Tag Archives: booklists

It’s A Wrap!

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CURRICULUM READING

 The Church Histories by Eusebius     Good solid reading.  It’s much like reading Foxes Box of Martyrs.  Who can really say they enjoyed it?  The stories were more interesting than I had anticipated.

Confessions by Augustine        My son and I are on the last book.  This book really deserves a blog entry of its own full of quotes.  After Augustine’s chapters on the torment he went through– the divided heart he experienced wanting to follow Christ and yet not wanting to give up sex–the reader feels the relief that floods over him when he reaches to point of surrender.  I surprise myself by continuing to be surprised at how readable “ancient” books are. 

Eats, Shoots & Leaves by Lynne Truss     I thought this would be a creative, new approach to punctuation, an area that needs strengthening in my student/son.  I had a blast and enjoyed our read alouds. He cringed and considered it long-suffering, emphasis on suffering.  Face it folks, this book is preaching to the choir.  If you need help with it’s and its I think there are more efficient ways to learn punctuation in guide books, but they are not near as fun.

Nine Taylors by Dorothy Sayers   This Lord Peter Wimsey mystery was both entertaining and edifying.  If you enjoy Lewis, Tolkien and Chesterton and haven’t yet read Sayers (the case with me a few months ago) jump in. You will not regret it.  Sayers is an author to be reckoned with. I enjoyed  learning about campology  (bell-ringing).  The analogy of St. Paul’s (the church in the book) with Noah’s Ark is rich with deeper meaning. 

Top 500 Poems edited by William Harmon     Reading a poem aloud is part of our morning routine.  Many of the poems last month were Shakespeare’s sonnets.  The book is arranged in chronological order.  We’re currently reading Thomas Campion.  Good stuff.

CHALLENGE READING

I planned to read Civilization of the Middle Ages.  It didn’t happen and will go on the Winter Challenge.

CULTIVATION READING

I finished The Imitation of Christ and started Martin Luther’s Table Talk.  I find it hard to get into Table Talk and will probably substitute another book this winter.   The Greatest  English Classic by Cleland McAfee was more informational than inspirational, but worth the reading.

COMFORT & JOY

I read a few P. G. Wodehouse titles and agree with (?? Diane at Circle of Quiet ??) that Wodehouse should be read interspersed between other reading due to the reoccurring themes.   I read two Tobias Wolff titles:  This Boy’s Life and Old School.  That old fox Wolff tricked me again.  He wrote about visiting authors coming to the tony prep school he attended: Robert Frost, Ayn Rand and Ernest Hemingway.  It is true that Robert Frost came; however, a compelling narrative of Ayn Rand’s interaction with students and faculty is fiction. 

I acquired a set (not complete) of Dickens that I’d like to jump into this winter.  But first, I’m trolling in Trollope.  I listened to The Warden on Librivox and am halfway through Barchester Towers. I find this perfect reading at the end of the day when I only have the strength to keep my eyes open for 15 minutes.  My beloved Latin teacher said that Anthony Trollope is “more controlled than Dickens.”  It is on his recommendation that I took up Trollope.  I know there are a lot of Jane Austen fans out there who would appreciate this author.

CREATIVITY

Franz Mohr’s My Life with the Great Pianists was a wonderful read.  I think there is a bit of voyeur in each of us.  It was fun to learn about Horowitz, Rubenstein, Glenn Gould, and Van Cliburn;  I  took note of the artists they  preferred to play and certain concerts that were remarkable performances.  Isn’t our technological age so unfathomable?  You can read about a live performance from the piano tuner’s perspective and hop onto the net and find that very performance on a CD.   Mohr wrote that no one comes close to approaching Glenn Gould’s talent in playing Bach.  Allrightythen!  Let’s have a listen.

I just dipped into Edith Shaeffer’s Hidden Art and David Allen’s Getting Things Done.  I’m halfway through Quiller-Couch’s The Art of Writing.  However, last night we watched the film version of 84, Charing Cross Road and I’m all re-inspired to spend more time with Q. 

Listening to How to Listen to and Understand Great Music can be likened to a book on tape.  This Teaching Company course by Robert Greenberg is superlative.  Yep, I said superlative.  As in: The Best!  I’m listened up to Beethoven’s era and have enjoyed it immensely.  My husband and son, not musicians, get magnetically pulled into hanging out in the kitchen and listening.  Greenberg is that compelling.  The last concert I attended was enriched by what I’d learned from these tapes.  And Greenberg introduced us to Bach’s Passacaglia for which I will be forever grateful.

CURIOSITY

Add David McCullough’s The Johnstown Flood to the list of great historical narratives.  Reading through it was a great prelude to visiting the spot where the dam broke and the two museums in the area.  My admiration for McCullough continues to increase with each book I’ve read. 

Kepler’s Witch by James Connor is a strange title for a biography of Johannes Kepler.  I read this book on the elliptical machine with a highlighter in one hand.  I have squiggly highlights throughout the book.  I have thoroughly, thoroughly enjoyed what I’ve read so far.  I think of Janie, our ARC leader at Seasonal Soundings, who loves astronomy, each page I read.   I’m only  part way through.  This book is written in the style of Galileo’s Daughter by Dava Sobel, with narrative interspersed with reproductions of actual letters to/from Kepler. 

Who has time to read this bulky blog entry?  Congratulations for making it through.  It has been a very profitable and pleasurable three months of reading. 

Good Stuff

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A lovely amazon.com box came today. 

As I opened it and lovingly handled the books, feeling the covers, looking at illustrations, I realized how profoundly I am edified by my cyber buddies. 

Every single book was a result of a blog writer who quoted, noted, shared, and recommended. 

I was feeling very left out when I read so many references to Wendell Berry and had not a clue who he was and what he had written.  Jayber Crow seems to have taken the world of classical homeschooling by storm.  I went to our local library and checked out two collections of Wendell Berry’s short stories.  Short stories seemed perfect for this moment in life: I’m in a girlfriend’s wedding this Saturday and my son will be getting married in less than a month.  At the same time I checked out David McCullough’s biography of  Teddy Roosevelt, Mornings on Horseback.  McCullough could write about rice pudding and I’d read it, but TR is just too great a subject.

It near killed me to read several Berry short stories without a highlighter or pencil in my hand.  After Patti mentioned reading McCollough’s book multiple times, I was certain I needed to purchase and mark up my own copy.

My wonderful husband has enjoyed the few Wendell Berry short stories I’ve read aloud to him, but he has dibs on Dorothy Sayer’s book.  That’s fine: I’m not sure when we’ll have time to read but it is glorious to have such fine books to anticipate.  This Wikipedia article says this about Berry: 

His nonfiction
serves as a long defense of the life in which he finds value. According
to Berry, this good life includes: sustainable agriculture, appropriate technologies, healthy rural communities, the Gospels, connection to place, the pleasures of good food, stewardship of Creation, husbandry, good work, local economics, the miracle frugality, reverence, peacemaking, and the interconnectedness of life.

Bring it on!

Gift Giving for Book Lovers

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Here’s a gift idea for those readers on your list.  If you know your beloved’s favorite author, and know that your beloved has read all the books by that author, don’t throw your hands up in despair.  Give your beloved bibliophile a favorite book of said bibliophile’s favorite author.  If you adore someone’s writing, surely you are curious about who/what shaped his views or molded her style.

My sister Margaret did this very thing a few months ago and I was delighted.  She gave me

and explained that she heard my favorite speaker, George Grant, say that this was his favorite book.  

This might take some research, but isn’t that what we have Google for?  Type in: literary influences “[author’s name]” and see what comes up.  You might get a young C.S. Lewis fan some George MacDonald books.


Or a Tolkien fan Seamus Heaney’s gorgeous translation of Beowulf.

Let’s take an example: Elisabeth Elliot. Your gift recipient loves EE and has all 26 of her books (!).  In the back of this book,

 

an obvious source to research Elisabeth Elliot, one finds a personal reading survey given to Christian leaders. When asked five books which were most influential in her life, her favorite novel, and her favorite biography, Elisabeth Elliot’s answers were:

Note: EE specified Evelyn Underhill’s The Mystery of Charity, which I couldn’t find.  So the image above is representative of Evelyn Underhill.  Also in EE’s list was Janet Erskine Stuart’s Life and Letters.

Is anyone out there salivating?  Welcome to the wonderful world of books, authors, and ideas.  It’s a beautiful life.

Autumn Reading Challenge Specifics

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Yikes!  How time does fly!!  I have about seven blog entries/essays floating around my head and no time to devote to them.  School is off to a productive and peaceable beginning.  I have one son to finish educating and I pray that we will finish well.  Yesterday we looked ahead to his last three years of high school; we have a plan on what we will cover before he takes off for college.  But that, my friend, is another blog entry!

Earlier I drew a framework of categories for the fall reading plan.  Here’s a quick filling in of the details:

CURRICULUM reading: 
       The Church History, Eusebius, translated by Paul Maier
       Confessions, Augustine
       On the Incarnation, Athanasius
       The Ecclesiastical History of the English People, Bede
       The Nine Tailors,  Dorothy Sayers
       Eats, Shoots & Leaves, Lynne Truss
       The Top 500 Poems, William Harmon editor (read one poem aloud, daily)

CHALLENGE reading:
       The Civilization of the Middle Ages, Norman F. Cantor

CULTIVATING reading:  (I’m working up to reading Calvin’s Institutes next year.)
       The Imitation of Christ, Thomas à Kempis, William Griffin translator (continued from summer)
       Table Talk, Martin Luther (small bits at a time)
       The Greatest English Classic, Cleland McAfee

COMFORT & JOY reading:
       Jeeves & The Tie That Binds, P.G. Wodehouse
       The Cat-nappers, P.G. Wodehouse
       Won’t Let You Go Unless You Bless Me, Andrée Seu
       The Ballad of the White Horse, G.K. Chesterton
       This Boy’s Life, Tobias Wolff
       something from Austen or Dickens
       PD James and/or Dorothy Sayers mysteries

CREATIVITY  reading:
       The Hidden Art of Homemaking, Edith Schaeffer
       On the Art of Writing, Arthur Quiller-Couch
       My Life with the Great Pianists, Franz Mohr
       Getting Things Done, David Allen

CURIOSITY reading:
       The Johnstown Flood, David McCullough (audio)
       Kepler’s Witch: An Astronomer’s Discovery of Cosmic Order Amid Religious War, Political Intrigue, and the Heresy Trial of His Mother, James A. Connor

I know how unlikely it is that I will get through this list with my son’s wedding approaching, fall cleaning and canning, etc.  But I am armed with high hopes and salivating with anticipation even as I type some of these titles.

Our local library has been closed to transfer to the brand new building.  I can’t imagine when they have the grand opening on September 20th that there won’t be a book or two that will catch my eye.

Soon the light will fade in the evenings and we’ll revisit a happy family tradition: Reading Evenings.  We gather in the living room with our books, hot drinks, and pencils.  We all read our individual books quietly, but enjoy hearing chuckles, sighs, moans, giggles, and occasional interruptions: “You have to hear this!”

Sigh.  The reading life is a beautiful life.
   

Summer Reading Challenge Wrap

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I really don’t like to admit that summer is almost over, but facts are facts.  I wanted to recap the Challenge using an easy evaluative question: “Would I read this book again?”

COMPLETED

Temperament, The Idea That Solved Music’s Greatest Riddle
by Stuart Isacoff. – No, too weighty.  I copied quotes into my journal and will read those occasionally.
The Summer of My Great-Grandmother by Madeleine L’Engle.  – Definitely, after I’ve loaned it to several friends.
The Man Who Was Thursday
by G.K. Chesterton. – Yes, for the writing, not the plot.
The Tolkien Reader
by J.R.R. Tolkien. – parts of it, yes. 
1776 by David McCullough – as a reference, yes.
Every Living Thing by James Herriot. – I’m not sure.  Maybe read aloud to the grands?

ABANDONED AFTER TWO CHAPTERS

I Know This Much Is True
by Wally Lamb – no.

STILL READING SLOWLY

The Imitation of Christ by
Thomas a Kempis, translated by William Griffin.  – highlighted parts, yes.

DIDN’T GET TO THESE BOOKS

The Irrational Season by Madeleine l’Engle – I’d like to start this at Advent and read slowly through the church calendar with this book.
Pilgrim at Tinker Creek
by Annie Dillard – it wasn’t the right season for this book.  I tried a few times but it didn’t grab me, and it wasn’t the book’s fault.  I’ll keep it for later reading.

AUDIO BOOKS THIS SUMMER

My kids are mostly grown; thus I have more time alone.  I love to listen to audio books, lectures and sermons while I’m cooking dinner, ironing, cleaning the bathrooms, and canning, and driving around.

Devices and Desires, PD James – no, but I’d like to read more PD James
1776, David McCullough (yes, I read and listened to this one)
84, Charing Cross Road, Helene Hanff – yes! and see the movie
An Old Man’s Love, Anthony Trollope – no, but I’d like to read more Trollope
Death of An Expert Witness, PD James – no, but I’d like to read more James
Low Country, Anne Rivers Sidon – no, I confused this book for another
The Moonstone, Wilkie Collins – no, but I enjoyed listening to this one

BOOKS RECOMMENDED FROM BLOGS/FRIENDS/SON

The Fat Flush Plan, Anne Louise Gittleman – hopefully for many years to come??!
Imagined London, Anna Quindlen – yes, before my dream trip to the UK
The Secret of Father Brown, G.K. Chesterton – once in a while, maybe
The Red House Mystery,  A.A. Milne – oh yes! 

Another Challenge

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Janie at Seasonal Soundings has issued a Autumn Reading Challenge.  I greatly admire the way Janie plans her reading year by year, season by season.  I have enjoyed and grown from the Summer Reading Challenge (recap soon) and I can’t resist another….

You know what I like about a reading challenge?  I like the **challenge** part.  I’m wired in such a way that I find it impossible not to read.  If there wasn’t reading material handy I’d start reading the small print about riboflavin on cereal boxes.  So I don’t need external motivation to read. 

What I find most helpful is the focus and selection of  which books I will choose.  The external motivation to read the difficult books is very helpful. Writing down my plan to read a book is a committment that gets me over the hump of laziness. I have too many books on my shelves which haven’t been read for the simple reason that they aren’t easy to read; they require a little effort.  If I can in one season, four times a year, read one challenging book my life will be so much the better, so much the richer.

Several books that I read this summer came from reading the blogs of other participants in the Summer Reading Challenge.  Their writing inspired me to buy that book and read it.  Amazon.com must love bloggers!  (Although www.fetchbook.info is my favorite book price comparison site.) 
 
The question, “Which will be my Challenge book?” got me thinking about categories for all the books for this next reading challenge.  I got as far as the framework: now I need to fill in specific titles.  My job as a homeschool teacher involves stacks of reading so I need to incorporate those books into the challenge. Here are my categories in the order of this season’s priority:

CURRICULUM – reading for homeschool
CHALLENGE – on the scholarly side, requires concentration
CULTIVATING – books that nurture my soul
COMFORT & JOY – lighter reading for relaxation
CREATIVITY – about music, art, poetry; the process and the people
CURIOSITY – biographies about people or who interest me, history

Anyone interested in joining in?  I think it would be more wonderful to have 20 people sign on to read one challenging book than to have five people committed to read 20 books (nothing wrong with that – my point is to encourage quality over quantity).  Sign up at Seasonal Soundings. 

In Praise of Mr. F

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(Does reading “Mr. F” remind you of Sense and Sensibility <grin>?) 

I got another package this week from my friend, benefactor and kindred spirit, Mr. F. 

This man has retired from *several* illustrious careers: he worked as an engineer on equipment that went on the moon; as a district attorney he successfully prosecuted every homicide case he was given; he sat as a federal judge; he taught high school after he “retired”.  

I first met his daughter in a women’s Bible study – when I saw Mr. F at our new church the resemblance was so striking that I had no doubt whose father he was.  Over the years that we worshiped together he made a wonderful hobby of  building up other people’s personal libraries.  He bought  leather bound editions of Spurgeon’s Morning and Evening by the case to cheerfully give away. 

Our family has been the grateful recipients of many gifts and even more loans of books that Mr. F thought we might enjoy.  We’d get photocopies of articles and essays from Mr. F’s reading.  He has a 100% track record for good stuff. 

He has introduced us to (a partial list):

~ coracles and and the Welsh Prince Madog thought to have come to America centuries before Columbus;
~ Jules Verne’s The Mysterious Island
~ Paul De Kruif’s Microbe Hunters  (science history that was fascinating)
~ Conan Doyle’s The White Company
~ alternate theories on the identity of William Shakespeare
~ Shackleton’s Endurance
~ Confederate coinage and currency
~ Roger Ascham’s Toxophilus (Ascham was Queen Elizabeth I’s tutor)
~ Dava Sobel’s book Longitude (the first glimmers of hope that I could enjoy science)
~ stories of the Oregon Trail, vividly told
~ Long’s English Literature and American Literature
~ Adam Nicholson’s book God’s Secretaries about the making of the KJV

So many times information he had uncovered and enthusiastically shared coincided with our home school studies.  He always took an interest in what we were learning and the boys’ plans.  We both enjoy Puritan authors and have compared notes on Burroughs, Boston and Watson. 

Since he has moved away our conversations have been greatly reduced, but I still get treasures in the mail and occasional emails with recommendations. 

This package was a hardbound first edition of a book published in 1912 by Harper and Brothers called The Greatest English Classic, A Study of the KJV of the Bible and It’s Influences on Life and Literature by Cleland McAfee.
 
In an accompanying letter Mr. F wrote:

I enjoy being exposed to trained and disciplined erudition which seems to be more difficult to find in “modern day writers”, even the good ones.  The rigors of education were formidable years ago and those who read the “old guys” (as Curt describes them) benefit greatly from their learning.

I admire and appreciate his curiosity and inquisitiveness, his thirst to keep learning, and his instinctive generosity.  What joy it is to have such a friend.  Thanks, Mr. F!

Pilgrim Discount

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In Portland, Oregon, there are two bookstores where I spend hours and hours browsing and buying: Powells Books and Pilgrim Discount.  I scored at Pilgrim this trip: 10 books – 2 new, but discounted, and 8 used in good shape.  When I find a book treasure I’m never content until I’ve shared it with someone.  So you, dear reader, get to see my catch!

My future DIL was reading this book on a visit last year.  It’s about 13 Scottish Covenanteers. I love the title.

I picked up two Elisabeth Elliot titles – God has brought several single women into my life and I thought reading these books might equip me in our conversations together.

Martha Peace has been recommended countless times.  I think she’s the kind of author that evokes polar responses – you either love her or you don’t.  I think I’ll like her.

I love quotes!!  John Owen looks a little scary on the cover but there are treasures in his writings.  Thomas Watson is my favorite Puritan.  There are 1500 quotations from many authors on many subjects in the Treasury book.  Table Talk is a collection of Martin Luther’s quotes on various subjects during conversations around the table.   Not meaning any disrespect, but the next two are perfect bathroom books. 

I read this little book when I was 14 and loved it.  Within the last month I was thinking it was time to revisit it.  I remember he talked about peeling potatoes to the glory of God.  Rock on, brother Lawrence!

Did you know that George Grant wrote a novel back in 1999? The subtitle, A Dan and Bea Adventure, caught me eye.  It’s a reworking of Dante’s Inferno, a book my son and I plan to read this coming school year. This might make a good companion book.

Ahhhhh.  Elisabeth Elliot and Edith Schaeffer in one day!  Doesn’t this cover just draw you in?  I’ve already dipped into it a few times.  Oh yeah, I’m one happy chica.

What’s the last book you purchased?

Book Talk

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Update on Summer Reading Challenge:

Temperament  I’m on the last chapter.  This is the most challenging book I’ve read in a while.  When I’m finished I’ll write a short review.

1776  Excellent book.  I’m glad I read it .

Every Living Thing  Halfway through, and I’ve enjoyed every page.

84, Charing Cross Road and The Legacy of Q by Helene Hanff  These weren’t on my original list but, oh my!, these books are like savoring rich spoonfuls of homemade ice cream to a bibliophile.  I do love English literature.  I do dream about taking a literary tour of England.  Someday…

Imitation of Christ   Good, slow reading.

This picture is for Janie: she asked us to take of picture of a stack of books because she enjoys enlarging them and looking at them.  I’m the same way.  I’ve taken a magnifying glass to a picture of an author in front of books and peeked at his/her collection.  When I met a new pastor in town I exlaimed “you have Owen on your shelf!” (which I gleaned from said magnifying glass and a newspaper article.)

This shelf is near our entry.  It is a sort of  “holding tank” for books.  The bottom shelf is our daily reading.  Library books and tapes often go on top so we can get them back on time.  Other books are ones that are either borrowed, recently purchased, or current reads.  In short, they don’t have a permanent home on another bookcase.  On an organized day (read: company is coming) the middle shelf has pictures on it and the top is cleared off.   
The picture on the left is a photo of a local river meandering through a canyon.

Can anyone tell me how to post a picture so it can be enlarged?

Book Talk

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Isn’t book talk fun?  When you meet someone new and you have a shared book in common, it’s as if there were a secret language that you both understand.  When I meet someone from a different country  my mind starts searching for memories of authors/books from that country.  In the recent past I met a woman from The Netherlands and we talked about Rien Poortvliet (one of my favorite author/illustrators) and Abraham Kuyper.  Not long after, I met a native of the former Soviet Republic — I think she was from Georgia.  There’s no end of Russian books — we hit the Gulag Archipelago, Anna K, War and Peace, the Brothers K.  Her husband often had to translate English idioms (and it was DELIGHTFUL to hear the Russian Q and A), but it was a wonderful conversation.

Here are some random thoughts about books and/or the Summer Reading Challenge:

Audio books: The pros are that you can convert working time to reading time.  I love to putz alone in the kitchen on a Saturday, baking bread, cleaning the fridge, filling canisters, wiping shelves with a book being read to me.  Since I live in a rural area books on tape are a great way to make those wide open spaces go by when driving.  Cons:  You can’t flip the pages back to be reminded who “Jack” is or why he is important.  There is no time to stop and ponder a turn of phrase or a profound thought.  I was working out and listening to “1776” in a gym this morning.  [David McCullough is rapidly becoming another favorite author] The prose was rich but it felt like all those nuggets fell through a hole in my sifter, that I couldn’t keep the precious bits to enjoy later. 

I want to be like her when I grow up:  I was in a home yesterday before a high school graduation.  The grandmothers arrived with an aunt and great-aunt in tow.  After hugs and initial visits the immediate family were involved with last minute tasks, preparing for a HUGE reception at the house later.  Older ladies assembled in the living room, conversing and trying to stay out of the way the next two hours.  Great Aunt Bonita picked up the  book “The Sign of the Beaver” and read through it.  Her hearing loss prevented her from participating in the lagging conversation, but she was contentedly reading away. Bonita is 83 years old. She genuinely enjoyed the book. I would love to be able to enjoy a good children’s book when I’m 83!

Every Living Thing – I am reminded of why I’ve always loved James Herriot.  The first chapter of this book was too wonderful.  This is a comfortable book and is feeding my thirst to travel to Great Britain.  I’m eager to learn more about Herriot – his son’s biography is added to my list.

1776 –   The writing draws me to this book almost as much or more than the story.  My interest has never flagged.  He doesn’t lionize Washington and writes straightforward account of mistakes that he made.  Nevertheless there is so much to admire in the General.  The quality of the writing of everyday soldiers quoted compel me to believe that there was something right in colonia education.  Washington’s appraisal of John Sullivan: ” a man touched with a tincture of vanity and too great a desire of being popular.”

Temperament – First chapter read (third time!) On a modern keyboard every note is equidistant from the notes before and after it.  It was not always this way.  So on early keyboard instruments a sequence played on one part of the keyboard sounded sweet but on another part, the same sequence was very sour.  What we take for granted: do, re, mi, fa, so, la, ti, do, was once considered revolutionary and dangerous AND heretical!  It’s difficult to imagine music being other than it is now.  That’s one of the challenges of this book.  I will soldier through, I will, I will!