flesh,
Woman’s offspring, pure and fresh.

Wondrous birth! O wondrous Child
Of the virgin undefiled!
Though by all the world disowned,
Still to be in heaven enthroned.

From the Father forth He came
And returneth to the same,
Captive leading death and hell
High the song of triumph swell!

Thou, the Father’s only Son,
Hast over sin the victory won.
Boundless shall Thy kingdom be;
When shall we its glories see?

Brightly doth Thy manger shine,
Glorious is its light divine.
Let not sin overcloud this light;
Ever be our faith thus bright.

Praise to God the Father sing,
Praise to God the Son, our King,
Praise to God the Spirit be
Ever and eternally.

If you go to Youtube (type Savior of the Nations Come in the search engine) you can see many renditions of this ancient Advent hymn which is new to me today!

The Final Christmas Card

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Her name is Precious. 

When I was 13, she hired me to clean her house on Saturdays.  She was getting a break from vacuuming and dusting, but in reality she was giving me relief from the confusion and tension of my family life.  The highlight was eating lunch together.  She introduced me to oyster crackers while she told me the secret of her long marriage was growing up with her husband. She was 15 when she married Roy.  After two years as a Saturday maid, I took a “real” job at a store. 

When I got married, of course I invited Precious to my wedding, unaware that she had changed churches and no longer mixed with most of the folks attending.  She was so glad to be included.  Her wedding gift – a Presto Pressure Cooker – is a gift I continue to use 31 years later.

On one of their jaunts around the country, Roy and Precious visited us in Klamath Falls, Oregon.  Always radiant, she woke early and cleaned up my kitchen before showing me her daily floor exercises.  A stickler for good posture, she would urge me to “look up at the third story, Carol, and keep your shoulders back!”

Every year I look forward to receiving a Christmas card recycled into a postcard from Precious.  When I read her unwavering handwriting, I can hear her voice.  She let me know of Roy’s death, of her move to Mississippi, all with her own special grace.  And as she has aged, I always wonder while I wait, if I will hear from her this year.  In the funny way of friendships, we have no one else in common, no other link to each other.* 

This is the card I received this year:

12/10/09
“Merry Christmas” Carol and Curt & Family
and a Blessed New Years.
Since I was 89 on 9/11 old age is evident,
but the Lord meets every need.
Looking forward to Eternity w/ old friends
& am not sending cards in the future-
will see you in Heaven in God’s timing.
Rejoicing in Jesus,
Precious

* I reconnected with another friend from that era; after reading this, she emailed me to say she is also a Precious friend. 

Ersatz

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Ersatz is one of my new favorite words.  It only became mine a few months ago.  A German words, it means:

Artificial or inferior substitution or imitation

Here’s the word in a sentence.

Because of the ersatz Christmas carols blaring from the store’s ceiling, I prefer to shop online. 

This is a season of joy, but there are abundant examples of artificial ick that just come out tinny.  When heaven and nature sing don’t you believe it is something that could be accurately described as…music?  Today I’m getting out the Christmas music and the first one to be played will be the orchestral overture of Handel’s Messiah followed by a tenor singing Comfort Ye.

Repeat the sounding joy!

In the Bleak Midwinter

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Winner of Carol’s Best Christmas Music – Category: Mellow
The Gift by Liz Story
Windham Hill.
Solo piano.
Sensitive.
Evocative.
Contemplative.
Recommended first by sister Dorothy.
New to me this year.
Exquisite.

(This post is from the archives.)

One of my favorites is In the Bleak Midwinter, a piece that James Taylor also does very well.

I know you are very, very busy.  You should be wrapping gifts instead of reading blogs.

May I tell you a story?  Why this song means so very much to me?

It is a family story that I only know from the telling, because, sadly, I was not present.  Twenty-one years ago, my father received a diagnosis of pancreatic cancer from Mayo Clinic on Christmas Eve.  The following weekend, those of my siblings who could, gathered at my dad’s place in Dubuque. That Sunday Dan sang  In The Bleak Midwinter at the chapel.  A Capella.  He’s a professional, my brother.  But when he came to the last verse, (What shall I bring him, poor as I am?) he broke down and wept.  Unable to continue. My father walked up to him, put his arms around him, and held him.  No words.

So this piece, which has a mournful tone already (and that is not a criticism), always  takes me to that Sunday, to a sad family, a very brave brother, and a father who was a father in a most public act of comforting his son; to my Father who gave His Son, to his mother who worshiped him with a kiss, and mostly to the poverty of the writer who offers what she can give–her heart.

In the Bleak Midwinter.

Snippet of James Taylor singing it (scroll down).
30 seconds of Liz Story playing it.
Better yet, Glouster Cathedral Choir singing it:

There’s A Bathroom On the Right

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Lyric Confusion.

Have you ever been singing your heart out and had someone squint, frown and stare at you?  What did you just sing?  That is a way of life with me. Sometimes I even embarrass myself, hot faced, when I catch myself in lyric confusion.

One afternoon early in our relationship, my boyfriend and I were driving, listening to the radio. Paul Harvey came on.  Curt had never heard Paul Harvey, a staple of my home life.  Far from home, excited to hear someone familiar, I gushed. 

He has this signature sign off, I explained. He ends each broadcast by saying The Deck!

Curt looked confused and asked *why* he said The Deck!  

I didn’t know, but I’d been listening to Paul Harvey for decades and that’s what he said every time. It’s just his thing.

Curt listened carefully and never heard him say The Deck!  But he was twitterpated, so he kept silent.

A few weeks later Paul Harvey came on and Curt thought it was time to tell it to me straight.  Babe, he said, He isn’t saying The Deck!  He’s saying Good Day!  That was the first of many corrections.

Here are a few more zingers followed by the true lyrics.

Precious and few are the moments Sweet Sue can share.

Precious and few are the moments we two care share.

I am the living magazine (??? I wondered what that meant!) of the leader of the band.

I am the living legacy of the leader of the band.

My youngest was caught singing this hymn.

He breaks the can the pretzel’s in.

He breaks the power of canceled sin.

My favorite from Creedence Clearwater Revival:

Don’t go round tonight.
It’s bound to take your life
There’s a bathroom on the right.

Come on, now….it’s your turn to tell a tale!

Frosting, Still Life, Chariots

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photo by Donna Boucher, used by permission
~  When I’m in a car, I muse on metaphors.  I see pleats in geography, accordions in foothills, belts in highways, down comforters in clouds.  On Sunday, the fields were white with frost, a typical late November morning.  My mind was groping for the right trope: sheets of chocolate cake with buttercream frosting. 

It was an aha! moment.  Frost → frosting.  Ice → Icing   Sweet!
~  Schindler’s List (*now* we may watch the movie) is a haunting read.  People dodged death one afternoon even though it was likely they wouldn’t escape the next morning.  “An hour of life is still life.”  To hold hope so tight… 
A Commandant’s morning routine was to go outside, stretch, pick up a rifle and pick off a prisoner.  The choice of victim was so random, mindless, unpredictable.  The recent Tacoma police shooting is yet another random, rattling, needless killing.   
~  Here is a hymn snippet: On the first Sunday of Advent while singing Lift Up Your Heads, Ye Mighty Gates we came to these lines.

A Helper just he comes to thee,
His chariot is humility.

We all have heard of Chariots of Fire.  You may know Psalm 20, “Some trust in chariots, some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God.”  Chariots are often dazzling, splashy, flashy ways to arrive and leave.  But a chariot of humility?  What does that look like?  And why would a King of Glory ride in a chariot of humility?

This picture is challenging me. 

I naturally want my arrival to be noticed, a few more ta-DA moments, please!  Even in thinking about how I could choose the transportation of humility, I tend to romanticize the idea.  Any thoughts about chariots of humility?