Friday, November 30, 2007

On... Mere Christianity by C. S. Lewis

While I've read the Chronicles of Narnia I have never read any non-fiction by Lewis. I've always been intrigued by this book... thus why I added it to my list of course. :D

Lewis utilizes all kinds of illustrations which put heady, complicated truths into easy to understand nuggets that the every day person can grab. Occasionally as I read along I had some aha moments and then again some moments where I understood the analogy or illustration but disagreed with the underlying point.

The above happened several times in the last chapter where Lewis uses the Theory of Evolution as an illustration. No where does he say that he does or does not believe in evolution. For me, though, the illustrations just weren't as poignant because I do not believe in evolution.

I found this book to be an interesting read. I suppose that I could have gleaned more from the book had I had the time to read the book much slower but still... I enjoyed the read.

Thursday, November 29, 2007

On... The Johnstown Flood by David McCullough

Once again, a David McCullough book has not failed to satisfy. In other words, I thoroughly enjoyed this book.

I have heard of the great Johnstwon flood before but never any of the details. David McCullough brought the flood to life and several times I almost felt like wondering if I were reading a novel. McCullough weaves together the stories of many very interesting people in an almost flawless manner. Although it would have been interesting to learn about the individual stories of people that McCullough introduces into the story but that wouldn't have been the same. Instead McCullough tells the story... obviously enough... of the flood and the resevoir that held the flood waters.

What makes this story about an event different in my eyes is the fact that just like the Panama Canal in another McCullough book, is that the flood... the resevoir... becomes a character whose life story is being told. McCullough uses descriptions that are generally reserved for writers of fiction but he uses them in a manner that enhances the story without cutting back on the historicity of the information. I remember reading one description that I had to stop and read again. It was like eating a piece of good chocolate... the kind that doesn't go to one's waistline. :D

I look forward to reading about Teddy Roosevelt and Truman but those books are going to take a couple days to get through. :D

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

On ... Rinkitink in Oz by Frank L. Baum

It's been a while since I read the Wizard of Oz and I've never read anything else by Frank L. Baum so I wasn't quite sure what to expect when I opened this book. In addition, I'd heard that some of Baum's books get a little dark. I didn't know if this book was one of them. Thankfully I was wrong.

I loved this cute book. Of course everything works out for the protagonist, young Prince Inga, and he learns some life lessons along the way. Even though this type of story has been told many times before in countless slightly varied ways I enjoyed Baum's take on a traditional theme and the lovable... somewhat hilarious King Rinkitink. I still don't understand though why the book is named for Rinkitink when the story centers around Inga, his home and kingdom, and not in Oz at all. The only connection to Oz is the fact that Dorothy enters the book at the very end. Hmm... I guess this means that I'll just have to read the other books about Oz. :D

Monday, November 26, 2007

On... A Wind in the Door by Madeleine L'Engle and Saturday Morning by Lauraine Snelling

Once again I chose books to read that are almost completely different.

First, A Wind in the Door by Madeleine L'Engle

I enjoyed this book a little bit more than A Swiftly Turning Planet. To be completely honest the fact that I enjoyed it more has the most to do with the fact that I understood this book much more than A Swiftly Turning Planet. This book did not delve into several other connected stories like A Swiftly Turning Planet but A Wind in the Door did enter the realm of the almost unbelievable. I enjoy fantasy because it makes myself think but the mental workout given to me by A Wind in the Door was almost too much. That's something I noticed about both books so far. The whole thing is very mental, very ethereal. The entire book hinges on the ability of Meg, the main character, to kythe (communicate soley mentally) with various other characters. I don't actually understand the whole thing very well but I did enjoy the book. It's written very well.

Second, Saturday Morning by Lauraine Snelling

The last book I read by Lauraine Snelling was a historical novel. This book is set in contemporary times with several very modern women. There isn't one main character. Instead that role is shared by four different women. Most of the time I would much rather explore the story of simply one of these characters and I admit that I did get lost just a little trying to sort between the different characters and their stories. Mrs. Snelling demonstrates her ability as a writer when she carefuly weaves together the lives of these very different yet very similar women. In the first part of the book I kept reading as fast as I could because I wanted to see just how these character's would meet and how their lives would intertwine. I enjoyed the book very much.

Sunday, November 25, 2007

On... Where The Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls and A Swiftly Tilting Planet by Madeleine L'Engle

I don't think that I could have chosen two more different books to read in the same day.

I started with Where the Red Fern Grows. It's chilly here where I live. Perfect weather for curling up on the couch with a feel-good book. This book fit the description. I've read many books like this before. There's something simply American feeling about a boy that loves his coon dogs. Something I noticed throughout teh book is that there was no driving plot line through the book. Different sections of the book have different driving motivations. The first part centers around Billy's drive to buy his coon dogs. Of course, thoughout the book I knew that the dogs would end up dead. How else could a book liek this end? I enjoyed the book but almost wonder why Rawls named the book for something that doesn't appear until the last chapter of the book.

Then, after brewing some coffee, I sat down with A Swiftly Tilting Planet. I'm acquainted with Madeleine L'Engle but I don't think that I've ever read any of her books before. The series that I jumped into with this book begins (I believe) with A Wrinkle in Time. One thing that I enjoy about L'Engle's style is her lack of recapping of previous stories. Yes, it does take a little longer to become oriented to the characters and their situation but I enjoy having to pay attention to subtle clues in order to gain my information. This book though messed with my mind. I had to reread sections in order to understand what was going on. In the end Meg and Charles Wallace saved the earth from nuclear destruction but some of the things they did in the mean time I don't understand.

One other thing I noticed is L'Engle's worldview. I enjoy fantasy and exploring the realms of possibilities but there is something somewhat depressing about fantasy that comes from a secular worldview. These writers have to design ultimate purposes and powers in order for their worlds but of course whatever man's creates is ultimately so much less than God's original design.

On... Peony in Love by Lisa See

I will admit at the outset of this review that I chose not to finish the book. This being a Sunday I didn't feel that it would be honoring to God to finish a book like this.

Now that I have that warning out there I need to make a couple of clarifications. There is nothing explicitly wrong with this book... there are no curse words and it doesn't get into anything else like that. I would put the book down right away and never look back at it if I did. Look to the review to see why I chose not to finish this book.

As I delved into the book I realized that I might possibly enjoy a book like this. It is historical fiction, set just after the fall of the MIng dynasty in China. Unfortunately, I do not know all that much about the time period so I can't tell you if Ms. See's information was accurate or not. To the historical eye such as mine, the information does seem reliable. Ms. See weaves together traditions of Chinese religion and daily life in a way that is not obnoxious or in anyway boring.

This book explores the life of Peony or Chen Tong. She is a young, barely sixteen year old girl, given in marriage to a man that she has never met before. She absolutely loves and opera called "The Peony Pavilion" that her father puts on in honor of her sixteenth birthday. She idolized the main character of the opera who dies of lovesickness because she is unable to marry the man she loves yet is brought back to life by this very man. Peony herself also falls in love with a man and succombs to lovesickness because she thinks that she will never be able to love this man again. Only when she is just minuts away from death does her father return and tell her that the very man she fell in love with is the same man that her father arranged to have her marry.

This point in the book marks the end of just the first third of the book. Peony continues to be the main character throughout the rest of the book but she is no longer alive. She is a ghost. She becomes a hungry ghost because her father is obviously concerned with having a son (in this case an adopted son) in order to carry on the final name. Besides, Peony never married, she died just two or three days before her marriage.

I reached an uncomfortable point when I discovered that the rest of the book would be told from the point of a ghost. I read on with trepidation because I didn't know where this would go from there. I'm not sure how the book will end but I am not going to go there.

The final two thirds of the book, where Peony continues to tell her story, as a ghost, explores the afterlife from the view of traditional Chinese religion. When I look at it from that view I am both intrigued and weighed down. I feel sorry for people who believe that the afterlife is still full of heartache because they didn't do the right things when they were dead... because they or their family didn't follow the proper rituals.

It is because of the above that I choose not to read the rest of the book. I feel that I do not need to dwell on such things. Instead, on this Sunday I choose to focus my mind on things above and the great grace that God has given me to know the truth. I know that without Him I would be just as lost as the fictional Peony or the very real Lisa See.

Saturday, November 24, 2007

On ... The Revelation and The Englisher by Beverly Lewis

The Revelation concludes a long, intertwining story that spanned five novels. I fell in love with these characters and greatly appreciated the chance to read three of the five books in the series within two days. :D In this book Lewis ponders the outcomes of long ago sins and mistakes of the characters, things that occurred in the first and second books in the series. I appreaciate a series like this because it takes the time to explore the outcome of choices. Often we can't see the outcome when we see the initial choice. Thus the saying "hindsight is 20/20". I admit that I scanned through the last twenty pages rather quickly to get into the restaurant where my family was eating breakfast this morning but I kind of already knew how the story was going to end (and read the little epilogue before I read the book. ;) )

The Englisher is the second in a three book series. I have already read the first and last in the series so this book simply filled in the gaps. I suppose that if I hadn't already read the conclusion I would desperately want to know if Zeke really did kill little Isaac all of those years ago and what was wrong with Zeke in the first place. Since I already know the outcome of all of those questions this book wans't as compelling as I think it would have been otherwise but I still enjoyed it. Beverly Lewis deals with subjects in this book that aren't pretty... spousal abuse, mental illness... and how these issues are handled in the Old Order Amish church. A very interesting read.

I can't wait to read more of Lewis' books. :D

Friday, November 23, 2007

On... The Covenant and The Sacrifice by Beverly Lewis

I've already read books two and four in this series so now reading books one and three I am simply filling in the gaps, learning information that simply existed in the other books. I think I almost prefer it this way. The information that I learned in say Book four is enhanced by the initial revelation in book three (The Sacrifice)

I found myself drawn into these books like I haven't been for a long time. Many of these books on my list are not books that I would normally read for pleasure. The reasons for that are various. Many of the books from the past week aren't my normal fare simply because I am a college graduate and not in elementary school or middle school. That's not to say that they aren't good books of course. Some of the other books fall outside my normal range because I have matured in my tastes in reading (books like that are all of the Gilbert Morris books). Even as I sit and write this review I can't wait to dive into the last book, the conclusion of this story and finally see Leah become Jonas' Leah. :D

I have always been intriqued by the Amish and reading Mrs. Lewis' books have often satisfied or intensified that curiosity. I also find it interesting how she deals with the question of the right way to find God and whether an Amish person can truly be a child of God. She doesn't have a pat answer for every character. For every character that rebels against the Old Order Amish ways and finds God outside the Amish church she has one that finds truth in the church but obviously more so than that... in a desire to serve God in the best way possible.

Thursday, November 22, 2007

On... The Journal of Finn Reardon and A Coal Miner's Bride

Both of these books are part of the Dear America Series although the first is part of an off shoot series "My Name is America".

The Journal of Finn Reardon is the story of a young newsie who manages to rise above all of the hardships of a life in the Five Points of New York City to become a college graduate and successful newspaper reporter. While the fact that Finn was successful is a little hard to believe the rest of the story was very fun to read including a grandfather figure that made me laugh out loud a couple of times.

A Coal Miner's Bride drew me in from the beginning. Anetka is a spunky girl who ends up traveling to the United States to marry a man she's never met although she's already starting to fall in love with a young man traveling with her to America. I loved this story though it was hard to wrap my head around the fact that for the majority of the story Anetka is only thirteen and fourteen.

I'm definitely planning to read more of these books in the future.

Wednesday, November 21, 2007

On... The Land of the Buffalo Bones by Marion Bauer

I have always been intrigued by the Dear America series and the style that all of these books written by a diverse crop of authors strives to achieve... the diary or journal (whichever term one prefers).

Even though these stories are fictional and written by women or men living in the twentieth/twenty-first century I like the idea of taking a peek into the life of a girl that would in normal circumstances never have come into the mind of scholars of the time period or normal people today.

I really enjoyed the book and strongly recommend it.

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

On The Reptile Room and The Wide Window by Lemony Snicket

Before the movie came out I had never heard of "A Series of Unfortunate Events". I wasn't consistently exposed to children's or young adult books seeing as how I was in college at the time.

Of all the books I've read Snicket (from a lack of knowledge of the author's real name :D) has a very unique style. I enjoy his frequent inserts of grammar rules or definitions of words. I guess that's the teacher coming out in me. The kids are learning the vocabulary whether they like it or not.

Of course, the fact that people die in every book I've read so far (three out of the thirteen) I really wonder. I would definitely recommend these books for a person of any age to read. :D

Monday, November 19, 2007

On... James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl

Unlike Matilda which surprised me a little (a little different but not much than Dahl's normal style) James and the Giant Peach fell along much similar lines to the other two Dahl books I've read recently.

Of course, I've been acquainted with the book and even seen parts of the movie but have never actually read the story. For some reason most of Dahl's books begin with a poor child whose loving parents die in some tragic accident and are raised by horrible monsters or the parents are monsters in the first place. Matilda is one of these children.

Some touches of the positives exist in this story and I loved how bright and humble this little girl is. :D I loved the story and strongly recommend it.

On... Matilda by Roald Dahl

I approached this book cautiously (see my reviews of Fantastic Mr. Fox and George's Marvelous Medicine) but found myself enjoying it as I delved into the book. Flashes of the movie came to mind as I read more about the precocious child. I fell in love again with Miss Honey who always stuck up for Matilda.

I really enjoyed the book. :D I don't really have much more to add.

Sunday, November 18, 2007

On... Fantastic Mr. Fox and George's Marvelous Medicine by Roald Dahl

I've found myself reading many children's books that I never found an interest in as a child. Among these books are the any books of Roald Dahl (famous for his Charlie and the Chocolate Factory).

These two books... written for an upper elementary school level... intrigued me. First, even though everything works out in the end... the manner of getting to that end is rather... shall we say interesting.

First in Fantastic Mr. Fox, a show off Father Fox ends up getting his tail shot off by three farmers who have had enough of his stealing. Of course, these farmers are disliked by the entire town: human and animal, so all of Mr. Fox's actions are justified. When forced to dig deeper and deeper into the ground to avoid the heavy duty equipment of the farmers Mr. Fox creates an ingenious Robbin Hood like plan to steal from the rich (in this case, the farmers) in order to share with the poor (other digging animals that have found themselves unable to leave their homes because of the farmer's vigil above ground. The book finishes with a huge feast being put on while the farmers wait and continue to wait above ground while these animals continue to steal from them. Hmm... I'm not sure what I think about the purpose of the story but I must say that it is very cleverly written.

Second, in George's Marvelous Medicine, a poor young boy must spend his Saturday morning catering to the every whim of his nagging, rather evil looking and speaking grandmother who takes a disgusting medicine four times a day. In order to give her some "real" medicine George concocts a potion using just about everything in the house from toothpaste to laundary soap to antifreeze and shoe polish. The resulting potion gives Grandma a real height boost and way more energy than she'd ever had but does nothing to change her attitude. When George's father finds out he immediately wants to create more of this potion so that he can make all of his farm animals as large as the chicken which also imbibed of the first batch. Things don't work out so well in the next three successive batches culminating in a potion that shrinks the drinker. The grandmother discovers, drinks and ends up becoming so small that she disappears entirely. Thus ends the story.
I finished that book with a puzzled look as well. What is a child supposed to learn from this book?
Again, I must say that the book was written very well though.

On... The Arkadians by Lloyd Alexander

I finished this book yesterday and absolutely fell in love with it.

I remember loving Lloyd Alexander books as a kid and even purloined one of the names of his characters for the name of my own character. (Shh... don't tell anyone)

I haven't read any of his books in a very long time and don't even remember my overall opinion of them.

This book deftly weaves together versions of old Greek myths and a somewhat casual way, almost making fun of themselves. As I sit here and write this review I am reminded Lord of the Rings and how Tolkien often delves off into the stories, the histories of a group of people. This is what Alexander employed in the Arkadians but in such a lighthearted way that he almost is making fun of the technique that works so well in this book.

Also, I don't believe that Alexander is a Christian... but I'm not certain of course... but throughout the book Alexander interspersed beautiful nuggets of truth such as the King bearing the responsibility of the burdens of his people and being more than willing to do so. There were several other examples of that but I cannot remember them at the moment.

Overall, I highly recommend this book to anyone willing to suspend belief in reality and indulge in a little fantastical journey.

Friday, November 16, 2007

On Shirley by Charlotte Bronte

Combining the reading challenge with nanowrimo doesn't really mix well. I'm hoping to catch back up on my list as November ends. Moving on to the review for the day.

I hadn't actually heard of this book before I added it to my list and found myself intriqued by the description of the book on the dust jacket. I guess I did myself an injustice by trying to read the book as fast as I did. Books loaded with description as Bronte and Austin books are, cannot really be read so quickly.

Actually I just realized that hte fact that I wished I had read the book slower is a good sign. I know that from what I read and thoroughly injested much more deslicious morsels lay undiscovered in the sentences I simply scanned rather than actually read.

Towards the end of the book though things did get a little confusing as I tried to figure out the difference between Louis and Henry Moore (pretty important when it comes to the plot.

Though I didn't think I would enjoy the book I really did.

Friday, November 09, 2007

On... Mary Poppins by P. L. Travers

I was absolutely enchanted by this book. I always loved the movie and wondered what the book would be like. Obviously some things are different... such as the fact that different little stories are told in the book than are related in the movie but overall I think the book to movie transition worked well.

Now, onto the book itself.
Even if I didn't picture Julie Andrews in the role of Mary Poppins I would have loved to have a babysitter/nanny like Mary Poppins who could tell the most wonderful stories like that of the red dancing cow. I was reading along and din't quite catch the transition to Mary Poppin's story but once I figured things out I couldn't get enough of that little story.

As I turned each page I could definitely picture myself reading this book to my kids (if I ever have kids)... you know, the chapter a night thing.

I was also enchanted by the British spellings and sayings. Heh... I don't think I can say anything negative about the book.

Thursday, November 08, 2007

On Brave Companions by David McCullough and Flags of Our Fathers by James Bradley

After a brief hiatus (I was out of the country on a mission trip to Ecuador. Wow was that amazing) I am back.

Every time I pick up a David McCullough book I am amazed at his writing style. Brave Companions holds several smaller pieces of writing compiled according to similar subject. Some of the pieces describe in brief the life of a famous person. Others tell the history of an area. Each of these pieces taste like delicious chocolate. I suppose that's the History B.A. in me.

Flags of Our Fathers appealed to the writer in me. I've often wondered about the lives of people that I pass on the street or that I see in photos on the wall. I couldn't put down the book because I wanted to know all of the details about the lives of these six men united in history by 1/400th of a second. These men were so ordinary, almost like characters I would create in my head...ordinary yet extraordinary. Bradley's writing style is very similar to McCullough's...a storyteller...yet I still prefer McCullough probably because of his historical expertise.